contrariwise interpreted did in the sadness of their hearts foretell the King That in this War the prevailing power would be to seek to carry an even and well tempered hand how to deal with the vanquished their own Country-men and mistaken fellow-Subjects for 't was a Mis-understanding which first made the rent Scorn to acknowledge and retract their Errour widened and continued it for if they did inflict too heavy a punishment either pecuniary by Mulct or corporall by Imprisonment 't would seem unjust and harsh from the Conquerour being of their own Nation and keep off the hopes of reconcilement and re-union if too gentle and remiss 't would leave and allow the Conquered a Power means of recovering their strength again So that the War from revenge on the one or from hopes on the other side would continue till all were lost or the Conquered perchance become the Conquerours That there would not want Plots and Stratagems to interrupt and destroy their hopes of prevailing and success as whilest they sate solicitous and intentive to their Councels there would be offered to them Forreign Tenders from abroad private Addresses here at home all from the same dis-affected and troubled Fountain in matters concerning which they haply might have neither Power nor Connuzance to take up their thoughts and divert their Councels to retard and hinder their success That above all in the doubtfull events of War as it was likely to fall out betwixt Persons offending on the one part hating to be Reformed and a Court of Parliament on the other a Edw. 3. cap. 25. chosen and set apart to redress Grievances in a Common-wealth Offenders would apply themselves for refuge to the King a Supream power which if He did protect b Mr. John Heywood on the life of Hen. 4. making thereby the Offenders faults His own would without dispute revert to His Dishonour and consequently beget a Jealousie and Difference betwixt Him and His People which if the Parliament should take ill His protecting them there would issue a Contest preparatory to a War Thence if the King engaged and the Parliament resist or fight They could not hope if they were subdued to avoid the Charge of High-Treason nor think it an easie thing in the first beginnings of their strength to prove Conquerours over a King seated a long time in an Ancient Monarchy invested with many advantages of Power and guarded with Courtiers Friends of all sorts Servants Favourites all of which had their Retinue also and Train of Friends to assist in case of needing such That if the Parliament notwithstanding should prevail they would and must to keep up their Power lay Taxes and Payments on the People who when the War did but seem or was neer at an end their Complaints would be and they repiningly murmure The War is ended the Taxes and Payments yet continued not considering That it is of as great concernment to keep as to gain a Victory when as the Parliament in case of their prevailing were to weigh withall the Doubts and Dangers attending them the Care Jealousie and Fears which no men but would avoid the troubles of and such as They must be subject to untill a Conquest fully had the Cares against the surprisall and Treacheries of their Enemy the Jealousie of Friends proving false or falling off the Fears of loosing what they should gain all these being passive more pensive and anxious then the Hopes of the Adverse Part Fears more deeply seizing and disquieting the Conquerour's Spirits especially whilest their Victory is accompanied with study and thoughts of mercy towards the Conquered Hopes in the vanquished being more bold and active raising thoughts working still how to recover what they have lost That Forreign Enemies as well as home-bred are to be provided against Nor foreseeing the danger which might befal in case the Enemy should regain a Power That a Conquerour would be held at the best but an usurper for the time That all Disasters and Evils happening whether as Judgments from above as Sickness Famine and the like whether Oppressions and wrong doings here on earth what Enormities and Errours committed or suffered either in Church or State all to be laid to the charge of the present Power which governs and rules no better in the Peoples account and murmurings That thence they reckon all the Disasters of the War to flow not looking on the first Occasion and Authors of the War That when a Victory shall be gained which a Victoria naturâ insolen◠superba est Cicero naturally is proud and insolent and by Pride comes Contentions Emulations and Variances in Actions as well as in Opinions the Conquerour's strength would be thereby weakened and thence in danger to be lost That untill a compleat and totall Conquest made which could not be without much pressure and heavy sufferings on the vanquished without charge and payments laid on all Enemies Friends Enemies in being Fined for their Delinquency Friends burthened by reason of their Expence and charge in the Publique Service an Army was to be continued and maintained to prevent Insurrections here at home Inroads and Invasions from abroad That an Army was to consist of multitudes of Souldiers those multitudes would have their severall humours and opinions tending to Division consequently to the destruction and ruin of the whole That without an extraordinaty care to please and satisfie them in their demands there would be Mutinying Revolting and Inconstancy in the common Souldiery for want of judgement to discern for what they fought That there are to be Agents and Officers belonging to and providing for an Army Receivers Expenditors Treasurers others too many to be here recited who in troubled Waters will bring into their private Banck what is to be raised for the Publique use or at least the People jealous will surmise as much and that the War and Calamities thereof are protracted through their corruption and privy gainings That if the Conquerour's Power shall at any time abate before a full and totall Conquest made he will be to seek what course to take to increase it again Forcing and Impressing men to fight in a Cause so intricate as unto some it seemed then and for a long time controverted as this hath been will prove harsh and irksom and will meet with resistance in a People made and born free That in the Confusions of a Civil war many Dissentions and Emulations upon true or misapprehended grounds would fall out amongst the Orders and Ranks of men to disturb and overthrow the Degrees and Dependencies each on other according to their several respective Qualities which the Parliament could not but foresee and therefore in their Prudence and for the maintenance of the Peace and Vnity would attempt nothing to the begetting such Strifes or Disorders in a Comonwealth Amongst the rest That Divisions and Envyings would in all likelyhood happen through a Misconceiving that between the Gentry and Nobility on the one
tye of Policy and Prudence by and through an extream and inevitable Necessity to the preservation of Ye and your Friends Neither you nor any of your Party can devise or act a means how to settle such a course as may prevent a totall confusion or the overthrow of those who have already prevailed by the. Sword nor to Still the common Enemy and Avenger But if He being hard-driven shall by Treaty or other unsafe way of setling a Peace prevail He is left at liberty to do His pleasure In Treatles or like wayes of Parleance what Security can He give or will He keep commensurate to the safety and welfare of many thousands engaged in this Quarrel to the avoidance of those Dangers and Jealousies already administred by Him Within these three years you instanced Hen. 3. His complyance and Signing Articles which when He had by that recovered His Power again kept none of them But to your Arguments and your paralelling the King 's offering a Force to six of the Houses of Parliament to the Force is offered you He might peradventure and by an usurped Authority do it to exercise a Regall Power above the Laws from assuming unto Himself an unlimited and strong conceit of His Soveraignty Transcendency of Might in nothing to be resisted to awe and force this present Parliament and all future Parliaments in case He had any purpose to convene any more to His beck as 't is probable Not long after by the like menacing and imperious act of Proclaiming those Gentlemen Traytors who either obeyed not or refused to conform to His present Will There was no necessity but His sole Will to force all those who complyed not with Him to save and rescue His Creatures from the hand of Justice And whether there be not now a stronger necessity then before the great and universall Engagement of many good and deserving men I appeal to you Sir In that you take it ill That your Servants so the Army style themselves should force their Masters They are not simply and precisely Servants immediate subordinate rather many of Them your Equals Commanders and Officers in the Army the common-Souldiery commanded and led by Them Or the Army relatively unto ye as Jurors in a triall of Assize before a number of Judges for so ye are although the resemblance holds not adequately as to an Army and to a Jury Let a Major part of Judges incline or direct which way they please Yet an upright Jury will finde according to the Evidence in being The Evidence in this case is the certainty of knowing