Predecessors were Neither can any man reasonably think that there is so strict an Unity so near a co-incidency betwixt His Majesty and those His Councel whom the Parliament suspects betwixt His thoughts and inclinations to a Peace to be concluded on fit and just terms and that His Councels Desires and Resolutions for such a Peace as may best serve their own and their parties turn but that His Subjects may most truly with much Loyalty and without wounding Him through His Councels sides believe and say The King having been seduced by Evil Councel hath done that which otherwise he would not 2. To assist the Parliament to resist in a mans own defence and to adhere to such a power as can protect him is Rebellion For Neighboring Towns or Countreys to joyn in a mutual Defence and League against any Force which may infest howbeit Nature and Necessity do allow defensive and provisionary Acts for safety 't is wrested otherwise now and termed Disaffectionate Disloyal and adjudged offensive 3. To distinguish betwixt the King His Kingly Office and His person Trayterous A man in Office is distinguished from what he is in person yet no fault or misterming in the distinguisher If A. B. High Constable of an Hundred set an Affrayer by the heels he doth it as High Constable not as he is A. B. If the Lord Chief Justice E. F. being Judge of Assize and Condemn a Fellon he doth it not in his personal capacity as he is E. F. but as he is Judge of Assize And although there may seem to be a nearer Unity between a King who is Natus Rex His Office and His person then there is betwixt a Judge who is Datus or factus Judex his Office and his person yet the distinction may be admitted to the King without being Treason 4. Amongst other Misdemeanors to be exhibited against the Subject the very * See the Articles to be presented to the high Constables in the Westerne Circuit 1643. abode in or repairing to any Town or City after His Majesty had made known His Displeasure against the same is reckoned Disaffection howbeit many being threatned from their Duty and driven from their homes by the rudenesse and violence of Souldiers had no other place of succour for their Protection then in those places excepted against by His Majesties Proclamations So the place and persons resorting to the place lie under the penalty of Displeasure In which the chief City of the Kingdom seems in the accusers eye to be most disloyal Enjoying yet by Gods mercy to his Glory and their happinesse be it spoken notwithstanding the place populous the times contagious and miserable elsewhere a deliverance from the ficknesse besides the Blessing of Peace vouchsafed thereto for their Humanity in harboring the stranger and oppressed in that amidst the Calamities of Plague and War they are free from the Pestilence that walks in darkness and from the sickness that destroyeth in the noon day that a thousand fall beside them and ten thousand at their right hand but it comes not nigh them Summarily if all matters else of Jealousie and Debate were fitted for a Treaty the very Argument concerning what is Treason what Disloyalty were enough to renew the Contention some so pretendingly fond of the Kings Honor as to make his power swell immencely above the Laws and beyond all other Kings some amongst the people so advers to the King as to deny Him the just power and Soveraignty of a Prince There are no question zealous and good desires in many of either party for the maintenance of Justice and the Laws Howbeit the execution of their desires be respited until the prevailing part have gained power to make good the same so there may be also a mistaking and a fault in either part In some well wishing to the Parliament who frame and finde out causelesse Jealousies on purpose to divide the King from His friends as that common and slightest among the rest of Prince Rupert and Prince Maurice ayming at the Crown of England When His Majesty hath a numerous Issue of His own in possibility of more the two Princes an elder an Illustrious Brother Others wishing well to the Kings party of the like dividing spirit contending to have the Nobility and Gentry of this Kingdom think that the Yeomanry and Commonalty frame hopes to themselves of mateing the Gentry in an equal ranke These sinister contemplations of some disaffected and discontented persons are invented on purpose to sever and divide the mutual concurrency of the Gentry with the Commonalty in a proportionable aiding one another How frivolous it is all men may guesse when as the Parliament Members of both Houses are Lords and Gentlemen themselves a Bulwark strong enough to retard and provide against any such incroaching thoughts of Parity If any such there be believing these Inventions there needs no other Argument to evince such sinister suppositions Many the like Jealousies and obstacles to Peace on foot which the Court of Parliament do seasonably apprehend The Assembly at OXFORD seem the first offerers of an Accommodation for Peace But when they set forth Declarations with the fair frontispiece of Declarations tending to Peace and in those writings accuse their fellow-Members with whom they endeavor to possesse the world they contend for Peace of refusing and disturbing Page 23. Peace of being Traytors and Promoters of this horrid War and charge them in those writings or in some of His Majesties Declarations with scoffing the King in their Messages sent unto Him a Crime if they be guilty of most heynous and undutiful these Accusations of upbraiding their fellow-Members may be an outward offering but no inward or real promoteing of a Peace They have deserted their fellow-Members in Parliament and in that a chief Trust reposed in them their very departure without License from the Parliament was heretofore adjudged * 5. Hen. 8. Which Statute they would not all have broken it is presumed through the worth and Ingenuity of many of them had they either timely considered of the Statute or not in a passionate and hasty way departed or could have foreseen the ill effects of their departure penal to depart to contrive and wage War against their fellow-Members in Parliament heightens the offence as it credits the mercy of their * For notwithstanding the unhappy consequences of their deserting the Parliament refuses not to receive them to compound upon their undertaking not to do any thing prejudicial to the State Forgivers in not taking a severe and strict accompt of Inflicting a condign censure on the offendors To correct and sweeten the Malady thereof something must be published nothing more acceptable then the name of Peace but on what terms more then the name of peace in a general word they do not declare A condiscending must be had as well as a meeting for peace those ought to condiscend who are the most certain first Transgressors In the
already in derision The Cause Secondly In that a forraign Enemy upon a total devastation of this Realm without which the King cannot probably prevail will be induced to believe and accordingly make use of it that it hath happened through the soft and tender breeding of the English their unfitnesse to endure the hardship of a War and so invade and by degrees implant this Kingdom And what a Forraigner implanted here his Demeanour may prove towards our King not naturally their liege Lord every good English Subject will fear the worst when as especially this Kingdom must be kept as NAPLES by a Sir VValter Raughleigh in his Dialogue betwixt a Councellor of state and a Iustice of peace Garison of another Nation so that the King shall be enforced as former Kings have been to compound with Rogues and Rebels yea to pardon them thereby Himself the whole Nobility yea the State of Monarchy to fall together To state the differences of Forces on either part when the quarrel first began the Parliament had far the greater * The number of the Friends and Adversaries unto either part are calculated and their several Forts discerned about the middle of this Book and which part was in probability like to finde the greater opposition the King or the Parliament as matters were then in being in which it will appear that the Parliament had the more Enemies or their Enemies the more Friends number the King having but few yet more then the Parliament had Towns of Fort as his party have Calculated and hyperbolically reported otherwise most mens hearts being bent to defend their Rights and Liberties which they thought were of late encroached upon and indeed the Off-spring of this Quarrel and the Parliaments Friends believing the Justice of that Court and of their Cause in a carelesse way of affording Ayd threw all upon the chance of War without using the ordinary means concurrent to their defence not foreseeing what would be the end and mischief of their backwardness and neglect to be repented of not remedied They were willing enough to have redresse for their late-past grievances to have the work done and the Parliament speed well at their Neighbours charge so themselves be saved harmlesse but to lay out money and purchase the name of a Rebel in case the Kings party should prevail was both a chargeable and double Crime Then their unwillingnesse to be exposed to the hardship of a War to which they were altogether unaccustomed believing in the goodnesse and sufficiency of their Cause to have it made good in an extraordinary way by Miracles without laying to their assisting hand so casting the whole burden upon God and his Omnipotency did wish well and pray peradventure for the Parliaments Successe For now every short enjoyment of their quiet every small respite from the Enemies cruelty although the next bordering Counties unto them be infested round about with their cruelty makes these men apprehend that the War is ended because their Coast is for the present clear and they feel no instant smart It is true Gods Providence is in all things to be observed it is as his Omnipotency Infinite and Superintendent to every Creature No one hair falls from a mans head nor a Sparrow from the house top without his Providence The same Almighty power which could rescue his three Servants out of the fiery Furnace and provide strength of the mouthes of Infant Babes is able but