c. Now our young Dolman or Walker for that is the wisemans name supposing that all those people were alive still that were old men 54. yeers agoe like a true Transcriber without the variation of a letter affirmes it confidently in pag. 43. of his Edition that many are yet living in England that have seen the severall Coronations of King Edw. the 6. Queen Mary and Queen Eliz. to which he also addeth King James and King Charls because they were crowned since and this we confesse is new in him Now by this very booke alone though much more we might say to this purpose t is very evident that these Children of Abaddon love the Iesuites Doctrine well enough so it comes not out in the Iesuites owne name if it be but authorized by themselves or those appointed to publish and Licence books for the Parliament O then 't is very excellent good and Orthodoxall And now shall not these doings so palpably vile and grosse inflame your spirits O English-men and quicken you up to free your selves from their thraldome who thus abuse you will you suffer them still to proceed till they have stubbed up and quite o'rthrowne Christianity from among you you now see plainly enough what they meant at first by Roote and branch it was not Episcopacy only Roote and branch but Monarchy also Roote and branch the King and his Posterity Roote and branch the Nobility and Ancient Gentry Roote and branch Peace and prosperity honesty and Loyalty Roote and branch with Protestant profession it selfe and all that good is which in your Protestation generall you vowed to maintaine ' â—is fit you should observe it All the particulars in the said Protestation save onely one are already averted and welnigh destroyed the Religion and worship of Christ established in the English Church how is that suppressed and persecuted His Majesties Person Honour and Estate how are they abused blasted and imbezelled the Priviledges of Parliament Laws of the Land and Liberties of the Subject how notoriously have they been infringed violated and overthrowne there remaines now but one particular to finish the whole worke of plucking up or abolishing the Protestation Roote and branch and that is breaking the union betwixt the two Kingdomes of England and Scotland which now also they are indeavouring to effect as appears sufficiently by their unfriendly nay reproachfull Declaration against the Scotch Commissioners and indeed against the whole Nation and no question but they will if they can force many of those whom they have made to sweare the contrary to joyne with them in this breach also as they have done in all the former if the Scots once begin to make conscience of their old oath of Allegeance and talke of their duty to their Soveraigne Lord the King His Crowne and Dignity of supporting His Power and Greatnesse according as they are bound by all Laws of God and nature then away with these fellows from the earth cry those that resolve to make no more Addresses to the King 't is not fitting they should live though they were our dear Brethren before yet now they are so no more but Malignants as well as other folks and fit for nothing but to have scorns obloquies and contempts cast upon them And here by the way let the Scottish Nation observe it well and they shall find upon tryall that those Loyall English who from the beginning have adhered to their King out of Conscience and Allegiance will be more carefull by all loving and friendly offices to preserve peace and unity betwixt the two Nations from that Common bond of Christianity and humanity which ties us all together then those others are or will ever be who have taken so many new Oaths and Covenants to that purpose all which as they are unwarrantable wanting Legality and life from the Soveraign so will they prove invalid and too weak to hold those who have ventured on them nor were they intended by those State-engineers who first devised them as Hen. Martin tells the world to bind the takers everlastingly to each other or indeed to any other end then to drive on present designes and to batter the Consciences and souls of poor men who are ingaged by them in very deed to nothing else but to Repentance But we return to those of our own Nation who now we think have fully seen the aymes scopes and endeavours of these miscreant persons that have slighted all their Oaths broken all parts of their Protestation and are guilty of all the crimes that can be named from the highest Treason to the lowest Trespasse what is now therefore to be done by you of this Anciently-noble English Nation but to stand up for your Religion Laws and Liberties to free your selves and Country from the insupportable Tyranny of these usurpers to bring these superlative Delinquents to condigne punishment to endeavour speedily your Soveraignes restoration to His Dignity and to venture your lives like good Christians and Gallant men to deliver Him that so many years protected and defended you and hath now undergone for your sakes such unparalleld sufferings as nothing is superiour unto but His incomparable vertues and which alas so many of you have ignorantly by the fraudulent suggestion of these perfidious men helped to bring upon Him Be you assured that all those Arguments and Reasons which they falsely urged to stir you up to combine with them against him are onely good and to be lawfully thought upon to perswade you to associate now against them Had the King been truely taxable of that they charged on Him yet Gods word Christian verity and the Law of the Land forbids Resistance but they all command the same against such as these though they were quite free from those other villanies which they abound in even because they are usurpers for there is a vast difference between usurpers of Authority and ill managers of lawfull Authority betwixt those that take power to themselves to doe mischiefe with it and those that exercise evilly that lawfull power entrusted to them Our Saviour in the dayes of his flesh would not so much as censure Pilate for his cruell and bloody act upon the Galileans when some did tempt him to it that he might not seeme to countenance any in so much as speaking evilly of lawful power authority though abused People when oppressed and wronged by their lawfull Superiour have allowance onely to cry unto God as 1 Sam. 8.18 and to sue for reliefe by way of Petition as the Israelites in Egypt did to Pharaoh when they were so cruelly used by his Task-masters But t is otherwise if men be usurpers and set up themselves as Abimelech the Bramble did Iudg. 9. or endeavour to destroy the Royall Family as Athaliah did if they oppresse or whether they oppresse or no all men are bound to rise up against them and to help that Royall Person or Family to their right that suffers wrong by them for fiat Iustitia
dispose of it as likewise of the businesse of Ireland as may give to them and both Kingdoms just satisfaction not doubting also but to give good contentment to His two Houses of Parliament in the choice of the Lord Admirall the Officers of State and others if His two Houses by their ready inclinations to Peace shall give Him encouragement thereunto Thus His Majesty having taken occasion by His just impatience so to explain His intentions that no man can doubt of a happy Issue to this succeeding Treaty If now there shall be so much as a delay of the same He calls God and the World to witnesse who they are that not only hinder but reject this Kingdoms future happinesse It being so much the stranger that His Majesties coming to Westminster which was first the greatest pretence for taking up Arms should be so much as delayed much lesse not accepted or refused But His Majesty hopes that God will no longer suffer the malice of Wicked men to hinder the Peace of this too much afflicted Kingdom Given at the Court at Oxford the 15 of January 1645. For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore To be Communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland CAn Subjects desire more or to have their King offer more then is here tendred sure no good Christian Subjects can desire so much or be content to have their King recede so far from Himself for their sakes But by this and the preceding Messages we see what the King hath bidden for the purchase of Peace and a Treaty with them now we shall have a glimpse of what they thought fit to aske of Him for their leave to let Him come and speak with them after they had fasted prayed and fought five years to fetch Him to His Parliament for immediately after His sending this last most gracious Message there came to His Majesties hands as the effect of His Four former and the reward of His forty daies waiting this insuing Paper which contains only a parcell of such scandalous and crosse speeches as shamelesse women are wont to cast up against those they raile upon and mean to live in Contention with which notwithstanding the world supposed to be as void of Reason as themselves are of Religion must interpret an Humble Addresse unto His Majesty for Peace because it begins with May it please your Majesty we your Humble and Loyall Subjects for 't is one of those Addresses which in the beginning of their late Declaration they say the world well knows to have been so fruitlesse wherein they have yeilded up their wills Affections Reason Iudgment and all for obtaining a true peace or good Accommodation it follows in these very words May it please your Majesty WE Your Humble and Loyall Subjects of both Kingdoms have received Your Letters of the 26 and 29 of December last unto which we humbly return this Answer That there hath been no delay on our parts but what was necessary in a businesse of so great consequence as is expressed in our former Letter to Your Majesty Concerning the personall Treaty desired by Your Majesty There having been so much innocent bloud of Your good Subjects shed in this War by Your Majesties Commands and Commissions Irish Rebels brought over into both Kingdoms and endeavours to bring over more into both of them as also Forces from Forraign parts Your Majesty being in Arms in these parts the Prince in the head of an Army in the West divers Towns made Garrisons and kept in Hostility by Your Majesty against the Parliament of England There being also Forces in Scotland against that Parliament and Kingdom by Your Majesties Commission The War in Ireland fomented and prolonged by Your Majesty whereby the three Kingdoms are brought neer to utter ruine and destruction We conceive That untill satisfaction and security be first given to both your Kingdoms Your Majesties coming hither cannot be convenient nor by us assented unto Neither can we apprehend it a means conducing to Peace That Your Majesty should come to Your Parliament for a few daies with any thoughts of leaving it especially with intentions of returning to Hostility against it And We do observe That Your Majesty desires the Ingagement not only of the Parliaments but of the Lord Mayor Aldermen