next place objected against his Majesty There was neither reall nor mock Parliament set up at Oxford but when the King found that most of the Members of either House were driven from Westminster by force as his Majesty had been and yet that the authority and reputation of Parliament was applied for the justification of all the rebellious Acts which were done even to the invitation of Forain power to invade the Kingdome as well for the satisfaction of His people that they might know how many of the true Members of Parliament abhorred the acts done by that pretended authority as for His owne information his Majesty by his Proclamation of the 22 of Decemb. in the year 1643. invited all the Members of both Houses who had been driven or being conscious of their want of freedome had withdrawn from Westminster to assemble at Oxford upon the 22 of January following when He said all His good Subjects should see how willing He was to receive advice for the Religion Laws and safety of the Kingdome from those whom they had trusted though He could not receive it in the place where He had appointed Upon which Summons and Invitation by his Majesty eight and forty Peers attended his Majesty there being at least twenty others imployed in his Armies and in the severall Counties whose attendance was dispenced with and nine others in the parts beyond the Seas with his Majesties leave and of the House of Commons above one hundred and forty there being likewise absent in the Armies neer thirty more who could not be conveniently present at Oxford When his Majesty found the appearance so great and so much superiour in number as well as quality to those at Westminster He hoped it would prove a good expedient to compose the minds of the other to a due consideration of the misery into which they had brought their Country and referred it to them to propose any advice which might produce so good an effect what addresses and overtures were then made by them and afterwards by His Majesty to perswade them to enter upon any Treaty of Peace and with what contempt and scorne the same was rejected will be too long to insert here and is sufficiently known to the world thereupon this body of Lords and Commons published a Declaration to the Kingdome at large setting forth the particular acts of violence by which they had been driven from Westminster and by which the freedome of Parliament was taken away and then declared how much they abhorred the undutifull and rebellious acts which were countenanced by those who staid there and declared their own submission and allegiance to his Majesty and in the end concluded That as at no time either or both Houses of Parliament can by any Orders or Ordinances impose upon the people without the King's consent so by reason of the want of Freedome and Security for all the Members of the Parliament to meet at Westminster and there to sit speak and vote with freedome and safety all the Actions Votes Orders Declarations and pretended Ordinances made by those Members who remaine still at Westminster were void and of none effect yet they said they were far from attempting the dissolution of the Parliament or the violation of any Act made and confirmed by his Majesty but that it was their grief in the behalf of the whole Kingdome that since the Parliament was not dissolved the power thereof should by the treason and violence of those men be so far suspended that the Kingdome should be without the fruit and benefit of a Parliament which could not be reduced to any action or authority till the liberty and freedome due to the Members should be restored and admitted which Declaration hath not onely ever received any Answer but with great care hath not been suffered to be printed in the last Collection of Orders and Declarations where the other proceedings at Oxford of that time are set forth that the people may lose that evidence against them which can never be answered or evaded This was that Assembly which these Declarers call the mock Parliament at Oxford and these the proceedings of it of the justice and regularity whereof if there could have been heretofore any doubt made the same is lately vindicated sufficiently by both Houses for if those Lords and Commons at Oxford might not justifiably absent themselves from Westminster where their safety and freedome was taken from them by what right or authority could a smaller number withdraw themselves in July last upon the same pretence and if that body of Lords and Commons regularly convened by his Majesties Authority to Oxford who had first called them together at Westminster might not declare the Acts made by those who remained at Westminster void and of none effect because they might not attend there and Vote with freedome and safety by what imaginable authority could the Speaker of the House of Commons who hath no more freedome or power to make any such Declaration then every single Member of the House declare that such and such Votes passed in the House were void and null and that the omission of a circumstance or some formality in the adjournment of the Houses could not be any prejudice to the future meetings and proceedings of Parliament when it might meet and sit again as a free Parliament as he did by his own single Declaration in July last whereupon that powerfull Umpire the Army very frankly declared That all such Members of either House of Parliament as were already with the Army for the security of their persons and were forced to absent themselves from Westminster that they should hold and esteem them as persons in whom the publique trust of the Kingdome was still remaining though they could not for the present sit as a Parliament with freedome and safety at Westminster and by whose advice and counsels they desired to governe themselves in the managing those weighty affairs and to that end invited them to make their repair to the Army and said they held themselves bound to own that honourable act of the Speaker of the House of Commons who had actually withdrawn himself and they engaged to use their utmost and speedy endevour that he and those Members of either House that were then inforced any way from Westminster might with freedome and security sit there and againe discharge their trust as a free and legall Parliament and in the meane time they did declare against that late choice of a new Speaker by some Gentlemen at Westminster as contrary to all right reason law and custome and professed themselves to be most cleerly satisfied in all their judgments and were confident the Kingdome would therein concur with them that as things then stood there was no free nor legall Parliament sitting being through the foresaid violence at present suspended and that the Orders Votes or resolutions forced from the Houses on Munday the 26 of July last as also all such as should
of Reading whilst the Earl of Essex continued still at or about Warwicke on the 2 of November they resolved to send an Overture to his Majesty concerning Peace and though it must not be said they were forced to that Addresse yet truly who ever reads that Petition which was brought to his Majesty to Colebrooke will be of opinion by the stile of it that they were fuller of fear or of duty then they were when they rejected his Majesties offer from Notingham or then they were ten daies after or ever since That Petition was answered with all imaginable candor by his Majesty and Windsor chosen if they would remove their Garrison out of it for the place of Treaty But when the Messengers were returned who made not the least mention of a Cessation it appeared by sure intelligence that the Earl of Essex who had the night before brought his Army to or neer London after those Messengers were dispatched to his Majesty had drawn a great part of his Forces and the London Traine bands towards his Majesty and sent others to Acton on the one side and Kingston on the other so that there being likewise a Garrison at Windsor if the King had staid at Colebrooke He had been insensibly hemmed in and surrounded by the Enemy whereupon He took a sudden resolution to advance to Brainceford thereby to compell them to draw their Body together so making His way through that Towne with the defeat of a Regiment or two which made resistance there and thereby causing those at Kingston to remove the King went to His own House at Hampton Court and having there in vaine expected the Commissioners from the Houses to Treat retired to Reading where He staid till He found they had given over all thought of Treaty and they sent Him a new scornfull Petition to returne to His Parliament with His Royall not His Martiall attendance In January following the importunity of the City of London and generall clamour of the people forced them to pretend an inclination to peace and so they sent Propositions to his Majesty which though but 14 in number contained the whole matter of the former 19. with an addition of some Bils ready passed the two Houses to which His royall assent was demanded one of which was for the extirpation and eradication of the whole frame of Church-government and another for the confirming an Assembly of such Divines as they had chosen to devise a new Government which they were so much the fitter to be