to shed in Ireland and for all that protestant blood which armies of papists and delinquents arenow ready to shed in England if all this blood finde no pity in thee yet is it an offence to thee that it extorts teares and lamentations from us O thou unbowelled sanguinary wretch if God be the God of protestants he will judge these cruclties of papists and their abertors and if he be the God of papists we know our slanders and calumnies cannot deceive him wee submit our selves and our cause to his revenging hand But thou wilt say the Kings party in this warre are good Protestants and we are Anabaptists c. The tyranny and superstition of Bishops has driven some of our tender and stricter protestants into utter dislike of Ceremonies and that pompous or rather superstitious forme of Church discipline which has beene hitherto used in England Some of us desire an alteration of some things in our Lyturgy by advice of a learned and uncorrupt Synod others perhaps scruple Church musick and any set forme of divine service to be imposed of necessity liking better the single order of Scotland What new Creed is there in all this or what change of Religion were this if there were any great numbers of men so opinionated But it is well enough knowne to our Adversaries that there is not one man of both Houses of Parlialiament that is violent against all publick set formes of prayer or that forme which is now in use or that desires any alteration of Doctrine in Essentialls nay nor of Discipline except in things very few and inconsiderable And it is well knowne that the Parliament as it would loosen the rigour of Law in some scruples for the ease of tender consciences so it abhors utterly all licentious government in the Church and all by-wayes of coufusion In the City the King has instanced in Pennington Ven Foulk and Mannering as notoriously guilty of Schisine and doubtlesse they were named for want of worse try these men now by the old Creed or by the nine and thirty Articles nay examine them concerning the Common prayer Book and it will soon appeare how farre they are strayed into Brownisme or any other Schisme it will appeare how they are wounded in schismatick and all protestants in them and the true Religion in us all it may be they have not put pluralities or the Parliamentary Votes of Bishops into their Creed it may be they have reserved no implicite faith for Convocation acts and Canons which the Replicant may perhaps judge very irreligious but they hope this never had any anathema pronounced against it in the old Church by any Councell before Antichrists dayes Let not railing pulse for impleading and condemning and we will all be tried in the same manner and if any new Creed be found amongst us differing in substance from the old let our adversaries themselves give and execute sentence upon us If Brownists could be as well distinguisht and nominated in our Army as papists are in the Kings or were really as many and as far countenanced we would distrust our cause whereas we now beg no otherwise the blessing of God upon our Armies then as we are enemies both to Popery and Brownism Dares our Replicant make such a prayer no somtimes he owns Papists and somtimes he seemingly disowns them speaking of the Kings party once he saies As for the establisht religion we will become suiters to you that you will severely punish all persons whatsoever that transgress against it Papists certainly have transgrest against our religion if the rebellion in Ireland be a transgression or if the instant taking up of arms here against the parliament be a transgression yet see at the same time when they call us to punish the papists they themselves arm enable papists to punish nay to destroy us is this all the ingenuity we shall expect well to our law notion it is argued in the next place that a Papist fighting for the King though in a notion of Theology he may be accounted an enemy quatenus a Papist yet in understanding of Law hee was accounted the Kings friend as to his fighting Priest squires Doctrine just hee that fights for the King or rather at the Kings command let the cause be what it will he is the Kings friend When Saul gave a furious command to fall upon the Priests of Iehovah amongst all his servants he had no eneire loving freind but Doeg so when his unnaturall rage incited him to take away the life of Ionathan the whole Army that defended Ionathan were his foes and if it had proceeded to parties as it had if Saul had had as many Idumeans in his service as King Charles now has those onely which had been the execrable instruments of the Kings Tyranny had been the Kings friends and had fought for their King so those six hundred men which adhered to David out of a pious intent to preserve his innocent soule from the bloudy hands of Saul and his three thousand impious murderers and the Keilites also if they had been faithfull to David as they ought to have been were guilty of Treason and drew their swords against their master But I expect now that the Replicant insist upon the Iustice of the Kings cause