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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62103	A vindication of King Charles: or, A loyal subjects duty Manifested in vindicating his soveraigne from those aspersions cast upon him by certaine persons, in a scandalous libel, entituled, The Kings cabinet opened: and published (as they say) by authority of Parliament. Whereunto is added, a true parallel betwixt the sufferings of our Saviour and our soveraign, in divers particulars, &c. By Edw: Symmons, a minister, not of the late confused new, but of the ancient, orderly, and true Church of England.	Symmons, Edward.; Symmons, Edward. True parallel betwixt the sufferings of our Saviour and our Soveraign, in divers particulars.	1648 (1648)	Wing S6350A; ESTC R204509	281,464	363

intelligence with the Cardinall Mazarine Though I will not swear saies he that Lenthall says true yet I am sure 't is fit for thee to know Pap. 1. Here was another Clandestine businesse And further he doth consult with her about supplies of Men Monies and Powder for defence of his life against them of Westminster Pap. 3. and gives her direction for the conveyance of it in some other Papers a businesse Clandestine and shrewd too And in Paper 6. he assures her in private that Hertogen the Irish Agent was an arrant Knave a particular which might concerne the men of Westminster and touch them more close then perhaps every body will yet beleeve Besides in most of these Letters we shall finde the King and his Queen comforting and supporting each other under their heavy burdens with mutuall intimation of perfect love and patheticall expressions of conjugall affection All which are notable proceedings indeed against them at Westminster and great obstructions to their endevours which are to breake the Hearts of both and sinke them to their graves presently And thus we see the nature and danger of the first particular in the Charge concerning Clandestine proceedings which are so evident that we can say nothing against it The 2. followes the proof whereof is more and obscure and that is condemning all that are in any degree Protestants in Oxford by which they would have it beleeved that the King is so great an Enemy to Protestant Religion that his very friends at Oxford who have forsaken all they had for his sake are hated by him for their Religion sake so many of them as are Protestants in any degree But how this is manifest in these his Papers we are to seek for though these men have forehead enough to affirme it yet their fortune is not good enough to prove it Indeed we find the King in his Letters to Ormond Paper 16. and in his Directions to his Commissioners at Uxbridge taking great care and giving strict Charge for the preservation of his Protestant Subjects in Ireland but in no place can we see so much as a sillable tending to the condemnation of Protestant Religion But these men cannot leave their old trade of Taxing the King with their own Conditions Heaven and Earth can witnesse that never was there in England greater enemies to Protestant Religion then themselves have been never was there so much Protestant Bloud spilt in this Nation since the beginning of the world as hath been by their meanes within these foure years Never was London so full of Prisons never the Prisons so full of Protestant Divines Protestant Nobles Gentry and Christians of all sorts as they have been since these good men kept Court at Westminster Besides how they have Countenanced and brought into the Church all kinde of Sects and Heresies to the ruine of Protestantisme which the King for the Honour and Health thereof was alwayes carefull to suppresse and keep out How have they maintained and preached Doctrines of Devills scil of strife murder of Brethren Rebellion against Princes oppression of neighbours and practised the same which are all directly opposite to the Religion of the Protestants How have they abolished the Book of Common-Prayer established by Parliament to be the Protestants publick forme of Worshiping and serving God in this Kingdome Had the King done but any one of these things or were he not himselfe a most constant and zealous Professour of Protestant Religion in his daily practice these men might happily have had some Colour for this their confident Charge against him and so to have created suspitions of him But seeing all things are so cleare contrary we learne onely thus much from this particular on their charge that they are men whose hearts are not overspiced with honesty They passe not what they say nor with what face so they say no truth The third particular which they load their King withall is Tolleration of Idolatry to Papists which they speak as if Idolatry sub eo nomine were already allowed and set up by the Kings Authority in contempt of God and true Religion and so doubtlesse they would have it apprehended Reasonable men will yeild that there is a difference betwixt Idolatry and the Penalty thereof the penalty may be suspended altered or taken away for the time and yet the sinne it selfe not tollerated or allowed These doubty Champions will not yeild that their Parlia have granted a tolleration to Adultery though they have abrogated the penal Lawes against that sin and so taken away the meanes to punish it Nor can they prove that the King hath promised any more to Papists then the Parliament hath already granted to fornicatours In their after-notes where they make repetition of this matter they referre the Reader