themselves adding that hereafter he should learn to know the Policies of Spain to be no less than those of Navarr And therefore Intreats them for their Honours Sake and Credit of the Holy-Cause to desist from all Thoughts of altering the Fundamental the Salique-Law of France by Transferring the Crown upon a Woman and Submitting the Kingdom to the Dominion of a Stranger But this Proposal of the Spaniard was resented with no less Indignation by most of the Members of the State than by the Bishop of Saintliz who scorned that Strangers should rule over them as if they were either so base as to make themselves instantly Slaves or so foolish as not to understand their own Interests Above all they of the House of Lorrein were netled at it who thought to have shared the Cake amongst themselves Yea the very People of Paris being wearied out with necessities and wants and having tasted a little of the Sweets of Peace by means of a cessation concluded during the time of the Treaty at Suren did impatiently desire an Accord with the King and began to threaten the States unless they would hearken to an Accommodation The Spaniards being now grown so odious to the Parisians as that their Embassadors could not peep abroad in the Streets but they were entertain'd with Scoffs and Curses though but two Years before they were so high in their Books and gracious in their Eyes that they of Paris thought to have yielded the City freely to be under the Subjection of the King of Spain No sooner was this great Mystery of Spanish Policy and Ambition revealed and publickly made known through the Kingdom and that Assembly of States which was Call'd in Rebellion Dissolv'd in Disorder but that the Cities which formerly held for the League and Governours of the Garrisons made hast to return by their Obedience to the King Meaux led the way Peron Pontois Orliens Bruges Lyons and Aix followed after and Paris it self was not long behind Roan and Amiens and the rest came flocking in and were all received to Grace The Spaniards therefore when they saw their main Project for the Crown thus to fayl had thoughts to reimburse themselves by getting Possession of as many strong places upon the Frontiers of France as they could either by Force or Fraud La Fera in Picardy Capella Croisill and Blavet in Brittany and Calais they Surprized By which means they had so strengthen'd themselves as that the Dukes of Guise and Mayne after they had made their Peace with the King and other Leaders of the League were now content to joyn their Forces to beat them out as Enemies whom they had formerly call'd in as Friends And surely if our Covenanters had been as truly sensible of the Honour of the English Nation and Scottish-Practises as the French Leaguers were of theirs they wanted not as just Provocations on one side from the Scotts and fair Invitations on the other from the King to joyn with him in delivering this exhausted and bleeding Kingdom from the Misery which it did at that time suffer and from that Slavery which most good Men feared was at first intended by the Scotts who had solemnly sworn to subdue this late flourishing Church to the Tyranny of a Scottish-Presbytery And not content with that demanded in effect the Supream Command of Ireland to be put into their Hands As also to have an equal share in the Government of England Which Designs of that insolency in them and dishonour to us were such as our Fore-Fathers would not have endured the mention and at the Memory whereof our Posterity will doubtless blush And to bring these their ends about 't is very well known that they made themselves Masters of the strongest Cities in this Kingdom upon their own confines viz. Barwick Newcastle and Carlisle Out of which and such other Footing as they had gained here how they were got the Precedent Story doth sufficiently manifest whereof I shall not give any touch that of the Spaniards departure out of France having no resemblance therewith For the King of Spain found while he was Fighting to gain the Neighbour Kingdom of France he had almost lost his own in the Low-Countries Likewise that neither his Forces nor Moneys were sufficient to maintain two such Expensive Wars at the same time And that he did not gain so much in France but the Hollanders by occasion of that diversion got as much of him in Flanders and therefore was willing to hearken to a Treaty for Peace And the French whose Kingdom was now miserably wasted by a long Civil War not unwilling to imbrace the motion Whereupon a Peace was concluded betwixt those two Crowns at Uervins upon the second of May Anno. 1598. Whereby the Spantard was to restore all the Towns he had taken in the French Dominion and go away only with Bagg and Baggage It is not unworthy of Observation that in all the several Compositions which the Leaguers made with the King upon their Reconcilement and in all the Articles of the Treaty at Uervins for the general Peace there is not the least mention of Religion or Extirpation of Heresy though that was the great Cause for which they ever pretended to take up Arms Only they