War against the Personal commands of the King though accompanied with His presence is not a levying of War against the King but a levying War against His Laws and Authority which they have power to declare is levying of War against the King Treason cannot be committed against His Person otherwise then as He was intrusted They have power to judge whether He discharge His trust or not that if they should follow the highest precedents of other Parliaments paterns there would be no cause to complain of want of modesty or duty in them and that it belonged onely to them to Judge of the Law r 27 of May The King by His Proclamation forbids all His Subjects and Trained bands of the Kingdom to Rise March or Muster But the Parliament on the same day Commanded all Sheriffs Justices of Peace Constables within one hundred and fifty miles of York to seize and make stay of all Arms and Ammunition going thither And Declaring the said Proclamation to be void in Law s command all men to Rise Muster and March and not to Muster or March by any other Authority or Commission and the Sheriffs of all Counties the morrow after commanded with the posse Comitatus to suppresse any of the Kings Subjects that should be drawn thither by His command secure and seize upon the Magazines of the Counties protected all that were Delinquents against Him make all to be Delinquents that attended him and put out of the House of Peers nine Lords at once for obeying the Kings summons and going to Him t 3. June 1642. The King summoning the Ministery Gentry and Free-holders of the County of York declared to them the reasons of providing himself a guard and u that he had no intention to make a War and the morrow after forbad the Lord Willough by of Parham to Muster and Trayn the County of Lincoln who under colour of an Ordinance of Parliament for the Militia had begun to do it x 10 June 1642. The Parliament by a Declaration signifying That the King intended to make a War against His Parliament invited the Citizens of London and all others well affected as they pleased to miscall them within 80 miles of the City to bring money or plate into the Guild Hall London and to subscribe for Men Horses and Arms to maintain the Protestant Religion the Kings Person and Authority free course of Justice Laws of the Land and priviledges of Parliament and the morrow after send 19. propositions to the King That the great affairs of the Kingdom and Militia may be managed by consent and approbation of Parliament all the great officers of Estate Privy Councel Ambassadors and Ministers of State and Judges be chosen by them that the Government Education and Marriage of the Kings Children be by their consent and approbation and all the Forts and Castles of the Kingdom put under the Command and Custody of such as they should approve of and that no Peers to be made hereafter should sit or vote in Parliament without the consent of Parliament y with several other demands which if the King should have granted would at once in effect not only have undone and put His Subjects out of His protection but have deposed both himself and his posterity and then they would proceed to regulate His Revenue and deliver up the Town of Hull into such hands as the King by consent and approbation of Parliament should appoint But the King having the same day before those goodly demands came to his hands being a greater breach of His Royal Priviledges then His demanding of the five Members and Kimbolton if it had not been Lawful for him so to do could be of theirs z granted a Commission of array for the County of Lecester to the Earl of Huntington and by a letter sent along with it directed it for the present onely to Muster and Array the Trained bands a And 13. June 1642. Declared to the Lords attending Him at York That He would not engage them in any War against the Parliament unless it were for His necessary defence whereupon the Lord keeper Littleton who a little before had either been affrighted or seduced by the Parliament to vote their new Militia The Duke of Richmond Marquis Hartford Earl of Salisbury Lord Gray of Ruthen now Earl of Kent and divers Earls and Barons engaged not to obey any Order or Ordinance concerning the Militia which had not the Royal assent to it 14 June 1642. Being informed b That the Parliament endeavoured to borrow great sums of money of the City of London and that there was great labour used to perswade His Subjects to furnish horse and money upon pretence of providing a guard for the Parliament By His Letter to the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Sheriffs of London disavowing any purpose of making a War declared That He had not the least thought of raising or using of forces unless He should be compelled to do it for His own defence forbiddeth therefore the lending of money or raising of horses Within two days after the Lord Keeper Duke of Richmond Marquis Hartford Earl of Salisbury Lord Gray of Ruthen with 17 Earls and 14. Barons the Lord Chief-Justice Bancks and sundry others of eminent quality and reputation attest His Majesties Declaration and profession that He had no intention to make a War but abhorred it and c That they perceived no Councels or preparations tending to any such design and send it with His Majesties Declaration to the Parliament In the mean time the Committee of Parliament appointed to make the propositions to the City of London for the raising of horse viz. 15 June 1642. Made report to the House of Commons That the Citizens did very cheerfully accept the same there being for indeed there had been some design and resolution a year before concerning the melting of plate to raise monies already great store of plate and monies brought into Guild-Hall for that purpose and an Ordinance of Parliament was made for the Earl of Warwick to be Lord Admiral and keep the Navy though the King had commanded him upon pain of Treason to deliver up the Ships to Him And the Lord Brook sent down into Warwich-shire to settle the Militia 17 June 1642. A Committee of both Houses was appointed to go to the City of London to inquire what store of Horse Monies and Plate were already raised upon the Propositions 18 June 1642. The King by His Proclamation Disclaiming any intention to make War against His Parliament forbiddeth all levies of Forces without His Majesties expresse pleasure signified under His Great Seal And 20 June 1642. Informing all His Subjects by His Proclamation of the Lawfulness of His Commissions of Array d That besides many other Warrants and Authorities of the Law Judge Hutton and Judge Crooke in their arguments against the Ship-money agreed them to be Lawful and the Earl of Essex himself had in the
