and to devise a prevention of this three years confirmation lest they should feel the lash so long and be kept under worse then an Aegyptian Bondage and in order to this they began to find fault as there was cause at the Presbyterians ill usage of the King for they indeed were His chief Tormenters at Holdenby Master Marshall and his fellow-Minister being then also of that faction because at that time it was the most prevailing they exclaimed on them for handling His Majesty so hardly in keeping Him as a Prisoner denying Him the freedome of His Conscience and service of His Chaplains they remembred also with much regret of spirit as then seemed the wicked tenents of Buchanan Knox and others the erectors and propugnators of the Presbyterian Discipline in Scotland about excommunicating deposing arraigning and killing Princes and their practices against Iames his Grand-mother his Mother and himself in his Infancy and they did plainly observe as themselves said by the carriages of these Presbyterians towards His Majesty at this present that they resolved to tread in the same steps as their predecessours had done before notwithstanding their so many solemn professions and protestations to the Contrary And hereupon they said they thought it their duty according to their first ingagement in this war to bring the King to His Parliament with Safety and Honour that He might injoy the just rights of His Crown as well as of His Conscience largely promising and protesting to be instruments of the same to the content of His Majesty and the whole Kingdome and upon these pretences the King was delivered by them from that particular thraldome at Holdenby And afterward brought with the applause and joy of His people to His Manour of Hampton where His Servants and Chaplains at first were allowed accesse to Him and many of His Subjects permitted to glad their hearts with the sight of Him And this gleame of prosperity blazed well till the Houses were thinned of the chief Heads of the contrary faction for in very deed all this was done to another end then was pretended and ordered by other Councels then yet appeared it being the nature of some men to envy that any should be more injurious then themselves or have a greater hand in acting evill then they There were in the Houses and elswhere some Grandees as they are since called that were ambitious of ingrossing the sole power over King and Kingdom which others as yet had as large a share in managing of if not a larger then themselves to exclude whom they made use of the Independent humour in the inferiour Officers and Souldiers layed the plot for them in that manner as it was acted secretly provoked them to the undertaking and countenanced them in it when it was done by pretending to be of their Religion clouding their maine Designe all the while from the body of the Army whom they set a work to make certaine Proposals partly in their owne behalf and partly tending to those things which had been promised to the King while themselves in the interim were dressing or making ready to act the very same part which those they disliked had done before and had been thus intermitted for a season till those others were ejected or cast over-board for the very same Propositions in Effect that had formerly assaulted His Majesty at Newcastle and were answered by Him from Holdenby as we have seen are to renew His trouble remitted to Him which His Majesty returns Answer unto in these words His Majesties seventeenth Message His Majesties most gracious Answer to the Propositions presented to Him at Hampton-Court CHARLS R. HIs Majesty cannot chuse but be passionately sensible as He believes all His good Subjects are of the late great distractions and still languishing and unsetled state of this Kingdome and He calls God to witnesse and is willing to give testimony to all the world of His readinesse to contribute His utmost endevours for restoring it to a happy and flourishing condition His Majesty having perused the Propositions now brought to Him finds them the same in effect which were offered to Him at Newcastle To some of which as He could not then consent without violation of His Conscience and Honour So neither can He agree to others now conceiving them in many respects more disagreeable to the present condition of affairs then when they were formerly presented unto Him as being destructive to the main principall Interests of the Army and of all those whose Affections concur with them And His Majesty having seen the Proposals of the Army to the Commissioners from His two Houses residing with them and with them to be treated on in order to the clearing and securing of the Rights and Liberties of the Kingdome and the setling of a just and lasting Peace To which Proposals as He conceives His two Houses not to be strangers So He believes they will think with Him that they much more conduce to the satisfaction of all Interests and may be a fitter foundation for a lasting Peace then the Propositions which at this time are tendred unto Him He therefore propounds as the best way in His judgment in order to a Peace That His two Houses would instantly take into consideration those Proposals upon which there may be a Personall Treaty with His Majesty and upon such other Propositions as his Majesty shal make hoping that the said Propositions may be so moderated in the said Treaty as to render them the more capable of his Majesties full concession Wherein He resolves to give full satisfaction to His people for whatsoever shall concern the setling of the Protestant Profession with liberty to tender Consciences and the securing of the Laws Liberties and Properties of all His Subjects and the just Priviledges of Parliaments for the future and likewise by His present deportment in this Treaty He will make the world clearly judge of his intentions in matters of future Government In which Treaty His Majesty will be well pleased if it be thought fit that Commissioners from the Army whose the Proposals are may likewise be admitted His Majesty therefore conjures his two Houses of Parliament by the duty they owe to God and his Majesty their King and by the bowels of compassion they have to their fellow-subjects both for the relief of their present sufferings to prevent future miseries that they will forthwith accept of this his Majesties Offer whereby the joyfull newes of Peace may be restored to this distressed Kingdome And for what concerns the Kingdome of Scotland mentioned in the Propositions his Majesty will very willingly Treat upon those particulars with the Scotch Commissioners and doubts not but to give reasonable satisfaction to that his Kingdome At Hampton-court the 9. of Septemb. 1647. For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated c. It appeares by this Message of His Majestie and more fully by the Propositions themselves which it relates unto that
and published to our view if any of His people can read or heare the same without melting hearts and yearning bowels towards their King and inflamed spirits against these tormenters of Him assuredly they may be suspected to have nothing of Christ or goodnesse in them The Kings Declaration from Carisbrook-Castle Jan. 18. 1647. To all my people of whatsoever Nation Quality or Condition AM I thus laid aside and must I not speak for my selfe No! I will speak and that to all my People which I would have rather done by the way of my two Houses of Parliament but that there is a publike Order neither to make addresses to or receive Message from me and who but you can be judge of the differences betwixt Me and my two Houses I know none else for I am sure you it is who will enjoy the happinesse or feel the misery of good or ill Government And we all pretend who should run fastest to serve you without having a regard at least in the first place to particular Interests And therefore I desire you to consider the state I am and have bin in this long time and whether my Actions have more tended to the Publick or my owne particular good for whosoever will look upon me barely as I am Man without that liberty which the meanest of my Subjects enjoyes of going whither and conversing with whom I will As a Husband and Father without the comfort of my Wife and Children or lastly as a King without the least shew of Authority or Power to protect my distressed Subjects Must conclude me not only void of all Naturall Affection but also to want common understanding if I should not most cheerfully embrace the readiest way to the settlement of these distracted Kingdoms As also on the other side doe but consider the forme and draught of the Bils lately presented unto me and as they are the conditions of a Treaty ye will conclude that the same spirit which hath still been able to frustrate all my sincere and constant endeavours for Peace hath had a powerfull influence on this Message for though I was ready to grant the substance and comply with what they seeme to desire yet as they had framed it I could not agree thereunto without deeply wounding my Conscience and Honour and betraying the trust reposed in me by abandoning my People to the Arbitrary and Vnlimited Power of the two Houses for ever for the leavying and maintaining of Land or Sea Forces without distinction of quality or limitation for Mony taxes And if I could have passed them in termes how unheard-of a condition were it for a Treaty to grant before-hand the most considerable part of the subject matter How ineffectuall were that debate like to prove wherein the most potent Party had nothing of moment left to aske and the other nothing more to give So consequently how hopelesse of mutuall complyance Without which a settlement is impossible Besides if after my concessions the two Houses should insist on those things from which I cannot depart how desperate would the condition of these Kingdomes be when the most proper and approved remedy should become ineffectuall Being therefore fully resolved that I could neither in Conscience Honour or Prudâ—nce passe those foure Bâ—ls I onely endeavour'd to make the Reasons and Justice of my Denyall appeare to all the world as they doe to Me intending to give as little dis-satisfaction to the two Houses of Parliament without betraying my own Cause as the matter would beare I was desirous to give my Answer of the 28. of December last to the Commissioners Sealed as I had done others heretofore and sometimes at the desire of the Commissioners chiefly because when my Messages or Answers were publickly known before they were read in the Houses prejudiciall interpretations were forced on them much differing and sometimes contrary to my meaning For example my Answer from Hampton-court was accused of dividing the two Nations because I promised to give satâ—sfaction to the Scots in all things concerning that Kingdome And this last suffers in a contrary sense by making me