as well as Iustice And is so expresly declared and annexed unto the King by the Stat. of the 27 H. 8. c. 24. The Revenues of the Church have been annexed unto it for the better part of one thousand years 7. The taking away of the Lands of Bishops and Cathedral Churches confirmed by many Charters from all our Kings have Prescription of many hundreds of years and are firmly annexed to the Church as Law Charters or Prescription can settle them Now if these Revenues shall be taken away and disposed of without processe of Law without the Kings consent who is sworn to uphold them and is founder of them all without the consent or forfeiture of the Possessors What man can think he hath a better Title to any thing he holdeth or assure himself of any Land or other thing he possesseth for one day longer than Houses shall please Besides it is against Magna Charta the Law and the Kings Oath and the Usance of the Kingdom in all times 8. The Court of VVard For the King to have Wardships is an inheritance and Right of the Crown approved by the Common Law of Enland and acknowledged and submitted unto in all Ages And the Court of Wards is setled and established by Act of Parliament in the time of H. 8 And it was indeavoured to be compounded for at a valuable consideration in the time of King Iames and by him refused because it was so great a flower of his Crown as was not fit to be severed from it And now if the Houses should force a Bargain at their own pleasure and their own price it were contrary to all Law all Reason and Moral Iustice and to the disherison of the Crown The detaining of the Kings Children under their governance 9. Touching the Kings children The ordering of their Education and their future Mariage cannot belong unto the Houses but unto the King by all divine human Laws and by the Law of Nature Neither is the contrary anywhere practised but by the great Turke No new Oaths can be imposed upon the Subject but by the warrant of an Act of Parliament 10 Touching imposing of new Oaths as is declared by the Petition of Right and is so setled by the Act of 3. Car. and hath been so declared during this Parliament by the two Houses upon occasion of the new Canons as appears in the Collection of their own Orders pag. 159.160.908.910 And we find the two Oaths of supremacy and Alleageance the first in 1. Eliz. the second in 3 Iac. were both framed and injoined to be taken in and by several Acts of Parliament and yet now do the Houses presse Oaths upon their fellow Subjects utterly inconsistent with the other legal Oaths which they have formerly taken and for the refusal of their Oath of Covenant and of their Negative Oath in expresse tearms to abjure their Alleagiance to their Soveraign they condemn them of Malignancy a new word of Art not formerly known to the Laws of England 11. Concerning Treason It is defined by the Act of the 25. Ed. 3. cap. 2. and afterward 1 H. 4. 2 Ma. that Act was confirmed and enacted That nothing should be adjudged Treason but what is declared to be so by the Statute of the 25. Ed. 3. or should be afterwards declared to be Treason by Parliament which is understood to be by Act of Parliament which cannot be without the Kings Royal assent and therefore in the Reign of H. 8. we find several Treasons enacted to be so by Parliament which afterwards were all repealed by that of the 2 Mar. And again in the Reign of Queen Mary Queen Eliz. and King Iames new Treasons declared by new Acts of Parliament in their several times But now in this present Sessions the two Houses in many several Cases singly of themselves without the solemnity of an Act by an Ordinance only have ordered that men should die as Traitors and lose their whole Estates without pardon or mercy for such supposed crimes as formerly were so far from being Treason as that they are not legally crimes or misdemeanors as may be instanced in divers particulars out of their own Coll. of Orders The treating with forein Princes and States 12. The treating with forein Princes and Staâ—es the making of Peace and War and the sending of Ambassadors or Messengers to those purposes are Acts meerly regal and inherent in the Crown and never questioned till now By the Statute of 2. H. 5. cap. 6. The breaking of Truce and Safe-Conducts is enacted to be Treason so much it importeth the Honour of the Crown The King may out of doubt conclude Peace or proclaim War without his Houses of Parliament But to contribute to the maintenance of a forein War the Assent of the Houses is necessary it being in their free liberty to give or not to give Subsidies or other Aides to that purpose But for the making of Peace or War they have no Votes but it is in the sole power of the King Yet doubtlesse Kings do the more prudently when they take the advice and affections of their people along with them in those weighty affaires especially in making a War with a forein Prince or people otherwise they shall hardly have the Assistance of their purses 13. The nominating of Judges Sheriffs Justices c. without which the Kings of England can hardly make or maintein a War to their Advantage The nominating of Iudges Sheriffs Iustices of Peace c. was never pretended unto by the Parliament but in tumultuous and rebellious times and the Kings of England for some hundred of yeers last past have nominated and appointed them by their Writs or Commissions under their great Seal And by the Acts of 9. Ed. 2. the Statute of Lincoln and 12. R. 2. cap. 2. it is appointed how the choice of Sheriffs and other publique Ministers of Iustice shall be recommended to the King and that the King hath the sole appointing of them And it is so setled by Act of Parliament the 37. H. 8. That such nominations do and shall wholy belong unto the King and his Successors c. By these Animadversions it will clearly appear That the particulars which are mentioned in the 57 and 58 pages of this Discourse are meerly usurped and intruded upon by the Houses but de jure do solely and wholly belong unto the King or can have no life without him which was thought fit rather to be added by this Appendix than by inserting them in the Discourse it self for not interrupting the Series thereof FINIS See the Speeches made for AccoÌ„modation before the War was actually begun in Append pag. 1. 9. Proofs out of the old Testament * Deut. 24.16 Ezech. 18.20 2 Kings 14.6 * Psal. 82. v. 6. * Deut. 1.17 2 Chro. 19. v. 6. Proofs out of the New Testament * Rom. 13. v. 2. See the Propositions in Append pag. 13. Vide Stat. 1. Jacobi cap. 1. in App. pag. 18. wherin the Soveraignty of the King is fully set down Lib. 5. Orat. in Auretium Epist. ad Demetrianum Niceph lib. 7. cap. 6. Tertulliun in Apologetico * Mat. 26.53 54. * 2 Kings 6. v. 16 17 18. c. Act. 12. v. 11. Act. 27.24 Act. 16.26 36. The Protestant churches declare against Subjects taking Arms against their Princes Confessio Aâ—gust 〈…〉 6. Gallia Art 40. Helvet Art 26. Scot. Art 24. Anliae Art 27. Osor de Iur. Majest. fol. 140. Pierre 〈…〉 in his â—â—â—fence of 〈◊〉 Faith Pag. 3.4 Admitting all the Positions either by Protestants or Papists were true which allow Subjects to take Arms against their Princes yet they agree not with the present Case Shewing that the Tenents of Roman Catholiques are not applicable to the present Case Sheweth that the opinions of such Protestants as allow in some cases of subjects taking of arms against their Prince if they were true yet are not applicable to the present case * Exceptio firmat Regulam in non exceptis In Appendice page 17. In Appendice pag. 18. See the Stat. in Append. pag. 19. * â— Lod. Vives If all sin be the transgression of some Law I would be satisfied how men are become Delinquents that have transgressed against no law The most miserable condition of the Kings Loyal Servants by no prudence to be prevented nor they by any Innocency to be preserved * In what sort the Project of the Ship-mony was set on foot the fault wherof cannot with any Iustice be attributed to the King The fault of Monopolies not to be attributed to the King but to evil Ministers and Referrees A Princes Religion ought not to be a ground of Rebellion or disobedience 〈…〉 Hen. 3. King of Fr. by Iacque 〈◊〉 Hen. 4. King of by Fr. by 〈…〉 The Prince of 〈◊〉 by 〈…〉 The Non-conformists themâ—selves 〈◊〉 out 〈◊〉 Pâ—â—tell aâ—â— 3 â—â—c 1605. 〈…〉 clear to this point Vide Art 4 6 9. in Ap. pag. 19. The King caused Pr. Charles his Son and Heir to become a Suter unto the Houses for the saving the Earls life who came in person and propounded it as the first Request he had ever made unto them but could not obtain it In â—ppendice pag. 1. A. The Right of all thâ—se specified particulars from the lâ—tter A. to the Letter B. are fully shewn to belong unto the King and that the Houses can have no colour of pretence unto them In App. pag. 20. * Dic Lunâ—e 4 Maâ—i 1646. Oâ—dered that whosoever should â—aâ—â—our or conceal the King and not 〈◊〉 it c. should be proceeded 〈◊〉 as a Traitor and dâ— without mercy B. * Phil. 3. v. 6. * 1 Tim. 1 v. 13. John 16.2 Matth. 7.12 * Le Roy ne fait toâ—t is only to be understood in the ordinary course of justice which the King administring by his Ministers and not in Person it is they that are the wrong doers and not the King and the subjâ—ct against 〈…〉 his Remedy Wisd. 6. v. 1 2 3 4 5 6. Matt. 7.12
Protestation was by my self taken in the House of Peers and subscribed by me wherein I Promise Vow and Protest in the presence of God as far as lawfully I may with my Life Power and Estate according to the Duty of my Alleageance to Maintain and Defend his Majesties Royal Person Honour and Estate Now how the taking arms against him and the assailing and pursuing of him in Battel can be for the defence of his Royal Person or the seizing of all his Revenew for the Maintenance of his Estate or the divesting of him of all Power and Authority with so many other sad things that against him have been said and done and which my Pen blusheth to set down can be for the Defence and Maintenance of his Honour or how the Stile of Majesty which in this Pootestation we give him the Usage of him considered can be otherwise judged of but as a Scorn and Derision I understand not sure I am that I took the said Protestation in earnest and with an Attestation of God that I would faithfully perform it And so by his holy Assistance I will ever do according to the express words in the said Protestation with my Life Power and Estate Neither am I in any kind able to conceive how it is possible for any Christian Man that hath taken the former Oaths and Protestation of Adhering Defending and Assisting of the King against all Persons whatsoever to swallow much lesse to digest the new Negative Oath which in the subsequent words I A. B. do swear from my heart That I will not directly nor indirectly adhere unto or willingly assist the King in this War or in this Cause against the Parliament c. I am likewise as much unsatisfied of the late National Covenant how it may stand or be reconciled to these former Oaths and Protestation But in regard that is a Businesse of great Consequence and length I will set down in a Tract apart those Scruples which hitherto have deterred my Conscience from venturing upon it That these Oaths have been established by lawfull Authority they were made and enjoined by free and unquestionable Parliaments whose Acts I speak not of Ordinances but of Acts wherein the Royal Assent hath concurred are of that high and Soveraign Authority that the Law admitteth of no Plea nor averment against them And this I am confident will be by all acknowledged They have likewise been legally administred by the Ministers that by the said Acts have thereunto been appointed and ordained and for the Justness and Righteousness of them the Confirming of them by so many several Acts of Parliament by which Laws no person can have a Voice in Parliament but stands to all intents and purposes as a person that had not been elected or returned if he sit in the House before he have taken the said Oaths And the continuing of the enjoyning of them by the Houses unto this day must clear all Dispute or Question of that kind For the Houses do not admit of Members unto their Houses nor Officers into their places until they have first taken the said Oaths in such sort as by the Statutes is ordained So that it is clear that they are aswell as others satisfied in the goodnesse of them Besides the subject matter of these Oaths is just and righteous in it self being only in pursuance of those duties of Obedience which are commanded us both by the Law of God and the Land and which are extra juramentum obligantia obliging in themselves though there were no Oath It is further to be observeed That besides the legal penalties that may be injoyned for the refusing or breaking of rhese Oaths they contain something further than temporal Punishment can reach unto they carry with them The heavy Iudgement of God declared in Scripture against the breakers of solemn Oathes And in this Case there is yet much more added for we accompany the breach of them with the most horrid and fearfull Execration that any Christians can draw upon themselves renouncing the Help and Protection of God Almighty and the Benefit of our Reemption contained in the Holy Gospel if we fail in the performance of them which I understand to be quantum in nobis est if we do not indeavour to do the utmost in our power to keep them But voluntarily for Fear or Interest not only to break them but to do that which by the very plain words is contrary to the said Oaths and is contrary to that sence in which I took them as I understand the taking of armes against the King to be with many other things of necessity following thereupon I durst not adventure upon that which my Conscience judged so great an Impiety CHAP. VI Setting down the unlawfulness of Hostile Resistance drawn from Humane Laws HAving thus set down those Reasons which deterred my Conscience from making Hostile Resistance unto the King which have been deduced out of the Word of God the Doctrine and Practice of holy Men and the Obligation of sacred Oaths I shall now propose my Scruples drawn from humane Laws but especially from the Laws of our Kingdom By the Common Law of England many things were Treason But because the Common Law is not composed in one intire body or Text and it was difficult for the unlearned and Lay-People to inform themselves exactly and distinctly what was Treason and what was not the goodness of the King and the wisedom of the Parliament in the time of Edw. the 3. was such that for the avoiding of the insnaring of the People in so high a Penalty and Destruction as followeth the being convicted of Treason It was thought fit that all those things which for the future should be esteemed or adjudged Treason should be particularly and distinctly set down in one Law and exclusively to all things else which was accordingly done in the Statute of the 25 Edw. 3. And in case it should so fall out that any matter should arise besides those particulars specified in the said Statute No judgement should passe thereon but it should be reserved till the next Parliament But for those Cases in the said Statute expressed they were enacted to be Treason and so to be adjudged by the ordinary course of Iustice And in regard that in the troublesome and disorderly time of Richard the 2. the prevailing party which still swayed the Parliament had made and unmade many several Treasons as suited to the Designs and Interests of those that had the Power In the first year of Hen. the 4. all those newsprung-up Treasons were revoked and abolished and Treason again reduced to the Statute of 25 Edw. the 3. The like inconveniences growing in the Wars betwixt the Houses of York and Lancaster and afterwards by the fierceness of Hen. the 8. who upon the alterations he had made in Religion had so insnared the Subject that the Protestants of the reformed Religion could not by reason of the six Atticles escape the
