in their time but that such Reformation hath been perfect I cannot admit Asa took away Idolatry but his Reformation was not perfect for Jehosaphat removed the High places yet was not his Reformation perfect for it was Hezekiah that brake the Brasen Serpent and Josiah destroyed the Idol-Temples who therefore beareth this Elogie That like unto him there was no King before him It is too well known that the Reformation of K. Henry the VIII was most imperfect in the Essentials of Doctrine Worship and Government And although it proceeded by some degrees afterward yet the Government was never reformed the Head was changed Dominus non Dominium and the whole lims of the Antichristian Hierarchy retained upon what Snares and Temptations of Avarice and Ambition the great Enchanters of the Clergy I need not express It was a hard saying of Romanorum Malleus Grosthed of Lincoln That Reformation was not to be expected nisi in ore gladii cruentandi Yet this I may say that the Laodicean lukewarmness of Reformation here hath been matter of continued complaints to many of the Godly in this Kingdom occasion of more Schism and Separation than ever was heard of in any other Church and of unspeakable grief and sorrow to other Churches which God did bless with greater purity of Reformation The glory of this great work we hope is reserved for Your Majesty that to Your comfort and everlasting Fame the praise of godly Josiah may be made Yours which yet will be no dispraise to Your Royal Father or Edward the VI. or any other Religious Princes before You none of them having so fair an opportunity as is now by the supreme Providence put into Your Royal hands My soul trembleth to think and to foresee what may be the event if this opportunity be neglected I will neither use the words of Mordecai Esth 4. 14. nor what Savonarola told another Charles because I hope better things from Your Majesty 4. To the Argument brought by your Majesty which I believe none of your Doctors had they been all about You could more briefly and yet so fully and strongly have expressed That nothing was retained in this Church but according as it was deduced from the Apostles to the constant universal practice of the Primitive Church and that it was of such consequence as by the alteration of it we should deprive our selves of the lawfulness of Priesthood I think Your Majesty means a lawful Ministry and then how the Sacraments can be administred is easy to judge I humbly offer these considerations First What was not in the times of the Apostles cannot be deduced from them We say in Scotland It cannot be brought But that is not the Ben But not to insist now on a Liturgy and things of that kind there was no such Hierarchy no such difference betwixt a Bishop and a Presbyter in the times of the Apostles and therefore it cannot thence be deduced for I conceive it to be as clear as if it were written with a Sun-beam that Presbyter and Bishop are to the Apostles one and the same thing no majority no inequality or difference of office power or degree betwixt the one and the other but a mere Identity in all 2. That the Apostles intending to set down the Offices and Officers of the Church and speaking so often of them and of their gifts and duties and that not upon occasion but of set purpose do neither express nor imply any such Pastor or Bishop as hath power over other Pastors although it be true that they have distinctly and particularly exprest the Office Gifts and Duties of the meanest Officers such as Deacons 3. That in the Ministery of the New Testament there is a comely beautiful and Divine Order and subordination one kind of Ministers both ordinary and extraordinary being placed in degree and dignity before another as the Apostles first the Evangelists Pastors Doctors c. in their own ranks but we cannot find in Offices of the same kind that one hath majority of power or priority of degree before another no Apostle above other Apostles unless in moral respects no Evangelist above other Evangelists or Deacon above other Deacons why then a Pastor above other Pastors In all other sorts of Ministers ordinary and extraordinary a Parity in their own kind only in the office of Pastor an Inequality 4. That the whole power and all the parts of the Ministry which are commonly called The power of Order and Jurisdiction are by the Apostles declared to be common to the Presbyter and Bishop and that Matt. 15. 16 17. the gradation in matter of Discipline or Church censures is from one to two or more and if he shall neglect them tell it to the Church he saith not tell it to the Bishop there is no place left to a retrogradation from more to one were he never so eminent If these considerations do not satisfie Your Majesty may have more or the same further cleared 5. Secondly I do humbly desire Your Majesty to take notice of the fallacy of that Argument from the Practice of the Primitive Church and the universal Consent of the Fathers It is the Argument of the Papists for such Traditions as no Orthodox Divine will admit The Law and Testimony must be the Rule We can have no certain knowledge of the Practice universal of the Church for many years Eusebius the prime Historian confesseth so much the learned Josephus Scaliger testifieth that from the end of the Acts of the Apostles until a good time after no certainty can be had from Ecclesiastical Authors about Church matters It is true Diotrephes sought the preeminence in the Apostles times and the Mystery of iniquity did then begin to work and no doubt in after times some puffed up with Ambition and others overtaken with Weakness endeavoured alteration of Church-Government but that all the Learned and Godly of those times consented to such a Change as is talked of afterwards will never be proved 6. Thirdly I will never think that Your Majesty will deny the lawfulness of a Ministery and the due administration of the Sacraments in the Reformed Churches which have no Diocesan Bishops sith it is not only manifest by Scripture but a great many of the strongest Champions for Episcopacy do confess that Presbyters may ordain other Presbyters and that Baptism administred by a private Person wanting a publick Calling or by a Midwife and by a Presbyter although not ordained by a Bishop are not one and the same thing 7. Concerning the other Argument taken from Your Majesty's Coronation Oath I confess that both in the taking and keeping of an Oath so sacred a thing is it and so high a point of Religion much tenderness is required and far be it from us who deresi to observe our own Solemn Oath to press Your Majesty with the violation of Yours Yet Sir I will crave Your leave in all humbleness and sincerity to lay before Your Majesty's eyes this
the end of the last Session was not to challenge Tonnage and Poundage as of Right but de bene esse shewing you the Necessity not the Right by which I was to take it until I had it granted unto Me assuring My self according to your general professions that you wanted time not will to grant it unto Me. Wherefore now having opportunity I expect that without loss of time you make good your professions and so by passing the Bill put an end to all Questions arising from this subject especially since I have cleared all scruples that may trouble you in this business To conclude Let us not be jealous of one anothers Actions for if I had been easily moved at every occasion the Order made on Wednesday last might have made Me startle there being some shew to suspect that you had given your selves the liberty to be Inquirers after Complaints the words of your Order being somewhat largely penned but looking into your Actions I find you here only Complainers not seeking Complaints for I am certain you neither intend nor desire the liberty to be Inquisitors after mens Actions before particular Complaints be made This I have spoken to shew how slow I am to believe harshly of your Proceedings likewise to assure you that the Houses Resolution not particular mens speeches shall make Me judge well or ill Not doubting but according to mine example you will be deaf to ill reports concerning Me until My Words and Actions speak for themselves but this Session beginning with Confidence one towards the other it may end with a perfect good understanding between us which God grant XV. To the Lords and Commons in Answer to their Petition for a Publick Fast January 31. MDCXXVIII IX MY Lords and Gentlemen the chiefest motive of your Fast being the deplorable estate of the Reformed Churches abroad is too true and our duties are so much as in us possibly lyeth to give them help But certainly Fighting will do them more good than Fasting Though I do not wholly disallow the latter yet I must tell you that this Custom of Fasts every Sessions is but lately begun and I confess I am not so fully satisfied with the necessity of it at this time Yet to shew you how smoothly I desire our business to go on eschewing as much as I can Questions and Jealousies I do willingly grant your request herein But with this note that I expect that this shall not hereafter be brought into Precedent for frequent Fasts except upon great occasions As for the Form and Time I will advise with My Lords the Bishops and then send you a particular to both Houses XVI To the House of Commons in Answer to their Declaration concerning Tonnage and Poundage Feb. 3. MDCXXVIII IX YOur Declaration being somewhat long may by reason require some time to reply unto it since as most of you cannot but judge that this giveth Me no satisfaction Therefore I shall give you some short Notes upon it I cannot think that whereas you alledge that the Bill of Tonnage and Poundage was brought in against the Priviledge of your House that you will offer to take so much Priviledge from any one of your Members as not to allow them the liberty to bring in any Bill whatsoever though it be in your power when it is brought in to do with it what you think good And I cannot imagine how coming hither only by My Power and to treat of things I propound unto you you can deny Me that Prerogative to recommend or offer any Bill unto you Though in this particular I must profess that this Bill was not to have been offered you in My Name as that Member of your House can bear Me witness As for the cause of delay of My business being Religion there is none of you shall have a greater care for the true preservation of it than My self which since it is confessed by your Answer ye must either think I want Power which cannot be or that I am very ill-counselled if it be in such danger as you affirm Though I may say much of this point I will say no more but that for all this I shall not stop My Ears unto you upon this subject so that in form and matter you transgress not your limits As for Tonnage and Poundage I do not desire it out of greediness being perswaded you will make no stop in it when you take it in hand as out of a desire to put an end to all Questions that daily arise between Me and some of My Subjects thinking it a strange thing if you should give ear unto those Complaints and not take the sure and speedy way to decide them Besides I must think it strange that this business of Religion should be only a hinderer of My Affairs whereas I am certainly informed that all other things go on according to their ordinary course Therefore I must still be instant with you that you proceed with this business of Tonnage and Poundage with diligence not looking to be denied in so just a desire And you must not think it much if finding you slack I shall give you such further quickening as I find cause XVII To the House of Lords at the Dissolving of His Third Parliament at WESTMINSTER Mar. 10. MDCXXVIII IX MY Lords I never came here upon so unpleasing an occasion it being the Dissolution of a Parliament Therefore men may have some cause to wonder why I should not rather chuse to do this by Commission it being a general Maxime of Kings to leave harsh Commands to their Ministers Themselves only executing pleasing things Yet considering that Justice as well consists in reward and praise of Vertue as punishing of Vice I thought it necessary to come here to day to declare to you My Lords and all the world that it was merely the undutiful and seditious carriage of the Lower House that hath caused the Dissolution of this Parliament and that You My Lords are so far from being causes of it that I take as much Comfort in your dutiful demeanours as I am justly distasted with their Proceedings Yet to avoid mistakings let Me tell you that it is so far from Me to adjudge all that House guilty that I know there are many there as dutiful Subjects as any in the world it being but some few Vipers among them that cast this Mist of undutifulness over most of their Eyes Yet to say truth there was a good number there that would not be infected with this Contagion insomuch that some did express their duties in speaking which was the general fault of the House the last day To conclude As these Vipers must look for their reward of punishment so you My Lords may justly expect from Me that Favour and Protection that a Good King oweth to His loving and dutiful Nobility And now My Lord Keeper do what I have commanded you XVIII To the Speaker of the House of Commons April MDCXL MAster Speaker I
