rest this world can inflict upon me As your Lordships kindnesse hath begun to ease me so now let the same hand cure and preserve me from a worse relapse wherein I am like to fall if your power prevent it not The motion of his Majesties for my perswading my sons out of their places was the grievousest sound that ever entred me for thereby I still breathed under the heavy weight of all my afflictions not despairing but their Care charged upon them with my blessing might somewhat redeem my errours and assure his Majestie that my will was never tainted with offending him I know my Lord there is little benefit in serving against Masters minds but they are unworthy servants that will leave such Masters upon any conditions Such as make suit to chop or change for their own advantage are better lost then kept But as for mine my curse should follow them if ever I could think they followed his Majestie with such indifferencie My obedience to his Majestie was ever of more force with me then mine own ends any way layed nor ever joyed I more then in running to his Commands But this my Lord rends my heart to think that unfortunate I should bury my sons alive and pronounce that sentence which would make me and them Scorns to posteritie Whilest I have knee to bend eye to lift up or tongue to begg I must implore his Majesties pardon and mercy in this kind As for that more drossie part of my estate it still lies at his Majesties feet and if he now please to recal what he remitted without further condition I must obey and let his Majestie see no change of time or place can change me my love my dutie or my zeal to him My Lord here you may read me in my greatest griefs that ever did fall to me weigh them well and think that one day you may be a father and be as neerly touched as now I am The favour you shall do me herein shall prove no hidden talent for the increase shall not onely be the happinesse of a good work well done but the hearty acknowledgment of a whole family and all theirs that shall as faithfully serve and honour you as the best of those that would succeed them which I hope your Lordship will believe from me who will ever be Yours c. T. Suffolk The Earl of Suffolk to his Majestie Most Gracious Soveraign Your Princely favour in dilivering me and my wife out of the tower must and shall ever be acknowledged of us with all humble thanks And now be pleased to give me leave to be an humble suitor to your Majestie that out of the tender compassion of your Princely heart you will be pleased to cast your eye upon the miserable estate of your distressed afflicted and old Servant now brought into fear of never recovering of your Majesties favour and so wretced my case is as the little hope that remained in me to live in your memorie was by my two sons service to your Gracious self and the Prince It is now required of me to impose upon them the resignation of their places which with all humility I beseech you to give me leave to say I would sooner use my power over them to will them to burie themselves quick then by any other way then enforcement to give up their places of service which onely remaines to me to be either my dying comfort or my living torment Besides they are now past my government being both married and have children onely I have a Paternal Care of them which I humbly beseech your best judging Majestie to weigh respectively how unhappie I must of necessity think my self if I should be the perswader of that misfortune to my children that their children within a few years would curse me for either living or dead Upon all these just considerations most Gracious Master give me leave to turn my cruel unnatural part of perswading them to yield to that for which I should detest my self to my humblest desire upon the Knees of my heart to beg humbly of your Majestie that whatsoever favour you have ever had to me for any service done that your Majestie will be pleased to spare the ruine of these two young men whom I find so honestlie disposed in their desire of spending their fortunes and lives in your Majesties and your Princely son's service as if your displeasure be not fullie satisfyed with what I have suffered already that you lay more upon me and spare them I have written to my Lord of Buckingham to be my mediator to your Majestie in this behalf which I assure my self he will noblie perform as well as he hath formerly done in being my means to your Majestie in obtaining this great begun favour To conclude with my prayer to God that your Majestie may ever find the same zeal and Love to your person in whomsoever you shall imploy that my hearts sole-Sole-affection did and ever shall carrie unto you which God knowes was and is more to your Majestie then to my wife and children and all other worldy things which God measure unto me according to the truth as Yours c. T. Suffolk The Lady Elizabeth Howard to the