and Territories granted to us to maintaine a Warre against them now because we maintaine that Warre we are Rebels and Traitors and the Irish Rebels because that they stand against you They shall be freed from all Penall Lawes They shall have any thing that They desire nothing is too deare for them any Lawes may be altered for their sakes But when the Protestants come to desire an Alteration of Law for the advancement of the Protestant Religion and for the settlement of the Protestants nothing can be granted to them by a Protestant King but every thing to the Irish I shall say but a word more and pray consider of it The Condition why all this is granted to the Irish and denied to you it is onely this That the Irish may come over into England to cut your Throats as they cut the throats of all the Irish Protestants in Ireland This is the cause for which they are encouraged to come hither If there be such a reward for Treachery if there be such a fruit of the Protestations of the King what can we expect Animadversions Truly the Kingdome of Ireland bleeding were a very sad spectacle did not the Kingdome of England bleeding call for both our Eyes A Kingdome before this Parliament began so growne aged in continuall Happinesse that as they use to say of the spiced and persum'd Ayre in which the Sabeans Agatharo live Summus quidem odor sed volupt as minor The very Excesse seem'd to abate the pleasure and the Repetition of nothing but the same Blessings which were still as constant as their Dayes did not so much affect the Sence of the Nation as dull it When on the suddaine an Anabaptisticall Party rising up layes hold upon all the Kings Forts and Ships seizes all His Lands rifles all the Goods of most of the Protestants in England and not content with that hath opened more then one hundred Thousand Veynes of as good Protestant bloud and made of as good milke as ever the Church of England gave since She lay in of her first Reformation Now these Rebels of England that have dispoyled their owne lawfull Soveraigne of all his Royall Interests and just Rights and that have thus inhumanely murthered so many thousands of their owne Protestant Brethren here is the sadnesse avow themselves the loyall and most obedient Subjects of the King and those Subjects who venture their Lives and Fortunes in the Cause of God and of the King Those they traduce for Malignants Traytors and Rebels God forbid that the King or any good Protestant should justifie that Rebellion in Ireland halfe so much as these English Rebels themselves doe that exclaime most against it For assuredly no man justifies a sinne more then he that does commit it When the Rebellion brake out first in Ireland all the world knowes there was no man in England more forward in expressing the sense of his Indignation against it then the King Both Houses of Parliament could not suggest any probable Expedient for the quenching of that Flame but the King straight way ratified and approved it Nay His Industry was so like His Interest farre transcending theirs that whilest they were only hovering about Advice He was upon the wings of Action and would have interposed his own Sacred Person in the Quarrell if they would have allowed it and thought it fit But now that a greater Flame is kindled in the Bowells of this Kingdome and that those very Buckets which there should have cast on water to have quenched it are here cast on themselves to augment and raise the fire he that will blame the Kings affections for being corrupted because they are a little coold He that will accuse Him for being false to the Principles of Law which bindes Him to defend His Subjects against the Rebells in Ireland because He is true to the Principles of Nature which binds him to defend himselfe against the Rebells here in England Certainly that man will approve his Humor for Discretion who when the fatall Axe hung over him took greater care for his Haire then for his Head And therefore M. Tate addes little to the credit of his Cause when he heapes up these exaggerations upon the King That the Irish Rebells can be freed from all the penall Lawes that they may have any thing which they desire and that Nothing is to deare for them c. for the more dishonourable and deare the conditions are on which the King purchases the settlement of Irelands Peace The more infamous and odious is this Treason and Rebellion here in England which alone hath rais'd the Market For if England would not Pipe so as it does Ireland would have but little mind to Dance And whereas Mr Tate is of opinion that all this is granted to the Irish that they may come over into England and cut Throats Truly I am of opinion that if they doe not make more hast then I can yet perceive they doe they will loose their Labour for the Scots will have done their Worke before they come Whose encouragements no doubt are the better of the twaine For what they loose in gay promises they find in good Pay What they have not in Repealing of Lawes they have in Reaping the profit of good Lands What they want in three or foure Complements They have in five Counties And a Scott that will not cut Throates upon these Tearmes let him live by cutting of Purses or which is more Merchant-like by selling of Pinnes Mr Tate All I have to say is you see you must stand to your Armes and defend your selves For there is no hopes for you unlesse you can submitt your necks to the Queene and be transformed into Irish Rebels and Papists I know not how you can obtaine any favour at Court especially having such a Mediator as you have a Parliament that is so hated by the King As long as that mediates for you you shall have nothing but if you can have a Popish Catholique Queene to sollicite in your behalfe you shall have any thing I know you are too much Englishmen and Protestants to submit to such base conditions Therefore lay aside all division and unite your selves in this Cause that you may be Masters of the Popish Party that otherwise will kill you all Animadversions Are you come to say all that you have to say already I protest a very moderate Gentleman and one that is not like to be a Lecturer long for though he knows not what to speak yet he knowes when to hold his Tongue I will undertake after this rate he might have talkt till mid-night But sir doe you thinke your Aldermen are awake or rather doe not you think that you have talkt all this while in your sleep For my part I confesse I am so farre a Citizen of the Common Hall that I doe not understand you and I take it for a great blessing upon mine Innocence that I doe not reach your meaning The truth
