and us to the general content and safety of all honest men and so end the old and begin the new year with peace Whereas if we now break off and let go all the King hath granted I see no end of our Wars and miseries nor any probable means of peace and settlement in many years at least if ever in this or the succeeding Generation And the speediest remedy in this case especially considering the kingdom is so far exhausted that we know neither how to pay our publike debts our Fleet or Army their present Arrears much lesse their future must needs bee the best and be preferred before all others that will require more time and expence and be more hazardous and contingent in the event Thirdly As it is the speediest so the best and legallest safest and certainest way of all others First there is no danger nor hazard at all in it nor any expence of mony or effusion of bloud 't is but accept and then confirm by Acts and Oaths and the work is presently done If we think of settlement in any other way we must fight again and that will be both costly hazardous and when all is done we must Treat again perchance upon worse terms else there will be no peace nor settlement Secondly This is the way we have ever formerly pitched upon the way all parties have consented to and approved but those alone who desire neither peace nor settlement Therefore best safest and durablest Thirdly It is the legallest certainest because a peace and settlement by Acts of Parliament the highest security to English men under heaven to which King Lord Commons in them the whole kingdom consent wil all acquiesce in what is done without question or future dispute What peace soever is settled otherwise either by a bare Order or Ordinance of the Houses or by the Sword power alone will neither be sure safe nor lasting no longer then maintained by the Sword every man will be sure to question and unsettle all again upon the least advantage given The highest security that England ever had was Magna Charta and the Charter of the Forrest these were gained by the Sword but not held by it That which hath kept perpetuated these since their making was those Acts of Parliament which confirmed them These are only security for what ever we enjoy which will survive all other we can think of Nullum violentum est diuturnum Whereas priviledges kept and held by publike Acts will last for ever and be entailed to us and our posterities with peace and happiness attending them This was the way of settling peace between Kings and Subjects heretofore in Henry the 3. Edward the 2. Richard the 2. Henry the 6. Raigns and an Act of Pacification and Oblivion was the only safe and usuall way the Parliaments both of England and Scotland lately fixed on to settle a firm and lasting peace between both Nations kingdoms All other settlements will be but like an ulâ—â—r skinned over which will soone break out again with greater pain and danger then before 2dly For the new way proposed by the Army for a firm peace settlement it is certainly the most desperate dishonourable dangerous and destructive that can possibly be imagined and such as we can neither in honour justice conscience nor prudence imbrace To examine it a little by parts The first way to peace and settlement propounded by them is presently to break off the Treaty and that contrary to our publike faith to the King and kingdom yea to our own votes before the Treaty was fully ended this is the drift of their whole Remonstrance Which as it will totally if not finally deprive us of the fruit benefit of all the K. Concessions in the Treaty all which are by mutuall agreement no wayes obligatory to either party in any particular unless all be agreed being all that we can possibly think of for our safety and advantage and more then any Nation under heaven yet injoied so it wil inevitably cast us upon present wayes of new distractions confusions and civill wars now we are quite exhausted and end at last in our absolute destruction instead of a wel-grounded peace and those blessings we may forth with enjoy for the very accepting without further charge or trouble But if God beyond our hopes should after any new embroylments give us peace yet it must be upon a new Treaty and that perchance upon far worse terms then now are offered Therefore it must needs be dangerous to reject a safe way to follow a hazardous or destructive one The next thing proposed by them for a speedy peace and settlement is the bringing of the King to speedy justice for all his treasons and bloodshed in the late wars and then to depose and execute him as the greatest capitall malefactor in the kingdomâ— This certainly is a very dangerous aund unlikely way to peace and settlement First of all The smiting of the Shepheard is the way to scatter not unite the sheep The slaying of the King or Generall in the field scatters and dissolves the Army not secures them To cut off an aking head is the next way to destroy not cure a diseased body such kind of State policy may destroy or disturb but never settle us in perfect peace The Prince his next heir the Queen the Duke of York all his Children and Allies both at home and abroad will certainly meditate revenge and all Kings in Christendom will assist them even for their own interest and safety lest it should become a president for themselves And will this then secure or be a likely way to peace or settlement 2. The greatest part of the Members in both Houses the Lords Gentlemen and all sorts of people throughout the kingdome the whole kingdomes of Scotland and Ireland who have as great an interest in the Kings person being their lawfull King as we have and are obliged by Allegiance and Covenant to protect his person and Crown from violence will unanimously as one man oppose and protest against it and by force of Arms endeavour to bring those to execution who shall presume to advise or attempt to depose or destroy the King in any kinde contrary to their Allegiance and solemne Covenant Yea all Protestant Realms Churches States in forraign parts will abhorre both the fact and adjudge it contrary to their principles and Religion and that which may irritate Popish Kings and Princes to take up arms to ruine them lest they should fall into the like Jesuiticall practice And can this be a safe or speedy way to peace and settlement especially when we know not what Government shall succeed upon it and can expect nothing but bloody consequences from such a bloody Jesuiticall advice Thirdly I never read of any peace or settlement in any kingdom where King-killing was practised or approved When the Roman Armies began once to kill their Emperours and cut off their
more now in this then they have demanded heretofore And therefore having granted more then what would have fully satisfied them in former Treaties his Concessions in this may be fully satisfactory to us so far as to close with him to settle a firm peace in the Kingdome now at the brink of ruine though they fall short in somethings which we now propounded which do not much concern our security as I shall prove anon The true state then and sense of this Question must be this and no other Whether the Kings finall Answers to the Propositions of both Houses in this Treaty considered and weighed all together be not so full and satisfactory in themselves that this House may and ought to accept of and proceed upon them for the speedy settlement of a safe and wel-grounded Peace both in Church and Common-wealth rather then reject them as unsatisfactorie and so hazard the life of all and the perpetuating of our wars and miseries In this sense I humbly conceive and hope to evidence them so clearly fully satisfactory that we can neither in point of duty prudence justice honor or conscience reject them as unsatisfactory but ought to imbrace them as the only safe ready way to our peace and settlement though they come not up so fully to some of our Propositions as I could have heartily desired for the avoiding of this hazardous debate For my clearer progresse in this grand debate I shall observe this method First I shal clearly manifest that the King in this Treaty hath granted us whatsoever we can wel desire for the present settlement future security of the Common-wealth or state when ratified by Acts a regal oath as is intended yea far more then ever our Ancestors or any Subjects in the christian world enjoyed or desired of their Ks. for their security preservation against their armed power or legal prerogatives Secondly That the King hath granted as much in this Treaty as will settle and secure the Peace and Government of our Church and Religion against Popery and prelacy on the one hand and prophanenesse on the other hand and more then we or any Protestant Churches ever enjoyed or demanded heretofore for their security and settlement When I have made good these particulars and answered the Objections made against them I hope every one of us who have any ingenuity reason or conscience in their brests and are not transported with passion or private engagements to the contrary will and must of necessity vote these Answers satisfactory in the sense forestated I shall begin with the first of these namely the Kings Answers to all these Propositions which concern the present settlement and future security of the State and Republike against any armed force or invasions of the Regall Prerogative to the enslaving or prejudicing of the Subject which in my poor judgement are so full and satisfactory that little or nothing can be added to them and if we well consider them we have cause to say O fortunati nimium bona si sua norinâ— I shall give you a full view of them all because many of them have not been so much as once remembred in this debate and apply them to our present settlement and future safety as I mention them The first Proposition for the settlement of a safe and wel-grounded Peace is that which concerns the justification of the Parliaments War declaring it by an Act of Parliament to be passed to be in their just and lawfull defence justifying the Solemn League and Covenant in prosecution thereof and repealing all Oaths Declarations and Proclamations heretofore had or hereafter to bee had against both or either Houses of Parliament their Ordinances or proceedings or against any for adhering unto or executing any Office Place or Charge under them and all Judgements Indictments Outlawries Attainders Inquisitions in any of the said causes and all Grants thereupon made had or to be made or had to be declared null suppressed forbidden and never put into execution And this to be published within all Parish Churches and all other places needfull within his Majesties Dominions To this proemiall and advantagious proposition the King hath fully and readily condescended at first in every tittle as was desired By this concession the Parliament hath gained sundry considerable advantages tending to their present honour and future security First a full publick acknowledgment of the justnesse of their Warre and Cause to be ratified and perpetuated to posterity by the highest record that can be an Act of Parliament and that to be read in all Parish Churches throughout England Ireland and other the Kings Dominions and proclaimed in all Counties Cities Corporations and at Assizes and Sessions of the peace that so all men may take publick notice of it Which is such an honour to and justification of them and their Cause as was never condescended to by any King that took up arms against his Subjects since the creation to this present and so low a humiliation and Legall disclaimer in the King of his Warre against the Parliament and disavowing of his Cause and Party as could possibly be imagined or expected Secondly It secures the Lives Liberties and Estates of all the Members of both Houses engaged in these Wars and of all persons whatsoever that have adhered to or acted for them against all former present and future Impeachments Prosecutions and Judgments whatsoever and makes void and nul what ever hath been is or may be objected against them Which coupled with the Act of Indempnity and Oblivion proposed by the King and agreed to by the Houses wil extraordinarily secure pacifie content all wel-affected Members and persons who have adhered to them in this Cause and preserve them from the danger of 25 E. 3. and other Laws concerning Treasons which otherwise upon any revolution of times and affairs might by corrupt Judges and Instruments be extended and rested to their prejudice aud undoing Thirdly it laies a foundation for the lawfulnesse of a defensive War by Authority of both Houses upon the like occasion in all future ages without incurring the guilt of Treason or Rebellion which will be a great encouragement and security to the Subjects and engagement to them to adhere to the Parliament in after-times Fourthly It wil very much discourage and deter all kind of men from taking up Arms in the Kings His Heirs and Successors behalfe against the Houses of Parliament when they shal cast their eyes upon this Act and behold the King himselfe passing such a censure upon all his own proceedings and retracting his own Oaths Proclamations Commissions Inditements Grants against such Members all others who have now taken up arms against him for the Houses Kingdoms defence So as this very first Proposition only if well weighed without any others added thereunto being so fully and freely consented unto by the King tends very far towards our present settlement and future safety