intend to interest Scotland in the Lawes of this Kingdome then which nothing was nor is further from my thoughts because I took notice of the Scots Commissioners protesting against the Bils and Propositions as contrary to the interests and engagements of the two Kingdomes Indeed if I had not mentioned their dissent an Objection not without some probability might have been made against me both in respect the Scots are much concern'd in the Bill for the Militia and in severall other Propositions and my silence might with some Justice have seemed to approve of it But the Commissioners refusing to receive my Answer Sealed I upon the engagement of their and the Governors Honour that no other use should be made or notice taken of it then as if it had not been seen read and delivered it open unto them Whereupon what hath since passed either by the Governour in discharging most of my Servants redoubling the Guards and restraining me of my former liberty and all this as himselfe confest meerly out of his owne dislike of my Answer notwithstanding his before said Engagement or afterwards by the two Houses as the Governour affirmes in confining me within the circuit of this Castle I appeale to God and the World whether my said Answer deserved the reply of such proceedings besides the unlawfulnesse for Subjects to imprison their King That by the permission of Almighty God I am reduced to this sad condition as I no way repine so I am not without hope but that the same God will in due time convert these Afflictions into my advantage in the meane time I am confident to beare these crosses with patience and a great equality of Minde but by what meanes or occasion I am come to this Relapse in my Affaires I am utterly to seek especially when I consider that I have sacrificed to my two Houses of Parliament for the Peace of the Kingdome all but what is much more deare to me then my Life My Conscience and Honour desiring nothing more then to performe it in the most proper and naturall way A Personall Treaty But that which makes me most at a losse is the remembring my signall complyance with the Army and their interests and of what importance my Complyance was to them and their often repeated Professions and Ingagements for my just Rights in generall at Newmarket and S. Albans and their particular explanation of those generals by their Voted and Re-voted Proposals which I had reason to understand should be the utmost extremity would be expected from me and that in some things therein I should be eased herein appealing to the Consciences of some of the chiefest Officers in the Army if what I have said be not punctually true and how I have failed of their expectations or my professions to them I challenge them and the whole World to produce the least colour
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
might reigne over us and will they lay down their Rule Authority and Power surely no and yet this they must be forced to do before the Kingdome will ere be setled But how will they settle this Kingdom without the King even as they have setled Ireland they would never be quiet as you all know till the management of the war there which themselves also as is now believed had an hand in raising might be wholly in their hands with exclusion of His Majesty whom God hath appointed and too many of you the people in the simplicity of your spirits were for them against your Soveraign and desired that the Parliament without the King might take order for that Businesse and now you understand too plainly how well they have ordered the same these two last years in speciall while they had nothing else to mind and have kept so many lazy Officers and Souldiers to burden and oppresse you O how do the poor neglected and straved Soldiery in that lost Kingdom as well as the ruinated Protestants there pour forth now their deserved execrations and curses against these deceitfull and false-hearted men How are they now brought to beleeve and forced to confesse that none is nor was so tenderly affected towards them as the King and that Gods blessing will not concur with any endeavours there till they be managed againe by Him whom God hath intrusted O remember Ireland remember Ireland Happy may you be yet once againe in this Kingdom if the miseries which have been felt in that since these new Masters tooke upon them to be the sole disposers of affaires there may make you wary O take heed therefore in due time you do not beleeve them when they say they will settle the Peace of this Kingdom without the King Againe they promised to set up Iesus Christ in the Throne of his Kingdome but they meant themselves onely in the Throne of this for do you not see how they have gone about it and how far they have advanc'd their worke in 7. years Have they not imprisoned turned out of Gods Vineyard the most faithfull and painfull Labourers forbidden them to preach in that name or to publish that truth which this Church professeth and themselves protested to maintaine How many Congregations at this present want Pastors in this famous City and how many thousand Parishes are destitute in the Countries of right teaching now for what cause is all this why are Gods Prophets thus knocked off from their imployments wherefore are they inhibited the doing of their duties is it for any thing else then because they inveigh against that wickednesse which God abhorreth are they not for this sole reason said to be enemies to the Parliament to preach against that why do they not say in plaine termes the Parliament cannot sin or that sin and that are all one and must not be reproved or else having nothing else to lay to their charge why do not they suffer Gods Messengers to declare their Ambassage or if they will not so let them at least discover themselves as openly in this at they have done in other particulars for though they said as first they tooke up Armes to remove ill Councellors and to bring Delinquents to punishment yet now they can speake out and say it was to wrest the Legislative power and Militia out of His Majesties Hand and though they promised at first to make the King MOST GLORIOUS yet now they blush not to proclaime we will not have this man to reigne over us we will make no more addresses to Him we will exercise Authority without Him and against Him So though they promised at first to set up Christ in His Throne let them now tell us in plaine English also that they meane to thrust Him and all that truely professe Him according to the right Doctrine of the Gospel out of this Land for this is the very language of all their Actions Againe they pretended great Emnity unto Popish Doctrines and Tenents and Episcopacy was pull'd down out of zeale against Popery as if that had been a friend unto it With what clamours did they represent unto the people Secretary Windebanks intercourse with Iesuites and Popish Priests and the Bishops Chaplaines licencing of Books supposed to be Popish and yet these very men have permitted Mabbot the allowed Broaker of all these venemous scriblings to Authorize the Printing a booke of Parsons the Iesuite full of the most Popish and Treasonable positions that were ever vented for very good Doctrine nay more then this have they not contributed 30. l. toward the charge of Printing the same when after its publication it was told them by some that the said booke had been condemned by Parliament in the 35. of Queen Elizabeth and that the Printer thereof was Hang'd drawne and quarter'd for the same that it was then enacted that whosoever should have it in their house should be guilty of high Treason when all this was related to some of the Committee of Examinations did they not stop their eares at it did they not slight those that thus spake unto them their owne Consciences know all this to be true and that we are able to prove it before the World yet these be the men forsooth that hate Popery This Popish Booke which we speake of was at first published Anno 1524. under the name of Dolman and intituled a conference about the succession of the Crowne it consists of two parts whereof the first conteines a discourse of a Civill Lawyer How and in what manner propinquity of blood is to be preferred it is divided into 9. Chapters all which this blessed Reforming Parliament hath now published under the Title of Severall speeches delivered at a conference concerning the power of Parliaments to proceed against their King for misgovernment they were all Answered as they are in the Iesuites booke by Sir Iohn Haward Doctor of the Civill Law in the year 1603. and Dedicated to King Iames which Answer is common in Booksellers shops to be still sold. Now there is no difference betwixt this book published by this Parliament and that of the Iesuite condemned by that other An. 35. Eliz. but onely this when the Iesuite mentions the Apostles He addes the word Saint to their names S. Iohn S. Iames S. Peter which the Author of this new Edition leaves out and saies plaine Iohn Iames and Peter and perhaps in some places the word Parliament is put instead of the word Pope or people nay the variation is so little that it speakes the publisher a very weake man and those that set him on work none of the wisest in imploying so simple an Animall in a businesse of so great concernment we shall instance but in one passage Old Dolman or Parsons had said in the year 1594. that many were then living in England who had seen the severall Coronations of King Edw. the 6. Queen Mary and Queen Eliz. and could witnesse
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
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
