more now in this then they have demanded heretofore And therefore having granted more then what would have fully satisfied them in former Treaties his Concessions in this may be fully satisfactory to us so far as to close with him to settle a firm peace in the Kingdome now at the brink of ruine though they fall short in somethings which we now propounded which do not much concern our security as I shall prove anon The true state then and sense of this Question must be this and no other Whether the Kings finall Answers to the Propositions of both Houses in this Treaty considered and weighed all together be not so full and satisfactory in themselves that this House may and ought to accept of and proceed upon them for the speedy settlement of a safe and wel-grounded Peace both in Church and Common-wealth rather then reject them as unsatisfactorie and so hazard the life of all and the perpetuating of our wars and miseries In this sense I humbly conceive and hope to evidence them so clearly fully satisfactory that we can neither in point of duty prudence justice honor or conscience reject them as unsatisfactory but ought to imbrace them as the only safe ready way to our peace and settlement though they come not up so fully to some of our Propositions as I could have heartily desired for the avoiding of this hazardous debate For my clearer progresse in this grand debate I shall observe this method First I shal clearly manifest that the King in this Treaty hath granted us whatsoever we can wel desire for the present settlement future security of the Common-wealth or state when ratified by Acts a regal oath as is intended yea far more then ever our Ancestors or any Subjects in the christian world enjoyed or desired of their Ks. for their security preservation against their armed power or legal prerogatives Secondly That the King hath granted as much in this Treaty as will settle and secure the Peace and Government of our Church and Religion against Popery and prelacy on the one hand and prophanenesse on the other hand and more then we or any Protestant Churches ever enjoyed or demanded heretofore for their security and settlement When I have made good these particulars and answered the Objections made against them I hope every one of us who have any ingenuity reason or conscience in their brests and are not transported with passion or private engagements to the contrary will and must of necessity vote these Answers satisfactory in the sense forestated I shall begin with the first of these namely the Kings Answers to all these Propositions which concern the present settlement and future security of the State and Republike against any armed force or invasions of the Regall Prerogative to the enslaving or prejudicing of the Subject which in my poor judgement are so full and satisfactory that little or nothing can be added to them and if we well consider them we have cause to say O fortunati nimium bona si sua norinâ— I shall give you a full view of them all because many of them have not been so much as once remembred in this debate and apply them to our present settlement and future safety as I mention them The first Proposition for the settlement of a safe and wel-grounded Peace is that which concerns the justification of the Parliaments War declaring it by an Act of Parliament to be passed to be in their just and lawfull defence justifying the Solemn League and Covenant in prosecution thereof and repealing all Oaths Declarations and Proclamations heretofore had or hereafter to bee had against both or either Houses of Parliament their Ordinances or proceedings or against any for adhering unto or executing any Office Place or Charge under them and all Judgements Indictments Outlawries Attainders Inquisitions in any of the said causes and all Grants thereupon made had or to be made or had to be declared null suppressed forbidden and never put into execution And this to be published within all Parish Churches and all other places needfull within his Majesties Dominions To this proemiall and advantagious proposition the King hath fully and readily condescended at first in every tittle as was desired By this concession the Parliament hath gained sundry considerable advantages tending to their present honour and future security First a full publick acknowledgment of the justnesse of their Warre and Cause to be ratified and perpetuated to posterity by the highest record that can be an Act of Parliament and that to be read in all Parish Churches throughout England Ireland and other the Kings Dominions and proclaimed in all Counties Cities Corporations and at Assizes and Sessions of the peace that so all men may take publick notice of it Which is such an honour to and justification of them and their Cause as was never condescended to by any King that took up arms against his Subjects since the creation to this present and so low a humiliation and Legall disclaimer in the King of his Warre against the Parliament and disavowing of his Cause and Party as could possibly be imagined or expected Secondly It secures the Lives Liberties and Estates of all the Members of both Houses engaged in these Wars and of all persons whatsoever that have adhered to or acted for them against all former present and future Impeachments Prosecutions and Judgments whatsoever and makes void and nul what ever hath been is or may be objected against them Which coupled with the Act of Indempnity and Oblivion proposed by the King and agreed to by the Houses wil extraordinarily secure pacifie content all wel-affected Members and persons who have adhered to them in this Cause and preserve them from the danger of 25 E. 3. and other Laws concerning Treasons which otherwise upon any revolution of times and affairs might by corrupt Judges and Instruments be extended and rested to their prejudice aud undoing Thirdly it laies a foundation for the lawfulnesse of a defensive War by Authority of both Houses upon the like occasion in all future ages without incurring the guilt of Treason or Rebellion which will be a great encouragement and security to the Subjects and engagement to them to adhere to the Parliament in after-times Fourthly It wil very much discourage and deter all kind of men from taking up Arms in the Kings His Heirs and Successors behalfe against the Houses of Parliament when they shal cast their eyes upon this Act and behold the King himselfe passing such a censure upon all his own proceedings and retracting his own Oaths Proclamations Commissions Inditements Grants against such Members all others who have now taken up arms against him for the Houses Kingdoms defence So as this very first Proposition only if well weighed without any others added thereunto being so fully and freely consented unto by the King tends very far towards our present settlement and future safety
really done it I presume few Members of this House now of a different opinion would have voted the Kings Answers to the whole Treaty unsatisfactory But to take them as they are First the King hath so far condescended to their sale and disposall made or to be made as that the purchasers shall by Act of Parliament enjoy a lease of them not from the Bishops themselves but from the Crown for 99. yeares space reserving only the reversions afterward to the Crowne and that for the use of the Church in generall terms Secondly The King will bee content with the reservation only of the old or some other moderate rent to Him and His Heirs to bee imployed only for the Churches use and benefit Thirdly That for the absolute sale or alienation of them he cannot in point of conscience consent unto it being Sacriledge and an unlawfull Act in the opinion of all Divines as well in forraigne Reformed Churches as Domestick This I remember and conceive is the sum of his finall answer to this Proposition To examine these particulars a little in the generall and then by parts First I must make bold to inform you in the generall That the King and His Predecessors Kings of this Realm were the Originall founders of all our Bishoprieks and patrons of them That all their Lands Rent and Revenues whatsoever originally proceeded from the Crown and Kings of England of whom they are bolden and that in times of vacancy the King enjoyes the profits of their temperalities as a part of His Royall Revenue and receives both tenths and first-fruits out of them upon every death or translation of the Bishops And therefore there is very great reason and Justice too they should be still held of the Crowne and not totally translated out of it and that the King and His successors should receive some reasonable Revenue or compensation out of them parting with such an interest in recompence for them Secondly That in the severall Treaties with the King Februar 1. 1641. and Iuly 11. 1646. All the Lands Possessions Rents and Reversions both of Archbishops and Bishops and likewise of Deans and Chapters and other Officers of Cathedrall and Collegiate Churches were by Act of Parliament to be settled in the very reall and actuall possession of the King His Heirs and Successors for ever to their own proper use except only their Impropriations Advowsons Tythes and Pensions which are not now to bee sold. And that the Ordinances for setling of Bishops Lands Rents and Possessions in Feâ—ffees and engaging and selling them for the monies lent upon the Publick saith and doubled to raise 200000. l. for disbanding of the Scotch Army passed on the Houses till October and November 1646 till which time there was no thought nor intent at all to sell or alienate them from the Crowne If then the King in two or three former Treaties by both Houses full and free consent and a Bill passed by them for that purpose was to enjoy to himselfe his Heirs and Successors all the demesne Lands Mannors Possessions Reversions Rents Inheritances and Revenues of Archbishops and Bishops and likewise of Deans and Chapters Prebends and the like it seems to me very just reasonable that he should demand and enjoy the Reversions of them after ninety nine years and such a moderate Rent as he and both Houses shall agree on And that this Answer of the Kings wherein he demands so little now only for the Churches use and benefit not his own should be fully satisfactory because we were very well content in former Treaties He and his Heirs should enjoy the whole only to their own use Thirdly That near one moiety of the Archbishops and Bishops possessions and revenues consists in Impropriations Tythes Pensions and the like which the King is content wholly to part with for the encrease of Ministers means and the benefit of the Church without any Reservation or Recompence And with all Deans and Chapters Lands and Revenues to boot Therefore it should be unsatisfactory or unreasonable in no mans judgement for the King to reserve some interest in the Reversions and Rents only of their demesne lands Fourthly The King demands the Riversions of the Lands after ninety nine years and some present moderate Rent not for the use and support of the Bishops and to keep a root for them to grow up again in our Church as hath been mistaken by some Archbishops and Bishops too being extirpated root and branch by the Kings former Answers as I have manifested but only for the use of the Church in such manner as the King and we shall agree to settle them who shall take care that no Bishop shall be a sharer in them all being to bee setled in the CROWNE alone and nothing in Reversion or Possession to in or upon the Bishops Fifthly The King consents that the Purchasers of Bishops Lands shall by Act of Parliament have a Lease of them for ninety nine years reserving the Reversion only after that terme which I conceive is no ill but a very good bargain for the Purchasers such a Lease by Act of Parliament being far better then the whole Inheritance by a bare Ordinance of both Houses which for ought I know if not confirmed by a subsequent Act of Parliament will prove little better then a Tenancy at Will or a Lease so long only as this Parliament continues Ordinances of both Houses only without the Kings Royall assent thereto being a new device of this present Parliament to supply some present necessities for our necessary defence and preservation during the Kings absence and hostility never known nor used in any former Parliaments what ever hath been conceived to the contrary Therefore this offer of the K. is no prejudice at all but a great advantage to the Purchasers wherewith they should rest fully satisfied But admit it be any losse at all to them and not rather a gain as things now stand in our tottering condition yet it is only of the reversion of these lands after ninety nine years worth not above one quarter or halfe a years purchase at the utmost which considering the low values at which Bishops lands are sold and the cheap rate now that most purchasers gave for Bills of Publick faith with which they bought them they may be well content to lose to secure their purchases for ninety nine years in these tumultuous and fluctuating times when some wise men who have made such purchases would very gladly give two or three years purchase if not more at the assurance Office to any who will ensure their estates in Bishops lands for so long a term and think they had a good bargain too at leastwise far better then the Bishops in case they should revive again as some fear who must be kept starving for 99 years in expectation of a dry Reversion All which considered the Kings Answers touching such Reversions I humbly conceive will be very
security that 25 of the eminentest Barons should be made Conservators of the Magna Char. and that all the rest of the Barons and people should take an Oath to be aiding and assisting to them in their preservation thereof and that the King should surrender into their hands his four principall Castles that so it he infringed his Charter they might compell him to observe it This was the highest Militia and security of that kind our Ancestors ever demanded or enjoyed which is nothing comparable unto that now granted us by the King who rested satisfied therewith 3. Because the King and his successors are hereby not only totally disabled to raise any forces to oppresse the people or disturb their peace and settlement but all persons discouraged from aiding or assisting them by any Commission or authority whatsoever under pain of high Treason and losse both of life and estate at the pleasure of both Houses without any benefit of pardon from the KING disabled for to grant it So great a discouragement for any persons of fortune or quality to appear for the King or his party in the Field for time to come that in all humane probability none ever will or dare to appear in arms hereafter for the King against the Parliament being sure to forfeit all without any hopes of pardon And if this Act had been passed as a Law before our Wars I dare presume not any one English Lord or Gentleman durst once to have appeared in the Field for the King and wee had never felt the miseries of a civill War Fourthly Because the Militia of Ireland Ierâ—y Guernsey and Wales as well as England is wholly transferred from the King to the Houses so as we need fear no danger thence and the Militia of Scotland being in their Parliaments disposall if wee hold a Brotherly correspondency with them I know no other enemies we need to fear for the Navy being in the Houses power wee need not fear any forraigne invasion that can hurt us if we can agree at home All which considered I dare assert we have now the greatest security of any people under Heaven against all armed regall force and power the King having given up all his Military power into the Houses actuall possission and resigned his Sword and Armes into their hands And if we refuse to accept it now he so freely resignes it we may fight till doomesday but never win nor hope for the like security or advantage yea the present age and all posterity will curse and abhor us for not embracing and resting satisfied with such unparalleld security But is this all the security the King hath granted us in this Treaty No verily there is yet much more behind which hath not yet been opened The Kings of England have alwaies held two swords in their hands which when ill managed have hurt destroyed their Subjects The first is the sword of Mars in times of War which is already sheathed and resigned into the Houses hands by the precedent concessions so as it can never wound them more The other is the sword of Iustice in times of Peace and this likewise the King hath wholly given up into the Houses power for twenty years as he hath the Militia so that it can never hurt them nor any English man or other Subject hereafter at least for twenty years This sword was formerly intrusted by the King in the Judges and great Officers handsâ— had they been so couragious so upright as they should the King could never have wounded or ruined the meanest of his Subjects with this Sword Shipmoney Kinghâ—hood with other Grievances Monoplies neither would nor could have been imposed on the people by the Kings Prerogative or power had the Judges according to Law and duty declared them illegall The Kingdome can do no injustice to any it his Judges be so just and stout as to do justice Whereupon this House impeached only the Judges not blamed the King for the project of Shipmony to which their opinions in Mr. Hampdens Case gave life vigor Now the King in this Treaty hath for twenty yeeres at least granted to both Houses the nomination and appointment of all the Great Officers Civill or Military and of all the Judges and Barons of his Courts and Exchequers within England and Ireland to continue in their places only quom diu bene se gesserint So as these great Officers Judges having now no dependence at all upon the King who can neither place nor displace any of them but wholly upon the Houses of Parliament and such as they shall appoint to nominate them in the Intervals of Parliament if the Houses have a care to make good Officers and Judges in all Courts at first and to displease and punish them as they may and ought to do when they degenerate or misdemean themselves the King with all his legall power now left him can neither injure nor oppresse the poorest Subject in body goods or Estate nor protect the greatest malefactor from justice And what more can we desire to expect for the security of our lives liberties or estates than this Besides as theâ— King hath intrusted you with the Sword and Courts of Justice and Revenue so hath he with his Conscience and Courts of Equity too You have the nomination of the Lord Chancellours Lord Keepers and Commissioners of his great Seals of England and Ireland of the Chancellours of the Exchequer and Dutchy and Masters of the Rolls as well in Ireland as England who are the Dispensers of his Equity Conscience to his Subjects the Issuers of al his Commissions Writs Patents and keepers of all his publique Records If this be not enough you have the disposall of his purse and Treasure too The nomination of the Lord Treasurers both of England and Ireland of the Chancellours and Barons of the Exchequers in both and of the Vice-Treasurer and Treasurer of Wars in Ireland Would you have yet more You have the nomination of the Lord Deputy and chief Governour of Ireland and of all the Presidents of the severall Provinces of that Kingdome for twenty years and of all other forenamed great Officers Judges and Treasurers there a great strength and reall addition to the Militia of that Kingdome which can never doe us harm if we accept of these concessions which invest us in such power there as no Parl. of England ever yet expected nor laid claim to What is there yet remaining for your safety Perchance you will suspect the King may have many secret designs and intercourses with forraign enemies and States and grand Malignants at home to undo all which we shall never discover without some further provisions then yet we have made Truly no you have a remedy already provided and granted for this The nomination and appointing of the Lord Warden of the Cinque-ports the principall gates to let in or keep out Forraign Enemies or Spies and of the Secretaries of State who will be