to Paper the 8. for their ground of it In which we finde the King relating to His Queen how the English Rebells had transmitted the Commands of Ireland from the Crowne of England to the Scots an expression worthy by the way to be observed by all Englishmen that regard the honour of their Nation considering that the King Himself is a Scot and that the men of Westminster intend if they cannot kill Him to thrust Him and His Children as some of their Hang-bies have whispered to His Ancient Inheritance in Scotland when they have made use of His People of that Nation to help to destroy His Kingly Power here not one Scot of them all shall have any footing or any more to doe in this Kingdome I say considering this every true Englishman hath cause most highly to reverence the King for His Justice unto and His care of the dignity of the English Crown But to proceed the King tells His Queen that by that Act that base and ignoble act He found Reformation of the Church not to be as they pretended the end of this Rebellion and concludes it would be no piety but presumption rather in Himselfe not to use all lawfull meanes to maintaine His righteous Cause And as one mean to that purpose not thought of before He gives His Queen leave to promise in His Name that all penall Lawes in England against Roman Catholicks shall be taken away as soone sayes He as God shall inable me to doe it upon this Conditiion so as by their meanes I may have so powerfull assistance as may deserve so great a favour and inable me to doe it Now how truly from these words that accusation is collected let the Readers Judge Here they see is no absolute grant or tolleration of Idolatry as they pretend but only a conditionary promise of withdrawing the penall Statutes against the Papists His Subjects if by their meanes He may be delivered from this bloudy raging and malicious persecution of the Puritans and settled in His power and throne again And well may the Papists expect as much favour from the King for such a service as Adulterers have had already from the Parliament gratis Nor perhaps

the true reason of his departure thence to be that he might not speake destruction to his people but safety and Honour still if possible that he might not imbrew his hands in the bloud of innocent and Loyall Subjects against Law and Conscience yea surely lest the rest of that guilt of bloud which he saw was likely to be spilt should be charged upon the Head of him and his posterity He withdrew himselfe from their society and did for the present even abhorre to be amongst them When God pleaseth we see he can make men speak truth whether they will or no. And truly let any man who hath Conscience judge in the matter whether the King did not do prudently and conscientiously in his forsaking them when he perceived their purpose and resolution was to have him sit there amongst them onely with a Reed or Pen in his Hand to signe and own as his Act and Deed whatever they alone should vouchsafe to do that so they might cast the blame and Odium of all their Injustice afterwards upon him which is most apparent they would have done if he had stayed for being by his departure frustrate of such their intentions they seem to cast it all upon the people by those words if no resistance be used Straffords President will cast Canterbury and Canterburies all the rest of the Conspiratours and so the people will make good their ancient freedome still As if the people of their own accords without being requested thereunto or sollicited by others for the upholding and making good some Ancient Priviledge which they formerly had enjoyed and now if the King were able to make resistance were in danger to be deprived of Had desired that those men Strafford and Canterbury should be put to death onely by their Votes and not by Law Indeed I read that in Heathen Rome the People had such a Custome to voice men to death and such men they should commonly be as had done the Common-wealth best service and from the Custome perhaps it was that Pilat a Romane Magistrate did permit the people of the Jewes against all Law and right to voice Christ to be crucified But I never heard that the people of England were wont to do so in any age till this new Arbritrary Government was set up And we beleeve it will be easier for these Libellers to make the people as the world now goes with many of them Pagans and Jewes in such desires then to prove that any such Custome did ever yet hitherto belong unto them nor will it availe much to the peoples comforts at the great day or to their own securities in the mean while if now they should purchase any such Priviledge But I leave the People to consider of this matter themselves and returne to these King-accusers who have themselves well answered their own accusation against their Soveraigne and declared the true Reason of his leaving his Seat at Westminster to which they might have added another viz. Gods calling him from thence both by his Word and Providence 1. By his Word which a King as well as another man is bound to observe and give heed unto My Sonne if sinners entice thee consent thou not if they say let us lay wait for bloud let us lurke privily for the innocent without cause c. My sonne walke not thou in the way with them refraine thy foot from their path for their feet run to evill and make haste to shed bloud 2. By his Providence in his permitting the tumultuous people to rise against him and to force him from thence Consule providentiam Dei cum verbo