cryed up and branded to be the most infamous Projectors and Monopolizers of the land as Hamilton Holland c. are not only at liberty but crept into favour and made use of Peregrin Hath the house of Commons power to commit any but their own Members without conference with the Lords Or hath any Order or Ordinance of one of the Houses singly or of both conjunctly power to enjoin a virtual binding generall obedience without the Royal consent Patricius The power of Parliament when King Peers and Commons which is the whole Kingdom digested as it were into one volum is indefinit but what either of both Houses can do of themselves singly or joyntly without the King who is the life of the Law especially when a visible faction reigns amongst them I will not determin tantas componere lites non opis est nostrae But for my own opinion I think it is as impossible for them to make a Law without the King as it was for Paracelsus to make a human creture without coition of both sexes The results of Parliament without the Royall consent are as matches without fire And it is an incontroulable principle that the old Law must be our guide till new be made nor is any Act of the Subject justifiable but what is warranted by the old But to proceed in the tru discovery of these Domestick scissures my Lord of Stafford being gone we hop'd fair weather wold follow He who was the cause of the tempest as they pretended being thrown over-board but unluckie mists of jealousie grew thicker and thicker Yet the Scots were dismist having had Fidlers fare meat drink and money for eleven long moneths together So His Majesty went to Scotland where the Parliament ther did but ask and have any thing though it be the unquestionable Prerogative of Majesty to grant or deny Petitions and to satisfie his conscience before any Councell whatsoever But during his sojourn ther this formidable hideous Rebellion brok out in Ireland which though it may be said to be but an old play newly reviv'd yet the Scene was never so Tragicall and bloody as now for the Barbarismes that have bin committed ther have bin so sanguinary and monstrously savage that I think posterity will hold them hyperbolicall â—…when History relates them The Irish themselves affirm ther concurr'd divers causes to kindle this fire One was the taking off of Strafforâ—…s head who awd them more then any Deputy ever did and that one of his Accusations shold be to have used the Papists ther too favourably Secondly the rigorous proceedings and intended courses against the Roman Catholiques here in England Lastly the stopping of that Regiment of Irish who was promised by His Majesties Royall Word and Letter to the King of Spain who relying upon that employment rather then to beg steal or starve turned Rebels And that which hath agravated the Rebellion all this while and heightned much the spirit of the Irish was the introduction of the Scot whom they hate in perfection above all people els And intended lastly the design spoken of in our Parliament to make an absolute Conquest and Nationall Eradication of them which hath made them to make vertue of necessity and to be valiant against their wills Peregrin Indeed I heard that Act of staying the Irish Regiment considering how the Marquesses de Velada and Malvezzi and Don Alonso de Cardenas who were all three Ambassadours here for the King of Spain at that time having by reliance upon the sacred Word and Letter of a King imprested money and provided shipping for their transport and bin at above 10000. Crowns charges I say this Act was very much censured abroad to the dishonour of His Majesty and our reproach Patricius I am very sorry to hear it Well Sir His Majesty by His presence having setled Scotland was at his return to London received with much joy and exultation but though he was brought in with a Hosanna at one end of the Town he found a Crucifige at the other For at Westminster ther was a Remonstrance fram'd a work of many weeks and voted in the dead of night when most of the moderat and well-thoughted Members were retired to their rest wherein with as much aggravation and artifice as could be the least moat in Government was exposed to publick view from the first day of His Majesties Inauguratâ—…on to that very hour Which Remonstrance as it did no good to the Publick but fill peoples heads with doubts their hearts with gall and retard the procedure of all businesse besides so you may well think it could expect but cold entertainment with His Majesty who hoped his great Councel according to their often deep protestations had done something for his welcom home that might have made him the best beloved King that ever 〈◊〉 amongst his people Peregrin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ther is no Government upon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 up of mâ—…n but is subject to corruption there is no Court of judicature so cleane but some cobwebs may gather in it unlesse an Act of Parliament could be made to free and exempt men from all infirmities and errour It cannot be denied but Scotland might have something to complaine of though I think least of any and so leapt first into the pooll to be cur'd and what she fish'd besides in those troubled waters 't is too well known England also no doubt might have some grievances which his Majestie freely offered not onely to redresse for the present but to free her of all feares for the future from falling into relapses of that kinde but to redresse grievances by Armes by plunging the whole countrey into an intestine warre this makes the remedy worse then the malady it is as if one would go about to cure a sick body by breaking his head or let him blood by giving him a dash on the nose it is as mad a tricke as his was who set the whole House a fire to roast his egs But truly Sir in my opinion his Majesty at his return from Scotland might have justly expected some acts of compliance and gratitude from his Parliament considering what unparallel'd acts of grace he had pass'd before Patricius His Majesty did not rest there but complied further with them by condescending to an act for putting down the star-chamber Court the high Commission the Court of honour nay he was contented his own Privy Councell should be regulated and his forests bounded not according to ancient Prerogative but late custome nay further he pass'd a Bill for the unvoting and utter exclusion of the Spirituall Lords from the Parliament for ever whereby it cannot be denied but by the casheering of 25 votes at a clap and by excluding the Recusant Lords besides who subsist most by his grace he did not a little enervat his own prerogative Adde hereunto that having placed two worthy Gentlemen Biron and Lunsford Lieutenants of the Tower he remov'd them both one after the other and was content to put in
That the Churchman was the Lawyer is and the Souldier shall be I am afraid the English have seene their best dayes for I find a generall kind of infatuation a totall Eclipse of reason amongst most of them and commonly a generall infatuation precedes the perdition of a people like a fish that putrifieth first in the head Therefore I will trusse up my baggage and over again after I have enjoyed you some dayes and received your commands Patricius Dear Sir If you seriously resolve to crosse the Seas againe so soon I may chance beare you company for as you have since the short time of your sojourn here judiciously observed a national defection of reason in the people of this Island which makes her so active in drawing on her own ruine so by longer experience and by infallible Symptomes I find a strange kind of Vertigo to have seized upon her which I feare will turne to the falling sicknesse or such a frenzie that will make her to dash out her own braines Nor are her miseries I feare come yet to the full It is the method of the Almightie when he pleases to punish a people to begin with roddes to goe on with scourges and if they will not do he hath Scorpions for them Therefore I will breath any where sooner then here for what securitie or contentment can one receive in that Countrey where Religion and Iustice the two grand Dorique Columnes which support every State are fallen down which makes all conditions of men all professions and trades to go here daylie to utter ruine The Churchman grows every day more despicable as if he had no propertie in any thing nor is there any way left him to recover his Tithe but by costly troublesome sutes The Civilian a brave learned profession hath already made his last Will And the Common Lawyers case is little better The Courtier cannot get his Pension The Gentleman cannot recover his rents but either they are sequestred by a high hand of unexampled power or else the poor tenant is so heavily assess'd or plundred that he is disabled to pay them in All kind of Comerce both domestick and forrein visibly decayes and falls more and more into the hands of strangers to the no small dishonour of the wisedome of this Nation nor can the Tradesman recover his debts Parliamentary Protections continue still in such numbers so that it is a greater priviledge now to be a footman to the meanest of the Lower House then to be of the Kings Bed chamber Prentiâ—…es run away from their masters and against their fathers intent turn souldiers and for money which is the soul of trade I beleeve since the beginning of this Parliament above one half of the treasure of the Kingdome is either conveyed to'ther side of the Sea or buried under ground whence it must be new digg'd up againe Moreover all things are here grown Arbitrary yet that word took off the Earle of Straffords head Religion Law and Allegiance is growne Arbitrary nor dares the Iudge upon the Tribunall according to his oath do justice but he is over-awed by Ordinance or els the least intimation of the sense of the lower House is sufficient to enjoyne him the contrary so that now more then ever it may be said here Terras Astraea reliquit peace also hath rov'd up and downe this Island and cannot get a place to lay her head on she hoped to have had entertainment in York-shire by the agreement of the best Gentlemen in the Countrey but an Ordinance of Parliament beat her out of doores Then she thought to rest in Cheshire and by a solemne Covenant she was promis'd to be preserv'd ther the principal Agents of that Covenant having protested every one upon the word of a Gentleman and as they did desire to prosper both themselves their tenants and friends shold strictly observe it but the like Ordinance of Parliament battered down that Agreement Then she thought to take footing in the West and first in Dorcetshire then in Cornwall and Devonshire and by the holy tie of the blessed Sacrament she was promised to be preserved ther but another Ordinance of Parliament is pursuing her to dispense with the Commissioners of the said Agreement for their Oaths Lastly His Majesty is mainly endeavouring to bring her in again thorowout the whole Land but the furious phrentique Schismaticks will have none of her for as one of them besides a thousand instances more preach'd in one of the most populous Congregations about the City It were better that London streets ran with bloud and that dead carkasses were piled up as high as the battlements of Pauls than peace should be now brought in And now that Peace is shut out Learning is upon point of despair her Colledges are become Courts of Gard and Mars lieth in Mercuries bed Honour also with her Court lieth in the dust the Cobler may confront the Knight the Boor the Baron and ther is no judicial way of satisfaction which makes Monarchy fear she hath no long time of abode here Publick Faith also though she had but newly set up for her self is suddenly become Bankrupt and how could she choose for more of the Kingdoms treasure hath bin spent within these thirty moneths than was spent in four-score yeares before but she hopes to piece up her self again by the ruines of the Church but let her take heed of that for those goods have bin fatall to many thousand families in this Kingdom yet she thinks much that those publick summs which were given to suppresse one rebellion in Ireland shold be employed to maintain another rebellion in England And lastly methinks I see Religion in torn ragged weeds and with slubber'd eyes sitting upon Weeping-Crosse and wringing her hands to see her chiefest Temple Pauls Church where God Almighty was us'd to be serv'd constantly thrice a day and was the Rendezvouz and as it were the Mother Church standing open to receive all commers and strangers to be now shut up and made only a thorow-fare for Porters to see those scaffolds the expence of so many thousand pounds to lie rotting to see her chiefest lights like to be extinguished to see her famous learned Divines dragg'd to prison and utterly depriv'd of the benefit of the Common Law their inheritance Methinks I say I see Religion packing up and preparing to leave this Island quite crying out that this is Countrey fitter for Atheists than Christians to live in for God Almighty is here made the greatest Malignant in regard his House is plunder'd more than any Ther is no Court left to reform heresie no Court to punish any Church Officer and to make him attend his Cure not Court to punish Fornication Adultery or Incest Methinks I hear Her cry out against these her Grand Reformers or Refiners rather that they have put division 'twixt all degrees of persons They have put division 'twixt husband and wife 'twixt mother and child The son seeks his fathers
so that whilest they labour to mend her they marr her whilst they think to settle her they confound her whilst they plot to prevent the growth of Popery they pave the way to bring it in by conniving at and countenancing those monstrous Schismes which I observed to have crept into your Church since the reign of this Parliament so that one may justly say These your Reformers are but the executioners of the old project of the Jesuits the main part wherof was and is still to hurle the ball of discord and hatch new opinions still 'twixt the Protestants to make factions and scissures between them and so render their religion more despicable and ridiculous But methinks matters are come to a strange pass with you in England that the Iudges cannot be trusted with the Law nor the Prelats with the Gospell whereas from all times out of their long experience and years these two degrees of men were used to be reverenced for the chief Touch-men and unquestionable Expositors of both which another power seems now to arrogate to it self as the inerring Oracle of both but I pray God that these grand Refiners of Religion prove not Quack-salvers at last that these upstart Polititians prove not Impostors for I have heard of some things they have done that if Machiavell himself were alive he wold be reputed a Saint in comparison of them The Roman ten and Athenian thirty were Babies to these nay the Spanish Inquisition and the Bloet-Rade that Councell of bloud which the Duke of Alva erected in Flanders when he swore That he wold drown the Hollanders in their Butter-tubs was nothing to this when I consider the prodigious power they have assumed to themselves and do daily exercise over the bodies the estates and souls of men In your former Discourse you told me that amongst multitudes of other mischiefs whâ—…ch this new Faction hath wrought they have put division 'twixt all sorts and sexes 'twixt all conditious both of men and women one thing more I may say they have done in this kind for they have laboured to put division between the Persons of the holy Trinity by making the first Person to be offended at that voluntary genuflection and reverence which hath bin from all times practised in the Christian Church to the name of the second Person so that Iesu worship as I have read in some of your profane Pamphlets is grown now to be a word of reproach amongst you But to the point ther is one thing I can never cease to wonder at that whereas at the beginning of this Parliament ther were as able and experienced as stout and well spoken Gentlemen as any in the whole Kingdom that sate in the House and made the far major part I wonder I say that they wold suffer this giddy-headed Faction to carry all before them in that violent manner that they did not crush this Cocatrice in the shell Patricius First Sir you know ther is nothing so agreeable to the nature of man as novelty and in the conduct of humane affaires it is always seen that when any new design or faction is a foot the Projectors are commonly more pragmaticall and sedulous upon the work they lie centinell to watch all advantages the Sand of their brains is always running This hath caused this upstart Faction to stick still close together and continue marvellously constant to their ends they have bin used to tyre and out-fast to weary and out-watch the moderate and well-minded Gentlemen sometimes till after midnight by clancular and nocturnall sittings so that as His Majesty saies in one of his Declarations most of their Votes may be said to be nought else but Verdicts of a starv'd Iury. Another reason is That they countenanced the flocking together of the promiscuous rabble from London notwithstanding the two severall motions the Lords made unto them that they might be suppressed by Parliamentary Order This riotous crue awed the wonted freedom of speech in both Houses cryed up the names and confronted many of their Members yet these new Polititians not only conniv'd at them but call'd them their friends and so they might well enough or rather their Champions for they had ordered the matter so that they were sure to have them ready at their devotion at the heaving of a finger and from this tumultuous mongrell crue they derived their first encouragements to do such high prodigious insolencies they have committed since Adde hereunto that they complyed exceedingly besides with the Common Councell of the City they used to attend them early and late to knock heads together and if any new thing was to passe in the House they wold first wait on them to know their pleasure and afterwards it shold be propounded and put to Vote in the House And how derogatory it is to the high Law-making-councell to make their chiefest Members wait from time to time on the Magistrates of the City who in former times were used to attend them upon all occasions in Westminster I am ashamed to think on nor am I lesse ashamed to remember those base Artifices and indirect courses that were practis'd at the election of this pretended Major here they tack'd about to a second choice after the first was legally made and how the Common-Councell was pack'd up of the arrandest Schismaticks up and down the City And to that mutinous wealth-swoln City and the said unbridled pack of Oppidans seconded afterwards by the Countrey clownes who offered such outrages to Gods House the Kings house and the Parliament house may be ascribed all miseries and the miscarriage of things for they caused His Majesty to forsake his own standing palace to absent himself from his Parliament and make that unpleasing pâ—…ogresse up and down his Kingdom ever since which put all Counsells at a stand and to be involv'd in a confusion Peregrin But let me tell you that your Britannick Sun though he be now ore-set with these unlucky clouds engendred of the vapours of distempered brains and the rotten hearts of many of his own meniall servants who have proved like the Sons of Serviah unto him ingratefull monsters yet is he still in his own Orb and will when this foul weather 's passed and the aire cleared a little by thunder shine more gloriously and powerfully then before it being a maxime of State That Rebellion suppressed makes a Prince the stronger Now Rebellion durst never yet look a Prince long in the face for the Majesty of Gods anointed useth to dart such fulgent piercing beams that dazle the eyes of disloyalty and strikes her stark blind at last And truly as you say I am also clearly of opinion that these ingratefull Londoners as they were the comencers so have they been the continuers and contrivers of this ugly Rebellion ever since They seem to have utterly forgotten who hath given them the sword and by and from whom they hold their Charter Their Corporations are now grown body politicks so as