whether he will or not his works being unsearchable and his ways past finding out give successe according to the peoples wishing without the ordinary means to be used by Instruments that is left to his secret and determinate Councel There is a time for War and a time for Peace the Lord is a man of War his Name is JEHOVAH and Fighting in a qualified sence as Praying is a duty DAVID blessed God for teaching his hands to War c. And Prayer is a Christians a contrite and good mans Arms. Had we in Unity and Humblenesse of Spirit in the Power without the Form of Godlinesse besought Almighty God to be delivered from Famine Battel Murder and from Sudden death as the Church directs These Calamities had not in likelihood come nigh which threaten now to come upon us like an Armed man Beseeching God by Prayer might peradventure be the Peoples sacrifice alone neglecting otherwise their own endeavors and carelesly trusting if at all upon God his Providence they think sufficient which is confest In which they may alike consider That if the Kings party shall prevail or the whole Land be consumed and reduced even to a handful It is all within the compasse of Gods power The Lot is cast but the disposing is of the Lord And certainly that side which useth the best and most concurrent means to his dispose the Justice of the Cause is challenged by either party is likely to have the upper hand Praying and relying on the Almighty goodness seldom fails the Petitioner God ever giving what he prayeth for what suffices or what is better then he asks but the means must be added to the prayer Qui ordinat finem ordinat etiam media tendentia ad finem Moses at the coming of the Amalakites besought the Lord by prayer yet commanded Joshua to choose out men to fight with Amalck God is in all things the first Mover by whom we move and have our being he the Super-eminent and first cause yet working by subservient and second means we are his People and Members of his Church Militant against which the Gates of Hell shall not prevail In the Creation his own glory was the effect of his chief care manifested unto us his Creatures his next affording us all necessaries for our support and good he looks to be sought unto and trusted upon in that course of obedience which he hath ordained in conveying that unto us which we look for at his hands otherwise he is rather slighted then trusted on Had the people been so liberal in Contributing to to their own Defence so provident to have foreseen that within one year after their improvidence they should have been thus opprest in the progress of one year more undone they would questionlesse have been more liberal and concurred more cheerfully in Contributing to their own Assistance For within a few Moneths after the War began many in the Kingdom fell off from the Parliament and under fear and the notion of being reputed Rebels thought it made against their present safety to wish well to the Parliament a Court scarce known in the Countrey and discontinued in the Kingdom much more to fight for it And hearing of divers invective Threats and Menaces to that purpose as if their Endeavors for the Parliament did make against the King and so resemble a Rebellion thought it altogether unsafe to adhere to the Parliament So the Kings strength increasing through the fear and revolt of many formerly engaged to the other part he gained
mad violence and oppression practised in the Kings name and by His party and by degrees wrought to the destruction of the Subject diverts and alters His wonted course and may make him Rebel as it were against His will when as He is frightned driven from and threatened out of His obedience If on the other side the Parliament shall prevail those Enemies to Common-Prayer advers also to what Government the Church shall appoint may be easily over-ruled by a Parliamentary Authority The Authors and Fautours of those Before this time of War there were no such Schisms or Heresies Tautum res nobis saith learned Iewel cum quibusdam satellitibus Pontificiis c. and it is requisite that Vnity and Peace be setled in the Church as well as in the State for suppression of these Schisms and Heresies God delighting yea and requiring it to have Order and Truth in his presence chamber the Church as in his larger courts the Common-wealth The Authors of the War have been the Authors of these Heresies which side Schisms being few and inconsiderable their Tenents newly sprung up and apt to vanish both through the insufficiency of their grounds and multiformity of their Sects wounding and weakning one another and in the main the Common cause For it is the firm and Orthodox Protestants which are the Parliaments firm friends whereon to trust yea and their constant friends also whilst the Parliament goes on in an entire solid and joynt way and are as the Exigency of their Affairs shall suffer them constant to themselves whereby and by which way alone they are inabled to defend themselves to protect their Friends Which side will prevail God only knows who can dispose of Victories at his will If the Parliament shall the King neverthelesse could not but assure Himself that He should be entirely King howsoever part of His Estate be by reason of these Wars diminished and the Parliaments Protestation taken 1641. together with their late Covenant two years after for the maintenance of His just Power and greatnesse were good security until themselves were reputed Traitors Rebels their worth in like maner undervalued and scorned by His party for so the Protestation and Covenant both may lose their efficacy and intent if He for whom they do Protest and Vow shall by opposing disable them in the prosecution of their Vow To that Objection That the Parliament have contrary to such Covenant Usurped and Intrenched upon His Regal Dignity and by seeking to hinder His Power have lessened His Honor in passing an Ordinance against His Majesties creating of Lords c. in seeking to have their Friends Invested with Honors and Titles answerable to their demerits To the first it is confest an Ordinance is past against all such Acts as may inure by vertue of the Great Seal and Barons being made by Patent under the same Seal which being a necessary Instrument of State which the Parliament represents being surreptitiously taken from them contrary to a Trust they have consequently passed an Ordinance against the Creating of Lords ut Supra For the Contention betwixt Him and them being grown extreme the King striving by all means to lessen their Power and Credit using all ways to advance His own their Enemies they knowing likewise the Seal to be made use of to their Detriment as if that the Kings conferring those Honors were not so much an augmentation of His Dignity in granting or in the created Lords in receiving those Honors as an intended diminution to the Parliaments Dignity had reason to provide for the time against all contingent Acts tending to the lessening their Power Admit it to be as the Objectors give out which neither the Kings party do prove nor the Parliaments do grant as in other Acts done by the Parliament An Usurping in them Usurpation may in the strength of policy prove a benefit to the Subject in that Usurpers do commonly Establish the best Laws to redeem their Credit lost by the Injury done in their Usurping If the Kings party shall prevail the War being between Him and His People the Parliament rather an Umpire in the Quarrel to do right to the wronged part there will be two things considerable The means whereby He doth prevail The end of His prevailing The first means not primarily as in the strength or greatnesse of His party yet consequently in that His party do undividedly retain and keep up the Ancient and setled Form of Government without contesting or dissenting in opinion about the Establishing any new As on the other side the Parliament hath thrown down the old without for a long time setting up any other Form or Constitution It was a learned Fathers Observation Augustine Ipsa mutatio quae utilitate adjuvat etiam novitate perturbat And it will require a most exact deliberate Wisdom to suppresse all Inconveniences which may arise on Novity Hence it hath been that the Parliaments Friends have grown lesse zealous to their side more troublesom to the Court it self by requiring and seeking a new and certain Form Which may admit a twofold Answer that the Parliament interrupted by a powerful Enemy hath not a full measure of Efficacy to conform and compose every collateral difference happing either in Church or Common-wealth when as their Task is hard enough to maintain and keep a work more necessary Their own Power Secondly In that they have for a time abolished those ancient Forms and constitutions finding haply some present reason for so doing whether they will forthwith establish some other Forme as it is probable they will having long since promised it or reassume the Ancient when time shall serve there being no substantial difference betwixt what is now abrogated and what is to be Ordained is left to their wisdom besides it is presumed in point of Judgement and of Policy that they will have such respect unto their Predecessors Acts as not altogether to raze out to abrogate for ever their ancient Constitutions least succeeding Parliaments should do the like by theirs and so the Courts of Parliament which have been instituted for redresse of Mischiefs and Grievances c. should become See Statute Edw. 3. the Scene and Seminary of inconvenience and disturbance by introducing still Novelties and alterations in the Common-wealth The third is in that His Majesty keeping His residence in a lesse Town of Garison Oxford can more easily conform and subdue a few unto His will then the Parliament can in a more greater place London The multitude in that City the supplies and Ayd afforded by the City to the Parliament can counterpoise such odds The event of His Majesties prevailing is alike considerable and two-fold also first in that the Parliament Members already proscribed and charged with Rebellion are exposed to contempt and ruine in them a great part of the Subjects of both Kingdoms when as the cause wherein the Publique good is so much concerned is by idle and abject Fellows called
