prevent any accident that may happen to hinder His Majesties Resolution of leaving the manageing of the businesse of Ireland wholly to the two Houses and to make no Peace there but with their consent which in case it shall please God to blesse His endevours in the Treaty with successe His Majesty doth hereby engage Himself to do And for a further explanation of His Majesties Intentions in His former Messages He doth now Declare That if His Personall repair to London as aforesaid shall be admitted and a Peace thereon shall ensue He will then leave the nomination of the Persons to be intrusted with the Militia wholly to His two Houses with such power and limitations as are expressed in the Paper delivered by His Majesties Commissioners at Uxbridge the 6. of Febr. 1644. for the terme of Seven years as hath been desired to begin immediately after the conclusion of the Peace the disbanding of all Forces on both sides and the dismantling of the Garrisons erected since these present Troubles so as at the expiration of the time before mentioned the power of the Militia shall entirely revert and remain as before And for their further security His Majesty the Peace succeeding will be content that pro hâc vice the two Houses shall nominate the Admirall Officers of State and Judges to hold their places during life or quâm diu se bene gesserint which shall be best liked to be accomptable to none but the King and the two Houses of Parliament As for matter of Religion His Majesty doth further Declare That by the liberty offered in his Message of the 15. present for the ease of their Consciences who will not communicate in the Service already established by Act of Parliament in this Kingdom He intends that all other Protestants behaving themselves peaceably in and towards the Civill Government shall have the free exercise of their Religion according to their own way And for the totall removing of all Fears and Jealousies His Majesty is willing to agree That upon the conclusion of Peace there shall be a generall Act of Oblivion and Free Pardon past by Acts of Parliaments in both his Kingdoms respectively And lest it should be imagined that in the making these Propositions his Majesties Kingdom of Scotland and his Subjects there have been forgotten or neglected his Majesty Declares That what is here mentioned touching the Militia and the naming of Officers of State and Judges shall likewise extend to his Kingdom of Scotland And now his Majesty having so fully and clearly expressed his Intentions and desires of making a happy and wel-grounded Peace if any person shall decline that happâ—nesse by opposing of so apparent a way of attaining it he will sufficiently demonstrate to all the world his intention and Designe can be no other then the totall subversion and change of the ancient and happy Government of this Kingdom under which the English Nation hath so long flourished Given at the Court at Oxford the 29 of Jan. 1645. For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore To be Communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland HIs Majesties care and pains in the former part of this Message was wholly ineffectuall to the ends intended for as if they had secretly vowed as perhaps they have to go contrary to Him and Christian Religion in every thing they took advantage from this very businesse of Ireland thus disclaimed by the King to sclaunder Him further and defame Him to which purpose they publishâ—d soon after certain Papers with this Title The Earl of Glamâ—rgans negotiations and colourable CoÌ„mitment in Ireland that thereby it might be apprehended the King like themselves had dissembled in all He had said or writ about that matter And in their late Declaration they most impudently affirm that His Majesty gave a private Commission to the said Earl commanding him to manage it with all possible secresie and it contained say they such odious and shamefull things as Himself blush'd to owne or to impart to His own Lieutenant the Earl of Ormond this they write upon their own testimony as if they had been eye and ear witnesses of the same and all the world were bound to believe them sed Deus vindex God shall judge and revenge too upon them the cause of His Anointed to whom His Gospel commands Honour and themselves have often sworn Reverence And as His Majs care in the former was ineffectual so His grace in the latter part of this Message was altogether fruitlesse for though Subjects if Subjects were they never so guilty could wish for no more then is there offered for there is Liberty for their Consciences Safety for their Persons Security for their Estates Greatnesse for their Desires and Peace to increase all and all this but for leave to let the rest of His people their fellow-Subjects as good men as themselves and much better live in peace by them yet all will not do nothing will work upon them for like Pope Boniface the 8. of that name they came in like Foxes and therefore mean to live like Lions though they die like Dogs so that Rebellion we see is a sin unpardonable like that against the Holy Ghost not because it cannot but because it will not be forgiven His Majesty after the sending this last Message of the 29. of Ianuary tarryes a moneth longer even till Feb. 28. in expectation of somewhat from them in Answer to His longing desires and then though He was apprehensive how He had by His often sending hazarded His Honour to be questioned as well as His proper interests to be divided or divorced from Him yet to declare further still to all the world that His Peoples Preservation was more dear to Him then both He doth once again in their behalf importune these men for the Blessing of Peace in these words His Majesties ninth Message CHARLES R. His Majesty needs to make no excuse though He sent no more Messages unto you for He very well knows He ought not to doe it if He either stood upon punctilio's of Honour or His own private interest the one being already call'd in question by His often sending and the other assuredly prejudg'd if a Peace be concluded from that He hath already offered He having therein departed with many of His undoubted Rights But nothing being equally dear unto him to the preservation of his people his Majesty passeth by many scruples neglects and delaies and once more desires you to give him a speedy Answer to his last Message for his Majesty believes it doth very well become him after this very long delay at last to utter his impatience since that the goods and bloud of his Subjects cries so much for Peace Given at the Court at Oxford the 26 of Febr. 1645. For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore To be Communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster and
all other things being fully agreed His Majesty will give full satisfaction to his Houses concerning that Kingdom And although His Majesty cannot consent in Honour and Justice to avoid all His own Grants and Acts past under His Great Seal since the 22 of May 1642. or to the confirming of all the Acts and Grants passed under that made by the two Houses yet His Majesty is confident that upon perusall of particulars He shall give full satisfaction to His two Houses to what may be reasonably desired in that particular And now His Majesty conceives that by these His offers which He is ready to make good upon the setlement of a Peace He hath clearly manifested His intentions to give full security and satisfaction to all Interests for what can justly be desired in order to the future happinesse of His people And for the perfecting of these Concessions as also for such other things as may be proposed by the two Houses and for such just and reasonable demands as his Majesty shal find necessary to propose on His part He earnestly desires a Personall Treaty at London with His two Houses in Honour Freedom and Safety it being in His judgment the most proper and indeed only means to a firm and setled Peace and impossible without it to reconcile former or avoid future misunderstandings All these things being by Treaty perfected His Majesty believes His two Houses will think it reasonable that the Proposals of the Army concerning the Succession of Parliaments and their due Elections should be taken into consideration As for what concerns the Kingdom of Scotland His Majesty will very readily apply Himself to give all reasonable satisfaction when the desires of the two Houses of Parliament on their behalf or of the Commissioners of that Kingdom or of both joyned together shall be made known unto Him CHARLS R. From the Isle of Wight Novemb. 17. 1647. To the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster and to the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland WE see at the beginning of this Message that His Majesty conceived Himself to be at much more freedome and security in that place then formerly Had the Governour there been a true Gentleman in the least degree he would rather have lost his life then crossed His Majesties opinion in that particular but we are confirmed by Him in what we knew before that swordmen in these dayes are not all men of Honesty nor yet of Honour His Majesty being now in His own apprehension at more freedome renews His motions for the purchase of peace that his jealous and hardhearted Chapmen if possible might be cured of all their feares in seeing now that His profers before were not the fruits of restraint but of Hearty will and Affections to His languishing and distressed Kingdomes And first His Majesty in this Message declares His Conscience and Reasons why He cannot consent to the totall Alteration of that Church Government which He had sworn to maintain and they without any Conscience or Reasons at all would force Him to destroy Doubtlesse if there were a necessity that it must be as they would have it yet would it better become them to endeavour His Majesties satisfaction in the matter and to Answer His Reasons then to urge him with violence to goe against both when they see He dares not for offending God yet to bawl and clamour against Him without shame or Honesty as if He made no Conscience at all of His Oath taken at His Coronation But what necessity is there of pulling up this pale of Government save only to let wild beasts into Gods vineyard surely if his Majesty were not confirmed in His Judgement that this pale was of the Apostles setting and cherished in all Christian Churches since their times till this last Century of years and upheld in this particular Church since the Reformation as the speciall preserver of Doctrine and order in Gods Worship and if He had not taken an Oath at His Coronation to maintaine it and though the rights of the Church were not so woven as they be in the great Charter of the Kingdome with the Liberties of the rest of His Subjects yet as He is a King and protector of Christs Religion as He is a nursing Father of His Church beholding the present destruction and vastation of both by those swarms of Hereticks and Schismaticks which have abounded within these seven years since the Execution of this Government hath been suspended He ought in Conscience and Prudence to endeavour the continuance of it it being by the confession of its greatest Adversaries viz. the Smectymnists first established to suppresse and prevent these very mischiefs His Majesty will see that Bishops doe their duties and that all abuses in the Government be amended which no question but the Tryenniall Parliament will also look unto if the Kingdome might but be blessed with it And that the present Enemies of this Government may have both time and occasion to think better of their own demands in their cooler temper His Majesty is willing to let them for their own parts to try three years how well they can thrive without it hoping that their Mistris Experience may have taught them by that time in the want of this Government the necessity of the use and continuation of it but to consent to the totall abolition of that which to Himself and all sober men is evident to be the most speciall mean to preserve the life being and beauty of Christs Church no men but these that drive Satans designe if they well consider of it can or will desire it 2. His Majesty plainly declares that he dares not be a partaker in that Sinne of the highest Sacriledge by consenting to the Alienation of Church-lands nor venture upon the Curses which hang over the heads of such profane violaters as those are and will be that shall deal in such merchandize for His Majesty feared God Nor can He be induced so much to prejudice the publick good or to damnifie so many of His Subjects who farme these Lands as now held at far easier rates then they are like to doe if they should become the possessions of private men for the King loves His People Nor lastly will He ever be such an ill friend to learning and industry as to consent to the taking away of those rewards which excite and courage thereunto the meanest persons for our Soveraign Lord Honours Learning so much that in relation to that He will provide and keep maintenance in store for the Children of His lowest Subjects Nay should His Majesty yeeld to this Sacriledge were it not the next way to destroy Religion as well as Learning Iulian the Apostate one of the greatest and subtillest enemies that ever Christianity had thought it was And therefore he endeavouring to extirpate the same made an Ordinance for the sale of Church lands or the taking