King VVHen I waited upon you at Theobalds to beseech your Majesty that my Lord of Suffolk might not come into the Star-chamber you protested that you loved the man but that you must shew cause to the world why you took the Staffe from him but for his fortune that your Majestie would not meddle with it the same my Lord of Buckingham told me with this assurance of your promise I went away secure in that poynt Sithence his cause was heard he moved all that heard it with much compassion to him and the people did think that when you sent him to the Tower you would have sent for him to have kissed your hand But your Majestie is abused for they do not let you know what is thought of the proceeding against this good man knowing how truely he loveth you with the truth of his cause that you would not follow him and his children with crueltie Which might have been better spent My Lord hath spent in running a Tylt in Masques and following the Court above 20000. And Sir shall his reward now be to be turned out of his place without any offence committed Sir I am the child of your old Servant and am now great with child I know it will kill me and I shall willingly die rather then desire life to see my unfortunate self and mine thus miserably undone Sir I beseech your Majestie remember my Father that is dead and me his distressed child for if he could know any worldly thing he would wonder to see me and those that shall come of me thus strangly used But my hope is still in your Majesties goodnesse and that you will not be carried away with the malice of other men In this confidence I rest with my daily
my Lord Duke can be truly instanced in by any man I will be contented to incur his Majesties high displeasure and your Lordships Censure For the present Newes here it is that the ninth of this Moneth the Prince intendeth God willing to begin his journey for England And the day before I conceive the Contract will be The Infanta is to follow in the Spring and the Prince hath commanded my stay here I know not how things may be reconciled here before my Lord Dukes departure but at present they are in all extremity ill betwixt this King and his Ministers and the Duke and they stick not to professe that they will rather put the Infanta headlong into a Well then into his hands I write unto your Lordship you see with much freenesse and I intreat you let it remain with you And so in much haste I onely intreat your Lordship to believe that you have not living an honester nor a true hearteder a friend and servant then Your Lordships ever to be commanded Bristol The E of Bristol to the Lord Bishop of Lincoln 24. of Septemb. 1623. My singular Lord I Have dispatched this Bearer my servant Greislie with the draught of the temporal Articles which I hope will be to the King and Prince his satisfaction and he will let your Lordship have a sight of them Since the departure of the Prince there have every day passed Letters of extraordinary affection between the King and the Prince and the love that is here generally born unto the Prince is such as cannot be well believed by those that daily hear not what passeth both from the King and his chief Ministers And to say the truth his Highnesse hath well deserved it for in the whole time of his being here he hath carried himself with the greatest affability patience and constancie and at his departure with the greatest bountie and liberality that I think hath been known in any Prince in our times And I protest unto your Lordship as a Christian that I never heard in all the time of his being here nor since any one exception taken against him unlesse it were for being supposed to be too much guided by my Lord Duke of Buckingham who is indeed very little beholding to the Spaniards for their good opinion of him and departed from hence with so little satisfaction that the Spaniards are in doubt that he will endeavour all that shall be possible to crosse the Marriage Wherein certainly they are very much mistaken For my Lord cannot but be obliged a servant for any particular distastes of his own to crosse the advancement of his Majestie and the Prince's service especially in a businesse of so high Consequence as this It may be your Lordship will hear many Complaints and that the Match never was nor yet is intended I beseech your Lordship to give little belief in that kind and the effects will now speedily declare the truth if the fault be not on our side It is true that the Spaniards have committed many errours in their proceedings with the Prince but the businesse is now by the Prince overcome if we our selves draw not back For which I confesse I should be heartily sorry and so I conceive would most honest men for if this match and the alliance with Spain hath been so long desired by his Majestie and that for it he hath heen pleased to do so much and the Prince to take so hazardous a voyage if all