conditions the King made unto them may make it to bee as needlesse to enquire of them as for a man to aske where to find Pauls Steeple in London when hee is in Pauls Church-yard or to enquire for the Sunne in the dog-dayes when hee and every man else may see or feele the effects of it wee shall bee content to consider what the King offered and what the Parliament would have had him to grant What the King would have done and what the Parliament have done and by that see which would have beene the better bargaine The King like a pater patriae offered over and over to grant all manner of Lawes and Liberties which might bee good and wholsome for his People and only denyed to grant those things the granting whereof as hee said himselfe would alter the fundamentall Lawes and endanger the very foundation upon which the Publique happinesse and welfare of his People was founded and constituted or to give them Stones instead of bread or Scorpions insteade of Fishes But the Parliament meaning to feede the People neither with bread nor Fishes ask the Royall-Sword Crowne and Scepter Coronation-Oath and Conscience and an Arbitrary-Power to Governe and Domineere over their fellow Subjects and to enslave those that trusted them And though the King had already granted enough to preserve the Lawes â—ives Religion and Liberty of the people and was so willing almost at any rate to purchase a peace for himselfe and his people as hee was content to part with his Sword and Militia and divers other parts of his Regality during his life Yet that would not serve the turne 't was Naboths vineyeard not Ahabs Fast made all the businesse the Parliament that pretended so much to deny themselves and to dote upon the people doe notwithstanding all they can to continue the Warre and to cozen and force the Peoples blood estates and conscience out of them and they must never give over paying of taxes fighting and fooling till they enable them to imprison their King and not only murther him but thousands and many ten thousands of their fellow-subjects and the Lawes Religion and Liberties of the people And now that they have don more then the men of the Gunpowder-treason intended to do and all England are become like Sheep without a Sheepheard wandring on the mountains and thousands of Wolves by votes and ordinances and mis-called Acts of Parl. appointed to feed them 4 or 5 years sad experience in the Warres of the Parliament against the King and almost as much more time spent in setling and subduing the people making them like Camels to kneel down to take up their burdens labour and travell hard and endure hunger and thirst under them yet yeild up their veines to bee prick't for blood to enable their drivers to furnish them with a new supply of burdens when they shal be discharged of what they have laid upon them May easily shew us a difference as big as a mountaine betwixt our old good Lawes and Liberties enjoyed under a gracious King who had an Estate of inheritance large enough of his owne besides an Oath to obliege him to protect us and a Hell upon Earth and the most Slavish of all the governments were ever yet put upon a Nation by men of as little wit and Estates as they have honestie having no other obligations upon them but their owne abhominable designes and interests For which of the People unlesse those that have traded in their neighbours blood and ruine but hath made their complaints of their undoing The Religion of the Kingdome once so glorious is now cut into fancies and blasphemies the Churches where God was wont to bee worshiped either defaced or pulled downe or made Stables for horses the Lawes of the Kingdome that were consonant to the Word of God and had in them the Quintessence of all could bee found to bee extant in the lawes of nature Nations Civill lawes or rectified reason and whatsoever the wisdome and care of all former Kings in Parliament or the usage and customes of this or any other neighbouring Nations could bring to it's perfection and were wont to nourish and preserve peace and propertie among us voted out or into that sense or tother interest to that every thing or nothing or to that non-sence according as the Lawlesse Unlimited Unjust and Ignorant will of fellow Subjects shall please to misuse them in the voting-house or place of bandying aies or noes for a Parl. which in it 's legall and primitive institution consisting of King Lords CoÌ„mons the right use of it is so venerable as no man as our Laws say ought so much as to speak or thinke dishonorably of it we cannot without violence to the Laws and our own reason and understanding call it where Publique orders are made without hearing of all or any parties interessed a peece of a cause heard by some none at all of it by others votes and parties made and picked and lent to one another before hand and the best of the Faction and juglers carry all the businesse as they have a mind to it A way of Justice worse then that if there were any in it of a lawles Court said to be kept yearly on a Hill betwixt Raleigh and Rochford in Essex the wednesday after every Michaelmas-day where the Steward or Judge sitteth in the Night after the first Cockcrowing without any light or Candle and calleth all that are bound to attend the Court with as low a voice as possibly he may writes orders with a coals and they that answer not are deepely amerced For that being a particular punishment long agoe inflicted upon the tenants of certaine Mannors in Raleigh hundred for a conspiracy against a King is but once a yeare and some shift or change or mercy of the Steward or an appeale may take away the inconveniency of it A way of government worse then to bee Subject to the rule of so many fooles for they might perchance doe that would bee just or so many Knaves who but in playing the Knaves one with another or for reward might sometimes do that which was right or Mad men which at intervals might doe something which was reasonable worse then for every Subject of England to bee put to play at dice for his life or Estate or any thing else hee should crave a Justice to get or keep for then hee might by skill or chance obtaine some thing In fine worse then any example or way of Government the World hath as yet produced and can have nothing worse but Hell it selfe The Parliament and priviledges of it are destroyed and every mans Life and Estate in no better a condition then at the pleasure of the next pretenders to it All the Charters and Liberties of Citties and corporate Townes Corporations of Trade and Companies of Merchants made voide all the Merchandise Trade and manufacture of the Kingdome laid open and in common to
King CHARLES the First no Man OF BLOOD BUT A MARTYR FOR HIS PEOPLE OR A sad and impartiall enquiry whether the King or Parliament began the Warre which hath so much ruined and undon the Kingdom of England and who was in the defensive part of it Exoritur aliquod majus è magno malum Nondum ruentis Ilij fatum stetit SENEC Traged in Troade Act 3. Printed in the Yeare 1649. King CHARLES the First No Man of Blood BUT A Martyr for his People THAT there hath beene now almost seaven yeeres spent in Civill-Warres aboundance of Blood-shed and more Ruine and Misery brought upon the Kingdome by it then all the severall Changes Conquests and Civill-Warres it hath endured from the time of Brute or the first Inhabitants of it every mans wofull experience some only excepted who have beene gayners by it will easily assent unto No mervaile therefore that many of those who if all they alledge for themselves that they were not the cause of it could bee granted to be true might eyther have hindred or lessned it would now put the blame of so horrid a businesse from themselves and lay it upon any they can perswade to beare it And that the Conquerours who would binde their Kings in Chaynes and their Princes with fetters of Iron and thinke they have a Commission from Heaven to doe it the guilt of it being necessarily either to bee charged upon the Conquerors or conquered are not willing to have their triumphant Chayres and the glories as they are made beleeve that hang upon their shoulders defiled with it but do all they can to load their Captives with it But howsoever though the successe and power of an Army hath frighted it so farre out of question as to charge it upon the King and take away his life for it by making those that must of necessity bee guilty of the fact if he should have beene as in all reason hee ought to have beene acquited of it the only Judges of him It may well become the judgement and conscience of every man that will bee but eyther a good Subject or a Christian not to lend out his Soule and Salvation so much on trust as to take those that are parties and the most ignorant sort of mens words for it but to enter into a most serious examination of the matter of Fact it selfe and by tracing out the foote-steps of Truth see what a conclusion may be drawn out of it In pursuance wherof for I hope the originall of this Sea of blood will not prove so unsearchable as the head of Nile Wee shall enquire who first of all raysed the Feares and Jelousies Secondly represent and set down the truth of the matter of Fact and proceedings betwixt the King and Parliament from the tumultuous seditious coming of the People to the Parliament and White-hall untill the 25. Aug. 1642. when he set up his Standard at Nottingham from the setting up of his Standard untill the 13 Sep. 1642. when the Parliament by their many acts of hostility a negative Churlish answer to his propositions might well have put him out of hope of any good to be obteined from them by messages of Peace sent unto them Thirdly whether a Prince or other Magistrate labouring to suppresse or punish a rebellion of the People be tied to those rules are necessary to the justifying of a warre if it were made betweene equalls Fourthly suppose the warre to bee made with a neighbour Prince or between equalls whether the King or Parliament were in the defensive