knows cannot come under any one of these Characters for it is plain that he did not dye for being a Witness or Confessor of the Revealed Truths in God's Word neither did he suffer Afflictions even unto Death for the sake of owning or professing Evangelical Truths No the Parliament did not oppose or prosecute him for being a Protestant but for favouring Papists and subverting in a most arbitrary manner all the Laws and Liberties of England I shall now proceed to shew that this King could not be a firm Protestant His Letter to the Pope printed at large in the Book called A Defence of the Parliament of 1640. and the People of England against King Charles the First and his Adherents in answer to the Letter he received from the Pope is enough to startle any but such as Land 's Protestants He calls the Pope Most Holy Father and tells him I shall never be so extreamly affected to any thing in the World as to endeavour an Alliance with a Prince that hath the same apprehension of the True Religion with my self Mr. Rushworth hath it in these words Your Holinesses Conjecture of Our Desire to contract an Alliance and Marriage with a Catholick Family and Princess is agreeable both to your Wisdom and Charity for we would never desire so vehemently to be joind in a strict and indissoluble Bond with any mortal whatsoever whose Religion we hated And towards the end of the Letter I entreat your Holiness to believe that I have been always very far from encouraging Novelties or to be a Partisan of any Faction against the Catholick Apostolick Roman Religion In another place he protested That he would expose Life and Estate in the Exaltation of the Holy Chair This cannot redound to the honour of a Protestant King for the Holy Chair in its proper sense means nothing but down-right Popery In another place he tells the Pope I will employ my self for the time to come to have but one Religion and one Faith Having resolved in my self to spare nothing in the World and to suffer all manner of Discommodities even to the hazarding my Estate and Life for a thing so pleasing to God This Resolution cannot look like his converting the Pope and others to the Protestant Religion but directly the contrary And in his Reply to the Nuncio upon his delivering the Popes Letter to him which you may read in Cabala or Mysteries of State pag. 214. he says I kiss his Holiness Feet for the Favour and Honour he doth me so much the more esteemed by how much the less deserved of me hitherto and his Holiness shall see what I do hereafter And so did England Scotland and Ireland and the whole world His Bishops and Chaplains pressed Popish Innovations and preached Doctrines of gross Popery And I think my Father will do the like so that his Holiness shall not repent him of what he has done His marrying a violent Papist and making Articles with France in favour of Papists read his Articles at large in the Book called A Defence of the Parliament of 1640. c. His stopping all Prosecution against them His preferring many of them to places of eminent Trusts particularly Weston to be his Lord Treasurer Arundell Weston Gottington and Windebanck who all died Papists His pardoning Mountague his Chaplain for preaching down-right Popery His unlawful corresponding and conspiring with the Irish and French to land Forces against the Parliament He was kind to the Irish Papists And in his third year against the plain advice of Parliament like a kind Pope sold them many Indulgences for money Advised with them on all occasions admitted them to private Consultations with him and his Queen His sending one Dillon a Papist Lord soon after a chief Rebel with Letters into Ireland and his dispatching a Commission under the great Seal of Scotland at that time in his own Custody that they should forthwith as formerly had been agreed cause all the Irish to rise in Arms. Read the Commission at large in the Book before mentioned His causing ten thousand Popish Irish Soldiers to be ordered for England by the Earl of Glamorgan do all shew he had more confidence in Popish Irish than in his Protestant English Subjects A rare Protestant I profess These with his betraying the Protestants of the Palatinate Isle of Rhee and Rochel and the poor Protestants of Ireland to the number of 154000 shew the slender affection he had for the Protestant Interest either at home or abroad From such a merciless Protestant Good Lord for ever deliver these Kingdoms Read his Letters to the Rochellers and their Remonstrance upon his betraying them both printed in the Book called A Defence of the Parliament of 1640. and you will have little cause to admire this Martyr And also the Sheet called Murder will out printed in the same Book which makes it appear he had a hand in the horrid Irish Rebellion In the next place I shall plainly make it appear beyond all doubt that this King was an oppressive Tyrant and should I proceed on this melancholy Subject so largely as with the greatest truth and matters of Fact I might I should have cause to cry out with the Poet Tantae molis erat Romanam condere gentem Many Instances of his Arbitrary and Illegal Government being printed in the Book called A Defence of the Parliament of 1640 c. and also the following Papers which set this King out to the life viz. The Pope's Letter to King Charles I. and King Charles 's Answer His Articles of Marriage with France His Declaration of Sports on the Lord's Day His Letters of Assurance to the Protestants of Rochel and their Remonstrance on his deceiving them His Commission to the Irish Rebels and Rorie Macquire and Philem Oneal 's Declaration thereupon K. Charles II. Letter to the Court of Claims in Ireland in behalf of the Marquess of Antrim for acting by King Charles I. Order King Charles 's Prayer taken out of Pembrook 's Arcadia An Abridgment of the Articles of Peace that King Charles I. made with the Irish Rebels Lord Anglesey 's Memorandum and Walker 's Reasons against Eikon Basilike I shall now content my self with enumerating a few more Instances of his grievous oppressing the People of England as a Tyrant viz. By his raising without Act of Parliament 200000 l. on the poor Merchants for Ship-money Coat and Conduct money His great Minions and Favorites inventing new methods of Monopolies without ever acquainting the Parliament to enable him in a full time of Peace to live without a Parliament as he did about 11 Years together Compulsive Knighthoods the seizing not of one Naboth's Vineyard but of whole Inheritances under the pretence of Forest or Crown-lands Corruption and Bribery compounded for with Impunities granted for the future Arbitrary and excessive Fines on those People that stood in the gap against his Tyranny besides the barbarous Slashings Whippings Pillorings and horrible Imprisonments for