privie to all his Maj. secrets and transactions of publick concernment receive all letters of intelligence directed to him and most commonly return all Answers to them There is now but one thing more wanting to make this security compleat and firm the Kings Great Seals of England and Ireland the greatest Regall Assurance confirmation he can give you and of these you have both the custody and disposal having the nomination appointment both of the L. Chancellors L. Keepers and Commissioners of the Great Seal in England and Ireland To summe up all these Grants together Some Parliaments in former times have had the nomination of the Lord Chancellor some of the Lord Treasurer some of the great Iusticiar or some few Judges of England only But never any Parliament of England claimed or enjoyed the nomination and appointment of any the Great Officers Barons Iudges or Treasurers places in Ireland nor yet of the L. Warden of the Cinque-Ports Chancellors of the Exchequer and Dutcby Secretaries of State Master of the Rolls or Barâ—ns of the Exchequer of England yet all these the King for peace sake hath parted with to us and shall we be yet so froward and peevish as not to be satisfied with all those Offices We have a long time mocked and abused the world with a self-denying Ordinance disabling any Member to retain or receive any Civill or Military Office by grant from the Houses whiles he continces a Member though there is scarce one day or week at least doth passe but we are still bestowing some place or Office upon Members for which we are weekly censured and reviled in printed Pamphlets and become odious to the Kingdome But here is a self-denying Act and Ordinance in good earnest in the King in parting with so many Offices of which He and his Predecessors have had the sole disposall for some Ages without interruption to the Houses shal we not yet rest satisfied If not what will the whole Kingdome what will all forraign Kingdoms and Nations report of us but that we are so foolish so unreasonable that nothing can or will content us because we are resolved not to be content with any thing that the King shall grant us be it never so advantagious for our present or future safety and settlement But seeing we have the disposall of all these Officers in England and Ireland both Military and Civill of his Sword of War and Peace his Justice his Conscience his Purse his Treasury his Papers his publick Records his Cabinet his Great Seal more then ever we at first expected or desired I must really for my owne part professe my selfe abundantly satisfied with these Concessions and so must every one who hath so much judgement as to understand the latitude consequences of them for the whole Kingdomes and dying Irelands safety settlement especially at this season when they are so neer their ruin To this I shall adde another grant of great concernment for the Peace and safety of this Nation which the King hath fully consented to in this Treaty and I presume no Member of this House will rest unsatisfied therewith when he fully understands it Both Houses of Parliament upon the Lord Keeper Littlâ—tons deserting of the House and conveying away the Great Seal were pleased for the better distribution of Justice and transaction of the great Affairs of the Realm to appoint a new Great Seal to be made The Ordinance for its approbation and use sticking long in the Lords House who were somewhat doubtfull in point of Law I thereupon compiled and published a Treatise intituled The opening of the Great Seal of England which fully satisfied them and opened the doors to let it out for publick use though some who have had the custody of it as Mr. Speaker knowes have but ill requited Me for this my pains good service Many Grants Commissions Presentations Writs Processe Proceedings and other things have passed under this Great Seal and some Patens for Offices and Bishops Lands to Members of this House who differ in opinion from me and yet would be glad to have their Patents confirmed by an Act of Parliament The King in this Treaty hath not only consented to ratifie all the Grants c. that have passed under this new Seal by Act of Parliament and to enact them to be as effectuall to all intents purposes as if they had passed under any other Great Seal of England heretofore used but to continue it to be used hereafter for the Great Seal of England and hath likewise so farre disclaimed his old Great Seal from the day it was carried from the Parliament that he is content to make and declare all Grants Commissions Presentations Writs Processe Proceedings and other things whatsoever passed under or by any Authority of any other Great Seal since the 22 of May 1642. To be invalid and of no effect to all intents and purposes except one grant to Mr. Justice Racon to bee Judge of the Kings Bench and some other Writs Processe and Commissions mentioned in that proposition And he hath further yeelded That all Grants of Offices Lands Tenements or hereditaments made or passed under the great Seale of Ireland unto any person persons or body politick since the Cessation in Ireland the 15 Septemb. 1642. shall be null and void with all Honours and Titles conferred on any person or persons in that Realme since that Cessation By this Concession the Houses of Parliament and their adherents have gained these extra ordinary advantages most of them not to be paralleld in any Age of King from Adom till this present First an acknowledgement of both Houses Authority to make and use a new great Seal of England without the King in cases of extraordinary necessity Secondly a power in the Houses to null and voide the Kings usuall Great Seal upon the making of their New and conveying the old Seal from the Houses without their consent Thirdly a ratification of all Judiciall and Ministeriall Acts Writs Processe presentations Grants Decrees Commissions and other things which have passed under the New Seal since its making till this present which tends much to the qulet and settlement of many mens Estates to the confirmation and justification of all legall proceedings in all Courts of Justice and at all Assises and Sesstons of Peace held by vertue of Commissions under this Seal and of Justices appointed by it whose authority and proceedings might else hereafter prove disputable and bee drawn into Question and to the fight constitution of the Parliament it selfe many Members of this House being elected and some Members and Assistants of the Lords House being called thither by VVrits under this New Seal Fourthly an absolute disavowing and repeall of all Commissions whatsoever or other things passed under the old Great Seal against the Parliament or its proceedings and an exposing of all those of the Kings Party who have acted any thing by any Commission or Authority under the
growth and danger of Prophanenesse His Majesty hath condescended to an Act of Parliament as large as can be drawne against all Prophanations whatsoever of the Lords day with severe punishment for the prophaners of it in any kinde and against all such who shall write or preach against its morality and due observation And likewise to an Act to be framed and agreed upon by both Houses of Parliament for the reforming and regulating both Vniversities and of the Colledges of Westminster Winchester and Eaton the seminaries of Learning and Education of youth to serve and rule in our Church and State By which two Grants if duly executed all impiety and prophanenesse which can endanger our Church and Religion will easily be suppressed for the present and prevented for the future Thirdly Against the danger and revivall of Episcopacy and the appendances thereunto belonging the King hath clearly condescended to these particulars in terminis First to an Act for the abolition of all Archbishops Chancellors Commissaries Deanes and Sub-Deans Deans ard Chapters Arch-deacons Canons Prebendaries c. and all other Episcopall Cathedrall or Collegiate Officers both in England Wales and Ireland and to the disposall of all their Lands and Possessions for such uses as the Houses shall thinke meet So as there is no feare at all of their resurrection to disturb our Church All the question and difference now between the King and Houses is onely concerning the Office and power of Bishops and their Lands and Possessions in which two I finde most Members declare themselves to be unsatisfied especially those who have purchased Bishops Lands who are very zealous in that point for their own Interests For the clearing of these two scruples I shall examine and debate these two particulars First how far the K. hath consented to the Houses Propositions for the abolishing of the office jurisdiction of Bishops in the Church Secondly how far He hath condescended to the sale and disposal of their Lands and Possessions And whether his Concessions in both these be not sufficiently satisfactory in the sense I have stated the question in the beginning of my debate of it For the first of these It is clear that the King in his two last Papers hath abolished and extirpated that Episcopacy and Prelacy which we intended and have so earnestly contested against and contends now for no other but an Apostolicall Bishop which is but the same in all things with an ordinary Minister or Presbyter which Bishop being Apostolicall and of divine Institution we neither may nor can nor ever intended to abolish by our Covenant To make this evident to all mens consciences 1 The King hath yeelded to take away all the power and jurisdiction whatsoever exercised by our Bishops in point of censure or discipline in his former answer and contends for nothing now but their power of Ordination only and that not solely vested in the Bishop but in him and other Presbyters jointly yet so as the Bishop should have a negative Voice in Ordinations But the Houses voting this unsatisfactory because that the Bishops for three years during the continuance of the Presbyterian government should have the chief power of Ordination after those three years the sole power there being no others vested or intrusted with that power after the three years expired so as Bishops might by this means creep in and get up againe by degrees as high as ever Thereupon the King in his finall Answer hereunto though not fully satisfied in point of conscience but that the power of Ordination is principally vested onely in Bishops by Divine Authority hath yet for our satisfaction thus far condescended to us First that for three years next ensuing during the Presbyteriall Government no Bishops shall at all exercise this power of Ordination in the Church Secondly That if he can be satisfied in point of Conscience within that time upon conference with Divines That this power of Ordination so far as to have a Negative voice in it belongs not only unto Apostolical Bishops by a divine Right then he wil fully consent to the utter abolition even of this power of Ordination in the Bishops Thirdly That after the three yeares are expired if the King can neither satisfie his Houses in point of conscience nor they him upon debate That this power of Ordination belongs Iure Divino to Bishops that yet the exercise of that power shall be totally suspended in them till He and both Houses shall agree upon a Government and by Act of Parliament settle a Form of Ordination So as if both Houses never consent that Bishops shall hereafter have a hand or negative voice in Ordination this power of Bishops is perpetuaily suspended and as to the exercise of it perpetually abolished even by this Concession so as it can never be revived again without both Houses concurring assents And by this means Episcopacy is totally extirpated root and branch according to the Covenant which hath been so much pressed in this debate though the words of it have been somewhat mistaken that we therein absolutely covenant to extirpate Episcopacy when as the words are only That we shall endeavour the extirpation of Prelacy that is of Archbishops and Bishops c. And that certainly we have done and in a great measure accomplished so far as to satisfie both the words and intention of the Covenant though a concurrent power of Ordination be left in Bishops which yet is now totally suspended For as we covenant in the same clause to endeavour to root out Popery Superstition Heresie Schisme Prophanenesse and whatsoever shall be found to be contrary to sound Doctrine and the power of Godlinesse in the extirpation of which I am certain we have not proceeded by an hundred degrees so farre as we have actually done in the extirpation of Episcopacy there being no Proposition at all in the Treaty for the extirpation of Heresie Schisme and Errors as there is of Episcopacy and yet the Gentlemen who are so zealous for the Covenant perswade themselves they and we have not violated it in these particulars therefore much less in the point of Prelacy and Bishops since we have left them nothing at all but a meer power of Ordination actually suspended from any future execution but by both Houses assents Fourthly the King by abolishing Archbishops and Deans and Chapters hath also therein actually abolished all Bishops too for the future except those who are already made For by the Laws and custome of the Realm No Bishop can be consecrated but by an Archbishop or some deputation from him in case of sicknesse nor any Bishop made or consecrated unlesse he be first elected by the Dean and Chapter upon a Conge deslier issued out to them to choose one Now there being no Deanes and Chapters left to elect nor Archbishop to consecrate any Bishop for the future there can be no Bishop at all hereafter made in England or Ireland and so the Bishop
the Crowns of Scotland and Ireland as England will have their aid and assistance and of their forraign Friends too to carry on the wars till they have got possession of the Crowne of England upon better terms then ever they are like to enjoy it if we accept of the K. Concessions which we can never expect from them if we depose and kil the King and dis-inherit banish them for Traitors Secondly Stephen the actuall King then had no issue at all and Henry was next heir to the Crown both to Maud and him so as both Titles meeting in him the controversie and wars must needs cease But if we shall now set up a new King by Election either of the Kings line or otherwise as long as there is either an Elective King or hereditary to exclude this Prince or Duke or either of their heirs to whom the inheritance of the Crown belongs of right we can neither hope for nor expect either peace or settlement in this kingdom as the bloody and long lived wars between the two Houses of Lancaster and York will inform us which never ended till they were both united in King Henry the seventh The Armies next proposall to settle the kingdoms peace is as bad as any of the former to wit the speedy dissolving of this present Parliament which if not presently consented to for ought I discerne by their last Declaration they are resolved to dissolve it by open violence on the Houses which they threaten A Tempest certainly of the Jesuites raising to blow down this Parliament as they would have blown up that of 3 Iacobi with Gun-powder But is this a way to safety and settlement to dissolve the onely visible meanes of both If the King Prince Duke Parliament be all dissolved and quite laid aside what meanes or hopes at all of peace of safety of settlement can any man in his right senses rationally see or imagine Is the overturning of the very Foundations and Pillars of our Church and Kingdom the best and safest way to settle and preserve them Is it not the onely certain way to subvert and ruine them Such wayes of peace and settlement aâ— these are fitter for Bedlam then a Parliament house Yea but they have one infallible way more to which all the rest are but preparatory to settle peace and safety in our Kingdoms which they idolize almost to wit A new Representative or moâ—k-Parliament to be immediately subscribed to and set up in post haste constituted neither of King nor Lords the brats of Tyranny and the Norman Conquest as some of themselves pretend as this Representative is of the Armies nor yet of Knights Citizens and Burgesses duly elected but of a selected company of politick Mechanicks pragmaticall Levellers and Statesmen of the General Councel of the Army as they stile themselves by what Commissiom I know not who have usurped the whole Power both of King Parliament Assembly and all Courts of Iustice before their Representative be setled as a true pattern of it which they are to imitate A meer Whimsicall Vtopia and Babel of confusion invented by the Iesuites to please the vulgar rabhle and stir them up to mutinies against King Lords Commons Gentlemen and their Superiours of all ranks that they alone may possesse and sway the reins of