fine or imprison without any indictment or legall tryall by Jury or Verdict according to Magna Charta and the Common-Law Therefore your bringing Delinquents to punishment for Life and Estates which in the first branch of this Proposition must be intended only of a just and Legall TRYALL as your selves have alwayes professed not by a new Law in the post And if so then the King in case you will not rest satisfied with the seven excepted persons banishment is content to leave them to your Justice even for Life and Estate according to the known Laws of the Realm and will no wayes interrupt your proceedings therein nor pardon them Therefore in this he fully consents to the Proposition But it hath been objected First that the King denyes to yeeld them up to Justice or to have any hand in their prosecution and therefore his Answer is unsatisfactory Secondly That this expression That he caâ— neither in Iustice nor honour consent to any Act for to take away their Lives or Estates is as high a justification of them and his own cause as possible and contradictory to the first Proposition and declares the Kings heart to be still in the same and unchanged To which I Answer First both these are so grosse mistakes and inconsequences that I wonder how any intelligent man can insist upon them For first the King in positives terms if you will not accept of their banishment yeelds them up to a Legall tryall in which himself must be the Prosecutor the Indictment being in his name the prosecution at his suit by his Counsell at Law and the Witnesses produced on his behalf as all men know who understands what belongs to a Legall tryall Therefore to infer from the Kings Answer that he disclaims all prosecution of them is direct contradiction and falsehood Secondly the Kings very condesconsion to their banishment and forfeiture of their Estates for adhering to his Cause and putting them upon their legall tryall is an express disavowing of his own cause as just and an acknowledgment of its badnesse and illegality and if the Parliament should yeeld up those who have acted for and adhered to them to banishment confiscation of Estate and legall tryall for their lives I am certain the Objectors themselves would protest that therein they had betrayed their righteous Cause and deserted their best affected friends Thirdly Expressum facit cessare tacitum the King having in direct terms justified your Cause and War as just in the first Proposition acknowledged those persons exempted in this and treated for under the very name notion of Delinquents to be such in this very Proposition and consented to their banishment and losse of Estate cannot without apparcht absundity be averred to justifie them and their Cause in this his Answer which yeelds them up to the strictest legall Justice as Delinquents 5ly Those words of the King so much excepted against that he can neither in honour nor justice consent to any act to take away their lives who have acted any thing by his command used and intended by him only in relation to his regall consent to a new Law to condemn them ex post facto where there was no Law before are so farre from any exception that for my part I should have held him neither just nor honourable had he omitted this expression For can it be just or honourable for a King to engage men in his service by special Commission or Command when there is no known Law to make their obedience criminall and yet afterwards to give his Royal consent to a subsequent Law to take away their lives forfeit their estates for obeying his own Royall commands Suppose we were now in the Kings condition and he in ours and he should press you to consent to a new Law to make all those who have acted for you and by your Commission in this war Traytors and to lose their lives and estates for it when there was no former Law to punish them would you not all give the self same answer as he doth that you could neither in honor nor justice nor yet in point of conscience consent to such a Law and would not your selves and all other protest you had neither justice nor honesty in you should you be so base and persidious as to condescend unto it to betray all those you had engaged and to give them such a requitall for their services Would any person ever after honor serve or trust you should you do it or could you or any other honor trust or serve the K. in any dubious imployment after this if he should thus unworthily ex post facto betray his own party now This answer therefore of his clearly discovers to us that there is yet so much justice and honor in him as by no fear or danger to consent to such an unjust and unworthy Act as by a new Law to cut off the heads of those himself engaged in his service when there was no Law extant then to do it makes it more satisfactory unto me then otherwise and shews he doth not dissemble but is reall in his answers and I shall sooner trust and beleeve him now then if he had consented to such an unworthy act 6ly This answer is both just and honorable because if the King should assent to a new Act to forfeit their lives and Estates he should condemne them rashly and unjustly without hearing their defence or evidence And for the King to condemn any for Traytors by a Bil without hearing the cause or evidence against them or to make men Traytors by a law subsequent to their offences is neither just nor honorable in every just mans judgment and of very dangerous president as Sir Edw. Cook informs us the Lord Cromwell the inventer of such Acts of Attainder being the first that lost his head by this new invention All which considered there is no rationall man but must conclude the Kings Answer unto this branch touching Delinquents to be fully satisfactory even to your own demands as well in words as substance notwithstanding the Objections against it But admit the answer as bad as any have made it shall we therefore conclude it so unsatisfactory as to break off the Treaty upon it and involve the Kingdom in another War of which no man can know the end or issue God forbid we should ever be so unadvised The persons whose lives you desire for a Sacrifice to publick Justice are but seven in number fix of them out of your power in forraign parts where a new war will not reach them the 7th an aged man who may chance to dye before judgment or execution pass against him you have all their whole estates at your disposal already and their persons too by way of banishment during both Houses pleasure And will you adventure another seven years war and the losse perchance of seventy thousand mens lives and as many millions of Treasure to the ruine
