the Turks Alchoran or else from among the Savage Heathens in New England for no Protestant no true Christian nor no Parliament before this did ever allow or connive at it much lesse urge or alleage it to warrant themselves in the practice of it But we cannot passe by without observation how they prove their fore-mentioned Charge against the Scots in the same page Some of these very Commissioners say they were amongst the forwardest to ingage the Kingdoms in a joynt War upon the Principles fore-named viz. to exercise the Legislative power and Militia without and against the Kings consent also in Oaths and Covenants to be imposed on both Kingdoms in Taxes to raise Mony upon them taking away the Book of Common Prayer and establishing the Directory instead thereof and in divers other things wherein the highest exercise of the Legislative power doth consist These be their Arguments whereby they speak themselves to be as bad Logitians as they are Christians Their doings since they began are alleaged as Reasons to prove why they began and their unjust Actions in their progresse are made the grounds and warrants of and for their ungodly undertaking But did any of those Oaths and Covenants which were imposed on both or either of the Kingdoms mention the cause of the war or of peoples ingagement to be for to take the Legislative power and the Militia totally from the King and to have it exercised without and against His consent if any such matters had been expressed we are very confident they would have had but few either English or Scots joyning in Covenant with them or lending their Assistance But in pag. 66. of the same Declaration they would fain suggest that though there be no Reason yet there is some likelyhood of Reasonablenesse in this their injustice and wrongfull dealings in taking the Legislative Power and Militia from the King for they argue thus It is much more likely say they that a King should be mistaken then the Great Councell of the Kingdom and that a King should stop that which is for the good of the whole Kingdome then that the whole Kingdome represented in Parliament should desire what should be for their own hurt And 't is much more likely that a King should make use of one of His Kingdoms to oppresse another that He might make Himself absolute over all if He hath the Militia and Power in His hand then that He should with the same hinder one Kingdome to wrong another or all the Subjects of a Kingdome to wrong themselves We do very well remember that many of us the Common people of England were befooled with these their likelyhoods at the beginning for they used these very expressions then unto us but we can now answer them from our own experience better then we could at that time do and we say 't is much more certain that a King hath been is and will be much more tender of the bloud of His Subjects much more indulgent of the wealth of His people much more carefull to maintain and preserve them in their Rights and to keep them from oppressing one another then those are or have been who now call themselves the Great Councell of the Kingdome We are sure there are more of a Parents bowels in Him for we have felt them then there is of Brotherly affection in them towards us which we have had some feeling of too though to our grief and sorrow And therefore we can and must conclude that the Subjects are far more happy every way and free from being oppressed by one another under the fatherly Government of a King then under the tyranous usurpation of fellow-subjects for we now remember that God hath promised in express words to guide the King so that his lips shall not transgresse in Iudgment but we find no such promise made to a Parliament that resolves to act without and against their Kings consent we know that Scripture saith the Kings heart is in Gods hand and from thence we now believe it was that His Government was so just and gentle but the Actions and behaviours of these men hath fully perswaded us that their Hearts be in the Devils hand whereby it hath come to passe that their purposes and their practices have been so bloudy so mischievous and so destructive And yet these men supposing as it seems that we are all as bruit Beasts in respect of themselves having no understanding at all but must submit still to be held in with their Bits and Bridles do declare that the Militia is the foundation of security to them and to their posterity as if we were all bound to believe and had reason for it that their blessed selves and their precious posterity were rather to be secured and preserved thereby then the King and His and in page 70. they argue as Rabsaketh did from their successe that God favoured their unrighteous doings and was even such another as themselves directly of their opinion the dispute say they concerning the Militia hath been long and sadly debated both in black and red letters but God himself hath now given the verdict on our side And in the very same place they tell all us English-men as if the Militia had never yet been in His Majesties hand or we had quite forgotten our freedome happinesse and prosperity under Kingly Government that our Magna Charta our Courts of Iustice our High Court of Parliament it self our Lives Liberties and Estates that we are not all at the will of one man that the King cannot make Laws nor raise Monies without consent of Parliament and that all Offenders may be punished in Courts of Iustice all this say they signifies nothing at all to us if the Militia by Sea and Land be in the King alone we are all absolute slaves and by so much in a worse Condition because we think our selves at Liberty All this of theirs doth but shew us what opinion they have of us for our giving so much credit to them heretofore But truly we shall deserve to be their absolute slaves for ever as they would have us and to be branded to all posterity for absolute fools too and for the rankest Cowards that ever were if this their Language were there nothing else should not fill us up with high disdain against them and make us resolve never to desist till we have made them know both themselves and us better And to awaken our spirits more yet let us hear what they say further in the same place to our conceived simplicities How ridiculous say they are those Laws which may be violated by force and by force not be defended who hath violated our Laws by force but themselves and who hath been the defender of them but the King whose Laws they are And what a mock Authority say they is that of Courts of Iustice and of the High Court of Parliament it self if it be not accompanied with the power of the sword when by
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