break in amongst us we shall remain the Scorn or the Pitty of them I am far from thinking that any of your Lordships are less inclined to an Accommodation than my self but some body must be the mover And those miserable spectacles which mine eyes have of late years beheld in the Palatinate and in Germany make me zealous and importunate that they be prevented here if such be Gods holy will if not yet I shall have this particular Comfort what fortune soever shall befall me That as I am assured that I have had no hand in any those things which have caused the unhappy differences betwixt the King and his People so I shall appeal unto your Lordships if I have not been subservient unto your Lordships in all things that might have removed these misunderstandings and to have imployed my Indeavours and solicitation even unto Importunity for the setting on foot some way of Accomdation wherby only our unspeakable Calamities and very near at hand can be diverted from us Nineteen Propositions sent unto his Majesty the 2 of Iune 1642. 1. THat the Lords and others of your Majesties privy Counsell and such great Officers and Ministers of State either at home or beyond the Seas may be put from your Privy Counsel and from those Offices and Imployments excepting such as shall be approved of by both Houses of Parliament And that the Persons put into the Places and Imployment of those that are removed may be approved of by both Houses of Parliament And that Privy Counsellours shall take an Oath for the due execution of their Places in such form as shall be agreed upon by both Houses of Parliament 2. That the great Affairs of the Kingdom may not be concluded or transacted by the Advice of Private Men or by any unknown or unsworn Counsellors but that such matters as concern the Publique and are proper for the high Court of Parliament which is your Majesties great and supreme Counsel may be debated resolved and transacted only in Parliament and not elsewhere And such as shall presume to do any thing to the contrary shall be reserved to the Censure and judgment of Parliament And such other matters of State as are proper for your Majesties privy Counsel shal be debated and concluded by such of the Nobility and others as shall from time to time be chosen for that Place by Approbation of both Houses of Parliament And that no publick Act concerning the Affairs of the Kingdom which are proper for your Privy Counsell may be esteemed of any Validity as proceeding from the Royal Authority unlâ—ss it be doâ—e by the advice and consent of the Major part of your Counsell attested under their hands And that your Counsell may be limitted to a certain Number not exceeding twenty five nor under fifteen And if any Counsellors place happen to be void in the Interval of Parliament It shall not be supplyed without the Assent of the Major part of the Counsell which choice shall be confirmed at the next sitting of Parliament or else to be void 3. That the Lord High Steward of England Lo. High Constable Lo. Chancellor or Lo. Keeper of the Great Seal Lo. privy Seal Earl Marshal Lo. Admiral Warden of the Cinque Ports chief Governor of Ireland Chancellor of the Exchequer Master of the Wards Secretaries of State two chief Iustices and chief Barons may alwaies be chosen with the Approbation of both Houses of Parliament and in the Intervals of Parliaments by Assent of the major part of the Câ—unsel in such manner as is before exprest in the choise of Counsellors 4. That he or they unto whom the Government and Education of the Kings Children shall be committed shall be approved of by both Houses of Parliament and in the Intervals of Parliament by the Assent of the Major part of the Counsell in such manner as is before exprest in the choise of Counsellors And that all such servants as are now about them against whom both Houses shall have any just exceptions shall be removed 5. That no Mariage shall be concluded or treated for any of the Kings Children with any forein Prince or other Person whatsoever abroad or at home without the Consent of Parliament under the penalty of a praemunire unto such as shall conclude or treat any Mariage as aforesaid and that the said penalty shall not be pardoned or dispensed with but by the Consent of both Houses of Parliament 6. That the Laws in force against Iesuits Priests and Popish Recusants be strictly put in Ececution without any toleration or dispensation to the contrary And that some more effectual Course may be enacted by authority of Parliament to disable them from making any Disturbance in the State or eluding the Law by Trusts or otherwise 7. That the Votes of Popish Lords in the House of Peers may be taken away so long as they continue Papists And that your Majesty will consent to such a Bill as shall be drawn for the Education of the Children of Papists by Protestants in Protestant Religiâ—n 8. That your Majesty will be pleased to consent that such a Reformation be made of the Church Government and Liturgy as both Houses of Parliament shall advise wherein they intend to have consultation with Divines as is expressed in their Declaration to that purpose And that your Majesty will contribute your best assistance to them for the raising of a sufficient maintenance for preaching Ministers thorought the Kingdome and that your Majesty will be pleased or give your Consent to Laws for the taking away of Innovations and Superstition and of Pluralities and against scandalous Ministers 9. That your Majesty will be pleased to rest satisfied with that Course that the Lords and Commons have appointed for ordering of the Militia untill the same shall be further setled by a Bill And that your Majesty will recall your Declarations and Proclamations against the Ordinance made by the Lords and Commons concerning it 10. That such Members of either House of Parliament as have during this present Parliament been put out of any Place and Office or otherwise have satisfaction for the same upon the Petition of that House whereof he or they are Members 11. That all privy Counsellors and Iudges may take an Oath the form whereof to be agreed on and setled by act of Parliament for the maintaining of the Petition of Right of certain Statutes made by this Parliament which shall be mentioned by both Houses of Parliament and that an Inquiry of all the breaches and violations of those Laws may be given in charge by the Iustices of the Kings Bench every Term and by Iudges of Assise in their Circuits and Justices of the Peace at the Sessions to be presented and punished according to Law 12. That all the Iudges and all the Officers Places by Approbation of both Houses of Parliament may hold their Places Quamdiu bené se gesserint 13. That the Iustice of Parliament may pass upon all Delinquents
made a Declaration in the manner as hereafter followeth That is to say when a man doth compasse or imagine the death of our Lord the King or if our Lady his Queen or their eldest Son and Heir or if a man do violate the Kings Companion or the Kings eldest Daughter unmarried or the Wife of the Kings eldest Son and Heir or if a man do levy War against our Lord the King in his Realm or be adherent to the Kings Enemies in his Realm giving to them aid and Comfort in the Realm or elswhere and thereof be proveably attainted of open deed by people of their Condition And if a man Counterfeit the Kings great or privy Seal or his money and if a man bring false mony into this Realm counterfeit to the money of England as the money called Lushburg or other like to the said money of England knowing the money to be false to merchandise or make paiment in deceit of our said Lord the King and of his people c. Certain Articles taken out of a Protestation of the Kings Supremacy made by the non-conforming Ministers which were suspended or deprived 3 Iac. Anno Dom. 1605. Cited page 51. Art 4. We hold that though the Kings of this Realm were not Members of the Church but very Infidels yea and Persecutors of the truth that yet those Churches that shall be gathered together within these Dominions ought to acknowledge and yield the said Supremacy unto them And that the same is not tyed to their Faith and Christianity but to their very Crown from which no Subject or Subjects have power to separate or disjoin it Ar. 6. We hold that no Church or Church-Officers have power for any Crime whatsoever to deprive the King of the least of his Royal Prerogatives whatsoever much lesse to deprive him of his Supremacy wherein the height of his Royal Dignity consists Ar. 9. We hold that though the King should command any thing contrary to the word unto the Churches that yet they ought not to resist him therein but only peaceably to forbear Obedience and sue unto him for Grace and Mercy and where that cannot be obtained meekly to submit themselves to the punishment Animadversions upon some particulars set down in the 57 58 pages of this Discourse there referred to this Appendix for not interrupting the Series thereof here expressed more fully If Ordinances without the Kings assent 1. That Ordinances of the two Houses without the King have not the power of Acts of Parliament should have the force of Acts of Parliament our Lives Estates and Laws might be Arbitrarily disposed of by the two Houses for that Acts of Parliament have undeniably Power over them all If Ordinances have power of Acts of Parliament the King hath no negative Voice which hath been acknowledged in all times and that no Act of Parliament bindeth the subject with out the Kings assent neither is it otherwise a Statute 1â—H 7.24 H. 8. cap. 12.25 H. 8. cap. 21. This hath likewise been acknowledged several times at the heginning of this Parliament before the Doctrine of Coordination was hatched as will appear by their books of Ordinances and Declarations 1 par fol. 727. 1 Iac. cap. 1. 1 Car. 1 Cap 7. If the King hath not his negative Voice he were the only Slave in his Kingdom for that he alone should be tyed to Laws to which he had not assented whereas all other men either by themselves or their Representatives give their Consents to the Laws they live under which is the true mark betwixt Slavery and free Subjection Slaves living under the will of the Prince free Subjects under Laws to which themselves or their Ancestors have assented And the King only shall be bound and sworn to those Laws which are imposed upon him without his Consent which were irrational as well as illegal Ordinances were never pretended but only pro tempore 4 part Inst. fol. 23.48.292 2 part Inst. fol. 47 48. Rot. Paâ— 1 num 4 Ed. 3. 2. â—â—at the ordeâ—â—â—g of the Militia appertainetâ— to the K. The Militia belongeth to the King as unseparable from the Crown without which he cannot protect nor punish withstand Enemies or suppress Rebels The Lords and Commons cannot assent in Parliament to any thing that tends to the disherison of the Crown 4 Par. Inst. fol. 14.42 Ed. 3. The Law doth give it him Stat 7 Ed. 1. with many other Statutes besides practice of all times and custome of the Realm Cook 4 part Inst. 51.125 The Forts and Navy Royal are his and to seize any of them is Treason 25 Ed. 3. 1 Ma. c. So declared by all the Iudges of England in Brookes Case 3. That the great Seal appertaineth only to the King The great Seal being the Power by which the Kings Royal Commands are legally distributed and conveyed cannot be severed from the Crown without the overthrow and destruction of Soveraignty 2 part Inst. 552. And to counterfeit the great Seal is high Treason 25 Ed. 3. 1 H. 4. cap. 2. 1. Marsess 2. cap. 6. For the Church Government The Houses have sworn the King to be the only Supreme Governor in all Causes and over all Persons as well Ecclesiastical as Civil 4. The Church Government The two Houses of Parliament may humbly offer to the King such Alterations and Reformations in Government as they shall think fit But to overthrow and change the Government without the Consent of the sole Supreme Governor nay contrary to his expresse Command and publique Declarations is against natural Reason and Common Law as well as against the said Oath The two Houses are as they say the Kings great Counsel which is true of the House of Peers The House of Commons Writ is only ad faciendum consentiendum But admitting them to be the Kings great Counsel it is a great absurdity and Non-sense that Counsellors should compel consent The Government of the Church is established by Law and by many Acts of Parliament To advise the repealing of the said Acts the Houses may do But without the Kings assent by force to endeavour the Change of the Government either in Church or Estate is high Treason so acknowledged by Mr. St. Iohns at the Arraignment of the Earl of Strafford and so declared by several Laws And was one of the Charges of Treason against the Lord of Canterbury Ir is contrary to all Divine and humane Laws that any Man should be condemned unheard or untryed 5. The prescribing of their fellow Subjects without tryal And the Law of the Land in Magna Charta ordereth That no man lose Life or Estate but per judicium parium aut legem terrae And the Stat. 2. Phil. Ma. that all Tryals for Treason be by Course of the Law Petition of Right 3 Car. It is an Inherent flower of the Crown 6. To grant Pardons belongeth only to the K. And by the Common Law Mercy belongeth to him
