mad violence and oppression practised in the Kings name and by His party and by degrees wrought to the destruction of the Subject diverts and alters His wonted course and may make him Rebel as it were against His will when as He is frightned driven from and threatened out of His obedience If on the other side the Parliament shall prevail those Enemies to Common-Prayer advers also to what Government the Church shall appoint may be easily over-ruled by a Parliamentary Authority The Authors and Fautours of those Before this time of War there were no such Schisms or Heresies Tautum res nobis saith learned Iewel cum quibusdam satellitibus Pontificiis c. and it is requisite that Vnity and Peace be setled in the Church as well as in the State for suppression of these Schisms and Heresies God delighting yea and requiring it to have Order and Truth in his presence chamber the Church as in his larger courts the Common-wealth The Authors of the War have been the Authors of these Heresies which side Schisms being few and inconsiderable their Tenents newly sprung up and apt to vanish both through the insufficiency of their grounds and multiformity of their Sects wounding and weakning one another and in the main the Common cause For it is the firm and Orthodox Protestants which are the Parliaments firm friends whereon to trust yea and their constant friends also whilst the Parliament goes on in an entire solid and joynt way and are as the Exigency of their Affairs shall suffer them constant to themselves whereby and by which way alone they are inabled to defend themselves to protect their Friends Which side will prevail God only knows who can dispose of Victories at his will If the Parliament shall the King neverthelesse could not but assure Himself that He should be entirely King howsoever part of His Estate be by reason of these Wars diminished and the Parliaments Protestation taken 1641. together with their late Covenant two years after for the maintenance of His just Power and greatnesse were good security until themselves were reputed Traitors Rebels their worth in like maner undervalued and scorned by His party for so the Protestation and Covenant both may lose their efficacy and intent if He for whom they do Protest and Vow shall by opposing disable them in the prosecution of their Vow To that Objection That the Parliament have contrary to such Covenant Usurped and Intrenched upon His Regal Dignity and by seeking to hinder His Power have lessened His Honor in passing an Ordinance against His Majesties creating of Lords c. in seeking to have their Friends Invested with Honors and Titles answerable to their demerits To the first it is confest an Ordinance is past against all such Acts as may inure by vertue of the Great Seal and Barons being made by Patent under the same Seal which being a necessary Instrument of State which the Parliament represents being surreptitiously taken from them contrary to a Trust they have consequently passed an Ordinance against the Creating of Lords ut Supra For the Contention betwixt Him and them being grown extreme the King striving by all means to lessen their Power and Credit using all ways to advance His own their Enemies they knowing likewise the Seal to be made use of to their Detriment as if that the Kings conferring those Honors were not so much an augmentation of His Dignity in granting or in the created Lords in receiving those Honors as an intended diminution to the Parliaments Dignity had reason to provide for the time against all contingent Acts tending to the lessening their Power Admit it to be as the Objectors give out which neither the Kings party do prove nor the Parliaments do grant as in other Acts done by the Parliament An Usurping in them Usurpation may in the strength of policy prove a benefit to the Subject in that Usurpers do commonly Establish the best Laws to redeem their Credit lost by the Injury done in their Usurping If the Kings party shall prevail the War being between Him and His People the Parliament rather an Umpire in the Quarrel to do right to the wronged part there will be two things considerable The means whereby He doth prevail The end of His prevailing The first means not primarily as in the strength or greatnesse of His party yet consequently in that His party do undividedly retain and keep up the Ancient and setled Form of Government without contesting or dissenting in opinion about the Establishing any new As on the other side the Parliament hath thrown down the old without for a long time setting up any other Form or Constitution It was a learned Fathers Observation Augustine Ipsa mutatio quae utilitate adjuvat etiam novitate perturbat And it will require a most exact deliberate Wisdom to suppresse all Inconveniences which may arise on Novity Hence it hath been that the Parliaments Friends have grown lesse zealous to their side more troublesom to the Court it self by requiring and seeking a new and certain Form Which may admit a twofold Answer that the Parliament interrupted by a powerful Enemy hath not a full measure of Efficacy to conform and compose every collateral difference happing either in Church or Common-wealth when as their Task is hard enough to maintain and keep a work more necessary Their own Power Secondly In that they have for a time abolished those ancient Forms and constitutions finding haply some present reason for so doing whether they will forthwith establish some other Forme as it is probable they will having long since promised it or reassume the Ancient when time shall serve there being no substantial difference betwixt what is now abrogated and what is to be Ordained is left to their wisdom besides it is presumed in point of Judgement and of Policy that they will have such respect unto their Predecessors Acts as not altogether to raze out to abrogate for ever their ancient Constitutions least succeeding Parliaments should do the like by theirs and so the Courts of Parliament which have been instituted for redresse of Mischiefs and Grievances c. should become See Statute Edw. 3. the Scene and Seminary of inconvenience and disturbance by introducing still Novelties and alterations in the Common-wealth The third is in that His Majesty keeping His residence in a lesse Town of Garison Oxford can more easily conform and subdue a few unto His will then the Parliament can in a more greater place London The multitude in that City the supplies and Ayd afforded by the City to the Parliament can counterpoise such odds The event of His Majesties prevailing is alike considerable and two-fold also first in that the Parliament Members already proscribed and charged with Rebellion are exposed to contempt and ruine in them a great part of the Subjects of both Kingdoms when as the cause wherein the Publique good is so much concerned is by idle and abject Fellows called
forbear to send Aid to the Protestants there the small number yet remaining of the English and Scotish cannot possibly subsist Who such Authors and Causers of this War have been is long since manifested and resolved by the joynt advice and provision made against them in the Articles of the large Treaty betwixt the Kingdom of ENGLAND and SCOTLAND August Page 16. 1641. in their fourth Demand granted by His Majesty the Kingdoms then and there agreeing to make such lyable to the censure and sentence of the Parliaments respectively c. But to proceed If it be dishonorable to His Majesty as His Commissioners urge to make void that Cessation out of gratitude and favor to the Papists there affisting Him in this War His Commissioners His Friends and His party might have spared to object those Acts passed by His Majesty this Parliament in favor and case to His Subjects when as if this Parliament be born down or dissolved the Acts passed by His Majesty this Parliament are Repealable Alterable in part or in all by a succeeding Parliament by which Acts already passed many of His Friends and party adhering to Him against this Parliament have suffered in their Estates as is before expressed For neither the suppressing of Star Chamber or High Commission Court the granting of a Triennial Parliament which are instanced in as Acts of Grace and the Subjects charged with Ingratitude for not valuing such gracious Acts are no infallible and constant notes of such His Goodnesse and Favor to His people when as those Acts are Repealable at pleasure nor that of the Triennial Parliament unlesse a Parliament be of force to maintain their Power and Priviledges which this hath sought to defend for their own and for succeeding Parliaments As for His Majesties Commissioners to urge excusing in their way the King and His party from violating the ancient and Fundamental Laws That the Parliament and their Committees are guilty of breaking the same and they alone as if no such thing were done by His Majesties party Souldiers and Commissioners employed for raising Arms and Money to prosecute this War Such charge against the Parliament must either be understood of their abolishing for the present some ancient Constitutions or of their compulsory wayes in raising Moneys for the maintenance of this War the reason the means of the one and the other is examined If his Commissioners understood it of the particular and late Robberies committed by the Souldiers on poor Countrymen and Travellers on the road that cannot be charged on the Parliament because it is done against their will and to