there was for a War with so condescending and gracious a Prince and how little the Nation was beholden to those pretended Patriots who commenced a War which hath proved so destructive and fatal to the Nation the Effects of which not only we but our Posterity will feel also I fear for many Generations And now Sir I am ready to take my leave of you but before we part I must needs reckon with you upon the score of a Reflection you have made upon my self You are pleased to say You understand before I came to my Dotage I was a Presbyterian Minister in Essex which Words as often as I have read in the midst of my Sorrows for your scurrilous usage of King Charles have almost forced me to a smile and I cannot but believe that some crafty Knave finding you ready to pick up any Story whereby you might serve your Cause had a mind to put a trick upon you and to expose the Truth of the rest of your Books by this one so well known a Falshood And Sir let me tell you because since the late Persecution in Scotland by that Party of Men it is a greater Scandal to be called a Presbyterian than it was before and because I find abundance of Men have run away with such a Belief of me I will therefore give the World a true Account of myself I was betwixt four and five Years of Age when the Covenant was taken and Twenty one when the King was restored at which time I was a Student in Cambridge in 62 after I had taken time to consider the Nature and Terms of Conformity which by my former Education I was wholly a Stranger to I was Ordained by the Sacred Hands of Bishop Sanderson in the same Church in which I was baptized in 63 I was Licensed by the Bishop of London Dr. Sheldon to a Lecture in London upon the Personal Recommendation of the late Arch-bishop of York Dr. Dolben in which City I continued till 71 when I was presented by King Charles the Second to the Vicarage of Westham in Essex where how I acted like a Presbyterian let the four Tracts I writ and all in the Defence of the Church of England testifie from this place I was removed by Letters Pattents under the Broad Seal of England from King King Charles the Second to the Chaplain-ship of Aldgate which is so called in the Original Deed upon Record in the Rolls and for the Service of which the King has reserved out of the Impropriation an Annual Stipend where how I have lived and discharged my Duty in some sort I leave to the whole Parish to declare It is true Sir I have always been kind to Dissenters and have conversed with all sorts of Men with an equal Freedom and when the great Storm Eight and Nine Years ago fell upon the Dissenters in City and Country I preserved my own Parish from Charge and Trouble to the great endangering of myself which many of them have a grateful Sence of to this day tho' some others have quite forgot it but that is because they are too like your dear self for I never found Gratitude together with many other necessary Vertues amongst Men of your Kidney 't is no part of your Religion And now Sir what satisfaction will you make me for this scandalous Reflection Why truly all I expect is nothing but further Calumnies and Reproaches Backbiting and Slandering of me for that is the proper Trade and Employment of Antimonarchial Men but however Sir let me beg of you but to let the Memory of King Charles the First alone and then I will pardon as well as patiently bear all you can say against me and the more willingly because I think it an Honour to be abused by such Persons as you are Sir I am just upon concluding only spare me one word or two more Whereas you call me in your Epistle An hungry Levite I would have you know I scorn it and here tell you That the Goodness of the Cause I am engaged in carries me above the hopes of adding to what I have and above the fears of losing it all and whereas you say Mr. Love lost his Head upon Tower-hill which you are confident I will never do for any Cause Sir I tell you that by the Grace and Assistance of God had I a thousand Lives I would lose them all at Tower-hill or at another place which you have so long deserved before I would either compose or publish such an infamous Libel against the Piety the Honour and Memory of King Charles the First a Libel which I cannot think you could have writ unless you had been acted by Seven Devils worse than yourself and then I am sure they are Devils indeed And so Sir I take my leave of you praying the God of Heaven if he has not given you over for your past Sins and Provocations to a Reprobate Sence that he would open your Eyes and soften your Heart and cause you to see the evil of your ways that so you may return to him with weeping and fasting and more particularly if you live so long upon the next Thirtieth of Ianuary And hoping this Prayer will not be in vain I subscribe myself Your Soul's Well-wisher Richard Hollingworth Postscript READER WHen thou meetest with any Expressions or Reflections that look