Fire nor the Roman Catholiques by reason of the Oath of Supremacy the Halter Whereupon it was again desired by the Houses that Treason might be reduced into a certainty according to the Statute of the 25 of Edw. the 3. which was accordingly so enacted the 2. of Phil. and Ma. And all these three Statutes 25 Edw. 3. 1 Hen. 4. and 2 Phil. and Ma. are yet in force In which the attempting of any thing against the Kings Person the adhering to the Kings Enemies the leavying War against the King The seizing of any of his Forts or his Ships Royal The Counterfeiting of the Kings Hand or his great or privy Seal with many other particulars are so explicitely and clearly enacted to be high Treason That whosoever should be guilty of the Fact would have as ill a Plea to plead That â—unius Brutus Buchanan or any of our new Doctors did hold and maintain by their writings That it is lawfull in such and such Cases to take Armes against the King and so consequently in all the other particulars specified in the said Statute As a Felon that had rob'd upon the high way would have to plead that Theft by the Law of God is not punishable by death for which he would not want likewise his * Authors But such as have been acquainted with the Courses held with those that have been Indicted and Arraigned for Treason will know That to be proceeded against only upon the plain and clear letter of the Law is to have favourable Iustice And he shall have the Kings Atturny and the learned Counsel with Eloquence and great strains of Wit by Deductions and Inferences as though they had lost the day if the Accused should be acquitted stretch the litteral Text beyond what it can rationally or honestly bear and speaking as they say for the King no man dares reprove or restrain them But to suppose that any Allegation of Conscience or the Opinion of learned Authors nay if it were Texts out of Scripture against the explicite letter of the Law would be heard or admitted were a great Ignorance But he would be told as I know some have been That all other things were Matters dehors Nothing to the purpose The issue was only factum or non factum And truly wofull experience had taught me to be wary in humane prudence not to imbarque my self in a Business wherin my Conscience was not only altogether unsatisfied but if I should ever be brought to a legal Tryal upon it mine own Judgment told me I could have nothing to say in mine own Defence of Justification or that could preserve my Self and Posterity from total Ruine and Destruction but Prevailing and Victory Which at the most could but protect but could not make a bad Cause good But besides humane Prudence and fear of Punishment there is a Conscientious Tye of obeying the Law we being taught to obey not only for wrath but for Conscience sake S. Paul saith That if there had been no Law there had been no sinne which sheweth That the breaking of just Laws and legally established is sin For the supream Powers therein are chiefly disobeyed who are supposed to command more Authoritatively by their Laws than by their Verbal Commands Further as the Laws are so positive against Resistance and taking Arms against the King so likewise have the Laws been as carefull to Protect and thereby to Incourage the Subject to adhore unto their King for it is provided by the Stat. 11 of Hen. 7. Cap. 1. That from henceforth no manner of person or persons whatsoever he or they be that attend upon the King and Soveraign Lord of this Land for the time being in his Person and do him true and faithfull service of Allegience in the same or be in other places by his Commandement in his Wars within this Land or without That for the said deed true duty of Allegeance he or they be no wise Convict or Attaint of high Treason nor of other offences for that Cause by Act of Parliament or otherwise by any Process of Law whereby he or any of them shall lose or forfeit Life Land Tenements Rents Possessions Hereditaments Goods Chattels or any other things but to be for that deed and service utterly discharged of any Vexation Trouble or Losse And if any Act or Acts or other Process of the Law hereafter thereupon for the same happen to be made contrary to this Ordinance That then that Act or Acts or other Process of the Law whatsoever they shall be stand and be utterly void Provided alwaies That no Person or Persons shall take any benefit or advantage by this Ast which shall hereafter decline from his or their said Allegeance So that if they that have served the King with Fidelity according to the Law shall by their prevailing fellow-Subjects be attainted and their Estates forfeited and disposed of at their pleasure It must be by some such Transcendent Power as must be above all Laws For as by the Law no Subject ought either to be attainted or lose his Estate for serving the King in his Wars so can no Confiscations by the Law belong to any but unto the King or such as derive their Right from him It is true in the Heat and Contestation of War it is usual that whatsoever Goods or Wealth the souldier can lay hands upon is de facto esteemed good Purchase But after the War is ended the Law useth then to recover her Force And setled Inheritances in all former Civill Wars in England have never been disposed of by the Arbitrary Power of the prevailing Party although they were Kings claiming the Crown by Title and might have Right to Confiscations but by legal Convictions and due course of Law much more in the Case of Subjects taking Arms against their King which is alwaies in the beginning stiled and proclaimed Rebellion by the King that they Oppose untill Success or Treaty qualifie that Name That they should not content themselves with a General Pardon and Act of Oblivion and the settlement of the Government for the future to their reasonable Content and Security for themselves and their Estates But that Inheritances must be confiscated and disposed of by them and such persons as they shall please without legal Tryal and as it were by Proscription or Decimation be by a Vote designed to loss of Life and Estate without Pardon or Mercy What greater Cruelty could have been used towards them if they had faln into the hands of the Turk or most merciless Conquerour especially if it shall be considered that in this Case no Neutrality could be admitted nor the most peaceable-minded man avoid the being ingaged For as by the Law it is Treason to take Armes against the King by the above-recited Statutes so by the Statute of the 19 Hen. 7. It is loss of all Honours Castles Lordships Mannors Lands Tenements and other Hereditaments c. not to take Armes for the King and
as well as Iustice And is so expresly declared and annexed unto the King by the Stat. of the 27 H. 8. c. 24. The Revenues of the Church have been annexed unto it for the better part of one thousand years 7. The taking away of the Lands of Bishops and Cathedral Churches confirmed by many Charters from all our Kings have Prescription of many hundreds of years and are firmly annexed to the Church as Law Charters or Prescription can settle them Now if these Revenues shall be taken away and disposed of without processe of Law without the Kings consent who is sworn to uphold them and is founder of them all without the consent or forfeiture of the Possessors What man can think he hath a better Title to any thing he holdeth or assure himself of any Land or other thing he possesseth for one day longer than Houses shall please Besides it is against Magna Charta the Law and the Kings Oath and the Usance of the Kingdom in all times 8. The Court of VVard For the King to have Wardships is an inheritance and Right of the Crown approved by the Common Law of Enland and acknowledged and submitted unto in all Ages And the Court of Wards is setled and established by Act of Parliament in the time of H. 8 And it was indeavoured to be compounded for at a valuable consideration in the time of King Iames and by him refused because it was so great a flower of his Crown as was not fit to be severed from it And now if the Houses should force a Bargain at their own pleasure and their own price it were contrary to all Law all Reason and Moral Iustice and to the disherison of the Crown The detaining of the Kings Children under their governance 9. Touching the Kings children The ordering of their Education and their future Mariage cannot belong unto the Houses but unto the King by all divine human Laws and by the Law of Nature Neither is the contrary anywhere practised but by the great Turke No new Oaths can be imposed upon the Subject but by the warrant of an Act of Parliament 10 Touching imposing of new Oaths as is declared by the Petition of Right and is so setled by the Act of 3. Car. and hath been so declared during this Parliament by the two Houses upon occasion of the new Canons as appears in the Collection of their own Orders pag. 159.160.908.910 And we find the two Oaths of supremacy and Alleageance the first in 1. Eliz. the second in 3 Iac. were both framed and injoined to be taken in and by several Acts of Parliament and yet now do the Houses presse Oaths upon their fellow Subjects utterly inconsistent with the other legal Oaths which they have formerly taken and for the refusal of their Oath of Covenant and of their Negative Oath in expresse tearms to abjure their Alleagiance to their Soveraign they condemn them of Malignancy a new word of Art not formerly known to the Laws of England 11. Concerning Treason It is defined by the Act of the 25. Ed. 3. cap. 2. and afterward 1 H. 4. 