Dei sayes one and when with the Word Providence concurs there is doubtless a speciall call from heaven But the King having these grounds of withdrawing himselfe some may wonder why in that former place they so heavily charge him to have walked to the ruine of his three Kingdomes by abhorring his Seat and Councell as if his leaving that were the sole cause of all our woe I answer in a word Their reason I conceive is because the King being of a soft and tender conscience is unwilling to beare the guilt therefore he shall whether he will or no if they can help him to it beare all the blame being unchargeable of reall evils he shall be burdened with imaginary the Devill and his Members desire no greater advantage against those they hate then to see them meekly scrupulous nor doe they please themselves better in any thing then in loading with slanders and tormenting the righteous when they see them to be in an afflicted condition Shimei cursed his Soveraigne and falsly called him A bloudy man and the destroyer of Sauls house because ●e saw him in a low condition So these men fancie they may say any evill against their King because he is in an afflicted condition they may speak to his farther griefe because he is already grieved But as David in that place sayes so say we It may be the Lord will look upon the affliction of his Anointed and will requite good the sooner to him even for these their accursed and false scandals of him And O our God our eyes are towards thee we will waite for thy salvation And thus I hope I have now made it apparent that there is as little of Verity as there is of Piety in that reproachfull Charge which these ill disposed Libellers these Martin Mar-kings have cast upon their Soveraigne now we shall observe how they proceed They address their speech to the Reader in generall whom they suppose to be either a Friend or an Enemy to their cause and say If thou art well affected to the Cause of Liberty and Religion which the two Parliaments of England and Scotland now maintain against a Combination of all the Papists in Europe almost especially the bloudy Tigres of Ireland and some of the Prelaticall Court Faction in England thou wilt be abundantly satisfied with these Letters here Printed and take notice how the Court hath been Cajold by the Papists and we the more beleeving Protestants by the Court SECT VII 1. What that Liberty is which the pretended Parliament doe maintaine 2. And what that Religion may be which they are about to set up Reasons to shew it may haply be the Popish or peradventure the Turkish 3. Six Arguments to prove it cannot be the Christian Protestant THe Reader may be well affected to that Reformed Religion which Gods holy and pure Word teacheth which the Church of England this fourscore yeares last past hath pulikly professed and to that Liberty which Christianity alloweth which the Subjects of this Land above any other in the World most happily have enjoyed under their Soveraigne Princes and which the Parliaments of this Kingdome before this have concurred in the establishing of and yet no way affected to that cause of Liberty and Religion which these men speake of Nay if the Reader may judge of Liberty and Religion by its

you shal go in therefore some of you I see are scrupulously fearful to lift up your hand against the King or to cut the throats of all your Brethren that be not of your Opinion to work a new-found Reformation by the Sword but hereupon it is that we have such a stoppage made in Englands mercies the Elect of God are stil kept out of their possessions and the Land is yet ful of wicked men and herein you shew your selves most weak and simple that you do not consider that God is weary of his ordinary manner of working he sees it is impossible that his Children should have their hearts desires in this life by going in that old beaten path himself is not able to satisfie their lusts that way and therefore he hath now at length better bethought himself and left his old wont is resolved to go an extraordinary way to work which he never went in before hath stirred up many extraordinary men worthy members to that purpose yea and now he wil have his people cast his Word behind their backs as a thing out of date to walk by and look only unto extraordinary Lights and Revelations that we their Teachers shal tel them of and go only by them and believe it now God hath altered his mind and course of working 't is plainly to tempt him if you expect his blessing in his old way or ●hal observe the guide of his word any longer they that wil not now depend upon Miracles and Revelations are obstructers of Englands mercies yea and worthy to be voted Enemies to Gods Reformation such as are wilful in their enmity too and past all hope of recovery This is the sense and Doctrine of William Bridge one of the Parliament Ministers delivered in the year 1642. at Margarets on Fish-street hil London and ordered to serve for the whole Miridian of Great Brittain by the Committee of the House of Commons in Parliament concerning Printing witness John White But leaving William Bridge to his extraordinary illuminations and Revelations we turn again to these good fellows and desire to know of them what these particular Miracles and Revelations be which they here speak of we conceive they mean these Letters which they say were taken in the Kings Cabinet at Nazeby field by victorious Sir Thomas Fairfax But truly we do not see how things written by way of Letters from one person to