too sharp and severe in this Reply I must beg of thee to consider who it is I write against one that has behaved himself thoroughout his whole Libel rather like a Beast of Prey or an infernal Fiend than either a Man or a Christian And what Man can avoid Indignation and suitable Resentments when he accounts with a Monster who is so lost both to Truth and Good Manners as to call that Excellent and Pious Prince and Martyr a proud Nimrod an hardened Pharaoh and a merciless Tyrant READER There is an excellent Book called Vindicae Carolinae an Answer to Milton's scurrilous Book against K. Charles which came out the last Year worthy to be in every good and true English-man's hand And withal there is another Book called A Vindication of King Charles Printed in 48 by that true and steady Divine Mr. Edward Symmonds to whom the King committed the Correcting and Publishing his Incomperable Book which deserves a new Edition and which if no Man's Property for there is none mentioned in the Title-page I will take care to see it Re-printed in which Book there is an admirable Defence of the King and Queens Letters taken at Naseby from p. 174 to p. 185 which I will take care if the Executor of Mr. Royston or any other who has the Right to the King's Works will give me leave to Print some of the King's Declarations to Print with them And Reader I hope I shall have the Assistance of some better Pens than my own for this Cause must not be starved for I am sure upon it depends the Being and Well-being of King and Queen Church and State and every thing else that belongs to a true Lover of Old England indeed FINIS The Armies Petition Ibid. p. 563.
A SECOND DEFENCE OF King Charles I. BY Way of Reply to an Infamous Libel CALLED LUDLOW'S LETTER to Dr. Hollingworth Let the lying lips be put to silence which cruelly disdainfully and despitefully speak against the righteous Psal. 31. As free and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness 1 Pet. 2. LONDON Printed for S. Eddowes under the Piazza's of the Royal Exchange and are to be Sold by Randal Taylor near Stationers-Hall 1692. TO THE Most Reverend and Right Reverend Fathers in GOD the Lords Archbishops and Bishops of the Provinces of Canterbury and York to the Nobility Gentry Clergy and Commons of England who have any Honour for the Pious Memory of King CHARES the First My Lords and Gentlemen c. THE Dutiful and Devoted Children of the Church of England having in the late Reign with so much Zeal and Courage as well as with such variety of Learning defended the Doctrines and Reasons of the Reformation against all the Accusations of her Romish Adversaries and some of them also exposing themselves to great Dangers rather than truckle to Will and Power against the Laws and Liberties of their Country did together with many others think when their Present Majesties came to the Throne that great Numbers of those who had sucked in Prejudices against the Church by reason of their Education would either have come into her Communion as now being convinced the Clamours against her were false or else at least would have treated her and her Members with a greater Civility and Respect then through their false Conceits of Things they did before but we quickly found ourselves mistaken and that the AEthiopian could not change his Skin nor the Leopard his Spots for presently hoping they had an opportunity to play over their Old Game again out comes two Books the one against Diocesan Episcopaty and the other against Liturgies two things they themselves knew the most moderate amongst us that are honest will not part withal these Books were carried up and down in Triumph and the poor Church of England had met with a Blow that not only stunn'd her but quite knocked her on the Head but in a convenient time they had their just Doom and were I may with great Truth say unanswerably answered the one by Dr. Comber the present Dean of Durham the other by the late Dr. Maurice Professor of the Chair at Oxford After this that the State might have a state of their Civility and Breeding as well as the Church a leud Pamphlet against King Charles the First was sent out into the World under the name of Ludlow whom an Act of Parliament calls one of the most detestable Traytors that ever was and this dedicated to Sir E. S. Kt. which Libel was spread abroad and cried up with all the Zeal imaginable and according as it was designed it had its effects and the Party who have left the Communion of our Church in all Places and Companies opened their wide Mouths against the Name and Memory of that excellent Prince upon hearing of which both in my own private and accidental Conversation and from many of my Friends whose Reports I durst credit I having by Reading the Actions and Sufferings of that King received other Impressions of him was resolved if no better Pen prevented me to vindicate that Great Man and accordingly the latter end of the last