Seal against the Parliament to publick Justice who cannot plead it in Barre or excuse in any Court after it shall be nulled and repealed by an Act. Fifthly a great disparagement dishonour and disadvantage to the English Cavaliers Irish Rebels and their cause and proceedings with a future disingaging of them and al their Party from the King and his interest who hath so far dishonoured deserted and disclaimed them as thus to null and repeal all Honours Titles Grants of Offices Lands or Tenements bestowed on any of them for any services done or Assistance given by them to the King in his Warres against the Parliament A very high point of humiliation and self-deniall in the King and such a blow to his Popish and Malignant party that I dare presume they will never engage in his behalfe nor trust him for the future which will much conduce to the settlement of a firm and lasting peace and prevent new VVars if accepted of 6ly Indempnity and security for all the Commissioners of the new Great Seale against all scruples which may arise upon the Statute of 25. E. 3. for using and sealing with it if ever the times alter which every prudent man will readily embrace where it is freely offered and not peevishly reject in such an age of danger and incertainty as this in which no man is secure of his life liberty or estate on either side The next Concession of the King in this Treaty is this That by Act of Parliament all Peeres made since Edward Lord Littleton deserted the Parliament and conveyâ—d away the Great Seale on the one and twentieth day of May 1642. shall be Vn-Peer'd and set by And all other titles of honour and precedency as Lordship Knighthood and the like conferred on any without consent of both Houses of Parliament since the twentieth of May 1642. shall be revoked and declared null and void to all intents and never hereafter put in use And that no Peere who shall be hereafter made by the King his heirs or successors shall sit or vote in the Parliament of England without consent of both Houses of Parliament This Concession of the Kings is of great concernment to the Kingdome and I conceive without president or example in any age or King in the Christian world First it secures us from our formerly feared danger of a designe in the King by new created Peers to make an over-ruling party at any time in the Lords House wherein the Iudicatory of the Parliament principally consists which danger and inconvenience by secluding the Bishops out of that House by an Act already passed and by this disabling all new Peers hereafter to be made to sit in that House without consent of both Houses is for ever totally prevented Secondly It gives such an extraordinary new power to the House of Commons as they never formerly enjoyed or pretended to to wit that no Peer created by the King himselfe or by the King or Lords in Parliament who usually created Peers in Parliament without the Commons privity or consent in former times shall be henceforth inaabled to sit or vote as Peers of Parliament but by consent of the House of Commons as well as of the King and Lords By which provision the Commons are made not only in some sense the Judges of Peers themselves which they could not try or judge beforeby the expresse letter of Magna Charta chap. 29. and the Common Law but seven their very Creators too Thirdly It is an extraordinary prejudice and blemish on the Kings cause and an extream dishonour dissatisfaction disengagement upon his own party then which a greater cannot be imagined For what higher affront or disgrace could the King put upon those Nobles Gent. others who have spent their estates lost their blood limbs and adventured their very lives in this cause against the Parliament and received no other reward for it but an empty title of honour perchance a Kightship Lordship or the bare title of a Marquesse Earl or Viscount which they have enjoyed but a year or two with little benefit and lesse content to be thus by Act of Parliament with the Kings owne Royall assent who conferred those titles on them for their gallant services in his behalfe thus suddenly degraded and divested of them all as if they had never been A perpetuall brand to them their posterity who must be inforced to give place to such of whom they have had precedency place by vertue of these dignities Which high affront and scorne I am verely perswaded will pierce and break many of their own at least their Ladies hearts and for ever disoblige them in the highest degree 4thly It will make all the ancient and new Nobility and Peers of England lesse dependent on the King lesse complying to serve his ends upon all occasions being never able to gratisie or reward them though never so ambitious with any new Honours or Peerships without consent of both Houses of Parliament whom they dare not displease or disoblige for fear of crossing them in their desired dignities and titles as well as in their great Offices which are both now in their disposall not in the Kings alone In brief the King in his Concession hath manifested the greatest humiliation and self-deniall that any King since there was a Kingdome in the world hath done It is and hath been the ancient and undoubted prerogative of all Kings in the world but especially of the Kings of England to conferre honours dignities of all sorts especially Knighthood on whom they shall think meet and more principally on those who have merited it by their gallantry in the field as Mr. Selden proves at large in his Titles of honour and others who have written of that Subject Now for the King out of a desire only of a happy peace and settlement not onely to part with much of the Royall Prerogative which all other Kings in the world enjoy for the future but to repeal the Honours and Titles conferred by him on his adherents for reward of their services in times past during all these wars is such a miracle and high degree of selfe-deniall as no age hath produced the like and that which most of this house had the King prevailed would have rather lost their lives had they conferred any such Titles on their Generalls and Commanders then have condescended to should the King require it And therefore I cannot agree with those over-censorious Gentlemen who so oft inculcate this that they can see no humiliation at al or change of heart in the King when I find so great a change and deep a humiliation in Him in this and all other forementioned free Concessions without any or little hesitation and I heartily wish their owne hearts were as much humbled as his and then I doubt on but they would thankfully embrace rest fully satisfied with his concessions for their owne and the Kingdomes benefit The next proposition tending
Malignant and plunderings and losses of the wel-affected Nobility and Gentry have so impoverished all sorts of men but the Souldier and Army and some fow Treasurers and Officers that they know not how to live or subsist almost much lesse to lend or contribute to maintaine such a numerous Army by Land and Sea and supply Irelands pressing necessities If you cannot tell how to pay your present Debts what folly is it to augment them for the future If you cannot pay your Army or Navie now how will you be able to do it hereafter If then you will have no peace with the King upon the Treaty but break it off and keep up a Warre and Army still without colour or reason in this your impoverished and exhausted condition then mark the consequences Your Forces being not duly paid will live upon free-quarter still and that will undoe the Country make them desperate And when they have eaten out all the poor then they will mutiny and fall on all that are rich put them to present Fines and Ransoms at their pleasure eat them out of House and home share their Estates and Offices which many of them already professe to be theiâ—s by Conquest and then the longest sword will be the only true Judge and measure of al mens properties and divider of their Estates as well in this as former ages of which we already begin to feel some sad experiments And as the Souldier on the one hand so the penurious poor people in every place for want of work and imployment and bread to put into their head encouraged by the Souldiers uncontrolled insolencies will fall to plunder and levell all rich men on the other side And if the Army Remonstrance and Agreement of the People now in hot persuit take place Ministers shall receive no Tythes Landlords no Rents Creditors no Debts and oppressed ruined persons no Law not Justice Kings must go down Princes and Peers quite down Parliaments down Judges