trusted with because in the whole number which consisted of above one hundred and might be increased as they thought fit there were not above a dozen who were not already declared Enemies to the old to the which notwithstanding there were few of them who had not subscribed and a promise required from his Majesty that He would give His assent to all such Bils which the two Houses should hereafter present to Him upon consultation with that Assembly How extravagant soever these Propositions were the King so much subdued and suppressed His Princely indignation that He drew them to a Treaty even upon those Propositions expecting as He expressed in His Answer when He proposed the Treaty that such of them as appeared derogatory from and destructive to His just Power and Prerogative should be waved and many other things that were darke and doubtfull in them might be cleared and explained upon debate and concluding that if they would consent to a Treaty they would likewise give such authority and power of reasoning to those whom they should trust that they might either give or take satisfaction upon those principles of piety honour and justice as both sides avowed their being governed by How that Treaty was managed how their Commissioners were limited and bound up by their Instructions that they had no power to recede from the least materiall tittle of the Propositions upon which they treated how they were not suffered to stay one houre beyond the time first assigned to them albeit his Majesty earnestly desired the Treaty might be continued till He had received an Answer to Propositions of His owne which He had sent to the Houses because the Committee had no power to answer them and how the same day their Commissioners left Oxford the Earl of Essex marched with his whole Army to besiege Reading is known to all men who may conclude thereupon that they never intended that Treaty should produce a peace On the other side the King proposed only That His Ships might be restored to Him and His Castles and Revenue which by the confession of all had been violently taken from Him and that His Majesty and the Members of both Houses who had been driven from Westminster might either return thither upon such a provision as might secure them against Tumults for the future or that the Parliament might be adjourned to some safe place and so all Armies presently to be disbanded To which Proposition from his Majesty they never vouchsafed to return Answer and the King after He had above a Month in vain expected it from them and in that time received a good supply of Ammunition which He was before thought to want sent another Message by Mr. Alexander Hambden on the 19 of May 1643. in which He told them That when He considered that the scene of all the calamity was in the bowels of His own Kingdome that all the bloud which was spilt was of His owne Subjects and that what victory it should please God to give Him must be over those who ought not to have lifted up their hands against Him when He considered that those desperate civill dissentions might encourage and invite a forain Enemy to make a prey of the whole Nation That Ireland was in present danger to be lost That the heavy judgments of God Plague Pestilence and Famine would be the inevitable attendants of this unnaturall contention and that in a short time there would be so generall a habit of uncharitablenesse and cruelty contracted throughout the Kingdome that even peace itself would not restore His people to their old temper and security His Majesty could not suffer Himself to be discouraged though He had received no Answer to His former Message but by this did again with much earnestnesse desire them to consider what He had before offred which gave so fair a rise to end those unnaturall distractions This most gracious Message from the King met with so much worse entertainment and successe then the former as it was not only ever Answer'd but the Messenger likewise being a Gentleman of quality and singular integrity though he was civilly received by the House of Lords to whom he was directed was by the House of Commons apprehended and imprisoned and never after freed from his restraint till he ended his life after a long and consuming sicknesse This is the Messenger they mean who to excuse their inhumanity and cruelty towards him they say at the
require to raise what Monies they please and in what way they please All the people of England will say that which the Army said honestly in their Representation agreed upon at Newmarket on the 4 5 of June against the Ordinance of Indempnity We shall be sorry that our relief should be the occasion of setting up more Arbitrary Courts then there are already with so large a power of imprisoning any Free-men of England as this Bill gives let the persons intrusted appear never so just and faithfull Indeed that is asked of his Majesty by this Bill which the King can neither give nor they receive the King cannot give away His Dominion nor make His Subjects subject to any other Prince or power then to that under which they were born no man believes that the King can transfer His Soveraigne power to the French King or the King of Spaine or to the States of the united Provinces nor by the same reason can He transfer it to the States at Westminster And the learned and wise Grotius who will by no means endure that Subjects should take Armes against their Princes upon any specious pretences whatsoever concludes Si rex tradere regnum aut subjicere moliatur quin ei resisti in hoc possit non dubito aliud enim est imperium aliud habendi modus qui ne mutetur obstare potest populus to the which he applies that of Seneca Etsi parendum in omnibus patri in eo non parendum quò efficitur ne pater sit And it may be this may be the only case in which Subjects may take up defensive Armes that they may continue Subjects for without doubt no King hath power not to be a King because by devesting himselfe he gives away the right which belongs to others their title to and interest in his protection The two Houses themselves seemed to be of opinion when in their Declaration of the 27 of May 1642. they said the King by his Soveraignty is not enabled to destroy His people but to protect and defend them and the high Court of Parliament and all other His Majesties Officers and Ministers ought to be subservient to that power and authority which Law hath placed in His Majesty to that purpose though He Himself in His own Person should neglect the same So that by their own judgment and confession it is not in the King's power to part with that which they ask of Him and it is very probable if they could have prevailed with Him to do it they would before now have added it to His charge as the greatest breach of trust that ever King was guilty of They cannot receive what they ask if the King would give it in the Journall of the House of Commons they will find a Protestation entred by themselves in the third year of this King when the Petition of Right was depending in the debating whereof some expressions had been used which were capable of an ill interpretation That they neither meant nor had power to hurt the King's Prerogative And the Lord chief Justice Coke in the fourth part of his Institutes published by their Order since the beginning of this Parliament saies That it was declared in the 42 year of King Edw. 3. by the Lords and Commons in full Parliament that they could not assent to any thing in Parliament that tended to the disherison of the King and his Crowne whereunto they were sworne And Judge Hutton in his Argument against Ship-mony printed likewise by their Order since this Parliament agrees expresly That the power of making War Leagues the power of the Coyne and the Value of the Coynes usurped likewise by these Declarers and many other Monarchicall powers and prerogatives which to be taken away were against naturall reason and are incidents so inseparable that they cannot be taken away by Parliament To which may be added the authority of a more modern Author who uses to be of the most powerfull opinion Mr. Martin who saies that the Parliament it self hath not in his humble opinion authority enough to erect another authority equall to it self And these ambitious men who would impiously grasp the Soveraign power into their hands may remember the fate which attended that Ordinance in the time of King Hen. 3. to which that King metu incarcerationis perpetuae compulsus est consentire and by which the care and government of the Kingdom was put into the hands of four and twenty how unspeakable miseries befell the Kingdom thereby and that in a short time there grew so great faction and animosity amongst themselves that the major part desired the Ordinance might be repealed and the King restored to His just power that they who refused came to miserable ends and their Families were destroyed with them and the Kingdome knew no peace happinesse or quiet till all submission and acknowledgment and reparation was made to the King and that they got most reputation who were most forward to return to their duty So that it is believed if the King would transfer these powers though many persons of honour and fortune have been unhappily seduced into this combination that