A DISCURSIVE CONIECTURE UPON THE REASONS THAT produce a desired event of the present troubles of GREAT BRITAIN, different from those of Lower GERMANY. Considered in the main passages that seem parallel, but upon a further survey are discovered to be otherwise. BY CALYBUTE DOWNING, L.L.D. Pastor of Hackney.  TACIT. HIST. LIB. 1. 
Rara Temporum foelicitas, ubi sentire quae velis, & dicere quae sentias licet; quando Nerva Imperium, & Libertatem, res olim insociabiles miscuisset.  
LONDON, Printed by RICHARD HEARNE for john Partridge, and are to be sold at Purse Court, in the Old Change. MDCXLI.   

A DISCURSIVE Conjecture upon the Reasons that produce a desired event of the present troubles of Great Britain, different from those of Lower Germany.  
THE Hope that these sad and destructive distempers, may now have a more desired end, than the world of wise men could lately believe, puts us on beyond our fears to produce pregnant grounds, to make good what we have laid in about this business; as it is now transacting in happy hands. Which Work (in all Politic probability) will give a great advance to his Majesty's honour, and render Him considerable abroad, and like Himself at home; the blessed Fountain of justice, peace, and plenty; that His ROSES and LILIES may not grow, or rather be blasted in his People's blood.  
We do not adventure to run up this discourse so high, as the original causes of these troubles, either in respect of the States principles, or divine providence; that I hold hard, and high work, wherein latitude, and liberty of Divination is as dangerous, as difficult, and so leave it to time, and those that shall be trusted to draw up, and Commentary these three year's affairs in an Heroical history, for his Majesty's honour and use both in the State Ecclesiastic, and Civil: and I cannot but conclude it the choicest piece in a practic way, that hath ever passed the Press, 
Pancerol. de Reb. Invent. 122.  since the Swordman devised Printing, or the Gown-man conjured up Gunning.  
It is not to be denied, but that there is so much similitude betwixt these British troubles, and the beginnings of the stirs and storms of the Belgic Provinces, (before they settled into a solemn War) that we had great ground to fear the same cruel Calamities, had not God graciously supplied his Majesty with these present Counsels. Yet now we believe, that not only out of a fond facility, because we wish it, that there is no such reason to fix the same infelicity, as a fatal period, the remedy being proper, powerful, and not Posthumum. Now to make this come hot to honest hearts, with great and growing comfort; Let us consider the occasions that cast the Low-countries into confusion, and allow how far we are gone in those ways, and then truly take up, and see with what variety of better circumstances we may qualify our fears, and quicken our hopes of a more happy event.  
My design is but to point at those passages that may be discovered in a Transit, without pretending to reach the reason of State in the non-communicable conveyances and negotiations of either side; supposing them fundamentally of force to produce a difference falling in with my proposal. Before we pitch any particular, the general consideration of the cursed consequences, of the Belgic confusions, must needs work strongly with all wise men, especially upon his Majesty, who is highliest interested, causing him to cast his provident eye upon the seat of those civil cruel wars, as an example of caution; as a Rock covered, with the remains of a wrecked Spanish Carack, floating about it, sinking a whole Navy, to save that which was scarcely considerable, if wise men had had the valuing of it, who use to rule by remitting, when Subjects cannot obey with subsisting; Alas, that poor patch and spot of his patrimony is turned into a common Golgotha, to bury all Spanish greatness of a Fever In spiritualibus, which every Spring is ill Physic for an old State to graft a new Monarchy upon, and all this by Ecclesiastical Order, and solemn Procession, as they are the Heralds and Masters of his Ceremonies. This were Item enough (too dear bought) for us to steer another course, and not to trust shifting Sands, with Caesar, and all our fortunes.  