2 Ma. that Act was confirmed and enacted That nothing should be adjudged Treason but what is declared to be so by the Statute of the 25. Ed. 3. or should be afterwards declared to be Treason by Parliament which is understood to be by Act of Parliament which cannot be without the Kings Royal assent and therefore in the Reign of H. 8. we find several Treasons enacted to be so by Parliament which afterwards were all repealed by that of the 2 Mar. And again in the Reign of Queen Mary Queen Eliz. and King Iames new Treasons declared by new Acts of Parliament in their several times But now in this present Sessions the two Houses in many several Cases singly of themselves without the solemnity of an Act by an Ordinance only have ordered that men should die as Traitors and lose their whole Estates without pardon or mercy for such supposed crimes as formerly were so far from being Treason as that they are not legally crimes or misdemeanors as may be instanced in divers particulars out of their own Coll. of Orders The treating with forein Princes and States 12. The treating with forein Princes and Staâ—es the making of Peace and War and the sending of Ambassadors or Messengers to those purposes are Acts meerly regal and inherent in the Crown and never questioned till now By the Statute of 2. H. 5. cap. 6. The breaking of Truce and Safe-Conducts is enacted to be Treason so much it importeth the Honour of the Crown The King may out of doubt conclude Peace or proclaim War without his Houses of Parliament But to contribute to the maintenance of a forein War the Assent of the Houses is necessary it being in their free liberty to give or not to give Subsidies or other Aides to that purpose But for the making of Peace or War they have no Votes but it is in the sole power of the King Yet doubtlesse Kings do the more prudently when they take the advice and affections of their people along with them in those weighty affaires especially in making a War with a forein Prince or people otherwise they shall hardly have the Assistance of their purses 13. The nominating of Judges Sheriffs Justices c. without which the Kings of England can hardly make or maintein a War to their Advantage The nominating of Iudges Sheriffs Iustices of Peace c. was never pretended unto by the Parliament but in tumultuous and rebellious times and the Kings of England for some hundred of yeers last past have nominated and appointed them by their Writs or Commissions under their great Seal And by the Acts of 9. Ed. 2. the Statute of Lincoln and 12. R. 2. cap. 2. it is appointed how the choice of Sheriffs and other publique Ministers of Iustice shall be recommended to the King and that the King hath the sole appointing of them And it is so setled by Act of Parliament the 37. H. 8. That such nominations do and shall wholy belong unto the King and his Successors c. By these Animadversions it will clearly appear That the particulars which are mentioned in the 57 and 58 pages of this Discourse are meerly usurped and intruded upon by the Houses but de jure do solely and wholly belong unto the King or can have no life without him which was thought fit rather to be added by this Appendix than by inserting them in the Discourse it self for not interrupting the Series thereof FINIS See the Speeches made for AccoÌ„modation before the War was actually begun in Append pag. 1. 9. Proofs out of the old Testament * Deut. 24.16 Ezech. 18.20 2 Kings 14.6 * Psal. 82. v. 6. * Deut. 1.17 2 Chro. 19. v. 6. Proofs out of the New Testament * Rom. 13. v. 2. See the Propositions in Append pag. 13. Vide Stat. 1. Jacobi cap. 1. in App. pag. 18. wherin the Soveraignty of the King is fully set down Lib. 5. Orat. in Auretium Epist. ad Demetrianum Niceph lib. 7. cap. 6. Tertulliun in Apologetico * Mat. 26.53 54. * 2 Kings 6. v. 16 17 18. c. Act. 12. v. 11. Act. 27.24 Act. 16.26 36. The Protestant churches declare against Subjects taking Arms against their Princes Confessio Aâ—gust 〈…〉 6. Gallia Art 40. Helvet Art 26. Scot. Art 24. Anliae Art 27. Osor de Iur. Majest. fol. 140. Pierre 〈…〉 in his â—â—â—fence of 〈◊〉 Faith Pag. 3.4 Admitting all the Positions either by Protestants or Papists were true which allow Subjects to take Arms against their Princes yet they agree not with the present Case Shewing that the Tenents of Roman Catholiques are not applicable to the present Case Sheweth that the opinions of such Protestants as allow in some cases of subjects taking of arms against their Prince if they were true yet are not applicable to the present case * Exceptio firmat Regulam in non exceptis In Appendice page 17. In Appendice pag. 18. See the Stat. in Append. pag. 19. * â— Lod. Vives If all sin be the transgression of some Law I would be satisfied how men are become Delinquents that have transgressed against no law The most miserable condition of the Kings Loyal Servants by no prudence to be prevented nor they by any Innocency to be preserved * In what sort the Project of the Ship-mony was set on foot the fault wherof cannot with any Iustice be attributed to the King The fault of Monopolies not to be attributed to the King but to evil Ministers and Referrees A Princes Religion ought not to be a ground of Rebellion or disobedience 〈…〉 Hen. 3. King of Fr. by Iacque 〈◊〉 Hen. 4. King of by Fr. by 〈…〉 The Prince of 〈◊〉 by 〈…〉 The Non-conformists themâ—selves 〈◊〉 out 〈◊〉 Pâ—â—tell aâ—â— 3 â—â—c 1605. 〈…〉 clear to this point Vide Art 4 6 9. in Ap. pag. 19. The King caused Pr. Charles his Son and Heir to become a Suter unto the Houses for the saving the Earls life who came in person and propounded it as the first Request he had ever made unto them but could not obtain it In â—ppendice pag. 1. A. The Right of all thâ—se specified particulars from the lâ—tter A. to the Letter B. are fully shewn to belong unto the King and that the Houses can have no colour of pretence unto them In App. pag. 20. * Dic Lunâ—e 4 Maâ—i 1646. Oâ—dered that whosoever should â—aâ—â—our or conceal the King and not 〈◊〉 it c. should be proceeded 〈◊〉 as a Traitor and dâ— without mercy B. * Phil. 3. v. 6. * 1 Tim. 1 v. 13. John 16.2 Matth. 7.12 * Le Roy ne fait toâ—t is only to be understood in the ordinary course of justice which the King administring by his Ministers and not in Person it is they that are the wrong doers and not the King and the subjâ—ct against 〈…〉 his Remedy Wisd. 6. v. 1 2 3 4 5 6. Matt. 7.12
AN APOLOGIE OF JOHN EARL OF BRISTOL CONSISTING OF TWO TRACTS IN THE FIRST He setteth down those Motives and Tyes of Religion Oaths Laws Loyalty and Gratitude which obliged him to adhere unto the King in the late unhappy Wars in England IN THE SECOND He vindicateth his Honour and Innocency from having in any kind deserved that injurious and merciless Censure of being excepted from Pardon or Mercy either in Life or Fortunes Printed in the Year 1657. TO THE COVNTESSE of BRISTOL MY BELOVED WIFE HAving by the space of almost forty years lived comfortably together and God having been pleased to give us Children and a Posterity to whom instead of Plenty which they might have expected I might have left unto them I am now like to leave nothing but the same want and poverty which is already befallen my self I have sent unto you and them the best Legacy that I can think of to leave amongst you which is a Discourse consisting of two Parts In the first the Motives of Honour Loyalty and Religion are set down which deterred my Conscience from taking Armes against the King In the second I endeavour a Vindication of my Honour and Innocency from that severe and injurious Sentence of Exception of the Houses whereby they have declared me a Delinquent that must not expect Pardon or Mercy either in point of Fortune or of Life which must of necessity insinuate me unto the World and unto Posterity to have been a Malefactor of a more hâ—gh and horrid Nature than the Generality of those that have served the King in this War I wish you and they may have as much Comfort in the reading of it as I had in the writing of it which I believe to have been greater notwithstanding my Banishment and Want in my old Age than hath remained in the Breast of any of those that have made us so miserable Although you may communicate it with your Children and Family and near Friends yet I would not have it generally divulged or made publike for although it commeth to you in Print That is only because I wanted the means of transcribing it and I found here a great Conveniency of Printing it And it is not the more divulged thereby for that there is not any one Copy thereof but such as remain in my hands And this unto you is the only one that I have yet parted with The last request you made unto me with Tears when I departed from you and left the kingdom was That I would set down in writing mine own Proceeding and the unavoidableness and Iustifiableness of the