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A44221
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The character of King Charles I from the declaration of Mr. Alexander Henderson ... upon his death-bed : with a further defence of the King's holy book : to which is annex'd some short remarks upon a vile book, call'd Ludlow no lyar : with a defence of the King from the Irish Rebellion / by Rich. Hollingworth.
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Hollingworth, Richard, 1639?-1701.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing H2500; ESTC R3222
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23,130
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41
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THE CHARACTER OF King Charles I. From the Declaration of M R. ALEXANDER HENDERSON Principal Minister of the Word of God at Edenburgh and Chief Commissioner from the Kirk of Scotland to the Parliament and Synod of England Upon his DEATH-BED WITH A Further DEFENCE of the KING 's Holy Book To which is Annex'd Some Short Remarks upon a Vile Book call'd Ludlow no Lyan With A Defence of the KING from the Irish Rebellion By Rich. Hollingworth D. D. London Printed and are to be Sold by R. Tayler by Amen-Corner 1692. LICENSED July 28th 1692. Rob. Midgley To the Right Honourable THE MARCHIONESS of Carmarthen Madam THE Defence of Good and Innocent Men and the Vindicating of their Memories from those base and barbarous Aspersions they are many times loaden withal by men under whose tongues is the poyson of Asps are Employments every way becoming those who are Disciples of the HOLY JESUS and have solemnly promised to follow His Example and which I am certain will speak Peace and Comfort to them when others who give themselves the liberty to detract and defame to scandalize and ill-report the Best of Men will sink at last under the Load of their own Guilt and the Terrours of their angry and discontented Minds The sense of which has been a very great support to my self ever since I have undertaken the Vindication of the Name and Memory of King CHARLES I. and has enabled me in some good sort to scorn and live above all those Reproaches that by a certain Faction have been without Truth or Modesty so freely fastned upon me and I am so far from being weary of the Task I have engaged in that I thank God every fresh Provocation gives me the Pleasure as well as Advantage of knowing and understanding the incomparable Merits of that Great Man better and the Courage to communicate them to others And amongst many other things that have come to my hand since I began the Defence of this Great PRINCE This for the sake of which I make bold to give Your Ladyship this Trouble at present is one of the greatest and fullest that I ever saw and no doubt will be satisfactory to all sorts of Men because of the Person who was the Author of it Namely The chief Person of the Presbyterian Party in Scotland and the most employed by them for setting up and Vindicating their Kirk-Discipline I have shewn it since I had it to several Persons of great Names and at great Posts in our Church who were all as mightily taken with it so desirous it should be Reprinted that the World might see how unjustly this Great Persons Name is dealt withal by too great a Number of many Bad Men of this Age which as soon as I resolved to Reprint I at the same time resolved it should with Your Ladyships Leave come out under Your Honours Umbrage and Protection which You have a Right to not onely upon the score of Your own Zeal for that Great Prince 's Memory and Vertues but also upon the Account of the Faithfulness and Integrity the Loyalty and Steadiness of Your Ancestors to the CROWN and Dignity thereof for it is well known That Your Noble Grandfather lost his Life as General of His Majesties Forces at the first Fight against the Rebels at Edgelvill for his Great Master's Just and Righteous Cause and that Your as Noble Father was at the same time imprison'd for his steady Adherence to the Royal Interest and that both of them as they ventured their Lives so they greatly impaired a vast Estate But however that in the mean time they Acted becoming Good Men Good Christians and True Lavers of the Religion and Laws of their Country which includes their being Good Subjects and consequently took the better and more Justifiable Part this ensuing Narrative I am sure will make good and clear to all Men who are not resolved let what will be said to continue their base and ill designed Prejudices The Declaration is this The Character of King CHARLES I. VVHereas the greatest part of the distempered People of these miserable distracted Kingdoms have been and are wofully abused and misled with malicious misinformations against his sacred Majesty especially in point of Religion and moral-Wisdom whereof I confess with great grief of heart my self to have been amongst many moe of my coat none of the least who out of Imaginary fears and jealousies were made real Instruments to advance this un-natural War wherein so much Innocent Protestant Blood hath been shed and so much downright Robbery committed without fear or shame of sin to the scandal of the true Reformed Religion as cannot but draw down heavy Judgements from Heaven upon these infatuated Nations and more particularly upon Us who should have instructed them in the way of Truth Peace and Obedience I conceived it the duty of a good Christian especially one of my profession and in the condition that I lie expecting God Almighty's Call not only to acknowledge to the All-merciful God with a humble sincere remorse of Conscience the greatness of this offence which being done in simplicity of Spirit I hope with the Apostle Paul to obtain Mercy because I did it through Ignorance But also for the better satisfaction of all others to publish this Declaration to the view of the World to the intent that all those especially of the Ministery who have been deluded with me may by God's Grace and my example though a weak and mean Instrument not only be undeceived themselves but also stirred up to undeceive others with more alacritie and facilitie that the scandal may be removed from our Religion and Profession and the good King restored to his just Rights and truly honoured and obeyed as God's Anointed and Vicegerent upon Earth and the poor distressed Subjects freed from those intollerable Burdens and Oppressions which they lye groaning under piercing Heaven with their Tears and Cries and a solid Peace settled both in Kirk and Common-wealth throughout all His Majesties Dominions to the Glory of God and of our blessed Mediator and Saviour the Lord Christ I do therefore Declare before God and the World That since I had the Honour and Happiness to Converse and Confer with His Majesty with all sort of freedom especially in Matters of Religion whether in relation to the Kirk or State which like Hypocrates Twins are lynked together that I found him the most intelligent Man that ever I spoke with as far beyond my Epression as Expectation grounded upon the Information that was given me before I knew him by such as I thought should have known him I profess that I was oft-times astonish'd with the solidity and quickness of his Reasons and Replies wondred how he spending his Time so much in Sports and Recreations could have attained to so great Knowledge and must confess ingenuously that I was convinc'd in Conscience and knew not how to give him any reasonable Satisfaction yet the sweetness of his Disposition
