fuppofe the fame perfon, the wifeft king in chriftendom, and yet fo foolish to ftudy his own deftruction; for who could fuffer fo much in the ruin of this nation as himself? for his hindering the earl of Leicester's going into Ireland, he had much more reason to do fo, than the parliament had to hinder him; and therefore you may as well conclude them guilty, as him, of the rebellion.

That they fold or exchanged, for arms and ammunition, the cloth and provifions fent by the parliament to the proteftants in Ireland, you muft either accufe the parliament, which feized upon his arms firft, and used them against him, or prove them above the law of nature, (which I believe you had rather do) that commands every man to defend himself. But the rebels in Ireland gave letters of mart for taking the parliament's fhips, but freed the king's as their very good friends. I fee you are not such a wizzard at defigns as you pretend to be; for if this be the deepest reach of your fubtilty, had you been a fenator in Rome, when Hannibal invaded Italy, and burnt all the country of the Roman dictator, you would have fpared no longer to prove him confederate with the enemy. But I fear I may feem as vain as yourself in repeating your impertinencies. There is one argument that might have ferved instead of all, to convince you of wickedness and folly in this business, and that is the filence of the charge, which (by your own rule, ought to be taken pro confeffo) there was never any fuch thing.

I will not trouble myself nor any body with your French legend, as being too inconfiderable to deferve any ferious notice, built only upon relations and hear-fays, and proved with your own conjectures; which how far we are to credit from a man of so much biafs and mistakes, any of thofe you appeal to fhall determine; to whom I fhall fay but this, that you do but acknowledge the injustice of the fentence, while you ftrive to make it good with fuch additions; for if you had not believed it very bad, you would never have taken fo much pains to mend it: and I hope your high court will punish you for it, whofe reputation your officious indifcretion hath much impaired. to no purpose: for tho' we fhould grant all your additions to be true, as you would have it, it does not at all justify the king's death, fince he did not die in relation to any thing there objected; and all you can poffibly aim at by this pitiful argument, is but to prove him guilty, becaufe

he

₹

he was punished; for you can never prove him punished because he was guilty.

For your epilogue, I have fo much charity to believe it (being of a different thread of language) none of your own; but either penn'd for you by your musty Peters, or elfe you writ fhort-hand very well to copy after the speech of his tongue. However you came by it, fure I am it could come from no body elfe; and having faid fo, I hope I fhall need fay no more; for I fhall be loth to commit the fin of repeating any of it: but since 'tis but a frippery of common-places of pulpit railing, ill put together, that pretend only to paffion, I am content you should use them yourself, and be allowed to say any thing with as little regard as if you wore your privilege: yet leaft you should grow fo conceited as to believe yourfelf, I will take Solomon's advice, and answer you not in your own way of railing or falfhood, but in doing fome right to truth and the memory of the dead, which you have equally injured.

T

The Character of King CHARLES I.

HAT he was a prince of incomparable virtues his very enemies cannot deny, (only they were not for their purpose) and thofe fo unblemished with any perfonal vice, that they were fain to abuse the security of his innocence, both to accufe and ruin him. His moderation (which he preferved equal in the extremity of both fortunes) they made a common difguife for their contrary impalations, as they had occafion to mifcal it, either an eafinefs to be misled by others, or obftinacy to rule by his own will. This temper of his was fo admirable, that neither the highest of temptations, adoration, and flattery, nor the lowest of mifery, injuries, the infolency of fools, could move him. His conftancy to his own virtues, was no mean caufe of his undoing; for if he had not stated the principles of government upon unalterable right, but could have shifted his fails to catch the popular air when it grew high (as his enemies did) they had never undone him with empty pretendings to what he really meant. His wifdom and knowledge were of fo noble a capacity, that nothing lay fo much out of his reach as the profound wickedness of his enemies, which his own goodness would never give him leave to fufpect, nor his experienc'd power to dif

cover; for they managed the whole course of his ruin, as they did the last act of it, in disguife; elfe fo great a wit as his had never been circumvented by the treachery and cheat, rather than policy of ignorant perfons. All he wanted of a king was, he knew not how to diffemble, unlefs concealing his own perfections were fo; in which he only deceived his people, who knew not his great abili ties, till their fins were punished with the lofs of him. In his death, he not only out-did the high refolution of the ancient Romans, but the humble patience of the primitive martyrs; fo far from the manner of tyrants, who use to wifh all the world their funeral pile, that he employed the care of his laft thoughts about the fafety of his very enemies, and died not only confulting, but praying for the preservation of thofe whom he knew refolved to have none, but what was built upon their own deftruction.

