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A34353
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Considerations touching the late treaty for a peace held at Uxbridge with some reflections upon the principall occasions and causes of the frustration thereof : extracted out of the late printed full relation of the passages concerning it.
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Dugdale, William, Sir, 1605-1686.
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1645
(1645)
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Wing C5920; ESTC R200044
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28,388
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39
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CONSIDERATIONS Touching the Late TREATY FOR A PEACE held at VXBRIDGE With some Reflections upon the Principall Occasions and Causes of the FRVSTRATION THEREOF Extracted out of the late Printed full Relation of the Passages concerning it PRINTED AT OXFORD BY Leonard Lichfield Printer to the Vniversity 1645. CONSIDERATIONS TOUCHING THE FRVSTRATION Of the Late TREATY CONON describing the practises and plots used by Gelon how to make himselfe sole Tyrant over Sicily sets this downe for a ruled observation upon his Case {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that as there is a kind of Pleasure in the practice and exercise of any Power which is given so that pleasure is improoved to a kind of Lust or Venery no way so much as when that Power is exercised and administred either against the Fortune or against the Person of that man which gives it The beames of Soveraignety by like being as the beames of the Sunne not so hot in direct and strait lines as in reflections And therefore as Pliny speakes of Callimachus an excellent Painter but one that was so curious that the grace of his work was much abated by the diligence for he could never tell when he had done well that he was maximus sus calumniator his own worst detractor So does Aristides observe of an excellent Prince administring that Empire with Remissenesse and Favour which is best sway'd by Iustice and by Power that he is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} his own greatest Rebel For letting down the string of Monarchy never so little and sinking his own naturall Right and Interest in all High Actions to an inferior communication and adoption of other Councells It often hapneth to him as it does to many other kind Masters in the World That whatsoever he shall heretofore have granted shall be no longer thought on as a piece of Grace and Mercy but whatsoever He shall henceforth deny shall be now lookt on as an Act of great Injustice and Tyranny The sadde testimony which the Miseries of our present Warre afford unto this Truth will save the labour of examining other witnesses and the sadder testimony which the Mistakes of our late pretended Peace afford will save the examination of them Never did condescention I had almost said submission in any Prince meet with so much scorne and contempt from any People whil'st all His former Acts of Grace and Favour that should have Instructed their obedience doe but Arme their Pride By receiving they only learne to Aske and having gotten a Power into their hands they are now so farre enamoured of Majesty that if they cannot get her Scepter as they hope they shall They are resolv'd not to let goe her Sword not unlike to some young passionate lovers of Beauty who when they cannot obtaine the Eldest daughter to Wife whom they most desire will match her Sister They think it not enough to cousen us of our Monies now they cousen us of our very Sences and whilest they call upon the World to behold and see a Treaty They cheat them with a very Trick They have dealt with this whole Kingdom now as they dealt with the Lord Mack-Quire not long since They have in a manner executed a Common-wealth these three or foure years by Rapines by Rebellions and by all the sad appertenances of Warre and now They cut it downe as it were in a pretended Treaty for a well setled Peace but to what end not as purposing or intending any such blessing as Peace unto the Kingdom that should animate it as it were with a new life and make it happy but only to recover a little so much of her exanimated Spirits as shall make her sensible and more apprehensive of fresh and new Miseries For that in the late Treaty they never did intend a Peace I think will be easily made appeare to any common judgement and understanding that shall observe and weigh no more then these foure particulars First their Indisposition and Aversion from Treating Secondly their Impotent and Imperfect Qualification of their Commissioners to Treat Thirdly their Insolent Expostulations and Demands in the Treaty and Lastly Their Inexorable Obduration and Deafnesse against all Enlargement Prorogation or Reviving of the Treaty I. Concerning the first of these their naturall indisposition and aversion from Treating It is worth observing That from the 4th of Iuly last when His Majesty recommended this Treaty first unto them unto the 23d of November last when their Propositions were brought downe to Oxford upon which the Treaty was founded there passed almost five whole Monthes betweene A Small Time for the grave Advices of a Parliament to worke in in such a poynt full of perplexities as this Whether it be better for the Kingdome to have Peace or Warre If the question had been onely put whither Presbytery were not better then Episcopacy whereon dependeth but the Ruine of the Church or whether Democracy were not better then Monarchy whereon dependeth but the Ruine of the State or lastly whither the Militia of the Kingdome were not safer in their hands then in the Kings whereon dependeth but the Ruine of them both For the ventilation and agitation of such easie poynts as these a matter of Three Dayes a piece is time enough for no more would be allowed us at Vxbridge as if the Church amongst the other new markes of Primitive Institution were in this also to be reckoned the more like to Christ for dying and rising again for laying down her old Ceremonious and Carnall Body and taking up a new glorious and Spirituall Body and all in Three Dayes But when a poynt of so great concernement as this comes in debate whither it be better to have Peace or Warre A poynt which if it miscarry never so little in the stating may chance endanger That Lords Pension and this Lords Place may chance endanger the Tryall of some of the Members and the Trade of more may chance returne them to their Originall three-penny Seates that have sat all this while in great State upon the Stage It will aske time to traverse and discusse it and foure or five monthes Allowance is truely with the shortest All this while indeed had they a very hard game to play They held the Wolfe by the Eare as they say They durst not hold a Treaty when the King offered it for then They knew they should loose Themselves and They durst not let it goe when it was offered for then they knew they should loose the People Was it not high time for to bestirre them now and like true State-Iugglers expresse a little skill First therefore to make the People a little sport in the street the better to perswade them faster in They doe give it out that if the King would acknowledge them His Parliament and the Great Councell of the Kingdome then They would Treat as if this were a World for men {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to admire Names for Things as
