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
who from hence may observe that no rudenesse or insolency towards Him nor unjust aspersions of Him are able to divert Him from pursuing the means of their welfare His words are these His Majesties seventh Message CHARLS R. THe procuring Peace to these Kingdoms by Treaty is so much desired by His Majesty that no unjust aspersions whatsoever or any other discouragements shall make Him desist from doing His endevour therein untill He shall see it altogether impossible and therefore hath thought fitting so far only to make reply to that Paper or Answer which He hath received of the 13 of this instant Ian. as may take away those Objections which are made against His Majesties coming to Westminster expecting still an Answer to His Messages of the 15 and 17. which He hopes by this time have begotten better thoughts and resolutions in the Members of both Houses And first therefore Whereas in the said last Paper it is objected as an impediment to His Majesties personal Treaty that much innocent bloud hath been shed in this War by His Majesties Commissions c. He will not now dispute it being apparent to all the World by whom this bloud hath been spilt but rather presseth that there should be no more and to that end only He hath desired this personall Treaty as judging it the most immediate means to abolish so many horrid confusions in all His Kingdoms And it is no argument to say That there shall be no such personall Treaty because there have been Wars it being a strong inducement to have such a Treaty to put an end to the War Secondly that there should be no such personall Treaty because some of His Irish Subjects have repaired to His assistance in it seems an argument altogether as strange as the other as alwaies urging that there should be no Physick because the party is sick And in this particular it hath been often observed unto them that those whom they call Irish who have so expressed their Loyalty to their Soveraigne were indeed for the most part such English Protestants as had been formerly sent into Ireland by the two Houses impossibilitated to stay there any longer by the neglect of those that sent them thither who should there have better provided for them And for any Forrain forces it is too apparent that their Armies have swarmed with them when His Majesty hath had very few or none And whereas for a third impediment it is alleaged that the Prince is in the head of an Army in the West and that there are divers Garrisons stil kept in his Majesties obedience that there are Forces in Scotland it must be as much confessed as that as yet there is no peace and therefore it is desired that by such a personall Treaty all these impediments may be removed And it is not here amisse to put them in mind how long since His Majesty did presse a disbanding of all Forces on both sides the refusing whereof hath been the cause of this objection And whereas exception is taken that there is a time limited in the Proposition for His Majesties personall Treaty thereupon inferring that He should again return to Hostility His Majesty protesteth that He seeks this Treaty to avoid future Hostility and to procure a lasting peace and if He can meet with like inclinations to Peace in those He desires to Treat with He will bring such affections and resolutions in Himself as shal end all these unhappy bloudy differences As for those ingagements which His Majesty hath desired for His security whosoever shall call to mind the particular occasions that enforced His Majesty to leave His City of London and Westminster will judge His demand very reasonable and necessary for His safety But He no way conceiveth how the L. Major Aldermen Common-Councell and Militia of London were either subject or subordinate to that Authority which is alleaged as knowing neither Law nor practice for it and if the two Armies be He believes it is more then can be parallel'd by any former times in this Kingdom Nor can His Majesty understand how His Majesties seeking of a Personall Security can be any breach of Priviledge it being likely to be infringed by hindering His Majesty from coming freely to His two Houses As for the Objection that His Majesty omitted to mention the setling Religion and securing the Peace of His Native Kingdom His Majesty declares that He conceives that it was included in His former and hath been particularly mentioned in his latter Message of the 15 present But for their better satisfaction he again expresseth that it was and ever shal be both his meaning and endevour in this Treaty desired and it seems to him very clear that there is no way for a finall ending of such distractions as afflict this Kingdom but either by Treaty or Conquest the latter of which his Majesty hopes none will have the impudency or impiety to wish for and for the former if his Personall assistance in it be not the most likely way let any reasonable man judge when by that means not only all unnecessary delaies will be removed but even the greatest difficulties made easie And therefore he doth now again earnestly insist upon that proposition expecting to have a better answer upon mature consideration And can it be imagined that any Propositions will be so effectuall being formed before a personall Treaty as such as are framed and propounded upon a full debate on both sides Wherefore his Majesty who is most concerned in the good of his People and is most desirous to restore peace and happinesse to his three Kingdoms doth again instantly desire an Answer to his said former Messages to which he hath hitherto received