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
those of His Judgment should be Pressed to a violation of theirs Nor can His Majesty consent to the Alienation of Church Lands because it cannot be denied to be a sin of the highest Sacriledge as also that it subverts the intentions of so many pious Donors who have laid a heavy curse upon all such profane violations which His Majesty is very unwilling to undergoe And besides the matter of Conscience His Majesty believes it to be a prejudice to the Publike good many of His Subjects having the benefit of renuing Leases at much easier Rates then if those possessions were in the hands of private men not omitting the discouragement which it will be to all learning and industry when such eminent rewards shal be taken away which now lie open to the Children of meanest Persons Yet His Majesty considering the great present distempers concerning Church Discipline and that the Presbyterian Government is now in practice His Majesty to eschew confusion as much as may be and for the satisfaction of His two Houses is content that the said Government be legally permitted to stand in the same condition it now is for three years Provided that His Majesty and those of His Judgment or any other who cannot in Conscience submit thereunto be not obliged to comply with the Presbyter all Government but have free practice of their own Profession without receiving any prejudice thereby and that a free consultation and debate be had with the Divines at Westminster twenty of His Majesties nomination being added unto them whereby it may be determined by His Majesty and the two Houses how the Church Government after the said time shall be setled or sooner if differences may be agreed as is most agreeable to the Word of God with full liberty to all those who shall differ upon consciencious grounds from that setlement alwaies provided that nothing aforesaid be understood to tolerate those of the Popish Profession nor the exempting of any Popish Recusant from the penalties of the Laws or to tolerate the publike profession of Atheisme or Blaspemy contrary to the doctrine of the Apostles Nicene and Athanasian Creeds they having been received by and had in reverence of all the Christian Churches and more particularly by this of England ever since the Reformation Next the Militia being that right which is inseparably and undoubtedly inherent in the Crown by the Laws of this Nation and that which former Parliaments as likewise this hath acknowledged so to be His Majesty cannot so much wrong that trust which the Laws of God and this Land hath annexed to the Crown for the protection and security of his People as to divest Himself and Successours of the power of the Sword yet to give an infallible evidence of His desire to secure the performance of such agreements as shall be made in order to a Peace his Majesty wil consent to an Act of Parliament that the whole power of the Militia both by Sea and Land for and during his whole Reign shall be ordered and disposed by his two Houses of Parliament or by such persons as they shall appoint with powers limited for suppressing of Forces within this Kingdom to the disturbance of the publike Peace and against forraigne Invasion and that they shall have power during his said Reigne to raise Monies for the purposes aforesaid and that neither his Majesty that now is or any other by any authority derived only from him shall execute any of the said Powers during his Majesties said Reigne but such as shall act by the consent and approbation of the two Houses of Parliament Neverthelesse his Majesty intends that all Patents Commissions and other Acts concerning the Militia be made and acted as formerly and that after his Majesties Reign all the power of the Militia shall return entirely to the Crown as it was in the times of Q. Elizabeth and K. Iames of blessed memory After this head of the Militia the consideration of the Arrears due to the Army is not improper to follow for the payment whereof and the ease of his People his Majesty is willing to concur in any thing that can be done without the violation of his Conscience and Honour Wherefore if his two Houses shall consent to remit unto him such benefit out of Sequestations from Michaelmas last and out of Compositions that shall be made before the concluding of the peace and the Arrears of such as have been already made the assistance of the Clergy and the Arrears of such Rents of his own Revenue as his two Houses shall not have received before the concluding of the Peace his Majesty will undertake within the space of eighteen Months the payment of four hundred thousand pounds for the satisfaction of the Army And if those means shall not be sufficient his Majesty intends to give way to the sale of Forrest Lands for that purpose this being the Publike Debt which in his Majesties judgment is first to be satisfied and for other publike debts already contracted upon Church Lands or any other Ingagements his Majesty will give his consent to such Act or Acts for raising of Monies for payment thereof as both Houses shall hereafter agree upon so as they be equally laid whereby his people already too heavily burthened by these late distempers may have no more pressures upon them then this absolute necessity requires And for the further securing of all fears his Majesty will consent that an Act of Parliament be passed for the disposing of the great Offices of State and naming of Privy Counsellours for the whole terme of his Raigne by the two Houses of Parliament their Patents and Commissions being taken from his Majesty and after to return to the Crown as is exprest in the Article of the Militia For the Court of Wards and â—iveries his Majesty very well knows the consequence of taking that away by turning of all Tenures into common Soccage as well in point of Revenue to the Crown as in the Protection of many of his Subjects being Infants Neverthelesse if the continuance thereof seem grievous to His Subjects rather then he will fail on His part in giving satisfaction He will consent to an Act for taking of it away so as a full recompence be setled upon His Majesty and his Successours in perpetuity and that the Arrears now due be reserved unto Him towards the payment of the Arrears of the Army And that the memory of these late distractions may be wholly wiped away His Majesty will consent to an Act of Parliament for the suppressing and making null of all Oaths Declarations and Proclamations against both or either House of Parliament and of all Indictments and other proceedings against any persons for adhering unto them and His Majesty proposeth as the best expedient to take away all seeds of future differences that there be an Act of Oblivion to extend to all His Subjects As for Ireland the Cessation there is long since determined but for the future
