him nor condemn'd themselves But he will needs have vengeance to pursue and overtake them though to bring it in it cost him an inconvenient and obnoxious comparison As the Mice and Ratts overtook a German Bishop I would our Mice and Ratts had bin as Orthodoxal heer and had so pursu'd all his Bishops out of England then vermin had ridd away vermin which now hath lost the lives of too many thousand honest men to doe He cannot but observe this Divine Justice yet with sorrow and pitty But sorrow and pitty in a weak and over-maister'd enemy is lookt upon no otherwise then as the ashes of his revenge burnt out upon it self or as the damp of a coold fury when we say it gives But in this manner to sit spelling and observing divine justice upon every accident slight disturbance that may happ'n humanly to the affaires of men is but another fragment of his brok'n revenge yet the shrewdest the cunningest obloquy that can be thrown upon thir actions For if he can perswade men that the Parlament and thir cause is pursu'd with Divine vengeance he hath attain'd his end to make all men forsake them and think the worst that can be thought of them Nor is he onely content to suborn Divine Justice in his censure of what is past but he assumes the person of Christ himself to prognosticate over us what he wishes would come So little is any thing or person sacred from him no not in Heav'n which he will not use and put on if it may serve him plausibly to wreck his spleen or ease his mind upon the Parlament Although if ever fatal blindness did both attend and punish wilfulness if ever any enjoy'd not comforts for neglecting counsel belonging to thir peace it was in none more conspicuously brought to pass then in himself and his predictions against the Parlament and thir adherents have for the most part bin verify'd upon his own head and upon his chief Counselors He concludes with high praises of the Army But praises in an enemy are superfluous or smell of craft and the Army shall not need his praises nor the Parlament fare worse for his accusing prayers that follow Wherin as his Charity can be no way comparable to that of Christ so neither can his assurance that they whom he seems to pray for in doing what they did against him knew not what they did It was but arrogance therfore and not charity to lay such ignorance to others in the sight of God till he himself had bin infallible like him whose peculiar words he overweeningly assumes XXVII Intitil'd to the Prince of Wales VVHat the King wrote to his Son as a Father concerns not us what he wrote to him as a King of England concerns not him God and the Parlament having now otherwise dispos'd of England But because I see it don with some artifice and labour to possess the people that they might amend thir present condition by his or by his Sons restorement I shall shew point by point that although the King had bin reinstall'd to his desire or that his Son admitted should observe exactly all his Fathers precepts yet that this would be so farr from conducing to our happiness either as a remedy to the present distempers or a prevention of the like to come that it would inevitably throw us back again into all our past and fulfill'd miseries would force us to fight over again all our tedious Warrs and put us to another fatal struggling for Libertie and life more dubious then the former In which as our success hath bin no other then our cause so it will be evident to all posteritie that his misfortunes were the meer consequence of his perverse judgement First he argues from the experience of those troubles which both he and his Son have had to the improvement of thir pietie and patience and by the way beares witness in his own words that the corrupt education of his youth which was but glanc'd at onely in some former passages of this answer was a thing neither of mean consideration nor untruly charg'd upon him or his Son himself confessing heer that Court delights are prone either to root up all true vertue and honour or to be contented only with some leaves and withering formalities of them without any reall fruits tending to the public good Which presents him still in his own words another Rehoboam soft'nd by a farr wors Court then Salomons and so corrupted by flatteries which he affirmes to be unseparable to the overturning of all peace and the loss of his own honour and Kingdoms That he came therfore thus bredd up and nurtur'd to the Throne farr wors then Rehoboam unless he be of those who equaliz'd his Father to King Salomon we have heer his own confession And how voluptuously how idlely raigning in the hands of other men he either tyranniz'd or trifl'd away those seventeen yeares of peace without care or thought as if to be a King had bin nothing els in his apprehension but to eat and drink and have his will and take his pleasure though there be who can relate his domestic life to the exactness of a diary there shall be heer no mention made This yet we might have then foreseen that he who spent his leisure so remissly and so corruptly to his own pleasing would one day or other be wors busied and imployd to our sorrow And that he acted in good earnest what Rehoboam did but threat'n to make his little finger heavier then his Fathers loynes and to whip us with his two twisted Scorpions both temporal and spiritual Tyranny all his Kingdoms have felt What good use he made afterward of his adversitie both his impenitence and obstinacy to the end for he was no Manasseh and the sequel of these his meditated resolutions abundantly express retaining commending teaching to his Son all those putrid and pernicious documents both of State and of Religion instill'd by wicked Doctors and receav'd by him as in a Vessel nothing better seasond which were the first occasion both of his own and all our miseries And if he in the best maturity of his yeares and understanding made no better use to himself or others of his so long and manifold afflictions either looking up to God or looking down upon the reason of his own affaires there can be no probability that his son bred up not in the soft effeminacies of Court onely but in the rugged and more boistrous licence of undisciplin'd Camps and Garrisons for yeares unable to reflect with judgement upon his own condition and thus ill instructed by his Father should give his mind to walk by any other rules then these bequeath'd him as on his Fathers death-bed as the choisest of all that experience w ch his most serious observation and retirement in good or evil dayes had taught him David indeed by suffering without just cause learnt that meekness and that wisdom by adversity
gleaning out of Books writt'n purposely to help Devotion And if in likelyhood he have borrowd much more out of Prayer-books then out of Pastorals then are these painted Feathers that set him off so gay among the people to be thought few or none of them his own But if from his Divines he have borrow'd nothing nothing out of all the Magazin and the rheume of thir Mellifluous prayers and meditations let them who now mourn for him as for Tamuz them who howle in thir Pulpits and by thir howling declare themselvs right Wolves remember and consider in the midst of thir hideous faces when they doe onely not cutt thir flesh for him like those ruefull Preists whom Eliah mock'd that he who was once thir Ahab now thir Josiah though faining outwardly to reverence Churchmen yet heer hath so extremely set at nought both them and thir praying faculty that being at a loss himself what to pray in Captivity he consulted neither with the Liturgie nor with the Directory but neglecting the huge fardell of all thir honycomb devotions went directly where he doubted not to find better praying to his mind with Pammela in the Countesses Arcadia What greater argument of disgrace ignominy could have bin thrown with cunning upon the whole Clergy then that the King among all his Preistery and all those numberles volumes of thir theological distillations not meeting with one man or book of that coate that could befreind him with a prayer in Captivity was forc'd to robb Sr. Philip and his Captive Shepherdess of thir Heathen orisons to supply in any fashion his miserable indigence not of bread but of a single prayer to God I say therfore not of bread for that want may befall a good man and yet not make him totally miserable but he who wants a prayer to beseech God in his necessity t is unexpressible how poor he is farr poorer within himself then all his enemies can make him And the unfitness the undecency of that pittifull supply which he sought expresses yet furder the deepness of his poverty Thus much be said in generall to his prayers and in special to that Arcadian prayer us'd in his Captivity anough to undeceave us what esteeme wee are to set upon the rest For he certainly whose mind could serve him to seek a Christian prayer out of a Pagan Legend and assume it for his own might gather up the rest God knows from whence one perhaps out of the French Astraea another out of the Spanish Diana Amadis and Palmerin could hardly scape him Such a person we may be sure had it not in him to make a prayer of