many years His intending to bow or break his People to perswade or force them to slavery is so clear by the whole course of his Reign that 't is amazing that men even of the highest stamp of Toryism should have Front enough to deny it He turn'd the Lord Conway out of his Secretary's place because he would not make the necessary advances to Rome but refused to receive the Sacrament in Henry VII's Chappel after Popish Laud's way which was not in Bread but in Wafers His undermining our Religion and Government his raising an Army of English Scots Germans and bloody Irish Papists to subject his Peoples Fortunes to his Will and Power and make good the Breaches upon the Liberties of England That never was inclined to Parliaments nor to call them but for a greedy hope of a whole National Bribe his Subsidies and never loved never fulfil'd never promoted the true End of Parliaments the Redress of Grievances but still put them off and prolonged them whether gratified or not gratified That caused Court Letters and Intimations to be sent to deter the People from their free electing the best affected to their Religion and Countries Liberties That could not forbear declaring that the execution of Strafford stung his Conscience and no marvel when he was the chief Author of those Misdeeds he suffered for This Stafford was one of the boldest and most impetuous Instruments that the King had to advance any violent or illegal Design He had ruled Ireland and some parts of England in an arbitrary manner he had endeavoured to subvert the Fundamental Laws to subvert Parliaments and incense the King against them He had endeavoured to make Hostility between England and Scotland he had counsel'd the King to call over that Irish Army of Papists which he had cunningly raised to reduce England as appear'd by good testimony then present at the Consultation For which and many other Crimes proved against him in 28 Articles he was condemned of High-Treason by the Parliament This pious Martyr could highly demonstrate his remorse for the Blood of Strafford that all good Men acquitted him of but not the least sorrow for setting up his Standard and causing a Sea of innocent Blood to be spilt by the Civil War occasion'd by his Male Administration That according to his own confession violated the Privileges of the Commons by going in an Arbitrary way into their House That as his Cabinet Letters declare call'd them a mungrel Parliament that vext his Queen with their base and mutinous Motions A special Bargain of such a Queen at whose landing at Dover the 25th of June New-stile 1625 the Sun withdrew its Beams as being unwilling to shine upon a Descent so mighty fatal to this Nation and the Night hid the Miseries which that Day were brought into this flourishing Island upon her arrival On the 26th the Queen with the King made their entry to London having among others in her Train A Roman Catholick Bishop on whom King Charles was obliged to settle a Pension of 4000 l. a Year Four Abbots under the Title of Almoners on each a 1000 l. Two Chaplains Priests 1400 l. Two Clerks of the Chappel two Grooms Moreover 12 Priests of the Oratory on whom 6000 l. were to be settled for their subsistence and maintenance But besides all the Ecclesiastical Persons the Queen not to trust to Protestants brought over with her a Train of Roman Catholicks whereof she form'd her House and as it after prov'd a Seminary in the Kingdom four Ladies of Honour for her Bedchamber six Ladies of Honour with their Governante and one under her besides Servants 18 Gentlemen six Valets de Chambre a Chamberlain a Secretary five Chambermaids Semstresses Laundresles a Physician an Apothecary Chirurgions a Pantler Cup-bearers Cooks Potagers Roasters Bakers Stewards Coachmen and all the Officers of her Stables At her coming up to London almost all the People of that great City went before her just as heretofore the Trojans did the Horse that was the cause of their destruction in triumph into their City with demonstrations of joy But to their great sorrow these Halcion days lasted but a short time for they soon found the Queen's numerous Train of Ecclesiasticks caused no small clamours and murmuring amongst the People all over the Kingdom for these Vipers were in perpetual motion and continually running from House to House under pretence of Conversion-work openly boasting they had already converted many thousands in the little time they had been in England Whereupon the King received divers Complaints as well from Protestant Bishops and Ministers as from the Masters of Families who accused those Priests not only of perverting their Servants but their Children and that by their wicked instigation unknown to their Parents several of them were gone away beyond Sea to be put into Colleges and Convents for their more commodious being bred up in the Romish Religion But upon all matters that happened as to that subject the Queen still stept into the Breach to prevent by her Credit any Mischiefs that should have fallen on the Priests But the Complaints of the People against these Vermin the Queen brought with her were so great that the King was necessitated to send them back into France which was done in August the same Year he was crown'd But at the same time to prevent their complaining the King heaped Favours Benevolences and Present upon all the Fry of Clergy to reward their labour of the Tares they had sown and left behind them in England However all this Liberality of the King was not sufficient to hinder their Complaints nor their Sollicitations in the Court of France to return into England to gather as they said the Fruits of their Labour The Queen on the other hand saw her self forestall'd of her desire to propagate the Catholic Faith especially in her Kingdom of England and being push'd on by her Confessor and others of the same brood did not fail to write of this matter very smartly to Lewis XIII her Brother but particularly to the Queen Mother And the King of France being pushed on by the Queen Mother took as a very great and sensible Affront the sending back of all the French that belonged to the Retinue and were the Domestick Servants of the Queen his Sister The Cardinal that was absolute Governour of the King was so angry to see the French returned for that grievously broke his Measures in England and prevailed so much on the King his Master that he got him to send over an Embassador Extraordinary to confer with the Queen and to make his complaints of it to the King And that Minister did his business so effectually that those who had been dismissed and obliged to leave the Kingdom return'd to their former Post about the Queen their Mistress and began their old trade of perverting people to the Romish Religion which lasted as long as the Queen continued in England Whilst the King was thus govern'd by his
