Protestation which Mr. Glanvill stood up and declared to this effect First To give his Majesty Thanks for his Gracious Answer to our Petition for Religion Next For his care of our health in giving us leave to depart this dangerous time Lastly A dutiful Declaration of our affections and loyalty and purpose to supply his Majesty in a Parliamentary-way in a fitting and convenient time This being done the Speaker took the Chair and admitting the Usher he declared his Message from the Lords concerning the Dissolution of the Parliament Now had the King an opportunity for his Summers past-time but that his own progress might not impede that of his affairs his Council were commanded to go along with him By whose general advice two things were most considerably resolved upon First That the Fleet should speedily be put to Sea Secondly That a more strict Amity should be enter'd into with the States of the United Provinces Several were the Descants of such as pretended to judicious censure as fancy and affection swayed the ballance some blamed the Parliament for not supplying the Kings necessities whereby the Fleet put forth too late some reflected finisterly upon the Duke saying It never was nor never will be well with England while the Sea is under the Command of an Admiral so young and withal so unexperienc'd others also made deduction from this miscarriage of Gades Voyage in reference to the King that because Commencements do often forespeak the qualification of future contingencies in the series and row of succeeding affairs they much feared this was but the earnest of some inauspiciousness which would attend the residue of his Reign Nor among the rest was Captain Brett's conjecture vain who told the Duke That the Fleet was never like to speed better wherein there went a long Bag without Money Cook without Meat and Love without Charity for so were the three Captains named and a great default there was doubtless of sufficient pay of wholesome meat and unanimity The Michaelmas-Term was by reason of the infection at London translated to Reading from whence the King according to late Answer in Parliament issued out in November a Commission to the Judges to see the Laws against Recusants put in Execution This Commission was read in all the Courts of Judicature at Reading and withal a Letter was directed to the Archbishop of Canterbury enjoyning him to take special care within his Province for the discovery of Jesuits Seminary-Priests and other Recusants offenders against the Laws It was in truth high time for severe Proceedings against them they having contracted so much insolence and presuming upon protection by reason of the late Match that at Winchester and many other places they frequently passed through the Churches in time of Divine Service hooting and hallowing not only to the disturbance of that duty but to the scorn of our Religion yea and one Popish Lord when the King was at Chappel was heard to prate on purpose louder in a Gallery adjoyning than the Chaplain prayed whereat the King was so moved that he sent this Message too him viz. Either let him come and do as we do or else I will make him prate farther off On February the 2d this year Anno Domini 1625 the King was Crowned at Westminster with the usual though I cannot say Magnificent Ceremonies and Solemnities The Coronation being past the King prepareth for a Parliament now approaching the last he thought was somewhat uncivil towards the Duke and the Delinquents as he thought must be made examples Upon this account the Lord-Keeper Williams soon after the Dissolution of the late Parliament fell and his place was disposed of to Sir Thomas Coventry c. On the 16th of this February the Parliament met the Commons began their work where they last broke off at Oxford making Religion their first and which was their superlative care recollecting what a full and satisfactory Answer the King gave to their Petition against Recusants and his Commission issued out in pursuance of that Answer appointed a Committee for Religion impowring them most strictly to examine what abuses of his Majesties Grace had occurred since that time and who were the Authors and Abettors of the same The House of Commons being in expectation of some Discovery from their Committee at length Mr. Prin made a report of a Letter written to the Lord Mayor of York for reprieving some Jesuits Priests and other Recusants This Letter being under the Signet a sub-Committee was ordered to search the Signet-Office and compare it with the Original These Proceedings inwardly much displeased the King yet he smothered the indignity for a time though he did after intimate the same unto them among his other regrets And plying his more important affairs with a most steady temper he sent a Message unto them by Sir Richard Weston to this effect viz. That his Fleet is returned and their Victuals spent the Men must of necessity be discharged and their wages paid them or else mutiny will follow which may be of dangerous consequence That he hath in readiness about 40 Ships to be set forth upon a second service which want a present supply of moneys That the Armies quartered on the Coasts want Victuals and Cloaths and they will Disband if not furnished The Companies of Ireland lately sent must speedily be provided for else they may be subject to rebel Lastly The season for providing healthful provision will be past if this Month of March be suffered through negligence to elapse And therefore he desired to know without more ado what present supplies he must depend upon from them that so accordingly he might shape his course Instead of a supply to his Message Mr. Clement Coke Son to Sir Edward Coke a Member of the House of Commons let fly this reply It is better to dye by a Foreign Enemy than to be destroyed at home and as if the Prerogative had not been sufficiently alarm'd by that expression one Turner a Doctor of Physick re-assaults it