Justices Magistrates Laws Tenures Inclosures down all rich and landed persons down their very wealth and estates will be sufficient cause to make them Malignants to a starved Peasantry and al-conquering unpaid Army and then what follows but immediate and irrecoverable ruine I beseech you therefore consider in what a desperate hazardous condition we and the whole Kingdom now stand at present how neer we and Ireland are to the very brink of ruine If we will now put into that safe and sure harbour of Peace which the present Treaty invites us into without any further cost or fear of shipwrack we may yet through Gods blessing be safe and happy But if we now wilfully put forth to Sea again among so many rocks shelves quick sands which surround us on every side and will yet chuse War instead of Peace when the golden and silver nerves that formerly maintained it are quite shrunk up we can expect nought else but drowning sudden shipwrack of all our Kingdoms Parliaments Liberties Estates and of our Church and Religion too Yea But say some though all this be truth we must not displease the Army who are our present strength and safety for then we are are lost indeed I have answered this Objection once before in one sense in relation to the Treaties satisfactorinesse I shall here answer it in another I say then 1. That we have a God to please who wil be displeased if we please the Army in their unjust demands And better is it to please God then to please any Army whatsoever If God be with us who can be against us We need no Armies protections if the Lord of Hosts be our Guardian 2. We have a conscience to please as well as an Army and we must satsifie that though the Army who pretend so much for liberty of conscience yet will allow us none or very little be never so unsatisfied with it 3. We have a Kingdom nay three Kingdoms to please and to save too And we must rather please and save them by rejecting the Armies Proposals which will inevitably ruine them then please the Army in being any way instrumentall for their destruction by embracing their destructive counsels If our Kingdoms be preserved we may have another Army though this be disbanded dissolved yea destroyed but if the Kingdoms perish by our pursuing their rash Proposals we shall neither have Kingdoms nor yet an Army nor this Army who must certainly perish in and with the Kingdoms ruine 4. We have a Navie to please as well as an Army and which is more considerable to us then an Army A new Army may soon be raised though the old be disbanded but a Navie being once lost Ships will not grow again nor another Navy built in many years And will not the pleasing of the Army in this displease and lose the Navy now as it did the last Summer to your great losse and danger And can the Army guard the Kingdom against any Forreignâ— Invasions if the Navy be lost No nor treble their number Look then you please your Navy as well as Army 5. We have many hundred thousands of well-affected and cordiall Christians and Covenanters to please who have adventured their estates lives limbs in the present Cause and done as gallant Services many of them in the Field both this last Summer and before as any in this Army and are considerable for number quality estate wisdom parts and reall piety and love to the publick Interest then the Army all which I am certain we shall â—ghly discontent and grieve nay palpably over-reach and cheat to their very faces if we should please the Army in their present demands to their prejudices and scandall and our Religions too There was no man of publick Spirit that engaged with contributed towards or took up Arms in the Parliaments service or Cause at first but meerly upon these five grounds expressed in all the Houses Remonstraces Declarations Petitions Protestations and in the Solemn League and Covenant 1. To defend and maintain the true Protestant Religion against Popery Error and Superstition 2. To defend the Kings Royall Person Dignity and legall Authority against violence treachery and usurpation 3. To maintain the Priviledges Rights and Freedom of Parliaments and the Fundamentall Laws and Government of the Kingdom against State-Innovations and Tyranny Fourthly to rescue the Kings person from evill Counsellors and bring such Incendiaries and Delinquents to condign punishment Fifthly to settle the Kingdom in freedom safety and peace against Crueltie Dangers and imminent Wars and tumults Upon these grounds and for these ends only did both Houses and all who adhered to them or took up Arms for them by their Commissions engage and so did this very Army I appeal then to every mans Conscience Whether the Houses or any who engaged with them did ever contribute any Moneys Plate Horse Atms or march out as an Officer or Souldier under them in these Wars with any such intention as
the question now debating I shall with the greater boldness crave liberty to discharge my conscience towards God and duty to my dying country which now lies at stake and so much the rather because for ought I know it may be the last time I shall have freedome to speak my minde within this House That I may in this great debate more sincerely speak my very heart and soul without any prejudice I shall humbly crave leave briefly to remove two seeming prejudices which may perchance in some members opinions inervate the strength of those reasons I shal humbly represent unto you to make good my conclusion touching the satisfactorinesse of the Kings answers to the Houses Propositions The first is that wherewith some Members have upon another occasion the last week and now again tacitely aspersed me That I am a Royal Favorite alluding to the title of one of my books out of which some have collected an abstract in nature of a charge against the King and this day published it in my name and am now turned an Apostate to the Kings party and interest To which I shall return this short answer I hope without any vain-glory or boasting being thus provoked thereunto That I have opposed and written against the King and his Prelates Arbitrary power illegal proccedings more then any man That I have suffered from the King and Prelates for this my opposition more then any man That if the King and Prelates be ever restored to their pristine Arbitrary power and illegall prerogative I must expect to suffer from them as much if not more then any man That all the Royal favour I ever yet received from his Majesty or his Partie was the cutting off both my ears two several times one after another in a most barbarous manner the setting me upon three severall pillories at Westminster and in Cheapside in a disgraceful manner each time for two houres space together stigmatizing on both cheeks the burning of my licenced books before my face by the hand of the hangman the imposing of two fines upon me of 50001.2 peece expulsion out of the Innes of Court and University of Oxford and degradation in both the losse of my calling almost nine yeares space the seisure of my Bookes and Estate above eight years imprisonment in several prisons at least 4 of these years spent in close imprisoment and exile in CARNARV AN in Northwales and in the lsle of IERSEY where I was debarred the use of pen inke paper and all books almost but the Bible with the least accesse of any friend without any allowance of diet for my support And all this for my good service to the State in opposing Popery and Regall Tyranny for all which sufferings and losses I never yet received one farthing recompence from the King or any other though I have waited above 8 years at your doors for justice and reparations and