innocently suffered what that Pageant-President as vilely acted that with a Primitive patience Piety Constancy and Resignation endured the scornes the injuries and persecutions of his own Subjects and at the the last received his Death from their very hands in whose behalf he Dyed This Saint and Martyr BOTH beyond Controversie so far as we can Judge is by our Charitable intelligencer Enroll'd in the Black List Charged with Indevotion and Intemperance so as was our Saviour a Wine-bibber a haunter too of Publicans and Sinners to whose Inimitable example I speak with Reverence to God and Truth both in his life and suffering I do believe the story of our Late Soveraign bears the nearest proportion of all others But t is amid their Bon-fires and their Tipple this Miscreant tells us that he 's Canonized and that his Majesty commanded Drinking as a Sunday exercise The World that knew the King knows this to be a Lye but t is our Mercuries Trade 't is his Diana to amplyfie a little for the Publique good 't is true there were some Liberties upon the Sabbath which being mis-employed were counter-manded How does this scandall both of Providence and Society scape Thunder or a Dagger We shall now have the story of our King and Saint he sayes and to usher in the erection of his Statue his Picture first drawn by the PARLIAMENT in 1647. as our libellous Pamphletter would perswade us when the Vote passed both by Lords and Commons concerning Non-Addresses I should be tedious to reply upon every particular in the Declaration he talks of But as to what concerns the needfull and the proper Vindication of his Majesty together with those worthy Members whom this seditious Rump-whelp labours to involve in the same desperate and exorbitant proceedings with his ungracious Masters In what concerns I say their Vindication I shall be clear and punctuall leaving the Judgment of the Controversy to the Impartial Reader WE revive this the rather sayes he because the memory of Men being frail cannot retain all particulars which is the reason we fear why so many formerly engaged against him as high as any upon conscientious accompts both Religious and Civill are staggering and backsliding and have need of some quick and faithfull Monitor to mind them of things past and make them beware of the present lest they return with the Rout and cry Let us make our selves a King again of that Family that Family which so cruelly persecuted us and our Brethren and which still remains engaged by reason of State and ancient Principles of Enmity and Interest to plow up the old Furrows upon our backs and re-deliver our persons and consciences into the hands of our old Tormenters and our Men of might and our Counsellours to become sacrifices to the revenge of an implacable party March on then my Lord and Gentlemen for believe it there is in point of Safety no possibility of retreat and much less in point of Conscience or Honor For if you respect Conscience as we hope you do lay your hands upon your hearts and tell us what hope you or we can have that the reformed Religion and Cause will be protected and maintained by the Son which was so irreligiously betrayed both at home and abroad by the Father It may be you do not readily remember these things nor how much blood was spilt by royal treachery nor the manifold usurpations and designs by him projected and acted upon our liberty the like never done by any Prince before and for Blood the Scotish Ministers employed hither Anno 1644. proclaimed and published in Print That the Late King had spilt more blood than was shed in the ten Heathen Persecutions of the Christians and the Ministers of London as we can shew you by severall Prints of theirs declar'd That satisfaction ought to be had for blood that he was a Man of blood and not capable of accomodation with the Parliament We mention not this to upbraid them for we reverence their antient Zeal in this particular and humbly entreat them as well as your Excellency and the Officers and all the good people of these Nations to observe the forementioned Resolves of the Lords and Commons which were introductory to that most noble Act of Iustice afterwards executed upon the King And that it may appear to be such in despight of Ignorance and envy we have been bold here to present you in Print that most remarkable Declaration of the Commons assembled in Parliament in pursuance of the said Resolve of both Houses wherein they declare the Grounds and Reasons why they passed the Resolves of no further Address and therein you will see also how well he deserved to lose his head and his Family the Kingdom whose corrupt and irreconcilable interest had been the head and fountain of those Rivers of blood and misery which had flowed so many years about these Nations TO help the memories of some that may very well forget the things they never thought of and to reproach to others their inconstancy who out of good intent at first engaged and after That convinc'd of their Original mistake upon a better Light relinquished there needs no better Monitor than such a Person whose Guilt and Desperation transport him beyond all hopes of mercy This Man sollicites for his Head when under the pretext of Conscience he labours for a Party and yet methinks he should not need Alas hee 's but the Rump's Sollicitor he pleads their Cause takes their Fee and vanishes Impudent Creature to presume to be afraid as if a Hangman would disgrace himself to meddle with him O'h that Family That Family puzzles our Men of Might as the Droll words it our Counsellors wonderfully Now do I phancy the Fellow this Bout extremely to see the Little Agitatour fall upon his Politiques betwixt flattery and sawcyness Half-Tutor and Half-Parasite with one eye up and t'other down accost the General My Lord and Gentiemen march on the word of Command a Noble Rogue for believe it c. their 's no retreat he tells them either in point of safety conscience or honour and then the Whelp takes another snap at the King as shamelesly as senselesly affirming that the Reformed Religion that is as I suppose he means the Protestant and Cause that is the Peoples Laws and Liberties was irreligiously betrayed by our late Soveraign Who lost his head in defence of one and th' other the Caution he puts in against the Son is of the same allay a Person so indulgent to his People that out of his particular Necessities he yet relieved the English prisoners that were taken in Flanders although his Enemies and in point of Conscience further so tender that he preserves the Church of England in the Dominions of the King of Spain and still his Honour with his Religion But let us a little examine his Instances for he pretends now to proceed to proofs The Scotich Ministers as he tells us proclaimed and published in
Kings Son must be brought in ANSWER THis is not the Original Parliament That was compos'd of Three Estates King Lords and Commons Further These very Persons now sitting Declar'd the King a Party with them in the Quarrel beginning the War in the Kings Name For Him not With that is as it lies here Against Him If Thus the House must be Divided as well now in the Question as formerly it was so in the War The Parliament even in the Querists sense were those that suitably to their Duties and Engagements Voted a Peace in order to the Preservation of his Majesty but there was a Faction too that contrary to Honour Faith and Conscience did forcibly seclude their Honester Fellows by much the Major Part and Prosecute and put to Death the King Those that have been Honest are Safe nay and so should those be too that will at last be so by my Consent but I Demand What Equity or Reason is there that those Persons who Murthered the Father and are still professed Enemies to the Son should have an Equal Benefit with Others that were Affronted for their Loyalty to the Former and are at present upbraided as if 't were Criminal for their Affection to the Latter If the Kings Son must be brought in whether they will or no what have we to do further with those people that Declare they 'll keep him Out if they Can 2. Whether this Parliaments first undertaking and prosecuting the War with the late King were Iust and upon good and Warrantable Grounds If it were as no doubt it was and God having by his Providence after a long Interruption of some of them and a longer Seclusion of the rest restored them to their trust whether they ought not now to stand to their first Good principles maintain their first Good Cause and secure all the good people that have been engaged with them and by them ANSWER THe War was Iust in that part of the Parliament which Declared for the King and Acted accordingly but Unjust in thâ—se that Swore to Preserve him and Intended to Murther him That the Parliament ought to stand to their first Good Principles we are Agreed In so doing they are to bring to condigne punishment the Infringers of their Privileges the Introducers of Arbitrary power the Obstructors of Successive Parliaments The Murtherers of the late King the Subverters of the Establish'd Government c. I grant you further that they are obliged to secure all the good people that engaged With them and by them but not consequently all those that acted violently