in these six Queries 1. Whether the King hath not lost the Regality of the Narrow Seas since the Duke became Admiral 2. Whether his going in the last Fleet as Admiral was not the cause of ill success 3. Whether the Kings Revenue hath not been impaired through his immense liberality 4. Whether he hath not ingrossed all Offices and preferred his kindred to unfit places 5. Whether he hath not made sale of places of Judicature 6. Whether Recusants have not dependance upon his Mother and Father-in-law This was uncouth language to a Princes Ear but who can expect that in so vast a Body and Mass of men all parcels should take salt alike and that no part should have rancidity in it Yet perhaps this clamour and noise might be the rudeness of some few newly admitted into that great School of Wisdom the greater part continuing it's possible sincere and loyal therefore the King sends Sir Richard Weston to them requiring satisfaction But the
MVLTVM in PARVO aut VOX VERITATIS WHEREIN THE PRINCIPLES PRACTICES AND TRANSACTIONS OF THE English Nation But more especially and in particular BY THEIR Representatives Assembled in PARLIAMENT Anno Domini 1640 1641 As also 1680 1681. ARE Most faithfully and impartially Examined Collected and Compared together for the present seasonable Use Benefit and Information of the Publick AS ALSO The Wonderful and most Solemn Manner and Form of Ratifying Confirming and Pronouncing of that most dreadful Curse and Execration against the Violaters and Infringers of MAGNA CHARTA in the Time of HENRY the Third King of England c. All which is earnestly recommended to the most serious and impartial Consideration and perusal of all His MAJESTIES most Loyal and most Obedient Subjects the true Tory Phanatick and Bloody Papist only excepted within His Realms of England Scotland and Ireland and the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging By THEOPHILUS RATIONALIS a Person of Quality and a most true Lover of his King and Country LONDON Printed for Rich. Janeway in Queens-head-Alley in Pater-noster-Row 1681. THE Epistle Dedicatory To the KING' 's most Excellent Majesty CHARLES the Second by the Grace of God of England Scotland France and Ireland Protestant King Defender of the Faith c. Most Dread Soveraign I Have presumed to prostrate the ensuing Lines at Your Majesties feet in regard you are the only Person in all your Three Kingdoms that is most nearly and principally therein concerned And I dare be bold to affirm although they are very high proud and lofty words viz. That if Your Majesty shall be pleased without prejudice prepossession and partiality most solemnly and seriously to peruse the same and will be pleased to take your future measures accordingly I say then I am very confident and fully assured unless I have no reason nor understanding remaining in me but am delivered over into a reprobate sense That Your Majesty may yet be unless the Decree be already gone out against us for our total ruine and destruction one of the greatest and happiest Monarchs this day in the Christian World Verbum sapienti c. I have done my duty and have discharged my Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy unto your Sacred Majesty whom God long preserve and am GREAT SIR Your Majesties most Loyal most Obedient and most Faithful Subject and Servant to Love Honour and Serve You and my Countrey usque ad Mortem Theophilus Rationalis THE INTRODUCTION AUT LIBER ad LECTOREM STand off proud Rebels Royalists draw near To see your Prince i' th' front the Pope i' th' rear Let not the Pope affright you nor dispose Your thoughts to wander after Charles his foes The Center clears all doubts that shall arise From Hellish Plotters under a disguise Of State-reformers though at the self-same time Both Church and State their principal design Is for to ruine But still in Masquerades The Pope and Devil being chief Comrades Unto these Hellish Monsters who would bring Destruction to your Church confusion to your King Heavens bless your Head with such as will now please To guard him from such Sycophants as these Who doubtless will by their inveterate hate At length prove ruine both to Church and State If not prevented by Gods liberal hand Under Great Charles who hath the sole Command And Power to save you if he will but call His Council once again near to Whitehall And let them sit for to dispatch this Crew Of Wolves and Tygers Then will straight ensue A lasting Peace 'twixt Him and People both I must conclude to speak the rest I 'm loth This Book it self will speak enough to bring Peace to the People Honour to your King AMEN To all the truly Loyal-Hearted Nobility Gentry and Commonalty of this Land The most grave sober serious and truly Religious People and most faithful obedient Subjects unto his present Majesty though called by the Nick-names of Fanaticks Presbyterians Independents Anabaptists Arminians Socinians Latitudinarians c. ROwze Loyal Fannees look well to your Guard The bold God-damme's are in your Rear-ward Pray do not budg keep close within your Station These men of late have poison'd half the Nation With bloody Tenets under a disguise To make you Traitors and a legal Prize The Soveraign Tree of Tyburn to advance Where Ketch their Foreman must lead up the dance Call'd Towzer's Mole-trap and the Tories Gin Now have at all to catch poor Fannees in God help you now They swear they will you kill Because of you they cannot have their will You have say they disturb'd both Church State For which they love you with a mortal hate And now they 'l hang you t'rid themselves from evil And send you packing to Old Nick the Devil By some Sham-Plots This is the only way To slay such Rebels as have gone astray So long a time from their most holy Church And now Old Nick shall leave them in the lurch Damm them and Sink them all they shall not live There 's not a man whom our Great Charles shall give To him his Life If we may have our will