none Given at our Court at Oxon the 24. of Jan. 1645. To the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster and to the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland FEw that ventured their lives to fetch home the King at the instigation of these men or that heard their Preachers pray so oft that God would incline His Majesties heart to come unto His Parliament would ever have believed that He should thus be put to plead for His own admittance amongst them who pretended to be so fond of His Company or to Answer such cavils against the same as He hath here done if they had not seen them objected under their own Hands nor would any have been perswaded had there not been somewhat extant to evidence the same that these men could after all this have affirmed that themselves had yeilded up not only their wills and Affections but also their reason and judgment for obtaining a good Accommodation with the King but now 't is manifest who they are that have abused gulled and deceived the world and who have been the only obstructers unto Peace and most perfect Enemies thereunto And yet 't is no mervaile that the wickednesse of these
aut ruet mundus if Justice be not done in such a case the whole world it selfe as may appear by the present temper of this Kingdome will fall to ruine presently As in a Family if the Master or Father abuse his Authority no Child or Servant of right can lift up an Hand against him but if a Child or Servant shall take upon him to domineere over all his fellowes and to abuse his Parent or Master all the rest ought and will if wise rise up against him and help their oppressed Governour to his power and place again So 't is and doubtlesse so it ought to be in a Kingdome A Kings ill usage or restraint is a full warrant and commission to all His Subjects to Arme themselves for His liberty and restoration the power is never in the peoples hand save in such a case but then they are all to advance as one man in the behalf of their common Father and to take those lawlesse Wolves and Beares they are Buchanans words who have no more right of authority over any without their Soveraignes leave much lesse over Himselfe then vermine have such as Weasels and Polcats are over Hens and Chickens yea and untill the people doe so rise they are undoubtedly not onely under the usurpers danger but also under Gods heavy curse Curse ye Meroz said the Angel of the Lord curse ye with a bitter curse the inhabitants thereof because they came not to help the Lord i. e. the Captaine of the Lord the Anointed of the Lord the Supreme Judge and Magistrate under the Lord Against the mighty that is against those sturdy and rebellious Canaanites who were growne so mighty by that strength of Militia and Chariots of Iron which they had gotten and did so mightily oppresse Israel under whom they ought to have lived in obedience That Scripture you all know hath been much used of late and as much abused but t is never truly applyable save in such a case as this in present is for the Captaine of the Lord is now in as much yea in more distresse then at that time His people under as great oppressions and the enemies as very Canaanites as those were as much the children of Malediction if not more for those were under the curse partly for Cham their fathers sin but these are solely for their owne which hath been not onely of the same kind as His was mocking and scorning at their Father but acted with more impudency and vilenesse a great deale for C ham found his father naked but these have endeavoured by this their cursed Declaration many others of like sort to make theirs appear so yea they have proclaimed him naked when he was not in a most shameless manner they have shewn their owne nakednesse then published it to be their Fathers and that not only to their Brethren as He did whose piety and modesty was apt to hide and cover the same whose ere it was but to the whole world to strangers to enemies that would be ready to credit the same and glad to divulge it farther to their Fathers defamation which was the very thing they aimed at therefore these evill workers are more the people of Gods curse then those Canaanites were nor had those provoked Gods wrath so much as these have done by their breaches of so many oathes and protestations of Loyalty and Obedience nor had they practiced more injustice and oppression therefore if they were designed to be subdued and pulled downe from their usurped greatnesse much rather may we beleeve that these are and if Meroz was lyable to so sharp a doome for not helping the Lord against them then well may we feare a like portion if we be backward in our assistance to the downfall of these men For are not these Gods enemies as well as any nay more then any Did true Religion ever receive such disgrace and scandall as these have offered to it Did this famous Kingdom ever produce such monsters of Nature before now Surely the Kings of the earth and the Inhabitants of the world would never have believed if these had not been to evidence the same that the English Nation could ever have bred such Vipers or that among Protestant Christians there should possibly have been such Malignant adversaries unto Piety and Princes Take courage therefore you may against them all ye who in Christs name and the Kings behalfe shall oppose them for their high and great wickednesse against God speaks them out of his protection as also doth their confidence in the Arme of flesh For in very deed they make not God their strength what ever is pretented nor ever did but the Militia rather for which they have contested