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{Transcriber's notes:
All material added by the transcriber is surrounded by braces {}.
The original has many inconsistent spellings. A few corrections have
been made for obvious typographical errors; they have been noted
individually at the end of the text. Some words are unclear; they have
also been noted.
The caret character (^) indicates that the remainder of the word is
superscripted. The word Tyranny (Tyrannie, Tyrannies) is sometimes spelled
with only one 'n', the other being denoted by a diacritical mark. The
spelling has been regularised to 'nn'.
The original contains some handwritten corrections and additions (see the
Introduction for details). They are represented [HW: like this].
Sidenotes are represented [SN: like this]. }
The Augustan Reprint Society
John Evelyn
_An Apologie for the Royal Party_ (1659); and
_A Panegyric to Charles the Second_ (1661)
With an Introduction by
Geoffrey Keynes
Publication Number 28
Los Angeles
William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
University of California
1951
_GENERAL EDITORS_
H. RICHARD ARCHER, _Clark Memorial Library_
RICHARD C. BOYS, _University of Michigan_
EDWARD NILES HOOKER, _University of California, Los Angeles_
JOHN LOFTIS, _University of California, Los Angeles_
_ASSISTANT EDITOR_
W. EARL BRITTON, _University of Michigan_
_ADVISORY EDITORS_
EMMETT L. AVERY, _State College of Washington_
BENJAMIN BOYCE, _Duke University_
LOUIS I. BREDVOLD, _University of Michigan_
CLEANTH BROOKS, _Yale University_
JAMES L. CLIFFORD, _Columbia University_
ARTHUR FRIEDMAN, _University of Chicago_
LOUIS A. LANDA, _Princeton University_
SAMUEL H. MONK, _university Of Minnesota_
ERNEST MOSSNER, _University of Texas_
JAMES SUTHERLAND, _Queen Mary College, London_
H. T. SWEDENBERG, JR., _University of California, Los Angeles_
INTRODUCTION
On October 24, 1659, a quarto pamphlet was published in London with the
following title: "The Army's Plea for Their present Practice: tendered to
the consideration of all ingenuous and impartial men. Printed and
published by special command. London, Printed by Henry Hills, Printer to
the Army, dwelling in Aldersgate Street next door to the Peacock. 1659".
Three days afterwards, on October 27, John Evelyn had finished writing an
answer, which was published a week later, on November 4, under the title:
"An Apologie for the Royal Party ... With a Touch At the pretended Plea
for the Army. Anno Dom. MDCLIX". No author's name, printer or place was
given. Evelyn afterwards made the note in his Diary under the date
November 7, 1659, that is, three days after the actual publication: "Was
publish'd my bold Apologie for the King in His time of danger, when it was
capital to speak or write in favour of him. It was twice printed, so
universaly it took."[1] Evelyn was by conviction an ardent royalist, but
by temperament he was peaceable, and the publication of this pamphlet was
a courageous act on his part, involving considerable risks.
The _Apologie for the Royal Party_ contains an eloquent and outspoken
attack upon the parliamentary party, the depth of the author's feelings
making his style of writing more effective than it usually was.
Events were at this date nearing their climax, and Evelyn, soon after the
publication of his pamphlet, made persistent attempts to induce Colonel
Henry Morley, then Lieutenant of the Tower of London, to declare for the
King. In the edition of Baker's _Chronicle of the Kings of England_,
edited by Edward Phillips, 1665, is given the following account of the
negotiations (p. 736): "Mr. Evelyn gave him [Col. Morley] some visits to
attemper his affection by degrees to a confidence in him, & then by
consequence to ingage him in his designes; and to induce him the more
powerfully thereunto, he put into his hands an excellent and unanswerable
hardy treatise by him written and severall times reprinted, intituled _An
Apology for the Royall Party_, which he backed with so good Argument and
dextrous Addresses in the prosecution of them, that, after some private
discourse, the Colonel was so well inclin'd, as to recommend to him the
procurement of his Majestie's Grace for him, his Brother-in-law Mr. Fagg,
and one or two more of his Relations". Phillips added an account of a
letter written by Evelyn to Colonel Morley, and gave him great credit for
the influence which he exerted, though Evelyn endorsed a draft of the
narrative with a statement saying there "was too much said concerning me".
Nevertheless part of the narrative was confirmed by Evelyn when he wrote
on the title-page of the copy of the pamphlet here reproduced: "Delivered
to Coll. Morley a few daies after his contest w^th Lambert in the palace
yard by J. Evelyn". The "contest" with General Lambert took place on
October 12 or 13 when Morley, pistol in hand, refused to allow him at the
head of his troops to pass through the Palace Yard.
Evelyn also wrote on the title-page of this copy of his pamphlet "three
tymes printed". In fact there were four printings, all described in the
writer's _John Evelyn, a Study in Bibliophily & a Bibliography of his
Writings_, New York, The Grolier Club, 1937, the one here reproduced being
the fourth and final form. Nevertheless all four issues are now extremely
scarce, the first printing being known in three copies (one in the United
States), the second in seven (two in the United States), the third in one,
and the fourth in one. This apparently unique relic of Evelyn's bold
gesture on behalf of his King is in the writer's possession and is still
as issued, edges untrimmed and with its eight leaves stitched in a
contemporary paper wrapper. It has been reprinted only in Evelyn's
_Miscellaneous Writings_, 1825, pp. 169-192.
