Answer to a Book, Title page – Preface
ΕΙΚΟΝΟΚΛΑΣΤΗΣIN ANSWER To a Book Intitl'd ΕΙΚΩΝ ΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΗ, THE Portrature of his sacred Majesty in his Solitudes and Sufferings.
The AUTHOR J. M
PROV. 28. 15, 16, 17.
15. As a roaring Lyon, and a ranging Beare, so is a wicked Ruler over the poor people.
16. The Prince that wanteth understanding, is also a great oppressor; but he that hateth covetousness shall prolong his dayes.
17. A man that doth violence to the blood of any person, shall fly to the pit, let no man stay him.
… Conjurat. Catilin.
Regiam imperium, quod initio, conservandae libertatis, atque augendae reipub. causâ fuerat, in superbiam, dominationemque se convertit.
Regibus boni, quam mali, suspectiores sunt; semper que his aliena virtus formidolosa est.
Impunè quaelibet facere, id est regem esse.
Idem Bell. Jugurth.
Publish'd now the second time, and much enlarg'd.
London; Printed by T. N. and are to be sold by Tho. Brewster and G. Moule at the three Bibles in Pauls Church-Yard near the West-end, 1650.
The PREFACE.
TO descant on the misfortunes of a person fall'n from so high a dignity, who hath also payd his final debt both to Nature and his Faults, is neither of it self a thing commendable, nor the intention of this discours. Neither was it fond ambition, or the vanity to get a Name, present; or with Posterity, by writing against a King: I never was so thirsty after Fame, nor so destitute of other hopes and means, better and more certaine to attaine it. For Kings have gain'd glorious Titles from thir Fovourers by writing against privat men, as Henry the 8th did against Luther; but no man ever gain'd much honour by writing against a King, as not usually meeting with that force of Argument in such Courtly Antagonists, which to convince might add to his reputation. Kings most commonly, though strong in Legions, are but weak at Arguments; as they who ever have accustom'd from the Cradle to use thir will onelyonly as thir right hand, thir reason alwayes as thir left. Whence unexpectedly constrain'd to that kind of combat, they prove but weak and puny Adversaries. Nevertheless for their sakes who through custom, simplicitie, or want of better teaching, have not more seriously considerd Kings, then in the gaudy name of Majesty, and admire them and thir doings, as if they breath'd not the same breath with other mortal men, I shall make no scruple to take up (for it seems to be the challenge both of him and all his party) to take up this Gauntlet, though a Kings, in the behalf of Libertie, and the Common-wealth.
And furder, since it appears manifestly the cunning drift of a factious and defeated Party, to make the same advantage of his Book, which they did before of his Regal Name and Authority, and intend it not so much the defence of his former actions, as the promoting of thir own future designes, making thereby the Book thir own rather then the Kings, as the benefit now must be thir own more then his, now the third time to corrupt and disorder the mindes of weaker men, by new suggestions and narrations, either falsly or fallaciously representing the state of things, to the dishonour of this present Goverment, and the retarding of a generall peace, so needfull to this afflicted Nation, and so nigh obtain'd, I suppose it no injurie to the dead, but a good deed rather to the living, if by better information giv'n them, or, which is anough, by onelyonly remembring them the truth of what they themselves know to be heer misaffirm'd, they may be kept from entring the third time unadvisedly into Warr and bloodshed. For as to any moment of solidity in the Book it self, save only that a King is said to be the Author, a name, then which there needs no more among the blockish vulgar, to make it wise, and excellent, and admir'd, nay to set it next the Bible, though otherwise containing little els but the common grounds of tyranny and popery, drest up, the better to deceiv, in a new Protestant guise, and trimmly garnish'd over, or as to any need of answering, in respect of staid and well-principl'd men, I take it on me as a work assign'd rather, then by me chos'n or affected. Which was the cause both of beginning it so late, and finishing it so leasurely, in the midst of other imployments and diversions. And though well it might have seem'd in vaine to write at all; considering the envy and almost infinite prejudice likely to be stirr'd up among the Common sort, against what ever can be writt'n or gainsaid to the Kings book, so advantageous to a book it is, only to be a Kings, and though it be an irksom labour to write with industrie and judicious paines that which neither waigh'd, nor well read, shall be judg'd without industry or the paines of well judging, by faction and the easy literature of custom and opinion, it shall be ventur'd yet, and the truth not smother'd, but sent abroad, in the native confidence of her single self, to earn, how she can, her entertainment in the world, and to finde out her own readers; few perhaps, but those few, such of value and substantial worth, as truth and wisdom, not respecting numbers and bigg names, have bin ever wont in all ages to be contented with.