Cause for which we have suffered and whereof I had so often discoursed unto you And truly such hath been in all kinds your great Deserving from me That I have taken this pains chiefly for your Satisfaction as I should do much more in any thing that I should judge might be to your Comfort and that might remain as a Testimony of my Kindness Affection and Value of you BRISTOL THE CONTENTS OF THE SEVERAL Chapters contained in the first part of this Discourse Chap. 1. THe Introduction and Motives of Writing this Discourse page 1. Chap. 2. The particular Reasons of adhering unto the King in this Cause and the Method observed in this Discourse 10. Chap. 3. Reasons deduced from Scripture 12. Chap. 4. The Doctrin and Practice of the Primitive Church of not resisting their Princes notwithstanding they were Heathens or Apostates 19. Chap. 5. Setting down the Obligations and Tyes by Solemn Oaths and Protestation of not taking Arms against the King 31. Chap. 6. Setting down the unlawfulness of Hostile Resistance drawn from Humane Laws 34. Chap. 7. The Motives deduced from Honor Honesty and Gratitude of not forsaking the King in his Troubles 38. Chap. 8. A Vindication of the King against that false and injurious Aspersion of unsettledness in his Religion 44. Chap. 9. Shewing the War not to have been begun by the King but that he condescended to all things that could in reason be demanded of him for the preventing of it 51. Chap. 10. Shewing a particular Tye of Gratitude by the Generousness and Reconcileableness of the Kings Disposition 59. Chap. 11. A brief summary of the Reasons formerly set down for the not taking Arms against the King 61. Chap. 12. All the former Reasons applyed to the present Case of King CHARLES with a positive opinion thereupon 63. CHAP. 1. The Introduction and Motives of writing this Discourse I NEVER more unwillingly took pen in hand than at present to set down the subsequent Discourse for mine own Vindication against so many unjust and untrue aspersions as have been cast upon me and so great severities as have been used towards me For it was in my hopes that rather some publique and legal Tryal should have given me the means of clearing my self to the World than my pen Neither could I but in reason expect that whether by Treaty or by Force this unatural War should be extinguished such only as had been accused of illegal Oppressions or such as had been the Inventors to set on foot or the Instruments to act those things which were the cause of those unhappy mis-understandings and divisions betwixt the King and the People should have been reserved to the highest and severest punishments But that others who neither were nor could be charged with any other Crime but their adherence to either party according as they were guided by their Consciences might after some such moderate sufferings as the less successfull party are usually liable unto or after some legal Trial have been admitted to an Act of Oblivion whereby those general animosities which this War hath raised might have been allayed and by little and little have grown to be forgotten and those naturall and near relations betwixt man and wife parents and children friend and friend which this War by difference in opinion and part-taking hath destroyed might together with the peace of the Kingdom have been restored And in expectation of some such happy accord or some moderate reducement when that all mens Cases might have been calmly considered of and that the great Successes of the Houses in their war would have been seconded by their Acts of the greater and clearer Iustice And that such as had made their humble addresses unto them should have been admitted to the means of informing them and not to be censured or condemned unheard especially such as Petitioned for and submitted to the Justice of the Kingdom Upon this hope and expectation I passed by more than twenty printed aspersions full of infamy bitterness and detraction but void of all Truth These I neglected although I saw the operation they had of raising a hatred and detestation in the People who fetched their intelligence from them and grounded their opinions of prejudice upon them But that which I was far from neglecting but lay'd to my heart with great sadness and grief of mind was The severe Censures of the Houses
in their Propositions to the King at Oxford when without Summons Hearing or Conviction I was censured to be made incapable of holding of any place or imployment in the Kingdom or to come within the Verge of the Court without laying the least Crime or Delinquency to my charge and since in the Propositions at Uxbridge their severity increasing towards me they added much to their former Censure I am sure without any further Crime or Provocation on my part having before that time with the Kings leave retired my self from the Court with intention to have passed the rest of mine age in a private life which the War not permitting me at my House at Sherbone I did at Exeter for the space of more than 2 years with as much privacy as was possible for me Yet was I so unfortunate that although their former desires of my being removed from Court were accomplished by my voluntary Act neither time did allay their displeasure nor my absence from Court restrain their further severitie towards me But I was voted in those Propositions prepared to be offered to his Majesty and afterwards sent unto him to be in the number of the most high and capital Offenders who were not to expect Pardon or Mercy either concerning Life or Fortune Yet herewith was not my Patience and resolution of Silence overborn conceiving this Exception could signifie nothing more than that such Excepted Persons upon whom the displeasure of the Houses was highly fallen should not be admitted to that general Pardon of Course which joyned to some pecuniary Mulct or Composition should be a Discharge and indempnity to others that had born Armes without further Tryal or Impeachment But that the Excepted Person should be reserved to a particular strict Legal Tryal and being after a fair hearing legally convicted of those presupposed hainous and foul Crimes the suggestions whereof induced the Houses to lay this heavy mark of Distinction upon them They being so condemned should have the severity of Law and Justice to pass upon them and be excepted from Pardon as far as lay in the houses to except them But I did not conceive that the intention of the Houses was or could be to except them from a legal Tryal or fair Hearing nor from being acquitted or cleared if they were innocent For no man could entertain so hard or prejudiced an opinion of the two Houses or of the Scotish Commissioners who concurred and assented to the Propositions and the Exception that they should upon the transferring of such Persons as the House of Peers should nominate of their Body or the House of Commons of their Members or of the Body of the Commons or the Scotish Commissioners of their Kingdom condemn implicitely or Proscribe in compliance one to the other without distinct knowledge of the Person or the Crimes so many noble Personages and Families to totall ruine and destruction without hearing or due processe of Law Besides their demanding of the Kings assent to pass their Condemnations and Incapacities by Act of Parliament must needs imply a due preceding Tryal and Conviction to be intended for the satisfying of the King of the Crimes and guilt of the Persons For it cannot be presupposed of the Houses that either in regard of piety or reason they could expect that the King should involve himself in so merciless a sentence of shedding so many mens blood and destroying so many good Families implicitely upon trust of other men without distinct information and satisfaction of his own Conscience And this against Persons who have been most Loyal and their Crime and Delinquencie only for having faithfully adhered to him according to the Law and their Oaths So that my Opinion then was That the intention of the Houses could be no other but that whereas some were admitted to a pecuniary Composition for their pretended Delinquency the Excepted Persons should not be admitted thereunto but be reserved to the severity of Justice without mercy but first be admitted to a legal Tryal And herein I was further confirmed by divers Treaties made with their General upon the laying down of Armes and the surrendring of Cities unto them and particularly of Excester where I was and was to have injoyed the befit of those Articles by which it was permitted unto me and unto all other Excepted Persons to endeavour by the space of four moneths to make our Peace and Composition And this would never have been condescended unto by their General and ratified by the Votes of both Houses if they intended their Vote of Exception as a final Sentence irrevocable and unalterable which they have likewise by their own Acts declared to be otherwise For that upon mediation and further information they have been pleased to several Persons to remit the severity of the Vote of Exceptions and have admitted them to Composition Upon all these preceding Reasons being confident that some such fitting season would be offered either