three things which are inalienable from the Person of the King They are 1. The Crowne 2. The Scepter 3. The Sword The one He is to carry on His Head the other in His Hand and the third at His Side and they may be termed all three the ensignes or peculiar instruments of a King by the first He Reignes by the second He makes Lawes by the third He Defends them and the two first are but bables without the last as was formerly spoken 1. Touching the Crown or royal Diadem of England ther is none whether Presbyterian Independent Protestant or others now in action but confess that it descends by a right hereditary Line though through divers Races and som of them Conquerours upon the Head of Charles the first now Regnant 't is His own by inherent birth-right and nature by Gods Law and the Law of the Land and these Parliament-men at their first sitting did agnize subjection unto Him accordingly and recognize Him for their Soveraign Liege Lord Nay the Roman Catholick denies not this for though there were Bulls sent to dispense with the English Subjects for their allegiance to Queen Elizabeth yet the Pope did this against Her as he took Her for a Heretick not an Usurpresse though he knew well enough that She had bin declared Illegitimate by the Act of an English Parliament This Imperial Crown of England is adorned and deckd with many fair Flowers which are called royal Prerogatives and they are of such a transcendent nature that they are unforfeitable individual and untransferrable to any other The King can only summon and dissolve Parliaments The King can only Pardon for when He is Crowned He is sworn to rule in Mercy as well as in Justice The King can only Coyn Money and enhance or decry the value of it The power of electing Officers of State of Justices of Peace and Assize is in the King He can only grant soveraign Commissions The King can only wage War and make Out-landish Leagues The King may make all the Courts of Justice ambulatory with His Person as they were used of old 't is tru the Court of Common Pleas must be sedentary in som certain place for such a time but that expired 't is removeable at His pleasure The King can only employ Ambassadours and Treat with forraign States c. These with other royal Prerogatives which I shall touch hereafter are those rare and wholsom flowers wherewith the Crown of England is embellished nor can they stick any where else but in the Crown and all confess the Crown is as much the King 's as any private man's Cap is his own 2. The second regall Instrument is the Scepter which may be called an inseparable companion or a necessary appendix to the Crown this invests the King with the sole Authority of making Lawes for before His confirmation all results and determinations of Parliament are but Bills or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are but abortive things and meer Embryos nay they have no life at all in them till the King puts breath and vigour into them and the ancient custome was for the King to touch them with His Scepter then they are Lawes and have a vertue in them to impose an obligation of universall obedience upon all sorts of people It being an undeniable maxime That nothing can be generally binding without the King 's royall assent nor doth the Law of England take notice of any thing without it This being done they are ever after styl'd the Kings Lawes and the Judges are said to deliver the King's judgments which agrees with the holy text The King by judgment shall stablish the Land nay the Law presumes the King to be alwaies the sole Judge Paramount and Lord chief Justice of England for he whom He pleaseth to depute for His chiefest Justice is but styl'd Lord chief Iustice of the Rings â—…ench not Lord chief Justice of England which title is peculiar to the King Himself and observable it is that whereas He grants Commissions and Patents to the Lord Chancellour who is no other then Keeper of His Conscience and to all other Judges He names the Chief Justice of his own Bench by a short Writ only containing two or three lines which run thus Regina Iohanni Popham militi salutem Sciatis quod constitutmus vos justiciarium nostrum Capitalem ad placita coram nobis terminandum durante beneplacito nostro Teste c. Now though the King be liable to the Laws and is contented to be within their verge because they are chiefly His own productions yet He is still their Protector Moderator and Soveraigne which attributes are incommunicable to any other conjunctly or separately Thus the King with His Scepter and by the mature advice of His two Houses of Parl. which are His highest Councel and Court hath the sole power of making Laws other Courts of judicature doe but expound them and distribute them by His appointment they have but Iuris dati dictionem or declarationem and herein I meane for the Exposition of the Lawes the twelve Iudges are to be believed before the whole Kingdom besides They are as the Areopagites in Athens the chief Presidents in France and Spaine in an extraordinary Iunta as the Cape-Syndiques in the Rota's of Rome and the Republique of Venice whose judgments in point of interpreting Lawes are incontroulable and preferred before the opinion of the whole Senate whence they received their being and who hath still power to repeal them though not to expound them In France they have a Law maxime Arrest donné en Rebbe rouge est irrevocable which is a Scarlet Sentence is irrevocable meaning when all the Judges are met in their Robes and the Client against whom the Cause goes may chafe and chomp upon the bit and say what he will for the space of twenty foure howers against his Judges but if ever after he traduces them he is punishable It is no otherwise here where every ignorant peevish Client every puny Barister specially if he become a Member of the House will be ready to arraign and vie knowledge with all the reverend Judges in the Land whose judgement in points of Law shold be onely tripodicall and sterling so that he may be truly call'd a just King and to rule according to Law who rules according to the opinion of his Judges therefore under favour I do not see how his Majesty for his part could be call'd injust when he leavied the Ship-money considering he had the Judges for it I now take the Sword in hand which is the third Instrument of a King and which this short discours chiefly points at it is as well as the two first incommunicable and inalienable from his Person nothing concernes his honor more both at home and abroad the Crown and the Scepter are but unweildy and impotent naked indefensible things without it There 's none so simple as to think there 's meant hereby an ordinary single sword
yet all this while there was not matter enough for an insurrection nor to dispose the peoples hearts to a mutiny until by the policy as some affiâ—…med of the said discontented party the English Lyturgie was sent thither this by the inâ—…itement of those fiery pulpiteers was cryed up to be the greatest I doll that possibly could be brought into their Kerke insomuch that when it was first offer'd to be read the woman and baâ—…er sort of mechaniks threw stooles and stones at the Bishops heads and were ready to tear them in peeces And here began the storm 〈◊〉 Majesty having notice hereof sent a most gracious proclamation signifying that whereas he had recommended that Book to be practis'd amongst them wherein he himself served God Almighty twice a day he did it out of a pious endeavour to breed an uniformity of publick Divine service in all his dominions specially in that his native Kingdom But since it had produced such dangerous effects he was contented to revoke it absolutely for it was never his purpose to press the practise of the said book upon the consciences of any he did onely commend not absolutely command the use of it Therefore he exhorted and required that every one unto whom it had given any scandal shold return to his pristine obedience and serve God as formerly offering herewith a gracious pardon and to passe an Act of Amnestia for an abolition of all faults passed Peregrin And would not this suffice In naturall motions we find that the cause being taken away the effect ceaseth and will not this hold in civil Actions Patricius No this wold not serve the turn but 〈◊〉 was a further reach in it and for an inch to take an ell you know the Scots since 〈◊〉 single Lion came to quarter with our three are much elevated in their spirits more respected emploied and trusted abroad they are heightned in their resolutions and aims and will questionless be daily more and more You have heard of a Mine that reach'd from our exchequer to Edenburgh And I beleeve you have not forgot Boccolinies balance that was shewed us in Italie wherein Lorenzo de Medici weighed all the states of Christendom and throwing in England amongst the rest you know how much he made her to weigh less by this addition The former Proclamation I say and Pardon would not suffice but they took opportunity to fish in those troubled waters and vent their spleen further by an utter extirpation of Episcopacy and by trampling the mitre under their feet hoping to have som of the birds plumes being pluckâ—… to feather their