government of Church and state into what mold they pleased and ingrosse the chiefest offices to themselves And from these imaginary invisible dangers proceeded these visible calamities and grinding palpable pressures which hath accompanied this odious Warre ever since Peregrin Herein methinks your statists have shewne themselves politique enough but not so prudent honest for Prudence Policy though they often agree in the end yet they differ in election of the meanes to compasse their ends The one serves himself of truth strength of Reason integrity and gallantnesse in their proceedings the other of fictions fraudulence lies and other sinister meanes the work of the one is lasting and permanent the others worke moulders away and ends in infamy at last for fraud and frost alwaies end foule But how did they requite that most rare and high unexampled trust his Majesty reposed in them when he before passed that fatall Act of continuance a greater trust then ever English King put in Parliament How did they performe their solemn promise and deepe Protestations to make him the most glorious at home and abroad the richest and best belovedst King that ever raigned in that Island Patricius Herein I must confesse they held very ill correspondence with him for the more he trusted them the more diffident they grew of him and truly Sir herein white differs not so much from black as their actions have been disconsonant to their words Touching the first promise to make him glorious if to suffer a neighbouring Nation the Scot to demand and obtain what they pleased of him if to break capitulations of peace with a great forrein Prince the French King by the renvoy of the Capuchins and divers other Acts if to bring the dregs and riffraffe of the City to domineere before his Court-gate notwithstanding his Proclamations of repressing them if to confront him and seek his life by fire and sword in open field by open desiance and putting him upon a defensive war if to vote his Queen a Traytresse to shoot at her to way-lay her to destroy her if to hinder the reading of his Proclamations and the sleighting of his Declarations enclosed in Letters sign'd and seal'd with his own hand for fear they shold bring the people to their wits again if to call them fetters of gold divellish devises fraught with doctrines of division reall mistakes absurd suppositions though ther never dropt from Princes pen more full more rationall and strong sinewy expressions if to suffer every shallow-brain'd Scolist to preach every Pamphletter to print every rotten-hearted man or woman to prate what they please of him and his Queen if to sleight his often acknowledgment condissentions retractions pronunciations of Peace and proffers of Pardon if to endeavour to bring him to a kind of servile submission if to bar him of the attendance of his Domestiques to abuse and imprison his messengers to hang his servants for obeying his Commission if to prefer the safety and repute of five ordinary men before the honour of their King and being actually impeach'd of Treason to bring them in a kind of triumph to his House if for subjects to Article Treat and Capitulate with him if to tamper with his Conscience and make him forget the solemn sacramentall oath he took at his Coronation if to devest him of all regall rights to take from him the election of his servants and officers and bring him back to a kind of minority if this be to make a King glorious our King is made glorious enough Touching the second promise to make him the richest King that ever was if to denude him of his native rights to declare that he hath no property in any thing but by way of trust not so much property as an Elective King if to take away his customs of inheritance if to take from him his Exchequer and Mint if to thrust him out of his own Towns to suffer a lowsie Citizen to lie in his beds within his Royall Castle of Windsor when he himself would have come thither to lodg if to enforce him to a defensive war and cause him to engage his Jewells and Plate and so plunge him in a bottomlesse gulph of debt for his necessary defence if to anticipate his revenue royall and reduce him to such exigents that he hath scarce the subsistence of an ordinary Gentleman if this be to make a rich King then is our King made sufficiently rich Concerning their third promise to make him the best belovedst King that ever was if to cast all the aspersions that possibly could be devised upon his Government by publique elaborat remonstrances if to suffer and give Texts to the strongest lung'd Pulpiteers to poyson the hearts of his subjects to intoxicat their brains with fumes of forg'd jealousies to possesse them with an opinion that he is a Papist in his heart and consequently hath a design to introduce Popery if to sleight his words his promises his Asseverations Oaths and Protestations when he calls heaven and earth to witnesse when he desires no blessing otherwise to fall upon himself his wife and children with other pathetick deep-fetcht expressions that wold have made the meanest of those millions of Christians which are his vassals to be believed if to protect Delinquents and proclaim'd Traytors against him if to suscitate authorise and encourage all sorts of subjects to heave up their hands against him and levy armes to emancepate themselves from that naturall allegiance loyalty and subjection wherein they and their fore-fathers were ever tyed to his Royall Progenitors if to make them swear and damn themselves into a rebellion if this be to make a King beloved then this Parliament hath made King Charles the best beloved King that ever was in England Peregrin I cannot compare this Rebellion in England more properly then to that in this Kingdom in King Iohn's time which in our French Chronicle beares to this day the infamous name of Iaquerie de Beauvoisin The Peasans then out of a surfeit of plenty had grown up to that height of insolency that they confronted the Noblesse and Gentry they gathered in multitudes and put themselves in armes to suppresse or rather extinguish them and this popular tumult never ceased till Charles le Sage debell'd it and it made the Kings of France more puissant ever since for it much increased their Finances in regard that those extraordinary taxes which the people imposed upon themselves for the support of the war hath continued ever since a firm revenue to the Crown which makes me think of a facecious speech of the late Henry the Great to them of Orleans for wheras a new imposition was laid upon the Townsmen during the league by Monsieur de la Chastre who was a great stickler in those wars they petitioned Henry the fourth that he wold be pleased to take off that taxe the King asked them Who had laid that taxe upon them they said Monsieur de la Chastre during
Gentry and Servants and the enemy was hard by ready to face Him At the concluding of the Irish Cessation His Majesty was not there personally present but it was agitated and agreed on by his Commissioner and it hath been held alwaies less dishonourable for a King to capitulate in this kind with his own Subjects by his Deputy then in his own person for the further off he is the lesse reflects upon him 2. Upon the Pacification and Peace with Scotland there was an Amnestia a generall pardon and an abolition of all by-passed offences published there were honours and offices conferred upon the chiefest sticklers in the War At the Cessation in Ireland there was no such thing 3. When the Pacification and Peace was made with the Scots there was mony given unto Them as it is too well knowne But upon the setling of this Cessation the Irish received none but gave His Majesty a considerable summe as an argument of their submission and gratitude besides the maintainance of some of his Garrisons in the interim and so much partly in point of honour 4. At the concluding of the Pacification and Peace with Scotland there was a vigorous fresh unfoiled English Army a foot and in perfect equipage there wanted neither Ammunition Armes Money Cloaths Victuals or any thing that might put heart into the Souldier and elevat his spirits But the Protestant Army in Ireland had not any of all these in any competent proportion but were ready to perish though there had been no other enemy then hunger and cold And this implies a farre greater necessity for the said Cessation 5. In Ireland there was imminent danger of an instant losse of the whole Kingdome and consequently the utter subversion of the Protestant Religion there as was certified both to King and Parliament by sundry letters and petitions which stand upon record There was no such danger in the affairs of Scotland either in respect of Religion or Kingdome therefore there was more piety shown in preserving the one and prudence in preserving the other in Ireland by plucking both as it were out of the very jawes of destruction by the said Cessation We know that in the Medley of mundane casualties of two evils the least is to be chosen and a small inconvenience is to be born withall to prevent a greater If one make research into the French Story he will find that many kinds of Pacifications and Suspensions of Armes were covenanted 'twixt that King and som of his Subjects trenching far more upon regall dignity then this in Ireland The Spaniard was forced to declare the Hollanders Free-states before they could be brought to treat of a truce And now the Catalans scrue him up almost to as high conditions But what need I rove abroad so far It is well known nor is it out of the memory of man in Queen Elizabeths raign that in Ireland it self ther have bin Cessations all circumstances well weighed more prejudiciall to Majesty then this But that which I hear murmured at most as the effect of this Cessation is the transport of som of those Souldiers to England for recruting His Majesties Armies notwithstanding that the greatest number of them be perfect and rigid Protestants and were those whom our Parliament it self imployed against the Irish. But put case they were all Papists must His Majesty therfore be held a Favourer of Popery The late King of France might have bin said as well to have bin a Favourer of Hugonotts because in all his wars he imployed Them most of any in places of greatest trust against the House of Austria wheras all the World knows that he perfectly hated them in the generall and one of the reaches of policy he had was to spend and waste them in the wars Was it ever known but a Soveraign Prince might use the bodies and strength of his own naturall-born Subjects and Liege men for his own defence When His person hath been sought and aimed at in open field by small and great shot and all other Engines of hostility and violence When he is in danger to be surprized or besieg'd in that place wher he keeps his Court When all the flowers of his Crown his royal prerogatives which are descended upon him from so many successive progenitors are like to be plucked off and trampled under foot When ther is a visible plot to alter and overturn that Religion he was born baptized and bred in When he is in danâ—…er to be forced to infringe that solemn Sacramental Oath he took at his Coronation to maintain the said Religion with the Rights and Rites of the holy Anglican Church which som brain-sick Schismaticks wold transform to a Kirk and her Discipline to som chimerical form of government they know not what Francis the first and other Christian Princes made use of the Turk upon lesse occasions and if one may make use of a Horse or any other bruit animal or any inanimat Engine or Instrument for his own defence against man much more may man be used against man much more may one rational Creature be used against another though for destructive ends in a good cause specially when they are commanded by a Soveraign head which is the main thing that goes to justifie a war Now touching the Roman Catholicks whether English Welsh Irish or Scottish which repaire to his Majesties Armies either for service or security He looks not upon them â—…s Papists but as his Subjects not upon their Religion but their allegiance and in that â—…uality he entertains them Nor can the Paâ—…ist be denyed the Character of a good Subject all the while he conforms himself to the Lawes in generall and to those lawes also that are particularly enacted against him and so keeps himself within the bounds of his civil obedience As long as he continues so he may challenge protection from his Prince by way of right and if his Prince by som accident be not in case to protect him he is to give him leave to defend himself the best he can for the law of nature allowes every one to defend himself and ther is no positive law of man can annul the law of nature Now if the Subject may thus claim protection from his Prince it followeth the Prince by way of reciprocation may require assistance service and supplies from the Subject upon all publick occasions as to suppress at this time a new race of Recusants which have done more hurt then ever the old did and are like to prove more dangerous to his Crown and regal Authority then any foreign enemy But whosoever will truly observe the genius and trace the actions of this fatal Faction which now swayes with that boundless exorbitant arbitrary and Antinomian power will find that it is one of their prime pieces of policy to traduce and falsifie any thing that is not conducible to their own ends Yet what comes from them must be so magisterial it must be so unquestionably
happinesse and wanton kind of prosperity This City of London was grown to be the greatest Mart and mistress of trade of any in the world Insomuch as I have been certainly inform'd the King might have spent meerly upon His customes 4000 crowns a day Moreover she had a vast bank of money being made the scale of conveying the King of Spains treasure to Flanders Insomuch that in a few yeers she had above ten millions of his moneys brought hither which she might have remitted in specie or in marchandize and for which this King had five in the hundred for coynage Yet could he not get beforehand with the world having a sister with so many Nephews and neeces having a Queen with diverse children of His own at least 16 of the Blood-Royall to maintaine with divers profuse Courtiers besides which made Him more parsimonious then ordinary The Warres then growing more active 'twixt Spaine and France as also 'twixt Holland and Spaine both by Land and Sea and divers great Fleets of Men of War as well French who were growne powerfull that way as Dunkerkers Spaniards Hollanders and Hamburgers appearing daily in His narrow Seas and sayling close by His Chambers the world wondred this King had no greater strength at Sea in case that any of the foresaid Nations should doe him an affront as some of them had already done by denying to dash their Colours to his Ships Insomuch that in Holland and other places he was pasquill'd at and pourtrayed lying in his cradle lullaby'd and rock'd asleep by the Spaniard Hereupon being by advertisements from his Agents abroad and frequent advice of His Privie Councell at home made sensible of the danger and a kind of dishonour he was faln into and having intelligence that the French Cardinall began to question his title to the Dominion of the narrow Seas considering He employed no visible power to preserve it He began to consult of meanes to set forth a royall Fleet but in regard the Purse of the Crowne was lightly ballasted and that he had no mind to summon the three Estates because of some indignities he had received in former Parliaments by the Puritan party a race of people averse to all Kingly Government unlesse they may pare it as they please his then Atturney Generall Noy a great cryed-up-Lawyer put it in his Head to impose an old Tax called Ship-mony upon the Subject which the said Lawyer did warrant upon his life to be Legall for he could produce divers Records how many of his Progenitors had done the like The King not satisfied with his single opinion refer'd it to his learn'd Council they unanimously averred it to be agreeable to the Law of the Land yet this would not fully satisfie the King but He would have the Opinion of His twelve Judges and they also affirmed by their single vouches the said Tax to be warrantable Hereupon it was imposed and leavied but some refusing to pay it there was a suite commenc'd during which all the Judges were to re-deliver their opinions joyntly and the businesse being maturely debated and canvased in open Court divers months