prevent the like they have according to the Law brought the offendors to condign punishment wherein also the Kings Souldiers are the most offendors when as the Parliament Souldiers are required for their Assistance to rescue from the Robbery and Spoylings committed by the Kings besides it hath been observed that many wishing wel to the Parliament Travellers on the ways having met with Souldiers and doubtful on which side they were being demanded for whom they were have counterfeited their tone and answered For the King as being assured that if those Souldiers were for t he Parliament they should finde lesse cruel usage then by the Souldiers for the King This Experience hath throughly taught and these and the like actions committed by His party hath made His Majesties name the more terrible In that the like hostile and cruel Acts are practised on either part and that the fear of cruelty working more strongly on the common sort hath brought many of them to yeeld and comply with the more cruel part the inequality of the cruelty hath been observed to be great between the one side who to gain or save a Town or for the like advantage sake have burned or pulled down some houses in a sudden and revengeful heat have killed and Enemy and the other side which in cool blood have killed and massacred many hundred of inoffensive Subjects burned whole Towns and laid waste the dwelling places of the Poor and Fatherless For if the one side had wasted and spoyled as the other doth the Countreys had been far more miserable then now they are and the spoyler left destitute of where withal to maintain himself and his Soldiers The Kings party give a reason for such a difference had betwixt the Souldiers on either side alleaging that the Countreys being Rebellious and Disaffected deny unto their Souldiers upon their march and in their quarterings a fit provision and supply for horse and man wherefore the Souldiers of His Majesties party are inforced to rob and spoyl c. The Answer to this Objection is had from a recourse to what is here delivered and the Reader to be satisfied in the Question what Rebellion Treason truly is what the ground and original of the Countreys Disaffection is If His Majesties Commissioners understand their charge against the Parliaments violating the Fundamental because of their abolishing old Laws 'T is answered They have power to Abrogate and Repeal what they finde offensive and exorbitant in a Common-wealth The modern and positive Laws were by Parliament established and quicquid constituitur eodem modo etiam dissolvitur No one Fundamental Law is by them dissolved or by their Acts yet violated unlesse the Constitution of Bishops be held a Fundamental one It was their Quarrel and questionless their Exception to be found both in their words and by their or their Friends Writings That the Parliament have transgressed the Ancient Laws because they have abolished Bishops they make the Law which constitutes them to be of equal time and value belike with that of Magna Charta when as most men know who have lookt into the Records that many Session of Parliament have bin held many Acts passed Excluso Clero It was a cunning Argument and Artifice in the Bishops to incense the people against the Parliament if it were they which give out the Parliament to have violated the Ancient Laws which the people were ready to defend when as upon a through examination of the matter complained of there was no other Law violated but what concern'd the Bishops partial in the Cause To conclude the Question touching the transgressing of the Laws which both sides may seem to be guilty of the matter is not whether the Ancient or New Laws be kept whether those long since made or those of a latter time be broken a War lets all Laws loose but had the Law of not Dissolving without the Parliaments consent been kept entirely and strictly the other Laws had not in the judgement of most men been broken The Parliament may plead Their undertakings and course of Justice cannot be made good by reason of their power opposed themselves confronted The great Law and Charter of the Subjects Freedom is enlarged into Statute Laws all conducing to make up one * Suprema Lex salus Populi Supreme Law The Subjects Safety The dividing of the Parliament Members if
other Acts in several Counties for raising money c. or otherwise for discharging some Trust to them committed when as themselves the more eminent the more aimed at by the Enemy and the nearer to danger cannot appear with safety to execute the same Let any man suppose it to be his own case then he will not blame them for absenting themselves and substituting others in their room Many are the objections in this kinde which beget Disputes many accusations had against either part What the Parliament findes and complains to be practiced in opposition to them by their Enemies they observe most sensible presumptions for no one thing in bar to such presumptions to make up one tittle of compensation in lieu of the dangers which might happen or to give any the least satisfaction for removing the imminency of the same The vulgar and common salve used by His Majesties party of His passing bills since the Parliament began for the relief and ease of His Subjects as a pledge of His Princely goodnesse and care of His peoples welfare His often and deep Protestations for the maintenance of the Protestant Religion and the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom yet as matters now are these Acts of His not compensatory to those hostile Acts practiced by His party against His Parliament and people Besides those Acts of Parliament passed by His Majesty are in His and a new Parliaments power to retract or repeal them at pleasure For let it be granted that they were Acts of Parliament which His Majesty hath thus passed in that the Members of both Houses at WESTMINSTER are by His party denied to be a Parliament yet sometimes called a Parliament sometimes Rebels there is like to be little stability in what they have enacted neither is that which is contingent and possible to be altered to be adjudged compensatory to what is certain and actual The difference of times that they were reputed a Parliament when those Acts passed but since reputed Rebels or the distinction into persons that some are reserved to be a Parliament others Rebels will breed a greater confusion then help to frame an Answer by those of His Majesties party who object this favour of His Majesties passing divers Bills for the welfare of His Subjects c. That they may be repealed altered in part or all dissolved or want their vigour in execution it is probable when the persons who have and are the chief assistants in this War are the greatest Losers by those Acts recited Next as touching His Protestations His frequent Declarations of manifesting His intentions His late actions of Clemency and Pardon shewed to those whom he calls Rebels when they were taken prisoners at a late Seige by His Majesty His releasing and setting them free when He might have detained and proceeded against them as Traytors and Rebels in the judgement of His party These are to be acknowledged indulgent and merciful Acts becoming a just and Christian Prince yet they may be two wayes understood First in relation to the good of His own party prisoners in the Parliaments power and in danger to have suffered the like in case the King should have punished theirs Secondly those His Acts of releasing of His milde using of those His prisoners it is possible might be construed as present Acts of Clemency to endure only for a time and that He may be perswaded afterwards to punish them as Rebels These are times of wit and jealousie and the same Reasons which have occsioned this War even His peoples Jealousies may continue them without abatement there is no lesse cause of fears and dangers His party having tried every way by traducing the Parliament at home by attempting to set them at varience with Forraigners abroad having moved every stone as the Proverb is to subdue those whom they term Rebels no way left untried to take away their power and shadow of power no means left unassayed either milde of Inviting or violent in Affrighting and those plausible and gratious Acts used possibly to encrease yet the number of his party may cease from a total pardoning only remitting for a time until a full Conquest be obtained And when the Crown is repossest the Conquest fully had the French Proverb tells us Que la Coronne unifois prinse oste toute sorte de defaults i. e. that when the King shall be reinvested to His former full Power and Regal Dignity the Parliament and the power thereof then laid aside and become void the possessing of the Crown doth as well quit all quarrels and acceptions and cancels all disputes as it clears and purifies all manner of defaults imperfections or exceptions to be made concerning the means whether fair or foul of gaining the Conquest As Jealousies have been the cause of this Contention so what the cause of Jealousies The principal and most certain one hath been in matter of fact namely the infringing the Subjects Liberty soon after the Petition of Right was granted in full Parliament to be omitted here because set forth in several Declarations and Remonstrances One and more universal was that in the case of Ship-money which had it not been withstood by a Gentleman of repute let his Ghost be railed at and a Parliament soon after summoned what