his own or at least would excuse himself the paines and cost of his invention so long as such sweet rapsodies of Heathenism and Knighterrantry could yeild him prayers How dishonourable then and how unworthy of a Christian King were these ignoble shifts to seem holy and to get a Saintship among the ignorant and wretched people to draw them by this deception worse then all his former injuries to go a whooring after him And how unhappy how forsook of grace and unbelovd of God that people who resolv to know no more of piety or of goodnes then to account him thir cheif Saint and Martyr whose bankrupt devotion came not honestly by his very prayers but having sharkd them from the mouth of a Heathen worshipper detestable to teach him prayers sould them to those that stood and honourd him next to the Messiah as his own heav'nly compositions in adversity for hopes no less vain and presumptuous and death at that time so imminent upon him then by these goodly reliques to be held a Saint and Martyr in opinion with the People And thus farr in the whole Chapter we have seen and consider'd and it cannot but be cleer to all men how and for what ends what concernments and necessities the late King was no way induc'd but every way constrain'd to call this last Parlament yet heer in his first prayer he trembles not to avouch as in the eares of God That he did it with an upright intention to his glory and his peoples good Of which dreadfull attestation how sincerely meant God to whom it was avow'd can onely judge and he hath judg'd already and hath writt'n his impartial Sentence in Characters legible to all Christ'ndom and besides hath taught us that there be som whom he hath giv'n over to delusion whose very mind and conscience is defil'd of whom Saint Paul to Titus makes mention II. Upon the Earle of Straffords Death THis next Chapter is a penitent confession of the King and the strangest if it be well weigh'd that ever was Auricular For hee repents heer of giving his consent though most unwillingly to the most seasonable and solemn peece of Justice that had bin don of many yeares in the Land But his sole conscience thought the contrary And thus was the welfare the safety and within a little the unanimous demand of three populous Nations to have attended stil on the singularity of one mans opi nionated conscience if men had bin always so tame and spiritless and had not unexpectedly found the grace to understand that if his conscience were so narrow and peculiar to it selfe it was not fitt his Authority should be so ample and Universall over others For certainly a privat conscience sorts not with a public Calling but declares that Person rather meant by nature for a private fortune And this also we may take for truth that hee whose conscience thinks it sin to put to death a capital Offendor will as oft think it meritorious to kill a righteous Person But let us heare what the sin was that lay so sore upon him and as one of his Prayers giv'n to Dr. Juxton testifies to the very day of his death it was his signing the Bill of Straffords execution 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 designe He had rul'd Ireland and som parts of England in an Arbitrary manner had indeavour'd to subvert Fnndamental Lawes to subvert Parlaments and to incense the King against them he had also endeavor'd to make Hostility between England and Scotland He had counceld the King to call over that Irish Army of Papists which he had cunningly rais'd to reduce England as appear'd by good Testimony then present at the Consultation For which and many other crimes alledg'd and prov'd against him in 28 Articles he was condemnd of high Treason by the Parlament The Commons by farr the greater number cast him the Lords after they had bin satisfi'd in a full discours by the Kings Sollicitor and the opinions of many Judges deliver'd in thir House agreed likewise to the Sentence of Treason The People universally cri'd out for Justice None were his Friends but Coutiers and Clergimen the worst at that time and most corrupted sort of men and Court Ladies not
in any Kings heart And thus his pregnant motives are at last prov'd nothing but a Tympany or a Queen Maries Cushion For in any Kings heart as Kings goe now what shadowie conceit or groundless toy will not create a jealousie That he had design'd to assault the House of Commons taking God to witness he utterly denies yet in his Answer to the City maintaines that any course of violence had bin very justifiable And we may then guess how farr it was from his designe However it discover'd in him an excessive eagerness to be aveng'd on them that cross'd him and that to have his will he stood not to doe things never so much below him What a becomming sight it was to see the King of England one while in the House of Commons by and by in the Guild-Hall among the Liveries and Manufactures prosecuting so greedily the track of five or six fled Subjects himself not the Sollicitor onely but the Pursivant and the Apparitor of his own partial cause And although in his Answers to the Parlament hee hath confess'd first that his manner of prosecution was illegal next that as hee once conceiv'd hec had ground anough to accuse them so at length that hee found as good cause to desert any prosecution of them yet heer he seems to reverse all and against promise takes up his old deserted accusation that he might have something to excuse himself instead of giving due reparation which he always refus'd to give them whom he had so dishonor'd That I went saith he of his going to the House of Commons attended with some Gentlemen Gentlemen indeed the ragged Infantrie of Stewes and Brothels the spawn and shiprack of Taverns and Dicing Houses and then he pleads it was no unwonted thing for the Majesty and safety of a King to be so attended especially in discontented times An illustrious Majestie no doubt so attended a becomming safety for the King of England plac'd in the fidelity of such Guards and Champions Happy times when Braves and Hacksters the onely contented Members of his Goverment were thought the fittest and the faithfullest to defend his Person against the discontents of a Parlament and all good Men. Were those the chos'n ones to preserve reverence to him while he enterd unassur'd and full of suspicions into his great and faithfull Councel Let God then and the World judge whether the cause were not in his own guilty and unwarrantable doings The House of Commons upon several examinations of this business declar'd it sufficiently prov'd that the comming of those soldiers Papists and others with the King was to take away some of thir Members and in case of opposition or denyal to have fal'n upon the House in a hostile manner This the King heer denies adding a fearful imprecation against his own life If he purposed any violence or oppression against the Innocent then saith he let the Enemie persecute my soule and tred my life to the ground and lay my honor in the dust What need then more disputing He appeal'd to Gods Tribunal and behold God hath judg'd and don to him in the sight of all men according to the verdict of his own mouth To be a warning to all Kings hereafter how they use presumptuously the words and protestations of David without the spirit and conscience of David And the Kings admirers may heer see thir madness to mistake this Book for a monument of his worth and wisdom when as indeed it is his Doomsday Booke not like that of William the Norman his Predecessor but the record and memorial of his condemnation and discovers whatever hath befal'n him to have bin hast'nd on from Divine Justice by the rash and inconsiderat appeal of his own lipps But what evasions what pretences though never so unjust and emptie will he refuse in matters more unknown and more involv'd in the mists and intricacies of State who rather then not justifie himself in a thing so generally odious can flatter his integritie with such frivolous excuses against the manifest dissent of all men whether Enemies Neuters or Friends But God and his judgements have not bin mock'd and good men may well perceive what a distance there was ever like to be between him and his Parlament and perhaps between him and all amendment who for one good deed though but consented to askes God forgiveness and from his worst deeds don takes occasion to insist upon his rightecusness IV. Vpon the Insolency of the Tumults WEE have heer I must confess a neat and well-couch'd invective against Tumults expressing a true feare of them in the Author but yet so handsomly compos'd and withall so feelingly that to make a Royal comparison I beleeve Rehoboam the Son of Solomon could not have compos'd it better Yet Rehoboam had more cause to inveigh against them for they had ston'd his Tribute-gatherer and perhaps had as little spar'd his own Person had hee not with all speed betak'n him to his Charret But this King hath stood the worst of them in his own House without danger when his Coach and Horses in a Panic fear have bin to seek which argues that the Tumults at Whitehall were nothing so dangerous as those at Sechem But the matter heer considerable is