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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25601	An Answer to the Lord George Digbies apology for himself published Jan 4, Anno Dom. 1642 put in the great court of equity otherwise called the court of conscience, upon the 28th of the same moneth / by Theophilus Philanax Gerusiphilus Philalethes Decius.	Decius, Theophilus Philanax Gerusiphilus Philalethes.; Bristol, George Digby, Earl of, 1612-1677. Lord George Digbie's apology for himself.; Bristol, George Digby, Earl of, 1612-1677. Two letters, the one from the Lord Digby, to the Queens Majestie ; the other from Mr. Thomas Elliot.; Elliot, Thomas.	1642 (1642)	Wing A3421; ESTC R8961	70,751	74

be preserved from this undoing by the Queens interposing By these two Notes may be observed that at the time whilest so many Declarations were published in His Majesties Name with solemne Protestations of His Majesties intentions of raising onely a Guard for His own Person all sorts of Provision for an Army were made beyond the seas and this poore Kingdom designed to the misery and confusion of war and under the disguise of defending the Protestant profession an Army to be raised in the intention of these wicked Counsellors for the suppressing and destruction of the Protestant Religion A Note of the Arms sent for by the KING from Amsterdam C. R. Two hundred fire-locks 4 peeces of Cannon for battery viz. 1 Cannon 1 Demi-Cannon 2 whole Culverin 2 Mortars 4 Petards 10 field-peeces of 6 pound bullet mounted One hundred Barrels of powder Round shot and case proportioned to the severall Pieces Two thousand pair of Pistolls One thousand Carbines Three thousand Saddles Three thousand Musquets One thousand Pikes C. R. Iran de gerre a Amsterdam Bartholetti Agent de la langravine de Hen. Wickford Die Lunae 1. Augusti 1642. Ordered that the Letters from the Lord Digby and M. Thomas Elliot and the Note of arms sent for by the King from Amsterdam be printed And that it be referred to the Committee for the Defence of the Kingdom to prepare a Pre●mble and to make some Observations upon these Letters H. Elsynge Cler. Parl. D. Com. Postscript TO give my self the honor of becoming your Lordships Gentleman-Vsher in the way of retractation I shall not blush freely here to confesse that when I made that mine Answer to your Lordships Speech to the Bill of Attainder I had not observed that the breach of the Sabbath among the Iews was punishable by death by any Command of God before that which was given upon the occasion of the gatherer of sticks which was a manifest ignorance in me For Exod. 31. 14. we find these words Ye shall keepe the Sabbath for it is holy unto you every one that defiles it shall surely be put to death for whosoever doth any worke therein that soul shal be cut off from among his People Whereby it seemeth that the question about the stick-gatherer was in the regard of the lightnesse of the work he had done or of some other occasion now unknown to us but that makes no difference in the case in respect of the use I made of the example And upon this occasion I cannot forbear to observe that the gross● breaches of all the Commandements of the first Table were made Capitall by God which is a matter worthy of much consideration by them that have the Legislative power in all Christian States There is yet another greater slipp in that Answer of min● Where having that in my thoughts which your Lordship hath so well expressed as I have recited it in the beginning of that page There is in Parliament a double power of life and death by Bill a judiciall power and a Legislative power● the measure of the one is what is legally just of the other what is prudentially and pollitickly fit for the good and preservation of the whole I ●n my Answer thereunto expressed my selfe too short in these words But in either of those cases to deny unto that Represent●tive body the High Court of the Kingdome a liberty to do any thing not unjust in it self though not as yet legally declared to be just for the preservation of that gre●●er body it represents when according to the sincere judgement of prudence and pollicy it cannot be suffciently secured by Laws already made is neither agreed ●e to the Law of nature ●or of the Land n●r of God nor to a rule of your Lordships own Whereas I should have s●yd to do any thing by Bill For so it was propounded by your Lordship and intended by me having your words in my phancy and such was the case of the Lord Straffords Attainder● which I was to maintain against whom the House of Commons thought better to proceed by Bill even after a judiciall hearing to av●yd the inconven●●nce of affirming or seeming to affirme an arbitrary power in the House of Peers in their proceedings by way of judi●●ture in the c●se of Treason The use whereof their Lordships themselves have I think allwayes ●s carefully declined ever since the Statute of 25. Edw. 3. whatsoever power by that Statute may be thought to remain in them The Printer made many faults which being none of mine I will not trouble my selfe to ●mend nor those he may have made in this my