much passion I desire to save a noble young Lord of such eminent abilities as may be of great use to the King and Kingdom from sincking in his reputation which will make them altogether uselesse to the publick I will adventure to take your Lordship by the hand and to try whether I can raise you out of this puddle also when I have first opened my selfe to be the same man that made the larger Answer to your Lps Speech to the Bil of Attainder of the sayd unhappy Lord which was intended to have been sent to you so timely that if your Lordship had thereby received satisfaction in your Scruples you might have acknowledged as much in the House of Commons whereof you were then a Member and so have escaped their censure in a fayrer way then you did by climbing up into the House of Peers at that time For so that is understood But the throng of lesser Pamphlets was so great that before this could passe the Presse which I am made believe it could not in a month and more your Lordships Speech ranne the fortune you know and another briefer Answer thereunto got through Of which misadventure I was much more sorry for your Lordships sake than mine own though by this meanes I also may possibly have been censured either for insulting upon a noble person cast down which I should hate my self for if it were true or for having taken the advantage of such a time to publish my Answer when it was not safe for your Lordship to make any Reply But since your Lordship hath adventured on other actions and writings more dangerous then your defence need to be as your Lordship may mannage it I humbly beseech your Lordship to take it into your consideration whether you may not do well to make a Replication thereunto for the reasons I shall now give your Lordship and which I am perswaded ought to have the same force with you which they have with me They are if that your Lordship do yet persist in your opinion that you had sufficient grounds to alter your first judgement of the Lord Straffords cause you ought to make a further clear deduction of them to the world partly for that unfortunate Lords sake partly for your owne a little for your servants and a great deale for your Countryes sake For to begin with the last as being of greatest concernment in it self and I beleeve in your Lordships esteem also If your Lordship who have now had good leisure and great cause to revolve all your late words and actions in your most serious thoughts and to bring all the stirrings of your conscience upon every one of them to a strict examination be still of the same mind you were when you so solemnly washed your hands from the blood of the Lord of Strafford which he at his death charged home upon this Kingdome (a) then it cannot be but you must needs fear that it lyes upon this Land and in your apprehension may be one cause of the present unhappy condition thereof which hath beene so well foreseen and expressed by my Lord your father (b) And may you then or can you in such a time as this keep the reason of your fears to your self which for ought you can know may have the same operation in the hearts of those to whom you then so lively represented the hainousnesse of the sin of committing murther with the sword of justice if you think you can convince them thereof I need not tell your Lordship the force of naked truth not to bee told when it comes armed with so compleat an eloquence as â—od hath given your Lordship And if you could thereby worke the like change in the rest of my Lord of Straffords Judges which was wrought in you have they not power to review their owne proceedings and to repeal the Bill of Attainder they passed in this cause your Lordship knowes this is usuall in the Republick of Venice and if there be no president in our State of any man restored to his blood by the same Parliament which attainted him which I am not learnd enough to know I conceive such a new president were well made as many other have been by the wisdom of this Parliament by 〈◊〉 and not by the examples of former every Parliament ought to be guided For me if your Lordship shall prove to me that your grouuds remain firm after all my endeavours to shake them and withall if with the helpe of the many great Lawyers were of your Lordships opinion you can make a satisfactory Answer to the learned argument of Mr. Solicitor by which I was much cleared and confirmed in the judgement unto which I was lead by meer reason without having the light of the Law I here professe that I shall hold my selfe much obliged to your Lordp. for disabusing me and bound in conscience to make a retraction of my Answer in Print since I gave way to the printing thereof And I believe Master Saint-Iohn will be of the same mind the fame I have heard of his Religion being no lesse then that of his Law and the alteration of his opinion may prove a principall verb in theâ— construction of the Parliament concerning that case Your Lordp hath therefore no want of forreign inducements to imploy your best thoughts in this disquisition By the same labour your Lordp. may rectifie your own reputation in this matter which ought to be more tender to you now then ever as I see it is And if you can make it appear that you were in the right you shall wrong the Parliament more then yet you have done by entertaining the least doubt that you may thereby hinder your repatriation with them which I wish you had not done by other courses It is ever better for the wisest Counsells and States as well as men to retract an error then to maintain it But if on the other side your Lordship doth now perceive that you might have condemned the Earl os Strafford with as free a heart as you accused or prosecuted him for a Traytor then my Lord a good conscience will need no prompter to tell you that you owe the King and Kingdom a publique confession of your judgement as now informed in reparation of that high wrong you did His Majestie and the Parliament by publishing your Protestation in print when you were of another minde nor that you have much worke to do at home which can be done by no other and which it doth infinitely concern you not to slubber over I need not tell you my reason yet because the most watchfull conscience may need jogging sometimes I most humbly beseech your Lordship to give me leave without offence to entreat you first to take a re-view of your Speech by the light you now have from Master Solicitor and then to set before your eyes that part of the preface wherin you wished peace of conscience to your selfe and the
and innocence with so much passion as may keep them company may well be allowed to breath it self with so much freedom as to present to the world with a true and sensible life my sufferings upon whomsoever the injustice and inhumanity may light of having opprest and bowed down to the earth a young man and all his hopes by such undeserved calamities ANSWER The next misfortune your Lordship insisteth on is your having been charged in generalll with High-Treason the impeachment in particular bearing onely that you had appeared in a warlike manner to the terror of the Kings Subjects at Kingstone upon Thames and the amendment of that charge by putting in that you had levyed War against the King upon a question raysed by a Lord or two learned in the Law whether that former accusation would amount to Treason or no To this I need to say little because I may well presume that the two Houses of Parliament in some sort interessed in this your Lordships complaint though not of them yet of the persons trusted by them will not faile to give convenient satisfaction unto your Lordship and the world at the sollicitation of those persons to me unknowne concerning whom your Lordship thinketh you may as you doe put a question whether they be so full of Honour ingenuitie or integritie or so free from passion malice interest or affection as they are thought without offence of both or either House of Parliament or any reflection upon the opinion or resolution of either of them All I will or indeed can say as to the matter above recited is but this That whether your Lordp. appeared there with six Coach-horses or six score horses whether your Lordships businesse to that place where those many Souldiers and Commanders who waited on their Majesties to Hampton Court and from thence went to Kingston upon Thamâ—s for lodging were only upon a message of the Kings to 40 or 50 Gentlemen among them expressing his Majesties good acceptance of their service Whether those forty or fifty were totally strangers to your Lordp. to which point also the Intelligencer telleth an unhappy tale and by name whether Colonell Lunsford were till then so great a stranger to your Lordp. that you had never exchanged twenty words with him in all your life are all matters of fact and the truth of them must remain upon proof For if there can be no more proved against your Lordship then you write then admitting it to be true which I find in the Remonstrance of the Lords and Commons prepared long before but ordered to be published upon the second of November last That there were at Kingston at that time waggons loaden with Pistolls Carbines and Ammunition great horses armed with Pistolls And though the Officers to whom it seemeth your Lordship was sent together with the Souldiers and Cavaliers were some hundreds your Lordp. in this Apology avoweth they were many And though they were listed and taken into pay and an invitation made to such Gentlemen as would mount and maintain themselves for a month by a promise that afterwards they should be taken into pay and be his Majesties Guard for their lives And though the unrâ—ly company assembled there discharged their Pistolls and threatned the Inhabitants that they would have the heads of some of them within four dayes to the great terror and amazement of the poor people And though all this put together may amount to a warlike appearance and preparation which that Remonstrance leaveth every man to judge yet how it should concerne your Lordp if you had no further hand in all this or in any part thereof then you have confessed under the favour and correction of both Houses of Parliament I must here prosesse as yet informed I am not able to comprehend And if your Lordship have misinsormed me and the world therein I think you have done your self as ill a turn as the worst of your supposed enemies could have done you But whereas your Lordship complayneth that the examination of these things were referred to a Committee of your sharpest enemies and that the great mistake of six Coach horses turned into six score horses was not suffered to be rectified by other witnesses there who affirmed the truth to these two parts of your Lordships complaint I have one Answer to make which is that if in them both your Lordp. had any wrong it ought not to be imputed either to any prevalence of your particular unhappinesse or to the credit of your enemies but to be reputed among the common calamities which may befall any subject of this Kingdom by reason of the ancient customes thereof which seem exceeding strange to all strangers that hear of them among whom I have often had much a do to maintain their fitnesse and equity and yet the wisdom of this State hath not hitherto found sufficient cause to alter so ancient constitutions The one of them is the manner of naming Committees in Parliament in which all men see there is exceeding great inequality and too much left to the care of the Clearke who hath more power by much therein then any Member of the House of Commons But how to remedy this without running the hazard of other as great or greater inconveniencies it may be is not so easie to devise Which notwithstanding I have often heretofore and upon this occasion do now wish that honourable House to whom nothing that can be better ordered by humane prudence is impossible would take into mature deliberation The other is that ancient Maxime of our Law Non accipitur juramentum contra Regem by reason whereof if it be rigorously observed as for ought I know it is ever in all tryalls upon life and death in inferiour Courts the honour life and estate of the greatest subject how innocent soever may be in danger if two of the meanest men in the whole Kingdom shall combine so secretly to take it away that there can be no discovery of their conspiracy whereat strangers use to hold up their hands and blesse themselves For it seemeth the Committee above mentioned had the equity of that rule of Law in their eye for their direction and that your Lordship had not all the favour shewed you to the Earl of Strafford who was allowed to produce witnesses and crosse examine such as were produced against him and in troth I believe had as much favour as was ever shewed to any subject in his case which is and will ever be one great justification of the proceedings against him whatsoever may break forth in time to shew his innocence But my Lord lesse favour may be shewed to divers persons accused of the same crime without any ingredient of private malice or revenge to the one of them And yet he that feeleth the hurt of the difference is under a strong temptation to apprehend those to be his private enemies whom he observeth to be keen in pursuing him although their consciences may bear them