This is the time to use our utmost skill We 'll tell Great Charles that if he now should spare But one of these all his three Kingdoms are In danger to be lost and with this hellish hook We 'll catch the Fish and then how will they look Like Sons of Whores when Ketch shall them befool And mount them up upon his three legg'd Stool Courage brave Towzers Here 's a noble Plot Effect but this the first will be forgot Make King and Council both to understand That damn'd Rogue Godfrey with his proper hand Did slay himself Our work will then be done And we shall shine like to the glorious Sun At his Meridian height and ever after We 'll break our Fasts with merriment and laughter To see what Fools we made the Tory Crew Who to the Plot did straightway bid adieu And swore to boot that we were innocent Of all the Impeachments which the Parliament Did fasten on us whom we have outdone Although as guilty as our rising Sun Will shew himself when as he shall appear Before his Equals to bring up the Rear Of all the Plots and Sham-Plots that have been Contriv'd by us er'e since his Coming in Here stop you Helhounds in your full career These Loyal Fanns will make you quake for fear Their God above will surely them defend And bring your Rogueships to your fatal end Who then shall smile and have you in derision For all your Libels and your late Misprision Of Treason on them from your bitter Gall To make them Rebels to their Kings Whitehall But hark You shall be Summon'd 'fore the Council-Board Of the next Parliament where a wise word We shall not hear from you only Evasions Lyes Shifts and Stories Mental reservations For to evade your guilt which shall appear As clear as Crystal in our Hemisphere When as bright Sol shall mount his
pattern in the Mount and of these Loyal persons that had been of the forlorn hope and had marched in the front of the battel and being weighed in the ballance of the Sanctuary I do not neither dare I say in the ballance of the Scriptures and right reason they were found too light and for the which they have a mark and a stamp put upon them by way of distinction I had almost said like unto that Revel 13.15 16 17. whereby they are branded and stigmatized as factious and disloyal Subjects Sed affirmatis est probare and are therefore registred and recorded to be conveyed down by the Pens Militant to future posterity as persons disloyal and disaffected to the present Government and to all those Noble Emoluments and Priviledges which our Forefathers never yet saw nor did enjoy as some of the Addresses do most happily and emphatically word it in so plentiful a measure as under the present Reign of His most Sacred Majesty whom God long preserve The which I must needs say is a very hard case to those poor Petitioners and many of them good Gentlemen able Citizens and Persons of Quality who peradventure did all mean well though their luck was bad and therefore all the comfort that I can give them in this particular in regard Solamen miseriis is a very acceptable companion is only this That they would be pleased to consider That if their hearts and hands went together and had no base nor rebellious nor factious design therein whatsoever and that they were conscious to themselves that they did their King and Country good service in their late Humble Addresses and Petitions although misconstrued and misinterpreted That our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ when he was upon Earth although the best person that ever breathed in the common air yet he could not escape reflections and hard censures from his Countreymen the Jews upon the like account For some of them said and but a few God knows in comparison of the whole Nation that he was a good man when others of a more dissolute and loose conversation said Nay but he was a Mountebank and an Impostor and deceived the people therefore what shall we say to all things but only Monstrum horrendum c. But to proceed and come yet a little nearer unto the matter in hand according to the Contents of the Title-page viz. most faithfully and impartially to examine and compare together the Principles Practices and Transactions of the English Nation but more especially by their Representatives Assembled in Parliament Anno Domini 1640 and 1641. and Anno Domini 1680 and 1681. The compleat and exact distance of time the Children of Israel the peculiar People of God were wandring rebelling and provoking his Divine Majesty in the Wilderness before they were actually possessed of the land of Canaan And wherein persons and things do now look and represent themselves almost with the very same face nay I had almost said with a Ten-times more ominous ill-featured and dismal aspect than formerly But yet notwithstanding I can by no means apprehend the same dreadful fate and consequence will ensue now as did de facto in those preceding years viz. a Nation wading and wallowing over head and ears in hot Christian blood and sheathing the naked sword in each others bowels and appealing to Law of Arms to decide the grand Controversie in those days which so unfortunately hapned between the Commons of England Assembled in Parliament and his late Majesty of deplorable Memory the chief Magistrate thereof although the true Phanatick Tory and Tantivy-men of the Age both in Press and Pulpit do endeavour Might and Main and leave no stone unturn'd in order thereunto to possess our Governours and those that sit at the Helm with this vain frivolous and I hope ridiculous belief But blessed be God there are yet some few Wise men among us who are of the contrary perswasion and can penetrate as far into a Millstone as themselves and who understand their black designs and meanings herein well enough and how that they would willingly and with all their hearts and souls be warming themselves at such a fire And there is a just and righteous God above who will at the last as he hath in some good measure done already