I Persuade my self , Salmasius , that you being a vain flashy man , are not a little proud of being the King of Great Britain's Defender , who himself was stil'd the Defender of the Faith . For my part , I think you deserve your titles both alike ; for the King defended the Faith , and you have defended him so , that betwixt you , you have spoil'd both your Causes ; which I shall make appear throughout the whole ensuing Discourse , and particularly in this very Chapter . You told us in the 12th . Page of your Preface , that so good and so just a cause ought not to be embelisht with any flourishes of Rhetorick ; that the King needed no other defence than by a bare Narrative of his Story ; and yet in your first Chapter , in which you had promised us that bare Narrative , you neither tell the Story aright , nor do you abstain from making use of all the skill you have in Rhetorick to set it off . So that if we must take your own judgment , we must believe the King's Cause to be neither good nor just . But by the way I would advise you not to have so good an opinion of your self ( for no body else has so of you ) as to imagin that you are able to speak well upon any subject ; who can neither play the part of an Orator , nor an Historian , nor express your self in a stile that would not be ridiculous even in a Lawyer ; but like a Mountebank's Jugler , with big swelling words in your Preface , you rais'd our expectation , as if some mighty matter were to ensue ; in which your design was not so much to introduce a true Narrative of the King's Story , as to make your own empty intended flourished go off the better . For being now about to give us an account of the matter of fact , you find your self encompassed and affrighted with so many M●nst●rs of Novelty , that y' are at a loss what to say first , what next , and what last of all . I le tell ye what the matter is with you . In the first place you find your self affrighted and astonish'd at your own monstrous Lies , and then you find that empty head of yours not encompass'd , but carried round with so many trifles and fooleries , that you not only now do not , but never did know what was ●it to ●e spoken , and in what method . Among the m●…y 〈◊〉 that you find in expressing the ●●inousness of so 〈◊〉 a piece of impiety , this one offers i● self you say , which 〈◊〉 ●…y 〈◊〉 and must often be repeated ; to wit , that the S●● 〈◊〉 self never b●h●ld a more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . But by your good leave , Sir , the Sun has beheld many things , that blind Bernard never saw . But we are content you should mention the Sun over and over . And it will be a piece of Prudence in you so to do . For though our wickedness does not require it , the coldness of the 〈◊〉 that you are making , does . The original of Kings , you say , is as ancient , as that of the Sun . May the Gods and Goddesses , Damasippus , bless thee with an everlasting Solstice ; that thou maist always be warm , thou that canst not stir a foot without the Sun . Perhaps you would avoid the imputation of being called a Doctor Umbraticus . But alas ! you are in perfect darkness , that make no difference betwixt a Paternal power , and a Regal ; and that when you had called Kings Fathers of their Country , could fancy that with that Metaphor you had persuaded us that whatever is applicable to a Father , is so to a King . Alas ! there 's a great difference betwixt them . Our Fathers begot us . Our King made not us , but we him . Nature has given Fathers to us all , but we our selves appointed our own King . So that the people is not for the King , but the King for them . We bear with a Father , though he be harsh and severe ; and so we do with a King . But we do not bear with a Father , if he be a Tyrant . If a Father murder his Son , himself must die for 't , and why should not a King be subject to the same Law , which certainly is a most just one ? Especially considering that a Father cannot by any possibility divest himself of that relation , but a King easily may make himself neither King nor Father of his people . If this action of ours be considered according to its quality , as you call it , I , who am both an English man born , and was an eye-witness of the Transactions of these times , tell you , who are both a Foreigner and an utter stranger to our Affairs ; That we have not put to death a good , nor a just , nor a merciful , nor a devout , nor a godly , nor a peaceable King , as you stile him ; but an Enemy , that has been so to us almost ten years to an end ; nor one that was a Father , but a Destroyer of his Country . You confess that such things have been 〈◊〉 , for your self have not the impudence to deny it ; but n●t by Protestants upon a Protestant King . As if he deserv'd the name of a Protestant , that in a Letter to the Pope , could give him the title of Most Holy Father ; that was always more favourable to the Papists , than to those of his own Profession . And being such , he is not the first of his own Family that has been put