Government Magistracy and Ministry to which they have now prepared their tumultuous spirits Much might be said against it but I shall contract my self because nothing can be so much as probably pretended for it First It is a new Jesuiticall popish Gunpowder Treason with a witnesse which blowes up and destroyes at once the King Prince Duke Lords Knights of Shires Citizens Burgesses this present and all future Parliaments and noblest ancientest Cities and Boroughs of England It not this a blessed invention to settle peace and safety Secondly It blows up both our Magistracy Ministry Laws Liberties Judges and Courts of Justice at one crack and breaks them all in pieces to raise up this new Babâ—â— out of all their ruines And is not this a blessed new invention of Jesuites and Saints to settle peace Thirdly It blows up all our Oaths of Supremacy and Allegeance Protestations solemn Leagues and Covenants all former numerous Declarations Remonstrances Votes and Resolutions of one or both Houses of Parliament not to alter the present form of Government by King Lords Commons and other ordinary Magistrates and ministers of publick Iustice orâ—â—eâ— loose the golden reins of government to Blasphemies Heresies Errors Libertinisme Prâ—phanenesse Schisme all sorts of Religions It unsettles all things to settle that which is worse then nothing And is this the way to safety tranquillity or settlement Fourthly it enforceth aâ— Subscription more unjust unreasonable illegall tyrannicall and penall then ever the Bishops or Pope invented invents and sets up the very worst of Monopolies a Monopoly of Electors of Elections and of Representatives elected engrossing all mens ancient Rights Liberties priviledges of election without consent or title into the hands of those who never had a right unto them the people who are no Free-holders no Free-Burgesses free-Citizens or men capable of Votes by Law and these people no other then the Army themselves and some of their levelling Confederates who must possesse judge rule usurp the Rights and Priviledges of the whole Kingdome in point of electing Parliament Members without Charter or Title A cursed Monopoly which will discontent all men who are thus injuriously deprived of their Rights and produce nought else but infinite animosities factions fractions and tumuls throughout the Kingdome and discontent all wise all honest men who will rather die then not oppose it unto death as carrying the death aâ—d funerall of al peace settlement Parliaments the Kingdome in its bowels And is this a fit tool to peece and unite our shattred Kingdome and settle peace amongst us Fifthly It no way extends to Ireland or our Islands but to England onely it will require many years time and triall to settle and secure its own being priviledge power and gain any general obedience to its new erected Soveraignty so that our Church and State will be sunk and drowned and Ireland inevitably lost before this Ark will or can be prepared for their safety Sixthly This Newâ— Representative in this new Remonstrance is in terminis nought else but the very Agreement of the people presented to the House by the Agitators accompanied with some Iesuites on the 9. of Novemb. 1647. then and in that very month twice by two expresse Votes upon solemn debate and an Ordinance of both Houses in December following resolved to be destructive to the being of Parliaments and to the fundamentall Government of the Kingdome and a signall brand of disability and imprisonment imposed on the contrivers and presenters of it and then condemned by the Generall and his Councell of Warre who shot one White to death for abetting it of which more a non Therefore
thus removed I proceed to the the second to wit that I am an enemy to the Army and therefore what I shall speak may be interpreted to proceed only from opposition against them and their Remonstrance concerning which I freely uttered my suddain thoughts immediately after its reading in the House To this I answer that I have alwaies been a real friend and welwisher to this Army from their first modelling til now in what ever they have acted in their sphear as Souldiers for the publique safety When they were first formed into a body the Committee of Accompts whereof I was a Member those they engaged advanced about thirty thousand pounds of the fourscore thousand to set them out Since that I have freely contributed towards their pay prayed constantly for their good success joined in all publike thanksgivings for the Victories obtained by them made honorable mention of them and their heroick actions in some of my writings and particularly dedicated one Book I since compiled to the General himself as I had done former Books to others of your Generals for to do him all the honour that possibly I could for his renowned Actions Besides I have lately signed Warrants to get in their Arrears and promoted an Ordinance for that purpose all I could since my entrance into this House All which considered with this addition that some of them have bin my ancient intimate friends never did me the least injury I hope no Member can be so partial as to report me such a professed enemy to them as in this grand debate to go against my judgment or conscience in opposition only unto their desires True it is when the Army have forgot their duty or offered violence to the priviledges Members freedom or proceedings of Parl. or endeavoured to engage them to break their publike faith to the King or kingdom in breaking off the Treaty contrary to their votes and engagement or to infringe their solemn League and Covenant or to enforce them to subvert the fundamental Government Laws Liberties of the kingdom or the very freedom and being of Parl. as they have done in their late Remonstrance and Declaration and some other printed papers since heretofore I have then in discharge of my covenant conscience and duty opposed and spoken against these their exorbitances as much as any not out of malice but out of love to reclaim them from their evill destructive courses and counsels according to Gods own precept Lev. 19. 17. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart but shalt in any wise rebuke thy Neighbour and not suffer sin upon him And seeing I have alwayes with like freedome opposed and written against the exorbitances and errour of the King Court Prelates Parliament Committees Presbyterians Independents Lawyers and all other sorts of men in reference to the publick good the Army and their friends have no cause at all to censure me as their enemy but rather to esteem me as their friend for using the like freedom towards them and their exorbitances especially in this House Having removed these two prejudices I shall now addresse my self to the question in debate which hath been thus propounded Whether the Kings answers to the Propositions of both Houses taken altogether upon the whole Treaty be satisfactory or unsatisfactory This being an equivocall question not hitherto clearly stated and debated by those who have spoken to it most of them being much mistaken in it I must crave leave to give you the true state of it before I shall debate it for which purpose I must distinguish in what sense it is not satisfactory to any in this House yet in what respect it will appear satisfactory to all or most of us who are not blinded with passion or prejudice agaisnt the King or misled by affection meerly to please the Army which many have made their principal argument wherefore it is not satisfactory If the question be propounded and intended in this sense Whether the Kings answers to all the Propositions be satisfactory that is whether the King hath granted all the Propositions sent unto him in as large and ample manner as both Houses did propound them then it is certain his Answers are not satisfactory in tha which concerns Delinquents Bishops and Bishops Lands and the Covenant though they are voted satisfactory as to all the rest by both Houses And in this sense only those who have concluded them not satisfactory have stated and disputed the Question But this under favour neither is nor can be the state or sense of the question for these reasons First because these Propositions were sent by the Houses to the King not as Bills of Parliament to be granted in terminis without debate or alteration but only as Propositions to be debated treated upon personally with the King as the Votes of both Houses and instructions to the Commissioners sent to the Isle of Wight resolve past all dispute now it is directly contrary to the nature of all treaties especially such as are personall to tie up the parties of either side so precisely that they shall have no liberty to vary from their first proposals in any particular or if they condescend not to what ever was at first demanded by the stronger party that the condescensions should not be satisfactory though they yeeld to all just things and fall short only in some few of least concernment This is evident by all Treaties heretofore between England France Spain and other forraign Nations if you peruse their first demands which were never condescended to but alwaies receded from and qualified in some particulars on either fide Iniquum petas ut justum fer as being a rule in Treaties amongst Statesmen There have been many Treaties during these Wars between the Officers of the Parliament and Kings party about surrenders of divers Cities and Garrisons wherein the first Propositions on either side have been moderated or changed and yet agreed and accepted at last as satisfactory to both sides In all ordinary Treaties concerning Marriages purchases and ordinary bargains in Fairs Markets or Shops there are usually greater sums of money demanded at first on the one and lesse proferred on the other side then is accepted and given at last and yet both parts close agree and are ful satisfied so may we do now with the King upon the whole Treaty though the King grants not fully all that we at first proposed Secondly because the Houses have already voted the Kings Concessions of the Great Offices of England and Ireland to be at their disposal for 20. years to be satisfactory though their demand was for perpetuity which they would not have done had the satisfactorinesse of the Kings answers depended upon the full concession of that Proposition as amply as it is penned Thirdly because the Houses in their last propositions demand farre more then ever they did in most former Treaties and the King hath granted them
being more then was ever thought of or desired in the Treaty of Peace in February and March 1642. The second Proposition fully granted by the King for the setling and securing of the State and Religion too against the Kings armed power is the setling of the whole Militia by Sea and Land and Navy of England Ireland and the Isles and Dominions thereunto belonging by Act of Parliament in the hands and disposall of both Houses and such as they shall appoint for the space of twenty years with power to raise moneys for all forces raised by them for Land or Sea service during that space or time which forces are authorised to suppresse all forces raised or to be raised in or any forraigne forces which shall invade the Realms of Engl. Ireland or the Dominions and Isles thereunto belonging without Authority and consent of the Lords and Commons in Parliament And it further provides that after the expiration of the said 20. years neither the King his heirs and successors nor any person or persons by colour or pretence of any Commission power Deputation or Authority to be derived from the King his Heirs or Successors or any of them shall raise array train imploy or dispose of any of the forces by Sea or Land of the Kingdomes of England and Ireland the Dominion of Wales Isles of Gâ—ernsep and Iersey or of Barwick upon Tweed nor execute any power or authority touching the same invested in the two Houses during the space of twenty years nor do any thing or Act concerning the execution thereof without the consent of the Lords and Commons first had and obtained And that after the expiration of the said twenty years in all cases wherein the Lords and Commons shall declare the safety of the Kingdome to be concerned and shall thereupon paffe any Bill for the raising arming training and disposing of the forces by Sea and Land of the Kingdomes Dominions Isles and places aforesaid or concerning the leavying of moneys for the same if the King his Heirs and successors shall not give the Royall assent thereto within such time as both Houses should think conveent that then such Bil or Bills after Declaration made by the Lords Commons in that behalf shall have the force and strength of an Act or Acts of Parliament and be as valid to all intents and purposes as if the Royal assent had been given thereunto After which it disables any Sheriffe Justice of the Peace Majors or other Officers of Justice to leavy conduct and imploy any forces whatsoever by colour or pretence of any Commission of Array or extraordinary command from the King His Heirs or Successors without consent of both Houses And concludes That if any persons to the numberâ— of 30 shall be gathered together in warlike manner or otherwise and not forthwith disband themselves being thereunto required by the Lords and Commons or command from them or any other specially authorized by them that then such person or persons not so disbanding shall be guilty and incur the pains of High Treason any Commission under the great Seal or other Warrant to the contrary notwithstanding and be uncapable of any pardon from His Majesty His Heirs and Successors and their estates disposed of as the Lords and Commons shall think fit To all this new grand principle security of our present and future peace and settlement the King hath given his full and free consent in terminis And what greater security then this wee can imagine or demand against the Kings armed power and sword of War transcends my capacity to imagin Therefore if we have not lost our brains and consciences too we cannot but vote and conclude it satisfactory and restabundantly contented with yea exceeding thankful for it And that upon all these ensuing considerations First both Houses in their Treaty with the King in February and March 1642. demanded only the Militia of England not of Ireland yet so as they did leave the Nomination and disposing of the chiefe Commanders Officers and Governors of the Militia Forts and Navy of the Kingdome to the King provided only they might be such persons of honor and trust as both Houses might confide in and likewise promise restitution of all Moneys Forts Garrisons Arms and Ammunition of the Kings which they had seized upon or to give him present satisfaction for the same which being granted and performed they professed it should bee their hopefull endeavour that His Majesty and His people might enjoy the blessing of Peace c. and be derived to Him and to His Royall Posterity and the future Generations in this Kingdome for ever Whereas in this Treaty the King denudeth himselfe of the Militia of England and Ireland too and of the Nomination and approbation of all Officers Commanders Governors of the Militia or forces by Sea or Land and leaves all the Forts Navy and Magazines only to the Houses disposall without any compensation for his Magazines or Armes formerly seized by them And if far lesse was deemed sufficient for our settlement and security then much more will all this be thought so now Secondly Because the King hath wholly stript Himself His Heirs and Successors for ever of all that power and interest which His Predecessors alwaies enjoyned in the Militia forces forts Navy not only of England but Ireland Wales Iersey Garnsey and Berwick too so as He and they can neitherâ— raise nor arm one man nor introduce any forraign forces into any of them by vertue of any Commission Deputation or authority without consent of both Houses of Parliament and hath vested the sole power and disposition of the Militia Forts and Navy of all these in both Houses in such ample manner that they shall never part with it to any King of England unlesse they please themselves So as the King and His Heirs have no military power or authority at all left to injure or oppresse the meanest Subject much lesse the whole Kingdome or Houses of Parliament had they wills to doe it and the Houses having all the Militia by Land and Sea not only of England but even of Ireland Wales Garnsey Iersey and Berwick to assist and secure them in case He or His Heirs should attempt to raise any domestick or introduce any forraign force against them is so grand so firm a security in all probability for insuring and preserving of our Peace Religion Lawes Liberties Lives and Estates against regall force and tyranny that none of our Ancestors ever demanded or enjoyed the like nor no other Kingdome whatsoever since the Creation for ought that I can find in Histories or Republicks who have perused most now extant to do you service and such a selfe-denying condâ—sconsion in the King to His People in this particular as no age can president In the 17 year of King Iohn the Barons having by force of Armes compelled him to confirm the great Charter at Runningmead near Windsor thought this their greatest