privie to all his Maj. secrets and transactions of publick concernment receive all letters of intelligence directed to him and most commonly return all Answers to them There is now but one thing more wanting to make this security compleat and firm the Kings Great Seals of England and Ireland the greatest Regall Assurance confirmation he can give you and of these you have both the custody and disposal having the nomination appointment both of the L. Chancellors L. Keepers and Commissioners of the Great Seal in England and Ireland To summe up all these Grants together Some Parliaments in former times have had the nomination of the Lord Chancellor some of the Lord Treasurer some of the great Iusticiar or some few Judges of England only But never any Parliament of England claimed or enjoyed the nomination and appointment of any the Great Officers Barons Iudges or Treasurers places in Ireland nor yet of the L. Warden of the Cinque-Ports Chancellors of the Exchequer and Dutcby Secretaries of State Master of the Rolls or Barâ—ns of the Exchequer of England yet all these the King for peace sake hath parted with to us and shall we be yet so froward and peevish as not to be satisfied with all those Offices We have a long time mocked and abused the world with a self-denying Ordinance disabling any Member to retain or receive any Civill or Military Office by grant from the Houses whiles he continces a Member though there is scarce one day or week at least doth passe but we are still bestowing some place or Office upon Members for which we are weekly censured and reviled in printed Pamphlets and become odious to the Kingdome But here is a self-denying Act and Ordinance in good earnest in the King in parting with so many Offices of which He and his Predecessors have had the sole disposall for some Ages without interruption to the Houses shal we not yet rest satisfied If not what will the whole Kingdome what will all forraign Kingdoms and Nations report of us but that we are so foolish so unreasonable that nothing can or will content us because we are resolved not to be content with any thing that the King shall grant us be it never so advantagious for our present or future safety and settlement But seeing we have the disposall of all these Officers in England and Ireland both Military and Civill of his Sword of War and Peace his Justice his Conscience his Purse his Treasury his Papers his publick Records his Cabinet his Great Seal more then ever we at first expected or desired I must really for my owne part professe my selfe abundantly satisfied with these Concessions and so must every one who hath so much judgement as to understand the latitude consequences of them for the whole Kingdomes and dying Irelands safety settlement especially at this season when they are so neer their ruin To this I shall adde another grant of great concernment for the Peace and safety of this Nation which the King hath fully consented to in this Treaty and I presume no Member of this House will rest unsatisfied therewith when he fully understands it Both Houses of Parliament upon the Lord Keeper Littlâ—tons deserting of the House and conveying away the Great Seal were pleased for the better distribution of Justice and transaction of the great Affairs of the Realm to appoint a new Great Seal to be made The Ordinance for its approbation and use sticking long in the Lords House who were somewhat doubtfull in point of Law I thereupon compiled and published a Treatise intituled The opening of the Great Seal of England which fully satisfied them and opened the doors to let it out for publick use though some who have had the custody of it as Mr. Speaker knowes have but ill requited Me for this my pains good service Many Grants Commissions Presentations Writs Processe Proceedings and other things have passed under this Great Seal and some Patens for Offices and Bishops Lands to Members of this House who differ in opinion from me and yet would be glad to have their Patents confirmed by an Act of Parliament The King in this Treaty hath not only consented to ratifie all the Grants c. that have passed under this new Seal by Act of Parliament and to enact them to be as effectuall to all intents purposes as if they had passed under any other Great Seal of England heretofore used but to continue it to be used hereafter for the Great Seal of England and hath likewise so farre disclaimed his old Great Seal from the day it was carried from the Parliament that he is content to make and declare all Grants Commissions Presentations Writs Processe Proceedings and other things whatsoever passed under or by any Authority of any other Great Seal since the 22 of May 1642. To be invalid and of no effect to all intents and purposes except one grant to Mr. Justice Racon to bee Judge of the Kings Bench and some other Writs Processe and Commissions mentioned in that proposition And he hath further yeelded That all Grants of Offices Lands Tenements or hereditaments made or passed under the great Seale of Ireland unto any person persons or body politick since the Cessation in Ireland the 15 Septemb. 1642. shall be null and void with all Honours and Titles conferred on any person or persons in that Realme since that Cessation By this Concession the Houses of Parliament and their adherents have gained these extra ordinary advantages most of them not to be paralleld in any Age of King from Adom till this present First an acknowledgement of both Houses Authority to make and use a new great Seal of England without the King in cases of extraordinary necessity Secondly a power in the Houses to null and voide the Kings usuall Great Seal upon the making of their New and conveying the old Seal from the Houses without their consent Thirdly a ratification of all Judiciall and Ministeriall Acts Writs Processe presentations Grants Decrees Commissions and other things which have passed under the New Seal since its making till this present which tends much to the qulet and settlement of many mens Estates to the confirmation and justification of all legall proceedings in all Courts of Justice and at all Assises and Sesstons of Peace held by vertue of Commissions under this Seal and of Justices appointed by it whose authority and proceedings might else hereafter prove disputable and bee drawn into Question and to the fight constitution of the Parliament it selfe many Members of this House being elected and some Members and Assistants of the Lords House being called thither by VVrits under this New Seal Fourthly an absolute disavowing and repeall of all Commissions whatsoever or other things passed under the old Great Seal against the Parliament or its proceedings and an exposing of all those of the Kings Party who have acted any thing by any Commission or Authority under the
Seal against the Parliament to publick Justice who cannot plead it in Barre or excuse in any Court after it shall be nulled and repealed by an Act. Fifthly a great disparagement dishonour and disadvantage to the English Cavaliers Irish Rebels and their cause and proceedings with a future disingaging of them and al their Party from the King and his interest who hath so far dishonoured deserted and disclaimed them as thus to null and repeal all Honours Titles Grants of Offices Lands or Tenements bestowed on any of them for any services done or Assistance given by them to the King in his Warres against the Parliament A very high point of humiliation and self-deniall in the King and such a blow to his Popish and Malignant party that I dare presume they will never engage in his behalfe nor trust him for the future which will much conduce to the settlement of a firm and lasting peace and prevent new VVars if accepted of 6ly Indempnity and security for all the Commissioners of the new Great Seale against all scruples which may arise upon the Statute of 25. E. 3. for using and sealing with it if ever the times alter which every prudent man will readily embrace where it is freely offered and not peevishly reject in such an age of danger and incertainty as this in which no man is secure of his life liberty or estate on either side The next Concession of the King in this Treaty is this That by Act of Parliament all Peeres made since Edward Lord Littleton deserted the Parliament and conveyâ—d away the Great Seale on the one and twentieth day of May 1642. shall be Vn-Peer'd and set by And all other titles of honour and precedency as Lordship Knighthood and the like conferred on any without consent of both Houses of Parliament since the twentieth of May 1642. shall be revoked and declared null and void to all intents and never hereafter put in use And that no Peere who shall be hereafter made by the King his heirs or successors shall sit or vote in the Parliament of England without consent of both Houses of Parliament This Concession of the Kings is of great concernment to the Kingdome and I conceive without president or example in any age or King in the Christian world First it secures us from our formerly feared danger of a designe in the King by new created Peers to make an over-ruling party at any time in the Lords House wherein the Iudicatory of the Parliament principally consists which danger and inconvenience by secluding the Bishops out of that House by an Act already passed and by this disabling all new Peers hereafter to be made to sit in that House without consent of both Houses is for ever totally prevented Secondly It gives such an extraordinary new power to the House of Commons as they never formerly enjoyed or pretended to to wit that no Peer created by the King himselfe or by the King or Lords in Parliament who usually created Peers in Parliament without the Commons privity or consent in former times shall be henceforth inaabled to sit or vote as Peers of Parliament but by consent of the House of Commons as well as of the King and Lords By which provision the Commons are made not only in some sense the Judges of Peers themselves which they could not try or judge beforeby the expresse letter of Magna Charta chap. 29. and the Common Law but seven their very Creators too Thirdly It is an extraordinary prejudice and blemish on the Kings cause and an extream dishonour dissatisfaction disengagement upon his own party then which a greater cannot be imagined For what higher affront or disgrace could the King put upon those Nobles Gent. others who have spent their estates lost their blood limbs and adventured their very lives in this cause against the Parliament and received no other reward for it but an empty title of honour perchance a Kightship Lordship or the bare title of a Marquesse Earl or Viscount which they have enjoyed but a year or two with little benefit and lesse content to be thus by Act of Parliament with the Kings owne Royall assent who conferred those titles on them for their gallant services in his behalfe thus suddenly degraded and divested of them all as if they had never been A perpetuall brand to them their posterity who must be inforced to give place to such of whom they have had precedency place by vertue of these dignities Which high affront and scorne I am verely perswaded will pierce and break many of their own at least their Ladies hearts and for ever disoblige them in the highest degree 4thly It will make all the ancient and new Nobility and Peers of England lesse dependent on the King lesse complying to serve his ends upon all occasions being never able to gratisie or reward them though never so ambitious with any new Honours or Peerships without consent of both Houses of Parliament whom they dare not displease or disoblige for fear of crossing them in their desired dignities and titles as well as in their great Offices which are both now in their disposall not in the Kings alone In brief the King in his Concession hath manifested the greatest humiliation and self-deniall that any King since there was a Kingdome in the world hath done It is and hath been the ancient and undoubted prerogative of all Kings in the world but especially of the Kings of England to conferre honours dignities of all sorts especially Knighthood on whom they shall think meet and more principally on those who have merited it by their gallantry in the field as Mr. Selden proves at large in his Titles of honour and others who have written of that Subject Now for the King out of a desire only of a happy peace and settlement not onely to part with much of the Royall Prerogative which all other Kings in the world enjoy for the future but to repeal the Honours and Titles conferred by him on his adherents for reward of their services in times past during all these wars is such a miracle and high degree of selfe-deniall as no age hath produced the like and that which most of this house had the King prevailed would have rather lost their lives had they conferred any such Titles on their Generalls and Commanders then have condescended to should the King require it And therefore I cannot agree with those over-censorious Gentlemen who so oft inculcate this that they can see no humiliation at al or change of heart in the King when I find so great a change and deep a humiliation in Him in this and all other forementioned free Concessions without any or little hesitation and I heartily wish their owne hearts were as much humbled as his and then I doubt on but they would thankfully embrace rest fully satisfied with his concessions for their owne and the Kingdomes benefit The next proposition tending
to the peace and settlement of the Kingdome is this That the King do give his Royall assent to such Act or Acts for the raising of moneys for the Parliament satisfying of the publique Debts and Damages of the Kingdome and other publique uses as shal hereafter be agreed on by both Houses of Parliament And if the King do not give his assent thereto then it being done by both Houses the same shall be as valid to all intents and purposes as if the Royall assent had been given thereunto To this Proposition the King hath condescended so as those Acts be passed within two years after the Treaty ended which the Houses have now voted to be satisfactory This Proposition secures all moneys lent upon the publike faith all arrears due to Officers souldiers yea all moneys advanced by any who have purchas'd Bishops lands for their losses by reversions after 99 years or any present rents to be reserved to the Crowne for the use of the Church with which those Members who have purchased such lands or advanced moneys upon them declare themselves most unsatisfied all those who have sustained publique losses Yea if the King denies his royall assent thereto it enables both Houses to make a valid Act of Parliament without the King in this case and in case of the Militia likewise which was never challenged by nor granted to both Houses in any Kings Reign before takes away the Kings Negative voice as to these particulars which those who conclude the Kings answers unsatisfatory have so much contended for yet now stand in their own light in not accepting of these Concessions as satisfactory and striking at the Negative voice The next Concession of the Kings for the settlement of the State is the taking away of the Court of Words and of all Wardships and Tenures in Capite or by Knights service which draw on Wardships Primer seisures liveries and such like incombrances to the intolerable vassalage and prejudice of the Nobility and Gentry of England and great landed persons and that only upon giving the King and his successors one hundred thousand pounds yearly for compensations being one principall part of his Royall Revenue This Concession is of so vast consequence to the Kingdome to enfranchise the Subjects from the Norman yoak of bondage as some stile VVardships and Tenures in Capite though others deem them more ancient then William the Conqueror that our Ancestors never enjoyed the like It exempts mens heits under age and their estates from being made a prey for hungry Courtiers or over-reaching Committees of them their estates It exempts them from being married to any against their free consents without any single or double forfeiture of the values of their marriages to which they were formerly liable from marriages to persons of small or no or broken fortunes and different dispositions which have ruined many families from many chargeable suits expences excessive fees gratuities to Escheators Feodaries all sorts of griping Officers in the Court of Wards and from vast expences and extraordinary vexation in finding and traversing Offices suing out Liveries c. and many suits and questions arising thereupon which have undone too many And it deprives the King of such an over-awing Prerogative over the persons and Eâ—tates of the Nobility and Gentry which usually fell into his custody after every Tenants decease as will very much weaken his interest in and their over much dependence on him and make them lesse subject to engage for or with him against the Parliaments or Kingdomes common interest The