But to come close to the bare business, the first consideration we shall propose in this work, is the Time and Manner of the rising of these Troubles in both States. Now though Belgia began first to feel these growing Distempers, upon King Philip the Second his personal taking Possession of that government, by solemn investiture, upon his father Charles the fift his Resignation: and the present Troubles of Scotland first appeared upon his Ma.tie making his Royal residence and Actual assumption in his sacred Inauguration; yet this holds but lightly, with Wise men, either in morals or Politics, to produce the same event, if duly considered. For indeed there is a vast and operative distance, in the concurrent circumstances of their royal journeys: because K. Philip came into Belgia, not as K. of England, but K. in England, or only the Queen's husband (as he complained to his Father, 
Strada, de Bell. Belg. Lib. 1.  that the English called him, which was one argument, to obtain a resignation of something) who dying in his absence, he remained only the bare Dominus, not Rex Belgiae, and seeing all his other Dominions, both hereditary, and Feudall past and possessed in a monarchique way, this temper of government, in his other territories, tempted him to try conclusions, against his trust, even to trouble those provinces, and his own conscience, by attempting to turn them into a Kingdom, contrary to his oath so lately taken; which desire though Charles the fifth had in his heart, 
Lud. Guic. Comment. de Belgi, 1554.  yet his well tempered head, held him from driving it to a point. Knowing full well, how ill it would work, being always under several Lords and Laws, pitched into Provinces, 
Grot. Apol. C. 1.2.  under particular Proceres, who had more than a mere Simulachrum potestatis, especially being that Flanders was but lately coldly relinquished by the French King Francis the first, 
Sleid. de-reb. Illustr. Gal.  upon an unequal Treaty, when Charles had him prisoner at Madrid: and so this could not come well from Philip In novo, nutanti, & quasi praecario Domino: Thus was his way. When as his Majesty came into Scotland sole and supreme Potentate, of all British Dominions, not to turn a Republic, or an Aristocracy, into a Monarchy, but took solemn possession of an unquestioned Crown, and his Nobles of England were welcome Witnesses, and Attendants of this royal Work, without any interruption from any supposed Inter-Regnum, or pretensions of diminusion whatsoever. So that the nature of the business and the ends of the Princes being so divers, must needs produce various events; and it were a wonder in government if they should not; especially if in the next place you consider the proceed issuing from these Royal Presences, and you will find them conclusive for his Majesty's honour, and the public peace.  
I will not deny, but there was something proposed, and put on by some, that in good time may have little thanks for their pains; which in the State Ecclesiastic drive to a change; but that was not his Majesty's design, but as it was represented to him as a Nationall question, to be determined by his Wisdom. But Philip raised the question, and was warm in the Work; as see it in a particular: The first offence given and taken in both States, was about fourteen Bishops, with their Canons, the one of Trent, with Regal limitations; and the other of England, with mitigating variations; the Inquisition to execute the one, and the High Commission the other, but in far different ways. 
Meteran. hist. Belg. li. 2.  For Philip did erect the novo 14 Bishops, out of Abbot's ruins & revenues, and in a Republic, against an express privilege in terms, with the scandal of the Nobility, who well understood, that so cautious a Prince would never so provoke such jealous Peers; but that he conceived the creating of these new Ministers an assured means to tie them short, and silent in all their State-assemblies, as overawed by their presence, and so in event reduce the force of such freedom into form, that they might wax weary, and be content to want them, and so he work his will; especially considering, how this notorious Innovation was transacted at Rome, by a Bull of Faculty from Paul the fourth; 
Thuanus hist. lib. 33.  which must needs be carried with great power, and privacy, because Philip was at odds, and odious to the Pope about the present business of Naples: It was to be believed, that some great matters were to be managed by this new engine, procured with so much care and cost, both of time and treasure, with such a dash of reputation, and danger of rebellion, and the States being not so sleepy, as to suffer themselves to be supplanted by a cunning consequent of a pernicious and unpleasing Precedent, could not but stir. Now take up these circumstances, and they quite change the case; for it is one thing to erect 14. new Bishops, thereby laying the foundation, for settling of a Faction, and shaking the present Government, by mixing instruments distributed into all Provinces, as dependants at absolute devotion; one thing (I say) to erect 14 new Bishops, another to protect 14 old Episcopal Sees; represented to his Majesty as a necessary, ancient, useful State in that kingdom: and the manner of composing the question, falls in much with the main, 
Inchoavere sibi annum ultimum, Reipub. prope supremum, Tacit. hist. lib. 1.  Philip maintaining those modern Prelates beyond all moderation: his Majesty relinquishing these, as not standing with the present State of affairs. For though he hath done much for them, yet he will not undo his State Civil, to support the Ecclesiastical in accidentals. So that in Politic possibility we may hope a correspondent event to the real difference of these proceed.  