Common-Councell and Militia of the City of London the chief Commanders of Sir Thomas Fairfax's Army and those of the Scots Army which is against the Priviledges and Honour of the Parliaments those being joyned with them who are subject and subordinate to their Authority That which Your Majesty against the freedom of the Parliaments inforces in both Your Letters with many earnest expressions as if in no other way then that propounded by Your Majesty the Peace of Your Kingdoms could be established Your Majesty may please to remember that in Our last Letter We did Declare That Propositions from both Kingdoms were speedily to be sent to Your Majesty which We conceive to be the only way for attaining a happy and well-grounded Peace and Your Majesties assent unto those Propositions will be an effectuall meanes for giving satisfaction and security to Your Kingdoms will assure a firm Vnion between the two Kingdoms as much desired by each other as for themselves And settle Religion and secure the Peace of the Kingdom of Scotland whereof neither is so much as mentioned in Your Majesties Letters And in proceeding according to these just and necessary grounds for the putting an end to the bleeding Calamities of these Nations Your Majesty may have the Glory to be a Principall Instrument in so happy a Work and We however mis-interpreted shall approve our selves to God and the world to be reall and sincere in seeking a safe and wel-grounded Peace Westminster 13. Jan. 1645. Signed in the name and by warrant of the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland BALMERINOTH Grey of Wark Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore William Lenthall Speaker of the House of Commons For Your Majesty THeir silence was bad and shewed great insolency but their Language is far worse and speaks much more for their stile and matter in this Paper declares them to be men most unreasonable even such as the Apostle praies God to be delivered from and shews clearly on which side the obstruction to peace lies we see herein upon what Conditions the King might have been admitted after so many Messages into the presence of His Humble and Loyall Subjects if He would but have owned the guilt of that innocent bloud themselves had shed bin content to be dawbed with their crimes laid down His Armes given up His Garrisons call'd in His Commissions deserted His Friends and deliver'd up Himself absolutely without any security into their Hands with such a submission as they should prescribe which should have been no other then might have spoke His approbation of all they have said or done against Himself and this
our Loyalty and Obedience to His Crown readinesse and resolution to defend His Person and support His Estate with our lives and fortunes to the uttermost of our power Againe We professe we desire nothing from His Majesty but that He would returne in Peace to His Parliament And againe We professe in the sight of Almighty God which is the strongest obligation that a Christian and the most solemne publicke faith which any such State as a Parliament can give that we would receive Him with all Honour yeild Him all true obedience and subjection and faithfully endeavour to defend His Person and Estate from all danger and to the utmost of our power to stablish Him and His people all the blessings of a most Glorious and Happy Raign c. Surely they who shall compare these Professions with the present Carriages of them that made them will conclude them the vilest Atheists that ever lived and beleeve that they used these Protestations only to gull and seduce the well meaning Common-people that so they might cheat them of their Monies and engage them with themselves in wayes of Treason Bloud and Rebellion to the destruction of their Religion King and Country But verily there is a God that judgeth the Earth and that these mockers of Him shall feel ere long for the day of their Calamity is at Hand and the things that are comming upon them make hast Wel his Maj. after he had sent this His tenth Message for Peace waited another month and more for an Answer thereof having understood by their former unworthy Paper of the 13 of Ianu. and being confirmed also by their silence to all His Profers that no admittance would be granted to Him though He came alone for as at the approach of Christ the Devill raged and tore the party possessed so did jealousies and guilty fears rend and torment them at the Apprehension of His presence or accesse unto them and therefore till He should first consent to such Propositions as they would at their further leasure send unto Him He must not come near them unlesse He be brought by the Souldiers before them as Christ was into the High Priests Hall viz. in the nature of a Prisoner indeed to this purpose while they think to delude Him still with a further expectation of Propositions which they never meant should be seen at Oxford they send thither as fast as they can all their Armies and Bands of Souldiers with Guns and Swords and Staves for to take Him concluding with themselves that He would surely fall into the Hand of their Strong ones and could not possibly escape them But God was too hard for them He seeing their mischeivous intentions inclined the Heart of His Majesty to goe and protected Him safe in going to the Scottish Army where so soon as He came that all might see His desires of Peace were not capable of abatement He falls againe to His old work of soliciting for the same and offers to these unreasonable men all that ever was desired to give them content He refers to them and their Divines the setling of Religion He consents the Militia to be at their disposall His Forces to be disbanded His Townes and Garrisons dismantled and deserted and what ever else had been formerly in dispute betwixt them and if these would not be now accepted because offered by Him though formerly desired by them He wills them to send their long promised Propositions or at least those of them which were agreed upon being resolved to comply in every thing as shall but appear to Him to be for His Subjects happinesse And notwithstanding all the contempts they had shewn Him and affronts put upon Him He still hath or desires to have so good an opinion of them that He will not question their good acceptation of these His offers since He makes no conditions with them for Himselfe but is content to leave His own Honour and Lawfull Rights solely to their care and gratitude to maintain unto Him Let all men read without admiration if they can at the Kings Christianity and goodnesse this which follows how in very deed He yeilds up His will and Affections His Reason Iudgment and all for the obtaining a good peace or accommodation with these Stubborn men unto His poor and afflicted people His Majesties eleventh Message CHARLS R. HIs Majesty having understood from both His Houses of Parliament that it was not safe for him to come to London whither he had purposed to repair if so he might by their advice to do whatsoever may be best for the good and peace of these Kingdoms untill he shall first give his consent to such Propositions as were to be presented to him from them And being certainly informed that the Armies were marching so fast up to Oxford and made that no fit place for Treating did resolve to withdraw himself hither only to secure his own Person and with no intention to continue this War any longer or to make any division between his two Kingdoms but to give such contentment to both as by the blessing of God he might see a happy and wel-grounded Peace thereby to bring Prosperity to these Kingdoms answerable to the best times of his Progenitors And since the setling of Religion ought to be the chiefest care of all Councels his Majesty most earnestly and heartily recommends to his two Houses of Parliament all the waies and means possible for speedy finishing this pious necessary work and particularly that they take the advice of the Divines of both Kingdoms assembled at Westminster Likewise concerning the Militia of England for securing his people against all pretensions of danger his Majesty is pleased to have it setled as was offered at the Treaty at Uxbridge all the Persons being to be named for the Trust by the two Houses of the Parliament of England for the space of seven years and after the expiring of that term that it be regulated as shall be agreed upon by his Majesty and his two Houses of Parliament And the like for the Kingdom of Scotland Concerning the Wars in Ireland his Majesty will do whatsoever is possible for him to give full satisfaction therein And if these be not satisfactory his Majesty then desires that all such of the Propositions as are already agreed upon by both Kingdoms may be speedily sent unto him his Majesty being resolved to comply with his Parliament in every thing that shall be for the happinesse of his Subjects and for the removing of all unhappy differences which have produced so many sad effects His Majesty having made these offers he will neither question the thankfull acceptation of them nor doth he doubt but that his two Kingdoms will be carefull to maintain him in his Honour and in his just and lawfull Rights which is the only way to make a happy composure of these unnaturall Divisions And likewise will think upon a solid way of conserving the Peace between the two