to death by Protestants . Was not his Grand-mother deposed and banisht , and at last beheaded by Protestants ? And were not her own Countrymen , that were Protestants too , well enough pleas'd with it ? Nay , if I should say they were parties to it , I should not lie . But there being so few Protestant Kings , it is no great wonder , if it never happened , that one of them has been put to death . But that it is lawful to depose a Tyrant , and to punish him according to his deserts ; Nay , that this is the opinion of very eminent Divines , and of such as have been most Instrumental in the late Reformation , do you deny , if you dare . You confess that many Kings have come to an unnatural death : Some by the Sword , some poyson'd , some strangled , and some in a dungeon ; but for a King to be arraign'd in a Court of Judicature , to be put to plead for his life , to have Sentence of death pronounc'd against him , and that Sentence ex●cuted ; this you think a more lamentable Instance than all the rest , and make it a prodigious piece of impiety . Tell me , thou superlative Fool , Whether it be not more just , more agreeable to the Rules of Humanity , and the Laws of all Humane Societies , to bring a Criminal , be his Offence what it will , before a Count of Justice , to give him leave to speak for himself ; and if the Law condemn him , then to put him to death , as he has d●●erv'd so as he may have time to repent , or to recollect himself , than presently , as soon as ever he is taken , to but●h●r him without more ado ? 〈◊〉 think there 's a Mal●…r in the World , that if he might have his choice , would not chuse to be thus dealt withal ? and if this sort of proceeding against a private Person be accounted the fairer of the two , why should it not be counted so against a Prince ? nay , why should we not think that himself liked it better ? You would have had him kill'd privately , and none to have seen it , either that future Ages might have lost the advantage of so good an Example ; or that they that did this glorious Action , might seem to have avoided the Light , and to have acted contrary to Law and Justice . You aggravate the matter by telling us , that it was not done in an uproar , or brought about by any Faction amongst Great Men , or in the heat of a Rebellion , either of the People , or the Soldiers : that there was no hatred , no fear , no ambition , no blind precipitate rashness in the Case ; but that it was long consulted on , and done with deliberation . You did well in leaving off being an Advocate , and turn Grammarian . That from the Accidents and Circumstances of a thing , which in themselves considered , sway neither one way nor other , argue in dispraise of it , before you have proved the thing it self to be either good or bad . See how open you lie : If the Action you are discoursing of , be commendable and praise-worthy , they that did it deserve the greater Honour , in that they were prepossessed with no Passions , but did what they did for Virtue 's sake . If there were great difficulty in the enterprise , they did well in not going about it rashly , but upon Advice and Consideration . Th● for my own part , when I call to mind with how unexpected an importunity and servency of Mind , and with how unanimous a Consent , the whole Army , and a great part of the People from almost every County in the Kingdom , cried out with one Voice for Justice against the King , as being the sole Author of all their Calamities : I cannot but , think that these things were brought about by a Divine impulse . Whatever the matter was , whether we consider the Magistrates , or the Body of the People , no Men ever under●ook with more Courage , and , which our Adversaries themselves confess , in a more 〈◊〉 temper of Mind , so brave an Action , an Action that might have become those famous Heroes of whom we read in former Ages ; an Action , by which they ●●nobled not only Laws , and their Execution , which seem for the future equally restor'd to high and low against one another ; but even Justice it self , and to have rendred it after so signal a Judgment more illustrious and greater than in its own self . We are now come to an end of the third page of the First Book , and have not the bare Narrative he promis'd us yet . He complains that our Principles ar● , ●hat a King whose Government is Burdensom and Odi●s , may lawfully be deposed : And by this Do●… , says he , if they had had a King a thousand times 〈◊〉 thann they had , they would not have spared his Life . Observe the Man's subtle way of arguing . For I would willingly be inform'd what Consequence there 〈◊〉 in this , unless he allows , that a King's Government may be Burders●m and Odieus , who is a thousand 〈◊〉 better than our King was . So , that now he has brought things to this pass , to make the King that he defends , a thousand times worse than some whose Government notwithstanding is Burdensom and O●… , 〈◊〉 is , it may be , the most monstrous Tyrant that 〈◊〉 ●…d . I wish ye Joy , O ye Kings , of 〈…〉 able