in their Propositions to the King at Oxford when without Summons Hearing or Conviction I was censured to be made incapable of holding of any place or imployment in the Kingdom or to come within the Verge of the Court without laying the least Crime or Delinquency to my charge and since in the Propositions at Uxbridge their severity increasing towards me they added much to their former Censure I am sure without any further Crime or Provocation on my part having before that time with the Kings leave retired my self from the Court with intention to have passed the rest of mine age in a private life which the War not permitting me at my House at Sherbone I did at Exeter for the space of more than 2 years with as much privacy as was possible for me Yet was I so unfortunate that although their former desires of my being removed from Court were accomplished by my voluntary Act neither time did allay their displeasure nor my absence from Court restrain their further severitie towards me But I was voted in those Propositions prepared to be offered to his Majesty and afterwards sent unto him to be in the number of the most high and capital Offenders who were not to expect Pardon or Mercy either concerning Life or Fortune Yet herewith was not my Patience and resolution of Silence overborn conceiving this Exception could signifie nothing more than that such Excepted Persons upon whom the displeasure of the Houses was highly fallen should not be admitted to that general Pardon of Course which joyned to some pecuniary Mulct or Composition should be a Discharge and indempnity to others that had born Armes without further Tryal or Impeachment But that the Excepted Person should be reserved to a particular strict Legal Tryal and being after a fair hearing legally convicted of those presupposed hainous and foul Crimes the suggestions whereof induced the Houses to lay this heavy mark of Distinction upon them They being so condemned should have the severity of Law and Justice to pass upon them and be excepted from Pardon as far as lay in the houses to except them But I did not conceive that the intention of the Houses was or could be to except them from a legal Tryal or fair Hearing nor from being acquitted or cleared if they were innocent For no man could entertain so hard or prejudiced an opinion of the two Houses or of the Scotish Commissioners who concurred and assented to the Propositions and the Exception that they should upon the transferring of such Persons as the House of Peers should nominate of their Body or the House of Commons of their Members or of the Body of the Commons or the Scotish Commissioners of their Kingdom condemn implicitely or Proscribe in compliance one to the other without distinct knowledge of the Person or the Crimes so many noble Personages and Families to totall ruine and destruction without hearing or due processe of Law Besides their demanding of the Kings assent to pass their Condemnations and Incapacities by Act of Parliament must needs imply a due preceding Tryal and Conviction to be intended for the satisfying of the King of the Crimes and guilt of the Persons For it cannot be presupposed of the Houses that either in regard of piety or reason they could expect that the King should involve himself in so merciless a sentence of shedding so many mens blood and destroying so many good Families implicitely upon trust of other men without distinct information and satisfaction of his own Conscience And this against Persons who have been most Loyal and their Crime and Delinquencie only for having faithfully adhered to him according to the Law and their Oaths So that my Opinion then was That the intention of the Houses could be no other but that whereas some were admitted to a pecuniary Composition for their pretended Delinquency the Excepted Persons should not be admitted thereunto but be reserved to the severity of Justice without mercy but first be admitted to a legal Tryal And herein I was further confirmed by divers Treaties made with their General upon the laying down of Armes and the surrendring of Cities unto them and particularly of Excester where I was and was to have injoyed the befit of those Articles by which it was permitted unto me and unto all other Excepted Persons to endeavour by the space of four moneths to make our Peace and Composition And this would never have been condescended unto by their General and ratified by the Votes of both Houses if they intended their Vote of Exception as a final Sentence irrevocable and unalterable which they have likewise by their own Acts declared to be otherwise For that upon mediation and further information they have been pleased to several Persons to remit the severity of the Vote of Exceptions and have admitted them to Composition Upon all these preceding Reasons being confident that some such fitting season would be offered either by way of Petition or by way of being called to a fair and Legal Trial That I should be heard and after a particular Charge of all such Crimes as could be laid against me I should be admitted to a just defence Upon this ground I have hitherto remained silent and made no Answer to those so many most unjust and untrue Calumnies and Aspersions which have been cast upon me both in Print and otherwise And now by the said Treatie of Excester I supposed a fair opportunitie given me to address my self unto the Houses to attain that which was ever in my desires which was to be admitted unto an Hearing That they might judge distinctly of my Case after a full Information of all that concerned me And thereupon I addressed my humble Petition to the House of Peers That I might receive so much Favour and Justice from them That since I was by the Treaty admitted to use my best indeavours so far to satisfie the Houses that I might be left in the Condition of other men that had served the King I might be heard by them And in case I should not upon hearing give the Houses satisfaction of not deserving to be a Person Excepted I would not decline any thing whatsoever the Houses should order concerning me And in Case that it should not be seasonable in regard of their many great Affairs at that time to afford me such a Tryal That I might remain privately at mine House ingaging my self to do nothing to the prejudice of the Houses either by Act or Correspondence And to make my appearance whensoever I should be summoned and to abide their Order This Petition had likewise an humble Request unto the Lords That the said Petition might be communicated with the House of Commons in such sort as their Lordships in their wisdom should think fit For I might not being a Peer make my addresses but by them or their particular leave Yet knowing that the Proposition of Exceptions was by the joint Vote of both Houses and that no
binding and obliging which are deduced from the word of God I shall therefore first begin with those religious and pious Motives which have in Conscience restrained me from taking Arms against the King or making to him any hostile Resistance For I desire it to be understood that when I speak of Resistance I alwaies understand Actual and Hostile Resistance For I well know that in things in themselves sinfull mala in se I ought rather to obey God than Men And in such Cases suffering is a full performance of our Duty of Obedience Nay in Cases only illegal non illicita but illegalia against publique or private Right as if a Prince shall infringe the known undoubted Prilileges of the Kingdom or of Parliament or command that which is destructive unto them The Weapons of our Resistance ought to be Replyes Petitions Remonstrances Nay we may withold our free-will-Offerings though not our Tributes of Dutie we may stop our voluntarie supplies of giving Subsidies we may make a stand in the transactions of affairs untill the King condescendeth to do us Right as hath been often practised As it was in the Case of the Earl of Arundel who being restrained and kept from sitting in Parliament in the year 1626. by the King without cause shewn The House of Peers sate many daies silent without debating or transacting any Business untill he should be restored to his libertie and place in Parliament or cause shewed for his detention But to take Arms or to use Acts of force this is the Resistance which ought not to be used and is neither justifiable by the Laws of God nor of the Kingdom And this Resistance I am far from being satisfied in my Conscience may be used by any subjects against their lawfull and undoubted Soveraign The places in Scripture both in the old and new Testament commanding by positive precept our obedience and forbidding Resistance to the Powers ordeined over us by God are many But the Arguments of necessary deduction are infinite whereas Resistance is no where commanded or allowed And the Arguments by way of Deduction which are made use of to tollerate the Subjects taking of Arms against their Soveraign are by putting some places of Scripture upon wrack and torture to make them speak their sense whereas it is an undeniable Rule in Schools That Inferences and deductions cannot justifie the breach of plain duties injoyned by any one positive precept of Scripture In the old Testament it was death to disobey much more hostilely to resist the supream Authority by positive precept Deut. 17.10 Joshua 1.18 So it was to resist Parents And certainly in States and Common-wealths tam Pater Nemohe is Pater patriae and all the civill power that was of old in Paternall Iurisdiction is now by the Consent and Common Agreement of the People placed in the supream power of a State and the same obedience is due to it and resistance to it as unjustifiable And such as will indulge to the People a freedome to resume their first Original Power grounded upon that Maxime Omnis homo nascitur liber every man is born free seduce them by so false a Principle that the contrary of it is the truth Nullus homo nascitur liber no man is born free Neither was there ever yet in this world anyone man born free It is true there was one man created free our first father Adam But all his Children and all his Descent after him were born under Paternall Iurisdiction Nay our blessed Saviour speaking of him as a Man and Son to the blessed Virgin was born under this Paternal Jurisdiction and filial Obedience whereunto he submitted himself as is plainly set down Scripture Luke the 2.51 where it is said He went with Joseph and his Mother and was subject unto them Now this Paternal Jurisdiction which was at first the sole Soveraignty which governed the world By reason of Partiality in Parents Oppression by such as were the strongest and a multitude of inconveniences and confusions when the World was become numerous and full of People and every family become a Realm As it was too narrow so it grew to be so hurtful unto Mankind That men were forced for their own preservation Common Justice and comfort of life to transfer this paternal Jurisdiction all but filial and personal Duty of honoring and obeying Parents into Magistracy and willingly divested themselves for their own good of that Native Libertie which they had before And as the right power of Government is the same which it was in paternall Iurisdiction only by the Consent of the People changed into another hand So the Obedience unto it ought to be the same And the fifth Commandement of obeying Parents is by all understood to extend unto the Magistrate to whom the people having by consent tranferred the power of paternal Jurisction are likewise by Divine Precept bound to obedience and the People cannot still retein unto themselves that which by common consent they have divested themselves of and transferred to others So was it in the Common-Wealth of Rome when by lex Regia the people had transferred all their power to the Emperour they were not to resist And it was to those Emperours to whom our Saviour and his Apostles injoined Obedience not only for Wrath but for Conscience sake and not unto the good only but unto the froward David was pursued by Saul unjustly his life sought by him yet his Conscience check'd him when he had only cut off the lap of Sauls garment 1 Sam. 24.5 6. But when the attempting upon his person was mentioned he then cryed out Who can stretch forth his hand against the Lords Anointed and be guiltlesse 1 Sam. 26.9 Nay when he might have slain Saul and he was desired by Abishai that he might strike him to the ground he did not only forbid him but called unto Abner telling him he deserved to die that he had not more carefully kept and guarded his Master vers. 15 16. which sheweth that not only not to hurt but to preserve is our Duty And truly if I should have lift up my hand or drawn my Sword against the King I fear I should not have been so happy as divers have been that have gone the other way in finding out such satisfactory Arguments or distinctions as would have rid or cured me of that horrour of Conscience which would have made me most miserable in the height of all prosperitie and successe All the whole context of the old Testament incite to the obedience to the honouring fearing and reverencing of the King And all the Attempts that have been made upon the persons of Kings or their Government are either condemned as wicked or else were by the extraordinary and especial Commandement of God making use of wicked men to be the Executioners of his just Judgments Besides the Government of the Jewish Commonwealth was a Theocratia an immediate Government of God himself and by the Consent of all Divines