Against and Without them now my Question How is it possible for those that Began upon Principles of Contradiction as the Saving and Destroying of the King c. to stand to their First principles 3. Whether this be not that Parliament and these the very persons who by the good esteem they had among the people of their Integrity Faithfulnesse and Constancy whether I say this be not the Parliament who by these and other means engaged the Honest and well Affected of the Land in the aforesaid War And if so whether this Parliament having now power in their hands are not obliged in Duty and Good Conscience to secure all the said Honest and well affected people for this their Engaging and Acting under them and not leave them as a prey to their professed enemies nor their terms of pece to be made by they know not whom Another Parliament which there is too great cause to fear will be too much made up of such as neither have been nor are friends to the Parliaments cause nor to those that engaged in it ANSWER 'T is not the Gaining of a good Esteem but 't is the practice of Integrity that recommends a Worthy person I may believe well of a Cheat and ha' my pocket pick'd But after that I should deserve a Yellow Coat ever to trust that fellow Again though he should plead he had my good opinion formerly Some I confesse are yet in Being of those whose Interest raised the War but these are not the men our Quaerist means and beside the most considerable of that number are in their Graves For the rest to wave this Argument from Power to Conscience Those people that dare not abide the test of a Free Legal Parliament must not presume to act themselves as an Authority without Law or Limit In fine If this be the Same Parliament that first engaged then Why should the Secluders and their Adherents Those which by Force of arms Baffled this very Parliament in 48. 'scape better then the Cavaliers that fought against it in 42 4. Whether this be not the Parliament who by many Declarations and Remonstrances by Protestation and Vow by Solemn League and Covenant have declared and engaged themselves before God Angels and Men and have thereby drawen in and therewith engaged all Honest people to assert and defend their just undertaking and one another therein Whether as things now stand when this just Cause which through Gods assistance could not be won from us in the field is in great danger to be stoln from us by the dark contrivances of its and our adversaries if this Parliament should dissolve at such a time as this and leave all both Cause and all engaged by them in it to another Parliament the greatest part whereof may be no friends but enemies or at least strangers or but little concerned in the first undertaking whether this would not be exceeding contrary to all those Former Declarations Remonstrances Protestation Vow and Solemn League and Covenant ANSWER I Do allow the Members of this present Session are those persons that stand engaged by Oath and Covenant and to that OATH and COVENANT we appeal For Granted they stand bound to protect all the HONEST people they have engaged but not the KNAVES the Covenant-Breakers I desire only this Whether or Not are they that took the Covenant bound to protect the Violaters of it Nay can they purge themselves of manifest Perjury and Complication should they not prosecute the obstinate Opposers of it 5. Whether it be not more then sufficiently manifest what will be the carriage of these Enemies to the Parliaments Cause and its Adherents when they get power into their hands since they are so forward already in their discourses to charge the Parliament with Treason and Rebellion in their first Undertaking the War and look on all their Friends as Rebels and Traytors for assisting them in the prosecution of it and who are now in all places contriving and promoting the electing of such into the New Parliament as are Enemies to the present Parliament their Friends and Cause wherein if they prevail as 't is too likely their work is done How absolutely necessary is it then for the present Parliament to continue their Session for prevention of these Mischiefs which otherwise will ensue Upon these and many other very weighty considerations it can by no means be accounted either
mindes and to comfort the hearts of our Brethren who have need to be comforted and do wait for a good time when your Excellency shall break forth and more visibly appear through all the Clouds of Fear and Iealousie a Defence and Protection through the goodness of God to all his people that fear him in these Nations and so their hearts universally will return unto you in assurance whereof and that you will be very much confirmed and encouraged after the reading of the Declaration We remain My LORD Your Excellencies most faithfull Friends and Servants in the Common Cause March 22. 1659. STill I perceive you 're sure and yet for your weak Brethrens sake you minde His Excellency of a Pawn he has engag'd for his Fidelity to the Publick only his Soul in a Declaration before God Angels and Men that he hath no intent to return to his old Bondage Why you Impudent Sots does a Confederacy with a Pedling Little Sniv'ling Faction that would subvert Order and Government amount to a Fidelity to the Publick or does the avoiding the Old Bondage you keep such a Coil with Imply the setting up a New and more Tyrannical Imposition In fine the mention of the King proceeds from your own Guilt and Fears that have so much abused him The General meddles not at all to impose upon us but only stands betwixt Authority and Violence His Excellency refers all to the Appointment of such Persons as the People shall chuse to Act in their behalf and cannot in Honour side with a Party of Juglers that only call themselves our Representatives and we disclaim This is enough said to convince you and the World where the Abuse lies Now having eased your mindes in your own Language you may go ease your bodies too for I dismisse you and all 's but giving of the Rump a Purge Cursed is he that removeth his Neighbours Land-mark April 2. 1660. UPon this pinch of Time the Good Old Cause was hard put to 't as appears by their more than ordinary earnestnesse toward all Parties but chiefly they solicited the Army in an Audacious Pamphlet Entituled An ALARUM to the ARMIES of ENGLAND SCOTLAND and IRELAND the substance whereof may be collected from this ensuing Answer to it THis last Week has brought to light two Pamphlets so exquisitely impious as if they had been fram'd in Hell by OLIVER and BRADSHAW They speak the Language of the Damned Horrour Despairs and Desolation These goodly pieces are Christen'd PLAIN ENGLISH and AN ALARUM I suppose they are Twins the Issue of the same Brain as they are related to the same main End I had nigh finish'd a Reply upon the former when the latter came to my hand comparing which with the other I finde they correspond so aptly and so universally to the same seditious Purpose that there 's not any Interest 'scapes their Malice and Attempt They advance their Dispute and March together that what they cannot gain by force of Argument they may be ready to Essay by dint of Sword PLAIN ENGLISH is a reasoning of the case first with the General claiming from his Engaging for the Publick Liberty a title to his aid in favor of a private and enslaving Faction It labours then to puzzle the Presbyterian into a jealousie of the Kings faith and honour and consequently into a doubt of his own safety should His Majesty be restored Nay not content to blaspheme the Kings Integrity by a bold censure of his secret thoughts the shameless Beast the Author of it proceeds to charge the secluded Members with the guilt of the Kings bloud upon a senceless inference drawn from the Declaration of both Houses in 1647 touching the Reasons of the Votes for non-Address His aim is here to perswade them to accuse themselves How those Votes were obtained I have shewed at large in answer to PLAIN ENGLISH and it suffices the whole Nation knows that though the Plague was in both Houses then yet All were not infected the Rumpers only had the Tokens nor all these neither so that at last the seclusion of so many as opposed the Capital prosecution of the King amounts to a clear Act of discrimination a separation of the clean from the unclean Having there set the Presbyterians at work upon the Question of Interest and safety and after many a lame complement to his Excellency he cuts out worse employment for the Phanatick Souldiery and at the same time breathing Hot and Cold Reason and Mutiny he solicites the General into a Complyance and the Army into a Tumult To disabuse the multitude if any should be mad enough to be deluded by so gross a cheat I 'll lay the juggle open in as few and familiar words as posssible The Title speaks the business of the Pamphlet 'T is AN ALARUM and the Application To the OFFICERS and SOLDIERY c. the malice there 's Treason in the very Face on 't If the first two words cost not the Nation a hundred thousand lives 't is not the Authors fault His second page places the Legislative power in the Army challenging their promise That before they would SUFFER themselves to be disbanded or divided they would see the Government of these Nations