countermine bring to light destroy and confound all their Plots and Sham-plots of this and the like nature whatsoever and will make them to be rendred in his own good time the very off-scum scorn contempt and derision of our English Israel and shall be handled and translated down to future posterity as the firebrands and principal fomentors of all our animosities and unhappy divisions And here to come to a right understanding of those precedent Transactions we must make a Digression and by a retrograde step take a transient view of the many Precursors of our late unhappy Troubles and Revolutions and which were engendring and fomenting in the Body Politique from the time of the Death of King James until the beginning of those years wherein by reason of a Long long long Interval of Parliements or rather as some would have it a long interregnum of two vital parts of the Constitution it self our English Monarchy although the best and well-temper'd Government when the exercise of the vital parts thereof be not obstructed in its due circulation this day in the Christian World received for some time among us its Mortal wound And herein as I would not for my right hand vindicate or justifie any Illegal Unwarrantable or any Tyrannical Proceedings of any particular Number or numbers of men whatsoever and who were actually concern'd in those late most dismal and most deplorable revolutions so on the other side I would not altogether condemn all them who were then in the Vogue of the people the esteemed Patriots of their Lives Liberties and Properties and the grand Assertors of the Kings Majesties most Legal and Just Prerogatives both in Church and State and those that are yet inter vivos of them do most solemnly protest and declare That in process of time Persons and Transactions were stretched forth to preternatural Dimensions and Diametrically opposite to the primary intentions and inclinations of the House of Commons themselves and His present Majesty that now Reigneth whom God long preserve in the midst of us was pleased from Breda most graciously to observe viz. That through mistakes and misunderstandings many inconveniencies were produced which were not intended And that the Long Parliament so called although there hath been a much longer since had no design in the least measure in their primary thoughts and intentions to shake off the Monarchy although there are some particular men at this present conjuncture of time in the Pulpit that make them to be all King Ahab's and that Naboth's Vineyard and Inheritance was their principal design although slily couched under the specious and godly pretence of Liberty and Property wherein I think they are
Prerogative And though those dismal calamities which after befel his Son were ampliated doubtless by a superfetation of causes yet was their first and main existency derivative from those recited grounds Let Court-Pens extol the calmness of his Halcion Reign with all the artifice of Rhetorick Let them conclude the Parable and tell us God gave King James also as he did Solomon rest from all his enemies round about yet can they never truly deny but that admired severity had its set in a cloud and that he left to his Successor a Crown of Thorns as being engaged to contend with two puissant Enemies First the mighty Monarch of the West the King of Spain Secondly the more invincible of the two an empty purse For that King who hath this Enemy to encounter shall never archieve any thing of glorious production The death of this Famous Monarch caused no other interregnum than of joy his Son Charles being immediately by Sir Edward Zouch then Knight Marshal proclaimed at the Court-gate King of Great Britain France and Ireland His first Act of Regality was to dispatch Aviso's of his Fathers decease to Foreign Princes and States his Correspondents with whom he was in Amity Next he took into care the becoming Obsequies of the Royal Corps which removed from Theobalds to Denmark-house in London April the 23d was thence the 7th of May conveyed to Westminster and there inhum'd with the greatest Solemnities and most stately Ritualities could be devised Though grief had taken up the principal Lodgings of King Charles his heart yet did it not quite turn love out of doors but he had still an eye to France and held himself concern'd to let his Agents know he was mindful of the stock he had going there and to rear a firm assurance of his serious intentions He sent over Letters of Procuration for the Duke of Chevereux to espouse the Lady Henrietta Maria only he added this especial precaution That those Letters should not be resigned up until May the 8th when the Celebrities of his Fathers Funeral would be over for he would not that grief and joy things incompatible should justle But these instructions for what cause I know not were not in all points precisely observed for on May the 11th as others and the first as we compute six days before King James his Obsequies the Espousals were solemnized in the Church of Nostredame in Paris the Queen being given by her two Brothers the King and Monsieur the Nuptials past the Royal Bride prepared for England and to wait upon her with the greater splendor his Majesty dispatcheth over the Duke of Buckingham with the Earl of Montgomery and other Persons of Quality May the 24th they arrived at Paris and June the 2d the Queen after the iteration of most affectionate adieux reciprocated and interchanged between the King and her self set forward for Amiens where being attended with a most Princely retinue she was under the restraint of a Magnificent Entertainment till the 16 of that Month thence she dis-lodged for Bulloigne where she was to Embarque for England the Contagion then being much at Calais there she found ready to receive her 21 tall Ships sent from her dearest with a gallant Convoy of the Dutchess of Buckingham and other Ladies of Honour and Eminence to serve her June the 