that is their Magazine of Hope and Tower of Safety their trust is and hath been in the multitude of their Weapons their Armies of Men their numerous Associations and their plenty of ill gotten Riches wherewith they have and think still to bribe and buy off those whom by force and power they cannot master And these be the sparkes which they have kindled and compasse themselves about withall These be the very fires they rejoyce in the stayes they rest upon but sayes the Lord to such as they are that do as they do This shall ye have of my Hand ye shall lie down in sorrow Isay 50.11 And do we not daily see the things that are comming upon them making hast Are not their Hearts unjoynted from one another Is not their Kingdome divided their Associations broken Are not they that were girded fastest to them fallen from them How loudly do all persons every where cry out upon them How generally odious are they become of late who were before so much adored How much greater now among all men is the Hatred of them then the fear Who lookes not upon them as the people of Gods Curse as the very poyson and pestes of the Kingdome who beleeves not that divine vengeance hangs over the Land while they walke at liberty in it see see and consider it well how spider-like they have been catch'd in their own nets and snared in the work of their own Hands How have they befooled themselves in their owne doings How hath their scandalous Declaration against the King raised plenty of fewd in mens hearts against themselves hath not all their filthy some spit out therein against Him flew wholly back into their owne faces is not His Majesty become thereby more deare and precious to His people and themselves far more detestable are their solemne Orders or Ordinances entertained with any more respect now then scorne it selfe can afford them do not most men as slightly receive whatever comes from them as themselves have done the Kings Messages And whence now is all this who hath effected and brought to passe these things hath not the Lord and do they not plainly speake the approaching end of these men or of their greatnesse and prosperity are not all these
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
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
our Loyalty and Obedience to His Crown readinesse and resolution to defend His Person and support His Estate with our lives and fortunes to the uttermost of our power Againe We professe we desire nothing from His Majesty but that He would returne in Peace to His Parliament And againe We professe in the sight of Almighty God which is the strongest obligation that a Christian and the most solemne publicke faith which any such State as a Parliament can give that we would receive Him with all Honour yeild Him all true obedience and subjection and faithfully endeavour to defend His Person and Estate from all danger and to the utmost of our power to stablish Him and His people all the blessings of a most Glorious and Happy Raign c. Surely they who shall compare these Professions with the present Carriages of them that made them will conclude them the vilest Atheists that ever lived and beleeve that they used these Protestations only to gull and seduce the well meaning Common-people that so they might cheat them of their Monies and engage them with themselves in wayes of Treason Bloud and Rebellion to the destruction of their Religion King and Country But verily there is a God that judgeth the Earth and that these mockers of Him shall feel ere long for the day of their Calamity is at Hand and the things that are comming upon them make hast Wel his Maj. after he had sent this His tenth Message for Peace waited another month and more for an Answer thereof having understood by their former unworthy Paper of the 13 of Ianu. and being confirmed also by their silence to all His Profers that no admittance would be granted to Him though He came alone for as at the approach of Christ the Devill raged and tore the party possessed so did jealousies and guilty fears rend and torment them at the Apprehension of His presence or accesse unto them and therefore till He should first consent to such Propositions as they would at their further leasure send unto Him He must not come near them unlesse He be brought by the Souldiers before them as Christ was into the High Priests Hall viz. in the nature of a Prisoner indeed to this purpose while they think to delude Him still with a further expectation of Propositions which they never meant should be seen at Oxford they send thither as fast as they can all their Armies and Bands of Souldiers with Guns and Swords and Staves for to take Him concluding with themselves that He would surely fall into the Hand of their Strong ones and could not possibly escape them But God was too hard for them He seeing their mischeivous intentions inclined the Heart of His Majesty to goe and protected Him safe in going to the Scottish Army where so soon as He came that all might see His desires of Peace were not capable of abatement He falls againe to His old work of soliciting for the same and offers to these unreasonable men all that ever was desired to give them content He refers to them and their Divines the setling of Religion He consents the Militia to be at their disposall His Forces to be disbanded His Townes and Garrisons dismantled and deserted and what ever else had been formerly in dispute betwixt them and if these would not be now accepted because offered by Him though formerly desired by them He wills them to send their long promised Propositions or at least those of them