with them about the same yea and to make the surer way to Himself with this great Blessing in the behalf of His people He resolves to buy their consent if he cannot beg it by receding so much from His owne rights as none of His Predecessours ever did for supposing the point of their owne security to be the maine obstacle in the Businesse He offers to part with the Militia it self out of His owne Hands for a season and to this purpose omitting all Expostulations for their so High neglect and contempt of Him in not answering His former Messages He writes to them as followeth His Majesties third Message CHARLS R. NOtwithstanding the strange and unexpected delaies which can be presidented by no former times to His Majesties two former Messages His Majesty will lay aside all Expostulations as rather serving to lose time then to contribute any remedy to the evils which for the present do afflict this distracted Kingdom Therefore without farther Preamble His Majesty thinks it most necessary to send these Propositions this way which He intended to do by the Persons mentioned in His former Messages though He well knows the great disadvantage which Overtures of this kind have by the want of being accompanied by wel-instructed Messengers His Majesty conceiving that the former Treaties have hitherto proved ineffectuall chiefly for want of power in those persons that Treated as likewise because those from whom their power was derived not possibly having the particular informations of every severall debate could not give so clear a Judgment as was requisite in so important a businesse If therefore His Majesty may have the engagement of the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland the Major Aldermen Common-Councel and Militia of London of the chief Commanders in Sir Thomas Fairfax's Army as also those in the Scots Army for His Majesties free and safe coming to abode in London or Westminster with such of His Servants now attending Him and their Followers not exceeding in all the number of 300 for the space of forty daies and after the said time for his free and safe repair to any of His Garrisons of Oxford Worcester or Newark which His Majesty shall nominate at any time before His going from London or Westminster His Majesty propounds to have a Personall Treaty with the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland upon all matters which may conduce to the restoring of Peace and happinesse to these miserably distracted Kingdoms And to begin with the three Heads which were Treated on at Uxbridge And for the better clearing of His Majesties earnest and sincere intentions of putting an end to these unnaturall Distractions knowing that point of security may prove the greatest obstacle to this most blessed work His Majesty therefore Declares That He is willing to commit the great Trust of the Militia of this Kingdom for such time and with such Powers as are exprest in the Paper delivered by His Majesties Commissioners at Uxbridge the 6. of February last to these Persons following viz. The Lord Privy Seal the Duke of Richmond the Marquesse of Hertford the Marquesse of Dorchester the Earl of Dorset Lord Chamberlain the Earl of Northumberland the Earl of Essex Earl of South-hampton Earl of Pembroke Earl of Salisbury Earl of Manchester Earl of Warwick Earl of Denbigh Earl of Chichester Lord Say Lord Seymour Lord Lucas Lord Lexington Mr. Denzill Hollis Mr. Pierrepoint Mr. Henry Bellasis Mr. Richard Spencer Sir Thomas Fairfax Master Iohn Ashburnham Sir Gervas Clifton Sir Henry Vane junior Mr. Robert Wallop Mr. Thomas Chichely Master Oliver Cromwell and Mr. Philip Skippon supposing that these are Persons against whom there can be no just exception But if this doth not satisfie then His Majesty offers to name the one half and leave the other to the election of the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster with the Powers and Limitations before mentioned Thus His Majesty calls God and the World to witnesse of His sincere Intentions and reall Endevours for the composing and setling of these miserable Distractions which He doubts not but by the blessing of God will soon be put to a happy Conclusion if this His Majesties offer be accepted Otherwise He leaves all the World to Judge who are the Continuers of this unnaturall War And therefore He once more Conjures you by all the Bonds of Duty you owe to God and your King to have so great a Compassion on the bleeding and miserable Estate of your Country That you joyne your most serious and hearty Endevours with His Majesty to put a happy and speedy end to these present Miseries Given at the Court at Oxford the 26 of December 1645. For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore To be Communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster and to the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland WHile this Message was in the way of passage to them this ensuing Paper which seems to relate to the two former comes from them after 20 daies serious Consideration as themselves speak for so long the Lords and Commons of the Parliament of England together with the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland were deep in consultation about the framing of it it conteins only two things a Commendation of themselves and a Deniall of the Kings request for a safe Conduct unto His Commissioners to Treat for Peace 't is this which follows May it please your Majesty THe Lords and Commons Assembled in the Parliament of England at Westminster have received your Letters of the fifth fifteenth of this instant December and having together with the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland taken the same into their serious consideration do humbly return this Answer They have in all their Actions manifested to Your Majesty and the World their sincere and earnest desires that a safe and well grounded Peace might be setled in Your three Kingdoms and for the obtaining so great a Blessing shall ever pray to God and use their utmost endevours and beseech Your Majesty to believe that their not sending a more speedy Answer hath not proceeded from any intention to retard the means of putting an end to these present Calamities by a happy Peace but hath been occasioned by the Considerations and Debates necessary in a businesse of so great importance wherein both Kingdoms are so much concerned As to Your Majesties desire of a safe Conduct for the coming hither of the Duke of Richmond the Earl of Southampton John Ashburnham and Jeffrey Palmer Esquires with Propositions to be the foundation of a happy and well grounded Peace They finding that former Treaties have been made use of for other ends under the pretence of Peace and have proved delatory and unsuccesfull cannot give way to a safe Conduct according to Your Majesties desire But both Houses of the Parliament of England having now under their Consideration
Propositions and Bills for the setling of a safe and well grounded Peace which are speedily to be communicated to the Commissioners of the Kingdom of Scotland do resolve after mutuall agreement of both Kingdoms to present them with all speed to Your Majesty Gray of Wark Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore William Lenthall Speaker of the House of Commons Westminster the 25. December 1645. WE have read of a proud Pope that made His Lord the Emperour seeking for a Treaty with Him wait three daies before he would grant it but never till this Age was it heard or read that Humble and Loyall Subjects as these men call themselves did force their Soveraigne to wait twenty daies for an Answer to a like request and then return Him a flat deniall But His majesty had been too long and too well acquainted with this perversenesse of theirs and being in His measure like Him whose Vicegerent He is of great patience and long-suffering passeth by again this their unreverend Carriage and demeanour towards Him without any expostulation about the same being ever carefull to shun and avoid what might in likelyhood hinder His pious designe of obtaining Peace unto his people and therefore presseth again His last motion in his third Message for a personall Treaty in these words His Majesties fourth Message CHARLS R. ALthough the Message sent by Sir Peter Killegrew may justly require an expostulatory Answer yet His Majesty laies that aside as not so proper for His present Endevours leaving all the World to judge whether His Proposition for a Personall Treaty or the flat deniall of a safe Conduct for Persons to begin a Treaty be greater signes of a reall Intention to Peace and shall now onely insist upon His former Message of the 26 of this December That upon His repair to Westminster He doubts not but so to joyne His Endeavours with His two Houses of Parliament as to give just satisfaction not onely concerning the businesse of Ireland but also for the setling of a way for the payment of the Publike Debts as well to the Scots and to the City of London as others And as already He hath shewn a fair way for the setling of the Militia so He shall carefully Endeavour in all other Particulars that none shall have cause to complain for want of security whereby just Jealousies may arise to hinder the continuance of the desired Peace And certainly this Proposition of a Personall Treaty could never have entred into His Majesties Thoughts if He had not resolved to make apparent to all the World that the Publike good and Peace of this Kingdom is farre dearer to Him then the respect of any particular Interest Wherefore none can oppose this Motion without a manifest demonstration that He particularly envies His Majesty should be the chief Author in so blessed a Work besides the declaring Himself a direct opposer of the happy Peace of these Nations To conclude whosoever will not be ashamed that His fair and specious Protestations should be brought to a true and Publike Test and those who have a reall sence and doe truely commiserate the miseries of their bleeding Countrey let them speedily and cheerfully embrace His Majesties Proposition for His Personall Treaty at Westminster which by the blessing of God will undoubtedly to these now distracted Kingdomes restore the happinesse of a long wisht for and lasting Peace Given at the Court at Oxford the 29 day of December 1645. For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be Communicated to the two Houses of Parlialiament at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland THis Message as it seems was very unpleasing and spake the King very troublesome in being so importunate for Peace and to come amongst them whose presence next to that of God would be the greatest torment to them Wherefore to let him know that Ambassadors for Peace are never welcome but to those that love it and to give him a guesse what Himselfe should find if He came within their reach they kept His Messenger as their Prisoner and returned silence to His Message hereupon His Majesty having waited their Leasure full twenty daies longer viz. from Dec. 26. to Ian. 15. and hearing no news of either sends to inquire after His Trumpet and withall moves again to the same purpose as before inlarging His offers for what He desires and recedes further yet from His owne Rights for His Peoples quiet in these words His Majesties fifth Message CHARLS R. BUt that these are times wherein nothing is strange it were a thing much to be marvailed at what should cause this unparalell'd long detention of His Majesties Trumpet sent with His Gracious Message of the 26 of December last Peace being the only Subject of it and His Majesties Personall Treaty the means proposed for it And it were almost as great a wonder that His Majesty should be so long from inquiring after it if that the hourly expectation thereof had not in some measure satisfied His Impatience But let His Majesty by His long silence should condemn Himself of Carelesnesse in that which so much concerns the good of all His People He thinks it high time to inquire after His said Trumpeter For since all men who pretend any goodness must desire Peace and that all men know Treaties to be the best and most Christian way to procure it and there being as little question that His Majesties Personal Presence in it is the likeliest way to bring it to a happy Issue He judges there must be some strange variety of accidents which causeth this most tedious delay wherefore His Majesty earnestly desires to have a speedy Account of His former Message the subject whereof is Peace and the means His Personall presence at Westminster where the Government of the Church being setled as it was in the times of the happy and glorious Reigns of Queen Elizabeth and King Iames and full Liberty for the ease of their Consciences who will not communicate in that Service established by Law and likewise for the free and publike use of the Directory prescribed and by Command of the two Houses of Parliament now practised in some parts of the City of London to such as shall desire to use the same and all Forces being agreed to be Disbanded His Majesty will then forthwith as He hath in His Message of the 29 of December last already offered joyn with His two Houses of Parliament in setling some way for the payment of the publike Debts to His Scots Subjects the City of London and others And His Majesty having proposed a fair way for the setling of the Militia which now by this long delay seems not to be thought sufficient security His Majesty to shew how really He will imploy Himself at His coming to Westminster for making this a lasting Peace and taking away all jealousies how groundlesse soever will endeavour upon debate with His two Houses so to
dispose of it as likewise of the businesse of Ireland as may give to them and both Kingdoms just satisfaction not doubting also but to give good contentment to His two Houses of Parliament in the choice of the Lord Admirall the Officers of State and others if His two Houses by their ready inclinations to Peace shall give Him encouragement thereunto Thus His Majesty having taken occasion by His just impatience so to explain His intentions that no man can doubt of a happy Issue to this succeeding Treaty If now there shall be so much as a delay of the same He calls God and the World to witnesse who they are that not only hinder but reject this Kingdoms future happinesse It being so much the stranger that His Majesties coming to Westminster which was first the greatest pretence for taking up Arms should be so much as delayed much lesse not accepted or refused But His Majesty hopes that God will no longer suffer the malice of Wicked men to hinder the Peace of this too much afflicted Kingdom Given at the Court at Oxford the 15 of January 1645. For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore To be Communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland CAn Subjects desire more or to have their King offer more then is here tendred sure no good Christian Subjects can desire so much or be content to have their King recede so far from Himself for their sakes But by this and the preceding Messages we see what the King hath bidden for the purchase of Peace and a Treaty with them now we shall have a glimpse of what they thought fit to aske of Him for their leave to let Him come and speak with them after they had fasted prayed and fought five years to fetch Him to His Parliament for immediately after His sending this last most gracious Message there came to His Majesties hands as the effect of His Four former and the reward of His forty daies waiting this insuing Paper which contains only a parcell of such scandalous and crosse speeches as shamelesse women are wont to cast up against those they raile upon and mean to live in Contention with which notwithstanding the world supposed to be as void of Reason as themselves are of Religion must interpret an Humble Addresse unto His Majesty for Peace because it begins with May it please your Majesty we your Humble and Loyall Subjects for 't is one of those Addresses which in the beginning of their late Declaration they say the world well knows to have been so fruitlesse wherein they have yeilded up their wills Affections Reason Iudgment and all for obtaining a true peace or good Accommodation it follows in these very words May it please your Majesty WE Your Humble and Loyall Subjects of both Kingdoms have received Your Letters of the 26 and 29 of December last unto which we humbly return this Answer That there hath been no delay on our parts but what was necessary in a businesse of so great consequence as is expressed in our former Letter to Your Majesty Concerning the personall Treaty desired by Your Majesty There having been so much innocent bloud of Your good Subjects shed in this War by Your Majesties Commands and Commissions Irish Rebels brought over into both Kingdoms and endeavours to bring over more into both of them as also Forces from Forraign parts Your Majesty being in Arms in these parts the Prince in the head of an Army in the West divers Towns made Garrisons and kept in Hostility by Your Majesty against the Parliament of England There being also Forces in Scotland against that Parliament and Kingdom by Your Majesties Commission The War in Ireland fomented and prolonged by Your Majesty whereby the three Kingdoms are brought neer to utter ruine and destruction We conceive That untill satisfaction and security be first given to both your Kingdoms Your Majesties coming hither cannot be convenient nor by us assented unto Neither can we apprehend it a means conducing to Peace That Your Majesty should come to Your Parliament for a few daies with any thoughts of leaving it especially with intentions of returning to Hostility against it And We do observe That Your Majesty desires the Ingagement not only of the Parliaments but of the Lord Mayor Aldermen Common-Councell and Militia of the City of London the chief Commanders of Sir Thomas Fairfax's Army and those of the Scots Army which is against the Priviledges and Honour of the Parliaments those being joyned with them who are subject and subordinate to their Authority That which Your Majesty against the freedom of the Parliaments inforces in both Your Letters with many earnest expressions as if in no other way then that propounded by Your Majesty the Peace of Your Kingdoms could be established Your Majesty may please to remember that in Our last Letter We did Declare That Propositions from both Kingdoms were speedily to be sent to Your Majesty which We conceive to be the only way for attaining a happy and well-grounded Peace and Your Majesties assent unto those Propositions will be an effectuall meanes for giving satisfaction and security to Your Kingdoms will assure a firm Vnion between the two Kingdoms as much desired by each other as for themselves And settle Religion and secure the Peace of the Kingdom of Scotland whereof neither is so much as mentioned in Your Majesties Letters And in proceeding according to these just and necessary grounds for the putting an end to the bleeding Calamities of these Nations Your Majesty may have the Glory to be a Principall Instrument in so happy a Work and We however mis-interpreted shall approve our selves to God and the world to be reall and sincere in seeking a safe and wel-grounded Peace Westminster 13. Jan. 1645. Signed in the name and by warrant of the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland BALMERINOTH Grey of Wark Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore William Lenthall Speaker of the House of Commons For Your Majesty THeir silence was bad and shewed great insolency but their Language is far worse and speaks much more for their stile and matter in this Paper declares them to be men most unreasonable even such as the Apostle praies God to be delivered from and shews clearly on which side the obstruction to peace lies we see herein upon what Conditions the King might have been admitted after so many Messages into the presence of His Humble and Loyall Subjects if He would but have owned the guilt of that innocent bloud themselves had shed bin content to be dawbed with their crimes laid down His Armes given up His Garrisons call'd in His Commissions deserted His Friends and deliver'd up Himself absolutely without any security into their Hands with such a submission as they should prescribe which should have been no other then might have spoke His approbation of all they have said or done against Himself and this