factus est Rex ac Comites Barones qui debent ei Fraenum ponere The King of England hath for his Superiors both the Law by which he is constituted King and which is the measuring of his governing Power and the Parliament which is to restrain him if he do amiss Bracton l. 2. c. 16. Fleta l. 1. c. 17. That the King by his Coronation Oath hath a power to rule his People for their best advantage to administer to every man his just rights to confirm such Laws that the People make conducing to the Common Good c. And no other Authority can he with justice claim That it is against the Moral Law that a Kingdom should suffer it self to be unkingdom'd ruin'd and destroy'd having power in their hands to save themselves self-preservation being natural even to brute beasts when disturbed That God doth sometimes require that One should suffer for all but never that All should suffer for One. That Rebellion consists in resisting of just Governors in their just Government and not in defending legal rights against a Tyrant That it is unlawful to keep any Oaths Vows and Covenants to or for the King that are against the good of the Kingdom for the performing or keeping them would be an adding sin unto sin wickedness unto wickedness that is to do Evil as well as to promise the doing thereof He that covenants to do things unlawful covenants with Hell must therefore the League of Hell and Death be maintained These things one would think should have some weight with our Nonswearing Jacobites who choose rather to break the solemn Oaths they took to feed their Flocks than to comply with swearing Faith and true Allegiance to that Prince that Providence in a most miraculous manner raised up to deliver these Three Kingdoms from the Egyptian slavery it groaned under A Prince who by his own Merits and the Peoples Election can justly claim the best Title that ever any King of England had let the Fools and Knaves who madly dote on the Divine Right of Succession c. say what they will to the contrary That the Oath of Allegiance is not made to the King Warring or any ways Acting against the welfare of the Kingdom but to him as Governing for good according to the Laws of the Land That the Oath of Supremacy doth not allow him to be the Supreme Legislative Power of the Kingdom and that he is in all Cases the sole Judg and over all persons an absolute Lord unto whose Will and Pleasure the People are bound to be subject Actively or Passively for such a Power becometh only those that are perfect as God himself is perfect That all Oaths Vows Covenants and Compacts whatsoever are conditional reciprocal and mutual the King being as well bound to the People as the People to the King That the King 's voluntary and plenary breach of his Agreement with the People doth ipso facto discharge the People from their Vows and Covenants until such time as the Agreement and Compact between the King and People be again renewed and united The Nobility Gentry and Clergy have in their noble assistance in the late Revolution justified this Position to the height and also that Kings are accountable to their Subjects for their Male Administration That the People of England cannot give the Parliament a power to enslave themselves for thereby they would be Self-betrayers and in a degree Self murderers Neither can the People de Jure make Laws destructive to the Common-safety or give any Power to others to the making of such Laws That what King James the First told the Lords and Commons in the Year 1609. is certainly true viz. That he is no King but a Tyrant that governs not by Law That there is a very great and dangerous defect in the constitution of the Government of England if the same Power that gave the Coronation Oath cannot judg whether the said Oath be kept or not and call to an account for the violation thereof Bracton Fleta the Parliament of 1640. and the late Revolution seem clearly to allow Kings being accountable c. That Kings and all Magistrates ought to be Nursing Fathers not Bloody Tyrants to make their People miserable to reward Virtue and not to encourage Injustice Oppression and Vice That if they would answer the end of Government which is the Publick Good they ought to study the happiness and welfare of their Subjects equally with their Own Lastly That if they will not govern thus according to Law and Justice they must not think the People of England will be such Fools as to stay for their accounting in the other World for they do not love the Welshmans reckning which was to let her alone till the last Judgment and then her would account fairly for all her Rogueries c. I am very well satisfied let the wretched Advocates for Tyranny and Arbitrary Power say what they will to the contrary That these Doctrines or Maxims cannot destroy Government because they will not permit Governors to destroy the People Nay they will establish a Just Government by rooting out the Unjust The Throne will be established by Righteousness but ruined by Wickedness Those Doctrines that rectifie Governors in the administration of Common Right and Justice do fasten the Crowns of Government upon their Heads for by doing every man right their Throne is set up in every man's Heart and not only so but the promised Presence of an Infinite Power will ever secure and prosper such Administrations These pious Doctrines do not implead Government but the Evils thereof and are all included in this The Safety of the People is still the chiefest Lord Rule Reason and Law These Divine Truths will I hope be highly acceptable in this age of light and knowledge tho Laud Sibthorp Manwaring Mountague and other wicked Clergy-men of those and later times have unjustly esteemed them Rebellious I could produce many more Instances to inform the deluded part of mankind that this adored Prince was far from being a pious One but for the present shall give but one more clear Demonstration that is His causing a Declaration to be published and read in all Churches that all Sports c. whatsoever were lawful on the Sabbath-day How agreeable this most wicked Act can be to Religion I cannot conceive and I am of opinion it will puzle all those that in a blasphemous strain call him a Saint and Martyr to defend him from this horrid impiety See the Declaration at large printed in the Book called A Vindication of the Parliament of 1640. Neither can I see for what Reasons any of his adorers can make him a Martyr for the word Martyr in the Greek Martur signifies Testis a Witness In Ecclesia dicitur Testis Confessor Veritatis Verbo Dei patefactae singulariter autem ille qui propter Confessionem Evangelicae veritatis sustinet Afflictiones ipsamque adeo Mortem Our pretended Martyr God
