I must needs say that if it were True that is True in that latitude of understanding and vast Comprehension of Sence which the Rebels would have the simple People swallow The King were to be condemned indeed not only as a man false to his Conditions but as a King false unto his Crowne For amongst all those Flowers that at severall times have been transplanted out of other Soyles into the English Crowne there is scarce any one that illustrates the beauty of her Majesty with more vigorous and fresher Colours then this very Law Because that by this and by no one thing so much as This is the Subordination and Dependance which Ireland hath upon this Kingdome established and the blush of her first Conquest revived For first This Law transported whole Colonies of other Lawes So that all the Statutes which were then made in England like Trees with their ground about the rootes were removed into that Kingdom where they prospered thriv'd though in another ayre as if there they had been first set and planted And the King were much too blame indeed if he thought of suspending this part of that Law For this were even to lay the reynes upon the Horses neck for feare least he should slip the bit out of his mouth This were to set open the Prison dore for feare the Prisoner should make some escape out at a window This were to breake that whole Chaine of dependance which unites that Kingdome in her subordination to this to prevent some men from loosning of a linke Secondly By this Law there could no Law be presented to the Parliament in Ireland to be confirmed and ratified as a Law unlesse it were first sent hither into England for the Kings Approbation before ever it was proposed And this part of that Law was not intended so much for an Abasement of the Subjects Liberty as for an Allay unto the Superiour's Power to put the Deputies in mind still that their Authority was not Absolute And truly if the King had promised to suspend this part of that Law although it was somewhat unlikely that those of Ireland would put any thing which concern'd the Superiours Advantage into the Subjects Scale The King had not done well for as in making the picture of a Crowne there is more Art use to paint it in Colours so that it shall look like Gold then to paint it in pure Gold indeed So in making Lievtenants which are but Counterfeits of Kings there is more Policy to embellish them with the shadowes and semblances of Royalty then with the Reall species But the King promises neither this nor that as the words of Letter XVI his Letter plainly doe declare and the truth of the whole matter is but briefly this A Peace in Ireland was now in agitation when the King wrote these Letters to my Lord of Ormond and the necessities of the Kings Affaires called for all quick dispatch therein That dispatch the King apprehended as it was indeed altogether Impossible if every particular Bill upon every particular emergent occasion which might facilitate and expedite that work must first be sent hither and then sent back again with the King's Approbation to it before ever it could passe in Parliament as the letter of that Law requires the passage being so obstructed as it was and the wayes so dangerous And therefore the King in favour of those affaires the quick transaction whereof so neerely concerned the good of both his Kingdomes promised my Lord Ormond to take no advantage against him by Poynings Law if he passed such Bills as might promote this businesse without sending them over unto him provided he passed nothing that might be prejudiciall to the safety of His Protestant Subjects and the preservation of His owne Royall Authority And this particular suspension of this particular Branch of Poynings Law limited to this particular Time and to be no farther extended doe the Rebels aggravate and heighten to a Suspension of all Poynings his Law yea and of all the Lawes that were ever there made besides as if the King purpos'd to destroy them all at one blow and without any more adoe without any the least regard had to His Solemne Declaration and Promise for the maintaining thereof But is this a Crossing and Contradicting of the Kings owne words in his Declaration where he promises to maintaine the Lawes against what opposition soever though with the hazard of his being I cannot think it For I aske but this Of what kind of Lawes will a reasonable man conceive that His Majesty there speakes questionlesse not of those which concerne His owne Royall State Person or Dignity notwithstanding those are as true and as necessary Lawes as any other because it is not imaginable that the People should suspect that He would not maintaine them But of those Lawes which concerne the Subjects Interest Right and Property as being most lyable to their suspition that the King by His Prerogative or by some violent and unnaturall Course or other might entrench too much upon them Now what colour of Contradiction or Falshood is there in this Inference The King by a second Promise undertaketh to dispence with a rigorous circumstance of one Law which only diminishes and minorates a little the Grandour and Honour of his owne Royall Person and Dignity therefore the King breaks his first Promise of maintaining the Lawes against what opposition soever which only concerne His Subjects Interest their Liberties and their Property There is nothing plainer then that both these promises may well consist together without clashing But if the Lyon say that the Foxes eares are hornes The Foxe hath more wit then to gainesay it And if the Rebels at Westminster say that the signe of St Laurences paralell'd gridiron is the signe of St Peters Crosse Keyes the Citizens of London have so little wit as not to disbeleive it But any man of common sence may now easily distinguish between the Pastboard and the Vizard and make him mirth with that in his owne hands which affrighted him but a little before upon anothers Face In that other Impeachment of Abolishing the Lawes made against Recusants in Ireland notwithstanding His former Professions that He would never doe it I confesse there is something which hath the colour and complexion of a Crime at the first blush and at a distance and therefore I shall desire leave to come a little nearer to it and to look better upon it in the disquisition of these ensuing particulars and pieces which certainly cannot but discover it if there be any thing truly Criminall within it First we will consider whether the Abolition of these Lawes made against Recusants be in it selfe a thing that is unjust Secondly we shall consider how farre it may become so by the Kings Promise and Protestation to the contrary And lastly we shall consider how farre that Promise does bind and tye up all other contrary Promises which may be made upon
repeale all the Lawes made against Recusants therefore the King is a Papist then it is to say the King will make no Lawes against the reading of the Alcaron therefore the King is a Turke The making or unmaking of Lawes of this nature having no naturall Influxe upon the Truth or Falshood of the Things or that conception which those men have of those things who make that Law but only upon the Conveniences or Inconveniences of Times The necessity then of those present times was the reason of the making of those Lawes the Queenes person was in danger from the Catholiques and that danger was so much the more because those Catholiques could not well be knowne To discover them and to defend her selfe were all those Lawes enacted and as God would have it they did that for which they were made they distinguisht Traytors from good Subjects they made her lov'd of the one and fear'd of the other and so between both she continued a long and prosperous Reigne amongst us But now the Tables are clean turn'd And the Kings Person is more in danger from a pestilent faction of Schismatiques then ever the Queen was from her Catholiques So that ceasing the reason of those Lawes there can be no great offence if the Lawes themselves now be made to cease and other Lawes establisht against those kind of men of whom the Person of the King is so notoriously knowne to be in great perill and danger Well the thing it selfe being thus clear'd that any Law made may be Repeal'd the King doth not erre in the Matter of his promise when He bidds the Queen promise in His name that he will take away all the Lawes in England made against Recusants provided they shall deserve so great a favour at His hands for he promises nothing but what may be performed without any breach of any known Law of the Kingdom whatsoever All the scruple is that he hath erred in the Manner of it and that in Mr Liste's opinion these two wayes first privatively by secluding those that have the right of Abrogation with him that is both His Houses of Parliament and assuming the power wholly to himselfe because the words of His Letter doe runne thus I will take away c. and so soon as God shall enable me to doe it And secondly Positively by superinducing those that have no right of abrogation either with him or without him and that is Force and Armes because he speaks in his Letter of some powerfull assistance which surely can be meant of nothing else but of Armes and Forces But the truth is it is neither so nor so For first concerning His excluding of the Parliament Is any man so simple as to think the King is bound to write every private Letter of Complement in that severe stile and clogging forme as if he were to write an Act of Parliament and to choake up every line with The Kings Majesty by the Advice of his Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled as often as occasion offereth him discourse of the Transaction of any Parliament affaires Nothing can be plainer then that the King in saying I will take away the penall Lawes implyes the Power of the Parliament as virtually comprehended in Him and meanes that He will doe it in a Free convention of Parliament and as it ought for to be done and therefore if you marke it he addes as soon as God shall enable me to doe it which words must referre to such a Convention or they have no meaning For if the King had a meaning to repeale these Lawes without his Parliament or could thinke that He could Lawfully so doe Certainly He might have done it long ere this God hath enabled Him with Power and Might answerable to the compasse of many such Designes and for my part if He should doe it to morrow though I am confident He never will yet cannot I see what the Rebells have to object against it For I would faine know why the King may not repeale the Lawes against Recusancy without the Parliament as well and as farre forth as the Parliament Repeales the Lawes for the Common-Prayer and for Episcopacy without the King But the Kings Power loveth Iustice as the Psalmist speakes and Psal 99. 4. he considereth not his Might so much as his Right and therefore knowing well enough that He cannot lawfully doe it but in Parliament He presumes so farre upon the affections and gratitude of all His true hearted Subjects as to promise the Catholique party that in their names out of a Parliament which he doubts not but the better eloquence of successe against this present Rebellion by meanes of their Assistance will make appeare reasonable in it to performe Nor does this any way crosse shinnes with those Declarations and Protestations which the King hath made if a reasonable man have the laying of them both together For what if the King have upon some occasions made a Declaration to put the Lawes in execution against Papists Surely their suspitions and jealousies owe him more thanks for that inanimation which no doubt procured it But did the King ever make a Declaration that upon no occasion whatsoever He would consent to the Repealing of those Lawes If He did not then certainly the King may Declare that the Lawes against Recusants should be put in execution for one Reason at one time and yet consent that those very Lawes should be repeal'd for another Reason at another time His Religion all this while being the same although his Reason be not For his reason for the one was but their suspition His reason for the other is his own safety which certainly is the better reason of the twaine in regard that the obligation which is upon the King to satisfy the suspition of a peevish sort of People as he did in the one is but a Temporall obligation but that which is upon the King to provide for His own safety and the safety of all his good Subjects as he did in the other is an eternall The King hath made Declarations in behalfe of the Starre-chamber and of the Common Prayer and yet the Rebells are well contented He should quite abrogate the one and at this instant are as angry with him that He will not abolish the other nay it is yet within the memory of Man since our deare brethren of Scotland were esteemed and accounted Rebels by a Declaration and yet these men never yet question'd or accus'd the King for Accepting and Treating with them afterwards like honest Subjects When they have a purpose to repeale the Lawes made concerning Episcopacy then every solemne Oath which the King hath made against it is esteemed but a Gnatt but when they have a purpose not to Repeale the Lawes made against Recusants then every Declaration made for executing of those Lawes becomes a Camell This is just the trick of the Jugglers books that so amazes Country People and Children which being turn'd one way shewes