and to devise a prevention of this three years confirmation lest they should feel the lash so long and be kept under worse then an Aegyptian Bondage and in order to this they began to find fault as there was cause at the Presbyterians ill usage of the King for they indeed were His chief Tormenters at Holdenby Master Marshall and his fellow-Minister being then also of that faction because at that time it was the most prevailing they exclaimed on them for handling His Majesty so hardly in keeping Him as a Prisoner denying Him the freedome of His Conscience and service of His Chaplains they remembred also with much regret of spirit as then seemed the wicked tenents of Buchanan Knox and others the erectors and propugnators of the Presbyterian Discipline in Scotland about excommunicating deposing arraigning and killing Princes and their practices against Iames his Grand-mother his Mother and himself in his Infancy and they did plainly observe as themselves said by the carriages of these Presbyterians towards His Majesty at this present that they resolved to tread in the same steps as their predecessours had done before notwithstanding their so many solemn professions and protestations to the Contrary And hereupon they said they thought it their duty according to their first ingagement in this war to bring the King to His Parliament with Safety and Honour that He might injoy the just rights of His Crown as well as of His Conscience largely promising and protesting to be instruments of the same to the content of His Majesty and the whole Kingdome and upon these pretences the King was delivered by them from that particular thraldome at Holdenby And afterward brought with the applause and joy of His people to His Manour of Hampton where His Servants and Chaplains at first were allowed accesse to Him and many of His Subjects permitted to glad their hearts with the sight of Him And this gleame of prosperity blazed well till the Houses were thinned of the chief Heads of the contrary faction for in very deed all this was done to another end then was pretended and ordered by other Councels then yet appeared it being the nature of some men to envy that any should be more injurious then themselves or have a greater hand in acting evill then they There were in the Houses and elswhere some Grandees as they are since called that were ambitious of ingrossing the sole power over King and Kingdom which others as yet had as large a share in managing of if not a larger then themselves to exclude whom they made use of the Independent humour in the inferiour Officers and Souldiers layed the plot for them in that manner as it was acted secretly provoked them to the undertaking and countenanced them in it when it was done by pretending to be of their Religion clouding their maine Designe all the while from the body of the Army whom they set a work to make certaine Proposals partly in their owne behalf and partly tending to those things which had been promised to the King while themselves in the interim were dressing or making ready to act the very same part which those they disliked had done before and had been thus intermitted for a season till those others were ejected or cast over-board for the very same Propositions in Effect that had formerly assaulted His Majesty at Newcastle and were answered by Him from Holdenby as we have seen are to renew His trouble remitted to Him which His Majesty returns Answer unto in these words His Majesties seventeenth Message His Majesties most gracious Answer to the Propositions presented to Him at Hampton-Court CHARLS R. HIs Majesty cannot chuse but be passionately sensible as He believes all His good Subjects are of the late great distractions and still languishing and unsetled state of this Kingdome and He calls God to witnesse and is willing to give testimony to all the world of His readinesse to contribute His utmost endevours for restoring it to a happy and flourishing condition His Majesty having perused the Propositions now brought to Him finds them the same in effect which were offered to Him at Newcastle To some of which as He could not then consent without violation of His Conscience and Honour So neither can He agree to others now conceiving them in many respects more disagreeable to the present condition of affairs then when they were formerly presented unto Him as being destructive to the main principall Interests of the Army and of all those whose Affections concur with them And His Majesty having seen the Proposals of the Army to the Commissioners from His two Houses residing with them and with them to be treated on in order to the clearing and securing of the Rights and Liberties of the Kingdome and the setling of a just and lasting Peace To which Proposals as He conceives His two Houses not to be strangers So He believes they will think with Him that they much more conduce to the satisfaction of all Interests and may be a fitter foundation for a lasting Peace then the Propositions which at this time are tendred unto Him He therefore propounds as the best way in His judgment in order to a Peace That His two Houses would instantly take into consideration those Proposals upon which there may be a Personall Treaty with His Majesty and upon such other Propositions as his Majesty shal make hoping that the said Propositions may be so moderated in the said Treaty as to render them the more capable of his Majesties full concession Wherein He resolves to give full satisfaction to His people for whatsoever shall concern the setling of the Protestant Profession with liberty to tender Consciences and the securing of the Laws Liberties and Properties of all His Subjects and the just Priviledges of Parliaments for the future and likewise by His present deportment in this Treaty He will make the world clearly judge of his intentions in matters of future Government In which Treaty His Majesty will be well pleased if it be thought fit that Commissioners from the Army whose the Proposals are may likewise be admitted His Majesty therefore conjures his two Houses of Parliament by the duty they owe to God and his Majesty their King and by the bowels of compassion they have to their fellow-subjects both for the relief of their present sufferings to prevent future miseries that they will forthwith accept of this his Majesties Offer whereby the joyfull newes of Peace may be restored to this distressed Kingdome And for what concerns the Kingdome of Scotland mentioned in the Propositions his Majesty will very willingly Treat upon those particulars with the Scotch Commissioners and doubts not but to give reasonable satisfaction to that his Kingdome At Hampton-court the 9. of Septemb. 1647. For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated c. It appeares by this Message of His Majestie and more fully by the Propositions themselves which it relates unto that
THE KINGS MOST GRACIOVS MESSAGES FOR PEACE AND A PERSONAL TREATY Published for His Peoples Satisfaction that they may see and judge whether the foundation of the Commons Declaration touching their Votes of no farther Addresse to the KING viz. His Majesties aversenesse to Peace be just Rationall and Religious PSAL. 21.7 The King trusteth in the Lord and through the mercy of the most High he shall not be moved Printed in the Yeare 1648. TO THE READERS of whatsoever Nation Quality or Condition Readers THe Papists teach that Ignorance is the Mother of Devotion but we believe of mischief rather The world knew him not says the Spirit of our Saviour for had they known as in another place they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory and â—f Ignorance it was they desired Barabbas and denyed Jesus I wot that through Ignorance ye did it sayes the Apostle So many people in these times have been busily mischievous against their King through Ignorance because they did not know Him for had they known His Vertues and His Graces they would not doubtlesse have opposed Him nor preferred such as they have done before Him But as our Saviour was so hath our Soveraign been shaddowed much from vulgar Eyes by the black cloud of sclaunder and reproaches which notwithstanding was and is removed from each by the patient sufferings gentle actions and gracious sayings of them both so that what was hidden did and doth at last appear maugre spight to admiration Verily this was the Son of God said some of Christ in those dayes who before had thought but meanly of him And againe Never Man did or spake like him So those men who when time was had low opinions of their King are even forced to confesse now that Doubtlesse He is a man of God highly beloved of the Father for never any in the midst of so much sorrow suffered acted or writ better then He hath done What Christs Minde and Spirit was even unto those who studyed His hurt the Gospell shewes and that all men might know the same 't is His Command to read that Search the Scriptures sayes he for they are they which doe testifie of me Indeed they are His Messages of Peace to mankinde they dâ—scover His love and disposition to us His strong desires of Reconciliation with us And of like nature or kinde to them are these ensuing Royall Papers which also for a like end are here collected published and presented in one view that the world might more fully see and know the King They are Messages of Peace from Him the wronged party and may be not unfitly called His Majesties Gospell to His people wherein they may most clearly view His Gracious Spirit and His temper His gentle Nature and disposition even towards those who take pains and pleasure both to vex and grieve Him Had that Heathen Senate of old Rome read Christs Gospell and Him therein His power and readinesse to save them they would not doubtlesse have voted Him no God So it may be thought if the Senate of these dayes had read these Messages of their Soveraign with a right Eye and observed His goodnesse expressed in them His ability and willingness of minde to pardon such as themselves are they would not have voted Him no King or which is little lesse no more Addresses to be made to Him But it seemes now through their default in grace and light His Majesties Regality like Christs Divinity must depend upon the approbation of His own Creatures for such they are as they possesse the place of Senatours and must passe for currant no longer in the world then they shall please to allow of it But doth not this Act of theirs proclaime to all they fear not God 't is His command that if a Brother an equall or common man be at odds with any there should be a going or sending to and a receiving from till a concord be concluded but these being at difference with their King their Soveraign their Publick Father to whom they owe all duty have voted the quite contrary and Resolv'd upon the Question that no more Addresses be made unto or received from Him and supposing that this their opposition unto God might be noted to their shame they have since that advised upon an Ordinance that none shall presume to speak against them or to finde fault at their so doing This is the Divinity of these times or rather of these new Reformers but we refer their doings to the worlds censure and themselves to the Iudge of all flesh Readers You have here set before your Eyes Piety and Conscience Wisdome and Humility Majesty and Mercy Bowels of Compassion and Charity to Friends and Enemies Yea what ever discovers a good King and a perfect Christian you shall meet with it in these Messages of His Majesty Behold them Read them Consider of them And let that sweet Spirit of God which shines and breathes in them be conveyed plentifully into your Hearts by them The Preface HAd Solomon lived in our daies He would scarce have said there is no new thing under the Sun or that which is hath been for surely that which now is hath never been the Sun never saw such a shamelesse and viperous Generation as the wicked world in this her last and worst Age hath brought forth Patience cannot mention them without a zealous passion against them and should Christ himself speak of them He would say they were of their father the Devill who undoubtedly hath put forth his whole strength to their begetting by whose sole help He hopes under contrary pretences and professions for ever to disgrace if not to ruinate Christian verity in this Kingdome to banish all Duty and Charity from among us to rob us of that Liberty which no people like us did injoy and to keep us under the most cruell and unreasonable Bondage that ever was and so to make us who were the Happiest of all nations the most miserable and despised To which ungodly ends this sinfull Brood have raised a most wicked war in their own native Country against their Soveraign the indulgent Father of it unto whom themselves had often sworn fidelity and Allegiance nor hath the supream Moderator of Heaven and Earth yet stopt them in their way but for the due punishment of our sins the full discovery of their incredible wickednesse and of those admirable graces in the King hath suffered them rather to prevail prosper and grow worse and worse these 7 years together in which interim or space of time His sacred Majesty though the wronged party imitating the Great and Good God hath often in his Commiseration and pity both to us and them of our misery and their madnesse sought Peace at their Hands who for no cause had broke the same yea and offered more for the Purchase of it then was ever till now desired of any English King But they designing as is now Evident to inslave us and settle themselves
our blessed Reformers Sure had they any Hope that the King were likely by impertinent discourses to Help their lame and barren cause with some advantages they would easily admit of a Treaty with Him what ere they say to the Contrary or did they imagine His Royall Pen could speak any thing but Innocency truth and Reason they would be content to hear from it upon this their further provocation of it but wholly despairing of such matters they have thought meet to imprison both Him and His Pen too which they know would in a moment cast down this idle Cobweb as it formerly hath done others of like nature and they think to stop all mens mouths by affirming the world well knows How fruitlesse their former Addresses have been to the King But though His Majesties Hands are thus tied this Spiders web must not scape brushing before it had Hung 3 daies an Honest broome reached at it a wholesome Antidote came out against it and made it appeare to be as it is fit onely for the draught or Dunghill and almost daily since some Loyall foot or other hath been trampling on it for Stones would surely move and stir in this case if men should not But sith none can speak so well as the King and He is voted to speak no more and sith their appeal is made to the worlds knowledge it shall not be amisse for the world to look back upon what the King hath said or done already even in Confutation of that here Charged upon Him scil His aversness unto Peace perhaps thereby alone it will sufficiently appear that of all sclaunderers which ever were these Declarers have deserved the name of the most impudent and most shamelesse We shall not need to look back so far as to the years 1642. 43. or call to mind His Majesties unwillingnesse to war at first His many Messages to prevent the same and to preserve peace before it was broken or to mention how scornfully they were entertained as effects only of His weakness instances of His want of power to make resistance Nor will we remember how by force of Arms they had kept him out of His town of Hull taken His Militia and Navy from Him and raised an Army against Him before He set up His Standerd in His own defence against them which His desire of Peace had prevailed with him to take down again and to recall his most just Declaration so that their unreverend and scandalous Libels against him might but likewise be recalled nor yet how in those daies his Messengers men of High Nobility and great Honour against whom they had nothing to object but that imployment were not suffered in person to declare their Message because it was for Peace but commanded to depart the town speedily Nor how at other times they imprisoned others that came to them on the same Errand how they often neglected to return Him any Answer at all or perhaps in lieu thereof after a moneths delay they would send Him a parcell of reproachfull expressions and peevish constructions of what He had writ in the sincerity of His heart and pity of Spirit for the insuing Miseries of His people which notwithstanding He would still interpret and call but mistakes that He might not exasperate if possible their ulcerated minds unto contention though in very deed they were no other then High Sclaunders studied Contempts Nor wil we call to mind how once in particular His earnest pressing for peace by a second and third Message before He had received Answer to a former did appear so intolerably offensive unto them that to teach Him to make an end of such motions and to prevent if it might be all further molestations from Him of that nature they fell the very next day after their receipt thereof having first committed His Messenger to accuse His Majesties Royall Consort of High Treason But these things at so large a distance we need not remember nor how his Majesty after the often frustration of such His own endevours for Peace did convene the loyall Lords and Commons at Oxford to consult of a way to procure that desired blessing how they laboured in vain about the same and had their Letters which they sent to that end cryed up and down London streets in scorn under the Title of a Petition of the Prince of Wales and Duke of Yorke for Peace How in answer thereto Papers full of Treason sedition and disloyalty were sent unto them together with that unlawfull Covenant which now themselves deride at as an Almanacke of last year or occasionall trick devised at the present to cheat the Kingdome for His Majesty and all in Oxford to take nor need we remember how all those Noble and Loyall men did under their Hands attest to all the world His Majesties earnest longings to have a period put to these unkind divisions which Himself also by his Actions did alwaies confirm whose constant course it was at the end of any Victory got by him or any remarkable defeat given to them to send forth His Proclamations of Mercy and tenders of pardon which are still extant in many hands on Condition they would but at length be quiet and imbrace peace which they would never consent unto unlesse He would also yeild to Justifie their Iealousies and to condemn Himself as guilty of all they had Charged upon Him And 't is well enough known that when ever He procured to have a Treaty with them which was but seldome His Propositions were so much tending to their advantage and his owne damage that nothing disliked them more then His moderation which indeed was the true cause of their continuall backwardnesse unto Treaties and also of their strict Limitations to their Commissioners when with much adoe they were obtained as is evident enough by the passages of that at Vxbridge for they supposing the reasonablenesse of what they knew His Majesty desired and the unreasonablenesse of what themselves intended to aske would be so apparent by a free and open discussion that a Peace thereby might happily be produced in despight of them wherefore their care was to prevent if they could any Treaties at all or else by devises to break them off before they came to any perfection and then they would with all speed make a Declaration to the world wherein they would pretend fully to shew that His Majesties demands had neither Reason nor Iustice either in the matter or manner of them but were such as left the people no Hopes to see an End of their present Calamities But as was said we shall not need to look back so far for Helps to overthrow the Groundwork of this their false building we shall onely remember the meanes used by His Majesty for Peace since His peoples Calamities are confessed without dispute to be solely continued by these Declarers since the power hath been wholly in their Hands and few or no forces pretending for the King in
who from hence may observe that no rudenesse or insolency towards Him nor unjust aspersions of Him are able to divert Him from pursuing the means of their welfare His words are these His Majesties seventh Message CHARLS R. THe procuring Peace to these Kingdoms by Treaty is so much desired by His Majesty that no unjust aspersions whatsoever or any other discouragements shall make Him desist from doing His endevour therein untill He shall see it altogether impossible and therefore hath thought fitting so far only to make reply to that Paper or Answer which He hath received of the 13 of this instant Ian. as may take away those Objections which are made against His Majesties coming to Westminster expecting still an Answer to His Messages of the 15 and 17. which He hopes by this time have begotten better thoughts and resolutions in the Members of both Houses And first therefore Whereas in the said last Paper it is objected as an impediment to His Majesties personal Treaty that much innocent bloud hath been shed in this War by His Majesties Commissions c. He will not now dispute it being apparent to all the World by whom this bloud hath been spilt but rather presseth that there should be no more and to that end only He hath desired this personall Treaty as judging it the most immediate means to abolish so many horrid confusions in all His Kingdoms And it is no argument to say That there shall be no such personall Treaty because there have been Wars it being a strong inducement to have such a Treaty to put an end to the War Secondly that there should be no such personall Treaty because some of His Irish Subjects have repaired to His assistance in it seems an argument altogether as strange as the other as alwaies urging that there should be no Physick because the party is sick And in this particular it hath been often observed unto them that those whom they call Irish who have so expressed their Loyalty to their Soveraigne were indeed for the most part such English Protestants as had been formerly sent into Ireland by the two Houses impossibilitated to stay there any longer by the neglect of those that sent them thither who should there have better provided for them And for any Forrain forces it is too apparent that their Armies have swarmed with them when His Majesty hath had very few or none And whereas for a third impediment it is alleaged that the Prince is in the head of an Army in the West and that there are divers Garrisons stil kept in his Majesties obedience that there are Forces in Scotland it must be as much confessed as that as yet there is no peace and therefore it is desired that by such a personall Treaty all these impediments may be removed And it is not here amisse to put them in mind how long since His Majesty did presse a disbanding of all Forces on both sides the refusing whereof hath been the cause of this objection And whereas exception is taken that there is a time limited in the Proposition for His Majesties personall Treaty thereupon inferring that He should again return to Hostility His Majesty protesteth that He seeks this Treaty to avoid future Hostility and to procure a lasting peace and if He can meet with like inclinations to Peace in those He desires to Treat with He will bring such affections and resolutions in Himself as shal end all these unhappy bloudy differences As for those ingagements which His Majesty hath desired for His security whosoever shall call to mind the particular occasions that enforced His Majesty to leave His City of London and Westminster will judge His demand very reasonable and necessary for His safety But He no way conceiveth how the L. Major Aldermen Common-Councell and Militia of London were either subject or subordinate to that Authority which is alleaged as knowing neither Law nor practice for it and if the two Armies be He believes it is more then can be parallel'd by any former times in this Kingdom Nor can His Majesty understand how His Majesties seeking of a Personall Security can be any breach of Priviledge it being likely to be infringed by hindering His Majesty from coming freely to His two Houses As for the Objection that His Majesty omitted to mention the setling Religion and securing the Peace of His Native Kingdom His Majesty declares that He conceives that it was included in His former and hath been particularly mentioned in his latter Message of the 15 present But for their better satisfaction he again expresseth that it was and ever shal be both his meaning and endevour in this Treaty desired and it seems to him very clear that there is no way for a finall ending of such distractions as afflict this Kingdom but either by Treaty or Conquest the latter of which his Majesty hopes none will have the impudency or impiety to wish for and for the former if his Personall assistance in it be not the most likely way let any reasonable man judge when by that means not only all unnecessary delaies will be removed but even the greatest difficulties made easie And therefore he doth now again earnestly insist upon that proposition expecting to have a better answer upon mature consideration And can it be imagined that any Propositions will be so effectuall being formed before a personall Treaty as such as are framed and propounded upon a full debate on both sides Wherefore his Majesty who is most concerned in the good of his People and is most desirous to restore peace and happinesse to his three Kingdoms doth again instantly desire an Answer to his said former Messages to which he hath hitherto received none Given at our Court at Oxon the 24. of Jan. 1645. To the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster and to the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland FEw that ventured their lives to fetch home the King at the instigation of these men or that heard their Preachers pray so oft that God would incline His Majesties heart to come unto His Parliament would ever have believed that He should thus be put to plead for His own admittance amongst them who pretended to be so fond of His Company or to Answer such cavils against the same as He hath here done if they had not seen them objected under their own Hands nor would any have been perswaded had there not been somewhat extant to evidence the same that these men could after all this have affirmed that themselves had yeilded up not only their wills and Affections but also their reason and judgment for obtaining a good Accommodation with the King but now 't is manifest who they are that have abused gulled and deceived the world and who have been the only obstructers unto Peace and most perfect Enemies thereunto And yet 't is no mervaile that the wickednesse of these