unhappy for his Kingdom And were such persons as these fit to be trusted by the people Men that laboured all they could to make the King a powerful Tyrant and his Subjects a miserable enslaved people Besides could rational men think it safe to permit such a King and his Evil Counsellors to carry on those their Arbitrary Designs apparently destructive to the happiness and welfare of England If they had permitted these Evils to come upon them they ought not only to be beg'd for Fools or Madmen but deserved to lose the privileges of a Free People But God be praised for inspiring and assisting them with greater Wisdom and Courage than foolishly and tamely to suffer their Religion Laws and Liberties to become a Sacrifice to that Tyrant or his Crew His governing ad Libitum Regis by his own arbitrary Lust and Will and not per Legem Terrae and calling but three Parliaments in all his Reign which to the sorrow of England was almost twenty four years must naturally create enemies against him To conclude this Head His whole Reign was such a continued piece of Popish Tyranny and Oppression that the people of England with the greatest chearfulness ran the hazard of their Lives and Fortunes to free themselves and posterity from them both and I challenge the greatest Advocates for this pretended Saint and Martyr to disprove the least matter in this Book laid to his charge nay I 'll go farther I challenge them to give me or any one else a satisfactory account of one good Act he ever did for the glory of God or the good of his three Kingdoms except constrained by his people thereunto For a conclusion of this Discourse I shall make a few Remarques which I hope if well observed may be very useful not only to this present age but to posterity 1. I shall give a short Answer to this Question Why do the generality of the Clergy and Laity so much adore and idolize all Monarchs whether good or bad above the People The Reason is plain The People have nothing material in a Monarchical Government to bestow upon these Court Parasites for the Kings have the disposal of the Bishopricks Deanaries Prebendaries Archdeaconries and most other great Livings and also most of the Temporal beneficial Places as Chancellors Judges and other great Offices from such a sort of men as these nothing but Court-Doctrines can be expected for they are well assured should they preach or write for the Rights or Privileges of the People in Arbitrary Reigns it would be the ready way to dash all their hopes of preferment into pieces And here I cannot but make a melancholy Observation as to the Clergy in general of the late Reigns viz. That by all I could hear or read they have been so far from being Christian Advocates for the Rights and Privileges of millions of people that they have in a most wicked manner promoted and preached up those Doctrines that plainly tended to make them miserable and lasting Slaves Indeed I must confess some few of them have signalized themselves for the good of the People and against Popery Particularly that incomparable Phoenix of our Age Mr. SAMVEL JOHNSON a person that by his sensible Conversation and his golden Works hath done more service to rescue England from Popery and Slavery and secure English mens Rights and Privileges than most if not all the Bishops and Clergy-men ever did since the Reformation His Works are so excellent and highly valuable that they will preserve his Fame long after he is dead and will make good that Motto Vivit post funera virtus And I could wish the Nobility and Gentry would encourage by subscriptions some Bookseller or Printer to reprint all this great Man's Works in one Folio that the Divine and Noble Truths therein contained might be handed down for the publick good to posterity I am extreamly well pleased that our Gracious King WILLIAM hath in some measure tho not so much nor so soon as I could wish tho he had merited more than others rewarded his inhumane sufferings and eminent services for these Kingdoms I would never have a good man have the least cause to say Virtus laudatur alget and that Aude aliquid brevibus gyaris aut carcere dignum Si vis esse aliquid Was the right way to preferment 2. What occasions the Clergy's usurping one Province more than belongs to them viz. the Law when God knows they have work enough to preach the Gospel as they ought to do that their Flocks might be well fed with the Milk of God's Word 1. Want of that true Piety that would keep them closer to their duties to God and men 2. As I hinted before they pick up scraps of Law to make Princes great that they may get promotion thereby tho to the sacrificing of their Country Lastly The imprudent familiarity the Nobility and Gentry have with them many of whom are poor ignorant impious and scandalous fellows that arise from being Parish Boys c. which makes them so proud as to strut and lord it over the People to a prodigious degree I would by no means be thought by this to be an enemy to pious good Clergy-men that as Christian Ministers discharge their duties for I solemnly profess I have the highest value and esteem for all such holy men And I observed in my Travels in Holland that the Dutch did highly respect their Ministers whom I must really confess I believe to be famous for good Lives and Conversations far beyond the generality of the English Clergy Yet they kept these good men at a due distance not suffering any of their Ministers to be seen at any time in an Ale-house Tavern or in a Coffee-house except on their Travels where refreshments must be had to support nature And if any of them shall transgress in this matter they immediately forfeit their reputation and esteem with the people And if they should in their Pulpits presume to meddle with State-affairs and the Magistrates hear of it they send them a pair of Shoos and order them to be gone If Mountague Sybthorp and Manwaring of old Pelling Sherlock Cartwright White Lake Watson Crew Thompson Collier Snet Cook Hawkins Hicks Wilson Long Thompson of Bristol Hollingworth Milbourn Birch and a great many more of the same stamp in the late Reigns had been dealt with according to their deserts I know what would justly have become of most of them 'T is observed that the People of England are famous for punishing little Rogues such as Pick-pockets c. but carelesly and imprudently pass by those Clergymen and Lawyers that have to the greatest degree robb'd them of their undoubted Birthrights and greatest Privileges by whole-sale and endeavoured to establish a Government over them as absolute as the Grand Seignior's 3. I shall take notice of the Observation of the 30th of January in that solemn manner as now kept and if I make some close Remarks thereon I hope