own nests And they brought their work about Good Lord what a deal of dirt was presently thrown into the Bishops faces by every Rurall pettie Clerk what infamous ballads were sung what a thick clowd of Epidemical hatred hung suddenly over them so far that a dog with black and white spots was called a Bishop amongst them up and down the streets The chiefest contrivers of this up-roare â—…inding their design to go on so well and perceiving the whole Country so eagerly bent against Bishops and what artifices and suggestions were us'd to render them so odious is incredible but finding withall his Majestie unwilling to alter the government his father of so fresh and famous memory had left him and to which he had bin sworn at his Coronation they put themselves in arms and rais'd forces to beat down the mitre with the sword if the scepter would not do it To the frontiers they came with a great Army not half so great as was bruted pretending they came as Petitioners though they brought their Petition upon the pikes point Some of the great ones about the King grew cold in the action And what a pacification was then shuffled up and how a Parliament was called thereupon in Scotland with other passages is a fitter subject for a story then a discourse Peregrin I could have wished two things that either His Majesty had given them battail then having the flower of his Nobility and Gentry with him who I understood came with all cheerfulnesse and pomptitude to attend him or else that after the said pacification His Majestie had shaken off all jealousies and with a royall freedom and a commanding confidence gone amongst them to hancell their new Parliament House at Edenburgh for it is probable it had averted those showers and cataracts of â—…miseries which have fallen â—…pon us since but I pray Sir proceed Patricius As they say there is no wind but blows some-body good so it was thought this Northern clowd did England some advantage for a Parliament was summond hereupon a Parliament do I call it it was rather an Embryo of a Parliament an Ephemeran of 20 days In this sitting His Majesty declared unto both Houses the indignities he had received by His Scotch Subjects and therefore propos'd a supply to be made of twelve subsidies to suppress that Rebellion and in lieu thereof he was willing to forbear and utterly to abolish the Ship-money which he had reason to think legall at first being advised thereunto by Noy his Attorney Generall who had such a mighty repute in the Law yet he would not rest ther but he advised further with his learned Councell who concurred in opinion with Noy Nor wold he rest ther also but he had the approbation of all the Iudges singly and afterwards of nine of the twelve jointly upon a demur This was enough to induce his conscience to hold it legall all this while It was clearly proved that the moneys levied this way were employed to no other but the intended service the garding of the narrow Seas and not onely for that but to preserve his right of Dominion in them being the fairest flower of his Crown which was not onely discoursed of abroad but began to be questioned by the French Cardinall And touching danger how could England be but in apparant dangers consideriâ—…g how all her next neighbours were in actuall hostility which made huge fleets of men of war both French Dunkerkers Hamburgers and Hollanders to sail and flaunt ever and anon in her Channells and hard before her royall Chambers nor came ther one penny of that publick contribution to his privat coffers but he added much of his own demeans for the maintenance of a royal fleet every sommer yet he was ready to passe any Bill for the utter abolishing of the said Ship-money and for redressing of aâ—…y other grievances provided they wold enable him to suppress this Scots Rebellion some say the House was inclinable to comply with his Majesties demands but as the ill spirit wold have it that Parliament was suddenly brok up and I wold they who gave that Counsel had bin then in Arabia or beyond the Line in their way to Madagascar who neverthelesse have got to be in high request with this present Parliament Among others old Sir Harry Vane was one who when the House seem'd willing to give six
Prince of Orenge Hereunto may be added as a speciall argument of compliance and grace the passing of the Bill for a Trienniall Parliament and lastly which is the greatest Evidence that possibly can be imagined of that reall trust and confidence he reposed in them he passed that prodigious Act of Continuance Peregrin Touching the Trienniall Parliament there may come some whole some fruit out of it will keep all Officers in awe and excite the Nobilitie and young Gentrie of the Kingdome to studie and understand the Government of the land and be able to sit and serve their countrey in this great Senate But for this Act of Continuance I understand it not Parliaments are good Physick but ill meat They say abroad that England is turned hereby from a Monarchy to a Democracy to a perpetual kind of Quingentumvirat and whereas in former times ther was a Heptarchy of seven Kings in her they say now she hath seventy times seven But in lieu of these unparallell'd Acts of grace and trust to the Parl. what did the Parliament for the King all this while Patricius They promised specially upon the passing of the last Act That they would make him the most glorious the best beloved and richest King that ever reigned in England and this they did with deep protestings and asseverations But there intervened an ill-favoured accident which did much hurt viz. A Discourse for truely I think it was no more but a discourse which some green heads held to bring up the Northern armie to check the Puritan partie and the rabble of the citie This kept a mightie noyse and you know who fled upon it and much use was made of it to make that cloud of jealousie which was but of the breadth of a hand before to appear as big as a mountaine Yet his Majestie continued still in passing Acts of grace and complying with them in every thing Hee put over unto them the Earle of Strafford who after a long costly triall wherein he carried himself with as much acutenesse dexteritie and eloquence as humane braine could be capable of for his defence hee was condemned to the Scaffold and so made a sacrifice to the Scot who stayed chiefly for his head which besides those vast summes of money was given him to boot Peregrin Touching the Earle of Strafford 't is tru he was full of ability elocution and confidence and understood the lawes of England as well as any yet there were two things I heard wherein his wisdom was questioned first that having a charge ready against his chiefest accusers yet he suffered them to have the priority of sute which if he had got he had thereby made them parties and so incapable to be produced against him Secondly that during the time of his tryall he applyed not himself with that compliance to his Iury as well as to his Iudges for he was observed to comply only with the Lords and not with the House of Commons Patricius Howsoever as some say his death was â—…esolved upon si non per viam justitiae saltem per viam expedientiae which appears in regard the proceedings against him are by a clause in the Act not to be produced for a leading case or example to future ages and inferiour Courts I blush to tell you how much the rabble of the City thirsted after his blood how they were suffered to strut up and down the streets before the royal Court and the Parliament it self with impunity They cried out that if the Common Law fail'd club law should knock him down and their insolency came to that height that the names of those Lords that would not doome him to death should be given them to fix upon posts up and downe And this was the first tumult that happened this Parliament whereof so many followed after their example being not onely conniv'd at but backed by authoritie for there were prohibitions sent from the Parliament to hinder all processe against some of them These Myrmidons as they termed themselves were ready at a watchword so that one might say there was a kind of discipline in disorder Peregrin Were ther any troubled for delivering their votes in the Houses I thought that freedom of opinion and speech were one of the prime priviledges of that great Nationall Senat. Patricius Yes Those that were the Minions of the House before became now the subjects of popular malice and detraction as the Lord Digby now Earl of Bristol for one because against the dictamen of their consciences they would not vote the Earl of Strafford to death and renounce their own judgments and captivate it to the sense of others yet they stood firm to their first grounds that he was a delinquent in a high nature and incapable ever to beare office in any of His Majesties dominions Peregrin I perceive Sir by your speeches that one of the chiefest causes of these combustions may be imputed to the Citie of London which may be called the Metropolis of all these evils and I little wonder at it for it hath been alwaies incident to all great Townes when they grow rich and populous to fall into acts of insolence and to spurne at government where so many