Lords and Commons in this present Parliament assembled shall be nominated assigned and appointed thereby authorizing and requiring them or any five or more of them and giving them full Power and Authority by the Oaths of good and lawful men as by all other good and lawful ways and means to enquire and find out what Mannors Castles Lordships Granges Messuages Lands Tenements Meadows Leasues Pastures Woods Rents Reversions Services Parsonages appropriate Tithes Oblations Obventions Pensions Portions of Tithes Vicarages Churches Chappels Advowsons Nominations Presentations Rights of Patronage Parks Annuities and other Possessions and Hereditaments whatsoever of what nature or quality soever they be lying and being within every such County or City not hereby limited or disposed of unto His Majesty do belong or appertain unto all every or any such Arch-bishop Bishop Dean Sub-dean Dean and Chapter Arch-deacon Chaunter Chancellor Treasurer Sub-Treasurer Succentor Sacrist Prebendary Canon Canon Residentiary Petty-Canon Vicar-Choral Chorister old Vicar or new Vicar in right of their said Dignities Churches Corporations Offices or Places respectively and what and how much of the same is in possession and the true yearly Value thereof and what and how much thereof is out in Lease and for what Estate and when and how determinable and what Rents Services and other Duties are reserved and payable during such Estate and also the true yearly Value of the same as they are now worth in possession as also what Rents Pensions or other Charges or other Sums of Money are issuing due or payable out of any the Mannors Lands or Premisses and to make an exact and particular Survey thereof and to take and direct and settle such course for the safe custody and keeping of all Charters Evidences Court-Rolls and Writings whatsoever belonging unto all or any the Persons Dignities Churches Corporations Offices and Places or concerning any the Mannors Lands Tenements Hereditaments or other Premisses before mentioned as in their discretion shall be thought meet and convenient and of all and singular their doings and proceedings herein fairly written and ingross'd in Parchment to make Return and Certificate into the Court of Chancery And to this further intent and purpose that speedy care and course may be taken for providing of a competent maintenance for supply and encouragement of Preaching Ministers in the several Parishes within the Kingdom of England and Dominion of VVales Be it likewise Ordained and Enacted That the same Commissioners and Persons authorized as above-said shall have full Power and Authority by the Oaths of good and lawful men as by all other good ways and lawful means to enquire and find out the true yearly Value of all Parsonages and Vicarages presentative and all other Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Benefices and Livings unto which any Cure of Souls is annexed lying and being within such Counties and Cities and of all such particularly to enquire and certifie into the Court of Chancery what each of them are truly and really worth by the year and who are the present Incumbents or Possessors of them and what and how many Chappels belonging unto Parish-Churches are within the limits of such Counties and Cities within which they are directed and authorized to enquire and how the several Churches and Chappels are supplied by Preaching Ministers that so course may be taken for providing both for Preaching and of maintenance where the same shall be found to be needful and necessary Provided always that this Act or any thing therein contained shall not extend to any Colledge Church Corporation Foundation or House of Learning in either of the Vniversities within this Kingdom And the said Sir VVilliam Roberts Thomas Atkins Sir John VVollaston John VVarner John Towes Aldermen of the City of London John Packer and Peter Malbourne Esquires and the Survivors and Survivor of them or the greater part of them his and their Heirs and Assigns are hereby directed and authorized to give and allow unto such Officers as by them shall be thought fitting and necessary for keeping of Courts collecting of Rents Surveying of Lands and all other necessary imployments in and about the Premisses and unto the Commissioners authorized by this Act and such others as shall be necessarily imployed by them all such reasonable Fees Stipends Salaries and Sums of Money as in their discretion shall be thought just and convenient And the said Sir VVilliam Roberts Knight Thomas Atkins Sir John VVollaston John VVarner John Towes Aldermen of the City of London John Packer and Peter Malbourne Esquires the Survivors and Survivor of them his and their Heirs and Assigns of their several Receipts Imployments Actions and Proceedings shall give an accompt and be accomptable unto the Lords and Commons in Parliament or such Person or Persons as from time to time by both Houses of Parliament shall be nominated and appointed in such manner and with such Power Priviledge and Jurisdiction to hear and determine all matters concerning such Accompts as by both Houses of Parliament shall from time to time be thought necessary to be given them and not elsewhere nor otherwise Saving to all and every Person and Persons Bodies Politick and Corporate their Heirs and Successors and the Heirs and Successors of them and every of them other than such Person or Persons Bodies Politick and Corporate whose Offices Functions and Authorities are taken away and abolished by this Act as to any Estate Right Title or Interest which they or any of them claim to have or hold in right of their said Churches Dignities Functions Offices or Places and other then the Kings Majesty His Heirs and Successors as Patrons Founders or Donors and all and every other Person and Persons Bodies Politick and Corporate as may claim any thing as Patrons Founders or Donors all such Right Title Interest Possession Rents Charge-Rent Service Annuities Offices Pensions Portions Commons Fees Profits Claims and Demands either in Law or Equity whatsoever and all and singular such Leases for Years Life or Lives as were before the twentieth day of January in the year of our Lord One thousand six hundred forty two made unto them or any of them by any the Persons or Corporations above named acccording to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm and warranted by the same and all such Leases and Estates as having been heretofore made have been established or settled by any Judgement or Decree in any of the Courts at Westminster and have been accordingly enjoyed and all Duties and Profits whatsoever which they or any of them have or may claim or of right ought to have of in to or out of any the said Mannors Lands or Premisses whatsoever or any part or parcel thereof in such sort manner form and condition to all intents constructions and purposes as if this Act had never been made MDCXLIII IV. The Articles of the late Treaty of the Date Edenburgh the 29. of November 1643. Die Mercurii 3. Januarii 1643-44 Articles of the Treaty agreed upon betwixt the Commissioners of
the eleventh of this month by which they will have understood the reasons which enforced Him to go from thence as likewise His constant endeavours for the setling of a safe and well-grounded Peace wheresoever He should be And being now in a place where He conceives Himself to be at much more Freedom and Security than formerly He thinks it necessary not only for making good of His Own professions but also for the speedy procuring of a Peace in these languishing and distressed Kingdoms at this time to offer such grounds to His two Houses for that effect which upon due examination of all Interests may best conduce thereunto And because Religion is the best and chiefest foundation of Peace His Majesty will begin with that particular That for the abolishing Archbishops Bishops c. His Majesty clearly professeth that He cannot give His Consent thereunto both in relation as He is a Christian and a King For the first He avows that He is satisfied in His Judgment that this Order was placed in the Church by the Apostles themselves and ever since their time hath continued in all Christian Churches throughout the world until this last Century of years and in this Church in all times of Change and Reformation it hath been upheld by the wisdom of His Ancestors as the great preserver of Doctrine Discipline and Order in the service of God As a King at His Coronation He hath not only taken a solemn Oath to maintain this Order but His Majesty and His Predecessours in their confirmations of the Great Charter have inseparably woven the Right of the Church into the Liberties of the rest of the Subjects And yet He is willing it be provided that the particular Bishops perform the several duties of their Callings both by their personal Residence and frequent Preachings in their Dioceses as also that they exercise no Act of Jurisdiction or Ordination without the consent of their Presbyters and will consent that their powers in all things be so limited that they be not grievous to tender Consciences Wherefore since His Majesty is willing to give ease to the Consciences of others He sees no reason why He alone and those of His Judgment should be pressed to a violation of theirs Nor can His Majesty consent to the alienation of Church-Lands because it cannot be denied to be a sin of the highest Sacrilege as also that it subverts the intentions of so many pious Donors who have laid a heavy Curse upon all such profane violations which His Majesty is very unwilling to undergo And besides the matter of Conscience His Majesty believes it to be a prejudice to the publick good many of His Subjects having the benefit of renewing Leases at much easier Rates than if those possessions were in the hands of private men not omitting the discouragement which it will be to all Learning and industry when such eminent rewards shall be taken away which now lye open to the Children of meanest persons Yet His Majesty considering the great present distempers concerning Church-discipline and that the Presbyterian Government is now in practice His Majesty to eschew Confusion as much as may be and for the satisfaction of His two Houses is content that the said Government be legally permitted to stand in the same condition it now is for three years provided that His Majesty and those of His Judgment or any other who cannot in Conscience submit thereunto be not obliged to comply with the Presbyterian Government but have free practice of their own profession without receiving any prejudice thereby and that a free Consultation and Debate be had with the Divines at Westminster twenty of His Majesties nomination being added unto them whereby it may be determined by His Majesty and the two Houses how the Church-government after the said time shall be setled or sooner if differences may be agreed as is most agreeable to the Word of God with full liberty to all those who shall differ upon Conscientious grounds from that settlement Always provided that nothing aforesaid be understood to tolerate those of the Romish profession nor exempting of any Popish Recusant from the penalties of the Laws or to tolerate the publick profession of Atheism or Blasphemy contrary to the Doctrine of the Apostles Nicene and Athanasian Creeds they having been received by and had in reverence of all the Christian Churches and more particularly by this of England ever since the Reformation Next the Militia being that Right which is inseparably and undoubtedly inherent in the Crown by the Laws of this Nation and that which former Parliaments as likewise this have acknowledged so to be His Majesty cannot so much wrong that trust which the Laws of God and this Land have annexed to the Crown for the protection and security of His People as to devest Himself and Successors of the power of the Sword Yet to give an infallible evidence of His desire to secure the performance of such agreements as shall be made in order to a Peace His Majesty will consent to an Act of Parliament that the whole power of the Militia both by Sea and Land for and during His whole Reign shall be ordered and disposed by His two Houses of Parliament or by such persons as they shall appoint with powers limited for suppressing of Forces within this Kingdom to the disturbance of the publick Peace and against foreign invasions and that they shall have power during His said Reign to raise Monies for the purposes aforesaid and that neither His Majesty that now is or any other by any Authority derived only from Him shall execute any of the said powers during His Majesties said Reign but such as shall act by the consent and Approbation of the two Houses of Parliament Nevertheless His Majesty intends that all Patents Commissions and other Acts concerning the Militia be made and acted as formerly and that after His Majesties Reign all the power of the Militia shall return entirely to the Crown as it was in the times of Queen Elizabeth and King James of blessed memory After this head of the Militia the consideration of the Arrears due to the Army is not improper to follow for the payment whereof and the ease of His People His Majesty is willing to concur in any thing that can be done without the violation of His Conscience and Honour Wherefore if His two Houses shall consent to remit unto Him such benefit out of Sequestrations from Michaelmas last and out of Compositions that shall be made before the concluding of the Peace and the Arrears of such as have been already made the assistance of the Clergy and the Arrears of such Rents of His own Revenue as His two Houses shall not have received before the concluding of the Peace His Majesty will undertake within the space of eighteen months the payment of four hundred thousand pounds for the satisfaction of the Army and if those means shall not be sufficient His Majesty intends to