sorrow like unto his sorrow for such a cause Were there ever wrongs like unto these that are done unto our King because He will not consent to the utter undoing of us his people Assuredly never was people more wretched and accursed then we shall be and that meritoriously both of God and Men if we suffer this and doe not stand up and appeare for His deliverance For what are these men that thus tyrannize over our Soveraign and over us are they not his vassals and our fellowes nay our servâ—nts entrusted by us to manifest and present the tenders of our duty and reverence unto him and doth it not concerne us therefore to bring them to correction as the case now stands with the King for these their grosse enormities will not their impieties and exorbitancies else be laid to our charge Nay doe they not in their impudencie act all their wickednesses in our names would they not have their late defamatory Libell to be understood as the expression of our senses Doe they not call it The Declaration of the Commons scil of England as if we at least gave allowance to it or set them a work to make it When as God and our consciences doe beare us witnesse we loathe it with our very soules as the most horrid heap of the most shamelesse lies blasphemies and slanders that ever was spued up against Majesty and Innocencie by men or devils since the first Creation Nay have they not since their publication of it tempted and provoked many of the ignorant of us in divers Countries to set our Hands to Papers coyned by themselves of Gratulations to themselves for venting the same and for making those their wicked Votes against our Soveraigne the Lords Anointed Doe they not hereby plainly endeavour Satan-like to involve our soules in their owne guilt and to plunge them for ever in the same pit of damnation with themselves As if it were not enough that they have already wasted us all in our estates and wounded the consciences of too many of us by ingaging us through their false pretences of Religion Liberty and Previlege of Parliament to associate with them in this unnaturall War unlesse they doe this also And have they not menaced others of us because we refused to approve of this their late most abominable wickednesse and went about rather to move for His Majesties Liberty and restoration Have they not threatned to plunder and sequester us of all we have yet remaining if we proceeded to make any motions or requests to that purpose as if they had a spight and malice at Almighty God himselfe for opening our eyes at length and bringing us out of that darknesse wherein they had shut us and hoped alwayes to keep us and for his touching our hearts with remorse and sorrow for our former complyance with them as if also we must never dare to speak more but onely such words as they shall suggest and put into our mouthes nor to set our hands unto any thing but what they forsooth shall frame and dictate to us And is this the Freedome of the Subject so much cryed up Is this the Liberty which the people of England have so fought for Is this our so flourishing state of happinesse which was promised by our blessed Reformers Serò sapiunt phryges fooles may grow wise at length and so from henceforth shall we for ever following them any farther or being guided by them any more who by their glorious professions and protestations have seduced us already so far from the wayes of God We cannot but call to mind the proceedings of this Palliament or of this Thing which so calls it selfe being in very deed but a corrupt faction in it How at first they framed a Protestation Generall for the matter of it good we still confesse and acknowledge but the deep subtilty and intrige of it was not then apparent to us But now we consider how they did without the Kings sanction and ratification little lesse then impose it upon the whole Kingdome whereby they slily crept into a kind of unexampled authority no way belonging to them which they cunningly masked under the specious pretences of pious respects to the Protestant Religion Loyall regards to His Majesties Person and Dignity and of their serious care of the Priviledges of Parliament Properties and Liberties of the Subject no one of which as we now see by their actions was ever in their thoughts to preserve for their whole endeavours have since been and stil are to destroy and suppresse all these but hereby at first they catch'd us in their net and carryed us downe the streame with them And having thus surprised us Jealousies and Fears presently began to surprise them which also the whole Kingdome must be sensible of as if all the things to be defended by the Protestation were in some eminent danger of sodaine destruction to prevent which a Petition is framed in all haste by themselves and sent downe into all Countries to be subscribed there and sent back as the unanimous desire of the whole Kingdome that Bishops and Popish Lords who must be apprehended the conjoynt and deadly enemies to all good things contained in the Protestation might be put out of Parliament that the Kingdome might be put into a posture of defence or war against them and their Complices and the better to colour and credit the businesse we must desire in the same Petition to have a monethly fast Authorized And we well remember there was care taken at that very time lest this mistery of Iniquity that was in working should be discovered to us that the Learned Seers or watchmen of God who were most likely to to make it known should be exposed to scorne and contempt under the name of Prelaticall Scandalous and Malignant Clergie that so their Testimonies might be of no esteeme with us and a generation of men full of ignorance covetousnesse or discontents were countenanced and advanced over us as fitly instrumentall and subservient to the designe on foot which now we finde was only to ruine our King and us The Consequents of this Petition appeared soon after to be these 1. An alteration or change of military Officers the Train-Bands being committed into the hands onely of such as were called Confiding men 2. The appointment of a Guard to defend our worthies of Parliament as they were entitled And 3. An exposall of the Kings Person and Government to all possible danger and disgrace And that 1. By a most scandalous Remonstrance wherein the sins of themselves and others who had been His ill Officers were all layed to His Charge 2. By setting the Tumultuous People upon Him to drive Him from Westminster And then 3. By raising an Army to fetch Him back again as was pretended though in very deed we finde now it was to destroy Him rather We remember how they told us then that the King was amongst them in His politick Capacity whereby they had
dispose of it as likewise of the businesse of Ireland as may give to them and both Kingdoms just satisfaction not doubting also but to give good contentment to His two Houses of Parliament in the choice of the Lord Admirall the Officers of State and others if His two Houses by their ready inclinations to Peace shall give Him encouragement thereunto Thus His Majesty having taken occasion by His just impatience so to explain His intentions that no man can doubt of a happy Issue to this succeeding Treaty If now there shall be so much as a delay of the same He calls God and the World to witnesse who they are that not only hinder but reject this Kingdoms future happinesse It being so much the stranger that His Majesties coming to Westminster which was first the greatest pretence for taking up Arms should be so much as delayed much lesse not accepted or refused But His Majesty hopes that God will no longer suffer the malice of Wicked men to hinder the Peace of this too much afflicted Kingdom Given at the Court at Oxford the 15 of January 1645. For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore To be Communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland CAn Subjects desire more or to have their King offer more then is here tendred sure no good Christian Subjects can desire so much or be content to have their King recede so far from Himself for their sakes But by this and the preceding Messages we see what the King hath bidden for the purchase of Peace and a Treaty with them now we shall have a glimpse of what they thought fit to aske of Him for their leave to let Him come and speak with them after they had fasted prayed and fought five years to fetch Him to His Parliament for immediately after His sending this last most gracious Message there came to His Majesties hands as the effect of His Four former and the reward of His forty daies waiting this insuing Paper which contains only a parcell of such scandalous and crosse speeches as shamelesse women are wont to cast up against those they raile upon and mean to live in Contention with which notwithstanding the world supposed to be as void of Reason as themselves are of Religion must interpret an Humble Addresse unto His Majesty for Peace because it begins with May it please your Majesty we your Humble and Loyall Subjects for 't is one of those Addresses which in the beginning of their late Declaration they say the world well knows to have been so fruitlesse wherein they have yeilded up their wills Affections Reason Iudgment and all for obtaining a true peace or good Accommodation it follows in these very words May it please your Majesty WE Your Humble and Loyall Subjects of both Kingdoms have received Your Letters of the 26 and 29 of December last unto which we humbly return this Answer That there hath been no delay on our parts but what was necessary in a businesse of so great consequence as is expressed in our former Letter to Your Majesty Concerning the personall Treaty desired by Your Majesty There having been so much innocent bloud of Your good Subjects shed in this War by Your Majesties Commands and Commissions Irish Rebels brought over into both Kingdoms and endeavours to bring over more into both of them as also Forces from Forraign parts Your Majesty being in Arms in these parts the Prince in the head of an Army in the West divers Towns made Garrisons and kept in Hostility by Your Majesty against the Parliament of England There being also Forces in Scotland against that Parliament and Kingdom by Your Majesties Commission The War in Ireland fomented and prolonged by Your Majesty whereby the three Kingdoms are brought neer to utter ruine and destruction We conceive That untill satisfaction and security be first given to both your Kingdoms Your Majesties coming hither cannot be convenient nor by us assented unto Neither can we apprehend it a means conducing to Peace That Your Majesty should come to Your Parliament for a few daies with any thoughts of leaving it especially with intentions of returning to Hostility against it And We do observe That Your Majesty desires the Ingagement not only of the Parliaments but of the Lord Mayor Aldermen Common-Councell and Militia of the City of London the chief Commanders of Sir Thomas Fairfax's Army and those of the Scots Army which is against the Priviledges and Honour of the Parliaments those being joyned with them who are subject and subordinate to their Authority That which Your Majesty against the freedom of the Parliaments inforces in both Your Letters with many earnest expressions as if in no other way then that propounded by Your Majesty the Peace of Your Kingdoms could be established Your Majesty may please to remember that in Our last Letter We did Declare That Propositions from both Kingdoms were speedily to be sent to Your Majesty which We conceive to be the only way for attaining a happy and well-grounded Peace and Your Majesties assent unto those Propositions will be an effectuall meanes for giving satisfaction and security to Your Kingdoms will assure a firm Vnion between the two Kingdoms as much desired by each other as for themselves And settle Religion and secure the Peace of the Kingdom of Scotland whereof neither is so much as mentioned in Your Majesties Letters And in proceeding according to these just and necessary grounds for the putting an end to the bleeding Calamities of these Nations Your Majesty may have the Glory to be a Principall Instrument in so happy a Work and We however mis-interpreted shall approve our selves to God and the world to be reall and sincere in seeking a safe and wel-grounded Peace Westminster 13. Jan. 1645. Signed in the name and by warrant of the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland BALMERINOTH Grey of Wark Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore William Lenthall Speaker of the House of Commons For Your Majesty THeir silence was bad and shewed great insolency but their Language is far worse and speaks much more for their stile and matter in this Paper declares them to be men most unreasonable even such as the Apostle praies God to be delivered from and shews clearly on which side the obstruction to peace lies we see herein upon what Conditions the King might have been admitted after so many Messages into the presence of His Humble and Loyall Subjects if He would but have owned the guilt of that innocent bloud themselves had shed bin content to be dawbed with their crimes laid down His Armes given up His Garrisons call'd in His Commissions deserted His Friends and deliver'd up Himself absolutely without any security into their Hands with such a submission as they should prescribe which should have been no other then might have spoke His approbation of all they have said or done against Himself and this