or justifiable part of it Fiftly Whether the Parliament in their pretended magistracy have not taken lesser occasions to punish or provide against insurrections treasons rebellions as they are pleased to call them Sixtly Who most desired Peace and offered faireliest for it Seventhly Who laboured to shorten the Warre and who to lengthen it Eightly Whether the Conditions proffered by the King would not have beene more profitable for the People if they had beene accepted and what the Kingdome and People have got insteed of it CHAP. I. Who first of all Raised the Feares and Jealousies THE desiring of a guard for the Parliament because of a tale rather then a plot That the Earle of Crawford had a purpose to take away the Marquis of Hamiltons life in Scotland the refusing of a legall guard offered by the King and His Protestation to bee as carefull of their safety as of the safety of His Wife and Children The dreame of a Taylor lying in a ditch in Finsbury fields of this and the other good Lord and Common-wealths men to be taken away The trayning of horses under ground and a plague plaister or rather a clout taken from a galled horse back sent into the house of Commons to Mr. Pym A Designe of the Inhabitants of Covent-Garden to murther the City of London News from France Italy Spaine and Denmarke of Armies ready to come for England and a supposition or feaverish fancy That the King intended to introduce Popery and alter Religion and take away the Lawes and Liberties of the People and many other the like seditious delusions the People so much as their misery will give them leave have now found out the way to laugh at either came from the Parliament partie or were cherished and turned into advantages by them For they had found the way and lost nothing by it to be ever jealous of the King And whilest he did all he could to shew them that there was no cause for it they who were jealous without a cause could bee so cunning as to make all the haste they could to weaken Him and strengthen themselves by such kind of artifices But hee that could not choose but take notice that there were secret ties and combinations betwixt his English and Scottish Subjects the latter of whom the Earle of Essex and Sir Thomas Fairfax themselves understood to be no better then Rebels and therfore served in places of Command in His Majesties Army against them That Sir Arthur Haselrig had brought in a Bill in Parliament to take the Militia by Sea and Land away from him saw himselfe not long after by a Printed remonstrance or declaration made to the People of all they could but imagine to bee errours in his government arraigned and little lesse then deposed The Bishops and divers great Lords driven from the Parliament by Tumults Was inforced to keepe his gates at Whitehall shut and procure divers Captaines and Commanders to lodge there and to allow them a table to bee a guard for him and had beene fully informed of many Trayterous Speeches used by some seditious mechaniques of London as that It was pitty Hee should raigne and that The Prince would make a better King was yet so farre from being jealous or solicitous to defend himself by the Sword and power which God had intrusted him with as when he had need reason enough to do it he still
it 1. March 1641. Petition for the Militia and tell him If he would not graunt it they would settle and dispose it without him And the morrow after Resolve upon the Question That the Kingdom be forthwith put in a posture of Defence in such a way as was already agreed upon by both Houses of Parliament and Order the Earle of Northumberland Lord high-Admirall to Rig and send to Sea his Majesties Navie and notwithstanding that the King 4 March 1641 by his Letter directed to the Lord Keeper Littleton had signified that hee would wholly desist from any proceedings against the five Members and Kimbolton Sir John Hotham a Member of the House of Commons who before the King had accused the five Members and Kimbolton had by Order of Parliament seized upon the Towne of Hull the only fortified place of strength in the Kingdom and made a Garison of it summoned and forced in many of the trayned Souldiers of the County of Yorke to help him to guard it And eighth of March 1641 Before the King could get to Yorke it was Voted That whatsoever the two houses of Parliament should Vote or Declare to be Law the People were bound to obey And when not long after the King offered to goe in person to suppresse the Irish-Rebellion That was Voted to bee against the Law and an encouragement to the Rebells and they Declare that whosoever shall assist him in his Voyage thither should bee taken for an enemy to the Common-weale And 15 of March 1641. Resolved upon the Question That the severall Commissions granted under the great-Seale to the Lievetenants of the severall Counties were illegall and void and that whosoever should execute any power over the Militia by colour of any such Commission without consent of both Houses of Parliament should bee accounted a disturber of the Peace of the Kingdom Aprill 1642. Sir John Hotham seizeth the Kings Magazine at Hull and when the King went but with a small attendance to demand an entrance into the Towne denies him though hee had then no Order to doe it Notwithstanding all which the 28 of Aprill 1642. they Vote That what hee had done was in obedience to the commands of both Houses of Parliament and that the Kings proclaming him to bee a Traytor was a high breach of Priviledge of Parliament And Ordered All Sheriffs and Officers to assist their Committees sent down with those their Votes to Sir John Hotham In the meane time the Pulpits flame with seditious invectives against the King and incitements to Rebellion and the People running headlong into it had all manner of countenance and encouragement unto it but those Ministers that preached Obedience and sought to prevent it were sure to bee imprisoned and put out of their places for it Sir Henry Ludlow could bee heard to say in the house of Comons That the King was not worthy to Reigne in England And Henry Marten That the Kingly Office was forfeitable and the happinesse of the Kingdome did not depend upon him and his Progeny And though the King demanded justice of them were neither punished nor put out of the House Nor so much as questioned or blamed for it The Militia the principall part of the Kings regality without which it was impossible either to bee a King or to governe and the Sword which God had given him and his Ancestors for more then a thousand yeeres together had enjoyed and none in the Barons wars nor any Rebellion of the Kingdome since the very being or essence of it durst ever heretofore presume to aske for must now be wrestled for and taken away from him The Commissions of Array being the old legall way by which the Kings of England had a power to raise and levie men for the defence of themselves and the Kingdome Voted to bee illegall The passage at Sea defended against him and his Navy kept from him by the Earle of Warwick whilest the King all this while contenting himselfe to bee meerely passive and only busying himselfe in giving answeres to some Parliament Messages and Declarations and to wooe intreat them out of this distemper cannot be proved to have done any one action like a war or to have so much as an intention to doe it unles they can make his demanding an entrance into Hull with about twenty of his Followers unarmed in his Company and undertaking to returne and leave the Governor in possession of it to be otherwise then it ought to be 5. Of May 1642. The King being informed That Sir John Hotham sent out warrants to Constables to raise the trayned bands of York-shire writes his letter to the Sheriffe of that County to forbid the Trayned bands and commands them to repaire to their dwelling houses 12. Of May 1642. Perceiving himselfe every where endangered and a most horrid Rebellion framing against him and Sir John Hotham so neere him at Hull as within a dayes journey of him moves the County of Yorke for a Troope of horse consisting of the prime gentry of that County and a Regiment of the trayned bands of foot to bee for a guard unto him and caused the Oath of Allegiance to be administred unto them But the Parliament thereupon Vote That it appeared the King seduced by wicked Councell intended to make a War against them and till then if their own Votes should be true must acquite him from any thing more then an intention as they call it to do it And that whosoever should assist him are traytors by the fundamentall Lawes of the Kingdome The Earle of Essex Lord-Chamberlaine of the Kings houshold and all other of the Kings houshold Ser. ants forbid to go to him the Kings putting some of them out others in their places Voted to bee an injury to the Parliament Messengers were sent for the apprehending some Earles and Barons about him and some of his Bed-Chamber as if they had been Felons The Lord Keepers going to him with the great-Seal when he sent for him voted to bee a breach of priviledge and pursued with a warrant directed to all Mayors and Bayliffes to apprehend him Cause the Kings Rents and Revenues to bee brought in to them and forbid any to bee paid him Many of his Officers and Servants put out of their places for being Loyall unto him and those that were ill affected to him put in their Roomes and many of his owne Servants tempted and procured by rewards and maintenance to tarry with them and bee false and active against him The twenty sixt day of May 1642. a Declaration is sent to the King but printed and published before hee could receive it That Whatsoever they should Vote is not by Law to bee questioned either by the King or Subjects No precedent can limit or bound their proceedings A Parliament may dispose of any thing wherein the King or People have any right The Soveraign power resides in both Houses of Parliament The King hath no