it Not much unlike the simple fellow spoken of in Lucian who gave Lucian three hundred pence for one of Epictetus his Candles endes which was not worth three halfe pence because he had a conceit that he could not chuse but prove an excellent Philosopher if he studied never so little by Epictetus's Candle And of as great Consequence that is just of none at all is that which followes where the King sayes He will not forget at this Treaty to put a short period to this perpetuall Parliament And I shall only say this to it He that is offended with the King for desiring to put an end to this present Parliament that another of better temper and affection may be Summoned let him groan unpittyed under the pressures and miseries which from this present Parliament he suffers and ever will so long as this present Parliament endures Mr Lisle The last thing that I shall observe to you for you will have the rest observed to you by a better hand is concerning the King's disavowing this Parliament to be the Parliament of England We cannot have greater assurance of any thing from the King then of this present Parliament There is no Law stronger that gives a property to the Subject then the Law is to continue this present Parliament This is so well knowne to the World that Kingdomes and States abroad acknowledge it and now for the King to disavow it after it is confirmed and continued by Act of Parliament after the King hath so lately acknowledg'd it now so suddainly to disavow it How can we be more confident of any assurance or Act from His Majesty There be many things more observable in these Letters but I shall leave them to those worthy Gentlemen that come after me Animadversions It was a common practice of the Popes Emissaries in the begining of the Reformation when any considering or discerning man began to speake ought against the grosle Corruptions Imposthumes in that See which were then as visible as that pretended Head it selfe that bred them To brand him for deserting the Church of Rome in some point of Doctrine and Beliefe that so they might expose him to the greater ignominie and danger who good man only distasted the Court of Rome in some poynt of Discipline and Manners And by this cunning artifice they maintained the See of Rome in the height of all her villanies and impieties no man for a long time daring to oppose them In like manner deale the Rebells with the King The King distasts a factious and seditious Party grown too potent in the Parliament a Party which have frighted most of the honest Members that are present and forced away more of them that are absent and therefore are no more a Parliament indeed then a nut is a nut where the maggot hath eate out the Meate and this distasting of this turbulent Faction in this Parliament is branded by Mr Lisle for a disavowing of this Parliament to be a Parliament on purpose to draw the greater odium upon the King who I think is as rare in this unhappinesse as in many of his Vertues that he is not only the first King but the first Man that ever yet wentabout to perswade the People and to let them see they were not well govern'd and could not be believed The King disavowes not this Parliament nor any one Act that ever He yet past this Parliament no not so much as that Act which continues this Parliament although perchance he may think that Act as lyable to a Repeale as any other and so for diverse causes may repeale it Nay in endeavouring and resolving to Repeale it he does acknowledge it an Act. And whereas Mr Lisle thinkes he hath struck this scandalous aspersion home into their Memories with this hammer of his Eloquence that There is no Law stronger that gives any Property to the Subject then the Law is to continue this present Parliament I shall only interpose and lay this soft Reply between to dead the noyse and fury of the Blow and that is this That if the Law to continue this present Parliament were no stronger then any Law which I know in the Kingdome which gives any Property to the Subject is The King need not take such care to put a period to it For as they have done it would soon cease and vanish of it selfe and come to nothing The summe totall indeed of all that Mr Lisle hath said And therefore as Demosthenes used to say of Phocyon when ever he saw him rising up to speak 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Demosth Behold here rises the Hatchet of all my words and so would goe no farther So does Mr Lisle at the sight of Mr Tate who is now rising and if the Citizens heads should prove so hard all over that neither Hammer nor Hatchet should doe any good upon them it were very strange but commonly where there are two men that have Malice enough which is the Father of a Scandall there will be twenty that will afford Credulity enough which is the Mother And no doubt but so it hapned here Mr Tate his Speech The Letters are so full that I shall rather be your remembrancer of what you have heard in them then give you any observations upon them Animadversions Then does this Speech come after those Letters like an Eve after an Holy-day which should have come before it For sure I am those Letters are not so Full but this speech is as Empty I begin to have a conceit that these three honest men had a dangerous plot in their heads and that was to make one good Orator between them For Mr Tate seems to be disposed of in the Middle Region where Rhetorick is coldest and where the Lawes of Oratory doe indulge most remisnesse and relaxation for this very purpose that according to their ordinary distribution of Preaching-houres the Major and his Brethren may be silent at the beginning till they have used themselves a little to heare sence may Censure the latter end as being the only part of the speech which they remember and may sleep about the middle while Mr Tate the City-Remembrancer may proceed in his new office without more Interruption Mr Tate I shall present before you a very sad spectacle The whole Kingdome of Ireland bleeding a Kingdome all in Peace without any thoughts of Warre without any thoughts of Armes and of a suddaine a Popish Partyrising up laying hold upon all the Forts seizing all the Lands and all the Goods of the Protestants in Ireland and not content with that when they had done killing one hundred thousand of them Man Woman and Childe These Rebels of Ireland that had thus inhumanely murthered so many Protestants here is the sadnesse Now the Favourites of the King and those Subjects that the King did professe to maintaine in maintaining Armes against those Rebels We that by Acts of Parliament of the Kings owne Grant had the Irish Rebels Lands
quod est promissum habetur â—â—â—â—ell illud quod promittitur ac si fuisset impletum When it is long of Him only to whom the promise is made why it is not performed it is all one in equity as if it were performed according to that of the Historian who saies persolut â fide quia per eum non stetit quò minus prestaretur that is as having discharged his Faith and promise saith he because it was not his fault any Liv Hist way that his Faith was not discharged And was it not long of them that the King did not keep his promise He that cannot reach the clearenesse of this Truth by reason of that eminent distance between the people of a Kingdome and the Prince will comprehend it easily brought neerer home unto him by this familiar Instance and Example A Master of a Family keeps many servants in his House and every man knowes what worke he hath to doe and accordingly he does it At last being conscious to themselves that their work went not on so as it should a rumour and a whisper flyes amongst them from one unto another that their Master meanes to retaine some Journey-men and Hirelings of his Neighbours and will have them lye together and worke together with his servants that his worke may be the better and the sooner done Hereupon they move their Master in the poynt and declare unto him that if He call in any of his Neighbours to the work it would breed ill bloud He must looke to have his house very much disordered and his goods embeasel'd for none of his Servants would take charge of them nor could So many strangers comming in and out that it was impossible The Master who was sure to have the worst of it if any thing were lost is easily perswaded hereunto not having indeed the least thought or Imagination of any such thing but being a man of so much gentlenesse and meeknesse as to let his owne Servants take their owne times and wayes of his owne free accord he makes this solemne promise to them that no stranger shall come in to them from amongst his Neighbours either to meddle with their worke or them At last these servants have a plott upon their Master to take away his life and to that purpose they break up all his Chests seaze upon all his Monyes and are now forcing his owne Bed-Chamber Dore to murther him The good man perceiving their intent tells them that if they offer to break open the dores upon him he will call to his Neighbours out at the window to send their servants in unto his help and then their Villany will be discovered they severely punished whereas if they will goe quietly to bed againe He will say nothing of it and for once put the matter up The Servants tell him againe that they know he is an honest man and scorns to break his promise He promised them above a moneth agoe that he would not suffer any stranger to come in to his House and they hope he will not offer now at this time of the night to call them If this man should think himselfe obliged by that promise to let his owne servants come in and cut his throate Will not any man say that he had more Conscience then Sence For the Master does not break his promise but the servants will not suffer him to keep it And this is just the Kings Case in the poynt of Forraigne Forces which if any dull Citizen of London will not understand as it is delivered by Doctrine let some of his owne servants beat it into his Braines as these servants would have done by a neerer Application Mr Browne For their Feares of his making Warre against the Parliament of his alteration of Religion and Lawes he hath heretofore in his Printed Declaration expressed these words We doe againe in the presence of Almighty God our Maker and Redeemer assure the World that we have no more thought of making Warre against the Parliament then against our owne Children that we will maintaine and observe the Acts assented to by Vs this Parliament without violation and that we have not nor shall not have any thought of using any Force unlesse