and all arguments produc'd pro con nine of the said twelve Judges concluded it legal Thereupon the King continued the imposition of the said Tax and never was mony imployed so much for the Honour and advantage of a Countrey for he sent out every Summer a royall fleet to scowre and secure the Seas he caused a Galeon to be built the greatest and gallantest that ever spread saile Nor did he purse up and dispose of one peny of this money to any other use but added much of his own Revenues yeerly thereunto So the world abroad cried up the King of England to be awake againe Trade did wonderfully encrease both Domestic and forrein in all the three Kingdomes Ireland was reduced to an absolute Settlement the Arrears of the Crown payed and a considerable Revenue came thence cleerly to the Exchequer of England every year the salaries of all Officers with the pay of the standing Army â—…here and all other Charges being defrayed by Ireland her self which was never done before Yet for all this height of pappinesse and the glorious fruites of the said Ship-money which was but a kind of petty insensible Tax a thing of nothing to what hath hapened since there were some foolish peeple in this Land which murmured at it and cryed nothing else but a Parliament a Parliament and they have had a Parliament since with a vengeance But before this occasion it was observed that the seeds of disobedience and a spirit of insurrection was a long time engendring in the hearts of som of this peace-pampred People which is conceived to proceed from their conversation and commerce with three sorts of men viz. the Scot the Hollander and the French Huguenot Now an advantage happened that much conduced to necessitate the convoking of a Parliament which was an ill-favoured traverse that fell out in Scotland For the King intending an Uniformity of Divine worship in all His three Kingdoms sent thither the Liturgy of this Church but it found cold and course entertainment ther for the whole Nation men women and children rise up a gainst them Here upon the King absolutely revoked it by Proclamation wherein He declared 't was never His purpose to press the practise therof upon the Consciences of any therfore commanded that all things shold be in statu quo prius but this wold not serve the turn the Scot took advantge hereby to destroy Hierarchy and pull down the Bishops to get their demeans To which purpose they came with an Army in open Field against their own Native King who not disgesting this indignity Mustred another English Army which being upon the confines of both Kingdoms a kind of Pacification was plaistred over for the present The King returning to London and consulting His second thoughts resented that insolency of the Scots more then formerly Hereupon He summons a Parliament and desires aid to Vindicat that Affront of the Scot. The Scot had strong Intelligence with the Puritan Faction in the English Parliament who seemed to abet his quarrel rather then to be sensible of any national dishonour received from him which caused that short-lived Parliament to dissolve in discontent and the King was forced to find other means to raise and support an Army by privat Loanes of His nobler sort of Subjects and Servants The Scot having punctual Advertisements of every thing that passed yea in the Kings Cabinet Councel was not idle all this while but rallies what was left of the former Army which by the Articles of Pacification a little before should have bin absolutely dismissed and boldly invades England which he durst never have done if he had not well known that this Puritan party which was now grown very powerful here and indeed had invited him to this expedition wold stand to him This forein Army being by the pernicious close machinations
of som mongrel Englishmen aforementioned entred into the Bowels of the Country the King was forced to call this present Parliament with whom he complyed in every thing so far as to sacrifice unto them both Iudge Bishop Councellor and Courtier yea He yielded to the tumbling down of many tribunals of Justice which were an advantage to his Prerogative He assented that the Prelates who were the most Ancient and Prime Members of the upper House and had priority of all others since the first constitution of Parliament in the enrollment of all Acts He assented I say that these who were the greatest prop of His Crown shold be quite outed from among the Peers He granted them also a Trienniall Parliament and after that this Perpetuall which words to the apprehension of any rational man carry with them a grosse absurdity in the very sense of the thing And touching this last Grant I had it from a good hand that the Queen was a friend to this Parliament and your Eminence knows how they have requited Her since but the main open Councellor to this fatall Act was a Scot. Now the reason which they alledged for this everlasting Parliament was one of the baldest that ever I heard of it was that they might have time enough to pay the Scots Army wheras in one morning they might have dispatched that by passing so many Subsidies for that use and upon the credit of those they might have raised what money they wold The Parliament finding the King so plyable and His pulse to beat so gently like ill-natur'd men they fall from inches to ells in seeking their advantages They grew so peremptory as to demand all the Military strength of the Kingdom the Tower of London with the whole Royal Navy which they found in an excellent equipage gramercy ship-money so that the benefit of ship-money which they so clamoured at turned most to their advantage of any thing afterwards The Scot being Fidler-like returned to his Country with meat drink and money the King went a while after to keep a Parliament ther wherein he filled every blank they did but ask and have for He granted them what possibly they could propound both for their Kirk and State many received Honour and they divided Bishops Lands amongst them for all which unparallel'd Concessions of Princely grace they caused an Act already in force to be published viz. that it shold be damnable Treason in the highest degree that could be for any of the Scots Nation conjunctly or singly to levy armes or any Military Forces upon any pretext whatsoever without His Majesties royal Commission and this they caused to be don by way of gratitude but how they perform'd it afterwards the world knowes too well The King returning to London in lieu of a welcom to his two Houses of Parliament to whom also before his departure he had passed more Acts of Grace then all his Progenitors take them all in a lump they had patch'd up a kind of Remonstrance which was voted in dead of the night wherein they expos'd to the world the least moat in former government and aggravated to the very height every grievance notwithstanding that the King had redressed all before and this Remonstrance which breath'd nothing but a base kind of malice they presented as a nosegay to their Soveraign Prince to congratulat his safe return from a forein Countrey which Remonstrance they caus'd to be printed and publish'd before he could give any answer thereunto The King finding such a virulent spirit still raign in the House and knowing who were chiefly possess'd with it viz. Those whom he had impeach'd before but saw he could get no justice against them in such an extremity he did an act like a generous Prince for taking the Palsgrave with him he took the first Coach he met withall at his Court-gate and went to his House of Commons in person to demand five Members which he wold prove to be Traitors in the highest degree 〈◊〉 to be the Authors of all these distempers protesting upon the word of a King that they shold have as fair legal a tryal as ever men had in the interim he only desir'd that their persons might be secur'd The walls of both Houses and the very stones in London street did seem to ring of this high cariage of the Kings and the sound went thence to the Country whence the silly Plebeians came presently in whole herds to this City who strutting up and down the streets had nothing in their mouths but that the Priviledg of Parlement the priviledg of Parlement was broken though it be the known clear Law of the Land that the Parlement cannot supersede or shelter any Treason The King finding how violently the pulse of the grosly seduced people did beat and ther having bin formerly divers riotous crues of base Mechaniques and Mariners who had affronted both his own Court and the two Houses besides which the Commons to their eternal reproach conniv'd at notwithstanding that divers motions were made by the Lords to suppresse them the King also having privat intelligence that ther was a mischievous plot to surprize his person remov'd his Court to the Countrey The King departing or rather being driven away thus from his two Houses by this mutinous City he might well at his going away have ubraided her in the same words as H. the 3. did upbraid Paris who being by such another tumultuous rabble driven out of her in the time of the Ligue as he was losing sight of her he turn'd his face back and said Farewel ingratefull City I will never see thee again till I make my way into thee through thy Walls Yet though the King absented himself in person thus from the two Houses he sent them frequent messages that they wold draw into Acts what he had already assented unto and if any thing was left yet undon by him he wold do it therfore he will'd them to leave off those groundless feares and jealousies wherwith they had amus'd both City and Country and he was ready to return at all times to his Palace in Westminster provided that his person might be secur'd from the former barbarisms and outrages But in lieu of a dutiful compliance with their Prince the thoughts of the two Houses ran upon nothing but war The King then retiring into the North and thinking with a few of his servants only to go visit a Town of his Hull he was denyed entrance by a fatal unlucky wretch Hotham who afterwards was shamefully executed with his Eldest Son by command of his new Masters of the Parlement The King being thus shut out of his own Town which open'd the first dore to a bloudy war put forth a Declaration wherin he warn'd all his people that they shold look to their proprieties for if He was thus barr'd of his own how could any privat Subject be sure to be Master of any thing he had and herein he was as much Prophet
committed was to suffer this Town to spread her wings so wide for she bears no proportion with the bignes of the Iland but may fit a Kingdom thrice as spacious she engrosseth and dreins all the wealth and strength of the Kingdom so that I cannot compare England more properly than to one of our Cremona geese where the custom is to fatten only the heart but in doing so the whole body growes lank To draw to a conclusion This Nation is in a most sad and desperat condition that they deserve to be pittied and preserved from sinking and having cast the present state of things and all interests into an equal balance I find my Lord ther be three ways to do it one good and two bad 1. The first of the bad ones is the Sword which is one of the scourges of heaven especially the Civill sword 2. The second bad one is the Treaty which they now offer the King in that small Island wher he hath bin kept Captif so long 〈◊〉 which quality the world will account him still while he is detain'd there and by thaâ—… Treaty to bind him as fast as they can anâ—… not trust him at all 3. The good way is in a free confiding brave way Englishmen-like to send for their King to London where City and Country shold Petition him to summon a new and free full Parlement which he may do as justly as ever he did thing in his life these men having infring'd as well all the essentiall Priviledges of Parlement as every puntillio of it for they have often risen up in a confusion without adjournment they had two Speakers at once they have most perjuriously and beyond all imagination betrayed the trust both King and Country repos'd in them subverted the very sundamentals of all Law and plung'd the whole Kingdom in this bottomless gulf of calamities another Parlement may haply do som good to this languishing Island and cure her convulsions but for these men that arrogat to themselfs the name of Parlement by a local puntillio only because they never stir'd from the place where they have bin kept together by meer force I find them by their actions to be so pervers so irrational and refractory so far given over to a reprobat sense so fraught with rancor with an irreconcileable malice and thirst of bloud that England may well despaire to be heal'd by such Phlebotomists or Quack-salvers be sides they are so full of scruples apprehensions and jealousies proceeding from blacâ—… guilty souls and gawl'd consciences that they will do nothing but chop Logic with their King and spin out time to continue their power and evade punishment which they think is unavoidable if ther shold be a free-Parlement Touching the King he comports himself with an admired temper'd equanimity he invades and o're-masters them more and more in all his answers by strength of reson though he have no soul breathing to consult withall but his own Genius he gains wonderfully upon the hearts and opinion of his peeple and as the Sun useth to appear bigger in winter and at his declension in regard of the interposition of certain meteors 'twixt the eye of the beholder and the object so this King being thus o're-clouded and declined shines far more glorious in the eyes of his people and certainly these high morall vertues of constancy courage and wisdom come from above and no wonder for Kings as they are elevated above all other peeple and stand upon higher ground they sooner receive the inspirations of heaven nor doth he only by strength of reason out 〈◊〉 them but he wooes them by gentlenesse and mansuetude as the Gentleman of Paris who having an Ape in his house that had taken his only child out of the cradle and dragged him up to the ridge of the house the parent with ruthful he art charmed the Ape by fair words and other blandâ—…ments to bring him softly down which he did England may be said to be now just upon such a precipice ready to have her braines dash'd out and I hope these men will not be worse natur'd then that brute animal but will save her Thus have I given your Eminence a rough account of the state of this poor and pittifully deluded peeple which I will perfect when I shall come to your presence which I hope will be before this Autumnal Equinox I thought to have sojourn'd here longer but that I am grown weary of the clime for I fear there 's the other two scourges of heaven that menace this Island I mean the famin and pestilence especially this City for their prophanness rebellion and sacriledge It hath bin a talk a great while whether Anti-Christ be come to the world or no I am sure Anti-Iesus which is worse is among this people for they hold all veneration though voluntary proceeding from the inward motions of a sweet devoted soul and causing an outward genuflection to be superstitious insomuch that one of the Synodical Saints here printed and published a Book entitling it against Iesu Worship So in the profoundest posture of reverence I kisse your vest as being London this 12 of August 1647. My Lord Your Eminences most humbly devoted I. H. A NOCTURNAL PROGRES OR A PERAMBULATION Of most COUNTREYS IN CHRISTENDOM Perform'd in one night by strength of the Imagination Which progresse terminats in these North-West Iles And declares the woful Confusions They are involv'd at present The progress of the Soul by an usuall DREAM IT was in the dead of a long Winter night when no eyes were open but Watchmens and Centinels that I was fallen soundly asleep the Cinq-out-Ports were shut up closer then usually for my senses were so trebly lock'd that the Moon had she descended from her watry Orb might have done much more to me then she did to Endymion when he lay snoaring upon the brow of Latmus Hill nay be it spoken without prophanenesse if a rib had bin taken out of me that night to have made a new moâ—… of a woman I shold hardly have felt it Yet though the Cousin German of death had so strongly seiz'd thus upon the exterior parts of this poor Tabernacle of flesh my inward parts were never more actif and fuller of employments then they were that night Pictus imaginibus formisque fugacibâ—… adstat Morpheus variis fingit nova vultibus ora Methought my soul made a sally abroad into the world and fetch'd a vast compas she seem'd to soar up and slice the air to cross seas to clammer up huge Hills and never rested till she had arriv'd at the Antipodes Now som of the most judicious Geometricians and Chorographers hold that the whole Mass of the Earth being round like the rest of her fellow Elements ther be places and poizing parts of the Continent ther be Peninsulas Promontories and Ilands upon the other face of the Earth that correspond and concenter with all those Regions and Iles that are upon this superficies which we read