who from hence may observe that no rudenesse or insolency towards Him nor unjust aspersions of Him are able to divert Him from pursuing the means of their welfare His words are these His Majesties seventh Message CHARLS R. THe procuring Peace to these Kingdoms by Treaty is so much desired by His Majesty that no unjust aspersions whatsoever or any other discouragements shall make Him desist from doing His endevour therein untill He shall see it altogether impossible and therefore hath thought fitting so far only to make reply to that Paper or Answer which He hath received of the 13 of this instant Ian. as may take away those Objections which are made against His Majesties coming to Westminster expecting still an Answer to His Messages of the 15 and 17. which He hopes by this time have begotten better thoughts and resolutions in the Members of both Houses And first therefore Whereas in the said last Paper it is objected as an impediment to His Majesties personal Treaty that much innocent bloud hath been shed in this War by His Majesties Commissions c. He will not now dispute it being apparent to all the World by whom this bloud hath been spilt but rather presseth that there should be no more and to that end only He hath desired this personall Treaty as judging it the most immediate means to abolish so many horrid confusions in all His Kingdoms And it is no argument to say That there shall be no such personall Treaty because there have been Wars it being a strong inducement to have such a Treaty to put an end to the War Secondly that there should be no such personall Treaty because some of His Irish Subjects have repaired to His assistance in it seems an argument altogether as strange as the other as alwaies urging that there should be no Physick because the party is sick And in this particular it hath been often observed unto them that those whom they call Irish who have so expressed their Loyalty to their Soveraigne were indeed for the most part such English Protestants as had been formerly sent into Ireland by the two Houses impossibilitated to stay there any longer by the neglect of those that sent them thither who should there have better provided for them And for any Forrain forces it is too apparent that their Armies have swarmed with them when His Majesty hath had very few or none And whereas for a third impediment it is alleaged that the Prince is in the head of an Army in the West and that there are divers Garrisons stil kept in his Majesties obedience that there are Forces in Scotland it must be as much confessed as that as yet there is no peace and therefore it is desired that by such a personall Treaty all these impediments may be removed And it is not here amisse to put them in mind how long since His Majesty did presse a disbanding of all Forces on both sides the refusing whereof hath been the cause of this objection And whereas exception is taken that there is a time limited in the Proposition for His Majesties personall Treaty thereupon inferring that He should again return to Hostility His Majesty protesteth that He seeks this Treaty to avoid future Hostility and to procure a lasting peace and if He can meet with like inclinations to Peace in those He desires to Treat with He will bring such affections and resolutions in Himself as shal end all these unhappy bloudy differences As for those ingagements which His Majesty hath desired for His security whosoever shall call to mind the particular occasions that enforced His Majesty to leave His City of London and Westminster will judge His demand very reasonable and necessary for His safety But He no way conceiveth how the L. Major Aldermen Common-Councell and Militia of London were either subject or subordinate to that Authority which is alleaged as knowing neither Law nor practice for it and if the two Armies be He believes it is more then can be parallel'd by any former times in this Kingdom Nor can His Majesty understand how His Majesties seeking of a Personall Security can be any breach of Priviledge it being likely to be infringed by hindering His Majesty from coming freely to His two Houses As for the Objection that His Majesty omitted to mention the setling Religion and securing the Peace of His Native Kingdom His Majesty declares that He conceives that it was included in His former and hath been particularly mentioned in his latter Message of the 15 present But for their better satisfaction he again expresseth that it was and ever shal be both his meaning and endevour in this Treaty desired and it seems to him very clear that there is no way for a finall ending of such distractions as afflict this Kingdom but either by Treaty or Conquest the latter of which his Majesty hopes none will have the impudency or impiety to wish for and for the former if his Personall assistance in it be not the most likely way let any reasonable man judge when by that means not only all unnecessary delaies will be removed but even the greatest difficulties made easie And therefore he doth now again earnestly insist upon that proposition expecting to have a better answer upon mature consideration And can it be imagined that any Propositions will be so effectuall being formed before a personall Treaty as such as are framed and propounded upon a full debate on both sides Wherefore his Majesty who is most concerned in the good of his People and is most desirous to restore peace and happinesse to his three Kingdoms doth again instantly desire an Answer to his said former Messages to which he hath hitherto received none Given at our Court at Oxon the 24. of Jan. 1645. To the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster and to the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland FEw that ventured their lives to fetch home the King at the instigation of these men or that heard their Preachers pray so oft that God would incline His Majesties heart to come unto His Parliament would ever have believed that He should thus be put to plead for His own admittance amongst them who pretended to be so fond of His Company or to Answer such cavils against the same as He hath here done if they had not seen them objected under their own Hands nor would any have been perswaded had there not been somewhat extant to evidence the same that these men could after all this have affirmed that themselves had yeilded up not only their wills and Affections but also their reason and judgment for obtaining a good Accommodation with the King but now 't is manifest who they are that have abused gulled and deceived the world and who have been the only obstructers unto Peace and most perfect Enemies thereunto And yet 't is no mervaile that the wickednesse of these
our Loyalty and Obedience to His Crown readinesse and resolution to defend His Person and support His Estate with our lives and fortunes to the uttermost of our power Againe We professe we desire nothing from His Majesty but that He would returne in Peace to His Parliament And againe We professe in the sight of Almighty God which is the strongest obligation that a Christian and the most solemne publicke faith which any such State as a Parliament can give that we would receive Him with all Honour yeild Him all true obedience and subjection and faithfully endeavour to defend His Person and Estate from all danger and to the utmost of our power to stablish Him and His people all the blessings of a most Glorious and Happy Raign c. Surely they who shall compare these Professions with the present Carriages of them that made them will conclude them the vilest Atheists that ever lived and beleeve that they used these Protestations only to gull and seduce the well meaning Common-people that so they might cheat them of their Monies and engage them with themselves in wayes of Treason Bloud and Rebellion to the destruction of their Religion King and Country But verily there is a God that judgeth the Earth and that these mockers of Him shall feel ere long for the day of their Calamity is at Hand and the things that are comming upon them make hast Wel his Maj. after he had sent this His tenth Message for Peace waited another month and more for an Answer thereof having understood by their former unworthy Paper of the 13 of Ianu. and being confirmed also by their silence to all His Profers that no admittance would be granted to Him though He came alone for as at the approach of Christ the Devill raged and tore the party possessed so did jealousies and guilty fears rend and torment them at the Apprehension of His presence or accesse unto them and therefore till He should first consent to such Propositions as they would at their further leasure send unto Him He must not come near them unlesse He be brought by the Souldiers before them as Christ was into the High Priests Hall viz. in the nature of a Prisoner indeed to this purpose while they think to delude Him still with a further expectation of Propositions which they never meant should be seen at Oxford they send thither as fast as they can all their Armies and Bands of Souldiers with Guns and Swords and Staves for to take Him concluding with themselves that He would surely fall into the Hand of their Strong ones and could not possibly escape them But God was too hard for them He seeing their mischeivous intentions inclined the Heart of His Majesty to goe and protected Him safe in going to the Scottish Army where so soon as He came that all might see His desires of Peace were not capable of abatement He falls againe to His old work of soliciting for the same and offers to these unreasonable men all that ever was desired to give them content He refers to them and their Divines the setling of Religion He consents the Militia to be at their disposall His Forces to be disbanded His Townes and Garrisons dismantled and deserted and what ever else had been formerly in dispute betwixt them and if these would not be now accepted because offered by Him though formerly desired by them He wills them to send their long promised Propositions or at least those of them which were agreed upon being resolved to comply in every thing as shall but appear to Him to be for His Subjects happinesse And notwithstanding all the contempts they had shewn Him and affronts put upon Him He still hath or desires to have so good an opinion of them that He will not question their good acceptation of these His offers since He makes no conditions with them for Himselfe but is content to leave His own Honour and Lawfull Rights solely to their care and gratitude to maintain unto Him Let all men read without admiration if they can at the Kings Christianity and goodnesse this which follows how in very deed He yeilds up His will and Affections His Reason Iudgment and all for the obtaining a good peace or accommodation with these Stubborn men unto His poor and afflicted people His Majesties eleventh Message CHARLS R. HIs Majesty having understood from both His Houses of Parliament that it was not safe for him to come to London whither he