rebuke them sharply from one of themselves even a Prophet of their own In a word true Morals and good Thoughts lose nothing of their Innate Excellence from whencesoever they are handed to us The Devil had not been the Enemy but Friend of Mankind if he had spoke no worse in Paradise than he did at Delphos viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Know thy self And therefore admitting the Accusation were true where lies the Scandal Nor will he have done while there 's a drop yet left The King says He call'd this Parliament with an upright Intention to the Glory of God and his People's good Our Answerer makes this of it That there be some whom God hath given over to Delusion whose very Mind and Conscience is defil'd of whom St. Paul to Titus makes mention To which I say there is not any one such Expression in the whole Epistle but others there are whom he calls Evil Beasts Slow-bellies and Lions With which I leave him and proceed to the second Section CHAP. II. Vpon the Earl of Strafford's Death I Looked upon my Lord of Strafford saith His Majesty as a Gentleman whose great Abilities might make a Prince rather afraid than asham'd to employ him in the greatest affairs of State Yes saith our Answerer He was a Man whom all Men look'd upon as one of the boldest and most impetuous Instruments that the King had to advance any violent or illegal design He had rul'd Ireland and some Parts of England in an Arbitrary manner Had endeavour'd to subvert Fundamental Laws and Parliaments To make Hostility between England and Scotland And Counselled the King to call over that Irish Army of Papists to reduce England For which and many other Crimes alledged and proved against him iâ— twenty eight Articles he was Condemned of High Treason by the Parliament The Commons by the far greater number Cast him The Lords likewisâ— agreed to the Sentence and the People cry'd out foâ— Justice c. Only the King saith he was not satisfied in his Conscience to Condemn him of High Treason In reply to which I think he might morâ— truly have said not prov'd but alledg'd as I shalâ— come to shew presently That he was oncâ— the Darling of the Commons His Tryal of Tho. Earl of Strafford Fol. 763. to 769. we have several Instances of it in Mr. Rushworth But alas the King had made him Lord Deputy of Ireland and the heighth of that Sphere contracted Envy in the Great Ones and an Odium in the People nor is it every one that can say nâ—â—pluribus impar Though during that his Government he improv'd the Revenue of that Kingdom which before his time had been rather 〈◊〉 Charge than Advantage to this and procur'd of the King that all Impropriations then in thâ— Crown be restor'd to the Church of that Nation and supplied it with Learned Men out oâ— England upon the Scottish Invasion in 1639 he counsell'd the King 't is true to fight them out Vox Reipub honesta sibi anceps as Taciâ—â— of Galba on the like Occasion for the Scotcâ— Commissioners not long after preferr'd that Charge in Parliament against him before-mention'd And then for the Irish Army of Papists c. that brings me naturally to the Article themselves which were as is said Twentâ— Eight in number Some of which were for matters of Fourteen Years standing some of them as the First Seventeenth Eighteenth not insisted on and others as the Fourteenth Twenâ—y first Twenty Second Twenty Fourth not â—rg'd Dr. Nalson's impartial Collect Part 2. Fol. 8. And to disable him of the Testimony and Assistance of Sir George Ratcliffe his quondam Secretary and now Friend he also was charged with High-Treason and Confederacy with him and sent for out of Ireland The Earl had now been under five Months Imprisonment when the 22d of March 1640. he was brought to his Tryal which held till the 13th of April following and in which he defended himself so well that since there was neither Matter nor Proof enough against him to take off his Head by the Common-Law it was resolv'd a Bill of Attainder should The pinching Article against him was the Twenty third and is the main Particular mention'd in the said Bill viz. That he advis'd the King that he was loose and absolv'd from the Rule of Government and that he had an Army in Ireland by which he might reduce this Kingdom A shrewd Article no doubt and sufficiently evidences their Crime that without the King's Consent afterwards brought the Scots into England But let us see how this was proved There had been an old grudge between Sir Henry Vane the Father Secretary to the King and my Lord of Strafford touching the Title of Baron of the Castle of Raby of which Vane was Proprietor and endeavour'd the Honour to himself notwithstanding which the King had given it to the Earl of Strafford And is so happen'd that the said Sir Henry having a sudden occasion to make use of a Paper gave his Son young Sir Henry Vane the Key of his Cabineâ— where lay another Key which open'd a Tilâ—â— in which he found some short Notes of a Committee of eight of the Privy-Council of whicâ— the said Earl was one upon this Question Whâ—ther the War with Scotland should be offensive or defensive In which there were Words 〈◊〉 spoken by the said Earl somewhat to that puâ—pose but still relative to the War with Scoâ—land However young Sir Henry carries it 〈◊〉 the Lords and makes it an Article of the Additional Charge against him which upon fuâ—â— Evidence of such of the said eight as were noâ— in Prison terminated in this The Earl oâ— Northumberland being interrogated touchinâ— these Words absolutely denied that ever hâ— heard the said Earl speak them Mr. Treasurer Sir H. V. shuffled in his Evidencâ— forward and backward The Tryal Fol. 563. and at last said hâ— thinks they were spoken positively or to thaâ— effect And a shrewd Evidence for the proof of a Bond The Lord Treasurer declar'd that he never heard the said Earl speak thâ—â— said Words or any thing like it The Lord Cottington to the same purpose and thinkâ— the Earl might say The Parliament had noâ— provided for the King and that the King ought to seek out all due and lawful ways to employ his Power and Authority Caste Candide which Words he very well remembers The Marquess Hamilton that he hath often heard the said Earl use those last Words to the King for otherwise said the Earl it were unjust and oppressive And to the same purpose the Lord Goring â—ll Nelson Fol. 87. and Sir Thomas German in behalf of the said Earl However die he must and to that end a Bill of Attainder was prepar'd by both Houses to which the King May the first in the House of Lords the Commons then present declar'd That in his Conscience he could not condemn him of Treason On which a City armed Rabble of
of a King A King of England of whose Predecessors the Parliament of England had declar'd That they could not assent to any thing that tended to the dis-inherison of the King and his Crown Sir Ed. Coke 4 Inst 14. whereunto they were Sworn But what could the wisest of Men say to it when the Parliament and the Rabble were both of a side And whether they were so or not witness those Tumultuary Routs from the Men of Essex Colchester Devon Somerset Middlesex Hartford Sir W Dagdale's Short View Fol. â—5 London Apprentices Seamen nay the very Women and all for putting the Kingdom into a Posture c On which follow'd those several Associations for suppressing the Popish Malignant Party though in truth it was to pursue the King with all vehemence Id. Dagd 113. for such are the Words of Essex's Letter to the Houses near that time Nor were the Black Cloaks less wanting to their Parts they could blow the Bellows well enough tho' they car'd not how little they wrought at the Forge And therefore seeing the Reverence of his Government was lost with the People and the Great Ones moving at another rate quam ut Imperantium meminissent 〈◊〉 As it was no less than time for His Majesty to retire and pray for fair Weather so our Answerer instead of snarling and catching at his Words might have suffer'd him to depart in Peace But to go on with him I am saith the King not further bound to agree with the Votes of both Houses than I see them agree with the Will of God my Rights as a King and the general good of my People And better for me to die enjoying this Empire of my Soul which subjects me only to God than live with the Title of a King if it carry such a Vassallage with it as not to suffer me to use my Reason and Conscience in which I declare as a King to like or dislike An use of Reason saith our Answerer If he thereby means his Negative Voice most reasonless and unconscionable and the utmost that any Tyrant ever pretended over his Vassals For if the King be only set up to execute the Law which is indeed the highest of his Office he can no more reject a Law offer'd him by the Common than he can new-make a Law which they reject And yet as reasonless and unconscionable as he pretends to make it this Negative Voice is and ever has been the undoubted Right of the Kings of England For besides what I had the occasion to speak to this matter before it is no Statute if the King assent not to it Because if it were all those Bills that have passed both Houses and for want of the Royal Assent lie buried in Oblivion might as occasion serv'd be trump'd up for Laws And if he may dis-assent it is a sufficient Proof of this Negative Voice and that he may refuse or ratifie as he sees cause And withal shews where this Legislation lies though the use of it be restrained to the consent of both Houses whose Rogation which is exclusive of all co-ordinate Power preceeds the Kings Ratification Then for his if the King be only set up c. If this if be false his whole matter falls with it And that it is so I thus prove it The Parliament-Roll 1 Edw. I. n. 8. says That upon the decease of King Richard the Second 9 Edw. 4. Fol. â— 6 the Crown by Law Custom and Conscience descended and belonged to Edmund Earl of March under whom King Edward the Fourth claimed And Henry the Fourth who had usurp'd upon King Richard the Second makes no other Title but as Inheritor to King Henry the Third Sir J. Hayward's 1st year of â—â—n 4. So the Parliament of the first of King James the First Recognize as say they we are bound by the Law of God and Man the Realm of England and the Imperial Crown thereof doth belong to him by Inherent Birthright and lawful and undoubted Succession The same also for Queen Elizabeth 1 Eliz â— 1. as to her Which shews that Kings are neither set up by the People nor have the Titles to their Crowns from the two Houses but by Inherent Birthright Which needs no setting up And so I think what depends upon this if sinks with it though I shall have a further occasion to speak to it in his next Paragraph And here he taxes the King for saying He thinks not the Majesty of the Crown of England to be bound by any Coronation Oath in a blind and brutish formality to consent to whatever its Subjects in Parliament shall require But where does the Law of England say the King is so bound Tho' yet out Answerer is pleas'd to say What Tyrant could presume to say more when he meant to kiâ—â— down all Law Government and Bond of Oath Least considering what his Majesty subjoyns viz. I think my Oath fully discharg'd is that Point by my Governing only by such Laws as my People with the House of Peers have chosen and my self consented to Nor did the Coronation Promise See the Oath in every Hist of his Reign or Oath oblige him to more than To hold and keep the Laws and rightful Customs which the Commonalty of this his Kingdom have and to defend and uphold them to the Honour of God so much as in him lay Whereas had there been any Obligation upon him to have consented to whatever the Parliament shall require it is not to be doubted but it would have been expressed in the Oath as it is not And yet our Answerer less doubts to say That that Negative Voice to deny the passing of any Law which the Commons chuse is both against the Oath of his Coronation and his Kingly Office in that he makes himself Superiour to his whole Kingdom which our standing Laws gainsay as hath been cited to him in Remonstrances That the King hath two Superiors the Law and his Court of Parliament An excellent Proof in the mean time But we 'll examine it a little The Common-Law saith Omnis sub Rege Sir E. Coke 1 Inst 1. c. Every Man is under the King and he under none but God And to the same purpose Bracton Lib. â— Ed. 55. 2 Inst 496. from whom he quotes it His Prerogative is a part of the Law of the Land All offences are said to be against the Peace of our Sovereign Lord the King c. The Laws of England are call'd the King's Laws The Parliament as is confess'd to my hand his Parliament And therein also the King is sole Judge 22 Ed III. 3. the rest but Advisers His is the power of Calling Proroguing and Dissolving them 4 Inst 46. Id. Inst 3. And by his Death they are dissolv'd of course And why all this but that the King is Principium Caput c. The beginning the head and end of a Parliament As he is also the Head of
the Commonwealth And of the Law 1 Inst 73. Id. Inst 99. which he is presum'd to carry in Scrinio pectoris sui And then for the Statute-Law besides those Statutes that call the Kingdom the Kings Ligeance 27 Ed. 3. c. 1. 10 11. R. 2. c. 1. 25. H. 8. c. 3. the King Liege Lord the People his Leige Men it is further declared 16 R. 2. c. 5. That the Crown of England hath been ever so free that it is in no Earthly Subjection but subject to God in all things touching the Regality of the same Crown and to none other So that of Henry the Eighth which says That by sundry old Authentick Histories and Chronicles it is manifestly declar'd and expressed that this Realm of England is an Empire govern'd by one Supream Head and King 24 H. 8. c. 12. unto whom both Spiritualty and Temporalty are bound and owen to bear next to God a natural and humble Obedience And in another of the same King 25 H. 8. c. 21. the Crown of England is called An Imperial Crown recognizing no Superiour under God but only your Grace i. e. the King Which Statutes being declaratory Statutes as others of that kind made in affirmance of the Common-Law are a guide in praeteritis 2 Inst 308. as saith Sir Edw. Coke and shew us what the Law as before the making of those Statutes Which I the rather urge because our Answerer makes such a sputter about the old Law though as well here as generally throughout his Book he has an odd way with him of keeping it to himself However if this be to have a Superiour be the Superiour he that will and keep it without Envy And for what concerns me I hope I have prov'd that the King of England has no Superiour but God and that neither the Law nor his Coronation-Oath require his undeniable Assent to what Laws the Parliament agree upon but that he may well refuse them without the Imputation of Incomparable Arrogance aâ—â—Vnsufferable Tyranny as he is pleas'd to term it One thing I had forgot Suppose the King had never been Crown'd by which means he could not have taken the Coronation Oath was he the less King for that I should think not And if I am mistaken 3 Inst 7. Sir Edw. Coke was mistaken before me when he says The King iâ— King before Coronation So 7 Coke Calvin's Case and Coronation is but an Ornament or Solemnity of Honour Which in other Words may amount to this That he promises no more at that time that what he was morally pre-oblig'd to do viz. To discharge that Duty honourably which the Laws of God and Nature had requir'd of him without that Royal Promise CHAP. VII Vpon the Queen's Departure and Absence out of England AND truly this Chapter being but a kind of Re-capitulation of the mutual Endearments between the King and his Queen whose Sympathy with his Afflictions had assur'd him and might the World that she lov'd him and not his Fortunes might one would think if not for the King 's have for her own sake escap'd his Venom but poor Lady she was the King's Wife and Malice like Fear where it finds no real Object will be sure to create one And truly it was once in my Thoughts to have spoken more at large to it and had done it but that I fear'd even Truth it self might incurr the suspicion of Flattery What my end was in making this Reply I have already shewn it was to vindicate that good King from this ill Man's Calumnies and the Method I have taken in it has been from the History of that time and the Prior Law of the Land as it came in my way and therefore not to break that Method as I find him hereafter running wide of that Matter I shall purposely leave him as I do at present CHAP. VIII Vpon His Majesty's repulse at Hull and the Fates of the Hothams THIS my repulse at Hull saith the King was the first overt Essay to be made how patiently I could bear the loss of my Kingdoms The hand of that Cloud which was soon after to over-spread the whole Kingdom and cast all into disorder and darkness Which how Prophetically true it was the miserable effects of it both before and since the Restauration have too visibly spoken it And yet our Answerer thus slubbers it over That Hull a Town of great Strength and Opportunity both to Sea and Land Affairs was at that time the Magazine of all those Arms which the King had bought against the Scots The King had left the Parliament and was gone Northward The Queen into Holland where she pawn'd and set to Sale the Crown Jewels a Crime heretofore counted Treasonable in Kings and to what purpose the Parliament was not ignorant and timely sent Sir John Hotham Knight of that County to take Hull into his Custody and some of the Train'd-bands to his Assistance and seeing the King's Drift in raising a Guard for his Person send him a Petition that they might have leave to remove the Magazine of Hull to the Tower of London which the King denies and soon after goes to Hull with Four Hundred Horse and requires the Governour to deliver him up the Town whereof the Governour prays to be excused till he could send notice to the Parliament who had entrusted him and the King being incens'd at it Proclaims him a Traytor before the Town Walls and demands Justice of them as upon a Traytor who declare that Sir John Hotham had done no more than his Duty and therefore was no Traytor And this is the Substance of his 57. 