divers Towns in several parts of the Kingdom On which his Friends and Party fix a Miracle reckoning it an extraordinary Act of Gods Favor shewed to him in the sudden increase of his Party that from an handful as it were he hath raised Forces to such numbers when as the Miracle may be retorted and rather turned the other way That his Majesty being so Pious Just and Protestant a Prince as his party contends and an * See the Oath tendred at Oxford 1643. Oath to that purpose hath been tendred to divers of late within his Quarters there should be notwithstanding such a defection from him in his Subjects so many thousand also not engaged nor seduced men of sufficiency and worth mistaken in what is Loyalty Neither is Victory in a Civil War any evident note of the Almighty's favor when as it is obtained on such hard terms as the Ruine and Destruction of a flourishing Land rather in the Event it will prove an angry Judgement of Gods punishing the Authors of this Ruine in suffering * See the Message of both Houses March 9. 1643. above and beyond all others a Civil War consuming and overthrowing the Body Politique as a pestilent Feaver doth the Natural with its distempered heat As for the Towns the Kings party gained whether by His Commanders wit and Stratagem allowable in War or by falshood in point of parly and of trust odious and scorned even in Forrain Wars is hereafter examinable and to be tryed by the Sword alone yet one word what that falshood is when a Commander or Officer in chief shall Swear by Solemn Oath and Vow to perform what he never means and after a trust committed and an agreement made break and falsifie the same And whether it be Treachery and falshood or Stratagem and Policy doth rest upon this Question Whether the Parliaments Proceedings be Rebellious unbecoming Subjects or just and Loyal If Rebellious then it may seem Stratagem and duty to the King in such Commanders entrusted by the Parliament to renounce their trust and serve the Enemy If the Parliament be good and faithful Subjects as they will rather sacrifice their lives to the Justice of their Cause then fail to Vindicate their Credit from the stain of Rebellion then it is Treachery in those Commanders to undertake afterwards to desert such Trust That such foul dealing hath been practised occasioning the protraction of this War is manifest on which side most future Ages or the Sword will manifest If it be answered by way of excuse as no crimes whatsoever shall want a patron in these divided times That such dealing is a vertue practisable in relation to a Kings Safety in danger to be destroyed and that breach of Faith of Trust never so Solemnly made or any other the like means may be used in Order to His preservation Answer This Argument may be Fallacy à petitione Principii or à non concessis which manner of disputing can enlarge ad infinitum and as the Logicians speak The reply thereto may be unto such an Argument that there is no such detestable and desperate design in being or known or granted Where by the way and to prevent the mistake ☞ of our duty and Allegiance which we should owe to our Soveraign if any exquisite wits of a more nimble discerning reach then their fellow Subjects pretending a greater care to His Majesties welfare have heretofore found out by privy and dark passages by any secrecy of contrivance any such wicked and execrable intendments against the Kings Person or Honor or deeming all others not partaking in their sagacity Ignorant in State affairs dull and vulgar spirited Let them make known unto their fellow Subjects the time the means and manner of that intendment before the whole Land be totally destroyed or a full Conquest be obtained for afterwards all writers will report one way in favour of the Victors side then also the victory not the Cause will point out and set forth the Rebel That two or three Gentlemen since Members of the House of Commons together with a Noble Peer in the House of Lords dwelling in neighbouring Counties each to other and sojourning about seven or eight years since with a Gentleman a neighbour and friend of theirs did during the time of their sojourning there therefore agree to overthrow Monarchial Government or intend any thing against the Honor or Person of the King if neither of these appeared by their discourse Letters or other Acts in writing the Arguer shews more his spleen against those Gentlemen then his Reason in deducing any good Connexion between the Antecedent and Conclusion Observe on the other side one among many other presumptions of some Design in hand from the advers party then let the Reader judge on which side is the more weighty and vehement presumption of Acting mischief of complotting alterations in matter of Government which the more rational Consequence that instance which went before even now recited or this which follows namely the building strong and high walls by a great Peer of this Realm to his house no other notice taken until now save of beautifying and adorning the house for his private use and splendour the divers Pieces of Ammunition credibly informed to be caried thither by little and little for these many years last past and now one of the strongest Holds the Kings party hath in all South-Wales to infest and oppose the Parliaments party Whilest the truth of such Plot of overthrowing Monarchial Government of some mischievous intendment against the Kings Majesty if any such there be suggested is no more manifested to the World it may be an Imposture framed and obtruded on the Parliament by some offenders who to save themselves have contrived this Calumny and Falshood on purpose to engage the King to rescue them The Parliament when this report was first given consisted of above Five hundred Members in both Houses And whether they having all Protested for the Kings Honor Person and Estate would against the dictate of their own Conscience against their natural and sworn Allegiance infringe this Vow to commit wilful Perjury and Treason Or that if it be objected That the Design was the drift only of some few accused and stiled factious persons solliciting and awing others then to assign who those few persons were and rather to blame the Counties and Corporations chusing such Questionlesse when first chosen their chusers suspected no such Crime in them and whether men known and chosen for their vertue would accumulate such Villanies as those Such a Design must be given out at least to save the credit of some revolting who having undertaken the charge and care of their several Counties to them deputed were at first active in their Musterings and Military practises Soon after whether wrought by Friends Allies or for some other respect did desist charging the Parliament or some of them in general terms with some strange intended Plot against the King
likelihood be his own to starve up that place where some of his Royal Issue are when as the detriment befalls not the City only 't is more extensive to all parts of this Kingdom with which the City tradeth For they being denied an intercourse cannot vent their wares So in case the City were guilty of what the Proclamation doth accuse it the Justice and proceeding is not adequate where many suffer besides the offendors There be divers other Messages and Declarations printed in his Name which were want of duty in his Subjects to think them his or with his assent As to those subordinate Edicts set forth heretofore when his party had gained some Western Towns published under some of his chief Commanders hands and read in Parish Churches restraining his Soldiers from Robbing Spoiling and the like violence and as in case of Felony the Countrey to rise and pursue them according to the Law in that case provided as Thieves and Murtherers Such Messages and Edicts might carry a fair flourish of Justice and be plausible to the Subject but when as he is disarmed and disabled every way and hath no weapon to defend himself what courage or strength hath he to repulse such violence A few armed Soldiers dare to Rob on the High ways yea and to venture into Towns and do what they list without resistance How many have lost their lives of late striving to rescue and defend their goods When Commanders shall promise to secure the Subject he notwithstanding robbed when in the Kings Name and under his Authority as the Subject is made believe things shall be promised improbable in the act of promising untrue in the Event a Subjects duty may make him facile but if his understanding of what he sees gives him not sufficient light but that he will submit against his Reason and thereby miscarry in being over-credulous he may thank himself It is not speculation or matter of doubt or jealousie which disturbs and divides the thoughts of man making some of one some of another mind or any mans affections to the one or the other side which governs in the apprehension of matters as now they are it is matter of Fact the eyes are more faithful witnesses then the ears what hath been done what hath been attempted what hath been promised not performed which doth clear the doubt To believe is required from Subjects to obey their Duty but when to believe and obey against Fact and Reason on whom lies the fault if they miscarry in their obedience and belief which is not therefore written to absolve or release a Subject from his immediate duty to his Prince who is to be obeyed in all things Lawful and Honest as before exprest but the Pests and Vipers about him as King * James termeth them are to be oppugned as the His Speech in Parliament 1609. exactors and commanders of that unlimited and undefined tribute of obedience Whose course and practices have much ecclipsed his Majesties just Power and Greatnesse and have embroyled two Kingdoms at the least in an unnatural and destructive War the Third in danger with the rest all so wasted or in an imminent danger to be so wasted as to become a prey to a Forraign Enemy the greater part of the Subjects of this Kingdom being fought against as * See the Letter from the Assembly at Oxford implying this to the Earl of Essex dated Ianuary 1643. Rebels the King himself several ways disadvantaged and weakned amongst his people