were careful to preserve their secular Interests and to secure their Persons and Estates upon as good Terms as they could A plain Evidence that Religion was but the Stale Honours and Preferments being the Mark which they aimed at Yet the Protestants whom they had devoted to Destruction in their Holy-League fared in the end never the worse for it For the King was content to confirm and Republish in Anno. 1595 the same Edict in favour of them which Henry the third had granted in Anno. 1577. and which had been the chief Eye-sore to the Papists and a ground of their League Which Edict he caused to be verified in the Parliament at Paris where Coquilius one of the Judges formerly a Violent Leaguer was a special Instrument to further and facilitate the Publication and reception of it in the Parliament And and when the Kingdom had some Liberty to Breath and Recover her Senses even those that were professed Papists did not much repine at the Toleration of Protestants and enlargement of their Priviledges by the Edict of Nantz Anno. 1598. Which the Historian relating labours in part to excuse by discoursing to the Reader That the Common Peace of France Pressed and almost Oppressed with the Tragical Impetuosities of Schisms and Divisions made every thing that was just to be thought necessary and all that was profitable be esteemed just So that seeing the torrent of Religion could not be stopt without a Breach in the State that the Disease was inveterate and a hard matter to remove what was so deeply setled That the Restauration of a Church is the work of God as well as the Plantation Men must be content to do no
having prepared Westminster Hall with Scaffolds they began his trial upon the two and twentieth of March where they charg'd him with subverting the Fundamental Laws of England and Ireland with threatning to root the Scotch Nation out of Ireland with procuring his Majesty to dissolve the last Parliament as also with betraying Newcastle and the King's Army to the Scots And after many days labour to prove him guilty of Treason by the Law and failing thereof they brought in a special Bill to attaint him wherein they took care to insert a special Clause that it should not be drawn into President thereby to secure themselves from a return of that Injustice upon any of them which they acted on him Which Bill was twice read and voted in one day What course they took with those that concur'd not with them in passing thereof and other their practises I shall briefly mention when I come to their apparent violation of the Privileges of Parliament How multitudes out of the City were brought down to the Parliament-House to cry for Justice Also with what difficulty his Majesty passed that Bill though importun'd by the Earl's own Letter out of hope his death might have satisfied those blood-thirsty men I spare to mention but on the twelfth of May they cut off his Head on Tower Hill Which strange and unjust way of proceeding driven on by those who stood least affected to the Doctrine and Discipline of our Church caused many to fear that which afterwards came to pass Left therefore the People whom under the most specious pretences they were to captivate should have the least suspicion of hazard to the Service of God as it stood here establish'd they cunningly insinuated to the world that by means of a Jesuitical Party the Protestant Religion was in no small danger and therefore as zealous Champions for the same framed a formal Protestation for its sure defence as it then stood establish'd in the Church of England both in Doctrine and Discipline which for farther satisfaction they caused to be solemnly taken by every Member of Parliament and not only so but by a special Order made it public by the Press and sent it to several Counties of this Realm But their grand work being to get the Militia into their power by which means whatever else they had a mind to might be accomplish'd as an Introduction thereunto divers strange Plots and Conspiracies were talk'd of Which Plots not only stood them in stead to amuse and put fears into the people who by a most implicit faith did then believe that all they acted was for their good but to countenance those many unreasonable demands they made from his Majesty so that under the shadow of them they might go through with any thing And therefore it will not be amiss to view by what degrees they themselves with these devices proceeded towards the obtaining those their desired ends The first of these that they broach'd was a conspiracy by divers in the House of Commons to bring in a French Army unto which the Irish and English should be joyned Whereupon a vote was passed that new Fortifications should be rais'd at Portsmouth and the Cinqueports and order taken that one Lord and two of the Commons viz. the Lord Kymbolton Sir Walter Earle and Sir Philip Stapleton should be forthwith dispatch'd thither About the same time also they sent some of their Members to Lambeth House to search for Amunition and Arms as also about the Parliament-House for fear of any Plot. Which pretended fear was