in truth no one of those would submit to bear a part of that insupportable burthen and that none would venture to act a part in this administration but such whose names were scarce heard of or persons known before these distractions If the King should consent to another of their four Bils He should subvert the whole foundations of government and leave Himself Posterity and the Kingdome without security when the fire that now burns is extinguished by making Rebellion the legitimate Child of the Law for if what these men have done be lawfull and just and the grounds upon which they have done it be justifiable the like may be done again and besides this He must acknowledge and declare all those who have served Him faithfully and out of the most abstracted considerations of Conscience and Honour to be wicked and guilty men and so render those glorious persons who have payed the full debt they owed to His Majesty and their Country by loosing their lives in His righteous cause and whose memories must be kept fresh and pretious to succeeding ages infamous after their deaths by declaring that they did ill for the doing whereof and the irreparable prejudice that would accrue thereby to truth innocence honour and justice all the Empires of the world would be a cheap and vile recompence Nor can this impossible demand be made reasonable by saying It would be a base and dishonourable thing for the Houses of Parliament being in that condition they are to have treated under the Gallows to have treated as Traytors their cause being not justified nor the Declarations against them as Rebels recalled It would be a much more base and dishonourable thing to renounce the Old and New Testament and declare that they are not the word of God
profane wicked and tyrannicall Kings and refreshed them again with pious and devout and just Princes but it was a signall mark of their desolation when he declared that the Children of Israel should abide many daies without a King and without a Prince and it was a sure signe when they had no King that they had not feared the Lord and then what should a King do to them If the most notable Ministers of confusion and they who apprehend least the effects of it would but a little consider in their own stations the misery and desolation that must inevitably attend the breach of Order and subjection in little If the Father thought of the impossibility of living in his own house if his Wife and Children might follow the dictates of their own reasons and wills and appetites without observing his rule and directions If the Master would consider the intolerablenesse of his condition if his Servants might question dispute and contemn his commands and act positively against them they would be the more competent Considerers of the mischiefs and miseries that must befall Kingdomes and Common-wealths If Subjects may Rebell against the power and authority of Princes whom God hath appointed to governe over them There is not one of these Declarers who doth not think he hath a prerogative vested in him by nature It is the prerogative of the Husband the Father the Master not to have his pleasure disputed by his Wife his Child his Servant whose piety consists in obedience yet they cannot endure the mention of the Kings prerogative by and under which only it is possible for them to enjoy theirs It was a wel-weighed scoffe by which Lycurgus convinced him who desired him to establish a popular Government in Lacedemon Begin said he first to do it in thine own house and truly though these Ephori whose profession is to curb the power of Kings intended nothing lesse then to part with the least tittle of their own just authority They are appealed to whether they have not felt that power insensibly shrink from them whilst they have been ambitiously grasping at that belonged not to them Is the piety of Children and the obedience of Servants the same it was before these daies of licence Hath not God sent the same defection of reverence kindnesse and affectionate inclinations into Families to the rooting up and extirpating of all possible joy and delight in each other which the heads of those Families have cherished and countenanced in the State It may be there would not be a better or an easier expedient to reduce our selves and recover that Allegiance we have forsaken then by sadly waighing and considering the effects and kinds and species of Gods judgments upon us since we have been guilty of that breach If every Father whose soule hath been grieved and afflicted with the pertinacious undutifulnesse of a Child would believe as he hath great reason to do that God hath sent that perversnesse and obstinacy into his own bowels to punish his peremptory disobedience to the Father of the Kingdom his Soveraign Lord the King If every Master of a Family who hath been injured betrayed and oppressed by the treachery infidelity or perjury of a Servant would remember how false unfaithfull and forsworn he hath been to his Master the King and conclude that his Servant was but the Minister of Gods vengeance upon him for that transgression If the whole Nation would consider the scorn contempt and infamy it now endures and suffers under with all Nations Christian and Heathen in the known world and confesse that God hath sent that heavy judgment upon them for their contempt of him for whose sake they were owned and taken notice of for a Nation It would not be possible but we should bring our selves to that true remorse of conscience for the ill we have done that God would be wrought upon to take off the ill we have suffered and we could not entertaine a fond hope of injoying the least prosperity our selves without restoring to the King what hath been rebelliously taken from Him They say that though they have made those resolutions of making no more applications to the King yet they will use their utmost endeavours to settle the present Government as may best stand with the peace and happiness of this Kingdome What the present Government is no man understands and therefore cannot know what that peace and happinesse shall be which they intend shall accrue to the Kingdome by it The little Cabinet of Peers for the House is shrunk into that proportion hath no share in it as appeares by the giving possession of the Navy to Rainsborough without their consent after they had asked it and by their doing many other things of high moment without so much as asking their concurrence That it is not in the Commons is as plain by their repealing such Acts of their owne and making others as the Army requires them to doe And that the Army is not possest of it needs no other Argument then the invasion and violation of all the Articles ever made by the Army upon any Surrender which if the power were in them would for their own honour have been observed so that the endeavour they promise to use to settle the present Government is to take an effectuall care that all Laws and legall Authority may for the present be so suppressed that there may be no Government at all And truly it may be in their power for some time to improve the confusion that is upon us and to draw on the desolation which attends us but to settle any kind of Government which can bring peace or any degree of happinesse to the languishing Kingdome nay which can be any security to themselves and their posterity except they submit to the good old one under which they were born cannot be within their power nor sink into their reasonable hope Nothing is more demonstrable then that they can never establish a peace to the Kingdome or any security to themselves but by restoring the just power to the King and dutifully submitting and joyning themselves to his protection and it is as manifest that by that way they may restore the Kingdome to peace and preserve themselves and Families and Posterities in full security and honour The examination and cleering of which two Propositions shall conclude this discourse The reverence and superstition which the people generally paid to the name and authority of Parliament and by which they have been cozened into the miserable condition they now are in is so worn out that without captivating their reasons any longer to it as a Councell they plainly discern the ambition weaknesse vanity malice and stupidity of the particular Members of whom it is and of whom it ought not to be constituted and easily conclude that as they have robbed them of the most happy and plentifull condition any free-man of the world ever enjoyed so they can never be instruments