pots so many braines I meane are a boyling ther must needs be a great deal of froth but let her look to her self for Majesty hath long arms and may reach her at last But the truth is that London bears no proportion with the size of this Island for either the one shold be larger or the other lesser London may be well compared to the liver of a cramm'd Italian goose whose fatning emacerates the rest of the whole body and makes it grow lean and languish and she may be well term'd a goose now more then ever for her feathers are pluck'd apace but now that you have done with the Earl of Strafford what is become of all the rest who were committed Patricius They are still in durance and have continued so these two years and upward yet are not proceeded against nor brought to their answer to this very day though all the Courts of Justice have bin open ever since Many hundreds more of the best sort of Subjects have bin suddenly clapt up and no cause at all mentioned in many of their commitments and new Prisons made of purpose for them where they may be said to be buried alive and so forgotten as if ther were no such men in the world wherof the Author was one And how this can stand with Magna Charta with the Petition of Right to vindicat which ther was so much pains taken the last Parliament let any man of a sane judgment determin Yet one of the Judges who hath an Impeachment oâ—… High Treason still lying Dormant against him though he be not Rectus in Curia himself is suffered to sit as Judge upon the highest tribunall of England whereas another for a pretended misdemeanour only is barr'd from sitting ther. Others who were at first
one of their Election And lastly he trusted them with his greatest strength of all with his Navie Royall and call'd home Pennington who had the guard of the narrow Seas so many yeares Peregrin Truly Sir I never remember to have heard or read of such notable acts of grace and confidence from any King but would not all this suffice Patricius No But they demanded all the Land Souldiery and military strength of the Kingdome to be disposed of by them and to be put into what posture and in what Equipage and under what Commanders they pleas'd And this was the first thing his Majesty ever denyed them yet he would have granted them this also for a limited time but that would not serve the turn Hereupon his Majesty grew a little sensible how they inch'd every day more and more upon his Royall Prerogatives And intending to go to his Town of Hull to see his Magazin which he had bought with his own money with his ordinary train he was in a hostile manner kept out Canons mounted Pistols cockt and leveld at him But whether that unlucky Knight Hotham did this out of his fidelity to the Parl. or out of an apprehension of feare that some about the King being mov'd with the barbarousnesse of the action would have pistold him I will not determine Peregrin I have read of divers affronts of this kinde that were offerd to the French Kings Rochell shut her gates more than once against Henry the Great and for the King now regnant they did not only shut him out of many of his Towns but upon the gates of some of them they writ in legible Characters Roy san Foy ville sans peur a faithlesse King a fearlesse Towne Yet in the greatest heat of those warres there was never any Towne refus'd to let in her King provided he came attended onely with his own traine and besides other people abroad I heard the Scot's nation did abhor that Act at Hull But I pray Sir go on Patricius His Majesty being thus shut out of one Towne he might justly suspect that an attempt might be made to shut him in in some other Therefore he made a motion to the Yorke-shire Gentlemen to have a gard for the preservation of his Person which was done accordingly But I am come to forward I must go backe and tell you how the King was driven from Westminster When His Majesty was return'd from Scotland he retir'd to Hampton Court whence upon the Lord Majors and the Cities humble solliciâ—…ation he came back to White-hal to keep his Christmas But when the Bill against Bishops was in agitation which businesse â—…asted neer upon ten weekes a crue of bold â—…turdie mechanicks and mariners came â—…rom the Citie and ruffled before White-hall and Westminster-hall and would have violated the Abby of Westminster so that for many â—…ights a Court of gard was forced to be kept â—…n the body of that Church the chiefest Sanctuary of the Kingdom Moreover His Majesty having impeached some of the Members of both Houses of High Treason and being denied to have them delivered up he went himself to the Lower House to demand them assuring the House they should have as faire and legall a triall as ever men had But as it pleas'd God they were not there but retir'd to London for refuge The Londoners grew starke wilde thereupon and notice being sent to all the adjacent Counties this act of the Kings though it wanted no precedents of former times was aggravated in the highest degree that possibly could be Hence you may easily inferre what small securitie his Majesty had at White-hall and what indignities he might have exposed himself unto by that which had pass'd already from the Rabble who had vilified and cried tush at his proclamations and disgorg'd other rebellious speeches with impunity therefore he retird to Hampton Court as we read our Saviour withdrew himselfe once from the multitude thence to Windsor Castle whence accompanying her Majesty with his eldest daughter to the sea side for Holland and having commanded the Prince to attend him against his return at Greenwich the Prince had been surpriz'd and brought to London had not the King come a little before Thence he removed to Yorke where he kept his Court all the Sommer But to returne to London the very next day after their Majesties departure the Countrey about especially Buckinghamshire being incited by the Câ—…tie and Parliament came in great swarmes and joyning with the London mechanicks they ruffled up and down the streets and kept such a racket making the fearfull'st riot that ever I beleeve was heard of in Parliament time so those Members which formerly were fled into the Citie were brought to the House in a kind of triumph being garded by land and water in warlike manner by these Champions After this sundry troops of horse came from all the shires near adjoyning to â—…he Parliament and Buckingham men were â—…he first who while they express'd their â—…ve to Hamden their Knight forgot their â—…worn oath to their King and in stead of feathers they carried a printed Protestation in â—…heir hats as the Londoners had done a litâ—…le before upon the Pikes point Peregrin This kept a foul noise beyond Sea I reâ—…ember so that upon the Rialto in Venice â—…t was sung up and down that a Midsummer Moon though it was then midst of Winter did raign amongst the English and you must â—…hink that it hath made the Venetian to â—…hrink in his shoulders and to look but ill-favouredly upon us since wee 'l have none of his currans But Sir I heard much of that Protestation I pray what was the substance of it Patricius It was penn'd and enjoyn'd by the Parâ—…iament for every one to take and it consisted of many parts the first was to maintain the tru Potestant Religion against all Popish innovations which word Popish as som think was scrued in of purpose for a loop hole to let in any other innovation the second was to maintain the Prerogative anâ—… Honour of the King then the power and priviledge of Parliament and lastly the Propriety and Liberty of the subject for threâ—… parts of this Protestation the people up anâ—… down seem'd to have utterly forgotteâ—… them and continue so still as if their consciences had bin tied only to the third viz the priviledge of Parliament and never was ther a poor people so besotted never waâ—… reason and common sence so baffled in anâ—… part of the world And now will I go to attend His Majesty at York where as I told you before being loth to part with his Sword though he had half parted with his Scepter before by denying the Parliament an indefinite time to dispose of the Militia alleadging that as the Word so the thing was new He sends forth his Commissions of Array according to the old Law of England which declares iâ—… to be the undoubted Right and Royall Signorie of the King to arm or disarm any