establisht upon the just and secure fundamentals and constitutions of Freedome and Safety to the People in relation as Men and Christians and that in the way of a Common-wealth or Free-state-Government without a King single Person or House of Lords These Gentlemen I see resolve to be their own Carvers not SUFFER themselves to be disbanded This RUMP would be a perpetuall ARMY as well as a perpetual PARLIAMENT Let the Nation observe now the Quality of this suggestion First By the Law of Arms 't is Death that which these Fellows would engage the Army in that mutiny against their General for they give him for lost Next 'T is TREASON by the Law of the Land the USURPATION Thirdly 'T is MURTHER Murther intentional in the bare conception of it and actual sure enough so soon as that intention is but known Now let us weigh the Benefits it brings against the Crimes and dangers that attend it FREEDOME and SAFETY to the People both as MEN and CHRISTIANS there 's the Proposition FREEDOME there can be none to the People where a Particular and Little party pretends to impose upon a number forty times greater and enslave them Nor SAFETY where in that Disproportion the Nation is engaged against a Faction and every Sword that 's rais'd against it carries damnation upon the point on 't Neither do they act as Men Man is a Reasonable and Sociable Creature Here 's a Design that breaks the Bond of Order and betrayes a manifest Folly by a contrivance so impracticable and mischievous at once Idly to labour the saving of a few guilty persons at the price of an universal Desolation For Christianity either my Bible's false or their Opinion that shall pretend to raise a Christian Government upon a Basis
of Rebellion and Bloudshed From hence the terible Trifle proceeds to the distribution of his Design into three Heads First what the CAVALIER saies Secondly what the PRESBYTERIAN thinkes Thirdly what the Armies best Friends scornfully called COMMON-WEALTHMEN and PHANATICKS do foresee concerning the present transactions in the three Nations And lastly his own Observations and seasonable Advice He tels us The CAVALIER's OPINION that the Generals intention is to bring in the King and grounded upon these Reasons First That upon the 11th of February last he sent an imposing Letter to the Parliament in scorn called the RUMP and thereupon without any Order from them marched with their Army into LONDON then esteemed and made by Him in destroying their Gates c. their implacable enemies and at night suffered so many Bonfires and ringing of Bels and publickly drinking healths to the KING and a free-FREE-PARLIAMENT Roasting and burning of Rumps hearing and seeing his MASTERS in open Street declared MURTHERERS and TRAYTORS c. Feasted and associated with the Kings Friends c. This is a grievous charge assuredly and by the license of our Observator This I Reply The General's Commission expired upon the Tenth of February so he was free the Eleventh Again it was the design of the Rump to make the General odious and therefore they imposed on him such barbarous Orders as probably might leave him to retreat While he professed to Act by any Derivation from Them malice it self cannot but say His Excellency stood firm to every point of Military obedience at last when they proceeded so severely against the City he interposed but his Mediation was rejected and more imperious commands sent to him this is enough to prove 't was not the General that made London the Rumps implacable Enemies but 't was the sordid Insolences of the Members that made the Conventicle hateful to the whole Kingdome and this appeared by the Universal Joy that followed upon their disappointment If the Rump at Westminster did by a Sympathy fellow-feel the suffering Rumps in the City the Case indeed was hard but for the rest the Murtherers and Rebels they were call'd methinks it should not trouble folks to be call'd by their Names that 's only Liberty of Conscience and I dare say the people spake as they thought Are these Gentlemens Ears so tender and their Hearts so hard Is the Sound of Treason and Murther so dreadful and the Exercise of it so Trivial I must confesse to stay away Ten dayes together from the 11th of Feb. til the 21th as that his Masters charge him with was something a long Errand But seriously Gentlemen considering 'twas his first fault forgive him The second motive to the Cavaliers Discourse that his Excellency will restore the King is that notwithstanding his engagement by Letter and Verbal promise to His MASTERS that had ventured their All to secure him from being ruin'd by Lamberts Army he yet admits the Secluded Members to sit most of whom he absolutely knew to be for the Restauration of CHARLES STUART c. To this it is notorious that Designes were laid to murther the General That the Rump Received and Kept in Members impeached That they promoted and gave Thanks for BAREBONES Petition containing matters of direct contradiction to their Professions In the next place instead of the Rumpers saving the General from being ruin'd by Lambert the General saved them and touching their Opinions concerning CHARLES STUART as this Villain prates the King The Noble General regarded their Trust not their Opinions nor did he enquire what they were Thirdly say they the General will bring the King in for he hath suffered the secluded Members to release Sir GEORGE BOOTH and his Party c. Again they have de novo voted the COVENANT to be Printed Read and set up c. acknowledging the late King's Posterity as likewise suffering to be maintained in the House that none but Iesuites and Priests are for Free-Sate Government Observe yet further sayes the CAVALIER that he imprisons Commonwealth-men and releases Royalists c. These Rumpers have gotten such a trick of breaking Parliaments that 't is their publick Profession now become to enforce them to the bent of the ARMY SUFFER still is the word The General SUFFERED the secluded Members to Release Sir GEORGE BOOTH The next point is yet more remarkable These very COVENANTERS ABJURE the COVENANT As for the SUFFERING there 't is again to be maintained that only Iesuites c. the General is not properly to take cognisance of what passes in the House the King was chidden for 't see Exact Collections the Petition of both Houses Decemb. 14. 1641. now for imprisoning and releasing If it so happen that some Commonwealth-men deserve to be laid up and some Royalists to be enlarged not as such it is but justice to do the one and the other for at the rate of this subtile Argument Free-state-men shall be Protected against the Law and Royalists so Persecuted likewise Lastly the Cavaliers conclude as much from the Generals countenancing the Militia being raised and formed to murther and destroy the Army and that the same thing was done long since in Scotland besides the Irish Army have proceeded answerable to himself And divers Officers that served the late King have had fair promises from him and several of the Kings friends are peaceably returned from exile c. and again there 's a Proviso in the ACT of DISSOLUTION concerning the LORDS being a part of the PARLIAMENT c. To be short the General encourages the Militia to Save the Countreys not to Ruine the Army next if long since done in Scotland the better done the sooner for England hath been only Rump-ridden for want of it To this the conform motion of Ireland proceeds from their Commune Concerne with England in delivering themselves from the Tyranny of the Rump for the Generals promises I am glad to hear it but truly I know nothing of it In truth 't is a sad business Alderman Bunce his return and the Proviso in the Act of dissolution for certainly by the known Law the Lords are no part of the Parliament To speak my thoughts freely I am very glad to hear that the Cavaliers are of Opinion that the King will come in but I believe it never the more for your saying it Now to the SOBER PRESBYTERIANS they sayes our Phanatick begin to suspect the General for the Cavaliers are at this instant arming themselves in all the three Nations and if CHARLES STUART comes he 'll bring with him Arch-Bishops Bishops c. and then in comes his Mother with her Iesuites Priests c. and this will make little difference betwixt us and the Sectaries Now do I dote upon the sincerity of this Bubble had he pretended to Religion himself h 'ad been ridiculous but putting that scruple upon the Sober Presbyterian 't is well enough The story of the Cavaliers Arming themselves is a Phanatick not a Presbyterian conceipt
