things, his busying himself about them, and

if they please, (and I'll thank them for it) pray for me."

This answer is related by Mr. Herbert in a softer as well as a different manner. "At this time,” (Jan. 30.) says he, came to St. James's Ed. Calamy, Rich. Vines, Jos. Caryl, Will. Dell, and some other London ministers, who presented their duty to the king, with their humble desires to pray with him, and perform other offices of service, if his majesty would please to accept of them. The king returned them thanks for their love to his soul, hoping they and all other good subjects would, in their addresses to God, be mindful of him; but in regard he had made choice of Dr. Juxon, whom for many years he had known to be a pious and learned divine, and able to administer ghostly comfort to his soul, suitable to his present condition, he would have none other." I will conclude my authorities with a few passages from Dr. Perinchief."He [Charles] was careful of uniformity, both because he knew the power of just and lawful princes consisted in the union of their subjects, who never are cemented stronger than by an unity of religion. Besides, he saw that there was no greater impediment to a sincere piety, because that time and those parts that might improve godliness to a growth, were all wasted and corrupted in malice and slanders, betwixt the dissenters, about forms. He was more tender in preserving the truths of Christianity, than the rights of his throne. Thus," adds this writer, "though he could not infuse spiritual graces into the minds of his subjects, yet he would manage their reason by pious arts: and what the example of a king could not do, that his law should, and he would restrain those vices which he could not

* Wood's Athenæ Oxonienses, vol. II. c. 699. fol. Lond. 1721.

employing" himself in works, which, though

extirpate."-Here we see zeal for uniformity in rites and modes, a stiff adherence to particular forms, a settled resolution to maintain and impose them, arising from a belief of their being most acceptable to the Deity, and conducive to men's salvation; and also the highest dislike and prejudice against such as were of different sentiments, and endeavours to suppress them: I say, all this we here see, and consequently the bigotry of Charles, which led him to allow of and encourage such severities, on the account of religious opinions, as raised in the minds of his subjects dislike and aversion, and contributed to his ruin, as in the course of this work will appear.

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Employing himself in works unworthy of his elevated rank, &c.] A king should act like himself. He should attend to those matters which relate to the welfare and happiness of his people; he should study their genius and manners, and employ his thoughts in devising ways for promoting their grandeur and felicity. Modest merit he should inquire after, arts and sciences he should encourage, useful inventions he should reward, attend to the complaints of his subjects, and readily redress their grievances. In a word, his care should be to distribute equal and impartial justice to those under his rule, and defend them from the insults and oppressions of the nations around them. This, I say, is the duty of a king; and he who would discharge it well, had need give it his time and pains. As for lesser matters, though they may be useful or ornamental in private life, it is not expected a prince should excel in them; much less contend with such as professedly addict themselves to them, and reap emolument from them. What in these is praiseworthy, in a

a Life of King Charles, p. 62.

not blameable in themselves, were unworthy of the elevated rank in which he was placed.

king is mean; below his character, and what must render him but little respectable to those around him. But Charles either understood not this, or acted diametrically contrary to it. "He minded little things too much, and was more concerned in the drawing of a paper, than in fighting a battle "."" Whensoever his secretaries had drawn up, by the direction of the council, declarations or any other papers, and offered them to his perusal, though both they and the council had done their parts, yet he would always with his own hand correct them, both as to matter and form; he commonly using these words when he took the pen in his hand, Come, I am a good cobler: and the corrections were acknowledged by them all to be both for the greater lustre and advantage of the writings". Agreeably hereunto Sir Philip Warwick writes. "Though he was of as slow a pen as of speech, yet both were very significant: and he had that modest esteem of his own parts, that he would usually say, He would willingly make his own dispatches, but that he found it better to be a cobler than a shoemaker. have been in company with very learned men, when I have brought them their own papers back from him with his alterations, who ever confessed his amendments to have been very material. And I once, by his commandment, brought him a paper of my own to read, to see whether it was suitable to his directions, and he disallowed it slightingly: I desired him I might call Dr. Sanderson to aid me, and that the doctor might understand his own meaning from himself; and with his majesty's leave I brought him, whilst he was walking and taking the air; whereupon Perinchief, p. 71.

a Burnet, vol. I. p. 71.

I

a

Lord Clarendon assures us, that he was not in his nature very bountiful, though he

we two went back; but pleased him as little, when we returned it for smilingly he said, a man might have as good ware out of a chandler's shop: but afterwards he set it down with his own pen very plainly, and suitably to his own intentions "." But it will be necessary to be more particular on this head, and therefore I shall give a short detail of the employments in which he busied himself, even sometimes when one would have thought he might have been more profitably engaged. He took the pains, we are told, to epitomize Laud's book against Fisher, and to translate Dr. Sanderson's book de Juramentis: he writ many annotations and quotations with his own hand in the margin of his Bible, and was at the pains of drawing instructions for his archbishops Abbot and Laud, perusing the accounts they gave of their provinces, and writing marginal notes on them, in which he discovered his bigotry, superstition, and attachment to the priesthood. "I will have no preest have anie necessity of a lay dependancie," says he in one of them. In a second, remarking on Laud's acquainting him that there were some Brownists in his diocess, and that the only remedy was to make the chief seducers be driven to abjure the kingdom, he says, "Informe me of the particulars, and I shall command the judges to make them abjure." I will add only a third, which was made by him upon a complaint against five ministers for not catechising: "I desire," says he, "to know the certainty of this." In short, whoever would know

2 Vol. V. p. 257.

dale's Short View, p. 383.

b Memoirs, p. 70.

Id. p. 82. and Dug

d Wood's Athenæ Oxon. vol. II. c. 701.

* The Archbishop's Annual Accounts of his Province to the King, at the end of Laud's troubles and trial, by Wharton. Lond. fol. 1695.

gave very much. This appeared more after the duke of Buckingham's death, after which those showers fell very rarely; and he paused too long in giving; which made those to whom he gave, less sensible of the

the littleness of the mind of Charles, and the attention he paid to trifles, cannot do better than read his instructions about church matters, and his remarks on the accounts he received concerning them.—But to go on.—When his majesty was at Newcastle, in the year 1646, he engaged in a controversy with Mr. Alexander Henderson, a Scotch divine, concerning the change of church-government; in which, after the manner of polemical divines, he debates strenuously against presbytery; declares his opinion that church-government is an essential; that it was of such consequence, as, by the alteration of it, we should deprive ourselves of a lawful priesthood; and then, says he, how the sacraments can be duly administered, is easy to judgea. -When the king was at Holdenby, April 23, 1647, he propounded to the parliament's commissioners the following quare, Why the new reformers discharge the keeping of Easter? "The reason for this quære is, I conceive, the celebration of this feast was instituted by the same authority, which changed the Jewish Sabbath-day into the Lord's-day, or Sunday; for it will not be found in Scripture where Saturday is discharged to be kept, or turned into the Sunday: wherefore it must be the church's authority that changed the one, and instituted the other. Therefore my opinion is, that those who will not keep this feast, may as well return to the observation of Saturday, and refuse the

* King Charles's Works, p. 76.

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