neglecting my own private calling and affairs imployed most of my time studies and expended many hundred pounds out of my purse since my inlargement to maintain your cause against the King his Popish and Prelaticall party For all which cost and labour I never yet demanded nor received one farthing from the Houses nor the least office or preferment whatsoever though they have bestowed divers places of honour upon persons of less or no desert nor did I ever yet receive so much as your publike thanks for any publike service â—on you which every preacher usually receives for every Sermon preached before you most others have received for the meanest services though I have brought you off with honor in the cases of Cant. and Macg. when you were at a loss in both cleared the justness of your cause when it was at the lowest ebb to most reformed Churches abroad who received such satisfaction fro my books that they translated them into several languages ingaged many thousands for you at home by my writings who were formely dubious unsatisfied Now if any Member or old Courtier whatsoever shal envy my happiness for being such a royal or State favorite as this I wish he may receive no other badges of Royall favour from his Majesty nor greater reward or honor from the Houses then I have done and then I beleeve he will no more causlesly asperse or suspect me for being now a Royal favourite or Apostate from the publike cause True it is which it behoves me now to touch that about 4 years since I published a Book entituled The Royal Popish Favorite wherein as likewise in my Hidden works of Darknesse brought to publique light published a year after it I did with no little labour and expence discover to the world the severall plots and proceedings of the Iesuites Papists and their forraign and domesticke confederates to introduce and set up Popery throughout England Scotland and Ireland and how farre they had inveagled the K. not only to connive at but to countenance and assist them in a great measure more fully evidently then any else had done And those worthy Members of this House who drew up that Declaration whereupon they voted No more Addresses to the King plowed but with my heyfer borrowing all or most of their real materials from my writings A convincing evidence that I am yet no more a Royal favourite then themselves Yet this I must adde withall to take off that aspersion of being an Apostate from my first principles that I never published those Books as I then professed in them and now again protest to scandalize or defame the King or alienate the peoples affections from him much lesse to depose or lay him quite aside though I am clear of opinion that Kings are accountable for their Actions to their Parliaments and whole kingdoms and in case of absolute necessity where Religion Laws Liberties and their kingdoms will else be inevitably destroyed by their Tyrannicall and flagitious practises be deposed by them if there be no speciall oaths nor obligations upon their consciences to the contrary which is our present case much less did I it out of any malice or revenge for the injustice I received from him in the executions done upon my person and estate which I have long since cordially forgiven and do now again forgive him from my soul beseeching God to forgive him likewise but meerly to discover his former errours in this kinde unto himselfe that he might seriously repent of them for the present and more carefully avoid and detest them for time to come and that the Parliament and whole kingdom might more clearly discern the great danger our Religion was in before we publikely discerned it and the several wayes and stratagems by which Popery got such head and growth among us that they might thereby the better prevent the like plots and dangers for the future by wholesom Laws and edicts as I have more largely declared in the books themselves This grand prejudice against me being
thus removed I proceed to the the second to wit that I am an enemy to the Army and therefore what I shall speak may be interpreted to proceed only from opposition against them and their Remonstrance concerning which I freely uttered my suddain thoughts immediately after its reading in the House To this I answer that I have alwaies been a real friend and welwisher to this Army from their first modelling til now in what ever they have acted in their sphear as Souldiers for the publique safety When they were first formed into a body the Committee of Accompts whereof I was a Member those they engaged advanced about thirty thousand pounds of the fourscore thousand to set them out Since that I have freely contributed towards their pay prayed constantly for their good success joined in all publike thanksgivings for the Victories obtained by them made honorable mention of them and their heroick actions in some of my writings and particularly dedicated one Book I since compiled to the General himself as I had done former Books to others of your Generals for to do him all the honour that possibly I could for his renowned Actions Besides I have lately signed Warrants to get in their Arrears and promoted an Ordinance for that purpose all I could since my entrance into this House All which considered with this addition that some of them have bin my ancient intimate friends never did me the least injury I hope no Member can be so partial as to report me such a professed enemy to them as in this grand debate to go against my judgment or conscience in opposition only unto their desires True it is when the Army have forgot their duty or offered violence to the priviledges Members freedom or proceedings of Parl. or endeavoured to engage them to break their publike faith to the King or kingdom in breaking off the Treaty contrary to their votes and engagement or to infringe their solemn League and Covenant or to enforce them to subvert the fundamental Government Laws Liberties of the kingdom or the very freedom and being of Parl. as they have done in their late Remonstrance and Declaration and some other printed papers since heretofore I have then in discharge of my covenant conscience and duty opposed and spoken against these their exorbitances as much as any not out of malice but out of love to reclaim them from their evill destructive courses and counsels according to Gods own precept Lev. 19. 17. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart but shalt in any wise rebuke thy Neighbour and not suffer sin upon him And seeing I have alwayes with like freedome opposed and written against the exorbitances and errour of the King Court Prelates Parliament Committees Presbyterians Independents Lawyers and all other sorts of men in reference to the publick good the Army and their friends have no cause at all to censure me as their enemy but rather to esteem me as their friend for using the like freedom towards them and their exorbitances especially in this House Having removed these two prejudices I shall now addresse my self to the question in debate which hath been thus propounded Whether the Kings answers to the Propositions of both Houses taken altogether upon the whole Treaty be satisfactory or unsatisfactory This being an equivocall question not hitherto clearly stated and debated by those who have spoken to it most of them being much mistaken in it I must crave leave to give you the true state of it before I shall debate it for which purpose I must distinguish in what sense it is not satisfactory to any in this House yet in what respect it will appear satisfactory to all or most of us who are not blinded with