Disciples of Loyaela or Calvinists who indeed set up both about the same time Although I hope they have since wish'd the Prize had been fought upon any other Stage than our Island The last thing I shall insist upon under this Topick is his Majesty's Answer to the Pope's Letter whilst Prince of Wales and in Spain pen'd with so much Judgment Discretion and true Sense of Religion as nothing could be more properly Adapted to that Critical Conjuncture and hazardous Circumstances he was then under so inoffensively turning those Haughty Assumptions of that pretended Sovereign High-Priest as he Terms himself to a Zealous regard for the truly Catholick Church and a sincere endeavour to Cement those Divisions and Schisms tacitly suppos'd to arise from him and because this most clearly appears to be the express Intent of the Letter those Sons of Perversion the two Pamphlet Libellers are not content to alter Rushworth's Translation to a Sense the Latin will by no means bear but add whole Sentences whereof there is not one Syllable in either I shall give an instance or two of both kinds The little Spiteful piece which would have him neither Saint nor Martyr affirms That he tells the Pope I shall never be so affected to any thing in the World as to endeavour An Alliance with a Prince that hath the same apprehension of the true Religion with my self And then as if the Devil ought him a shame immediately adds Mr. Rushworth hath it in these Words Your Holiness's Conjecture of our Desire to Contract a Marriage and Alliance with a Catholick Family and Princess is agreeable both to your Wisdom and Charity for we should never desire so vehemently to be joyn'd in a strict and indissoluble Bond with any Mortal whatsoever whose Religion we hated which last Words where the Falsification lies runs thus in Latin Cujus Odio Religionem prosequeremur and if there be not a vast difference between Hating a Religion and being of the same Apprehension with him who professes that Religion nay which is more owning it for a true Religion because I do not hate it let the World judge Hatred is altogether inconsistent with Christian Principles which whosoever will Live up to must Hate nothing but Sin and the Author of it although I can scarce forbear it to this Author too and since our Saviour enjoyns us to do good to them that hate us to speak them Civilly when they do the same to us and let them see we can really Act what perhaps they but Hypocritically pretend is so agreeable to all the Rules of Religion Reason and Good Manners as they must lay claim to none of them who cavil thereat With the like Ingenuity he proceeds on to the next Sentence but forbears Rushworth's Translation where the King declaring his great Moderation continues the same Term and assures him how far he should be Ab omni Opere quod odium testari possit ullum adversus Religionem Catholicam Romanam which is rendred I have been always very far from incouraging Novelties or to be a Partisan of any Faction against the Catholick Apostolick Roman Religion How comes Odium to include Novelties and Factions at leastwise that the King should declare he would not encourage them against the Roman Church When his next Words gives a secret intimation how they came Originally from thence and therefore setting all such Sinister Suspicions aside he earnestly desires That as we all Confess one Individual Trinity and one Christ Crucified 't is Mr. Rushworth's Translation we may unanimously grow up in one Faith and in Order to the Accomplishment of so good a Work he Piously adds Labores omnes atque vigilias Regnorum etiam atque vitae pericula parvi pendimus which this base Fellow thus renders We will expose Life and Estate in the Exaltation of the Roman Chair The other Pamphlet which I take to be Alter idem at leastwise from the same Club of Calves Heads gives the same perverse Translation and forc'd Sense thoroughout the whole Letter and to Crown the Villany adds a whole Sentence at the end which was never known before nor could with any Coherence be brought in now for after those Common-place Compliments which come in Course at the end of such Epistles Omnia prospera felicitatem aeternam comprecamur This Fanatick Forger continues After so many Labours and Fatigues which your Holiness has undergone for the Propagation and Preservation of the Holy True Church We have had Volumes writ of Roman Forgeries and very tart Reflections upon Iesuitical Equivocations with too much Truth indeed more than is consistent with Religion or Humanity it self yet it must be acknowledg'd these our Pseudo-Protestants have out-thrown them several Bars length without the Wit of an Equivocation or any thing else which the most Frontless impudence can alledge to Palliate or Excuse the matter I presume these furious Zealots would have the Prince return'd in Answer to the Pope That he was Anti-christ Whore of Babylon Man of Sin c. and for that reason he defy'd him and all his works I will not resolve whether this is proper or not in the Common Cant of that Brotherhood but wish with all my Heart all that use or approve it were forc'd into Spain and oblig'd to Preach the same Doctrine there doubtless it might conduce much to the Peace of our Nation and perhaps somewhat to bringing down the price of Corn. And to show how Natural it is for the Malicious Diabolical Spirit of all this Party to blast our Kings and their Memories with too great a Respect to the Pope and his Interest I shall give here an account of their great Rushworth's unworthy dealing with King Iames who in the close of his Collections relating to that Reign sets down the Transcript of a Letter written from him to Pope Clement with the Instructions given to Mr. Drummond who was sent with the same to Rome Now Mr. Rushworth cannot but be so well acquainted with the History and Transactions of those times especially Archbishop Spotswood as to know that Cardinal Bellarmine having publish'd an Answer to King Iames's Apology charg'd him therein with Inconstancy Objecting a Letter he had sent to Clement VIII whilst in Scotland in which he had recommended to his Holiness the Bishop of Vaison for obtaining the Dignity of a Cardinal that so he might be the more able to advance his Affairs in the Court of Rome This Treatise coming to the King's Hand he presently conceiv'd he had been abus'd by his Secretary which he remembred had mov'd on a time for such a Letter in short for I shall refer the Reader to the passage at large in Archbishop Spotswood the Secretary was seiz'd examin'd and confess'd 't was all a Forgery of his own and Cousin Drummond's designing that his Majesty was most falsly and wrongfully charg'd therewith and that he could never move him to consent thereto Whereupon the Secretary was Sentenced not