the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland AS Christs meekness and mighty works made his Enemies more obdurate so the Kings mildness and many Messages made these men more obstinate who are as dumb to this last as to the former And though His Majesty tells them that the Gods and bloud of His Subjects doth cry so much for Peace that He shall be forced thereâ—y to utter His impatience yet these hard-hearted men had rather hear those sad and lamentable cries then listen to these yearnings of their fathers Bowells nay and they must be call'd and accounted Patriots of their Country for all this and He who is thus tenderly affected towards it in this its bleeding Condition must be reckoned and reported the Common Enemy unto it for they are not ashamed notwithstanding these His many pantings and breathings after the Health of it to appropriate unto Him their own Tigerly dispositions and to tell the whole world in the first page of their late impudent Declaration that neither the sighs Groans tears nor crying bloud an heavy cry say they of Fathers Brothers Children and of many hundred thousand free-born Subjects at once can perswade Him to pity or Compassion Surely could Satan help them to devise worse evill then is in themselves or then they have acted to cast upon the King these His Humble and Loyal Subjects would not be so void of shame as thus to charge Him with their owne doings and Conditions Well His Majesty after He had sent this last Message waits yet another moneth for some Answer though to as little purpose as before He did but pursue the shaddow that fled from Him by seeking peace at their hands for they were resolved by slighting Him to make him desist at length from writing thus to them But behold the true Image of our most patient God in this our most Christian King who having to do with a like stif-necked and rebellious people as he of old had thinks it His duty to follow him still in the same path though with as little comfort or hopes of prevailing and hereupon sends the tenth time and offers to come and trust Himself wholly with them if He might but have their own faith and promise for the safety of His Person Honour and Estate which themselves had so solemnly protested to defend and that His friends who had done according to their Duty and Protestation might not for the same be deprived of their Liberties or estates but injoy both with a freedom of Conscience from unlawfull Oaths upon these sole Conditions He will pardon and forget all that was past on their sides giving them what security themselves can devise He will follow their advise for the good of His People rather then other mens and in a word He will grant them as much as till then they had ever desired or made pretence unto and all to procure a speedy Peace to these Afflicted Kingdoms His words are these His Majesties tenth Message CHARLS R. NOtwithstandig the unexpected silence instead of Answer to his Majesties many and gracious Messages to both Houses whereby it may appear that they desire to obtain their ends by Force rather then Treaty which may justly discourage his Majesty from any more overtures of that kind yet his Majesty conceives He shall be much wanting to His duty to God and in what He oweth to the safety of His people if He should not intend to prevent the great inconveniences that may otherwise hinder a safe and wel-grounded peace His Majesty therefore now proposeth that so He may have the faith of both Houses of Parliament for the preservation of His Honour Person and Estate and that Liberty be given to all those who do and have adhered to His Majesty to go to their own Houses and there to live peaceably enjoying their Estates all Sequestrations being taken off without being compelled to take any Oath not enjoyned by the undoubted Laws of the Kingdom or being put to any other molestation whatsoever He will immediately disband all His Forces and dismantle all His Garrisons and being accompanied with His Royall not His Martiall Attendance return to His two Houses of Parliament and there reside with them And for the better security of all His Majesties Subjects He proposeth that He with His said two Houses immediately upon His coming to Westminster will passe an Act of Oblivion and free pardon and where His Majesty will further do whatsoever they will advise Him for the good and peace of this Kingdom And as for the Kingdom of Scotland His Majesty hath made no mention of it here in regard of the great losse of time which must now be spent in expecting an Answer from thence but declares that immediately upon His comming to Westminster He will apply Himself to give them all satisfaction touching that Kingdome If His Majesty could possibly doubt the successe of this offer He could use many arguments to perswade them to it but shall only insist on that great One of giving an instant Peace to these afflicted Kingdoms Given at our Court at Oxford the 23 of March 1645. For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be Communicated to the two Houses of Parlialiament at Westminster AS God said what could I have done more for my vineyard which I have not done so may this good Prince say what could I have offered more for the Peace of my afflicted People which I have not offered These men that will accept of nothing tell the world in their lace Declaration that themselves had made Application to Him for Peace no lesse then seven times scil in seven years But the world hath now seen that His Majesty hath made Applications to them for the same thing no lesse then ten times in lesse then four moneths and in another form and stile too then theirs were to Him and not one word in Answer can He get from them yea for Peace sake He offers to venture Himself among them but they 'l none of Him He would come to His owne as they call themselves but His own will not receive Him It shall not be amisse if the world to whom the appeal is made shall call to minde in this place some few of their many former solemne professions which are directly contradicted by these their present behaviours let their Protestation or Declaration of Octob. 22. 1642. be read and therein they will finde these expressions We the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament Assembled doe in the presence of Almighty God for the satisfaction of our Consciences and discharge of that great trust which lies upon us make this Protestation and Declaration to this Kingdome and Nation and to the whole World that no private passion or respect no evill intention to His Majesties Person no designe to the prejudice of His just Honour and Authority ingaged us to raise forces and take up Armes c. And againe We professe from our very Hearts and Souls
some of His own Chaplains which hath hitherto been denied Him and such other Divines as shal be most proper to inform Him therein and then He will make clearly appear both His zeal to the Protestant profession and the Union of these two Kingdoms which He conceives to be the main drift of this Covenant To the seventh and eighth Propositions His Majesty will consent To the ninth His Majesty doubts not but to give good satisfaction when He shall be particularly informed how the said penalties shall be levied and disposed of To the tenth His Majesties answer is That He hath been alwaies ready to prevent the practices of Papists and therefore is content to passe an Act of Parliament for that purpose And also that the Laws against them be duly executed His Majesty will give His consent to the Act for the due observation of the Lords Day for the suppressing of Innovations and those concerning the Preaching of Gods Word and touching Non-Residence and Pluralities and His Majesty will yeild to such Act or Acts as shall be requisite to raise monies for the payment and satisfying all publike Debts expecting also that his will be therein included As to the Proposition touching the Militia though his Majesty cannot consent unto it in terminis as it is proposed because thereby he conceives he wholly parts with the power of the Sword entrusted to him by God and the Laws of the Land for the protection and government of his people thereby at once devesting himself and dis-inheriting his Posterity of that right and prerogative of the Crowne which is absolutely necessary to the Kingly Office and so weaken Monarchy in this Kingdom that little more then the name and shadow of it will remain yet if it be only security for the preservation of the Peace of this Kingdom after the unhappy troubles and the due performance of all the agreements which are now to be concluded which is desired which his Majesty alwaies understood to be the case and hopes that herein he is not mistaken his Majesty will give aboundant satisfaction to which end he is willing by Act of Parliament That the whole power of the Militia both by Sea and Land for the space of ten years be in the hands of such persons as the two Houses shall nominate giving them power during the said term to change the said persons and substitute others in their places at pleasure and afterwards to return to the proper chanell again as it was in the times of Queen Elizabeth and King Iames of blessed memory And now His Majesty conjures His two Houses of Parliament as they are Englishmen and lovers of Peace by the duty they owe to His Majesty their King and by the bowels of compassion they have to their fellow Subjects that they wil accept of this his Majesties offer wherby the joyfull news of Peace may be restored to this languishing Kingdom His Majesty will grant the like to the Kingdome of Scotland if it be desired and agree to all things that are propounded touching the conserving of peace betwixt the two Kingdoms Touching Ireland other things being agreed His Majesty will give satisfaction therein As to the mutuall Declarations proposed to be established in both Kingdoms by Act of Parliament And the Modifications Qualifications and Branches which follow in the Propositions His Majesty only professes that He doth not sufficiently understand nor is able to reconcile many things contained in them but this He well knoweth That a generall Act of Oblivion is the best Bond of Peace and that after intestine Troubles the wisdom of this and other Kingdoms hath usually and happily in all ages granted generall Pardons whereby the numerous discontentments of many Persons and Families otherwise exposed to ruine might not become fewell to new disorders or seeds to future troubles His Majesty therefore desires that His two Houses of Parliament would seriously descend into these considerations and likewise tenderly look upon His Condition herein and the perpetuall dishonour that must cleave to Him if He shal thus abandon so many persons of Condition Fortune that have ingaged themselves with and for Him out of a sense of Duty propounds as a very acceptable testimony of their affection to Him That a generall Act of Oblivion and free Pardon be forthwith passed by Act of Parliament Touching the new great Seal His Majesty is very willing to confirm both it and all the Acts done by vertue thereof untill this present time so that it be not thereby pressed to make void those Acts of His done by vertue of His great Seal which in honour and justice He is obliged to maintain And that the future Government therof may be in his Majesty according to the due course of Law Concerning the Officers mentioned in the 19. Article His Majesty when he shall come to Westminster wil gratifie his Parliament all that possibly he may without destroying the alterations which are necessary for the Crown His Majesty wil willingly consent to the Act for the confirmation of the Priviledges and Customes of the City of London and all that is mentioned in the Propositions for their particular advantage And now that His Majesty hath thus far indeavoured to comply with the desires of His two Houses of Parliament to the end that this agreement may be firme and lasting without the least face or question of restraint to blemish the same His Majesty earnestly desires presently to be admitted to His Parliament at Westminster with that Honour which is due to their Soveraign there solemnly to confirm the same and legally to passe the Acts before mentioned and to give and receive as well satisfaction in all the remaining particulars as likewise such other pledges of mutuall love trust and confidence as shall most concern the good of him and his people upon which happy agreement his Majesty will dispatch his Directions to the Prince his Son to return immediately to him and will undertake for his ready obedience thereunto Holdenby May 12. 1647. For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore To be Communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland WHen our Saviour was tempted in the wildernesse He was as Saint Marke saies among the wild beasts there so was our Soveraigne as it seems at Holdenby but these were worse mannered to the King then those other were to Christ and lesse civill a great deal for these were men degenerated into Beasts which of all others are the most savage we see in the beginning of this Message with what barbarity and inhumanity they behaved themselves towards Him their Lord and Master who by Gods appointment had the just right and Dominion over them they kept His Servants from having accesse unto Him not suffering one of His owne Election to come neer Him they declared it a crime for any of mankind to converse or speak with Him to give any Letters to Him or
all other things being fully agreed His Majesty will give full satisfaction to his Houses concerning that Kingdom And although His Majesty cannot consent in Honour and Justice to avoid all His own Grants and Acts past under His Great Seal since the 22 of May 1642. or to the confirming of all the Acts and Grants passed under that made by the two Houses yet His Majesty is confident that upon perusall of particulars He shall give full satisfaction to His two Houses to what may be reasonably desired in that particular And now His Majesty conceives that by these His offers which He is ready to make good upon the setlement of a Peace He hath clearly manifested His intentions to give full security and satisfaction to all Interests for what can justly be desired in order to the future happinesse of His people And for the perfecting of these Concessions as also for such other things as may be proposed by the two Houses and for such just and reasonable demands as his Majesty shal find necessary to propose on His part He earnestly desires a Personall Treaty at London with His two Houses in Honour Freedom and Safety it being in His judgment the most proper and indeed only means to a firm and setled Peace and impossible without it to reconcile former or avoid future misunderstandings All these things being by Treaty perfected His Majesty believes His two Houses will think it reasonable that the Proposals of the Army concerning the Succession of Parliaments and their due Elections should be taken into consideration As for what concerns the Kingdom of Scotland His Majesty will very readily apply Himself to give all reasonable satisfaction when the desires of the two Houses of Parliament on their behalf or of the Commissioners of that Kingdom or of both joyned together shall be made known unto Him CHARLS R. From the Isle of Wight Novemb. 17. 1647. To the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster and to the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland WE see at the beginning of this Message that His Majesty conceived Himself to be at much more freedome and security in that place then formerly Had the Governour there been a true Gentleman in the least degree he would rather have lost his life then crossed His Majesties opinion in that particular but we are confirmed by Him in what we knew before that swordmen in these dayes are not all men of Honesty nor yet of Honour His Majesty being now in His own apprehension at more freedome renews His motions for the purchase of peace that his jealous and hardhearted Chapmen if possible might be cured of all their feares in seeing now that His profers before were not the fruits of restraint but of Hearty will and Affections to His languishing and distressed Kingdomes And first His Majesty in this Message declares His Conscience and Reasons why He cannot consent to the totall Alteration of that Church Government which He had sworn to maintain and they without any Conscience or Reasons at all would force Him to destroy Doubtlesse if there were a necessity that it must be as they would have it yet would it better become them to endeavour His Majesties satisfaction in the matter and to Answer His Reasons then to urge him with violence to goe against both when they see He dares not for offending God yet to bawl and clamour against Him without shame or Honesty as if He made no Conscience at all of His Oath taken at His Coronation But what necessity is there of pulling up this pale of Government save only to let wild beasts into Gods vineyard surely if his Majesty were not confirmed in His Judgement that this pale was of the Apostles setting and cherished in all Christian Churches since their times till this last Century of years and upheld in this particular Church since the Reformation as the speciall preserver of Doctrine and order in Gods Worship and if He had not taken an Oath at His Coronation to maintaine it and though the rights of the Church were not so woven as they be in the great Charter of the Kingdome with the Liberties of the rest of His Subjects yet as He is a King and protector of Christs Religion as He is a nursing Father of His Church beholding the present destruction and vastation of both by those swarms of Hereticks and Schismaticks which have abounded within these seven years since the Execution of this Government hath been suspended He ought in Conscience and Prudence to endeavour the continuance of it it being by the confession of its greatest Adversaries viz. the Smectymnists first established to suppresse and prevent these very mischiefs His Majesty will see that Bishops doe their duties and that all abuses in the Government be amended which no question but the Tryenniall Parliament will also look unto if the Kingdome might but be blessed with it And that the present Enemies of this Government may have both time and occasion to think better of their own demands in their cooler temper His Majesty is willing to let them for their own parts to try three years how well they can thrive without it hoping that their Mistris Experience may have taught them by that time in the want of this Government the necessity of the use and continuation of it but to consent to the totall abolition of that which to Himself and all sober men is evident to be the most speciall mean to preserve the life being and beauty of Christs Church no men but these that drive Satans designe if they well consider of it can or will desire it 2. His Majesty plainly declares that he dares not be a partaker in that Sinne of the highest Sacriledge by consenting to the Alienation of Church-lands nor venture upon the Curses which hang over the heads of such profane violaters as those are and will be that shall deal in such merchandize for His Majesty feared God Nor can He be induced so much to prejudice the publick good or to damnifie so many of His Subjects who farme these Lands as now held at far easier rates then they are like to doe if they should become the possessions of private men for the King loves His People Nor lastly will He ever be such an ill friend to learning and industry as to consent to the taking away of those rewards which excite and courage thereunto the meanest persons for our Soveraign Lord Honours Learning so much that in relation to that He will provide and keep maintenance in store for the Children of His lowest Subjects Nay should His Majesty yeeld to this Sacriledge were it not the next way to destroy Religion as well as Learning Iulian the Apostate one of the greatest and subtillest enemies that ever Christianity had thought it was And therefore he endeavouring to extirpate the same made an Ordinance for the sale of Church lands or the taking