away of Clergie maintenance the renewment of which might in prudence have been omitted by the pretenders to Christianity of these dayes for Iulians sake These be the two things which His Majesty denyes His consent unto Abolition of Church Government and Alienation of Church Revenues and his Reasons for the same are far better then any we know he can have for his yeelding those things which he offers to them whereof the first is the power of the Militia both by sea and land during his owne whole raigne which he is content shall be ordered and disposed of by His two Houses and such as they shall appoint And his Reason for this is to give an infallible evidence of His desire to secure the performance of such agreement as shall be made in order to Peace Whereby His Majesty seemes to us to speak in their phrase even to yeeld up not onely His Will and Affections but also His very Reason and Iudgement for the obtaining a good Accommodation But concerning the reality of His Majesties Desires in this particular the best of His people neither wish nor need any such evidence the security is onely doubted and desired on their parts whom we have seen and found so false and perfidious already both to the King and the whole Kingdome Nor if it were possible this proffer of His Maj. could secure us of them dare we the Christian people of this Nation whose servants they are give our consent that the Sword should be out of that Hand where God hath put it for our good for Nolumus hos regnare we are resolved on that we will never live under the tyrannie of these men The Wise-man hath said it and we have found it by wofull experience That by the raigne of servants the earth is disquieted But God hath been much our friend in this matter in hardning their hearts against this proffer which in pity to us his peeled and distressed people to purchase peace for us this our most compassionate and self-denying King was pleased to tender and we are with fervour of spirit to praise the Majesty of heaven for it it being an earnest or ground of hope that he hath yet some mercy in store for this poore Nation that He will not suffer it to lie under so heavy a guilt as the impunity of so much evill would be hazardous to bring upon it by an Act of Oblivion No no our God will have these mischievous vermine destroyed by the sword of Justice as we hope and not of Judgement and so shall the curse of God which hangs over the Land for those many blasphâ—mies against Majesty those unlawfull oathes those bloods and oppressions which have been committed in it by these men be removed from it and then the same shall enjoy rest and peace againe under the protection of her most gracious and indulgent Soveraigne And in the mean time we are to pray fervently that this our good King may still afford us his true affections and these onely but may from henceforth keep his Will his Reason and Iudgement solely to himselfe yea and his power too for we are well assured from our experience both of Him and Them that He alone is able and ready to manage all to our benefit a great deale better then any else either will or can And God we hope will encline His Majesties heart to observe his hand in this constant temper of their spirits hitherto against all His gracious offers of this nature We observe also in the next place how His Majesty takes into consideration the Arreares of their Army or the wants of those Soldiers which they the raisers of were more carefull to list then they are to pay their servants we know they were raised and imployed by them against Him and now kept together in a needy bare condition to burden His people and to keep them in continuall feare poverty and bondage even this very Army for their satisfaction and His peoples ease His Majesty offers to take care of He thinks in conscience that pay is due unto them and though they merit it not at His hands yet being resolved in His mercy and goodnesse as a Christian to pardon their fault He will like a King also in His bounty and Honor undertake their payment which none else he sees is really inclined to look after And this He will doe without any charge to any save onely to Himselfe and His owne friends May He but have His own Rents and Revenues returned to Him with some few of the Arreares together with some little part of that money which they had gotten by Sequestrations and Compositions from His owne party He will undertake that the Army in few moneths shall receive foure hundred thousand pounds and if that be not sufficient He will make up the rest by the sale of His owne Lands Nay and more then all this lest the devouring of that which is Holy should prove a snare and a fire to the greedy and bold adventurers His Majesty is willing also to take order against the damage of such persons and for the repayment of all such monies as have by them been lent upon such ingagements Nor is here all yet His Majesty is willing to endevour the reparation of His Enemies lost reputations by suppressing and nulling all Declarations and Protestations which their own due merits had most justly called forth against them and all proceedings anent any person for adhering to them And now what could these men in the judgment of Reason have desired more then was here tendred they might have had the Authority the whole command and power of the Militia they might have possessed all the wealth to themselves which they had before or have gotten lately from the whole Kingdom His Majesty would have taken the whole care of paying their debts and their Servants wages He would have wiped them also as clean as possibly He could have done from their black and hellish crimes of Rebellion oppression bloud and Treason And He would have granted further what ever else they could have asked in order to their own quiet and security would they but onely let Him come to Treat with them and suffer His poore people now at length to enjoy an ease from war and a freedom from their heavy pressures Assuredly we may conceive those words of the Prophet 2 Chr. 25.16 to be fully appliable to these men God hath even determined to destroy them because they have not hearkned to this counsell nor accepted of what was here offered to them Scripture teacheth that whom God purposeth to make the power of his justice seen upon he infatuates to slight and lose the opportunities of their own preservation Elyes sons hearkned not unto the voice of their Father because the Lord would slay them saies the Spirit God did not incline their hearts to listen unto good because he intended to cut them off for their evils And such may be thought is the
