as long as Episcopacy stood firm in England in which respect they could not but be willing to assist those whose design it was to abolish it Before this time it was thought sit to deprive the King of two prime Counsellors the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Earl of Strafford whose names were delivered in by the Scottish-Commissioners as incendiaries between the two Nations which was done in the way of an impeachment by the House of Commons at the Lords Bar for High Treason Upon this Impeachment it was found requisite to commit them presently to the Tower so as the King was immediately deprived of their advice in Council and the Earl of Strafford was speedily brought to Trial in Westminster-Hall with much solemnity which had continuance for many days and at last was broken up with heat and violence by the House of Commons such as ill became the gravity of that Assembly and they did it conceiving that the Lords carried themselves partially in relation to the person impeached but his condemnation was finished afterwards by the Legislative power in a Bill of Attainder which could not pass the Lords till many of them were so terrified by tumults as they found it for their safety to be absent at the last Reading And this business of the Bill was carried on with such violence as there was a kind of proscription of such persons as in the House â—f Commons had Voted against the Bill for their names were posted up in London by the care of some malicious body The Archbishop was reserved to a Trial less legal as to the form but no less fatal to his ruine being some few years after condemned by a Bill passed in both Houses but wanting the Royal assent At or about the time of Straffords Trial there was a general licentiousness used The Parliament-houses were daily haunted with a rabble of tumultuating people crying out for that which they called justice There was also a Liberty assumed and connived at to Print and publish what every man thought fit which for the most part was in defamation of the Governors Ecclesiastical and Temporal Within the City of London the Pulpits were almost wholly possest by Presbyterian-Ministers whose eloquence was altogether employed the same way In the Country or at least in divers parts there was such encouragement given under-hand as the common people fell upon Popish Recusants and plundered their houses with all severity And the House of Commons being made acquainted with the inconvenience and terror of these Tumults as well by their own members as by a Message from the house of Lords would not be drawn to discountenance much to declare against them It was not long after the Pacification that the Scots much urged the King to go into Scotland to be crowned whereunto his Majesty assented at the last which gave great jealousie again at Westmirster in so much as the Parliament made some addresses to the King desiring that he would not depart out of the Kingdom at that time but those addresses became altogether fruitless the King declaring his absolute and peremptory engagement to go And the apprehensions of this journey were so powerful as a very active Member of the house of Commons standing at the door of the Lords House upon occasion of a Message having fetch'd a great sigh made a profession he thought we were all undone but the Presbyterian Scots continued true to their own interest with a respect also to their profit and expecting to be called again into England as it came to pass afterwards The Scottish Coronation being past the King returned to London and then the exasperations grew higher than ever It seems his Majesty was willing to impute the disorders in Parliament to some particular persons Members of both Houses whom he had found to have held intelligence with his enemies and therefore he directed his Atturny General to accuse the five members whose names are well known in Parliament of high Treason which was so ill resented in both Houses as the Impeachment was refused whereupon his Majesty fell upon that unhappy resolution of coming personally into the House of Commons which gave so great offence as both Houses pretending they could not sit securely at Westminster without a guard adjourned themselvs for some days and appointed to meet during the vacancy in London as grand Committies to consider what was to be done upon the pretended breach of Priviledge This gave a great advantage against the King for by this means they had opportunity to fix their correspondence with the Citizens and to engage them in their defence Between this time and the Kings return out of Scotland the Court had been annoyed with a confluence of unruly people so as it was thought fit to have a Corps de guard or a Court of guard as they call it kept in the passage before Whitehal to keep the rabble at a distance But during this Adjournment the Citizens of London became so engaged as upon the day of the Houses meeting again at Westminster they sent a little army with some field pieces for their security these passed by land and by water on each side of Whitehal and the noise of their coming was so loud as it was concluded fit for the guard of Middlesex trayned bands to withdraw and so their passage became free This was interpreted at Court as the beginning of a war and thereupon his Majesty thought good to retire to Hampton-Court After this there were many addresses to the King by the Parliament but not any that could be in the least measure pleasing to him It happened that Mr. Pim had newly and publickly at a conference between the House as I take it used some words of disrespect to the King wherewith his Majesty exprest himself to be offended and thereupon the House of Commons having notice of the Kings resentment took a resolution to send his Majesty a paper in full justification of that which Mr. Pim had said I my self was present at this resolution and appearing dissatisfied with it immediately went out of doors which being observed by a back friend of mine he named me one of the four to carry it This unwelcome news was brought to me to my own house by one of our Serjeants with a copy of the order which must not be disobeyed and so we went and delivered the paper to his Majesty at Hampton-Court which being read he began to discourse upon it as if he expected reason from us and seem'd to address his Speech more particularly to me perhaps having heard of my dislike but Sir John Culpepper then Chancellor of the Exchequer and chief of the four told his Majesty we had not power to speak one word whereupon we were dismissed and returned to London After this the King left Hampton-Court and went to Theobalds whither the Parliament sent a Committie of Lords and Commons but with a message either so unreasonable or unseasonable as the King thought fit to dismiss