had purposed to repair if so he might by their advice to do whatsoever may be best for the good and peace of these Kingdoms untill he shall first give his consent to such Propositions as were to be presented to him from them And being certainly informed that the Armies were marching so fast up to Oxford and made that no fit place for Treating did resolve to withdraw himself hither only to secure his own Person and with no intention to continue this War any longer or to make any division between his two Kingdoms but to give such contentment to both as by the blessing of God he might see a happy and wel-grounded Peace thereby to bring Prosperity to these Kingdoms answerable to the best times of his Progenitors And since the setling of Religion ought to be the chiefest care of all Councels his Majesty most earnestly and heartily recommends to his two Houses of Parliament all the waies and means possible for speedy finishing this pious necessary work and particularly that they take the advice of the Divines of both Kingdoms assembled at Westminster Likewise concerning the Militia of England for securing his people against all pretensions of danger his Majesty is pleased to have it setled as was offered at the Treaty at Uxbridge all the Persons being to be named for the Trust by the two Houses of the Parliament of England for the space of seven years and after the expiring of that term that it be regulated as shall be agreed upon by his Majesty and his two Houses of Parliament And the like for the Kingdom of Scotland Concerning the Wars in Ireland his Majesty will do whatsoever is possible for him to give full satisfaction therein And if these be not satisfactory his Majesty then desires that all such of the Propositions as are already agreed upon by both Kingdoms may be speedily sent unto him his Majesty being resolved to comply with his Parliament in every thing that shall be for the happinesse of his Subjects and for the removing of all unhappy differences which have produced so many sad effects His Majesty having made these offers he will neither question the thankfull acceptation of them nor doth he doubt but that his two Kingdoms will be carefull to maintain him in his Honour and in his just and lawfull Rights which is the only way to make a happy composure of these unnaturall Divisions And likewise will think upon a solid way of conserving the Peace between the two
the manner of Addresse which is now made unto Him Unlesse his two Houses intend that his Majesty shall allow of a Great Seal made without his Authority before there be any consideration had thereupon in a Treaty Which as it may hereafter hazard the security it self so for the present it seems very unreasonable to his Majesty And though his Majesty is willing to believe that the intention of very many in both Houses in sending these Bils before a Treaty was only to obtain a trust from Him and not to take any advantage by passing them to force other things from Him which are either against His Conscience or Honour Yet his Majesty believes it clear to all understandings that these Bils contain as they are now penned not only the devesting Himself of all Soveraignty and that without possibility of recovering it either to Him or his Successours except by repeal of those Bils but also the making his Concessions guilty of the greatest pressures that can be made upon the Subject as in other particulars so by giving an Arbitrary and Vnlimited power to the two Houses for ever to raise and levie Forces for Land or Sea service of what persons without distinction or quality and to what numbers they please And likewise for the payment of them to levy what Monies in such sort and by such waies and means and consequently upon the Estates of whatsoever Persons they shall think fit appoint Which is utterly inconsistent with the Liberty Property of the Subject and his Majesties trust in protecting them So that if the Major part of both Houses shall think it necessary to put the rest of the Propositions into Bils His Majesty leaves all the world to judge how unsafe it would be for Him to consent thereunto And if not what a strange condition after the passing of these four Bils his Majesty and all his Subjects would be cast into And here his Majesty thinks it not unfit to wish his two Houses to consider well the manner of their proceeding That when his Majesty desires a Personall Treaty with them for the setling of a Peace they in answer propose the very subject matter of the most essentiall part thereof to be first granted A thing which will be hardly credible to Posterity Wherefore his Majesty declares That neither the desire of being freed from this tedious and irksome condition of life his Majesty hath so long suffered nor the apprehension of what may befall him in case his two Houses shal not afford him a Personal Treaty shall make him change his resolution of not consenting to any Act till the whole Peace be concluded Yet then he intends not only to give just and reasonable satisfaction in the particulars presented to him but also to make good all other Concessions mentioned in his Message of the 16. of Novemb. last Which he thought would have produced better effects then what he finds in the Bils and Propositions now presented unto him And yet his Majesty cannot give over but now again earnestly presseth for a Personal Treaty so passionately is he affected with the advantages which Peace wil bring to his Majesty and all his Subjects of which he will not at all despair there being no other visible way to obtain a wel-grounded Peace However his Majesty is very much at ease within himself for having fulfilled the offices both of a Christian and of a King and will patiently wait the good pleasure of Almighty God to incline the hearts of his two Houses to consider their King and to compassionate their fellow Subjects miseries Given at Carisbrook-Castle in the Isle of Wight Decemb. 28. 1647. For the Speaker of the Lords House pro tempore to be communicated to the Lords and Commons in the Parliament of England at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland HIs Majesties Afflictions have been much increased by manifesting His care as an equall Father that satisfaction might be given to all ingaged interests therefore Presbyterians Independents Army Scots and all whoever they be that acknowledge a part in them and remain yet unsatisfied have reason as Christians as Subjects as men for meer gratitude sake were there no other reason to endeavour the vindication of those wrongs at least which His Majesty hath suffered since He stood forth as their Common Advocate To prevent their Audience upon the Kings motion were these Bills devised and sent in this sort unto His Majesty And for His not consenting so far to their damage and to the undoing of all the rest of His Subjects as these Bils required was His Majesty cast into a more hard and miserable Condition by some degrees then ever before having all His Servants on the sodain by violence thrust out from Him not so much as one of His Divines allowed unto Him Himself confined to two or three Roomes within the walls of a loathed Prison assaulted frequently He is with evil language and tormented with the spightfull behaviours of the Enemy permitted to see or speak to none but rude Souldiers who are set to watch Him and whom He hath hourly cause to look upon as Assassinates appointed for to murder Him His friends are not suffered to write unto Him nor His Children to send the remembrance of their duties yet His Trunks and Pockets are often searched for Letters with the highest insolency and rudenesse that can be shewn And all this with much more of like nature then can be expressed is come upon Him as it seemeth for moving in the behalf of all ingaged interests and therefore most truly did His Majesty in the Beginning of this Message say for He hath felt it since that He found the complying with all ingaged interests in these great distempers none of the least difficulties He met withall since the time of His Afflictions and therefore also as was said before were there no other cause they are all bound to ingage for Him till they have set Him free from His present Thraldome And indeed the Scotch Commissioners for their parts began well in their protesting in the name of their whole Kingdome against those unreasonable Bils at the same time that they were by the English Commissioners presented to His Majesty as being prejudiciall to Religioâ— to the Crown to the union and interest of both Nations and directly different from their former mutuall proceedings and ingagements now His Majesty for taking notice of this which was uttered in His presence and in the name of a whole Kingdome is extreamly quarrelled at and because He did not signe the said Bils notwithstanding the said protest He is immediately made close Prisoner and sensible of more then barbarous usage the Method of which is in part expressed in the following Declaration which twenty daies after His close confinement was written by His Majesties own hand and some twenty daies aftâ—r that by the speciall order and providence of him who is the preserver of Princes brought to light
appearance against them His Armies being for most part of the time disbanded and His Townes and Garrisons resigned In a word we shall present to the worlds review onely those Messages for Peace sent from his Majesty in these two last years since a little before He laied down His Sword and ceased from Action against them whereby it will be manifest enough what little cause they have to speak as they doe in Commendation of themselves and their owne good natures or to suggest of the King as if He were so unperswadable to this very day that neither their owne sighs and groans and tears will incline Him to be quiet nor the crying bloud of Fathers Brothers Children and of many Hundred thousand free-born Subjects in three great Kingdomes can prevail with him to desist from Cruelty and destruction And then after this we shall desire to see what Evidence themselves can alleage for what they have said we shall wish they would produce the strong reasons they have used to shew those Humble addresses which they have made and doe so much boast of that they would let us Hear some or their self-denying streins affectionate expressions or devout Petitions which as they infer have so respectfully and tenderly flowed from them so often and so long that thereby the world to whom they appeal may Judge in this case betwixt their King and them which if they are not able to doe no question but what they have voted of Him will be generally concluded of them viz. that they are worthy to be interdicted all Humane society to have no more Messages sent or offers made unto them nor any request or Petitions hereafter received from them And that the King should say to them as God doth to such as they Because I have called and ye refused I have stretched out my hands and no man regarded but have set at nought all my Councels and slighted all my motions therefore when your fear commeth as Desolation and your Destruction as a whirlewind when distresse and anguish is upon you then you shall call unto me but I will not answer you shall seek mercy from me but you shall not find it you shall eat the fruit of your owne waies and be filled with your owne devises As you have done so shall it be done unto you His Majesties most Gracious Messages for Peace sent to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster since the 5. of Dec. 1645. His Majesties first Message CHARLES R. HIs Majesty being deeply sensible of the Continuation of this bloody and unnaturall Warre cannot think Himself discharg'd of the duty He owes to God or the affection and regard He hath to the preservation of His People without the constant application of His earnest endeavours to finde some expedient for the speedy ending of these unhappy distractions if that may be doth therefore desire That a Safe Conduct may be forthwith sent for the Duke of Richmond the Earle of Southampton Iohn Ashburnham and Ieffery Palmer Esquires and their Attendants with Coaches Horses and other Accommodations for their Journey to Westminster during their stay there and return when they shall think fit Whom His Majesty intends to send to the Lords Commons assembled in the Parliament of England at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland furnished with such Propositions as His Majesty is confident will be the Foundation of a happy and well-grounded Peace Given at the Court at Oxford the 5. of Decem. 