wherein one former lawes have not prescribed or provided sufficiently for that purpose or the ordinary officers entrusted therewith may not be faithfull or not able duly to execute such punishments on many offendors in that kinde that therefore the same Councell or Representative body therein having the supream trust may in all such cases where the offence or default is in publike Officers abusing or failing their trust or in any person whatsoever if the offence extend to the prejudice of the publike may call such offendors to account and distribute punishments to them either according to the Law where it has provided or their own Judgement where it has not and they finde the offence though not particularly provided against by particular Lawes yet against the generall law of reason or Nations and the vindication of publike interest to require justice and that in such case no person whatsoever may be exempt from such account or punishment or have power to protect others from their judgement or without their consent to pardon whom they have judged These things contain the sum or main of publike interest and as they are the ordinary subject of civill contests in all mixt states where they happen betwixt the people and those that have assumed or claimed a standing priviledge or prerogative over them so they have been in this of ours And against these matters of publike interest this King hath all along his raign opposed and given himself up to uphold and advance the interest of his and his posterities will and power first That there might be no such Common Councell no Parliaments at all to restrain or check him but that all these matters of supreme trust concerning safety and all things else might rest in him and his brest alone without limit from or account to any on Earth and that all those extraordinary and Arbitrary Powers over the people their Lawes Liberties Properties yea their persons and consciences too might bee exercised at pleasure by himselfe and such as hee pleased to derive the same unto and as they were assumed so how vastly and sadly ill they were exercised by him to the prejudice and oppression of the people in generall and the ruine or persecution of all the godly of the Land yea even of those that were but sober and honest to civill Interest surely unlesse the greater pressures here hath since wrought himselfe or brought upon us by necessitating the Parliament thereunto have swallowed up the former in Oblivion we need not yet make any verball remembrance To support himselfe in that state or height of Tyranny and make it absolute He rais'd his first and second Armes against his people in both Kingdomes when hee found hee could not keep up to that height to have all those extraordinary powers and matters of Supreme absolute trust in himselfe alone them be fell to play lower that at least none of them might bee exercised by any other without him no not by all the Trustees of the Land nor in any case though never so necessary for the releife or saving of the people That if according to his former claim his people and Parliament would not admit him positively to oppresse or destroy them at his will yet by this latter they should have no power to redresse agrievance to provide for the freedom welfare or so much as immediate safety of themselves or the Kingdome but at and according to his pleasure and for this when the Parliament did otherwise assume in point of immediate safety and punishment of Delinquents without him he rais'd his third Armes and held them up so long and so much to the spoyle and neare desolation of the Kingdome till God wholly broke them and brought himselfe captive into your hands And in this though he raised them with the pretence only of opposing the exercise of those extraordinary and Arbitrary Powers by your selves or any other without him which would not be allowed himselfe to exercise alone yet in the raising and having rais'd that force he did by it assume and exercise all kinds of absolute and Arbitrary Powers at his own will alone without Parliament and how much further he would have gone in exercise of the same had he prevail'd as you we may easily imagine But as to that part of his claime against the publike Interest viz. That there might be no power in Parliament to provide for immediate safety or doe ought else for the people but at and according to his will how obstinately even since God gave him and his party wholly into your hands hath he maintained and persisted in it even so long as from forraign parts or Allies from Irish Scots from your own divisions or discontents of the people at the burthens he necessitated you to continue upon them he had any hopes by force to prevaile against you or avoid any concession against that claime and of this his so many denials to the Propositions of Peace which both Houses and both Kingdomes have so often tendred and renewed yea of those foure only Bills concerning purely that publike Interest and but a small part of it together with essentiall precautions for a Treaty doe aford abundant evidence As to which last tender it is apparent he had no pretext left for refusall from either scruple of Conscience matter of harshnesse to his party or ought else but the meer Interest of will and power to himselfe and his which some Scottish and other correspondencies it seemes then gave him hopes yet by force to uphold insomuch as upon that refusall added to all the former you found it necessary at last to take up those resolutions of no further addresses to him but to settle the Peace of the Kingdom without him and secure it and your selves against him and in order thereto to keep his person in safe Custody at Carisbrook Castle But when his other claimes so farre failing it came to this He that before would not have allowed the Parliament or Kingdom a Power for safety but at his will would at least make you know that nor You nor the Kingdome should have any Peace or quiet without him and that neither Parliament nor any Power on Earth what ever ills he had done might for it attach or meddle with his Sacred Person no not so much as to secure him from opportunities of doing more and for this last part of his Interest his fourth Armes the last warre was rais'd by Commissions from himselfe to the Prince and from him to as many more as would take any and for the same the Scotish Invasion was procured The pretext or quarrell in this last Engagement seemed as it were to reach no higher then only to rescue his priviledged Person and force the Parliament yet in a Personall Treaty to seek Peace at his will and to let them see they could not otherwise have it not might doe ought against his person no not to secure him from doing further mischief though he make
the tenour of the Cities Engagement with the Concomitants and Consequents thereof and by our carriage both in relation thereto and since that Danger was over And yet however in that degree of Compliance admitted in that kinde we finde matter of Acknowledgement before the Lord concerning our Error Frailty Unbelief and Carnal Councels therein and we bless him that preserved us from worse But on the other side give us leave to fear and we heartily wish as to any honest soul That it may be a caufless and mistaken fear That from such private Jealousies and the Animosities or Hate of one party against another who once seemed to be engaged in one Common Cause against a Common Enemy there have been on the part of others evil Compliances Negative and Positive yea we doubt Contracts and Conjunctions too by some sought by others entertained with Him and His party even while the acknowledged Enemy to the neglect or dispending of the common publique Interest meerly for the upholding or strengthening of their own and the ruine of the party particularly opposed We cannot but be sensible of this because we have felt the effects of it in the loss of many our dear innocent Friends lives with the hazard of our own in the last Summers War For even from this Root as we have more then conjectural Grounds to understand The Revolt in Wales had its Rise and Growth The Scotish Invasion had its Foundation and Invitation The Revolt of the Ships The Rebellion in Kent Essex c. and the several Tumults Risings and Disturbances in and about London and the Southern parts had their Instigation and Encouragement and from the same this miserable ensnaring Treaty its conception and birth And if from the divisions we have such destructive compliances and conjunctions have been entertained with and such advantages given to Him and His party while profest and acknowledged Enemies what worse may we not expect of that kinde when by a Peace made they shall have the Reputation of friends to give countenance and confidence thereunto To conclude this point concerning His advantages after accommodation and restitution to overthrow or prejudice the publike Interest wee 'll confess our greatest fears from the consideration of the Act for this Parliaments unlimitted continuance wherein besides divisions amongst those that are or profess to be for the publike if He shal ever be able by particular successions of new Burgesses according to the present constitution or any other way to form a prevailing or ballancing party for His Interest in the House of Commons which