in the beginning of this Parliament accepted of one for the Countie of Yorke Gave His People to understand That Hee had awarded the like Commissions into all the Counties of England and Dominion of Wales to provide for and secure them in a legall way lest under a pretence of danger and want of Authority from His Majestie to put them into a Military postuâ—e they should bee drawne and engaged in any opposition against Him or His Just Authority But 21. June 1642. The Lords and Commons in Parliament Declaring The Designe of their Propositions of raising Horse and Moneys was to maintaine the Protestant Religion and the Kings Authoritie and Person and that The Forces already attending His Majestie and His preparations at first coloured under the pretence of a guard being not so great a guard as they themselves had constantly for 6. moneths before did evidently appeare to bee intended for some great and extraordinary designe so as at this time also they doe not charge the King with any manner of action of Warre or any thing done in a way or course of Warre against them and gave just cause of feare and jealousie to the Parliament being never yet by any Law of God or man accounted to be a sufficient cause or ground for Subjects to make a Warre against their Soverainge did forbid all Mayors Sheriffes Bayliffes and other Officers to publish His Majesties said Letter to the Citie of London And declare that if Hee should use any force for the recovery of Hull or suppressing of their Ordinance for the Militia it should bee held a levying Warre against the Parliament and all this done before His Majestie had granted any Commission for the levying or raising of a man and lest the King should have any manner of provision of Warre to defend Himselfe when their Army or Sir John Hotham should come to assault Him Powder and Armes were every where seized on and Cutlers Gun-smiths Sadlers and all Warlike Trades ordered not to send any to Yorke but to give a weekely account what was made or sold by them And an Order made the 24. day of June 1642. That the Horses which should bee sent in for the Service of the Parliament when they came to the number of 60. should bee trayned and so still as the number increased 4. July 1642. The King by His letter under His signe Manuall commanded all the Judges of England in their circuits to use all meanes to suppresse Popery Riots and unlawfull assemblies and to give the People to understand His Resolution to maintaine the Protestant Religion and the Lawes of the Kingdome and not to governe by any Arbitrary way and that if any should give the King or them to understand of any thing wherein they held themselves grieved and desired a just reformation Hee would spedily give them such an answer as they should have cause to thank Him for His Justice and favour But the same day a Declaration was published by both houses of Parliament Commanding That no Sheriffe Mayor Bayliffe Parson Vicar Curate or other Sir Richard Gurney the Lord Mayor of London not many dayes before having beene imprisoned for proclaming the Kings Proclamation against the bringing in of Plate c. should publish or Proclaime any Proclamation Declaration or other Paper in the Kings name which should bee contrary to any Order Ordinance or Declaration of both houses of Parliament or the proceedings thereof and Order That in case any Force should bee brought out of one County into another to disturbe the Peace thereof they should bee suppressed by the Trayned Bands and Voluntiers of the adjacent Counties Shortly after Sir John Hotham fortifieth the Towne of Hull whilest the King is at Yorke seizeth on a Ship comming to Him with provisions for His Houshold takes Mr. Ashburnham one of the Kings Servants Prisoner intercepts Letters sent from the Queene to the King and drowneth part of the Countrey round about the Towne which the Parliament allowes of and promise satisfaction to the owners 5. July 1642. They Order a subscription of Plate and Horse to bee made in every Countey and list the Horse under Commanders and the morrow after Order 2000. men should bee sent to relieve Sir John Hotham in case the King should besiege him to which purpose Drummes were beat up in London and the adjacent parts to Hull The Earle of Warwick Ordered to send Ships to Humber to his assistance instructions drawne up to bee sent to the Deputie-Lievetenants of the severall Counties to tender the Propositions for the raising of Horses Plate and Money Mr. Hastings divers of the Kings Commissioners of Array impeached for supposed high Crimes and misdemeanours and a Committee of five Lords and ten of the house of Commons ordered to meete every morning for the laying out of ten thousand pounds of the Guild-hall moneys for the buying of 700. Horse and that 10000. Foote to bee raised in London and the Countrey bee imployed by dirction of the Parliament and the Lord Brooke is furnished with 6. peeces of Ordnance out of the Tower of London to fortifie the Castle of Warwick And 9. July 1642. Order That in case the Earle of Northampton should come into that County with a Commission of Array they should raise the Militia to suppresse him And that the Common Councell of London should consider of away for the speedy raising of the 10000. Foote and that they should bee listed and put in Pay within foure dayes after 11. July 1642. The King sends to the Parliament to cause the Towne of Hull to bee delivered unto him and desires to have their answer by the 15. of that moneth and as then had used no force against it But the morrow after before that message could come unto them they resolve upon the Question That an Army shall bee forthwith raised for the defence of the Kings Person and both houses of Parliament and those who have obeyed their Orders and Commands in perserving the true Religion the Lawes Liberties and the Peace of the Kingdome and that they would live and dye with the Earle of Essex whom they nominate Generall in that Cause And 12. July 1642. Declare That they will protect all that shall be imployed in their assistance and Militia And 16. July 1642. Petition the King to forbeare any preparations or actions of Warre and to dismisse His extraordinary guards to come neerer to them and harken to their advice but before that Petition could bee answered wherein the King offered when the Towne of Hull should bee delivered to Him hee would no longer have an Army before it and should bee assured that the same pretence which tooke Hull from him may not put a Garrison into Newcastle into which after the Parliaments surprise of Hull Hee was inforced to place a Governour and a small Garrison Hee would also remove that Garrison and so as his Magazine and Navy might bee delivered
August 1642. being some dayes after the Earle of Bedsord had marched with great forces into the West that His Subjects might bee informed of His danger and repaire to His succour seteth up His Standard at Nottingham being a thing of a meere legall necessity if Hee would have any at all to come to help Him and not forfeit and surprise those that by tenure of their Lands or by reason of offices fee's or annuities enjoyed under Him were more immediately bound to assist Him And yet here Hee must weepe over Jerusalem and once again intreate the Parliament and His Rebellious Subjects to prevent their owne miseries and therefore sends the Earles of Southampton and Dorset to the Parliament to desire a Treaty offering to doe all on His owne part which might advance the Protestant Religion oppose Popery and Superstition and secure the Lawes and Liberties of his Subjects and just priviledges of Parliament Which after severall scornes put upon those noble Messengers as denying the Earle of Southampton to come and sit in the house of Peeres a right by birth and inheritance due unto him and causing the Serjeant at Armes of the house of Commons to goe before him with the Mace as they use to doe before Delinquents They refuse to accept of unlesse the King would first take downe his Standard and recall his Declarations and Proclamations against them To which the King the 5. Sept. 1642. notwithstanding the Earle of Bedford had with great forces in the meane time besieged the Marquis of Hartford in the Castle of Sherbâ—râ— in Dorset-shire replying That hee never did declare nor â—â—er intended to declare both his houses of Parliament to bee traytors or set up his Standard against them much lesse to put them and the Kingdome out of his protection And utterly protesting against it before God and the World offered to recall his Declarations and Proclamations with all cheerefullnesse the same day that they should revoke their Declarations against those had assisted him and desiring a Treaty and conjuring them to consider the bleeding condition of Ireland and the danger of England undertakes to bee ready to grant any thing shall bee really good for his Subjects which being brought by the Lord Falkland one of his Majesties Secretaries of State and a Member of the house of Commons and not long before in a very great esteeme with them all the respect could bee afforded him being to stand at the Barre of the house of Commons and deliver his Message unto them had only an answer in a printed Declaration of the Lords and Commons returned unto him That it was Ordered and Declared by the Lords and Commons in Parliament That the armes which they have beene forced to take up or shall bee forced to take up for the preservation of the Parliament Religion and the Lawes and Liberties of the Kingdome shall not bee laid downe untill his Majestie shall withdraw his protection from such Persons as have beene voted by both houses of Parliament to bee Delinquents or that shall by both houses of Parliament bee voted to bee Delinquents which after their mad way of voting might have beene himselfe his Queene or his Heire apparent and leave them to the Justice of Parliament according to their dâ—merites to the end that those great Charges and damages wherewithall the Common-wealth hath beene burdened since his Majestie departed from the Parliament might bee