THE OATH OF PACIFICATION OR A forme of Religious Accommodation Humbly proposed both to KING and PARLIAMENT THEREBY To set an end to the present Miseries and Broyles of this discomposed almost Ship-wrackt State Claudite Pastores rivos sat prata biberunt Shut shut the Sluces of this purple floud The Medowes have carous'd enough in bloud LONDON Printed for ROBERT BOSTOCK at the Signe of the Kings head in Pauls Church-yard 1643. The Oath of Pacification OR A Religious forme of Accommodation Humbly proposed Both to the KING and PARLIAMENT c. THE Kings last Declaration of Iuly the thirtieth was published as an Act of great grace to the Subiect and being issued immediately after his Maiesties good successe obtained against the Lord Fairfax Sir William Waller and Colonell Fines it emblematized the King as some Courtiers fansied with a victorious Palme in one hand and a peacefull Olive in the other Neverthelesse it appeares by the close of that Declaration that the intent of it was to bring in Men Money Plate Horses and Armes as well as to proclaime pardon for it proclaimed pardon to no other persons than such as should forthwith apply themselves to the King nor on no other Conditions than upon the bringing in of such like Ayds and supplies The favour was not to bee extended to all nor was it cloathed in the habit of a Composition or peaceable Accommodation it onely set to sale a pardon and the price of that pardon was besides treacherous combination with the Papists against the Parliament such Money such Plate such Horses c. 'T is true the rate of the purchase was left indefinite but it is well enough knowne that all such as have submitted to the King and confessed a guilt of Treason in themselves and undertaken to redeem the same by new services have found their penances rigorous and their Ghostly Fathers very hard to be satisfied The effect therefore which that Declaration had was no other as wee can perceive but to put more courage into the lovers of Parliaments and to quicken all good men the more in the raising of new Forces and imbarking in harder Adventures And Gods Name be praised who did not onely then give us such pious and manly resolutions but hath also speeded mercifully prospered our undertakings The face of things is now changed The Earle of Essex hath since that removed the Kings terrible Army from before Gloucester and after a bloudy day fought by Newbury is returned home victorious Sir William Waller and the Earle of Manchester are great in new hopes and preparations and the Marquesse of Newcastle is as fearefull to receive annoyance from the Scots as hopefull to doe any to the Lord Fairefax wherefore it seemes to me that if a faire way of Accommodation were now tendred by the Parliament it would bee held as honourable as seasonable and it seems not impossible to propose such termes of Pacification as may well stand with the honour of God the safety of Religion the advantage of the King the justice of the Parliament and the wishes of the people The King hath divers times though not with any publike Ceremony or Solemnity applyed himselfe to satisfie his Subjects by protesting innocence and appealing to the judgement of Almighty God but there hath been such generality in his expressions and defect in his formes hitherto that his Subjects remaine yet unsatisfied That which I shall therefore now undertake with my utmost discretion and abilitie is to demonstrate wherein the Kings Oathes have beene hitherto short and of little securance and how they may yet bee compleated and made satisfying I will in the first place set forth the forme of the Oath both as it is conceived in his Majesties owne Words and as it is altered with my additions and suplements and then I will next addresse my selfe by way of Reason to give some Account why it may bee admitted and entertained by either side In the Kings last Declaration of Iuly aforesaid I find the forme of the Kings Vowes and Protestations to run in these very words WHereas Almighty GOD to whom all the secrets of my heart are open knowes with what unwillingnesse and anguish of soule I first submitted my selfe to the necessitie of taking up defensive Armes I having before with Iustice and Bounty to repaire my Subjects former Pressures made excellent Lawes for the preventing of the like and offered further to adde any thing else for the establishment of the Religion Lawes and Liberty of the Kingdome And whereas in September 1642. in the head of my Armie not then great besides at other times I made voluntarily a Protestation to defend and maintaine the true Protestant Religion the just priviledges and freedom of Parliaments and to govern by the Lawes of the Land for whose defence onely that Armie was raised and hath beene since kept And whereas there cannot bee a more seasonable time to renew that Protestation then now when God hath vouchsafed mee so many victories I doe therefore now declare to all the World in the presence of Almighty God to whom I must give a strict account of all my professions and Protestations that I am so farre from intending any alteration of the Religion established or from the least thought of invading the Liberty and Property of the Subject or violating the least Priviledges of PARLIAMENT That I call God to witnesse who covered my Head in the day of Battaile that I desire from my Soule and shall alwayes use my utmost endevours to advance and preserve the true Protestant Religion and that the preservation of the Liberty and Property of the Subject in due observation of the Lawes of the Land shall bee equally my care as the maintainance of my owne Rights I being desirous to governe