much countenanced by a Letter directed to the Lady Shelley and produced by Mr. Pym discovering a design to destroy Then was there a Report in the House of what a Jesuit should say of some great design against this Kingdom As also of a Letter from Calais of many Frenchmen coming for England and of another Jesuits speech of firing the Parliament-House Again of French intended to land here And within a short space after Mr. Nathaniel Fienes made report to the Houses that a Plot to seize the Tower was newly discovered as also to send over the Irish Army and for delivery of Portsmouth to the French and Papists for assistance wherein the Bishops were to raise a thousand Horse And shortly after Mr. Henry Percie Mr. Iermyn Sir Iohn Sucklyn and Mr. Davenant were voted guilty of another Plot to bring up the Army and force the Parliament which wrought to purpose by putting terrible Fears and Iealousies into the People And to make up all a Letter from the Earl of Holland was read of new practises against the State Whereupon at a conference of both Houses a select Committee was appointed to advise of putting the Kingdom into a Posture of Defence Which being done the next artifice they used was to perpetuate the Parliament to the end that the name of that might the more plausibly carry them through in this grand work To effect this therefore they pretended that the great Sums of Money which the Scots were to have could not suddenly be rais'd and that being to be borrow'd for their present riddance Lenders would hardly be found unless they saw a certain way to secure their moneys which the danger of dissolving this Parliament would hazard Whereupon they brought in a Bill to prevent the adjourning or dissolving there of without the consent of both Houses And to carry on the people with all assurance of their future happiness and freedom from oppression by Courts of Arbitrary Jurisdiction they voted and sent up certain Bills for suppressing the Courts of High Commission and Star-Chamber and regulating the Council Table as also for bounding the Forests preventing vexatious proceedings concerning Knighthood and regulating the Clerk of the Market besides that of Tonnage and Poundage All which his Majesty out of his abundant goodness expecting that these unparallel'd Acts of grace would have oblig'd them in a stronger bond of dutiful Allegiance was pleased to pass before his going into Scotland And as a witness to the candor of his intentions admitted divers Lords then most popular but since great Actors in this woful Tragedy to be of his Privy-Council conferring on three of them great Offices of Honour Trust and Benefit And now supposing that he had given them as great a measure of content as their hearts could desire he took his journey into Scotland on the tenth of August there to establish the peace of that Realm in setling whatsoever should be thought meet for the happiness thereof About which time the Armies were disbanded that had been so long delay'd though the continuance of them was no less charge than 80000 l. a month their work before being not brought forward enough Some of the leading-members in plain terms declaring that yet they could not spare them the sons of Zerviah
Hamilton with his Army being utterly routed at Preston in Lancashire and in his flight at Uttoxeter in Staffordshire taken prisoner Colchester lastly which had held out with great hardship expecting relief from Duke Hamilton was forc't to surrender and submit whereupon Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George L'isle were immediately sacrificed to the rage of these merciless men the Lord Capell made prisoner and the Townsmen fined at fourteen thousand pounds But those black clouds before they were thus disperst betokening a suddain storm put these new Saints for their more security upon some desperate thoughts of taking away the King's life To which end one Captain Rolfe was imploy'd by them as himself did confess to remove his Majesty out of the way by poison or any other means forasmuch as it would highly conduce to their affairs Whether it was by Reason that Osburne a confident of Rolfe's had discovered the design or that upon more considerate thoughts they took other resolutions it is hard to say but the execution of that murther was then at present laid aside Many were the petitions at that time to the Members at Westminster from sundry parts all pressing earnestly for a personal Treaty yea some of them from such as they durst hardly displease as from the Masters of the Trinity House Captains of Ships and Sea-men and another from the City of London ¶ There is no doubt but that the Presbyterean-members were private well-wishers if not contrivers of this third Scottish Invasion though by the prevalency of the other faction a Vote was passed in the House of Commons that the Scottish-Army under the command of Duke Hamilton were Enemies and that they should accordingly proceed against them In which argument the Independents were so fierce that when it was objected by one that he thought the Lords would not concur therein