advantaged by your absence If the King should declare Himselfe and retire to a safe place you should be able to wait upon him from thence as well as out of any part of England over and above the service which you might do his Maiesty there in the meane time In the same letter to Sir Lewis from Middleburg you declare that your purpose to remain in that retired place and condition was only till you received instructions from their Maiesties which sure were not very necessary for your employment in a retired private life you desire him to hasten your sayd instructions unto you by some safe hand you desire him to send you a Cypher of which there could be no great need for your giving him an account how you spent your vacant hours Or if there were yet sure that was not the reason why you besought the Queens Maiesty to vouchafe you a Cypher or why you would not adventure to write to her Maiesty but by expresses till such time as you had a Cypher But why do I wast time and paper in making such inferences In that letter of your Lordships to her Maiesty dated from Middleburg the 21 of January you shew your selfe indeed very confident that if His Maiesty after all he had lately done should betake himself to the easiest and compliantest way of Accommodation you should serve his Maiesty more by your absence then by all your industry to which darke expression I will give no light But withall you shew that if the King should betake himselfe to a safe place you should then live in impatience patience and misery till you wayted on her Maiesty so short-breath'd was your resolution to lead a private retired life on that side the Sea Yet truely how long you lived in that manner I have not heard But it should seeme it was not many weeks for by the tenth of March your Lordship had been so long at the Hague that you thought your selfe very sufficiently instructed and able to informe her Maiesty of the state of that place both in point of affection and interest Quaere in relation to what which considering the many Provinces and towns and persons to be enquired after there before any good judgement could be made of the state of that place in either of the respects above mentioned and the reservednesse of that Nation especialy toward strangers I dare say would have asked some other very busie man three very busie weeks But God hath given your Lordship much quicknesse of wit and your great industry and paines in the study of books hath made the study of men a sport to you in which it is certain that some man may do more in a day theÌ„ another man can do in a yeer There is therefore no certain inference to be made of the time you had spent at the Hague by the number of talents you had gained there in comparison of the improvement might have been made by some other man But when in your letter to the Queens Majesty dated at the Hague before her Majesties coming thither you say you had not so much as mentioned any businesse to her Majesty since you left England may we not thence lawfully inferre that there was some businesse committed to your knowledge at least which you might have mentioned to her Majesty And sure my Lord when your Lordship wrote to the Kings Maiesty with that hardinesse which you thought his affairs and complexion required though every body knowes your Lordship never had the honour to be a Counsellor yet I believe most men will believe that you either presumed to interpose in his Maiesties affairs without being questioned which you say you never did or that His Maiesty had entrusted you with some part of his affairs on that side the sea from whence you wrote or which is worst for you that in some affairs then on the Carpet your Lordship was a very secret and a principall Counsellor if his Maiesty sent to Zealand or Holland to demand your good advice about them having my Lord your father and so many other able Counsellors at that time not farre from him But I will enquire no further what businesse you had or did beyond the sea though perhaps it were possible to make an unhappy guesse at it by the two notes of armes found among your papers I come to your Letters written from thence the falling whereof into hands they were not directed to I shall be very willing to cast up in the number of your misfortunes so your Lordship will not forget to put this into your reckning that no misfortunes happen to any man without the speciall providence of God whose hand many men thinke they see in making your own an instrument to discover more against you then could easily have beene found out otherwise though the falsehood of a person you trusted and other accidents were used as meanes to bring this to passe I dare not be so peremptory in my observation or censure but leaving the consideration thereof to your Lordship whom it concerneth crave your leave to say that these Letters of yours are so full and clear an evidence of your being an excellent Courtier and as excellent a Secretary that I doubt the world wil nere admit your being ill in either for a good excuse of the faults have been found in some expressions of your Letters I shall instance but in one not in respect of the unworthy you therein put upoÌ„ your Countrey wch notwithstanding I conceive will be judged by those to whom you appeal to have been but a wild piece of civillity to asperse a whole Nation especially your own with the fault of some few and this in an addresse to a Lady of so great eminence and of another Nation not much given to over-value ours but if that should be suffered to passe for an ill made complement I beseech your Lordship what good construction can be made of your saying it was the first contentment you had been capable of a long time that Her Majesty was safely arrived in Holland withdrawn from a Country unworthy of her Which that her Maiesty had any not pleasing occasion to do I beleeve was an exceeding great discontentment to many other good Subiects and good English men no lesse for her Maiesties sake then their owne this having beene taken by all men that had understanding of the times for a shrewd prognostick of the storme which was then gathering and now lyes so sore upon us in the foresight whereof I hope your Lordship took no contentment though your words might with little force be wrested to such an interpretation But to passe by other expressions and come to the matter of your Letters and examine whether any wrong hath been done you in the Glosses and Comments with which you observe they have been published to the world to informe the people how much of the dangerous and perniâ—ious Counsells pretended to be then and still on foot had passed
I thinke it would then your delaying to take this matter upon you before your self came to be accused of high Treason was the greatest mis-adventure I shall speak great words but I thinke I shall make them good which ever befell your Lordship or this Kingdome by the space of the last 500. yeers Your Lordship for your owning of the suggestion upon which the Members of both Houses were impeached of Treason before your being impeached of the same crime had preserved your estate life and honour from that hazard and your reputation from that stain which it got by this mishap and which will be exceeding hard to be gotten out The Kingdome which to my understanding never was in so miserable an estate since the last Conquest as at this present and into this so lamentable an estate let me write it without offence till you have read my reason I conceive it is fallen meerly and wholly by this omission of your Lordships if you were the secret Accuser of those your brethren For they are all wise enough to know that no man legally accused can ever be cleared in his reputation without being acquitted from the crime layd to his charge in a faire legall Triall And this certain danger would undoubtedly have been of so much more regard to men of untainted fame then the hazard the most innocent persons may possibly run through false witnesses or a corrupted Jury that in that respect no doubt they would have desired to have been brought to such a Triall which it seemeth was intended by his Majestie Neither could they if they would have avoided it by pretence of priviledge of Parliament if any part of their accusation legally charged on them had been such as may now seem to be insinuated in your Lordships Apology or as some of the Articles preferred against them do import if I do not misremember them For the Lords and Commons this very Parliament in their Petition to his Maiesty delivered the sixteenth of Iuly following desired no more but that nothing done or spoken in Parliament or by any Person in pursuance of the Commands and Directions of both Houses of Parliamentâ— be questioned anywhere but in Parliament Which sure would not have kept any Member of either House from being proceeded against by Inditements preferred at the Common Law if any of them could have been proved to have been the Contrivers of the Tumult mentioned in your Lordships Apologie or of Treating with any forreign power to invade this Kingdome which was one of the Articles as I remember for I cannot at present recover a sight of them So that upon the whole matter I humbly conceive that supposing your Lordship to have been the Accuser of the six Members of Parliament which your own confession that you advertised his Majestie of the danger in which his sacred personâ— and divers Parliament mens were by those tumults of which his Majesty chargeth them to have been the Contrivers put to the rest I have formerly observed doth well nigh bring home to you I cannot see how you can avoid the unhappinesse of being reputed the sole occasion at least of the miserable condition in which this Kingdome now is For since his Majestie out of his Princely desire of the continuance of the Peace of his People was gratiously pleased to have wholly deserted any prosecution of the accused Members and since his Honour would as I humbly conceive have been as well saved by the producing as it was by the suppressing of the particular suggestions against them though they should have been acquitted by Parliament it is not easie to imagine any sufficient cause why his Majâ—sty denyed the Petition of both his Houses of Parliament to declare the suggestors according to the Law in that case provided besides his care of your Lordshipâ— in retribution of your care of him which was or might be a truely princely consideration of his Majesties but such a one as I should have bin most humbly instant with his Majestie not to have taken of me had I been in your place I have faithfully represented to your Lordship the hard condition wherein you are lodged in common esteem and I wish from my heart it were as easie for me to help you out as it hath been to shew you how you came into it But I doubt that will prove a much harder matter to do in these two latter then I found it in the two former parts of your Apology yet my making an attempt can do you no harm and it may do you some good if I can but shâ—w you that you are not in a right way to help your self you say you returned into England not with so much joy to see your Country indeed there was small cause of joy to be seen there at that time as hope to be admitted upon your humble Petition to his Majesty for a fair regular impartiall vindication of your innocence But if any man should aske why you then procured his Maiesties licence to transport your selfe out of England into another Country what can you answer For in truth my Lord I know not the common opinion of the world being that it was in part to decline such a Triall Indeed to do you right I must observe that in your fiâ—st Letter to tâ—e Queens Maiâ—stie written soon after your landing on the other side it appears you had already some thoughts of returning But it appears too that you intended it not till you should hear that the King had betaken himselfe to a safe place as you found him at your returne where he might avow or protect his servants And my Lord I pray did not his Majâ—stie avow many other his faithfull servants that were no Delinquents and protect them well enough in the place where he resided when your Lordship left the Court Therefore you added From rage I mean and violence for from Justice I shall never implore it But what cause had you to feare rage or violence from which even the Lord Strafford was carefully and easily protected at his Triall In your Letters to Sir Lewis Dives you expresse your selfe a little more fully as one brother would do to another Thus God knowes I have not a thought towards my Country to make me blush much lesse Criminall But where Traitors have so great a sway the honestest thoughts may prove most treasonable This was the fiâ—st time that ever I heard of the danger of honest thoughts of the danger of treasonable thoughts I had read before in a Sermon of Solomons But where was it that Traitors had so great a sway at that time was it in the House of Commons They either could or would have done no more but accuse you and if Traitors had so great a sway among them their accusation would have had the lesse credit either with the Lords or with the World Was it in the House of Peers I know your Lordship will not say that was your intendment for if you
toward the staying of good Christians in this Kingdome from seperation than two hundred volumes as well written of the same Argument by Prelates or prelaticall men could have done Indeed he was the most iudicious and moderate Non-conformist after M. Bainâ—s that ever I heard of M. Bâ—ll of Whitmore And though I am not of that mind in their sence yet I coÌ„ceive the institutioÌ„ of the superiority of Bâ—â— over Presbiters was the first step by wch Anti-Xâ— asceÌ„ded into his Throne of universall Bishop and I would therefore have it taken down in due time being of the beleef that a principio non fuit sic is the only right rule of Reformation But whether this and some other steps yet standing in our Church should be quite taken down all at once is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a sceptick questio in a matter of State For the Apostles themselves had respect to considerations of prudence in the abolition of ancient usages and so may we The reason for the doing of the worke by pieces which swayeth with me is your Lordships expressed thus Let us resolve upon that course wherein with union we may probably promise our selves successe happinesse and security which whether we shall do in a present utter demolition of all manner of Episcopacy so much still affected by many of our grave learned and godly Divines I do a little doubt and I do not see how we can want their labours without greater inconveniences to our church then in retaining primitive Diocesan Bishops or superintendents for a time till there be a cleer plurality of learned godly Ministers which can hardly be hoped for till some Laws now in force have bin altered some good time But your Lordp hath made a most prudent motion (a) whereunto and to many other passages in your Lordships Speech touching Bishops if they that are most against them would take due heed they would be lesse against your Lordship and their own ends then they have been and are We might have had the same ease for tender consciences in the dayes of Queen Elizabeth which his Majesty is most graciously inclined to grant now if some fiery Zelots of that time had not answered Secretary Walsingham imployed to sound whether that would content them that they would not leave a hoof of Israel in Egypt Which rash answer kept them and so many godly Ministers and people since their times so much longer in the Egypt your Lordp. hath so well described God give us more wisdom now Rome was not built nor will be pulled down in one day And therefore I see not why your Lordship and those other Parliament men with whom you consulted might not have well agreed about this Church-work or why his Maiesty or any other truly religious man should be offended either with your temper or with theirs in it Oh but his Majesty hath heard of the License taken by them at their private Cabals to undervalue and viâ—ifie the Kings person and power Of their having designed to have taken the Prince his son from him by force nay to have seâ—sed on his own sacred Person Of a solemn Combination and Conspiracie entred into by them for altering the â—overnment of the Church and State Of their soliciting and drawing down Tumults to Westminster to remove all that stood in their way Bishops Popish Evil and Rotten (a) hearted Lords by a