and re-collecting things past the foresight of things to come which induceth them to bring in such Verdict as may render all things Just and Safe for when it shall happen to be debated which ought to be preferred the Priviledg of Parliament or the Safety of a Kingdom every one can judg which ought to sway the ballance Again admit the Army to be your Servants yet properly they are Servants unto those from whom they receive their pay that is from the Kingdom neither from the Presbyterian nor Independent Party In a mixt and joynt-Government where more then One commandeth and a mutuall consent had betwixt the Governours that the Servants shall obey the discreeter Party as between a Master and a Mistresse in a Family they mutually consent that their Family shall be directed by the wiser of the two there it is left to the election and discretion of the Family which of them Master or Mistresse to pay obedience unto It skils not in a Governing and Politique Body consisting of many Ruling all consenting in the main which is the Major part unless that Major part will do the whole work themselves without the help of those whom they do employ which of them is to be obeyed That Part rather which Acts and Endeavours without respect had to the Majority in the more prudent watchfull and safe way So 't is no Disobedience or Affront offered by your Army where Obedience may be dangerous to the Obeyours to your Party and your adherents For whereas some of the King's Party prefer the Presbyterian before the Independent some the Independent before the Presbyterian a See the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 224. hating both yet giving good words unto and complying with the more discontented and weaker Party untill by their cunning Artifice they overcome them also so in this Leger de main and sleight of wit blow the coals of Dissention betwixt ye both Ye of the Presbyterian can look for no other then Polyphemus his courtesie to be of those last to be devoured Besides as to the Major or Minor part of Members sitting in the House or secluded or voluntarily absenting themselves from the House so that the greater number are absent as you reckon Take heed of that objection lest you open an old wound long since salved up through God's blessing on your success and that Objection be made use of against ye all of both Houses and against that Authority whereby Ye have at any time acted since the Contention first began betwixt the King's Parties claim to their Parliament at Oxford and the Parliaments Parties claim to theirs at Westminster For if the King's Party did rightly calculate their numbers which were in both Houses of Lords and Commons b See their Declaration Printed at Oxford March 1643. towards the end of the Book 258. either personally sitting at Oxford or occasionally absent upon imployment for the King That number exceeded that of those sitting at Westminster so that the Argument for the major part of the number of Members Presbyterially affected that way Covenanted against which the King's Friends have learnedly as yet unansweredly * In a Book stiled The present Judgment of the Convocation at Oxford dated June 1647. Which if weighed with the Arguments in the late Letter written by the London Ministers to the Lord Fairfax and his Councell of War dated Jan. 1648. in behalf of the Covenant and the keeping it the Reader will soon discern the odds argued is no safe or prudent Argument at this time to be used however abetted and seconded by an elaborately written Letter by the London Ministers lest ye help your first and common Enemy to rowse an Objection which hath a long time slept for maintaining their Parliament at Oxford For by the way had those Ministers employed their pains in answering that Book their Letter might have been better credited and more universally received They much insist on the Protestation taken May 1641. wherein the Protesting is For the maintenance of the King's Honor Person and Estate yet the End at which all matters of weight do aym is the preservation of Religion Laws Liberties The maintenance of the King's Honor c. is but a piece of the Protestation the sum full sense scope thereof the preservation of Religion c. The drift of one of the Grecian wise men's advice
The Constant Man's Character Intended to be sent first as a LETTER FROM A Gentleman in the Country to a Gentleman his esteemed Friend and Countryman a Member of the House of Commons Since inlarged into a DISCOURSE by way of humble ADVICE to keep him from Revolting either directly or collaterally by the side-winde of being Presbyterially affected through the mistaken and unhappy conceit That those who have taken the Covenant cannot without breach of the same assent and submit unto the late proceedings of the Parliament when as the parts of the Covenant seem to be inconsistent within themselves as the Author's Observations here discoursed do manifest The Scope whereof is 1 Historically to set down the Occasion and Beginnings of the War 2 To shew That the Parliament had no intention to leavy a War 3 That the Book called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is probably none of the King 's 4 To prove the fitness and necessity as matters now stand of complying with and submitting unto this present Government For the Powers that be are Ordained of God Rom. 13. Together With some Animadversions incident hereunto on the same Book and on the two Declarations intituled The Declarations of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament at OXFORD The One touching a Treaty for Peace Printed there 1643. Other concerning their Endeavors for Peace Printed at London for Giles Calvert at the Black Spread-Eagle neer the West End of Pauls 1649. Reader THis Letter rather this Narration is founded on a Discourse had betwixt two Gentlemen the one unto whom it was written having the abler parts of Wit and Speech the other the Writer having the juster cause or at least he judged it so the weakness of whose judgment may indeed be an Objection against the credit of the Work there being three means onely whereby to discern and report a Truth Judgment Knowledg Conscience the two first Judgment Knowledg in State-affairs the Author may be defective in the strength thereof notwithstanding in that he is neither engaged against the one nor obliged to the other Party other wise then by a common duty his judgment may seem the more right and clear by reason his Obligations are the less wherefore that which may be said in his behalf is That the Conscience and upright Truth by which he hath measured what he hath written is free from Faction or Partiality The danger whereunto a Writer in Divided and Seditious Times exposeth himself is known unto all men when whatsoever is received with Applause or Liking by the one is therefore rejected with Despight and Scorn by the other side The Promise and * See the Protestation taken May 1641. where the Protestors Vow by all good wayes and means to bring to condigne Punishment all such as shal by Force Practice Councels Plots and Conspiracies or otherwise do any thing to the contrary in this Protestation and further that he shall in all iust ways endeavour to preserve the Vnion and Peace betwixt the three Kingdoms c. Protestation made to Endeavour by all just ways out-weighs the Danger In this Discourse he arrogates nothing to himself but an even and true delivery of what he hath observed and is well known much less doth he think his strength or skill enough to help either side to Victory but according to his weak and spent abilities to endeavour the restoring the three Nations to their former Peace their mutual Interests and Rights unto which the only and next way is to deliver and uprightly to set down the truth A more able Pen-man may shew it more excellently None can shew a more excellent way The Constant Man's Character SIR I Know not how this Discourse may relish assure your self sent from the hand and heart of him who loves and honours you howbeit wise men leaning on their own wisdoms and sacrificing too much peradventure to their own Net commonly neither need nor care for the affections of their weaker friends What I am in relation unto you or in the rank of them is known to those who know us both what in my self I am conscious of wanting Experience and Learning to derive any knowledg from antiquated Times or Histories for the fashioning this into an elegant and polite work but in a downright way to fall on familiarly and plainly to set down the beginnings and first entrance into this present War which when it first broke out that the Gentlemen of this County did declare themselves unto what Party they would adhere Two eminent Leaders on the Parliaments side Sir R. C. and your self out-weighing as we judged so many more of the opposite Party did seem to joyn and go one way for the Priviledges of that Court and the Subject's Liberties The infringing which added to some late Jealousies was the first Ascent to these Divisions how and by what degrees it went higher follows in this Discourse In your resenting which He as a Member of the House You as a Patriot of the Country We could not think Ye did it in a light Factious or Seditious way but as having seriously weighed and by your Readings even before and since the beginning of this War known That the Institution of Parliaments was