Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A44223
|
A defence of King Charles I occasion'd by the lyes and scandals of many bad men of this age / by Richard Hollingworth ...
|
Hollingworth, Richard, 1639?-1701.
|
1692
(1692)
|
Wing H2502; ESTC R13622
|
26,155
|
45
|
assurance that he would comply with them as any man may satisfie himself that converses with the History and Transactions of those times But alas all these Condescentions would not do and tho' he good man flatter'd himself with an easie Belief that he had done what was fitting for a gracious King to do in order to still the voice of further Complaints yet for all that when for necessary reasons he took a Journey to Scotland these men whose Requests he had thus largely answered in his absence to shew their gratitude for what was done before appoint a Committee who being pick'd and chosen men drew up a Remonstrance wherein they made the most bitter Reflections upon his former Government and exposed him to the censure and ill thoughts of his less-discerning Subjects and which was so very unmannerly as well as false that when it came to be delated in the whole House after sitting up all night and thereby wearying many of the ancient Gentlemen and being protested-against by many learned and worthy Patriots in the House and carried only by eleven Votes yet it was ordered to be printed on purpose to enflame the Nation against him Notwithstanding which affront to his Person and Government after he had fairly answered it and vindicated himself from those horrid Aspersions wherewith they had loaded him fairly proving that the present Miseries and future Dangers of the Nation lay at their door and not at his I say notwithstanding this he continues still to sollicite them by Message after Message to offer any thing to him wherein the true Interest of the Kingdom was concerned and he would be ready to gratifie them by giving it the Royal Fiat And when through Tumults and too-much-countenanc'd Riots he withdrew from Whitehall being under apprehension of Affronts design'd to be offered to his Person if not something worse yet he ceases not to call upon them to consider the Nations Good and the settling it upon such Foundations as neither the Monarch might invade the just Rights of the People nor the People encroach upon the Rights of his Crown and Dignity And so he tells them upon their presenting their Petition at Theobalds and afterwards at New-market in the same month when after hearing their Declaration read he expostulated in these words What would you have Have I violated your Laws Have I denied to pass any one Bill for the Ease and Security of my Subjects God so deal with me and mine as all my Thoughts and Intentions are upright for the maintenance of the true Protestant Profession and for the Observation and Preservation of the Laws of this Land Expressions surely that do not in the least savour of that Tyranny and Oppression with which at this time by many wicked persons his Memory is charged 'T is true these Applications from the two Houses at this time were for nothing less than the Militia but Can any man accuse him for a Tyrant because he would not part with that which his Ancestors alwaies enjoy'd and without which a King is indeed but the shadow of a King especially not to part with it at that time when so little a Regard had been paid to his Person nay so many Indignities had not only been promoted but encouraged too by those very men whom nothing now could satisfie but the whole Power of the Sword Well the King continuing stedfast to his Resolutions and deaf to all their Importunities telling them he would not part with his Militia for an hour which any wise man that considered the present posture of Affairs would judge he had great reason to do the Parliament falls into great Passions and Resentments and resolve to be as stiff on the other side and not to abate him an Ace of their Demands and so intent are they upon this very thing that though the King sent to them to digest into one body all the Grievances of the Kingdom and to send them to him promising his favourable Assent to those Means which should be found most effectual for Redress wherein as he says he would not only equal but exceed the most Indulgent Prince words which do not use to drop from the Mouth of a Tyrant as he is falsly called by some at this day Yet all this was nothing the Militia they must have or the Nation is undone and rather than fail they will take it into their Hands by force And so they did after they had sent the King a downright Message That if his Majesty did not agree with the two Houses to settle the Militia that then for his and the Kingdoms safety they shall be constrained of themselves without His Majesty to settle the necessary business of the Militia And they were as good as their words seize it they did in spight of all the King could say or proclaim to the contrary But before the War actually broke out the King was gone to York and made it the place of his Royal Residence hoping thereby to cool the Heats that were at London and in some little time to be invited thither to live with more Honour and Safety than he did before Now while the King staid at York what Protestations he made to the Gentlemen and Citizens of that that County and City what Assurances he gave them of his Resolutions to govern by Law and no otherwise and of his protecting and countenancing the Protestant Religion may be easily known by any man who will but look over the faithful Historians of those Times The same Assurances he gave to the Inhabitants of Lincoln-shire and Leicester-shire and when he was forced to raise an Army which was after the Parliament had voted the Necessity of a War with him and after