Gods extraordinary Judgements are not to be made Rules or Patterns of ordinary Government But God hath given us a written law in the Scripture and by the constant precepts contained in them we are to be guided and not by the extraordinary Examples recited in them Of which we may boldly say That as it is most certain they were not wicked how severe soever they may seem because God commanded them so it is as certain it were wickedness in us to imitate them not having Gods especial Command for them which will not now be pretended unto by any The Cases of Eglon Zimri Jehu c. are justified by Gods being the Commander of them and Sin is nothing but an Obliquitie from Gods will But it is Gods revealed and declared Will which is to be our rule God is pleased to declare * That the Father shall not die for the sin of the Son nor the Son for the sin of the Father But every one shall bear his own iniquity This is his revealed Law by which we are to govern our selves Yet God in his secret yet most just Judgement will have Achan with his Wife and Children and all belonging unto him to be stoned to death the like of Corah and divers others which particular Judgements of God we ought to fear and reverence but not to draw from them Example or watrant against the Commandement or declared Law of God But in the whole old Testament I conceive there will not be found any one Precept or toleration of hostile Resistance nor any Example the extraordinary Cases excepted countenancing Disobedience to the lawful Supreme Magistrate But so much to the contrary That there is no Duty next after the fearing honouring and serving of God more inculcated than the fearing obeying and honouring of the King as his Vicegerent Dixi vos Diâ— est is * I said ye are Gods * The Kings Throne is called the Throne of God the Judgement of the Supreme Magistrate the Judgement of God and most of the Attributes of God are applyed unto them And for the new Testament The Precepts therein against Resistance are not only much more positive and direct but the punishments of much a higher nature For the punishments of the old Testament are no where explicitly beyond death whereas S. Paul saith * That He that resisteth the Powers ordained by God procureth to himself Damnation Our Saviour Mar. 12.17 commandeth us out of his own mouth to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are Gods Now I must clearly profess That before the War was actually and hostilely entred into my Conscience was in great suspension and doubt that those ways and Courses which were pursued tended not only not to give unto Caesar what belonged unto Caesar but to take from him that which undoubtedly and undeniably was his as likewise to take from God that which belonged unto him by applying that which had for many hundred years been dedicated and appropriated unto him and his Service to common uses which hath in all times and even amongst Heathen been known by the name of Sacrilege And which divers grave and learned Divines of that way as Dr. Burgesse and Mr. White of Dorchester by name in the beginning of the Parliament told me That they would never aâ—â—ent unto or approve the applying the Revenue of the Church unto temporal uses They conceived they might be better imployed than they were for the maintenance of Preaching Ministers and other pious uses But to be taken from the Church and applyed to prophane uses I am sure their Opinions were then against it For the former of taking from the King what was his I was too much confirmed by the 19. Propositions of Grocers Hall which were sent unto the King some moneths before I withdrew my self from Parliament As likewise by divers other particulars denied unto the King which were as undoubtedly his as the Crown And for the second of taking from God what belonged unto him I wish my doubts had not been so well confirmed by the use that hath been made of the Lands and Revenue of the Church to be made in great part the Hire of Forein Forces against their Prince and the rest to satisfie the Usury of the said wages So that those antient devout Dedications intended for a perpetual Maintenance of Gods Church and his Ministers have by way of Commutation Change been applyed to the pious uses of Usury and the maintenance of a Civil war But our Saviours Command being clear and positive to give unto Caesar what belonged to Caesar I did conceive That Honour Fealty Loyalty and Obedience did as much belong unto him as Tribute Service and other Regalities of his Crown All which I had by Oaths legally established and by lawfull Authority administred unto me sworn more than ten times to King James to belong unto him and to his lawfull Heirs and Successors and often likewise unto King Charls And that I would in them bear to him Faith and true Alleagiance Now whether the said 19. Propositions which are here unto annexed And many oâ—her things which as occasion shall be offered will be instanced in might not administer unto me a just Scruple of Conscience of swerving from this plain precept of our Saviour of giving unto Caesar what belonged unto him and unto God the things that are Gods I shall remit to any Christian of what Profession soever he shall be Our Saviour doth further confirm this his Precept by his own Example of paying Tribute-money though he might have exempted himself from it as being no Stranger Yet Mat. 17.27 Notwithstanding saith he lest we should offend them Go to the Sea and cast in an Angle c. So that he would rather do a Miracle than do that which might seem to be like Sedition or Disobedience St. Paul in the 13 chap. of his Epistle to the Romans 1 2 3 4 verses telleth us That we may not resist the Powers ordained over us by God And he that resisteth this Ordinance shall receive to himself Damnation And verse the 15. That we must be subject not only for wrath but for Conscience sake Now that the King is this Power ordained over us by God I never heard any doubt made by any of his just rightfull Title In all the Acts of Parliaments which have been by the Houses offered unto him for his Royal Assent since his coming unto the Crown it is acknowledged We your Majesties most humble and most faithfull Subjects And if we ackowledge our selves his Subjects we doe therein acknowledge him our Soveraign And in the beginning of every Parliament both in the House of Peers and in the House of Commons before they take their Seat and Place in Parliament they do by Oath declare and testify in their Conscience That the Kings Highnesse is the only Supreme Governour of this Realm and all other his Countries and
not to follow him in his Wars against his Enemies or his Rebels which the Subject de bene esse is to understand to be such as the King proclaimeth to be Traitors Not that a Proclamation maketh them so but the Subject is so to esteem them until they be brought to a legal Tryal So that there never was a harder Condition nor more unavoydable than this of the Kings present Loyal Subjects who should have been Traitors by the Law if they should have taken Armes against the King and should likewise lose ther Lands Honours Castles c. if they did not fight for him And yet contrary to the Law Providing that no man should forfeit Life or Estate for serving of the King He shall by an Arbitrary Power of his fellow Subjects be condemned to lose both without Pardon or Mercy for doing that for which he must have lost legally both Life and Estate and his Soul to boot if he had not done it CHAP. VII The Motives deduced from Honour Honesty and Gratitude of not forsaking the King in his troubles BEsides the Obligation formerly set down deduced from the Law of God and the positive Law of the Kingdom there is a third Law which hath a great Authority in the hearts of all generous and noble-minded Men which is the Law of Honour and Gratitude which Law I conceive to be a Branch of the Original and first Law The Law of Nature For it hath had and still holdeth a Value and Reverence through all Religions as it hath done through all times I must confess this Law hath been and is in some kinds too high lifted up and is become the Idol of many mens fancies who pay unto it a more exact Obedience and are more carefull not to transgress against it than they are not to offend God or the Laws they live under whereof we have daily too many Presidents when men rather than to be failing in point of Honour will upon frivolous provocations decline all duties to God and Man and sacrifice to this Idol oftentimes the hazard of their Lives and Fortunes together with their Souls But this is an Excess and Excrescency of Honour and Courage in the justification whereof I know nothing that can be said In the excuse of it it is to be hoped that in so generally-received an Error whereby men become Infamous and scarce fit for honest company that comply not therein Custom and Universallity may allay and mitigate the Offence But that Honour which I speak of is better exprest by plain moral Honesty and Gratitude when neither Fear nor Disadvantage shall drive us or withold us from just Duties nor the Misfortunes or Distresses of those to whom we have had former obligations make us leave and forsake to be assistant and serviceable unto them in all just and lawfull things although it be to our own Hinderance or that we can expect no further good or advantage by them And herein my Case is different from the common Cases of Subjects being more particularly bound unto Gratitude by many Benefits and unto Honesty Affection and Fidelity by my Service in places of greatest Trust about the King both for nearness to his Person as a Gentleman of his Bed-chamber and as a Servant confided in as a privy Counsellour As for Ingratitude it hath been at all times so detestable That to the Reproach of being ingratefull nothing can be added And the betraying or forsaking of a mans Master in his Distress hath so great a Rellish of the Judas that no noble and generous Heart would for any earthly Respect do any thing that might seem to be like it or be in hazard of being mistaken for it For mine own part I do ingenuously confess that had I no Precepts of the Law of God no Tyes by the Law of the Kingdom nor Horrour of Conscience for breaking those sacred Obligations into which I was entred by taking so many solemn Oaths Yet Gratitude and Honour singly should have been unto me of so high Recommendation That no Respect of my Life Fortunes or Posterity should have made me lift up my Hand against my King or to have forsaken my Master in his Miseries and Distress I have had the Honour to have served this King and his Father by the space of more than forty years and was by his Father from a younger Brother of a Gentlemans Family raised by his Goodness above my Merit to the Dignity of an Earl and a Conveniency of Subsistance in that Quality I was trusted by him in seven Ambassages and called to his privie Counsel recommended unto the Prince his Son as a Gentleman of his Bed-chamber and which was above all these Obligations I was admitted to more than an ordinary measure of his Trust and Confidence And certainly these great Obligations from the Father could not but imprint Gratitude in my Heart towards the Son especially He being now become my King and Master And so by all the Oaths that I had taken to the Father I was likewise by him obliged to them as his Successor But besides these Tyes of Gratitude I must Protest that weighing and considering impartially the Kings Actions either as they relate to his Government as a King or his personal Deportments as a Man setting Conscience aside and that I had not been thereby restrained I could never find any thing that could satisfie my judgement in point of Moral Justice or right Reason for the taking Arms against him I must and do confess that some things and too many wâ—â—â— ill done by the Kings Ministers and the Subjects Propriety and Liberty might have run great hazard under an ill Prince by those waies that were then set on foot For to speak freely my sense by the Principles then received all was put into the Kings hands for Necessity was made Master of all and of that Necessity the King was made the sole Judge and Princes may easily mistake their own private Wants for publique Necessity But from this Excess little of the fault can with Reason be charged upon the King and less ground for the taking of Arms For it is well known the King having been unseasonably imbarqued in War both with France and Spain his Treasure was wholly exhaust and he was reduced to great streights The King called divers Parliaments but they proved so unhappy that two or three of them were dissolved in great disorder and the Kings Wants were not relieved but the King and his People parted with little satisfaction on either side The King then being enforced to use all indeavours for his Relief in these his great VVants consulted with the Officers of his Revenew and his learned Councel what course was to be taken for his Supply without calling a Parliament For it had been voted at the Councel-Table That the Calling of a Parliament was not then fit or seasonable And at the breaking off of the last Parliament before this An. 1640. It had been declared
by some of the Kings Ministers in the House of Commons That if the King were not supplyed by Parliament he must and would betake himself to new Counsells The plain English whereof was understood to be That the King would find out some other Course for his supplies without making use of his People in Parliament And this Opinion that Parliaments would for some time be laid aside gave Boldness and Incouragements to all Promoters and Projectors to set on foot many Monopolies and Projects which were still countenanced by the colour and pretence of Law And amongst the rest and indeed striking at the Root of the Subjects Propriety was that of the Ship-mony brought forth * And the Attorney Noy hath the name to have been the Father of it He was in his time held to have been a great Oracle of the Law and had been in former Parliaments a great Patriot and Propugner of the Subjects Liberty and his Opinion was of high Authority in point of Law with the King and with all Men He assured the King that there might be means found out of the Kings own especially in times of Necessity for him to supply himself justly and according to the Law And so propoundeth this Project of the Ship-mony The King relyed not upon the single Opinion of his Attorny But as a good Prince ought to do He took the further Advice of the Judges who are his proper Counsel in matters of the Law and with whom he ought to Consult And they are sworn to Counsell him faithfully The Major part of them which involveth the rest approved this Project as legal But the King would not content himself with their Verbal Advice But required the then Lord Chief Justice and the Judges to set down the Case and their Opinions of it under their hands which they did accordingly So that it being to be presupposed that the King mote than in the points of administring Justice cannot have a distinct knowledge either of the Extent of his own Prerogative or the abstruse Cases of the Law In a point so much concerning him as the relieving of him in his great wants by ways avowed to him to be just and legal what more upright or prudent Course could a Prince take than to be advised not by young Men or Favorites at Court but by his learned Counsell and his grave Judges sworn to advise him