* * * * *
When Charles II actually returned to England in 1660 Evelyn's feelings
were deeply stirred. He had played some part in the restoration of the
monarchy, and, with his literary instinct, naturally felt impelled to be
among those who wished to present the King with an address on the day of
his Coronation. This took place on April 23, 1661, and on the following
day Evelyn recorded in his Diary: "I presented his Ma^tie with his
Panegyric in the Private Chamber, which he was pleas'd to accept most
graciously: I gave copies to the Lord Chancellor and most of the noblemen
who came to me for it."[2] Evelyn's _Panegyric_ was thus distributed
privately and no doubt in small number, so that it is today extremely
uncommon, being known only in five copies, not more than one of which is
in the United States of America. Evelyn possessed a copy in 1687 according
to his library catalogue compiled in that year, and a copy (not
necessarily the same one) is now among his books in the library of Christ
Church, Oxford, but it seems to have been unknown in 1825 and was not
included in the _Miscellaneous Writings_. William Upcott, the editor, in
fact erroneously identified the _Panegyric_ with the anonymous piece in
folio: "A Poem upon his Majesties Coronation ... Being S^t Georges day ...
London, Printed for Gabriel Bedel and Thomas Collins ... 1661". This
mistake was not put right until a copy of the true _Panegyric_ with
Evelyn's name on the title-page was acquired for the British Museum in
1927 from the Britwell Court Library. The copy here reproduced is in the
writer's collection, and has a few corrections in Evelyn's hand: (a)
_XXXIII. of April_, on title-page corrected to _XXIII_; (b) p.6. l.18
_Family_ altered to _Firmament_; (c) p.8. l.16 from bottom _suffer_
altered to _surfeit_.
When the _Panegyric_ was identified it was realised that it was not a
poem, but an eloquent and extravagant composition in prose, in which
Evelyn invested Charles II with every conceivable virtue and all wisdom.
This was no doubt written with sincere enthusiasm, though Evelyn suffered
a profound disillusionment in later years; and if he ever read his
effusion again it must have caused him some distress. The _Panegyric_ is
now reprinted for the first time.
Geoffrey Keynes
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Evelyn's _Diary_, ed. Wheatley, vol. II, p. 108.
[2] Evelyn's _Diary_, ed. Wheatley, vol. II, p. 130.
AN
A P O L O G Y
FOR THE
ROYAL PARTY:
Written in a
L E T T E R
To a Person of the Late
COUNCEL of STATE.
* * * * *
_By a Lover of Peace and of his Country._
* * * * *
WITH
A T O U C H
At the Pretended
PLEA FOR THE ARMY.
[HW: three tymes printed.]
* * * * *
[HW: Delivered to Coll: Morley, a few daies
after his contest w^th Lambert in the
Palace Yard: by J. Evelyn:]
* * * * *
_Anno Dom. MDCLIX._
AN
A P O L O G I E
FOR THE
R O Y A L P A R T Y:
Written in a LETTER to a Person of the late
_COUNCEL_ of _STATE_,
By a Lover of Peace and of his Countrey:
With a Touch at the _pretended Plea_ for the Army.
_SIR_,
The many Civilities which you are still pleased to continue to me, and my
very great desire to answer them in the worthiest testimonies of my zeal
for your service, must make my best Apology for this manner of Addresse;
if out of an extream affection for your noblest Interest, I seem
transported a little upon your first reflections, and am made to despise
the consequence of entertaining you with such Truths, as are of the
greatest danger to my self; but of no less import to your happiness, and,
which carry with them the most indelible Characters of my Friendship. For
if as the Apostle affirms, _For a good man, some would even dare to dy_,
why should my Charity be prejudged, if hoping to convert you from the
errour of your way, I despair not of rendring you the Person for whose
preservation there will be nothing too dear for me to expose?
I might with reason beleeve that the first election of the Party wherein
you stood engaged, proceeded from inexperience and the mistake of your
zeal; not to say from your compliance to the passions of others; because I
both knew your education, and how obsequious you have alwayes shewed your
self to those who had then the direction of you: But, when after the
example of their conversion, upon discovery of the Impostures which
perverted them; and the signal indignation of God, upon the several
periods which your eyes have lately beheld, of the bloudiest Tyrannies,
and most prodigious oppressors that ever any age of the world produc'd, I
see you still persist in your course, and that you have turn'd about with
every revolution which has hapned: when I consider, what contradictions
you have swallowed, how deeply you have ingaged, how servilely you have
flatter'd, and the base and mean submissions by which you have
dishonour'd your self, and stained your noble Family; not to mention the
least refinement of your religion or morality (besides that you have still
preserved a civility for me, who am ready to acknowledge it, and never
merited other from you) I say, when I seriously reflect upon all this; I
cannot but suspect the integrity of your procedure, deplore the sadness of
your condition, and resolve to attempt the discovery of it to you; by all
the instances, which an affection perfectly touch't with a zeal for your
eternall interest can produce. And who can tell, but it may please
Almighty God, to affect _you_ yet by a weak instrument, who have resisted
so many powerfull indications of his displeasure at your proceedings, by
the event of things?