as not taking armes to master the Parliament but to defend themselves against the Parliament this if it could be proved would over-rule all but it being in question and as resolutely denied by one side as affirmed by the other the Replicant must evince by reason all that he expects to gaine from us 'T is not so probable that a Parliament should invade a King as a King a Parliament 'T is not so probable that a Parliament should be misled and have ends to enrich it selfe by oppression as a King 'T is not so probable that that Army which consists all of Protestants should be so adverse to the reformed Religion as that which admits and favours all Papists and Delinquents T is not so probable that that Army which is raised and payed by Parliament that is by the flower of all the English Nobility and Gentry should fight for Arbitrary government and against propriety liberty and priviledge of Parliament as that which hath nothing considerable but rapine and pillage to maintaine it If many evidences of facts many pregnant proofs and many lively circumstances of time and place did not absolve the Parliament of tray terous conspiring against the Kings Crowne Dignity and person and convince Digby Percy Iermin and divers of the Kings and Queens party of conspiring against the priviledges of Parliament and the lives of many of our noblest Parliament men If all other arguments did faile the very invitation of Papists to the Kings Standard the rising of the Papists with such generall consent now that all Ireland is almost lost to the papists and some hopes were else to recover it would sufficiently assure me that religion and liberty stand
Accommodation Cordially DESIRED AND REALLY INTENDED A MODERATE DISCOVRSE TENDING To the satisfaction of all such who do either Wilfully or Ignorantly Conceive that the PARLIAMENT is Disaffected to PEACE WRITTEN Upon occasion of a late Pamphlet pretended to be Printed at Oxford entituled a REPLY to the Answer of the LONDON PETITION for PEACE LONDON 1642. ACCOMMODATION Cordially DESIRED AND REALLY INTENDED A Moderate Discourse tending to the satisfaction of all such who c. A Petition for Peace is presented to the Parliament by some thousands of Citizens the Petition findes a peaceable answer and that Answer as I shall now set forth is opposed by an unpeaceable Reply but that time may be the better husbanded and indifferent Readers the better satisfied before I undertake the Replication it selfe I desire all men to be preadvertised of some few things Schollars have been very active in this unnaturall warre both in raysing and fomenting it the tongue hath made some wounds as well as the hand and the sword had never bin so keene had it not been whetted by the Pen but Schollars are not actvie on both sides alike to shew their partiality interest in this cause 't is only on the Kings side where the Pen and the Launce are both brandisht in the same hand And it is wisely ordered for the Kings interest wil be the more hopefully pursu'd when Schollars second it with their Arts and the Schollars Interests will be the easier gained when the King seconds them with his Armes But of all kindes of Learning Oratory is most relyed on and of a'l kinds of Oratory that is most made use of which is most wantonly painted and dressed and borrowes most from ostentatious Art and is therefore most unfit for businesse either of Law or State because it is most fit to inveagle and deceive with its false graces and flourishes The tongue of Cyneas was very advantageous to Pyrrhus in subduing Townes and Cities but 't is likely more of manly Logick then of effeminate Rhetorick flow'd from that tongue of his or else Townes and Cities in those dayes were governed by very illiterate men None but the duller sort of people are to be catcht by pure oratory the wiser sort are wel enough instructed that when the Fowlers pipe playes most melodiously the snare is coucht most pernitiously That man is very unworthy to judge of Papers that cannot distiguish betweene foundations and superstructions reasons and Assumptions that cannot discerne between prooving of premises and pursuing of conclusions and yet the chiefest fraud of the Orator is to passe over that part of the businesse which requires most proofe without proofe at all that which is most darke without light at all and that which is most important without mention at all 'T is enongh for the Orator to blazon the bloudy shield of war in general when 't is his sole charge to dispute who are theguilty causers promoters of this particular War 'T is enough for him to take it for graÌ„ted or at most upon his own credit to affieme it That the Kings party of Papists and Arminian Clergy men and delinquents were first assayled by this Parliament without cause or danger and so presaltum to proceed to veÌ„emous invectives cursed censures against the Parliament when his main task is to proove either that a Parliament may in no case whatsoever defend it selfe or that this warre in the Parliament is not defensive If wee peruse all the papers which have come out