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[April 15 
SCARCE TRACTS, WITH EXTRACTS AND ANALYSES OF 
SCARCE BOOKS. 04 
It is proposed in future to devote a few Pages of the Monthly Magazine to the 
Tusertion of such Scarce Tracts us are of un 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 und Curious Books. : 
a 
« Ahab, the Son of Amri, did evil in the 
sight of the Lord above all that were 
before him.” 1 Kings xvi. 30. 
i Mya extract is the political part of 
an old sermon without date, au- 
thor, or title-page, called Ahab’s Curse. 
“ Te 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.—Ile 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, 
heing a lusty young widow, marries the 
Jord 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, 
dragsthe Ltalian 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 mar- 
riss 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 Denmark, 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 bidod and slaughter), yet was 
his government tyraunical and arbitrary, 
and a great hater of parliaments. Story 
tells us that he was a great blasphemer, 
and would swear faster than speak. Re- 
matkable was the blasphemous expres- 
sion of his to s\y George Keare, one of 
his gentleman ushers, in the hearing of 
Monsieur de Boisloire, then residing inEn- 
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 Pro- 
testant divine, Monsieur de Boisloire, 
turned Reman-catholic, after he had 
fifty years professed the Protestant re- 
ligion. 
“ At another time at Theobald’s, when 
all the godly divines (then called Puri- 
tans) 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 { shall spare any 
that are found guilty, God’s curse light 
on me and my posterity for ever.’ Ac- 
cordingly, seven persons were by the 
judges condemned to die for that murder. 
Four of the leastaccount were executed ; 
and, notwithstanding the curse, the three 
geat ones the king pardoned, and to 
Somerset himself he was profusely libe- 
ral 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, succeed- 
ed 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 bg beholden to them, he pawns 
» his 