58. 59 Pages How and by their own Authority which was none the Houses had rais'd an Army and made Essex General I have already shewn and though the King had not yet set up his Standard he knew he had a Magazine at Hull which might either help to defend himself or certainly annoy him if it fell into his Enemies Hands and therefore in order to a Self-Preservation takes a Journey to York where the Parliament had been before him with a Committee then lying there as Spies upon his Actions However upon Petition of that County to have the Magazine of Hull to remain there for the greater Security of the Northern Parts His Majesty thought fit to take it into his own Hands and appointed the Earl afterwards Duke of Newcastle to be Governour of Hull but the Townsmen had been so influenc'd by that Committee that they refused the Earl The Queen also had borrow'd some Moneys of the Hollanders upon the Crown Jewels a Crime heretofore counted treasonable in Kings but not a word of when or by what Law not in the least considering the Crown it self was the King's or how the King of England could commit Treason against himself The Houses during this time wanting no Intelligence from their Committee nick the Opportunity and send down Sir John Hotham who was receiv'd as
what the Memorandum further says That King Charles the Second and the Duke of York did assure him it was none of the said King 's compiling c. An Earl it is said wrote it and I dispute it not but this I say That neither the King nor the Duke could speak it of their own knowledge but as by report from others because the King then Prince of Wales from his Expedition into the West with General Ruthien from whence he went off to France could not have seen His Father in near four Years before His death and therefore it seems improbable that the King should have shewn him a Letter To the Prince of Wales and at the same time told him it was not of his own compiling when yet the Letter says Id. Iâ—â—n 221. Son if these Papers come to your hands c. and concludes Farewel till we meet if not on Earth yet in Heaven And if the King did not tell him so then what he assured the Earl could not be of his own knowledge And for the Duke of York he was under Thirteen at the Surrender of Oxford from whence he was brought to St. James's where he made his Escape for Dort so that except when he saw his Royal Father at Hampton-Court which could not be often he could not have seen him in two Years and an half before his Death Nor seems it probable that the King should communicate his Thoughts with a Person of those Years albeit a Prince and his Son but not his next Heir But on the contrary more probable for both that what they so spake was but by report which young Princes are but too apt to take up from those who to cover their own Ignorance perswade them it smells too strong of the Pedant for a King to take up a Pen when yet the greatest of former Ages are oftner remmembred by their Pens than their Swords Caesar yet lives in his Commentaries M. Aurelius in his Philosophy and we may read Trajan by his Epistles to Pliny But to come nearer home Our Henry the first is as well known by the Name of Beauclerke as of King of England Henry the Eighth's Pen not his Sword gave him the Title of Defender of the Faith And this the Royal Portraict of our murther'd Sovereign shall outlast every thing but it self and Time Lastly And if there yet want some living credible Testimony of that time or matter of Record since Sir William Dugdate an indefatigable Searcher of our English Antiquities and perfect Master of the Transactions of his own Time gives us this gradual account viz. That these Meditations had been begun by His Majesty in Oxford long before he went from Oxford to the Scots under the Title of Suspiria Regalia That the Manuscript it self written with his own Hand being lost at Naseby was restored to him at Hampton-Court by Major Huntington who had obtain'd it from Fairfax That Mr. Thomas Herbert who waited on His Majesty in his Bed-Chamber in the Isle of Wight and Mr. William Levett a Page of the Back-stairs frequently saw it there and not only read several parts of it but saw the King divers times writing farther on it And that that very Copy was by his Majesty's direction to Bishop Duppa sent to Mr. R. Royston a Bookseller at the Angel in Ivy-Lane the 23d of December 1648. who made such Expedition that the Impression was finish'd before that dismal 30th of January on which the King was bereft of his Life As may be better read from himself Sir W. Dugdâ—â—â—'s Short View c. p. 380 381. in his Short View of the late Troubles in England And this further I speak of my own Knowledge That the very next Morning after that horrid Act I saw one of them and read part of it under the Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which it now bears And for matter of Record and that the World may the more undeniably be convinc'd that both King Charles the Second and King James the Second did believe this Book was written by their Royal Father let him that doubts it but look upon Reliquiae Sacrae Carolinae Printed it the Year 1662 or any Impression of this Book since that time and he will find prefix'd to them a Privilege or Patent of King Charlâ— the Second to the said Mr. Royston his Executors c. for the sole Printing and Publishing the Book intituled Reliquiae c. and all other the Works of his said Royal Father and moâ— especially mentions these most excellent Meditation and Soliioquies by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And it so happening that most of that Impression in 1662. coming to be lost in the Fire of London whereby the Book became very dear anâ— scarce to be had King James the Second upon his coming to the Crown reciting those former Letters Patent grants him the like Privilege for the Printing and Publishing the said Book as it had been in the Year 1662. And now what shall an honest Man do in such a Case sâ—aâ— he give Credit to a bare Memorandum of what another said and as 't is most probable by report only or say the Circumstances before were not of weight to two Records For my part I take the King's Certificate to be of high nature yet I should hardly believe thâ— King himself against any one single Record against which the Law of England admits no Averrment and therefore I think no Man ought to make more of a Posthumous Memorandum than what the Law makes of it In a word these Pathetick Meditations no sooner came abroad than the Nation was undeceiv'd concerning the Author the Scales were fallen from their Eyes and they religiously look'd on Him whom in the simplicity of their Hearts they had pierced These our Pharisees saw and confest it themselves but said they if we let it alone the Romans will come and take away our City And therefore finding they could not suppress them they made it their Eusiness what in them lay to blot them Nay to that impudence they were arrived that and I saw it my self this Icon was exposed to Sale bound up with the Alcoran III. What end I proposed to my self in making this Reply And that 's easily shown nor is it forbidden any Man to burn Incense where the Air 's infected That this Royal Martyr has been calumniated is but too visible but how justly I am coming to examine In which I have this advantage to my hand That Time the Mother of Truth has justified her Daughter concerning Him and might have stopt the Rancour of his most inveterate Enemies but that nothing how evident soever can affect those that have a secret against blushing To be short my end is to vindicate this Good this Just however Unfortunate Prince to blow off that Froth that has been thrown on his Memory and according to my strength deliver him to the World as he was A great if not the only steddy
left Complaints of Grievances Innovations in Religion Growth of Popery and Arbitrary Power and single out the Earl of Strafford for an example of their Justice The King I said was got into the matter and had discover'd whose Correspondencies and Engagements they were that had embroil'd his Kingdoms and ordered his Attorney to draw a Charge of High-Treason against the Lord Kimbolton Mr. Pym Mr. Hanbden Mr. Hollis Sir Ar. Haslerigg and Mr. Strode Which was accordingly done and the substance of it is this That they have Traiterously endeavour'd to subvert the Fundamental Laws of this Kingdom Saudeâ—sin's Hist of K.C.I. Fol. 473. and to deprive the King of his Power That they have endeavoured by foul Aspersions to alienate the Peoples affections from the King That they have traiterously invited and encourag'd a foreign Power to invade His Majesties Kingdom of England That for the compleating their traiterous designs they have actually rais'd and countenanc'd Tumults against the King and Parliament And that they have traiterously conspired to levy and actually have levied War against the King Nelson 2d Part F. 811. ad idom On this the King having first demanded them of the House by a Serjeant at Arms a Warrant is granted to apprehend them but missing their Persons Id. Fol. 514. their Trunks are seiz'd and seal'd up While this was yet doing the Commons had notice of it and thereupon Vote That on all like occasions for the future any Member might call a Constable to his assistance defend himself and seize all such Persons The next Morning the King goes to the House with part of his ordinary Guard of Pensioners and orders them to stay without and having rested himself in the Speaker's Chair told them He came to demand five Persons whom he had accused of High Treason Id. Sander Fol. 474. And though no King that ever was in England could be more tender of their Privileges that yet they knew there was no Privilege against Treason So Sir Fâ— Coke a â—â—st 25. And looking round him I see faith he they are gone But assured them in the word of a King that he never intended any force but to proceed against them in a legal fair way and therefore expected the House would send them to him and so went off Nor was he yet out of hearing when the general Cry was Privilege Privilege And the next day they Vote this coming of the King a breach of Privilege and adjourn for a Week into London there to sit as a General Committee pretending they were not safe at Westminster and though the King afterwards wav'd their Prosecution would not be satisfied unless he also discover'd who gave him that Counsel to come to the House as if it were not enough that he for bore his Enemies without he also betray'd his Friends Upon this Tumult upon Petition and Petition upon Tumult daily encreasing the King Queen Prince and Duke retire to Hampton-Court the Members in the mean time passing to and from Westminster with Hundreds of Boats Flags Seamen Rabble and Huzza's as they pass'd by Whitehall And now again judge any sober Man between the King and them The King to avoid the ill consequence of a denial gave his Assent to the Bill of Attainder against the Earl of Strafford He demands Justice against the five Members and 't is refus'd him If they were guilty why were they protected against him And if not guilty why did they not clear themselves The King came to the House with an attendance short of his ordinary Guard and it was Voted a Breach of Privilege They had their armed Tumults of Six Thousand at a time to awe the King's Friends and no notice taken of it but rather encourag'd Whereas it is Lex consuetudo Parliamenti That wheresoever the Parliament is holden Sir F. Coke 3 Inst 160. there ought to be no wearing of Armour exercise of Plays games of Men Wothen or Children much less Riots What shall I add They in the Year 1647. submitted eleven of their Members to the impeachment of an Army after that their House to be garbled and when contrary to the Fundamental Laws of this Kingdom they had voted themselves the Legislative Power of the Nation as tamely submitted to be turn'd out by their Journey-Men And yet when the safety of the Nation was at stake insolently contend nay mate it with their Sovereign And therefore weighing altogether in a true Balance judge I say wherein the King was to blame or where lay this breach of Privilege And for what His Majesty's Intention in this matter was besides what has been before urg'd take this further from himself where he says If he purpos'd any Violence or Oppression against the Innocent then let the Enemy persecute my Soul tread my Life to the Ground and lay my Honour in the Dust To which this Accuser thus What needs there more disputing He appeal'd to God's Tribunal and behold God hath judged and done to him in the sight of all Men according to the Verdict of his own Mouth Whereas in Common Humanity as a Man Charity as a Christian Reverence to him as a King and Duty as his King he might and that truly have said 2 Sam. 3.34 As a Man falleth before wicked Men so fell'st thou The Breath of our Nostrils Lam. 4.10 the Anointed of the Lord was taken in their Pits of whom we said under His shaddow we shall live among the Heathen CHAP. IV. Vpon the Insolency of the Tumults WHat and how frequent the Tumults of London and Westminster that follow'd the convening of this Parliament were is obvious enough to every Man that knows the least of our own Story and how aptly His Majesty has compar'd them not to a Storm at Sea which yet wants not its Terror but an Earthquake which shakes the very Foundations of all may be also as visible from the too sad effects of them Earthquakes the more general they are do less hurt by reason of the united weight which they offer to subvert whereas narrow and particular Earthquakes have many times overturn'd whole Towns and Cities And such was the Case here The Kingdom as yet stood well enough witness those the Nobility and Gentry who out of a principle of Honour and Honesty adhered to the King Some humours t is true might glow and estuate in the Body but they were not yet got into the Head That Ricketty Head that was already swoll'n too big for the Body But when they once discover'd that Vent all gather'd to it and shook those Foundations which the Wisdom of so many Centuries had been laying and securing as I shall come to show presently In the mean time our Answerer for what concerns the King's Words says The matter here is not whether the King or his Houshold Rhetorician have made a Pithy Declamation against Tumults but first whether they were Tumults or not next if they were whether the King himself did not