1645. For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore THis Message being received a Letter was sent thereupon from the Speakers of both Houses to Sir Thomas Glemham the then Governour of Oxford promising an Answer to it with all convenient speed which His Majesty expected with silence accordingly ten dayes and then solicites them again for the same thing which He had done before as followeth His Majesties second Message CHARLES R. HIs Majesty cannot but extremely wonder that after so many Expressions on your part of a deep and seeming sense of the miseries of this afflicted Kingdome and of the dangers incident to His Person during the continuance of this unnaturall War your many great and so often repeated Protestations that the raising of these Arms hath been onely for the necessary defence of Gods true Religion His Majesties Honour Safety and Prosperity the Peace Comfort and Security of His People you should delay a Safe Conduct to the persons mentioned in His Majesties Message of the fifth of this instant December which are to be sent unto you with Propositions for a well-grounded Peace A thing so far from having been denyed at any times by His Majesty whensoever you have desired the same that He believes it hath been seldome if ever practiced among the most avowed and professed enemies much lesse from Subjects to their King But His Majesty is resolved that no discouragements whatsoever shall make Him faile of His part in doing His uttermost endeavours to put an end to these Calamities which if not in time prevented must prove the ruine of this unhappy Nation And therefore doth once againe desire That a safe Conduct may be forthwith sent for those persons expressed in His former Message and doth therefore Conjure you as you will answer to Almighty God in that day when he shal make inquisition for all the Bloud that hath and may yet be spilt in this unnaturall War as you tender the preservation and establishment of the true Religion by all the Bonds of Duty and Allegiance to your King or compassion to your bleeding and unhappy Country and of Charity to your selves that you dispose your hearts to a true sense and imploy all your faculties in a more serious endevour together with His Majesty to set a speedy end to these wasting Divisions and then He shall not doubt but that God will yet again give the blessing of Peace to this distracted Kingdom Given at the Court at Oxford the 15. of December 1645. For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore THis Message seconding the former spake as many others had done His Majesties earnestnesse for Peace and how much affected He was with his peoples miseries in the want of it but 't is thought meet by them to whom 't is sent to make His Heart more sicke by delaying His hopes and therefore neglecting their owne promise of returning an Answer with all convenient speed they cause him to wait ten daies longer at the end of which time they seemed as far from remembering either Him or themselves as at the beginning which His Majesty observing and withall conceiving this unwillingnes in them to admit of Peace might be for that He had motioned to send it by others apprehended because they had in pretence at least fought so long to injoy His presence that if himself should carry it they would undoubtedly both imbrace that and reverence Him and thereupon offers to go unto them and to Treat personally
notorious men was too deep and high for vulgar reaches seeing His Majesty Himself after all His experience being still straitned in spirit by His owne Charity and goodnesse was not yet able to fadome the same at His sending this seventh Message as may appear by His saying therein that He Hopes none will have that impudency and impiety as to wish an end to the distractions of this Kingdom rather by Conquest then by Treaty for in very deed as all the world are now perswaded since the publishing of their late Declaration these men have had that impudency and impiety in them even from the beginning not onely to wish but also to endevour the same therefore in vain did His Majesty as he since hath found by this again so instantly desire an Answer to His former Messages for a personal meeting And yet hoping at least that importunity might prevail with these unrighteous Iudges though intreaties will not as it once did with one that feared neither God nor Man He resolves to follow them still with the same motion which five daies after He doth and that upon this occasion His Majesty was informed of the Earl of Glamorgans unwarranted Agitation in Ireland and knowing that the manner of His Humble and Loyal Subjects at Westminster was to Honour Him by heaping on Him the burden of others faults He thinks it pious meet to endeavour to keep them from that sin by giving them a speedy notice of the said Earls doings of his own absolute dislike of the same which He evidences by His full approbation of that course which by Marquesse Ormond and L. Digby was taken against him Protesting solemnly that he never had knowledge of any such capitulation or Treaty til He heard of the Earls Arrest and restraint for making the same disavowing the Articles by Him concluded and signed as destructive both to Church and State repugnant to His Majesties publick professions and known resolutions and so hazardous to the blemishing His Reputation and giving Commandement to the Lord Lieutenant and Councell of that Kingdom to proceed against the said Earl for this His grand offence committed out of falsnesse presumption or folly And after this His Majesty falls again to His old work of importuning a Treaty for Peace which He urgeth upon them with renewed promises larger concessions greater ingagements of Himself and further Explanations of His sincere intentions to trust them to pardon them to secure them let the world read this which follows and then judge if any Heart that intends to acknowledge a King can desire more His Majesties eighth Message CHARLS R. HIs Majesty having received Information from the Lord Lieutenant and Councell in Ireland That the Earl of Glamorgan hath without His or their directions or privity entred into a Treaty with some Commissioners on the Roman Catholique Party there and also drawn up and agreed unto certain Articles with the said Commissioners highly derogatory to his Majesties honour and Royall Dignity and most prejudiciall unto the Protestant Religion and Church there in Ireland Whereupon the said Earl of Glamorgan is arrested upon suspition of High Treason and imprisoned by the said Lord Lieutenant and Councell at the instance and by the Impeachment of the L. Dighby who by reason of his Place and former Imployment in these Affairs doth best know how contrary that Proceeding of the said Earl hath been to his Majesties Intentions and Directions and what great prejudice it might bring to his Affairs if those Proceedings of the Earl of Glamorgan should be any waies understood to have been done by the directions liking or approbation of his Majesty His Majesty having in his former Messages for a Personall Treaty offered to give contentment to his two Houses in the Businesse of Ireland hath now thought fitting the better to shew his clear Intentions and to give satisfaction to his said Houses of Parliament and the rest of his Subjects in all his Kingdoms to send this Declaration to his said Houses containing the whole truth of the businesse which is That the Earle of Glamorgan having made offer unto Him to raise Forces in the Kingdom of Ireland and to Conduct them into England for His Majesties Service had a Commission to that purpose and to that purpose only That he had no Commission at all to Treat of any thing else without the privity and directions of the Lord Lieutenant much lesse to Capitulate any thing concerning Religion or any Propriety belonging either to Church or Laity That it clearly appears by the Lord Lieutenants Proceedings with the said Earle That he had no notice at all of what the said Earle had Treated and pretended to have capitulated with the Irish untill by accident it came to his knowledge And His Majesty doth Protest That untill such time as He had advertisement that the Person of the said Earle of Glamorgan was Arrested and restrained as is abovesaid He never heard nor had any kind of notice that the said Earl had entred into any kind of Treaty or Capitulation with those Irish Commissioners much lesse that He had concluded or Signed those Articles so destructive both to Church and State and so repugnant to His Majesties publique Professions and known Resolutions And for the further vindication of His Majesties Honour and Integrity herein He doth Declare That He is so far from considering any thing contained in those Papers or Writings framed by the said Earl and those Commissioners with whom he Treated as He doth absolutely disavow him therein and hath given Commandement to the Lord Lieutenant and the Councell there to proceed against the said Earl as one who either out of falsenesse presumption or folly hath so hazarded the blemishing of His Majesties Reputation with His good Subjects and so impertinently framed those Articles of his own head without the Consent Privity or Directions of His Majesty or the Lord Lieutenant or any of His Majesties Councell there But true it is That for the necessary preservation of His Majesties Protestant Subjects in Ireland whose Case was daily represented unto Him to be so desperate His Majesty had given Commission to the Lord Lieutenant to Treat and Conclude such a Peace there as might be for the safety of that Crown the preservation of the Protestant Religion and no way derogatory to His own Honour and publike Professions But to the end that His Majesties reall intentions in this businesse of Ireland may be the more clearly understood and to give more ample satisfaction to both Houses of Parliament and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland especially concerning His Majesties not being engaged in any Peace or Agreement there He doth desire if the two Houses shall resolve to admit of His Majesties repair to London for a Personall Treaty as was formerly proposed that speedy notice be given thereof to His Majesty and a passe or safe Conduct with a blank sent for a Messenger to be immediatly dispatch'd into Ireland to
Kingdoms for time to come And will take a speedy course for easing and quieting his afflicted people by satisfying the Publike debts by disbanding of all Armies and whatsoever else shall be judged conducible to that end that so all hinderances being removed he may return to his Parliament with mutuall comfort Southwell May 18. 1646. For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore To be Communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland POST-SCRIPT HIs Majesty being desirous to shun the further effusion of bloud and to evidence His reall intentions to Peace is willing that His Forces in and about Oxford be disbanded and the fortifications of the City dismantled they receiving honourable conditions Which being granted to the Town and Forces there His Majesty will give the like order to the rest of the Garrisons THis Message from His Majesty out of the Scots Quarters though as full of Grace as could be wished found as little respect as any of the former and was thought as unworthy of an Answer for indeed it spake to their great grief the escape of that rich prey which was already swallowed in their Expectations yea and an impossibility of getting it into their reach again with so little cost and pains as they hoped before to be possessed of it for they conceived the frugall Scot was not like to part with his Liege Lord and native King for nothing nor be so easily beaten from hence to their own home as was intended they should have been so soon as the Kings Person had been seized on at Oxford for His Majesties Presence like the Glorious Sun drew thousands of Eyes upon His Country-men and would have fetch'd as many hearts and hands to their Assistance had they but then stood up in defence of Him This they at Westminster well knew and hereupon saw that a kind of necessity lay on them to shuffle again and after another fashion then before was purposed to play the Foxes instead of the Lions with their dear Brethren and therefore they begin at last to think of doing that which till now they never intended though often promised even of sending Propositions to the King which on Iuly 24. two months after their receipt of this last Message of May 18. arived at Him under the name of Propositions for Peace but the contrivers of them had in their Provident care made them so perfectly monstrous and unreasonable that themselves remained sure still of being out of all danger