appearance against them His Armies being for most part of the time disbanded and His Townes and Garrisons resigned In a word we shall present to the worlds review onely those Messages for Peace sent from his Majesty in these two last years since a little before He laied down His Sword and ceased from Action against them whereby it will be manifest enough what little cause they have to speak as they doe in Commendation of themselves and their owne good natures or to suggest of the King as if He were so unperswadable to this very day that neither their owne sighs and groans and tears will incline Him to be quiet nor the crying bloud of Fathers Brothers Children and of many Hundred thousand free-born Subjects in three great Kingdomes can prevail with him to desist from Cruelty and destruction And then after this we shall desire to see what Evidence themselves can alleage for what they have said we shall wish they would produce the strong reasons they have used to shew those Humble addresses which they have made and doe so much boast of that they would let us Hear some or their self-denying streins affectionate expressions or devout Petitions which as they infer have so respectfully and tenderly flowed from them so often and so long that thereby the world to whom they appeal may Judge in this case betwixt their King and them which if they are not able to doe no question but what they have voted of Him will be generally concluded of them viz. that they are worthy to be interdicted all Humane society to have no more Messages sent or offers made unto them nor any request or Petitions hereafter received from them And that the King should say to them as God doth to such as they Because I have called and ye refused I have stretched out my hands and no man regarded but have set at nought all my Councels and slighted all my motions therefore when your fear commeth as Desolation and your Destruction as a whirlewind when distresse and anguish is upon you then you shall call unto me but I will not answer you shall seek mercy from me but you shall not find it you shall eat the fruit of your owne waies and be filled with your owne devises As you have done so shall it be done unto you His Majesties most Gracious Messages for Peace sent to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster since the 5. of Dec. 1645. His Majesties first Message CHARLES R. HIs Majesty being deeply sensible of the Continuation of this bloody and unnaturall Warre cannot think Himself discharg'd of the duty He owes to God or the affection and regard He hath to the preservation of His People without the constant application of His earnest endeavours to finde some expedient for the speedy ending of these unhappy distractions if that may be doth therefore desire That a Safe Conduct may be forthwith sent for the Duke of Richmond the Earle of Southampton Iohn Ashburnham and Ieffery Palmer Esquires and their Attendants with Coaches Horses and other Accommodations for their Journey to Westminster during their stay there and return when they shall think fit Whom His Majesty intends to send to the Lords Commons assembled in the Parliament of England at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland furnished with such Propositions as His Majesty is confident will be the Foundation of a happy and well-grounded Peace Given at the Court at Oxford the 5. of Decem. 1645. For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore THis Message being received a Letter was sent thereupon from the Speakers of both Houses to Sir Thomas Glemham the then Governour of Oxford promising an Answer to it with all convenient speed which His Majesty expected with silence accordingly ten dayes and then solicites them again for the same thing which He had done before as followeth His Majesties second Message CHARLES R. HIs Majesty cannot but extremely wonder that after so many Expressions on your part of a deep and seeming sense of the miseries of this afflicted Kingdome and of the dangers incident to His Person during the continuance of this unnaturall War your many great and so often repeated Protestations that the raising of these Arms hath been onely for the necessary defence of Gods true Religion His Majesties Honour Safety and Prosperity the Peace Comfort and Security of His People you should delay a Safe Conduct to the persons mentioned in His Majesties Message of the fifth of this instant December which are to be sent unto you with Propositions for a well-grounded Peace A thing so far from having been denyed at any times by His Majesty whensoever you have desired the same that He believes it hath been seldome if ever practiced among the most avowed and professed enemies much lesse from Subjects to their King But His Majesty is resolved that no discouragements whatsoever shall make Him faile of His part in doing His uttermost endeavours to put an end to these Calamities which if not in time prevented must prove the ruine of this unhappy Nation And therefore doth once againe desire That a safe Conduct may be forthwith sent for those persons expressed in His former Message and doth therefore Conjure you as you will answer to Almighty God in that day when he shal make inquisition for all the Bloud that hath and may yet be spilt in this unnaturall War as you tender the preservation and establishment of the true Religion by all the Bonds of Duty and Allegiance to your King or compassion to your bleeding and unhappy Country and of Charity to your selves that you dispose your hearts to a true sense and imploy all your faculties in a more serious endevour together with His Majesty to set a speedy end to these wasting Divisions and then He shall not doubt but that God will yet again give the blessing of Peace to this distracted Kingdom Given at the Court at Oxford the 15. of December 1645. For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore THis Message seconding the former spake as many others had done His Majesties earnestnesse for Peace and how much affected He was with his peoples miseries in the want of it but 't is thought meet by them to whom 't is sent to make His Heart more sicke by delaying His hopes and therefore neglecting their owne promise of returning an Answer with all convenient speed they cause him to wait ten daies longer at the end of which time they seemed as far from remembering either Him or themselves as at the beginning which His Majesty observing and withall conceiving this unwillingnes in them to admit of Peace might be for that He had motioned to send it by others apprehended because they had in pretence at least fought so long to injoy His presence that if himself should carry it they would undoubtedly both imbrace that and reverence Him and thereupon offers to go unto them and to Treat personally
with them about the same yea and to make the surer way to Himself with this great Blessing in the behalf of His people He resolves to buy their consent if he cannot beg it by receding so much from His owne rights as none of His Predecessours ever did for supposing the point of their owne security to be the maine obstacle in the Businesse He offers to part with the Militia it self out of His owne Hands for a season and to this purpose omitting all Expostulations for their so High neglect and contempt of Him in not answering His former Messages He writes to them as followeth His Majesties third Message CHARLS R. NOtwithstanding the strange and unexpected delaies which can be presidented by no former times to His Majesties two former Messages His Majesty will lay aside all Expostulations as rather serving to lose time then to contribute any remedy to the evils which for the present do afflict this distracted Kingdom Therefore without farther Preamble His Majesty thinks it most necessary to send these Propositions this way which He intended to do by the Persons mentioned in His former Messages though He well knows the great disadvantage which Overtures of this kind have by the want of being accompanied by wel-instructed Messengers His Majesty conceiving that the former Treaties have hitherto proved ineffectuall chiefly for want of power in those persons that Treated as likewise because those from whom their power was derived not possibly having the particular informations of every severall debate could not give so clear a Judgment as was requisite in so important a businesse If therefore His Majesty may have the engagement of the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland the Major Aldermen Common-Councel and Militia of London of the chief Commanders in Sir Thomas Fairfax's Army as also those in the Scots Army for His Majesties free and safe coming to abode in London or Westminster with such of His Servants now attending Him and their Followers not exceeding in all the number of 300 for the space of forty daies and after the said time for his free and safe repair to any of His Garrisons of Oxford Worcester or Newark which His Majesty shall nominate at any time before His going from London or Westminster His Majesty propounds to have a Personall Treaty with the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland upon all matters which may conduce to the restoring of Peace and happinesse to these miserably distracted Kingdoms And to begin with the three Heads which were Treated on at Uxbridge And for the better clearing of His Majesties earnest and sincere intentions of putting an end to these unnaturall Distractions knowing that point of security may prove the greatest obstacle to this most blessed work His Majesty therefore Declares That He is willing to commit the great Trust of the Militia of this Kingdom for such time and with such Powers as are exprest in the Paper delivered by His Majesties Commissioners at Uxbridge the 6. of February last to these Persons following viz. The Lord Privy Seal the Duke of Richmond the Marquesse of Hertford the Marquesse of Dorchester the Earl of Dorset Lord Chamberlain the Earl of Northumberland the Earl of Essex Earl of South-hampton Earl of Pembroke Earl of Salisbury Earl of Manchester Earl of Warwick Earl of Denbigh Earl of Chichester Lord Say Lord Seymour Lord Lucas Lord Lexington Mr. Denzill Hollis Mr. Pierrepoint Mr. Henry Bellasis Mr. Richard Spencer Sir Thomas Fairfax Master Iohn Ashburnham Sir Gervas Clifton Sir Henry Vane junior Mr. Robert Wallop Mr. Thomas Chichely Master Oliver Cromwell and Mr. Philip Skippon supposing that these are Persons against whom there can be no just exception But if this doth not satisfie then His Majesty offers to name the one half and leave the other to the election of the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster with the Powers and Limitations before mentioned Thus His Majesty calls God and the World to witnesse of His sincere Intentions and reall Endevours for the composing and setling of these miserable Distractions which He doubts not but by the blessing of God will soon be put to a happy Conclusion if this His Majesties offer be accepted Otherwise He leaves all the World to Judge who are the Continuers of this unnaturall War And therefore He once more Conjures you by all the Bonds of Duty you owe to God and your King to have so great a Compassion on the bleeding and miserable Estate of your Country That you joyne your most serious and hearty Endevours with His Majesty to put a happy and speedy end to these present Miseries Given at the Court at Oxford the 26 of December 1645. For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore To be Communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster and to the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland WHile this Message was in the way of passage to them this ensuing Paper which seems to relate to the two former comes from them after 20 daies serious Consideration as themselves speak for so long the Lords and Commons of the Parliament of England together with the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland were deep in consultation about the framing of it it conteins only two things a Commendation of themselves and a Deniall of the Kings request for a safe Conduct unto His Commissioners to Treat for Peace 't is this which follows May it please your Majesty THe Lords and Commons Assembled in the Parliament of England at Westminster have received your Letters of the fifth fifteenth of this instant December and having together with the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland taken the same into their serious consideration do humbly return this Answer They have in all their Actions manifested to Your Majesty and the World their sincere and earnest desires that a safe and well grounded Peace might be setled in Your three Kingdoms and for the obtaining so great a Blessing shall ever pray to God and use their utmost endevours and beseech Your Majesty to believe that their not sending a more speedy Answer hath not proceeded from any intention to retard the means of putting an end to these present Calamities by a happy Peace but hath been occasioned by the Considerations and Debates necessary in a businesse of so great importance wherein both Kingdoms are so much concerned As to Your Majesties desire of a safe Conduct for the coming hither of the Duke of Richmond the Earl of Southampton John Ashburnham and Jeffrey Palmer Esquires with Propositions to be the foundation of a happy and well grounded Peace They finding that former Treaties have been made use of for other ends under the pretence of Peace and have proved delatory and unsuccesfull cannot give way to a safe Conduct according to Your Majesties desire But both Houses of the Parliament of England having now under their Consideration