next Proposition relating to the Kingdomes safety and settlement not so immediately and directly as any of the former is that which concernes Delinquents in which alone as to the State the Kings answers are pretended unsatisfactory not in all but only in some particulars of no extraordinary concernment in my apprehension though so much insisted on by many as to vote all the Treaty unsatisfactory In opening the state of the Kings Answers to this proposition I shall doe these 3. things First I shall shew how far the King and you are both agreed 2dly In what particulars you really or seemingly differ 3dly I shall examine whether these differences herein be of any such moment as to induce the House to vote the answers to this and the other Propositions upon the whole Treaty unsatisfactory and so reject and lose whatever the King hath granted in the rest because he hath not satisfied our demands in this one and two others concerning the Church For the first both Houses by their Votes have thought this Proposition touching Delinquents so needless to beinfisted on in every punctilio for the publick settlement which will certainly more obstruct then promote it merey moderation being the nearest way to peace and union that you have reduced since the Treaty the persons excepted in the first qualification both from life composition from 37 to 7 only six of those are beyond the Seas quite out of your power the 7th aged scarce worth your Execution The King consents that they should be banished during the pleasure of both Houses which is a civill death banishment being next to death the severest punishment and to some men more grievous then present Execution But if that will not satisfie then he leaves them wholly to your justice to proceed against them if you please according to Law and promiseth not to interpose nor pardon any of them if legally condemned only he adds ex abundanti that he cannot in justice or honor assent to any Act to take away their lives by a meer Legislative Power ex post facto if they have done nothing that was formerly capital by the known Laws of the Land by which Hee leaves them to be tryed This Answer many Gentlemen who have spoken have coucluded very unsatisfactory and made many large descants on it because they did not rightly weigh nor understand it when as in truth it Answers the very Proposition in terminis as I shall clearly manifest to all who understand what Law is First it is apparent that one of the first quarrels and cause of taking up Arms on our parts was to bring Delinquents to condign punishent according to the Laws and Statutes of the Realm as you have declared to the Kingdom in many printed Declarations and in your Petitions to the King you alwayes desired him to leave Delinquents to the course of Iustice not to cut them off by a meer Legislative Power when as you could not doe it by any known Law Secondly you have professed to all the World and to the King and Delinquents themselves that you have taken up Armes to defend and preserve the Ancient fundamentall Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom and to oppose the introduction of any Arbitrary and Tyrannicall Power Yea your selves and the Army likewise have declared against all extraordinary proceedings and tryals in the Lords House to
so fully satisfactory and abundantly sufficient for our Weal and safety against all future Dangers and Encroachments on our Liberties that if we conjoyn them with those other acts the KING hath already consented to this Parliament We can neither desire nor expect any additions to make us more compleatly happy and secure then any people or Kingdome under Heaven The KING hath already by Acts of Parliament condemned and suppressed Ship-money his owne Monopoly of making Gunpowder and Saltpetre Fines for Knight-hood Impositions upon Merchants goods Tonnage and Poundage without grant by Parliament Coat and Conduct money Forrest bounds and Laws the grand grievances under which we groaned heretofore so as we need never feare their revivals nor any others of that nature Especially since we have the Nomination of all great Officers and Iudges the chiefe promoters of them Besides by Act of Parliament hee hath for ever suppressed the Bishops sitting and voting in Parliament a great disadvantage to him they commonly voting what he pleased and being wholly at his devotion together with the three Grand Oppressive Courts and shops of Tyranny Oppression and Injustice in the Kingdome the great Terrors of Mens Spirits the Invaders of their Rights Members Liberties the chiefe inlargers and maintainers of an unlimited prerogative and Authors of all our late illegall projects pressures the Starchamber the HIGH COMMISSION and COUNCELL TABLE the Kings chief Engines to scrue up his Prerogative to the highest and lay his Subjects lowest to which a fourth is since added in this Treaty the Court of Wards All which being totally abolished the KING hath now no Court nor instrument left that I can thinke of whereby to injure or oppresse his people as in former times The oppressions likewise and extortions of the stannary Courts and of Clerkes of the Market are rectified by acts this Session yea this Parliament by Act perpetuated without any power in the KING to adjourne and dissolve it till all concurre to dissolve it by an Act of Parliament and when this shall be so determined for our future security and redresse of all growing mischiefs which may endanger us there is a provision by another Law for a Triennall Parl. with power to summon it in case of the Kings refusall without him or his writ and authority for the Houses to sit for a convenient time sufficient to redresse all grievances punish all publike Offenders and settle usefull Lawes without dissolution or adjournment To which I may adde the Act of Oblivion Pacification and union with our Brethren of Scotland Upon granting of four of which Acts alone the House of Commons in their Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdome 15 December 1641 did with much thankefulnesse acknowledge that His Majesty had passed more good Bils at that time to the advantage of the Subjects then have been passed in many ages And if he shall now accumulate all the fore-mentioned Propositions turned into Acts to those already enacted with some few Laws more for the regulating of some grievances and corruptions in the Common Law the punishing and restraining of some publike mischiefs and crimes and punishment of Extortions which will be readily assented to there being no losse or prejudice to the Crowne in passing them We may through Gods blessing in all humane probability if our sins deprive us not of so great a felicity be the freest happiest securest most flourishing and best ordered Kingdom and People in the World and injoy such priviledges and immunities as our Ancestors never so much as once imagined much lesse aspired after And if we will not now rest satisfied and thankfully contented with all these large extraordinary Concessions and blesse God for this tender of them to our hands the present and all future ages will Chronicle us for the most unreasonable and ungratefull Creatures that ever sate within these wals or the world produced since the Creation Having now at large demonstrated I hope to every rationall and honest mans conviction the satisfactorinesse of the Kings Answers to all our Propositions relating to the safety and settlement of our State I shall in the next place proceed to those Propositions and Concessions which concerne the Peace Settlement and Security of our Church and Religion wherein there appears the greatest difficulty the most whereof I shall dispatch with greater brevity then the former There are three things especially which may endanger and disturb the Peace and settlement of our Church and Religion 1. Popery Popish corruptions and innovations introduced by Jesuites Papists and superstitious Clergy-men Popishly addicted 2. Prophanenesse 3 Prelacy and one chiefe thing to promote Religion and the Churches happiness the propagation of the Gospel by settling preaching Ministers throughout the Kingdom and establishing the publick Worship and Church-Government in such sort as is most agreeable to Gods word For all these there is sufficient ground in the Kings answers to our Propositions concerning them to vote them satisfactory as I humbly apprehend and hope to manifest For the first of these dangers to our Church and Religion there is as good security and provision granted us by the King as we did or could desire even in our own terms First he hath fully consented to pass an Act for the more effectuall disabling of Iesuites Papists and Popish Recusants from disturbing the State and deluding the Lawes and for the prescribing of a New Oath for the more speedy discovery and conviction of Recusants Secondly to an Act of Parliament for the Education of the children of Papists by Protestants in the Protestant Religion Thirdly to an Act for the due levying of the penalties against Recusants and disposing of them as both Houses shall appoint Fourthly to an Act whereby the practices of the Papists against the State may be prevented the Lawes against them duly executed and a stricter course taken to prevent the saying or hearing of Mass in the Court or any other part of the Kingdome whereby it is made Treason for any Priests to say Masse in the Court or Queenes owne Chappel and so no place left for the suying of Masse throughout the Kingdome no not in the Queens owne Chamber Fifthly to an Act for abolishing all Innovations Popish Superstitions Ceremonies Altars Rayles Crucifixes Images Pictures Copes Crosses Surplices Vestments bowings at the name of Iesus or towards the Altar c. out of the Church and to prevent the introduction of them for the future By all which Acts added to our former Lawes against Recusants I dare affirme we have now far better provision and security against Papists Iesuits Popish Recusants their Popish pictures Innovations Superstitions and Ceremonies both for our Churches and Religions safety and States too then any Protestant Church State or Kingdome whatsoever So as wee need not feare any future danger from Papists or Popery if we be carefull to see those Concessions duly put into execution when turned into Acts and our former Laws Secondly against the
for our security and settlement far more then we our selves demanded in two or three former Treaties and would have bin glad with the moity of it within these few months ten thousand times more then we can gain by a breach with the King upon such disadvantages why should we not all rest thankfully contented and blesse our God that he hath at last inclined the Kings heart to grant so much whereas heretofore he refused to condescend to the tithe of that he hath granted nowâ— Doubtlesse we can never answer such a peevish absurd ingratitude either to God or men and those Counties Cities and Buroughs who sent us hither in their steads will conne us little thanks for refusing Peace upon such honorable beneficiall and safe Concessions as neither they nor we can ever hereafter hope for if rejected now upon no grounds of reason but peevishnesse and will If any object as some have done that the King indeed hath granted all we can desire yet he is so perfidious in his Oaths and Promises as we have found by sad experience in all his Reign that we cannot trust him and therefore all he hath granted is to little purpose I answer That if all he hath granted were still in his own power to dissolve or recall at pleasure this Argument were materiall But since he hath put all our desired security in our hands alone and such as our selves shall appoint and left nothing unto his sole or joint disposall with us the objection is but weak and recoils upon our selves that we dare not trust our selves with our safety It a Shaâ—k come to borrow some money of a Usurer whose word and hand he dares not take yet if he give him a Pawn or Morgage of his Lands in hand he will then trust him without any scruple The King hath given such a sufficient Pawn Morgage and put it into our own hand therefore we need not doubt him now Besides if we cannot trust him for what he hath granted it was a mockery of him and the Kingdome to treat with him to grant it and if so the Kingdom will say they have little cause hereafter to trust us for such palpable dissimulation as the King For my part I have seen so much experience in the world that I dare trust none with my own or the Kingdoms safety but Godâ— alone Put not your trust in Princes nor in any son of man in whom there is no help It is better to trust in the Lord then to put confidence in men or Princes have been my Maxims and we have seen such strange Mutabilities and perfidiousnesse in men of all sorts since our troubles that we cannot trust neither the King nor Prince City nor Countrey this Generall nor that Generall this Army nor those that were before it nor yet our selves who are jealous one of another trecherous one to another distrustfull of all and now distrusted by all ever since we began to confide in men and found out a new generation of confiding men Let us begin to trust in God alone in the first place and then we need not distrust the King for time to come any more then others or our selves whose dear bought experience of breach of former trust and promises will make him more carefull of violating his present Concessions for the future especially having put such securityâ— unto our own hands to bind him to an exact performance But it hath been objected by the Generall and Officers in the Army in their late Remonstrance and by some who have spoken in this debate who would teach the King before hand how to elude and vacat all his grants and promises that all the Kings Concessions are and will be void because made by duresse of imprisonment whiles under restraint I answer That the King during all this Treaty hath been in such a condition of honour freedom and safety and had such free liberty of consultation and debate upon his own earnest desire and his parties too as well as the Houses that he can neither with honour nor justice avoid those Concessions by any pretext of Duresse especially since he hath denyed some things and had the same liberty not to have granted other things had he been pleased not to grant them Besides the King is to confirm the whole Treaty by Acts of Parliament to which he is to give his Royall assent and Oath too when all is concluded and that in a free condition then no Duresse can avoid them nor more then Magna Charta it self first gained by the sword and oft confirmed in Parliament by our Kings against their wills In the year of our Lord 1222 The Barons demanding of King Henry the third the confirmation of the great Charter and their Liberties according to his Oath upon the conclusion of the Peace with Lewis of France William Brewer one of his evill Councell answered That the Liberties they demanded were not to be observed nor confirmed because they were forcibly extorted Whereupon words growing between the Barons the Archbishop of Canterbury and Brewer the King closed up the strife with this honourable Answer All of us have sworn to these Liberties and that which we have assented and sworn to ALL OF VS ARE BOVND TO OBSERVE We to this day injoy these Liberties being confirmed by Act of Parliament and sworn to by our Kings though forcibly extorted at the first And so may we much more enjoy the Kings Concessions when turned into Acts and sealed with a sacred Oath superadded to a Royall assent Mr. Speaker I have now waded through the whole Treaty and given you the best reasons I can out of every parcell of it to prove the satisfactorinesse of the Kings Answers and answered all Objections hitherto made against my conclusion I shall now by your patience and leave proceed a step or two further to evidence by cleer demonstrations and reasons to your consciences First that our closing with the King upon these Concessions is the only the speediest best loyallest safest and certainest way to settle a firm and lasting Peace between the King Parliament and his three Kingdoms Secondly that the new way to Peace and settlement proposed and prosecuted by the Generall the Officers of the Army and their friends in the House is a most desperate dishonourable unsafe course and certain way to speedy ruine both of our King Parliaments Army City Country and three Kingdomes too yea a â—eer project of the Jesuites to destroy the King dissolve this present and all future Parliaments betray Ireland to the Popish Rebels subvert our Religion Reformation Laws Liberties Kingdoms introduce Popery Tyranny slavery and makes us a prey to our forreign Enemies and if I make this clearly appear to all your consciences and reasons I beseech you lay all your hands upon your hearts and consider what you vote in this debate lest you become instrumentall to the Jesuits accomplish these their designs in