by way of Petition or by way of being called to a fair and Legal Trial That I should be heard and after a particular Charge of all such Crimes as could be laid against me I should be admitted to a just defence Upon this ground I have hitherto remained silent and made no Answer to those so many most unjust and untrue Calumnies and Aspersions which have been cast upon me both in Print and otherwise And now by the said Treatie of Excester I supposed a fair opportunitie given me to address my self unto the Houses to attain that which was ever in my desires which was to be admitted unto an Hearing That they might judge distinctly of my Case after a full Information of all that concerned me And thereupon I addressed my humble Petition to the House of Peers That I might receive so much Favour and Justice from them That since I was by the Treaty admitted to use my best indeavours so far to satisfie the Houses that I might be left in the Condition of other men that had served the King I might be heard by them And in case I should not upon hearing give the Houses satisfaction of not deserving to be a Person Excepted I would not decline any thing whatsoever the Houses should order concerning me And in Case that it should not be seasonable in regard of their many great Affairs at that time to afford me such a Tryal That I might remain privately at mine House ingaging my self to do nothing to the prejudice of the Houses either by Act or Correspondence And to make my appearance whensoever I should be summoned and to abide their Order This Petition had likewise an humble Request unto the Lords That the said Petition might be communicated with the House of Commons in such sort as their Lordships in their wisdom should think fit For I might not being a Peer make my addresses but by them or their particular leave Yet knowing that the Proposition of Exceptions was by the joint Vote of both Houses and that no
never have betaken me to any other way of clearing my self although I am not ignorant upon how great disadvantage and hazard any man is brought to a Tryal upon the Impeachment and pursuit of the Houses Neither had I any reason to slatter my self with any indulgency towards we Yet withall I had and have so great confidence of my own clear Innocency in point of not meriting to be excepted from the same course of proceeding afforded others That I was never more desirous to attain any thing than I was and am to be admitted to an equal and fair Hearing and Legal Tryal As for the point of having served and adhered to the King I shall neither deny or evade it but my Case is in that the same with many Thousands and I should be too indulgent to my self not to expect the same misfortunes and suffering with others But now almost despairing of ever to be so happy as to see mine own Country again in regard of my Age and Infirmities and in less hopes of ever being admitted to a fair Hearing since the very ways of Addresses or Petitions unto them are debarred me and the using of any further indeavour to satisfie them is voted down And since their Sentence is already before either Examination Tryal or Conviction put in execution in as much as concerneth Fortunes or Estates by their actual possessing and disposing of them So that having nothing left unto me but an exiled Life present wants and an expectation of greater poverty I shall indeavour to bear those heavy visitations which God hath been pleased to send upon me and my Family with that Constancy of mind and pious submission to Gods holy will as befitteth a good Christian and leave unto my Family and Posterity the subsequent Discourse where in the first place I shall set down those Reasons that induced me to adhere unto the King being as I conceive thereunto bound in Honour and Conscience by the Law of God and of the Land by many solemn Oaths by natural Allegiance as a Subject and by Honesty and Gratitude as a sworn Servant both to his Father and to himself Of which several Obligations I shall speak in the first part of this Discourse And in the second part I shall make so true and faithfull a Narration of my Proceedings as I doubt not But to appear to have been a Faithfull Loyal and Affectionate Servant to the King my Soveraign and Master But to have had no hand in any of those Exorbitancies which caused those misunderstandings betwixt the King and his People To have been no Incendiary betwixt the King and the Houses But on the contrary to have used all possible indeavours as far as in me was to have put those unhappy breaches and differences into a way of Accommodation whereby a Civil War might have been prevented and since the War there never was any Overture or hope of Peace to which I did not contribute both my prayers and all the furtherance that was in my power And so not to have deserved that merciless Sentence of Unpardonable Destruction CHAP. II. The particular Reasons of adhering unto the King in this Cause and the method observed in this Discourse MY intention is not in this Discourse wherein the Vindication of mine own Honour and Innocency and the setting down of those Reasons which deterred my Conscience from taking Armes against my King is the main scope to write a defence of the Cause in general or to dispute the Question of Subjects taking Armes against their Soveraign It will require a large and elaborate Tract aparr which may not be interrupted by any thing of the proceedings of a particular man Neither will I censure or judge other men nor fix upon others though of a contrary way any thing that may seem opprobrious notwithstanding the Stile of Traitor and notorious Traitor hath often been my Title in Print although that detestable name in this Case doth not make me blush I know mens Consciences may by different Principles be carried different waies Neither will I censure so many men of all Qualities and Conditions and religious Professions of so much Impietie as to have broken through all Tyes of Allegiance and Loyaltie and so many Oaths their Consciences unconsulted and without conceiving they had found something to ballance their Judgements against so many precise and clear Duties I shall only set down the motives and inducements of mine own Conscience which ought to be to each Christian his Guide against which as he can do nothing well so even good Actions become evil if they be done with an unsatisfied or dubious conscience The Rules of Scripture being That we be fully perswaded in our minds Rom. 14.5 That he is happy that condemneth not himself in the thing he alloweth vers. 22. That he that doubteth is damned And that all things that are not of faith are Sin ver. 23. So that as it will be easily agreed That to all Christian men Conscience ought to be the strongest and most unresistable guide and of so great and binding authoritie with us That it should over-rule all considerations of Safetie Profit Ambition Revenge or other Interest whatsoever So it behooveth each Christian man to seek out the best and most unfallible marks and directions for the guiding of his Conscience in the right way And this I may with truth declare and take God to my witness in it That when I did see that no Industry wherein I omitted nothing that was in my power for the stopping allaying or reconciling of those differences and violences which breaking in like a floud prevailed over mine and all other peaceable minded mens indeavours could produce any good effect And that there was now nothing left to any man but in an unevitable War to make choice of the juster side as his Conscience towards God in the first place and his other civil duties and obligations should dictate unto him I did after many Conferences with learned men of the other way much studie and reading of all that I could find to have written in favour or excuse of Subjects taking Arms against their King resolve contrary to all worldy or prudential Interests of my own to adhere to the King according as my Conscience was satisfied I was bound to do By the law of God By the doctrine and practice of all Christian Churches and in all times By many Oathes By the laws of the Kingdom By my natural Allegiance as a Subject And by Gratitude and Fidelity as a sworn Servant both to his Father and Himself Of each which several Obligations I shall speak in the subsequent Discourse in the order that is here set down CHAP. III. Reasons deduced from Scripture AS it will be easily assented unto that Conscience ought to be the guide of our Actions so the most infallible Rule whereby to guide Conscience to a Christian ought to be the Principles of Religion and those Principles are above all other