Face be taken in their right feature and proportions and that Aire be not taken which Aire is a kind of center wherein all consents of similitude and likenesse meet one man will confidently pronounce the Face is like and another will as confidently pronounce as he that it is not and both believe themselves to be very right in judgement If the sense of the words of any Text be taken and understood according to the partiall and particular acceptation of those words in other places and then the Generall Aire the Scope and Harmony of the whole Text with that which went before and that which followes The Relation and Interest which it hath to persons and places or that cast of the loâ—ke as it were which it hath upon some Times Vsages and Customes if all this be not taken and understood as well One man may deduce one conclusion from that text and another man another crosse to that and both think themselves to have inferred justly No mervaile then if these men should produce some Texts of Scripture that colour for Presbytery to those mens Apprehensions that are resolv'd before to set it up and no mervaile if they produce other Texts that look a squint upon Episcopacy to those mens understanding that are resolv'd before to pull it downe For when the Aire of the Face is mist it is no longer a Picture but a Phancy and whom every man is pleas'd to think it like like to them it is and when the Aire of a Tâ—xt is mist as they generally either never goe about to take it or ever misse it That text is like the Children of Israells Manna which will tast to every man according to the particular affection and inclination of his own palate or like Pauso's Horse which was ever ready made whither you would have the Head or Heeles stand uppermost all was one And therefore our Commissioners chalkt them out the readiest way to detect the unlawfulnesse of Episcopall Government if there were any when They desired to be informed by them when and where any Nationall Church since the Apostles time was ever governed without it For if they pretend that Government to be unlawfull and yet can shew no other it is a shrewd argument that they doe but pretend it For it can hardly be imagined that Christ should ordaine but one only lawfull forme of Government in his Church that was to abide even unto the end of the World and that that Forme should so soon decay and perish as that there should not remaine the least foot-step or impression of it in his Church for the whole space of Fifteen hundred years together But their Commissioners will not heare of this They tell us that what our Lords did mention concerning a Nationall Church is a new Question which hath not as yet been any part of the subject of their Debate Good Lord I how well acquainted are these men with Congregationall and Classicall and Synodicall and Nationall Assemblies which are for them and what a strange matter they make of a Nationall Church because it is against them This is but just as I have known some beggars who will make you believe they do not understand scarce a word of good English because they find they can get more with Canting Well They are willing for all this to believe Episcopall Government unlawfull and I make no question at least no new Question for I believe it is already stated but that They look to be well paid for their opinion But this I must tell them I would not have them found that unlawfulnesse on Scripture or I would have them finde it For as concerning all their arguments out of Scripture which have hitherto been brought against it I will say no more but this That they have concluded no more against Episcopacy even to those very persons that have such unequall thoughts and so prejudicate affections to that sacred Order Then they may conclude when they please against the keeping of the Lords Day against the Baptizing of Infants against Originall sinne or in a word against any one Article either of Christian Practice or Beliefe established in the Church when the disbeliefe of any one of these Articles is like to prove as advantagious and beneficiall to them as the disbelieving of this Episcopacy hath done Concerning the Militia their demands were Two First They demand the sole Nomination of all the Persons to be entrusted therewith wholly to themselves not allowing the King not only the Power of nomination of one man in Twenty but not so much as the Power of exception against one man in Twenty Secondly they demand the Continuance of this Power during pleasure and without any limitation or restriction of Time And truely when I met with this I began to think that in short time the Rebels would invest the King with such a Prerogative as Agatharcides reports of the Sabaeans that they allowed their King So long as he kept close and within his Court it was lawfull for him to doe any thing what he would but if once he stirr'd a foot but out of his Palace it was then lawfull for them to stone him His Majesties most Loyall and most Humble Subjects will be content to spare him a little Honour but they will be sure to clip and pare him to the quick of all His Power So that upon the whole matter the Case is this Iohn a Nokes and Iohn a Stiles fell out and fought and having drawne some bloud one from another at last they were contented to put up their Swords and be made Friends Provided that both their Swords might be put into such hands as might prevent all further quarrelling betweene them Iohn a Stiles he proposes that both their Swordes may be put into Two friends hands that the ones Friend may keep the one and the others Friend the other But Iohn a Nokes though causelessely he drew first on Iohn a Stiles which meant him no harme yet now afraid least Iohn a Stiles should doe him mischiefe will have both the Swords put into his owne hands or He will not be Friends Now certainly though upon severe examination of this offer'd Composition there be no reall security founded upon that motion even of Iohn a Stiles for if the Two Swords should be put into two Friends hands as he desires The Danger might be more because They might fall out also as the other did before them But the Security is not because two Persons are no more secure against two then one against one yet there is more Imaginable security that is Men will be more apt to conceive and imagine that Iohn a Stiles intended and meant honestly as equally and as indifferently to provide for both their securities as possibly upon the suddaine he could in this His way then They can imagine or conceive that Iohn a Nokes could intend or meane in that way of His And yet this is the way the Parliament will