borne by the Delinquaâ—ts and other Malignant and dis-affected Persons and that those who by Loans of money or otherwise at their charges have assisted the Common-wealth or shall in lâ—â—e manner hereafter assist the Common-wealth in times of extreame danger and here they would also provide for future freinds and quarrells may bee re-paid all sums of money â—ent for those purposes and satisfied their charges susteyned out of the estates of the said Delinquents and of the Malignant and disaffected partie in this Kingdome And to make good their words 8. of September 1642. Before their answer could come unto the Kings hands Ordered certaine numbers of horse and foote to bee sent to Garrison and secure Oxford and the morrow after before the King could possibly reply unto it their Lord Generall the Earle of Essex marched out of London against Him with an Army of 20000. men horse and foot gallantly Armed and a great traine of Artillery to attend him notwithstanding all which and those huge impossibilities every day more and more appeared of obtaining a Peace with those were so much afraid to bee loosers by it as they never at all intended it The King must needs send one message more unto them to try if that might not give them some occasion to send Him gentler conditions and therefore 13. September 1642. Being the same day they had impeached the Lord Strange of high-treason for executing the Kings Commission of Array and Ordered the propositions for furnishing of horse plate and money to bee tendred from house to house in the Cities of London and Westminster and to bee sent into all the Shires and Counties of England to bee tendred for the same purpose and the names of the refusers to bee certified Mr. May one of the Pages to the King comes to the Lords house in Parliament with a message from Him bearing date but two dayes before That although Hee had used all wayes and meanes to prevent the present distractions and dangers of the Kingdome all His labours have beene fruitlesse that not so much as a treaty earnestly defired by Him can bee obtained though Hee disclaimed all His Proclamations and Declarations and the erecting of His Standard as against His Parliament unlesse Hee should denude Himselfe of all force to defend Him from a visible strength marching against Him That now Hee had nothing left in His power but to expresse the deepe sence Hee had of the publique misery of the Kingdome and to apply Himselfe to a necessary defence wherein Hee wholy relied upon the providence of God and the affection of His good People and was so far from putting them out of His protection as when the Parliament should desire a treaty Hee would piously remember whose blood is to bee spilt in this quarrell and cheerefully embrace it But this must also leave them as it found them in their ungodly purposes for the morrow after being the 14. day of September 1642. Mr. Hampden one of the 5. Members by this time a Collenell of the Army brings letters to the house of Commons from the Parliaments Lord Generall that hee was at Northampton in a very good posture and that great numbers of the Countreys thereabouts came in dayly unto him and offered to march under him and that so soone as all his forces that are about London shall come unto him which hee desires may bee hastened hee intended to advance towards His Majesty and it was the same day voted That all things sealed by the Kings Seale since it was carried away by the
hee went out of the field sent Sir William Le-neve Clarenciâ—ux King of Armes to Warwick whither the Earle of Essex was fled with a Proclamation of pardon to all that would lay downe armes which though they scornefully received and the Herald threatned to bee hanged if hee did not depart the sooner cannot perswade him from sending a Declaration or Message to the Parliament to offer them all that could bee requested by Subjâ—cts but all the use they made of it was to make the Citty of London beleeve they were in greater danger then ever if they lent them not more moneyes and recruited the Earle of Essex his broken Army and to cosen and put the People on the more to seeke their owne misery a day of thanks giving was publiquely kept for the great Victory obtained against the Kâ—ng And Stephen Marshall a Factious bloody minister though hee confessed hee was so carried on in the crowde of those that fled from the battell as hee knew not where hee was till hee came to a Marâ—et Towne which was some miles from Edge-hill where the Battell was fought preaches to the people too little beleeving the Word of God and too much beleeving him That to his knowledge there was not above 200. men lost on the Parliaments side that hee picked up bullets in his black Velvet cap and that a very small supply would now serve to reduce the King and bring him to his Parliament And here yee may see Janus Temple wide open though the doores of it were not lift off the hinges or broken open at once but pickt open by those either knew not the misery of the War or knowing it will prove to be the more guilty promoters of it That we may the better therfore find out though the matter of Fact already represented may bee evidence enough of it selfe who it was that let cut the fury and rage of Warre upon us we shall consider CHAP. III. Whether a Prince or other Magistrate labouring to suppresse or punish a Rebellion of the People bee tyed to those rules are necessary for the justifying of a Warre if it were made betweene equalls VVArre was first brought in by necessitie where the determining of controversies betweene two strange Princes of Equâ—lâ— power could not bee had bâ—cause they have no superiour A Rebell therefore cannot properly bee called an enemy for Hostis nomen notat equalitatem and when any such armes are borne against Rebells it is not to bee called a Warre but an Exercise of Jurisdiction upon traterous and dis-loyall Persons at què est ratio manifesta saith Albericus Gentilis qui enim jure judex est superior non jure cogitur ad subeundas partes partis aequalis non est bellum cum latronibus praedonibus aut piratis quanquam magnâ—â— habeant excercitus provide nec ulla cum illis belli jura saith Besoldus The Romans who were so exact and curious in their publique denouncing of Warre and sending Ambassadors before they made Warre against any other Nation did not doe it in cases of Rebellion and defection and therefore Fidenatibus Campanis non denunciant Romani And Cicero that was of opinion that nullum bellum justum haberi videtur nisi nunciatum nisi indictum nisi repetitis rebus stood not upon those solemnities in the Cataline conspiracy for the rules of justifying a Warre against an enemy or equalls as demanding restitution denunciation and the like are not requisite in that of punishing of Rebells Pompey justifies the Warre maintayned by the Senate against Caesar not then their Soveraigne with neque enim vocari praelia justa decet c. Cicero did not think it convenient to send Ambassadors to Anthony nor intreat him by faire words but that it was meet to enforce him by armes to raise his siege from Mutina for hee said They had not to doe with Haniball an enemy to the Common-wealth but with a Rebellious Citizen The resisting of the Kings Authourity when the Sheriffe of a County goes with the posse Comitatus to execute it was never yet so much as called a Warre but Rebellion and Insurrection or Commotion were the best termes bestowed upon it such attempts are not called Warres but Robberies of which the Law taketh no other care of but to punish them The haste that all our Kings and Princes in England have made in suppressing Rebellions as that of the Barons Warres by Henry the 3. and his sending his sonne the Prince to besiege Warren Earle of Surrey in his Castle of Rygate for affronting the Kings Justices saying That hee would hold his Lands by the Sword That which Ri. 2. made to suppresse Wat. Tiler H. 6. Jack Cade H. 8. Ket and the Norfolk Rebells and Queene Eliz. to suppresse the Earles of Northnmberland and Westmerland may tell us that they understood it no otherwise then all the Kings and Magistrates of the World have ever practised it by the Lawes of England if Englishmen that are Traytors goe into France and confederate with Aliens or Frenchmen and come afterwards and make a Warre in England and bee taken prisoners the strangers may bee ransomed but not the English for they were the Kings Subjects and are to be reckoned as Traytors not strangers And the Parliaments owne advise to the King to suppresse the Irish Rebells that ploughed but with their owne Heyfer and pretended as they did to defend their Religion Lawes and Liberties and the opinion also of Mr. President Bradshaw as Sir John Owen called him in his late sentence given against the Earles of Cambridge Holland and Norwich Lord Capell and Sir John Owen whom hee mistakenly God and the Law knowes would make to bee the Subjects of their worser fellow Subjects may be enough to turne the question out of doores But lest all this should not bee thought sufficient to satisfie those can like nothing but what there is Scripture for wee shall a little turne over the leaves of that sacred Volume and see what is to bee found concerning this matter Moses who was the meekest Magistrate in the World and better acquainted with him that made the fifth Commandement then these that now pretend Revelations against it thought fit to suppresse the Rebellion of Corah Dathan and Abiram as soone as hee could and for no greater offence then a desire to bee coordinate with him procured them to be buried alive with all that appertained unto them When Absolom had Rebelled against his father David and it was told him That the hearts of the men of Israel were after him David a man after Gods owne heart without any Message of Peace or Declaration sent unto his deare sonne Absolom or offering halfe or any parte of his Kingdome to him sent three severall armies to pursue and give him battaile When Sheba the sonne of Bichri blew a Trumpet and said Wee have no part in David every man to his Tent ô Israel