which were agreed upon being resolved to comply in every thing as shall but appear to Him to be for His Subjects happinesse And notwithstanding all the contempts they had shewn Him and affronts put upon Him He still hath or desires to have so good an opinion of them that He will not question their good acceptation of these His offers since He makes no conditions with them for Himselfe but is content to leave His own Honour and Lawfull Rights solely to their care and gratitude to maintain unto Him Let all men read without admiration if they can at the Kings Christianity and goodnesse this which follows how in very deed He yeilds up His will and Affections His Reason Iudgment and all for the obtaining a good peace or accommodation with these Stubborn men unto His poor and afflicted people His Majesties eleventh Message CHARLS R. HIs Majesty having understood from both His Houses of Parliament that it was not safe for him to come to London whither he had purposed to repair if so he might by their advice to do whatsoever may be best for the good and peace of these Kingdoms untill he shall first give his consent to such Propositions as were to be presented to him from them And being certainly informed that the Armies were marching so fast up to Oxford and made that no fit place for Treating did resolve to withdraw himself hither only to secure his own Person and with no intention to continue this War any longer or to make any division between his two Kingdoms but to give such contentment to both as by the blessing of God he might see a happy and wel-grounded Peace thereby to bring Prosperity to these Kingdoms answerable to the best times of his Progenitors And since the setling of Religion ought to be the chiefest care of all Councels his Majesty most earnestly and heartily recommends to his two Houses of Parliament all the waies and means possible for speedy finishing this pious necessary work and particularly that they take the advice of the Divines of both Kingdoms assembled at Westminster Likewise concerning the Militia of England for securing his people against all pretensions of danger his Majesty is pleased to have it setled as was offered at the Treaty at Uxbridge all the Persons being to be named for the Trust by the two Houses of the Parliament of England for the space of seven years and after the expiring of that term that it be regulated as shall be agreed upon by his Majesty and his two Houses of Parliament And the like for the Kingdom of Scotland Concerning the Wars in Ireland his Majesty will do whatsoever is possible for him to give full satisfaction therein And if these be not satisfactory his Majesty then desires that all such of the Propositions as are already agreed upon by both Kingdoms may be speedily sent unto him his Majesty being resolved to comply with his Parliament in every thing that shall be for the happinesse of his Subjects and for the removing of all unhappy differences which have produced so many sad effects His Majesty having made these offers he will neither question the thankfull acceptation of them nor doth he doubt but that his two Kingdoms will be carefull to maintain him in his Honour and in his just and lawfull Rights which is the only way to make a happy composure of these unnaturall Divisions And likewise will think upon a solid way of conserving the Peace between the two
Kingdoms for time to come And will take a speedy course for easing and quieting his afflicted people by satisfying the Publike debts by disbanding of all Armies and whatsoever else shall be judged conducible to that end that so all hinderances being removed he may return to his Parliament with mutuall comfort Southwell May 18. 1646. For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore To be Communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland POST-SCRIPT HIs Majesty being desirous to shun the further effusion of bloud and to evidence His reall intentions to Peace is willing that His Forces in and about Oxford be disbanded and the fortifications of the City dismantled they receiving honourable conditions Which being granted to the Town and Forces there His Majesty will give the like order to the rest of the Garrisons THis Message from His Majesty out of the Scots Quarters though as full of Grace as could be wished found as little respect as any of the former and was thought as unworthy of an Answer for indeed it spake to their great grief the escape of that rich prey which was already swallowed in their Expectations yea and an impossibility of getting it into their reach again with so little cost and pains as they hoped before to be possessed of it for they conceived the frugall Scot was not like to part with his Liege Lord and native King for nothing nor be so easily beaten from hence to their own home as was intended they should have been so soon as the Kings Person had been seized on at Oxford for His Majesties Presence like the Glorious Sun drew thousands of Eyes upon His Country-men and would have fetch'd as many hearts and hands to their Assistance had they but then stood up in defence of Him This they at Westminster well knew and hereupon saw that a kind of necessity lay on them to shuffle again and after another fashion then before was purposed to play the Foxes instead of the Lions with their dear Brethren and therefore they begin at last to think of doing that which till now they never intended though often promised even of sending Propositions to the King which on Iuly 24. two months after their receipt of this last Message of May 18. arived at Him under the name of Propositions