Ship toss'd up and down in distresse of wind and weather by a furious tempest which the more she tugs and wrastles with the foamie waves of the angry Ocean the more the fury of the storme encreaseth and puts her in danger of shipwrack and you must needs thinke Sir it would move compassion in any heart to behold a poore Ship in such a desperate case specially when all his kindred friends and fortunes yea his Religion the most precious Treasure of all are aboard of her and upon point of sinking Alas I can contribute nothing now to my poor countrey but my prayers and teares that it would please God to allay this tempest and cast over board those that are the true causers of it and bring the people to the right use of Reason againe It was well observed by you Sir That there is a Nationall kinde of indisposition and obliquity of mind that rageth now amongst our people and I feare it will be long ere they returne to their old English temper to that rare loyalty and love which they were used to shew to their Soveraigne for all the Principles of Monarchie are quite lost amongst us those ancient and sacret flowers of the English Diadem are trampled under foot nay matters are come to that horrid confusion that not onely the Prerogative of the crown but the foundamentall Priviledge of the free-born subject is utterly overthrowne by those whose Predecessors were used to be the main supporters of it so that our King is necessitated to put himself in Armes for the preservation not only of his own Regall rights but of Magna Charta it self which was neuer so invaded and violated in any age by such causlesse tyrannicall imprisonments by such unexampled destructive taxes by stopping the ordinary processes in Law and awing all the Courts of Justice by unheard-of forced oaths and Associations and a thousand other acts which neither President Book-case or Statute can warrant whereof if the King had done but the twentieth part he had been cryed up to be the greatest Tyrant that ever was Peregrin Sir I am an Alien and so can speak with more freedom of your Countrey The short time that I did eate my bread there I felt the pulse of the people with as much judgement as I could and I find that this very word Parliament is become a kind of Idoll amongst them they doe as it were pin their salvation upon 't it is held blasphemie to speake against it The old English Maxime was The King can do no wrong another Nominative case is now stept in That the Parliament can do no wrong nor the King receive any And whereas ther was used to be but one Defender of the Faith ther are now started up amongst you I cannot tell how many hundreds of them And as in the sacred profession of Priest-hood we hold or at least wise shold hold That after the Imposition of hands the Minister is inspired with the Holy Ghost in an extraordinary manner for the enabling of him to exercise that Divine Function so the English are grown to such a fond conceit of their Parliament Members that as soon as any is chosen by the confus'd cry of the Common people to sit within the walls of that House an inerring spirit a spirit of infallibility presently entereth into him so that he is therby become like the Pope a Canon animatus though som of them may haply be such flat and simple animals that they are as fit to be Counsellours as Caligula's Horse was to be Consull as the Historian tells us Patricius Touching Parliament ther breaths not a Subject under Englands Crown who hath a higher esteem of it then I it makes that dainty mixture in our Government of Monarchy Optimacie and Democracy betwixt whom though ther be a kind of co ordination of power during the sitting of Parliament yet the two last which are composed of Peers and People have no power but what is derived from the first which may be called the soul that animates them and by whose authority they meet consult and depart They come there to propose not to impose Lawes they come not to make Lawes by the sword they must not be like Draco's Lawes written in bloud Their King calls them thither to be his Counsellors not Controllers and the Office of Counsell is to advise not to inforce they come thither to intreat not to treat with their Liege Lord they come to throw their Petitions at his feet that so they may find a way up to his hearâ—… 'T is tru I have read of high things that our Parliament have done but 't was either during the nonage and minority of our Kings when they were under protectorship or when they were absent in a forrain war or in time of confusion when ther were competitors of the bloud-royall for the Crown and when the number of both Houses was compleat and individed but I never read of any Parliament that did arrogate to it self such a power Paramount such a Superlative superintendence as to check the Prerogative of their Soverain to question his negative voice to passe things not only without but expresly against his advice and royall command I never heard of Parliament that wold have their King being come to the Meridian of his age to transmit his intellectualls and whole faculty of reason to them I find som Parliaments have bin so modest and moderat Now moderation is the Rudder that shold steer the course of all great Councells that they have declined the agitation and cognizance of som state affaires humbly transferring them to their Soverain and his privy Counsell a Parliament man then held it to be the adaequat object of his duty to study the welfare to redresse the grievances and supply the defects of that particular place for which he served The Members then us'd to move in their own Inferior sphere and us'd not to be transported by any Eccentric motions And so they thought to have complyed with the Obligation and discharged the consciences of honest Patriots without soaring above their reach and roving at random to treat of universals much lesse to bring Religion to their bar or prie into the Arcana Imperti the cognizance of the one belonging to the King and his intern Counsell of State the other to Divines who according to the Etymologie of the word use to be still conversant in the exercise of speculation of holy and heavenly things Peregrin I am clearly of your opinion in these two particulars for secrecy being the soul of policy matters of State shold be communicated but to few and touching Religion I cannot see how it may quadrat with the calling and be homogeneous to the profession of Lay-men to determine matters of Divinity who out of their incapacity and unaptnesse to the work being not pares negotio and being carryed away by a wild kind of Conscience without Science like a Ship without a Helm fall upon dangerous quick-sands
Court at Bartholmew-Fair ther being all the essentiall parts of a true Parliament wanting in this as fairnesse of elections freedome of speech fulnesse of Members nor have they any head at all besides they have broken all the fundamental rules and Priviledges of Parliament and dishonoured that high Court more then any thing else They have ravish'd Magna Charta which they are sworn to maintain taken away our birth-right therby and transgressed all the laws of heaven and earth Lastly they have most perjuriously betrayed the trust the King reposed in them and no lesse the trust their Country reposed in them so that if reason and law were now in date by the breach of their Priviledges and by betraying the said double trust that is put in them they have dissolved themselves ipso facto I cannot tell how many thousand times notwithstanding that monstrous grant of the Kings that fatall act of continuance And truly my Lord I am not to this day satisfied of the legality though I am satisfied of the forciblenesse of that Act whether it was in his Majesties power to passe it or no for the law ever presupposeth these clauses in all concessions of Grace in all Patents Charters and Grants whatsoever the King passeth Salvo jure regio salvo jure coronae To conclude as I presume to give your Lordship these humble cautions and advice in particular so I offer it to all other of your rank office order and Relations who have souls to save and who by solemn indispensable Oaths have ingaged themseves to be tru and loyall to the Person of King Charls Touching his political capacity it is a fancy which hath bin exploded in all other Parliaments except in that mad infamous Parliament wher it was first hatched That which bears upon Record the name of Insanum Parliamentum to all posterity but many Acts have passed since that it shold be high and horrible Treason to separat or distinguish the Person of the King from His Power I believe as I said before this distinction will not serve their turn at the dreadful Bar of divine justice in the other world indeed that Rule of the Pagans makes for them Si Iusjurandum violandum est Tyrannis causâ violandum est If an Oath be any way violable 't is to get a Kingdom We find by woful experience that according to this maxime they have made themselves all Kings by violation of so many Oaths They have monopoliz'd the whole power and wealth of the Kingdom in their own hands they cut shuffle deal and turn up what trump they please being Judges and parties in every thing My Lord he who presents these humble advertisments to your Lordship is one who is inclin'd to the Parliament of Engl. in as high a degree of affection as possibly a free-born Subject can be One besides who wisheth your Lordships good with the preservation of your safety and honour more really then he whom you intrust with your secretest affaires or the White Iew of the Upper House who hath infused such pernicious principles into you moreover one who hath some drops of bloud running in his veins which may claim kindred with your Lordship and lastly he is one who would kiss your feet in lieu of your hands if your Lordship wold be so sensible of the most desperat case of your poor Country as to employ the interests the opinion and power you have to restore the King your Master by English waies rather then a hungry forrein people who are like to bring nothing but destruction in the van confusion in the rear and rapine in the middle shold have the honour of so glorious a work So humbly hoping your Lordship will not take with the left hand what I offer with the right I rest From the Prison of the Fleet 3. Septembris 1644. Your Lordships truly devoted Servant I. H. HIS Late MAJESTIES Royal DECLARATION OR MANIFESTO TO ALL FORREIN PRINCES AND STATES Touching his constancy in the Protestant Religion Being traduced abroad by some Malicious and lying Agents That He was wavering therin and upon the high road of returning to Rome Printed in the Year 1661. TO THE Unbiass'd REDER IT may be said that mischief in one particular hath somthing of Vertue in it which is That the Contrivers and Instruments thereof are still stirring and watchfull They are commonly more pragmaticall and fuller of Devices then those sober-minded men who while they go on still in the plaine road of Reason having the King and knowne Lawes to justifie and protect them hold themselfs secure enough and so think no hurt Iudas eyes were open to betray his Master while the rest of his fellow-servants were quietly asleep The Members at Westminster were men of the first gang for their Mischievous braines were alwayes at work how to compasse their ends And one of their prime policies in order thereunto was to cast asspersions on their King thereby to alienat the affections and fidelity of his peeple from him â—…notwithstanding that besides their pubâ—…ick Declarations they made new Oaths and protestations whereby they swore to make Him the best belov'd King that ever was Nor did this Diabolicall malice terminat only within the bounds of his own Dominions but it extended to infect other Princes and States of the Reformed Churches abroad to make Him suspected in his Religion that he was branling in his belief and upon the high way to Rome To which purpose they sent missives and clandestine Emissaries to divers places beyond the Seas whereof forren Authors make mention in their writings At that time when this was in the height of action the passage from London to Oxford where the King kept then his Court was so narrowly blockd up that a fly could scarce passe some Ladies of honor being search'd in an unseemly and barbarous manner whereupon the penner of the following Declaration finding his Royal master to be so grosly traduced made his Duty to go beyond all presumptions by causing the sayd Declaration to be printed and publish'd in Latin French and English whereof great numbers were sent beyond the seas to France Holland Germany Suisserland Denmark Swethland and to the English plantations abroad to vindicat his Majesty in this point which produc'd very happy and advantagious effects for Salmtisius and other forrin writers of great esteem speake of it in their printed works The Declaration was as followeth CAROLUS Singulari Omnipotentis Dei providentia Angliae Scotiae Franciae Hiberniae Rex Fidei Defensor c. Universis et singulis qui praesens hoc scriptum ceu protestationem inspexerint potissimum Reformatae Religionis cultoribus cujuscunque sint gentis gradus aut conditionis salutem c. CUM ad aures nostras non ita pridem fama pervenerit sinistros quosdam rumores literasque politica vel perniciosa potiùs quorundam industriâ sparsas esse nonnullis protestantium ecclesiis in exteris partibus emissas nobis
be writ but upon his seal'd paper with sundry other exactions yet his subjects are still as obedient and awful unto him they are as conformable and quiet as if he were the most vertuous and victorious Prince that ever was and this they do principally for their own advantage for if ther were another Governour set up it would inevitably hurle the whole Countrey into combustion and tumults besides they are taught that as in choice of Wives so the Rule holds in Governments Seldome comes a better Touching the Originals of Government and ruling power questionless the first among Mankind was that Naturall power of the Father over his Children and that Despotical domestique surintendence of a Master of a house over his Family But the World multiplying to such a Masse of peeple they found that a confused equality and a loose unbridled way of living like â—…rute animals to be so inconvenient that they chose one person to protect and govern not so much out of love to the â—…erson as for their own conveniency and advantage that they might live more regularly and be secur'd from rapine and opâ—…ression As also that justice might be administted and every one enjoy his own without fear and danger such Governâ—…urs had a power invested accordingly in â—…hem also as to appoint subservient able Miâ—…isters under them to help to bear the â—…urden Concerning the kinds of Government â—…ll Polititians agree that Monarchall is the best and noblest sort of sway having the neerest analogy with that of Heaven viz. A supreme power in one single person God Almighty is the God of Unity as well as of Entity and all things that have an Entity do naturally propend to Unity Unity is as necessary for a well being as Entity is for a Being for nothing conduceth more to order tranquillity and quietude nor is any strength so operative as the united The fist is stronger then the hand though it be nothing but the hand viz. The fingers united by contraction The Republick of Venice which is accounted the most Eagle-ey'd and lastingst State in the World foâ—… she hath continued a pure Virgin and shin'd within her watry Orb nere upon thirteen Ages is the fittest to give the World advice herein for if ever any have brought policy to be a Science which consists of certitudes this State is Shee who is grown aâ—… dexterous in ruling men as in rowing of 〈◊〉 Gally But whereas the vulgar opinion is that the common peeple there have a sharâ—… in the Government 't is nothing so for he Great Counsel which is the maine hing whereon the Republick turns is composeâ—… onely of Gentlemen who are capable bâ—… their birth to sit there having passed twenty five years of age To which purpose they must bring a publick Testimonial that they are descended of a Patrician or noble Family But to return to the main matter this sage Republick who may prescribe rules of Policy to all Mankind having tryed at first to Govern by Consuls and Tribunes for som years she found it at last a great inconvenience or deformity rather to have two heads upon one body Therefore She did set up one Soveraign Prince and in the Records of Venice the resons are yet extant which induc'd her thereunto whereof one of the remarkablest was this We have observed that in this vast University of the World all Bodies according to