Year put out a little Book in the Defence of that Prince having nothing more in my eye then by so doing to preserve the Honour and Safety of the Present Government in Church and State which Book no sooner was spread but I was loaden with a thousand Reproaches which I thank God I was the less affected withal because of the Cause I was engaged in and withal because I had provided myself against them and within three Months after as if Hell had broke loose out comes a Letter under the same Name of the Traytor Ludlow directed to myself and as pretended occasioned by my honest Defence which Letter when I seriously read over I could not contain myself from wonder and amazements yea I found myself in various Passions to wit of Anger and Grief I of Ioy too not I assure you for the sin of the Book for that I abhor but that by the Book the Government might see the Spirit of the Party and how far to trust and when to suspect them Now My Lords and Gentlemen c. you would admire to hear how this Libel was brought up lent from one hand to another with the Character of a delicate and unanswerable Book and the well-meaning Author of King Charles's Defence was a Knave and a Fool and utterly lost as to his Credit and Interest in the New and True Friends of King William and Queen Mary and the Good Old Cause was now revived and upon its Legs again and glorious Days are coming and all by Virtue of the Influence of this Letter from Ludlow Well in a few days I set myself to a more close Consideration of the Book and presently found the Author an Imposer upon his Reader and that he had belyed King Charles in plain Matters of Fact upon which I was resolved to expose him and in a convenient time by a close application I drew up this Reply which I now present to you hoping thereby to have done something to prevent the spreading of this vile Man's Poyson And now my Lords and Gentlemen c. give me leave to be so plain as to tell you That if this Spirit be not discouraged but once again get within the Walls of St. Stephen's Chappel back'd and assisted with Power it will my Lords Spiritual Vote you presently out of the House of Peers and soon after out of your Bishopricks and afterwards will vindicate its barbarous usage of you by declaring you the Catterpillars of the Earth and the Locissts that ascend out of the bottomless Pit And for you my Lords Temporal Gentry Clergy and honest Commoners it will after it has branded you with the Names of Malignants Popish Counsellors and Adherents to the Interest of the Beast this Spirit I say when in the Chair will force you to Compositions Sequestrations Decimations Banishment Imprisonment and some of you to a Scaffold at Tower-hill or the Palace-yard and therefore I cannot but upon this Account open my whole Heart to you and tell you and I care not what Censures I undergo for it that next to the Eternal Laws of Nature and the Reasonableness and Excellency of the Christian Religion founded in and purchased by the Blood of Christ God Man I think we ought to be zealous in the Defence of this Great King upon whose Reputation or Dishonour and the Principles that maintain the one or those that propagate the other depend the Being and Well-being of our present Church and State and consequently of the Life and Preservation of our present King and Queen together with all their Successors in the English Throne and
the more to answer if they forbore to express it at the passing of this Declaration and if they forbore to express it we have the greater reason to complain that so envious an Aspersion should be cast on us to our People when they knew well how to answer their own Objection And now let the Reader judge what this piece of Impudence deserves for laying such a groundless flander at the Door of such a Person as King Charles was I could be very severe upon you for this horrid Lye and the more because your Party all over the Town hug this Falshood and make great use of it to reak their Malice upon the Name and Memory of this blessed Prince and Martyr I have but one thing more of this nature to take Notice of and that is who were the first Beginners of the War I know very well you and your whole Party have always vindicated the Justice of your Proceedings as if you were necessitated to take up Arms against the King because he first raised an Army to bring in Arbitrary Power Sir I have read over the Story as well as you and according to the best Information I can give myself from the best Authors the Parliament did really and indeed first draw the Sword and sound the Trumpet to Battel Was not mustering the Militia and seizing of Hull and denying the King Entrance into his own Garrison and the Command of his own Magazine entring into a State of Hostility and bidding Defiance to all just Subjection to their lawful Soveraign Did not they Vote before the King levied Men any other wise than to have a Guard of Gentlemen about his Person