by Your Letters Patents to make Sir John Brampston Chief Justice of Your Court of Kings Bench William Lenthal Esquire the now Speaker of the Commons House Master of the Rolls and to continue the Lord Chief Justice Banks Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas and likewise to make Master Serjeant Wilde Chief Baron of Your Court of Exchequer and that Master Justice Bacon may be continued and Master Serjeant Rolls and Master Serjeant Atkins made Justices of the Kings Bench that Master Justice Reeves and Master Justice Foster may be continued and Master Serjeant Phesant made one of Your Justices of Your Court of Common Pleas that Master Serjeant Creswel Master Samuel Brown and Master John Puleston may be Barons of the Exchequer and that all these and all the Judges of the same Courts for the time to come may hold their places by Letters Patents under the great great Seal quamdiu se bene gesserint and that the several persons not before named that do hold any of these places before mentioned may be removed IX That all such persons as have been put out of the Commissions of Peace or Oyer and Terminer or from being Custodes Rotulorum since the first day of April 1642. other than such as were put out by desire of both or either of the Houses of Parliament may again be put into those Commissions and Offices and such that persons may be put out of those Commissions and Offices as shall be excepted against by both Houses of Parliament X. That Your Majesty will be pleased to pass the Bill now presented to Your Majesty to vindicate and secure the Privileges of Parliament from the ill consequence of the late Precedent in the Charge and Proceeding against the Lord Kimbolton now Earl of Manchester and the five Members of the House of Commons XI That Your Majesty's Royal Assent may be given unto such Acts as shall be advised by both Houses of Parliament for the satisfying and paying the Debts and Damages wherein the two Houses of Parliament have ingaged the Publick Faith of the Kingdom XII That Your Majesty will be pleased according to a Gracious Answer heretofore received from You to enter into a more strict Alliance with the States of the United Provinces and other Neighbour Princes and States of the Protestant Religion for the defence and maintenance thereof against all designs and attempts of the Popish and Jesuitical Faction to subvert and suppress it whereby Your Subjects may hope to be free from the mischiefs which this Kingdom hath endured through the power which some of that Party have had in Your Counsels and will be much encouraged in a Parliamentary way for Your Aid and Assistance in restoring Your Royal Sister and the Prince Elector to those Dignities and Dominions which belong unto them and relieving the other distressed Protestant Princes who have suffered in the same Cause XIII That in the General Pardon which Your Majesty hath been pleased to offer to Your Subjects all Offences and Misdemeanours committed before the tenth of January 1641. which have been or shall be questioned or proceeded against in Parliament upon complaint in the House of Commons before the tenth of January 1643. shall be excepted which offences and misdemeanours shall never the less be taken and adjudged to be fully discharged against all other inferiour Courts That likewise there shall be an exception of all Offences committed by any person or Persons which hath or have had any hand or practice in the Rebellion of Ireland which hath or have given any counsel assistance or encouragement to the Rebels there for the maintenance of that Rebellion as likewise an exception of William Earl of Newcastle and George Lord Digby XIV That Your Majesty will be pleased to restore such Members of either House of Parliament to their several places of Services and Imployment out of which they have been put since the beginning of this Parliament that they may receive satisfaction and reparation for those places and for the profits which they have lost by such removals upon the Petition of both Houses of Parliament and that all others may be restored to their Offices and Imployments who have been put out of the same upon any displeasure conceived against them for any Assistance given to both Houses of Parliament or obeying their Commands or forbearing to leave their Attendance upon the Parliament without licence or for any other occasion arising from these unhappy Differences betwixt Your Majesty and both Houses of Parliament upon the like Petition of both Houses These things being granted and performed as it hath always been our hearty Prayer so shall we be enabled to make it our hopeful Endeavour That Your Majesty and Your People may enjoy the blessings of Peace Truth and Justice the Royalty and Greatness of Your Throne may be supported by the Loyal and bountiful Affections of Your People their Liberties and Privileges maintained by Your Majesty's Protection and Justice and this publick Honour and Happiness of Your Majesty and all Your Dominions communicated to other Churches and States of Your Alliance and derived to Your Royal Posterity and the future Generations in this Kingdom for ever H. Elsinge Cler. Parl. D. Com. His MAJESTY'S Answer to the Desires and Propositions of both Houses February the third 1642. Received at a Conference with the Lords February the sixth 1642. IF His Majesty had not given up all the faculties of His Soul to an earnest endeavour of a Peace and Reconciliation with His People or if He would suffer Himself by any Provocation to be drawn to a sharpness of Language at a time when there seems somewhat like an Overture of Accommodation He could not but resent the heavy charges upon Him in the Preamble of these Propositions and would not suffer Himself to be reproached with protecting of Delinquents by force from Justice His Majesty's desire having always been that all Men should be tryed by the known Law and having been refused it with raising an Army against His Parliament and to be told that Arms have been taken up against Him for the defence of Religion Laws Liberties Privileges of Parliament and for the sitting of the Parliament in safety with many other Particulars in that Preamble so often and so fully answered by His Majesty without remembring the world of the time and circumstances of raising those Arms against Him when His Majesty was so far from being in a condition to invade other mens Rights that He was not able to maintain and defend His own from violence and without telling His good Subjects that their Religion the true Protestant Religion in which His Majesty was born hath faithfully lived and to which He will die a willing Sacrifice their Laws Liberties Priviledges and safety of Parliament were so amply settled and established or offered to be so by His Majesty before any Army was raised against Him and long before any raised by Him for His defence that if nothing had
Court Your Lordship was pleased to give him a further day to consider and to put in his Answer which day being yesterday I did humbly move that he might be required to give a direct and positive Answer either by denying or confession of it But my Lord he was then pleased for to demur to the Jurisdiction of the Court which the Court did then over-rule and command him to give a direct and positive Answer My Lord besides this great delay of Justice I shall now humbly move your Lordship for speedy Judgment against him My Lord I might press your Lordship upon the whole that according to the known rules of the Law of the Land That if a Prisoner shall stand as contumacious in contempt and shall not put in an issuable Plea guilty or not guilty of the Charge given against him whereby he may come to a fair Tryal that as by an implicite confession it may be taken pro confesso as it hath been done to those who have deserved more favour than the Prisoner at the Bar has done But besides my Lord I shall humbly press your Lordship upon the whole fact The House of Commons the Supreme Authority and Jurisdiction of the Kingdom they have declared That it is notorious that the matter of the Charge is true as it is in truth my Lord as clear as Crystal and as the Sun that shines at noon day which if your Lordship and the Court be not satisfied in I have notwithstanding on the People of England's behalf several Witnesses to produce And therefore I do humbly pray and yet I must confess it is not so much I as the innocent blood that hath been shed the Cry whereof is very great for Justice and Judgment and therefore I do humbly pray that speedy Judgment be pronounced against the Prisoner at the Bar. Bradshaw went on in the same strain Sir you have heard what is moved by the Counsel on the behalf of the Kingdom against you Sir you may well remember and if you do not the Court cannot forget what dilatory dealings the Court hath found at your hands You were pleased to propound some Questions you have had your Resolution upon them You were told over and over again that the Court did affirm their own Jurisdiction That it was not for you nor any other man to dispute the Jurisdiction of the supreme and highest Authority of England from which there is no Appeal and touching which there must be no dispute yet you did persist in such carriage as you gave no manner of Obedience nor did you acknowledge any authority in them nor the High Court that constituted this Court of Justice Sir I must let you know from the Court that they are very sensible of these delays of yours and that they ought not being thus authorized by the supreme Court of England to be thus trifled withal and that they might in Justice if they pleased and according to the rules of Justice take advantage of these delays and proceed to pronounce Judgment against you yet nevertheless they are pleased to give direction and on their behalfs I do require you that you make a positive Answer unto this Charge that is against you Sir in plain terms for Justice knows no respect of Persons you are to give your positive and final Answer in plain English whether you be guilty or not guilty of these Treasons laid to your Charge The King after a little pause said When I was here yesterday I did desire to speak for the Liberties of the People of England I was interrupted I desire to know yet whether I may speak freely or not Bradshaw Sir you have had the Resolution of the Court upon the like Question the last day and you were told That having such a Charge of so high a nature against you your work was that you ought to acknowledge the Jurisdiction of the Court and to answer to your Charge Sir if you answer to your Charge which the Court gives you leave now to do though they might have taken the advantage of your Contempt yet if you be able to answer to your Charge when you have once answered you shall be heard at large make the best Defence you can But Sir I must let you know from the Court as their Commands that you are not to be permitted to issue out into any other discourses till such time as you have given a positive Answer concerning the matter that is charged upon you KING For the Charge I value it not a rush It is the Liberty of the People of England that I stand for For Me to acknowledge a new Court that I never heard of before I that am your King that should be an Example to all the People of England for to uphold Justice to maintain the old Laws indeed I do not know how to do it You spoke very well the first day that I came here on Saturday of the Obligations that I had laid upon Me by God to the maintenance of the Liberties of My People the same Obligation you spake of I do acknowledge to God that I owe to Him and to My People to defend as much as in Me lies the ancient Laws of the Kingdom therefore until that I may know that this is not against the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom by your favour I can put in no particular Charge If you will give Me time I will shew you My Reasons why I cannot do it and this Here being interrupted He said By your favour you ought not to interrupt Me. How I came here I know not there 's no Law for it to make your King your Prisoner I was in a Treaty upon the Publick Faith of the Kingdom that was the known two Houses of Parliament that was the Representative of the Kingdom and when that I had almost made an end of the Treaty then I was hurried away and brought hither and therefore Bradshaw Sir you must know the pleasure of the Court. KING By your favour Sir Bradshaw Nay Sir by your favour you may not be permitted to fall into those discourses you appear as a Delinquent you have not acknowledged the Authority of the Court The Court craves it not of you but once more they command you to give your positive Answer Clerk Do your Duty KING Duty Sir The Clerk reads Charles Stuart King of England you are accused in the behalf of the Commons of England of divers high Crimes and Treasons which Charge hath been read unto you the Court now requires you to give your positive and final Answer by way of Confession or Denial of the Charge KING Sir I say again to you so that I might give satisfaction to the People of England of the clearness of My Proceeding not by way of Answer not in this way but to satisfie them that I have done nothing against that Trust that hath been committed to Me I would do it but to acknowledge a new Court against their