security that 25 of the eminentest Barons should be made Conservators of the Magna Char. and that all the rest of the Barons and people should take an Oath to be aiding and assisting to them in their preservation thereof and that the King should surrender into their hands his four principall Castles that so it he infringed his Charter they might compell him to observe it This was the highest Militia and security of that kind our Ancestors ever demanded or enjoyed which is nothing comparable unto that now granted us by the King who rested satisfied therewith 3. Because the King and his successors are hereby not only totally disabled to raise any forces to oppresse the people or disturb their peace and settlement but all persons discouraged from aiding or assisting them by any Commission or authority whatsoever under pain of high Treason and losse both of life and estate at the pleasure of both Houses without any benefit of pardon from the KING disabled for to grant it So great a discouragement for any persons of fortune or quality to appear for the King or his party in the Field for time to come that in all humane probability none ever will or dare to appear in arms hereafter for the King against the Parliament being sure to forfeit all without any hopes of pardon And if this Act had been passed as a Law before our Wars I dare presume not any one English Lord or Gentleman durst once to have appeared in the Field for the King and wee had never felt the miseries of a civill War Fourthly Because the Militia of Ireland Ierâ—y Guernsey and Wales as well as England is wholly transferred from the King to the Houses so as we need fear no danger thence and the Militia of Scotland being in their Parliaments disposall if wee hold a Brotherly correspondency with them I know no other enemies we need to fear for the Navy being in the Houses power wee need not fear any forraigne invasion that can hurt us if we can agree at home All which considered I dare assert we have now the greatest security of any people under Heaven against all armed regall force and power the King having given up all his Military power into the Houses actuall possission and resigned his Sword and Armes into their hands And if we refuse to accept it now he so freely resignes it we may fight till doomesday but never win nor hope for the like security or advantage yea the present age and all posterity will curse and abhor us for not embracing and resting satisfied with such unparalleld security But is this all the security the King hath granted us in this Treaty No verily there is yet much more behind which hath not yet been opened The Kings of England have alwaies held two swords in their hands which when ill managed have hurt destroyed their Subjects The first is the sword of Mars in times of War which is already sheathed and resigned into the Houses hands by the precedent concessions so as it can never wound them more The other is the sword of Iustice in times of Peace and this likewise the King hath wholly given up into the Houses power for twenty years as he hath the Militia so that it can never hurt them nor any English man or other Subject hereafter at least for twenty years This sword was formerly intrusted by the King in the Judges and great Officers handsâ— had they been so couragious so upright as they should the King could never have wounded or ruined the meanest of his Subjects with this Sword Shipmoney Kinghâ—hood with other Grievances Monoplies neither would nor could have been imposed on the people by the Kings Prerogative or power had the Judges according to Law and duty declared them illegall The Kingdome can do no injustice to any it his Judges be so just and stout as to do justice Whereupon this House impeached only the Judges not blamed the King for the project of Shipmony to which their opinions in Mr. Hampdens Case gave life vigor Now the King in this Treaty hath for twenty yeeres at least granted to both Houses the nomination and appointment of all the Great Officers Civill or Military and of all the Judges and Barons of his Courts and Exchequers within England and Ireland to continue in their places only quom diu bene se gesserint So as these great Officers Judges having now no dependence at all upon the King who can neither place nor displace any of them but wholly upon the Houses of Parliament and such as they shall appoint to nominate them in the Intervals of Parliament if the Houses have a care to make good Officers and Judges in all Courts at first and to displease and punish them as they may and ought to do when they degenerate or misdemean themselves the King with all his legall power now left him can neither injure nor oppresse the poorest Subject in body goods or Estate nor protect the greatest malefactor from justice And what more can we desire to expect for the security of our lives liberties or estates than this Besides as theâ— King hath intrusted you with the Sword and Courts of Justice and Revenue so hath he with his Conscience and Courts of Equity too You have the nomination of the Lord Chancellours Lord Keepers and Commissioners of his great Seals of England and Ireland of the Chancellours of the Exchequer and Dutchy and Masters of the Rolls as well in Ireland as England who are the Dispensers of his Equity Conscience to his Subjects the Issuers of al his Commissions Writs Patents and keepers of all his publique Records If this be not enough you have the disposall of his purse and Treasure too The nomination of the Lord Treasurers both of England and Ireland of the Chancellours and Barons of the Exchequers in both and of the Vice-Treasurer and Treasurer of Wars in Ireland Would you have yet more You have the nomination of the Lord Deputy and chief Governour of Ireland and of all the Presidents of the severall Provinces of that Kingdome for twenty years and of all other forenamed great Officers Judges and Treasurers there a great strength and reall addition to the Militia of that Kingdome which can never doe us harm if we accept of these concessions which invest us in such power there as no Parl. of England ever yet expected nor laid claim to What is there yet remaining for your safety Perchance you will suspect the King may have many secret designs and intercourses with forraign enemies and States and grand Malignants at home to undo all which we shall never discover without some further provisions then yet we have made Truly no you have a remedy already provided and granted for this The nomination and appointing of the Lord Warden of the Cinque-ports the principall gates to let in or keep out Forraign Enemies or Spies and of the Secretaries of State who will be
Seal against the Parliament to publick Justice who cannot plead it in Barre or excuse in any Court after it shall be nulled and repealed by an Act. Fifthly a great disparagement dishonour and disadvantage to the English Cavaliers Irish Rebels and their cause and proceedings with a future disingaging of them and al their Party from the King and his interest who hath so far dishonoured deserted and disclaimed them as thus to null and repeal all Honours Titles Grants of Offices Lands or Tenements bestowed on any of them for any services done or Assistance given by them to the King in his Warres against the Parliament A very high point of humiliation and self-deniall in the King and such a blow to his Popish and Malignant party that I dare presume they will never engage in his behalfe nor trust him for the future which will much conduce to the settlement of a firm and lasting peace and prevent new VVars if accepted of 6ly Indempnity and security for all the Commissioners of the new Great Seale against all scruples which may arise upon the Statute of 25. E. 3. for using and sealing with it if ever the times alter which every prudent man will readily embrace where it is freely offered and not peevishly reject in such an age of danger and incertainty as this in which no man is secure of his life liberty or estate on either side The next Concession of the King in this Treaty is this That by Act of Parliament all Peeres made since Edward Lord Littleton deserted the Parliament and conveyâ—d away the Great Seale on the one and twentieth day of May 1642. shall be Vn-Peer'd and set by And all other titles of honour and precedency as Lordship Knighthood and the like conferred on any without consent of both Houses of Parliament since the twentieth of May 1642. shall be revoked and declared null and void to all intents and never hereafter put in use And that no Peere who shall be hereafter made by the King his heirs or successors shall sit or vote in the Parliament of England without consent of both Houses of Parliament This Concession of the Kings is of great concernment to the Kingdome and I conceive without president or example in any age or King in the Christian world First it secures us from our formerly feared danger of a designe in the King by new created Peers to make an over-ruling party at any time in the Lords House wherein the Iudicatory of the Parliament principally consists which danger and inconvenience by secluding the Bishops out of that House by an Act already passed and by this disabling all new Peers hereafter to be made to sit in that House without consent of both Houses is for ever totally prevented Secondly It gives such an extraordinary new power to the House of Commons as they never formerly enjoyed or pretended to to wit that no Peer created by the King himselfe or by the King or Lords in Parliament who usually created Peers in Parliament without the Commons privity or consent in former times shall be henceforth inaabled to sit or vote as Peers of Parliament but by consent of the House of Commons as well as of the King and Lords By which provision the Commons are made not only in some sense the Judges of Peers themselves which they could not try or judge beforeby the expresse letter of Magna Charta chap. 29. and the Common Law but seven their very Creators too Thirdly It is an extraordinary prejudice and blemish on the Kings cause and an extream dishonour dissatisfaction disengagement upon his own party then which a greater cannot be imagined For what higher affront or disgrace could the King put upon those Nobles Gent. others who have spent their estates lost their blood limbs and adventured their very lives in this cause against the Parliament and received no other reward for it but an empty title of honour perchance a Kightship Lordship or the bare title of a Marquesse Earl or Viscount which they have enjoyed but a year or two with little benefit and lesse content to be thus by Act of Parliament with the Kings owne Royall assent who conferred those titles on them for their gallant services in his behalfe thus suddenly degraded and divested of them all as if they had never been A perpetuall brand to them their posterity who must be inforced to give place to such of whom they have had precedency place by vertue of these dignities Which high affront and scorne I am verely perswaded will pierce and break many of their own at least their Ladies hearts and for ever disoblige them in the highest degree 4thly It will make all the ancient and new Nobility and Peers of England lesse dependent on the King lesse complying to serve his ends upon all occasions being never able to gratisie or reward them though never so ambitious with any new Honours or Peerships without consent of both Houses of Parliament whom they dare not displease or disoblige for fear of crossing them in their desired dignities and titles as well as in their great Offices which are both now in their disposall not in the Kings alone In brief the King in his Concession hath manifested the greatest humiliation and self-deniall that any King since there was a Kingdome in the world hath done It is and hath been the ancient and undoubted prerogative of all Kings in the world but especially of the Kings of England to conferre honours dignities of all sorts especially Knighthood on whom they shall think meet and more principally on those who have merited it by their gallantry in the field as Mr. Selden proves at large in his Titles of honour and others who have written of that Subject Now for the King out of a desire only of a happy peace and settlement not onely to part with much of the Royall Prerogative which all other Kings in the world enjoy for the future but to repeal the Honours and Titles conferred by him on his adherents for reward of their services in times past during all these wars is such a miracle and high degree of selfe-deniall as no age hath produced the like and that which most of this house had the King prevailed would have rather lost their lives had they conferred any such Titles on their Generalls and Commanders then have condescended to should the King require it And therefore I cannot agree with those over-censorious Gentlemen who so oft inculcate this that they can see no humiliation at al or change of heart in the King when I find so great a change and deep a humiliation in Him in this and all other forementioned free Concessions without any or little hesitation and I heartily wish their owne hearts were as much humbled as his and then I doubt on but they would thankfully embrace rest fully satisfied with his concessions for their owne and the Kingdomes benefit The next proposition tending
