the people are for the most part measured by the deportment of the Prince so reciprocal is the obligation so natural the relation betwixt a King and His Subjects and how desirous His Majesties Predecessors have been of their Subjects love is fresh in Memory They knew and were protected by it that Fides magis tuetur quam satellitium their Subjects affections to be a surer Bulwark then their own Guard King James protested In the same Speech the enjoyment of His Subjects love and His possession of their hearts to be His greatest earthly security next the favor of God and so to be accounted of by any wise or just King Queen Elizabeths tender affections and care towards Camdens Annals Her people was expressed in that she took it ill that any man should think a Father loved his Children better then she her People Affections are not to be enforced when they are they turn into fear and are not durable Love hath a univocal generation begetting Issue like it self as the face in water answereth the face so the heart of man to man If Kings love not their Subjects whom God hath therefore made them Lords of their Raign is dangerous and where Subjects return not the like duty the Obligations being mutual their guilt of unthankfulness and disloyalty in infamous where the fault now is Peace only and such Laws as follow on it can resolve the Question But sure it is that the peoples free and unconstrained affections run for the most part all one way their * May 1641. Protestation lately taken binds them to an unity of concurrence they are sensible of the several parts thereof tending all to the maintenance of Gods Honor the Kings welfare the Subjects Right and Liberty no one part crossing or contradicting the other if it should it could not be safely taken and it is strange that in this great and Civil Discord the people being free to chuse which part to side with there should be such an aversnesse and disaffection in them unlesse on most vehement causes of suspition above ordinary Fears and Jealousies descending even to whole Families and Countreys for few or no one Countrey let men frame and flatter what they please more Malignant more Loyal then another excepting where the Kings power hath its residence the Authority and strength whereof subjugating the peoples hearts the Factors for that power pressing and protesting the Justice of their own party so seasoning and possessing the Subjects hearts with Calumny and prejudice against the other party together with some Gentlemen of note deeply engaged and stickling in their Countreys where they have power to make good that part which they take for their own sake and safety and those few have some Followers Tenants Servants or Mercenaries Nor one Town more Loyal then another or more Malignant taking the Malignancy against which side you will saving where some obnoxious persons of Eminency or Power hath Pre-eminence above the rest or where a chief Town in a County since this War began hath a more stout and expert Commander in it to Govern and keep the same against all Force opposing it wherefore what a mistake it is to call this Countrey or Town more or lesse Malignant more or lesse Loyal when as all men in a natural duty do and desire to serve the Countrey wherein they are born and live The Orator excepting against the ease and quiet Cicer. of many men did long since direct them in the gratitude which they owe unto their Birth and Breeding distributing their Duty and Endeavors into several portions Partem Parentes Partem Amici Partem Patria vendicat what their Countrey is what the Representative Body is already declared The King as Head thereof whilest joyned to the Heart and Members is implicitely meaned * Partem Patria One part the Countrey is explicitely set down Which terms of Malignant Loyal unquestioned before this War began hath much distempered the Common-wealth and set a difference even between the nearest Friends where Nature and Desert hath put an Unity Malice and Mistakings hath made Dissention that it falls out in these Kingdoms as in Israel and Judah two parts of a Nation we are no longer a Tribe and a Tribe but we are divided Kinred against Kinred Family against Family Son against his Father a Daughter against her Mother and a mans Foes to be those of his own House Nay it is a more intestine Discord betwixt a man as it were and himself the Body and the Minde between the outward Estate and inward Conscience When a man to save his Estate shall expose his Conscience having premeditately and on judgement resolved to betake himself to one side soon after for fear of losing his Estate or upon the turn of Victory hath submitted to the other against the consent of his own heart and conscience The prosecution of which War hath had several rises and beginnings many passages to increase and adde fuel to the Contention the Kings party always crossing and altering even in matters Arbitrary and Indifferent what the King and Parliament did on good reason institute Others of more moment as namely His * See the Articles of the large Treaty pag. 16. Demand 4. granted by His Majesty August 1641. Majesties gracing and preferring to His nearest secresie and trust a person whom His Majesty and Parliament did accuse and Proclaim guilty of High Treason Divers other matters of debate might happen to inflame the Discord one more particularly and remarkably concerning the Earl of Strafford who in the Dispute whether he should suffer or not had gained the most powerful and eminent Members as he thought of both Houses of Parliament on his side and the King to intercede as far as he might with Justice to acquit the Earl A sixth part at the most of the Members against the Sentence of his suffering might be peradventure troubled that their power and suffrages were over-matched and thinking much that they could not prevail to acquit the Earl have probably nourished thence an emulous spirit towards their fellow-Members the Debate whereof could not but adde unto the fuel of these Dissentions and so prove a prosecution of this War Thus the fire of War being kindled two principal parties have appeared in a martial posture And which first began unto whom was violence first offered in robbing and spoyling and the like is reported severally according to the affections of the Reporters a just estimate without varying in matters of considerablenesse is hardly to be had The King and His party say he intended no War the Parliament sayes Their's is defensive only the Proverb is The second blow makes the affray the first it is sure gives the offence The Kings coming in a Warlike manner attended with so many armed men to demand the six impeached Members resembled as much as for that present might be a Warlike act But a Warlike act and a War differ not much more then