had and made by an Ancient Necessary and wholsome Law That the Power Priviledges and Authority thereof were to be kept inviolable and entire That as to this present Parliament the King Himself in a See His Answer to a Declaration from both Houses in May 1642. His Answer to a Declaration sent Him from both Houses of Lords and Commons doth confess and allow Them a full and juridicall power to judg and determine the most doubtfull high and weightiest Crimes and Causes although He seems to limit it by particular Cases regularly brought before them acknowledging withall together with the b See the Declaration of the Lords Commons assembled in Parliament as they called it at Oxford 1643. Pa. 12. Lords and Commons assembled at Oxford The Priviledg of Parliament to be so substantiall and entire a Right that the Invasion of the Liberties of either House is an Injury to the other and to the whole Kingdom In severall His Messages returned unto their Propositions He repeats and confirms the same judgment of their full and ample Power being legally summoned and By a Law consented unto by Him in full Parliament not to be dissolved unless by their own consent Notwithstanding which several attempts of force and violence were offered as far as His Party's Power could extend it self to the dissolving it by contending to divide and scatter Them accusing the remaining part of the Members sitting in the House of being Rebels so being divided to account no other of the Parliament at Westminster then He doth of the Parliament in Scotland a In His Declaration concerning His Proceedings with His Subjects of Scotland since the Pacification in the Camp neer Berwick printed 1640. pa. 38. The divided Members of that distracted
was Respice finem the prudential Proverb is made good by an acute Epigram Non refert quà sed quò So the maintenance of the King's Honor c. are but the Means in relation order to the End the preservation of Religion Laws c. The well-weighing which Protestation might have confined and settled the unresolved and doubtfull thoughts of man in what the end and aym of the Protestation was A promise to fulfil in as much as in us lies the Commandements of the first and second Table of the Law directing our duty towards God and Man the severall parts in the Protestation tending in the summe to the maintenance of God's Honor the King 's the Subjects Right and Liberty no one part thereof if rightly applyed and understood crossing another and therefore how it comes to passe that the Protestation being one and the same the course of mens affections should be thus divided into Factions and Part-takings or that some should be of opinion That to maintain the King's Honour Person and Estate is to adhere unto Him in this present War in what He shall command They should withall consider the other parts of the Protestation viz. the Defence of the Protestant Religion the Power and Priviledges of Parliament the Subject's Right and Liberty for by the Protester's observing all the King is best observed and truliest His Honour and Promises being engaged to maintain the latter three when as every one who took the Protestation did in his thoughts endeavour and intend according to his Power to make Him a Soveraign Lord of a Free and Flourishing People the King's Protestations concurring with and tending to that end So the Protestation taken altogether is best observed and kept To the Protestation for the defence of the Protestant Religion every one who takes it is not immediately and specially bound by vertue of his Vow to discover and make known to extirpate or remove all Papists that is above the Power and Liberty of every common person neither is wishing well alone and sitting still a sufficient discharge of the Protester's duty of vowing to Endeavour Endeavouring is a progressive motion and the Protester's supine failing to endeavour can be no better reckoned of then the * Livy Historian did of those Souldiers who dreamed of their Enemies Votis sedendo debellari posse or what the * Isaiah Prophet doth of the Egyptians that their strength was sitting still A perfunctory and neutrall slackness in the Protester satisfies not the precept which God himself enjoyns When thou vowest a vow unto the Lord thou shalt not be slack to pay it and wherein many have not onely deserted this their Vow but endeavoured against the same others contemplatively only and remiss as not endeavouring at all but with cautious reservations and forbearances keep off their endeavourings The passive and faint observing of the Vow in some the Acting contrary to their Vow in others is a sin which God is justly angry for visiting this Land of late with long and heavy judgments wherefore if he who hath taken this Protestation and shall solemnly observe the same shall foresee or hath cause of suspition to believe that the Protestant Religion is or was when he took the same in danger of declining that the Papist is connived at countenanced by b Which is not the Author's Observation alone but the unanimous judgment of most part of the Kingdom observed by their several Petitions at that time presented especially that of the Gentry and Trained Bands of the County of Essex presented to their Lord Lieutenant the Earl of Warwick See Mr. May his History lib. 2. cap. 6. pag. 105. higher Powers for the Question is not about the certain and actual bringing in of Popery but touching the pregnancy of suspition if the Protester adhereth to that Party which promiseth to defend the Protestant and opposeth that which countenanceth the Popish his Protestation is then truliest kept a Promise or Vow the more pursued the more fulfilled In like manner to the other part of the same Protestation viz. The Maintenance of the Kings Honour every one who takes the same is not thereby bound to comply assent unto and obey the King in whatsoever He may command whether unlawfull or unjust or to think all his attempts and actions Justifyable throughout This were indeed in the highest degree to honour Him but in a more serious and as truly a Loyall way of His being Honoured by His Subjects is when they or those who are put in Place and Authority over them shall enquire into and provide against all things incident to His Dishonour when they shall endeavour to suppress all Affronts which may be offered to His Dignity This though a more remote and less flattering yet a more stable and certain discharge of Duty in Honouring Him Again as to that part of the Covenant That They had then no intention to diminish His just Power and Greatness They might intend no less untill They saw They could not overcome Him by humble Applications and Addresses that they could not discern any acknowledgment of His former Errours any placable or propitious heart towards His Parliament and People any condiscending to those Propositions as the only and necessary means for setling a safe Peace long since tendered to Him joyntly and unanimously by ye all Presbyterians and Independents as they are called yet not all of ye concluding or providing what was to be done in case He did refuse But instead thereof contrary to the * See the Articles of the large Treaty Pag. 16. Demand 4. granted by the King Aug. 1641. Articles of the large Treaty agreed upon viz. That none should be admitted to his Counsell or Attendance but such as should be approved of by both Kingdoms gracing and preferring to His neerest secrecy and trust a Person proclaimed guilty of High Treason charging still and banding with the Parliament the Supreamest and greatest Councell for Weight and Number in all EUROPE contending to lay the Blood spilt in this War at their doors and theirs alone ever seeking by His Pyoners by a covert and restless ill-will one way against the a See the Book called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pag. 23. and elsewhere in that Book His Party 's constant and continued ill-will towards the City of London The City styled by His party in their wonted Invectives against it The Nursery and Treasury of Armes and Ammunition employed against their King continued even to this day to be termed by them a Rebellious City upon all occasions Mercur. Pragmat from Jan. 28. to Feb. 4. 1649. further continuing his Invectives against the City in his weekly Pamphlet Place receiving Them another against their b See their Declaration printed at Oxford 1643. pag. 14 15. against the suggested irregular and undue proceedings of the Common Councel in London the Representative of the whole City Friends assisting Them to undermine their Power They thought
