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SCARCE TRACTS, WITH EXTRACTS AND ANALYSES OF SCARCE BOOKS.

It is proposed in future to devote a few Pages of the Monthly Magazine to the Insertion of such Scarce Tracts as are of an interesting Nature, with the Use of which we may be favoured by our Correspondents; and under the same Head to introduce also the Analyses of Scarce and Curious Books.

Ahab, the Son of Amri, did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him." 1 Kings xvi. 30.

TH

HIS extract is the political part of an old sermon without date, author, or title-page, called Ahab's Curse. "It hath been a custom among us for many years, arising from I know not whence, upon mention of deceased princes, to use the expression of 'blessed memory; I shall therefore reflect back upon the lives of some of our kings, that we may see how many of them deserved the memory of blessed.' And first, for “King James I.-He came to the crown of Great Britain in the year 1602, whose father we find it difficult to give you any account of. What I have read of him was this, that Mary queen of Scotland, being a lusty young widow, marries the lord Darnly, at which time she had for a reserve, in great favour, an Italian fiddler, and Bothwell, a Scotch lord. After marriage, the queen proves with child; the king, her husband, that was lord Darnly, (enraged by some information) comes into the room when the queen his wife was at supper, and very big, drags the Italian fiddler into another room, and murdered him. The queen was shortly after delivered of a son, which was our king James. The solemnity being ended, she and Bothwell murdered the king, her husband; the queen marries Bothwell, and all in a moment of time, but they were both fain to fly, the queen into England, where she lost her head, Bothwell into Deumark, and there he dies in prison; and as for his supposed father, he was strangled in his bed by the consent of his mother, and flung out into a garden.

"However he was king, let who will be his father or mother, and although this king was naturally fearful (which kept him from blood and slaughter), yet was his government tyrannical and arbitrary, and a great hater of parliaments. Story tells us that he was a great blasphemer, and would swear faster than speak. Remarkable was the blasphemous expres sion of his to sir George Keare, one of his gentleman ushers, in the hearing of Monsieur de Boistoire, then residing in En

gland for the French Protestant princes, how that "the Bible had sent more men to hell than any other book ever did;" by which means the aforesaid Protestant divine, Monsieur de Boisloire, turned Roman-catholic, after he had fifty years professed the Protestant re ligion.

"At another time at Theobald's, when all the godly divines (then called Puritans) had presented their petition to king James for the change of church government, he then, kneeling on the ground, and lifting up his hands towards heaven, desired God to curse bim and all his bearns, if he did not do it. I shall make mention but of one more, which is that dreadful curse used by him in his charge to his judges, upon the examination of the murder of sir Thomas Overbury, as followeth:

"My lords, I charge you, as you will answer it at that great and terrible day of judgment, that you examine it strictly without favour, affection, or partiality, and if you shall spare any guilty of this crime, God's curse light upon you and your posterity; and if I shall spare any that are found guilty, God's curse light on me and my posterity for ever.' Accordingly, seven persons were by the judges condemned to die for that murder. Four of the least account were executed; and, notwithstanding the curse, the three great ones the king pardoned, and to Somerset himself he was profusely liberal all his days. Now how far this curse was entailed, the reader may judge by the sequel: however, this absolute prince, after he had rid and gauled the necks of his people for about twenty-two years, was, by the help of a plaister and powder from the duke of Buckingham, as it was thought, laid into a deep sleep. Things thus considered, it must be said that James, as well as Ahab, did evil in the sight of the Lord.

"After him, in the year 1625, succeeded his son, Charles I. that most stubborn prince. History gives us a large account of his reign and government, which saith, His parliaments he dissolved for their reasonable motions, and rather than he would be beholden to them, he pawns

hia

his crown and jewels in the Low Countries, which, with the revenues of the crown, was soon consumed by the prodigality of the court; and being resolved for an arbitrary government, he consults a new ministry, sir James Lay, newlymade earl of Marlborough, Weston, lord treasurer, and Cottington (all new men of very small beginnings), fit persons to be employed in his arbitrary designs, which was, to raise money without the consent of parliament. The farmers of the customs he compels to answer his demands; the city of Salisbury is pressed with a Joan of 1000l. the city of Bristol with 80001. which, by some aldermen of the city was denied, for which they were laid by the heels until the king had the money. Several of St. Clement's Danes, the Savoy, the Duchy, and other parts within the Liberty of Westminster, for refusing to subscribe the loan, were impressed to serve in the king's ships; many of great rank were committed to prison, and the meaner sort were enlisted for soldiers. Sir. P. Hayman, for refusing the loan, was sent into the king's service; yet all this served not to defray his court expences, and therefore another parliament was thought fit to be summoned in the year 1626, which was no sooner done, but the house of commons charge the duke of Buckingham with the death of king James, his father; but the king, as it is thought, being too sensible of that matter, to make all sure, sends to prison sir Dudley Diggs, and sir John Elliott, the chief managers thereof, when proofs and examinations were all ready, and then in a great rage dissolves the parliament, saying with a stern comportment, as he was disrobing himself, "that it should be the last time that ever he would put them on." See the natural obstinacy of this most unhappy prince, who, in despight of the justice of the parliament, would not suffer so much as his own father's death to be called to an account; yet did the Lord, in his own time, bring to judgment that crying sin of blood; for that justice that the king denied, God sent by the hand of John Felton, who stabbed this duke at Portsmouth with a ten-penny knife, that he instantly gave up the ghost with these words, Gods wounds! I am slain.'