onely by those good Lawes And I doe acknowledge the just priviledges of PARLIAMENT to be an essentiall part of those Lawes and will therefore most solemnly defend and observe them To adde to the perfection of this Oath and to make it satisfying I shall supply as followeth And forasmuch as generall professions of maintaining of Law and doing justice cannot end the present differences of this State or secure us from the like hereafter but particular judgement must be given according to Law and Iustice in the maine poynts now controverted betwixt us and that Iudgement which shall ever rule and conclude both sides must not be expected from my breast or any inferiour Councell but from the supream Iudicatory of the Kingdome by the Oath already taken I further oblige my selfe that I will ingeniously and with my utmost skill make strict inquirie what the supreame Iudicatorie is which in these grand disputes is to dispence Law and to arbitrate betwixt King and Subject and the same being made knowne to mee by the best and most impartiall advice that can bee gotten I will most intirely and freely submit all my claimes and pretences to it to be resolved and determined by
it I will not onely imploy my utmost power to remove all obstructions and impeachments which may obviate its proceedings but I will vigorously concurre my selfe in all good expedients for speeding and facilitating its finall awards And lastly since the safety and security of my Subjects depends upon my good administration hereafter aswell as for the present and upon the comportment of my Substitutes and Favourites aswell as upon my owne and that in matters Ecclesiasticall Civill and Millitarie aswell as Iudiciall by the same Oath that I have already taken I againe ingage my selfe perpetually to tender the propagation of the same Protestant Religion and the Liberty and prosperity of the English Nation equally with my owne Rights and Royalties And that the Lives Liberties Consciences or Estates of my Subiects may not be entrusted into the hands of such as are ill affected to them I will exclude from my publike Counsaile and from all direct and indirect power in State affaires especially of a high nature all that are not of the Protestant Religion of the British Nation of the Masculine sex all that are not generally reputed vertuous and sworne to be faithfull servants to the State aswell as to the Court In testimony also that I doe without all guile equivocation or mentall reservation sweare and vow these things in this reverent place now that I am to receive this blessed Sacrament before these Lords and Gentlemen here present I doe beseech Almighty God so to make these mysteries profitable to my soule and this Solemnity satisfying to my people as I doe now cordially and sincerely transact this for an assurance and not for a snare to them if I doe not in my soule purpose to fulfill the tenor of this Oath to my lives end and in pursuance thereof ever to oppose the introduction of Romish superstition into this Church and the French arbitrary Royalty into this State let this venerable flesh and bloud prove mortall to me let this imprecation testifie against me let God blot out his royall Vnction upon me and let my Subjects justly and by this my owne Dispensation withdraw obedience from me These two conditionall Clauses I humbly present as necessary either to explaine what the King had sworne before or to discover what the King intended before for if this Oath as it is now framed bee accepted it will let us know how farre we were secured formerly and if it be rejected it will be an advertisement to us what little security we are to expect hereafter The solemne and sanctimonious manner of taking this Oath will next much conduce to the satisfying of the people for paper Oathes as they are mingled with other matters in Declarations are not so authenticall with the Phlebeians and we should seeme lesse Religious than our Ancestors were in times of more blindnesse if wee should not observe a great deale of holy state in a businesse of this transcendant and more than secular nature The last cautionarie advertisement that I shall humbly tender withall is that an Oath may be also administred to the Queen and to all suspected Papists Aliens c. to the restraining of them from all intermedling in matters of our Church or State and from attempting any thing mediately or immediately directly or indirectly against the peace of this Kingdome By this meanes with some more perfect alterations or provisions under favour I conceive our greatest feares might be qualified and our most desperate maladies asswaged if not cured But I know some Objections will be alledged on the Kings Part why hee ought not to make this Oath and on the Parliaments why they ought not to take it Let mee have a little Favour to say something herein Oathes have beene ever honourable and Sacramentall Obligations such as GOD himselfe hath not disdained to use for the taking away of doubt and distrust in man and such as hee hath prescribed to men for the composing of differences sometimes aswell betwixt publike as private persons But in this Contestation betwixt the KING and PARLIAMENT though both sides have sundrie times had recourse to Oathes and Invocations of GODS Name and more especially the KING yet that Pacification and amicable Accommodation which might have beene hoped therefrom hath not been concluded and consummated And I conceive there are two Reasons why the KINGS Protestations have not been so effectuall and available as was intended they should First because there is great uncertainty and dispute in that which the KINGS Oathes principally take