joyne with them they will doe their work themselves without Him There is no one Proposition that hath more mis-led men then the discourse of the Parliaments being the supream Court of Judicature and therefore that they have the sole power to declare Law It is confessed that the House of Peers in Parliament for any pretence of the House of Commons to judicature is groundlesse and unreasonable and unheard of till within these last seven years is the supream Court of Judicature whither any person that conceives himself oppressed by the judgment of any other Court may by writ of Error remove that judgment of which he Complaines and from the Sentence of that Court there is no Appeale which His Majesty well expressed in His Answer to that Declaration of the 19 of May in these words We deny not but they may have a power to declare in a particular doubtfull case regularly brought before them what Law is but to make a generall Declaration whereby the known rule of the Law may be crossed or altered they have no power nor can exercise any without bringing the Life and Liberty of the Subject to a lawlesse and arbitrary subjection Which assertion the too sad experience of all men hath evinced to be most reasonable The truth is that power of declaring in a particular case so brought before them is rather a power to declare what shall be done in that case then what the law is for if they reverse a judgment brought before them and determine the right otherwise then it hath been judged by the sworne Judges that judgement is no rule to the sworne Judges to judge by but they may in the like case without imputation of Crime or error judge as they did formerly which shews that the Judges are the onely Interpreters of the Law in their severall Courts though in these cases removed regularly before the Lords the party must acquiesce there being no other Court to appeale to Adde to this that there hath been in all times that reverence to the sworne Judges of the Law that the Lords in Parliament have alwaies guided themselves by their opinion in matters of law neither will it be ever found before this Parliament that the House of Peers ever declared or judged the law in any particular case against the unanimous opinion of the Judges who are assistants only for that purpose neither is it reason that any should be thought fit Interpreters or Declarers of the law but they who have studied it and are sworne to doe it truly And to this point though there are multitude of examples and Presidents there shall be one only remembred In the Parliament in the 28 year of Hen. 6. upon the 16 of January the Commons desired That William de la Poole Duke of Suffolk should be Committed to prison for many Treasons other hainous Crimes cōmitted by him The Lords in Parliament were in doubt what Answer to give they demanded the opinion of the Judges their opinion was that he ought not to be Committed And the reason was for that the Commons did not charge him with any particular Offence but with generall Slanders and Reproaches And therefore because the specialties were not shewed he was not to be Committed this opinion was allowed and the Duke was not Committed till a Fortnight after that the Commons had exhibited speciall Articles against him that he conspired with the French King to invade the Realme c. And then he was sent to the Tower So great respect did those times beare to the Judges of the Law and so much courage had the Judges then to declare what the Law was Having now made it manifest that this most destructive maxime or principle is no new position but agreeable to antiquity Conscience truth and Law and therefore not like to be a fit foundation for all Tyranny It will not be unseasonable to observe that these words were spoken by His Majesty at the first Session of Parliament in the 3 year of his Reigne and that though the matter of them hath been often since and must be alwaies averred by him the very words have not been used in Speech or Declaration by His Majesty since the beginning of this Parliament and that that very Parliament continued many Months after and never in the least degree made question of them nor hath any objection been made to them till this new Declaration of the Commons near 18 years after and therefore it is not probable that they have been before mis-interpreted or censured It may be likewise in this place fit to inform the people what these men meane by the power of Declaring Law which they are so ambitious of that they may know how little else they would need to destroy King and people if they were possessed of this power in the sense they intend which will best appear by the instances in which they have assumed it The King proclaimes Sir John Hotham guilty of high Treason for having shut the Gates of Hull and having made resistance with armed men in defiance of His Majesty which he saies is high Treason by the Statute of the 25 year of Edw. 3. c. 2. They declare that Sir John Hotham did not shut the Gates against Him in defiance but in obedience to His Majesty and that the meaning of that Statute is onely against those who levyed War against the Kings laws and authority that the Kings Authority is only in them and they only can judge of the laws and therefore that they who shall levy War by their authority though against the personall Commands of the King and accompanied with his presence incur no danger by that Statute And that they who did attend His Person against them are guilty of Treason within that Statute The King for the information of his Subjects remembers them of the Statute made in the 11 year of K. Hen. 7. cap. 1. by which it is enacted That no manner of person whosoever he be that attends upon the King and Soveraign Lord of this Land for the time being in His Person and doe Him true and faithfull service of allegiance in the same or be in other places by His Commandement in His Wars shall be convict or attaint of high Treason nor lose Lands Goods c. They declare that by the King in this Statute is meant the Parliament If they are told the King is Supreme head and Governour over all persons within His Dominions and that He is so acknowledged to be by the Oaths themselves have taken They presently declare that it is meant of singular persons rather then of Courts or of the collective body of the whole Kingdome Examples innumerable of this kind might be remembred and the consequence needs not be pressed That the absurdity may a little appeare as well as the mischief they apply this faculty of declaring to the satisfying their Curiosity and supporting their Credit to matter of right and matter of
the like number should be likewise transported for France whereby the whole Army would have been disposed of against which the Irish Committee more pressed then against the other alleaging that there were not men in that Kingdome to spare whereupon the House of Commons by their private Agents prevailed with the French Ambassadour who more desired to hinder the supply for Spaine then to procure the like for his Master and it may be to see the King controlled by the Parliament then either of the other to release the King of His promise to him so that they would prevent the Spaniard's having any men And thereupon they re-inforced their importunity to the King for the present Disbanding and not sending any of that Army out of Ireland in such a manner as His Majesty was forced to yeild to it and thereby no question much was contributed to the opportunity and disposition of rebelling and to whose account that advantage is to be put all the world may judge yet it may be fit to observe that of that Irish Army which these men would have believed to be no lesse then a Stratagem against the Protestant Religion not one Officer above the quality of Captaine and not above two of that condition have served in that Rebellion in Ireland against the King In all Rebellions the chief Authors and Contrivers of it have made all fair pretences and entred into such specious Oaths as were most like to seduce and corrupt the people to joyne with them and to put the fairest glosse upon their foulest combination and conspiracy and therefore it is no wonder if the Rebels in Ireland framed an Oath by which they would be thought to oblige themselves to bear true Faith and Allegiance to King Charles and by all meanes to maintain His Royall Prerogative at a time when they intended nothing lesse And Owen Connelly who was the first happy discoverer of that Rebellion in the same Deposition in which he saies the Rebels would pay the King all His Rights saies likewise that they said they took that course to imitate Scotland who got a priviledge by it and Marke Paget in the same Examination in which he saies that the Rebels report that they have the Kings Warrant and great Seale for what they doe saies likewise that they threaten that as soon as they have rooted out the Brittish and English there to invade England and to assist the Papists in England and therefore it is a wonderfull thing that what they sweare or what they say should be imputed to Him against whom they have rebelled and forsworn themselves The Authours of this Declaration have besides their Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy in the Protestation of the 5. of May sworn that they would maintaine and defend the Kings royall Person honour and estate and shortly after would perswade the people that they were by that very Protestation obliged to take up Armes against Him in their Declaration of the 19. of May they used these words The providing for the publique peace and prosperity of His Majesty and all His Realmes we protest in the presence of the all-seeing Deity to have been and still to be the only end of all our Counsells and endeavours wherein we have resolved to continue freed and enlarged from all private aymes personall respects or passions whatsoever and the very next day Voted that He intended to make War against His Parliament and that