Reply was made That the House of Commons being the Representative of the people had power to act without the Lords for the peoples safety in case the Lords deserted their Trust. Nevertheless whether it was the courage that the Presbytereans then took by reason of Duke Hamilton's Invasion and those other disturbances before-mention'd or whether it was the doubts the Independents had of the dangers which these approaching troubles might produce 't is hard to say Sure it is that after much debate and many Arguments it was resolved That his Majesty in person should be treated with by Commissioners of both Houses of Parliament in the Isle of Wight upon the whole matter of the Propositions at Hampton-court for settling the peace of the Kingdome Which Vote with other circumstances did then make such a change in the face of things that the City of London began to assume the power of their own Militia and listed men saying they did it by the Law of self Defence warranted by the Law of God of Nature and of the Land and by a farther Authority which would make little for the advantage of the Parliament to question Which so startled the Members at Westminster that resuming their old Presbyterean-cloak they forthwith dispatch't Letters to the Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland setting forth what the Parliament had done in the way of setling peace reforming the Church and Universities and maintaining the Covenant and union betwixt the two Nations complaining of Duke Hamilton's Invasion under colour of authority from the Parliament of that Kingdome And though the Brethren of Scotland grounded this their third Invasion upon the Covenant the Independent-members at Westminster utterly denied that their assertion affirming stoutly that the Scots had broke the Covenant therein yea that in so doing they had set the English at Liberty from it and that the Covenant was no more jure divino than Presbytery To which was answered by the Presbytereans for concerning this point there grew a tough dispute in the House betwixt those two Parties that the large Treaty contained the League between the two Nations so did not the Covenant which was a vow made unto God with their Hands lifted up to Heaven for the maintenance and observation of the ends and principles expressed in the Covenant from which no power on earth could absolve them And that though the Covenant was not jure divino yet the keeping of it after they had taken it was jure divino it being the revealed will of God that they should not offer unto him the sacrifice of fools a Covenant to day and break it to morrow But to this some of the more zealous replied that the Covenant was originally framed to satisfie the Brethren of Scotland upon the first bringing in of their Army hither to help the Lord against the mighty without which the Scots would not have come in to their assistance And that work being over they were not at all obliged by the Covenant any further it being to be laid aside as an Almanack out of date And therefore to strengthen themselves the more there were private Listings of the Schismaticks and Antimonarchists in London Which did so awaken the Presbyterean-Saints in that City that they complain'd to the House of Commons representing the danger thereof saying that if the Houses did not give them leave to look to their safety they must have recourse to the Law of Nature and act in their Militia without the Houses in order to self Defence allowable by all Laws and practised by that very Parliament against the King and likewise by Fairfax his Army against the Parliament Unto which words there were such high exceptions taken that some of the fiery-spirited Independents replied that the Parliament having fought with the King for the Militia and gotten it by the Sword no other Interest upon any title whatsoever should dare to lay claim to any part of it Upon which Doctrine they practised to purpose as by and by will appear CHAP. XXIX THE next thing whereof I am in order of time to take notice is that this fatal and absolute destruction of the Scottish-Army under the command of Duke Hamilton by Lieutenant General Cromwell at that time Commander of the Parliament's forces Fairfax having declin'd to serve against the Brethren was not by any formal Battel but rather a beating up of Quarters and some slight Skyrmishes and that it was then chiefly attributed to the over-confidence which Duke Hamilton had in the strength of his own Countrymen exposing those English which were Commanded by the truly noble Sir Marmaduke Langdale to be over powred by the Enemy thereby expecting an absolute Conquest through his own puissance and so to have reapt the whole honour of restoring the King if he ever had any such intent So that Cromwell being now triumphant over the whole Scottish-Army which was the most formidable of any then on foot against them and not long after over those right valiant and loyall persons at Colchester The Ships also which went over to the Prince