their several Natures have multiplicity of Motions yet they receive vertue and vigour but from one which is the Sun All causes derive their Originals from one supreme cause we see that in one Creture there are many differing Members and Faculties which have various functions yet they are all guided by one soul c. The Island of Great Britain hath bin alwaies a Royal Isle from her first creation and Infancy She may be said to have worn a Crown in her Cradle and though She had so many revolutions and changes of Masters yet She continued still Royal nor is there any species of Government that suits better either with the quality of the Countrey and Genius of the Inhabitants or relates more directly to all the ancient Lawes Constitutions and Customs of the Land then Monarchal which any one that is conversant in the Old Records can justifie Britannia ab initio mundi semper Regia regimen illius simile illi caelorum Concerning the many sorts of Trustâ—… which were put in the Supreme Governor of this Land for ther must be an implicite and unavoidable necessary Trust reposed in every Soveraign Magistrate the power of the Sword was the chiefest and it was agreeable to Holy Scripture he shold have it where we know 't is said The King beareth not the Sword in vain The Lawes of England did ever allow it to be the inalienable prerogative of the Soveraign Prince nor was it ever known humbly under favour that any other power whatsoever managing conjunctly or singly did ever pretend to the power of the publick Sword or have the Militia invested in them but this ever remained intire and untransferrible in the person of the Ruler in chief whose chiefest instrument to govern by is the Sword without which Crownes Scepters Globes and Maces are but bables It is that Instrument which causeth tru obedience makes him a Dread Soveraign and to be feared at home and abroad Now 't is a Maxime in policy that ther can be no tru obedience without Fear The Crown and Scepter draw only a loose kind of voluntary love and opinion from the people but 't is the sword that draws Reverence and awe which two are the chiefest ingredients of Allegeance it being a principle that the best Government is made of Fear and Love viz. when by Fear Love is drawn as threed through the eye of a Needle The surest Obedience and Loyalty is caused thus for Fear being the wakefullest of our passions works more powerfully in us and predominates over all the rest primus in orbe Deus fecit Timor To raise up a Soveraign Magistrate without giving him the power of the sword is to set one up to rule a metall'd Horse without a Bridle A chief Ruler without a Sword may be said to be like that Logg of Wood which Iupiter threw down among the Froggs to be their King as it is in the Fable Moreover One of the chiefest glories of a Nation is to have their Supreme Governor to be esteem'd and redouted abroad as well as at Home And what Forren Nation will do either of these to the King of England if he be Armless and without a Sword who will give any respect oâ—… precedence to his Ambassadors and Ministers of State The Sword also is the prime Instrument of publick protection therefore that King who hath not the power of the Sword must have another Title given Him the Protector of his peeple Now in a Successive hereditary Kingdom as England is known and acknowledged to be by all Parties now in opposition There are
three things which are inalienable from the Person of the King They are 1. The Crowne 2. The Scepter 3. The Sword The one He is to carry on His Head the other in His Hand and the third at His Side and they may be termed all three the ensignes or peculiar instruments of a King by the first He Reignes by the second He makes Lawes by the third He Defends them and the two first are but bables without the last as was formerly spoken 1. Touching the Crown or royal Diadem of England ther is none whether Presbyterian Independent Protestant or others now in action but confess that it descends by a right hereditary Line though through divers Races and som of them Conquerours upon the Head of Charles the first now Regnant 't is His own by inherent birth-right and nature by Gods Law and the Law of the Land and these Parliament-men at their first sitting did agnize subjection unto Him accordingly and recognize Him for their Soveraign Liege Lord Nay the Roman Catholick denies not this for though there were Bulls sent to dispense with the English Subjects for their allegiance to Queen Elizabeth yet the Pope did this against Her as he took Her for a Heretick not an Usurpresse though he knew well enough that She had bin declared Illegitimate by the Act of an English Parliament This Imperial Crown of England is adorned and deckd with many fair Flowers which are called royal Prerogatives and they are of such a transcendent nature that they are unforfeitable individual and untransferrable to any other The King can only summon and dissolve Parliaments The King can only Pardon for when He is Crowned He is sworn to rule in Mercy as well as in Justice The King can only Coyn Money and enhance or decry the value of it The power of electing Officers of State of Justices of Peace and Assize is in the King He can only grant soveraign Commissions The King can only wage War and make Out-landish Leagues The King may make all the Courts of Justice ambulatory with His Person as they were used of old 't is tru the Court of Common Pleas must be sedentary in som certain place for such a time but that expired 't is removeable at His pleasure The King can only employ Ambassadours and Treat with forraign States c. These with other royal Prerogatives which I shall touch hereafter are those rare and wholsom flowers wherewith the Crown of England is embellished nor can they stick any where else but in the Crown and all confess the Crown is as much the King 's as any private man's Cap is his own 2. The second regall Instrument is the Scepter which may be called an inseparable companion or a necessary appendix to the Crown this invests the King with the sole Authority of making Lawes for before His confirmation all results and determinations of Parliament are but Bills or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are but abortive things and meer Embryos nay they have no life at all in them till the King puts breath and vigour into them and the ancient custome was for the King to touch them with His Scepter then they are Lawes and have a vertue in them to impose an obligation of universall obedience upon all sorts of people It being an undeniable maxime That nothing can be generally binding without the King 's royall assent nor doth the Law of England take notice of any thing without it This being done they are ever after styl'd the Kings Lawes and the Judges are said to deliver the King's judgments which agrees with the holy text The King by judgment shall stablish the Land nay the Law presumes the King to be alwaies the sole Judge Paramount and Lord chief Justice of England for he whom He pleaseth to depute for His chiefest Justice is but styl'd Lord chief Iustice of the Rings â—…ench not Lord chief Justice of England which title is peculiar to the King Himself and observable it is that whereas He grants Commissions and Patents to the Lord Chancellour who is no other then Keeper of His Conscience and to all other Judges He names the Chief Justice of his own Bench by a short Writ only containing two or three lines which run thus Regina Iohanni Popham militi salutem Sciatis quod constitutmus vos justiciarium nostrum Capitalem ad placita coram nobis terminandum durante beneplacito nostro Teste c. Now though the King be liable to the Laws and is contented to be within their verge because they are chiefly His own productions yet He is still their Protector Moderator and Soveraigne which attributes are incommunicable to any other conjunctly or separately Thus the King with His Scepter and by the mature advice of His two Houses of Parl. which are His highest Councel and Court hath the sole power of making Laws other Courts of judicature doe but expound them and distribute them by His appointment they have but Iuris dati dictionem or declarationem and herein I meane for the Exposition of the Lawes the twelve Iudges are to be believed before the whole Kingdom besides They are as the Areopagites in Athens the chief Presidents in France and Spaine in an extraordinary Iunta as the Cape-Syndiques in the Rota's of Rome and the Republique of Venice whose judgments in point of interpreting Lawes are incontroulable and preferred before the opinion of the whole Senate whence they received their being and who hath still power to repeal them though not to expound them In France they have a Law maxime Arrest donné en Rebbe rouge est irrevocable which is a Scarlet Sentence is irrevocable meaning when all the Judges are met in their Robes and the Client against whom the Cause goes may chafe and chomp upon the bit and say what he will for the space of twenty foure howers against his Judges but if ever after he traduces them he is punishable It is no otherwise here where every ignorant peevish Client every puny Barister specially if he become a Member of the House will be ready to arraign and vie knowledge with all the reverend Judges in the Land whose judgement in points of Law shold be onely tripodicall and sterling so that he may be truly call'd a just King and to rule according to Law who rules according to the opinion of his Judges therefore under favour I do not see how his Majesty for his part could be call'd injust when he leavied the Ship-money considering he had the Judges for it I now take the Sword in hand which is the third Instrument of a King and which this short discours chiefly points at it is as well as the two first incommunicable and inalienable from his Person nothing concernes his honor more both at home and abroad the Crown and the Scepter are but unweildy and impotent naked indefensible things without it There 's none so simple as to think there 's meant hereby an ordinary single sword
upon his affections then I beleeve they will ever do hereafter But to proceed the King having bin a good while prisoner to the Parlement the Army snatch'd him away from them and som of the chiefest Commanders having pawn'd their soules unto him to restore him speedily in lieu thereof they tumbled him up and down to sundry places till they juggled him at last to that small Ile where now he is surrounded with a gard of strange faces and if happly he beginns to take delight in any of those faces he is quickly taken out of his sight These harsh usages hath made him become all gray and oregrown with hair so that he lookes rather like som Silvan Satyr then a Soverain Prince And truly my Lord the meanest slave in St. Marks gallies or the abjects Captif in Algier bannier is not so miserable as he in divers kinds for they have the comfort of their wifes children and frends they can convey and receive Letters send Messengers upon their errands and have privat discours with any all which is denied to the King of great Britain nay the young Princes his children are not permitted as much as to ask him blessing in a letter In so much that if he were not a great King of his passions and had a heart cast in on extraordinary Mould these pressures and those base aspersions that have bin publiquely cast upon him by the Parlement it self had bin enough to have sent him out of the world e're this and indeed 't is the main thing they drive at to torture his braine and tear his very heart strings if they could so that whereas this foolish ignorant peeple speak such horrid things of our Inquisition truly my Lord 't is a most gentle way of proceeding being compar'd to this Kings persecutions As the King himselfe is thus in quality of a captif so are all his Subjects becom perfect slaves they have fool'd themselfs into a worse slavery then Iew or Greek under the Ottomans for they know the bottom of their servitude by paying so many Sultanesses for every head but here people are put to endless unknown tyrannical Taxes besides plundering and Accize which two words and the practise of them with storming of Towns they have learnt of their pure Brethren of Holland and for plundrings these Parliamenteer-Saints think they may robb any that adheres not to them as lawfully as the Iewes did the Egyptians 'T is an unsommable masse of money these Reformers have squandred in few years whereof they have often promis'd and solemnly voted a publick account to satisfie the Kingdom but as in a hundred things more so in this precious particular they have dispens'd with their Votes they have consumed more treasure with pretence to purge one Kingdom then might have served to have purchas'd two more as I am credibly told then all the Kings of England spent of the public stock since the Saxon Conquest Thus have they not only begger'd the whole Island but they have hurld it into the most fearfull st Chaos of confusion that ever poor Countrey was in they have torn in pieces the reines of all Government trampled upon all Lawes of heaven and earth and violated the very Dictamens of nature by making Mothers to betray their Sons and the Sons their Fathers but specially that Great Charter which is the Pandect of all the Laws and Liberties of the free-born Subject which at their admission to the House they are solemnly sworn to maintain is torn in flitters besides those severall Oaths they forg'd themselfs as the Protestation and Covenant where they voluntarily swear to maintain the Kings Honour and Rights together with the established Laws of the Land c. Now I am told that all Acts of Parlement here are Lawes and they carry that Majesty with them that no power can suspend or repeal them but the same power that made them which is the King sitting in full Parlement these mongrell Polititians have bin so notoriously impudent as to make an inferiour Ordinance of theirs to do it which is point-blanck against the very fundamentals of this Government and their own Oaths which makes me think that there was never such a perjur'd pack of wretches upon earth never such Monsters of mankind Yet this simple infatuated peeple have a Saint-like opinion of these Monsters this foolish Citie gards them daily with Horse and Foot whereby she may be sayd to kisse the very stones that are thrown at her and the hand whence they came which a dogg would not do But she falls to recollect her self now that shee begins to be pinch'd in Trade and that her Mint is starv'd yet the leading'st men in her Common-Councell care not much for it in regard most of them have left traffiquing abroad finding it a more easie and gainefull way of trading at home by purchasing Crown or Church lands plunder'd goods and debts upon the Publick Faith with Soldiers debenters thus the Saints of this Iland turne godlinesse into gaine Truly my Lord I give the English for a lost Nation if they continue long thus never was ther a more palpable oblaesion of the brain and a more visible decay of Reason in any race of men It is a sore judgment from heaven that a people shold not be more sensible how they are become slaves to Rebells and those most of them the scumm of the Nation which is the basest of miseries how they suffer them to tyrannize by a meer arbitrary extrajudicial power o're their very souls and bodies o're their very lifs and livelihoods how their former freedom is turn'd to fetters Molehills into Mountains of grievances Ship-money into Accize Justice into Tyranny For nothing hath bin and is daily so common amongst them as imprisonment without charge and a charge without an accuser condemnation without apparance and forfeitures without conviction To speak a little more of the King if all the infernal fiends had ligu'd against him they could not have design'd or disgorged more malice They wold have laid to his charge his Fathers death as arrand a lie as ever was forg'd in hell they wold make him fore-know the insurrection in Ireland wheras the Spanish Ambassador here and his Confessor who is a very reverend Irish-man told me that he knew no more of it then the grand Mogor did they charge him with all the bloud of this civil war wheras they and their instruments were the first kindlers of it and that first prohibited trade and shut him out of his own Town They have intercepted and printed his privat Letters to his Queen and Hers to him Oh barbarous basenesse but therin they did him a pleasure though the intent was malitious their aim in all things being to envenom the hearts of his people towards him and this was to render him a glorious and well-belov'd Prince as likewise for making him rich all which they had vow'd to do upon passing the Act of Continuance But now they have made