which he may perceive in feeling Gods hand of anger against his People poured upon them in this War in failing to assist him without being Impressed and violently forced to serve him which if it were truly Rebellion they would cheerfully have assisted him their King wherein now they fail as knowing the state of the Quarrel betwixt his party and his Subjects and that their fellow Subjects under the name of his Soldiers committing Murthers and Rapines do render his Name terrible Next in what God is displeased withall and will certainly avenge in his just jealousie the presumptious Impiety of some his Flatterers ascribing In a Book Intituled The Loyal Subjects belief penned by one Mr. Simmons p. 16. more unto the King then any man without blasphemy can avow or the King himself shall like in making it all one to offend him as to offend God himself The King of Sweden was angry with the Author who writing the History of his Successe against his Enemies flatters and attributes that to the King which was mystically spoken of Christ Psal 45. Gird thee with thy Sword upon thy thigh O thou most mighty according to thy Honor and Renown Such flattery in his Subjects was displeasing to his Majesty The Parliament are by their Adversaries among other Crimes accused of endeavoring to bring in a Parity into the Church and State This Preacher hath actually and already framed and set forth the like betwixt the Creator and the Creature He no way proves his flattering Blasphemy which had it deserved to have been seen by his Majesty and should have passed from his Eyes into his Heart it might have proved Mortal The Doctrine besides the Blasphemy is of dangerous consequence and immencely criminal if we remember what God says of himself that he is a jealous God not suffering any Peer or Rival in his Imensitude of glory This Author is too prodigal of his Conscience and Wit to any mans Judgment who shall reade his Works if there be no more of his to restore him to the good name of a Minister of Gods Word In whose Lips no Iniquity should be found as being the Messenger of the Lord of Hosts Then this here cited and one of his Sermons preached before the Kings party at SHREWSBURY in Lent was two years where to delight his Auditory he breaks a Jest in the Pulpit and widely misapplies it to a Gentleman of the Parliaments party which but that the emptinesse and petulancy of the Jest redounds to the Honor of him at whom he Jested or were his words worth reciting might have been here omitted To passe it by only with this note That there is a more severe censure in the opinion of the * Ierem. Prophet due to whomsoever shall by such wanton floutings Pollute Gods Sanctuary or put no difference betwixt the Holy and Prophane then the * Martial Poet doth allow unto Ludit qui stolidâ procacitate non est Sextius ille sed Caballus To leave this Author and to return to the present subject the sense and imminence of these miseries occasioned by this War hath reached even to most Forraign parts wherein our Neighboring and fellow * The Scots Nation understand themselves so much concerned as with a seasonable prudence to foresee have accordingly framed their purposes to provide for their own Peace involved now in ours two ways engaged thereto First through a necessity of timely endeavoring to prevent their own Thraldom and
the People and will no question that Power the Parliament which governs them This will suffer some such like infamy by their accusers either of Hypocriticum Indoctum Sacrilegum or Unjustum and their Enemies are framing Indictments to all four Hypocriticum as pretending good but intending ill to the King and State an ordinary charge cast on them by his party yea of Counterfeiting also in that they do connive at Truths suppressed and Falshoods printed in their quarters of the several Chances of the War c. The permitting which were indeed blame-worthy were it a matter of much moment or competent to their leisure from weightier Affairs to cure forth with all Faults in matter of Fact the rather whereas they are sure that no ill successe either of losing Forts of having the worst of it sometimes in skirmishes or the like accidents incident to War can deter their firm and constant Friends resolving to resemble the Souldiers of * Paul Emil. in vitam Car. 7 Charles the seventh so far from shrinking at the terror of an ill Omen that they resolved to encounter all hard chances in Battel with increase of Courage Indoctum as for opposing the Bishops the highest Order in the Clergy and other Schollers The Parliament seems invective in their Accusers eye against all learning Sacrilegum as some of their Enemies have from a far fetched Metaphor tearmed them because of taking away the plurality of Church-Livings Injustum in that they have condemned Malefactors whereof their Enemies have given a pledge already See their Declaration printed 1643. in that the Assembly at OXFORD in their writings of offering Peace hath charged the Parliaments friends with imprisoning two * Earl of Chesterfield and Lord Montague Lords Northward for their loyalty to the King Such and the like calumnies are like to be their fate in case they are vanquished But to return and view the charge whereof the King and his party are suspected which before it be treated on The duty required from the people by the two contesting parts the King the Parliament is examinable seeing a War is waged and such a one as dissolves all laws and the quarrel so bitterly pursued betwixt the King and the Parliament both requiring Subjection and obedience which is to be obeyed the King a supreme but single person or the Parliament the representative body of the Kingdom in number many which to be obeyed in point of safety and conscience But first to make the Question the more clear take these * The peoples Plea collections from a learned Divine That the King hath His Power from the Kingdom therefore His Authority which Tearms though commonly confounded if distinguished makes clear the matter For Authority is a Right and Lawfulnesse to command Obedience such as all Governors and Magistrates have more or lesse But Power is a lawful Ability to force obedience where upon command it is denied one may have a just and lawful right to command that wants compulsive means for Coertion others may have strength to force commonly called Power that wants Authority to command and Power is that which in all Government bears the sway Wherefore in the Scripture Rom. 13. and elswhere it is taken concretively for the Governors and Magistrates themselves which have power at command to force Obedience to their Commands Now there is no doubt but the King hath ful Authority to command according unto Law all such as are subject to Him by Law but if upon His command obedience be denied whence hath he lawful power to enforce obedience whence hath He His Power to make good His Authority but from the people He cannot have it from Himself being but one man To keep a strong guard of some of His people to impugn and force the rest must needs produce Commotions Insurrections and a Civil-War If of strangers the Philosopher and others who write of Policy Aristot will tell you it is Tyranny nor is such ability Potestas but vis violence not power because unlawful when vis and Potestas or vis and jus do clash and skirmish the consequence is dangerous To keep an Army on foot continually under other pretences thereby to affright and force the Subjects is litle better therefore the Kings power must needs come from His own peoples hands and strength and from the same people must come His Authority If any other should give him Authority that were not able to make it good by power it were given Him in vain nor were the people bound to make that good which themselves gave not whence He hath His power then from thence He must needs receive His Authority even from the Kingdom To Safety a Common-wealth is best provided for by Councel Councel confists of number in which is safety That foresees contrives concludes not that they are void of Error King and Parliament both may erre whilest humane joyntly and dividedly but which most prone to Error the Head without the consent of the Heart being one or the faculties of the Heart without the help of the Head if possibly to be severed being many 'T is resolved Securius expediuntur negotia commissa pluribus oculi plus vident quam oculus which is not construed of the quantity of degree as which is highest which greatest but of the quantity of number which most probable to provide for the common good one or many If it be objected That the King hath a Councel viz. his Privy Councel to assist and consult with Ans This is by the King in his Person chosen always or for the most part attending on his Court and Person That of Parliament by the free suffrages of the whole Kingdom and how fitly when the condition and affairs thereof are subject only to the capacity and knowledge of the Parliament the Members thereof dwelling in all or most parts of the Kingdom whereby to have cognisance of what concerns the whole Yea let this be taken for granted as advantage to his Majesties party whether so or not That the Major part of the Peers and Gentry are now with the King in some other place then where he first Summoned them Admit it be true yet that they were called by his Writ to attend the service at a certain place and time and both place and time named in that Writ where the Attendance is according to that Summons and they having all there met accordingly the place and time do define and limit the Action denominating those the Parliament which there reside For howbeit a great number be come away from the place whereto they were first Summoned whether solicited awed or otherwise engaged the residing part to that number which now sit there make a full Parliament 'T is no marvel if their number shall decrease their courage fail them when so proclaimed against and threatned as might terrifie men of much resolution and constancy when their Posterities and Estates are exposed to Ruine all possible means of