Self-will they broke down a Wall CHAP. V. Vpon His Majesty's passing the Bill for the Triennial Parliaments and after settling this during the Pleasure of the two Houses PArliaments saith Sir Robert Cotton are the times in which Kings seem less than they are His Reign of Hen. III. p. 1 and Subjects more than they should be A smart Character whether we respect those Paaliaments of Henry the Third of whom it was spoken or that Parliament of 1640. of which we are now speaking And yet they are become so congenial and as it were bred up and embodied with the English Temper which as it naturally relishes nothing but what comes from them so it rarely disputes any thing that is transacted by them that some have thought this might be one reason that inclin'd His Majesty to pass these Bills though for my part I 'll believe no Man against the King when he says That the World might be confirm'd in my Purposes at first to contribute what in Justice Reason Honour and Conscience I could to the happy Success of this Parliament which had in me no other design but the general good of my Kingdoms I willingly passed the Bill for Triennial Parliaments Which as gentle and seasonable Physick might if well applied prevent any Distempers from getting any head or prevailing especially if the Remedy prov'd not a Disease beyond all Remedy And as to the other for settling this during the Pleasure of the Houses An Act saith the King unparallell'd by any of my Predecessors yet granted on an extream Confidence I had that my Subjects would not make an ill use of an Act by which I declar'd so much to trust them as to deny my self so high a Point of my Prerogative c. Whereas saith our Answerer He attributes the passing of them to his own Act of Grace and willingness as his manner is to make Vertues of his Necessities he gives himself all the Praise and heaps Ingratitude upon the Parliament to whom we owe what we owe for those beneficial Acts but to his granting them neither Praise nor Thanks No! and by what Law I would fain know is the King obliged to pass every Bill that is offered him He swears 't is true to defend the Laws i. e. Such Laws as are then in being but that obliges him to no futurity in granting every thing whether good or bad that shall be offer'd him And therefore unless he had shewn at least some one Act of Parliament that had not the Royal Assent to it he might with more Modesty have acknowledged that it was in the King's Option whether to have passed these Acts or not Sir Ed. Coke 4 â—â—nst 25. because neither of the Houses singly not both of them together can make any binding Law without the King's Concurrence which gives the Embryo Life and quickens it into 〈◊〉 Law But saith he The first Bill granted lesâ— than two former Statutes yet in force by Edward the Third that a Parliament should be called every Year or oftner if need were Very well anâ— there being no more in it it is somewhat strange methinks how the King could be necessitated to the passing it or that the Houses eveâ—â— desired it When all that he says to it is Thaâ— the King conceal'd not his unwillingness in testifying a general dislike of their Actions and told theâ— with a Masterly Brow that by this Act he had obliged them above what they had deserved And truly if the King had said it or given thaâ— Masterly Brow for which yet he brings nâ— Voucher but himself those subsequent Acts oâ— Parliament which repeal'd both these Acts have sufficiently evidenc'd their particular dislike of them also in that they nulled them And how well they were pleas'd with their Persons or their Actions the Statute of the 12th of Charles the Second before-mention'd may satisfie any Man And as to the other Act for settling their sitting c. The King saith he had by his ill Stewardship and to say no worse the needless raising of two Armies intended for a Civil War beggar'd both himself and the Publick Left us in score to his greedy Enemies their Brethren the Scots to dis-engage which great Sums were to be borrow'd which would never have been lent if he who first caused the Malady might when he pleas'd reject the Remedy And from thence and other the like dross meerly thrown in to help out Weight which yet he never gives he comes to this That it was his Fear not his Favour drew that first Act from him lest the Parliament incens'd by his Conspiracies against them should with the People have resented too heinously those his doings if to the suspicion of their danger from him he had also added the denial of this only means to secure themselves And now to examine it a little he charges the King with the needless raising two Armies intended for a Civil War What the Houses then intended was afterwards visible by its Effects a Civil War But that the King should intend it and at the same time divest himself of his Power is manifestly ridiculous For as he says himself 1641. this Bill was pass'd in May whereas the King besides his Journey into Scotland retired not from Whitehall till above half a Year afterwards and when he left it considering their respective Conditions might have as truly said Cum baculo transivi Jordanum istum And how then could he intend a Civil War Having as our Accuser says so beggar'd himself For what concerns the King's Enemies and their dear Brethren I refer it to its proper Place And for what relates to the Sums of Money to be borrow'd besides what I have already shewn how they were dispos'd of Chap. 1 I add this That they could not have put the Kingdom into a Posture of a Defence i. e. â—â—â—'d a Rebellion without it And withal considering that the King set not up his Standard till the August following 1642. he must have been much shorter sighted than our Answerer all along endeavours to make him to have design'd a War without Sir Edward Coke's Materials Firmamentum belli Ornamentum pacis which the Houses having taken his Revenue into their Hands all the World knew he wanted But the 〈◊〉 â—ot yet run to the end of the 〈…〉 King taxes them for undoing what they found well done Yet knows they undid nothing but Lord Bishops Liturgy Ceremonies c. judged worthy by all Protestants to be thrown out of the Church But what Protestants were they that so judg'd it Those of the Church of England were I am sure of another Opinion and the temporal Laws of the Kingdom had sufficiently establish'd them And therefore since Interest had so blinded his Intellect that he world not see were he now living I could tell him wherein they had undone what they found well done And because there are many yet in being who perhaps may be willing enough to be satisfied
Governour and upon the King 's coming before Hull attended only with his own Servants and some Gentlemen of the Country audaciously shut the Gates against Him and standing upon the Wall denied him Entrance Upon which the King as by Law he might proclaim'd him Traytor A Cholerick and revengeful Act says our Answerer to proclaim him Traytor before due process of Law having been convinc'd so lately before of his Illegallity with the five Members Goodly goodly and yet at the same time doubts not to tax the King of a Treasonable Act in borrowing Moneys upon his own Jewels Not unlike the Parliament 41 Hen. 3. who took notice of the Lye given to Montfort Daniel's Hist of Eng. 171. and 175. Earl of Leicester by William of Clarence but not of the Lye given the King by the said Leicester But the Point between us lies narrow A Man with Train'd-Bands holds and defends a place of Strength against the King The question is whether this be a levying of War within the Statute of the 25th of Edward the 3d. Sir Edward Coke shall answer for me 2 Inst 10. If any with Strength and Weapons invasive and defensive doth hold and defend a Castle or Fort against the King and his Power this is levying of War against the King within the Statute of 25 Edward 3. And in the leaf before he says It was High Treason by the Common Law to levy War for no Subject can levy War within the Realm without Authority from the King for to him only it belongeth Le Roy de droit doit saver defender son Realm Fitz. N. B. 113. a. c. And therefore this being the Case wherein may it be said that the King was to blame And lastly for what concerns this Gentleman's Catastrophe and whether Hotham were more infamous at Hull or at Tower-Hill no less ignominiously pretended to be answer'd it may be enough to satisfie any Impartial Man that he repented and came in though it were at the last Hour and for the rest he stood and fell to his own Master CHAP. IX Vpon the Listing and raising Armies against the King I Find saith His Majesty I am at the same Point and Posture I was when they forced me to leave Whitehall What Tumults could not do an Army must which is but Tumults listed and enroll'd to a better order but as bad an end To which our Answerer thus replies It were an endless work to walk side by side with the verbosity of this Chapter only to what already hath not been spoken convenient Answer shall be given But what that Answer is see He begins again with Tumults all the demonstration of the Peoples Love to the Parliament was Tumult their Petitioning Tumult their defensive Armies were but listed Tumults and will take no notice that those about him those in a time of Peace lifted in his own House were the beginners of all these Tumults abusing and assaulting not only such as came peaceably to the Parliament at London but those that came Petitioning to the King himself at York Neither abstaining from doing Violence and Outrage to the Messengers sent from Parliament himself countenancing or conniving at them Which is the Substance of what our Accuser says to this verbose Chapter as he calls it An old Figure in Politicks to Calumniate stoutly till somewhat stick to a Prejudice But where lay this Love of the People that they must needs express it in such a Tumultuary way God Almighty is more pleased with Adverbs than Nouns and respects not so much the Justice or Lawfullness of the thing as that it be Justly and Lawfully done and I think the Case was not such here Three or more gather'd together do breed a disturbance of the Peace Mr. Lambert ' s â—irenarchâ— Lib. 2. c. 5. either by signification of Speech shew of Armour turbulent Gesture or express Violence so that the peaceable sort of Men be disturbed or the lighter sort embolden'd by the Example It is Turba a Rout And it has been said Decem So Kitchen page 20. multitudinem faciunt Ten make a Multitude What then must ten times ten not to say Hundreds and Thousands arm'd with Swords Clubbs Staves as many of these Demonstrators of their Love were Chap. 4 and throwing out Seditious Language as I have shewn before the did O but their Business was Petition The same said the Barons and Commonalty at Running-Mead in the 17th of King John But what came these for What but Matters that no way concern'd them Justice Justice against the Earl of Strafford Chap. 2 yet the Parliament of the 14th of Char. the 2d calls them arm'd Tumults as before For putting the Tower of London into confiding Hands Chap. 4 A City Guard for the Parliament And the Kingdom into a Posture of Defence c. But still what was this to them As if a Parliament must be beholding to a Fescue And their defensive Armies saith he were but listed Tumults So that now as a last Shift he turns the Question to a Quis prior induit arma When all the World knows That the Defensive part of it was the King's and the Parliament were the Aggressor's in that they had made their Associations rais'd an Army some Months before and made Essex General thereof the 12th of July 1642. Whereas the King set not up his Standard until the August following But stay say the King in defence of his Right had first drawn his Sword what Law of England warranted theirs When besides what Sir Edward Coke of whom so lately says No Subject can levy War without Authority from the King it appears that the ancient Law of England was ever such or the Parliament had never declar'd That both 1 Cat. 2. c. 2 or either of the Houses of Parliament neither can or lawfully may raise or levy War offensive or defensive against the King c. And will take no notice that those about him were the beginners of those Tumults That the King had his Guards about him was no more than what became the Majesty of a King and that the Loyal Gentry made their Appearances at Whitehall when they saw it beset with a kind of Gebal and Ammon and Ameleck a confus'd conflux of People which also the King had forbidden was but the least of their Duty But when he talks of listing and abusing and assaulting such as came peaceably to the Parliament and doing Violence to the Messengers sent from them it is such a Rapsodie of Stuff that no Man can credit upon his single Authority And therefore I leave it as I do the rest of this Matter it being either such as I have before spoken to or such as no Man that had not a hand in those Mischiefs had ever vented Yet before I go off to another I cannot but take notice how he says The King twits them with his Acts of Grace Proud and unself-knowing Words in the Mouth of any King who
Alij diutius Imperium tenuerunt nemo tam fortiter reliquit Tacit. Histor Lib. 2. c. 47. p. 417 VINDICIAE CAROLINAE OR A DEFENCE OF ἘΙΚΩΠΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΗ THE Portraicture of his Sacred Majesty in his Solitudes and Sufferings IN REPLY To a BOOK Intituled ἘΙΚΟÎΟΚΛΑΣΤΗΣ Written by Mr. Milton and lately Re-printed at Amsterdam Vere magnum habere fragilitatem hominis securitatem Dei Seneca London Printed by J. L. for Luke Meredith at the Angel in Amen-Corner MDCXCII THE PREFACE OUR Author has forespoken his Reader with a long Preface and Custom has so obtain'd that not to take notice of it were to allow it for Truth yet as long soever as it is I may be the shorter in mine in regard there are some things we shall not much differ about As when he begins to discant on the Misfortunes of a Person fallen from so high a Dignity who has also paid his final Debt both to Nature and his Faults is not of it self a thing commendable And I come so near him that I deem it in no wise commendable much less to defend a Party by whose Injustice he fell For Revenge and Envy stop at the Grave and however our Lives are at the Mercy of others even Fortune herself has no Dominion over the Dead But when he says And his Faults and that it is not the intention of his Discourse I referr my Reader to this of mine wherein from the Ordinances of that time and the Law of the Land I have I hope acquitted the King and for the other whatever his intention might be prov'd his Book contrary to what he gives out here He further supposes it no Injury to the Dead but a good Deed rather to the Living to better inform them by remembring them the Truth of what they themselves know to be mis-affirm'd And I agree with him for if a Man may not make the Blind to go out of his way there is this Charity due to a Short-sighted Multitude to point them at least where they first went astray and by bringing them back to the old Paths both shew them how they lost their Way and set them right for the future Yet agree as we will we must part at last for instead of not discanting on the Misfortunes of his murther'd Sovereign and of better informing the People of what he slily insinuates themselves know to be mis-affirm'd by the King the whole drift of his Book is to blast the one and spread a Mist before the other whereas mine is to vindicate the King and what in me lies to clear the Air of that Pestilent Vapour In the mean time and until I come to it I shall briefly consider the matter of his Preface and the manner of putting it together As to the former it is an abstract of his Book written in Scandal to the King's Book and himself And saith he for their Sakes who thro' Custom Simplicity or want of better Teaching have not more seriously consider'd Kings than in the gaudy name of Majesty in behalf of Liberty and the Commonwealth That is to say Licentiousness and Democracy words altogether foreign to the English whose Constitutions know nothing but an Hereditary Imperial Monarchy recognizing no Superiour under God but only the King unto whom both Spiritualty and Temporalty are bound and owe a Natural Obedience Unto which his Notions are directly contrary for if the Soveraignty lay in the People the King were not Supream but himself subject to that Power which is transcendent to his as appertaining to them and