Earl of Manchester in his place of Major General being one of his own near relations The House of Commons was employed in providing money without which they could have no good effect of their armies Several ways were found but no one nor all of them together answerable to their occasions One was by Sequestration of Delinquents estates not excepting the King 's own revenue which last yielded the best supply being manag'd by a Committy of Parliament whereas they were inforced to use ravenous people in the Sequestration of private estates making a very slender account to the publick and converting most of the profits to their own use whereof the Parliament was not in condition to take much notice at that time Another way of raising mony there was by requiring a twentieth part of goods and a fifth part of every man's revenue This began upon persons disaffected to the Parliament but came at last to be a calling dance being made general and herein both parties did good service by giving complete information concerning one anothers estates But the last and surest was a monthly tax for the army which was the first of that kind and likeliest to continue in being And now the case is wholly altered for every demand must be answered there being armies on foot very well disposed to constrain payment in case of refusal About this time those persons who had been nominated Committies in each County for money matters held meetings in imitation of the Covenanters tables in Scotland and took upon them the decision of businesses relating to the County in general but especially as to the war which comprized the suppression of the Royallists and by this means they exercised an unlimited power being assured of Indemnity at Westminster for all things done in the way of advantage to their military affairs While the asperities of war lay thus frozen up in winter quarters it pleased his Majesty to send the Earl of South-hampton and Sir John Culpepper with a proposition for a treaty of peace and a considerable member of our House made this relation to me of Mr. Pims opinion concerning it This Gentleman said he met Mr. Pim going into the Committy of Safety and desiring a word with him asked if he knew the substance of Southhampton's message and what he thought of it Mr. Pim's answer was that he knew the particulars and praised God in his heart hoping that the issue of it would be happy for the Kingdome But it seems that being entred into the Committy his mind soon changed for the General with other Lords there were absolutely for the refusal of it which was the event of it also in Parliament and not without some harshness in the manner for South-hampton and Culpepper would have delivered their message in the respective Houses within the Bar as Members which was refused to them and so their message being made known and unanimously concluded unseasonable by reason of the Generals standing yet together with divers other eminent persons declared Traytor they both returned to Oxford This may appear strange since the General was conceived to wish and labour for peace which may the better be believed because after this time he sent a letter to the Parliament to express his sense of the Nations miserable condition under a war and to desire that there might be propositions of peace sent to his Majesty a fault never to be forgiven by the private Caballists which desire of restoring peace continued with him even to his end as was hinted in his funeral Sermon wherein he was compared to Abner who perished being in such a design but it is usual for such persons to dislike all pacification saving what is procured by themselves wherein their own interests are fully provided for and it is very likely that Essex would have had the business to pass chiefly through his own hands whereby we may see how far a poor Nation may suffer by the on of some principal persons But howsoever it was with others it is not to be doubted but some of the close Cabal rather than to yield to any pacification were disposed to make use of the pious intimation delivered by a Minister in a Fast Sermon preached before the House of Commons which was this That if they could not effect the desired reformation yet it would be in their power to break the pillars and as Sampson did to pull down the house over the heads of their enemies Yet for publick satisfaction the people being wearied with a war it was always in agitation to bring the business to a treaty though not without much jealousie on the Parliaments side which might be much encreased by a letter from a Lord at Oxford to a Commander in that army which became publick being intercepted and contained these words Do but cudgel them into a Treaty and we shall do well enough with them Before drawing the armies out in the year 1643. there had been a hopeful treaty of peace both parties having tendred propositions and Commissioners being sent to Oxford to treat but this was soon rendred fruitless by the Parliament who too far straightned the time of treaty and bound up their Commissioners by instructions obliging them in the