to themselves and upon the altering the present state of things Ordain and Act to the laying aside Degrees and Orders heretofore in use They or their successors may when the storm threatned is over the danger of being overcome is past reduce and bring the Government of this Nation the course of Parliaments and other Constitutions into some part of their pristine and former state again Rather the Royalist and Presbyterian seemes to give way to many practices tending to Irreligion c. when as their ill-will and envy are so eager against the opposite Party called Independents that they will rather submit unto and joyn with the Turk or Jew then to be mastered by that Party betwixt whom and one of them there is a kinde of difference no true or real only a notional and imaginary one The King's Parties Envy grows out of being overcome and doth appear from the judgment and censure he hath of them in the punishment had he prevailed he would have condemned them to For of the moderate sort of the Parliament and their Friends he holds them * See the Declarat of the Lords and Commons assembled at Oxford c. printed there 1643 Pag. 24 26 27. unskilful vulgar spirited weak and seduced men for siding with the People as they terme it and their multitudes the eminent and more active sort Traytors Perjured All yea the Neutrals too for not offerring to defend the King c. according to the Oath of Allegiance The Parliament Party having a more moderate and milde judgment of the King 's knowing many of them restless and virulent as yet judging others Mistaken only some of them being led away through Ambition and aspiring thoughts to adhere to the King upon the Proverb of No fishing to the Sea nor service to the Court whereupon the Parliament have accordingly passed by the errors transgressions of the King 's by an easy Mulcting them so that if the judgment at the first had been no worse nor no more erroneously passed against the one then it was against the other Party the War had soon been ended a Peace restored By the King's Party 's large extension of which Oath they may bring many within the compass of Perjury The King being to maintain the Laws c. and bound as a Supream Power to take vengeance on evil doers without which He bears the sword in vain as the Subjects are to their Allegiance the Obligation is reciprocal as the two Houses of Parliament when allowed to be stiled by King Himself a Parliament with an unanimous consent observed in their * See the Message printed with the above-named Declaration dat March 9 1643. message sent unto Him in a few words expressed If the King may dispense with His Oath and that He reckons Himself accomptable to none but God which the Parliament objects as a Maxime Ground for any Tyranny the Enacting Laws is of no value as to the King and how far swearing Allegiance is to the Subject is the question In this only lies the odds upon the event of which Party shall prevaile in this War If the Parliament shall They are notwithstanding subject to the Reproach and Obloquy of slanderous tongues and pens Their Demeanor not free from beeing censured Reviled and Charged with several Crimes as their Accusers please No such salve for them as for the King in case He should have prevailed by what means soever no man should have dared to have questioned His proceedings or the means by which He prevailed in case He had Conquered The wise man asks who shall say that a King is false or wicked and the French Proverb tells us Que la Coronne unifois prinse oste toute sorte de defaults The meaning is when the King shall have regained His former ful and Regall Power the Parliament and theirs then born down His repossessing His Crown shall as well quit all quarels and exceptions and cancel all disputes as it shall clear all manner of faults and Crimes concerning the means how He attained His Conquest The sustance of that Oath even now objected is in these words That the Pope hath no Power either of himself or by any means to depose the King nor Authorize any Forraign Prince to invade or annoy Him to bear Arms against or offer Him violence or hurt That no Declaration Sentence of Excomunication or Deprivation made by the Pope hath Power to absolve any Subject from his Allegiance by reason or colour of any such Sentence or Declaration c. The reason of enjoyning the Oath of Supremacy is expressed in the Preamble of that * See the Statut. 1 mo Eliz. 1. and the Preamble thereof Statute made for taking the same which was therefore done in opposition to Forraign Princes Prelates States and Potentates by reason of great exacted sums which they by their usurping took from the Subjects of this Kingdom so that the Oath of Supremacy concerns the Subject's duty towards the King His Heirs and Successors in their refusing to grant or pay any Tribute of Power to Forraigners but to oppose and resist all such to acknowledg the antient Jurisdictions Superorities and Preheminencies due to the King or His Successors against and in opposition to such usurpings The words and prime sense of the swearer beeing That he will renounce and forsake all Forraign Jurisdictions Superiorities and Authorities thence That he will defend the King His Heirs and Successor's Jurisdiction Authority c. So the Competition for Prehemmency Power c. is betwixt the King His Heirs Successors on the one and Forreigners only on the other part and by reason of such exactions practised by such Forraigners The Royalists to make good this charge of supposed Perjury in breaking the Oath of Supremacy and Allegiance which they cannot unless they gain a Power leave no ways untried no stone unmoved what Wit and Invention can bring in to promote their Industry By all the Artificiall and feigned means they can to keep up their Party as by sowing the Tares of Discord and Sedition amongst the Parliament party and their friends hoping at last to reap themselves the fruit and harvest cunningly and insensibly carrying it on under fair pretences to the Peace and Publique good by their Pamphleters kept it may be thought in pay and pension to magnifie and talk high of their Cause and their good successes to vilifie and depress the Parliament's Theirs to publish and divulge their Falshoods in hope to discourage them and their Friends and knowing that the unstable and unresolved as many men unto whom the Justice of this Quarrell having seemed doubtfull have shewn themselves would fall in unto the stronger side By reporting of their own accord without warrant from the King more indulgently and favourably on His behalf then any of his own actions have declared which insinuatings and reportings in favour unto Him have peradventure powerfully wrought on the unstable wavering in their
a See the King's Parties Censure of them in the Declaration printed at Oxford 1643. Neutrals too for not offering to defend the King Not to defend or Forbear to Assist is all one as to Offend Whosoever shall look on in a Conflict betwixt two opposite Parties his Affections questionless incline whatsoever his Actions are more to one Party then to the other So Neutrals such as have not acted for the King being already by His Party adjudged Guilty are subject to the Censure and may be brought in within the compass of the Prince his meaning On which account whosoever have not declared themselves to have been some way for the King will hardly avoid His Parties suspition of having been for the other side the Parliament Now where two Parties are extreamly opposite in their Endeavourings the one to maintain what They have got the other to recover what they have lost the judgment and practises on either part moving in a strong opposition each to other whether the Prevailing Power need to enjoyn or not new Tyes and Leagues to conform All to the Obedience of their Power and Government In a doubtfull Conflict where it is not agreed which Party will prevail for it is which we may believe either the Diurnals published by and on the Parliaments behalf or the Pamphletters on the King 's venting much of their Success and hopes to recover what they have lost it is requisite in either case that the vanquished and weaker Party should joyn and unite themselves by Engagements and Leagues to strengthen and keep up the Power they have when a small matter of Dividing as whether they shall Engage or not turns the Scale in weighing what is to be done The cunning and wit practised by many Disswading from a Subscription to such Engagement the maner of their practising of an abstruse and dark operation hardly to be perceived but by it's effects the maintenance of sedition thence a pursuit of the hopes of Conquering by keeping up Divisions even in matters of small weight or Difficulty Sir the scruple which some make disputing the quality the reason of the Engagement which the Parliament hath enjoyned is That it is strange and new which the People are to subscribe unto A * St. Augustine Father of the Church shews what is to be expected in an Innovation in a Common-wealth Ipsa mutatio quae utilitate adjurat etiam novitate perturbat The novity and the not examining the necessity of their enjoyning such Engagement to bring all men into one and the same entire judgment and agreement the Enemy divided now into several parties his aym to keep men from accord and unity under pretence of the Conscience insnared inthralled by such Engagements have raised these doubts to the hopes of a new distraction Besides the Novity of a strange and unheard of Engagement to be imposed other Discontents and heart-burnings are cherished as in the Nobility to be detruded from their Priviledges and Rights of sitting in the House of Parliament as Peers to joyn with the Commons in the debate and handling the weighty affairs of the Common-wealth as that those Lords who have been active and assistant both in their Estates and Countenance to promote the good of it during these Distractions may think themselves neglected and ill-rewarded to be now debarred from their Ancient and Native Liberty of Voting in the House The Reason of the Parliaments enjoyning of the Peoples subscribing to this Engagement rests upon the issue of these Questions Whether there