Spirits unguarded spoil'd of any other restraint than that All-Seeing Eye which hath too little influence upon the rest of Mankind On the other side their declining Fortune constantly runs into extreams or if they go to the Grave in Peace their Ashes are certainly Arraign'd for whatever the Importunity of Dependents Distraction of Counsels Exigency of Affairs or Iniquity of the Times forc'd them upon And herein no History affords a more deplorable Instance than that of our Royal and Blessed Martyr who having run a Course of the most inhuman Treatments ever offered to Crown'd Head since that of Thorns was worn and then universally acquitted not only by the Grand Inquest of the Nation but by all others who had the least Sense of Honour Truth or Virtue in their Souls hath now of late been Murther'd afresh his Memory so despitefully Assaulted and the many Old Calumnies and Reproaches so maliciously Reviv'd as if there had been nothing done or said in his Vindication Could they alledge any thing de Novo it might give a fresh Gloss to their Bafled Cause but their Malice did so fully disgorge it self at first as they can only New Chew the same Coleworts take down and Vomit up again those Villanous Defamations which have been as often answer'd as urg'd and perhaps had not been urg'd again did they not hope the Licentiousness of the Age which God forbid would bear them out and enable them to crush any one who should dare to reply He who to the best of my Observation first brake the Ice upon this unworthy Subject was one Roger Coke Esq in Two Volumes which he calls Detections of the four last Reigns a Title of great sound and cannot but raise an Expectation in every inquisitive Reader of some great Discoveries some deep Mysteries of State or Mischievous Intrigues the World hath not hitherto been acquainted with Whereas I defie any of his Abettors for he is gone to his proper Place to produce one single Passage which hath not been alledg'd and reply'd to before and as often reply'd to as alledg'd An Abridgment of all the Libels and all the Lyes since the coming in of King Iames the first had been a more agreeable Title for though Rushworth's Collections and the Life of Lord Keeper Williams are mostly cited by him Authors too too partial yet there is not one Roguy Pamphlet from Sr. A. W.'s Court of King Iames to Milton's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I speak in reference to the first Volume only which hath not afforded Materials for this ill-natur'd Malicious Work neither could any one expect otherwise who knew the Man and his Conversation being of an haughty positive Humour with all the other ill Qualities of his Grandfather the great Lord Chief Iustice Coke and perhaps too by Natural descent without any of the good Indeed he seem'd to be the Caput Mortuum of that high Spirit so dull and insipid as Spight it self could not raise him for 't is thought he wrote those bitter Invectives against the Royal Family to be reveng'd on King Iames the first for deposing his Grandfather although 't is well known his Arbitrary and Insolent deportment in that great Trust made it absolutely necessary but engaging in the popular Cause afterward that expiated for all In short the Whole of all what he calls a History is of as loose a Contexture as our Capitation Stuff and of as Course a Composition scare giving a good Word to any Person or any Party He declares a suspition of offending the Commonwealth's Men and yet obliges them with one continued Libel against Monarchy whereunto he was too well qualified by the predominancy of a Swelling Spleen and Overflowing Gall with other unhappy Circumstances both as to Temper and Condition so that had they not been thus Vented 't is to be feared he might with Iudas have burst asunder Yet this Uncouth Piece because False and foul Mouth'd took to Admiration among the several Factions insomuch as in two Years time no less than three Impressions were wrought off indeed they had not been gratified with any thing of that kind for several Years before and such perverse Dispositions like Men in Fevers will greedily swallow whatever allays the present Drought of their Minds tho' it promotes the Distemper and hastens their Ruin And upon this account is there such Care taken of a fresh supply so that an Undesigning Integrity cannot but be concern'd for the next Age which generally gives the best account of that which preceded how it will be able to Cull out the Truth from those Numberless Volumes of Lyes and Forgeries which every Commonwealth Bigot and Mercenary Pen is free to impose upon the World According to what I mention'd of a fresh Supply some Months since these Memoirs of Ludlow came forth and are altogether as much in Vogue as the Detections were at first tho' as to the Libelling part upon our Royal Martyr it discovers nothing but the same inveterate Spight and repeated Untruths set forth in another Method and different Appearance wherein that Spirit of Calumny and Delusion which possesses every Individual throughout their several Tribes knowing how much they delight in variety does most readily gratify them finding it the readiest means to secure their complyance in the grossest