farther as the heavenly Bodies when three of them meet in Conjunction do use to produce some admirable effects in the Elementary World So when these three States convene and assemble in one solemne great Iunta some notable and extraordinary things are brought forth tending to the welfare of the whole Kingdom our Microcosme HE that is never so little versed in the Annals of this I le will find that it hath bin her fate to be four times conquered I exclude the Scot for the scituation of his Country and the Quality of the Clime hath been such an advantage and security to him that neither the Roman Eagles would fly thither for fear of freezing their wings nor any other Nation attempt the work These so many Conquests must needs bring with them many tumblings and tossings many disturbances and changes in Government yet I have observed that notwithstanding these tumblings it retained still the forme of a Monarchy and something there was always that had an Analogy with the great Assembly of Parlement The first Conquest I find was made by Claudius Caesar at which time as some well observe the Roman Ensignes and the Standard of Christ came in together It is well known what Lawes the Roman had He had his Comitia which bore a resemblance with our Convention in Parlement the place of their meeting was called Praetorum and the Laws which they enacted Plebiscita The Saxon Conquest succeeded next which were the English there being no name in Welsh or Irish for an English man but Saxon to this day They also governed by Parlement though it were under other names as Michel Sinoth Michel Gemote and Witenage Mote There are Records above a thousand years old of these Parlements in the Reigns of King Ina Offa Ethelbert and the rest of the seven Kings during the Heptarchy The British Kings also who retain'd a great while some part of the Isle unconquered governed and made Laws by a kind of Parlementary way witnesse the famous Laws of Prince Howell called Howell Dha the good Prince Howell whereof there are yet extant some British Records Parlements were also used after the Heptarchy by King Kenulphus Alphred and others witnesse that renowned Parliament held at Grately by King Athelstan The third Conquest was by the Danes and they govern'd also by such generall Assemblies as they do to this day witnesse that great and so much celebrated Parlement held by that mighty Monarch Canutus who was King of England Denmark Norway and other Regions 150 years before the compiling of Magna Charta and this the learned in the Laws do hold to be one of the specialst and most authentick peeces of antiquity we have extant Edward the Confessor made all his Laws thus and he was a great Legis-lator which the Norman Conquerour who liking none of his sons made God Almighty his heir by bequeathing unto him this Island for a legacy did ratifie and establish and digested them into one entire methodicall Systeme which being violated by Rufus who came to such a disastrous end as to be shot to death in lieu of a Buck for his sacriledges were restor'd by Henry the first and so they continued in force till King Iohn whose Reign is renowned for first confirming Magna Charta the foundation of our Liberties ever since which may be compar'd to divers outlandish graffes set upon one English stock or to a posie of sundry fragrant flowers for the choicest of the British the Roman Saxon Danish and Norman Laws being cull'd and pick'd out and gathered as it were into one bundle out of them the foresaid Grand Charter was extracted And the establishment of this great Charter was the work of a Parliament Nor are the Lawes of this Island only and the freedome of the Subject conserved by Parlement but all the best policed Countries of Europe have the like The Germanes have their Diets the Danes and Swedes their Rijcks Dachs the Spaniard calls his Parlement las Cortes and the French have or should have at least their Assembly of three States though it be growne now in a manner obsolete because the Authority thereof was by accident devolv'd to the King And very remarkable it is how this happened for when the English had taken such large footing in most parts of France having advanced as far as Orleans and driven their then King Charles the seventh to Bourges in Berry the Assembly of the three States in these pressures being not able to meet after the usuall manner in full Parlement because the Countrey was unpassable the Enemy having made such firme invasions up and down through the very bowels of the Kingdom That power which formerly was inhaerent in the Parlementary Assembly of making Laws of assessing the Subject with Taxes subsidiary levies and other impositions was transmitted to the King during the war which continueth many years that entrusted power by length of time grew as it were habitual in him and could never after be re-assumed and taken from him so that ever since his Edicts countervaile Acts of Parlement And that which made the businesse more feasable for the King was that the burthen fell most upon the Communalty the Clergy and Nobility not feeling the weight of it who were willing to see the Peasan pull'd down a little because not many years before in that notable Rebellion call'd la jaquerie de Beauvoisin which was suppressed by Charles the wise the Common people put themselves boldly in Arms against the Nobility and Gentry to lessen their power Adde hereunto as an advantage to the work that the next succeeding King Lewis the eleventh was a close cunning Prince and could well tell how to play his game and draw water to his own mill For amongst all the rest he was said to be the first that put the Kings of France Hors de page out of their minority or from being Pages any more though therby he brought the poor peasans to be worse than Lacquays and they may thank themselfs for it Neverthelesse as that King hath an advantage hereby one way to Monarchize more absolutely and never to want money but to ballast his purse when he will so ther is another mighty inconvenience ariseth to him and his whole Kingdom another way for this peeling of the Peasan hath so dejected him and cowed his native courage so much by the sense of poverty which brings along with it a narrownesse of 〈◊〉 that he is little usefull for the war which put 's the French King to make other Nations mercenary to him to fill up his Infantery Insomuch that the Kingdom of France may be not unfitly compared to a body that hath all it's bloud drawn up into the arms breast and back and scarce any leâ—…t from the girdle downwards to cherish and bear up the lower parts and keep them from starving All this seriously considered ther cannot be a more proper and pregnant example than this of our next Neighbours to prove how infinitly necessary
those watery fogs and mists which are drawn up out of fennie and rotten low grounds here upon earth so in the Region of the mind the ill vapors which ascend to the brain from rotten and impostumated hearts from desperate and malâ—…-contented humorists are the causes of all civil commotions and distempers in State But they have much to answer for in the world to come though they escape it in this who for any private interest or respect whatsoever either of Promotion Vain-glory Revenge Malice or Envie will embroyl and plunge their own native Country in any publick ingagement or civil war by putting a partition-wall betwixt their soverain Prince and their fellow-subjects Truely in my opinion these may be called the worst kind of Betrayers of their Countreys But I am too far transported from satisfying your request in relating the true causes of these calamities I will now fall to work and bring you to the very source of them Ther is a pack of perverse people composed for the most part of the scummie and basest sort multiplied in England who by a kind of natural inclination are opposit so point blank to Monarchy in State and Hierarchy in Church that I doubt if they were in Heven whither 't is to be fear'd they run a great hazard ever to enter it being a rule that he who is rotten-hearted to his King can never be right-hearted to his Creaâ—…or I say if these men were in Heven they wâ—…uld go near to repine at the Monarchical power of God Almighty himself as also at the degrees of Angels and the postures of holiness in the Church triumphant They call every Crotchet of the brain tenderness of conscience forsooth which being well examined is nothing else but a meer spirit of contradiction of malice and disobedience to all higher powers which possesseth them Ther are no constitutions either Ecclesiastical or Civil can please them but they wold cast both into such and such a mould which their crack'd brains wold fain devise yet are never able to bring to any perfection They are ever labouring to bring Religion to the dock and to be new trimm'd but they wold take down her fore-Castle and scarce allow her the Kings Armes to adorn her They are great listners after any Court-news and prick up their ears when any thing is spoken of King Queen or Privie Councellour and are always ready though upon loose trust to take up any report whereby they may whisper in conventicles and corners and so traduce the Government These great Zâ—…lots use to look upon themselves most commonly through multiplying glasses which make them appear to be such huge Santons that it renders them not onely uncharitable in their opinions of others but Luciferian-like proud in their own conceit insomuch that they seem to scorn all the world besides beleeving that they are â—…he only Elect whose souls work according â—…o the motion of the Spirit that they are â—…he true Children of promise whose faces alone look towards Heven They are more pleased with some new reach or fancy that may puzzle the pericranium than a Frenchman is in some new faction in cloathing They are nearest to the nature of the Jew of any people upon earth and will converse with him sooner than with some sort of Christians And as in their pharisaicall Dispositions they symbolize with the Iew so in some of their positions they jump pat with the Iesuit for though they are both in the extremes and as contrary one to the other as the points of a diameter yet their opinions and practises are concentrique viz. to depresse regall power Both of them wold bind their Kings in Chaines and the Nobles in links of Iron They both deny all passive obedience and as the one wold have the morter of the Temple tempred with blood so the other wold beat Religion into the brain with the poleaxe Their greatest master-piece of policy is to forge counterâ—…eit news and to divulge and disperse it as far as they can to amuse the world for the advancement of their designs and strengthing their party But the Iesuit doth it more cunningly and modestly for he fetcheth his news from far so that before the falshood of it can be contrould his work is commonly done and the news forgotten But these later polititians use to raise lies hard by home so that the grosseness and palpablenesse of them is presently discovered Besides to avoid the extremes of the other these later seem to fall into flat prophanness for they may be called a kind of enemies to the very Name Crosse and Church of Christ. Touching the first They repine at any reverence to be done unto the name of Jesus though spontaneous not coercive For the second which was held from the beginning to be the badg and Banner of a Christian they cry up the Crosse to be the mark of the bâ—…ast And for the last viz. the Church they wold have it to be neither beautifull holy nor amiable which are the three main properties that God requires in his house To conclude when any comes to be season'd with this sower leaven he seems to degenerat presently from the nature and garb of a Gentleman and fals to be of a sordid and low disposition narrow hearted and close handed to be timerous cunning and jealous and far from the common freedom and sweetness of morall society and from all generous and loyal thoughts towards his King and Country These these have bin the chiefest machinators and engeneers Englands unhappy divisions who Viper-like have torn the entrailes of their own mother their dear Country But ther were other extern concurrent causes and to find them out I must look Northward for there the cloud began to condense first You know Sir the Scot's nation were ever used to have their King personally resident amongst them and though King Iames by reason of his age bounty and long breeding there with other advantages drew such extraordinary respect from them that they continued in good conformity yet since his death they have been over-heard to mutter at the remotenesse and absence of their King and that they shold become now a kind of province by reason of such a distance some of their Nobles and Gentry found not at the English Court nor at his Majesties Coronation in Edenburgh that Countenance Familiarity Benefit and Honours which haply they expected and 't is well known who he was that having been denied to be lorded David Lesley took a pet and went discontented to his country hoping that some title added to the wealth he had got abroad should have purchased him more respect These discontented parties tamperd with the mercenary preachers up and down Scotland to obtrude to the pâ—…ple what doctrines they put into their mouthes so that the pulpits every where rung of nothing but of invectives against certain obliquities and Solaecismes and I cannot tell what in government and many glances they had upon the English Church
one of their Election And lastly he trusted them with his greatest strength of all with his Navie Royall and call'd home Pennington who had the guard of the narrow Seas so many yeares Peregrin Truly Sir I never remember to have heard or read of such notable acts of grace and confidence from any King but would not all this suffice Patricius No But they demanded all the Land Souldiery and military strength of the Kingdome to be disposed of by them and to be put into what posture and in what Equipage and under what Commanders they pleas'd And this was the first thing his Majesty ever denyed them yet he would have granted them this also for a limited time but that would not serve the turn Hereupon his Majesty grew a little sensible how they inch'd every day more and more upon his Royall Prerogatives And intending to go to his Town of Hull to see his Magazin which he had bought with his own money with his ordinary train he was in a hostile manner kept out Canons mounted Pistols cockt and leveld at him But whether that unlucky Knight Hotham did this out of his fidelity to the Parl. or out of an apprehension of feare that some about the King being mov'd with the barbarousnesse of the action would have pistold him I will not determine Peregrin I have read of divers affronts of this kinde that were offerd to the French Kings Rochell shut her gates more than once against Henry the Great and for the King now regnant they did not only shut him out of many of his Towns but upon the gates of some of them they writ in legible Characters Roy san Foy ville sans peur a faithlesse King a fearlesse Towne Yet in the greatest heat of those warres there was never any Towne refus'd to let in her King provided he came attended onely with his own traine and besides other people abroad I heard the Scot's nation did abhor that Act at Hull But I pray Sir go on Patricius His Majesty being thus shut out of one Towne he might justly suspect that an attempt might be made to shut him in in some other Therefore he made a motion to the Yorke-shire Gentlemen to have a gard for the preservation of his Person which was done accordingly But I am come to forward I must go backe and tell you how the King was driven from Westminster When His Majesty was return'd from Scotland he retir'd to Hampton Court whence upon the Lord Majors and the Cities humble solliciâ—…ation he came back to White-hal to keep his Christmas But when the Bill against Bishops was in agitation which businesse â—…asted neer upon ten weekes a crue of bold â—…turdie mechanicks and mariners came â—…rom the Citie and ruffled before White-hall and Westminster-hall and would have violated the Abby of Westminster so that for many â—…ights a Court of gard was forced to be kept â—…n the body of that Church the chiefest Sanctuary of the Kingdom Moreover His Majesty having impeached some of the Members of both Houses of High Treason and being denied to have them delivered up he went himself to the Lower House to demand them assuring the House they should have as faire and legall a triall as ever men had But as it