already in derision The Cause Secondly In that a forraign Enemy upon a total devastation of this Realm without which the King cannot probably prevail will be induced to believe and accordingly make use of it that it hath happened through the soft and tender breeding of the English their unfitnesse to endure the hardship of a War and so invade and by degrees implant this Kingdom And what a Forraigner implanted here his Demeanour may prove towards our King not naturally their liege Lord every good English Subject will fear the worst when as especially this Kingdom must be kept as NAPLES by a Sir VValter Raughleigh in his Dialogue betwixt a Councellor of state and a Iustice of peace Garison of another Nation so that the King shall be enforced as former Kings have been to compound with Rogues and Rebels yea to pardon them thereby Himself the whole Nobility yea the State of Monarchy to fall together To state the differences of Forces on either part when the quarrel first began the Parliament had far the greater * The number of the Friends and Adversaries unto either part are calculated and their several Forts discerned about the middle of this Book and which part was in probability like to finde the greater opposition the King or the Parliament as matters were then in being in which it will appear that the Parliament had the more Enemies or their Enemies the more Friends number the King having but few yet more then the Parliament had Towns of Fort as his party have Calculated and hyperbolically reported otherwise most mens hearts being bent to defend their Rights and Liberties which they thought were of late encroached upon and indeed the Off-spring of this Quarrel and the Parliaments Friends believing the Justice of that Court and of their Cause in a carelesse way of affording Ayd threw all upon the chance of War without using the ordinary means concurrent to their defence not foreseeing what would be the end and mischief of their backwardness and neglect to be repented of not remedied They were willing enough to have redresse for their late-past grievances to have the work done and the Parliament speed well at their Neighbours charge so themselves be saved harmlesse but to lay out money and purchase the name of a Rebel in case the Kings party should prevail was both a chargeable and double Crime Then their unwillingnesse to be exposed to the hardship of a War to which they were altogether unaccustomed believing in the goodnesse and sufficiency of their Cause to have it made good in an extraordinary way by Miracles without laying to their assisting hand so casting the whole burden upon God and his Omnipotency did wish well and pray peradventure for the Parliaments Successe For now every short enjoyment of their quiet every small respite from the Enemies cruelty although the next bordering Counties unto them be infested round about with their cruelty makes these men apprehend that the War is ended because their Coast is for the present clear and they feel no instant smart It is true Gods Providence is in all things to be observed it is as his Omnipotency Infinite and Superintendent to every Creature No one hair falls from a mans head nor a Sparrow from the house top without his Providence The same Almighty power which could rescue his three Servants out of the fiery Furnace and provide strength of the mouthes of Infant Babes is able but whether he will or not his works being unsearchable and his ways past finding out give successe according to the peoples wishing without the ordinary means to be used by Instruments that is left to his secret and determinate Councel There is a time for War and a time for Peace the Lord is a man of War his Name is JEHOVAH and Fighting in a qualified sence as Praying is a duty DAVID blessed God for teaching his hands to War c. And Prayer is a Christians a contrite and good mans Arms. Had we in Unity and Humblenesse of Spirit in the Power without the Form of Godlinesse besought Almighty God to be delivered from Famine Battel Murder and from Sudden death as the Church directs These Calamities had not in likelihood come nigh which threaten now to come upon us like an Armed man Beseeching God by Prayer might peradventure be the Peoples sacrifice alone neglecting otherwise their own endeavors and carelesly trusting if at all upon God his Providence they think sufficient which is confest In which they may alike consider That if the Kings party shall prevail or the whole Land be consumed and reduced even to a handful It is all within the compasse of Gods power The Lot is cast but the disposing is of the Lord And certainly that side which useth the best and most concurrent means to his dispose the Justice of the Cause is challenged by either party is likely to have the upper hand Praying and relying on the Almighty goodness seldom fails the Petitioner God ever giving what he prayeth for what suffices or what is better then he asks but the means must be added to the prayer Qui ordinat finem ordinat etiam media tendentia ad finem Moses at the coming of the Amalakites besought the Lord by prayer yet commanded Joshua to choose out men to fight with Amalck God is in all things the first Mover by whom we move and have our being he the Super-eminent and first cause yet working by subservient and second means we are his People and Members of his Church Militant against which the Gates of Hell shall not prevail In the Creation his own glory was the effect of his chief care manifested unto us his Creatures his next affording us all necessaries for our support and good he looks to be sought unto and trusted upon in that course of obedience which he hath ordained in conveying that unto us which we look for at his hands otherwise he is rather slighted then trusted on Had the people been so liberal in Contributing to to their own Defence so provident to have foreseen that within one year after their improvidence they should have been thus opprest in the progress of one year more undone they would questionlesse have been more liberal and concurred more cheerfully in Contributing to their own Assistance For within a few Moneths after the War began many in the Kingdom fell off from the Parliament and under fear and the notion of being reputed Rebels thought it made against their present safety to wish well to the Parliament a Court scarce known in the Countrey and discontinued in the Kingdom much more to fight for it And hearing of divers invective Threats and Menaces to that purpose as if their Endeavors for the Parliament did make against the King and so resemble a Rebellion thought it altogether unsafe to adhere to the Parliament So the Kings strength increasing through the fear and revolt of many formerly engaged to the other part he gained
the equal strength in the one for the King and Parliament with the other for the King against the Parliament both sides equal in degree and worth The odds only in that those for the King and Parliament contend not peradventure in so temporary seeming and immediate a way of Service as those for the King against the Parliament in their impetuous and inconsiderate heat amongst their own party best accepted as having at first sight a more seeming test of Loyalty more dreadful to the advers part as being the more full of cruelty Those for the King would not be thought Adversaries to a Parliament in a direct and immediate opposition to that Court for all seem to reverence the Law and the Law makers but consequently and forseeingly what course the Parliament did take to suppresse Abuses and Exorbitances in the Common-wealth which haply those advers persons might be guilty of The Adversaries to which Court are branched into several sorts the Verses found at their first fitting declaring what Members were competent alone for imployment in the Parliament glanced at many of those who were likely to prove advers thereunto No Church-Papist no Court Atheist No Fen Dreyner nor Lords Reteiner No man commended from the Lawn Sleeve Nor Ship-money collecting Sheriff out of which some chosen have approved themselves firm Friends and Patriots to their Countrey Besides these recited in these Rimes are First Obnoxious and guilty persons corrupt in place and Office therefore troubled to be overlook'd by a Superior power who might examine their Demeanors Amongst which numbers some not from the first or habitually offending but for some later and particular act of Inconstancy having erred persist therein in forsaking the trust in them reposed 2. Others of ambitious and aspiring thoughts or of a proud conciet or envy scorning to partake with others their Equals in opinion thinking withall that it smels too much of the Yeoman of a Peasant and vulgar quality to take part with or serve their Countrey 3. Some through Levity and Humor of a crosse and advers condition affecting Paradoxes venting thence the strength of their own wit and boldly descanting on the Court of Parliament their actions as if the more Honorable that Court is the more fit a Combitant for their great wits to foyn and fence with 4. Others from an ill will and disaffection to some person of the Parliaments side which the disaffected hope may prove Rebellion in such person have therefore adhered to the King against the Parliament 5. Others not much differing from these who seeing their immediate Ancestor Father Brother or some other unto whom they are next in Remainder or near in Blood to have assisted the King and Parliament therefore in danger to be questioned and knowing it to be in the King to Punish and Reward hoping for Reversion of such Estate upon their Ancestors Attainder have therefore assisted the King against the Parliament 6. Others of the like mould dividing as it were by contract and suiting their affections as the father to the one the son to the other side so the one is to be a saver by the bargain let the victory fall out which way it will This is the easiest and uncertainest way of Policy if there be any who practice it if I had said the worst way to it had been no wrong done to the Contractors because the War hath been by no means so much protracted as by the Collateral interests Conscience and Judgement being excluded 7. Others who having lived in Forraign Countries of a more free and absolute Government then this mixt Monarchy is deeming all manner of obedience due in whatsoever a King commands because it hath been paid to the King where these persons have lived and seeing That universal obedience denied to our King as matters now stand have therefore settled their affections to His party and having so setled think it now an undervaluing their Judgement to alter their opinion 8. Others of an easier Temper yet as obstinate as any of the rest from somelight courtesie from the one or discourtesie from the other side have taken parts and taking it on trust that all maner of obedience is Loyalty all disobedience Rebellion have been through such opinion drawn unto His Majesties party and reteining still the impression wherewith they were first seasoned think it now shame to quit the same