For, since you are apt to recriminate, and after you have boasted of the
prosperity or your cause, and the thriving of your Wickedness (an Argument
farr better becoming a _Mahumetan_ then a _Christian_) let us state the
matter a little, and compare particulars together; let us go back to the
source, and search the very principles; and then see, if ever any cause
had like success indeed; and whether it be a just reproach to your
Enemies, that the judgments of God have begun with them, whilst you know
not yet, where they may determine.
First then, be pleased to look North-wards upon your Brethren the Scots,
who (being first instigated by that crafty _Cardinal_ [SN: Richlieu] to
disturb the groth of the incomparable _Church of England_, and so
consequently the tranquility of a Nation, whose expedition at the Isle of
_Ree_, gave terrour to the French) made Reformation their pretence, to
gratifie their own avarice, introduce themselves, and a more then
_Babylonish_ Tyranny, imposing upon the Church and state, beyond all
impudence or example. _I_ say, look upon what they have gotten, by
deceiving their Brethren, selling their King, betraying his Son, and by
all their perfidie; but a slavery more then _Egyptian_, and an infamy as
unparallel'd, as their treason and ingratitude.
Look neerer home on those whom they had ingaged amongst us here, & tell me
if there be a Person of them left, that can shew me his prize, unless it
be that of his Sacriledg, which he, or his Nephews must certainly vomite
up again: What is become of this ignorant and furious zeal, this pretence
of an universall perfection in the Religious and the Secular, after all
that Blood and Treasure, Rapine and Injustice, which has been exhausted,
and perpetrated by these Sons of Thunder? Where is the King, whom they
swear to make so glorious, but meant it in his _Martyrdome_? Where is the
Classis, and the Assembly, the Lay-elder; all that geare of Scottish
discipline, and the fine new Trinkets of Reformation? Were not all these
taken out of their hand, while now they were in the height of their pride
and triumph? And their dull Generall made to serve the execution of their
Sovereign, and then to be turn'd off himself, as a property no more of use
to their designes? Their riches and their strength in which they trusted,
and the Parliament which they even idoliz'd, in sum, the prey they had
contended for at the expence of so much sin and damnation, seizd upon by
those very instruments, which they had rais'd to serve their insatiable
avarice, and prodigious disloyalty. For so it pleased God to chastise
their implacable persecution of an excellent Prince, with a slavery under
such a _Tyrant_, as not being contented to butcher even some upon the
Scaffold, sold divers of them for slaves, and others he exild into cruell
banishment, without pretence of Law, or the least commiseration; that
those who before had no mercy on others, might find none themselves; till
upon some hope of their repentance, and future moderation, it pleased God
to put his hook into the nostrills of that proud _Leviathan_, and send him
to his place, after he had thus mortified the fury of the Presbyterians.
For unlesse God himself should utter his voice from Heaven, _yea, and that
a mighty voice_, can there any thing in the world be more evident, then
his indignation at those wretches and barefac't Impostors, who, one after
another, usurped upon us, taking them off at the very point of aspiring,
and præcipitating the glory and ambition of these men, before those that
were, but now, their adorers, and that had prostituted their consciences
to serve their lusts? To call him the _Moses_, the _Man of God_, the
_Joshua_, the _Saviour_ of _Israel_; and after all this, to treat the
_Thing_ his son with addresses no lesse then blasphemous, whose Father (as
themselves confess to be the most infamous Hypocrite and profligate
Atheist of all the Usurpers that ever any age produc'd) had made them his
Vassalls, and would have intaild them so to his posterity for ever?
But behold the scean is again changed, not by the Royall party, the Common
Enemy, or a forreign power; but by the despicable _Rumpe_ of a Parliament,
which that _Mountebanke_ had formerly serv'd himself of, and had rais'd
him to that pitch, and investiture: But see withall, how soon these
triflers and puppets of policy are blown away, with all their pack of
modells and childish _Chimæras_, nothing remaining of them but their
Coffine, guarded by the Souldiers at Westminster; but which is yet lesse
empty then the heads of those Polititians, which so lately seemed to fill
it.
For the rest, I despise to blot paper with a recitall of those wretched
_Interludes, Farces and Fantasms_, which appear'd in the severall
intervalls; because they were nothing but the effects of an extream
gyddiness, and unparallel'd levity. Yet these are those various
despensations and providences in your journey to that _holy land_ of
purchases and profits, to which you have from time to time appeal'd for
the justification of your proceedings, whilst they were, indeed, no other
then the manifest judgments of God upon your rebellion and your ambition:
I say nothing of your hypocriticall fasts, and pretended humiliations,
previous to the succeeding plots, and supposititious Revelations, that
_the godly might fall into the hands of your Captains_, because they were
bugbears, and became ridiculous even to the common people.