Impositions and falsest Slanders Whilst I am Writing this there are two Pamphlets more come to my Hand in comparison whereof the Two former may pass for Candid Modest Writers Their Titles are A Defence of the Parliament of 1640. and the People of England against King Charles I. And King Charles I. no such Saint or Martyr as commonly Reputed both which without doubt were design'd for the last Effort of Fanatick Effrontie and thought to give as fatal a stroke to the Martyr's Reputation as the Ax did to his Life and if the rudest Language that ever was Pen'd and the impudentest Lies that ever were Told could be any ways Effectual thereunto their work is throughly done for there is not one Sentence in both these Libels but must come under both those Characters Milton had Wit and Stile to flourish off his malicious Reproaches but here is such Billinsgate stuff as never burthen'd the Press till our Salamanca Graduate led the Van and if he wrote as is commonly reported by a Club these doubtless came from the same Fraternity Their Stile their Sense and Good Manners exactly accord and so do their Temper and Complection all of the same Metal true Monumental Brass and 't is great pity they are not every one severally Erected without any Pedestals to support them However I will not so positively place it here as to exclude their Counterpart that Club of Calves-Heads at the other end of Town 'T is in the mean while an unhappy Consideration and never thought consistent with any well ordered Government that every impudent profligate Wretch should assume a Liberty of Arraigning at Pleasure all Orders and Degrees of Men both Living and Dead even
Generation as besides their many Abettors amongst the Common People were not unprovided of some in the House of Commons which Mr. Cambden tells us the Queen took Notice of and much dislik'd their unquiet Humor greedy of Novelty and forward to root up things well Established to prevent which for the future she commanded the Severity of the Laws to be every where put in Execution And sometime after procured two New Acts one against the Papists and another against the Puritans on purpose to restrain the insolency of both Factions and by which several of them were afterwards adjudg'd to Death But such Turbulent Spirits are not so easily quell'd the same Historian continues the Complaint in a following Parliament 85. But nothing so much irritated her great Mind as their Villanous Deportment in 88. for thinking they had the Queen at an Advantage upon the Rumor of a Foreign Invasion beset her with greater Importunities than ever and play'd their Affairs with so much Confidence as if of Confederacy with the Spaniard never as Cambden goes on with the Complaint did contumacious Impudency and contumelious Malepertness advance it self more insolently giving an account what Scandalous Books they writ Belching forth such Calumnies and Reproaches therein as the Authors seem'd rather to be Scullions in a Kitchen than followers of Piety The present Course she thought fit to take with such unnatural Beautifeus was only to secure some of the most busy and chief amongst them in Wisbich Castle where many of the leading Papists were likewise secur'd But as soon as that Storm was over she resolv'd upon a more effectual Course to keep a constant Calm at home for in Feb. 92. a Parliament was call'd amongst other things to Enact such Laws as might restrain those Insolencies wherewith the Patience of the State had been so long exercis'd Wherein the Puckering's Speech to both Houses of Parliament is very Remarkable which amongst other things lets them know that they were Especially commanded by her Majesty to take heed that no ear be given nor time afforded to the wearysom Solicitations of those that commonly be called Puritans wherewithall the last Parliaments have been exceedingly importun'd which sort of Men whilst in the Giddyness of their Spirit they labor and strive to advance a new Eldership they do nothing else but disturb the good repose of the Church and Commonwealth And as the Case standeth it may be doubted whether they or the Iesuit do offer more danger or be more speedily to be redress'd with much more to the same purpose even Prophetical of the Mischiefs they have since produc'd Hereupon followed that formidable Act Tricesimo Quinto Elizabethae which was so closely hook'd into the Nostrils of this Spiritual Leviathan as though frequently endeavour'd they were never able to get it out till they had at one desperate Plunge freed themselves from all Regal Power as well as Ecclesiastical Discipline To be sure the remaining ten Years of this great Queen's Reign the swelling Humor of that haughty Faction was so taken down as they never made the least effort towards those Innovations either in Church or State which had been so uneasy to the Government before and so Fatal since In this Excellent Posture and Regular Subordination did this Prudent Princess leave an exact and practicable Model of the English Monarchy that her Successor as I observ'd before did not tread in the same steps take the same care and shew the like Courage Hinc Illae Lachrymae For coming to the Crown with a General Applause on every Side it was never considered that the brightest Sun-rise is soonest intercepted by a Cloud that Hosanna's from the Vulgar as well Great as Small naturally run into the contrary extream unless that Mercury of theirs be fix'd by such a well weigh'd Politick as knows how to temper them in both It was likewise no small Prejudice to our English Church that the King came accompanied with so great a Retinue of his own Country whose Kirk-Leven put our Puritans into a fresh Ferment made them Swell and Domineer with their usual insolence upon the least Countenance of Connivance from such as are in Power or have an Interest in the Government Upon this account I cannot but take Notice of a Passage in Hacket's Life printed before his Sermons He was born of Scotch Parents dwelling in