prevent any accident that may happen to hinder His Majesties Resolution of leaving the manageing of the businesse of Ireland wholly to the two Houses and to make no Peace there but with their consent which in case it shall please God to blesse His endevours in the Treaty with successe His Majesty doth hereby engage Himself to do And for a further explanation of His Majesties Intentions in His former Messages He doth now Declare That if His Personall repair to London as aforesaid shall be admitted and a Peace thereon shall ensue He will then leave the nomination of the Persons to be intrusted with the Militia wholly to His two Houses with such power and limitations as are expressed in the Paper delivered by His Majesties Commissioners at Uxbridge the 6. of Febr. 1644. for the terme of Seven years as hath been desired to begin immediately after the conclusion of the Peace the disbanding of all Forces on both sides and the dismantling of the Garrisons erected since these present Troubles so as at the expiration of the time before mentioned the power of the Militia shall entirely revert and remain as before And for their further security His Majesty the Peace succeeding will be content that pro hâc vice the two Houses shall nominate the Admirall Officers of State and Judges to hold their places during life or quâm diu se bene gesserint which shall be best liked to be accomptable to none but the King and the two Houses of Parliament As for matter of Religion His Majesty doth further Declare That by the liberty offered in his Message of the 15. present for the ease of their Consciences who will not communicate in the Service already established by Act of Parliament in this Kingdom He intends that all other Protestants behaving themselves peaceably in and towards the Civill Government shall have the free exercise of their Religion according to their own way And for the totall removing of all Fears and Jealousies His Majesty is willing to agree That upon the conclusion of Peace there shall be a generall Act of Oblivion and Free Pardon past by Acts of Parliaments in both his Kingdoms respectively And lest it should be imagined that in the making these Propositions his Majesties Kingdom of Scotland and his Subjects there have been forgotten or neglected his Majesty Declares That what is here mentioned touching the Militia and the naming of Officers of State and Judges shall likewise extend to his Kingdom of Scotland And now his Majesty having so fully and clearly expressed his Intentions and desires of making a happy and wel-grounded Peace if any person shall decline that happâ—nesse by opposing of so apparent a way of attaining it he will sufficiently demonstrate to all the world his intention and Designe can be no other then the totall subversion and change of the ancient and happy Government of this Kingdom under which the English Nation hath so long flourished Given at the Court at Oxford the 29 of Jan. 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 HIs Majesties care and pains in the former part of this Message was wholly ineffectuall to the ends intended for as if they had secretly vowed as perhaps they have to go contrary to Him and Christian Religion in every thing they took advantage from this very businesse of Ireland thus disclaimed by the King to sclaunder Him further and defame Him to which purpose they publishâ—d soon after certain Papers with this Title The Earl of Glamâ—rgans negotiations and colourable CoÌ„mitment in Ireland that thereby it might be apprehended the King like themselves had dissembled in all He had said or writ about that matter And in their late Declaration they most impudently affirm that His Majesty gave a private Commission to the said Earl commanding him to manage it with all possible secresie and it contained say they such odious and shamefull things as Himself blush'd to owne or to impart to His own Lieutenant the Earl of Ormond this they write upon their own testimony as if they had been eye and ear witnesses of the same and all the world were bound to believe them sed Deus vindex God shall judge and revenge too upon them the cause of His Anointed to whom His Gospel commands Honour and themselves have often sworn Reverence And as His Majs care in the former was ineffectual so His grace in the latter part of this Message was altogether fruitlesse for though Subjects if Subjects were they never so guilty could wish for no more then is there offered for there is Liberty for their Consciences Safety for their Persons Security for their Estates Greatnesse for their Desires and Peace to increase all and all this but for leave to let the rest of His people their fellow-Subjects as good men as themselves and much better live in peace by them yet all will not do nothing will work upon them for like Pope Boniface the 8. of that name they came in like Foxes and therefore mean to live like Lions though they die like Dogs so that Rebellion we see is a sin unpardonable like that against the Holy Ghost not because it cannot but because it will not be forgiven His Majesty after the sending this last Message of the 29. of Ianuary tarryes a moneth longer even till Feb. 28. in expectation of somewhat from them in Answer to His longing desires and then though He was apprehensive how He had by His often sending hazarded His Honour to be questioned as well as His proper interests to be divided or divorced from Him yet to declare further still to all the world that His Peoples Preservation was more dear to Him then both He doth once again in their behalf importune these men for the Blessing of Peace in these words His Majesties ninth Message CHARLES R. His Majesty needs to make no excuse though He sent no more Messages unto you for He very well knows He ought not to doe it if He either stood upon punctilio's of Honour or His own private interest the one being already call'd in question by His often sending and the other assuredly prejudg'd if a Peace be concluded from that He hath already offered He having therein departed with many of His undoubted Rights But nothing being equally dear unto him to the preservation of his people his Majesty passeth by many scruples neglects and delaies and once more desires you to give him a speedy Answer to his last Message for his Majesty believes it doth very well become him after this very long delay at last to utter his impatience since that the goods and bloud of his Subjects cries so much for Peace Given at the Court at Oxford the 26 of Febr. 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 AS Christs meekness and mighty works made his Enemies more obdurate so the Kings mildness and many Messages made these men more obstinate who are as dumb to this last as to the former And though His Majesty tells them that the Gods and bloud of His Subjects doth cry so much for Peace that He shall be forced thereâ—y to utter His impatience yet these hard-hearted men had rather hear those sad and lamentable cries then listen to these yearnings of their fathers Bowells nay and they must be call'd and accounted Patriots of their Country for all this and He who is thus tenderly affected towards it in this its bleeding Condition must be reckoned and reported the Common Enemy unto it for they are not ashamed notwithstanding these His many pantings and breathings after the Health of it to appropriate unto Him their own Tigerly dispositions and to tell the whole world in the first page of their late impudent Declaration that neither the sighs Groans tears nor crying bloud an heavy cry say they of Fathers Brothers Children and of many hundred thousand free-born Subjects at once can perswade Him to pity or Compassion Surely could Satan help them to devise worse evill then is in themselves or then they have acted to cast upon the King these His Humble and Loyal Subjects would not be so void of shame as thus to charge Him with their owne doings and Conditions Well His Majesty after He had sent this last Message waits yet another moneth for some Answer though to as little purpose as before He did but pursue the shaddow that fled from Him by seeking peace at their hands for they were resolved by slighting Him to make him desist at length from writing thus to them But behold the true Image of our most patient God in this our most Christian King who having to do with a like stif-necked and rebellious people as he of old had thinks it His duty to follow him still in the same path though with as little comfort or hopes of prevailing and hereupon sends the tenth time and offers to come and trust Himself wholly with them if He might but have their own faith and promise for the safety of His Person Honour and Estate which themselves had so solemnly protested to defend and that His friends who had done according to their Duty and Protestation might not for the same be deprived of their Liberties or estates but injoy both with a freedom of Conscience from unlawfull Oaths upon these sole Conditions He will pardon and forget all that was past on their sides giving them what security themselves can devise He will follow their advise for the good of His People rather then other mens and in a word He will grant them as much as till then they had ever desired or made pretence unto and all to procure a speedy Peace to these Afflicted Kingdoms His words are these His Majesties tenth Message CHARLS R. NOtwithstandig the unexpected silence instead of Answer to his Majesties many and gracious Messages to both Houses whereby it may appear that they desire to obtain their ends by Force rather then Treaty which may justly discourage his Majesty from any more overtures of that kind yet his Majesty conceives He shall be much wanting to His duty to God and in what He oweth to the safety of His people if He should not intend to prevent the great inconveniences that may otherwise hinder a safe and wel-grounded peace His Majesty therefore now proposeth that so He may have the faith of both Houses of Parliament for the preservation of His Honour Person and Estate and that Liberty be given to all those who do and have adhered to His Majesty to go to their own Houses and there to live peaceably enjoying their Estates all Sequestrations being taken off without being compelled to take any Oath not enjoyned by the undoubted Laws of the Kingdom or being put to any other molestation whatsoever He will immediately disband all His Forces and dismantle all His Garrisons and being accompanied with His Royall not His Martiall Attendance return to His two Houses of Parliament and there reside with them And for the better security of all His Majesties Subjects He proposeth that He with His said two Houses immediately upon His coming to Westminster will passe an Act of Oblivion and free pardon and where His Majesty will further do whatsoever they will advise Him for the good and peace of this Kingdom And as for the Kingdom of Scotland His Majesty hath made no mention of it here in regard of the great losse of time which must now be spent in expecting an Answer from thence but declares that immediately upon His comming to Westminster He will apply Himself to give them all satisfaction touching that Kingdome If His Majesty could possibly doubt the successe of this offer He could use many arguments to perswade them to it but shall only insist on that great One of giving an instant Peace to these afflicted Kingdoms Given at our Court at Oxford the 23 of March 1645. For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be Communicated to the two Houses of Parlialiament at Westminster AS God said what could I have done more for my vineyard which I have not done so may this good Prince say what could I have offered more for the Peace of my afflicted People which I have not offered These men that will accept of nothing tell the world in their lace Declaration that themselves had made Application to Him for Peace no lesse then seven times scil in seven years But the world hath now seen that His Majesty hath made Applications to them for the same thing no lesse then ten times in lesse then four moneths and in another form and stile too then theirs were to Him and not one word in Answer can He get from them yea for Peace sake He offers to venture Himself among them but they 'l none of Him He would come to His owne as they call themselves but His own will not receive Him It shall not be amisse if the world to whom the appeal is made shall call to minde in this place some few of their many former solemne professions which are directly contradicted by these their present behaviours let their Protestation or Declaration of Octob. 22. 1642. be read and therein they will finde these expressions We the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament Assembled doe in the presence of Almighty God for the satisfaction of our Consciences and discharge of that great trust which lies upon us make this Protestation and Declaration to this Kingdome and Nation and to the whole World that no private passion or respect no evill intention to His Majesties Person no designe to the prejudice of His just Honour and Authority ingaged us to raise forces and take up Armes c. And againe We professe from our very Hearts and Souls