for their subject or matter Secondly because the KING seemes totally mistaken in the end of his Oathes or rather in those Feares and Iealousies of Ours which his Oathes endeavour to remove First the KING by his Imprications would assure us that hee intends no ill to Religion Law or Liberty as they are established in ENGLAND but our maine strife and controversie here is how Religion Law and Libertie are established in such and such poynts and who shall judge of that establishment wherefore to decide that Controversie and attone this strife no generall Oath of the KING can bee held sufficient In private suits betwixt Subject and Subject the Law permits nor the KING to judge much lesse does it stand to the KINGS judgement when the sute is betwixt a Subject and the KING himselfe and least of all does it rest upon the KINGS determination when the KING is a Partie of one side and the whole Kingdome on the other Neverthelesse in this our present grand debate the KING sweares in generall to doe justice and yet what that Justice is which is to bee done hee himselfe is ignorant nay the greatest of our profest Lawyers adventure not to determine they have great Divisions and Contesttions amongst themselves about it although all unanimously affirme that the KING quatenus a partie and quatenus a Lay-man is of all men most incompetent for the determination thereof When the Kingdome groaned heretofore under the oppression of the Shipscot and divers other Taxes utterly inconsistent with the Subjects Libertie the KING intended no violation of the Subjects Libertie He had sworne or might have sworne then in generall termes the same thing with the same safetie as he sweares now So if the like dispute arise hereafter of the like difficultie about some other branch of Prerogative for Prerogative is not made now more knowne but more unknowne of late there is no hindrance but the King may treat us as he did then indeeds yet protest as hee does now in words The like may bee said of Religion the KING intends no alteration of Religion and expects that wee should acquiesce in that profession of his and yet wee feare he judges of alteration therein by his Bishops who ayme at nothing more than Innovations wherefore this can be no ground of confidence in us because the KING in his owne understanding may both make and keep such an Oath yet Poperie shall still prevaile and Protestanisme decline as it hath
done hitherto 'T is far then from being a security 't is rather a danger to a state to depend on a Princes generall Oaths when these Oathes depend upon his meere understanding forasmuch as Law does not direct us to the Kings breast as our sole and supreame Tribunall but rather dehorts us from the same as most of all to be distrusted This is a Dilemma not to be excepted against either the KING relyes upon his owne Knowledge and Judgement concerning alterations in Law c. when hee abjures them or not if hee does undertake to know and judge of all alterations and of all differences raised thereupon in Church and State betwixt himselfe and his Subjects then is our Government meerely Arbitrarie more Arbitrarie than the French then are his Edicts and Acts of State our best arrests and Acts of Parliement then does our Law and Religion import no more to us than his meere pleasure Let it but bee maintained that wee must expect satisfaction and decision from the KINGS breast where Poperie and Protestanisme where Prerogative and Libertie confine and border one upon the other and let the maine Secrets and Quaeries of Law bee subjected to the KINGS Cognizance and and for my part I shall ever conceive that enacted Law and publike Right are nothing else but Royall pleasure and one single mans fansie or humour but on the other side if the KING doe presuppose himselfe an incompetent Judge and as lyable to grosse misakes and dangerous deviations in Law and Religion as hee hath beene formerly when wee were almost at an utter losse in both if hee will acknowledge that there may bee as intricate controversies and as undeterminable debates betwixt him and his Subjects hereafter as have beene formerly and as now are at this instant then all that wee can hope for from his Oathes is but this that wee shall bee as much distracted hereafter and as remedilessely torne and divided with dissentions as wee were formerly or are now all our assurance is wee shall bee permitted to remaine and continue in the condition as we were and as wee which makes his Oaths of no effect now are Secondly the next Reason why the KING renouncing by Oath all alterations in Law and Religion does not put us out of all our feares is because hee alwayes sweares for himselfe not his Favourites and Councellors and yet our feares have more respect to his Favourites than to himselfe And so notwithstanding the security which his Oathes gives against any ill intentions or Machichinations from himselfe wee still remaine exposed to ruine by the ill intentions and machinations of such as have a great sway in his Counsaile and affections he himselfe perhaps being neither privie nor confenting thereunto The KING favours not the Irish Rebellion yet such as were the Favourers nay the Plotters and Actors in it find favour and receive power from the King and what difference is it to us whether wee perish by the KINGS hand immediately or by his Favourites mediately by the Kings owne accord directly or by his onely permission indirectly Ireland hath seene more than two hundred thousand Families of Brittish Protestants dispeopled and massacred by treacherous Papists notwithstanning that all this Deluge of Bloud might have beene prevented by the KINGS timely