to be re-examin'd after Issue joyn'd in case they recover'd A particular Charge being laid before you when the House of Commons is a Party and the Charge of so high a nature as Treason I shall not advise this Honourable House to use any Chiquancery or Pettisoggery with this great Representation of the Kingdom but admit them forthwith to examine their own Members yet with this Caution To hew the Names two days before they be produced to the Sollicitor of the Defendant that he may have notice of the persons But the House press for Secrecy in the Examination Well they are safe enough while they are in the Lord's hands who have Urim and Thummim perfect Knowledge and perfect Integrity and therefore nothing can be suspected Are not they surer than other Officers In ordinary Commissions out of Star-Chamber my Lord Ellsmore would not allow that any Clerks should be used to prevent Futility and Evaporation saying That the best Commissioner in England was not too good to be the King's Clerk Secondly I am as'kt about the Examination of the Peers and the Assistants of this House upon Oath There is no question to be made about the Assistants they are no Peers of this Kingdom but whether Peers may be produced as Witnesses and testifie upon Oath A question not sit to be now handled and impossible to be resolved out of the Rolls of the Parliament because the Peers give their Testimony both in this Court and others either way And I am confident a Peers Averment against his Fellow Peer cannot be refused either way especially in case of Treason For a Peer judgeth his Peer worthy of Death upon his Honour and therefore may witness against him upon his Honour In this Court and almost in this Case in Alze Pierce her Case 1 Rich. 2. Num. 21. Lord Roger Beauchamp swears upon the Holy Evangelists The Lord of Lancaster King of Castile and Leon is examin'd but not sworn Nay both ways have been declar'd in this House to be all one Your Lordships declaring that you did not bound limit or terminate your Assertion with your Honour but mount it and relate it up unto God that gave you your Honour and yielded your selves perjur'd if you falsisied in swearing upon Honour which is just the very same as if you sware upon the Holy Evangelists To swear upon Honour and rest there were Idolatry But to swear upon Honour with a Report and Relation to God who bestowed it upon your Lordships as a special Favour and Grace is as Christian an Oath as any in the World For new Scruples in the manner as to touch the Book to look on the Book to hold up a Finger or Hand to Heaven are Ceremonies which the House of Commons little regards but leaves them to us And the Lord of Strafford is so wise that he will never question the Honour of his Peers And why should we trouble our selves about the circumstance but leave each Lord called to testisie to call God as a Witness to his Assertion in which of these two manners it shall please his Lordship Not the Book not the Honour but the Invocation of God to bear witness to the Assertion makes the Oath 144. I am put to it by your Lordships to speak in the third place about the examination of Privy Councillors Here needs no distinction between Peers and Assistants This is part of a Privy Councillor's Oath That he shall keep secret all matters committed and revealed to him or that shall be treated of in Council 2. If any Treaty touch his fellow-Councillor he shall not reveal it unto him till the King or Council shall require it I collect now that matters of Fact he may reveal without violation of his Oath and that he may be examin'd of matters revealed unto him that were treated of in Council if they were not treated of in Council when he was present That a Privy-Councillor for all his Oath may be examin'd concerning Words Advices or Opinions of another Privy-Councillor otherwise given than in Council That Bed-chamber and Gallery Discourse is nothing to the Council-Table Private Entertainers of the King when the Counsellors attend at the Door are not to pass for Counsellors Ear-wiggs and Whisperers are no Counsellors but detracters from Counsellors If they advise the Destruction of the King the State or the Laws of the Realm there is nothing in the Oath to protect such an Ear-worm but he may be appeached For matters which touch another fellow-Councillor or matters committed otherwise to him or which shall be treated of in Council these are not to be concealed from all forts of men but from private men only not from the King not from the Council both those are in the Oath nor from the Parliament That Privy-Councillots may be examin'd by Command of the Parliament for things treated in Council 2. for things revealed unto them secretly from the King in his Bed-chamber 3. and especially for ear-wigging and treating with the King in private after things already settled in Council The Case of Alze Pierce 1 Rich. II. num 41. clears all these Doubts And it is the Case also of a Deputy of Ireland William of Windsor Lord-Deputy misbehaved himself in Ireland the Council directs Sir Nicholas Dagworth to go thither and to enquire into his Actions Windsor makes means to Alze Pierce to keep off this man under pretence of Enmity betwixt them This Shunamite that lay in David's Bosom prevails with the King to stay Sir N. Dagworth the Council-Order notwithstanding The Lords in Parliament question her for this act as having drawn with it the Ruin of the State in Ireland She pleads not guilty Issue is joyned The Lords produce inter alios John Duke of Lancaster upon his Honor and Roger Beauchamp Lord Chamberlain upon the Evangelists Alze produceth of her part the Steward and Comptroller of the Houshold All these four were Privy-Counsellors they depose all of them nothing else but matters treated of in Council and opposed by Alze Pierce treating with the King out of Council So that if this Record be true this Case is cleared Privy-Councillors may not be forced by ordinary Courts of Justice to reveal things treated of in Council but may be produced upon Oath and Honour to reveal such Secrets by the King the Council or the Parliament especially in detestation of Statewhisperers and Ear-wiggs yea though they had taken no Oath at all Yet God forbid a Privy-Counsellor should witness against his Fellow for publickly venting the freedom of his Judgment at the Board who is bound to advise faithfully not wisely as I do here this day Should any man be accused for an Error of Judgment O God defend peradventure my Error hath set all the rest of the Council straight Errores antiquorum venerari oportet si illi non errassent minùs ipse providissem otherwise you would take away all Freedom of Debates nay almost of very Thoughts If I knew any man
their Generation Sir J. Davies Sir Ron. Crâ—w Sir T. Coventry Sir R. Hâ—ath Sir J. Walter Serjeant Fâ—nch Serjeant Richardson Serjeant Astly Sir Hâ—n Finch Mr. T. Crew Mr. W. Nâ—â— Mr. A. Pâ—nâ— Mr. J. Glanvil Mr. J. Finch Mr. E. Littleton Mr. D. Jenkyn Mr. J. Baâ—kes Mr. E. Hâ—rbâ—rt Mr. T. Gardner Mr. T. Hâ—dly Mr. Egr. Thin Mr. R. Mason The Chief among them that did deserve to Fight next the Standard my Memory perhaps is not Trusty enough after the space of 30 years to remember all those Worthies are fill'd in the Margent like a Row of Cedars and are set down in those Titles which they carried then which most of them by their Deserts did far out-grow But these contributed all they could to his Credit with as much Observance with as great Reverence with as full Applause and Praise as could be required from ingenious Gentlemen towards one that was a Stranger to their Studies whose acceptance no doubt was a Whetstone to his Industry In the first Term that he came abroad into Westminster-Hall a Parliament sate in it's second Session wherein by Command from the King he spake to both Houses Of which Speech thus my Lord of Buckingham in a Letter to him dated Novemb. 24. I know not how the Upper House of Parliament approve your Lordships Speech But I am sure he that call d them together and as I think can best judge of it is so taken with it that he saith it is the best that ever he heard in Parliament and the nearest to his Majesties meaning which beside the contentment it hath given to his Majesty hath much comforted me in his choice of your Lordship who in all things doth so well Answer his expectation This is laid aside by some negligence the more is the pity that it cannot he found But here are two credible Witnesses how well he could open the great Affairs of the Kingdom for the best of Orators gave this Rule to Brutus Nâ—m disertus esse potest in eo quod nesciat no man can speak well to that which he doth not understand At this time I find in safe Records how advisedly he carried himself in the House of Peers upon the starting of two particulars The Priviledg of the Nobility was discuss'd and ready to be determin'd finally by the more Active part that they should take no Oath save only by their Honour which through his Intercession was laid aside for these Reasons That the Word of God allows of no Swearing for the finding out of Truths and deciding of Controversies but by an Invocation of the Name of God Quod confirmatur per cortius confirmatur and it is God's Glory that his Name and no other should be accounted more certain then any thing in the World In all Controversies the last Appeal is to him and to none beside because there is none above him The last Appeal is ever to the highest therefore we make no further Inquisition for Truth after our furthest provocation to the Lord in Heaven In Assertory Oaths we Swear That thereby we may put an End to contentious Causes And it is not Man's but God's Honour to end them who is the God of Peace and that maketh men to be of one mind Moreover our best consulting Divines collect that the Ground of an Oath builds upon his holy Name because He is most True and cannot Deceive likewise because he is Omniscient and cannot be ignorant and therefore to be the only due Witness for all contentious matters where there is no other Witness The Honour of the Peerage is a very Estimable Prerogative but a Creature to Swear is to put our Soul upon a Religious Action And shall a Creature be the Object of Religious Worship God forbid shall a Creature be brought in as the Witness of all Truth Or shall it be Raised up as the Judge which avengeth all falsehood There is none but God that is privy to all Truth And Vengeance belongs to none but him that can cast both Body and Soul into Everlasting Fire He added that singularities are ever to be suspected and challeng'd any man to shew the contrary that no other Oath but In the Name of God was used in Solemn Tryals at that day in any part of Christendom And he bad them look to themselves at home how prejudicial it would prove to all Courts of Justice and how unwillingly the Gentry and lower condition'd people of the Land would be brought unto it How loth they would be to refer their Free-hold their Meum and Tuum to the protestation of Honour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If it be stood upon that in the highest Criminal Causes of Life and Death their Lordships vouched their Honour only to Guilty or not Guilty it might receive this Satisfaction If a Peer be produced as a Witness against another Peer before the Lord High Steward he lays his hand upon the Book and takes his Oath No man can be cast by the deposition of a Witness that is not Sworn But when the Peers bring their Verdict into the same Court against a Peer they lay not their Hand upon the Book but upon their Breast which is a Sign that their vouchment by their Honour in that Tryal is not an Oath Indeed it is not For their Lordships utter it not Via juramenti but Via Comparationis That is they do not Swear by their Honour but pronounce comparatively that as sure as they are Honourable they find the Prisoner Guilty or not Guilty Like to that frequent expression in Scripture As thy Soul Liveth it is thus and thus The living Soul comes not in as an Oath but as a Comparison As who should say As sure as your Soul lives or as sure as Pharaoh lives I affirm the Truth Thus far he contended and to general Satisfaction It was much that in his Novitiatship in that house he durst contradict such mighty ones in so tender a Cause But a Wise man commends the Wisest of Heathen men Socrates for that Gallant Freedom 1 Tusâ—ul adhibuit liberam contumaciam à magnitudine animi inductam non à Superbiâ 'T is Pride that makes men obstinate in their Errors But magnanimity makes them confident in the Truth 91. In the same morning while this Debate continued very long he had another Pass with a Master-Fencer For the question being canvas'd throughly concerning Oaths an Aged Bishop very infirm in health excus'd himself if he could not stay so long whereupon some Lords who bore a grudge to that Apostolical Order cried out they might all go home if they would and not contented with that Vilipendency grew higher in their demand and would have this contempt against the Prelates inserted in their Journal Book The Earl of Essex press'd it more passionately then the rest who wanted Theological Advice about the strict Obligation of Oaths as much as any Christian which appear'd by his Attempts and Practice about twenty years after But nothing