a Defender . Now the Narrative begins . They put him to s●…ral sorts of Torments . Give an in●… . They remov'd him from Prison to Prison ; and so they might lawfully do ; for having been a Tyrant , he became an open Enemy , and was taken in War . Often changing his Keepers . Lest they themselves should change . Sometimes they gave him hopes of Liberty , nay , and sometimes even of restoring him to his Crown , upon Articles of Agreement . It seems then the taking away his Life , was not done upon so much Premeditation , as he talked of before ; and that we did not lay hold on all opportunities and means , that offer'd themselves to renounce our King . Those things that in the beginning of the War we demanded of him , when he had almost brought us under , which things if they were denied us , we could enjoy no Liberty , nor live in any Safety ; those very things we petitioned him for when he was our Prisoner , in an humble , submissive way , not once , nor twice , but thrice , and oftner , and were as often denied . When we had now lost all hopes of the King 's complying with us , then was that noble Order of Parliament made , That from that time forward , there should no Articles be sent to the King ; so that we left 〈◊〉 applying our selves to him , not from the time that he began to be a Tyrant , but from the time that we found him incurable . But afterward some Parliament-men set upon a new Project , and meeting with a convenient opportunity to put it in practice , pass a Vote to send further Proposals once more to the King . Whose Wickedness and Folly nearest resembles that of the Roman Senate , who contrary to the Opinion of M. Tullius , and all honest Men , voted to send Embassadors to M. Anthony ; and the Event had been the same , but that it pleased God Almighty in his Providence to order it otherwise , and to assert our Liberty , tho he suffer'd them to be enslav'd . For then the King did not agree to any thing that might conduce to a firm Peace , and Settlement of things more than he had before , they go and Vote themselves satisfied . Then the sounder part of the House finding themselves and the Commonwealth betray'd , implore the aid of that Valiant and always Faithful Army to the Commonwealth . Upon which occasion I can observe only this , which yet I am loath to utter ; to wit , that our Soldiers understood themselves better than our Senators , and that they saved the Commonwealth by their Arms , when th' other by their Votes had almost ruined it . Then he relates a great many things in a doleful , lamentable Strain ; but he does it so senslesly , that he seems rather to beg of his Readers that they would be sorrowful , than to stir up any such Passion in them . It grieves him to think that the King should undergo a Capital Punishment after such a manner as no other King ever had done . Tho he had often told us before , that there never was a King that underwent a Capital Punishment at all . Do you use to compare ways and manners , ye Coxcomb , when you have no Things , nor Actions to compare with one another ? He suffer'd Death , says , he , as a Rabber , as a Murderer , as a Parricide , as a Traytor , as a Tyrant . Is this defending the King ? Or is it not rather giving a more severe Sentence against him than that that we gave ? How came you so all on a sudden to be of our mind ? He complains that Executioners in Vizars [ personati Carnifices ] cut off the King's Head . What shall we do with this Fellow ? He told us before , of a Murder committed on one in the Disguise of a King : [ In Personâ Regis . ] Now he says , 't was done in the Disguise of an Executioner . T were to no purpose to take particular Notice of every silly thing he says . He tells Stories of Boxes on the Ear , and Kicks , that , he says , were given the King by Common-Soldiers , and that 't was four Shillings a piece to see his dead Body . These and such like Stories which partly are false , and partly impertinent , betray the Ignorance and Childishness of our poor Scholar ; but are far from making any Reader ever a whit the sadder . In good faith , his Son Charles had done better to have hired some Ballad-singer to have bewailed his Fathers misfortunes , than this doleful , shall I call him , or rather most ridiculous Orator , who is so dry and insipid , that there 's not the least Spirit in any thing he says . Now the Narrative's done , and 't is hard to say what he does next , he runs on so sordidly and irregular . Now he 's angry , then he wonders ; he neither cares what he talks , nor how ; repeats the same things ten times over , that could not but look ill , tho he had said them but once . And I persuade my self , the extemporary Rimes of some Antick Jack-pudding may deserve Printing better ; so far am I from thinking ought he says worthy of a serious Answer . I pass by his stiling the King a Protector of Religion , who chose to make War upon the Church , rather than part with those Church-Tyrants , and Enemies of all Religion , the Bishops ; and how is it possible that he