for Peace but the contrivers of them had in their Provident care made them so perfectly monstrous and unreasonable that themselves remained sure still of being out of all danger of Effecting Peace by them in very deed they were only used to gain time and opportunity to recover their lost prey and to delude the Scots who were not then so well acquainted with their spirits as perhaps since they have been or at least may be before a period be put to these troubles Those Propositions of theirs were as tedious as senslesse for what they wanted in reason was made up in words they have been published already and therefore we shall not here trouble the Reader with them there be Copies enow extant of them which whosoever views will think the Kingdom might have imployed their many hundred thousand pounds better then in maintaining so many men and so many Armies so many months together in doing nothing but making such uncouth Prpositions By this insuing Message of his Majesty in Answer to them within a week after His receipt of them the world were it ignorant of them might have a glimpse of what kind they were and of what spirit those that sent them His Majesties twelfth Message CHARLES R. THe Propositions tendered to His Majesty by the Commissioners from the Lords and Commons Assembled in the Parliament of England at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland to which the Houses of Parliament have taken twice so many Monthes for deliberation as they have assigned dayes for his Majesties Answer do import so great alterations in Government both in Church and Kingdome as it is very difficult to return a particular and positive Answer before a full debate wherein these Propositions and the necessary explanations true sense and reasons thereof be rightly weighed and understood and that his Majesty upon a full view of the whole Propositions may know what is left as well as what is taken away and changed In all which he finds upon discourse with the said Commissioners that they are so bound up from any capacity either to give reasons for the demands they bring or to give ear to such desires as his Majesty is to propound as it is impossible for him to give such a present judgement of Answer to these Propositions whereby he can Answer to God that a safe and well-grounded peace will ensue which is evident to all the world can never be unlesse the just power of the Crown as well as the freedome and propriety of the Subject with the just liberty and priviledges of the Parliament be likewise setled To which end his Majesty desires and proposeth to come to London or any of his houses thereabouts upon the publick faith and security of the two houses of Parliament and the Scotch Commissioners That he shall be there with freedome honour and safety where by his personall presence he may not only raise a mutuall confidence betwixt him and his people but also have these doubts cleared and these difficulties explained unto him which he now conceives to be destructive to his just regall power if he shall give a ful consent to these Propositions as they now stand As likewise that he make known to them such his reasonable demands as he is most assured will be very much conducible to that Peace which all good men desire and pray for by the setling of Religion the just priviledges of Parliament with the freedom and propriety of the Subject and his Majesty assures them that as he can never condiscend unto what is absolutely destructive to that just power which by the laws of God and the Land he is born unto So he wil cheerfully grant and give his assent unto all such Bills at the desire of his two Houses or reasonable demands for Scotland which shall be really for the good and Peace of his people not having regard to his own particular much lesse of any bodies else in respect of the happinesse of these Kingdoms Wherefore his Majesty conjures them as Christians as Subjects and as men who desire to leave a good name behind them that they will so receive and make use of this Answer that all issues of bloud may be stopped and these unhappy distractions peaceably setled Newcastle August 1. 1646. To the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated POST-SCRIPT VPon assurance of a happy agreement His Majesty will immediately send for the Prince His Son absolutely expecting His perfect Obedience to return into this Kingdom BY this Message the Readers may observe that the contrivers of those Propositions though
themselves were many and had imployed all their craft which was not little 8 Months together as they pretended in the framing of them yet were perswaded as it seems that His Majesty alone in regard of His clear wisdome sincerity and honesty of Heart was able in three or four dayes to Answer them fully and therefore they assigned him no longer time to deliberate on them or else they supposed that His Maj. in His eagernesse of minde to obtain Peace so oft earnestly writ for by Him would blindly and suddainly consent without more adoe to what ever on that condition they asked of Him for as crafty Chapmen will enhaunse the price beyond all reason of that Commodity they have to sell when they see a Customer fond of it so did these men deal with their King He had fully manifested a most fervent desire of procuring quiet to His people by His many Messages large Offers wherein He had shewed a readinesse to yeild up His own Rights or to speak in their phrase His will and Affections yea and His Reason and Iudgement too for the purchase of it So it were reall and good Whereupon perhaps they fancied that He would not stick to resigne