Preservation of the VVarren Feb. 18. 1659. ABout This time the Schifmatiques had all their Instruments at work to disappoint the Generall Design and Hope of a Free Parliament The Bolder and the more Ingenious sort of Honest men were Gather'd up by Flying Troops that they had every where Dispers'd to hinder a Conjunction nay they were come to That Degree of Impudence to threaten Banishment and Sequestration to the whole Party of Declarers Nor did they Act these Outrages upon the Gentry without a due regard of Popular and specious Application to the Vulgar The House should be Immediately Fill'd The Form of the VVrit was already Published The Qualifications Agreed upon and in Fine They would Instantly proceed to a Settlement of Church and State what would they more In the mean while The Presses are at Work by Libells against the King By Arguments of Interest and by False Intelligence to Corrupt and Deceive the People No Stone is left unturn'd The Common-wealthmen They 're a Birding too and Tell their Little Tales of Rome and Venice Nor does the Generall himself escape their wild Attempts either upon his Honesty by Large and Insignificant Donations or else by Plots against his Person The Party had their Friends too in the City either by Tedious Speeches From the Point to make their Meetings Fruitlesse or upon Frivolous Pretenses to Delay the very Calling of a Counsell Retarding the Militia by that means to the great Hazzard of the whole Affair This was the Face of Things when the Brave Generall Cleer'd the way for the Return of the Secluded Members who being Entred Feb. 21. fell Instantly upon the Nulling of those Spurious Orders which Related to their First Seclusion in Dec. 1648. Proceeding Thence to the Enlarging and Confirming of the Generall's Commission and the disabling of the Rump's Commissioners for the Government of the Army The Discharging of Prisoners Illegally Committed and the Appointment of a new Convention Apr. 25. 1660. In Fine they had enough to doe for one while to Vacate the mis doings of their Predecessors which thing it self they did with all convenient Modesty and Tendernesse As their Businesse was onely to Settle the Nation without Perpetuating Themselves so did they make all Haste was Possible to Finish it The Militia's they Placed in Good Hands and Empowred a Counsell of State to Govern in the next Intervall which being done and Provision made for a New Election March 16. they Dissolved Themselves The Independent Gang were strugling now for Life and Laboured by a Thousand Shifts and Cheats to make a Party in the new Militia During That Transaction I caused this Following Paper to be Published A Seasonable Word I Do not write out of an itch of Scribling or to support a Faction my Duty bids me write Nor do I love Hard words or Many Plain and Few suit all Capacities and Leisures I would be Ready by all and Understood by all for my Business extends to all Not to spend time in Complement or Apology The Readers Wisdome or the Authors Weakness is not the Question The Nation is in Distress and every Englishman must lend his hand to save it Nay That must be done Quickly too and Vigorously Delay is Mortal Can any thing be more Ridiculous then to stand Formalizing in a Case where 't is impossible to be too early or too zealous The event of things takes up our thoughts more then the Reason of them what Newes more than what Remedy As if it concerned us rather to know whose Fools and Slaves we shall be next then to be such no longer That which completes the Wonder and the Overfight is That the Miseries we suffer were before hand as easily to be Fore-seen and Prevented as they are now to be Felt and we are only to look Backward to take a perfect measure of the Future so obvious and formal is the Method that leads to our destruction If we are not in love with Beggery and Bondage let us at last bethink our selves of Freedom and from a due inquiry into the Rise and Growth and present State of our Calamities learn to be wise and Happy for the time to come It may be observed that since Church-men dabled in Politiques and States-men in Divinity Law and Religion have been still subjected to the Sword and in effect those same Excursions and Adulterate mixtures are but the workings of a Party already in motion toward that End He that designes a Change of Government must begin by imposing a Delusion upon the People and whatsoever is Necessary to his Purpose must be Accomodate to their Humour The Pulpet by false glosses and Puzzling distinctions under the Doctrine of Conditionate Obedience suggesting Liberty cousens the Multitude into a Rebellion Oaths and Covenants are but like Iugglers knots Fast or Loose as the Priest pleases The Weaker sort being thus prepared and poyson'd by a Seditious Clergy 't is then the Statesman's part to push those Mutinous Inclinations into Action and to divide the Cause betwixt Conscience and Property the better to involve all Interests in the Quarrel Under the Masque of Piety and Publiqueness of Spirit of Holy men and Patriots the Crafty cheat the Simple engaging by those specious pretenses the Rash mis-judging People with good Intentions but wanting Care and Skill in Sacrilege and Treason This was the very Root and this hath been the Process of our Evills Under the notion of Gods glory the Safety and the Honour of the King the Fundamentall Lawes and Freedomes of the People the Priviledge of Parliaments c. the Kingdome was gulled into a Complyance with an Ambitious and Schismaticall Faction The main Pretense was the Assertion of the Subjects Legall Rights against the grand Prerogative and That directed only to the Limitation of an Intended Arbitrary Power the Regulation of such and such Mis-Governments c. and all this Saving their Allegeance to His Sacred Majesty whose Person Crown and Dignity they had so often and so deeply sworn to maintain This was a Bait so Popular it could not fail of drawing in a Party and That produced a War The Formal Story of the Quarrel is little to my purpose the Logique of it Less How by the same Authority of Text and Law both King and People could be Iustifyed one aganst the other I meddle not Let it suffice that after 6. Years Conflict a vast profusion of Blood and Treasure The King a Prisoner and his whole party scattered and disarmed the Commons found themselves dispos'd to end our Troubles and passed a Vote to Treat with His Maâ—esty in Drâ—er to a Settlement This met with little opposition except from those who having Gorged themselves already upon the publique ruine were not yet satisfyed without their Sovereigns Blood The death of Monarchy it sâ—â—â— and the subjecting of a Tame and Slavish People to a Conventicle of Regicides There were not many of so deep a Tincture but what these few could not effect by
Equity whereof no man hath hitherto pretended the least Objection The Supreme Trifle perceiving an Universall Application to the Generall in his passage and all speaking the same Sence Finding withall that his Excellence suspended till he might hear Both Parties and Conscious to Themselves of no imaginable Reason to Oppose Beside Seeing themselves Declined and Hated Nay and Endangered by a Peremptory Agreement of the Nation They did at last most graciously descend to promise us a full Representative but no Secluded Members to be admitted nor in effect any other then Phanatiques His Excellency well weighing what was Reasoned pro con made way for the Return of the Secluded Members This Iustice brake the neck of a Design just then on Foot This is the short on 't The People were to be held at Gaze in expectation of a further satisfaction till those Troops which the Backside had ordered to that purpose should have seised all the considerable Persons of the Kingdom Nay they were impudent enough to tempt the General himself into a Complication with them But he was too discreet not to distinguish where to observe and where to Leave them In fine That providence which stills the raging of the Sea and the madness of the People hath put a check to their Impetuous and brutish fury Next to our Gratitude to Heaven let 's have a care not to be wanting in point of prudence to our Selves Nothing undoes us but Security We see who are our Friends and who our Enemies whom we may trust and whom we must not We have paid dear for our Experience and sure we have a Title to the Benefit of it Let us look Back and learn from Thence the menage of the Future It is a tedious while this Nation ha's been toss'd betwixt Two Factions One in the Army the Other in the Counsel Both well enough Agreed to destroy Us but Jealous still One of the Other as Don sayes of Ignatius concerning his Competitor in Hell He was content he should be Damned but loth he should Govern That 's all the Quarrel the Vizor of Religion is thrown aside long since The Conventicle cheats the Souldier this day and he falls upon the Rump the next in short they do but watch one the other at the publick charge they may saarle where they please but they bite none but us and at the worst forgive their fellow-Theeves for robbing Honest Men This hath been their practise near these dozen years Are we not yet convinc'd that 't is impossible it should be otherwise while the same people Govern us with the same aim and bound up by no other Laws than their Own Wills I do not press any resistance Now but certainly a readiness to protect Honester men in Case of an Attempt were not amiss We see how dirtily they have used the General and how unworthily their Instruments have laboured the Army into a direct Tumult and all this in order to a New Violence upon the House We see what Iuggling is used in the MILITIA as foysting in false Lists to cast the strength of the Nation into the hands of mean and Factious persons What industry to hold us still unsetled by throwing in impertinent and dangerous ScruPles to delay at the Fairest if not disturb the long desired Peace we pray for He that ha's either