protestors Vow when as he Voweth he will endeavor c. The next amongst external causes is the importunate and restlesse power of Flatterers making a Prince believe in the vastnesse of His Power over and above all Laws excusing and making lesse His faults then indeed they are rendring withall His actions exempt from Sin or Error The seasonable Accident which befel Antigonus King of SYRIA setting forth the falshood of His Parasites made him repent His Error in the Event Himself and His Kingdom happy who Hunting in a Forrest and earnestly pursuing His Chase being benighted lost His Followers and happening into a poor mans house to take His lodging demanded of His Host What that Country who and what maner of Governor the King of that Countrey was The poor man answered at large not knowing Him nor sparing to tell Him or any of His faults for which round dealing the King discovering Himself at His fellow-Hunters â—oming rewarded well His Host and afterwards better knew Himself and His flattering Courtiers using these words in their hearing Verum de me nisi hae Nocte audivi nunquam There are two causes of Pride an Inward Ignorance Outward Flattery That no whit appliable This the more dangerous as being inevitable because by surprize it seizes and annoys the person flattered and by perswading him to what he is not robs him of the possibility of being what he should Other occasions and incentives have been of this War the angry maner of Impeaching the Hostile of demanding the six Members of both Houses together with the Proclamations since accusing other Members of High See what the Assembly at OXFORD acknowledges The Priviledge of Parliament to be so substantial and entire a Right that the Invasion of the Liberties of either House is an injury to the other and to the whole Kingdom in their Declaration printed there p. 12. Treason hath added to the fuel of this War On what the Impeachment was first grounded otherwise then as general Articles is known to few unlesse it were for some supposed ill committed in their activenesse to perform what they thought their duty did enjoyn In every design and purpose there will be some more Activity in one two or more then in the rest otherwise the purpose in hand is likely to stand still Every compleated Act is first the conception of some one individual person then the consent of the rest If the first beginners shall for their forwardnesse of no advantage to themselves be therefore accused of Crimes and in a violent way pursued it could not but strike at the Root of the Subjects Liberty invaded lately then in agitation to be maintained and the sequel prove dangerous the infringing the Power and Priviledge of Parliament which so many Thousands have protested to maintain The Quarrel was as the Division great and 't is probable there would not have wanted witnesses on the one party as to prove the Articles so to have aggravated the guilt of them to the highest against the other The examination of which Articles whether the six Members were guilty in matter of Fact of what they were accused or whether the Articles were Treason in case they were guilty is not proper to this Discourse The beginning and maner of the first entring into this War being set down the Reader is left to judge on which the Offensive on which the Defensive is If it were as certain that the Parliament did before this War intend any thing against the Honor of the King as it is certain the Subjects Right and Liberty were encroached upon to say no more of what is vehemently presumed against the Protestant Religion no question then but the War must be thought Defensive on the Kings part But when these three endangered the Incendiaries contriving the subversion of the same consequently the promoters of this War are judicially required to answer their Misdemeanors when as they shall by a strong hand be rescued from the hand of Justice and in stead thereof Misdemeanors of as high a nature retorted on their Judges the Court of Parliament Nothing but a War could decide the Controversie an impartial understanding discern between the Offensive and Defensive part The Contention grew at first in point of Trust who should be rather believed for what is promised the King rather those about Him whom the Parliament suspected or the Parliament it self The several Reasons for requiring Trust are obvious to every mans view who hath observed their several Actions The Parliament may plead their undertakings cannot be made good nor the Trust committed to them discharged in that free and just way as they would because themselves opposed A Court of Judicature confronted and by an advers and equal power interrupted in their course of Justice must needs abate in their power and efficacy They have enough to do to detect and defeat the Fraud and Circumventions hourly practised against their place and person their condition like to the closely besieged in a Town of Garison who to subsist and maintain themselves do many things against their natural just and wonted course Friends may be sometimes oppressed and injured Enemies favored Justice cannot in perplexed times of danger be dealt with an exact and even poised hand the Sword hanging ready to fall like that of Damocles on each mans head A cunning Craftsman in dissembling and secret Enemy to that Court privily engaged to supplant the same may in his very demanding Justice and expecting by reason of the greatnesse of his place to be hearkned unto pressing withal their sedulous listening to his Complaints do it on purpose to divert their thoughts from their care of safety a small matter in equality of strength and in a doubtful Conflict helpeth to some Advantage Many are the exceptions against their Actions This a certain one the greatest and most inevitable inconvenience in their proceedings Martial and Civil that some injury must be done the very Act of War presumes as much and it is not their fault it may be their unhappinesse to be served by ill Instruments Those Instruments will expect also to be winked at in that they run the hazard of being censured to be Rebels for their sakes who do imploy them if not a little winked at there is danger in these dividing and doubtful times of turning to the advers part so the Subject is destined as it were to be oppressed And marvel not saith the wise man if thou seest oppression of the poor or a violent perverting of Justice in a Province and it must be that offences come The Miscarriages Violence and Insolencies done by a few or many particular men are not to be imputed to that Power which Governs them unlesse done by the Authority and Commission of that Power One other unfitnesse may appear in the proceedings of the Parliament as inevitable as the rest namely in that they have in a subordinate way deputed men of a lower rank to execute their Commissions and
Birth-right of the English Gentry a supine and carelesse Ignorance let in in stead of the vertuous Emulation which they have alwayes studyed Seeing then Peace and Justice are the Blessings which the Subject lives by both Issues of Religion when to expect a blessing on a Kingdom The Kingdom of Heaven must first be sought Gods Worship especially provided for to be built on firm unshaken Pillars when the care thereof principally resides in those chosen men set apart for Gods and their Countreys service Their endeavor is to be fully ascertained of their Princes inclination thereunto that by His Countenance and Authority the love of Gods Honor may like the pretious Oyntment on his head run down to the skirts of his lower garments and so seated in his heart as all Jealousies to be abandoned all Evil and appearance thereof to be abstained from and the Parliament not to leave that in suspence or doubt which they would have provided to make more sure for it is not a transitory matter of Arbitrary Event or Chance to be or not to be performed but most weighty of great concernment and whereon the prosperity and welfare of the Common-wealth depends whether the Laws shall be kept entire and God certainly and constantly honored or whether the Laws shall be in danger to be broken his Name to be prophaned The main Jealousie grows by reason of an Army under the Conduct of Papists which no man will imagine is raised for the defence of the Protestant Religion for howbeit that there may be peradventure Papists in the Parliaments Army when as the number of them hath been great their Presumption increasing more and more the chief and eminent Commanders Papists are in the King 's And which is to be observed few of them miscarry in the Quarrel as not exposing themselves to the danger and hardship of the War as if they did hope through the effusion of Protestant blood and lessening