be a Necessity or not of entring into such League or Engagement Whether the Conquest be fully made or there need no Engagement for compleating it Whether the Kingdom of Ireland be reduced and brought into it's former relation and commerce with this of England that there be no danger or fears of breaking out again when it shall be so reduced Whether through and by reason of the continuance of these Distractions which the Parliament would put a period unto were they not so much opposed and inveighed against this of England be not in danger of loosing their ancient Rights and claims their Freedom and Priviledges of Commerce and Traffique which heretofore they have enjoyed a See this Question in part cleared pag. 40. in the Scots part-taking with the King concerning one remarkable Article of the large Treaty agreed upon August 1641. Whether that of Scotland remain in the same condition of Amity and Brotherhood as in their League and Covenant with England they at first united in Whether whilest that is in dispute we may rest secure from an hostile Invasion from them or Forreigners Whether by these unnecessary Disputes and dissentions here at home the Common-wealth be not in danger to loose that in the twinkling of an eye which hath cost so much Treasure Industry and Blood for the Powers that be once shaken becoming weak will soon fall most men being apt to lay hold on the b Noli in caducum parictem inclinare Lipsius Polit. Polititian's advice Not to lean on a weak and tottering wall The Judgment and knowledge of deciding this rests in the Prudence and Experience of the State who after a long time casting and consulting what was fittest to be done what safest course to be taken for the strengthning and support of a firm and present Government have Resolved upon an Universall Engagement in such manner and form as to their Wisdoms seems most expedient and They have accordingly Declared and Ordained that They knowing the justness of their Cause ought in relation to the security and maintenance of their Power to the Preservation of a firme and lasting Peace to use all expedient and lawfull means against the violent and restless Opposition of their Enemies None so safe as by an Engagement and Subscription thereunto Which if throughly weighed crosseth no former Vow or Oath either of Protestation Covenant * See the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacie and why the taking it was enjoyned in this Treatise pag. 51. Oath of Allegiance or Supremacie the Subscriber only promising to be true and faithful to the Common-Wealth as it is now established without King or House of Lords Not that the Nobility are thereby excluded for ever from their Priviledges as to succeeding Parliaments if these continued Divisions beget not an universall ruin taking away the succession of Parliaments to be hereafter had nor from an Envy or Neglect had by the House of Commons to take the Lords away as hath been of late seditiously given out for so the Gentry of which the Parliament themselves consist being in the next Rank to the Nobility may fear their turn is next to be thrown from their station also and all become Levelled but that the Persons and Estates of such of the Lords as have assisted the Court of Parliament in the time of their extremities may hence be preserved from ruine as of others also of the Nobility whom the Enemy reckons since their first
engaging for the King to be offenders now for their late submitting to their Compositions for Delinquency for their complying with the Parliaments Votes howbeit thereby they are free from molestation for the future whilest the Parliament maintain and keep up their Power Wherefore it is resolved that an universal Engagement shall be had as a Bond and League to bring all men into one and the same judgement that from an a Mr. Lambard's Eirenarch lib. 1. cap. 2. in in his Tract on K. Edw. 3. His Writ directed to the High Sheriff of Kent for the proclaiming a Peace where he speaks first of uniting mindes then of restraining hands as a means to the Preservation of the Publique Peace Unity of mindes a Restraining of the hands may ensue in order to the setling of a firm and lasting Peace Admit that these Doubts were unquestionable these Dangers so removed and taken away to our best advantage and security that there needed no Engagement or League to bring all men into one and the self same minde yet the constant prejudice and ill-will which the Enemy hath to the Parliament and their Proceedings causeth him with many more of his kinde and spirit to dislike and refuse the Engagement because the Parliament hath enjoyned it and for no other cause then to quarrel with and oppose their Authority The other sort of High Treason wherewith the Parliament stands charged is The making a new b See the Oxford Declaration page 21. Great-Seal counterfeiting the Kings Observe Sir the justness of such Charge The Great-Seal an instrument of State whereby Justice is derived and distributed to the People as the divided Members at Oxford do confess being surreptitiously and vafrously taken away from the Parliament the Representative Body of the People contrary to the Trust reposed in the Keeper of the same the making of a new one cannot be rightly judged Counterfeiting within the meaning of the c 25 Edw 3. Statute Counterfeiting is a close and covert act against the knowledge and privity of a Superior and lawful Power damnified by such Counterfeiting nor is every thing which is made to the mould by which 't is made a simply Counterfeiting The quality of the offence is discerned in the maner of the offending and the making a Law commonly relates to some preterite crime or fraud Now you will believe it is no where to be found upon Record whereon to ground a Law That a King and Parliament have at any time made use of any Great-Seal to cross or thwart each others Actings Many other Accusations of this kinde are charged on them * See the same Declaration pag. 27. as Disturbers of the Peace Authors and Fomentors of this they call Rebell on and what else Malice and Revenge can invent divulge to render Them and their Actions infamous But to return and shew the Royalist his next hopes of prevailing shadowed out even now By attempting to bring in any Forreign Force how wilde or barbarous soever they be how hard to get them out again out of this plentiful and flourishing Kingdom yeelding them all provisions all Habiliments of War to strengthen themselves in This as to provide for their next attempt elswhere after they have destroyed and harassed This not knowing how to distinguish between Presbyterian Independent and Royall Party and this to be driven on by him in an hazardous and uncertain way out of revenge and thirst to regain unto himself his power again long since forfeited through his mistaken Loyalty certainly through his disaffection to his Native Brethren of the same Kingdom or without considering which wise men should that a small Forreign Force unless aided by a discontented Faction here at home will not do the work a great one will destroy and overrun them also which is easie and obvious to every vulgar capacity to foresee for what Forreigner can be thought of to invade this Kingdom whilest the Natives thereof are true unto at unity within themselves If it be objected That the Subjects of This taking up Arms to defend themselves will prove a leading case to the People in other States and Kingdoms to do the like T is answered The Government of This differs from all Forms of Government in other Nations This being no absolute but a limited and mixt Monarchy where the King is as a great a Bracton lib 4. Lawyer takes his Dimension Vniversis minor habet Superiores Deum Legem per quam factus est Rex Curiam scilicet Comites Barones c. The Laws Customs and Constitutions of This are distinct and different from all other Nations in the Christian world others being Free-States simply and absolutely Monarchies or Powers inforcing and conforming all under them to slavery and vassaladge So that if a Forreigner shall attempt to invade This it cannot be deemed he doth it from a sense of a like suffering with the King or to asist Him rather to enrich himself to prey upon the wealth and opulencie of a fruitful and flourishing Kingdom Your last Objection That the Army's most noted b Mr. H. P. Preacher is as you have heard a disguised Jesuite Other the like Falshoods put upon him of late reported which few men besides the reporters do believe and scarsly they If these Objections prove untrue or easily answered the disgrace will recoyle and injure them who lay them on Sir if a man hath a minde to quarrel 't is easie to finde a staffe Your Eminencie and Credit in your Country let in two Inconveniencies A danger to be tempted by the opposite Party to comply and fall in with them when mean and weak men are let alone The other that it will fare with you in your Defection as spots and soiles in fine cloth the finer the cloth the easilier the soiling is discerned in ordinary and course Cloths it is not so No question there are those in several parts of our Neighboring Counties who may instill into your Ears a likelyhood of the King's Party's prevailing upon their prevailing the Dangers whereunto you and the rest of His Enemies are subject also the weakness the often failings the inique or unfit Proceedings of the Parliament in prefering for the present Persons of a lower Degree then ordinary to Places and Offices of Trust when as They were forced thereunto in that men of an higher rank discontented that their side cannot prevaile refuse to bear such Offices In their Fining and Punishing the King's Party for Delinquency although not in so high and severe a way as the King's Party would have Punished Them in case they had prevailed In continuing Taxes and Impositions upon their fellow Subjects for the maintenance of their Power and Army Their Enemies not weighing the exigence and necessities which the Parliament is forced unto but moved by their own prejudice and spleen against the Proceedings of that Court and resolvedly engaged for the King to make such men as you to be of their Party