faithfully according to their best skill who if they have behaved themselves wickedly or corruptly upon their heads let Judgement light But let the King and his Throne be free But many Men conceiving and not without Reason That this private and extra judicial Opinion of the Judges was not to be a binding Rule did not acquiesce therin but did refuse the Payment of the Ship-mony and did indeavour to defend this their refusal by a due and legal way of Process and particularly Mr. John Hamden And the Business was brought to an Issue and to a publique Tryal in the Exchequer-Chamber which is the highest and supremest Judicature under the Parliament which the Kingdom of England knoweth in point of Law for it is a Court composed of all the Judges of the several Tribunals for the ending of such difficult and dubious Cases as have not been formerly over-ruled or wherein there is found a difference in Opinion amongst the Iudges themselves And herein the Counsell on both sides whether the Case be betwixt Party and Party or the King and Subject do not only plead but argue the Case in Law and the Iudges do commonly before they give Sentence argue themselves the Case in point of the learning of the Law All which solemnities passed in this Case without any interruption by the King And after divers daies hearing and arguing Iudgment passed for the King by Plurality of Votes for the fewer Votes are involved in the Iudgment of the Major part as there is a Necessity they should be in all Counsells and Iudicatures otherwise Controversies could not be ended unless there were an unanimous Agreement in all that had Votes which seldom happeneth But in this Case three parts of fower Agreed in the Iudgment for the King So that if the Iudges have erred now in Iudicature being sworn to do equal Justice betwixt the King and the Subject as they did before in their Advice unto the King being sworn to Counsell him faithfully the greater is their fault and Offence But I must confess I am not able to set out the Kings Transgression This Case yet passed further For it being brought into the Parliament by way of Grievance the Iudgement was not only reversed all Records burnt and all Courses given way unto by the King which the Houses themselves could think on That no such Excesse might be attempted again in future times But the Lord Keeper and the Iudges were without any Interposition of the King left unto the Justice of the Parliament And the Lord Keeper and divers of them were by the House of Commons impeached of high Treason So the King having no hand in the setting it on foot nor in the erroneous Iudgement nor having protected the Parties culpable from Punishment But the Grievance being redressed and sufficient Caution and Provision assented unto by the King for the preventing of the like for the future I could not deduce from hence any Argument of the Kings intention to subvert the Law or of any justifiable ground of taking arms against him And what is said in this Case of the Ship-mony doth likewise hold in the Cases of Monopolies which are alwaies suggested to be for the good of the Subject as well as legal and beneficial to the King who never granteth any of them without Reference In point of Conveniency or Disâ—dvantage to the Subject they are usually referred to some of his privy-Counsell In point of Law to some of his learned Counsell In point of his Benefit to some Officers of his Revenew Who if they have erred or were corrupted and the King by their ill Advice drawn to pass any unfit or illegal thing I have known the Parliament for the space of these forty years address themselves by Petition unto the King for Redress but unto the Referrees for the Fault and the Causers of the Grievances And if they could get the said Grievances redressed and the Referrees brought to punishment they alwaies esteemed it so gracious a Proceeding from the King towards them that usually it was acknowledged with the return of some Gift or Supply But that any Argument should be deduced from thence of any Intention in the King to subvert the Laws I never knew it Neither have I known that the King hath ever proceeded in matters of this kind but in the manner here set down And in this Parliament all Projects and Monopolies were put down and all men that either had a Hand or Interest in them unless it were such as the House of Commons thought fit for Causes known unto themselves to
due to their Kings upon any colour or pretext of Religion For as no private man doth forfeit his Inheritance or free-hold by Impiety or Atheism although he may forfeit his Soul unless he commit some legal Crime So a Prince that holdeth his Crown by unquestionable Right of Succession cannot forfeit his Temporal Inheritance by the erroniousness of his Religion his Soul must only answer that forfeit And although some have gone so far as to admit a lawfullness of the Subjects taking Arms against their Prince for the defence and maintenance of their Laws and Religion yet no man hath adventured so far as to allow the taking Arms for bringing in of new Laws and a new Religion contrary to the established and that by force and without consent of their Soveraign which is the present Case CHAP. IX Shewing the War not to have been begun by the King but that he condescended to all things that could in reason be demanded of him for the preventing of it THere is yet one further Objection wherwith I have heard some indeavour to countenance and justifie their taking Arms against the King which was That he first made War against his Parliament meaning by force to introduce an Arbitrary Power in Church and Common-Wealth And that the War on their side was only defensive and for the maintenance of their liberties proprieties privileges and Religion The steps and progress of this unhappy War are so well known unto me even from the first misunderstandings betwixt the King and People and the improvement of them by Tumults and several Artifices untill they broke out into Acts of open hostility that nothing did so much terrifie my Conscience from taking Arms against the King or more confirmed me in my Duty of adhering unto him than the certain and infallible knowledge I had of the Kings hearty and unfeigned Desires and Indeavours to have prevented this War and to that end to have done and was ready to do all things that had been or should be with justice or reason propounded unto him for the satisfaction of his Parliament which I conceive to all unpreoccupated Iudgments will be easily most apparent when it shall be considered how many things he hath done besides the easing of just grievances whereunto he is indeed obliged which were meerly Acts of Grace and which if he had denied he should have done no wrong And for the doing whereof the wit of man can find no other reason or inducement but his desire to satisfie his Parliament and the keeping of things from extremities For besides the giving way to the putting down of the Court of Starchamber the High Commission and the regulating of his Councel-Table many other things he hath done which some Kings would rather have adventured a War than have parted with any of them As the consenting to have his Privy-Councel that had been sworn to secrecy to be examined upon Oath concerning those things that had passed in his Presence in his most secret Cabinet Councel The giving his Assent in such conjuncture of times to the taking away the Bishops Votes in Parliament And the divesting of himself of the Power to dissolve the Parliament notwithstanding that the evil Consequences that might happen to him thereby were represented unto him in my hearing And I conceive that no man will be so partial but they do beleeve that howsoever the King might be satisfied in point of Conscience by the Bishops and Iudges and the joint authority of both Houses for giving his Assent to the passing of the Bill for my Lord of Straffords Attaindure yet no man but beleeveth he would have saved his Life at a great Ransom But hoping therby to have allayed the rage of his people aswell as to have given full satisfaction to his Houses with a sad and afflicted heart he signed the Warrant for the Earls execution For he was then made beleeve that with his giving way to his death and his consenting to the Bill for not adjourning or dissolving of the Parliament but with the Concurrence of the Houses all misunderstandings betwixt him and his Parliament would be removed and all things return to a calm and orderly way of Proceeding Now if the King had had any secret Intention of making of a War would he have done so many things so prejudicial to himself and so against his heart only for the preventing of it and although his hopes of a quiet settlement by the passing of these two Bills failed him he yet gave not over the doing of all further things which he thought might renew a right understanding betwixt him and the Houses So likewise when that unhappy and unseasonable Act of his going to the House of Commons in Person happened he indeavoured to redeem it with such Acts of acknowledgemeot submission nay I may say asking forgiveness as were never done by any King unto his Subjects So likewise in the particular of his Attorneys accusing of the Lord Kimbolton and the five Members notwithstanding he had a President for it in his own time of Sir Robert Heath his then Attorneys impeaching of my self of High Treason which Impeachment was received and admitted of by the House of Peers and Arraignment and due process of Law was by the said House ordered and awarded thereupon yet the King finding the Houses therewith displeased did not only command prosecution to be withdrawn but left his Attorny to the Iustice of the Parliament And I conceive that it will be acknowledged by all Laws and Religions That the very excesses and errors of Soveraign Princes if reparation and satisfaction may be obtained by Petition and Remonstrance as in these Caâ—es they have been Recourse ought not to be had by Subjects to Arms or Hostile Resistance and I am deceived if this be not also the Opinion of the severest of our new Doctors Where wrongs are done if the party offending shall upon demand make reparation and give satisfaction to the party offended and yet he shall notwithstanding make War it is He that is the Agressor that maketh the offensive War Melior causa ad partem poenitentem transit And the party first offending by his penitency and satisfaction brings over the Right and Iustice to his Cause and if this be betwixt Independent States betwixt whom such as write de Iure Belli say a legitimate War can only be for War being defined to be publicoâ—um Armorum justa contentio Subjects are not allowed as lawfull Enemies opposed to their Soveraign for want of supreme and publique Authority How much more ought such Acknowledgment and Reparations as have before been set down have satisfied Subjects in the behalf of their King so far humbling of himself as certainly would have pacified a modest Conqueror After the King had found himself disappointed of his expectation and that by his former yieldings and complyances the misunderstandings were little allayed but greater appearances grew every day that other of unquietness and troubles
And that he had thought fit to withdraw himself from London for his safety and the avoiding of Affronts which he had cause to fear for that the five Members were the next day by the armed Train'd-bands of the City in martial manner to be brought to Westminster and to pass by the Kings Palace Yet so desirous was the King to sweeten things again that upon great instance he passed the Bill for debarring the Bishops their Seats and Votes in Parliament upon hopes that were given with no small Assurance that upon gratifying the Houses therein all things would speedily be put into a way of Accomodation I had often heard the King say That besides the wrong done unto the Bishops who had as good Right to their Votes in Parliament as any other Peers from the first Original of Parliaments he conceived he could not do any Act of greater Prejudice to himself and his Successors than the passing of that Bill Yet the desire he had of a reconciliation with his Parliament overweighed all other Considerations and Interests whatsoever And he gave his Royal assent unto the Bill But instead of that effect which the King expected thereby it produced the 19 Propositions of Grocers Hall before mentioned Whereupon although the King gave no negative Answer yet he put on a Resolution to make no further Answer to any new Propositions But his Request to the Houses was That they would set down together all such means as would give them satisfaction wherunto they should receive a gracious and satisfsctory Answer to all they could iustly or reasonably demand But this was declared to be a breach of privileges to restrain the Proposals of the Houses either in matter or form The King on the other side thought that whatsoever he had formerly done had served only to strip himself of his known Rights but had no way advanced a general accommodation And so for the future betook himself to Declarations and Protestations instead of Answers wherein he proffer'd to concurre in all things they should desire for the settling of all Liberties and Immunities of the Subject either for the Propriety of their Goods or Liberty of their Persons which they either had received from his Ancestors or which by himself had been granted unto them And if there did yet remain any thing of Grace for the good and comfort of the Subject he would willingly heaken unto all their reasonable Propositions And for the setling of the true Protestant Religion he most earnestly recommended the Care thereof unto them wherein they should have his Concurrence and assictance The Rule of his Government he protested should be the setled Laws of the Kingdom And for the Indempnity and Comfort of the Subject he offered a more ample and General Pardon than had been granted by any of his Predecessors and for the performance of all he had promised besides solemn Oaths and Execrations whereby he bound himself he desired God only so to bless and prosper him and his Posterity as he should faithfully perform the same And further for the greater securing of what should be agreed and setled he gave such voluntary security as I conceive was never before demanded nor by any King offered to his Subjects That in the Case he failed in performance or should do contrary to that which he had promised or agreed He acquitted and freed his Subjects of their Obedience And this great desire of the Kings to