those of His Judgment should be Pressed to a violation of theirs Nor can His Majesty consent to the Alienation of Church Lands because it cannot be denied to be a sin of the highest Sacriledge as also that it subverts the intentions of so many pious Donors who have laid a heavy curse upon all such profane violations which His Majesty is very unwilling to undergoe And besides the matter of Conscience His Majesty believes it to be a prejudice to the Publike good many of His Subjects having the benefit of renuing Leases at much easier Rates then if those possessions were in the hands of private men not omitting the discouragement which it will be to all learning and industry when such eminent rewards shal be taken away which now lie open to the Children of meanest Persons Yet His Majesty considering the great present distempers concerning Church Discipline and that the Presbyterian Government is now in practice His Majesty to eschew confusion as much as may be and for the satisfaction of His two Houses is content that the said Government be legally permitted to stand in the same condition it now is for three years Provided that His Majesty and those of His Judgment or any other who cannot in Conscience submit thereunto be not obliged to comply with the Presbyter all Government but have free practice of their own Profession without receiving any prejudice thereby and that a free consultation and debate be had with the Divines at Westminster twenty of His Majesties nomination being added unto them whereby it may be determined by His Majesty and the two Houses how the Church Government after the said time shall be setled or sooner if differences may be agreed as is most agreeable to the Word of God with full liberty to all those who shall differ upon consciencious grounds from that setlement alwaies provided that nothing aforesaid be understood to tolerate those of the Popish Profession nor the exempting of any Popish Recusant from the penalties of the Laws or to tolerate the publike profession of Atheisme or Blaspemy contrary to the doctrine of the Apostles Nicene and Athanasian Creeds they having been received by and had in reverence of all the Christian Churches and more particularly by this of England ever since the Reformation Next the Militia being that right which is inseparably and undoubtedly inherent in the Crown by the Laws of this Nation and that which former Parliaments as likewise this hath acknowledged so to be His Majesty cannot so much wrong that trust which the Laws of God and this Land hath annexed to the Crown for the protection and security of his People as to divest Himself and Successours of the power of the Sword yet to give an infallible evidence of His desire to secure the performance of such agreements as shall be made in order to a Peace his Majesty wil consent to an Act of Parliament that the whole power of the Militia both by Sea and Land for and during his whole Reign shall be ordered and disposed by his two Houses of Parliament or by such persons as they shall appoint with powers limited for suppressing of Forces within this Kingdom to the disturbance of the publike Peace and against forraigne Invasion and that they shall have power during his said Reigne to raise Monies for the purposes aforesaid and that neither his Majesty that now is or any other by any authority derived only from him shall execute any of the said Powers during his Majesties said Reigne but such as shall act by the consent and approbation of the two Houses of Parliament Neverthelesse his Majesty intends that all Patents Commissions and other Acts concerning the Militia be made and acted as formerly and that after his Majesties Reign all the power of the Militia shall return entirely to the Crown as it was in the times of Q. Elizabeth and K. Iames of blessed memory After this head of the Militia the consideration of the Arrears due to the Army is not improper to follow for the payment whereof and the ease of his People his Majesty is willing to concur in any thing that can be done without the violation of his Conscience and Honour Wherefore if his two Houses shall consent to remit unto him such benefit out of Sequestations from Michaelmas last and out of Compositions that shall be made before the concluding of the peace and the Arrears of such as have been already made the assistance of the Clergy and the Arrears of such Rents of his own Revenue as his two Houses shall not have received before the concluding of the Peace his Majesty will undertake within the space of eighteen Months the payment of four hundred thousand pounds for the satisfaction of the Army And if those means shall not be sufficient his Majesty intends to give way to the sale of Forrest Lands for that purpose this being the Publike Debt which in his Majesties judgment is first to be satisfied and for other publike debts already contracted upon Church Lands or any other Ingagements his Majesty will give his consent to such Act or Acts for raising of Monies for payment thereof as both Houses shall hereafter agree upon so as they be equally laid whereby his people already too heavily burthened by these late distempers may have no more pressures upon them then this absolute necessity requires And for the further securing of all fears his Majesty will consent that an Act of Parliament be passed for the disposing of the great Offices of State and naming of Privy Counsellours for the whole terme of his Raigne by the two Houses of Parliament their Patents and Commissions being taken from his Majesty and after to return to the Crown as is exprest in the Article