the same reasons are yet on foot which have ever moved the King and Prince to wish the match if to this may be added that his Majestie hath overcome all the difficulties on his part and that both he and the Prince do stand ingaged for the performance of it as far as Princes can be God forbid that any particular distastes or misunderstandings which God knoweth have little relation to the businesse should be of power to disturb it especially now when the Match is past all danger of miscarrying the portion and all temporal Articles settled and I hope to the Kings Content and all other good effects that could be expected by this allyance in a very fair way I hope there will be no cause of doubt in this kind if there should be I am sure that your Lordship would put to a helping hand to keep the businesse from being overthrown since you have done so much for the overcoming of former difficulties and the bringing it to the passe 't is now in If there be no cause of writing this I beseech your Lordship to impute it to my zeal to the businesse and my freenesse with your Lordship upon whose true love and friendship I so much rely as I shall not forbear to tell you any of my fears I hope within 3. daies Sir Francis Cottington will be able to begin his journey towards your Lordship He will tell you many truths being on my knowledge as hearty a servant and friend as 't is possible for your Lordship to have He hath told me how much I am bound to your Lordship for your love and favour and truly I will deserve it the best I can and that I think will be onely by loving you for otherwise I conceive I am like to have little means of meriting at any bodies hands yet at your Lordships it may be I may by being a man of honesty and honour And such an one I will labour to be and your affectionate friend and servant And so I kisse your Lordships hands Madrid c. The E. of Bristols Letter to the Prince touching the delivery of his Proxie to the King of Spain May it please your Highnesse IN this Letter I shall onely speak unto your Highnesse concerning that particular whereof you were pleased to write unto me after your departure from St. Lorenzo and have presumed to set down exactly the case as it stands In what sort a woman betrothed and post Matrimonium ratum may before the Consummation of marriage betake her self unto a religious life I have likewise set down unto your Highnesse all sorts of security that may be taken before the betrothing for the preventing of any such course in the parties that are to be betrothed To this your Highnesse may adde any other you can think of for that the King and his Sister and all the Ministers professe so really the punctual and present performance of all that is capitulated with your Highnesse That they will refuse no kind of security that in reason can be demanded in this behalf so that your Highnesse may set down whatsoever you think this King and his Sister may do with decencie and honour and they will be ready to perform it I must now crave leave to speak unto your Highnesse like a faithful plain servant which is if your Highnesse pleasure be to have use made of the Powers you have left in my hands I no way doubt but in this particular such satisfaction will be given as will appear
CABALA SIVE SCRINIA SACRA MYSTERIES OF State Government IN LETTERS Of illustrious Persons and great Agents in the Reigns of Henry the Eighth Queen Elizabeth K James and the late King Charls IN TWO PARTS In which the Secrets of Empire and Publique manage of Affairs are contained With many remarkable Passages no where else Published LONDON Printed for G. Bedel and T. Collins and are to be sold at their Shop at the Middle-Temple-gate in Fleetstreet 1654. MVNIPICENTIA REGIA 1715 GEORGIV 5 D.G. MAG BR PR ET HIâ— REX P.D. J.P. Sc. Cabala Mysteries of State IN LETTERS of the great MINISTERS of K. James and K. Charles WHEREIN Much of the publique Manage of Affaires is related Faithfully Collected by a Noble Hand LONDON Printed for M. M. G. Bedell and T. Collins and are to be sold at their Shop at the Middle-Temple Gate in Fleetstreet 1654. The Preface to the Reader HEre is published a Piece not to be matched in Antiquity a Collection not so much of Letters as of the mysteries of Government the wisdom and manage of Publick businesses in the late Reigns where the great Ministers of State are presented naked their Consultations Designs Policies the things done by them are exposed to every mans eye as they were brought forth by themselves The most famous of all Modern Historians glories in the helps and advantages he had above all men else to write He came so he tells us prepared and furnished from the Cabinets of Princes Strada he had seriously perused and sifted their Letters and Orders the Letters of the Illustrious Persons imployed by them the private Commands Dispatches and Instructions of Embassies Debates and