beginning of this Parliament accepted of one for the County of York Gave his People to understand That He had awarded the like Commissions into all the Counties of England and Dominion of Wales to provide for and secure them in a legal way lest under a pretence of danger and want of Authority from His Majesty to put them into a Military posture they should be drawn and engaged in any opposition against Him or His just Authority But 21 June 1642. e The Lords and Commons in Parliament Declaring The design of their Propositions of raising horse and moneys was to maintain the Protestant Religion and the Kings Authority and Person and that the Forces already attending His Majesty and His preparations at first coloured under the pretence of a guard being not so great a guard as they themselves had constantly for 6. moneths before did evidently appear to be intended for some great and extraordinary disign so as at this time also they do not charge the King with any maner of action of War or any thing done in a way or course of War against them and gave just cause of fear and jealousie to the Parliament being never yet by any Law of God or man accounted to be a sufficient cause or ground for Subjects to make a War against their Soveraign did forbid all Mayors Sheriffs Bayliffs and other Officers to publish His Majesties said Letter to the City of London And declare that if He should use any force for the recovery of Hull or suppressing of their Ordinance for the Militia it should be held a levying War against the Parliament and all this done before His Majesty had granted any Commission for the levying or raising of a man and lest the King should have any maner or provision of War to defend himself when their Army or Sir John Hotham should come to assault Him Powder and Armes were every where seized on and Cutlers Gun-smiths Sadlers and all Warlike Trades ordered not to send any to York but to give a weekly account what was made or sold by them And an Order made the 24. day of June 1642. That the Horses which should be sent in for the Service of the Parliament when they came to the number of 60. should be trained and so still as the number increased 4. July 1642. The King by His Letter under His signe Manual commanded all the Judges of England in their circuits f to use all means to suppresse Popery Riots and unlawful assemblies and to give the People to understand His Resolution to maintain the Protestant Religion and the Laws of the Kingdom and not to govern by any Arbitrary way and that if any should give the King or them to understand of any thing wherein they held themselves grieved and desired a just reformation He would speedily give them such an answer as they should have cause to thank Him for His Justice and favour But the same day a Declaration was published by both Houses of Parliament commanding g That no Sheriff Mayor Bayliff Parson Vicar Curate or other Sir Richard Gurney the Lord Mayor of London not many dayes before having been imprisoned for proclaiming the Kings Proclamation against the bringing in of Plate c. should publish or Proclaim any Proclamation Declaration or other Paper in the Kings Name which should be contrary to any Order Ordinance or Declaration of both Houses of Parliament or the proceedings thereof and Order h That in case any forces should be brought out of one County into another to disturb the Peace thereof they should be suppressed by the Trained bands and Voluntiers of the adjacent Counties Shortly after Sir John Hotham fortifieth the Town of Hull whilest the King is at York i seizeth on a Ship coming to Him with provisions for His houshold takes Mr. Ashburnham one of the Kings Servants prisoner intercepts Letters sent from the Queen to the King and drowneth part of the Countrey round about the Town k which the Parliament allows of and promise satisfaction to the owners 5 July 1642. They Order a subscription of Plate and Horse to be made in every Countey and list the Horse under Commanders and the morrow after Order 2000. men should be sent to relieve Sir John Hotham in case the King should besiege him to which purpose Drums were beat up in London and the adjacent parts to Hull The Earl of Warwick Ordered to send Ships to Humber to his assistance instructions drawn up to be sent to the Deputy-Lieutenants of the several Counties to tender the Propositions for the raising of Horses Plate and Money Mr. Hastings and divers of the Kings Commissioners of Array impeached for supposed high Crimes and misdemeanours and a Committee of five Lords and ten of the House of Commons ordered to meet every morning for the laying out of ten thousand pounds of the Guild-hall moneys for the buying of 700. Horse and that 10000. Foot to be raised in London and the Countrey be imployed by direction of the Parliament and the Lord Brook is furnished with 6. pieces of Ordinance out of the Tower of London to fortifie the Castle of Warwick And 9. July 1642. Order That in case the Earl of Northampton should come into that County with a Commission of Array they should raise the Militia to suppresse him And that the Common Councel of London should consider of a way for the speedy raising of the 10000. Foot and that they should be listed and put in pay within four dayes after 11. July 1642. l The King sends to the Parliament to cause the Town of Hull to be delivered unto Him and desires to have their answer by the 15. of that moneth and as then had used no force against it But m the morrow after before that message could come unto them they resolve upon the Question That an Army shall be forthwith raised for the defence of the Kings Person and both Houses of Parliament and n those who have obeyed their Orders Commands in preserving the true Religion the Laws Liberties and the Peace of the Kingdom and that they would live and dye with the Earl of Essex whom they nominate General in that Cause 12. July 1642. Declare That they will protect all that shall be imployed in their assistance and Militia And 16. July 1642. Petition the King o to forbear any preparations or actions of War and to dismisse His extraordinary guards to come nearer to them and hearken to their advice but before that Petition could be answered wherein the King offered when the Town of Hull should be delivered to Him He would no longer have an Army before it and should be assured that the same pretence which took Hull from him may not put a Garrison into Newcastle into which after the Parliaments surprise of Hull He was inforced to place a Governour and a small Garrison He would also remove that Garrison and so as His Magizine and Navy
them to rescue his Brother Lot and his goods and was blessed by Melchisedec the Priest of the most high God for doing of it Or if the k War which the Tribes of Israel made against the Tribe of Benjamin and the men of Gibeah for committing lewdness and folly in Israel that of l David to rescue his wives that were carried away captive by the Amalekites or m to fetch home the Ark of God from the Philistines that which n Ahab made with Benhadad the king of Syria who was not half so Tyrannical in his Propositions as the Parliament were approved of in sacred Story or that which was made by Judas Maccabeus and his Brethren to rescue the decayed Estate of the people of the Jews or that which was used to be made by the heathen pro aris focis were never yet so much as suspected to be unlawful How shall this of the kings be condemned that had as much as Abraham David Ahab against Benhadad o Judas Maccabeus and the tribes of Israel or those heathens that made it pro aris focis put them all together to warrant it Or by what reason or Law is any man by the Laws of England excused for killing a man in his own defence when he is necessitated to it or for killing theeves that come to assault or rob him in his House or Castle If the King shall be hunted from his House through all the parts and corners of his Kingdom for his Life and not only for his Life but his Honour and not only for his Life and Honour but his Conscience and yet must never draw his sword or seek to defend himself or have any body else to do it for him Or how have all the Kings Princes and Magistrates of the world hitherto governed and defended themselves and their people or shall ever be able to give an account of the