Ship toss'd up and down in distresse of wind and weather by a furious tempest which the more she tugs and wrastles with the foamie waves of the angry Ocean the more the fury of the storme encreaseth and puts her in danger of shipwrack and you must needs thinke Sir it would move compassion in any heart to behold a poore Ship in such a desperate case specially when all his kindred friends and fortunes yea his Religion the most precious Treasure of all are aboard of her and upon point of sinking Alas I can contribute nothing now to my poor countrey but my prayers and teares that it would please God to allay this tempest and cast over board those that are the true causers of it and bring the people to the right use of Reason againe It was well observed by you Sir That there is a Nationall kinde of indisposition and obliquity of mind that rageth now amongst our people and I feare it will be long ere they returne to their old English temper to that rare loyalty and love which they were used to shew to their Soveraigne for all the Principles of Monarchie are quite lost amongst us those ancient and sacret flowers of the English Diadem are trampled under foot nay matters are come to that horrid confusion that not onely the Prerogative of the crown but the foundamentall Priviledge of the free-born subject is utterly overthrowne by those whose Predecessors were used to be the main supporters of it so that our King is necessitated to put himself in Armes for the preservation not only of his own Regall rights but of Magna Charta it self which was neuer so invaded and violated in any age by such causlesse tyrannicall imprisonments by such unexampled destructive taxes by stopping the ordinary processes in Law and awing all the Courts of Justice by unheard-of forced oaths and Associations and a thousand other acts which neither President Book-case or Statute can warrant whereof if the King had done but the twentieth part he had been cryed up to be the greatest Tyrant that ever was Peregrin Sir I am an Alien and so can speak with more freedom of your Countrey The short time that I did eate my bread there I felt the pulse of the people with as much judgement as I could and I find that this very word Parliament is become a kind of Idoll amongst them they doe as it were pin their salvation upon 't it is held blasphemie to speake against it The old English Maxime was The King can do no wrong another Nominative case is now stept in That the Parliament can do no wrong nor the King receive any And whereas ther was used to be but one Defender of the Faith ther are now started up amongst you I cannot tell how many hundreds of them And as in the sacred profession of Priest-hood we hold or at least wise shold hold That after the Imposition of hands the Minister is inspired with the Holy Ghost in an extraordinary manner for the enabling of him to exercise that Divine Function so the English are grown to such a fond conceit of their Parliament Members that as soon as any is chosen by the confus'd cry of the Common people to sit within the walls of that House an inerring spirit a spirit of infallibility presently entereth into him so that he is therby become like the Pope a Canon animatus though som of them may haply be such flat and simple animals that they are as fit to be Counsellours as Caligula's Horse was to be Consull as the Historian tells us Patricius Touching Parliament ther breaths not a Subject under Englands Crown who hath a higher esteem of it then I it makes that dainty mixture in our Government of Monarchy Optimacie and Democracy betwixt whom though ther be a kind of co ordination of power during the sitting of Parliament yet the two last which are composed of Peers and People have no power but what is derived from the first which may be called the soul that animates them and by whose authority they meet consult and depart They come there to propose not to impose Lawes they come not to make Lawes by the sword they must not be like Draco's Lawes written in bloud Their King calls them thither to be his Counsellors not Controllers and the Office of Counsell is to advise not to inforce they come thither to intreat not to treat with their Liege Lord they come to throw their Petitions at his feet that so they may find a way up to his hearâ—… 'T is tru I have read of high things that our Parliament have done but 't was either during the nonage and minority of our Kings when they were under protectorship or when they were absent in a forrain war or in time of confusion when ther were competitors of the bloud-royall for the Crown and when the number of both Houses was compleat and individed but I never read of any Parliament that did arrogate to it self such a power Paramount such a Superlative superintendence as to check the Prerogative of their Soverain to question his negative voice to passe things not only without but expresly against his advice and royall command I never heard of Parliament that wold have their King being come to the Meridian of his age to transmit his intellectualls and whole faculty of reason to them I find som Parliaments have bin so modest and moderat Now moderation is the Rudder that shold steer the course of all great Councells that they have declined the agitation and cognizance of som state affaires humbly transferring them to their Soverain and his privy Counsell a Parliament man then held it to be the adaequat object of his duty to study the welfare to redresse the grievances and supply the defects of that particular place for which he served The Members then us'd to move in their own Inferior sphere and us'd not to be transported by any Eccentric motions And so they thought to have complyed with the Obligation and discharged the consciences of honest Patriots without soaring above their reach and roving at random to treat of universals much lesse to bring Religion to their bar or prie into the Arcana Imperti the cognizance of the one belonging to the King and his intern Counsell of State the other to Divines who according to the Etymologie of the word use to be still conversant in the exercise of speculation of holy and heavenly things Peregrin I am clearly of your opinion in these two particulars for secrecy being the soul of policy matters of State shold be communicated but to few and touching Religion I cannot see how it may quadrat with the calling and be homogeneous to the profession of Lay-men to determine matters of Divinity who out of their incapacity and unaptnesse to the work being not pares negotio and being carryed away by a wild kind of Conscience without Science like a Ship without a Helm fall upon dangerous quick-sands
and withstand the same to the uttermost of your power and either cause it to be revealed to himself or to others of His Privy Counsell The Oaths you took when Bedchamber man and L. Chamberlain bind you as strictly to His Person Your Lordship may also call to memorie when you were installed Knight of the Garter whereof you are now the oldest living except K of Denmark you solemnly swore to defend the Honour and Quarrels the Rights and Lordship of your Soveraigne Now the Record tells us that the chiefest ground of instituting the said order by that heroick Prince Edward the Third was that he might have choice gallant men who by Oath and Honour should adhere unto him in all dangers and difficulties and that by way of reciprocation Hee should protect and defend them Which made Alfonso Duke of Calabria so much importune Henry the Eight to install him one of the Knights of the Garter that he might engage King Harry to protect him against Charles the Eighth who threatned then the conquest of Naples How your Lordship hath acquitted your self of the performance of these Oaths your conscience that bosome record can make the best affidavit Some of them oblige you â—…o live and dye with King Charles but what Oaths or any thing like an Oath binds you to live and die with the House of Commons as your Lordship often gives out you will I am yet to learne Unlesse that House which hath not power as much as to administer an Oath much lesse to make one can absolve you from your former Oaths or haply by their omnipotence dispence with you for the observance of them Touching the Politicall capacitie of the King I feare that will be a weak plea for your Lordship before the Tribunall of heaven and they who whisper such Chimeras into your ears abuse you in grosse but put case there were such a thing as politicall capacitie distinct from the personal which to a true rationall man is one of the grossest Buls that can be yet these forementioned Oaths relate most of them meerly unto the Kings Person the individuall Person of King Charles as you are His Domestick Counsellor and cubicular Servant My Lord I take leave to tell your Lordship and the Spectator sees sometimes more then the Gamester that the world extreamely marvels at you more then others and it makes those who wish you best to be transformed to wonder that your Lordship shold be the first of your Race who deserted the Crown which one of your Progenitors said he would still follow though it were thrown upon an hedg Had your Princely Brother William Earl of Pembrock bin living he wold have bin sooner torn by wild horses than have banded against it or abandoned the King his Master and fallen to such grosse Idolatry as to worship the Beast with many heads The world also stands astonished that you shold confederate to bring into the bowels of the Land and make Elogiums in some of your Speeches of that hungry people which have bin from all times so crosse and fatall to the English Nation and particularly to your own honour Many thousands do wonder that your Lordship shold be brought to persecute with so much animosity and hatred that reverend Order in Gods Church Episcopacy which is contemporary with Christianity it self and wherunto you had once designed and devoted one of your dearest Sons so solemnly My Lord if this Monster of Reformation which is like an infernall Spirit clad in white and hath