out, it might very probably raise a greater form against the Roman Catholics in general, than modest men can with; fince after fuch a breach any jealoufy of their prefumption would feem reasonable. I have written to the Dutch.fs with the freedom and affection of a troubled and perplexed father. I do most humbly beleech your Royal Highnefs by your authority to refcue her from bringing a mischief upon you and herielf that can never be repaired; and to think it worthy your wildom to remove and dupel thofe reproaches (how falte foever, by better evidence thar contmpt; and hope you do believe, that no feverity I have, or can undergo, fhall in any degree letlen or diminish my most profound duty to his Majeny and your Royal Highness; but that I do with all imaginable obedience fbmit to your good pleafare in all things. God preferve your Royal Highnefs, and keep me in your faveur. Sir, your Royal Highness's mot humble and obedent fervante LETTER CI. Earlef Clarendon to the Darches of York, on the fame occafii. YOU have much reaise to belleve that I have no mind to trouble you, or difplease you, especially in an argument that is & uppladders and grievous to my felf; but as to clience of a is between us, in refect of our riflence, or the greater dance in repett of the high condition you are in, can make me lefs your father, er blive me from performing tone ob petoes with that re lation requires from me, is when in. ceive any credible advertement of what refects upon you, in point of scout, confcience, or aftra, i agát not to cmit the informing you of 2, x = rising foch advice to you 21 underftanding ferma marade; which I m fl Line will take credit with you. that what you wrote to me nam m frce, upod thode reproces & ad me you were generally reported co your defection in reigin gue thei much fulfiéton, mai ales to process from s that delights in flander and calumny. But I must tell you, that the fame report increases of late very much, and I myfelf faw the last week a letter from Paris, from a perfon who faid the English ambaffador affured him the day before, that the Dutchefs was become a Roman Catholic; and, which makes greater impref. fions upon me, I am affured that many good men in England, who have great affection for you and me, and who have thought nothing more impoffible than that there fhould be fuch a change in you, are at prefent under much affliction, with the obfervation of a great change in your courfe of life, and that conftant exercife of that devotion which was fo notorious; and do apprehend from your frequent difcourfes, that you have not the fame reverence and veneration that you ufed to have for the Church of England; the church in which you was baptized, and the church the best confituted, and the most free from errors of ary Chriflian church this day in the world; and that fome perfons by their infinuations have prevailed with you to have a better opinion of that which is moit opposite to it, the Church of Rome, than the integrity thereof deferves. It is not yet in my power to believe, that your wit and understanding (with God's blefing upon both, can faffer you to be taken farther than with melan choly reflections upon the iniquity and wickednel of the age we live in, which dicredits all religion, and which wa equal cenie breas into the profeffore of all, and prevas epon the members of all churches, and whole manners will Lave no beast from the faith of any Church. I prefime you do not entangle yoIfelt the particular controverfelben wer the Romans and as, en trick pudelf a compeners judge of aldos occur theids: a work se Some flladius argament of any and them, cikely w ears, and fhutting your own eyes. There are but two perfons in the world who have greater authority with you than I can pretend to; and am fure they both fufer more in this rumour, and would fuffer much more if there were ground for it, than I can do: and truly I am as unlikely to be deceived myfelf, or to deceive you, as any man that endeavours to pervert you in your religion. And e, befcech you let me have fo mon creo with you, as to perfuade you Om mate any doubts or fcruples occur to you, before you fuffer to make too deep an improfion t' common argument, that there is 1 vation out of the church, and that Church of Rowe is that only true arch, is bora irrational and untrue; tre are many churches in which falvaon may be attained, as well as in any one of them; and were many, even in the Apottles die; otherwife they would never have directed tucir Epifles to fo many feveral churches in which there were different opinions received, and very different doctrines taught. There is indeed but one faith in which we can be faved, the ftedfaft beli f of