to the peace and settlement of the Kingdome is this That the King do give his Royall assent to such Act or Acts for the raising of moneys for the Parliament satisfying of the publique Debts and Damages of the Kingdome and other publique uses as shal hereafter be agreed on by both Houses of Parliament And if the King do not give his assent thereto then it being done by both Houses the same shall be as valid to all intents and purposes as if the Royall assent had been given thereunto To this Proposition the King hath condescended so as those Acts be passed within two years after the Treaty ended which the Houses have now voted to be satisfactory This Proposition secures all moneys lent upon the publike faith all arrears due to Officers souldiers yea all moneys advanced by any who have purchas'd Bishops lands for their losses by reversions after 99 years or any present rents to be reserved to the Crowne for the use of the Church with which those Members who have purchased such lands or advanced moneys upon them declare themselves most unsatisfied all those who have sustained publique losses Yea if the King denies his royall assent thereto it enables both Houses to make a valid Act of Parliament without the King in this case and in case of the Militia likewise which was never challenged by nor granted to both Houses in any Kings Reign before takes away the Kings Negative voice as to these particulars which those who conclude the Kings answers unsatisfatory have so much contended for yet now stand in their own light in not accepting of these Concessions as satisfactory and striking at the Negative voice The next Concession of the Kings for the settlement of the State is the taking away of the Court of Words and of all Wardships and Tenures in Capite or by Knights service which draw on Wardships Primer seisures liveries and such like incombrances to the intolerable vassalage and prejudice of the Nobility and Gentry of England and great landed persons and that only upon giving the King and his successors one hundred thousand pounds yearly for compensations being one principall part of his Royall Revenue This Concession is of so vast consequence to the Kingdome to enfranchise the Subjects from the Norman yoak of bondage as some stile VVardships and Tenures in Capite though others deem them more ancient then William the Conqueror that our Ancestors never enjoyed the like It exempts mens heits under age and their estates from being made a prey for hungry Courtiers or over-reaching Committees of them their estates It exempts them from being married to any against their free consents without any single or double forfeiture of the values of their marriages to which they were formerly liable from marriages to persons of small or no or broken fortunes and different dispositions which have ruined many families from many chargeable suits expences excessive fees gratuities to Escheators Feodaries all sorts of griping Officers in the Court of Wards and from vast expences and extraordinary vexation in finding and traversing Offices suing out Liveries c. and many suits and questions arising thereupon which have undone too many And it deprives the King of such an over-awing Prerogative over the persons and Eâ—tates of the Nobility and Gentry which usually fell into his custody after every Tenants decease as will very much weaken his interest in and their over much dependence on him and make them lesse subject to engage for or with him against the Parliaments or Kingdomes common interest The next Proposition relating to the Kingdomes safety and settlement not so immediately and directly as any of the former is that which concernes Delinquents in which alone as to the State the Kings answers are pretended unsatisfactory not in all but only in some particulars of no extraordinary concernment in my apprehension though so much insisted on by many as to vote all the Treaty unsatisfactory In opening the state of the Kings Answers to this proposition I shall doe these 3. things First I shall shew how far the King and you are both agreed 2dly In what particulars you really or seemingly differ 3dly I shall examine whether these differences herein be of any such moment as to induce the House to vote the answers to this and the other Propositions upon the whole Treaty unsatisfactory and so reject and lose whatever the King hath granted in the rest because he hath not satisfied our demands in this one and two others concerning the Church For the first both Houses by their Votes have thought this Proposition touching Delinquents so needless to beinfisted on in every punctilio for the publick settlement which will certainly more obstruct then promote it merey moderation being the nearest way to peace and union that you have reduced since the Treaty the persons excepted in the first qualification both from life composition from 37 to 7 only six of those are beyond the Seas quite out of your power the 7th aged scarce worth your Execution The King consents that they should be banished during the pleasure of both Houses which is a civill death banishment being next to death the severest punishment and to some men more grievous then present Execution But if that will not satisfie then he leaves them wholly to your justice to proceed against them if you please according to Law and promiseth not to interpose nor pardon any of them if legally condemned only he adds ex abundanti that he cannot in justice or honor assent to any Act to take away their lives by a meer Legislative Power ex post facto if they have done nothing that was formerly capital by the known Laws of the Land by which Hee leaves them to be tryed This Answer many Gentlemen who have spoken have coucluded very unsatisfactory and made many large descants on it because they did not rightly weigh nor understand it when as in truth it Answers the very Proposition in terminis as I shall clearly manifest to all who understand what Law is First it is apparent that one of the first quarrels and cause of taking up Arms on our parts was to bring Delinquents to condign punishent according to the Laws and Statutes of the Realm as you have declared to the Kingdom in many printed Declarations and in your Petitions to the King you alwayes desired him to leave Delinquents to the course of Iustice not to cut them off by a meer Legislative Power when as you could not doe it by any known Law Secondly you have professed to all the World and to the King and Delinquents themselves that you have taken up Armes to defend and preserve the Ancient fundamentall Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom and to oppose the introduction of any Arbitrary and Tyrannicall Power Yea your selves and the Army likewise have declared against all extraordinary proceedings and tryals in the Lords House to
really done it I presume few Members of this House now of a different opinion would have voted the Kings Answers to the whole Treaty unsatisfactory But to take them as they are First the King hath so far condescended to their sale and disposall made or to be made as that the purchasers shall by Act of Parliament enjoy a lease of them not from the Bishops themselves but from the Crown for 99. yeares space reserving only the reversions afterward to the Crowne and that for the use of the Church in generall terms Secondly The King will bee content with the reservation only of the old or some other moderate rent to Him and His Heirs to bee imployed only for the Churches use and benefit Thirdly That for the absolute sale or alienation of them he cannot in point of conscience consent unto it being Sacriledge and an unlawfull Act in the opinion of all Divines as well in forraigne Reformed Churches as Domestick This I remember and conceive is the sum of his finall answer to this Proposition To examine these particulars a little in the generall and then by parts First I must make bold to inform you in the generall That the King and His Predecessors Kings of this Realm were the Originall founders of all our Bishoprieks and patrons of them That all their Lands Rent and Revenues whatsoever originally proceeded from the Crown and Kings of England of whom they are bolden and that in times of vacancy the King enjoyes the profits of their temperalities as a part of His Royall Revenue and receives both tenths and first-fruits out of them upon every death or translation of the Bishops And therefore there is very great reason and Justice too they should be still held of the Crowne and not totally translated out of it and that the King and His successors should receive some reasonable Revenue or compensation out of them parting with such an interest in recompence for them Secondly That in the severall Treaties with the King Februar 1. 1641. and Iuly 11. 1646. All the Lands Possessions Rents and Reversions both of Archbishops and Bishops and likewise of Deans and Chapters and other Officers of Cathedrall and Collegiate Churches were by Act of Parliament to be settled in the very reall and actuall possession of the King His Heirs and Successors for ever to their own proper use except only their Impropriations Advowsons Tythes and Pensions which are not now to bee sold. And that the Ordinances for setling of Bishops Lands Rents and Possessions in Feâ—ffees and engaging and selling them for the monies lent upon the Publick saith and doubled to raise 200000. l. for disbanding of the Scotch Army passed on the Houses till October and November 1646 till which time there was no thought nor intent at all to sell or alienate them from the Crowne If then the King in two or three former Treaties by both Houses full and free consent and a Bill passed by them for that purpose was to enjoy to himselfe his Heirs and Successors all the demesne Lands Mannors Possessions Reversions Rents Inheritances and Revenues of Archbishops and Bishops and likewise of Deans and Chapters Prebends and the like it seems to me very just reasonable that he should demand and enjoy the Reversions of them after ninety nine years and such a moderate Rent as he and both Houses shall agree on And that this Answer of the Kings wherein he demands so little now only for the Churches use and benefit not his own should be fully satisfactory because we were very well content in former Treaties He and his Heirs should enjoy the whole only to their own use Thirdly That near one moiety of the Archbishops and Bishops possessions and revenues consists in Impropriations Tythes Pensions and the like which the King is content wholly to part with for the encrease of Ministers means and the benefit of the Church without any Reservation or Recompence And with all Deans and Chapters Lands and Revenues to boot Therefore it should be unsatisfactory or unreasonable in no mans judgement for the King to reserve some interest in the Reversions and Rents only of their demesne lands Fourthly The King demands the Riversions of the Lands after ninety nine years and some present moderate Rent not for the use and support of the Bishops and to keep a root for them to grow up again in our Church as hath been mistaken by some Archbishops and Bishops too being extirpated root and branch by the Kings former Answers as I have manifested but only for the use of the Church in such manner as the King and we shall agree to settle them who shall take care that no Bishop shall be a sharer in them all being to bee setled in the CROWNE alone and nothing in Reversion or Possession to in or upon the Bishops Fifthly The King consents that the Purchasers of Bishops Lands shall by Act of Parliament have a Lease of them for ninety nine years reserving the Reversion only after that terme which I conceive is no ill but a very good bargain for the Purchasers such a Lease by Act of Parliament being far better then the whole Inheritance by a bare Ordinance of both Houses which for ought I know if not confirmed by a subsequent Act of Parliament will prove little better then a Tenancy at Will or a Lease so long only as this Parliament continues Ordinances of both Houses only without the Kings Royall assent thereto being a new device of this present Parliament to supply some present necessities for our necessary defence and preservation during the Kings absence and hostility never known nor used in any former Parliaments what ever hath been conceived to the contrary Therefore this offer of the K. is no prejudice at all but a great advantage to the Purchasers wherewith they should rest fully satisfied But admit it be any losse at all to them and not rather a gain as things now stand in our tottering condition yet it is only of the reversion of these lands after ninety nine years worth not above one quarter or halfe a years purchase at the utmost which considering the low values at which Bishops lands are sold and the cheap rate now that most purchasers gave for Bills of Publick faith with which they bought them they may be well content to lose to secure their purchases for ninety nine years in these tumultuous and fluctuating times when some wise men who have made such purchases would very gladly give two or three years purchase if not more at the assurance Office to any who will ensure their estates in Bishops lands for so long a term and think they had a good bargain too at leastwise far better then the Bishops in case they should revive again as some fear who must be kept starving for 99 years in expectation of a dry Reversion All which considered the Kings Answers touching such Reversions I humbly conceive will be very