their number under the name of Rebels to make unto themselves a Province yet both parties the Kings the Parliaments do professe the maintenance of the Protestant Religion And the Kings recriminatorily chargeth the Parliament with a Design to subvert the same The reason given is because Schismaticks or other the preciser sort relishing not the book of Common-Prayer are adhering to the Parliament Answ That Prayer is but a Form and humane Constitution although anciently received and of use directing us to pray blesse give Thanks c. And alterable by Authority upon devising a better Form But the difference betwixt Protestant and Papist is in Fundamentals as in Doctrine and Points of Faith so opposite as no man will judge that the parties on the one side will fight to maintain the others Cause Popery and Schism opposite in themselves agree in this that they both do undermine and seek the rooting out of the true Protestant Religion This participatively and by secret wiles That privatively and by open Enmity the one may be an aberration from the other is Idolatry and opposition to the true Protestant Religion What upon an upright discussion that is whether we take it in point of Manners or of Doctrine the one enjoyned by and comprehended in the Decalogue the other set down and fenced in by a moderne and learned * Mr. Rogers his 39. Articles Writer against the force and wiles of Popery and Schisme both parties the King and Parliament do contest for and protest to maintain the Protestant Religion so whilst there is no equivocation in the word Protestant Religion a divers acception may be in the extended sence the aforenamed Writer hath by his industry composed the difference in determining what it is and that agreed upon the contention as to that particular may cease Truth and Uniformity in Religion which cannot be without Accord without a distinct and certain knowledge what it is is the foundation and corner stone of Peace If in this Contention the Kings Army shall prevail many Papists engaged and Commanders in it what is like to be the sequel Those Papists and their followers will hope and challenge it as a condign Reward to have an especial interest in His favour because they say it was their Sword their Arme that got the victory so the King must tread a slippery and narrow path either to desert His friends who have assisted Him in this War or disabling Himself to make good His often Protestations for the maintenance of the Protestant Religion And if in this Quarrel Popery shall be let in when Justice and Law shall fail when every one given up to his own heart's Lust the Papists and other the Parliaments Enemies will in an exprobratory way thank the Parliament as the cause thereof It is true it may be said so accidentally and very remotely but neither the Impulsive Formal or Efficient cause rather if Logick will bear such a member in the division of causes a deficient cause as the absence or rather the Ecclipse of the Sun the cause of Darknesse their endeavours having failed of successe being interrupted by a strong and countermanding Power opposing them In a more fit resemblance if a Band of Souldiers should be sent out to guard a Town and a stronger Power then theirs to be imployed to oppose and master them in whom lies the fault in case the Town be lost in the watchmens deficiency or in the stronger Power opposing them so Popery and Treason the Parliament are guilty of alike and what other contumelies the wit and restlesse malice of their Enemies accuse them of And unlesse to every objection this opposite observation be applyed that in the whole course of this Quarrel there be a distinguishing between what hath been Intentionally and Principally aimed at and what hath accidentally and through necessity fallen out there can no clear judgement be given in deciding the Question How the War began who have been the Cause and Authors of these Miseries It may be as well objected by malitious and cruel Enemies that His Majesties Clemency and goodnesse have been the cause of so much blood already spilt for that he hath not put those whom His party call Rebels to the sword or hanged them to teach others their duty of Submission such Doctrines are spread abroad to foment the War when the Doctors themselves are the incendiary and impulsive means together with those Soldiers now in Arms which incites the surviving suffering people to make resistance least if they submit also as in many places they have done they are undone by it No marvel if Subjects be called Traytors and Rebels if resistance against opposition and violence be Rebellion the often Robbing and Spoiling used in the Kings name and for the King which were wont to be conservative and saving terms tending to peace and security but now grown destructive as the Souldiers use them to the Subject are able to turn him out of his natural and accustomed Frame Oppression saith the wise man makes wise men
mad violence and oppression practised in the Kings name and by His party and by degrees wrought to the destruction of the Subject diverts and alters His wonted course and may make him Rebel as it were against His will when as He is frightned driven from and threatened out of His obedience If on the other side the Parliament shall prevail those Enemies to Common-Prayer advers also to what Government the Church shall appoint may be easily over-ruled by a Parliamentary Authority The Authors and Fautours of those Before this time of War there were no such Schisms or Heresies Tautum res nobis saith learned Iewel cum quibusdam satellitibus Pontificiis c. and it is requisite that Vnity and Peace be setled in the Church as well as in the State for suppression of these Schisms and Heresies God delighting yea and requiring it to have Order and Truth in his presence chamber the Church as in his larger courts the Common-wealth The Authors of the War have been the Authors of these Heresies which side Schisms being few and inconsiderable their Tenents newly sprung up and apt to vanish both through the insufficiency of their grounds and multiformity of their Sects wounding and weakning one another and in the main the Common cause For it is the firm and Orthodox Protestants which are the Parliaments firm friends whereon to trust yea and their constant friends also whilst the Parliament goes on in an entire solid and joynt way and are as the Exigency of their Affairs shall suffer them constant to themselves whereby and by which way alone they are inabled to defend themselves to protect their Friends Which side will prevail God only knows who can dispose of Victories at his will If the Parliament shall the King neverthelesse could not but assure Himself that He should be entirely King howsoever part of His Estate be by reason of these Wars diminished and the Parliaments Protestation taken 1641. together with their late Covenant two years after for the maintenance of His just Power and greatnesse were good security until themselves were reputed Traitors Rebels their worth in like maner undervalued and scorned by His party for so the Protestation and Covenant both may lose their efficacy and intent if He for whom they do Protest and Vow shall by opposing disable them in the prosecution of their Vow To that Objection That the Parliament have contrary to such Covenant Usurped and Intrenched upon His Regal Dignity and by seeking to hinder His Power have lessened His Honor in passing an Ordinance against His Majesties creating of Lords c. in seeking to have their Friends Invested with Honors and Titles answerable to their demerits To the first it is confest an Ordinance is past against all such Acts as may inure by vertue of the Great Seal and Barons being made by Patent under the same Seal which