angry at the least Slackness of his Ministers and was us'd to say They might provoke him with Negligence but never molest him with double Diligence for he could read as much in an Hour as they would write to him in a Week Mr. W. Boswel his Secretary and Custos of his Spirituality and chief Servant under him in this Work was all in all sufficient for it eximious in Religion Wisdom Integrity Learning as the Netherlands know where he was long time Agent and Embassador for King Charles Through Mr. Boswell's Collection and narrow Search the Diocesan of so large a Precinct together with the Names of every Parson and Vicar was able to speak of their Abilities and manner of Life which I think no Memory could carry away but that it is credible he had some Notes affixed to every one of their Persons For he could decipher the Learning of each Incumbent his Attendance on his Cure his Conformity his Behaviour as well as most men knew them in their respective Proximities I do not say he had a passive Infallibility but that he might be abused with untrue Relations But for the most part a good Head-piece will discover a counterfeit Suggestion and crush the Truth out of Circumstances The Sum is He did as much as a Bishop could do while for the space of four Years and a half Necessity would not suffer him to reside with his Clergy whom they knew not that they mist him till he removed from London to live among them and made a large Amends for his Absence when he setled at Bugden In the mean time his Apocrisarii they to whom he had committed his Trust and Authority were among them to hear their Complaints and to Judge Right Now it is a good Rule in St. Cyprian to a laudable Purpose though the Father applies it for once to a Bad Epist 61. Non potest videri certasse qui vicarios substituit qui pro se uno plures succidaneos suggerit He that fills his Office with a good Co-adjutor his Absence may be dispenc'd with for a time upon reasonable Cause For a good Substitute is not a Shadow but a Substance Howsoever whether his Abode were within his Diocess or without it he knew that the Calling of a Bishop went along with him in every Place And whatsoever the standing Weight of his Business was that lay upon him he remembred to stir up the Gift of God that was in him by the Putting on of Hands He Preached constantly in the Abby of Westminster at the great Festivals of our Saviour's Nativity Resurrection and Whit-Sunday On which high Days he sung the Common Prayers Consecrated and Administred the Sacrament the Great Seal of the Righteousness of Faith besides the Sermon which he Preach'd every Lent in the King 's Royal Chappel Which was Work indeed being so learnedly performed For when he put his Hand to that Plough no man cut up a deeper Furrow that came into the Pulpit 99. Such Examples of Preaching were necessary for this time but very ill follow'd For there were Divines more Satyrical than Gospel-spirited chiefly some among the Lecturers in populous Auditories that were much overseen Banding their Discourses either under the Line or above the Line against the quiet Settlement of present Government Some carried their Fire in Dark-Lanthorns and deplor'd the Dangers that hung over us Some rail'd out-right and carried the Brands end openly in their Mouth to kindle Combustion Both did marvellously precipitate slippery Dispositions into Discontents and Murmurings The Treatise about the Spanish Match was the Breize that bit them and made them wild That was such a Bugbear that at the Motion of it some that were conscientious and some that seem'd so thought that the true Worship of God was a Ship-board and Sailing out of the Realm True Religion is the Soul of our Soul and ought to be more tender to us than the Apple of our Eye But we all know what will grow out of that Religion when it is marked with Charity It is not easily provok'd thinketh no evil beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things 1 Cor. 13. It is not distrustful of it own fastness as if so good a Fortress could be push'd down with a bruised Reed It will not raise Tumults and Tragedies from Misapprehensions that float upon the idle Lake of Suspicion That the Orthodox Church of England should totter upon this Occasion God be thanked it was not in proof nor could be made evident Sometimes Jealousie is too watchful sometimes it is fast asleep When the French Marriage was in Treaty when it was concluded when the Navy was under Sail to Land the Royal Bride the Preachers were modest and made no stir not one Zealot complain'd of for jerking at it with unadvis'd passion And yet the Daughter of France was a Daughter of the Roman Chair no less then Donna Maria. She never had Commerce nor ever like to have with the Hugonots The Swarms of her own Train all Papists by Profession were ready to abound in our Land far more than from the Spanish Coast Because of the short and easie passage from Calis to Dover their Shavelings would fly over as thick as Wasps about a Honey-Pot This was mightily dreaded when the Mariage was in some forwardness between Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Anjoy and opposed strongly by some that were hot in the Mouth to their cost But now no Leprosie was suspected but from Spanish Popery Which was aggravated with such Insolencies by some Ecclesiastical Fencers against the King's Honor and the Sincerity of his Oath which he had taken to maintain true Religion that they were at the height of Rage to profess Come and let us smite him with the Tongue Jerem. 18. Vers 18. So that his Majesty rouzed up like a Lyon silenc'd some of the Offenders imprison'd some threatned to arraign some for their Lives Yet after he was come to more Serenity of Passion the Lord Keeper who thought as hardly of their Indiscretion as the King himself did was Advocate for them all undertook to settle their Brains and procur'd them their Liberty and their Livings Among the rest he invented a merry Contrivance in the behalf of a very learned and misguided Scholar a Prisoner upon that score He told the King that he had heard that some idle Gossips complain'd of him grievously and did not stick to curse him Why What Evil have I done to them says the King Sir says the Lord-Keeper Such a Man's Wife upon Tidings of her Husband's Imprisonment fell presently in Labour and the Midwifes can do her no good to deliver her but say it will not be effected till she be comforted to see her Husband again For which the Women that assist her revile you that her Pains should stick at such a Difficulty Now Weal away says the King send a Warrant presently to release him lest the Woman perish There was none that was worse to be tamed
they of our part before you bring forth the whole Plump of your Articles No Fence could thrust by this Question but that it would stick fast in the Cause So we gained again that King Philip was restreined from making Faith for King James And although the Froathy Formality of promulging the Dispensation was kept back yet the Articles came into Play that the Commissioners on both sides might fall to a Session 142. But from Strife of Tongues from Fundamental Contradictions from Clashings every day what Fruit could be look'd for Do Men gather Grapes of Thorns If you will believe the Parties what this Lord objected against that Lord there was none that did Good no not one If you will believe their respective Defences to those Objections there was none that did amiss I cannot take up all the Blots they made with my Pen lest I make them bigger None of those Peers hath Justified himself so well in his Letters Apologies and Reports but that strong Inferences may be drawn from some Parts to disprove the rest What was spoken at the Conference of the Junto was within the Veil and under Covert but what is published out of it is most uncertain For the Lord Keeper after he had consulted with the Prince and searched all Papers to pass his Judgment what Countenance the Business should put on when the Parliament looked upon it but ten days before Feb. 2. 1623 He writes thus to the Duke Cabal P. 90. That all the Reckoning must not be cast up before the Parliament for fear they should fall to particular Dispatches wherein they cannot but find many Contradictions After whom I glean up this Handful He that writes upon this Subject what is reserved in the Memorials of those Days writes after the Canon of Integrity but when he is monished that there are Contradictions in those Memorials he can never be secure that he hath compiled an uncorrupt History Upon this Staff he may rest That when the Chief Counsellors fell out among themselves like the Midianites every Man's Hand against his Brother as worthy Actors as I count them to be yet every one was out in his Part. Nay He that will adjust the Course of any one in this high Transaction in all things will burn Truth in the Hand and spare the Guilty He that aspired to be Dioscorus the most preeminent in the Company let him be first considered That is Conde Olivarez the Abner in the Service of his Master Ishbosheth whose Humor would brook to be crost by no Man ingrained in Nature to be Aristotle's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great Opiniator a costive Counsellor that would hold the Ground where he stood and move for no Perswasion By the fortunate Gale of Court-Favour he had lived in continual Custom to carry all before him without being stopt As Velleiâ—s says of M. Agrippa Parendi sed uni scientissimus aliis sanè imperandi cupidus so he was very servile to please King Philip and look'd that all beside should be as servile to please him Such a Spirit is intolerable in Counsel and not to be coapt with that thinks it an indignity unless he speak for all and Vote for all Such a States-man is like to bring nothing to a good End but himself to an ill one Our Princes Reports may be held of all other to be most Authentical from whom take it thus His Highness representing the Treatise of Spain to the Lords of the Privy-Councel at St. James's Octob. 