Resolutions of Councels without which all History must be lame and imperfect This was the way to make the causes of actions as visible as their effects and without which all Diligence and Faithfulness else will do little Much of the History of the last years of King James and beginnings of King Charles may be here read Here the height of the mighty Favourite the Duke of Buckingham may be taken The Arts and Subtleties of Spain of the Conde Gondomar and the English-Spanish Party are discovered the Journey into Spain breach of the Spanish overtures for the French Match for the renuing Leagues with the enemies of the Spanish Pride and Vniversality the carriage of the Imperialists French Netherlanders and other Concurrents of those Reigns are exactly Related with the Practises of our home Roman Catholicks and growth of those who were here called Puritans then the Secrets of the Court and State without any false glosse to writhe or streighten to deprave or extenuate with more truth and sincerity then all the Annals can show where Passion and Interest sway oftentimes too much and the cleanest hand makes blots and stains carried away with Love or Hatred to the side or man Here are no snares set to catch or inveagle any mans judgment all things are left clearly to their own worth and Reputation A TABLE OF THE LETTERS Contained In this Collection EArl of Sommerset to King James Page 1. Lord Chancellour Bacon to the King 31. July 1617. p. 8 Lord Chancellour Bacon to the King 2. Januar. 1618. 5 Lord Chancellour Bacon to the Lords 5 Lord Chancellour Bacon to the Marquesse of Buckingham 25 March 1620. p. 10 Lord Chancellour Bacon to the King the 25. of March 1620. p. 10 Lord Chancellour Bacon to the Duke 122 Magdibeg to the King 11 A Letter by King James to the Lord Keeper Bishops of London Winton Rochester St. Davids and Exeter Sir Henry Hubbard and others 30. Octob. 1621. 12 The Archbishop of York to King James 13 A Letter from Spain concerning the Princes arrival there 30. Septemb. 1623. Madrid 17 The Earl of Bristol to the Prince touching the Proxies Madrid 24 The Earl of Bristol to Secretary Cottington April the 15th 1623. 28. The Earl of Bristol to the Bishop of Lincoln August the 20. 1623. p. 20. The Earl of Bristol to the Bishop of Lincoln 24. Septemb. 1623. Madrid 22 The Earl of Bristol to the Prince September 24. 1623. Madrid page 26. The Earl of Bristol to the Duke the 6. of December 1623. Madrid 28 The Earl of Bristol to King James the 27. of July 1624. London 30 King Charles to the Earl of Bristol Jan. 21. 1625. 17 The Earl of Bristol to the Lord Conway the 4. of March 1625. Sherborn 19 The Lord Conway to the Earl of Bristol March 21. 1625. 19 Sir Walter Aston to the Duke 30 Sir Walter Aston to the Duke 15. Novemb. 1623. 34 The Duke of Buckingham to Sir Walter Aston 34 The Duke of Buckingham to Sir Walter Aston 36 Sir Walter Aston to the Duke of Buckingham December 22. 1623. 37 A Memorial pressing for the Palatinate c. given to the King of Spain by Sir Walter Aston 19. Jan. 1623. 38 Sir Walter Aston to the Duke 22. Jan. 1623. 40 Sir Walter Aston to Secretary Conway the 22. of January 1623. 40 Sir Walter Aston to the Lord Conway 44 Sir Walter Aston to the Lord Conway 5. June 1624. 46 Sir Walter Aston to the Lord Conway 17. July 1624. 58 Sir Walter Aston to the Duke 20. of Octob. 1624. 52 Sir Walter Aston to the Duke the 10. of December 1624. 165 Sir Walter Aston to the Duke 10. of Decemb. 1625. 53 Dr. Williams to the Duke 54 Williams Lord Keeper to the Duke 27. July 1621. 55 The Earl of South-hamptons Letter to the Bishop of Lincoln 57 The Lord Keeper to the Duke 22. July 1621. 61 The Lord Keeper his answer to the Earl of South-hampton 2. August 1621. 58 The Lord Keeper to the Duke concerning the same Earl of South-hampton 2. Aug. 1621. 59 The Lord Keeper to the Duke concerning the Lord of St. Albans Octob. 27. 1621. 60 The Lord Keeper to the Duke concerning the Earl Marshals place 1. September 1621. 62 The Lord Keeper to the Duke 16. Decemb. 1621. 65 The Lord Keeper to the Duke about Mr. Thomas Murrayes Dispensation c. 23. Febr. 1621. 66 The Lord Keeper to the Duke about the Liberties of Westminster the 6. May 1621. 68 The Lord Keeper to the Duke Aug. 23. 1622. 69 The Lord Keeper to the Duke about the Lord Treasurer September 9. 1622. 70 The Lord Keeper to the Duke of Buckingham the 14. of October 1621. 82 The Lord Keeper to the Duke 8. Aug. 1623. 83 The Lord Keeper to the Duke the 21. of September 1622. 93 The Lord Keeper to the Duke 12. Octob. 1622. 75 The Lord Keeper to the Duke 78 The Lord Keeper to the Duke 84 The Lord Keeper to the Duke 6. Jan. 1623. 86 Mr. John Packer to the Lord Keeper the 21 of January 1623. 86 The Lord Keeper to the Duke 2. Febr. 1623. 88 The Lord Keeper to the Duke 24. May 1624. 93 The Lord Keeper to the Duke 22. Aug. 1624. 95 The Lord Keeper to the Duke 11. Octob. 1624. 95 The Lord