for Grievances Committees for Courts of Justice and Committees for Trade have since the sitting down of the Parliament received few complaints and those such as they themselves have not thought to be of that moment or importance with which Our ears should be acquainted No sooner therefore was the Parliament set down but these ill-affected men began to sow and disperse their Jealousies by casting out some glances and doubtful speeches as if the Subject had not been so clearly and well dealt with touching their Liberties and touching the Petition answered the last Parliament This being a plausible Theme thought on for an ill purpose easily took hold on the minds of many that knew not the practice And thereupon the second day of the Parliament a Committee was appointed to search whether the Petition and Our Answer thereunto were enrolled in the Parliament Roll and in the Courts at Westminster and in what manner the same was done And a day was then also appointed on which the House being resolved into a Committee should take into consideration those things wherein the Liberty of the Subject had been invaded against that Petition This though it produced no other effect of moment or importance yet was sufficient to raise a jealousie against Our Proceedings in such as were not well acquainted with the sincerity and clearness of them There followed another of no less skill for although Our proceeding before the Parliament about matters of Religion might have satisfied any moderate men of Our zealous care thereof as We are sure it did the most yet as bad stomachs turn the best things into their own nature for want of good digestion so those distempered persons have done the like of Our good intents by a bad and sinister interpretation For when they did observe that many honest and Religious minds in that House did complain of those dangers that did threaten the Church they likewise took the same word in their mouth and their cry likewise was Templum Domini Templum Domini when the true care of the Church never came into their hearts and what the one did out of zeal unto Religion the other took up as a plausible Theme to deprave Our Government as if We Our Clergy and Council were either senseless or careless of Religion And this wicked practice hath been to make Us seem to walk before Our people as if We halted before God Having by these Artifices made a jealous impression in the hearts of many and a day being appointed to treat of the Grant of Tonnage and Poundage at the time prefixed all express great willingness to grant it but a new strain is found out that it could not be done without great peril to the Right of the Subject unless We should disclaim any right therein but by Grant in Parliament and should cause all those goods to be restored which upon Commandment from Us or Our Council were stayed by Our Officers until those duties were payed and consequently should put Our self out of possession of the Tonnage and Poundage before they were granted for else it was pretended the Subject stood not in fit case to grant it A fancy and cavil raised of purpose to trouble the business it being evident that all the Kings before named did receive that duty and were in actual possession of it before and at the very time when it was granted to them by Parliament And although We to remove all difficulties did from Our own mouth in those clear and open terms that might have satisfied any moderate and well-disposed minds declare that it was Our meaning by the gift of Our people to enjoy it and that We did not challenge it of right but took it de bene esse shewing thereby not the right but the necessity by which We were to take it wherein We descended for their satisfaction so far beneath Our self as We are confident never any of Our Predecessors did the like nor was the like ever required or expected from them yet for all this the Bill of Tonnage and Poundage was laid aside upon pretence they must first clear the right of the Subject therein under colour whereof they entertain the complaints not only of John Rolls a member of their House but also of Richard Chambers John Fowkes and Bartholomew Gilman against the Officers of Our Customs for detaining their goods upon refusal to pay the ordinary duty accustomed to be paid for the same And upon these complaints they send for the Officers of the Customs enforcing them to attend day after day by the space of a month together they cause them to produce their Letters Patents under Our great Seal and the Warrants made by Our Privy Council for levying of those duties they examine the Officers upon what questions they please thereby to entrap them for doing Our Service and Commandment In these and other their Proceedings because We would not give the least shew of interruption We endured long with much patience both these and sundry other strange and exorbitant incroachments and usurpations such as were never before attempted in that House We are not ignorant how much that House hath of late years endeavoured to extend their Priviledges by setting up general Committees for Religion for Courts of Justice for Trade and the like a course never heard of until of late so as where in former times the Knights and Burgesses were wont to communicate to the House such business as they brought from their Countries now there are so many Charis erected to make enquiry upon all sorts of men where complaints of all sorts are entertained to the unsufferable disturbance and scandal of Justice and Government which having been tolerated a while by Our Father and Our self hath daily grown to more and more height insomuch as young Lawyers sitting there take on them to decry the Opinions of the Judges and some have not doubted to maintain that the resolutions of that House must bind the Judges a thing never heard of in Ages past But in this last Assembly of Parliament they have taken on them much more than ever before They sent Messengers to examine Our Attorney General who is an Officer of trust and secrecy touching the execution of some Commandments of Ours of which without Our leave first obtained he was not to give account to any but to Our self They sent a captious and directory message to the Lord Treasurer Chancellor and Barons of the Exchequer touching some judicial proceedings of theirs in Our Court of Exchequer They sent Messengers to examine upon sundry questions Our two chief Justices and three other of Our Judges touching their judicial proceedings at the Gaol-Delivery at Newgate of which they are not accomptable to the House of Commons And whereas Suits were commenced in Our Court of Star-Chamber against Richard Chambers John Fowkes Bartholomew Gilman and Richard Philips by Our Attorney General for great misdemeanors they resolved that they were to have Priviledge of Parliament against Us
with Our Originals and saw the Names of all the Council-subscribers as well as the two Lords Justices some of which Councellors were of principal estimation with themselves and they might also have had Copies of their Names who subscribed if they would have assured Our Commissioners that such of them as should have come into their Quarters should not have been prejudiced by it yet the extremity of Our poor English Subjects inducing that Cessation being so notorious and that attestation thereof undeniable they fall at last to confess and avoid them they say That some who were of the Council when those Letters were written assure them that those Letters were written only to press for Supplies without any intention of inducing a Cessation neither do the Letters contain any mention of a Cessation It is true those Letters do not nor was it alledged they did mention any Cessation but they pressed for Supplies from hence and laid open their Necessities to be such that it was apparent to any Man as We had also private advices from some of the Council there and of credit with those at Westminster that if Supplies failed there was no way for the preservation of Our good Subjects there but by a Cessation And these bleeding Wants of Our Army and good Subjects there so earnestly calling for Relief and this Kingdom being then ingaged in the height of an unnatural War Our selves unable to supply them and no timely supply nor hopes of it coming from the two Houses what course less dishonourable for Us or more for the good and safety of the poor English there could be taken than to admit of a Treaty for a Cessation which was managed by Our publick Ministers of State there and that Cessation assented unto as best for that Kingdom by the chief Officers of the Army and the Lords Justices and Council of Ireland before Our Approbation thereof They say that those Necessities were made by a design of the Popish and Prelatical Party the Prelatical Party must come in upon all turns though none suffered more by the Irish Rebellion nor were less advantaged by the Cessation than those poor Prelates and that at this very time when the Protestants were in such Extremity Provisions sent thither by the Parliament for their Relief were disposed of and afforded to the Rebels The Letters of the Lords Justices and Council tell Us that no Provisions at all were sent by the Parliament and if they had not told it yet this being barely affirmed might as easily be denied unless they had instanced in particular what Provisions were sent and how and when and by whom or to whom they were disposed But they say that at the same time the Officers of the Army and Garrisons pressing for leave to march into the Enemies Countrey to live upon them and save their own stores some could not obtain leave to go and those who were drawn forth had great quantities of Provisions out with them yet were not permitted to go into the Enemies Countrey but kept near Dublin till their Provisions were spent and then commanded back again They might remember at that time wherein they suppose this miscarriage the chief manage of those Affairs was in the hands of such Ministers of State whom they did and do still rely upon but sure those Ministers are not to be blamed if they durst not suffer the Soldier to march far or stay long in the