occasion'd by the fears of the People without any consent of his That his Intentions were ever most Inclin'd to Loyalty and all due Obedience desiring nothing but that Evil Councillers might be removed and due care taken for the securing of Religion And though says my Author his Actions were for the most part quite contrary to his Professions yet the colour of Religion was so lively and plausible he knowing so well how to demean himself that the People generally believed him still a Loyal Subject to the King and that all he did was only out of Zeal to Religion and an Ardent desire for promoting the publick good of the Kingdom When things were in this State there followed the face of an accommodation betwixt the King and the Leaguers and for the composing of all differences another Parliament was convened at Bloys 16. Oct. 1588. In the Election of Members to assist at it though both parts laboured to have such chosen as were their own dependents yet those of the League prevailed by much above the Kings Party For the Commons being vexed with their pressing Grievances their end being mainly to shake off that Burthen did willingly adhere to the Kings Enemies who promised and professed an earnest desire of easing the People of their unsupportable burthen by Taxes and Contributions In this Parliament all the States took a Solemn Oath or Protestation for defence of Religion with the Kings Person and Authority Which Oath they ordered to be taken by all the Subjects of the Kingdom Notwithstanding all which Obligations whereby the Leaguers bound themselves to abandon their former Practises and to apply themselves to a sincere obedience of the King yet did they not remit any thing of their former Machinations For not only the Duke of Guise aspired to obtain the express Title of Lieutenant General which he could not before accomplish though he had the Power but the rest ceased not to tamper with the States that the Government migt be reformed in such a manner as that the King should have no share left him in it but the bare name and shadow of a Prince the whole Power to be transferred to this Duke and his Dependents of the League Nay the very number of the States which equaliz'd ours in the House of Commons engaging themselves in the Interests of the Faction did contend and squable for the same ends with them without any regard of their so many and Solemn Oaths in evident contempt of the Person Name and Majesty of the King The Commons in this Parliament notwithstanding they had resolv'd upon a War with the Huguenots which must needs be expensive Yet demanded from the King a moderation of Taxes and diminution of new Impositions which like that of Ship-money amounted to two Millions of Crowns yearly as also the Reformation of many Offices erected about the Customes and the total abolishing of some other Grievances They declared the King of Navarr who was next Heir to the Crown incapable of Inheriting and Sollicited the King to make a new Decree upon it unto which they would have him swear as a Fundamental Law After many other Plots and Practises in this Factious Parliament when business was now fully ripe and the Duke of Guise having sufficiently canvassed and prepared the States both in general and particular Grown now secure and bold upon confidence of former Experience he began to bring his Plot upon the Stage of being made Lieutenant-general at the Request and by the Authority of the Parliament which was the last end of his present hopes But those hopes were quickly frustrate by His untimely Death After which his Brother the Duke of Maine took up Arms to Prosecute that design of the League And though the King wrote kind Letters to him yet were they of no force to make him hearken to any Concord For making himself Head of the Holy Union he was by the Parisians declared Lieutenant General of the State and Crown of France with the same authority and power wich is naturally inherent in the King abating only the name which Power was intended to continue until the States-General should think fit to alter it Upon the possession whereof he entred 22. Febr. 1589 Having taken a Solemn Oath to Protect and defend the Catholick Religion against all Persons whatsoever to preserve the Estate belonging to the Crown of France to defend the Priviledges of the three Estates of Parliament the Clergy Nobility and Commons to cause the Laws and Constitutions of the Realm to be observed and the Authority and Power of the Courts of Justice Having done this he chose and setled the Council of the Union like a close Committee consisting of fourty the chief and most eminent Persons of the League to manage all the most Important Affairs with his Assistance leaving still the Government of the City of Paris with the Sixteen And as our Men had their Committies in several Counties which received Directions from and sent Informations to their great Council So did these of the League ordain that there should be six eight twelve or more of them nominated in several places of the Kingdom to propose what was fitting to the Council and having received Directions from them to act accordingly Nor hath scarce any act of Insolence