And now we have seen a difference in the design, and the main means to compass it; in the next place let us consider the instruments, how they were called, or thrust themselves into the affairs of the State; and with what success they fell in with their Master's Counsels, or furthered their own upon his greatness & goodness. Now you shall find Philip the second, for achieving of his end forenamed, chose himself instruments fit for usurpation of absolute dominion, and without doubt was the leader of these Ministers, especially at the first. For Archbishop Cardinal Grandvell was trusted in traverse work, by Charles the fifth, not taken for an ambitious piece of airy, aspiring timber; but this Austrian Eagle, proposed such glorious objects to these Harpies, as pleased his eyes, and cared not, if it burned their feathers. Yea, he was so radically resolved, that when his prudent sister, 
Thuan. hist. lib. 38.  Margaret of Parma, moderatrix of Belgia, proposed ways of moderation; his nature, seconded and set on by his ends, boldly broke through all her mediation, and some of his own promises and protestations which were wrought out of him by present importunity, and impossibility to proceed. True, he went several ways, but always to the same ends, which was to make an end of all those Provinces, rather than he would miss of his mind, though he found it Durissimam Provinciam: therefore concluded her removal, and to send the daring Duke of Alva in her place. Now there is an infinite distance, and must needs have success in suitable way, for a Master upon ill ends to employ bad servants, and uphold, and hold them to it, as his business, upon judgement; and for a prudent Prince, not used to vicious ways, and so not jealous, to be misinformed by Ministers that thrust themselves upon odious unwarranted actions, supposing that his Majesty must own them and their proceed; it is true, that such a gracious Master merited to have better servants, or by this time to have made them so: but this case will infallibly afford a more blessed conclusion, both in the judgement of God, and man, than where indifferent instruments were driven to degenerate, to serve one man's will, and lay the foundation of all men's misery.  
And it were not amiss to make this evident by the several carriages of these Princes towards their Ministers; as to instance only in two grand Creatures of King Philip's, compared with the ambitious imbracers of his Majesty's affairs, (so far as they are disturbed) not to speak of their Collateral auxiliaries of State. Take Archbishop Grandvell a foreigner, yet making an embracement of all the business of Belgia, first, or last all touched upon him; and join to him the Duke of Alva, a great Commander in the conquered kingdom of Naples, and compare them with whom you see cause, and then take a view how their Masters dealt with them; and it will be the shortest and the surest rule of the uses they meant to make of them. Few without an Italians cunning, and a Spanish jesuited conscience, could ever have gotten leave of themselves to put in practise such false and fatal Counsels as Bishop Grandvell executed; for grant, that as a great Church man, of vast desires, and designs, he had overacted in the proposal of the project of fourteen new Bishops, supported with the new Inquisition and Canons: sure he would never have set himself to make good his mistake by so much mischief, as a Civil war, if King Philip had not put him on, to assure his fraud by force, in the promise of Alva his Army (as you find these two men shifting interests, and crushing all opposites by Combination) sure these Dominationum Provisores (as Tacitus) Purveyors of Tyranny, that proceeded against the Law of Nations, Arms, and Leagues; whose truces, Treaties, Pacifications, had all Treachery under them, had in reason of state (in which King Philip seldom erred) been discarded as destructive disturbers, if they had not been much wrought, and upon mere motion first warranted for their humorous undertake: without doubt this Prelate, the chief Augur of Austrian Tyranny, that had more of the Diviner than the Divine in him, had been soon banished as a mischievous State-Mountebanke, and not been trusted as a faithful Foecialis, if there had not been some disorders to be acted In Ordine ad Spiritualia, thereby to serve his Master's Temporal turn. Else would Philip never have withstood so many Complaints of the whole State, with the aggravating letters of humble Information, from the chief of the Nobility, against this odious instrument, that the Prince of Orange (whom the cunning Prelate called Taciturnus) should so speak out, to such a Prince, and yet Philip own him, sure there was more in it than ever saw day, or can endure it: especially when the Governess, his wise weltempered sister, signified the same, and desired his displacing; yea and some of the Nobility of Spain at home, 