that if in this time instead of mending your Errors by delay you persist in your Errors you make them greater and irreconcileable whereas on the other side if you do go on chearfully to mend them and look to the distressed state of Christendom and the Affairs of the Kingdom as it lyeth now by this great Engagement you will do your selves honour you shall incourage Me to go on with Parliaments and I hope all Christendom shall feel the good of it V. To the House of Lords at WESTMINSTER May 11. MDCXXVI MY Lords The Cause and only Cause of My coming to you this day is to express the sense I have of all your Honours for he that toucheth any of you toucheth Me in a very great measure I have thought fit to take order for the punishing some insolent Speeches lately spoken I have been too remiss heretofore in punishing such Speeches as concern My self Not that I was greedy of their Monies but that Buckingham through his importunity would not suffer Me to take notice of them lest he might be thought to have set Me on and that he might come the forwarder to his Trial. And to approve his Innocency as touching the matters against him I My self can be a Witness to clear him in every one of them I speak not this to take any thing out of your hands but to shew the reason why I have not hitherto punished those insolent Speeches against My self And now I hope you will be as tender of My Honour when time shall serve as I have been sensible of yours VI. To the French Servants of the QUEEN at Somerset-House July 1. MDCXXVI GEntlemen and Ladies I am driven to that extremity as I am personally come to acquaint you that I very earnestly desire your return into France True it is the deportment of some amongst you hath been very inoffensive to Me But others again have so dallied with My Patience and so highly affronted Me as I cannot I will no longer endure it VII To the Lords and Commons at the opening of His Third Parliament at WESTMINSTER Mar. 17. MDCXXVII VIII MY Lords and Gentlemen The Times are now for Action for Action I say not for Words therefore I shall use but a few And as Kings are said to be exemplary to Their Subjects so I wish you would imitate Me in this and use as few falling upon speedy Consultation No man is I conceive such a Stranger to the Common Necessity as to expostulate the cause of this Meeting and not to think Supply to be the end of it And as this Necessity is the product and consequent of your Advice so the true Religion the Laws and Liberties of this State and just Defence of our Friends and Allies being so considerably concerned will be I hope arguments enough to perswade Supply For if it be as most true it is both My Duty and yours to preserve this Church and Common-wealth this Exigency certainly requires it In this time of Common danger I have taken the most antient speedy and best way for Supply by calling you together If which God forbid in not contributing what may answer the quality of My occasions you do not your duties it shall suffice I have done Mine in the Conscience whereof I shall rest content and take some other course for which God hath impowered Me to save that which the folly of particular men might hazard to lose Take not this as a Menace for I scorn to threaten any but My Equals but as an Admonition from Him who is tied both by Nature and Duty to provide for your preservations And I hppe though I thus speak your Demeanours will be such as shall not only make Me approve your former Counsels but oblige Me in thankfulness to meet you oftner than which nothing can be more pleasing to Me. I will only add one thing more and then leave My Lord Keeper to make a short Paraphrase upon the Text I have delivered you which is to Remember a thing to the end we may forget it Remembring the Distractions of our last Meeting you may suppose I have no Confidence of good success at this time But be assured I shall freely forget and forgive what is past hoping you will follow that sacred advice lately inculcated to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace VIII To the Lords and Commons at WHITE-HALL April 4. MDCXXVIII MY Lords and Gentlemen I do very well approve the Methods of your Proceedings in this Parliament A Jove Principium hoping that the rest of your Consultations will succeed the happier And I like the Preamble of My Lord Keeper otherwise I should a little have suspected that you thought Me not so careful of Religion as I have and ever shall be wherein I am as forward as you can desire As for your Petition I answer first in general that I like that well and will use these as well as all other means for the maintenance and propagation of that Religion wherein I have lived and do resolve to die But for the particulars you shall receive more full Answer hereafter And now I will only add this That as we pray to God to help us so we must help our selves for we can have no assurance of his assistance if we do lie in a Bed and only pray without using other means And therefore I must remember you that if we do not make provision speedily we shall not be able to put a Ship to Sea this year Verbum sat sapienti est IX To the Speaker and House of Commons April 14. MDCXXVIII MAster Speaker and you Gentlemen When I sent to you My last Message I did not expect to Reply for I intended to hasten you not to find fault with you I told you at your first meeting that this time was not to be spent in Words and I am sure it is less fit for Disputes which if I had a desire to entertain Master Speaker's Preamble might have given Me ground enough The Question is not now What Liberty you have in disposing of matters handled in the House but rather at this time what is fit to be done Therefore I hope you will follow My example in eschewing Disputations and fall to your important business You make a Protestation of your affection and zeal to My Prerogative grounded upon so good and just reasons that I must believe you But I look that you use Me with the like charity to believe what I have declared more than once since your meeting which is that I am as forward as you for the preservation of your true Liberties Let us not spend so much time in this that may hazard both My Prerogative and your Liberties to our Enemies To be short Go on speedily with your business without any fear or more Apologies for time calls fast upon you which will neither stay for you nor Me Wherefore it is My Duty to press you to hasten as knowing the necessity of
satisfie their own private Ends and Ambition for themselves know what overtures have been made by them and with what importunity for Offices and Preferments what great Services should have been done for Us and what other undertakings were even to have saved the Life of the Earl of Strafford if We would confer such Offices upon them We were sure We could make such particular proofs against them of a solemn Combination entred into by them for altering the Government of the Church and State of their designing Offices to themselves and other Men of their solliciting and drawing down the Tumults to Westminster and of their bidding the People in the height of their rage and fury to go to White-Hall of their scornful and odious mention of Our Person and their design of getting Our Son the Prince into their hands of their treating with Foreign Power to assist them if they should fail in their enterprises Yet we saw too that their Interest and reputation was so great with many of both Houses of Parliament their Power so absolute with a multitude of Brownists Anabaptists and other Sectaries about London who were ready to appear in a body at their command that it would be a hard matter to proceed against them In this streight We resolved to do Our part in both to give Our People a clear satisfaction of Our upright Intentions to the publick whereby they should find their Happiness did not at all depend on such Instruments and to proceed against the Persons of the other in a legal way that all the world might see what Ambition Malice and Sedition had been had under the Vizour of Conscience and Religion Hereupon We prepared an Answer to the Remonstrance the House of Commons had before published to the People of the State of the Kingdom wherein without taking notice of the uncomely Language in and the Circumstances of that Remonstrance We declared with as gracious and full Expressions as We could make Our earnest Resolutions for the maintenance of the true Protestant Religion the Liberty and Property of the Subject and the Law of the Land and made no less gracious offers to consent to any Act that should be offered for the ease of tender Consciences in matters indifferent and very earnestly desired that the same might be provided and whatever else should be thought necessary for the Peace and Security of Our People And then that We might likewise manifest the Actions of that Malignant Party which had done so much mischief and intended so much more We resolved to accuse the Lord Kimbolton Master Hollis Master Pym Master Hampden and Master Stroud who had so maliciously contrived the Ruine of Our Self and the established Government of this Church and Kingdom and Sir Arthur Hesilrigge who had been made their Instrument to obey and execute their bold and wild designs of High Treason as We had great reason to do hoping that their Duty due to Us and the Obligations We had put upon Our People this Parliament would never suffer the Interest and reputation of these Men to be laid in the scale and to over-weigh Our Regal Authority and the Law of the Land but that We should have found a way open to a fair and Legal Trial of them which was all We desired How our proceeding was in that business and Our managery of it We have truly and at large set forth in Our Answer to the Declaration of both Houses of the nineteenth of May That what We did first in acquainting the House of Commons with Our Accusation by Our Serjeant at Arms was in Correspondence and out of regard to that House that We might rather have them delivered to the hands of Justice by them than apprehend them by an ordinary Minister of Justice which We were and are assured whatever Doctrine is preached to the contrary We might well have done in the case of Treason otherwise that Maxime in the Law acknowledged in a Petition of both Houses to Us in the beginning of Our Reign in the Case of the Earl of Arundel That in case of Treason Felony and breach of Peace Priviledge of Parliament doth not extend is of no signification The words are They find it an undoubted Right and constant Priviledge of Parliament That no Member of Parliament sitting the Parliament or within the usual times of Priviledge of Parliament is to be imprisoned or restrained without Sentence or Order of the House unless it be for Treason Felony or for refusing to give Sureties for the Peace In those Cases 't was then thought a Member of either House was not to be distinguished from another Subject and why We might not as well have expected that upon Our Articles not so general as a meer verbal Accusation of High Treason either House would have committed their several Members as they had done so many this Parliament and about that time Twelve together upon a confessed ground which every Man there who knew what Treason was knew that fact to be none meerly because they were accused and as the House of Peers had formerly done a Member of that House the Earl of Bristol accused in the same manner most of the good Lords being then Judges We neither could then nor can yet understand That Our own coming to the House was to prevent that shedding of blood which in all possibility was likely to follow that Order made the night before for resisting all such Officers who endeavoured upon how legal Warrant soever to arrest any Members of either House an Order much more unjustifiable by any Rule of Law and Justice by which Orders or Acts are to be examined than any thing We have done or any body by Our Authority That Our purpose was no other but to acquaint that House with the matter of Our Accusation to desire their Persons might be secured and without any thought of the least violation of their Priviledges This is that which We did Examine now their part and their progress since and then judge whose Priviledges have been invaded and with how good a mind to the Common-wealth they have proceeded We were no sooner gone but the House adjourned it self with some unusual expressions of offence and We were speedily informed that some Reports and Scandals were raised against Us in Our City of London That We had offered Violence to Our House of Commons come thither with force to murther several Members and used threatning Speeches there against Our Parliament and that this was but a Preface to an attempt We meant to make against and upon the City Whereupon We resolved the next day to go to the Guild-Hall and to shew the great Confidence We had in the affections of Our said City which We expected should have begot a proportionable Confidence from them in Us We went attended with very few of Our own Servants and then in the presence of the Lord Mayor the Aldermen and a very great assembly of the chief Citizens and others We made