a cloven head as well as feet prevailes you shall find the same destiny will attend poor England as did Bohemia which was one of the flourishingst Kingdoms upon that part of the earth which happen'd thus The Common people ther repind at the Hierarchy and riches of the Church therupon a Parliament was pack'd where Bishops were abolished what followed The Nobles and Gentry went down next and afterwards the Crown it self and so it became a popular confus'd Anarchicall State and a Stage of bloud a long time so that at last when this Magot had done working in the brains of the foolish peeple they were glad to have recourse to Monarchy again after a world of calamities though it degenerated from a successive Kingdom to an Elective Methinks my Lord under favour that those notorious visible judgements which have fallen upon these Refiners of reform'd Religion shold unbeguile your Lordship and open your eyes For the hand of heaven never appeared so clearly in any humane actions Your Lordship may well remember what became of the Hothams and Sir Alexander Cary who were the two fatall wretches that began the War first one in the North the other in the South Plymouth and Hull Your Lordship may be also pleased to remember what became of Brooks the Lord and Hampden the first whereof was dispatched by a deaf and dumb man out of an ancient Church at Litchfield which he was battering and that suddenly also for he fell down stone dead in the twinkling of an eye Now one of the greatest cavils he had against our Liturgy was a clause of a Prayer ther against sudden death Besides the fag end of his Grace in that journey was that if the design was not pleasing to God he might perish in the action For the other Hampden he besprinkled with his bloud and received his death upon the same clod of earth in Buckingham-shire where he had first assembled the poor Country people like so many Geese to drive them gaggling in a mutiny to London with the Protestation in their Caps which hath bin since torn in flitters and is now grown obsolet and quite out of use Touching Pym and Stroud those two worthy Champions of the Utopian cause the first being opened his stomack and guts were found to be full of pellets of bloud the other had little or no brain in his skull being dead and lesse when he was living Touching those who carryed the first scandalous Remonstrance that work of night and the verdict of a starv'd jury to welcome the King from Scotland they have bin since your Lordship knows well the chief of the Eleven Members impeached by the House And now they are a kind of Runnagates beyond the Seas scorn'd by all mankind and baffled every where yea even by the Boors of Holland and not daring to peep in any populous Town but by owle-light Moreover I believe your Lordship hath good cause to remember that the same kind of riotous Rascals which rabbled the K. out of Town did drive away the Speaker in like manner with many of their Memberships amongst whom your Lordship was fairly on his way to seek shelter of their Janizaries the Redcoats Your Lordship must needs find what deadly fewds fal daily ' twixâ—… the Presbyterian and the Independent the two fiery brands that have put this poor Isle so long in combustion But 't is worthy your Lordships speciall notice how your dear Brethren the Scots whom your Lordship so
powerful as precedents The said example of Scotland wrought wonderfully upon the imagination of the Irish and filled them as I touched before with thoughts of emulation that They deserved altogether to have as good usage as the Scot their Country being far more beneficial and consequenly more importing the English Nation But these were but confused imperfect notions which began to receive more vigour and form after the death of the Earl of Strafford who kept them under so exact an obedience though som censure him to have screwed up the strings of the Harp too high insomuch that the taking off of the Earl of Straffords head may be said to be the second incitement to the heads of that insurrection to stir Adde hereunto that the Irish understanding with what acrimony the Roman Catholicks in England were proceeded against since the sitting of our Parliament and what further designes were afoot against them and not onely against them but for ranversing the Protestant Religion it self as it is now practised which som shallow-braind 〈◊〉 do throw into the same scales with Pâ—…pery They thought it was high time for them to forecast what shold become of Them and how they shold â—…e 〈◊〉 in point of conscience when a new Deputy of the Parliaments election approbation at least shold come over Therfore they fell to consult of som means of timely prevention And this was another moâ—…ive and it was a shâ—…ewd one which pâ—…sht on the Irish to take up Arms. Lastly that Army of 8000. men which the Earl of Strafford had raised to be transported to England for suppressing the Scot being by the advice of our Parliament here disbanded the Country was annoyed by som 〈◊〉 those stragling Souldiers as not one in twenty of the Irish will from the sword to the spade or from the Pike to the plough again Therfore the two Marquesses that were Ambassadors here then for Spaine having propounded to have som numbers of those disbanded forces for the service of their Master His Majesty by the mature advice of his privy Counsell to occur the mischiefs that might arise to his Kingdom of Ireland by those loose casheer'd Souldiers yielded to the Ambassadors motion who sent notice hereof to Spain accordingly and so provided shipping for their transport and impressed money to advance the business but as they were in the heat of that 〈◊〉 His Majesty being then in Scotland 〈◊〉 wâ—…s a sudden stop made of those promised troops who had depended long upon the Spaniards service as the Spaniard 〈◊〉 doâ—…e on theirs And this was the last though noâ—… the least fatal cause of that horrid insurrection All which particulars well considered it had bin no hard matter to have bin a Prophet and standing upon the top of Holy-Head to have foreseen those black clouds engendering in the Irish aire which broâ—…e out afterwards into such fearful tempests of bloud Out of these premises it is easie for any common understanding not transported with passion and private interest to draw this conclusion That They who complyed with the Scot in his insurrection They who dismissed the Irish Commissioners with such a short unpolitick answer They who took off the Earl of Straffords head and delayed afterwards the dispatching of the Earl of Leicester They who hindered those disbanded troops in Ireland to go for Spain may be justly said to have bin the tru causes of the late insurrection of the Irish and consequently it is easie to know upon the account of whose souls must be laid the bloud of those hundred and odde thousands poor Christians who perished in that war so that had it bin possible to have brought over their bodies unputrified to England and to have cast them at the doores and in the presence of som men I believe they wold have gushed out afresh into bloud for discovery of the tru murtherers The grounds of this insurrection being thus discovered let us examine what means His Majesty used for the suppression of it He made his addresses presently to his great Counsel the English Parliament then assembled which Queen Elizabeth and her progenitors did seldom use to do but only to their Privy Counsel in such cases who had the discussing and transacting of all foreign affaires for in mannaging matters of State specially those of war which must be carryed with all the secrecy that may be Trop grand nombre est encombre as the Frenchman saith too great a number of Counsellours may be an incumber and expose their results and resolutions to discovery and other disadvantages wheras in military proceedings the work shold be afoot before the Counsels be blazed abroad Well His Majesty transmitted this business to the Parliament of England who totally undertaking it and wedding as it were the quarlel as I remember they did that of the Palatinate a little before by solemn vote the like was done by the Parliament of Scotland also by a publick joynt Declaration which in regard ther came nothing of it tended little to the honour of either Nation abroad His Majesty gave his royal assent to any Propositions or acts for raising of men money and arms to perform the work But hereby no man is so simple as to think His Majesty shold absolutely give over his own personal care and protection of that his Kingdom it being a Rule That a King can no more desert the protection of his own people then they their subjection to him In all his Declarations ther was nothing that he endear'd and inculcated more often and with greater aggravation and earnestness unto them then the care of his poor Subjects their fellow-Protestants in Ireland Nay he resented their condition so far and took the business so to heart that he offered to passe over in person for their relief And who can deny but this was a magnanimous and King-like resolution Which the Scots by publick act of Counsel did highly approve of and declared it to be an argument of care and courage in his Majesty And questionless it had done infinite good in the opinion of them that have felt the pulse of the Irish people who are daily ore-heard to groan how they have bin any time these 400. years under the English Crown and yet never saw but two of their Kings all the while upon Irish ground though ther be but a salt 〈◊〉 of a few hours sail to pass over And much more welcom shold His Majesty now regnant be amongst them who by general tradition They confess and hold to come on the paternal side from 〈◊〉 by legal and lineal descent who was an Irish Prince and after King of Scotland wheras the title of all our former Kings and Queens was stumbled at alwaies by the vulgar His Majesty finding that this royall proffer of engaging his own person was rejected with a kind of scorn coucht in smooth language though the main businesse concerned himself nearest and indeed solely himself that Kingdom being his own hereditary Right