being a necessary Instrument of State which the Parliament represents being surreptitiously taken from them contrary to a Trust they have consequently passed an Ordinance against the Creating of Lords ut Supra For the Contention betwixt Him and them being grown extreme the King striving by all means to lessen their Power and Credit using all ways to advance His own their Enemies they knowing likewise the Seal to be made use of to their Detriment as if that the Kings conferring those Honors were not so much an augmentation of His Dignity in granting or in the created Lords in receiving those Honors as an intended diminution to the Parliaments Dignity had reason to provide for the time against all contingent Acts tending to the lessening their Power Admit it to be as the Objectors give out which neither the Kings party do prove nor the Parliaments do grant as in other Acts done by the Parliament An Usurping in them Usurpation may in the strength of policy prove a benefit to the Subject in that Usurpers do commonly Establish the best Laws to redeem their Credit lost by the Injury done in their Usurping If the Kings party shall prevail the War being between Him and His People the Parliament rather an Umpire in the Quarrel to do right to the wronged part there will be two things considerable The means whereby He doth prevail The end of His prevailing The first means not primarily as in the strength or greatnesse of His party yet consequently in that His party do undividedly retain and keep up the Ancient and setled Form of Government without contesting or dissenting in opinion about the Establishing any new As on the other side the Parliament hath thrown down the old without for a long time setting up any other Form or Constitution It was a learned Fathers Observation Augustine Ipsa mutatio quae utilitate adjuvat etiam novitate perturbat And it will require a most exact deliberate Wisdom to suppresse all Inconveniences which may arise on Novity Hence it hath been that the Parliaments Friends have grown lesse zealous to their side more troublesom to the Court it self by requiring and seeking a new and certain Form Which may admit a twofold Answer that the Parliament interrupted by a powerful Enemy hath not a full measure of Efficacy to conform and compose every collateral difference happing either in Church or Common-wealth when as their Task is hard enough to maintain and keep a work more necessary Their own Power Secondly In that they have for a time abolished those ancient Forms and constitutions finding haply some present reason for so doing whether they will forthwith establish some other Forme as it is probable they will having long since promised it or reassume the Ancient when time shall serve there being no substantial difference betwixt what is now abrogated and what is to be Ordained is left to their wisdom besides it is presumed in point of Judgement and of Policy that they will have such respect unto their Predecessors Acts as not altogether to raze out to abrogate for ever their ancient Constitutions least succeeding Parliaments should do the like by theirs and so the Courts of Parliament which have been instituted for redresse of Mischiefs and Grievances c. should become See Statute Edw. 3. the Scene and Seminary of inconvenience and disturbance by introducing still Novelties and alterations in the Common-wealth The third is in that His Majesty keeping His residence in a lesse Town of Garison Oxford can more easily conform and subdue a few unto His will then the Parliament can in a more greater place London The multitude in that City the supplies and Ayd afforded by the City to the Parliament can counterpoise such odds The event of His Majesties prevailing is alike considerable and two-fold also first in that the Parliament Members already proscribed and charged with Rebellion are exposed to contempt and ruine in them a great part of the Subjects of both Kingdoms when as the cause wherein the Publique good is so much concerned is by idle and abject Fellows called
a disposition to a habit and a habit to it self 'T is true there wanted time and preparations to make it a perfect War and neither WESTMINSTER nor LONDON were a fit scene for War the preparations were elswhere made in many parts of the Kingdom by men who have been active for His party and large contributors to this War against the Parliament have evidenced the symptomes of a War and their assistance whensoever it should be waged To prove the Kings assertion that He in His Person intended no War divers of His Nobility then attending Him have * See their Attestation at York Iune 1642. attested it under their hand writing which the Court of Parliament urges as too light a proof to discharge their Trust or to secure three Kingdoms by a Civil War being then in agitation the seed already sown Who may they say can witnesse or be security for another mans intentions for what another man doth purpose in his heart or who being present with the King dare call in question His sincerity t is all one to tell Him He is false or wicked a Kings anger is as the roaring of a Lyon If two or three begin what third fourth or more will refuse to joyn in the attesting it being present there His Majesties heart may be peaceable and sincere but a Certificate from those Lords is no Medium to prove it so Those Lords it 's like had a cheap esteem of their fellow-Lords and Commons and might well think fit rather to be quarrelled then joyned with if the Parliament the supreamest Court of Judicature and Trust shall so slighly discharge their Trust as to place the Peace and security of three Kingdoms on so easie a proof as a few though very Honorable Gentlemen to deliver what their opinion barely was concerning the Kings intentions a discord arising and a Civil War in view His Majesty exasperated as it was feared a party ready to joyn with Him some whereof having taken part with Him in His first assault others of the like condition to assist Him on pretence of Loyalty the Parliament Members many of them being accused of high misdemeanors and few scarce free from the incursion of His Majesties displeasure the debate concerning the Earl of Straffords trial being scarse wiped out were necessitated as well in their own defence as in the peoples involved in theirs to take up Arms to keep off those storms already acted and attempted which if they had not done and timously provided a face of War appearing against the like assaults it would have been thought a weaknesse of spirit or want of prudence if they had desisted besides the happinesse as to us which probably might have accrewed by the assembling a Parliament must have turned unto much unhappinesse by the affronting and overthrowing this as to the Parliament how incompetent it had been to their judgement in case the Trust reposed in them and the important Affairs of the Kingdom the end of their Assembling should have miscarried through their credulity to have made no better return of their wisdom the peoples trust then for them to have excused the same by saying We had not thought it would have so faln out As to the Acts of Violence and Injustice practised by the partakers in this War as of Robbing Spoyling and the like who first began the Kings party or the Parliaments They accuse each other of the first breach of Justice The Kings party aver The Lady Savage's House in ESSEX to be the first which was assaulted and spoyled of much of her Goods and Houshold-stuffe to an exceeding value Whether so or not or the Earl of Stamfords House in Leicestershire as the Parliament party urges the case is of a differing quality For howbeit there may be Injustice in the one as in the other act of Pillaging The Lady Savage being a known and convict