presented a Petition to both Houses to resettle their Militia as before being in a ful and free house setled withont any dissenting Votes by al their consents which was seconded by a Petition from the Apprentises who being over-earnest offered some unarmed violence to the Houses and got the Ordinance of repeal nulled and the Militia resetled as formerly Hereupon they perswaded the Army to March up speedily to London not onely without but against the Houses Order not to Quarter within forty miles of the City to protect the Houses from any further violence to bring the Authors of this force to speedy and exemplary punishment and restpre the Houses to a condition of honour freedome and safety and that by offering a greater force to the Members who continued sitting in the absence of those who repaired to and ingaged with them then that of the Aps prentises driving the eleven Members formerly impeached out of the House Kingdom expelling them others out of the House forceing away most of the Commons nulling al Votes Orders and Ordinances from Iuly 26. to August 6. after that marched through London in Triumph broke down all their Forts and works about the City tooke the Tower out of their possession divided the Militia of Westminster and Southwarke from them impeached imprisoned sundry Aldermen and others who appeared most active for the Parliament from the beginning impeached suspended imprisoned seven Lords at once for sundry months together afterwards released without any prosecution And by this meanes raised such a breach between the City and Houses sets the Members one against another and put such a stand to their proceedings by these disturbances in the Parliaments Army as they could never effect before by all their military power forces Now lay al these distempers procedings together compare them with the Armies late Remonstrance DeclaratioÌ„ Menaces present March to London to force and levy War against the Houses their Members in case they concurred not with them in their Jesuiticall whimsies and desingnes and we shal find them all so opposite repugnant to the Armies former obedience professions and principles so sutable to the Jesuites practises in every particular al tending onely to force and dissolve this present Parliament to null and invalid its proceedings and weaken al its interest both in the City and Country And then every rationall man must needs acknowledge they all originally spurng from Jesuitical suggestions and Counsels and that Ignatius Loyala then and now rode in an open and triumphall Chariot in the Van of these and all their late actions of this nature Adde to this that the Monstrous opinions broached publiquely and privately in the Army and their quarters against the Divinity of the Scriptures the Trinity the Dâ—ity of our Saviour That Antichrist is only within us That conscience ought to be free and all Religions tolerated That every man is a Minister and may lawfully preach without ordination That the civill Majestrate hath no legislative nor coercive power in matters of Religion That titles are Antichristian and the like seconded with publique affronts to our Ministers climing up into their Pulpits interruping them publiquely in their Sermons and making our Churches common Stables in some places and receptacles of their excrements their open revilings at the proceedings of Parliam and their Members and all to render our Religion and the professors of it odious to the people to make them readier and better inclined nnto Popery disgrace and undoe our Ministers and render them and their preaching in effectuall subvert the power of our Magistracy make the houses odious to all and put all things into a present confusion I am confident all these were nothing else but the projects and practises of Jesuits and their agents who crept into the Army to feduce and distemper them being so diametrically contrary to the Generalls Officers and Soldiers former practises principles professions and that piety they have professed But that which further demonstrates it is this That after the Generall Officers of the Army had confessed their error * in medling with * State affaires settling reforming the Common-wealth in the * General Councell at Putney where they voted acted more like a Parliam then a Councell of War promised to proceed no futher in it but acquiesce with the houses determinations these Jesuits by the help of their instrumeÌ„ts the Agitators to carry on their design of putting a speedy period to the present all future Parliaments draw up a moddle of a new Representive which they intituled The Agreement of the people subscribed by divers Regiments of the Army 9 of horse and 7 of foot and then caused it to be presented to the house of Commons in November 1647. The matter end and time of it conpared together and the houses votes upon it are very considerable and discover a Jesuit in the front and reare of it We all know that the Jesuits and their popish confederats ever since Queen Elizabeths Reign when so many strict laws were made against have had an aking tooth against Parliaments Their first and most disperate attempt was in the third year of King Iames to blow up the K. and both houses of Parliament with Gunpowder the orginall plotters of this horrid Treason were the Pope and Jesuits as is clear by Del Roi. his book other printed papers almost a year before the chiefe actors in it were discontented Gentlemen and Souldiers Catesby Percy Winter Faux and others as our stories relate fit instruments to blow up Parliaments The day when this was to be executed was the fift of November but this treason being through Gods great mercy discovered on that day the King and Parliament adjudged these Iesuits and Popish Traytors to be executed and that day by Act of Parliament to be perpetually observed for a Thanksgiving day of this happy deliverance from that treason The Jesuites who have broken off all former Parliaments in this Kings reigne till this and would eternally dissolve this and all succeeding Parliaments by way of revenge for their ill successes then have these two last yeares together in this very moneth of November conspired to blow up or pull down this and all other Parliaments so as the very circumstance of the moneth and time discovers in my apprehension the Jesuites to be chiefe actors in this tragedy The first attempt of this kind was on the fift of November 1647. the very day of the powder plot but by the Houses occasions put off till the 9th Then the Agreement of the People was ushered into the House of Commons with a Petition by the Agitators when this Agreement of the people and Petition was presented Gifford a Staffordshire Gent. and a Jesuite a yeare before sent from beyond the Seas who at first seigned himselfe a convert to our Religion was present in the lobby with the Agitators and promoted it all he could
Parliament held at Westminster in 29 H. 6. to grant some Petitions and stirring an Insurrection and Rebellion UNDER COLOUR OF JUSTICE FOR REF ORMATION OF THE LAWES And proceeding upon the same grounds in such manner as the Officers and Army now do and made void an nulled all judgments and proceeding whatsoever made under the power of his Tyranny Which the Officers and Army have farre exceeded in seizing imprisoning and securing so many Members and having the King himself to an illegall triall for his life which Jack Cade and his Levellers and Reformers never did And therefore for them to approve this Act and Answer of theirs against so many Presidents declaring it high Treason must be an unexpiable offence Secondly In prejudging scandalizing and condemning above two hundred Members at once without any proof evidence or hearing when as they ought in Iustice to have been heard and some particular impeachment against them by name before thus censured Thirdly In approving the many false calumnies laid and suggested against them only in the generall the falsity whereof is well known to themselves and the world and tacitely confessed by the release of above twenty of them by the Generall and Officers without any cause assigned for their restraint or particular charge against them they confessing some of their restraints to be injurious and mistakes Fourthly In being Iudges in their own cases and accusers and witnesses too against the secluded Members sundry Members of the Commons House being both Members of the Generall Councell and Army contrary to the self-denying Ordinance as Cromwell Skippon Ireton Harrison Ingoldesby Sir William Constable Henry Martin c. and sitting and acting in both hammering all things they design in the Generall Councell first as the Agreement of the people and the like and then presenting them to passe for current in the House and penning their Declarations Remonstrances c. against the Priviledges and Members of the House A thing never practised by any Members till these who make the Councell in the Army the principall engin to carry on all their projects in the House From which intolerable abuse all the late distempers of the Armie and mutinies against the Houses have for the most part proceeded Fifthly In that they being but between 40 and 60 Members only have presumed by this vote and a Declaration of Ian. 15. to censure above 200 and to consent to their long restraint and seclusion in stead of righting and releasing them and impeaching or committing the chief Authors of and actions in their securing and secluding and bringing them to speedy Iustice according to their Covenant and Declarations against seizing any Members Sixthly In presuming to passe such a Vote as this whiles under a visible armed force when as this House adjourned and refused to sit upon the Kings demand of the five Members till they were righted And Mr. Speaker and most of the Members now sitting deserted and fled away from the House upon a far smaller force then this even after the force was ever refusing to sit till the Houses were restored to a condition of honor freedom and safety and declared all Votes Ordinances Orders and proceedings meerly null and void during their absence though not made under any such apparent force as is now upon the House and when there were at least twice as many Members sitting as now and not one secured nor secluded from coming freely to it without fear Seventhly In justifying these two Iesuiticall and destructive grounds and pretences of this violence upon the House and Members of honest publique intentions and necessity for publique ends which I have proved so absurd impious and dangerous in sundry respects and such as by any armed Party whatsoever may bee made use of upon all occasions to force and destroy all future Parliaments Vpon all which considerations I shall now take out the Solemn League and Covenant these Members of the House and Officers of the Army have so solemnly taken and made to God with hands lifted up to heaven and most apparently violated in this and other particulars of late and in case they proceed still obstinately in these violent and perfidious wayes shall use the same words as Amurath the second sixth King of the Turks once uttered in the great battail of Varna when Uladislaus King of Hungary broke the truce hee had made sealed and sworn to him in the name of Christ and gave him battail and was like to rout him Vpon which occasion and extream danger Amurath beholding the picture of the Crucifix in the displayed Ensignes of the Christians plukt the Writing out of his â—osome wherein the late League was comprised and holding it up in his hand with his eyes cast up to heaven said Behold thou crucified Christ this is the League thy Christians in thy name made with me which they have without any cause violated Now if thou be a God as they say thou art and as we dream ' REVENGE THE WRONG NOW DONE UNTO THY NAME and ME and SHEW THY POWER UPON THY PERJURIOUS PEOPLE WHO IN THEIR DEEDS DENY THEE THEIR GOD. Vpon the uttering of which words the Battail presently turned the perjured King Uladislaus Cardinal Julian and many other Bishops and others the principall Authors of this scandalous and detestable perjury and breach of Covenant were slain with many thousand common Souldiers and the whole Army routed and sattered The like exemplary punishment or divine Vengeance these perfidious Covenant-breakers cannot but expect will speedily befall them now they have the fervent prayers of most godly Ministers and people against them as they had formerly for them unlesse they seriously repent reform and retract all their late perjurious scandalous actings and proceedings against their multiplyed Oaths Protestations Covenants Votes Remonstrances Declarations Promises Engagements and Publique Faith both to God and men at which conscientious Christians and prophane persons every where stand amazed and I hold my self in duty and conscience obliged to reprove them for it in publique that they may be ashamed and brought the sooner to reform their detestable exorbitances in this kinde to the Kingdomes Parliaments Kings Armies ruine and their own Before I conclude I shall answer only two Scripture-Texts produced by John Godwin and others to justifi the force upon us sThe first is David's eating of the Shew-bread which was lawfull only for the Priests to eat which yet was lawfull for him and his men to eat in case of necessity to preserve life there being no other bread 1 Sam. 21. 4 5 6. Matth. 12. 4. And that to save the life of a man ox or beast fallen into a ditch a man in such a case of necessity may break the Sabbath Luke 14. 4. Ergo The Army in case of necessity may lawfully imprison and seclude the Members The sum of a his Book I answer That the Argument is a meer inconsequent if granted I or first The eating
being more then was ever thought of or desired in the Treaty of Peace in February and March 1642. The second Proposition fully granted by the King for the setling and securing of the State and Religion too against the Kings armed power is the setling of the whole Militia by Sea and Land and Navy of England Ireland and the Isles and Dominions thereunto belonging by Act of Parliament in the hands and disposall of both Houses and such as they shall appoint for the space of twenty years with power to raise moneys for all forces raised by them for Land or Sea service during that space or time which forces are authorised to suppresse all forces raised or to be raised in or any forraigne forces which shall invade the Realms of Engl. Ireland or the Dominions and Isles thereunto belonging without Authority and consent of the Lords and Commons in Parliament And it further provides that after the expiration of the said 20. years neither the King his heirs and successors nor any person or persons by colour or pretence of any Commission power Deputation or Authority to be derived from the King his Heirs or Successors or any of them shall raise array train imploy or dispose of any of the forces by Sea or Land of the Kingdomes of England and Ireland the Dominion of Wales Isles of Gâ—ernsep and Iersey or of Barwick upon Tweed nor execute any power or authority touching the same invested in the two Houses during the space of twenty years nor do any thing or Act concerning the execution thereof without the consent of the Lords and Commons first had and obtained And that after the expiration of the said twenty years in all cases wherein the Lords and Commons shall declare the safety of the Kingdome to be concerned and shall thereupon paffe any Bill for the raising arming training and disposing of the forces by Sea and Land of the Kingdomes Dominions Isles and places aforesaid or concerning the leavying of moneys for the same if the King his Heirs and successors shall not give the Royall assent thereto within such time as both Houses should think conveent that then such Bil or Bills after Declaration made by the Lords Commons in that behalf shall have the force and strength of an Act or Acts of Parliament and be as valid to all intents and purposes as if the Royal assent had been given thereunto After which it disables any Sheriffe Justice of the Peace Majors or other Officers of Justice to leavy conduct and imploy any forces whatsoever by colour or pretence of any Commission of Array or extraordinary command from the King His Heirs or Successors without consent of both Houses And concludes That if any persons to the numberâ— of 30 shall be gathered together in warlike manner or otherwise and not forthwith disband themselves being thereunto required by the Lords and Commons or command from them or any other specially authorized by them that then such person or persons not so disbanding shall be guilty and incur the pains of High Treason any Commission under the great Seal or other Warrant to the contrary notwithstanding and be uncapable of any pardon from His Majesty His Heirs and Successors and their estates disposed of as the Lords and Commons shall think fit To all this new grand principle security of our present and future peace and settlement the King hath given his full and free consent in terminis And what greater security then this wee can imagine or demand against the Kings armed power and sword of War transcends my capacity to imagin Therefore if we have not lost our brains and consciences too we cannot but vote and conclude it satisfactory and restabundantly contented with yea exceeding thankful for it And that upon all these ensuing considerations First both Houses in their Treaty with the King in February and March 1642. demanded only the Militia of England not of Ireland yet so as they did leave the Nomination and disposing of the chiefe Commanders Officers and Governors of the Militia Forts and Navy of the Kingdome to the King provided only they might be such persons of honor and trust as both Houses might confide in and likewise promise restitution of all Moneys Forts Garrisons Arms and Ammunition of the Kings which they had seized upon or to give him present satisfaction for the same which being granted and performed they professed it should bee their hopefull endeavour that His Majesty and His people might enjoy the blessing of Peace c. and be derived to Him and to His Royall Posterity and the future Generations in this Kingdome for ever Whereas in this Treaty the King denudeth himselfe of the Militia of England and Ireland too and of the Nomination and approbation of all Officers Commanders Governors of the Militia or forces by Sea or Land and leaves all the Forts Navy and Magazines only to the Houses disposall without any compensation for his Magazines or Armes formerly seized by them And if far lesse was deemed sufficient for our settlement and security then much more will all this be thought so now Secondly Because the King hath wholly stript Himself His Heirs and Successors for ever of all that power and interest which His Predecessors alwaies enjoyned in the Militia forces forts Navy not only of England but Ireland Wales Iersey Garnsey and Berwick too so as He and they can neitherâ— raise nor arm one man nor introduce any forraign forces into any of them by vertue of any Commission Deputation or authority without consent of both Houses of Parliament and hath vested the sole power and disposition of the Militia Forts and Navy of all these in both Houses in such ample manner that they shall never part with it to any King of England unlesse they please themselves So as the King and His Heirs have no military power or authority at all left to injure or oppresse the meanest Subject much lesse the whole Kingdome or Houses of Parliament had they wills to doe it and the Houses having all the Militia by Land and Sea not only of England but even of Ireland Wales Garnsey Iersey and Berwick to assist and secure them in case He or His Heirs should attempt to raise any domestick or introduce any forraign force against them is so grand so firm a security in all probability for insuring and preserving of our Peace Religion Lawes Liberties Lives and Estates against regall force and tyranny that none of our Ancestors ever demanded or enjoyed the like nor no other Kingdome whatsoever since the Creation for ought that I can find in Histories or Republicks who have perused most now extant to do you service and such a selfe-denying condâ—sconsion in the King to His People in this particular as no age can president In the 17 year of King Iohn the Barons having by force of Armes compelled him to confirm the great Charter at Runningmead near Windsor thought this their greatest