Parliamentary Body remaining at Edenburgh So that as to the Parliament of England it must be confessed that He meant not what He expressed in allowing that Latitude of Power or that His Party hath since prevailed with Him to renounce that judgment which He declared to have had of Them That the contentions at the first sitting of the House were upon the point about matters of Fact what things were done what attempted to be done how the King and His Ministers of Justice had demeaned themselves since the beginning of His Raign how many Oppressions of severall kindes had been offered by them how they had offended against the Known and Fundamentall Laws in an Arbitrary way of Government The Question then tacitely disputed in all mens hearts betwixt Those who would that He should go on to do what He pleased and Those who contended to have Him govern according to the Laws Whether there were any Power in being to emulate and check a King 's except a Parliaments That this Parliament in contending to maintain the one against the other was interrupted and opposed and as the Scots aver b See the Scots Remonstrance 1640. cited by M. Tho. May in his History of the Parliament of England written 1647. For no other reason called then to give the King relief and ayd against their comming into England on which grounds they sent to the Parliament of England a Justification of their proceedings intreating Them to be wary in vindicating their own Laws and Liberties to frustrate the Designs of those Evill Counsellours who had procured this Parliament for no other end then to arm the King with warlike supplyes against His Scottish Subjects and by that War to enslave if not to ruine both Nations That after many violations and dissolutions of Parliaments in England This was not to redress Grievances but to be so over-reached if They were not carefull and couragious that no possibility should be left for the future redressing any That so dangerous Practices might be well suspected when at the same time a Parliament was denyed to Scotland although promised on the word of a King granted to England when not expected and obtruded upon Ireland when not desired The Rise of all which was from the Anger which the Scots knew the King conceived against them for some particular acts of theirs charged with disloyalty as That they refused and declared amongst other matters against His Messages sent them to receive the Service Book obtruded on them for which as for Vindicating themselves from the like charged Disloyalties they were Accused by the King to have wrote a a Cited and complained of by the King in the same Declaration against His Scottish Subjects for inviting Forreign Powers into this Kingdom Pag. 56 57. See the Letter it self in the same Declaration Signed by seven of the principall of the Nobility of Scotland Letter to the King of France imploring His Protection as weary of their Obedience to their own King For which disloyall Letter as it was termed a chief b The Lord Louden See in his Answer his prudent excuse Peer of theirs was imprisoned and condemned to die That the Pacification had and made to take away all differences past and which might ensue betwixt the King the English and the Scots by the prudent and joynt advice of a select Committee of English and Scottish Lords as to remove all jealousies betwixt both Nations was soon after it was made scorned and slighted The Scots then complaining in their Informations made unto the See the same Book English their Friends and Brethren of many injuries they had received since the Pacification made and contrary to that Agreement This the Condition then of the Scots These the very words of their Remonstrance That the Vnion and Brotherly League entered into by both Nations was in the King's Indignation no otherwise construed then an Invitation in the One and Invasion of a See the King's accompt of them how in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He keeps it in memory That they were the first that began His troubles in the Treatise of His leaving Oxford and going to the Scots and elswhere in severall places of that Book Also in the Declaration printed on the King's behalf at Oxford 1643. Page 23. Suggesting an intent in them to confound the Government and alter the Laws of England p. 28. The Marquesse of Montrosse declareth how they began His Troubles viz. by dispersing their Apologeticall Pamphlets as he terms them through great Brittain before the troubles began and before their coming with an Army into England See a Book entituled The History of His Majesty's Affairs under the Conduct of the Marquesse in the yeers 1644 1645 1646. Page 3. Forreigners in the other Nation and howsoever the Charge in the seven Articles exhibited against the six Members of both Houses was laid to those few only yet probably it had reached many other of the English Nation had not the first assault of Violence in the King's Party miscarryed as it did So many sad and direfull notes could not but portend a War against one or both Nations as Time and Opportunity should best serve to manage the Design in hand or else the Parliament knowing themselves to be a free and full Convention in all parts a Parliament both in the Substance and Form Summoned by the King 's Writ to meet c. as in the Circumstance of Time and Place must submit to the Will and Pleasure of an b Amongst other motives to His anger about the E. of Strafford's death which whether He would have avenged on the Party who condemned him may be guessed at in that He or an unknown Author in His name severall times repents the injustice of that act How Himself was forced to yeeld complyance for which sin as He mentions it He and His Kingdoms have felt long great and heavy troubles See the same Book in the Treatise concerning the E. of Strafford and the Marq. of Montrosse his Declaration set forth 1649. aggravating the same to incense the King and His Party against the Scots expressing in it their disloyall practices breach of Duty Covenants calling them Traytors c. incensed King So to be Dissolved or Awed at pleasure or to have Boundaries put upon their Acts and Counsels by such as they knew to be corrupt and would have removed from the King To the end His Throne might be established That in this agony and doubt whether They should Submit Desist or Act according to their Trust they thought it neerly land necessarily concerned them to provide for the publique welfare for their own and the Kingdoms safety some of their Members being impeached and charged two Kingdoms provoked and menaced the a See the King 's gratefull acknowledgment of the affection and loyalty of His Irish Subjects in offering to supply Him with Preparations c. together with their Persons and Estates even to the uttermost of their ability
the Covenant not like an c See the Letter of the Ministers within the Province of London and their notice-taking of the Parliament and Army's conceipt had of the Covenant pag. 8. Almanack out of date as the Ministers smilingly object but like an Obligation where the Obligor is destitute and left remediless through the Obligee his restless fury and oppression disabling him from performing his Conditions d See His Party's Opinion of the Covenant and the taking it in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pag. 113 114 115. whither and how far it is to be kept how little uniformity there is in the taking or keeping it and for what purpose in the Author's judgment framed at first how ambiguous and hard to to understood how much mistaking or dissembling in the making it at first or misrepresenting by those who like it not that howbeit one part thereof is That 〈◊〉 had then no intention to diminish the King's 〈…〉 Power and Greatness the Author in the King's name conceives That it was made and 〈…〉 the King as in many places of the Treatise against the Covenant he complaineth See also the King's Declaration since the Pacification against the Scots and the Covenant pag 8. Which Opinion of his see confirmed in the Marquesse of Montrosse his Declar◠set forth 1649. as in a Book called the History of the King's affaires in Scotland before recited pag. 5. One part of the Covenant then taken was That They had no thoughts or intentions to diminish the King 's just Power and Greatness Another part was when They press the Covenant taking the maintenance of the Peace and Union between the three Kingdoms They would bring to justice all without respect of Persons who did or should wilfully oppose the same or hinder such Peace and Vnion So that if the King did by Himself