for which sin seventy thousand of his Subjects lost their lives yet was hee not arraigned nor deposed for it and God who is Soveraignly just though David was the principall malefactor in this case iâ— not the sole and thereupon when hee saw the Angell that smote the people cryed out Lo I have sinned and done wickedly but these Sheep what have they done Let thy hand bee against mee and my Fathers house Yet God spared him and his houshold though the principalls and punished the people only with death for this sin of his After him Solomon his son a man eminent for wisdome and piety at first apostatized to most grosse Idolatry of all sorts to please his idolatrous Wives and became a great oppressor of his people making their burthens very heavy yet his Subjects or Souldiers did neither impeach nor depose him for it and though he were the principall offendor yet God spared him for Davids sake in not taking the ten Tribes from him for these sins during his life though he rent them from his son Rhehoboam who was at most but accessory for his Fathers sins not his True it is some of the Idolatrous Kings of Israel by the just avenging hand of God were slain by private conspiracies and popular tumults in an illegall way but not deposed nor arraigned by their Sanhedrins or Generall Congregations and those who slew them were sometimes stain by others who aspired to the Crown or by the people of the Land or by their children who succeeded them and came to untimely tragicall ends 9. Though there be some Presidents of Popish States and Parliaments deposing their Popish Kings and Emperors at home and in forraign parts in an extraordinary way by power of an armed party Yet there is no president of any one Protestant Kingdom or State that did ever yet judicially depose or bring to execution any of their Kings and Princes though never so bad whether Protestants or Papists and the Protestants in France though some of their Kings when they had invested them in their Thrones became Apostates to Popery and persecuters of their people albeit they resisted them by force of arms in the field to preserve their lives did never once attempt to pull them from their Thrones or bring their persons unto Justice And I hope our Protestant Parliament will never make the first president in this kind nor stain their Honor or Religion with the blood of a Protestant King against so many Oathes Protestations Covenants Declarations and Remonstrances made and published by them to the contrary 10. For the presidents of Edward the Second and Richard the Second in times of Popery they were rather forcible resignations by power of an Army then judiciall deprivations neither of them being ever legally arraigned and brought to tryall in Parliament And Mortimer who had the chief hand in deposing King Edward the Second in the Parliament of 1 E. 3. was in the Parliament of 4 E. 3. impeached condemned and executed as a Traitor and guilty of high Treason for murthering Edward the second after he was deposed at Berkley-castle and Sir Simon Bereford together with Thomas Gurney and William Ocle were adjudged Traitors for assisting him therein one of them executed and great rewards promised to the apprehenders of the other two And as for Richard the second though he was deposed after Henry the Fourth was crowned by pretence in Parliament yet this deposition after his resignation only not before it and without any formall tryall or arraignment or any capitall judgement of death against him for which I find no president in any Parliament of England Scotland France nor yet in Denmark it self though an elective Kingdome who though they justly deposed Christiern the second for his most abominable Tyrannies and Cruelties yet they never adjudged or pâ—t him to death but only restrained him as a prisoner I shall only add this that though the elective Kingdoms of Hungary Bohemia Poland Denmark and Sweden have in their Parliaments and Diets deposed sundry of their Kings for their wickednesses and tyranny yet they never judicially condemned any one of them to death though Papists And for a Protestant Parliament to please an Army only acted by Jesuites in this particular to render both Parliament Army and our Religion too for ever execrable throughout the world and set all mens pens and hands against them to their ruine to begin such a bloody president as this upon a most false pretext of setling peace contrary to the express command of God himself who commands Christians To pray for Kings and all in authority that they may live a quiet and peaceable life under them in all godlinesse and honesty not to depose or cut of their heads as the only way to peace and settlement will not only be scandalous but monstrous The next thing they propose for a present peace and settlement it the executing of the Prince if hee come not over upon summons at a short day and give not satisfaction to the Houses or else to declare him and the Duke of York if they appear not upon summons to bee uncapable of any Trust or Government in this Kingdom or any Dominions thereunto belonging and thence to stand exiled for ever as Enemies and Traitors to die without mercy if ever taken or found therein A Jesuiticall inevitable way to civill Wars and ruine For the King being deposed and cut off the Prince no doubt is next heir to the Crown both by the common Law and the statute of 1. Iacobi cap. 1. to which I doubt a Vote or Ordinance of both Houses only will be no such legall barre in any Lawyers or Wisemans Judgement but that hee will claim his right and the generallity of the Kingdome at least ten thousand to one proclaim and embrace him for their lawfull King and assist him with their lives and fortunes both to regain and retain his right being bound by their Oath of Supremacy and Allegiance and their Solemn League and Covenant so to do And must not this of necessity beget a present lasting War in stead of a speedy setled peace undoubtedly it will But consider further that the Prince is not only Heir apparent to the Crown of England but of Scotland and Ireland too and though we reject yet undoubtedly Scotland and Ireland will readily imbrace him as their lawfull King notwithstanding any Votes of ours and will both unanimously assist him with their lives and fortunes to recover his right to the Crown of England and those two Kingdoms falling off wholly from us and proclaiming Warre against us and joining with that potent party here which certainly will appear in his behalfe out of a naturall inclination to the right undoubted Heir or hopes of favour and preferment since Plures solem orientem quam occidentem adorantur and with all his friends and allies Forces from abroad whether this wil not be an unavoidable occasion not only of a present war but of
certain destructions and desolation to this poor Kingdome and more especially to the Army and their adherents in this desperate advice who must stand or fall upon their own bottome without the least aid or contribution from any other I desire them and all others who have either eyes or brains in their heads most seriously to consider But that which makes me most of all detest this desperate advice is this That it is the only way that can be thought upon to accomplish the Popes and Jesuites designs to set up Popery and subvert the Protestant Religion and professors of it in all our three Kingdoms and in all forraign Realms beyond the Seas For if this reforming Parliament which hath pretended so much to the extirpation of Popery shall so far play the Popes and Jesuites the undoubted contrivers of this Armys New-model of our peace and settlement as to depose and behead the King his father and forever disinherit him of the Crown bring him as a Traitor to die without mercy if he come hither It wil so far provoke and exasperate him the Duke being both young and of generous spirits not throughly grounded in our Religion and under the Queens tuition and in the power of this popish party abroad who will aggravate these high affronts and injuries put upon them to the utmost and on whose protection they will be in this case necessitated to cast themselves that there is great fear and probability they will immediately renounce such a bloody and detestable Religion as shall insâ—igate us to such horrid actions and Councels and abominate all the professors of it so as totally to abandon them and turn Roman Catholicks in good earnest and then match themselves to great potent popish Alliances and by their purses forces and assistance and of the Popes and all his Catholick sonnes in Forraigne parts for the advancement of the Catholick cause and of the popish Malignants and discontented parties in England Scotland and Ireland which will questionlesse receive and assist the Prince as their Soveraign Lord and King invade our poore impoverished divided and distressed kingdom with such a power as in all humane probability would speedily over-runne and destroy this mutinous Army and the Houses too put them with their adherents to the Sword without mercy or quarter and disinherit them and their heirs for ever to revenge their Fathers blood and their dis-inherison of the Crown c. And then Popery and Prelacy will both return with greater authority power approbation then ever over-spread our whole three kingdoms and extirpate our Religion the professors of it as the most anti-Monarchical treacherous and perfidious bloody Miscreants under heaven excite all other forraign States and kingdoms to do the like to prevent the springing up of a new generation of treacherous King-killing State-subverting Agitators and Hypocritical perfidious Army-Saints and engage all Protestant kingdoms Churches and States for their own security and vindication to disclaim and declare against us This questionlesse will be the sad inevitable issue of this Jesuiticall advice if ever the Houses or Army shall put it into actuall execution and not speedily prevent it it being long since fore-plotted by the Jesuites as I shall prove anon at the beginning of the late Warre against the Scots But if the Prince and Duke be set aside I would gladly learn of these Statists who and what King they would set up Not any of the Kings posterity certainly since they dis-inherit two at a blow and the blood being corrupted by the Kings and their attainders no other heir can inherit it by descent it must escheat to the Houses or Armies disposal and become no kingdom at all but an Elective one if any And is this the next way to peace and settlement If so I have certainly lost my reason and senses too No it will be a seminary of lasting Wars of which few elective Kingdoms are long free every new election producing commonly a new Warre where there is no pretence of an hereditary succession much more where a right heir is forcibly and unjustly dis-inherited I shall give you but one instance though I could name you divers and that is a memorable one at home in our owne kingdom King Henry the first having one onely daughter Maud to reserve the Crown unto her after his death caused her to be crowned and made all the Prelates and Nobles swear to receive her as their Queen and Princesse after his decease But she marrying afterwards to the Emperour and being out of the Realme when King Henry died The Archbishop of Canterbury with the rest of the Prelates and Nobles contrary to their Oath and agreement elected Stephen Earle of Bloyes for their King and put by Maud the right heir Stephen taking an Oath to grant and confirm those Laws and Liberties for the kingdoms peace and settlement as they propounded to him before his Coronation A very likely means to settle Peace and prosperity as they imagined But was the event answerable No verily this cursed perjury and pollicy brought all the chiefe contrivers of it to great calamity and miserable ends and engendred a bloody civill Warre in the bowels of this kingdom which continued no lesse then seventeene years together with interchangeable successes till the whole kingdom was laid waste and desolate most Houses Towns and Villages burned to the ground their Gardens and Orchards quite destroyed their monies and estates exhausted and plundered their Cattle and flocks consumed and eaten up their Fields over grown with weeds in stead of Corne most of the people devoured by the Sword Famine and Pestilence and eleven hundred Castles Holds and Garrisons erected which were no other but dens of Theeves and Plunderers This was the peace and settlement this policy produced At last both Parties weary of the Wars out of pure necessity came to a Personall Treaty and in conclusion made this agreement That Stephen having no issue of his body should enjoy the Crowne during his life and Henry son and heir to Maud and next heir also to Stephen should succeed him after his death and in some sort officiate with him in the kingdoms Govenment during his life And so these long lasting Warres concluded after which there were at least eleven hundred Castles demolished by order of Parliament crected during these wars to the Countreys utter undoing But if we dis-inherit the Prince and Duke for ought I discern if they suddainly recover not their possession of the Crown of England after one seven years of Warre already elapsed we may have seventeen years more and seventeen after that again and be reduced to a more miserable condition then our Ancestors were in King Stephens dayes And that upon these two grounds First the contest then was onely between two Competitors for this one kingdom who had no other kingdoms of their own to side with them But the Prince and Duke being successively heirs as well to
intituled Royal tyranny discovered Discovering the tiranny of the Kings of England from William the invader and robber Tyrant alias the Conqueror to this present King Charles who is plainly proved to be worse and more tyrannicall then any of his predecessors and deserves a more severe punishment from the hands of this present Parliament then either of the dethroned Kings Ed. 2 or Rich. 2. had from former Parliaments which they are bound by duty and Oath without equivocation or collution to inflict upon him he being the greatest delinquent in the three kingdoms and the head of the rest so the title In the Table there are these passages amongst others Charles Steward guilty of this treason p. 92 93 94 95 97. C. R Charls Rex Ought to be executed p. 57. where the houses are not only pressed to depose and execute him but his execution in their neglect foretold that in An exemplary manner in dispite of all his protectors and defendors Which Iesuitical books and counsels published at that instant discovered clearly to my apprehension their votes for laying the King then aside the deposing executing of him to be then intended only interrupted by the Scots invasion the last summers commotion occasioned by those votes of Non addresses and the forceing on of them then now by the army with the violence they use to be no other but a very plot and project of the Iesuits to ruine and distroy the King and us I shall only add to this what I manifested but now that it was the Iesuits plot when they engaged and assisted the King in his warre against the Scots to dash the protestants in both nations in peeces one against another so be masters of both kingdoms extirpate our religion in both and that if the King consented not to grant them a generall free exercise of their religion throughout all his realms Dominions or did but sticke at it that then they would presently poyson dispatch him possesse themselves of the Prince next heire to the Crowne then by flattery or menaces draw him to their Religion match him to a Papist and then all three Kingdomes would soon turn Papists and all Protestants be murthered or burnt for Heretiques Now these Papists and Iesuits understanding that the King beyond contrary to their expectatioÌ„ bath granted all or most of our Propositions in the Isle of Wight and fully condescended to five New bills for the extirpation of Masse Popery and Popish innovations out of his Dominions and putting all Lawes in execution against them and for a speedier discovery and conviction of them then formerly and that their good friends and Confederats our Arch-Bishops Bishops Deans and Chapters and other branches of the hierarchy are tobe wholly routted out both in England and Ireland so as they are never likely to have any more footing in them againe after all their late warres charges hazards plots and designes to set up