they had seized his Militia as far as they could why to let the World then see what he aimed at he does assure the Gentlemen whose Loyalty engaged them early on his side Sept. 19.42 and does promise them in the presence of Almighty God and as he hopes for his Blessing and Protection that he would to the utmost of his Power defend and maintain the true Protestant Religion establish'd in the Church of England and by the Grace of God in the same he would live and dye The Truth is to repeat all that he said of this nature in several Counties and to several Parties would be endless and not at all suit with my disigned Brevity And now we come to another Scene of Action and God knows a very melancholly one For through the High and Imperious Demands of the Parliament to which the King could no ways without stripping himself of every thing but the Name of a King the Sword the Unhappy Sword is drawn and the poor Kingdom instead of being an Island of Peace and Plenty is made a Field of Blood and the Father appears against the Son and the Son against the Father our Plough-shares are turned into Spears and our Pruning-hooks into Instruments of Hostility And methinks it should grieve
certain Essex Doctor of Divinity who has assisted this Objection to the utmost of his power with a false Story which I will presently refute and set the whole in a true and proper Light Ans I could never obtain Leave of my self to believe that any Man could write at that divinerate but he that felt the Miseries that suggest such Thoughts and Heavenly Meditations the various Conditions of men good men wonderfully help them in their Retirements and Solitudes to Divine Intercourses and Aspirations and he that could counterfeit such things and make such Appeals to God without being in such Conditions as those Appeals suppose must be rather next to an Atheist than a good Christian And if the Essex Doctor had any value for the Memory of his deceased Friend he would certainly have forborn telling it in all places with a more than usual Confidence as he hath done and that for this one reason The Story in short that he tells is this That Dr. Gauden then of Bocking in Essex made this Book and sent him then his Curate to the Press with it which command he obey'd and accordingly did so carry it in order to its printing Now the Truth of the Story is thus There was one Mr. Simmons a learned and pious Minister who lived near Dr. Gauden in Essex and who out of a true Affection to His then Majesty's Person and Cause writ a learned Defence of the King with which the King was so pleased that he presently resolved that this person should have the perusal and correction of his Book and accordingly sends it by a trusty Messenger The Book when looked over by him did so affect him and no wonder that he could not forbear sending for his Neighbour Gauden in order to make him happy with himself in the sight and reading of such an inestimable Jewel Dr. Gauden would not be denied the kindness of taking the Book home with him for a few days which upon importunity Mr. Simmonds knowing the Dr. a Well-wisher at that time to the King granted Dr. Gauden presently falls to transcribing of it and in some days with great Labour and Application finishes it and so returns the Original to Mr. Simmonds again Within a while the great Storm coming upon the King which at last God knows wholly overset him Dr. Gauden out of a true Affection to his Master the King hoping thereby to do him Service sends his Copy by the Hands of this Doctor to the Press And so far and no farther was he concerned in it And whereas it is said that Dr. Gauden told King Charles the Second he made the Book the Truth of the Story is this That he putting in for the Bishoprick of Worcester and meeting with some opposition from Bishop Sheldon the King asked him what Pretences he had to so great a Favour he answered That he put out his Fathers Book which Answer tho' true in some sence yet being ambiguously spoken as it got him the Bishoprick so it also gave Rise to the late Earl of Anglesey's Memorandum which hath made so great noise in the World But to put all things out of doubt concerning this Book give me leave to tell this Story I was not many weaks ago in Conversation with Sir John Brattle a worthy person and who hath long enjoy'd a considerable Office in the Royal Mint with whom discoursing about King Charles the First and particularly of the Suspicions raised of the Truth of the Book he frankly told me and assured me the Truth of this Story That in the year 47. King Charles having drawn up the most considerable part of this Book and having writ it in some loose Papers at different times desired Bishop Juxon to get some Friend of his whom he could commend to him as a trusty person to look it over and to put it into an exact method the Bishop pitched upon Sir John's Father whom he had been acquainted withal for many years who undertaking the Task was assisted by this his Son who declares he sate up with his Father some nights to assist him in methodizing these Papers all writ with the King 's own Hand Thanks be to God Sir John is yet alive and is ready to give the same Account to any man that asks him And whosoever after this will suspect this Book is certainly a man of that temper who will keep up his Prejudices against this Great man in spight of all Evidences though as clear as the Sun at Noon And for my own part I must tell him that I think it not worth the while to attempt his further satisfaction because nullum remedium Deus posuit contumariae God Almighty hath not provided a Remedy for Resolved Stubbornness in the ordinary course of dealing with Men and if nothing but Miracles will convince them I have no Commission to pretend to them FINIS