then the State of England were Democratical if it lay in the Nobles then were it Aristocratical or if in either or all of them it were in no wise Monarchical which both the Common-Law and Statute-Law of England have ever declar'd this Kingdom to be as shall be shewn in its proper place And yet he doubts not to impose upon his Reader That the People heretofore were wont to repute for Saints those faithful and couragious Barons as he calls them who lost their Lives in the Field making glorious War against Tyrants for the common Liberty As Simon de Monfort Earl of Leicester against Henry the Third Thomas Plantagenet Earl of Lancaster against Edward the Second And truly Siqua est ea Gloria England wants not wherein to Glory though I think neither of these comes under his Character For the first of them a Frenchman by Extraction ran into open Rebellion against Henry the Third whose Sister he had first vitiated then Married Took the King Prisoner and carried him about in the Army as Cromwell did this King and made him own all his the Earl's Actions as the Parliament but ineffectually endeavour'd it also and was at last slain in actual Rebellion at the Battle of Evesham by the Prince our English Justinian the Man who by rescuing oppress'd Laws taught the Crown of England not to serve and first deliver'd it from the Wardship of the Barons These Barons the Descendants of those where the Devil in the Father turn'd Monk in the Son for being conscious to themselves that whatever they had whether of Honour or Possessions had been commenc'd in Conquest and Rapine what better way of securing both than by siding with the People who had by this time forgotten they were the Posterity of those who had beggar'd their Ancestors And for the other of Lancaster he also was taken in a like Rebellion against Edward the Second and being thereof Convicted was Beheaded at Pomfrect nor other than Rebellion do I find any Remark of him but that his Name was Plantagenet and the Mobb call'd him King Arthur And therefore the most that can be said of them is what Aaron of his Calf These be thy Gods O Israel And having laid this Foundation for Matter who could expect his manner of doing it should be better more than that Grapes may be gathered of Thorns or Figs of Thistles Nor has he in the least deceiv'd me in it when though there 's a decency of Language due to the meanest of Men and Mankind insults not over a Slave in Misery yet neither in his Preface or his whole Book doâ—s he ever mention the King or his â—ctions without that irreverence as would put a modest Man to the Blush in reading it What the particular Expressions are I forbear to mention them where I may possibly avoid it and referr the Reader to them as they every where occur lest otherwise I be like him that pretends to answer a Seditious Book and Prints that with his answer that it may be remembred cum Privilegio However this from the whole though the Scripture calls Princes Gods that Prince is yet to be born whose some action or other did not confess Humanity and require Candour Moses was King among the Righteous and David a Man after God's own Heart and yet it cannot be said of either of them In nullo erratum est And therefore instead of raking the Graves of Princes we
about Six Thousand tumultuously flock to Westminster crying Justice Justice against the Earl of Strafford Which within a day or two they second with a Petition On which the Earl less valuing his Life than the quiet of the Kingdom writes a Letter to the King whereby to set his Conscience at Liberty and by his own Consent prays him to pass the Bill which in a few days after was by Commission to the Earl of Arundel and three other Lords accordingly done with this Proviso That no Judge or Judges c. shall adjudge or interpret any act or thing to be Treason nor hear or determine any Treason any other way than they should or ought to have done before the making of this Act and as if this Act had never been had or made A modest Confession and that nothing but an Act of Parliament could affect him Nor unlike that Clause in an Ordinance of the King and Lords for the Banishment c. of the Lady Alice Pierce a Favourite of King Edward the Third's viz. That this Ordinance in this Special Case Mr. Seldâ—n's Privilege of Baronage 71 which may extend to a Thousand other Persons shall in no other case but this be taken in Example However after the Bill was pass'd the King as deeming They will reverence my Son wrote a Letter to the House of Lords with his own Hand and sent it by the Prince of Wales in which he interceeds for that Mercy to the Earl which many Kings would not have scrupled to have given themselves But 't was resolv'd and nothing would do And thus between Accumulative and Constructive Treason nor better prov'd than I have shewn before Sic inclinavit heros caput Taken from Mr. Cleveland Belluae multorum Capitum Merces favoris Scottici praeter pecunias Nec vicit tamen Anglia sed oppressit Or if my Reader had rather have it in English take it from that happy Flight of Sir Richard Fanshaw on that Occasion And so fell Rome herself oppress'd at length By the united World and her own Strength And yet not to leave his Memory in the Dust there is an Act of Parliament that vindicates all I have said in the matter and that is The Act for reversing this Attainder 13 14. Car. 2. c. 29. which says thus That the Bill of Attainder was purposely made to Condemn him upon Accumulative and Constructive Treason none of the said Treasons being Treason apart and so could not be in the whole if they had been prov'd as they were not And the Act further says It was procured by an armed Tumult the names of Fifty nine of the Commons that opposed the Bill posted by the name of Straffordians and sent up to the Peers at a time when a great part of them were absent by reason of those Tumults and many of those present protested against it For which Causes and to the end that Right be done to the Memory of that deceased Earl it was enacted c. That the said Act c. be repeal'd c. And all Records and proceedings of Parliament relating to the said Attainder be cancell'd and taken off the File c. to the intent the same may not be visible in after-Ages or brought in Example to the prejudice of any Person whatever Provided that this Act shall not extend to the future questioning of any Person c. however concern'd in this Business or who had any hand in the Tumults or disorderly procuring the Act aforesaid c. A shrewd suspicion that they thought that Act of Attainder was not so regularly obtain'd as it ought to have been for if it had what needed that Proviso And having duely considered this Act I think the Wonder will cease why the King was so dissatisfied in his Conscience touching the giving his Assent to that Bill of Attainder His Speech on the Scaffold or that the Lord Capel so publickly begg'd forgiveness of God for having given his Consent toward it At least I presume it may startle any Man that from such repeated Calumnies has not yet come to be of our Answerer's Opinion That there may be a Treason against the Commonwealth as well as against the King only A Treason not mention'd in 25 Edw. 3. or in any Statute since saving those of the late Usurper's making inasmuch as no Estate or Estates of the Realm make any thing of themselves but as joyned to their Figure the King And therefore passing the King 's most detested Conspiracy as he calls it against the Parliament and Kingdom by seizing the Tower of London bringing the English Army out of the North c. I leave him and his Stuff together and come to the Third CHAP. III. Vpon His going to the House of Commons I Said ere-while His Majesty might think the Lords would reverence his Son nor was in to be doubted whether the Commons would himself Especially considering the business he went about It was faith the King to demand Justice upon the Five Members whom upon just motives and pregnant grounds I had charged and needed nothing to such Evidence as could have been produced against them save only a free and legal Tryal which was all I desired Which fill'd indifferent Men with Jealousies and Fears yea and many of my Friends resented as a motion rising rather from Passion than Reason See says our Answerer He confesses it to â—an act which most Men whom he calls his Enemies cried shame upon indifferent Men c. as before He himself in one of his Answers to both Houses made profession to be convinc'd that it was a plain breach of their Privilege Yet here like a rottâ— Building newly trimm'd over he represents it speciously and fraudulently to impose upon the simple Reader c. Words insolent enough without adding the rest though it had not been from his Matter if he had told that simple Reader in which Answer of his Majesties he might have found that Profession However for the discovery of the Truth on both sides it may not be amiss to make a few steps backward that considering the occasion we may the better judge of the thing It had been advis'd to the King by the then Privy-Council of Scotland to send the Book of Common-Prayer to be receiv'd and us'd in all Churches of that Kingdom The King's Declaration 1639. which was accordingly order'd And in the Month of July 1637. publickly read in the great Church of Edinburgh The Kirkmen took fire at it nor wanted there some in England to fan the Flame which in a short time got that head that they invade England but finding the design not ripe enough yet they humbly submit and the business is smother'd Whereas had those smoaking Brands been sufficiently quench'd they had not made a greater Eruption the next Year During this time the King had gotten into the matter and calls this Parliament with a real intention of quieting all They begin where the last Parliament
in the matter I shall not be shie in it It is and ever was the Law of England that the sole supream Government Command and Disposition of the Militia and of all Forces by Sea and Land and of all places of Strength is and ever were the undoubted Right of His Majesty and of his Royal Predecessors Kings and Queens of England Or else what means that of Fitz-Herbert Nat. Brev. p. 113. It is the Right of the King to defend his Kingdom To make Leagues and denounce War only belongs to the King 7 Coke 2â— as a Right of Majesty which cannot be conferred upon any other And how can he do it without the power of the Sword that is the sole Command of the Militia To levy War within the Realm without Authority from the King unto whom it only belongeth Id. Coke 3 Inst 9. was High Treason at the Common-Law before the Statute de proditionibus 25 Ed. 3. And a latter Statute not introductive of a new Law but declaratory of the old Law has the very Words touching the sole Command of the Militia 13 Car. 2. c. 2. c. before-mention'd with this farther That both or either of the Houses of Parliament cannot nor ought to pretend to the same nor can or lawfully may raise or levy War offensive or defensive against his Majesty his Heirs and lawful Successors Short View c. Fol. 86. And was confest by themselves when they acknowledg'd the Militia an inseparable Flower of the Crown and subject to no command but his Authority And yet contrary to this known Law these two Houses not only Petition the King That the Tower of London c. as before be forthwith put into such Hands as shall be recommended to him by both the Houses but upon his recess from Whitehall send him a Peremptory Petition That unless the King by those Commissioners then sent assure them of their former desires Mar. 1. 1641. Rushw Col. Fol. 92. they shall be enforced to dispose of the Militia by the Authority of both Houses which upon the King's refusal Sir Will. Dugdale 's Short View p. 85. they Vote a Denial and dispose of it themselves And now they begin to unpin the Mask and publish a Declaration wherein they say That what the Houses declare for Law ought not to be question'd by the King That the Sovereign Power resides in both Houses That the King ought to have no Negative Voice That Treason cannot be committed against the King's Person otherwise than as he is entrusted with the Kingdom and discharges that Trust and that they have a Power to judge whether he hath discharged that Trust or not 7 Coke 11. Fine dainty Law And the Spencers Treason in Edward the Second's time but better improv'd In the May following they fall a-branching it into nineteen Propositions Rushw 307. V. The Statutes at large many of which are but the substance of those Acts pass'd by Edward the Third in the fifteenth of his Reign and revoked by him the same Year as derogatory to his Crown and send them to the King which being refus'd by him they Vote The King intended a VVar upon them and thereupon raise an Army and suffering the Mask to drop off make Essex General thereof 12 Jul. 42. and farther Vote They will live and die with him On which the King sets up his Standard at Nottingham the August following Nor will I carry it further at present because I design not a History but only to shew which of the two the King or the Houses intended a Civil VVar and whether they did not undoe what they found well done In short their Endeavours were to strip the King of what God and the Law had given him the King 's was but to keep what he ought to have and therefore viewing both by a true light How can the King be justly charg'd with intending a VVar when it was in a manner but a suing for his own CHAP. VI. Vpon his Majesty 's retirement from Westminster WITH what unwillingness saith His Majesty I withdrew Westminster let them judge who unprovided of Tackling and Victual are forced to Sea by a Storm yet better do so than venture splitting or sinking on a Lee-Shoar And if the Parallel held not in all its Parts our Answerer had done well to have shewn in which it fell short whereas instead thereof he only says He was about to have found fault with the Simile as a garb somewhat more Poetical than for a Statist and finds it the strain of other of his Essays But what 's this to the matter farther than that in the Words His Essays a Truth slipt from him unawares in confessing them to have been written by the King and not by his Houshold Rhetorician as before But to the Argument saith he and I follow him with this by the way to my Reader That he would consider how the Houses had depriv'd the King of his Friends disrobed him of his Power trampled his Authority affronted his Person baited him with a Rabble and left him nothing but what could not be taken from him a good God and the satisfaction of a Conscience founded on a Compositum jus fasque animo Sanctosque recessus Mentis incoctum generoso pectus honesto And then tell me in what condition he was when he left Westminster I stay'd at Whitehall saith His Majesty till I was driven away by Shame more than Fear to see the barbarous rudeness of those Tumults c. a thing so true for matter of Fact that being not able to deny it our Answerer turns it thus That in the whole Chapter next but one before this the King affirms That the danger wherein his Wife his Children and his own Person were by those Tumults was the main cause that drove him c. Whereas what the King and that but in one place of that Chapter says of it is this That he thought himself not bound to prostitute the Majesty of his Place and Person and the safety of his Wife and Children to those who are prone to insult most when they have objects and opportunity most capable of their rudeness and petulancy With this other from Digby as he calls him who knew his Mind as well as any That the principal cause of his Majesty's going thence was to save them from being trod in the Dirt. And where in the name of Goodness lies the Contradiction The Tumults were such they might have been call'd Legion and well make a King asham'd to see them and not be able to disperse them But a direct Fear it could not be in him whom Ille timorum Maximus hand urget Lethi timor and who refused Life at the price of an inglorious Submission And yet in the Case of a private Person was not this ground enough to apprehend a danger and the consequence of it to be trod in the Dirt How much more then in the Case