in the Kings behalfe under his name or otherwise we shall find nothing proper to be insisted on but these two points That defensive warre is unlawfull in Parliaments or that this warre in the Parliament is not defensive and yet nothing lesse hath been insisted on nay though the Fabricke bee vast that is built and raised thereupon yet that which ought to support all the fabrick is utterly neglected so in this reply now to be examined if much be affirmed yet little is prooved and if any proofe be made 't is of sequels not of premisses 't is of assumptions deduced not of Theses deducing and 't is plaine and obvious to al that the Replicant here pleads not as if hestood at the barre but pronounces sentence as if he sate on the Bench We may justly therefore suspect that he aymes not at the satisfying of wise men but the dazelling of simple men and that he would not daube with his fucusses every line embellish with his Caressing Phrases every sentence if he did not affect the pompe of Mr Rhombus the Pedant rather then the gravitie of a Statist The next Art of our Replicant is to impose those his nude averments which are most false and improbable with most boldnesse and assurance assâ—ling as it were thereby the beliefe of other men with armed violence That it may passe for currant that Franham Castle was surprized contrary to the faith and Treaty of Sir William Waller with whom no Treaty was ever entertained nor spoken of it must be further averred That our side was false at Winchecter false in York shire false every where but these things eadem facilitate negantur quâ affirmantur Another advantage of the Kings party is by multitude of writings invective and Satyricall both the Universities are become mints of defamatory disgracefull papers the Regiments of the Kings Pen-and-Inkhorne men are more and fuller then of his sword-men and though too many papers are scattered of both sides yet those of the Kings are most of them serious and done by able men whereas those of the Parliaments side for the most part are ridiculous done by Sots or prevaricators to the disadvantage of the partie After these premonitions I come to the Replication it selfe The substance of the Petition was That the Parliament would tender such Propositions for Accommodation as might be accepted with honour to his Maiesty and safety to the Kingdome The substance of the Answer was that the Parliament was truly and heartily desirous of a safe and honourable Accommodation and for an instance of that their desire would seeke nothing from the King but to enjoy the due essentiall Priviledges of his highest Court of Law and policie which priviledge must needs qualifie and fit them rather to judge then to be judged by any other inferiour partie That a totall submission to the King he being so farre addicted to a faction of Papists and haters of Parliaments could neither be safe nor honourable That to submit to the Kings party were to submit to the foes of Religion and Libertie foes irreconcileable and such as ever had been dangerous and were now made more furious by bloud against the Parliament That if the Petitioners being but a part of London and that but a part of England should in stead of an honourable safe Accommodation presse the Parliament to a dishonourable unsafe submission to the Kings party it were a breach of publike trust in the Parliament to yeeld therein
in more danger of the Kings party than of the parliaments I could not with more cleare and cheerfull confidence die for the truth of the protestant Religion then for the Iustice of the parliaments cause in this warre noscitur ex Comite c. Let the papist plead for the Delinquent and the Delinquent for the papist those ends which have so closely cemented and kindly incorporated both together make a sufficient discovery to me as well what the papist as what the Delinquentis And this age must prove monstrously unnaturall in producing a wonder never heard of in all former ages if Iustice doe now rest on the Kings side For surely no King ever till now having a iust cause was opposed therein by the maior and better part of his subiects much lesse was it ever seene or heard of that any King in a iust cause was deserted by the maiority of his Orthodox subiects and supported by the unanimous aid of such as hated his true protested Religion God send the King to lay these things seriously and pensively to heart for since none of his wise and worthy Ancestors ever yet had cause to wage war either with the Collective or Representative Body of the People so none at all ever in any warre sided with a false Religion or against the true till this unhappy day in the King Charles is the first and I hope will be the last and therefore this is worthy to make a sad impression upon his soule But our Replicant will tell us That the Kings Iustice may yet govern and awe both parties by the same Law whatsoever their antipathy be The King has Law and power by the Law to protect the better partie and to provide for the peace of both parties But not withstanding that Law and that power