Heat and Zeal yet upon reading his Story I do believe that as he was a great Scholar so he was a very pious Man and a thousand times more abus'd by a Generation of men than he did deserve he lived strictly and dyed with a Courage Comfort and Satisfaction of Mind suitable to his holy and severe Life and for the Proof of this I desire thee Reader to read over his Speech he made in defence of himself upon his Tryal before the few Lords that took upon them to be his Judges and that holy Discourse he made upon the Scaffold just before that fatal Blow that severed his Head from his Body And whereas he stands in his Assertion That Bishop Laud sent the Common-Prayer-Book to the Pope and Cardinals for their Approbation and quotes one Gage a Fryar for the Truth of it I must beg thy leave Reader to tell thee that I do not believe the Story and that because such a man as Gage reports it and especially at that time when Usurpers were in the Chair and with whom as other Popish Converts were wont to do he was resolved to curry favour and I believe this man the less because he was so silly and so spiteful as to vindicate Bishop Lauds Death as just when he could not but know if he understood any thing of our Legal Constitution that Bishop Laud was cut off by a Warrant that no Law of England justifies for it was done without the Kings Consent or Hand and consequently in plain terms that he was murder'd and he that Vindicates the Breach of the Sixth Commandment his Testimony shall have no Credit with me nor will I am sure with any good and undesigning man throughout the Kingdom Another thing I Answer his former vile Paper withal is what is said by Mr. Whitelock concerning the Scotch Rebellion who tells us though a Friend to the Party what Condescentions the King made how He kept his Word and the Rebels broke theirs after a solemn Agreement betwixt them both who tells us of their Signing a Letter to the French King to come in to their Aid against their lawful Soveraign And what says my Adversary to these things Why he quotes several Defences they made nothing to the purpose as to what Mr. Whitelock asserts and indeed such things as any Rebels may say for themselves and he knows there never yet was so bad a Cause but Wit and Malice could invent and draw up something that dazzled the eyes of the Vulgar and served to keep ignorant or designing men in a Body together But good Reader I pray take Notice That whereas I give an Account from Mr. Whitelock how far Cardinal Richelieu interested himself in this Rebellion of the Scots and how he sent Chamberlaine his Chaplain and Hepburn his Page to blow up the Coals both in England and Scotland amongst the Puritans yet my Adversary is pleased here to be utterly silent and to pass it by no doubt because it was so notorious and villainous a Correspondence as would admit of no manner of Justification The next thing I Advocate for this Great King for are his many and gracious Favours and Condescentions in passing so many Bills for the first Year of the Parliaments sitting down which he would make the World believe were no Favours but what he was bound to do and consequently for which no Thanks were due to him by which he takes off all Obligations to Their Present Majesties and their Successors from the People as to any future Acts of Grace they grant for which I am sure he deserve no Thanks from the Crown and indeed for which he ought to be look'd upon as a downright Enemy to the future Intercourse and good Understanding betwixt Their Majesties and their People and I doubt not but this saucy Assertion will be so thought of both by King and People and the Loyalty of him and his pretending Party will be looked upon accordingly I further in my Defence vindicate the King's Scruple of Conscience as to the Execution of the Earl of Strafford and to shew the reasonableness of the Scruple which he basely makes sport withal recite and print the Preamble of the Act of Parliament by which the Attainder of that Great Man and White Soul as Bishop Vsher who attended him upon the Scaffold calls him was taken off in which they acquit him of Treason And what says this Pamphleteer to this Not a Word but according to his usual Modesty calls him Traytor and consequently Arraigns the Wisdom and Justice of the Nation which indeed to me is no wonder considering the Venemous Spirit of the man throughout his whole Book Further I Vindicate the King and that from his own Declaration which I have printed in words at length from any design of bringing up the Army to plunder the City of London which Declaration he says little or nothing to but flies presently to a Committee and their Examinations of the thing which truly considering how at that time some men were allured with hopes others affrighted with Frown and Threats I can give but little heed to and I will be so hardy as to tell the World that I will believe the Assertions of King Charles I. before Twenty Committees of those days considering the designs then on foot and the resolutions to carry them on and I must confess ever since I read Whites Centuries the Witnesses received and the ruine of so many Families upon such Testimonies I have had but a very slender Value for what was printed from those Committees let this man answer what the King says upon this Account in his own Defence and what the Officers of the Army say in their Petition in their behalf and then he will act like a clear Answerer and deserve a further Consideration Another thing I Charge this modest and mannerly Gentleman withal is his false Account he gives in his former Libel of the Rabble running down to Westminster in a riotous and tumultuous manner who he says went only armed with Petitions in their hands in a peaceable way as to which I tell him and that truly that he contradicts all the Historians of that Age and that they were so far from such a decent Carriage as he asserts that they with Clubs and Staves in their hands cryed out they would have no Groom-Porters-Lodge at Whitehall but would speak with the King himself when they pleased that they beset the House of Lords door and cryed Justice Justice that they broke the Organ and tore the Vestments of the Church of Westminster in pieces threw stones at the Bishops and endangered the Bishop of Durham's Life And what says he to these things in his Reply Why truly not one Word but still sillily and against all Truth would make the World believe the King was not at all affronted and had no Reason to leave Whitehall which he must be a great Stranger to Matters of Fact that gives any Credit to such bold