Recusant a Law in force for disarming Papists and His Majesties Proclamation of Displeaâ—ure published the year before against Recusants c. the people suspecting their strength and opportunity to increase and supposing her preparations might be therefore made the better to enable her self against the Law remembring also His Majesties Proclamation did in pursuance of such Law and Proclamation without any Superior Warrant assault and Pillage her as is urged These particular acts could not but foreshew a war which since hath happened and setting those aside the Question is on which side the offensive is The extreme terms and parties in this Quarrel are a Delinquent party on the one and a Parliament a Court of Judicature on the other side or if the King will against His Subjects will and their humble importuning Him make himself a party betwixt a King and the greater part of His Kingdom the Parliament only the Umpire to judge and moderate the Quarrel A War thus happening and parties thus engaged 't is not now who first intended an Offensive who a Defensive War but who first executed a Warlike act or appeared modo guerrino which the Laws do forbid to Subjects and the King the Defender of those Laws to make the offended party provide for themselves the King against the Parliament or the Parliament against the King The Parliament to bring offendors unto Tryal the end and reason of their Assembling to sit as a speculative and ignavous Court or to dissolve as having nothing within their Power to do could not in an ordinary and usual course summon and reach offendors Themselves proscribed and proclaimed against as Traytors were enforced to take up Arms as well for their own as the peoples safety which if they did not and in time provide against their Ruine they had had no other Reward for the present but pity from their Friends and scorn from their Enemies The future inconveniences might have been as fatal like a Consumption leisurely to spend the body or as a Civil War like a burning Feaver suddenly to kill it They then upon foresight of what they could not avoid but either to pursue the Justice of their Cause by Arms or to desist and submit to the mercy of their Enemies provide and send forth an able faithful General proved by his Prowesse in rescuing and relieving a besieged * GLOUCESTER stoutly and like an expert Commander relieved without as vigilantly and valiantly defended by the Governor within Town or Fort when the Enemy had well nigh prevailed Next after him they send forth another Puissant and Dexterous in his Atchievements with other Officers and Commanders belonging to an Army hazarding their own persons and Estates to try whether the Countreys which have chosen and sent them on their work would now defend and assist them in imminence of danger in the Cause of maintaining the Laws the Subjects Liberty the Power and Priviledge of Parliament In the Interruption of whose Endeavors a War is waged a Conflict entred into two parties opposite engaged and the Victory hath been therefore doubtful by reason of
other Acts in several Counties for raising money c. or otherwise for discharging some Trust to them committed when as themselves the more eminent the more aimed at by the Enemy and the nearer to danger cannot appear with safety to execute the same Let any man suppose it to be his own case then he will not blame them for absenting themselves and substituting others in their room Many are the objections in this kinde which beget Disputes many accusations had against either part What the Parliament findes and complains to be practiced in opposition to them by their Enemies they observe most sensible presumptions for no one thing in bar to such presumptions to make up one tittle of compensation in lieu of the dangers which might happen or to give any the least satisfaction for removing the imminency of the same The vulgar and common salve used by His Majesties party of His passing bills since the Parliament began for the relief and ease of His Subjects as a pledge of His Princely goodnesse and care of His peoples welfare His often and deep Protestations for the maintenance of the Protestant Religion and the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom yet as matters now are these Acts of His not compensatory to those hostile Acts practiced by His party against His Parliament and people Besides those Acts of Parliament passed by His Majesty are in His and a new Parliaments power to retract or repeal them at pleasure For let it be granted that they were Acts of Parliament which His Majesty hath thus passed in that the Members of both Houses at WESTMINSTER are by His party denied to be a Parliament yet sometimes called a Parliament sometimes Rebels there is like to be little stability in what they have enacted neither is that which is contingent and possible to be altered to be adjudged compensatory to what is certain and actual The difference of times that they were reputed a Parliament when those Acts passed but since reputed Rebels or the distinction into persons that some are reserved to be a Parliament others Rebels will breed a greater confusion then help to frame an Answer by those of His Majesties party who object this favour of His Majesties passing divers Bills for the welfare of His Subjects c. That they may be repealed altered in part or all dissolved or want their vigour in execution it is probable when the persons who have and are the chief assistants in this War are the greatest Losers by those Acts recited Next as touching His Protestations His frequent Declarations of manifesting His intentions His late actions of Clemency and Pardon shewed to those whom he calls Rebels when they were taken prisoners at a late Seige by His Majesty His releasing and setting them free when He might have detained and proceeded against them as Traytors and Rebels in the judgement of His party These are to be acknowledged indulgent and merciful Acts becoming a just and Christian Prince yet they may be two wayes understood First in relation to the good of His own party prisoners in the Parliaments power and in danger to have suffered the like in case the King should have punished theirs Secondly those His Acts of releasing of His milde using of those His prisoners it is possible might be construed as present Acts of Clemency to endure only for a time and that He may be perswaded afterwards to punish them as Rebels These are times of wit and jealousie and the same Reasons which have occsioned this War even His peoples Jealousies may continue them without abatement there is no lesse cause of fears and dangers His party having tried every way by traducing the Parliament at home by attempting to set them at varience with Forraigners abroad having moved every stone as the Proverb is to subdue those whom they term Rebels no way left untried to take away their power and shadow of power no means left unassayed either milde of Inviting or violent in Affrighting and those plausible and gratious Acts used possibly to encrease yet the number of his party may cease from a total pardoning only remitting for a time until a full Conquest be obtained And when the Crown is repossest the Conquest fully had the French Proverb tells us Que la Coronne unifois prinse oste toute sorte de defaults i. e. that when the King shall be reinvested to His former full Power and Regal Dignity the Parliament and the power thereof then laid aside and become void the possessing of the Crown doth as well quit all quarrels and acceptions and cancels all disputes as it clears and purifies all manner of defaults imperfections or exceptions to be made concerning the means whether fair or foul of gaining the Conquest As Jealousies have been the cause of this