first place to treat upon and conclude the proposition for disbanding of the armies which could not be consented to by his Majesty without assurance first had that the other most important articles would be agreed upon And so at this time the poor people were defeated of their hopes it being one of our Cabals greatest arts to give way to a treaty of peace for publick satisfaction and then to bring it to a rupture in some plausible way as here it was upon the article of disbanding which was a thing so much desired by the people This year 1643. businesses were transacted at Westminster with greater heighth than ever for the Queen being returned to the King's quarters with some assistance the House of Commons assumed the boldness to impeach her of high treason at the Lord's bar and about the same time both Houses voted a new great Seal to be made which is the instrument of Royal power far above all others and the doing of these two things could not but much exasperate his Majesty yet their military affairs were never less succesful for the West of England was wholly lost by defeat of the Earl of Stamford's army and Bristow forced by Prince Rupert In the Northern parts the Earl of Newcastle was prevalent almost wholly And certainly had the King instead of besieging Glocester marched to London and the Earl of Newcastle instead of besieging Hull forced his way into the Eastern association the war had come to a period but Divine Providence had designed a more gentle end and disposed the minds of the Northern and Western armies so as they would not forsake their own Countries till they saw them cleared from all opposition The Parliaments business being in this evil condition it was easily
deprivation instead of a withdrawing By this means and by the absence of those Lords who withdrew themselves to serve his Majesty the House of Peers was grown so empty as their Authority became little considerable which was not much regarded by our Leaders in the House of Commons who in likelihood had at that time a resolution to dissolve that House as it came to pass afterwards As great assertors of priviledge of Parliament as that House of Commons pretended to be yet they cared not how far they encroached upon the Lords nor how they violated their priviledges as may appear by a message delivered at their Bar near the beginning of the Parliament which was to this effect That the Commons found in that House so great an obstruction of matters tending to the good of the Common-wealth as they desired their Lordships to make known the names of such Lords as were the causes of it that they might be dealt with as enemies to the State So as in those days the House of Commons might properly use the French proverbial saying Je n'ayme pas le bruit si je ne le faits I love no noise but what I make my self But their own House began to be almost as much cried out upon for paucity of Members and for this they had provided a remedy sufficient by the new great Seal and there was little danger of bringing in evil Members for no writ of election could be issued but by Warrant from the Speaker and consent of the House who would not grant it for places where the people were known to be disaffected to the Parliament By this means the House became pretty well filled and many of the new Members were Officers of the Army who had been so used to command as at the last they found a way to command even the House it self Besides this the new Great Seal enabled the Parliament to constitute Judges and to set up again the Courts at Common Law as also to make what Justices of the Peace they thought sit whereof there was very great want in the Parliament Quarters till then so as now there were complete judicial proceedings both Criminal and Civil which gave great satisfaction to the people and would have deserved high applause but that all men knew this convenience to be raised upon a most unjust and insolent foundation Before this recruiting of the House of Commons as it was then called the Military affairs of Parliament were much advanced for by the help and countenance of the Scottish Army his Majesties strength in the North was so broken as the Parliament had first besieged Newark and then the City of York but both these Towns were very bravely relieved by Prince Rupert and could that Prince have been contented with the honour of having effected his business in the dissolution of those sieges it had been happy but he as a Souldier knew what a fear usually is attendant upon Armies in a retreat having been forced to forsake a siege and thereupon he gave the Parliament Forces Battel at Marston-Moor and was defeated wholly yet with such a confusion on both parts as six Generals present in that sight were said to take wing at the same time conceiving their party to be utterly overthrown whereof General Lesly of the Scottish was one This set the Parliaments reputation very high in point of strength and gave opportunity to our Caballists of abating or rather dissolving Essex his power who as they conceived and perhaps grounding their conceit upon his Letter for propositions to his Majesty in which Letter he also exprest much care that the Royal person might be preserved in safety had no mind to an utter overthrow of the Regal Authority So as when the Armies were withdrawn into their Winter-quarters our grand Politicians set themselves upon the effecting of this great work which must have influence as well upon Essex his chief adherents as upon himself The manner of this critical business was thus It was affirmed in the House of Commons as impossible that the War could be brought to an end by an Army that had totally lost its discipline whereupon it was moved and assented to that a Committy should be nominated for examination of corruptions and abuses in the Army This Committy sate many days and was very full of employment till at last a Report was called for Then arose up Mr. Tate the Chair-man