Kingdome to be just and right then His Humble and Loyall Subjects would have vouchsafed to cast a look upon Him and deign'd so far as to have spoke a word with him Herein also besides the Conditions of a Treaty are discovered divers faults in His Majesties late Messages which neither Himself nor any other was able to have discern'd but the two Parliaments of England and Scotland after a diligent search having sat close some weeks about it for they were not idle all the 40 daies of the Kings waiting did in their deep wisdomes descry and find them out and then thought fit that their Soveraigne might not sleep in His sins to admonish His Majesty of them as 1. His requiring of them ingagement for His own security if He came amongst them which was a great errour and mistake in Him for though He be a David and a man after Gods owne heart yet they are not subjects of the same stamp as Davids were who thought their King worth ten thousand of themselves 2. This request of His was in their judgements against the Priviledge and Honour of Parliament for the speciall Priviledge of this Parliament or rather the swaying faction in the same is to destroy if they can and not to preserve the King at all 3. His mentioning the Mayor Aldermâ—n Common-Councell and Militia of the City as if He believed Himself to have any interest in them and that they were concern'd to ingage for His security they give Him to understand was another grand mistake in Him for all they together with Sir Thomas Fairfax his Army and the Scots too are their subjects and not His and subordinate to their Authority and therefore for Him to expect any ingagement for safety from any of them was directly also in their sense against the Honour and Priviledge of Parliament Nay 4. they give His Majesty to know that He had not onely sinned thus against the Honour and Priviledge of Parliament but also against the very freedome of it by His propounding with so many earnest expressions a Personall Treaty as the way to a Peace which they interpret no other then a plaine enforcement upon the Liberty of Parliament or a violent rape upon their wisdome as if they had not Brains enow to find out some other way then that was which His Majesty had propounded But truly with their favour this Errour might more prudently have been passed by and the aggravation of it omitted had they but remembred how often themselves had told the world that all their fighting was but to bring the King home from His evill Counsellours to Treat in Person with His Parliament for what may the world now think of these wise men may they not liken them to little Children who in a crosse peevish humour wil none of that thing when offered to them but throw it away which before they had cried and roared for the old and true way to a Peace between different parties hath alwaies been by Treaty and so was it hitherto judged by these men as themselves told us but now they dislike it only because the King propounds it And another way they have devised and that must be by Propositions of their owne making which by this their Preface are promised to be such as Benhadad sent to the King of Israel neither good for Him nor for His people but destructive unto both But His sacred Majesty the true mirror of wisdome meeknesse and patience receiving from them after divers Messages and forty daies waiting only this reproachfull Paper which was able to stir passion in a very Moses doth send back on the very same day without returning one word of ill Language this ensuing Answer His Majesties sixt Message CHARLES R. HIs Majesty thinks not fit now to answer those aspersions which are returned as arguments for His not admittance to Westminster for a Personall Treaty because it would inforce a style not sutable to His end it being the Peace of these miserable Kingdoms yet thus much He cannot but say to those who have sent Him this Answer That if they had considered what they have done themselves in occasioning the shedding of so much innocent bloud by withdrawing themselves from their duty to Him in a time when He had granted so much to His Subjects and in violating the knowne Laws of the Kingdome to draw an exorbitant power to themselves over their fellow Subjects to say no more to do as they have done they could not have given such a false character of His Majesties actions Wherefore His Majesty must now remember them that having some howers before His receiving of their last Paper of the 13. of Ian. sent another Message to them of the 15. wherein by divers particulars He inlargeth Himself to shew the reality of His endevours for Peace by His desired personall Treaty which He still conceives to be the likeliest way to attain to that blessed end He thinks fit by this Message to call for an Answer to that and indeed to all the former For certainly no rationall man can think their last Paper can be any Answer to His former demands the scope of it being that because there is a War therefore there should be no Treaty for Peace And is it possible to expect that the Propositions mentioned should be the grounds of a Lasting Peace when the Persons that send them will not endure to hear their own King speak But whatever the successe hath been of His Majesties former Messages or how small soever His hopes are of a better considering the high strain of those who deal with His Majesty yet He will neither want fatherly bowels to His Subjects in generall nor will He forget that God hath appointed Him for their King with whom He Treats Wherefore He now demands a speedy Answer to His last and former Messages Given at our Court at Oxon this 17. of Jan. 1645. For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated c. THese earnest desires of His Majesty for a speedy Answer shall nothing prevail with them to hasten the same for His unparallel'd meeknesse in passing by such unheard-of Affronts without return of any passionate expression is so high a vexation to their black and ungodly souls that they resolve in themselves to make Him wait above three times forty daies longer now before He shall get a word more from them let Him send as oft as He will to solicite for it which purposed contempt though His Majesty in His Candour and Charity did not haply at that present fancy of them yet being too well acquainted with their dispositions He conceived they might make some ill use among His People of His silence to their impediments objected against the Personall Treaty propounded by Him and therefore thought meet seven daies after to speak somewhat in Confutation of those their frivolous Arguments and again to urge the thing as the only likely way of setling Peace unto His People
notorious men was too deep and high for vulgar reaches seeing His Majesty Himself after all His experience being still straitned in spirit by His owne Charity and goodnesse was not yet able to fadome the same at His sending this seventh Message as may appear by His saying therein that He Hopes none will have that impudency and impiety as to wish an end to the distractions of this Kingdom rather by Conquest then by Treaty for in very deed as all the world are now perswaded since the publishing of their late Declaration these men have had that impudency and impiety in them even from the beginning not onely to wish but also to endevour the same therefore in vain did His Majesty as he since hath found by this again so instantly desire an Answer to His former Messages for a personal meeting And yet hoping at least that importunity might prevail with these unrighteous Iudges though intreaties will not as it once did with one that feared neither God nor Man He resolves to follow them still with the same motion which five daies after He doth and that upon this occasion His Majesty was informed of the Earl of Glamorgans unwarranted Agitation in Ireland and knowing that the manner of His Humble and Loyal Subjects at Westminster was to Honour Him by heaping on Him the burden of others faults He thinks it pious meet to endeavour to keep them from that sin by giving them a speedy notice of the said Earls doings of his own absolute dislike of the same which He evidences by His full approbation of that course which by Marquesse Ormond and L. Digby was taken against him Protesting solemnly that he never had knowledge of any such capitulation or Treaty til He heard of the Earls Arrest and restraint for making the same disavowing the Articles by Him concluded and signed as destructive both to Church and State repugnant to His Majesties publick professions and known resolutions and so hazardous to the blemishing His Reputation and giving Commandement to the Lord Lieutenant and Councell of that Kingdom to proceed against the said Earl for this His grand offence committed out of falsnesse presumption or folly And after this His Majesty falls again to His old work of importuning a Treaty for Peace which He urgeth upon them with renewed promises larger concessions greater ingagements of Himself and further Explanations of His sincere intentions to trust them to pardon them to secure them let the world read this which follows and then judge if any Heart that intends to acknowledge a King can desire more His Majesties eighth Message CHARLS R. HIs Majesty having received Information from the Lord Lieutenant and Councell in Ireland That the Earl of Glamorgan hath without His or their directions or privity entred into a Treaty with some Commissioners on the Roman Catholique Party there and also drawn up and agreed unto certain Articles with the said Commissioners highly derogatory to his Majesties honour and Royall Dignity and most prejudiciall unto the Protestant Religion and Church there in Ireland Whereupon the said Earl of Glamorgan is arrested upon suspition of High Treason and imprisoned by the said Lord Lieutenant and Councell at the instance and by the Impeachment