King Charles I. No such SAINT MARTYR or GOOD PROTESTANT as commonly reputed BUT A FAVOURER of PAPISTS and a Cruel and Oppressive TYRANT All plainly proved from undeniable Matters of Fact To which are added Dr. Burnet's now Bishop of Salisbury and other Reasons against the keeping up any longer the observation of a Fast on the 30th of January AS ALSO Short Answers to these three Questions I. What is the Occasion of the Clergies Pride and Lording it over the Laity II. Why they and many of the Laity cry up this King for a Saint Martyr c. III. What is the true Reason that the generality of the Clergy and many of the Laity both Lawyers and others are constant Advocates for Kings tho never so wicked and Sacrificers of the People He that ruleth over men must be just ruling in the fear of God 2 Sam. 23.3 And Ahab the Son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him 1 Kings 30. And hath despised in the indignation of his anger the KING and the Priest Lam. 2.6 And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high and the Kings of the earth that are on the earth Isa 24.21 And I will come upon him while he is weary and weakhanded and will make him afraid and all the people that are with him shall flee and I will SMITE the KING ONLY 2 Sam. 17.2 But when his heart was lifted up and his mind was hardned with Pride he was deposed from his Kingly Throne and they took his Glory from him Dan. 5.20 â—or this Melchisedeck King of Salem Priest of the most high God who met Abraham returning from the Slaughter of Kings and blessed him Heb. 7.1 LONDON Printed in the 10th Year of our Redemption from Popery and Slavery 1698. To the good People of England who sincerely love and will maintain the Protestant Religion English Laws Liberties and Properties Honest Countrymen THE design of this Book is twofold First To give many and clear Demonstrations that King Charles the First was no such Saint or Martyr as he has been commonly reputed nor yet a true Protestant but on the contrary a great favourer of Papists and an oppressive Tyrant Secondly To vindicate the just Resistance the Parliament of 1640 and People were constrain'd for their own safety to make I foresee this Treatise will meet with two Objections First That it contradicts the old Maxim De mortuis nihil nisi bonum The second That it treats a crowned Head nay a pious Martyr's too with little respect To the first I answer That bonum here must be understood quasi verum that is do not wrong or belie the Dead for they are not in being to justify their own Innocency otherwise it will not only reflect on profane but sacred History nothing being more common in both than to record the evil Actions even of Princes themselves I find this Maxim sometimes highly insisted on by some of our Clergy and Laity especially in favour of King Charles I. At other times these sort of men make not the least scruple for sinister ends most unjustly to vilify as the greatest Villains imaginable the Parliament of 1640 and those worthy Patriots that join'd with it to prevent the then many apparent inundations of Popery and Arbitrary Power that King his Queen and evil Counsellors were bringing on the three Kingdoms To the second of respecting this crowned Head I must confess I have not treated him as I would a King 〈…〉 for the good of his People according to Law but as a Tyrant who cannot pretend to the least Love or Honour from any of his Subjects except those Papists and others that were his Favorites and were embarked in the same wicked Designs with him esteem it a great Sin to idolize and deify the best Magistrate on Earth but a much greater to adore a bloody and tyrannical Oppressor And if the same men will through custom simplicity or want of information no otherwise consider Kings than in the gaudy name of Majesty and admire them and their doings as if they breathed not the same Breath with other mortal men I thank God I have learnt better and plainly see with what a besotted and degenerated baseness of spirit imbastardized from the antient nobleness of their Ancestors they have not only in a religious but a civil kind of Idolatry idoliz'd this King and ador'd the Image and Memory of him who hath offered at more cunning fetches to undermine the Liberties of England and put Tyranny into an Art than any British King before him To make good my Charge against this Prince I shall first prove that the general course of his Actions c. were directly inconsistent with what a Saint doth and ought to do viz. 1. He was a proud Nimrod a hardened Pharaoh 2. A great Liar if he writ the Book call'd Eicon Basilike for amongst the many false Assertions against and Accusations of the Parliament he begins with this notorious one viz. That he call'd this last Parliament not more by the advice of others than his own choice and inclination when the contrary was well known both by the current of his own Actions and by the Favorites about him For further proof of this let any unbiassed Person but read his Promises Oaths Protestations and solemn Declarations to the Parliament and consider how little of truth was in them how the Parliament in many of their Petitions charged him with the breach of them and he will receive sufficient satisfaction â— He unhallowed and unchristianed the very Duty of Prayer it self by borrowing to a Christian use Prayers offered to a Heathen God What little fear had he of the true all seeing Deity what little reverence of the Holy Ghost whose Office is to dictate and present our Christian Prayers What little care of Truth in his last words or honour to himself or to his Friends or sense of his Afflictions or of that sad hour which was upon him as immediately before his death to pop into the hand of that grave Bishop who attended him as a special Relick of his saintly Exercises a Prayer stolen word for word from the mouth of a Heathen Woman praying to a Heathen God and that in no serious Book but a vain amatorious Poem of Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia a Book in that kind full of Worth and Wit but among religious Thoughts and Duties not worthy to be named nor read at any time without caution much less in time of trouble and affliction to be a Christian's Prayer-Book that thought no better of the living God than of a buzzard Idol by serving him with the polluted trash of Romances and Arcadia's A bold and irreligious affront to the Divine Being And in the 5th Chapter about Triennial Parliaments he hath this passage That the Tumults threatned to abuse all Acts of Grace and turn them into