never so foolish and ridiculous and receive no present Answer to that which they have said They make that advantage of their getting Plutarch no Answer which Cato they say made when he could get no Statue who gave out that it was more for his Honour and Reputation that posterity should enquire why Cato had no Statue then why he had And therefore I shall take them all three in order as they lye beginning first with M. Lisles Oration whose masculine eloquence it seems was thought worthiest to enjoy the Mayden-head of the Citties Attention who bespeaks them in the manner following M. Lisle his Speech My Lord Major and you worthy Gentlemen of the Famous Citty of London I am commanded by the Lords and Commons in Parliament Assembled to observe to you some passages out of these Letters which you have heard They are passages of that nature though it be most happy to this Kingdom and Parliament to know them yet my very heart doth bleed to report them Animadversions Well said good obedient Oratour Higgin you have said nothing it seems but what you were commanded But I say not well done my Lord Major and you worthy Gentlemen of the famous City of London for you have done a thing which no body could command you you have resigned and given up your sences and your understanding here to three Brothers of the Observance as if you were able to marke nothing of your selves but what they Observe unto you What my Masters are the Walloones that came over lately crept already from the Campe into your Councell that a Common-Hall at London cannot understand English when they heare it Have you not only lost your Loyalty but your very Language that you must have an Interpreter to your own Mothers tongue take my word for it the Letters although they were not the old English foretoppe in their forehead of After my hearty commendations remembred unto you hoping to God that you are in good health as I am at the writing hereof yet they are writ in nothing but errand English The King and the Queen as much as you suspect them for superstition are not yet come to that height of Popery as to write their mutuall private Letters in an unknown Tongue For shame then be not such Wittalls to your own understanding as to say you know not English when you doe I can tell you the Cost of this Interpreter may chance prove greater then the Worship you see M. Lisles heart bleeds in the very begining of the businesse It was never known but Bloud would have Bloud you know and I feare your Hearts also that is your Purses will bleed before ever it be done There is so much of the Pharisee between you that if his Trumpet should goe before and your Almes should not follow after I would sweare one of you were very much out in playing of his part but M. Lisle is not out for he goes on Mr Lisle The first thing that I shall observe to you is concerning the King's endeavours to bring Forraigne Forces a Forraigne Prince with an Army into this Kingdom By His Letters to the Queen which you have heard read He endeavours to basten the Duke of Loraine with an Army into England It is well known to the Parliament that the Duke of Loraine is a Prince highly esteem'd at Rome the most complying with Iesuites of any Prince in Christendomes and yet the King writes to the Queen to hasten the Duke of Loraine to come with an Army into England Animadversions If the Major and his Brethren must observe and note this as a piece of Novelty which they knew not of before namely that the King did intend to bring in Forreigne Forces me thinkes the Exchange had been a fitter Theatre then the Guild-Gall to have call'd the Citizens together to have heard it and Mr Lisle's heart needed not to bleed for that But if they must observe and note this as a piece of Tyranny in the King as a breach and violation of any knowne Law in the Land and to that end it is most likely he would have them to observe it Then truly does Mr Lisle deserve to have his Nose bleed as well as his Heart he deserves to be well beaten for offering such a Cheat unto the Common People For Gods sake why may not the King bring over Forreigners when He shall be deserted and derelicted of his own Subjects Why may not the King invite Forreigne Forces hither now at the last for his Preservation and Reliefe whom the Rebels themselves have entertain'd already this two whole yeares and over for his Destruction and Ruine I cannot imagine why the worthy Citizens of London are to note and observe this as any unlawfull thing unlesse Mr Lisle will undertake to prove that the King by bringing in of such Forces into the Land does trespasse upon their severall Acts against Forreigners which are of so great force in London For I know no other Law written against which He does offend For I demand either it is lawfull for the King to defend himselfe by Force against those that doe rebell against him or it is not lawfull If they say it is not lawfull for him to defend himselfe by Force then have the Rebels the same argument against the King's raising of his Domestique Forces from