Strada li. 2.  that were not of the Cabinet Council, fully voted to displace him: only Alva stuck close to his Ecclesiastic friend: and when by universal hatred he began to totter, the king did not then remit him to the state, for the trial of his pretended integrity; only cast a jealous eye upon him, not as one grossly evil, but as too great, too able, absolute, and something insolent an Instrument; suspecting and supposing his own supreme abilities eclipsed by his so near, so high advancing: so that all he did with him, was to lay him by for a time, lodged under a cloud of personal displeasure, to make him pass lower, and come less in the world's esteem; not that he had any disposition of doting indulgence, beyond reason of state, to reverence his office or order, being he immediately cast him upon hard, rough, and rocky work, cut out of purpose to break him, or that he might break the wild, 
Thnan. hist. lib. 1.  unbackt, unbitted Neapolitan Courser, which Tolitomus had heated into a sedition, by seeking to hamper & halter them with Inquisition. Sure the most the King disliked in him, was a busy boldness to  the business; as when he was his Viceroy of Naples, he presently fell foul with the Bishop, possessed his temporals, and cast him into prison. Wise Princes long relish not those Ministers, that will needs be not only executioners, but Authors of their Master's Counsels; being they love to serve their own wills with their own wits; and instruments must know no more of business, than they think good to reveal, especially if it be such as will not endure the light: rightly concluding, that all openings are weakening both in buildings and in business, as well in Factions as in Fabrics: therefore this Prelate being privy to so much, Philip did wisely, not to change his fortune by disfavour, lest he should change his faith to his disadvantage; holding this false Principle, not to permit the most pernicious Minister to sink or suffer; and therefore gave an express to the Governess, 
Strada li. 5.  that she should never call an universal Assembly of the States; and when, upon an exigent, by private instruction she assembled a Senate, it was with a design to dissolve it; being not intended so much to have their advice and assistance, but to feel their Pulse, and find by their affections, whether the work was a possible pull; 
Thuanus hist. lib. 40.  exploring their strength, or rather their weakness, putting them into passion in provoking ways, that there might be more colour, to embrace, or crush the greatest, as they saw occasion. Now what needed all this shifting, & shuffling, if the dealing had been fair, and above-board, in the view of the body of the Council of State And that his Majesty goeth no such ways to shelter his mischievous Ministers, let the present proceeding discover; though more might be said in excuse of our Ecclesiastical instruments, being not beaten to business of State, to consider consequences in long wound works, good only at quick turns, hints, fits, starts, and onsets of actions, out of ambition, envy, and humorous interests, being subtle, yet shallow, concealing a bottom not worth the owning, wanting both patience, and experience, heated with passion into a Calenture; whose power wiser, yet worse men, jesuited Statists, have abused to do more mischief than they ever meant. But further let us consider, how Philip dealt with his second Minister, the great Duke of Alva; and see his Majesty's carriages towards the like man, of prodigious pride and parts. When Philip called Alva out of Italy, into Belgia, having no mind either to go himself, or make good the pacification; and pretended only the distemper of a tertian Ague, as a fit divertive, to deny his Royal presence; though he was assured by good hands, that an Emplaster applied by any other hand, would be taken for a cutting Corrosive, 
Strada li. 5.  and breed ill blood; Yet by Alva's persuasion at the Council-table in Spain, upon a private Item of his own, broke through all, and concluded upon his advice, with a Royal Army to make good all his demands; 
Meteran. hist. li. 2.  (which counsel was Treason in Belgia, being the forces were foreign) now if this Duke had only acted his own nature, and not taken these hints from the K. ends, sure Philip would have used him according to the event of his unhappy service, and not only have made a relegation and fair confinement of him to Vzeda, 