not whether the King or his Houshold Rhetorician have made a pithy declamation against Tumults but first whether these were Tumults or not next if they were whether the King himself did not cause them Let us examin therfore how things at that time stood The King as before hath bin prov'd having both call'd this Parlament unwillingly and as unwillingly from time to time condescended to thir several acts carrying on a disjoynt and privat interest of his own and not enduring to be so cross'd and overswaid especially in the executing of his chief bold est Instrument the Deputy of Ireland first tempts the English Army with no less reward then the spoil of London to come up and destroy the Parlament That being discover'd by some of the Officers who though bad anough yet abhorr'd so foul a deed the K. hard'nd in his purpose tempts them the 2d time at Burrow Bridge promises to pawn his Jewels for them that they should be mett assisted would they but march on w th a gross body of hors under the E. of Newcastle He tempts them yet the third time though after discovery his own abjuration to have ever tempted them as is affirmd in the Declaration of no more addresses Neither this succeeding he turnes him next to the Scotch Army by his own credential Letters giv'n to Oneal and Sr John Hinderson baites his temptation with a richer reward not only to have the sacking of London but four Northern Counties to be made Scottish w th Jewels of great value to be giv'n in pawn thewhile But neither would the Scots for any promise of reward be bought to such an execrable and odious treachery but with much honesty gave notice of
visible eev'n to most of those Men who now will see nothing At passing of the former Act he himself conceal'd not his unwillingness and testifying a general dislike of thir actions which they then proceeded in with great approbation of the whole Kingdom he told them with a maisterly Brow that by this Act he had oblig'd them above what they had deserv'd and gave a peece of Justice to the Common wealth six times short of his Predecessors as if he had bin giving som boon or begg'd Office to a sort of his desertless Grooms That he pass'd the latter Act against his will no man in reason can hold it questionable For if the February before he made so dainty and were so loath to bestow a Parlament once in three yeare upon the Nation because this had so oppos'd his courses was it likely that the May following he should bestow willingly on this Parlament an indissoluble sitting when they had offended him much more by cutting short and impeaching of high Treason his chief Favorites It was his feare then not his favor which drew from him that Act lest the Parlament incens'd by his Conspiracies against them about the same time discover'd should with the people have resented too hainously those his doings if to the suspicion of thir danger from him he had also added the denyal of this onely meanes to secure themselves From these Acts therfore in which he glories and wherwith so oft he upbraids the Parlament he cannot justly expect to reape aught but dishonour and dispraise as being both unwillingly granted and the one granting much less then was before allow'd by Statute the other being a testimony of his violent and lawless Custom not onely to break Privileges but whole Parlaments from which enormity they were constrain'd to bind him first of all his Predecessors never any before him having giv'n like causes of distrust and jealousie to his People As for this Parlament how farr he was from being advis'd by them as he ought let his own words express He taxes them with undoing what they found well done and yet knows they undid nothing in the Church but Lord Bishops Liturgies Ceremonies High Commission judg'd worthy by all true Protestants to bee thrown out of the Church They undid nothing in the State but irregular and grinding Courts the maine grievances to be remov'd if these were the things which in his opinion they found well don we may againe from hence be inform'd with what unwillingness he remou'd them and that those gracious Acts wherof so frequently he makes mention may be english'd more properly Acts of feare and dissimulation against his mind and conscience The bill preventing dissolution of this Parlament he calls An unparalell'd Act out of the extreme confidence that his Subjects would not make ill use of it But was it not a greater confidence of the people to put into one mans hand so great a power till he abus'd it as to summon and dissolve Parlaments Hee would be thankt for trusting them and ought to thank them rather for trusting him the trust issuing first from them not from him And that it was a meer trust and not his Prerogative to call and dissolve Parlaments at his pleasure And that Parlaments were not to be dissolv'd till all Petitions were heard all greevances redrest is not onely the assertion of this Parlament but of our ancient Law Books which averr it to be an unwritt'n Law of common Right so ingrav'n in the hearts of our Ancestors and by them so constantly enjoy'd and claim'd as that it needed not enrouling And if the Scots in thir Declaration could charge the King with breach of their Lawes for breaking up that Parlament without their consent while matters of greatest moment were depending it were unreasonable to imagin that the wisdom of England should be so wanting to it self through all Ages as not to provide by som known Law writt'n or unwritt'n against the not calling or the arbitrary dissolving of Parlaments or that they who ordain'd thir summoning twice a yeare or as oft as need requir'd did not tacitly enact also that as necessity of affaires call'd them so the same necessity should keep them undissolv'd till that were fully satisfi'd Were it not for that Parlaments and all the fruit and benefit we receave by having them would turne soon to meer abusion It appeares then that if this Bill of not dissolving were an unparallel'd Act it was a known and common Right which our Ancestors under other Kings enjoyd as firmly as if it had bin grav'n in Marble and that the infringement of this King first brought it into a writt'n Act Who now boasts that as a great favour don us which his own less fidelity then was in former Kings constrain'd us onely of an old undoubted Right to make a new writt'n Act. But what needed writt'n Acts when as anciently it was esteem'd part of his Crown Oath not to dissolve Parlaments till all greevances were consider'd wherupon the old Modi of Parlament calls it flat perjury if he dissolve them before as I find cited in a Booke mention'd at the beginning of this Chapter to which and other Law-tractats I referr the more Lawyerlie mooting of this point which is neither my element nor my proper work heer since the Book which I have to Answer pretends reason not Autoritys and quotations and I hold reason to be the best Arbitrator and the Law of Law it self T is true that good Subjects think it not just that the Kings condition should be worse by bettering theirs But then the King must not be at such a distance from the people in judging what is better and what worse which might have bin agreed had he known for his own words condemn him as well with moderation to use as with earnestness to desire his own advantages A continual Parlament he thought would keep the Common-wealth in tune Judge Common wealth what proofs he gave that this boasted profession was ever in his thought Some saith he gave out that I repented me of that setling Act. His own actions gave it out beyond all supposition For doubtless it repented him to have establish'd that by Law which he went about so soon after to abrogat by the Sword He calls those Acts which he confesses tended to thir good not more Princely then friendly contributions As if to doe his dutie were of curtesie and the discharge of his trust a parcell of his liberality so nigh lost in his esteem was the birthright of our Liberties that to give them back againe upon demand stood at the mercy of his Contribution He doubts not but the affections of his People will compensate his sufferings for those acts of confidence And imputes his sufferings to a contrary cause Not his confidence but his distrust was that which brought him to those sufferings from the time that he forsook his Parlament and trusted them ne're the sooner for what he tells of