unto whom notwithstanding the terms on which this division grows have been so doubtful that the very first impression hath alone weighed in guiding their Affections for the peevish pride and folly of making good their first impression on no others grounds then because the first which they think scorn to alter hath strongly wrought upon many in this contention If any the Inhabitants in or about LONDON doubtful at first which side to take and since the time of the Proclamation set forth against that City be advers to the Parliament some through pretext of Duty to the King many upon the hopes of gaining pardon when He shall have prevailed others upon other grounds as having debtors in His Army and Quarters wish well unto His party in hope to receive their debts others not so much out of Loyalty to the King as discontented and displeased with the Parliament for imposing payments towards this War finding withall a discontinuance of their usual trading to defray this new and unexpected charge and ready to believe that His Majesties distance from White-Hall and His other adjoyning Palaces together with the peoples absence from the Courts of Judicature are a detriment to their present trading and that the Parliament is the cause of all These men are sensible only of a present pressure at the instant not looking to what is past or future like impatient and peevish patients who think no pain comparable to what they at the present feel But how to avoid the charge of the above recited Proclamations leaving none unpardoned of the city these men may imagine that they play their game most cunningly and trusting on pardons underhand may prove Enemies to their fellow-Citizens who joyntly acting for the Cities good these men it is to be feared do countermine and work against the same For admit in a corporation or society opposed by a powerful Enemy some few of the society shall upon suspition had that some of the same fellowship do covertly serve the Enemies turn by givnig intelligence or otherwise assisting him and in so doing provide for their own safety in case the enemy shal prevail wherefore those upon such suspition shal conclude to be as wise in providing alike for their own safety also By such divisions sinister suspitions the Unity being disturbed a way is consequently prepared to the ruine of the whole at last Others there be more danrous then these who having some special Friends in the Quarters or Army of the Enemy are Factors where they live for such their friends who preferring their private and ambitious ends before
mad violence and oppression practised in the Kings name and by His party and by degrees wrought to the destruction of the Subject diverts and alters His wonted course and may make him Rebel as it were against His will when as He is frightned driven from and threatened out of His obedience If on the other side the Parliament shall prevail those Enemies to Common-Prayer advers also to what Government the Church shall appoint may be easily over-ruled by a Parliamentary Authority The Authors and Fautours of those Before this time of War there were no such Schisms or Heresies Tautum res nobis saith learned Iewel cum quibusdam satellitibus Pontificiis c. and it is requisite that Vnity and Peace be setled in the Church as well as in the State for suppression of these Schisms and Heresies God delighting yea and requiring it to have Order and Truth in his presence chamber the Church as in his larger courts the Common-wealth The Authors of the War have been the Authors of these Heresies which side Schisms being few and inconsiderable their Tenents newly sprung up and apt to vanish both through the insufficiency of their grounds and multiformity of their Sects wounding and weakning one another and in the main the Common cause For it is the firm and Orthodox Protestants which are the Parliaments firm friends whereon to trust yea and their constant friends also whilst the Parliament goes on in an entire solid and joynt way and are as the Exigency of their Affairs shall suffer them constant to themselves whereby and by which way alone they are inabled to defend themselves to protect their Friends Which side will prevail God only knows who can dispose of Victories at his will If the Parliament shall the King neverthelesse could not but assure Himself that He should be entirely King howsoever part of His Estate be by reason of these Wars diminished and the Parliaments Protestation taken 1641. together with their late Covenant two years after for the maintenance of His just Power and greatnesse were good security until themselves were reputed Traitors Rebels their worth in like maner undervalued and scorned by His party for so the Protestation and Covenant both may lose their efficacy and intent if He for whom they do Protest and Vow shall by opposing disable them in the prosecution of their Vow To that Objection That the Parliament have contrary to such Covenant Usurped and Intrenched upon His Regal Dignity and by seeking to hinder His Power have lessened His Honor in passing an Ordinance against His Majesties creating of Lords c. in seeking to have their Friends Invested with Honors and Titles answerable to their demerits To the first it is confest an Ordinance is past against all such Acts as may inure by vertue of the Great Seal and Barons being made by Patent under the same Seal which being a necessary Instrument of State which the Parliament represents being surreptitiously taken from them contrary to a Trust they have consequently passed an Ordinance against the Creating of Lords ut Supra For the Contention betwixt Him and them being grown extreme the King striving by all means to lessen their Power and Credit using all ways to advance His own their Enemies they knowing likewise the Seal to be made use of to their Detriment as if that the Kings conferring those Honors were not so much an augmentation of His Dignity in granting or in the created Lords in receiving those Honors as an intended diminution to the Parliaments Dignity had reason to provide for the time against all contingent Acts tending to the lessening their Power Admit it to be as the Objectors give out which neither the Kings party do prove nor the Parliaments do grant as in other Acts done by the Parliament An Usurping in them Usurpation may in the strength of policy prove a benefit to the Subject in that Usurpers do commonly Establish the best Laws to redeem their Credit lost by the Injury done in their Usurping If the Kings party shall prevail the War being between Him and His People the Parliament rather an Umpire in the Quarrel to do right to the wronged part there will be two things considerable The means whereby He doth prevail The end of His prevailing The first means not primarily as in the strength or greatnesse of His party yet consequently in that His party do undividedly retain and keep up the Ancient and setled Form of Government without contesting or dissenting in opinion about the Establishing any new As on the other side the Parliament hath thrown down the old without for a long time setting up any other Form or Constitution It was a learned Fathers Observation Augustine Ipsa mutatio quae utilitate adjuvat etiam novitate perturbat And it will require a most exact deliberate Wisdom to suppresse all Inconveniences which may arise on Novity Hence it hath been that the Parliaments Friends have grown lesse zealous to their side more troublesom to the Court it self by requiring and seeking a new and certain Form Which may admit a twofold Answer that the Parliament interrupted by a powerful Enemy hath not a full measure of Efficacy to conform and compose every collateral difference happing either in Church or Common-wealth when as their Task is hard enough to maintain and keep a work more necessary Their own Power Secondly In that they have for a time abolished those ancient Forms and constitutions finding haply some present reason for so doing whether they will forthwith establish some other Forme as it is probable they will having long since promised it or reassume the Ancient when time shall serve there being no substantial difference betwixt what is now abrogated and what is to be Ordained is left to their wisdom besides it is presumed in point of Judgement and of Policy that they will have such respect unto their Predecessors Acts as not altogether to raze out to abrogate for ever their ancient Constitutions least succeeding Parliaments should do the like by theirs and so the Courts of Parliament which have been instituted for redresse of Mischiefs and Grievances c. should become See Statute Edw. 3. the Scene and Seminary of inconvenience and disturbance by introducing still Novelties and alterations in the Common-wealth The third is in that His Majesty keeping His residence in a lesse Town of Garison Oxford can more easily conform and subdue a few unto His will then the Parliament can in a more greater place London The multitude in that City the supplies and Ayd afforded by the City to the Parliament can counterpoise such odds The event of His Majesties prevailing is alike considerable and two-fold also first in that the Parliament Members already proscribed and charged with Rebellion are exposed to contempt and ruine in them a great part of the Subjects of both Kingdoms when as the cause wherein the Publique good is so much concerned is by idle and abject Fellows called