we shall be driven to it for the Security of our Person and for the Defence of the Religion Lawes and Liberties of the Kingdome and the Iust Rights and Priviledges of Parliament And in another of his Printed Declarations he hath said God so deale with me and mine as my Thoughts and Intentions are upright for the maintenance of the True Protestant Religion and for observation and preservation of the Lawes of the Land And in another Declaration he saith that He is resolved not onely duely to observe the Lawes Himselfe but to maintaine them against what opposition soever though with the hazard of his being And in his Declaration concerning his Resolution to goe into Ireland which is also Printed he calls God to witnesse the sincerity of his Professions there made with this assurance That His Majesty will never Consent upon what pretence soever to a Toleration of the Popish Profession there or to the abolition of the Lawes now in force against Popish Recusants in that Kingdome What could his Majesty have said more to satisfie his People Now compare his Actions with his Declarations and compare his Letters to the Queene with his Promise and Protestations to the Parliament and you will say Quantùm mutatus how much is his Majesty changed All that we have heard read we may divide into three parts The first containes the Letters Propositions and Transactions concerning Ireland The second the Letters from the Queene to the King The third Letters from the King unto the Queene c. Animadversions Here are three particulars more laid to His Majesties charge by M. Browne wherein His private Letters are made to crosse and contradict His publique Protestations that so with more colour they may asperse him with the sinne of Levity Falshood and breach of Faith by which easy wickednesse they hope to make him as vile in all His Peoples eyes as His own obstinate Goodnesse hath made him cheap in theirs The first is concerning His making Warre against the Parliament The second is concerning the Alteration of Religion and the third is concerning His Alteration of Lawes Against these three they produce His Protestations and Promises which they would have the world believe He doth so directly check by His private endeavours and practises as if he esteemed no more of what He promised then that Aegyptian King whom they nicknamed Doso that is to say Dabo because he would Diod. Sieul promise any thing which men asked of him and would be as sure never to performe any thing unto them which he had promised Concerning the first of these His making Warre against the Parliament which is such a thred-bare piece of malice that as it never had any Truth so now it hath worne
away the very Sence They presse those words of His Declaration which they conceive expresly makes against it wherein the King does assure the World that He hath no more thought of making Warre against the Parliament then against His own Children and that he hath not nor shall not have any thought of using of any Force unlesse he shall be driven to it for the security of his Person and for the defence of the Religion which words truly doe condemne the King to my thinking just as Pilate did Christ namely by washing of his hands For can any thing be plainer then that as those tearms of Ampliation We have not nor shall not have any thought of using of any Force doe comprehend in them a formall profession that the King will not wage Warre against the Parliament so those words of Limitation and exception unlesse we shall be driven to it for the security of our Person doe contain in them a virtuall profession also that He will And therefore when M. Browne will condemne the King for making Warre against the Parliament as doing contrary to His expresse Declaration and will take no notice of that Case of Reservation annexed thereto which as expresly justifies all that the King hath done He saies no more in truth against the King then the Welch-man did against the Iudge who cryed out upon him for putting him to death for stealing a Rope but left out the Mare Concerning the second His Alteration of Religion they produce these words out of another of the Kings Declarations God so deale with Mee and Mine as My thoughts and intentions are upright for the maintenance of the true Protestant Religion and those words in His Declaration concerning His going into Ireland That His Majesty will never consent upon what pretence soever to a Toleration of the Popish profession there or the Abolition of the Lawes now in force against Recusants in that Kingdomes And then concerning the third that is His Alteration of the Lawes the words of another Declaration are remembred and cast in His teeth wherein He professes That He is resolved not only duly to observe the Lawes Himselfe but to maintain them against what opposition soever though with the hazard of his being And now how false the King hath been to both these solemne Professions by His secret practises let His Letters and M. Browne declare Mr Browne Concerning Ireland you have heard the Propositions made to the Queene for sending into this Kingdome diverse Irish Rebells under the command of two professed Papists six Thousand of them were to be under the command of the Lord Glamorgan the Earle of Worcesters eldest Son the other of ten Thousand under the command of Colonell Fits Williams The tearmes that they were to come upon were read to you in the Propositions which themselves sent to the Queene You will not thinke that these came to maintain the Lawes but to destroy them not to maintaine the Protestant Religion but to overthrow it These Propositions being sent to the Queene and allowed by Her and Shee sent them to the King For the Letters concerning Ireland they were written by the King to the Earle of Ormond who is now Governor there in some of them Letters the King gives way to the suspending of Poynings Law which was an Act of Parliament in the tenth yeare of Henry the seaventh It was called Poynings Law because Sir Edward Poynings was Governor of Ireland when that Law was made That Law made all Statutes that were before made in England of force in Ireland and the King may as well suspend all the Lawes there as that Law By that Law of Poynings all Lawes that were after to be presented at the Parliament in Ireland must be first sent hither for approbation before they could be presented to the Parliament there and no Parliament must be called there before the causes of calling the Parliament and the Acts to be passed in that Parliament are first sent hither and approved But that Law now must be suspended Further in the Letters to the Lord of Ormond you see the King doth not count it a hard Bargaine for to make a Law in Ireland to suspend or to take away the Penall Lawes against Papists there so that they will help Him here against His Protestant Subjects When this promise was made the Declaration was not remembred wherein the King doth declare that upon no pretence whatsoever he will Tolerate the Popish profession in Ireland or Abolish the Lawes against Popish Recusants now in force there He farther saith in another Letter to my Lord of Ormond that rather then He will faile of making a Peace or a Cessation with the Rebells He would have him engage himselfe to joyne with the Rebells against the Scots and the Lord Jnchequin which is the maine visible Protestant Forces that are in Ireland all this is enjoyned to be kept secret from all but two or three of the chiefest Rebells in Ireland whom you heard named in the Letters You may farther observe that a Peace was Treated of with the Rebells about the same time that the King did Treat with the Parliament here concerning Ireland and the King wished a quick dispatch of the Peace there least if He should make a Peace here first He could not shew such Favour to the Irish as He intended They are the words of His Letter You may see by all the Letters to my Lord of Ormond that the King did little stick at any thing to grant to the Rebells for a Peace with them but how little He granted to the Parliament of England at the last Treaty I hope all the World will soon know Animadversions Here are two principall things offered by way of proofe out of the Kings owne Papers concerning the Transaction of Affaires in Ireland to convince the King of Falshood and breach of Faith in two former Professions The first is where he promiseth my Lord of Ormond that He will suspend Poynings Law which they say crosses and contradicts his Solemne Protestation of maintaining the Lawes against what opposition soever though with the hazard of his being And the second is that he proposeth unto him The taking away of all Penall Lawes made against Recusants in Ireland which they say is poynt-blanke against his owne Declaration which he Printed when he had a resolution to goe over into Ireland wherein he does assure all his Subjects That He will never Consent upon what pretence soever to a Toleration of the Popish Profession there or the Abolition of the Lawes now in force against Popish Recusants in that Kingdome And truly the maine Engine of their detraction and Calumny moves upon these two Hinges These two particular Impeachments help and further all the rest to the Reputation of Crimes as one or two good peices of Wine they say will put off a whole range in the Merchants Sellar at the same rate and value with themselves Concerning the suspension of Poynings Law
will take away your Lawes nay would take away your Life will you be obliged by this Promise then To these particulars and others like to these because it is more then probable the King would never have oblig'd Himselfe being interrogated concerning them when He made this generall Promise of not Abolishing those Lawes Therefore that generall Promise of His extends not nor is appliable saith the Law to these Particulars And so by Consequence the King promising to Abolish those Lawes upon such enforcements and such reasons as He would never have promised Not to Abolish them if He had been moved particularly thereunto Does nothing by this second that either is unjust or contradicts that His first Promise So that when the King made this Promise the King did remember though Mr Browne is pleas'd to thinke that He did not that Declaration wherein He doth declare that He will not abolish the Lawes made against Recusants but the King does not remember any thing in that Declaration that tyes Him why He may not make it and although many simple Citizens are men of so well-affected Ignorance that they cannot see this yet I hope there may be some who may lye under the suspition of having some common-Sence and I am sure They cannot but discerne it Mr Browne The next are the Queenes letters to the King in them you may see her unwearied endeavours by Sea and Land to raise Forces against the Parliament to destroy it You see She marcheth in the Head of an Army and calls Her selfe the Generalissima You may see farther in her letters the great Interest She hath in the Kings Councells No Office or Place can be disposed of without her You may see her letters her advice concerning Peace In making Peace She adviseth the King not to abandon those that have served Him for feare they forsake Him in his need She expresseth whom She meaneth the Bishops and the poore Catholiques She adviseth the King for the honour of God that He trust not himselfe in our hands If He goe to London before the Parliament is ended She tells Him He is undone You may see by her Letters how active She is with the Duke of Lorraine for sending over 10000 men You may see her Advice concerning this Parliament She saith That perpetuall Parliament must be disbanded The rest She saith will follow if the King conclude a Peace without that She will into France She saith I am sure you cannot forget these passages Animadversions Having been somewhat over long in these Animadversions which past upon the Section going before I am afrayd I shall doe by these Animadversions upon this which is next unto it as the Fellow