which any King in the World ought to have especially in such dangerous Times as those were That he intended to wage War against his People And afterwards did not they Vote an Actual War with him which I think implies a necessity or else it was done without Reason as I am very well satisfied it was And you need not have fallen so scurrilously upon me for the mistake of a word as to give me the Lye but good Manners I will never expect from a Man of your turbulent Temper and Principles And whereas the King set up his Standard at Nottingham in August did not the Lords and Commons in Iune before make an Order for bringing in of Money or Plate to maintain Horses Horse-men and Arms naming a General and other subordinate Officers which I think was beginning the War to purpose And truly Sir let me tell you I will believe that pious Prince and afterwards patient and couragious Martyr before Ten thousand such pestilent Persons as you by this Letter appear a Person of so venemous a nature that you turn every thing to Poyson you touch which good King tells us upon their voting his Intentions to enter into a State of War with his Parliament that he had no more Intentions to do any such thing than he had to make War with his own Children And who further when he came to look Death in the face with all his Holy Solemn and Divine Thoughts about him which is a time when we are ready and that upon good grounds to give Credit to the Assertions of Men who have lived very bad Lives much more of a Person whose Life in his Retirements had been so much with God as we may be satisfied from his heavenly Soliloquies and Meditations I say who even then discourses of this thing namely who were the Beginners of the War at this rate upon the mournful and dismal Scaffold I think it is my Duty to God first and then to my Country to clear myself both as an honest Man a good King and a good Christian I shall begin first with my Innocency All the World knows I did never begin a War with the Two Houses of Parliament and I call God to witness unto whom I shall shortly give an Account that I did never intend to encroach upon their Priviledges they began upon me it is the Militia they began upon they confessed the Militia was mine but they thought it fit to have it from me And to be short if any Body will look to the Date of Commissions of their Commissions and mine and likewise to the Declaration he will see clearly they began these unhappy Troubles and not I. And now all you Nations and Kindreds upon the Earth I appeal to you all whether a King just going to appear before the Great God of Heaven and Earth so prepared and so assured within himself of an incorruptible Crown is not to be believed before such a foul-mouthed such a scandalous and leud Miscreant as this Letter-writer is who values not the Reputation of Innocence itself if it stand in the way of his Lusts and Passions of his Revenge against Monarchy and Episcopacy And thus Sir I have answered and I hope to satisfaction your grand Impeachments and Accusations of this great and excellent Prince As for the other things with which you have stufft your Libel as The giving up the City for a Spoil to the Army c. tho' I wonder you missed the blowing up the Thames to drown the City I say alas Sir you must not think to catch some Birds and there are thanks be to God great Numbers of them in the Kingdom with such Chaff as this is And for the several Petitions and Addresses they made to His Majesty which you quote at large why all the World knows that the worst Undertakings have always been covered with the most specious and glittering Pretences that is a very bad Cause indeed that a Man of Wit and Parts a Man of Interest and Design cannot paint out in seemingly fair and taking colours But pray Sir how comes it to pass that we hear not one word from you of the King's Answers and the Noble Defences he made for himself against all those Pretences of Glory and Honour to him and of Peace and Happiness to the Kingdom No Sir your business was not to do Right to his Memory but to draw him out in the blackest hue that so you might serve the future Designs of your Party namely to extirpate Monarchy and overthrow the Ancient Constitution of the Kingdom And therefore I desire some good Man would with the leave of him who has Mr. Royston's Right to those famous Works of King Charles print some of those Declarations of his and especially that large one of August 1642 wherein all his Enemies Cheats and Tricks are display'd and discovered to the full Or else I wish That every Parish in England at the Publick Charge of the Parish would buy the whole Book itself and chain it up in some Publick Place so that all good Men might have recourse to it in order to inform their Minds of the true Merits of the Cause betwixt this great Prince and his Enemies which if done I am sure the good People of England would quickly be convinced what little reason