divers Towns in several parts of the Kingdom On which his Friends and Party fix a Miracle reckoning it an extraordinary Act of Gods Favor shewed to him in the sudden increase of his Party that from an handful as it were he hath raised Forces to such numbers when as the Miracle may be retorted and rather turned the other way That his Majesty being so Pious Just and Protestant a Prince as his party contends and an * See the Oath tendred at Oxford 1643. Oath to that purpose hath been tendred to divers of late within his Quarters there should be notwithstanding such a defection from him in his Subjects so many thousand also not engaged nor seduced men of sufficiency and worth mistaken in what is Loyalty Neither is Victory in a Civil War any evident note of the Almighty's favor when as it is obtained on such hard terms as the Ruine and Destruction of a flourishing Land rather in the Event it will prove an angry Judgement of Gods punishing the Authors of this Ruine in suffering * See the Message of both Houses March 9. 1643. above and beyond all others a Civil War consuming and overthrowing the Body Politique as a pestilent Feaver doth the Natural with its distempered heat As for the Towns the Kings party gained whether by His Commanders wit and Stratagem allowable in War or by falshood in point of parly and of trust odious and scorned even in Forrain Wars is hereafter examinable and to be tryed by the Sword alone yet one word what that falshood is when a Commander or Officer in chief shall Swear by Solemn Oath and Vow to perform what he never means and after a trust committed and an agreement made break and falsifie the same And whether it be Treachery and falshood or Stratagem and Policy doth rest upon this Question Whether the Parliaments Proceedings be Rebellious unbecoming Subjects or just and Loyal If Rebellious then it may seem Stratagem and duty to the King in such Commanders entrusted by the Parliament to renounce their trust and serve the Enemy If the Parliament be good and faithful Subjects as they will rather sacrifice their lives to the Justice of their Cause then fail to Vindicate their Credit from the stain of Rebellion then it is Treachery in those Commanders to undertake afterwards to desert such Trust That such foul dealing hath been practised occasioning the protraction of this War is manifest on which side most future Ages or the Sword will manifest If it be answered by way of excuse as no crimes whatsoever shall want a patron in these divided times That such dealing is a vertue practisable in relation to a Kings Safety in danger to be destroyed and that breach of Faith of Trust never so Solemnly made or any other the like means may be used in Order to His preservation Answer This Argument may be Fallacy à petitione Principii or à non concessis which manner of disputing can enlarge ad infinitum and as the Logicians speak The reply thereto may be unto such an Argument that there is no such detestable and desperate design in being or known or granted Where by the way and to prevent the mistake ☞ of our duty and Allegiance which we should owe to our Soveraign if any exquisite wits of a more nimble discerning reach then their fellow Subjects pretending a greater care to His Majesties welfare have heretofore found out by privy and dark passages by any secrecy of contrivance any such wicked and execrable intendments against the Kings Person or Honor or deeming all others not partaking in their sagacity Ignorant in State affairs dull and vulgar spirited Let them make known unto their fellow Subjects the time the means and manner of that intendment before the whole Land be totally destroyed or a full Conquest be obtained for afterwards all writers will report one way in favour of the Victors side then also the victory not the Cause will point out and set forth the Rebel That two or three Gentlemen since Members of the House of Commons together with a Noble Peer in the House of Lords dwelling in neighbouring Counties each to other and sojourning about seven or eight years since with a Gentleman a neighbour and friend of theirs did during the time of their sojourning there therefore agree to overthrow Monarchial Government or intend any thing against the Honor or Person of the King if neither of these appeared by their discourse Letters or other Acts in writing the Arguer shews more his spleen against those Gentlemen then his Reason in deducing any good Connexion between the Antecedent and Conclusion Observe on the other side one among many other presumptions of some Design in hand from the advers party then let the Reader judge on which side is the more weighty and vehement presumption of Acting mischief of complotting alterations in matter of Government which the more rational Consequence that instance which went before even now recited or this which follows namely the building strong and high walls by a great Peer of this Realm to his house no other notice taken until now save of beautifying and adorning the house for his private use and splendour the divers Pieces of Ammunition credibly informed to be caried thither by little and little for these many years last past and now one of the strongest Holds the Kings party hath in all South-Wales to infest and oppose the Parliaments party Whilest the truth of such Plot of overthrowing Monarchial Government of some mischievous intendment against the Kings Majesty if any such there be suggested is no more manifested to the World it may be an Imposture framed and obtruded on the Parliament by some offenders who to save themselves have contrived this Calumny and Falshood on purpose to engage the King to rescue them The Parliament when this report was first given consisted of above Five hundred Members in both Houses And whether they having all Protested for the Kings Honor Person and Estate would against the dictate of their own Conscience against their natural and sworn Allegiance infringe this Vow to commit wilful Perjury and Treason Or that if it be objected That the Design was the drift only of some few accused and stiled factious persons solliciting and awing others then to assign who those few persons were and rather to blame the Counties and Corporations chusing such Questionlesse when first chosen their chusers suspected no such Crime in them and whether men known and chosen for their vertue would accumulate such Villanies as those Such a Design must be given out at least to save the credit of some revolting who having undertaken the charge and care of their several Counties to them deputed were at first active in their Musterings and Military practises Soon after whether wrought by Friends Allies or for some other respect did desist charging the Parliament or some of them in general terms with some strange intended Plot against the King
Subjects of both Kingdoms then the present War betwixt the King and Parliament The League betwixt them the more strict and Solemn the more irreconcileable the discord when it happens and nothing to compose the Quarrel when once began besides the Sword Nothing to prevent the beginning of the Quarrel save only the forbearing and bearing each with other The self-denying quality so much assumed and protested is then exercised and best proved in so prudent a patience as is practised by a continued entire Union betwixt them both and neither of them to arrogate wholly unto themselves the successe of so much Conquest as hath been obtained But if the * The English one shall think that their opulency and wealth shall wear and drive out the other notwithstanding their approved valor or that the * The Scots other shall hope that their valor shall suppresse and conquer the English mens not inferior to theirs These unhappy thoughts and attempts if any such upon destructive hopes must turn into misery unto their Friends Reproach and Obloquy to themselves a pleasure and fulfilling their Enemies expected hopes who will be ready to upbraid them with the common and old Proverb as in the like case the contesting between the Presbyterial and Independent to let in Episcopal again When Robbers fall out true men come by their goods meaning that a party of English and Scots having complotted to divest the King of his Soveraignty and to take away his Regal Dignities and now by variance within themselves his Majesty hath regained his former Being If any infinuate means of dividing the two Nations privily and with excellency of Art carried on by their seeming Friends shall unhappily inure closely and insensibly to work this Mischief as for one Nation to upbraid and cast Aspersions on the other of Inconstancy Ingratitude Falshood and the like What a new intestine War may happen hence when either Nation shall have partakers at home and abroad in Forraign parts The English shall have Friends to credit what they say against the Scots and they reciprocally against the English and no time or season amidst these Commotions the Enemy being vigilant and active to foment the Quarrel to Examine or Dispute the Truth to set right the Misapprehensions of the particulars of such Aspersions when the very fear entertained of late of a disagreeing between the two Nations hath appalled the hearts of their common Friends and more set back and retarded the hopes of Successe and Peace then the News of Victories can forward them As for other Differences which might arise betwixt the Nations touching some Punctilio's of Pre-eminence or the like King James therefore of happy Memory in his Star-Chamber Speech in See the speech the sixteenth year of his Raign hath wisely and peaceably composed and setled deducing his Reasons from the Policy of his most wise * Henry 7. Ancestor But to the Known Objections now in being and published by the Common * Incendiaries and Fomentors of this War Enemy as of an Invasion made of the Scots as of Rebellion in the English when both Nations have been sufferers the Rights and Liberties of both violated are strange Objections in the judgement of standers by and to determine the truth of those Objections or on which side the Offensive on which the Defensive is there is not like to be any Umpire in the Question To expect a Forraigner to interecede or moderate most of whom admit a sensible and compassionate affection in them towards these our Nations their own and their nearer Friends Engagements are enough to take up their own thoughts besides a wise considerate and Politique State doth evidence their wisdom in not intermedling with the Affairs of others rather when Troubles and Commotions are abroad to look the more closely to their own especially in a Case of so nice a difference as betwixt a King and a Parliament the Representative Body of the whole Kingdom and each of them contending to make good the Justice of their Quarrel Nor is it probable that any Prince of another Kingdom will in relation to himself as making this difference betwixt the King and his Subjects here his own case send over his Forces hither to assist a Vanquished party All Kingdoms have their several Forms of Government peculiar to every Nation some of a more absolute and free some of a more mixt kinde The People know their Boundaries of Obedience the Princes theirs of Power and because Rebellion is charged on the Subjects here those Princes of other Countreys some think will take part with the King of this least it should prove a leading case to animate their Subjects also to Rebel 'T is two ways answered The several Forms of Government in this and other Countreys do diversifie the case Secondly This is denyed and no ways proved to be Rebellion An exact and serene Judgement is hardly to be given by strangers not Natives who dive not into the depth and state of this present Quarrel withall the Conflict is seldom so equally carried but that one side hath the better of it then it is against the Rule of common Policy to * Noli in Caducum parietem inclinare Lip Polit. incline to the falling and weaker part least the stronger by their inclining be provoked to become their Enemies Briefly then the extreme terms and contesting parties in this War are a Delinquent party on the one and a Parliament a Court of Judicature on the other side the first being conscious to themselves of several offences against the Common-wealth and welfare of the Subject contrive a course how to evade the hand of Justice as by sheltring themselves under a strong and supreme Power The King suggesting ill offices betwixt him and that Court of Judicature gaining thereby the better credit with the Adversaries thereof then by advising him the most likely ways of encountering it namely in betaking himself to some remoter place of strength which Advice was accordingly followed and thereby his Majesty better enabled to command the parts next adjacent to his residence as at YORK the Northern Then to require and Summon in such other Countreys near unto him as complyed not at the present with him in such design as he purposed as also to be displeased with other of his Subjects who took any averse course to his proceedings next to set up his Royal Standard at NOTTINGHAM that whosoever dwelled near and came not in to his party were in danger of his displeasure By this means his Forces might soon increase whether Love or Fear the Motive for when a Prince shall tell his Subjects near him of a Rebellion nothing then more noised by his party then Rebellion Disloyalty and preparations by him made to subdue the Rebels if he shall then require their Ayd who dare refuse These were the first parties in the Quarrel by these means the Kings strength might increase the Parliaments abate Hence grows the name of a Rebel