even there He seems to have bid fair for already and as to the Lords wee 'll move no Question we may then justly yield Englands Liberties for defunct when that which should be the Conservative shall be turned indeed the Bane and yet it being in the place and repute of the onely Conservative we shall through that Act be debarred from change of Medicine or use of other Remedy yea from the renewing or taking fresh choyce of Medicine in the same kinde but must keep to that old Mass which such putrifaction will have rendred deadly and will probably vitiate all particular Additions of fresh ingredients that shall be made while the old leven shall remain predominant Neither can we see any possible help in the Case after his Restitution though you should be willing to lay down your power For indeed to set a Period to this Parliament and not therewith provide for a certain succession of Parliaments and the certainty of their sitting also without dependance on the Kings will were to leave the Kingdom without assurance of any remedy or at least of power therein to help at all and so in like condition as before this Parliament And to make provision for such a succession and certainty of sitting of future Parliaments without like provision for a more due constitution by more equal Elections freed from such dependance on prerogative Grants or from being so subject to prerogative Commands as now by the number and nature of Burgessships they stand were to render the succession less hopeful or safe or at least subject to no less corruption in the same kinde then the Constitution of the present is And you having not in this Treaty propounded any provision for any of these things which we dare boldly affirm are of highest concernment to the vindication and preservation of publique Interest in the very Fundamentals of it if you go on to make a Peace upon such terms as if this Parliament were to continue for ever and set the rest of all our hopes upon that Basis We may justly presume That when a Peace is made and the King testored if afterwards you would come to considerations of laying down your Power and making such provisions for succession as is before exprest The King whose consent you still seem to make necessary to such things though 't is like He would readily consent to be rid of this Parliament so as to have no more but at his Call for their meeting and Will for their continuance or perhaps so as to have no better provision for the one or larger for the other then the Triennial Bill yet as to full certainty in the one or sufficient enlargement in the other without relation to His will and much less as to the taking away of Burgessships dependent on His grant and subject to His and His great mens command and the reducing of Elections to full equality and freedom we say on such terms we may well presume from the reason and nature of the Kings Interest He will not willingly when after Peace made He needs not give up His hopes of or against this Parliament but rather then He will make or bring upon Himself and Posterity such an Entail of Parliaments as He can never hope to avoid and those to be so independent on His Will for their meeting or sitting as he can never hope to avoid and constituted so equally according to the Interest of the people as He can never hope or cannot design how to pack to His own He will prefer and stand to His fairer hopes of making His party good with this Parliament one way or other viz. Either in and by it by making a party in it as before exprest or else against it by making use of discontents and impatience in the people towards it and of divisions within it self at last to destroy and overthrow it and so to deliver His Crown once for all from Wardship as he counts it to Parliamentary power which by th' other Conditions might have been perpetual And if either in the one kinde or the other He prevail upon this Parliament His Monarchy and our Slavery will be absolute and probably for ever in the one by seeming Authority of Parliament made immortally the same in the other by th'utter extinction of it But to proceed from probabilities of danger to shew the certain insecurity and perpetual prejudice to
friends to all but it and that supposed party in Parliament and Kingdom that cordially upheld it they and their busie promoters of Petitions stirred up by their Emissaries or Agents in all Counties for the engaging and cementing of this new form'd and intended generall party being all taught the same language at first professe fair For the Parliament or nothing against it but to be for a full and free Parliament and to deliver it from the force of an Army pretend for the Liberty of the subject also to free them from the oppression and tyranny of an Army to be for the Law of the Land against the Arbitrary power of a Faction in parliament setting up and supporting themselves above Law by the power of an Army whereas in truth their great and latest quarrell against the Army was That it would not force the Parliament to comply with the will and interest of the King to the prejudice of the Kingdoms Liberties and of the power of Law therein nor desert the Parliament in their adherence to these against the King They pretended likewise to be much for the ease of the people to free them from Taxes and Contributions to an Army to be for the settlement of peace in the Kingdom that there might be no need of an Army whereas 't was indeed their restlesse workings and watching all advantages by parties within this Kingdom or Forraign aids to set up their own and the Kings Interest to the ruine of the Parliament and enslaving of the Kingdom that did necessitate the Parliament to continue an Army and taxes to maintain it They pretended for Religion too and for Reformation and the Covenant against an Army of Sectaries and opposers thereof yea they yet pretended even for the Army it self as to the Body of it and all but a faction of Officers in it supporting themselves in power and dominion by it that the Army might be satisfied their Arrears and go home And for all these fair ends presuming upon the Parliaments unsetlednesse and weaknesse as not able or not knowing how to provide for any of these things of themselves without the King a personal Treaty with the King must be held forth as the onely soveraign salve Thus the people being made to depend mainly upon the King for all and his Interest made necessary to all the other pretences were but made use of to serve his ends and an easie way made to set up him and his Interest above all As to the hypocrisie of these pretences we need say nothing more The Lord himself in our silence even when by such pretexts and their quick proceedings upon them they had made such engaging work for us in all parts as gave us no leisure to say any thing for the undeceiving of men or vindicating our selves or so much as to make any publick verball appeal to him for it hath yet from heaven judged them and born a cleer testimony against them in defeating with a small handful the numerous parties they had thus engaged within the Kingdom and drawn from elsewhere under the very same pretexts to invade it and breaking the force of those designes so cunningly and takingly laid and so strongly backt with advantages as 't was scarce imaginable in humane reason all things considered how to avoid them But however working upon that unsetledness in the peoples mindes which the uncertaintie and Divisions in your own Councels had occasioned and having the advantage of that general disposition in a burthened and troubled people to entertain any motions and follow any party pretending to end their troubles and ease their burthens against the present party in power from whom immediately they apprehend them they made a shift to engage multitudes to Petition for these things and thence under the pretence of freeing the Parliament from force to raise Arms and leavy War against it at best to inforce their Petitions and under the notion of freeing the people from taxes to the Parliament and quarter to the Army to make them incur greater charges and burthens for the King and his party and by withholding their taxes from the Parliament to necessitate free quarter again upon themselves which before they were delivered from and under the notion of setling Peace and the Liberties of the Kingdom to break that we had and ingage the people in another War on the Kings behalf against the Parliament and their own Liberties and to get his party with Commissions derived from him into the conduct and manage of it But whilest therein with open force they do their utmost to destroy and subdue you they omit not the driving on of that surest part in their designe a personal Treaty to deceive you To promote which they had besides numerous and daily Petitioners from all parts deluded and drawn in by the aforesaid specious pretences the deluded multitude and rabble about the City with the old Malignants new Apostates and late discontented party both in the City and Parliament it self the one at your elbows the other in your bosoms pressing you incessantly The Lords in every thing relating to the Treaty closing readily with the desires of the City Malignants the Prince and all your Enemies and in their Votes for the same going before you and haling you