foresight and care and ENGLAND is now falling into the same desolation by the same faction and yet the KING is so farre from withdrawing favour or power from Papists and their accomplices that hee puts more Armes into their hands here and holds further correspondence with them abroad how can wee then but seeme as stocks or more stupid than beasts if we now expect no assurance but an Oath and include none in that Oath but the KING Eli was a good man but an ill Majestrate hee knew better how to moderate his owne affections than to bridle the insolencies of such as were subordinate to him insomuch that that good which hee did by himselfe was farre out-poized by that evill which hee permitted in others and his lenity to his Children became crueltie to the people Some men are much mistaken if there bee not something of Eli in our KINGS disposition for though hee bee esteemed inflexible by such as hee hath once judged adverse to his ends yet hee is much too ductile by those who have once gotten prepossession in his good thoughts Wherefore if his Majestie seriously desires to put us into a Condition of securitie which is the onely remedy of our present distempers hee must rather provide for our indemnitie by protesting against connivence at evill in his Substitutes than doing evill in his own person For he himselfe may be as guiltlesse privately as Eli was and yet in publke wee his Subjects may live as miserably under his Popish Councellors as the Children of Israel did under Hophni and Phineas The Law sayes the KING can doe no wrong and out of its Civilitie it imputes all miscatriages in Government to inferiour agents but policy teaches us that though a Prince in Law bee not questionable for it yet in nature hee is strangely blameable and deeply chargeable when bee makes an ill choyce of inferiour Agents In Law it was the blame of Rehoboam's young Councellors that so unpolitick and unworthy a disgust was given to the great and honourable State of Israel and it was great pitty that they did not suffer for it But it was Rehoboams blame in policie that hee would chuse young Conncellors and hee himselfe was the greatest loser by it The wisedome of SOLOMON would direct him to make use of that Wisedome which is seldome to bee found but in hoarie heads but the more foolish Rehoboam is the more solicitous hee will bee to finde out vaine Consorts fit onely to comply with his owne folly Had there been any particular good which Rehoboam might have attained too by the prejudice of his Subjects the old Councellors in probabilitie would have advised him to it for they seemed to take more care of the KING than of the people as they had done in their old Masters dayes to the danger of the nex Successor But such is the temeritie of these green headed Statists that they neyther ayme at the good of the people nor of the KING They seemed to imagine that it was a sufficient recommendation of a thing to a Prince to represent it as disadvantagious to the People and in this they failed not to please their rash Lord who was so farre from giving satisfaction to the People as that hee thought it profitable to him to purchase their displeasure though with the imminent hazard of his owne Crowne wherefore it does not seeme so probable that Rehoboham did take preposterous courses because hee hapned upon preposterous Counsellors as that hee did chuse preposterous Councellors because he did affectedly addict himselfe to preposterous Courses And when the main fault was in his will rather then his understanding 't was easie for him to erre in the most
but yet quateus smaller matters onely Whereas if the same things become greater matters as they may then the peoples right is not to be prejudged because the Law of publicke safety is above all Lawes of Prerogative or any other laws whatsoever For example if J. S. be to cutt of the intayle of his Land in Parliament the King by his negative voice may oppose him at his pleasure but if judgement be to be given against such a notorious traitour t' is otherwise and yet even such a iudgment too is not alwayes alike for in times of great distresse it cannot be retarded interrupted or denied because of the extreāc hazard to the State in such case the King has lesse colour to pretend to a negative voice then at other times of more security for as that which is of greater concernment is not so much within the Kings power as that which is of lesser so that which is of lesser concernment at one time in one respect is of greater at an other time in an other respect And if Lawyers find not these distinctions in their reports and yeare books or if Devines find them not in the old Fathers or in their Cannons of the Church they must not forbid other men that studie the intrinsecall Rules of State to make use of more generall knowledge then that which their bookes afford The Bishop of Armach has declared himself in point of iudgement against the Parliament I shall onely demand of him whether he thinks himselfe wiser then the Lawes of England or whether he thinks himselfe wiser in the Lawes of England then the maior part of both Houses in Parliament One of these he must affirme Master Holborne his iudgement does not concurre with the Parliaments in such a point of Law I should demand of him whether Law must needs observe one rule in all cases of publicke and of private moments or whether we are restrained from all equitable distinctions and interpretations except such as we find in Fitz Herbert Cooke and Plowden or whether his or the Parliaments resolution herein be more authenticall surely t' were in vaine to trouble all our Counties Cities and Burroughs with such