have purchased Reconciliation with the Houses will appear to have been known to me and to have been so beleeved by me by what I spake in the House of Peers the 20 of May 1642. and was published in print most of this being but a repetition of what I then said as will appear by the said Speech hereunto annexed Besides the above specified Reasons of the Kings desiring Peace It could not be supposed that in humane prudence the King could desire a War being altogether unfurnished of men mony and ammunition and the contrary party provided of all by the being seized of his Forts his Magazins his Navy his Rents the Revenew of his Crown and of the powerfull and rich City of London and of the perverted Affections of his People He was fain at his return from Dover whither he had accompanyed the Queen when she passed into Holland to go from place to place as to Theobalds and to Newmarket lingring up and down in hope still of some Overture of Accommodation and many Motions tending thereunto were made by my self and other the Kings Servants that stayed behind him with the Parliament But they were not then thought seasonable and wrought little effect and the King having lost all hopes in that kind held it fit to retire himself further from danger as he conceived and so went unto York with a very mean Equipage and a slender Attendance of not above 30 or 40 Persons It is true that many of the Nobility and Gentry repaired thither unto him shewing great Affection and Resolution to follow him in all Fortune and Indeavours were used that the King might be put into the best posture of Defence that was possible but ever with a desire that those small Forces might rather countenance some Treaty or Overture for Accommodation than that there was any belief that those Forces were fit to carry through a War And to that purpose the Earls of Southampton and Dorset were sent unto the Parliament with new Overtures from Nottingham But nothing would be heard untill the King had first taken down his Standard and laid down Arms which the King understood to be a total submission and yielding of himself up seeing my Lord of Essex came forth and within few daies march of him with a great and powerfull Army He himself having by Sr. Iacob Ashleys Certificate not above 700 foot whereof there were not above 400 armed and 900 foot of Colonell Bellasis at Newark most of them without Arms An Equipage certainly not to have incouraged the King unto a War if it could have been avoided But such was Gods will for the punishment of the Nation But the Kings Forces indeed unexpectedly increased by which the War hath been continued to the Destruction of the Kingdom and more particularly of the Kings Party but later by much than could have been expected by any foreseeing man and neither the King nor any rational man with him but would have accepted and sought an Accommodation though with great loss and prejudice So that to make the King the first Agressor and beginner of an Offensive War and the Houses to have taken only defensive Arms I could never understand it nor know what it was they could pretend to defend Since there was no wrong left unredressed nor any thing that they could have pretence or colour to demand that was not offered Many things undeniably the Kings were witheld from him and more daily seized But I conceive no one thing can be instanced wherein the King hath deteined from
them any Right to which they laid Claim But if the making of Ordinances without the King of equal Authority with Acts of Parliament to which the Royal Assent had passed The keeping in their hands the Militia Forts and Navy exclusively to the King The altering of Church-Government established by Law without the Kings Consent The making a new Great Seal The proscribing of the Kings loyal Friends and Servants to loss of life and estates without pardon or mercy before either Summons Tryal or Conviction The taking to themselves the sole Power of pardoning and disposing of Confiscations If the setting unto sale the Lands and Revenew of the Church for so many hundreds of years appropriated unto it by their single Arbitrary Power without the Kings Consent who is Founder of all the Bishopricks and which he was sworn to preserve If the abolishing of the Court of Wards and discharging the Subjects of their Tenures and so consequently of their service to the Crown If the deteining of the Kings Children from him the breeding of them and the future Mariage of them belongeth unto them If the Power of injoining new Oaths upon the Subject contrary to all Law and without the King If the making what they please Treason ex plenitudine potestatis â—s the * harbouring of the King c. notwithstanding that the Law hath determined what shall be adjudged Treason and nothing else If the sending to and treating with forein Princes of War and Peace or the nominating of Judges Sheriff and the Officers of the Crown and many things of this kind If they lay Claim unto these as their Right I must confesse I have not known any satisfaction offered unto them by the King Only in the point of his Servanâ—s he hath alwaies protested that he would protect no man whatsoever so that he might be brought to a Legal Tryal according to the due Course of Law which he is bound to see afforded to all his Subjects But for the rest of the above specified particulars I do not know that the King hath indeavoured their satisfaction Neither can it be supposed by any rational man that they will ground their defensive War upon any Claim they will make unto them For although de facto in the Contestation of War they have seized and possessed themselves of them yet they will not pretend that they have right unto them de jure And it is Right that constitutes the Iustness or Uniustness of the entring into a War Success protecteth and may establish for the future but cannot rectifie or make good an unjust beginning And it must be their future proceedings by which the most probable Iudgement can be made of their former intentions For now that they have overcome all oppositions If they shall return to a peaceable legal Settlement and leave to use Arbitrary Government which they may pretend they have been inforced unto during an Actual War and shall only retain their just Liberties and Privileges with such additions and inlargements of Graces and Immunities as the King being free and without constraint shall be contented to grant together with prudent Cautions for their own Indempnity and Security for the future which in Cases of this Nature must ever be supposed that rational Men will indeavour and successfull men that have the Power in their hands will expect If they will let the Subject have the comfort and security of a general Pardon and an Act of Oblivion not force the consciences of their fellow subjects by new Oaths which they themselves have acknowledged to be contrary to the Law and against the Petition of Right If they will endeavour really the settlement of Religion by a moderate Reformation and not by a total ruine of the most Orthodox and flourishing Church of Europe and so restore the King to what is undeniably his and make the known Law the Rule of Government These will be the strongest Arguments that Defence was rather intended than a Conquest But if Armies shall be reteined when there are no Enemies and by them an Arbitrary Power held up over mens Lives Liberties and Estates and the King kept in the nature of a subdued and useless Person little will be believed of any Intention of taking only defensive Arms CHAP. X Shewing a particular Tye of Gratitude by the Generousness and Reconcileableness of the Kings Disposition THere was yet a further Tye of Gratitude put upon me by the Generousness and Reconcileableness of the Kings Disposition a virtue ever to be wished but not often found in offended Princes For I having been so unhappy as to have fallen very highly into his Disfavour and to have remained many years under a Cloud of his heavy Displeasure yet not long before the beginning of this Parliament having the opportunity of accesse unto him at the great Counsel at York And then being imployed as Prolocutor in the Commission for the Treaty with the Scots at Rippon for a Cessation and afterwards for the Peace at London he was pleased to receive so good satisfaction concerning me and all my former proceedings that he did graciously pass by whatsoever offence he had conceived against me and did not only call me to his Counsel-Table where in regard of my many years service under his Father he might have judged me usefull unto his service but out of a Confidence and Trust which to fail in even amongst Heathens would be held odious admitted me to the place of the nearest Attendance about his Person as a Gentleman of his Bed-chamber who besides the Privileges of Access in all places have the Honor to sleep by him in the night in his Chamber and to be trusted alone with the safety of his Person as I have often been And this place is accompanyed with a particular Oath of distinct services Of attending upon his Person of not Acting or Concealing any thing to his Prejudice and other things of particular service more than other subjects do swear unto And I must confess that if all the above alleged Reasons had been laid aside and that there had been no other Tye but this new Obligation of the Kings Reconciliation and of his trusting and confiding in me knowing him to be so free not only from all things that might justifie the taking Arms against him but from all things of doing wrong or oppression if other mens errors or corruptions were not put upon his Score That if all the misfortunes that have befallen me and my Family had been foreseen by me and might have been prevented by my forsaking of my Master only because he was in distress I would rather have embraced this poor and exiled condition than to have lived in any Estate of plenty whatsoever reproaching to my self daily and hourly my Infidelity and Ingratitude CHAP. XI A Brief Summary of the Reasons formerly set down for the not taking Arms against the King THese are the Reasons that have reteined me in that Duty which I conceived my self
and telleth us satis sufficit ei ad poenam quòd Deum habet ultorem It will be a sufficient punishment to him that he hath God for an Avenger Yet are we not altogether left without remedy For Kings although they be Gods Vice-gerents yet they cannot work as God worketh saying Fiat and it was done Kings must work by mediate Instruments And if they Command illegal things the Executioners of them are responsable and must make satisfaction to the Parties injured And therefore the King ought not immediately to imprison nor in Person to execute any thing because that in Case of wrong-doing the Subject would be left without Remedy in regard the Kings Person is not to be impleaded by Law I know the usual Objections In Case Kings will do that which they ought not to do and will by their own immediate Warrants Commit and be the Personal Actors of the Injuries or not suffer the Executioners of their unlegal Commands to be legally proceeded against shall the Subject be left wholly without Remedy and the People be debarred of the benefit of that Right of Nature in-bred in all Creatures of self preservation Yes We must be contented with that Condition wherein God hath placed us and wherein by our own Consents and Stipulations of subjection we have placed our selves and may only right our selves by those means which by the laws whereunto we have given our assent are permitted unto us Neither is our native Liberty hereby ravisht from us but as we have parted with it by our own Consent and Agreement So we cannot resume it but by those waies which we have reserved in the Stipulations of our submission And besides that herein there is no Injury for that Volenti non fit Injuria It would be more hurtfull to mankind if it were otherwise For there is a necessity that in all sorts of Governments aswell as in Monarchy there should he an Impunity and Power somewhere of not being questioned else all would presently fall into Anarchy and Confusion Neither could there be a final ending of Controversies if there were not a Dernier Ressort and last Appeal wherein we are bound to acquiesce And this Power must be trusted in some hand and that must of necessity be where the Soveraign Power remaineth else there mstu be supposed a Superiour Power to that Soveraign Power and so in infinitum untill we come to some such Power that hath nothing above it and then that must be trusted and must be submitted unto without being accomptable to any but to God because on earth there can be to it no Superiour Iurisdiction And this Power is in the King of England in all things except such wherein he himself or his Ancestors have by Lawes and Stipulations limâ—ted their Absolute Power as hath been above set down As enacting or repealing Laws without his Parliament levying of Moneys and many other things wherein He and his Ancestors have restrained their Power And this we are by the Law of God and of the Land bound to obey and not to make any resistance but what the Law alloweth us We must in the rest have recourse unto God if our Princes be wicked Neither may we mutiny or repine at God when we have ill Kings more than when he sendeth Diseases Plagues Caterpillers Blightings or Blasts For wicked Kings are but Blastings of the People that God is pleased to punish Neither must we think our Condition worse than that of wicked Kings notwithstanding their temporall Impunity For certainly it is much better both in regard of Punishment in the World to come and commonly in this For the next World As their Sin is greater So it is declared that their Punishment shall be greater Heare o ye Kings and understand c. Because being Ministers of Gods Kingdom you have not judged aright nor kept the Law nor walked after the Counsel of God Horribly and speedily shall he come upon you for a sharp Iudgment shall be to them that are in high places For mercy will soon pardon the meanest but mighty men shallbe mightily tormented Wheras Subjects which suffer with patience because they are so commanded by God make him their Debtor by their sufferings and he alwaies payeth faithfully who saith that if we suffer with Christ we shall also reign with him And for this World Their Wickednesse and Oppression is ever accompanyed with those Fears Distractions and Horrours of Conscience which have ever been unseperable from Tyrannies by which their lives are rendred more uncomfortable than the unhappiest of their Subjects And for the