with a great bundle of papers in his hand being a very great Presbyterian and little suspecting that his business would become the ruine of his party as it did in conclusion He appeared unwilling to make the Report but being pressed to do it he desired that the House would first give him leave to speak a few words And then he uttered his parable concerning a man much troubled with Botches and Boiles in several parts of his body who had recourse to a Physician for cure his Doctor told him that he could give him plaisters to cure any part of his body so disaffected but that whatsoever was healed in one member would break out again in another for the whole habit of his body was corrupted and that if he would have perfect health he must procure for himself a better habit of body by much purgation with a new diet and so the Ulcers would be healed of themselves This saith Mr. Tate is so applicable to the business in hand as I hope the House will find no need of a Report and yet upon command I am ready to make it Hereupon other Members who had prepared themselves spake against the Report and said that abroad out of doors all our ill successes were imputed to the absence of Members from Parliament and then a motion was made that there might be a self-denying Ordinance by which all the Members of either House might be deprived of other employments that diverted them from their service in Parliament This was very hard of digestion to many Members who had profitable Offices yet for publick satisfaction and for better reforming of the Army it was consented to that there should be such an Ordinance which was afterwards brought in and passed both Houses By this means Essex Denbigh Manchester Grey of Groby Sir William Waller Haselrig Brereton Cromwell and divers others were deprived of Command though the last was never intended to suffer by this Ordinance as it appeared afterwards But notwithstanding all this Essex had not surrendred his Commission and therefore something must be done to shew him a perfect necessity So the House of Commons proceeded in nomination of Collonels for their new Army whereof Sir Thomas Fairfax was one and at last he was Voted to be General of it He was a person eminent for valour vaillant comme son espée fearless as his sword but of a temper more flexible than Essex and very many others which pleased Cromwell who meant to be the chief Steersman Not long after this Essex finding himself imperatorem sine exercitu
a General without Command surrendred his Commission with many expressions of good affection to the Parliament and wholly bent himself to a retirement being the first person and last of the Nobility employed by the Parliament in Military affairs which soon brought him to the period of his life and he may be an example to all future Ages to deter all persons of like dignity from being instrumental in setting up a Democratical power whose interest it is to keep down all persons of his condition Yet they did him all possible honour in his Funerals at the publick charge so acceptable is an opportune death In pursuance of the great design all the old Commanders were wormed out by little and little and none admitted to Commands but those persons who were known not only to be of an Antimonarchical spirit but purely disposed to the Armies interests which the Army found very useful afterwards when it began to contend with the House of Commons for the Sovereign power By this it may appear how supinely negligent the Parliament was in forbearing to mould the army with surer dependence upon it self which might have been effected in the nomination of Colonels and chief Officers at first if care had been taken for choice of many persons who were resolved to stand fall with their interest such as were Colonel Harley and Sir Robert Pye who forsook the army when it opposed it self to the Parliament and for want of associates could effect nothing but their own prejudice As soon as this new army began to move it was thought necessary by the House of Commons to send Cromwel to them who was there not only received but intrusted with command of all the cavalry by the title of Lieutenant General there being then no General of the horse This army had but ill success at first having laid siege to Oxford and failed when in the mean time the King with a brave army had taken Leicester town and struck a great terror into all the parts adjacent But all this was useful only to bring on a greater misfortune for General Fairefax drew his army that way and the opposing of his passage brought on that fatal battail of Naseby where there was so absolute a defeat of his Majesties forces as the after strivings were but as labouring for breath by a person not long before his decease After this Oxford was besieged again and yielded by treaty which was followed by a total dissolution of all his Majesties military power Yet the King assayed to engage a powerful army for him which was that of the Scots at Newark and that he might the more endear himself to these he put his Royal person wholly into their power At first the Scots carried themselves as if they intended to appear worthy of so great confidence for they presently marched Northwards The Parliament gave no time to consider but made a peremptory demand to have the King's person delivered to them and had the help of Themistocles his two great gods Vis Suada the terror of a victorious army ready to fall upon them in case of refusal and by way of perswasion a representation of their duty that army being then in the Parliaments pay and obliged to act only in their service to which with many other reasons was added a promise of their arrears by very ready payment The first of these was more likely to give offence than terror to so powerful a body and as to that pretended duty of the army it could not extend it self to the extinguishing of natural allegiance which is a duty personal But whatsoever arguments