their Catholique Religion party are so inraged with the King so inexorably incensed against him both at home abroad as I am credibly informed that now they are mad against him thirst for nothing but his blood which they think they cannot advantagiously effectually accomplish but by engaging the Army to dessolve the Treaty force the Parliament in case they vote his answers satisfactory and then by themselvs are a confederate party in the House to depose cut off his head Which done the Prince being now beyond Seas in their power destitute of his hopes of succession to this Crown banished and declared a Traitor and to dye without mercy if he returne hither to lose his head as well as his father upon such high affronts put upon his Father himself that by a Protestant Parliament Army of Saints will be so inraged against all professors of our religion that he will probably professe himself a Roman Catholique and his brother too match with a Catholique Princes then ingage all the Papists in forraign parts England Scotland and Ireland to unite their forces purses councels by way of revenge to cut all the Protestants throats in all three Kingdomes who have adhered to the Parliament and hew the Army it selfe in peeces when they have thus accomplished their designes which will render them and the Parliament execrable and infamous to all posterity and then farewell all Parliaments and our Protestant religion for ever not onely here but throughout all Christendome where the Popish Princes will presently massacre the Protestants lest they should fill to the like perfidious practises This I am most confident is their designe by what I have met with in their papers and in the Jesuit Conâ—zens politiques and others who have chalked out a way by degrees insensibly to crue Popery into any Protestant Church by those very steps which our Prelates followed who were directed by them and to alter and subvert any Protestant State and Kingdom by this new modelling of them into such a popular Anarchy as is now suggested and presented in the Armies Remonstrance This I am assured will be the unavoydable desperate and deplorable issue if we comply with them and the Army in it unlesse God in his infinite mercy shal hold off their hands and turn their hearts from prosecuting their present designes I shall onely adde one thing more and so conclude That many of the Agitators and Armies papers especially Putney projects and some late Declarations savour of a Iesuites stile or spirit That I have been credibly informed that not onely Gifford a Jesuite was one of the Generals own Life-gard and a very active man in the Army but one Thomas Budds alias Peto the last Popish Priest condemned at Newgate was a Trooper in this Army and by influence of some great Officers in it obtained a Reprieve instead of an Execution That the Papists beyond Seas wish very well to the Army iu whom now is their chiefest hopes and that the Iesuits Cels and Colleges in forraign parts are of late very empty that many Popish Priests and Iesuits are now in England not saying Masse crying up the Pope and Popish Tenents as heretofore that were to grosse and they easily discovered but using all manner of mechanick Trades preaching in private corners as Sectaries Anabaptists Seekers broachers of new Light or as gifted brethren that many of them are turned Troopers Agitators if not some of them Officers in the Army or at leastwise have so insinuated themselves into the leading Officers there who are much taken with their parts their new Designs Tenents to alter unsettle States that they have as powerfull an influence now upon the Armies Couâ—cels Officers as formerly they had upon the King and his Councels and have now thus deeply ingaged them beyond all expectation to accomplish these Iesuiticall designes of theirs to depose and destry the Kingâ— dissolve this Parliament subvert our Magistracy Ministry Religion Lawes
15. 9. d Rom. 13. 1. 2 Tim. 2. 2. 3 Tit. 3. 1. 1 Tit. 2. 13 14 15. Gen. 6. 11 12. Psal. 11. 15. Psal. 55. 9. Isay 59. 6. Rom. 1. 29 30 31. 2 Tim. 2. 3 4. e 1 Thes. 5. 22. 1 Cor. 8. 21. Rom. 12. 17. f Mat. 18. 17 18. 1 Cor. 10. 32. Rom 4. 20. 2 Cor. 6. 3. 1 Cor. 8. 13. 2. 1 Pet. 2. 11. c. 3. 12. * An humble answer p. 2. c. o 2. Sam. 10. 19. Deur 20. 10. 1 Kings 22. 41. p Psal. 122. 6. 8. Ier. 29. 7. q Heb. 12. 14. r Psal. 4. 14. Ier. 29. 7. 1. Pet. 3. 11. s 1 Thes. 4. 11. Cor. 10. 36. t Rom. 12. 18. 1. Tim. 22. u Rom. 15. 33. 2 Cor. 13. 11. 1. Per. 4. 9. 1. Thes. 5. 16. x I say 9. 6 7. Heb. 13. 20. y Gal. 5. 22. Eph. 4. 3. z Româ— 10. 15. Eph. 5. 16. u Lev. 26. 6. Numb 5. 26. 2 Kings 4. 20. 19. Psal. 128. 6. Psal. 147. 4. I say 26. 12. Ier. 14. 13. b Luk. 12. 13 14. 1 Per. 4. 15. Thes. 4 11. 2 Thes. 3. 11. Heb. 5. 4. e Tertul Apologia e Matth. 26. c. f Joan Mariana de Rege et Regum Instit. l. 1. c. 5. 6. 7. 8. Bellarmin De pontif Rom. 8. 5. 1. 6. 78. Ludovicus Richehom Apol. pro societate Iesu. Franciscus de Verona Apol. pro Ioanne Castel Aphorismi Doctrinae Iesuitarum * The Tit. Page * Exaâ—â— Collect. p. 31 to 48. * Rastal Armor 1. * Exact Collect. p. 34 to 4g c. * A Colcon-lect p. 201 * Condemned by the Houses in the King Exact Collect p. 10â— 20. â— 3. * A Collection p. 634. * Exact Collect. p. 34. to 46. 156 162. 201. 206. * Knols Twkish history p. 297. 298. * Rom â— 3â— k Leviâ—â— 19 17â—1 Tim. 1. 20. Tâ—â— 1. 13. Object * Right Might p. 20. 21. Answ. * 1 Saâ—â—â— 21. 6. * 2 Pet. 2. 16. * Ps. â— 3 2. 9. * All Petâ—oners for Peace are now disabled to be or elect Officers by some late votes since out seclusion Mat. 26. 52. * These chains are only Metaphorical the chains of Gods Law and Word nor reall Ps. 2. 3. Is. 45. 14. Rom. 20. 1 2. * Si judicas cognoscâ— Scneca Theâ— first prejudicet The Answer thereâ— unto * Learned Giberâ—â—s Vocâ—ius in his Letter to Mr Walter Strickland Agent fos the Parliament at the Hague Feb. 2 1644. writes thus of my Soveraign Power of Parliaments c. Accept nuperrime commodato adhoras aliquot librum Guil Prynne jam diu miâ—i desideratum rationes cum respensionibus tam solide â—ru dite pro Parliamentto 〈◊〉 adversarios instructas atque explicatas deprehendi ut non videam quid ultra desiderari possit Debebat Tractaus ille Latine Gallice extare ut a Reformatis Theologi 〈◊〉 Politicis in Europa legi possit The second prejudice The Answer to it The Question The Question truly stated The Question truly stated The first Proposition fully granted and the benefits acâ—â—ing to us therâ—â— by The Militia fully consented to and the Kingdoms advantage and security thereby * An Exact Collection p. 88 89 9â— 909. c. A Collection of all the publik Ordinances c pa. 49 50 51 57 58 77 84. * See Matthew Paris Matthew Westminster Hollinshead Speed Daniel in his life The King hath granted the Houses for 20 years the disposing of all great Offices Civill Judiciall and Military for twenty years both in England and Ireland The security and consequences thereof The King hath confirmed the new Oreat Seal all that hath passed under it nulled the old aud what ever passed under its authority since its carrying from the Houses The Repeale of new Peers and other Honours granted by the King with the consequence thereof * Sec Cook nâ—stitures on Mag. Cha. cap. 29. The proposition for raising moneys for payment of publike debts artears c. granted with its benefits The court of Wards aud Tenures in Capite c. abolished with the advantages The Proposition concerning Delinquents how sarre granted even to satisfaction * Exact collection p. 464. 585 619. 631. 633. 908. Object Answ. * 4. Instir. â— 1. p. 37. 38. * Sec 2 Chron. 28. 2. 10. 16. * See Rastalls Abridgment Tit. Treason That Propositions concerning London fully granted and the Consequences of it * Exact Collection p. 45. a Collectionâ— c. p. 33. 495. 496. * An exact Collection p. 6. The satisfactoriness of the Kings answers to the Propositions concerning the Church Religion Propositions and Concessions against Papist Popery and Popish Innovations Propositions and Concessions against Prophanenesse * See the Book of Ordination of Ministers Bishops c. 1. 2. Ph. Mar. c. 8. * This I have fully proved in my Vnbishoping of Timothy Titus And of the Antipathy of English Prelacy to Unity and Monarchy par 1. 2. c. 9. * See my Vnbishoping of Tim. and Titus where this is largely proved * See this largely proved in my Vnbishoping of Timothy Titus and in Gersom Bucerus de Gubernat Ecclesiae * See my Antipathy of the English prelacy part 2. pag. 479. to 484. * Rev. 4. 10 11. c. 5. 8 9. c. 11. 16 17 18. * Acts 20. 17. 28. Phil. 1. 1. Tit. 1. 5 6 7. * See Goodwin Catalogue of English Bishops Rastalls abridgement Tit. Bishops sust fruits 〈◊〉 * A Colllection c. p. 124â— 125. 902. * A Collection c. â— 922 23 c. * A Colllection p. 124 125. Object Answer a Mat. 8. 22. Luke 8. 2. Acts 3. 6. c. 4. 34. 35. 36. 37. c. 10. 10 5. c. 20. 34. 1 Cor. 4. 12. 1 Thes. 2. 9. Phil. 4. 10. 10. 20. 1 Cor. 11. 7 8 9. Gal. 1. 8. b See M. Seldens Hist. of Tythes c Polychron l. 4. c. 26. See D. Crakenthorp of Const. Donat. Euseb. de vâ—â—a Constamin d c. 22. in vita Sylvestri e Hist. l. 4. c. 26 f Dialog l. 4. c. 15 16 17. 26. g Fox Acts and Monu p. 517. 522. h Answer to the Preface of M Moores Book p 116. i Ser. on Hag. 1 p. 176. Defence of the Apology part 6. c. 9. divis 3. k Tho. Becons Reports of certaine men vol. 3. f 341. l Opus 90. Dierun c. 124. m Fox Acts and Monu vol. 2. p. 609. 610. n Gra. dist 41. o Spel. Concil tom 1. p. 261. 263. p De Brit. Eccl. Primordiis c. 4. p. 661. 736. 737. 13. 14. q c. 21 22. c. r See his Life before his Works ho. 33. in Matth. 21. in 1 Cor. t Niceph. Eccl. hist. l. 18. c. 39. n Niceph. l. 8. c. 42. Socra eccl hist. l. 1. c. 12. s Naz. oraâ— 35. x Epist. 2. y M. Wheten p 44 45 46. z Sulpitius Scverus sacr hist. l. 2. Vssertus de Brit. Ec. Primordiis p. 196. a August
being thereby abolished and extirpated his power of Ordination must be destroyed with his Function as well as suspended All which considered I cannot but conclude the Kings finall Answer as to the Office of and Ordination by Bishops to be compleatly satisfactory to our demands And so much the rather because the King in this particular of Ordination pleads only dissatisfaction in polnt of Conscience for closing with us in this seeming punctilio and if it were not meerly Conscience though some have over rashly censured it for a meer pretence to keep up Bishops still he that hath granted and yeelded us the greater would never contest with us for the lesser nor go so far in the abolition of Episcopacy as he hath done And truly I doubt not but His Majesty by conference may soon be satisfied in this point Nay had his own Divines dealt faithfully with him in the Isle of Wight He might have beene easily satisfied in this particular in which I doubt not by Gods blessing to undertake to satisfie him both in point of Episcopacy that it is in all things the same with Presbytery and that the ordination of Presbyters and Ministers by divine Right belongs only to Presbyters as such and not to Bishops as Bishops who for above a thousand years after Christ claimed the chief but not the sole interest in it not by divine Right and Authority but meerly by Canons and Custom long after the Apostles time which I have proved at large long since in my Vnbishoping of Timothy and Titus which none of the Bishops or their Patrons ever yet attempted to answer though I particularly challenged them to do it Only this I shall now say in brief for some satisfaction in the point to other Members 1. That there is no one Text of Scripture to prove that Bishops Iure divine are distinct from Presbyters in any thing much less in this particular of having a negative Voice or sole or principall interest as Bishops so distinguished in the power of Ordinationâ— but a direct Text to the contrary 1 Tim. 4. 14 to omit others 2 That the pretence of impropriating Ordination to Bishops distinct from Presbyters by divine Right is grounded upon these two gross mistakes that Timothy and Titus were Bishops properly so called the one of Ephesus the other of Crete and that this power of ordaining Elders was vested in them quatenus Bishops only and not otherwise by divine institution for proof of the first the Postscriptâ— of Pauls Epistles to them and no one Text of Scripture are cited and the 1 Tim. 5. 22. Tit. 1. 5. relating only to Ordination for the latter But it is clear as the noon-day Sun by Scripture that Timothy was never a Bishop properly so called much lesse the first or sole Bishop of Ephesus as is evident by sundry texts especially by Act. 20. 4 5 6 15 17 18 21 29 30 31. compared together nor Titus a Bishop properly so termed distinct from a Presbyter much lesse the first or sole Bishop of Crete nor do either of those texts prove that they had the power of Ordination by divine Right vested in them two meerly as Bishops distinct from or superiour to Presbyters as I have undenyably manifested in my Vnbishoping of Timothy and Titus And as for the Postscripts to these Epistles terming Timothy ordained first Bishop of Ephesus and Titus of Crete they are no part of the text first extant in and invented by Occumenius none of the authentickst Authors above 1050 years after Christ and annexed only to the end of his Commentary on those Epistles not adjoyned to the Text and they are not only omitted in most Manuscripts and printed Editions and Translations of these Epistles but apparently false in themselves as I have at large demonstrated in some printed Books Therefore this point of conscience may soone be satisfied 3 That no Bishops for 1200 years after Christ did ever claim the chief power in Ordination by any Divine Right as Bishops but meerly by Canons or Custom long after the Apostles and that in the Primitive times before any reâ—â—riction by Councels Presbyters in many places did not only ordain Ministers and Deacous without Bishops and Bishops never but jointly with Presbyters but likewise ordaine Bishops themselves as Ierome Epiphanius Augustine and others assure us and sometimes joined in the consecration and enstallment of Popes themselves and Archbishops for defect of Bishops 4. That it is the constant tenent of all the eminentest Protestant Divines and some learned Papists too and the practice of all the reformed Churches that the Divine right of Ordination belongs originally to the whole Church but ministerially to Presbyters as such not to Bishops as Bishops and that which undeniably clears it up to mee is this That in the New Testament wee find both Apostles some of the 70 Disciples Evangelists and Presbyters equally ordaining Elders or Presbyters but not any one who is once in Scripture stiled a Bishop either conferring orders upon any much lesse eonomine jure as a Bishop And since the Apostles time wee find in point of use and practice Popes Patriarchs Archbishops Metropolitans Cardinalls Abbots in some places who are not Iure Divino nor Bishops properly so called but distinguished from them in degree ordaining Presbyters and Ministers as well as Bishops quatenus Bishops and that never by themselves but all by the Presbyters joint concurrence then present who by the fourth Councell of Carthage the Canon law the very Canons of Trent also and our owne book of Ordination and our Canons ought also to join with them in the Ordination Now all these distinct Orders and Degrees claiming and exercising this power by a Divine Right and many of their Functions being confessed not to be of Divine Right as Popes Patriarchs Archbishops Metropolitans Abbots and Chorall Bishops who yet ordain and these alwaies necessarily calling Presbyters who are clearly of Divine Right to join with them in their Ordination and not doing it alone is an unanswerable proof to me that they all concur in this action in no other right or notion at all but meerly as they are Presbyters in which they all accord and have one and the same authority not in their own capacities wherein they are all discriminated and are not all of Divine but only of humane institution Presbyters quà Presbyters being the properest persons to ordain others of their owne degree and function as Doctors of Divinity law and Physick in the Universities create Doctors of their severall Professions and Bishops consecrate Bishops and Archbishops even as a man begets a man of his own quality and degree and all other creatures generate those of their own kind without the concurrence of any her distinct species paramount them As for the Angel of the Church of Ephesus much insisted on in the Isle of Wight to prove an Episcopacy Iure Divino distinct from Presbytery I never read that this Angell ordained