Souldiers followed him the one for spoil the other for place but if with safetie to your Grace though with peril to my self I may serve you let me die if I do it not rather then want any longer what my humble love ever led me to and I still affect the honour To be yours Henry Yelverton Sir John Eliot to the Duke 8. Novemb. 1623. Right Honourable WIth what affection I have served your Grace I desire rather it should be read in my actions then my words which made me sparing in my last relation to touch those difficulties wherewith my Letters have been checkt that they might the more fully speak themselves I shall not seek to glosse them now but as they have been leave them to your Graces acceptance which I presume so noble that scandal or detraction cannot decline it It were an injurie of your worth which I dare not attempt to insinuate the opinion of any merit by false colours or pretences or with hard circumstances to endear my labours and might beget suspition sooner then assurance in your credit which I may not hazard My innocence I hope needs not these nor would I shadow the least errour under your protection But where my services have been faithful and not altogether vain directed truly to the honour and benefit of your place onely suffering upon the disadvantage of your absence I must importune your Grace to support my weaknesse that it may cause no prejudice of your rights and liberties which I have studied to preserve though with the losse of mine own My insistance therein hath exposed me to a long imprisonment and great charge which still increaseth and threatens the ruine of my poor fortunes if they be not speedily prevented For which as my endeavours have been wholly yours I most humbly crave your Graces favour both to my self and them In which I am devoted Your Graces thrice-humble Servant J. Eliot The Earl of Oxford to the Duke My Lord I Cannot but believe that I have had some undeserved ill offices done me unto your Lordship otherwise I should not find this difficultie in being preferred if not afore at least equally in ballance with my Accusers It is common unto all mens understanding that it is not the guilt of the accused but the legal and just proceeding which cleares the Kings honour and this I do and ever will acknowledge to have been held towards me Neither was it ever known that the Kings Grace the more it came sweetned with his favour did lessen or diminish his honour but rather seemed as a lustre to make his goodnesse shine brighter and oblige the Receiver in a more strict Tye of gratitude My Lord it cannot wrong you to oblige me to your service nor add reputation to you throw me upon Rocks I appeal to the King and your own Conscience whether ever I have harboured any treasonable thoughts either against his Majestie or his issue that should make me uncapable of receiving his grace without imputation to those faithful and dutiful respects with which I have ever served his Majestie If it shall please him to line me out my path to death the period whither we must all travel to by imprisonment I shall be far from repining at the sentence but with all humblenesse will undergo it and employ my heartiest prayers for the long continuance of his honour and happinesse I beseech your Lordship receive my Character of what I am and have ever been towards you not from Conjectures and reports of others but from my own mouth and actions For yet I have reason to suspect your opinion of me else sure I should have found better fruits of your power I was alwaies as much as lay in me desirous to outstrip rather then come short of any in doing you service and the same affections still remain with me of the truth of which I pray you be confident To this onely I will add one request more which is That since your Lordship is pleased to mediate with his Majestie for my freedom you will procure it so free from rubs as that my obligation may be the greater which I will ever willingly and faithfully pay unto your Lordship in all respects like him who truly is Your Lordships c. H.O. The Lady Purbeck to the Duke My Lord THough you may judge what pleasure there is in the conversation of a man in the distemper you see your Brother in yet the dutie I owe to a husband and the affection I bear him which sicknesse shall not diminish makes me much desire to be with him to adde what comfort I can to his afflicted mind since his onely desire is my Companie Which if it please you to satisfie him in I shall with a very good will suffer with him and think all but my dutie though I think every wife would not do so But if you can so far dispense with the Lawes of God as to keep me from my Husband yet aggravate it not by restraining from me his means and all other contentments but which I think is rather the part of a Christian you especially ought much rather to studie comforts for me then to adde ills to