All this, and much more, the juftice of pofterity (when faction and concernment are removed) will acknowledge to be more true of him, than any of those flanders you (or the mad wickedness of this age) have thrown upon his memory, which fhall then, like dung caft at the roots of trees, but make his name more flourishing and glorious; when all those monuments of infamy you have raised, fhall become the trophies of his virtue, and your own fhame. In the mean time, as your own confcience, or the expectation of divine vengeance, fhall call upon you, you will fee what you have done, and find there is no murder fo horrid, as that which is committed with the fword of juftice; nor any injuftice fo notorious, as that which takes advantage both of the firft filence of the living, and that of the dead: in this laft, you have been very finful; and in accufing the dead, have not behaved yourfelf fo like a faint at the day of judgment, as the devil, whofe office is to be folicitor-general in fuch cafes. I will not judge you, left I fhould, do worfe, imitate you. But certainly you will find it the worst kind of witchcraft, to raife the devil by facrificing to your own malice, efpecially to fo bad a purpofe as you have done, that you might invade the judgment-feat of Chrift, and ufurp his jurif diction before his coming, which you have prefumed to do with more rudeness than Hacket used, and lefs formality in not fending your fore-runner to proclaim (in a turnip-cart) your coming to judgment. But the worst of all is, you seem to glory in your fins, and affert the martyr.

dom

dom of your wickedness, for having fuppofed a poffibility you may fall by the hands of violence: you arm yourself with a forc'd refolution, which you may be confident you will never have need of; for you have no reason to think any man can believe you have deferved a violent death; no, you have deserved rather to live long; fo long, till you fee yourself become the controverfy of wild beafts, and be fain to prove our scare-crow. Unless you shall think it juft, that as you have been condemned out of your own mouth, fo you shall fall by your own hand. Indeed there was not a hangman bad enough for Judas, but himself; and when you shall think fit to do yourself so much right, you fhall be your own footh-fayer, and fall by the hand of a Ravillac, to whom with more likeness compare yourfelf than to Henry the fourth, for you are no king. What Ravillac was, is very well known; what you are I leave to your own conscience.

A Propofal for the Farming Liberty of
Confcience.

INCE nothing can be dearer unto poor chriftians than Liberty, or the free exercife of their Judgments and Confciences, the pursuit of which happiness hath kindled that fire in the bowels of the three kingdoms, which all the precious blood that hath been fhed, during the late troubles, hath not been able totally to extinguish and fince many of us, whose names are affixed, were fo profitably inftrumental in thofe late combuftions, appears all long in our fermons before the honourable houfe of parliament, in the years 1642, 43, 44, 45, 46. in exciting the good people of this nation, to feek and maintain their Christian Liberty, against all Prelatical and Antichriftian Impofition whatfoever. And confidering that the little finger of apoftafy from our first love, would be a greater burden upon our tender confciences, than the loins of epifcopacy. We being more bound in honour than cazzScience, cannot totally defift; neither need any man fear, or fo much as fufpect, left any inconvenience or alteration fhould happen in religion, by the great diverfity of opinions, tongues, and languages, tolerated among us, unless in the great Babel of epifcopacy, that may poffibly be pulled down and destroyed by this our notable confufion; for, if

the

the gospel was wonderfully fpread abroad by every man's speaking in his own language, and the very enemies thereof astonished, and miraculously wrought into a belief of it; how it is likely to be now obstructed in the free exercise of our fpiritual gifts, with thefe our cloven and divided tongues. And fince many worthy perfons, from whom we might little expect it, but far less deserve it, out of their goodness and clemency, are pleased to incline to fome liberty, did not fome perfons, aliens and strangers to the common-wealth of Ifrael, take up a reproach against us, as perfons reprobated into an unpoffibility of fubmiffion to principles of concord, peace, and order, in church and state, never being able hitherto to come to any confiftency amongst ourselves; the ark of God having for twenty years together, been expofed to by-ways, ftreets, and worfe places, for want of an agreement amongst our own brethren where to reft it, or how to entertain it. If this be our cafe, and could we be fure of so much favour as Saul once defired of Samuel, that the bishops would but bonour us before the people, we would in a private chriftian way, lay our hands upon our hearts, and acknowledge the hand of God, and the juftice thereof, in turning us out of his vineyard, as wicked and unprofitable fervants, and to fuffer the iniquity of our heels to overtake us; crying out with the Rev. Mr Calamy, the ark of God is jufly departed from us; but being not yet thus affured, do hope the people will yet believe these to be only bear-skins lapp'd about us by episcopal hands: and therefore, to the end that a confiftency, and oneness of judgment of the whole separating brethren, and their moderation, may be known to all men, and that the world may know, that there is a fpirit of rule and government refting in us;

I

Tis humbly propofed that the fole power of granting licences and indulgences for Liberty of Confcience, within the kingdom of England, dominion of Wales, and town of Berwick, may be vested in the perfons under-named, for the term of feven years, under the farm rent of an hundred thousand pounds per Ann. to commence from the twenty-fifth day of March next, under fuch rates and qualifications as are hereafter specified.

The names of the grand commiffioners and farmers of Liperty of Confcience; propofed on Monday March 2. 1662.