had become of the Subjects Liberty If a Writ comes down directed to a Sheriff of a County he bound by Oath or fearful of incurring displeasure in case he refuse to execute the Kings Writ and having the Posse Comitatus within his Office what remedy shall the poor Countrey man have dwelling one hundred or two hundred miles from the Court if he refuse or hath it not to pay against Imprisonment or his Goods taken from him by Distresse Justice hath its boundary and is circumscribed by Law Injury and Injustice like the violent Torrent of an Inundation over-flowing the Banks and Metes overwhelms and drowns as Decency and Order when bound up by good and wholsom Laws if disturbed and broken down falls into Uncertainty Indiscretion and becomes Confused Let men talk of fears and jealousies and in an Ironical way smile at those whose peculiar care is to prevent and remove the same no man knows what the Progresse of that wrong had been had it not been withstood The mention whereof seeing so often inculcated in other Writings can be no pleasing Theme to any Subject And whereas His Majesty hath confessed and retracted that His Error being now condemned to an utter abolition ought to be buried in Oblivion neither doth it become every ordinary Subject to traduce and accuse His Soveraign of Injustice doing it comes too near to what the wise man expresly forbids of Cursing the King in their thoughts as of what the Statute Law provides against Only to satisfie one Objection used by some of His Majesties party in His behalf touching the same Better say they the payment thereof should have continued then so much blood spilt such vast Sums of Money spent in
some other contagious Disease or such like Reason those towns otherwise incompetent for such conflux of people as probably may have recourse to the Parliament for their dispatch and redresse in their Desires And whither that Adjournment amounts not to a Dissolving against the Law so consented unto by the King hereafter Besides observe the difference of Times and Persons which satisfies the Question Former Kings have been willing to call often Parliaments that the Usage and Necessity of often Summoning grew 36. Ed. 3. into a Law and yet in force to call one every year when in this of His Majesties Raign how seldom and sparingly He hath called any And when He hath as He did in the first year of His Raign to begin in June it continued unto July and Adjourned until August following and but few Acts passed before it ended In these last years the Parliament at the importunity and humble Request See their Petition 1639. of divers the Nobility and a valuable number of the Gentry the King summoned in April 1640. how soon He dissolved the same the beginning of May following Then he called another in November after in which for their more firm and constant proceedings in their Affairs and to the end that being come and met together from the several parts of the Kingdom they should not upon every light matter of Debate be dissolved and remitted home His Majesty was pleased to passe an Act against Dissolving without their own consent how soon after their sitting and that Act passed their Priviledges were seized by charging several Members of either House of High Treason Which when that could not take effect nor their persons seized the King withdraws Himself advised thereto from the Parliament and their place of sitting thereby to make void their Court whereof His Majesty one part yet His personal presence in this case not so requisite as that His absence should make void the Parliament The Parliament consisting of three Estates King Lords and Commons if the King be a necessary and constitutive part without which there can be no Parliament as those of His party contend to have it so His removing from the other parts amounts to a dissolving contrary to a Law consented unto by His Majesty wherefore it were a greater degree of undutifulnesse in any Subject to think that the King would violate that Law then that His Power and Vertue being there His Person should be so requisite as that the absence of His Person should adnul and make it no Parliament The person it self being severed from its Office and Vertue is a thing inanimate The distinction into a voluntary and necessitated absence or that the Kings presence shall make it compleat His absence an incompleat Parliament abates not the force of that Law nor serves to make whole the difference unlesse there be such a condition or limitation in the * See the Act passed in full Parliament Act. Which the proper and true Parliament is that summoned and resident at WESTMINSTER or that removed by a latter summons as before expressed to OXFORD which Question together with the perverse and proud obstinacy of an engaged and desperate party though throughly convinced of the truth thereof hath cost much blood The King and His party at OXFORD do resolve it truly Again He or His parties instability of Actions do seem to renew the doubt certainly do wound their own Cause For whilest His Majesty often and of late calls the Assembly at WESTMINSTER The Parliament and the Assembly at OXFORD by one and the The Assembly at OXFORD acknowledge in their Declaration printed there March 1643. The Parliament at WESTMINSTER not to be Dissolved pag. 25. same stile and that two Parliaments are inconsistent at one and the same time in this Kingdom the people unlesse wilfully and perversly ignorant are not to seek which is the proper Parliament Here by the way the OXFORD Mercury seeming to subjoyn in some ways to the Declaration printed there with a plausible Frontispiece of A Declaration tending to Peace rather Refutes that Book and deals more plainly and ingenuously upon the matter of a Peace offering from His party there and moving a strong cause of Jealousie against a truly intended Peace as is before expressed Now to examine the several Passages and Tracts of that Book Intituled A Declaration tending to Peace whither or no it ministereth matter of Peace as the title doth insinuate or further Quarrel For first they can say little for themselves to justifie their assembling as to a Parliament for the enacting and constituting Laws but what is ordinary and easie to be answered They lay aspersions on some mis-fezance and Errors in their fellow Members So great a body could not well be free from failings they accuse the whole body of Parliament of High Misdemeanors of High Treason of disturbing the publique Peace of the Kingdom of promoting and fomenting an horrid War and who to be judge thereof but themselves the Accusers The Parliament by an ancient Law in force is the sole Interpreter in matters of this doubt and consequence 36. Ed. 3. and themselves at OXFORD do not assume the Title and Power of a Parliament when as they acknowledge in the same Declaration ther fellow Pag. 16. Members sitting now at WESTMINSTER to be so material a part of Parliament that if they themselves at OXFORD might have enjoyed their freedom without being forced their sitting at WESTMINSTER to have been a full and free Convention and a Parliament The formal part of a Parliament in the Kings summoning them by Writ at such a time to such a place to debate the Affairs of the King and Kingdom This being granted and the Parliament at WESTMINSTER thus met what is wanting then to make it a full and free Parliament As to their want of freedom due to the Members of a Parliament and forced as they urge from those assembled now at OXFORD when they sate at WESTMINSTER Forced they could not be force is a fruit of power and deparibus in pares non datur potestas solicited and strongly wrought upon they might be according to their several tempers They accuse themselves and abate much of that courage required in Parliament Members when they complain they were forced fellow Peers cannot enforce each other without a previous disposition and compliance in those who are forced to be forced If any force and the same not offered by an higher power it might be in a close and clancular way by Proxies and Solicitors they know where the power rests of Punishing and Pardoning Proscriptions and Proclamations are Acts of Power no strength in equals to work a force Besides how cometh to passe that those at OXFORD Pag. 23. contending by the enumeration of those lately dead at WESTMINSTER or else departed from their fellow-Members thence to make them a few and inconsiderable part themselves the greater and more valuable number should be forced by those