of the L. Dighby who by reason of his Place and former Imployment in these Affairs doth best know how contrary that Proceeding of the said Earl hath been to his Majesties Intentions and Directions and what great prejudice it might bring to his Affairs if those Proceedings of the Earl of Glamorgan should be any waies understood to have been done by the directions liking or approbation of his Majesty His Majesty having in his former Messages for a Personall Treaty offered to give contentment to his two Houses in the Businesse of Ireland hath now thought fitting the better to shew his clear Intentions and to give satisfaction to his said Houses of Parliament and the rest of his Subjects in all his Kingdoms to send this Declaration to his said Houses containing the whole truth of the businesse which is That the Earle of Glamorgan having made offer unto Him to raise Forces in the Kingdom of Ireland and to Conduct them into England for His Majesties Service had a Commission to that purpose and to that purpose only That he had no Commission at all to Treat of any thing else without the privity and directions of the Lord Lieutenant much lesse to Capitulate any thing concerning Religion or any Propriety belonging either to Church or Laity That it clearly appears by the Lord Lieutenants Proceedings with the said Earle That he had no notice at all of what the said Earle had Treated and pretended to have capitulated with the Irish untill by accident it came to his knowledge And His Majesty doth Protest That untill such time as He had advertisement that the Person of the said Earle of Glamorgan was Arrested and restrained as is abovesaid He never heard nor had any kind of notice that the said Earl had entred into any kind of Treaty or Capitulation with those Irish Commissioners much lesse that He had concluded or Signed those Articles so destructive both to Church and State and so repugnant to His Majesties publique Professions and known Resolutions And for the further vindication of His Majesties Honour and Integrity herein He doth Declare That He is so far from considering any thing contained in those Papers or Writings framed by the said Earl and those Commissioners with whom he Treated as He doth absolutely disavow him therein and hath given Commandement to the Lord Lieutenant and the Councell there to proceed against the said Earl as one who either out of falsenesse presumption or folly hath so hazarded the blemishing of His Majesties Reputation with His good Subjects and so impertinently framed those Articles of his own head without the Consent Privity or Directions of His Majesty or the Lord Lieutenant or any of His Majesties Councell there But true it is That for the necessary preservation of His Majesties Protestant Subjects in Ireland whose Case was daily represented unto Him to be so desperate His Majesty had given Commission to the Lord Lieutenant to Treat and Conclude such a Peace there as might be for the safety of that Crown the preservation of the Protestant Religion and no way derogatory to His own Honour and publike Professions But to the end that His Majesties reall intentions in this businesse of Ireland may be the more clearly understood and to give more ample satisfaction to both Houses of Parliament and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland especially concerning His Majesties not being engaged in any Peace or Agreement there He doth desire if the two Houses shall resolve to admit of His Majesties repair to London for a Personall Treaty as was formerly proposed that speedy notice be given thereof to His Majesty and a passe or safe Conduct with a blank sent for a Messenger to be immediatly dispatch'd into Ireland to
Kingdoms for time to come And will take a speedy course for easing and quieting his afflicted people by satisfying the Publike debts by disbanding of all Armies and whatsoever else shall be judged conducible to that end that so all hinderances being removed he may return to his Parliament with mutuall comfort Southwell May 18. 1646. For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore To be Communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland POST-SCRIPT HIs Majesty being desirous to shun the further effusion of bloud and to evidence His reall intentions to Peace is willing that His Forces in and about Oxford be disbanded and the fortifications of the City dismantled they receiving honourable conditions Which being granted to the Town and Forces there His Majesty will give the like order to the rest of the Garrisons THis Message from His Majesty out of the Scots Quarters though as full of Grace as could be wished found as little respect as any of the former and was thought as unworthy of an Answer for indeed it spake to their great grief the escape of that rich prey which was already swallowed in their Expectations yea and an impossibility of getting it into their reach again with so little cost and pains as they hoped before to be possessed of it for they conceived the frugall Scot was not like to part with his Liege Lord and native King for nothing nor be so easily beaten from hence to their own home as was intended they should have been so soon as the Kings Person had been seized on at Oxford for His Majesties Presence like the Glorious Sun drew thousands of Eyes upon His Country-men and would have fetch'd as many hearts and hands to their Assistance had they but then stood up in defence of Him This they at Westminster well knew and hereupon saw that a kind of necessity lay on them to shuffle again and after another fashion then before was purposed to play the Foxes instead of the Lions with their dear Brethren and therefore they begin at last to think of doing that which till now they never intended though often promised even of sending Propositions to the King which on Iuly 24. two months after their receipt of this last Message of May 18. arived at Him under the name of Propositions for Peace but the contrivers of them had in their Provident care made them so perfectly monstrous and unreasonable that themselves remained sure still of being out of all danger of Effecting Peace by them in very deed they were only used to gain time and opportunity to recover their lost prey and to delude the Scots who were not then so well acquainted with their spirits as perhaps since they have been or at least may be before a period be put to these troubles Those Propositions of theirs were as tedious as senslesse for what they wanted in reason was made up in words they have been published already and therefore we shall not here trouble the Reader with them there be Copies enow extant of them which whosoever views will think the Kingdom might have imployed their many hundred thousand pounds better then in maintaining so many men and so many Armies so many months together in doing nothing but making such uncouth Prpositions By this insuing Message of his Majesty in Answer to them within a week after His receipt of them the world were it ignorant of them might have a glimpse of what kind they were and of what spirit those that sent them His Majesties twelfth Message CHARLES R. THe Propositions tendered to His Majesty by the Commissioners from the Lords and Commons Assembled in the Parliament of England at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland to which the Houses of Parliament have taken twice so many Monthes for deliberation as they have assigned dayes for his Majesties Answer do import so great alterations in Government both in Church and Kingdome as it is very difficult to return a particular and positive Answer before a full debate wherein these Propositions and the necessary explanations true sense and reasons thereof be rightly weighed and understood and that his Majesty upon a full view of the whole Propositions may know what is left as well as what is taken away and changed In all which he finds upon discourse with the said Commissioners that they are so bound up from any capacity either to give reasons for the demands they bring or to give ear to such desires as his Majesty is to propound as it is impossible for him to give such a present judgement of Answer to these Propositions whereby he can Answer to God that a safe and well-grounded peace will ensue which is evident to all the world can never be unlesse the just power of the Crown as well as the freedome and propriety of the Subject with the just liberty and priviledges of the Parliament be likewise setled To which end his Majesty desires and proposeth to come to London or any of his houses thereabouts upon the publick faith and security of the two houses of Parliament and the Scotch Commissioners That he shall be there with freedome honour and safety where by his personall presence he may not only raise a mutuall confidence betwixt him and his people but also have these doubts cleared and these difficulties explained unto him which he now conceives to be destructive to his just regall power if he shall give a ful consent to these Propositions as they now stand As likewise that he make known to them such his reasonable demands as he is most assured will be very much conducible to that Peace which all good men desire and pray for by the setling of Religion the just priviledges of Parliament with the freedom and propriety of the Subject and his Majesty assures them that as he can never condiscend unto what is absolutely destructive to that just power which by the laws of God and the Land he is born unto So he wil cheerfully grant and give his assent unto all such Bills at the desire of his two Houses or reasonable demands for Scotland which shall be really for the good and Peace of his people not having regard to his own particular much lesse of any bodies else in respect of the happinesse of these Kingdoms Wherefore his Majesty conjures them as Christians as Subjects and as men who desire to leave a good name behind them that they will so receive and make use of this Answer that all issues of bloud may be stopped and these unhappy distractions peaceably setled Newcastle August 1. 1646. To the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated POST-SCRIPT VPon assurance of a happy agreement His Majesty will immediately send for the Prince His Son absolutely expecting His perfect Obedience to return into this Kingdom BY this Message the Readers may observe that the contrivers of those Propositions though