pleas'd God they were not there but retir'd to London for refuge The Londoners grew starke wilde thereupon and notice being sent to all the adjacent Counties this act of the Kings though it wanted no precedents of former times was aggravated in the highest degree that possibly could be Hence you may easily inferre what small securitie his Majesty had at White-hall and what indignities he might have exposed himself unto by that which had pass'd already from the Rabble who had vilified and cried tush at his proclamations and disgorg'd other rebellious speeches with impunity therefore he retird to Hampton Court as we read our Saviour withdrew himselfe once from the multitude thence to Windsor Castle whence accompanying her Majesty with his eldest daughter to the sea side for Holland and having commanded the Prince to attend him against his return at Greenwich the Prince had been surpriz'd and brought to London had not the King come a little before Thence he removed to Yorke where he kept his Court all the Sommer But to returne to London the very next day after their Majesties departure the Countrey about especially Buckinghamshire being incited by the Câ—…tie and Parliament came in great swarmes and joyning with the London mechanicks they ruffled up and down the streets and kept such a racket making the fearfull'st riot that ever I beleeve was heard of in Parliament time so those Members which formerly were fled into the Citie were brought to the House in a kind of triumph being garded by land and water in warlike manner by these Champions After this sundry troops of horse came from all the shires near adjoyning to â—…he Parliament and Buckingham men were â—…he first who while they express'd their â—…ve to Hamden their Knight forgot their â—…worn oath to their King and in stead of feathers they carried a printed Protestation in â—…heir hats as the Londoners had done a litâ—…le before upon the Pikes point Peregrin This kept a foul noise beyond Sea I reâ—…ember so that upon the Rialto in Venice â—…t was sung up and down that a Midsummer Moon though it was then midst of Winter did raign amongst the English and you must â—…hink that it hath made the Venetian to â—…hrink in his shoulders and to look but ill-favouredly upon us since wee 'l have none of his currans But Sir I heard much of that Protestation I pray what was the substance of it Patricius It was penn'd and enjoyn'd by the Parâ—…iament for every one to take and it consisted of many parts the first was to maintain the tru Potestant Religion against all Popish innovations which word Popish as som think was scrued in of purpose for a loop hole to let in any other innovation the second was to maintain the Prerogative anâ—… Honour of the King then the power and priviledge of Parliament and lastly the Propriety and Liberty of the subject for threâ—… parts of this Protestation the people up anâ—… down seem'd to have utterly forgotteâ—… them and continue so still as if their consciences had bin tied only to the third viz the priviledge of Parliament and never was ther a poor people so besotted never waâ—… reason and common sence so baffled in anâ—… part of the world And now will I go to attend His Majesty at York where as I told you before being loth to part with his Sword though he had half parted with his Scepter before by denying the Parliament an indefinite time to dispose of the Militia alleadging that as the Word so the thing was new He sends forth his Commissions of Array according to the old Law of England which declares iâ—… to be the undoubted Right and Royall Signorie of the King to arm or disarm any
Cordiall a Protestant as any that breathes under his three Crowns which besides his publick deep Protestations and his constant quotidian exemplary open practise many other convincing private reasons induce me to believe and it is in vain to think the Pope can take footing here to any purpose without the Kings leave You know as well as I Sir that of all the Reformed Churches in Christendom the Lutheran retains most of the Roman both in his positions and practise and comes much nearer to him then we do yet I have observed that from the first day of his Reformation to this He is as averse and as far off from Rome as the rigidest Calvinist that is And shall I think because ther are som humble and hansom postures and decent vestures revived in our Church for they were never abolished because the Communion table stands in the East end where it ever stood since Christianity came in all our Cathedralls which shold be a rule to all inferiour Churches though the Seperatist cries it up most falsly to be an Innovation because the Queen hath a few simple Capuchins fewer then was allowed by the Matrimoniall Capitulations whither to retire sometimes Because Schismaticks were proceeded against with more care and the Government of the Church born up â—…ately with more countenance shall I beâ—…ieve out of all this that the Pope must preâ—…ently come in shall I believe the weakness â—…f our Religion to be such as to be so easily â—…aken and overturn'd Yet I believe ther was a pernicious plot to introduce a new Religion but what I pray not Popery but Presbitry and with it to bring in the doctrine of Buchanan and Knox for civill government and so to cast our Church and State into a Scots mould Peregrin Indeed I heard the English much derided abroad for resigning their intellectualls in point of Religion to the Scots whom from Infidels they made Christians and Reformed Christians first and now for the English to run to them for a Religion and that the Uniformity reformation shold proceed from them having disdain'd us formerly what a disparagement is it thinke you to the Anglican Church This with other odd traverses as the eclipsing the glory of the King and bringing him back to a kind of minoritie the tampering with his conscience I will not say the straining it so farre the depriving him of all kind of propertie the depressing of his Regall power wherein the honour of a nation consists and which the English were us'd to uphold more then any other for no King hath more awful attributs from his subjects as Sacred Sovereigne gracious and most Excellent Majestie nor any King so often prayed for for in your morning Liturgie he is five times prayed for whereas other Princes are mentioned but once or twice at most in their's I say that this with interception of letters some incivilities offered Ambassadors and the bold lavish speeches that were spoken of the greatest Queenes in Christendome and his Majesties late withdrawing his Royall protection from some of his Merchant-Subjects in other countreys hath made the English lose much ground in point of esteeme abroad and to be the discourse I will not say the scorne of other people They stick not to say that there is now a worse maladie fallen upon their minds then fell upon their bodies about an age since by the Sweating sicknesse which was peculiar onely unto them and found them out under all Climes Others say there is a pure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 amongst them that they are turn'd to Wolves as you know it is a common thing in Lâ—…pland that the old Adage is verified in them Homo homini lupus Nay our next neighbours give out that the saying was never truer then now Rex Anglorum Rex Diabolorum Nor is it a small disrepute to the English that the word Cavalier which is an attribute that no Prince in Christendome will disdain and is the common Appellation of the Nobilitie and Gentrie in most parts of the world is now us'd not onely in Libels and frivolous Pamphlets but in publicke Parliamentarie Declarations for a terme of reproach But truely Sir what you have related touching the Pulpit and the Presse transformes me into wonder and I should want faith to beleeve it did you not speak it upon your knowledge but the English when they fall to worke upon a new humour use to overdoe all people Patricius You have not yet the tithe of what I could give you you would little think that Coachmen and Feltmakers and Weavers were permitted to preach up and down without controulment and to vent their froth and venome against Church and State to cry downe our Hierarchy and Liturgie by most base and reviling speeches Peregrin Touching your Lyturgie I have heard it censur'd abroad by the regidest Calvinists of Generva and Dort yet I never heard any other Character given of it but that it is a most Pious Pathetick and perfect peece of devotion both for the matter and forme of it which I have been a little curious to observe It begins with some choise passages of holy Scripture and a previous Declaration or Monitory to excite us to the worke in hand The first addresse wee make to God is by an humble and joynt Confession which is appliable to any conscience and comprehends in it all kind of sins Then followeth a pronuntiation of Gods promises and pronesse to pardon and absolve us We goe on to the Lords Prayer which having bin dictated by our Saviour himself we often use and is as Amber throwne in amongst our Frankincense to make the Sacrifice more precious and pleasing unto God Then we proceed to som choice Psalms and other portions of holy scripture taken out of the old and new testament Then we fall to the Symbole of faith whereof we make a solemn joynt confession in such a posture as shews a readinesse and resolution in us to defend it and so to the Letany wherein the poor penitent peccant soul may be said to breath out herself into the bosome of her Saviour by tender ejaculations by panting groans eviscerated ingeminations and there is no sin no temptation whatsoever that humane frailty is subject unto but you shall find a deliverance from it there it is so full of Christian charity that there is no condition of people but are remembred and prayed for there Then wee proceed by holy alternatif interlocutions whereby wee heare our selves speak as well as the Minister to some effectuall short prayers because in long prayers the minde is subject to wander as some Zelots now a dayes use to bring their Hearers into a Wildernesse by their Prayers and into a Labyrinth by their Sermons Then goe we on to the Decalogue and if it be in a Cathedrall there is time enough for the Hearer to examine himselfe while the Musick playes where and when he broke any of Gods holy Commandements and ask particular forgivenesse accordingly
in the intervall Then after other choice portions of Scripture and passages relating to our Redemption and endearing unto us the merits of it with a more particular Confession of our Faith we are dismissed with a Benediction So that this Liturgy may be call'd an Instrument of many strings whereon the sighing soul sends up varions notes unto heaven It is a posie made up of divers flowers to make it the more fragrant in the nostrills of God Now touching your Bishops I never knew yet any Protestant Church but could be content to have them had they meanes to maintaine the Dignitie which the Churches of France with others have not in regerd the Reformation beg an first among the people not at Court as here it did in Engl. For unlesse ther be som Supervisers of Gods house endowed with eminent authority to check the fond fancies and quench the false fatuous fires of every private spirit and unlesse it be such an authority that may draw unto it a holy kind of awe and obedience what can be expected but confusion and Atheisme You know what became of the Israelites when the wonted reverence to the Ark and the Ephod and the Priest began to languish amongst them For the braine of man is like a garden which unlesse it be fenced about with a wall or hedge is subject you know to be annoyed by all kinde of beasts which will be ready to runne into it so the braine unlesse it be restrain'd and bounded in holy things by rules of Canonicall authoritie a thousand wild opinions and extravagant fancies will hourely rush into it nor was there ever any field so subject to produce Cockle and Darnell as the human brain is rank and ready to bring forth tares of Schism and Heresie of a thousand sorts unlesse after the first culture the sickle of Authority be applyed to grub up all such noisom weeds Patricius Yet this most antient dignity of Bishops is traduced and vilified by every shallow-pated petty Clerk and not so much out of a tru zeal as out of envy that they are not the like And touching our Liturgy wherof you have bin pleas'd to give so exact a Character people are come to that height of impiety that in som places it hath bin drown'd in other places burnt in som places torn in pieces to serve for the basest uses nay it hath bin preached publickly in Pulpits That it is a piece forg'd in the devils shop and yet the impious foul mouth'd Babbler never was so much as questioned for it Nor did the Church only eccho with these blasphemies but the Presse was as pregnant to produce every day som Monster either against Ecclesiasticall or Secular Government I am asham'd to tell you how som bold Pamphleters in a discourse of a sheet or two wold presume to question to dispute of and determin the extent of Monarchik jurisdiction what sturdy doubts what sawcy Quaeries they put what odd frivolous distinctions they fâ—…am'd That the King though he was Gods Anointed yet he was mans appointed That he had the commanding not the disposing power That he was set to rule over not to over-rule the people That he was King by human choice not by divine Charter That he was not King by the Grace of God so much as by the suffrage of the people That he was a Creaturâ—… and production of the Parliament That he had no implicit trust nor peculiar property in any thing That populus est potior Rege That Grex lege lex est Rege potentior That the King was singulis major universis minor wheras a successive Monarch Uno minor est Iove Sometimes they wold bring instances from the States of Holland sometimes from the Republick of Venice and apply them so impertinently to absolute and independant Royalty But I find that the discourse and inferences of these grand Statists were bottom'd upon four false foundations viz. That the King of whom they speak must be either a Minor and Idiot an insufferable Tyrant or that the Kingdom they mean is Elective None of all which is appliable either to our most gracious and excellently qualified King or to his renowned Kingdom which hath bin always reputed an ancient successive Monarchy govern'd by one Suprem undeposeable and independent head having the Dignity the Royall State and power of an Imperiall Crown and being responsible to none â—…ut to God Almighty and his own 〈◊〉 â—…or his actions and unto whom a Body â—…olitick compacted of Prelates 〈◊〉 and all degrees of people is naturally subject but this is a theam of that transcendenâ—…y that it requires a serious and solid Tractat rather then such a slender Discourse as this is to handle But I pray excuse me Sir that I have stept aside thus from the road of my main narration I told you before how the clashing 'twixt the Commission of Array and the Militia put all things in disarray throughout the whole Kingdom The Parliament as they had taken the first Military gard so they began to arm first and was it not high time then for His Majesty to do some thing think you yet he essayed by all ways imaginable to prevent a war and to conquer by a passive fortitude by cunctation and longanimity How many overtures for an accommodation did he make How many Proclamations of pardon How many elaborat Declarations breathing nothing but clemency sweetness and truth did drop from his own imperious invincible pen which will remain upon Record to all ages as so many Monuments to his eternall glory Yet som ill spirit stept still in between his Grace and the abused Subject for by the peremptory Order of Parliament O monstrous thing the said Proclamations of Grace and other His Majesties Declarations were prohibited to be read fearing that the strength and truth of them wold have had a vertue to unblind or rather unbewitcht for Rebellion is as the sin of Witchcraft the poor besotted people What deep Protestations and holy Vowes did he reiterate that the main of his designs was to preserve the tru Protestant Religion the known Lawes of the Land and the just priviledges of Parliament How often did he dehort and woo the City of London his imperiall Chamber from such violent courses so that she may be justly upbraided with the same words as the Prince of peace upbraided Ierusalem withall London London How often wold I have gathered thee as a â—…en doth her chickens under her wings yet thou wouldst not How often did he descend to acknowledg the manner of demanding the one and five Members in his publick Remonstrances and if ther was an errour in the proceedings how oft did he desire his Great Councell to direct him in a course how to go on in the Empeachment which they never did but wold reserve the priviledge to themselves to be judge and party Peregrin Can your Parliament protect high Treason I am sure the character of an Ambassadour cannot which the late French Ambassadour who