Enemies Countrey when there was but forty Barrels of Powder in all the Store or if they called them back in such case when the Enemy approached Let such as these or what other pretences and excuses soever be made for not relieving Ireland We are sure the chief Impediment to it was their active promoting this Rebellion in England And therefore as they made use of the Supplies both of Men and Money provided for that Kingdom against Us at Edge-hill so from the time of that Battel some Supplies sent before which else perhaps had been also countermanded arriving in Ireland about the time or shortly after that Battel they were so careful of recruiting and supplying their Armies here that though they received much Moneys for Ireland and had at their disposal great store of Our Ammunition neither the one nor the other was ever after afforded to the English Army and Forces or to the Protestants about Dublin though the Cessation was not made till September following As for those Protestants in Munster Connaught and Ulster who they say opposed the Cessation and did and do still subsist they were most of them of Our Scotish Subjects the rest excepting some few wrought upon by private interest or particular solicitation were such who being under their Power were forced for their relief to concur with them against it These indeed as they did not suffer under so great Wants as the English at the time of the Cessation as is well known though it seem to be denied more special Provisions being made for them and for their Garrisons than for the English as doth in great part appear even by the Articles of their Treaty of the sixth of August so they have since subsisted by Supplies sent from the two Houses whereof none were suffered to partake but such as take their new Covenant and doubly break the Bonds of their Obedience and Duty both by taking that dangerous ensnaring Oath prohibited by God and their King and opposing Our Ministers of State there without whose Authority a Cessation being concluded during that Cessation they ought not to have continued a War in that Kingdom We easily believe the Provisions they mention are or may be sent for supply of those Forces as being a means to keep up a Party against Us there and to have a Reserve of an Army ready upon any accidents of War to be drawn hither against Us and being also necessary for the satisfaction of Our Scotish Subjects whom they must please who would not be so forward in their Service without some good assurance such as is the having an Army of theirs kept on foot in Ireland at the charge of this Kingdom and two of Our strongest Towns and Castles there delivered to them Cautionary Towns as We may believe Berwick also is being denied the sight of that Treaty and by the Command of all the English Forces there by the General of the Scots that they shall be well pay'd the Arrears to the Armies in both Kingdoms before they quit their Interest in Ireland If We shall allow Provisions thus imployed to be for the preservation of the English Protestants in Ireland We may believe they have repay'd the 100000. l. taken up of the Adventurers Money and yet thus to re-satisfie this Money admitting it be current satisfaction for the Debt can be no satisfaction or excuse for the former Diversion But since they cannot excuse themselves for this Diversion of the Adventurers Money nor of the other Moneys raised for Ireland nor of the imploying the
great offence of enacting any thing against my Conscience and especially from consenting to Sacrilegious Rapines and spoilings of thy Church If Thou wilt restore Me to a capacity to glorifie Thee in doing good both to the Church and State Then shall my Soul praise Thee and magnifie thy Name before my People Then shall thy Glory be dearer to Me than my Crowns and the advancement of true Religion both in purity and power be my chiefest care Then will I rule My People with Justice and My Kingdoms with Equity To thy more immediate hand shall I ever owe as the rightful Succession so the merciful Restauration of My Kingdoms and the glory of them If Thou wilt bring Me again with Peace Safety and Honour to my chiefest City and My Parliament If Thou wilt again put the Sword of Justice into My hand to punish and protect Then will I make all the world to see and my very Enemies to enjoy the benefit of this Vow and Resolution of Christian Charity which I now make unto Thee O Lord. As I do freely pardon for Christ's sake those that have offended Me in any kind so my hand shall never be against any man to revenge what is past in regard of any particular injury done to Me. We have been mutually punished in our unnatural Divisions for thy sake O Lord and for the love of my Redeemer have I purposed this in my heart That I will use all means in the ways of Amnestie and Indemnity which may most fully remove all Fears and bury all Jealousies in forgetfulness Let thy Mercies be toward Me and Mine as my resolutions of Truth and Peace are toward my People Hear my Prayer O Lord which goeth not out of feigned lips Blessed be God who hath not turned away my Prayer nor taken his Mercy from Me. O my Soul commit thy way to the Lord trust in him and he shall bring it to pass But if Thou wilt not restore Me and Mine what am I that I should charge Thee foolishly Thou O Lord hast given and thou hast taken Blessed be thy Name May my People and thy Church be happy if not by Me yet without Me. XXVI Vpon the Armies Surprizal of the KING at Holdenby and the ensuing Distractions in the Two Houses the Army and the City WHat part God will have Me now to act or suffer in this new and strange scene of affairs I am not much solicitous some little practice will serve that man who only seeks to represent a part of Honesty and Honour This surprize of Me tells the world that a KING cannot be so low but he is considerable adding weight to that Party where he appears This motion like others of the Times seems eccentrick and irregular yet not well to be resisted or quieted Better swim down such a stream than in vain to strive against it These are but the struglings of those Twins which lately one Womb enclosed the younger striving to prevail against the elder what the Presbyterians have hunted after the Independents now seek to catch for themselves So impossible is to for lines to be drawn from the Center and not to divide from each other so much the wider by how much they go farther from the point of union That the Builders of Babel should from Division fall fall to Confusion is no wonder but for those that pretend to build Jerusalem to divide their tongues and hands is but an ill omen and sounds too like the fury of those Zealots whose intestine bitterness and divisions were the greatest occasion of the last fatal destruction of that City Well may I change My Keepers and Prison but not my captive Condition only with this hope of bettering that those who are so much professed Patrons for the Peoples Liberties cannot be utterly against the Liberty of their KING What they demand for their own Consciences they cannot in reason deny to Mine In this they seem more ingenuous than the Presbyterian Rigor who sometimes complaining of exacting their conformity to Laws are become the greatest Exactors of other mens submission to their novel injunctions before they are stamped with the Authority of Laws which they cannot well have without My Consent 'T is a great argument that the Independents think themselves manumitted from their Rivals service in that they carry on a business of such consequence as the assuming My Person into the Armies custody without any Commission but that of their own Will and Power Such as will thus adventure on a KING must not be thought over-modest or timorous to carry on any design they have a mind to Their next motion menaces and scares both the Two Houses and the City which soon after acting over again that former part of tumultuary motions never questioned punished or repented must now suffer for both and see their former Sin in the glass of the present Terrors and Distractions No man is so blind as not to see herein the hand of Divine Justice they that by Tumults first occasioned the raising of Armies must now be chastened by their own Army for new Tumults So hardly can men be content with one sin but add sin to sin till the latter punish the former Such as were content to see Me and many Members of both Houses driven away by the first unsuppressed Tumults are now forced to fly to an Army or defend themselves against them But who can unfold the riddle of some mens Justice The Members of both Houses who at first withdrew as My self was forced to do from the rudeness of the Tumults were counted Desertors and outed of their Places in Parliament such as stayed then and enjoyed the benefit of the Tumults were asserted for the only Parliament-men Now the Fliers from and Forsakers of their Places carry the Parliamentary power along with them complain highly against the Tumults and vindicate themselves by an Army such as remained and kept their stations are looked upon as Abettors of tumultuary insolencies and betrayers of the freedom and honour of Parliament Thus is Power above all Rule Order and Law where men look more to present Advantages than their Consciences and the unchangeable rules of Justice while they are Judges of others they are forced to condemn themselves Now the Plea against Tumults holds good the Authors and Abettors of them are guilty of prodigious Insolencies whenas before they were counted as Friends and necessary Assistants I see Vengeance pursues and overtakes as the Mice and Rats are said to have done a Bishop in Germany them that thought to have escaped and fortified themselves most impregnably against it both by their Multitude and Compliance Whom the Laws cannot God will punish by their own Crimes and hands I cannot but observe this Divine Justice yet with sorrow and pity for I always wished so well to Parliament and City that I was sorry to see them do or suffer any thing unworthy such great and considerable Bodies in this Kingdom I was glad to