kinde of force and by the same means to awe such of the House of Commons as were not of their mindes in all things Of some of the Clergie who were their Emissaries and chief Agents to derive their seditious directions to the people when there was need of their help Of their treating with forreign power to assist them assoon as their designs should be ripe Nay his Majesty can prove much of this by their own Letters I will not here repeat what I could extract out of the Declarations of both Houses of Parliament of as many other as strange tales told of designes of his Majesties so credibly that it seems they have been believed by so wise a Senate I will keep my self to your Lordships Apology And that you may reflect the more sadly upon the condition of these GentlemeÌ„ by looking upon your own Let me in the first place beseech you to cast your eye upon these passages What collection was made of your being observed to be at Court what report was made in the City of that you delivered in the House of Commons to the Bill of Attainder what censure you incurred for suffering that Speech to be printed without your privity and yet could find no meanes to clear your selfe what portion was designed to you for going to Kingston upon Thames in a warlike manner in a Coach and six hired horses with one single man in the Coach with you and one servant riding by you to the terror of the Kings liege peopleâ— what a dangerous Letter your first to the Queens Majestie was by the interception whereof your going upon your Masters errend in the equipage abovesayd came to amount to levying war against his Maiesty what other glosses were made on your other Letters Then turne the tables and aske your selfe whether by like unlucky chances the accused Members may not have as hard an after game to play as you Whether his Majestie allowing him to be the wisest Christian King in the world as I think him may not yet be more easily mis-inâ—ormed and more hardly disabused then his two Houses of Parliament Whether that which his Majestie hath heard of discourses held by them at their private meetings and of Messages sent by them to their confederates be not more subject to misreport and mis-interpretation than that which was spoken by your Lordship in Parliament before so many hundred witnesses whether as probable tales might not be told of their design upon the persons of the King Queen or Prince as of our your Lordships being an enemy to Parliaments treating with Danes or being at the head of the rebelsâ— in Ireland and yet as little truth in them whether their conferring among themselveâ— and consulting with others in this Kingdom or of a forâ—eign Nation of the wayes and meanes and manner of altering any part of the government of this Church or State into a better form and of the opposition they were like to find therin were not as convertible into a solemne Combination and conspiracie to do it by force as the Message you delivered to forty or fifty Gentlemen totally strangers to you was to be metamorphosed into the shâ—pe it was whether there they may not have had as little hand in the Tumults whereof they are charged to have been the â—ontrivers as your Lordship had in that which your brother did without your knowledge and yet whether they may not have met witâ— as great difficulties to come to clear themselves from the treasonable speeches vented in them whether the impâ—tation layd upon many godly
Ministers of the City and Country may not be the dreggs of that cup of the Prelates vengeance which your Lordship hath so lively expressed in your Speech concerning them (c) or at the worst may not be imputed to the impatience of those their former sufferings you have so largely set forth which is an excuse his Majesty hath been gratiously pleased to make for others in as great a fault And lastly say that for the Letters of the accused Members which you have sayd for your own and then upon the whole matter judge whether without breach of charity which begins at home you may not conceive it possible they may be as innocent as you know your selfe to be and then I hope they may judge the like of you and the King and Kingdome may be of your mind and theirs But how then came they and you and the King and Parliament to have such strange impressions of one another Oh that it were a world to be merry in I should then dare to say pleasantly that I doubt the story of this last yeer may at last prove a Romans of the Devils making in a great part of it But I must be serious and I will therefore say soberly The envious man hath sowne these tares of jealousie and calumny which ever grow up together while his Majestie and his Parliament slept and the watch-men of our Israell slept also in part and in part were otherwise too busy and I and such as I thought good seed sowne in so good a season and ground would spring up of it selfe though we neither watcht nor prayed and it may be gloried and trusted more in those noble Worthies for that name we had given them and it may be they may have been too ready to assume it then in God that instructed them how and when and what to cast into the ground Ex illo sluere retro sublapsa referri Spes c. How should the Devill have upheld his Kingdom if he had not divided this when King and Parliament and priest and people were so well agreed and in some sort almost all inclined to advance the Kingdome of Jesus Christ in it When the Parliament had procured from his Majesty such redresses of the grievances of the Subject as were to their and the Kingdomes abundant satisfaction and yet his Majesty of his superabundant grace desired and desired and urged and pressed to know what they desired more by his so often reiterated Message of the 20. of Ianuary which will be a more lasting monument of his wisdom and goodnesse then any can ever be errected for him by the Prince his Son and when the Kingdom thus far secured and offered to be secured at home at the same time enioyed so universall a peace abroad that it had no visible enemy in the whole world either infidell or Christian as hath been well observed by my Lord your father how should this envious enemy of mankind have hindred us of this Nation from being happy but by kindling fomenting iealousies and dissensions at length blowing them up into a war among our selves What is there never a Loyall Subiect in this Kingdom so famous for Loyalty Are the best men in it become the worst Subiects Are all the godly Ministers in our Church suddenly grown to be Popishly or Seditiously affected Is the most clement of our Kings turned enemy to his Parliament that is to â—is people that is to Himselfe Hath the best Parliament we ever had a mind to traduce to revile to destroy their King Are the many persons of honor and integrity in this Nation all in disesteem with King or Parliament Shall the accused Members one of them (f) being a true Israelite in the beleef of all Israel be made guilty of the treasonable words utterd by any base fellow or other person without their knowledge by an advantage of Law through your Lordships suggestion Or shall your Lordship be found a Traytor through their or any of their instigation for the desperate words vented by any Ruffian that mingled himselfe in his Majesties train without His or your Lordships consent or approbation or for any such like matter Now the Lord rebuke thee O Sathan yea the Lord that hath often miraculously saved this Kingdom rebuke thee The great dexterity your Lordship hath to manage these things I have now suggested and many more will arise in your own thoughts to the same purpose may possibly be so well imployed by the good instructions you may receive from one known to be as able and who may be as willing to have his hand in all this as Ioab was to prepare the widdow of Tekoah to tell her well made tale that his Maiesty may once more be gratiously pleased not only to have the supposed fault of the accused Members wrapped up in the bundle of the unwilling and unknowing errors of his Subjects and so pardoned among the rest but to receive them into his favour Your Lordship remembers your own words that it was a principall â—oy to you to see those persons who had been the prime Actors in the happy Reformation of this Parliament so acceptable at Court Pray to God to give you the same ioy again The Kings admirable clemency hath produced many as great wonders in his Raign My Lord your father is an example in the very point And the Kings heart is still in the same hand that turned it towards him after as great an aversation And if your Lordship once find this great block that lyeth in the way of the peace of the Kingdom begin to stir then put all your own and your friends strength to it Have no doubt that you shall not receive the like favour from the accused Members though you never convey to them the least knowledge of that you have done in their behalfe Solomon hath observed that when a mans wayes please the Lord he maketh his enemies to be at peace with him And a wiser then Solomon hath made a further observation that with what measure we meet it shall be measured to us again which it may be your Lordship or they have found already in ill measure He hath also promised that almes done in secret shall be rewarded openly Stay not here but do your debvoir towards his Maiesties speedy returne to London in reparation of the ill advise you were thought to have given about his withdrawing from thence And if this breach between your Lordship and them the first wound in the representative body of the Kingdom were once perfectly consolidated by a generall pardon and Act of Amnesty why might not his Maiesty safely take his place where he sits as head over that his body without the enacting of any more of these new Laws which one hath lately propounded (g) I hope in respect of the hardnesse of mens beleef as Moses did his Bill of divorce else I must differ from him also in them But I wholly agree
that a man may sooner lose himself then save you that hath the courage to attempt it by going against the stream yet I have so much compassion of your undeserved sufferings in this matter except in that point of discretion I have already noted that I am resolved to adventure my seâ—â— in hope your Lordship will not be wanting either to â—â—â—r selfe or to me in case your Lordship should chance to see me carryed down in another as violent a channell or it may be in the same for doing my good will to help you Which that I may do with the lesse hazard and more hope of successe I must first give the world notice of an error of your Lordships in this matter of Episcopacy from which all the other you have since committed in that businesse have bin derived although I observe that as well in that Speech as in your present Apology your Lordship hath studiously concealed that mistaken principle which hath bin so fertile of other mistakes in you and of you And that is the opinion that Episcopacy was erected by the Apostles and consequently in your Lordships judgement so authorized Iure Divino that it may not be altered whereof your Lordship was once so confident that you wisht it might be made a part of the Catechisme of our Church if I do not misremember For it stands so in my memory ever since I had a cursory sight of the Letters which pass'd between your Lordship and your Cousin Sir Kellam Digby having at that time observed it an hyperbollicall expression which in matters of Religion it is not alwayes safe to use If your Lordship be still of the same judgement which I hope you are not let me presume humbly to advise you to resume the study of both those points by an impartiall perusall of the Bookes have been partly written and partly set forth in the liberty of these last yeers which I am therefore in hope will be sufficient to alter your mind in that matter because they have done mine in the former which is the fairer of them who came to the reading of the Arguments against it with as much prejudice as your Lordship can do having contracted it in part by the great reverence I ever did and do yet bear to the great wisdom learning and piety of Mr. Hooker whom I knew and heard when I was a boy and with whom some friends of mine who in their time were in the number of the ablest men of this Kingdom for wisdom and learning had extraordinary friendship and were also of the same judgement with him In part by the like reverence I bore to Doctor Downham since Bishop in Ireland who put forth a Sermon to shew the Jurisdâ—ction of Bishops over Presbyters was instituted by the Apostles when I was a young man at Cambridge where he was before that in great and good fame but chiefly by the presumption that the Addresses make at the foot of the Epistles to Timothy and Titus as Bâ—shops were of Saint Pauls own writing because I found them in my Greek Testament For if that be first admitted there is some appearance of their having beene Diocesans by the authority thereby given them to appoint and rule over Presbyters in the Churches committed to their charge But if this be an abuse as I have been convinced that it is since I returned with an hoary head to a new examination of this Book controversie when the sword was taken up to decide it in Scotland then there will be no firme ground for a Diocesan Bishop found in the whole Scripture but much to the contrary as hath been learnedly proved by Master Bayne that succeeded Mr. Perkins at Cambridge in the Answer he made to Doctor Downham written soon after which I never saw till these last yeers brought it to light but hath bin the Treasury out of which the Scriblers of this licentious age have stollen almost all they have of worth to which they have added little besides unfit language which they had not from him whose name I cannot suffer to passe my pen without this Elogy that he was the most accomplished Preacher I ever yet heard in all my life having heard very many of many Nations and the man that to mee seemed most in Heaven while he prayed that my eyes ever saw I beseech your Lordship to take the paines to read his short Tract upon my recommendation and that of Gersom Bucer upon the same subject not despising the rest which have shewed themselves on either side in this controversie since some of our Prelates have not been ashamed indicere bellum Episcopale and then to do me the honour to let me know whether you persevere in that you wrote to your Cousin Sir Kenâ—lme for I have cause to believe it is a tenet set on foot in our Church at the beginning of the raign of of our late Soveraign of famous memory not because it was believed by them that directed others to broach it among us but out of a politique design wherein the Jesuits had an unseen hand invented first out of fear that his Majesty who had abolished Episcopacy in Scotland might at one time or other bee ingaged to doe the like in this Kingdom and when they found it tooke with his Majesty then imployed further to work upon his pious and bountifull heart for the reintroducing of Episcopacy in that Kingdom an Act of Royall magnificence and princely piety and if your Lordships opinion of the necessity of Episcopacy in all Churches as founded in divine right can be maintained at the height as no doubt was powerfully instilled into his Majesty an Act as well pleasing to God as glorious before men And in the raigne of the King our Soveraign that now is whom God long preserve it is evident that the same Doctrine hath been imployed to the ingaging of his Majeâ—ty notwithstanding all the reluctancy of his most eminent clemency to undertake a War against our brethren and his most loyall subjects of that his native Countrey with an upright heart For admitting your Lordships Tenet which it is manifest was infused into the King as an undoubted truth there could be no question of the justice of that War on his Majesties part of which I forbear to make any further mention least it should prove a controvension of the Act of oblivion although I humbly conceive there is something besides exceeding necessary to be thought upon by His Maiesty and that Kingdom and this seeing God Almighty is not bound by that act O Lord whether do we run through the darknesse that is in us if we once depart but a little from the light of thy holy word And where can we stay our wandring steps When both the war with this and the troubles in that Kingdom were through his Maiesties goodnesse and wisdom at length sweetly composed by an utter and eternall abolition of Episcopacy there as Antichristian in the opinion of that Church yet