the poore British Protestants in Ireland have beene left unprotected and lamentably exposed to a generall Assassination And had they not beene betrayed by their vaine confidence in the Law and in the Kings protection they perhaps might have found other meanes to defend themselves therefore it is no refuge or comfort to them now to hear the name of Law proclaimed reiterated when as things hapned there it has been the very shelfe and rock whereon the Protestants have been miserably bulyed and wricked then pardon pray if the same name of Iustice also sound but harshly at this time in our eares when papists which have destroyed our religion in Ireland are raysed to preserve it in England and protestants which were sending succours and supplyes into Ireland are in the instant invaded here in England for the better suppression of Popery both here and in Ireland T is a strange kinde of assurance or ioy to us to see the names of Religion Liberty and parliamentary priviledge stamped upon our coyne or interwoven in our Standard when at the same time we see the same Coyne imprested for the entertainment of a Popish Army and the same standard marching against the representative body of our Nation and the supreame Court of Iustice in our State Nay and the strange time that is taken for the righting of Religion Law and Liberty amongst us makes our assurance and joy the lesse triumphant for we plainely see that as the season now is no one Protestant falls here by the Kings sword but by the same stroak three Protestants at least are cut off in Ireland And lastly the manner of rightting Religion Law and Liberty is most strange of all for open warre is not now sufficiently destructive though it be spread all over the face of the Kingdom subterranean plots are brooded further in the dark and by privie intelligence the whole City of London is to be engaged in a tragicall conspiracy to murder it selfe in one night What the benefit therefore is of Law and Power and Iustice for the disabling of Papist and Delinquents and for the safe guarding of loyall Protestants we all know But when papists and delinquents finde countenance and the true religion is abandoned and lest obnoxious to mischiefe by the perversion of Law Power and Iustice the names alone will not availe us but our Replicant further saith Subjects must not give Lawes to Princes courtesies In matters of a private nature Princes are absolute but not so in publike affaires where the publike safety or liberty is touched In their own pallaces Princes may dispose of Offices but in the State if they make Patents prejudiciall to their revenues to their prerogatives or to the peoples interest the Iudges shall pronounce them deceived in their grants and make the deeds void and null in Law Princes cannot alien any parcells of their Crownes Hull may not bee transferred to the King of Denmark nor Portsmouth to France nor Falmouth to Spaine for Kings have no sole propriety in such things and the same reason is in the super intending Offices of Royalty it selfe they are not transferible at pleasure Some Princes to use the words of Tacitus are so infirme and credulous that they remaine jussis alienis obnoxii and non modo Imperii sed libertatis etiam indigent they are so enslaved sometimes to their basest flatterers that their very Diadems are as it were aliend and made prostitute to seducers and these their flatterers and seducers in the â—xpressions of the same Tacitus Minore metu mâ—â—â—ore praemio percant The unhappy Protestants in Ireland were of late undone by the vaste power which was put into the hands of the Earl of Strafford and all the Ecclesiasticall if not Civill disturbances and distractions which have of late infested these three Kingdoms were in great part caused by excesse of power over the Church delegated to the Archbishop of Canterbury Without doubt when the foundation of Popery was first to be laid it did not prosper and advance so much in sixscore yeers under the first Popes as it did in six yeeres here under Canterbury And Nero himselfe in his first three yeeres did not attaine to so much insolence and tyranny as Strafford did in one yeare The Kings freedom therefore in favours will never justifie the preferring of such men to an unquestionable command nor the subjecting the lives liberties and soules of so many millions of Religious Protestants to their corrupted disaffected wills Neverthelesse for ought I can see we have since but changed one Strafford for another and one Canterbury for another Only to stop our complaints This Replicant tell us That the courtesies of Princes are not to be questioned by subjects The Queen has now attained to a great heigth of power as formidable as she is to us in regard of her sex in regard of her Nation in regard of her disposition in regard of her family in regard of her Religion and lastly in regard of her ingagments in these present troubles some think shee has an absolute unlimitable power over the Kings sword and Scepter which if it beâ— so no end of our feares and calamities