indeed they were otherwise busied at that time even trucking to get Him into their power another way then that was which He propounded for have Him they would they were resolved on that what ere it cost them and they meant to receive Him too but not in that manner as He desired not with Safety but into safe custody from injoying his Liberty not with Honour to Him but in triumph to themselves not as their Prince but as their Prisoner even directly as the Jews at length received Christ not as the gift of his own free love but as the price of their own base mony So that His Majesty saw ere long after His sending the last Message a perfect frustration both of it and all His former and that Himself had somewhat else to do beside begging peace unto His people and Liberty of Speech unto Himself for freedome of Conscience to serve God after the legall and established way of the true Protestant English Church is now denied Him as an additionall punishment to His outward restraint which now also is layed upon Him for being so importunate for His Subjects freedome from war and pressures Holdenby is the place of His inclosement He was carried thither as Christ into the wildernesse to be tempted and kept there with as much care from spirituall food as Christ was from bodily and that not forty daies together only but above three times forty and under temptations all the while Master Marshall and his fellow Minister being chose out to act Satans part upon Him for having been so specially instrumentall in destroying the Souls of His People and in stirring them up to kill each other they were judged the fittest in the whole Legion to assault Him And all the helps to vexation and trouble that the Heads at Westminster could think upon these Tempters had for their advantage But the Spirit of God was so strong in this Royall Champion that they were not able to stand before Him nor to resist the wisdome and Learning by which He spake insomuch that as they in the Gospel were forced to confesse whether they would or no that Christ was the Son of God though before they had laboured to obscure him so were these even compelled against their own wills to acknowledge in secret among their friends that the King was a most able judicious Prince and the wisest man in all His Kingdoms clean contrary to that which they had often blattered in Pulpits against Him before the People And Master Marshall at last was so tormented with His Majesties Divinity and Reason by being so neer him that he wished to be in the Herd again his more proper place where he was likely to effect more mischief and therefore besought his Masters at Westminster to be recall'd from Holdenby or sent no more thither But though His Majesty was able enough of Himself to encounter these yet for the better exercise of His Conscience in pious duties and for the further clearing of His judgment concerning the present differences He desires to have two from out of twelve of His own Chaplains to attend upon Him which He desires His two Houses to make choice of and send to Him in these words His Majesties fourteenth Message His Majesties gracious Message to both Houses of Parliament concerning His Chaplains SInce I have never dissembled nor hid my Conscience and that I am not yet satisfied with the alteration of Religion to which you desire my consent I will not yet lose time in giving reasons which are too obvious to every body why it is fit for me to be attended by some of my Chaplains whose opinions as Clergy men I esteem and reverence not only for the exercise of my Conscience but also for clearing of my judgment concerning the present differences in Religion as I have at full declared to Master Marshall and his Fellow-Minister having shewed them that it is the best and likeliest means of giving me satisfaction which without it I cannot have in these times Whereby the distractions of this Church may be the better setled Wherefore I desire that at least two of these Reverend Divines whose names I have here set down may have free liberty to wait upon me for the discharge of their duty unto me according to their function CHARLS R. B. London B. Salisbury B. Peterborough D. Shelden Clerk of my Closet D. Marsh Deane of York D. Sanderson D. Baily D. Heywood D. Beale D. Fuller D. Hammond D. Taylor Holdenby 17. Febr. 1646. For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated c. THe matter of this Message or thing desired therein is freedome of Conscience and the necessary means to serve God according to the Doctrine and way of the English Church The Person from whom the request comes is the King of this Nation the Supreamest Defender under God upon Earth of the Protestant Faith who never denied the exercise of it to any creature And the Men to whom the same is sent are the most open Protestors that ever were for freedome and Liberty in this kind and that to all men and the most violent exclaimers against those that restrain any yea and they are such beside as call themselves His Majesties most Humble and Loyall Subjects therefore it may be thought a thing impossible that this request should not be granted specially too if we do but observe how CHARLS R. appears below submissively at the bottome now He moves for a private matter and as a Christian which is wont alway when He writes about publike and Kingly Affairs to stand above in its proper place before the beginning Oh but these are rare men they never denied themselves yet but the King ever it cannot be said to this day that they have yeilded to Him in the least particular since they there sat and should they begin now to break their old wont so they might seem to halt in their resolved course and He might haply flatter Himself too much in hoping they meant to look towards Him wherefore though all men else have leave to be of what Religion they list to worship God after what fashion they please yet He for His part shall not be suffered to have the means to serve him the true way not to heare the Doctrine of that Church which themselves as well as He were baptized into and have protested to maintain and thereupon having practised long to hold their peace to His other Messages they resolve upon silence to this also and return nothing But His Majesty being wel and too wel acquainted with such usage from their hands and being as patient as they were peevish as unwearied in good as they in evill doth in a most calm and Christian manner renew His request for the same thing seventeen daies after in these words His Majesties fifteenth Message His Majesties second Message to both Houses of Parliament concerning His Chaplains IT being now seventeen daies since I wrote
some of His own Chaplains which hath hitherto been denied Him and such other Divines as shal be most proper to inform Him therein and then He will make clearly appear both His zeal to the Protestant profession and the Union of these two Kingdoms which He conceives to be the main drift of this Covenant To the seventh and eighth Propositions His Majesty will consent To the ninth His Majesty doubts not but to give good satisfaction when He shall be particularly informed how the said penalties shall be levied and disposed of To the tenth His Majesties answer is That He hath been alwaies ready to prevent the practices of Papists and therefore is content to passe an Act of Parliament for that purpose And also that the Laws against them be duly executed His Majesty will give His consent to the Act for the due observation of the Lords Day for the suppressing of Innovations and those concerning the Preaching of Gods Word and touching Non-Residence and Pluralities and His Majesty will yeild to such Act or Acts as shall be requisite to raise monies for the payment and satisfying all publike Debts expecting also that his will be therein included As to the Proposition touching the Militia though his Majesty cannot consent unto it in terminis as it is proposed because thereby he conceives he wholly parts with the power of the Sword entrusted to him by God and the Laws of the Land for the protection and government of his people thereby at once devesting himself and dis-inheriting his Posterity of that right and prerogative of the Crowne which is absolutely necessary to the Kingly Office and so weaken Monarchy in this Kingdom that little more then the name and shadow of it will remain yet if it be only security for the preservation of the Peace of this Kingdom after the unhappy troubles and the due performance of all the agreements which are now to be concluded which is desired which his Majesty alwaies understood to be the case and hopes that herein he is not mistaken his Majesty will give aboundant satisfaction to which end he is willing by Act of Parliament That the whole power of the Militia both by Sea and Land for the space of ten years be in the hands of such persons as the two Houses shall nominate giving them power during the said term to change the said persons and substitute others in their places at pleasure and afterwards to return to the proper chanell again as it was in the times of Queen Elizabeth and King Iames of blessed memory And now His Majesty conjures His two Houses of Parliament as they are Englishmen and lovers of Peace by the duty they owe to His Majesty their King and by the bowels of compassion they have to their fellow Subjects that they wil accept of this his Majesties offer wherby the joyfull news of Peace may be restored to this languishing Kingdom His Majesty will grant the like to the Kingdome of Scotland if it be desired and agree to all things that are propounded touching the conserving of peace betwixt the two Kingdoms Touching Ireland other things being agreed His Majesty will give satisfaction therein As to the mutuall Declarations proposed to be established in both Kingdoms by Act of