people committed to their charge if they may not be at liberty to make a Legal use of the sword power and reason which God hath given them Or how can those State riddles like those of Sphinx only made to destroy men withal that they fought for the King and Parliament as is alledged in many of their Orders and Declarations and that the war on the Kings part was a Rebellion raised against the King and Parliament as is expressed in the p Ordinance of Parliament for association of the Counties of Pembroke Cardigan and Caermarthen be ever understood by any rules of sense or reason if he had been as he was not on the offensive part of the war and had begun it against them Or how the Earl of Essex and Sir Thomas Fairfax could as there was Law and reason enough to perswade them to it believe that the war made by the King against the Scots wherein they served and took command under him was lawful and that a War in his own defence against the forces of the Parliament wherein they were shortly after successively one after the other Generals and Commanders against him should be unlawful or that they which seised the Town and Magazine of Hull and first began the war against the King who only defended himself and the people committed to his charge can possibly be understood to have done it in their own defence or that what they did could in the means and way which they used or took unto it and the sad and dire effects and consequences of it receive any other interpretation then that they began made a war against the King upon a colour only and pretence that they made it for him But if any shall be so in love with the sense of the House of Commons as to be out of their own senses and think that though there be no maner of evidence or proof to be had for love or money that the Parliament were constrained to defend themselves by a war yet the Kings admitting of the Preamble of the Parliaments Propositions presented to him at the Isle of Wight that the Parliament was necessitated to take up Arms in their just and lawful defence makes him who must needs be best acquainted with his own actions to be so clearly guilty of all the blood that hath been shed in these wars as it puts to silence all that can be now alledged or said in his behalf They that made the preamble and placed it in limine and the threshold of the Treaty on purpose to catch and insnare him for either he must have denied it at the very beginning and entrance into the Treaty and leave his Kingdoms and people to wallow in the blood and misery which their Parliament Idols had brought them to have all the blame laid upon him for hindring a Peace which he had so much longed and laboured for or put himself and all his Loyal Subjects that helped to defend him under the burden of those Sins and Shames which the Parliament themselves had all the right to can tell their undone and deluded Proselytes how much the King stuck at it how unwilling he was to break off the Treaty and was unwilling to wrong his own Innocency and that when the Parliament Commissioners had not any thing either in Law Truth Reason or Argument to perswade him to yield unto it but laid it only as a case of necessity before him though there was no such preamble at the Treaties of Oxford and Uxbridg nor any such necessity at those times insisted upon that unless he would take the guilt upon himself his two Houses of Parliament and the People had engaged with them must necessarily be guilty of Treason and could not have any security from the guilt and punishment of it The King bemoaning himself and people that must be thus shut out from any hopes of peace intreated some expedient or medium might be found out to reconcile the differences But Cains sins being greater then could be forgiven him unless Abel can be brought to say he killed Cain they that could afterward finde an expedient for 21. of their great Councel of State that refused to subscribe to the lawfulness of murdering the King after it was done could finde none at all for the King to purchase a Peace for the people though many kinds of ways and expedients as allowing Him to make a preamble to his own propositions that the war made by Him was made in his own defence or the like might have been easily contrived and thought upon For the truth was the Independent party desired no Peace at all the Presbyterian desired it only to get into their hands the Kings Power Authority lay the guilt of all the blood they had shed for it upon Him both of them were so well content to have Him allow of the preamble as the latter thought himself safe and out of controversie if the King took the blood upon Him and the former that it would prove no small advantage or colour to
him If he would not grant it they would settle and dispose it without him And the morrow after Resolve upon the Question That the Kingdom be forthwith put in a posture of Defence in such a way as was already agreed upon by both Houses of Parliament and Order the Earl of Northumberland Lord High-Admiral to Rig and send to Sea His Majesties Navy and notwithstanding that the King 4 March 1641. by His Letter directed to the Lord Keeper Littleton had signified that He would wholly desist from any proceedings against the five Members and Kimbolton Sir John Hotham a Member of the House of Commons who before the King had accused the five Members and Kimbolton k had by Order of Parliament seized upon the Town of Hull the onely fortified place of strength in the Kingdom and made a Garison of it summoned and forced in many of the trained Soldiers of the County of York to help him to guard it Eighth of March 1641. Before the King could get to York it was Voted That whatsoever the two Houses of Parliament should Vote or Declare to be Law the People were bound to obey And when not long after the King offered to go in person to suppresse the Irish Rebellion That was Voted to be against the Law and an encouragement to the Rebels and they Declared that whosoever should assist him in his Voyage thither should be taken for an enemy to the Common-weale And 15 of March 1641. Resolved upon the Question That the several Commissions granted under the great Seal to the Lieutenants of the several Counties were illegal and void and that whosoever should execute any power over the Militia by colour of any such Commission without consent of both Houses of Parliament should be accounted a disturber of the peace of the Kingdom l April 1642. Sir John Hotham seizeth the Kings Magazine at Hull and when the King went but with a small attendance to demand an entrance into the Town denies him though he had then no Order to do it Notwithstanding all which the 28 of April 1642. they Vote That what he had done was in obedience to the commands of both Houses of Parliament and that the Kings proclaiming him to be a Traytor was a high breath of Priviledge of Parliament And Ordered All Sheriffs and Difficers to assist their Committees sent down with those their Votes to Sir John Hotham In the mean time the Pulpits flame with seditious invectives against the King and incitements to Rebellion and the People running headlong into it had all maner of countenance and encouragement unto it but those Ministers that preached Obedience and sought to prevent it were sure to be imprisoned and put out of their places for it Sir Henry Ludlow could be heard to say in the House of Commons m That the King was not worthy to Reign in England And Henry s Marten That the Kingly Office waâ— forfeitable and the happiness of