Confinatoe perele da Corte. Conestag. da Portogalliae Istorza. li. 3.  five and twenty miles from it, as a reservation to his own use, till time, and occasion should call him home, and no neighbour use him in the interim, nor corrival envy him, for favour obtained upon such foul, and fatal undertake. Sure had he not performed the main, Ex praescripto Regis, Philip would have laid a damning deportation upon him, 
Stradali. 7.  or at least have left him at a loss, and never have called him home, to pass with an Army into Portugal, setting him at liberty, to chain them short. Indeed his ill service, when all was passing along to peace, and his Majesty's owning, or not openly deserting of him, soon turned the work of War, in the progress and process of it, from a defensive, into an offensive, on the State's part; and it is likely so to continue, 
Idem li. 6.  being cast into such a way of subsisting, that what goeth out of the door in expense of arms, cometh in at the window in exsise and success. As ache a view of his particular proceed; after the breach of the pacification, 
Plus significat, quam loquitur.  and the Prince of Orange his relinquishing Belgia, upon the tender of a new oath to the Nobility, and so avoiding his treacherous hands; Alva by private, pocket warrant, procured by whispering Counsel, upon half a word from his Majesty, 
Hippol. à collib. consil. q. 2.  cut off chief of the Nobilities heads who set their hands to the complaint against ill Counsellors, and petitioned for composing all in honourable, safe ways; 
Thuan. li. 41.  and that for crimes never published, and therefore for ever suspected, which raised such a mischievous mixture in men's minds, as fixed a resolution, to have Spanish blood pay the arrears for ever: that he was held up to go on at this rate, hath cast down the power of the elder house of Austria in lower Germany, whence the Eagle first took his flight, 
Comineus Com. li. 8.  to mount to the top of the Capitol, upon the malicious mistake of Lewis the eleventh. Now let us reflect a little, and see how his Majesty carrieth the like proceed to a more prosperous point, giving full way to sequester and punish all malignant delinquents; wherein his Highness holds close to his own prudent principles, to rule by Counsel, especially in extraordinary confounding causes, when the ordinary private, set Council of Princes is concluded too short, and insufficient, as never intended for universal advice in such domestic designs, as work upon the body and soul of a State; especially if some of those Counsellors, who have pulled hardest to be interested in public affairs, be found faultiest, and the fomenters of the dissensions, 
Pet. Mat. hist. pacis l. 6. n. 3.  driving the interests of a false and foreign friend, 
Opens factionis. Sallust. Bell. jugur.  long since sworn Protector Regni Angliae, and hath ever since been so wise, as to have Pensioners at devotion; knowing that seditions make Conquests easy, where he hath a party.  
This indeed is the root of all these ruinating courses; which is the next consideration to be examined for a hoped different event, and will satisfy all rational, disengaged Statists, concerning his Majesty's deserting many of his Ministers, as Piaculares publiciodii victimae (as Pliny persuaded just Trajan)  
Now to make this manifest, we must lay down what principles necessitated Philip irrecoverably to correspond and support such kind of instruments, 
Meteran. li. 1.  especially his Spanish tools of State, cross to his Father's last advise, and you will find it to be the making himself head of the holy League concluded in the Council of Trent, upon his own conditions to make the Western world his holy Land, and a fifth Monarchy; then he began to execute the Canons of the Council, with a Writ, De excommunicato capiendo, farming all the Pope's Fines at a quit rend of his own rating, making this a Title, to have footing by a faction, in all Dominions he aimed to embrace; now for this work he was to have Ministers that must live in the bowels of neighbour kingdoms, to be their death. Witness the Guisian faction that wrought so malignantly upon Scotland, with reference to England. When they persuaded the Queen Regent to get a guard of Italians; 
Thuan. li. 23.  this engine had the main spring turned by Spanish reason of State. Sure the performing of this pleasing trust cast him upon many most unpleasing passages, which were too suitable to his disposition, (as well as his design) which was severe, even to cruelty. For I cannot believe that Q. Mary's temper, notwithstanding all provocations by her Mother's divorce, and her danger of disinheriting by the Protestant party, did put her into such ways of wasting her Country, and Conscience, if King Philip's company and counsels had not engaged her, neither was it a passage of pity, but policy, that made him mediate for Queen Elizabeth's life, 