up His Conscience also upon their demand together with the Rights of His Crown to which He was born and the trust committed to Him by God and the Law over the lives and Estates of all His Subjects into those Hands which have been excercised in nothing this seven years but Bloud Rapine and Oppression without any probability of recovering the same againe to Himselfe or His successors For indeed they are now come to that pitch of the pinacle that unlesse the King will condescend to cast Himself down to destroy himself and to ruine Monarchy no concessions of His shall please them nor shall his many Messages and large offers obtaine peace from them unto his people who may themselves judge of what kinde it would be by that experience they have had of them already if the King should yeild so far as to lay down his life and Crown for the purchase But God be thanked our King is no Child nor false Shepherd but a man after Gods own Heart and a very Moses though meeke and patient to admiration in his own case throughout all his dealings with this stif-necked and rebellious generation yet most valiant and magnanimous in the Cause of God and most faithfull in the dicharge of that trust reposed in Him our Saviour would rather suffer himself to be no Man then yeild himself to be no King he would rather part with his life then his Kingship and so will our Soveraign and therefore our God we trust will preserve both for the further Happinesse yet of this Church and Nation But let 's observe His Majesties goodnesse towards these men in this His Message or Answer to their Propositions He was ashamed as seemeth that the world should take full notice of their impiety and unreasonablenesse in them and therefore was pleased to shadow the same in a measure from the worlds eye by impleading the difficulty of understanding the said Propositions for want of necessary explanations as if there had been or might haply be more Iustice and Reason in them then was apparent when indeed there was more mischeife then could be easily beleeved And this he alledgeth as the cause of his not returning particular Answers to them and in truth there is much ambiguity and darknesse in them which the Contrivers were studious and carefull to leave in their composing of them that thereby themselves might still have evasions and occasions to raise cavills what ever His Majesties Answer should be unto them to which end also they were provident to Bind up their Commissioners tongues from speaking any such word in way of discourse as might discover to the King their further meanings Wherefore his Majesty finding it impossible to returne such a plenary Answer as in His Conscience might be justifiable in Gods sight or conductive to a safe and well-grounded peace he proposeth again his own comming to London to treat with them and for the avoiding of all mistakes to hear them explaine their own meanings and ingages himself to give his cheerfull assent to all such Bills as shall be really to the good and peace of His people and to prefer the Happinesse of this Kingdome before His own particular and as a mean to work a confidence in them of His own sincerity in these things he offers again to trust them with no lesse then his own Person and conjures them as they are Christians as they are Subjects and as they are men who desire to leave a good name behinde them so to receive make use of this His Answer that all issues of Bloud may be stopped and these unhappy distractions peaceably setled But as appears neither the Dignity of Christians the Duty of Subjects nor the Credit of a good Name will prevaile with them any more then his Majesties former Messages and Intreaties had done for they had as it seemes renounced and rejected them all before hand and therefore without taking any notice of this Conjuration of their Soveraign or of any thing else which he had writ unto them in the whole Message they go on silently and resolutely in that way which themselves had chosen which His Majesty observing after some months patient expectance bent His thoughts to the making some particular Answers to the fore-mentioned Propositions desiring if possible to give them content but upon His most serious consideration on them He found that He did but labour in vain for He could not speak so unto them but some who lay in wait for that purpose would mis-construe and pervert His sayings to a contrary sence unlesse Himself were present among them to paraphrase upon his owne words and explain His meaning wherefore He hoping that Gods grace and spirit might at last peradventure have some footing in their minds He rather chuseth to propose again by another Message five months after the former His own coming unto them and renues His former offers discovering thereby that notwithstanding their transcendent neglects and contempts of Him yet He was still as constant in His good intentions to them as they were in their ill resolutions against Him His words are these His Majesties thirteenth Message CHARLS R. HIs Majesties thoughts being alwaies sincerely bent to the Peace of His Kingdoms was will be ever desirous to take all waies which might the most cleerly make appear the candour of His intentions to His people And to this end could find no better way then to propose a Personall free debate with His two Houses of Parliament upon all the present differences Yet finding very much against His expectations that this offer was laid aside His Majesty bent all His thoughts to make His intentions fully known by a particular Answer to the Propositions delivered to Him in the name of both Kingdomes 24.