Answer to your Lordships Apology But for my own if in the h●st it was written any may have escaped me which may give the le●st off●nce either to the King my most gracious Soveraign or to the Parliament or to eith●r H●use thereof or to your Lordship or to any man dead or l●ving I do here humbly crave their pardon who may take the offence and retract ●● as having happened be●ide my intention and against my will To the READER I Should do ill to print a half truth whereof I pretend to be an intire lover I must therefore here give notice that the three former parts of this Answer were in his hands to whom I r●commended the care of the printing according to the date in the Title which he can testifie but I could not resolve to let the fourth go after them so soon for reasons concerning others and not my s●lf And in the mean time I made many great alterations in this last part and it hath still grown under my hand at length to the bulk it now bears which I will not excuse because I could not mend Non sunt longa quibus nihil est quod demere possis Sed tu Cosconi Disticha longa facis This passage hath reference to the Marginall note in fol. 6. at the latter end When my Lord of Essex stood in favour the Parliaments were calm Nay I finde it a true observation that there was no impeachment of any Nobleman by the Commons from the Raign of King Henry the sixth untill the eighteenth of King Iames nor any intervenient president of that nature not that something or other could be wanting to be said while men are men For not to go higher we are taught easily so much by the very Ballads and Libels of Leicestrian time But about the aforesaid yeer many yong ones being chosen into the House of Commons more then had been usuall in great Councells who though of the weakest Wings are the highest Flyers there arose a certain unfortunate and unfruitfull Spirit in some places not sowing but picking at every stone in the Field rather then tending to the generall Harvest And thus far the consideration of the Nature of the Time hath transported me and the occasion of the subject FINIS ERRATA PAge 9. line 19. for it an read it as an hyperbolicall p. 12. l. 26.

I thinke it would then your delaying to take this matter upon you before your self came to be accused of high Treason was the greatest mis-adventure I shall speak great words but I thinke I shall make them good which ever befell your Lordship or this Kingdome by the space of the last 500. yeers Your Lordship for your owning of the suggestion upon which the Members of both Houses were impeached of Treason before your being impeached of the same crime had preserved your estate life and honour from that hazard and your reputation from that stain which it got by this mishap and which will be exceeding hard to be gotten out The Kingdome which to my understanding never was in so miserable an estate since the last Conquest as at this present and into this so lamentable an estate let me write it without offence till you have read my reason I conceive it is fallen meerly and wholly by this omission of your Lordships if you were the secret Accuser of those your brethren For they are all wise enough to know that no man legally accused can ever be cleared in his reputation without being acquitted from the crime layd to his charge in a faire legall Triall And this certain danger would undoubtedly have been of so much more regard to men of untainted fame then the hazard the most innocent persons may possibly run through false witnesses or a corrupted Jury that in that respect no doubt they would have desired to have been brought to such a Triall which it seemeth was intended by his Majestie Neither could they if they would have avoided it by pretence of priviledge of Parliament if any part of their accusation legally charged on them had been such as may now seem to be insinuated in your Lordships Apology or as some of the Articles preferred against them do import if I do not misremember them For the Lords and Commons this very Parliament in their Petition to his Maiesty delivered the sixteenth of Iuly following desired no more but that nothing done or spoken in Parliament or by any Person in pursuance of the Commands and Directions of both Houses of Parliament● be questioned anywhere but in Parliament Which sure would not have kept any Member of either House from being proceeded against by Inditements preferred at the Common Law if any of them could have been proved to have been the Contrivers of the Tumult mentioned in your Lordships Apologie or of Treating with any forreign power to invade this Kingdome which was one of the Articles as I remember for I cannot at present recover a sight of them So that upon the whole matter I humbly conceive that supposing your Lordship to have been the Accuser of the six Members of Parliament which your own confession that you advertised his Majestie of the danger in which his sacred person● and divers Parliament mens were by those tumults of which his Majesty chargeth them to have been the Contrivers put to the rest I have formerly observed doth well nigh bring home to you I cannot see