after although in things concerning the prosecution of the War in your own and the Kingdoms necessary defence especially in declaring with you against those visible Enemies and Actors therein The Scots Army and others they would neither lead nor follow And when at any thing propounded towards the Treaty wherein you found the very life of your Cause and the Kingdoms to be concerned you were loath to give up that and thereupon made some stick then clamorous Petitions for a concurrence come thick from the City with menaces insinuated many debaucht Reformadoes the desperate Cavaliers and rude multitude about the City ring in your ears with raylings and threats many faithful Members particularly frighted or driven out of Town forces listed and gathering daily about you and this the City neither taking course to restrain nor suffering their Major General to do it but opposing and incountring his and your Authority in what he by it attempted for your safety and freedom and these courses never ceased until you had fully agreed to a Personal Treaty on such terms as His Majestie Himself was pleased to entertain By these means and such continued usage from the City and those in and about it at whose mercy you were while your Army was engaged at distance against your Enemies in arms by that time God had broke all their forces delivered most of them into your hands and crusht all their hopes of avayling that way We finde them at last drawn into this miserable inconvenience of a personal Treaty with him and his adherents who had so long and uncessantly tryed all Interests and wearied all friends in this and many forraign Nations by force to destroy or subdue you In which
Warre and refuse Peace never so long And for this last piece of his Interest as opposite and destructive to that of the Publick as any of the former though a Divine Testimony has been born against it as full and more glorious if possible then before against any of the rest as if God would thereby declare his designing of that Person to Justice yet the Parliament after all this restoring him without any presatisfaction or security unto a kinde of Liberty and State only that he might appeare in a capacity to Treat and then by Treaty seeking their Peace and all their matters before contended for and though God gained against him to come now as concessions from his will doe clearely yeeld back that last piece of his claimed interest into his hands againe and indeed therewith seem to render a more reall acknowledgement and yeelding to him and against Parliament and Kingdome as to the precedent just right of what ever 's now demanded or granted as from him then all his verball wrested concessions or confessions will be understood to be unto Parliament or Kingdome as to any future clearing or assurance of those things But to return to our purpose The matters aforementioned being the maine parts of publique interest originally contended for on your parts and theirs that ingaged with you and thus opposed by the King for the interest of his will and power many other more particular or speciall interests have occasionally faln into the contest on each party As first on the Parliaments part to protect and countenance religious men and godlinesse in the power of it to give freedome and inlargement to the Gospell for the encreasing and spreading of light amongst men to take away those corrupted formes of an out-side religion and Church government whether imposed without Law or rooted in the Law in times of popish ignorance or idolatry or of the Gospels dimmer light by meanes whereof snares and chaines were layd upon conscientious and zealous men and the generallity of people held in darknesse superstition and a blind reverence of persons and outward things fit for popery and slavery and also to take away or loosen that dependance of the Clergy and Ecclesiasticall affaires upon the King and that interest of the Clergy in the Lawes and civill affaires which the craft of both in length of time had wrought for each other which severall things were the proper subject of the Reformation endeavoured by the Parliament Contrary wise on the Kings party the interest was to discountenance and suppresse the power of godlinesse or any thing of conscience obliging above or against humane and outward constitutions to restraine or lessen the preaching of the Gospel and growth of light amongst men to hold the community of men as much as might bee In a darksome ignorance and superstition or formality in Religion with only an awfull reverence of perions offices and outward dispensations rendring them fit subjects for ecclesiasticall and civill tyranny and for these ends to advance and set up further formes of superstition or at least hold fast the old which had any foundation in the Laws whereby chains and setters might be held upon and advantages taken against such in whom a zeale or conscience to any thing above man should breake forth and to uphold and maintaine the dependance of the Clergy and Church matters upon the King and greatnesse of the Clergy under him and in all these things to oppose the Reformation endeavoured by the Parliament Also on the Parliaments party their interest as well as duty was to discountenance irreligion prophanesse debauchery vanity ambition and time serving and to preser such especially as were otherwise given viz. consciencious strickt in manners sober serious and of plaine and publique spirits Contrary to these on the Kings party it was to countenance or connive at prophanesse loosenesse of manners vanity and luxury of life and preferre especially such as had a mixture of ambition and vain-glory with a servile spirit rendring them fit to serve anothers power and greatnesse for the enjoying of some share therein to themselves in all or most of which respects it has been the great happinesse and advantage to Parliamentary and publique interest that it hath been made one very much with the interest of the godly or for the name whereof it has been so much derided the Saints as on the otherside the King 's one with their greatest Opposites by occasion whereof God hath been doubly engaged in the cause viz. for that and for the righteousnesse of it And to this indeed through the favour and presence of God therewith the Parliament hath cause to owne and referre the blessing and successe that hath accompanied their affaires which accordingly as they have held square and been kept close to this have prospered gloriously and wherein or so oft as this hath been thwarted swerved from or neglected in their manage have suffered miserable blastings Thus have we endeavoured to give a just and plaine state of the Parliamentary or publique interest and the severall parts of it and of the Kings in opposition thereto which have been the grounds or subjects of contests all along this Kings raigne and especially since this Parliament began as may appeare in the beginnings progresse and severall steps of the contest And by what hath been occasionally said herein some judgement may be made how far safe or good the accommodation is like to be that can be expected by the present Treaty But the severall and opposite interests being thus stated we shall proceed more clearly to speake a little to the questions stated before First therefore as to the goodnesse which first implies the justnesse of such an accommodation we cannot but suppose 1. That where a person trusted with a limited power to rule according to Lawes and by his trust with expresse covenant and oath also obliged to preserve and protect the Rights and Liberties of the people for and by whom hee is intrusted shall not only pervert that trust and abuse that power to the hurt and prejudice of the generality and to the oppression if not destruction of many of them but also by the advantage of the trust and power he hath shall rise to the assuming of hurtfull powers which he never had committed to him and indeed to take away all those foundations of Right and Liberty and of redresse or remedy too which the people had reserved from him and to swallow up all into his owne absolute will and power to impose or take away yea to destroy at pleasure and declining all appeale herein to the establisht equall judgement agreed upon as it were betwixt him and his people in all emergent matters of difference betwixt them or to any judgement of men at all shall flye to the way of force upon his trusting people and attempt by it to uphold and establish himselfe in that absolute tyrannicall power so assumed over them and in the exercise