Protestation was by my self taken in the House of Peers and subscribed by me wherein I Promise Vow and Protest in the presence of God as far as lawfully I may with my Life Power and Estate according to the Duty of my Alleageance to Maintain and Defend his Majesties Royal Person Honour and Estate Now how the taking arms against him and the assailing and pursuing of him in Battel can be for the defence of his Royal Person or the seizing of all his Revenew for the Maintenance of his Estate or the divesting of him of all Power and Authority with so many other sad things that against him have been said and done and which my Pen blusheth to set down can be for the Defence and Maintenance of his Honour or how the Stile of Majesty which in this Pootestation we give him the Usage of him considered can be otherwise judged of but as a Scorn and Derision I understand not sure I am that I took the said Protestation in earnest and with an Attestation of God that I would faithfully perform it And so by his holy Assistance I will ever do according to the express words in the said Protestation with my Life Power and Estate Neither am I in any kind able to conceive how it is possible for any Christian Man that hath taken the former Oaths and Protestation of Adhering Defending and Assisting of the King against all Persons whatsoever to swallow much lesse to digest the new Negative Oath which in the subsequent words I A. B. do swear from my heart That I will not directly nor indirectly adhere unto or willingly assist the King in this War or in this Cause against the Parliament c. I am likewise as much unsatisfied of the late National Covenant how it may stand or be reconciled to these former Oaths and Protestation But in regard that is a Businesse of great Consequence and length I will set down in a Tract apart those Scruples which hitherto have deterred my Conscience from venturing upon it That these Oaths have been established by lawfull Authority they were made and enjoined by free and unquestionable Parliaments whose Acts I speak not of Ordinances but of Acts wherein the Royal Assent hath concurred are of that high and Soveraign Authority that the Law admitteth of no Plea nor averment against them And this I am confident will be by all acknowledged They have likewise been legally administred by the Ministers that by the said Acts have thereunto been appointed and ordained and for the Justness and Righteousness of them the Confirming of them by so many several Acts of Parliament by which Laws no person can have a Voice in Parliament but stands to all intents and purposes as a person that had not been elected or returned if he sit in the House before he have taken the said Oaths And the continuing of the enjoyning of them by the Houses unto this day must clear all Dispute or Question of that kind For the Houses do not admit of Members unto their Houses nor Officers into their places until they have first taken the said Oaths in such sort as by the Statutes is ordained So that it is clear that they are aswell as others satisfied in the goodnesse of them Besides the subject matter of these Oaths is just and righteous in it self being only in pursuance of those duties of Obedience which are commanded us both by the Law of God and the Land and which are extra juramentum obligantia obliging in themselves though there were no Oath It is further to be observeed That besides the legal penalties that may be injoyned for the refusing or breaking of rhese Oaths they contain something further than temporal Punishment can reach unto they carry with them The heavy Iudgement of God declared in Scripture against the breakers of solemn Oathes And in this Case there is yet much more added for we accompany the breach of them with the most horrid and fearfull Execration that any Christians can draw upon themselves renouncing the Help and Protection of God Almighty and the Benefit of our Reemption contained in the Holy Gospel if we fail in the performance of them which I understand to be quantum in nobis est if we do not indeavour to do the utmost in our power to keep them But voluntarily for Fear or Interest not only to break them but to do that which by the very plain words is contrary to the said Oaths and is contrary to that sence in which I took them as I understand the taking of armes against the King to be with many other things of necessity following thereupon I durst not adventure upon that which my Conscience judged so great an Impiety CHAP. VI Setting down the unlawfulness of Hostile Resistance drawn from Humane Laws HAving thus set down those Reasons which deterred my Conscience from making Hostile Resistance unto the King which have been deduced out of the Word of God the Doctrine and Practice of holy Men and the Obligation of sacred Oaths I shall now propose my Scruples drawn from humane Laws but especially from the Laws of our Kingdom By the Common Law of England many things were Treason But because the Common Law is not composed in one intire body or Text and it was difficult for the unlearned and Lay-People to inform themselves exactly and distinctly what was Treason and what was not the goodness of the King and the wisedom of the Parliament in the time of Edw. the 3. was such that for the avoiding of the insnaring of the People in so high a Penalty and Destruction as followeth the being convicted of Treason It was thought fit that all those things which for the future should be esteemed or adjudged Treason should be particularly and distinctly set down in one Law and exclusively to all things else which was accordingly done in the Statute of the 25 Edw. 3. And in case it should so fall out that any matter should arise besides those particulars specified in the said Statute No judgement should passe thereon but it should be reserved till the next Parliament But for those Cases in the said Statute expressed they were enacted to be Treason and so to be adjudged by the ordinary course of Iustice And in regard that in the troublesome and disorderly time of Richard the 2. the prevailing party which still swayed the Parliament had made and unmade many several Treasons as suited to the Designs and Interests of those that had the Power In the first year of Hen. the 4. all those newsprung-up Treasons were revoked and abolished and Treason again reduced to the Statute of 25 Edw. the 3. The like inconveniences growing in the Wars betwixt the Houses of York and Lancaster and afterwards by the fierceness of Hen. the 8. who upon the alterations he had made in Religion had so insnared the Subject that the Protestants of the reformed Religion could not by reason of the six Atticles escape the
not to follow him in his Wars against his Enemies or his Rebels which the Subject de bene esse is to understand to be such as the King proclaimeth to be Traitors Not that a Proclamation maketh them so but the Subject is so to esteem them until they be brought to a legal Tryal So that there never was a harder Condition nor more unavoydable than this of the Kings present Loyal Subjects who should have been Traitors by the Law if they should have taken Armes against the King and should likewise lose ther Lands Honours Castles c. if they did not fight for him And yet contrary to the Law Providing that no man should forfeit Life or Estate for serving of the King He shall by an Arbitrary Power of his fellow Subjects be condemned to lose both without Pardon or Mercy for doing that for which he must have lost legally both Life and Estate and his Soul to boot if he had not done it CHAP. VII The Motives deduced from Honour Honesty and Gratitude of not forsaking the King in his troubles BEsides the Obligation formerly set down deduced from the Law of God and the positive Law of the Kingdom there is a third Law which hath a great Authority in the hearts of all generous and noble-minded Men which is the Law of Honour and Gratitude which Law I conceive to be a Branch of the Original and first Law The Law of Nature For it hath had and still holdeth a Value and Reverence through all Religions as it hath done through all times I must confess this Law hath been and is in some kinds too high lifted up and is become the Idol of many mens fancies who pay unto it a more exact Obedience and are more carefull not to transgress against it than they are not to offend God or the Laws they live under whereof we have daily too many Presidents when men rather than to be failing in point of Honour will upon frivolous provocations decline all duties to God and Man and sacrifice to this Idol oftentimes the hazard of their Lives and Fortunes together with their Souls But this is an Excess and Excrescency of Honour and Courage in the justification whereof I know nothing that can be said In the excuse of it it is to be hoped that in so generally-received an Error whereby men become Infamous and scarce fit for honest company that comply not therein Custom and Universallity may allay and mitigate the Offence But that Honour which I speak of is better exprest by plain moral Honesty and Gratitude when neither Fear nor Disadvantage shall drive us or withold us from just Duties nor the Misfortunes or Distresses of those to whom we have had former obligations make us leave and forsake to be assistant and serviceable unto them in all just and lawfull things although it be to our own Hinderance or that we can expect no further good or advantage by them And herein my Case is different from the common Cases of Subjects being more particularly bound unto Gratitude by many Benefits and unto Honesty Affection and Fidelity by my Service in places of greatest Trust about the King both for nearness to his Person as a Gentleman of his Bed-chamber and as a Servant confided in as a privy