a stranger to nature reason or understanding as to think the King should not fight as the Dictates of nature perswaded him to or that the King could tell how to fight against those that fought for him or that if hee should bee so hugely mistaken in that one yeare or Battell hee should bee in severall other yeares and Battells after To sight for the defence of the Religion established as they made also the People believe that was as needlesse when the King offered to doe every thing might help to promote it and they are so little also to bee credited in that pretence as wee know they did all they could from the beginning to ruine it tooke away Episcopacie the hedge and bounds of it brought in Presbitery to preach up and aid their Rebellion and when their owne turnes were served encouraged Conventicles and Tub-preachers to pull down the Presbitery And being demanded at the treaty at Vxbridge by the Kings Commissioners what Religion they would have the King to establish were so unprovided of an answer as they could not resolve what to nominate nor in any of their propositions afterwards sent to the King though often urged and complained of by the Scottish Commissioners could ever find the way to doe it but have now set up an Independent extemporary enthusiastick kinde of worshiping God if there were any such thing in it or rather a religious Chaos or gallimaufrey of all manner of heresies errours blasphemies and opinions put together not any of the owners of which wee can bee confident will subscribe to that opinion that warres may bee made for Religion or that Conscience ought to bee forced by it As for the restrictive part of the Lawes to keepe the People in subjection wee can very well perswade our selves no such Warre was ever made yet in the World nor any People ever found that would engage in a Warre for that they obeyed but against their wills And for that part of the Law that gives them the Kings protection priviledges immunities and certainties of deciding controversies which are more fitly to bee called the Liberties of the People then to have 45. of the house of Commons or a Faction to make daily and hourely Lawes and Religion and Government and vote their estates in and out to pay an Army to force their obedience to it if wee had not outlived the Parliaments disguises and pretences saw them now tearing them up by the roots that there may bee no hope of their growing up again and seting up their owne as well as the ignorant and illiterate fancies of Mechaniques and Souldiers in steede of them wee might have said that also had beene needlesse when the King had done aboundantly enough already and offered to grant any thing more could in reason bee demanded of him And as touching their priviledges of Parliament They that understand but any thing of the Lawes of England or have but looked into the Records and Journalls of Parliament can tell that all priviledges of Parliament as King James said were at first bestowed upon them by the Kings and Princes of this Kingdome That priviledges of Parliament extended not to Treason or Felony or breach of the Peace That 32. Hen. 6. Sir Thomas Thorpe Speaker of the house of Commons being arested in execution in the time of the prorogation of the Parliament the Commons demanded hee might bee set at liberty according to their priviledges whereupon the Judges being asked their Councell therein made answer that generall supersedeas of Parliament there were none but speciall supersedeas there was in which case of speciall supersedeas every member of the house of Commons ought to enjoy the same unlesse in cases of Treason Fellony or breach of the Peace or for a Condemnation before the Parliament After which answer it was determined that the said Sir Thomas Thorpe should ly in excution and the Commons were required on the behalfe of the King to choose a new Speaker which they did and presented to the King accordingly That Queene Elizabeth was assured by her Judges that shee might commit any of her Parliament during the Parliament for any offence committed against her Crowne and dignitie and they shewed her precedents for it and that primo tertio Caroli Regis upon search of precedents in the severall great cases of the Earles of Arundell and Bristoll very much insisted and stood upon the house of Peeres in Parliament allowed of the exception of Treason Fellony and breach of the Peace For indeede it is as impossible to think there can bee any priviledge to commit Treason as to think that a King should priviledge all his Nobility and every one of his Subjects that could get to be elected into the house of Commons in Parliament to commit Treason and to take away his life in the time of Parliament whensoever their revenge or malice or interest should find the oportunity to doe it or that if it could bee so any King or Prince would ever call or summon a Parliament to expose himselfe to such a latitude of danger or give them leave to sit as long as they would to breed it or that priviledges of Treason can bee consistent with the name or being of a Parliament to consult and advise with the King for the defence of him and his Kingdome or that when Felony and breach of Peace are excepted out of their priviledge Treason that is of a farre higher nature consequence and punishment should be allowed them or if there could have beene any such priviledge and a meaner man then their Soveraigne had broke it a small understanding may informe them they could not without breach of the Peace have fought for it against a fellow Subject and then also could not their priviledges have reached to it but the King might have punished them for it and if they cannot upon a breach of priviledge as it was adjudged in Halls case without the Kings writ and the cause first certified in Chancery deliver one of their owne servants arrested It is not likely any warrant can bee found in Law to inforce the King to reparation though hee himselfe should have broken it but to petition the King for an allowance of that or any other priviledge as well in the middle or any other time of their sitting in Parliament as they alwaies doe at the presenting of their Speaker in the beginning of it Wherefore certainly the People never gave the Parliament Commission if they could have given a Commission to make a Warre against their Soveraigne to claime that was never due to them or to fight for that was never yet fought for by any of their forefathers nor ever understood to bee taken from them much lesse for their ayrie innovated pretences rather than priviledges which have since eaten up all the Peoples Lawes and Liberties as well as a good parte of their lives and estates with it and are now become to bee every thing their
for want of the sustenance they had taken from them Husbandmen had their corne and hay spoiled in the field and the barne their sheep cattel and provisions devoured houses ruined or burnt and their horses thay should help to plough and doe other workes of Husbandry taken away in so much as some were inforced to blinde and put out their horses eyes that they might not bee taken from them Churches that escaped defacing prophaned and made Stables or Goales or Victualing or Bawdy houses Monuments defaced and Sepulchers opened as were those of the Saxon Kings at Winchester and the Priests and Ministers not so much as sustered to weepe betwixt the Porch and the Altar but their benefices and livelyhood taken from them by Wolues put in the Shephards places had their bookes burned and all their meanes and maintenance plundred from them and those that were newtralls and medled on neither side but lived as quietly as they could either totally undone or cast in prison not for that they did them any hurt but because they might doe it and if they were not imprisoned their Lands money or goods were sure to bee in the fault and taken away from them Vt bellum illaesa conscientia geratur necesse est ut adsâ—t intentio bona there ought to bee a good intention to make the Warre conscionable which in this appeares to faile also For the Charge against the five Members is now as true as it was then they meant to ruine the King and they have don it and to alter the Government subvert the Religion Lawes and Liberties of the Kingdom and they have don a great part of it and as fast as they can are pulling down the remainder Quaerere debemus victoriam rationibus honestis ne salutem quidem turpibus Wee ought to pursue victory and the just ends of Warre by honest and Lawfull meanes and not to doe foule and dishonest things to procure our safety from the latter of which the made feares and jealousies which the Parliament made use of to usher in their pretences their fayning of victories and scandaling the King and his actions not to insist upon their buying the Kings servants and secrets Battells Townes and Garrisons and making too many Judases of all that were about him will hardly bee able to free them or if they could the making use of men and money intended for the support of Ireland and leaving them wallowing in their blood for seven years together whilest they were ruining their King that would have helped them violating of their oathes of allegiance and Supremacy which many of their members had taken six or seaven times over breaking their oathes taken in their protestation and Nationall Covenant and not so few as 100 solemne promises and undertakings in their severall Petitions Remonstrances and Declarations forcing the People to take the Protestation and Covenant and compell them as soone as they had taken it to breake them and by cosening and forcing them into Rebellions and perjuries cheate them out of their Religion Loyaltie Lawes and Liberties will without very good advocates bee sure enough to condemne them and if the great Turke carrying the Covenant which Ladislaus the unfortunate King of Hungary was perswaded to breake with him as an ensigne of publique detestation