been Commited by our Men in which they might not urge these for an Example What hath been done to Justice Mallet taken off the Bench and Committed to the Tower the like was done in Paris For they in a Tumultuous manner beset the Hall of the Pallace where the Judges than sate seiz'd upon Harle and others whom they deem'd to be well affected to the King and Committed them Prisoners to the Bastile The King upon like Motives as his Majesty Adjourn'd the Term from London to Oxford adjourn'd the Courts of Justice the Parliament of Paris to Towrs that of Roan to Cane that of Dijon to Chalon And that nothing might be wanting in this Rebellion which was in that As our Men took upon them to make a new great Seal ransackt the Kings Pallace at White-hall seiz'd all his Revenues Forts and Magazine into their own hands usurped his Authority and called in a forreign-Forreign-Nation the Scots to their Assistance their Parliament Voting it and their Preachers being the Trumpeters of War against the King So our own Camden tells us the Leaguers of France did Populus ubique Magistratibus parere dedignatus Regias aedes Lutetiae diripuit Conjurati novo consilio instituto novo Sigillo ad res administrandas confecto Regiam sibi authoritatem arrogarunt munitissima quaeque loca immo integras Provincias sibi raptarunt Regni redditus interceperunt Auxiliares Hispanos è Belgio evocarunt Parliamentis suffragantibus Ecclesiasticis Bellum in Regem ubique buccinantibus The King after all this being straitned for Money and entertaining no Thoughts but of Peace and Accommodation procured the Popes Legate to Interpose
to all Kings from their Subjects and from them to their dread Soveraign after a more special manner but meerly to preserve their Religion and Liberties of the Kingdom and that whatsoever course they should take it should be no imputation to them being constrain'd thereto for best securing that Kirk and Kingdom from the Extremity of confusion and misery taking God and man to witness that they would be free of all outrages and Insolencies that should be committed in the mean time And then they began again to levy and raise Forces in several parts of the Realm in great numbers excercised train'd and assign'd them a Rendezvouz as also a day to be in readiness to march making Provisions of Artillery Amunition and Armes in great quantities from forreign parts laying Taxes and Impositions of ten marks in every hundred upon all the Subjects of that Kingdom according to their several Revenues for support of their Rebellion exacting the same with the greatest rigour that could be imagined spreading sundry Papers and Pamphlets scandalous to the King's proceedings block'd up the Castle of Edenborough and fortified divers places imprisoned the Earl of Southeske one of his Majesties Privy-Council there and sundry others of quality for not adhering to them in their Rebellious courses endeavouring to settle Intelligencers in parts beyond-Sea and practising to let in forreign power inclining rather to prostitute themselves to a forreign Government and different in Religion than yield obedience and conformity to his Majesty their natural Soveraign as appears by their Addresses and Letter to the French King By what hath been said it appearing that the first glimpse of this grand and destructive Rebellion shew'd it self at Edenborough upon the three and twentieth of Iuly an 1637 the scum of the people then taking fire at thâ— reading of that Service-book which was sent over by his late Majesty of blessed memory as a proper Liturgy for the Church of Scotland and most nearly suting with this of England Forasmuch therefore as from those Sparks the ensuing flames arose which from and after that time continued burning for the space of many years until they had overspread and much wasted the cheif parts of this great Isle to make the Bishops of both Kingdoms odious there are not a few who either out of malice to their sacred function or ignorance as to matter of fact have imputed the original of all this mischeif unto them as the first Authors or procurers of that Book which they would have believed to be the first rise thereof To the end therefore that those reverend persons soon after ruin'd and since dead may be fully vindicated from being primarily instrumental therein though had they so been no person of upright judgment could justly have blamed them from endeavouring an uniformity in the service of God in both Kingdoms I shall desire my Reader to cast his eye upon that faithful Narrative written by the command of our late Soveraign King Charles the first and corrected throughout with his own hand as many yet living can testify whereby he will clearly discern that the then Lords of the Privy-Council of Scotland were the men who advised the King to commend a Service-Book to be received and used in all the Churches of that Realm of which there was no little want every man being left to his own giddy fancy Now whether this advice of those Lords was not with purpose to trepan his Majesty to do that which as they resolv'd to order the business