fine or imprison without any indictment or legall tryall by Jury or Verdict according to Magna Charta and the Common-Law Therefore your bringing Delinquents to punishment for Life and Estates which in the first branch of this Proposition must be intended only of a just and Legall TRYALL as your selves have alwayes professed not by a new Law in the post And if so then the King in case you will not rest satisfied with the seven excepted persons banishment is content to leave them to your Justice even for Life and Estate according to the known Laws of the Realm and will no wayes interrupt your proceedings therein nor pardon them Therefore in this he fully consents to the Proposition But it hath been objected First that the King denyes to yeeld them up to Justice or to have any hand in their prosecution and therefore his Answer is unsatisfactory Secondly That this expression That he caâ— neither in Iustice nor honour consent to any Act for to take away their Lives or Estates is as high a justification of them and his own cause as possible and contradictory to the first Proposition and declares the Kings heart to be still in the same and unchanged To which I Answer First both these are so grosse mistakes and inconsequences that I wonder how any intelligent man can insist upon them For first the King in positives terms if you will not accept of their banishment yeelds them up to a Legall tryall in which himself must be the Prosecutor the Indictment being in his name the prosecution at his suit by his Counsell at Law and the Witnesses produced on his behalf as all men know who understands what belongs to a Legall tryall Therefore to infer from the Kings Answer that he disclaims all prosecution of them is direct contradiction and falsehood Secondly the Kings very condesconsion to their banishment and forfeiture of their Estates for adhering to his Cause and putting them upon their legall tryall is an express disavowing of his own cause as just and an acknowledgment of its badnesse and illegality and if the Parliament should yeeld up those who have acted for and adhered to them to banishment confiscation of Estate and legall tryall for their lives I am certain the Objectors themselves would protest that therein they had betrayed their righteous Cause and deserted their best affected friends Thirdly Expressum facit cessare tacitum the King having in direct terms justified your Cause and War as just in the first Proposition acknowledged those persons exempted in this and treated for under the very name notion of Delinquents to be such in this very Proposition and consented to their banishment and losse of Estate cannot without apparcht absundity be averred to justifie them and their Cause in this his Answer which yeelds them up to the strictest legall Justice as Delinquents 5ly Those words of the King so much excepted against that he can neither in honour nor justice consent to any act to take away their lives who have acted any thing by his command used and intended by him only in relation to his regall consent to a new Law to condemn them ex post facto where there was no Law before are so farre from any exception that for my part I should have held him neither just nor honourable had he omitted this expression For can it be just or honourable for a King to engage men in his service by special Commission or Command when there is no known Law to make their obedience criminall and yet afterwards to give his Royal consent to a subsequent Law to take away their lives forfeit their estates for obeying his own Royall commands Suppose we were now in the Kings condition and he in ours and he should press you to consent to a new Law to make all those who have acted for you and by your Commission in this war Traytors and to lose their lives and estates for it when there was no former Law to punish them would you not all give the self same answer as he doth that you could neither in honor nor justice nor yet in point of conscience consent to such a Law and would not your selves and all other protest you had neither justice nor honesty in you should you be so base and persidious as to condescend unto it to betray all those you had engaged and to give them such a requitall for their services Would any person ever after honor serve or trust you should you do it or could you or any other honor trust or serve the K. in any dubious imployment after this if he should thus unworthily ex post facto betray his own party now This answer therefore of his clearly discovers to us that there is yet so much justice and honor in him as by no fear or danger to consent to such an unjust and unworthy Act as by a new Law to cut off the heads of those himself engaged in his service when there was no Law extant then to do it makes it more satisfactory unto me then otherwise and shews he doth not dissemble but is reall in his answers and I shall sooner trust and beleeve him now then if he had consented to such an unworthy act 6ly This answer is both just and honorable because if the King should assent to a new Act to forfeit their lives and Estates he should condemne them rashly and unjustly without hearing their defence or evidence And for the King to condemn any for Traytors by a Bil without hearing the cause or evidence against them or to make men Traytors by a law subsequent to their offences is neither just nor honorable in every just mans judgment and of very dangerous president as Sir Edw. Cook informs us the Lord Cromwell the inventer of such Acts of Attainder being the first that lost his head by this new invention All which considered there is no rationall man but must conclude the Kings Answer unto this branch touching Delinquents to be fully satisfactory even to your own demands as well in words as substance notwithstanding the Objections against it But admit the answer as bad as any have made it shall we therefore conclude it so unsatisfactory as to break off the Treaty upon it and involve the Kingdom in another War of which no man can know the end or issue God forbid we should ever be so unadvised The persons whose lives you desire for a Sacrifice to publick Justice are but seven in number fix of them out of your power in forraign parts where a new war will not reach them the 7th an aged man who may chance to dye before judgment or execution pass against him you have all their whole estates at your disposal already and their persons too by way of banishment during both Houses pleasure And will you adventure another seven years war and the losse perchance of seventy thousand mens lives and as many millions of Treasure to the ruine
of the Kingdome for the bare lives of seven Delinquents only or in truth of one alone who is fully in your power which you may take away by a legall tryall without a war will not all the Kingdome nay all the three Kingdomes and whole world cry out upon you for such a frantick unadvised act as this yea and for such an unjust and wicked resolution to hazard the lives and shed the bloud of many thousand Innocents and gallant men to take away the head of one or only of 7. vile Delinquents the sparing of whose lives will more conduce to settlement and reall unity then their deaths by the axe of Justice For shame then let us not vote the Kings answer to this branch of Delinquents so unsatisfactory as to break off and lose all upon it since I have proved it fully satisfactory in all things to your own last demands As to the Delinquents specified in the 2d and 3d. Qualification the King and you are fully agreed Besides the King consents to the exclusion of the Delinquents specified in the first qualification from sitting in Parliament being of his Councells coming within the verge of his court bearing any office or having any imployment in the State during the pleasure of both Houses Thus far you are both agreed only he desires this mitigation of their penalty in case they shall offend herein that they may not be guilty of high Treason and uncapable of any pardon and forfeit all their estates nor that those who shall return from banishment without leave may incur so high a penalty but a more moderate sutable to the Law they shall offend And to break only upon this excesse and extremity of punishment too high even in many wise mens opinions for such offences and of dangerous president to posterity it being the wisdome of our Ancestors to make as few new treasons as possible being only for the Kings advantage and peoples prejudice when as a lesser penalty may as well and sooner too prevent the mischief is neither safe nor prudent As for the compositions of such persons the King only desires their moderation if you think fit even to such proportions as the Army it self in their proposals to him in Aug. 1647. thought reasonable and if you please not to grant it then he leaves them to compound at such rates as you and they shall agree and those are only such as you have already fixed on in former compositions from which you will not vary and in case they will not compound at your rates you have then the benefit of all their sequestred estates till their composition be made which is your benefit and their losse Therefore in this though some have pleased without any colour of reason to assert the contrary you are both fully accorded To the Delinquents in the fifth Qualification the King consents to all your desires with this exception only That such Delinquent Ministers who are not scandalous in their lives or Doctrine are already sequestred may injoy the third part of the profits of their Livings for the support of them and their families and be capable of future preferments if they be thought fit to enjoy them This some have concluded very unsatisfactory because it craves some little favour for Malignant Ministers But I beseech you consider how inconsiderable the difference is and how just and charitable the Kings request is in their behalf Your selves both by Ordinance and common practise grant the ful fifth of the profits of sequestred Livings to the Wives and Children of sequestred Ministers as well in case of scandall and insufficiency as Mulignity the King desires only that such who have bin sequestred meerly for Malignancy and are not scandalous may receive a third part in stead of a fifth and for their future encouragement having spent their time in fitting themselves for a Ministry and being fit for no other calling and having lost their former livings he requests only that in this scarcity of able Ministers they may be capable meerly of future preferments for which they shall be adjudged meet in such way as you shall appoint not he or they A just a charitable request and that which your selves have done there being many able godly Ministers of eminent parts and exemplary life who have not been so clearly convinced in point of conscience as to concur with you in the late Wars for which they have been sequestred and have since been better satisfied and God forbid that such should be made utterly uncapable of the Ministry and they and their families starve for want of bread I beseech you therefore of al other things let us not break with the King upon this Act of Charity of Piety lest all the world condemne us for uncharitablenesse and judge the King to be more pious and charitable then we And no doubt it will be the greatest charity to our selves to our Church our Religion our Kingdom at this time rather to close with the King in this particular then hazard all for a few third parts and to be as charitable as his Majesty The more charity we shew the greater unity peace amity and better settlement we may expect But the greatest dissatisfaction of all referred to this head of Delinquents is in the Kings answers concerning his present recalling of Marquesse Ormonds Commission to Treat with and unite the Irish Rebels To which I answer first that this was no part of the propositions first sent but a collaterall emergement discovered since the Treaty upon Col. Iones his letter and so the unsatisfactorinesse of the Kings Answer as to this alone can be no just cause or ground to vote the other Answers unsatisfactory or break off the Treaty 2dly The Kings granting of this Commission to Ormond at the time he did it is no such hainous thing as many have made it al circumstances considered The King when the Army would not close with him upon their own tearms the last year who treated with him without your privity and against your Orders even then when they unjustly impeached the eleven Members for holding secret intelligence with him and his party of which themselves were only culpable was shut up close Prisoner in Carisbrooke Castle in the Isle of Wight by their procurement and by the Votes of both Houses proceeding originally from the Officers and the Armies projection promoted by their Declaration and engagement to joyne with the Houses in setling the Kingdome without against the K. and forcibly passed the Lords House by the Armies garrisoning White Hall billeting a Regiment of Horse in the Muse to terrifie them to a concurrence with the Commons quite laid aside like a dead man out of minde and no more addresses to be made to him by the Houses or from him to them and no accesse of any to him under pain of high Treason without both Houses licence the King in these extremities the better to procure his own
growth and danger of Prophanenesse His Majesty hath condescended to an Act of Parliament as large as can be drawne against all Prophanations whatsoever of the Lords day with severe punishment for the prophaners of it in any kinde and against all such who shall write or preach against its morality and due observation And likewise to an Act to be framed and agreed upon by both Houses of Parliament for the reforming and regulating both Vniversities and of the Colledges of Westminster Winchester and Eaton the seminaries of Learning and Education of youth to serve and rule in our Church and State By which two Grants if duly executed all impiety and prophanenesse which can endanger our Church and Religion will easily be suppressed for the present and prevented for the future Thirdly Against the danger and revivall of Episcopacy and the appendances thereunto belonging the King hath clearly condescended to these particulars in terminis First to an Act for the abolition of all Archbishops Chancellors Commissaries Deanes and Sub-Deans Deans ard Chapters Arch-deacons Canons Prebendaries c. and all other Episcopall Cathedrall or Collegiate Officers both in England Wales and Ireland and to the disposall of all their Lands and Possessions for such uses as the Houses shall thinke meet So as there is no feare at all of their resurrection to disturb our Church All the question and difference now between the King and Houses is onely concerning the Office and power of Bishops and their Lands and Possessions in which two I finde most Members declare themselves to be unsatisfied especially those who have purchased Bishops Lands who are very zealous in that point for their own Interests For the clearing of these two scruples I shall examine and debate these two particulars First how far the K. hath consented to the Houses Propositions for the abolishing of the office jurisdiction of Bishops in the Church Secondly how far He hath condescended to the sale and disposal of their Lands and Possessions And whether his Concessions in both these be not sufficiently satisfactory in the sense I have stated the question in the beginning of my debate of it For the first of these It is clear that the King in his two last Papers hath abolished and extirpated that Episcopacy and Prelacy which we intended and have so earnestly contested against and contends now for no other but an Apostolicall Bishop which is but the same in all things with an ordinary Minister or Presbyter which Bishop being Apostolicall and of divine Institution we neither may nor can nor ever intended to abolish by our Covenant To make this evident to all mens consciences 1 The King hath yeelded to take away all the power and jurisdiction whatsoever exercised by our Bishops in point of censure or discipline in his former answer and contends for nothing now but their power of Ordination only and that not solely vested in the Bishop but in him and other Presbyters jointly yet so as the Bishop should have a negative Voice in Ordinations But the Houses voting this unsatisfactory because that the Bishops for three years during the continuance of the Presbyterian government should have the chief power of Ordination after those three years the sole power there being no others vested or intrusted with that power after the three years expired so as Bishops might by this means creep in and get up againe by degrees as high as ever Thereupon the King in his finall Answer hereunto though not fully satisfied in point of conscience but that the power of Ordination is principally vested onely in Bishops by Divine Authority hath yet for our satisfaction thus far condescended to us First that for three years next ensuing during the Presbyteriall Government no Bishops shall at all exercise this power of Ordination in the Church Secondly That if he can be satisfied in point of Conscience within that time upon conference with Divines That this power of Ordination so far as to have a Negative voice in it belongs not only unto Apostolical Bishops by a divine Right then he wil fully consent to the utter abolition even of this power of Ordination in the Bishops Thirdly That after the three yeares are expired if the King can neither satisfie his Houses in point of conscience nor they him upon debate That this power of Ordination belongs Iure Divino to Bishops that yet the exercise of that power shall be totally suspended in them till He and both Houses shall agree upon a Government and by Act of Parliament settle a Form of Ordination So as if both Houses never consent that Bishops shall hereafter have a hand or negative voice in Ordination this power of Bishops is perpetuaily suspended and as to the exercise of it perpetually abolished even by this Concession so as it can never be revived again without both Houses concurring assents And by this means Episcopacy is totally extirpated root and branch according to the Covenant which hath been so much pressed in this debate though the words of it have been somewhat mistaken that we therein absolutely covenant to extirpate Episcopacy when as the words are only That we shall endeavour the extirpation of Prelacy that is of Archbishops and Bishops c. And that certainly we have done and in a great measure accomplished so far as to satisfie both the words and intention of the Covenant though a concurrent power of Ordination be left in Bishops which yet is now totally suspended For as we covenant in the same clause to endeavour to root out Popery Superstition Heresie Schisme Prophanenesse and whatsoever shall be found to be contrary to sound Doctrine and the power of Godlinesse in the extirpation of which I am certain we have not proceeded by an hundred degrees so farre as we have actually done in the extirpation of Episcopacy there being no Proposition at all in the Treaty for the extirpation of Heresie Schisme and Errors as there is of Episcopacy and yet the Gentlemen who are so zealous for the Covenant perswade themselves they and we have not violated it in these particulars therefore much less in the point of Prelacy and Bishops since we have left them nothing at all but a meer power of Ordination actually suspended from any future execution but by both Houses assents Fourthly the King by abolishing Archbishops and Deans and Chapters hath also therein actually abolished all Bishops too for the future except those who are already made For by the Laws and custome of the Realm No Bishop can be consecrated but by an Archbishop or some deputation from him in case of sicknesse nor any Bishop made or consecrated unlesse he be first elected by the Dean and Chapter upon a Conge deslier issued out to them to choose one Now there being no Deanes and Chapters left to elect nor Archbishop to consecrate any Bishop for the future there can be no Bishop at all hereafter made in England or Ireland and so the Bishop