Martyrdom Jan. 30. 1648 9. p. 206 APPENDIX Concerning Church-Government Of the Differences between His Majesty and the two Houses in point of Church-Government See Icon Basil XVII p. 687 The Papers which passed betwixt His Majesty and Henderson concerning the Change of Church-Government 1646. p. 75 The Papers which passed betwixt His Majesty and the Divines attending the Commissioners of both Houses at Newport 1648. Append. p. 612 seqq THE END The Duke of Lenox the Earl of Arran in Scotland Some Writers who since have been convinced of their misinformation have named amongst those seven Lords the Lord Bruce Earl of Elgin but his Lordship upon the first notice of this report did to several Persons of Quality and Honour he conversed with and since hath affirmed to me that he was not then present and that his heart could never consent to the shedding of the blood of that excellent Prelate * A full Answer †The Regal Apology His Majestie 's Religion His Justice His Clemency His Fortitude His Patience His Humility His Choice of Ministers of State His Affection to His People His Obliging Converse His Fidelity His Chastity His Temperance His Frugality His Intellectual Abilities His Skill in all Arts. His Eloquence His Political Prudence The Censure of His Fortune A Presage of His Fall and the future State of the Royal Family His Recreations The Features of His Body His Children Acts 14. 23. Acts 6. 6. 1 Cor. 16. 1. 1 Cor. 14. 1 Cor. 5. 5. 3 Joh. 9 10. 1 Tim. 5. 22. Tit. 1. 5. Revel 2. 3. 1 Tim. 5. 19. Tit. 3. 10. * 5 15 26 29. of Decemb. 84 15. of Jan. 1645. * Jan. 23. 2 Feb. Passed by the Fag-end of the House of Commons Jan. 4. having been cast out by the Lords Jan. 2. Hereabout I was stopt and not suffered to speak any more concerning Reasons * defiance * Answer * four for it seems some came in after Here a Lady interposed saying Not half the People but was silenced with threats Upon the Earl of Strafford Pointing to the Bishop Turning to some Gentlemen that wrote Pointing to the Bishop These words were spoken upon occasion of private Discourse between His Majesty and the Bishop concerning the several Stages of man's life and his course through them in allusion to Posts and Stages in a Race * Cook 7. Report Calvin's Case Mr. Stroud Mr. Pym. Sir John Biron Lord Say His Majesty's gracious Message to both Houses of Parliament sent from Nottingham Aug. 25. 1642. by the Earls of Southampton and Dorset Sr. John Culpeper Chancellor of the Exchequer and Sr. William Vdal The Answer of the Lords and Commons to His Majesty's Message the 25. of Aug. 1642. His Majesty's Reply to an Answer sent by the two Houses of Parliament to His Majesty's Message of the 25 of August concerning a Treaty of Accommodation The humble Answer and Petition of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament unto the Kings last Message The humble Answer of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament unto His Majesty's last Message Message of Feb. 20. * to the Votes of both Houses and to their desire of a safe Conâ—uct His Majesty's Message of Apr. 12. at the end of the Treaty Inserted before pag. 353. * were presently His Majesty's Message replying to this Paper is inserted before p. 250. In His Message of April 12. pag. 353. Pag. 353. April 5. * The fourth of Edward the Third Artic. 1. against Roger Mortimer The King had put to him four Bishops four Earls and four Barons without whose consent or of four of them no great business was to be transacted Rot. Parliam 13 E. 3. N. 15 16. The whole Navy disposed of by Parliament N. 13 14. Admirals appointed and Instructions given to them N. 32. Instructions for the defence of Jersey and a Deputy-Governour appointed in Parliament N. 35. Souldiers of York Nottingham c. to go at the cost of the Countrey and what they are to do N. 36. A Clark appointed for payment of their wages by the oversight of the Lord Percy and Nevil N. 38. Sir Walter Creak appointed Keeper of Berwick N. 39. Sir Tho. de Wake appointed to set forth the Array of Soldiers for the County of York and N. 40 41 42 43. others for other Counties 14 E. 3. N. 36. The Parliament agreeth that in the Kings absence the Duke of Cornwal shall be Keeper of England N. 35. They appoint the Archbishop of Canterbury the Earls of Lancaster Warren and Huntington Councellors to the Duke with power to call such others as they shall think fit N. 19. Certain appointed to keep the Islands and Sea-coasts N. 42. The Lord of Mowbray appointed Keeper of Berwick N. 48. Commission to the Lord Mowbray of the Justices of Lentham N. 53 54 c. Commissions of Array to the Earl of Angois and others 15 E. 3. N. 15. That the Chancellors chief Justices Treasurers Chancellors and Barons of the Exchequer c. may be chosen in open Parliament and there openly sworn to observe the Laws Answer thus That as they sall by death or otherwise it shall be so done in the choice of a new with your assents c. 50 E. 3. N. 10 11. Ordered in Parliament That the King should have at the least ten or twelve Counsellors without whom no weighty matters should pass c. N. 15. A Commission to the L. Percy and others to appoint able persons for the defence of the Marches of the East-Riding 1. R. 2. N. 18 19. The Parliament wholly disposeth of the Education of the King and of the Officers c. N. 51. Officers for Gascoign Ireland and Artois Keepers of the Ports Castles c. 2. R. 2. Rot. Parl. par 2. artic 39. The Admiralty N. 37. In a Schedule is contained the order of the E. of Northumb. and others for the defence of the North Sea-coasts and confirmed in Parliament 6 R. 2. N. 11. The Proffer of the Bishop of Norwich to keep the Sca-coasts and accepted in Parliament 8 R. 2. 11 16. The names of the chief Officers of the Kingdom to be known to the Parliament and not to be removed without just cause 11 R. 2. N. 23. No persons to be about the King or intermeddle with the Affairs of the Realm other than such as be appointed by Parliament 15 R. 2. N. 15. The Commons name the person to treat of a Peace with the Kings enemies Rot. Parl. 1 H. 4. N. 106. That the King will appoint able Captains in England and Wales Stat. 4. H. 4. cap. 31 32 33. printed The Welch-men shall bear Office 5 H. 4. N. 16. The King at the request of the Commons removed his Confessor and three other Men from about him N. 37. At the request of the Commons nameth divers Privy-Councellors 7 and 8 H. 4 26. Power given to the Merchants to name two persons to be Admirals 7 and 8 H. 4. N. 31. Councellors appointed by
from which We could never have been secured by declaring That no Member of either House upon any Accusation of Treason could have his Person seized without the Consent of that House of which he is a Member though the known Law be That Privilege of Parliament extends not to Treason and if it did any Member the House being for a short time adjourned and so their Consent not being so had how treasonable soever his Intentions were how clearly soever known and how suddenly soever to be executed must have fair leave given him to go on and pursue them no way how Legal soever after the passing such a Clause being left to prevent it To conclude We conjure you and all men to rest satisfied with the Truth of Our Professions and the Reality of Our Intentions not to ask such things as deny themselves that you declare against Tumults and punish the Authors that you allow Us Our Propriety in Our Towns Arms and Goods and Our share in the Legislative Power which would be counted in Us not only breach of Privilege but Tyranny and Subversion of Parliaments to deny to you And when you shall have given Us satisfaction upon those Persons who have taken away the one and recalled those Declarations particularly that of the 26. of May and those in the point of the Militia Our just Rights wherein We will no more part with then with Our Crown lest We enable others by them to take that from Us which would take away the other and declined the beginnings of a War against Us under pretence of Our Intention of making one against you as We have never opposed the first part of the Thirteenth Demand so We shall be ready to concurre with you in the latter And being then confident that the Credit of those men who desire a general Combustion will be so weakned with you that they will not be able to do this Kingdom any more harm We shall be willing to grant Our general Pardon with such Exceptions as shall be thought fit and shall receive much more joy in the hope of a full and constant Happiness of Our People in the True Religion and under the Protection of the Law by a blessed Union between Us and Our Parliament so much desired by Us then in any such increase of Our own Revenue how much soever beyond former Grants as when Our Subjects were wealthiest Our Parliament could have settled upon Us. His MAJESTIES Declaration made the 13 of June 1642. to the Lords attending his Majesty at York and to others of His Majesties Privy Council there Together with their Promise thereupon subscribed by them Charles R. WE do declare That We will not require nor exact any Obedience from you but what shall be warranted by the known Law of the Land as We do expect that you shall not yield to any Commands not legally grounded or imposed by any other And We do further declare That We will defend every one of you and all such as shall refuse any such Commands whether they proceed from Votes and Orders of both Houses or any other way from all dangers and hazards whatsoever And We do further declare That We will defend the true Protestant Religion established by the Law of the Land the lawful Liberties of the Subjects of England and just Privileges of all the three Estates of Parliament and shall require no further Obedience from you then as accordingly We shall perform the same And We do declare That we will not as is falsly pretended engage you or any of you in any War against the Parliament except it be for Our necessary defence and safety against such as do insolently invade or attempt against Us or such as shall adhere to Us. York 13. Junii 1642. The Promise of the said Lords and others WE do engage our selves not to obey any Orders or Commands whatsoever not warranted by the known Laws of the Land We do engage our selves to defend Your MAJESTIES Person Crown and Dignity together with Your Majesties Just and Legal Prerogative against all persons and power whatsoever We will defend the true Protestant Religion established by the Law of the Land the lawful Liberties of the Subject of England and just Priviledges of Your Majesty and both Your Houses of Parliament And lastly we engage our selves not to obey any Rule Order or Ordinance whatsoever concerning any Militia that hath not the Royal Assent York 13. Junii 1642. Subscribed by Lord Keeper L. D. of Richmond L. Marquess Hartford E. of Lindsey E. of Cumberland E. of Huntington E. of Bath E. of Southampton E. of Dorset E. of Salisbury E. of Northampton E. of Devonshire E. of Cambridge E. of Bristol E. of Westmorland E. of Berkshire E. of Monmouth E. of Rivers E. of Newcastle E. of Dover E. of Carnarvon E. of Newport L. Mowbray and Maltravers L. Willoughby of Eresby L. Rich. L. Ch. Howard of Charleton L. Newark L. Paget L. Chandos L. Falconbridge L. Paulet L. Lovelace L. Savile L. Coventry L. Mohun L. Dunsmore L. Seymour L. Grey of Ruthen L. Capell L. Falkland Mr. Comptroller Mr. Secretary Nicholas Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer L. Chief Justice Banks His MAJESTY's Declaration to all His loving Subjects occasioned by a false and scandalous Imputation laid upon His Majesty of an intention of Raising or Levying War against His Parliament and of having raised Force to that end Published at His Court at York the 16 day of June THough We have these last seven months met with so many several Encounters of strange and unusual Declarations under the names of both Our Houses of Parliament that we should not be amazed at any new Prodigy of that kind and though their last of the six and twentieth of May gave Us a fair warning that the Contrivers of it having spent all their stock of bitter and reproachful Language upon Us We were to expect they should now break out into some bold and disloyal Actions against Us and having by that Declaration as far as in them lies divested Us of that Preeminence and Authority which God the Law the Custom and Consent of this Nation had placed in Us and assumed it to themselves that they should likewise with expedition put forth the fruits of that supreme Power for the violating and suppressing that Power they despised an effect of which Resolution of their wild Declaration against Our Proclamation concerning the pretended Ordinance for the Militia and the punishing of the Proclaimers appears to be yet We must confess in their last Attempt We speak of the last We know they may probably since or at this present have outdone that too they have outdone what We conceive was their present intention and whosoever hears of Propositions and Orders for bringing in of Money or Plate to maintain Horse Horsemen and Arms for the preservation of the publick Peace or for the Defence of the King and both Houses of Parliament such is their Declaration or what else