should maintain Religion in its Purity , that was himself a Slave to those impure Traditions , and Ceremonies of theirs ? And for our Sectaries , whose Sacrilegious Meetings , you say , have publick Allowance ; Instance in any of their Principles , the Profession of which is not openly allow'd of , and countenanced in Holland ? But in the mean , there 's not a more Sacrilegious Wretch in Nature than your self , that always took liberty to speak ill of all sorts of People . They could not wound the Commonwealth more dangerously than by taking off its Master . Learn , ye abject , home-born Slave ; unless ye take away the Master , ye destroy the Commonwealth . That that has a Master , is one Man's propriety . The word Master denotes a private , not a publick Relation . They persecute most unjustly these ▪ Ministers that abborr'd this Action of theirs . Lest you should not know what Ministers he means , I 'll tell ye in a few words what manner of Men they were ; they were those very Men , that by their Writings and Sermons justified taking up Arms against the King , and ●●irr'd the People up to it . That daily cursed , as Deborah did Meroz , all such as would not furnish the Parliament either with Arms , or Men , or Money . That taught the People out of their Pulpits , that they were not about to Fight against a King , but a greater Tyrant than either Saul or Ahab ever were ; ●ay , more a Nero than Nero himself . As soon as the Bishops , and those Clergy-men , whom they daily inveighed against , and branded with the odious Names of Pluralists and Non-residents , were taken out of their way , they presently Jump , some into two , some into three of their best Benefices ; being now warm themselves , they soon unworthily neglected their Charge . Their Coverousness brake through all restraints of Modesty and Religion , and themselves now labour under the same Infamy , that they had loaded their Predecessors with ; and because their Covetousness is not yet satisfied , and their Ambition has accustomed them to raise Tumults , and be Enemies to Peace ; they can't rest at quiet yet , but preach up Sedition against the Magistracy , as it is now established , as they had formerly done against the King . They now tell the people that he was cruelly murdered ; upon whom themselves having heap'd all their Curses , had devoted him to Destruction , whom they had delivered up as it were to the Parliament to be dispoil'd of his Royalty , and pursu'd with a Holy War . They now complain that the Sectarie's are not extirpated ; which is a most absurd thing to expect the Magistrates should be able to do , who never yet were able , do what they could , to extirpate avarice and ambition , those two most pernicious Heresies , and more destructive to the Church than all the rest , out of the very order and tribe of the Ministers them-themselves . For the Sects which they inveigh against , I confess there are such amongst us , but they are obscure , and make no noise in the world : The Sects that they are of , are publick and notorious , and much more dangerous to the Church of God . Simon Magus and Diotrephes were the Ring-leaders of 'em . Yet are we so far from persecuting these men , tho' they are pestilent enough , that for all we know them to be ill affected to the Government , and desirous of , and endeavouring to work a change , we allow them but too much Liberty . You , that are both a French-man and a Va gabond , seem displeas'd that the English , more fierce and cruel than their own Mastiffs , as your barking Eloquence has it ; have no regard to the lawful Successor and Heir of the Crown : Take no care of the King 's Youngest Son , nor of the Queen of Bohemia . I l'e make ye no answer ; you shall answer your self . When the frame of a Government is changed from a Monarchy to any other , the new Modellers have no regard to succession ; the Application is easy ; it 's in your Book de primatu Papae . The great change throughout Three Kingdoms , you say , was brought about by a small number of men in one of them . If this were true , that small number of men would have deserved to have Dominion over the rest ; Valiant men over faint-hearted Cowards . These are they that presumptuously took upon them to change antiquum Regni Regimen , in alium qui à pluribus Tyrannisteneatur . 