And now _Sr._ if you please, let us begin to set down the product and
survey the successe of your party and after all these faces and vertigo's
tell me ingenuously, if the single chastisment which is fallen upon one
afflicted man, and his loyall subjects, distressed by the common event of
war, want of treasure, the seizure of his Fleet, forcing him from his
City, and all the disadvantages that a perfidious people could imagine;
but in fine the crowning him with a glorious _Martyrdome_ for the Church
of God and the liberty of his people (for which his blood doth yet cry
aloud for vengeance) be comparable to the confusion which you (that have
been the conquerours) have suffered, and the slavery which you are like to
leave to the posterities which will be born but to curse you, and to groan
under the pressures which you bequeath to your own flesh & blood? For to
what a condition you have already reduced this once flourishing kingdom,
since all has been your own, let the intolerable oppressions, taxes,
Excises, sequestrations confiscations, plunders, customes, decimations,
not to mention the plate, even to very thimbles and the bodkins (for even
to these did your avarice descend) and other booties, speak. All this
dissipated and squandred away, to gratifie a few covetous and ambitious
wretches, whose appetites are as deep as hell, and as insatiable as the
grave; as if (as the Wise-man speaks) _our time here were but a market for
gain_.
Look then into the Churches, and manners of the people, even amongst your
own _Saints_, and tell me, if since _Simon Magus_ was upon the earth,
there were ever heard of so many _Schismes_, and _Heresies_, of _Jewes_
and _Socinians_, _Quakers_, _Fifth-monarchy-men_, _Arians_, _Anabaptists_,
_Independents_, and a thousand severall forts of _Blasphemies_ and
professed _Atheists_, all of them spawned under your government; and then
tell me what a Reformation of Religion you have effected?
Was there ever in the whole Earth (not to mention Christendom alone) a
perjury so prodigious, and yet so avowed as that by which you have taken
away the estate of my L. _Craven_, at which the very _Infidels_ would
blush, a _Turke_ or _Sythian_ stand amaz'd?
Under the Sun was it never heard, that a man should be condemned for
transgressing no law, but that which was made after the fact, and
abrogated after execution; that the Posterities to come might not be
witnesses of your horrid injustice: Yet thus you proceeded against my _L.
Stafford_. How many are those gallant persons whom after articles of war,
you have butchered in cold-blood, violating your promises against the
Lawes of all Nations, civill or barbarous; and yet thus you dealt in the
case of my L. _Capel_, Sr. _J. Stawel_ and others.
Is not the whole nation become sullen and proud, ignorant and suspicious,
incharitable, curst, and in fine, the most depraved and perfidious under
heaven? And whence does all this proceed, but from the effects of your own
examples, and the impunity of evill doers?
I need not tell you how long Justice has been sold by the _Committees_,
and the Chair-men, the Sequestrators and Simoniacall Tryers, not to
mention the late Courtiers, and a swarm of _Publicans_ who _have eaten up
the People as if they would eat bread_.
Will you come now to the particular mis-fortunes, and the evident hand of
God upon you for these actions (for he has not altogether left us without
some expresse witnesses of his displeasure at your doings,) Behold then
your _Essex_ and your _Warwick_, your _Ferfaix_, and your _Waller_, (whom
once your Books stiled the _Lord of Hosts_) Cashiered, Imprisoned,
Suspected and Disgraced after all their Services. _Hotham_, and his _Son_
came to the block; _Stapleton_ had the buriall of an Asse, and was thrown
into a Town Ditch; _Brookes_ and _Hamden_ signally slain in the very act
of Rebellion and Sacriledge; your atheisticall _Dorislaw_, _Ascam_ and the
Sodomiticall _Ariba_, whom though they escaped the hand of Justice, yet
_Vengeance_ would not suffer to live: What became of _Rainsborough_?
_Ireton_ perished of the Plague, and _Hoyle_ hanged himself; _Staplie_
'tis said, died mad, and _Cromwell_ in a fit of raging; and if there were
any others worthy the taking notice of, I should give you a list of their
names and of their destinies; but it was not known whence they came which
succeeded them; nor had they left any memory behind them, but for their
signal wickednesses, as he that set on fire the _Ephesian Temple_ to be
recorded a Villain to posterity. Whereas those noble souls whom your
inhumanity, (not your vertue) betrayed, gave proof of their extraction,
Innocency, Religion and Constancy under all their Tryals and Tormentors;
and those that dyed by the sword, fell in the bed of honour, and did
worthily for their Country; their _Loyalty_ and their _Religion_ will be
renowned in the History of Ages, and pretious to their memory, when your
names will rot with your Carkasses, and your remembrance be as dung upon
the face of the Earth. For there is already no place of _Europe_ where
your infamy is not spread; whilst your persecuted brethren rejoyce in
their sufferings, can abound, and can want, blush not at their actions,
nor are ashamed at their addresses; because they have suffered for that
which their Faith and their Birth, their Lawes and their Liberties have
celebrated with the most glorious Inscriptions, and Everlasting Elogies.