in the bettell wherein hee slew him invoked the God of the Christians to help him to revenge so grrat a treachery there will bee more reason now for all that are but Christians or but pretende to any morality to carry in their banner the pourtract of the Kings bleeding head as it was cut from his shoulders and make Warre in revenge of the maisterpiecee and totum aggregatum of all manner of wickednesle and perfidiousnesse who besides all their owne and the Peoples oaths taken to defend him when those they called Delinquents some few onely which were specially named and excepted for obeying the knowne Lawes of the Land as well as their oaths and Consciences were never questioned for their lives but suffered to compound for their estates would not suffer the King that was neither a Delinquent or Excepted Person to enjoy either his Life or Estate though to save his people and keepe them from killing one another hee yeilded himselfe and became a Prisoner upon the publique faith of the Kingdomes of England and Scotland Paxaequa non est recusanda Licet victoriae spes adsit saith Besoldus A good or fitting Peace is not to bee refused though the victory were certaine And in this also the Parliament will bee as farre to seeke for a justification as in the other For instead of offering any thing which was likely to bring it they caused men and women in the first yeare of their Warre to bee killed because they did but petition them to accept of a Peace and in the third and fourth yeare of their War plundred robbed others that petitioned them but to hearken to it and put out of office and made all as Delinquents in the seventh yeare of their War that did but petition them for a Treaty with the King and refused all the Kings many very many Messages for Peace not only when hee was at the highest of his successe in the war but when hee was at the lowest and a Prisoner to them and conjured them as they would answer at the dreadfull day of Judgement to pitty the bleeding conditions of his Kingdomes and People and send propositions of Peace unto him quarters and halfe yeares and more then a whole yeare together after the battell of Naseby insomuch as their fellow Rebells the Scotch Commissioners did heavily complaine of it were at severall times trifled away and spent before any propositions could bee made ready though those which they sent to Oxford Vxbridge Newcastle and Hampton-Court were but substantially and materially the same with their nineteâ—ne Propositions which they made unto the King before the Earle of Essex was made their Generall and in all the Treaties made Propositions for themselves and the Soveraignty and great offices and places of the Kingdome but would neither for Gods sake or their Kings sake or their Oathes or Consciences sake or the Peoples sake or Peace sake which the People petitioned and hungred and thirsted for alter or abate one Ioâ—a or tâ—ttle of them but were so unwilling to have any peace at all as 6 or 7 Messengers or Trumpeters could com from the King before they could be at leisure or so mannerly as to answer one of them but this or that Message from the King was received and read and laid by till a weeke or when they would after and the Kings Commissioners in the Treaties must forget their due titles of Earles Lords or Knights because the King had made them so since the beginning of the Warre or else must bee neither Treaty nor Peace there At Vxbridge the time of the Treaty limited for 20. dayes and at Newcastle for 10. and though the King
and his Commissioners at Vxbridge almost petitioned for a cessation in the interim of that Treaty as they had done before in that which was at Oxford it could not be granted nor have a few daies added to it if the King could in honor Conscience have granted all the other parts of the propositions must grant them an act not only to confiscate the Estates of his Friends and those that took armes to save his Life and Estate but to take away their Lives also and not only that but to condemne them of high Treason and attaint their blood when they fought against them were only guiltie of it a thing so unfitting and unusually stood upon as it was never asked in any treaty or pacification among the civilized or more barbarous heathen and amounts to more then Adonibezeks causing the thumbs and great toes of his captive Kings to bee cut off and making them to gather the crumbes from under his table or Benhadads demande of Ahabs silver and gold his wives and Children and whatsoever else was pleasant in his eyes which the elders and People of Israel perswaded Ahab not to consent unto but was a thing purposely contrived and stood upon to hinder a Peace was not to bee asked or granted by any that could but entitle themselves to the least part of reason or humanity a demand Bajazet would not leave his Iron cage to yeild unto a thing nature it selfe would abhorre and the worst of Villaines and reprobates rather loose their lives then yeild to would never bee demanded by any but a Devill nor granted by any but his Equalls And if their desiring of a war more then a peace and to keepe the King out of his owne had not beene the only cause of such unnaturall and barbarous propositions it may well bee wondred why they that have made to themselves for wee cannot beleive they have found any law or warrant to ground it upon a power to take away the Kings life upon a colour or pretence of an unread as well as unheard of peece of Justice should need to strive so hard with the King to give them a power to doe that they are now so busie to doe of themselves and as if they had beene afraid all this would not bee enough to keepe the doores of Janus or the Devill open for feare lest the King should trouble them with any more offers or Messages for peace a vote must bee made in February 1647. that it should be treason in any man to bring or receive any more Messages from him without consent of Parliament But suppose that which is not that the Parliament could have but found any thing but somewhat like a cause or justification of a war against their Soveraign for notwithstanding all their hypocriticall pretences so it was at first intended and so it hath proved to bee ever since to whom their Masters the People wee meane as to the house of Commons had sent them to consult with not to make a Warre against him they might have remembred that saying of Cicero if they had found nothing in the booke of God and their owne Consciences to perswade them to it That duo sunt genera decertandi unum per disceptationem alterum per vim ad hoc confugiendum non est si uti superiori licebit There are other waies to come by pretended rights then by a Warre and wee ought never to make use of a Warre which is the worst of all remedies if wee may obtaine it by a better Hen. 2. King of England was made a Judge betwixt the Kings of Castile and Navarre The Rebellious Barons of England in the raigne of King Hen. 3. referred their controversies to the decision of the king of France and his Parliament at Paris And the blood of this kingdom which ran so plentifully in those unhappy differences was by that meanes only stopped Charles the 4. Emperor was made a Judge of the differences betwixt the English and the French Kings For as Albericus Gentilis saith well Intelligendum eos qui diffugiunt genus hoc decertandi per desceptationem ad alterum quod est per vim currunt illco eos a justitia ab humanitate a probis exemplis refugere et ruere in arma volentes qui subire judicium nullius velint They that rush into a Warre without assaying all other just meanes of deciding the controversie for which it is made and will judge only according to their owne will and opinion doe turne their backs to Justice Humanity and all good Examples And in that also the Parliament will bee found faulty For the French King and the Estates of the united Provinces did by more then one request and embassy severally and earnestly mediate to make an accord betwixt the King and his Parliament and desired to have all things in defference left to their arbitrement but their Ambassadors returned home again with a report how much they found the King inclined to it and how satisfactorily hee had offered and how much the Parliament was averse to their interposition and altogether refused it But wee have tarried long enough among the Parliament partie from thence therefore for it is time to leave the companie of so much wickednesse wee shall remove to the Kings partie and yet that may cause a Sequestration and examine for a fuller satisfaction of that which by the rule of contraries is cleere enough alreadie if hee were not on the defensive and more justifiable part of the businesse The King as hee was defensor et protector subditorum suorum and sworne to see the Law executed had not the sword nor his authority Commited to him in vaine And if hee had had no manner of just cause of feare either in his owne Person or authoritie or no cause given him in relaesae Majestatis the imprisoning of his Subjects and plundring and taking away their estates from them long before he had either armed himselfe or had wherewithall to doe it had beene cause as sufficient as to cause a Hue and Cry to be made after a fellon or raise the posse Commitatus to bring him to Justice and might by the same reason doe it in the case of more and by the same reason hee might doe it by the help of one nothing can hinder but by the same reason hee might doe it by the help of more When Nathan came to David with a parable and told him of the rich man that had taken the poore mans only Sheepe hee that understood well enough the dutie of a King was exceeding wroth against the man and said As sure as the Lord liveth this man shall surely dye And can any man think that the King when hee saw so much Sedition and Treason among the People countenanced and cherished Tumults grow up into outrages outrages to parties and Warlike assemblies proposiâ—ions made to bring in Horse and Money to