at the same instant or at least before His Maiesties return from thence was this unlucky Tenet of your Lordships taken up again to induce His Maiesty to declare his fixed Resolution by a writing under his own Royall hand continue and maintaine Episcopacy in this Kingdome Which unexpected stop of the torrent of some mens hopes as well as desires of a like through Reformation in this Kingdom was in my observation who looke on at a great distance the first stirring cause of that fierce flood which rising soone after spread it selfe farre and wide and is now growne to such violence and height that it carries all before it And yet for their sakes with whom I concur in the desire of such a reformation I hope this will not at last prove the Cause now in so hot dispute between the King and His Parliament though I have observed that His Majestie chargeth a Faction in Parliament with a violent and undue purfuit of an absolute destruction of the Ecclesiâ—sticall Government of this Church So much hurt hath come to the Churches of God in this Iland by that Tenet of your Lordships Neither hath it stayed there For by that design which was begun to be out in practise in Scotland in a wrong climate God confounding the councells of some who in corners did not spare to vent their disâ—steem of all other reformed Churches abroad as having no Priests because they have no Bishops it may too probably and without breach of charity be doubted that they had yet more abhominable projects in their heads although I believe they are commonly believed to have been yet more abhominable then they were Which is an Argument I must not divert into here Your Lordship seeth how many mischiefs as well as absurdities I have followed upon the entertaining of one erronious Principle your Lordship thought fit to be put into our Catechisme which I humbly pray you to take into consideration as an aggravation of that errour For if upon the whole matter you shall be reduced but to the temper of the good Archbishop Whitgife and of Mr. Hooker who as your Lordship knows though they held the Government of the Church by Bishops to be more agreeable to the Scriptures then any other yet have fully declared themselves to be of opinion that no form of Church Regiment is so set down there but that it may be lawfull to alter it even for a worse upon Civil respects I am then very confident that upon a new ballancing of the account of the inconveniencies of the removing or retaining Episcopacie in this Church as things now stand your Lordship will be inclined to an alteration thereof For in truth my Lord that we cannot put down a Bishop in a Diocesse without setting up a Pope in every Parish and that no other Church Government is compatible either with Monarchy or with ouâ— Common Law are meer imaginations of your Lordships and some other men sufficiently confuted by the experience of other Churches and Kingdoms that of Scotland by name which not to insist on the two former as evident to every man hath a Common Law as well as ours as also other Kingdoms and States in Europe have all though there be a popular groundlesse perswasion of many wise men to the contrary And if upon a review your Lordship should finde sufficient reason to change your minde concerning the inconvenience as well as concerning the unlawfulnesse of abolishing Episcopacie in this Church that so ours may be reduced to an Uniformity with that of Scotland since the reduction of theirs to the likenesse of ours which was lately made a matter of great importance is now impossible the publication thereof may well repatriate your Lordship in the good graces of all that have had their mouths opened against you upon this occasion except it be of a few over hot Zelots For many wise and religious men differing from your Lordship in your opinion touching Episcopacie and concurring with me in mine are yet of your minde that it is better to begin with such a Reformation thereof whereunto there is a happy unity of Opinions not onely in the Representative but almost throughout the Lay part of the true body of the Kingdom then to attempt the doing of it all at once till the humours yet very crude shall be further prepared for such a sweeping purgation which for my part I hold to be a politique that is a doubtfull Probleme And so your Lordship hath my thoughts upon that first point which hath held me too long APOLOGY Then came on the tryall of the Earl of Suafford in the which I must say I failed not of my duty in proving the chargâ— and evidence before those who were to judge of both In the discharging of that duty it was my fortune by the unluckie acception of some expressions of mine to draw upon â—e â— sharp malignaty from some persons of much interest in the House which â—ever fail to manifest it selfe after that accident upon every the least occasion About this time I was told by a Friend that I lost much of my credit by being observed to be so much at Court I replied that I had not then the same justice with other men who were there more than I though they avowed it lesseâ— that it was a principall joy to me to see those persons who had been the prime Actors in the happy Reformation of this Parliament so acceptable at Court and like to have so great a share in the chiefe â—lucs there and the conduct of affairs for the future That since it bad pleased His Majesty to give so plenary a Redresse to all the grievances of His Subjects and to secure them for ever from the like invasions by such a wall of brasse as the Trienniall Bill I conceived that thence forward there was no more to be thought on but how in a gratefull return to His Majesty to advance His Honor and plenty according as before such happy settlements I had often heard those principall intendents of the puqlike good most solemnly professe and consequently that the Court and Countrey were in truth now to be all of a piâ—ce and there would hereafter be no more cause of jealousie between them Lastly that howsoever I thought my selfe as likely to do good there as do good there as to receive hurt The first evidence I had of the disfavour of the House of Commons where I had served with all faithfulnesse diligence and humility was upon the printing of my Speech to the Bill of Attainder of the Earle of Strafford As for the Good-Fridayes exercise which the delivery of it in the House procured me I reputed that a most comfortableâ— and â—minâ—nt testimony of the continuance still of much justice and favour towards me in that Honorable House since after a dozen distinct charges upon the severall passages of that Speech urged against me with great strictnesse and acrimony by that number of the most
blessing of Almighty God to you and your posterity according as your judgement of the life of the Earl of Strafford should be consonant with your heart in all integrity which I do not with any intention on my part to give occasion to any other to inferre that your Lordship went one hairs breadth beyond your own beliefe of the integrity of your heart therein I thank God I have learned my duty better and as I ought do confidently believe your Lordship hath too much of the fear of God in your heart to transgresse so much as a Mathematicall point willingly and wittingly in so solemne an execration But withall I know the danger of making such imprecations before his face who is greater then our hearts and knoweth more by us then they do And if it be true which I have heard from persons of honor that there was a time when Sir Thomas Wentworth solemnly wished that if ever he gave his consent to the levying of monyes on the Subject without their own consent in Parliament He might be set up as a Beacon on a hill for people to gaze at We all have occasion given us in this protesting Age diligently to call to remembrance and sadly to reflect upon what ever we may have inconsiderately uttered in that kinde having all I suppose seen or heard how his rash words have been verified upon him by the Bonefires were made on the tops of many hills in some Countries for his execution and this by a kinde of instinct in the vulgar sort of people without any direction from wiser men the like whereunto upon the like occasion I beleeve was never done in the World before Your Lordship will therefore I hope forgive me if out of my desire to make sure of keeping your Lordship from being hereafter scorched with the like flames I presume to advise you to enter into your own heart being I suppose like mine own deceitfull above all things and there to make the strictest enquiry all your wit and memory can whether the lying of one thing or other in the way did not hinder you from going to the bottome when you made that execration and so from discerning somewhat then which you may now possibly see in this businesse For to be plaine with your Lordship I am therefore a little jealous there might be some pretincture in your Lordshipps own eye because I observe you could so clearly see and distinctly describe all that might bloud-shot other mens eys in this case and yet for ought appears in your Speech never once took notice of any of those many other causes of vitiation of judgement which it concerned your Lordship more to have looked after Such were personall respects as the inclination of one great wit to take part with another of one Peere apparent to take compassion of another in being complying with the judgement of the King at that time hope of favour from His Majesty from thence feare of His Maiesties dislike of a person so able so willing and then as was believed in so neere expectance of opportunity to do service to the King and State For I will not wrong your Lordships Noblenesse by the lightest imagination that your eye saw the worse by looking a squint at any private advantage in a publike employment And I will forbeare the mention of something might be of more force with you then all I have yet touched because if it were so your Lordship must needs know it and I cannot minde you of it without preiudice to a third Person your nimble phansie will quickly represent all other to your memory by the hint of these I have set before you And they they my Lord and such other were the corruptive of iudgement of which you should have discharged your selfe to the uttermost of your power and not Lapwing like have made so great a cry with so many awayes there where your conscience was in no danger (a) Mistake me not I do not say but some other might have need of the warnings you gave and may yet have cause to reflect upon what you then sayd though they then gave right iudgement Neither do I thinke the worse of you for differing from so great a number of religious and conscionable Patriots Nay I should not have thought so well of you as I do if not having your understanding subdued you should have captivated your iudgement to theirs or if after you had wiped your heart on the side I have now shewed you and it may be you onely forgot to mention not to thinke on by your selfe upon the hearing of the Diametrall opposition between great Lawyers of the House in their opinions your Lordships mind stood in aequilibrio though this were an imperfection of iudgement I should do wrong to suppose in you yet if in truth it were so I pronounce you ought to have done as you did at least I should have done the same had I been in your place For I conceive that a minde in that posture is bound or at least hath liberty to encline to the safer side for it self though it may be the more unsafe for the State because a mans own soule is of more value to him then all the world And I humbly conceive that in all cases either of Counsell or of Judicature to one of which it may be all that come within the walls of either House may be reduced it is ever safest to encline to that side which goeth with him that is in possession which in this case of the Lord of Strafford was that which was against the Bill of Attainder After I had written thus much and more in answer to your Lordships Apologie the Kingdoms weekly Intelligencer his accompt of the last week came to my hands wherein he taketh notice of your Apologie and saith your Lordship therein forgot to mention the first matter by which your Honour was questioned in the House of Commons while you served there And then telleth a strange story which I cannot wonder enough I should never have heard of before Thus There were sayth he foure beside your Lordship of the close Committee concerning the Earle of Strafford There was a paper of much importance concerning the sayd Earle mislayd on a sodaine in a private roome where they were which was mist before they departed but could not be found yet next day they had it at Court Those foure Members particularly made their protestation in the presence of God and of the House of Commons that they were not privy to the conveying away of that paper His Lordship did the like and wished a curse upon him if he knew any thing of it Whether this writer were not to blame in concluding this story with this Epiphonema God is iust and its observable that this Lord hath not had many blessings befalne him since that his imprecation and asseveration I leave to the judgement of Divines As I do also whether that Writer himselfe if he