That the Lord High-Steward of England Lord High-Constable Lord Chancellor Nine other Principal Officers the Two Chief Justices and Chief Baron be always chosen with the Approbation of Both Houses and in the Intervals of Parliament by the Major Part of the Council The same may be said to this as to the First with this farther that though the like had been often attempted it never continued longer than the Rebellion that set it on foot 4. That the Government of the King's Children be committed to such as Both Houses shall approve of and in the Intervals of Parliament by the Privy Council And the Servants then about them against whom the Houses have just Exception to be removed This had been to abridge the King of that Privilege which the meanest of Subjects has in his Family nor had themselves yet try'd it in theirs 5. That no Marriage for any of them be treated or concluded without Consent of Parliament The same also here as to the Fourth 6. That the Law in Force against Jesuits Priests and Popish Recusants be strictly put is Execution And where had the King ever refused it 7. That the Votes of Popish Lords in the House of Peers be taken away This had been to take away their Birth-right a Right as ancient as any thing but the Monarchy it self 8. The the King will be pleased to reform the Church-Government and Liturgy as both Houses shall advise This had been already settled by several Acts of Parliament 9. That he would rest satisfied with what they have done for ordering the Militia and recall his Declarations and Proclamations against it This confesses an Usurpation upon the King 's Right and in that who began the War For if it were not so what need was there for the King to recall his Declarations c. when in doing it he had made himself Guilty of the War and all the Blood therein spill'd 10. That such Members as have been put out of any Place or Office since this Parliament began be restored or have Satisfaction But how does this agree with the Self-denying 11. That all Privy Counsellors and Judges take an Oath to be settled by Act of Parliament for the Maintenance of the Petition of Right and certain Statutes made by them The Judges are ex Officio oblig'd to take notice of a General Act of Parliament and such the Petition of Right is but who knew what those Acts of this Parliament might be 12. That all Judges and Officers plac'd by Approbation of the Houses may hold their Places quamdiu se bene gesserint To the intent that if any Confiding Person how Ignorant or Factious soever had been approv'd by them it should not be in the King's Power to remove him without a Sute at Law in which themselves or their Creatures were sure to be Judges 13. That all Delinquents whether within the Kingdom or fled out of it and all Persons cited by either House may appear and abide the Censure of Parliament That is all such Persons as upon an innate Honour according to their Duty and the Statute of the 11th of Henry VII had stood firm and Loyal to the King against their Usurpation 14. That the General Pardon offered by his Majesty be granted with such Exceptions as shall be advised by Both Houses But who knew what those Exceptions might be Saving this that they intended them not to any of themselves A thing that carried Rancour and Venom in it and which was his Majesty's whole drift to take off 15. That all Forts and Castles be put into such Hands as the King with Approbation of Both Houses shall appoint That is to keep them in their own Hands as they were when yet the Undoubted Right was the King's and the Grant of it had given away the Sovereignty An old Trick which together with the Three first Propositions they borrow'd from Montfort's Rebellion in Henry III.'s Time 16. That the King 's Extraordinary Guards 〈◊〉 discharg'd and none rais'd for the Future but according to Law in Case of actual Rebellion and Invasion Like the Wolves in the Fable that would come to no Terms with the Sheep unless they first discharg'd their Dogs Whereas his Majesty had not rais'd those Guards but according to Law in the Case of an actual Rebellion a◠Home and a then threatning Invasion from the Scots 17. That his Majesty enter into a more strict Alliance with the Vnited Provinces and other Neighbour Protestant Princes and States The King is the only Supream Arbiter of Peace and War and what honourable Alliance with any of them had he ever refus'd 18. That his Majesty be pleased by Act of Parliament to clear the Lord Kimbolton and the Five Members If they were Guilty why should they be less brought to Tryal than were Canterbury and Strafford And if they were Innocent what need of an Act of Parliament to clear them 19. That a Bill be passed for restraining Pears made hereafter from sitting or voting in Parliament unless they be admitted with Consent of Both Houses The King is the Fountain of Honour and to have granted this Article had been if not to damm up that Fountain to turn it into another Channel Nor could the King have done it without a manifest Contradiction to himself I have blessed him said Isaac and he shall be blessed Such were these Propositions this at Least the true Substance of them which if his Majesty had conceded to what other were it than as himself says of it As if Sampson should have consented not only to bind his own Hands and cut off his Hair but to put out his own Eyes that the Philistines might with the more Safety Mock and Abuse him He had rendred himself not a half Duke of Venice nor much better than that Inutile lignum of which Horace speaks who Serm. l. 1. Sat. 8. tho' he were God of the Gardens could not keep a Crow from muting upon his Head Nor ought they says his Majesty to have been obtruded upon him with the Point of a Sword nor urg'd with the Injuries of a War To which our Answerer in his bold Way And which of the Propositions were obtruded upon him with the Point of the Sword till he first with the Point of the Sword thrust from him both the Propositions and the Propounders Which how egregiously and scandalously False it is let any Man judge Rush 2. part 307. when these Propositions were not sent the King till the Second of June 1642. Five Months before which they had not only forced him from Whitehall but disposed of the Militia as appears by the Ninth Proposition where they pray the King that he would rest satisfied with what they ordered in it As resolv'd it seems that Will or Nill he should And thence he runs off again to the Coronation Oath and That the Parliament is the King 's Superiour Chap. 6 Touching which I have said so much already and not from any
single Opinion of my own but the Authority of the Law that I think it needless actum agere Only when he says The Noblest Romans when they stood for that which was a kind of Regal Honour the Consulship were wont in a submissive manner 〈◊〉 go about and beg that Highest Dignity of the Meanest Plebeians which was call'd Petitio Consulatûs He would have done well to have cover'd his Hook a little better if he ever expected to catch any Fish If he had said they chuse their Consuls as we do our Knights of the Shire he that has most Voices carries it bating the Ambitus it had been well enough But when he speaks of a King of England what Mischief brought it into his Head to confound the Irregular Practices of a Democratical State with the settled Constitutions of an Hereditary Imperial Monarchy which this of England is or those several Statutes as well as Common Law of which before are grosly mistaken And therefore for the rest it bring but mere catching at Words whereby to wrest the Sence I had as good leave it and go to somewhat else CHAP. XII Vpon the Rebellion and Troubles in Ireland IT is the Nature of Flies to be ever buzzing and blowing upon any thing that is raw and has been the only design of our Answerer throughout his whole Book not to deliver Things as they truly were but to rake together old exploded Forgeries that having dress'd up the King as like a Tyrant as he can he may have the more to say in Defence of the Parricide It is the Way of Witches to foretell those Storms themselves intend to move Nor had the Contrivers of ours been wanting to that Part of it but the Earl of Strafford's Watchful Eye lay so close for them that nothing could be done unless they first brought his Masts by the Board And having gotten that Point of him and the Rebellion of Ireland falling close upon it they only make an advantage of it and buzze the People that it was done with the King's Privity at least if not by his Commission Whereby to represent him to the World as the more Inhumane and Barbarous Nor is this our Accuser less wanting to insinuate it over again when he says That it cannot be imaginable that the Irish guided by so many Italian Heads should have so far lost the Vse of Reason and common Sense as not supported with other Strength than their own to begin a War so desperate and irreconcilable against both England and Scotland at once without some Authority from England or great Assistance promised them and assurance which they had in private that no remedy should be apply'd against them All which being merely conjectural by the same Reason it may be true by the same Reason also it may be false without there were somewhat more than Words to evince the Truth of it And so taking that for granted which should have been first proved he audaciously Charges the King as the Prime Author of that Rebellion though both here and elsewhere he denies it with many Imprecations but no solid Evidence And how solid his on the other hand are may be worth the viewing It is most certain saith he that the King was ever friendly to the Irish Papists and in his Third Year against the plain Advice of Parliament sold them Indulgences for Money and engaged them in a War against the Scotch Protestants What he means by that Sale of Indulgences I know not nor does any History of ours that I yet met direct me to it The Irish were his Majesty's Subjects as well as the Scots and if he was friendly to them though Papists he did but the part of a prudent Father who seldom chucks one Child more than another for fear of breeding a Quarrel in the Family And besides though the Scots were Protestants there is not any one English Law against Papists i◠Force in Ireland and Sanguinary Law none◠But that the King engaged them in a War against the Scots wants Proof and as such I pass it To this he adds That several of the most active Papists all since in the Head of that Rebellion were in great Favour at Whitehall and in Private Consultations with the King and Queen and that he gave them more than Five Irish Counties at an inconsiderable Rent And for the Proof of all this quotes a Scotch Author but says not a Word who or what this Author was Tho' if he had call'd him Squire Meldrum the Cherry and the Sloe or David Lindsey against Side-Tails it had past not a Jot the worse with the People If they were in great Favour at Court it was no more than what the Scots also were if they had private Consultations c. Charity would have presum'd the best and that it was in order to the Quiet and Peace of that Kingdom and if the King gave them Five Counties he gave but his own which if he had shared among the Five Members we had not perhaps heard a Word of the Story But that they should ungratefully rebel against him how could he more foresee it of them than he did of the Scots And after this if any Vnderstanding Man yet doubts who was the Author and Instigator of that Rebellion I referr them saith he to that Declaration of July 1643 concerning this Matter Very good The Word of a King is but the bare denial of one Man and what is one Man against the Credit of Both Houses though they were Judges Witnesses and Parties I offerred saith his Majesty to go my self in Person upon that Expedition But happy it was that his going into Ireland was not consented to saith the other for certainly he had turn'd his intended Forces against the Parliament Whereas it seems more probable that without this Rebellion in Ireland they could never have rais'd their Rebellion in England For upon the Credit of the Acts for the borrowing of 400000 l. for the necessary Defence of England and Ireland Both of them 17 Car. 1. and for the Encouragement of Adventurers for the reducing the Rebels in Ireland they got ready Moneys into their Hands V. His Majesty's Answer to their Irish Papers In his Large Book f. 537. and rais'd Forces as was pretended for the Relief of that Kingdom but in truth fought the King with them at Edge-hill But enough of this Matter CHAP. XIII Vpon the Calling in of the Scots and their coming AND here again our Answerer lays his Foundation to this Chapter upon what he has so often run off to before and been by me and I hope fully answered That the first Original and Institution of Kings was by the Consent and Suffrage of the People and calls them the entrusted Servants of the Commonwealth but in his wonted way says not a Word how they came by this Power of choosing i. e. whether it were given them by God or they took it themselves If God gave it them he ought one
would think to have prov'd where when and how at least rendred it probable that there was once some such thing done though the Grant be lost And if they took it themselves it was Unjust in its Original and consequently they had no more Right to chuse their Kings than Children have to chuse their Fathers And yet from this false Position magisterially determines That Kings do no Acts of Grace and Bounty but in discharge of their publick Duty The Sum of the King's Discourse saith he is against settling Religion by violent Means and yet never did thing more eagerly than to molest and persecute the Consciences of most religious Men and made a War and lost all rather than not uphold an Hierarchy of persecuting Bishops That Consciences are not to be forced but to be reduced by force of Truth aid of Time and use of good Means of Instructions and Perswasions was his Principle as well as Queen Elizabeth's but saith Sir Francis Walsingham concerning the Queen's proceedings in the like Cases Causes of Conscience when they exceed their Bounds V. Hist of the Reform Part 2. f. 418. and grow to be matter of Faction lose their Nature and Sovereign Princes ought distinctly to punish their Practices and Contempt though colour'd with the pretences of Conscience and Religion And according to this saith he the Queen proceeded And if the King also did distinguish Faction from Conscience and Tenderness from Singularity blame the Law not him But He obtruded new Ceremonies upon the English and a new Liturgy upon the Scots with his Sword Saving the Reverence of the Thing it is Indifferent whether a Man Preach with his Hat on or hung upon a Pin the Hugonots have one way and the English another The same also may be said of Ceremonies but how indifferent soever they are in themselves when they are once commanded the indifferency ceases in the Law that enjoyns them And for that other of the Liturgy upon the Scots the King obtruded it not on them much less with his Sword because it was sent them at their own Request as I have shown before But admitting their Kirk liked it not what had they to do with a Church that did Or what Authority had Tweed to reform Thames least of all to give Law to their King and that too with beat of Drum and Colours displayed Especially when one of their own Acts of Parliament says Continuation of Sir R. Baker f. 514. That it should be damnable and detestable Treason in the highest Degree to levy Arms or any Military Forces upon any pretext whatever without the King 's Royal Commission Nor is this all For their National Covenant oblig'd them to his Defence or else what means this Expression in it Sir W. Dudg his short View f. 132. That whensoever his Majesty's Honour and Interest should be in Danger they would as one Man obliged by the Laws of God and Man apply themselves to his Succour and Defence And the Chancellor and others the Lords of that Kingdom had by their Letter of 1. July 1643. assured his Majesty That no Arms should be raised without his special Commission And after all this and contrary to the Common tye of Nature to run into open Rebellion against him What may it mean I 'll tell ye This Matter had been hatching ever since the Third of his Reign and though the Chick appear'd not till the Year 1637 yet it could run about with the Shell upon its Head and it wanted not Friends in England to keep it alive till it could feed it self and if it liked not one Barn-door take to another The Metaphor is too visible to need Application There was a kind of a Kirk Party in England that finding the King firm to his Principles knew there was no better way to deal with him than by reducing him to Necessities to the end that being forc'd to extraordinary means for Supply he might disgust the People and consequently attract an Odium But what 's a Bow without a Bowman The Scots and they made but one Kirk Money was the Nerve that would keep them together and what need many words among Friends Nor were they long without the occasion of shewing their Fidelity The new Liturgy as before had been sent to Edinburgh The Scots presently take the Alarm are quieted again but lost nothing by it and in return make the King all Protestations of future Loyalty How comes it then you 'll say that it was not long after that they invaded England and after that took Arms for the Parliament against the King The Case is plain the King had no Money the Houses had or at least knew where to get it Nor will it be unworth any Man's while to see what that was They had as a Relief to the Scots for their Losses 17 Car. 1. and a supply of our Brethren of Scotland for so the Act words it 220000 l. rais'd for them by Act of Parliament By an Ordinance of Lords and Commons Vid. Hughes's Abridgement of Acts and Ordinances p. 92. 