of which I have before fpoken, as well as the

As for the papers concerning church-government, they are faid to be very well drawn, and procured the king no small reputation; and, if we may believe fome writers, those against Mr. Henderfon were fo very efficacious as to occafion his death.-At the king's firft coming to Newcastle, fays bishop Kennet, Mr. Henderson, a Scotch prefbyter, came as an agent from the Kirk, and much importuned his majefty to pass the propofitions. His majefty affirmed to him, that he could not in confcience ⚫ confent to several things therein contained; especially C as to the change of church-government from the pri'mitive order of epifcopacy; and condefcended to have 'feveral conferences with him, and to let feveral papers C pass between them upon this fubject; which being 'faithfully printed, do demonftrate the king's great abilities, and his incomparable knowledge in these controverfies; being at a time when he had few or no books, and could not have the affiftance of any chaplain. Mr. Henderson returned from Newcastle to Edinburgh, with a serious conviction of his majesty's integrity and learning, and died about the end of August, much lamented by thofe of his party, who themfelves • suspected that his death was owing to his diffatisfaction in his late trial of fkill with his majefty. The lord • Clarendon expreffes it thus. The king was fo much 'too hard for Mr. Henderson in the argumentation, that the old man himself was fo far convinced and converted, that he had a very deep fenfe of the mischief • he had himself been the author of, or too much con'tributed to, and` lamented it to his nearest friends and • confidents, and died of grief and heart-broken within

vol. iii. p.

a very short time after he departed from his majefty (1).' (1) Complete I will not detract any thing from the merit of Charles's hiftory of papers at Newcastle; but the bishop and lord Clarendon England, were certainly a little too hafty, when they attributed 152, fol. fuch effects to them. Difputants, veteran ones, as Hen- Lond. 1706, derfon was, have generally too good a conceit of their own abilities, to think themselves overcome; and tho'

vol. iii.. p.

174.

(n) See Truth

brought to light, or the

grofs forge

ries of Dr. Holling

the papers concerning church-government,"

worth, London, 1693, 4to.

we

the awe of majefty may filence, it feldom perfuades them. To attribute the death of this divine to the ill fuccefs of his difpute with the king, is just as wife as it was to make him the author of the declaration concerning the abilities and virtues of the fame monarch, particularly his devotion, magnanimity, charity, fobriety, () Kennet, chastity, patience, humility (m); which the general affembly of the kirk of Scotland, held at Edinburgh, Aug: 7, 1648, declare to be a forgery, falfhood, and lying (n). -Burnet's account of these papers is greatly to the honour of Charles, though he was too wife to intermix any thing of the marvellous in his ftory. During the month of June, 1646, papers paffed to and again betwixt the king and Henderson; of which, they being fo often published, I fhall fay no more, but that from these it appears, had his majefty's arms been as ftrong as his reafon was, he had been every way unconquerable, fince none have the difingenuity to deny the great advantages his majefty had in all these writings. And this was when the help of his chaplains could not be fufpected, they being fo far from him. And it is, indeed, ftrange to fee a prince not only able to hold up with, but fo far to out-run fo great a theologue, in a controverfy which had exercised his thoughts and ftudies for fo many years. And that the king drew with his own hand all his papers, without the help of any, is averred by the perfon who alone was privy to the ⚫ interchanging of them, that worthy and accomplished gentleman fir Robert Murray, who at that time was known to his majefty;-him therefore did his majesty < employ in that exchange of papers, being all written with his own hand, and in much lefs time than Mr. • Henderfon did his. They were given by his majesty to fir Robert Murray to tranfcribe: the copies, under fir • Robert Murray's hand, were by him delivered to Mr. Henderfon; and Mr. Henderson's hand not being fo legible as his, he, by the king's appointment, tranfcribed them for his majefty, and by his majesty's per

miffion

we may fafely enough attribute to his ma

jesty;

memoirs of

• miffion kept Mr. Henderfon's papers, and the copies of the king's, as was fignified to the writer by himself, a few days before his much lamented death (o).' Sir (0) Burnet's Philip Warwick gives his judgment on thefe papers very the dukes of plainly. Whilft the king refided at Newcastle, paffed Hamilton, that controverfy between him and Henderson about the p. 277, fol. Lond. 1677. order of epifcopacy, and what obligation his coronation-oath laid upon him; which papers being printed, fhew his great ability and knowledge, when he was deftitute of all aids (p).' Thus fpeak thefe writers (p)Memoirs, concerning his majesty's controverfy with Henderson. P. 295. But whatever the real merit of his papers be, 'tis remarkable they have been little read, and are seldom or ever quoted on the subject of epifcopacy. I have turned over Stillingfleet's Irenicum, and his Unreasonableness of Separation, in which church-government is at large difcuffed; I have looked into Hoadley's Defence of Epifcopal Ordination, and many other volumes; but can find him feldom or ever named. So that, 'tis poffible, these learned churchmen had not fo great an opinion of the arguments made ufe of by Charles in these papers, as the hiftorians I have quoted.

a

Charles's works, P.