in his Throne have like deaf Adders stopt their Ears and been most perverse unto all desires of that nature yea and to prevent his sending them any more have now at length not only imprisoned his sacred Person but also as may be affirmed interdicted him all Humane Society by voting no further Addresses to be made unto Him and forbidding all men under penalty of High Treason to receive or bring any Message from Him so tedious it seems to the Haters of Peace are motions thereunto and so irksome is Reason to them who resolve to Heare none But supposing in their black Policy this Height of impiety might somewhat Startle the amazed world who had not been acquainted with the like before they promised a satisfactory Declaration wherein should be shewn the Reasons of so strange Votes and courses upon which the seduced part of men grew big with expectation and looked for some new great mountain of Errour to be brought forth against the King never yet seen or heard of But behold at last what appeared only a parcell of stale stuffe a new Heap of old tales without proofs which had been oftner told and confuted already then there be Members left in both Houses so that the repetition of them on this occasion is confessed by those who were blind before to be but an open discovery of an impotent spight that wants nothing but matter to work upon And so far is this Declaration from satisfying amazed minds concerning those uncouth votes that it rather leaves them more astonished the Ground or cause thereof being more strange and impudent then the votes themselves viz. the Kings aversnesse unto Peace it begins thus How fruitlesse our former Addresses have been to the King is so well known to the world that it may be expected we should now declare why we made the last or so many before rather then why we are resolved to make no more And again in the same page We have no lesse then 7 times being never yet forced thereto made such Applications to the King and tendred such Propositions that might occasion the world to judge we have not only yeilâ—ed up our Wills and Affections but our Reason also and Iudgment for obtaining any true Peace or good Accommodation But it never yet pleased the King to accept of any tender fit for us to make nor yet to offer any fit for us to receive Had these men who thus speak acted the Kings part and He theirs there might have been much of truth though little of Piety and manners in these Expressions of their Soveraign or had Affairs betwixt His Majesty and them been agitated in a Corner not in the worlds Eye perhaps by these so confident aspersions of him some ill suspitions might have risen in peoples minds against him but the case being as it is and matters been acted as they have on the publick Stage we have cause to admire at their Hard foreheads Certainly did they not fancy us stark blind they would not tell us it were night a noone day did they not think us given up to the strongest delusions that ever were they would not speak to us after this fashion but from this their Language we shall learn this Lesson That they who are not ashamed publickly to Charge such a thing upon their King so manifestly contrary to all mens knowledge will never blush to traduce him to the full Height in matters more secret or lesse visible This beginning of their Declaration therefore doth well instruct all people how to believe them in the sequel of it These Brass-brow'd and unreverend Men that so boldly affirm the world well knows how fruitlâ—sse their former Addresses have been c. cannot shew one Addresse so qualified as they speak ever made by them to the King that proved fruitlesse they cannot name any one Act wherein they denied their own Wills or discovered the least good Affection to their Soveraign since the beginning of these Divisions nor can they instance in any one motion ever proceeding from them unto His Majesty and refused by Him that had any favour of right Reason or relish of true Iudgment in it nay have not themselves continually slighted and most unreverendly rejected what ever Messages of that nature have been sent from him did His Majesty ever demand any thing of them that was not His own by Law nay in order to Peace did He ever ask so much as by Law was due unto Him did He not alwaies recede from the same to satisfie them if their guilt and perversenesse had not made them uncapable of Satisfaction Surely the King hath not 7 times onely but rather 7 times seven within these 7 years made such Applications to them offered such tenders of mercy pardon and of His own undoubted Rights Priviledges as did in very deed occasion the world to judge that He had yeilded up His will and Affections yea His Reason Iudgment and all for the obtaining of a good Accommodation but they would never yet please to accept of any when He spake to them of Peace they Hardened their Hearts against it and made themselves ready to Battaile these things they know we are able to demonstrate being such as the world hath taken full notice of and yet with what audaciousnesse doe they affirm the Contrary before the worlds face to the Kings dis-honour and their owne Commendation as they would have it But it seems Change is no Robbery in their opinions sith they return to the King what is theirs and apply unto Him their own Conditions in lieu of that Candour and righteousnesse which they take from Him to paint themselves withall they think they have done very good Justice Our Saviour Himself had to doe with such persons who could charge him home with their own faults and appropriate most favourably to themselves that Innocency and goodnesse which was truly His they could accuse and sclaunder His Holy Actions and give a large good report of their own ill doings whereby as He saies they spake their Testimony to be untrue and themselves Children of the Father of Lies so whosoever considers what these have writ must needs conclude the like of them even that Satan is in them of a truth But their Conceit as appears is that the last word will get the day and credit enough to their sayings and this they think they are sure of for 't is fore-provided that His Majesty shall either not know what they object or if He doth and hath a mind to speak for Himself He shall not be suffered nor must any man dare under pain of High Treason to bring from Him into publick view any Papers or Writings of what kind soever though tending only to the vindication of Himself from their base vile and ungodly sclaunders it must be sufficient to condemn Him that they who thirst for His bloud have thus accused Him And here is the wisdome of these Happy times this is the Iustice of
Kingdome to be just and right then His Humble and Loyall Subjects would have vouchsafed to cast a look upon Him and deign'd so far as to have spoke a word with him Herein also besides the Conditions of a Treaty are discovered divers faults in His Majesties late Messages which neither Himself nor any other was able to have discern'd but the two Parliaments of England and Scotland after a diligent search having sat close some weeks about it for they were not idle all the 40 daies of the Kings waiting did in their deep wisdomes descry and find them out and then thought fit that their Soveraigne might not sleep in His sins to admonish His Majesty of them as 1. His requiring of them ingagement for His own security if He came amongst them which was a great errour and mistake in Him for though He be a David and a man after Gods owne heart yet they are not subjects of the same stamp as Davids were who thought their King worth ten thousand of themselves 2. This request of His was in their judgements against the Priviledge and Honour of Parliament for the speciall Priviledge of this Parliament or rather the swaying faction in the same is to destroy if they can and not to preserve the King at all 3. His mentioning the Mayor Aldermâ—n Common-Councell and Militia of the City as if He believed Himself to have any interest in them and that they were concern'd to ingage for His security they give Him to understand was another grand mistake in Him for all they together with Sir Thomas Fairfax his Army and the Scots too are their subjects and not His and subordinate to their Authority and therefore for Him to expect any ingagement for safety from any of them was directly also in their sense against the Honour and Priviledge of Parliament Nay 4. they give His Majesty to know that He had not onely sinned thus against the Honour and Priviledge of Parliament but also against the very freedome of it by His propounding with so many earnest expressions a Personall Treaty as the way to a Peace which they interpret no other then a plaine enforcement upon the Liberty of Parliament or a violent rape upon their wisdome as if they had not Brains enow to find out some other way then that was which His Majesty had propounded But truly with their favour this Errour might more prudently have been passed by and the aggravation of it omitted had they but remembred how often themselves had told the world that all their fighting was but to bring the King home from His evill Counsellours to Treat in Person with His Parliament for what may the world now think of these wise men may they not liken them to little Children who in a crosse peevish humour wil none of that thing when offered to them but throw it away which before they had cried and roared for the old and true way to a Peace between different parties hath alwaies been by Treaty and so was it hitherto judged by these men as themselves told us but now they dislike it only because the King propounds it And another way they have devised and that must be by Propositions of their owne making which by this their Preface are promised to be such as Benhadad sent to the King of Israel neither good for Him nor for His people but destructive unto both But His sacred Majesty the true mirror of wisdome meeknesse and patience receiving from them after divers Messages and forty daies waiting only this reproachfull Paper which was able to stir passion in a very Moses doth send back on the very same day without returning one word of ill Language this ensuing Answer His Majesties sixt Message CHARLES R. HIs Majesty thinks not fit now to answer those aspersions which are returned as arguments for His not admittance to Westminster for a Personall Treaty because it would inforce a style not sutable to His end it being the Peace of these miserable Kingdoms yet thus much He cannot but say to those who have sent Him this Answer That if they had considered what they have done themselves in occasioning the shedding of so much innocent bloud by withdrawing themselves from their duty to Him in a time when He had granted so much to His Subjects and in violating the knowne Laws of the Kingdome to draw an exorbitant power to themselves over their fellow Subjects to say no more to do as they have done they could not have given such a false character of His Majesties actions Wherefore His Majesty must now remember them that having some howers before His receiving of their last Paper of the 13. of Ian. sent another Message to them of the 15. wherein by divers particulars He inlargeth Himself to shew the reality of His endevours for Peace by His desired personall Treaty which He still conceives to be the likeliest way to attain to that blessed end He thinks fit by this Message to call for an Answer to that and indeed to all the former For certainly no rationall man can think their last Paper can be any Answer to His former demands the scope of it being that because there is a War therefore there should be no Treaty for Peace And is it possible to expect that the Propositions mentioned should be the grounds of a Lasting Peace when the Persons that send them will not endure to hear their own King speak But whatever the successe hath been of His Majesties former Messages or how small soever His hopes are of a better considering the high strain of those who deal with His Majesty yet He will neither want fatherly bowels to His Subjects in generall nor will He forget that God hath appointed Him for their King with whom He Treats Wherefore He now demands a speedy Answer to His last and former Messages Given at our Court at Oxon this 17. of Jan. 1645. For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated c. THese earnest desires of His Majesty for a speedy Answer shall nothing prevail with them to hasten the same for His unparallel'd meeknesse in passing by such unheard-of Affronts without return of any passionate expression is so high a vexation to their black and ungodly souls that they resolve in themselves to make Him wait above three times forty daies longer now before He shall get a word more from them let Him send as oft as He will to solicite for it which purposed contempt though His Majesty in His Candour and Charity did not haply at that present fancy of them yet being too well acquainted with their dispositions He conceived they might make some ill use among His People of His silence to their impediments objected against the Personall Treaty propounded by Him and therefore thought meet seven daies after to speak somewhat in Confutation of those their frivolous Arguments and again to urge the thing as the only likely way of setling Peace unto His People
notorious men was too deep and high for vulgar reaches seeing His Majesty Himself after all His experience being still straitned in spirit by His owne Charity and goodnesse was not yet able to fadome the same at His sending this seventh Message as may appear by His saying therein that He Hopes none will have that impudency and impiety as to wish an end to the distractions of this Kingdom rather by Conquest then by Treaty for in very deed as all the world are now perswaded since the publishing of their late Declaration these men have had that impudency and impiety in them even from the beginning not onely to wish but also to endevour the same therefore in vain did His Majesty as he since hath found by this again so instantly desire an Answer to His former Messages for a personal meeting And yet hoping at least that importunity might prevail with these unrighteous Iudges though intreaties will not as it once did with one that feared neither God nor Man He resolves to follow them still with the same motion which five daies after He doth and that upon this occasion His Majesty was informed of the Earl of Glamorgans unwarranted Agitation in Ireland and knowing that the manner of His Humble and Loyal Subjects at Westminster was to Honour Him by heaping on Him the burden of others faults He thinks it pious meet to endeavour to keep them from that sin by giving them a speedy notice of the said Earls doings of his own absolute dislike of the same which He evidences by His full approbation of that course which by Marquesse Ormond and L. Digby was taken against him Protesting solemnly that he never had knowledge of any such capitulation or Treaty til He heard of the Earls Arrest and restraint for making the same disavowing the Articles by Him concluded and signed as destructive both to Church and State repugnant to His Majesties publick professions and known resolutions and so hazardous to the blemishing His Reputation and giving Commandement to the Lord Lieutenant and Councell of that Kingdom to proceed against the said Earl for this His grand offence committed out of falsnesse presumption or folly And after this His Majesty falls again to His old work of importuning a Treaty for Peace which He urgeth upon them with renewed promises larger concessions greater ingagements of Himself and further Explanations of His sincere intentions to trust them to pardon them to secure them let the world read this which follows and then judge if any Heart that intends to acknowledge a King can desire more His Majesties eighth Message CHARLS R. HIs Majesty having received Information from the Lord Lieutenant and Councell in Ireland That the Earl of Glamorgan hath without His or their directions or privity entred into a Treaty with some Commissioners on the Roman Catholique Party there and also drawn up and agreed unto certain Articles with the said Commissioners highly derogatory to his Majesties honour and Royall Dignity and most prejudiciall unto the Protestant Religion and Church there in Ireland Whereupon the said Earl of Glamorgan is arrested upon suspition of High Treason and imprisoned by the said Lord Lieutenant and Councell at the instance and by the Impeachment of the L. Dighby who by reason of his Place and former Imployment in these Affairs doth best know how contrary that Proceeding of the said Earl hath been to his Majesties Intentions and Directions and what great prejudice it might bring to his Affairs if those Proceedings of the Earl of Glamorgan should be any waies understood to have been done by the directions liking or approbation of his Majesty His Majesty having in his former Messages for a Personall Treaty offered to give contentment to his two Houses in the Businesse of Ireland hath now thought fitting the better to shew his clear Intentions and to give satisfaction to his said Houses of Parliament and the rest of his Subjects in all his Kingdoms to send this Declaration to his said Houses containing the whole truth of the businesse which is That the Earle of Glamorgan having made offer unto Him to raise Forces in the Kingdom of Ireland and to Conduct them into England for His Majesties Service had a Commission to that purpose and to that purpose only That he had no Commission at all to Treat of any thing else without the privity and directions of the Lord Lieutenant much lesse to Capitulate any thing concerning Religion or any Propriety belonging either to Church or Laity That it clearly appears by the Lord Lieutenants Proceedings with the said Earle That he had no notice at all of what the said Earle had Treated and pretended to have capitulated with the Irish untill by accident it came to his knowledge And His Majesty doth Protest That untill such time as He had advertisement that the Person of the said Earle of Glamorgan was Arrested and restrained as is abovesaid He never heard nor had any kind of notice that the said Earl had entred into any kind of Treaty or Capitulation with those Irish Commissioners much lesse that He had concluded or Signed those Articles so destructive both to Church and State and so repugnant to His Majesties publique Professions and known Resolutions And for the further vindication of His Majesties Honour and Integrity herein He doth Declare That He is so far from considering any thing contained in those Papers or Writings framed by the said Earl and those Commissioners with whom he Treated as He doth absolutely disavow him therein and hath given Commandement to the Lord Lieutenant and the Councell there to proceed against the said Earl as one who either out of falsenesse presumption or folly hath so hazarded the blemishing of His Majesties Reputation with His good Subjects and so impertinently framed those Articles of his own head without the Consent Privity or Directions of His Majesty or the Lord Lieutenant or any of His Majesties Councell there But true it is That for the necessary preservation of His Majesties Protestant Subjects in Ireland whose Case was daily represented unto Him to be so desperate His Majesty had given Commission to the Lord Lieutenant to Treat and Conclude such a Peace there as might be for the safety of that Crown the preservation of the Protestant Religion and no way derogatory to His own Honour and publike Professions But to the end that His Majesties reall intentions in this businesse of Ireland may be the more clearly understood and to give more ample satisfaction to both Houses of Parliament and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland especially concerning His Majesties not being engaged in any Peace or Agreement there He doth desire if the two Houses shall resolve to admit of His Majesties repair to London for a Personall Treaty as was formerly proposed that speedy notice be given thereof to His Majesty and a passe or safe Conduct with a blank sent for a Messenger to be immediatly dispatch'd into Ireland to
prevent any accident that may happen to hinder His Majesties Resolution of leaving the manageing of the businesse of Ireland wholly to the two Houses and to make no Peace there but with their consent which in case it shall please God to blesse His endevours in the Treaty with successe His Majesty doth hereby engage Himself to do And for a further explanation of His Majesties Intentions in His former Messages He doth now Declare That if His Personall repair to London as aforesaid shall be admitted and a Peace thereon shall ensue He will then leave the nomination of the Persons to be intrusted with the Militia wholly to His two Houses with such power and limitations as are expressed in the Paper delivered by His Majesties Commissioners at Uxbridge the 6. of Febr. 1644. for the terme of Seven years as hath been desired to begin immediately after the conclusion of the Peace the disbanding of all Forces on both sides and the dismantling of the Garrisons erected since these present Troubles so as at the expiration of the time before mentioned the power of the Militia shall entirely revert and remain as before And for their further security His Majesty the Peace succeeding will be content that pro hâc vice the two Houses shall nominate the Admirall Officers of State and Judges to hold their places during life or quâm diu se bene gesserint which shall be best liked to be accomptable to none but the King and the two Houses of Parliament As for matter of Religion His Majesty doth further Declare That by the liberty offered in his Message of the 15. present for the ease of their Consciences who will not communicate in the Service already established by Act of Parliament in this Kingdom He intends that all other Protestants behaving themselves peaceably in and towards the Civill Government shall have the free exercise of their Religion according to their own way And for the totall removing of all Fears and Jealousies His Majesty is willing to agree That upon the conclusion of Peace there shall be a generall Act of Oblivion and Free Pardon past by Acts of Parliaments in both his Kingdoms respectively And lest it should be imagined that in the making these Propositions his Majesties Kingdom of Scotland and his Subjects there have been forgotten or neglected his Majesty Declares That what is here mentioned touching the Militia and the naming of Officers of State and Judges shall likewise extend to his Kingdom of Scotland And now his Majesty having so fully and clearly expressed his Intentions and desires of making a happy and wel-grounded Peace if any person shall decline that happâ—nesse by opposing of so apparent a way of attaining it he will sufficiently demonstrate to all the world his intention and Designe can be no other then the totall subversion and change of the ancient and happy Government of this Kingdom under which the English Nation hath so long flourished Given at the Court at Oxford the 29 of Jan. 1645. For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore To be Communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland HIs Majesties care and pains in the former part of this Message was wholly ineffectuall to the ends intended for as if they had secretly vowed as perhaps they have to go contrary to Him and Christian Religion in every thing they took advantage from this very businesse of Ireland thus disclaimed by the King to sclaunder Him further and defame Him to which purpose they publishâ—d soon after certain Papers with this Title The Earl of Glamâ—rgans negotiations and colourable CoÌ„mitment in Ireland that thereby it might be apprehended the King like themselves had dissembled in all He had said or writ about that matter And in their late Declaration they most impudently affirm that His Majesty gave a private Commission to the said Earl commanding him to manage it with all possible secresie and it contained say they such odious and shamefull things as Himself blush'd to owne or to impart to His own Lieutenant the Earl of Ormond this they write upon their own testimony as if they had been eye and ear witnesses of the same and all the world were bound to believe them sed Deus vindex God shall judge and revenge too upon them the cause of His Anointed to whom His Gospel commands Honour and themselves have often sworn Reverence And as His Majs care in the former was ineffectual so His grace in the latter part of this Message was altogether fruitlesse for though Subjects if Subjects were they never so guilty could wish for no more then is there offered for there is Liberty for their Consciences Safety for their Persons Security for their Estates Greatnesse for their Desires and Peace to increase all and all this but for leave to let the rest of His people their fellow-Subjects as good men as themselves and much better live in peace by them yet all will not do nothing will work upon them for like Pope Boniface the 8. of that name they came in like Foxes and therefore mean to live like Lions though they die like Dogs so that Rebellion we see is a sin unpardonable like that against the Holy Ghost not because it cannot but because it will not be forgiven His Majesty after the sending this last Message of the 29. of Ianuary tarryes a moneth longer even till Feb. 28. in expectation of somewhat from them in Answer to His longing desires and then though He was apprehensive how He had by His often sending hazarded His Honour to be questioned as well as His proper interests to be divided or divorced from Him yet to declare further still to all the world that His Peoples Preservation was more dear to Him then both He doth once again in their behalf importune these men for the Blessing of Peace in these words His Majesties ninth Message CHARLES R. His Majesty needs to make no excuse though He sent no more Messages unto you for He very well knows He ought not to doe it if He either stood upon punctilio's of Honour or His own private interest the one being already call'd in question by His often sending and the other assuredly prejudg'd if a Peace be concluded from that He hath already offered He having therein departed with many of His undoubted Rights But nothing being equally dear unto him to the preservation of his people his Majesty passeth by many scruples neglects and delaies and once more desires you to give him a speedy Answer to his last Message for his Majesty believes it doth very well become him after this very long delay at last to utter his impatience since that the goods and bloud of his Subjects cries so much for Peace Given at the Court at Oxford the 26 of Febr. 1645. For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore To be Communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster and