Londoners and by what persons W. and Strode I am ashamed to tell you But that His Majesty was victorious that day a day which I never thought to have seen in England ther be many convincing arguments to prove it for besides the great odds of men which fell on their side and Cannons they lost som of their Ordnance were nayl'd by the Kings Troops the next morning after in the very face of their Army Moreover the King advanc'd forward the next day to his former road and took Banbury presently after but the Parliamenteers went backwards and so from that day to this His Majesty continueth Master of the field 'T is tru that in som places as at Farnham Winchester and Chichester they have prevail'd since but no considerable part of the Royall Army was ther to make opposition and I blush to tell you how unworthily the Law of Armes was violated in all those places Peregrin Good Lord how can the souls of those men that were in the Parliaments Army at Keinton Battell dispense with the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegeance besides the Protestation you speak of they had taken to preserve the Person Honour and Prerogative of the King when they thus actually bandy against his Person and appear in battel with all the engines of hostility against him Patricius I wold be loth to exchange consciences with them and prevaricate so palpably with God Almighty Touching the Cavaliers they may be said to comply with their duties both towards God and their King according to the Oaths you mention Moreover ther was a strong Act of Parliament for their security which was never as much as questioned or controverted much lesse suspended or repeal'd But always stood and yet stands in as full validity and force as it was the first day it was Enacted and as much binding to an universall obedience which Act runs thus 13. Octobris Anno undecimo Henrici Septimi Anno Dom. 1496 IT is Ordained Enacted and Established by the King Our Soverain Lord by the Advice and Assent of the Lords Spirituall and Temporall and the Commons in this present Parliament Assembled and by Authority of the same That from henceforth no manner of person or persons whatsoever he or they be that attend upon the King and Soverain Lord of this Land for the time being in his person and do him tru and faithfull service of Allegiance in the same or be he in other places by his Commandment in his wars within this Land or without That for the said Deed and tru duty of Allegiance he or they be in no wise Convict or attaint of High Treason nor of other offences for that cause by Act of Parliament or otherwise by any processe of Law whereby he or any of them shall lose or forfeit Life Lands Tenements Rents Possessions Hereditaments Goods Chattels or any other things But to be for that Deed and Service utterly discharged of any Vexation Trouble or loss And if any Act or Acts or other processe of the Law hereafter therupon for the same happen to be made contrary to this Ordinance That then that Act or Acts or other processe of the Law whatsoever they shall be stand and utterly void Provided alwayes that no person or persons shall take any benefit or advantage by this Act which shall hereafter decline their said Allegiance Peregrin This is as plain and fair as can be for securing both the Person and Conscience of the Cavalier but was ther ever any Act or Oath or any thing like an Oath that oblig'd Englishmen to be tru unto or fight for the Parliament Patricius Never any but these men by a new kind of Metaphysicks have found out a way to abstract the Person of the King from his Office to make his Soveraigntie a kind of Platonick Idea hovering in the aire while they visibly attempt to assaile and destroy his Person and Progeny by small and great shot and seek him out amongst his life-Gard with fire and sword yet they give out they fight not only not against him but for him and that their army is more loyall unto him than his owne who they say fight only for the name King though they have his person really amongst them commanding and directing Thus they make Him a strange kind of Amphibium they make in one instant a King and no King of the same Individuum a power which the Casuists affirme God Almighty never assumed to himself to doe any thing that implies a contradiction Peregrin Noble Sir you make my heart to pant within me by the Pathetick relation you have been pleas'd to make mee of these â—…uthfull times But one thing seems to me to be no lesse then a miracle how his Majestie hath beene able to subsist all this while considering the infinite advantages the averse partie hath had of him for they have all the tenable places and townes of strength both by land and sea They have the Navie royall they have all the Amunition and Armes of the Crown they have all the Imposts and Customs Poundage and Tonnage which they levie contrary to their former Protestation before the Bill be pass'd They have the Exchequer at their devotion and all the Revenue of the King Queen and Prince and lastly they have the citie of London which may be eall'd a Magazin of money and men where there is a ready supplie and superfluitie of all things that may seed clothe or make men gay to put them in heart and resolution Truely considering all these advantages with divers others on their side and the disadvantages on the Kings it turnes me into a lump of astonishment how his Majestie could beare up all this while and keep together so many Armies and be still master of the Field Patricius I confesse Sir it is a just subject for wonderment and we must ascribe it principally to God Almightie who is the Protectour of his Anointed for his hand hath manifestly appear'd in the conduct of his affaires Hee hath been the Pilot who hath sate at the helme ever sâ—…nce this storme began and will we hope continue to steer his course till he waft him to safe harbour againe Adde hereunto that his Majesty for his own part hath beene wonderfully stirring and indefatigable both for his body and minde And what notable things HER Majesty hath done and what she hath suffered is fitter for Chronicle then such a simple Discourse Hereunto may be added besides that his Majestie hath three parts of foure of the Peeres and Prime Gentrie of the Kingdom firme unto him and they will venture hard before they will come under a popular government and mechanicall corporations or let in Knox or Calvin to undermine this Church and bring in their bawdy stool of Repentance Peregrin Truely Sir amongst other Countreys I extreamly long'd to see England and I am no sooner come but I am surfeited of her already I doubt the old Prophecie touching this Island is come now to be verified
the time of the League the King replyed Puis que Monsieur de la Chatre vous à liguè qu'il vous destigue since Monsieur de la Chastre hath leagu'd you let Monsieur de la Chastre unleague you and so the said taxe continueth to this day I have observed in your Chronicles that it hath bin the fate of your English Kings to be baffled often by petty companions as Iack Straw Wat Tyler Cade Warbecke and Symnel A Waspe may somtimes do a shrewd turn to the Eagle as you said before your Island hath bin fruitfull for Rebellions for I think ther hapned near upon a hundred since the last Conquest the City of London as I remember in your Story hath rebelled seven times at least and forfeited her Charter I know not how often but she bled soundly for it at last and commonly the better your Princes were the worse your people have been As the case stands I see no way for the King to establish a setled peace but by making a fifth Conquest of you and for London ther must be a way found to prick that tympany of pride wherwith she swells so much Patricius 'T is true ther has bin from time to time many odd Insurrections in England but our King gathered a greater strength out of them afterwards the inconstant people are alwayes accessary to their own miseries Kings Prerogatives are like the Ocean which as the Civilians tell us if he lose in one plaâ—…e he gets ground in another Cares and Crosses ride behind Kings Clowds hang over them They may be eclypsed a while but they will shine afterwards with a stronger lustre Our gracious Soverain hath passed a kind of Ordeal a fiery triall he while now hath bin matriculated and serv'd part of an Apprentiship in the School of Affliction I hope God will please shortly to cancell the Indenture and restore him to a sweeter liberty then ever This Discourse was stopp'd in the Press by the tyranny of the Times and not suffer'd to see open light till now A SOBER and SEASONABLE MEMORANDUM SENT TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE PHILIP late Earl of Pembrock and Montgomery c. To mind Him of the particular Sacred Ties besides the Common Oath of Alleageance and Supremacy wereby he was bound to adhere to the King his Liege Lord and Master Presented unto Him in the hottest brunt of the late Civill Wars Iuramentum ligamen Conscientiae maximum LONDON Printed in the Year 1661. To the Right Honourable PHILIP Earl of Pembrock and Montgomery Knight of the Bath Knight of the most noble Order of the Garter Gentleman of His Majesties Bed-chamber And one of His most Honorable privy Counsell c. My Lord THis Letter requires no Apology much lesse any pardon but may expect rather a good reception and thanks when your Lordship hath seriously perused the contents and ruminated well upon the matter it treats of by weighing it in your second and third thoughts which usually carry with them a greater advantage of wisdom It concerns not your body or temporall estate but things reflecting upon the noblest part of you your soul which being a beam of Immortality and a Type of the Almighty is incomparably more precious and rendereth all other earthly things to be but bables and transitory trifles Now the strongest tye the solemnest engagement and stipulation that can be betwixt the soul and her Creator is an Oath I do not understand common tumultuary rash oaths proceeding from an ill habit or heat of passion upon sudden contingencies for such oaths bind one to nought else but to repentance No I mean serious and legall oaths taken with a calm prepared spirit either for the asserting of truth and conviction of falshood or for fidelitie in the execution of some Office or binding to civill obedience and Loyaltie which is one of the essentiall parts of a Christian Such publick oaths legally made with the Royall assent of the Soveraigne from whom they receive both legalitie and life else they are invalid and unwarrantable as they are religious acts in their own nature so is the taking and observance of them part of Gods honor and there can be nothing more derogatory to the high Majesty and holinesse of his name nothing more dangerous destructive and damnable to humane souls then the infringment and eluding of them or omission in the performance of them Which makes the Turks of whom Christians in this particular may learn a tender peece of humanity to be so cautious that they seldom or never administer an oath to Greek Jew or any other Nation and the reason is that if the Party sworn doth take that Oath upon hopes of some advantage or for evading of danger and punishment and afterwards rescinds it they think themselves to be involved in the Perjury and so accessary to his damnation Our Civill Law hath a Canon consonant to this which is Mortale peccatum est ei praestare juramentum quem scio verisimiliter violaturum 'T is a mortall sin to administer an Oath to him who I probably know will break it To this may allude another wholesome saying A false Oath is damnable a true Oath dangerous none at all the safest How much then have they to answer for who of late yeares have fram'd such formidable coercive generall Oaths to serve them for engins of State to lay battery to the Consciences and Soules of poor men and those without the assent of their Soveraign and opposit point blank to former Oaths they themselves had taken these kind of Oaths the City of London hath swallowed lately in grosse and the Country in detaile which makes me confidently beleeve that if ever that saying of the holy Prophet The Land mournes for Oaths was appliable to any part of the habitable earth it may be now applied to this reprobate Iland But now I come to the maine of my purpose and to those Oaths your Lordship hath taken before this distracted time which the world knowes and your conscience can testifie were divers They were all of them solemn and some of them Sacramentall Oaths and indeed every Solemn Oath among the Antients was held a Sacrament They all implyed and imposed an indispensible fidelity Truth and loyalty from you to your Soveraign Prince your Liege Lord and Master the King I will make some instances Your Lordship took an Oath when Knight of the Bath to love your Soveraign above all earthly Creatures and for His Right and dignity to live and die c. By the Oath of Supremacy you swear to beare faith and true allegeance to the Kings Highnesse and to your power to defend all â—…urisdictions Priviledges Preheminences and Authorities belonging to his Highnesse c. Your Lordship took an Oath when Privie Counsellor to be a true and faithfull Servant unto Him and if you knew or understood of any manner of thing to be attempted done or spoken against His Majesties Person Honour Crown or Dignity you swore to let
and withstand the same to the uttermost of your power and either cause it to be revealed to himself or to others of His Privy Counsell The Oaths you took when Bedchamber man and L. Chamberlain bind you as strictly to His Person Your Lordship may also call to memorie when you were installed Knight of the Garter whereof you are now the oldest living except K of Denmark you solemnly swore to defend the Honour and Quarrels the Rights and Lordship of your Soveraigne Now the Record tells us that the chiefest ground of instituting the said order by that heroick Prince Edward the Third was that he might have choice gallant men who by Oath and Honour should adhere unto him in all dangers and difficulties and that by way of reciprocation Hee should protect and defend them Which made Alfonso Duke of Calabria so much importune Henry the Eight to install him one of the Knights of the Garter that he might engage King Harry to protect him against Charles the Eighth who threatned then the conquest of Naples How your Lordship hath acquitted your self of the performance of these Oaths your conscience that bosome record can make the best affidavit Some of them oblige you â—…o live and dye with King Charles but what Oaths or any thing like an Oath binds you to live and die with the House of Commons as your Lordship often gives out you will I am yet to learne Unlesse that House which hath not power as much as to administer an Oath much lesse to make one can absolve you from your former Oaths or haply by their omnipotence dispence with you for the observance of them Touching the Politicall capacitie of the King I feare that will be a weak plea for your Lordship before the Tribunall of heaven and they who whisper such Chimeras into your ears abuse you in grosse but put case there were such a thing as politicall capacitie distinct from the personal which to a true rationall man is one of the grossest Buls that can be yet these forementioned Oaths relate most of them meerly unto the Kings Person the individuall Person of King Charles as you are His Domestick Counsellor and cubicular Servant My Lord I take leave to tell your Lordship and the Spectator sees sometimes more then the Gamester that the world extreamely marvels at you more then others and it makes those who wish you best to be transformed to wonder that your Lordship shold be the first of your Race who deserted the Crown which one of your Progenitors said he would still follow though it were thrown upon an hedg Had your Princely Brother William Earl of Pembrock bin living he wold have bin sooner torn by wild horses than have banded against it or abandoned the King his Master and fallen to such grosse Idolatry as to worship the Beast with many heads The world also stands astonished that you shold confederate to bring into the bowels of the Land and make Elogiums in some of your Speeches of that hungry people which have bin from all times so crosse