30. 1623. Begins that the first man that did give him great Profession of welcom into Spain was this Olivares and in the interview in the Garden assured him that all business should be dispatch'd as fast as his Highness wish'd That the Temporal Articles should straightway be Concluded and the Spiritual Articles about Religion should cause no delays but be remitted to the Wisdom of the King his Father and his Gracious Promises But says his Highness The longer I staid the less I found him my Friend and the oftner I spoke with him the less he kept his Word But our Duke of Buckingham after a little acquaintance found the Conde Duke a great deal worse to him They came in no place but with shews of disdain at one anothers Persons and like two great Caraques in a foul Sea they never met in Counsel but they stemmed one another In every Proposal if one said so the other said no if one lik'd it the other slighted it Could it be expected that the Counsels of the whole Table should not be at a Fault when the two Presidents appear'd in Hostility of Opinions When the Malady of disaffection lay not hid in the Veins but broke out in the Body When they never brought their Offers within compass of Probability One Observes for their parts that run Races Alex. lib. 2. c. 21. Quanto minor in corpore splen foret tanto perniciores homines esse He that hath the least Spleen will make the best Footman So in all Negotiations he that is most Calm will dispatch most work but put Wise-Heads together yet where there is much Spleen there will be little done There was no likelihood but the Northern and Southern Favourites as the Lord Keeper foretold would look proudly one upon another when they met in the same Cock-Pit Courtesie was quite out of fashion with them that he that receiv'd it might not seem the greater Emulation was all in Fashion to dim each others Light by casting Shadows of Opposition Only these Animosities between two high Spirits so ill Match'd were the Seed of the Quarrel which I press against a vulgar and a scandalous Error made Table Talk in all England that our Duke had Attempted the Chastity of the Condessa Olivares and was Cheated with a diseased Strumpet laid in his Bed c. This is grosly contumelious The Lady was never solicited by Buckingham to defile her Honour with him as Sir Wal. Aston will Testifie in a Postscript of a Letter to the Duke Cabal p. 33. The Condessa of Olivares bids me tell you that she Kisseth your Grace's Hands and does every Day Recommend you particularly by Name in her Prayers to God which Salutation she durst not have sent to his Lordship no not for her Life if the Duke had offer'd toward that Indignity to make her a Strumpet And for the Rest of this Obscene Tale the worthiest Gentlemen that waited upon his Person in that Journey have assur'd me that as well in Spain as when he came from thence into England his Body was Untainted from that Loathsomness not to be Named the just Recompence of Rotten Lust Yet perhaps more will Read these Reasons then believe them though they cannot Answer them Few have been so happy to be Redeemed from the Rumor of a common Slander For as the most Eloquent of Men says Orat. pro Plancio Nihil est tam volucre quà m Maledictum nihil facilius emittitur nihil citius excipitur nihil latius
that his Lordship should be offered up to Justice as a publick Sacrifice But they that contest for his Innocency observe that he was let loose to depart in Quiet when he should have been brought to the Horns of the Altar And when the Bill drawn up against him was put into Sir Robert Philip's Hand an active and a gracious Member of the House to manage it to his Ruine Sir Robert writes to the Duke Cab. P. 265. If Bristol frame a probable satisfactory Answer to any Charge will it not rather serve to declare his Innocency than to prepare his Condemnation Your Grace may consult with your self whither you may not desist with Honour upon having him further questioned Afterward when his Master King James was dead and when he was at the Stake I may say like to be worried in Parliament by his Accusers he writes thus confidently to the Lord Conway Cab. P. 20. As for the Pardon Jacob. 21. I should renounce it but that I know the justest and most cautious Man living may through Ignorance or Omission offend the Laws So that as a Subject I shall not disclaim any Benefit which cometh in general as it doth usually to all other Subjects in the Kingdom But as for any Crime in particular that may entrench upon my Employments in point of Loyalty and Fidelity I know my Innocency to be such that I am confident I shall not need that Pardon A. Gallius li. 12. c. 7. Take the Earl's Case Pro and Con it is very dubious therefore I will deal with it as the manner of the Areopagites was in such Perplexities adjourn it to be heard an hundred Years hence I say not He but They were the Proprophets of Baal that troubled our Israel Our Corner-miching Priests with the Bloomesberry-Birds their Disciples and other hot spirited Recusants cut out the Way with the Complaints of their no-grievous Sufferings which involved us in Distractions Rome and Madrid were full of them and they conjured Pope Gregory and the Catholick King to wind in their Safety and Immunity in the Articles of the Match as behoved a Father and a Friend If they had sate still and let the Business go adrist with the Tide it had been better for them They that force their Fruits to be Ripe do but hast them to be rotten Qui spretis quae tarda cum securitate prematura vel cum exitio properant Tacit. Annal. lib. 3. The Word of the King and Prince would not serve them that they would be gracious to all of their Sect that lived modestly and inoffensively to deserve their Clemency But they must have publick Instruments for it and Acts of Parliament if they could be gotten to debauch his Majesty in the Love of his People For as the Lord Keeper writes very prudently to the Duke Cab. P. 105. The Bent of the English Catholicks is not to procure Ease and Quietness to themselves but Scandals against their neighbouring Protestants and Discontents against the King and State Rhetorical Campian avows it in an Oration made at Doway Note this Apostrophe of his to our Kingdom As far as it concerns our Society we all dispersed in great Numbers through the World have made a League and Holy Solemn Oath that as long as any of us are alive all our Care and Industry all our Deliberations and Councils shall never cease to trouble your Calm and Safety Yet when our pragmatical Bosom-Enemies had wearied themselves with Solicitations the Earl of Nitsdale a main Prop of their Cause confest It may be Assurance sufficient to all Catholicks who have the Sense to consider that it must be our Master's and the Prince's gracious Disposition that must be our Safety more than either Word or Writ Thus he to the Duke Cab. P. 250. But while the Recusant Petitioners had caused all Affairs with us and Abroad to be obnoxious to Inflammation the Lord Keeper like a right Lapidary cuts a Diamond with a Diamond and useth Sir Tobâ— Mâ— is it not a Paradox the busiest Agent in that Cause to Manifest both in the Palace at Rome and in the Court at Madrid that the Petitioners grasp at more Favours than they could hold either with the Peace of this Kingdom or with the Laws of it which would endanger them to forfeit all that Connivance which they had gained before Give him his Due he rode with great Celerity to those remote Places and did his Work to the Proof and to his great Praise Sâ—stus est at mihi infidelis non est As Plautus in Trinummo The Lord Keeper failed not to put Gold in his Pocket but he paid him chiefly out of his Father's Purse That most Reverend Arch-Bishop of York his Father being highly distasted with Sir Toby's Revolt from the Protestant Religion made a Vow to Dis-inherit him and to leave him nothing The Lord Keeper plied the Arch-Bishop with sweet and pleasant Letters which he loved and with some Mediators in Yorkshire not to infringe his Vow for he did not ask him so much as to name him in his last Wiâ—l and Testament but to furnish him with Three thousand Pounds while he lived and the Sum was paid to his Son to a Peny How Sir Toby beâ— himself in the wisest Counsel which I think was given to the King of Spain may be read Cab. P. 25â— importuning his Majesty not to entangle the Prince with the Voâ—o of the Theologos to which he could not submit himself with Honour but to accept of those large Conditions for Catholicks which my Lord the King and the Prince have condescended to that so the Prince may have some foot of Ground upon which he may stand without Breach of Honour to comply with the incomparable Affection which he beareth to the Infanta This is sure that Sir Toby's Industry was well taken because he did what he could And he that employed him held him ever after to be a Person of Trust in any thing which he promised to do 145. Very consonant to the grand Particulars of the Praemises are the Contents of two Letters both dispatcht in June from the Lord Keeper to the Duke's Grace That which bears the former Date June 15 and yet unpublished lays out Errors advisedly and mannerly under the Heads of trivial Reports and furnisheth the Duke with Counsel for all Exigencies of Advantage especially diseloseth the King's Opinion if the Worst should come It is long but I could not pare it and not mar it Thus it is May it please your Grace IF ever I had as God knoweth I never had any extraordinary Contentment in the Fortunes of this World I have now good Cause offered me to redouble the same by that exceeding Love and Affection which every Man in his private Letter to others doth take Notice that your Grace doth bear and continually express to your poor Servant Nor is your Love incentred to me only in your own Breast but full of Operation having procured to me a good