our Loyalty and Obedience to His Crown readinesse and resolution to defend His Person and support His Estate with our lives and fortunes to the uttermost of our power Againe We professe we desire nothing from His Majesty but that He would returne in Peace to His Parliament And againe We professe in the sight of Almighty God which is the strongest obligation that a Christian and the most solemne publicke faith which any such State as a Parliament can give that we would receive Him with all Honour yeild Him all true obedience and subjection and faithfully endeavour to defend His Person and Estate from all danger and to the utmost of our power to stablish Him and His people all the blessings of a most Glorious and Happy Raign c. Surely they who shall compare these Professions with the present Carriages of them that made them will conclude them the vilest Atheists that ever lived and beleeve that they used these Protestations only to gull and seduce the well meaning Common-people that so they might cheat them of their Monies and engage them with themselves in wayes of Treason Bloud and Rebellion to the destruction of their Religion King and Country But verily there is a God that judgeth the Earth and that these mockers of Him shall feel ere long for the day of their Calamity is at Hand and the things that are comming upon them make hast Wel his Maj. after he had sent this His tenth Message for Peace waited another month and more for an Answer thereof having understood by their former unworthy Paper of the 13 of Ianu. and being confirmed also by their silence to all His Profers that no admittance would be granted to Him though He came alone for as at the approach of Christ the Devill raged and tore the party possessed so did jealousies and guilty fears rend and torment them at the Apprehension of His presence or accesse unto them and therefore till He should first consent to such Propositions as they would at their further leasure send unto Him He must not come near them unlesse He be brought by the Souldiers before them as Christ was into the High Priests Hall viz. in the nature of a Prisoner indeed to this purpose while they think to delude Him still with a further expectation of Propositions which they never meant should be seen at Oxford they send thither as fast as they can all their Armies and Bands of Souldiers with Guns and Swords and Staves for to take Him concluding with themselves that He would surely fall into the Hand of their Strong ones and could not possibly escape them But God was too hard for them He seeing their mischeivous intentions inclined the Heart of His Majesty to goe and protected Him safe in going to the Scottish Army where so soon as He came that all might see His desires of Peace were not capable of abatement He falls againe to His old work of soliciting for the same and offers to these unreasonable men all that ever was desired to give them content He refers to them and their Divines the setling of Religion He consents the Militia to be at their disposall His Forces to be disbanded His Townes and Garrisons dismantled and deserted and what ever else had been formerly in dispute betwixt them and if these would not be now accepted because offered by Him though formerly desired by them He wills them to send their long promised Propositions or at least those of them which were agreed upon being resolved to comply in every thing as shall but appear to Him to be for His Subjects happinesse And notwithstanding all the contempts they had shewn Him and affronts put upon Him He still hath or desires to have so good an opinion of them that He will not question their good acceptation of these His offers since He makes no conditions with them for Himselfe but is content to leave His own Honour and Lawfull Rights solely to their care and gratitude to maintain unto Him Let all men read without admiration if they can at the Kings Christianity and goodnesse this which follows how in very deed He yeilds up His will and Affections His Reason Iudgment and all for the obtaining a good peace or accommodation with these Stubborn men unto His poor and afflicted people His Majesties eleventh Message CHARLS R. HIs Majesty having understood from both His Houses of Parliament that it was not safe for him to come to London whither he had purposed to repair if so he might by their advice to do whatsoever may be best for the good and peace of these Kingdoms untill he shall first give his consent to such Propositions as were to be presented to him from them And being certainly informed that the Armies were marching so fast up to Oxford and made that no fit place for Treating did resolve to withdraw himself hither only to secure his own Person and with no intention to continue this War any longer or to make any division between his two Kingdoms but to give such contentment to both as by the blessing of God he might see a happy and wel-grounded Peace thereby to bring Prosperity to these Kingdoms answerable to the best times of his Progenitors And since the setling of Religion ought to be the chiefest care of all Councels his Majesty most earnestly and heartily recommends to his two Houses of Parliament all the waies and means possible for speedy finishing this pious necessary work and particularly that they take the advice of the Divines of both Kingdoms assembled at Westminster Likewise concerning the Militia of England for securing his people against all pretensions of danger his Majesty is pleased to have it setled as was offered at the Treaty at Uxbridge all the Persons being to be named for the Trust by the two Houses of the Parliament of England for the space of seven years and after the expiring of that term that it be regulated as shall be agreed upon by his Majesty and his two Houses of Parliament And the like for the Kingdom of Scotland Concerning the Wars in Ireland his Majesty will do whatsoever is possible for him to give full satisfaction therein And if these be not satisfactory his Majesty then desires that all such of the Propositions as are already agreed upon by both Kingdoms may be speedily sent unto him his Majesty being resolved to comply with his Parliament in every thing that shall be for the happinesse of his Subjects and for the removing of all unhappy differences which have produced so many sad effects His Majesty having made these offers he will neither question the thankfull acceptation of them nor doth he doubt but that his two Kingdoms will be carefull to maintain him in his Honour and in his just and lawfull Rights which is the only way to make a happy composure of these unnaturall Divisions And likewise will think upon a solid way of conserving the Peace between the two
Kingdoms for time to come And will take a speedy course for easing and quieting his afflicted people by satisfying the Publike debts by disbanding of all Armies and whatsoever else shall be judged conducible to that end that so all hinderances being removed he may return to his Parliament with mutuall comfort Southwell May 18. 1646. For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore To be Communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland POST-SCRIPT HIs Majesty being desirous to shun the further effusion of bloud and to evidence His reall intentions to Peace is willing that His Forces in and about Oxford be disbanded and the fortifications of the City dismantled they receiving honourable conditions Which being granted to the Town and Forces there His Majesty will give the like order to the rest of the Garrisons THis Message from His Majesty out of the Scots Quarters though as full of Grace as could be wished found as little respect as any of the former and was thought as unworthy of an Answer for indeed it spake to their great grief the escape of that rich prey which was already swallowed in their Expectations yea and an impossibility of getting it into their reach again with so little cost and pains as they hoped before to be possessed of it for they conceived the frugall Scot was not like to part with his Liege Lord and native King for nothing nor be so easily beaten from hence to their own home as was intended they should have been so soon as the Kings Person had been seized on at Oxford for His Majesties Presence like the Glorious Sun drew thousands of Eyes upon His Country-men and would have fetch'd as many hearts and hands to their Assistance had they but then stood up in defence of Him This they at Westminster well knew and hereupon saw that a kind of necessity lay on them to shuffle again and after another fashion then before was purposed to play the Foxes instead of the Lions with their dear Brethren and therefore they begin at last to think of doing that which till now they never intended though often promised even of sending Propositions to the King which on Iuly 24. two months after their receipt of this last Message of May 18. arived at Him under the name of Propositions for Peace but the contrivers of them had in their Provident care made them so perfectly monstrous and unreasonable that themselves remained sure still of being out of all danger of Effecting Peace by them in very deed they were only used to gain time and opportunity to recover their lost prey and to delude the Scots who were not then so well acquainted with their spirits as perhaps since they have been or at least may be before a period be put to these troubles Those Propositions of theirs were as tedious as senslesse for what they wanted in reason was made up in words they have been published already and therefore we shall not here trouble the Reader with them there be Copies enow extant of them which whosoever views will think the Kingdom might have imployed their many hundred thousand pounds better then in maintaining so many men and so many Armies so many months together in doing nothing but making such uncouth Prpositions By this insuing Message of his Majesty in Answer to them within a week after His receipt of them the world were it ignorant of them might have a glimpse of what kind they were and of what spirit those that sent them His Majesties twelfth Message CHARLES R. THe Propositions tendered to His Majesty by the Commissioners from the Lords and Commons Assembled in the Parliament of England at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland to which the Houses of Parliament have taken twice so many Monthes for deliberation as they have assigned dayes for his Majesties Answer do import so great alterations in Government both in Church and Kingdome as it is very difficult to return a particular and positive Answer before a full debate wherein these Propositions and the necessary explanations true sense and reasons thereof be rightly weighed and understood and that his Majesty upon a full view of the whole Propositions may know what is left as well as what is taken away and changed In all which he finds upon discourse with the said Commissioners that they are so bound up from any capacity either to give reasons for the demands they bring or to give ear to such desires as his Majesty is to propound as it is impossible for him to give such a present judgement of Answer to these Propositions whereby he can Answer to God that a safe and well-grounded peace will ensue which is evident to all the world can never be unlesse the just power of the Crown as well as the freedome and propriety of the Subject with the just liberty and priviledges of the Parliament be likewise setled To which end his Majesty desires and proposeth to come to London or any of his houses thereabouts upon the publick faith and security of the two houses of Parliament and the Scotch Commissioners That he shall be there with freedome honour and safety where by his personall presence he may not only raise a mutuall confidence betwixt him and his people but also have these doubts cleared and these difficulties explained unto him which he now conceives to be destructive to his just regall power if he shall give a ful consent to these Propositions as they now stand As likewise that he make known to them such his reasonable demands as he is most assured will be very much conducible to that Peace which all good men desire and pray for by the setling of Religion the just priviledges of Parliament with the freedom and propriety of the Subject and his Majesty assures them that as he can never condiscend unto what is absolutely destructive to that just power which by the laws of God and the Land he is born unto So he wil cheerfully grant and give his assent unto all such Bills at the desire of his two Houses or reasonable demands for Scotland which shall be really for the good and Peace of his people not having regard to his own particular much lesse of any bodies else in respect of the happinesse of these Kingdoms Wherefore his Majesty conjures them as Christians as Subjects and as men who desire to leave a good name behind them that they will so receive and make use of this Answer that all issues of bloud may be stopped and these unhappy distractions peaceably setled Newcastle August 1. 1646. To the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated POST-SCRIPT VPon assurance of a happy agreement His Majesty will immediately send for the Prince His Son absolutely expecting His perfect Obedience to return into this Kingdom BY this Message the Readers may observe that the contrivers of those Propositions though
themselves were many and had imployed all their craft which was not little 8 Months together as they pretended in the framing of them yet were perswaded as it seems that His Majesty alone in regard of His clear wisdome sincerity and honesty of Heart was able in three or four dayes to Answer them fully and therefore they assigned him no longer time to deliberate on them or else they supposed that His Maj. in His eagernesse of minde to obtain Peace so oft earnestly writ for by Him would blindly and suddainly consent without more adoe to what ever on that condition they asked of Him for as crafty Chapmen will enhaunse the price beyond all reason of that Commodity they have to sell when they see a Customer fond of it so did these men deal with their King He had fully manifested a most fervent desire of procuring quiet to His people by His many Messages large Offers wherein He had shewed a readinesse to yeild up His own Rights or to speak in their phrase His will and Affections yea and His Reason and Iudgement too for the purchase of it So it were reall and good Whereupon perhaps they fancied that He would not stick to resigne up His Conscience also upon their demand together with the Rights of His Crown to which He was born and the trust committed to Him by God and the Law over the lives and Estates of all His Subjects into those Hands which have been excercised in nothing this seven years but Bloud Rapine and Oppression without any probability of recovering the same againe to Himselfe or His successors For indeed they are now come to that pitch of the pinacle that unlesse the King will condescend to cast Himself down to destroy himself and to ruine Monarchy no concessions of His shall please them nor shall his many Messages and large offers obtaine peace from them unto his people who may themselves judge of what kinde it would be by that experience they have had of them already if the King should yeild so far as to lay down his life and Crown for the purchase But God be thanked our King is no Child nor false Shepherd but a man after Gods own Heart and a very Moses though meeke and patient to admiration in his own case throughout all his dealings with this stif-necked and rebellious generation yet most valiant and magnanimous in the Cause of God and most faithfull in the dicharge of that trust reposed in Him our Saviour would rather suffer himself to be no Man then yeild himself to be no King he would rather part with his life then his Kingship and so will our Soveraign and therefore our God we trust will preserve both for the further Happinesse yet of this Church and Nation But let 's observe His Majesties goodnesse towards these men in this His Message or Answer to their Propositions He was ashamed as seemeth that the world should take full notice of their impiety and unreasonablenesse in them and therefore was pleased to shadow the same in a measure from the worlds eye by impleading the difficulty of understanding the said Propositions for want of necessary explanations as if there had been or might haply be more Iustice and Reason in them then was apparent when indeed there was more mischeife then could be easily beleeved And this he alledgeth as the cause of his not returning particular Answers to them and in truth there is much ambiguity and darknesse in them which the Contrivers were studious and carefull to leave in their composing of them that thereby themselves might still have evasions and occasions to raise cavills what ever His Majesties Answer should be unto them to which end also they were provident to Bind up their Commissioners tongues from speaking any such word in way of discourse as might discover to the King their further meanings Wherefore his Majesty finding it impossible to returne such a plenary Answer as in His Conscience might be justifiable in Gods sight or conductive to a safe and well-grounded peace he proposeth again his own comming to London to treat with them and for the avoiding of all mistakes to hear them explaine their own meanings and ingages himself to give his cheerfull assent to all such Bills as shall be really to the good and peace of His people and to prefer the Happinesse of this Kingdome before His own particular and as a mean to work a confidence in them of His own sincerity in these things he offers again to trust them with no lesse then his own Person and conjures them as they are Christians as they are Subjects and as they are men who desire to leave a good name behinde them so to receive make use of this His Answer that all issues of Bloud may be stopped and these unhappy distractions peaceably setled But as appears neither the Dignity of Christians the Duty of Subjects nor the Credit of a good Name will prevaile with them any more then his Majesties former Messages and Intreaties had done for they had as it seemes renounced and rejected them all before hand and therefore without taking any notice of this Conjuration of their Soveraign or of any thing else which he had writ unto them in the whole Message they go on silently and resolutely in that way which themselves had chosen which His Majesty observing after some months patient expectance bent His thoughts to the making some particular Answers to the fore-mentioned Propositions desiring if possible to give them content but upon His most serious consideration on them He found that He did but labour in vain for He could not speak so unto them but some who lay in wait for that purpose would mis-construe and pervert His sayings to a contrary sence unlesse Himself were present among them to paraphrase upon his owne words and explain His meaning wherefore He hoping that Gods grace and spirit might at last peradventure have some footing in their minds He rather chuseth to propose again by another Message five months after the former His own coming unto them and renues His former offers discovering thereby that notwithstanding their transcendent neglects and contempts of Him yet He was still as constant in His good intentions to them as they were in their ill resolutions against Him His words are these His Majesties thirteenth Message CHARLS R. HIs Majesties thoughts being alwaies sincerely bent to the Peace of His Kingdoms was will be ever desirous to take all waies which might the most cleerly make appear the candour of His intentions to His people And to this end could find no better way then to propose a Personall free debate with His two Houses of Parliament upon all the present differences Yet finding very much against His expectations that this offer was laid aside His Majesty bent all His thoughts to make His intentions fully known by a particular Answer to the Propositions delivered to Him in the name of both Kingdomes 24.