Contention so what the cause of Jealousies The principal and most certain one hath been in matter of fact namely the infringing the Subjects Liberty soon after the Petition of Right was granted in full Parliament to be omitted here because set forth in several Declarations and Remonstrances One and more universal was that in the case of Ship-money which had it not been withstood by a Gentleman of repute let his Ghost be railed at and a Parliament soon after summoned what had become of the Subjects Liberty If a Writ comes down directed to a Sheriff of a County he bound by Oath or fearful of incurring displeasure in case he refuse to execute the Kings Writ and having the Posse Comitatus within his Office what remedy shall the poor Countrey man have dwelling one hundred or two hundred miles from the Court if he refuse or hath it not to pay against Imprisonment or his Goods taken from him by Distresse Justice hath its boundary and is circumscribed by Law Injury and Injustice like the violent Torrent of an Inundation over-flowing the Banks and Metes overwhelms and drowns as Decency and Order when bound up by good and wholsom Laws if disturbed and broken down falls into Uncertainty Indiscretion and becomes Confused Let men talk of fears and jealousies and in an Ironical way smile at those whose peculiar care is to prevent and remove the same no man knows what the Progresse of that wrong had been had it not been withstood The mention whereof seeing so often inculcated in other Writings can be no pleasing Theme to any Subject And whereas His Majesty hath confessed and retracted that His Error being now condemned to an utter abolition ought to be buried in Oblivion neither doth it become every ordinary Subject to traduce and accuse His Soveraign of Injustice doing it comes too near to what the wise man expresly forbids of Cursing the King in their thoughts as of what the Statute Law provides against Only to satisfie one Objection used by some of His Majesties party in His behalf touching the same Better say they the payment thereof should have continued then so much blood spilt such vast Sums of Money spent in
at WESTMINSTER being the lesse One other kinde of force is urged of sitting at un-Parliamentory Pag. 7. hours or else to lose their Vote There must be to answer the other Member of of this distinction some Parliamentory hours appointed which no Laws hath yet assigned sitting still or going away relates commonly to the necessity and exigent of the matter in hand which haply will not admit delay or a second meeting but may require their sitting up till ten eleven or twelve a clock in the night and may again their meeting at six five or four or sooner in the morning If they please to abate so much of their own repose and rest by their pains and Industry their Countrey is so much the more beholding to them many of the Countries have in their * See the Petitions of the several Counties Petitions taken notice of and thanked them for their indefatigable pains The reason of the small number at WESTMINSTER wherewith the Assembly at OXFORD chargeth them is obvious to each mans understanding They make them thin and then upbraid them with their thinnesse T is as if Friends and Companions in a Journey shall see their fellow Travellers in danger to be robbed and ride away without assisting them in danger whose fault is it in case they are robbed the failing of those who might have helped or the paucity of those who are robbed this in respect of the other is a remote least principal and accidental cause T is easie for a Prince to confer Honors upon men so to fill the House of Peers divers wayes also to increase the number in the House of Commons to His party but for the one party to make the other thin and then to undervalue the power of them becoming so is like one impoverishing another by forsaking him in those duties of friendship which he owes and then contemning him The next odds observed by the Assembly at OXFORD between the Parliament at WESTMINSTER and themselves is the Kings presence with them at OXFORD and a major part of the Lords therefore out-weighing the Dignity of those at WESTMINSTER Which exception as to the Kings being there is answered by the Law of not Dissolving or by His Majesties being Virtually although not Personally present In that the greater part of the Nobility are with the King His party therefore the more Honored 't is answered without Disputing the Dignity or Preeminence of either part as which the more valuable in Birth or Breeding those which went away or those which staid behinde Comparisons are unseemly and forbid what this Discourse doth aim at Reconcilement Union It was not so at the first entrance into this Quarrel the King withdrawing Himself from the Parliament many of the Peers thought themselves by duty of their place obliged to attend on His Majesty and might have power it is like to prevail with some other of their fellow-Peers Besides the Nobility are to be considered as in the next Classe and Attendant on His Majesty some by their place others more remotely Interested wherefore seeing Safety and Preferment are the Stake which most men of all sorts contend for let the World be made believe it is Conscience Loyalty the King the Fountain of Honor in whom to Reward and Pardon they who are nearest Him hope first to gain by applying themselves to serve and please Him All men know the Proverb No fishing to the Sea nor service to the Court which was only in those days true when a just and uninterrupted Peace did flourish no man but could perceive through the Prospect of this Discord that Peace Plenty and Liberality in Rewarding would all be lost in a Civil Destructive War The Question was at the first much controverted which the more just or rightful Cause the Kings or the Parliaments divided from the King Many of the Grandees adhering to the Court and more Loyal in an implicite faith adhered to the Kings no more marvel then that Servants immediatly attendant on their Master should venture their obedience and assent unto him because their Master without examining the Reason of so assenting and then engaged pursue their undertakings or be meanly thought of in case they shall renounce the same the credit whereof is discerned in the quality of the Cause undertaken not in the resolvednesse of the Servant undertaking it Princes can and often do reward their Friends and Favorites the Parliament cannot or seldom doth it is besides their usual course to give besides their Friends expectance to receive other Salary then the redemption of their just Liberties for which they fight the maintenance of their ancient Birth-right conveyed unto them by the known Laws saving in some few particular cases where the Parliament shall meet with a desperately engaged and restlesse Enemy of great Power and Estate to fight and foment the Quarrel against on the other side some Friends Eminent in Desert of smaller Fortunes to fight for them In such a case to disseize their Enemy to diminish his power to invest and gratifie their Friend to augment his Fortune seems not unjust nor unreasonable But to return The distinction of Virtual and Personal seems offensive yea the Declaration calls it Trayterous which no indifferent man will judge until Victory by nature insolent makes every thing displeasing to the Conqueror Criminal As when those on the Kings side hoped to have over-run and conquered all no man wishing well to the Parliament durst name them joyntly whereas simply and univocally to hold for King and Parliament is the surest and most Loyal tenure Howbeit nothing can be with more anger and displeasingly received by the more perverse and insolent amongst His Majesties party then for them to hear those on the Parliaments