of the Militia For the Court of Wards and â—iveries his Majesty very well knows the consequence of taking that away by turning of all Tenures into common Soccage as well in point of Revenue to the Crown as in the Protection of many of his Subjects being Infants Neverthelesse if the continuance thereof seem grievous to His Subjects rather then he will fail on His part in giving satisfaction He will consent to an Act for taking of it away so as a full recompence be setled upon His Majesty and his Successours in perpetuity and that the Arrears now due be reserved unto Him towards the payment of the Arrears of the Army And that the memory of these late distractions may be wholly wiped away His Majesty will consent to an Act of Parliament for the suppressing and making null of all Oaths Declarations and Proclamations against both or either House of Parliament and of all Indictments and other proceedings against any persons for adhering unto them and His Majesty proposeth as the best expedient to take away all seeds of future differences that there be an Act of Oblivion to extend to all His Subjects As for Ireland the Cessation there is long since determined but for the future
some of His own Chaplains which hath hitherto been denied Him and such other Divines as shal be most proper to inform Him therein and then He will make clearly appear both His zeal to the Protestant profession and the Union of these two Kingdoms which He conceives to be the main drift of this Covenant To the seventh and eighth Propositions His Majesty will consent To the ninth His Majesty doubts not but to give good satisfaction when He shall be particularly informed how the said penalties shall be levied and disposed of To the tenth His Majesties answer is That He hath been alwaies ready to prevent the practices of Papists and therefore is content to passe an Act of Parliament for that purpose And also that the Laws against them be duly executed His Majesty will give His consent to the Act for the due observation of the Lords Day for the suppressing of Innovations and those concerning the Preaching of Gods Word and touching Non-Residence and Pluralities and His Majesty will yeild to such Act or Acts as shall be requisite to raise monies for the payment and satisfying all publike Debts expecting also that his will be therein included As to the Proposition touching the Militia though his Majesty cannot consent unto it in terminis as it is proposed because thereby he conceives he wholly parts with the power of the Sword entrusted to him by God and the Laws of the Land for the protection and government of his people thereby at once devesting himself and dis-inheriting his Posterity of that right and prerogative of the Crowne which is absolutely necessary to the Kingly Office and so weaken Monarchy in this Kingdom that little more then the name and shadow of it will remain yet if it be only security for the preservation of the Peace of this Kingdom after the unhappy troubles and the due performance of all the agreements which are now to be concluded which is desired which his Majesty alwaies understood to be the case and hopes that herein he is not mistaken his Majesty will give aboundant satisfaction to which end he is willing by Act of Parliament That the whole power of the Militia both by Sea and Land for the space of ten years be in the hands of such persons as the two Houses shall nominate giving them power during the said term to change the said persons and substitute others in their places at pleasure and afterwards to return to the proper chanell again as it was in the times of Queen Elizabeth and King Iames of blessed memory And now His Majesty conjures His two Houses of Parliament as they are Englishmen and lovers of Peace by the duty they owe to His Majesty their King and by the bowels of compassion they have to their fellow Subjects that they wil accept of this his Majesties offer wherby the joyfull news of Peace may be restored to this languishing Kingdom His Majesty will grant the like to the Kingdome of Scotland if it be desired and agree to all things that are propounded touching the conserving of peace betwixt the two Kingdoms Touching Ireland other things being agreed His Majesty will give satisfaction therein As to the mutuall Declarations proposed to be established in both Kingdoms by Act of Parliament And the Modifications Qualifications and Branches which follow in the Propositions His Majesty only professes that He doth not sufficiently understand nor is able to reconcile many things contained in them but this He well knoweth That a generall Act of Oblivion is the best Bond of Peace and that after intestine Troubles the wisdom of this and other Kingdoms hath usually and happily in all ages granted generall Pardons whereby the numerous discontentments of many Persons and Families otherwise exposed to ruine might not become fewell to new disorders or seeds to future troubles His Majesty therefore desires that His two Houses of Parliament would seriously descend into these considerations and likewise tenderly look upon His Condition herein and the perpetuall dishonour that must cleave to Him if He shal thus abandon so many persons of Condition Fortune that have ingaged themselves with and for Him out of a sense of Duty propounds as a very acceptable testimony of their affection to Him That a generall Act of Oblivion and free Pardon be forthwith passed by Act of Parliament Touching the new great Seal His Majesty is very willing to confirm both it and all the Acts done by vertue thereof untill this present time so that it be not