amongst his owne Subjects here at home which they have against his bringing in of Forreigne from abroad For if it be not lawfull for him to defend himselfe by Force then is it not lawfull for him to raise any kind of Forces If they say it is lawfull for him to defend himselfe by Force then doubtlesse are all kind of Forces in themselves equally lawfull Because in this great Action of Defence no body but the King himselfe indeed is a proper Agent All others whether Persons or Things are but nearer or remoter Instruments used and employed by Him for his best advantage and therefore he that saies it is lawfull for the King to defend himselfe against Rebels with a native English or a Welch man but not with a Dutch or French man not with a Turke or Jew and thinkes he hath spoken high reason to the point that is in question He saies nothing more in effect then this That it is lawfull for the King to defend himselfe against the Rebels with an English Sword but not with a Spanish Blade or that it is lawfull for him to shoot powder at them which is made for him here in England but not to shoot that which is sent him hither out of France Or lastly that it is lawfull for him to charge the Rebels upon a Horse that hath been bred for him here at Brackley but not upon a Horse that hath been brought him over hither from Barbary For as all sorts of Weapons so all kinds of men are but the Kings Instruments in this great Action of his Defence and it is as lawfull for him to use the One for
his defence as to use the Other That which is there added concerning the Duke of Lorrain's estimation and power in the Court of Rome and concerning his complying with the Jesuites is meere froth and fume For does not all the World know that the Rebels themselves care not out of what quarter of the Compasse the wind blow so it doe but hoyse the Sayles up of their seditious Designes Alas there needs no breaking up of Cabinets or forcing private Letters to come by this Intelligence which all the World knowes namely that at this very instant the Rebels have their Factors and Agents with the King of Spaine and the King of Spaine questionlesse is a Prince full of as great esteeme at Rome as the Duke of Lorraine can be And that he complies faitely with the Jesuites too there is more then a suspition or a saying For it is notoriously knowne that the Rebels of Westminster who have so often exclaym'd and inveigh'd against the King for suspending the execution of Law against Recusants as if he savoured of Popery have themselves notwithstanding at the sollicitation and instigation of some Agents for the King of Spaine pardoned two Jesuites of late out of their pure zeale unto the Protestant Religion Mr Lisle The next thing that I shall observe to you are Endeavours to overthrow the Law of the Land by Power to repeale the Lawes and Statutes of this Realme by Force and Armes Endeavours by Force and Armes to repeale all the Statutes of this Kingdome against Papists I shall read a passage to you which you have already heard out of one of the Kings Letters to the Queene The Letter was dated the fifth of March 1644. I give thee Power in my Name to promise that I will take away all the Penall Statutes in England against the Roman Catholicks assoone as God shall enable me to doe it so as by their meanes or in their Favours I may have so powerfull assistance as may deserve so great a Favour When we Consider that the Statutes of this Kingdowe against Papists must be taken away by Force when we consider that the Lawes of this Kingdome are to be Repealed by Power who cannot but when he calls to mind the Declarations that have been made to put the Lawes in execution against Papists of the Protestations that have been made and have been often made to maintaine the Lawes of this Kingdome who can chuse but greive to thinke of it Animadversions I remember a report that goes of Socrates who being instigated once in a dreame to make some Verses was very much afflicted the next day when he awak't how he should doe it For accounting Poesy nothing but Colour and Fiction and having been himselfe all his life long a profest Votary to Truth He found that he wanted the faculty of making probable Lyes and therefore he went and took Aesops Fables which he knew to be nothing else but Fictions ready framed to his hands and put them into Verse that he might in some manner satisfie the will and pleasure of his Inspiration You see Socrates was much troubled here to make Verses because he could not lye But if you doe but sever and divide these Complicated aspersions which are here cast upon the King you will easily see that Mr Lisle is not much troubled how to lye because he makes not Verses for in all that hath been said here there is not so much as one tittle of considerable Truth that colours for a Crime The principall Ingredients to this Oleo of malice are three First that the King endeavours to overthrow the Law of the Land Secondly that he endeavours to overthrow that Law by Force and Armes and thirdly That he endeavours to doe both notwithstanding all his Declarations and Protestations which have been made unto the contrary For the first of these If by Overthrowing the Law of the Land be meant a totall eradication and extirpation of all the Ancient Lawes which are of the Foundation of this Kingdoms Government as if the King purposed to new mould the Common-wealth and to let nothing passe for Law but what he likes Then that which is here said is very considerable indeed and to the purpose but it is not true For I hope no man of understanding will suffer himselfe to be convinced by this Argument The King will take away all the Penall Lawes in England which have been made against Recusants Therefore the King will take away all the Lawes of England that ever have been made And if by