from which his Conscience and his Reason chose to run rather then not deny To be importun'd the removing of evil Counselors and other greevances in Church and State was to him an intollerable oppression If the peoples demanding were so burd'nsome to him what was his denial and delay of Justice to them But as the demands of his people were to him a burd'n and oppression so was the advice of his Parlament esteem'd a bondage Whose agreeing Votes as he affirmes Were not by any Law or reason conclusive to his judgement For the Law it ordaines a Parlament to advise him in his great affaires but if it ordaine also that the single judgement of a King shall out-ballance all the wisdom of his Parlament it ordaines that which frustrats the end of its own ordaining For where the Kings judgement may dissent to the destruction as it may happ'n both of himself and the Kingdom there advice and no furder is a most insufficient and frustraneous meanes to be provided by Law in case of so high concernment And where the main principal Law of common preservation against tyranny is left so fruitless and infirm there it must needs follow that all lesser Laws are to thir severall ends and purposes much more weak and uneffectual For that Nation would deserv to be renownd and Chronicl'd for folly stupidity that should by Law provide force against privat and petty wrongs advice only against tyranny and public ruin It being therfore most unlike a Law to ordain a remedy so slender and unlawlike to be the utmost meanes of all our safety or prevention as advice is which may at any time be rejected by the sole judgement of one man the King and so unlike the Law of England which Lawyers say is the quintessence of reason and mature wisdom wee may conclude that the Kings negative voice was never any Law but an absurd and reasonless Custom begott'n and grown up either from the flattery of basest times or the usurpation of immoderat Princes Thus much to the Law of it by a better evidence then Rowles and Records Reason But is it possible he should pretend also to reason that the judgement of one man not as a wise or good man but as a King and oft times a wilfull proud and wicked King should outweigh the prudence and all the vertue of an elected Parlament What an abusive thing were it then to summon Parlaments that by the Major part of voices greatest matters may be there debated and resolv'd when as one single voice after that shalldash all thir Resolutions He attempts to give a reason why it should Because the whole Parlament represents not him in any kind But mark how little he advances for if the Parlament represent the whole Kingdom as is sure anough they doe then doth the King represent onely himself and if a King without his Kingdom be in a civil sense nothing then without or against the Representative of his whole Kingdom he himself represents nothing and by consequence his judgement and his negative is as good as nothing and though we should allow him to be something yet not equivalent or comparable to the whole Kingdom and so neither to them who represent it much less that one syllable of his breath putt into the scales should be more ponderous then the joynt voice and efficacy of a whole Parlament assembl'd by election and indu'd with the plenipotence of a free Nation to make Laws not to be deny'd Laws and with no more but No a sleevless reason in the most pressing times of danger and disturbance to be sent home frustrat and remediless Yet heer he maintains To be no furder bound to agree with the Votes of both Houses then he sees them to agree with the will of God with his just Rights as a King and the generall good of his People As to the freedom of his agreeing or not agreeing limited with due bounds no man reprehends it this is the Question heer or the Miracle rather why his onely not agreeing should lay a negative barr and inhibition upon that which is agreed to by a whole Parlament though never so conducing to the Public good or safety To know the will of God better then his whole Kingdom whence should he have it Certainly Court-breeding and his perpetual conversation with Flatterers was but a bad Schoole To judge of his own Rights could not belong to him who had no right by Law in any Court to judge of so much as Fellony or Treason being held a party in both these Cases much more in this and his Rights however should give place to the general good for which end all his Rights were giv'n him Lastly to suppose a clearer insight and discerning of the general good allotted to his own singular judgement then to the Parlament and all the People and from that self-opinion of discerning to deny them that good which they being all Freemen seek earnestly and call for is an arrogance and iniquity beyond imagination rude and unreasonable they undoubtedly having most autoritie to judge of the public good who for that purpose are chos'n out and sent by the People to advise him And if it may be in him to see oft the major part of them not in the right had it not bin more his modestie to have doubted their seeing him more oft'n in the wrong Hee passes to another reason of his denials Because of some mens hydropic unsatiableness and thirst of asking the more they drank whom no fountaine of regall bountie was able to overcome A comparison more properly bestow'd on those that came to guzzle in his Wine-cellar then on a freeborn People that came to claime in Parlament thir Rights and Liberties which a King ought therfore to grant because of right demanded not to deny them for feare his bounty should be exhaust which in these demands to continue the same Metaphor was not so much as Broach'd it being his duty not his bounty to grant these things He who thus refuses to give us Law in that refusal gives us another Law which is his will another name also and another condition of Freemen to become his vassals Putting off the Courtier he now puts on the Philosopher and sententiously disputes to this effect that reason ought to be vs'd to men force and terror to Beasts that he deserves to be a slave who captivates the rationall soverantie of his soule and liberty of his will to compulsion that he would not forfeit that freedome which cannot be deni'd him as a King because it belongs to him as a Man and a Christian thoughto preserve his Kingdom but rather dye injoying the Empire of his soule then live in such a vassalage as not to use his reason and conscience to like or dislike as a King Which words of themselves as farr as they are sense good and Philosophical yet in the mouth of him who to engross this common libertie to himself would tred
cannot but be farr short of spirit and autority without dores to govern a whole Nation Her tarrying heer he could not think safe among them who were shaking hands with Allegiance to lay faster hold on Religion and taxes them of a duty rather then a crime it being just to obey God rather then Man and impossible to serve two Maisters I would they had quite shak'n off what they stood shaking hands with the fault was in thir courage not in thir cause In his Prayer he prayes that The disloyaltie of his Protestant Subjects may not be a hindrance to her love of the true Religion and never prays that the dissoluteness of his Court the scandals of his Clergy the unsoundness of his own judgement the lukewarmness of his life his Letter of compliance to the Pope his permitting Agents at Rome the Popes Nuntio and her Jesuited Mother here may not be found in the sight of God farr greater hindrances to her conversion But this had bin a suttle Prayer indeed and well pray'd though as duely as a Pater-noster if it could have charm'd us to sit still and have Religion and our Liberties one by one snatch'd from us for fear least rising to defend our selves wee should fright the Queen a stiff Papist from turning Protestant As if the way to make his Queen a Protestant had bin to make his Subjects more then half way Papists He prays next That his constancy may be an antidote against the poyson of other mens example His constancy in what Not in Religion for it is op'nly known that her Religion wrought more upon him then his Religion upon her and his op'n favouring of Papists and his hatred of them call'd Puritants the ministers also that prayd in Churches for her Conversion being checkt from Court made most men suspect she had quite perverted him But what is it that the blindness of hypocrisy dares not doe It dares pray and thinks to hide that from the eyes of God which it cannot hide from the op'n view of man VIII Upon His repulse at Hull and the fate of the Hothams Hull a town of great strength and opportunitie both to sea and land affaires was at that time the Magazin of all those armes which the King had bought with mony most illegally extorted from his subjects of England to use in a causless and most unjust civil warr against his Subjects of Scotland The King in high discontent and anger had left the Parlament and was gon toward the North 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 intent these summs were rais'd the Parlament was not ignorant His going northward in so high a chafe they doubted was to possess himself of that strength which the storehouse and situation of Hull might add suddenly to his malignant party Having first therefore in many Petitions earnestly pray'd him to dispose and settle with consent of both Houses the military power in trusty hands and he as oft refusing they were necessitated by the turbulence and danger of those times to put the Kingdom by thir own autority into a posture ofdefence and very timely sent sir John Hotham a member of the House and Knight of that county to take Hull into his custody and some of the Train'd bands to his assistance For besides the General danger they had before the Kings going to York notice giv'n them of his privat Commissions to the Earl of Newcastle and to Colonel Legg one of those imploid to bring the Army up against