were used the Scots consented to deliver him and performed it to their eternal infamy which infamy is much encreased by a breach of trust for having received his Majesty they ought to have set him in a state of freedom as good as he had when he came and because the contracting for mony makes the business appear as a sale of their Soveraign Prince Soon after the King's forces were wholly dispersed the army being without imployment made business for it self by interposing in publick matters appertaining to the Government which was begun by a mutinous accusation of Mr. Hollis with other members to the number of eleven and a drawing up of the army Southwards whereupon the Parliament sent Commissioners to them to expostulate about their remove Southwards and to promise all reasonable satisfaction in general terms but nothing would serve without the exclusion of those Members from the House of Commons But I should have related how upon delivery of the King's person the Parliament placed him at holdenby-Holdenby-house with a guard of Soldiers and a Committy of Lords and Commons to attend him and to order matters there for his security At this the army seemed to take offence disliking the choice of Commanders for his guard but surely their main intention was since now an opposition to the Parliament was designed to have the Royal person only in the power of the army and thereupon they sent a party to take him from Holdenby which was effected without the least opposition and so they held his Majesty with or near the army till being at Hampton Court the chief Officers grew jealous that his residence with the Soldiery might have an influence endangering the power of them the Commanders At this time Cromwel who was the chief manager of affairs in the army carried himself with such respect to his Majesty as his party grew highly jealous of him insomuch as John Lilborn the great Leveller offered a kind of 〈◊〉 against him at the bar in the House of Commons wherunto there was little car given by the house in general but those who abhorred all reconciliation with his Majesty remained unsatisfied and began to complain bitterly of him one to another as a person persidious but their fear was causless for he never intended to be an instrument of so much good to the nation and therefore his courtship must be thought to have had some other intention which may be guessed at by that which followeth While the army lay about Hampton Court the Houses were informed that the King had made an escape from thence and that the chief Commanders were very much distracted with the thought of it This was very well dissembled since it soon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the King had been perswaded to withdraw himself and was never fully out of power for being quickly seized upon again they placed him according to their hearts desire in the Isle of Wight where there could be no addresses made to him but by their permission Yet here the army was content the Parliament should have the honour that his Majesties perseemed to be in their custody for the guard and care of him was referred to a person nominated or at least approved of by them who was Colonel Hammond And now the English Nation though all too late was grown so generally sensible of their Prince his distressed estate
spent a whole night in that debate they sent their Red-coats early in the morning before the next sitting who passed the Streets with great cries and so possest themselves of the House of Commons-door admitting only those Members whose names they found not in their Catalogue and seizing upon many of the rest who would have entred I question not but upon this occasion as upon all others of great importance they held a solemn fast among the chief Commanders to ask counsel of God for the doing of that which they their selves had already resolved upon which if I deceive not my self is one of the greatest hypocrisies that the world hath known The House of Commons being thus moulded according to their desire they presently fell upon the formalities of that most hideous and not to be paralell'd murther of our Royal Sovereign and upon the business of putting down the House of Lords with intention to establish a perfect Democracy among us But God hath preserved us from so unhappy a change As for my self being one of the secluded Members I from that time retired me wholly from publick affairs till a farther call which by Gods mercy I lived to see and had the happiness to be a Member even of that House of Commons when all was disposed there for a perfect restitution of the ancient Government under our most gracious Sovereign Charles the Second whom God preserve long in prosperity for his service and for the happiness of these Nations And here I end this Discourse leaving it to better pens to set forth the continuance of that Anarchy and the miraculous way of Divine providence in Restoring us to our Sovereign Prince and to our fundamental Laws without effusion of one drop of bloud in the Military way A SHORT ADDITAMENT SInce the finishing of this Discourse I have consulted the Histories of several Nations to see if I could meet with any thing running paralel to the raising and issue of this War but I have absolutely failed of doing it It hath been usual for Senates to take part with a power already raised by persons assuming the Sovereignty so it was with the Roman Senate when Galba had prevailed against Nero and that Senate went farther than any other within my reading for they proceeded to a capital sentence against their Prince but it was not till the Imperial dignity was in a manner possessed by Galba and the Military power was so far from being raised or directed by themselves as they durst not give the least countenance to it till Nero was absolutely run down That which cometh nearer to us is a levying of War by the Roman Senate against Julius Maximinus the Emperor but at the same time they