thereby pressed to make void those Acts of His done by vertue of His great Seal which in honour and justice He is obliged to maintain And that the future Government therof may be in his Majesty according to the due course of Law Concerning the Officers mentioned in the 19. Article His Majesty when he shall come to Westminster wil gratifie his Parliament all that possibly he may without destroying the alterations which are necessary for the Crown His Majesty wil willingly consent to the Act for the confirmation of the Priviledges and Customes of the City of London and all that is mentioned in the Propositions for their particular advantage And now that His Majesty hath thus far indeavoured to comply with the desires of His two Houses of Parliament to the end that this agreement may be firme and lasting without the least face or question of restraint to blemish the same His Majesty earnestly desires presently to be admitted to His Parliament at Westminster with that Honour which is due to their Soveraign there solemnly to confirm the same and legally to passe the Acts before mentioned and to give and receive as well satisfaction in all the remaining particulars as likewise such other pledges of mutuall love trust and confidence as shall most concern the good of him and his people upon which happy agreement his Majesty will dispatch his Directions to the Prince his Son to return immediately to him and will undertake for his ready obedience thereunto Holdenby May 12. 1647. For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore To be Communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland WHen our Saviour was tempted in the wildernesse He was as Saint Marke saies among the wild beasts there so was our Soveraigne as it seems at Holdenby but these were worse mannered to the King then those other were to Christ and lesse civill a great deal for these were men degenerated into Beasts which of all others are the most savage we see in the beginning of this Message with what barbarity and inhumanity they behaved themselves towards Him their Lord and Master who by Gods appointment had the just right and Dominion over them they kept His Servants from having accesse unto Him not suffering one of His owne Election to come neer Him they declared it a crime for any of mankind to converse or speak with Him to give any Letters to Him or
to receive any from Him no commerce must He have with any Creature but only such as were His tormenters and tempters subservient to them or allowed by them in brief they would not let Him be Master of those ordinary Actions which belonged to any free-born man of how mean a birth soever insomuch that His Majesty may surely say He had to do with Beasts at Holdenby in the shape of men and fought with them as Saint Paul did at Ephesus But behold for all this though they forgot themselves to be Subjects and indeed men yet He remembers Himself still to be the Father of His People and though His Condition under them might make Him silent and His usage by them might harden His heart against them and stir His spirit to plot revenge upon them and to this end to study the winding Himself out of His Troubles by indirect means and that were as Himself tells them by consenting readily to what had or should be proposed unto Him and chuse a time afterward to break all and alleage that forced Concessions are not to be kept which he is confident He might do without incurring any hard censure from indifferent men But His Majesties spirit is too Kingly and divine to practice according to such maximes for though indeed no compulsions or violence shall be able to wrest from Him any Concessions against Conscience or in clear reason against the good and welfare of His people yet He avows freely and cleerly that He holds it not only unlawfull but base to recede from His promises if once passed for having been obtained by force or under restraint wherefore His Majesty not only rejects all those Acts which He esteems unworthy of Him but even passeth by that point of Honour which He might well insist upon in respect of His present Condition and consents as we see so far to all their Propositions as in Conscience and Reason He conceived might possibly be done in order to His peoples welfare though to the great diminution of His own undoubted prerogative and most just rights for example He knows well and acknowledgeth as we see the power of the Sword is intrusted to Him by God and the Law to Protect and Govern His people and is absolutely necessary to the Kingly Office yet to secure the Kingdome of peace on His behalf and the performance of agreements on His part which by reason of the wrongs done Him was so much suspected He not only offers the whole power of the Militia both by Sea and Land to be in the whole disposall of the two Houses of Parliament for ten years space but also intreats them after all this their ill usage of Him and conjures them as English-men and lovers of Peace by the duty they owe Him as their King and by the Bowels of Compassion which they have to their fellow-Subjects to accept of this His offer whereby the joyfull news of Peace may be restored at length to this languishing Kingdom Nay and further as we see in this Message notwithstanding they had grieved His spirit by their unparalleld abuses and offended Him above seventy times seven times and never hitherto so much as said it repenteth us yet doth His most gracious Majesty even urge upon them for the prevention of new disorders and future troubles to accept of a pardon at His Hand for all the wrongs which they had done Him and to admit