the birth, paffion, and refurrection of our Saviour; ard every church that receives and embraces that faith is in a ftate of falvation. in the Apoffles preached true doctrine, the reception and retention of many errois des not deftroy the cffence of a church; if it did, the Church of Rome would be in as ill, it not in a worfe concition, than most other Chriftian churches; because its errors are of a greater magitude, and more destructive to religion. Loot the canting difcourfes of the univeriality and extent of the church, which has as little truth as the reft, prevail over you: they who will imitate the greateft part of the world, mußt turn Heathens; for it is generally believed, that above ore half of the world is poffeffed by them, and that the Mahometans poft fs above one half of the remainder. There is as little queftion, that of the reft, which is inhabited by Chriflians, one part of four is not of the communion of the Church of Rome; and God knows in that very communion there is as great difcord in opinion, and in matters of as great moment, as is between the other Chriftians. I hear you do in public difcourfes dif like fome things in the Church of England, as the marriage of the clergy, which is a point which no Roman Catholic will pretend to be of the effence of religion, and is in ufe in many places which are of the communion of the Church of Rome; as in Bohemia, and thofe parts of the Greek Church which fubmit to the Roman and all men know, that in the lase Council of Trent, the facraments of both kinds, and liberty of the clergy to marry, were very paflionately preffed both by the Emperor and King of France for their dominions; and it was afterwards granted to Germany, though under fuch conditions as made it ineffectual; which however fhews that it was not, nor ever can be looked upon as a matter of religion. Christianity was many hundred years old before fuch a refraint was ever heard of in the church; and when it was endeavoured, it met with great oppofition, and was never fubmitted to. And as the pofitive inhibition feems abfolutely unlawful, fo the inconveniencies which refult from thence, will upen a juft difquifition be found fuperior to thofe which attend the liberty which the Chriflian religion permits. Thofe arguments which are not ftrong enough to draw perfons from the Roman communion into that of the Church of England, when custom and education, and a long ftupid refignation of all their faculties to their teachers, ufually fhuts out all reafon to the contrary; may yet be abundant to retain those who have been baptized, and bred, and inftructed in the grounds and principles of that religion; which are, in truth, not only founded upon the clear authority of the Scriptures, but upon the confent of antiquity, and the practice of the primitive church and men who look into antiquity, know well by what corruption and violence, and with what conftant and continual oppofition, thofe opinions, which are contrary to ours, crept into the world, and how warrantably the authority of the Bishop of Rome, which alone fupports all the reft, came to prevail; which has no more pretence of au thority and power in England, than the Bishop of Paris, or Toledo, can as rea fonably lay claim to; and is fo far from being matter of Catholic religion, that the Pope has fo much, and no more, to do in France or Spain, or any other Ca tholic dominion, than the crown and laws, and conftitutions of feveral kingdoms give him leave; which makes him fo little (if at all) confidered in France, and fo much in Spain, and therefore the English Catholics, which attribute fo much to him, make themselves very unwarrantably of another religion than the Catholic Church profeffes: and without doubt those who defert the Church of England, of which they are members, and become thereby disobedient to the ecclefiaftical and civil laws of their country, and therein renounce their subjection to the ftate, as well as to the church (which are grievous fins), had need of a better excufe, than the meeting with fome doubts which they could not anfwer; and lefs than a manifeft evidence, that their falvation is defperate in that communion, cannot ferve their turn: and they who imagine they have fuch an evidence, ought rather to fufpect that their understanding has forfaken them, and that they are become mad, than that the church, which is replenished with all learning and piety requifite, can betray them to perdition. I beseech you to confider (which I hope will over-rule thofe ordinary doubts and objections which may be infused into you), that if you change your religion, you renounce all obedience and affection to your father, who loves you fo tenderly that