most part their ends are as miserable as their lives For what they fear and by their Tyrannie seek to prevent doth commonly fall upon them Their People do Revolt and Rebel And although they be never so well Catechâ—zed in the points of Obedience yet their Natural Inclination to return to Liberty much more to cast off unjust Burthens and Oppressions is such that slight and weak Arguments will easily perswade them to that whereunto they are so strongly inclined and the least pretence of Religion or colour of Reason or Lawfulness countenancing or tolerating the freeing themselves from Subjection in any Case will be more prevalent with them than the most positive Precept of Gods Word injoining Obedience And if in any Case taking of Arms be admitted Theirs shall ever be that case And if the wickedness of their Prince shall be allowed as a ground for Rebellion Their Prince shall ever be the most wicked And of this all Ages have produced many examples and especially these latertime through all the Estates of Christendom And although the Christian churches of all Professions as before is shew'd declare against the Doctrine of Resistance Two or Three hot-headed-men writing or preaching suitable to their Affection Desires will prevail against the Authority of all the Churches of Christendom And wicked Princes will find that Precepts in this Case will not serve the turn But it wil be in this point of Resistance as Tacitus saith of Divinations in Rome which was a wickedness that had been and ever would be forbidden yet ever would be reteined semper vetabitur semper retinebitur And so Princes that will highly oppress and make their Will and not the Laws the Rule of their government though to resist be a wickedness and that it is against the Law of God and Man to do it yet where the wrongs are great and a fair opportunity offered of prevailing It will be ever done For that amongst men there are a Thousand for One that prefer their own Interests or Inclination before Duty or Conscience And certainly a prudent and foreseeing Prince that will impartially examine things cannot but expect it should be so For why should he suppose that other men wil be more honest or more religious than himself And when he breaketh through all the Bonds and Tyes of Oaths of Divine Precepts and Moral Iustice only to stretch and extend
untill these late unhappy interruptions We cannot but judge this Nation equally capable with any other of Honor Happiness and Plenty Now if instead of this happy condition in which we have been and might be upon a sober and impartial inquiry we shall find our selves to have been for some few years last past involved in so many troubles and distractions and at the present to be reduced to the very brink of miseries and calamities It is high time for us to consider by what means we have been brought into them and by what means it is most probable we may be brought out of them This Kingdom never enjoyed so universal a peace neither hath it any visible enemy in the whole World either Infidel or Christian Our Enemies are only of our own house such as our own dissentions jealousies and distractions have raised up and certainly where they are found especially betwixt a King and his People no other cause of the unhappiness and misery of a State need to be sought after For civill discord is a plentifull Sourse from whence all miseries and mischiefs flow into a Kingdom The Scripture telleth us of the strength of a little City united and of the instability of a Kingdom divided within it self So that upon a prudent inquiry we may assign our own jealousies and discords for the chief cause of our past and present troubles and of our future fears It must be confessed that by the counsel and conduct of evill Ministers the Subject had cause to think their just liberties invaded And from thence have our former distempers grown For it is in the body politick of a Monarchy as in another Natural body the health whereof is defined to be Partium corporis aequa temperies an equal temper of the parts So likewise a State is well in health and well disposed when Soveraign Power and common right are equally ballanced and kept in an even temper by just and equitable rules And truely My LORDS by the goodness of His Majesty and by the prudent endeavour of the Parliament this State is almost reduced to that equal and even temper and our sickness is rather continued out of fancy and conceipt I mean fears and jealousies than out of any real distemper or defect I well remember that before the beginning of this Parliament some Noble Lords presented a Petition unto the King and in that Pettion did set down all or most of the Grievances and distempers of the Kingdom which then occurred to them To these as I conceive the Parliament have procured from his Majesty such redresses as are to their good satisfaction Many other things for the ease security and comfort of the subject have been by their great industry found and propounded and by his Majesties goodness condescended unto And now we are come so near the happiness of being the most free and most setled Nation in the Christian world Our dangers and miseries will grow greater and neerer unto us every day than other if they be not prevented The king on his part offereth to concurre with us in the setling of all the liberties and immunities either of the propriety of our Goods or liberty of our persons which we have received from our Ancestors or which himself hath granted unto us and what shall yet remain for the good and comfort of his Subjects He is willing to hearken to all our just and reasonable propositions and for the establishing of the true Protestant Religion he wooes us to it And the wisdome and industry of the Parliament hath now put it in a hopefull way The rule of his government he professeth shall be the Laws of the Kingdom And for the comforting and securing of us he offereth a more large and more general Pardon than hath been granted by any of his Predecessors And truly My LORDS This is all that ever was or can be pretended unto by us We on the other side make Profession That we intend to make his Majesty a glorious King to endeavour to support his Dignity and to pay unto him that Duty and Obedience which by our Allegiance several Oaths and late Protestations we owe unto him and to maintain all his just Regalities and Prerogatives which I conceive to be as much as his Majesty will expect from us So that My Lords we being both thus reciprocally agreed of that which in the general would make both the King and People happy shall be most unfortunate if we shall not bring both Inclinations and Indeavours so to propound and settle particulars as both King and People may know what will give them mutual Satisfaction which certainly must be the first Step to the setling a right understanding betwixt them And in this I should not conceave any great difficulty if it were once put into a way of preparation But the greatest difficulty may seem to be how that which may be settled and agreed upon may be secured This is commonly the last point in Treaties betwixt Princes of the greatest nicenesse But much more betwixt a King and his Subjects where that Confidence Belief which should be betwixt them is once lost And to speak clearly I fear that this may be our Case and herein may consist the chiefest difficulty of Accomodation For it is much easier to compose differences arising from Reason yea even from Wrongs than it is to satisfy Jealousies which arising out of Diffidence Distrust grow and are varyed upon every Occasion But My Lords if there be no endeavours to allay and remove them they will every day increase and gather strength Nay they are already grown to that height and the mutual replyes to those direct tearms of Opposition that if we make not a present stop it is to be feared it will speedily passe further than verbal Contestations I observe in some of his Majesties Answers a Civil War spoken of I confesse it is a word of Horrour to me who have been an eyewitness of those unexpressible Calamities that in a short time the most plentiful and flourishing Countries of Europe have been brought unto by an intestine War I furrher observe that his Majesty protesteth against the miseries that may ensue by a war and that he is clear of them It is true That a Protestation of that kind is no actual denouncing of War but it is the very next degree to it Vltima admonitio as the Civilians term it The last admonition So that we are upon the very brink of our miseries It is better keeping our of them than getting out of them And in a State the Wisdome of Prevention is infinitely beyond the Wisdome of Remedies If for the sins of this Nation these misunderstandings should produce the least Act of Hostility It is not almost to be believed how impossible it were to put any stay to our miseries For a Civil War admits of none of those Conditions or Quarter by which Cruelty and Blood are amongst other Enemies kept from Extremities Nay
if it should but so happen which God of his goodness avert That mutually Forces and Armies should be raised Jealousies and Fears would be so much increased thereby that an Accommodation would be rendred full of difficulty and length and the very charge of maintaining them whilst first a Cessation of Arms and then a general Accommodation were in treating the Wealth of the Kingdom would be consumed And of this we had lately a costly Example for in those unhappy Troubles betwixt us and Scotland after there was a stop made to any further Acts of Hostility and a desire of Peace expressed on both sides Commissioners nominated and all the Articles propounded yet the keeping of the Armies together for our several Securities whilst the Cessation at Rippon and the Peace at London where in treating cost this Kingdome not much lesse than a million of pounds And if two Armies be once on foot here in England either a suddain Encounter must destroy one of them or the keeping of them on foot must destroy the Kingdom I hope therefore we shall make it our endeavour by Moderation and Calmnesse yet to put a stay to our so near approaching miseries and that we shall hearken to the wise advice of our Brethren of Scotland in their late Answer to the King and Parliament wherein they earnestly entreat us That all means may be forborn which may make the Breach wider and the Wound deeper and that no place be given to the evill Spirit of Division which at such times worketh uncessantly and resteth not But that the fairest the most Christian and compendious way may be taken by so wise a King and Parliament as may against all Malice and Oppositions make his Majesty and Posterity more glorious and his Kingdom more happy than ever And in another place they say That since the Parliament hath thought meet to draw the Practice of the Parliament of Scotland into Example in point of Declaration They are confident that the Affection of the Parliaments will lead them also to the Practice of that Kingdom in composing the unhappy Differences betwixt his Majesty and them and so far as may consist with their Religion Liberties and Laws in giving his Majesty all satisfaction especially in their tender Care of his Royal Person and of his Princely Greatness and Authority Certainly MY LORDS this is wise and brotherly Advice and I doubt not but we are all desirous to follow it We must not then still dwell upon generals for generals produce nothing But we must put this Business into a certain way wherby particulars may be descended unto And the way that I shall offer with all humility is That there may be a select Committee of choise Persons of both Houses who may in the first place truely state and set down all things in difference betwixt the King and the Subject with the most probable way of reconciling them Secondly to descend unto the particulars which may be expected by each from other either in point of our supporting of him or his relieving of us And lastly how all these Conditions being agreed upon may be so secured as may stand with the Honor of his Majesty and the satisfaction of the Subject When such a Committee shall have drawn up the heads of the Propositions and the way of securing them they may be presented unto the Houses and so offered unto his Majesty by such a Way as the Parliament shall Iudge most probable to produce an Accommodation MY LORDS What I have said unto you hath been chiefly grounded upon the Apprehensions and Fears of our future Dangers I shall say something of the unhappiness of our present Estate which certainly standeth in as much need of Relief and Remedy as our Fears do of Prevention For although the King and People were fully united and that all men that now draw several waies should unanimously set their hand to the work yet they would find it no easie task to restore this Kingdom to a prosperous and comfortable Condition If we take into our Consideration the deplorable Estate of Ireland likely to drain this Kingdom of Men and Treasure if we consider the Debts and Necessity of the Crown the Ingagements of the Kingdom the great and unusual Contributions of the People the which although they may not be so much to their Discontent for that they have been legally raised yet the burthen hath not been much eased let us likewise consider the Distractions I may almost call them Confusions in point of Religion which of all other Distempers are most dangerous and destructive to the Peace of a State Besides these publique Calamities let every particular man consider the distracted discomfortable estate of his own Condition for mine own part I must ingenuously profess unto your Lordships That I cannot find out under the different Commands of the King and the Parliament any such Course of Caution and Wariness by which I can promise to my self Security or Safety I could give your Lordships many instances of the Inconsistency and impossibility of obeying these Commands But I shall trouble you with only one or two The Ordinance of Parliament now in so great agitation commandeth all Persons in Authority to put it in execution all others to obey it according to the Fundamental Laws of the Land The King declareth it to be contrary to the Fundamental Laws against the Subject and Rights of Parliament And commandeth all his Subjects of what sort soever upon their Allegeance not to obey the said Ordinance as they will answer the contrary at their perils So likewise in point of the King commanding the Attendance of divers of us upon his Person whereunto we are obliged by several relations of our Services and Oaths in case we comply not with his Commands we are liable to his displeasure and the loss of those places of Honor and Trust which we hold under him if we obey his Commands without the leave of the Parliament which hath not been alwaies granted we are liable to the Censure of Parliament And of both these we want not fresh Examples So that certainly this cannot but be acknowledged to be an unhappy and uncomfortable Condition I am sure I bring with me a ready and obedient Heart to pay unto the King all those Duties of Loyalty Allegeance and Obedience which I owe unto him And I shall never be wanting towards the Parliament to pay unto it all those due Rights and that Obedience which we all owe unto it But in contrary Commands a Conformity or Obedience to both is hardly to be lighted on The Reconciliation must be in the Commanders and the Commands and not in the Obedience or the Person that is to obey And therfore untill it shall please God to bless us with a right understanding betwixt the King and Parliament and a Conformity in their Commands neither the Kingdom in publick nor particular men in private can be reduced to a safe or comfortable Condition I