Accommodation to continue Taxes and Impositions for the maintenance of that Force to the burthen and grievance of the People and the greater increase of their discontents and hate towards you For if after this accommodation to ease and satisfie them you shall ever disband your Forces while the King at 's liberty and in 's Throne againe you give him his end or wisht opportunity in laying your selves your adherents and the Publique interest all levell againe with Him and His as if you had never prevailed nor had any advantage over them and so for all your satisfaction and security you are at the Kings courtesie still and if he will breake you are but where you were at first and the Publique interest nothing advantaged or secured by ought obtain'd or done in the Warre but the King in the same and much fairer possibility to revive the old Quarrell renew his Force with greater advantage and put you to Fight it over againe or rather may carry it without Fighting since after so much blood and cost and trouble for nothing 't is not like you 'le finde a competent Party for th' opposing of him ready to ingage againe on the same termes and if he gaine any strength to appeare for him which who can doubt when your Forces are disbanded confidering what a numerous Party he has ingaged to it in interest and necessity others inclined to it by principles and temper others in humour and discontent against the present Government the generality of people wearied with the former Warre whereof they have found so great misery and so little fruit if they see a strength on his part threatning a new Warre and none ready on your part to ballance it which might hold them at least in neutrality will surely be more apt to joyne unanimously with him or let him have what he will that there may be no Warre then joyne with you to maintaine another Warre to so much prejudice and so little purpose as they have found the former And if to appease the King and his enraged Party a sacrifice of those that opposed him in the former will serve the turne the people 't is like will be so farre from sticking at that as 't is some Question to whom 't would be more acceptable the King or them the people by the Cavaliers clamourous and cunning suggestions and the advantages you have given thereto through the unsetled endlesse and fruitlesse wayes of trouble you have held them in being already pretty well possest and by that time like to be further perswaded against you as if in all this Warre you had meerely couzen'd them so as you are like to have their hate no lesse as for abusing them then the Kings for opposing him If to secure that little advantage to publique interest which in the present way you will have gain'd or rather to prevent a totall losse of all thereupon you continue a sufficient strength and therewith Taxes and Impositions to maintaine it those as they are alwaies grievous to the people so they will after the peace supposed to be setled be so much the more discontenting by how much they may be then deemed unnecessary for the King having in the tearmes of Accommodation granted what your selves did aske and therein such supposed security as that you need not feare new troubles though few will consider wherein that little security does lye or at least by his yeelding as it were for peace sake to all your demands having given in the peoples apprehensions such assurances of his love to peace as that no danger of new warre or trouble seemes to be feared from him in this case the continuance of Forces and Taxes will surely be thought no further needfull for any publique end for in common judgement if Warre made Souldiers needfull then surely Peace must render them needlesse And therefore it will be aptly thought if yet Souldiers be kept up and Taxes continued it is sure either for the gaine or advantage or some private designe of those that continue them And upon these grounds with unwillingnesse and backward nesse to pay Taxes and discontents at the burthen of them there must naturally grow up jealousies and heart-burnings against those that require them These to foment and inflame to the height and thereby to sweeten and endeare the King with the people will be his and the Cavaliers surest play and otherwise to sit that while if they have the patience as still as Lambs How colourable and plausible will it be for them to suggest and how apt for the people to receive That the King is no way to be blamed for any of those burthens he Good man has yeelded to any thing and done what he could that there might be no need of them and now he gives no consent to them but the Parliament does them without him and have bound up and excluded him from his wonted Negative Voice therein otherwise he would refuse and hinder them but being not in power to helpe the People he can onely pitty them in these things And now they may see what they gaine by their Parliaments or how much it is to their common prejudice as well as the Kings to have the King in any particular exâ—â—â—ded from his Negative Voice and the Parliament free to proceed in ought without him And thus easily may the people from their common unwillingnesse to part with Money though for their reall safety be at once inflamed into a refusall and opposition therein and deluded into a resentment of that which is the Kings interest as if it were their owne and so ingaged with and for him and his Party as having one common Cause with themselves And if thus they be once heightned but into a resolved witholding of payments for the maintenance of that necessary strength you keepe for the common safety and peace you must then either give the King his End and advantage as is before express't in dissolving your Forces or else use extraordinary wayes of power and rigour towards the People to inforce such necessary payments which will still inrage them higher against you and serve to endeare and ingage them more to the King and his interest colourably in point of their Liberties then as well as their ease before untill at last the People for both being rais'd against you and therein joyning with and being headed by the King and his Party whose interest so far seemes one with theirs you unlesse you 'le give up all must come to make a Warre against the poore deceived people for that which is really their owne cause And the King by the People as it were for their proper Liberties and Interest may make Warre against you to th'erecting of his owne and th' overthrow of the common Interest both yours and theirs For solution of which seeming Riddle much needs not to be said since that you contend for is their generall Fundamentall and perpetuall Liberties for the preservation whereof you 'le
really to go as farre as you could therein that he and his Interest so farre as just might be provided for therein as well as your owne and the Kingdomes and that you had no Designe to exclude or prejudice his if he would accept and joyne in the Agreement as to the other And even so the words added to and closing up that clause in the Covenant do import viz. That the world may bear witnesse with our Consciences of our loyalty and that we have no thoughts or intentions to diminish his Majesties just power and greatnesse Secondly considering it as an Oath the forme of an Oath added to that of a Covenant makes it no other then a Covenant stil but taken as in the presence of God and only addes the calling of God to witnesse as to the truth of your intentions and faithfulnesse of your indeavours to performe what it as a Covenant obligeth unto and look how farre it in the nature of a Covenant as to any particular matter obligeth so farre and no further or otherwise doth that calling of God to witnesse ingage him the more to avenge any falshood in your intentions or unfaithfulnesse in your indeavours to performe it and this is all the enforcement which that forme of an Oath addeth to that of a Covenant without obliging to any further matter or for any longer or more absolute continuance then it as a Covenant doth oblige and therefore wherein and upon what supposition soever the Obligation ceaseth as a Covenant that enforcement also ceaseth as an Oath so that if as a Covenant it oblige not to his benefit upon supposition of his refusall or opposall upon the same it enforceth nought to his benefit as an Oath If any object that in what we have here said we who professe to dislike the imposing of the Covenant with any penaltie or Prosecution against refusers do seem to take advantage against his Majesty for refusals we answer we say not for but upon And if no other penaltie be ever put upon Covenant-refusers save not to claime benefit by it we shall ever acknowledge that to be most just and reasonable against our selves if refusers Having thus endeavoured to Remonstrate the danger and evil of the way you are in and cleared the way unto what we have to propose we shall with the same plainnesse and faithfulnesse give you our apprehensions of the remedies for which purpose upon all the reasons and considerations aforegoing we proceed to offer as followeth First we conceive and hope that from what hath before been said you may find abundant cause to forbeare any further proceeding in this evill and most dangerous Treaty and to returne to your former grounds in the Votes of Non-addresses and thereupon proceed to the setling and securing of the kingdome without and against the King upon such foundations as hereafter are tendred but if notwithstanding all the evils and dangers remonstrated to lie even in the Treaty it selfe you will yet proceed in such an evill way we shall at least desire that you make sure to avoid that maine venome and mischiefe attending it viz. The Kings restitution with impunity c. and that imperfect bargaining for partiall justice against inferiour offenders And for the avoidance of these we propound 1. That you would reject those demands of the King sent to you on his and his Parties behalfe and especially in relation to that concerning his restitution or returne to London with