Overthrowing the Law of the Land be meant onely the Suspension or the Annihilation of so much of the Law of the Land as concernes Recusants and was made but since the beginning of the last Queenes Raigne Then that which is here said is indeed very true but it is no whitt considerable or to the purpose For against what Law is it to have a purpose or a resolution to Repeale any Law Certainly the Lawes made here in England are not like the Lawes of the Medes and Persians that never must be changed They may be sometimes abrogated by consent they may be sometimes abrogated by dissuetude and disuse They may be sometimes abrogated by continuall contrary Practises and Vsage And those Lawes which seem to have the best and strongest Constitution are notwithstanding subject to this just Fatality that they never live longer then their Reasons And then doubtlesse if there be no sinne in the Repeale it selfe of any Lawe there can be no very great offence in the Resolution of Repealing I take not upon me now to meddle with the Religion of those Lawes which were then made against Recusants or how farre it may be or may not be Lawfull to use outward violence in matters that concerne inward perswasion although I professe I am apt enough to think that that is not Religion which doth force men to Religion and that those men who by the sence or expectation of any thing which is evill to the nature of man as fining imprisoning or the like doe endeavour to compell the Will of man to an assent of those conclusions whereof he is not in the least measure convicted in his understanding doe but only let him see that they want better arguments I look only now upon the Reason why those Lawes were made And certainly those Lawes were not made to determine the Truth of those poynts in controversie which then were and still are between the Church of England and Rome for if so then doe we our selves strike against a worse rock then that which hath already shipwrackt them for whereas they only make their Church we make our State Infallible The State may make Lawes against Recusants and yet that which those Recusants doe believe and teach may be True and the State may repeale Lawes made against Recusants and yet that which those Recusants doe believe and teach may be still false And it is no better argument to say the King will
repeale all the Lawes made against Recusants therefore the King is a Papist then it is to say the King will make no Lawes against the reading of the Alcaron therefore the King is a Turke The making or unmaking of Lawes of this nature having no naturall Influxe upon the Truth or Falshood of the Things or that conception which those men have of those things who make that Law but only upon the Conveniences or Inconveniences of Times The necessity then of those present times was the reason of the making of those Lawes the Queenes person was in danger from the Catholiques and that danger was so much the more because those Catholiques could not well be knowne To discover them and to defend her selfe were all those Lawes enacted and as God would have it they did that for which they were made they distinguisht Traytors from good Subjects they made her lov'd of the one and fear'd of the other and so between both she continued a long and prosperous Reigne amongst us But now the Tables are clean turn'd And the Kings Person is more in danger from a pestilent faction of Schismatiques then ever the Queen was from her Catholiques So that ceasing the reason of those Lawes there can be no great offence if the Lawes themselves now be made to cease and other Lawes establisht against those kind of men of whom the Person of the King is so notoriously knowne to be in great perill and danger Well the thing it selfe being thus clear'd that any Law made may be Repeal'd the King doth not erre in the Matter of his promise when He bidds the Queen promise in His name that he will take away all the Lawes in England made against Recusants provided they shall deserve so great a favour at His hands for he promises nothing but what may be performed without any breach of any known Law of the Kingdom whatsoever All the scruple is that he hath erred in the Manner of it and that in Mr Liste's opinion these two wayes first privatively by secluding those that have the right of Abrogation with him that is both His Houses of Parliament and assuming the power wholly to himselfe because the words of His Letter doe runne thus I will take away c. and so soon as God shall enable me to doe it And secondly Positively by superinducing those that have no right of abrogation either with him or without him and that is Force and Armes because he speaks in his Letter of some powerfull assistance which surely can be meant of nothing else but of Armes and Forces But the truth is it is neither so nor so For first concerning His excluding of the Parliament Is any man so simple as to think the King is bound to write every private Letter of Complement in that severe stile and clogging forme as if he were to write an Act of Parliament and to choake up every line with The Kings Majesty by the Advice of his Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled as often as occasion offereth him discourse of the Transaction of any Parliament affaires Nothing can be plainer then that the King in saying I will take away the penall Lawes implyes the Power of the Parliament as virtually comprehended in Him and meanes that He will doe it in a Free convention of Parliament and as it ought for to be done and therefore if you marke it he addes as soon as God shall enable me to doe it which words must referre to such a Convention or they have no meaning For if the King had a meaning to repeale these Lawes without his Parliament or could thinke that He could Lawfully so doe Certainly He might have done it long ere this God hath enabled Him with Power and Might answerable to the compasse of many such Designes and for my part if He should doe it to morrow though I am confident He never will yet cannot I see what the Rebells have to object against it For I would faine know why the King may not repeale the Lawes against Recusancy without the Parliament as well and as farre forth as the Parliament Repeales the Lawes for the Common-Prayer and for Episcopacy without the King But the Kings Power loveth Iustice as the Psalmist speakes and Psal 99. 