Parliament And the Modifications Qualifications and Branches which follow in the Propositions His Majesty only professes that He doth not sufficiently understand nor is able to reconcile many things contained in them but this He well knoweth That a generall Act of Oblivion is the best Bond of Peace and that after intestine Troubles the wisdom of this and other Kingdoms hath usually and happily in all ages granted generall Pardons whereby the numerous discontentments of many Persons and Families otherwise exposed to ruine might not become fewell to new disorders or seeds to future troubles His Majesty therefore desires that His two Houses of Parliament would seriously descend into these considerations and likewise tenderly look upon His Condition herein and the perpetuall dishonour that must cleave to Him if He shal thus abandon so many persons of Condition Fortune that have ingaged themselves with and for Him out of a sense of Duty propounds as a very acceptable testimony of their affection to Him That a generall Act of Oblivion and free Pardon be forthwith passed by Act of Parliament Touching the new great Seal His Majesty is very willing to confirm both it and all the Acts done by vertue thereof untill this present time so that it be not thereby pressed to make void those Acts of His done by vertue of His great Seal which in honour and justice He is obliged to maintain And that the future Government therof may be in his Majesty according to the due course of Law Concerning the Officers mentioned in the 19. Article His Majesty when he shall come to Westminster wil gratifie his Parliament all that possibly he may without destroying the alterations which are necessary for the Crown His Majesty wil willingly consent to the Act for the confirmation of the Priviledges and Customes of the City of London and all that is mentioned in the Propositions for their particular advantage And now that His Majesty hath thus far indeavoured to comply with the desires of His two Houses of Parliament to the end that this agreement may be firme and lasting without the least face or question of restraint to blemish the same His Majesty earnestly desires presently to be admitted to His Parliament at Westminster with that Honour which is due to their Soveraign there solemnly to confirm the same and legally to passe the Acts before mentioned and to give and receive as well satisfaction in all the remaining particulars as likewise such other pledges of mutuall love trust and confidence as shall most concern the good of him and his people upon which happy agreement his Majesty will dispatch his Directions to the Prince his Son to return immediately to him and will undertake for his ready obedience thereunto Holdenby May 12. 1647. 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 WHen our Saviour was tempted in the wildernesse He was as Saint Marke saies among the wild beasts there so was our Soveraigne as it seems at Holdenby but these were worse mannered to the King then those other were to Christ and lesse civill a great deal for these were men degenerated into Beasts which of all others are the most savage we see in the beginning of this Message with what barbarity and inhumanity they behaved themselves towards Him their Lord and Master who by Gods appointment had the just right and Dominion over them they kept His Servants from having accesse unto Him not suffering one of His owne Election to come neer Him they declared it a crime for any of mankind to converse or speak with Him to give any Letters to Him or
to receive any from Him no commerce must He have with any Creature but only such as were His tormenters and tempters subservient to them or allowed by them in brief they would not let Him be Master of those ordinary Actions which belonged to any free-born man of how mean a birth soever insomuch that His Majesty may surely say He had to do with Beasts at Holdenby in the shape of men and fought with them as Saint Paul did at Ephesus But behold for all this though they forgot themselves to be Subjects and indeed men yet He remembers Himself still to be the Father of His People and though His Condition under them might make Him silent and His usage by them might harden His heart against them and stir His spirit to plot revenge upon them and to this end to study the winding Himself out of His Troubles by indirect means and that were as Himself tells them by consenting readily to what had or should be proposed unto Him and chuse a time afterward to break all and alleage that forced Concessions are not to be kept which he is confident He might do without incurring any hard censure from indifferent men But His Majesties spirit is too Kingly and divine to practice according to such maximes for though indeed no compulsions or violence shall be able to wrest from Him any Concessions against Conscience or in clear reason against the good and welfare of His people yet He avows freely and cleerly that He holds it not only unlawfull but base to recede from His promises if once passed for having been obtained by force or under restraint wherefore His Majesty not only rejects all those Acts which He esteems unworthy of Him but even passeth by that point of Honour which He might well insist upon in respect of His present Condition and consents as we see so far to all their Propositions as in Conscience and Reason He conceived might possibly be done in order to His peoples welfare though to the great diminution of His own undoubted prerogative and most just rights for example He knows well and acknowledgeth as we see the power of the Sword is intrusted to Him by God and the Law to Protect and Govern His people and is absolutely necessary to the Kingly Office yet to secure the Kingdome of peace on His behalf and the performance of agreements on His part which by reason of the wrongs done Him was so much suspected He not only offers the whole power of the Militia both by Sea and Land to be in the whole disposall of the two Houses of Parliament for ten years space but also intreats them after all this their ill usage of Him and conjures them as English-men and lovers of Peace by the duty they owe Him as their King and by the Bowels of Compassion which they have to their fellow-Subjects to accept of this His offer whereby the joyfull news of Peace may be restored at length to this languishing Kingdom Nay and further as we see in this Message notwithstanding they had grieved His spirit by their unparalleld abuses and offended Him above seventy times seven times and never hitherto so much as said it repenteth us yet doth His most gracious Majesty even urge upon them for the prevention of new disorders and future troubles to accept of a pardon at His Hand for all the wrongs which they had done Him and to admit of an Act of oblivion as the best bond of peace only He would have them deny their Corruptions so far as to cease thirsting for the bloud and totall ruine of those of their Christian Brethren whom they had well nigh undone already for their love and adherence to Himself according to their duties as Gods Word the Law their Consciences Oaths of Allegeance and Protestation did command them He desires in effect that their spleens may rest satisfied with the wrongs already offered to these persons and their families lest their discontent might haply prove fewell to new dâ—sorders He would have the Act of Oblivion to include them too Yea He would have these men who indeed only need it to consent that it might reach to all the people of the Land in generall this is all He desires of them that so from henceforth we might live together like Christians and not like Heathens like savage Creatures or rather like devils any longer as alas we have done to the unspeakable disgrace of the Gospell and of our Nation since these men domineered And to the end that there might not be the least face or question of His Majesties restraint to blemish this agreement to their disadvantage in after-times He earnestly desires that Himself might presently be admitted to His two Houses after all this His complyance to perfect the same And now surely we must needs conclude that here was enough to still the Clamour of these men against their King had they not been far worse then beasts to have conquered their spirits even to everlasting But they were resolute in their way all this was nothing in their esteem for indeed the established and fundamentall Laws of the Land are so severe against such as go in those waies and courses which these have travailed so far in against the King and their fellow-subjects that they dare not trust either to his mercy or their forgivenesse be the same never so strongly confirmed unto them nor can any Act of Oblivion in their conceits be ever able to obliterate the same and therefore as if He had offered nothing at all they still cry out that His Majesty is averse to Peace and never yet pleased to accept of any Tender sit for them to make nor to offer any fit for them to receive and thei Preachers are still set a work by them to pray before the people that God would incline the Kings heart to come unto His Parliament But these men not knowing how to answer His Majesty saving their own stubborn resolutions or to say any thing to these His so large and gracious tenders they even suffer Him after their old wont to wait and to live in expectation And yet we found or at least supposed at that time that His Majesties Answer to some of these Propositions viz. to those that concerned Religion or Church Government had some effect upon the Independent party whose boyling discontents about this time began to vapour forth more furiously then before against their Presbyterian Brethren whose Government and Directory His Majesty had here promised to confirm for three years the time set down by the two Houses so that Himself and His might not be hindered thereby in serving God the old and true way now upon this the untamed Heighfers of this other faction altogether unaccustomed to the yoak having observed that their Brethrens little singer was like to prove heavier then the Bishops loynes were horribly loath to come under the sence of their Scorpions and therefore began to cast about for themselves