"And so absolute was this prince, that he published a proclamation prohibiting the people, so much as to talk of another parliament, the which was punctually obBerved for ten years together; insomuch, that all wise men then conjectured, that 3

the liberties of the kingdom were buried together with the interment of all par liaments; in which time the king raises money without the leave of his subjects, and against the known laws of the kingdom, with that rigour, as if an act bad passed for the same purpose; the mer chants were oppressed, and great impo sitions were laid upon thread; vast sums of money were raised upon the law of knighthood, with projects of all kinds, many ridiculous, many scandalous, and all very grievous: and yet such was his indigency, that he borrowed of all the principal gentlemen wherever he came. But, though he borrowed, yet he paid it not again. Delinquents were protected and encouraged; and, though Dr. Mauwaring's books were suppressed by pro clamation, and himself disabled by resistance, yet was he pardoned and preferred to a good living. Archbishop Ab. bot was sequestered from his office, for refusing to silence Dr. Sibthorp's sermon, and his soldiers committed great outrages, without redress.

And now was the state of the Protestant religion reduced to the worst step of the conformity of Rome; for masses and mass priests were not only permitted in the face of the court, but throughout the kingdom; not only in a tacit connivance, but in an open way of toleration. It was also this pious and blessed martyr, that published a declaration for prophaning the Lord's Day, by spoils and pastimes. You may then judge what a Protestant he was, not only by this, but his cabinet letters at Naseby; his heartiness to the Protestants of Rochel, and that massacre in Ireland, in the year 1640, in which two hundred thousand souls were cut off: why should he be so pitiful and solicitous to have those Irish rebels spared, if he were not conscious that no man was more guilty than him self.

The king having thus far waded in the depth of his arbitrary strains, squeez ing his subjects as long as there was any thing to come, is at length, by his own extremity, and the importunities of the people, prevailed upon, after ten or twelve years, to call another parliament; and this his last parliament was summoned from York, November 3, 1640, and sat down at Westminster; but the king, pers ceiving them to fly high at his chief mi nisters and work-masters of his former arbitrary projects, for high misdemeanours, (to cross the parliament) defends and protects them, and withal takes an

occasion

occasion against five of the members of the house, Mr. Pym, Mr. Hampden, Mr. Hallis, Mr. Stroud, and sir Arthur Haslerige. Those he sends his warrant

for, but upon secret notice they got out of the house. The next day, being the 4th of January, the king comes after a hostile manner and enters the house, attended with his guards and three hundred arined cavaliers, most of them of desperate forlorn fortunes, to the great surprise of the parliament; but, finding himself disappointed in his expectations, after some severe threats, departs, and within a few days leaves his court and parliament; and, notwithstanding the many entreaties for his return, he continued his residence at York, where he set up his standard against his parliament, arraying the poor people against themselves, to the slaughter of many hundreds of thousands of poor innocent souls, merely to satisfy the lust and pleasure of a wilful stubborn king, a strange passion in this prince, when no power will content him but that of absoluteness to be master over the lives and fortunes of his subjects, but this at last proved his own overthrow. For after eight years' wars with his parliament, in the year 1648, he was taken, arraigned, condemned, and beheaded at his own door; the same place where the first blood was spilt by his own servants, the cavaliers; and those two tools, the earl of Stafford and the archbishop of Canterbury, were both doomed to the block, as being trai. tors to their country. I have only this to say, if I may believe history, that this king was a man more beloved, honoured, and obeyed, than any of our kings before him; and yet a prince that raised and wasted more treasures, wilfully spilt more innocent blood, divested more the Jands and habitations of his subjects, ruined more families, and more broiled this gallant nation, than any since the coming in of the Norman race; and yet he lived a saint, and dyed a martyr; and, (if you please) of blessed memory.

em.