of Effecting Peace by them in very deed they were only used to gain time and opportunity to recover their lost prey and to delude the Scots who were not then so well acquainted with their spirits as perhaps since they have been or at least may be before a period be put to these troubles Those Propositions of theirs were as tedious as senslesse for what they wanted in reason was made up in words they have been published already and therefore we shall not here trouble the Reader with them there be Copies enow extant of them which whosoever views will think the Kingdom might have imployed their many hundred thousand pounds better then in maintaining so many men and so many Armies so many months together in doing nothing but making such uncouth Prpositions By this insuing Message of his Majesty in Answer to them within a week after His receipt of them the world were it ignorant of them might have a glimpse of what kind they were and of what spirit those that sent them His Majesties twelfth Message CHARLES R. THe Propositions tendered to His Majesty by the Commissioners from the Lords and Commons Assembled in the Parliament of England at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland to which the Houses of Parliament have taken twice so many Monthes for deliberation as they have assigned dayes for his Majesties Answer do import so great alterations in Government both in Church and Kingdome as it is very difficult to return a particular and positive Answer before a full debate wherein these Propositions and the necessary explanations true sense and reasons thereof be rightly weighed and understood and that his Majesty upon a full view of the whole Propositions may know what is left as well as what is taken away and changed In all which he finds upon discourse with the said Commissioners that they are so bound up from any capacity either to give reasons for the demands they bring or to give ear to such desires as his Majesty is to propound as it is impossible for him to give such a present judgement of Answer to these Propositions whereby he can Answer to God that a safe and well-grounded peace will ensue which is evident to all the world can never be unlesse the just power of the Crown as well as the freedome and propriety of the Subject with the just liberty and priviledges of the Parliament be likewise setled To which end his Majesty desires and proposeth to come to London or any of his houses thereabouts upon the publick faith and security of the two houses of Parliament and the Scotch Commissioners That he shall be there with freedome honour and safety where by his personall presence he may not only raise a mutuall confidence betwixt him and his people but also have these doubts cleared and these difficulties explained unto him which he now conceives to be destructive to his just regall power if he shall give a ful consent to these Propositions as they now stand As likewise that he make known to them such his reasonable demands as he is most assured will be very much conducible to that Peace which all good men desire and pray for by the setling of Religion the just priviledges of Parliament with the freedom and propriety of the Subject and his Majesty assures them that as he can never condiscend unto what is absolutely destructive to that just power which by the laws of God and the Land he is born unto So he wil cheerfully grant and give his assent unto all such Bills at the desire of his two Houses or reasonable demands for Scotland which shall be really for the good and Peace of his people not having regard to his own particular much lesse of any bodies else in respect of the happinesse of these Kingdoms Wherefore his Majesty conjures them as Christians as Subjects and as men who desire to leave a good name behind them that they will so receive and make use of this Answer that all issues of bloud may be stopped and these unhappy distractions peaceably setled Newcastle August 1. 1646. To the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated POST-SCRIPT VPon assurance of a happy agreement His Majesty will immediately send for the Prince His Son absolutely expecting His perfect Obedience to return into this Kingdom BY this Message the Readers may observe that the contrivers of those Propositions though
Iuly last But the more He endevoured it He more plainly saw that any Answer He could make would be subject to mis-informations and mis-constructions which upon His owne Paraphrases and Explanations He is most confident will give so good satisfaction as would doubtlesse cause a happy and lasting Peace Lest therefore that good intentions may produce ill effects His Majesty again proposeth and desires again to come to London or any of His Houses thereabouts upon the Publâ—ke Faith and Security of His two Houses of Parliament and the Scotch Commissioners that He shall be there with Honour Freedome and Safety Where by His Personall Presence He may not only raise a mutuall confidence betwixt Him and His People but also have those doubts cleared and those difficulties explained to Him without which He cannot but with the aforesaid mischievous inconveniencies give a particular Answer to the Propositions And with which He doubts not but so to manifest His reall intentions for the setling of Religion the just priviledges of Parliament with the Freedome and Property of the Subject that it shall not be in the power of wicked and malicious men to hinder the establishing of that firm Peace which all honest men desire Assuring them as He will make no other Demands but such as He believes confidently to be just and much conducing to the Tranquility of the People So He will be most willing to condescend to them in whatsoever shall be really for their good and happinesse Not doubting likewise but you will also have a due regard to maintain the just Power of the Crown according to your many Protestations and professions For certainly except King and People have reciprocall care each of other neither can be happy To conclude 't is your King who desires to be heard the which if refused to a Subject by a King he would be thought a Tyrant for it and for that end which all men professe to desire Wherefore His Majesty conjures you as you desire to shew your selves really what you professe even as you are good Christians and Subjects that you wil accept this His Offer which He is confident God will so blesse that it will be the readiest means by which these Kingdoms may again become a comfort to their Friends and a terrour to their Enemies Newcastle 20. Decemb. 1646. To the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster and to the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland WHat man can read without tears these pathetick desires and expressions of His Soveraigne only to be Heard and that but to Speak and plead by word of mouth for the peace and tranquility of His people sith His many Messages by writing to this purpose were not regarded sure these Persons have hearts harder then the neither Mil-stone they have forgot themselves to be either Christians Subjects or men but doubtlesse the time will come when they who thus stop their ears at the requests of their King shall themselves cry and not be heard and no man shall pity them His Majesty we see refuses nothing which may tend to the setling of Religion the freedom of Parliament and property of the Subjects He denies no pardon security or indemnity to these His Enemies that will not have Him to reign over them if they would accept it His own rights He 'll refer to them to be setled as may be to the Kingdoms good as to His own in a probable continuation of Gods blessing upon the same as upon himself His Person He offers to their trust and the just power of His Crown to their care nor is He willing so much as to doubt of their due regard in maintaining the same unto Him according to their many Protestations and professions And nothing doth He desire for Himself in lieu of all this but only leave to speak liberty to be heard which Himself in His prosperity never denied to the meanest Person though the greatest Malefactor Let all the world with admiration think upon it and judge in the case what Prince can offer more then He hath done or what man can desire lesse what Christian spirit doth not rise to see Piety and Majesty thus slighted and despised what Subjects bloud doth not boyle to hear his Soveraigne forced for the purchase of so little to offer so much unto His own Vassals and yet be repulsed and rejected by them should Turks and Heathens behold this they would be inraged could the inferiour Creatures apprehend it even they would grow furious at it surely this is and may be a matter of astonishment to the whole earth for as the Prophet saies Passe over the Isles send to other Lands inquire of all Nations search all stories of former and later times consider diligently and see well if there be or ever were any such thing or ever the like heard of from the beginning of time Did ever people thus exclude their King or thus vilely use him set but that act of the Jews aside against our Saviour and this example may be affirmed to be Sans parallel never did Subjects make larger protestations and professions of love and duty and never could Devils go more contrary unto the same then these men have done let but those their words already quoted upon the tenth Message be seriously considered on and of necessity it will be concluded that Hell is not more opposite to Heaven nor darknesse to light then their carriages are and have been unto those expressions and so it seems 't is resolved they shall be still for His Majesties conjuring them to shew themselves really to be what they professed no whit moves them to shew themselves any other then they really are now they have catch'd the fish cheated the people inslaved the Nation got their owne ends the power into their hands to keep all men under they may fling away their baits throw off their vizards cast aside their disguises and appear freely in their proper shapes and colours All their solemn Protestations and professions were of the same nature and tenure with their solemn League and Covenant which as Martin himself one of their prime birds openly saies was not intended to be everlastingly kept the causes of making them being but as the grounds of striking that meerly occasionall for the joyning in a War to suppresse the Common Enemy for so now they call the King and He being suppressed what are the Protestations and professions come to be but as the Covenant it self is only like an Almanack of last year of no more regard or estimation witnesse Hen. Martin p. 11. of Indepency of England maintin'd against the claim of the Scotch Commissioners In vain therefore did His Majesty by mentioning their former Protestations and professions put them in mind of things out of date and to as little purpose did He again desire to come to London in Safety and Honour for they could not hear on that side