of a Traytor the Kings party calling him a Rebel who disobeying the Kings Commands resists The Parliament calling them Traytors Vipers and Pests to their King and Countrey who perswade and assist him in exceeding the limits of the Laws It is King Jame's In the same Speech in Parliament 1609. definition and who these be Peace only and a setled time for Judicature can try The Kings party accuse the Parliament of Dissembling and Hypocrisie and with that earnest Calumny as if they did exceed all others in that sin How easie a thing it is for either part to rail or scoff to call the advers part Rebel Hypocrite How easie also to stain the best and most honest Intentions with the nick-name of Dissembler Hypocrite Envy and ill-will can revile and accuse the best purposes and Goodnesse when it is quarrelled with must be mistermed otherwise the quarreller would blush to oppose or wrong it Nay a bare censuring serves not it must be aggravated to higher terms as never so notable and artificial a piece of Dissembling to contrive and compose Treason to palliate a Rebellion which is granted and as much confessed if a Rebellion if a Treason Malice and Contumely are of an ambient and large Circumference and Interpretation it is within the compasse of their liberty to give out in Speeches That the Parliament is the certain and only cause of these Distempers that every one well-wishing to that Court is a Rebel to the King that he who fights not in a present and impetuous way for the King is a Neutral that he who soberly discoursing what he knows or hath observed concerning these Distractions if it hath not made altogether for the King against the Parliament is a Malignant an Incendiary or hath any way assisted the Parliament or his Countrey to defend it is lyable to the censure of a Traytor In which Crime there being no Accessaries he is a Principal Doubtlesse very few have demeaned themselves so warily but shall finde an Enemy to accuse him were it but for hopes to purchase redemption to himself the Accuser as guilty as the Accused Some neighboring Counties fearing that the like Calamity might fall on them as on other parts of the Kingdom agreed like firm Friends and Servants to their Countrey in a joynt and mutual League to defend it against all formidable Force which might infest them To this mutual defence divers Gentlemen and Free-holders subscribed their Hands in nature of Associating the better to maintain their strength Others refused to subscribe as being discouraged from subscribing by the more able sort of Gentlemen of the Neighborhood engaged for the King at which time the King had an Army abroad wherefore whosoever offered to resist and repulse that Army might come within the compasse of the Statute of the 25. Edw. 3. An ordinary and competent foresight might have prevented many and imminent Mischiefs when as if other adjoyning Counties had in like maner mutually agreed as it was proposed unto them they had not been so harrassed and spoiled as now they are But as the case now stands what is to be done The Associations are entred into the hands of the Subscribers to be seen or inquisition to be made for all who did Subscribe whether hopes of Pardon to be procured by Price or Friends or to stand to the innocency of their own hearts If by Price who then the gainer Informers Promooters Witnesses shall get more by Pardons Fines and Forfeitures then the Exchequer or other his Majesties Courts of Revenue can If by Friendship the extremity of these false and desperate times will break through such Obligations of Friendship Truth or Consanguinity that few either can or will assist each other the Enmity having been for the most part between those of the same blood and every kindenesse prove mercenary if not counterfeit when as to Truth the maners of most will through the Falshood and Licentiousness occasioned by this War grow so corrupt as every man will be apt to learn the close and subtile posture thence be indeed thought politique of carrying as the Proverb is Two faces under one Hood that is of complying outwardly with that side unto which he is most advers As to Friendship each mans carriage to his friends like Caius Cotta's whom the Orator describing a cunning Craftsman in Ambition observes him polliceri omnibus praestare ijs tantum apud quos optime Cicer. Orat. poni arbitraretur beneficia that he gave good words to all men translated rather into all mens humble Servant good turns only to those from whom he might expect the most profitable return of such his Benefits But to look back to the present subject of this Quarrel and the several charges wherewith the contesting parties stand accused The substance of the charge wherein the Parliament are called Traytors by the Kings party is their opposing his Crown and Dignity yea some go farther their purpose to destroy his Person wherefore as guilty of such Treason to be opposed and fought against The Argument it is hoped and prayed for is from flalsly suggested premises unknown ungranted which Arguings are Fallacies and may be invented to divide the King and the Parliament for the Reasons before expressed so to engage the People to take part with the Accusers yet no question the Quarrel is grown so full of bitternesse and Malice as if the PARLIAMENT be born down there will not want Witnesses to prove such Treason The OXFORD Mercury indeed makes himself and his Readers merry with this Calumny he Jests and sayes They discharged and levelled their greatest Canon at the King to preserve his Honor and Person The PARLIAMENTS sad thoughts take no notice of his scoffing humor they leave him to make himself and his Friends merry by his Jesting 'T is true the King hath in his Person shewed himself in several Battels much against the supplication and importunity of his Subjects If two Armies do pitch a field the one earnestly disswading the approach of some eminent person in the other for fear of danger to that person if notwithstanding he shall unnecessarily expose himself to hazzard and look that the advers Army shall forbear to defend themselves in respect to that persons safety so to lye themselves at the mercy of the Enemy or not to fight at all no man in this case will think they intend to fight against that person From such reproachful Observations as that Mercury suggests and the Enemies to the Parliament may invent the Court must deeply suffer censure if born down under some ignominious attribute even to posterity as that Parliament in Henry the fourth's time branded with Indoctum another with Insanum as an * In a Book of an unknown Author printed at Oxford 16. 4. called The true Informer who by a Prosopopeia makes himself a Traveller and not to return untill the King shall have recovered His Scepter and the People their Sences Author already stiles
the People and will no question that Power the Parliament which governs them This will suffer some such like infamy by their accusers either of Hypocriticum Indoctum Sacrilegum or Unjustum and their Enemies are framing Indictments to all four Hypocriticum as pretending good but intending ill to the King and State an ordinary charge cast on them by his party yea of Counterfeiting also in that they do connive at Truths suppressed and Falshoods printed in their quarters of the several Chances of the War c. The permitting which were indeed blame-worthy were it a matter of much moment or competent to their leisure from weightier Affairs to cure forth with all Faults in matter of Fact the rather whereas they are sure that no ill successe either of losing Forts of having the worst of it sometimes in skirmishes or the like accidents incident to War can deter their firm and constant Friends resolving to resemble the Souldiers of * Paul Emil. in vitam Car. 7 Charles the seventh so far from shrinking at the terror of an ill Omen that they resolved to encounter all hard chances in Battel with increase of Courage Indoctum as for opposing the Bishops the highest Order in the Clergy and other Schollers The Parliament seems invective in their Accusers eye against all learning Sacrilegum as some of their Enemies have from a far fetched Metaphor tearmed them because of taking away the plurality of Church-Livings Injustum in that they have condemned Malefactors whereof their Enemies have given a pledge already See their Declaration printed 1643. in that the Assembly at OXFORD in their writings of offering Peace hath charged the Parliaments friends with imprisoning two * Earl of Chesterfield and Lord Montague Lords Northward for their loyalty to the King Such and the like calumnies are like to be their fate in case they are vanquished But to return and view the charge whereof the King and his party are suspected which before it be treated on The duty required from the people by the two contesting parts the King the Parliament is examinable seeing a War is waged and such a one as dissolves all laws and the quarrel so bitterly pursued betwixt the King and the Parliament both requiring Subjection and obedience which is to be obeyed the King a supreme but single person or the Parliament the representative body of the Kingdom in number many which to be obeyed in point of safety and conscience But first to make the Question the more clear take these * The peoples Plea collections from a learned Divine That the King hath His Power from the Kingdom therefore His Authority which Tearms though commonly confounded if distinguished makes clear the matter For Authority is a Right and Lawfulnesse to command Obedience such as all Governors and Magistrates have more or lesse But Power is a lawful Ability to force obedience where upon command it is denied one may have a just and lawful right to command that wants compulsive means for Coertion others may have strength to force commonly called Power that wants Authority to command and Power is that which in all Government bears the sway Wherefore in the Scripture Rom. 13. and elswhere it is taken concretively for the Governors and Magistrates themselves which have power at command to force Obedience to their Commands Now there is no doubt but the King hath ful Authority to command according unto