the Tragedie is still the same the variation is onely of the Actors not of the Scene Nor did those Pharisees desire his death and down-fall more then these Saduces doe and will endeavour to prevent His Resurrection T is the same Leven that sowres both factions and the controversie between them only is which shall be the chief or have most strength to expresse most sowrenesse But His Majesty finds a difference in the present condition of Affairs from what they were at the former presentment of these Propositions for they seemed to be totally destructive to the interests of the Army now more manifest to Him then before whom His Majesty was pleased to look on at this present not only as Subjects but as Friends and being desirous in His Princely care and equity as a common Father to give satisfaction to all His people doth as we see in His wisdome and publick affections answer accordingly and since the Army had been their Servants and Hirelings though against Himself their naturall Leige Lord yet He thinks it meet in His Fatherly Clemency not only to passe by what they had done as acts of ignorance in them but also to endeavour that they be payed their wages and to this end commends their case and Proposalls to those their Masters who had imployed them and sent these Propositions unto Him And that all parties may have content He desires againe a Personall Treaty with them for Peace whereunto He is well pleased for His part if it be thought fit as he sayes that Commissioners from the Army may also be admitted that so without more adoe a cleare open and full satisfaction might be given to all parties And sure the Soldiers as well as the rest of his abused and deluded people will find in the end that the King will prove their best friend and pay-master who in the meane time as they may observe makes Himselfe even a Petitioner in their behalfe to His two Houses whom He conjures againe as He had done oft before by the duty they owe to God to Himselfe their King and by the bowels of compassion which they have or ought to have to their fellow-subjects to give way that their present sufferings may be relieved their future miseries prevented and the joyfull newes of Peace againe restored But this request and conjuration of His Majesty at the present found no other respect with the new purged Houses then His other before had done when by their owne confessions these Houses were so filthy and uncleane indeed the purging was not compleatly done according to the Law of clensing for the Leprosie that hath so troubled us all was as now appeares spread to the very walls and stones and morter it self all which should have been taken away and other stones and morter put in the place thereof that is New Houses should have been throughly framed of new materials and so the Plague might have been quite healed which upon this default grew worse ere long then it had been before as if the evill spirit had been onely thrust out to fetch in seven more spirits worse and more wicked then himselfe for not long after His Majesty had sent this last Message or Answer He was forced back to His former Condition of Captivity He is circled with Armies watched by Soldiers yea hath strict and strange guards set and doubled upon Him and His servants that were formerly admitted excluded from Him In a word He is reduced to the same if not to a worse condition by his Deliverers at Hampton Court then that was which they pretended to free him from at Holdenby For some amongst them whisperingly threatned also his sudden destruction and to act the Assassinates part upon His Sacred Person Whereupon for the safety of His life He was forced to retire speedily and privately from that place in the night season when the weather was wet cold stormy tempestuous at which time He left this insuing Declaration behinde Him on the Table which speaks aboundantly His great wisdome and strong affections towards the Peace and Happinesse of all His People not excepting His very Enemies notwithstanding His Barbarous and Hard usage at their Hands His Majesties eighteenth Message His Majesties most Gracious Declaration left by Him on His Table at Hampton Court Novemb. 11. 1647. CHARLS R. LIberty being that which in all times hath been but especially now is the common theame and desire of all men common Reason shews that Kings lesse then any should endure captivity And yet I call God and the world to witnesse with what patience I have endured a tedious restraint which so long as I had any hopes that this sort of my suffering might conduce to the peace of my Kingdoms or the hindring of more effusion of bloud I did willingly undergoe but now finding by too certain proofs that this my continued patience would not onely turn to my personall ruine but likewise be of much more prejudice then furtherance to the publique good I thought I was bound as well by Naturall as Politicall obligations to seek my safety by retiring my self for some time from the publick view both of my friends and enemies And I appeal to all indifferent men to judge if I have not just cause to free my selfe from the hands of those who change their Principles with their condition and who are not ashamed openly to intend the destruction of the Nobility taking away their Negative Voice and with whom the Levellers doctrine is rather countenanced then punished And as for their intentions to my Person their changing and putting more strict Guards upon me with the discharging most of all those Servants of mine who formerly they willingly admitted to wait upon me does sufficiently declare Nor would I have this my retirement mis-interpreted for I shall earnestly and uncessantly endeavour the setling of a safe and well-grounded Peace where ever I am or shall be and that as much as may be without the effusion of more Christian blood for which how many times have I desired prest to be heard and yet no ear given to me And can any reasonable man think that according to the ordinary course of affaires there can be a setled Peace without it Or that God will blesse those who refuse to hear their own King Surely no. Nay I must farther adde that besides what concernes my selfe unlesse all other chief interests have not onely a hearing but likewise just satisfaction given unto them to wit the Presbyterians Independents Army those who have adhered to me and even the Scots I say there cannot I speak not of Miracles it being in my opinion a sinfull presumption in such cases to expect or trust to them be a safe or lasting Peace Now as I cannot deny but that my personall security is the urgent cause of this my retirement so I take God to witnesse that the publike Peace is no lesse before my eyes and I can finde no better way to expresse
away of Clergie maintenance the renewment of which might in prudence have been omitted by the pretenders to Christianity of these dayes for Iulians sake These be the two things which His Majesty denyes His consent unto Abolition of Church Government and Alienation of Church Revenues and his Reasons for the same are far better then any we know he can have for his yeelding those things which he offers to them whereof the first is the power of the Militia both by sea and land during his owne whole raigne which he is content shall be ordered and disposed of by His two Houses and such as they shall appoint And his Reason for this is to give an infallible evidence of His desire to secure the performance of such agreement as shall be made in order to Peace Whereby His Majesty seemes to us to speak in their phrase even to yeeld up not onely His Will and Affections but also His very Reason and Iudgement for the obtaining a good Accommodation But concerning the reality of His Majesties Desires in this particular the best of His people neither wish nor need any such evidence the security is onely doubted and desired on their parts whom we have seen and found so false and perfidious already both to the King and the whole Kingdome Nor if it were possible this proffer of His Maj. could secure us of them dare we the Christian people of this Nation whose servants they are give our consent that the Sword should be out of that Hand where God hath put it for our good for Nolumus hos regnare we are resolved on that we will never live under the tyrannie of these men The Wise-man hath said it and we have found it by wofull experience That by the raigne of servants the earth is disquieted But God hath been much our friend in this matter in hardning their hearts against this proffer which in pity to us his peeled and distressed people to purchase peace for us this our most compassionate and self-denying King was pleased to tender and we are with fervour of spirit to praise the Majesty of heaven for it it being an earnest or ground of hope that he hath yet some mercy in store for this poore Nation that He will not suffer it to lie under so heavy a guilt as the impunity of so much evill would be hazardous to bring upon it by an Act of Oblivion No no our God will have these mischievous vermine destroyed by the sword of Justice as we hope and not of Judgement and so shall the curse of God which hangs over the Land for those many blasphâ—mies against Majesty those unlawfull oathes those bloods and oppressions which have been committed in it by these men be removed from it and then the same shall enjoy rest and peace againe under the protection of her most gracious and indulgent Soveraigne And in the mean time we are to pray fervently that this our good King may still afford us his true affections and these onely but may from henceforth keep his Will his Reason and Iudgement solely to himselfe yea and his power too for we are well assured from our experience both of Him and Them that He alone is able and ready to manage all to our benefit a great deale better then any else either will or can And God we hope will encline His Majesties heart to observe his hand in this constant temper of their spirits hitherto against all His gracious offers of this nature We observe also in the next place how His Majesty takes into consideration the Arreares of their Army or the wants of those Soldiers which they the raisers of were more carefull to list then they are to pay their servants we know they were raised and imployed by them against Him and now kept together in a needy bare condition to burden His people and to keep them in continuall feare poverty and bondage even this very Army for their satisfaction and His peoples ease His Majesty offers to take care of He thinks in conscience that pay is due unto them and though they merit it not at His hands yet being resolved in His mercy and goodnesse as a Christian to pardon their fault He will like a King also in His bounty and Honor undertake their payment which none else he sees is really inclined to look after And this He will doe without any charge to any save onely to Himselfe and His owne friends May He but have His own Rents and Revenues returned to Him with some few of the Arreares together with some little part of that money which they had gotten by Sequestrations and Compositions from His owne party He will undertake that the Army in few moneths shall receive foure hundred thousand pounds and if that be not sufficient He will make up the rest by the sale of His owne Lands Nay and more then all this lest the devouring of that which is Holy should prove a snare and a fire to the greedy and bold adventurers His Majesty is willing also to take order against the damage of such persons and for the repayment of all such monies