the Kingdom did not depend upon him and his Progeny And though the King demanded justice of them were neither punished nor put out of the House nor so much as questioned or blamed for it The Militia the principal part of the Kings regality without which it was impossible either to be a King or to govern and the sword which God had given him and his Ancestors for more then a thousand years together had enjoyed and none in the Barons wars nor any Rebellion of the Kingdom since the very being or essence of it durst ever heretofore presume to ask for must now be wrestled for and taken away from him The Commissions of Array being the old legal way by which the Kings of England had a power to raise and levy men for the defence of themselves and the Kingdom Voted to be illegal The passage at Sea defended against him and his Navy kept from him by the Earl of Warwick whilest the King all this while contenting himself to be meerly passive and only busying himself in giving answers to some Parliament Messages Declarations to wooe and intreat them out of this distemper cannot be proved to have done any one action like a war or to have so much as an intention to do it unless they can make his demanding an entrance into Hull with about twenty of His followers unarmed in His company and undertaking to return and leave the Governor in possession of it to be otherwise then it ought to be 5. of May 1642. The King being informed n That Sir John Hotham sent out Warrants to Constables to raise the Trained bands of York-shire writes His Letter to the Sheriff of that Country to forbid the Trained bands and commands them to repair to their dwelling houses 12. of May 1642. Perceiving himself every where endangered and a most horrid Rebellion framing against Him and Sir John Hotham so near Him at Hull as within a dayes journey of Him moves the o Country of York for a Troop of horse consisting of the prime Gentry of that Country and a Regiment of the Trained bands of foot to be for a guard unto Him caused the oath of Allegiance to be administred unto them But the Parliament thereupon Vote p That it appeared the King seduced by wicked Councel intended to make a war against them and till then if their own Votes should be true must acquite Him from any thing more then an intention as they call it to do it And that whosoever should assist him are Lraytors by the fundamental Laws of the Kingdom The Earl of Essex Lord-Chamberlain of the Kings houshold and all other of the Kings houshold servants forbid to go to him and the Kings putting some of them out and others in their places Voted to be an injury to the Parliament Messengers were sent for the apprehending some Earls and Barons about Him and some of His Bed-Chamber as if they had been Felons The Lord Keepers going to Him with the Great-Seal when He sent for him Voted To be a breach of Priviledge and pursued with a Warrant directed to all Mayors and Bayliffs to apprehend him Caused the Kings Rents and Revenues to be brought in to them and forbid any to be paid Him Many of His Officers and Servants put out of their places for being Loyal unto Him and those that were ill affected to Him put in their rooms and many of His own Servants tempted and procured by rewards and maintenance to tarry with them and be false and active against Him The twenty sixth day of May 1642. A Declaration is sent to the King but printed and published before he could receive it That q Whatsoever they should Vote is not by Law to be questioned either by the King or Subjects No precedent can limit or bound their proceedings A Parliament may dispose of any thing wherein the King or People have any right The Soveraign power resides in both Houses of Parliament The King hath no Negative voice The levying of
day before to murther him but before he went out of the field sent Sir William Le-neve Clarencieux King at Arms to Warwick whither the Earl of Essex was fled with a Proclamation of Pardon to all that would lay down arms which though they scornfully received and the Herald threatned to be hanged if he did not depart the sooner cannot perswade him from sending a Declaration or Message to the Parliament to offer them all that could be requested by Subjects but all the use they made of it was to make the City of London believe they were in greater danger then ever if they lent them not more moneys and recruited the Earl of Essex his broken Army and to cousen and put the people on the more to seek their own misery a day of thanksgiving was publiquely kept for the great Victory obtained against the King And Stephen Marshal a Factious bloody minister though he confessed he was so carried on in the crowd of those that fled from the battel as he knew not where he was till he came to a Market Town which was some miles from Edge-hill where the Battel was fought preaches to the people too little believing the Word of God and too much believing him That to his knowledge there was not above 200. men lost on the Parliaments side that he picked up bullets in his black Velvet cap and that a very small supply would now serve to reduce the King and bring Him to His Parliament And here ye may see Janus Temple wide open though the doors of it were not lift off the hinges or broken open at once but pickt open by those either knew not the misery of War or knowing it will prove to be the more guilty promoters of it That we may the better therefore find out though the matter of Fact already represented may be evidence enough of it self who it was that let out the fury and rage of War upon us we shall consider CHAP. III. Whether a Prince or other Magistrate labouring to suppress or punish a Rebellion of the People be tyed to those rules are necessary for the justifying of a War if it were made between equals WAr where it is made by any rules of justice between equals is to be for necessity where the determining of controversies cannot otherwise be obtained or when between two Princes of equal power it cannot be had because they have no superiour A Rebel therefore cannot properly be called an enemy for Hostis nomen notat aequalitatem and when any such arms are born against Rebels it is not to be called a War but an exercise of jurisdiction upon traiterous and dis-loyal persons y atque est ratio manifesta saith Albericus Gentilis qui enim jure judex est superior non jure cogitur ad subeundas partes partis aequalis non est bellum cum latronibus praedonibus aut piratis quanquam magnos habeant exercitus proinde nec ulla cum illis belli jura saith z Besoldus The Romans who were so exact and curious in their publique denouncing of War and sending Ambassadors before they made War against any other Nation did not do it in cases of rebellion and defection and therefore a Fidenatibus Campanis non denunciant Romani And Cicero that was of opinion that nullum bellum justum haberi videtur nisi nunciatum nisi indictum nisi repetitis rebus stood not upon those solemnities in the Cataline conspiracy for the rules of justifying a War against an enemy or equals as demanding restitution denunciation and the like are not requisite in that of punishing of Rebels b Pompey justifies the war maintained by the Senate against Caesar not then their Soveraign with neque enim vocari praelia justa decet c. Cicero did not think it convenient to send Ambassadors to Anthony nor intreat him by fair words but that it was meet to enforce him by Arms to raise his siege from Mutina for he said c They had not to do with Hannibal an enemy to the