invested Pupienus and Albinus with the Imperial purple in opposition to him and claimed no Sovereignty in themselves which setting up of Emperor against Emperor was a thing very frequent among the Romans In these later times there have been divers Rebellions against Princes wherein Senates have been concurring but have not originally formed the opposition So in the United Provinces of Belgia Arms were first raised by particular persons or places and the States or Deputies of Provinces afterwards approved and concurred And the Parliament of Paris adjoyned it self to the Liguers or Covenanters against the two last Henries of France but that Parliaments actions are little to our purpose for they are to be looked upon as no more than a standing Court of Judicature wherein the Peers of France are priviledged to sit at pleasure and having jurisdiction only in some part of the French Dominion except in cases of appeal and besides this the War was neither begun nor managed under their Authority In Scotland an Assembly stiled Ecclesiastical though comprizing Lay-persons was Convocated by King Charles the First and they continued their Session after his Majesties Act for their dissolution assuming to themselves a power independent upon him but I never read that they made any Order for raising of Military Forces for maintenance of their Decrees though it was otherwise done against his Majesty In our Chronicles there is mention of divers Kings deposed even by Parliament but those Parliaments did it in compliance with a strength already in being and they no ways either directed or concurred in raising that power Thus have I raked together out of several Histories much filth but none of so bad savour as that contracted by our Long Parliament There are some particulars of aggravation against that Assembly I mean chiefly the House of Commons who for the most spurred the Lords into action as to things irregularly done which are not applicable to any of those in foreign Histories As first that they levied War against their Prince in their own name Secondly that they were Assembled by the King 's Writ to advise him in his affairs and therefore ought not to have acted against him Thirdly that they were limited by the terms of that Writ and in that respect ought not to have exceeded those limits Fourthly that they were representatives of the Commons and though they would be otherwise exorbitant ought not to have done things prejudicial to them and contrary to the mind of their Major part as certainly they did in levying of War and in those things which ensued thereupon And lastly they assumed a Jurisdiction upon the Kings Royal person without the least colour of right by making Substitutes stiled by them a High Court of Justice to Arraign him as a Delinquent and to proceed capitally against him even to death it self whereas he alone was the Fountain of all Justice within his Dominions and nothing of that nature could regularly be done against the meanest person but by vertue of Authority or Commission from him And all this when he was still acknowledged to be their King for he was so stiled In Terminis at the Arraignment This is far beyond what hath been formerly done by any other body of men and is of so odious a condition as pity it is there cannot be a total obliteration of it to prevent any transmission to posterity It hath been hinted herein that the levying of War against the King was displeasing to the people in general yet partly by terror and partly by hope of advantage the most powerful part of the Nation was made instrumental in it and this may the better be believed because many of the most important businesses transacted in that Parliament were upon a weaker consideration carried on contrary to the judgment of the Major part of that House of Commons I intend the sense of the House as it was constituted at first for to speak of it otherwise were like making a Coat for the Moon which is never of the same dimensions but either encreasing or decreasing This seemeth a paradox yet thus much I can say by experience for the truth of it that oftentimes very many Members of those who sate near me in the House gave their voice the same
them with an absolute negative and there passed something then which perhaps may be fit to be inserted herein as containing that which is something extraordinary I received the relation from a noble person who was one of the Commoners then sent and this it is After having received his Majesties answer the Committy being still at Theobalds retired it self to take into consideration the terms of it that there might be no difference in reporting to the several Houses of Parliament As soon as the Committy was set the Earl of Warwick was called out to speak with his brother the Earl of Newport He went out and speedily returned with this account of the business that the Earl of Newport had acquainted him that the King was even then so pressed to give a more satisfactory answer as he was confident they should have such an answer if they would but defer their departure for a small season To this the whole company seemed to assent with much chearfulness when suddenly young Sir Henry Vain declared himself to mervail at it for said he is there any person here who can undertake to know the Parliaments mind that is whether this which we have or that which is called a more satisfactory answer will be more pleasing to the Houses For my part I cannot and if there be any that can let him speak to this no man made any answer and so having agreed upon the report to be made they departed I have related this to shew how easily one subtle ill-disposed person may overthrow a general good intention Now were the well affected party as it was then termed stirred up in all parts to give incouragement to the House of Commons in the way of pretended Reformation by petitions whereof some were delivered dayly at the bar and the deliverers had thanks given by