as have by them been lent upon such ingagements Nor is here all yet His Majesty is willing to endevour the reparation of His Enemies lost reputations by suppressing and nulling all Declarations and Protestations which their own due merits had most justly called forth against them and all proceedings anent any person for adhering to them And now what could these men in the judgment of Reason have desired more then was here tendred they might have had the Authority the whole command and power of the Militia they might have possessed all the wealth to themselves which they had before or have gotten lately from the whole Kingdom His Majesty would have taken the whole care of paying their debts and their Servants wages He would have wiped them also as clean as possibly He could have done from their black and hellish crimes of Rebellion oppression bloud and Treason And He would have granted further what ever else they could have asked in order to their own quiet and security would they but onely let Him come to Treat with them and suffer His poore people now at length to enjoy an ease from war and a freedom from their heavy pressures Assuredly we may conceive those words of the Prophet 2 Chr. 25.16 to be fully appliable to these men God hath even determined to destroy them because they have not hearkned to this counsell nor accepted of what was here offered to them Scripture teacheth that whom God purposeth to make the power of his justice seen upon he infatuates to slight and lose the opportunities of their own preservation Elyes sons hearkned not unto the voice of their Father because the Lord would slay them saies the Spirit God did not incline their hearts to listen unto good because he intended to cut them off for their evils And such may be thought is the
sorrow like unto his sorrow for such a cause Were there ever wrongs like unto these that are done unto our King because He will not consent to the utter undoing of us his people Assuredly never was people more wretched and accursed then we shall be and that meritoriously both of God and Men if we suffer this and doe not stand up and appeare for His deliverance For what are these men that thus tyrannize over our Soveraign and over us are they not his vassals and our fellowes nay our servâ—nts entrusted by us to manifest and present the tenders of our duty and reverence unto him and doth it not concerne us therefore to bring them to correction as the case now stands with the King for these their grosse enormities will not their impieties and exorbitancies else be laid to our charge Nay doe they not in their impudencie act all their wickednesses in our names would they not have their late defamatory Libell to be understood as the expression of our senses Doe they not call it The Declaration of the Commons scil of England as if we at least gave allowance to it or set them a work to make it When as God and our consciences doe beare us witnesse we loathe it with our very soules as the most horrid heap of the most shamelesse lies blasphemies and slanders that ever was spued up against Majesty and Innocencie by men or devils since the first Creation Nay have they not since their publication of it tempted and provoked many of the ignorant of us in divers Countries to set our Hands to Papers coyned by themselves of Gratulations to themselves for venting the same and for making those their wicked Votes against our Soveraigne the Lords Anointed Doe they not hereby plainly endeavour Satan-like to involve our soules in their owne guilt and to plunge them for ever in the same pit of damnation with themselves As if it were not enough that they have already wasted us all in our estates and wounded the consciences of too many of us by ingaging us through their false pretences of Religion Liberty and Previlege of Parliament to associate with them in this unnaturall War unlesse they doe this also And have they not menaced others of us because we refused to approve of this their late most abominable wickednesse and went about rather to move for His Majesties Liberty and restoration Have they not threatned to plunder and sequester us of all we have yet remaining if we proceeded to make any motions or requests to that purpose as if they had a spight and malice at Almighty God himselfe for opening our eyes at length and bringing us out of that darknesse wherein they had shut us and hoped alwayes to keep us and for his touching our hearts with remorse and sorrow for our former complyance with them as if also we must never dare to speak more but onely such words as they shall suggest and put into our mouthes nor to set our hands unto any thing but what they forsooth shall frame and dictate to us And is this the Freedome of the Subject so much cryed up Is this the Liberty which the people of England have so fought for Is this our so flourishing state of happinesse which was promised by our blessed Reformers Serò sapiunt phryges fooles may grow wise at length and so from henceforth shall we for ever following them any farther or being guided by them any more who by their glorious professions and protestations have seduced us already so far from the wayes of God We cannot but call to mind the proceedings of this Palliament or of this Thing which so calls it selfe being in very deed but a corrupt faction in it How at first they framed a Protestation Generall for the matter of it good we still confesse and acknowledge but the deep subtilty and intrige of it was not then apparent to us But now we consider how they did without the Kings sanction and ratification little lesse then impose it upon the whole Kingdome whereby they slily crept into a kind of unexampled authority no way belonging to them which they cunningly masked under the specious pretences of pious respects to the Protestant Religion Loyall regards to His Majesties Person and Dignity and of their serious care of the Priviledges of Parliament Properties and Liberties of the Subject no one of which as we now see by their actions was ever in their thoughts to preserve for their whole endeavours have since been and stil are to destroy and suppresse all these but hereby at first they catch'd us in their net and carryed us downe the streame with them And having thus surprised us Jealousies and Fears presently began to surprise them which also the whole Kingdome must be sensible of as if all the things to be defended by the Protestation were in some eminent danger of sodaine destruction to prevent which a Petition is framed in all haste by themselves and sent downe into all Countries to be subscribed there and sent back as the unanimous desire of the whole Kingdome that Bishops and Popish Lords who must be apprehended the conjoynt and deadly enemies to all good things contained in the Protestation might be put out of Parliament that the Kingdome might be put into a posture of defence or war against them and their Complices and the better to colour and credit the businesse we must desire in the same Petition to have a monethly fast Authorized And we well remember there was care taken at that very time lest this mistery of Iniquity that was in working should be discovered to us that the Learned Seers or watchmen of God who were most likely to to make it known should be exposed to scorne and contempt under the name of Prelaticall Scandalous and Malignant Clergie that so their Testimonies might be of no esteeme with us and a generation of men full of ignorance covetousnesse or discontents were countenanced and advanced over us as fitly instrumentall and subservient to the designe on foot which now we finde was only to ruine our King and us The Consequents of this Petition appeared soon after to be these 1. An alteration or change of military Officers the Train-Bands being committed into the hands onely of such as were called Confiding men 2. The appointment of a Guard to defend our worthies of Parliament as they were entitled And 3. An exposall of the Kings Person and Government to all possible danger and disgrace And that 1. By a most scandalous Remonstrance wherein the sins of themselves and others who had been His ill Officers were all layed to His Charge 2. By setting the Tumultuous People upon Him to drive Him from Westminster And then 3. By raising an Army to fetch Him back again as was pretended though in very deed we finde now it was to destroy Him rather We remember how they told us then that the King was amongst them in His politick Capacity whereby they had
the power of the sword it shall be opposed affronted resisted their summons scorned their Messengers kicked about the streets their Votes and Iudgments derided A mock-Authority indeed that is and a mock-Parliament too that disclaims Him from whom it self derives its being and to whom God and the Law hath committed the power of the Sword We have had heretofore many Parliaments but never read or heard of any while they kept their integrity and adhered to their maker that conven'd them together who were ever opposed affronted resisted or had any of their summons scorned their Messengers kicked about the streets or their Votes and Iudgements derided therefore all this is but copia verborum some flowers of Rebellious Rhetorick whereby they thinke to keep silly fools such as they take us still to be in that vile Captivity unto themselves wherein they formerly had and led us Yea and pag. 73. of that their so bonny Declaration they tell us to the everlasting comfort both of us and of our purses that t is necessary that their Armies be kept still on foot even so long as themselves and their posterities shall fit which they make account shall be but in perpetuum from Generation to Generation till the worlds end their words are these for the Parliaments consulting freely and acting securely it will be necessary as we have ever done since the war to keep up forces which were they all disbanded as the Scotch Commissioners desire we should not long consult freely and act securely They mean sure in cutting our throats in banishing imprisoning and hanging our persons in sequestring our estates in oppressing plundering and taking from us our goods and fortunes in destroying our Religion peace and order for nothing else do we know they have consulted about or acted since they first raised their Forces or begun their war we have had Parliaments before now that have behaved themselves a great deale better then these Declarers have done that have consulted better and acted better every way and yet never thought it necessary either to raise or keep up Forces for their owne guard or safety No for they were fenc'd with Innocency and Noblenesse of Spirit with their owne uprightnesse and their Countries Love which together with the Guard of God and his Angels was their Protection they desired no other Militia then Faith and a good Conscience to secure them For why they had never