he desired Leave from his Father that he might assay to depart from Madrid as secretly as he came thither Quando optima Dido Nesciat tantos rumpi non speret amores Aeneid 4. The Lord Keeper indeed had emboldned the Prince in February before to that Course but the King thought the Motion was not so seasonable at that time For his Highness was attended in Spain with a great Houshold of Followers and God knows whither the Sheep would be scattered or into what Pin-sold they should be thrust if the shepherd were gone And his Majesty still dreamt of of winning the Game and profest he saw no such Difficulties but that Patience after a while would overcome Perversness Howsoever it would be inglorious for the Prince of Wales to run away from the Frown of the Spaniards But least the Safety of so dear a Person should seem to be slighted or his Welcome Home retarded the Lord Keeper besought the King upon his Knees that his Majesty would write his Fatherly and Affectionate Letters to require his Son's Return giving them no Date but leaving that to be inserted when Business was crown'd with Opportunity This Counsel hit the Pin right and was followed and by God's Will who hath the Hearts of Kings and Princes in his Hand it pleased on this side and beyound the Seas 147. Great was the Expectation what the Month of July would bring forth as well in England as in Spain My Lord Duke had thrust himself into the greatest Employment that was in Europe when at first he had no Ground now no Mind to accomplish it A sorry Apprehension taken from Mr. Endi Porter carried him forth in all hast to make up the Match but there were others who desired his Grace to gratifie them with Concealment for their Good-will that sent Instructions into Spain to adjure him to do his utmost to prevent the Espousals Their Reasons were the two principal Places of Divine and Humane Wisdom God's Glory and his own Safety For God's Sake to keep our Orthodox Religion from the Admixture of that Superstition which threatned against the Soundness of it And no Corrosive so good to eat out the Corruption of Romish Rottenness creeping on as to give the Spaniard the Dodg and to leave the Daughter of Spain behind To his own Safety this Counsel was contributed These who made it their Study and were appointed to it to maintain the Grandeur of his Lordship met frequently at Wallingford-house to promote the Work Who had observed that some Impressions were gotten into the King's Mind and they knew by whom that his Majesty was resolved to be a Lover of Parliaments that he would close very graciously with the next that was called nor was there Likelihood that any private Man's Incolumity though it were his Grace himself should cause an unkind Breach between him and his People Therefore the Cabinet-men at Wallingford-House set upon it to consider what Exploit this Lord should commence to be the Darling of the Commons and as it were to re-publicate his Lordship and to be precious to those who had the Vogue to be the chief Lovers of their Country Between the Flint and the Steel this Spark was struck out that all other Attempts would be in vain unless the Treaty for the great Marriage were quasht and that the Breach of it should fall notoriously upon the Lord Buckingham's Industry For it was not to the Tast of the English if you will number them and not weigh them fearing some Incommodation to the Protestant Religion These Jonadabs 2 Sam. 13.3 the Subtle Friends of beauteous Absalom drew the Duke out of the King's High-way into the By-path of Popularity The Spaniards also stir'd up his Fire to struggle and appear against them For as the Earl of Bristol writes Cab. P. 20. He was very little beholding to them for their good Opinion Withal he was so head-strong that all the Ministers of our King that were joyned with him could not hold him in He had too much Superiority to think them his Fellow Servants that were so indeed And having nothing in his Tast but the Pickle of those new Counsels which his Governing Friends in England insus'd into him he pluckt down in a few Weeks which the other Part had been raising up in eight Years Centum doctúm hominum concilia sola devincit Dea Fortuna Plaut Pseud Act. 2. This unfortunate Accident did both contravene and over-match the Counsels of a hundred wise Men. A fatal thing it hath been always to Monarchs to be most deceived where they have trusted most Nay If they had all the Eyes of Argos their chiefest Confidents are able to abuse them on the blind Side Therefore the Observator is most injurious that puts a low Esteem upon King James's Wisdom P. 14. That he was over-witted and made use of to other Mens ends by almost all that undertook him So he may put the Fool upon Solomon who was cousen'd in Jeroboam whom he made Ruler over all the Charge of the House of Joseph 1 King 11.28 A Solomon may be mistaken in a Jeroboam and like his seeming Faithfulness and Sufficiency to the Undoing of his Posterity Little did the old King expect that the Man of his Right-hand whom he had made so strong for his own Service upon all Occasions would forget the Trust of his Gracious Master and listen to the Voice of Hirelings Which of the Members of my Partition will make the Duke excusable in point of Honour and Conscience Did he do it for the best to the King Did he think the Spanish Alliance would be fruitful in nothing but Miseries and that it would be a thankful Office to lurch the King in his Expectation of it Evil befall such double Diligence Perhaps it may be shifted off with the Name of a good Intent when it tampers with a Branch or Circumstance of an Injoyment but when it raiseth up the very Body of Instructions 't is no more competent with Obedience than Light with Darkness The Heathen would not brook it that had a grain of Philosophy in their Disposition that a Minister should alter the Mandates of his Superior upon Supposes to the better Ne benè consulta Religione mandati soluta corrumperentur Gell. lib. 1. c. 13. They thought that those Services which wanted the Religion of Obedience let their Aim be never so honest would prove improsperous Or did this great Lord do it for the best to himself I believe it If the Hope of the Match died away he lookt to get the Love of the most in England but if it were made up he lookt for many Enemies for he had lost the Love of the best in Spain Sir Wal. Aston foresaw wisely that there was no fear but that the Princely Lovers might joyn Hands in Sacred Wedlock if that Fear of the Duke could be removed So he writes Cab. P. 32. Would your Grace would commit it to my Charge to inform the
which all Convenencies that were formerly thought upon will cease The Remedy which he propounds to fail without all these Shelves I never did light upon out of this Letter 'T is thus The Emperor as your Majesty knows by his Embassador desires to Marry his Daughter with the King of England ' s Son and I doubt not but he will be glad to Marry his Second Daughter to the Palatine's Son So all the Conventencies of Alliance will be as full in this For it accommodates the Matter of the Palatinate and the Succession of his Grand-Children without Blood or Treasure Here is a new Bride appointed for his Highness the eldest Daughter of the Emperor which is unlikely to be intended because it comes from none but such an Author as Olivarez and in as much as when Count Suartzenburg came about eighteen Months before Embassador to our King from Caesar this was not moved at that Oportunity and when the Prince came to Spain no shadow of it remained but it was vanished like a Morning-mist before the Sun Now follow their Whimsies and their In and Ou ts at the Consulto when the Prince was among them The first Onset that Olivarez gave was That they were ready to follow all the Demands of the King of Great Brittain concerning the Match for his Son to the Demands for his Son-in-Law he said they were not in their Power to effect his Country was extended upon by the Emperor his Electoral Dignity invested in the Duke of Bavaria And within this Charm they kept us long till we were weary with their Obstinacy and sate down a while as when Boys Scourge a great Top till they make it sleep At last the Prince's Highness offended that he could gain nothing by this Alliance for his dear Sister 's Good offered to give King Philip a Farewel that he might look timely at Home for the Relief of her Misery On this no man courts his Highness to stay so much as Olivarez and to slacken his Return revives the Consult of the Restitution promiseth the strongest Mediation that the King his Master could make with the Imperialists and Bavarians which if it were rejected but they hoped better he would be forward for his Part to stir up his Catholick Majesty to give his Brother the King of England Assistance by Arms to procure him his Satisfaction Yet whatsoever he said his Heart lay a thought farther and he had a Trick to redeem himself out of this Promise for he told his Highness in a Weeks space after that he found their Nation so linked to the Love of the House of Austria that they would never march chearfully into the Field against it For all this the Weather-cock turn'd and he was affrighted in a moment into a good Mind again So did his Highness report at St. James's that a false Alarum being brought to Madrid that Count Tilly with his whole Body of Foot and Horse was routed in Germany instantly the Conde Duke came with as much Fear as Hast unto the Prince and with as much Lowliness as his Knee upon the Ground vowed he would give him a Blank for the Restitution of the Palsgrave's Interest but when the Second that is the worst News came that the Duke of Brunswick was quite defeated the Mood was changed with the Man and he spake as loftily from that Matter as if the great Armada had been failing again upon our Brittish Ocean Into how many Paces did Hipocrisie put him Sincerity would have got him Honour dispatch the Work and saved him all this Trouble for with the same Study nay with far less men may attain to be such as they ought to be which they mis-spend in seeking to be such as they are not Quibus id persuasum est ut nihil mallent se esse quà m bonos viros iis reliquam facilem esse doctrinam Cic. de orat lib. 3. After that great Don Jasper had put himself to the Expence of all this Folly he riveted in two Straws more like than Wedges to cleave the Knot First Let the Marriage be Consummated and then despair not but the Princess Infanta would beg the Palatinate with her earnest Prayers that she might be received with Honour and Applause among her Husband's People That is Seal their Patent and we shall have an empty Box to play with Or else marry the Lady and leave her behind till the Business for the Palsgrave's Patrimony were accommodated which is like Velez's Trick in Gusman of Alfarach to 〈◊〉 away both the Bride and the Bride-Cake The great Projector held close to one Proposition at the last that since Prince Frederick the Elector had highly offended Caesar in the Attempt and Continuance of it in the Matter of Bohâ—mia no Account should be had of his Person but Restitution should be made to his Eldest Son by Marrying the Second Daughter of the Emperor in which Clause the Prince concurred But the Sting in the Tail was that he should be bred up in the Emperor's Court to mold him into a Roman Catholick Upon which his Highness broke off the Earl of Bristol as a sharp Letter chargeth him written by the Prince Cab. Pag. 17. swallowing down that Difficulty at a Gulp because without some such great Action neither Marriage nor Peace could be had But Sir Wal. Aston flew back saying He durst not give his Consent for fear of his Head Now we have the Duke Olivarez in all his Party-colours who knew that the Breach of Alliance with England would be transcendently ill for Spain yet he would hazard a Mischief unless he might tear a Princely Limb from the Protestant Religion not unlike to the Paeotlans in Justin lib. 8. Tanto edio Phoâ—sunn ardentes ut obliti cladium 〈◊〉 perire ipsi qâ—à m non perdere eos praeaptarent How the Duke Olivarez smoothed it a Letter of his which would make a Pamphlet for the length will manifest which to this day hath lain in Obscurity but is worthy to come abroad It follows 161. HIS Majesty being in the Escurial I desired these my Lords the Embassadors that they wou'd repair hither to the end that we might treat of perfecting those things which concern the Palatine forasmuch as might be done from hence wherein we procure as you know to give Satisfaction to the King of Great Britain through whose Intercession together with that of the most Excellent Prince his Highness we have procured to dispose things in Germany and have used those Diligences which you know The Means which hath ever seemed most easie and apt for the well addressing of this Business is to Marry the Eldest Son of the Palatine to the second Daughter of the Emperor bringing him up in the Court of his Caesareal Majesty whereby the Restitution both of the States and Electorate to the said Son might be the better and more satisfactorily disposed And in this Conformity we have ever understood and treated and propounded it here But now coming close to