the manner of Addresse which is now made unto Him Unlesse his two Houses intend that his Majesty shall allow of a Great Seal made without his Authority before there be any consideration had thereupon in a Treaty Which as it may hereafter hazard the security it self so for the present it seems very unreasonable to his Majesty And though his Majesty is willing to believe that the intention of very many in both Houses in sending these Bils before a Treaty was only to obtain a trust from Him and not to take any advantage by passing them to force other things from Him which are either against His Conscience or Honour Yet his Majesty believes it clear to all understandings that these Bils contain as they are now penned not only the devesting Himself of all Soveraignty and that without possibility of recovering it either to Him or his Successours except by repeal of those Bils but also the making his Concessions guilty of the greatest pressures that can be made upon the Subject as in other particulars so by giving an Arbitrary and Vnlimited power to the two Houses for ever to raise and levie Forces for Land or Sea service of what persons without distinction or quality and to what numbers they please And likewise for the payment of them to levy what Monies in such sort and by such waies and means and consequently upon the Estates of whatsoever Persons they shall think fit appoint Which is utterly inconsistent with the Liberty Property of the Subject and his Majesties trust in protecting them So that if the Major part of both Houses shall think it necessary to put the rest of the Propositions into Bils His Majesty leaves all the world to judge how unsafe it would be for Him to consent thereunto And if not what a strange condition after the passing of these four Bils his Majesty and all his Subjects would be cast into And here his Majesty thinks it not unfit to wish his two Houses to consider well the manner of their proceeding That when his Majesty desires a Personall Treaty with them for the setling of a Peace they in answer propose the very subject matter of the most essentiall part thereof to be first granted A thing which will be hardly credible to Posterity Wherefore his Majesty declares That neither the desire of being freed from this tedious and irksome condition of life his Majesty hath so long suffered nor the apprehension of what may befall him in case his two Houses shal not afford him a Personal Treaty shall make him change his resolution of not consenting to any Act till the whole Peace be concluded Yet then he intends not only to give just and reasonable satisfaction in the particulars presented to him but also to make good all other Concessions mentioned in his Message of the 16. of Novemb. last Which he thought would have produced better effects then what he finds in the Bils and Propositions now presented unto him And yet his Majesty cannot give over but now again earnestly presseth for a Personal Treaty so passionately is he affected with the advantages which Peace wil bring to his Majesty and all his Subjects of which he will not at all despair there being no other visible way to obtain a wel-grounded Peace However his Majesty is very much at ease within himself for having fulfilled the offices both of a Christian and of a King and will patiently wait the good pleasure of Almighty God to incline the hearts of his two Houses to consider their King and to compassionate their fellow Subjects miseries Given at Carisbrook-Castle in the Isle of Wight Decemb. 28. 1647. For the Speaker of the Lords House pro tempore to be communicated to the Lords and Commons in the Parliament of England at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland HIs Majesties Afflictions have been much increased by manifesting His care as an equall Father that satisfaction might be given to all ingaged interests therefore Presbyterians Independents Army Scots and all whoever they be that acknowledge a part in them and remain yet unsatisfied have reason as Christians as Subjects as men for meer gratitude sake were there no other reason to endeavour the vindication of those wrongs at least which His Majesty hath suffered since He stood forth as their Common Advocate To prevent their Audience upon the Kings motion were these Bills devised and sent in this sort unto His Majesty And for His not consenting so far to their damage and to the undoing of all the rest of His Subjects as these Bils required was His Majesty cast into a more hard and miserable Condition by some degrees then ever before having all His Servants on the sodain by violence thrust out from Him not so much as one of His Divines allowed unto Him Himself confined to two or three Roomes within the walls of a loathed Prison assaulted frequently He is with evil language and tormented with the spightfull behaviours of the Enemy permitted to see or speak to none but rude Souldiers who are set to watch Him and whom He hath hourly cause to look upon as Assassinates appointed for to murder Him His friends are not suffered to write unto Him nor His Children to send the remembrance of their duties yet His Trunks and Pockets are often searched for Letters with the highest insolency and rudenesse that can be shewn And all this with much more of like nature then can be expressed is come upon Him as it seemeth for moving in the behalf of all ingaged interests and therefore most truly did His Majesty in the Beginning of this Message say for He hath felt it since that He found the complying with all ingaged interests in these great distempers none of the least difficulties He met withall since the time of His Afflictions and therefore also as was said before were there no other cause they are all bound to ingage for Him till they have set Him free from His present Thraldome And indeed the Scotch Commissioners for their parts began well in their protesting in the name of their whole Kingdome against those unreasonable Bils at the same time that they were by the English Commissioners presented to His Majesty as being prejudiciall to Religioâ— to the Crown to the union and interest of both Nations and directly different from their former mutuall proceedings and ingagements now His Majesty for taking notice of this which was uttered in His presence and in the name of a whole Kingdome is extreamly quarrelled at and because He did not signe the said Bils notwithstanding the said protest He is immediately made close Prisoner and sensible of more then barbarous usage the Method of which is in part expressed in the following Declaration which twenty daies after His close confinement was written by His Majesties own hand and some twenty daies aftâ—r that by the speciall order and providence of him who is the preserver of Princes brought to light
full power to act even as if He had been personally there but if He were suffered to be absent He would doubtlesse in His naturall Capacity be very mischievous to the Kingdome having such ill Councellours about Him as they said He had and such damned Cavaliers who as their preachers taught us to beleeve for good Doctrine were as bad as devills and whose very shape and faces the Lord in his judgement had already so altered that they did not now look like men as formerly but like strange horrid monsters So that God having set a visible mark of His vengeance upon them as He did on Cain our duty was and we were bound in Conscience to pursue them as Reprobates and as men cursed of God unlesse our selves would runne the hazard of that bitter Curse which was layed upon the Inhabitants of Meroz because they did not help the Lord against the Mighty After this manner they seduced us and led us too many of us to think ill of the King and of those that were Conscientious and faithfull unto Him Having thus consorted themselves with His Majesty in the Empire by their incroaching on His Authority and thus gulled us by this device of His Politick and naturall Capacity as if being arm'd or Authorized by the one we might destroy him in the other Which distinction we now understand since the returne of Reason to us to be but a meer vaporous Fancy a grosse Bull a very absurd Juggle invented by state Empericks to cheat silly people into disorder and disobedience And we are confident if we shall now goe about to pay them the interest of this their distinction and make it good upon themselves as indeed we ought to endeavour for in such a case onely it may goe for currant themselves would be directly of our opinion Should we but tell them that we consider of them two wayes in a Politick and in a Naturall capacity As they are in the first we honour and worship them we love them and regard them as they are members of the Body Politick Representative but by their favours in their naturall Capacity as they are men we intend to order and handle them as Rebels Traytors parricides fratricides thieves and murderers use to be dealt withall even according to Law and Justice and the due desert of their owne merits let them aske their own hearts whether in such a case and at such a time they will readily approve of it But hereby as we were saying they began to raise Forces in the name of King and Parliament and under that stile or rather Contradiction Commissions are issued Souldiers are levied and Taxes of divers sorts and unheard-of names imposed upon us the Kings Subjects to fight against and oppresse our King as we now perceive and to take His Regall power directly from Him for they are not ashamed now to publish in plain English before all the world that this Warre was undertaken to wrest the Militia and Legislative power from the King and His Posterity In the 64. pag. of their late Declaration against the Scots or concerning the Papers of the Scots Commissioners their words to this purpose are these The Kingdome of Scotland say they ingaged wiâ—h us in this war upon these Principles viz. for to have the Legislative power and the exercise of the Militia without and against the Kings consent If the Kingdome of Scotland did engage with them on these terms and for these ends as they now tell us yet we are confident that the people of England were better instructed then to do so for they had not so learned Christ who commands to give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and not to take them away from Him We were here told of no other causes of the war then to maintain Protestant Religion established in this Church to defend the Kings Person Honour and Estate and to free Him from ill Counsellours and to preserve the Priviledges of Parliament the Laws of the Land and Liberties of the Subject and to bring Delinquents to punishment all which we were assured and that from the Pulpit too as well as from the Parliament and the Presse were lawfull causes for a War though now we see how we were abused in that also for Christian verity gives warrant to none of them unlesse withall we have the call and allowance of the Supream Authority Yea and besides how many times did these Declarers protest before all the world that it was not in their thoughts to loosen the reines of Government or to diminish any of the Kings rights no we professe said they in the sight of Almighty God which is the strongest obligation of a Christian c. that no ill Affection to His Majesties Person no designe to the prejudice of His just Honour and Authority ingaged us to raise Forces and to take up Armes And again We professe from our very hearts and souls our Loyalty and Obedience to His Crown our readinesse