to receive any from Him no commerce must He have with any Creature but only such as were His tormenters and tempters subservient to them or allowed by them in brief they would not let Him be Master of those ordinary Actions which belonged to any free-born man of how mean a birth soever insomuch that His Majesty may surely say He had to do with Beasts at Holdenby in the shape of men and fought with them as Saint Paul did at Ephesus But behold for all this though they forgot themselves to be Subjects and indeed men yet He remembers Himself still to be the Father of His People and though His Condition under them might make Him silent and His usage by them might harden His heart against them and stir His spirit to plot revenge upon them and to this end to study the winding Himself out of His Troubles by indirect means and that were as Himself tells them by consenting readily to what had or should be proposed unto Him and chuse a time afterward to break all and alleage that forced Concessions are not to be kept which he is confident He might do without incurring any hard censure from indifferent men But His Majesties spirit is too Kingly and divine to practice according to such maximes for though indeed no compulsions or violence shall be able to wrest from Him any Concessions against Conscience or in clear reason against the good and welfare of His people yet He avows freely and cleerly that He holds it not only unlawfull but base to recede from His promises if once passed for having been obtained by force or under restraint wherefore His Majesty not only rejects all those Acts which He esteems unworthy of Him but even passeth by that point of Honour which He might well insist upon in respect of His present Condition and consents as we see so far to all their Propositions as in Conscience and Reason He conceived might possibly be done in order to His peoples welfare though to the great diminution of His own undoubted prerogative and most just rights for example He knows well and acknowledgeth as we see the power of the Sword is intrusted to Him by God and the Law to Protect and Govern His people and is absolutely necessary to the Kingly Office yet to secure the Kingdome of peace on His behalf and the performance of agreements on His part which by reason of the wrongs done Him was so much suspected He not only offers the whole power of the Militia both by Sea and Land to be in the whole disposall of the two Houses of Parliament for ten years space but also intreats them after all this their ill usage of Him and conjures them as English-men and lovers of Peace by the duty they owe Him as their King and by the Bowels of Compassion which they have to their fellow-Subjects to accept of this His offer whereby the joyfull news of Peace may be restored at length to this languishing Kingdom Nay and further as we see in this Message notwithstanding they had grieved His spirit by their unparalleld abuses and offended Him above seventy times seven times and never hitherto so much as said it repenteth us yet doth His most gracious Majesty even urge upon them for the prevention of new disorders and future troubles to accept of a pardon at His Hand for all the wrongs which they had done Him and to admit of an Act of oblivion as the best bond of peace only He would have them deny their Corruptions so far as to cease thirsting for the bloud and totall ruine of those of their Christian Brethren whom they had well nigh undone already for their love and adherence to Himself according to their duties as Gods Word the Law their Consciences Oaths of Allegeance and Protestation did command them He desires in effect that their spleens may rest satisfied with the wrongs already offered to these persons and their families lest their discontent might haply prove fewell to new dâ—sorders He would have the Act of Oblivion to include them too Yea He would have these men who indeed only need it to consent that it might reach to all the people of the Land in generall this is all He desires of them that so from henceforth we might live together like Christians and not like Heathens like savage Creatures or rather like devils any longer as alas we have done to the unspeakable disgrace of the Gospell and of our Nation since these men domineered And to the end that there might not be the least face or question of His Majesties restraint to blemish this agreement to their disadvantage in after-times He earnestly desires that Himself might presently be admitted to His two Houses after all this His complyance to perfect the same And now surely we must needs conclude that here was enough to still the Clamour of these men against their King had they not been far worse then beasts to have conquered their spirits even to everlasting But they were resolute in their way all this was nothing in their esteem for indeed the established and fundamentall Laws of the Land are so severe against such as go in those waies and courses which these have travailed so far in against the King and their fellow-subjects that they dare not trust either to his mercy or their forgivenesse be the same never so strongly confirmed unto them nor can any Act of Oblivion in their conceits be ever able to obliterate the same and therefore as if He had offered nothing at all they still cry out that His Majesty is averse to Peace and never yet pleased to accept of any Tender sit for them to make nor to offer any fit for them to receive and thei Preachers are still set a work by them to pray before the people that God would incline the Kings heart to come unto His Parliament But these men not knowing how to answer His Majesty saving their own stubborn resolutions or to say any thing to these His so large and gracious tenders they even suffer Him after their old wont to wait and to live in expectation And yet we found or at least supposed at that time that His Majesties Answer to some of these Propositions viz. to those that concerned Religion or Church Government had some effect upon the Independent party whose boyling discontents about this time began to vapour forth more furiously then before against their Presbyterian Brethren whose Government and Directory His Majesty had here promised to confirm for three years the time set down by the two Houses so that Himself and His might not be hindered thereby in serving God the old and true way now upon this the untamed Heighfers of this other faction altogether unaccustomed to the yoak having observed that their Brethrens little singer was like to prove heavier then the Bishops loynes were horribly loath to come under the sence of their Scorpions and therefore began to cast about for themselves
the Tragedie is still the same the variation is onely of the Actors not of the Scene Nor did those Pharisees desire his death and down-fall more then these Saduces doe and will endeavour to prevent His Resurrection T is the same Leven that sowres both factions and the controversie between them only is which shall be the chief or have most strength to expresse most sowrenesse But His Majesty finds a difference in the present condition of Affairs from what they were at the former presentment of these Propositions for they seemed to be totally destructive to the interests of the Army now more manifest to Him then before whom His Majesty was pleased to look on at this present not only as Subjects but as Friends and being desirous in His Princely care and equity as a common Father to give satisfaction to all His people doth as we see in His wisdome and publick affections answer accordingly and since the Army had been their Servants and Hirelings though against Himself their naturall Leige Lord yet He thinks it meet in His Fatherly Clemency not only to passe by what they had done as acts of ignorance in them but also to endeavour that they be payed their wages and to this end commends their case and Proposalls to those their Masters who had imployed them and sent these Propositions unto Him And that all parties may have content He desires againe a Personall Treaty with them for Peace whereunto He is well pleased for His part if it be thought fit as he sayes that Commissioners from the Army may also be admitted that so without more adoe a cleare open and full satisfaction might be given to all parties And sure the Soldiers as well as the rest of his abused and deluded people will find in the end that the King will prove their best friend and pay-master who in the meane time as they may observe makes Himselfe even a Petitioner in their behalfe to His two Houses whom He conjures againe as He had done oft before by the duty they owe to God to Himselfe their King and by the bowels of compassion which they have or ought to have to their fellow-subjects to give way that their present sufferings may be relieved their future miseries prevented and the joyfull newes of Peace againe restored But this request and conjuration of His Majesty at the present found no other respect with the new purged Houses then His other before had done when by their owne confessions these Houses were so filthy and uncleane indeed the purging was not compleatly done according to the Law of clensing for the Leprosie that hath so troubled us all was as now appeares spread to the very walls and stones and morter it self all which should have been taken away and other stones and morter put in the place thereof that is New Houses should have been throughly framed of new materials and so the Plague might have been quite healed which upon this default grew worse ere long then it had been before as if the evill spirit had been onely thrust out to fetch in seven more spirits worse and more wicked then himselfe for not long after His Majesty had sent this last Message or Answer He was forced back to His former Condition of Captivity He is circled with Armies watched by Soldiers yea hath strict and strange guards set and doubled upon Him and His servants that were formerly admitted excluded from Him In a word He is reduced to the same if not to a worse condition by his Deliverers at Hampton Court then that was which they pretended to free him from at Holdenby For some amongst them whisperingly threatned also his sudden destruction and to act the Assassinates part upon His Sacred Person Whereupon for the safety of His life He was forced to retire speedily and privately from that place in the night season when the weather was wet cold stormy tempestuous at which time He left this insuing Declaration behinde Him on the Table which speaks aboundantly His great wisdome and strong affections towards the Peace and Happinesse of all His People not excepting His very Enemies notwithstanding His Barbarous and Hard usage at their Hands His Majesties eighteenth Message His Majesties most Gracious Declaration left by Him on His Table at Hampton Court Novemb. 11. 1647. CHARLS R. LIberty being that which in all times hath been but especially now is the common theame and desire of all men common Reason shews that Kings lesse then any should endure captivity And yet I call God and the world to witnesse with what patience I have endured a tedious restraint which so long as I had any hopes that this sort of my suffering might conduce to the peace of my Kingdoms or the hindring of more effusion of bloud I did willingly undergoe but now finding by too certain proofs that this my continued patience would not onely turn to my personall ruine but likewise be of much more prejudice then furtherance to the publique good I thought I was bound as well by Naturall as Politicall obligations to seek my safety by retiring my self for some time from the publick view both of my friends and enemies And I appeal to all indifferent men to judge if I have not just cause to free my selfe from the hands of those who change their Principles with their condition and who are not ashamed openly to intend the destruction of the Nobility taking away their Negative Voice and with whom the Levellers doctrine is rather countenanced then punished And as for their intentions to my Person their changing and putting more strict Guards upon me with the discharging most of all those Servants of mine who formerly they willingly admitted to wait upon me does sufficiently declare Nor would I have this my retirement mis-interpreted for I shall earnestly and uncessantly endeavour the setling of a safe and well-grounded Peace where ever I am or shall be and that as much as may be without the effusion of more Christian blood for which how many times have I desired prest to be heard and yet no ear given to me And can any reasonable man think that according to the ordinary course of affaires there can be a setled Peace without it Or that God will blesse those who refuse to hear their own King Surely no. Nay I must farther adde that besides what concernes my selfe unlesse all other chief interests have not onely a hearing but likewise just satisfaction given unto them to wit the Presbyterians Independents Army those who have adhered to me and even the Scots I say there cannot I speak not of Miracles it being in my opinion a sinfull presumption in such cases to expect or trust to them be a safe or lasting Peace Now as I cannot deny but that my personall security is the urgent cause of this my retirement so I take God to witnesse that the publike Peace is no lesse before my eyes and I can finde no better way to expresse
this my profession I know not what a wiser may doe then by desiring and urging that all chief Interests may be heard to the end each may have just satisfaction As for example the Army for the rest though necessary yet I suppose are not difficult to content ought in my judgment to enjoy the liberty of their consciences have an Act of Oblivion or Indempnity which should extend to all the rest of my Subjects and that all their Arrears should be speedily and duly paid which I will undertake to doe so I may be heard and that I be not hindred from using such lawfull and honest means as I shall chuse To conclude let me be heard with Freedome Honour and Safety and I shall instantly breake through this Cloud of Retirement and shew my selfe really to be Pater Patriae Hampton-Court Novemb. 11. 1647. For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore To be Communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland HE that reads His Majesty in these His Messages and Declarations and considers well the discovery made therein of His disposition must needs conclude that never King since Christs time was indued with more of Christs spirit In this Declaration we observe among many other things worthy our speciall notice three particulars 1. His Majesties most Christian and fatherly Affection to us all in generall How like a truly good Shepherd He did willingly undergo and indure a most tedious restraint so long as He had hopes that the same might conduce any thing to our peace and prevent the further effusion of our Bloud but when He saw by certaine proofs that His continued patience was likely to turn onely to His Personall ruine whereby ours and that of the publike would certainly be hastened He thought Himself bound to endevour His peoples safety by His own in retiring for some time from publike view 2. His Majesties great care of preserving the being of the English Nobility whose destruction he perceived was openly intended as well as His by those that aymed at the taking away their Negative voice Had those of them who have so shamefully degenerated with the times from the dignity of their Auncestors been as carefull of His Honour and Rights as He we see is and hath been of theirs both He and they and we all had not been so miserable at this present when God shall lay this sin unto their Charge woe woe woe will be unto them 3. His Majesties fervent desire that all Interests may be Heard and just satisfaction given to them the Presbyterians Independants Army Scots and all who have combined together and ingaged against Him as wel as those who had adhered to Him and yet none of them except those had evidenced any full readinesse of mind that might be restored to those His rights which God and the Law commands should be given to Him Concerning Himself we observe He desires but only to be Heard and that for these two Ends first to procure peace for His people which is not probably otherwise to be setled and Secondly to prevent Gods Curse from falling upon His Gainsayers which otherwise is most likely to overwhelme them His words we see are these Can any reasonable man think that according to the ordinary course of affairs there can be a setled peace without it or that God will blesse those who refuse to hear their own King Surely no. May His Majesty obtain but hopes of this He will instantly break through His cloud of Retirement and shew Himself really to be as indeed He hath alwaies been Pater patriae But can His Majesty conceal His Affection so long can He forbear soliciting His peoples peace till Himself be Heard 't is impossible no no He cannot contain Himself seven daies from returning to His former labour in vain or fruitlesse endevours but sets immediately to the same again so soon at He arrived at the Isle of Wight the place of His retirement though whether destined so to be by His own choice or others designation time will discover But it plainly appears His Majesty had a good opinion of the Army in Generall in His not removing quite from among them and of the Governour of that place in particular or else being in a free or open road and in the night season He might easily have turned some other way He removed from Hampton-Court Novemb. the 11. and on the 17. of the same Month He writes from Wight this which follows His Majesties nineteenth Message His Majesties most Gracious Message from the Isle of Wight for a Personall Treaty for Peace CHARLES R. HIs Majesty is confident that before this time His two Houses of Parliament have received the Message which He left behind Him at Hampton-Court the eleventh of this Month by which they will have understood the reasons which enforced Him to go from thence as likewise His constant endeavours for the setling of a safe and wel-grounded Peace wheresoever He should be And being now in a place where He conceives Himself to be at much more freedome and security then formerly He thinks it necessary not only for making good of His own professions but also for the speedy procuring of a Peace in these languishing and distressed Kingdoms at this time to offer such grounds to His two Houses for that effect which upon due examination of all Interests may best conduce thereunto And because Religion is the best and chiefest foundation of Peace His Majesty will begin with that Particular That for the abolishing Arch-bishops Bishops c. His Majesty cleerly professeth that He cannot give His consent thereunto both in relation as He is a Christian and a King For the first He avows that He is satisfied in His Judgement that this order was placed in the Church by the Apostles themselves and ever since their time hath continued in all Christian Churches throughout the world untill this last century of years And in this Church in all times of Change and Reformation it hath been upheld by the wisdome of His Ancestours as the great preserver of Doctrine Discipline and Order in the service of God As a King at His Coronation He hath not only taken a Solemn Oath to maintain this Order but His Majesty and His Predecessours in their confirmations of the Great Charter have inseperably woven the right of the Church into the Liberties of the rest of the Subjects And yet He is willing it be provided that the particular Bishops perform the severall Duties of their callings both by their personall residence and frequent Preachings in their Diocesses as also that they exercise no act of Jurisdiction or Ordination without the consent of their Presbyters And will consent that their Powers in all things be so limited that they be not grievous to tender Consciences Wherefore since His Majesty is willing to give ease to the Consciences of others He sees no reason why He alone and