their Clutches that by Arms or cunning Treaties do Usurp it But the way and Manner in Discovering the Couchant Enemy in preserving that handful of our Friends in laying down some Course of Diversion and the like you do most wisely and modestly refer to the proper Oracle His Majesties Wisdom and Deep Counsel Yea but I must tell you Mr. Speaker Vinci in amore turpissimum the King cannot endure to be outvyed by his People in Love and Courtesies What you in Duty do refer to him his Majesty in Confidence of your Wisdom and Loving Assections returns upon You. You say you would have the King betake him to sound Counsel You are his Counsel Consilium magnum his Main and Principal Counsel It is very true That since the begining of Harry the 8th the Kings of England have reserved those Matters to their own Conisance and Resolution But it is as true that from Harry the First until that Harry the Last our Kings have in every one of those Questions Repaired to and received Advice of their Parliaments Id verum quod primum Our Master means to follow the former Precedents His Majesty Commands me to yield unto you Hearty Thanks for your just Resentments of his Sufferings in this Cause and to tell you withall that because the main of the Expedition is to be born by the Persons and Purses of the People whom you do represent He is pleased to accept of the Advice of the House of Commons concerning the finding out of this secret Enemy the re-inforcing of our remaining Friends and by what kind of Diversion we shall begin the Enterprize And God the Holy Ghost be present with you in all your Consultations 184. In the Ninth Place That Well of Wood our Navy Royal wherewith you well observed this whole Island to be most strongly fortified we must all attribute the well Rigging and good Condition of it to the great Cost Care and Providence of his Sacred Majesty Hic tot sustinuit hic tanta negotia solus And yet as that Carver that beautified the Temple of Diana although he wrought upon other Mens Charges was suffered notwithstanding to engrave his own Name in some eminent Places of the Building So surely can it be denied by Envy it self but that most Noble Lord who is now a compleat Master in his Art and hath spent his seven years Studies in the Beautifying of the Navy should have a glorious Name enstamped thereupon though in a sitting Distance from his Lord and Master whose Princely Majesty A longe sequitur vestigia semper adorans Lastly For the Reformation of Ireland this I am bidden to deliver Pliny commending the Emperor Trajan to the utmost reach of Eloquence says That the most laudable and most remarkable Point in all his happy Government was That his Care was not consined to Italy alone but Instar solis like the Beams and Influence of the Sun it shed it self to many other Countries Surely his Majesty's Providence is of a large Extent for where the Sun scarce darteth his Beams his Majesty hath shined most gloriously by the Execution of wholsome Laws engrafting Civility and Planting true Religion And let this be our Soveraign's Comfort that though this poor Kingdom though never so reformed shall add very little to his Crown of Temporal Majesty here on Earth it will be an Occasion of an immense Access to his Crown of Glory hereafter in Heaven And now for your four Petitions Mr. Speaker his Majesty grants them all in one Word What Priviledge Liberty Access or fair Interpretation was ever yielded to the Members of that House his Majesty grants them to the Knights and Burgesses now assembled fully and freely without the least Jealousie Qualification or Suspicion I will only add a Memorandum out of Valerius Maximus to cut an even Thred between King and People Quid Cato sine Libertate Quid libertas sine Catone What is Wisdom without Liberty to shew it And what is Liberty without Wisdom to use it 185. Hitherto the King spake to the People by the Lord Keeper's Mouth and then the House rose All rejoyced that such gracious Concessions were returned to Mr. Speaker's Motions which were the Beam that held up the insequent Counsels till the Roof was covered with Agreement And it took the more that it was inlaid with such Mosaick Work not to the Eye but to the Ear by a perfect Orator It was the greatest and the knowingest Auditory that this Kingdom or perhaps the World afforded whose general Applause he carried away to as much as Modesty could desire Isocrates extolling the famous Acts of Evagoras before the full Celebrity of the Athenians exulted that Evagoras was approved by them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose good Opinion was more honorable to him than all the Earths beside It was a happy sight at that time to see the Patriots of both Houses depart with Hands held up to God and with Smiles in their Looks that you might think they said one to another as the Princes of the Congregation and the Heads of the Thousands of Israel said to the Children of Reuben and Gad c. This day we perceive that the Lord is among us Jos 22.31 The Lord Keeper was summoned in three days after to a fresh Business and a larger Task than the former So fine a Tongue was sure not to want Work The Lords and Commons were brought into the Banqueting-House at White-Hall Feb. 24. where the Duke of Buckingham spake unto them leading them into the Maeanders of the Spanish Treatise and lead them out of them by the Clew of his own Diligence as he spared not to give himself the Honour of it For this time he was the Alcibiades that pleased the Common-wealth His Zeal and unremovable Pertinacy not to cope with the Spaniard in any Proposition unless the Prince Elector might be brought into his own Land again with an honorable Post liminium did enter inwardly and into the Marrow of all pitiful Affections But when he unfolded how strong the Prince was to the Principles of the right Faith and how attendant and dutious himself was to see that no Emissaries should poyson his Highness's Heart the general Suffrage was that the Prince had march'd valiantly like a Captain of Holy Truth and that the Duke deserved a great Name as a Lieutenant that maintained the Cause of God under him For it was ever easie to strike the good People of England half blind with the Dazling of Religion So much did the Parliament thirst for the Report of this Narration that it was imposed on the Lord Keeper to make it the next day All that might be done was that he took him to his Memory and to his Pen and drew up three Sheets of Paper upon it in a fast and scarce legible Hand He must proceed by the Pattern My Lord Duke's Oration was the only part of Speech he must follow and like a wise Man whatsoever he thought he must make
good the time So he spent four hours in Repetition without Halt with such Assurance such Gesture such Carving and Gilding that he might wonder at himself what Spirit was in him that day All that took the height of his Report by a skilful Parallax concluded that he had striven with his former Peices and had outgone himself Yet the fourth Part will suffice to be remembred because the Flower of it is anticipated in the Spanish Transactions after a monthly Method Beside I cannot help the Reader to that which I never saw the several Letters which were read to the stronger Confirmation of every Particular Business the Contents of them must be supplied by him that is Wise to make Conjecture and not by my Pen. For though it be not according to Nature yet it is agreeing to Honesty Vacuum potius relinquere quà m verum to leave a void Space rather than to fill it up with a Fable as Barrenness is incomparably to be less blamed than Adultery So I go on to make such Room as is fit for the Heads of that long Report which should not seem to be unsavory Coleworts sod too often for their Tast to whom they are well known already Debet enim talibus in rebus excitare animos non cognitio solum rerum sed recordatio as Tully speaks Philip 2. 186. The Lord Keeper plotted his Conceptions into that Order wherein the Duke of Buckingham the Discoverer had gone before him beginning from Michaelmas 1622 when the King sitting close with his Council at Hampton-Court the Dispatches of Sir Richard Weston his Majesty's Ambassador at Brussels were scanned before them Sir Richard being a Man in whose Election to that Place the Spanish Ministers were greatly pleased and commended the King's Wisdom that he did light upon him Yet Sir Richard sent Packet upon Packet that he found nothing from the Arch-Dutchess but inconstant and false Dealing For though she acknowledged she had Power from the Emperor to cause Cessation of Arms in the Palatinate and undertook to put that Power forth yet with the same Breath she blew hot and cold For at that Instant when no Excuse could be made for the Cheat Tilly fell to it spightfully to besiege Heidelburg when the War was now between the Emperor and our King for they had no body to invade but his Majesty's Subjects and Servants that kept it And what spark of Patience could be left us when by every Post we received comfortable Words from Spain and contrary Effects from Brussels Hereupon Mr. Porter was sent to Madrid and commanded to stay in that Court but ten Days for an Answer The Letters that he carried with him were to signifie that this should be the last Sending if no less would serve the Emperor's Revenge but the utter Extermination of his Majesty's Children both in Honour and Inheritance That the Neighbour Kings and States of Christendom did malign the Match between the Prince and the Insanta and laboured to stop that Conjunction which would make England and Spain formidable to them But they should not need to contrive a way to prevent it This unsufferable Unkindness would bring it to pass to their hand For what Comfort could the Prince have in such a Wife the nearest of whose Blood had utterly ruined his Sister and her Progeny The Messenger carried this Arrand with him to the President of all Affairs in that Kingdom Conde Olivarez one that may justly be censured to have more of Will than of Wit one that play'd foul with us and could not hide it Sometimes he would run back from our Propositions as if he would never come near us sometimes he would run into our Arms as if his Heart and all his Powers did grow unto us Nec constans in side nec constans in persidiâ Mr. Porter came back from him with a half-sac'd Satisfaction but withal the King of Spain's Letters which were there read contained a Talent of Hope but we found not a Grain of Reality Upon this Journey Porter did so well remember somewhat that sell carelestly from the Conde Duke wishing the Prince himself were there to see how ready the King his Master was to fasten an indissoluble Knot of Amity and embrace Alliance with him that his Excellent Highness I speak in his Presence what he knows hearing it with more Attention than was imagined put on that heroick and undauntable Boldness craved Leave of his Father that he might visit the great Ingeneers at their own Forge to see what they were working and how they would receive him and as we use to say Either win the Horse or loose the Saddle Here again says the Reporter my Lord Duke acquainted us how acceptable at the first the Arrival of the Prince did seem to Olivarez who in the Enterview in the Garden assured with great Oaths that all should be dispatched with sudden Resolution and that his Highness should be pressed to nothing that was not agreeable to Conscience and Honour and stood not with the Love of the People of