Officers to keep them from it seems to imply and the assertion that the two Houses of Parliament had ever disliked and forbidden it declares plainly to be their only meaning but particularly the Violence and Plundering used to His Subjects by forcibly taking away their goods for not submitting to Impositions and Taxes required from them by Orders or Ordinances of one or both Houses of Parliament which are contrary to the known Laws of the Land VI. Besides that there is no consent given to those Alterations and Additions offered by His Majesty whatsoever is pretended so where an absolute Consent may be supposed because the very words of His Majesties Article are wholly preserved yet by reason of the Relation to somewhat going before that is varied by them the sense of those words is wholy varied too as in the Fourth Article that part of the Third Article to which that did refer being wholly left out So that upon the matter all the Propositions made by His Majesty which did not in Terms agree with those presented to Him are utterly rejected For these Reasons and that this Entrance towards a blessed Peace and Accommodation which hath already filled the hearts of the Kingdom with Joy and Hope may be improved to the wished end His Majesty desires that the Committee now sent may speedily have liberty to treat debate and agree upon the Articles of Cessation in which they and all the World shall find that His Majesty is less sollicitous for His own Dignity and Greatness than for His Subjects Ease and Liberty And He doubts not upon such a Debate all differences concerning the Cessation will be easily and speedily agreed upon and the benefit of a Cessation be continued and confirmed to His People by a speedy disbanding of both Armies and a sudden and firm Peace which His Majesty above all things desires If this so reasonable equal and just Desire of His Majesty shall not be yielded unto but the same Articles still insisted upon though His Majesty next to Peace desires a Cessation yet that the not-agreeing upon the one may not destroy the hopes of nor so much as delay the other He is willing however to Treat even without a Cessation if that be not granted upon the Propositions themselves in that order as is agreed upon and desires the Committee here may be enabled to that effect In which Treaty He shall give all His Subjects that satisfaction that if any security to enjoy all the Rights Privileges and Liberties due to them by the Law or that Happiness in Church and State which the best times have seen with such farther acts of Grace as may agree with His Honour Justice and Duty to His Crown and as may not render Him less able to protect His Subjects according to His Oath will satisfie them He is confident in the Mercy of God that no more precious blood of this Nation will be thus miserably spent My Lord and Gentlemen WHereas by your former Instructions you are tied up to a circumstance of Time and are not to proceed unto the Treaty upon the Propositions until the Cessation of Arms be first agreed upon you are now authorized and required as you may perceive by the Votes of both Houses which you shall herewith receive to Treat and debate with His Majesty upon the two first Propositions according to those Instructions for four days after the day of the receit hereof notwithstanding that the Cessation be not agreed upon Your Lordships most humble Servant Manchester Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore March 24. 1642. Received March 25. Die Veneris 24. Martii 1642. Resolved upon the Question by the Lords and Commons in Parliament THat the Committee at Oxon shall have power to Treat and debate with His Majesty upon the two first Propositions according to their Instructions for four days after the day of the receit of this Message notwithstanding that the Cessation is not yet agreed upon Resolved c. That The Committee formerly appointed to prepare the Articles of Cessation and Instructions for the Committee at Oxon shall consider of an Answer to be made to His Majesties Message this day received and likewise prepare Reasons to be sent to the Committee for them to press in the Treaty and debate upon the former Articles of Cessation and to shew His Majesty the grounds why the Houses cannot depart from those former Articles Joh. Brown Cler. Parliamentorum The Votes of both Houses and the Copy of the Answer to His MAJESTY received Martii 25. 1642. May it please Your Majesty WE Your Loyal Subjects the Lords and Commons in Parliament having received a Message from Your Majesty in which You are pleased to express Your Self not to be satisfied with the Articles of Cessation presented unto You by our Committee now attending You at Oxford and yet a signification of Your Majesties willingness to Treat upon the Propositions themselves even without a Cessation do with all humbleness give our consent that our Committee shall have power to treat and debate with Your Majesty upon the two first Propositions according to their Instructions for four days after the day of the receit of this Message notwithstanding that the Cessation be not yet agreed upon that as much as in us lies here may be no delay in the proceedings for the obtaining of a blessed Peace and the healing up the miserable Breaches of this distracted Kingdom and do purpose to represent very speedily unto Your Majesty those just Reasons and grounds upon which we have found it necessary to desire of Your Majesty a Cessation so qualified as that is whereby we hope You will receive such satisfaction as that You will be pleased to assent unto it and being obtained we assure our selves it will be most effectual to the Safety of the Kingdom and that Peace which with so much zeal and loyal affection to Your Royal Person and in a deep sense of the bleeding condition of this poor Kingdom we humbly beg of Your Majesty's Justice and Goodness Joh. Brown Cler. Parl. A Letter from the E. of Manchester to the E. of Northumberland Received Mar. 29. MY Lord I am commanded by the Peers in Parliament to send unto your Lordship the Reasons which both Houses think fit to offer unto His Majesty in pursuit of their adhering to their former Resolutions concerning the Articles of the Cessation of Arms. My Lord you shall likewise receive additional Instructions from both Houses and a Vote which I send you here inclosed My Lord this is all I have in command as Your Lordships most humble Servant Manchester Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore Mar. 27. Die Lunae 27 Martii 1643. Resolved upon the Question by the Lords in Parliament THat the Earl of Northumberland their Committee at Oxford is hereby authorized to acquaint His Majesty with all their Instructions upon the two first Propositions Jo. Brown Cler. Parl. Additional Instructions March 29. Additional Instructions
of their first Article upon which He hath treated with the Committee as that upon which they have yet no power to Treat though His Majesty hath prest that such power might be given to them Falkland April 14. 1643. WE received Instructions from both Houses of Parliament the ninth of this present April and in pursuance thereof we humbly presented a Paper to Your Majesty upon the tenth of this instant wherein those Instructions were expressed and the desire of both Houses concerning Your Majesty's return to Your Parliament Northumberland Will. Pierrepont Joh. Holland Will. Armyne B. Whitelocke April 15. 1643. HIS Majesty doth acknowledge to have received a Paper from the Committee upon the tenth of April expressing that they had received Instructions to declare unto His Majesty the desire of both Houses for His Majesty's coming to his Parliament which they had often exprest with full offers of security to His Royal Person agreeable to their Duty and Allegiance and that they know no cause why His Majesty might not return thither with Honour and Safety But as the Committee had before acknowledged in a Paper of the sixth of April not to have any power or Instructions to Treat with His Majesty concerning His Return to His two Houses of Parliament and as this Paper mentioned no Instructions to Treat but only to deliver that single Message concerning it so His Majesty took it for granted that if they had received any new power or Instructions in that point they would have signified as much to Him and therefore conceiving it in vain to discourse and impossible to Treat upon that with those who had no power to Treat with Him His Majesty addrest that Answer concerning that point to both Houses of which Mis Majesty took notice to the Committee in a Paper of the fourteenth of April and which was shewed to them before He sent it And if both Houses will upon it but consent to give His Majesty such Security as will appear to all indifferent Persons to be agreeable to their Duty and Allegiance those Tumults which drove Him from thence and what followed those Tumults being a most visible and sufficient Reason why He cannot return thither with His Honour and Safety without more particular offers of Security than as yet they have ever made Him all disputes about that point between them will be soon ended and His Majesty speedily return to them and His whole Kingdom to their former Peace and Happiness Falkland The Message mentioned in the two last Papers of His Majesty is that of the 12 of April p. 353. Vpon the receit of which the Two Houses presently recalled their Committees Mis MAJESTY's Letter to the Queens Majesty Oxford 23 Jan. 2 Feb. Dear Heart SAturday and Sunday last I received two from Thee of the 29 of December 9 of January both which gave Me such Contentment as Thou mayest better judge than I describe the which that Thou mayest the better do know I was full three weeks wanting but one day without hearing from Thee besides scurvy London news of Thy stay and lameness which though I did not believe yet it vext Me so much the more that I could not prove them liars So now I conjure Thee by the Affection Thou bearest Me not only to judge but likewise participate with Me in the Contentment Thou hast given Me by assuring Me of Thy health and speedy return Concerning 45. 31. 7. 4. 132. 300. I will answer Thee in Thy own words Je le remetteray a vous respondre per bouche being confident that way to give Thee contentment In the mean time assure Thy self that I neither have nor will lose any time in that business and that I have not contented My Self with Generals And though I hope shortly to have the happiness of Thy company yet I must tell thee of some particulars in which I desire both Thy opinion and assistance I am persecuted concerning Places and all desire to be put upon Thee for the which I cannot blame them and yet Thou knowest I have no reason to do it Newark desireth Savil's place upon condition to leave it when his Father dieth Carenworth the same being contented to pay for it or give the profit to whom or how I please Digby and Dunsmore for to be Captain of the Pentioners Hartford once looked after it but now I believe he expects either to be Treasurer or of My Bed-chamber I incline rather to the latter if Thou like it for I absolutely hold Cottington the fittest man for the other There is one that doth not yet pretend that doth deserve as well as any I mean Capel therefore I desire Thy assistance to find somewhat for him before he ask One place I must fill before I can have Thy opinion it is the Master of the Wards I have thought upon Nicholas being confident that Thou wilt not mislike My choice and if he cannot perform both Ned Hyde must be Secretary for indeed I can trust no other Now I have no more time to speak of more but to desire Thee not to engage Thy Self for any So I rest Eternally Thine C. R. Dated Oxford 2 Feb. 23 Jan. My Lord IT is His Majesty's pleasure that there be something attempted upon the Castle of Warwick therefore you are to send as many Musquetiers as you can horse with the Prince of Wales his Reigment of Horse and your own this bearer La Roche will bring Petarrs and all things necessary for them you must march to morrow in the Evening to be there before break of the day on Saturday Your Faithful Friend Rupert Oxford 2 of March 1643. For the Earl of Northampton at Banbury My Lord I Have acquainted the King with the hinderance you have in your desire He was pleased to command me to tell you that your Lordship should send one of your Scouts to enquire if Ingram be in the Castle if he be you may safely go on with your design for knowing but of your coming he will make but little or no resistance and the sooner the better If after this you should think it feisible to raise the siege at Litchfield you have also that power to do it This bearer will inform you with some other particulars So I rest Your Lordship 's most faithful Friend Rupert Oxford the 3 of March at 12 at night To the Earl of Northampton Rupert His MAJESTY's Letter to the Queen Dear Heart THough ever since Sunday last I had good hopes of Thy happy Landing yet I had not the certain news thereof before yesterday when I likewise understood of Thy safe coming to York I hope Thou expected not welcome from Me in words but when I shall be wanting in any other way according to My wit and power of expressing My Love to Thee then let all honest Men hate and eschew Me like a Monster And yet when I shall have done My part I confess that I shall come short of what Thou deservest of Me.
