Assertions and I am sure this man in this particular if any man believe him must be beholden to his blind Credulity and not to his Skill in History Another thing I call this man to Account for is his bold asserting the Kings burning by the Hang-man his own Pacification with the Scots when he came to London which I refute by a Passage out of Bishop Burnets Memoirs of the two Hamiltons it is true the Figures are mistaken but the Story is truly related as it is in that Bishops Book but to convince the World of the Malice as well as Falseness of this Reflection I shall present them with a greater Authority than the Bishops and that is an Act of State against the Scots concerning a scandalous Paper dispersed by them which the Reader may find at large in the Council Table-Book On Sunday the Fourth of August 1639. His Majesty being in Council was pleased to acquaint the Lords with a Paper he had seen at Barwicke Entituled Some Conditions of His Majesties Treaty with his Subjects of Scotland which Paper being in most parts full of falshood dishonour and scandal to His Majesties Proceedings in the late Pacification All which Consider'd the whole Board unanimously became humble Petitioners to His Majesty that this false and scandalous Paper might be burnt by the Hang-man to which Petition the Earl of Pembrooke Salisbury and Holland afterward known Enemies to the King's Cause Consented And now I hope this will stop this mans and his Friends mouths as to this particular for the time to come though considering the Malice of the man to the Memory of King Charles I am apt to question it As to what he and I both say concerning the Proclamations about the Irish Rebellion I shall pass it by at present and refer thee Reader to the Vindication I make by two undoubted Papers of the King's Innocency as to that horrid Rebellion at the latter end of this Paper The last thing I assert in the behalf of this Great and Vertuous Prince is what he says himself upon the Scaffold as to the first beginning of that unhappy and indeed needless War on the Parliaments side where he Clears himself by calling GOD to Witness unto whom he was shortly to give an Account that they began the War with him for the Truth of which he refers to the Dates of both their Commissions to which I have not one Word of Answer from this bold Libeller but in a shuffling way talking of pawning Crown Jewels which for what ends it was done or designed to be done it is not fit for him and I to judge for the Actions of Princes are above our Reach and ought not to be so narrowly pryed into yet I dare say it was not to begin a War because the Good Man so often protests against any Intention of War because so small a Sum of Money in comparison would so little have answered an Undertaking against so great and powerful an Enemy as the Parliament then was and though the King afterwards made that use of the Money after the War was actually commenced against him yet that is no Argument That that was the Primary Design And now Reader having given thee these short Remarks upon this filthy and scurrilous Book I have little more to entertain thee withal than to tell thee That this Author has with a great deal of Boldness and Falshood declared notwithstanding the honest Account I have given of my self from the Age of Twenty One and of my being Ordained by the hands of Bishop Saunderson as soon as by Law I was capable namely at the Age of Twenty Three that I was a Presbyterian but to Answer this in short I do here declare in the Presence of God that I never was a Presbyterian in my Life and further by God's Grace that I never will be one for I neither like the Principles of that Government nor the Spirit of too many of that Party for I abhor all Bitterness and Cruelty As for what he repeats out of Manvel which were made against Dr. Parker I pray God forgive him it is a Description that belongs not at all to me as all those know who have been acquainted with the course of my Life nor yet do Dr. Wildes Verses against Dr. Lee reach me at all for I bless God ever since I came to a competent Understanding I have loved the Constitution of the Church of England and done what in me lay to promote its true Interest and which I will never cease to do as long as I have Tongue to speak and a Pen to write I shall conclude this part of my Discourse with hearty Prayers to God for my Adversary that God would open his Eyes and change his Heart before he dies that so this Iniquity may not be for his Eternal Ruine The Irish Rebellion falsly and scandalously imputed to King CHARLES the First TO make good which I onely desire thee Reader carefully to peruse the Two following Accounts The one is a Letter by that Kings own Order by the Hands of Secretary Vane to the Lords Justices of Ireland Borelase and Parsons above half a year before the Rebellion giving them to understand the Intelligence the King had from abroad of some dangerous Designs by the Popish Party against the Peace of that Kingdom that so they might be awakened to take all possible care to prevent them The other is an unfolding the whole Mystery of the pretended Commission