England Then it was related That King Philip seemed most sensible of the Courtesie that such a Guest had visited him and that he would permit all to his own Asking as he did express it at their Meeting in the Prado The Lord Duke was very copious upon all the Negotiations in Spain from his Highness's Arrival to his Parting and the Lord Keeper mist not one Particular but beautified all and gave it Lustre which may here be spared in Repetition because nothing was added in Substance to that which is methodized upon it in the Months of the former Summer Much of the Day was spent to shew how deceitful Conde Olivarez was who like a crafty Marchant he gave a Tast of one Wine and upon the Bargain would sell of another Swear us often into the Possession of the Palatinate and yet embroiled us at the same Instant more and more with an Army Waved all Differences of Religion between us and them at the first and presently turned the Wheel from the Top to the Bottom and fell into insolent Propositions that the Prince could not make a fit Husband for their Lady unless he would become a Papist Sometimes he would aggravate how far we differed from the Catholick Confession of Faith as if the Gulph reach'd from Heaven to Hell Sometimes he colleagued as if we were near upon a Point and but a little Stride between us Et Stoica dogmata tantùm A cynicis tunicâ distantia Juvenal Then the Articles for the Marriage were brought in play and with what a number of new ones his Highness's Commissioners were surcharged and how irrespectively they stuffed the Book with strange and undisputed Additions and commonly the last which they presented were the worst Verres secum ipse certat id agit ut semper superius suum facinus novo scelere vincat Tul. Act. 7. in Verrem But our Ministers rejected those bastard Slips and all that Conscience English
not in God's Harvest The antient Christians that desaced Idols of Silver and Gold would Purse none of the Metal for fear of giving Scandal to the Heathen Stilico demolished some such Images and he and his Wife were found to wear the Ornaments that had belonged to them for which they were cry'd out upon says Baronius An. 389. c. 57. Quia apud antiquae probitatis Christianos nefas erat in Idola grassari ut in usum privatum aliquid verteretur ut appareat pietate nos ista destruere non avaritiâ A very wise and a pious Course for an avaricious Zeal is a poysoned Cordial And few will captivate their Understanding to edifie by a Sacrilegious Reformer I hope Loosers may have Leave to breath out their Sorrows especially for Sion's sake However I beseech God to preserve his Ark among us though the Pot of Manna be lost to bless the pure Doctrine and the Sacraments of the Gospel to all to whom they belong that the Infant be not rob'd of the one nor such as are of grown Age of the other Then as the Earth is the Lords in all its Fulness so the true Church is Christ's in all its Penury and Emptiness And this is enough to let the Reader see what was intended to be made good before that a most Church-loving was a most happy Parliament 195. Yet no feast was ever so bountiful but some went away unsatisfied and no Court was ever so Righteous upon Earth but some Appellants thought they were prejudiced If any man had Cause to complain of the Justice of this Parliament it was the Lord Treasurer Cranfield About whose Tryal if I should ask as the Pharises did about Divorces Is it lawful to censure a principal Officer for eve-Cause I must say as Christ answered them From the Beginning it was not so A Parliament is a Judge among Gods a Terror to Magistrates that are a Terror to any but to them that deserve Evil the only or the best Inquisitor into the Ways of them that Rule in high Places that he that stands may take heed least he fall But if it grow common if every Session make it their Work or their Recreation to hunt such Game down and root up Cedars that might have stood without Offence Moderation will be desired and the Prudent will think it is not fit many a Week should be lost anent the providing of good Laws when a Month or two pass over in bringing a white Staff or some such Grandee to the Stake to be baited by Informers The Lord Treasurer had some Petitions preferred against him in March which at first he laugh'd at and thought to scorn them down with Unguiltiness For who regards the first Grudgings of a Sickness Yet none perish sooner than they that are not provident against the first beginning of an Evil. The Petitioners were countenanced because he whose Harm they sought was one that was not beloved 'T is true he was surly and of hard Access But be it remembred he sate in his great Places not to be popular and get Affections but to be Just and to Husband the Revenue of the Crown with Prudence But subtle Knavery is like to be longer unquestioned than rough-cast Innocency He was charged with Corruption and sordid Bribery all the while many Sages contended that the Proofs came not home to a full Discovery One press'd it close that he gave him Five hundred Pound to break well through a long Suit in the Court of Wards To which the Treasurer answered That the Money was paid him for a Place in the Custom-House for which the Complainant had often moved him which his Secretaries and other Witnesses made good and that upon the Payment of that Sum one of the Six and thirty Portions in the Custom-House was reserved for him Albeit the weight of this suspected Bribe not a Bur hanging upon his Gown beside press'd him down in the Conclusion This was not to turn Foxes into Fleas a Bed as H. Grotius doth in his Notes upon the Canticles but it is to turn Fleas into Foxes or rather Flea-bites into the mortal Spots of the Pestilence Whether the Treasurer had great Faults it is uncertain and waits Report but 't is sure he had great Adversaries The Duke of Buckingham and all his Party appeared against him Whereupon Sir A. Wel. the most virulent Defamer of the Lord Treasurer writes That a small Accusation as his was would serve to turn him out of his Honor whom the Duke did then oppose But why did his Grace heave at his Cousin by Marriage 't is very dark It seems the Courtiers had no Mind to let us know it For as Lampridius Notes in Vit. Alex. Sev. Secreta omnia in aulâ esse cupiunt ut soli aliquid scire videantur It is perhaps that the Treasurer would have brought a Darling Mr. Arthur Bret his Countess's Brother into the King's Favour in the great Lord's Absence Or that he grudg'd that the Treasury was exhausted in vast Issues by the late Journey into Spain and denied some Supplies Or that he dealt too plainly at the Council-Table in giving no kind Ear to his Cousin's Relations of his Doings at Madrid having not the Art to catch his Affections in the Springes of Flattery But down the Duke cast him as me-seems being not aware how every man hath so many Relations that he that destroys one Enemy makes himself ten more Or as I heard another say long ago much better upon it that my Lord of Buckingham did never undo any of his Enemies but he ruin'd many of his Friends And in this Lord 's Overthrown the Prince abetted him was Privy to the Undertakings of his Adversaries and accompassed Suffrages to Condemn him The bitter Welden P. 168. could not resâ—ain to Comment upon it That the Prince discerned so much Juggling in the Parliament in Cranfield's Case that it was not much to be wondred at being come to be King that he did not affect them King James being all that time of this Storm not at Newmarket as our late Mistakers say but at Greenwich was so sad that a trusty Servant and an able should be thus handled forced from him and quipt every day with ignominious Taunts that the kind Correspondencies between him and the Parliament began to have a Cloud over them He courted many to take side with his Treasurer and prevailed little because the most did love to warm themselves in the Light of the Rising Sun He tutored his Son the Prince that he should not take part with a Faction in either House but so reserve himself that both Sides might seek him and chiefly to take heed how he bandied to pluck down a Peer of the Realm by the Arm of the Lower House for the Lords were the Hedge between himself and the People and a Breach made in that Hedge might in time perhaps lay himself open But the Duke had thrust on the Prince so far that he could not retreat
strong and violent Machination in hand which had turn'd the Prince a most Obedient Son before to a quite contrary Course to his Majesties Intentions Thirdly That the Counsel began last Summer at Madrid but was lately ripen'd and resolv'd in England to restrain his Majesty from the Exercise of the Government of his three Kingdoms and that the Prince and the Duke had design'd such Commissioners under themselves as should intend great Affairs and the Publick Good Fourthly That this should be effected by beginning of a War and keeping some Troops and Companies on Foot in this Land whereby to constrein His Majesty to yield to any thing chiefly being brought into Streits for want of Monies to pay Souldiers Fifthly That the Prince and Duke inclosing his Majesty from the said Embassador and other of his own Loyal People that they might not come near him in private did Argue in them a fear and distrust of a good Conscience Sixthly That the Emissaries of the Duke had brought his Majesty into Contempt with the Potent Men of the Realm traducing him for slothful and unactive for addiction to an inglorious Peace while the inheritance of his Daughter and her Children are in the Hands of his Foes and that this appear'd by a Letter which the Duke had writ into Holland and they had intercepted Seventhly That his Majesties Honour Nay his Crown and Safety did depend upon a sudden Dissolution of the Parliament Eighthly They Loaded the Duke with sundry misdemeanors in Spain and his violent Opposition of the Match Ninthly That the Duke had divulged the King's Secrets and the close Designs between his Majesty and their Master K. Philip about the States of Holland and their Provinces and labour'd to put his Majesty out of the good Opinion of the Hollanders Tenthly That the Duke was guilty of most corrupt dealing with the Embassadors of divers Princes Eleventhly That all things were carried on in the Parliament with a headlong Violence and that the Duke was the Cause of it who courted them only that were of troubled Humours Twelfthly That such Bitterness and Ignominies were vented against the King of Spain in Parliament as was utterly against all good Manners and the Honour of the English Nation Thirteenthly Is a flat Contradiction to the Precedents wherein they made the Prince privy to dangerous things yet in this they say That the Puritans of whom the Duke was Head did wish they could bring it about that the Succession of the Kingdom might come to the Prince Palatine and his Children in Right of the Lady Elizabeth Thus lay the Notes of the Lord Keeper This is the Dirt which the Swallows or rather unclean Birds pickt up and made their Nest of it And this is not all But that which remains shall be burnt in the Fire Latere semper patere quod latuit diu Saepè eruentis veritas patuit malo Senec. in Aedipo In a Postscript the Paper prayed the King That Don Francisco Carondelet Secretary to Marquess Inoiosa might be brought to the King when the Prince and Duke were sitting in the Upper House to satisfie such doubts as the King might Raise which was perform'd by the Earl of Kelly who watch'd a fit Season for Francisco at one time and for Padre Maestro the Jesuit at another time who told