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
full power to act even as if He had been personally there but if He were suffered to be absent He would doubtlesse in His naturall Capacity be very mischievous to the Kingdome having such ill Councellours about Him as they said He had and such damned Cavaliers who as their preachers taught us to beleeve for good Doctrine were as bad as devills and whose very shape and faces the Lord in his judgement had already so altered that they did not now look like men as formerly but like strange horrid monsters So that God having set a visible mark of His vengeance upon them as He did on Cain our duty was and we were bound in Conscience to pursue them as Reprobates and as men cursed of God unlesse our selves would runne the hazard of that bitter Curse which was layed upon the Inhabitants of Meroz because they did not help the Lord against the Mighty After this manner they seduced us and led us too many of us to think ill of the King and of those that were Conscientious and faithfull unto Him Having thus consorted themselves with His Majesty in the Empire by their incroaching on His Authority and thus gulled us by this device of His Politick and naturall Capacity as if being arm'd or Authorized by the one we might destroy him in the other Which distinction we now understand since the returne of Reason to us to be but a meer vaporous Fancy a grosse Bull a very absurd Juggle invented by state Empericks to cheat silly people into disorder and disobedience And we are confident if we shall now goe about to pay them the interest of this their distinction and make it good upon themselves as indeed we ought to endeavour for in such a case onely it may goe for currant themselves would be directly of our opinion Should we but tell them that we consider of them two wayes in a Politick and in a Naturall capacity As they are in the first we honour and worship them we love them and regard them as they are members of the Body Politick Representative but by their favours in their naturall Capacity as they are men we intend to order and handle them as Rebels Traytors parricides fratricides thieves and murderers use to be dealt withall even according to Law and Justice and the due desert of their owne merits let them aske their own hearts whether in such a case and at such a time they will readily approve of it But hereby as we were saying they began to raise Forces in the name of King and Parliament and under that stile or rather Contradiction Commissions are issued Souldiers are levied and Taxes of divers sorts and unheard-of names imposed upon us the Kings Subjects to fight against and oppresse our King as we now perceive and to take His Regall power directly from Him for they are not ashamed now to publish in plain English before all the world that this Warre was undertaken to wrest the Militia and Legislative power from the King and His Posterity In the 64. pag. of their late Declaration against the Scots or concerning the Papers of the Scots Commissioners their words to this purpose are these The Kingdome of Scotland say they ingaged wiâ—h us in this war upon these Principles viz. for to have the Legislative power and the exercise of the Militia without and against the Kings consent If the Kingdome of Scotland did engage with them on these terms and for these ends as they now tell us yet we are confident that the people of England were better instructed then to do so for they had not so learned Christ who commands to give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and not to take them away from Him We were here told of no other causes of the war then to maintain Protestant Religion established in this Church to defend the Kings Person Honour and Estate and to free Him from ill Counsellours and to preserve the Priviledges of Parliament the Laws of the Land and Liberties of the Subject and to bring Delinquents to punishment all which we were assured and that from the Pulpit too as well as from the Parliament and the Presse were lawfull causes for a War though now we see how we were abused in that also for Christian verity gives warrant to none of them unlesse withall we have the call and allowance of the Supream Authority Yea and besides how many times did these Declarers protest before all the world that it was not in their thoughts to loosen the reines of Government or to diminish any of the Kings rights no we professe said they in the sight of Almighty God which is the strongest obligation of a Christian c. that no ill Affection to His Majesties Person no designe to the prejudice of His just Honour and Authority ingaged us to raise Forces and to take up Armes And again We professe from our very hearts and souls our Loyalty and Obedience to His Crown our readinesse and resolution to defend His Person and support His estate with our lives and fortunes to the uttermost of our powers And again oftentimes God deal so by them as they intended to make Him terrible to His Enemies abroad and glorious among His friends at home c. And yet now they tell the world after all this that they ingaged at the very first in this War to have the Legislative power and the exercise of the Militia without and against the Kings consent and they say the Scots ingaged with them herein which we scarce believe for we know the Scots are too politick and wise a Nation then not to foresee their own damage if the Legislative power and the Militia of this Kingdome should be wrested out of the hands of the King their Country-man and Soveraign and put solely into the hands of those who have no such relations or Affections to them And beside the Scots Commissioners had said as these their opposers do alleage in the same page that they were obliged by their Covenant Allegiance and Duty of Subjects not to diminish but to support the Kings just Power and Greatnesse and therefore we have reason to believe they did not intend the Contrary at the beginning and the rather because these men say they did whom we never yet found true in any thing Indeed in Answer to that of the Scots Commissioners they affirm though without proof or reason that the King Contrary to His Oath had diminished the just Priviledges of Parliament and Liberties of the Subjects and how say they can He that breaks down the hedge complain of incroachment upon His severall so that the Kings pretended incroachment on them is now become a warrant for them to incroach really upon Him and to take away all His Kingly power from Him only because by their own sole testimony He had made a diminution of somewhat that belonged to them This is good Parliament Divinity as the world goes in these daies fetched sure out of