passion or prejudice agaisnt the King or misled by affection meerly to please the Army which many have made their principal argument wherefore it is not satisfactory If the question be propounded and intended in this sense Whether the Kings answers to all the Propositions be satisfactory that is whether the King hath granted all the Propositions sent unto him in as large and ample manner as both Houses did propound them then it is certain his Answers are not satisfactory in tha which concerns Delinquents Bishops and Bishops Lands and the Covenant though they are voted satisfactory as to all the rest by both Houses And in this sense only those who have concluded them not satisfactory have stated and disputed the Question But this under favour neither is nor can be the state or sense of the question for these reasons First because these Propositions were sent by the Houses to the King not as Bills of Parliament to be granted in terminis without debate or alteration but only as Propositions to be debated treated upon personally with the King as the Votes of both Houses and instructions to the Commissioners sent to the Isle of Wight resolve past all dispute now it is directly contrary to the nature of all treaties especially such as are personall to tie up the parties of either side so precisely that they shall have no liberty to vary from their first proposals in any particular or if they condescend not to what ever was at first demanded by the stronger party that the condescensions should not be satisfactory though they yeeld to all just things and fall short only in some few of least concernment This is evident by all Treaties heretofore between England France Spain and other forraign Nations if you peruse their first demands which were never condescended to but alwaies receded from and qualified in some particulars on either fide Iniquum petas ut justum fer as being a rule in Treaties amongst Statesmen There have been many Treaties during these Wars between the Officers of the Parliament and Kings party about surrenders of divers Cities and Garrisons wherein the first Propositions on either side have been moderated or changed and yet agreed and accepted at last as satisfactory to both sides In all ordinary Treaties concerning Marriages purchases and ordinary bargains in Fairs Markets or Shops there are usually greater sums of money demanded at first on the one and lesse proferred on the other side then is accepted and given at last and yet both parts close agree and are ful satisfied so may we do now with the King upon the whole Treaty though the King grants not fully all that we at first proposed Secondly because the Houses have already voted the Kings Concessions of the Great Offices of England and Ireland to be at their disposal for 20. years to be satisfactory though their demand was for perpetuity which they would not have done had the satisfactorinesse of the Kings answers depended upon the full concession of that Proposition as amply as it is penned Thirdly because the Houses in their last propositions demand farre more then ever they did in most former Treaties and the King hath granted them
more now in this then they have demanded heretofore And therefore having granted more then what would have fully satisfied them in former Treaties his Concessions in this may be fully satisfactory to us so far as to close with him to settle a firm peace in the Kingdome now at the brink of ruine though they fall short in somethings which we now propounded which do not much concern our security as I shall prove anon The true state then and sense of this Question must be this and no other Whether the Kings finall Answers to the Propositions of both Houses in this Treaty considered and weighed all together be not so full and satisfactory in themselves that this House may and ought to accept of and proceed upon them for the speedy settlement of a safe and wel-grounded Peace both in Church and Common-wealth rather then reject them as unsatisfactorie and so hazard the life of all and the perpetuating of our wars and miseries In this sense I humbly conceive and hope to evidence them so clearly fully satisfactory that we can neither in point of duty prudence justice honor or conscience reject them as unsatisfactory but ought to imbrace them as the only safe ready way to our peace and settlement though they come not up so fully to some of our Propositions as I could have heartily desired for the avoiding of this hazardous debate For my clearer progresse in this grand debate I shall observe this method First I shal clearly manifest that the King in this Treaty hath granted us whatsoever we can wel desire for the present settlement future security of the Common-wealth or state when ratified by Acts a regal oath as is intended yea far more then ever our Ancestors or any Subjects in the christian world enjoyed or desired of their Ks. for their security preservation against their armed power or legal prerogatives Secondly That the King hath granted as much in this Treaty as will settle and secure the Peace and Government of our Church and Religion against Popery and prelacy on the one hand and prophanenesse on the other hand and more then we or any Protestant Churches ever enjoyed or demanded heretofore for their security and settlement When I have made good these particulars and answered the Objections made against them I hope every one of us who have any ingenuity reason or conscience in their brests and are not transported with passion or private engagements to the contrary will and must of necessity vote these Answers satisfactory in the sense forestated I shall begin with the first of these namely the Kings Answers to all these Propositions which concern the present settlement and future security of the State and Republike against any armed force or invasions of the Regall Prerogative to the enslaving or prejudicing of the Subject which in my poor judgement are so full and satisfactory that little or nothing can be added to them and if we well consider them we have cause to say O fortunati nimium bona si sua norinâ— I shall give you a full view of them all because many of them have not been so much as once remembred in this debate and apply them to our present settlement and future safety as I mention them The first Proposition for the settlement of a safe and wel-grounded Peace is that which concerns the justification of the Parliaments War declaring it by an Act of Parliament to be passed to be in their just and lawfull defence justifying the Solemn League and Covenant in prosecution thereof and repealing all Oaths Declarations and Proclamations heretofore had or hereafter to bee had against both or either Houses of Parliament their Ordinances or proceedings or against any for adhering unto or executing any Office Place or Charge under them and all Judgements Indictments Outlawries Attainders Inquisitions in any of the said causes and all Grants thereupon made had or to be made or had to be declared null suppressed forbidden and never put into execution And this to be published within all Parish Churches and all other places needfull within his Majesties Dominions To this proemiall and advantagious proposition the King hath fully and readily condescended at first in every tittle as was desired By this concession the Parliament hath gained sundry considerable advantages tending to their present honour and future security First a full publick acknowledgment of the justnesse of their Warre and Cause to be ratified and perpetuated to posterity by the highest record that can be an