4. he considereth not his Might so much as his Right and therefore knowing well enough that He cannot lawfully doe it but in Parliament He presumes so farre upon the affections and gratitude of all His true hearted Subjects as to promise the Catholique party that in their names out of a Parliament which he doubts not but the better eloquence of successe against this present Rebellion by meanes of their Assistance will make appeare reasonable in it to performe Nor does this any way crosse shinnes with those Declarations and Protestations which the King hath made if a reasonable man have the laying of them both together For what if the King have upon some occasions made a Declaration to put the Lawes in execution against Papists Surely their suspitions and jealousies owe him more thanks for that inanimation which no doubt procured it But did the King ever make a Declaration that upon no occasion whatsoever He would consent to the Repealing of those Lawes If He did not then certainly the King may Declare that the Lawes against Recusants should be put in execution for one Reason at one time and yet consent that those very Lawes should be repeal'd for another Reason at another time His Religion all this while being the same although his Reason be not For his reason for the one was but their suspition His reason for the other is his own safety which certainly is the better reason of the twaine in regard that the obligation which is upon the King to satisfy the suspition of a peevish sort of People as he did in the one is but a Temporall obligation but that which is upon the King to provide for His own safety and the safety of all his good Subjects as he did in the other is an eternall The King hath made Declarations in behalfe of the Starre-chamber and of the Common Prayer and yet the Rebells are well contented He should quite abrogate the one and at this instant are as angry with him that He will not abolish the other nay it is yet within the memory of Man since our deare brethren of Scotland were esteemed and accounted Rebels by a Declaration and yet these men never yet question'd or accus'd the King for Accepting and Treating with them afterwards like honest Subjects When they have a purpose to repeale the Lawes made concerning Episcopacy then every solemne Oath which the King hath made against it is esteemed but a Gnatt but when they have a purpose not to Repeale the Lawes made against Recusants then every Declaration made for executing of those Lawes becomes a Camell This is just the trick of the Jugglers books that so amazes Country People and Children which being turn'd one way shewes
it Not much unlike the simple fellow spoken of in Lucian who gave Lucian three hundred pence for one of Epictetus his Candles endes which was not worth three halfe pence because he had a conceit that he could not chuse but prove an excellent Philosopher if he studied never so little by Epictetus's Candle And of as great Consequence that is just of none at all is that which followes where the King sayes He will not forget at this Treaty to put a short period to this perpetuall Parliament And I shall only say this to it He that is offended with the King for desiring to put an end to this present Parliament that another of better temper and affection may be Summoned let him groan unpittyed under the pressures and miseries which from this present Parliament he suffers and ever will so long as this present Parliament endures Mr Lisle The last thing that I shall observe to you for you will have the rest observed to you by a better hand is concerning the King's disavowing this Parliament to be the Parliament of England We cannot have greater assurance of any thing from the King then of this present Parliament There is no Law stronger that gives a property to the Subject then the Law is to continue this present Parliament This is so well knowne to the World that Kingdomes and States abroad acknowledge it and now for the King to disavow it after it is confirmed and continued by Act of Parliament after the King hath so lately acknowledg'd it now so suddainly to disavow it How can we be more confident of any assurance or Act from His Majesty There be many things more observable in these Letters but I shall leave them to those worthy Gentlemen that come after me Animadversions It was a common practice of the Popes Emissaries in the begining of the Reformation when any considering or discerning man began to speake ought against the grosle Corruptions Imposthumes in that See which were then as visible as that pretended Head it selfe that bred them To brand him for deserting the Church of Rome in some point of Doctrine and Beliefe that so they might expose him to the greater ignominie and danger who good man only distasted the Court of Rome in some poynt of Discipline and Manners And by this cunning artifice they maintained the See of Rome in the height of all her villanies and impieties no man for a long time daring to oppose them In like manner deale the Rebells with the King The King distasts a factious and seditious Party grown too potent in the Parliament a Party which have frighted most of the honest Members that are present and forced away more of them that are absent and therefore are no more a