freedome c. that it may be expressely declared and provided by you that notwithstanding any thing concluded or to be concluded in this Treaty the Person of the King may and shall be proceeded against in a way of justice for the blood spilt and the other evils and mischiefs done by him or by his Commission Command or Procurement and in order thereto shall be kept in safe custody as formerly 2. That for other delinquents you would lay aside that particular bargaining Proposition which as we understand the King hath refused in the termes you offered and whereby all your justice and mercy too would be rendred both for the matter qualifications and circumstances thereof to be dependant upon particular contract with and grant from the King and not upon the judiciall power of the Kingdome in Parliament and that in stead thereof it may be declared and provided by you that all Delinquents shall subject and submit to the aforesaid judiciall power to be thereby proceeded against according to justice or with mercy as cause shall appear and that none shall be exempt or protected therefrom nor pardonable by any other power then that of the Kingdome in Parliament by which they shall be judged this we propound to the end that publick justice and the interest of the Kingdome therein may be vindicated salved and satisfied and yet when that is so provided for and in some fittest examples of justice upon chief offenders shall be effectuated we wish as much mercy and moderation to the generality upon their submission as formerly we have both desired and used or as can consist with the publick interest and safety and with competent satisfaction to those that have engaged and suffered for it If in relation to the former of these Provisions viz. concerning the Person of the King it be thought an unreasonable or unbeseeming demand in a Personall Treaty that one Partie after Concessions to the other in all the matters of right and other things in question should agree besides to be punished himselfe for having made the past contest about them we confesse it might be thought so in a Treaty betwixt Parties standing both free and in an equall ballance of power or possibilities to obtaine the cause but so farre as a Treaty can rationally or properly be with a Party wholly subdued captivated and imprisoned or in the power of the other to such a Treaty such demands if otherwise just are very sutable and proportionable and to any Treaty It seems surely no lesse suitable to demand the principall to justice then the accessories that were but his necessary and proper Agents in the Contest especially where he is as much if not more within the other Parties power as they and where it is not so much a demanding him to justice as a Proviso that being already in the power of their justice they will not exempt him from it Thus therefore the power of justice and mercy being saved or reserved we proceed in order to the actuall dispensing thereof in relation to the late wars and thereby to peace with God and present quiet amongst men to propound as followeth 1. That that capitall and grand Author of our troubles the Person of the King by whose Commissions Commands or Procurement and in whose behalfe and for whose interest only of will and power all our warres and troubles have been with all the miseries attending them may be speedily brought to justice for the treason blood and mischiefe he is therein guilty of
own power by which time that great and supream trust reposed in you shall be returned into the hands of the People from and for whom you received it that so you may give them satisfaction and assurance that what you have contended for against the King for which they have been put to so much trouble cost and losse of blood hath been only for their Liberties and common Interest and not for your own personall Interest or power 2. That with a period to this Parliament to be assigned as short as may be with safety to the Kingdom and publike Interest thereof there may be a sound settlement of the peace and future Government of the Kingdom upon grounds of common Right Freedom and safety to the effect here following 1. That from the end of this there may be a certain succession of future Parliaments Annuall or Bienniall with secure provision 1. For the certainty of their meeting sitting and ending 2. For the equall distribution of Elections thereunto to render the House of Commons as near as may be an equall Representative of the whole People electing 3. For the certainty of the Peoples meeting according to such Distributions to elect and for their full freedom in elections provided That none who have engaged or shall engage in War against the right of Parliament and interest of the Kingdom therein or have adhered to the enemies thereof may be capable of electing or being elected at least during a competent number of years nor any other who shall oppose or not ioyn in agreement to this settlement 4. For future clearing and ascertaining the power of the said Representatives in order to which That it be declared That as to the whole interest of the People of England such Representatives have and shall have the supream power and trust as to the making of Laws Constitutions and Offices for the ordering preservation and Government of the whole and as to the altering and repealing or abolishing of the same the making of War or Peace and as to the highest and finall Iudgement in all civill things without further appeal to any created standing power and that all the people of this Nation and all Officers of Iustice and Ministers of State as such shall in all such things be accountable and subject thereunto and bound and concluded thereby provided That 1. They may not censure or question any man after the end of this Parliament for any thing said or done in reference to the late Wars or publique differences saving in execution of such determinations of this Parliament as shall be left in force at the ending thereof in relation to such as have served the King against the Parliament 2. They may not render up or give or take away any the foundations of common Right Liberty or Safety contained in this settlement and Agreement But that the power of these two things last mentioned shall be alwayes understood to be reserved from and not entrusted to the said Representatives 5. For liberty of entring dissents in the said Representatives That in case of corruption or abuse in these matters of highest trust the People may be in capacity to know who are free therof and who guilty to the end only they may avoid the further trusting of such but without further penalty to any for their free judgements there 2. That no King be hereafter admitted but upon the election of and as upon trust from the People by such their Representatives nor without first disclaiming and disavowing all pretence to a negative voyce against the determinations of the said Representatives or Commons in Parliament and that to be done in some certain form more clear then heretofore in the Coronation Oath These matters of generall settlement viz. That concerning a period to this Parliament and the other particulars thencefollowing hitherto we propound to be declared and provided by this Parliament or by the authority of the Commons therein and to be further established by a generall Contract or Agreement of the People with their subscriptions thereunto and that withall it may be provided That none may be capable of any benefit by the Agreement who shall not consent and subscribe thereunto nor any King be admitted to the Crown or other person to any Office or place of publike trust without expresse accord and subscription to the same We have thus plainly and faithfully propounded our apprehensions how the evill and danger of the present Treaty may in good measure be avoyded and our further conceptions of a way wherein hopefully through the blessing of God if most men be not given up some to unjust domination or particular Interest the rest to servitude the Kingdome may be quieted future disturbances prevented the common Kights and Liberties provided for and the Peace and Government of the Kingdome setled to a just publick Interest and this wee have set forth in such heads and particulars which if you l but set aside for the time lesse important matters may most of them be brought to effect and the rest assured and put into a good way of effect within a few Moneths so as you might then ease the Kingdome from the burthen of the greatest part of that force which otherwise in case of Accommodation with the King you will be necessitated for a much longer time probably for many yeares to keep on upon the publick charge unlesse upon the Accommodation you would give up all to the Kings power againe and expose those that have engaged against him as sacrifices to his and the Cavaliers Revenge And for our parts let but that way of Iustice be effectually prosecuted and the settlement of the publick Interest upon such foundations as are afore propounded be assured to us and the Kingdome and put into a course of effect which as we said before might well be in a few moneths and we shall not only imbrace with chearfulnesse but shall with eagernesse desire discharge from our present service and shall be most ready to disband all or part as shall be thought fit the Arrears of the soldiery being satisfied We shall therefore earnestly desire that these things may be minded and prosecuted effectually and that nothing may interrupt them save what shall be for immediate and necessary safety And that to avoid interruptions from such things as are not necessary or lesse proper for Parliamentary considerations or Debates you would leave all private matters and things of ordinary Justice and right to the Lawes and present proper Officers and Administrations thereof untill better can be provided and commit all ordinary matters of State to the mannage of a fit Councell of State sufficiently impowred for that purpose and assisted with the addition of some Merchants in relation to the ballancing security and advance of Trade so as you may be the more free for the present to intend those aforesaid Considerations of publique Justice and the settlement of the Kingdom upon just and safe foundations of publike interest and