satisfactory to the purchasers of Bishops lands themselves who are most displeased with it As to that which hath been objected that some have purchased Reversions of Bishops Lands after 99 years in being who must absolutely lose their purchase money after this rate which is neither just nor honourable for the Parliament I answer that this is but the case of three or foure only that their purchases are of no considerable value nor bought fingly by themselves but jointly with Lands or Rents in possession of good value in which they had the cheaper purchase to take off the Reversion after so long a term which losse in the Reversion they may contentedly undergoe to purchase their owne and the Kingdomes peace and enjoy what they have purchased with these Reversions in possession without trouble or eviction by Act of Parliament for 99 years space or receive other satisfaction from the King and Parliament to their contentment in such manner as I shall presently inform you Sixtly To that concerning the present Rents which the Kingdemands out of Bishops Lands which sticks most with Purchasers many of them having purchased nothing but Rents and others more rents then Lands in possession which Rents must all be lost if they must pay their old rents over to the King to their undoing which would be both unjust unconscionable and dishonourable to the Houses upon whose assurance and engagement to enjoy their bargains they were induced both to lend money on and to purchase these Lands afterwards and would be no better then plain cheating and render them odious to all the world as some have objected I will not answer it with Caveat emptor but desire them to observe that the King in his answer doth not peremptorily require the Bishops old rents during the 99. years but only disjunctively either the old Rent or some other moderate Rent to be agreed on and if only a moderate proportion of the old rent be paid to the King the Purchaser is sure to enjoy the residue during the 99 yeares and so his purchase money not totally lost as is objected Besides the King will not reserve these Rents to the use of himselfe or the Crown but only to the Church and maintenance of the Ministers in such manner as He and his Houses shall agree in the Bill for setling these Lands in the way propounded by him Which offer opens this just and honourable way for the Houses to give all Purchasers of Bishops Land and Rents full satisfaction both for the losse of their reversions after 99 years and for the present rents which shall be reserved to the Crown out of Bishops Lands to the Churches use which I beleeve the King and Houses will readily consent to and that is to settle by Act of Parliament so much of the Dean and Chapters demein Lands and Rents upon the Purchasers as the losse of their Reversions after 99. years and present Rent to the Crowne shall amount unto upon a just computation By which means the Purchasers by way of Exchange of Deans and Chapters Lands and Rents for their Bishops shall have such full and satisfactory content even in kind as will cleare the Honour justice and Reputation of the Houses fair dealings in this particular throughout al the world and give the Ministers full satisfaction likewise for the augmentation of whose livings and maintenance the Deanes and Chapters Lands and Rents are designed by settling the reversion and Rents reserved to the Crown out of the Bishops Lands for the Churches use upon those who should have enjoyed the Deans and Chapters Lands thus settled on the Purchasers by exchange which being of equall value can be no losse nor prejudice to any This is such a visible and reall satisfaction to all purchasers as none of them can justly open their mouths against being both for their owne security and advantage and the Kingdomes settlement But if any of them dislike this reall satisfaction which the King no doubt will yeeld to there is an other means provided by this very Treaty for their satisfaction and that is by ready money for what ever they shall lose by Bishops Lands in possession or reversion by this Reservation to the Crown which I am sure they never will nor can refuse in Justice or equity they having the Bishops Lands conveyed to them only by way of Morgage or security for Moneys lent upon the publike faith And the houses by the 12th Article of this Treaty have time within two years space by Act or Acts to raise any summes of money for the payment of the publique debts of the Kingdome whereof the moneys lent upon Bishops Lands and the publique faith are a principall part and the same Justice of the Houses which hath already provided by severall Ordinances a sufficient recompence and satisfaction for purchasers of Bishops Lands in cases of eviction or of emergent charges and incumbrances discovered after the purchases made may be a sufficient assurance to them of the Houses Justice that they will give them as good or better satisfaction by one of these two wayes I have here propounded for any thing they shall part with to the King or Church for the settlement of the Kingdomes peace Seventhly it hath beene the solemn Protestation and Declaration of both Houses of Parliament in all their Remonstrances to the King Kingdome and forraigne States that they have taken up defensive Armes against the Kings Party onely for the maintenance of Religion Lawes Liberties c. and to bring Delinquents to condigne punishment Now Bishops Lands and Rents I am certaine are neither our Religion Lawers nor Liberties and I thinke they are no Delinquents though most Bishops are And shall we now after seven yeares Warres and sixty dayes Treaty make Bishops Lands which for five yeares time or more of our Warres were never thought of the sole or principall cause at least of our present breach with the King and the onely ground of a new Warre God forbid will not the world then justly censure us for notoriouÌ„s hypocrites and impostors pretendâ—ng one thing and intending another will they not then say that Bishops Palaces and Lands were the onely Religion and Liberty we have fought for the onely Delinquents we have brought to publick Justice and execution that we would never have suppressed Archbishops and Bishops nor entred into a solemne League and Covenant with bands listed up to heaven to endeavour to extirpate them as Antichristian but onely to gaine and retaine all their Lands and Revenues and never condemned their Functions but onely to seize on their Possessions And that we must now maintaine an Army upon their exhausted Purses and Estates only to defend these Parchasers Titles to the Bishops Inheritances If so for shame let us never break off this Treaty nor ruine two or three Kingdomes upon such an absurd dissatisfaction as this And if our Parchasers of Bishops Lands shall still refuse to rest satisfied with that twofold
recompence I have formerly mentioned and keep up an Army to maintaine their Purchases rather then yeeld to any reason I shall humbly move that not the whole Kingdome but themselves may defray the Armies Taxes and Quarters and then I am certaine they will have a dearer bargaine then what the King or I have proposed for their satisfaction And the better to perswade them to embrace this compensation I have onely this more to offer both to them and you That if you break off with the King upon this point or close with the Army they are most certaine to lose all for a bare Ordinance of both Houses in no legall Title nor good security aganst King or Bishops without the Kings concurrence and Royall assent unto it and valid no longer then maintained by the Sword the worst and most hazardous Title of all others which will quickly cost the Purchasers and Kingdome treble the value of all the Bishops Revenues and if they close with the Army to break the Treaty they tell them in direct termes in print in The Case of the Army truly stated presented to the Generall by the Agitators of the Army at Hampstead October 15. 1647. pag. 16. That whereas the times were wholly corrupt when persons were appointed to make sale of Bishops Lands and whereas Parliament-men Committee-men and Kinâ—folks were the onely buyers and much is sold and yet it 's presended that little or no money is received And whereas Lords Parliament-men and some other rich men have vast summes of Arrears allowed them in their Purchase and all their moneys lent to the State paid them while others are left in necessity to whom the State is much indebted and so present Money that might be for the equall advantage of all is not brought into the publike Treasury by those sales It s therefore to bea insisted on that the sale of Bishops Lands bee reviewed and that they may be sold to their worth and for present Moneys for the publike use and that the sale of all such be recalled as have not been sold to their worth or for present money This particular among others they professe they have entred into a solemne engagement to prosecute and are now marched up to London accordingly to pursue it as their late Remonstrance and Declaration intimates and themselves professe by word of mouth which I desire the Members who have purchased Bishops Lands who are generally most unsatisfied with the Kings answers especially in this particular seriously to consider and then to make their Election Whether they will now close with the Kings Concessions and what I have here propounded for satisfaction of their Reversions after 99. years and present Rents they may chance to part with and so secure their purchases for this terme by Act of Parliament and have full compensation for what they part with either in ready money or Deans and Chapters Lands and Rents and so be no losers but great gainers by the bargaine or else break with the King to please the Army and so be certaine to lose all between them not onely once but twice over for the Agitators in the Army tell them plainely That all their Purchases shall be reviewed and if they have purchased them to an under rate or not for ready Money which not one of them hath done but by Tickets of their owne or bought at very low values of others which 't is like they will also examine that then their sales shall be absolutely recalled and sold to others at full values for ready money and so all is lost in good earnest or else they must re-purchase them for ready moneys at higher values without any assurance from the King by Act of Parliament and so lose them againe the second time if ever He or his Prelaticall party should prevaile and yet be enforced to answer and restore all the meane Profits they have taken to boot A very hard chapter and bargain to digest if they advisedly consider it which by accepting the Kings offer is most certainly prevented Who perchance in shore time upon second thoughts and conference with learned men for the satisfaction of his conscience in the point of sacriledge if he should consent to the totall alienation of these Lands from the Church may come up fully to our desires and part with the very inheritance to the purchasers as amply aâ— they have purchased it rather then leave his owne and the Kingdomes interest wholly unsettled And for my part I make little question that had the Prelates and Clergy-men with the King at the Isle of Wight dealt candidly and cleerly with him in this particular of the sale of Bishops Lands that might have easily satisfied his conscience in this very thing as well as in others from these grounds and matters of fact which I shall but point at to satisfie others who perchance are scrupulous herein even in point of conscience as well as the King First the King in his last Paper 〈◊〉 in expresse terms protesseth That he hath abalished all but the Apostolicall Bishops invested with a Negative Vayâ—e or Power in point of Ordination And if so then I am certain he hath likewise abolished all Bishops Palaces Lordships Revenues Rents and Possessions it being most certaine that neither the Apoâ—ls themselves not any Apostolicall Bishops of their Ordination in their dayes or for above 300. yeers after had any Lands or Possessions annexed to their Apostleships or Bishopricks but lived meerely upon the aâ—ms and voluntary contributions of the people as Christ himselfe Paul and the other Apostles did as all Historiant accord If then his Majesty will retain none but Apostolicall Bishops he must necessarily take away their temporall Lands and possessions annexed to then Bishopricks to make them such if he hath not already done is by his finall Answer to this proposition as I conceive he hath Secondly it is generally agreed by Historians that Constantine the great our owne Country-man borne and first Crowned Emperour at York to the eternall honour of our Island he being the first Christian Emperour and greatest advancer of the Christian Religion and destroyer of Paganism was the first who endowed the Church and Bishops with any temporall Possessions about 350. yeers after Christ though his pretended donation to the Pope be but a meere fable as Doctor Crakenthorp and others have manifested at large Now Ioannes Parisiensis Nauclerus Polychronicon our English Apostle Iohn Wickliffe our noble Martyr the Lord Cobham Iohn Frith a Martyr learned Bishop Iewell and others out of them record That when Constantine endowed the Church and Bishops with temporall Lands and possessions the voice of an Angel was heard in the Ayre crying out Hodie venenum insunditur in Ecclesiam this day is poyson powred into the whele Church of God And from that time say they because of the great Riches the Church had she was made the more secular and had
which hath reversed Christs Ordinances and procreated Antichrist and that they were bound in conscience to take away their Lands and Temporalties from them which they had abused to Pride Ambition Discord c. His Disciples or noble Martyrs William Swinderby Iohn Purvey Sir Iohn Oldcastle and after them Pierce Plowman Geffrey Chaucer Mr. Tyndall Doctor Barnes Iohn Firth Sir Iohn Borthwike a Martyr the Author of a Supplication to King Henry the eight the Author of the Image of a very Christian Bishop and of a Counterfeit Bishop William VVraughton in his Hunting of the Remish Fox Mr. Fish in his Supplication of Beggers Henry Stalbridge in his exhortatory Epistle and others are of the like judgement and Roderick Mors in his Supplication to the Parliament in Henry the eight his Reigne to omit Penry and others in Queene Elizabeths Reigne And why there should be more Sacriledge in taking away Bishops Lands in England then in Scotland or Abbey Lands heretofore from Abbeys and Priories I cannot yet discerne All which considered I hope his Majesties conscience may and will be rectified in this particular before the Treaty be absolutely confirmed by Acts of Parliament so as this of Bishops Lands shall make no breach between us In clearing which I have beene the more prolix because it is most insisted on of any thing in point of dis-satisfaction both by the King and us As for all our other Propositions relating to the Peace and settlement of the Church the King hath fully assented to them interminis as namely to the Bill for the better advancement of the preaching of Gods word and setting godly Ministers in all parts of the Kingdome To a Bill against Pluralities and Non residencie To an Act of Confirmation for the calling and setling of the Assembly of Divines To an Act for the confirmation of the Directory and abolishing the Booke of Common-Prayer throughout the Kingdome and in the Kings owne Chappell too yeelded unto in the Kings finall answer though formerly stuck upon to an Act for taking the covenant throughout the Realme only the King sticks at it as yet unsatisfied in conscience as to the taking of it himselfe without some qualifications in it which a Committee were appointed to consider of but have not yet reported ought to the House Besides he hath approved the lesser Catechism as far as you desired who rest satisfied with his answer concerning it And as for the Presbyteriall Government he hath absolutely consented to settle it for three years But it hath been much insisted on by many That the Kings Grant of the Presbyterian Government is no wayesâ— satisfactory because only for three years And therefore they will break off the Treaty for this reason and vote the Kings answers upon the whole unsatisfactory because too short in this particular To which I answer That the King in terminis hath granted as much as we desired We desired its settlement but for three years and many who most pretend dissatisfaction in this point now did and do indeed desire no setled Government at all no not for three years space Therefore if there be any default in this it was in the Houses Proposition only not in the Kings answer who was not obliged to grant us in this particular or any other more than we desired Secondly after the three years expiration the Presbyterian Government must remain till a new be agreed upon by