Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n
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A49130
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A review of Mr. Richard Baxter's life wherein many mistakes are rectified, some false relations detected, some omissions supplyed out of his other books, with remarks on several material passages / by Thomas Long ...
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Long, Thomas, 1621-1707.
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1697
(1697)
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Wing L2981; ESTC R32486
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148,854
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314
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the said Dr. Ker further declares That he was very near the said Sir Phelim when he was upon the Ladder at his Execution and that one Marshal Peak and another Marshal before the said Sir Phelim was cast off came riding towards the place in great haste and cried aloud Stop a little and having passed the Throng of Spectators one of them whispered with the said Sir Phelim and the said Sir Phelim answered in the hearing of several hundreds of whom I was one I thank the Lieutenant-General for his intended mercy but I declare before God and his holy Angels and all you that hear me that I never had any Commission from the King for what I have done in Levying or Prosecution of this War and do heartily beg your pardon c. To the Testimony whereof the said Dr. Ker did subscribe his Seal Febr. 28. Anno Dom. 1681. Sir Henry Vane's Letter to the Lords Justices concerning some Informations of Danger in Ireland Right Honourable HIS Majesty hath commanded me to acquaint your Lordships with an Advice given him from abroad and confirmed by his Ministers in Spain and elsewhere which in this Distempered Time and Conjuncture of Affairs deserves to be seriously considered and an especial Care and Watchfulness to be had therein which is That of late there have passed from Spain and the like may well have been from other parts an unspeakable number of Irish Church-men for England and Ireland and some good old Soldiers under pretext of asking leave to raise Men for the King of Spain whereas it is observed among the Irish Friars there a Whisper runs as if they expected a Rebellion in Ireland and particularly in Connaught Wherefore his Majesty thought sit to give your Lordships this Notice that in your Wisdoms you might manage the same with that dexterity and secresie as to discover and prevent so pernicious a Design if any such there should be and to have a watchful Eye on the Proceedings and Actions of those who come thither from abroad on what pretext soever And so herewith I rest Your Lordships most humble Servant Henry Vane Whitehall March 16. 1640. The Original Letter was found among the Papers of Sir John Parsons one of the Lords Justices Moreover Archbishop Vsher saw a Letter of the King 's own Writing to the Lords Justices to the same purpose about the same time as he affirm'd to Bp. Hacket who relates the thing in the Life of Archbishop Williams part 2. p. 19. So that there can be no colour of his Majesty's designing such an Insurrection against which he often repeated his Solemn Protestations published Declarations and made many Overtures to the Parliament of England for the Suppression of that Rebellion concerning which his Meditations in the Twelfth Chapter of his Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he says enough to satisfie any but an Infidel as first That the Sea of Blood which had been there barbarously and cruelly shed was enough to drown any Man in eternal infamy and misery whom God should find the malicious Author or Instigator of its effusion and that there was nothing that could be more abhorring to him being so full of sin against God disloyalty to himself and destructive to his Subjects Yet some Men saith he took it very ill not to be believed that what the Irish Rebels did was by my privity at least if not by my Commission But these knew too well that it is no news for some of my Subjects to fight not only without my Commission but against my Command and Person too and yet to pretend they fight by my Authority and for my Safety But as I have no Judge but God above me so I can have comfort to appeal to his Omniscience Which he doth with this Imprecation in a Soliloquy immediately following in these words If I have desired or delighted in the woful day of my Kingdoms Calamities if I have not earnestly studied and faithfully endeavoured the preventing and composing of these bloody Distractions then let thy hand be against me and my Father's house And the Restoration of his Son in so wonderful a manner seems strongly to assert the Father's Innocency The beginning and progress of that barbarous Massacre will appear in divers Authentick Papers in Mr. Nalson's Collection part 2. p. 543. But I need mention no more concerning the King 's obstinate aversion to Popery then what he says in the following Letter to the Heads of the Popish Party A Letter by the King's Order to the Lord Muskerry c. HE tells the Rebels Your Party it seems is not satisfied with the utmost that his Majesty can grant in Matters of Religion that is the taking away the Penal Laws against Roman Catholicks in that Kingdom and his Majesty hears that you insist upon the Demands of Churches for the Publick Exercise of your Religion which is the occasion that his Majesty hath commanded me to write thus frankly unto you and to tell you That he cannot believe it possible that rational and prudent Men had there been no Professions made to the contrary can insist upon that which must needs be so destructive to his Majesty at the present and to your selves in the consequences of his Ruin Wherefore my Lords and Gentlemen to disabuse you I am commanded by his Majesty to declare unto you That were the condition of his Affairs much more desperate than it is he would never redeem them by any Concession of so much wrong both to his Honour and Conscience It is for the defence of Religion principally that he hath undergone the Extremities of War here and he will never redeem his Crown by sacrificing it there So that to deal clearly with you as you may be happy your selves and be happy Instruments of his Majesty's Restoring if you will be contented with Reason and give him that speedy assistance which you well may so if nothing will content you but what must wound his Honour and Conscience you must expect that how low soever his Condition is and how detestable soever the Rebels of this Kingdom are to him he will in that point joyn with them the Scots or any of the Protestant profession rather than do the least act that may hazard that Religion in which and for which he will live and die Having said thus much by his Majesty's command I have no more to add but that I shall think my self very happy if this take any such effect as may tend to the Peace of that Kingdom and make me Your affectionate humble Servant Cardiff Aug. 1. 1845. This Lord also at the time of his Execution did most solemnly as he hoped for Salvation declare the Kings Innocency as to that War When the Reader hath seriously considered the import of this Letter I earnestly intreat him to read the second Meditation of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 relating to the Death of the Earl of Strafford and I dare appeal to his Conscience of what quality soever he