Art and might nothing left unattempted to awe and conquer them and which they judge most hard that Proclamations forbidding all Traffique unto the place of their sitting that other Messages some requiring Obedience others threatning and sent them where they sit to be debarr'd the publishing their Reason and Answer of not obeying which they cannot communicate thereby to satisfie the Kingdom in that all commerce and intercourse betwixt the King and them is inhibited by those his Proclamations Fear of a Prince's displeasure is a note of a Peoples subjection no lessening their just courage the Parliament have manifested both Submission Courage Courage in not yielding when they were weakest Submission in not refusing to Treat when strongest Former Princes have been best pleased to own such Subjects men of Valor and Constancy not terming those vertues Rebellion Treason when as Rebellion rightly understood may be against a State as against a King it may want a proper appellation otherwise King James as wise and discerning a Prince as the latter times have afforded throughout the Christian Empire erred much in delivering his judgement How he sets forth the Enemies to a State and the unhappinesse of that King who admits such his above recited Speech in Parliament 1609. hath mentioned in several passages thereof Misdemeanors intended and committed against a State are done with an high insolent hand and deserve an answerable punishment as well as against a King the State being a firm and well built frame of Government wherein the King and Kingdom is conerned The King although a Supreme Person yet a Subject to Infirmity The several threatnings published and violence offered the Houses of Parliament may well grow thin when those of the Kings party contend to make his Power absolute and unlimited thence in him to Punish Pardon and Reward at pleasure In him also or in themselves to Judge alone the consideration whereof might invite many to his party who at first deliberatively upon advice and best judgement promised their duty and affections to the Parliament since finding their strength decreased by the departure of many their fellow Members might think it unsafe to stay themselves They could not but foresee that the King offering to remove the Houses of Parliament to some other place the City of LONDON would be quarreled with as harboring those whom his Majesty calls his Enemies and from whence he was driven away as he and his party do complain by seditious Tumults Whether those Tumults were the true or suggested cause of his removing thence or the Letter written to disswade him from any compliant way with the Parliament but rather to betake himself to some remoter place elsewhere c. 'T is true there was at that time which his Majesty speaks of a great concourse of people about Westminster and White-hall and the Londoners languishing long as many Subjects elsewhere did under the heavy pressures of Injustice implored his Majesty and the Houses of Parliament for redresse every one being earnest to have Justice done with the first opportunity of the Parliaments sitting They might peradventure press too near and rudely to his presence but whether his Actions after such removing suited with the Instructions of that Letter then sent when the Jealousies did first begin let all men judge The Orators opinion was Nothing so elegant or Cicer. Offie good but words may stain yea and wrest it too to an ill sense The peoples numerous and importunate desire of Justice their pressing near to his Majesty is by the power of Oratory Seditious Tumults On the other side some taking part with the Parliament give out That the Book of Common Prayer is altogether Idolatrous the Church-Government by Bishops Antichristian There may be an Error and corruptive use in this or any Form yet not to be mark'd by such Attributes Nothing also as the same Orator observes so harsh or horrid but the eloquence of words can mitigate and excuse The impetuous coming of great numbers of Armed men with Swords and Pistols following the King when he came to the House of Parliament to demand the six Impeached Members is by vertue of milde language the * In the Kings Answer to the Declaration from the Lords and Commons 1642. single casual mistake of the King the indiscretion of some few rash Gentlemen Which by the way the disaffection born by his Majesty to the City the place of the Parliaments sitting presaged all possible means to be devised of dividing the place and the Parliament met there which could not be better managed then by excepting against that and adjourning to some other place To speak it plainly it was the Cities Assistance and Affection to the Parliament which caused the Anger for be it spoken to their perpetual Glory the happy correspondence betwixt the City the place of security for that Court and that Courts consulting for the Cities and the Publique good hath hitherto next under Gods Protection delivered Both the City and the Parliament It follows next in point of Conscience which is to be obeyed the King divided from the Parliament or the Parliament as the King is the Head and eminent part of the Parliament the Parliament the Heart of the King although the Head may be forceably or otherwise turned then the Heart directs the Heart is neverthelesse the same nor to be thought divided from the Head Wherefore the Parliament residing there where it was first Summoned and the King there vertually * The Commissions cannot otherwise work then to a Parliament wherefore if his Majâ—sties personal presence be a necessary part of Parliament without which there can be no Parliament the Commissions can be of no force his absence making it no Parliament The granting which lets in other inconveniences upon dispute touching the locality of his presence as where whether in his Throne within the walls of the House or in his Court adjoyning The King and his Majesty are as it were inseparable Majesty is proper to him alone only his Attribute somtimes we say the King somtimes His Majesty neither is any mans person any more then a corporeal substance It is the Minde the Soul the Dignity and qualifications thereof which do as the Philosopher speaks inform and give being unto man Neither can it be thought that a personal contiguity is to be required of the King to be within the Parliament walls no more then the Body of the Sun to descend and touch the Earth when as it sufficeth that by its power and influence it gives heat and nourisheth a Commission for passing Bills in his absence and a Law in force for transacting matters when he is absent by Commission to convey his Royal Assent 33. Hen. 8. Obedience is due to the Parliament so considered viz. his Majesty in his lustre power and vertue being there incorporate with those his Faculties and whosoever resists that Court resists the King as Head Herewith suits the * Rom. 13. Apostles
some other contagious Disease or such like Reason those towns otherwise incompetent for such conflux of people as probably may have recourse to the Parliament for their dispatch and redresse in their Desires And whither that Adjournment amounts not to a Dissolving against the Law so consented unto by the King hereafter Besides observe the difference of Times and Persons which satisfies the Question Former Kings have been willing to call often Parliaments that the Usage and Necessity of often Summoning grew 36. Ed. 3. into a Law and yet in force to call one every year when in this of His Majesties Raign how seldom and sparingly He hath called any And when He hath as He did in the first year of His Raign to begin in June it continued unto July and Adjourned until August following and but few Acts passed before it ended In these last years the Parliament at the importunity and humble Request See their Petition 1639. of divers the Nobility and a valuable number of the Gentry the King summoned in April 1640. how soon He dissolved the same the beginning of May following Then he called another in November after in which for their more firm and constant proceedings in their Affairs and to the end that being come and met together from the several parts of the Kingdom they should not upon every light matter of Debate be dissolved and remitted home His Majesty was pleased to passe an Act against Dissolving without their own consent how soon after their sitting and that Act passed their Priviledges were seized by charging several Members of either House of High Treason Which when that could not take effect nor their persons seized the King withdraws Himself advised thereto from the Parliament and their place of sitting thereby to make void their Court whereof His Majesty one part yet His personal presence in this case not so requisite as that His absence should make void the Parliament The Parliament consisting of three Estates King Lords and Commons if the King be a necessary and constitutive part without which there can be no Parliament as those of His party contend to have it so His removing from the other parts amounts to a dissolving contrary to a Law consented unto by His Majesty wherefore it were a greater degree of undutifulnesse in any Subject to think that the King would violate that Law then that His Power and Vertue being there His Person should be so requisite as that the absence of His Person should adnul and make it no Parliament The person it self being severed from its Office and Vertue is a thing inanimate The distinction into a voluntary and necessitated absence or that the Kings presence shall make it compleat His absence an incompleat Parliament abates not the force of that Law nor serves to make whole the difference unlesse there be such a condition or limitation in the * See the Act passed in full Parliament Act. Which the proper and true Parliament is that summoned and resident at WESTMINSTER or that removed by a latter summons as before expressed to OXFORD which Question together with the perverse and proud obstinacy of an engaged and desperate party though throughly convinced of the truth thereof hath cost much blood The King and His party at OXFORD do resolve it truly Again He or His parties instability of Actions do seem to renew the doubt certainly do wound their own Cause For whilest His Majesty often and of late calls the Assembly at WESTMINSTER The Parliament and the Assembly at OXFORD by one