Law all such as are subject to Him by Law but if upon His command obedience be denied whence hath he lawful power to enforce obedience whence hath He His Power to make good His Authority but from the people He cannot have it from Himself being but one man To keep a strong guard of some of His people to impugn and force the rest must needs produce Commotions Insurrections and a Civil-War If of strangers the Philosopher and others who write of Policy Aristot will tell you it is Tyranny nor is such ability Potestas but vis violence not power because unlawful when vis and Potestas or vis and jus do clash and skirmish the consequence is dangerous To keep an Army on foot continually under other pretences thereby to affright and force the Subjects is litle better therefore the Kings power must needs come from His own peoples hands and strength and from the same people must come His Authority If any other should give him Authority that were not able to make it good by power it were given Him in vain nor were the people bound to make that good which themselves gave not whence He hath His power then from thence He must needs receive His Authority even from the Kingdom To Safety a Common-wealth is best provided for by Councel Councel confists of number in which is safety That foresees contrives concludes not that they are void of Error King and Parliament both may erre whilest humane joyntly and dividedly but which most prone to Error the Head without the consent of the Heart being one or the faculties of the Heart without the help of the Head if possibly to be severed being many 'T is resolved Securius expediuntur negotia commissa pluribus oculi plus vident quam oculus which is not construed of the quantity of degree as which is highest which greatest but of the quantity of number which most probable to provide for the common good one or many If it be objected That the King hath a Councel viz. his Privy Councel to assist and consult with Ans This is by the King in his Person chosen always or for the most part attending on his Court and Person That of Parliament by the free suffrages of the whole Kingdom and how fitly when the condition and affairs thereof are subject only to the capacity and knowledge of the Parliament the Members thereof dwelling in all or most parts of the Kingdom whereby to have cognisance of what concerns the whole Yea let this be taken for granted as advantage to his Majesties party whether so or not That the Major part of the Peers and Gentry are now with the King in some other place then where he first Summoned them Admit it be true yet that they were called by his Writ to attend the service at a certain place and time and both place and time named in that Writ where the Attendance is according to that Summons and they having all there met accordingly the place and time do define and limit the Action denominating those the Parliament which there reside For howbeit a great number be come away from the place whereto they were first Summoned whether solicited awed or otherwise engaged the residing part to that number which now sit there make a full Parliament 'T is no marvel if their number shall decrease their courage fail them when so proclaimed against and threatned as might terrifie men of much resolution and constancy when their Posterities and Estates are exposed to Ruine all possible means of
at WESTMINSTER being the lesse One other kinde of force is urged of sitting at un-Parliamentory Pag. 7. hours or else to lose their Vote There must be to answer the other Member of of this distinction some Parliamentory hours appointed which no Laws hath yet assigned sitting still or going away relates commonly to the necessity and exigent of the matter in hand which haply will not admit delay or a second meeting but may require their sitting up till ten eleven or twelve a clock in the night and may again their meeting at six five or four or sooner in the morning If they please to abate so much of their own repose and rest by their pains and Industry their Countrey is so much the more beholding to them many of the Countries have in their * See the Petitions of the several Counties Petitions taken notice of and thanked them for their indefatigable pains The reason of the small number at WESTMINSTER wherewith the Assembly at OXFORD chargeth them is obvious to each mans understanding They make them thin and then upbraid them with their thinnesse T is as if Friends and Companions in a Journey shall see their fellow Travellers in danger to be robbed and ride away without assisting them in danger whose fault is it in case they are robbed the failing of those who might have helped or the paucity of those who are robbed this in respect of the other is a remote least principal and accidental cause T is easie for a Prince to confer Honors upon men so to fill the House of Peers divers wayes also to increase the number in the House of Commons to His party but for the one party to make the other thin and then to undervalue the power of them becoming so is like one impoverishing another by forsaking him in those duties of friendship which he owes and then contemning him The next odds observed by the Assembly at OXFORD between the Parliament at WESTMINSTER and themselves is the Kings presence with them at OXFORD and a major part of the Lords therefore out-weighing the Dignity of those at WESTMINSTER Which exception as to the Kings being there is answered by the Law of not Dissolving or by His Majesties being Virtually although not Personally present In that the greater part of the Nobility are with the King His party therefore the more Honored 't is answered without Disputing the Dignity or Preeminence of either part as which the more valuable in Birth or Breeding those which went away or those which staid behinde Comparisons are unseemly and forbid what this Discourse doth aim at Reconcilement Union It was not so at the first entrance into this Quarrel the King withdrawing Himself from the Parliament many of the Peers thought themselves by duty of their place obliged to attend on His Majesty and might have power it is like to prevail with some other of their fellow-Peers Besides the Nobility are to be considered as in the next Classe and Attendant on His Majesty some by their place others more remotely Interested wherefore seeing Safety and Preferment are the Stake which most men of all sorts contend for let the World be made believe it is Conscience Loyalty the King the Fountain of Honor in whom to Reward and Pardon they who are nearest Him hope first to gain by applying themselves to serve and please Him All men know the Proverb No fishing to the Sea nor service to the Court which was only in those days true when a just and uninterrupted Peace did flourish no man but could perceive through the Prospect of this Discord that Peace Plenty and Liberality in Rewarding would all be lost in a Civil Destructive War The Question was at the first much controverted which the more just or rightful Cause the Kings or the Parliaments divided from the King Many of the Grandees adhering to the Court and more Loyal in an implicite faith adhered to the Kings no more marvel then that Servants immediatly attendant on their Master should venture their obedience and assent unto him because their Master without examining the Reason of so assenting and then engaged pursue their undertakings or be meanly thought of in case they shall renounce the same the credit whereof is discerned in the quality of the Cause undertaken not in the resolvednesse of the Servant undertaking it Princes can and often do reward their Friends and Favorites the Parliament cannot or seldom doth it is besides their usual course to give besides their Friends expectance to receive other Salary then the redemption of their just Liberties for which they fight the maintenance of their ancient Birth-right conveyed unto them by the known Laws saving in some few particular cases where the Parliament shall meet with a desperately engaged and restlesse Enemy of great Power and Estate to fight and foment the Quarrel against on the other side some Friends Eminent in Desert of smaller Fortunes to fight for them In such a case to disseize their Enemy to diminish his power to invest and gratifie their Friend to augment his Fortune seems not unjust nor unreasonable But to return The distinction of Virtual and Personal seems offensive yea the Declaration calls it Trayterous which no indifferent man will judge until Victory by nature insolent makes every thing displeasing to the Conqueror Criminal As when those on the Kings side hoped to have over-run and conquered all no man wishing well to the Parliament durst name them joyntly whereas simply and univocally to hold for King and Parliament is the surest and most Loyal tenure Howbeit nothing can be with more anger and displeasingly received by the more perverse and insolent amongst His Majesties party then for them to hear those on the Parliaments side say that They are for the King and Parliament So the Quarrel hath several overtures of increasing the Parliament party taking it indignly at the Kings party's hands to be thought Disloyal False Dissemblers as the King 's expresse their anger with the Parliaments for saying They are for King and Parliament To believe or say that the King is seduced by evil Councel is in their heat and anger a wounding His Majesty through His Councels sides which exception of theirs must render Him infallible in judgement or so singular in wisdom as to be above or to stand in no need of Councel for if he makes use of Councel and erres by their Advice the Error is His Councels or must presume in Him such transcendency of Goodnesse in not inclining to any evil motion as is not competent to a Creature An impartial looker on will rather judge the words of His Majesties being seduced by Evil Councel to be a degree rather of Dutifulnesse then Disloyalty as freeing Him from Misdoings and laying the Charge on His Evil Councellors His Majesty is happier if free from these stiled by another * King Iames in His speech in Parliament 1609. calls them Traitors vipers c name then His