fuch an odious mutation would break his heart; you condemn your father and your mother (whofe incomparable virtues, and piety, and devotion, have placed her in heaven) for having impiously educated you; you declare the church and ftate, to both which you owe reverence and subjection, to be, in your judgment, Antichriftian: you bing irreparable difhonour, fcandal, and prejudice, to the Duke your husband, to whom you ought to pay all imaginable daty; and who, I prefume, is much precious to you than your own life; and all poffible ruin to your children, of whofe company and converfation you must look to be deprived; for God forbid, that after fuch an apoftacy you Bhould have any power in the education of your children. You have many enemies, whom you would here abundantly gratify, and fome friends whom you will thereby (at least as far as in you lies) per more fectly deftroy; and affict many others, who have deferved well of you. I know you are not inclined to any part of this mifchief, and therefore offer thefe confiderations as all those particulars would be infallible confequences of fuch a conclufion. It is to me the faddeft circumftance of my banishment, that I may not be admitted, in such a season as this, to confer with you, when I am confident I would fatisfy you in all doubts, and make it appear to you, that there are many abfurdities in the Roman religion, inconfiftent with your judgment and underftanding; and many impieties inconfiftent with your confcience; fo that before you can fubmit to the obligations of faith, you must diveft yourself of your natural reason and common fenfe, and captivate the dictates of your confcience, to the impofitions of an authority which has not any pretence to oblige or advise you. If you will not with freedom communicate the doubts which occur to you, to thofe near you, of whofe learning and piety you have had fuch experience, let me conjure you to impart them to me, and to expect my answer before you suffer them to prevail over you. God bless you and yours. LETTER CII. WHEREAS I have been ever from my infancy bred up in the English protestant religion, and have had very able perfons to inftruct me in the grounds thereof, and I doubt not but I am expofed to the cenfure of an infinite number of perfons, who are aftonished at my quitting it, to embrace the religion of the Roman Catholics (for which I have ever profeffed a great averfion); and therefore I have thought fit to give some fatisfaction to my friends, by declaring unto them the reasons upon which I have been moved to do it; without engaging myfelf in long and unprofitable difputes touching the matter. I proteft therefore, before God, that fince my coming into England, no person, either man or woman, hath at any time perfuaded me to alter my religion, or hath used any difcourfes to me upon that fubject. LETTER I. From James Howvel, Efq; to Sir J. S. at Leeds Caftle. I Sir, Weftmin. 25 July, 1625. T was a quaint difference the ancients did put betwixt a letter and an oration; that the one fhould be attired like a woman, the other like a man: the latter of the two is allowed large fide robes, as long periods, parenthefes, fimilies, examples, and other parts of rhetorical flourishes but a letter or epifle fhould be fhort-coated and clofely couched; a hungerlin becomes a letter more handfomely than a gown; indeed we fhould write as we speak; and that's a true familiar let ter which expreffeth one's mind, as if he were difcourfing with the party to whom he writes, in fuccinct and fhort terms. The tongue and the pen are both of them interpreters of the mind; but I hold the pen to be the more faithful of the two: the tongue in udo pfita, being feated in a moift flippery place, may fail and faulter in her fudden extemporal expreflions; but the pen having a greater advantage of premeditation, is not fo fubject to error, and leaves things behind it upon firm and authentic record. Now letters, though they be capable of any fubject, yet commonly they are either narratory, objurgatory, confolatory, monitory, or congratulatory. The first confifts of relations, the fecond of reprehenfions, the third of comfort, the two laft of counfel and joy: there are fome who in lieu of letters write homilies; they preach when they should epiftolize: there are others that turn them to tedious tractates : this is to make letters degenerate from their true nature. Some modern authors there are who have expofed their letters to the world, but most of them, I mean among your Latin epiftolizers, go freighted with mere Bartholomew ware, with trite and trivial phrafes only, lifted with pedantic fhreds of fchool-boy verfes. Others there are among our next