by His Friends and followers by His example awing other men from taking the Covenant or did by any Power or Commission whether to defend Himself or to offend His opposites act or abet whereby the Peace became disturbed one Kingdom engaged against another the Parliament could not according to their Covenant preserve His Power and Greatness and punish such without respect of persons as did wilfully oppose the same comprehending all who did adhere unto or take part with him So that the Covenant the parts whereof seem to be inconsistent and irreconciliable within themselves and therefore not perfectly and exactly to be kept is either newly to be molded or which is more probable the War to continue between the Covenanters and the non-Covenanters many thousands of men neither having nor through the King's example willing to take the same The great Quarrel of ignorant men against the uniform current of the Holy Scripture of an higher concernment then an humane Covenant is acutely taken up by a learned * Paraus Writer Distingue tempora reconciliantur Scripturae in answer unto those who cavil against the Scriptures as if the Texts thereof were dissonant and repugnant each to other as if God's word certain and infallible in it self were contradictory to it self Distinguish between the time of the Covenant taking four or five yeers before the time of bringing the King to Tryal Observe the limitation in the particle of the Covenant That They had then no intention to diminish the King's just Power in opposition to unlawful and arbitrary and you will finde that the Covenant could not be so well and safely taken or that it is not so hainously broke as your Enemies give out But to your Objections against the Army That in adhering unto them is to trust to an Arm of Flesh so all sublunary and earthly Powers are but Arms of flesh Secondly That Independency admits of all Irreligion Heresies c. The Proposition is not well proved in that some particular soldiers belonging to or others well-wishing to the Army do devise and publish strange and unsound Tenents and Opinions which is not to be imputed to the Army or the Parliament neither is a present Cure to be applyed for redress thereof in all parts and places where they are vented The Army and their Party have enough to do to prevent and provide against the Power and Policy of their Enemies without an overhasty endeavoring to suppress the Schisms and Errors of every one of their Adherents The complaint against Heresies Schisms abounding is just seasonable and the Heresies most fit to be suppres'd The Complaint is made long since and it was foretold of old that Heresies must be c. The Apostle gives the reason That the sound and approved Truth may be known from fond and received Heresie The ground and seminary of broaching them may be besides the common and inbred corruption of Pride and Falsehood which mankinde is prone unto that so many sorts of men in many places do despise and speak against the Scriptures although the Rule of Christian Faith Others unwarranted do undertake to teach and expound the same In disordered and licentious times caused through the distractions of a Civil War it may fall out as a * S. Jerome Father of the Church complained it did in his of Scripture-Teachers of Expounders of the Mysteries in Divinity cited by a learned Divine upon the words of the Apostle charging the unlearned and unstable for wresting the Scriptures to their own destruction whose presumption the Divine tells us is enough to produce any Schism or Heresie Sola saith he Scripturarum ars est quam sibi omnes passim vendicant hanc garrula annus hanc delirus senex hanc sophtsta verbosus he might have filled up the measure of his Complaint by discovering many other sorts of unlearned People intruding into the holy Mystery of Divinity hanc universi praesumunt lacerant docent antequam discunt Every one presuming upon his parts and gifts to be a Teacher and Interpreter of Scripture whereas Practitioners in other Arts can contain themselves within the bounds of their own Profession The reason why the unlearned are so bold may be their want of ability to discern the strength of the Objections which may be made against them By the unlearned is not meant he who hath not read a multitude of Authors but he who taking upon him to divide the Word of God is raw and unexperienced or if he hath experience wants judgment to make use of it The anguish that these rash Presumers bring unto the discreeter sort of Brethren cannot but be great when being convinced of their unsound opinions for the maintaining that which with much boldness and open falshoods they have averred they pretend the Authority of the Word and whatsoever conceit is begotten in their heads the Spirit of God to be presently the Author of it when as learned and judicious men in whom the Lord hath put wisdom and understanding to know how to work all maner of work for the service of the Sanctuary like Bezaleel and Aholiab refuse much
that Book as unjustly and improbably delivered viz. The excuse and plausible reasons given of the King 's going to the House of Commons attended with so many armed Gentlemen as the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Treatise concerning the King's going to the House of Commons to surprize the five Members Author sayes was no unwonted thing for the Majesty of a King to be so attended especially in discontented times The times were not then so discontented as that unheard of and horrid act did afterwards make them and might have made them at that time had but the hand of one desperate Caitiffe given fire to his Pistols ready cockt the House of Commons being near full and equall in number to the Forces prepared against them no man knows how disastrous and fatall the event had been neither could the King justly fear to be assaulted or affronted by any in the House as the Author intimates None in the House within being armed answerable to that the King's Guard without The Author thinks that he hath handsomly palliated that attempt under colour of the King 's standing in need of a Guard rendring those His Attendants there short of His ordinary Guard but whether he means short in number or in forcible array he declares not Many other passages as improbable as these are the discourses of the Book too tedious to recite the examining and search whereof is besides my purpose It seems to have little of it of the King it hath Elegancy of wit enough and affectation of expressions to be applauded inconsistent with a sound and Christian wisdom whereunto His present Condition was to be fitted and Charity enjoynes not to think it His when full of so many uncharitable expressions although clothed in pious ejaculations The Author is too blame to father upon Him such intermixtures of Scorn and Piety in some parts of it Devotion and Penitencie in other Censurings and Detractings compiled probably by several Authors the off-spring too unlike it self to be truly and unviocally begot by one and the self-same Parent The words of Scorn are where the Author speaking of the King 's impeaching six Members of both Houses of High Treason terms them in a disdainful way * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pag. 11. Half a dozen which number is all one as six but the manner of the slighting Phrase Half a dozen unbecoming the grave and serious Majesty of a King especially He being in sorrow and affliction as the Author presents Him Not to be applyed to Gentlemen of quality rather to things of cheap and mean accompt vendible in Tradesmens Shops The whole Book indeed if throughly scanned is but a fine-dressed Invective against the one an Apology for the other Party fitly penned to keep up the affections of His friends to win and move compassion even from His enemies for whilest the Author presents him innocent and injured compassion begets affections towards the Person injured throws disgrace and calumny on the Persons injuring The best most acceptable and likelyest to be believed Tract had been if the Author in His Book had observed and declared that the King peradventure in the time of His greatest troubles and when the Victory stood doubtful did intend as He did then profess in many excellent and winning speeches delivered at York Shrewsbury Nottingham and else where to preserve the Laws and Liberties of His People to maintain the Protestant Religion the Power and Priviledg of Parliament which He could not but foresee take it either in the upright heart of a pious Prince intending it that His real and sincere intentions to maintain the same were His best brest plate and safest guard or take it in the politick part of a cunning Enemy meaning nothing less That such Professions were His next way to Conquer by but when He had thereby conquered what safety or security was there to be expected that He should not return unto and be governed by the advice of those evil Counsellors who had at the first drawn Him away and by degrees might have wrought upon His affections to the curbing if not to the suppressing those Laws and Liberties to the punishing those whom He had adjudged and called Travtors Rebels The High Treason charged on the Parliament by the Author in the Person of the King softly and mildely instilled into the Readers ears in that Book down-rightly and roughly by the divided Members sitting at Oxford