whosoever should serve or assist Him were Traytors by the fundamentall Laws of the Kingdome and upon that conclusion of His intention actually leavied an Army and marched against him In their Petition of the 2. of June they tell him that they have nothing in their thoughts and desires more pretious and of higher esteem next to the honour and immediate service of God then the just and faithfull performance of their duty to His Majesty and together with that Petition present the 19. Propositions to Him by which they leave Him not so much power in His Kingdome as the meanest Member of either House reserves to himself Lastly to omit infinite other instances in their Instructions of the 18. of August to the Deputy Lieutenants of Cheshire they required them to declare unto all men that it had been and still should be the care and endeavour of both Houses of Parliament to provide for His Majesty That they doe not nor ever did know of any evill intended to His Majesties Person when the only businesse and end of those directions and instructions were to raise that whole County against Him So that this clause of the Rebels Oath in Ireland is no more to be objected against the King then those other clauses in their own Oaths and Declarations which they have not yet charged His Majesty withall Concerning the Proclamation against the Rebels in Ireland which they say they could not obtaine in divers Months and then that but 40 Copies were printed and expresse Order given that none should be published till further directions hear His Maj. own full Answer to that Charge in His Answer to the Declaration of the 19. of May in these words 'T is well known that we were when that Rebellion brake forth in Scotland That We immediatly from thence recommended the care of that businesse to both Houses of Parliament here after We had provided for all fitting supplies from Our Kingdome of Scotland that after Our returne hither We observed all those formes for that service which We were advised to by Our Councell of Ireland or both Houses of Parliament here and if no Proclamation issued out sooner it was because the Lords Justices of that Kingdome desired them no sooner and when they did the number they desired was but Twenty which they advised might be Signed by us which we for expedition of the service commanded to be printed a circumstance not required by them and thereupon signed more then they desired So that it is an impudent Assertion that they could not obtain a Proclamation in divers Months when they never so much as desired or moved it and it was no sooner moved to the King but He gave Order in it the same Houre But it will not be amisse since this particular hath bin with so much confidence and so often unreasonably objected against His Majesty to speak somewhat of the custome and order usually observed in sending Proclamations into that Kingdome and of the reason why so many and no more were at that time sent except upon any extraordinary reasons the King never signes more then the first draught of the Proclamation fairly ingrossed in parchment which being sent to the Lord Deputy or Lords Justices in Ireland is there printed and the printed Copies dispersed as they are in England His Majesties signe Manuall being not to any of those Copies The Lords Justices and Councell taking notice of the rumour industriously spread amongst the Rebels that they had the Kings authority for what they did
of Ireland nor is there the least colour to affirm the same what directions the Rebels give in their Letters of Mart or whether they gave any such directions as are alleaged is no way materiall as to His Majesty and for Officers and Commanders who left their trust against the Rebels it is sufficiently known that the Earle of Leven who by His Majesties consent was sent Generall of the Scots into Ireland against the Rebels was called from thence to lead an Army into England against His Majesty and when the King's Commissioners at the Treaty at Uxbridge alleaged and complained that many Officers both Scots and English had in the beginning of that War left that Service and been entertained by the two Houses against the King all the Answer they could receive was That they were not sent for This being the case as without any possibility of contradiction it is these Gentlemen had no more reason to believe the Rebels when they did so often swear they did nothing without good authority and Commission from the King then the Rebels had to believe them when they swore on the 22. of October 1642. That no private passion or respect no evill intention to His Majesties person nor designe to the prejudice of His just honour and authority engaged them to raise Forces and the next day gave His Majesty battle at Edge-hill Nor is it more materiall that Sir Phelim Oneale would not be perswaded that Generall Laesly had any authority from the King against the Rebels then that these Gentlemen should be perswaded in the same houre to believe that an Army should be raised for the safety of the King's person and to sweare that they would live and die with the Earl of Essex whom they nominated Generall to lead that Army against the King What information was given divers Months before to the Archbishop and others of the Kings Councel of a designe amongst the Papists for a generall Massacre of all the Protestants in Ireland and England c. is no objection against the King and as the Archbishop was imprisoned divers Months before that Rebellion brake out so it is not like if they had been able to have charged Him with any concealment that they would have forborn accusing him with it at his Triall when they so much wanted evidence against him that they were faine to make his Chaplains not licencing such Books against Popery as they thought did discredit the Protestant cause an Argument of his Treason and they would likewise now have named the others of the King's Counsell if they could have alleaged any matter that could have reflected upon them or their Master Next follows a huddle of the Kings Letters to the Pope when he was in Spaine and of others since on the behalfe of the Duke of Lorainge and of the King 's having an Agent at Rome which it is knowne he never had some Months before the Irish Rebellion all which are so obscurely mentioned and so ridiculous as to any charge against the King that they are not worthy any Answer yet because how impertinently soever by the licence of these times much hath been scandalously discoursed of a Letter written by the King when he was Prince and in Spaine to the Pope and such a Letter translated printed out of a Copy published in the French Mercury it may not be amisse to say somewhat of that businesse The Prince being by the command of his Father sent into Spaine to conclude a Marriage with the Daughter of that Crowne which had been long treated of could not but be obliged whilst he was there to perform all Ceremonies which were requisite to the compassing the businesse he went about The Kingdome where he was had a fast friendship with Rome and such a kind of dependence that a dispensation from thence was thought necessary by the wisdome of that State to the marriage in treaty towards the procuring whereof though the Prince would not contribute the least application of his owne yet he was not reasonably to do any thing which might make that dispensation the more difficult to be procured The Pope that then was writ a Letter to the Prince which was delivered to his Highnesse by his Minister there resident It was a Letter of respect and in the interpretation of that State of great kindnesse and it would have been thought a very unseasonable neglect if the Prince had vouchsafed it no Answer on the other hand it was easier to resolve that it was fit to write then what in the mean time they who were officious that it might be done prepared the draught of a Letter and brought it to him the which when his Highnesse had perused with his own hand he expunged those clauses which might seem to reflect upon the Religion which he professed and having so altered and mended it he caused it to be sent to the Pope Copies of the first draught were spread abroad by which that was inserted in the French Mercury which is so carefully translated and printed and dispersed these late ill years and now is given in evidence against His Majesty But admitting it were the same and that the Prince being in a forain Kingdom with the policy whereof he was then to comply had written that very Letter which is printed with what colour of reason can any man make that an Argument of his inclination to Popery who at that time and ever since hath given the greatest testimony of his affection to the Protestant Religion that any Prince or private person hath done The Authours of this Declaration would not think it just that from their very loving Letters to the Bashaw at Argyers and his to them in which He thanks God that the Agent of the Parliament of England is come thither to make a peace and love betwixt them to the end of the world as appears by the relation of that businesse fol. 15. published by their authority and from the amity with them to that Degree that they have given the Turkes men-of-war the freedome of their Harbours men should conclude that they are resolved to turn Turkes and yet such a conclusion will more naturally result from those Letters and that strict correspondence then of the King's affection to Popery from that Letter to the Pope It is said that the same designe was laid in England at the same time and that many thousands were appointed to cut the Protestants throats in this Kingdom also when the King went into Scotland and that it was confessed by some of the principall Rebels that their Popish Committee with the King had communicated that designe with many Papists in England by whose advice though some things were altered yet it was generally concluded that about the same time there should be the like proceedings of the Papists here all which if true as no sober man believes it to be does no way reflect upon the King and that Popish Committee was sent more to the