Our Court at York this 15. of June 1642. The Declaration and Profession of the Lords now at York and others of His Majesty's most Honourable Privy Council disavowing that they see any apparence of Preparations or Intentions in His Majesty to levy War against the Parliament WE whose names are under-written in Obedience to His Majesty's Desire and out of the Duty which we owe to His Majesty's Honour and to Truth being here upon the place and witnesses of His Majesty's frequent and earnest Declarations and Professions of His abhorring all Designs of making War upon His Parliament and not seeing any colour of Preparations or Counsels that might reasonably beget the belief of any such Design do profess before God and testifie to all the World that we are fully perswaded that His Majesty hath no such Intentions but that all His Endeavours tend to the firm and constant settlement of the true Protestant Religion the just Privileges of Parliament the Liberty of the Subject the Law Peace and Prosperity of this Kingdom York June 15. 1642. Subscribed by Lord Keeper L. D. of Richmond L. Marquess Hartford L. Great Chamberlain E. of Cumberland E. of Bath E. of Southampton E. of Dorset E. of Salisbury E. of Northampton E. of Devon E. of Cambridge E. of Bristol E. of Clare E. of Westmorland E. of Berkshire E. of Monmouth E. of Rivers E. of Dover E. of Carnarven E. of Newport L. Mowbray Maltravers L. Willoughby L. Grey of Ruthen L. C. Howard Andover L. Lovelace L. Paget L. Falconberge L. Rich. L. Paulet L. Newark L. Coventry L. Savile L. Mohun L. Dunsmore L. Seymour L. Capel L. Falkland Mr. Comptroller Mr. Secretary Nicholas Mr. Chancel of the Exchequer L. Chief Justice Banks MDCXLII June 8. By the King A Proclamation forbidding all Levies of Forces without his MAJESTY's express Pleasure signified under His Great Seal and all Contributions or Assistance to any such Levies WHereas under pretence that We intend to make War against the Parliament the contrary whereof is notoriously known to all that are here and as We hope by this time apparent to all other Our Subjects as well by Our Declaration of the sixteenth of June as by the Testimony of all Our Nobility and Council who are here upon the place and by colour of the Authority of both Houses of Parliament a major part whereof are now absent from London by the contrivance of some few evil persons disguising and colouring their pernicious Designs and hostile Preparations under the plausible names of the preservation of publick Peace and defence of Vs and both Houses of Parliament from Force and violence it hath been endeavoured to raise Troops of Horse and other Forces And for that purpose they have prevailed not only to prohibit Our own Moneys to be paid to Us or to Our use but by the Name and Authority of Parliament to excite Our Subjects to contribute their Assistance to them by bringing in Moneys Plate or under-writing to furnish and maintain Horses Horsemen and Arms and to that purpose certain Propositions or Orders as they are styled by them have been printed whereby they have endeavoured to engage the Power and Authority of Parliament as if the two Houses without Us had that Power and Authority to save harmless all those that shall so contribute from all Prejudice and Inconvenience that may befall them by occasion thereof And although We well hope that these Malignant persons whose Actions do now sufficiently declare their former Intentions will be able to prevail with few of Our good People to contribute their Power or Assistance unto them Yet lest any of Our Subjects taking upon trust what those men affirm without weighing the grounds of it or the danger to Us themselves and the Commonwealth which would ensue thereupon should indeed believe what these persons would insinuate and have them to believe that such their Contribution and Assistance would tend to the preservation of the publick Peace and the Defence of Us and both Houses of Parliament and that thereby they should not incur any danger We that We might not be wanting as much as in Us lyeth to foreshew and to prevent the danger which may fall thereupon have hereby thought good to declare and publish unto all Our loving Subjects That by the Laws of the Land the power of raising of Forces or Arms or levying of War for the defence of the Kingdom or otherwise hath always belonged to Us and to Us only and that by no Power of either or both Houses of Parliament or otherwise contrary to Our personal Commands any Forces can be raised or any War levied And therefore by the Statute of the seventh year of Our famous Progenitor King Edward the First whereas there had been then some variances betwixt Him and some great Lords of the Realm and upon Treaty thereupon it was agreed that in the next Parliament after provision should be made that in all Parliaments and all other Assemblies which should be in the Kingdom for ever every man should come without Force and Armour well and peaceably yet at the next Parliament when they met together to take advice of this Business though it concerned the Parliament it self the Lords and Commons would not take it upon them but answered That it belonged to the King to defend force of Armour and all other force against the Peace at all times when it pleased Him and to punish them which should do contrary according to the Laws and Usages of the Realm and that they were bound to aid Him as their Sovereign Lord at all seasons when need should be And accordingly in Parliament in after-times the King alone did issue His Proclamations prohibiting bearing of Arms by any person in or near the City where the Parliament was excepting such of the Kings Servants as He should depute or should be deputed by His Commandment and also excepting the Kings Ministers And by the Statute of Northampton made in the second year of King Edward the Third it is enacted That no man of what condition soever he be except the Kings Servants in His presence and His Ministers in executing the Kings Precepts or of their Office and such as be in their company assisting them go nor ride armed by night or day in Fairs Markets nor in the presence of the Justices or other Ministers nor in no part elsewhere And this power of raising Forces to be solely in the King is so known and inseparable a Right to the Crown that when in the Reign of King Henry the Eighth there being a sudden Rebellion the Earl of Shrewsbury without Warrant from the King did raise Arms for the suppression thereof and happily suppressed it yet was he forced to obtain his Pardon And whereas the Duke of Gloucester and other great Lords in the eleventh year of King Richard the Second upon pretence of the good of the King and Kingdom the King being then not of age and led away as
their Actions are declared Treasonable and their Persons Traitors and thereupon Your Majesty hath set up Your Standard against them whereby You have put the two Houses of Parliament and in them this whole Kingdom out of Your Protection so that until Your Majesty shall recall those Proclamations and Declarations whereby the Earl of Essex and both Houses of Parliament and their Adherents and Assistants and such as have obeyed and executed their Commands and Directions according to their Duties are declared Traitors or otherwise Delinquents and untill the Standard set up in pursuance of the said Proclamations be taken down Your Majesty hath put us into such a condition that whilest we so remain we cannot by the fundamental Priviledges of Parliament the publick Trust reposed in us or with the general good and safety of this Kingdom give Your Majesty any other Answer to this Message Joh. Brown Cler. Parliament H. Elsinge Cler. Parl. D. Com. This strange Answer might well have discouraged Us from any thought of proceeding further this way and informed Us sufficiently what spirit still governed amongst those few who continued still in both Houses otherwise after so many bitter and invective Messages and Declarations sent to Us and published against Us We should not have been reproached with Our Proclamations and Declarations set forth by Us as the effect of such evil Counsel as was unparallel'd by any former Examples We believe indeed such Proclamations and Declarations have never been before set forth but were former times ever acquainted with such intolerable Provocations Were there ever before these twelve months Declarations published in the name of eitheir or both Houses of Parliament to make their King odious to the People Have either or both Houses ever before assumed or pretended to a Power to raise Armes or levy War in any Cause or can both Houses together exercise such a Power Are those Actions which the Law hath defined literally and expresly to be Treasonable or such Persons to be Traitors not so because they are done by Members of either House or their appointment And must not We declare such who March with Arms and Force to destroy Us to be Traitors because the Earl of Essex is their General Those whom We have or do accuse We have named together with their Crimes notorious by the known Law of the Land a favour not granted to Our Evil Counsellors and appeal to that known Law to judge between Us And now that by this We should have put the whole Kingdom out of Our Protection in whose behalf We do all that We have done is a corrupt Gloss upon such a Text as cannot be perverted but by the cunning practices of such who wish not well to King or People Yet that no weak persons might be misled by that Imputation upon Us we sent a Reply to that Answer in these words WE will not repeat what means We have used to prevent the dangerous and distracted estate of the Kingdom nor how those means have been interpreted because being desirous to avoid effusion of blood We are willing to decline all memory of former bitterness that might make Our offer of a Treaty less readily accepted We never did declare nor ever intended to declare both Our Houses of Parliament Traitors or set up Our Standard against them and much less to put them and this Kingdom out of Our Protection We utterly profess against it before God and the World And further to remove all possible Scruples which may hinder the Treaty so much desired by Vs We hereby promise so that a day be appointed by you for the revoking of your Declarations against all Persons as Traitors or otherways for assisting of Vs We shall with all chearfulness upon the same day recall Our Proclamations and Declarations and take down Our Standard In which Treaty We shall be read to grant any thing that shall be really for the good of Our Subjects Conjuring you to consider the bleeding condition of Ireland and the dangerous condition of England in as high a degree as by these Our Offers We have declared Our Self to do and assuring you that Our chief desire in this World is to beget a good understanding and mutual confidence betwixt Vs and Our two Houses of Parliament This Message produced an Answer little differing from the former like Men who had no other measure of the justice of their Cause than their Power to oppress Us forgetting their own Duties they sharply inform Us of Ours in these words May it please Your Majesty IF we the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled should repeat all the ways we have taken the endeavours we have used and the expressions we have made unto Your Majesty to prevent those Distractions and Dangers Your Majesty speaks of likely to fall upon this Kingdom we should too much enlarge this Reply Therefore as we humbly so shall we only let your Majesty know that we cannot recede from our former Answer for the reasons therein expressed for that Your Majesty hath not taken down Your Standard recalled Your Proclamations and Declarations whereby You have declared the Actions of both Houses of Parliament to be Treasonable and their Persons Traitors And You have published the same since Your Message of the 25th of August by Your late Instructions sent to Your Commissioners of Array Which Standard being taking down and the Declarations Proclamations and Instructions recalled if Your Majesty shall then upon this our humble Petition leaving Your Forces return unto Your Parliament and receive their faithful Advice Your Majesty will find such expressions of our Fidelities and Duties as shall assure You that Your Safety Honour and Greatness can only be found in the affections of Your People and the sincere Counsels of Your Parliament whose constant and undiscouraged Endeavours and Consultations have passed through Difficulties unheard-of only to secure Your Kingdoms from the violent Mischiefs and Dangers now ready to fall upon them and every part of them who deserve better of Your Majesty and can never allow themselves representing likewise Your whole Kingdom to be balanced with those Persons whose desperate Dispositions and Counsels prevail still so to interrupt all our endeavours for the relieving of bleeding Ireland as we may fear our labours and vast expences will be fruitless to that distressed Kingdom As Your Presence is thus humbly desired by us so is it in our hopes Your Majesty will in your reason believe there is no other way than this to make Your Self happy and Your Kingdom safe John Brown Cler. Parliament Without any bitterness or reprehension of their neglect of Us and the publick Peace to express Our deep sense of the Calamities at hand We yet once more hoping to awake them to a Christian tenderness towards the whole Kingdom sent to them in these words WHo have taken most ways used most endeavours and made most real expressions to prevent the present Distractions and Dangers let all the World