Act of offering a Treaty for Peace to invent new charges of high Treason of capital Misdemeanors of Injustice is no right way to Peace unlesse the persons charged are guilty of the same as namely they charge the Parliament or their Committees to have imprisoned two Lords for their Loyalty to the King as if their Loyalty were the unquestionable and certain cause of their Imprisonment These Lords might happily shew themselves active against and disobedient to the Parliaments Authority for in these unsetled and distracted times few men do others will not know their proper duty and so come within the compasse of some fault to deserve Imprisonment The High Treason whereof they accuse their fellow-Members is their counterfeiting the Great Seal Page 22. against the Statute of 25. Edw. 3. which whether in this case be to be understood High Treason the Sword must decide the Question The Parliament think themselves not guilty of that Crime by the Verdict of most men nor every thing made to the Mould by which it is made is not simply Counterfeiting the quality of the offence is much discerned in the maner of the offending and every Law-making commonly relates to some preterite fraud and wickednesse Now whether a King and a Parliament since the first constitution of either have heretofore made use of the Great Seal to crosse one anothers Acts be to be found in any Record whereon to ground a Law the Reader is to seek Amongst all the capital Misdemeanors amounting to High Treason recited in that Statute the Parliament making a new Seal being not done against the knowledge of the King and State seems not within the compasse of that Law which in that clause doth questionlesse intend the privy and surreptitious counterfeiting to the private Use and Benefit of the Counterfeiter And whereas in that Statute there may be divers doubtful cases of Treason determinable it is then and there accorded That if any other case supposed Treason which is not specified in See the Statute that Statute shall come before any Justices they shall tarry without giving Judgement of the Treason until the cause shall be shewed and declared before the King and Parliament whether it ought to be so adjudged or not In which determination the King and Parliament are presumed joyntly to Act if dividedly then who to judge the King seclusively without the Parliament or the Parliament without the King which if divided most likely to give a clear and dexterous judgement the King or the Parliament Those words The King Parliament cannot be understood of the Kings Councel and the Parliament it must be of the King himself in which as Treason is here objected to the Parliament the Parliament is excluded from any decisive power of being Judge what is Treason and pronounced guilty themselves of Treason The marginal Note if in that as in other places of See the marginal Note the Statute it sums up the sense of the Statute disputeth many Questions touching Treason to be first decided in Parliament leaving out the word King or presuming as is before observed that He is always there in person or in vertue Take the Accusers the Assembly at OXFORD Page 24 25. their own acknowledgement That the Parliament is His Majesties Answer to a Declaration from both Houses May 19. 1642. not Dissolved that they are far from Dissolving or attempting to Dissolve it Take His Majesties own confessing and allowing to the Parliament a power in a particular doubtful case regularly brought before them to declare what Law consequently what Treason is and the making a new Great Seal the old being contrary to Trust vafrously carried away from them the Representative Body of the State which the Seal is always to attend will not be adjudged a case of High Treason In the controverting this particular case as of the other Crimes charged on the Parliament and the Subjects of this Kingdom adhering thereunto the people may well be to seek when as the learned Sages and other Students of the * The Innes of Court Phrontisteries of Law and Justice seem to be divided in opinion some very active as being peradventure engaged for the King against the Parliament contending with all their might to make good the charge of Treason laid upon that Court and the Friends assisting them Others in the Parliaments account and questionless their Friends as earnest although more moderatly expressing it for the King and Parliament believe it to be no way Treason Which are greater numbers of them on the one side or the other or which the more able Lawyers is not here determined But to the Objection if any such That a greater number of them are within the Jurisdiction of the Parliament in LONDON and other places elswhere wherefore they may seem rather to side with that power The Answer is easily had That their hopes and possibility of being prefer'd by His Majesty were not Conscience Judgement valued by them above Reward or Honor were a more weighty motive then fear can be of displeasing that side in whose Quarters they are which cannot always protect much lesse gratifie them save only with the testimony of what they deserve answerable to their Breeding Knowledge and liberal Faculty One of the learnedst of that Tribe in those days wherein he lived and much Honored for his parts and industry wrote a whole Tractate for the Dignity and Priviledge of that Court in general How this in particular hath demeaned themselves to forfeit their Credit any other way then in maintenance of their power against oppression violence offered to themselves and the Subjects for whom they are entrusted future Ages can Record But to proceed In the same Declaration full of suspition and fraught with quarrelling the Assembly at OXFORD except against the words of a Message sent from the Lords and Commons to His Majesty Dated in the same year March 1643. viz. That His Majesty would not be the least or last Sufferer These words they throughly scanned and presented them to the world as terms of an See the Message of the Lords and Commons sent unto His Majesty upon occasion of a Letter sent from the Earl of Forth to the Earl of Essex high Affront as that Subjects or Rebels 't is all one in their Dialect in arms against their King should dare to send unto Him such a daring and presumptuous Message The words admit a two-fold sense the one of the Parliaments meaning as the Assembly at OXFORD seem to construe it the other more probably of their lamenting and foreseeing in their sadnesse and grief of heart the inevitable and universal ruine which must attend this War For that His Majesty cannot be the least Sufferer 't is too probable whose sufferings can be compared to His in the destruction of many thousands of His people as well in the greatest and dearest to Him as in the meaner sort in all whom consists His Safety This exception
THE REASON OF THE WAR WITH The Progress and Accidents thereof Written by an English Subject VVherein also the most material Passages of the Two Books printed at Oxford in which His MAJESTIES party do undertake to justifie their Proceedings are briefly examined VIZ. The Declaration entituled Tending to Peace The Relation of The Passages at the meeting at UXBRIDGE Imprimatur July 1. 1646. NA BRENT LONDON Printed for Iohn Field and are to be sold by Stationers 1646. READER THere were some parts of this Book published the last year but passing from the Author in much imperfection and some baste it is revised and augmented according to the Progresse and Occurrences of the War Many of the Passages therein are his own Collections observed at single hand the rest produced through the Arguing and Discourse betwixt some opposite in opinion to him and himself a lover of Learning although of ordinary and too mean parts to Discourse it as an able Schollar for he cannot but acknowledge that the subject of this Treatise might have been managed by a more learned and elaborate hand The greater part thereof was begun about a twelvemoneth since in the turbulent and divided times by way of an Animadversary of the War of the Occasions and Accidents thereof and had been printed a good while since had not an unexpected chance crossed in the very instant of putting it to the Presse Now if in these more quiet and composed times the Beams of Peace seeming to shine out again it should give offence or in the least way interrupt the happy and hoped for Reconcilement which it doth not in the Authors sence and to his best understanding his heart is against the publishing the Discourse relating rather to what is past and may serve for future times It is probable that in these times of Conflict this Discourse as milde and plain as it is may meet with rough harsh answers and unkinde censurings as that the Author is an Ambidexter Neutral that he cunningly carries himself betwixt both parts sometimes and in some things for the King at other times and in other things for the Parliament Whereunto he replyes and ingenuously declares himself both for whom and against whom he is For whom For the King and Parliament Against whom Against the Disturbers of the happy Peace having long since been the authors and now the promoters consequently of this horrid War and that there are and have been such a woful and sad Experience doth manifest A favorable and upright interpretation is all the Reward the Author either looks or wishes for next unto That His Majestie and His Subjects may reciprocally enjoy and hold firmly and entirely their several Rights The Reason of the VVar with the Progresse and Accidents thereof TO describe the Power and Dignity of a King the quality and several formes of a Parliament is not the purpose of this discourse Or what Esteem a Parliament in other Kingdoms carrieth That is left unto the curious Pen of a more learned Antiquary In this Kingdom breifly In the ancient and usual acception it is an Assembly of the Nobility and Gentry chosen by their Country and solemnly called together by the King his writ to such a place at such a time to debate the affairs of the King and Kingdom The manner of being called is by * See the form of the Writ in the Crown Office Writ directed to the high Sheriff of every County as to the chief Magistrate of Burrough Towns to return Knights and Burgesses for that service so Habited viz. with swords girt on their sides c. Which habit a Note and Embleme of the valour in them required the Object to do and go on with Courage and Magnanimity in discharging their