two Houses then to the King and were more owned by them who tooke speciall care for their Accommodation By what is said it sufficiently appears how unjust and unreasonable all the particular Scandals are with relation to the businesse of Ireland in which His Majesty how impudently soever He hath been aspersed never did any or omitted the doing any thing but according to those rules which are most justifiable before God and man it were to be wished that the two Houses of Parliament had but as well performed their duty and obligations but it cannot be forgotten that neer the beginning of this Rebellion when the Houses pretended wonderfull difficulty to raise men for that Service and when a seasonable supply would utterly have broken and defeated the Rebels the King sent a Message to them on the 28 of December 1641. That His Majesty being very sensible of the great miseries and distresses of His Subjects in the Kingdome of Ireland which daily increased and the bloud which had been already spilt by the cruelty and barbarousnesse of those Rebels crying out so loud and perceiving how slowly the succours designed thither went on His Majesty Himself would take care that by Commissions which He would grant ten thousand English Voluntiers should be speedily raised for that service if the House of Commons would declare that they would pay them which offer from His Majesty was rejected and no considerable supplies sent till they had compelled His Majesty to consent to such a Bill for Pressing as might devest and rob Him of a necessary and legall power inherent in His Crowne Nor can it be forgotten that they reserved those men which were raised for Ireland and would not otherwise have been engaged in their Service but on that pretence and brought them to fight against His Majesty at Edge-hill and afterwards retained them still in their Service That they imployed the mony raised by Act of Parliament for the relief of Ireland and with a particular caution that it should be imployed no other way for the support and maintenance of that Army led by the Earle of Essex against the King and that from the beginning of the Rebellion in England though they received vast sums of mony raised only for Ireland they never administred any considerable supply thither that they could apply to the advancement of their owne Designes at home against the King These particulars of which kind every man may call to mind many more nor their notable compliance with the Irish Committee when they came first over are remembred to imply that the two Houses of Parliament were guilty of raising the Rebellion in Ireland otherwise then by their principles and proceedings in diminution of the King 's soveraigne power or that they cherished it after it was begun otherwise then by not wisely and vigorously endeavouring to suppresse it before it spread so universally but that which may be justly laid to their charge is their affecting and grasping the power of carrying on that War which so great a body is not fit for their imprudent and unpolitique declaring an animosity against the whole Nation and even a purpose for their utter extirpation and disposing their Lands to those who would be adventurers for it which Act and Declaration it is known drove many into open Rebellion who were not before suspected or at least declared to be affected to the Rebels and lastly their giving all their minds up to the kindling that horrid and monstrous rebellion here rather then to the extinguishing the other in Ireland 16. Next succeeds the Charge against the King for the unusuall preparation of Ammunition and Armes upon His return from Scotland with new Guards within and about White-hall the Fire-works taken and found in Papists houses the Tower filled with New guards Granadoes and all sorts of Fire-works Morters and great pieces of Battery the dis-placing Sir William Balfore and placing other Officers who were suspected by them and the whole City Not to speak of the entertainment they provided for the King against His return out of Scotland when in stead of thanking Him for having passed so many good Acts of grace and favour to them that there was no one thing more that the Kingdome could reasonably aske from Him or requisite to make them the most happy Nation of the world They presented Him a Remonstrance as they called it of the State of the Kingdome laying before Him to use His Majesties own words and publishing to the world all the mistakes and all the mis-fortunes which hapned from His first comming to the Crowne and before to that houre forgetting the blessed condition all His Subjects had enjoyed in the benefit of peace and plenty under His Majesty to the envy of Christendome Not to speak of the licence then used in language when upon debate of some pretended breach of Order one of the principall Promoters of this Declaration publickly said in the House of Commons without controle that their Discipline ought to be severe for the enemy was in view when the King was come within one daies journey of the City His Majesty found a band of Souldiers entertained to guard the two Houses of Parliament which as it had bin never known in age before in that manner so there was not now the least visible cause for it but that there had been a Plot in Scotland against the persons of the Marquesse of Hamilton and Argyle and therefore there might be the like upon some principall Members here Upon the King's return the Earl of Essex resigned up the Commission with which he had been intrusted by His Majesty during His absence to preserve the peace of the Kingdome and thereupon that Guard which was drawn together by vertue of that authority in that Earle was dissolved with it The King came then to White-hall and for what passed afterward heare in His owne words in His Declaration of the 12. of August Great multitudes of mutinous people every day resorted to Westminster threatned to pul down the lodgings where divers of the Bishops lay assaulted some in their Coaches chased others with Boats by water laid violent hands on the Arch-bishop of Yorke in his passing to the House and had he not been rescued by force it is probable they had murdered him crying through the streets Westminster-hall and between the two Houses No Bishops no Bishops no Popish Lords and mis-used the severall Members of either House who they were informed favoured not their desperate and seditious ends proclaiming the names of severall of the Peers as evill and rotten-hearted Lords and in their return from thence made stand before Our gate at White-hall said they would have no more Porters Lodge but would speak with the King when they pleased and used such desperate rebellious discourse that We had great reason to believe Our owne Person Our Royall Consort and Our Children to be in evident danger of violence and therefore were compelled at Our
it was done and in both cases by the help of God and the Law he would have justice or lose his life in the requiring it so that certainly the King never concealed or dissembled his purposes and accordingly he did indeed toward the middle of Iuly go with his Guards to Beverly having some reason to believe that Sir Iohn Hotham had repented himself of the crime he had committed and would have repaired it as far as he had been able of which failing to his own miserable destruction without attempting to force it his Majesty again returned to Yorke Having made it now plainly appear how falsly and groundlesly his Majesty is reproached with the least tergiversation or swarving from his promises or professions which no Prince ever more precisely and religiously observed it will be but a little expence of time again to examine how punctuall these conscientious reprehenders of their Soveraigne have been in the observation of what they have sworn or said In the first Remonstrance of the House of Commons of the State of the Kingdome they declare that it is far from their purpose or desire to let loose the golden reines of discipline and government in the Church to have private persons or particular Congregations to take up what forme of divine Service they please for they said they held it requisite that there should be throughout the whole Realme a conformity to that Order which the Laws enjoyne In their Declaration of the 19 of May speaking of the Bill for the continuance of this Parliament they say We are resolved the gratious