Lord for thou beholdest mischief and spight to requite it with thine hand O keep not long silence therefore be not far off from thine Anointed Stir up thy self and awake to his Judgment and unto His cause thou art his God thou alone art his Lord Judge thou for Him according to thy righteousnesse and let not these miscreant men triumph any longer over Him let them not say in their hearts Ah! so would we have it Let them not say we have swallowed him up let them be ashamed and brought to confusion together that rejoice at his hurt yea let them be cloathed with shame and dishonour that magnifie themselves against Him but let them shout for joy and ever have cause to be glad that favour His righteous cause yea let them say continually Let the Lord be magnified which hath pleasure in the prosperity of His servant Amen Amen His Majesty at last having waited two months for Answer was sufficiently informed by their silence how vainly He laboured in soliciting for His Chaplains and thereupon forbears to be further importunate in that businesse it concerned His own particular self and comfort and He can more easily desist in pursuing a thing of that nature then in seeking for a blessing which more immediately concerns His people and therefore though His request for Peace had been rejected thirteen times already in lesse then thirteen months yet He cannot hold from renewing that yea though they had frustrated His expectation a long time in not sending such Propositions as they had promised or given Him hopes to receive for His more full and clear understanding their sence in the former and did also keep His Person in so unworthy so unheard of and so provocative a Condition as might have swell'd with stoutnesse the mildest heart and awaken'd passion had it not been dead in a very Martyr yet with the greatest meeknesse and sweetnesse of stile that can be imagined doth He write unto them again and sends most gracious Answers to their former unreasonable Propositions after He had diligently endevoured and studied divers moneths how to make them such as salva conscientia might be most agreeable to the likings of His Parliaments His words are these His Majesties sixteenth Message His Majesties most gracious Message for Peace from Holdenby with His Answer to the Propositions CHARLES R. AS the daily expectation of the comming of the Propositions hath made His Majesty this long time to forbear giving His Answer unto them so the appearance of their sending being no more for any thing He can hear then it was at His first comming hither notwithstanding that the Earl of Louderdale hath been at London above these ten daies whose not coming was said to be the onely stop hath caused His Majesty thus to anticipate their coming to Him and yet considering His Condition that His Servants are denied accesse to Him all but very few and those by appointment not His own Election and that it is declared a crime for any but the Commissioners or such who are particularly permitted by them to converse with His Majesty or that any Letters should be given to or received from Him may He not truly say that He is not in case fit to make Concessions or give Answers since He is not master of those ordinary Actions which are the undoubted Rights of any free-born man how mean soever his birth be And certainly he would still be silent as to this subject untill His Condition were much mended did He not prefer such a right understanding betwixt Him and His Parliaments of both Kingdoms which may make a firm and lasting Peace in all His Dominions before any particular of His own or any earthly blessing and therefore His Majesty hath diligently imployed His utmost indevours for divers moneths past so to inform His Understanding and satisfie His Conscience that He might be able to give such Answers to the Propositions as would be most agreeable to His Parliaments but He ingenuously professes that notwithstanding all the pains that He hath taken therein the nature of some of them appears such unto Him that without disclaiming that Reason which God hath given him to judge by for the good of Him and His People and without putting the greatest violence upon His own Conscience He cannot give His consent to all of them Yet His Majesty that it may appear to all the World how desirous He is to give full satisfaction hath thought fit hereby to expresse His readinesse to grant what He may and His willingnesse to receive from them and that personally if His two Houses at Westminster shall approve thereof such further Information in the rest as may best convince His judgment and satisfie those doubts which are not yet clear unto Him desiring them also to consider that if His Majesty intended to wind Himself out of these troubles by indirect means were it not easie for Him now readily to consent to what hath or shall be proposed unto Him and afterwards chuse His time to break all alleaging that forc'd Concessions are not to be kept surely He might and not incur a hard censure from indifferent men But maximes in this kind are not the guides of His Majesties actions for He freely and clearly avows that He holds it unlawfull for any man and most base in a King to recede from His promises for having been obtained by force or under restraint wherefore His Majesty not only rejecting those acts which He esteems unworthy of Him but even passing by that which he might well insist upon a point of honour in respect of His present condition thus answers the first Proposition That upon His Majesties coming to London He will heartily joyne in all that shall concern the Honour of His two Kingdomes or the Assembly of the States of Scotland or of the Commissioners or Deputies of either Kingdome particularly in those things which are desired in that Proposition upon confidence that all of them respectively with the same tenderness will look upon those things which concern His Majesties Honour In answer to all the Propositions concerning Religion His Majesty proposeth that He will confirm the Presbyteriall Government the Assembly of Divines at Westminster and the Directory for three years being the time set down by the two Houses so that His Majesty and His Houshold be not hindred from that form of Gods Service which they formerly have And also that a free consultation and debate be had with the Divines at Westminster twenty of His Majesties nomination being added unto them whereby it may be determined by Hâ—s Majesty and the two Houses how the Church shall be governed after the said three years or sooner if differences may be agreed Touching the Covenant His Majesty is not yet therein satisfied desires to respite His particular answer thereunto until His coming to London because it being a matter of conscience He cannot give a resolution therein till He may be assisted with the advice of
to receive any from Him no commerce must He have with any Creature but only such as were His tormenters and tempters subservient to them or allowed by them in brief they would not let Him be Master of those ordinary Actions which belonged to any free-born man of how mean a birth soever insomuch that His Majesty may surely say He had to do with Beasts at Holdenby in the shape of men and fought with them as Saint Paul did at Ephesus But behold for all this though they forgot themselves to be Subjects and indeed men yet He remembers Himself still to be the Father of His People and though His Condition under them might make Him silent and His usage by them might harden His heart against them and stir His spirit to plot revenge upon them and to this end to study the winding Himself out of His Troubles by indirect means and that were as Himself tells them by consenting readily to what had or should be proposed unto Him and chuse a time afterward to break all and alleage that forced Concessions are not to be kept which he is confident He might do without incurring any hard censure from indifferent men But His Majesties spirit is too Kingly and divine to practice according to such maximes for though indeed no compulsions or violence shall be able to wrest from Him any Concessions against Conscience or in clear reason against the good and welfare of His people yet He avows freely and cleerly that He holds it not only unlawfull but base to recede from His promises if once passed for having been obtained by force or under restraint wherefore His Majesty not only rejects all those Acts which He esteems unworthy of Him but even passeth by that point of Honour which He might well insist upon in respect of His present Condition and consents as we see so far to all their Propositions as in Conscience and Reason He conceived might possibly be done in order to His peoples welfare though to the great diminution of His own undoubted prerogative and most just rights for example He knows well and acknowledgeth as we see the power of the Sword is intrusted to Him by God and the Law to Protect and Govern His people and is absolutely necessary to the Kingly Office yet to secure the Kingdome of peace on His behalf and the performance of agreements on His part which by reason of the wrongs done Him was so much suspected He not only offers the whole power of the Militia both by Sea and Land to be in the whole disposall of the two Houses of Parliament for ten years space but also intreats them after all this their ill usage of Him and conjures them as English-men and lovers of Peace by the duty they owe Him as their King and by the Bowels of Compassion which they have to their fellow-Subjects to accept of this His offer whereby the joyfull news of Peace may be restored at length to this languishing Kingdom Nay and further as we see in this Message notwithstanding they had grieved His spirit by their unparalleld abuses and offended Him above seventy times seven times and never hitherto so much as said it repenteth us yet doth His most gracious Majesty even urge upon them for the prevention of new disorders and future troubles to accept of a pardon at His Hand for all the wrongs which they had done Him and to admit of an Act of oblivion as the best bond of peace only He would have them deny their Corruptions so far as to cease thirsting for the bloud and totall ruine of those of their Christian Brethren whom they had well nigh undone already for their love and adherence to Himself according to their duties as Gods Word the Law their Consciences Oaths of Allegeance and Protestation did command them He desires in effect that their spleens may rest satisfied with the wrongs already offered to these persons and their families lest their discontent might haply prove fewell to new dâ—sorders He would have the Act of Oblivion to include them too Yea He would have these men who indeed only need it to consent that it might reach to all the people of the Land in generall this is all He desires of them that so from henceforth we might live together like Christians and not like Heathens like savage Creatures or rather like devils any longer as alas we have done to the unspeakable disgrace of the Gospell and of our Nation since these men domineered And to the end that there might not be the least face or question of His Majesties restraint to blemish this agreement to their disadvantage in after-times He earnestly desires that Himself might presently be admitted to His two Houses after all this His complyance to perfect the same And now surely we must needs conclude that here was enough to still the Clamour of these men against their King had they not been far worse then beasts to have conquered their spirits even to everlasting But they were resolute in their way all this was nothing in their esteem for indeed the established and fundamentall Laws of the Land are so severe against such as go in those waies and courses which these have travailed so far in against the King and their fellow-subjects that they dare not trust either to his mercy or their forgivenesse be the same never so strongly confirmed unto them nor can any Act of Oblivion in their conceits be ever able to obliterate the same and therefore as if He had offered nothing at all they still cry out that His Majesty is averse to Peace and never yet pleased to accept of any Tender sit for them to make nor to offer any fit for them to receive and thei Preachers are still set a work by them to pray before the people that God would incline the Kings heart to come unto His Parliament But these men not knowing how to answer His Majesty saving their own stubborn resolutions or to say any thing to these His so large and gracious tenders they even suffer Him after their old wont to wait and to live in expectation And yet we found or at least supposed at that time that His Majesties Answer to some of these Propositions viz. to those that concerned Religion or Church Government had some effect upon the Independent party whose boyling discontents about this time began to vapour forth more furiously then before against their Presbyterian Brethren whose Government and Directory His Majesty had here promised to confirm for three years the time set down by the two Houses so that Himself and His might not be hindered thereby in serving God the old and true way now upon this the untamed Heighfers of this other faction altogether unaccustomed to the yoak having observed that their Brethrens little singer was like to prove heavier then the Bishops loynes were horribly loath to come under the sence of their Scorpions and therefore began to cast about for themselves