Act of Parliament and that to be read in all Parish Churches throughout England Ireland and other the Kings Dominions and proclaimed in all Counties Cities Corporations and at Assizes and Sessions of the peace that so all men may take publick notice of it Which is such an honour to and justification of them and their Cause as was never condescended to by any King that took up arms against his Subjects since the creation to this present and so low a humiliation and Legall disclaimer in the King of his Warre against the Parliament and disavowing of his Cause and Party as could possibly be imagined or expected Secondly It secures the Lives Liberties and Estates of all the Members of both Houses engaged in these Wars and of all persons whatsoever that have adhered to or acted for them against all former present and future Impeachments Prosecutions and Judgments whatsoever and makes void and nul what ever hath been is or may be objected against them Which coupled with the Act of Indempnity and Oblivion proposed by the King and agreed to by the Houses wil extraordinarily secure pacifie content all wel-affected Members and persons who have adhered to them in this Cause and preserve them from the danger of 25 E. 3. and other Laws concerning Treasons which otherwise upon any revolution of times and affairs might by corrupt Judges and Instruments be extended and rested to their prejudice aud undoing Thirdly it laies a foundation for the lawfulnesse of a defensive War by Authority of both Houses upon the like occasion in all future ages without incurring the guilt of Treason or Rebellion which will be a great encouragement and security to the Subjects and engagement to them to adhere to the Parliament in after-times Fourthly It wil very much discourage and deter all kind of men from taking up Arms in the Kings His Heirs and Successors behalfe against the Houses of Parliament when they shal cast their eyes upon this Act and behold the King himselfe passing such a censure upon all his own proceedings and retracting his own Oaths Proclamations Commissions Inditements Grants against such Members all others who have now taken up arms against him for the Houses Kingdoms defence So as this very first Proposition only if well weighed without any others added thereunto being so fully and freely consented unto by the King tends very far towards our present settlement and future safety
of the Kingdome for the bare lives of seven Delinquents only or in truth of one alone who is fully in your power which you may take away by a legall tryall without a war will not all the Kingdome nay all the three Kingdomes and whole world cry out upon you for such a frantick unadvised act as this yea and for such an unjust and wicked resolution to hazard the lives and shed the bloud of many thousand Innocents and gallant men to take away the head of one or only of 7. vile Delinquents the sparing of whose lives will more conduce to settlement and reall unity then their deaths by the axe of Justice For shame then let us not vote the Kings answer to this branch of Delinquents so unsatisfactory as to break off and lose all upon it since I have proved it fully satisfactory in all things to your own last demands As to the Delinquents specified in the 2d and 3d. Qualification the King and you are fully agreed Besides the King consents to the exclusion of the Delinquents specified in the first qualification from sitting in Parliament being of his Councells coming within the verge of his court bearing any office or having any imployment in the State during the pleasure of both Houses Thus far you are both agreed only he desires this mitigation of their penalty in case they shall offend herein that they may not be guilty of high Treason and uncapable of any pardon and forfeit all their estates nor that those who shall return from banishment without leave may incur so high a penalty but a more moderate sutable to the Law they shall offend And to break only upon this excesse and extremity of punishment too high even in many wise mens opinions for such offences and of dangerous president to posterity it being the wisdome of our Ancestors to make as few new treasons as possible being only for the Kings advantage and peoples prejudice when as a lesser penalty may as well and sooner too prevent the mischief is neither safe nor prudent As for the compositions of such persons the King only desires their moderation if you think fit even to such proportions as the Army it self in their proposals to him in Aug. 1647. thought reasonable and if you please not to grant it then he leaves them to compound at such rates as you and they shall agree and those are only such as you have already fixed on in former compositions from which you will not vary and in case they will not compound at your rates you have then the benefit of all their sequestred estates till their composition be made which is your benefit and their losse Therefore in this though some have pleased without any colour of reason to assert the contrary you are both fully accorded To the Delinquents in the fifth Qualification the King consents to all your desires with this exception only That such Delinquent Ministers who are not scandalous in their lives or Doctrine are already sequestred may injoy the third part of the profits of their Livings for the support of them and their families and be capable of future preferments if they be thought fit to enjoy them This some have concluded very unsatisfactory because it craves some little favour for Malignant Ministers But I beseech you consider how inconsiderable the difference is and how just and charitable the Kings request is in their behalf Your selves both by Ordinance and common practise grant the ful fifth of the profits of sequestred Livings to the Wives and Children of sequestred Ministers as well in case of scandall and insufficiency as Mulignity the King desires only that such who have bin sequestred meerly for Malignancy and are not scandalous may receive a third part in stead of a fifth and for their future encouragement having spent their time in fitting themselves for a Ministry and being fit for no other calling and having lost their former livings he requests only that in this scarcity of able Ministers they may be capable meerly of future preferments for which they shall be adjudged meet in such way as you shall appoint not he or they A just a charitable request and that which your selves have done there being many able godly Ministers of eminent parts and exemplary life who have not been so clearly convinced in point of conscience as to concur with you in the late Wars for which they have been sequestred and have since been better satisfied and God forbid that such should be made utterly uncapable of the Ministry and they and their families starve for want of bread I beseech you therefore of al other things let us not break with the King upon this Act of Charity of Piety lest all the world condemne us for uncharitablenesse and judge the King to be more pious and charitable then we And no doubt it will be the greatest charity to our selves to our Church our Religion our Kingdom at this time rather to close with the King in this particular then hazard all for a few third parts and to be as charitable as his Majesty The more charity we shew the greater unity peace amity and better settlement we may expect But the greatest dissatisfaction of all referred to this head of Delinquents is in the Kings answers concerning his present recalling of Marquesse Ormonds Commission to Treat with and unite the Irish