that most of the faulty and decayed Nobility and Gentry are of the Kings party and so are the Lees of the people but almost all of the Yeomenry which is the most considerable ranke of any Nation and a very choyse part both of Nobility and Gentry at this time side against the King and the Papists And it is impossible for any rationall man to imagine that the King has not infinite advantages against the Parliament if his cause be generally apprehended as the more just But sense teaches us the contrary that no King in the unjustest cause that ever was had a weaker party then this King considering what courses he has taken The King has an Army and such an Army as is able to force and overawe all places where they lye with swords drawne over the Pesants but cursed be that man for my part that next after God would not referre the arbitration of this difference to the publike vote of the people And yet we know that there is a great deal of servilty in the people and that for the most part they looke no further then to present grievances like Esau in his Pottage bargain chusing rather to dy for ever of a Lethargy then to sweat for a time under a Feaver 5. All Controversies are determined either by the Dye of Force and chance of War for so Nations have ever censur'd that kind of tryall or else they are concluded by Lawes justly interpreted or else there is a middle way which we call Accommodation and that is commonly when to avoid the mischiefe of the Sword and the uncertaine intricacie of Judgement both parties by mutuall agreement condiscend equally to depart from the rigor of their demands on either side and so comply accommodate and meet together upon termes as equall as may be Whersoever then the word Accommodation is pressed as it is now with us in the London Petition for the word Submission is not at all used 't is most absurd and contradictory to exclude a yeelding and compliance of both sides See then the manifest unjustice of our Replicant who when the matter of Accommodation onely is in Treaty yet urges us to a meere submission and taking it for granted that he is Judge and that he has determined the matter for the King therfore the King ought not to condiscend or comply at all or leave any thing to the Parliaments trust but must wholly be trusted in every point 6. The King requires to have preserved to him for the future that compasse of Royall power which his Progenitors have been invested with and without which he cannot give protection to his Subjects The Parliament desires to have preserved to the Subject peace safetie and all those priviledges which their Ancestors have enjoyed without which they cannot be a Nation much lesse a free Nation Now the Militia and Posse of the Kingdome must be so placed and concredited and that the King may be as equally assured of it as the Parliament or else without all Accommodation the King must be left to the Fidelity and duty of Parliament or else the Parliament must be wholly left to the Kings discretion or rather to the Kings party In this case what shall be done the Parliament pleads that the King has resigned himselfe too far into the hands of Papists and Malignants from whom nothing can be expected but perfidie and cruelty The King objects that the Parliament is besotted with Anabaptists Brownists Familists and Impostors from whom nothing can be expected but disloyalty and confusion If the King here will grant any security against Papists and Malignants the question is what security he will give and if hee will give none the question is how he can be said to sâ—eke an Accommodation so on the contrary if the Parliament will undertake to secure the King as that is granted then what must that securance be I will now take it for granted that the King ought to abjure for the future the giving of countenance to Papists or being counseiled or led by them in State matters as also to disband his Forces and that the Parliament will doe the like and abjure all dangerous Schismaticks and Hereticks But for a further tye to strengthen this abjuration and for a securance against Malignants who are not yet so perfectly distinguisht on either side what shall be the reciprocall caution or ingagement Shall the King have all Forts Ships Armes and Offices in his dispose Shall the King assigne to what Judges he pleases the division of our quarrels or shall be trust his Parliament in the choise and Approbation of persons intrusted I will not dispute this I will onely say that the nature of an Accommodation requires some condescending on both sides and it is manifest injustice in the Replicant to prejudge the same as unbeseeming the King more then the Parliament and in all probability the Parliament is likely to condiscend upon more disadvantageous terms then the King and is lesse lyable to be missed and lesse apt to break a trust then any one man 7. To shew that the Parliament is disaffected to an Accommodation and the King not that therefore a Petition to the Parliament is more proper seasonable then to the King The Replicant bitterly reviles the Parliament as having