London during the Queen's Time They were both true Protestants great Lovers of the Church of England constantly repairing to the Divine Prayers and Service thereof and would often bewail to their young Son after the coming in of their Country-men with King James the seed of Fanaticism then laid in the Scandalous neglect of the Publick Liturgy which all the Queen's time was exceedingly frequented the People then resorting as Devoutly to Prayers as they would afterwards to hear any famous Preacher about Town And his Aged Parents often observ'd to him that Religion towards God Iustice and Love amongst Neighbours gradually declin'd with the disuse of our Publick Prayers This Observation was made at first which we have since seen Fatally verify'd and cursedly Improv'd It was likewise no small prejudice to the Interest of our English Church that a Scotch Peer Top'd an Archbishop upon her no ways qualify'd with parts or principles for so great a Trust The Story stands thus Upon Bancroft's Death such as wish'd well to the Church Bishops and other great Men about Court recommended Bishop Andrews a Person every way unexceptionable to the King who approv'd so well of him as they thought their Business fix'd and neglected to press it further when the Earl of Dunbar a powerful Minister with the King saith my Author put in for his quondam Chaplain Abbot and got the King's Hand for passing the Instrument before the Matter was discover'd and then too late to prevent God grant Scotch Peers may never more recommend English Prelates Indeed the less any of them have to do with our Church the better although in this great Time of Tryal amongst them where all Religious Order is run into Enthusiasm and Madness there are several have signalis'd themselves with a Zeal truly Primitive not only to the spoyling their Goods but the loss of all their Fortunes and of some of their Lives For our New Metropolitan when in Place he fell very much short of what his own Admirers expected to be sure his Remiss Government and unexcusable Partiality towards the Puritans neglecting all those worthy Methods his two Predecessors Whitgift and Bancroft had prosecuted introduc'd those many Desolations Fractions and Schisms which the Church hath not yet and 't is a Question whether will be ever able to weather for whilst several worthy Prelates in his Time and his Successor who next came in Place endeavour'd to continue or revive such Articles Injunctions and Canons as had been fram'd in Q. Elizabeth's Time and to reduce the Church to the same Order and Regimen in which Abbot found it These forsooth must
his Glory therein is too gross a conception for any considering man to entertain who according to the perfection of the Divine Attributes must apprehend God to be infinite in Goodness and Mercy as well as Iustice and Power On the contrary such harsh and severe Notions of the Sacred Majesty of Heaven as if he delighted in nothing more than to Tyrannize over and Trample upon the Slaves of his Creation cannot but debase men's Spirits to the like proceedings make them in the Apostle's phrase without Natural Affection void of any thing that is Generous Great or Good and consequently Mete unto others what they falsly suppose to be the Almighty's Measures unto all Mankind To be sure it was at this time the manner of their proceedings with all true Sons of our Church whom they never let alone till Reprobated as to this life God be praised their Malice could not reach any thing which concern'd the next But setting aside these rigid Determinations which The Examination of Tilenus before the Tryers pleasantly yet withall solidly exposes under the borrowed names of Dr. Dubitan's Frybabe Irresistible c. the other Branches of that Controversy about Fate Freewill c. in all the ordnary concerns of humane life began long since amongst the Philosophers the Stoicks on the one hand the Epicureans and Libertines on the other wherein likewise most of the rest were concern'd tho' with more Temper Deliberation and Judgment It was likewise an old Humorist amongst them who first started that Notion of All things being Necessitated from the concurrence of precedent Causes much improv'd by as great an Humorist amongst us and to much worse purpose since the former understood nothing of the Reveal'd Knowledge this other design'd thereby to Subvert Christian Religion in the mean while was kept free from these Debates for several Centuries till the Manachees turn'd Stoicks and the Pelagians Libertines wherein St. Austin became ingag'd and had them taken up by his Followers tho' they spred no farther than the Melancholly Cells of Monks and Schoolmen for the next Thousand years and were rather a Diversion for the few Brisk Wits of those ignorant dull Times than look'd upon as any ways relating to the Articles of Christian Doctrine That Imposition was first brought upon the Church by the Council of Trent and however their many Innovations of that kind were declaim'd against by most Protestants yet the Synod of Dort was no less Dogmatical in Imposing their Five Articles which their humble Imitators our Lay Assembly now and our Mix'd Assembly of Clergy Lay afterwards would have enforc'd with as much Earnestness as the Being of a God or necessity of a Redeemer Give me leave farther to observe that in the calm and more deliberate Times of Q. Elizabeth when Archbishop Whitgift had Assembled a few Bishops and other Divines and fram'd those commonly call'd the Nine Articles at Lambeth of too nigh Affinity with the foremention'd points in order to Silence some Disputes at Cambridge which had gone out too far thereupon Her Majesty was so concern'd at it as had it not been for the Reverend Esteem she had of that Excellent Prelate they would have been all Attainted of a Premunire Notwithstanding she commanded him speedily to recall and suppress those Articles which was perform'd with so much Care and Diligence that a Copy of them was not to be found a long time after and