Ludibrious elections if some one Bishop or one Barrister could declare Law better then those which enacted it or enact Law better then those for whom all Law was ordayned The Kingdome it self taken in it 's diffusive body cannot convene in any one place nor fix upon any one certane resolution otherwise in all extraordinary cases and iudgements the finall decision ought to proceed from thence therefore it must be formed into such an Artificiall body as is fitt to convene and to deliberate And being so formed it has in it all the persection and excellence of the defusive body T is true the King may be held a representative of the people in ordinary cases for avoiding of a more troublesome convention but in extraordinary cases when such a convention is necessary the Parliament is the onely true representative and congregated to the King for more perfection sake or else it were vainly congregated And because the people cannot be congregated at all much lesse in any more perfect forme then in a Parliament therefore the peoples utmost perfection is truly residing in the Parliament Let not then any private man Let not the King himselfe undertake to define how far Regall power shall extend in iudiciall or Military affaires as such a perticular position of things may happen and according to all emergences better then the representative body of the Kingdome which in no respect ought to be held any other thing then the whole Kingdome it self much lesse let it be held against Law or disparagable to the King to hearken to his Parliament in the choice of State Officers when so great a flux of Protestant English bloud is to be stanched thereby If the King would exempt us from fear and therefore swears that he may exempt us and yet will neither suffer us to chuse Confidents for him nor swear for such as he himself shall chuse when our fears are chiefly grounded upon them either his intentions will seeme fraudulent or his oathes nugatory besides our fears now cause us to look upon our Enemies not meerely as men that have a power in the Kings affections but as men that are likely to have a power over the Kings Armes and when the King perhaps may want protection for himself if some timely prevention be not used how will he be able to protect us T' is possible for an Army composed of Papists strangers and those of the mercenary trade of war not onely to awe us but such also as first raysed them against us Absolute Empire ends not as is expected in the freedome but in the servitude of him which sores to the highest pich of it If the Pretorian Legions set Caesars foot upon the Senates neck they will so far set their owne feet upon Caesars neck as to sell the Empire when they please and to whom they please A hundred Nations remaine in bondage to one Grand signior by meanes of the Janizaries and yet those Janizaries retaine to themselves a Supream controll over the Grand signior himself The French King inioyes an arbitrary Prerogative more intirely and more cheape then any Prince that I have read of because he neither relyes meerely upon an Army nor meerely upon the Noblesse of that State whereby to oppresse the Pesantry but very subtilly he so makes use of both as that he is totally ingaged to neither But that Crowne has not of late suffered any violent shock or concussion if ever it does that frame of Government will soone be shattered and the great body of the Community will gaine a party either amongst the Noblesse or the Souldiary When Marquesse Hartford first strained himself to bring in Forces for Prince Rupert he did not perhaps intend to make Prince Rupert so imperious over himself over all our English Nobility as he is now growne Neither did Sir Ralph Hopton thinke by all his meritorious services to gaine such a Rivall to himselfe and to all the Gentry of England as Captaine Leg. But now I feare they are subject to more unlimitable Lords in the Campe then ever they stomached in the Parliament I pray God the King himselfe do not finde the like His Majestie needs no forraine discovery by Sir William Boswells Letters to advertise him of dangers and conspiracies against his sacred Person the designes of the Jesuites if they prosper as by favour at Court they are likely can never end but in the ruine of himselfe or of the Religion which he professes there need to be no strange Intelligencer to informe his Majestie of this We may then knit up this point in a more short discourse Somtimes Princes are voluntarily in bondage to their owne Creatures as Themistocles was who whilest he over-ruled all Athens and Athens over-ruled all Greece yet he was himselfe over-ruled by
his wife and his wife was over-ruled by her son but this kinde of bondage is commonly more Comicall At other times Princes stand ingaged to the factions and forces by which their Dominions were atchieved and must be supported and this kinde of engagement uses to be often very Tragicall as the old Stories of the Romane Emperours and the moderne Stories of the Turkish Sultans and of sundry other insolent usurpers in other nations do sufficiently testifie It behooves Princes therefore as well for their Subjects as their owne sakes to avoid either of these servile Conditions let them not impose too heavie a yoke upon their Subjects and they shall neither have cause nor disposition to receive any other yoke upon themselves But though these additionall causes are free from exception in themselves yet as the case now stands and as the Kings successe of late hath been some men may cavill perhaps and oppose the taking of this Oath at this time I shall reply little herein for it appears as I conceive that this Oath as