punished some for seeking peace and as having rejected the Kings gracious offers of peace with termes of incivility below the respect due to a King What more damnable crimes can any man load the Parliament with then with rebelling against the King first after rejecting officers of peace with foule and scandalous language Yet this the Replicant freely grants to himselfe and as if hee were placed in some tribunall above the Parliament where all allegations and proofes were utterly super fluous he proceeds to sentence very imperiously For ought I know I am as venerable and unquestionable a judge in this case as hee is yet I dare condemn nothing but rash and presumptuous condemning of authority without prooses and for that I have Scripture it selfe for my proofe As for the Kings comming to Brainford in a mist and during a Treaty and there surprising men unprepared and retiring againe upon the drawing up of our forces that these are instances of seeking peace and shewing favour to the city is not so cleare to my understanding as to the Replicants 8. But sayes the Replicant you grant that the people may perhaps find out a better way of Accommodation then you have done and you allow them to petition when you faile of your duty And this must needs overthrow the strongest and most popular argument of your innocence and authority The Parliament did never assume to have an absolute freedome from all failes or Errors nor does detract from other mens knowledge it vindicates nothing more then to bee lesse obnoxicus to deceit and perversenesse then other Courts and that the rather because it disdaines not any advise or reason from any
parties whatsoever 9. The Answerer demanded from the Petitioners a modell of an Accommodation to bee framed by them for the better help and instruction of the Parliament The Replicant satisfies that Demand Hee makes two propositions thus 1 That the Parliament shall as readily consent to the Kings Rights as the King consents to theirs 2. That the Reigne of Queen Elizabeth may be the measure to determine those rights In this the Replicant is very reasonable for we freely submit to both his propositions but he is not so Politick as he thinks for a submission to these generall propositions will not determine any one of our Particular debates Let us be safe as wee were in Queen Elizabeths dayes and let us be secured of our safety by the same meanes as Queen Elizabeth secured us That is by shewing no countenance to Papists much lesse admitting them as Counsellors least of all as Governors in her highest Councells let wise men generally loved and revered sit at the Councell Table and let the Publick advise of Parliament sway above all private let our Lawes be in the Custody of learned and uncorrupt Iudges and let our Militia be under the Command of such renowned Patriots as shee preferred in her dayes and our Accommodation is more ample and beneficiall then any we have yet desired But our Replicant will suggest Be you such Subjects as Queen Elizabeth ruled and King Charles will treat you as Queen Elizabeth did her Subjects doe you right first to the King and the King will not faile to doe right to you Here is now the maine Question indeed which rightly solved would solve all whether these deplorable miseries which have of late vexed and grieved our three Nations have rather hapned from the Change of the People or from the Change of the Prince And most certaine it is future Ages will conceive no great doubt or difficulty to be in this Question but now it is mortall to dispute it it is scarce lawfull to suppose any thing herein Though supponere be not ponere but by way of supposition I will only plead thus if the three Nations have by I know not what fatall posture and Congresse of stars or superior Causes declined from their allegiance and degenerated into unnaturall obstinacy and turned recreant and contrary to the sweet Genius which was ever in their Ancestors they are bound to submit to the King to put in him as full and absolute a Trust as our Parents did in Queen Elizabeth but on the contrary if miscarriages in government and the pernicious Counsells whereby our Princes have been guided have overwhelmed us in these inundations of blood and mischiefes the Alteration and Reformation ought to begin first in the King and He cannot expect that we should trust him so farre as we did Queen Elizabeth untill we are assured as fully of his protection as we were of Queen Elizabeths but suppose there have been faults on both sides can nothing but the sword rectifie our faults I never yet heard that any Prince was forced to a warre with any considerable part of his own Subjects but that he had an unjust cause or might have determined the strife without bloud by some Politick Complyance if he pleased It is not so common or probable in nature for Nations causlesly to rebell as for Princes wickedly to oppresse and when armes are taken up on both sides it is not so safe for Subjects to yeeld as for Kings nor can Subjects so easily reduce Kings to a peaceable agreement and cessation