Counsellour As for Ingratitude it hath been at all times so detestable That to the Reproach of being ingratefull nothing can be added And the betraying or forsaking of a mans Master in his Distress hath so great a Rellish of the Judas that no noble and generous Heart would for any earthly Respect do any thing that might seem to be like it or be in hazard of being mistaken for it For mine own part I do ingenuously confess that had I no Precepts of the Law of God no Tyes by the Law of the Kingdom nor Horrour of Conscience for breaking those sacred Obligations into which I was entred by taking so many solemn Oaths Yet Gratitude and Honour singly should have been unto me of so high Recommendation That no Respect of my Life Fortunes or Posterity should have made me lift up my Hand against my King or to have forsaken my Master in his Miseries and Distress I have had the Honour to have served this King and his Father by the space of more than forty years and was by his Father from a younger Brother of a Gentlemans Family raised by his Goodness above my Merit to the Dignity of an Earl and a Conveniency of Subsistance in that Quality I was trusted by him in seven Ambassages and called to his privie Counsel recommended unto the Prince his Son as a Gentleman of his Bed-chamber and which was above all these Obligations I was admitted to more than an ordinary measure of his Trust and Confidence And certainly these great Obligations from the Father could not but imprint Gratitude in my Heart towards the Son especially He being now become my King and Master And so by all the Oaths that I had taken to the Father I was likewise by him obliged to them as his Successor But besides these Tyes of Gratitude I must Protest that weighing and considering impartially the Kings Actions either as they relate to his Government as a King or his personal Deportments as a Man setting Conscience aside and that I had not been thereby restrained I could never find any thing that could satisfie my judgement in point of Moral Justice or right Reason for the taking Arms against him I must and do confess that some things and too many wâ—â—â— ill done by the Kings Ministers and the Subjects Propriety and Liberty might have run great hazard under an ill Prince by those waies that were then set on foot For to speak freely my sense by the Principles then received all was put into the Kings hands for Necessity was made Master of all and of that Necessity the King was made the sole Judge and Princes may easily mistake their own private Wants for publique Necessity But from this Excess little of the fault can with Reason be charged upon the King and less ground for the taking of Arms For it is well known the King having been unseasonably imbarqued in War both with France and Spain his Treasure was wholly exhaust and he was reduced to great streights The King called divers Parliaments but they proved so unhappy that two or three of them were dissolved in great disorder and the Kings Wants were not relieved but the King and his People parted with little satisfaction on either side The King then being enforced to use all indeavours for his Relief in these his great VVants consulted with the Officers of his Revenew and his learned Councel what course was to be taken for his Supply without calling a Parliament For it had been voted at the Councel-Table That the Calling of a Parliament was not then fit or seasonable And at the breaking off of the last Parliament before this An. 1640. It had been declared
besides he shutteth up himself to his Devotions Insomuch that it is known that upon particular Causes he hath constituted to himself some Fasts with that secrecy that those nearest ahout him have gotten no knowledge of it but by his Abstinence for God hath given him so good a Health that he neither needeth nor otherwise useth to forbear Meals It is likewise well known that he hath Composed excellent Prayers which he hath caused to be used suitable to the Occasions as particularly for the good success of the Treaty at Uxbridge Further I may testifie and do it in the presence of God that in Conference with me of great and private Trust concerning his present sad Condition he hath told me that although he could not but be sensible of his own Distress of that of the Queen and of his Children the Calamity of the Kingdom and very particularly of his Friends likely to be destroyed for their fidelity unto him yet that which most afflicted him was the Apprehension of the Ruine and Destruction of the Church of England and of the true Protestant Religion which he conceived had the least to be mended in it and most both in Doctrine and Discipline agreeing with the Primitive Times of any Church he knew in the World And I am of belief that it will be found of much difficulty to pull from him this Opinon unless his Conscience and Iudgement shall be convinced by some such learned and unanswerable Arguments as he hath not yet known For although it be very probable that temporal regarâ—s may make him condescend unto great inconveniences and great lessenings yet if I much mistake him not that have known him many years no sufferings or Dangers nor other worldly Considerations whatsoever will be of Power to cause him to make Shipwrack of his Conscience And although it be very true that the Queen his Wife be most dear unto him and in all other things of greatest Power with him yet in matter of Religion his Resolution to live in it and his Ability to defend it was so well known unto Her and to all about her that as they could not but think it bootless to Attempt any thing in that kind so they knew they could not essay it without Offence And although he hath alwaies indeavoured to breed up the Prince his Son in great Duty and Reverence to the Queen his Mother with a strict command unto him to be obedient to her in all things yet it hath alwaies been with this Restriction Except it be in point of Religion And upon my own knowledge I dare and do deliver this for a positive Truth So likewise the matching of his eldest Daughter to a Protestant Prince though not of the Rank of Kings may be judged as a great Argument of his love to the Reformed Religion Besides in the beginning of these troubles knowing this malicious suggestion cast upon him he set forth a publick Manifest unto the Protestant Churches to vindicate himself from that scandal and to assure the World of his Constancy and Resolution to live and die in the Reformed Religion And as for his Piety in this his Profession the Scripture saith Shew me thy Faith by thy Works And what greater Argument of Religion and Piety can there be to man who cannot search into the Heart to God that only belongeth than a temperate sober good Life and Conversation What blood in his Reign hath been sacrificed to his Wrath or Revenge What Confiscations have enriched his Treasure What noble Family hath been dishonored by his Lust What Incouragement hath Vice Excess or Licentiousness received from his Example Nay I am perswaded that it will much trouble his Enemies yea Malice it self to find out the Vice wherewith to reproach his Life yet how many Shimei's have reviled the Lords Anointed of whom we are taught not to speak ill in our Bed-chambers And when Cause of speaking ill against him hath been wanting they have set him up as a But before them for their scurrilous Wits Libels and Hue and Cries c. I am far from charging the Houses for having a hand in these low and unworthy things only I shall say that it is possible for private Errors to become publique Faults non Committendo sed non Castigando It was Elies Case and Gods Iudgement followed it Besides this certain knowledge that I had of the Kings settledness in his Religion I was far from being satisfied in my Conscience that if the King should have changed his Religion and become a Papist it should have been lawfull to take Arms against him For as Moulins above saith in the name of the Church of France We ought not from the Religion of our Princes to take occasion of disobedience making Piety the Match whereby to kindle Rebellion c. And when Hen. 4. that great King of France did leave the Communion with the Reformed Churches and was reconciled to the Church of Rome and conformed himself to the Rights thereof by going to the Masse and performing all other Ceremonies and Worship established by it yet those of the Reformed Religion in France did not thereupon think it lawfull to withdraw their Obedience or take Arms against him but continued to serve him with all faith and Loyalty And such as made those detestable Assaults and that Paricide who committed that horrid and execrable murther upon his Royal Person took not their Incitements and Incouragements from the avowed Doctrine of the Reformed Churches but from the writings of some hotter-headed Papists to the great Scandal and Reproach of their Church And from the Tenents of our new Puritan Doctors who by those Maxims wherin they both agree have instead of the Eastern Assassinates brought in on both sides their Enthusiasts fitly prepared Instruments for Treasons and Murthers by whose hands so many Princes and Kings have fallen and by whose Doctrine so many States have been involved in Rebellions and Civil Wars So likewise upon the several Changes of Religion in England under Hen. 8. Edw. 6. Queen Ma. and Queen Eliz. The Protestants of the Reformed Religion declared against hâ—stile Resistance and exhorted to obedience and suffering and confirmed their Doctrine by their own Martyrdome as is before set down Besides the Precepts of Scripture of not resisting the Powers ordeined by God over us were to command obedience to Princes that were all Heathen Idolaters and Persecutors of Gods Church Our Saviours Precept was To give unto Caesar what belonged unto Caesar and what St. Paul and the Apostles injoyn was towards Nero Neither did the Christians take Arms against Iulian notwithstanding his Apostacy but continued to serve him and to sight against his Enemies with fidelity and courage And I conceive it is the general received Opinion of all moderate Christians That as Religion ought not or to speak more properly cannot though Dissimulation and Hypocrosie may be planted by force so Subjects may not withdraw their civil and natural Allegiance