the way thereunto were not such as were reasonable and necessary for them to make and just and honourable for His Majesty to grant and whether His Majesty's Answers to these Propositions are satisfactory or correspondent to His Expression to have given up all the faculties of His Soul to an earnest endeavour of a Peace and Reconciliation with His People But they must confess that they had just cause to suspect that this would be the happy issue of the Treaty for the prevalency of the enemies thereof who like that evil Spirit do most rage when they think they must be cast out was such that they would not proceed therein one step without some attempt or provocation laid in the way to interrupt and break it off for after they had resolved to present their humble Desires and Propositions to His Majesty their Committee must not without a special safe Conduct and Protection from Him have access to Him a liberty incident to them not only as they are Members of the Parliament and employed by both Houses but as they were free-born Subjects and yet when they passed over this His Majesty refused a safe Conduct to the Lord Viscount Say and Seal being one of the Committee appointed by both Houses to be employed upon that occasion such a breach of Priviledge that they believe is not to be parallel'd by the example of former times and yet their desire was such to obtain the end they drive at that is a happy and lasting Peace that they resolved not to interrupt the Treaty for that time by insisting upon it And then they had no sooner entred upon the Treaty but a Proclamation dated at Oxon the 16 of February 1642. entituled His Majesty's Proclamation forbidding all His loving Subjects and the Counties of Kent Surrey Sussex and Hampshire to raise any Forces c. and another Proclamation dated the 8 of February forbidding the assessing and payment of all Taxes by vertue of an Ordinance of both Houses and all entring into Associations were published in His Majesty's Name containing most bitter invectives and scandals against the proceedings of both Houses by styling them and such as obeyed them Traitors and Rebels charging them under the name of Brownists Anabaptists and Atheists to endeavour to take away the Kings Life and to destroy His Posterity the Protestant Religion and the Laws of the Kingdoms with many other such scandals and aspersions and even at this time were many designs practising against the Parliament which in all probability were the grounds and reasons of His Majesty's confidence and denial of their just desire Insomuch that His Majesty in a Letter sent from Him to the Queen and read in the House of Commons did declare That He had so many fine designs laid open to Him that He knew not which first to undertake One whereof probably was the most bloody and barbarous design upon Bristol attempted though by God's infinite mercy prevented during the Treaty And whether that of Sir Hugh Cholmley's in betraying of Scarborough Castle wherewith he was entrusted by the Parliament to the Queens hands and acted likewise during the Treaty and that of Killingworth Castle which should have been likewise betrayed and a design discovered by a Letter found in the Earl of Northampton's pocket slain near Stafford written to Him from Prince Rupert were some of the other designs mentioned in His Majesty's Letter they cannot certainly affirm but conjecture And when these collateral provocations and attempts could not prevail to make them desert the Treaty then comes in His Majesty's Message of the fourth of April which they have mentioned before charging them to abuse the people with imaginary Dangers and pretended Fears to use Force and Rapines upon His good Subjects with publishing new doctrines That it is unlawful for the King to do any thing and lawful to do any thing against Him with Malice and Subtilty to abuse the People that their Pleasure is all their bounds with many other such bitter expressions that no Man could think such an Answer could be any part of a Treaty or at least to proceed from a heart that desired a happy issue thereunto Notwithstanding all which the Lords and Commons were so resolutely fixed to prosecute that Treaty and if possibly they could to bring it to a blessed and happy conclusion that they were content to lie under all these Scandals and endure all these wounds so they might make up the breaches of the Commonwealth and therefore they did forbear the returning of an Answer to any of these provocations And then when the Malignant and Popish party too-too prevalent with his Majesty perceived their constancy not to be provoked to break that Treaty of their part they found it necessary to seduce His Majesty to refuse His Consent to their most necessary and just Desires and to propound such things as could not with the peace and safety of the Church and State be yielded to and so effected their own desires All which the Lords and Commons thought it their duty to publish to the Kingdom to the end that they may see that what hath been long endeavoured by subtile and secret practices is now resolved to be effected by open Violence and Hostility that is the destruction of our Laws and the Protestant Religion and introducing of Popery and Superstition and that there is little or no hope by any endeavour of a Treaty to procure the Peace of this Church and Kingdom unless both be exposed to the will and pleasure of the Popish party until the Army and Forces now raised and continued by them be first destroyed or suppressed And therefore the Lords and Commons do hope that not only such as are already convinced of their Design and Malice but even those that by their subtile and false pretences have been ignorantly seduced to joyn with them that love their Liberty and the Protestant Religion will now with one heart and mind unite together to preserve their Religion and Liberty in the defence whereof the Lords and Commons are resolved to offer up themselves their lives and fortunes a willing Sacrifice Die Sabbati 6 May 1643. A Declaration upon the Result of the Treaty brought in with some Amendments was this day read in the House of Commons and ordered to be delivered unto the Lords at a Conference And it is further Ordered by this House That this Declaration shall be Printed and Master Glyn do take care for the Printing of it and that none shall Print or re-print it but such as Master Glyn shall appoint to the end that by his care the Records may be rightly cited and the Letters and other matters Ordered to be Printed with it be carefully Printed H. Elsinge Cler. Parliament D. Com. His MAJESTY's Declaration to all His Loving Subjects in Answer to a Declaration of the Lords and Commons upon the Proceedings of the late Treaty of Peace and several Intercepted Letters of His MAJESTY to the QUEEN and of
County of Surrey directed to the House of Peers concluded with this close That they should be in duty obliged to mantain their Lordships so far as they should be united with the House of Commons in their just and pious proceedings sufficiently intimating that if they joyned not with the House of Commons they then meant as much as others had plainly professed About the same time a Citizen saying at the Bar of the House of Commons That they heard there were Lords who refused to consent and concur with them and that they would gladly know their names or words to that effect a Petition in the name of many thousand poor People in and about the City of London was directed to the House of Commons taking notice of a malignant Faction that made abortive all their good motions which tended to the Peace and Tranquillity of this Kingdom desiring that those noble Worthies of the House of Peers who concurred with them in their happy Votes might be earnestly desired to joyn with that Honourable House and to sit and Vote together as one entire body and professing that unless some speedy remedy were taken for the removing all such Obstructions as hindred the happy progress of their great Endeavours their Petitioners should not rest in quietness but should be forced to lay hold on the next remedy which was at hand to remove the disturbers of the Peace and Want and necessity breaking the bounds of Modesty not to leave any means unessayed for their relief lastly adding that the cry of the poor and needy was that such Persons who were the obstacles of their Peace and the hinderers of the happy proceedings of this Parliament might be forthwith publickly declared whose removal they conceived would put a period to those Distractions And this Petition was brought up to the House of Lords by the House of Commons at a Conference And after the same day Master Hollis a Member of the House of Commons in a Message from that House pressed the Lords at their Bar to joyn with the House of Commons in their desire about the Militia and farther with many other expressions of like nature desired in words to this effect That if that desire of the House of Commons were not assented unto those Lords who were willing to concur would find some means to make themselves known that it might be known who were against them and they might make it known to those that sent them After which Petition so strangely framed countenanced and seconded many Lords thereupon withdrawing themselves the Vote in order to the Militia twice before rejected was then passed After these and other unparliamentary Actions many things rejected and settled upon solemn debate were again after many Threats and Menaces resumed altered and determined contrary to the Custom and Laws of Parliament And so many of us withdrew our selves from thence where we could not Sit Speak and Vote with Honour Freedom and Safety and are now kept from thence for our Duty and Loyalty to our Sovereign And though some of us Sate and continued there long after this hoping that we might have been able to have prevented the growth and progress of farther Mischief yet since the Privilege of Parliament is so substantial and entire a Right that as the Invasion of the Liberties of either House is an injury to the other and the whole Kingdom so the Violence and Assaults upon any of our fellow-Members for expressing their opinions in matters of debate were instances to us what we were to look for when we should be known to dissent from what was expected and under that consideration every one of our just Liberties suffered violation Many of us for these and other reasons after His Majesty Himself was by many Indignities and Force driven from Westminster have been contrary to the Right and Freedom of Parliament Voted out of the House without committing any Crime and some of us without hearing or so much as being summoned to be heard and so our Countries for which we were and are trusted have been without any Proxies or Persons trusted on their behalf An Army hath been raised without and against His Majesty's Consent and a Protestation enjoyned to live and die with the Earl of Essex their General of that Army and a Member now amongst us refusing to take that Protestation was told That if he left not the Town speedily he should be committed to the Tower or knocked on the head by the Souldiers All Persons even the Members of both Houses have been and now are forced or injoyned to contribute for the maintenance and support of that Army A trayterous Covenant is since taken by the Members who remain and imposed upon the Kingdom That they will to their power assist the Forces raised and continued by both Houses of Parliament against the Forces raised by the King with many other Clauses directly contrary to their Allegiance and another for the alteration of the Covenant of the Church established by Law and such Members as have refused according to their Duty and Conscience to take those Covenants have been imprisoned or expelled so as they have suffered none to reside with them but those who are engaged with them in their desperate courses The whole Power and Authority of both Houses is delegated against the Law and nature of Parliament to a close Committee which assumes and usurps the Power of King Lords and Commons disposes of the Persons Liberties and Estates of us and our fellow-Subjects without so much as communicating their Resolutions to those that sit in the Houses And when an Order hath been reported to be confirmed by them it hath been only put to the Question no debates being suffered it having been said in the House where the Commons sit to those who have excepted against such an Order when presented That they were only to Vote not to dispute and thereupon all Argument and contradiction hath been taken away And to shew how impossible it is to contain themselves within any bond of civility and humanity when they have forfeited their Allegiance after the attempt in a most barbarous manner to murther the Queens Majesty at Her landing at Burlington by making many great shot at the house where She lodged for Her repose after a long Voyage by Sea where by God's blessing it was disappointed they impeached Her of High Treason for assisting the King Her Husband and the Kingdom in their greatest necessities All Petitions and Addresses for Peace have been with great Art and Vehemence discountenanced and suppressed whilst others for Sedition and Discord have with no less industry and passion been promoted And when the Members of the House of Commons in August last had agreed upon a long and solemn debate to joyn with the Lords in sending Propositions of Peace to His Majesty the next day printed Papers were scattered in the Streets and fix'd upon the publick places both in the City and Suburbs requiring all Persons