this the Three Bishops in their foremention'd Letter urg'd as a precedent and with great reason but then was then and now was now when the Humour ran as much for pulling down as before to support and advance whatever tended to God's Glory or the Publick Good I must here likewise beg my Reader 's pardon if he thinks me too prolix and hope upon second thoughts it may be acknowledg'd requisite to represent what little No-things they would catch at what Sound Doctrines they would pervert and misrepresent to Defame and bring an Odium upon such persons as otherwise might pull off their Vizard and Detect the Mischiefs they had in design for all the Law and all the Reason was on the King's side which they could not otherwise stifle than by such groundless Cavils against every Faithful and Loyal Subject who had Sense and Courage to stand up for him and the Laws in Opposition to their dangerous Innovations and Seditious practices But all the Fat would be in the Fire should I pass by Sibthorpe and Manwaring whose Indiscretions all good men pitied none justify'd Although Abbot's pettishness stretch'd the former Sense further than was consistent with the Charity of a Metropolitan or Candour of a Privy Counsellor For the other nothing could be greater than what the King declared thereupon He that will preach other than he can prove let him suffer I give them no thanks to give me my due And really 't is to my Admiration considering how good a Man the King was and how Kind a Father to the Church with the Violent Heats on the other side there were only these Two ran into the contrary Extream had Time-serving been as much in fashion then as I have known it since there had been several hundreds to each of them It was likewise thought then and since that the Commons having done the King no Right as to their own Members Clem. Coke and Dr. Turner they should have been less severe against Dr. Manwaring at leastwise upon his Humble Submission and Acknowledgment have mov'd the Lords to remit the rest of his Sentence which defect the King supply'd sometime after and let them know by that Tacit Intimation how Mercy rejoyceth against Iudgment and what they may expect that do the contrary But what the Defence saith that soon after the Parliament was dissolv'd he was punished with a Fat Bishoprick is far from Truth unless he can bring seven years into that narrow compass which on other accounts passes for the Life of a Man To be sure upon his Advance to that Dignity he approv'd himself every way worthy of it Three things more especially I find he was much resolv'd upon First The Redemption of Captives Secondly The Conversion of Recusants Thirdly The Undeceiving of Seduced Sectaries Which shows him to be of a Publick as well as Loyal Spirit And one would think might attone for two or three Expressions which as they were out of his Profession so ought to have been more cautiously consider'd but I have found this their constant course all along every little slip upon the King's account shall be Aggravated to the Extreamest Degree whilst the most violent Libels against him his Ministers and Government must have so many Grains of Allowance as the Authors may be brought off with Reputation and Rewards As it happen'd afterward in the Case of Pryn Burton Bastwick Leighton Lilburne and who not That dar'd to fly in the face of Majesty and Abuse all that Adher'd to Church and Crown although to my certain information Pryn did in
have leave to Exercise if not upon the Sundays and Holy Days seeing they must apply their Labour and win their Living in all working Days All which in no more than their Common Practice at Geneva as hath been already mention'd and it ought further to be consider'd so strict a Confinement from all Diversions of Body and Mind cannot but by degrees oppress and darstardise Men's Spirits of English Mastiffs make them in the end become Setting-Dogs to some Foreign Power To these King Charles adds a 3d. The rather because of late in some Counties of the Kingdom we find that under pretence of taking away abuses there hath been a general Forbidding not only of ordinary Meetings but of the Feasts of the Dedication of the Churches c. which besides preserving the Memorial thereof as he was certainly inform'd tended very much to Civilising the People composing of Differences by the Mediation of Friends encreasing Love and Unity by those Feasts of Charity with Relief and Comfort to the Poor the Richer part in a manner keeping open House Although what is mention'd just before in this Corroborating part of King Charles might probably prevail more with him than all the rest viz. Out of a Pious Care for the Service of God and for suppressing any Humors that oppose Truth being too sensible how those judaising Dogmatists by inculcating to the People a strict and sole Observance of this Legal Institution design'd thereby to exclude all those Christian Feasts and Festivals which have been constantly Commemorated ever since the Gospel was Preach'd to Mankind as the Birth Passion Resurrection and Ascension of Christ with the Descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles by which Miraculous Gifts Almighty God impowr'd them to Preach the Gospel to the whole World bringing Life and Immortality to Light and the Church accordingly hath ever pay'd a thankful Acknowledgment of those their indefatigable Labors Exemplary Lives and Cruel Deaths till these Enemies to all Antiquity as well as Order and Gratitude must have them superseded by such Iewish Observances as neither they nor their Fathers were able to bear And it was much to my Surprise that when some late Acts pass'd for the more strict observing the Lord's Day the Fathers of our Church when it came into their House did not endeavour at least that some little regard might be had to the foremention'd Fasts and Festivals the Canon took care to joyn them all together for due Celebration of Sundays and Holy Days and God forgive those who conniv'd at a Separation