Honor in his Bloud or Honesty in his Heart is Reproached with a King in his Belly Then for the Qualifications these goodly Squires would have thrust upon us are they not pleasant One man of Forty shall be allowed to Vote or Sit and the other 39. must call That a free-Free-Parliament and swear it Represents the People We are not so Blind yet nor so Forgetfull as not to see and know some Toxes and some Asses in the Medly All are not Saints we call so We do remember who they were that ruled in 48. and we are sensible what they would do still if they had Power We know who brought in who but the Markets raised our Heads will not off now at Fifty shillings a Hundred as formerly In fine let the General the Secluded Members and the Honest Souldjers live Long Happily and Beloved and let the Rest take their Fortune I could only wish his Excellency had been a little civiller to Mr. Milton for just as he had finished his Modell of a Common-Wealth directing in these very Terms the Choyce men not addicted to a Single Person or House of Lords and the Work is done In come the Secluded Members and spoyle his Project To this admirable discovery he subjoynes a sutable Proposition in favour of the late sitting Members and This is it having premised the Abilities and Honesty desirable in Ministers of State he recommends the Rumpers to us as so Qualified advises us to quit that fond Opinion of successive Parliament and suffer the Persons then in Power to perpetuate themselves under the name of a Grand or Generall Counsell and to rule us and our Heirs for ever It were great pitty these Gentlemen should lose their longings One word and I have done We live in dayly expectation of Writs for another Session if they Leave us as free as they Found us 't is Well if Not 't is but to Turne the Tables and try Their menage of a Losing Game THe Great Designe was now to Disappoint the Hopes we had of Good from the Next Convention by Continuing Themselves or at the least to Fool the People into an Expectation of the same Benefit from the Rump which we promised our Selves from a Free Parliament and that way to Procure an Interest in the Next Session In order to this pittiful purpose comes forth a wretched Pamphlet Entit'led No New Parliament OR Some Quaeres or Considerations humbly offered to The Present PARLIAMENT MEMBERS ☞ The Occasion rather then the thing it self drew from me This Answer Quaere for Quaere c. ALthough That Pamplet which Occasions This considered in it self is not Worth a Reply Yet in regard of the Contrivers and of the End it tends to it may Deserve one I look upon it as nothing else but the Phanatiques late Petition slic'd into Quaeres by some unskilful hand and with a Harmless kind of Simple Malice directed to elude the Iustice and Necessity of their great Patrons Dissolution I shall not much insist upon the businesse beyond the Obligation of a Formal Answer but I shall take such heed to That as to leave little place for a Return and in the rest make the old saying good that One Fool may ask more Questions than Twenty Wise men can Answer His Quaere's are as follows 1. Whether this be not the Parliament and these the Persons who began the War with the late King And if so whether it doth not highly and neerly concern them oven for their own sakes to be the Parliament that shall take up and Cloze the Quarrel and not leave it to others especially if as the general voice goes the
honourable or just or safe or prudent for the present Parliament to dissolve themselves till first they have fully asserted and vindicated their own just Undertaking and the faithful adherents to it and them and not to leave both themselves and their Friends to the Malice and Revenge of a vanquisht Enemy If this should be we may bid adieu to the Honour and Renown of English Parliaments and to all future hopes of assistance from the People whatever the Necessity may be And let English men bid farewell both to their Civill and Religious Liberties if after so high a Conflict for them with the expence of so much Blood and Treasure and having by Gods blessing subdued their Opposers yet after all to be exposed to a farr worse Condition then before which O God forbid We hope for better things from our present Parliament All that we add is only this If the King must come none so fit to bring him as our present Parliament ANSWER 'T Is not the Parliament is charged with Treason but that Rebellious Faction that by an Insolence praevious to the Murther of his Sacred Majestie threw out the Major Party of their Fellow-Members which interposed to save him and 't is in their behalfs this pittifull half-witted Pamphleter engages Should these Gentlemen sit till they found a Free Parliament their Friends they 'd hardly Rise betwixt This and the Day of Iudgment and that 's all they desire Alas a Trifle The care they take of our Religion and Civill Rights in truth is a great favour from them that never understood their Own If the more sober conscientious Persons at the Helm think not fit to dissolve so soon the IONASSES however must be thrown over-board to save the Vessel He that dissents let him produce his Reasons and in Particulars but shew what Good they 've either Done or Meant us to Ballance the Calamities they have ingaged us in I should be Glad to see these Men Repent Hardly to see them Govern These Folks are Ruined if they doe not Rule the Nation if they doe The Question then is but Whether is more prudential by saving of some half a score Secluders that We should Perish or by their SPEEDY DISSOLUTION that we should save our selves A Free Course of Successe against the Rump had put the People upon a Iollier Pin Their Humour was quite chang'd They thought the Danger Over and it was now become a Thing Unseasonable to be Serious Accounting it expedient however through all Forms to Follow them and Fool for Company I was content to play the Mimique as you may see in that which follows Entit'led No Fool to the Old Fool HEark ye my Masters for one half quarter of an hour now let 's be as Wise as Woodcocks and talk a little Treason Why should not We thrive in the World as well as our Neighbours Had not other people Heads and Souls to lose as well as We If men will be Damn'd they had better Damn Rich than Poor as Bradshaw and the Attorney General Damn'd Believe me three or fourscore thousand pound is a convenient Plaster for a Broken Head there 's something to bear Charges yet Beside There 's Power and Plenty They Cousen whom they please Hang and Draw at Will they keep their Lacquays and their Whores and at the last they go to Hell in Triumph They have their Blacks Elegies and leave the State to pay the Draper and the Poet T would make a man be-pisse himself to see the soft and tender-hearted Needham weeping like Niobe till he turns Stone over the Tomb of Bradshaw to see him Cry with one Eye and laugh with the other and yet the Tragicomical Puppy keep his Countenance The Tears of such a Saint cannot but fall like Drops of Lambeth Ale upon the Tongue of Dives how great a Consolation was it think ye to the late Protector to finde himself placed at the right hand of God by Sterry that Blasphemous bold Phanatique of whose Condition Charity it self can scarce admit a comfortable thought For after a long Course Of Treason Murther Sacrilege Perjury Rapine c. he finish'd his accursed Life in Agony and Fury and without any mark of true Repentance You 'll say he was the Braver Villain for 't Crimes of this large Extent have indeed something that 's Masculine to allay them But to be Damn'd for Sneaking To purchase Hell at the price of all that is pleasant Here to contract Sin and Beggery in the same Act and Moment This is the most Imprudent and Ridiculous wickednesse that may be He that Indents with the Devil has a merry Bargain compar'd with Us There 's Time and Pleasure Here the Vengeance treads upon the Heels of the Offence and the Punishment of our Misdoings is the next immediate Effect of them In Paying Taxes to an Usurped Power There 's a Defection from the Right and a Complyance with the Wrong which renders us doubly Criminal and in this case we do but Buy our Chains and the next Consequent of our Disobedience is Slavery It comes all to a Point in what concerns Subjection to Unlawfull Powers Under a Force is a Brutish Argument Vice is the Obliquity of the Will That 's Free The same Plea lies in the Case of Martyrdom and by the same Rule we may renounce our Maker If Wicked we 're Resolv'd to be Le ts go a nobler way to work let 's get a matter of Half a Dozen Crafty Knaves together take in some Thirty or Forty silly Rascals into the Gang and call our selves a Parliament Why Gentlemen This is no impossible thing Our Title is as good as Theirs that ha' done the same thing before us but then be sure of the Proportion Seven parts of Eight must have neither Wit nor Honesty yet Look as wise as Iudges and in the very middle of their Pater-Nosters pick their Neighbours pockets These are to be directed by the Rooks and by them Both the Nation which would be over-stocked with Cheats were any more admitted into the Grand Conspiracy against the People To Personall abuses the rest are likewise Qualified They may Imprison When Where and Whom they please without Cause shewed their Will is a sufficient Warrant for the Well-affected In fine they are the Peoples voice and That 's the voice of Heaven Why now should we despair of the same Events from the same Means considering what a Drowsie Patient and Phlegmatick people we have to deal with Shall's Fool a Little Le ts Vote down Magna Charta and the Petition of Right Settle a Preaching Militia and a Fighting Ministry Out with our Whinyards and off with the Names instead of the Heads of the Kings Tryers as Okey did upon the Change Take away Monk's Commission Petition the Souldiery to Petition Us to declare our selves Perpetual Bind up the Nation under Limitations for the next Session and exclude all but our own party from the Choise No matter for the Law or Conscience