be a man that hath taken the Protestation hath not given as much cause of suspicion of his having violated that part of it wherein he in the presence of God vowed to maintain and defend the Kings Honor a word not to be found in the oathes of Supremacie or Allegiance by charging the Cavaliers to have thought to have circumvented part of the Earle of Essex Army and to have forced their passage through their quarters and to have seised on all the Ordnance and Ammunition in the Earles Army then at Hammersmith by breach of faith For that parenthesis reflecteth full upon the Kings Honor and being written after His Majesty hath given as to me it seemeth ample and full satisfaction to that fowle charge of the Writer of the speciall Passages (a) I conceive the Intelligencers crime is so much greater than his that I will be bold to adde That what Protester soever hath read his last weeks Intelligence and having opportunity shall not upon reading what I have now written make complaint as well of the Intelligencer as of the writer of the Passages his cousin Germane hath not so far as lawfully he may opposed and by all good wayes and means endeavoured to bring to condigne punishment all such as have done any thing contrary to any thing in the Protestation contained Not excepting your Lordship who I suppose hath taken the Protestation But as to the Intelligencers rude charge of your Lordship all I dare say is That your Lordship had very ill lucke to tell the story you have done in your Apologie of that which passed between you and a friend of yours who told you that you lost much of your credit by being observed to be so much at Court For if the about this time with which your Lordship beginneth that relation were the time about which this wicked paper was missing I forbear to tell your Lordship what inferences the City wits of this unhappy Age are like to make of the originall rise of your credit in Court though for my part I here professe all your Lordship hath written in your Apologie upon this occasion is to my understanding most just and reasonable and that I am so far of your minde that till the Court and Countrey be in truth all of a piece and that there be no more cause of jealousie between them neither the one nor the other of them can be happy nor the City neither I am also afrayd that those words in the Preface of your Lordships Speech to the Bill of Attainder of the Earle of Strafford I have had the honor to be employed by the House in this great businesse from the first hours that it was taken into consideration It was a matter of great trust and I will say with confidence that I have served the House in it with industry according to my ability but with most exact faithfulnesse and secrecie And that parenthesis in this part of your Lordships Apologie where you again say you had served the House of Commons with all faithfulnesse may do you no good especially if the mislaying of the above-sayd mischievous paper were in the time of the tryall of the Earle of Strafford and before the proceeding against him by Bill of Attainder which is the part where your Lordship hath inserted this parenthesis For your Lordship knoweth much better than I that the making of these voluntary Apologies to persons that do not charge a man with the faults which he goeth about either to excuse or acquit himselfe of are alwayes taken for confessions of guilt by suspicioâ—s hearers especially if the Apologizer himselfe take no notice of the crime whereof he is accused by common fame which I perceive was your Lordships case before you wrote this Apologie If the Intelligencers relation be true And now that by his helpe I have â—uggested all I can to â—our Lordship upon this occasion I humbly beseech you be not wanting to your selfe but lay your present condition to heart remember whence you are falne in your reputation in your hopes take heed of catching another more â—angerous fall now in the rode of good wiâ—s by thinking you are bound to maintain all that you have done or sayd be it right or wrong truth or error and that you are able to do it There is many times but one step between this and being given over to think evill good and to believe lyes I beseech God direct you to that course which may tend most to his glory your honor and the publick good Be not afraid to acknowledge any mistake or to take any shame to your selfe if there should be any occasion for you to do it which I hope there is not according to my duty though I thus write but believe stedfastly in his Omnipotence and truth that hath said and never yet brake his word Those that honor me I will honor and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed There is often a resurrection of the good names of good men in this life to give credit to the promise aforesayd and to support our faith of the perfect accomplishment thereof in that which we look for But the name of the wicked doth rot upon earth and in the great day of the Lord shall rise to universall and eternall confusion in the presence of God of his Angels and of his Saints God of his mercy and by his grace keep this for ever in your Lordships remembrance and minde and keep us also from despairing of his mercy if we should be guilty of so great a sin which there is no cause for There is no sin except that against the holy Ghost not the innocent bloud of a million of souls no not the being guilty of the bloud of the Son of God himselfe which may not be expiated by his bloud And yet I have observed that there could be no attonement for that sin wherewith the Intelligencer hath so fouly aspersed your Lordship without confession But upon confession of the sin there is a full promise that it shall be forgiven the offender not by vertue of the offerings enjoyned in the Law but by the relation they had to a better sacrifice which I pray God may through our faith be effectuall to all of us that may at any time find our selves to stand guilty of so grievous a crime which I doubt hath spread it selfe farther in this Kingdome than we are aware of and that the Land mourneth for it because we do not APOLOGY Under this weight â—nough to have broken a body and a mind better prepared for thâ—se exercises then mine I suffered till the rudenesse and violence of that Rabble drave both their Majesties for the safety of themselves and their children to Hampton Court whither by command I attended them In this short journey many Souldiers and Commanders who had assembled themselves joyntly to sollicite the payment of their arrears for the late Northern expedition from the two Houses of Parliament
you have had but equall dealing with others And as for the amendment of the charge I believe your Lordship may one day find that your assembling of Cavaliers at Kingston upon Thames for in those words it is expressed in the third Remonstrance of the Parliament was understood by the Lords and Commons at that time to be a sufficient discovery of your mind to engage His Majesty into a civill war So sufficient that his Majesties coming to the House of Commons in the manner he did His retiring from London to Hampton Court and the appearing of those persons in a warlike manner at Kingston upon Thames who having been so assembled by your Lordship waited upon his Majesty thither were by the Parliament both Houses being then full thought sufficient grounds for the committing of the custody of the Town of Hull and of the Magazine there to Sir Iohn Hotham and for his possessing himselfe thereof by their Authority Notwithstanding his Majestie having sent my Lord the Earl of Newcastle to take the government of that Town upon him all which you may observe in the Remonstrance above mentioned As you may also another passage I suppose very worthy to be seriously reflected upon by your Lordship amounting to that on their own part which my Lord your father calleth ultimam admonitionem on his Majesties part to wit That if those malignant spirits your Lordship by perusing the place may see whom they intend shall ever force us to defend our Religion the Kingdome the Priviledges of Parliament and the Rights and Liberties of the Subject with our swords the blood and destruction that shall ensue thereupon must be wholly cast upon their account God and our consciences tell us that we are clear and we doubt not but God and the whole world will clear us therein By this your Lordship may fully discern that the charge intended to be made good against you is no lesse then having been an instrument at least of some other greater malignants to incite His Majesty to the beginning of a civill war which will not fayle to prove levying War against the King if it can be proved against you And how far those Letters of your Lordships in which you are so confident that upon an impartiall survey there will not be found so much as an opinion as unto peace or war yet being layed to other evidences may serve to induce your Peers to find you guilty of the making of such a Warre may be seene in time the great bringer of truth to light APOLOGY Since that time other Letters of mine or Copies of Letters possibly never sent have had the same fortune and been published to the world and to shew the follies and indiscretions of a man enough in her disfavour before with Glosses and Comments to informe the people how much of the dangerous and pernicious Counsells pretended to be then and still on foot had passed through my hands and how great an enemy I am to Parliaments to this latter most grievous and venemous imputation I hope God will have preserved me some kind of Autidote in mens memories of what part I had the happinesse to bear in the passing of the Trienniall Bill and to it I shall only say thus much that I have had the honour to be a Member of the one House and must presume to think My self still a Member of the other that I value the honour the dignity and the priviledges of both infinitely above the pleasures and benefits of life and if I ever wilfully contributed or shall ever consent to the prejudice of either I wish the desires of all my enemies may fall upon me To that of my having had so great a hand in ill Counsells which are expressed to be of his Majesties removing from London to a place of safety and the like I shall be bold to say that the Letter to the Queens Majesty from whence my enemies would make the inference hath not with any confidereâ— the least propending of advice any way but is meerly an account of mine own intentions to apply my self to His Majesties service either by absence or attendance according to course that His Majesty in his wisdom should thinke fit to take Every body knowes I never had the honor to be a Counsellor neither have I presumed without being questioned by his Majesty to interpose in his affairs when he hath graced me with any question I have answered with the freedom of a Subject and a Gentleman But had I been a Counsellor having seen what I have seen and heard what I heard I who have known such Members of both Houses marked out by the multitude for blessings and such for sacrifice I who can say with truth that such of that Rabble cryed out the Kings is the Traitor such that the young Prince would govern better I who can prove that a Leader of those people in the heat and violence of the tumult cryed out that the King was not fit to live Had I been a Counsellor what had I been as the learning of Treason was then understood should I not have advised his Majesty to withdraw to a place of safety not from his Parliament but from that insolent and unruly multitude who had already brought into so much hazard the persons and the liberty of this till then most happy Parliament and not staying there did so lowdly threaten ruine even to the sacred person of the King Advertise his Majesty I did of the danger advise him I could not I had neither the ability nor the authority In my Letter to the Queen at her first coming into Holland it was observed that in that expression of welcoming her from a Country not worthy of her I â—â—ewed much venime and rancour to my own Nation I meant it not and must appeale to those who are best acquainted with the Civility of language whether the addresse might not be comely to any Lady of quality who should upon any not pleasing occasion leave one Country for a while to reside in another And I hope ere long to wellcome Her Majesty back from a place not so unworthy of her unto this Nation most worthy of her without either disparagement to Holland or complement to those to whom the unworthy of that Letter was intended For the charge of boldnesse and presumption in some expressions of those Letters though I might be glad to compound my treason for incivilitie since the suspicion of that depends upon the right understanding of language and connexion of words it will be no disrespect to any through whose hands they have passed to believe that as they were otherwise intended by me so that they are capable of other interpretation However if in truth mis understanding or ill breeding bath produced the other I hope the conclusion will only be that I am an ill Courtier or an ill Secretary both which I do humbly confesse not that I am no good English man no good Subject If in any