such an Omission could not have pass'd in Charles the 1 st Time and one would think their proceedings then should be Matter of greater Caution now for having dar'd to lift up their Hands against that true Defender they stuck at nothing which might hinder a thorough Reformation began indeed at the Holy Days but Liturgy and Bishops soon follow'd To give one Instance of many how cursedly they affected to run Counter against whatever our Church did practise when in the Heat of the Rebellion Christmas Day fell on a Sunday as it must in Course every four or five Years that Coryphaeus of the Faction old Calamy lest he should be thought to regard the Festival of our Saviour's Nativity preach'd upon a Passion Text. Eli Eli Lamasabachthani How violent a Current we have bene dar'd to Stem is neither our Ignorance nor our Fear Truth is a Rock which repels the Force at the same time it causes their Noise and Foamings Yet not to be mistaken herein which is very Natural for them to do I shall most readily comply in the strictest Observation of the Lord's Day they can think fit to prescribe provided it be upon a Christian not Iewish Bottom and with a due Deference to what the Wise and Good have in the best Ages of the Church resolv'd therein Otherwise to make Exclamations and enveigh against every one who will not walk by their killing Letter of the Law hath too great Affinity to those Pharisaical Rigours which were continually carping at and Censuring our Saviour for the many Miracles he wrought on the Sabbath Day whilst their hard and impenitent Hearts could not understand what that meant I will have Mercy not Sacrifice as likewise that the Sabbath was made for Man not Man for the Sabbath And that the many Reproaches rais'd against the two forementioned Princes upon their sincere Endeavours for a right Information herein as well as their other good Deeds for the House of God and Offices thereof proceeded from the like perverse Disposition of Spirit can be little doubted by any one who reflects how exactly they parallell'd the Iews in Murdering the one and continue still most implacable against the Memories of both CHAP. XI Of Ship-Money WHen a Man hath a Subject will bear an Argument and is sure of an easy and ready Attention to run out into bitter Invectives and false Suggestions argues as great a defect of Judgment as good Nature to be sure nothing has rais'd a stronger Suspicion of this Prince's sincere Intentions amongst the soberest and best disposed People in the Nation than his Levying Ship-Money which therefore Ludlow might have kept close to without continuing his Excursions against the Clergy but they must answer for all to which end he tells That divers of them entred the List as Champions of the Prerogative asserting that the Possessions and Estates of the Subjects did of Right belong to the King and that he might dispose of them at Pleasure thereby Vacating and Annulling as much as in them lay All the Laws of England that secure a Propriety to the People p. 5. Now to prove or make appear one Syllable of this Virulent Charge is beneath the Authority of his Memoirs 't will pass with the Party upon his Word and whoever affirms nay proves the contrary shall be no more credited by them than they will be at the Last Day The Iesuits where they have Power are not more severe in their Inquisitions than our well-scented Demagogues upon all Transactions of the Loyal Clergy yet excepting those few indiscreet Expressions of Sibthorp and Manwaring which has been already spoke to they could find nothing else worth catching hold of otherwise we should not have been so often hit in the Teeth with them two 'T is true the Clergy all along stood firm to the Prerogative and thought themselves bound both in Duty and Interest to support it's just Rights against the many Invasions every Day attempted to that and the Kingdoms Ruin which Steadiness and Resolution of theirs was the pretended Crime and grand Motive for those little Crorespondents with the Prince of the Air to raise and procure so many Storms against them But that they had any Thoughts of stretching the Prerogative beyond its due Bounds much less of Annulling all nay any of the Laws of England none but a Republican Confidence could affirm and hath no more of Truth than that Ludlow was an
much less exchange a Service which was perfect Freedom for the more than Egyption Bondage of Scotch Impositions by which means we continued nigh twenty years in a perfect state of Anarchy both Temporal and Spiritual every one doing what seem'd Right in his own Eyes and had some affinity with what that Judicious Historian observ'd of the Romans when under the like circumstances It was better to live where nothing than where all things were Lawful To be sure the sense and dismal sufferings which accrew'd thereby made us resolve upon our Old Establishments to have our Kings as at first and our Church as at the beginning which the Parliament likewise thought fit to confirm by another Act of Uniformity but what with that perverseness of spirit inseparable to such Children of Disobedience and the kind assistance of their good Friends the Papists all Ecclesiastical Discipline hath passed for a mighty Grievance ever since neither can there be a greater invasion upon the Subject's Librety than to perswade or compell men to Heaven against their Wills and thus by Tolerating all Religions we are in a very forward tendency to have none nay I cannot but further observe our Politicks seem to be at as low an Ebb as our Piety and it may be shortly look'd upon as an entrenchment upon the Liberty of a Free People to perswade or compell Commutative Iustice and Moral Honesty That the Form of Publick Prayer sent to Scotland more nearly approach'd the Roman Office than that of England is another instance of our Author's integrity whereas the most considerable difference between them was an alteration of such passages in ours as the Puritan Party had all along cavill'd at for Example