Wantonness If they had turn'd his Wantonness into the Grace of not abusing Scripture it had been well this no ways became such a Saint as they would make him Herod was eaten up of Worms for suffering others to compare his Voice to the Voice of God But the borrower of this phrase gives much more cause of jealousy that he likened his own Acts of Grace to the Acts of God's Grace And in the same Chapter his letting some men go up to the Pinacle of the Temple was to cast him down headlong In this Simily we have himself compared to Christ the Parliament to the Devil and his giving them that Act of settling to his letting them go up to the Pinacle of the Temple this was a goodly use made of Scripture in his solitudes And in Chap. 8. on his repulse at Hull in his Prayer thus Let not thy Justice prevent the Objects and Opportunities of my Mercy Must this be imputed to his Folly or Blasphemy or to both Shall the Justice of God give place and serve to glorify the Mercies of a Man All other men that know what they ask desire of God that their doings may tend to his Glory But in this Prayer God is required that his Justice would forbear to prevent and as good as said to intrench upon the Glory of a Man's Mercy If God forbear his Justice it must be sure to the magnifying his own Mercy but here a mortal Man takes the boldness to ask that Glory out of his hand He hated all those that were esteemed Religious doubting that their Principles too much asserted Liberty this was plainly seen by his vehement prosecution of them He took a most bloody and treacherous advantage of the Parliament's Army near Colebrook whilst he was under Treaty at Vxbridg with them as he protested to prevent the shedding of Blood From the beginning of the War he would rather sacrifice the Lives of thousands of his good Subjects than deliver up those evil Counsellors that sought to enslave England or govern according to Law himself He admired encouraged and protected none but the worst and corruptest sort of Courtiers and the ragged Infantry of Stews and Brothels the spawn and shipwrack of Taverns and Dicing-houses were the Bravo's and Hacksters that attended him when he went in the most arbitrary and illegal manner into the House of Commons and that in his Army he had 1000 of blaspheming Cavaliers about him whose mouths let fly Oaths and Curses by the Volly that entertain'd and encouraged a most ignorant profane and vicious Clergy learned in nothing but their Pride their Covetousness and Superstition whose unsincere and levenous Doctrines corrupting the People first taught them Looseness then Bondage loosning them from all sound Knowledg and strictness of Life the more to fit them for the bondage of Tyranny and Superstition A Clergy that from the Press and Pulpit poisoned the People with the following abominable enslaving Doctrines of Passive or more properly Assive Obedience Non-resistance Obeying without Reserve That the Kings of England by being anointed Birds are absolutely unaccountable to the People That they have a power over the Lives Liberties Laws and Goods of their people and may do what they will with them That the King can do no wrong and many more such horrid Notions enough to corrupt the best Prince and enslave the freest people These devilish enslaving Doctrines are most prejudicial and ungrateful to any people that not only believe but know that they are Free-born Subjects That all Government was originally in the People for they were before Kings That all Kings c. came by their power Ex Pacto aut Scelere either by Compact Covenant c. with the People or by Usurpation That they did not like the Beasts in St. Peter's Vision drop down from Heaven with all their Dignities Power c. but had their Root and Foundation from the Earth If by Usurpation the longest Sword must decide the Controversy but if by Compact the People of England cannot harbour such hard thoughts of their Ancestors as to imagine they would make such ridiculous foolish and nonsensical Bargains as to sell themselves and as far as in them lay their poor Posterity for I may then with reason call them so to a vile miserable and lasting Slavery That if their Ancestors were such Fools Knaves or Madmen to sell their Birthrights as Esau did the people of England know better things than to stand to that blind Bargain it being against the Law of Nature which teaches Self-preservation Neither will the sensible part of Mankind any more believe that any Kings have such a Divine Right as will justifie their violating their Coronation Oaths breaking through all the Laws of the Land that are the Peoples chiefest security for they know and will preserve the undoubted privileges of free-born English Men. They are also well assured that when a King or Prince ceases to govern according to Law he turns Tyrant and therefore ceases to be King by which as the Scots wisely call it he forefaults his Kingdom That Salus populi est suprema Lex That the King was made for the Kingdom and not the Kingdom for him That the King doth not maintain the Kingdom but the Kingdom the King That the King and all Magistrates are the Kingdoms Ministers and Servants That it is their Duty and Glory to serve the Kingdom That Kings must not reign by their Kingdoms ruin nor be lifted up by their downfal That the End is greater than the Means Health better than Physick That the King was not advanced to debase and enslave his People That it is not the Ordinance of God that millions of men should be miserable slaves and vassals to One. That if the King be God's Anointed Jure Personae in the Right of his Person he is Man's appointed Jure Coronae in Right of the Crown and therefore tho' he is above every one singly yet not above All. For common safety is the sole Sovereign That if a King accepts of the Dignity of Government and by his Coronation Oath or otherwise covenants with his People he must submit to all such Agreements to the Rules Burdens and Troubles thereof That the end of the King's Revenue was not to make him able to destroy but preserve his Subjects That the King hath no Council above his Parliament That the foolish sensless and wicked Doctrines of Passive Obedience and Non-resistance if strictly observed are of dangerous consequence to any Nation for by these abominable Positions the Peoples hands being tied up and nothing but Prayers and Tears left One Armed Tyrant may if he pleaseth destroy all his Subjects and they like madmen be accessory to their own deaths Surely none but Turks Slaves or French Vassals can really admire or approve of such an Obedience That Bracton and Fleta who were eminent Lawyers were in the right in declaring That Rex Angliae habet superiores viz. Legem per quam