of those Letters there were any expressions of discontent or bitternesse I shall say little more then that they passed an examination they were not prepared for and fell into hands that they were not directed to and I am confident that many honest Gentlâ—men who have had the happinesse to preserve their papers from such â—n inquisition and shall consider the case they might be in if all their secret conferences and private Letters weâ—eâ— exposed and produced to the publicâ—â— view will cast up these Letters of mine in the number of my misfortunesâ— without making any addition to my faults and certainly whoever shall observe the measure of my sufferings with any kind of indifference will easily forgive such eruptions of passion as were onely vented by me to a brother though they came within the reach of any other car To draw now to a period of my unfortunate story which I cannot promise my self from the generality so much charity as to vouchsafe the reading further then meâ—r curiosity shall lead them I returned into England not with so much joy to see my Countrey as hope to be admitted upon my humble Petition to His Majesty to a fair regular impartiall vindication of my innocency and I protest to God I look upon the time I may naturallie hope to live with no other comfort then as it may make me still capable of that happinesse I have follies and infirmities enough about me to make me aske the pardon of eâ—ery wise and good man but for treason or for any voluntary crime either against my Soveraign or my Country I say it with all humility I will not accept a pardon from the King and Parliament By the grace of God it shall never be sayd that either the Parliament hath brought me or His Majesty exposed me to a triall my own uprightnesse shall constantly sollicite it and without recourse in this to either of their favours I will either stand a justified man to the world or fall an innocent But in the meane time till it shall please God to blesse this Nation with such a composure of the present distractions as that Government and Law may have their rightfull and comfortable course I implore only so much charity from men as may seem due to one whose good intentions to his Country have been in some sort publiquely manifested whose ill are yet but obscurely and improbably suggested To conclude let the few yeers I haue lived be examined and if there be found any rancour or venime in my nature even toward particular persons which might in time contract it self to an enmity against the stateâ— if I have been a fomenter of jealousies and debate or a secret conspirer against the honour and fame of any man if I have worn Religion as a maske and vizard for my hypocrisie and underhand cherished any opinions that I have not avowed if I have been lead by any hopes of preferment to flattery or by the misse of it to revenge if I have been transported with private ambition and been inclined to sacrifice the least branch of the publique peace and happinesse to my owne ends and advantage let the complication of all these ills prepare a judgement of treason it self upon me and let me be looked upon as a man who hath made a progresse in wickednesse that a few yeers more added to that account would render me a prodigie to the world But if in truth my life hath been pleasant to me under no other Nation then as I might make it usefull to my Country and have made it my businesse to beget and continue a good intelligence amongst good men if I have been then most zealous and fervent for the Liberties of the Subject when the power of Court was most prevalent and for the rights of the Crown when popular licence was most predominant if by my continuall study and practise of Religion I have alwayes been a true sonne of the Church of ENGLAND and by my submission and application of my actions to the known rule of the Law I haue alwayes been a true son of the State of England if my actions have been 〈◊〉 and my words onely doubtfull if my life onely clouded with many intersections I hope the world will beleeve I have been overtaken with too great a measure of unhappinesse and every generous heart will case me of some part of my burthen by giving the benefit of his good opinion ANSWER And so my Lord I am come to your Lordships Letters which is all that remaineth in your Apologie of which I have not already given you my account except it be of your counsell and purpose as well in the transporting of your self into Holland as in your returne from thence into England which you call the period of your unfortunate story Both which will fitly fall in with your Letters and I wish did as well agree with them But sure they were quite out of your memory and you could recover no copy of them when you wrote this passage in your Apologie I procured his Majesties Licence to transport a person of so great inconvenience and danger out of his Dominions into another Countrey and with all possible speed removed my selfe into Holland never suspecting that my guilt would increase with my absence in the retyred private life I had resolved on and did according to that resolution lead beyond tqe sea My Lord I hope it will not offend you to be shewed by your servant that you are not well hidden under this covert where you may else chance to be taken by an enemy In which hope I will presume to observe that it may be well believed your Lordship resolved on such a retyred private life on the other side of the sea if things had gone on here by way of Accommodation to which easiest and compliantest way it appears your Lordship doubted His Majesty might betake Himselfe But whether His Majestie shewing Himselfe so extreamly tender of the Peace of the Kingdome that He was more a wake to the sense of the calamity and misery that in all probability was like to befall His good Subjects upon this occasion then of His own Honor and Dignity were so well approved of by your Lordship you know the judgement of the Parliament in their observations upon your Letters to the Queens Majesty and I will leave the world to judge My purpose is only to shew out of them that your Lordships resolution to lead so retyred a life on the other side was not absolute but conditionate a blind man if he could read your letters must needs plainly see For you were no sooner arrived at Middleburg in Zealand but in your first letter from thence to Sir Lewis Dives you make mention of another written from abord Sir Iohn Pennington wherein you gave an account why you thought sitting to continue your journey into Holland going stil upon this ground that if things went on by way of Accommodation the King would be
through your hands and how great an enemy you are to Parliaments for these are your words And you seem to be very sensible of this latter most grievous and as you expresse it venemous imputation Whereas I find no sillable to that purpose in the Glosse made upon the copy of your Lordships letter to the Queens Maiesty of the tenth of March which is all that ever I have seen published with any Glosse besides those of the 20. and 21. of Ianuary and I have enquired diligently of some other who are in a trade of news and can hear of no other letter of your Lordships published in print And yet that ingenuity I have observed in your Lordship in many other occasions will not suffer me to imagine that in this you have framed a charge against your selfe upon such an article as was never put in against you that from thence you might take an occasion to make such a defence for your selfe as you conceived would be to your advantage Such little plots are womens worke unworthy of a man of your parts and when they are discovered as they seldome fayle to be ever come home with the giving of a shrewd counterbuffe and therefore I will passe this over To that of your Lordships having had so great a hand in ill Counsells which are expressed to be of his Maiesties removing from London to a place of safety and the like I will not re-inforce the inferences you say have been made out of your letters by your enemies because I would not willingly be taken for one of them But as your humble servant observe two things to your Lordship which I perswade my selfe you did not well observe in the writing of this part of your Apology The first is that you have therein entered into such a contestation as I beleeve no subiect of this Kingdome before you ever undertooke against the two Houses of Parliament For they in that Declaration of theirs wherein they have set forth the Grounds and Reasons that necessitated them to take up Defensive arms among others make mention of the uniust charging of some Members of both Houses with Treason of the Kings coming to the House of Commons with a Troop of Cavaliers to fetch those of that House away by force of the pious and generous resolution of the City of London to guard the Parliament in regard of this greatest violation of Parliament that was ever attempted of certain wicked persons who had engaged the King in the above mentioned design and practise against the Parliament of their having been so grieved and enraged by this action of the City that thereupon they made his Maiesty forsake WHITE-HALL under pretence that His Person was there in great danger which they say is a suggestion as as false as the father of lyes can invent And yet your Lordship hath been bold to averre the truth of the danger of His Majesties person was therein at that time by avowing that there were Tumults then which the Parliament hath denyed in one of their Declarations and your Lordship saith you saw them with your eyes and then by giving three severall inâ—tances of most dangerous indeed desperat words spoken in those Tumults against the King two of which your Lordship saith you heard with your own ears and the third you say you can prove to have been spoken by a leader of those people in the heat and violence of the Tumult His Majesty on the other side in his Declaration of the 12. of August wherein he hath graciously descended to give his Subâ—ects an account of the Reasons of his having taken up Defensive Arms among other things alledgeth his having done it to preserve the Freedom Priviledge and Dignity of Parliament awed and insulted upon by Force and Tumults whereof his Majesty giveth many particular instances and offereth to prove them And your Lordship saith you have known such Members of both Houses marked out by the multitude for blessings and such for sacrifice You say Advertise His Majestie you did Advise him you could not you had neither the ability nor the opportunity But you ask if you had been a Counsellour what you had been if having seen what you had seen and heard what you had heard you should not have advised his Majesty to withdraw to a place of safety not from his Parliament but from that insolent and unruly multitude who had already brought into so much hazard the persons and the Liberty of this till then most happy Parliament and not â—taying there did so loudly threaten ruine even to the sacred person of the King which is a most full averment of one great part of the Kings charge against those whom his Majestie stileth the Factious part of the Parliament though not a charging it on the particular persons accused thereof by his Majestie And whether this being laid to the early knowledge your Lordship had of his Majesties deliberation whether he should betake himself to a safe place and to the many inferences have been made upon your severall Letters which I will not repeat may not amount to a probable Argument that you had some hand in the Counsell of his Maiesties removing from London to a place of safety and the like I leave your Lordship and the world to iudge By this time I apprehend your Lordship may well conceive me to be in the number of your Enemies because I have been so sharp and pressing upon you in this last part of your Apologie Which I have been with an intention to do your service by putting you to think whether you should do well to lye at this guard if you should come to be questioned for your lifey our Lordship may have heard if not my Lord your father can tell you particularly how the great Oracle of Parliamentary proceedings in his time Sir Henry Nevill by name lost himselfe in the last he was of commonly called the Undertakers Parliament The sum is this he had done the greatest service to his Countrey that perhaps was ever done by a private Gentleman in a time of peace by procuring the Assembling of a Parliament in the time he did upon the hopes he gave that the House of Commons might be induced to grant a supply of Subsidies to the late King our Soveraign of blessed memory without questioning his power of imposing if his Maiesty on his part might be pleased to grant them such and such things upon such and such conditions which were so much to the advantage of the Subiect that I doubt we shall never have the like bargain offered again yet this great service of his and of other leading men with whom he conferred about it having been decryed in that Parliament under the title of undertaking he suffered that mis-conceit to prevail so far in the House before he tooke the courage to avow what he had done and as I have heard from wise men might have had thanks for doing in the fair way he did
it that through that default onely and for no other fault he forfeited the great credit he had in the House before and occasioned an untimely and most unhappy dissolution of that Parliament It may be the like adventure hath befallen as wise a man in a tryall for his life But I will give no more examples nor make any other then this generall application That which hath happened once or twice may have hapned thrice and may happen a fourth time And yet why should I hold my self thus in the clouds I will adventure to descend to a particular confession that my selfe among many thousand other of the Kings loyall subiects have been exceedingly offended with your Lordship for having had so deep a hand as hath been seen under your own in the ill advise of his Maiesties removing so far from the Parliament for distance of place doth naturally induce a proportionable distance in affection between the best friends if the time of absence be not very carefully entertained with all possible meanes to maintain their amity at the height but if there were any jarre between them before and they come to wrangle about that by letters it is almost impossible to prevent an utter breach between them though they be men of the best tempered spirits Besides this it hath ever been my simple opinion that if His Maiesty after his returne from Dover had given over all thoughts of retiring to Yorke and gone directly to London he might have been able to have quite broken the stroÌ„g combinatioÌ„s conspiracies his Maiesty supposeth were made against him into so many pieces by his royall presence and the help of his Nobles and of those many generous persons in the House of Commons who would have lent willing hands to so needfull a work that it could not have been in the power of the Devil himself to repiece the poor wormes so dissevered for the best among them would have been found no other if he had once lifted up his head against the King his Soveraign But my imagination of the unadvisednesse of the advise given his Maiesty to quit his Saddle having been founded on the confident beleef I ever had that his sacred Person was in no danger by those foolish disorderly friskes of the unmannaged rude people of his Royall City till I saw your Lordships Apology His Maiesties Declaration conteyning nothing but generalls to that purpose I am now quite out of patience that the particulars I therein find to the contrary should have been kept up so long to the infinite preiudice of his Maiesties service of his good peoples quiet and of your Lordships honor who certainly need not have suppressed your knowledge so long nor have now made so dainty of owning the advise given his Maiesty to retire to a safe place if there were so iust a cause of fear that His Maiesties life which is of more worth then ten thousand of ours might have been in danger in the tumults at London But now I find I can proceed no further in doing your Lordship that service which I hope you see I have hitherto endeavoured without taking notice to you of a thing of which I perceive you have studiously declined the mention and which I should be as unwilling to touch as you it being the head of that bile which putteth you to the greatest pain you are in if the King and Kingdome were not in as much upon the same occasion In which respect I am resolved to put a launcet into it when I have first most humbly prayed God upon my knees that my