93.

Charles is celebrated by his panegyrifts for his devotion, as we have already feen; and to convince the world of the truth and reality of it, the editor of his works has given us a collection of Prayers used by his majefty in the time of his troubles and restraint (9). But this (9) King title does not fuit feveral of them. The first being prayer ufed by his majesty, at his entrance in ftate into the cathedral church of Excefter, after the defeat of the earl of Effex in Cornwall. The fecond is ftiled a prayer drawn by his majefty's fpecial direction and dictates, for a bleffing on the treaty at Uxbridge.' The third is a prayer drawn by his majesty's fpecial direc⚫tions, for a bleffing on the treaty at Newport in the Isle of Wight.' A fourth is a prayer for the pardon of • fin.' The fifth is a prayer and confeffion in and for the times of affliction." In this there are these very remark

H 3

(r) King Charles's works, p.

94.

jefty; for friends and foes unanimously

agree remarkable expreffions. Of all men living, I have most need, moft reafon fo to do, [to confefs his fins] no man living having been fo much obliged by thee; that degree of knowledge which thou haft given me, adding likewife to the guilt of my tranfgreffions. For < was it through ignorance that I fuffered innocent blood to be fhed, by a falfe pretended way of justice? or that I permitted a wrong way of thy worship to be fet up in Scotland, and injured the bifhops in England? O no; but with fhame and grief I confefs, that I therein followed the perfuafions of worldly wisdom, forfaking the dictates of a well-informed confcience (r).'-But to go on the fixth prayer is ftiled in time of capa prayer tivity;' and the feventh, a prayer in time of immi'nent danger.'-The prayer in time of captivity,' is too remarkable to be flightly pafied over. It was printed at the end of fome editions of Icon Bafilike, among other prayers of Charles's, and by the quick-fighted Milton (who was well verfed in romances) was found to be taken from the prayer of Pamela, in fir Philip Sidney's Arcadia. Hear his words. In praying therefore, and in the outward work of devotion, this king we fee had 6 not at all exceeded the worst of kings before him. But herein the worst of kings, profeffing Chriftianifm, have ⚫ by far exceeded him. They, for aught we know, have • ftill prayed their own, or at least borrowed from fit

authors. But this king not content with that which, • although in a thing holy, is no holy theft, to attribute to his own making other men's whole prayers, hath C as it were unhallowed and unchriftened the very duty of prayer itself, by borrowing to a chriftian ufe prayers offered to a heathen god. Who would have imagined fo little fear in him of the true all-feeing Deity; fo little C reverence of the Holy Ghost, whofe office is to dictate ⚫ and present our chriftian prayers; fo little care of truth in his laft words, or honour to himself or to his friends, or sense of his afflictions, or of that fad hour which was upon him, as, immediately before his death, to

'pop

agree that he was the author of them. The prayers

< pop into the hand of that grave bishop who attended ◄ him, as a special relique of his faintly exercises, a prayer, ftolen word for word from the mouth of a ' heathen woman, praying to a heathen god; and that in no ferious book, but in the vain amatorious poem of 'fir Philip Sidney's Arcadia; a book in that kind full of ⚫ worth and wit, but among religious thoughts and duties not worthy to be named; nor to be read at any time ' without good caution, much lefs in time of trouble and affliction, to be a Chriftian's prayer-book? It hardly can be thought upon without fome laughter, that he who had acted over us fo ftately and fo tragically, fhould leave the world at last with such a ridiculous exit, as to bequeath among his deifying friends that ftood about him, fuch a piece of mockery to be • published by them, as muft needs cover both his and their heads with fhame and confufion. And fure it · was the hand of God that let them fall, and be taken ' in such a foolish trap, as hath exposed them to all de

rifion, if for nothing elfe, to throw contempt and dif< grace in the fight of all men, upon this his idolized • book [Icon Bafilike], and the whole rofary of his pray

ers; thereby teftifying how little he accepted them < from those who thought no better of the living God than of a buzzard idol, that would be ferved and wor• shipped with the polluted trash of romances and Arcadias, without difcerning the affront so irreligiously and fo boldly offered him to his face (s)." (s) Milton's In the fecond edition of Iconoclaftes, Milton makes profe works, fome large additions to his obfervations on the plagiarism of Charles. They are too long to be here repeated; but, what follows I think deferves to be regarded, on account of its great spirit and beauty. But leaving, adds he,

what might juftly be offenfive to God, it was a tref< pass alfo more than ufual against human right, which commands that every author fhould have the property of his own work reserved to him after his death, as well as living. Many princes have been rigorous in

H 4

lay

vol. i. p.

408.