Parliament indeed then a nut is a nut where the maggot hath eate out the Meate and this distasting of this turbulent Faction in this Parliament is branded by Mr Lisle for a disavowing of this Parliament to be a Parliament on purpose to draw the greater odium upon the King who I think is as rare in this unhappinesse as in many of his Vertues that he is not only the first King but the first Man that ever yet wentabout to perswade the People and to let them see they were not well govern'd and could not be believed The King disavowes not this Parliament nor any one Act that ever He yet past this Parliament no not so much as that Act which continues this Parliament although perchance he may think that Act as lyable to a Repeale as any other and so for diverse causes may repeale it Nay in endeavouring and resolving to Repeale it he does acknowledge it an Act. And whereas Mr Lisle thinkes he hath struck this scandalous aspersion home into their Memories with this hammer of his Eloquence that There is no Law stronger that gives any Property to the Subject then the Law is to continue this present Parliament I shall only interpose and lay this soft Reply between to dead the noyse and fury of the Blow and that is this That if the Law to continue this present Parliament were no stronger then any Law which I know in the Kingdome which gives any Property to the Subject is The King need not take such care to put a period to it For as they have done it would soon cease and vanish of it selfe and come to nothing The summe totall indeed of all that Mr Lisle hath said And therefore as Demosthenes used to say of Phocyon when ever he saw him rising up to speak 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Demosth Behold here rises the Hatchet of all my words and so would goe no farther So does Mr Lisle at the sight of Mr Tate who is now rising and if the Citizens heads should prove so hard all over that neither Hammer nor Hatchet should doe any good upon them it were very strange but commonly where there are two men that have Malice enough which is the Father of a Scandall there will be twenty that will afford Credulity enough which is the Mother And no doubt but so it hapned here Mr Tate his Speech The Letters are so full that I shall rather be your remembrancer of what you have heard in them then give you any observations upon them Animadversions Then does this Speech come after those Letters like an Eve after an Holy-day which should have come before it For sure I am those Letters are not so Full but this speech is as Empty I begin to have a conceit that these three honest men had a dangerous plot in their heads and that was to make one good Orator between them For Mr Tate seems to be disposed of in the Middle Region where Rhetorick is coldest and where the Lawes of Oratory doe indulge most remisnesse and relaxation for this very purpose that according to their ordinary distribution of Preaching-houres the Major and his Brethren may be silent at the beginning till they have used themselves a little to heare sence may Censure the latter end as being the only part of the speech which they remember and may sleep about the middle while Mr Tate the City-Remembrancer may proceed in his new office without more Interruption Mr Tate I shall present before you a very sad spectacle The whole Kingdome of Ireland bleeding a Kingdome all in Peace without any thoughts of Warre without any thoughts of Armes and of a suddaine a Popish Partyrising up laying hold upon all the Forts seizing all the Lands and all the Goods of the Protestants in Ireland and not content with that when they had done killing one hundred thousand of them Man Woman and Childe These Rebels of Ireland that had thus inhumanely murthered so many Protestants here is the sadnesse Now the Favourites of the King and those Subjects that the King did professe to maintaine in maintaining Armes against those Rebels We that by Acts of Parliament of the Kings owne Grant had the Irish Rebels Lands
away the very Sence They presse those words of His Declaration which they conceive expresly makes against it wherein the King does assure the World that He hath no more thought of making Warre against the Parliament then against His own Children and that he hath not nor shall not have any thought of using of any Force unlesse he shall be driven to it for the security of his Person and for the defence of the Religion which words truly doe condemne the King to my thinking just as Pilate did Christ namely by washing of his hands For can any thing be plainer then that as those tearms of Ampliation We have not nor shall not have any thought of using of any Force doe comprehend in them a formall profession that the King will not wage Warre against the Parliament so those words of Limitation and exception unlesse we shall be driven to it for the security of our Person doe contain in them a virtuall profession also that He will And therefore when M. Browne will condemne the King for making Warre against the Parliament as doing contrary to His expresse Declaration and will take no notice of that Case of Reservation annexed thereto which as expresly justifies all that the King hath done He saies no more in truth against the King then the Welch-man did against the Iudge who cryed out upon him for putting him to death for stealing a Rope but left out the Mare Concerning the second His Alteration of Religion they produce these words out of another of the Kings Declarations God so deale with Mee and Mine as My thoughts and intentions are upright for the maintenance of the true Protestant Religion and those words in His Declaration concerning His going into Ireland That His Majesty will never consent upon what pretence soever to a Toleration of the Popish profession there or the Abolition of the Lawes