did by his Character and Discription of the great Church which he reported to be two miles at least in length and when he perceived the company were not very forward to beleive it he vowed that notwithstanding all that it was not above two Inches in breadth and so thought that he had well mended his Matter For all that I shall say will be nothing but this Here is much of Care in a Pious and most Exemplary Queene here is nothing of Crime And He that will thinke the worse of Good Councell because his Wife does give it Let some other man think better of his Wife then He does and let Him not beleeve it Mr Browne In the King's Letters to the Queene you may observe these following particulars First His Apology to Her for calling us a Parliament at the last Treaty It seemes she was offended at it and you may see by his letters with what difficulty he did it For he saith that if but two more had joyned with him in opinion to the contrary he would never have done it yet he hath told us He will keep all the Acts of this Parliament inviolable How those can stand together let all men Judge He hath told us that he will maintaine the Lawes and observe them himselfe yet you may see he layes that bloud of the Kingdom which is shed in these Warres upon the shedding of the Innocent bloud as he calls it of my Lord Strafford Yet my Lord of Strafford was condemned by himselfe and by the Law that he saith he will maintaine Animadversions The King is here charg'd with a brace of Contradictions May he never receive more hurt from any other Bullet The first is that he makes an Apology to the Queene for calling the Rebels at Westminster a Parliament and yet he professes he will keep inviolable all the Acts of this Parliament This is one horrible Contradiction and all men are called in to Iudge how these two can stand together The second is That the King tells them He will maintaine the Lawes and observe them and yet he calls the bloud of my Lord Strafford the innocent bloud of my Lord Strafford which was shed by the Law which he saith he will maintaine This is another For the first of these The King may keep inviolable all Acts that have bin made this Parliament that is all Acts which have passed Both Houses and had his owne Consent while He was joyned with them For then they were a Parliament and a perfect Body and yet the King may not account that excrementitious Part of that Body which now remaines at Westminster to be a Parliament because they possesse the place of the Parliament no more then a man sworne a Squire of the Body to some Prince and doing the Person of that Prince all Service can thinke himselfe bound to give Reverence to his Close-stoole if it should by chance be brought and set downe in the Presence And then for that other charge about my Lord of Strafford First what a simple Inference is this The King thinks my Lord of Strafford dyed Innocent who was condemned by Law Therefore the King does not maintaine the Law Certainly many poore men in a yeare through the malice or ignorance through the presumptions or perjuries of those that bring in Evidence against them have bin and may be thought Innocently condemn'd as guilty persons of that fact which they never did and yet those men that thinke so may not nay doe not thinke the Law nocent which condemnes them or hold it no longer fitting for to be maintayned In the second place what ever that Law was whereby my Lord of Strafford was condemned all the world knowes they themselves have taken order that the proceeding against my Lord of Strafford by that Law should not be drawne to President for after times And yet these men charge the King for not maintayning that Law which they themselves are ashamed of and will not stand by Mr Browne You see how pressing He is to the Queene to procure ayde from the Duke of Lorraine upon hopes of his comming He is very glad and saith the Prince of Orange shall help to transport His Souldiers Compare this with his former Declarations concerning Forreigne Forces It needs no Aggravation We have all
of us more Cause to pray for Him For his maintaining the Lawes you may observe in a Letter dated in March last to the Queene there is this passage I give Thee leave to promise in my Name to all that thou thinkest fit that I will take away all the Penall Lawes against the Roman Catholiques in England as soone as God shall enable me to doe it so as I may by their meanes have such assistance as may deserve so great a favour and enable me to doe it To this promise of His He enjoynes much secrecy which He hath need to doe being so contrary to former Declarations and Protestations If this be done He may as well alter and take away all our Lawes both for property and liberty These Lawes against Papists are of as much force and bind as much as any Lawes whatsoever Vpon all these Letters and Passages together you may observe the great Designe to put an end to this Parliament although it cannot be done without the Consent of the Lords and Commons in Parliament and the Kings joyning with them You see another Designe is to take away all Lawes against Recusants and that must be when the King is able to doe it as He saith and that cannot be without Force You see to enable himselfe to doe these things He invites in Forreigne Forces You see He deales with Papists and Protestants and all to assist Him against the Parliament You see by those letters what Priviledges and Immunities are promised to Papists and nothing at all to His Protestant Subjects You see the great Trust Hereposeth in the Queene to make a bargaine for Him although it concerne Religion which is the strongest poynt of Confidence He can expresse to her I need not repeat the words Animadversions All this upon the matter is nothing but some of Mr Lisles cold meate newly minc't and the whole face of this part of the discourse is but drest up like Mr Sheriffes dore somewhat perchance added of Paint but still the same Post All that hath not been said and answer'd before is this That the King reposeth such trust in the Queene as to make a Bargaine for him though it concerne Religion which is the strongest poynt of confidence He can expresse unto Her And to this Mr Browne in a negligent and loose manner addes I need not repeat his wordes But is the matter worth the seeing and are the words not worth the saying pray let us heare you repeate them Your Citizens are used to repetitions and will like it well enough unlesse you think to put them off as they doe Beggars with saying It was the last thing you did for I am sure in all this Section you have done nothing else but repeated what Mr Lisle hath said before you Well if you will not repeat them I will repeat them for you For I will not have my Country-men of London cousened in their measure You shall not think to serve them with a bare yard and then save the thumb The whole period of the Kings Letter is this I need not tell thee what secrecy this businesse requires yet this I will say that this is the greatest poynt of confidence I can expresse to thee For it is no thankes to me to trust thee in any thing else but in this which is the only thing of difference in opinion betwixt us And can a cleerer testimony be given of the Kings uprightnesse in the poynt of His Religion If men would not tread inward with their faith and believe nothing but what makes for their own ends and advantages the Industry and Art of Innocence could not invent a clearer Light to shine by For here is Fire without Smoake here is Truth without modifications and disguises Here is nothing of designe like that profession the King makes in His often Declarations which the jealous world is tender of believing for feare of being cousened but here is a downe-right profession of differing in Religion with Her who with all Her heart I dare say could wish the King would have deceived Her And therefore as some Heretiques are said to worship Judas not because he betray'd his Lord and Master but because of that inestimable benefit which accrewed to mankind by meanes of his betraying which otherwise could never have befallen it So will some men who doubted here to fore of the Kings Innocence in His publick Declarations have reason to forgive this Rape upon His private Letters for the very Religion of this Evidence and Satisfaction which otherwise could never have so clearely been transmitted and derived unto them And thus have you seen the bottome of that Heart which the Scripture calls unsearcheable The Cabinet hath imparted Prov. 25. 2. to you so perfect an Image of the Kings very Thoughts that the Rack could not afford a clearer The Rebells have often promised to make him a Great King and now as the High Priest when he prophecyed they have made him so indeed when they never meant it In stead of His Three Kingdomes they have endowed him with Foure severall Empires For so long as Kings or Christians so long as Husbands or Men shall live upon this habitable earth they will all submit to the Scepter of His Pen and confesse themselves subdued in their chiefest Graces and Glories As a Man see but with what Sagacity He writes and with what Judgement See but what a cleane sence he hath of things which does so overlooke all his most perplexed Affaires that they seem to blush they have no better Difficulties See but how farre his Wisdome lookes into mens Persons which doth so weigh them and their Actions with the graines and allowance of their unworthy servile ends that He seems not more to observe then Prophecy See but what an even spirit of Elegancy runnes through every line which beares and leaps as much in the description of His saddest condition as of his serenest Fortune in so much that posterity will a little love His Misery for her very clothing Then as a Husband doe but observe how kinde He is and yet withall how Chast How full of warme expressions of Love and yet how farre from Wanton Doe but observe how He weighes his own Health by His Wives Standard Every line beares a Venus in it and yet bears no Doves And He drives the Trade of Thoughts between the Queen and Him with so much eagernesse and yet with so much Innocence in all His Letters as if He meant they should be intercepted As a Christian see but what a Conscience He makes of Oathes esteeming them not according to the Popular account as if their Ceremonie made them the lesse Sacred Or as too many men use them in the World as bracelets to their Speech not as they are indeed as chaines unto their Soule look but how He startles at the name of Sacriledge though never so commodious a sinne Doe but observe notwithstanding all his succours from the Queene on whom His patient eyes doe wait for better Helpe how he throwes himselfe upon the Providence of God how he rolles and gathers upon his justice in a confidence that as their mutuall interest in innocent Blood hath hither to poys'd the ballance between both sides So now the Rebells overflowing guilt and wickednesse will at last turne the Scales And then doe but observe His Constancy to the Protestant Religion which is the greatest difference between His Queen and Him and yet such a difference too that diversa virtus parem laudem consecuta est as the Orator speaks of Thucydides and Herodotus in his Institutions He is as much to be admired for his Difference as for his Love Last of all as a King see but what a constant and True soule He bears to Iustice which none of His sad infelicities can alter A Soule that would come off True were it put to Plato's tryall who saies that for a man to approve himselfe a True Iust Plato man indeed His vertue must be spoyl'd of all her ornaments He must be thought a vitious man though he be never so virtuous He must be reekon'd a False man of his word though he be never so True He must be mockt scorn'd and derided as though he were a Foole be he never so Wise nay saith that Philosopher I had almost said that Father He must give up his Life into the power of those that seek it laetius esse honestum putans quoties magno sibi constat esteeming it the greatest pleasure of Honesty to be gotten at the dearest purchase How many of these Tryalls hath the King endur'd and yet hath never shrinkt How hath his happy Government been traduced and his own sacred Person exposed How hath his Affection been abused and his Iudgement scorn'd how often hath he been reputed for a weake man nay how often for a Wicked how often hath he been esteemed a Fickle man nay how oft a False and yet our of all these His Letters which are the very Thoughts of the Kings heart but once remoov'd and where all the scapes of Nature or Breeding were most like to harbour cannot their acute malice impute or fasten any one thing upon him which is inconsistent either with the principles of Prudence Justice Conscience or Honour Insomuch that notwithstanding it be very probable that the Publication of these Papers is conceived by some slight men at this present as an attestation of the perfect glories of their Conquest and to shew the world how neare they came even to the very Person of the King yet it is altogether as probable that to men of the next sad and wiser age this very Triumph will confute the Victory whilest attributing that just veneration which is due from all cleane eyes to the Magistery of that Religion Elegancy Judgement Wit and Honesty which ruleth in this hasty composition and sodaine stile They will never gaine this Power over their beliefe or so farre subdue their understanding as to think either that so decryed a King as He hath been could Penne such Papers or that such wise Rebells as they would faine be thought could Print them FINIS