their Errand so spitefully that the King was much troubled at their Relations 202. He that says U. Sanderson P. 562. that not a day past but that he was present and acquainted with all the Transaction of these pernicious Delators to the end should have said he knew it at the end when the Monster was brought to light then his History indeed will justifie it self that it did not startle the King But his Majesty's Sorrow increased while it was smothered and Fear set in apace till a wise Remonstrance resisted it And it was no Wonder that he was abused a while and dim sighted with a Character of Jealousie For the Parliament was about to land him in a new World to begin and maintain a War who thought that scarce any Mischief was so great as was worth a War to mend it Wherein the Prince did deviate from him as likewise in Affection to the Spanish Alliance but otherwise promised nothing but Sweetness and Obedience He stuck at the Duke most of all whom he defended in part to one of the Spanish Ministers yet at the same time complained that he had noted a turbulent Spirit in him of late and knew not how to mitigate it Thus casting up the Sum he doubted it might come to his own Turn to pay the Reckoning The Setters on expected that their Pill could not choose but have a most violent Operation And it wrought so far that his Majesty's Countenance fell suddenly that he mused much in Silence that he entertained the Prince and Duke with mystical and broken Speeches From whence they gathered all was not right and questing for Intelligence they both heard that the Spanish Secretary and the Jesuit Maestro had been with him and understood that some in the Ambassador's House had vaunted that they had netled the Duke and that a Train would take Fire shortly to blow up the Parliament While his Majesty was gnawn with this Perplexity he prepared for Windsor to shift Ground for some better Ease in this Unrest and took Coach at St. James's-House-Gate in the end of April being Saterday Afternoon He received his Son into the Coach and sound a slight Errand to leave Buckingham behind as he was putting his Foot in the Boot which brought Tears from him and an humble Prayer that his Majesty would let him know what could be laid to his Charge to offend so gracious a Master and vowed it by the Name of his Saviour to purge it or confess it The King did not satisfie him in it it seems the time of Detection in his deep Judgment was not come and he had charged all that were privy to the Occasion to be very secret Cab. P. 77. But he breathed out this Disgust That he was the Unhappiest alive to be forsaken of them that were dearest to him which was uttered and received with Tears from his own Eyes as well as the Prince's and Duke's whom he left behind and made hast with his Son for Windsor The Lord Keeper spared not for Cost to purchase the most certain Intelligence of those that were his feed Pensioners of every hours Occurrencies at Court and was wont to say That no man could be a Statesman without a great deal of Money Of this which had hapned his Scout related presently what he could see for he heard little Which News were no sooner brought but he sought out the Duke at Wallingford-House and had much ado to be admitted to him in his sad Retirement Whom he found laid upon a Couch in that immoveable Posture that he would neither rise up nor speak though he was invited to it twice or thrice by courteous Questions The Lord Keeper
Wherein the Lord Keeper interceded with the Duke to the incurring a mighty Anger as may be seen by the Letters of Decem. 24. and Jan. 4. Cab. p. 99. If Threatings had been mortal Shot he had Perisht for he never had such a Chiding before but he kept his Ground because he held the fairer side of the Quarrel Dr. Meriton the Dean of York was lately Dead and much Deplor'd For he was an Ornament to the Church My Lord Duke entreated by great ones named a Successor that had no Seasoning or Tast of Matter in him one Dr. Scot But a Doctor Inter Doctores Bullatos for he never stood in the Commencement to approve himself beside too many Faults to be ript up I have known a Scholar in Cambridge so bad a Rider that no Man for Love or Price would furnish him with a Horse I would have thought no Man would have furnisht such a Scholar as this with a Deanery chiefly of York It came about strangely Scot was a Prodigal Gamster and had lost upon the Ticket to a Noble Person far more then he was worth Which Debt his Creditor knew not how to recover but by Thrusting him aided with my Lord Dukes Power into this Rich Preferment The Casuists among all the Species of Simony never Dream'd of this which may be called Simonia Aleatoria when a Gamester is Installed into a goodly Dignity to make him capable to pay the Scores of that which he had lost with a bad Hand And yet the Man Died in the Kings-Bench and was not Solvent The Lord Keeper intending to put of Dr. Scot from this place besought for the remove of those most worthy Divines Dr. White or Dr. Hall or to Collate it upon Dr. Warner the most Charitable and very Prudent Bishop of Rochester But he was so terrified for giving this good Counsel that he writes now he knew his Graces Resolution he would alter his Opinion and would be careful in giving the least Cause of Jealousie in that kind again Yet it is a received Maxime Defuturos eos qui suaderent si suasisse sit periculum Curt. l. 3. Certainly with others this might work to his Esteem but nothing to his Prejudice And I dare confidently avouch what I knowingly speak that I may use the Words of my industrious Friend Mr. T. F. in his Church History That the Solicitation for Dr. Theodore Price about Two Months after was not the first motive of a Breach between the Keeper and the Duke the day-light clears that without dusky conjectures no nor any Process to more unkindness then was before which was indeed grown too high The Case is quickly Unfolded Dr. Price was Country Man Kinsman and great Acquaintance of the Lord Keepers By whose procurement he was sent a Commissioner into Ireland two years before with Mr. Justice Jones Sir T. Crew Sir James Perrot and others to rectifie Grievances in Church and Civil State that were complain'd In Executing which Commission he came of with Praise and with Encouragement from His Majesty that he should not fail of Recompence for his Well-doing Much about the time that the Prince return'd out of Spain the Bishoprick of Asaph soll void the County of Merioneth where Dr. Price was Born being in the Diocess The Lord Keeper attempted to get that Bishoprick for Dr. Price But the Prince since the time that by his Patent he was styled Prince of Wales had Claimed the Bishopricks of that Principality for his own Chaplains So Dr. Melburn and Dr. Carlton were preferr'd to St. Davids and Landaff And Asaph was now Conferr'd upon Dr. Hanmer his Highness's Chaplain that well deserv'd it A little before King James's Death Dr. Hampton Primate of Armach as stout a Prelate and as good a Governor as the See had ever enjoy'd Died in a good old Age. Whereupon the Keeper interposed for Dr. Price to Succeed him But the Eminent Learning of Dr. Usher for who could match him all in all in Europe carried it from his Rival Dr. Price was very Rational and a Divine among those of the first Note according to the small skill of my Perceivance And his Hearers did testifie as much that were present at his Latin Sermon and his Lectures pro gradu in Oxford But because he had never Preach'd so much as one Sermon before the King and had left to do his calling in the Pulpit for many years it would not be admitted that he should Ascend to the Primacy of Armach no nor so much as succeed Dr. Usher in the Bishoprick of Meth. To which Objection his Kinsman that stickled for his Preferment could give no good Answer and drew of with so much ease upon it that the Reverend Dr. Usher had no cause to Regret at the Lord Keeper for an Adversary Neither did Dr. Price ever shew him Love after that day and the Church of England then or sooner lost the Doctors Heart 214. It is certain that all Grants at the Court went with the Current of my Lord Dukes Favour None had Power to oppose it nor the King the Will For he Rul'd all his Majesties Designs I may not say his Affections Yet the L. Keeper declin'd him sometimes in the Dispatches of his Office upon great and just Cause Whereupon the King would say in his pleasant Manners That he was a stout Man that durst do more than himself For since his Highness's return out of Spain if any Offices were procur'd in State of Reversion or any Advouzons of Church Dignities he interpos'd and stopt the Patents as Injurious to the Prince to whose Donation they ought to belong in just time and preserv'd them for him that all such Rewards might come entire and undefloured to his Patronage Wherein his Highness maintain'd his Stiffness for that foresight did procure that his own Beneficence should be unprevented And he carried that Respect to the Dukes Honour nay to his Safety for notice was taken of it that he would not admit his Messages in the Hearing of Causes no not when his chief Servants attended openly in Court to Countenance those Messages to carry him a-wry and to oppress the Poorest and whose Faces he had never seen with the least wrong Judicii tenax suit neque aliis potiùs quà m sibi credidit as Capitolinus makes it a good Note of Maximus He would believe his own Judgment and his own Ears what they heard out of Depositions and not the Representation of his best Friends that came from partial Suggestions Such Demands as are too heavy to ascend let them fall down in pieces or they will break him at the last that gives them his Hand to lift them up In this only he would not stoop to his Grace but pleas'd himself that he did displease him And being threatned his best Mitigation was That perhaps it was not safe for him to deny so great a Lord yet it was safest for his Lordship to be Denied It was well return'd For no Arrand was so privily conveyed