trust which their Country hath repoâ—ed in them against all Forces opposing And no Question if former Kings have deputed none to place of Justice but menltz valianntz as King Edw. 3. expresseth them none but such are to defend and serve their Country in the high Court of Parliament which controules and is to give Laws to Justice The end of their Assembling is to determine Ordain and provide for the peace Justice and safety the supreamest Law of the Kingdom called thereunto by his Majesty Entrusted by their Country Whose Councels and Ordinances become Laws Or in case of variance in Judgement that so many as are there met cannot all agree in the same opinion that passeth for a Law which the major part concludes on so it fares in every body Politique and Aggregative And those the Parliament Orders and Ordinances are binding to the Subject as Orders in Inferiour Courts of Chancery Common Pleas c. untill decrees and Judgements passe to confirm the same which decrees and Judgements in those lower Courts hold Analogy with Acts and Laws in the higher Court of Parliament The work and end of the Parliament being consummate the Laws enacted the Parliament then determining the King governes onely and supreame binding himself to observe those Laws by a double Oath Tacitely as being a King and so bound to Rule and govern according to the Laws Expresly by his Oath taken at his Coronation To speak in a plain grammatical and obvious way the Latine Etimon directs the duty of a King Rex is so called à Regendo Government is dispenced in wisdom and justice * From which text the Kings Party do contend that Kings are immediatly from God no more then as follows in the subsequent verse Nobles do Rule and judges of c. By me Kings rule saith the wisest of Kings and Justice exalts a Nation insomuch as when commands shall prove irregular either wanting the one or exceeding the Limits of either of these they provoke the people free borne Subjects to a loose obedience and the consequence commonly becomes dangerous The Peers and Gentry thus assembled and the Parliament now in being the Kings power is not so compleat and total having imparted it self to that Assembly if it be what then is the Parliaments power If they have no power they are assembled to no purpose if a minc'd and diminish'd power in whom doth it ly to lessen or to greaten it if in the King He then may by the same reason rule Arbitrarily and by his own will as well as over-rule a Parliament so whilst the King imparts the power which he hath by communicating it to that His Court of Councel He lesseneth it in Himself or retracts His Grace in assembling them which were a blemish to His Princely wisdom unsuitable also to that common presumption The King cannot do amisse The King as the Head of His People and Father of His Country is by the common opinion of all dutiful and sober Subjects to be obeyed simply in all things Lawful and Honest when there is no Court of Parliament in Being when there is a Parliament the Heart of that Body whereof the King is the Head betwixt whom an unity of Coalition is presumed
a disposition to a habit and a habit to it self 'T is true there wanted time and preparations to make it a perfect War and neither WESTMINSTER nor LONDON were a fit scene for War the preparations were elswhere made in many parts of the Kingdom by men who have been active for His party and large contributors to this War against the Parliament have evidenced the symptomes of a War and their assistance whensoever it should be waged To prove the Kings assertion that He in His Person intended no War divers of His Nobility then attending Him have * See their Attestation at York Iune 1642. attested it under their hand writing which the Court of Parliament urges as too light a proof to discharge their Trust or to secure three Kingdoms by a Civil War being then in agitation the seed already sown Who may they say can witnesse or be security for another mans intentions for what another man doth purpose in his heart or who being present with the King dare call in question His sincerity t is all one to tell Him He is false or wicked a Kings anger is as the roaring of a Lyon If two or three begin what third fourth or more will refuse to joyn in the attesting it being present there His Majesties heart may be peaceable and sincere but a Certificate from those Lords is no Medium to prove it so Those Lords it 's like had a cheap esteem of their fellow-Lords and Commons and might well think fit rather to be quarrelled then joyned with if the Parliament the supreamest Court of Judicature and Trust shall so slighly discharge their Trust as to place the Peace and security of three Kingdoms on so easie a proof as a few though very Honorable Gentlemen to deliver what their opinion barely was concerning the Kings intentions a discord arising and a Civil War in view His Majesty exasperated as it was feared a party ready to joyn with Him some whereof having taken part with Him in His first assault others of the like condition to assist Him on pretence of Loyalty the Parliament Members many of them being accused of high misdemeanors and few scarce free from the incursion of His Majesties displeasure the debate concerning the Earl of Straffords trial being scarse wiped out were necessitated as well in their own defence as in the peoples involved in theirs to take up Arms to keep off those storms already acted and attempted which if they had not done and timously provided a face of War appearing against the like assaults it would have been thought a weaknesse of spirit or want of prudence if they had desisted besides the happinesse as to us which probably might have accrewed by the assembling a Parliament must have turned unto much unhappinesse by the affronting and overthrowing this as to the Parliament how incompetent it had been to their judgement in case the Trust reposed in them and the important Affairs of the Kingdom the end of their Assembling should have miscarried through their credulity to have made no better return of their wisdom the peoples trust then for them to have excused the same by saying We had not thought it would have so faln out As to the Acts of Violence and Injustice practised by the partakers in this War as of Robbing Spoyling and the like who first began the Kings party or the Parliaments They accuse each other of the first breach of Justice The Kings party aver The Lady Savage's House in ESSEX to be the first which was assaulted and spoyled of much of her Goods and Houshold-stuffe to an exceeding value Whether so or not or the Earl of Stamfords House in Leicestershire as the Parliament party urges the case is of a differing quality For howbeit there may be Injustice in the one as in the other act of Pillaging The Lady Savage being a known and convict Recusant a Law in force for disarming Papists and His Majesties Proclamation of Displeaâ—ure published the year before against Recusants c. the people suspecting their strength and opportunity to increase and supposing her preparations might be therefore made the better to enable her self against the Law remembring also His Majesties Proclamation did in pursuance of such Law and Proclamation without any Superior Warrant assault and Pillage her as is urged These particular acts could not but foreshew a war which since hath happened and setting those aside the Question is on which side the offensive is The extreme terms and parties in this Quarrel are a Delinquent party on the one and a Parliament a Court of Judicature on the other side or if the King will against His Subjects will and their humble importuning Him make himself a party betwixt a King and the greater part of His Kingdom the Parliament only the Umpire to judge and moderate the Quarrel A War thus happening and parties thus engaged 't is not now who first intended an Offensive who a Defensive War but who first executed a Warlike act or appeared modo guerrino which the Laws do forbid to Subjects and the King the Defender of those Laws to make the offended party provide for themselves the King against the Parliament or the Parliament against the King The Parliament to bring offendors unto Tryal the end and reason of their Assembling to sit as a speculative and ignavous Court or to dissolve as having nothing within their Power to do could not in an ordinary and usual course summon and reach offendors Themselves proscribed and proclaimed against as Traytors were enforced to take up Arms as well for their own as the peoples safety which if they did not and in time provide against their Ruine they had had no other Reward for the present but pity from their Friends and scorn from their Enemies The future inconveniences might have been as fatal like a Consumption leisurely to spend the body or as a Civil War like a burning Feaver suddenly to kill it They then upon foresight of what they could not avoid but either to pursue the Justice of their Cause by Arms or to desist and submit to the mercy of their Enemies provide and send forth an able faithful General proved by his Prowesse in rescuing and relieving a besieged * GLOUCESTER stoutly and like an expert Commander relieved without as vigilantly and valiantly defended by the Governor within Town or Fort when the Enemy had well nigh prevailed Next after him they send forth another Puissant and Dexterous in his Atchievements with other Officers and Commanders belonging to an Army hazarding their own persons and Estates to try whether the Countreys which have chosen and sent them on their work would now defend and assist them in imminence of danger in the Cause of maintaining the Laws the Subjects Liberty the Power and Priviledge of Parliament In the Interruption of whose Endeavors a War is waged a Conflict entred into two parties opposite engaged and the Victory hath been therefore doubtful by reason of