I shall not be hardly thought on since a Person in so high a station so eminent for Parts and Piety as Dr. Burnet now Bishop of Salisbury hath before a great Auditory in the famous City of London viz. the Aldermen c. expressed himself fully against the keeping up that day in his Sermon preached at St. Lawrence Church London Jan. 30. 1680. and since printed by R. Chiswell His words are I acknowledg it were better if we could have Job's Wish that this day should perish that darkness and the shadow of death should cover it that it should not see the dawning of the day nor should the light shine upon it it were better to strike it out of our Kalendar and make our January determine at the 29th and add these remaining days to February And to put it out of doubt what the Bishop of Salisbury's meaning was in that expression It were better if we could have Job 's Wish I shall quote some other expressions in that Sermon Pag. 4. are these words Upon their loving Truth and Peace those black and mournful days should be converted to days of gladness Pag. 5. It might have been expected that our 29th of May should have worn out the remembrance of the 30th of January and now at the end of two and thirty years to this time 50 it may be reasonably asked Should we still continue to fast and mourn Pag. 28. If we come to love the Truth and Peace to live in Love and Peace one with another then our days of Fasting shall be turn'd into solemn and chearful Feasts Then shall our 29th of May swallow up the remembrance of the 30th of January Or perhaps as the Prophet foretold such happy Deliverances should come to the Jews as should make even that out of Egypt to be forgotten so we might hope for such days as should out shine and darken the very 29th of May If we come to love Truth and Peace then shall even this Fast of the 10th month according to the Jewish Account which according to Arch-Bishop Vsher is exactly our 30th of January be to us Joy and Gladness 1. I shall observe That the keeping up the 30th of January hath never as I could learn done the least good but much burt to these Kingdoms for it hath given and still gives the Clergy who rarely preach or write for the good of the Kingdom an opportunity of poisoning the People with lying Stories and dangerous Notions many of them crying up this King to the great scandal of Christianity in a blasphemous manner venting such horrid Expressions as these in his behalf viz. THAT HIS BLOOD CRIED LOWDER FOR VENGEANCE THAN THE BLOOD OF JESUS our dear Redeemer Another vile Wretch said That they accused our Saviour of being a Winebibber and a Friend of Publicans and Sinners but could lay no such Charge to the Martyr of their own making Are such wicked Assertions to be tolerated among Christians God forbid 2. Contrary to all Christianity it effectually keeps up perpetual Animosities Wraths Feuds and Divisions in these three Kingdoms Which are of a pernicious consequence to the publick Welfare of any People For what good Man can hear without a just resentment his Ancestors that ventured their Blood and Treasure for the deliverance of their Country be most falsly and wickedly arraigned as Rebels by a parcel of Clergymen generally Advocates for Tyranny and many of them little sneaking ignorant and scandalous Fellows who on this madding Day impudently vent their lying Harangues against them who under God were the Instruments of much happiness to England 3. The keeping up that day furnisheth the Jacobites with a mighty Argument against the late happy and glorious Revolution for they argue thus Since by Act of Parliament the opposers of King Charles the First who acted by authority of Parliament mark that are branded as Rebels c. how much more are they Rebels that against their own Principles of Passive Obedience and Non Resistance turned out their Jure divino King the late Tyrant James who had not committed half so many arbitrary and illegal Actions nor been guilty of such notorious Violations upon the Laws and Liberties of England as that Holy Martyr Charles the First was justly charged with 4. This solemn observation is pleasing or acceptable to none but those wicked Clergy-men or Laymen that either had a hand in those arbitrary doings of that King or that would still maintain and justifie such pernicious Doctrines and Actions Neither is it to be wondred at that some of the Laymen are for keeping up this day by reason thy now enjoy the Estates of those men that assisted in the redemption of their oppressed Country for the old Saying is true Interest may flatter but it will never lie 5. If against all reason and justice to the memory of our deceased Patriots I should pro confesso allow they had been Rebels by resisting this King I would willingly be satisfied what hath their innocent posterity to answer for in this case To conclude all I do solemnly profess and declare in the presence of God That I have not written this Book to vindicate the Actions of any Relations of mine that had any hand in opposing that King nay I am not sure any of my Family was engaged in that Righteous Cause but for the undeceiving of those that are most strangely against all truth and reason deluded by the Clergy to believe a Lie viz. That King Charles the First was a Saint and Martyr and that all those good people that withstood his notorious oppressions and evil designs were great Rebels Dear Country men I have now set clear light before you and I hope you will no longer walk in darkness I desire you will carefully read over and consider this small Book and that called A Defence of the Parliament of 1640 which contains a black list of the pretended Martyr's tyrannical actions c. and upon all occasions stand u p for the undoubted Truths therein by doing of which you will highly contribute towards the securing to your selveâ— and posterity a Lasting Happiness Which is the most hearty prayer of yours and his Countries real Friend D. J. FINIS