An Error like to that of Adrians in Spartianus Non admisit Terentium Gentianum est eò vehementiùs quod à Senatu diligi eum videret But the Commons while they were in heat ask'd a Conference with the Lords Afternoon in Christ's-Church-Hall where Sir Edward Coke opened the Complaint sharply against Secretary Conway and like an Orator did slide away with a short Animadversion upon the Duke It was not so well for his Grace that the noise of the Grievance had entred into both Houses Arcus cum sunt duplices pluviam nuntiant says Pliny Lib. 2. N. H. c. 59. If our Rain-bow multiply another by its Reflection it prognosticks a Shower And the Storm burst out in the lower Region when he was rather declam'd against as I would call it than accus'd because the Gentlemen that did prosecute contain'd themselves in generals The most upon which insistance was made was that he held the most and the most important Offices of Trust and Honour by Sea and Land Though it was foolish and superstitious in the Heathen Romans to think it was not for the Majesty of their Common-wealth to serve but one God Majestatem imperii non decuisse ut unus tantùm Deus colatur Tull. Orat. pro Flacco Yet it were to be desir'd if it might be dutifully obtain'd that one Subject should not possess all those Places which require the Sufficiency of many to discharge them Much to this purpose is that of the Lord Herbert Harry 8. p. 318. That it was a great Error that such a multitude of Offices was invested in Woolsey as it drew Envy upon the Cardinal so it derogated not a little from the Regal Authority while one Man alone seems to comprehend all The King may be satisfied to settle the Choice of his high Promotions in one Minion so will never the People And the Advanced is sure to be shaken for his height and to be malign'd for over-dropping He that sees a Stone-wall swelling looks every day when it will fall And one Stalk is not strong enough to hold a cluster of Titles hanging at it Salmasius hath a Note upon the first Book of Solinus That if a Man grow so fast that it exceeds the usual way of Nature he will fall into sickness His Instance is in the Son of Euthymenes that grew three Cubits in three Years Et immoderatis aegritudinum suppliciis compensasse praecipitem incrementi celeritatem But what Grandee will believe this Because there is more in our corrupt Nature that will obey Ambition than Wisdom 16. Yet to speak to the other side Might not this have been forborn to be objected by the Parliament to this great Lord at this time When his Head and his Hands were wholly taken up to prepare that War which was their own Creature He was at their Plough he was under their Yoke if it were well remembred Now Grotius marks well from the old Law Deut. 21.3 That Beasts that had been put to labour might not be sacrificed Elisha's Act was hasty and singular 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he quotes it out of Chaeremon They were priviledged by the Work in which they had been profitable Nay could it be objected as a Fault at any time I say as a Fault for I plead not for the Convenience What Pharisee would be so corrupt to ask Master who sinned This Man or his Parent that he was made a Duke as Lord Admiral a Master of the Horse c. No Inch of Sin is in ten Cubits of Honour that are lawfully conferr'd But there is a Fault for which Budaeus knew no direct Name Lib. 2. Pandec fol. 10. Cum milites Imperatori infensi vincere nolunt Let it be termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says he when Souldiers will lose a Victory wilfully because they are discontented at their General All was tending much this way at Oxford The great Expedition in hand and the Fleet ready at Plimouth lost its season the Souldiers and Sailors dishearten'd for want of Pay yet not the Supply of a Subsidy could be drawn to give courage to the Onset because the Generalissimo that manag'd the Voyage had lost their Favour Numbers there were some Friends some Flatterers that brought Fuel to the Fire to enflame the Duke against these Dealings The Lord-Keeper was not sought to Yet came and offer'd himself to confer about it And certainly all that knew him would say no Man could pluck the Grass better to know where the Wind sat no Man could spie sooner from whence a Mischief did rise I 'll begin thus My Lord I come to you unsent for and I fear to displease you Yet because your Grace made me I must and will serve you though you are one that will destroy that which you made Let me perish Yet I deserv'd to perish ten times if I were not as earnest as any Friend your Grace hath to save you from perishing The Sword is the Cause of a Wound but the Buckler is in fault if it do not defend the Body You have brought the Two Houses hither my Lord against my Counsel My Suspicion is confirm'd that your Grace would suffer for it What 's now to be done but wind up a Session quickly The occasion is for you because two Colledges in the University and eight Houses in the City are visited with the Plague Let the Members be promis'd fairly and friendly that they shall meet again after Christmas Requite their Injuries done unto you with benefits and not revenge For no Man that is wise will shew himself angry with the People of England I have more to say but no more than I have said to your Grace above a Year past at White-hall Confer one or two of your great Places upon your fastest Friends so shall you go less in Envy and not less in Power Great Necessities will excuse hard Proposals and horrid Counsels St. Austin says it was a Punick Proverb in his Country Ut habeas quietum tempus perde aliquid At the Close of this Session declare your self to be the forwardst to serve the King and Common-wealth and to give the Parliament satisfaction Fear them not when they meet again in the same Body whose ill Affections I expect to mitigate but if they proceed trust me with your Cause when it is transmitted to the House of Lords and I will lay my Life upon it to preserve you from Sentence or the least Dishonour This is my Advice my Lord. If you like it not Truth in the end will find an Advocate to defend it The Duke replied no more but I will look whom I trust to and flung out of the Chamber with Minaces in his Countenance Yet the other did not think he had play'd the Game ill though he lost his Stake by it Dangerous Faithfulness is honester than cunning Silence And once more he was bold to wrestle with this Potentate in high Favour before he fell The Commons of this Parliament was censur'd at Woodstock
worse to answer for I will depart with this mournful matter adding only that the Duke being taken away our Bishop never desisted to do Observance and such Help as he could to his desolate Kindred and Family which the Countess of Denby his Sister would often confess to me and speak of it to his great honour At this time presently upon the dismal Tydings he dispatch'd a most melting Letter to the Countess his Grace's Mother whose Answer to his begins thus My Lord IT is true Nobleness that makes you remember so distressed a Creature as I am and to continue a true Friend in harder Fortunes You give me many Reasons of Comfort for which I kindly thank you for I have need of them all The rest is long and very choicely endited under her own Hand which I pass over more willingly because her Ladiships revolting to the Romish Religion was none of the least causes that brought her Unfortunate Son into the distaste of the People Pace tuâ fari haec liceat Rhamnusia Diva Catullus 81. The Duke being now at rest in his Grave it was conceived this Good at least would come of it that the next Session of Parliament would be very quiet which began on the 20th of January Yet they that thought the Ship was lightned of Jonas saw the Storm encreased Let them that will know the occasion of a wide Breach read it in the Histories and Life of King Charles especially in His Majesty's Declaration to all his loving Subjects printed 1628. wherein the intelligent shall find that the Commons were rather stubborn than stiff rather violent than eager against the King's Affairs and that the King was so provok'd with the heat of one morning that he would not allow a day nor an hour to let them cool again but dismist them with Menaces and thrust them away from him with such displeasure that in twelve years he sent out no Writs to call another Parliament It is too late to wish it had been better then it is not too late to give Warning that it may be better hereafter Who did best or worst many will take the liberty to determine as their addictions carry them to loyal Duty or popular Liberty I judge neither so high above me in their potential Orbs but relate what the Prudent did observe upon their Passages This was the Bishop of Lincoln's Opinion who wept the ruine of the State and was able to see through the present to the future that it was ill in the People to offend so good a King and unhappy for the King to close again no sooner with a bad People The open face of both these shall be seen The Commons were no sooner come together but like Ajax's Rhetorick in the Poet Proh Jupiter inquit they were as hot as an Oven in their exordium and spake loudly That the Petition of Right was not maintain'd because Tonnage and Poundage were taken and Merchants Goods distrein'd for non-payment a Revenue not due to the Crown till pass'd by Bill The King's Council shew'd Presidents that it had been taken in a provisional way before the Parliament had granted it but that His Majesty did desire to receive it by the Grant of his People and pray'd a Bill might confirm it to remove this Block out of the way in which all Controversies would be sopited Hereupon it was promis'd it should be considered and the framing of a Bill be referr'd to a Committee yet they drew back their Hand till they had gather'd a Particular of things distasted in the Ecclesiastical and Civil Government An Affectation which Appius Claudius discover'd in the Tribunes Liv. dec 1. lib. 5. Qui semper aegri aliquid in Rep. esse volunt ut sit ad cujus curationem à vobis adhibeantur Which the King hath put into English Declar. p. 25. Like Empericks that strive to make new Work and to have some Diseases on foot to keep themselves in request Their Inspections about Religion were not only troublesome to make the Bill stick in the Committee the only means to keep all quiet but so inauspicious that I fear God was not near Arminianism was complained of that it was openly maintain'd not suiting with the Articles of the Churches of England and Ireland A strange Spell which raised up the Spirit that it would conjure down As they that mark the encrease of Nile can tell at what day it will begin to overflow so they that watcht the encrease of Arminianism say considently that from this year the Tyde of it began to come in Then they complain'd that the Bishops of London and Winton prevail'd to advance those to great Preferments that spread those Errors while the orthodox part was deprest and under inglorious disdain Never was this verified by a clear and notorious distinction till this Challenge was made That all Preferments were cast on that side Then it began to be palpable that there was no other way to fly over other mens Heads in the Church but with those Wings And here the forlorn part might say to the Parliament as Balak said to Balaam What hast then done unto me I took thee to curse mine Enemies and behold thou hast blest them all together Numb 23.11 Thirdly They did regret at the obtruding of some Ceremonies which waxed in more request and authority upon that opposition as some Flowers open the more when the Wind blows strongest upon them I believe such Remorse as was in Joseph's Brethren would make some of them say We saw the arguish of the King when he besought us and would not hear therefore this Distress is come upon us that all our Counsels are improsperous The prosecution of Civil Grievances miscarried as much and as wise men guess'd because Sir John Ellict stood up to manage them Few lead on to remove the publick Evils of a State without some special feelings and ends of their own Nor was it any better now so far as an action may be known by vulgar passes and every bodies Discourse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Menander High Probability is the second degree of Truth Sir J. Elliot of the West and Sir Tho. Wentworth of the North both in the prime of their Age and Wits both conspicuous for able Speakers clasht so often in the House and cudgel'd one another with such strong Contradictions that it grew from an Emulation between them to an Enmity The L. Treasurer Weston pick'd out the Northern Cock Sir Thomas to make him the King's Creature and set him upon the first step of his rising which was Wormwood in the taste of Elliot who revenged himself upon the King in the Bill of Tonnage and then fell upon the Treasurer and declaimed against him That he was the Author of all the Evils under which the Kingdom was opprest Some body must bear that Burden as the Duke had done yet this Lord was not like to be the man who had been in his great Place but about six months