And if the late King had thought sufficient those Answers and Defences made for him in his life time, they who on the other side accus'd his evil Goverment, judging that on their behalf anough also hath been reply'd, the heat of this controversie was in likelyhood drawing to an end; and the furder mention of his deeds, not so much unfortunat as faulty, had in tenderness to his late sufferings, bin willingly forborn; and perhaps for the present age might have slept with him unrepeated; while his adversaries, calm'd and asswag'd with the success of thir cause, had bin the less unfavorable to his memory. But since he himself, making new appeale to Truth and the World, hath left behind him this Book as the best advocat and interpreter of his own actions, and that his Friends by publishing, dispersing, commending, and almost adoring it, seem to place therein the chiefe strength and nerves of thir cause, it would argue doubtless in the other party great deficience and distrust of themselves, not to meet the force of his reason in any field whatsoever, the force and equipage of whose Armes they have so oft'n met victoriously. And he who at the Barr stood excepting against the form and manner of his Judicature, and complain'd that he was not heard, neither he nor his Friends shall have that cause now to find fault; being mett and debated with in this op'n and monumental Court of his own erecting; and not onelyonly heard uttering his whole mind at large, but answer'd. Which to doe effectually, if it be necessary that to his Book nothing the more respect be had for being his, they of his own Party can have no just reason to exclaime. For it were too unreasonable that he, because dead, should have the liberty in his Book to speak all evil of the Parlament; and they, because living, should be expected to have less freedom, or any for them, to speak home the plain truth of a full and pertinent reply. As he, to acquitt himself, hath not spar'd his Adversaries, to load them with all sorts of blame and accusation, so to him, as in his Book alive, there will be us'd no more Courtship then he uses; but what is properly his own guilt, not imputed any more to his evil Counsellors, (a Cerèmony us'd longer by the Parlament then he himself desir'd) shall be laid heer without circumlocutions at his own dore. That they who from the first beginning, or but now of late, by what unhappines I know not, are so much affatuated, not with his person onelyonly, but with his palpable faults, and dote upon his deformities, may have none to blame but thir own folly, if they live and dye in such a strook'n blindness, as next to that of Sodom hath not happ'nd to any sort of men more gross, or more misleading. Yet neither let his enemies expect to finde recorded heer all that hath been whisper'd in the Court, or alleg'd op'nly of the Kings bad actions; it being the proper scope of this work in hand, not to ripp up and relate the misdoings of his whole life, but to answer only, and refute the missayings of his book.
First then that some men (whether this were by him intended, or by his Friends) have by policy accomplish'd after death that revenge upon thir Enemies, which in life they were not able, hath been oft related. And among other examples we finde that the last will of Caesar being read to the people, and what bounteous Legacies hee had bequeath'd them, wrought more in that Vulgar audience to the avenging of his death, then all the art he could ever use, to win thir favor in his life-time. And how much their intent, who publish'd these overlate Apologies and Meditations of the dead King, drives to the same end of stirring up the people to bring him that honour, that affection, and by consequence, that revenge to his dead Corps, which hee himself living could never gain to his Person, it appears both by the conceited portraiture before his Book, drawn out to the full measure of a Masking Scene, and sett there to catch fools and silly gazers, and by those Latin words after the end, Vota dabunt qua Bella negarunt; intimating, That what hee could not compass by Warr, he should atchieve by his Meditations. For in words which admitt of various sense, the libertie is ours to choose that interpretation which may best minde us of what our restless enemies endeavor, and what wee are timely to prevent. And heer may be well observ'd the loose and negligent curiosity of those who took upon them to adorn the setting out of this Book: for though the Picture sett in Front would Martyr him and Saint him to befool the people, yet the Latin Motto in the end, which they understand not, leaves him, as it were a politic contriver