bath'd themselves in their Countries bloud nor foul'd their hands with oppression nor any way deserved the odium of their Nation But these men shew what they have merited by their fears and discover that as they raised Forces at first to subdue the King so they intend now to keep them up to subdue the Kingdome and to keep those in low slavery whose help they have had against Him and so they will pay their servants for as such onely they account those whom they have imployed or made use of a la mode du diable in that manner as Satan rewards those that work for him And now the world sees at last who began the war at first and hears from them who know best what was the true cause thereof even to wrest the Legislative power and the Militia out of the Kings hands and to excercise the same without and against His consent How true their former clamours have been that the King first tooke up Armes against the Parliament and that the Parliament was only on the defensive part let the very seduced part of men now judge His sacred Majesty in his great wisdome saw this to be their end at first and told the world of it but could not be heard or beleeved so loud a noise was made to the contrary themselves in the 68. pag. of that their Declaration tell the Scotch Commissioners who had said it was contrary to their judgements and Oath of Allegeance to divest the Crown the King and His Posterity of the right and power of the Militia that they fortifie their opinion with the very same Arguments and almost in the very same words as the King did at the beginning of this war in His Declarations whereby they acknowleged that His Majesty even then had spoken to that purpose It is hoped therefore that all men doe now apprehend who they are that all this while have been the Deceivers Againe the world also hath now seen how far and wherein His Majesty hath been averse to peace since the beginning of the war He would not hitherto be either forced or perswaded to resigne up wholly and for ever unto them that which from the very first they resolved to have from Him the Legislative power and the Militia of the Kingdome to be exercised without and against Himself to the perpetual enslavement and thraldome of all us His poor Subjects whom God hath committed to his trust to protect and defend And therefore if it were lawfull for Subjects upon any occasion to imprison their King yet what great cause or substantiall reason these have had to do so or to use their Soveraigne as they have done to resolve to make no more addresses or applications to Him let the world judge And from these many gracious Messages of His Majesty for peace thus slighted contemned and despised by them let their little modesty and candour or rather their great shamelesnesse and impudency be observed in their making the foundation of their impious Votes to be His aversenesse unto peace and in beginning their Declaration against Him in that manner as they have done viz. in these words How fruitlesse our former Addresses have been to the King is so well known to the world that it may be expected we shall now declare why we made the last or so many before rather then why we are resolved to make no more We cannot acknowledge any great confidence that our words could have been more perswasive with Him then Sighs and groanes the Tears and crying Blood an heavy crie the Blood of Fathers Brothers and Children at onse the Blood of many hundred thousand Free-borne Subjects in Three great Kingdomes which cruelty it self could not but pity to destroy We must not be so unthankefull to God as to forget we were never forced to any Treaty and yet we have no lesse then seven times made such Applications to the King and tendred such Propositions that might occasion the world to judge we have not onely yeelded up our wils and Affections but our Reason also and judgement for obtaining any true Peace or Accommodation But it never yet pleased the King to accept of any Tender fit for us to make nor yet to offer any fit for us to receive Be judges in this case O all ye people of the World now you have read and seen what offers and tenders the King hath made what reason these men had thus to ' peale Him thinke you not they are men of credit worthy to be trusted another time fit to be beleeved in all they say
further in the sequele of their Declaration sith their modesty and truth is such in the first page of it Assuredly you cannot that conclude but this of theirs is the most groundlesse shamelesse malicious and impudent slander that ever was printed by such an Authority as is pretended against such a Person And a Lye pardon that Scotch word so grosse and so thick that like the darkenesse of Aegypt it may be felt O consider well of it you the Subjects of this Kingdome and rouze up your selves at length in the behalf of your Soveraign and of your selves remember the Honour and dignity of your forefathers the wisdome and valour that made them so famous and so feared O where where is the Auncient Gallantry of this Noble Nation where is that life courage that was wont to kindle and flame in English-men when they saw themselves esteemed simple and contemned as base and vile what is it all dead and buried in snow and cold Ashes shall it be thought that no sparks of it are yet remaining in your natures will you suffer servants alwaies to rule over you to inslave and inthrall both you and your King awake for shame or else for ever worthy to be despised and look about you bethink at length what you have to do Was ever Nation so gull'd as you have been so orereach'd by Cheaters did ever any who caried in their breasts the spirits of men delight to be so abused by their fellows to be made fools used like Asses and so accounted and will you affect it shall they who triumph over you think you alwaies Children without understanding surely had they not believed you as full of weaknesse still as themselves are of wickednesse they would not with that boldnesse have imagined to flam you off with so base a Narrative against your Soveraigne as if thereby they had given a satisfactory reason to your simplicities for all those wrongs which they have done Him And what do they aime at hereby but to make Him most odious and contemptible who of all men living deserves the greatest Reverence Love and Honour and why do they this but to the end that they might have some colour to destroy Him And will you Crucifie your King saies Pilate to the people of the Iews as if he had said what an unheard-of vilany will that be How doth the Curse cleave to that Nation for that act unto this very day so may it not be said to you O people of England will you murder your King will you suffer your most pious and gracious King after all these unspeakable abuses which He hath already indured for your sakes at the hands of your Servants or Representatives as they call themselves to be destroyed by them if you play the Iewes you shall be payed like Jewes you and your Posterity shall grone under the Curse of God and man for ever qui non vetat peccare cum potest jubet not to prevent a mischief when you may is directly to command it to be done As Absolom by going in to his Fathers Concubines on the house-top declared in the sight of all Israel that He meant the breach should be irreconcielable betwixt his Father and him so have these men by this their Declaration spoken loudly to all the world that their intentions are that the difference shall never be made up betwixt their Soveraign and themselves but indeed herein we may observe that their impudence doth far exceed Absoloms for while he was on the house-top committing his wickednesse he did not accuse the King his Father of the same sin or lay heavily to his charge that very evill which himself was then in acting as these men have done for they in their Declaration do burden their Soveraigne with their own faults they tax Him of those very things which themselves have committed and that not only heretofore when they were His ill Officers and Servants but even now are acting at this very instant time before our faces and upon our selves while they are exclaiming upon His Majesty And when should the King make Himself liable to all this blame and odium which they cast upon Him was it since they promised to make Him so glorious Themselves do not affirm this but as they pretend a great while before how comes it then to passe that in their present judgments He who was formerly deemed fit to be made the most glorious Prince in Christendome and promised so to be if He would but comply with them in those things that should be for His owne Honour and the Kingdomes good is now in their present judgments being still the same become worthy of so much hatred as is here manifested and not fit to have any more Addresses made unto Him bad are the memories of these men the change of their condition hath made them quite forget their former principles and professions what credit think you can be given henceforth unto them what confidence can be put in any of their promises is it not likely they will fail you who ere you be that trust them as they have done their Soveraigne nay have they not failed you enough already do you look they will ever repay that Mony with eight in the hundred interest which they took up of you in Publike Faiths name what speciall respect do you observe the City London and the adjoyning Associate Counties do now find from them for all that wealth countenance and assistance which hath been afforded to them doe not they like their owne father Satan exact most still from those whom they have found most compliable and most yeilding Nay more then this do they not now discover a manifest adherence to the schismaticall Army which they intitle the faithful Army against the City the Associate Counties the whole Kingdome and Scotland too as well as against the King have not some of the unsavory Aldermen Members of the Commons House gone senting up down of late and soliciting men to ingage themselves to live and die with the Parliament and the Army and against whom but King and Kingdome who it seems are now looked upon as one again and conjoyned though it be in the notion of Common Enemies by these good Counsellours these faithfull Representatives that broke the friendly union And what doth this new Ingagement speak unto you but that their intentions are to rule from henceforth by the Sword without all Law save that of war to keep you under You may remember at first 't was King and Parliament they cried up then Parliament and Kingdome but now at length 't is come to be the Parliament and the Army so that you see how unsetled they are how God hath made them like to a wheel in continuall motion and therefore no confidence is to be put in them They promise now that they will setle the Kingdome without the King who unsetled it but themselves and for what cause did they so but that themselves