of an Act of oblivion as the best bond of peace only He would have them deny their Corruptions so far as to cease thirsting for the bloud and totall ruine of those of their Christian Brethren whom they had well nigh undone already for their love and adherence to Himself according to their duties as Gods Word the Law their Consciences Oaths of Allegeance and Protestation did command them He desires in effect that their spleens may rest satisfied with the wrongs already offered to these persons and their families lest their discontent might haply prove fewell to new dâ—sorders He would have the Act of Oblivion to include them too Yea He would have these men who indeed only need it to consent that it might reach to all the people of the Land in generall this is all He desires of them that so from henceforth we might live together like Christians and not like Heathens like savage Creatures or rather like devils any longer as alas we have done to the unspeakable disgrace of the Gospell and of our Nation since these men domineered And to the end that there might not be the least face or question of His Majesties restraint to blemish this agreement to their disadvantage in after-times He earnestly desires that Himself might presently be admitted to His two Houses after all this His complyance to perfect the same And now surely we must needs conclude that here was enough to still the Clamour of these men against their King had they not been far worse then beasts to have conquered their spirits even to everlasting But they were resolute in their way all this was nothing in their esteem for indeed the established and fundamentall Laws of the Land are so severe against such as go in those waies and courses which these have travailed so far in against the King and their fellow-subjects that they dare not trust either to his mercy or their forgivenesse be the same never so strongly confirmed unto them nor can any Act of Oblivion in their conceits be ever able to obliterate the same and therefore as if He had offered nothing at all they still cry out that His Majesty is averse to Peace and never yet pleased to accept of any Tender sit for them to make nor to offer any fit for them to receive and thei Preachers are still set a work by them to pray before the people that God would incline the Kings heart to come unto His Parliament But these men not knowing how to answer His Majesty saving their own stubborn resolutions or to say any thing to these His so large and gracious tenders they even suffer Him after their old wont to wait and to live in expectation And yet we found or at least supposed at that time that His Majesties Answer to some of these Propositions viz. to those that concerned Religion or Church Government had some effect upon the Independent party whose boyling discontents about this time began to vapour forth more furiously then before against their Presbyterian Brethren whose Government and Directory His Majesty had here promised to confirm for three years the time set down by the two Houses so that Himself and His might not be hindered thereby in serving God the old and true way now upon this the untamed Heighfers of this other faction altogether unaccustomed to the yoak having observed that their Brethrens little singer was like to prove heavier then the Bishops loynes were horribly loath to come under the sence of their Scorpions and therefore began to cast about for themselves
away of Clergie maintenance the renewment of which might in prudence have been omitted by the pretenders to Christianity of these dayes for Iulians sake These be the two things which His Majesty denyes His consent unto Abolition of Church Government and Alienation of Church Revenues and his Reasons for the same are far better then any we know he can have for his yeelding those things which he offers to them whereof the first is the power of the Militia both by sea and land during his owne whole raigne which he is content shall be ordered and disposed of by His two Houses and such as they shall appoint And his Reason for this is to give an infallible evidence of His desire to secure the performance of such agreement as shall be made in order to Peace Whereby His Majesty seemes to us to speak in their phrase even to yeeld up not onely His Will and Affections but also His very Reason and Iudgement for the obtaining a good Accommodation But concerning the reality of His Majesties Desires in this particular the best of His people neither wish nor need any such evidence the security is onely doubted and desired on their parts whom we have seen and found so false and perfidious already both to the King and the whole Kingdome Nor if it were possible this proffer of His Maj. could secure us of them dare we the Christian people of this Nation whose servants they are give our consent that the Sword should be out of that Hand where God hath put it for our good for Nolumus hos regnare we are resolved on that we will never live under the tyrannie of these men The Wise-man hath said it and we have found it by wofull experience That by the raigne of servants the earth is disquieted But God hath been much our friend in this matter in hardning their hearts against this proffer which in pity to us his peeled and distressed people to purchase peace for us this our most compassionate and self-denying King was pleased to tender and we are with fervour of spirit to praise the Majesty of heaven for it it being an earnest or ground of hope that he hath yet some mercy in store for this poore Nation that He will not suffer it to lie under so heavy a guilt as the