of Armes as Kings may Subjects for the sparing of blood Kings can make no composition almost dishonourable or disadvantagious but Subjects being falne into the indignation of revengfull Princes are necessitated commonly to this choyce either to come forth with halters about their necks or to fight upon great disadvantages as Rebellious as the Subjects of Rehoboam were a kind may a Civill Answer might have retayned them in their allegiance and yet if their termes had been full of insolence and their Capitulations more unreasonable yet Salomon's Councellors would have perswaded Rehoboam to yeild to necessity and to master that multitude by some finenesse of wit which he could not Tame for the present by violence And certainly he shewed not himself the Son of Salomon that would not purchase an hereditary Empire over a gallant Nation by being a Servant for one day that would quit his own policy because the multitude had quitted their civilstie that thought that Complyance which should gaine a scepter more dishonourable than that Contestation which should absolutly forfeit one How easy had it been for the great the wise the terrible Philip of Spaine to have prevented the totall defection of so many goodly Provinces in the Netherlands and if it could not have been done without something which is ordinarily accounted below a K. would not that have been more honourably done by him then the casting away also brave a Dominion and the casting after that so much blood â—â—â—sure That King of France was far wiser and sped better which satisfied himselfe in his strugling through many difficulties with this Maxime That a Prince can loose no honour by any Treaty which addes to his Dominion Infinite instances might here bee alleadged but they are needlesse God send our King truly to represent these things to himselfe and rather to trust plain then pleasing advice God open his eyes that he may see how honorably and easily he might heve preuented these calamities and may yet stanch our bleeding wounds and how much more difficult it is and unsafe for the Parliament to compose things unlesse he or rather his Party be equally disposed to hearken to peace Hen. the 4. was as wise as valiant and as just a Prince as ever was Crowned in England and no Prince ever had by experience a more perfect understanding of the English Geâ—ius yet he in his death bed where dissimulation uses to be laid aside in his last advice to his own son and heire whom it was not likely he would willingly deceive deciphered the English Nation to be generally observant of their Princes and whilst they were well treated and preserved in Peace and plenty most incomparable for their perfect inviolable loyalty but of all nations the most unquiet under such a harsh rule which should render them servile poore and miserable This he had abundantly prooved and found true by the wofull deposition of his unpolitick Kinsman and predecessor Rich. the 2. and his own prosperous and glorious Raigne and many strange traverses of Fortune which throughout his whole Raigne He was forced to encounter withall His scope therefore was to recommend to his sons charge this Nation both as dutiful and as generous of whose loyalty he needs not to doubt so long as his Iustice was not to be doubted O that this most Excellent Prince could bee againe summoned from his peacefull Monument to repeate the same advertissements in our
Soveraignes cares and to justle out of his presence these bloud thirsty Papists and Malignants which use all possible art to staine the peoplâ—s loyalty and to candy over all his actions intending thereby not to reconcile the people by procuring grace from the King but to confound both King and people by fostering enmity between both I will only adde this by such instigations as our Replicant and his fellow Courtiers use the King cannot be happy but by the uncertainty of war that is by making his subjects miserable but such Traytors as I am if our advise bee entertained propose to the King a more certaine way to happinesse by Peace that is by making his subjects yet more happy but our Replicant sith the King is willing to condescend to any thing but you will admit of no reconciliation except the King will remove those servants whom he had found must honest and faithfull in his afflictions and prefer you undeserving in their place Here is the grand knot indeed we oppose such as have been the Counsellors or instruments of such and such designes the King saith they are his friends and he cannot abandon his friends 't is confest the King ought not to abandon his friends but the King may erre in the knowledge of friends and as he ought to protâ—ct his friends in whom he cannot err so he is not bound to protect such as he meerly thinks his friends and in whom if he will beleeve the voyce of the people he is very much deceived We have as much interest in the Kings friends and Counsellors as we have in our Laws Liberties lifes any thing for we know we can enjoy nothing if the King shall owne those for his friends whom we know to be our enemies