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
aut ruet mundus if Justice be not done in such a case the whole world it selfe as may appear by the present temper of this Kingdome will fall to ruine presently As in a Family if the Master or Father abuse his Authority no Child or Servant of right can lift up an Hand against him but if a Child or Servant shall take upon him to domineere over all his fellowes and to abuse his Parent or Master all the rest ought and will if wise rise up against him and help their oppressed Governour to his power and place again So 't is and doubtlesse so it ought to be in a Kingdome A Kings ill usage or restraint is a full warrant and commission to all His Subjects to Arme themselves for His liberty and restoration the power is never in the peoples hand save in such a case but then they are all to advance as one man in the behalf of their common Father and to take those lawlesse Wolves and Beares they are Buchanans words who have no more right of authority over any without their Soveraignes leave much lesse over Himselfe then vermine have such as Weasels and Polcats are over Hens and Chickens yea and untill the people doe so rise they are undoubtedly not onely under the usurpers danger but also under Gods heavy curse Curse ye Meroz said the Angel of the Lord curse ye with a bitter curse the inhabitants thereof because they came not to help the Lord i. e. the Captaine of the Lord the Anointed of the Lord the Supreme Judge and Magistrate under the Lord Against the mighty that is against those sturdy and rebellious Canaanites who were growne so mighty by that strength of Militia and Chariots of Iron which they had gotten and did so mightily oppresse Israel under whom they ought to have lived in obedience That Scripture you all know hath been much used of late and as much abused but t is never truly applyable save in such a case as this in present is for the Captaine of the Lord is now in as much yea in more distresse then at that time His people under as great oppressions and the enemies as very Canaanites as those were as much the children of Malediction if not more for those were under the curse partly for Cham their fathers sin but these are solely for their owne which hath been not onely of the same kind as His was mocking and scorning at their Father but acted with more impudency and vilenesse a great deale for C ham found his father naked but these have endeavoured by this their cursed Declaration many others of like sort to make theirs appear so yea they have proclaimed him naked when he was not in a most shameless manner they have shewn their owne nakednesse then published it to be their Fathers and that not only to their Brethren as He did whose piety and modesty was apt to hide and cover the same whose ere it was but to the whole world to strangers to enemies that would be ready to credit the same and glad to divulge it farther to their Fathers defamation which was the very thing they aimed at therefore these evill workers are more the people of Gods curse then those Canaanites were nor had those provoked Gods wrath so much as these have done by their breaches of so many oathes and protestations of Loyalty and Obedience nor had they practiced more injustice and oppression therefore if they were designed to be subdued and pulled downe from their usurped greatnesse much rather may we beleeve that these are and if Meroz was lyable to so sharp a doome for not helping the Lord against them then well may we feare a like portion if we be backward in our assistance to the downfall of these men For are not these Gods enemies as well as any nay more then any Did true Religion ever receive such disgrace and scandall as these have offered to it Did this famous Kingdom ever produce such monsters of Nature before now Surely the Kings of the earth and the Inhabitants of the world would never have believed if these had not been to evidence the same that the English Nation could ever have bred such Vipers or that among Protestant Christians there should possibly have been such Malignant adversaries unto Piety and Princes Take courage therefore you may against them all ye who in Christs name and the Kings behalfe shall oppose them for their high and great wickednesse against God speaks them out of his protection as also doth their confidence in the Arme of flesh For in very deed they make not God their strength what ever is pretented nor ever did but the Militia rather for which they have contested that is their Magazine of Hope and Tower of Safety their trust is and hath been in the multitude of their Weapons their Armies of Men their numerous Associations and their plenty of ill gotten Riches wherewith they have and think still to bribe and buy off those whom by force and power they cannot master And these be the sparkes which they have kindled and compasse themselves about withall These be the very fires they rejoyce in the stayes they rest upon but sayes the Lord to such as they are that do as they do This shall ye have of my Hand ye shall lie down in sorrow Isay 50.11 And do we not daily see the things that are comming upon them making hast Are not their Hearts unjoynted from one another Is not their Kingdome divided their Associations broken Are not they that were girded fastest to them fallen from them How loudly do all persons every where cry out upon them How generally odious are they become of late who were before so much adored How much greater now among all men is the Hatred of them then the fear Who lookes not upon them as the people of Gods Curse as the very poyson and pestes of the Kingdome who beleeves not that divine vengeance hangs over the Land while they walke at liberty in it see see and consider it well how spider-like they have been catch'd in their own nets and snared in the work of their own Hands How have they befooled themselves in their owne doings How hath their scandalous Declaration against the King raised plenty of fewd in mens hearts against themselves hath not all their filthy some spit out therein against Him flew wholly back into their owne faces is not His Majesty become thereby more deare and precious to His people and themselves far more detestable are their solemne Orders or Ordinances entertained with any more respect now then scorne it selfe can afford them do not most men as slightly receive whatever comes from them as themselves have done the Kings Messages And whence now is all this who hath effected and brought to passe these things hath not the Lord and do they not plainly speake the approaching end of these men or of their greatnesse and prosperity are not all these