Reason but still it is the Monarch's part to Act according to his own without that Freedom the Prince is bound to Act in many Cases against his Conscience and his Assistants are become his Governours Not to insist upon the Gentleman's mistake in asserting All things to be done in conjunction with his Counsell This is too evident to need a refutation He spends his two next Pages in dilating upon the Desire of absolute Power in the Monarch and the Reserves or acquisitions of the People were he dashes the Kings Prerogative and the Privileges of Parliament the One against the Other Whereas the King hath some Prerogatives without a Parliament but the Parliament hath not so much as any Being without the King he being an essentiall of it To pass over his False-fires I shall come now to his main strength And thus it runs The Monarch cannot Rationally be thought to have other Business or Study than to confirm and establish the Monarchy to himself pag. 5. To this First Hee 's Entitled to the Government That pro concesso Next hee 's Entrusted in Order to the Publique Welfare to Uphold it and That not only in the Form but to Himself 'T were to Betray his Trust should he do less As to the appetite of Rule which as our Popular Champion will have it transports the Monarch into a dangerous elevation above the People That Restless Impotency is much more Hazzardous in any other Government than in that of Monarchy For the Monarch's upper-most already and rationally Ambition seeks rather to Raise it self above all others than when 't is at that Height still to exceed it self 'T is but a glorious envy which aspires till it be highest and there determines As there is less temptation from without so must the inclination be much calmer Greatness is native and familiar to the Monarch or in case any eagerness of Spirit should enflame him It spends it self upon his Neighbours liberties rather than upon his Peoples and 't is extent of Empire abroad not enlargement of Prerogative at home he covets This is not to exempt the Person of a Prince from the frailties of a Man he may be vitious But that too with less mischief to the publique than to Himself He ha's no private aims but what proceed from Principles nearer ally'd to Kindness then to Malice Now to examine the likely Incidences to popular Government and to proceed upon his Postulatum That in all men there 's an inbred appetency of Power That granted what can we expect from Persons of mean Fortunes and extraction invested with a title to Dominion but Bondage and Oppression The short is there are many men earnestly intent upon the same end spurr'd on by keen and craving Desires to make themselves Rich Great and these design to raise their Fortunes and Reputations upon the publick stock of blood and treasure At last when they have skrewed themselves up to that pitch of Power by force and craft where divine providence by birth had placed the single Person when after a sharp long and chargeable contest they have brought us within view but of the counterfeit of what we quietly enjoy'd before Ready to seize the sum of their own wishes and the dear-purchas'd Fruit of all their Labours they find that point which supports Soveraignty too narrow for them all too large for any one of them and as they climbed together so they fall crush'd by those Hands and Principles that rais'd them We need not look far Back for instances What ha's obstructed our long look'd-for Settlement but Competitours for a personal rule even among the Salus-populi-men themselves 'T is nobler at the worst to yield our selves to prey to a single Lyon than to a Herd of Wolves and that 's the Difference upon experiment betwixt the tyranny of One and of a Hundred old Oliver and the Rump Methinks 't is a strange Confidence to Argue for a Cause confuted by the loss so many Lives and Millions For these twelve years last past we have been Slaves to Tyrants Divided in design to supplant one another but still United to destroy the Nation under the gay amusement of a Free-state But I grow tedious The next thing I take notice of is very remarkable i. e. Our Author 's in the right he sayes that From the Soveraignty there lies no appeal But then he follows that where a People will be ruled by a King they must give that King absolute power to Govern pag. 6. No need of that sure neither the Soveraignty is in the King tho' in a Limited Monarchy which so attemper'd as that the People may not Rule in any Case nor the King singly by himself in All secures all Interests I must fix one note here before I pass Although our Author tellsus pag. 7. that Absolute Monarchy is unlawful Regulated Dangerous nevertheless he rather advises the former than the latter That which he terms Disconsonant to the Laws of God than the Other which he pronounces only Dangerous as related to the civill Good and Utillity of the People This is the Method of the whole party they decry first the Form it self as being too Tyrannical yet they condemn the Limited of Insufficience as to the Exercise of Government and the absolute of Exorbitancy as to the End of it One has too much Liberty the Other too Little What is 't they offer in Exchange a Free-State Of a Model ten times more Arbitrary and Pernicious When they have spent their Powder upon the Government for 't is but Powder their Shot is still directed to the Person Hinc illae Lachrymae How have they courted the Generall whose Honesty is as Invincible as his Courage to Accept of what these Paper-Kites so much disclaim against Our Grave Philosophising Mounsieur he makes one too and tells us that Providence hath cast the Lot upon the Peoples side and the Monarch has lost if the People will exclude him Alas Good man the Congregation 's Holy everyone of them Pretious Beagles to ascribe that to Providence which they owe to Perjury and Sacriledge Where 's your Prescription Where 's your Title Enform the People by what power they are absolved from all their tyes of Conscience Honour Thankfulness and Piety Shew them the Laws their Fathers purchased with their Bloods Preach to them out of Magna Charta There 's the Foundation of the Peoples Freedoms But Sir I ask you pardon The Kings a Woolf you say and all the abjuring Saints are Lambs I warrant ye But by your leave once more you are absolutely of Opinion then not to admit the King by any manner of means Indeed you should do well not to Anticipate the Parliament it spoyles the project to play the Tyrant while you argue for the People Pray let the King come in if the next Parliament pleases I must be now a little serious for your next Paragraph has a spice of Conscience in 't the Word I mean you will perswade the
1644. That the late King had spilt more blood than was shed in the Ten Persecutions of the Christians and the Ministers of London declared him a Man of blood c. That is the High Priests and Officers cryed out saying Crucifie him Crucifie him That 's the Original But to come closer to the Business the Scotich and the Scotch Ministers are a clear different thing Scotich denotes the Antient Faction of the Nation No Favourers of Kings and Scotch relates to their Nativity alone abstracted from the Party First they were Arglyes Creatures selected to promote Arglyes designs So not the Ministry of Scotland but a Pack of Scotish Ministers Next of no more Authority to the Rump against the King than to the Nation against the Rump in which they are as much unsatisfied The Ministers of London did as much he sayes That 's something truly till we consider what those Ministers were and by whom placed and moulded for that purpose Mrashall was the prime person in the Agency betwixt the two Nations He that cursed MEROZ He that was sent Commissioner into Scotland taught them their Lesson there and then returning taught some of our reputative Divines to fing the same Tune Here This is the Man that clos'd with Nye when Presbytery went down and carried the 4. Bills to the King at Carisbrock-Castle for which they had 500l apiece I could tell you of some more of the Gang that under question for confederacy with Love after a due formality of seeking God delivered as upon accompt of Inspiration that Oliver Protectour was the person and his the Government of all that ever were or should be the most agreeable to God This is not to lessen the esteem of Holy Orders neither to fix a rash irreverend Censure upon the Ministry No Man reveres the Character of a Church-man more than my self But 't is to shew