another can properly be called Revelations nor how it can merit the name of a Miracle for Enemies in War or Battail to seize upon a Cabinet of Papers At the Battail of Edg●-hil His Majesties Soldiers took certain Letters wherein by divine providence was discovered how one Blake was hired by them that call themselves the Kings most loving and obedient Subjects to signifie by some token the place where His Majesty was in the field that they might more directly level their Shot thither and speak forth their Loyalty by the mouth of their Ordnance we apprehended it indeed a special mercy of God to us but we did not call it by the name of a Miracle or a Revelation Yea but these men it seems do co●nt such an accident when it falls out on their side a Miracle and a Revelation and a sufficient one too to convert all of us unto their opinion if we be not before-hand wilful in our enmity against Parliaments and Reformation But if any be so obstinate and wil not be wrought upon by these means 't is supposed that he wil either deny these Papers to be written by the Kings own hand or else that the constructions ●●d inferences made out of them are just and true or that these Papers are blameable against such Rebels as they are who have published them for it seems these are properties essential to one wilful in enmity yet whether it be out of our weakness of judgment or no we leave it to reasonable men to determine we the simple Brethren do confess that we believe it is possible that a man may suspect whether all these Papers as they are here published by his deadly enemies were written by the Kings own hand or no yea and he may also absolutely deny that the Constructions and inferences which they make out of them are just and right and further he may declare and shew that nothing in them is so blameable as they would have the world believe seeing they are against such unparalleld Rebels as they are and notwithstanding be free from any such enmity as they speak of It seems their guilty consciences expected some such matter and therfore they endevour so wel as they can poor men to answer for themselves saying As to the first know that the Parliament was never yet guilty of any such forgery the King yet in all the Letters of his which have been intercepted never objected any such thing and we dare appeal to his own Conscience now knowing that he cannot disavow either his own hand-writing or the matters themselves here written All the Cyphers Letters all circumstances of time and fact and the very hand by which they are Signed so generally known and now exposed to the view of all wil aver for us that no such forgery could be possible Their Argument in these words unto the first stands thus If these Letters were not written with the Kings own Hand then the Parliament should be guilty of forgery but the Parliament was never guilty of such forgery Ergo. The Major in this Argument they take for true but it is not currant unless they wil prove that none had to do with these Letters but the Parliament and that the publication of them was the Act of the whole Court which we do not believe because the end thereof being as was shewn before only to defame and endanger the Kings Person doth speak it a work un-beseeming a Parliament consisting of Christian men unless we take only a part for the whole perhaps indeed it might be the Act of some amongst them viz. of the prevailing Faction but crimen paucorum diffundere in omnes is not our custome But their Minor only they prove and that thus If the Parliament were guilty of any such forgery then the King in some of his Letters that have been intercepted would have objected the same But the King never objected any such thing Ergo. To this I answer it would be as great a shame if a whole Parliament should be guilty of forgery as if it should be guilty of the forementioned Act of Authorizing this Libell but yet some of the rotten Members thereof as they are men may possibly be as guilty of the one as of the other for all men say these are subject to Errour Nor is it an impossible thing to shew that some of them have not dealt so sincerely as became honesty when they were yet in ways of entreaty with their Associate Counties for free benevolence before they came to their weekly Taxes and Contributions some

his Word in cases of this Nature But I returne again to these men Who would have us by these their words of His Maj. soliciting the King of Denmark and in him all other Princes to take notice that he calls in forraign Aide which fault they amplifie over and over in other places for though themselves may without offence or sinne call in another Nation and hire them with I know not how many 1000. Pounds a moneth to help them cut the throats of their Country-men yea and may make use of any forreiners in the world of what Nation Religion or Spirit soever they be to help them to destroy and pull down Monarchy yet the King may not without exclamation desire the aide of a Protestant Prince no not of his neerest Kinsman the King of Denmark to uphold the same But what is the reason that the King must be confined to this restraint themselves walk so much at Liberty Why they tell us at the end of their notes that the King had made resolutions and promises that he would never bring in forreine forces Which themselues indeed never did nor ever intended for doubtlesse they resolved at first to bring their defignes to passe by any meanes and rather then faile to get assistance Flectere si superos nequeunt Achero●●a movere and therefore themselves are free and do as they please whereas the King is entangled in his own promises They say Pag. 58. As to the bringing in of forrain forces The King Mar. 9. 