Papist Queen and France how could poor England think of being happy or free from Popery and its natural Consequence Tyranny That instead of praying for his People as a good King should do he pray'd to be delivered from them as from wild Beasts Inundations and raging Seas that had overborn all Loyalty that is would not let him be according to his Will a great Tyrant Modesty Laws Justice and Religion God save the People from such Intercessors That the petitioning for removal of Evil Counsellors and redressing Grievances in Church and State was to him an intolerable Oppression His sending an Agent to Denmark with Letters to that King requiring Aid against the Parliament besides the 8000 Irish raised by Strafford which with a Scotch and French Army were to join the English he then had He encouraged the Scots by telling them what Money and Horse he was to have from Denmark yielding to the hireling Army of Scotland rather than to the reasonable Requests of his Parliament His stopping and way-laying both by Sea and Land to his utmost power those Provisions and Supplies which the Parliament sent to relieve the miserable Protestants of Ireland clearly demonstrates he was desirous of having them sacrificed to his Irish Friends who were bloody Cut-throats Ireland being as Ephraim the strength of his Head Scotland as Judah was his Law-giver but over England as over Edom he meant to cast his Shoe His being so false in all his Treaties as to follow his grand Maxim viz. Always to put something into his Treaties which might give colour to refuse all that was in other things granted and so make them signify nothing a way of treating that no way became a Crown'd Head much less an honest pious Prince who ought to be sincere in all his Undertakings That was so full of Revenge upon the Parliament that he sent his violent Queen who with the greatest willingness went to Holland where she by his order pawn'd and set to sale the Crown Jewels a Crime heretofore counted treasonable for no other use but to raise an Army of Horse and Foot with Arms c. a very pious Design to bring in a wicked parcel of Foreigners to cut his English Subjects Throats This was a Martyr with a witness by whom the Nation had been swallowed up with Blood and Ruin had not his Strength fail'd him more than his Will His admiring those Ministers that strengthened his Hands and hardened his Heart and applauded him in his wilful ways against the Good of his People to whom he was a Constantine They were as dear and pleasing to him as Amaziah the Priest of Bethel was to Jeroboam for they had learnt not to prophesy against Bethel for it is the King's Chappel the King's Court But his hating those good and pious Ministers the Parliament sent him proceeded from their telling him plain Truths what was his Duty and Interest and preaching up Repentance for what he had done His most wrongfully pretending that he must kill or be killed is so notoriously false that nothing can be clearer it being very manifest that never was King less in danger of any violence from his Subjects till he unsheath'd his Sword against them Nay long after that time when he had spilt the Blood of thousands they had still his Person in a foolish veneration His own Letters taken at the Battel of Naseby were of great importance to let the People see what Faith there was in all his Promises and solemn Protestations they discovered his good Affection to Papists and Irish Rebels the strict Intelligence he held the pernicious and dishonourable Peace he made with them not sollicited but rather solliciting which by all Invocations that were holy he had in publick abjured See the Articles of Peace abridged in the Defence of the Parliament of 1640 c. These Letters revealed his Endeavours to bring in Foreign Forces Irish French Dutch Lorainers and our old Invaders the Danes upon England These were visible to all men under his own hand and were ordered by the Parliament to be printed for publick Information These his own Letters discovering his Grand Mystery of Iniquity this holy Man was not a little concern'd at their being made publick for they pull'd off his Mask and shew'd the World what sort of a Man he was Having I hope beyond all doubt given clear Demonstrations that King Charles the First could be no Saint Martyr nor a true Protestant but on the contrary a favourer of Popery a wicked and oppressive Tyrant I have little or no occasion to proceed to my second Proposition which was to vindicate the Parliament of 1640 and all those Noble Patriots that joined with it against that King and his Evil Counsellors however I shall briefly defend them from the impudent Charge of Rebels tho I am heartily sorry that the ignorance of some prejudice and self-interest of others should give the least occasion for this Defence especially in these our days when God be praised Men can speak and write English Truths without being hang'd for them as in the late wicked Reigns when Villains declared it for Law that Scribere was Agere In prosecution of this Defence I shall shew you 1. Who did rise and oppose this Prince and his Evil Counsellors 2. What were the Reasons that induced so great an Opposition 1. The Parliament and their Adherents consisted of the best of the Nobility and Gentry Men eminent for Piety and Justice viz. The Earls of Bedford Manchester and Essex c. Lords Paget Mandeville Wharton Hollis Brook c. Commoners Sir Thomas Fairfax Mr. Hambden Mr. Pymm Sir Arthur Haslerig Mr. Strode Sir John Elliot Sir John Heveningham Sir Nathaniel Barnardiston Sir John Strangeways Sir William Earl c. and many more too many to be herein mentioned It was also evident that the most worthy of the Nobility Gentry and Commonalty of the Kingdom did most heartily engage with them in this most Righteous Work of delivering England and tho by Blood yet God gave them success against that Tyrant 2. For what Reasons did the Parliament and People presume to resist the Lord 's Anointed I answer let those that desire satisfaction in this point but read over carefully and impartially this small Book and that called A Defence of the Parliament of 1640. c. and they will have no cause to enquire further so many real matters of Fact being therein contained almost enough to convince even Thomas a Didimus But to be short they were necessitated thereunto being in the greatest danger of losing the Protestant Religion their Laws their Lives and Liberties Was it not high time to stand up when all that was dear to Free-born Englishmen was at stake Was not the King a great favourer of Papists and lover of Tyranny Was he not ruled by his violent Popish Queen a wicked corrupt and Arbitrary Nobility Gentry and Clergy many of them of mean fortunes that were unhappy for Himself but more