with the King 's Broad Seal to it which the Enemies of that King have and do still charge that gracious Prince withal and by Vertue of which they do lay all the innocent Blood then so barbarously spilt at his door and consequently do endeavour thereby to render his Name odious to all succeeding Generations the Account is by Dr. Ker Dean of Ardagh and as I am assured by a considerable Dignitary of that Kingdom yet alive 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 confirm'd by his Ministers in Spain and elsewhere which in this Distemper'd Time and Conjuncture of Affairs deserves to be seriously consider'd 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 Souldiers 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 Connaght Wherefore His Majesty thought fit 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
Heat and Zeal yet upon reading his Story I do believe that as he was a great Scholar so he was a very pious Man and a thousand times more abus'd by a Generation of men than he did deserve he lived strictly and dyed with a Courage Comfort and Satisfaction of Mind suitable to his holy and severe Life and for the Proof of this I desire thee Reader to read over his Speech he made in defence of himself upon his Tryal before the few Lords that took upon them to be his Judges and that holy Discourse he made upon the Scaffold just before that fatal Blow that severed his Head from his Body And whereas he stands in his Assertion That Bishop Laud sent the Common-Prayer-Book to the Pope and Cardinals for their Approbation and quotes one Gage a Fryar for the Truth of it I must beg thy leave Reader to tell thee that I do not believe the Story and that because such a man as Gage reports it and especially at that time when Usurpers were in the Chair and with whom as other Popish Converts were wont to do he was resolved to curry favour and I believe this man the less because he was so silly and so spiteful as to vindicate Bishop Lauds Death as just when he could not but know if he understood any thing of our Legal Constitution that Bishop Laud was cut off by a Warrant that no Law of England justifies for it was done without the Kings Consent or Hand and consequently in plain terms that he was murder'd and he that Vindicates the Breach of the Sixth Commandment his Testimony shall have no Credit with me nor will I am sure with any good and undesigning man throughout the Kingdom Another thing I Answer his former vile Paper withal is what is said by Mr. Whitelock concerning the Scotch Rebellion who tells us though a Friend to the Party what Condescentions the King made how He kept his Word and the Rebels broke theirs after a solemn Agreement betwixt them both who tells us of their Signing a Letter to the French King to come in to their Aid against their lawful Soveraign And what says my Adversary to these things Why he quotes several Defences they made nothing to the purpose as to what Mr. Whitelock asserts and indeed such things as any Rebels may say for themselves and he knows there never yet was so bad a Cause but Wit and Malice could invent and draw up something that dazzled the eyes of the Vulgar and served to keep ignorant or designing men in a Body together But good Reader I pray take Notice That whereas I give an Account from Mr. Whitelock how far Cardinal Richelieu interested himself in this Rebellion of the Scots and how he sent Chamberlaine his Chaplain and Hepburn his Page to blow up the Coals both in England and Scotland amongst the Puritans yet my Adversary is pleased here to be utterly silent and to pass it by no doubt because it was so notorious and villainous a Correspondence as would admit of no manner of Justification The next thing I Advocate for this Great King for are his many and gracious Favours and Condescentions in passing so many Bills for the first Year of the Parliaments sitting down which he would make the World believe were no Favours but what he was bound to do and consequently for which no Thanks were due to him by which he takes off all Obligations to Their Present Majesties and their Successors from the People as to any future Acts of Grace they grant for which I am sure he deserve no Thanks from the Crown and indeed for which he ought to be look'd upon as a downright Enemy to the future Intercourse and good Understanding betwixt Their Majesties and their People and I doubt not but this saucy Assertion will be so thought of both by King and People and the Loyalty of him and his pretending Party will be looked upon accordingly I further in my Defence vindicate the King's Scruple of Conscience as to the Execution of the Earl of Strafford and to shew the reasonableness of the Scruple which he basely makes sport withal recite and print the Preamble of the Act of Parliament by which the Attainder of that Great Man and White Soul as Bishop Vsher who attended him upon the Scaffold calls him was taken off in which they acquit him of Treason And what says this Pamphleteer to this Not a Word but according to his usual Modesty calls him Traytor and consequently Arraigns the Wisdom and Justice of the Nation which indeed