heartily to wish that the Laws and Statutes of the Kingdom may be the Rule of what is or what is not to be done but how little fruit hath been gathered from this Tree they say let the Experience of the last Eighteen years judge To this His Majesty replies That it is true in some sense they are willing these Laws should be His Rule that is that He go no farther though they will by no means allow Him to go near so far but almost all their Actions and most of their Demands and particularly these do sufficiently shew that they will not admit of these Laws and Statutes to be any Rule to them And how much better fruit they have graffed than they found growing and whether they have not made use of the Cure and Remedy of Grievances a Parliament to impose more of all kind of Grievances upon the People in eighteen Months than can be objected to his Majesty or Ministers upon the breach and in the Intermission of Parliaments during those eighteen years let Experience be Judge And it cannot but appear strange to His Majesty if any thing could still appear strange to Him that the Illegalities under which His Subjects suffered by some of His Ministers in some part of His Reign should be now and by them laid as a Charge upon Him when not only the People have suffered far greater Illegalities and Pressures upon the same if not less pretences by those who charge Him with them but when He hath by His Acknowledgments by His ample Satisfactions by the submitting the Offenders to Punishment how great or near so ever to Him and by His many and solemn Protestations given security to His People that they shall never suffer the like under Him and when they on the other side as good as profess to the People that they think themselves obliged to maintain and consequently are likely to continue what they have done because they have done it and that their Actions shall not be retracted lest some reflection or dishonour fall upon both Houses and lest they may seem to pronounce a sentence of injustice and rashness against themselves This being one of the Reasons given by them why they cannot re-admit the Members they have expelled And His Majesty is confident that His People when they shall consider both His Ministers Actions and theirs and after compare His Ingenuity with their Principles will easily conceive under whose Government they are most likely to return to the known Rule of the Law and to find that ease and to be continued in those Rights in and to which they were born and of the Exorbitance of whose Power they have most reason to have any Fears and Jealousies and against whom they have most reason to desire to be secured that they shall enjoy their Rights Nor do they with more colour oppose His Majesty's Limitations and Conditions than they defend their own They object against His Majesty's Demand or Limitation of being satisfied in His first Proposition That if His Ships Forts c. were to be delivered before disbanding it must after be left to the pleasure of the Papists and other evil Councellors about His Majesty whether thay would disband or not But His Majesty replies That He made not His Limitation in these terms As soon as His first Proposition should be wholly granted to Him but As soon as He should be satisfied in His first Proposition which left room enough upon debate to have agreed either upon the time of delivery or upon sufficient caution that after the delivery the disbanding should unavoidably follow Nor can His Majesty look upon this Objection otherwise than as a jest since if after the performance of part of the Conditions He had refused to perform the rest He is perswaded that so open a breach of Faith would have given them a far greater strength than they had parted with in the Ships and Forts and have raised against Him a far greater Army than He should have refused to disband They object against His Demand of the restitution of Members that in His Demand no distinction is made of Persons or Offences when the reason thereof is that really no distinction can be made they being all equally innocent and all equally injuriously expelled not only for committing no Crime but for that Duty and Loyalty which deserves both approbation and reward And if they could make any distinction in this point or any Objection in any other which might possibly have satisfied His Majesty why did they not continue the Treaty and there offer it to and debate it with His Majesty rather than break off the Treaty without giving any Answer to any part of His Majesty's Message and to turn themselves wholly to the People from whom no return could possibly be made that might be in order to Peace They object against the Reason of this Demand That these Members have been expelled only for adhering to His Majesty That the same Reason may be used for the Judges who adhered to Him by furnishing Him with great Sums by Illegal Judgments about Ship-Money and Monopolies and that He may as well require the Houses to repeal the Impeachments and Proceedings against them To which His Majesty replies That by never having appeared at all in the favour excuse or extenuation of the fault of those Judges who are to answer for any unjust Judgment in all which His Majesty left them wholly to their Consciences and whensoever they offended against that they wronged His Majesty no less than His People and by His being yet so careful of these Lords and Gentlemen it may appear that His Majesty conceives that those only adhere to Him who adhere to Him according to Law And whether the remaining part of the Houses be not more apt to repeal their own Impeachments and Proceedings against those Judges if they conceive they may be made of use and brought to adhere to them then His Majesty is to require they should may appear by their requiring in their Fourteen Propositions that Sir John Brampston impeacht by themselves of so gret Misdemeanors may be made Chief Justice and by their freeing and returning Justice Barkley accused by themselves of High Treason to sit upon the Bench rather than free and imploy Justice Mallet who was not legally committed at first but fetcht from the Bench to Prison by a Troop of Horse and who after so many Months Imprisonment remains not only unimpeacht but wholly without any knowledge of what Crime he is suspected They next object against the Persons in whose behalf the Demand is made And to this His Majesty replies That to shew how far He was from having raised this Army or from intending to imploy it to destroy this Parliament or the Act for the continuance thereof as is falsely and maliciously charged upon him to avoid the Objection made against him as if He only pretended to desire to rule by Law but would really be the only Judge of
People so as the Estates neither of Friends to publick Interest nor alone of inferior Enemies thereto may bear wholly the burthen of that loss and charge which by and for that Family the Kingdom hath been put unto Thirdly That Capital punishment be speedily executed upon a competent number of his chief Instruments also both in former and later Wars and that some of both sorts be pitcht upon as are really in your hands or reach Fourthly That the rest of the Delinquents English may upon rendring themselves to Justice have mercy for their Lives and that only Fines be set upon them and their persons declared incapable of any publick Trust or having any voice in Elections thereto at least for a good number of years And that a short day may be set by which all such Delinquents may come in and for those who come not in by that day that their Estates be absolutely confiscate and sold to the publick use and their persons stand exil'd as Traitors and to die without mercy if ever found after in the Kingdom or its Dominions Fifthly That the satisfaction of Arrears to the Soldiery with other publick Debts and competent reparations of publick Damages may be put into some orderly way And therefore that the Fines and Compositions of Delinquents be disposed to those uses only as also the Confiscations of such who shall be excluded from Pardon or not come in by the day assigned Now after publick Justice thus far provided for we proceed in order to the general satisfaction and settling of the Kingdom First That you would set some reasonable and certain period to your own Power Secondly That with a period to this Parliament there may be a settlement of the Peace and future Government of the Kingdom First That there may be a certain succession of future Parliaments Annual or Biennial with secure provision 1. For the certainty of their sitting meeting and ending 2. For equal Elections 3. For the Peoples meeting to elect provided that none engaged in War against the Kingdom may elect or be elected nor any other who oppose this Settlement 4. For clearing the future power of Parliaments as supreme only they may not give away any Foundation of Common Right 5. For liberty of entring Dissents in the said Representatives that the People may know who are not fit for future Trusts but without any further penalty for their free judgements Secondly That no King be hereafter admitted but upon Election of and as upon Trust from the People by such their Representatives not without first disclaiming all pretence to a Negative Voice against the determinations of the Commons in Parliament and this to be done in some form more clear than heretofore in the Coronation Oath These matters of general Settlement we propound to be provided by the Authority of the Commons in this Parliament and to be further established by a general Contract or Agreement of the People with their Subscriptions therunto And that no King be admitted to the Crown nor other person to any Office of publick Trust without express Accord and Subscription to the same Four Queries propounded by His MAJESTY when the Armies Remonstrance was read unto him at Newport concerning the intended Trial of His MAJESTY 1. WHether this Remonstrance be agreeable to the former Declarations of the Army and if not whether the