to bring about that interest by faire and plausible words, which the force of Armes deny'd him. But quaint Emblems and devices begg'd from the old Pageantry of some Twelf-nights entertainment at Whitehall, will doe but ill to make a Saint or Martyr: and if the People resolve to take him Sainted at the rate of such a Canonizing, I shall suspect thir Calendar more then the Gregorian. In one thing I must commend his op'nness who gave the title to this Book, foreign, that is to say, The Kings Image; and by the Shrine he dresses out for him, certainly would have the people come and worship him. For which reason this answer also is intitl'd Iconoclastes, the famous Surname of many Greek Emperors, who in thir zeal to the command of God, after long tradition of Idolatry in the Church, took courage, and broke all superstitious Images to peeces. But the People, exorbitant and excessive in all thir motions, are prone ofttimes not to a religious onelyonly, but to a civil kinde of Idolatry in idolizing thir Kings; though never more mistak'n in the object of thir worship; heretofore being wont to repute for Saints, those faithful and courageous Barons, who lost thir lives in the Field, making glorious Warr against Tyrants for the common Liberty; as Simon de Momfort Earl of Leicester, against Henry the third; Thomas Plantagenet Earl of Lancaster, against Edward the second. But now, with a besotted and degenerate baseness of spirit, except some few, who yet retain in them the old English fortitude and love of Freedom, and have testifi'd it by thir matchless deeds, the rest, imbastardiz'd from the ancient nobleness of thir Ancestors, are ready to fall flatt and give adoration to the Image and Memory of this Man, who hath offer'd at more cunning fetches to undermine our Liberties, and putt Tyranny into an Art, then any British King before him. Which low dejection and debasement of mind in the people, I must confess I cannot willingly ascribe to the natural disposition of an English-man, but rather to two other causes. First, to the Prelats and thir fellow-teachers, though of another Name and Sect, whose Pulpit stuff, both first and last, hath bin the Doctrin and perpetual infusion of servility and wretchedness to all thir hearers; whose lives the type of worldliness and hypocrisie, without the least tiue pattern of vertue, righteousness, or self-denial in thir whole practice. I attribute it next to the factious inclination of most men divided from the public by several ends and humors of thir own. At first no man less belov'd, no man more generally condemn'd then was the King; from the time that it became his custom to break Parlaments at home, and either wilfully or weakly to betray Protestants abroad, to the beginning of these Combustions. All men inveigh'd against him; all men, except Courtvassals, oppos'd him and his tyrannical proceedings; the cry was universal; and this full Parlament was at first unanimous in thir dislike and Protestation against his evil Goverment. But when they who sought themselves and not the Public, began to doubt that all of them could not by one and the same way attain to thir ambitious purposes, then was the King, or his Name at least, as a fit property, first made use of, his doings made the best of, and by degrees justifi'd: Which begott him such a party, as after many wiles and struglings with his in ward fears, imbold'n'd him at length to sett up his Standard against the Parlament. Whenas before that time, all his adherents, consisting most of dissolute Sword-men and Suburb-roysters, hardly amounted to the making up of one ragged regiment strong anough to assault the unarmed house of Commons. After which attempt, seconded by a tedious and bloody warr on his subjects, wherein he hath so farr exceeded those his arbitrary violences in time of Peace, they who before hated him for his high misgoverment, nay, fought against him with display'd banners in the field, now applaud him and extoll him for the wisest and most religious Prince that liv'd. By so strange a method amongst the mad multitude is a sudden reputation won, of wisdom by wilfulness and suttle shifts, of goodness by multiplying evil, of piety by endeavouring to root out true religion.
But it is evident that the chief of his adherents never lov'd him, never honour'd either him or his cause, but as they took him to set a face upon thir own malignant designes; nor bemoan his loss at all, but the loss of thir own aspiring hopes: Like those captive women whom the Poet notes in his Iliad, to have bewaild the death of Patroclus in outward show, but indeed thir own condition.
foreign.
Hom. Iliad. foreign.