favour His Majesty expressed in that Bill and the advantage and security which thereby we have from being dissolved shall not encourage us to do any thing which otherwise had not been fit to have been done In the conclusion of their Declaration of the 26 of May 1642. apprehending very justly that their expressions there would beget at least a great suspition of their loyalty they say They doubt not but it shall in the end appear to all the world that their endeavours have been most hearty and sincere for the maintenance of the true Protestant Religion the Kings just Prerogatives the Lawes and Liberties of the Land and the Priviledges of Parliament in which endeavours by the grace of God they would still persist though they should perish in the worke In their Declaration of the 14 of Iune 1642. the Lords and Commons doe declare That the designe of those Propositions for Plate and Money is to maintain the Protestant Religion the King's Authority and Person in His Royall dignity the free course of Iustice the Laws of the Land the Peace of the Kingdome and Priviledges of Parliament As they have observed these and other their professions to the King and the Publique so they have as well kept their promises to the people in their Propositions of the 10 of Iune 1642. for bringing in Mony or Plate the Lords and Commons do declare That no mans affection shall be measured according to the proportion of his offer so that he expresse his good will to the Service in any proportion whatsoever the first designe was to involve as many as they could in the guilt how small soever the supply was but on the 29 of November following the same Lords and Commons appointed Six persons who or any Four of them should have power to assesse all such persons as were of ability and had not contributed and all such as had contributed yet not according to their ability to pay such summe or sums of mony according to their estates as the Assessors or any Four of them should think fit and reasonable so as the same exceeded not the twentieth part of their Estates Infinite examples of this kind may be produced which are the lesse necessary because whosoever will take the pains to read their own Declarations and Ordinances shall not be able to find one protestation or profession made by them to God Almighty in the matter of Religion or to the King in point of duty and obedience or one promise to the people in matter of Liberty Law and Iustice so neer pursued by them as that they have ever done one composed Act in Order to the performance of either of them which very true assertion shall conclude this Answer to that reproach of his Majesties not having made good his Protestations 21. The next Charge is That His Majesty proclaimed them Traytors and Rebels setting up His Standard against the Parliament which never any King of England they say did before Himself His Majesty never did nor could proclaime this Parliament Traytors he well knew besides his own being the head of it that four parts of five of the House of Peers were never present at any of those trayterous conclusions and that above a major part of the House of Commons was alwaies absent and that of those who were present there were many who still opposed or dissented from every unlawfull act and therefore it were very strange if all those innocent men of whom the Parliament consisted as well as of the rest should have been proclaimed Rebels and Traytors for the acts of a few seditious persons who were upon all occasions named and if the Parliament were ever proclaimed Traytors it was by them only who presumptuously sheltred their rebellious acts under that venerable name and who declared that whatsoever violence should be used either against those who exercise the Militia or against Hull they could not but believe it as done against the Parliament They should have named one person proclaimed Rebell or Traytor by the King who is not adjudged to be such by the Law The King never proclaimed Sir Iohn Hotham Traytor though it may be he was guilty of many treasonable acts before till he shut the Gates of Hull against him and with armed men kept his Majesty from thence and besides the concurrent testimony of all Judgments at Law it appears and is determined by the Lord Chief Justice Coke published by the House of Commons this Parliament in his Chapter of High Treason That if any with strength and weapons invasive and defensive doth hold and defend a Castle or Fort against the King and His power this is leavying of War against the King within the Statute of the 25 year of Edw. 3. The King proclaimed not those Rebels or Traytors who Voted That they would raise an Army and that the Earl of Essex should be Generall of that Army what ever he might have done nor the Earle of Essex himself a Traytor upon those Votes untill he had accepted that title and command of Captaine Generall and in that quality appeared amongst the Souldiers animating and encouraging them in their trayterous and rebellious designes as appears by his Majesties Proclamation of the 9 of August 1642. by which he was first proclaimed Traytor and there was no other way to clear the Earle of Essex from being
guilty of Treason by that act of his within the expresse words of the 2 Chapter of the 25 yeare of King Edw. 3. but by declaring that by leavying war against our Lord the King in his Realme which in that Statute is declared to be high Treason is meant leavying war against the Parliament and yet Mr. St. Iohn observed in his Argument against the Earle of Strafford printed by Order that the word KING in that Statute must be understood of the King 's naturall person for that person can onely die have a Wife have a Son and be imprisoned The Lord chief Justice Coke in his Commentary upon that Statute saith If any leavy War to expulse Strangers to deliver men out of Prisons to remove Counsellours or against any Statute or to any other end pretending Reformation of their own head without any warrant this is leavying war against the King because they take upon them Royall authority which is against the King and that there may be no scruple by that expression without warrant the same Author saies in the same place and but few lines preceding that no Subject can leavy War within the Realm without authority from the King for to him it only belongeth Preparation by some overt act to depose the King or to take the King by force and strong hand and to imprison Him untill he hath yeilded to certain demands this is a sufficient overt act to prove the compassing and imagination of the death of the King for this is upon the matter to make the King a Subject and to disspoyle Him of His Kingly Office of Royall government as is concluded by the same reverend Authour and likewise that to rise to alter Religion established within the Kingdome or Lawes is Treason These Declarers cannot name one person proclaimed a Rebell or Traytor by the King who was not confessedly guilty of at least one of these particulars and being so the King did no more then by the Law He ought to doe and Mr. St. Johns acknowledged in his Argument against the Earle of Strafford that he that leavies War against the Person of the King doth necessarily compasse His death and likewise that it is a War against the King when intended for the alteration of the Lawes or Government in any part of them or to destroy any of the great Officers of the Kingdome For the setting up the Standard it was not till those persons who bearing an inward hatred and malice against his Majesties Person and Government had raised an Army and were then trayterously and rebelliously marching in battle-array against his Majesty their Liege Lord and Soveraigne as appears by his Majesties Proclamation of the 12 of August 1642. in which He declared His purpose to erect His royall Standard and after they had with an Army besieged his Majesties antient standing Garrison of Portsmouth and required the same in which the King's Governour was to be delivered to the Parliament and after they had sent an Army of Horse Foot and Cannon under the command of the Earle of Bedford into the West to apprehend the Marquesse of Hertford who was there in a peaceable manner without any Force till he was compelled to raise the same for his defence and to preserve the peace of those Counties invaded by an Army and then when his Majesty was compelled for those reasons to erect his Standard with what tendernesse He did it towards the two Houses of Parliament cannot better appear then by His owne words in his Declaration published the same day on which that Proclamation issued out which are these What Our opinion and resolution is concerning Parliaments We have fully expressed in our Declarations We have said and will still say they are so essentiall a part of the constitution of this Kingdome that We can attaine to no happinesse without them nor will We ever make the least attempt in Our thought against them We well know that Our self and Our two Houses make up the Parliament and that We are like Hipocrates Twins We must laugh and cry live and die together that no man can be a friend to the one and an enemy to the other the injustice injury and violence offered to Parliaments is that which We principally complaine of