Common-wealth but with a Rebellious Citizen The resisting of the Kings Authority when the Sheriff of a County goes with the posse Comitatus to execute it was never yet so much as called a War but Rebellion insurrection or commotion were the best terms which were bestowed upon it For such attempts are not called wars but robberies of which the Law taketh no other care of but to punish them And the haste that all our Kings and Princes in England have made in suppressing Rebellions as that of the Barons Wars by Henry the 3. and his sending his son the Prince to besiege Warren Earl of Surrey in his Castle of Rygate for affronting the Kings Justices saying That he would hold his Lands by the Sword That which Ri. 2. made to suppresse Wat. Tiler H. 6. Jack Cade H. 8. Ket and the Norfolk Rebels and Queen Eliz. to suppress the Earls of Northumberland and Westmerland may tell us that they understood it no otherwise then all the Kings and Magistrates of the World have ever practised it by the d Laws of England if Englishmen that are Traytors go into France and confederate with Aliens or Frenchmen and come afterwards and make a War in England and be taken prisoners the strangers may be ransomed but not the English for they were the Kings Subjects and are to be reckoned as Traytors not strangers And the Parliaments own advise to the King to suppress the Irish Rebels that ploughed but with their own Heyfer and pretended as they did to defend their Religion Laws and Liberties and the opinion also of Mr. President Bradshaw as Sir John Owen called him in his late sentence given against the Earls of Cambridge Holland and Norwich Lord Capel and Sir John Owen whom he mistakenly God and the Law knows would make to be the subjects of their worser fellow subjects may be enough toturn the question out of doors But lest all this should not be thought sufficient to satisfie those who can like nothing but what there is Scripture for we shall a little turn over the leaves of that Sacred Volume and see what is to be found therein concerning this matter Moses who was the meekest Magistrate in the World and better acquainted with Him that made the fifth Commandment then these that now pretend Revelations against it thought fit to suppress the Rebellion of Corah Dathan and Abiram as soon as he could and for no greater offence then a desire to be co-ordinate with him procured them to be buried alive with all that appertained unto them When Absalon had Rebelled against his father David and it was told him e That the hearts of the men of Israel were after him David a man after Gods own heart without any Message of Peace or Declaration sent unto his dear son Absalon or offering half or any part of his Kingdom to him sent three several armies
forefathers nor ever understood to be taken from them much less for their ayrie innovated pretences rather than priviledges which have since eaten up all the peoples Laws and Liberties as well as a good part of their lives and estates with it and are now become to be every thing which their representatives will and arbitrary power have a mind to make it who have so driven away their old legal priviledges by setting up illegal and fantastique Priviledges as they are pleased to call them in stead of them as there is nothing now left of the Parliament like a Parliament neither matter nor form nor any thing at all remaining of it For the upper and lower houses have driven away and fought against the King who was their Head the lower after that have driven away the upper and fourty-five of the House of Commons whereof eleven are great Officers and Commanders in the Army have after that imprisoned and driven away four hundred of their fellow Members And from a degenerate and distempered piece of a Parliament brought themselves to be but a representative or journey-men voters to a Councel of War of their own mercenary and mechanique Army and may sit another eight years before ever they shall be able to finde a reason to satisfie any man that is not a fool or a mad-man or a fellow Sharer in the spoiles of an abused and deluded Nation Why the Kings demanding of the five Members and Kimbolton by undeniable warrant of the Laws of the Land and the Records and precedents of their own houses upon a charge or accusation of Treason for endeavouring amongst other pieces of Treason to alter the Government and subvert the fundamental Laws of the Kingdom which the Parliament and they themselves which were accused have more then once declared to be Treason should be taken to be so great a breach of priviledge in the King their Soveraign when the forcing and over-awing the houses of Parliament by the Army their servants and hirelings demanding the eleven Members and imprisoning and banishing some of them upon imaginary and fantastical offences committed against themselves or they could not tell whom shall be reckoned to be no breach at all of priviledge and the forcing of the Houses by the same Army within a year afterwards by setting guards upon them violently pulling two of the Members of the House of Commons out of the House and imprisoning them and 39. of their fellow Members all night in an Alehouse and leading them afterwards to several prisons with guards set upon them as if they had been common malefactors can be called mercies and deliverances and a purging and taking away rotten Members out of the House of Commons But now that we can finde nothing to make a defensive or Lawful nor so much as a necessary war on the Parliaments part for causa belli o saith Besoldus correspondere debet damno periculo the Parliament fears and jealousies were not of weight enough to put the people into a misery far beyond the utmost of what their fears and jealousies suggested to them did amount unto we shall do well to examine by the rules and laws of war and Nations the ways and means they used in it p Injustum censetur bellum si non ejus penes quem est Majestas authoritate moveatur a War cannot be just if it be not made by a Lawful authority Armorum delatio prohibitio ad Principem spectat q It belongs to the Prince to raise or forbid Armes and the Records of the Parliament which we take to be a better sense of the House then their own purposes can inform them that the Prelates Earls Barons and Commonalty of the Realm did in the seventh year of the reign of King Edw. the first declare to the King r That it belongeth and his part is through his Royal Signory straightly to defend force of Armour and all other force against his Peace when it shall please him and to punish them which shall do the contrary according to the Laws and usages of the Realm and that thereunto they were bound to aid their Soveraign Lord the King at all seasons when need shall be How much ado then will they have to make a War against their Soveraign to be lawful or if by any warrant of Laws Divine or Humane they could but tell how to absolve themselves from their oathes of Supremacy Allegiance and their very many protestations and acknowledgements of subjection to the King finde a Supream Authority to be in the people at the same time they swore an Allegiance and obedience to the King and at the same time they not onely stiled themselves but all those they represented to be his subjects Or how will they be able to produce a warrant from the people their now pretended Soveraignes till they shall be able sufficiently to enslave them to authorize them to make a War to undo them when they elected them but to consent to such things as