\ Chap. X. The HISTORY of the PuRil'ANs. " all people, and fo much the more, becaufe it was not natural to him, K. Charles I. " and was therefore by his friends imputed to an extaordinary meafure of ~· " fupernatural aili!l:ance." After his maje!l:y's death, the epifcopal clergy did all they could to ea- His works. nonize him for a marty; they printed bisfayings, his prayers, his me– ditations, and forms of devotion under his J4ferings, and drew his pourtrait in the mofi devout and heavenly attitude. His works confifiing of fundry declarations, remon!l:rances, and other papers, have been pu blilhed in a moll: pompous and elegant form; among which one is of very iiJfpecled authority, if not abfolutely fpurious, I mean his ''E,x:wv B~<TIJ..,;c.), i. e. Eikoon Br:filike, or the portraiture qf his Jacred majejly in his jolitude and .fojfer;ngs, {aid to be written with the king's own hand : It was fir!1: printed in the year 1649· and paffed through fifty editions in divers languages within twelve months. No book ever raifed the king's reputation {o high as this, which obliged the new ccuncil cf )late to employ the celebrated Milton to defiroy its credit, which he attempted in a treatife under the title of "Eiltwvo K>-.d;',J; [Eikono ClaJiffe] or an anfwer to 'a book entitled Eikoon Bqfilike, printed by Du Garde 1652. but the fraud was not fully detected till fome years after. The grounds and evidences of the fpurioufnefs of this book are thefe, 'F.,xO:v B~cn· I. That lord Clarendon, in his hill:ory of the grand rebellion, makes noA~x•l a ~~u- . f · · n.us per 1 ormentiOn o Jt. 2. B1lhop Burnet fays, the duke of York afterwards mance. king James If. told him in the year r 673. that the book called Eikoorz Vide Ba~le's Bojilikf was not of his father's writing, but that Dr. Gauden writ it; that DrCl:. TJtle after the rell:oration, the doctor brought the duke of Somerfet to the king }'i~ltL~fe, P• and to the duke of York, who both afiirmed, they knew it to be his [the 5 r. doCtor's] writing, and that it was carried down by the earl of Southamptcn, and {hewed the king during the treaty of Newport, who read and approved it. 3· The earl of Anglifey gave it under his hand, that king Charles Il. and the duke of York declared to him in the year 1675· that they were very fure the faid book was not ~ritten by the king their father, but by Dr. Gauden bilhop of Exeter. 4· Dr. Gauden himfelf after the rell:oration, pleaded the merit of thjs performance in a letter to lord chancellor Hyde, who returned for anfwer, that the particular he mentioneci. li· e. of his being the author of that book J was communicated to him as a fecret; I am forry (fays his lordlhip) that it was told me, for when it ceafes to be a fecret it will pleafe no body but Mr. Milton. S· Dr. Walker a clergyman of the church of England, after invokingcrit. Hift. the great God, the fearcher of hearts, to witnefs to the truth nf what he 1gr. de.clares, fays, in his treatife entitled A true Account of the Author of Ezkoon Bajiltke, " I know and believe the book was written by Dr. Gau- " den, except chap. 16th. and 24th. by Dr. Duppa. Dr. Gaudm (fays :VoL, II. B b b he)
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