And if fresher instances of all these particulars be required, cast your
eye a little upon the _Armies pretended Plea_, which came lately a birding
to beat the way before them, charm the ears of the Vulgar, and captivate
the people; That after all its _pseudo-politicks_ and irreligious
principles, is at last constrained to acknowledg _your open and prodigious
violations, strange and illegal Actions, (as in termes it confesses) of
taking up Armes, Raising and Forming Armies against the King, fighting
against his Person, Imprisoning, Impeaching, Arraigning, Trying and
Executing Him: Banishing his Children, abolishing Bishops, Deans and
Chapters; taking away Kingly Government, and the House of Lords, breaking
the Crowns, selling the Jewells, Plate, Goods, Houses and Lands belonging
unto the Kings of this Nation, erecting extraordinary High Courts of
Justice, and therein Impeaching, Arraigning, condemning, and Executing
many pretended notorious Enemies, to the publick Peace; when the Lawes in
being, and the Ordinary Courts of Justice could not reach them: By strange
and unknown practises in this Nation, and not at all Justifiable by any
known Lawes and Statutes_, But by certain diabolical principles of late
distilled into some person of the Army, and which he would entitle to the
whole, who (abating some of their Commanders, that have sucked the sweet
of this Doctrine) had them never so much as entred into their thoughts,
nor could they be so depraved, though they were Masters only of the Light
of Nature to direct them. For Common sence will tell them, that whoever
are our lawful Superiours, and invested with the supreame Authority,
either by their own vertue, or the peoples due Election, have then a just
right to challenge submission to their precepts, and that we acquiesce in
their determinations; since there is in nature no other expedient to
preserve us from everlasting confusion: But it is the height of all
impertinency to conceive, that those which are a part of themselves, and
can in so great a Body, have no other interests, should (without the
manifest hand of God were in it to infatuate all your proceedings) fall
into such exorbitant contradiction to their own good, as a child of four
years old would not be guilty of; and as this Pamphleter wildly suggests
in pp. 6. 11. 27, &c. did they steer their course by the known laws of the
Land, and as obedient Subjects should do, who without the King and his
Peers, are but the Carkass of a Parliament, as destitute of the Soul which
should inform and give it being. And if so small a handful of men as
appeared in the Palace-Yard, without consent of a quarter of the English
Army, much lesse the tenthousand'th part of the Free-people that are not
clad in red, shall disturb and alter your Government when it thinks fit to
set aside a few imperious Officers, who plainly seek themselves, and
derive their Commissions from superiours to whom they swear obedience; how
can you ever hope, or live to see any government established in these
miserably abused Nations? Behold then with how weak a party you are
vanquish'd, even by those very instruments you had so long flatter'd with
the title of the _Free-people_; imputing all the direful effects of your
depraved principles to their desires, when as I dare report my self to the
ingenuity of the very Souldiers themselves, if they, who have effected all
these changes by your wretched instigations, and blind pretences, imagine
themselves the People of this Nation, but are{1} a very small portion of
them, compared to the whole, and who are maintained by them to recover,
and protect the Civill Government, according to the Good old Lawes of the
Land; not such as they themselves shall invent from Day to Day, or as the
interests of some few persons may engage them.
But if the essential end of Rulers be the Common peace, and their Lawes
obliging as they become relative: Restore us then to those under which we
lived with so much sweetness and tranquility, as no age in the World, no
Government under Heaven could ever pretend the like. And if the People (as
you declare) are to be the Judges of it, summon them together in a Free
Parliament, according to its legal Constitution; or make a universal
_Balott_, and then let it appear, if _Collonel Lambert_ and half a dozen
Officers, with all their seduced Partizans, make so much as a single
_Cypher_ to the _Summe Total_. And this shall be enough to answer those
devious Principles set down in the porch of that specious Edifice; which
being erected upon the Sand, will (like the rest that has been _daubed
with untempered mortar_) sink also at the next high wind that blowes upon
it. But I am glad it is at last avowed, upon what pretexts that late
pretended Parliament have pleaded on the behalf of themselves and party,
their discharge from all the former Protestations, Engagements, solemn
Vowes, Covenants, with hands (as you say) lift up to the most high God, as
also their Oaths and Allegiance, &c. because I shall not in this discourse
be charged with slandering of them, and that the whole World may detest
the Actions of such perfidious Infidels, with whom nothing sacred has
remain'd inviolable.
But there is yet a piece of Artifice behind, of no less consequence then
the former, and that is, a seeking to perswade the present Army, that
_They_ were the men, who first engaged thus solemnly to destroy the
Government under which they were born, and reduce it to this miserable
condition: whereas it is well known by such as converse daily with them,
that there is hardly one of ten amongst them, who was then in Armes; and
that it was the Zelots under _Essex_, and the succeeding Generals, who
were the persons whose perfidiousness{2} he makes so much use of, and that
the present Army consists of a far more ingenuous spirit, and might in one
moment vindicate this aspersion, make their conditions with all advantage,
and these Nations the most happy People upon the Earth, as it cannot be
despaired but they will one day do, when by the goodness of Almighty God,
they shall perfectly discern through the mist which you have cast upon
their eyes, lest they should discover the Imposture of these _Egyptian_
Sorcerers.