22d she set Sail for England and Landed safe at Dover after a turbulent and tempestuous passage His Majesty lay that night at Canterbury and next morning with joy incredible greeted his Royal Consort and conducted her to Canterbury where the Marriage was finally compleated the Duke of Chevereux his Majesties former Representative consigning up his precious charge to the King c. I have heard some who undertake to mate all events with their proper causes passionately ascribe Englands Calamities to those Internuptials and fetch that ireful stroke of Divine vengeance upon his late Majesty from his Marrying a Lady of mis-belief Grant I do that both England's and his Majesties Sufferings may in some sort be reductive to the casualty of that Match but that there was any intrinsick noxiousness in it either as French or Popish I am not yet convinced The same time while His Majesty was thus busied in his Amorous Negotiation abroad he plyed as well his Interest at home and while he Wooed his Royal Mistriss there he made Love to his People here by Summoning a Parliament that League being not more important to him as Man than this as King for as Man is without a female Consort so is a King without his Supreme Council an half-form'd steril thing the natural Extracts of the one procreated without a Wife are not more spurious than the Laws the politick Descendents of the other without was commenced at VVestminster June the 18th At first interview it appeared under the scheme and fashion of a Money-Wedding and in truth the publick affairs did then implore no less Upon the opening the Parliament the King imparted his mind to the Lords and Commons to this effect My Lords and Gentlemen YOU are not ignorant that at your earnest intreaty March 23. 1623 my Father of happy Memory first took up Arms for the recovery of the Palatinate for which purpose by your assistance he began to form a considerable Army and to prepare a goodly Armado and Navy-Royal But death intervening between him and the atchievement the War with the Crown is devolved upon me To the prosecution whereof as I am obliged both in Nature and Honour so I question not but the same necessity continuing you will cherish the action with the like affection and farther it with a ready contribution True it is you furnished my Father with affectionate supplies but they held no symmetry or proportion with the charge of so great an enterprize for those your Donatives are all disburs'd to a penny and I am enforced to summon you hither to tell you That neither can the Army advance nor the Fleet set forth without your aid Consider I pray you the Eyes of all Europe are defixt upon me to whom I shall appear ridiculous as though I were unable to out-go Muster and Ostentation if you now desert me it is my first attempt wherein if I sustain a foil it will blemish all my future Honour If mine cannot let your Reputations move deliver and expedite me fairly out of this War wherewith you have becumbred let it never be said whereininto you have betrayed me I desire therefore your speedy supply speedy I call it for else it will prove no supply The Sun you know is entring into his declining point so it will be soon too late to set forth when it will be rather not too soon to return Again I must mind you of the Mortality now Regnant in this City which should it and so it may and no breach of priviledge neither arrest any one Member of either House it soon would put a period both to Consultation and Session so that your own
Subjects of this your Kingdom at their charge to provide and furnish such number of Ships with Men Victual Munition and for such time as your Majesty shall think fit for the defence and safeguard of the Kingdom from such peril and danger and that by Law your Majesty may compel the doing thereof in case of refulsal or refractoriness And we are also of opinion That in such case your Majesty is the sole Judg both of the danger and when and how the same is to be prevented and avoided John Bramston John Finch Humphrey Davenport John Denham Richard Hatton William Jones George Crook Thomas Trever George Vernon Robert Barkley Francis Crauly Richard Weston These Opinions being subscribed by all the Judges and inrolled in all the Courts in Westminster-Hall the King thought he had now warrant sufficient to proceed against all defaulters and especially against Mr. Hambden who being summoned by process appeared and required Oyer of the Ship-Writs which being read he demurred in Law and demanded the Opinion of all the Judges upon the Legal sufficiency of those Writs This great Case coming to be argued in the Exchequer the Major part of the Judges delivered their Opinions in favour of the Writs and accordingly gave Judgment against Mr. Hambden yet did not the question altogether so repose but Mr. Hambden observing some Judges viz. Crook and Hatton of a contrary sense held up the Contest still though all in vain all his inquietude not gaining him the least acquittal until an higher Power interposed About the beginning of January this year Anno 1639. Sir Thomas Coventry dyeth dyed Sir Thomas Coventry Lord-Keeper of the Great Seal of England a Dignity he had Fifteen years enjoyed if it be not more proper to say That Dignity had enjoyed him so long this latter affording not one every way of more apt qualifications for the place His front and presence bespake a venerable regard not inferior to that of any of his Ancestors His train and suit of followers was disposed agreeably to shun both envy and contempt not like that of the Viscount St. Albans or the Bishop of Lincoln whom he succeeded ambitious and vain His port was State their 's Ostentation they were indeed the more knowng men but their Learning was extravagant to their Office of what concerned his Place he knew well enough and which is the main acted according to his knowledg for in the administration of Justice he was so erect and so incorrupt as captious