Predecessors were Neither can any man reasonably think that there is so strict an Unity so near a co-incidency betwixt His Majesty and those His Councel whom the Parliament suspects betwixt His thoughts and inclinations to a Peace to be concluded on fit and just terms and that His Councels Desires and Resolutions for such a Peace as may best serve their own and their parties turn but that His Subjects may most truly with much Loyalty and without wounding Him through His Councels sides believe and say The King having been seduced by Evil Councel hath done that which otherwise he would not 2. To assist the Parliament to resist in a mans own defence and to adhere to such a power as can protect him is Rebellion For Neighboring Towns or Countreys to joyn in a mutual Defence and League against any Force which may infest howbeit Nature and Necessity do allow defensive and provisionary Acts for safety 't is wrested otherwise now and termed Disaffectionate Disloyal and adjudged offensive 3. To distinguish betwixt the King His Kingly Office and His person Trayterous A man in Office is distinguished from what he is in person yet no fault or misterming in the distinguisher If A. B. High Constable of an Hundred set an Affrayer by the heels he doth it as High Constable not as he is A. B. If the Lord Chief Justice E. F. being Judge of Assize and Condemn a Fellon he doth it not in his personal capacity as he is E. F. but as he is Judge of Assize And although there may seem to be a nearer Unity between a King who is Natus Rex His Office and His person then there is betwixt a Judge who is Datus or factus Judex his Office and his person yet the distinction may be admitted to the King without being Treason 4. Amongst other Misdemeanors to be exhibited against the Subject the very * See the Articles to be presented to the high Constables in the Westerne Circuit 1643. abode in or repairing to any Town or City after His Majesty had made known His Displeasure against the same is reckoned Disaffection howbeit many being threatned from their Duty and driven from their homes by the rudenesse and violence of Souldiers had no other place of succour for their Protection then in those places excepted against by His Majesties Proclamations So the place and persons resorting to the place lie under the penalty of Displeasure In which the chief City of the Kingdom seems in the accusers eye to be most disloyal Enjoying yet by Gods mercy to his Glory and their happinesse be it spoken notwithstanding the place populous the times contagious and miserable elsewhere a deliverance from the ficknesse besides the Blessing of Peace vouchsafed thereto for their Humanity in harboring the stranger and oppressed in that amidst the Calamities of Plague and War they are free from the Pestilence that walks in darkness and from the sickness that destroyeth in the noon day that a thousand fall beside them and ten thousand at their right hand but it comes not nigh them Summarily if all matters else of Jealousie and Debate were fitted for a Treaty the very Argument concerning what is Treason what Disloyalty were enough to renew the Contention some so pretendingly fond of the Kings Honor as to make his power swell immencely above the Laws and beyond all other Kings some amongst the people so advers to the King as to deny Him the just power and Soveraignty of a Prince There are no question zealous and good desires in many of either party for the maintenance of Justice and the Laws Howbeit the execution of their desires be respited until the prevailing part have gained power to make good the same so there may be also a mistaking and a fault in either part In some well wishing to the Parliament who frame and finde out causelesse Jealousies on purpose to divide the King from His friends as that common and slightest among the rest of Prince Rupert and Prince Maurice ayming at the Crown of England When His Majesty hath a numerous Issue of His own in possibility of more the two Princes an elder an Illustrious Brother Others wishing well to the Kings party of the like dividing spirit contending to have the Nobility and Gentry of this Kingdom think that the Yeomanry and Commonalty frame hopes to themselves of mateing the Gentry in an equal ranke These sinister contemplations of some disaffected and discontented persons are invented on purpose to sever and divide the mutual concurrency of the Gentry with the Commonalty in a proportionable aiding one another How frivolous it is all men may guesse when as the Parliament Members of both Houses are Lords and Gentlemen themselves a Bulwark strong enough to retard and provide against any such incroaching thoughts of Parity If any such there be believing these Inventions there needs no other Argument to evince such sinister suppositions Many the like Jealousies and obstacles to Peace on foot which the Court of Parliament do seasonably apprehend The Assembly at OXFORD seem the first offerers of an Accommodation for Peace But when they set forth Declarations with the fair frontispiece of Declarations tending to Peace and in those writings accuse their fellow-Members with whom they endeavor to possesse the world they contend for Peace of refusing and disturbing Page 23. Peace of being Traytors and Promoters of this horrid War and charge them in those writings or in some of His Majesties Declarations with scoffing the King in their Messages sent unto Him a Crime if they be guilty of most heynous and undutiful these Accusations of upbraiding their fellow-Members may be an outward offering but no inward or real promoteing of a Peace They have deserted their fellow-Members in Parliament and in that a chief Trust reposed in them their very departure without License from the Parliament was heretofore adjudged * 5. Hen. 8. Which Statute they would not all have broken it is presumed through the worth and Ingenuity of many of them had they either timely considered of the Statute or not in a passionate and hasty way departed or could have foreseen the ill effects of their departure penal to depart to contrive and wage War against their fellow-Members in Parliament heightens the offence as it credits the mercy of their * For notwithstanding the unhappy consequences of their deserting the Parliament refuses not to receive them to compound upon their undertaking not to do any thing prejudicial to the State Forgivers in not taking a severe and strict accompt of Inflicting a condign censure on the offendors To correct and sweeten the Malady thereof something must be published nothing more acceptable then the name of Peace but on what terms more then the name of peace in a general word they do not declare A condiscending must be had as well as a meeting for peace those ought to condiscend who are the most certain first Transgressors In the
Act of offering a Treaty for Peace to invent new charges of high Treason of capital Misdemeanors of Injustice is no right way to Peace unlesse the persons charged are guilty of the same as namely they charge the Parliament or their Committees to have imprisoned two Lords for their Loyalty to the King as if their Loyalty were the unquestionable and certain cause of their Imprisonment These Lords might happily shew themselves active against and disobedient to the Parliaments Authority for in these unsetled and distracted times few men do others will not know their proper duty and so come within the compasse of some fault to deserve Imprisonment The High Treason whereof they accuse their fellow-Members is their counterfeiting the Great Seal Page 22. against the Statute of 25. Edw. 3. which whether in this case be to be understood High Treason the Sword must decide the Question The Parliament think themselves not guilty of that Crime by the Verdict of most men nor every thing made to the Mould by which it is made is not simply Counterfeiting the quality of the offence is much discerned in the maner of the offending and every Law-making commonly relates to some preterite fraud and wickednesse Now whether a King and a Parliament since the first constitution of either have heretofore made use of the Great Seal to crosse one anothers Acts be to be found in any Record whereon to ground a Law the Reader is to seek Amongst all the capital Misdemeanors amounting to High Treason recited in that Statute the Parliament making a new Seal being not done against the knowledge of the King and State seems not within the compasse of that Law which in that clause doth questionlesse intend the privy and surreptitious counterfeiting to the private Use and Benefit of the Counterfeiter And whereas in that Statute there may be divers doubtful cases of Treason determinable it is then and there accorded That if any other case supposed Treason which is not specified in See the Statute that Statute shall come before any Justices they shall tarry without giving Judgement of the Treason until the cause shall be shewed and declared before the King and Parliament whether it ought to be so adjudged or not In which determination the King and Parliament are presumed joyntly to Act if dividedly then who to judge the King seclusively without the Parliament or the Parliament without the King which if divided most likely to give a clear and dexterous judgement the King or the Parliament Those words The King Parliament cannot be understood of the Kings Councel and the Parliament it must be of the King himself in which as Treason is here objected to the Parliament the Parliament is excluded from any decisive power of being Judge what is Treason and pronounced guilty themselves of Treason The marginal Note if in that as in other places of See the marginal Note the Statute it sums up the sense of the Statute disputeth many Questions touching Treason to be first decided in Parliament leaving out the word King or presuming as is before observed that He is always there in person or in vertue Take the Accusers the Assembly at OXFORD Page 24 25. their own acknowledgement That the Parliament is His Majesties Answer to a Declaration from both Houses May 19. 1642. not Dissolved that they are far from Dissolving or attempting to Dissolve it Take His Majesties own confessing and allowing to the Parliament a power in a particular doubtful case regularly brought before them to declare what Law consequently what Treason is and the making a new Great Seal the old being contrary to Trust vafrously carried away from them the Representative Body of the State which the Seal is always to attend will not be adjudged a case of High Treason In the controverting this particular case as of the other Crimes charged on the Parliament and the Subjects of this Kingdom adhering thereunto the people may well be to seek when as the learned Sages and other Students of the * The Innes of Court Phrontisteries of Law and Justice seem to be divided in opinion some very active as being peradventure engaged for the King against the Parliament contending with all their might to make good the charge of Treason laid upon that Court and the Friends assisting them Others in the Parliaments account and questionless their Friends as earnest although more moderatly expressing it for the King and Parliament believe it to be no way Treason Which are greater numbers of them on the one side or the other or which the more able Lawyers is not here determined But to the Objection if any such That a greater number of them are within the Jurisdiction of the Parliament in LONDON and other places elswhere wherefore they may seem rather to side with that power The Answer is easily had That their hopes and possibility of being prefer'd by His Majesty were not Conscience Judgement valued by them above Reward or Honor were a more weighty motive then fear can be of displeasing that side in whose Quarters they are which cannot always protect much lesse gratifie them save only with the testimony of what they deserve answerable to their Breeding Knowledge and liberal Faculty One of the learnedst of that Tribe in those days wherein he lived and much Honored for his parts and industry wrote a whole Tractate for the Dignity and Priviledge of that Court in general How this in particular hath demeaned themselves to forfeit their Credit any other way then in maintenance of their power against oppression violence offered to themselves and the Subjects for whom they are entrusted future Ages can Record But to proceed In the same Declaration full of suspition and fraught with quarrelling the Assembly at OXFORD except against the words of a Message sent from the Lords and Commons to His Majesty Dated in the same year March 1643. viz. That His Majesty would not be the least or last Sufferer These words they throughly scanned and presented them to the world as terms of an See the Message of the Lords and Commons sent unto His Majesty upon occasion of a Letter sent from the Earl of Forth to the Earl of Essex high Affront as that Subjects or Rebels 't is all one in their Dialect in arms against their King should dare to send unto Him such a daring and presumptuous Message The words admit a two-fold sense the one of the Parliaments meaning as the Assembly at OXFORD seem to construe it the other more probably of their lamenting and foreseeing in their sadnesse and grief of heart the inevitable and universal ruine which must attend this War For that His Majesty cannot be the least Sufferer 't is too probable whose sufferings can be compared to His in the destruction of many thousands of His people as well in the greatest and dearest to Him as in the meaner sort in all whom consists His Safety This exception