Rebels To which I answer first that this was no part of the propositions first sent but a collaterall emergement discovered since the Treaty upon Col. Iones his letter and so the unsatisfactorinesse of the Kings Answer as to this alone can be no just cause or ground to vote the other Answers unsatisfactory or break off the Treaty 2dly The Kings granting of this Commission to Ormond at the time he did it is no such hainous thing as many have made it al circumstances considered The King when the Army would not close with him upon their own tearms the last year who treated with him without your privity and against your Orders even then when they unjustly impeached the eleven Members for holding secret intelligence with him and his party of which themselves were only culpable was shut up close Prisoner in Carisbrooke Castle in the Isle of Wight by their procurement and by the Votes of both Houses proceeding originally from the Officers and the Armies projection promoted by their Declaration and engagement to joyne with the Houses in setling the Kingdome without against the K. and forcibly passed the Lords House by the Armies garrisoning White Hall billeting a Regiment of Horse in the Muse to terrifie them to a concurrence with the Commons quite laid aside like a dead man out of minde and no more addresses to be made to him by the Houses or from him to them and no accesse of any to him under pain of high Treason without both Houses licence the King in these extremities the better to procure his own
enlargement and the Kingdomes settlement by a Treaty grants a Commission to Marquesse Ormond to unite the Irish forces then divided for the foresaid ends Extremities certainly put honest and wisemen too as the Armies friends grant upon hard shifts for self-preservation and this extremity put the King upon this of Ormond The King is flesh and blood as well as we and nature teacheth him to use the best means he may for his own preservation and deliverance in such a strait The Army the last Summer refused to disband or suffer any of their forces to go for Ireland to preserve and secure that Kingdome only from this ground of self-preservation upon which they would now enforce you by their REMONSTRANCE and marching up to your doors with their forces to break off the Treaty or vote it wholly unsatisfactoryâ— whence most Gent. that differ in opinion from me have made this their sole or chief argument that the Kings answers are unsatisfactory because the Army else will not be satisfied If then your own Army may thus disobey your votes and force your consents only upon a pretence of self-preservations and defence when they are in no visible danger the King by as good or better reason in this extremity of danger might justly make use of Ormonds endeavours for his better safety and enlargement And if some Members have affirmed in the House as hath been alleadged in this debate that they would joyn with Turks or the worst of Nations and call them in to their assistance rather then the King should come in by conquest then the King by like reason might joyn with Ormond and the Irish rather then be thus laid aside and destroyed And what we our selves would do in his or the like condition we cannot justly blame in him Thirdly The King did never absolutely deny the recalling of Ormonds Commission but only suspended it til the Treaty ended and if you then close with him you have his engagement presently to recall it if then you agree with him upon thisâ— Treaty your demand in this is granted and danger prevented but if you will not agree at all it is very hard measure to presse the King to a present disadvantage who is like to receive no advantage by you nothing being obligatory on either side til all be concluded In fine the King hath so far condescended to satisfie you in his finall answer as to write a letter to Ormond to suspend the Execution of his Commission for the present and engaged to revoke it so soon as you and he agree in future and more then this as the case stands wee cannot well in justice require and we should hardly grant so much were it our case as it is the Kings and seeing all our dangers may be prevented by our agreement with the King and this demand then fully granted there is no reason to vote this unsatisfactory when we may have all we desire if we please our selves However I see no such differences between the King and Us in this of ORMOND and that of Delinquents as to vote the finall answer to them and all the rest unsatisfactory and so to lose England distressed Ireland and all the former Concessions for an unconsiderable dissatisfaction in these two particulars The last Proposition relating to the security of the State is That the City of London shall enjoy all their Rights Liberties Franchises and usages in raysing and imploying the forces thereof for its defence in as full and ample manner as they used and enjoyed it heretofore That the Militia and City and Liberties thereof shall be in the Ordering and Government of the Lord Major Aldermen and Common-Councell or such as they shall appoint and be imployed and directed as both Houses shall direct so as no Citizen or forces of the City shall be compelled to go out of the City or Liberties for Military service without their own free consent That an Act shall be passed for the granting and confirming of the Cities Charters Customs and Franchises notwithstanding any Non-user Misuser or abuser and for confirmation of all by-Laws and Ordinances made or to be made by the Lord Major Aldermen and common-councell concerning the calling convening and regulating their Common-councell That the Tower of London may be in the Government of the City and the chief Governour thereof nominated and removeable by the Common-Councellâ— and all Propositions which shall be further made and approved by both Houses consent for the future welfare and Government of the City confirmed by Act of Parliament To all which the King hath fully confented so as his Answer thereto cannot be Voted unsatisfactory by any but such who envy the Cities weal and security that themselves may the better seize and trample on it to its enslaving and ruin This Concession is First A great Honour to and justification of your cause the City having beene more cordiall to active for and bountifull towards you upon all occasions and exigencies then all other parts of the Kingdome the harbourers and relievers of all who have fled from the Enemies tyranny thither for safety or reliefe yea the onely Treasury to advance monies upon all exigencies and those to whom under God you pricipally owe your victories and preservation Now for the King to honour the City with such concessions as these which hath beene most hurtfull to and deepest engaged against him in this Warre is almost as high and full if not a greater justification of and countenance to your cause as this consent to the first Proposition 2dly A great satisfaction to the City for all their services and expences and a firm security against all future feares and sufferings for ingaging so deeply in your Cause 3dly An extraordinary Engagement to the City faithfully to adhere to you and all succeeding Parliaments upon the like cause and occasion and to other Corporations to do the like 4thly A great security and advantage to the whole Kingdome whose weal and safety principally consists in Londons welfare its principall Magazine Mart Bulwarke Refuge and Military security both by Sea and Land wherewith the whole Kingdome stands or falls had the King once gained London in these Warres the Parliament and all England had been quickly lost without hope of recovery which will be in a secure or recoverable condition at all times if it be safe and true to the publique interest from which some have studied of late to disengage it to ruine it and the Parliament too which were alwayes free from eminent danger whiles cordially united and near to both their ruines being now disjointed I have thus as briefly as I could with discharge of my conscience and duty run through all the propositions which concerne the security and settlement of our State against the KINGS armed violence or Exorbitant civill Sword or Prerogative and other particulars relating to its peace and safety with the Kings respective Answers thereunto And for mine owne opinion I humbly conceive them