Gentry and Servants and the enemy was hard by ready to face Him At the concluding of the Irish Cessation His Majesty was not there personally present but it was agitated and agreed on by his Commissioner and it hath been held alwaies less dishonourable for a King to capitulate in this kind with his own Subjects by his Deputy then in his own person for the further off he is the lesse reflects upon him 2. Upon the Pacification and Peace with Scotland there was an Amnestia a generall pardon and an abolition of all by-passed offences published there were honours and offices conferred upon the chiefest sticklers in the War At the Cessation in Ireland there was no such thing 3. When the Pacification and Peace was made with the Scots there was mony given unto Them as it is too well knowne But upon the setling of this Cessation the Irish received none but gave His Majesty a considerable summe as an argument of their submission and gratitude besides the maintainance of some of his Garrisons in the interim and so much partly in point of honour 4. At the concluding of the Pacification and Peace with Scotland there was a vigorous fresh unfoiled English Army a foot and in perfect equipage there wanted neither Ammunition Armes Money Cloaths Victuals or any thing that might put heart into the Souldier and elevat his spirits But the Protestant Army in Ireland had not any of all these in any competent proportion but were ready to perish though there had been no other enemy then hunger and cold And this implies a farre greater necessity for the said Cessation 5. In Ireland there was imminent danger of an instant losse of the whole Kingdome and consequently the utter subversion of the Protestant Religion there as was certified both to King and Parliament by sundry letters and petitions which stand upon record There was no such danger in the affairs of Scotland either in respect of Religion or Kingdome therefore there was more piety shown in preserving the one and prudence in preserving the other in Ireland by plucking both as it were out of the very jawes of destruction by the said Cessation We know that in the Medley of mundane casualties of two evils the least is to be chosen and a small inconvenience is to be born withall to prevent a greater If one make research into the French Story he will find that many kinds of Pacifications and Suspensions of Armes were covenanted 'twixt that King and som of his Subjects trenching far more upon regall dignity then this in Ireland The Spaniard was forced to declare the Hollanders Free-states before they could be brought to treat of a truce And now the Catalans scrue him up almost to as high conditions But what need I rove abroad so far It is well known nor is it out of the memory of man in Queen Elizabeths raign that in Ireland it self ther have bin Cessations all circumstances well weighed more prejudiciall to Majesty then this But that which I hear murmured at most as the effect of this Cessation is the transport of som of those Souldiers to England for recruting His Majesties Armies notwithstanding that the greatest number of them be perfect and rigid Protestants and were those whom our Parliament it self imployed against the Irish. But put case they were all Papists must His Majesty therfore be held a Favourer of Popery The late King of France might have bin said as well to have bin a Favourer of Hugonotts because in all his wars he imployed Them most of any in places of greatest trust against the House of Austria wheras all the World knows that he perfectly hated them in the generall and one of the reaches of policy he had was to spend and waste them in the wars Was it ever known but a Soveraign Prince might use the bodies and strength of his own naturall-born Subjects and Liege men for his own defence When His person hath been sought and aimed at in open field by small and great shot and all other Engines of hostility and violence When he is in danger to be surprized or besieg'd in that place wher he keeps his Court When all the flowers of his Crown his royal prerogatives which are descended upon him from so many successive progenitors are like to be plucked off and trampled under foot When ther is a visible plot to alter and overturn that Religion he was born baptized and bred in When he is in danâ—…er to be forced to infringe that solemn Sacramental Oath he took at his Coronation to maintain the said Religion with the Rights and Rites of the holy Anglican Church which som brain-sick Schismaticks wold transform to a Kirk and her Discipline to som chimerical form of government they know not what Francis the first and other Christian Princes made use of the Turk upon lesse occasions and if one may make use of a Horse or any other bruit animal or any inanimat Engine or Instrument for his own defence against man much more may man be used against man much more may one rational Creature be used against another though for destructive ends in a good cause specially when they are commanded by a Soveraign head which is the main thing that goes to justifie a war Now touching the Roman Catholicks whether English Welsh Irish or Scottish which repaire to his Majesties Armies either for service or security He looks not upon them â—…s Papists but as his Subjects not upon their Religion but their allegiance and in that â—…uality he entertains them Nor can the Paâ—…ist be denyed the Character of a good Subject all the while he conforms himself to the Lawes in generall and to those lawes also that are particularly enacted against him and so keeps himself within the bounds of his civil obedience As long as he continues so he may challenge protection from his Prince by way of right and if his Prince by som accident be not in case to protect him he is to give him leave to defend himself the best he can for the law of nature allowes every one to defend himself and ther is no positive law of man can annul the law of nature Now if the Subject may thus claim protection from his Prince it followeth the Prince by way of reciprocation may require assistance service and supplies from the Subject upon all publick occasions as to suppress at this time a new race of Recusants which have done more hurt then ever the old did and are like to prove more dangerous to his Crown and regal Authority then any foreign enemy But whosoever will truly observe the genius and trace the actions of this fatal Faction which now swayes with that boundless exorbitant arbitrary and Antinomian power will find that it is one of their prime pieces of policy to traduce and falsifie any thing that is not conducible to their own ends Yet what comes from them must be so magisterial it must be so unquestionably
him poorer then the meanest of all his vassals they have made him to have no propriety in house goods or Lands or as one may say in his wife and children 'T was usual for the father to hunt in his Park while the son hunted for his life in the field for the wife 〈◊〉 lie in his bedds while the husband layed wait to murther him abroad they have seiz'd upon and sold his privat Hangings anâ—… Plate yea his very Cabinets Jewels Pictures Statues and Books Nor are they the honorablest sort of peeple and men nobly extracted as in Scotland that do all this for then it were not so much to be wondred at but they are the meanest sort of Subjects many of them illiterat Mechaniques wherof the lower House is full specially the subordinat Committees who domineer more o're Nobles and Gentry then the Parliament Members themselfs their Masters use to do Touching those few Peers that sit now voting in the upper House they may be said to be but meer Cyphers they are grown so degenerat as to suffer the Commons to give them the Law to ride upon their backs and do most things without them Ther be many thousand Petitions that have bin recommended by these Lords to the lower House which are scornfully thrown into corners and never read their Messengers have us'd to dance attendance divers hours and days before they were vouchsafed to be let in or heard to the eternal dishonour of those Peers and yet poor spirited things they resent it not The Commons now command all and though as I am inform'd they are summon'd thither by the Kings Original Writ but to consent to what