farther as the heavenly Bodies when three of them meet in Conjunction do use to produce some admirable effects in the Elementary World So when these three States convene and assemble in one solemne great Iunta some notable and extraordinary things are brought forth tending to the welfare of the whole Kingdom our Microcosme HE that is never so little versed in the Annals of this I le will find that it hath bin her fate to be four times conquered I exclude the Scot for the scituation of his Country and the Quality of the Clime hath been such an advantage and security to him that neither the Roman Eagles would fly thither for fear of freezing their wings nor any other Nation attempt the work These so many Conquests must needs bring with them many tumblings and tossings many disturbances and changes in Government yet I have observed that notwithstanding these tumblings it retained still the forme of a Monarchy and something there was always that had an Analogy with the great Assembly of Parlement The first Conquest I find was made by Claudius Caesar at which time as some well observe the Roman Ensignes and the Standard of Christ came in together It is well known what Lawes the Roman had He had his Comitia which bore a resemblance with our Convention in Parlement the place of their meeting was called Praetorum and the Laws which they enacted Plebiscita The Saxon Conquest succeeded next which were the English there being no name in Welsh or Irish for an English man but Saxon to this day They also governed by Parlement though it were under other names as Michel Sinoth Michel Gemote and Witenage Mote There are Records above a thousand years old of these Parlements in the Reigns of King Ina Offa Ethelbert and the rest of the seven Kings during the Heptarchy The British Kings also who retain'd a great while some part of the Isle unconquered governed and made Laws by a kind of Parlementary way witnesse the famous Laws of Prince Howell called Howell Dha the good Prince Howell whereof there are yet extant some British Records Parlements were also used after the Heptarchy by King Kenulphus Alphred and others witnesse that renowned Parliament held at Grately by King Athelstan The third Conquest was by the Danes and they govern'd also by such generall Assemblies as they do to this day witnesse that great and so much celebrated Parlement held by that mighty Monarch Canutus who was King of England Denmark Norway and other Regions 150 years before the compiling of Magna Charta and this the learned in the Laws do hold to be one of the specialst and most authentick peeces of antiquity we have extant Edward the Confessor made all his Laws thus and he was a great Legis-lator which the Norman Conquerour who liking none of his sons made God Almighty his heir by bequeathing unto him this Island for a legacy did ratifie and establish and digested them into one entire methodicall Systeme which being violated by Rufus who came to such a disastrous end as to be shot to death in lieu of a Buck for his sacriledges were restor'd by Henry the first and so they continued in force till King Iohn whose Reign is renowned for first confirming Magna Charta the foundation of our Liberties ever since which may be compar'd to divers outlandish graffes set upon one English stock or to a posie of sundry fragrant flowers for the choicest of the British the Roman Saxon Danish and Norman Laws being cull'd and pick'd out and gathered as it were into one bundle out of them the foresaid Grand Charter was extracted And the establishment of this great Charter was the work of a Parliament Nor are the Lawes of this Island only and the freedome of the Subject conserved by Parlement but all the best policed Countries of Europe have the like The Germanes have their Diets the Danes and Swedes their Rijcks Dachs the Spaniard calls his Parlement las Cortes and the French have or should have at least their Assembly of three States though it be growne now in a manner obsolete because the Authority thereof was by accident devolv'd to the King And very remarkable it is how this happened for when the English had taken such large footing in most parts of France having advanced as far as Orleans and driven their then King Charles the seventh to Bourges in Berry the Assembly of the three States in these pressures being not able to meet after the usuall manner in full Parlement because the Countrey was unpassable the Enemy having made such firme invasions up and down through the very bowels of the Kingdom That power which formerly was inhaerent in the Parlementary Assembly of making Laws of assessing the Subject with Taxes subsidiary levies and other impositions was transmitted to the King during the war which continueth many years that entrusted power by length of time grew as it were habitual in him and could never after be re-assumed and taken from him so that ever since his Edicts countervaile Acts of Parlement And that which made the businesse more feasable for the King was that the burthen fell most upon the Communalty the Clergy and Nobility not feeling the weight of it who were willing to see the Peasan pull'd down a little because not many years before in that notable Rebellion call'd la jaquerie de Beauvoisin which was suppressed by Charles the wise the Common people put themselves boldly in Arms against the Nobility and Gentry to lessen their power Adde hereunto as an advantage to the work that the next succeeding King Lewis the eleventh was a close cunning Prince and could well tell how to play his game and draw water to his own mill For amongst all the rest he was said to be the first that put the Kings of France Hors de page out of their minority or from being Pages any more though therby he brought the poor peasans to be worse than Lacquays and they may thank themselfs for it Neverthelesse as that King hath an advantage hereby one way to Monarchize more absolutely and never to want money but to ballast his purse when he will so ther is another mighty inconvenience ariseth to him and his whole Kingdom another way for this peeling of the Peasan hath so dejected him and cowed his native courage so much by the sense of poverty which brings along with it a narrownesse of 〈◊〉 that he is little usefull for the war which put 's the French King to make other Nations mercenary to him to fill up his Infantery Insomuch that the Kingdom of France may be not unfitly compared to a body that hath all it's bloud drawn up into the arms breast and back and scarce any leâ—…t from the girdle downwards to cherish and bear up the lower parts and keep them from starving All this seriously considered ther cannot be a more proper and pregnant example than this of our next Neighbours to prove how infinitly necessary
the Parlement is to assert to prop up and preserve the publick liberty and national rights of a peeple with the incolumity and well-fare of a Countrey Nor doth the Subject only reap benefit thus by Parlement but the Prince if it be well consider'd hath equal advantage therby It rendreth him a King of free and able men which is far more glorious than to be a King of Cowards Beggars and Bankrupts Men that by their freedom and competency of wealth are kept still in heart to do him service against any forrain force And it is a tru maxime in all States that 't is lesse danger and dishonour for the Prince to be poor than his people Rich Subjects can make their King rich when they please if he gain their hearts he will quickly get their purses Parlement encreaseth love and good intelligence 'twixt him and his peeple it acquaints him with the reality of things and with the tru state and diseases of his Kingdom it brings him to the knowledg of his better sort of Subjects and of their abilities which he may employ accordingly upon all occasions It provides for his Royal Issue pays his debts finds means to fill his Coffers and it is no ill observation That Parlementmoneys the great Aid have prospered best with the Kings of England It exceedingly raiseth his repute abroad and enableth him to keep his foes in fear his Subjects in awe his Neighbours and Confederates in security the three main things which go to aggrandize a Prince and render him glorious In summe it is the Parlement that supports and bears up the honour of his Crown and settles his Throne in safety which is the chief end of all their consultations For whosoever is entrusted to be a Member of this High Court carryeth with him a double capacity he sits ther as a Patriot and as a Subject as he is the one the Country is his object his duty being to vindicat the publick liberty to make wholsom Lawes to put his hand to the pump and stop the leaks of the great vessel of the State to pry into and punish corruption and oppression to improve and advance trade to have the grievances of the place he serves for redressed and cast about how to find somthing that may tend to the advantage of it But he must not forget that he sits ther also as a Subject and according to that capacity he must apply himself to do his Soveraignt businesse to provide not only for his publick but his personall wants to bear up the lustre and glory of his Court To consider what occasions of extraordinary expences he may have by encrease of Royal Issue or maintenance of any of them abroad To enable him to vindicat any affront or indignity that might be offered to his Person Crown or Dignity by any forrain State or Kingdom or intestin Rebellion To consult what may enlarge his honour contentment and pleasure And as the French Tacitus Comines hath â—…t the English Nation was used to be more â—…orward and zealous in this particular than â—…ny other according that to ancient eloquent speech of a great Lawyer Domus Regis vigiâ—…a defendit omnium otium illius labor omniâ—…m deliciae illius industria omnium vacatio â—…lius occupatio omnium salus illius periculum â—…nium honor illius objectum omnium Eveâ—… one shold stand Centinell to defend the Kings house his safety shold be the danger of 〈◊〉 his pleasures the industry of all his ease â—…old be the labour of all his honour the obâ—…ct of all Out of these premisses this conclusion â—…ay be easily deduced That the principall â—…ntain whence the King derives his happiness and safety is his Parlement It is that great Conduit-pipe which conveighes unto him his peoples bounty and gratitude The truest Looking-glasse wherin he discernes their loves now the Subjects love hath been always accounted the prime Cittadell of a Prince In his Parlement he appears as the Sun in the Meridian in the altitude of his glory in his highest State Royal as the Law tells us Therfore whosoever is averse or disaffected to his Soveraign Law-making Court cannot have his heart well planted within him he can be neither good Subject noâ—… good Patriot and therfore unworthy to breath English aire or have any benefit advantage or protection from the Laws Sectio Secunda BY that which hath bin spoken which is the language of my heart I hope no indifferent judicious Reader will doubt of the cordiall affection of the high respects and due reverence I bear to Parlement as being the wholsomest constitution and done by the highest and happiest reach of policy that ever was established in this Island to perpetuate the happinesse therof Therfore I must tell that Gentleman who was Author of a Book entituled the Popish Royal Favorite lately printed and exposed to the world that he offers me very hard measure nay he doth me apparent wrong to term me therin No friend to Parlement and a Malignant A character which as I deserve it not so I disdain it For the first part of his charge I wold have him know that I am as much a friend and as reall an affectionat humble servant and Votary to the Parlement as possibly he can be and will live and die with these affections about me And I could wish that he were Secretary of my thoughts a while or if I may take the boldnesse to apply that comparison his late Majesty used in a famous speech to one of his Parlements I could wish ther were a Chrystal window in my breast through which the world might espye the inward motions and palpitations of my heart then would he be certified of the sincerity of this protestation For the second part of his Charge to be a Malignant I must confesse to have som Malignity that lurks within me much against my will but it is no malignity of mind it is amongst the humors not in my intellectuals And I believe ther is no naturall man let him have his humors never so well ballanced but hath som of this Malignity reigning within him For as long as we are composed of the four Elements whence these humors are derived and with whom they symbolize in qualities which Elements the Philosophers hold to be in a restlesse contention amongst themselves and the Stoick thought that the world subsisted by this innated mutual strise as long I say as the four humors in imitation of their principles the Elements are in perpetual reluctancy and combate for praedominancy ther must be som malignity lodg'd within us as adusted choler and the like wherof I had late experience in a dangerous fit of sicknesse it pleased God to lay upon me which the Physitians told me proceeded from the malignant hypocondriacall effects of melancholy having bin so long in this Saturnine black condition of close imprisonment and buryed alive between the walls of this fatal Fleet These kinds of malignities I confesse are very
one of their Election And lastly he trusted them with his greatest strength of all with his Navie Royall and call'd home Pennington who had the guard of the narrow Seas so many yeares Peregrin Truly Sir I never remember to have heard or read of such notable acts of grace and confidence from any King but would not all this suffice Patricius No But they demanded all the Land Souldiery and military strength of the Kingdome to be disposed of by them and to be put into what posture and in what Equipage and under what Commanders they pleas'd And this was the first thing his Majesty ever denyed them yet he would have granted them this also for a limited time but that would not serve the turn Hereupon his Majesty grew a little sensible how they inch'd every day more and more upon his Royall Prerogatives And intending to go to his Town of Hull to see his Magazin which he had bought with his own money with his ordinary train he was in a hostile manner kept out Canons mounted Pistols cockt and leveld at him But whether that unlucky Knight Hotham did this out of his fidelity to the Parl. or out of an apprehension of feare that some about the King being mov'd with the barbarousnesse of the action would have pistold him I will not determine Peregrin I have read of divers affronts of this kinde that were offerd to the French Kings Rochell shut her gates more than once against Henry the Great and for the King now regnant they did not only shut him out of many of his Towns but upon the gates of some of them they writ in legible Characters Roy san Foy ville sans peur a faithlesse King a fearlesse Towne Yet in the greatest heat of those warres there was never any Towne refus'd to let in her King provided he came attended onely with his own traine and besides other people abroad I heard the Scot's nation did abhor that Act at Hull But I pray Sir go on Patricius His Majesty being thus shut out of one Towne he might justly suspect that an attempt might be made to shut him in in some other Therefore he made a motion to the Yorke-shire Gentlemen to have a gard for the preservation of his Person which was done accordingly But I am come to forward I must go backe and tell you how the King was driven from Westminster When His Majesty was return'd from Scotland he retir'd to Hampton Court whence upon the Lord Majors and the Cities humble solliciâ—…ation he came back to White-hal to keep his Christmas But when the Bill against Bishops was in agitation which businesse â—…asted neer upon ten weekes a crue of bold â—…turdie mechanicks and mariners came â—…rom the Citie and ruffled before White-hall and Westminster-hall and would have violated the Abby of Westminster so that for many â—…ights a Court of gard was forced to be kept â—…n the body of that Church the chiefest Sanctuary of the Kingdom Moreover His Majesty having impeached some of the Members of both Houses of High Treason and being denied to have them delivered up he went himself to the Lower House to demand them assuring the House they should have as faire and legall a triall as ever men had But as it pleas'd God they were not there but retir'd to London for refuge The Londoners grew starke wilde thereupon and notice being sent to all the adjacent Counties this act of the Kings though it wanted no precedents of former times was aggravated in the highest degree that possibly could be Hence you may easily inferre what small securitie his Majesty had at White-hall and what indignities he might have exposed himself unto by that which had pass'd already from the Rabble who had vilified and cried tush at his proclamations and disgorg'd other rebellious speeches with impunity therefore he retird to Hampton Court as we read our Saviour withdrew himselfe once from the multitude thence to Windsor Castle whence accompanying her Majesty with his eldest daughter to the sea side for Holland and having commanded the Prince to attend him against his return at Greenwich the Prince had been surpriz'd and brought to London had not the King come a little before Thence he removed to Yorke where he kept his Court all the Sommer But to returne to London the very next day after their Majesties departure the Countrey about especially Buckinghamshire being incited by the Câ—…tie and Parliament came in great swarmes and joyning with the London mechanicks they ruffled up and down the streets and kept such a racket making the fearfull'st riot that ever I beleeve was heard of in Parliament time so those Members which formerly were fled into the Citie were brought to the House in a kind of triumph being garded by land and water in warlike manner by these Champions After this sundry troops of horse came from all the shires near adjoyning to â—…he Parliament and Buckingham men were â—…he first who while they express'd their â—…ve to Hamden their Knight forgot their â—…worn oath to their King and in stead of feathers they carried a printed Protestation in â—…heir hats as the Londoners had done a litâ—…le before upon the Pikes point Peregrin This kept a foul noise beyond Sea I reâ—…ember so that upon the Rialto in Venice â—…t was sung up and down that a Midsummer Moon though it was then midst of Winter did raign amongst the English and you must â—…hink that it hath made the Venetian to â—…hrink in his shoulders and to look but ill-favouredly upon us since wee 'l have none of his currans But Sir I heard much of that Protestation I pray what was the substance of it Patricius It was penn'd and enjoyn'd by the Parâ—…iament for every one to take and it consisted of many parts the first was to maintain the tru Potestant Religion against all Popish innovations which word Popish as som think was scrued in of purpose for a loop hole to let in any other innovation the second was to maintain the Prerogative anâ—… Honour of the King then the power and priviledge of Parliament and lastly the Propriety and Liberty of the subject for threâ—… parts of this Protestation the people up anâ—… down seem'd to have utterly forgotteâ—… them and continue so still as if their consciences had bin tied only to the third viz the priviledge of Parliament and never was ther a poor people so besotted never waâ—… reason and common sence so baffled in anâ—… part of the world And now will I go to attend His Majesty at York where as I told you before being loth to part with his Sword though he had half parted with his Scepter before by denying the Parliament an indefinite time to dispose of the Militia alleadging that as the Word so the thing was new He sends forth his Commissions of Array according to the old Law of England which declares iâ—… to be the undoubted Right and Royall Signorie of the King to arm or disarm any