should occasion a tumultuous Insurrection by the rabble whence their grand Design of raising a general flame of war might ensue let the Reader judge when he looks back upon their discontents upon his Majesties Revocation of such things as had been passed away in prejudice of that Crown especially by some of his Progenitors in their minorities though not without advice of those who were then his Privy-Councellors in that Realm as hath been already observed And withall consider what combinations were driven on divers years before betwixt the most considerable persons of the Puritan-party in England and the Grand-Contrivers there Mr. Knightley's house in Northampton-shire being the chief place where that restless faction had their frequent meetings whence a Gentleman of quality was sent into Scotland afterwards a great Parliament-man here who residing there for some time before the troubles broke out represented to those which had the chief Interest there that the business of the Ship-money and Habeas Corpus with divers other things whereof there was much noise made afterwards had so irritated the greatest part of the English Nation that if they made sure work at home they needed not to fear any thing from England Moreover how earnestly and eagerly after that Tumult at Edenborough was so raised all sorts of people took advantage thereof the Kirkmen laying about them in their Pulpits so that the Citizens Gentry and Nobles speedily put themselves in Armes entring into a rebellious Confederacy called the Covenant And lastly that when his Majesty most gratiously offered to recall the Service-Book which was the great business at which they seem'd to take offence they were no whit lenified It will be visible enough to any person of judgment who doth not wilfully shut his Eyes that the hatching of this Rebellion was of a much elder date than that Service-Book But I now return to England CHAP. VI. HIs Majesty thus seeing his danger from Scotland and hoping of help from his English Subjects resolv'd of calling a Parliament here But no sooner were Writs out for that purpose than that the Schismatical Party used all possible endeavour to strengthen their side by choosing of their own faction for Knights and Burgesses And to accomplish the same spared for no pains in packing of Voices and making parties wherein their Seditious Pulpit-men bestir'd themselves to purpose such being then their fury that those meetings for Elections appeared more like riotous tumults than orderly conventions nevertheless the Nation was not then so generally tainted but that many good men were chosen Which Parliament began at Westminster upon the thirteenth day of April wherein his Majesty declared to both Houses the indignities receiv'd from his Scotish Subjects and to suppress their Rebellion proposed a Supply of twelve Subsidies in lieu whereof he was content to forbear Ship-money than which nothing seem'd so grievous Had not that Parliament been broke by the subtile artifices of the Grand-Contrivers in the immediate Rebellion no doubt but all those miseries which were thereby soon after brought upon this Realm might have been easily prevented and that the breach thereof was wrought by them is plain enough For Sir Henry Vane Senior a member of the House of Commons at that time and one of his Majesties principal Secretaries of State having by the King's appointment moved for a Supply of twelve Subsidies yet with power to stoop to eight when he saw an inclination
For a Conclusion In answer to the witness of God upon our solemn Appeal you say you have not so learned Christ to hang the equity of your Cause upon events We could wish that blindness had not been upon your Eyes to all those marvellous Dispensations which God hath wrought lately in England But did not you solemnly Appeal and Pray Did not we do so too And ought not we and you to think with fear and trembling of the Hand of the Great God in this Mighty and strange appearance of his but can slightly call it an event Were not both your and our expectations renewed from time to time whilst we waited on God to see which way he would manifest himself upon our Appeales And shall we after all these our Prayers Fastings Teares Expectations and solemn Appeales call these bare Events The Lord pitty you Surely we fear because it hath been a merciful and gracious deliverance to us I beseech you in the Bowels of Christ search after the mind of the Lord in it towards you and we shall help you by our Prayers that you may find it For yet if we know our Hearts at all our Bowels do in Christ yearne after the Godly in Scotland It is not unworthy of Observation likewise that as this signal dissaster to the Presbyterians did very much raise the Spirits of the Independant Grandees so did it incite them to give all possible encouragement to the rest of that Party and to all other Sectaries of whose help upon occasion they might stand in need They therefore first passed an Act Intituled An Act for the relief of Religious and peaceable People from the rigour of former Acts of Parliament in matter