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
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.
you who had overturned the Government and violated all the Laws of the Land and I wish he had seen them before that he might have escaped those Punishments which made such a noise and turned to so bad an Account in the Kingdom and therefore I shall say no more upon this matter but this That the great mistake the Nation was then in and many are to this very day is that these three Men suffered for pure Religion for being severe Christians in their Lives and Conversations and standing up for the Cause of Christ whereas it appears throughout the whole Story it was for Libelling the Government and putting Indignities and Affronts upon the then Legal Administrators such as no Government that values itsself and its Honour upon the face of the Earth would bear without just Resentments and sutable Punishments Christian Religion teaches Men to be modest and peaceable and with all patience to suffer for well doing and to acknowledge God's Justice when his Rod is laid upon their Backs for evil doing And so much by way of Answer to that part of your Book by which you have endeavoured to blacken the good King's Reign and to run down the Reputation of Bishop Laud and to express your Indignation against me for saying other ways he was a good Man which I still say and have a very good Man to back me namely Judge Whitlock a Man of a clear Credit and sound Judgment who as his Son tells us in his Mem. said of him That he had too much fire but was a just and good Man And truly Sir I think it is more like a Christian to speak well of a Christian Bishop than to call him by such spiteful and reproachful Names as you have done in your scurrilous Book I come now to make some Reflections upon your Scotch Story which you have told with so much Venome and Partiality that you have every ways acted like your malicious and ungodly self and shewn you are a Man so resolved for a Party that rather than not serve it to purpose you will call Darkness Light and Light Darkness You begin with a Relation of Bishop Laud's composing a Common-Prayer-Book for them and tell us how the Mutinies and Disturbances in Scotland sprung from thence which truly I am very sorry for for I am sure it had been better for them and the Christian Religion professed amongst them if they had submitted to the Usage of the Book and continued it ever since The Worship of God would have been performed with Order and Decency and in a way suitable to his Divine Nature and Perfections and consequently could not have been exposed to the Contempt and Scorn of Men wickedly and atheistically inclined nor yet have been nauseous to the soberly wise and seriously devout part of that Kingdom as now it is by reason of those rude and undigested Addresses those extempore and unpremeditated Expostulations with God those bold and saucy Applications that for want of a good Book or a well framed Form of Prayer of their own before-hand and committed to Memory are so commonly made use of in their Pulpits too many of the Accounts of which we have lately since the Great Turn in Scotland received from very good Hands and undeniable Testimonies I but this bold-face says This Liturgy was not only composed by Bishop Laud but sent by him to the Pope and Cardinals for their approbation and this Story I must not dare to deny But with your good leave Mr. Modesty I will venture upon the piece of Confidence as to tell you I do not believe it and that because you assert it you whom I have proved already to falsifie and misrepresent every thing that you pretend written Authority for What! Bishop Laud send to the Pope and Cardinals for their Approbation of a Liturgy almost the same with our own Sure Sir you have forgot the hatred the Popes of Rome as well as the Dissenters have to our Church Common-Prayer-Book You have forgot the Bull of the Pope in the Tenth of Queen Elizabeth which commands all his pretended Catholick Children not to attend upon the Publick Liturgical Devotions of our Church and that under the severest Censure of the Apostolical Chair and you have also forgot but you have always a bad Memory for any thing that makes either for Monarchy or Episcopacy that the Papists upon that Account and by Virtue of the Authority of that Bull have declined our Publick Service ever since And therefore 't is very likely Bishop Laud should send a Liturgy to Rome for its approbation which hath so long stood condemned by the highest Authority that presides there In short Sir I cannot but conclude from this Story that you have got a Secret or else you would have blushed to have vented such an altogether improbable and yet so designedly a malicious Tale as this is and therefore notwithstanding your Marginal Caution I will say Leave your fooling and think not to abuse the good People of England with such Insinuations as will gain a belief from none but those who are resolved to believe all you boldly assert as Oracle against the clearest and brightest Reasons to the contrary Well Sir you say it was sent into Scotland pray let me ask you one Question In whose Name and by whole Authority was it sent Was it put upon them by a Rump Parliament an usurping Protector or by their lawful and undoubted Soveraign If by their Soveraign pray then Sir why if they did not like it did they not first submissively petition their lawful King and let him know how disgustful the Liturgy was to many of his Subjects in that Kingdom What must nothing serve these pure and refined Reformers but Fire presently called from Heaven must Clubs and Staffs and Old Womens Joynt-stools decide the Controversie betwixt their Soveraign and them Must they presently assault one of the Bishops the Earl of Traquaire the Lord Provost and Council of the City and threw down the Lord Treasurer going to the Council taking from him his Hat Cloak and White Staffe by violent Hands Good God! what dutiful what harmless and peaceable Subjects are these How much do they deserve such an Advocate as our Letter-Writer And what worst of things will not a Seditious Commonwealth's-man plead for when he will vindicate such Barbarities as these are But to go further with you Sir Must these Men of their own heads without any Warrant from the Legal Authority of the Nation enter into a Covenant without the King nay against his Will and Pleasure As they could not but know and that because they had entered into one with King Iames's Consent in 1580 to defend the Purity of Religion and the King's Person and Rights against the Church of Rome What are these two Covenants of one and the same Nature entred into by one and the same Authority a Covenant entred into by King Iames's Consent under his Hand and Seal and a Covenant entred