in the intervall Then after other choice portions of Scripture and passages relating to our Redemption and endearing unto us the merits of it with a more particular Confession of our Faith we are dismissed with a Benediction So that this Liturgy may be call'd an Instrument of many strings whereon the sighing soul sends up varions notes unto heaven It is a posie made up of divers flowers to make it the more fragrant in the nostrills of God Now touching your Bishops I never knew yet any Protestant Church but could be content to have them had they meanes to maintaine the Dignitie which the Churches of France with others have not in regerd the Reformation beg an first among the people not at Court as here it did in Engl. For unlesse ther be som Supervisers of Gods house endowed with eminent authority to check the fond fancies and quench the false fatuous fires of every private spirit and unlesse it be such an authority that may draw unto it a holy kind of awe and obedience what can be expected but confusion and Atheisme You know what became of the Israelites when the wonted reverence to the Ark and the Ephod and the Priest began to languish amongst them For the braine of man is like a garden which unlesse it be fenced about with a wall or hedge is subject you know to be annoyed by all kinde of beasts which will be ready to runne into it so the braine unlesse it be restrain'd and bounded in holy things by rules of Canonicall authoritie a thousand wild opinions and extravagant fancies will hourely rush into it nor was there ever any field so subject to produce Cockle and Darnell as the human brain is rank and ready to bring forth tares of Schism and Heresie of a thousand sorts unlesse after the first culture the sickle of Authority be applyed to grub up all such noisom weeds Patricius Yet this most antient dignity of Bishops is traduced and vilified by every shallow-pated petty Clerk and not so much out of a tru zeal as out of envy that they are not the like And touching our Liturgy wherof you have bin pleas'd to give so exact a Character people are come to that height of impiety that in som places it hath bin drown'd in other places burnt in som places torn in pieces to serve for the basest uses nay it hath bin preached publickly in Pulpits That it is a piece forg'd in the devils shop and yet the impious foul mouth'd Babbler never was so much as questioned for it Nor did the Church only eccho with these blasphemies but the Presse was as pregnant to produce every day som Monster either against Ecclesiasticall or Secular Government I am asham'd to tell you how som bold Pamphleters in a discourse of a sheet or two wold presume to question to dispute of and determin the extent of Monarchik jurisdiction what sturdy doubts what sawcy Quaeries they put what odd frivolous distinctions they fâ—…am'd That the King though he was Gods Anointed yet he was mans appointed That he had the commanding not the disposing power That he was set to rule over not to over-rule the people That he was King by human choice not by divine Charter That he was not King by the Grace of God so much as by the suffrage of the people That he was a Creaturâ—… and production of the Parliament That he had no implicit trust nor peculiar property in any thing That populus est potior Rege That Grex lege lex est Rege potentior That the King was singulis major universis minor wheras a successive Monarch Uno minor est Iove Sometimes they wold bring instances from the States of Holland sometimes from the Republick of Venice and apply them so impertinently to absolute and independant Royalty But I find that the discourse and inferences of these grand Statists were bottom'd upon four false foundations viz. That the King of whom they speak must be either a Minor and Idiot an insufferable Tyrant or that the Kingdom they mean is Elective None of all which is appliable either to our most gracious and excellently qualified King or to his renowned Kingdom which hath bin always reputed an ancient successive Monarchy govern'd by one Suprem undeposeable and independent head having the Dignity the Royall State and power of an Imperiall Crown and being responsible to none â—…ut to God Almighty and his own 〈◊〉 â—…or his actions and unto whom a Body â—…olitick compacted of Prelates 〈◊〉 and all degrees of people is naturally subject but this is a theam of that transcendenâ—…y that it requires a serious and solid Tractat rather then such a slender Discourse as this is to handle But I pray excuse me Sir that I have stept aside thus from the road of my main narration I told you before how the clashing 'twixt the Commission of Array and the Militia put all things in disarray throughout the whole Kingdom The Parliament as they had taken the first Military gard so they began to arm first and was it not high time then for His Majesty to do some thing think you yet he essayed by all ways imaginable to prevent a war and to conquer by a passive fortitude by cunctation and longanimity How many overtures for an accommodation did he make How many Proclamations of pardon How many elaborat Declarations breathing nothing but clemency sweetness and truth did drop from his own imperious invincible pen which will remain upon Record to all ages as so many Monuments to his eternall glory Yet som ill spirit stept still in between his Grace and the abused Subject for by the peremptory Order of Parliament O monstrous thing the said Proclamations of Grace and other His Majesties Declarations were prohibited to be read fearing that the strength and truth of them wold have had a vertue to unblind or rather unbewitcht for Rebellion is as the sin of Witchcraft the poor besotted people What deep Protestations and holy Vowes did he reiterate that the main of his designs was to preserve the tru Protestant Religion the known Lawes of the Land and the just priviledges of Parliament How often did he dehort and woo the City of London his imperiall Chamber from such violent courses so that she may be justly upbraided with the same words as the Prince of peace upbraided Ierusalem withall London London How often wold I have gathered thee as a â—…en doth her chickens under her wings yet thou wouldst not How often did he descend to acknowledg the manner of demanding the one and five Members in his publick Remonstrances and if ther was an errour in the proceedings how oft did he desire his Great Councell to direct him in a course how to go on in the Empeachment which they never did but wold reserve the priviledge to themselves to be judge and party Peregrin Can your Parliament protect high Treason I am sure the character of an Ambassadour cannot which the late French Ambassadour who
bloud in open field one brother seeks to cut the others throat they have put division 'twixt master and servant 'twixt Land Lord and Tenant nay they have a long time put a sea of separation 'twixt King and Queen and they labour more and more to put division 'twixt the Head and the Members 'twixt His Majesty and his politicall Spouse his Kingdom And lastly they have plung'd one of the flourishingst Kingdoms of Europe in a war without end for though a Peace may be plaister'd over for the time I fear it will be but like a fire cover'd with ashes which will break out again as long as these fiery Schismaticks have any strength in this Island so that all the premisses considered if Turk or Tartar or all the infernal spirits and Cacodaemons of hel had broken in amongst us they could not have done poor England more mischief Sir I pray you excuse this homely imperfect relation I have a thousand things more to impart unto you when we may breathe freer air for here we are come to that slavery that one is in danger to have his very thoughts plundered Therfore if you please to accept of my company I will over with you by Gods help so soon as it may stand with your conveniency but you must not discover me to be an Englishman abroad for so I may be jeer'd at and kickt in the streets I will go under another name and am fix'd in this resolution never to breathe English aire again untill the King recovers his Crown and the People the right use of their Pericraniums THE SECOND PART OF A DISCOURSE ' TWIXT PATRICIUS AND PEREGRIN TOUCHING The DISTEMPERS OF THE TIMES LONDON Printed in the Year 1661. A DISCOURS or PARLY Continued betwixt Patricius and Peregrin Upon their landing in France touching the civil Wars of England and Ireland Peregrin GEntle Sir you are happily arrived on this shore we are now upon firm ground upon the fair Continent of France we are not circumscrib'd or coopt up within the narrow bounds of a rhumatick Island we have all Europe before us Truly I am not a little glad to have shaken hands with that tumbling Element the Sea And for England I never intend to see her again in the mind I am in unlesse it be in a Map nay In statu quo nunc while this Faction reigns had I left one eye behind me I should hardly returne thither to fetch it therefore if I be missing at any time never look for me there There is an old Proverb From a blacke German a white Italian a red Frenchman I may adde one member more and from a Round-headed Englishman The Lord deliver us I have often Crossed these Seas and I found my self alwaies pitifully sick I did ever and anon tell what Wood the Ship was made of but in this passage I did not feele the least motion or distemper in my humors for indeed I had no time to taink on sicknesse I was so wholly tsken up and transported with such a pleasing conceit to have left yonder miserable Island Peregrin Miserable Island indeed for I thinke there was never such a tyrannie exercised in any Christian Countrey under Heaven a tyrannie that extends not onely to the body but to the braine also not only to mens fortunes and estates but it reaches to their very soules and consciences by violented new coercive Oaths and Protestations compos'd by Lay-men inconsistent with the liberty of Christians Never was there a Nation carried away by such a strong spirit of delusion never was there a poor people so purblinded and Puppified if I may say so as I finde them to be so that I am at a stand with my selfe whether I shall pitie them more or laugh at them They not onely kisse the stone that hurts them but the hands of them that hurle it they are come to that passive stupidity that they adore their very persecutors who from polling fall now a shaving them and will flay them at last if they continue this popular reigne I cannot compare England as the case stands with her more properly then to a poor beast sicke of the staggers who cannot be cur'd without an incision The Astronomers I remember affirme that the Moone which predominates over all humid bodies hath a more powerfull influence o're your British Seas then any other so that according to the observation of some Nevigators they swell at a spring tide in some places above threescore cubits high I am of opinion that that inconstant humorous Planet hath also an extraordinany dominion over the braines of the Inhabitants for when they attempt any Innovation whereunto all Insulary people are more subject then other Citizens of the world which are fixed upon the Continent they swell higher their fancies worke stronglier and so commit stranger extravagancies then any other witnesse these monstrous barbarismes and violencies which have bin and are daily offered to Religion and justâ—…ce the two grand supporters of all States yea to humane Reason it self since the beginning of these tumults And now noble Sir give me leave to render you my humble thanks for that true and solid information you pleased to give me in London of these commotions During my short sojourne there I lighted on divers odde Pamphlets upon the Seamstresses stalls whom I wondred to see selling Paper sheets in lieu of Holland on the one side I found the most impudent untruths vouch'd by publike authority the basest scurrilities and poorest jingles of wit that ever I read in my life on the other side I met with many pieces that had good stuff in them but gave mee not being a stranger a full satisfaction they look'd no further then the beginning of this Parliament and the particular emergences thereof but you have by your methodicall relation so perfectly instructed and rectified my understanding by bringing me to the very source of these distempers and led me all along the side of the current by so streight a line that I believe whosoever will venture upon the most intricate task of penning the story of these vertiginous times will finde himself not a little beholden to that Relation which indeed may be term'd a short Chronicle rather then a Relation Wee are come now under another clime and here we may mingle words and vent our conceptions more securely it being as matters stand in your Countrey more safe to speake under the Lilly then the Rose wee may here take in and put out freer ayre I meane we may discourse with more liberty for words are nought els but aire articulated and coagulated as it were into letters and syllables Patricius Sir I deserve not these high expressions of your favourable censure touching that poor piece but this I will be bold to say That whosoever doth read it impartially will discover in the Author the Genius of an honest Patriot and a Gentleman And now methinks I look on you unfortunate Island as if one look upon a
many petty Republikes amongst them so that they begin to smell rank of a Hans-town Poor simple Annimals how they suffer their pockets to be pick'd their purses to be cut how they part with their vitall spirits every week how desperately they post on to poverty and their own ruine suffering themselves in lieu of Scarlet-gownes to be governed by a rude company of Red-coats who 'twixt plundering assessements and visits will quickly make an end of them I fear ther is som formidable judgment of regall revenge hangs over that City for the anger of a King is like the roaring of a Lyon and I never read yet of any City that contested with her Soverain but she smarted soundly for it at last The present case of London bears a great deal of proportion with that of Monpellier here in France in Charls the seventh's time for when that town had refused the publishing of many of the Kings Edicts and Declarations murthered som of his Ministers and Servants abused the Church and committed other high acts of insolency the Duke of Berry was sent to reduce the Town to obedience the Duke pressed them with so hard a siege that at last the best Citizens came forth in procession bare-headed bare-footed with white wands in their hands and halters about their necks to deliver the keys of all the gates to the Duke but this wold not serve the turn for two hundred of them were condemned to the gallies two hundred of them were hang'd and two hundred beheaded the King saying he offered those as victimes for the lives of his servants whom they had murthered with the false sword of Justice But Sir I much marvell how your Church-government which from all times hath been cryed up to be so exact is so suddenly tumbled into this confusion how your Prelates are fallen under so darke a cloud considering that divers of them were renowned through all the Reform'd Churches in Christendome for their rare learning and pietie At the Synod at Dort you know some of them assisted and no exception at all taken at their degree and dignity but took precedence accordingly how came it to passe that they are now fallen under this Eclypse as so be so persecuted to be push'd out of the House of Peers and hurried into prison I pray you be pleased to tell me Patricius Sir I remember to have read in the Irish Story That when the Earl of Kildare in Henry the eighth's time was brought before the Lord Deputy for burning Cassiles Church he answered My Lord I would never have burnt the Church unlesse I had thought the Biship had been in it for 't was not the Church but the Bishop I aim'd at One may say so of the Anglican Church at this present that these fiery Zelots these vaporing Sciolists of the times are so furiously enraged against this holy Primative order some out of Envie some out of Malice some out of Ignorance that one may say our Church had not been thus set on fire unlesse the Bishops had been in 't I grant there was never yet any Profession made up of men but there were some bad we are not Angels upon earth there was a Iudas amongst the first dozen of Christians though Apostles and they by our Saviours owne election Amongst our Prelates peradventure for I know of no accusation fram'd against them yet some might be faulty and wanting moderation being not contented to walk upon the battlements of the Church but they must put themselves â—…pon stilts but if a golden chaine hath happily a copper link two or three will you therefore breake and throw away the whole chaine If a few Shoâ—…makers I confesse the comparison is too homely but I had it of a Scots man sell Calfes skin for Neats leather must the Gentle-Craft be utterly extinguish d must we go bare foot therefore Let the persons suffer in the Name of God and not the holy Order of Episcopacy But good Lord how pittifully were those poor Prelats handled what a Tartarian kind of tyranny it was to drag twice into prison twelve grave reverend Bishops causâ adhuc inaudita and afterwards not to be able to frame as much as an accusation of misdemeanor against them much lesse of Treason whereof they were first impeach'd with such high clamors But I conceive it was of purpose to set them out of the way that the new Faction might passe things better amongst the Peers And it seemes they brought their work about for whilest they were thus reclused and absent they may be sayed to be thrust out of doores and ejected out of their owne proper ancient inheritance And the Tower wherein they were cast might be called Limbo patrum all the while Peregrin But would not all this with those unparallell'd Bills of Grace you mentioned in your first Discourse which had formerly passed suffice to beget a good understanding and make them confide in their King Patricius No but the passing of these Bills of grace were term'd Acts of Duty in his Majesty they went so far in their demands that 't was not sufficient for him to give up his Tower 〈◊〉 Fleet-Royall his Magazines his Ports Castlâ—… and Servants but he must deliver up his sworâ—… into their hands all the Souldiery Military forces of the Land nay he must give up his very Understanding unto them he must resigne his own Reason and with an implicit Faith or blind Obedience he must believe all they did was to make him glorious and if at any time he admonished them oâ—… prescribed wayes for them to proceed and expedit matters or if he advised them in any thing they took it in a kind of indignation and 't was presently cryed up to be Breach of Priviledge Peregrin Breach of Priviledge forsooth There is no way in my conceit to make a King more inglorious both at home and abroad then to disarme him and to take from him the command and disposing of the Militia throughout his Kingdome is directly to disarm him wrest the Sword out of his hand and how then can he be termed A Defendor how can he defend either himself or others 't is the onely way to expose him to scorn and derision truly as I conceive that demand of the Militia was a thing not only unfit for them to ask but for him to grant But Sir what shold be the reson which mov'd them to make that insolent proposall Patricius They cry'd out that the Kingdom was upon point of being ruin'd that it was in the very jawes of destruction that there were forreign and in-land plots against it all which are prov'd long since to be nothing else but meere Chymera's yet people for the most part continue still so grossely besotted that they cannot perceive to this day that these forg'd feares these Utopian plots those publick Idea's were fram'd of purpose that they might take all the martiall power into their hands that so they might without controulment cast the