and resolution to defend His Person and support His estate with our lives and fortunes to the uttermost of our powers And again oftentimes God deal so by them as they intended to make Him terrible to His Enemies abroad and glorious among His friends at home c. And yet now they tell the world after all this that they ingaged at the very first in this War to have the Legislative power and the exercise of the Militia without and against the Kings consent and they say the Scots ingaged with them herein which we scarce believe for we know the Scots are too politick and wise a Nation then not to foresee their own damage if the Legislative power and the Militia of this Kingdome should be wrested out of the hands of the King their Country-man and Soveraign and put solely into the hands of those who have no such relations or Affections to them And beside the Scots Commissioners had said as these their opposers do alleage in the same page that they were obliged by their Covenant Allegiance and Duty of Subjects not to diminish but to support the Kings just Power and Greatnesse and therefore we have reason to believe they did not intend the Contrary at the beginning and the rather because these men say they did whom we never yet found true in any thing Indeed in Answer to that of the Scots Commissioners they affirm though without proof or reason that the King Contrary to His Oath had diminished the just Priviledges of Parliament and Liberties of the Subjects and how say they can He that breaks down the hedge complain of incroachment upon His severall so that the Kings pretended incroachment on them is now become a warrant for them to incroach really upon Him and to take away all His Kingly power from Him only because by their own sole testimony He had made a diminution of somewhat that belonged to them This is good Parliament Divinity as the world goes in these daies fetched sure out of
the Turks Alchoran or else from among the Savage Heathens in New England for no Protestant no true Christian nor no Parliament before this did ever allow or connive at it much lesse urge or alleage it to warrant themselves in the practice of it But we cannot passe by without observation how they prove their fore-mentioned Charge against the Scots in the same page Some of these very Commissioners say they were amongst the forwardest to ingage the Kingdoms in a joynt War upon the Principles fore-named viz. to exercise the Legislative power and Militia without and against the Kings consent also in Oaths and Covenants to be imposed on both Kingdoms in Taxes to raise Mony upon them taking away the Book of Common Prayer and establishing the Directory instead thereof and in divers other things wherein the highest exercise of the Legislative power doth consist These be their Arguments whereby they speak themselves to be as bad Logitians as they are Christians Their doings since they began are alleaged as Reasons to prove why they began and their unjust Actions in their progresse are made the grounds and warrants of and for their ungodly undertaking But did any of those Oaths and Covenants which were imposed on both or either of the Kingdoms mention the cause of the war or of peoples ingagement to be for to take the Legislative power and the Militia totally from the King and to have it exercised without and against His consent if any such matters had been expressed we are very confident they would have had but few either English or Scots joyning in Covenant with them or lending their Assistance But in pag. 66. of the same Declaration they would fain suggest that though there be no Reason yet there is some likelyhood of Reasonablenesse in this their injustice and wrongfull dealings in taking the Legislative Power and Militia from the King for they argue thus It is much more likely say they that a King should be mistaken then the Great Councell of the Kingdom and that a King should stop that which is for the good of the whole Kingdome then that the whole Kingdome represented in Parliament should desire what should be for their own hurt And 't is much more likely that a King should make use of one of His Kingdoms to oppresse another that He might make Himself absolute over all if He hath the Militia and Power in His hand then that He should with the same hinder one Kingdome to wrong another or all the Subjects of a Kingdome to wrong themselves We do very well remember that many of us the Common people of England were befooled with these their likelyhoods at the beginning for they used these very expressions then unto us but we can now answer them from our own experience better then we could at that time do and we say 't is much more certain that a King hath been is and will be much more tender of the bloud of His Subjects much more indulgent of the wealth of His people much more carefull to maintain and preserve them in their Rights and to keep them from oppressing one another then those are or have been who now call themselves the Great Councell of the Kingdome We are sure there are more of a Parents bowels in Him for we have felt them then there is of Brotherly affection in them towards us which we have had some feeling of too though to our grief and sorrow And therefore we can and must conclude that the Subjects are far more happy every way and free from being oppressed by one another under the fatherly Government of a King then under the tyranous usurpation of fellow-subjects for we now remember that God hath promised in express words to guide the King so that his lips shall not transgresse in Iudgment but we find no such promise made to a Parliament that resolves to act without and against their Kings consent we know that Scripture saith the Kings heart is in Gods hand and from thence we now believe it was that His Government was so just and gentle but the Actions and behaviours of these men hath fully perswaded us that their Hearts be in the Devils hand whereby it hath come to passe that their purposes and their practices have been so bloudy so mischievous and so destructive And yet these men supposing as it seems that we are all as bruit Beasts in respect of themselves having no understanding at all but must submit still to be held in with their Bits and Bridles do declare that the Militia is the foundation of security to them and to their posterity as if we were all bound to believe and had reason for it that their blessed selves and their precious posterity were rather to be secured and preserved thereby then the King and His and in page 70. they argue as Rabsaketh did from their successe that God favoured their unrighteous doings and was even such another as themselves directly of their opinion the dispute say they concerning the Militia hath been long and sadly debated both in black and red letters but God himself hath now given the verdict on our side And in the very same place they tell all us English-men as if the Militia had never yet been in His Majesties hand or we had quite forgotten our freedome happinesse and prosperity under Kingly Government that our Magna Charta our Courts of Iustice our High Court of Parliament it self our Lives Liberties and Estates that we are not all at the will of one man that the King cannot make Laws nor raise Monies without consent of Parliament and that all Offenders may be punished in Courts of Iustice all this say they signifies nothing at all to us if the Militia by Sea and Land be in the King alone we are all absolute slaves and by so much in a worse Condition because we think our selves at Liberty All this of theirs doth but shew us what opinion they have of us for our giving so much credit to them heretofore But truly we shall deserve to be their absolute slaves for ever as they would have us and to be branded to all posterity for absolute fools too and for the rankest Cowards that ever were if this their Language were there nothing else should not fill us up with high disdain against them and make us resolve never to desist till we have made them know both themselves and us better And to awaken our spirits more yet let us hear what they say further in the same place to our conceived simplicities How ridiculous say they are those Laws which may be violated by force and by force not be defended who hath violated our Laws by force but themselves and who hath been the defender of them but the King whose Laws they are And what a mock Authority say they is that of Courts of Iustice and of the High Court of Parliament it self if it be not accompanied with the power of the sword when by
should be corrected And the disturbers of our peace being taken down or removed from us let 's then call to minde that we are all of the same Nation and were partakers of the same Baptisme and therefore ought to lay aside that which presseth down or hardneth our Hearts against one another to put away what ever hindreth from closing together in affections it may suffice that we have played the fools hitherto gone astray and quarrell'd all this while for we know not what we must now remember whence we have fallen and return to our first Love to our bounden duty our Soveraign like the Prodigalls Father as appears by his many gratious Messages is inclined to receive us the Church like a tender hearted Mother that cannot forget the children of her wombe will upon our repentance be ready to pardon us and to solicite our Heavenly Father for us Those that have suffered wrong must be disposed to forgive those that have done wrong must be willing to restore what they have unjustly seized upon that so all impediments to Heaven and Peace may be removed and we no more return to folly And lastly that there may be a well grounded peace indeed betwixt the two Nations of England and Scotland and that we may live together as Brethren ought to doe let those of that Kirk who are yet so zealous for their Covenant that they would have it forc'd upon their Soverain the people of this Kingdom as if it were the very foundation of Christian Religion and as necessary as the Gospel it selfe Let them be pleased to consider calmely and seriously how little of Gods blessing both they and we have had since the first birth of it how the Reformation so much talked on hath been obstructed How the Protestant profession formerly planted hath been defaced How the Enemy of that and mankinde hath sowen the tares of false Doctrine since to promote the Covenant so many of the Clergy have omitted to walke in those wayes of peace humility and obedience which Gods word prescribeth How much contention and bloodshed hath been caused how many Sects and Heresies have sprung up How much blasphemy hath been vented what strange perversenesse of spirit and unreverent language hath been used against Soveraigne Majesty what little manners hath been shewne unto superiors what occasions sought to quarrel with them what catching at their words what wresting and mis-interpreting of their writings and sayings and all as hath appeared out of