and We again assure all Our good Subjects in the presence of Almighty God that all the Acts passed by Us this Parliament shall be equally observed by Us as We desire those to be which do most concern Our Rights Our quarrell is not against the Parliament but against particular men who first made the wounds and will not suffer them to be healed but make them deeper and wider by contriving fostering and fomenting mistakes and jealousies betwixt body and head Us and the two Houses whom We name and are ready to prove them guilty of High Treason c. And then his Majesty names the persons This was the King's carriage towards and mention of the Parliament very different from theirs who are now possessed of the Soveraigne power the Army who in their Remonstrance of the 23 of June last use these words We are in this case forced to our great grief of heart thus plainly to assert the present evill and mischief together with the future worse consequences of the things lately done even in the Parliament it self which are too evident and visible to all and so in their proper colours to lay the same at the Parliament Dores untill the Parliament shall be pleased either of themselves to take notice and rid the House of those who have any way mis-informed deluded surprized or otherwise abused the Parliament to the passing such foule things there or shall open to us and others some way how we may c. which would not have been mentioned here if they had been onely the extravagant act and words of the Army but they are since justified and made the words of the two Houses by their declaring in their late Declaration of the 4 of March in Answer to the Papers of the Scots Commissioners That if there be any unsound principles in relation to Religion or the State in some of the Army as in such a body there usually are some extravagant humours they are very injuriously charged upon the whole Army whereof the governing part hath been very carefull to suppresse and keep down all such peccant humours and have hitherto alwaies approved themselves very constant and faithfull to the true interest of both Kingdomes and the cause wherein they have engaged and the persons that have engaged therein so that this Remonstrance being the Act of the Generall Lieutenant-Generall and the whole Councell of War which is sure the governing part it is by this Declaration fully vindicated to be the Sense of the two Houses 22. The setting up a mock Parliament at Oxford to oppose and protest against the Parliament of England which his Majesty and both Houses had continued by Act of Parliament is in the
spent at Uxbridge is published to the world in which the last observation made by the King's Commissioners must not be forgotten That after a War of neer foure years for which the defence of the Protestant Religion the Liberty and Property of the Subject and the Priviledges of the Parliament were made the cause and grounds in a Treaty of Twenty daies nor indeed in the whole Propositions upon which the Treaty should be there hath been nothing offered to be treated concerning the breach of any Law or of the Liberty or Property of the Subject or Priviledge of Parliament but onely Propositions for the altering a Government established by Law and for the making new Laws by which almost all the old are or may be cancelled and there hath been nothing insisted on of the Kings part which is not Law or denied by the Kings Commissioners that the other required as due by Law For the Protestation which they say was entred about the time of this Treaty in the Councell-Book and of which his Majesty gave the Queen account it is known to be no other then a Declaration that by calling them a Parliament there could be no acknowledgment inferred that he esteemed them a free Parliament which few at that time did believe them to be and they have since upon as small reasons confessed themselves not to be They alleage as a wonderfull testimony of their meeknesse and good nature that after His Majesties Armies were all broken so that in disguise He fled from Oxford to the Scots at Newarke and from thence went to Newcastle they tendred to Him at Newcastle and afterwards when the Scots had left Him to the Commissioners of Parliament at Hampton-Court still the same Propositions in effect which had been presented before in the midst of all His strength and Forces which is rather an Argument that they had at first made them as bad as possibly they could then that they were good since and considering the natures of these Declarers there cannot be a more pregnant evidence of the ilnesse and vilenesse of those Propositions then that they have not made them worse nor is the condition in which they have now impiously put His Majesty for His refusall worse then it had been or would be His Personall liberty only excepted if He consented to them and in one consideration it is much better because it is now a confessed act of violence and treason upon Him which if He once consent to their Propositions they will when ever they find occasion appear legally qualified to do the same They have once again out of their desire of his Majesties concurrence descended to one other addresse to Him and they said they did so qualifie the said Propositions that where it might stand with the publique safety His wonted scruples and objections were prevented or removed and yeilded to a Personall Treaty on condition the King would signe but foure Bils which they judged not only just and honourable but necessary even for present peace and safety during such a Treaty and upon His deniall of these they are in despair of any good by addresses to the King neither must they be so injurious to the people in further delaying their setlement as any more to presse His consent to these or any other Propositions What the former Propositions and Addresses to His Majesty have been and how impossible it hath been for Him to consent to them with His Conscience Honour or Safety appears before and how inconvenient it would have been to the Kingdome if He had done it they themselves have declared by making such important alterations in respect of the English interest in those presented at Newcastle from the other treated on at Uxbridge it will be fit therefore to examine these foure Bils which were to be the condition of the Treaty One of these Bils is to devest His Majesty and His Posterity for ever of any power over the Militia and to transfer this right and more then ever was in the Crown to these men who keep Him Prisoner for it is in their power whether they will ever consent that it shall be in any other and to give them power to raise what Forces they please and what Mony they think fit upon His Subjects and by any waies or means they appoint and so frankly exclude Himself from any power in the making Laws There need no other Answer why it is not fit or possible for the King to consent to this then what the Commissioners from Scotland gave to the Houses when they declared their dissent If the Crownes have no power of the Militia how can they be able to resist their Enemies and the Enemies of the Kingdomes protect their Subjects or keep friendship or correspondence with their Allyes All Kings by their royall Office and Oath of Coronation are obliged to protect their Laws and Subjects it were strange then to seclude the Crown for ever from the power of doing that which by the Oath of Coronation they are obliged to perform and the obedience whereunto falleth within the Oath of Allegiance and certainly if the King and His Posterity shall have no power in making Laws nor in the Militia it roots up the strongest foundation of honour and safety which the Crown affords and will be interpreted in the eyes of the world to be a wresting of the Scepter and Sword out of their hands Nor can this just and honourable Assertion be answered and evaded by saying that the Militia was the principall immediate ground of their quarrell in order to the preservation of Religion and the just Rights and Liberties of the people and that the Scots Commissioners have often agreed with them in it and that the Kingdome of Scotland fought together with them for it and upon the ground thereof and that now they argue against their injoying it almost in the very same words as the King did at the beginning of the War in His Declarations It is no wonder that what these men have done and the horrid confusion they have made have evinced many truths which appeared not so manifest to all understandings by what the King said or that they have not so good an opinion of those who tell them that there is another and a more naturall way to peace and to the ending the war then by Agreement namely by Conquest As they had of them who with all imaginable solemnity swore that they would sincerely really and constantly endeavour with their estates and lives mutually to preserve and defend the King's Majesties Person and authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdomes that the world may bear witnesse with their Consciences of their Loyalty and that they had no thoughts or intentions to diminish His Majesties Power and Greatnesse which Engagements might perswade many that their purposes were other then they now appear to be For that other power they