and Consent of the said Lords and Commons or of such Committees or Council in the Intervals of Parliament as they shall appoint 3. That during the same space of ten years the said Lords and Commons may by Bill or Ordinance raise and dispose of what Moneys and for what Forces they shall from time to time find necessary as also for payment of the Publick Debts and Damages and for all other the Publick uses of the Kingdom 4. And to the end the temporary Security intended by the three particulars last precedent may be the better assured it may therefore be provided That no Subjects that have been in Hostility against the Parliament in the late War shall be capable of bearing any Office of Power or publick Trust in the Commonwealth during the space of five years without Consent of Parliament or of the Council of State or to sit as Members or Assistants of either House of Parliament until the second Biennial Parliament be past III. For the present form of disposing the Militia in order to the Peace and Safety of this Kingdom and the Service of Ireland 1. That there be Commissioners for the Admiralty a Vice-Admiral and Rere-Admiral now to be agreed on with power for the forming regulating appointing of Officers and providing for the Navy and for ordering the same to and in the ordinary Service of the Kingdom and that there be a sufficient provision and establishment for Pay and maintenance thereof 2. That there be a General for Command of the Land-Forces that are to be in pay both in England Ireland and Wales both for Field and Garrison 3. That there be Commissioners in the several Counties for the standing Militia of the respective Counties consisting of Trained Bands and Auxiliaries not in pay with power for the proportioning forming regulating training and disciplining of them 4. That there be a Council of State with power to superintend and direct the several and particular powers of the Militia last mentioned for the Peace and Safety of this Kingdom and of Ireland 5. That the same Council may have power as the King 's Privy Council for and in all Forreign Negotiations provided That the making of War or Peace with any other Kingdom or State shall not be without the Advice and Consent of Parliament 6. That the said power of the Council of State be put into the hands of trusty and able persons now to be agreed on and the same persons to continue in that power si bene se gesserint for a certain Term not exceeding seven years 7. That there be a sufficient establishment now provided for the Salary Forces both in England and Ireland the establishment to continue until two Months after the meeting of the first Biennial Parliament IV. That an Act be passed for disposing the great Offices for ten years by the Lords and Commons in Parliament or by such Committees as they shall appoint for that purpose in the Intervals with submission to the Approbation of the next Parliament and after ten years they to nominate three and the King out of that number to appoint one for the succession upon any vacancy V. That an Act be passed for restraining of any Peers made since the 21. day of May 1642. or to be hereafter made from having any power to sit or vote in Parliament without Consent of both Houses VI. That an Act be passed for recalling and making void all Declarations and other Proceedings against the Parliament or against any that have acted by or under their Authority in the late War or in relation to it and that the Ordinances for Indemnity may be confirmed VII That an Act be passed for making void all Grants c. under the Great Seal that was conveyed away from the Parliament since the time that it was so conveyed away except as in the Parliaments Propositions and for making those valid that have been or shall be passed under the Great Seal made by the Authority of both Houses of Parliament VIII That an Act be passed for Confirmation of the Treaties between the two Kingdoms of England and Scotland and for appointing Conservators of the Peace betwixt them IX That the Ordinance for taking away the Court of Wards and Liveries be confirmed by Act of Parliament Provided His Majesties Revenue be not damnified therein nor those that last held Offices in the same left without reparation some other way X. An Act to declare void the Cessation of Ireland c. and to leave the prosecution of that War to the Lords and Commons in the Parliament of England XI An Act to be passed to take away all Coercive Power Authority and Jurisdiction of Bishops and all other Ecclesiastical Officers whatsoever extending to any Civil Penalties upon any and to repeal all Laws whereby the Civil Magistracy hath been or is bound upon any Ecclesiastical Censure to proceed ex officio unto any Civil Penalties against any persons so censured XII That there be a repeal of all Acts or Clauses in any Act enjoyning the use of the Book of Common Prayer and imposing any Penalties for neglect thereof as also of all Acts or Clauses in any Act imposing any penalty for not coming to Church or for Meetings elsewhere for Prayer or other Religious Duties Exercises or Ordinances and some other provision to be made for discovering of Papists and Popish Recusants and for disabling of them and of all Jusuites or Priests from disturbing the State XIII That the taking of the Covenant be not enforced upon any nor any penalties imposed upon the Refusors whereby men might be constrained to take it against their Judgments or Consciences but all Orders or Ordinances tending to that purpose to be repealed XIV That the things here before proposed being provided for settling and securing the Rights Liberties Peace and Safety of the Kingdom His Majesties Person His Queen and Royal Issue may be restored to a Condition of Safety Honour and Freedom in this Nation without diminution to their Personal Rights or further Limitation to the Exercise of the Regal Power than according to the particulars aforegoing XV. For the matter of Compositions 1. That a less number out of the Persons excepted in the two first Qualifications not exceeding five for the English being nominated particularly by the Parliament who together with the persons in the Irish Rebellion included in the third Qualification may be reserved to the future Judgment of the Parliament as they shall find cause all other excepted persons may be remitted from the Exception and admitted to Composition 2. That the Rates for all future Compositions may be lessened and limitted not to exceed the several proportions hereafter exprest respectively That is to say 1. For all persons formerly excepted not above a third part 2. For the late Members of Parliament under the first Branch of the fourth Qualification in the Propositions a fourth part 3. For other Members of Parliament in the second and third Branches of the
Table at Hampton-Court Nov. 11. 1647. CHALLES R. LIberty being that which in all Times hath been but especially now is the common Theme and Desire of all men common Reason shews That Kings less then any should endure Captivity And yet I call God and the World to Witness with what Patience I have endured a tedious Restraint which so long as I had any hopes that this sort of My Suffering might conduce to the Peace of My Kingdoms or the hindring of more effusion of Blood I did willingly undergoe But now finding by two certain proofs that this My continued Patience would not only turn to My Personal Ruine but likewise be of much more prejudice then furtherance to the Publick Good I thought I was bound as well by Natural as Political Obligations to seek my Safety by Retiring My self for some time from the publick View both of My Friends and Enemies And I appeal to all indifferent men to judge if I have not just cause to free My self from the hands of those who change their Principles with their Condition and who are not ashamed openly to intend the Destruction of the Nobility by taking away their Negative Voice and with whom the Levellers Doctrine is rather countenanced then punished and as for their intentions to My Person their changing and putting more strict Guards upon Me with the discharging most of all those Servants of Mine who formerly they willingly admitetd to wait upon Me does sufficiently declare Nor would I have this My Retirement misinterpreted for I shall earnestly and uncessantly endeavour the setling of a safe and well-grounded Peace where-ever I am or shall be and that as much as may be without the effusion of more Christian Blood for which how many times have I desired prest to be heard and yet no ear given to Me and can any Reasonable man think that according to the ordinary course of affairs there can be a setled Peace without it or that God will bless those who refuse to hear their own King Surely no. Nay I must further add that besides what concerns My self unless all other chief Interests have not only a hearing but likewise just satisfaction given unto them to wit the Presbyterians Independants Army those who have adhered to Me and even the Scots I say there cannot I speak not of Miracles it being in My Opinion a sinful presumption in such cases to expect or trust to them be a safe or lasting Peace Now as I cannot deny but My Personal Security is the urgent cause of this My Retirement so I take God to witness that the Publick Peace is no less before My Eyes and I can find no better way to express this My Profession I know not what a wiser man may do then by desiring and urging that all chief Interests may be heard to the end each may have just Satisfaction As for example the Army for the rest though necessary yet I suppose are not difficult to content ought in My Judgment to enjoy the Liberty of their Consciences have an Act of Oblivion or Indemnity which should extend to all the rest of My Subjects and that all their Arrears should be speedily and duly paid which I will undertake to do so I may be heard and that I be not hindred from using such Lawful and honest means as I shall chuse To conclude let Me be heard with Freedom Honour and Safety and I shall instantly break through this Cloud of Retirement and shew My self really to be Pater Patriae Hampton-Court 11. Novemb. 1647. His MAJESTIES Message to both Houses with Propositions Novemb. 17. 1647. For the Speaker of the Lords House pro tempore to be communicated to the Lords and Commons in the Parliament of England at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland CHARLES R. HIS Majesty is confident that before this time his two Houses of Parliament have received the Message which he left behind him at Hampton-Court the eleventh of this Month by which they will have understood the Reasons which enforced him to go from thence as likewise his constant endeavours for the setling of a safe and well-grounded Peace wheresoever he should be And being now in a place where he conceives himself to be at much more Freedom and Security then formerly he thinks it necessary not only for making good of his own Professions but also for the speedy procuring of a Peace in these languishing and distressed Kingdoms at this time to offer such grounds to his two Houses for that effect which upon due examination of all Interests may best conduce thereunto And because Religion is the best and chiefest foundation of Peace His Majesty will begin with that particular That for the abolishing Arch-bishops Bishops c. His Majesty cleary professeth that he cannot give his consent thereunto both in relation as he is a Christian and a King For the first he avows that he is satisfied in his Judgment that this Order was placed in the Church by the Apostles themselves and ever since their time hath continued in all Christian Churches throughout the World until this last Century of years and in this Church in all times of Change and Reformation it hath been upheld by the Wisdom of his Ancestors as the great preserver of Doctrine Discipline and Order in the Service of God As a King at his Coronation he hath not only taken a solemn Oath to maintain this Order but his Majesty and his Predecessors in their confirmations of the Great Charter have inseparably woven the Right of the Church into the Liberties of the rest of their Subjects And yet he is willing it be provided that the particular Bishops perform the several Duties of their Callings both by their personal Residence and frequent Preachings in their Dioceses as also that they exercise no Act of Jurisdiction or Ordination without the consent of their Presbyters and will consent that their Powers in all things be so limited that they be not grievous to tender Consciences Wherefore since his Majesty is willing to give ease to the Consciences of others he sees no reason why he alone and those of his Judgment should be pressed to a violation of theirs Nor can his Majesty consent to the Alienation of Church-Lands because it cannot be denied to be a sin of the highest Sacriledge as also that it subverts the intentions of so many pious Donors who have laid a heavy Curse upon all such profane violations which his Majesty is very unwilling to undergoe and besides the matter of Conscience His Majesty believes it to be a prejudice to the Publick good many of his Subjects having the benefit of renewing Leases at much easier Rates then if those Possessions were in the hands of private men not omitting the discouragement which it will be to all Learning and Industry when such eminent rewards shall be taken away which now lye open to the Children of meanest Persons Yet his Majesty considering the great present
for example had Authority to perform such Acts and Offices of Church-Government as his Majesty hath not yet found by any thing represented unto Him by you or any other from the Scripture that a single Presbyter ever had authority to perform which is enough to prove that the Community of Names in some places notwithstanding the Functions themselves are in other places by their proper work sufficiently distinguished But for the Name Episcopus or Bishop His Majesty hath long since learned from those that are skilful in the Greek tongue that it imports properly no more than an Overseer one that hath the charge or inspection of some thing committed unto him as hee that is set to watch a Beacon or to keep Sheep whence in the New Testament and in the Ecclesiastical use it is applied to such persons as have the Care and Inspection of the Churches of Christ committed unto them in Spiritualibus as both Bishops and Presbyters have in some sort but with this difference that mere Presbyters are Episcopi gregis only they have the oversight of the Flock in the duties of Preaching Administration of Sacraments Publick Prayer Exhorting Rebuking c. but Bishops are Episcopi gregis and Pastorum too having the oversight of the Flock and Pastors within their several Precincts in the acts of external Government so that the common work of both Functions is the Ministry of the Gospel but that which is peculiar to the Function of Bishops as distinguished from Presbyters is Church-Government It is not therefore to be wondred if it should happen in the New Testament the word Episcopus to be usually applied unto Presbyters who were indeed Overseers of the flock rather than unto Church-Governors who had then another Title of greater Eminency whereby to distinguish them from ordinary Presbyters to wit that of Apostles But when the government of Churches came into the hands of their Successors the names were by common usage which is the best Master of words very soon appropriated that of Episcopus to the Ecclesiastical Governor or Bishop of a Diocese and that of Presbyter to the ordinary Minister or Priest His Majesty had rather cause to wonder That upon such premises you should conclude with so much confidence as if the point were rendred most clear to the Judgment of most men both ancient and of latter times That there is no such Officer to be found in the Scriptures of the New Testament as a Bishop distinct from a Presbyter whenas His Majesty remembreth to have seen cited by such Authors as He hath no reason to suspect both out of the ancient Fathers and Councils and out of sundry modern Writers even of those Reformed Churches that want Bishops great variety of Testimonies to the contrary His Majesty is not satisfied with your Answer concerning the Apostles exercise of Episcopal Government which you would put off by referring it to their extraordinary Calling Our Saviour himself was the first and chief Apostle and Bishop of our Souls sent by the Father and Anointed by the Holy Ghost to be both the Teacher and the Governour of his Church By that Mission he receiv'd Authority and by his Unction ability for those works which he performed in his own person whilst he lived upon