and the The Assembly at OXFORD acknowledge in their Declaration printed there March 1643. The Parliament at WESTMINSTER not to be Dissolved pag. 25. same stile and that two Parliaments are inconsistent at one and the same time in this Kingdom the people unlesse wilfully and perversly ignorant are not to seek which is the proper Parliament Here by the way the OXFORD Mercury seeming to subjoyn in some ways to the Declaration printed there with a plausible Frontispiece of A Declaration tending to Peace rather Refutes that Book and deals more plainly and ingenuously upon the matter of a Peace offering from His party there and moving a strong cause of Jealousie against a truly intended Peace as is before expressed Now to examine the several Passages and Tracts of that Book Intituled A Declaration tending to Peace whither or no it ministereth matter of Peace as the title doth insinuate or further Quarrel For first they can say little for themselves to justifie their assembling as to a Parliament for the enacting and constituting Laws but what is ordinary and easie to be answered They lay aspersions on some mis-fezance and Errors in their fellow Members So great a body could not well be free from failings they accuse the whole body of Parliament of High Misdemeanors of High Treason of disturbing the publique Peace of the Kingdom of promoting and fomenting an horrid War and who to be judge thereof but themselves the Accusers The Parliament by an ancient Law in force is the sole Interpreter in matters of this doubt and consequence 36. Ed. 3. and themselves at OXFORD do not assume the Title and Power of a Parliament when as they acknowledge in the same Declaration ther fellow Pag. 16. Members sitting now at WESTMINSTER to be so material a part of Parliament that if they themselves at OXFORD might have enjoyed their freedom without being forced their sitting at WESTMINSTER to have been a full and free Convention and a Parliament The formal part of a Parliament in the Kings summoning them by Writ at such a time to such a place to debate the Affairs of the King and Kingdom This being granted and the Parliament at WESTMINSTER thus met what is wanting then to make it a full and free Parliament As to their want of freedom due to the Members of a Parliament and forced as they urge from those assembled now at OXFORD when they sate at WESTMINSTER Forced they could not be force is a fruit of power and deparibus in pares non datur potestas solicited and strongly wrought upon they might be according to their several tempers They accuse themselves and abate much of that courage required in Parliament Members when they complain they were forced fellow Peers cannot enforce each other without a previous disposition and compliance in those who are forced to be forced If any force and the same not offered by an higher power it might be in a close and clancular way by Proxies and Solicitors they know where the power rests of Punishing and Pardoning Proscriptions and Proclamations are Acts of Power no strength in equals to work a force Besides how cometh to passe that those at OXFORD Pag. 23. contending by the enumeration of those lately dead at WESTMINSTER or else departed from their fellow-Members thence to make them a few and inconsiderable part themselves the greater and more valuable number should be forced by those
at WESTMINSTER being the lesse One other kinde of force is urged of sitting at un-Parliamentory Pag. 7. hours or else to lose their Vote There must be to answer the other Member of of this distinction some Parliamentory hours appointed which no Laws hath yet assigned sitting still or going away relates commonly to the necessity and exigent of the matter in hand which haply will not admit delay or a second meeting but may require their sitting up till ten eleven or twelve a clock in the night and may again their meeting at six five or four or sooner in the morning If they please to abate so much of their own repose and rest by their pains and Industry their Countrey is so much the more beholding to them many of the Countries have in their * See the Petitions of the several Counties Petitions taken notice of and thanked them for their indefatigable pains The reason of the small number at WESTMINSTER wherewith the Assembly at OXFORD chargeth them is obvious to each mans understanding They make them thin and then upbraid them with their thinnesse T is as if Friends and Companions in a Journey shall see their fellow Travellers in danger to be robbed and ride away without assisting them in danger whose fault is it in case they are robbed the failing of those who might have helped or the paucity of those who are robbed this in respect of the other is a remote least principal and accidental cause T is easie for a Prince to confer Honors upon men so to fill the House of Peers divers wayes also to increase the number in the House of Commons to His party but for the one party to make the other thin and then to undervalue the power of them becoming so is like one impoverishing another by forsaking him in those duties of friendship which he owes and then contemning him The next odds observed by the Assembly at OXFORD between the Parliament at WESTMINSTER and themselves is the Kings presence with them at OXFORD and a major part of the Lords therefore out-weighing the Dignity of those at WESTMINSTER Which exception as to the Kings being there is answered by the Law of not Dissolving or by His Majesties being Virtually although not Personally present In that the greater part of the Nobility are with the King His party therefore the more Honored 't is answered without Disputing the Dignity or Preeminence of either part as which the more valuable in Birth or Breeding those which went away or those which staid behinde Comparisons are unseemly and forbid what this Discourse doth aim at Reconcilement Union It was not so at the first entrance into this Quarrel the King withdrawing Himself from the Parliament many of the Peers thought themselves by duty of their place obliged to attend on His Majesty and might have power it is like to prevail with some other of their fellow-Peers Besides the Nobility are to be considered as in the next Classe and Attendant on His Majesty some by their place others more remotely Interested wherefore seeing Safety and Preferment are the Stake which most men of all sorts contend for let the World be made believe it is Conscience Loyalty the King the Fountain of Honor in whom to Reward and Pardon they who are nearest Him hope first to gain by applying themselves to serve and please Him All men know the Proverb No fishing to the Sea nor service to the Court which was only in those days true when a just and uninterrupted Peace did flourish no man but could perceive through the Prospect of this Discord that Peace Plenty and Liberality in Rewarding would all be lost in a Civil Destructive War The Question was at the first much controverted which the more just or rightful Cause the Kings or the Parliaments divided from the King Many of the Grandees adhering to the Court and more Loyal in an implicite faith adhered to the Kings no more marvel then that Servants immediatly attendant on their Master should venture their obedience and assent unto him because their Master without examining the Reason of so assenting and then engaged pursue their undertakings or be meanly thought of in case they shall renounce the same the credit whereof is discerned in the quality of the Cause undertaken not in the resolvednesse of the Servant undertaking it Princes can and often do reward their Friends and Favorites the Parliament cannot or seldom doth it is besides their usual course to give besides their Friends expectance to receive other Salary then the redemption of their just Liberties for which they fight the maintenance of their ancient Birth-right conveyed unto them by the known Laws saving in some few particular cases where the Parliament shall meet with a desperately engaged and restlesse Enemy of great Power and Estate to fight and foment the Quarrel against on the other side some Friends Eminent in Desert of smaller Fortunes to fight for them In such a case to disseize their Enemy to diminish his power to invest and gratifie their Friend to augment his Fortune seems not unjust nor unreasonable But to return The distinction of Virtual and Personal seems offensive yea the Declaration calls it Trayterous which no indifferent man will judge until Victory by nature insolent makes every thing displeasing to the Conqueror Criminal As when those on the Kings side hoped to have over-run and conquered all no man wishing well to the Parliament durst name them joyntly whereas simply and univocally to hold for King and Parliament is the surest and most Loyal tenure Howbeit nothing can be with more anger and displeasingly received by the more perverse and insolent amongst His Majesties party then for them to hear those on the Parliaments side say that They are for the King and Parliament So the Quarrel hath several overtures of increasing the Parliament party taking it indignly at the Kings party's hands to be thought Disloyal False Dissemblers as the King 's expresse their anger with the Parliaments for saying They are for King and Parliament To believe or say that the King is seduced by evil Councel is in their heat and anger a wounding His Majesty through His Councels sides which exception of theirs must render Him infallible in judgement or so singular in wisdom as to be above or to stand in no need of Councel for if he makes use of Councel and erres by their Advice the Error is His Councels or must presume in Him such transcendency of Goodnesse in not inclining to any evil motion as is not competent to a Creature An impartial looker on will rather judge the words of His Majesties being seduced by Evil Councel to be a degree rather of Dutifulnesse then Disloyalty as freeing Him from Misdoings and laying the Charge on His Evil Councellors His Majesty is happier if free from these stiled by another * King Iames in His speech in Parliament 1609. calls them Traitors vipers c name then His