the ParParlament who had already made som attempts the latter of them under a disguise to surprise that place for the Kings party And letters of the Lord Digby were intercepted wherin was wisht that the K. would declare himself and retire to some safe place other information came from abroad that Hull was the place design'd for some new enterprise And accordingly Digby himself not long after with many other Commanders and much forrain Ammunition landed in those parts But these attempts not succeeding and that Town being now in custody of the Parlament he sends a message to them that he had firmely resolv'd to go in person into Ireland to chastise those wicked Rebels for these and wors words he then gave them and that toward this work he intended forthwith to raise by his commissions in the Counties neere Westchester a guard for his own person consisting of 2000. foot and 200. horse that should be arm'd from his Magazin at Hull On the other side the Parlament forseeing the Kings drift about the same time send him a Petition that they might have leave for necessary causes to remoove the magazin of Hull to the Towre of London to which the King returnes his denial and soon after going to Hull attended with about 400. Horse requires the Governour to deliver him up the Town wherof the Governour besought humbly to be excus'd till he could send notice to the Parlament who had intrusted him wherat the King much incens'd proclaims him Traitor before the Town Walls and gives immediat order to stop all passages between him and the Parlament Yet he himself dispatches post after post to demand justice as upon a Traitor using a strange iniquitie to require justice upon him whom he then way layd and debari'd from his appearance The Parlament no sooner understood what had pass'd but they declare that Sir John Hotham had don no more then was his duty and was therfore no Traitor This relation being most true proves that which is affirm'd heer to be most fals seeing the Parlament whom he accounts his greatest Enemies had more confidence to abett and own what Sir John Hotham had don then the King had confidence to let him answer in his own behalf To speake of his patience and in that solemn manner he might better have forborne God knows saith he it affected me more with sorrow for others then with anger for my self nor did the affront trouble me so much as their sin This is read I doubt not and beleev'd and as there is some use of every thing so is there of this Book were it but to shew us what a miserable credulous deluded thing that creature is which is call'd the Vulgar who notwithstanding what they might know will beleeve such vain-glories as these Did not that choleric and vengefull act of proclaiming him Traitor before due process of Law having bin convinc'd so late before of his illegallity with the five Members declare his anger to be incens'd doth not his own relation confess as much and his second Message left him fuming three dayes after and in plaine words testifies bis impatience of delay till Hotham be severely punish'd for that which he there termes an insupportable affront Surely if his sorrow for Sir John Hothams sin were greater then his anger for the affront it was an exceeding great sorrow indeed and wondrous charitable But if it
Propositions were obtruded on 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 He never reck'ns those violent and merciless obtrusions which for almost twenty years he had bin forcing upon tender consciences by all sorts of Persecution till through the multitude of them that were to suffer it could no more be call'd a Persecution but a plain VVarr From which when first the Scots then the English were constrain'd to defend themselves this thir just defence is that which he cals heer Thir making Warr upon his soul. He grudges that So many things are requir'd of him and nothing offerd him in requital of those favours which he had granted What could satiate the desires of this man who being king of England and Maister of almost two millions yearly what by hook or crook was still in want and those acts of Justice which he was to doe in duty counts don as favours and such favors as were not don without the avaritious hope of other rewards besides supreme honour and the constant Revennue of his place This honour he saith they did him to put him on the giving part And spake truer then he intended it beeing meerly for honours sake that they did so not that it belong'd to him of right For what can he give to a Parlament who receaves all he hath from the People and for the Peoples good Yet now he brings his own conditional rights to contest and be preferr'd before the Peoples good and yet unless it be in order to their good he hath no rights at all raigning by the Laws of the Land not by his own which Laws are in the hands of Parlament to change or abrogate as they shall see best for the Common-wealth eev'n to the taking away of King-ship it self when it grows too Maisterfull and Burd'nsome For every Common-wealth is in general defin'd a societie sufficient of it self in all things conducible to well being and commodious life Any of which requisit things if it cannot have without the gift and favour of a single person or without leave of his privat reason or his conscience it cannot be thought sufficient of it self and by consequence no Common-wealth nor free but a multitude of Vassalls in the Possession and domaine of one absolute Lord and wholly obnoxious to his will If the King have power to give or deny any thing to his Parlament he must doe it either as a Person several from them or as one greater neither of which will be allow'd him not to be consider'd severally from them for as the King of England can doe no wrong so neither can he doe right but in his Courts and by his Courts and what is legally don in them shall be deem'd the Kings assent though he as a several Person shall judge or endeavour the contrary So that indeed without his Courts or against them he is no King If therefore he obtrude upon us any public mischeif or withhold from us any general good which is wrong in the highest degree he must doe it as a Tyrant not as a King of England by the known Maxims of our Law Neither can he as one greater give aught to the Parlament which is not in thir own power but he must be greater also then the Kingdom which they represent So that to honour him with the giving part was a meer civility and may be well term'd the courtesie of England not the Kings due But the incommunicable Jewell of his conscience he will not give but reserve to himself It seemes that his conscience was none of the Crown Jewels for those we know were in Holland not incommunicable to buy Armes against his Subjects Being therfore but a privat Jewel he could not have don a greater pleasure to the Kingdom then by reserving it to himself But he contrary to what is heer profess'd would have his conscience not an incommunicable but a universal conscience the whole Kingdoms conscience Thus what he seemes to feare least we should ravish from him is our chief complaint that he obtruded upon us we never forc'd him to part with his conscience but it was he that would have forc'd us to part with ours Som things he taxes them to have offer'd him which while he had the maistery of his Reason he would never consent to Very likely but had his reason maisterd him as it ought and not bin maisterd long agoe by his sense and humour as the breeding of most Kings hath bin ever sensual and most humour'd perhaps he would have made no difficulty Mean while at what a fine pass is the Kingdom that must depend in greatest exigencies vpon the fantasie of a Kings reason be he wise or foole who arrogantly shall answer all the wisdom of the Land that what they offer seemes to him unreasonable He preferrs his love of Truth before his love of the People His love of Truth would have ledd him to the search of Truth and have taught him not to lean so much upon his own understanding He met at first with Doctrines of unaccountable Prerogative in them he rested because they pleas'd him they therfore pleas'd him because they gave him all and this he calls his love of Truth and preferrs it before the love of his peoples peace Som things they propos'd which would have wounded the inward peace of his conscience The more our evil happ that three Kingdoms should be thus pesterd with one Conscience who chiefly scrupl'd to grant us that which the parlament advis'd him to as the chief meanes of our public welfare and Reformation These scruples to many perhaps will seem pretended to others upon as good grounds may seem real and that it was the just judgement of God that he who was so cruel and so remorseless to other mens consciences should have a conscience within him as cruel to himself constraining him as he constrain'd others and insnaring him in such waies and counsels as were certain to be his destruction Other things though he could approve yet in honour and policy he thought fit to deny lest he should seem to dare aeny nothing By this meanes he will be sure what with reason conscience honour policy or puntilios to be found never unfurnisht of a denyal Whether it were his envy not to be over bounteous or that the submissness of our asking stirr'd up in him a certain pleasure of denying Good Princes have thought it thir chief happiness to be alwayes granting if good things for the things sake if things indifferent for the peoples sake while this man sits calculating varietie of excuses how he may grant least as if his whole strength and royaltie were plac'd in a meer negative Of one Proposition especially he laments him much that they would bind him to a generall and implicit consent for what ever they desir'd Which though I find not among the nineteene yet undoubtedly the Oath of his coronation