the common good of the place wherein they live do negotiate and privily drive the Enemies interest like a viperous brood eating out the bowels of their parent by whom and under whose protection they live and have their being The mercy shewn to these is Cruelty to the rest and these mens mercies in case their party shall prevail will exceed what is called Cruelty The Concord should be as the Obligation is general and reciprocal for the mutual safety of the whole Body Politique the City hath a long time been as famous as any in EUROPE for their * More remarkably manifested in this instant happy and well framed Vnion and Agreement prudently preventing the mischiefs which might have befallen in case they had not agreed as an entire society notwithstanding the many and several sorts of divisions occasioned by these Commotions wisdom in all things expedient for their state dignity in their mutual traffique with all parts of Christendom and they are unworthy of their protection or to be entertained within their Limits who wisheth not their continual flourishing To divide thereby to lose so great a stake as the Publique good were a blemish to their Prudence Wisdom is more prone then folly to Dissention having in it a particle of Pride and self-conceit and naturally busie and curious in projecting in suspecting when as folly rests and contents it self with its own privations it faring commonly amongst the wiser sort of men as with the learneder of Physitians meeting to consult a Patients sicknesse Nomine eorum idem consente ne videatur Plinie accessio alterius until their dissenting in opinion disturbs and overthrows the Patients recovering hopes The City may differ in opinion about the means without disagreeing in their affections to the end the Common good and their own security involved therein least by crossing each others Acts and Councels they gain that to their Enemy which he thirsting for beyond and above half the Kingdom else cannot by his own wit and power As to their latter reason of these mens displeasure against the Parliament viz. their feeling of heavy payments or of one mans peradventure more heavy then his Neighbors It is a blessing and so it is termed that they and other parts of the Kingdom within the Jurisdiction of the Parliament do enjoy Peace within their Walls and Plenteousness within their Precincts as a Reward due for their Association and Accord although they pay for it whereas many Towns and Countreys elsewhere pay for dearly even to their undoings yet want that happinesse If amongst the rest of the partakers in this Quarrel Schollars the Clergy or a great part of them seem more Loyal more Affectionate to the King consequently the opposition being grown to the height more invective more advers to the Parliament upon a mistake had of the reason and end of the Parliaments proceedings concerning the Clergy the mistake is soon set right The Parliament in their just Estimate of what concerns the Clergy might have promoted the encouragement of Learning in a more equal distribution of Church-Livings then now it is without taking away the right of presentation from the true Patron yet by providing against the Lyon-like fellowship as the Proverb is Some all some never a whit or which is as bad that the more lazy and unlearned may not abound with what the more painful and learned want No indifferent man will think that there can be such an envy and disproportionate dealing in a prudent Laity endeavoring to Reform towards a learned Clergy the instrumental means of Reformation as that the one should check or discourage the growth and study of the other The wise and pious judgement of King James is yet fresh in memory which He left as a Legacy to Posterity of the esteem and reverence due and not to be denied to the Clergy of this Land speaking in His discourse of the Laws of this Kingdom of Gods own Laws which His Majesty did then complain were too much neglected and Church-men had too His speech in Star-Chamber in the 16. year of his Raign much in contempt for saith he great men Lords Judges and People of all sorts from the highest to the lowest have too much contemned them And God will not blesse us in our own Laws if we do not reverence his Law which cannot be except the Interpreters of it be respected and it is a sign of the later days drawing on even the contempt of the Church and of the Governors and Teachers thereof now in the Church of ENGLAND But of these kinde of advers persons last mentioned there be two sorts the one an ignorant and proud which commonly go together the more ignorant the more proud The Gale of their empty Tumour were retarded in their aspiring Course if their Bottoms were Ballassed with the solid part of man Humility The other a learned and judicious sort some of whom also may be Enemies making it a common Cause of engaging all Schollars against that Court on this surmise even now cleared That by the Parliaments endeavoring to restrain the Plurality of Church-Livings and the personal corruptions of Bishops all learning and the Seminaries thereof the Universities are discountenanced If the Universities partake of this adversnesse and disaffection as conceiving the Parliament would have made a more strict Inquisition into their Demeanor then the Visitors of Colledges their remisse Indulgency hath of latter times afforded The corruptions of those Seminaries is not so much of it self as of the negligent and discontinued over-sight in those whose proper charge it is to super-intend their course and maners Their Founders Munificent and Pious care from the first Institution of their benign intendments did purpose nothing more then an industrious and profitable course of life in the educating youth and fitting Schollars for the Church and Common-wealth which if the Founders purposes be through neglect and corruption of times perverted and that many the Fellows of Colledges there degenerating into a lazy and unprofitable life contrary to the Founders intent it were a blemish to the Government of a prudent and wise State finding out the Malady to passe it by without enquiring into the Cure Amongst the number of the parties in this Quarrel all mens Actions or Affections being engaged there be others advers enough although warily carrying it and disaffecting the one side to the heigth yet lying at a more subtile and close lock the Priscilianists Tu omnes Te nemo they know all men no man them and in their own eye play their game most cunningly contented to temper and tune their Tongues suitable to the persons with whom they do converse and to comply for the present with that side which they disaffect yet reserve an advers heart when opportunity shall serve These men should not take it ill if that side when prevailing shall deal with them in the like kinde to give them good words yet know them for their Enemies
power the passage is short and not unfitly quoted of the Earl of Warwick his contest with King Hen. 6. who directing his Privy-Seal for discharging the Earl of his Captain-ship of CALLIS the Earl refusing continued his office his reason was that it was granted him by a Parliament Whereto it may be objected that might be a personal contumacy in the Earl which proves not the Authority of that Court therefore not binding other Subjects yet this objection may be replyed unto that the Earl knew on what ground and by what judgement his refusing it was granted The Court of Parliament is not hereby so adored or prized nor are they so fond of their own Acts and Ordinances as to think them absolutely pure and unchangeably perfect or to derive the blessing of successe on their designs for the merit of their actions inuring for the present either in abrogating ancient or constituting new Acts and Ordinances which they may retract as occasion shall serve but to the Justice of their endeavourings which were they able to make good their proper and total power they would ere this have terminated and reduced their Acts into established Laws It is probable that many of those ancient usuages and Constitutions which they for reasons best known to themselves have for the present altered will revert and turn them to their former being without utterly abrogating the same To conclude and settle the doubtful and wavering Judgements had touching the power and Authority of this Court the aforecited * Sir Ed. Cook Oracle of Law hath delivered at large in his fourth Book of Institutes who wrote it in a calm and quiet time when there was no need to defend the Authority thereof Besides the preamble to the Statute concerning Parliaments sets forth and confirms the Power See the statute Authority and by necessary consequence the Priviledge of that Court as the only and proper cure of Grievances and remedy of Mischiefs in a Common-wealth The three first Conclusions are evident by what hath been observed before the latter of the three is Discoursed at large by a learned Author in his Book Intituled A more full Answer to Doctor Fern. But to answer one objection concerning the taking up of Arms