Court at Bartholmew-Fair ther being all the essentiall parts of a true Parliament wanting in this as fairnesse of elections freedome of speech fulnesse of Members nor have they any head at all besides they have broken all the fundamental rules and Priviledges of Parliament and dishonoured that high Court more then any thing else They have ravish'd Magna Charta which they are sworn to maintain taken away our birth-right therby and transgressed all the laws of heaven and earth Lastly they have most perjuriously betrayed the trust the King reposed in them and no lesse the trust their Country reposed in them so that if reason and law were now in date by the breach of their Priviledges and by betraying the said double trust that is put in them they have dissolved themselves ipso facto I cannot tell how many thousand times notwithstanding that monstrous grant of the Kings that fatall act of continuance And truly my Lord I am not to this day satisfied of the legality though I am satisfied of the forciblenesse of that Act whether it was in his Majesties power to passe it or no for the law ever presupposeth these clauses in all concessions of Grace in all Patents Charters and Grants whatsoever the King passeth Salvo jure regio salvo jure coronae To conclude as I presume to give your Lordship these humble cautions and advice in particular so I offer it to all other of your rank office order and Relations who have souls to save and who by solemn indispensable Oaths have ingaged themseves to be tru and loyall to the Person of King Charls Touching his political capacity it is a fancy which hath bin exploded in all other Parliaments except in that mad infamous Parliament wher it was first hatched That which bears upon Record the name of Insanum Parliamentum to all posterity but many Acts have passed since that it shold be high and horrible Treason to separat or distinguish the Person of the King from His Power I believe as I said before this distinction will not serve their turn at the dreadful Bar of divine justice in the other world indeed that Rule of the Pagans makes for them Si Iusjurandum violandum est Tyrannis causâ violandum est If an Oath be any way violable 't is to get a Kingdom We find by woful experience that according to this maxime they have made themselves all Kings by violation of so many Oaths They have monopoliz'd the whole power and wealth of the Kingdom in their own hands they cut shuffle deal and turn up what trump they please being Judges and parties in every thing My Lord he who presents these humble advertisments to your Lordship is one who is inclin'd to the Parliament of Engl. in as high a degree of affection as possibly a free-born Subject can be One besides who wisheth your Lordships good with the preservation of your safety and honour more really then he whom you intrust with your secretest affaires or the White Iew of the Upper House who hath infused such pernicious principles into you moreover one who hath some drops of bloud running in his veins which may claim kindred with your Lordship and lastly he is one who would kiss your feet in lieu of your hands if your Lordship wold be so sensible of the most desperat case of your poor Country as to employ the interests the opinion and power you have to restore the King your Master by English waies rather then a hungry forrein people who are like to bring nothing but destruction in the van confusion in the rear and rapine in the middle shold have the honour of so glorious a work So humbly hoping your Lordship will not take with the left hand what I offer with the right I rest From the Prison of the Fleet 3. Septembris 1644. Your Lordships truly devoted Servant I. H. HIS Late MAJESTIES Royal DECLARATION OR MANIFESTO TO ALL FORREIN PRINCES AND STATES Touching his constancy in the Protestant Religion Being traduced abroad by some Malicious and lying Agents That He was wavering therin and upon the high road of returning to Rome Printed in the Year 1661. TO THE Unbiass'd REDER IT may be said that mischief in one particular hath somthing of Vertue in it which is That the Contrivers and Instruments thereof are still stirring and watchfull They are commonly more pragmaticall and fuller of Devices then those sober-minded men who while they go on still in the plaine road of Reason having the King and knowne Lawes to justifie and protect them hold themselfs secure enough and so think no hurt Iudas eyes were open to betray his Master while the rest of his fellow-servants were quietly asleep The Members at Westminster were men of the first gang for their Mischievous braines were alwayes at work how to compasse their ends And one of their prime policies in order thereunto was to cast asspersions on their King thereby to alienat the affections and fidelity of his peeple from him â—…notwithstanding that besides their pubâ—…ick Declarations they made new Oaths and protestations whereby they swore to make Him the best belov'd King that ever was Nor did this Diabolicall malice terminat only within the bounds of his own Dominions but it extended to infect other Princes and States of the Reformed Churches abroad to make Him suspected in his Religion that he was branling in his belief and upon the high way to Rome To which purpose they sent missives and clandestine Emissaries to divers places beyond the Seas whereof forren Authors make mention in their writings At that time when this was in the height of action the passage from London to Oxford where the King kept then his Court was so narrowly blockd up that a fly could scarce passe some Ladies of honor being search'd in an unseemly and barbarous manner whereupon the penner of the following Declaration finding his Royal master to be so grosly traduced made his Duty to go beyond all presumptions by causing the sayd Declaration to be printed and publish'd in Latin French and English whereof great numbers were sent beyond the seas to France Holland Germany Suisserland Denmark Swethland and to the English plantations abroad to vindicat his Majesty in this point which produc'd very happy and advantagious effects for Salmtisius and other forrin writers of great esteem speake of it in their printed works The Declaration was as followeth CAROLUS Singulari Omnipotentis Dei providentia Angliae Scotiae Franciae Hiberniae Rex Fidei Defensor c. Universis et singulis qui praesens hoc scriptum ceu protestationem inspexerint potissimum Reformatae Religionis cultoribus cujuscunque sint gentis gradus aut conditionis salutem c. CUM ad aures nostras non ita pridem fama pervenerit sinistros quosdam rumores literasque politica vel perniciosa potiùs quorundam industriâ sparsas esse nonnullis protestantium ecclesiis in exteris partibus emissas nobis
powerful as precedents The said example of Scotland wrought wonderfully upon the imagination of the Irish and filled them as I touched before with thoughts of emulation that They deserved altogether to have as good usage as the Scot their Country being far more beneficial and consequenly more importing the English Nation But these were but confused imperfect notions which began to receive more vigour and form after the death of the Earl of Strafford who kept them under so exact an obedience though som censure him to have screwed up the strings of the Harp too high insomuch that the taking off of the Earl of Straffords head may be said to be the second incitement to the heads of that insurrection to stir Adde hereunto that the Irish understanding with what acrimony the Roman Catholicks in England were proceeded against since the sitting of our Parliament and what further designes were afoot against them and not onely against them but for ranversing the Protestant Religion it self as it is now practised which som shallow-braind 〈◊〉 do throw into the same scales with Pâ—…pery They thought it was high time for them to forecast what shold become of Them and how they shold â—…e 〈◊〉 in point of conscience when a new Deputy of the Parliaments election approbation at least shold come over Therfore they fell to consult of som means of timely prevention And this was another moâ—…ive and it was a shâ—…ewd one which pâ—…sht on the Irish to take up Arms. Lastly that Army of 8000. men which the Earl of Strafford had raised to be transported to England for suppressing the Scot being by the advice of our Parliament here disbanded the Country was annoyed by som 〈◊〉 those stragling Souldiers as not one in twenty of the Irish will from the sword to the spade or from the Pike to the plough again Therfore the two Marquesses that were Ambassadors here then for Spaine having propounded to have som numbers of those disbanded forces for the service of their Master His Majesty by the mature advice of his privy Counsell to occur the mischiefs that might arise to his Kingdom of Ireland by those loose casheer'd Souldiers yielded to the Ambassadors motion who sent notice hereof to Spain accordingly and so provided shipping for their transport and impressed money to advance the business but as they were in the heat of that 〈◊〉 His Majesty being then in Scotland 〈◊〉 wâ—…s a sudden stop made of those promised troops who had depended long upon the Spaniards service as the Spaniard 〈◊〉 doâ—…e on theirs And this was the last though noâ—… the least fatal cause of that horrid insurrection All which particulars well considered it had bin no hard matter to have bin a Prophet and standing upon the top of Holy-Head to have foreseen those black clouds engendering in the Irish aire which broâ—…e out afterwards into such fearful tempests of bloud Out of these premises it is easie for any common understanding not transported with passion and private interest to draw this conclusion That They who complyed with the Scot in his insurrection They who dismissed the Irish Commissioners with such a short unpolitick answer They who took off the Earl of Straffords head and delayed afterwards the dispatching of the Earl of Leicester They who hindered those disbanded troops in Ireland to go for Spain may be justly said to have bin the tru causes of the late insurrection of the Irish and consequently it is easie to know upon the account of whose souls must be laid the bloud of those hundred and odde thousands poor Christians who perished in that war so that had it bin possible to have brought over their bodies unputrified to England and to have cast them at the doores and in the presence of som men I believe they wold have gushed out afresh into bloud for discovery of the tru murtherers The grounds of this insurrection being thus discovered let us examine what means His Majesty used for the suppression of it He made his addresses presently to his great Counsel the English Parliament then assembled which Queen Elizabeth and her progenitors did seldom use to do but only to their Privy Counsel in such cases who had the discussing and transacting of all foreign affaires for in mannaging matters of State specially those of war which must be carryed with all the secrecy that may be Trop grand nombre est encombre as the Frenchman saith too great a number of Counsellours may be an incumber and expose their results and resolutions to discovery and other disadvantages wheras in military proceedings the work shold be afoot before the Counsels be blazed abroad Well His Majesty transmitted this business to the Parliament of England who totally undertaking it and wedding as it were the quarlel as I remember they did that of the Palatinate a little before by solemn vote the like was done by the Parliament of Scotland also by a publick joynt Declaration which in regard ther came nothing of it tended little to the honour of either Nation abroad His Majesty gave his royal assent to any Propositions or acts for raising of men money and arms to perform the work But hereby no man is so simple as to think His Majesty shold absolutely give over his own personal care and protection of that his Kingdom it being a Rule That a King can no more desert the protection of his own people then they their subjection to him In all his Declarations ther was nothing that he endear'd and inculcated more often and with greater aggravation and earnestness unto them then the care of his poor Subjects their fellow-Protestants in Ireland Nay he resented their condition so far and took the business so to heart that he offered to passe over in person for their relief And who can deny but this was a magnanimous and King-like resolution Which the Scots by publick act of Counsel did highly approve of and declared it to be an argument of care and courage in his Majesty And questionless it had done infinite good in the opinion of them that have felt the pulse of the Irish people who are daily ore-heard to groan how they have bin any time these 400. years under the English Crown and yet never saw but two of their Kings all the while upon Irish ground though ther be but a salt 〈◊〉 of a few hours sail to pass over And much more welcom shold His Majesty now regnant be amongst them who by general tradition They confess and hold to come on the paternal side from 〈◊〉 by legal and lineal descent who was an Irish Prince and after King of Scotland wheras the title of all our former Kings and Queens was stumbled at alwaies by the vulgar His Majesty finding that this royall proffer of engaging his own person was rejected with a kind of scorn coucht in smooth language though the main businesse concerned himself nearest and indeed solely himself that Kingdom being his own hereditary Right
be writ but upon his seal'd paper with sundry other exactions yet his subjects are still as obedient and awful unto him they are as conformable and quiet as if he were the most vertuous and victorious Prince that ever was and this they do principally for their own advantage for if ther were another Governour set up it would inevitably hurle the whole Countrey into combustion and tumults besides they are taught that as in choice of Wives so the Rule holds in Governments Seldome comes a better Touching the Originals of Government and ruling power questionless the first among Mankind was that Naturall power of the Father over his Children and that Despotical domestique surintendence of a Master of a house over his Family But the World multiplying to such a Masse of peeple they found that a confused equality and a loose unbridled way of living like â—…rute animals to be so inconvenient that they chose one person to protect and govern not so much out of love to the â—…erson as for their own conveniency and advantage that they might live more regularly and be secur'd from rapine and opâ—…ression As also that justice might be administted and every one enjoy his own without fear and danger such Governâ—…urs had a power invested accordingly in â—…hem also as to appoint subservient able Miâ—…isters under them to help to bear the â—…urden Concerning the kinds of Government â—…ll Polititians agree that Monarchall is the best and noblest sort of sway having the neerest analogy with that of Heaven viz. A supreme power in one single person God Almighty is the God of Unity as well as of Entity and all things that have an Entity do naturally propend to Unity Unity is as necessary for a well being as Entity is for a Being for nothing conduceth more to order tranquillity and quietude nor is any strength so operative as the united The fist is stronger then the hand though it be nothing but the hand viz. The fingers united by contraction The Republick of Venice which is accounted the most Eagle-ey'd and lastingst State in the World foâ—… she hath continued a pure Virgin and shin'd within her watry Orb nere upon thirteen Ages is the fittest to give the World advice herein for if ever any have brought policy to be a Science which consists of certitudes this State is Shee who is grown aâ—… dexterous in ruling men as in rowing of 〈◊〉 Gally But whereas the vulgar opinion is that the common peeple there have a sharâ—… in the Government 't is nothing so for he Great Counsel which is the maine hing whereon the Republick turns is composeâ—… onely of Gentlemen who are capable bâ—… their birth to sit there having passed twenty five years of age To which purpose they must bring a publick Testimonial that they are descended of a Patrician or noble Family But to return to the main matter this sage Republick who may prescribe rules of Policy to all Mankind having tryed at first to Govern by Consuls and Tribunes for som years she found it at