Act of offering a Treaty for Peace to invent new charges of high Treason of capital Misdemeanors of Injustice is no right way to Peace unlesse the persons charged are guilty of the same as namely they charge the Parliament or their Committees to have imprisoned two Lords for their Loyalty to the King as if their Loyalty were the unquestionable and certain cause of their Imprisonment These Lords might happily shew themselves active against and disobedient to the Parliaments Authority for in these unsetled and distracted times few men do others will not know their proper duty and so come within the compasse of some fault to deserve Imprisonment The High Treason whereof they accuse their fellow-Members is their counterfeiting the Great Seal Page 22. against the Statute of 25. Edw. 3. which whether in this case be to be understood High Treason the Sword must decide the Question The Parliament think themselves not guilty of that Crime by the Verdict of most men nor every thing made to the Mould by which it is made is not simply Counterfeiting the quality of the offence is much discerned in the maner of the offending and every Law-making commonly relates to some preterite fraud and wickednesse Now whether a King and a Parliament since the first constitution of either have heretofore made use of the Great Seal to crosse one anothers Acts be to be found in any Record whereon to ground a Law the Reader is to seek Amongst all the capital Misdemeanors amounting to High Treason recited in that Statute the Parliament making a new Seal being not done against the knowledge of the King and State seems not within the compasse of that Law which in that clause doth questionlesse intend the privy and surreptitious counterfeiting to the private Use and Benefit of the Counterfeiter And whereas in that Statute there may be divers doubtful cases of Treason determinable it is then and there accorded That if any other case supposed Treason which is not specified in See the Statute that Statute shall come before any Justices they shall tarry without giving Judgement of the Treason until the cause shall be shewed and declared before the King and Parliament whether it ought to be so adjudged or not In which determination the King and Parliament are presumed joyntly to Act if dividedly then who to judge the King seclusively without the Parliament or the Parliament without the King which if divided most likely to give a clear and dexterous judgement the King or the Parliament Those words The King Parliament cannot be understood of the Kings Councel and the Parliament it must be of the King himself in which as Treason is here objected to the Parliament the Parliament is excluded from any decisive power of being Judge what is Treason and pronounced guilty themselves of Treason The marginal Note if in that as in other places of See the marginal Note the Statute it sums up the sense of the Statute disputeth many Questions touching Treason to be first decided in Parliament leaving out the word King or presuming as is before observed that He is always there in person or in vertue Take the Accusers the Assembly at OXFORD Page 24 25. their own acknowledgement That the Parliament is His Majesties Answer to a Declaration from both Houses May 19. 1642. not Dissolved that they are far from Dissolving or attempting to Dissolve it Take His Majesties own confessing and allowing to the Parliament a power in a particular doubtful case regularly brought before them to declare what Law consequently what Treason is and the making a new Great Seal the old being contrary to Trust vafrously carried away from them the Representative Body of the State which the Seal is always to attend will not be adjudged a case of High Treason In the controverting this particular case as of the other Crimes charged on the Parliament and the Subjects of this Kingdom adhering thereunto the people may well be to seek when as the learned Sages and other Students of the * The Innes of Court Phrontisteries of Law and Justice seem to be divided in opinion some very active as being peradventure engaged for the King against the Parliament contending with all their might to make good the charge of Treason laid upon that Court and the Friends assisting them Others in the Parliaments account and questionless their Friends as earnest although more moderatly expressing it for the King and Parliament believe it to be no way Treason Which are greater numbers of them on the one side or the other or which the more able Lawyers is not here determined But to the Objection if any such That a greater number of them are within the Jurisdiction of the Parliament in LONDON and other places elswhere wherefore they may seem rather to side with that power The Answer is easily had That their hopes and possibility of being prefer'd by His Majesty were not Conscience Judgement valued by them above Reward or Honor were a more weighty motive then fear can be of displeasing that side in whose Quarters they are which cannot always protect much lesse gratifie them save only with the testimony of what they deserve answerable to their Breeding Knowledge and liberal Faculty One of the learnedst of that Tribe in those days wherein he lived and much Honored for his parts and industry wrote a whole Tractate for the Dignity and Priviledge of that Court in general How this in particular hath demeaned themselves to forfeit their Credit any other way then in maintenance of their power against oppression violence offered to themselves and the Subjects for whom they are entrusted future Ages can Record But to proceed In the same Declaration full of suspition and fraught with quarrelling the Assembly at OXFORD except against the words of a Message sent from the Lords and Commons to His Majesty Dated in the same year March 1643. viz. That His Majesty would not be the least or last Sufferer These words they throughly scanned and presented them to the world as terms of an See the Message of the Lords and Commons sent unto His Majesty upon occasion of a Letter sent from the Earl of Forth to the Earl of Essex high Affront as that Subjects or Rebels 't is all one in their Dialect in arms against their King should dare to send unto Him such a daring and presumptuous Message The words admit a two-fold sense the one of the Parliaments meaning as the Assembly at OXFORD seem to construe it the other more probably of their lamenting and foreseeing in their sadnesse and grief of heart the inevitable and universal ruine which must attend this War For that His Majesty cannot be the least Sufferer 't is too probable whose sufferings can be compared to His in the destruction of many thousands of His people as well in the greatest and dearest to Him as in the meaner sort in all whom consists His Safety This exception
above the rest was in these sad and suspitious times unseasonably moved by His party for they having conplained of late of extraordinary wrongs and losses befaln His Majesty His Treasure and Revenues denyed unto Him His Houses and Castles spoyled His Woods cut down and wasted c. It will now be feared That to repair and make whole those losses His Subjects Estates and Lands must satisfie most mens demeanor questioned when He shall have totally Conquered His peoples faults and negligences set out to the full to render the owners culpable or else His Majesty cannot but be the greatest Sufferer Nor to be the last no man can think His Majesty will survive the losse of all His people a good Subjects Prayer ought to be with a small insertion in the Poets addresse to his Maecenas Serus in caelum redeat c. serus é terra then in caelum redeat diuque laeto fruatur nomine And if it were possible without insolency to wish that many days may be yet added to those of His which God hath numbred to the end that He may live to see a new Generation spring up of stout and constant English Hearts to succeed in the room of those whom this unnatural War hath wasted But these exceptions moved by the Assembly at OXFORD of too curious and suspitious spirit are proposterous to the pursuit of Peace their Imputations of Treason and the like Crimes to render their fellow-Members sitting at WESTMINSTER odious to their fellow Subjects are no fit preparatives to Peace nor their calling the Parliaments Intentions so deeply protested to be real Counterfeit Neither is this Contention by the Sword alone but by the Pen on which side whither on the Kings or the Parliaments the Arguers in print touching the subject of this War since it first began have wrote the more solidly and rationally concerning it which have more candidly and succinctly without railing or expatiating terms set down the Arguments the Reader is to compare the difference and judge For Rhetorique and strength of Wit or for a sublimate and fine stile of Expression the Assembly at OXFORD as having the more youthful facere and nimble Wits in their party and Quarters the help and influence of the pregnant conceits and nimble Fancies in the University there may seem to have the start But let the Writings on both sides be examined according to Reason and Judgement and the Reader will judge the difference Let it be instanced in three or four the most remarkable Messages in Writing and the Answers thereunto no other being so opposite to each other as these here mentioned First The Letter to the Governor and Counsel of See the Letter and the answer War at BRISTOL from the Lord General of His Majesties Forces demanding a forbearing of putting to death the two Citizens there with the Governors Answer thereunto The Answer is for-judged already and the Reader saved his pains of judging it by being termed by the Kings party The Governors * In a Book of an unknown Author called The States Martyr insolent Answer when as it is adjudged by other more impartial Readers to be a well weighed apposite sober Answer Secondly That for the Marques of Argyle and Sir William Armyne the Commissioners from both Kingdoms fully and in few words delivering their See their Message and Sir Thomas his answer Intentions and Reasons thereof to Sir Thomas Glenham a Commander in chief in His Majesties Army with His Answer unto them full also of words and of suspition Which in a Treaty sincerely meant should be left out and the Objections answered with Reason and Judgement no perverting or wresting of the sense against the Authors meaning no total and universal dislike had by His Majesties party to every thing which the Parliament shall declare or do And it is requisite withal that the matter of a Treaty to be disputed to and fro should have an equal and free passage and reciprocal intercourse which the Parliament judgeth to be denyed to them sitting at WESTMINSTER that when Declarations have been published and set forth against them they are by His Majesties Proclamation inhibiting all Trade and Traffique thither denyed their reasonable Answer to be likewise published so they cannot be heard nor set forth to the world what they can say in defence of themselves so the Accusations from the one side His Majesties party are bitter concluding and offensive whatsoever the War is and their Challenges in print not to be answered by their fellow-Members for the reason above recited One other intercourse of Messages between both parties of a latter time this April the Summons sent by the Committee of both Kingdoms to the Lord Bellasis Governor of NEWARK for surrendring that Town and Fort the Summons expressing perswasive and important Motives to surrender * See His Majesties Letter dated Mar. 23. and the Secretaries Answer to the Committees summons Apr 1. 