malice stands mute in the blemish of his fame a miracle the greater when we consider that he was also a Privy Councellor A Trust wherein he served his Master the King most faithfully and the more faithfully because of all those Councils which in those times did so much deceive his Majesty and I pray God there were fewer at this juncture of time than there is he was an earnest disswader and did much disaffect those Sticklers who rather laboured to make the Prerogative tall and great as knowing that such men loved the King better than Charles Stuart so that although he was a Courtier and had for his Master a passion most intense yet had he also always of passion some reserve for the publick welfare An Argument of a free noble and right principled mind for what both Court and Country have always held as inconsistent is in truth erroneous and no man can be truly Loyal who is not also a good Patriot nor any a good Patriot the Ballance indispensably ought to be kept even who is not truly Loyal To this worthy Gentleman succeeded Sir John Finch formerly Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. The Heer Somerdick An Embassador from the States of Holland Embassador from the States of Holland in the Month of January had Audience of the King He had with him Count William of Nassaw and the Rhine-Grave with a very splendid train his business was to give his Majesty satisfaction concerning the late Attack made upon the Spaniards by the Dutch Fleet in the Downs and the Embassy was sweetned by some overture of Marriage between the young Prince of Orange and the Kings Eldest Daughter On the Thirteenth of April A Parliament fits in England after near 12 years interval April 1640. A Parliament met and sate and the Deputy of Ireland being not long before Created Earl of Strafford and made Lord Lieutenant of that Kingdom was lead into the upper House by two Noblemen where he gave an account of his service in Ireland where he had obtained the grant of four Subsidies for the maintenance of an Army Mr. John Glanvil was chosen Speaker of the House of Commons and generally the choice of Members to that House was so good that great probabilitles were given of a happy Union betwixt the King and the Parliament Some few days after a Report was made to the Lords by the Lord Cottington who with Windebank and the Attorney General were sent by the King to the Lord Lowden to examine him concerning a Letter before mentioned that the Lord did acknowledge the Hand-Writing to be his and that it was framed before the pacification at Berwick and was never sent to the King but only prepared in a readiness should need require and that it was supprest upon that pacification nevertheless it was thought fit he should continue in the same state until clearer Evidence should be given either for or against him Soon after the King sent a message to the Lower House about Supplies representing unto them the intolerable indignities and injuries wherewith the Scots had treated him and withal declared unto them that if they would assist him sutable to the exigency of his sad occasion he would for ever quit his claim of Shipmoney and into the bargain give them full content in all their just demands But they replied as being somewhat deliberate in this affair of Money that they expected first security from his Majesty in these three particulars viz. 1. For the clearing the Subjects Property 2. For the Establishment of Religion 3. For the Priviledg of Parliament Many Conferences there was had between the Lords and Commons as to this old Contest which should precede The Lords after a strong division among themselves at length Voted for the King and the Commons for the Subject But it was not long before this unhappy difference was unhappily decided For Secretary Vane who was employed to declare the particulars of the Kings desires required twelve Subsidies whereas it was said his express order was for only six some there are who suspect this mistake to have been not involuntary but industrious in him as to his Majesties service but leaving that undetermined the House of Commons was raised by this Proposition to such animosity as the King advising with his Juncto The Parliament dissolved May the fifth 1640. having sate about 3 weeks their complyance was represented to him so desperate as that May the fifth he ordered the Dissolution of
For to Redress All Grievances both more or less Which in our Church and State have been E'er since our Blessed Virgin Queen Vntil this day Which make us bleed And cry We want some nursing seed To Cool us in our Scarlet Feaver This is the time or else for ever Adieu to Peace War will begin In this our Land The man of Sin Begins to Rant And to declare Against us all He will make War Who will not stoop unto his Power The Sword or Smithfield shall devoure Such Northern Bastards which have done Such Mischief to his Triple Crown But when our Prince King CHARLES the Great Shall Dissipate this Southern Heat And when our Trustees shall declare A War against Saint Peters Chair And him that doth Possess the same Whom Christ himself at last shall blame And so secure us from those Brats Which to the Church and State are Rats And still do Plot to keep us under And Gnaw our Church and State in sunder Oh! then Sweet Peace shall Enter in And after that the Man of Sin Shall soon be Routed out from hence By the Powerful Charms and Influence Of Prince and People Joyn'd in one Like to the Father and the Son Till then and not till then will here insue A Lasting Peace till then Reader Adieu And know till then that I am well content To suffer for an Honest Parliament So long as they shall prove so Loyal As we of late have had the Tryal Although miscalled all Bugbears By some proud Rascals whose soft Ears May yet in time perchance to feel The Dint of their Provoked Steel And make them stop their mouths for fear A Triple Tree should them besmear Who have so boldly