never so foolish and ridiculous and receive no present Answer to that which they have said They make that advantage of their getting Plutarch no Answer which Cato they say made when he could get no Statue who gave out that it was more for his Honour and Reputation that posterity should enquire why Cato had no Statue then why he had And therefore I shall take them all three in order as they lye beginning first with M. Lisles Oration whose masculine eloquence it seems was thought worthiest to enjoy the Mayden-head of the Citties Attention who bespeaks them in the manner following M. Lisle his Speech My Lord Major and you worthy Gentlemen of the Famous Citty of London I am commanded by the Lords and Commons in Parliament Assembled to observe to you some passages out of these Letters which you have heard They are passages of that nature though it be most happy to this Kingdom and Parliament to know them yet my very heart doth bleed to report them Animadversions Well said good obedient Oratour Higgin you have said nothing it seems but what you were commanded But I say not well done my Lord Major and you worthy Gentlemen of the famous City of London for you have done a thing which no body could command you you have resigned and given up your sences and your understanding here to three Brothers of the Observance as if you were able to marke nothing of your selves but what they Observe unto you What my Masters are the Walloones that came over lately crept already from the Campe into your Councell that a Common-Hall at London cannot understand English when they heare it Have you not only lost your Loyalty but your very Language that you must have an Interpreter to your own Mothers tongue take my word for it the Letters although they were not the old English foretoppe in their forehead of After my hearty commendations remembred unto you hoping to God that you are in good health as I am at the writing hereof yet they are writ in nothing but errand English The King and the Queen as much as you suspect them for superstition are not yet come to that height of Popery as to write their mutuall private Letters in an unknown Tongue For shame then be not such Wittalls to your own understanding as to say you know not English when you doe I can tell you the Cost of this Interpreter may chance prove greater then the Worship you see M. Lisles heart bleeds in the very begining of the businesse It was never known but Bloud would have Bloud you know and I feare your Hearts also that is your Purses will bleed before ever it be done There is so much of the Pharisee between you that if his Trumpet should goe before and your Almes should not follow after I would sweare one of you were very much out in playing of his part but M. Lisle is not out for he goes on Mr Lisle The first thing that I shall observe to you is concerning the King's endeavours to bring Forraigne Forces a Forraigne Prince with an Army into this Kingdom By His Letters to the Queen which you have heard read He endeavours to basten the Duke of Loraine with an Army into England It is well known to the Parliament that the Duke of Loraine is a Prince highly esteem'd at Rome the most complying with Iesuites of any Prince in Christendomes and yet the King writes to the Queen to hasten the Duke of Loraine to come with an Army into England Animadversions If the Major and his Brethren must observe and note this as a piece of Novelty which they knew not of before namely that the King did intend to bring in Forreigne Forces me thinkes the Exchange had been a fitter Theatre then the Guild-Gall to have call'd the Citizens together to have heard it and Mr Lisle's heart needed not to bleed for that But if they must observe and note this as a piece of Tyranny in the King as a breach and violation of any knowne Law in the Land and to that end it is most likely he would have them to observe it Then truly does Mr Lisle deserve to have his Nose bleed as well as his Heart he deserves to be well beaten for offering such a Cheat unto the Common People For Gods sake why may not the King bring over Forreigners when He shall be deserted and derelicted of his own Subjects Why may not the King invite Forreigne Forces hither now at the last for his Preservation and Reliefe whom the Rebels themselves have entertain'd already this two whole yeares and over for his Destruction and Ruine I cannot imagine why the worthy Citizens of London are to note and observe this as any unlawfull thing unlesse Mr Lisle will undertake to prove that the King by bringing in of such Forces into the Land does trespasse upon their severall Acts against Forreigners which are of so great force in London For I know no other Law written against which He does offend For I demand either it is lawfull for the King to defend himselfe by Force against those that doe rebell against him or it is not lawfull If they say it is not lawfull for him to defend himselfe by Force then have the Rebels the same argument against the King's raising of his Domestique Forces from amongst his owne Subjects here at home which they have against his bringing in of Forreigne from abroad For if it be not lawfull for him to defend himselfe by Force then is it not lawfull for him to raise any kind of Forces If they say it is lawfull for him to defend himselfe by Force then doubtlesse are all kind of Forces in themselves equally lawfull Because in this great Action of Defence no body but the King himselfe indeed is a proper Agent All others whether Persons or Things are but nearer or remoter Instruments used and employed by Him for his best advantage and therefore he that saies it is lawfull for the King to defend himselfe against Rebels with a native English or a Welch man but not with a Dutch or French man not with a Turke or Jew and thinkes he hath spoken high reason to the point that is in question He saies nothing more in effect then this That it is lawfull for the King to defend himselfe against the Rebels with an English Sword but not with a Spanish Blade or that it is lawfull for him to shoot powder at them which is made for him here in England but not to shoot that which is sent him hither out of France Or lastly that it is lawfull for him to charge the Rebels upon a Horse that hath been bred for him here at Brackley but not upon a Horse that hath been brought him over hither from Barbary For as all sorts of Weapons so all kinds of men are but the Kings Instruments in this great Action of his Defence and it is as lawfull for him to use the One for
his defence as to use the Other That which is there added concerning the Duke of Lorrain's estimation and power in the Court of Rome and concerning his complying with the Jesuites is meere froth and fume For does not all the World know that the Rebels themselves care not out of what quarter of the Compasse the wind blow so it doe but hoyse the Sayles up of their seditious Designes Alas there needs no breaking up of Cabinets or forcing private Letters to come by this Intelligence which all the World knowes namely that at this very instant the Rebels have their Factors and Agents with the King of Spaine and the King of Spaine questionlesse is a Prince full of as great esteeme at Rome as the Duke of Lorraine can be And that he complies faitely with the Jesuites too there is more then a suspition or a saying For it is notoriously knowne that the Rebels of Westminster who have so often exclaym'd and inveigh'd against the King for suspending the execution of Law against Recusants as if he savoured of Popery have themselves notwithstanding at the sollicitation and instigation of some Agents for the King of Spaine pardoned two Jesuites of late out of their pure zeale unto the Protestant Religion Mr Lisle The next thing that I shall observe to you are Endeavours to overthrow the Law of the Land by Power to repeale the Lawes and Statutes of this Realme by Force and Armes Endeavours by Force and Armes to repeale all the Statutes of this Kingdome against Papists I shall read a passage to you which you have already heard out of one of the Kings Letters to the Queene The Letter was dated the fifth of March 1644. I give thee Power in my Name to promise that I will take away all the Penall Statutes in England against the Roman Catholicks assoone as God shall enable me to doe it so as by their meanes or in their Favours I may have so powerfull assistance as may deserve so great a Favour When we Consider that the Statutes of this Kingdowe against Papists must be taken away by Force when we consider that the Lawes of this Kingdome are to be Repealed by Power who cannot but when he calls to mind the Declarations that have been made to put the Lawes in execution against Papists of the Protestations that have been made and have been often made to maintaine the Lawes of this Kingdome who can chuse but greive to thinke of it Animadversions I remember a report that goes of Socrates who being instigated once in a dreame to make some Verses was very much afflicted the next day when he awak't how he should doe it For accounting Poesy nothing but Colour and Fiction and having been himselfe all his life long a profest Votary to Truth He found that he wanted the faculty of making probable Lyes and therefore he went and took Aesops Fables which he knew to be nothing else but Fictions ready framed to his hands and put them into Verse that he might in some manner satisfie the will and pleasure of his Inspiration You see Socrates was much troubled here to make Verses because he could not lye But if you doe but sever and divide these Complicated aspersions which are here cast upon the King you will easily see that Mr Lisle is not much troubled how to lye because he makes not Verses for in all that hath been said here there is not so much as one tittle of considerable Truth that colours for a Crime The principall Ingredients to this Oleo of malice are three First that the King endeavours to overthrow the Law of the Land Secondly that he endeavours to overthrow that Law by Force and Armes and thirdly That he endeavours to doe both notwithstanding all his Declarations and Protestations which have been made unto the contrary For the first of these If by Overthrowing the Law of the Land be meant a totall eradication and extirpation of all the Ancient Lawes which are of the Foundation of this Kingdoms Government as if the King purposed to new mould the