heads they were scarce ever free from civill warres One Army set up one Emperour another Army another the Senate a third who alwayes warred till they had cut off one anothers heads Most of those Emperours had very short reigns few of them above a year or two and some of them scarce two months but most of them untimely deaths In Sclavonia and Norway where they had a Law that he that slew a Tyrant King should suceed him in the Throne They had almost every year a new King perpetuall wars and discords and not one of all their Kings for above one hundred years together ever came to a natural death but was murthered as a Tyrant and succeeded by a worse and greater tyrant as Saxo grammaticus and Nubrigensis testifie And in the sacred story it selfe it is very observable that after the ten Tribes revolted from Rehoboam though by Gods Iustice and approbation for Solomons sinnes they had never any peace or settlement but perpetuall Wars with one Kingdome or another or between themselves Their Kings or most of them were all Tyrants and Idolaters and by the just hand of God for the most part tumultuously slaine and murthered one of and by another who succeeded them he that murthered his Predecessor being usually slain by his Successor or his Predecessors Sons Servants or by the People of the Land in a tumltuous way In the 2 Kings 15. We read in that one Chapter of no lesse then 4 of those Kings slain one by another and as for the people under these Kings they had never any rest peace settlement or freedome but lived under the greatest misery and oppression that ever any Subjects under Heaven did as the sacred History records This King-killing certainly can be then no probable way at all to peace safety settlement freedome but the Jesuits pollicy to deprive us eternally of all these and of God and Religion to boot as it did the ten Tribes heretofore Fourthly this way to peace and settlement is directly contrary to all the former Engagements Oaths and severall Petitions Declarations Remonstrances Protestations and professions of both Houses of Parliament to the King Kingdomeâ— people wherein were have alwaies protested and held forth unto them both before and since the Wars That we will preserve and protect the Kings person from danger support his Royall estate with honour and plenty at home with power and reputation abroad and by our loyall affections actions and advice lay a sure and lasting foundation of the greatnesse and prosperity of his Majesty and his Royall posterity in future times That we are still resolved to keep our selves within we bounds of faithfulnesse and allegiance to His sacred Person and Crown That we will with our lives fortunes estates and with the last drop of our blood endeavour to support His Majesty and his just Soveraignty and power over usâ— and to prevent all dangers to His Majesties Person That wee tooke up armes as well for Defence of His Majesty to protectâ— His Person as the Kingdome and Parliament without any intent to burt or injure His Majesties person or power professing in the presence of Almighty God That we would receive Him with all honour yeeld him all due obedience and subjection and faithfully endeavour to secure His person and estate from all danger and to uttermost of our power to procure and establish to Him and His People all the blessings of a glorious and happy reign which both Houses severall times profest and remonstrated to the world That the allegation that the Army raised by the Parliament was TO MURDER and DEPOSE THE KING was such a scandall as any that professed the name of a Christian could not have so little charity as to raise it especially when they must needs know the Protestation taken by every Member of both Houses whereby they promise in the presence of Almighty God to defend His Majesties person and all their addresses and Petitions to him expressing the contrary That they never suffered it to enter into their thoughts to depose the KING abhorring the very thought of it much more the intent That they never suffered the word DEPOSING the King to goe out of their mouthes nor the thing to enter into their thoughts That they rest assured both God and Man will abominate that monstrous and most injurious Charge layed upon the Representative Body of this whole Kingdome by the Malignant party against the KINGâ— as designing not onely the ruine of His MAIESTIES person but of MONARCHY it selfe The Authors of which malicious horrid scandall they professe to make the Instances of their Exemplary Iustice so soon as they shall be discovered Now for Us after all these multiplyed reiterated Protestations Promises Engagements Declarations Remonstrances to all the World from the beginning of the differences and wars till now to think or talk of deposing and destroying of the King and altering the Government as the only safe and speedy way to peace and settlement as the Army-Remonstrants prescribe would be such a most detestable breach of Publike Faith such a most perfidious treacherous unrighteous and wicked act as not only God Angels and good men but the very worst of Turks and Devils would abhor and therefore it s a miracle to me that these precious Saints should thus impudently before all the World propose to the House and force you to pursue it to staine your reputation and make you exerable to God and Men. Fifthly the very Oath of Allegiance which every one of us hath taken upon our first admission to be Members engageth us in positive terms Not to offer any violence or hurt-to His MAIESTIES Royall Person State or Government to beare faith and true Allegiance to His MAIESTY His Heirs and Successors and Him and Them to defend to the uttermost of our power against all Conspiracies and attempts whatsoever which shall be made against His or Their PERSONS CROWNE or DIGNITY And from our hearts to abhorre detest and abjure as impious and hereticall this Jesuiticall and Popish Doctrine That Princes excommunicated or deprived by the Pope as it seems the KINGS is now for extirpating Episcopacy Popery Mass and Prelacy out of His Dominions by His present Concessions without any possibility or hopes of replanting may be deposed or murthered by their Subjects or any other whatsoever Which Jesuiticall contrivance and practise as our whole State and Parliament in the Statutes of 3â— Iaâ— cap. 1â— 4 5 35. Eliz. cap. 1. and other Acts resolve is the only way to unsettle ruine and subvert not to settle and establish the Peace and government of our Realme And both Houses since this Parliament have by a Solemne Protestation first and by a Solemne League and Covenant since with Hands listed up to the most High God engaged both themselves and the three kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland by a most sacred and serious vow and protestation purposely made and prescribed by them For the
Honour and Happinesse of the King and his Posterity and the true publike Liberty safety and peace of the three Kingdoms as the Title and Preface declare sincerely really and constantly to endeavour with their estates and lives TO PRESERVE AND DEFEND THE KINGS MAJESTIES PERSON AND AUTHORITY in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdome which he hath now fully and actually performed by his Concessions in this Treaty That the World may beare witnesse with our Consciences OF OUR LOYALTY and that WE HAVE NO THOUGHTS OR INTENTIONS TO DIMINISH HIS MAJESTIES JUST POWER AND GREATNESSE And shall also with all faithfullnesse endeavour the discovery of all such as shall be Incendiaries or evill instruments by DIVIDING THE KING FROM HIS PEOPLE That they may be brought to speedy tryall and receive condign punishment And shall not suffer themselves directly or indirectly by whatsoever combination or terrour to be withdrawne or make defection from this Covenant but shall all the dayes of their lives really and constantly continue therein against all opposition and promote the same against all lets and impediments whatsoever And this Covenant we all made in the presence of Almighty God the searcher of all Hearts WITH A REALL INTENTION TO PERFORME THE SAME as we shall answer at that great day when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed Now how we who are Members of this House or any who are subjects of our three kingdomes or Officers and Souldiers in the Army who have taken this Oath of Allegiance Protestation League or Covenant or any of them as some of them have done all or two of them at least sundry times over can without the highest perjury to God Treachery to the King perfidiousnesse to the kingdome Infamy to the World Scandall to the Protestant Religion and eternall dishonour to the Parliament and themselves Atheistically break through or elude all those most Sacred and Religious tyes upon our souls by a speedy publique dethroning and decolling of the KING and dis-inheriting his Posterity as the Army Remostrants advise and â—that in the open view of the World and that Al-seeing God to whom we have thus appealed and sworne by that Iesuiticall equivocations or distinstions of which the Armies Remonstrance is full or professions of our damnable hypocâ—isie in the breaking of them transcends my understanding And for those who stile themselves SAINTS and charge this as one of the Highest Crimes against the King His frequent breach of Oathes and Promises to transcend him Iesuites in this very sin is such a monster of impiety as I conceive could never have entred into the hearts of Infidells or the worst of Men or Divells And to act this under a pretext to preserve and settle the Peace of the Kingdom is such a solecisme as militates point-blank against the very words and scope both of this Oath Protestation League and Covenant which crosseth not the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance but more strongly engageth all men to preserve and defend the Kings Person and Authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdome as the Assembly of Divines and both Houses affirm in their Exhortation to take the Covenant which prescribes this as the only meanes of securing and preserving peace in all the three Kingdomes to preserve the Person and Honor of the King his Crown and Dignity from any such violence and invasion as is now suggested by the Army which all three of them engage us and all three Kingdoms with our lives and fortunes really and constantly to oppose against all lets and impediments c. and to bring those to condigne punishment as Incendiaries and evill Instruments who suggest it So as if the Army will proceed in this Jesuiticall destructive way of Treason and ruine Wee and all three Kingdoms are solemnly engaged with our estates and lives unanimously to oppose and bring them to Justice And is this then the way to publike peace and settlement to raise another new War to murther one another in this new Quarrell wherein the Army and their adherents must be the sole Malignants and enemies we must fight with c No verily but the high-way to the Kingdoms Armies ruine whose Commissions wee are obliged to revoke whose Contributions wee must in conscience withdraw and whose power wee must with our own lives resist unlesse we will be perjured and guilty of breach of Covenant in the highest degree if they persist in these anti-Covenant Demands 7. Both Houses having held a Personall Treaty with the King so lately and he having granted us in that Treaty whatsoever we have or can demand for the safety and preservation of our Religion Laws and Liberties and both Houses engaged themselves by Vote in answer to the Kings Propositions to restore him to a condition of Freedome Honour and Safety according to the Lawes of the Realm which was the Armies own proposals in his behalfe in August 1647. Wee can neither in honesty honour justice nor conscience were hee ten thousand times worse then the Army would render him depose and bring him to execution It being against all the rules of Justice and honour between two professed enemies who had no relations one to another much more between King and Subjects in a civil War and a thing without president in any ages To this the Army Remonstrance answers That this would be thought an unreasonable and unbeseeming demand in a personall Treaty between persons standing both free and in equall ballance of power but not when one party is wholly subdued captivated imprisoned and in the others power But this certainly is a difference spun with a Jesuiticall thred For to treat with any King in our power or out of it on articles of Peace upon these terms That if he consent to them We will restore him to his Throne with Honor Freedom Safety and when he hath yeelded us our Demands then to depose and out off his head is the highest breach of Faith Truth Honor and Justice that can be imagined and those who dare justifie such perfidious and unchristian dealing deserve rather the stile of Turks and equivocating Iesuites then pious Saints 8. There is no president in Scripture that the Generall Assembly or Sanhedâ—in of the Jews or Isrealites did ever judicially imprison depose or execute any one of the Kings of Iudah or Israel though many of them were the grossest Idolaters and wickedest Princes under heaven who shed much innocent blood and oppressed the people sundry waies We know that David himselfe committed adultery with Vriah his wife a faithfull Servant and Souldier whiles he was with his Generall Ioab in the field and then afterward caused him to be treacheroâ—sly slain Yet neither the Assembly of the Elders nor Ioab and the Army under him did impeach or crave Justice against him for these sins though hee lived impeniently in them And when hee numbred the people afterwards