side say that They are for the King and Parliament So the Quarrel hath several overtures of increasing the Parliament party taking it indignly at the Kings party's hands to be thought Disloyal False Dissemblers as the King 's expresse their anger with the Parliaments for saying They are for King and Parliament To believe or say that the King is seduced by evil Councel is in their heat and anger a wounding His Majesty through His Councels sides which exception of theirs must render Him infallible in judgement or so singular in wisdom as to be above or to stand in no need of Councel for if he makes use of Councel and erres by their Advice the Error is His Councels or must presume in Him such transcendency of Goodnesse in not inclining to any evil motion as is not competent to a Creature An impartial looker on will rather judge the words of His Majesties being seduced by Evil Councel to be a degree rather of Dutifulnesse then Disloyalty as freeing Him from Misdoings and laying the Charge on His Evil Councellors His Majesty is happier if free from these stiled by another * King Iames in His speech in Parliament 1609. calls them Traitors vipers c name then His
Whosoever shall invite the company or desire the accesse of any person whither it be of a King as supreme or of any other person of a lower rank it is to be presumed to be for the mutual and amicable society of those who are desired if before the time of entertaining there be a strangenesse or aversnesse of friendship in the invited friends the desire of the inviter ceaseth and he abateth his welcome The Comparison although it seemeth here betwixt two equal parties friends of the like degree therefore not fit to hold is the more effectual betwixt two parties the one superior of Power to wrong the other inferiour Subject to bee wronged The reason wherefore the Members in the House of Parliament were preferred in their Countreys suffrages to be their Judges was for the opinion of their Wisdom and Integrity above at least equal to others of the Countrey Wisdom consists of Circumspection Diffidence foresight * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euripid. The French call Mistrust the Mother of Wisdom Diffidence especially as Integrity doth of distributing and doing all men right In the Parliaments refusing or admitting His Majesties accesse they have a narrow path to tread to please all men which no man or Counsel yet could do for if by denying him they prolong the War impoverish and exhaust the Kingdom as some men and their adversaries give out if by admitting they lose and frustrate their preparations and past endeavorings for the Subjects welfare for it will rest in the King and in His parties Power to annihilate their Acts their prudence and councels will be exposed to obloquy and scorn For howbeit His Majesty as a Christian as a King may and cannot chuse but have a deep sence and compassionate heart against the farther shedding of his Subjects blood His party which He professeth under the name of friends not to desert will expect a large interest in His Power their interest which when they have gained any man may judge for what use it shall serve In War the prevailing and stronger side relieth upon their Forces the weaker and more vanquished on their stratagem and cunning for the Parliament to be over-wrought by the cunning Practices of their adversaries were a lessening of their wisdom The people of CVMA were branded for their too late wisdom their imprudence was turned into a Proverb The fisherman once struck alwayes takes heed A parley once betwixt two parties found false makes the more innocent part the wiser afterwards If neither Peace nor Conquest can be the sooner had the War continued is like to have a most sad and fatal upshot the fault of the continuing resting onely on some few mens accompt betwixt these two extremes viz. the Dissolute licentious and Armed man on the one side and the harmlesse poor Subject on the other The oppressour on the one and the oppressed on the other side or where it first began betwixt the Papists stiling themselves the Kings friends in His name and under colour of defending Him on the one side and the Protestant on the other side in whose blood the Papists do think to imbrue their hands naming them Rebels Traytors to His Majesty The Prophet sums up the diffeence in a few words betwixt the ungodly and wicked who have drawn out their sword and bent their bow to cast down the poor and needy and to slay such as be of a right Conversation But that there is a superintendent Almighty Power the Lord of Hoasts who will be a defence to the oppressed even a refuge in time of trouble whereof he hath already given a pledge and manifested his Power and loving kindnes unto His in the more remote parts of Christendom by giving several successes in signal victories to the Protestant party in those parts against the more Popish Although in those vast Armies there are Papists on either side yet take them either in degree or number the Spaniard Emperor and their confederates consist only or for the most part of Papists accomplices in a confederate League by open enmity as by secret subtile practises to extirpate the Protestant religion The persons on whom the Accompt of the continuance of this War will lye are those alone who throughly convinced of the injustice thereof waged by the Kings party against his people knowing withall who have been the first actual Authors and promoters of this War who since the counterfeiters and pretenders to a Peace remain yet obstinate adhering to that party in that desperate and resolute way as preferring rather the ruine of their own native Countrey before the failing of that their party The sober relenting and wise demeanors of these engaged might have put a period to this War if they steering their affections all one way to the light of Sence Conscience Reason shall set aside the punctilio of reputation which no wise man did ever lose of being thought inconstant their actions will alike unite and joyn together against the refusers of Peace as against a common Enemy and every good Subject will according to the habiliments whereunto he has been used and bred act and wish best only to that side which wisheth best undividedly unreservedly to the King and Kingdom In the dividing which every one takes it ill to be suspected to be partial or that his wishes should seem rather to incline to the King then to the Parliament to the Parliament rather then to the King they thinking that their wishing well to the King is to wish well to the King and Kingdom because the King protesteth the welfare of the Kingdom The perusing this Treaty doth clear the question and doth settle and confine the doubtful Judgement of whosoever may be mistaken in this conflict The Unity and joynt accord in the House of Parliament may be a leading case to induce a general Unity among all the Subjects of the Kingdom That as by the singular policy presented in the Harmony betwixt the House of Lords and Commons and as between the Commons themselves strengthening and crediting their proceedings the like Unity may descend intirely to the inferior Members throughout the Kingdom For howbeit there may be different wayes several disputes by cause of various judgements all tending to one and the self same end yet no Argument to divide them from their chief principle The Subjects Peace And although emulation alwayes attends great and eminent spirits keeping off for the most part an accord of mindes Gods Power is so much the more visible in their actings and endeavorings for Peace Himself being the Author of Peace and lover of Concord in making men to be of one minde in an House Briefly to comprise the whole in a few words by way of question and for the sooner restoring these unhappy Kingdoms to an happy Peace and general Unity the matter of this Civil and unnatural War betwixt the Prince and people betwixt the Subjects of three Kingdoms contending each with other as it had it's rise from mistakes and jealousie doth now as the possibility and enjoyment of a firm and lasting Peace rest and determine upon the clearing of these few questions Whither His Majesty has had evil Councellors Instruments about Him who have diverted Him from the course of justice some of whom stiled now His friends Whither His declining and forsaking them be ingratitude in Him or to be accounted a deserting His Friends Whither there be a lawfully summoned Parliament and where Whither the peoples taking up of Arms in maintenance of this War ut supra be either in the beginning or in the continued course thereof Rebellion and Treason FINIS