1641. in his Declaration from Newmarket saith Whatsoever you are advertised from Rome Venice Paris of the Popes Nuncios soliciting Spain and France for forrain ●ydes We are confident no sober honest man can beleeve Us so desperate or senselesse to entertain such designes as would not onely bury this Our Kingdome in soddain destruction and ruine but Our Name and Posterity in perpetuall scorn and infamy Also they tell us of other words which the King spoke some three weeks after to the same purpose which indeed as I take it do expresse the inward ground and Motive that caused him to speak the former viz. We have neither so ill an opinion of Our own Merits or the Affections of Our Subjects as to think Our self in need of forraigne force Also August the 4. in his speech to the Gentry of York-shire the King acknowledgeth say they that He is wholly cast upon the Affections of his people having no hope but in God His just cause and the love of his Subjects Now these observators having quoted these three expressions of the King do conclude saying What distinction can now satisfie us that neither Irish French Lorrai●ers Dutch Danes are forreiners To which I answer First for the Irish they are no more forreiners then the Scots are nor in some respect so much for Ireland hath been a dependant unto the Crown of England many hundred yeers before Scotland was and then for French Lorrai●ers Dutch and Danes I shall answer concerning them when they are landed for the Kings assistance and in the meane time it would be but just that they should satisfie us that neither the Irish Scots French Burg●ndi●●● Dutch Wall●ns Itali●ns that are already in their Armies are neither Papists nor Forreiners as I said before the time and place is known to many where neere 30. of their men being taken were examined and found to be of six severall Nations all forreiners and all Papists But these words of the King alleadged by these men against Him do plainly discover to every honest eye that His Majesties designe was never to use any but His own Subjects nor did He think it possible and the rather in regard of His own good merits that people so long instructed in Protestant Religion should ever prove so ungratefull as to force Him their Prince to stand in need of forreigne assistance and therefore the Heads of the faction having in their malicious policy to work feares and jealousies against Him told the people that the Popes Nuncio that great Bulbegger was soliciting both in Spain and France the Kings businesse for forreigne aides and of this they said they were advertized from Venis and Paris yea and from Rome it self with which it seems they held intelligence even from the very beginning Now to remove this foolish vanity and to retaine a clearnesse in His peoples hearts the King expressed himself in that sort unto them assuring them that they were all forgeries against Him and that he did wholly cast Himself upon the Affections of His people and was confident that no sober man could beleeve Him so senselesse as to entertaine such a designe which would have been so detrimentall both to Himself and His Kindom and in very deed if before he had tryed his own people he had called in such Armies of Forreiners as they reported it must needs have been confessed a desperate part in him a mean to have brought a suddain Destruction upon his Kingdome and a perpetuall Infamy upon His Name But if after three yeares as long as was allowed to the fig-tree in the Gospell the King finding his Subjects unfaithfull and cold in their affections towards him Nay more perceiving by so long experience that their endeavours were to take from him both his Life and his Inheritance yea and his Honour too and that they abused his good opinion of them by mis-interpreting his professions unto them and conceiving him tyed thereby from using others help for defence of himselfe and Monarchy I beleeve if he had or should alter his Resolution and call in any Prince in Christendome to his assistance in the maintenance of Regall Authority which God hath intrusted him withall and of that Government which as the most absolute God established among his own people and hath alway blessed this Nation under He being utterly disabled to do it otherwise it should be reckoned by the Almighty at the great day if any fault at all but among his infirmisies Yea and if destruction thereby should fortune to come to the whole Kingdome the whole infamy and guilt thereof should be charged upon the Heads of these his most perverse and injurious people even as that of Jerusalem by Titus Vespasian is laid upon the seditious that were therein even unto this day But my humble prayer to the Almighty is that he would yet please to spare us and to bestow his grace at length upon the people of this land that they might cease provoking his Divine Majestie to punish that way this so Horrid a sin and so High abuses to his own Annointed And thus I have done also with this particular SECT XXIII 1. The Libellers Cavills at the word Mongrill Parliament At the Commissioners for the Treaty at Uxbridge At the Kings pawning His Jewels answered 2. His Majesties Affection and Goodnesse to His Subjects for want of other matters objected as a fault against Him by these Libellers IN the third place they accuse the