how you can avoid the unhappinesse of being reputed the sole occasion at least of the miserable condition in which this Kingdome now is For since his Majestie out of his Princely desire of the continuance of the Peace of his People was gratiously pleased to have wholly deserted any prosecution of the accused Members and since his Honour would as I humbly conceive have been as well saved by the producing as it was by the suppressing of the particular suggestions against them though they should have been acquitted by Parliament it is not easie to imagine any sufficient cause why his Maj●sty denyed the Petition of both his Houses of Parliament to declare the suggestors according to the Law in that case provided besides his care of your Lordship● in retribution of your care of him which was or might be a truely princely consideration of his Majesties but such a one as I should have bin most humbly instant with his Majestie not to have taken of me had I been in your place I have faithfully represented to your Lordship the hard condition wherein you are lodged in common esteem and I wish from my heart it were as easie for me to help you out as it hath been to shew you how you came into it But I doubt that will prove a much harder matter to do in these two latter then I found it in the two former parts of your Apology yet my making an attempt can do you no harm and it may do you some good if I can but sh●w you that you are not in a right way to help your self you say you returned into England not with so much joy to see your Country indeed there was small cause of joy to be seen there at that time as hope to be admitted upon your humble Petition to his Majesty for a fair regular impartiall vindication of your innocence But if any man should aske why you then procured his Maiesties licence to transport your selfe out of England into another Country what can you answer For in truth my Lord I know not the common opinion of the world being that it was in part to decline such a Triall Indeed to do you right I must observe that in your fi●st Letter to t●e Queens Mai●stie written soon after your landing on the other side it appears you had already some thoughts of returning But it appears too that you intended it not till you should hear that the King had betaken himselfe to a safe place as you found him at your returne where he might avow or protect his servants And my Lord I pray did not his Maj●stie avow many other his faithfull servants that were no Delinquents and protect them well enough in the place where he resided when your Lordship left the Court Therefore you added From rage I mean and violence for from Justice I shall never implore it But what cause had you to feare rage or violence from which even the Lord Strafford was carefully and easily protected at his Triall In your Letters to Sir Lewis Dives you expresse your selfe a little more fully as one brother would do to another Thus God knowes I have not a thought towards my Country to make me blush much lesse Criminall But where Traitors have so great a sway the honestest thoughts may prove most treasonable This was the fi●st time that ever I heard of the danger of honest thoughts of the danger of treasonable thoughts I had read before in a Sermon of Solomons But where was it that Traitors had so great a sway at that time was it in the House of Commons They either could or would have done no more but accuse you and if Traitors had so great a sway among them their accusation would have had the lesse credit either with the Lords or with the World Was it in the House of Peers I know your Lordship will not say that was your intendment for if you

dele I. p. 13. l. 11 12. read as all other kingdoms and States in Europe have also p. 18. l. 5. for if that read that if p. 20. l. 14. for the Law read our Law p. cad. l. 16. for retraction read retractation p. 21. l. 2. after you did adde or at least was done p. 24. l. pen after written adde and cousenting thereunto p. 27. l. 21. for minde read mine p. 32. l. 2. for were read was p. cad. l. 20. for tare read care Lesser faults may be amended by every Reader (a) And truly though much may be said in praise of Her magnanimity and dexterity to comply with Her Parliaments and for all that come off at last with honor and profit yet wee must ascribe some part of the commendation to the wisdom o● the times and the choice of Parliament men For I finde not that they were at any time given to any violent or pertinacious dispute elections being made of grave and discr●et persons not factious and ambitious of fame such as c●me not to the House with a mal●volent spirit of contention but with a preparation to consult on the publike good and rather to comply then to contest with Her Majesty Neither do I finde that the House was at any time weakned and● pestered with the admission of too many yong heads as it hath been of later times which remembers me of Recorder Marti●s Speech about the tenth of our late Soveraign Lord K. Iames when there were accounts taken of forty Gentlemen not above twenty and some not exceeding sixteen which moved Him to say that it was