consent of the King and both Houses upon conference and advice with the Assembly of Divines or that further established if found best and most sutable in the interim So as now upon all the branches of this Treaty and the Kings answers thereunto I conceive the Kings answers to be compleatly satisfactory in that sense I have stated and debated the question as well for the safety and settlement of our Church and Religion as Kingdom though the Kings Answers come not up fully to the Propositions in some two or three particulars only It is storied of Alexander the Great that one demanding of him to give him a penny he returned him this answer That it was too little for Alexander to give Whereupon he demanded a Talent of him whereunto he replyed It was too much for a begger to receive We have demanded of the King in our own and the Kingdomes behalf in former Treaties but a penny in comparison and then the King refused to grant it though we would have been heartily contented with it or lesse But now we have in this Treatty demanded a Talent and the King hath not thought it overmuch for him to grant or for us to receive and if we shall now ungratefully reject it we know not why our selves unlesse it be that God hath infatuated and designed us unto speedy ruine for our sins I must needs take up our Saviours Lamentation over dying Ierussalem in relation unto England O that thou hadst known in this thy day the things that belong unto thy Peace but now they are hid from thine eyes And I pray God they be not so far hid that we shall never live to see any peace or settlement at all in Church or State if we embrace not those Concessions now the best the largest the honourablest the safest and most beneficiall that ever was tendred to any People by a King and if we now reject we shall never have the moity of them granted us again no though we soek them carefully with tears as Esau did his last blessing when he had overslipt his time but a very little For mine own part I value no mens bare opinions in this debate but their reasons which inforce them and if I have not quite lost my reason and senses too I have not heard one solid reason given by any Gentleman that differs from me why the Kings Concessions upon the whole Treaty should be so unsatisfactory as utterly to reject them and proceed no further Most of the reasons to the contrary have been either cleer mistakes both of the question and Kings Answers or our Propositions and mistakes are no reasons but irrationall or a fear in some Purchasers of Bishops Lands of an ill bargain which I presume I have fully satisfied or that which is to me the most unreasonable though many Gentlemens chief and only reason the Armies discontent and dissatisfaction in case we vote it satisfactory to which I shall give this Answer That though I honour the Army for their good services heretofore in the Field and Wars and should as readily gratifie all their just desires as Souldiers as any man yet I must with just disdain and censure look upon their Magisteriall encroachments upon our Councels and prescriptions to us what to vote in our debates or else they will be incensed as the highest violation to the Freedom â— Honour and Priviledges of Parliament not to be Presidented in former times nor now to be endured We all sit here freely to speak our own Mindes
stead of setling a safe and well grounded Peace upon their new-fangled foundations of liberty and safety but indeed of slavery and ruine To begin with the first branch of the first of these assertions That our closing with the King upon these Concessions is the only way to settle a firm and lasting Peace between the King the Parliament and his three Kingdoms Not to insist upon this generall that Treaties in all Ages have been the usuall and only way to conclude and settle Peace and Unity between Kings and their People and all dissenting Kingdomes States Persons and therefore this Treaty now is the only way to our prâ—sent Peace and settlement I shall pitch only upon particulars First that your selves in this House and the Lords in their House have severally and joyntly voted and resolved over and over heretofore and published to all the world from time to time in sundry Declarations Remonstrances and other printed Papers since the Kings departure from the Houses and the late Warres That it hath been is and alwayes shall be their cordiall desire and sincere unwearied endeavour to settle a speedy firm and well grounded Peace between His Majesty his People and three Kingdomes and that this hath been the only end they have aymed at in all their Warres and Treaties with the King That the Kings presence with and Residence neer his Parliament is of so great necessity and importance towards the removall of our Distractions Feares Iealousies the happy beginning of contentment betweene the KING and His People and the settlement and preservation of the Peace and Safety of the Kingdome and KINGS Person That they thought they had not discharged their duties untill they had declared and backed it with some Reasons That those persons who advised His MAIESTY to absent Himselfe from His Parliament are an Obstruction and Enemies to the Peace of this Kingdome and justly suspected to be favourers to the Rebellion in Ireland That the sending of Propositions and a Treaty with the KING and a good close with Him and His Commissioners thereupon is the only way to settle a firme safe and lasting Peace And this is the only way and meanes you have hitherto pursued to obtaine such a Peace and settlement Secondly the Parliament of Scotland and their Commissioners here imployed have voted and resolved this the onely way and meanes to such a Peace and Settlement both for this kingdom and their own too and have joyned with us in all former Treaties and promoted this Thirdly the generality of the People and all the wisest and most cordiall to the Publique Interest both of the Parliament and kingdome have approved and desired a Treaty and close with the KING as the onely meanes of Peace and settlement as is evident by their frequent and multiplyed Petitions to both Houses Fourthly the KING himselfe and all his party when tyred out with the miseries of War have desired and embraced a Treaty as the only means to close our bleeding wounds and make a firme Vnion betweene the King Parliament and three Kingdoms Fifthly the Generall Officers and Councell of the Army themselves when in their right senses and not intoxicated with selfe-conceit and Iesuiticall Principles have Publikely declared that compliance by a Treaty with the KING and restitution of Him to a condition of Honour Freedome and Safety was the only way to a lasting Peace and settlement yea the Grandees of the Army were so over forward to comply treat and close with Him upon termes more dishonourable and lesse safe then these we are now a closing with him in this Treaty that when they falsly impeached the eleven Members the last Summer in the House of Commons for holding secret intelligence and correspondence only with Him without consent of the House themselves at that very instant without and against consent of the Houses were secretly treating and complying with him upon proposals framed by themselves and perswade the King to reject the Houses Proposition sent to his Maj. to Hampton Court to treat upon those they had tendred to him privately without the Houses privity as more advantagious to him and his party then the Parliaments declaring to all the world that they were as cordiall to the King as desirous to bring him up to London to restore him to a condition of honor freedom and saftey and more favourable to Delinquents in mitigating their fines and punishments then the Houses All which they are not ashamed to acknowledge in their last Remonstrance Novemb. 20. p. 43. 44. yet with this detâ—stable brand upon themselves That their compliances with him were but negative Secondly what we declared of Moderation was but Hypotheticall with carefull caution and saving for the â—publique interest according to OUR THEN UNDERSTANDING OF IT c. Yet however in that degree of compliance admitted in that kinde we find matter of acknowledgment before the Lord concerning OUR ERROR FRAILTY UNBELIEF and CARNAL COUNCELS THEREIN and we blesse him that preserved us from worse If their compliance and Treaty with the King c. was but Hypotheticall as I fear this very Remonstrance and their acting since all are or at least wise Iesuiticall I hope our Treaty shall be reall and not in their power to make it Hypocritical as they have attempted by endeavouring to force us by this Remostrance and their subsequent advance to London to break it off to render us odious to our King and kingdomes God and all good men and translate the Odium of it from themselves to us And because themselves may discover their owne Apostasie from their former principles which they would falsly father upon us and how justifiable and advantagious to the kingdom our closing with the King upon these Propositions are before all the world be pleased to take notice of these following passages in their own Letters Declarations and Remonstrances made upon mature advice a year before this Treaty In the humble Remonstrance from his Excellency and the Army under his command presented to the Commissioners at St. Albans Iune 23. 1647 p. 12. they print Whereas there has been scandalous informations presented to the Houses industriously published in print importing as if his Majesty were kept as prisoner amongst us barbarously and uncivilly used We cannot but declare that the same and all other suggestions of that sort are most false scandalous absolutely contrary not only to our declared desires but also to our principls which are most clearly for a generall Right and just freedom to all And therefore upon this occasion we cannot but declare particularly that we desire the same for the King and others of his party so far as can consist with common right and freedom and with the security of the same for the future And we do further clearly confesse we do not see how there can be any peace to the kingdom firm or lasting without a due consideration of and provision for the
and us to the general content and safety of all honest men and so end the old and begin the new year with peace Whereas if we now break off and let go all the King hath granted I see no end of our Wars and miseries nor any probable means of peace and settlement in many years at least if ever in this or the succeeding Generation And the speediest remedy in this case especially considering the kingdom is so far exhausted that we know neither how to pay our publike debts our Fleet or Army their present Arrears much lesse their future must needs bee the best and be preferred before all others that will require more time and expence and be more hazardous and contingent in the event Thirdly As it is the speediest so the best and legallest safest and certainest way of all others First there is no danger nor hazard at all in it nor any expence of mony or effusion of bloud 't is but accept and then confirm by Acts and Oaths and the work is presently done If we think of settlement in any other way we must fight again and that will be both costly hazardous and when all is done we must Treat again perchance upon worse terms else there will be no peace nor settlement Secondly This is the way we have ever formerly pitched upon the way all parties have consented to and approved but those alone who desire neither peace nor settlement Therefore best safest and durablest Thirdly It is the legallest certainest because a peace and settlement by Acts of Parliament the highest security to English men under heaven to which King Lord Commons in them the whole kingdom consent wil all acquiesce in what is done without question or future dispute What peace soever is settled otherwise either by a bare Order or Ordinance of the Houses or by the Sword power alone will neither be sure safe nor lasting no longer then maintained by the Sword every man will be sure to question and unsettle all again upon the least advantage given The highest security that England ever had was Magna Charta and the Charter of the Forrest these were gained by the Sword but not held by it That which hath kept perpetuated these since their making was those Acts of Parliament which confirmed them These are only security for what ever we enjoy which will survive all other we can think of Nullum violentum est diuturnum Whereas priviledges kept and held by publike Acts will last for ever and be entailed to us and our posterities with peace and happiness attending them This was the way of settling peace between Kings and Subjects heretofore in Henry the 3. Edward the 2. Richard the 2. Henry the 6. Raigns and an Act of Pacification and Oblivion was the only safe and usuall way the Parliaments both of England and Scotland lately fixed on to settle a firm and lasting peace between both Nations kingdoms All other settlements will be but like an ulâ—â—r skinned over which will soone break out again with greater pain and danger then before 2dly For the new way proposed by the Army for a firm peace settlement it is certainly the most desperate dishonourable dangerous and destructive that can possibly be imagined and such as we can neither in honour justice conscience nor prudence imbrace To examine it a little by parts The first way to peace and settlement propounded by them is presently to break off the Treaty and that contrary to our publike faith to the King and kingdom yea to our own votes before the Treaty was fully ended this is the drift of their whole Remonstrance Which as it will totally if not finally deprive us of the fruit benefit of all the K. Concessions in the Treaty all which are by mutuall agreement no wayes obligatory to either party in any particular unless all be agreed being all that we can possibly think of for our safety and advantage and more then any Nation under heaven yet injoied so it wil inevitably cast us upon present wayes of new distractions confusions and civill wars now we are quite exhausted and end at last in our absolute destruction instead of a wel-grounded peace and those blessings we may forth with enjoy for the very accepting without further charge or trouble But if God beyond our hopes should after any new embroylments give us peace yet it must be upon a new Treaty and that perchance upon far worse terms then now are offered Therefore it must needs be dangerous to reject a safe way to follow a hazardous or destructive one The next thing proposed by them for a speedy peace and settlement is the bringing of the King to speedy justice for all his treasons and bloodshed in the late wars and then to depose and execute him as the greatest capitall malefactor in the kingdomâ— This certainly is a very dangerous aund unlikely way to peace and settlement First of all The smiting of the Shepheard is the way to scatter not unite the sheep The slaying of the King or Generall in the field scatters and dissolves the Army not secures them To cut off an aking head is the next way to destroy not cure a diseased body such kind of State policy may destroy or disturb but never settle us in perfect peace The Prince his next heir the Queen the Duke of York all his Children and Allies both at home and abroad will certainly meditate revenge and all Kings in Christendom will assist them even for their own interest and safety lest it should become a president for themselves And will this then secure or be a likely way to peace or settlement 2. The greatest part of the Members in both Houses the Lords Gentlemen and all sorts of people throughout the kingdome the whole kingdomes of Scotland and Ireland who have as great an interest in the Kings person being their lawfull King as we have and are obliged by Allegiance and Covenant to protect his person and Crown from violence will unanimously as one man oppose and protest against it and by force of Arms endeavour to bring those to execution who shall presume to advise or attempt to depose or destroy the King in any kinde contrary to their Allegiance and solemne Covenant Yea all Protestant Realms Churches States in forraign parts will abhorre both the fact and adjudge it contrary to their principles and Religion and that which may irritate Popish Kings and Princes to take up arms to ruine them lest they should fall into the like Jesuiticall practice And can this be a safe or speedy way to peace and settlement especially when we know not what Government shall succeed upon it and can expect nothing but bloody consequences from such a bloody Jesuiticall advice Thirdly I never read of any peace or settlement in any kingdom where King-killing was practised or approved When the Roman Armies began once to kill their Emperours and cut off their