the earth Before he left the world that the Church might not want Teaching and Governing to the worlds end he chose certain persons upon whom he conferred both these Powers whereby they became also Apostles and Bishops by making them partakers both of his Mission before his Ascension As my Father sent me so send I you and of his Vnction shortly after his Ascension when he poured upon them the Holy Ghost at Pentecost The Mission both for teaching and governing at least for the substance of it was ordinary and to continue to the end of the world Matt. xxviii 18 20. and therefore necessarily to descend and be by them transmitted to others as their Substitutes and Successors But the Vnction whereby they were enabled to both Offices or Functions by the effusion of the Holy Ghost in such a plenteous measure of Knowledg Tongues Miracles Prophecyings Healing Infallibility of Doctrine discerning of spirits and such like was indeed extraordinary in them and in some few others though in an inferiour measure as God saw it needful for the planting of the Churches and propagation of the Gospel in those Primitive times and in this which was indeed extraordinary in them they were not necessarily to have Successors But it seems very unreasonable to attribute the exercise of that Power whether of Teaching or Governing to an extraordinary calling which being of necessary and continual use in the Church must therefore of necessity be the work of a Function of ordinary and perpetual use Therefore the Acts of Governing of the Church were no more nor otherwise extraordinary in the Apostles than the Acts of Teaching the Church were that is to say both extraordinary for the manner of performance in respect of their more than ordinary abilities for the same and yet both ordinary for the substance of the Offices themselves and the works to be performed therein and in these two ordinary Offices their ordinary Successors are Presbyters and Bishops Presbyters qua Presbyters immediately succeeding them in the Office of Teaching and Bishops qua Bishops immediately in the Office of Governing The instances of Timothy and Titus you likewise endeavour to avoid by the pretension of an extraordinary calling But in this Answer besides the insufficiency thereof if all that is said therein could be proved His Majesty findeth very little satisfaction 1. First you say that Timothy and Titus were by Office Evangelists whereas of Titus the Scriptures no where affirm any such thing at all and by your own Rule your Authority without Scripture will beget if that but a humane Faith neither doth the Text clearly Prove that Timothy was so 2. Setting aside mens conjectures which can breed but an humane Faith neither you cannot make it appear by any Text of Scripture that the Office of an Evangelist is such as you have described it The work of an Evangelist which Saint Paul exhorteth Timothy to do seems by the Context 2 Tim iv 5. to be nothing but diligence in preaching the Word notwithstanding all impediments and oppositions 3. That which you so confidently affirm That Timothy and Titus acted as Evangelists is not onely denyed but clearly refuted by Scultetus Gerard and others yea even with scorn rejected of late as His Majesty is informed by some rigid Presbyterians as Gillespy Rutherford c. And that which you so confidently deny that Timothy and Titus were Bishops is not onely confirmed by the consentient testimony of all Antiquity even Jerome himself having recorded it that they were Bishops and that of St. Paul's ordination and acknowledged by very many late Divines but a Catalogue also of 27. Bishops of Ephesus lineally succeeding from Timothy our of good records is vouched by
may in all reason be thought to have more of Gifts and Graces enabling them to compose with serious deliberation and concurrent advice such Forms of Prayers as may best fit the Churches common wants inform the Hearers understanding and stir up that fiduciary and fervent application of their spirits wherein consists the very life and soul of Prayer and that so much pretended Spirit of Prayer than any private man by his solitary abilities can be presumed to have which what they are many times even there where they make a great noise and shew the affectations emptiness impertinency rudeness confusions flatness levity obscurity vain and ridiculous repetitions the sensless and oft-times blasphemous expressions all these burthened with a most tedious and intolerable length do sufficiently convince all men but those who glory in that Pharisaick way Wherein men must be strangely impudent and flatterers of themselves not to have an infinite shame of what they so do and say in things of so sacred a nature before God and the Church after so ridiculous and indeed profane a manner Nor can it be expected but that in duties of frequent performance as Sacramental administrations and the like which are still the same Ministers must either come to use their own Forms constantly which are not like to be so sound or comprehensive of the nature of the Duty as Forms of Publick composure or else they must every time affect new expressions when the Subject is the same which can hardly be presumed in any mans greatest sufficiencies not to want many times much of that compleatness order and gravity becoming those Duties which by this means are exposed at every celebration to every Ministers private Infirmities Indispositions Errors Disorders and Defects both for Judgment and Expression A serious sense of which inconveniences in the Church unavoidably following every mans several manner of officiating no doubt first occasioned the Wisdom and Piety of the Ancient Churches to remedy those mischiefs by the use of constant Liturgies of Publick composure The want of which I believe this Church will sufficiently feel when the unhappy fruits of many mens ungoverned Ignorance and confident defects shall be discovered in more Errors Schisms Disorders and uncharitable Distractions in Religion which are already but too many the more is the pity However if Violence must needs bring in and abet those Innovations that men may not seem to have nothing to do which Law Reason and Religion forbids at least to be so obtruded as wholly to justle out the Publick Liturgy Yet nothing can excuse that most unjust and partial severity of those men who either lately had subscribed to used and maintained the Service-book or refusing to use it cryed out of the rigor of the Laws and Bishops which suffered them not to use the liberty of their Consciences in not using it That these men I say should so suddenly change the Liturgy into a Directory as if the Spirit needed help for Invention tho not for Expresions or as if matter prescribed did not as much stint and obstruct the Spirit as if it were cloathed in and confined to fit words So slight and easie is that Legerdemain which will serve to delude the Vulgar That further they should use such severity as not to suffer without penalty any to use the Common-prayer-Book publickly although their Consciences bind them to it as a duty of Piety to God and Obedience to the Laws Thus I see no men are prone to be greater Tyrants and more rigorous exacters upon others to conform to their illegal Novelties than such whose Pride was formerly least disposed to the obedience of lawful constitutions and whose licentious humors most pretended conscientious liberties which freedom with much regret they now allow to Me and my Chaplains when they may have leave to serve Me whose Abilities even in their extemporary way comes not short of the others but their Modesty and Learning far exceeds the most of them But this matter is of so popular a nature as some men knew it would not bear learned and sober Debates lest being convinced by the evidence of Reason as well as Laws they should have been driven either to sin more against their Knowledg by taking away the Liturgy or to displease some Faction of the People by continuing the use of it Tho I believe they have offended more considerable men not only for their numbers and estates but for their weighty and judicious Piety than those are whose Weakness or Giddiness they sought to gratify by taking it away One of the greatest faults some men found with the Common-Prayer-Book I believe was this that it taught them to pray so oft for Me to which Petitions they had not Loyalty enough to say Amen nor yet Charity enough to forbear Reproaches and even Cursings of Me in their own Forms in stead of praying for Me. I wish their Repentance may be their only Punishment that seeing the mischiefs which the disuse of Publick Liturgies hath already produced they may restore that credit use and reverence to them which by the ancient Churches were given to Set Forms of sound and wholesom words And Thou O Lord which art the same God blessed for ever whose Mercies are full of variety and yet of constancy Thou deniest us not a new and fresh sense of our old and daily wants nor despisest renewed affections joyned to constant expressions Let us not want the benefit of thy Churches united and well-advised Devotions Let the matters of our Prayers be agreeable to thy will which is always the same and the fervency of our spirits to the motions of thy Holy Spirit in us And then we doubt not but thy Spiritual perfections are such as Thou art neither to be pleased with affected Novelties for matter or manner nor offended with the Pious constancy of our Petitions in them both Whose variety or constancy Thou hast no where either forbidden or commanded but left them to the Piety and Prudence of thy Church that both may be used neither despised Keep men in that pious moderation of their Judgments in matters of Religion that their Ignorance may not offend others nor their opinion of their own Abilities tempt them to deprive others of what they may lawfully and devoutly use to help their infirmities And since the advantage of Error consists in Novelty and Variety as Truth 's in Vnity and Constancy suffer not thy Church to be pestered with Errors and deformed with Vndecencies in thy Service under the pretence of Variety and Novelty nor to be deprived of Truth Vnity and Order under this fallacy That Constancy is the cause of Formality Lord keep us from formal Hypocrifie in our own hearts and then we know that praying to Thee or praising of Thee with David and other Holy men in the same Forms cannot hurt us Give us Wisdom to amend what is amiss within us and there will be less to mend without us Evermore defend and deliver thy Church
devout retirements where neither the solemnity of the Duty nor the modest regard to others do require so great exactness as to the outward manner of performance Tho the light of Understanding and the fervency of Affection I hold the main and most necessary requisites both in constant and occasional solitary and social Devotions So that I must needs seem to all equal minds with as much Reason to prefer the service of My own Chaplains before that of their Ministers as I do the Liturgy before their Directory In the one I have been always educated and exercised in the other I am not yet Catechised nor acquainted And if I were yet should I not by that as by any certain Rule and Canon of Devotion be able to follow or find out the indirect extravagancies of most of those men who highly cry up that as a piece of rare composure and use which is already as much despised and disused by many of them as the Common-prayer sometimes was by those men a great part of whose piety hung upon that popular pin of railing against and contemning the Government and Liturgy of this Church But I had rather be condemned to the woe of Vae soli than to that of Vae vobis Hypocritae by seeming to pray what I do not approve It may be I am esteemed by my Deniers sufficient of My self to discharge My Duty to God as a Priest tho not to Men as a Prince Indeed I think both Offices Regal and Sacerdotal might well become the same Person as anciently they were under one name and the united rights of primogeniture Nor could I follow better precedents if I were able than those two eminent Kings David and Solomon not more famous for their Scepters and Crowns than one was for devout Psalms and Prayers the other for his Divine Parables and Preaching whence the one merited and assumed the name of a Prophet the other of a Preacher Titles indeed of greater honour where rightly placed than any of those the Roman Emperors affected from the Nations they subdued it being infinitely more glorious to convert Souls to Gods Church by the Word than to conquer men to a subjection by the Sword Yet since the order of Gods Wisdom and Providence hath for the most part always distinguished the gifts and Offices of Kings and Priests of Princes and Preachers both in the Jewish and Christian Churches I am sorry to find My self reduced to the necessity of being both or enjoying neither For such as seek to deprive Me of My Kingly Power and Soveraignty would no less enforce Me to live many months without all Prayers Sacraments and Sermons unless I become My own Chaplain As I owe the Clergy the protection of a Christian KING so I desire to enjoy from them the benefit of their Gifts and Prayers which I look upon as more prevalent than My own or other mens by how much they flow from Minds more enlightned and Affections less distracted than those which are encumbred with Secular affairs besides I think a greater Blessing and acceptableness attends those Duties which are rightly performed as proper to and within the limits of that calling to which God and the Church have specially designed and consecrated some men And however as to that Spiritual Government by which the Devout Soul is subject to Christ and through his Merits daily offers it self and its services to God every private believer is a King and a Priest invested with the honour of a Royal Priesthood yet as to Ecclesiastical order and the outward Polity of the Church I think confusion in Religion will as certainly follow every mans turning Priest or Preacher as it will in the State where every one affects to rule as King I was always bred to more modest and I think more Pious Principles The consciousness to my Spiritual defects makes Me more prize and desire those Pious assistances which holy and good Ministers either Bishops or Presbyters may afford Me especially in these Extremities to which God hath been pleased to suffer some of my Subjects to reduce Me so as to leave them nothing more but my Life to take from Me and to leave Me nothing to desire which I thought might less provoke their Jealousy and offence to deny Me than this of having some means afforded Me for my Souls comfort and support To which end I made choice of men as no way that I know scandalous so every way eminent for their Learning and Piety no less than for their Loyalty nor can I imagine any exceptions to be made against them but only this That they may seem too able and too well-affected toward Me and my Service But this is not the first service as I count it the best in which they have forced Me to serve My self tho I must consess I bear with more grief and impatience the want of my Chaplains than of any other my Servants and next if not beyond in some things to the being sequestred from my Wife and Children since from these indeed more of human and temporary Affections but from those more of Heavenly and Eternal Improvements may be expected My comfort is that in the enforced not neglected want of ordinary means God is wont to afford extraordinary supplies of his Gifts and Graces If his Spirit will teach Me and help my infirmities in Prayer Reading and Meditation as I hope he will I shall need no other either Orator or Instructor To Thee therefore O My God do I direct my now solitary Prayers What I want of others help supply with the more immediate assistances of thy Spirit which alone can both enlighten my darkness and quicken my dulness O thou Sun of Righteousness thou Sacred Fountain of Heavenly Light and Heat at once clear and warm my Heart both by instructing of Me and interceding for Me. In Thee is all Fulness from Thee is all Sufficiency by Thee is all Acceptance Thou art company enough and comfort enough Thou art my King be also my Prophet and my Priest Rule Me teach Me pray in Me for Me and be Thou ever with Me. The single wrestlings of Jacob prevailed with Thee in that Sacred Duel when he had none to second him but Thy self who didst assist him with power to overcome Thee and by a welcome violence to wrest a Blessing from Thee O look on Me thy Servant in infinite mercy whom Thou didst once bless with the joint and sociated Devotions of others whose fervency might inflame the coldness of my Affections towards Thee when we went to or met in thy House with the Voice of joy and gladness worshipping Thee in the unity of Spirits and with the bond of Peace O forgive the neglect and not improving of those happy Opportunities It is now thy pleasure that I should be as a Pelican in the wilderness as a Sparrow on the house top and as a Coal scattered from all those pious glowings and devout reflections which might best kindle preserve