ills since it is the marriage of your Brother makes me thus miserable For if you please but to consider not only the lamentable estate I am in deprived of all Comforts of a husband and having no means to live of besides falling from the hopes my fortune then did promise me for you know very well I came no beggar to you though I am like so to be turned off For your own honor and Conscience sake take some course to give me satisfaction to tye my tongue from crying to God and the world for vengeance for the unworthy dealing I have received And think not to send me again to my Mothers where I have stayed this quarter of a year hoping for that my Mother said you promised order should be taken for me but I never received pennie from you Her confidence of your Noblenesse made me so long silent but now believe me I will sooner begg my bread in the streets to all your dishonours then any more trouble my friends and especially my Mother who was not onely content to afford us part of the little means she hath left her but whilest I was with her was continually distempered with devised Tales which came from your Familie and withal lost your good opinion which before she either had or you made shew of it but had it been real I cannot think her words would have been so translated nor in the power of discontented servants Tales to have ended it My Lord if the great honour you are in can suffer you to have so mean a thought as of so miserable a creature as I am so made by too much Credulitie of your fair promises which I have waited for performance of almost these five years And now it were time to despair but that I hope you will
death of Mr. Secretary Walsingham SIR VPon this unhappy accident I have tryed to the bottom what the Queen will do for you and what the credit of your Sollicitor is worth I urged not the comparison between you and any other But in my duty to her and zeal to her service I did assure her that she had not any other in England that would for these three or four years know how to settle himself to support so great a burthen She gave me leave to speak heard me with patience confessed with me that none was so sufficient and could not deny but that which she lays to your charge was done without hope fear malice envy or any respect of your own but meerly for her safety both of state and person In the end she absolutely denied to let you enjoy that place and willed me to rest satisfied for she was resolved Thus much I write to let you know I am more honest to my friends then happy in their cases What you will have me do for your suit I will as far as my credit is any thing worth I have told most of the Councel of my manner of dealing with the Queen my Lord Chamberlain tells me he hath dealt for you also and they all say they wish as I do but in this world that is enough I will commit you to God for this time and rest Your constant and true friend R. ESSEX Earl of Essex to the Queen MY dutiful affections to your Majesty always overweighed all other worldly respects that seeking in all particulars to manifest my truth I have maimed my estate in general as I dare in the heat of my thoughts compare with the greatest that ever vowed for faithful service so is there not the meanest that hath overslipped me I will not say in recompence but in some gracious estate of service Thus whilst my faith wrestleth with my fortune the one winns breath to beat th' other down Though I have no hope to repair the ruines of my oversight yet I cannot but presume your Majesty will suffer me to preserve them from blowing up and what youth and forward belief hath undermined in mine estate providence by a retired life may underlay In which discontinuance from Court there shall be added if any thing be added increase of loyalty Nor so solitary shall be my course as it shall seem to proceed of discontentment but of necessity and all actions both with living and my life so forward as though some may have overrun me in fortunes none shall in duty Next my allegiance to your Majesty which shall be held most sacred and inviolable the report of mine Honour challengeth chief interest which that I may preserve in my wonted state reason draws me to stay my self slipping from falling That of late by what secret and venemous blow I know not my faith hath received some wounds your Majesties wonted grace withdrawn assures me But truth and my patience in this case were one with me and time in your Princely thoughts did wear it out from me Let time be Judge I will leave you with as great lothness as I were to lose what I love best But your favour failing in which I have placed all my hopes and my self less graced after seven years then when I had served but seven dayes may be a reason to excuse if there were no other reason These things pressed out of a distressed mind and offered in all humility I hope it shall not be offensive if I choose