here of late Belcht out against our Triple State Such Spite and Venome in one hour Enough say some for to devour Our Triple League within our Land Where CHARLES the Second doth Command By Laws Establisht with Consent Of three Estates in Parliament King Lords and Commons Oh this State Cannot be Crusht without a broken Pate Given to some who still do Lurke Within our Bowels who much like the Kirk In other Countries and would straightway bring All to their Bow and likewise every thing Which Thwarts their Humors And whose fair pretence Is still their Zeal unto Omnipotence Although in this Heaven knows they are all evil And Pope and they may shake hands with the As all infallible in their own proud sence God keep us from their power and Influence Within our Land and let all Christians say To this Amen And here wee 'l part the Fray Although continue Praying Till we see This Vnity made visible in Three And that you may see as unlikly a Wonder and Prediction may come to pass I will relate unto you who have not already seen or heard of it a strange and most wonderful Prediction the most part whereof is already come to pass and that within our Times and Remembrance the which said most wonderful Prediction is of many hundred years standing the which I did formerly take out of a Book the Title whereof is Britains Genius Printed here in London about 1646. or 1647. long before His Majesties most wonderful Restoration and some space of time before His late Majesties most inauspicious and most astonishing Decolation The contents of the said most wonderful and antient Prophecy out of the said Book you may please to peruse as followeth viz. WHen here a Scot shall think his Throne to set Above the Circle of a British King He shall a dateless Parliament beget From whence a furicus Armed brood shall spring That Army shall beget a wild Confusion Confusion shall an Anarthy beget That Anarchy shall bring forth in Conclusion A Creature which you have no name for yet That Creature shall Conceive a Sickly State Which shall an Aristocracy produce The many-headed Beast not liking that To raise Demoeracy shall rather chuse And then Democracies Production shall A Moon Calfe be which some a Mole do call So acting for a while few men shall know Whether among them there be a Supream or no. Five of them shall subdue the other five And then those five shall by a doubtful strife Each others Death so happily Contrive That they shall Die to live a better life And out of their corruption rise there shall A true Supream Acknowledged by ail His Majesties Restanration plainly foretold In which the power of all the Five shall be With Vnity made visible in Three King People Parliaments with Priests and Peers Shall be a while your Emulous Grandees Make a Confused Pentarchy some years And leave off their distinct Claims by degrees And then shall Righteousness ascend the Throne Then Love and Truth and Peace Re-enter shall Then Faith and Reason shall agree in One And all the Virtues to their Councel Call Then timely after this there shall arise That Kingdom and That happy Government Which is the Scope of all those Prophecies That further Truths obscurely Represent But how this shall be done few men shall see For wrought in Clouds and Darkness it shall be And ere it comes to pass in Publick View Most of these following Signs shall first Ensue A King shall willingly himself Vnking And thereby grow far greater than before The Priests their Priesthood to Contempt shall bring And Piety shall thereby thrive the more A Parliament it self shall overthrow And thereby shall a better being gain The Peers by setting of themselves below A more Enobling Honour shall obtain The People for a while shall be Enslaved And that shall make them for the future free By Private Loss the Publick shall be saved An Army shall by yeilding Victor be Then shall God own his People and their Cause The Laws Corruption shall Reform ths Laws And Bullocks of the Largest Northern breed Shall fatted be where now scarce Sheep can feed And here although I cannot Divine heither dare I assume to my self so much boldness as to prescribe the way and means in order to the accomplishment of this most strange and wonderful Recited Prophecy yet I am apt to Conjecture and do perswade my self if ever it shall come to pass That it will be in a very Critical time of Common and Eminent Danger peradventure the Dread of a Popish Successor and the Dismal Consequence thereof when some good Prince or other shall be so far graciously pleased to condescend to his grand Council as to make three Kingdoms by his Royal Fiat aut Le Roy Le Veult for the future Elective and so they may still introduce the Royal Blood and Legitimate Line ad Infinitum that are truly Protestants And now Courage most Noble Loyal and Curteous Readers what say you if his present Majesty of Great Brittain should be this Person of Quality here intimated and described in this most wonderful and Antient Prophecy a Prediction I must needs Confess most proper for such wonderful times as we now live in would you not all