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
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
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
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
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
Kingdome to be just and right then His Humble and Loyall Subjects would have vouchsafed to cast a look upon Him and deign'd so far as to have spoke a word with him Herein also besides the Conditions of a Treaty are discovered divers faults in His Majesties late Messages which neither Himself nor any other was able to have discern'd but the two Parliaments of England and Scotland after a diligent search having sat close some weeks about it for they were not idle all the 40 daies of the Kings waiting did in their deep wisdomes descry and find them out and then thought fit that their Soveraigne might not sleep in His sins to admonish His Majesty of them as 1. His requiring of them ingagement for His own security if He came amongst them which was a great errour and mistake in Him for though He be a David and a man after Gods owne heart yet they are not subjects of the same stamp as Davids were who thought their King worth ten thousand of themselves 2. This request of His was in their judgements against the Priviledge and Honour of Parliament for the speciall Priviledge of this Parliament or rather the swaying faction in the same is to destroy if they can and not to preserve the King at all 3. His mentioning the Mayor Aldermâ—n Common-Councell and Militia of the City as if He believed Himself to have any interest in them and that they were concern'd to ingage for His security they give Him to understand was another grand mistake in Him for all they together with Sir Thomas Fairfax his Army and the Scots too are their subjects and not His and subordinate to their Authority and therefore for Him to expect any ingagement for safety from any of them was directly also in their sense against the Honour and Priviledge of Parliament Nay 4. they give His Majesty to know that He had not onely sinned thus against the Honour and Priviledge of Parliament but also against the very freedome of it by His propounding with so many earnest expressions a Personall Treaty as the way to a Peace which they interpret no other then a plaine enforcement upon the Liberty of Parliament or a violent rape upon their wisdome as if they had not Brains enow to find out some other way then that was which His Majesty had propounded But truly with their favour this Errour might more prudently have been passed by and the aggravation of it omitted had they but remembred how often themselves had told the world that all their fighting was but to bring the King home from His evill Counsellours to Treat in Person with His Parliament for what may the world now think of these wise men may they not liken them to little Children who in a crosse peevish humour wil none of that thing when offered to them but throw it away which before they had cried and roared for the old and true way to a Peace between different parties hath alwaies been by Treaty and so was it hitherto judged by these men as themselves told us but now they dislike it only because the King propounds it And another way they have devised and that must be by Propositions of their owne making which by this their Preface are promised to be such as Benhadad sent to the King of Israel neither good for Him nor for His people but destructive unto both But His sacred Majesty the true mirror of wisdome meeknesse and patience receiving from them after divers Messages and forty daies waiting only this reproachfull Paper which was able to stir passion in a very Moses doth send back on the very same day without returning one word of ill Language this ensuing Answer His Majesties sixt Message CHARLES R. HIs Majesty thinks not fit now to answer those aspersions which are returned as arguments for His not admittance to Westminster for a Personall Treaty because it would inforce a style not sutable to His end it being the Peace of these miserable Kingdoms yet thus much He cannot but say to those who have sent Him this Answer That if they had considered what they have done themselves in occasioning the shedding of so much innocent bloud by withdrawing themselves from their duty to Him in a time when He had granted so much to His Subjects and in violating the knowne Laws of the Kingdome to draw an exorbitant power to themselves over their fellow Subjects to say no more to do as they have done they could not have given such a false character of His Majesties actions Wherefore His Majesty must now remember them that having some howers before His receiving of their last Paper of the 13. of Ian. sent another Message to them of the 15. wherein by divers particulars He inlargeth Himself to shew the reality of His endevours for Peace by His desired personall Treaty which He still conceives to be the likeliest way to attain to that blessed end He thinks fit by this Message to call for an Answer to that and indeed to all the former For certainly no rationall man can think their last Paper can be any Answer to His former demands the scope of it being that because there is a War therefore there should be no Treaty for Peace And is it possible to expect that the Propositions mentioned should be the grounds of a Lasting Peace when the Persons that send them will not endure to hear their own King speak But whatever the successe hath been of His Majesties former Messages or how small soever His hopes are of a better considering the high strain of those who deal with His Majesty yet He will neither want fatherly bowels to His Subjects in generall nor will He forget that God hath appointed Him for their King with whom He Treats Wherefore He now demands a speedy Answer to His last and former Messages Given at our Court at Oxon this 17. of Jan. 1645. For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated c. THese earnest desires of His Majesty for a speedy Answer shall nothing prevail with them to hasten the same for His unparallel'd meeknesse in passing by such unheard-of Affronts without return of any passionate expression is so high a vexation to their black and ungodly souls that they resolve in themselves to make Him wait above three times forty daies longer now before He shall get a word more from them let Him send as oft as He will to solicite for it which purposed contempt though His Majesty in His Candour and Charity did not haply at that present fancy of them yet being too well acquainted with their dispositions He conceived they might make some ill use among His People of His silence to their impediments objected against the Personall Treaty propounded by Him and therefore thought meet seven daies after to speak somewhat in Confutation of those their frivolous Arguments and again to urge the thing as the only likely way of setling Peace unto His People