of Nature did warrant them But it stopt not here for the Lord Mazarine and others of Ireland did so far prosecute the Cause as that the Marquess of Antrim was forced to produce in the Parliament of England in the House of Commons a Letter of King Charles the First 's by which he gave him Order for his taking up Arms which being read in the House put them into a silence But yet so egregious was their Loyalty and Veneration of Majesty that it put them not at all one step out of the way which they had gone in But the People without doors talked strangely Some said Did you not perswade us that the King was against the Irish Rebellion And that the Rebels belied him when they said they had his Warrant or Commission Do we not now see with what mind he would have gone himself with an Army into Ireland to fight against them A great deal more not here to be mention'd was vended seditiously among the People the sum of which was intimated in a Pamphlet which was printed called Murder will out in which they published the King's Letter and Animadversions on it Some that were still Loyal to the King did wish that the King that now is had rather declared that his Father did only give the Marquess of Antrim Commission to raise an Army as to have helped him against the Scots and that his turning against the English Protestants in Ireland and the murdering so many hundred thousands there was against his will but quod scriptum erat scriptum erat Although the old Parliamentarians expounded the Actions and Declarations both of the then King and Parliament by the Commentary of this Letter yet so did not the Loyal Royalists or at least thought it no reason to make any change in their Judgments or stop in their Proceedings against the English Presbyterians and other Non-conformable Protestants Mr. Baxter adds in the Margin We are not meet Judges of the Reasons of our Superiours Actions p. 83. part 3. of Mr. Baxter's Life By which he seemeth to intimate that the Matter of Fact how odiously and maliciously soever reported by him is true but he leaves it to others to consider and judge of the Reasons of it He might with much more Ingenuity and Candor have practised himself that Advice which he gives to others in the second part of the Non-conformists Plea for Peace p. 16. That if Subjects saw a Commission under the Broad Seal to seize the Guards destroy the Kingdom or deliver it to Forreigners they were bound to judge that the King was not the Author of that Commission Subjects should not have ill thoughts of Kings though they be sinful their Faults are neither to be aggravated nor divulged This is good Advice and would have utterly destroyed the pretence of Sir Phelim O Neale and those bloody Papists that joyned with him in that execrable Massacre for which they pretended a Commission under the Broad Seal whereas it appeared that the Broad Seal then in Scotland See Burlace's Hist of that War p. 29. part 2. had not been applied to any Commission or Patent in some months before the date of that pretended Commission And the Forgery plainly appeared at the Trial of Sir Phelim O Neale who at his Trial and also at his Execution though he was offered Pardon for Life and Restitution of his Estate if he would own that he had a Commission from the King to Authorize what he had done he affirmed constantly That he had no such Commission from the King nor was his Majesty privy to their Insurrection This Relation is attested by Dr. Ker Dean of Ardah who was present at his Trial and Execution and affirms the same in a Letter printed Febr. 28. 1681. a Copy of which I shall give you when I have told another part of his Confession viz. That he having found a Patent of the Lord Caulfield's when he seiz'd on Charlemount-Castle to which the Broad Seal was annexed he caused a Commission to be drawn agreeable to his own purpose and caused that Broad Seal to be affixed to it and so gave it out that he had the King's Commission for what he did Now for the further clearing of the Royal Martyr from this foul Imputation it will appear that he had Intelligence from abroad that great Companies of Priests and Soldiers were from several Countries hastening into Ireland and that others from Ireland held Correspondence with divers Soldiers of that Nation then in Forreign Service which gave Suspicion that there would be some Trouble in that Nation whereupon his Majesty in a Letter drawn by Sir Henry Vane and sent to the Lords Justices in that Kingdom charged them with great Care and Diligence to secure themselves against what was likely to happen a Copy whereof is subjoyned DR John Ker of Ardagh being present in the Court in Dublin when Sir Phelim O Neale was Tried and Examined about a Commission which as was said he had from Charles Stuart for levying the War in Ireland did testifie that the said Sir Phelim O Neale answered That he never had any such Commission and that it being proved in Court by Joseph Travers and others that the said Sir Phelim had such Commission and did show it unto the said Joseph and others in the beginning of the Irish Rebellion the said Sir Phelim confessed That when he surprized the Castle of Charlemount that he ordered one Mr. Harrison and another Gentleman to cut off the King 's Broad Seal from a Patent of the Lord Caulfield's which he found in Charlemount and to affix it to a Commission which Sir Phelim had ordered to be drawn And the said Mr. Harrison did in the face of the whole Court confess that by Sir Phelim's order he did stitch the silk Cord or Label of that Seal and fixed the Label and Seal to the said Commission And the Court urging the said Sir Phelim to declare why he did so deceive the People he answered That no Man could blame him to use all means to promote the Cause he had so far engaged in And upon the second day of his Trial some of the Judges told him That if he could produce any material proof that he had such a Commission from Charles Stuart to declare and prove it before Sentence had passed against him that he the said Sir Phelim should be restored his Estate and Liberty But he answered That he could prove no such thing Nevertheless they gave him time to consider of it till the next day upon which day Sir Phelim being urged again by the Court he declared again That he never could prove any such thing and that he could not in Conscience calumniate the King though he had been frequently sollicited thereunto by fair Promises and great Rewards while he was in Prison And proceeding further in this discourse he was stopt before he had ended what he had to say And the Sentence of Death was pronounced against him And