though we see more utter and less avoydable danger to the Kingdoms Cause and to all the godly and honest people engaged with you then before in your lowest or worst conditions we ever yet apprehended Yet considering the premises and how great the change is from Votes of no more Addresses to not your wonted positive sending of Propositions anew but a Treaty a Personal Treaty without any previous satisfaction or security and a Treaty upon what Propositions he should make as well as your own all which both Houses yea both Kingdoms have so often and always before declined voted and declared against as delusive and dangerous yea destructive while the Parliament was unquestionably most free We cannot but conceive That at that time and in those Resolutions for such a Treaty the judgment of Parliament was not with due and former Freedom And therefore not dispairing but that as men drawn or driven into dangerous straits you may readily entertain or at least favorably resent any thing of Light or encouragement that may be offered towards the saving or extricating of your selves and those you are intrusted for We shall with all plainness and faithfulness represent to you our Conceptions where the main danger seems to lie and where any way to escape And we hope 't will be thought no arrogance in us or disparagement to your Wisdoms since lookers on may possibly see something the gamesters do not For the evils and dangers of this Personal Treaty had it been admitted to be indeed with his person in Parliament especially at London and in a full condition of honor freedom and safety which had implyed That after all the trouble loss hazard and the expence of blood and treasure he had put the Kingdom unto he should be admitted to his Throne and Office without any satisfaction before given for what was past or security against the like in future the evil and danger thereof had been so visible as nothing had need to have been said to unfold it As it is now admitted and qualified for circumstances the case being as 't has pleased God to make it That the King has no power in field whereby to take advantages during the Treaty we shall say nothing to any dangers of that kinde supposing no agreement save to wish you consider the opportunities of laying Designes for his escape or otherwise and of setling future correspondences which the company and confluence of such persons about him does afford But we shall chiefly consider the great evil or danger of seeking to him by Treaty in your present case and of an agreement or accommodation to be thereby made with him including his impunity and restitution to his freedom revenue dignity office or government Now as to that the great Questions will be 1. Whether as your and this Kingdoms Case stands such an Accommodation would be First Just or good and so desireable or if not where the injustice or evillies Secondly Whether safe and to be admitted or if not where the danger lies 2. Admitting that upon some suppositions it might be good or safe Whether yet it can be so or such a one can be had in the way and conditions of this Treaty as the case stands If either in the General or in respect of your and the Kingdoms present Case and of the way and conditions of this Treaty it cannot be safe then it concerns the Parliament not to admit such an accommodation or agreement upon this Treaty and though it might be safe yet if it be otherwise evil or not good then you have no reason but to use any freedom or just grounds remaining to decline it To these Questions therefore because the safety or danger good or evil in Question is chiefly in relation to the Publike Interest of the Kingdom and not so much to particular mens though even the particular safety of such as have engaged for the Publike is not to be neglected to lead our selves and others to the clearer judgment in the point we shall premise a stating of the Publike Interest in Question in opposition to the Kings and of his particular Interest opposed thereto The sum of the Publike Interest of a nation in relation to common Right and Freedom which has been the chief subject of our contest and in opposition to tyranny and injustice of Kings or others we take to lie in these things following 1. That for all matters of supreme trust or concernment to the safety and welfare of the whole They have a common and supreme Councell or Parliament and that as to the common behalf who cannot all meet together themselves to consist of Deputies or Representers freely chosen by them with as much equality as may be and those Elections to be successive and renewed either at times certain and stated or at the Call of some subordinate standing Officer or Councell entrusted by them for that purpose in the Intervals of the supreme or else at both 2. That the power of making Laws Constitutions and Offices for the preservation and government of the whole and of altering or repealing and abolishing the same for the removall of any publick grievance therein and the power of finall Judgment concerning War or peace the safety and welfare of the people and all civill things whatsoever without further Appeal to any created standing power and the supreme trust in relation to all such things may rest in that supreme Councell so as 1. That the ordinary ordering and Government of the people may be by such Offices and Administrations and according to such Laws and Rules as by that Councell or the Representative body of the people therein have been prescribed or allowed and not otherwise 2. That none of those extraordinary or Arbitrary powers afore-mentioned may be exercised towards the people by any as of right but by that supreme Councell or the Representative body of the people therein nor without their advice and consent may any thing be imposed upon or taken from the people or if it be otherwise a tempted by any That the people be not bound thereby but free and th'attempters punishable 3. That those extraordinary power or any of them may be exercised by that supreme Councell or by the Representative body of the people therein and where they shall see cause to assume and exercise the same in a matter which they finde necessary for the safety or wel-being of the people their proceedings and determinations therein may be binding and conclusive to the people and to all Officers of Justice and Ministers of state whatsoever and that it may not be left in the will of the King or any particular persons standing in their own interest to oppose make void or tender ineffectuall such their determinations or proceedings and especially since the having of good constitutions and making of good laws were of little security or 〈◊〉 without power to punish those that breake or go about to â—â—â—â—throw them and many such cases may happen
is to be made good on each party towards the other how easie it is to finde or pretend a failer of full performance and thence to avoid the obligation to th' Agreement and especially in Agreements of State if all matters of power trust and right are not fully cleared and determined so as to state the supreme trust and conclusive Iudgement to all intents and purposes fully and absolutely in one party or other but that something be left divided or at least suspended betwixt them in such case how easie is it for the party that is looser by the agreement to find or faine an intrenchment of the other beyond the stated bounds and thence to make a new breach when be sees his advantage for it But however when any thing within the compasse of what was so left suspended does in practise come to question and difference and neither party trusted singly to conclude there is a clear Foundation for a breach unlesse they either agree to lay the matter aside which perhaps the gaining party cannot and so by the loosers meer standing off may be necessitated to appear the first Actor in a breach or else come to a new Agreement upon every such particular We know besides what Court Maximes there are amongst the Kings party concerning some fundamentall Rights of a Crown which the King cannot give away and their common scruple whether a King granting away such or any other hereditary Crown-Rights can oblige his Heires or Successors or exclude their claim But if all other pretexts faile their Non-obligation to what is wrested from them by force in