27 Octob. 43. 66666 13 4. for their Brotherly Assistance in the defence of the common cause of Religion and Liberty By a like Ordinance Feb. 20. 1644. 21000 l. per Mens Id. p. 178. for the maintenance of the Scots Army under the Earl of Leven Further confirm'd Id. p. 197. June 13. 1645. Continued for four Months more Id. p. 220. 25 Aug. 1645. By a like Ordinance Id. p. 201. June 20. 1645. 130000 l. for enabling the Scots Army to advance Southward And by a like Ordinance Decem. 3. 1645. 31000 l. Id. p. 237. for payment of the Scots Army Besides all which I find in the continuation of Sir Richard Baker Fol. 611. Several other Moneys rais'd for the Scots which because they agree neither in Sum nor time I thought fit to transcribe and leave it to my Reader to judge of it as he thinks fit Taxed by them in 16 Car. 1. 350 l. per diem on the Bishoprick of Durham and 300 l. per diem on the County of Northumberland on the penalty of Plundering In the 20th they were impowered by Parliament to assess for themselves the twentieth part of the North c. In the 21st sent them 30000 l. to induce them to besiege Newark In the 22d 200000 l. more for delivering up the King And another 200000 l. secur'd them out of the publick Faith And 16000 l. allowed them for the charge of their Carriages All which I leave as I said to my Reader to judge and whether notwithstanding all that cry of Religion and Loyalty it far'd not with them like Atalanta in the Fable Declinat cursus Ovidâ—◠〈◊〉 l. 10. Fâ—â— 15. aurumque vâ—luâ—ile tollit And truly considering all if they were not well paid for their Pains I wish they were CHAP. XIV Vpon the Covenant UPON this Theam saith our Answerer his Discourse is long his Matter little
Limitations Though our Accuser thinks it enough for him to have said Those Limitations were not more dangerous to him than he was to their Liberty and Religion His next is that Antichristian Hierarchy which was there vowed to be cast out of the Church c. Whether God planted it or not is not the question the King's Progenitors had bountifully water'd it and the Law of England set a Hedge about it They held their Possessions in Barony the Statute pro Clero calls them Peers of the Realm and another of Queen Elizabeth 2â— Ed. 3. c. 6. 8 Eâ— c. 1. one of the greatest States of this Realm And for a Fag-end of a Parliament without the King's Consent nay contrary to his Will to take upon them to extirpate so ancient so establish'd an Order and dis-seize them of their Free-hold without a legal Trial whatever the Liberty or Religion of it might be I am sure it was contrary to Magna Charta And himself says it is a Point not to be argu'd but of a clear Moral Necessity to be done And a most expeditious Answer though it may seem much in the dark to every Man but himself and the Actors in it Nor was it saith his Majesty less than superfluous to enjoyn Oaths where former Religious and Legal Engagements bound Men sufficiently to all necessary Duties But it was saith he the Practice of all reforming Churches Israel were bound enough before by the Law of Moses to all necessary Duties yet with Asa their King entred into a new Covenant at the beginning of a Reformation c. And as well might he have prov'd it out of the first Words of Genesis Is the Beginning i. e. In the beginning of Formation the World was Created and in the beginning of Reformation the Covenant was produc'd But to give it a direct Answer This New Covenant of which he speaks was not about Pretended Privileges or disputable Liberties in matters of State nor any Conjectural Fancies in Point of Religion 2 Chron. 15.12.15 but to seek the God of their Fathers in which also the King joyn'd with them and it is said of it that God was found of them and gave them rest round about which cannot be said of ours And which may be further observable of all the Covenants made by the Jews there was no one of them ever Sworn against the Will of the Supream or at least Subordinate Rulers not opposed but rather countenanced by the Supream and the matter of their Covenant was always enjoyn'd by God himself And whereas he further says The Jews after the Captivity without Consent demanded of that King who was their Master took a Solemn Oath to walk in the Commandments of God See how he slurs it upon the unwary People That King c. The Jews from the Captivity to the coming of our Saviour had no Kings of their own but were govern'd by Deputies and Vicegerents who had not Supream Authority in themselves but as it pleas'd the Persian Monarchs and afterward Alexander and his Successors to assign them and these were call'd Heads or Princes of the Captivity of whom Zerobabel was the first and upon the Restauration of the Captivity by Cyrus came back again with them to Jerusalem and Judah and with him Nehemiah as one of the chief of the Fathers For in the third of Nehemiah ver 16. he is call'd a Ruler and in the fifth verse 14. Governour in the Land of Judah With this Nehemiah it was that the Princes and the Priests made the Covenant our Answerer speaks of Nehem. 10.1 and Nehemiah seal'd to it as the Tirshatha or Governour and the People clave to their Brethren their Nobles Ver. 29. and entred into an Oath to walk in God's Laws And now what need was there to demand that King's Artaxerxes Consent when his Vicegerent joyn'd with them In a matter too which terminated in themselves and their own Worship without the least design of extirpating their Masters the Syrians or Babylonians And when he calls it a Solemn Oath what other is it than to wheedle the People into an easier swallow of it and that the Solemn League and Covenant was just such another And yet our Answerer will not away with it when the King says They made their Covenant like Manna not that it came from Heaven as this did agreeable to every Man's Palate For the drift saith he is that Men should loath it Whereas if we truly consider the thing never was Comparison more aptly applicable Exod. 16.15 For when Israel first saw it they said one to another Manna or What is this for they wist not what it was Ver. 20. and if they kept it above a day it bred Worms and stank CHAP. XV. Vpon the many Jealousies rais'd and Scandals cast upon the King to stir up the People against him THere is a great deal of difference between Accusations and Calumnies the first necessary to all Popular States whereby to keep any one's growing too great for the rest as may be seen in the Athenian Ostracism or Banishment for ten Years and the Syracusian Petalism for five Years but Calumnies were ever exploded as the bane and destruction of Common Society And if they are so dangerous to Commonwealths what must they be to Monarchy which is never truly supported but by being at unity within it self And yet such were the Artifices of those times that they rais'd their Babel on no other Foundation and what the effect of it was we have all seen however it must not seem strange that our Answerer bred at the Feet of those Gamaliels should all along Copy so exactly after the Original But to pass his railing and come to his Matter which is so loose and thin that I was once going to throw it away till I better consider'd that the best way to undeceive the People was to undraw the Curtain and shew them how they had been deceiv'd and if in the doing it they have not tack'd together all the shreds and parings of Policy let any Man judge What the Plot of the Play was appears in their last Act and that was by the Murther of their Lawful Soveraign to transform and new model an ancient Monarchy into a Mushrome of a Commonwealth But many things were to be done by the way and without the People it was impossible to effect it They knew the People lov'd the King but had withal taken a discontent at somewhat but what that was not a Man of them could tell Nor were they to learn of what importance the aspersing a Prince is to boil up that discontent to a height fit for a Rebellion To have done this directly had been to betray themselves No they first commend him for a good Prince a King that would do any thing for his People But alas There are some about him The more 's the pity However God in his time can mend all And yet the less they spake of
it the better which was as much as if they had been bidden to tell no body but Folk of it This Foundation thus laid they suppress the Vertue and lay open the defects of the Government The dissolution of Parliaments The Cales Expedition The Peace with Spain Loan-Money Ship-Money Enlargement of Forests Fines Imprisonments c. by the Star-Chamber Acts of Council-Table Selling of Offices Insolence of Bishops and muzzling the Mouths of painful Teachers and what not So that where lay the difficulty of raising what Super structure they pleas'd or wonder as it is said of Absalom's Rebellion that the People went with them in their Simplicity â— Sam. 15.11 and knew not any thing Till from one thing to another they came at last to devolve the pretended faults of the Officer upon the Office Nor was the matter yet come from Words to Blows when his Majesty had gratified them in most of those Particulars but now that they had gotten an Army it is not what the King would grant but what the Houses will be pleased to accept The King also begins to have an Army which because it appear'd more considerable than they imagin'd Loyalty without Money could have ever brought together they take up another Artifice and clamour it to the People That the King made use of Papists against them That all might be at Peace if it were not for Evil Counsellors And for themselves that their Intentions were the liberties of the Kingdom as the King in this Chapter particularly takes notice of and our Answerer in his wonted Scurrility runs off to other matter yet e're he was aware confesses The Sum is they thought to regulate and limit his Negative Voice and share with him in the Militia which in the Eighty fifth Page of his Book he owns to have been wrung out of his Hands And yet while they thus charge the King with making use of Papists against them they stifle that Army of Sectaries themselves brought against him An Army so diversified in Opinion that had any one Regiment of them been to have entred the Ark the Flood might have sooner come than Noah suited them into Pairs And now Clodius accusat Moechos Does Simeon accuse Levi I should think he ought not especially if we come to the order of the House that admits no Man to criminate another till he shall have first clear'd himself But allowing it to be true Those Papists were the King's Subjects and by the Law of the Land equally oblig'd to serve the King as well as Protestants who yet fought against him But did the Houses never make use of Papists I am sure they would have done it or otherwise what means that Declaration of theirs That if any Papists would bring in any considerable Sums of Money upon the Propositions Oct. 6. 1642. it should be receiv'd and for matter of Fact that they did so They hired Owen Roe O Neal to raise the Siege of London-Derry in Ireland then beleagur'd by His Majesty's Forces And then for his hearkning to Evil Counsellors a thing so often charg'd upon him by the Parliament But who were these Evil Counsellors during His Majesty's Imprisonment and when they lock'd him up so that no-body could come at him and yet still the same Man But we are off the Scent Themselves were not those Counsellors and if they had been perhaps we had heard no more of it The Lord Cottington was a desperate Delinquent but had the Grace to know where his Delinquency lay He gave up his Mastership of the Court of Wards to a confiding Lord and for that time Cantavit vacuus The Beast Castor takes his Name a Castrando and when the Hunters have gotten what they Hunted him for they take off their Dogs And lastly for what concerns their own so much boasted Preservation of the Rights and Liberties of the Kingdom it may be much doubted whether they did so or not but this I dare say if they merited Heaven by it it was by an Antiperistasis for how strong soever they found the Blessing of Judah upon this Land they brought it down to that other of Issachar As besides what I have said before witness their Committees in every County under their Power for the seizing and imprisoning Malignants i. e. Such as refused to give them the 25th part of their Estates and because the County Gaols were too few to hold them erecting others in most Cities and throwing the most considerable of them on Ship-board Their Sequestring the Estates of the Royal Party and denying them the benefit of the Statute that indempnified them 11 Hen. 7. c. 1. Forcing some to Compound and selling the Estates of such as refus'd it Their frequent Headings and Gibbettings Their Sale of King's Queen's Princes Church-Lands c. Add to this those heavy Burthens which without any Authority and contrary to Law they laid upon the People with a saving nevertheless to the Members of either House and the almost incredible Sums of Money they rais'd thereby Contin of R. Baker Fol. 610. See the Ordin of both Houses Mar. 1642. As witness that their Weekly Assessment of Thirty three Thousand Nine Hundred Eighty one Pounds Thirteen Shillings upon England and Wales which for the Year came to One Million Seven Hundred Sixty Seven Thousand Forty five Pounds Sixteen Shillings The vast Sums of Money they made of the Plate Rings nay even Sir W. Dugd. Short View Fol. 96. Bodkins and Thimbles brought into Goldsmiths-Hall which in London Essex and Middlesex came to eleven Millions The Moneys lent upon publick Faith The Profits of those Lands and Estates so seiz'd and the many Millions they got by the Sale of them Besides those By-jobbs through most Counties for the raising Horse Foot and Dragoons See Hughes 's Abridg. for the years 1643 1644 1645. the maintaining of them the defence of some Garrisons and the reducing of others And all this for the preserving the Rights and Liberties of the Kingdom which puts me in mind of that of Tully Nomina rerum perdidimus Ad Attiâ—um Licentia Libertas vocatur we have lost saith he the names of things and Licentiousness is call'd Liberty And yet the Tabernacle of the Robbers prosper'd Job 12.6 and those that provok'd God were secure CHAP XVI Vpon the Ordinance against the Common-Prayer-Book IT is no News saith his Majesty to have all Innovations usher'd in with the name of Reformations in Church and State by those who seeking to gain Reputation with the Vulgar for their extraordinary Parts or Piety must needs undo whatever was formerly settled never so well and wisely And less News it is saith our Answerer to have all Reformation censur'd and oppos'd under the name of Innovation by those who being exalted in high Places above their Merit fear all change though of things never so ill or so unwisely settled Which is no more than so many Words stitch'd together without he had