'T is well for them that you cannot find fault with them , without committing a Barbarous Soloecism ; you shame 〈◊〉 Grammarians . The English will never be able to wash out this stain . Nay you , though a blot and a stain to all Learned men , were never yet able to stain the renown and everlasting Glory of the English Nation , that with so great a Resolution , as we hardly find the 〈◊〉 recorded in any History , having strugled with , 〈…〉 , not only their Enemies in the Field , but the supertitious Persuasions of the common People , 〈…〉 to themselves in general amongst all 〈…〉 the name of Deliverers : The Body of the people having undertook and performed an enterprise , which in other Nations is thought to proceed only from a magnanimity that 's peculiar to Heroes . What the protesstants and Primitive Christians have done , or would do upon such an occasion , ●le tell ye hereafter when we come to debate the merits of the Cause : In discoursing it before , I should be guilty of your fault , who outdo the most impertinent Talkers in Nature : You wonder how wee 'l be able to answer the 〈◊〉 . Meddle with your own matters , you R●…gate , and be asham'd of your actions , since the Church is asham'd of you ; who though but of late , you set your self so fiercely and with so much Ostentation against the Pope's Supremacy and Episcopal Government , are now become your self a very Creature of the Bishops . You confess that some Protestants whom you do not name , have asserted it lawful to depose a Tyrant : But though you do not think fit to name them , I will , because you say they are far w●rse than the very Jesuits themselves ; they are no other than Luther , and Zuinglius , and Calvin , and Bu●er , and Pareus , and many others . But then , you say , they refer it to the Judgment of Learned and Wise men , who shall be accounted a Tyrant . But what for men , were these ? Were they wise men , were they men of Learning ? Were they anywise remarkable , either for Vertue or Nobility ! You may well allow a People that has felt the heavy Yoke of Slavery , to be Wise , and Learned , and Noble enough to know what is fit to be done to the Tyrant that has oppress'd them ; though they neither consult with Foreigners nor Grammarians . But that this man was a Tyrant , not only the Parliaments of England and Scotland have declared by their actions and express words ; but almost all the people of both Nations assented to it , till such time as by the tricks and Artifices of the Bishops they were divided into two Factions ; and what if it has pleased God to chuse such men , to execute his Vengeance upon the greatest Potentates on Earth , as he chose to be made partakers of the benefit of the Gospel ? Not many Wise , not many Learned , not many Powerful , not many Noble : That by those that are not , be might bring to nought those that are ; and that no flesh might glory in his sight . And who are you that babble to the contrary ? Dare you affect the Reputation of a Learned man ? I confess you are pretty well vers'd in Phrase-Books , and Lexicons , and Glossaries ; Insomuch that you seem to have spent your time in nothing else . But you do not make appear that you have read any good Authors with so much Judgment as to have benefited by them . Other Copies and various Lections and words omitted , and corruptions of Texts and the like ; these you are full of ; but no foot-step of any solid Learning appears in all you have writ : Or do ye think your self a wise man , that quarrel and contend about the meanest Trifles that may be ? That being altogether ignorant in Astronomy and Physick , yet are always ra●●ing at the Professors of both , whom all men credit in what things belong to their own Sciences , that would be ready to curse them to the Pit of Hell , that should offer to deprive you of the vain Glory of having corrected or supply'd the least word or letter in any Copy you 've criticiz'd upon . And yet y' are mad to hear your self call'd a Grammarian . In a certain triflig Discourse of yours , you call Dr. Hammond Knave in plain terms , who was one of this King's Chaplains , and one that he valu'd above all the rest , for no other reason but because he had call'd you a Grammarian . And I don't question but you would have been as ready to have thrown the same reproach upon the King himself , if you had heard that he had approv'd his Chaplains Judgment of ye . Take notice now , how much I ( who am but one of those many English , that you have the impudence to call mad men , and unlearned , and ignoble , and wicked ) , slight and despise you , ( for that the English Nation in general should take any notice in publick of such a worm as you are , would be an infinite undervaluing of themselves ) , who though one should turn you topsic-turvy , and inside out , are but a Grammarian : Nay , as if you had made a foolisher wish than Midas did , what ever you meddle with , except when you make Soloecisms , is Grammar still . Whosoever therefore he be , though from among the Dr●gs of that common People that you are so keen upon ( for as for those men of Eminency amongst us , whose great Actions evidenced to all men , their Nobility , and Vertue , and Conduct ; I won't disgrace them so much , as to compare you to them , or them to you ; ) but whosoever , I say , among the Dr●gs of that common People has but suck'd in this Principle , That he was not born for his Prince , but for God and his Countrey ; he deserves the reputation of a Learned , and an Honest , and a Wise man more , and is of greater use in the world than your self ; For such a one is Learned without Letters , you have Letters , but no Learning : That understand so many Languages , turn over so many Volumes , and yet are but a sheep when all is done .