so doing may through his blessing be to the ease of his Majesty of your Lordship and of us all and not to the hurt of any body which he is my witnesse is my sincere and onely intention if I know my own heart Which that your Lordship may not thinke I resolve on impertinently before the time I must first shew you how farre the matter is prepared It cannot be unknowne to your Lordship though in your Apology you seem to make your selfe ignorant that common fame hath from the beginning accused you to have bin the suggestor to his Majesty of the accusation put in by his Atturney against the Lord Kimbolton and the five worthy Members of the House of Commons Or if it be possible this should have been kept from your ears which hath certainly been the voyce of the people for about a yeer your Lordship may finde so much in expresse termes in the publick intelligence of two weeks of this January with this addition that you were the Adviser of his Majesty to come in person to the House of Commons in a hostile manner with four hundred armed men upon the fourth of January last To which it may be thought your Lordship had some reference by making the fourth of this January the date of the publication of your Apology But my Lord this darke intimation which it may be you may expound in that manner in time to come doth not cannot serve your turne at the present For the plain truth is I tell it you for your service and hope you will take it so you may as well rayse a dead man out of his grave as rayse your selfe or your reputation from the hate and infamy under which you and it lye by any thing you can say or do or all your friends â—or you untill this popular odious and infamous imputatioâ— the heavy gravestone of your good name be removedâ— And that as the world goes cannot be done now by any imprecation of your own no not of his Majâ—sties that you were not the man except his Majesty shall produce some other very probable Author of the suggâ—stion And I much doubt whether that will be sufficient to acquit you For that unhappy word which fell from your pen long ago Where Traytors have so great a sway â— and which you would now excuse as an eruption of passion or an expression of discontent vented only to a brother yet layd to the relation you have made in your Apology of the danger in which his Majesties person and the persons and liberty of this till then happy Parliament were respectively involved by the Tumults of which his Majesty chargeth the accused Members to have been the Contriversâ— and for that reason chiefly Traytors I doubt hath made such an impression in mens minds that you would hardly be excused though some other should take this burthen wholly upon him I am sure if you were the man and have proof as you say you have of the treasonable words spoken by a Leader of the people in the heat and violence of the tumult and if withall you can prove that the tumult in which they were spoken was an unlawfull assâ—mbly and contrived by all or any of the accused Members and if this would have been sufficient to have â—ound them or any of them guilty of Treason as by what I have heard to be Law in another case
should it might much aggravate your fault no way excuse your declining their judiciall sentence it being notoriously knowne that some time after your Lordship went out of England the resolution of the House of Peers was not wholly guided by that of the House of Commons witnesse the two offers at the Militia before that Ordinance passed in both Houses and His Maiâ—sties owne Testimony in his Declaration of the twelfth of August That the House of Peers could not yet be prevailed with to joyne with the House of Commons in their extravagances But your Lordship is now resolved that by the grace of God it shall never be sayd that either the Parliament hath brought you or his Majestie exposed you to a tryall your own uprightnesse shall constantly sollicite it and without recourse in this to either of their favours I would to God you had been of the same mind when you procured His Maiesties licence to go into Holland and that in stead thereof you had been an humble suitor to his Maiâ—stie to have distinguished the crimes he hath since layd to the charge of the accused Members of both Houses in his often cited Declaration of the twelfth of August into done out of Parliament and done in Parliament And to have preferred inditements against them for the one but have left the other to the determination of Parliament For of the third sort wch is done by authority or command of Parliament I presume there were few if any amounting to treason to be pretended much lesse prov'd at the time of their first accusation By this meanes possibly Justice might have proceeded against your Lordship and them and the Kingdome might have continued in peace Whereas now through your Lordships absenting your selfe and the unhappy misunderstanding between his Maiesty the Parliament touching the Priviledge of the accused Members thereof in the case of Treason the whole Kingdom not excepting the Members of both Houses of Parliament are so divided that all that take part with the one are by the other declared to be Traitors and while it so remainath what pobissility is there of such a fair regular imparriall triall for any man either in Parliament or at Common Law as your Lordship intendeth For your Lordship as it appeareth by your Apologie is not resolved to stand as a iustified man to the world or to fall as an â—nnocent till it please God to blesse this Nation with â—uch a composure of the present distractions as that Government and Law may have their rightfull course And yet you are resolved not to accept a pardon from the King and Parliament for treason or for any voluntary crime either against your Soveraign or your Countrey For ought can be perceived the accused Members are as fully resolved of this but in the meane time the poor simple honest Country man is plundered on both sides and while your Lordship and those noble and worthy Members of both Houses stand so highly upon your innocence he beares all the punishment which I would they and your Lordship would lay to heart lest that (a) Romane rise up one day in iudgement against you and them who chose rather to go into a voluntary banishment then to be the subject matter of a civill war and was so rewarded for that piety towards his Countrey that he returned in a more glorious triumph then by the Laws of that State he might have done if all his enemies which were also the enemies thereof had been defeated by him And yet I would not be iudged so partiall either to my selfe or to my Countrey Neighbours as once to let such a thought much lesse a word escape me that my hands and theirs have not been deep in the bloud hath beene shed His Maiâ—sties Declaration to all his loving Subjects published with the advise of his Privie Counsell in Answer to the Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom set forth by the House of Commons the fifteenth of Deâ—ember 1641. before the beginning of the troubles of this last yeer hath an Oraculous conclusion We shall now coniure all our good Subiects of what degree soever by all the bonds of love duty or obedience that are pretious to good men to ioyne with us for the recovery of the peace of that Kingdom Ireland and for the preservation of the peace of this to remove all their doubts and fears which may interrupt their affections to Us and all their iealousies and apprehensions which may lessen their charity to each other and then if the sins of this Nation have not prepared an inevitable judgement for us all â— God will yet make Us a great and a glorious King over a free and happy people It was true most gracious Soveraign it was true Your high wisdom elevated by that of your godly and prudent Senators did well foresee and foretell how your Maiesty and your People might still have been happy if our sins had not so far provoked our â—od to iealousie that there was no remedy but his wrath must needs break forth against us to consume us as it doth this day For else it had not bin possible that his Maiestie and his great Counsell the Parliament should ever have entertained such a reciprocall iealousie and mutuall diffidence of one another as soon after this appeared and hath since more fully bin discovered to the whole world to the great scandall of his Maiesty and of the Parliament and to no advantage of the Subiect or of the Nation else it had not been possible that through the same iealousie His Maiestie and his high Court of Parliament should ever have differed shall I say so much or so little about the formality of proceeding against persons upon information whether true or false accused of high Treason that although his Maiestie ommitted nothing that could have been done on his part either for the rectifying of the mistake which had already happened upon this occasion or for the repairing and asserting of an involuntary breach of priviledge or for prâ—venting of more by his desire to be directed by them in the course he was to take And though the Parliament on their part did not let to shew his Majestie the originall ground of that misprision in that no Accuser appeared against the accused and the House of Commons apart in a Committee thereof Declared that they were so far from any endeavour to protect any of their Members that shall be in due manner prosecuted according to the Laws of the Kingdom and the rights and priviledges of Parliament for Treason or any other misdemeanour That none shall be more ready and willing than they themselves to bring them to a speedy and due Triall yet this misunderstanding brought thus neer to a right understanding that nothing remained in difference but whether his Majestie were to produce the Suggestor before the accused persons were put into safe custody could never be reconciled by the helpe of divers Presidents since alledged in the
afflâ—ction which will be an excellent Foil to set off the lustre of your magnanimity And in the mean time what can be more noble then for your Lordship to become the secret advocate of those men of whom by common fame you stand charged to have been the secret Accuser Or who can be so powerfull an Advocate for them with his Majestie Or wherein can you do the King more true service then in doing them good offices to His Majesty so far as you may with truth I hope with truth so much may be sayd by your Lordship of them and by them of your Lordship as may satisfie the King and Kingdom of all your loyalties to His Majestie and to your Countrey if you were once put into that way which I wish some abler man would endeavour but I will shew my good will to the work The time is not long since your conversation was and you made or endeavoured to make your friendships with those whose experience and abilities were most eminent for the publick service Some of the accused Members in all appearance were some of those men I will not despair to live to see your friendship with them redintegrated the more firmly by the great breach hath hapned between you In any thing that was necessary or but probably pretendâ—d to be necessary for the Common-wealth you never differed in the least degree If this be true as by that I have heard otherwise for my part I beleeve it they have opportunity and ability to make it knowne to the two Houses of Parliament and how the repoâ—t of this is like to spread and be multiplyed among the Common people in all Countries if it were once dâ—rivablâ— from such considerable Authors your Lordship hath had experience by the contrary But in improvements in reall alterations which were to be governed by prudentiall motives you were not alwayes of one mind I am sorry for it but I do not wonder at it I should have had greater suspition of you and them if you had not sometimes differed in such points I know a man to whom our late Soveraign King Iames of famous memory gave a great Schooling for his presuming to differ from his Maiestie in hiâ— iudgement of his affairs that either answered or had much ado to forbear answâ—ring that although his Maiestie was incomparably the most politick and best Prince in Europe yet he that made shew of being allwayes in all things of his mind in his affairs of State was either a foole or a knave The reason of which Apothegme may satisfie his Maiesty that now is and all his people of your and their wisdome and integrity to both their service the rather in respect of the variety of your opinions concerning it Your Lordship it seemeth went by a good rule not to be too hardy to incline to great mutations in State But he was one of the wisâ—st men of his age (a) for judgement that observed that Time is the greatest innovator and then asked if time of course alter things to the worse and wisdom and Counsell shâ—ll not alter them to the better what shall be the end My Lord no man is a greater admirer of the wisdom our Ancâ—stors have shewed in the ancient constitutions of this Kingdome than I according to the small measure of my understanding in them And yet since time hath made so great an alteration in the Domestick grounds of some of their prudent constitutions and our neighbour Kingdomes are so much altered too from what they were in former ages I will be bold to say That neither the King nor Kingdome can attain to that greaâ—nesse nor happinesse which all good Subiects ought to wish unto them both without a great alteration by mutuall free consent in things concerning them both from ancient customes and present Statutes By that light your Lordship and the publicke proceedings have given me I guesse that in this point your Lordship was too short in thinking that as soon as the Trienniall Bill was passed in the procuring whereof you had so great a part all our other desires would effect themselves and that we were freed from all publick fears And they on the other side after the passing of the Act for the continuance of this Parliament were perhaps too long before they came to be of your mind That there was then no more to be thought on but how in a gratefull return to his Ma to advance his honour and plentyâ— as you have often heard those principall Intendents of the publicke good most solemnly professe they intended But I will not engage my selfe in this so bold discourse further than this That if your Lordship be as I am absolutely of opinion that they do yet most sincerly intend what they so solemnly professed your Lordship ought to do them right to his Majesty in that point wherein you shall do as much to your selfe Your Lordship relateth no particular difference but one in the bâ—sinesse of the Church and to that I will restrain my selfe In that you say having had frequent consultations with the chiefest Agents for a Reformation and finding no three men to agree upon what they would have in the place of that they all resolved to remove you agreed not with the prevailing sence having not hardinesse enough to incline to a mutation which would evidently have so great an influence upon the peace prosperity and interest of the Kingdom This very reason of your Lordships would have prevailed with me to incline to a mutation yet if this were your only consideration which I should beleeve if I had not heard of another mentioned at the beginning of this Answer Or if this and that joyned together were all your motives to stand so stiff for the retention of Episcopacy what honest wise man can blame you for it For me I have not wit enough to find your fault And yet I am so much of another iudgement that I conceive the peace and prosperity of this Kingdom diseased as now it is will not be perfectly recovered without an utter abolition of Episcopacy though a reduction thereof to the pattern of the primitive institution of Diocesans may possiâ—ly be a fitter remedy for the present distemper between which two â— am much divided in my own thoughtsâ— but I rather propeâ—â—d to an abolition I think the reasons which have been given by the Church and Counsell of Scotland (b) to this purpose very considerable But that which moveth me mâ—st is the great swarm of Sectaries wch is up among us which certainly will ner'e be well hâ—ved under an Archbishops Pall or a Bishops Miterâ— if peradventure they may be gotten under any government which I conceive to be a matter of infinite importance to the quiet of this Church and â—tate And I see it is so apprehended by his Maiestie For they are all agreed that Bishops are Antichristian The two small Books of one Non-conformist have operated more