to me is no wonder considering the Venemous Spirit of the man throughout his whole Book Further I Vindicate the King and that from his own Declaration which I have printed in words at length from any design of bringing up the Army to plunder the City of London which Declaration he says little or nothing to but flies presently to a Committee and their Examinations of the thing which truly considering how at that time some men were allured with hopes others affrighted with Frown and Threats I can give but little heed to and I will be so hardy as to tell the World that I will believe the Assertions of King Charles I. before Twenty Committees of those days considering the designs then on foot and the resolutions to carry them on and I must confess ever since I read Whites Centuries the Witnesses received and the ruine of so many Families upon such Testimonies I have had but a very slender Value for what was printed from those Committees let this man answer what the King says upon this Account in his own Defence and what the Officers of the Army say in their Petition in their behalf and then he will act like a clear Answerer and deserve a further Consideration Another thing I Charge this modest and mannerly Gentleman withal is his false Account he gives in his former Libel of the Rabble running down to Westminster in a riotous and tumultuous manner who he says went only armed with Petitions in their hands in a peaceable way as to which I tell him and that truly that he contradicts all the Historians of that Age and that they were so far from such a decent Carriage as he asserts that they with Clubs and Staves in their hands cryed out they would have no Groom-Porters-Lodge at Whitehall but would speak with the King himself when they pleased that they beset the House of Lords door and cryed Justice Justice that they broke the Organ and tore the Vestments of the Church of Westminster in pieces threw stones at the Bishops and endangered the Bishop of Durham's Life And what says he to these things in his Reply Why truly not one Word but still sillily and against all Truth would make the World believe the King was not at all affronted and had no Reason to leave Whitehall which he must be a great Stranger to Matters of Fact that gives any Credit to such bold
THE CHARACTER OF King Charles I. From the Declaration of M R. ALEXANDER HENDERSON Principal Minister of the Word of God at Edenburgh and Chief Commissioner from the Kirk of Scotland to the Parliament and Synod of England Upon his DEATH-BED WITH A Further DEFENCE of the KING 's Holy Book To which is Annex'd Some Short Remarks upon a Vile Book call'd Ludlow no Lyan With A Defence of the KING from the Irish Rebellion By Rich. Hollingworth D. D. London Printed and are to be Sold by R. Tayler by Amen-Corner 1692. LICENSED July 28th 1692. Rob. Midgley To the Right Honourable THE MARCHIONESS of Carmarthen Madam THE Defence of Good and Innocent Men and the Vindicating of their Memories from those base and barbarous Aspersions they are many times loaden withal by men under whose tongues is the poyson of Asps are Employments every way becoming those who are Disciples of the HOLY JESUS and have solemnly promised to follow His Example and which I am certain will speak Peace and Comfort to them when others who give themselves the liberty to detract and defame to scandalize and ill-report the Best of Men will sink at last under the Load of their own Guilt and the Terrours of their angry and discontented Minds The sense of which has been a very great support to my self ever since I have undertaken the Vindication of the Name and Memory of King CHARLES I. and has enabled me in some good sort to scorn and live above all those Reproaches that by a certain Faction have been without Truth or Modesty so freely fastned upon me and I am so far from being weary of the Task I have engaged in that I thank God every fresh Provocation gives me the Pleasure as well as Advantage of knowing and understanding the incomparable Merits of that Great Man better and the Courage to communicate them to others And amongst many other things that have come to my hand since I began the Defence of this Great PRINCE This for the sake of which I make bold to give Your Ladyship this Trouble at present is one of the greatest and fullest that I ever saw and no doubt will be satisfactory to all sorts of Men because of the Person who was the Author of it Namely The chief Person of the Presbyterian Party in Scotland and the most employed by them for setting up and Vindicating their Kirk-Discipline I have shewn it since I had it to several Persons of great Names and at great Posts in our Church who were all as mightily taken with it so desirous it should be Reprinted that the World might see how unjustly this Great Persons Name is dealt withal by too great a Number of many Bad Men of this Age which as soon as I resolved to Reprint I at the same time resolved it should with Your Ladyships Leave come out under Your Honours Umbrage and Protection which You have a Right to not onely upon the score of Your own Zeal for that Great Prince 's Memory and Vertues