And now, _Sir_, if after all this injustice, and impiety on your parts,
you have prosecuted that with the extreamest madness, which you esteemed
criminal in your enemies, _viz._ _To arrogate the supream power in a
single person;{3} condemn men without Law; execute, and proscribe them
with as little: Imprest for your Service, violate your Parliaments,
dispense with your solemn Oaths_; in summe, _to mingle Earth and Heaven by
your arbitrary proceedings_: All which, not only your printed books, this
pretended _plea_; but your Actions have abundantly declared; have you not
justified the Royal party, and pronounced them the only honest men which
have appeared upon the stage, in Characters as plain, that he which runs
may read, whilst yet you persecute them to the death? _Therefore, thou
art inexcusable, O Man, that _perpetratest_ these things; For wherein thou
judgest another, thou condemnest thy self, seeing thou that judgest doest
the same things. But thinkest thou this O Man, that thus judgest them
which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the
_vengeance_ of God? I tell ye nay, but except ye repent, ye shall all
likewise perish._
Truly, _Sir_, when I compare these things together, and compare them I do
very often, consider the purchases which you have made, and the damnation
you have certainly adventured; the despite you have done to the name of
Christ, the Laws of Common humanity which you have violated, the malice
and the folly of your proceedings; in fine, the confusion which you have
brought upon the Church, the State, and your selves; I adore the just and
righteous judgment of God; and (howsoever you may possibly emerge, and
recover the present rout) had rather be a sufferer among those whom you
have thus afflicted, and thus censure, then to enjoy the pleasures of your
sins for that season you are likely to possess them: For if an Angel from
Heaven should tell me you had done your duties, I would no more believe
him, then if he should preach another Gospel, then that which has been
delivered to us; because you have blasphemed that holy profession, and
done violence to that Gracious Spirit, by whose sacred dictates you are
taught to live in obedience to your Superiours, and in Charity to one
another; covering yet all this _Hydra_ of Impostures with a mask Of Piety
and Reformation, whilst you breath nothing but oppression, and lye in wait
to deceive. But _O God! how long shall the Adversary do this dishonour,
how long shall the Enemy blaspheme thy name, for ever? They gather them
together against the soul of the Righteous, and condemn the innocent
blood. Lo these are the ungodly, these prosper in the World, and these
have riches in possession: And I said, then have I cleansed my heart in
vain, and washed my hands in innocency. Yea, and I had almost said as
they; but lo, then I should have condemned the generation of thy Children.
Then thought I to understand this, but it was too hard for me, untill I
went into the Sanctuary of God; then understood I the end of these Men.
Namely, how thou dost set them in slippery places, castest them down and
destroyest them._
* * * * *
_O how suddenly do they consume, perish, and come to a fearfull end!_
We have seen it, indeed _Sir_, we have seen it, and we cannot but
acknowledge it the very finger of God, _mirabile in oculis nostris_; and
is that, truly, which even constrains me out of Charity to your Soul, as
well as out of a deep sense of your Honour, and the Friendship which I
otherwise bear you, to beseech you to re-enter into your self, to abandon
those false Principles, to withdraw your self from these Seducers, to
repent of what you have done, _and save your self from this untoward
Generation_: There is yet a door of Repentance open, do not provoke the
Majesty of the great God any longer, which yet tenders a Reconciliation
to you. Remember what was once said over the perishing _Jerusalem_. _How
often would I have gathered you together, as a hen doth gather her brood
under her winge, and ye would not? Behold, your _House_ is left unto you
desolate._--For do not think it impossible, that we should become the most
abandon'd, and barbarous of all the nations under heaven. You know who has
said it: _He turneth a fruitfull land into a Wildernesse, for the iniquity
of them that inhabit therein._ And truly, he that shall seriously consider
the sad _Catastrophe_ of the _Eastern Empire_, so flourishing in piety,
policy, knowledg, literature, and all the excellencies of a happy and
blessed people; would almost think it impossible, that in so few years,
and a midst so glorious a light of learning and Religion, so suddain, and
palpable a darknesse, so strange and horrid a barbarity should over-spread
them, as now we behold in all that goodly tract of the _Turkish_
dominions: And what was the cause of all this, but the giddinesse of a
wanton people, the Schisms and the Heresies in the church, and the
prosperous successes of a rebellious _Impostor_, whose steps we have
pursued in so many pregnant instances; giving countenance to those unheard
of impieties, and delusions, as if God be not infinitely merciful, must
needs involve us under the same disasters? For, whilst there is no order
in the Church, no body of Religion agreed upon, no government established,
and that every man is abandoned to his own deceitfull heart: whilst
learning is decried, and honesty discountenanc'd, rapine defended, and
vertue finds no advocate; what can we in reason expect, but the most
direfull expressions of the wrath of God, a universall desolation, when by
the industry of _Sathan_ and his crafty Emissaries, some desperate
_enthusiasme_, compounded (like that of _Mohomet_,) of Arian, Socinian,
Jew, Anabaptist, and the impurer _Gnostick_, something I say made up of
all these heresies, shall diffuse it self over the Nation, in a universall
contagion, and nothing lesse appear then the _Christian_ which we have
ingratefully renounced?
_For this plague is already beginning amongst us, and there is none to
take the Censer, and to stand between the living and the dead, that we be
not consumed as in a moment; for there is wrath gone out from the Lord._
Let us then _depart from the tents of these wicked men_ (who have brought
all this upon us) _and touch nothing of theirs, lest we be consumed in all
their sins_.