Iuly last But the more He endevoured it He more plainly saw that any Answer He could make would be subject to mis-informations and mis-constructions which upon His owne Paraphrases and Explanations He is most confident will give so good satisfaction as would doubtlesse cause a happy and lasting Peace Lest therefore that good intentions may produce ill effects His Majesty again proposeth and desires again to come to London or any of His Houses thereabouts upon the Publâ—ke Faith and Security of His two Houses of Parliament and the Scotch Commissioners that He shall be there with Honour Freedome and Safety Where by His Personall Presence He may not only raise a mutuall confidence betwixt Him and His People but also have those doubts cleared and those difficulties explained to Him without which He cannot but with the aforesaid mischievous inconveniencies give a particular Answer to the Propositions And with which He doubts not but so to manifest His reall intentions for the setling of Religion the just priviledges of Parliament with the Freedome and Property of the Subject that it shall not be in the power of wicked and malicious men to hinder the establishing of that firm Peace which all honest men desire Assuring them as He will make no other Demands but such as He believes confidently to be just and much conducing to the Tranquility of the People So He will be most willing to condescend to them in whatsoever shall be really for their good and happinesse Not doubting likewise but you will also have a due regard to maintain the just Power of the Crown according to your many Protestations and professions For certainly except King and People have reciprocall care each of other neither can be happy To conclude 't is your King who desires to be heard the which if refused to a Subject by a King he would be thought a Tyrant for it and for that end which all men professe to desire Wherefore His Majesty conjures you as you desire to shew your selves really what you professe even as you are good Christians and Subjects that you wil accept this His Offer which He is confident God will so blesse that it will be the readiest means by which these Kingdoms may again become a comfort to their Friends and a terrour to their Enemies Newcastle 20. Decemb. 1646. To the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster and to the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland WHat man can read without tears these pathetick desires and expressions of His Soveraigne only to be Heard and that but to Speak and plead by word of mouth for the peace and tranquility of His people sith His many Messages by writing to this purpose were not regarded sure these Persons have hearts harder then the neither Mil-stone they have forgot themselves to be either Christians Subjects or men but doubtlesse the time will come when they who thus stop their ears at the requests of their King shall themselves cry and not be heard and no man shall pity them His Majesty we see refuses nothing which may tend to the setling of Religion the freedom of Parliament and property of the Subjects He denies no pardon security or indemnity to these His Enemies that will not have Him to reign over them if they would accept it His own rights He 'll refer to them to be setled as may be to the Kingdoms good as to His own in a probable continuation of Gods blessing upon the same as upon himself His Person He offers to their trust and the just power of His Crown to their care nor is He willing so much as to doubt of their due regard in maintaining the same unto Him according to their many Protestations and professions And nothing doth He desire for Himself in lieu of all this but only leave to speak liberty to be heard which Himself in His prosperity never denied to the meanest Person though the greatest Malefactor Let all the world with admiration think upon it and judge in the case what Prince can offer more then He hath done or what man can desire lesse what Christian spirit doth not rise to see Piety and Majesty thus slighted and despised what Subjects bloud doth not boyle to hear his Soveraigne forced for the purchase of so little to offer so much unto His own Vassals and yet be repulsed and rejected by them should Turks and Heathens behold this they would be inraged could the inferiour Creatures apprehend it even they would grow furious at it surely this is and may be a matter of astonishment to the whole earth for as the Prophet saies Passe over the Isles send to other Lands inquire of all Nations search all stories of former and later times consider diligently and see well if there be or ever were any such thing or ever the like heard of from the beginning of time Did ever people thus exclude their King or thus vilely use him set but that act of the Jews aside against our Saviour and this example may be affirmed to be Sans parallel never did Subjects make larger protestations and professions of love and duty and never could Devils go more contrary unto the same then these men have done let but those their words already quoted upon the tenth Message be seriously considered on and of necessity it will be concluded that Hell is not more opposite to Heaven nor darknesse to light then their carriages are and have been unto those expressions and so it seems 't is resolved they shall be still for His Majesties conjuring them to shew themselves really to be what they professed no whit moves them to shew themselves any other then they really are now they have catch'd the fish cheated the people inslaved the Nation got their owne ends the power into their hands to keep all men under they may fling away their baits throw off their vizards cast aside their disguises and appear freely in their proper shapes and colours All their solemn Protestations and professions were of the same nature and tenure with their solemn League and Covenant which as Martin himself one of their prime birds openly saies was not intended to be everlastingly kept the causes of making them being but as the grounds of striking that meerly occasionall for the joyning in a War to suppresse the Common Enemy for so now they call the King and He being suppressed what are the Protestations and professions come to be but as the Covenant it self is only like an Almanack of last year of no more regard or estimation witnesse Hen. Martin p. 11. of Indepency of England maintin'd against the claim of the Scotch Commissioners In vain therefore did His Majesty by mentioning their former Protestations and professions put them in mind of things out of date and to as little purpose did He again desire to come to London in Safety and Honour for they could not hear on that side