The next to this was Charles II. or the Royal Cy, who began his reign in the year 1648. And now comes in the devil and all his works; for here's a man given to luxury and uncleanness, as many living witnesses can testify. With this prince entered a flood of debauchery, atheism, and all manner of prophaneness; the land was overflown in all parts with quarreling, fighting, swearing, cursing, drunkenness, and whoredoių: the

roads, the streets, and houses, ringing with dammes, and strange new-invented blasphemies; obscene discourses every where abounding, which could not otherwise be expected, when we had so great a person for our pattern; for, like prince, like people, regis ad exemplum, &c. peo ple dress themselves by the looking-glass of their prince.

New were their plots of all kinds, by which many a brave man was cut off; aud bloc-ly designs against Holland, though all the while in league with them; all plans, civil, military, and ecclesiastical, were filled up with men of prophane lives. He was an hypocrite, a covenant-breaker, and a bloody persecutor. Historians say, that, upon the restoration of this king, certain dissenting ministers were sent over to Holland, among which was the Rev. Mr. Case, who, coming to the king's lodging, and desiring to be admitted into his presence, were led into a chamber next his closet, and told withal, that the king was busy at his devotions, and, they must stay until he had done; and, being thus left alone, and hearing a sound of groaning piety, Mr. Case steps to the closet-door, where he hears the king pray thus: " Lord, since thou art pleased to restore me to the throne of my ancestors, grant me a heart constant in the exercise and protection of thy true Protestant religion. Never may I seek the oppression of those, who out of tenderness of conscience are not free to conform to outward and indifferent ceremonies;" with a great deal more to the same purpose; at which Mr. Case was exceedingly transported, and with eyes and hands lifted up, tells the rest of his brethren, that they had gotten an angel of a king. All this was done in hypocrisy, as appeared by his carriage afterwards; for, notwithstanding that Covenant that he made with them, he turned out two thousand godly ministers of their churches, on the day commonly called "Black Bartholomew;" after which, what severe and cruel laws were there executed against them, breaking open their doors, rifling their bouses, seizing their estates, casting them into filthy prisons, where, by close confinement, multitudes of them perished: many were convicted without hearing, or jury, and some were put to death for their conscience sake; the meeting-houses were shut up, while the b- y is were open.

Yea, and dissenting ministers were prohibited

prohibited from dwelling within ten miles of any city, town-corporate, or borough, or any place where they had preached since the act of oblivion; nor were they suffered to teach school by themselves, or any others Yea, women were forbid the same, until they had taken the test. Thus the king continued to persecute

many of the people of God, whilst himself made provision for the flesh, to fulfil it in the lust thereof; but how he died is best known to God, and those who were about him, of whom it must be said, that he did evil in the sight of the Lord, above all that were before him."

Extracts from the Portfolio of a Man of Letters.

FRANCIS THE FIRST.

THE following anecdote of Francis I. during his imprisonment at Madrid, is related by Bayle, though he does not vouch for its authenticity. The captive monarch, at a game of chance, won the money of a grandee of Spain, who demanded his revenge. This, Francis thought proper to refuse. The Spaniard, enraged, threw down his gold upon the table, with a furious and insolent air. "Thou has reason in what thou doest," exclaimed he; "this money will serve to pay thy ransom." The king, incensed at this insult, drew his sword, and ran the cavalier through the body. The emperor, when informed of what had passed, replied to the relations of the deceased, who solicited him for vengeance, Francis did right; a king is a king every where!

Francis was treated by Europe with unjust conteapt for his generosisy towards Charles V. his great rival and enemy, who had requested his permission to pass through France in his way to his Flemish dominions. It was in vain that his courtiers endeavoured to prevail on Francis to break his promise with the emperor, and to seize his person, till he had extorted from him certain concessions which Charles had flat. tered him with the hope of obtaining. "When faith, (answered Francis, nobly), shall be banished from the world, it is in the hearts of kings that she ought to find an asylum." Charles ill repaid the generosity of his illustrious adversary; and tarnished, by his ingratitude and duplicity on this occasion, all his laurels. Francis was unfortunate in a too-impetuous and sanguine temper. The apparent inactivity of the Spaniards before the siege of Pavia, so fatal to France, had confirmed him in his presumption. He one day asked of Bonnivet, "What had till now become of these lious of Spain, by which he found himself vanquished?" They slept, MONTHLY MAG. No. 211,

sire," replied the admiral, "and your ma

jesty has at length awakened them."

In 1515, Francis had not yet completed his twentieth year, when he was present at the celebrated battle of Marignan, which lasted two days. The marshal, de Trivulce, who had been in eighteen pitched battles, said, that those were the play of infants; but that this of Marignan was the combat of giants. Francis performed on this occasion prodígies of valour; he fought less as a king than as a soldier. Having perceived his standard-bearer surrounded by the enemy, he precipitated himself to his assistance in the midst of lances and halberts. He was presently surrounded; his horse pierced with several wounds; and his casque despoiled of its plumes. He must have been inevitably overwhelmed, if a body of troops detached from his allies, had not hastened to his succour. He hazarded this battle against the advice of his generals, and cut short all remonstrances by the celebrated expression, which became afterwards proverbial, "Let him that loves me, follow me."