a powerfull Rebellion as they count it will serve such a Kings Conscience for a shift to make a breach where he findes his advantage And are not all these occasions or pretexts obvious in our case To say nothing of the matters of Supreme Power and trust which though all your Propositions be granted will yet be left divided or suspended not only betwixt the severall Houses but betwixt them both and the Kings nor yet of the imperfect bargaining for severall parts of it which by the tenor of the Propositions are taken some as it were by Lease all by grant from the King so as to confirm rather then weaken his claim of the Originall right to be in him and his from both which kinds of defect or uncertainty in th' Agreement there will be left many apt occasions and particular grounds for a breach when time shall serve Is it not apparent that from that more generall consideration of the condition of the King in this Treaty and the force or necessity lying upon him a ground of evasion or exception lies to the whole agreement as not obliging to the King whatever Concessions or assurances are so drawn from him what account the King and his party do upon that ground make of the Treaty besides the common voice of them all in all corners that the King good man is meerly forc'd to what he grants we may see it publikely and authentickly avowed by the Prince and his Councell in his Declaration in answer to the Earle of Warwicks Summons of the revolted Fleet at Goree where besides other passages hinting the same thing the Prince clarely saies The KING in truth is still in prison with such circumstances of restraint as to say no more are not usuall in the case of the most private person whose delivery and freedome therefrom all his Subjectes are obliged to indeavour by the Lawes of God and man to their utmost hazard and afterwards invites the Earl of Warwick to joyn with his Highnesse in the rescue of his Royall Father from his unworthy imprisonment This being in answer to that summons wherein the Earle of Warwick invited the Ships to come in upon that very ground that the King and Parliament were in Treaty for Peace we can take to intend no lesse then a plaine dissavouer of this Treaty and disclaymer of whatever shall be concluded thereupon and coming from the Prince and his Councell consider him as heire apparent it serves at least to acquit himselfe and posterity from being concluded by what his Father in such case shall consent unto to the prejudice of the Crowne and consider him as having by his unlimited Commission as Generalissimo the highest power of the Kingdome which the King could devise to give and so he and his Councell while the King is in durance being the next visible head of the Kings party and having the highest trust in relation to the interest of the King his Crowne party it is also on the Kings and their behalfe the most Authentique Declaration of their sence of the Treaty which could well be expected in the case while the King and his Councell here being supposed under force as to all things else cannot be supposed free in that point to declare his reall Judgement and so it may serve in behalfe of the King his Heires and whole partie as a Protestation against any conclusion by this Treaty or what ever shall therein be drawne from him to his owne or their prejudice And indeed the King himselfe in divers of his Papers that have come from him to you in relation to this Treaty haâ—s in such loft Language as might befit the condition of your prisoner insinuated the same sence of the Treaty and his condition there'n and of the validity or repute of any conclusions thereupon while his condition should remaine the same and not more free And these severall Declarations and insinuations hereof being sent those from the King immediately to your selves that from the Prince his Generall to your Admirall and from him to your owne hand and both being sent you during the Treaty before any conclusion upon it will remaine upon record before you perpetuall witnesses against the validity thereof or any obligingnesse a to rhema Nor is it his or their sence alone or without grounds to gaine beliefe but considering he is but so small a step removed from the Castle where he was your absolute prisoner and still confined within the Towne or Island which is your Garrison and so remaining under the power of your Guards and even in that condition being but upon his Paroll we doubt the same sence and judgement thereupon will be aptly made and received both by intelligent spectators of this and neighbour Nations and by ages to come and that the degree of inlargement you have afforded him with the pettit State added will be understood but as a Mock-liberty and counterfeit of State intended onely to set him up in some colourable Posture and equipage to be the more handsomly Treated with but not as a setting him free from your force or leaving him free in what he grants so as to render it obliging when granted But though as to the realitie of the case there might be freedome enough to make his concessions in honestie obliging or his absolution therefrom at least disputable yet hee and the
Prince in his behalfe having as is before exprest in the bâ—st way they could declared to you before hand that their sence to the contrary as to his on their part his condition in the Treaty standing as it was if you after such faire and timely warning would needs yet proceed in Treaty without alteration of his condition or the termes of it and come to conclusions therein to binde up your selves who will not say he and his party had reason so far to comply with your proceeding upon it and yet account that as to any obliging on their part whether he were really under dures or not yet their timely precaution to you concerning their contrary sence of it was a sufficient acquittall of them not onely from being bound by any agreement upon it but from any imputation of deceitfull dealing with you though they observe not what shall be so agreed upon since after such precaution from them it was your owne fault and at your owne perill if you would proceede with them upon so rotten a foundation so as if you be cozen'd you cozen your selves and cannot blame them or any body else for it And truly this consideration as when we first took notice of those passages in that Declaration from the Prince and the Kings Papers it did more awaken us to consider your hazards in this Treaty then before so it serves most clearely to set forth the miserable straights and snare you are thereby intangled in to look no further into particulars that great and dangerous evill of old so much declined and abhorred by you and our Brethren of Scotland and more lately so much strugled against by your selves in the previous debates concerning this Treaty viz. the Kings return to London and to his Parliament and Throne againe without satisfaction and securitie before given is thus at last like to come upon you and that upon worse termes if you proceed in this Treaty to conclude your selves and re-admit him then if you had let him come without any foregoing agreement at all for had you let him come so both your selves and he being free if then he had granted any thing of satisfaction or security all men would have accounted him bound by it and the concession valid or if he had denyed you necessary things in that kinde your further proceeding in other wayes to secure your selves and the Kingdome against him would have beene thought more necessary just and cleare and though being at liberty he had personally headed his party in the City and elsewhere with greater advantages then ever to assert once more his old quarrell in a new Warre yet you had knowne the worst on t viz To fight it over againe but so much the sooner but in the way you are now ingaged in the King has the advantage to yeeld to any thing at last which he cannot get you to abate and yet when having granted all he gets upon your owne termes to his beloved Sear and Throne againe behold he is free as if he had granted nothing to take the best advantage against you when hee sees his time and meane while may rest secure in a good condition and waite his advantage having got your hands bound till he finding it shall stricke the first stroke againe which t is like he will make a sure one if he can to disable you from a return and so we proceed to the next consideration Viz. how easie t is for a Prince after such accomodation admitting him either not bound or not conscientious of his bonds or having occasions or pretexts for a breach to finde or worke out advantages whereby to overthrow all he has granted to the publique interests and in the ruine of those that engaged against him for it to set up his owne above all which for brevity we shall not so much consider generally in the common advantages which Princes in such case usually have as particularly in those which this King clearely has or is like to have in this of yours The King comes in with the reputation among the People of having long graciously sought Peace although indeed ever since he found you in condition to oppose his Force It was his interest and his best play and especially since you had beaten his Force it was his necessary and onely play he comes with the reputation of having long sought it