Parliament would make good their Votes that after He had consented to what they desired He should be in a capacity of Honour Freedom and Safety 2. Whether His acknowledgement of the Blood that hath been spilt in the late Wars nothing being as yet absolutely concluded or binding could be urged so far as to be made use of by way of Evidence against Him or any of His Party 3. Whether the Arguments that He hath used in a free and Personal Treaty to lessen or extenuate and avoid the exactness of any of the Conditions though in manner and form only might be charged against Him as an act of Obstinacy or wilful persistence in what is alledged against Him in that He goes on in a destructive course of Enmity against the People and the Laws of the Land when He hath declared that His Conscience was satisfied concerning divers particulars in the Propositions 4. Whereas by the Letter of the Law all persons charged to offend against the Law ought to be tried by their Peers or Equals what the Law is if the Person questioned is without a Peer And if the Law which of it self is but a dead Letter seems to condemn him by what power shall Judgement be given and who shall give it or from whence shall the administrators of such Judgement derive their power which may by the same Law be deemed the supreme Power or Authority of Magistracy in the Kingdom His MAJESTIES Declaration concerning the Treaty and His dislike of the Armies Proceedings Delivered to one of His Servants at His Departure from the Isle of Wight and commanded to be published for the satisfastion of all His Subjects WHen large pretences prove but the shadows of weak performance then the greatest labours produce the smallest effects and when a period is put to a work of great concernment all mens ears do as it were hunger till they are satisfied in their expectations Hath not this distracted Nation groaned a long time under the burthen of tyranny and oppression And hath not all the blood that hath been spilt these seven years been cast upon My Head Who am the greatest Sufferer though the least guilty And was it not requisite to endeavour the stopping of that flux which if not stopt will bring an absolute Destruction to this Nation And what more speedy way was there to consummate those Distractions than by a Personal Treaty being agreed upon by My two Houses of Parliament and condescended to by Me And I might declare that I conceive it had been the best Physick had not the operation been hindred by the interposition of this imperious Army who were so audacious as to style Me in their unparallel'd Remonstrance their Capital Enemy But let the world judge whether Mine endeavours have not been attended with reality in this late Treaty and whether I was not as ready to grant as they were to ask and yet all this is not satisfaction to them that pursue their own ambitious ends more than the welfare of a miserable Land Were not the dying hearts of my poor distressed People much revived with the hopes of a Happiness from this Treaty and how suddenly are they frustrated in their expectations Have not I formerly been condemned for yielding too litte to My two Houses of Parliament and shall I now be condemned for yielding too much Have I not formerly been Imprisoned for making War and shall I now be condemned for making Peace Have I not formerly ruled like a KING and shall I now be ruled like a Slave Have I not formerly enjoyed the society of my dear Wife and Children in peace
vigor and due execution or some evil Customs preterlegal and abuses personal had been to be removed or some injuries done by My self and others to the Common-weal were to be repaired or some equable offertures were to be tendred to Me wherein the advantages of my Crown being considered by them might fairly induce Me to condescend to what tended to My Subjects good without any great diminution of My self whom Nature Law Reason and Religion bind Me in the first place to preserve without which 't is impossible to preserve My People according to My place Or at least I looked for such moderate desires of due Reformation of what was indeed amiss in Church and State as might still preserve the Foundation and Essentials of Government in both not shake and quite overthrow either of them without any regard to the Laws in force the Wisdom and Piety of former Parliaments the ancient and universal practice of Christian Churches the Rights and Priviledges of particular men nor yet any thing offered in lieu or in the room of what must be destroyed which might at once reach the good end of the others Institution and also supply its pretended defects reform its abuses and satisfie sober and wise men not with soft and specious words pretending zeal and special piety but with pregnant and solid Reasons both Divine and humane which might justifie the abruptness and necessity of such vast alterations But in all their Propositions I can observe little of these kinds or to these ends Nothing of any Laws dis-jointed which are to be restored of any Right invaded of any Justice to be unobstructed of any Compensations to be made of any impartial Reformation to be granted to all or any of which Reason Religion true Policy or any other human motives might induce Me. But as to the main matters propounded by them at any time in which is either great Novelty or Difficulty I perceive that what were formerly look'd upon as Factions in the State and Schisms in the Church and so punishable by the Laws have now the confidence by vulgar clamors and assistance chiefly to demand not only Tolerations of themselves in their vanity novelty and confusion but also Abolition of the Laws against them and a total extirpation of that Government whose Rights they have a mind to invade This as to the main Other Propositions are for the most part but as waste paper in which those are wrapped up to present them somewhat more handsomly Nor do I so much wonder at the variety and horrible novelty of some Propositions there being nothing so monstrous which some fancies are not prone to long for This casts Me into not an Admiration but an Extasie how such things should have the fortune to be propounded in the name of the Two Houses of the Parliament of England among whom I am very confident there was not a fourth part of the Members of either House whose Judgments free single and apart did approve or desire such destructive changes in the Government of the Church I am perswaded there remains in far the major part of both Houses if free and full so much Learning Reason Religion and just Moderation as to know how to sever between the use and the abuse of things the institution and the corruption the Government and the mis-government the Primitive Patterns and the aberrations or blottings of after Copies Sure they could not all upon so little or no Reason as yet produced to the contrary so soon renounce all regard to the Laws in force to Antiquity to the Piety of their Reforming Progenitors to the Prosperity of former times in this Church and State under the present Government of the Church Yet by a strange fatality these men suffer either by their absence or silence or negligence or supine credulity believing that all is good which is gilded with shews of Zeal and Reformation their private dissenting in Judgment to be drawn into the common Sewer or stream of the present vogue and humor which hath its chief rise and abetment from those popular Clamors and Tumults which served to give life and strength to the infinite activity of those men who studied with all diligence and policy to improve to their Innovating designs the present Distractions Such Armies of Propositions having so little in my Judgment of Reason Justice and Religion on their side as they had Tumult and Faction for their rise must not go alone but ever be back'd and seconded with Armies of Soldiers Tho the second should prevail against my Person yet the first shall never overcome Me further than I see cause for I look not at their Number and Power so much as I weigh their Reason and Justice Had the Two Houses first sued out their Livery and once effectually redeemed themselves from the Wardship of the Tumults which can be no other than the Hounds that attend the Cry and Hollow of those men who hunt after Factious and private Designs to the ruin of Church and State Did my Judgment tell Me that the Propositions sent to Me were the Results of the major part of their Votes who exercise their freedom as well as they have a right to sit in Parliament I should then suspect My own Judgment for not speedily and fully concurring with every one of them For I have Charity enough to think there are wise men among them and Humility to think that as in some things I may want so 't is fit I should use their Advice which is the end for which I called them to a Parliament But yet I cannot allow their wisdom such a compleatness and inerrability as to exclude My self since none of them hath that Part to act that Trust to discharge nor that Estate and Honour to preserve as My self without whose Reason concurrent with theirs as the Suns influence is necessary in all Natures productions they cannot beget or bring forth any one compleat and authoritative Act of publick Wisdom which makes the Laws But the unreasonableness of some Propositions is not more evident to Me than this is That they are not the joynt and free desires of those in their Major number who are of right to sit and Vote in Parliament For many of them savor very strong of that old leaven of Innovations masked under the name of Reformation which in my two last famous Predecessors days heaved at and sometime threatned both Prince and Parliaments but I am sure was never wont so far to infect the whole mass of the Nobility and Gentry of this Kingdom however it dispersed among the Vulgar Nor was it likely so suddenly to taint the major part of both Houses as that they should unanimously desire and affect so enormous and dangerous Innovations in Church and State contrary to their former education practice and judgment Not that I am ignorant how the choice of many Members was carried by much Faction in the Countreys some thirsting after nothing more than a passionate revenge of