Common-wealth and to let nothing passe for Law but what he likes Then that which is here said is very considerable indeed and to the purpose but it is not true For I hope no man of understanding will suffer himselfe to be convinced by this Argument The King will take away all the Penall Lawes in England which have been made against Recusants Therefore the King will take away all the Lawes of England that ever have been made And if by Overthrowing the Law of the Land be meant onely the Suspension or the Annihilation of so much of the Law of the Land as concernes Recusants and was made but since the beginning of the last Queenes Raigne Then that which is here said is indeed very true but it is no whitt considerable or to the purpose For against what Law is it to have a purpose or a resolution to Repeale any Law Certainly the Lawes made here in England are not like the Lawes of the Medes and Persians that never must be changed They may be sometimes abrogated by consent they may be sometimes abrogated by dissuetude and disuse They may be sometimes abrogated by continuall contrary Practises and Vsage And those Lawes which seem to have the best and strongest Constitution are notwithstanding subject to this just Fatality that they never live longer then their Reasons And then doubtlesse if there be no sinne in the Repeale it selfe of any Lawe there can be no very great offence in the Resolution of Repealing I take not upon me now to meddle with the Religion of those Lawes which were then made against Recusants or how farre it may be or may not be Lawfull to use outward violence in matters that concerne inward perswasion although I professe I am apt enough to think that that is not Religion which doth force men to Religion and that those men who by the sence or expectation of any thing which is evill to the nature of man as fining imprisoning or the like doe endeavour to compell the Will of man to an assent of those conclusions whereof he is not in the least measure convicted in his understanding doe but only let him see that they want better arguments I look only now upon the Reason why those Lawes were made And certainly those Lawes were not made to determine the Truth of those poynts in controversie which then were and still are between the Church of England and Rome for if so then doe we our selves strike against a worse rock then that which hath already shipwrackt them for whereas they only make their Church we make our State Infallible The State may make Lawes against Recusants and yet that which those Recusants doe believe and teach may be True and the State may repeale Lawes made against Recusants and yet that which those Recusants doe believe and teach may be still false And it is no better argument to say the King will
you nothing but Men or Womens Faces but being turn'd the other way is as full of horned Beasts or Divells And then as touching the Kings Protestations which have been often made to maintaine the Lawes of this Kingdome for God's sake what of them If they meane That because the King protesteth to maintaine the Lawes of the Kingdome therefore he cannot repeale any one of those Lawes whom he hath protested to maintaine why then doe they presse him to repeale divers and sundry Laws made concerning Episcopacy and the Book of Common Prayer seeing they are Lawes which he is bound to maintaine by this Protestation But if the meaning of those wordes be That the King protesteth to maintaine the Law which is establisht for Law to be ruled by that Law and to doe nothing in an arbitrary way contrary to that Law as no doubt that is the meaning of his words then does not the repealing and abrogating of any Law thwart and crosse his Protestation of maintaining the Law because when it is Repealed it is no longer a Law And as the Divines use to say that our Saviour when he came and touched the dead mans Coffin offended not against the Law which holds such Persons uncleane because he purposed to restore him againe to life So does not the king offend against His Protestation of maintaining the Law of the Land if upon good occasion offered he should a little suspend the Execution of those Lawes made against Recusants for the present which hereafter a free Convention of Parliament will find as good occasion wholly to take away if their Assistance of the King in this his present exigence and necessity shall appeare to them so vigorous and hearty to deserve so great a Favour Mr Lisle The third thing Gentlemen that I shall observe to you is concerning the use and the ends that have been made which you may observe out of these Letters of a Treaty with the Parliament I shall read His Majesties words to you in a Letter of the fifteenth of Febr. 1645. a Letter to the Queene And be confident that in making Peace I shall ever shew my Constancy in adhering to Bishops and to all our Friends and not forget to put a short period to this perpetuall Parliament And in his Letter to the Queene of the ninth of Febr. 1644. there is this passage Be confident I will never quit Episcopacy nor the Sword We did all hope that the end of a Treaty had been to settle a happy Peace a firme and a well grounded Peace But now we see by the Kings Letter that his Resolutions are still to keep the Sword in his owne hands We did all hope that the end of a Treaty was to settle Church-Government according to the Protestation the Solemne Vow and Covenant which we have all taken But you see by the Kings Letters that he avowes to the Queene that he will never quit Episcopacy We did all hope that the end of a Treaty was rather to confirme the Parliament then to dissolve it But the King sayes in his owne Letter that he will not forget at this Treaty to put a short period to this perpetuall Parliament Animadversions Here is a very fine Rhetoricall Rainbow much is represented in shewe nought in substance Mr Lisle knew well enough to whom he spake to the common sort of People Qui frequentèr in hoc ipsum fallendi sunt ne errent as Quintilian speakes of them who are alwayes to be cousened and even for this very purpose often That they may not be deceiv'd For I dare say Mr Lisle is no more perswaded in himselfe of the truth of these particular Aspersions which are here cast upon the King then Theopompus when he changed cloathes with his wife and scaped out of prison could beleive himselfe a woman because he made the keepers to beleive it We will only divide a little between his Conclusions and his Clouds and then you will the more easily perceive it One of the Conclusions which he takes upon him to perswade and worke in the minds and affections of the people is this That the King never intended Peace in the last Treaty The Cloud which is cast about that Conclusion to cover it from their understandings is this Because his Resolutions are still to keep the Sword in his owne hands Now the People can doe no lesse then subscribe to this Proposition as being necessarily true He that is resolved to keep the Sword still in his hands is resolved not to have a Peace But the double acceptation of that notion the Sword would easily dispell this Cloud and spread it into nothing For the word Sword as well in Sacred as in Civill Writers as it sometimes implyeth the materiall Sword that Instrument of violence wherewith one private man smites and hurts another of which our Saviour Christ speaks in the Gospell when he saies unto S. Peter Put up thy Sword So doth it other whiles imply the Civill Sword or that power and administration of Iustice which resides in the Supreme Magistrate and inflicts severall punishments on severall persons according to their severall offences of which S. Paul speaks in his Epistle when he saies of Nero the Emperour that He beareth not the Sword in vain Now nothing can be playner then that the King useth that word Sword in this latter Acceptation and as by Episcopacy They cannot but acknowledg that the King understands that old Forme of Hierarchicall Government in the Church now establisht which he tells the Queene he will not quit for that of the Presbytery which is the new Fangle So they cannot deny without denying their reason that by the Sword which the King there joyneth with Episcopacy He meanes that Monarchicall Forme of Government in the State now establisht which He tells the Queene He will never quit for a Democracy which the Rebels labour so hard to superinduce upon him And then this horrid Conclusion having broken thus through the Cloud resolves into lesse then a mans Hand for it resolves into no more but this The King never intended to change the present Government of the Church or the present Government of the State Therefore the King in the last Treaty never intended Peace But what needed the Queenes Letters to be broken up for this Did not the King's Commissioners when they were at Vxbridge tell you the very same thing twenty dayes together that the King would not alter the Government of the Church or State unlesse there were better Reasons urged then your bare wills how comes this then halfe a yeare afterwards to be told the good Citizens of London for such newes Alas you must thinke They have brought up the men of London who by nature were never very fierce to such a tamenesse of understanding that they must needs think every thing a great Secret and of some mysterious Consequence in the Queenes Letters and therefore they care not at how deare a price of Inhumanity they purchase
and Territories granted to us to maintaine a Warre against them now because we maintaine that Warre we are Rebels and Traitors and the Irish Rebels because that they stand against you They shall be freed from all Penall Lawes They shall have any thing that They desire nothing is too deare for them any Lawes may be altered for their sakes But when the Protestants come to desire an Alteration of Law for the advancement of the Protestant Religion and for the settlement of the Protestants nothing can be granted to them by a Protestant King but every thing to the Irish I shall say but a word more and pray consider of it The Condition why all this is granted to the Irish and denied to you it is onely this That the Irish may come over into England to cut your Throats as they cut the throats of all the Irish Protestants in Ireland This is the cause for which they are encouraged to come hither If there be such a reward for Treachery if there be such a fruit of the Protestations of the King what can we expect Animadversions Truly the Kingdome of Ireland bleeding were a very sad spectacle did not the Kingdome of England bleeding call for both our Eyes A Kingdome before this Parliament began so growne aged in continuall Happinesse that as they use to say of the spiced and persum'd Ayre in which the Sabeans Agatharo live Summus quidem odor sed volupt as minor The very Excesse seem'd to abate the pleasure and the Repetition of nothing but the same Blessings which were still as constant as their Dayes did not so much affect the Sence of the Nation as dull it When on the suddaine an Anabaptisticall Party rising up layes hold upon all the Kings Forts and Ships seizes all His Lands rifles all the Goods of most of the Protestants in England and not content with that hath opened more then one hundred Thousand Veynes of as good Protestant bloud and made of as good milke as ever the Church of England gave since She lay in of her first Reformation Now these Rebels of England that have dispoyled their owne lawfull Soveraigne of all his Royall Interests and just Rights and that have thus inhumanely murthered so many thousands of their owne Protestant Brethren here is the sadnesse avow themselves the loyall and most obedient Subjects of the King and those Subjects who venture their Lives and Fortunes in the Cause of God and of the King Those they traduce for Malignants Traytors and Rebels God forbid that the King or any good Protestant should justifie that Rebellion in Ireland halfe so much as these English Rebels themselves doe that exclaime most against it For