Debate wherein these Propositions and the necessary explanations true sense and reasons thereof may be rightly weighed and understood and that His Majesty upon a full view of the whole Propositions may know what is left as well as what is taken away and changed In all which He finds upon discourse with the said Commissioners that they are so bound up from any capacity either to give reasons for the demands they bring or to give ear to such desires as His Majesty is to propound as it is impossible for Him to give such a present Judgment of and Answer to these Propositions whereby He can answer to God that a safe and well-grounded Peace will ensue which is evident to all the world can never be unless the just Power of the Crown as well as the Freedom and Propriety of the Subject with the just Liberty and Privileges of the Parliament be likewise setled To which end His Majesty desires and proposeth to come to London or any of His Houses thereabouts upon the publick Faith and security of the two Houses of Parliament and the Scotch Commissioners that He shall be there with Freedom Honour and Safety where by His Personal presence He may not only raise a mutual Confidence betwixt Him and His People but also have these Doubts cleared and these Difficulties explained unto Him which He now conceives to be destructive to His just Regal Power if He shall give a full consent to these Propositions as they now stand as likewise that He may make known to them such His reasonable demands as He is most assured will be very much conducible to that Peace which all good men desire and pray for by the setling of Religion the just Privileges of Parliament with the Freedom and Propriety of the Subject And His Majesty assures them that as He can never condescend unto what is absolutely destructive to that just Power which by the Laws of God and the Land He is born unto so He will chearfully grant and give His assent unto all such Bills at the desire of His two Houses or reasonable demands for Scotland which shall be really for the good and Peace of His People not having regard to His own particular much less any bodies else in respect of the Happiness of these Kingdoms Wherefore His Majesty conjures them as Christians as Subjects and as men who desire to leave a good name behind them that they will so receive and make use of this Answer that all issues of blood may be stopped and these unhappy Distractions peaceably setled Newcastle August 1. 1646. POSTSCRIPT UPon assurance of a happy Agreement His Majesty will immediately send for the Prince His Son absolutely expecting his perfect obedience to return into this Kingdom XXVI From NEWCASTLE December 20. MDCXLVI For a Personal Treaty at or near LONDON To the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster and to the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland CHARLES R. HIS Majesties thoughts being alwaies sincerely bent to the Peace of His Kingdoms was and will be ever desirous to take all ways which might the most clearly make appear the candour of His intentions to His People and to this end could find no better way than to propose a Personal free debate with His two Houses of Parliament upon all the present Differences Yet finding very much against His expectations that this offer was laid aside His Majesty bent all His thoughts to make His intentions fully known by a particular Answer to the Propositions delivered to Him in the name of both Kingdoms the 24. of July last But the more He endeavoured it He more plainly saw that any answer He could make would be subject to mis-informations and misconstructions which upon His own Paraphrases and Explanations He is most confident will give so good satisfaction as would doubtless cause a happy and lasting Peace Lest therefore that good intentions may produce ill effects His Majesty again proposeth and desires again to come to London or any of His Houses thereabouts upon the publick Faith and security of his two Houses of Parliament and the Scotch Commissioners that He shall be there with Honour Freedom and Safety Where by His Personal presence He may not only raise a mutual Confidence betwixt Him and His People but also have those Doubts cleared and those Difficulties explained to Him without which He cannot but with the aforesaid mischievous inconveniences give a particular Answer to the Propositions and with which He doubts not but so to manifest His real intentions for the setling of Religion the just Privileges of Parliament with the Freedom and Property of the Subject that it shall not be in the power of wicked and malicious men to hinder the establishing of that firm Peace which all honest men desire Assuring them as He will make no other Demands but such as He believes confidently to be just and much conducing to the tranquillity of the People so He will be most willing to condescend to them in whatsoever shall be really for their good and happiness Not doubting likewise but you will also have a due regard to maintain the just Power of the Crown according to your many protestations and professions For certainly except King and People have reciprocal care each of other neither can be happy To conclude 't is your King who desires to be heard the which if refused to a Subject by a King he would be thought a Tyrant for it and for that end which all men profess to desire Wherefore His Majesty conjures you as you desire to shew your selves really what you profess even as you are good Christians and Subjects that you will accept this His offer which He is confident God will so bless that it will be the readiest means by which these Kingdoms may again become a Comfort to their Friends and a Terrour to their Enemies Newcastle 20. December 1646. XXVII From HOLDENBY Feb. 17. MDCXLVI VII Desiring some of His Chaplains For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster SInce I have never dissembled nor hid My Conscience and that I am not yet satisfied with the alteration of Religion to which you desire My consent I will not yet lose time in giving reasons which are too obvious to every body why it is fit for Me to be attended by some of My Chaplains whose opinions as Clergy-men I esteem and reverence not only for the exercise of My Conscience but also for clearing of My Judgement concerning the present differences in Religion as I have at full declared to Mr Marshall and his fellow-Minister having shewed them that it is the best and likeliest means of giving Me satisfaction which without it I cannot have in these times whereby the Distractions of this Church may be the better settled Wherefore I desire that at least two of these
Reverend Divines whose Names I have here set down may have free liberty to wait upon Me for their discharging of their Duty unto Me according to their Function Holdenby 17. February 1646. CHARLES R. B. London B. Salisbury B. Peterborough D. Shelden Clark of My Closet D. Marsh Dean of York D. Sanderson D. Baily D. Heywood D. Beal D. Fuller D. Hammond D. Taylor XXVIII From HOLDENBY Mar. 6. MDCXLVI VII In pursuance of the former To the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster IT being now seventeen days since I wrote to you from hence and not yet receiving any Answer to what I then desired I cannot but now again renew the same unto you And indeed concerning any thing but the necessary duty of a Christian I would not thus at this time trouble you with any of My desires But My being attended with some of My Chaplains whom I esteem and reverence is so necessary for Me even considering My present condition whether it be in relation to My Conscience or a happy settlement of the present Distractions in Religion that I will slight divers kinds of censures rather than not to obtain what I demand nor shall I do you the wrong as in this to doubt the obtaining of My wish it being totally grounded upon Reason For desiring you to consider not thinking it needful to mention the divers reasons which no Christian can be ignorant of for point of Conscience I must assure you that I cannot as I ought take in consideration those alterations in Religion which have and will be offered unto Me without such help as I desire because I can never judge rightly of or be altered in any thing of my Opinion so long as any ordinary way of finding out the truth is denied Me but when this is granted Me I promise you faithfully not to strive for Victory in Argument but to seek and submit to Truth according to that Judgement which God hath given Me always holding it My best and greatest Conquest to give contentment to My two Houses of Parliament in all things which I conceive not to be against My Conscience or Honour not doubting likewise but that you will be ready to satisfie Me in reasonable things as I hope to find in this particular concerning the attendance of My Chaplains upon Me. Holdenby 6. of March 1646. CHARLES R. XXIX From HOLDENBY May 12. MDCXLVII In Answer to their Propositions To the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland CHARLES R. AS the daily expectation of the coming of the Propositions hath made His Majesty this long time to forbear giving His Answer unto them so the appearance of their sending being no more for any thing He can hear than it was at His first coming hither notwithstanding that the Earl of Lauderdale hath been at London above these ten days whose not coming was said to be the only stop hath caused His Majesty thus to anticipate their coming to Him And yet considering His condition that His Servants are denied access to Him all but very few and those by appointment not His own election and that it is declared a crime for any but the Commissioners or such who are particularly permitted by them to converse with His Majesty or that any Letters should be given to or received from Him may He not truly say that He is not in case fit to make Concessions or give Answers since He is not master of these ordinary actions which are the undoubted rights of any free-born man how mean soever his birth be And certainly He would still be silent as to this Subject until His condition were much mended did He not prefer such a right understanding betwixt Him and His Parliaments of both Kingdoms which may make a firm and lasting Peace in all His Dominions before any particular of His own or any earthly blessing and therefore His Majesty hath diligently imployed His utmost endeavours for divers months past so to inform His understanding and satisfie His Conscience that He might be able to give such Answers to the Propositions as would be most conformable to His Parliaments but He ingenuously professes that notwithstanding all the pains that He hath taken therein the nature of some of them appears such unto Him that without disclaiming that Reason which God hath given Him to judge by for the good of Him and His People and without putting the greatest violence upon His own Conscience He cannot give His Consent to all of them Yet His Majesty that it may appear to all the world how desirous He is to give full satisfaction hath thought fit hereby to express His readiness to grant what He may and His willingness to receive from them and that Personally if His two Houses at Westminster shall approve thereof such further information in the rest as may best convince His Judgement and satisfie those doubts which are not yet clear unto Him desiring them also to consider that if His Majesty intended to wind Himself out of these Troubles by indirect means were it not easie for Him now readily to consent to what hath or shall be proposed unto Him and afterwards chuse His time to break all alledging that forced Concessions are not to be kept surely He might and not incur a hard censure from indifferent men But Maxims in this kind are not the guides of His Majesty's Actions for He freely and clearly avows that He holds it unlawful for any man and most base in a King to recede from His Promises for having been obtained by force or under restraint Wherefore His Majesty not only rejecting those acts which He esteems unworthy of Him but even passing by that which He might well insist upon a point of Honour in respect of His present condition thus answers the first Proposition That upon His Majesty's coming to London He will heartily joyn in all that shall concern the Honour of His two Kingdoms or the Assembly of the States of Scotland or of the Commissioners or Deputies of either Kingdom particularly in those things which are desired in that Proposition upon confidence that all of them respectively with the same tenderness will look upon those things which concern His Majesty's Honour In answer to all the Propositions concerning Religion His Majesty proposeth That He will confirm the Presbyterial Government the Assembly of Divines at Westminster and the Directory for three years being the time set down by the two Houses so that His Majesty and His Houshold be not hindred from that form of God's Service which they formerly have had And also that a free consultation and debate be had with the Divines at Westminster twenty of His Majesty's nomination being added unto them whereby it may be determined by His Majesty and the two Houses how the Church shall be