now in force against Recusants in that Kingdomes And then concerning the third that is His Alteration of the Lawes the words of another Declaration are remembred and cast in His teeth wherein He professes That He is resolved not only duly to observe the Lawes Himselfe but to maintain them against what opposition soever though with the hazard of his being And now how false the King hath been to both these solemne Professions by His secret practises let His Letters and M. Browne declare Mr Browne Concerning Ireland you have heard the Propositions made to the Queene for sending into this Kingdome diverse Irish Rebells under the command of two professed Papists six Thousand of them were to be under the command of the Lord Glamorgan the Earle of Worcesters eldest Son the other of ten Thousand under the command of Colonell Fits Williams The tearmes that they were to come upon were read to you in the Propositions which themselves sent to the Queene You will not thinke that these came to maintain the Lawes but to destroy them not to maintaine the Protestant Religion but to overthrow it These Propositions being sent to the Queene and allowed by Her and Shee sent them to the King For the Letters concerning Ireland they were written by the King to the Earle of Ormond who is now Governor there in some of them Letters the King gives way to the suspending of Poynings Law which was an Act of Parliament in the tenth yeare of Henry the seaventh It was called Poynings Law because Sir Edward Poynings was Governor of Ireland when that Law was made That Law made all Statutes that were before made in England of force in Ireland and the King may as well suspend all the Lawes there as that Law By that Law of Poynings all Lawes that were after to be presented at the Parliament in Ireland must be first sent hither for approbation before they could be presented to the Parliament there and no Parliament must be called there before the causes of calling the Parliament and the Acts to be passed in that Parliament are first sent hither and approved But that Law now must be suspended Further in the Letters to the Lord of Ormond you see the King doth not count it a hard Bargaine for to make a Law in Ireland to suspend or to take away the Penall Lawes against Papists there so that they will help Him here against His Protestant Subjects When this promise was made the Declaration was not remembred wherein the King doth declare that upon no pretence whatsoever he will Tolerate the Popish profession in Ireland or Abolish the Lawes against Popish Recusants now in force there He farther saith in another Letter to my Lord of Ormond that rather then He will faile of making a Peace or a Cessation with the Rebells He would have him engage himselfe to joyne with the Rebells against the Scots and the Lord Jnchequin which is the maine visible Protestant Forces that are in Ireland all this is enjoyned to be kept secret from all but two or three of the chiefest Rebells in Ireland whom you heard named in the Letters You may farther observe that a Peace was Treated of with the Rebells about the same time that the King did Treat with the Parliament here concerning Ireland and the King wished a quick dispatch of the Peace there least if He should make a Peace here first He could not shew such Favour to the Irish as He intended They are the words of His Letter You may see by all the Letters to my Lord of Ormond that the King did little stick at any thing to grant to the Rebells for a Peace with them but how little He granted to the Parliament of England at the last Treaty I hope all the World will soon know Animadversions Here are two principall things offered by way of proofe out of the Kings owne Papers concerning the Transaction of Affaires in Ireland to convince the King of Falshood and breach of Faith in two former Professions The first is where he promiseth my Lord of Ormond that He will suspend Poynings Law which they say crosses and contradicts his Solemne Protestation of maintaining the Lawes against what opposition soever though with the hazard of his being And the second is that he proposeth unto him The taking away of all Penall Lawes made against Recusants in Ireland which they say is poynt-blanke against his owne Declaration which he Printed when he had a resolution to goe over into Ireland wherein he does assure all his Subjects That He will never Consent upon what pretence soever to a Toleration of the Popish Profession there or the Abolition of the Lawes now in force against Popish Recusants in that Kingdome And truly the maine Engine of their detraction and Calumny moves upon these two Hinges These two particular Impeachments help and further all the rest to the Reputation of Crimes as one or two good peices of Wine they say will put off a whole range in the Merchants Sellar at the same rate and value with themselves Concerning the suspension of Poynings Law
contrary reasons and enducements for feare either of Contradiction or Injustice And first it is out of question that all Penall Lawes are but Obligations of some persons to some punishments with relation to some Actions or Omissions which either have in themselves an intrinsecall pravity by reason of the immutable nature of the thing or else an extrinsecall obliquity by reason of some contrary Command Now if Refusall of Communion with the Church of England should be confessed an Omission of the former sort that is an Omission which in the very nature of the Thing were intrinsecally vicious or evill and such an Omission it may be to refuse to worship God but to refuse to worship him after this or that manner will hardly rise unto it yet would it not straight way follow That because it is Just that offendours in that kind should be punished therefore the Supreme Magistrate is unjust that inflicts