last a great inconvenience or deformity rather to have two heads upon one body Therefore She did set up one Soveraign Prince and in the Records of Venice the resons are yet extant which induc'd her thereunto whereof one of the remarkablest was this We have observed that in this vast University of the World all Bodies according to their several Natures have multiplicity of Motions yet they receive vertue and vigour but from one which is the Sun All causes derive their Originals from one supreme cause we see that in one Creture there are many differing Members and Faculties which have various functions yet they are all guided by one soul c. The Island of Great Britain hath bin alwaies a Royal Isle from her first creation and Infancy She may be said to have worn a Crown in her Cradle and though She had so many revolutions and changes of Masters yet She continued still Royal nor is there any species of Government that suits better either with the quality of the Countrey and Genius of the Inhabitants or relates more directly to all the ancient Lawes Constitutions and Customs of the Land then Monarchal which any one that is conversant in the Old Records can justifie Britannia ab initio mundi semper Regia regimen illius simile illi caelorum Concerning the many sorts of Trustâ—… which were put in the Supreme Governor of this Land for ther must be an implicite and unavoidable necessary Trust reposed in every Soveraign Magistrate the power of the Sword was the chiefest and it was agreeable to Holy Scripture he shold have it where we know 't is said The King beareth not the Sword in vain The Lawes of England did ever allow it to be the inalienable prerogative of the Soveraign Prince nor was it ever known humbly under favour that any other power whatsoever managing conjunctly or singly did ever pretend to the power of the publick Sword or have the Militia invested in them but this ever remained intire and untransferrible in the person of the Ruler in chief whose chiefest instrument to govern by is the Sword without which Crownes Scepters Globes and Maces are but bables It is that Instrument which causeth tru obedience makes him a Dread Soveraign and to be feared at home and abroad Now 't is a Maxime in policy that ther can be no tru obedience without Fear The Crown and Scepter draw only a loose kind of voluntary love and opinion from the people but 't is the sword that draws Reverence and awe which two are the chiefest ingredients of Allegeance it being a principle that the best Government is made of Fear and Love viz. when by Fear Love is drawn as threed through the eye of a Needle The surest Obedience and Loyalty is caused thus for Fear being the wakefullest of our passions works more powerfully in us and predominates over all the rest primus in orbe Deus fecit Timor To raise up a Soveraign Magistrate without giving him the power of the sword is to set one up to rule a metall'd Horse without a Bridle A chief Ruler without a Sword may be said to be like that Logg of Wood which Iupiter threw down among the Froggs to be their King as it is in the Fable Moreover One of the chiefest glories of a Nation is to have their Supreme Governor to be esteem'd and redouted abroad as well as at Home And what Forren Nation will do either of these to the King of England if he be Armless and without a Sword who will give any respect oâ—… precedence to his Ambassadors and Ministers of State The Sword also is the prime Instrument of publick protection therefore that King who hath not the power of the Sword must have another Title given Him the Protector of his peeple Now in a Successive hereditary Kingdom as England is known and acknowledged to be by all Parties now in opposition There are
such as ev'ry one carrieth by his side or som imaginary thing or chymera of a sword No 't is the polemicall publique sword of the whole Kingdom 't is an aggregative compound sword and 't is moulded of bell-metall for 't is made up of all the ammunition and armes small and great of all the military strengths both by Land and Sea of all the Forts Castles and tenable places within and round about the whole I le The Kings of Engl. have had this sword by vertue of their royall signory from all times the Laws have girded it to their sides they have employed it for repeling all foren force for revenging all forren wrongs or affronts for quelling all intestine tumults and for protecting the weal of the whole body politicke at home The peeple were never capable of this sword the fundamentall constitutions of this Kingdom deny it them 't is all one to put the sword in a mad mans hand as in the peeples or for them to have a disposing power in whose hands it shall be Such was the case once of the French sword in that notorious insurrection call'd to this day La Iaqueris de Beauvoisin when the Pesants and Mechanicks had a design to wrest it out of the Kings hand and to depresse all the Peers and Gentry of the Kingdom and the businesse had gone so far that the peasans might have prevail'd had not the Prelats stuck close to the Nobility But afterwards poor hare brain'd things they desire the King upon bended knees to take it againe Such popular puffs have blowen often in Poland Naples and other places where while they sought and fought for liberty by retrenching the regall power they fool'd themselfs into a slavery unawares and found the rule right that excesse of freedom turns to thraldom and ushers in all confusions If one shold go back to the nonage of the world when Governers and Rulers began first one will find the peeple desir'd to live under Kings for their own advantage that they might be restrain'd from wild exorbitant liberty and kept in unity Now unity is as requisit for the wel-being of all naturall things as entity is for their being and 't is a receiv'd maxime in policy that nothing preserves Unity more exactly then Royal Government besides 't is known to be the noblest sort of sway In so much that by the Law of Nations if Subjects of equal degrees and under differing Princes shold meet the Subjects of a King shold take precedency of those under any Republique But to take up the Sword again I say that the Sword of public Power and Authority is fit only to hang at the Kings side and so indeed shold the Great Seal hang only at his girdle because 't is the Key of the Kingdom which makes me think of what I read of Charlemain how he had the imperial Seal emboss'd alwaies upon the pommell of his Sword and his reason was that he was ready to maintain whatsoever he signed and sealed The Civilians who are not in all points so great friends to Monarchy as the Common Law of England is say there are six Iura Regalia six Regal Rights viz. 1. Potestas Iudicatoria 2. Potestas vitae necis 3. Armamenta 4. Bona adespota 5. Census 6. Monetarum valor to wit Power of Iudicature Power of Life and Death all kind of arming masterless goods Sâ—…issements and the value of money Among these Regalia's we find that Arming which in effect is nought else but the Kings Sword is among the chiefest and 't is as proper and peculiar to his person as either Crown or Scepter By these two he drawes a loose voluntary love and opinion only from his Subjects but by the Sword he draws reverence and awe which are the chiefest ingredients of allegiance it being a maxime That the best mixture of Government is made of fear and love With this Sword he conferrs honor he dubbs Knights he creates Magistrates the Lord Deputy of Ireland the Lord Mayor of London with all other Corporations have their Swords from him and when he entereth any place corporate we know the first thing that is presented him is the Sword With this Sword he shields and preserves all his people that every one may sit quietly under his own Vine sleep securely in his own House and enjoy sweetly the fruits of his labours Nor doth the point of this Sword reach only to every corner of his own dominions but it extends beyond the seas to gard his Subjects from oppression and denial of justice as well as to vindicate the publick wrongs make good the interests of his Crown and to assist his confederates This is the Sword that Edward the third tied the Flower deluces unto which stick still unto it when having sent to France to demand that Crown by maternal right the Counsell ther sent him word that the Crown of France was not tied to a distaff to which scoffing answer he replied that then he wold tie it to his sword and he was as good as his word Nor is this publick sword concredited or intrusted by the peeple in a fiduciary conditionall way to the King but it is properly and peculiarly belonging unto him as an inseparable concomitant perpetual Usher and attendant to his Crown The King we know useth to maintain all garrisons upon his own charge not the peeples he fortifies upon his own charge not the peeples And though I will not averr that the King may impresse any of his Subjects unlesse it be upon an actuall vasion by Sea or a sudden irruption into his Kingdom by Land as the Scots have often done yet at any time the King may raise Volunteers and those who have received his money the Law makes it felony if they forsake his service Thus we see there 's nothing that conduceth more to the glory and indeed the very essence of a King then the Sword which is the Armes and Military strength of his Kingdom wherfore under favour ther cannot be a greater point of dishonour to a King then to be disarmed then to have his Sword taken from him or dispos'd of and intrusted to any but those whom he shall appoint for as à minori ad majus the Argument often holds if a private Gentleman chance to be disarm'd upon a quarrell 't is held the utmost of disgraces much greater and more public is the dishonor that falls upon a King if after som traverses of difference 'twixt him and his Subjects they shold offer to disarm him or demand his Sword of him when the Eagle parted with his talons and the Lion with his teeth and ongles the Apolog tells us how contemptible afterwards the one grew to be among Birds the other among Birds the other among Beasts For a King to part with the Sword politic is to render himself such a ridiculous King as that logg of wood was which Iupiter let down among the froggs for their King at the importunity of
their croaking 't is to make him a King of clouts or as the Spaniard hath it Rey de Havas a Bean King such as we use to choose in sport at Twelfnight But my hopes are that the two present Houses of Parliament for now they may be call'd so because they begin to parley with their King will be more tender of the honour of their Soveraign Liege Lord which together with all his Rights and Dignities by severall solemn Oaths aud by their own binding instruments of Protestation and Covenant not yet revok'd they are sworne to maintaine and that they will demand nothing of him which may favour of Aspertè or force but what may hold water hereafter But now touching the Militia or Sword of the Kingdom I think under favour the King cannot transfer it to any other for that were to desert the protection of his people which is point blank against his Coronation Oath and his Office What forren Prince or State will send either Ambassador Resident or Agent to him when they understand his Sword is taken from him What reformed forein Church will acknowledg Him Defendor of the Faith when they hear of this Nay they who wish England no good will will go near to paint him out as not long since another King was with a fair velvet Scabbard a specious golden hilt and chape but the blade within was of wood I hope that they who sway now will make better use of their successes Many of them know 't is as difficult a thing to use a victory well as to get one ther is as much prudence requir'd in the one as prowesse in the other they will be wiser sure then turn it to the dishonor of their King it being a certain rule that the glory of a Nation all the world over depends upon the glory of their King and if he be any way obscur'd the whole Kingdom is under an eclipse I have observed that among other characters of gallantry which forein Writers appropriat to the English Nation one is that they use to be most zealous to preserve the Honor of their King I trust that they who are now up will return to the steps of their Progenitors both in this particular and divers other that their successes may serve to sweeten and moderat things and suppress the popular Sword which still rages And it had bin heartily wished that a suspension of Arms had preceded this Treaty which useth to be the ordinary fore-runner and a necessary antecedent to all Treaties for while acts of hostility continue som ill-favour'd newes may intervene which may imbitter and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor can it be expected that the proceedings will go on with that candor and confidence while the old rancor is still in action 't is impossible a sore shold heal till the inflamation be taken away To cast water into a wound instead of oyle is not the way to cure it or to cast oyle upon a fire instead of water is not the way to quench it poor England hath had a consuming fire within her bowels many years she is also mortally wounded in all her members that she is still in a high Fever which hath made her rave and speak idle a long time and 't is like to turn to a Hectic if not timely prevented I pray God she may have no occasion to make use of the same complaint as Alexander the Great made when he was expiring his last Perii turba Medicorum too many Physitians have undon me To conclude in a word ther is but one only way under favor to put a period to all these fearful confusions it is to put the great Master-wheel in order and in its due place again and then all the inferior wheels will move regularly let the King be restor'd and ev'ry one will come to his own all interests will be satisfied all things quickly rectified till this be done 't is as absurd to attempt the setling of peace as if one shold go about to set a Watch by the gnomen of an horizontall Diall when the Sun is in a cloud I. H. AN ITALIAN PROSPECTIVE Through which GREAT BRITAIN Without any MULTIPLYING ART May cleerly See Her present DANGER And foresee Her future DESTRUCTION If not timely prevented Perditio tua ex Te Anglia Paraenesis Angliae O England specially thou besotted City of London if Thou be'st not quite past cure or grown careless and desperat of thy self if the least spark of Grace or ray of Reson be yet remaining in Thee be warn'd be warn'd by this stranger who having felt thy pulse and cast thy water very exactly discovers in Thee symptoms of inevitable Ruine if thou holdst on this cours Divers of thy own children oftentimes admonish'd Thee with tears in their eyes and terror in their hearts to recollect thy self and return to thy old road of obedience to thy Soverain Prince But They have bin little regarded Let a Foreiners advice then take place and make som impressions in Thee to prevent thy utter destruction From the prison of the Fleet 2. Aug. 1647. I. H. AN ACCOUNT OF THE Deplorable and Desperat condition THAT ENGLAND stands in Sent from LONDON Anno 1647. To the LORD FRANCISCO BARBERINI Cardinal of the most holy Apostolick See and Protector of the English Nation at his Palaces in Rome MY last to your Eminence was but short in regard I had been but a short time in this Countrey I have now made a longer sojourn here and taken a leisurely information of all matters therefore I shall give your Eminence an account proportionably For by conversation with the most indifferent and intelligenc'd men and by communication with the Ambassadors here resident I have taken some paines to pump out the truth of things and penetrat the Interest of all parties And truly I find that That angry star which hath lowr'd so long upon Europe in generall hath been as predominant and cast as direfull aspects upon this poor Iland as it hath done upon any other part Truly my Lord in all probability this peeple have pass'd the Meridian of their happinesse and begin to decline extreamly as well in Repute abroad as also in the common notions of Religion and indeed in the ordinary faculty of Reason I think verily the Ill Spirit never reign'd so much in any corner of the earth by those inhumane aud horrid things that I have observ'd among them Nor is it a petty Spirit but one of the greatest Cacodâ—…mons that thus drives them on and makes them so active in the pursuance of their own perdition To deduce matters from their Originall Your Eminency may please to understand that this King at his accesse to the Crown had deep debts to pay both of His Fathers and his own he was left ingaged in a fresh warre with Spain and had another presently after which France and both at one time but he came off well enough of those Afterwards never any Countrey flourished in that envied