Repraesent. pacis general. ca 6.  being he had no hope of Issue, and meant to marry her, and would not in any case she were removed, because the French King, Francis the second had obtained Mary Queen of Scotland, the next heir to the Crown, and he was wiser than to let so considerable a Kingdom (that moderateth Christendom) fall into French hands: so that to return, and leave digressing, this service of an Ecclesiastic voluntiere, filled his head and hands full of bloody business; as see how he ventured all, to settle that Council in these petty Provinces; what ways he went to extirpate the Protestants of France. Instance the interview of Baion, when Alva went in his room, attending his Queen, to give the French King and their Mother Katherine de Medici's a meeting; 
Thuan. l. 37.  when Alva had Plena mandata à Philippo, to communicate in Arcano; and all was covered and coloured with his presenting his Majesty with the order of the golden Fleece; when the main design was the proposing of a plot for the Parisian Maatins, in imitation of the Sicilian Vespers; which he delivered as a Masterpiece from King Philip, 
Io. Baptista. Hadrian. apud Thuan. li. 37. Fazellus de rebus Siculis li. 8. Dec. 2.  who communicated it to the Pope Gregory the thirteenth, to beg a benediction for a cursed Conspiracy; for which invention, or rather imitation of his predecessor Peter of Arragon, Philip well merited to have his name written in Rubrics, in the Gregorian Calendar, Stylo novo reformato, not as a Saint, but sanguinary hater of reformation. Yea, further, it may be Physically conjectured, that the same blood begat that cruel Counsel, which put him upon deliberation, against his own best blood, Charles his brave eldest Son; who upon Spanish reason of State, 
Pet. Mat. hist. pacis li. 6. nar. 14.  and no other ground rendered, but fear of his Religion, must die, and have only the favour to choose his death. Yea, this politic zeal worked to the last gasp with him; as that free, faithful Author testifieth, 
Idem nar. 16.  Philippum animam agentem, filio suo, summo ardore, bellum in Haereticos commendasse: and to make it impossible ever to meet in medium ways of moderation, 
Mariana de los yerros deal govier de los jesuit. cap. 10.  he made choice of the jesuits for his conscientious Casuists, which cunning Confessors have composed a Somma poenitentiale, according to the compass of their Grandizing Master's conscience, cross to the quiet of all Christendom, 
Hispaniam pari justitia continuit, major privato visus dum privatus fuit, & omnium consensu capax imperii nisi imperasset. Tacit. hist. 1.  and the good of humane society, which they keep as Cases reserved, Inter arcana dominationis. So that all the world may see how King Philip and his successors are held to it, to stand by their Ministers, without they will lay down their design of enlargement of Dominion; 
Antonio Perez. part 2. cart. 33.  but while that humour reigneth, they must be unjust, if it be for a kingdom, and shall have use of such instruments that they dare not remove but by sudden ruin. Whereas a moderate Prince who hath no such service, and Ministers burn not with black secrets, to make themselves dear, and over-awe him; may with honour, safety, transcendent justice, and great content bequeath notorious suspected ill Counsellors, to a solemn public trial; being not necessitated, either to protect them for ever, or, without Process, to ruin them in a moment. 
De Clem. li. 2. cap. 5.  Serious Seneca advising two ways of Clemency (a virtue of as much policy as piety in a Prince) seasoneth that sweetening, with mixing Salutares severitates. Yea, where he is most judiciously angry with Anger, he entereth a Caution, that sometimes, 
De Ira. li. 1. cap. 9  Optimum misericordiae genus est occidere; especially such as are bloodthirsty, & deceitful men, who should not live out half their days: Atrocium ministri, Contrivers of mischief and misery, whom no necessity, or straits of State can excuse. For there are Foeda, 
Decius de regul. juris l. 122. n. 2.  falsa, & flagitiosa, quae patriae quidem causa facienda non sunt; especially being ways against their King and Country upon a true interpretation, and a necessity of their own procuring, to the States undoing, by their making the worst of that, which at the best was no better than nought; having concluded it good counsel to bring both kingdoms near to ruin, that they might rule them with more ease, when they are poor & passive; a most confounding course in a free Monarchy.  