doe such a business then they themselves who complain most But he must chew such Morsels as Propositions ere he let them down So let him but if the Kingdom shall tast nothing but after his chewing what does he make of the Kingdom but a great baby The streitness of his conscience will not give him leave to swallow down such Camels of sacrilege and injustice as others doe This is the Pharisee up and down I am not as other men are But what Camels of Injustice he could devoure all his three Realms were wittness which was the cause that they almost perish'd for want of Parlaments And he that will be unjust to man will be sacrilegious to God and to bereave a Christian conscience of libertie for no other reason then the narrowness of his own conscience is the most unjust measure to man and the worst sacrilege to God That other which he calls sacrilege of taking from the Clergy that superfluous wealth which antiquitie as old as Constantine from the credit of a Divine vision counted poyson in the Church hath bin ever most oppos'd by men whose righteousness in other matters hath bin least observ'd He concludes as his manner is with high commendation of his own unbiass'd rectitude and beleives nothing to be in them that dissent from him but faction innovation and particular designes Of these repetitions I find no end no not in his prayer which being founded upon deceitfull principl's and a fond hope that God will bless him in those his errors which he calls honest finds a fitt answer of S. James Yee ask and receave not because yee aske amiss As for the truth and sinceritie which he praies may be alwaies found in those his Declarations to the people the contrariety of his own actions will bear eternal witness how little carefull or sollicitous he was what he promis'd or what he utterd there XII Vpon the Rebellion in Ireland THe Rebellion and horrid massacher of English Protestants in Ireland to the number of 1 54000. in the Province of Ulster onely by thir own computation which added to the other three makes up the total summ of that slaughter in all likelyhood fowr times as great although so sudden and so violent as at first to amaze all men that were not accessory yet from whom and from what counsels it first sprung neither was nor could be possibly so secret as the contrivers therof blinded with vaine hope or the despaire that other plots would succeed suppos'd For it cannot be imaginable that the Irish guided by so many suttle and Italian heads of the Romish party should so farr have lost the use of reason and indeed of common Sense as not supported with other strength then thir own to begin a Warr so desperate and irreconcileable against both England and Scotland at once All other Nations from whom they could expect aid were busied to the utmost in thir own most necessary concernments It remaines then that either some autoritie or som great assistance promis'd them from England was that wheron they cheifly trusted And as it is not difficult to discern from what inducing cause this insurrection first arose so neither was it hard at first to have apply'd some effectual remedy though not prevention And yet prevention was not hopeles when Strafford either beleivd not or did not care to beleive the several warnings and discoveries therof which more then once by Papists and by Friers themselves were brought him besides what was brought by depositition divers months before that Rebellion to the Arch bishop of Canterbury and others of the Kings Counsel as the Declaration of no addresses declares But the assurance which they had in privat that no remedy should be apply'd was it seemes one of the chief reasons that drew on thir undertaking And long it was ere that assurance faild them untill the Bishops and Popish Lords who while they sate and Voted still oppos'd the sending aid to Ireland were expelld the House Seeing then the maine incitement and Autority for this Rebellion must be needs deriv'd from England it will be next inquir'd who was the prime Author The King heer denounces a malediction temporal and eternal not simply to the Author but to the malitious Author of this blood-shedd and by that limitation may exempt not himself onely but perhaps the Irish Rebels themselves who never will confess to God or Man that any blood was shed by them malitiously but either in the Catholic cause or common Liberty or some other specious Plea which the conscience from grounds both good and evil usually suggests to it self thereby thinking to elude the direct force of that imputation which lies upon them Yet he acknowledges It fell out as a most unhappy advantage of some mens malice against him but indeed of most mens just suspicion by finding in it no such wide departure or disagreement from the scope of his former Counsels and proceedings And that he himself was the Author of that Rebelion he denies both heer and elswhere with many imprecations but no solid evidence What on the other side against his denyal hath bin affirm'd in three Kingdoms being heer briefly set in view the Reader may so judge as he findes cause This is most certain that the King was ever friendly to the Irish Papists and in his third yeare against the plain advice of Parlament like a kind of Pope sold them many indulgences for Mony and upon all occasions advancing the Popish party and negotiating under hand by Priests who were made his Agents ingag'd the Irish Papists in a Warr against the Scotch Protestants To that end he furnish'd them and had them train'd in Arms and kept them up either op'nly or under hand the onely army in his three Kingdoms till the very burst of that Rebellion The Summer before that dismal October a Committy of most active Papists all since in the head of that Rebellion were in great favour at White-Hall and admitted to many privat consultations with the King and Queen And to make it evident that no mean matters were the subject of those Conferences at their request he gave away his peculiar right to more then five Irish Counties for the payment of an inconsiderable Rent They departed not home till within two Mounths before the Rebellion and were either from the first breaking out or soon after found to be the cheif Rebels themselves But what should move the King besides his own inclination to Popery and the prevalence of his Queen over him to hold such frequent and close meetings with a Committy of Irish Papists in his own House while the Parlament of England sate unadvis'd with is declar'd by a Scotch Author and of it self is cleare anough The Parlament at the beginning of that Summer having put Strafford to death imprison'd others his chief Favorites and driv'n the rest to fly the K. who had in vain tempted both the Scotch and the English Army to come up against
the Parlament and Citty finding no compliance answerable to his hope from the Protestant Armies betakes himself last to the Irish who had in readiness an Army of eight thousand Papists which he had refus'd so oft'n to disband and a Committy heer of the same Religion With them who thought the time now come which to bring about they had bin many yeares before not wishing only but with much industrie complotting to do som eminent service for the Church of Rome thir own perfidious natures against a Puritan Parlmt the hated English thir Masters he agrees concludes that so soon as both Armies in England were disbanded the Irish should appeare in Arms maister all the Protestants and help the King against his Parlament And we need not doubt that those five Counties were giv'n to the Irish for other reason then the four Northern Counties had bin a little before offerd to the Scots The King in August takes a journey into Scotland and overtaking the Scotch Army then on thir way home attempts the second time to pervert them but without success No sooner comm into Scotland but he laies a plot so saith the Scotch Author to remove out of the way such of the Nobility there as were most likely to withstand or not to furder his designes This being discover'd he sends from his side one Dillon a Papist Lord soon after a cheif Rebell with Letters into Ireland and dispatches a Commission under the great Seale of Scotland at that time in his own custody commanding that they should forthwith as had bin formerly agreed cause all the Irish to rise in Armes Who no sooner had receiv'd such command but obey'd and began in Massacher for they knew no other way to make sure the Protestants which was commanded