with him in this that the most necessary action to be first done before or on the day of His Majesties and his Parliaments meeting were a most solemne humiliation for the blood hath bin shed which can never be so put off from one to another but it will still lye on the Land and for the many robberies have been â—ommitted not by Prince Rupert who is least guilty of them but by one English-man one Christian one Protestant upon another And in sum for all those sins wherewith we and it may be the King and Parliament have provoked our God to jealousie As we have cause to feare in respect of the spirit of jealousie he hath sent among us and between theâ— for the iudgements of God on men do not seldome point to that sin wherewith they first grieved him This will well set off the action of thanksgiving no lesse necessary to be performed for such a happy meeting And here may be some thing more yet needfull to be done for the doing whereof as no subject is so able so in some respect no man is so fit as my Lord your father and which if I be not mistaken would make him as acceptable to the people as his extraordinary experience and abilities have rendred him to his Majesty which for the Kingdomes sake I wish he were though I have no obligation to him and some great persons to whom I am infinitâ—ly obliged think they have had as little to him as I. Heark me thinkes I heare a noyse of ten thousand times ten thousand people making the earth to shake and the mountaines Eccho with ioyfull acclamations God save the King God save the Queen â—od save the Prince And after a due pause then a confused murmur of as many thousands saying one to another See how their Maiesties and His Highnesse reioyce in the ioy of the two Houses of Parliament waiting on them and in the ioy of all their People Glory be to â—od on high for the peace he hath given us And after this a whisper of many asking every on of his neighbour Which is the Lord Kimbolton which is the Lord Digby which are the five Members of the House of Commons Are they also reconciled and become better friends for their late bitter falling out And may we hope that all the Noblemen â—entlemen and all other sorts of people in the Kingdom will take up the same fashion This is the Lords doing blessed be his holy name Am I not deceived No I am not I will quit my Eremites weed to go see this great sight and to give my Plaudite to this happy Catastrophy of our Tragicall Comedy then returne to my Cell and to my only ambition there to attain to that Heaven upon Earth (a) which the great Philosopher of our Age and Nation hath expressed in his language that is in the best was ever spoken by English man To have my mind move in charity rest in Providence and turne upon the Poles of Truth Madame I Shall not adventure to write unto your Majesty with freedome but by expresses or till such time as I have a cipher which I beseech your Majesty to vouchsafe me At this time therefore I shall only let your Majesty know where the humblest and most faithfull servant you have in the world is Here â—â—Middleborough where I shall remain in the privatâ—st way I can till I receive iâ—structions howâ— to serve the King and your Majesty in these parts If the King betake Himsâ—lfe to a saâ—e placâ— where he may avow and protect his servants from rage I meâ—n and viâ—lence for from justice I will never implore it I shall then live in impatience and in misery till I waite upon you Buâ—â—f after all he hath done of late he shall betake himselfe to the easiâ—st and complyantest wayes of accommodation I am confident that thâ—n I shall serve him more by my absence then by all my industry and it will be a comfort to me in all calamities if I cannot serve you by my actions that I may do it in some kinde by my sufferings for your sake haâ—ing I protest to God no measure of happinâ—sse or misfortune in this world but what I derive from your Majesties value of my affection and fidelity Middleborough the 21. of Ianuary 1641. The Supscription of the Letter For my Worthy friend Sir Lewes Divâ—s Knightâ— at the Earle of Bristolls house i◠〈◊〉 LONDON Deare Brother I Hope you will have received the Letter which I wrote unto you from aboord Sir Iohn Peâ—â—ington wherein I gave you account of the accident of O Neals man and why I thought fitting to continue my journey into Holland going still upon this ground 〈◊〉 if things go on by way of accommodâ—tion by my absence the King will be advantaged Iâ— the King declare Himselâ—e and â—â—tire to a safe place I shall be able to wait upon him from hâ—â—â— as well â—s out oâ— any part of England ovâ—r â—nd above the service which I may dâ— Him here in the mean time Besides that I â—ound all the Ports so strict that if I had not taken this opportunity of Sir Iohn Penningtons forwardnesse in the Kings seâ—vice it would have bin impossible for me to have gotten away at any other time I am now here at Middleborough at the Golden-fleece upon the Market at one Geoâ—ge Pâ—â—râ—oâ—s hâ—usâ— where I will remain till I receive from you advertisement of the state of things and likewâ—se instâ—uctions from their Majâ—stiâ—s which I desire you to hasten unto me by some safe handâ— anâ— withall to sâ—nd unto me a cyphâ—r whereby we may write unto one anothâ—â— frâ—â—ly If you knew how â—asie a passage it were you would oâ—fer the King to come â—ver for some few dayes your sâ—lfe God knows I have not a thought towards my â—ountry to â—ake â—e blush much lesse criminall but where Traitors have so great a sway the â—onestâ—st thoughts may prove most treaâ—onable Let Duk Sâ—â—â—lty be diâ—patcht hiâ—hâ—râ— speedily with such black clothes and lâ—nnen as I 〈◊〉 and let your letters be directed to the Baron of Sherborn for by that name I live unknown Let care be taken for Bils of Exchangâ— Middleborough Ian. 20. 1641 Yours The Lord DIGBYES Letter to the Queens Majesty Madam HAGUE March 10. 1642. IT is the first contentment that I have been capâ—ble of this long time That your Majestie â—â— safely arrived in HOLLAND Withdrawn from a Country so unworthy of you I should have waâ—ted the first upon you both to have tendred my duty according to my preâ—â—dence of obligâ—tion abovâ— others and to hâ—ve informed your Majesty the timeliest of the state of this place wither you are coming both in point of affectâ—ons and inâ—erests but that there flie about such reports that the Parliament hath dâ—sirâ—d your Majesty not to admit me to your Presence as I daâ—e not presume into it without particular permâ—ssion The grouâ—d of their malâ—volence towards
me in this particular is said to be upon some Letters which they have presumed to open directed unto your Majesty from me which I proâ—esse I cannot apprehend for I am certain that I have not written to your Majestie the least word that can be wrested to an ill sensâ— by my greatest enâ—mies having not so much as mentioned â—ny businesse to your Majesty since I left England To the King I wrâ—te onâ—e with that hardinesse which I thought His aâ—â—aires and complexion required but that Lâ—tter was sent by so safe hands as I cannot apprehend the miscarrying of it However Mâ—â—am if my misfortune be so great as that I must be deprived of the sole comfort of my 〈◊〉 of waiting on Your Majesty and following Your fortunes I beseech You let my doome be so signified unto me as that I may retire with the least shame that well may be to bewaile my unhappinesse which yet will be supportable if I may be but assured that inwardly that genâ—rous and princely hearts preserves me the place of MADAM Your Majesties most faithfull and most affectionate humble servant Master Ellyots Letter to the Lord DIGBY My Lord YOu have ever been so willing to oblige that I cannot despair of your favour in a businâ—sse wherâ—in I am much concerned The King was pleased to employ me to London to my Lord Keeper for the Seals which though after two hours consideration he refused yet being resolved not to be denied my importunity at last prevailed which service the King hath declared was so great that he hath promised a reward equall to it it may be the King expects I should move him for some place which I shall not do being resolved never to hâ—â—e any but the Queen being already so infinitely obliged to her for her favours that I confesse I would owe my being onely to her nor shall I ever value that life I hold but as a debt which I shall ever pay to her commands The favour which I desire from yourâ— Lordship is That you will engage the Queen to write to the King that he would make me a Groome of his Bed-chamber which since I know t is so absâ—lutely in her power to doe I shall never think of an other way for which favour neither her Majesty nor your Loydship shall ever finde a mâ—re reall servant For our affairs they are now in so good a condition that if we are nor undone by hearkning to an A commodation there is nothing else can hurt us which I feare the King is too much enclined to but I hâ—pe what he shall receive from the Queen will make him so resolved that nothing but a satisfaction equâ—ll to the injuries he hath received will make him quit the advantage he now â—â—th which I do not doubt will be the means oâ— bringing your Lordship quickly hither where you shall finde none more ready to obey your Commands Yorke the 27 of May 1642. Then your most faithfull and humble servant THO: ELLIOT Observations upon the same Letters THe Lords and Commons have commanded these ensuing Letters and Votes to be printed The copy of a Letter writtâ—n by the Lord Digby to the Queen the 10 of Mâ—â—châ— last of his own hand-writing An originâ—ll Letter wâ—itten to the Lord Digby by Mâ—stâ—â—Thomas Eliot from Yâ—â—ke the 27 of May last Two notes of Arms the one of which is partly His Majâ—sties own hand both found among my Lord Digbâ—â—s papers In the Letter of the Lord Digby to the Quâ—â—n it may be observâ—d how he discovers his venomous hâ—â—rt to this Kingdom in that malicious censure thâ—t we are a Countrâ—y unworthy of hâ—â— unworthy indeed to be so often designed to â—uine and destruction to be undermined and circumventâ—d by so many plots and devillish projects of Iesuits and Priests and other the most factious and malignanâ— spirits in Christâ—ndome by which we had been often ruined and destroyed iâ— Gods wonderâ—â—ll mercy had not preserved usâ— and we call his Divinâ— Majesty to witnâ—sse thâ—t we have nâ—ver done any thâ—ng agâ—inst the personall safety or Honor of Hir Majesty onely we have desired to be secured from such plots from such mischiâ—â—â—us Engineâ—â— thâ—t thâ—y migâ—t not have the favour of the Court and such a powerfull influence upon His Majesties Councels as they have had to the extream hazard not onely of the civill Liberty and Peace of the Kingdom but of that which we hold deâ—rer much than these yea then the very being of this Nation our Religion whereupon depends the Honor of Almighty God and salvation of our souls Let this Lord who wâ—s long amongst us and knew the grounds of our proceedings and most secret consultations produce any thing if he can of undutifulnesse or dis-respect to her Majesty exprest or intended by us Another discovery in the Letter is this That this Lord confesâ—eth that he writ to His Majesty with the hardinesse which he thought His afâ—airs and complexion required what this was may well be perceived in a Letter from himselfe to the Queen heretofore printed by our direction his affairs in the judgement of this Lord required that he should withdraw Himselfe from His Parliament betake Himselfe to some place of strength such was the counsell he then gave Him and how well it hath bin followed every man may perceive but what His Majesties Complexion required that may seem a greater mystery and yet this may be collected out of that Letter That His Majesty in the apprâ—hâ—nsion of this Lord was too inclinable to an Accommodation with His Parliament which in a kinde of scorn in that Letter is called the easie or the sage way this Complexion so beseeming a good Prince required such a hardy and vehement provocation to wrath and war against His Subjects as this Lord presumed to expresse in that Letter and besides his treachery to the Kingdom we may herein observe a great degree of insolence and contempt towards His Majesty that he shoulâ— dare in a Letter to the Queen to tax His Majesties Complexion with so much as mildnesse towards His people must needs be required such hardy and bold Counsâ—ll In Master Eliots Letter it may be first observed That whilest His Majesty contests with His Parliament for some questionable Prerogatives concerning the Common-wealth His own servants do really deprive him of an undoubted Prerogative of being the Soveraigne disposer of favours and preferments in His own Family which this Gentleman doth expresse in that resolution never to have any place about His Majesty but by the Queen and may be further observed what these desperate Counsels about the King are most afraid of and what they think most huâ—tfull to themselves that His Majesty should be inclined to an Accommodation with His people By this they fear to be undone that is to lose that prey the estates of the Parliament men and other good Subjects which they have already devoured in their own fancies and that they expect to