should be treated of by the King and his Lords for the defence of the King and his Kingdom Or how could a tenth part of the people give warrant to them to fight against the King and the other nine parts of the people Or can that be a good warrant when some of them were cheated and the other by plunderings and sequestrations forced to yield to it Or could the pretence of a war for defence of the Kings Person and to maintain the Religion Laws and Liberties of the people be a warrant to the Parliament which never sought any thing for the King and people but to take away the Soveraignty from the one and the Liberties of the other to do every thing was contrary unto it But if that could have legitimated their actions as it never did or will be able By the rules of Justice in the practise of War and Nations s si bellum geratur sine denunciatione in captivos tanquam latrones animad verti possit It is a thievery rather than a War not to denounce or give notice of it beforehand and in this also the Parliament was faulty for they took Hull and Portsmouth and the Kings Navy and Magazine from him when He hoped better things of them and sent out their Armies and the Earl of Essex against Him whilest He was in treaty with them and offered all that He could for to have a peace with them t Bellum item impium injustumque sit si modus debitus non observetur A War is unjust if there be not a due way of proceedings held in it which especially consisteth in not hurting the Innocent Church-men Husbandmen weak or impotent People as old men women and children and in this also they will fall short of an excuse For how full is every Town and Village of the truth as well as the complaints of the unchristian usage of old and sick people women and children beaten wounded or
forget their due titles of Earls Lords or Knights because the King had made them so since the beginning of the War or else there must be neither Treaty nor Peace At Uxbridge the time of the Treaty limited for 20. days and at Newcastle for 10. and though the King and His Commissioners at Uxbridge almost petitioned for a cessation in the interim of that Treaty as they had done before in that which was at Oxford it could not be granted nor have a few days added to it and if the King could in Honor and Conscience have granted all the other parts of the Propositions must grant them an Act not onely to confiscate the Estates of His Friends and those that took Arms to save his Life and Estate but to take away their Lives also and not only that but to condemn them of high Treason and attaint their blood when they fought against them which were onely guilty of it a thing so unfitting unusually stood upon as it was never asked in any treaty or pacification among the civilized or more barbarous heathen and amounts to more then Adonibezeks causing the thumbs and great toes of his captive Kings to be cut off and making them to gather the crumbs from under his table or Benhadads demand of Ahabs silver and gold his wives and children and whatsoever else was pleasant in his eyes which the elders and people of Israel perswaded Ahab not to consent unto but was a thing purposely contrived and stood upon to hinder a Peace and was not to be asked or granted by any that could but entitle themselves to the least part of reason or humanity a demand Bajazet would not leave his Iron cage to yield unto a thing nature it self would abhor and the worst of villains and reprobates rather lose their lives then yield to would never be demanded by any but a Devil nor granted by any but his Equals And if their desiring of a War more then a peace and to keep the King out of his own had not been the only cause of such unnatural and barbarous propositions it may well be wondred why they that have made to themselves for we cannot believe they have found any law or warrant to ground it upon a power to take away the Kings life upon a colour or pretence of an unread as well as unheard of piece of Justice should need to strive so hard with the King to give them a power to do that which they are now so busie to do of themselves and as if they had been afraid all this would not be enough to keep the doores of Janus or the Devil open for fear lest the King should trouble them with any more offers or Messages for peace a vote must be made in February 1647. that it should be treason in any man to bring or receive any more Messages from him without consent of Parliament But suppose that which is not that the Parliament could have but found any thing but somewhat like a cause or justification of a war against their Soveraign for notwithstanding all their hypocritical pretences so it was at first intended and so it hath proved to be ever since to whom their Masters the people we mean as to the House of Commons had sent them to consult with not to make a War against him they might have remembred that saying of Cicero if they had found nothing in the book of God and their own consciences to perswade them to it That z duo sunt genera decertandi unum per disceptationem alterum per vim ad hoc confugiendum non est si uti superiori licebit There are other ways to come by pretended rights then by a War and we ought never to make use of a War which is the worst of all remedies if we may obtain it by a better Hen. 2. King of England was made a Judge betwixt the Kings of Castile and Navarre a The Rebellious Barons of England in the raign of King Hen. 3. referred their controversies to the decision of the King of France and his Parliament at Paris And the blood of this Kingdom which ran so plentifully in those unhappy differences was by that means only stopped Charles b the 4. Emperor was made a Judge of the differences betwixt the English and the French Kings For as Albericus Gentilis saith well c Intelligendum est eos qui diffugiunt genus hoc decertandi per disceptationem ad alterum quod est per vim currunt ilico eos a justitia ab humanitate a probis exemplis refugere ruere in arma volentes qui subire judicium nullius velint They that rush into a War without assaying all other just means of deciding the controversie for which it is made and will judge onely according to their own will and opinion do turn their backs to Justice Humanity and all good Examples And in that also the Parliament will be found faulty For the French King and the States of the United Provinces did by more then one Request and Embassy severally and earnestly mediate to make an accord betwixt the King and His Parliament and desired to have all things in difference left to their arbitrement but their Ambassadors returned home again with a report how much they found the King inclined to it how satisfactorily he had offered and how much the Parliament was averse to their interposition and altogether refused it But we have tarried long enough among the Parliament partie from thence therefore for it is time to leave the company of so much wickedness we shall remove to the Kings party and yet that may cause a Sequestration and examine for a fuller satisfaction of that which by the rule of contraries is clear enough already if he were not on the defensive and more justifiable part of the business The King as He was defensor protector subditorum suorum and sworn to see the Law executed had not the sword nor his authority committed to him in vain And if he had no maner of just cause of fear either in His own Person or authority or no cause given him in re laesae Majestatis the imprisoning of His Subjects and plundring and taking away their Estates from them long before He had either armed himself or had wherewithal to do it had been cause as sufficient as to cause a Hue and Cry to be made after a fellon or raise the posse Comitatus to bring Him to Justice and might by the same reason do it in the case of more and by the same reason he might do it by the help of one nothing can hinder but by the same reason he might do it by the help of more When Nathan came to David with a parable and told him of the rich man that had taken the poor mans onely Sheep he that understood well enough the duty of a King was exceeding wroth against the man and said As sure