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
sorrow like unto his sorrow for such a cause Were there ever wrongs like unto these that are done unto our King because He will not consent to the utter undoing of us his people Assuredly never was people more wretched and accursed then we shall be and that meritoriously both of God and Men if we suffer this and doe not stand up and appeare for His deliverance For what are these men that thus tyrannize over our Soveraign and over us are they not his vassals and our fellowes nay our servâ—nts entrusted by us to manifest and present the tenders of our duty and reverence unto him and doth it not concerne us therefore to bring them to correction as the case now stands with the King for these their grosse enormities will not their impieties and exorbitancies else be laid to our charge Nay doe they not in their impudencie act all their wickednesses in our names would they not have their late defamatory Libell to be understood as the expression of our senses Doe they not call it The Declaration of the Commons scil of England as if we at least gave allowance to it or set them a work to make it When as God and our consciences doe beare us witnesse we loathe it with our very soules as the most horrid heap of the most shamelesse lies blasphemies and slanders that ever was spued up against Majesty and Innocencie by men or devils since the first Creation Nay have they not since their publication of it tempted and provoked many of the ignorant of us in divers Countries to set our Hands to Papers coyned by themselves of Gratulations to themselves for venting the same and for making those their wicked Votes against our Soveraigne the Lords Anointed Doe they not hereby plainly endeavour Satan-like to involve our soules in their owne guilt and to plunge them for ever in the same pit of damnation with themselves As if it were not enough that they have already wasted us all in our estates and wounded the consciences of too many of us by ingaging us through their false pretences of Religion Liberty and Previlege of Parliament to associate with them in this unnaturall War unlesse they doe this also And have they not menaced others of us because we refused to approve of this their late most abominable wickednesse and went about rather to move for His Majesties Liberty and restoration Have they not threatned to plunder and sequester us of all we have yet remaining if we proceeded to make any motions or requests to that purpose as if they had a spight and malice at Almighty God himselfe for opening our eyes at length and bringing us out of that darknesse wherein they had shut us and hoped alwayes to keep us and for his touching our hearts with remorse and sorrow for our former complyance with them as if also we must never dare to speak more but onely such words as they shall suggest and put into our mouthes nor to set our hands unto any thing but what they forsooth shall frame and dictate to us And is this the Freedome of the Subject so much cryed up Is this the Liberty which the people of England have so fought for Is this our so flourishing state of happinesse which was promised by our blessed Reformers Serò sapiunt phryges fooles may grow wise at length and so from henceforth shall we for ever following them any farther or being guided by them any more who by their glorious professions and protestations have seduced us already so far from the wayes of God We cannot but call to mind the proceedings of this Palliament or of this Thing which so calls it selfe being in very deed but a corrupt faction in it How at first they framed a Protestation Generall for the matter of it good we still confesse and acknowledge but the deep subtilty and intrige of it was not then apparent to us But now we consider how they did without the Kings sanction and ratification little lesse then impose it upon the whole Kingdome whereby they slily crept into a kind of unexampled authority no way belonging to them which they cunningly masked under the specious pretences of pious respects to the Protestant Religion Loyall regards to His Majesties Person and Dignity and of their serious care of the Priviledges of Parliament Properties and Liberties of the Subject no one of which as we now see by their actions was ever in their thoughts to preserve for their whole endeavours have since been and stil are to destroy and suppresse all these but hereby at first they catch'd us in their net and carryed us downe the streame with them And having thus surprised us Jealousies and Fears presently began to surprise them which also the whole Kingdome must be sensible of as if all the things to be defended by the Protestation were in some eminent danger of sodaine destruction to prevent which a Petition is framed in all haste by themselves and sent downe into all Countries to be subscribed there and sent back as the unanimous desire of the whole Kingdome that Bishops and Popish Lords who must be apprehended the conjoynt and deadly enemies to all good things contained in the Protestation might be put out of Parliament that the Kingdome might be put into a posture of defence or war against them and their Complices and the better to colour and credit the businesse we must desire in the same Petition to have a monethly fast Authorized And we well remember there was care taken at that very time lest this mistery of Iniquity that was in working should be discovered to us that the Learned Seers or watchmen of God who were most likely to to make it known should be exposed to scorne and contempt under the name of Prelaticall Scandalous and Malignant Clergie that so their Testimonies might be of no esteeme with us and a generation of men full of ignorance covetousnesse or discontents were countenanced and advanced over us as fitly instrumentall and subservient to the designe on foot which now we finde was only to ruine our King and us The Consequents of this Petition appeared soon after to be these 1. An alteration or change of military Officers the Train-Bands being committed into the hands onely of such as were called Confiding men 2. The appointment of a Guard to defend our worthies of Parliament as they were entitled And 3. An exposall of the Kings Person and Government to all possible danger and disgrace And that 1. By a most scandalous Remonstrance wherein the sins of themselves and others who had been His ill Officers were all layed to His Charge 2. By setting the Tumultuous People upon Him to drive Him from Westminster And then 3. By raising an Army to fetch Him back again as was pretended though in very deed we finde now it was to destroy Him rather We remember how they told us then that the King was amongst them in His politick Capacity whereby they had