And let no obnoxious disturber that hoped to escape in a smoke, think to stop, or divert this present course for the common good against the common enemies; by making it a question whether a Prince should suffer Ministers, of his own making, be publicly punished for ill execution of their offices? I refer them to their friends, 
Tesaur. polit. part terza dis. 55.  Italian and Spanish pens, that have fully discussed this query, to their destruction; only let us represent the state of the question, and leave it to rational men to consider.  
The inquiry is not whether it be safe, or ever seasonable by a civil sword of justice, to cut off multitudes of men, though guilty of disturbance, so as to make a considerable party in State an example, having been miss by a few; when the way should be to give such time to repent, and come to themselves, and mitigate; as men only bitten by a mad dog, a Moon will assure them that are only lunatic for a fit: such epidemical executions proceed as a work from these public enemies, suitable to their natures, rather than from our necessity; these are they that value their own sweat in ill service, above the blood of the best of men: this is not that we aim at, either as justifiable, or plausible; but what we propose, stands thus; and we may stand to make it good to the whole world: that it is most honourable, just, and safe for a supreme Potentate, who hath the sole power of choosing his own ordinary Ministers, in exigents of State to give up notorious and manifest Ministers of ill Counsels, to his own extraordinary, supreme Council, both of State and justice, 
Extraordinariae persecutiones in animadversione capitalium Vid. Brisson. de verb. sign.  as to them that cannot be mistaken in domestic affairs; having power not only to proceed by Precedent, but also occasionally to create them, as reason of State, 
Legge piu dannosa Repub. che riguarda assa tempore indietro. Machiavelli. hist. Fieront. li. 3.  for full, safe, secret, and sudden dispatches shall require; that they be not foiled in their deliberations, by over-punctuall, paedantique, literal interpretations; as full, Aristocratical bodies move many times so slowly in solemn ways, that their dangers prevent them, especially when all affairs are in statu perturbato, & quasi in maligno posita, 
Clapmar de Arcanis Dominat. li. 3. cap. 2.  then by a  consent of States, there be latitudes allowed, and variations, by way of relaxation from common courses, to serve and secure the King and State. And if private men may upon favour procure a privilege above, at least besides Law, as in omitted Cases; sure the State for the avoiding of present pressing evils, and the obtaining of future good, may assume the power, as supposed, to go the King's ways, and gates, upon sufferance, to meet with those common enemies that keep no compass; but have well digested, that they lose not reputation, nor abuse their offices, so they get their ends, though by most high offences Now that these men be let fall, as the proposers, as well as the executioners, of ill advice, against the fundamental Laws, and universal well-being of his Majesty's Dominions, 
Media consilia in medium prolata sunt à prava dispositione, vel quia negotium non probe intelligitur, ut Guiccard. hypomnese Politiae 142.  and accordingly proceeded withal by the Parliament, more majorum, as being neither novum, nor nimium, may very well stand with his Majesty's honour, and settle him in his native glory, with this Motto, Carolum hactenus vixisse, & imperâsse, nullos, nisi bostes Reipub: poenitere. (as was said of Charles the fifth) Indeed there can be no colour of cruelty, covetousness, or inconstancy cast upon this course: For when upon further trial, and advice with his great Council, they are discovered as false, their discarding is no inconstancy, but falls in with his Ma.tie own principle; 
Fredericus Furius idea confiliarii in qualitate 11.  that they serve him best, that serve him with most honesty. Neither is it any defect of prudent circumspection in their choice; for when one Minister of State is trusted to commend another, & the choice be bad, the Supreme Master is only misinformed, not mistaken; and so the first error remedied will rectify all the rest, who were wrought and brought in, as secondary supports and supplies to make a Party, 
Campanella in Atheismo triumphato, cap. 6.  and raise a fortune by a Faction, as men bred, and fed for any service: and if a King should choose any upon his own judgement, he may as a man (and above the base flats of flattering spirits) by gracious Royalnesse be taken off from the security of suspecting men, so bad as they be; 
o'er probi, sed animo inverecundi, Sallust.  and it may be they were much better when their Prince first pitched upon them, before the possession of power, and secret practice with worse men, rendered them as bad, or discovered their disposition: 
Alfonsus de Azevedo de syndicatoribus Hispaniae  so that nothing of moment can be alleged against his Majesty's way of leaving them to his supreme Senate, being he doth not deliver them as devoted to destruction upon his own private ends, interests, or disaffections; but hath owned them more, and longer than such a good Master, so free from their guilt, needed ever to have done: it was mere necessity of State, produced by their Counsel, that caused his goodness to suspect their bad service.  