this my profession I know not what a wiser may doe then by desiring and urging that all chief Interests may be heard to the end each may have just satisfaction As for example the Army for the rest though necessary yet I suppose are not difficult to content ought in my judgment to enjoy the liberty of their consciences have an Act of Oblivion or Indempnity which should extend to all the rest of my Subjects and that all their Arrears should be speedily and duly paid which I will undertake to doe so I may be heard and that I be not hindred from using such lawfull and honest means as I shall chuse To conclude let me be heard with Freedome Honour and Safety and I shall instantly breake through this Cloud of Retirement and shew my selfe really to be Pater Patriae Hampton-Court Novemb. 11. 1647. For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore To be Communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland HE that reads His Majesty in these His Messages and Declarations and considers well the discovery made therein of His disposition must needs conclude that never King since Christs time was indued with more of Christs spirit In this Declaration we observe among many other things worthy our speciall notice three particulars 1. His Majesties most Christian and fatherly Affection to us all in generall How like a truly good Shepherd He did willingly undergo and indure a most tedious restraint so long as He had hopes that the same might conduce any thing to our peace and prevent the further effusion of our Bloud but when He saw by certaine proofs that His continued patience was likely to turn onely to His Personall ruine whereby ours and that of the publike would certainly be hastened He thought Himself bound to endevour His peoples safety by His own in retiring for some time from publike view 2. His Majesties great care of preserving the being of the English Nobility whose destruction he perceived was openly intended as well as His by those that aymed at the taking away their Negative voice Had those of them who have so shamefully degenerated with the times from the dignity of their Auncestors been as carefull of His Honour and Rights as He we see is and hath been of theirs both He and they and we all had not been so miserable at this present when God shall lay this sin unto their Charge woe woe woe will be unto them 3. His Majesties fervent desire that all Interests may be Heard and just satisfaction given to them the Presbyterians Independants Army Scots and all who have combined together and ingaged against Him as wel as those who had adhered to Him and yet none of them except those had evidenced any full readinesse of mind that might be restored to those His rights which God and the Law commands should be given to Him Concerning Himself we observe He desires but only to be Heard and that for these two Ends first to procure peace for His people which is not probably otherwise to be setled and Secondly to prevent Gods Curse from falling upon His Gainsayers which otherwise is most likely to overwhelme them His words we see are these Can any reasonable man think that according to the ordinary course of affairs there can be a setled peace without it or that God will blesse those who refuse to hear their own King Surely no. May His Majesty obtain but hopes of this He will instantly break through His cloud of Retirement and shew Himself really to be as indeed He hath alwaies been Pater patriae But can His Majesty conceal His Affection so long can He forbear soliciting His peoples peace till Himself be Heard 't is impossible no no He cannot contain Himself seven daies from returning to His former labour in vain or fruitlesse endevours but sets immediately to the same again so soon at He arrived at the Isle of Wight the place of His retirement though whether destined so to be by His own choice or others designation time will discover But it plainly appears His Majesty had a good opinion of the Army in Generall in His not removing quite from among them and of the Governour of that place in particular or else being in a free or open road and in the night season He might easily have turned some other way He removed from Hampton-Court Novemb. the 11. and on the 17. of the same Month He writes from Wight this which follows His Majesties nineteenth Message His Majesties most Gracious Message from the Isle of Wight for a Personall Treaty for Peace CHARLES R. HIs Majesty is confident that before this time His two Houses of Parliament have received the Message which He left behind Him at Hampton-Court the eleventh of this Month by which they will have understood the reasons which enforced Him to go from thence as likewise His constant endeavours for the setling of a safe and wel-grounded Peace wheresoever He should be And being now in a place where He conceives Himself to be at much more freedome and security then formerly He thinks it necessary not only for making good of His own professions but also for the speedy procuring of a Peace in these languishing and distressed Kingdoms at this time to offer such grounds to His two Houses for that effect which upon due examination of all Interests may best conduce thereunto And because Religion is the best and chiefest foundation of Peace His Majesty will begin with that Particular That for the abolishing Arch-bishops Bishops c. His Majesty cleerly professeth that He cannot give His consent thereunto both in relation as He is a Christian and a King For the first He avows that He is satisfied in His Judgement that this order was placed in the Church by the Apostles themselves and ever since their time hath continued in all Christian Churches throughout the world untill this last century of years And in this Church in all times of Change and Reformation it hath been upheld by the wisdome of His Ancestours as the great preserver of Doctrine Discipline and Order in the service of God As a King at His Coronation He hath not only taken a Solemn Oath to maintain this Order but His Majesty and His Predecessours in their confirmations of the Great Charter have inseperably woven the right of the Church into the Liberties of the rest of the Subjects And yet He is willing it be provided that the particular Bishops perform the severall Duties of their callings both by their personall residence and frequent Preachings in their Diocesses as also that they exercise no act of Jurisdiction or Ordination without the consent of their Presbyters And will consent that their Powers in all things be so limited that they be not grievous to tender Consciences Wherefore since His Majesty is willing to give ease to the Consciences of others He sees no reason why He alone and
c. Now our young Dolman or Walker for that is the wisemans name supposing that all those people were alive still that were old men 54. yeers agoe like a true Transcriber without the variation of a letter affirmes it confidently in pag. 43. of his Edition that many are yet living in England that have seen the severall Coronations of King Edw. the 6. Queen Mary and Queen Eliz. to which he also addeth King James and King Charls because they were crowned since and this we confesse is new in him Now by this very booke alone though much more we might say to this purpose t is very evident that these Children of Abaddon love the Iesuites Doctrine well enough so it comes not out in the Iesuites owne name if it be but authorized by themselves or those appointed to publish and Licence books for the Parliament O then 't is very excellent good and Orthodoxall And now shall not these doings so palpably vile and grosse inflame your spirits O English-men and quicken you up to free your selves from their thraldome who thus abuse you will you suffer them still to proceed till they have stubbed up and quite o'rthrowne Christianity from among you you now see plainly enough what they meant at first by Roote and branch it was not Episcopacy only Roote and branch but Monarchy also Roote and branch the King and his Posterity Roote and branch the Nobility and Ancient Gentry Roote and branch Peace and prosperity honesty and Loyalty Roote and branch with Protestant profession it selfe and all that good is which in your Protestation generall you vowed to maintaine ' â—is fit you should observe it All the particulars in the said Protestation save onely one are already averted and welnigh destroyed the Religion and worship of Christ established in the English Church how is that suppressed and persecuted His Majesties Person Honour and Estate how are they abused blasted and imbezelled the Priviledges of Parliament Laws of the Land and Liberties of the Subject how notoriously have they been infringed violated and overthrowne there remaines now but one particular to finish the whole worke of plucking up or abolishing the Protestation Roote and branch and that is breaking the union betwixt the two Kingdomes of England and Scotland which now also they are indeavouring to effect as appears sufficiently by their unfriendly nay reproachfull Declaration against the Scotch Commissioners and indeed against the whole Nation and no question but they will if they can force many of those whom they have made to sweare the contrary to joyne with them in this breach also as they have done in all the former if the Scots once begin to make conscience of their old oath of Allegeance and talke of their duty to their Soveraigne Lord the King His Crowne and Dignity of supporting His Power and Greatnesse according as they are bound by all Laws of God and nature then away with these fellows from the earth cry those that resolve to make no more Addresses to the King 't is not fitting they should live though they were our dear Brethren before yet now they are so no more but Malignants as well as other folks and fit for nothing but to have scorns obloquies and contempts cast upon them And here by the way let the Scottish Nation observe it well and they shall find upon tryall that those Loyall English who from the beginning have adhered to their King out of Conscience and Allegiance will be more carefull by all loving and friendly offices to preserve peace and unity betwixt the two Nations from that Common bond of Christianity and humanity which ties us all together then those others are or will ever be who have taken so many new Oaths and Covenants to that purpose all which as they are unwarrantable wanting Legality and life from the Soveraign so will they prove invalid and too weak to hold those who have ventured on them nor were they intended by those State-engineers who first devised them as Hen. Martin tells the world to bind the takers everlastingly to each other or indeed to any other end then to drive on present designes and to batter the Consciences and souls of poor men who are ingaged by them in very deed to nothing else but to Repentance But we return to those of our own Nation who now we think have fully seen the aymes scopes and endeavours of these miscreant persons that have slighted all their Oaths broken all parts of their Protestation and are guilty of all the crimes that can be named from the highest Treason to the lowest Trespasse what is now therefore to be done by you of this Anciently-noble English Nation but to stand up for your Religion Laws and Liberties to free your selves and Country from the insupportable Tyranny of these usurpers to bring these superlative Delinquents to condigne punishment to endeavour speedily your Soveraignes restoration to His Dignity and to venture your lives like good Christians and Gallant men to deliver Him that so many years protected and defended you and hath now undergone for your sakes such unparalleld sufferings as nothing is superiour unto but His incomparable vertues and which alas so many of you have ignorantly by the fraudulent suggestion of these perfidious men helped to bring upon Him Be you assured that all those Arguments and Reasons which they falsely urged to stir you up to combine with them against him are onely good and to be lawfully thought upon to perswade you to associate now against them Had the King been truely taxable of that they charged on Him yet Gods word Christian verity and the Law of the Land forbids Resistance but they all command the same against such as these though they were quite free from those other villanies which they abound in even because they are usurpers for there is a vast difference between usurpers of Authority and ill managers of lawfull Authority betwixt those that take power to themselves to doe mischiefe with it and those that exercise evilly that lawfull power entrusted to them Our Saviour in the dayes of his flesh would not so much as censure Pilate for his cruell and bloody act upon the Galileans when some did tempt him to it that he might not seeme to countenance any in so much as speaking evilly of lawful power authority though abused People when oppressed and wronged by their lawfull Superiour have allowance onely to cry unto God as 1 Sam. 8.18 and to sue for reliefe by way of Petition as the Israelites in Egypt did to Pharaoh when they were so cruelly used by his Task-masters But t is otherwise if men be usurpers and set up themselves as Abimelech the Bramble did Iudg. 9. or endeavour to destroy the Royall Family as Athaliah did if they oppresse or whether they oppresse or no all men are bound to rise up against them and to help that Royall Person or Family to their right that suffers wrong by them for fiat Iustitia