vvas ended and Shooting them to Death but for vvords or intentions And if this and many things more which might be said of it be not enough what means so many Sequestrations and the bleating and lowing of mens Sheep and Oxen taken away from them since the War was ended but for words spoken either for the King or against them husbands and fathers undone for what their wives or children did without their privity the Maior of London divers Aldermen Imprisoned but upon a suspicion of joyning with the Scots or acting in pursuance of the Covenant which they forced them to take or else would have undone them for refusing of it Garrisons and Armies with Free-quartering and Taxes kept up and the people like sheep devoured to maintain them so much complaining in our streets and the taking away from some all their lands from others what they pleased and enforced many thousands to compound for their lands estates for joyning with the Kings forces or for being forced to send provisions to them when they took up Arms some in pursuance of the Covenant and others of them to deliver the King out of prison causing the Souldiers not only to cut and kill divers of the County of Surrey in the very act of petitioning the Parliament for a Treaty of Peace with the King and Sequester many of them for putting their hands unto it with disabling the Citizens of London for bearing any Office in the Citty or Common-wealth for but putting their hands to the Petition for the Treaty though Cromwell himself had not long before set on some to petition for it and the ruine and undoing of two parts of three in the Kingdome very many of whom did nothing actually in the Wars but were only sacrified to their pretended reasons and jealousies of State do sufficiently proclaim and reâ—…ain the vvoful Registers to after generations of this lamentable assertion If the King could have gotten but so much leave of his mercy and tender-heartedness to his people as to have used but the five hundreth part of the Parliaments jealousies sharp and merciless authority in the managing of this war so much of his Kingdomes and people had not been undone and ruined nor the Parliament put to so much labour to coyne faults and scandals against him nor to wrest the Laws to Non-sense and the Scriptures to Blasphemy to justifie their most horrid act of Murdering him but for seeking to preserve the Laws and Liberties of his people who are now cleerly cheated out of them And here our miseries tels us we must leave them and in the next place shall remember for indeed it is so plain it needs no enquiry CHAP. VI Who most desired Peace and offered fairliest for it THe abundant satisfaction wch the King had offered them from his first summoning of the late Parliament to their dissolving of themselves by dissolving Him who gave them all their Life and Being that which he did and all which he would have done So many Declarations Answers and Messages penned by himself intending as much as his words could signifie and were believed and understood by all at that time that were not interessed or engaged against him and by many of the eagrest of them also that had no hand or lookt to have any profit in the murthering of him for a Tryal of a King without either Warrant or Colour of Scripture or the Laws of the Kingdome or the consent of the major part of the people if that could have authorized it cannot nay will not by all the world and after ages be otherwise interpreted unless we shall say Ravillae might have justified his killing of Henry the Fourth of France if he had but had the wit to have framed or fancied a Supreme Court of Justice and have Sentenced him before he had done it will be as Pillars and lasting Monuments of this Truth The King was the only desirer of Peace and laboured and tugged harder for it then ever Prince or King Heathen or Christian since Almighty God did his first dayes work did ever do with Superiors Equals or Subjects and it will be no wrong certainly to David whose sufferings are so much remembred in all Christian Churches complayning so bitterly That he sought peace with those that refused it and in the mean time prepared for War against him Yo say the King did suffer more and offer more and oftner for peace then ever he did for any thing is extant or appearing to us for surely so many messages of peace as one and twenty in two years space from the 5 of December 1645. to the 25. of December 1647. sent to the Parliament after so many affronts and discouragements must needs excuse him that offered all could be imagined to be for the good and safety of his people and condemn those that not only from time to time refused it but adhered so much to their first intentions as all the blood and ruine of the people could not perswade them to depart with the least punctillio of it though the King before the Isle of Wight Treaty offered so much for the Olive-Branch as to part with the Militia for the terme of his life and in a manner to un-King himself and was afterwards content to do all that his Coronation Oath Honour and Conscience could possibly permit him to do and to purchase a peace for his people would have perswaded his Innocence to have born the shame reproach of what his enemies were only guilty of in so much as the Lord Say himself and most of his ever craving never safe enough Disciples confessed that the King had offered so much as nothing more could be demanded of him They therefore that can but tell how to divide or put a difference betwixt white and black night and day and the plainest contraries must needs also acknowledg That the King offered all and the Parliment refused all the King was willing to part almost with every thing and the Parliament would never part with any thing the King was willing for the good of his people to give away almost every thing of his own but the Parliament would never yeild to part with any thing was not their own And thus may the account be quickly cast up between the King and that Parliament who would have saved and kept the people from misery and who was most unwilling to make an end of it But that we may not too hastily give the Sentence and try the business as they use to do at the Council of War or the new invented way of Justice sitting with their wil or the Sword only in one hand and no Ballance at all in the other We shall in the next place examine CHAP. VII Who laboured to Shorten the War and who to Lengthen it THe odds vvas so great betvvixt what the Parliament laboured to get and the King to keep as that vvhich swayes the balance in most mens actions vvill