impunity of so much evill would be hazardous to bring upon it by an Act of Oblivion No no our God will have these mischievous vermine destroyed by the sword of Justice as we hope and not of Judgement and so shall the curse of God which hangs over the Land for those many blasphâ—mies against Majesty those unlawfull oathes those bloods and oppressions which have been committed in it by these men be removed from it and then the same shall enjoy rest and peace againe under the protection of her most gracious and indulgent Soveraigne And in the mean time we are to pray fervently that this our good King may still afford us his true affections and these onely but may from henceforth keep his Will his Reason and Iudgement solely to himselfe yea and his power too for we are well assured from our experience both of Him and Them that He alone is able and ready to manage all to our benefit a great deale better then any else either will or can And God we hope will encline His Majesties heart to observe his hand in this constant temper of their spirits hitherto against all His gracious offers of this nature We observe also in the next place how His Majesty takes into consideration the Arreares of their Army or the wants of those Soldiers which they the raisers of were more carefull to list then they are to pay their servants we know they were raised and imployed by them against Him and now kept together in a needy bare condition to burden His people and to keep them in continuall feare poverty and bondage even this very Army for their satisfaction and His peoples ease His Majesty offers to take care of He thinks in conscience that pay is due unto them and though they merit it not at His hands yet being resolved in His mercy and goodnesse as a Christian to pardon their fault He will like a King also in His bounty and Honor undertake their payment which none else he sees is really inclined to look after And this He will doe without any charge to any save onely to Himselfe and His owne friends May He but have His own Rents and Revenues returned to Him with some few of the Arreares together with some little part of that money which they had gotten by Sequestrations and Compositions from His owne party He will undertake that the Army in few moneths shall receive foure hundred thousand pounds and if that be not sufficient He will make up the rest by the sale of His owne Lands Nay and more then all this lest the devouring of that which is Holy should prove a snare and a fire to the greedy and bold adventurers His Majesty is willing also to take order against the damage of such persons and for the repayment of all such monies as have by them been lent upon such ingagements Nor is here all yet His Majesty is willing to endevour the reparation of His Enemies lost reputations by suppressing and nulling all Declarations and Protestations which their own due merits had most justly called forth against them and all proceedings anent any person for adhering to them And now what could these men in the judgment of Reason have desired more then was here tendred they might have had the Authority the whole command and power of the Militia they might have possessed all the wealth to themselves which they had before or have gotten lately from the whole Kingdom His Majesty would have taken the whole care of paying their debts and their Servants wages He would have wiped them also as clean as possibly He could have done from their black and hellish crimes of Rebellion oppression bloud and Treason And He would have granted further what ever else they could have asked in order to their own quiet and security would they but onely let Him come to Treat with them and suffer His poore people now at length to enjoy an ease from war and a freedom from their heavy pressures Assuredly we may conceive those words of the Prophet 2 Chr. 25.16 to be fully appliable to these men God hath even determined to destroy them because they have not hearkned to this counsell nor accepted of what was here offered to them Scripture teacheth that whom God purposeth to make the power of his justice seen upon he infatuates to slight and lose the opportunities of their own preservation Elyes sons hearkned not unto the voice of their Father because the Lord would slay them saies the Spirit God did not incline their hearts to listen unto good because he intended to cut them off for their evils And such may be thought is the
the manner of Addresse which is now made unto Him Unlesse his two Houses intend that his Majesty shall allow of a Great Seal made without his Authority before there be any consideration had thereupon in a Treaty Which as it may hereafter hazard the security it self so for the present it seems very unreasonable to his Majesty And though his Majesty is willing to believe that the intention of very many in both Houses in sending these Bils before a Treaty was only to obtain a trust from Him and not to take any advantage by passing them to force other things from Him which are either against His Conscience or Honour Yet his Majesty believes it clear to all understandings that these Bils contain as they are now penned not only the devesting Himself of all Soveraignty and that without possibility of recovering it either to Him or his Successours except by repeal of those Bils but also the making his Concessions guilty of the greatest pressures that can be made upon the Subject as in other particulars so by giving an Arbitrary and Vnlimited power to the two Houses for ever to raise and levie Forces for Land or Sea service of what persons without distinction or quality