and fatall to the English Nation and particularly to your own honour Many thousands do wonder that your Lordship shold be brought to persecute with so much animosity and hatred that reverend Order in Gods Church Episcopacy which is contemporary with Christianity it self and wherunto you had once designed and devoted one of your dearest Sons so solemnly My Lord if this Monster of Reformation which is like an infernall Spirit clad in white and hath a cloven head as well as feet prevailes you shall find the same destiny will attend poor England as did Bohemia which was one of the flourishingst Kingdoms upon that part of the earth which happen'd thus The Common people ther repind at the Hierarchy and riches of the Church therupon a Parliament was pack'd where Bishops were abolished what followed The Nobles and Gentry went down next and afterwards the Crown it self and so it became a popular confus'd Anarchicall State and a Stage of bloud a long time so that at last when this Magot had done working in the brains of the foolish peeple they were glad to have recourse to Monarchy again after a world of calamities though it degenerated from a successive Kingdom to an Elective Methinks my Lord under favour that those notorious visible judgements which have fallen upon these Refiners of reform'd Religion shold unbeguile your Lordship and open your eyes For the hand of heaven never appeared so clearly in any humane actions Your Lordship may well remember what became of the Hothams and Sir Alexander Cary who were the two fatall wretches that began the War first one in the North the other in the South Plymouth and Hull Your Lordship may be also pleased to remember what became of Brooks the Lord and Hampden the first whereof was dispatched by a deaf and dumb man out of an ancient Church at Litchfield which he was battering and that suddenly also for he fell down stone dead in the twinkling of an eye Now one of the greatest cavils he had against our Liturgy was a clause of a Prayer ther against sudden death Besides the fag end of his Grace in that journey was that if the design was not pleasing to God he might perish in the action For the other Hampden he besprinkled with his bloud and received his death upon the same clod of earth in Buckingham-shire where he had first assembled the poor Country people like so many Geese to drive them gaggling in a mutiny to London with the Protestation in their Caps which hath bin since torn in flitters and is now grown obsolet and quite out of use Touching Pym and Stroud those two worthy Champions of the Utopian cause the first being opened his stomack and guts were found to be full of pellets of bloud the other had little or no brain in his skull being dead and lesse when he was living Touching those who carryed the first scandalous Remonstrance that work of night and the verdict of a starv'd jury to welcome the King from Scotland they have bin since your Lordship knows well the chief of the Eleven Members impeached by the House And now they are a kind of Runnagates beyond the Seas scorn'd by all mankind and baffled every where yea even by the Boors of Holland and not daring to peep in any populous Town but by owle-light Moreover I believe your Lordship hath good cause to remember that the same kind of riotous Rascals which rabbled the K. out of Town did drive away the Speaker in like manner with many of their Memberships amongst whom your Lordship was fairly on his way to seek shelter of their Janizaries the Redcoats Your Lordship must needs find what deadly fewds fal daily ' twixâ—… the Presbyterian and the Independent the two fiery brands that have put this poor Isle so long in combustion But 't is worthy your Lordships speciall notice how your dear Brethren the Scots whom your Lordship so
such as ev'ry one carrieth by his side or som imaginary thing or chymera of a sword No 't is the polemicall publique sword of the whole Kingdom 't is an aggregative compound sword and 't is moulded of bell-metall for 't is made up of all the ammunition and armes small and great of all the military strengths both by Land and Sea of all the Forts Castles and tenable places within and round about the whole I le The Kings of Engl. have had this sword by vertue of their royall signory from all times the Laws have girded it to their sides they have employed it for repeling all foren force for revenging all forren wrongs or affronts for quelling all intestine tumults and for protecting the weal of the whole body politicke at home The peeple were never capable of this sword the fundamentall constitutions of this Kingdom deny it them 't is all one to put the sword in a mad mans hand as in the peeples or for them to have a disposing power in whose hands it shall be Such was the case once of the French sword in that notorious insurrection call'd to this day La Iaqueris de Beauvoisin when the Pesants and Mechanicks had a design to wrest it out of the Kings hand and to depresse all the Peers and Gentry of the Kingdom and the businesse had gone so far that the peasans might have prevail'd had not the Prelats stuck close to the Nobility But afterwards poor hare brain'd things they desire the King upon bended knees to take it againe Such popular puffs have blowen often in Poland Naples and other places where while they sought and fought for liberty by retrenching the regall power they fool'd themselfs into a slavery unawares and found the rule right that excesse of freedom turns to thraldom and ushers in all confusions If one shold go back to the nonage of the world when Governers and Rulers began first one will find the peeple desir'd to live under Kings for their own advantage that they might be restrain'd from wild exorbitant liberty and kept in unity Now unity is as requisit for the wel-being of all naturall things as entity is for their being and 't is a receiv'd maxime in policy that nothing preserves Unity more exactly then Royal Government besides 't is known to be the noblest sort of sway In so much that by the Law of Nations if Subjects of equal degrees and under differing Princes shold meet the Subjects of a King shold take precedency of those under any Republique But to take up the Sword again I say that the Sword of public Power and Authority is fit only to hang at the Kings side and so indeed shold the Great Seal hang only at his girdle because 't is the Key of the Kingdom which makes me think of what I read of Charlemain how he had the imperial Seal emboss'd alwaies upon the pommell of his Sword and his reason was that he was ready to maintain whatsoever he signed and sealed The Civilians who are not in all points so great friends to Monarchy as the Common Law of England is say there are six Iura Regalia six Regal Rights viz. 1. Potestas Iudicatoria 2. Potestas vitae necis 3. Armamenta 4. Bona adespota 5. Census 6. Monetarum valor to wit Power of Iudicature Power of Life and Death all kind of arming masterless goods Sâ—…issements and the value of money Among these Regalia's we find that Arming which in effect is nought else but the Kings Sword is among the chiefest and 't is as proper and peculiar to his person as either Crown or Scepter By these two he drawes a loose voluntary love and opinion only from his Subjects but by the Sword he draws reverence and awe which are the chiefest ingredients of allegiance it being a maxime That the best mixture of Government is made of fear and love With this Sword he conferrs honor he dubbs Knights he creates Magistrates the Lord Deputy of Ireland the Lord Mayor of London with all other Corporations have their Swords from him and when he entereth any place corporate we know the first thing that is presented him is the Sword With this Sword he shields and preserves all his people that every one may sit quietly under his own Vine sleep securely in his own House and enjoy sweetly the fruits of his labours Nor doth the point of this Sword reach only to every corner of his own dominions but it extends beyond the seas to gard his Subjects from oppression and denial of justice as well as to vindicate the publick wrongs make good the interests of his Crown and to assist his confederates This is the Sword that Edward the third tied the Flower deluces unto which stick still unto it when having sent to France to demand that Crown by maternal right the Counsell ther sent him word that the Crown of France was not tied to a distaff to which scoffing answer he replied that then he wold tie it to his sword and he was as good as his word Nor is this publick sword concredited or intrusted by the peeple in a fiduciary conditionall way to the King but it is properly and peculiarly belonging unto him as an inseparable concomitant perpetual Usher and attendant to his Crown The King we know useth to maintain all garrisons upon his own charge not the peeples he fortifies upon his own charge not the peeples And though I will not averr that the King may impresse any of his Subjects unlesse it be upon an actuall vasion by Sea or a sudden irruption into his Kingdom by Land as the Scots have often done yet at any time the King may raise Volunteers and those who have received his money the Law makes it felony if they forsake his service Thus we see there 's nothing that conduceth more to the glory and indeed the very essence of a King then the Sword which is the Armes and Military strength of his Kingdom wherfore under favour ther cannot be a greater point of dishonour to a King then to be disarmed then to have his Sword taken from him or dispos'd of and intrusted to any but those whom he shall appoint for as à minori ad majus the Argument often holds if a private Gentleman chance to be disarm'd upon a quarrell 't is held the utmost of disgraces much greater and more public is the dishonor that falls upon a King if after som traverses of difference 'twixt him and his Subjects they shold offer to disarm him or demand his Sword of him when the Eagle parted with his talons and the Lion with his teeth and ongles the Apolog tells us how contemptible afterwards the one grew to be among Birds the other among Birds the other among Beasts For a King to part with the Sword politic is to render himself such a ridiculous King as that logg of wood was which Iupiter let down among the froggs for their King at the importunity of
him poorer then the meanest of all his vassals they have made him to have no propriety in house goods or Lands or as one may say in his wife and children 'T was usual for the father to hunt in his Park while the son hunted for his life in the field for the wife 〈◊〉 lie in his bedds while the husband layed wait to murther him abroad they have seiz'd upon and sold his privat Hangings anâ—… Plate yea his very Cabinets Jewels Pictures Statues and Books Nor are they the honorablest sort of peeple and men nobly extracted as in Scotland that do all this for then it were not so much to be wondred at but they are the meanest sort of Subjects many of them illiterat Mechaniques wherof the lower House is full specially the subordinat Committees who domineer more o're Nobles and Gentry then the Parliament Members themselfs their Masters use to do Touching those few Peers that sit now voting in the upper House they may be said to be but meer Cyphers they are grown so degenerat as to suffer the Commons to give them the Law to ride upon their backs and do most things without them Ther be many thousand Petitions that have bin recommended by these Lords to the lower House which are scornfully thrown into corners and never read their Messengers have us'd to dance attendance divers hours and days before they were vouchsafed to be let in or heard to the eternal dishonour of those Peers and yet poor spirited things they resent it not The Commons now command all and though as I am inform'd they are summon'd thither by the Kings Original Writ but to consent to what the King and his Great Counsel of Peers which is the tru Court of Parlement shall resolve upon The Commons I say are now from Consenters become the chiefest Counsellors yea Controulers of all nay som of this lower House fly so high as to term themselfs Conquerors and though in all conferences with the Lords they stand bare before them yet by a new way of mix'd Committees they carry themselfs as Collegues These are the men that now have the vogue and they have made their Priviledges so big swoln that they seem to have quite swallowed up both the Kings Prerogatives and those of the Lords These are the Grandees and Sages of the times though most of them have but crack'd braines and crazy fortunes God wot Nay som of them are such arrand Knaves and coxcombs that 't is questionable whether they more want common honesty or common sense nor know no more what belongs to tru policy then the left leg of a joynt-stool They are grown so high a tiptoes that they seem to scorn an Act of Amnestia or any grace from their King wheras som of them deserve to be hang'd as oft as they have haires upon their heads nor have they any more care of the common good of England then they have of Lapland so they may secure their own persons and continue their Power now Authority is sweet though it be in Hell Thus my Lord is England now govern'd so that 't is an easie thing to take a prospect of her ruine if she goes on this pace The Scot is now the swaying man who is the third time struck into her bowels with a numerous Army They say he hath vow'd never to return till he hath put the Crown on the Kings head the Sceptâ—…r in his hand and the sword by his side if he do so it will be the best thing that ever he did though som think that he will never be able to do England as much good as he hath done her hurt He hath extremely out-witted the English of late years And they who were the causers of his first and last coming in I hold to be the most pernicious Enemies that ever this Nation had for t is probable that Germany viz. Ponterland and Breme will be sooner free of the Swed then England of the Scot who will stick close unto him like a bur that he cannot shake him off He is becom already Master of the Englishmans soul by imposing a Religion upon him and he may hereafter be master of his body Your Eminence knows there is a periodicall fate hangs over all Kingdoms after such a revolution of time and rotation of fortunes wheele the cours of the world hath bin for one Nation like so many nailes to thrust out another But for this Nation I observe by conference with divers of the saddest and best weighdst men among them that the same presages foretell their ruine as did the Israelites of old which was a murmuring against their Governors It is a long time that both Iudges Bishops and privy Counsellors have bin mutter'd at whereof the first shold be the oracles of the Law the other of the Gospell the last of State-affaires and that our judgments shold acquiesce upon theirs Here as I am inform'd 't was common for evry ignorant client to arraign his Iudg for evry puny Curat to censure the Bishop for evry shallow-brain home-bred fellow to descant upon the results of the Councell Table and this spirit of contradiction and contumacy hath bin a long time fomenting in the minds of this peeple infus'd into them principally by the Puritanicall Faction Touching the second of the three aforesaid I mean Bishops they are grown so odious principally for their large demeanes among this peeple as the Templers were of old and one may say it is a just judgment fallen upon them for they were most busy in demolishing Convents and Monasteries as these are in destroying Cathedralls and Ministers But above all it hath bin observ'd that this peeple hath bin a long time rotten-hearted towards the splendor of the Court the glory of their King and the old establish'd Government of the land 'T is true there were a few small leakes sprung in the great vessel of the Stâ—…te and what vessel was ever so â—…ite but was subject to leakes but these wise-akers in stopping of one have made a hundred Yet if this Kings raign were parallell'd to that of Queen Elizabeth's who was the greatest Minion of a peeple that ever was one will find that she stretch'd the Prerogative much further In her time as I have read in the Latin Legend of her life som had their hands cut off for only writing against her matching with the Duke of Aniou others were hang'd at Tyburn for traducing her government she pardon'd thrice as many Roman Priests as this King did she pass'd divers Monopolies she kept an Agent at Rome she sent her Sergeant at Armes to pluck out a Member then sitting in the House of Commons by the eares and clapt him in prison she call'd them sawcy fellowes to meddle with her Prerogative or with the government of her houshold she mannag'd all forren affaires specially the warrs with Ireland soly by her privy Counsell yet there was no murmuring at her raign and the reason I conceave to be