by a Personall Treaty which at last has proved as he Prophesied the only effectuall meanes and so you having so long denied that and only plyed him with peremptory Propositions and yet at last granting it are in that selfe Condemnation rendred by his Friends as having deceitfully or unnecessarily continued Burthens and refused Peace so long in refusing that the Kings way in which you might as well have had it sooner as now although the truth is neither the Treaty nor the Personality of it have advanced the businesse one jot since the King grants now the same things and in the same termes which he has so oft in particular denyed yea protested and sworne he would not and the alteration is farre enough from Conviction by Treaty as is before demonstrated and visibly from a greater necessity or advantage found now to induce the yeelding then formerly He comes also with the reputation of having granted for Peace sake all that you as unwilling to Peace have rigidly stood upon although when 't is summed up 't will appeare very little of advantage or security to Publique interest and by a trick or reserve that he has nothing at all as before is shewed yet however with the People he carries these and the like points of Reputation before him and wants not Trumpets every where to blaze them sufficiently to his renowne and your reproach and under such Banners of Love and Honour He comes in The only true Father of his People you being proved their cruell Foster-fathers he the Repairer of their breaches which you had made the restorer of their beloved Peace ease and freedomes which you as his Creatures render it had ravisht or cheated them of thus long the Restorer of their Trade and plenty too which you had thus long obstructed He a Conquerour in sufferings and patience a denyer of himselfe for the good of his People and what not that 's glorious and endearing And thus would the People be lull'd and indeed cheated into a security as to any further apprehensions of evill from him yea posseit with acknowledgements and expectations of all their good from him and their jealousies awaken'd against you and your adherents only And yet to heighten the same more into perfect hatred you as wise yea as honest men for their safety and interest though they see it not must continue an Army and Garrisons still and that not the lesse but much more for his comming in againe then if you had taken another course utterly to shut him out as we shall shew anon and so you will be necessitated notwithstanding the
from heading any more what Instruments they might finde in the like quarrell and so is like to be a reall securitie when such Instruments cannot finde an head but to punish onely Instruments and let the head by whose power and in whose in terest all has been done not onely goe free but stand in perpetuall priviledge and impunitie to head such instruments againe as oft as he can finde opportunitie and get any to serve him is a way so farre from securitie as it leads indeed to endlesse trouble and hazzard or the perfect losse of all And besides in poynt of Justice with what Conscience inferiour Ministers can be punish'd and the principall set free yea restored to dignitie and honour for whose onely interest in whose onely quarrell and by whose Commissions and Commands they have acted which they might perhaps conceive to oblige or at least to excuse them for our parts since wee have seriously weighed it wee cannot understand wee are sure it seemes a most unequall and partiall way of Justice sutable to those aforesaid corrupt or abused Court-Maximes whereon alone it has been grounded As that the King can doe no wrong c. And indeed what ever grounds or reasons can be imagined to exempt Kings from humane Justice or to excuse them when they wilfully give Commissions and commands unto their inferiour Ministers to doe evill which wee are sure can be no lesse then something of divinitie and absolute independencie as to men supposed to be in them The same Principles if admitted and fully weighed would equally extend to absolve and indempnifie those Ministers for what they doe in pursuance of such commissions and Commands yea and bring those under condemnation too that should forcibly oppose him or them therein Wee would at least faine heare one princile sufficient for the one which would not by rationall deduction extend to both the other And if there be none such then wee beseech you consider whether your re-admission of the King in the present case and manner without so much as his subjecting to Judgement or Tryall will not be so farre from securitie as that it will not onely enervate the best fence of publique interest the power of punishing violators of it but in consequence shake the Foundations of all you have done in the warre and overturne or invalid all you seeme to obtaine in the peace Upon this and the rest of the considerations aforegoing wee crave leave to beleeve that an accommodation with the King in the way and Termes you are upon or any at all as the case now stands that shall imply his restitution or shall not provide for his subjection to Triall and Judgement Would first not be just before God or man nor hopefully good but many wayes evill and so not desireable by any honest heart that well considers it Secondly would not be safe but full of hazzard and danger yea certaine prejudice disadvantage and destruction both to the publique interest in Question and to the persons that have engaged for it except such as by base Apostacy from it and treacherous services for the King against it have or shall have emerited their pardons And thirdly If in another way or case it possibly could be safe which wee see not yet in the present Treaty and condition the King 's in it cannot Now if any observe and object that the grounds aforegoing upon which we conclude thus would extend as well against any accommodation with him since his Person came into the Parliaments power or at least against any restitution of him thereupon without his first submitting to judgement and a change of heart and principles and consequently would have served as wel against that accommodation with him restitution of him which the Army seemed once to plead for we shall confesse it as to the maine and we have only this to say 1. That your whole pretence and way of proceeding towards him before and at that time the state you have kept him in your particular engagement to the Kingdome of Scotland for another addresse to him and your preparation towards the same at that time had wholly led us on in the supposition of an Accommodation to be still endeavoured with him and to that supposition only our then Overtures to you were framed and you had not then as since by your votes of No farther Addresses and your Reasons for them cleared our judgements from that former mist and led us out to the thoughts of other wayes of security against him nor had pointed towards the way as thereupon you have done in taking off his state and close imprisoning his Person And wee confesse that since our thoughts have beene thus set free and led out that way besides the good reasons you gave and what they further discovered or implyed and besides what other pennes have enlarged thereupon the more wee our selves have considered the more and further it hath pleased God to let us see beyond what we did before So that your bare retracting of Votes or changing your course without better or any reasons giving cannot put out the light which your former Votes with reasons have let in and God hath given his seale and encrease unto 2. Your then Counsels and with them our thoughts being so fixt upon that way of Addresses to him wee thought in lawfull for us to tender to your Consideration some things to be provided for therein which were of highest and most fundamentall concernment to the publique interest and not thought or not toucht on in your former Addresses or then-preparations as concerning the Succession Constitution clearing the power of Parliaments in future c. which accordingly wee propounded to be taken in with most of your former Propositions and what ever wee expressed exclusively as our private opinions at that time yet our whole Overtures being but as Proposals to you and not immediately to the KING It was far from our Intentions as it was apparantly from our practise to pre-judge or pre-clude your Councels from any further or better provision for the publique interest or in any surer or better way 3. Since you had so farre ingaged in the way of Addresses we had some apprehensions then as from the Covenant and other Considerations That to acquit your selves and Adherents before God and the World in relation to the snare you seemed to be in It did something lye upon you to make one Addresse for all upon things concerning purely the publique interest only Essentials thereunto without mixture of any by matters from which either you with safety to the publique could possibly recede or against which he might have colour to boggle as it were from Conscience or other specious pretences and not his owne interest only that so you might at once make a full and cleare Tryall whether you could with and by his consent have such security to the publique interest as that you might with the preservation and safety thereof preserve