in their Declaration printed there must be understood either le Crime de Majestie or le Crime de Fausonnerie The Crime against His Majesty is either against His Person or His Honor against His Person as to conspire or intend His death or to leavie War against Him against His Honour as to deflour the Queen His wife His daughter or the wife of His Heir to kill those His principal Officers of State specified within the Statute of 25. Edw. 3. comprising all Crimes adjudged Treason Flattery and a temporary conformity to the present and Arbitrary will of a Prince are but shadows only the true substance and highest degree of honouring Him is when men in Place and Authority deputed thereunto shall endeavour as the Parliament Protested and were credibly believed to have punished all Indignities Affronts and Crimes which had or might have been committed against the Peace His Crown and Dignity The other sort of High Treason is Le Crime de Fausonnerie two ways committed either by counterfeiting the Coyne or the Great Seal Now with which sort of High Treason doth the King's Party charge the Parliaments either with the first a purpose to destroy His Person c. as above recited or the latter the counterfeiting the Great Seal not against His Person The observing this Discourse throughout setting forth the Maner and Original of the Contention betwixt the King and His People the Parliament only is as it were the Judg between both doth manifest how improbable and untrue it doth appear that the Parliament when five or six years since accused of Treason by the divided Members sitting at Oxford did then or at any time before intend to levy and offensive War to imagine or conspire the Kings Death It is one thing originally to intend out of malice prepensed and fore-thought to devise or contrive a purpose another thing through an inevitable necessity to act against and contrary to the intention of the Actors If by the way any exquisite or choice ☞ Wits of a more sublimate reach then their Fellow-Subjects did know or could have discovered any dark or secret contrivances of such intendment or conspiracy against His Person deeming all others of a narrow and lower capacity ignorant and dull-spirited they were too blame to conceal the Plot the manner and means of effecting it They had Power Confidence and Liberty enough when the divided Members being of their Party sate at Oxford and there accused the Parliament sitting at Westminster of many treasonable Designs present which the quality of
to reduce His dis-affected Subjects of Scotland to their obedience desiring withall It may be recorded as an Ordinance of Parliament and to be printed as a testimony of their Loyalty to all the world and to succeeding ages which could not but stir up the Scots to seek protection and assistance from their fellow-Subjects and Friends wheresoever whom the King called His dis-affected Subjects and how He doth secern them from the rest is hard to judg when as the whole and most considerable part of that Kingdom did by their Pacts and Counsels at their Assemblies held withstand and resolve to withstand divers of His Messages obtruding on them such matters as made against the Peace of their Church and Kingdom See His Declaration since the Pacification Page 63. third also likely to bear a part in the broyls of the other two the King Himself jealous and displeased to see the Parliament then at distance with Him in transaction of matters concerning the three Kingdoms Petitioned and Appealed unto termed in an envious and scornfull way by some of His Party Omnipotent Others murmuringly upbraiding that it was Idolized Himself as it were neglected and left out none or seldom Addresses made to Him So the Parliament had a narrow path to tread between their hopes to regain the King 's lost Favour after many evidences of His Anger poured forth and their hazarding the ruine of those Principles which by their Duty and Covenant they were to assert and defend What those Principles were follows in this Discourse if rightly cast up but two in chief The securing the Protestant Religion the Primū quaerite The preserving the Laws and Peace b Suprema Lex salus Populi the chiefest Law the Peoples Safety The other Principles are subservient onely and fall in by complication and dependency upon those two as the means unto the end Lastly Sir That this Parliament thus acting You strenuously argued as knowing well that their Cause was just their War Defensive when another a Mr. Denz Hollis his Speech June 1642. Gentleman of the like abilities with you had in an excellent Speech delivered to that purpose That there was a succession of Designes to interrupt it as first by awing and taking away the Freedom of it by an Army then actually assaulting it and with the Sword to cut asunder the onely Nerves which strengthens and knits together the King and People the People amongst themselves and the whole frame of Government in one firm and indissoluble knot of Peace and Vnity That the Parliaments taking up Arms was to defend onely to repell the force and violence practised by a few of the King's side at first afterwards to provide against the mischief which His party heightened through Rage against the Parliament pretence of Loyalty towards the King might several ways intend That the Parliaments resisting His and His Party's attempts was as you then judged and discoursed for no other end then to maintain their own just Priviledges in order to the Maintenance of the Laws and Liberties of their fellow Subjects That they did not intend an offensive War the consequences whereof as of all Civil Discords could not but prove calamitous and sad the event and period as fatall and uncertain when as besides the two Parties immediately engaged each against the other a middle and Neutrall part although wiser in their own eyes then their Fellow Subjects worse as well in the b See the Declaration of the Lords and Commons assembled at Oxford Printed there pag. 26 27. King's Parties Accompt as in the Parliaments would fall in more to be shunned then a moderate Enemy That it being presumed the aim and councels of the Parliament and all men else being for Peace and Justice a War once waged would hinder and destroy their ayms and produce more overtures for discord more fresh supplies for quarrelling in the prosecuting which many unexpected chances would fall out to increase the discord as in the controversies between man and man he who hath not been so forward and visibly active for the side unto which he doth adhere shall be traduced and accused by him that loves him not for a Neutrall or an Enemy That amidst their hopes of Conquering there would not be wanting discontented and seditious humours even out of their own Party to traduce and calumniate their proceedings if not consonant to their particular humours and phantasies That those humours would be fed and animated by the first and common Enemy on purpose to divide and weaken the prevailing Power That divers other Consequences likely to result from War would prove harsh and irksom to a People born and governed under Laws and Peace as that the Souldiery and prevailing power knowing their own opportunity and strength would be apt to intermeddle with private Interests to the perverting Justice and trampling down the Laws which in a time of Peace distributes to every man his just right so that thereby the People would not only want the blessing of Peace but grow subject to the oppression charges and injuries incident to a War The Parliament could not but foresee that in case a War were to be waged their own Countrymen the English both Officers and Common Souldiers must fight it out Forreigners Souldiers of Fortune when they have gained will desist their undertakings and be gone That the English were unaccustomed to war therefore not fit for the Discipline and managing thereof through an easie and soft way of breeding not able to endure the hardship and duties of a War howbeit experience hath otherwise proved it That the English Gallantry and their courage un-acquainted with the conditions of a Warfare and the temper requisite to a Souldier might make them upon every discontent as apt to mutiny and resist as fight for he is not always the best Souldier who hath most courage unless he hath temper withall to yeeld obedience to the commands of his Superiours The Parliament could not but be sensible withall of the troubled condition of their fellow Subjects that the apprehension of Engaging would carry with it a sad aspect all men unwilling to and wary how they did Engage That the engaging Parties on either side when they see the face of War inevitably approaching would for their better strength and Union betake themselves to what Policy Pacts and Leagues they could Defensive and Offensive as to binde themselves and friends by Vow and Covenant which being to consist of severall Heads and Parts could not be so exactly and entirely framed but might admit of a doubtfull sense how to be be observed how to be understood in part or in the whole so consequently divide the Covenanters within themselves They could not but withall know that which side soever should prevail both sides would be loosers the King and Kingdom vast a See it recited in the Declaration Printed at Oxford 1643 pag. 13. sufferers in the loss as they in an humble dutiful Message although