the name of Priest so odious to that captious Brotherhood was changed to that of Presbyter no fewer than sixty Chapters or thereabouts taken out of the Apocrypha were reduced to two and those two to be read only on the Feast of All Staints the New Translation Authoriz'd by King Iames being us'd in the Psalms Epistles Gospels Hymns and Sentences instead of the Old Translation so much complained of in their Books and Conferences these were the most considerable Alterations besides somewhat in the Communion Office according to the first Liturgy of Edward VI's so far from Popery as it expresly declares against the Doctrine of Transubstantiation only retains one or two Rites which the Primitive Church did practise before that usurpation had got any footing in the World and therefore I admire to find in another Volume of Memoirs That the Alterations made from the English rendred it more invidious and less satisfactory but as the humour then went and ever will among that infatuated people had an Angel from Heaven brought one down and by express command of Iesus Christ enjoyn'd an Establishment the Covenant nevertheless would have had the preference Nay farther to corroborate the Violence of their prejudices they had got one Abernethy who from a Iesuit Priest turned a zealous Presbyterian to forge a Story that the Liturgy had been sent to Rome and revis'd by some Cardinals there which he had from Seignior Con who shew'd it to himself Upon this Report the Marquess Hamilton then Commissioner wrote to Con returned from Rome to London who protested he never so much as heard of a Liturgy till he came last to England and had never seen that Abernethy but once at Rome and finding him Light-headed never again took notice of him yet saith my Author who shall be nameless The story had a ready belief and welcome hearing tho' the Lightness and Weakness of the man became afterwards so visible that small account was made either of him or his story yet at this time it took wonderfully And this is the foundation of what the Defence or his fellow Pamphleteer relates of that worthy Dominican Convert Gage who might agree with the Iesuit when both about to turn Presbyterians and joyn together in some forgery which might merit their reception although their Orders are irreconcilable and will believe one another no more than an honest man of sense and understanding will believe either of them In the mean while that any Office in a Vulgar Tongue should be sent to Rome for Approbation is so inconsistent with the Policy and Cunning of that Church as none but Fanaticks and Fools could swallow and 't is said when told the Pope he laugh'd heartily at it To be sure they would not admit their Missall upon such terms especially we giving them so fair an opportunity of bringing it in upon their own To give one instance further how Artificially they Ape'd the Iesuit in all Tricks of Imposture they got a Covenanting Sister troubled either with Fits of the Mother or the Devil who in such disorderly Convulsions would foam out Raptures in defiance of the Bishop's service Book and Canons with the bitterest invectives against all such as opposed the Covenanting Iesus which their Juggling Preachers so dexterously improved as to make it a ratification from Heaven of whatever Villanies they had impos'd upon the People He goes on to tell us that the reading of the New service Book at Edenburgh was first interrupted by a poor Woman but withal so well seconded by the generallity as they who Officiated hardly escaped with their Lives This produced divers meetings of many of the Nobility Clergy and Gentry who entred into an agreement or covenant to root out Episcopacy Heresie and Superstition A very justifiable undertaking this I hope they made the Goodwife Chairwoman of the Assembly when they debated these weighty points she had as much right to do it as they besides that of Precedency and perhaps understood them as well to be sure never any Mob Convention whether of the Great Vulgar or the small presum'd to determine what is Heresie prescribe modes of Worship or rules of Discipline till Iohn Calvin's Popular Ordinences came abroad in the World which too hath been wretchedly improv'd by his admirers to the scandal of all true Religion and the Disturbance of whatever Civil Government it gets into 'T is a known Fable that when the Lyon prohibited all Horned Beasts the Fox would not come nigh the Den for fear his Ears should be brought under that Denomination if these Infallible Assertors of their own Wills shall think fit to term sound Doctrine Heresie Episcopacy a Rag of Satan and the most Innocent Decencies Superstition who dare withstand or contradict them as all Orthodox Divines the whole Kingdom thorough then found to their utter ruin and something of the like Inhumane treatment hath been lately on foot amongst them can the Pope be more Imposing or Inquisition more cruel At the same rate he continues The Clergy of England who had been the chief Advisers and Promoters of this violence prevailed with the King to cause all such as should persist in their Opposition after a certain time to be proclaimed Traytors p. 7. Still the Clergy do all which puts me