the King and his Great Counsel of Peers which is the tru Court of Parlement shall resolve upon The Commons I say are now from Consenters become the chiefest Counsellors yea Controulers of all nay som of this lower House fly so high as to term themselfs Conquerors and though in all conferences with the Lords they stand bare before them yet by a new way of mix'd Committees they carry themselfs as Collegues These are the men that now have the vogue and they have made their Priviledges so big swoln that they seem to have quite swallowed up both the Kings Prerogatives and those of the Lords These are the Grandees and Sages of the times though most of them have but crack'd braines and crazy fortunes God wot Nay som of them are such arrand Knaves and coxcombs that 't is questionable whether they more want common honesty or common sense nor know no more what belongs to tru policy then the left leg of a joynt-stool They are grown so high a tiptoes that they seem to scorn an Act of Amnestia or any grace from their King wheras som of them deserve to be hang'd as oft as they have haires upon their heads nor have they any more care of the common good of England then they have of Lapland so they may secure their own persons and continue their Power now Authority is sweet though it be in Hell Thus my Lord is England now govern'd so that 't is an easie thing to take a prospect of her ruine if she goes on this pace The Scot is now the swaying man who is the third time struck into her bowels with a numerous Army They say he hath vow'd never to return till he hath put the Crown on the Kings head the Sceptâ—…r in his hand and the sword by his side if he do so it will be the best thing that ever he did though som think that he will never be able to do England as much good as he hath done her hurt He hath extremely out-witted the English of late years And they who were the causers of his first and last coming in I hold to be the most pernicious Enemies that ever this Nation had for t is probable that Germany viz. Ponterland and Breme will be sooner free of the Swed then England of the Scot who will stick close unto him like a bur that he cannot shake him off He is becom already Master of the Englishmans soul by imposing a Religion upon him and he may hereafter be master of his body Your Eminence knows there is a periodicall fate hangs over all Kingdoms after such a revolution of time and rotation of fortunes wheele the cours of the world hath bin for one Nation like so many nailes to thrust out another But for this Nation I observe by conference with divers of the saddest and best weighdst men among them that the same presages foretell their ruine as did the Israelites of old which was a murmuring against their Governors It is a long time that both Iudges Bishops and privy Counsellors have bin mutter'd at whereof the first shold be the oracles of the Law the other of the Gospell the last of State-affaires and that our judgments shold acquiesce upon theirs Here as I am inform'd 't was common for evry ignorant client to arraign his Iudg for evry puny Curat to censure the Bishop for evry shallow-brain home-bred fellow to descant upon the results of the Councell Table and this spirit of contradiction and contumacy hath bin a long time fomenting in the minds of this peeple infus'd into them principally by the Puritanicall Faction Touching the second of the three aforesaid I mean Bishops they are grown so odious principally for their large demeanes among this peeple as the Templers were of old and one may say it is a just judgment fallen upon them for they were most busy in demolishing Convents and Monasteries as these are in destroying Cathedralls and Ministers But above all it hath bin observ'd that this peeple hath bin a long time rotten-hearted towards the splendor of the Court the glory of their King and the old establish'd Government of the land 'T is true there were a few small leakes sprung in the great vessel of the Stâ—…te and what vessel was ever so â—…ite but was subject to leakes but these wise-akers in stopping of one have made a hundred Yet if this Kings raign were parallell'd to that of Queen Elizabeth's who was the greatest Minion of a peeple that ever was one will find that she stretch'd the Prerogative much further In her time as I have read in the Latin Legend of her life som had their hands cut off for only writing against her matching with the Duke of Aniou others were hang'd at Tyburn for traducing her government she pardon'd thrice as many Roman Priests as this King did she pass'd divers Monopolies she kept an Agent at Rome she sent her Sergeant at Armes to pluck out a Member then sitting in the House of Commons by the eares and clapt him in prison she call'd them sawcy fellowes to meddle with her Prerogative or with the government of her houshold she mannag'd all forren affaires specially the warrs with Ireland soly by her privy Counsell yet there was no murmuring at her raign and the reason I conceave to be
the Parlement is to assert to prop up and preserve the publick liberty and national rights of a peeple with the incolumity and well-fare of a Countrey Nor doth the Subject only reap benefit thus by Parlement but the Prince if it be well consider'd hath equal advantage therby It rendreth him a King of free and able men which is far more glorious than to be a King of Cowards Beggars and Bankrupts Men that by their freedom and competency of wealth are kept still in heart to do him service against any forrain force And it is a tru maxime in all States that 't is lesse danger and dishonour for the Prince to be poor than his people Rich Subjects can make their King rich when they please if he gain their hearts he will quickly get their purses Parlement encreaseth love and good intelligence 'twixt him and his peeple it acquaints him with the reality of things and with the tru state and diseases of his Kingdom it brings him to the knowledg of his better sort of Subjects and of their abilities which he may employ accordingly upon all occasions It provides for his Royal Issue pays his debts finds means to fill his Coffers and it is no ill observation That Parlementmoneys the great Aid have prospered best with the Kings of England It exceedingly raiseth his repute abroad and enableth him to keep his foes in fear his Subjects in awe his Neighbours and Confederates in security the three main things which go to aggrandize a Prince and render him glorious In summe it is the Parlement that supports and bears up the honour of his Crown and settles his Throne in safety which is the chief end of all their consultations For whosoever is entrusted to be a Member of this High Court carryeth with him a double capacity he sits ther as a Patriot and as a Subject as he is the one the Country is his object his duty being to vindicat the publick liberty to make wholsom Lawes to put his hand to the pump and stop the leaks of the great vessel of the State to pry into and punish corruption and oppression to improve and advance trade to have the grievances of the place he serves for redressed and cast about how to find somthing that may tend to the advantage of it But he must not forget that he sits ther also as a Subject and according to that capacity he must apply himself to do his Soveraignt businesse to provide not only for his publick but his personall wants to bear up the lustre and glory of his Court To consider what occasions of extraordinary expences he may have by encrease of Royal Issue or maintenance of any of them abroad To enable him to vindicat any affront or indignity that might be offered to his Person Crown or Dignity by any forrain State or Kingdom or intestin Rebellion To consult what may enlarge his honour contentment and pleasure And as the French Tacitus Comines hath â—…t the English Nation was used to be more â—…orward and zealous in this particular than â—…ny other according that to ancient eloquent speech of a great Lawyer Domus Regis vigiâ—…a defendit omnium otium illius labor omniâ—…m deliciae illius industria omnium vacatio â—…lius occupatio omnium salus illius periculum â—…nium honor illius objectum omnium Eveâ—… one shold stand Centinell to defend the Kings house his safety shold be the danger of 〈◊〉 his pleasures the industry of all his ease â—…old be the labour of all his honour the obâ—…ct of all Out of these premisses this conclusion â—…ay be easily deduced That the principall â—…ntain whence the King derives his happiness and safety is his Parlement It is that great Conduit-pipe which conveighes unto him his peoples bounty and gratitude The truest Looking-glasse wherin he discernes their loves now the Subjects love hath been always accounted the prime Cittadell of a Prince In his Parlement he appears as the Sun in the Meridian in the altitude of his glory in his highest State Royal as the Law tells us Therfore whosoever is averse or disaffected to his Soveraign Law-making Court cannot have his heart well planted within him he can be neither good Subject noâ—… good Patriot and therfore unworthy to breath English aire or have any benefit advantage or protection from the Laws Sectio Secunda BY that which hath bin spoken which is