and that the People take up Arms against their King which the objectors say is unlawful under what pretence soever If the Question be rightly weighed and stated it will evidently appear that this is no taking up Arms against the King no more then a Chyrurgion doth offend or wrong his Patient when to recover and preserve the whole body he cuts and takes away the proud and putrified flesh encircling and infecting the more eminent and sounder part And if in this Quarrel the King shall unnecessarily and with hazard to himself against the advice supplication and importunity of His Subjects expose Himself to danger Gods protection being more immediately seen over his Anointed is herein crossed if not tempted and if it happen otherwise to Him then His Subjects would His miscarrying is of Himself or rather from those who perswade Him to it The Question which hath cost this blood is not now betwixt a King governing according to the strict and precise Rules of Law the measure of each mans Right and Subjects rebelliously rising up in arms against their King and those Laws as some men in their gall of bitternes have given out but betwixt a King transgressing the known Laws as Himself confesseth and retracts His Fault and a Court of Parliament the Supreme Councel of the Kingdom endeavoring in a just and legal way to punish and represse Offendors as former Parliaments have done no other power or force to dispute or emulate a King's and the matter whereon they quarrel an actual invasion made on the Fundamental Laws and a party engaged to imbrace and abet the same whither under the notion of Loyalty or from Humor Ambition and Levity on the one side and the Parliament with a party adhering unto them contending to preserve those Laws with the Subjects Right and Liberty on the other side For the controversie is not immediately and principally in the new-sprung Differences about Church or State-Government as which the more perfect Form in State Monarchical Oligarchical or Aristocratical which in Church-Government an Independent Presbyterial or Episcopal which latter two are not much differing in themselves in their Primitive Institution as anon will be shewed in its proper place All these Controversies are emergent only and resulting out of the occasion of this War which gives occasion and liberty to all dissentions and makes every one a fierce combatant in maintenance of his own opinion But the principal parties are as before observed a party who hath actually violated the Laws by which we are governed and have their partakers and a party who contend and would preserve the same The first abetted under the stile of being good Subjects the latter traduced and inveighed against as Rebels What the Laws of this Kingdom conveyed unto us in these latter times are under which we are born and governed is by an ordinary light of study so figured in all mens knowledge as no man can but consent unto and confesse That to be the Law which the Court of Parliament doth Enact which Court hath power also to Repeal Dissolve Alter or make Perpetual as they please and that to be a Parliament certainly and definitively which is the assembling together of the Nobility and Gentry of this Kingdom lawfully summoned by the King in the prudent and deliberate Counsel of his heart at such a Time to such a Place for Reasons expressed in that His Writ What the Power and Priviledge of that Court in general is is learnedly and industriously set down by the forenamed Author of what power and stability this is whither to continue until their work for which they were assembled be finished or Arbitrarily to be dissolved the King hath by His own Act defined in binding Himself not to dissolve without their consent Wherefore if He shall alter such Act made and consented unto by Himself during the Session of that Court in His * Ira inimica Concilio Cicer. anger an Enemy to Counsel because He may not conform and rule them call and divide any part of them from the place where they were first summoned whither those which stay behinde in the first named place or those which come away to the last without respect had to which is the major part shall be reputed the true Parliament Object And whither that dividing be a dissolving without consent or not 't is no dissolving but a local removing in nature of Adjournment which is peculiar to a Kings power both to Summon and Adjourn Answ The King it is confess'd hath power to Summon and to Adjourn as former Kings have done to other places of the Kingdom as NORTHAMPTON OXFORD WINCHESTER c. but such Adjournments have been on special and extraordinary occasions of Plague
Predecessors were Neither can any man reasonably think that there is so strict an Unity so near a co-incidency betwixt His Majesty and those His Councel whom the Parliament suspects betwixt His thoughts and inclinations to a Peace to be concluded on fit and just terms and that His Councels Desires and Resolutions for such a Peace as may best serve their own and their parties turn but that His Subjects may most truly with much Loyalty and without wounding Him through His Councels sides believe and say The King having been seduced by Evil Councel hath done that which otherwise he would not 2. To assist the Parliament to resist in a mans own defence and to adhere to such a power as can protect him is Rebellion For Neighboring Towns or Countreys to joyn in a mutual Defence and League against any Force which may infest howbeit Nature and Necessity do allow defensive and provisionary Acts for safety 't is wrested otherwise now and termed Disaffectionate Disloyal and adjudged offensive 3. To distinguish betwixt the King His Kingly Office and His person Trayterous A man in Office is distinguished from what he is in person yet no fault or misterming in the distinguisher If A. B. High Constable of an Hundred set an Affrayer by the heels he doth it as High Constable not as he is A. B. If the Lord Chief Justice E. F. being Judge of Assize and Condemn a Fellon he doth it not in his personal capacity as he is E. F. but as he is Judge of Assize And although there may seem to be a nearer Unity between a King who is Natus Rex His Office and His person then there is betwixt a Judge who is Datus or factus Judex his Office and his person yet the distinction may be admitted to the King without being Treason 4. Amongst other Misdemeanors to be exhibited against the Subject the very * See the Articles to be presented to the high Constables in the Westerne Circuit 1643. abode in or repairing to any Town or City after His Majesty had made known His Displeasure against the same is reckoned Disaffection howbeit many being threatned from their Duty and driven from their homes by the rudenesse and violence of Souldiers had no other place of succour for their Protection then in those places excepted against by His Majesties Proclamations So the place and persons resorting to the place lie under the penalty of Displeasure In which the chief City of the Kingdom seems in the accusers eye to be most disloyal Enjoying yet by Gods mercy to his Glory and their happinesse be it spoken notwithstanding the place populous the times contagious and miserable elsewhere a deliverance from the ficknesse besides the Blessing of Peace vouchsafed thereto for their Humanity in harboring the stranger and oppressed in that amidst the Calamities of Plague and War they are free from the Pestilence that walks in darkness and from the sickness that destroyeth in the noon day that a thousand fall beside them and ten thousand at their right hand but it comes not nigh them Summarily if all matters else of Jealousie and Debate were fitted for a Treaty the very Argument concerning what is Treason what Disloyalty were enough to renew the Contention some so pretendingly fond of the Kings Honor as to make his power swell immencely above the Laws and beyond all other Kings some amongst the people so advers to the King as to deny Him the just power and Soveraignty of a Prince There are no question zealous and good desires in many of either party for the maintenance of Justice and the Laws Howbeit the execution of their desires be respited until the prevailing part have gained power to make good the same so there may be also a mistaking and a fault in either part In some well wishing to the Parliament who frame and finde out causelesse Jealousies on purpose to divide the King from His friends as that common and slightest among the rest of Prince Rupert and Prince Maurice ayming at the Crown of England When His Majesty hath a numerous Issue of His own in possibility of more the two Princes an elder an Illustrious Brother Others wishing well to the Kings party of the like dividing spirit contending to have the Nobility and Gentry of this Kingdom think that the Yeomanry and Commonalty frame hopes to themselves of mateing the Gentry in an equal ranke These sinister contemplations of some disaffected and discontented persons are invented on purpose to sever and divide the mutual concurrency of the Gentry with the Commonalty in a proportionable aiding one another How frivolous it is all men may guesse when as the Parliament Members of both Houses are Lords and Gentlemen themselves a Bulwark strong enough to retard and provide against any such incroaching thoughts of Parity If any such there be believing these Inventions there needs no other Argument to evince such sinister suppositions Many the like Jealousies and