and account of these as good Counseils which we know to be treasons against the State that Prince that will be arbitrary and rely upon his owne meer opinion and discretion in the imployment of Counsellors and Ministers of State having no regard to publique approbation therein is as injurious altogether as he that will admit of no other Law judge nor rule in the propriety and liberty of his subjects but his owne brest only It will be replyed not fancy but sense teaches this that he that obeyes the Kings commands and fights under the Kings Standart is more a friend than he that disobeyes and fight against the King this is demonstration no error can be in it I answer no 't is most false Scripture and reason manifest it to be most false Doeg did obey Saul when all his other servants denyed obedience yet even in that obedience he made himselfe culpable and his master abominable whereas the other servants of Saul were dutifull in withholding an unlawfull duty So those 3000 Souldiers which marched out after Saul to take away the life of just and uncondemned David they were instruments in a base disservice to Saul they are not to be justified for this service whereas those 600 valiant men which accompanied David in his dangers and afflictions and were ready with their sword drawn to guard that innocence which Saul himself should have guarded are not to be accounted false to Saul but true to David And the meere presence of Saul on the one side did not make the cause unjust on the other side nor if himself had fallen by rushing oftentimes upon defensive weapons could that horrid guilt of his death have been imputed to any but to himself Cursed therefore yea thrice cursed be these miscreants which ingage the King in this war against the Parliam not without hazard of his sacred Person if they be private persons and have not sufficiency to decide this great controversie betwixt the King and Parliament For my part I dare not pronounce sentence neither for nor against the Parliament as the Replicant without all scruples doth in all places but I may safely say that if the King does though in person unjustly wage war against the Parliament the E of Essex and his Army may far more lawfully fight in defence of that supreame Court than David and his followers did for the protection of one innocent private man And taking the controversie as undecided 't is not apparent who fight for or against the King and the King may himself as lawfully claime to be sole supreme judge over all single and universal persons and over all Laws and Courts and in all cases whatsoever as to claime any man a Traitor for serving the Parliament in this war and this if he claimes what Priviledge remaines to Parliament what limits remaine to the Prince what liberty remainâ—s to the Subjects 'T is not only then trayterous but ridiculous in the Replicant to assume that supremacy to himself which is denyed to the King by condemning the Parliament and justifying the Kings party in all passages of this War we whâ—n we except against the Kings party asperse not at all the Kings person and the Law it â—elf makes ever a distinction betwixt the King and his agents though our Replicant will not allow any such severance but betwixt the Pâ—rlâ—am and its instruments no such severance is except for the worse for there pejor est author quam actor but sayes the Replicant 'T is the unhappinesse of the King that he hath a party 't is the fault of the Parliament he desires and ought to have the whole See here 't is the Parliaments fault that Percy Digby Winter Mountague Crofts Killegrew and many other of the Queens devoted Creatures are preferred in the Kings favour before the Parliament And 't is the Parliaments fault that Rivers King and the Titular Court of the Palatinate with some other Irish Papists latly come over have the honour of the Court command of the Camp and spoyle of the Kingdom to reward them whilst Manchester Hambden Hellis Pim Strod Haselrig are designed for the â—lock and that upon such charges as shall intangle almost all the most eminent Gentry and Nobility as well as them That this is the Kings unhappinesse is aggreed but that this is the Parliaments fault is not proved by the Replicant and we are not bound alwayes to abate him proofes in matters of this consequence Doubtlesse we are likely to expect great performances from Parliaments here after if it shall be guilt in them that they are rejected and if they shall be rejected only because other more favoring Courtiers pretend better affection to the Kings private advantage The actions of Popish and Malignant Courtyers cannot represent them more friendly to the K. than the Parliaments No honour or prosperity has followed hitherto therupon all their difference is that their single professions of Love are more credited than such as are credited by the Votes of the Generality and attestations of Parliament Howsoever though many men do think private advise and testimony to be more valuable and fit for Princes to hearken too then publick I never till now heard that it was