certain destructions and desolation to this poor Kingdome and more especially to the Army and their adherents in this desperate advice who must stand or fall upon their own bottome without the least aid or contribution from any other I desire them and all others who have either eyes or brains in their heads most seriously to consider But that which makes me most of all detest this desperate advice is this That it is the only way that can be thought upon to accomplish the Popes and Jesuites designs to set up Popery and subvert the Protestant Religion and professors of it in all our three Kingdoms and in all forraign Realms beyond the Seas For if this reforming Parliament which hath pretended so much to the extirpation of Popery shall so far play the Popes and Jesuites the undoubted contrivers of this Armys New-model of our peace and settlement as to depose and behead the King his father and forever disinherit him of the Crown bring him as a Traitor to die without mercy if he come hither It wil so far provoke and exasperate him the Duke being both young and of generous spirits not throughly grounded in our Religion and under the Queens tuition and in the power of this popish party abroad who will aggravate these high affronts and injuries put upon them to the utmost and on whose protection they will be in this case necessitated to cast themselves that there is great fear and probability they will immediately renounce such a bloody and detestable Religion as shall insâ—igate us to such horrid actions and Councels and abominate all the professors of it so as totally to abandon them and turn Roman Catholicks in good earnest and then match themselves to great potent popish Alliances and by their purses forces and assistance and of the Popes and all his Catholick sonnes in Forraigne parts for the advancement of the Catholick cause and of the popish Malignants and discontented parties in England Scotland and Ireland which will questionlesse receive and assist the Prince as their Soveraign Lord and King invade our poore impoverished divided and distressed kingdom with such a power as in all humane probability would speedily over-runne and destroy this mutinous Army and the Houses too put them with their adherents to the Sword without mercy or quarter and disinherit them and their heirs for ever to revenge their Fathers blood and their dis-inherison of the Crown c. And then Popery and Prelacy will both return with greater authority power approbation then ever over-spread our whole three kingdoms and extirpate our Religion the professors of it as the most anti-Monarchical treacherous and perfidious bloody Miscreants under heaven excite all other forraign States and kingdoms to do the like to prevent the springing up of a new generation of treacherous King-killing State-subverting Agitators and Hypocritical perfidious Army-Saints and engage all Protestant kingdoms Churches and States for their own security and vindication to disclaim and declare against us This questionlesse will be the sad inevitable issue of this Jesuiticall advice if ever the Houses or Army shall put it into actuall execution and not speedily prevent it it being long since fore-plotted by the Jesuites as I shall prove anon at the beginning of the late Warre against the Scots But if the Prince and Duke be set aside I would gladly learn of these Statists who and what King they would set up Not any of the Kings posterity certainly since they dis-inherit two at a blow and the blood being corrupted by the Kings and their attainders no other heir can inherit it by descent it must escheat to the Houses or Armies disposal and become no kingdom at all but an Elective one if any And is this the next way to peace and settlement If so I have certainly lost my reason and senses too No it will be a seminary of lasting Wars of which few elective Kingdoms are long free every new election producing commonly a new Warre where there is no pretence of an hereditary succession much more where a right heir is forcibly and unjustly dis-inherited I shall give you but one instance though I could name you divers and that is a memorable one at home in our owne kingdom King Henry the first having one onely daughter Maud to reserve the Crown unto her after his death caused her to be crowned and made all the Prelates and Nobles swear to receive her as their Queen and Princesse after his decease But she marrying afterwards to the Emperour and being out of the Realme when King Henry died The Archbishop of Canterbury with the rest of the Prelates and Nobles contrary to their Oath and agreement elected Stephen Earle of Bloyes for their King and put by Maud the right heir Stephen taking an Oath to grant and confirm those Laws and Liberties for the kingdoms peace and settlement as they propounded to him before his Coronation A very likely means to settle Peace and prosperity as they imagined But was the event answerable No verily this cursed perjury and pollicy brought all the chiefe contrivers of it to great calamity and miserable ends and engendred a bloody civill Warre in the bowels of this kingdom which continued no lesse then seventeene years together with interchangeable successes till the whole kingdom was laid waste and desolate most Houses Towns and Villages burned to the ground their Gardens and Orchards quite destroyed their monies and estates exhausted and plundered their Cattle and flocks consumed and eaten up their Fields over grown with weeds in stead of Corne most of the people devoured by the Sword Famine and Pestilence and eleven hundred Castles Holds and Garrisons erected which were no other but dens of Theeves and Plunderers This was the peace and settlement this policy produced At last both Parties weary of the Wars out of pure necessity came to a Personall Treaty and in conclusion made this agreement That Stephen having no issue of his body should enjoy the Crowne during his life and Henry son and heir to Maud and next heir also to Stephen should succeed him after his death and in some sort officiate with him in the kingdoms Govenment during his life And so these long lasting Warres concluded after which there were at least eleven hundred Castles demolished by order of Parliament crected during these wars to the Countreys utter undoing But if we dis-inherit the Prince and Duke for ought I discern if they suddainly recover not their possession of the Crown of England after one seven years of Warre already elapsed we may have seventeen years more and seventeen after that again and be reduced to a more miserable condition then our Ancestors were in King Stephens dayes And that upon these two grounds First the contest then was onely between two Competitors for this one kingdom who had no other kingdoms of their own to side with them But the Prince and Duke being successively heirs as well to