but also upon the Account of the Faithfulness and Integrity the Loyalty and Steadiness of Your Ancestors to the CROWN and Dignity thereof for it is well known That Your Noble Grandfather lost his Life as General of His Majesties Forces at the first Fight against the Rebels at Edgelvill for his Great Master's Just and Righteous Cause and that Your as Noble Father was at the same time imprison'd for his steady Adherence to the Royal Interest and that both of them as they ventured their Lives so they greatly impaired a vast Estate But however that in the mean time they Acted becoming Good Men Good Christians and True Lavers of the Religion and Laws of their Country which includes their being Good Subjects and consequently took the better and more Justifiable Part this ensuing Narrative I am sure will make good and clear to all Men who are not resolved let what will be said to continue their base and ill designed Prejudices The Declaration is this The Character of King CHARLES I. VVHereas the greatest part of the distempered People of these miserable distracted Kingdoms have been and are wofully abused and misled with malicious misinformations against his sacred Majesty especially in point of Religion and moral-Wisdom whereof I confess with great grief of heart my self to have been amongst many moe of my coat none of the least who out of Imaginary fears and jealousies were made real Instruments to advance this un-natural War wherein so much Innocent Protestant Blood hath been shed and so much downright Robbery committed without fear or shame of sin to the scandal of the true Reformed Religion as cannot but draw down heavy Judgements from Heaven upon these infatuated Nations and more particularly upon Us who should have instructed them in the way of Truth Peace and Obedience I conceived it the duty of a good Christian especially one of my profession and in the condition that I lie expecting God Almighty's Call not only to acknowledge to the All-merciful God with a humble sincere remorse of Conscience the greatness of this offence which being done in simplicity of Spirit I hope with the Apostle Paul to obtain Mercy because I did it through Ignorance But also for the better satisfaction of all others to publish this Declaration to the view of the World to the intent that all those especially of the Ministery who have been deluded with me may by God's Grace and my example though a weak and mean Instrument not only be undeceived themselves but also stirred up to undeceive others with more alacritie and facilitie that the scandal may be removed from our Religion and Profession and the good King restored to his just Rights and truly honoured and obeyed as God's Anointed and Vicegerent upon Earth and the poor distressed Subjects freed from those intollerable Burdens and Oppressions which they lye groaning under piercing Heaven with their Tears and Cries and a solid Peace settled both in Kirk and Common-wealth throughout all His Majesties Dominions to the Glory of God and of our blessed Mediator and Saviour the Lord Christ I do therefore Declare before God and the World That since I had the Honour and Happiness to Converse and Confer with His Majesty with all sort of freedom especially in Matters of Religion whether in relation to the Kirk or State which like Hypocrates Twins are lynked together that I found him the most intelligent Man that ever I spoke with as far beyond my Epression as Expectation grounded upon the Information that was given me before I knew him by such as I thought should have known him I profess that I was oft-times astonish'd with the solidity and quickness of his Reasons and Replies wondred how he spending his Time so much in Sports and Recreations could have attained to so great Knowledge and must confess ingenuously that I was convinc'd in Conscience and knew not how to give him any reasonable Satisfaction yet the sweetness of his Disposition
Paulo app their transgressions are like to bring them to that confusion of the Israelites when they had no King Judg. 21. every one did what seemed good in his own eyes because they feared not the Lord Jhos 10. they said What should a King do to us The young men presumed to be wiser than the elder Isai 3. the viler sort despised the honourable Lament ult and the very serving men ruled over them I profess when I saw these things so clearly I could not blame the King to be so backward in giving his assent to the settling of our Presbyterial discipline in that Kirke for the great inconveniences that might follow thereupon to Him and his Posterity there being so many strong Corporations in that Kingdom to lead on a Popular government such a number of people that have either no or broken estates who are ready to drive on any alteration and so weak and powerless a Nobility to hinder it Multos dulcedo proedarum plures Res angustoe veb ambiguoe domi alios scelerum Conscientia stimulabat C. Tacit. And now Madam I hope those Men who have of late so boldly ventured to throw the most Sticking Dirt in the Face of this Great Prince and Patient Martyr will by Repentance give glory to God and do so no