at a better distance Such a prodigious Comet the Commons take this Duke of Buckingham to be And so the Commons do the Duke of York now cum multis aliis c. Anno Domini 1680 and 1681. and will doubtless several more when they shall meet 〈◊〉 to redress the present Grievances of the Nation against whom and his irregular ways there are by learned Gentlemen legal Articles of Charge to be delivered to your Lordships which I am generally first commanded to lay open First The Offices of this Kingdom that are the Eyes the Ears and the Hands of this Common-wealth these have been engrossed bought and sold and many of the greatest of them holden even in the Dukes own hands which severally and apart gave in former times and ages sufficient content to the greatest Favourites and were work enough for the wisest Councellors By means whereof what strange abuses what infinite neglects have followed The Seas have been unguarded Trade disturbed Merchants oppressed their Ships and even one of the Navy Royal by cunning practise delivered over into foreign hands and contrary to our good Kings intention employed to the prejudice I had almost said to the ruin of Friends of our own Religion Next Honours those most precious Jewels of the Crown a Treasure inestimable wherewith your Noble Ancestors my Lords were well rewarded for eminent and publick service in the Common-wealth at home for brave exploits abroad when covered all with dust and blood they sweat in service for the honour of this Crown What back-ways what by-ways have been by this Duke found out is too well known to your Lordships whereas it was anciently the honour of England as among the Romans the way to the Temple of Honour was through the Temple of Virtue But I am commanded to press this no further than to let your Lordships know one Instance may perhaps be given of some one Lord compelled to purchase Honour Thirdly As divers of the Dukes poor Kindred have been raised to great honours which have been and are likely to be more chargeable and burdensom to the Crown so the Lands and Revenues and Treasuries of his Majesty have been intercepted and exhausted by this Duke and his Friends and strangely misemployed with strange confusion of the Accompts and overthrow of the well-established ancient Orders of his Majesties Exchequer The last of the Charges which are prepared will be an injury offered to the Person of the late King of blessed memory who is with God of which as your Lordships may have heard heretofore you shall anon have farther information Now upon this occasion I am commanded by the Commons to take care of the honour of the King our Soveraign that lives long may he live to our comfort and the good of the Christian world and also of his blessed Father who is dead on whom to the grief of the Commons and their great distaste the Lord Duke did they conceive unworthily cast some ill ordure of his own foul ways Whereas Servants were anciently wont to bear as in truth they ought their Masters faults and not cast their own on them undeservedly It is well known the King who is with God had the same power and the same wisdom before he knew this Duke yea and the same affections too through which as a good and gracious Master he advanced and raised some Stars of your Lordships Firmament in whose hands this exorbitancy of Will this transcendency of Power such placing and misplacing of Officers such irregular running into all by courses of the Planets such sole and single managing of the great affairs of State was never heard of And therefore only to the Lord Duke and his own procurement by mis-informations these faults complained of by the Commons are to be imputed And whereas for our most gracious Soveraign that lives whose Name hath been used and may perhaps now be for the Dukes Justification The Commons know well that among his Majesties most Royal Virtues his Piety unto his Father hath made him a pious nourisher of his Affections ever to this Lord Duke on whom out of that consideration his Majesty hath wrought a kind of wonder making Favour hereditary But the abuse thereof must be the Lord Dukes own and if there have been any commands such as were or may pretend his misinformations have procured them whereas the Laws of England teach us that Kings cannot command ill or unawful things whenever they speak though by their Letters Patents or their Seals If the thing be evil these Letters Patents are void and whatsoever ill event succeeds the Executioners of such Commands must ever answer for them Thus my Lords in performance of my duty my weakness hath been troublesome unto your Lordships It is now high time humbly to intreat your pardon and to give way to a Learned Gentleman to begin against him a more particular Charge Sir Dudley Diggs his Prologue being ended the Impeachment of the Commons it self was next read the which if you please you may peruse Page 40. in the said Narrative before mentioned with the Dukes Answer Defence and Reply to every particular Article thereof The Answer of the Duke to his Impâ—achment was a kind of a new Grievance to his Adversaries for it being 〈◊〉 and so inlaid with modesty and humility it was like to have a 〈…〉 influence towards the conversion of many who expected a 〈◊〉 of another and more disdainful spirit Again it seemed to 〈…〉 and the Commons having charged him as they thought through and through loth they were to fall short of Victory And now having pursued him with such vehemency thought themselves 〈◊〉 should he now at the last make a saving game of it wherefore resolved they were to ply him with a speedy Reply But while they were hammering of it the King sent them a Letter demanding without farther delay their speedy producing their Bill of Subsidy to be passed to which to prevent their Dissolution they immediately conformed But first they had drawn up a Declaration of the same make and mind with their former Impeachment of the miserable estate of this Kingdom and not without some high Contest it was allowed by the House before the Bill of Subsidy Whereupon his Majesty was so exceedingly incensed King Charles his Second Parliament Dissolved as on the very next day June the 5th he Dissolved the Assembly though the Lords sent four of their House unto him beseeching him most earnestly that he would permit them to sit but two days longer but he answered Not a Minute The same afternoon the Earl of Bristol Arundel and Bristol confined the Dukes grand Prosecutor was committed to the Tower and the Earl of Arundel confined to his own house There came also forth from his Majesty a Proclamation for Burning all the Copies of the Commons Declaration made before the Parliaments Dissolution This Rupture of the Parliament The King charged with Imprudence being supposed to issue