zeal unto the Covenant O that they would please to consider of these things and withall to remember that Christianity commands morality and to give to every men his due fear to whom fear and honour to whom honour belongeth it requires singlenesse of heart injoynes to us deny our selves to please others that they would hereupon desist to pursue with such heat their owne fancy they knowing it to be point-blanke against an Act of their Parliament 1585. which utterly prohibits all Leagues Covenants or bands whatsoever without the Kings consent And that they would also take notice how inconsistent their said Covenant is with the constitution and temper of this our Kingdome How 't is not only broken but derided and scorned at now by many of those who were at first very furious for it In a word that they would beleeve the English Nation in generall doth as little like of what is put upon them by the Scots as the Scots did of what was sent unto them from the English to speake plainly and truely we have generally as little affection to their Covenant as they had when time was to our Booke of Common-Prayer and shall as ill digest it Nor indeed are the English Nobility and Gentry so weake spirited as those of Scotland may appear to be in letting their Clergy the chief promoters of the Covenant under pretence of that to act the Pope among them by obstructing the progresse of Civill affaires and meddling in State matters Should our Church-men as those there have lately done put in bars against the Kings settling or say that themselves must have satisfaction before the King be restored to the exercise of His Regall power with what disdaine would our right Nobility and true Gentry yea and well instructed Commonalty too receive the same they would reply upon them in this sort and say what warrant have you from Gods word to speake after this manner you that should by your office and Ministry be teachers and patterns to all of humility and obedience will you Lord it and that not onely over Gods flock but over his Shepheard too his Supreame of all must not He injoy His owne right His place His Inheritance nor exercise that power which God hath committed to Him without your leave much lesse shall any of us shortly that are inferiour to Him command over our owne possessions without your allowance if we listen to you in this thing surely you take too much upon you ye sons of Levi they are the Kings of the Earth saies your Master Christ that are to exercise Authority over men and by your favour over the Clergy too and not the Clergy over Kings if you are for that sport goe pack to Rome among your fellows Thus should we in England be answered and put off with due rebukes if we should be so drawne away from Scripture and from duty by a Scotish Covenant And therefore it would be good if those in that Kingdome who are still such zelots for it would please in coole blood to consider of it and according to the Apostles councell study quietnesse minde their owne businesse and as Solomon adviseth leane no more to their owne understanding Idolize no longer their own devices press no further their own inventions rather let them and we as becomes members of one Christ and Subjects of one King conjoyne first in restoring our Soveraigne to His Throne and power and then in begging of Him that a Generall Councell or Assembly may be call'd of the most Learned peaceable and grave men in all his Kingdomes to argue with meeknesse as becomes the Gospel the cases of difference that are amongst us And to their determinations ratified by the King let us all submit with ready hearts and humble minds So shall the lustre and Honour of our Protestant profession be recovered which by these unhappy jars hath been defaced the peace of many Consciences shall be setled Sects Heresies and False Doctrines shall be suppressed tranquility light and love shall be again restored to the people of both Nations And we if we are the happy instruments of this shall hereby increase our Comfort Crowne and Glory Now the God of all Grace poure upon us all his Spirit of Grace to worke up our Spirits to an holy frame and Christian temper Amen Amen FINIS The Earles of Dorset and Southampton
Propositions and Bills for the setling of a safe and well grounded Peace which are speedily to be communicated to the Commissioners of the Kingdom of Scotland do resolve after mutuall agreement of both Kingdoms to present them with all speed to Your Majesty Gray of Wark Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore William Lenthall Speaker of the House of Commons Westminster the 25. December 1645. WE have read of a proud Pope that made His Lord the Emperour seeking for a Treaty with Him wait three daies before he would grant it but never till this Age was it heard or read that Humble and Loyall Subjects as these men call themselves did force their Soveraigne to wait twenty daies for an Answer to a like request and then return Him a flat deniall But His majesty had been too long and too well acquainted with this perversenesse of theirs and being in His measure like Him whose Vicegerent He is of great patience and long-suffering passeth by again this their unreverend Carriage and demeanour towards Him without any expostulation about the same being ever carefull to shun and avoid what might in likelyhood hinder His pious designe of obtaining Peace unto his people and therefore presseth again His last motion in his third Message for a personall Treaty in these words His Majesties fourth Message CHARLS R. ALthough the Message sent by Sir Peter Killegrew may justly require an expostulatory Answer yet His Majesty laies that aside as not so proper for His present Endevours leaving all the World to judge whether His Proposition for a Personall Treaty or the flat deniall of a safe Conduct for Persons to begin a Treaty be greater signes of a reall Intention to Peace and shall now onely insist upon His former Message of the 26 of this December That upon His repair to Westminster He doubts not but so to joyne His Endeavours with His two Houses of Parliament as to give just satisfaction not onely concerning the businesse of Ireland but also for the setling of a way for the payment of the Publike Debts as well to the Scots and to the City of London as others And as already He hath shewn a fair way for the setling of the Militia so He shall carefully Endeavour in all other Particulars that none shall have cause to complain for want of security whereby just Jealousies may arise to hinder the continuance of the desired Peace And certainly this Proposition of a Personall Treaty could never have entred into His Majesties Thoughts if He had not resolved to make apparent to all the World that the Publike good and Peace of this Kingdom is farre dearer to Him then the respect of any particular Interest Wherefore none can oppose this Motion without a manifest demonstration that He particularly envies His Majesty should be the chief Author in so blessed a Work besides the declaring Himself a direct opposer of the happy Peace of these Nations To conclude whosoever will not be ashamed that His fair and specious Protestations should be brought to a true and Publike Test and those who have a reall sence and doe truely commiserate the miseries of their bleeding Countrey let them speedily and cheerfully embrace His Majesties Proposition for His Personall Treaty at Westminster which by the blessing of God will undoubtedly to these now distracted Kingdomes restore the happinesse of a long wisht for and lasting Peace Given at the Court at Oxford the 29 day of December 1645. For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be Communicated to the two Houses of Parlialiament at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland THis Message as it seems was very unpleasing and spake the King very troublesome in being so importunate for Peace and to come amongst them whose presence next to that of God would be the greatest torment to them Wherefore to let him know that Ambassadors for Peace are never welcome but to those that love it and to give him a guesse what Himselfe should find if He came within their reach they kept His Messenger as their Prisoner and returned silence to His Message hereupon His Majesty having waited their Leasure full twenty daies longer viz. from Dec. 26. to Ian. 15. and hearing no news of either sends to inquire after His Trumpet and withall moves again to the same purpose as before inlarging His offers for what He desires and recedes further yet from His owne Rights for His Peoples quiet in these words His Majesties fifth Message CHARLS R. BUt that these are times wherein nothing is strange it were a thing much to be marvailed at what should cause this unparalell'd long detention of His Majesties Trumpet sent with His Gracious Message of the 26 of December last Peace being the only Subject of it and His Majesties Personall Treaty the means proposed for it And it were almost as great a wonder that His Majesty should be so long from inquiring after it if that the hourly expectation thereof had not in some measure satisfied His Impatience But let His Majesty by His long silence should condemn Himself of Carelesnesse in that which so much concerns the good of all His People He thinks it high time to inquire after His said Trumpeter For since all men who pretend any goodness must desire Peace and that all men know Treaties to be the best and most Christian way to procure it and there being as little question that His Majesties Personal Presence in it is the likeliest way to bring it to a happy Issue He judges there must be some strange variety of accidents which causeth this most tedious delay wherefore His Majesty earnestly desires to have a speedy Account of His former Message the subject whereof is Peace and the means His Personall presence at Westminster where the Government of the Church being setled as it was in the times of the happy and glorious Reigns of Queen Elizabeth and King Iames and full Liberty for the ease of their Consciences who will not communicate in that Service established by Law and likewise for the free and publike use of the Directory prescribed and by Command of the two Houses of Parliament now practised in some parts of the City of London to such as shall desire to use the same and all Forces being agreed to be Disbanded His Majesty will then forthwith as He hath in His Message of the 29 of December last already offered joyn with His two Houses of Parliament in setling some way for the payment of the publike Debts to His Scots Subjects the City of London and others And His Majesty having proposed a fair way for the setling of the Militia which now by this long delay seems not to be thought sufficient security His Majesty to shew how really He will imploy Himself at His coming to Westminster for making this a lasting Peace and taking away all jealousies how groundlesse soever will endeavour upon debate with His two Houses so to