heads they were scarce ever free from civill warres One Army set up one Emperour another Army another the Senate a third who alwayes warred till they had cut off one anothers heads Most of those Emperours had very short reigns few of them above a year or two and some of them scarce two months but most of them untimely deaths In Sclavonia and Norway where they had a Law that he that slew a Tyrant King should suceed him in the Throne They had almost every year a new King perpetuall wars and discords and not one of all their Kings for above one hundred years together ever came to a natural death but was murthered as a Tyrant and succeeded by a worse and greater tyrant as Saxo grammaticus and Nubrigensis testifie And in the sacred story it selfe it is very observable that after the ten Tribes revolted from Rehoboam though by Gods Iustice and approbation for Solomons sinnes they had never any peace or settlement but perpetuall Wars with one Kingdome or another or between themselves Their Kings or most of them were all Tyrants and Idolaters and by the just hand of God for the most part tumultuously slaine and murthered one of and by another who succeeded them he that murthered his Predecessor being usually slain by his Successor or his Predecessors Sons Servants or by the People of the Land in a tumltuous way In the 2 Kings 15. We read in that one Chapter of no lesse then 4 of those Kings slain one by another and as for the people under these Kings they had never any rest peace settlement or freedome but lived under the greatest misery and oppression that ever any Subjects under Heaven did as the sacred History records This King-killing certainly can be then no probable way at all to peace safety settlement freedome but the Jesuits pollicy to deprive us eternally of all these and of God and Religion to boot as it did the ten Tribes heretofore Fourthly this way to peace and settlement is directly contrary to all the former Engagements Oaths and severall Petitions Declarations Remonstrances Protestations and professions of both Houses of Parliament to the King Kingdomeâ— people wherein were have alwaies protested and held forth unto them both before and since the Wars That we will preserve and protect the Kings person from danger support his Royall estate with honour and plenty at home with power and reputation abroad and by our loyall affections actions and advice lay a sure and lasting foundation of the greatnesse and prosperity of his Majesty and his Royall posterity in future times That we are still resolved to keep our selves within we bounds of faithfulnesse and allegiance to His sacred Person and Crown That we will with our lives fortunes estates and with the last drop of our blood endeavour to support His Majesty and his just Soveraignty and power over usâ— and to prevent all dangers to His Majesties Person That wee tooke up armes as well for Defence of His Majesty to protectâ— His Person as the Kingdome and Parliament without any intent to burt or injure His Majesties person or power professing in the presence of Almighty God That we would receive Him with all honour yeeld him all due obedience and subjection and faithfully endeavour to secure His person and estate from all danger and to uttermost of our power to procure and establish to Him and His People all the blessings of a glorious and happy reign which both Houses severall times profest and remonstrated to the world That the allegation that the Army raised by the Parliament was TO MURDER and DEPOSE THE KING was such a scandall as any that professed the name of a Christian could not have so little charity as to raise it especially when they must needs know the Protestation taken by every Member of both Houses whereby they promise in the presence of Almighty God to defend His Majesties person and all their addresses and Petitions to him expressing the contrary That they never suffered it to enter into their thoughts to depose the KING abhorring the very thought of it much more the intent That they never suffered the word DEPOSING the King to goe out of their mouthes nor the thing to enter into their thoughts That they rest assured both God and Man will abominate that monstrous and most injurious Charge layed upon the Representative Body of this whole Kingdome by the Malignant party against the KINGâ— as designing not onely the ruine of His MAIESTIES person but of MONARCHY it selfe The Authors of which malicious horrid scandall they professe to make the Instances of their Exemplary Iustice so soon as they shall be discovered Now for Us after all these multiplyed reiterated Protestations Promises Engagements Declarations Remonstrances to all the World from the beginning of the differences and wars till now to think or talk of deposing and destroying of the King and altering the Government as the only safe and speedy way to peace and settlement as the Army-Remonstrants prescribe would be such a most detestable breach of Publike Faith such a most perfidious treacherous unrighteous and wicked act as not only God Angels and good men but the very worst of Turks and Devils would abhor and therefore it s a miracle to me that these precious Saints should thus impudently before all the World propose to the House and force you to pursue it to staine your reputation and make you exerable to God and Men. Fifthly the very Oath of Allegiance which every one of us hath taken upon our first admission to be Members engageth us in positive terms Not to offer any violence or hurt-to His MAIESTIES Royall Person State or Government to beare faith and true Allegiance to His MAIESTY His Heirs and Successors and Him and Them to defend to the uttermost of our power against all Conspiracies and attempts whatsoever which shall be made against His or Their PERSONS CROWNE or DIGNITY And from our hearts to abhorre detest and abjure as impious and hereticall this Jesuiticall and Popish Doctrine That Princes excommunicated or deprived by the Pope as it seems the KINGS is now for extirpating Episcopacy Popery Mass and Prelacy out of His Dominions by His present Concessions without any possibility or hopes of replanting may be deposed or murthered by their Subjects or any other whatsoever Which Jesuiticall contrivance and practise as our whole State and Parliament in the Statutes of 3â— Iaâ— cap. 1â— 4 5 35. Eliz. cap. 1. and other Acts resolve is the only way to unsettle ruine and subvert not to settle and establish the Peace and government of our Realme And both Houses since this Parliament have by a Solemne Protestation first and by a Solemne League and Covenant since with Hands listed up to the most High God engaged both themselves and the three kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland by a most sacred and serious vow and protestation purposely made and prescribed by them For the
without reasons to back them being no wayes satisfactory to any man 20 December 1648. Col. Bosvill Lord Gray Peregrine Pelham Col. Jones Col. Temple Col. Ven Sir Tho. Malivory Sir John Bouchier Col. Peter Temple Humphry Edwards whose elect is void Mr. Tho. Challoner Sir Gregory Norton Michael Oldesworth Augustin Garland Sir Iohn Danvers Mr. Dove Mr. Hen. Smith Mr. Fry whose election is long since voted void Mr. Serle Nicholas Love Iohn Lisle Col. Rigby Cornelius Holland Col. Ludlow Gregory Clement Col. Puretoy Col. Stapely Mr. Dunch Mr. Cawley Col. Downes John Carey John Blackstone Thomas Scot December 21 Col. Hutchinson Sir Henry Mildmay Sir Jam. Harrington 25 Decemb. Col. Edward Harvey Alderman Pennington Alderman Atkin Dan. Blagrave voted out of the house Colonel Moor Gilbert Millington In a Letter from Paris writ by an Independent Agent there to an Independent Member of the House of Commons a great friend of the Armies dated Paris Nov. 28. 1648 there is this passage I am fallen into the acquaintance of three or four Catholicks of great ingenuity and in their way of much Religion undoubtedly it is an errour to look at all Papists through the same prospective for they are more to be differenced then English Protestants can be I finde their opinion of and dependance upon the Pope little or nothing what we imagined it to be and better principled To make Members of a free Common-wealth then the most English Their opposition to the King is not to be reconciled Their hopes now are upon the Army to whom they wish all prosperity as to the setling of a Representative being extremely distasted with Regal hereditary Power through the world This Letter compared with the close of the fore going Speech the Armies late force upon both Houses and their Members to dissolve them their imprisoning and removing the King to bring him to tryall their voting at their generall Councel of War at White-hall the 23 of December last carryed by two voyces That all Papists should have free liberty and toleration of conscience and all Sequestrations and forfeitures as Papists only taken off Their earnest prosecution of the new Jesuiticall Representative to divide the whole kingdom into bloudy feuds and factions to destroy one another and make way for the common forraign Popish Enemies to invade and conquer us in our present low condition without any opposition and lose Ireland past all recovery their casting of the eminent imprisoned Members into hell it self in highest contempt and scorn their setting up a new Parliament of State and a Convocation too at White-hall as the supreme Councel to vote settle and determine all affairs of Church and State and new mould the whole Government of this Kingdom with the Petition of Robert de Luke to the General within these few dayes for him and his fellow-Messengers authorized by the State to apprehend Priests and Jesuits for his Warrant to apprehend the Jesuits and Priests in his Army and Quarters without any Officers disturbance where they have discovered many of them since their march to London their present complyance with Sir Iohn Winter the archest Jesuited Papist a person excepted in the Propositions and using him and Sir Toby Matthews that pragmaticall Jesuite to draw Owen Roh Oneal and the bloody Popish Rebels in Ireland to joyn with them against Monarchy and the Princes Title with their late extraordinary favours to Priests and Papists of which they boast the repealing of the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegeance made principally against the Pope Papists and their Jesuiticall Usurpations Innovations and Antimonarchicall practices of excommunicating deposing dis-inheriting and murthering our Protestant Princes and their manifold Treasons Conspiracies and attempts upon their Persons Crowns and Kingdoms Their late illegal and treasonable murthering and beheading of the King and the late Petition of the Army that all imprisoned for their conscience or Religion may be released extending unto Popish Priests and Jesuits and purposely intended for their benefit there being none else but such restrained and but few of them And their present actings are a cleer evidence to every rational mans conscience that all the Armies present councels designes force and proceedings against the King Prince Parliament Members and their new pretended Representative are but the Jesuits and Roman Catholicks Brats Impostures and undermining Projects to accomplish their own ends and that they have already got the greatest sway in all their consultations and proceedings of purpose to work our speedy ruine if the Officers and Army will neither timely discern nor repent of it and be no longer spurred on and ridden with a full career by these Jesuiticall Furies who fear a discovery ere they have completed their work and therefore make such post haste to accomplish it by the Armies present distempers uncapable yet of better councel or timely informations to recall them from their own approaching speedy ruine their ears being so deafned and their brains so intoxicated with their Jesuiticall Enchantments which all the Kingdom and world will now clearly discover and I hope the Officers and Army will do so too by this discovery of them and thereupon repent of all their violence and late proceedings at which the Papists at ROME and in forraign parts do much rejoyce and triumph I shall close up all with these words of both Houses of Parliament in their Ordinance of the 1 of April 1643 That nothing but RUINE AND DESOLATION CAN BE EXPECTED unlesse God in mercy prevent it and incline his Majesties heart to the faithfull advice of his great Councel of Parliament as now he hath done in this Treaty which hath ever been and is under God the chief support of his royall Dignity and the security of all we have or can enjoy FINIS a Iohn Goodwin Right and might well met The Moderate A word to M. William Prynne a Libellous empty New-nothing b The humble Answer of the Generall Councell of Officers of the Army c. Ian. 3. 1648. h Rev. 2. 10. i A Collection c. pag. 224 425 599 623 694â— 705 227 267 300 380 464 537 686 Appendix p. 4. 23. Exact Collection p. 35. to 42. k Exact Collection p. 18 200 c. A Collection p. 705. l Exact Collection p. 35. to 40. 48 to 57 215 to 232 c m A collection p. 201 c. n The Generalls Letters from Bedford Iuly 30 1 647. and his and the Armies Remonâ—â—rance August 18. â—c 4. o See Exact câ—llect â—ons And a Collâ—â—câ—ctiâ—on of al orders c. passim And the At 〈◊〉 p The humble Answer c. Ian. 3 1648. p. 2. q The humole Answer p. 9. r 2 Per. 2. 11. Iude. 9. s Luke 6 22. t Psal. 37. 6. u I Per 1. 17. Rev. 20. 13. x Heba 4.13 Y The humble answer p. 2. z 1 Sam. 6 14. 15. 19. 20. a 1 Sam. 15. 13. 14. c. c. 13. 68 to 15. b 1 Chron. 13 9. 10. c Matth 6. 7. c.
enlargement and the Kingdomes settlement by a Treaty grants a Commission to Marquesse Ormond to unite the Irish forces then divided for the foresaid ends Extremities certainly put honest and wisemen too as the Armies friends grant upon hard shifts for self-preservation and this extremity put the King upon this of Ormond The King is flesh and blood as well as we and nature teacheth him to use the best means he may for his own preservation and deliverance in such a strait The Army the last Summer refused to disband or suffer any of their forces to go for Ireland to preserve and secure that Kingdome only from this ground of self-preservation upon which they would now enforce you by their REMONSTRANCE and marching up to your doors with their forces to break off the Treaty or vote it wholly unsatisfactoryâ— whence most Gent. that differ in opinion from me have made this their sole or chief argument that the Kings answers are unsatisfactory because the Army else will not be satisfied If then your own Army may thus disobey your votes and force your consents only upon a pretence of self-preservations and defence when they are in no visible danger the King by as good or better reason in this extremity of danger might justly make use of Ormonds endeavours for his better safety and enlargement And if some Members have affirmed in the House as hath been alleadged in this debate that they would joyn with Turks or the worst of Nations and call them in to their assistance rather then the King should come in by conquest then the King by like reason might joyn with Ormond and the Irish rather then be thus laid aside and destroyed And what we our selves would do in his or the like condition we cannot justly blame in him Thirdly The King did never absolutely deny the recalling of Ormonds Commission but only suspended it til the Treaty ended and if you then close with him you have his engagement presently to recall it if then you agree with him upon thisâ— Treaty your demand in this is granted and danger prevented but if you will not agree at all it is very hard measure to presse the King to a present disadvantage who is like to receive no advantage by you nothing being obligatory on either side til all be concluded In fine the King hath so far condescended to satisfie you in his finall answer as to write a letter to Ormond to suspend the Execution of his Commission for the present and engaged to revoke it so soon as you and he agree in future and more then this as the case stands wee cannot well in justice require and we should hardly grant so much were it our case as it is the Kings and seeing all our dangers may be prevented by our agreement with the King and this demand then fully granted there is no reason to vote this unsatisfactory when we may have all we desire if we please our selves However I see no such differences between the King and Us in this of ORMOND and that of Delinquents as to vote the finall answer to them and all the rest unsatisfactory and so to lose England distressed Ireland and all the former Concessions for an unconsiderable dissatisfaction in these two particulars The last Proposition relating to the security of the State is That the City of London shall enjoy all their Rights Liberties Franchises and usages in raysing and imploying the forces thereof for its defence in as full and ample manner as they used and enjoyed it heretofore That the Militia and City and Liberties thereof shall be in the Ordering and Government of the Lord Major Aldermen and Common-Councell or such as they shall appoint and be imployed and directed as both Houses shall direct so as no Citizen or forces of the City shall be compelled to go out of the City or Liberties for Military service without their own free consent That an Act shall be passed for the granting and confirming of the Cities Charters Customs and Franchises notwithstanding any Non-user Misuser or abuser and for confirmation of all by-Laws and Ordinances made or to be made by the Lord Major Aldermen and common-councell concerning the calling convening and regulating their Common-councell That the Tower of London may be in the Government of the City and the chief Governour thereof nominated and removeable by the Common-Councellâ— and all Propositions which shall be further made and approved by both Houses consent for the future welfare and Government of the City confirmed by Act of Parliament To all which the King hath fully confented so as his Answer thereto cannot be Voted unsatisfactory by any but such who envy the Cities weal and security that themselves may the better seize and trample on it to its enslaving and ruin This Concession is First A great Honour to and justification of your cause the City having beene more cordiall to active for and bountifull towards you upon all occasions and exigencies then all other parts of the Kingdome the harbourers and relievers of all who have fled from the Enemies tyranny thither for safety or reliefe yea the onely Treasury to advance monies upon all exigencies and those to whom under God you pricipally owe your victories and preservation Now for the King to honour the City with such concessions as these which hath beene most hurtfull to and deepest engaged against him in this Warre is almost as high and full if not a greater justification of and countenance to your cause as this consent to the first Proposition 2dly A great satisfaction to the City for all their services and expences and a firm security against all future feares and sufferings for ingaging so deeply in your Cause 3dly An extraordinary Engagement to the City faithfully to adhere to you and all succeeding Parliaments upon the like cause and occasion and to other Corporations to do the like 4thly A great security and advantage to the whole Kingdome whose weal and safety principally consists in Londons welfare its principall Magazine Mart Bulwarke Refuge and Military security both by Sea and Land wherewith the whole Kingdome stands or falls had the King once gained London in these Warres the Parliament and all England had been quickly lost without hope of recovery which will be in a secure or recoverable condition at all times if it be safe and true to the publique interest from which some have studied of late to disengage it to ruine it and the Parliament too which were alwayes free from eminent danger whiles cordially united and near to both their ruines being now disjointed I have thus as briefly as I could with discharge of my conscience and duty run through all the propositions which concerne the security and settlement of our State against the KINGS armed violence or Exorbitant civill Sword or Prerogative and other particulars relating to its peace and safety with the Kings respective Answers thereunto And for mine owne opinion I humbly conceive them