not stir out of the Kingdom in 41 till gratify'd with Strafford's Blood so they would not return in 43 without an assurance of Laud's A blessed Religion must those Covenanters be of in thirsting as much after Blood as Wolves and Tygers could I believe a Metempsychosis I should very much incline likewise to think that the Souls of those Pharisees and other Iews which persecuted our Saviour and his Apostles were now at length got so far as our Northern Clyme and taken up their Habitation in the several Members of our Scotch and English Sanhedrims The first particular Charge as to the English Church and Nation Ludlow brings against this great Man is the Clergy sitting in Convocation after the short Parliament in 40. was dissolv'd took upon them to frame Canons and Oaths and impose four Shillings in the Pound upon Ecclesiastical Benefices throughout the Kingdom p. 10. Roger Coke likewise Harps upon this String so doth the Defence and it was one of the most considerable Branches of his Charge at his Tryal whereto he reply'd that he did nothing but by the King 's express Order had the Iudgment of the Council learned in Law and exactly follow'd a Precedent of Archbishop Whitgift's in the Happy Days of Queen Elizabeth the Original whereof the House of Commons commanded away that the poor Man might be the less able to make his Defence although therein they were disappointed too discovering only their own mean Spirits and his great Parts And for the Oath c. or rather c. in the Oath which made such a ridiculous Noise 't is pity but Posterity should be acquainted with their Impertinency and Prejudices therein the Words which the c. included were after Deans Archdeacons where the c. cuts off And other Persons having peculiar and exempt Iurisdiction which was mention'd at large in the Precedent Canons and here contracted by the Clerk tho' design'd as the others when Engross'd however through haste forgotten and that nothing more could be intended by it clearly appears from the Restraint of the following Words viz. as it stands now establish'd But if People are resolv'd to strain Knats and swallow Camels 't is impossible to perswade them otherwise till they have nigh Choak'd themselves Roger Coke is very witty upon the foremention'd Tax and saith the Clergy who now Taxed their fellow Subjects without Consent of the Commons shall ever after be taxed by the Commons without Consent of the Clergy where in the mean while is Magna Charta whose first Article speaks Ecclesia Anglicana debet habere suas Libertates Privilegia illaesa And they tax'd none but themselves and none else by Law can do it 'T is likewise false that they never Tax'd themselves since there was a Convocation in 61. which did it But upon the Dutch War in 65 the old Way of Tenths and Fifteenths arose so high upon the Bishops and Dignify'd Clergy as it was thought easier to be thrown in common with the Laity amongst whom likewise the new Rebel improvement of a Land Tax and Monthly Assesments were substituted in room of Subsidies to their very great Edification What I most admire herein is that when this Course was agreed upon to throw them both together there should be no care taken then nor since by the Fathers of our Church the only Representative she hath in that Body to have some of the Clergy in Commission throughout each Laud's Publick Spirit and Fatherly Care would not have been guilty of such an Omission for want of which they are as much enhanc'd in their Taxes as defrauded in their Tythes whereupon I know a Person who when he would express the Summum jus of any rigorous proceeding doth it in this Phrase was as kindly dealt with as the Country-Commissioners deal with the Clergy I do not find Ludlow bringing any other particular Charge against this Great Man the Defence mentions the Heads of 20 he should have added four more which would have equall'd those Articles from the Commons and done a great Kindness in telling us how well they had been prov'd for after seventeen Days Prosecution by Three as Virulent Tongues as ever spake in Westminster-Hall he made so full and vigorous a Defence so effectually refell'd all their Cavils and Evidences that they were forc'd as in the Earl of Strafford's Case to have recourse to that dead striking Bill of Attainder by Accumulating those many Charges they had not prov'd altogether to make that Treason in the Conclusion which could not be gather'd from the Premises This was very uneasy to the Lords though none of them his Frinds as not knowing how soon it might be their own Case till frighted by the several Threats from the Lower House now become Paramount Six Mean-Spirited Peers pass'd the Ordinance all the rest though they had not Courage to appear against it yet were asham'd to give their Votes in so illegal and inhumane an Act. I cannot omit one Instance of their Barbarity He having obtained leave at his first Commitment to repair to his Study at Lambeth and take thence such Papers and Memomorials as might conduce to his Defence that Miscreant Pryn obtained an Order of the House to seise upon and ravish them from him neither were they so satisfi'd but came again and rob'd his Pockets of his Diary and carryed away the very Manual of his Devotions to see what they could discover which was only their own Shame That Account likewise of his Troubles and Tryal fell into the same base Hands although by a signal Providence retriev'd to be an Everlasting Record of their infamous proceedings This brief Relation I thought proper to give of these two great Ministers for that they were the main Prop of all Royal Dignity and chief promoters of whatever true Policy fell under debate in Order to the King and Kingdom 's safety And had their Advice been follow'd the Scots had never entred England but receiv'd the due Reward of their Rebellion at their own Doors nor Irish thought at leastwise attempted theirs so long as Strafford held the Rains without which Abettors and Advantages the English Confederates could have carryed on none of their Designs But what with the King 's Good Nature Natural Kindness and strange Irresolution his only Fault together with the Factions Solemn Professions of Duty and Loyalty that they would make him the most Glorious and Potent Prince in Europe he lost so much ground at first as afterwards it was impossible to retrieve it they still pressing for one Concession after another till in the end they gain'd enough to ruine him as well as his Ministers for whatever popular Clamors were made none stood up so much for the true English Constitution as they never denying that Parliaments were the best Expedient to settle Affairs in all great Emergencies if they would go regularly about it but they Both thought what the One hath declared that Corruptio optimi est