them expressly and the way it seems left to thir discretion He who hath a mind to read the Commission it self and sound reason added why it was not likely to be forg'd besides the attestation of so many Irish themselves may have recourse to a Book intitl'd The Mysterie of Iniquity Besides what the Parlament it self in the Declaration of no more addresses hath affirm'd that they have one copy of that Commission in thir own hands attested by the Oathes of some that were ey-witnesses and had seen it under the Seale Others of the principal Rebels have confess'd that this Commission was the summer before promis'd at London to the Irish Commissioners to whom the King then discoverd in plain words his great desire to be reveng'd on the Parlament of England After the Rebellion brok'n out which in words onely he detested but under hand favour'd and promoted by all the offices of freindship correspondence and what possible aide he could afford them the particulars wherof are too many to be inserted heer I suppose no understanding Man could longer doubt who was Author or Instigator of that Rebellion If there be who yet doubt I referr them especially to that Declaration of July 1643. with that of no addresses 1647. and another full volum of examinations to be sett out speedily concerning this matter Against all which testimonies likelyhoods evidences and apparent actions of his own being so abundant his bare deniall though with imprecation can no way countervaile and least of all in his own cause As for the Commission granted them he thinkes to evade that by retorting that some in England fight against him and yet pretend his authority But though a Parlament by the known Laws may affirme justly to have the Kings authority inseparable from that Court though divided from his Person it is not credible that the Irish Rebels who so much tenderd his Person above his Autoritie and were by him so well receavd at Oxford would be so farr from all humanitie as to slander him with a particular Commission sign'd and sent them by his own hand And of his good affection to the Rebels this Chapter it self is not without witness He holds them less in fault then the Scots as from whom they might allege to have fetch'd thir imitation making no difference between men that rose necessarily to defend themselves which no Protestant Doctrin ever disallow'd against them who threatn'd Warr and those who began a voluntary and causeless Rebellion with the Massacher of so many thousands who never meant them harme He falls next to flashes and a multitude of words in all which is contain'd no more then what might be the Plea of any guiltiest Offender He was not the Author because he hath the greatest share of loss and dishonour by what is committed Who is there that offends God or his Neighbour on whom the greatest share of loss and dishonour lights not in the end But in the act of doing evil men use not to consider the event of thir evil doing or if they doe have then no power to curb the sway of thir own wickedness So that the greatest share of loss and dishonour to happ'n upon themselves is no argument that they were not guilty This other is as weake that a Kings interest above that of any other man lies chiefly in the common welfare of his Subjects therfore no King will do aught against the Common welfare For by this evasion any tyrant might as well purge himself from the guilt of raising troubles or commotions among the people because undoubtedly his chief Interest lies in thir sitting still I said but now that eev'n this Chapter if nothing els might suffice to discover his good affection to the Rebels which in this that follows too notoriously appeares imputing this insurrection to the preposterous rigor and unreasonable severitie the covetous zeale and uncharitable fury of some men these some men by his continual paraphrase are meant the Parlament and lastly to the feare of utter extirpation If the whole Irishry of Rebells had fee'd som advocate to speak partially and sophistically in thir defence he could have hardly dazl'd better Yet never the less would have prov'd himself no other then a plausible deceiver And perhaps nay more then perhaps for it is affirm'd extant under good evidence that those fained terrors and jealousies were either by the King himself or the Popish Preists w ch were sent by him put into the head of that inquisitive people on set purpose to engage them For who had power to oppress them or to releive them being opprest but the King or his immediat Deputy This rather should have made them rise against the King then against the Parlament Who threat'nd or ever thought of thir extirpation till they themselves had begun it to the English As for preposterous riger covetous zeale and uncharitable fury they had more reason to suspect those evils first from his own commands whom they saw using daily no greater argument to prove the truth of his Religion then by enduring no other but his owne Prelatical and to force it upon others made Episcopal Ceremonial and common-Prayer-Book Warrs But the Papists
new disguise He layes down his Armes but not his Wiles nor all his Armes for in obstinacy he comes no less arm'd then ever Cap a pè And what were they but wiles continually to move for Treaties and yet to persist the same man and to fortifie his mind before hand still purposing to grant no more then what seem'd good to that violent and lawless Triumvirate within him under the falsifi'd names of his Reason Honour and Conscience the old circulating dance of his shifts and evasions The words of a King as they are full of power in the autority and strength of Law so like Sampson without the strength of that Nazarites lock they have no more power in them then the words of another man He adores Reason as Domitian did Minerva and calls her the Divinest power thereby to intimate as if at reasoning as at his own weapon no man were so able as himself Might we be so happy as to know where these monuments of his Reason may be seen for in his actions his writing they appeare as thinly as could be expected from the meanest parts bredd up in the midst of so many wayes extraordinary to know somthing He who reads his talk would think he had left Oxford not without mature deliberation Yet his Prayer confesses that he knew not what to doe Thus is verifi'd that Psalme He powreth contempt upon Princes and causeth them to wander in the Wilderness where there is no way Psal. 107. XXIII Vpon the Scots delivering the King to the English THat the Scots in England should sell thir King as he himself here affirmes and for a price so much above that which the covetousness of Judas was contented with to sell our Saviour is so foule an infamy and dishonour cast upon them as befitts none to vindicate but themselves And it were but friendly Counsel to wish them beware the Son who comes among them with a firme beleif that they sould his Father The rest of this Chapter he Sacrifices to the Echo of his Conscience out-babling Creeds and Ave's glorying in his resolute obstinacy and as it were triumphing how evident it is now that not evill Counselors but he himself hath been the Author of all our troubles Herein onely we shall disagree to the worlds end while he who sought so manifestly to have annihilated all our Laws and Liberties hath the confidence to perswade us that he hath fought and suffer'd all this while in thir defence But he who neither by his own Letters and Commissions under hand and Seale nor by his own actions held as in a Mirror before his face will be convinc'd to see his faults can much less be won upon by any force of words neither he nor any that take after him who in that respect are no more to be disputed with then they who deny Principles No question then but the Parlament did wisely in thir decree at last to make no more addresses For how unalterable his will was that would have bin our Lord how utterly averse from the Parlament and Reformation during his confinement we may behold in this Chapter But to be ever answering fruitless Repetitions I should become liable to answer for the same my self He borrows Davids Psalmes as he charges the Assembly of Divines in his twentith Discourse To have set forth old Catechisms and confessions of faith new drest Had he borrow'd Davids heart it had bin much the holier theft For such kind of borrowing as this if it be not better'd by the borrower among good Authors is accounted Plagiarie However this was more tolerable then Pammela's Praier stol'n out of Sir Philip. XXIV Vpon the denying him the attendance of his Chaplains A CHAPLAIN is a thing so diminutive and inconsiderable that how he should come heer among matters of so great concernment to take such room up in the Discourses of a Prince if it be not wonderd is to be fmil'd at Certainly by me so mean an argument shall not be writt'n but I shall huddle him as he does Prayers The Scripture ownes no such order no such function in the Church and the Church not owning them they are left for ought I know to such a furder examining as the Sons of Sceva the Jew met with Bishops or Presbyters we know and Deacons we know but what are