Images they should form and set up If there had been as much of Christs Spirit for Meekness Wisdom and Charity in mens hearts as there was of his Name used in the pretensions to reform all to Christs Rule it would certainly have obtained more of God's Blessing and produced more of Christs Glory the Churches good the Honour of Religion and the Unity of Christians Publick Reformers had need first act in private and practise that on their own hearts which they purpose to try on others for Deformities within will soon betray the Pretenders of publick Reformation to such private Designs as must needs hinder the publick good I am sure the right methods of Reforming the Church cannot consist with that of perturbing the Civil State nor can Religion be justly advanced by depressing Loyalty which is one of the chiefest Ingredients and Ornaments of true Religion for next to Fear God is Honour the King I doubt not but Christs Kingdom may be set up without pulling down Mine nor will any men in impartial times appear good Christians that approve not themselves good Subjects Christ's Government will confirm Mine not overthrow it since as I own Mine from Him so I desire to Rule for his Glory and his Churches good Had some men truly intended Christ's Government or knew what it meant in their hearts they could never have been so ill governed in their words and actions both against Me and one another As good Ends cannot justifie evil Means so nor will evil Beginnings ever bring forth good Conclusions unless God by a miracle of Mercy create Light out of Darkness Order out of our Confusions and Peace out of our Passions Thou O Lord who only canst give us beauty for ashes and Truth for Hypocrisie suffer us not to be miserably deluded with Pharisaical washings in stead of Christian Reformings Our greatest Deformities are within make us the severest Censurers and first Reformers of our own Souls That we may in clearness of Judgment and Vprightness of heart be a means to reform what is indeed amiss in Church and State Create in us clean hearts O Lord and renew right spirits within-us that we may do all by thy directions to thy Glory and with thy Blessing Pity the Deformities which some rash and cruel Reformers have brought upon this Church and State quench the fires which Factions have kindled under the pretence of Reforming As thou hast shewed the world by their Divisions and Confusions what is the pravity of some mens Intentions and weakness of their Judgments so bring us at last more refined out of these fires by the methods of Christian and charitable Reformations wherein nothing of Ambition Revenge Covetousness or Sacrilege may have any influence upon their counsels whom thy Providence in just and lawful ways shall entrnst with so great good and now most necessary a work That I and My People may be so blest with inward Piety as may best teach us how to use the Blessing of outward Peace XXI Vpon His MAJESTIES Letters taken and divulged THE taking of My Letters was an opportunity which as the malice of Mine Enemies could hardly have expected so they knew not how with honour and civility to use it Nor do I think with sober and worthy minds any thing in them could tend so much to My Reproach as the odious divulging of them did to the infamy of the Divulgers The greatest experiments of Virtue and Nobleness being discovered in the greatest advantages against an Enemy and the greatest Obligations being those which are put upon us by them from whom we could least have expected them And such I should have esteemed the concealing of My Papers The freedom and secrecy of which commands a Civility from all men not wholly barbarous nor is there any thing more inhumane than to expose them to publick view Yet since Providence will have it so I am content so much of My Heart which I study to approve to Gods Omniscience should be discovered to the world without any of those dresses or popular captations which some men use in their Speeches and Expresses I wish my Subjects had yet a clearer sight into My most retired Thoughts Where they might discover how they are divided between the Love and Care I have not more to preserve My own Rights than to procure their Peace and Happiness and that extreme Grief to see them both deceived and destroyed Nor can any mens Malice be gratified further by My Letters than to see My Constancy to my Wife the Laws and Religion Bees will gather Honey where the Spider sucks Poyson That I endeavour to avoid the pressures of my Enemies by all fair and just Correspondencies no man can blame who loves Me or the Commonwealth since My Subjects can hardly be happy if I be miserable or enjoy their Peace and Liberty while I am oppressed The World may see how some Mens design like Absolom's is by enormous Actions to widen differences and exasperate all Sides to such distances as may make all Reconciliation desperate Yet I thank God I can not only with Patience bear this as other Indignities but with Charity forgive them The Integrity of My Intentions is not jealous of any injury My Expressions can do them for although the confidence of Privacy may admit greater freedom in Writing such Letters which may be liable to envious exceptions yet the Innocency of My chief Purposes cannot be so stained or mis-interpreted by them as not to let all men see that I wish nothing more than an happy composure of Differences with Justice and Honour not more to My own than My Peoples content who have any sparks of Love or Loyalty left in them who by those My Letters may be convinced that I can both mind and act My own and My Kingdoms Affairs so as becomes a Prince which Mine Enemies have always been very loth should be believed of Me as if I were wholly confined to the Dictates and Directions of others whom they please to brand with the name of Evil Counsellors It 's probable some men will now look upon Me as My own Counsellor and having none else to quarrel with under that notion they will hereafter confine their anger to My self Altho I know they are very unwilling I should enjoy the liberty of My own Thoughts or follow the light of My own Conscience which they labour to bring into an absolute captivity to themselves not allowing Me to think their Counsels to be other than good for Me which have so long maintained a War against Me. The Victory they obtained that day when My Letters became their prize had been enough to have satiated the most ambitious thirst of Popular glory among the Vulgar with whom Prosperity gains the greatest esteem and applause as Adversity exposeth to their greatest slighting and disrespect As if good fortune were always the shadow of Virtue and Justice and did not oftner attend Vicious and Injurious actions as to this world But
cannot but see the proportions of their evil dealings against Me in the measure of Gods retaliations upon them who cannot hope long to enjoy their own thumbs and toes having under pretence of paring others nails been so cruel as to cut off their chiefest strength The punishment of the more insolent and obstinate may be like that of Korah and his Complices at once mutining against both Prince and Priest in such a method of Divine Justice as is not ordinary the Earth of the lowest and meanest People opening upon them and swallowing them up in a just disdain of their ill-gotten and wors-used Authority upon whose support and strength they chiefly depended for their building and establishing their Desings against Me the Church and State My chiefest comfort in Death consists in My Peace which I trust is made with God before whose exact Tribunal I shall not fear to appear as to the Cause so long disputed by the Sword between Me and My causless Enemies where I doubt not but his Righteous Judgment will confute their fallacy who from worldly Success rather like Sophisters than sound Christians draw those popular Conclusions for God's Approbation of their actions whose wise Providence we know oft permits many events which his revealed Word the only clear safe and fixed Rule of good Actions and good Consciences in no sort approves I am confident the Justice of my Cause and Clearness of my Conscience before God and toward my People will carry Me as much above them in God's decision as their Successes have lifted them above Me in the Vulgar opinion who consider not that many times those undertakings of men are lifted up to Heaven in the prosperity and applause of the world whose rise is from Hell as to the Injuriousness and Oppression of the Design The prosperous winds which oft fill the sails of Pirats do not justifie their Piracy and Rapine I look upon it with infinite more content and quiet of Soul to have been worsted in my enforced Contestation for and Vindication of the Laws of the Land the Freedom and Honour of Parliaments the Rights of my Crown the just Liberty of my Subjects and the true Christian Religion in its Doctrine Government and due Encouragements than if I had with the greatest advantages of Success over-born them all as some men have now evidently done what-ever Designs they at first pretended The Prayers and Patience of my Friends and loving Subjects will contribute much to the sweetning of this bitter Cup which I doubt not but I shall more cheerfully take and drink as from God's hand if it must be so than they can give it to Me whose hands are unjustly and barbarously lifted up against Me. And as to the last event I may seem to owe more to my Enemies than my Friends while those will put a period to the Sins and Sorrows attending this miserable Life wherewith these desire I might still contend I shall be more than Conqueror through Christ enabling Me for whom I have hitherto suffered as he is the Author of Truth Order and Peace for all which I have been forced to contend against Error Faction and Confusion If I must suffer a Violent Death with my Saviour it is but Mortality crowned with Martyrdom where the debt of Death which I owe for Sin to Nature shall be raised as a gift of Faith and Patience offered to God Which I humbly beseech him mercifully to accept and altho Death be the wages of My own Sin as from God and the effect of others Sins as men both against God and Me yet as I hope My own Sins are so remitted that they shall be no ingredients to imbitter the cup of my Death so I desire God to pardon their Sins who are most guilty of my Destruction The Trophees of my Charity will be more glorious and durable over them than their ill-managed Victories over Me. Tho their Sin be prosperous yet they had need to be penitent that they may be pardoned Both which I pray God they may obtain that my Temporal Death unjustly inflicted by them may not be revenged by God's just inflicting Eternal Death upon them for I look upon the Temporal Destruction of the greatest King as far less deprecable than the Eternal Damnation of the meanest Subject Nor do I wish other than the safe bringing of the Ship to shore when they have cast Me over-board though it be very strange that Mariners can find no other means to appease the Storm themselves have raised but by drowning their Pilot. I thank God my Enemies Cruelty cannot prevent my Preparation whose Malice in this I shall defeat that they shall not have the satisfaction to have destroyed my Soul with my Body of whose Salvation while some of them have themselves seemed and taught others to despair they have only discovered this that they do not much desire it Whose uncharitable and cruel Restraints denying Me even the assistance of any of my Chaplains hath rather enlarged than any way obstructed my access to the Throne of Heaven Where Thou dwellest O King of Kings who fillest Heaven and Earth who art the fountain of Eternal Life in whom is no shadow of Death Thou O God art both the just Inflicter of Death upon us and the merciful Saviour of us in it and from it Yea it is better for us to be dead to our selves and live in Thee than by living in our selves to be deprived of Thee O make the many bitter aggravations of my Death as a Man and a King the opportunities and advantages of thy special Graces and Comforts in my Soul as a Christian If Thou Lord wilt be with Me I shall neither fear nor feel any evil tho I walk through the valley of the shadow of Death To contend with Death is the work of a weak and mortal man to overcome it is the Grace of Thee alone who art the Almighty and Immortal God O my Saviour who knowest what it is to die with Me as a man make Me to know what it is to pass through Death to Life with Thee my God Tho I die yet I know that Thou my Redeemer livest for ever tho Thou slayest Me yet Thou hast incouraged Me to trust in Thee for Eternal Life O withdraw not thy Favour from Me which is better than Life O be not far from Me for I know not how near a violent and cruel Death is to Me. As thy Omniscience O God discovers so thy Omnipotence can defeat the Designs of those who have or shall conspire my Destruction O shew Me the goodness of thy Will through the wickedness of theirs Thou givest Me leave as a man to pray that this Cup may pass from Me but Thou hast taught Me as a Christian by the example of Christ to add Not My will but thine be done Yea Lord let our wills be one by wholly resolving Mine into Thine let not the desire of Life in Me be so great as that of doing or