committed was to suffer this Town to spread her wings so wide for she bears no proportion with the bignes of the Iland but may fit a Kingdom thrice as spacious she engrosseth and dreins all the wealth and strength of the Kingdom so that I cannot compare England more properly than to one of our Cremona geese where the custom is to fatten only the heart but in doing so the whole body growes lank To draw to a conclusion This Nation is in a most sad and desperat condition that they deserve to be pittied and preserved from sinking and having cast the present state of things and all interests into an equal balance I find my Lord ther be three ways to do it one good and two bad 1. The first of the bad ones is the Sword which is one of the scourges of heaven especially the Civill sword 2. The second bad one is the Treaty which they now offer the King in that small Island wher he hath bin kept Captif so long 〈◊〉 which quality the world will account him still while he is detain'd there and by thaâ—… Treaty to bind him as fast as they can anâ—… not trust him at all 3. The good way is in a free confiding brave way Englishmen-like to send for their King to London where City and Country shold Petition him to summon a new and free full Parlement which he may do as justly as ever he did thing in his life these men having infring'd as well all the essentiall Priviledges of Parlement as every puntillio of it for they have often risen up in a confusion without adjournment they had two Speakers at once they have most perjuriously and beyond all imagination betrayed the trust both King and Country repos'd in them subverted the very sundamentals of all Law and plung'd the whole Kingdom in this bottomless gulf of calamities another Parlement may haply do som good to this languishing Island and cure her convulsions but for these men that arrogat to themselfs the name of Parlement by a local puntillio only because they never stir'd from the place where they have bin kept together by meer force I find them by their actions to be so pervers so irrational and refractory so far given over to a reprobat sense so fraught with rancor with an irreconcileable malice and thirst of bloud that England may well despaire to be heal'd by such Phlebotomists or Quack-salvers be sides they are so full of scruples apprehensions and jealousies proceeding from blacâ—… guilty souls and gawl'd consciences that they will do nothing but chop Logic with their King and spin out time to continue their power and evade punishment which they think is unavoidable if ther shold be a free-Parlement Touching the King he comports himself with an admired temper'd equanimity he invades and o're-masters them more and more in all his answers by strength of reson though he have no soul breathing to consult withall but his own Genius he gains wonderfully upon the hearts and opinion of his peeple and as the Sun useth to appear bigger in winter and at his declension in regard of the interposition of certain meteors 'twixt the eye of the beholder and the object so this King being thus o're-clouded and declined shines far more glorious in the eyes of his people and certainly these high morall vertues of constancy courage and wisdom come from above and no wonder for Kings as they are elevated above all other peeple and stand upon higher ground they sooner receive the inspirations of heaven nor doth he only by strength of reason out 〈◊〉 them but he wooes them by gentlenesse and mansuetude as the Gentleman of Paris who having an Ape in his house that had taken his only child out of the cradle and dragged him up to the ridge of the house the parent with ruthful he art charmed the Ape by fair words and other blandâ—…ments to bring him softly down which he did England may be said to be now just upon such a precipice ready to have her braines dash'd out and I hope these men will not be worse natur'd then that brute animal but will save her Thus have I given your Eminence a rough account of the state of this poor and pittifully deluded peeple which I will perfect when I shall come to your presence which I hope will be before this Autumnal Equinox I thought to have sojourn'd here longer but that I am grown weary of the clime for I fear there 's the other two scourges of heaven that menace this Island I mean the famin and pestilence especially this City for their prophanness rebellion and sacriledge It hath bin a talk a great while whether Anti-Christ be come to the world or no I am sure Anti-Iesus which is worse is among this people for they hold all veneration though voluntary proceeding from the inward motions of a sweet devoted soul and causing an outward genuflection to be superstitious insomuch that one of the Synodical Saints here printed and published a Book entitling it against Iesu Worship So in the profoundest posture of reverence I kisse your vest as being London this 12 of August 1647. My Lord Your Eminences most humbly devoted I. H. A NOCTURNAL PROGRES OR A PERAMBULATION Of most COUNTREYS IN CHRISTENDOM Perform'd in one night by strength of the Imagination Which progresse terminats in these North-West Iles And declares the woful Confusions They are involv'd at present The progress of the Soul by an usuall DREAM IT was in the dead of a long Winter night when no eyes were open but Watchmens and Centinels that I was fallen soundly asleep the Cinq-out-Ports were shut up closer then usually for my senses were so trebly lock'd that the Moon had she descended from her watry Orb might have done much more to me then she did to Endymion when he lay snoaring upon the brow of Latmus Hill nay be it spoken without prophanenesse if a rib had bin taken out of me that night to have made a new moâ—… of a woman I shold hardly have felt it Yet though the Cousin German of death had so strongly seiz'd thus upon the exterior parts of this poor Tabernacle of flesh my inward parts were never more actif and fuller of employments then they were that night Pictus imaginibus formisque fugacibâ—… adstat Morpheus variis fingit nova vultibus ora Methought my soul made a sally abroad into the world and fetch'd a vast compas she seem'd to soar up and slice the air to cross seas to clammer up huge Hills and never rested till she had arriv'd at the Antipodes Now som of the most judicious Geometricians and Chorographers hold that the whole Mass of the Earth being round like the rest of her fellow Elements ther be places and poizing parts of the Continent ther be Peninsulas Promontories and Ilands upon the other face of the Earth that correspond and concenter with all those Regions and Iles that are upon this superficies which we read
was the cause he was pitched upon the fewd continued long for among others a Northern King took advantage to rush in who did a world of mischiefs but in a few yeers that King and Hee found their graves in their own ruins neer upon the same time but now may heaven have due thanks for it there is a peace concluded a peace which hath bin 14. long yeers a moulding and will I hope be shortly put in execution yet 't is with this fatall disadvantage that the said Northern people besides a masse of ready money we are to give them are to have firme footing and a warm nest ever in this Countrey hereafter so that I fear we shall hear from them too often upon these words this noble personage fetch'd a deep sigh but in such a generous manner that he seem'd to break and check it before it came halfe forth Thence my soul taking her flight o're divers huge and horrid cacuminous mountaines the Alpes at last I found my self in a great populous Town Naples but her buildings were miserably battered up and down she had a world of Palaces Castles Convents and goodly Churches as I stepped out of curiosity into one of them upon the West side there was a huge Grate where a creature all in white beckned at me making my approach to the Grate I found her to be a Nun a lovely creature she was for I could not distinguish which was whiter her hue or her habit which made me remember though in a dream my self that saying If Dreams and wishes had been tru there had not been found a tru maid to make a Nun of ever since a Cloyster'd life began first among women I asked her the reason how so many ugly devastations shold befall so beautifull a City she in a dolorous gentle tone and ruthfull accents the teares trickling down her cheeks like so many pearles such pearly teares that wold have dissolv'd a Diamond sobb'd out unto me this speech Gentle Sir 't is far beyond any expressions of mine and indeed beyond humane imagination to conceive the late calamities which have befallen this faire though infortunat City a pernicious popular Rebellion broke out here upon a sudden into most horrid barbarismes a Fate that hangs over most rich popular places that swim in luxe and plenty but touching the grounds thereof one may say that rebellion entred into this City as sin first entred into the world by an apple For our King now in his great extremities having almost halfe the world banding against him and putting but a small tax upon a basket of fruit to last only for a time this fruit-tax did put the peeples teeth so on edge that it made them gnash against the Government and rush into Armes but they are sensible now of their own follies for I think never any place suffered more in so short a time the civill combustions abroad in other Kingdomes may be said to be but small squibs compar'd to those horrid flakes of fire which have rag'd here and much adoe we had to keep our Vest all fire free from the fury of it in lesse then the revolution of a yeer it consum'd above fourscore thousand soules within the walls of this City But 't is not the first time of forty that this luxurious foolish peeple hath smarted for their insurrections and insolencies and that this mad horse hath o'rethrown his Rider and drawn a worse upon his back who instead of a saddle put a pack-saddle and Panniers upon him but indeed the voluptuousnesse of this peeple was grown ripe for the judgement of heaven She was then beginning to expostulat with me about the state of my Country and I had a mighty mind to satisfie her for I could have corresponded with her in the reâ—…ation of as strange things but the Lady Aâ—…adesse calling her away she departed in an â—…nstant obedience seem'd to be ther so precise and punctual I steer'd my course thence through a most delicious Country to another City that lay in the very bosom of the Sea Venice she was at first nothing els but a kind of posie made up of dainty green Hillocks tied together by above 400. bridges and so coagulated into a curious City though she be espous'd to Neptune very solemnly once evry â—…eer yet she still reserves her maydenhead â—…ad bears the title of the Virgin City in that part of the world But I found her tugging mainly with a huge Giant that wold ravish her He hath shrewdly set on her skirts and a great shame it is that she is not now assisted by her Neighbours and that they shold be together by the ears when they shold do so necessary a work considering how that great Giant is their common Enemy and hath lately vow'd seven yeers wars against her specially considering that if he comes once to ravish her he will quickly ruin her said Neighbours She to her high honor be it spoken being their only rampart against the incursion of the said Giant and by consequence their greatest security From this Maiden City mee thought I was in a trice carried over a long gulf and so through a Midland Sea into another Kingdom Spain where I felt the Clime hotter by some Degrees a rough-hew'n soile for the most part it was full of craggy barren hills but where there were valleys and water enough the country was extraordinarily fruitful whereby nature it seems made her a compensation for the sterility of the rest Yet notwithstanding the hardship of the soyl I found her full of Abbeys Monasteries Hermitages Convents Churches and other places of devotion as I rov'd there a while I encountred a grave man in a long black cloak by the fashion whereof and by the brimms of his hat I perceived him to be a Iesuit I clos'd with him and question'd him about that Country He told me the King of that Country was the greatest Potentat of that part of the world and to draw power to a greater unity they of our Order could be well contented that he were universall Head over Temporalls because 't is most probable to be effected by him as we have already one universall Head over Spiritualls This is the Monark of the Mines I mean of Gold and Silver who furnishes all the world but most of all his own enemies with mony which mony foments all the wars in this part of the world Never did any earthly monark thrive so much in so short a tract of time But of late yeers he hath been ill-favouredly shaken by the revolt and utter defection of two sorts of Subjects who are now in actual arms against him on both sides of him at his own doors Ther hath bin also a long deadly feud 'twixt the next tramontan Kingdom France and him though the Q. that rules there be his own sister an unnaturall odious thing But it seems God Almighty hath a quarrel of late yeers with all earthly Potentats for in so short a time
Parliament by force and remove ill Counsellours from about him long before he put up his Royal Standard and the Generall then nam'd was to live and die with them and very observable it is how that Generalls Father was executed for a Traytor for but attempting such a thing upon Queen Elizabeth I mean to remove ill Counsellors from about her by force 'T is also to be observed that the same Army which was rais'd to bring him to his Parliament was continued to a clean contrary end two years afterwards to keep him from his Parliament 'T is fit it should be remembred who interdicted Trade first and brought in Forraigners to help them and whose Commissions of War were neere upon two moneths date before the Kings 'T is fit it should be remembred how His Majesty in all His Declarations and publick Instruments made alwaies deep Protestations that 't was not against his Parliament he raised Armes but against some seditious Members against whom he had onely desired the common benefit of the Law but could not obtain it 'T is fit to remember that after any good successes and advantages of his he still Courted both Parliament and City to an Accommodation how upon the Treaty at Uxbridge with much importunity for the generall advantage and comfort of his peeple and to prepare matters more fitly for a peace he desired there might be freedom of Trade from Town to Town and a Cessation of all Acts of Hostility for the time that the inflammation being allayed the wound might be curâ—…d the sooner all which was denyed him 'T is fit to remember how a Noble Lord The Earl of Southampton at that time told the Parliaments Commissioners in His Majesties Name at the most unhappy rupture of the said Treaty That when he was at the highest he would be ready to treat with them and fight them when he was at the lowest 'T is fit the present Army should remember how often both in their Proposalls and publick Declarations they have inform'd the world and deeply protested that their principall aime was to restore His Majesty to honour freedom and safety whereunto they were formerly bound both by their own Protestation and Covenant that the two Commanders in chief pawn'd unto him their soules thereupon Let them remember that since he was first snatch'd away to the custody of the Army by Cromwells plot who said that if they had the Person of the King in their power they had the Parliament in their pockets I say being kept by the Army He never displeas'd them in the least particular but in all his Overtures for Peace and in all his Propositions he had regard still that the Army should be satisfied let it be remembred that to settle a blessed Peace to preserve his Subjects from rapine and ruine and to give contentment to his Parliament He did in effect freely part with His Sword Scepter and Crown and ev'ry thing that was proprietary to him Let it be remembred with what an admired temper with what prudence and constancy with what moderation and mansuetude he comported himself since his deep afflictions insomuch that those Commissioners and others who resorted unto him and had had their hearts so averse unto him before return'd his Converts crying him up to be one of the sanctifiedst persons upon earth and will not the bloud of such a Prince cry loud for vengeance Bloud is a crying