And sure I am, the want of this now, when the eyes of all the world are opened, and set upon them as Pests and Vipers, 
K. james his speech in Parliament. 1609.  perfidious enemies of mankind, both as he is a rational, and religious creature, taking up, or shaking the foundations of Church, and State; if now justice should not proceed, 
Spes & praemia in ambiguo: certa funera & luctus. Tacitus hist. 61.  much dishonour, and more danger would arise out of it: if we should now undergo the worst of Government (Civil War) under the best of Princes, it were the depth of misery; which God and man forbidden, and this course is the only way to prevent it.  
Rewards and punishments hold up all rational orders, and operations, and have immediate influence upon the well-standing of a State: now if the worst of men should not only have immunities, & impunities, it were punishment unjustly inflicted upon the best; but much more provoking, when they reap and receive the chiefest rewards, and have the favour, though they want the faithfulness, to distribute the rest.  
Well it were, 
Paucis charior fides quam pecunia. Sallust. de Bello jugur.  if such men as live against the rules and maxims of man's well-being, that make Monopolies, and so scarcity of necessary commodities, 
Crimina extraord. arbitraria & capitali poena coercentur. Vesembec. in paud. de crimin. extraor.  which the God of nature hath made common, should not be permitted to possess a portion in the earth, or to breathe in the air, but be interdicted fire and water, as those that stop, turn, or corrupt the course of the Fountain, & his Majesty's high ways of justice, and by a Law fiction sink the Land to serve the Sea, and yet trouble all Traffic; these are to be prosecuted as enemies of Civil society, being the jure proscribed by the Laws of Nature, and Nations; who to make good their mischief, 
Clapmarius de flagitiis Domination. lib. 5.  would make the head of a State, the top of a Faction, and provoke a just Prince to be a Party, when his office is to be a judge, and charge the disturbance upon such Ministers as sought to work a distance, and by degrees a defiance with those Subjects that endeavour to deserve his Majesty's favour, and are most faithful to his Crown and dignity: these men have wrought in so many obnoxious under-instruments, as their Ministers and Minions, that there will be room time enough to exercise royal clemency towards them, when the State is safe, and strongest humours purged; Then it will be a natural, non-necessitated work, of highest humanity, when there is a true temper held, betwixt formal refining, real reforming, and utter ruin of all that deserve it.  
Oh how much honour, and comfort well underlayed, which enemies would envy, but could not hinder, would come to his Majesty, if out of these troubles, and travels of his three Kingdoms, with false conceptions and monsters, a deliverance might be obtained by an universal reformation. Sure (with God's blessing) we are very fair for it.  
So that weigh well, and wind up all these particulars, and consider withal the temper of the State, strongly disposing to take up Civil dissensions for a Monarchy, where Counsels meet in one head, hath more absolute advantage to compose and control faction, 
Warramond de foederib. li. 2.  than any Aristocracy, especially if mixed of Germans, and Spaniards, that could never fall into a League, but only a Truce for Traffic; and lay to that the universal love of his Majesty's Royal person; 
Optanda sunt laudandis pauciora. Wotton. ad Regem è Scotia reducem.  the confidence of his absolute justice, and the present concurring of all the three States to serve him upon new endearing obligations, and then you cannot but conclude the best event that ever was expected of so difficult and dangerous a disturbance.  
Si non stet Respub: certè in boni Principis sinum cecidit.  SENECA sub AUGUSTO CAESARE.