more in hopes of which I after my Prayers and Earnest Wishes for the Preservation of your Ladyship and whole Family and particularly for the long life and health of your Noble Lord to whose good Counsels and indefatigable Labours we of the Church of England owe so much do take leave of your Ladyship and subscribe my self MADAM Your Ladyship most Humble and Faithful Servant Richard Hollingworth A Further Defence OF THE KINGS Book c. Reader THis Declaration of Mr. Henderson's was communicated to me some Weeks ago by the Reverend Mr. Lamplugh Son to the late Arch-bishop of York and it had been Reprinted before now but that I understood there was an Answer coming out against my Second Defence of King Charles I. and therefore I was resolved to stay a little longer that so if there was any thing in it worth Answering I might make but one Trouble of it and at last out it came with a Title as false as the greatest part of the Book it self Namely Ludlow no Lyar which I do not doubt but thou wilt be convinced of by that time thou hast read a little further The Truth of it is the whole Book is so full of Rancour and Malice of Unmannerliness and Railing of bald and false Assertions of Slander and base Reflections that it is a Shame to and a Confutation of it self and every Leaf of it stinks in the Nostrils of all the good and sober of all the wise and unprejudic'd Readers that I have either met with or can hear of and it is a Dishonour to the Cause of the Enemies of King Charles I. to have no better a Champion to throw down the Gauntlet in its behalf and there are no men about the City cry it up but the great Enemies of Monarchy and Episcopacy let their Hypocritical Professions be what they will The Book is Dedicated to a Reverend Kinsman of mine under the Name of Wilson from Yarmouth and what can we expect but Falsehood when he begins at this rate For my Kinsman assures me there is no man of that Name in Yarmouth but an ordinary Saylor and I hope the World will believe the Talent of such a Man lyes otherwaies than to write such Letters The short is the whole Book as appears by the Stile the Air and Scurrility of it all is writ by one and the same Pen and as so I shall Answer him The Party now so hotly engaged against Monarchy and Episcopacy which they strike at thro' the sides of King Charles I. I know are very much enraged at my Defence of King Charles's Holy and Divine Book and therefore take all Courses to buoy up Dr. Walkers Credit and to lessen or else to attempt to prove false the Authorities I have named and to how good purposes this Answerer has done it I now come to shew I tell the World pag. 7. of my Defence the Intercourse betwixt Sir John Brattle and my self about that Book and that he assur'd me that he helped his Father in 47 to Methodize the Papers that so far as they were then drawn up by the King that made up the greatest part of that Book all writ with the Kings own hand and I also assert That Sir John has owned the same since not only to my self but many others of my Friends To which he Replies That Sir John who he agrees with me is a very worthy Person never told me nor any other Person that the Papers he spoke of were writ with the King 's own hand and though the stress of the Evidence does not lye in that for if they were writ in 47 Dr. Gauden's Claim is out of doors for Dr. Walker acknowledges they were not sent to the King till the Treaty in 48 and that Treaty too upon which the Troubles came so fast upon the King which was about a year after yet for all that I do venture to tell him that what he asserts of Sir John Brattle is false and Sir John sent me word that he was a Damnable Lyar and is pleas'd with great Resentment and Indignation to declare he never told any man any such thing and that what he told me and my Friends as to the Kings hand is all true and therefore he must be a Knight of the Post that will venture to give his Oath for such a thing which indeed I shall not wonder at considering what sort of Men there are in the world and what designs are carrying on by that sort of Men at this time The next thing I assert is the Account of Mrs. Simmonds whom he owns to appear a good and discreet Woman and in earnest he saies he is assured her Reverend Husband was so too which I am glad to hear from him for then I am sure he would not dye with a Lye in his mouth and if he did not I know what Dr. Walker did I say Mrs. Simmonds told me her Husband declared to the last the Book to be the Kings Did she deny this to his Friend that waited upon her Not a word of it in his Letter only I concealed the whole Truth because I did not say he dyed of the Small-Pox which I never asked her nor she never told me and whether he did or no it was not material to my business in hand nor casts any Reflection upon what I say unless a Man cannot confess a Truth when he lies a dying of the Small-Pox Risum teneatis I but Mrs. Simmonds says she never heard of her Husbands being in a Shepherds Habit and therefore Mr. Clifford's Evidence is quite ruin'd certainly now Reader take Notice This is but a Circumstance in Mr. Clifford's Account and no doubt is