vulnus opemque tulit The Fortune of that day in which His Majesty lost those Letters 〈◊〉 Naseby might one would think have been enough to the Houses at least kept them from forfeiting the dignity of Men. Some Men are drawn away by Interest others by Pleasure a third sort by Profit but every of these were least in the Case For what Intereâ— of theirs could it be to expose their King whose Honour they had so often pretended to defend Whereas having got their Point in had been their Interest rather to have justified those Pretences and dealt with him like a charitable Physician who when he cannot save his Patient's Life endeavours to make his Death easie Thâ—â— for Pleasure there was neither the Lust of the Eye nor the Pride of Life in it but rather the contrary for Mankind naturally pity the afflicted and are ready to put those Pieces together again which their Heat tore asunder And it may be generally observ'd he that takes Pleasure in the Evil befallen another has no good of his own And lastly for Profit there also could be the least Prospect unless it were by killing the Heir to divide the Inheritance And if there were none of these in it what remains but that it was a Wickedness even for the sake of Wickedness That low ignoble going of the Serpent which creeps basely on its Belly and not upon Feet And because His Majesty was most sensible of it take his Thoughts upon it The taking away of my Credit is but a necessary preparation to the taking away of my Life and my Kingdoms I must seem neither fit to Live nor worthy to Reign and by exquisite Methods of Cunning and Cruelty I must first be compelled to follow the Funerals of my Honour and then be destroy'd And yet they miss'd that their end as to his Credit when in thus exposing the Father of their Country they only discover'd their own Shame and evinc'd to the World what they were so loath should be believ'd of him That he could both mind and act his own and his Kingdoms Affairs as became a Prince and that he was his own Counsellor In short his Majesty in those Letters lost but so many Papers wherein had there been any thing disadvantageous to his Honour we had been sure to have had it And yet if there had who was more Praise-worthy C ham that discover'd his Father's Nakedness Gen. 9.23 or Jehu that buried those remnants of Jezabel 2 Kings 9.34 for she was a King's Daughter Especially when they did but bark at the Moon and all their Malice like Arrows shot against a Wall either broke in pieces or return'd on themselves CHAP. XXII Vpon his Majesty's leaving Oxford and going to the Scots THe King 's coming in whether to the Scots or English saith our Answerer deserved no Thanks for Necessity was his Counsellor And what deserv'd they that drove him to this Necessity which had not the Scots come in with their Brotherly Assistance had never been That the Scots first began his Troubles and the Houses improv'd upon it has been sufficiently shown And yet so desirous was the King of Peace that after so many fruitless Messages he again in the Winter 1645. sent to the Houses for a pass for the Duke of Richmond and others to bring them New Propositions which was denied him a first and a second time Then he sent to them that himself might come in Person which was as often denied him as being the only thing they now fear'd from him and therefore instead of granting it they made an Ordinance That the Commanders of the Militia of London in Case the King should attempt to come within the Line of Communication should raise what Forces they thought fit to suppress Tumults to apprehend such as came with him and to secure i. e. to Imprison his Person from Danger And our Answerer confesses it to have been said That His purpose was to have come to London till hearing how strictly it was Proclaimed that no Man should conceal him he diverted his Course And what in this Case should a distress'd Prince do Come to London he could not without endangering his Friends some of which they had so often gibbetted To have gone for Ireland might have been what they design'd and thereby justifie their Jealousies of an Irish Popish Army And to have made for France he knew not what Construction might have been forced from it To whom therefore should he rather apply than to the Scots They had begun his Troubles and who knew but by this time they might have seen their Errour What Prudence saith our Answerer there could be in it no Man can imagine Malice there might be by raising new Jealousies to divide Friends And excellent Friends no doubt but he thought them by the Character he gives them As hireling Army of Scots paid for their Service here not in Scotch Coin but in English Silver nay who from the first beginning of these Troubles what with Brotherly Assistance and what with Monthly Pay have defended their own Liberties and Consciences at our Charge And so concludes it hazardous and rash What the hazard of it might have been is too late to enquire now but that it was not Rash but Prudent will readily appear if we consider The King was their Country-Man born and there might be somewhat in that Natale solum of which Ovid speaks Et immemores not sinit esse Or if that were nothing V. Chap. 1. his Father had particularly oblig'd them to his hurt Himself had forgiven them several Insurrections Themselves had given him repeated assurances of their future Loyalty Their own Statutes Chap. 13 National Covenant and Letter to his Majesty had oblig'd them to his Defence And greater than all these their own Interest when by this one generous but Loyal Act they had recover'd themselves to the World and shown it was not the Nation but a Faction that were his Enemies And therefore considering what I have said give me leave also to conclude from it That this Act of the King 's in trusting himself with the Scots was not the Effect of Rashness but the Result of Prudence especially if we credit the general Belief of that time That the Scots had been pre-acquainted with his intention of coming to them and that they had return'd him private Assurances of their Fidelity to him CHAP. XXIII Vpon the Scots delivering the King to the English and his Captivity at Holdenby OUR Answerer says little to this Chapter but as little as it is see with what Art he manages it Nor are his Brethren less than beholding to him That the Scots in England should sell their King as the King here affirms and for a Price so much above that which the Covetousness of Judas was contented with to sell our Saviour is so foul an Infamy and Dishonour cast upon them as befits none to vindicate but themselves And it were but friendly Counsel
to wish them beware the Son who comes among them with a firm belief that they Sold his Father In the former Chapter he gibes them with their Brotherly Assistance and here to whet them against the Son of that Father he lays at their Door an Infamy so foul that if they do not Vindicate it themselves no one else he is sure can do it for them And why all this but to tell them in other Words Scelere velandum est Scelus they had gone too far not to go farther and therefore cannot be secure till they do as much by his Son Whatever it be I think this may be said in the Matter That as Trust is the Sinew of Society Truth is the Pledge of it And therefore as they were his Majesty's Countrymen and Sworn Subjects in Confidence of which he had intrusted his Person with them as the keeping that Oath impeded no moral Good a distinction yet which every Man will not allow as the Person to whom they swore was not incapable of an Oath which is much the same as he came not to incline them to any thing but that Duty which was incumbent upon them and if he had no voluntary Rule in their Hearts he wanted Power to gain a Coersive If they had not thought fit to defend him they should not have put him in a worse Condition than they found him He was their King and wanted no Letters of Safe-Conduct and therefore as he came free they ought to have set him as free out of his Enemies reach 2 Kings 16.22 Thou shalt not smite them said Elisha to the King of Israel concerning the Syrians he had then in his Power for thou neither tookest them with thy Sword nor thy Bow But set Bread and Water before them that they may eat and drink and let them go And the kindness prevailed with the King of Syria though had the Case here been that they had taken him I know not how they could have deliver'd him up And memorable to this Purpose is that of James the Fourth of Scotland who when Perkin Warbeck had fled to him for Protection from our Henry the Seventh not only protected him but rais'd an Army for him him with whose Head he might have made what Peace he would with King Henry his profest Enemy And when at last a Peace was concluded between the Kings upon the Marriage of King James with Margaret Eldest Daughter of Henry the Seventh by whose Issue came the Union of the Crowns he not only refused to deliver up the said Perkin but gave him a safe Transport for himself and his Followers There remains yet to have spoken to that other part of the Title of this Chapter His Captivity at Holdenby but because our Answerer takes no notice of it neither I think ought I. CHAP. XXIV Vpon their denying his Majesty the Attendance of his Chaplains viz. Dr. Juxon Bishop of London Dr. Duppa Bishop of Salisbury Dr. Sheldon Dr. Hammond Dr. Holdsworth Dr. Sanderson Dr. Turner Dr. Heywood THERE seems somewhat in it more than of Chance that his Majesty thus Names the particular Persons Whose Service and Assistance he both needed and desired in that Solitude they had confin'd him to and where the Company they had obtruded on him was more sad than any Solitude could be that more sober Times enquiring into the Ground of it might the better judge whether this his desire was more reasonable or their denying it him more barbarous A Mercy which not Religion only allows but even the Rigor of the Law never denied the meanest and greatest Malefactors Yet see how shamelesly this Accuser takes upon him to Answer it A CHAPLAIN a thing so diminutive and inconsiderable that to take up such room in the Discourses of a Prince if it be not wondred is to be smiled at The Scripture owns no such Order In State perhaps they may be listed among the Vpper Serving-Men The Sewers or Yeomen Vshers of Devotion The Implements of a Court Cup-board c. And what ail'd this King that he could not chew his own Mattins without the Priest's Oremus Which with the rest of this his Chapter has so out-gone even scurrility it self that though I had once resolv'd to have pass'd it over I could not yet but desire my Reader to consider the Persons of whom this Character is given and then tell me how well the Character of any one of them agrees with the Person And therefore let the World Censure me how they list I purposely avoid the further medling with this his Chapter as for the same Reason also I shall say less to the next CHAP. XXV Penitential Meditations and Vows in the King's Solitude at Holdenby HIS Majesty in this Chapter may seem to have had holy David in his Eye when he said Lord remember David and all his Troubles Psal 132. How he sware unto the Lord and vowed a Vow unto the Almighty God of Jacob. And yet this Accuser so maliciously detorts those Meditations that unless one run into the same Excess with him it will be impossible to get up with him which having for my part resolv'd not to do I leave him to run by himself and only desire my Reader to collate these Two Chapters of the King 's with those of our Answerer and then judge as he thinks fit and whether I have done other or less in this Matter than what became me to have done CHAP. XXVI Vpon the Army's Surprizal of the KING at Holdenby and the ensuing Distractions in the Two Houses the Army and the City THIS surprize of me saith his Majesty tells the World that a KING cannot be so low but he is considerable adding weight to that Party where he appears What the Presbyterians have hunted after the Independants now seek to catch for themselves And as an Argument that they are manumitted from the Rivals Service assume my Person into the Armies Custody without any Commission but that of their own Will and Power To which our Answerer To give an Account to Royalists what has been done with their Vanquish'd King 's yielded up into our i. e. the Peoples Hands is not to be expected from them whom God hath made Conquerors And for Brethren to debate and rip up their falling out in the Ear of a Common Enemy is neither wise nor comely To the King therefore were he living or to his Party yet remaining as to this belongs no Answer No! and why not Because those that had a Mind to be satisfied in the Action might desire to know by what just Means the King came into their Hands How Subjects whom the Law of England never call'd Enemies could be said to have conquer'd him How God came intituled to it when it was so directly contrary to the Law of God And how the Law of the Land which was their common Cry to defend could justifie that Rebellion and Parricide which it every where condemns And is it enough think ye
the Power of levying Money to maintain it for twenty Years 2. That the King justifie the Proceedings of the Parliament in the late War and that all Declarations c. against them be declared void 3. That all Titles of Honour conferr'd by the King since the Great Seal was carried to Oxford in May 1642 be taken away 4. That the Parliament might adjourn themselves when where and for what time they pleas'd But the King refusing to grant them the Parliament Vote there should be no more Addresses made him And upon Cromwell's laying his Hand upon his Sword and telling them the People expected their Safety from them and not from a Man whose Heart God had hardned the Vote of Non-Addresses was made into an Ordinance and that it should be High-Treason to receive any Message from him And now Compassion for the King's Sufferings with the discovery of their Hypocrisie had begotten such a general Indignation against the Parliament that all Wales declare for the King The Surrey Men Petition the Parliament for a Personal Treaty the same was Kent coming up to have done but seeing how evilly those of Surrey had been Treated they threw away their Petition and took Arms under the Earl of Norwich The same did others at Maidstone Black-heath Kingstone c. Which though they were all defeated yet the Houses seeing how the Inclinations of the Kingdom went and Cromwell being out of the way in securing Edinburgh they revoke their Ordinance of Non-Addresses and send the King new Propositions not much easier than the former and upon his Answer to them they sent Commissioners to treat with him at Newport in the Isle of Wight Sept. 2. 16â—â— the Treaty to be transacted with Honour Freedom and Safety in which the King made such Concessions Decemb. 5. 16â—â— that it was resolv'd upon the question by the Commons That the King's Answers to the Propositions of both Houses are a ground for the House to proceed upon for the settling the Peace of the Kingdom But it seems they had been so long dodging about Trifles that Cromwell was come to London before any thing was done Nov. 20. 