assuredly no man justifies a sinne more then he that does commit it When the Rebellion brake out first in Ireland all the world knowes there was no man in England more forward in expressing the sense of his Indignation against it then the King Both Houses of Parliament could not suggest any probable Expedient for the quenching of that Flame but the King straight way ratified and approved it Nay His Industry was so like His Interest farre transcending theirs that whilest they were only hovering about Advice He was upon the wings of Action and would have interposed his own Sacred Person in the Quarrell if they would have allowed it and thought it fit But now that a greater Flame is kindled in the Bowells of this Kingdome and that those very Buckets which there should have cast on water to have quenched it are here cast on themselves to augment and raise the fire he that will blame the Kings affections for being corrupted because they are a little coold He that will accuse Him for being false to the Principles of Law which bindes Him to defend His Subjects against the Rebells in Ireland because He is true to the Principles of Nature which binds him to defend himselfe against the Rebells here in England Certainly that man will approve his Humor for Discretion who when the fatall Axe hung over him took greater care for his Haire then for his Head And therefore M. Tate addes little to the credit of his Cause when he heapes up these exaggerations upon the King That the Irish Rebells can be freed from all the penall Lawes that they may have any thing which they desire and that Nothing is to deare for them c. for the more dishonourable and deare the conditions are on which the King purchases the settlement of Irelands Peace The more infamous and odious is this Treason and Rebellion here in England which alone hath rais'd the Market For if England would not Pipe so as it does Ireland would have but little mind to Dance And whereas Mr Tate is of opinion that all this is granted to the Irish that they may come over into England and cut Throats Truly I am of opinion that if they doe not make more hast then I can yet perceive they doe they will loose their Labour for the Scots will have done their Worke before they come Whose encouragements no doubt are the better of the twaine For what they loose in gay promises they find in good Pay What they have not in Repealing of Lawes they have in Reaping the profit of good Lands What they want in three or foure Complements They have in five Counties And a Scott that will not cut Throates upon these Tearmes let him live by cutting of Purses or which is more Merchant-like by selling of Pinnes Mr Tate All I have to say is you see you must stand to your Armes and defend your selves For there is no hopes for you unlesse you can submitt your necks to the Queene and be transformed into Irish Rebels and Papists I know not how you can obtaine any favour at Court especially having such a Mediator as you have a Parliament that is so hated by the King As long as that mediates for you you shall have nothing but if you can have a Popish Catholique Queene to sollicite in your behalfe you shall have any thing I know you are too much Englishmen and Protestants to submit to such base conditions Therefore lay aside all division and unite your selves in this Cause that you may be Masters of the Popish Party that otherwise will kill you all Animadversions Are you come to say all that you have to say already I protest a very moderate Gentleman and one that is not like to be a Lecturer long for though he knows not what to speak yet he knowes when to hold his Tongue I will undertake after this rate he might have talkt till mid-night But sir doe you thinke your Aldermen are awake or rather doe not you think that you have talkt all this while in your sleep For my part I confesse I am so farre a Citizen of the Common Hall that I doe not understand you and I take it for a great blessing upon mine Innocence that I doe not reach your meaning The truth
Love They begin to think it so indeed forgetting that it is as easie a matter for a French Cook and a Committee-man to make a Feast out of a Straw as it is an ordinary thing for themselves to make a Solemne Funerall when there is nothing in the Coffin but a Faggot But let us heare what these Discoveries are Mr Browne Before His Majesty departed from the Parliament the Lords and Commons by a Petition to him did present unto him their Feares occasioned by the favouring of Recusants Their Feares that he would bring in Forreigne Forces That he would change and alter the Lawes They gave him their Reasons for all But he was pleased to give his Answer with denying all as they affirmed all For that of Forreigne Forces because he gave a punctuall Answer to that I will tell you what it was When they told him that they were informed that the Popes Nuncio did deale with the French and Spanish Kings to send to him 4000 men a peice the King did Answer to them That it was improbable in it selfe and Scandalous to him for which he desired Reparation at their hands And at another time he answers that very poynt concerning Forraigne Forces positively and saith No sober nor honest man can believe that we are so desperate or so sencelesse they are His very words to entertaine such a designe as to bring in Forraigne Forces which would not only bring this Our Kingdome in distraction and Ruine but Our own name and Posterity in perpetuall Scorne and Infamy You have heard what hath been said for that you have heard his own Letters how He deales with the Queene and how pressing He is with Her to bring into this Kingdom the Duke of Lorraine with his Army The Duke of Lorraine you know is a Catholique Popish Forraine Prince So you see how much He is alter'd from what He thought then and how His endeavours are now that both Honest men and Sober men may believe that He would doe it because He writes to Her with such earnestnesse to pray Her to doe it for Him Animadversions The scope and purpose of this Paragraph is to expose His Majesty to the reproach of Falshood and Contradiction by committing some of His open Answers and Protestations with some of His Private Instructions and Letters and to make them clash together in the poynt of Forraigne Forces And truly if Mr Browne had done this he had done something that is if M. Browne had evidently demonstrated this that the King at the very same time and being in the very same state and condition when He professed openly that no Sober or Honest Man could believe He was so desperate or senselesse to entertaine such a designe as to bring in Forraigne Forces had privately notwithstanding by Letters under hand solicited the Queen for Forces from the Duke of Lorraine This indeed had cast a blemish upon His Faith and Honour This had clouded one of the brightest Stones in all the Crowne for nihil est quod clariore lumine praefulgeat quam recta fides in Principe Hotoman saith the great Lawyer There is nothing of that Lustre like a Princes Word and Honour This had been a plaine breach of Faith and Honesty to which nothing could have been said by way of modification or excuse that could have rendred it either Honourable or Lawfull But if M. Browne only demonstrate this that the King at one time and being in one condition professed against Forraigne Force and then that at another time and being in another condition he pressed the Queene for it I believe this will not amount to any fault if it be strictly considered much lesse to any Falshood For what doe they take the meaning of those words of the Kings to be That no sober nor honest man can believe him so desperate or so sencelesse to entertaine such a designe as to bring in Forraigne Forces Either they must take those words in the nature of a bare Assertion expressing for the time to come the Kings mind as it was at present and so to justify the uprightnesse of such an Assertion it is sufficient that a man meanes as he speakes when he speaks and not that he should continue alwaies in that meaning For a man hath power and right too to change his mind And if in that change and alteration there be any thing that is ill as oftentimes it falleth out there is That evill is no way intrinsecall to the mutation but it ariseth from the matter namely when the first opinion was better then the second is so that unlesse M. Browne can prove that the King had a mind to bring in Forraigne Forces at that very time when He professed He had no such thought or entertain'd any such designe His Assertion remaines entire and without fault notwithstanding any change or alteration of His mind which since might happen to it Or they must understand those words in the nature of a contract or promise which obliges the King not only for the present to meane what he saies but for the future to continue in that meaning and if so then there are two severall Rules in the Civill Law which would be considered for they will acquit the King from the disreputation of Infidelity or breach of promise notwithstanding his endeavours by the Queene to bring in Forreigne Forces The first Rule is this Omnis promissio habet in se tacitam conditionem hans Rebus sic stantibus Menoch aliquo de novo non superveniente That is Every Promise hath this tacite Condition implyed and involved in it of Things being as they were when the Promise was made for if there be any notorious change or mutation in the Condition either of the Persons or Things A man is not then saith the Law obliged by his Promise And is there not a remarkable Alteration of both in our present Case Are not both the Persons changed and the very Things when the King promised he would entertaine no such designe as to bring in Forreigne Forces he promised that to Subjects and in the time of Peace but they that clayme this promise of him now are Rebels and they claime it being themselves against him in an open Warre And is not this a sad Change and Alteration when the King promised not to bring in Forreigne Forces the thing was a matter of Indifferency for the King was in no visible danger but that he might have subsisted well enough without them But now when they claime it it is a matter of necessity and for ought any man knowes the onely visible way under Heaven left to the King for to defend himselfe And is not this s sensible Mutation therefore the Condition of the Times Persons and Things being changed the Obligation of the promise also saies the Law is not in reason longer to continue The second Rule amongst the Civilians is this Quoties per alium fit quo minus id impleatur