THE HISTORY AND TRANSACTIONS OF THE ENGLISH NATION More especially by their Representatives Assembled in PARLIAMENT In the Reign of King CHARLES c. Most Faithfully and Impartially Examined Collected and Compared together for the present Seasonable Use Benefit and Information of the Publick ALSO The Wonderful and most Solemn Manner and Form of Ratitifying 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 By a Person of Quality and True Lover of his Countrey LONDON Printed and are to be Sold by Richard Janeway in Queens-Head-Court in Pater-Noster-Row M.DC.LXXXIX Multum in Parvo AUT VOX VERITATIS c. THAT we are fallen into an Age wherein almost all sorts of Men amongst us are still setled upon their Lees there 's none of us all so happy as to be ignorant thereof and how that the Judgments and Sentiments of Men and more especially in this latter Age of the World are most strangely degenerated biassed enslaved and almost overwhelmed with pride vain-glory hypocrisie self-interest that great Diana and Goddess of this World ambition passion prejudice partiality faction rebellion the espousing of a party Et cum multis aliis c. And yet that which is most wonderful and matter of astonishment is this viz. That all these Parties in general or particular do declare and pretend That as to their several Transactions in the World wherein they are concerned and in opposition to the rest of their Neighbours is purely to manifest their great and fervent Zeal to the Honour and Glory of Almighty God and to promote as much as in them lyes a most firm exact and uniform Obedience not omitting at all times their specious pretences of their steady and untainted Loyalty to their Prince both in Church and State. But how these Gentlemen and specious Pretenders before mentioned will come off at the long run for as we usually say Finis coronat opus without a scratch't face and a blot in their scutcheons when-as their several Transactions shall be impartially examined and searched to the bottom is a kind of a pretty question to be started and indeed it would be a very ingenious and pleasant divertisement to any person that would make it his business to study the point and thoroughly and impartially to make an experiment thereof This small Treatise Courteous Readers peradventure may give you some small satisfaction in relation to the premises and it is more than probable that others hereafter of a more learned and more ingenious capacity may take example by this small and well-intended piece to enlarge thereupon and farther to explain what I have here succinctly intimated only for my own and for some others which I shall forbear to name present and seasonable satisfaction as to those grand Debates Councels and Transactions which are now in the midst of us upon the wheel and here I must beg that the Lord of his infinite Grace and Mercy would be pleased to send us at length a good issue upon them all both in Church and State. This I thought requisite to cite by way of Introduction and now will take leave to conduct you somewhat closer and nearer to our matter in hand Et honoi soit que mal y pense and herein we shall proceed in manner and form as followeth That we are fallen at present not only into a degenerate rebellious ambitious and stubborn Age but in particular into a very curious critical and obnoxious time in that age viz. Anno Domini 1680 and 1681 wherein as by experience is manifestly true a man is almost made though not in the edg of the Law but in the edg of some others who would be Law-makers a Capital offender for some words placing or speaking which peradventure may be very good orthodox and loyal in themselves until they come to be scanned weighed and interpreted by others in a quite different and contrary sense I know Courteous Readers you are most of you at least the best of you able and I hope willing to joyn issue with me herein as Attestators to the truth hereof But whether there be a fatality in these present years as there was about 40 years since which are by-past and gone and all things buried or at least ought to be forgotten in an Act of Oblivion as to the Transactions of those as we do usually call them rebellious times or whether this critical time doth portend good things to his Majesty of Great Britain's whom God of his infinite mercy long preserve for our peace and quietness sake affairs and concerns as to his present Government in particular or whether of any good consequence to the Subjects of his Three Kingdoms in general or whether this year the Lyon and the Lamb shall not lye down together according to an ancient Prophecy or whether His Majesties just Prerogative and his Subjects Priviledges shall go hand in hand together I am not able to determine although some pretend to give a shrewd guess thereunto as to future contingencies yet I will hope the best as being fully perswaded and convinced that the God and Father of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who is the Author of Peace and Lover of Concord and of the Souls of them who are willing under their Magistrates whether Heathen or Christian to live quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty will be pleased at length to bring forth peace tranquillity and order out of all our disorders animosities and present confusions And herein let every true and Loyal-hearted Subject and English man say Amen But however this I am sure of as being able to attest that truth in particular viz. That humble Petitions and Addresses to His Majesty of Great Britain this year Anno Domini 1681 is A-la-mode and the very newest fashion and in my slender judgment and apprehension is a very comely decent and commendable fashion since the Dissolution of the late Parliament at Oxford and His Majesties late Declaration to all his Loving Subjects and Ordered to be read by the Reverend Clergy of the Land in all Churches and Chappels since which time Addresses and Humble Petitions have swarm'd in a main from all Points of the compass viz. from Cities Burroughs Towns-Corporate Lieutenancies Trained-Bands c. as if they were resolved to storm VVhitehall VVindsor-Castle Hampton-Court and His Majesty Himself God of Heaven preserve Him with no other weapons than steady and untainted Loyalty and with all dutiful and humble Allegiance unto His Majesties Government as it is now by Law established both in Church and State And for the which the Lord High Chancellor of England in the Person of His Majesty hath given them all his true and hearty Thanks for their so numerous and seasonable appearing at this present conjuncture in opposition to some others who it seems have not the good-hap with the rest of their
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 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 furious Armed brood shall spring That Army shall beget a wild Confusion Confusion shall an Anarchy 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 Democracy 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 His Majesties Restauration plainly foretold A true Supream Acknowledged by all 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 neither 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 peradventurethe 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