this wearisom course rather to be retired then tired If any of envy take advantage of absence seeking by cunning to draw me into suspition of discontentment my conscience is setled in your never erring Judgment that if he come with Esau's hands and Jacob's voice your Highness will censure it a wrought malice under such simplicity It is true that grief cannot speak but this grief hath made me write lest when I leave you I should so far forsake my self as to leave this unsaid To your gracious acceptance I commit it and with all humble and reverent thoughts that may be rest ever to be commanded to die at your Majesties feet RO. ESSEX Again to the Queen FRom a mind delighting in sorrow from spirits wasted with passion from a heart torne in pieces with care grief and travel from a man that hateth himself and all things that keepeth him alive what service can your Majesty expect since your service past deserves no more then banishment or prescription in the cursed'st of all other Countries Nay nay it is your Rebels pride and success that must give me leave to ransom my life out of this hatefull prison of my loathed body which if it happen so your Majesty shall have no cause to mislike the fashion of my death since the course of my life could never please you Your Majesties exiled Servant RO. ESSEX Sir Thomas Egerton Lord Chancellor to the Earl of Essex My very good Lord IT is often seen that he that stands by seeth more then he that playeth the game and for the most part every one in his own cause standeth in his own light and seeth not so cleerly as he should Your Lordship hath dealt in other mens causes and in great and weighty affairs with great wisdom and judgment now your own is in hand you are not to contemn or refuse the advice of any that love you how simple soever In this order I rank my self among others that love you none more simple and none that love you with more true and honest affection which shall plead my excuse if you shall either mistake or mistrust my words or meaning but in your Lordships honorable wisdom I neither doubt nor suspect the one nor the other I will not presume to advise you but shoot my bolt and tell you what I think The beginning and long continuance of this so unseasonable discontentment you have seen and proved by which you aim at the end If you hold still this course which hitherto you find to be worse and worse and the longer you go the further you go out of the way there is little hope or likelihood the end will be better You are not yet gone so far but that you may well return The return is safe but the progress is dangerous and desperate in this course you hold If you have any enemies you do that for them which they could never do for themselves Your friends you leave to scorn and contempt you forsake your self and overthrow your fortunes and ruinate your honour and reputation You give that comfort and courage to the foreign enemies as greater they cannot have for what can be more welcome and pleasing news then to hear that her Majesty and the Realm are maimed of so worthy a Member who hath so often and so valiantly quailed and daunted them You forsake your Country when it hath most need of your Councel and aid And lastly you fail in your indissoluble
be humbled by knowing her self and her own ignorance Not only knowledge but also every other gift which we call the gifts of fortune have power to pull up earthly Afflictions only level these Mole-hils of pride plough the heart and make it fit for Wisdom to sow her seed and for Grace to bring forth her increase Happy is that man therefore both in regard of heavenly and earthly wisdom that is thus wounded to be cured thus broken to be made straight thus made acquainted with his own imperfections that he may be perfected Supposing this to be the time of your affliction that which I have propounded to my self is by taking this seasonable advantage like a true friend though far unworthy to be counted so to shew you your true shape in a glass and that not in a false one to flatter you nor yet in one that should make you seem worse then you are and so offend you but in one made by the reflexion of your own words and actions from whose light proceeds the voice of the people which is often not unfitly called the voice of God but therein since I purposed a truth I must intreat liberty to be plain a liberty that at this time I know not whether or no I may use safely I am sure at other times I could not yet of this resolve your self it proceedeth from love and a true desire to do you good that you knowing the generall opinion may not altogether neglect or contemn it but mend what you find amiss in yourself and tain what your judgment shall approve for to this end shall truth be delivered as naked as if your self were to be anatomized by the hand of opinion All men can see their own profit that part of the wallet hangs before A