case and condition of these men they have not hearkned to this voice or Message of their publike Father because the Lords purpose is speedily to call them to a shamefull reckoning for the mischiefs they have done many sclaunders and blasphemies have they cast out against his Anointed much peevishnesse and perversnesse have they practised towards Him much of the innocent bloud of their fellow-subjects and brethren have they spilt and shed much oppression have they used upon them much hypocrisie to deceive and cheat them of their peace and mony and much profanation and despight to that Religion and Church wherein themselves were bred and nourished and that for these things sake the wrath of God might come sodainly down upon them as upon the most speciall Children of disobedience the Lord hath blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts to forsake their owne mercy in rejecting these motions and proffers of their Soveraign And we believe their natures and dispositions are now so well known by these their refusalls so frequently iterated by their late Votes or Resolves of having no more to do with the King by their scandalous Declaration against His Innocency and Honour and by that other of theirs against the Commissioners of Scotland that it will be concluded their hower is spent their day is past and gone they shall never more meet with such advantages of preserving themselves nor with the like tenders of grace and mercy Twenty daies did His Majesty according to His wonted manner wait their leisure for an Answer to this His so Gracious Message and could not so much in all that time as understand from them their receipt of it which perversnesse and insolency in them cannot yet cause Him to forbear again sending to them the welfare of His Subjects is so tender to Him and their Happinesse so much desired by Him yea the many and sud complaints of the decay of trade the dearnesse of commodities and the unsupportable burden of taxes ecchoing daily from divers parts of His Kingdome into His pious and gentle ears and threatning a sodain failing of naturall subsistance will not let Him rest or desist in His endevours for peace though Himself were to have no share in the benefit of it and therefore He solicits them again in these words His Majesties twentieth Message His Majesties most gracious Message for Peace from Carisbrooke-Castle Decemb. 6. 1647. CHARLES R. HAd His Majesty thought it possible that His two Houses could be employed in things of greater concernment then the Peace of this miserable distracted Kingdom He would have expected with more patience their leisure in acknowledging the receit of his Message of the 16. of November last But since there is not in nature any consideration preceding to that of Peace his Majesties constant tendernesse of the welfare of his Subjects hath such a prevalence with him that he cannot forbear he vehement prosecution of a Personall Treaty which is onely so much the more desired by his Majesty as it is superior to all other means of Peace And truly when his Majesty considers the severall complaints he daily hears from all parts of this Kingdom That Trade is so decayed all Commodities so dear and Taxes so insupportable that even naturall subsistance will sodainly fail His Majesty to perform the Trust reposed in him must use his uttermost endevours for Peace though he were to have no share in the benefit of it And hath not his Majesty done his part for it by devesting himself of so much power authority as by his last Message he hath promised to do upon the concluding of the whole Peace And hath he met with that acknowledgment from his two Houses which this great Grace and Favour justly deserves Surely the blame of this great retarding of Peace must fall somewhere else then on his Majesty To conclude If ye will but consider in how little time this necessary good Work will be done if you the two Houses will wait on his Majesty with the same Resolutions for Peace as he will meet you he no way doubts but that ye will willingly agree to this his Majesties earnest desire of a Personall Treaty and speedily desire his Presence amongst you Where all things agreed on being digested into Acts till when it is most unreasonable for his Majesty or his two Houses to desire each of other the least concession this Kingdom may at last enjoy the blessing of a long-wisht for Peace From Carisbrook-Castle Decemb. 6. 1647. To the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated c. BEcause His Majesty herein had declared that this necessary work of Peace may be concluded in a very little time were their resolutions out like His and also affirmed that it would be most unreasonable either for Himself or them to desire of each other the least Concession till things agreed on were digested into Acts therefore did they make hast more then ever they did before to send Him four Bills fully as unconscionable as could be devised to which they resolve to have His Concession as unreasonable a thing as He takes it to be before He shall get any hopes of a Treaty at their hands By which also they give Him to see and know that how short a time soever Himself fancies this necessary work may be done in yet 't is not likely to be concluded with such speed and easinesse eighteen daies after this Message was sent those Bills came to His Majesties hand of what nature they were that speech of one of those that sent them doth sufficiently discover If the King signs them He undoes Himself if He doth not We will the world hath seen them His Majesties Answer at four daies end unto them was this which follows His Majesties twenty first Message His Majesties most gracious Answer to the Bils and Propositions presented to Him at Carisbrook-Castle in the Isle of Wight Decemb. 24. 1647. CHARLS R. THe necessity of complying with all engaged interests in these great distempers for a perfect setlement of Peace His Majesty finds to be none of the least difficulties He hath met with since the time of His afflictions Which is too visible when at the same time that the two Houses of the English Parliament do present to his Majesty severall Bils and Propositions for His consent the Commissioners for Scotland do openly protest against them So that were there nothing in the case but the consideration of that difference His Majesty cannot imagine how to give such an Answer to what is now proposed as thereby to promise Himself his great end A perfect Peace And when His Majesty farther considers how impossible it is in the condition He now stands to fulfill the desires of His two Houses since the only ancient and known waies of passing Laws are either by his Majesties Personall Assent in the House of Peers or by Commission under his Great Seal of England He cannot but wonder at such failings in
and published to our view if any of His people can read or heare the same without melting hearts and yearning bowels towards their King and inflamed spirits against these tormenters of Him assuredly they may be suspected to have nothing of Christ or goodnesse in them The Kings Declaration from Carisbrook-Castle Jan. 18. 1647. To all my people of whatsoever Nation Quality or Condition AM I thus laid aside and must I not speak for my selfe No! I will speak and that to all my People which I would have rather done by the way of my two Houses of Parliament but that there is a publike Order neither to make addresses to or receive Message from me and who but you can be judge of the differences betwixt Me and my two Houses I know none else for I am sure you it is who will enjoy the happinesse or feel the misery of good or ill Government And we all pretend who should run fastest to serve you without having a regard at least in the first place to particular Interests And therefore I desire you to consider the state I am and have bin in this long time and whether my Actions have more tended to the Publick or my owne particular good for whosoever will look upon me barely as I am Man without that liberty which the meanest of my Subjects enjoyes of going whither and conversing with whom I will As a Husband and Father without the comfort of my Wife and Children or lastly as a King without the least shew of Authority or Power to protect my distressed Subjects Must conclude me not only void of all Naturall Affection but also to want common understanding if I should not most cheerfully embrace the readiest way to the settlement of these distracted Kingdoms As also on the other side doe but consider the forme and draught of the Bils lately presented unto me and as they are the conditions of a Treaty ye will conclude that the same spirit which hath still been able to frustrate all my sincere and constant endeavours for Peace hath had a powerfull influence on this Message for though I was ready to grant the substance and comply with what they seeme to desire yet as they had framed it I could not agree thereunto without deeply wounding my Conscience and Honour and betraying the trust reposed in me by abandoning my People to the Arbitrary and Vnlimited Power of the two Houses for ever for the leavying and maintaining of Land or Sea Forces without distinction of quality or limitation for Mony taxes And if I could have passed them in termes how unheard-of a condition were it for a Treaty to grant before-hand the most considerable part of the subject matter How ineffectuall were that debate like to prove wherein the most potent Party had nothing of moment left to aske and the other nothing more to give So consequently how hopelesse of mutuall complyance Without which a settlement is impossible Besides if after my concessions the two Houses should insist on those things from which I cannot depart how desperate would the condition of these Kingdomes be when the most proper and approved remedy should become ineffectuall Being therefore fully resolved that I could neither in Conscience Honour or Prudâ—nce passe those foure Bâ—ls I onely endeavour'd to make the Reasons and Justice of my Denyall appeare to all the world as they doe to Me intending to give as little dis-satisfaction to the two Houses of Parliament without betraying my own Cause as the matter would beare I was desirous to give my Answer of the 28. of December last to the Commissioners Sealed as I had done others heretofore and sometimes at the desire of the Commissioners chiefly because when my Messages or Answers were publickly known before they were read in the Houses prejudiciall interpretations were forced on them much differing and sometimes contrary to my meaning For example my Answer from Hampton-court was accused of dividing the two Nations because I promised to give satâ—sfaction to the Scots in all things concerning that Kingdome And this last suffers in a contrary sense by making me intend to interest Scotland in the Lawes of this Kingdome then which nothing was nor is further from my thoughts because I took notice of the Scots Commissioners protesting against the Bils and Propositions as contrary to the interests and engagements of the two Kingdomes Indeed if I had not mentioned their dissent an Objection not without some probability might have been made against me both in respect the Scots are much concern'd in the Bill for the Militia and in severall other Propositions and my silence might with some Justice have seemed to approve of it But the Commissioners refusing to receive my Answer Sealed I upon the engagement of their and the Governors Honour that no other use should be made or notice taken of it then as if it had not been seen read and delivered it open unto them Whereupon what hath since passed either by the Governour in discharging most of my Servants redoubling the Guards and restraining me of my former liberty and all this as himselfe confest meerly out of his owne dislike of my Answer notwithstanding his before said Engagement or afterwards by the two Houses as the Governour affirmes in confining me within the circuit of this Castle I appeale to God and the World whether my said Answer deserved the reply of such proceedings besides the unlawfulnesse for Subjects to imprison their King That by the permission of Almighty God I am reduced to this sad condition as I no way repine so I am not without hope but that the same God will in due time convert these Afflictions into my advantage in the meane time I am confident to beare these crosses with patience and a great equality of Minde but by what meanes or occasion I am come to this Relapse in my Affaires I am utterly to seek especially when I consider that I have sacrificed to my two Houses of Parliament for the Peace of the Kingdome all but what is much more deare to me then my Life My Conscience and Honour desiring nothing more then to performe it in the most proper and naturall way A Personall Treaty But that which makes me most at a losse is the remembring my signall complyance with the Army and their interests and of what importance my Complyance was to them and their often repeated Professions and Ingagements for my just Rights in generall at Newmarket and S. Albans and their particular explanation of those generals by their Voted and Re-voted Proposals which I had reason to understand should be the utmost extremity would be expected from me and that in some things therein I should be eased herein appealing to the Consciences of some of the chiefest Officers in the Army if what I have said be not punctually true and how I have failed of their expectations or my professions to them I challenge them and the whole World to produce the least colour
of Reason And now I would know what it is that is desired Is it Peace I have shewed the way being both willing and desirous to performe my part in it which is a just compliance with all chiefe interests Is it Plenty and Happinesse they are the inseperable effects of Peace Is it Security I who wish that all men would forgive and forget like Me have offered the Militia for my time Is it Liberty of Conscience He who wants it is most ready to give it Is it the right administration of Justice Officers of trust are committed to the choice of my two Houses of Parliament Is it frequent Parliaments I have legally fully concurr'd therewith Is it the Arrears of the Army upon a settlement they will certainly be payed with much ease but before there will be found much difficulty if not impossibility in it Thus all the world cannot but see my reall and unwearied endeavours for Peace the which by the grace of God I shall neither repent me of nor ever be slackned in notwithstanding my past present or future sufferings but if I may not be heard let every one judge who it is that obstructs the good I would or might doe What is it that men are afraid to hear from me It cannot be Reason at least none will declare themselves so unreasonable as to confesse it and it can lesse be impertinent or unreasonable Discourses for thereby peradventure I might more justifie this my Restraint then the causers themselves can do so that of all wonders yet this is the greatest to me but it may be easily gathered how those men intend to govern who have used me thus And if it be my hard Fate to fall together with the liberty of this Kingdome I shall not blush for my selfe but much lament the future miseries of my People the which I shall still pray to God to avert what ever becomes of me CHARLES R. BEhold here all English-men and you of Scotland Wales and Ireland in whose manly Breasts doth yet remain any true sparks of right Religion or Auncient Honour Behold your King the breath of your Nostrils the Anointed of the Lord under whose shadow you dwelt in peace injoying wealth many years together whose yoak was easie and sweet unto you Behold behold He is taken and snared in a pit see how sadly He sits in darknesse and hath no light hearken how He complains unto you out of Prison that He is layed aside or become like a broken vessel forgotten as it were like a dead man out of mind shall it be as nothing to you All you to whom this Appeal is made this Declaration sent that your Protector your Defender the Glory of Christians and Mirrour of Kings is thus used Have you no feeling of His sufferings no share in His sorrows is it not for your sakes that He indures all these hard and heavy things can there be named any other reason for them then because He will not yeild you up to be slaves and bond-men is He not divested of all His power stript of His whole Authority deprived of all His Comforts barr'd from the sight of Wife and Children denied Liberty of going whither and conversing with whom He desires because He will not consent that you without rule or reason should be handled and used in this manner He will not wound His Conscience and Honour in betraying the trust reposed in Him by Almighty God over you He will not deliver you up into those hands which have already so much abused you He will not abandon you to the unlimited power of the two Houses for ever He will not grant them His lâ—ave to levy Land and Sea sorces from among you by violence and to maintain them continually upon you at your cost and Charges and against you to keep you under without either Law or Limitation in a word He will not consent that you should be kept in perpetuall Beggery and made Vassals to your equals and fellows and for this cause are all these miseries heaped on Him Read over again and view well His many Gracious Messages and offers together with their unreasonable demands and Propositions and remember withall how uncomfortably how chargeably nay how miserably every way you have lived sinâ—e these men who would alwaies rule have exercised power over you Oh how is your Gold become dim since your King hath bin in darknesse How is your sine Gold changed since He hath been excluded the pretious stones of the Sanctuary how have they been defiled made as Common and poured out in every street since He the most pretious of all hath been refused by these new Mushrom Master-Builders the most Honourable Sons of Sion the Children of your Princes comparable to fine Gold how are they esteemed in these daies as earthen pitchers how have your most Heroick Nobles been vilified and debased your most Gallant Gentry been trod and trampled under Your free-borne Yeomanry the sinews of the Kingdome how have they been tyranniz'd over in their own houses and how many of all sorts have been begger'd butcher'd and destroy'd since these unhappy men who would for ever sit aloft have domineered How hath the most reverend learned Clergie the servants of the most high God been despised persecuted and defamed How is that rich and renowned City London become as a Widow in the absence of her Husband by the meanes and operation of these new usurpers How hath her most eminent Magistrates her Maiors and Aldermen been imprisoned Her wealthy Merchants impoverished her Commons of all sorts been baffled and deluded How hath the lustre of her excellent order and flourishing government been darkned and obscured She was so great among the Nations while her Soveraignes influence shined upon her that for her Beauty Freedome and Splendour above the rest she was reckoned a Princesse among all the European Provinces being as rich in Treasures as she was in People But now alas how is she become a Captive and a Tributary to her owne servants She now weepeth sore at least she hath cause so to doe and that as well in regard of her deception and her sin as of her misery for that among all her lovers whom she so foolishly and so wickedly doted on she hath none to comfort her for all those her friends whom she trusted in have dealt treacherously with her and are become her enemies yea her most vexatious Tormenters And because our most Christian King is not willing to signe a Bill of perpetuity for the continuation of these sad Calamities upon her upon you and upon us all for ever therefore is He tortured in that manner as we see and hear therfore is His Princely Honour blasted His Royall good name defamed His Regall power Authority and Revenues taken away and kept from Him His pious Conscience assaulted His sacred person imprisoned and every day in danger to be massacred and murdered O may it not well be asked and said Was there ever
the power of the sword it shall be opposed affronted resisted their summons scorned their Messengers kicked about the streets their Votes and Iudgments derided A mock-Authority indeed that is and a mock-Parliament too that disclaims Him from whom it self derives its being and to whom God and the Law hath committed the power of the Sword We have had heretofore many Parliaments but never read or heard of any while they kept their integrity and adhered to their maker that conven'd them together who were ever opposed affronted resisted or had any of their summons scorned their Messengers kicked about the streets or their Votes and Iudgements derided therefore all this is but copia verborum some flowers of Rebellious Rhetorick whereby they thinke to keep silly fools such as they take us still to be in that vile Captivity unto themselves wherein they formerly had and led us Yea and pag. 73. of that their so bonny Declaration they tell us to the everlasting comfort both of us and of our purses that t is necessary that their Armies be kept still on foot even so long as themselves and their posterities shall fit which they make account shall be but in perpetuum from Generation to Generation till the worlds end their words are these for the Parliaments consulting freely and acting securely it will be necessary as we have ever done since the war to keep up forces which were they all disbanded as the Scotch Commissioners desire we should not long consult freely and act securely They mean sure in cutting our throats in banishing imprisoning and hanging our persons in sequestring our estates in oppressing plundering and taking from us our goods and fortunes in destroying our Religion peace and order for nothing else do we know they have consulted about or acted since they first raised their Forces or begun their war we have had Parliaments before now that have behaved themselves a great deale better then these Declarers have done that have consulted better and acted better every way and yet never thought it necessary either to raise or keep up Forces for their owne guard or safety No for they were fenc'd with Innocency and Noblenesse of Spirit with their owne uprightnesse and their Countries Love which together with the Guard of God and his Angels was their Protection they desired no other Militia then Faith and a good Conscience to secure them For why they had never bath'd themselves in their Countries bloud nor foul'd their hands with oppression nor any way deserved the odium of their Nation But these men shew what they have merited by their fears and discover that as they raised Forces at first to subdue the King so they intend now to keep them up to subdue the Kingdome and to keep those in low slavery whose help they have had against Him and so they will pay their servants for as such onely they account those whom they have imployed or made use of a la mode du diable in that manner as Satan rewards those that work for him And now the world sees at last who began the war at first and hears from them who know best what was the true cause thereof even to wrest the Legislative power and the Militia out of the Kings hands and to excercise the same without and against His consent How true their former clamours have been that the King first tooke up Armes against the Parliament and that the Parliament was only on the defensive part let the very seduced part of men now judge His sacred Majesty in his great wisdome saw this to be their end at first and told the world of it but could not be heard or beleeved so loud a noise was made to the contrary themselves in the 68. pag. of that their Declaration tell the Scotch Commissioners who had said it was contrary to their judgements and Oath of Allegeance to divest the Crown the King and His Posterity of the right and power of the Militia that they fortifie their opinion with the very same Arguments and almost in the very same words as the King did at the beginning of this war in His Declarations whereby they acknowleged that His Majesty even then had spoken to that purpose It is hoped therefore that all men doe now apprehend who they are that all this while have been the Deceivers Againe the world also hath now seen how far and wherein His Majesty hath been averse to peace since the beginning of the war He would not hitherto be either forced or perswaded to resigne up wholly and for ever unto them that which from the very first they resolved to have from Him the Legislative power and the Militia of the Kingdome to be exercised without and against Himself to the perpetual enslavement and thraldome of all us His poor Subjects whom God hath committed to his trust to protect and defend And therefore if it were lawfull for Subjects upon any occasion to imprison their King yet what great cause or substantiall reason these have had to do so or to use their Soveraigne as they have done to resolve to make no more addresses or applications to Him let the world judge And from these many gracious Messages of His Majesty for peace thus slighted contemned and despised by them let their little modesty and candour or rather their great shamelesnesse and impudency be observed in their making the foundation of their impious Votes to be His aversenesse unto peace and in beginning their Declaration against Him in that manner as they have done viz. in these words How fruitlesse our former Addresses have been to the King is so well known to the world that it may be expected we shall now declare why we made the last or so many before rather then why we are resolved to make no more We cannot acknowledge any great confidence that our words could have been more perswasive with Him then Sighs and groanes the Tears and crying Blood an heavy crie the Blood of Fathers Brothers and Children at onse the Blood of many hundred thousand Free-borne Subjects in Three great Kingdomes which cruelty it self could not but pity to destroy We must not be so unthankefull to God as to forget we were never forced to any Treaty and yet we have no lesse then seven times made such Applications to the King and tendred such Propositions that might occasion the world to judge we have not onely yeelded up our wils and Affections but our Reason also and judgement for obtaining any true Peace or Accommodation But it never yet pleased the King to accept of any Tender fit for us to make nor yet to offer any fit for us to receive Be judges in this case O all ye people of the World now you have read and seen what offers and tenders the King hath made what reason these men had thus to ' peale Him thinke you not they are men of credit worthy to be trusted another time fit to be beleeved in all they say