the equal strength in the one for the King and Parliament with the other for the King against the Parliament both sides equal in degree and worth The odds only in that those for the King and Parliament contend not peradventure in so temporary seeming and immediate a way of Service as those for the King against the Parliament in their impetuous and inconsiderate heat amongst their own party best accepted as having at first sight a more seeming test of Loyalty more dreadful to the advers part as being the more full of cruelty Those for the King would not be thought Adversaries to a Parliament in a direct and immediate opposition to that Court for all seem to reverence the Law and the Law makers but consequently and forseeingly what course the Parliament did take to suppresse Abuses and Exorbitances in the Common-wealth which haply those advers persons might be guilty of The Adversaries to which Court are branched into several sorts the Verses found at their first fitting declaring what Members were competent alone for imployment in the Parliament glanced at many of those who were likely to prove advers thereunto No Church-Papist no Court Atheist No Fen Dreyner nor Lords Reteiner No man commended from the Lawn Sleeve Nor Ship-money collecting Sheriff out of which some chosen have approved themselves firm Friends and Patriots to their Countrey Besides these recited in these Rimes are First Obnoxious and guilty persons corrupt in place and Office therefore troubled to be overlook'd by a Superior power who might examine their Demeanors Amongst which numbers some not from the first or habitually offending but for some later and particular act of Inconstancy having erred persist therein in forsaking the trust in them reposed 2. Others of ambitious and aspiring thoughts or of a proud conciet or envy scorning to partake with others their Equals in opinion thinking withall that it smels too much of the Yeoman of a Peasant and vulgar quality to take part with or serve their Countrey 3. Some through Levity and Humor of a crosse and advers condition affecting Paradoxes venting thence the strength of their own wit and boldly descanting on the Court of Parliament their actions as if the more Honorable that Court is the more fit a Combitant for their great wits to foyn and fence with 4. Others from an ill will and disaffection to some person of the Parliaments side which the disaffected hope may prove Rebellion in such person have therefore adhered to the King against the Parliament 5. Others not much differing from these who seeing their immediate Ancestor Father Brother or some other unto whom they are next in Remainder or near in Blood to have assisted the King and Parliament therefore in danger to be questioned and knowing it to be in the King to Punish and Reward hoping for Reversion of such Estate upon their Ancestors Attainder have therefore assisted the King against the Parliament 6. Others of the like mould dividing as it were by contract and suiting their affections as the father to the one the son to the other side so the one is to be a saver by the bargain let the victory fall out which way it will This is the easiest and uncertainest way of Policy if there be any who practice it if I had said the worst way to it had been no wrong done to the Contractors because the War hath been by no means so much protracted as by the Collateral interests Conscience and Judgement being excluded 7. Others who having lived in Forraign Countries of a more free and absolute Government then this mixt Monarchy is deeming all manner of obedience due in whatsoever a King commands because it hath been paid to the King where these persons have lived and seeing That universal obedience denied to our King as matters now stand have therefore settled their affections to His party and having so setled think it now an undervaluing their Judgement to alter their opinion 8. Others of an easier Temper yet as obstinate as any of the rest from somelight courtesie from the one or discourtesie from the other side have taken parts and taking it on trust that all maner of obedience is Loyalty all disobedience Rebellion have been through such opinion drawn unto His Majesties party and reteining still the impression wherewith they were first seasoned think it now shame to quit the same unto whom notwithstanding the terms on which this division grows have been so doubtful that the very first impression hath alone weighed in guiding their Affections for the peevish pride and folly of making good their first impression on no others grounds then because the first which they think scorn to alter hath strongly wrought upon many in this contention If any the Inhabitants in or about LONDON doubtful at first which side to take and since the time of the Proclamation set forth against that City be advers to the Parliament some through pretext of Duty to the King many upon the hopes of gaining pardon when He shall have prevailed others upon other grounds as having debtors in His Army and Quarters wish well unto His party in hope to receive their debts others not so much out of Loyalty to the King as discontented and displeased with the Parliament for imposing payments towards this War finding withall a discontinuance of their usual trading to defray this new and unexpected charge and ready to believe that His Majesties distance from White-Hall and His other adjoyning Palaces together with the peoples absence from the Courts of Judicature are a detriment to their present trading and that the Parliament is the cause of all These men are sensible only of a present pressure at the instant not looking to what is past or future like impatient and peevish patients who think no pain comparable to what they at the present feel But how to avoid the charge of the above recited Proclamations leaving none unpardoned of the city these men may imagine that they play their game most cunningly and trusting on pardons underhand may prove Enemies to their fellow-Citizens who joyntly acting for the Cities good these men it is to be feared do countermine and work against the same For admit in a corporation or society opposed by a powerful Enemy some few of the society shall upon suspition had that some of the same fellowship do covertly serve the Enemies turn by givnig intelligence or otherwise assisting him and in so doing provide for their own safety in case the enemy shal prevail wherefore those upon such suspition shal conclude to be as wise in providing alike for their own safety also By such divisions sinister suspitions the Unity being disturbed a way is consequently prepared to the ruine of the whole at last Others there be more danrous then these who having some special Friends in the Quarters or Army of the Enemy are Factors where they live for such their friends who preferring their private and ambitious ends before