1648. For Fairfax and the General Officers had remonstrated and amongst other things requir'd That the Capital and grand Author of our Troubles the Person of the King be brought to Justice for the Treason Blood and Mischief he is therein guilty of c. But the Presbyterian Party standing strong to the Resolve aforesaid a Guard is set upon the House the major part of the Members are excluded and the King made a closer Prisoner in Carisbrook-Castle which brings me to these His Majesty's Meditations upon Death In which as from the precedent of several of his Predecessors both of England and Scotland well he might he makes this Judgment That there are but few steps between the Prisons and Graves of Princes And now we 'll see what this Accuser says when having lopp'd off more than three quarters of the Title that he may bring the rest to his own Model he goes on All other humane things are disputed and will be variously thought of to the World's end but this business of Death is a plain Case and admits no Controversie Nevertheless since out of those few mortifying Hours he can spare time enough to inveigh bitterly against that Iustice which was done upon him it will be needful to say something in defence of those Proceedings And makes this his Justice the Justification of that horrid Parricide from that universal Law Whosoever sheddeth Man's Blood by Man shall his Blood be shed And that other of Moses Ye shall not take Satisfaction for the Life of a Murtherer No exception in either of them And well may he call it Iustice when he so often blasphemes God in making him the Favourer of those the before unheard-of Villainies of that Usurpation and Tyranny as here also so wretchedly detorts Scripture to give it a Colour Whereas it was Injustice it self in its very Foundation as being directly contrary to the Law of God the Law of the Land and the Practice of the Jews from whom he draws his Authority To the Law of God whereby we are commanded First Negatively not to think ill of the King Curse not the King Eccles 10.20 no not in thy Thoughts Much less then may we speak it Thou shalt not speak Evil of the Ruler of thy People Exod. 22.18 Least of all may we do him hurt Touch not mine Anointed Secondly Affirmatively Psal 105.25 To Honour him as by the fifth Commandment and that with a Blessing annex'd to it That thy Days may be long in the Land To keep his Commandments Eccles 8.2 4. and that in regard of the Oath of God Neither may we give him any cause of Anger Prov. 20.2 for he that provoketh him sinneth against his own Soul And if thus far be true then I am sure it was Injustice to murther him To the Law of the Land Where besides what I have before said to the Soveraignty of the Crown of England to imagine the King's Death Chap. 6 To levy War against him in his Realm 25 Ed. 3. c. 2. or adhere to such as do so that it proveably appear by some Overt Act is High-Treason 3 Inst 12. The like is the Preparation by some Overt Act to take the King by force and strong hand and imprison him until he hath yielded to certain Demands And what must it then be to sit in Judgment upon him â— Ed. 3.19 who having neither Equal nor Superiour in his Realm cannot be Judged And greater than this what must it be to murther him And lastly contrary to the Practice of the Jews from whom he draws his Authority The Israelites had a hard Bondage under the Egyptians 〈◊〉 12 37. and yet that Moses whom he quotes and Six Hundred Thousand Footmen with him besides Children and a mix'd Multitude fled from Pharaoh 1 Sam 22.2 but did not rebel against him David in the head of an Army and those if we consider the Persons desperate enough fled from Saul And Eliah from Jezabel Seven Thousand Men yet left in Israel who had not bow'd their Knees to Baal 1 Kings 19.18 So that if Scripture Law or Practice have any Authority I think I need not labour the matter to prove it execrable as well as unjust Besides with what common Modesty could he tax the King with Blood when the Houses had form'd an Army so long before him as I have shewn before And therefore who shall be or was ever said to be guilty of the Blood spilt in a War the Aggressor or the Defendant when the Law chiefly regards the Original act Nor will Success more be able to alter the Nature of it than as says His Majesty The prosperous Winds which often â—ill the Sails of Pyrates do justifie their Pyracy and Rapine And were that true saith he which is most false
That all Kings are the Lord 's Anointed it were yet absurd to think that the Anointment of God should be as it were a Charm against Law I know not what he means by that all Kings Saul was David was and particularly laments the fall of Saul As if he had not been anointed with Oil. 2 Sam. 1.11 And I never found any reason to doubt but that all Christian Hereditary Kings are the same too and consequently exempt from the Law forasmuch as concerneth the coactive force of the Law though not forasmuch as concerneth the directive Power of the Law Lord â—leâ—meâ—'s post â—â—ti 106. Subjects are bound to fullfil the Law by necessity of Compulsion but the Prince only by his own Will in regard of the common good For seeing the Law is but a kind of Organ or Instrument of the Power that governeth Hist of the World 29â— it seems saith Sir Walter Rawleigh that it cannot extend it self to bind any one whom no humane power can controul or lay hold of And therefore till I find better Authority for this his Iustice than he has yet given I shall look upon it as I do on the rest of his Book a thing meerly stuffed out to deceive the People If Subjects also by the Law of the Church so much approv'd by this King be invested with a Power of Judicature both without and against their King it will be firm and valid against him though pretending and by them acknowledg'd next and immediately under Christ Supream Head and Governour But what King or Queen of England besides Henry the Eighth Edward the Sixth and Queen Mary for her two first Years ever us'd that word Head Or in what Age was it that the Church of England ever pretended a power of Judicature both without and against their Kings He says if they are invested with such a Power but shews not that they are and instead thereof tells us that St. Ambrose excommunicated Theodosius the Emperour which he calls a Spiritual putting to death The like did St. German by Vortiger And two other Kings of Wales excommunicated by their respective Bishops Subjects of those Kings And admitting it I never heard that any of those Bishops ever perswaded the People that it was lawful to Murther those Kings or how does it make out this his Iustice against the King 'T is a shrewd sign a Man is sinking when he takes hold of Twigs Then he comes up with the particular Laws and Acts of Greece Athens Sparta Rome c. But what 's that to England must we be govern'd as they were Their Laws were for it the Laws of England directly against it Nor is there any Country whatever but has its particular Laws or Customs If a Man steal an Oxe or a Horse in the Isle of Man it is no Felony 4 Inst 285. for having no Woods the Offender cannot hide them but if he steal a Capon or a Pig he shall be hang'd for it But what need we saith he search after the Laws of other Lands for what is so fully and so plainly set down lawful in our own Where antient Books tell us Bracton Fleta and others that the King is under the Law and inferiour to his Parliament As for Bracton the Words that he means may be perhaps these Rex habet Superiorem Deum scilicet Item Legem per quam factus est Rex Item curiam suam viz. Comites Barones The King hath a Superiour to wit God But doth not say Superiours in the Plural Number Also a Law by which he is made King i. e. He hath a Law but says not a word of Punishment Also his Court to wit his Earls and Barons Not a Court as if it were of some others Constitution but a Court of his own Where the word habet in Propriety of Latin is necessarily understood 1 Inst 1. Or otherwise he would be contradictory to himself when he saith Omnis sub Rege Bra. l. 4. c. 24. S. 5. c. Every Man is under the King and he is under none but God He is not inferiour to his Subjects and hath no Peer in his Realm But saith no where that he is under the Law and inferiour to his Parliament which word his sufficiently denotes where the Superiority lies And for Fleta he saith Lib. 1. c. 17. f. 16. None can judge in Temporal Matters but only the King and his Substitutes Id. F. 66. And he hath his Court in his Council in his Parliaments c. And for the Mirrour of Justice a Book written in Edward the First 's time that says Mirâ— 232. Jurisdiction is the chief Dignity that appertains to the King And for what concerns the King's Oath it has been several times altered since that And what this King's Oath was I have particularly shewn before Chap. 6 Those objected Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy we swore not to his Person but as it was invested with his Authority The same said the Spencers in Edward the Second's time but it was condemned for Treason by two Acts of Parliament 7 Coke 11 12. And Sir Edw. Coke calls it a damnable detestable and execrable Treason For Corps natural le Roy politique sont un Corps Plowd 213.234.242 and are inseparable and indivisible for both make but one King 4 Inst 46. The death of the King dissolveâ— a Parliament Now if this referr'd only to his politick Capacity the Parliament would continue after his Death because a Body Politick never dies And now as the Covenant once help'd the Houses at a dead lift it must do our Accuser the like Job at parting or this his Iustice will be little beholding to it Certainly no discreet Person can imagine it should bind us to him in any stricter Sense than those Oaths formerly And truly I must approve him when he deals ingenuously no certainly it did not for they broke all three The intent of the Covenant as it was to extirpate Prelacy to preserve the Rights of Parliament and the Liberties of the Kingdom so they intended so far as it might consist with these to preserve the King's Person and Authority but not otherwise for that had been to swear us into Labirynths and Repugnancies We vow'd farther to bring Delinquents to open Tryal and condign Punishment So that to have done so by the King hath not broke the Covenant but it would have broke the Covenant to have sav'd him the chief Actor as they thought him at the time of taking that Covenant Ye have heard what he says and I leave it to every Man to apply it as he pleases But because this matter has already taken up a whole Chapter between us I referr my Reader to what I have there said Chap. 14 And now to close all and if there be any Man has a Mind to learn how to break Oaths by Providence and forswear himself to the Glory of God To say Grace to the action be it never so ungodly and give Thanks for the Success be it never so wicked To carry on a Design under the name of Publick Good and make the slavery of a Nation the liberty of the People Or in a word to hold forth any useful though notorious Untruth with convenient Obstinacy until he believes it himself and so renders it no Sin let him read this Book of Mr. Milton's and if he does not improve upon it he may thank God for it FINIS
affects not to be a God c. Whereas it was not of his Grace but of his Duty and his Oath to grant them But being neither of the King's Duty nor his Oath Chap. 6 Chap. 6. as I have already shewn it remains that they were Acts of Grace for he might have chosen whether he would have granted them or not And yet his Majesty does not as he maliciously says it twit them but in a kind of Soliloquy to his Soul Is this saith he the reward and thanks that I am to receive for those many Acts of Grace I have lately passed and for those many Indignities I have endur'd Is there no way left to make me a glorious King but by my Sufferings It was the common Protestation of all their Addresses but how well they perform'd it the World is not to learn While they were yet in pursuit it was matter of Grace but once obtain'd it turn'd to a loathing Or taking it in a middle Sense not that he twitted but minded them of what he had done a modest way of refreshing their Memories and wherein can it justly be blam'd Especially considering all he had done was but a kind of Limming the Water to them who like Tiberius when one that had been formerly Serviceable to him thus addressed him You may remember Caesar No says Caesar cutting him short I do not remember what I was Nor must there ever better be expected from Ingratitude which like a vitiated Stomach turns the best Nourishment into the Disease CHAP. X. Vpon their seizing the King's Magazines Forts Navy and Militia HOW untruly saith his Majesty I am charg'd with the first raising an Army and the beginning this Civil War the Eyes that only pity me and the loyal Hearts that durst only pray for me at first may Witness My unpreparedness for a War may well dishearten those that would help me while it argues truly my unwillingness to fight yet it testifies for me that I am set on the defensive Part having so little hopes or Power to defend others that I have none to defend my self or preserve what is my own from their prereption To which one Answerer after his wonted way To put the matter soonest out of Controversy who was the first beginner of this Civil War may be discern'd not only by the first Act of Hostility but by the Counsels and Preparations foregoing in all which the King was the foremost But what he means by that first Act of Hostility unless it were the beating off that Club-rabble from before Whitehall I cannot conjecture and if that be all I have spoken to it before and shewn that the King did no more than what any Private Man might have justified the doing of Chap. 4 And for the Counsels c. he instances in the design of German Horse Billetting of Soldiers c. when yet he knew himself it was to no other end but the carrying on the War for the recovery of the Palatinate wherein the Parliament had engag'd the King his Father The Pulpits sounded no other Doctrine than that which gave all Property to the King and Passive Obedience to the Subject And truly if they did the former they were to blame though till I have better Authority that they did so I shall not believe it And for the latter however the London and Westminster Pulpits thumb'd no Text oftner than that of Curse ye Meroz c. and nuzzled the People into a resisting the King they never applied the Doctrine of Non-Resistance to the two Houses And for Exactions and Disarmings The redress of the former was no sooner pray'd than granted and for the latter it seems strange he should tax the King with that which was the constant Modus of that Parliament Not unlike the Woman that beat her Husband and cry'd Murther to raise the Neighbours And for so much concludes That the King was the first beginner of these Civil Wars as in the Treaty of the Isle of Wight he charg'd it upon himself and acquitted the Parliament A bold Assertion and so contrary to all the King's Declarations and every Man's Knowledge that it is not to be believ'd It was hard press'd on him 't is true but that he did it appears no where Yet if he did so what kind of Men were those Commons that threw by their King's Concessions and made those desperate Votes of Non-Addresses and that it should be Treason to receive any Paper or Message from him Nor wanted they Malice to have urg'd such a Confession if any against himself when they Voted 4 Jan. 45. That the King took Arms against the Parliament and ought to expiate it with his own Blood So easie a thing it was to Murther him with his own Sword having as our Answerer confesses Milton p. 55. wrung the Militia out of his Hands CHAP. XI Vpon the Nineteen Propositions first sent to the King and more afterwards OF the Nineteen Propositions saith our Answerer he names none in particular neither shall the Answer but he insists upon the old Plea of his Conscience Honour and Reason and either of them to all honest Men a peremptory Plea This of the King 's was a discourse to himself and therefore to what End should he say more of them than what he does viz. If nothing else will satisfie I must chuse rather to be as Miserable and Inglorious as my Enemies can make or wish me Whereas our Answerer that knew them so well ought first to have told us what they were and then shewn the Unreasonableness of the King's Refusal But that he knew had been to Undeceive the People and therefore slubber'd them under the General Name of the Nineteen Propositions a Word of many Syllables Men have in their Mouths but how few of them are there that know what it means What therefore he so maliciously suppress'd I have with all Faithfulness summ'd and made such Remarks on them as followeth 1. That the Lords c. of the Privy-Council and all Great Officers of State be removed save only such as shall be approv'd by Both Houses and none put in their Places but by like Approbation The Power hereby claimed was either Originally in the People or it was not If it was they ought to have shown it if it was not the Demand was Unjust and consequently not to have been demanded 2. That the Great Affairs of the Kingdom be Transacted only in Parliament and Privy-Council Matters by such as shall be chosen by the Parliament And that no publick Act of Council be esteemed valid as proceeding from the Royal Authority unless it be sign'd by the major Part of the Council nor vacant Place therein supply'd without the Assent of the Major Part and that also to be void if not confirmed by the next Parliament This was to set the Cipher before the Figure and make the King a kind of Jupiter in Lucian a Thing of a Swelling Name but bound up to Fate 3.