sin but that of Kings Cryes loudest for revenge and ruine brings Let it be remembred that though there be some Precedents of deposing Kings in his Kingdom and elsewhere when there was a competition for the right Title to the Crown by some other of the bloud Royall yet 't is a thing not onely unsampled but unheard of in any age that a King of England whose Title was without the least scruple should be summon'd and arraign'd tryed condemned and executed in His own Kingdom by His own Subjects and by the name of their own King to whom they had sworn Alleagiance The meanest Student that hath but tasted the Laws of the Land can tell you that it is an unquestionable fundamentall Maxime The King can do no wrong because he acts by the mediation of his Agents and Ministers he heares with other mens eares he sees with other mens eyes he consults with other mens braines he executes with other mens hands and judges with other mens consciences therefore his Officers Counsellors or favorites are punishable not He and I know not one yet whom he hath spar'd but sacrificed to Justice The Crown of England is of so coruscant and pure a mettall that it cannot receive the least taint or blemish and if there were any before in the person of the Prince it takes them all away and makes him to be Rectus in curia This as in many others may be exemplified in Henry the Seventh and the late Queen Elizabeth when she first came to the Crown 't was mention'd in Parlement that the attainder might be taken off him under which he lay all the time he liv'd an Exile in France it was then by the whole house of Parlement resolv'd upon the question that it was unnecessary because the Crown purg'd all So likewise when Queen Elizabeth was brought as it were from the Scaffold to the Throne though she was under a former attainder yet 't was thought superfluous to take it off for the Crown washeth away all spots and darteth such a brightnesse such resplendent beams of Majesty that quite dispell all former clouds so that put case King Iames died a violent death and his Son had been accessary to it which is as base a lie as ever the devil belch'd out yet his accesse to the Crown had purged all This businesse about the playster which was applyed to King Iames was sifted and winnow'd as narrowly as possibly a thing could be in former Parlements yet when it was exhibited as an Article against the Duke of Buckingham 't was term'd but a presumption or misdemeanure of a high nature And 't is strange that these new accusers shold make that a parricide in the King which was found but a presumption in the Duke who in case it had been so must needs have been the chiefest Accessary And as the ancient Crown and Royall Diadem of England is made of such pure allay and cast in so dainty a mould that it can receive no taint or contract the least speck of enormity and foulenesse in it self so it doth endow the person of the Prince that weares it with such high Prerogatives that it exempts him from all sorts of publique blemishes from all Attainders Empeachments Summons Arraignments and Tryalls nor is there or ever was any Law or Precedent in this Land to lay any Crime or capitall charge against him though touching civill matters touching propertie of meum and tuum he may be impleaded by the meanest vassall that hath sworn fealty to him as the Subjects of France and Spaine may against
their Kings though never so absolute Monarchs In the Constitutions of England there are two incontroulable Maximes whereof the meanest mootman that hath but saluted Littleton cannot be ignorant the first is Rex in suis Dominiis neque habet parem nec superiorem The King in his own Dominions hath neither Peer or Superior The other is Satis habet Rex ad poenam quod Deum expectet ultorem 't is punishment enough for a King that God will take revenge of him Therefore if it be the Fundamentall Constitution of the Land that all just Tryalls must be by Teers and that the Law proclaimes the King to have no peer in his own Dominions I leave the world to judg what capacity or power those men had to arraign their late King to be in effect his Accusers and Iudges and that an exorbitant unsampled Tribunall should be erected with power and purpose to condemn All to cleer none and that sentence of death should passe without conviction or Law upon Him that was the heard and protector of all the Lawes Lastly that They who by their own confession represent but the Common people should assume power to cut off Him who immediately represented God Cui dabit partes scelus expiandi Iupiter Well we have seen such portentous things that former Ages never beheld nor will future Ages ever be witnesse of the like Nay posterity after a Century or two of yeers will hold what is now really acted to be but Romances And now with thoughts full of consternation and horror And a heart trembling with amazement and sorrow for the crying flagrant sins of this forlorn Nation specially for that fresh Infandous murther committed upon the sacred Person of his Majesty I conclude with this Hepastick wherein all cretures though irrationall that have sence yea the very vegetalls seeme to abhor so damnable a fact So fell the Royal Oake by a wild crew Of mongrel shrubs which underneath Him grew So fell the Lion by a pack of Currs So the Rose witherd 'twixt a knot of Burrs So fell the Eagle by a swarme of Gnatts So the Whale perish'd by a Shoale of Spratts In the prison of the Fleet 25. Febr. 1648. I. H. ADVICE Sent from the prime Statesmen OF FLORENCE HOW ENGLAND may come to HERSELF again Which is To call in the KING Not upon ARTICLES But in a Free confident way Which Advice came immediatly upon the Readmission of the Secluded Members And Coppies therof being delivered to the Chiefest of Them It produc'd happy Effects A Letter sent from the City of Florence Written by a Great Counsellor there touching the present Distempers of England wherein He with som of the Prime Statesmen in Florence passe their Iudgements which is the onely way to compose the said Distempers To my Honored and most Endeared Patron IT is no small diminution to my former happinesse that I have not receiv'd your commands any time these two moneths which makes me lodg within me certain apprehensions of fear that som disasteâ—… might befall you in those new Distractions therefore I pray be pleased to pull this thorn out of my thoughts as speedily as it may stand with your conveniency We are not here so barren of Intelligence but we have weekly advice of your present Confusions and truly the severest sort of speculative persons here who use to observe the method of Providence do not stick to say that the hand of Heaven doth visibly stirre therein and that those Distractions in Army State and City are apparent judgements from above for if one revolve the Stories of former Times as I have done many but you more he will find that it hath been alwaies an inevitable Fate which useth to hang over all popular Insurrections to end in confusion and disorders among the chief actors themselfs at last And we have had divers examples thereof here among us which hath caus'd us to be so long in quietnesse and peace But truly Sir give me leave to tell you that your Nation hath lost much of their Repute abroad all the World over in statu quo nunc Som do laugh at you Others do scorn and hate you And som do pitty and comiserat you They who laugh at you think you are no better than Mand men having strange Magots in your brains bred out of the fat of so long wanton plenty and peace They who scorn and hate you do it for your Sacriledge your horrendous Sacrileges the like whereof was never committed on Earth since Christianity had first a hole to put her head in They who pitty you are few and We are of the nomber of Them as well in the common sense of Humanity as for the advantages and improvement of Wealth which this State hath receiv'd by your Trading at Ligorne for that Town doth acknowledge her prosperity and that she is arrived to this flourishing Estate of Riches of Buildings and bravery by the correspondence she hath had this latter Age with England in point of Commerce which yet we find doth insensibly impair every day and I believe you feel it more Therefore out of the well-wishes and true affections we bear unto England some of the most serious and soberest Persons of this place who are well seasoned in the World and have studyed men under divers Climes and conversed also much with Heavenly Bodies had lately a private Junto or meeting whereunto I was admitted for one and two of us had been in England where we received sundry free Civilities Our main businesse was to discourse and descant upon these sad confusions and calamitous condition wherein England with the adjoyning Kingdomes are at present involved and what might extricate Her out of this Labyrinth of Distractions and reduce Her to a setled Government Having long canvased the businesse and banded arguments pro con with much earnestnesse all our opinious did concenter at last in this point That there was no probable way under Heaven to settle a fast and firm Government among you then for the Men that are now upon the Stage of power to make a speedy application to their own King their own Liege Lord and Soveraigne whom God and Nature hath put over them Letâ—… them beat their brains scrue up their witts and put all the policy they have upon the tenterhooks as farre as possibly they can yet they will never be able to establish a durable standing Government otherwise They do but dance in a circle all this while for the Government will turn at last to the same point it was before viz. to Monarchy and this King will be restored to His Royall Inheritances maugre all the Cacodaemons of Hell Our Astrologers here specially the famous Antonio Fiselli hath had notes to look into the horoscope of his Nativity and what predictions he hath made hitherto of him have proved true to my knowledge He now confidently averrs with the concurrence of the rest that the aspect of all the starrs and conjunction of
the Planetts much favour him the next two yeares Nam Medium coeli in Genitura Caroli Secundi Regis Angliae juxta axiomata Astrologiae Genethliacae dirigitur ad radios Sextiles Lunâ—… Anno Domini 1660. significat accâ—…ssum ad Dominum For the Medium coeli in the Geniture of Charles the Second according to the axiomes of Genethliacall Astrology is directed to the Sextile rayes of the Moon and signifies an accesse to Dominion Adde hereunto that a most lucky conjunction followes the same year in the very Centre of the said Kings horoscope betwixt Iupiter and Sol in the moneth of September When I was employed by this State in Paris not many years agoe I had occasion to make my addresse to your young King and when I observed His Physiognomy and the Lineaments of his face I seemed to discern in it something extraordinary above vulgar countenances and that he carryed a Majesty in His very looks and noting besides the goodly procerity and constitution of His body he seemed to be cut out for a King Now in point of extraction and lineage it cannot be denyed but he is one of the greatest born Princes that ever was in the world for whereas His Grand-Father and Father were allyed onely if you regard Forraigne Consanguinity to the House of Denmark and the Guyses this King bears in his veines not onely that bloud but also the blouds of all the great Princes of Christendom being nearly linked to the House of Bourbon and France to the House of Austria and consequently to the Emperour and Spaine as also to the Duke of Savoy and our Grand-Duke Moreover he is nearly allyed to all the greatest Princes of Germany as the Saxe Brandenburg Bavaria the Palsgrave and to the Duke of Lorain who descends in the directest line from Charlemain Adde hereunto that the young Prince of Orenge is his Nephew and which is considerable he is a pure Englishman born whereas your two former Kings were Forreigners The Queen His Mother is of as Glorious an Extraction which makes me admire the frontlesse impudence of some of your poor Pamphletors who call Her ever and anon the Little Queen notwithstanding that the World knowes Her to be the Daughter of Henry the Great and Queen of Great Britain which Title and Character is indelible and must die with Her Hereunto may be adjoyn'd that this young King is now mounted to the Meridian of his Age and maturity of judgement to govern and doubtlesse hee is like to make a rare Governour having this advantage of all other Soverain Princes in the world to have been bredd up in the Schoole of Affliction so long to have Travelled so many strange Countreys and observed the humors of so many Nations But to come to the Cardinall point of our Communication after divers debates and alterations how England might be brought to a stable condition of tranquility and perfect peace to her former lustre and glory the finall result of all ended in this that there was no other imaginable meanes to do it then for you to make a timely and fitting humble addresse unto your own King and without question it is in his power to grant you such an absolute pardon such an abolition of all things pass'd such a gracious Amnestia such Royall concessions that may extend to the security of every person for the future that was engaged in these your revolutions both touching his life and fortunes Unlesse their guilt of Conscience be such that like Cain or Iudas they thinke their Sinne is greater then can be forgiven them Now the mode of your application to Him may avail much for if you chopp Logique with him too farr and stand upon Puntillios and too rigid termes if you shew your selfs full of feares jealousies and distrusts it will intangle and quite marr the businesse for in a Soveraign Prince ther must be an Implicit unavoidable necessary trust repos'd by his peeple which all the Laws that mans brain can possibly invent cannot provide against Therefore if you proceed in a frank and confident tru English way you may work upon his affections more powerfully and overcome him sooner so then by any outward Arms This way will make such tender impressions upon that he will grant more then you can possibly expect Some Forein Historians as the French Comines and our Guicciardin do cry up the English Nation for using to love their King in a more intense degree then other peeple and to regard his honour in a higher strain to support which they have bin alwayes so ready and cheerful both with their persons and purses There is now a fair opportunity offered to rake up the embers of these old affections and to recover the Reputation of tru Englishmen There is no peeple but may sometimes stand in their own light go astray and err for Error was one of the first frailties that were entayled upon man and his posterity as soon as he was thrust out of Paradis 'T is a human thing to err but to persevere in an error is diabolicall You shall do well and wisely to follow the example of the Spanish Mule who out of a kind of wantonesse being gone out of the high beaten road into a by path which led her to a dirty narrow lane full of pitts and holes at last she came to the top of a huge hideous Rock where she could go no farther for before her ther was inevitable destruction and the lane was so narrow that she could not turn her body back therupon in this extremity she put one foot gently after an other and Crablike went backward untill she came again to the common road This must be your course by a gentle retrogradation to come into the Kings high road again and ther is no question but he will meet you more than three parts of the way If you do not truly in our opinions you will precipitat your selfs down a Rock of inevitable destruction For Heaven and Earth are conspir'd to restore him and though all the Spirits of the Air shold joyn with you you shall not be able to oppose it I presume you are not ignorant how â—…he two great Monarks of Spain and France which may be said to be the main Poles wheron Europe doth move have comprehended him within the private capitulations of peace The Emperour hath promised to wed his quarrell and there is no Prince or State in Christendom but would gladly reach a frendly hand to restore him being depriv'd of his birth-right and his Royal indubitable Inheritance as you your felfs confesse for observing the fifth commandement for obeying his Father and Mother From which Birth-right he may be said to have been thrust out when he was in the state of Innocency being but in a manner a Child and very young then Now touching your selfs I will not flatter you but plainly tell you that you have not one friend any where beyond the Seas nay your great Confederate the