And it needs must be ridiculous to any judgement uninthrall'd, that they who in other matters express so little fear either of God or man, should in this one particular outstripp all precisianism with thir scruples and cases, and fill mens ears continually with the noise of thir conscientious Loyaltie and Allegeance to the King, Rebels in the mean while to God in all thir actions beside: much less that they whose profess'd Loyalty and Allegeance led them to direct Arms against the Kings Person, and thought him nothing violated by the Sword of Hostility drawn by them against him, should now in earnest think him violated by the unsparing Sword of Justice, which undoubtedly so much the less in vain she bears among Men, by how much greater and in highest place the offender. Els Justice, whether moral or political, were not Justice, but a fals counterfet of that impartial and Godlike vertue. The onelyonly grief is, that the head was not strook off to the best advantage and commodity of them that held it by the hair; an ingratefull and pervers generation, who having first cry'd to God to be deliver'd from thir King, now murmur against God that heard thir praiers, and cry as loud for thir King against those that deliver'd them. But as to the Author of these Soliloquies, whether it were undoubtedly the late King, as is vulgarly beleev'd, or any secret Coadjutor, and some stick not to name him, it can add nothing, nor shall take from the weight, if any be, of reason which he brings. But allegations, not reasons are the main contents of this Book, and need no more then other contrary allegations to lay the question before all men in an eev'n ballance; though it were suppos'd that the testimony of one man in his own cause affirming, could be of any moment to bring in doubt the autority of a Parlament denying. But if these his fair spok'n words shall be heer fairly confronted and laid parallel to his own farr differing deeds, manifest and visible to the whole Nation, then surely we may look on them who notwithstanding shall persist to give to bare words more credit then to op'n deeds, as men whose judgement was not rationally evinc'd and perswaded, but fatally stupifi'd and bewitch'd, into such a blinde and obstinate beleef. For whose cure it may be doubted, not whether any charm, though never so wisely murmur'd, but whether any prayer can be available. This however would be remember'd and wel noted, that while the K. instead of that repentance which was in reason and in conscience to be expected from him, without which we could not lawfully re-admitt him, persists heer to maintain and justifie the most apparent of his evil doings, and washes over with a Courtfucus the worst and foulest of his actions, disables and uncreates the Parlament it self, with all our laws and Native liberties that ask not his leave, dishonours and attaints all Protestant Churches, not Prelaticall, and what they piously reform'd, with the slander of rebellion, sacrilege, and hypocrisie; they who seem'd of late to stand up hottest for the Cov'nant, can now sit mute and much pleas'd to hear all these opprobrious things utter'd against thir faith, thir freedom, and themselves in thir own doings made traitors to boot: The Divines also, thir wizzards, can be so braz'n as to cry Hosanna to this his book, which cries louder against them for no disciples of Christ, but of Iscariot; and to seem now convinc'd with these wither'd arguments and reasons heer, the same which in som other writings of that party, and in his own former Declarations and expresses, they have so oft'n heertofore endeavour'd to confute and to explode; none appearing all this while to vindicate Church or State from these calumnies and reproaches, but a small handfull of men whom they defame and spit at with all the odious names of Schism and Sectarism. I never knew that time in England, when men of truest Religion were not counted Sectaries: but wisdom now, valor, justice, constancy, prudence united and imbodied to defend Religion and our Liberties, both by word and deed against tyranny, is counted Schism and faction. Thus in a graceless age things of highest praise and imitation under a right name, to make them infamous and hatefull to the people, are miscall'd. Certainly, if ignorance and perversness will needs be national and universal, then they who adhere to wisdom and to truth, are not therfore to be blam'd, for beeing so few as to seem a sect or faction. But in my opinion it goes not ill with that people where these vertues grow so numerous and well joyn'd together, as to resist and make head against the rage and torrent of that boistrous folly and superstition that possesses and hurries on the vulgar sort. This therefore we may conclude to be a high honour don us from God, and a speciall mark of his favor, whom he hath selected as the sole remainder, after all these changes and commotions, to stand upright and stedfast in his cause; dignify'd with the defence of truth and public libertie; while others who aspir'd to be the topp of Zelots, and had almost brought Religion to a kinde of trading monopoly, have not onelyonly by thir late silence and neutrality bely'd thir profession, but founder'd themselves and thir consciences, to comply with enemies in that wicked cause and interest which they have too oft'n curs'd in others, to prosper now in the same themselves.