further in the sequele of their Declaration sith their modesty and truth is such in the first page of it Assuredly you cannot that conclude but this of theirs is the most groundlesse shamelesse malicious and impudent slander that ever was printed by such an Authority as is pretended against such a Person And a Lye pardon that Scotch word so grosse and so thick that like the darkenesse of Aegypt it may be felt O consider well of it you the Subjects of this Kingdome and rouze up your selves at length in the behalf of your Soveraign and of your selves remember the Honour and dignity of your forefathers the wisdome and valour that made them so famous and so feared O where where is the Auncient Gallantry of this Noble Nation where is that life courage that was wont to kindle and flame in English-men when they saw themselves esteemed simple and contemned as base and vile what is it all dead and buried in snow and cold Ashes shall it be thought that no sparks of it are yet remaining in your natures will you suffer servants alwaies to rule over you to inslave and inthrall both you and your King awake for shame or else for ever worthy to be despised and look about you bethink at length what you have to do Was ever Nation so gull'd as you have been so orereach'd by Cheaters did ever any who caried in their breasts the spirits of men delight to be so abused by their fellows to be made fools used like Asses and so accounted and will you affect it shall they who triumph over you think you alwaies Children without understanding surely had they not believed you as full of weaknesse still as themselves are of wickednesse they would not with that boldnesse have imagined to flam you off with so base a Narrative against your Soveraigne as if thereby they had given a satisfactory reason to your simplicities for all those wrongs which they have done Him And what do they aime at hereby but to make Him most odious and contemptible who of all men living deserves the greatest Reverence Love and Honour and why do they this but to the end that they might have some colour to destroy Him And will you Crucifie your King saies Pilate to the people of the Iews as if he had said what an unheard-of vilany will that be How doth the Curse cleave to that Nation for that act unto this very day so may it not be said to you O people of England will you murder your King will you suffer your most pious and gracious King after all these unspeakable abuses which He hath already indured for your sakes at the hands of your Servants or Representatives as they call themselves to be destroyed by them if you play the Iewes you shall be payed like Jewes you and your Posterity shall grone under the Curse of God and man for ever qui non vetat peccare cum potest jubet not to prevent a mischief when you may is directly to command it to be done As Absolom by going in to his Fathers Concubines on the house-top declared in the sight of all Israel that He meant the breach should be irreconcielable betwixt his Father and him so have these men by this their Declaration spoken loudly to all the world that their intentions are that the difference shall never be made up betwixt their Soveraign and themselves but indeed herein we may observe that their impudence doth far exceed Absoloms for while he was on the house-top committing his wickednesse he did not accuse the King his Father of the same sin or lay heavily to his charge that very evill which himself was then in acting as these men have done for they in their Declaration do burden their Soveraigne with their own faults they tax Him of those very things which themselves have committed and that not only heretofore when they were His ill Officers and Servants but even now are acting at this very instant time before our faces and upon our selves while they are exclaiming upon His Majesty And when should the King make Himself liable to all this blame and odium which they cast upon Him was it since they promised to make Him so glorious Themselves do not affirm this but as they pretend a great while before how comes it then to passe that in their present judgments He who was formerly deemed fit to be made the most glorious Prince in Christendome and promised so to be if He would but comply with them in those things that should be for His owne Honour and the Kingdomes good is now in their present judgments being still the same become worthy of so much hatred as is here manifested and not fit to have any more Addresses made unto Him bad are the memories of these men the change of their condition hath made them quite forget their former principles and professions what credit think you can be given henceforth unto them what confidence can be put in any of their promises is it not likely they will fail you who ere you be that trust them as they have done their Soveraigne nay have they not failed you enough already do you look they will ever repay that Mony with eight in the hundred interest which they took up of you in Publike Faiths name what speciall respect do you observe the City London and the adjoyning Associate Counties do now find from them for all that wealth countenance and assistance which hath been afforded to them doe not they like their owne father Satan exact most still from those whom they have found most compliable and most yeilding Nay more then this do they not now discover a manifest adherence to the schismaticall Army which they intitle the faithful Army against the City the Associate Counties the whole Kingdome and Scotland too as well as against the King have not some of the unsavory Aldermen Members of the Commons House gone senting up down of late and soliciting men to ingage themselves to live and die with the Parliament and the Army and against whom but King and Kingdome who it seems are now looked upon as one again and conjoyned though it be in the notion of Common Enemies by these good Counsellours these faithfull Representatives that broke the friendly union And what doth this new Ingagement speak unto you but that their intentions are to rule from henceforth by the Sword without all Law save that of war to keep you under You may remember at first 't was King and Parliament they cried up then Parliament and Kingdome but now at length 't is come to be the Parliament and the Army so that you see how unsetled they are how God hath made them like to a wheel in continuall motion and therefore no confidence is to be put in them They promise now that they will setle the Kingdome without the King who unsetled it but themselves and for what cause did they so but that themselves