above the rest was in these sad and suspitious times unseasonably moved by His party for they having conplained of late of extraordinary wrongs and losses befaln His Majesty His Treasure and Revenues denyed unto Him His Houses and Castles spoyled His Woods cut down and wasted c. It will now be feared That to repair and make whole those losses His Subjects Estates and Lands must satisfie most mens demeanor questioned when He shall have totally Conquered His peoples faults and negligences set out to the full to render the owners culpable or else His Majesty cannot but be the greatest Sufferer Nor to be the last no man can think His Majesty will survive the losse of all His people a good Subjects Prayer ought to be with a small insertion in the Poets addresse to his Maecenas Serus in caelum redeat c. serus é terra then in caelum redeat diuque laeto fruatur nomine And if it were possible without insolency to wish that many days may be yet added to those of His which God hath numbred to the end that He may live to see a new Generation spring up of stout and constant English Hearts to succeed in the room of those whom this unnatural War hath wasted But these exceptions moved by the Assembly at OXFORD of too curious and suspitious spirit are proposterous to the pursuit of Peace their Imputations of Treason and the like Crimes to render their fellow-Members sitting at WESTMINSTER odious to their fellow Subjects are no fit preparatives to Peace nor their calling the Parliaments Intentions so deeply protested to be real Counterfeit Neither is this Contention by the Sword alone but by the Pen on which side whither on the Kings or the Parliaments the Arguers in print touching the subject of this War since it first began have wrote the more solidly and rationally concerning it which have more candidly and succinctly without railing or expatiating terms set down the Arguments the Reader is to compare the difference and judge For Rhetorique and strength of Wit or for a sublimate and fine stile of Expression the Assembly at OXFORD as having the more youthful facere and nimble Wits in their party and Quarters the help and influence of the pregnant conceits and nimble Fancies in the University there may seem to have the start But let the Writings on both sides be examined according to Reason and Judgement and the Reader will judge the difference Let it be instanced in three or four the most remarkable Messages in Writing and the Answers thereunto no other being so opposite to each other as these here mentioned First The Letter to the Governor and Counsel of See the Letter and the answer War at BRISTOL from the Lord General of His Majesties Forces demanding a forbearing of putting to death the two Citizens there with the Governors Answer thereunto The Answer is for-judged already and the Reader saved his pains of judging it by being termed by the Kings party The Governors * In a Book of an unknown Author called The States Martyr insolent Answer when as it is adjudged by other more impartial Readers to be a well weighed apposite sober Answer Secondly That for the Marques of Argyle and Sir William Armyne the Commissioners from both Kingdoms fully and in few words delivering their See their Message and Sir Thomas his answer Intentions and Reasons thereof to Sir Thomas Glenham a Commander in chief in His Majesties Army with His Answer unto them full also of words and of suspition Which in a Treaty sincerely meant should be left out and the Objections answered with Reason and Judgement no perverting or wresting of the sense against the Authors meaning no total and universal dislike had by His Majesties party to every thing which the Parliament shall declare or do And it is requisite withal that the matter of a Treaty to be disputed to and fro should have an equal and free passage and reciprocal intercourse which the Parliament judgeth to be denyed to them sitting at WESTMINSTER that when Declarations have been published and set forth against them they are by His Majesties Proclamation inhibiting all Trade and Traffique thither denyed their reasonable Answer to be likewise published so they cannot be heard nor set forth to the world what they can say in defence of themselves so the Accusations from the one side His Majesties party are bitter concluding and offensive whatsoever the War is and their Challenges in print not to be answered by their fellow-Members for the reason above recited One other intercourse of Messages between both parties of a latter time this April the Summons sent by the Committee of both Kingdoms to the Lord Bellasis Governor of NEWARK for surrendring that Town and Fort the Summons expressing perswasive and important Motives to surrender * See His Majesties Letter dated Mar. 23. and the Secretaries Answer to the Committees summons Apr 1. 1646. The Governor his Secretary's Answer full of good Language Courage and strength of Wit wherein mentioning His Majesties Letter sent the 23 of March last past unto both Houses of Parliament he urges the Kings most gracious conditions in that He will disband His Forces dismantle His Garisons The Secretary recites not all the Kings proposals of having His Friends pardoned the Sequestrations taken from their Estates Either the Secretary saw not the Kings whole Letter whereof he recites one part only or else he smiles in his sleeve thinking by his short Comment on the Letter to satisfie the Committee there and the whole Kingdom besides His Majesties Letter is full and genuine in its meaning to be taken collectively not apart as of disbanding dismantling c. without pardoning c. and such collective maner of speaking is alwayes conditional the one to be done on the one if the rest be performed on the other side The Secretaries reciting them is short of His Majesties meaning and mentions it as the Tempter in the Gospel tels our Saviour All these will I give thee which was as much as his eye could behold but on what condition If Christ would fall down and worship him The condition which he annexes to his promise annihilates the gift The conditions which the Secretary cals Gracious in His Majesties Letter of disbanding His Forces c. if nothing else were to be expected are in every mans judgement as in the Secretaries most gracious But to have His Friends His party pardoned the Sequestrations wholly taken off from their Estates were to put them whom the Parliament accounteth offendors and their Enemies into a better condition then their own Friends The Secretary if knowing His Majesties whole Letter and would contract it into parts reciting that only which serves his turn the Committee being presumed to be solid and able men will follow their own Judgement without replying to that Answer This sophisticate and defective manner of Arguings abates the merit of their cause and
might make them unlesse better armed with Reasons incapable of a solid and sincere Treating with their opposites But in that a not entertaining of a Treaty hath been charged on the Parliament and therefore they are named The Refusers and Disturbers of Peace a Reason may be given if they be justly charged that if they do not at every beck send and imploy their fellow-Members the reason of their forbearing may relate to their small number whereby the Assembly at OXFORD upbraideth them For in that there be but a few Peers left to assist their fellow-Peers they cannot spare a competent number out of a few those few also it may be feared in danger of being by degrees tempted either secretly to comply with the party tempting them if not to be wrought off yet to make them lesse zealous and constant to their own party The various wayes of tempting are not unknown and it is much that neither the fair promisings nor angry threatnings have more generally wrought In this continued course of their Accusings which they print at OXFORD and set forth to the publique view to possesse the world with the Justice of their Cause the Injustice of their Adversaries a Treaty notwithstanding is proposed for the composure of these differences for the setling a firm and happy Peace Commissioners appointed on either part and a place named for the dispatch thereof How the Treaty was carryed an OXFORD See the Book called A Relation of the Treaty at Vxbridge printed at Oxford Writer hath undertaken to state it truly which he might more easily then the Commissioners deputed to the businesse could carve out even terms whereon to ground a Peace when as there must be in every Quarrel one offending part one suffering more or lesse yet both seem willing by their meeting to conclude a Peace each party the Kings the Parliaments could not but discern the War would prove chargeable to the Subject the payments for maintaining it prove irksome unto all that many of their Friends would grow weary and fall off upon every light occasion or surmise of their being grieved and taxed with payments in case the War should last long they having no other reward of their Assistance but the uncertain event of a hoped for Peace That other of their Friends to avoid the miseries of a Civil War in this Kingdom would transplant themselves transport their Estates beyond Sea That there may be many Motives to desist from farther contending for the requiring an Accord and Peace many revolutions and vicissitudes of successe in War Prosperous begets Security keeps off a farther pursuit of Concurrency and Assistance as if the victory were already had and the