accusers themselves were only guilty of When Bradshaw himself like the Jews High Priest confessing a truth against his will in the words which he gave in stead of reason for murthering the King against the will and good liking of more then 9. parts in every â—0 of the people of England could make his Masters that call themselves the Parliament of England to be no better then the Tribuni plebis of Rome and the Ephori of Sparta the former of which for manifold mischiefs and inconveniences were abrogated and laid aside and never more thought fit to be used and the latter not being half so bad as our new State Gipsies killed and made away to restore the people again to their Liberties But the opinion and judgement of the Learned Lord Chief Justice Popham who then little thought his grand-child Collonel Popham should joyn with those that sat with their Hats on their heads and directed the murther of their Soveraign and if he were now living would sure enough have hanged him for it and those other learned Judges in the case and Tryal of the Earl of Essex in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth That b an intent to hurt the Soveraign Prince as well as the Act of it was Treason And that the Laws of England do interpret every act of Rebellion or Treason to aim at the death or deposing the Prince For that Rebels by their good will never suffer that King or Prince to live or Reign that understands their purposes and may revenge them agreeable to that of the Civil Law That they that go about to give Law to their Prince will never suffer him to recover Authority to punish it and the opinion of Mr. St. John the late Kings Sollicitor General in his argument against the Earl of Strafford at a conference in a Committee of both Houses of Parliament That the intending advising or declaring of a War is Treason of compassing the Kings death that an endeavour to subvert the fundamental Laws and Government of England and introduce a Tyrannical Government against Law is Treason that an intention to alter Laws or Government is Treason that the insurrection of Wat Tiler and some of the Commons in the Reign of King R. 2. though varnished and coloured over with an oath quod Regi Communibus fidelitatem servarent That they would be true and faithful to the King and Commonalty was in Parliament declared to be Treason and that a machination or plotting a War is a compassing the death of the King as that which necessarily tends to the destruction both of the King and of the people That it is Treason to counterfeit the great Seal and that the exciting of people to take Arms and throw down all the inclosures of the Kingdom though nothing was done in pursuance thereof was in Easter Term 39. Eliz. resolved by all the Iudges of England to be a war intended against the Queen are now written in the blood of the King those many iterated complaints of the King in several of His Declarations published to the people in the midst of the Parliaments greatest pretences and promises that they intended to take away His life and ruine Him are now gone beyond suspicion and every man may know the meaning of their Canoneers levelling at the King with perspective glasses at Copredy bridge the acquitting of Pym the In-keeper who said he would wash his hands in the Kings Heart Blood stifling of 15. or 16. several indictments for treasonable words Rolfe rewarded for his purpose to kill him and the prosecutors checqued and some of them imprisoned for it For the Sun in the Firmament and the four great quarters of the Earth and the Shapes and Lineaments of man are not so universally known seen or spoken of as this will be most certain to the present as well as after ages The end hath now verified the beginning and Quod primum suit in intentione ultimo loco agitur Seven years hypocritical Promises and Practises seven years Pretences and seven years mistaken preaching and pratling have now brought us all to this conclusion as well as Confusion The blood of old England is let out by a greater witchcraft and cousenage then that of Medea when she set Pelias daughters to let out his old blood that young might come in the place of it the Cedars of Lebanon are devoured and the Trees have made the Bramble King and are like to speed as well with it as the Frogs did with the Stork that devoured them they have not only slain the King who was their Father but like Nero ript up the belly of the Common-Wealth which was their Mother The light of Israel is put out and the King Laws Religion and Liberties of the people murdered an action so horrid and a sin of so great a magnitude and complication as if we shall ask the days that are past and enquire from the one end of the Earth to the other there will not be found any wickedness like to this great wickedness or hath been heard like it The Seavern Thames Trent and Humber four of the greatest Rivers of the Kingdom with all their lesser running streams of the Island in their continual courses and those huge heaps of water in the Ocean and girdle of it in their restless agitations will never be able to scour and wash away the guilt and stain of it though all the rain which the clouds shall ever bring forth and impart to this Nation and the tears of those that bewail the loss of a King of so eminent graces and perfection shall be added to it Quis cladem illius diei quis funera fando Explicet aut possit lachrymis aequare dolores Gens antiqua ruit multos dominata per Annos FINIS a Order 3. Jan. 1641. b Camden Annals Eliz. 99. 103. c Ibidem p. 391. 394 395. d Vide the vote in Mr. Viccars book entituled God in the Mount p. 78. e Collect. of Parl. and Decl. and Kings Mess. and Decl. p. 50. f Ibid. 51. g Ibid. 52. h Ibid. 53. i Ibid. 77. 78. k Vide the Petition of some Holderness men to the King 6 July 1642. l Ibid. 153. m Ibid. 550. n Ibid. 169. 170. o Collect. Par. Decl. 183. p Ibid. 259. q Ibid. p. 297. 298. r Ibid. 301. s Ibid. 305. t Ibid. 328. u Ibid. 333. x Ibid. 339. 340. 342. y Collect. of Parl. Mess. and Declar. 307 308 309. z Ibid. 346 348. a Ibid. 349. 350. b Ibid. 350. c Ibid. 356 357. d Collect. Par. Decl. 373 374. e Ibid. 376. f Ibid. 442. g Ibid. 449. h Ibid. 450. i Ibid. 453 k Ibid. 459. l Ibid. 452. m Ibid. 457. n Ibid. 457. o Ibid. 465. 483. p Ibid. 509. q Ibid. 573 574 575 576. r Vide the Kings Declaration printed at Oxford and ordered to be read in Churches and Chappels Cokes 1. part Institutes 65. 11. H. 7. 18 19. H 7. 1. Collect. Kings Messages 579. s Ibid. 583. t Ibid. 585. u Ibid. 586. x Ibid. 614. y Alber. Gentil 223. z Besoldus in dissert. de jure Belli 77. 78. a Albert Gent. 23. b Lucan lib. 2. c Cicero Philippic. 5. d Per Prisot e 2 Sam. 15. f 2 Sam. 20. g Bodin pag. 736. h H. Grotius de jure pacis belli i Collect. of Mess Remonst and Decl. 15. k Ibid. 45. 50. 52. 55. 67. 98. 91. 94. 103. 104. 106. 109. 110. 114. 127. 255. 327. 353. 442. 472. 562. 580. 484. 686. l Besoldus in dissert. philolog p. 58. m 32. Hen. 6. n 18 Eliz. o Besoldus dissert. philog pa 88. p C. an quid culpatur 23. q Dn. D. Bocer de bello cap. 5. Besoldus de juribus Majestatis cap. 6. r 7. Ed. 1. s Facius axiom 35. t Besoldus dissert. philolog 88. u Besoldus Ibid. 95. x Dn. Picart observat. decad 10. code Facius axiom bell 10. y Besoldus in dissert. philolog p. 83. z Cic. 1â— de offi a Jov. lib. 1. b Polydor. 13. 20. c Albericus Gentilis cap. 3. d Jerom. ep. 47. e Cicero pro milone f Baldus 3. consid. 485. confid 5. g Alberic Genti lib. 1. 25. h Bald. 5. Cons. p. 439. i Genes 14. k Judges 20. l 1 Sam. 30. m 2 Sam. 6. n 1 Reg. 20. o 1 Mac. 3. v. 43. p 8. June 1644. q {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} ca. 28. r History of the Marquis Montrosse his actions in Scotland Collect. Kings Messages and Answers a Weavers Funeral Monuments pa. 605. b Camdens Annals Eliz. pa. 798.