the World how much our Pamphlet-Merchand is steer'd by Interest and Passion and how little by Reason and Truth The grinning Whelp now betwixt snarling and fawning would fain perswade the General and his Officers and all the world beside that the Resolve of Non-Addresses by the Lords and Commons was introductive to the MURTHER of the King Murther I say that 's the Plain English of what he stiles A MOST NOBLE ACT OF IUSTICE His Method lyes through direct Contradictions to the Universal Rules of Logique Truthand Honesty By this Insinuation he charges that Exorbitance upon the two Houses and drawes an inference from the Impardonable Quality of that Action to the Necessity and Reason of pursuing it This he pretends to make appear in spight of Ignorance and Envy from the Commons Declaration in persuance of the resolve of Both Houses conteyning the Reasons why no further Address and thence proceeds to a Determination upon the Fathers Life and the Son's Inheritance as positively fixing upon the Kings Accompt those Plagues this Nation has endured as if the Graceless Villain were of Counsell with the Eternal Wisedom I shall observe in order and First I 'll prove that the vote of Non-Address was not properly an Act of the two Houses or if it were so that it did not rationally direct to the Kings Life Secondly That Declaration of the Commons SINGLY declaring the Reasons of the resolve of Both Houses Joyntly does not amount eitheir to a justification or intention of taking the Kings life No not though I should grant the Members Free which I cannot and the Authority Full which I do not To the First They were under a Force Upon a Debate in the Commons House concerning the Answer to the 4. Bills presented to him Dec. 24. 1647. and debated Ian. 3. Commissary Ireton delivered himself after this manner The King hath denied safety and protection to his People by denying the 4. Bills that subjection to him was but in lieu of his protection to his People this being denyed they might well deny any more subjection to him and settle the Kingdom without him That it was now expected after so long patience they should shew their Resolution and not desert those valiant men who had engaged for them beyond all possibility of retreat and would never forsake the Parliament unless the Parliament forfook them first From hence naturally results the menace of the Army in case the Parliament should forsake them and Ireton understood the Souldjery too well to mistake them As yet here 's nothing Capital pretended against the King After some more debate CROMWELL urged that it was now expected the Parliament should govern and defend the Kingdom by their Own Power and Resolutions and not teach the People any longer to expect safety and Government from an Obstinate man whose heart God had hardened That those men who had defended the Parliament from so many dangers with the expence of their Blood would defend them herein with Fidelity and Courage against all Opposition Teach them not by neglecting your Own and the Kingdomes safety in which their own is involved to think themselves betrayed and left hereafter to the Rage and malice of an irreconcilable enemy whom they have subdued for your sake and therefore are likely to finde his future Government of them insupportable and fuller of Revenge then Iustice Nota lest Despayr Teach them to seek their safety by some other means than adhearing to you who will not stick to your selves how destructive such a Resolution in them will be to you all I tremble to think and leave you to Iudge This Speech concluded the debate and the better to Impress his meaning he laid his hand upon his sword at the end of it If this be not a Force what is The Power and Inclination of the Army being the only moving Arguments to obtain the Vote The Question was then put and Carried for no more Addresses But no pretence still that extends to Life I shall appeal now to the Declaration it self to which our Regicidall Babler refers the world for satisfaction First the Sectarians had stoln a Vote Ian. 4. to Engarrison Whitehall and the Mews the Lords not mentioned in the case their manner of obtaining it was this 'T was Noon and the Independent party called to Rise The Presbyterians went their wayes to Dinner the Independents staid and did their business The Lords opposed the vote for Non-Addresse 10. to 10. but the Engagement of the Army cast it who sent a Declararation to the Commons of thanks for their 4. Votes against the King engaging to defend them with their Lives c. Is this a Force yet Soon after this comes forth a Declaration and Reasons c. Drawn by a Committee apppointed by the Independents c. So that even That too was a piece Contrived by the Designers of our Mischief and by a Force Extorted from the Sober rest that would have saved us This appears from the interpose of the Presbyterians to moderate the Eagerness of it upon the debate The last 4. lines of the said Declaration will
Collections the 1. and 2. Speeches in the book That nothing may be omitted on my part I must here take notice of the Bill for pressing of Souldiers now depending among you my Lords concerning which I here declare that in case it come so to me as it may not infringe or diminish my Prerogative I will pass it And further seeing there is a Dispute raised I being little beholding to him whosoever at this time began it concerning the bounds of this antient and undoubted Prerogative to avoid further debate at this time I offer that the Bill may pass with a Salvo jure both for King and People leaving such Debates to a time that may better bear it c. To conclude I conjure you by all that is or can be dear to you or me that laying away all Disputes you go on chearfully and speedily for the reducing of Ireland By whom Ireland was tumulted I do not know but that it was not by his Majesty is most evident Nor is there any Question but the Massacres there committed must lye upon the score both of the Actors and Promoters of those cruelties who they are when I know I 'll tell you Would you know who it was that interposed betwixt the Parliament and the Duke of Buckingham and would not permit the proofs to be made against him concerning the death of his own Father THis I shall satisfie you in A Letter was presented to the house from Thomas Haslerigg Brother to Sir Arthur which was read to this purpose That there was one Mr. Smalling a Committeeman of Leicester-shire who had been a Deputy-examiner in the star-Chamber and affirmed that above twenty years since there being a sute in star-Chamber between the Earl of Bristol Complainant and the Duke of Buckingham Defendant Concerning Physick presumptuously administred by the said Duke to King James the said Smalling took many Depositions therein and was further proceeding in the Examinations untill a Warrant signed by the King was brought him Commanding him to surcease and to send him the Depositions already taken which Smalling did yet kept notes by him of the principal passages doubting what further proceedings might be hereafter in a business of such importance Sir Henry Mildmay moved that Smalling be sent for and examined upon Oath by the COMMITTEE that penned the said Declaration but upon motion of the Presbyterians he was ordered to be examined at the COMMONS-BAR Smalling came produced the Warrant but no notes so this Chimera vanished Tertio Caroli this business had been ventilated and examined against the Duke and no mention made of Poysoning or Killing King Iames It was then only called an Act of high Presumption and Dangerous Consequence in the Duke nor was there the least Reflection upon KING CHARLES See the History of Independency par 1. p. 74. Would you hear who it was that made so light of Parliaments killing them as soon as born and making them a scorn by dissolution at pleasure and at length designed and in fine drew sword against the very Parliamentary Constitution after he had by imprisonments destroyed several eminent Patriots for their freedom of speech in the Parliament on the behalf of the Publick and in particular touching the death of his Father NO it needs not I can tell you that 'T was Cromwell and the secluding Members The RUMP That drew Sword against the very Parliamentary Constitution They clap'd up Sir Robert Pye and Major Fincher for but desiring a Free-Parliament on the behalf of the Publique sending their troops abroad to seize and Threatning themselves to sequester all the Declarers That which concerns his Majestie's Father is spoken to already WOuld the Scots know who it was that designed them to be the first Subjects of Slavery in spirituals and Civils who hated their very Nation though the Land of his Nativity who made a Pacification with them with a treacherous intent to break every Article and manifested it as soon as he returned from Edinburg to London giving special command to burn the said Articles by the hand of a Common Hangman and it was publickly done I 'll tell you that too 'T was the old Arglye But hold you Sir Touching the Treacherous intent did he tell you his mind But I confesse you are quick-sighted you could not see things else that have no Being as your own Piety and publique Tenderness You have approv'd your selves Searchers of