But you will say, the King is not to be trusted: judg not of others by
your selves; did ever any man observe the least inclination of revenge in
his breast? has he not betides the innate propensity of his own nature to
gentlenesse, the strict injunctions of a dying father and a _Martyr_, to
forgive even greater offenders then you are? Yes, I dare pronounce it with
confidence, and avouch it whith all assurance, that there is not an
individuall amongst you, whose crimes are the most crimson, whom he will
not be most ready to pardon, and graciously receive upon their repentance;
nor any thing that can be desired of him, to which he would not cheerfully
accommode, for the stopping of that torrent of blood, and extream
confusion, which has hitherto run, and is yet imminent over us. Do but
reason a little with your self, and confider sadly, whether a young
Prince, mortified by so many afflictions, disciplin'd by much experience,
and instructed by the miscarriages of others, be not the most excellently
qualified to govern and reduce a people, who have so succeslesly tried so
many governments, of old, impious and crafty Foxes, that have exercised
upon us the most intollerable Tyrannies that were ever heard of?
But you object further, that he has lived amongst Papists, is vitiously
inclin'd, and has wicked men about him: What can be said more unjustly,
what more malitious? And can _you_ have the foreheads to tell us he has
lived amongst Papists to his prejudice, who have proscrib'd him from
Protestants, persecuted him from place to place, _as a Patridg on the
Mountains_? You may remember who once went to _Achich the King of Gath and
changed his behaviour before them, and fain'd himself mad in their hands_;
had many great infirmities, and _was yet a man after Gods own heart_;
Whilst the Catholick King was your Allie, you had nothing to do with
Papists, it was then no crime: _God is not mocked, away with this respect
of persons_: But where is it you would have him to be? The _Hollander_
dares not afford him harbour, lest you refuse them yours: The _French_ may
not give him bread for fear of offending you; and unless he should go to
the _Indies_, or the _Turk_ (where yet your malice would undoubtedly reach
him) where can he be safe from your revenge? But suppose him in a Papist
Countrey, constrained thereto by your incharity to his Soul as well as
body; would he have condescended to half so much, as you have offered for
a toleration of Papists, he needed not now have made use of this Apology,
or wanted the assistance of the most puissant Princes of _Christendome_ to
restore him, of whom he has refused such conditions as in prudence he
might have yielded to, and the people would have gladly received; whilst
those who know with what persons you have transacted, what truck you have
made with the _Jesuites_, what secret Papists there are amongst you, may
easily divine why they have been no forwarder to assist him, and how far
distant he is from the least wavering in his Faith. But since you have now
declared that you will tollerate all Religions, without exception; do not
think it a sin in him, to gratifie those that shall most oblige him.
For his vertues and Morality, I provoak the most refined Family in this
Nation to produce me a Relation of more piety and moderation; shew me a
Fraternity more spotlesse in their honour, and freer from the exorbitances
of youth, then these three Brothers, so conspicuous to all the world for
their Temperance, Magnanimity, Constancy, and Understanding; a friendship
and humility unparallel'd, and rarely to be found amongst the severest
persons, scarcely in a private family. It is the malice of a very black
Soul, and a virulent _Renegado_ (of whom to be commended were the utmost
infamy) that has interpreted some compliances, to which persons in
distress are sometimes engaged, with those whom they converse withall, to
his Majesties disadvantage: _whilst these filthy dreamers defile the flesh
themselves, and thinking it no sin to despise dominion, speak evill of
dignities, and of the things which they know not. But woe unto them, for
they have gone in the way of Kain, and run greedily after the errour of
Balaam, for reward, having mens persons in admiration because of
advantage._
For the rest, I suppose the same was said of Holy _David_, when in his
extream calamity, he was constrain'd to fly from _Saul_. _For every one
that was in distresse, and every one that was in debt, and every one that
was discontented, gathered themselves unto him, and he became Captain over
them._ And to this retinue, has your malice and persecution reduced this
excellent Prince; but he that preserv'd him in the Wood, _and delivered
David out of all his troubles_, shall likewise in his appointed time,
deliver him also out of these distresses.
I have now answered all your calumnies, and have but a word to add, that I
may yet incline you to accept of your best interest, and prevent that
dreadfull ruine which your obstinacy does threaten. Is it not as
perspicuous as the Sun, that it lies in your power to reform his Counsell,
introduce your selves, make what composition you can desire, have all the
security that mortall men can imagine, and the greatest Princes of Europe
to engage in the performance? This were becoming worthy men, and
honourable indeed; this ingenuous self-denyall: And it is no disgrace to
reforme a mistake, but to persist in it lyes the shame. The whole Nation
require it of you, and the lawes of God command it, you cannot, you must
not deferr it. For what can you pretend that will not then drop into your
bosomes? The humble man will have repose, the aspiring and ambitious,
honours: The Merchant will be secure, Trades immediately recover, Aliances
will be confirm'd, the Lawes reflourish, tender Consciences consider'd,
present purchasers satisfied; the Souldier payed, maintained and provided
for; and what's above all this, Christianity and Charity will revive again
amongst us, _Mercy and Truth will meet together; righteousness and peace
shall kiss each other_.
But let us now consider on the other side, the confusion, which must of
necessity light upon us if we persist in our rebellion and obstinacy; We
are already impoverisht, and consum'd with war and the miseries that
attend it; you have wasted our treasure, and destroyed the Woods, spoyled
the Trade, and shaken our properties; a universall animosity is in the
very bowells of the Nation; the Parent against the Children, and the
Children against the Parents, betraying one another to the death; in
summe, if that have any truth which our B. _Saviour_ has himself
pronounced, _That a Kingdome divided cannot stand_, it is impossible we
should subsist in the condition we are reduc'd to. Consider we again, how
ridiculous our late proceedings have made us to our neighbours round about
us. Their _Ministers_ laugh at our extream{4} giddinesse, and we seem to
mock at their addresses: for no sooner do their _Credentialls_ arrive,
but behold the scean is changed, and the Government is fled, he that now
acted King, left a fool in his place, and they stand amazed at out
_Buffoonery_ and madnesse.