After the defeat of the French at Pavia, where Francis fell into the hands of the emperor Charles V. he announced his misfortune to his mother Louisa of Savoy, in the following concise and sublime billet: "Madam, all is lost but our honour!""

Francis, by the advice of the celebrated Budé, instituted a royal college, where the languages and sciences were taught. He collected a great number of valuable manuscripts, and began to form that fine and magnificent library, which became afterwards one of the first in the world. His taste for the sciences, and the protection which he afforded to those who cultivated them, obtained for him the glorious title of the Restorer of Letters, a title not less valuable than that which was also given to him, of Father of his People.

2 I

The

The reign of this prince was that of gallantry and generosity, but the more profound policy, and persevering talents, of his rival Charles V. threw a shade over the lustre of his name.

ANECDOTES OF HENRY IV. OF FRANCE.

Henry, king of France, having one day attended mass, and being about to approach the altar of communion, M. de Roquelaure, regarding this as a favorable moment to obtain a pardon for one of his relations, who had offered violence to a magistrate in the discharge of his duty, threw himself at the feet of the king, and supplicated him, for the love of that Being, whose body he was about to receive in the sacrament, and who had promised forgiveness to the merciful, to extend grace to the culprit, who was ready to throw himself upon his clemency. Regarding him with a severe aspect, "Go," said Henry," and leave me at peace: I am astonished that you should dare to make to me a request of this nature, when I am going to protest before God to do justice, and to implore pardon for having at any time omitted so to do."

During the league, Henry having laid siege to the town of Chartres, the besieged, after a long resistance, came at length to the resolution of surrendering themselves. The magistrate, on his appearance before the conqueror, began a tedious harangue, which he had been for some time meditating, by declaring that the city, in submitting to his majesty, acknowledged his divine and his human rights: "Add (said Henry, interrupting him, and quickening his pace to enter the town,) the rights also of my cannon."

The Swiss being on the point of renewing their alliance with France, the provost, the merchants, and the sheriff's, wished to give a festival on the occasion, and, for the purpose of furnishing the necessary expense, requested of Henry permission to lay an impost on the cisterns and fountains. "Search,” replied the good prince," for some other means of effecting your design; I do not chuse to regale my allies at the expense of my people; it belongs to God to change wa ter into wine."

PHYSICIANS.

The Romans having banished from Rome the Greek physicians who had signalized themselves in peopling the regions of the grave, the ollowing reflection was made by Cato "The Greeks, jealous of the glory of the Romans, and being unable to conquer them in the

open field, have sent their executioners, who kill us in our beds."

The obscurity and uncertainty in which the study of medicine has been involved, has, in all ages, been destructive to the human species. Ic can scarcely be doubted, that should a calculation be made respecting the numbers injured or benefited by the inedical art, the balance would preponderate against the physician. Systems, to which the human mind is so prone, are in this profession peculiarly dangerous.

During the reign of Lewis XIV. it it was the fashion in France, and in many parts of Europe, to bleed the patient in every disease, whatever might be its symptoms or nature. Madame de Sevigné, in her Letters, speaks of the Chevalier de Grignan, a relation of the family into which her daughter had mar ried, who was seized with the small-pox of the most malignant kind, and attended with putrid symptoms. The physicians immediately had recourse to their fa vorite remedy of blood-letting, the repetition of which the patient, from the dreadful aggravation of the sufferings which he experienced, in vain endeavoured to resist. After having been bled eleven times, he yielded to the attacks of the doctor and the disease, and expired a victim to obstinacy and igno

rance.

LOUIS THE FOURTEENTH.

In the affecting catastrophe which took place in the family of Lewis XIV. when, at an advanced period of life, he suffered, within a few days, the affliction of losing his grand-son and grand-daughter, (the dauphin and dauphiness of France) with their infant son, it is evident that, from improper treatment, these illustrious personages, the darlings and the hope of France, had, from their first seizure, no chance of recovery. Their malady, which seems to have been a contagious fever, attended with a malignant erup. tion, was, with the fond credulity of an ignorant and credulous age, imputed to poison. To this suspicion, of which there was neither evidence nor proof, the duke of Orleans, afterwards regent, had nearly fallen a victim.

If you have need of a physician, (said an ancient sage,) there are three to which you may have recourse: a tranquil mind, exercise, and temperance. This also was the idea of M. Dumoulin. This celebrated physician, when in the ago. nies of death, and surrounded by his brethren of the profession, who deplored

the

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