the Speaker which was a thing altogether new And as a general return to these and to keep the people in perfect heat it was resolved that a general and publick declaration of the State of the kingdom should be made to the Nation In time of former Princes the House of Commons had some times but very rarely made remonstrances of that nature to the King which were never pleasing to him yet not justly to be excepted against because it is exprest in the writs of Summons that they are to advise his Majesty but for any advising or treating with the people it was always held illegal and of mischievous consequence Upon these grounds the declaration being brought into the House caused a very long debate but was at last passed with the dissent of very many of the most considerable Members Our Nation being in such disorder the rebellion broke out in Ireland and the Lords of the Council being yet in London imparted their new received intelligence to the House of Commons who seemed chearfully to embrace the business of reducing that Kingdom to obedience and thereupon endeavoured the raising of a stock of money by adventure upon security of the living Bears-skin which was the Estates of such persons as were in Rebellion Upon this the King made offer of going in person to suppress the rebellion if he might be supplied with money and other necessaries for the work which offer was so far from being hearkned unto at Westminster as it created new jealousie But the Parliament made good use of the Irish business for by that means they listed Officers and made full enquiry concerning their inclinations which succeeded happily with them afterwards Every day produced new differences between the King and Parliament for that unsatiable Monster of publick security caused the making of a proposition to his Majesty which was that the Parliament might govern the Militia or Trained-bands for some time at least which was rejected by the King as a power not to be parted withal no not for an hour whereupon the Parliament made new Lieutenants for each County who assumed the exercise of that power by Parliamentary authority in many parts of the Kingdom And upon the same ground of publick security Sir John Hotham seised upon the Town of Kingston upon Hull with the Kings Magazin there which his Majesty cried out upon not only as rebellious but as a robbing him of his Arms and Ammunition being personal Goods bought with his money and this before any the least act of hostility shewed on his part The King was then retired to the City of York as a place of more safety than nearer to London And there first of all the Warrants of Parliament being sent by express Messengers for Delinquents by them so stiled were flatly disobeyed which was no unwelcome news to the great managers of affairs at Westminister for they pretended such obstruction of Justice to be a justifiable sufficient ground for the raising of forces When the opposition was grown to this height his Majesty judged it fit that such Members of both Houses as had resolved to engage against the Parliament should withdraw themselves and one of the last that continued sitting in the House of Commons was Mr. Sidney Godolphin who for a farewel declared That by a War the Parliament would expose it self to unknown dangers for said he when the Cards are once shuffled no man knows what the Game will be which was afterwards found by the Parliament too true when their own Army became their Masters But in the mean time this Secession of Members did very much facilitate the entry into and continuance of the War all dispute being taken away within the Houses and the House of Commons would not lose this convenience and therefore they soon excluded the withdrawn Members by special Votes This abscission or cutting off of Members had been formerly used in this and other Parliaments but very rarely and for offences extraordinary and such an offence was this obedience to his Majesty then adjudged to be so unfitting a time for Judgment is the heat of a Civil War in matters relating to that War This War first began in Paper by Manifestoes and Declarations on both parts which brings to remembrance a pleasant passage in the House of Commons upon this account One of the Members brought with him into the House a Declaration of his Majesties which he had newly bought and complained much of those who were so insolent as freely to sell such papers of the Kings At this a young Gentleman of those who were accounted Fanaticks in those days but one who never spake publickly in the House grew into a seeming impatience and said with much earnestness Why not his papers as well as every mans else Which though loudly yet being spoken without standing up was answered only with looks and smiles This passage is scarcely worthy of a place in any serious discourse yet it seemeth naturally to express the small ingenuity of those times which allowed not to a Sovereign Prince in his own Dominions that freedom which every petty fellow assumed without exception At this time
judged fit to call in the Scots which matter being moved in the House of Commons and it being objected that it would be fruitless to call them without proposing to them at the same time something of great advantage by it there stood up presently that great Patriot Henry Martin and desired with much confidence that an offer might be made them of the Counties of Northumberland and Cumberland and in case they were not therewith contented to add two such other Counties in the North as should be most convenient for them So little care had he in that conjuncture of the honour and advantage of the English Nation This was justly thought extravagant yet that business of calling in the Scotts being communicated to the Lords there was a Committy of Lords and Commons nominated to go into Scotland and matters were so transacted with the Scots as they entred into England with an army the February following I should