it is now formed does but open and explain the same intention which the King had or ought to have had in the other and therefore without great imputation and suspicion this forme cannot be refused I shall onely supplicate his Majestie that he will please yet more solicitously and intentively to review and research the true state of this transcendent Case and to come to a more equall impartiall debate about it as well with other men as with his own conscience Let it be his Majesties care to hear whatsoever can be inforced by reason from any person whatsoever let him put the Case all maner of ways take a just consideration in what condition he remains if his Cause be just or if it be unjust or if it be dubious or partly just and partly unjust if he does not cast thus about in spight of all prejudice and take in all suppositions from all sides as the fatality of this controversie now stands no excuse will be large enough to cover him from the condemnation of God or man We will first suppose his Majesties Cause to be just that he has onely the defensive part and is necessitated to fight and that the Parliament as yet hath offered no terms of Accommodation to him but such as are more unjust then all the plagues of this calamitous war This so being supposed makes him innocent but yet most unfortunate it makes him the first man that ever Fortune pickt out to ingage in such a wretched destruction of men and treasure without blame Amongst all his Ancestors there will not appear upon search one of them who was just and maintained a just cause and yet met with such generall opposition from his Subjects much lesse from the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament How triviall soever the Kings side account this there was not ever a worse prodigie in the world to amaze any State then this is if it be true that the orderly presentative Body of this Nation has causlesly and unnaturally risen up against their righteous king to pursue him so far as ours now is It is not to be denied but that some Parliaments have done some unjust things when they have been wrought upon by the force or fraud of Princes but no example can be shewed that ever any Parliament did such an unjust thing as this contrary to all motives and influences of a gracious and religious Prince Some of the kings party have argued thus if Parliaments may erre when they are perfect having the concurrence of the Royall State with them much more may they erre when the Royall State recedes from them c. But this I hold a grand mistake for if I have any reason to make a right use of Story Parliaments are represented to me never lesse liable to error then when they receive least impressions from the king With what regret then ought the king to look upon this unprecedented dysaster Certainly if he look upon us with a naturall eye under such unparalleled sufferings or upon himselfe with a pious eye under such an unequalled affliction it cannot but administer thoughts of horrour to him Bonus Pastor ponit vitam pro ovibus so said that Prince of Peace in whom onely there was no sin and in whose flock joyntly and severally taken there was nothing else but â—in and yet his death sealed as much as his mouth affirmed Moses seemed to preferre the well-fare of the obstinate Jews not onely before all his temporall interests but also before his eternall diadem in heaven and Saint Paul seemed to be rapt up with a species of the same zeale The passions of some heathen and hereticall Princes towards their liege Subjects have been almost above the pitch of humanity with what a strange kinde of hypochondriacall frenzie did Augustus Caesar cry out Redde mihi Legiones Vare If the bloud of his Subjects had been drawn forcibly out of his own dearest veins it could not have parted from him with a stronger resentment How did our Queen Mary even to the death deplore the losse of one Town in Picardie With what strange instruments did griefe make incision in her heart whilest it would in grave the name of Callice there The losse of all kings in all wars uses to be very dolorous but native kings in civil wars when they look upon such vast desolation as is now to be seen in England and Ireland must needs think that their own interest their own honour their own saftie is of lesse consequence We will now suppose the kings Cause to be unjust that the Parliament has had none but loyall intentions towards him and his Royall Dignity nor has attempted any thing but to defend Religion against the Papists the Lawes of the Land against Delinquents and the Priviledges of both Houses against Malignants and on the contrary we will suppose that that private Councell which the king has followed rather then his publike one has aimed at the Arbitrary rule of France and to effect the same has countenanced Popery and but pretended danger onely from the Parliament from the City of London and from the best affected of the whole Kingdom Qui supponit non ponit We will not assume but presume onely that the great Councell of the Land is in the right rather then the King and his clandestine Councell but see what will follow upon this supposition if it prove to be true as it is neither impossible nor improbable if this be true what a formidable day is that to be wherein the king shall render a strict account for all the English Protestant blood which ha's been issued out and is to be yet issued out in this wicked unnaturall quarrell Manasseh which filled Jerusalem with blood and made the kennells thereof flow with the precious blood of Saints could not contract so black a guilt as he that imbrues two large kingdomes with blood and that with the blood of