that witheld it from his obedience and sought to ruine and undoe Him aswell as his Loyall Subjects he had not fought with them afterwards at Newbery had not his Olive branches been flung in the fire by those he sent them unto hee had not beene put to defend himselfe at Cropredy-bridg Had any thing beene able to prevaile with the Parliament to pitty their fellow Subjects hee had not taken such a tedious and dangerous march to relieve those they would have ruined at Bodmin in Cornwall Had the Treaty at Vxbridge taken effect hee needed not afterwards have adventured so much to defend himselfe at Newbery Had not the newmodel'd Army after so many tenders of Peace refused by their masters been sent out to destroy him hee had not beene put to the trouble of taking Lecester for his security And had not hee beene surrounded and almost surprised by them might have reserved himselfe to a better successe and advantage then hee had at Naseby Had his voluntary resigning up of the remainder of his Armies and Garrisons beene able to perswade any thing with them there had not beene so much as a relique of Warre left in the Kingdome or could so many messages for Peace and so many Petitions of the people for it have made but any impression on the Parliament so many divisions parties and insurrections had not since broken the Harpes of the Children of Israel noâ— should the drums have out gone the voice of the Turtle Hee that could not bring himselfe to the common actions of Warre to hang a Spie in so much as when one of them was hanged before hee was told hee was taken hee was intreating the Governour of Oxford to spare him Hee that when he had John Lilborne one of the most factions that were against him Wingate and Daâ—ley Parliament men Collonell Ludlow an actor of that Treason his father had not long before spoken against him and Dr. Bastwick one of the bellowes and principall factours of this horrid Rebellion did no more then imprison some of them and giving the rest a legall Tryall shewed them what the Law they made silly People beleive they tooke up armes to maintain would judg of them suffered them to be exchanged to doe what they could afterwards against him Hee that when hee had taken 400. prentise-boyes in the fight at Brainford did but dismisse and pitty them when he had compelled the E. of Essex the Parliament General at Lestiâ—hiel in Cornwall to fly away by Sea in a Cock-boat and leave all the Artillery and foot of his Army to his mercy did no more but disarme them and take an oath of them never more to serve against him and being then in the height of his prosperity sent a Message and offer of peace to the Parliament who were low enough at that time if their designes would have given them leave to have received it Hee that could say hee should bee more afraid to take away any mans life unjustly then to loose his owne was not likely to bee guilty of blood seeking or the sheding of it Hee that had experience enough how much his Life and Crowne were sought for yet to shew them the way to peace and to take off all pretences to hinder it could Sheath his owne Sword and put himselfe into the hands of those hee had so little reason to trust as hee knew them to bee the great contrivers of the Warre against him caused the Marquesse of Montrosse one of his mightie men of war to disband when hee was master of a strong and not long before fortunate Army in Scotland commanded Newarke Oxford Wallingford and Worcester very strong and almost impregnable Townes and Garrisons in England to be delivered up and all acts of hostility by Sea Land and all the preparations his friends could make eyther in forraigne parts or at home to cease Hee that could indure five yeares Ballading Libelling and Preaching against him and such heapes of numberlesse affronts and injuries of all kindes done unto him and two years imprisonment afterwards yet so long as he enjoy'd but the libertie of Pen Inke or a Messenger to carry it did so tire them with Messages offers of Peace as they voted it to be Treason for any to bring any message from him and notwithstanding all that made shift to throw a message or declaration to his people made up like a ball out of the place of his close Imprisonment at Carisbrook was not like to desire the lengthening that war he did all hee could to avoid offered so much to make an end of but on the contrary if we take into our consideration the more then Gothish unheard of inhumane cruelties acted and done by the Parliament against their better fellow Subjects their Plundrings Sequestrations and racking of every mans estate they pleased to call Delinquents severities in all their actions standing upon every punctilio or word or superscription of a Letter not abating a tittle of their demands as if they had been the Decalogue or some other place of Scripture though rivolets of blood hundred thousands of ruined families and thronged Hospitalls of sick and wounded men Widowes and Fatherlesse cried aloud to them for Peace and their killing and murthering those that but petitioned for it and a foundation laid of a new Warre may last as long as that of the Netherlands and Germany There will bee enough and enough again to insure us of this most cleere and evident truth the King did all hee could and more then any man else would have done to obtaine Peace and the Faction or Parliament all they could to avoid it for certainly if there bee any rules of Learning Truth or Reason left us to judge by hee must bee sequestred of all his braines that can but endeavour to make a doubt whether the King did not more resemble the true mother of the Child in the case before Salomon who did so much and offered to part with so much to save the life of it then the Parliament that would have it more then devided and to bee cut and torne all to bits and peeces and would doe nothing at all to save but every thing to destroy it And now wee have seene a King undone and imprisoned for his endeavours to protect his People and bring againe beloved Peace to those that would not entertaine it and heard the report of his murther for most of the Peoples eyes have not seene it nor have their hearts acted in it wee shall as most men doe after they have lost a good offer or opportunity enquire CHAP. VIII Whether the Conditions offered by the King would not have beene more profitable if they had beene accepted and what the People have got instead of them IN Order to which though so woefull and over-and-over-â—itterly-Tasted Seene Felt Heard and Vnderstood-Experiences of the miseries have come unto us by the Parliaments not accepting the gracious offers and
every one that will intrude upon it all that is in the Law concerning our Lives Estates Liberties and Religion made voide and dependant upon their Arbitrary Independent power all that is in the Law concerning Navigation the Kings protection of his people certainty of Customes Trade and entercourse leagues and correspondencies with Forraigne Princes expired or anihilated and all that our forefathers have obtained by way of Lawes and Settlement and certainty of Estate are now at dispose of our vote-mongers who insteede of a most Pious and gracious King governing by knowne Lawes have set us up 43. or 50. Kings and ten times as many more Knaves and Fooles who will govern by no Law but such as they shall call Lawes and make themselves can bee accusers witnesses and Judges at one and the same time and if neede bee condemne and take away mens Estates first and try them after two or three yeares Petitioning for it a bondage and slavery in the generall more then ever any of our ancestours tasted of For the Romans whose Justice and moralitie at home and vertue and temperance abroad made them free enough from Tyrany did but make them as Tributaries The Picts made but temporary incursions and a wall could bee made against them The Saxons and Danes brought us good Lawes and Willians the Conquerour was conterted to restore them And all that succeeded him since understood a government by Lawes to be their own as well as the Peoples security but this which they have now brought upon us and would keepe us under is a misery beyond that was suffered under the 30. Tirants of Athens Spartan Ephori or Romes Deceâ—â—virat for there were something of Lawes and Rules to governe by The Children of Israel in the Egyptian slâ—very had a property in their goods and cattell and were at liberty to serve a better God then that of their masters and though they had their burdens doubled upon them were not kill'd imprisoned or fequestred for Petitioning against the sense of Phareah The Jewes in Captivitie had so much libertie of Conscience allowed to them as to play upon their Harps and sing the Songs of Syon in a strange Land The frozen Russians though so dull and ignorant as when they are asked any matter of State or difficultie make answer God and the great Duke knoweth breath not under so arbitrarie and lawlesse a government The Grecians had not their Lawes Religion Liberties as wee have all at once taken from them nor oâ—n the sufferings of them or any other vassals of the Ottoman port or those that live under the Crim Taertar equall the one â—alie of our English Slavery Into which we had never fallen or come at all or so long groned under had wee but served God and the King as wee ought to have done and not wrested the sence as well as the plaine words of the Scripture and the Laws of the Land to enable the sonnes of Zerviah to bee too hard for us and bring all manner of mischiefe confusion and wickednes upon us more then Romes and Constantinoples Antichrist ever brought upon a People from which the King had delivered us if we had not Cursed Reviled Prayed Contributed Fought against him for endeavoring to Protect us How gracious then was hee who endured the heate of the day and cold of the night to preserve a great deale more for us then Nabals Sheepe could amount unto yet being worse used then ever David was for it could not tell how so much as to threaten to doe