the ancient custome for old men to make Laws for yong ones but that then he s●● the case altered and that there were children elected unto the great Councell of the Kingdom which came to invade and invert Nature and to enact Laws to govern their Fathe●s Vide r●liqu● Sir Robert Naunton his Fragm. R●gal p. 9. There is a like passage in Sir Henry ●ootens paralel between the late Duke of Buckingham and the late Lord of Ess●x (a) I wish this Kingdom all the prosperity and happinesse in the world I did it living and now dying it is my wish I do now professe it from my heart and do most humbly recommend it unto every man here and wish every man to lay his hand upon his heart and consider seriously whether the beginning of the happinesse of a Kingdome should be written in letters of blood I fear you are in a wrong way and I desire Almighty God that no one drop of my blood may rise in judgement against you viz. Lord of Straffords Speech at his death (b) My Lords what I have yet sayd unto you hath bin chiefly grounded upon the apprehensions and feares of our future dangers I shall say something of the unhappinesses of our present estate wich certainly standeth in as much need of relief and remedy as our fears doe of prevention for although the King and People were fully united that all men that now draw severall wayes should unanimously set their hand to the work yet they would finde it no easie task to restore this kingdom to a prosperous and comfortable ●ondition If we take into our consideration the deplorable estate of Ireland likely to drain this kingdom of men and treasure if we consider the debts and necessities of the Crown the ingagements of the kingdom the great and unusuall Contributions of the people the which although they be not so much to their discontent for that they have been legally raised yet the burthen hath not been much eased Let us likewise consider the distractions I may almost call them confusions in point of Religion which of all other distemp●rs are most dangerous and destructive to the peace of a State Besides the publique calamities let every particular man consider the distracted and discomfortable estate of his own condition for mine own part I must ingenuously prof●sse unto your Lordship That I cannot finde out under the different Commands of the King and the Parliament any such course of caution or warinesse by which I may promise to my self security or safety I could give your Lordship many instances of the inconsistencie and impossibility of obeying these Commands But I shall trouble you onely with one or two The Ordinance of Parliament concerning the Militia now in so great agitation commandeth all persons in Authority to put it in execution and all others to obey it according to the Fundamentall Laws of the land The King declareth it to be contrary to the Fundamentall Laws against the Liberty of the Subject and Rights of Parliament And commandeth all His Subjects of what degree soever upon their Allegiance not to obey the said Ordinance as they will answer the contrary at their perills So likewise in point of the Kings commanding the attendance of divers of us upon His person whereunto we are obliged by severall relations of our services and oaths In case we comply not with His Commands we are liable to His displeasure and the losse of those places of honour and trust we hold under Him If we obey His Commands without the leave of the Parliament which hath not alwayes been granted we are liable to the censure of Parliament and of both these we want not fresh Examples So that certainly this cannot but be acknowledged to be an unhappy and uncomfortable condition I am sure I bring with me a ready and obedient heart to pay unto the King all those duties of loyalty allegiance and obedience which I owe unto Him And I shall never be wanting towards the Parliament to pay unto it all those due Rights and that obedience which we all owe unto it But in contrary Commands a conformity of obedience to both is hardly to be lighted on The Reconciliation must be in the Commanders and the Commands not in the obedience or the person that is to obey And therefore untill it please God to blesse us with a right understanding betwixt the King and Parliament and a conformity in their Commands neither the Kingdom in publique nor particular men in private can be reduced to a safe or comfortable condition Earl of Bristolle Speech May 20. 1642. Vide reliqua (a) Let every man purge his heart clear of al passions I know this great and wise body politicke can have none but I speak to individuals frō the weaknesse which I find in my selfe Away with al personal animosities Away with all flatteries to the people in being the sharper against him because he is odious to them Away with all fears lest by the sparing of his bloud they may be incenst away with all such considerations as that it is not fit for a Parliament that one accused by it of Treason should escape with life Let not former vehemence of any against him nor fear from thence that he cannot be safe while that man lives be an ingredient in the sentence of any one of us Of all these