contrary reasons and enducements for feare either of Contradiction or Injustice And first it is out of question that all Penall Lawes are but Obligations of some persons to some punishments with relation to some Actions or Omissions which either have in themselves an intrinsecall pravity by reason of the immutable nature of the thing or else an extrinsecall obliquity by reason of some contrary Command Now if Refusall of Communion with the Church of England should be confessed an Omission of the former sort that is an Omission which in the very nature of the Thing were intrinsecally vicious or evill and such an Omission it may be to refuse to worship God but to refuse to worship him after this or that manner will hardly rise unto it yet would it not straight way follow That because it is Just that offendours in that kind should be punished therefore the Supreme Magistrate is unjust that inflicts no punishment upon them Because we are to know that Injustice does not alwayes follow upon the not doing of what is Just For as it does not follow that because a Prince is liberall if he give a Pension of a thousand pounds per annum to one that is a well deserving Servant at his hands Therefore he is sordid and illiberall if he give him not a penny So neither is it perpetually true That that thing which is very Justly done cannot be but uniustly let alone as we see in the case of Blasphemy which the King might iustly punish with death if he should make a Law against it as the people of Israel did and yet we doe not say He is uniust because He does not doe it But if Refusall of Communion with the Church of England prove but an Omission of the second sort that is an Omission of a thing which hath nothing of Evill in it further then Externall denomination as being the Result of some positive Law or other that does command it Then certainly the same power that enacted may abolish it Perpetuity not being any whit essentiall to any positive Law to continue it unto the end but Power that it may be severely kept and may reach those Eudes for which it is continued And therefore the very Philosophers by the light of reason could observe that nothing Sopat Epist ad Demet. was more easily dispensable then Penall Lawes It being the priviledge of all Authority whether Divine Civill Paternall or Despoticall upon emergent occasions in things which are Indifferent to make Lawes and so by consequent sinnes without adding the least entity to the things themselves which continue still the same whether they be commanded one while or another while forbidden And that Communion with the Church of England in the manner of Gods worship is but a Thing in its owne Nature and before the Law commanding it Indifferent will easily be made appeare by this that as some Persons are punishable by Law that doe refuse it as in our present case of such men who are Recusants So are other persons punishable by Law that use it as in the case of persons excommunicate which could never certainly be done if the Thing it selfe were in its owne nature Evill For the State might as well command a man to forsweare himselfe three or foure dayes together or to commit Adultery three or foure nights together by way of punishment for some preceding Sinne as to command him not to Communicate with the Church of England in her publique worship if this not communicating had that Intrinsecall pravity rooted in the very nature of the Thing which that Forswearing and committing of Adultery are acknowledged to have in them But those Lawes which in themselves are mutable and subject to abolition without the least Injustice whether we speak of that which is unjust in nature or of that which is in Law may notwithstanding become Immutable these two severall wayes either by Oath or Promise For every Oath is a signe of Immutability brought upon that thing to which an Oath is added The Apostle is plaine for it who telleth us that God willing to shew the Immutability of his Councell in the 6. Heb. 17. confirm'd it by an Oath That by two Immutable things c. And a promise does give such a right and interest to the Party promised that without Injustice it can not be taken from him Now because although it be in the free Power of the Magistrate to make such a Promise yet it is not in his Power to break that which He hath freely made therefore we reckon that a promise not to abrogate a Law does adde and imprint an Immutability in that very Law and superinduces a legall Impossibility upon it ever to be abrogated or changed In the second place therefore let us see what that Promise and Profession was which the King did make against this Abolition and how farre the said Abolition becomes unjust by vertue of that Promise When the Rebellion first brake out in Ireland and those severall expedients which were suggested by the Parliament of England for the suppression thereof proved not so dextrous and happy when they came to Action as they seemed when they were but in Designe The Kings Majesty to the perpetuall honour of His Innocence who was asâ—ersed as having some kind of secret Influence upon the Revolt of that whole Kingdom made this offer to His two Houses that He would expose himselfe to the danger of an expedition thither in his own sacred Person if they would think it fit and make a Tryall if He could reduce it And because the guiltinesse of their own intentions prompted them to a base suspition of His as if He might use some meanes of Reduction more prejudiciall to the Crowne then the Revolt by permitting a toleration of the Roman Profession to the Catholick party there who notwithstanding had been used to a gentle connivence from the supreme Magistrate in the poynt of Conscience ever since the first Reformation of this Church His Majesty for the cleare satisfaction of His two Houses and of all His Subjects in their unworthy misinterpretations and murmures and for the justification of the Piety and Honour of His Resolutions and designes in this present expedition and adventure Opens Himselfe in a Declaration to all the World and amongst other particular expressions of a sincere Heart and cordiall affection to Gods cause and His Owne He gives them this Assurance that if He does goe over in Person as He does intend He will never consent upon what pretence soever to a Toleration of the Popish Profession there or the Abolition of the Lawes now in force against Popish Recusants in that Kingdome Insomuch that Mr Browne does well to rejoyne unto those words of the Kings Declaration these of his What could His Majesty have said more to satisfy His people For by this promise of not abolishing those Lawes he hath invested his People with such a Right in those Lawes that he cannot easily nay he
cannot without Injury ever take it from them unlesse they themselves will And there is no question in the World but if the King had at that time gone over into Ireland and had assented either to a Toleration of the Catholique Religion or had given way to the Abolition of those Lawes then in force against Recusants upon any Tearmes whatsoever which the witt of man could imagine be most Honourable or Advantageous either to him or to his Kingdome he had done not only that which is unjust but that which is impossible as the Lawyers use to speake because eadem est impossibilitas Juris Naturae F. Conâ—â—us That wich is impossible by Law is as farre from being done that is Lawfully done as that which is impossible by Nature For standing the condition of this promise which is the substance of it and standing the circumstances of Times Persons Places and such like which are subservient unto it The King could never doe it And therefore in the third place it is high time we should looke whether this Promise of not abolishing those Lawes now to them doe not bind and tye up that other Promise to abolish them which he since made unto my Lord of Ormond as being impossible to be performed by him without contradiction and the breach of his former Promise which is as impossible to Justice Now that the influence of this first promise upon the second promise is not such as renders that second promise either impossible or which is as bad unjust it may be these two severall waies demonstrated First by way of Annihilation and voiding of the first promise and secondly by Application of that first promise made in Generall to such severall particulars which could never reasonably be presum'd to be comprehended and contained therein Concerning the first of these the Civilians tell us that there are two waies how a man may H. Grotius not keep his promise and yet not be unjust The one is by defect of a Condition without which the party promising contracts no obligation and hither also they referre that case If the other party first doe not keep his word For the severall branches of one and the same Contract in the severall parties are but by the way of a Condition as if it had been formally thus expressed This I promise to doe if he will doe that And so this Promise of the Kings that he never would consent to the Abolition of the Lawes made in Ireland against Recusants either it had no Condition at all and then the King contracts no obligation thereby nor is bound to keep it or it was made on this Condition that His two Houses would first consent to this His present Expedition for Ireland and put the Mannaging and Trust of those affaires into His hands In which Condition they breaking first on their parts have left Him unobliged on His. The other way is by compensation and then they tell us that that which we have promised we may Lawfully not performe and yet not be reckoned unjust when that which we promise and performe not is but of equall worth if put into the Scales with some other thing of Ours which unjustly is detained from us and restor'd not And so if the King should breake this one promise which he made to them yet were he not unjust because he would still be behind hand with them for those iterated promises and repeated Oathes of Fidelity and Obedience of Subjection and Allegiance which they have made and made againe to Him and yet have broke them All. The second way to demonstrate that there is no Injustice or Contradiction in these two promises is by Application of that first promise made in generall to such severall particulars which could never reasonably be presum'd to be comprehended and contained therein when the promise was made And to this purpose observeable is that maxime in the Civill Law Promissio Generalis non trahitur ad ea ad quae verisimiliter promittens L. obligatione ff de pign Capit. si in specie interrogatus fuisset minime se obligasset that is to say No Generall promise is to be drawne and extended unto those things to which the party promising in all likelyhood if He had been then question'd in particular concerning them would never have been obliged and we apply it thus The King having a desire to passe over into Ireland and to suppresse the Rebellion there while it was young and being willing also to satisfy both His Houses that in the pursuance thereof He would use no dishonourable and unworthy meanes makes this solemne Profession that however the Rebells in Ireland might pretend that they rose only for Religion and that if they might be but permitted their Liberty of Conscience they would all be quiet yet He would never consent upon what pretence soever to a Toleration of the Popish profession there or the Abolishing of the Lawes now in force against Popish Recusants in that Kingdom This is the Generall Promise and to many particulars it may be drawne and applyed and to many it may not To those onely particulars saith the Law may it be drawne to which the King if He had been interrogated particularly concerning them would in all probability have oblig'd himselfe when He made that Promise as for example When the King made this generall Promise that He would never consent to abrogate those Lawes If the Lords and Commons had come to these particulars and said Your Majesty promises never to Consent to the Abolition of the Lawes against Recusants upon any pretence whatsoever but will you not consent to abolish them if you think you have good Reason Your Majesty promises never to Consent to it while you are Here But will you remember to performe that promise when you come There Your Majesty promises never to give Consent that is to doe it Willingly But will you not suffer your selfe so to come within the Rebels power that you must be forc't to doe out of Necessity To these particulars and many more like these because it is very probable the King would have oblig'd Himselfe knowing the clean Intentions of His Heart when He made this generall Promise Therefore this generall Promise saith the Law reacheth those Particulars and is applyable to them But then if the Lords and Commons hearing this generall Promise of the Kings that upon no pretence whatsoever He would abolish those Lawes had come to these particulars and said Your Majesty promises never to Consent to an Abolition of those Penall Lawes because you are confident we will assist you in reducing those Irish Rebels by Force if Faire meanes will not doe But if we should Rebell against you as well as They will you be obliged by this Promise then If we should drive you to those streights that unlesse the Catholiques of Ireland help you the Schismaticks and Brownists of England will dispoyle you of your Revenues and your Royalties