that which David had so great a mind to doe but fought as long as hee could to protect them would not so much as defend themselves but did all they could to raine those that defended him And how much was hee beyond Codrus the Athenian King the Romane Curtius or Decij if all that the Ancients wrote of them were true who sacrificed themselves but not their Estates and Posterity to preserve the Publique and how good beyond example or the Credit of any history who made himselfe a Martyr for his peoples Lives and Liberties endured so many deaths and suffered more indignities then all the Kings of England put together have ever endured to preserve a people have for a great part of them either by Rebellion or an accursed Newtrality helped to ruine him and when hee knew whatsoever Conditions or Propositions hee should bee forced to yield unto would by the Law of God as well as the Civill and Common Law the Lawes of Nature and Nations and the dictates of every common mans reason and apprehention have beene void in the very making of them and could not have reached to his posterity and that if hee would but have surrendred up his people and gone along with their new masters in their Arbitrary and Tyrannicall government as some of his last words upon the Scaffold plainly intimate and sided with 20. or 30. of the Faction and delivered up the Sheepe to the Wolves hee might no doubt have had a good part of the Fleece to his owne share or but with Sampson have pleased himselfe with revenge and delivered up a people to Slavery were at so muâ—h expence of Treasure and Blood and their owne Soules to bring their Soveraigne to it might have worne the title of a King and played the wanton with Sardanapalus in the company and delight of women pleased his pallate with Vitellius his pride if hee had any with Bassianus his crueltie if hee could ever have beene guilty of it with Commodus and with Childerick the lazie King of France in a Chariot deck't with garlands whilst others governed for him beene at certaine times of the yeare only exhibited to the People and like the Minotaure of Creete wallowed in the laberinth of Parliament priviledges and devoured his people did notwithstanding refuse to doe any thing might help himselfe either to purchase his owne quiet or so great a Libertie and would neither for any good might come to himselfe or any evill might bee cast upon him and his posterity bee perswaded or threatned from the protection of his People who if hee had not taken more care for them then they did for themselves must if hee had yeilded to all the Parliament propositions for then they might have imagined mischiefe by a Law have from time to time beene engaged in any Warre their task-masters had a mind to put them upon must have beene excised plundred sequestred ruined and undone sworne and forsworne constrayned to sweare to do a thing to day and the next day sweare not at all to doe it The sonne set to kill his Father and brothers forced to fight one against another and have all their holydayes turned to thanks-giving dayes that they are undone or fasting dayes that they may bee undone soone enough And if at any time that thing they call a Parliament should think it fit to make a directory to the Alchoran and to order every man to turne
Turk and the King as their Henry Scobell or Towne Clearke but subscribe it their Spirituall as well as their Temporall Estate and their Soules as well as their Bodies must bee voted and forced to it And now let the People that have tasted too much of such a kind of happinesse and are like to continue in it as long as their misery-makers can by any help of the Devill or his angells hold them to it consider whether they or their forefathers though some have thought themselves to have wit enough to adventure to call them fooles were the wiser whether they that setled the government and were contented with it or they that pulled it in peeces and whether the tearing up of the fundamentall Lawes of Monarchy Peerage Parliament and Magna Charta even since the day the King was murthered for defending of them which every one but themselves desired to uphold bee not enough besides the Scottish combination and the plots to ruine Monarchy and the King and his posterity before the five Members and Kimbolton had so farâ—â— engaged themselves in it to informe them if nothing else had beene demonstrated unto them That the King did all hee could to preserve the Lawes Religion and Liberties of the People which diverâ— peeces of his coyne will help to perpetuate the truth as well as the memory of and the parliament all they could to destroy them And that as hee actually endeavoured to defend them so have they as actually undone and destroyed them And let the greatest search of history can bee made or time it selfe bee Judge if ever any warre was more made in the defensive or upon juster grounds or greater necessities or if ever any King before fought for the Liberties of those hee was to governe and for Lawes to restraine himselfe withall or if it were possible for him to suffer so much in any mans opinion as to have it thought to bee unlawfull or that he was a murtherer of his people for seeking to protect them How shall any King or Majestrate bee able to beare or use the Sword when they themselves shall bee in continuall danger to bee beaten with it King Edward the 2. of England was not murthered for the blood that was shed in the Barrons Warres though some of them had drawne their swords but in performance of his fathers will to take away his favorite Gavestson from him King Rich. 2. in those many dâ—vised Articles charged against him was not deposed for the blood was shed in Wat Tilers Commotion nor Hen. 6. publiquely accused for that of Jack Cades Rebellion and the most bloody differences of the White and Red-Roses nor Queene Elizabeth for all that was spilt in reducing Ireland when her favorite the Earle of Essex made it to bee the more by his practises with Tyrone nor for the blood of Hacket who pretended to bee Christ nor of Penry and other Sectaries lesser Incendiaries then Burton Prynnâ— and Bastwick for disturbing the Common-Wealth the great Henry of France was not endeavoured by his Catholick Subjects to be brought to triall for sheding so much of their Blood to reduce them to his obedience nor by his Protestant Subjects after hee was turned Catholique for spending so much of their blood to another purpose then they intended it Nor have the stout harted Germans though many of them great and almost free Princes in their late peace and accord made betwixt the Swedes and the Emperour thought it any way reasonable or necessary to demand reparation for those millions of men Women and Children houses and Estates were ruined and spoyled by a 30. yeares warre to reduce the Behemians and Prince Elector Palatine to their obedience For what rules or bounds shall bee put to every mans particular fancy or corrupted interest if they shall bee at Libertie to question and call to account the authority God hath placed over them Shall the sonne condemne or punish the father for his owne disobedience the Wife her Husband for her owne act of Adultery or the Servant the Master for his owne unfaithfullnesse or can there bee any thing in the Reason or understanding of man to perswade him to think the King was justly accused for the shedding of his Subjects blood which the accusers themselves were only guilty of And Bradshaw himselfe like the Jewes high Priest confessing a truth against his will in the words he gave insteed of reason for murthering the King against the will and good liking of 9. parts in every 10. of the Commons of England could make his Masters that call themselves the Parliament of England to bee no better then the Tribum plebis of Rome and the Ephori of Sparta the former of which for manifold mischiefes and inconveniences were abrogated and laid aside and never more thought fit to bee used and the latter not being halfe so bad as our new State Gipsies killed and made away to restore the People againe to their Liberties But the opinion and Judgement of the Learned Lord Chiefe Justice Popham who then little thought his grand-child Collonell Popham should joyne with those that sate with their Hats on their heads and directed the murther of their Soveraigne and if hee were now living would sure enough have hanged him for it and those other learned Judges in the case and Tryall of the Earle of Essex in the Raigne of Queene Elizabeth That an intent to hurt the Soveraigne Prince as well as the Act of it was Treason And that the Lawes of England doe interpret every act of Rebellion or Treason to aime at the death or deposing the Prince For that Rebels by their good will never suffer that King or Prince to live or Raigne that understands their purposes and may revenge them agreeable to that of the Civill Law That they that goe about to give Lawe to their Prince will never suffer him to recover Authority to punish it is now written in the blood of the King and those many iterated complaints of the King in severall of his Declarations published to the People in the mid'st of the Parliaments greatest pretences and promises that they intended to take away his life and ruine him are now gone beyond suspicion and every man may now know the meaning of their Cannoneeres levelling at the King with perspective glasses at Copredy bridge the acquitting of Pym the â—nnâ—keeper who said hee would wash his hands in the Kings Heart Blood stifling of 15. or 1â— severall indictments for treasonable words and Rolfe rewarded for his purpose to kill him and the prosecutor chequed and some of them imprisoned for it For the Sunne in the Firmament and the foure great quarters of the Earth and the Shapes and Lineaments of man are not so universally knowne seene or spoken of as this will bee most certaine to the present as well as after ages The end hath now verified the beginning and Quoâ— primum fuit in intentione ultimo loco agitur Seaven yeares