obstacles to Peace on foot which the Court of Parliament do seasonably apprehend The Assembly at OXFORD seem the first offerers of an Accommodation for Peace But when they set forth Declarations with the fair frontispiece of Declarations tending to Peace and in those writings accuse their fellow-Members with whom they endeavor to possesse the world they contend for Peace of refusing and disturbing Page 23. Peace of being Traytors and Promoters of this horrid War and charge them in those writings or in some of His Majesties Declarations with scoffing the King in their Messages sent unto Him a Crime if they be guilty of most heynous and undutiful these Accusations of upbraiding their fellow-Members may be an outward offering but no inward or real promoteing of a Peace They have deserted their fellow-Members in Parliament and in that a chief Trust reposed in them their very departure without License from the Parliament was heretofore adjudged * 5. Hen. 8. Which Statute they would not all have broken it is presumed through the worth and Ingenuity of many of them had they either timely considered of the Statute or not in a passionate and hasty way departed or could have foreseen the ill effects of their departure penal to depart to contrive and wage War against their fellow-Members in Parliament heightens the offence as it credits the mercy of their * For notwithstanding the unhappy consequences of their deserting the Parliament refuses not to receive them to compound upon their undertaking not to do any thing prejudicial to the State Forgivers in not taking a severe and strict accompt of Inflicting a condign censure on the offendors To correct and sweeten the Malady thereof something must be published nothing more acceptable then the name of Peace but on what terms more then the name of peace in a general word they do not declare A condiscending must be had as well as a meeting for peace those ought to condiscend who are the most certain first Transgressors In the
Whosoever shall invite the company or desire the accesse of any person whither it be of a King as supreme or of any other person of a lower rank it is to be presumed to be for the mutual and amicable society of those who are desired if before the time of entertaining there be a strangenesse or aversnesse of friendship in the invited friends the desire of the inviter ceaseth and he abateth his welcome The Comparison although it seemeth here betwixt two equal parties friends of the like degree therefore not fit to hold is the more effectual betwixt two parties the one superior of Power to wrong the other inferiour Subject to bee wronged The reason wherefore the Members in the House of Parliament were preferred in their Countreys suffrages to be their Judges was for the opinion of their Wisdom and Integrity above at least equal to others of the Countrey Wisdom consists of Circumspection Diffidence foresight * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euripid. The French call Mistrust the Mother of Wisdom Diffidence especially as Integrity doth of distributing and doing all men right In the Parliaments refusing or admitting His Majesties accesse they have a narrow path to tread to please all men which no man or Counsel yet could do for if by denying him they prolong the War impoverish and exhaust the Kingdom as some men and their adversaries give out if by admitting they lose and frustrate their preparations and past endeavorings for the Subjects welfare for it will rest in the King and in His parties Power to annihilate their Acts their prudence and councels will be exposed to obloquy and scorn For howbeit His Majesty as a Christian as a King may and cannot chuse but have a deep sence and compassionate heart against the farther shedding of his Subjects blood His party which He professeth under the name of friends not to desert will expect a large interest in His Power their interest which when they have gained any man may judge for what use it shall serve In War the prevailing and stronger side relieth upon their Forces the weaker and more vanquished on their stratagem and cunning for the Parliament to be over-wrought by the cunning Practices of their adversaries were a lessening of their wisdom The people of CVMA were branded for their too late wisdom their imprudence was turned into a Proverb The fisherman once struck alwayes takes heed A parley once betwixt two parties found false makes the more innocent part the wiser afterwards If neither Peace nor Conquest can be the sooner had the War continued is like to have a most sad and fatal upshot the fault of the continuing resting onely on some few mens accompt betwixt these two extremes viz. the Dissolute licentious and Armed man on the one side and the harmlesse poor Subject on the other The oppressour on the one and the oppressed on the other side or where it first began betwixt the Papists stiling themselves the Kings friends in His name and under colour of defending Him on the one side and the Protestant on the other side in whose blood the Papists do think to imbrue their hands naming them Rebels Traytors to His Majesty The Prophet sums up the diffeence in a few words betwixt the ungodly and wicked who have drawn out their sword and bent their bow to cast down the poor and needy and to slay such as be of a right Conversation But that there is a superintendent Almighty Power the Lord of Hoasts who will be a defence to the oppressed even a refuge in time of trouble whereof he hath already given a pledge and manifested his Power and loving kindnes unto His in the more remote parts of Christendom by giving several successes in signal victories to the Protestant party in those parts against the more Popish Although in those vast Armies there are Papists on either side yet take them either in degree or number the Spaniard Emperor and their confederates consist only or for the most part of Papists accomplices in a confederate League by open enmity as by secret subtile practises to extirpate the Protestant religion The persons on whom the Accompt of the continuance of this War will lye are those alone who throughly convinced of the injustice thereof waged by the Kings party against his people knowing withall who have been the first actual Authors and promoters of this War who since the counterfeiters and pretenders to a Peace remain yet obstinate adhering to that party in that desperate and resolute way as preferring rather the ruine of their own native Countrey before the failing of that their party The sober relenting and wise demeanors of these engaged might have put a period to this War if they steering their affections all one way to the light of Sence Conscience Reason shall set aside the punctilio of reputation which no wise man did ever lose of being thought inconstant their actions will alike unite and joyn together against the refusers of Peace as against a common Enemy and every good Subject will according to the habiliments whereunto he has been used and bred act and wish best only to that side which wisheth best undividedly unreservedly to the King and Kingdom In the dividing which every one takes it ill to be suspected to be partial or that his wishes should seem rather to incline to the King then to the Parliament to the Parliament rather then to the King they thinking that their wishing well to the King is to wish well to the King and Kingdom because the King protesteth the welfare of the Kingdom The perusing this Treaty doth clear the question and doth settle and confine the doubtful Judgement of whosoever may be mistaken in this conflict The Unity and joynt accord in the House of Parliament may be a leading case to induce a general Unity among all the Subjects of the Kingdom That as by the singular policy presented in the Harmony betwixt the House of Lords and Commons and as between the Commons themselves strengthening and crediting their proceedings the like Unity may descend intirely to the inferior Members throughout the Kingdom For howbeit there may be different wayes several disputes by cause of various judgements all tending to one and the self same end yet no Argument to divide them from their chief principle The Subjects Peace And although emulation alwayes attends great and eminent spirits keeping off for the most part an accord of mindes Gods Power is so much the more visible in their actings and endeavorings for Peace Himself being the Author of Peace and lover of Concord in making men to be of one minde in an House Briefly to comprise the whole in a few words by way of question and for the sooner restoring these unhappy Kingdoms to an happy Peace and general Unity the matter of this Civil and unnatural War betwixt the Prince and people betwixt the Subjects of three Kingdoms contending each with other as it had it's rise from mistakes and jealousie doth now as the possibility and enjoyment of a firm and lasting Peace rest and determine upon the clearing of these few questions Whither His Majesty has had evil Councellors Instruments about Him who have diverted Him from the course of justice some of whom stiled now His friends Whither His declining and forsaking them be ingratitude in Him or to be accounted a deserting His Friends Whither there be a lawfully summoned Parliament and where Whither the peoples taking up of Arms in maintenance of this War ut supra be either in the beginning or in the continued course thereof Rebellion and Treason FINIS