Hearts indeed witness your Sacrifices to your MOLOCH the good old cause your Butcheries by Quartering and Embowelling poor Wretches only upon Frivolous and Incongruous Circumstances senselesly patch'd together by your Ridiculous and Suborned sons of Belial Because that your own Party did resolve at first to break all Oaths and has been only True in a fidelity to Hell and Wickedness you make no difficulty to measure others by your Impious selves you Talk and Act at such a Rate as if the Word of God were a Delusion Divinity an old wive's Tale and seriously not half so much Respect is paid to the Two Tables of the Decalogue as to the Orders of your Coffehouse I shall not ravel the Transaction sequent upon the Pacification you speak of But to your next WOuld you hear the Cryes of the blood of Rochel and of his own people sacrificed in that Expedition to a Forreign interest and of all the Protestants in France for his Barbarous betraying of them THe Rochel Expedition I 'm a stranger to so I suppose are you that make the Challenge But if you had told me of Jamaica or the Sound I should have understood you WOuld you cast your eye on past miseries and recollect the manifold intollerable Oppressions of People both in matter of Estate and Conscience and compare them with the indulgencies at the same time toward Papists yea and the designs laid to make use of Papists to destroy both Parliaments and godly people together NOw you say something surely The manifold intollerable oppression of People in matter of Estate and Conscience c. This I remember perfectly Your Major-General-Archy was an admirable Form of Government So was your Rump-archy Clap a man up and never let him know his crime nor his Accuser declare a Man uncapable of serving in Parliament for having Bayes in his Windows or a Minced Pye in Christmas sequester half the Nation because they will not swear back and forward sell Free-born Men by Thousands into Plantations and in fine beside Excise and other Impositions Arbitrary lay on the comfortable Load of 100000l a Month upon a Begger'd Nation and at the latter end of the day Is this the Oppression your wise Worship intends Now for the matter of Conscience I can help you out there too To shorten let the Oath of Abjuration serve for all You follow this with a sharp charge for making use of Papists I could retort this if I thought it valuable but frankly in a War the subject of the Question is not Religion but Assistance Nor do
I tho' I might as well condemn your Party that is the Rump-men for the same practise WOuld you understand the correspondencies maintained with and the encouragements given to the bloody Irish Rebells for the Effecting his design together with the correspondencies and Solicitations settled in Forreign Countreys to the same purpose with all the circumstances evincing the truth THis is the same thing again shake Hands and to the next WOuld you be informed how often and with how much solicitude the Parliament notwithstanding all these things did for peace sake in a manner prostitute themselves and hazzard the whole cause by appointing Treaty after Treaty which he never entertained but with intent of Treachery and thereby frustrated all their good intentions and endeavours before ever they passed the Votes of Non-Address Then we beseech you read the following Declaration and be satisfyed to the full whether or no the late King and his Family deserved death and extirpation I Pr'ethee do not choak us with the venerable sound of Parliament I talk to You and of that Mungrel-mixture you plead for A Parliament cannot do amiss be not too quick now they may have done Amiss and the next Session may repeal or mend it What they did I don't Question but what you say will as I humbly conceive admit a Castigation Look back upon your self These are your words Which he never enterteyn'd Treaty that is but with intent of Treachery and thereby frustrated their good Intentions and endeavours before ever they passed the Votes of Non Addresses At this rate you ground the Non Addresses upon the Kings Intention of Treachery A Positive disclaim of your Obedience upon a possible Dis-ingenuity in your Prince Come to cut short Dare you say that he promised and failed That 's Treachery to betray a Trust By this Rule of Proceeding had you required his Life and he refused you might have taken it his crime was only the Non-Concession of what you demanded and he gave his Reasons too for that refusall Well but let 's come up to the Vote it self I have already proved that it concerns not the secluded Members and now I shall entreat you to Back my opinion with a slip of your own Pen Their honest strictness in the Negative afterward and their Adhesion to it through all extremities speaks manifestly the intention of the party and that acquits them 'T is your own Argument in your fourth expostulation You charge his Majesty with a treacherous Intent which you infer from a subsequent manifestation of himself by Action But to dispatch should I Grant all you Claim yet did not the late King and his family deserve death and extirpation The premises will not amount to 't Now if you please go on AS for our parts we very well recount the Series of past transactions and do remember that in February 1647. when the two Houses of Parliament passed their Resolves of making no further Address but determined to lay him wholly aside they never were in a greater state of security and freedom never passed any thing with greater deliberation and never the least disturbance or alteration arose in either of the Houses against those Resolves untill some Persons in the Commons House otherwise affected and who by procuring Elections of Persons fit for their turn to serve in Parliament in vacant places brought in new men of the Cavalier stamp as is known like themselves and thereby out-balancing the old Patriots gained the Major Vote of the House and so with heat and by design obtained a revoking of those resolves which had been passed by both Houses in a time of temper upon most serious Consideration so that though we shall not take upon us ex absoluto to justifie the interposure of the Souldiery afterwards and their Exclusion of the Adverse Members it being a transcendent Act not to be measured by ordinary Rule and which nothing can justifie but Supreme necessity yet This we can truly say in their defence In Judgment and Conscience there was so indispensable a necessity that had they not interposed those Principles and the Concernments of the Common-wealth upon which the aforesaid Resolves of both Houses were founded had been utterly shipwrackt and the whole Cause and its Defenders most inevitably have sunk together seeing the same heady confidence in treaty was then given to the Father which too many now encline to allow unto the Son who were first engaged against them in the War and held out to the time of the last treaty whom of all other Men his party do hate upon that accompt and if they had an opportunity would be sure to make them fall the severest Sacrifices to the Revenge and Memory of his Father THis is already Sifted and a little Picking will serve the Turn here A Cavalier I find is onely an Honest man that crosses a Fantan but the Old Patriots it seems were the Minor part of the House and That 's enough to entitle the Nation to the Benefit of the Treaty resolved upon For Sir if you 'l give us leave we 'l be governed by the Major part It 's true your Supreme necessity is a pretty popular Sophism But As necessity ha's no Law so is it none nor in any case pleadable against Law but by the Judges of the Law which at all hands is confessed to be the Parliament and the Major part of the Two Houses in conjunction with the King have ever denominated That I must needs take a little pains to correct the Gentleman in his next Fleere upon the Presbyterians He hangs like a Cock-sparrow upon the aforesaid Resolves of both Houses which is but an old Trick of laying a Knaves Bastard at an Honest mans door and then he preaches most Infallible Destruction to the first engagers whom the King will be sure to sacrifice to the Revenge and memory of his Father This opinion or rather suggestion of his opposes all Principles of Honesty Generosity and prudence which fall within the latitude of the case Nay Taking for granted the very entrance upon the War Justifiable There might be then a Question Now there 's none They intended only a Reformation here 's a Dissolution A Liberty was there Designed here 's an Intollerable Slavery Imposed Those quitted when they saw their error These for that very Reason proceed There is in fine This difference One side would Destroy the King the Other would Preserve him These would Govern Without Law and the Other would be governed by Law After all this peremptory rudeness at large he bethinks himself at last of an Apology to the General and now the Pageant moves WE urge not these things with an intent to make the least reflection upon your Excellencie and our Brethren the Officers under your Command as if we suspected your sincerity and constancy after so many plain and positive Declarations against returning to our old Bondage under that Family which God so wonderfully cast out before us and wherein