as Prince For the Parlement-men afterwards made themselfs Land-Lords of the whole Kingdom it hath bin usual for them to thrust any out of his freehold to take his bed from under him and his shirt from off his very back The King being kept thus out of one of his Townes might suspect that he might be driven out of another therfore 't was time for him to look to the preservation of his Person and the Country came in voluntarily unto him by thousands to that purpose but he made choice of a few only to be his gard as the Parlementeers had done a good while before for themselfs But now they went otherwise to work for they fell a levying listing and arming men by whole Regiments and Brigades till they had a very considerable Army afoot before the King had one Musqueteer or Trooper on his side yet these men are so notoriously impudent as to make the King the first Aggressor of the war and to lay upon Him all the bloud that was split to this day wherein the Devil himself cannot be more shamelesse The Parliamenteers having an army of foot and horse thus in perfect Equipage 't was high time for the King to look to himself therefore he was forced to display his royal Standard and draw his sword quite out Thus a cruel and most cruentous civil war began which lasted near upon four years without intermission wherein there happen'd more batta les sieges and skirmishes then passed in the Nether-lands in fourscore years and herein the Englishmen may be said to get som credit abroad in the world that they have the same bloud running in their veines though not the same braines in their sculls which their Ancestors had who were observed to be the activest people in the field impatient of delay and most desirous of battaile then any Nation But it was one of the greatest miracles that ever happen'd in this Land how the King was able to subsist so long against the Parlamenteers considering the multiplicity of infinite advantages they had of him by water and land for they had the Scot the Sea and the City on their side touching the first he rushed in as an Auxiliary with above 20000. Horse and Foot compleatly furnish d both with small and great ammunition and Arms well cloth'd and money'd For the second they had all the Kings ships well appointed which are held to be the greatest security of the Island both for defence and offence for every one of them is accounted one of the moving Castles of the Kingdom besides they had all the other standing stone-Castles Forts and tenable places to boot Concerning the last viz. the City therein they had all the wealth bravery and prime ammunition of England this being the only Magazin of men and money Now if the K. had had but one of these on his side he had in all probability crush'd them to nothing yet did he bear up strangely against them a long time and might have done longer had he kept the campane and not spent the spirits of his men before Townes had he not made a disadvantagious election of som Commanders in chief and lastly had he not had close Traitors within dores as well as open Rebels without for his very Cabinet Councel and Bed-Chamber were not free of such vermin and herein the Parlementeers spent unknown sums and were very prodigal of the Kingdoms money The King after many traverses of war being reduced to a great strait by crosse successes and Counsels rather then to fall into the hands of the Parlementeers withdrew himself in a Serving-mans disguise to the Scots army as his last randevous and this plot was manag'd by the French Agent then residing here A man wold think that that Nation wold have deem'd it an eternal honour unto them to have their own King and Countrey-man throw himself thus into their armes and to repose such a singular trust in them upon such an Extremity but they corresponded not so well with him as he expected for though at first when the Parlamenteers sollicited their dear Brethren for a delivery of the Kings person unto them their note was then if any forein petty Prince had so put himself upon them they could not with honour deliver him much less their own native King yet they made a sacrifice of him at last for 800000. Crownes wherupon Bellieure the French Ambassador being convoyed by a Troop of horse from the King towards London to such a stand in lieu of larges to the souldiers he drew out an half Crown piece and ask'd them how many pence that was they answered 30. He replyed for so much did Iudas betray his Master and so he departed And now that in the cours of this Historical Narration I have touch'd upon France your Eminence may please to understand that nothing almost could tend more to the advantage of that K. then these commotions in England considering that he was embark'd in an actuall war with the House of Austria and that this Iland did do Spain some good offices among other by transport of his treasure to Dunkerk in English bottomes whereunto this King gave way and sometimes in his own Galeons which sav'd the Spaniard neer upon 20. in the hundred then if he had sent it by way of Genoa so that som think though France made semblance to resent the sad condition of her Neighbour and thereupon sent the Prince of Harcour and the foresaid Monsieur Bellieure to compose matters yet she never really intended it as being against her present interest and engagements yet the world thinks it much that she shold publiquely receive an Agent from these Parlamenteeres and that the French Nobility who were us'd to be the gallantest men in the world to vindicate the quarrels of distressed Ladies are not more sensible of the outrages that have bin offer'd a daughter of France specially of Henry the greats But to resume the threed of my Narration the King and with him one may say England also being thus bought and sold the Parlamenteers insteed of bringing him to Westminster which had put a Period to all distempers toss'd him up and downe to private houses and kept the former Army still afoot And truly I think there was never Prince so abus'd or poor peeple so baffled and no peeple but a purblind besotted peeple wold have suffred themselves to be so baffled for notwithstanding that no Enemy appeer'd in any corner of the Kingdome yet above 20000. Tagaroones have bin kept together ever since to grind the faces of the poor and exhaust the very vitall spirits of town and Countrey and keep them all in a perfect slavery Had the Parlament-men when the Scots were gone brought their King in a generous and frank way as had well becom'd Englishmen to sit among them and trusted to him which of necessity they must do at last as they had gain d more honor far in the world abroad so they had gain'd more
that there was neither Scot or Puritan had then any stroke in England Yet for all their disobedience and grumblings against their Liege Lord the King this peeple are exactly obedient to their new Masters of the House of Commons though they sit there but as their Servants and entitle themselfs so and also though in lieu of the small scratches which England might happily have receiv'd before all which the King had cur'd these new masters have made such deep gashes in her and given her such deadly wounds that I believe are incurable My Lord I find by my researches that there are two great Idolls in this Kingdom the greatest that ever were they are the Parliament and the Pulpit t is held High treson to speak against the one and the whole body of Religion is nailed unto the other for there is no devotion here at all but preaching which God wot is little better then prating The abuse of these two hath bin the source of all the distempers which now raign touching the latter it hath serv'd as a subvervient Engin to prop up the power and popularity of the first these malicious Pulpit-men breath out nothing thence but either sedition schisme or blasphemy poor shallow brain'd Sciolists they wold question many things in the old Testament and find Apocrypha in the New And such is the violence wherewith the minds of men and women are transported towards these Preachmen and no other part of devotion besides that in all probability they will in time take a surfet of them so that give this giddy peeple line enough ther will be no need of Catholique Arms to reduce them to the Apostolick Church they will in time pave the way to it themselves and be glad to return to Rome to find out a Religion again There was here before as I am informed a kind of a face of a Church there were some solemnities venerations and decencies us'd that a man might discover som piety in this peeple there was a publick Lyturgie that in pithy Pathetical prayers reach'd all occasions the Sacraments were administred with som reverence their Churches were kept neat and comly but this nasty race of miscreants have nothing at all of sweetnesse of piety and devotion in them 't is all turn'd to a fatuous kind of zeal after more learning as if Christianity had no sobriety consistence or end of knowledg at all These silly things to imitat the Apostles time wold have the same form of discipline to govern whole Nations as it did a chamberfull of men in the infancy of the Church they wold make the same coat serve our Savious at 30. yeers which fitted him at three 'T is incredible how many ugly sorts of heresies they daily hatch but they are most of them old ones newly furbish'd they all relate to Aerius a perfect hater of Bishops because he could not be one himself The two Sectaries which sway most are the Presbyterians and Independents the Presbyterian is a spawn of a Puritan and the Independent a spawn of the Presbyterian there 's but one hop 'twixt the first and a Iew and but half a hop 'twixt the other and an Infidell they are both opposit to Monarchy and Hierarchy and the latter wold have no Government at all but a parity and promiscuous confusion a race of creatures fit only to inhabit Hell and one of the fruits of this blessed Parlement and of these two Sectaries is that they have made more Jewes and Athiests then I think there is in all Europe besides but truly my Lord I think the judgments of Heaven were never so visible in any part of the Earth as they are now here for there is Rebell against Rebell House against House Cittie against Army Parlement against Scot but these two Sectaries I mean the Presbyterian and Independent who were the fire-brands that put this poor Iland first in a flame are now in most deadly feud one against the other though they both concur in this to destroy government And if the King had time enough to look only upon them they would quickly hang draw and destroy one another But indeed all Christian Princes shold observe the motions and successes of these two unlucky Incendiaries for if they shold ligue together again as they have often plaid fast and loose one with another and prevail here this Iland wold not terminat their designs they wold puzzle all the world besides Their Preachmen ordinarily cry out in the Pulpit ther is a great work to be done upon earth for the reforming all mankind and They are appointed by Heaven to be the chief Instruments of bringing it about They have already bin so busie abroad that with vast sommes of money they brought the Swed upon the Dane and the very Savages upon the English Cavaliers in Virginia and could they confederat with Turk or Tartar or Hell it self against them they wold do it they are monstrously puff'd up with pride that they stick not to call themselfs Conquerors and one of the chief ringleaders of them an ignorant home bred kind of Brewer was not ashamed to vant it publiquely in the Commons House that if he had but 20000. men he wold undertake to march to Constantinople and pull the Ottoman Emperour out of the Seralio Touching the other grand Idoll the Parlement 't is true that the primitive constitution of Parlement in this Iland was a wholesom piece of policy because it kept a good correspondence and clos'd all ruptures 'twixt the King and his peeple but this thing they call Parlement now may rather be term'd a cantle of one or indeed a Conventicle of Schismatiques rather than a great Counsell 't is like a kind of headless Monster or som estropiated carkas for ther is neither King nor Prelat nor scarce the seventh part of Peers and Commons no not the twelfth part fairly elected nevertheless they draw the peeple specially this City like so many stupid animalls to adore them Yet though this institution of Parlement be a wholsom thing in it self there is in my judgment a great incongruity in one particular and I believe it hath bin the cause of most distempers it is That the Burgesses are more in number than the Knights of the Shires for the Knights of the Shires are commonly Gentlemen well born and bred and vers'd in the Laws of the Land as well as forren Governments divers of them but the Burgesses of Towns are commonly Tradesmen and being bred in Corporations they are most of them inclining to Puritanism and consequently to popular Government These Burgesses exceeding the Knights in number carry all before them by plurality of Voices and so puzzle all And now that I have mentioned Corporations I must tell your Lordship that the greatest soloecism in the policy of this Kingdom is the number of them especially this monstrous City which is compos'd of nothing els but of Corporations and the greatest errors that this King specially his Father
Parliament by force and remove ill Counsellours from about him long before he put up his Royal Standard and the Generall then nam'd was to live and die with them and very observable it is how that Generalls Father was executed for a Traytor for but attempting such a thing upon Queen Elizabeth I mean to remove ill Counsellors from about her by force 'T is also to be observed that the same Army which was rais'd to bring him to his Parliament was continued to a clean contrary end two years afterwards to keep him from his Parliament 'T is fit it should be remembred who interdicted Trade first and brought in Forraigners to help them and whose Commissions of War were neere upon two moneths date before the Kings 'T is fit it should be remembred how His Majesty in all His Declarations and publick Instruments made alwaies deep Protestations that 't was not against his Parliament he raised Armes but against some seditious Members against whom he had onely desired the common benefit of the Law but could not obtain it 'T is fit to remember that after any good successes and advantages of his he still Courted both Parliament and City to an Accommodation how upon the Treaty at Uxbridge with much importunity for the generall advantage and comfort of his peeple and to prepare matters more fitly for a peace he desired there might be freedom of Trade from Town to Town and a Cessation of all Acts of Hostility for the time that the inflammation being allayed the wound might be curâ—…d the sooner all which was denyed him 'T is fit to remember how a Noble Lord The Earl of Southampton at that time told the Parliaments Commissioners in His Majesties Name at the most unhappy rupture of the said Treaty That when he was at the highest he would be ready to treat with them and fight them when he was at the lowest 'T is fit the present Army should remember how often both in their Proposalls and publick Declarations they have inform'd the world and deeply protested that their principall aime was to restore His Majesty to honour freedom and safety whereunto they were formerly bound both by their own Protestation and Covenant that the two Commanders in chief pawn'd unto him their soules thereupon Let them remember that since he was first snatch'd away to the custody of the Army by Cromwells plot who said that if they had the Person of the King in their power they had the Parliament in their pockets I say being kept by the Army He never displeas'd them in the least particular but in all his Overtures for Peace and in all his Propositions he had regard still that the Army should be satisfied let it be remembred that to settle a blessed Peace to preserve his Subjects from rapine and ruine and to give contentment to his Parliament He did in effect freely part with His Sword Scepter and Crown and ev'ry thing that was proprietary to him Let it be remembred with what an admired temper with what prudence and constancy with what moderation and mansuetude he comported himself since his deep afflictions insomuch that those Commissioners and others who resorted unto him and had had their hearts so averse unto him before return'd his Converts crying him up to be one of the sanctifiedst persons upon earth and will not the bloud of such a Prince cry loud for vengeance Bloud is a crying sin but that of Kings Cryes loudest for revenge and ruine brings Let it be remembred that though there be some Precedents of deposing Kings in his Kingdom and elsewhere when there was a competition for the right Title to the Crown by some other of the bloud Royall yet 't is a thing not onely unsampled but unheard of in any age that a King of England whose Title was without the least scruple should be summon'd and arraign'd tryed condemned and executed in His own Kingdom by His own Subjects and by the name of their own King to whom they had sworn Alleagiance The meanest Student that hath but tasted the Laws of the Land can tell you that it is an unquestionable fundamentall Maxime The King can do no wrong because he acts by the mediation of his Agents and Ministers he heares with other mens eares he sees with other mens eyes he consults with other mens braines he executes with other mens hands and judges with other mens consciences therefore his Officers Counsellors or favorites are punishable not He and I know not one yet whom he hath spar'd but sacrificed to Justice The Crown of England is of so coruscant and pure a mettall that it cannot receive the least taint or blemish and if there were any before in the person of the Prince it takes them all away and makes him to be Rectus in curia This as in many others may be exemplified in Henry the Seventh and the late Queen Elizabeth when she first came to the Crown 't was mention'd in Parlement that the attainder might be taken off him under which he lay all the time he liv'd an Exile in France it was then by the whole house of Parlement resolv'd upon the question that it was unnecessary because the Crown purg'd all So likewise when Queen Elizabeth was brought as it were from the Scaffold to the Throne though she was under a former attainder yet 't was thought superfluous to take it off for the Crown washeth away all spots and darteth such a brightnesse such resplendent beams of Majesty that quite dispell all former clouds so that put case King Iames died a violent death and his Son had been accessary to it which is as base a lie as ever the devil belch'd out yet his accesse to the Crown had purged all This businesse about the playster which was applyed to King Iames was sifted and winnow'd as narrowly as possibly a thing could be in former Parlements yet when it was exhibited as an Article against the Duke of Buckingham 't was term'd but a presumption or misdemeanure of a high nature And 't is strange that these new accusers shold make that a parricide in the King which was found but a presumption in the Duke who in case it had been so must needs have been the chiefest Accessary And as the ancient Crown and Royall Diadem of England is made of such pure allay and cast in so dainty a mould that it can receive no taint or contract the least speck of enormity and foulenesse in it self so it doth endow the person of the Prince that weares it with such high Prerogatives that it exempts him from all sorts of publique blemishes from all Attainders Empeachments Summons Arraignments and Tryalls nor is there or ever was any Law or Precedent in this Land to lay any Crime or capitall charge against him though touching civill matters touching propertie of meum and tuum he may be impleaded by the meanest vassall that hath sworn fealty to him as the Subjects of France and Spaine may against