true friend whose worthy office I would perform since I fear both your self and all great men want such being themselves true friends to few or none is first to shew the other and which is from your eyes First therefore behold your errors In discourse you delight to speak too much not to hear other men this some say becomes a pleader not a Judge for by this sometimes your affections are intangled with a love of your own arguments though they be the weaker and rejecting of those which when your affections were setled your own judgment would allow for strongest Thus while you speak in your own Element the Law no man ordinarily equals you but when you wander as you often delight to do you then wander indeed and give never such satisfaction as the curious time requires This is not caused by any naturall defect but first for want of election when you having a large and fruitfull mind should not so much labour what to speak as to find what to leave unspoken rich soils are often to be weeded Secondly you cloy your auditory when you would be observed speech must either be sweet or short Thirdly you converse with Books not men and Books specially humane and have no excellent choyce with men who are the best Books for a man of action and imployment you seldome converse with and then but with your underlings not freely but as a Schoolmaster with his Scholars ever to teach never to learn But if somtimes you would in your familiar discourse hear others and make election of such as know what they speak you should know many of these tales you tell to be but ordinary and many other things which you delight to repeat and serve in for novelties to be but stale As in your pleadings you were wont to insult over misery and to inveigh bitterly at the persons which bred you many enemies whose poyson yet swelleth and the effects now appear so are you still wont to be a little careless in this point to praise or disgrace upon slight grounds and that sometimes untruly so that your reproofs or commendations are for the most part neglected and contemned when the censure of a Judge coming slow but sure should be a brand to the guilty and a crown to the vertuous You will jest at any man in publique without respect of the persons dignity or your own This disgraceth your gravity more then it can advance the opinion of your wit and so do all actions which we see you do directly with a touch of vain-glory having no respect to the true end You make the Law to lean too much to your opinion whereby you shew your self to be a legall Tyrant striking with that weapon where you please since you are able to turn the edge any way For thus the wise Master of the Law gives warning to young Students that they should be wary lest while they hope to be instructed by your integrity and knowledge they should be deceived with your skill armed with authority Your too much love of the world is too much seen when having the living of 10000 l. you relieve few or none The hand that hath taken so much can it give so little Herein you shew no bowels of compassion as if you thought all too little for your self or that God had given you all that you have if you think wealth to be his gift I mean that you get well for I know sure the rest is not only to that end you should still gather more and never be satisfied but try how much you could gather to accompt for all at the great and generall Audit-day We desire you to amend this and let your poor Tenants in Norfolk find some comfort where nothing of your estate is spent towards their relief but all brought up hither to the impoverishing of your Country In your last which might have been your best peece of service to the State affectioned to follow that old rule which giveth Justice leaden heels and iron hands you used too many delayes till the Delinquents hands were loosed and yours bound In that work you seemed another Fabius here the humour of Marcellus would have done better What needed you have sought more evidences then enough While you pretended the finding out of more missing your aim you discredited what you had found This best Judgments think though you never used such speeches as are fathered upon you yet you might well have done it and but rightly For this crime was second to none but the Powder-plot That would have blown up all at one blow a mercifull cruelty this would have done the same by degrees a lingring but a sure way one might by one be called out till all opposers had been removed Besides that other Plot was scandalous to Rome making Popery odious in the sight of the whole world This hath been scandalous to the truth of the whole Gospel and since the first nullity to this instant when Justice hath her hands bound the Devil could not have invented a more mischievous practice to our State and Church then this hath been is and is like to be God avert the evil But herein you committed another