War ended Advers breeds Discouragement in the common Souldier especially in a Civil War where they are inconstant to their own party and many of them ignorant of what they fight for Besides in the managing of an Army there be many Contingencies and crosse Accidents to impair their strength Commanders may want Fidelity common Souldiers pay or victual few or none an excuse to leave off the Service the War the longer it continues the more implacable and fierce the Enmity and that Friends do fall by the Sword as well as Enemies Each party might be unwilling to put it to the hazzard of a total Conquest by the Sword the contests about which could not but bring forth a total ruine and in the pursuit thereof the more the Conquering party shall prevail the more subject they are to divide and contend within themselves Victory being by nature * Victoria natura insolens superba Cicer. proud and by pride Contention cometh and the more potent and stout the Conquered party hath been the more prone to pride the Conquering will be That the War would not be alwayes doubtfully carried but that one side would sometimes have the upper hand and which side should begin to have the prevailing power must to continue and maintain that power do many things harsh Irksome and detrimental to the Subject as levying and imposing Taxes forcing the people even to the provoking displeasing of those who were not their Enemies withal that the weaker and more conquered party having lost their strength whether through Gods Judgement upon the injustice of their Cause or for some humane and more visible reasons would notwithstanding try all wayes and leave none unassayed to reinforce their strength the thirsting after Conquest being so extream and vehement either in plotting wicked or contriving fained and false pretexts that what honest and good means could not false and hellish must according to that desperate resolve of the Wretch in the Poet Flectere si nequeant superos Acheronta movebunt not caring though their wicked Machinations and attempts adde yet to the filling up the vials of Gods Wrath upon this Nation wherein they live These and the like considerations necessarily to have been foreseen might have moved against the wageing of a War at first much more against the continuing this War these and the Arguments above recited might after the effusion of much blood move to treat to prevent the shedding more A Treaty hath been agreed upon and PROPOSITIONS suited whereon to Treat the one side real and sincere to conclude a Peace exposed to the Publique view nothing to be objected against the reality of their meaning If on the other side there were reservations of fraud and a pretence only of Peace set forth to gain advantage by as there be presumptions to prove the same the pretenders can answer for themselves All ways are honest and fraud and falshood are vertues in Adversaries to Rebellion contending to subdue and scatter Rebels Peace is a pledge of Friendship and Friendship hath no other terms of intercourse then goodness as that there cannot be just * Amicitia est tantum inter bonos Arist Ethic. friendship had betwixt a good Subject and a Rebel no more then between an honest a leud man These Arguments of excusing this fraud may please and satisfie the party framing them and whether the Parliament and their Assistants in this War be Rebels needs no farther Treatise But to the PROPOSITIONS whereon the Treaty was to work and the Difference between those sent by the King and those sent by the Parliament Those that His Majesty insists upon are three 1. Church-Government by Episcopacy 2. Lyturgy and Common-Prayer Book 3. The Clergy to enjoy for a time their several Livings All which are matters of Form accidental and private concernment in respect of what the Parliament demands necessary for the Publique good namely The Protestant Religion The Businesse concerning IRELAND The Militia the security of the whole So the Contention rather the mistake grows about granting or refusing these betwixt the subject of which two demands there cannot be so great a difference as betwixt natural humanity to spare from killing and unnatural cruelty to persist in killing or so important as that Peace and War
the common good of the place wherein they live do negotiate and privily drive the Enemies interest like a viperous brood eating out the bowels of their parent by whom and under whose protection they live and have their being The mercy shewn to these is Cruelty to the rest and these mens mercies in case their party shall prevail will exceed what is called Cruelty The Concord should be as the Obligation is general and reciprocal for the mutual safety of the whole Body Politique the City hath a long time been as famous as any in EUROPE for their * More remarkably manifested in this instant happy and well framed Vnion and Agreement prudently preventing the mischiefs which might have befallen in case they had not agreed as an entire society notwithstanding the many and several sorts of divisions occasioned by these Commotions wisdom in all things expedient for their state dignity in their mutual traffique with all parts of Christendom and they are unworthy of their protection or to be entertained within their Limits who wisheth not their continual flourishing To divide thereby to lose so great a stake as the Publique good were a blemish to their Prudence Wisdom is more prone then folly to Dissention having in it a particle of Pride and self-conceit and naturally busie and curious in projecting in suspecting when as folly rests and contents it self with its own privations it faring commonly amongst the wiser sort of men as with the learneder of Physitians meeting to consult a Patients sicknesse Nomine eorum idem consente ne videatur Plinie accessio alterius until their dissenting in opinion disturbs and overthrows the Patients recovering hopes The City may differ in opinion about the means without disagreeing in their affections to the end the Common good and their own security involved therein least by crossing each others Acts and Councels they gain that to their Enemy which he thirsting for beyond and above half the Kingdom else cannot by his own wit and power As to their latter reason of these mens displeasure against the Parliament viz. their feeling of heavy payments or of one mans peradventure more heavy then his Neighbors It is a blessing and so it is termed that they and other parts of the Kingdom within the Jurisdiction of the Parliament do enjoy Peace within their Walls and Plenteousness within their Precincts as a Reward due for their Association and Accord although they pay for it whereas many Towns and Countreys elsewhere pay for dearly even to their undoings yet want that happinesse If amongst the rest of the partakers in this Quarrel Schollars the Clergy or a great part of them seem more Loyal more Affectionate to the King consequently the opposition being grown to the height more invective more advers to the Parliament upon a mistake had of the reason and end of the Parliaments proceedings concerning the Clergy the mistake is soon set right The Parliament in their just Estimate of what concerns the Clergy might have promoted the encouragement of Learning in a more equal distribution of Church-Livings then now it is without taking away the right of presentation from the true Patron yet by providing against the Lyon-like fellowship as the Proverb is Some all some never a whit or which is as bad that the more lazy and unlearned may not abound with what the more painful and learned want No indifferent man will think that there can be such an envy and disproportionate dealing in a prudent Laity endeavoring to Reform towards a learned Clergy the instrumental means of Reformation as that the one should check or discourage the growth and study of the other The wise and pious judgement of King James is yet fresh in memory which He left as a Legacy to Posterity of the esteem and reverence due and not to be denied to the Clergy of this Land speaking in His discourse of the Laws of this Kingdom of Gods own Laws which His Majesty did then complain were too much neglected and Church-men had too His speech in Star-Chamber in the 16. year of his Raign much in contempt for saith he great men Lords Judges and People of all sorts from the highest to the lowest have too much contemned them And God will not blesse us in our own Laws if we do not reverence his Law which cannot be except the Interpreters of it be respected and it is a sign of the later days drawing on even the contempt of the Church and of the Governors and Teachers thereof now in the Church of ENGLAND But of these kinde of advers persons last mentioned there be two sorts the one an ignorant and proud which commonly go together the more ignorant the more proud The Gale of their empty Tumour were retarded in their aspiring Course if their Bottoms were Ballassed with the solid part of man Humility The other a learned and judicious sort some of whom also may be Enemies making it a common Cause of engaging all Schollars against that Court on this surmise even now cleared That by the Parliaments endeavoring to restrain the Plurality of Church-Livings and the personal corruptions of Bishops all learning and the Seminaries thereof the Universities are discountenanced If the Universities partake of this adversnesse and disaffection as conceiving the Parliament would have made a more strict Inquisition into their Demeanor then the Visitors of Colledges their remisse Indulgency hath of latter times afforded The corruptions of those Seminaries is not so much of it self as of the negligent and discontinued over-sight in those whose proper charge it is to super-intend their course and maners Their Founders Munificent and Pious care from the first Institution of their benign intendments did purpose nothing more then an industrious and profitable course of life in the educating youth and fitting Schollars for the Church and Common-wealth which if the Founders purposes be through neglect and corruption of times perverted and that many the Fellows of Colledges there degenerating into a lazy and unprofitable life contrary to the Founders intent it were a blemish to the Government of a prudent and wise State finding out the Malady to passe it by without enquiring into the Cure Amongst the number of the parties in this Quarrel all mens Actions or Affections being engaged there be others advers enough although warily carrying it and disaffecting the one side to the heigth yet lying at a more subtile and close lock the Priscilianists Tu omnes Te nemo they know all men no man them and in their own eye play their game most cunningly contented to temper and tune their Tongues suitable to the persons with whom they do converse and to comply for the present with that side which they disaffect yet reserve an advers heart when opportunity shall serve These men should not take it ill if that side when prevailing shall deal with them in the like kinde to give them good words yet know them for their Enemies