due to their Kings upon any colour or pretext of Religion For as no private man doth forfeit his Inheritance or free-hold by Impiety or Atheism although he may forfeit his Soul unless he commit some legal Crime So a Prince that holdeth his Crown by unquestionable Right of Succession cannot forfeit his Temporal Inheritance by the erroniousness of his Religion his Soul must only answer that forfeit And although some have gone so far as to admit a lawfullness of the Subjects taking Arms against their Prince for the defence and maintenance of their Laws and Religion yet no man hath adventured so far as to allow the taking Arms for bringing in of new Laws and a new Religion contrary to the established and that by force and without consent of their Soveraign which is the present Case CHAP. IX Shewing the War not to have been begun by the King but that he condescended to all things that could in reason be demanded of him for the preventing of it THere is yet one further Objection wherwith I have heard some indeavour to countenance and justifie their taking Arms against the King which was That he first made War against his Parliament meaning by force to introduce an Arbitrary Power in Church and Common-Wealth And that the War on their side was only defensive and for the maintenance of their liberties proprieties privileges and Religion The steps and progress of this unhappy War are so well known unto me even from the first misunderstandings betwixt the King and People and the improvement of them by Tumults and several Artifices untill they broke out into Acts of open hostility that nothing did so much terrifie my Conscience from taking Arms against the King or more confirmed me in my Duty of adhering unto him than the certain and infallible knowledge I had of the Kings hearty and unfeigned Desires and Indeavours to have prevented this War and to that end to have done and was ready to do all things that had been or should be with justice or reason propounded unto him for the satisfaction of his Parliament which I conceive to all unpreoccupated Iudgments will be easily most apparent when it shall be considered how many things he hath done besides the easing of just grievances whereunto he is indeed obliged which were meerly Acts of Grace and which if he had denied he should have done no wrong And for the doing whereof the wit of man can find no other reason or inducement but his desire to satisfie his Parliament and the keeping of things from extremities For besides the giving way to the putting down of the Court of Starchamber the High Commission and the regulating of his Councel-Table many other things he hath done which some Kings would rather have adventured a War than have parted with any of them As the consenting to have his Privy-Councel that had been sworn to secrecy to be examined upon Oath concerning those things that had passed in his Presence in his most secret Cabinet Councel The giving his Assent in such conjuncture of times to the taking away the Bishops Votes in Parliament And the divesting of himself of the Power to dissolve the Parliament notwithstanding that the evil Consequences that might happen to him thereby were represented unto him in my hearing And I conceive that no man will be so partial but they do beleeve that howsoever the King might be satisfied in point of Conscience by the Bishops and Iudges and the joint authority of both Houses for giving his Assent to the passing of the Bill for my Lord of Straffords Attaindure yet no man but beleeveth he would have saved his Life at a great Ransom But hoping therby to have allayed the rage of his people aswell as to have given full satisfaction to his Houses with a sad and afflicted heart he signed the Warrant for the Earls execution For he was then made beleeve that with his giving way to his death and his consenting to the Bill for not adjourning or dissolving of the Parliament but with the Concurrence of the Houses all misunderstandings betwixt him and his Parliament would be removed and all things return to a calm and orderly way of Proceeding Now if the King had had any secret Intention of making of a War would he have done so many things so prejudicial to himself and so against his heart only for the preventing of it and although his hopes of a quiet settlement by the passing of these two Bills failed him he yet gave not over the doing of all further things which he thought might renew a right understanding betwixt him and the Houses So likewise when that unhappy and unseasonable Act of his going to the House of Commons in Person happened he indeavoured to redeem it with such Acts of acknowledgemeot submission nay I may say asking forgiveness as were never done by any King unto his Subjects So likewise in the particular of his Attorneys accusing of the Lord Kimbolton and the five Members notwithstanding he had a President for it in his own time of Sir Robert Heath his then Attorneys impeaching of my self of High Treason which Impeachment was received and admitted of by the House of Peers and Arraignment and due process of Law was by the said House ordered and awarded thereupon yet the King finding the Houses therewith displeased did not only command prosecution to be withdrawn but left his Attorny to the Iustice of the Parliament And I conceive that it will be acknowledged by all Laws and Religions That the very excesses and errors of Soveraign Princes if reparation and satisfaction may be obtained by Petition and Remonstrance as in these Caâ—es they have been Recourse ought not to be had by Subjects to Arms or Hostile Resistance and I am deceived if this be not also the Opinion of the severest of our new Doctors Where wrongs are done if the party offending shall upon demand make reparation and give satisfaction to the party offended and yet he shall notwithstanding make War it is He that is the Agressor that maketh the offensive War Melior causa ad partem poenitentem transit And the party first offending by his penitency and satisfaction brings over the Right and Iustice to his Cause and if this be betwixt Independent States betwixt whom such as write de Iure Belli say a legitimate War can only be for War being defined to be publicoâ—um Armorum justa contentio Subjects are not allowed as lawfull Enemies opposed to their Soveraign for want of supreme and publique Authority How much more ought such Acknowledgment and Reparations as have before been set down have satisfied Subjects in the behalf of their King so far humbling of himself as certainly would have pacified a modest Conqueror After the King had found himself disappointed of his expectation and that by his former yieldings and complyances the misunderstandings were little allayed but greater appearances grew every day that other of unquietness and troubles