1646. The Governor his Secretary's Answer full of good Language Courage and strength of Wit wherein mentioning His Majesties Letter sent the 23 of March last past unto both Houses of Parliament he urges the Kings most gracious conditions in that He will disband His Forces dismantle His Garisons The Secretary recites not all the Kings proposals of having His Friends pardoned the Sequestrations taken from their Estates Either the Secretary saw not the Kings whole Letter whereof he recites one part only or else he smiles in his sleeve thinking by his short Comment on the Letter to satisfie the Committee there and the whole Kingdom besides His Majesties Letter is full and genuine in its meaning to be taken collectively not apart as of disbanding dismantling c. without pardoning c. and such collective maner of speaking is alwayes conditional the one to be done on the one if the rest be performed on the other side The Secretaries reciting them is short of His Majesties meaning and mentions it as the Tempter in the Gospel tels our Saviour All these will I give thee which was as much as his eye could behold but on what condition If Christ would fall down and worship him The condition which he annexes to his promise annihilates the gift The conditions which the Secretary cals Gracious in His Majesties Letter of disbanding His Forces c. if nothing else were to be expected are in every mans judgement as in the Secretaries most gracious But to have His Friends His party pardoned the Sequestrations wholly taken off from their Estates were to put them whom the Parliament accounteth offendors and their Enemies into a better condition then their own Friends The Secretary if knowing His Majesties whole Letter and would contract it into parts reciting that only which serves his turn the Committee being presumed to be solid and able men will follow their own Judgement without replying to that Answer This sophisticate and defective manner of Arguings abates the merit of their cause and
had not been taken away by the Kings Souldiers near COVENTRY and within His Quarters the English and Protestants there had been relieved c. That the goods and Cloaths so taken away was not without His Majesties knowledge and direction unto which the Kings Commissioners reply That those Cloaths had not been taken away if they had had a Conduct to have more safely passed through the Countrey and further urge That those Forces and other Provisions intended for the Relief of His Majesties Subjects in that Kingdom were diverted and imployed against Him namely in the Battel at EDGE-HILL For proof whereof they mention three or four witnesses some of whom engaged for the service of the Parliament and deserting now the same engagement are advers and none more extreme Enemies to the Parliament whither they be competent witnesses in so extreme a Conflict to prove the Accusations If witnesses may be admitted known to be ☞ maliciously opposite to that party against which they are witnesses the inconvenience may prove in these loose and desperate times as generally noxious as the War it self hath been The Answer to such Accusation as the Kings Commissioners therein urge is no where more fully to be had then to the Enquiry into the Original of this War whereunto all Treaties had to compose this vast difference must have recourse otherwise a meeting to conclude a Peace will vanish into Contention and Disputes for want of a certain Rule or constant Principle to guide the Treaters by The well weighing of the Protestation lately taken might have confined and setled the doubtful and various thoughts of man in what the end and aime of the Protestation was a promise to fulfil in as much as in us lies the Commandments of the first and second Table of the Law directing our duty towards God and man the several parts in the Protestation tending in the sum to the maintenance of Gods Honor the Kings the Subjects Right and Liberty no one part thereof if rightly understood and applied crossing another and therefore how it comes to passe that the Protestation being one and the same the course of mens affections should be thus divided into partakings or that some should be of opinion that to maintain the Kings Honor Person and Estate is to adhere unto Him in this present War in what He shall command They should withal consider the other parts of the Protestation viz. The Defence of the Protestant Religion the Power and Priviledges of Parliament the Subjects Right and Liberty for by the Protesters observing all the King is best observed and trullest His Honor and promises being ingaged to maintain the latter three when as every one who takes the Protestation doth thereby endeavor to make Him a Soveraign Lord of a free and flourishing people The Kings Protestations concurring with and tending to that end so the Protestation taken altogether is best observed and kept To the Protestation for the defence of the Protestant Religion every one who takes it is not immediatly bound by vertue of his Vow to extirpate or remove all Papists that is above the power and liberty of every common person but if he sees the Protestant Religion in danger of declining and that the Papist is connived at and countenanced by higher powers for the question is not about the certain and actual bringing in of Popery but touching the causes of suspition if the Protester adhereth to that party which promiseth to defend the Protestant and opposeth that which countenanceth the Popish his Protestation is the truliest kept a Promise or Vow the more pursued the more fulfilled In like maner to the other part of the same Protestation viz. The maintenance of the Kings Honor every one who takes the same is not thereby bound to comply assent unto and obey the King in whatsoever He may command whether unlawful or unjust or to think all His attempts and actions Justifiable throughout This were indeed in the highest degree to Honor Him but in a more serious and as truly a loyal way of His being honored by His Subjects is when they or those who are put in place and authority over them shall enquire into and provide against all things incident to His Dishonor when they shall endeavor to chastise and suppresse all Affronts and insolencies which may be offered to His Honor This although a more remote and lesse flattering yet a more stable and certain discharge of Duty in Honoring Him But to proceed and examine wherefore His Majesties Page 119. Commissioners presse the want of a Conduct for the guard of those Forces and other provisions intended for the relief of His Majesties Subjects in the Kingdom of IRELAND c. it seems strange when as His giving way to many subscribers and adventurers into that Kingdom His often and tender expressions of the deplorable and sad Estate of His Subjects there His offering to go in Person for the better reducing the Rebels there all or most of these being known to all His Subjects was safety enough in all likelihood and above the strength of many Regiments of Souldiers or above the validity of any Commanders passe to have secured the transporting of such Cloaths and other Provisions intended thither from the violence of His own party The Parliament Commissioners urge farther That it was Declared from His Majesty That he did disapprove the subscriptions of the Officers of the Army by means whereof that course was diverted That the Commissioners sent by the two Houses of Parliament for the better supplying and encouraging the Army in that Kingdom were discountenanced and commanded from the Councel there where the prosecution of the War was to be managed unto which no Answer or Excuse is set down by the Author of the Relation His Majesties Commissioners derive the good and Justice of the Cessation from the Lords Justices and Councel of that Kingdom intimating the same by Letters sent from those Lords to His Majesty and the Speaker of the House of Commons and that had it not been for such Cessation the Protestants there could not have subsisted The Parliament Commissioners answer That Page 135. those Letters sent do no way intend the inducing a Cessation nor that the Copies shewed to them do contain any thing tending to or any the least intention of a Cessation and that those Letters sent were therefore written to quicken a supply from the Kingdom of ENGLAND They farther averring That notwithstanding such Cessation which many and considerable persons of that Kingdom do still oppose many English and Scotish there do yet subsist The Arguing and Debating which hindering the Supplies and Assistance which otherwise might have been afforded hath added much to the Affliction and Calamity of His Protestant Subjects there and to be imputed wholly to the Authors and Persisters in this War For whilest both parties in the War do contend to maintain and increase their power in opposition each to other and consequently