have said thus much to give Occasion to others to offer likewise their Opinions For if we shall sit still and nothing tending to the stay of the unhappy misunderstandings namely betwixt the King and his People be propounded It is to be feared that our miseries will hasten so fast upon us that the season and opportunities of applying Remedies may be past I have herein discharged my Conscience suitable to that duty which I owe to the King my Soveraign and Master and suitable to that zeal and affection which I shall ever pay to the happiness and prosperity of the Kingdom towards which I shall ever faithfully contribute my humble Prayers and honest endeavours And I shall no waies doubt whatsoever success this my Proposition may have it will be accompanyed with the good wishes of your Lordships and of all peaceable and well-minded men The Earl of Bristols Speech in the House of Peers The 11 of June 1642. My Lords YOu were pleased not many daies since to declare your displeasure for the printing of a Speech made by me in this House on the 20 of May last and the Cause of your displeasure was declared to be for that the said Speech did seem to insinuate that my former motions for Accommodation had found but little Acceptance whereby there was cast upon the House an Imputation as though it should not be inclined thereunto Your Lordships Displeasure in that kind hath given me Incouragement to renew my former Motion hoping it may be now more seasonable than at former times At least MY LORDS I fear it is at such a season that whosoever is desirous to move for the preventing of a Civill War ought to speak now or he may hereafter hold his peace For differences are reduced to that height of opposition betwixt his Majesty and the Houses that if some speedy means be not laid hold of for the allaying and reconciling of them it is to be feared that a very few daies will change our Contestations which yet are but in words and writing into actions of blood and open Hostility the which certainly may yet by your Lordships wisdoms be prevented but being once begun will not be remedied but after long time and unspeakable miseries The way that I presumed formerly to offer was that this Honorable House would be pleased to move that a select Committee of choise Persons of both Houses might be nominated who may truly state and set down all things in difference between the King and the Subject with the most probable waies of reconciling of them Secondly to descend unto the particulars which may in reason be expected by each from other either in point of our supporting of the King or of his relieving of us and lastly how all those Conditions being agreed upon may be fittingly secured MY LORDS The greatest difficulty as appeareth unto me in this point of Accommodation which so highly importeth the good of the King of the Kingdom and our own consisteth in the beginning of it For certainly if it once were put in a way being accompanyed with the Inclination which your Lordships express to it and with those earnest desires which the King professeth by his so many Invitations that we would clearly set down all that from him would give us satisfaction it could not miss of a happy and blessed Conclusion For in substance if our desires be suitable to our professions we are agreed For our professions are that we intend to pay unto the King all Duties of Loyalty and Obedience and to make him a Glorious King The King saith that to those great Liberties and Eases which he hath already granted unto us this Parliament he is ready to adde any thing that shall be with reason further propounded unto him for our Comfort and Satisfaction So that little seemeth to remain but that from Generals we fall to the Inviduals and express particularly what we mean by making him a Glorious King And paying unto him Loyalty and Obedience And likewise that the Individuals for our further Comfort and satisfaction be propounded So that the intentions of the one and the other being clearly known if any thing remain in difference it may by Treaty and by calm waies of Debate be reconciled Whereas the Professions which are now made on either side of desiring an Accommodation being only in Generals tend rather to a Vindication or Iustification of one part against the other than any way to advance an Accommodation whereas in particular Proposals Reason and Equity would sway and if we do really desire Peace as we profess we should on both sides stretch toward the effecting of it whereas if War be once on foot it is no longer Reason and Iustice which we make the Rules of our demands and Propositions but Success which as it is unequitable So it is a leaden uncertain Rule bowing and bending to the various chances of War and of Advantage And therefore if we do heartily desire Peace Let 's follow our Saviours Counsell Agree with our Adversary whilst he is yet on the way Otherwise we shall find by sad experience that that which might now be easily prevented shall hardly hereafter be remedied If a War happen to be here in England which God avert it cannot be but most bloody and feirce for being shut up here in an Island we shall fight as in a Cock-pit And there being in the Kingdome few considerable strengths there must of necessity be more fighting in a year or two than hath been in the Low Countries in twenty It is probable the War will not be so long but it will be more bloody And if we should prevail for the present there will remain a succession of troubles We all bear a reverence to Monarchy under which we and our Ancestors have lived so many Ages And the King is blessed with a plentiful Issue And our Professions and Intentions are not to cast off just Subjection but to preserve just Liberty which I am most confident we may do without the hazard of a War And what with our ancient Privileges his Majesties new Concessions and what he yet further offereth we may remain the happiest and the freest Subjects that live under any King The King likewise whatsoever Successe he may have will be no Gainer by a War For if he should conceive by Force to introduce an Arbitrary Government which I am most assured is far from his thoughts he will find his own Adherents his chief opposers who although they may fight in defence of his Person and just Rights according to their Oaths and Allegance yet they will be loath to fight themselves into slavery So that what is good for him will be good for us which is an happy and equitable Agreement and the contrary will make both miserable in so great a degree that as now we may be justly esteemed the happiest Kingdome in Europe and the very Envy of all our Neighbours So in a short time if a Civill War
whether they be within the Kingdom or fled out of it And that all Persons cited by either House of Parliament may appear and abide the Censure of Parliament 14. That the general Pardon offered by your Majesty may be granted with such Exceptions as shall be advised by both Houses of Parliament 15. That the Forts and Castles of this Kingdom may be put under the Command and Custody of such Persons as your Majesty shall appoint with the Approbation of your Parliament and in the Intervals of Parliament with the Approbation of the Major part of the Counsel in such manner as before is expressed in the Choise of Counsellors 16. That the extraordinary Guards and Military Forces now attending your Majesty may be removed and discharged and that for the future you will raise no such Guards or extraordinary Forces but according to the Law in case of actual Rebellion or Invasion 17. That your Majesty will be pleased to enter into a more strict allyance with the States of the United Provinces and other Neighbour Princes and States of the Protestant Religion for the defence and maintenance thereof against all designs and attempts of the Pope and his Adherents to subvert and suppress it whereby your Majesty will obtain a great access of Strength and Reputation and the Subjects be much incouraged and enabled in a Parliamentary way for your aid and assistance in restoring your Royal Sister and her Princely Issue to those Dignities and Dominions which belong unto them and relieving the other distressed Protestant Princes who have suffered in the same Cause 18. That your Majesty would be pleased by Act of Parlia to clear the Lord Kimbolton and the five Members of the House of Commons in such manner that future Parliaments may be secured from the Consequent of that evill President 19. That your Majesty will be pleased to pass a Bill for restraining Peers made hereafter from sitting or voting in Parliament unless they be admitted thereunto with the Cansent of both Houses of Parliament H. ELSYNG CLER. PARL. D. COM. The Oath of Supremacy Cited page 31. I A. B. do utterly testifie and declare in my Conscience that the Kings Highness is the only Supreme Governor of this Realm and of all other his Highness Dominions and Countries as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical things or causes as Temporal c. I do promise that from henceforth I shall bear Faith and true Allegeance to the Kings Highness his Heirs and lawfull Successors and to my power shall assist and defend all Iurisdictions Privileges Preheminences and Authorities granted or belonging to the Kings Highness his Heirs and Successors or united or annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm So help me God and by the Contents of this Book The Oath fa Privy-Counsellor Cited page 32. You shall swear to the uttermost part of your cunning wit skill and power you shall he true and faithfull to the Kings Majesty our most dread and Soveraign Lord and to his Highnesse Heirs and Successors Kings and Queens of England according to the Statute for the establishment of the Succession of the Crown Imperial of this Realm You shall not know nor hear any thing that may in any wise be prejudicial to his Majesty or to his Heirs and Successors in form aforesaid or to the Common Wealth Peace and Quiet of this his Majesties Realm but you will with all diligence reveal and disclose the same to his Majesty or to such Person or Persons of his Highness Privy-Counsel as you shall think may and will honestly convey and bring it to his Majesties knowledge You shall serve his Majesty truly and faithfully in the room and place of his Highness Privy-Counsel You shall keep close and secret all such matters as shall be treated disputed debated and resolved of in Counsell without disclosing the same or any part thereof to any but only to such as be of the Privy-Counsell And yet if any matter so propounded treated dispated and debated in any such Counsell shall touch any particular person sworn of the same upon any such matter as shall in any wise concern his fidelity and truth to the Kings Majesty you shall in no wise open the same to him but keep it secret as you would do from another person till the Kings pleasure be known in that behalf You shall in all things to be moved treated disputed and debated in any such Counsel faithfully and truly declare your mind and opinion according to your heart and conscience in no wise forbearing so to do for any matter of respect or favour love meed dread displeasure or corruption Finally you shall be vigilant diligent and circumspect in all your doings and proceedings touching the Kings Majesty and his Affairs All which points before expressed you shall faithfully observe fulfill and keep to the utmost of your power wit and cunning So God you help and by the holy Contents of this Book The Negative Oath Cited page 32. I A. B. do swear from my heart that I will not directly nor indirectly adhere unto or willingly assist the King in this War or in this Cause against the Parliament nor any forces raised without the Consent of the two Houses of Perliament in this Cause or War And I do likewise swear that my coming and submitting my self under the power and protection of the Parliament is without any manner of design whatsoever to the Prejudice of the proceedings of the two Houses of this Present Parliament and without the privity or advice of the King or any of his Counsel or Officers other than what I have now made known So help me God c. An Act of Parliament 1 Iac. cap. 1. acknowledging the Right of the Crown to him and his successors by inherent birth-right c. Cited page 19. We do upon the knees of our hearts agnize constant Faith Loyalty and Obedience to the King his Royal Progeny in this high Court of Parliament where all the body of the Realm is either in person or by representation We do acknowledge that the true and sincere Religion of the Church is continued and established by the King And do recognize as we are bound by the Law of God and man the Realm of England and the Imperial Crown thereof doth belong to him by inherent Birth-right and lawful and undoubted succession and submit our selves and our posterities until the last drop of our blood be spent to his Rule And beseech the King to accept the same as the first fruits of our Loyalty and Faith to his Majesty and his posterity for ever And for that this Act is not compleat nor perfect without his Majesties Consent the same is humbly desired A Declaration which Offences shall be adjudged Treason Anno 25 Edvv. 3. cap. 2. Cited pa. 35. Whereas divers Opinions have been before this time in what Case Treason shall be said and in what not The King at the request of the Lords and of the Commons hath