and to what numbers they please And likewise for the payment of them to levy what Monies in such sort and by such waies and means and consequently upon the Estates of whatsoever Persons they shall think fit appoint Which is utterly inconsistent with the Liberty Property of the Subject and his Majesties trust in protecting them So that if the Major part of both Houses shall think it necessary to put the rest of the Propositions into Bils His Majesty leaves all the world to judge how unsafe it would be for Him to consent thereunto And if not what a strange condition after the passing of these four Bils his Majesty and all his Subjects would be cast into And here his Majesty thinks it not unfit to wish his two Houses to consider well the manner of their proceeding That when his Majesty desires a Personall Treaty with them for the setling of a Peace they in answer propose the very subject matter of the most essentiall part thereof to be first granted A thing which will be hardly credible to Posterity Wherefore his Majesty declares That neither the desire of being freed from this tedious and irksome condition of life his Majesty hath so long suffered nor the apprehension of what may befall him in case his two Houses shal not afford him a Personal Treaty shall make him change his resolution of not consenting to any Act till the whole Peace be concluded Yet then he intends not only to give just and reasonable satisfaction in the particulars presented to him but also to make good all other Concessions mentioned in his Message of the 16. of Novemb. last Which he thought would have produced better effects then what he finds in the Bils and Propositions now presented unto him And yet his Majesty cannot give over but now again earnestly presseth for a Personal Treaty so passionately is he affected with the advantages which Peace wil bring to his Majesty and all his Subjects of which he will not at all despair there being no other visible way to obtain a wel-grounded Peace However his Majesty is very much at ease within himself for having fulfilled the offices both of a Christian and of a King and will patiently wait the good pleasure of Almighty God to incline the hearts of his two Houses to consider their King and to compassionate their fellow Subjects miseries Given at Carisbrook-Castle in the Isle of Wight Decemb. 28. 1647. For the Speaker of the Lords House pro tempore to be communicated to the Lords and Commons in the Parliament of England at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland HIs Majesties Afflictions have been much increased by manifesting His care as an equall Father that satisfaction might be given to all ingaged interests therefore Presbyterians Independents Army Scots and all whoever they be that acknowledge a part in them and remain yet unsatisfied have reason as Christians as Subjects as men for meer gratitude sake were there no other reason to endeavour the vindication of those wrongs at least which His Majesty hath suffered since He stood forth as their Common Advocate To prevent their Audience upon the Kings motion were these Bills devised and sent in this sort unto His Majesty And for His not consenting so far to their damage and to the undoing of all the rest of His Subjects as these Bils required was His Majesty cast into a more hard and miserable Condition by some degrees then ever before having all His Servants on the sodain by violence thrust out from Him not so much as one of His Divines allowed unto Him Himself confined to two or three Roomes within the walls of a loathed Prison assaulted frequently He is with evil language and tormented with the spightfull behaviours of the Enemy permitted to see or speak to none but rude Souldiers who are set to watch Him and whom He hath hourly cause to look upon as Assassinates appointed for to murder Him His friends are not suffered to write unto Him nor His Children to send the remembrance of their duties yet His Trunks and Pockets are often searched for Letters with the highest insolency and rudenesse that can be shewn And all this with much more of like nature then can be expressed is come upon Him as it seemeth for moving in the behalf of all ingaged interests and therefore most truly did His Majesty in the Beginning of this Message say for He hath felt it since that He found the complying with all ingaged interests in these great distempers none of the least difficulties He met withall since the time of His Afflictions and therefore also as was said before were there no other cause they are all bound to ingage for Him till they have set Him free from His present Thraldome And indeed the Scotch Commissioners for their parts began well in their protesting in the name of their whole Kingdome against those unreasonable Bils at the same time that they were by the English Commissioners presented to His Majesty as being prejudiciall to Religioâ— to the Crown to the union and interest of both Nations and directly different from their former mutuall proceedings and ingagements now His Majesty for taking notice of this which was uttered in His presence and in the name of a whole Kingdome is extreamly quarrelled at and because He did not signe the said Bils notwithstanding the said protest He is immediately made close Prisoner and sensible of more then barbarous usage the Method of which is in part expressed in the following Declaration which twenty daies after His close confinement was written by His Majesties own hand and some twenty daies aftâ—r that by the speciall order and providence of him who is the preserver of Princes brought to light