c. Now our young Dolman or Walker for that is the wisemans name supposing that all those people were alive still that were old men 54. yeers agoe like a true Transcriber without the variation of a letter affirmes it confidently in pag. 43. of his Edition that many are yet living in England that have seen the severall Coronations of King Edw. the 6. Queen Mary and Queen Eliz. to which he also addeth King James and King Charls because they were crowned since and this we confesse is new in him Now by this very booke alone though much more we might say to this purpose t is very evident that these Children of Abaddon love the Iesuites Doctrine well enough so it comes not out in the Iesuites owne name if it be but authorized by themselves or those appointed to publish and Licence books for the Parliament O then 't is very excellent good and Orthodoxall And now shall not these doings so palpably vile and grosse inflame your spirits O English-men and quicken you up to free your selves from their thraldome who thus abuse you will you suffer them still to proceed till they have stubbed up and quite o'rthrowne Christianity from among you you now see plainly enough what they meant at first by Roote and branch it was not Episcopacy only Roote and branch but Monarchy also Roote and branch the King and his Posterity Roote and branch the Nobility and Ancient Gentry Roote and branch Peace and prosperity honesty and Loyalty Roote and branch with Protestant profession it selfe and all that good is which in your Protestation generall you vowed to maintaine ' â—is fit you should observe it All the particulars in the said Protestation save onely one are already averted and welnigh destroyed the Religion and worship of Christ established in the English Church how is that suppressed and persecuted His Majesties Person Honour and Estate how are they abused blasted and imbezelled the Priviledges of Parliament Laws of the Land and Liberties of the Subject how notoriously have they been infringed violated and overthrowne there remaines now but one particular to finish the whole worke of plucking up or abolishing the Protestation Roote and branch and that is breaking the union betwixt the two Kingdomes of England and Scotland which now also they are indeavouring to effect as appears sufficiently by their unfriendly nay reproachfull Declaration against the Scotch Commissioners and indeed against the whole Nation and no question but they will if they can force many of those whom they have made to sweare the contrary to joyne with them in this breach also as they have done in all the former if the Scots once begin to make conscience of their old oath of Allegeance and talke of their duty to their Soveraigne Lord the King His Crowne and Dignity of supporting His Power and Greatnesse according as they are bound by all Laws of God and nature then away with these fellows from the earth cry those that resolve to make no more Addresses to the King 't is not fitting they should live though they were our dear Brethren before yet now they are so no more but Malignants as well as other folks and fit for nothing but to have scorns obloquies and contempts cast upon them And here by the way let the Scottish Nation observe it well and they shall find upon tryall that those Loyall English who from the beginning have adhered to their King out of Conscience and Allegiance will be more carefull by all loving and friendly offices to preserve peace and unity betwixt the two Nations from that Common bond of Christianity and humanity which ties us all together then those others are or will ever be who have taken so many new Oaths and Covenants to that purpose all which as they are unwarrantable wanting Legality and life from the Soveraign so will they prove invalid and too weak to hold those who have ventured on them nor were they intended by those State-engineers who first devised them as Hen. Martin tells the world to bind the takers everlastingly to each other or indeed to any other end then to drive on present designes and to batter the Consciences and souls of poor men who are ingaged by them in very deed to nothing else but to Repentance But we return to those of our own Nation who now we think have fully seen the aymes scopes and endeavours of these miscreant persons that have slighted all their Oaths broken all parts of their Protestation and are guilty of all the crimes that can be named from the highest Treason to the lowest Trespasse what is now therefore to be done by you of this Anciently-noble English Nation but to stand up for your Religion Laws and Liberties to free your selves and Country from the insupportable Tyranny of these usurpers to bring these superlative Delinquents to condigne punishment to endeavour speedily your Soveraignes restoration to His Dignity and to venture your lives like good Christians and Gallant men to deliver Him that so many years protected and defended you and hath now undergone for your sakes such unparalleld sufferings as nothing is superiour unto but His incomparable vertues and which alas so many of you have ignorantly by the fraudulent suggestion of these perfidious men helped to bring upon Him Be you assured that all those Arguments and Reasons which they falsely urged to stir you up to combine with them against him are onely good and to be lawfully thought upon to perswade you to associate now against them Had the King been truely taxable of that they charged on Him yet Gods word Christian verity and the Law of the Land forbids Resistance but they all command the same against such as these though they were quite free from those other villanies which they abound in even because they are usurpers for there is a vast difference between usurpers of Authority and ill managers of lawfull Authority betwixt those that take power to themselves to doe mischiefe with it and those that exercise evilly that lawfull power entrusted to them Our Saviour in the dayes of his flesh would not so much as censure Pilate for his cruell and bloody act upon the Galileans when some did tempt him to it that he might not seeme to countenance any in so much as speaking evilly of lawful power authority though abused People when oppressed and wronged by their lawfull Superiour have allowance onely to cry unto God as 1 Sam. 8.18 and to sue for reliefe by way of Petition as the Israelites in Egypt did to Pharaoh when they were so cruelly used by his Task-masters But t is otherwise if men be usurpers and set up themselves as Abimelech the Bramble did Iudg. 9. or endeavour to destroy the Royall Family as Athaliah did if they oppresse or whether they oppresse or no all men are bound to rise up against them and to help that Royall Person or Family to their right that suffers wrong by them for fiat Iustitia
should be corrected And the disturbers of our peace being taken down or removed from us let 's then call to minde that we are all of the same Nation and were partakers of the same Baptisme and therefore ought to lay aside that which presseth down or hardneth our Hearts against one another to put away what ever hindreth from closing together in affections it may suffice that we have played the fools hitherto gone astray and quarrell'd all this while for we know not what we must now remember whence we have fallen and return to our first Love to our bounden duty our Soveraign like the Prodigalls Father as appears by his many gratious Messages is inclined to receive us the Church like a tender hearted Mother that cannot forget the children of her wombe will upon our repentance be ready to pardon us and to solicite our Heavenly Father for us Those that have suffered wrong must be disposed to forgive those that have done wrong must be willing to restore what they have unjustly seized upon that so all impediments to Heaven and Peace may be removed and we no more return to folly And lastly that there may be a well grounded peace indeed betwixt the two Nations of England and Scotland and that we may live together as Brethren ought to doe let those of that Kirk who are yet so zealous for their Covenant that they would have it forc'd upon their Soverain the people of this Kingdom as if it were the very foundation of Christian Religion and as necessary as the Gospel it selfe Let them be pleased to consider calmely and seriously how little of Gods blessing both they and we have had since the first birth of it how the Reformation so much talked on hath been obstructed How the Protestant profession formerly planted hath been defaced How the Enemy of that and mankinde hath sowen the tares of false Doctrine since to promote the Covenant so many of the Clergy have omitted to walke in those wayes of peace humility and obedience which Gods word prescribeth How much contention and bloodshed hath been caused how many Sects and Heresies have sprung up How much blasphemy hath been vented what strange perversenesse of spirit and unreverent language hath been used against Soveraigne Majesty what little manners hath been shewne unto superiors what occasions sought to quarrel with them what catching at their words what wresting and mis-interpreting of their writings and sayings and all as hath appeared out of zeal unto the Covenant O that they would please to consider of these things and withall to remember that Christianity commands morality and to give to every men his due fear to whom fear and honour to whom honour belongeth it requires singlenesse of heart injoynes to us deny our selves to please others that they would hereupon desist to pursue with such heat their owne fancy they knowing it to be point-blanke against an Act of their Parliament 1585. which utterly prohibits all Leagues Covenants or bands whatsoever without the Kings consent And that they would also take notice how inconsistent their said Covenant is with the constitution and temper of this our Kingdome How 't is not only broken but derided and scorned at now by many of those who were at first very furious for it In a word that they would beleeve the English Nation in generall doth as little like of what is put upon them by the Scots as the Scots did of what was sent unto them from the English to speake plainly and truely we have generally as little affection to their Covenant as they had when time was to our Booke of Common-Prayer and shall as ill digest it Nor indeed are the English Nobility and Gentry so weake spirited as those of Scotland may appear to be in letting their Clergy the chief promoters of the Covenant under pretence of that to act the Pope among them by obstructing the progresse of Civill affaires and meddling in State matters Should our Church-men as those there have lately done put in bars against the Kings settling or say that themselves must have satisfaction before the King be restored to the exercise of His Regall power with what disdaine would our right Nobility and true Gentry yea and well instructed Commonalty too receive the same they would reply upon them in this sort and say what warrant have you from Gods word to speake after this manner you that should by your office and Ministry be teachers and patterns to all of humility and obedience will you Lord it and that not onely over Gods flock but over his Shepheard too his Supreame of all must not He injoy His owne right His place His Inheritance nor exercise that power which God hath committed to Him without your leave much lesse shall any of us shortly that are inferiour to Him command over our owne possessions without your allowance if we listen to you in this thing surely you take too much upon you ye sons of Levi they are the Kings of the Earth saies your Master Christ that are to exercise Authority over men and by your favour over the Clergy too and not the Clergy over Kings if you are for that sport goe pack to Rome among your fellows Thus should we in England be answered and put off with due rebukes if we should be so drawne away from Scripture and from duty by a Scotish Covenant And therefore it would be good if those in that Kingdome who are still such zelots for it would please in coole blood to consider of it and according to the Apostles councell study quietnesse minde their owne businesse and as Solomon adviseth leane no more to their owne understanding Idolize no longer their own devices press no further their own inventions rather let them and we as becomes members of one Christ and Subjects of one King conjoyne first in restoring our Soveraigne to His Throne and power and then in begging of Him that a Generall Councell or Assembly may be call'd of the most Learned peaceable and grave men in all his Kingdomes to argue with meeknesse as becomes the Gospel the cases of difference that are amongst us And to their determinations ratified by the King let us all submit with ready hearts and humble minds So shall the lustre and Honour of our Protestant profession be recovered which by these unhappy jars hath been defaced the peace of many Consciences shall be setled Sects Heresies and False Doctrines shall be suppressed tranquility light and love shall be again restored to the people of both Nations And we if we are the happy instruments of this shall hereby increase our Comfort Crowne and Glory Now the God of all Grace poure upon us all his Spirit of Grace to worke up our Spirits to an holy frame and Christian temper Amen Amen FINIS The Earles of Dorset and Southampton
appearance against them His Armies being for most part of the time disbanded and His Townes and Garrisons resigned In a word we shall present to the worlds review onely those Messages for Peace sent from his Majesty in these two last years since a little before He laied down His Sword and ceased from Action against them whereby it will be manifest enough what little cause they have to speak as they doe in Commendation of themselves and their owne good natures or to suggest of the King as if He were so unperswadable to this very day that neither their owne sighs and groans and tears will incline Him to be quiet nor the crying bloud of Fathers Brothers Children and of many Hundred thousand free-born Subjects in three great Kingdomes can prevail with him to desist from Cruelty and destruction And then after this we shall desire to see what Evidence themselves can alleage for what they have said we shall wish they would produce the strong reasons they have used to shew those Humble addresses which they have made and doe so much boast of that they would let us Hear some or their self-denying streins affectionate expressions or devout Petitions which as they infer have so respectfully and tenderly flowed from them so often and so long that thereby the world to whom they appeal may Judge in this case betwixt their King and them which if they are not able to doe no question but what they have voted of Him will be generally concluded of them viz. that they are worthy to be interdicted all Humane society to have no more Messages sent or offers made unto them nor any request or Petitions hereafter received from them And that the King should say to them as God doth to such as they Because I have called and ye refused I have stretched out my hands and no man regarded but have set at nought all my Councels and slighted all my motions therefore when your fear commeth as Desolation and your Destruction as a whirlewind when distresse and anguish is upon you then you shall call unto me but I will not answer you shall seek mercy from me but you shall not find it you shall eat the fruit of your owne waies and be filled with your owne devises As you have done so shall it be done unto you His Majesties most Gracious Messages for Peace sent to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster since the 5. of Dec. 1645. His Majesties first Message CHARLES R. HIs Majesty being deeply sensible of the Continuation of this bloody and unnaturall Warre cannot think Himself discharg'd of the duty He owes to God or the affection and regard He hath to the preservation of His People without the constant application of His earnest endeavours to finde some expedient for the speedy ending of these unhappy distractions if that may be doth therefore desire That a Safe Conduct may be forthwith sent for the Duke of Richmond the Earle of Southampton Iohn Ashburnham and Ieffery Palmer Esquires and their Attendants with Coaches Horses and other Accommodations for their Journey to Westminster during their stay there and return when they shall think fit Whom His Majesty intends to send to the Lords Commons assembled in the Parliament of England at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland furnished with such Propositions as His Majesty is confident will be the Foundation of a happy and well-grounded Peace Given at the Court at Oxford the 5. of Decem. 1645. For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore THis Message being received a Letter was sent thereupon from the Speakers of both Houses to Sir Thomas Glemham the then Governour of Oxford promising an Answer to it with all convenient speed which His Majesty expected with silence accordingly ten dayes and then solicites them again for the same thing which He had done before as followeth His Majesties second Message CHARLES R. HIs Majesty cannot but extremely wonder that after so many Expressions on your part of a deep and seeming sense of the miseries of this afflicted Kingdome and of the dangers incident to His Person during the continuance of this unnaturall War your many great and so often repeated Protestations that the raising of these Arms hath been onely for the necessary defence of Gods true Religion His Majesties Honour Safety and Prosperity the Peace Comfort and Security of His People you should delay a Safe Conduct to the persons mentioned in His Majesties Message of the fifth of this instant December which are to be sent unto you with Propositions for a well-grounded Peace A thing so far from having been denyed at any times by His Majesty whensoever you have desired the same that He believes it hath been seldome if ever practiced among the most avowed and professed enemies much lesse from Subjects to their King But His Majesty is resolved that no discouragements whatsoever shall make Him faile of His part in doing His uttermost endeavours to put an end to these Calamities which if not in time prevented must prove the ruine of this unhappy Nation And therefore doth once againe desire That a safe Conduct may be forthwith sent for those persons expressed in His former Message and doth therefore Conjure you as you will answer to Almighty God in that day when he shal make inquisition for all the Bloud that hath and may yet be spilt in this unnaturall War as you tender the preservation and establishment of the true Religion by all the Bonds of Duty and Allegiance to your King or compassion to your bleeding and unhappy Country and of Charity to your selves that you dispose your hearts to a true sense and imploy all your faculties in a more serious endevour together with His Majesty to set a speedy end to these wasting Divisions and then He shall not doubt but that God will yet again give the blessing of Peace to this distracted Kingdom Given at the Court at Oxford the 15. of December 1645. For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore THis Message seconding the former spake as many others had done His Majesties earnestnesse for Peace and how much affected He was with his peoples miseries in the want of it but 't is thought meet by them to whom 't is sent to make His Heart more sicke by delaying His hopes and therefore neglecting their owne promise of returning an Answer with all convenient speed they cause him to wait ten daies longer at the end of which time they seemed as far from remembering either Him or themselves as at the beginning which His Majesty observing and withall conceiving this unwillingnes in them to admit of Peace might be for that He had motioned to send it by others apprehended because they had in pretence at least fought so long to injoy His presence that if himself should carry it they would undoubtedly both imbrace that and reverence Him and thereupon offers to go unto them and to Treat personally