might reigne over us and will they lay down their Rule Authority and Power surely no and yet this they must be forced to do before the Kingdome will ere be setled But how will they settle this Kingdom without the King even as they have setled Ireland they would never be quiet as you all know till the management of the war there which themselves also as is now believed had an hand in raising might be wholly in their hands with exclusion of His Majesty whom God hath appointed and too many of you the people in the simplicity of your spirits were for them against your Soveraign and desired that the Parliament without the King might take order for that Businesse and now you understand too plainly how well they have ordered the same these two last years in speciall while they had nothing else to mind and have kept so many lazy Officers and Souldiers to burden and oppresse you O how do the poor neglected and straved Soldiery in that lost Kingdom as well as the ruinated Protestants there pour forth now their deserved execrations and curses against these deceitfull and false-hearted men How are they now brought to beleeve and forced to confesse that none is nor was so tenderly affected towards them as the King and that Gods blessing will not concur with any endeavours there till they be managed againe by Him whom God hath intrusted O remember Ireland remember Ireland Happy may you be yet once againe in this Kingdom if the miseries which have been felt in that since these new Masters tooke upon them to be the sole disposers of affaires there may make you wary O take heed therefore in due time you do not beleeve them when they say they will settle the Peace of this Kingdom without the King Againe they promised to set up Iesus Christ in the Throne of his Kingdome but they meant themselves onely in the Throne of this for do you not see how they have gone about it and how far they have advanc'd their worke in 7. years Have they not imprisoned turned out of Gods Vineyard the most faithfull and painfull Labourers forbidden them to preach in that name or to publish that truth which this Church professeth and themselves protested to maintaine How many Congregations at this present want Pastors in this famous City and how many thousand Parishes are destitute in the Countries of right teaching now for what cause is all this why are Gods Prophets thus knocked off from their imployments wherefore are they inhibited the doing of their duties is it for any thing else then because they inveigh against that wickednesse which God abhorreth are they not for this sole reason said to be enemies to the Parliament to preach against that why do they not say in plaine termes the Parliament cannot sin or that sin and that are all one and must not be reproved or else having nothing else to lay to their charge why do not they suffer Gods Messengers to declare their Ambassage or if they will not so let them at least discover themselves as openly in this at they have done in other particulars for though they said as first they tooke up Armes to remove ill Councellors and to bring Delinquents to punishment yet now they can speake out and say it was to wrest the Legislative power and Militia out of His Majesties Hand and though they promised at first to make the King MOST GLORIOUS yet now they blush not to proclaime we will not have this man to reigne over us we will make no more addresses to Him we will exercise Authority without Him and against Him So though they promised at first to set up Christ in His Throne let them now tell us in plaine English also that they meane to thrust Him and all that truely professe Him according to the right Doctrine of the Gospel out of this Land for this is the very language of all their Actions Againe they pretended great Emnity unto Popish Doctrines and Tenents and Episcopacy was pull'd down out of zeale against Popery as if that had been a friend unto it With what clamours did they represent unto the people Secretary Windebanks intercourse with Iesuites and Popish Priests and the Bishops Chaplaines licencing of Books supposed to be Popish and yet these very men have permitted Mabbot the allowed Broaker of all these venemous scriblings to Authorize the Printing a booke of Parsons the Iesuite full of the most Popish and Treasonable positions that were ever vented for very good Doctrine nay more then this have they not contributed 30. l. toward the charge of Printing the same when after its publication it was told them by some that the said booke had been condemned by Parliament in the 35. of Queen Elizabeth and that the Printer thereof was Hang'd drawne and quarter'd for the same that it was then enacted that whosoever should have it in their house should be guilty of high Treason when all this was related to some of the Committee of Examinations did they not stop their eares at it did they not slight those that thus spake unto them their owne Consciences know all this to be true and that we are able to prove it before the World yet these be the men forsooth that hate Popery This Popish Booke which we speake of was at first published Anno 1524. under the name of Dolman and intituled a conference about the succession of the Crowne it consists of two parts whereof the first conteines a discourse of a Civill Lawyer How and in what manner propinquity of blood is to be preferred it is divided into 9. Chapters all which this blessed Reforming Parliament hath now published under the Title of Severall speeches delivered at a conference concerning the power of Parliaments to proceed against their King for misgovernment they were all Answered as they are in the Iesuites booke by Sir Iohn Haward Doctor of the Civill Law in the year 1603. and Dedicated to King Iames which Answer is common in Booksellers shops to be still sold. Now there is no difference betwixt this book published by this Parliament and that of the Iesuite condemned by that other An. 35. Eliz. but onely this when the Iesuite mentions the Apostles He addes the word Saint to their names S. Iohn S. Iames S. Peter which the Author of this new Edition leaves out and saies plaine Iohn Iames and Peter and perhaps in some places the word Parliament is put instead of the word Pope or people nay the variation is so little that it speakes the publisher a very weake man and those that set him on work none of the wisest in imploying so simple an Animall in a businesse of so great concernment we shall instance but in one passage Old Dolman or Parsons had said in the year 1594. that many were then living in England who had seen the severall Coronations of King Edw. the 6. Queen Mary and Queen Eliz. and could witnesse