of Religion amongst which those of primo and 35 o Eliz. which concern the Subjects obedient repairing to Church were repealed And shortly after that another Act whereby they directed all proceedings at Law scil Writs Pleadings Patents Books of Reports and other Law Books to be in English Next they imposed a Tax of an hundred and twenty Thousand Pounds a Month for the support of their Army and not long after passed an Act declaring that their new Great Seal Engraven with a Cross and an Harp with this Circumscription The Seal of the Parliament of the Common-wealth of England should be the Seal of the Parliament of that Common-wealth and be only used by order of Parliament and that it should be Treason to counterfeit the same Most certain it is that the late wonderful defeat which the Scots received at Dunbar by the English then commanded by Cromwel did not a little startle the whole Godly Party in that Nation For whereas before though it was through the advantage they made of the King's Name whom they had got thither as hath been already observed that they rais'd their Army 't is very well known that His Majesty was not permitted to have any hand in the conduct thereof no not so much as to be Personally in that part of the Realm in which it was lest his presence should have had any influence thereon in reference to his own just Rights so much did their own guilt of Disloyalty terrifie them But the case was now altered For soon after this great overthrow they sent to His Majesty earnestly desiring his presence with them and to Court him with the fairer assurance of their fidelity appointed a certain day for his Coronation which was accordingly perform'd with great Solemnity So that then standing clear with his best Subjects of that Kingdom he began to form an Army upon his own and their Interest Yet not without the assistance and Joynt-help of the Kirk-Party there which in humane reason might have been thought to his advantage In the Head whereof he entred England at Carlisle upon the Seventh of August and marcht to Worcester without any great opposition But whether there was any thing of Treachery in them that then over-perswaded His majesty to make stay there against his own judgment or whether Almighty God would not give his Blessing to the aid of those who had formerly been so false and perfidious to His Royal Father and himself is hard to say Sure we are that so great was the confluence from most parts of England to Cromwell's assistance the Presbyterians then joyning with him and divers of their Preachers Marching with him in a Military way that after a most sharp dispute at and near that City being over-powered with strength and numbers his Army was totally routed and destroy'd himself and some few others being necessitated to escape by flight It may seem strange I presume to some that I should here touch the Presbyterians so near the Quick there being some of opinion that though the most rigid of that Sect were at that time forward against the King yet that His Majesty had many Well-wishers of them in this his adventure But if I be herein censured I desire to know what this expression used by those Thirty six Presbyterian and Independant Ministers which joyn'd together in a Petition for respiting the Execution of Mr. Love one of their own coat of whom I have already given some touch doth mean viz. that in putting him to death the hopes and expectations of the Common Enemy against compliance with whom he had made open protestation at his Tryal will be heightened And that the forbearance of so putting him to death would manifest to the World that you id est the Parliament do put a difference betwixt those who offend from Principles of Enmity against God and his People and others who transgress through the mistakes of an erroneous conscience in the midst of great and various changes Again I would gladly know what construction is to be made of those words Printed in one of the News-books of that year viz. The Presbyterians in Lancashire and parts adjacent have not only declaimed against the late defection in Norfolk but declared against the Conjunction and Proceedings of Iockey and their young King with Middleton Ogilby and the rest of the Royal Party and are resolved to adhere to the present Government and to walk close and stedfast in the ways of Truth and Holiness ¶ Here it will not be impertinent I hope to make a little pause and contemplate the infinite goodness and mercy of God in so wonderful a preservation of the King our present Sovereign after this fatal ruine of his Army at Worcester Who though pursued and sought for with all the art and skill that these Bloody Regicides and their whole Party could devise was through the signal fidelity of some few persons of whom certain Narratives of the particular passages therein which are already made publick do make honourable mention so well secured from their fury and with such admirable contrivance and skill conducted that he Landed safely upon the Fifteenth of October following at New-Haven in France And as so strange and little less than