What then may we imagine will be the product of all these disadvantages,
when the Nations that deride and hate us, shall be united for our
destruction; and that the harvest is ripe for the sickle of their fury?
shall we not certainly be a prey to an inevitable ruine, having thus
weakned our selves by a brutish civill war, and cut off those glorious
_Heros_, the wise and the valiant, whose courage in such a calamity we
shall in vain imploar, that would bravely have sacrificed themselves for
our delivery? Let us remember how often we have served a forraign people,
and that there is nothing so confident, but a provoked God can overthrow.
For my part, I tremble, but to consider what may be the issue of these
things, when our iniquities are full, and that God shall make inquisition
for the bloud that has been spilt; unlesse we suddainly meet him by an
unfained repentance, and turn from all the abominations by which we have
provoaked him; And then, it is to be hoped, that he who would have
compounded with the _Father of the faithfull_, had there been but ten
Righteous men in _Sodom_; and that spared _Nineveh_ that populous and
great City; will yet have mercy on us, hearken to the prayers, and have
regard to the teares, of so many Millions of people, who day and night do
interceed with him: The _Priests_ and Ministers _of the Lord weeping
between the porch and the Altar, and saying, Spare thy people O Lord,
spare thy People, and give not thine Inheritance to reproach_.
And now I have said what was upon my Spirit for your sake, when, for the
satisfaction of such as (through its effect upon your soule) this Addresse
of mine may possibly come to, I have religiously declared, that the Person
who writ it, had no unworthy or sinister design of his owne to gratifie,
much lesse any other party whatever; as being neither _Courtier_,
_Souldier_, or _Church-man_, but a plain Country Gentleman, engag'd on
neither side, who, has had leisure, (through the goodnesse of God)
candidly, and without passion to examine the particulars which he has
touched, and expects no other reward in the successe of it, then what
_Christ_ has promised in the _Gospels_: The _Benediction{5} of the peace
maker_; and which he already feels in the discharge of his Conscience
being for his own particular, long since resolv'd with himself, to persist
in his Religion, and his loyalty to the death; come what will; as
wrongfully perswaded, that all the persecutions, losses, and other
accidents which may arrive him for it here, _are not worthy to be compared
to that eternall{6} weight of glory which is to be revealed hereafter_;
and to the inexpressible consolation, which it will afford on his
_Death-bed_, when all these guilded pleasures will disappear, this noise,
and empty pompe, when God shall _set all out sins in order before us_; and
when, it is certain, that the humble, and the peaceable, the charitable
and the meek shall not loose their reward, not change their hopes, for all
the Crownes and the Scepters, the Lawrells and the Trophies which
ambitious and self seeking men contend for, with so much Tyrannie and
injustice.
Let them therefore no longer deceive you, dear Sr. and as the guise of
these vile men is, tell you they are the Godly-party, under which for the
present they would pass, and _courage themselves in their wickedness_,
stoping their ears, and shutting their eyes against all that has been
taught and practised by the best of Christians, & holiest of Saints these
sixteen hundred years: _You shall know them by their fruites, do men
gather Grapes of Thornes, or Figs of Thistles?_ But so, being miserably
gall'd with the remembrance of their impieties, and the steps by which
they have ascended to those fearfull precepices, they seek to allay the
secret pangs of a gnawing worme, by adopting the most prodigious of their
crimes into a Religion fitted for the purpose, and versatile as their
giddy interest, till at last, encourag'd by the number of thriving
Proselytes and successes, they grow feared and confident; swallowing all
with ease, and passing from one heresie to another; whilst yet they are
still pursued, and shalt never be at repose: For Conscience will at last
awake, and then how frightful, how deplorable, yea, how inexpressably sad
will that day be unto them! _For these things have they done, and I held
my tongue _(saith God)_ and they thought wickedly, that I am such a one as
themselves; but I will reprove them and set before them the things that
they have done. O consider this ye that forget God, least he pluck you
away, and there be none to deliver you!_
And now _Sir_, you see the liberty which I have taken, and how farr I have
adventured to testifie a friendship which I have ever professed for you: I
have indeed been very bold; but it was greatly requisite; and you know
that amongst all men there are none which more openly use the freedom of
reprehension, then those who love most: Advices are not rejected by any,
but such as determine to pursue their evill courses; and the language
which I use, is not to offend, but to beseech you to return. I conjure you
therefore to re-enter into your self, and not to suffer these mean and
dishonourable respects, which are unworthy your nobler spirit, to prompt
you to a course so deform'd, and altogether unworthy your education and
Family. Behold your friends all deploaring your misfortunes, and your
Enemies even pitie you; whilst to gratifie a few mean and desperate
persons, you cancell your duty to your prince, and disband your Religion;
dishonour your name, bring ruine and infamy on your posterity.