Chaplains In State perhaps they may be listed among the upper Servingmen of som great houshold and be admitted to som such place as may stile them the Sewers or the Yeomen-Ushers of Devotion where the Maister is too restie or too rich to say his own prayers or to bless his own Table Wherfore should the Parlament then take such implements of the Court Cupbord into thir consideration They knew them to have bin the main corrupters at the kings elbow they knew the king to have bin always thir most attentive Scholar Imitator of a child to have suckt from them thir closet work all his impotent principles of tyranny superstition While therfore they had any hope left of his reclaiming these sowers of Malignant Tares they kept asunder from him and sent to him such of the Ministers and other zealous persons as they thought were best able to instruct him and to convert him What could religion her self have don more to the saving of a soule But when they found him past cure that he to himself was grown the most evil Counseler of all they deny'd him not his Chaplains as many as were fitting and som of them attended him or els were at his call to the very last Yet heer he makes more Lamentationfor the want of his Chaplains then superstitious Micah did to the Danites who had tak'n away his houshold Priest Yee have tak'n away my Gods which I made and the Priest and what have I more And perhaps the whole Story of Micah might square not unfitly to this Argument Now know I saith he that the Lord will doe me good seeing I have a Levite to my Priest Micah had as great a care that his Priest should be Mosaical as the King had that his should be Apostolical yet both in an error touching thir Priests Houshold and privat Orisons were not to be officiated by Priests for neither did public Prayer appertain onely to their Office Kings heertofore David Salomon and Jehosaphat who might not touch the Priesthood yet might pray in public yea in the Temple while the Priests themselves stood and heard VVhat aild this King then that he could not chew his own Mattins without the Priests Oretenus Yet is it like he could not pray at home who can heer publish a whole Prayer-book of his own and signifies in some part of this Chapter almost as good a mind to be a Priest himself as Micah had to let his Son be There was doubtless therfore some other matter in it which made him so desirous to have his Chaplaines about him who were not onely the contrivers but very oft the
which made him much the fitter man to raigne But they who suffer as oppressors Tyrants violaters of Law and persecutors of Reformation without appearance of repenting if they once get hold againe of that dignity and power which they had lost are but whetted and inrag'd by what they suffer'd against those whom they look upon as them that caus'd thir sufferings How he hath bin subject to the scepter of Gods word and spirit though acknowledg'd to be the best Goverment and what his dispensation of civil power hath bin with what Justice and what honour to the public peace it is but looking back upon the whole catalogue of his deeds and that will be sufficient to remember us The Cup of Gods physic as he calls it what alteration it wrought in him to a firm healthfulness from any surfet or excess wherof the people generally thought him sick if any man would goe about to prove we have his own testimony following heer that it wrought none at all First he hath the same fix'd opinion and esteem of his old Ephesian Goddess call'd the Church of England as he had ever and charges strictly his Son after him to persevere in that Anti-Papal Scism for it is not much better as that which will be necessary both for his soules and the Kingdoms Peace But if this can be any foundation of the kingdoms peace which was the first cause of our distractions let common sense be Judge It is a rule and principle worthy to be known by Christians that no Scripture no nor so much as any ancient Creed bindes our Faith or our obedience to any Church whatsoever denominated by a particular name farr less if it be distinguisht by a several Goverment from that which is indeed Catholic No man was ever bidd be subject to the Church of Corinth Rome or Asia but to the Church without addition as it held faithfull to the rules of Scripture and the Goverment establisht in all places by the Apostles which at first was universally the same in all Churches and Congregations not differing or distinguisht by the diversity of Countries Territories or civil bounds That Church that from the name of a distinct place takes autority to set up a distinct Faith or Government is a Scism and Faction not a Church It were an injurie to condemn the Papist of absurdity and contradiction for adhering to his Catholic Romish Religion if we for the pleasure of a King and his politic considerations shall adhere to a Catholic English But suppose the Church of England were as it ought to be how is it to us the safer by being so nam'd and establisht when as that very name and establishment by his contriving or approbation serv'd for nothing els but to delude us and amuse us while the Church of England insensibly was almost chang'd and translated into the Church of Rome Which as every Man knows in general to be true so the particular Treaties and Transactions tending to that conclusion are at large discover'd in a Book intitld the English Pope But when the people discerning these abuses began to call for Reformation in order to which the Parlament demanded of the King to unestablish that Prelatical Goverment which without Scripture had usurpt over us strait as Pharaoh accus'd of Idleness the Israelites that sought leave to goe and sacrifice to God he layes faction to thir charge And that we may not hope to have ever any thing reform'd in the Church either by him or his Son he forewarnes him That the Devil of Rebellion doth most commonly turn himself into an Angel of Reformation and sayes anough to make him hate it as he worst of Evils and the bane of his Crown nay he counsels him to let nothing seem little or despicable to him so as not speedily and effcteually to suppress errors and Scisms Wherby we may perceave plainly that our consciences were destin'd to the same servitude and persecution if not wors then before whether under him or if it should so happ'n under his Son who count all Protestant Churches erroneous and scismatical which are not episcopal His next precept is concerning our civil Liberties which by his sole voice and predominant will must be circumscrib'd and not permitted to extend a hands bredth furder then his interpretation of the Laws already settl'd And although all human laws are but the offspring of that frailty that fallibility and imperfection which was in thir Authors wherby many Laws in the change of ignorant and obscure Ages may be found both scandalous and full of greevance to their Posterity that made them and no Law is furder good then mutable upon just occasion yet if the removing of an old Law or the making of a new would save the Kingdom we shall not have it unless his arbitrary voice will so far slack'n the stiff curb of his prerogative as to grant it us who are as free born to make our own law as our fathers were who made these we have Where are then the English Liberties which we boast to have bin left us by our Progenitors To that he answers that Our Liberties consist in the enjoyment of the fruits of our industry and the benefit of those Laws to which we our selves have consented First for the injoyment of those fruits which our industry and labours have made our own upon our own what Privilege is that above what the Turks Jewes and Mores enjoy under the Turkish Monarchy For without that kind of Justice which is also in Argiers among Theevs and Pirates between themselvs no kind of Government no Societie just or unjust could stand no combination or conspiracy could stick together Which he also acknowledges in these words That if the Crown upon his head be so heavy as to oppress the whole body the weakness of inferiour members cannot return any thing of strength honour or safety to the head but that a necessary debilitation must follow So that this Liberty of the Subject concerns himself and the subsistence of his own regal power in the first place and before the consideration of any right belonging to the Subject VVe expect therfore somthing more that must distinguish free Goverment from slavish But in stead of that this King though ever talking and protesting as smooth as now sufferd it in his own hearing to be Preacht and pleaded without controule or check by them whom he most favourd and upheld that the Subject had no property of his own Goods but that all was the Kings right Next for the benefit of those Laws to which we our selves have consented we never had it under him for not to speak of Laws ill executed when the Parlament and in them the people have consented to divers Laws and according to our ancient Rights demanded them he took upon him to have a negative will as the transcendent and ultimat Law above all our Laws and to rule us forcibly by Laws to which we our selves did not consent