tranfmarine neighbours eastward, who write in their own language, but their style is fo foft and caly, that their letters may be faid to be like bodies of loofe flesh without finews, they have neither joints of art nor arteries in them; they have a kind of fimpering and lank hectic expreffions made up of a bombast of words, and finical affected compliments only: 1 cannot well away with fuch fleazy stuff, with fuch cobweb-compofitions, where there is no ftrength of matter, nothing for the reader to carry away with him that may enlarge the notions of his foul. One fhall hardly find an apothegm, example, fimile, or any thing of philofophy, hillory, or folid knowledge, or as much as as one new created phrase in a hundred of them; and to draw any obfervations out of them, were as if one went about to diftil cream out of froth; infomuch that it may be faid of them, what was faid of the Echo, "That fhe is a mere found and nothing else." I return you your Balzac by this bearer: and when I found thofe letters, wherein he is fo familiar with his king, fo flat; and thofe to Richlieu, fo puffed with prophane hyperboles, and larded up and down with fuch grofs flatteries, with others befides, which he fends as urinals and down the world to look into his water for discovery of the crazy condition of his body; I forbore him further. So I am your most affectionate fervitor. up From the fame to his Father, upon his first going beyond Sea. Sir, Broad-ftreet, London, 1ft March 1618. I SHOULD be much wanting to myfelf, and to that obligation of duty the law of God and his handmaid Nature hath impofed upon me, if I should not acquaint you with the courfe and quality of my affairs and fortunes, efpecially at this time, that I am upon point of croffing the feas to eat my bread abroad. Nor is it the common relation of a fon that only induced me hereunto, but that mot indulgent and coftly care you have beer pleafed (in fo extraordinary a manner) to have had of my breeding (though but one child of fifteen) by placing me in a choice methodical school (fo far diftant from your dwelling) under a learned (though lashing) mafter; and by tranfplanting me thence to Oxford, to be graduated; and fo holding me ftill up by the chin until I could fwim without bladders. This patrimony of liberal education you have been pleased to endow me withal, I now carry along with me abroad, as a fure infeparable treasure; nor do I feel it any burden or incumbrance unto me at all: and what danger foever my perfon, or other things I have about me, do incur, yet I do not fear the lofing of this, either by fhipwreck, or pirates at fea, nor by robbers, or fire, or any other cafualty on fhore: and at my return to England, I hope at leaft-wife I fhall do my endeavour, that you may find this patrimony improved fomewhat to your comfort. In this my peregrination, if I happen, by fome accident, to be disappointed of that allowance I am to fubfift by, I must make my addrefs to you, for I have no other rendezvous to flee unto; but it shall not be, unless in cafe of great indigence. The latter end of this week I am to go a fhip-board, and firft for the Low Countries. I humbly pray your bleffing may accompany me in thefe my travels by land and fea, with a continuance of your prayers, which will be as fo many good gales to blow me to fafe port; for I have been taught, that the parent's benedictions contribute very much, and have a kind of prophetic virtue to make the child profperous. In this opinion I fhall ever reft your dutiful fon. LETTER III. From the fame to Dr. Francis Manfell, fince Principal of Jefus College in Oxford. Sir, London, 20th March 1618. BEING to take leave of England, and to launch out into the world abroad, to breathe foreign air a while, I thought it very handfome, and an act well becoming me, to take my leave also of you, and of my dearly honoured Mother Oxford: otherwife both of you might have juft grounds to exhibit a bill of complaint, or rather a proteft against me, and cry me up; you for a forgetful friend; the for an ungrateful fon, if not fome fpurious iffue. To prevent this, I falute you both together: you with the best of my moft candid affections; her with my moft dutiful obfervance, and thankfulness for the milk the pleased to give me in that exuberance, had I taken it in that meafure fhe offered it me while I flept in her lap : yet that little I have fucked, I carry with me now abroad, and hope that this courfe of life will help to concoct it to a greater advantage, having opportunity, by the nature of my employment, to study men as well as books. The fmall time I supervised the glafs-house, I got among thofe Venetians fome fmatterings of the Italian tongue, |