no punishment upon them Because we are to know that Injustice does not alwayes follow upon the not doing of what is Just For as it does not follow that because a Prince is liberall if he give a Pension of a thousand pounds per annum to one that is a well deserving Servant at his hands Therefore he is sordid and illiberall if he give him not a penny So neither is it perpetually true That that thing which is very Justly done cannot be but uniustly let alone as we see in the case of Blasphemy which the King might iustly punish with death if he should make a Law against it as the people of Israel did and yet we doe not say He is uniust because He does not doe it But if Refusall of Communion with the Church of England prove but an Omission of the second sort that is an Omission of a thing which hath nothing of Evill in it further then Externall denomination as being the Result of some positive Law or other that does command it Then certainly the same power that enacted may abolish it Perpetuity not being any whit essentiall to any positive Law to continue it unto the end but Power that it may be severely kept and may reach those Eudes for which it is continued And therefore the very Philosophers by the light of reason could observe that nothing Sopat Epist ad Demet. was more easily dispensable then Penall Lawes It being the priviledge of all Authority whether Divine Civill Paternall or Despoticall upon emergent occasions in things which are Indifferent to make Lawes and so by consequent sinnes without adding the least entity to the things themselves which continue still the same whether they be commanded one while or another while forbidden And that Communion with the Church of England in the manner of Gods worship is but a Thing in its owne Nature and before the Law commanding it Indifferent will easily be made appeare by this that as some Persons are punishable by Law that doe refuse it as in our present case of such men who are Recusants So are other persons punishable by Law that use it as in the case of persons excommunicate which could never certainly be done if the Thing it selfe were in its owne nature Evill For the State might as well command a man to forsweare himselfe three or foure dayes together or to commit Adultery three or foure nights together by way of punishment for some preceding Sinne as to command him not to Communicate with the Church of England in her publique worship if this not communicating had that Intrinsecall pravity rooted in the very nature of the Thing which that Forswearing and committing of Adultery are acknowledged to have in them But those Lawes which in themselves are mutable and subject to abolition without the least Injustice whether we speak of that which is unjust in nature or of that which is in Law may notwithstanding become Immutable these two severall wayes either by Oath or Promise For every Oath is a signe of Immutability brought upon that thing to which an Oath is added The Apostle is plaine for it who telleth us that God willing to shew the Immutability of his Councell in the 6. Heb. 17. confirm'd it by an Oath That by two Immutable things c. And a promise does give such a right and interest to the Party promised that without Injustice it can not be taken from him Now because although it be in the free Power of the Magistrate to make such a Promise yet it is not in his Power to break that which He hath freely made therefore we reckon that a promise not to abrogate a Law does adde and imprint an Immutability in that very Law and superinduces a legall Impossibility upon it ever to be abrogated or changed In the second place therefore let us see what that Promise and Profession was which the King did make against this Abolition and how farre the said Abolition becomes unjust by vertue of that Promise When the Rebellion first brake out in Ireland and those severall expedients which were suggested by the Parliament of England for the suppression thereof proved not so dextrous and happy when they came to Action as they seemed when they were but in Designe The Kings Majesty to the perpetuall honour of His Innocence who was asâ—ersed as having some kind of secret Influence upon the Revolt of that whole Kingdom made this offer to His two Houses that He would expose himselfe to the danger of an expedition thither in his own sacred Person if they would think it fit and make a Tryall if He could reduce it And because the guiltinesse of their own intentions prompted them to a base suspition of His as if He might use some meanes of Reduction more prejudiciall to the Crowne then the Revolt by permitting a toleration of the Roman Profession to the Catholick party there who notwithstanding had been used to a gentle connivence from the supreme Magistrate in the poynt of Conscience ever since the first Reformation of this Church His Majesty for the cleare satisfaction of His two Houses and of all His Subjects in their unworthy misinterpretations and murmures and for the justification of the Piety and Honour of His Resolutions and designes in this present expedition and adventure Opens Himselfe in a Declaration to all the World and amongst other particular expressions of a sincere Heart and cordiall affection to Gods cause and His Owne He gives them this Assurance that if He does goe over in Person as He does intend He will never consent upon what pretence soever to a Toleration of the Popish Profession there or the Abolition of the Lawes now in force against Popish Recusants in that Kingdome Insomuch that Mr Browne does well to rejoyne unto those words of the Kings Declaration these of his What could His Majesty have said more to satisfy His people For by this promise of not abolishing those Lawes he hath invested his People with such a Right in those Lawes that he cannot easily nay he