have related how in the former year after the King 's retiring from Parliament there was set up at Westminster an assembly of Divines being an Ecclesiastical body of strange constitution and composed of persons nominated by the Knights and Burgesses of each County to which were added a small number named by the Lords and some few Commissioners deputed by the Kirk of Scotland This assembly being so extraordinary in the constitution was certainly designed to produce great effects but the success was not answerable for they could never perfect their model of Church Government not well agreeing among themselves by reason of the Independent members who approved of no Church discipline other than Parochial and even that part of the model which was concluded upon with approbation of Parliament could never be put in execution the Presbyterian discipline being so strict as made it unpleasing to most of the people and especially to those of the Gentry who found themselves likely to be over-powered by the Clergy even in the places of their habitation But the Army after it became new modelled was wholly averse to it I conceive the intentions of calling an Assembly to have been these two First to have a Synod of Divines concurring in the subversion of the Bishops and their Hierarchy and in this the Parliament had their end fully for the matter very well pleased all such persons as were earnestly of their party And secondly to agree upon some uniformity in Divine Service which was the ground of their Directory but all Uniformity or colour of it was distasteful to the Independents which became the growing opinion and at last so over-spread the Army as the sight of a black-coat grew hateful to them and so the Directory fell to ground of it self These Assembly-men might well be discouraged since hopes were given at first that the Lands of Bishops and of Collegiate Churches should be setled in some way for the raising of all Parochial Churches a competency of means for the Ministers but the necessities belonging to War exposed these to sale and frustrated that hope I should have related how the House of Commons finding the Pulpits filled with persons disaffected to them made a breach upon the Lords in point of Judicature and erected a Committy called of plundered Ministers and by this Committy they ejected the old Ministers and placed new at pleasure but because the ejected had been possest of a Freehold the Committy ordered to his Wife and Children a fifth part of the profits if cause were not shewed to the contrary which must be this That the person displaced was otherwise possest of temporal means sufficient and to my observation there was scarcely any of the new-placed who did not dispute that provision at the Committy But it seems that this Committy could not dispatch that business fast enough for the Earl of Manchester was afterwards invested with a power by both Houses to do the same thing within his association as also to reform the University of Cambridge where he had the like arbitrary power of ejection But the Parliament had a way of cementing their fluctuating faction by religious bands of union which certainly they found very effectual though upon differing grounds or else they would never have had three of them in three or four years time which I think is not to be paralell'd in any other revolt The first of these was a protestation in the year 1641 which being before the War began took into it the defence of his Majesties Royal person Estate and Dignity The second was termed a Vow and Covenant set on foot in the year 1642 and this containeth no mention of the King but in the way of forcible opposition to him by prosecuting the War And the third was the Scottish-Covenant which again taketh in the defence of his Majesties Royal person but in so perplexed and complicated a way as it signified little And in this was also contained a total abrogation of the Government Ecclesiastical by Archbishops Bishops c. with the whole Hierarchy so as this Covenant may be said to have spoken perfect Scottish The taking of the first and last of these in their proper time was pressed upon the people in general with all terror and the Vow and Covenant which related much to a particular conspiracy only upon the Members of both Houses and certainly it was a very useful policy to engage the most considerable persons in these oaths and in other things rendring them odious to their Prince and exposing them to confiscation of their Estates upon conquest which could not but make them stick the more closely to common defence All the time of this Parliament it was the design of our Caballists to abate the power of the Lords House and in pursuance of that design at the very beginning in Straffords business they prevailed to have the Recusant Lords deprived of Voting there and afterwards they had not patience to stay till the Bishops were excluded by the Ordinance but took advantage of a protestation made by such Bishops as then sate in the House of Lords being about half their number and to my best remembrance thus it was Those Bishops having taken a resolution not to continue sitting long after his Majesties forsaking the Southern parts yet finding that there was an Ordinance coming for abolition of their Order which must pass the Lords House they used their endeavours to enervate that which might be done in their absence and upon that ground they entred a Protestation subscribed with their names against all such determinations to their prejudice This being become matter of record the House of Commons took notice of it and came up presently with an impeachment of those Bishops by name as guilty of a Praemunire in assuming to themselves a power to invalidate that which is otherwise the Law of the Land viz. the Jurisdiction of Parliament and upon this ground how justly I know not for the matter was never brought to Judgment those Bishops unhappily formed to themselves a