the language of my heart I hope no indifferent judicious Reader will doubt of the cordiall affection of the high respects and due reverence I bear to Parlement as being the wholsomest constitution and done by the highest and happiest reach of policy that ever was established in this Island to perpetuate the happinesse therof Therfore I must tell that Gentleman who was Author of a Book entituled the Popish Royal Favorite lately printed and exposed to the world that he offers me very hard measure nay he doth me apparent wrong to term me therin No friend to Parlement and a Malignant A character which as I deserve it not so I disdain it For the first part of his charge I wold have him know that I am as much a friend and as reall an affectionat humble servant and Votary to the Parlement as possibly he can be and will live and die with these affections about me And I could wish that he were Secretary of my thoughts a while or if I may take the boldnesse to apply that comparison his late Majesty used in a famous speech to one of his Parlements I could wish ther were a Chrystal window in my breast through which the world might espye the inward motions and palpitations of my heart then would he be certified of the sincerity of this protestation For the second part of his Charge to be a Malignant I must confesse to have som Malignity that lurks within me much against my will but it is no malignity of mind it is amongst the humors not in my intellectuals And I believe ther is no naturall man let him have his humors never so well ballanced but hath som of this Malignity reigning within him For as long as we are composed of the four Elements whence these humors are derived and with whom they symbolize in qualities which Elements the Philosophers hold to be in a restlesse contention amongst themselves and the Stoick thought that the world subsisted by this innated mutual strise as long I say as the four humors in imitation of their principles the Elements are in perpetual reluctancy and combate for praedominancy ther must be som malignity lodg'd within us as adusted choler and the like wherof I had late experience in a dangerous fit of sicknesse it pleased God to lay upon me which the Physitians told me proceeded from the malignant hypocondriacall effects of melancholy having bin so long in this Saturnine black condition of close imprisonment and buryed alive between the walls of this fatal Fleet These kinds of malignities I confesse are very
subject The Parliament sends out clean countermands for executing the said Militia so by this clashing 'twixt the Commission of Array and the Militia the first flash of this odious unnaturall war may be said to break out The pulse of the Parliament beats yet higher they send an Admirall to the Sea the Earl of Warwick not only without but expresly against the Kings special command They had taken unto them a Military gard from the City for their protection without His Majesties consent who by the advice of the Lord Keeper and others had offered them a very strong gard of Constables and other Officers to attend them which the Law usually allows yet the raising of that gard in York-shire for the safegard of His Majesties person was interpreted to be leavying of war against the Parliament and so made a sufficient ground for them to raise an Army to appoint a Generall the Earl of Essex with whom they made publick Declarations to live and die And they assumed power to confer a new Appellation of honour upon him Excellency as if any could confer Honour but the King And this Army was to be maintain'd out of the mixt conâ—…ribution of all sorts of people so a great masse of money and plate was brought into the Guild hall the Semstresse brought in her silver Thimble the Chamber-maid her Bodkin the Cook his Spoons and the Vintner his Bowles and every one somthing to the advancement of so good a work as to wage war directly against the Sacred person of their Soverain and put the whole Countrey into a combustion Peregrin Surely it is impossible that a rationall Christian people shold grow so simple and sottish as to be so far transported without some colourable cause therfore I pray tell me what that might be Patricius The cause is made specious enough and varnished over wonderfull cunningly The people are made to believe they are in danger and a prevention of that danger is promised and by these plausible ways the understanding is wrought upon and an affection to the cause is usher'd in by aggravation of this danger as one wold draw a thred through a needles eye This huge Bugbear Danger was like a monster of many heads the two chiefest were these That ther was a plot to let in the Pope And to 〈◊〉 the civil Government into a French frame It is incredible to think how the Pulpits up and down London did ring of this by brainsick Lecturers of whom som were come from New-England others were pick'd out of purpose and sent for from their own flock in the Countrey to possesse or rather to poison the hearts of the Londoners to puzzle their intellectualls and to intoxicat their brains by their powerfull gifts It was punishable to preach of Peace or of Caesars Right but the common subject of the pulpit was either blasphemy against God disobedience against the King or incitements to sedition Good Lord what windy frothy stuff came from these fanatick brains These Phrenetici Nebulones for King Iames gives them no better Character in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who may be said to be mad out of too much ignorance not knowledg who neverthelesse are come to that height of prophaness and pride that they presume to father all their doctrines all their non-sense raptures and ravings upon the holy Spirit Nor did the Pulpit only help to kindle this fire but the Presse also did contribute much stubble What base scurrilous Pamphlets were cryed up and down the streets and dispersed in the 〈◊〉 What palpable and horrid lies were daily printed How they multiplied in every corner in such plenty that one might say tâ—…er was a superfaetation of lies which continue unto this day One while the King of Denmark was comming over from the Sound Another while the King of France had a huge Army about Calais design'd for England Another while ther was an Army of Irish Rebels comming over with the privity of the King Another while a plot was cryed up and down to burn London Another while ther were subterranean invisible troups at Ragland Castle mustered under ground in Wales and thousands of Papists armed in Lancashire and divers reports of this nature were daily blown up and though the Authors of them were worthlesse and mean futilous persons yet the reports themselves had that credit as to be entertain'd and canvas'd in the High Court of Parliament But these false rumors produc'd one politick effect and it was the end indeed for which they were dispers'd they did intimidat and fill the peoples hearts with fears and dispose of them to up roars and so to part with money Peregrin I know ther be sundry sorts of Fears ther are Conscientious Fears and ther are â—…annick Fears ther are Pusillanimous Fears and ther are Politick Fears The first sort of Fear proceeds from guilt of Conscience which turns often to Phreâ—…cy The second sort of Fear may be call'd a kind of Chymera 't is som sudden surprizall or Consternation arising from an unknown cause Pusillanimous Fear makes a mountain of a mole-hill and proceeds from poverty of spirit and want of courage and is a passion of abject and degenerous minds and may be call'd Cowardise and this Fear is always accompanied with jealousie Politick fear is a created forg'd Fear wrought in another to bring som design about And as we find the Astronomers the comparison is too good do imagin such and such shapes and circles in the Heavens as the Zodiak Equinoctiall Colures Zones and Topiques with others though ther be no such things really in nature to make their conclusions good So the Polititian doth often devise and invent false imaginary Fears to make his proceedings more plausible amongst the silly vulgar and therby to compasse his ends And as the Sun useth to appear far bigger to us in the morning then at noon when he is exalted to his Meridian and the reason the Philosophers use to give is the interposition of the vapours which are commonly in the lower Region through which we look upon him as we find a piece of silver look bigger in a bucket of water then elsewhere so the Polititian uses to cast strange mists of Fear and fogs of jealousie before the simple peoples eyes to make the danger seem bigger But truly Sir this is one of the basest kinds of policy nor can I believe ther be any such Polititians amongst the Cabalists of your Parliament who pretend to be so busie about Gods work a Glorious Reformation for you know ther is a good Text for it that God needeth not the wicked man he abominats to be beholding to liers to bring about his purposes But I pray Sir deal freely with me do you imamagin ther was a design to bring in the Massâ—… again Patricius The Masse You may say ther was a plot to bring in Mahomet as soon to bring in the Alchoran or Talmud as soon For I dare pawn my soul the King is as