himself by Letter desires the King to pass the Bill 40. Censures upon the Kings passing the Bill for the Parliaments continuation 41. The Kings Letter in behalf of the Earl to the House of Lords and their answer thereunto 42. The Earl brought to the Scaffold and his last Speech before his Execution 43. The Earls Character Here I must refer you at large to Sir Richard Baker p. 511. c. 44. The Earls Children restored to their Honour and Estates 45. The Earls of Hartford Essex Bedford Warwick Lord Say with some others made Privy-Councellors 46. The Lord Treasurer and other great Officers resign up their places 47. The Star-Chamber abolished and the high Commission Court put down 48. Ship-money relinquish'd by the King 49. Five Judges for Ship-money Impeached of high Misdemenours and Berkly accused of high Treason 50. Several Laws passed by the King for regulating abuses and disclaiming Priviledges 51. The Treaty between the two Kingdoms confirmed 52. The Earl of Holland made General of the English Army and a Pole raised for the payment of them 53. Both Armies are Disbanded and the King takes a Journey into Scotland and there confers honours upon several persons of that Kingdom 54. A Bloody Rebellion breaks forth in Ireland 55. Owen O Conally an Irish Protestant discovers the Plot prevents the seizure of Dublin Caestle 56. The Earl of Leicester chosen Deputy of Ireland 57. The Irish Rebellion occasioned by the insurrection in Scotland 58. The King receives Intelligence of what hapned in Ireland and sends Sir James Stuart with instructions thither and moves the Parliament of Scotland for Aid which they Excuse 59. The Irish pretend the Kings Commission for what they did thereby to dishearten the English and also feigned Letters that the Parliament would compell them to Protestancy 60. The Irish Rebells possess themselves of all strong places in Vlster 61. They contrary to Articles of Surrender Massacre the poor English but save the Scots 62. The Parliament of England designs Money for Ireland 63. Forces raised to go against the Rebells 64. The Earl of Ormond made Lieutenant-General of the Forces there 65. A Regiment sent to Ireland under Sir Simon Hartcourt 66. The King returns out of Scotland and the Parliament present a Remonstrance to him at Hampton-Court as also a Petition with the Remonstrance 67. An Act published in Scotland against Levying Arms without the Kings Commission 68. The King receives the Parliaments Petition but desires them not to publish the Remonstrance 69 The Remonstrance is Ordered to be published in all parts of the Kingdom and the King answers the Petition and Vindicates himself from the Aspersions of the Remonstrance 70. The Commons pass a Bill for disabling all in Holy Orders to exercise temporal Jurisdiction 71. The tumult upon the Lords slighting the Bill comes to their House and clamour againg the Bishops and some of the Commons justifie those tumults 72. The Lords sends a Writ directed to the Sheriffs and Justices to suppress those tumults 73. Whereupon the Constables and Justices are sent for by the Commons 74. The Bishops Protestations against the actions of the Parliament and they are charged with high Treason and committed to the Tower where they continued about four Months 75. The Parliament Petition the King for a Guard 76. The King denies the Petition and chargeth Kimbolton and five Members more of the Commons with high Treason 77. The Commons justifie the accused Members 78. The King comes to the House to demand the Delivery of the five Members and the Commons Vote this a breach of Priviledge 79. The King removes to Hampton-Court and sends a Message to the Parliament 80. The Commons Petition the King for the Militia to be put into their hands 81. The Queen accompanies the Princess Mary into Holland and the King removes to York and there issues out Commissions of Array And so Finis Coronat Opus I have proceeded to the last day of 1641. For I find March 28. 1642. The King and Parliament differ about who shall be chief Commander at Sea where I am willing to leave them and dare not launch out any farther as to the Merits of the Cause And now in the close of all if you will please to give me leave faithfully to examine and compare together the Transactions Principles and Practices of the Commons of England in particular as being Assembled in Parliament Anno Domini 1640 and 1641 as also Anno Domini 1680 and 1681. whose Transactions Debates and Speeches are all so lately Printed that I need not here insert the Particulars but refer you unto the Debates themselves And I do clearly find the same English Spirit so far as 1641. pray take notice I proceed no further in this Multum in Parvo runs almost exactly Parallel with the present years of 80 and 81. And when you have perused and seriously considered them within your selves I do presume and am very apt to conjecture that you who are of a sober mind and wish from your Heart and Soul all Peace Prosperity and Happiness to your King and Country That you will say with me That although they are not enough to satisfie and silence an high Tory and bloody Papist yet they are Arguments and Demonstrations strong enough in Conseience to convince any Atheist in his sober mind of the Reality and good Intentions against Popery and Slavery many times slily introduced by some unworthy Sycophants and corrupt Ministers of State of the before-mentioned precedent Parliaments And although we live at present in an Age of Wonders viz. of wonderful Signs wonderful and most prodigious Comets and Blazing Stars and wonderful Apparitions for a particular whereof viz. of such as have happened in the last year 1680 pray read Mr. Christopher Ness his late Book the Title whereof is Wonderful Signs for Wonderful Times yet I say the major part of us do turn all these things into perfect Ridicule and Scorn and are far from deterring us from the evil of our ways but do still run on Jehu-like and persist in our accustomed Sins and Dalilah-like Provocations against God and are all of us the Lord of Heaven knows in a very unprepared frame temper and disposition to meet him and to kiss the Rod in the ways of his Judgments when they shall come suddenly upon us like an armed Man and there shall be none to deliver us out of his avenging hand Him that hath an Ear to hear let him hear And among the many Wonders which we have already had I have made bold here to insert one more which for ought I know may suddenly come to pass in the midst of us and pray pardon my plainness and well-meaning and hearty wishes therein the which you may please to peruse in manner and form as followeth viz. A Wonder strange I will you tell From Heaven 't will be and not from Hill When as King CHARLES shall be content In Love to meet his Parliament And let them sit