And that he had thought fit to withdraw himself from London for his safety and the avoiding of Affronts which he had cause to fear for that the five Members were the next day by the armed Train'd-bands of the City in martial manner to be brought to Westminster and to pass by the Kings Palace Yet so desirous was the King to sweeten things again that upon great instance he passed the Bill for debarring the Bishops their Seats and Votes in Parliament upon hopes that were given with no small Assurance that upon gratifying the Houses therein all things would speedily be put into a way of Accomodation I had often heard the King say That besides the wrong done unto the Bishops who had as good Right to their Votes in Parliament as any other Peers from the first Original of Parliaments he conceived he could not do any Act of greater Prejudice to himself and his Successors than the passing of that Bill Yet the desire he had of a reconciliation with his Parliament overweighed all other Considerations and Interests whatsoever And he gave his Royal assent unto the Bill But instead of that effect which the King expected thereby it produced the 19 Propositions of Grocers Hall before mentioned Whereupon although the King gave no negative Answer yet he put on a Resolution to make no further Answer to any new Propositions But his Request to the Houses was That they would set down together all such means as would give them satisfaction wherunto they should receive a gracious and satisfsctory Answer to all they could iustly or reasonably demand But this was declared to be a breach of privileges to restrain the Proposals of the Houses either in matter or form The King on the other side thought that whatsoever he had formerly done had served only to strip himself of his known Rights but had no way advanced a general accommodation And so for the future betook himself to Declarations and Protestations instead of Answers wherein he proffer'd to concurre in all things they should desire for the settling of all Liberties and Immunities of the Subject either for the Propriety of their Goods or Liberty of their Persons which they either had received from his Ancestors or which by himself had been granted unto them And if there did yet remain any thing of Grace for the good and comfort of the Subject he would willingly heaken unto all their reasonable Propositions And for the setling of the true Protestant Religion he most earnestly recommended the Care thereof unto them wherein they should have his Concurrence and assictance The Rule of his Government he protested should be the setled Laws of the Kingdom And for the Indempnity and Comfort of the Subject he offered a more ample and General Pardon than had been granted by any of his Predecessors and for the performance of all he had promised besides solemn Oaths and Execrations whereby he bound himself he desired God only so to bless and prosper him and his Posterity as he should faithfully perform the same And further for the greater securing of what should be agreed and setled he gave such voluntary security as I conceive was never before demanded nor by any King offered to his Subjects That in the Case he failed in performance or should do contrary to that which he had promised or agreed He acquitted and freed his Subjects of their Obedience And this great desire of the Kings to have purchased Reconciliation with the Houses will appear to have been known to me and to have been so beleeved by me by what I spake in the House of Peers the 20 of May 1642. and was published in print most of this being but a repetition of what I then said as will appear by the said Speech hereunto annexed Besides the above specified Reasons of the Kings desiring Peace It could not be supposed that in humane prudence the King could desire a War being altogether unfurnished of men mony and ammunition and the contrary party provided of all by the being seized of his Forts his Magazins his Navy his Rents the Revenew of his Crown and of the powerfull and rich City of London and of the perverted Affections of his People He was fain at his return from Dover whither he had accompanyed the Queen when she passed into Holland to go from place to place as to Theobalds and to Newmarket lingring up and down in hope still of some Overture of Accommodation and many Motions tending thereunto were made by my self and other the Kings Servants that stayed behind him with the Parliament But they were not then thought seasonable and wrought little effect and the King having lost all hopes in that kind held it fit to retire himself further from danger as he conceived and so went unto York with a very mean Equipage and a slender Attendance of not above 30 or 40 Persons It is true that many of the Nobility and Gentry repaired thither unto him shewing great Affection and Resolution to follow him in all Fortune and Indeavours were used that the King might be put into the best posture of Defence that was possible but ever with a desire that those small Forces might rather countenance some Treaty or Overture for Accommodation than that there was any belief that those Forces were fit to carry through a War And to that purpose the Earls of Southampton and Dorset were sent unto the Parliament with new Overtures from Nottingham But nothing would be heard untill the King had first taken down his Standard and laid down Arms which the King understood to be a total submission and yielding of himself up seeing my Lord of Essex came forth and within few daies march of him with a great and powerfull Army He himself having by Sr. Iacob Ashleys Certificate not above 700 foot whereof there were not above 400 armed and 900 foot of Colonell Bellasis at Newark most of them without Arms An Equipage certainly not to have incouraged the King unto a War if it could have been avoided But such was Gods will for the punishment of the Nation But the Kings Forces indeed unexpectedly increased by which the War hath been continued to the Destruction of the Kingdom and more particularly of the Kings Party but later by much than could have been expected by any foreseeing man and neither the King nor any rational man with him but would have accepted and sought an Accommodation though with great loss and prejudice So that to make the King the first Agressor and beginner of an Offensive War and the Houses to have taken only defensive Arms I could never understand it nor know what it was they could pretend to defend Since there was no wrong left unredressed nor any thing that they could have pretence or colour to demand that was not offered Many things undeniably the Kings were witheld from him and more daily seized But I conceive no one thing can be instanced wherein the King hath deteined from
them any Right to which they laid Claim But if the making of Ordinances without the King of equal Authority with Acts of Parliament to which the Royal Assent had passed The keeping in their hands the Militia Forts and Navy exclusively to the King The altering of Church-Government established by Law without the Kings Consent The making a new Great Seal The proscribing of the Kings loyal Friends and Servants to loss of life and estates without pardon or mercy before either Summons Tryal or Conviction The taking to themselves the sole Power of pardoning and disposing of Confiscations If the setting unto sale the Lands and Revenew of the Church for so many hundreds of years appropriated unto it by their single Arbitrary Power without the Kings Consent who is Founder of all the Bishopricks and which he was sworn to preserve If the abolishing of the Court of Wards and discharging the Subjects of their Tenures and so consequently of their service to the Crown If the deteining of the Kings Children from him the breeding of them and the future Mariage of them belongeth unto them If the Power of injoining new Oaths upon the Subject contrary to all Law and without the King If the making what they please Treason ex plenitudine potestatis â—s the * harbouring of the King c. notwithstanding that the Law hath determined what shall be adjudged Treason and nothing else If the sending to and treating with forein Princes of War and Peace or the nominating of Judges Sheriff and the Officers of the Crown and many things of this kind If they lay Claim unto these as their Right I must confesse I have not known any satisfaction offered unto them by the King Only in the point of his Servanâ—s he hath alwaies protested that he would protect no man whatsoever so that he might be brought to a Legal Tryal according to the due Course of Law which he is bound to see afforded to all his Subjects But for the rest of the above specified particulars I do not know that the King hath indeavoured their satisfaction Neither can it be supposed by any rational man that they will ground their defensive War upon any Claim they will make unto them For although de facto in the Contestation of War they have seized and possessed themselves of them yet they will not pretend that they have right unto them de jure And it is Right that constitutes the Iustness or Uniustness of the entring into a War Success protecteth and may establish for the future but cannot rectifie or make good an unjust beginning And it must be their future proceedings by which the most probable Iudgement can be made of their former intentions For now that they have overcome all oppositions If they shall return to a peaceable legal Settlement and leave to use Arbitrary Government which they may pretend they have been inforced unto during an Actual War and shall only retain their just Liberties and Privileges with such additions and inlargements of Graces and Immunities as the King being free and without constraint shall be contented to grant together with prudent Cautions for their own Indempnity and Security for the future which in Cases of this Nature must ever be supposed that rational Men will indeavour and successfull men that have the Power in their hands will expect If they will let the Subject have the comfort and security of a general Pardon and an Act of Oblivion not force the consciences of their fellow subjects by new Oaths which they themselves have acknowledged to be contrary to the Law and against the Petition of Right If they will endeavour really the settlement of Religion by a moderate Reformation and not by a total ruine of the most Orthodox and flourishing Church of Europe and so restore the King to what is undeniably his and make the known Law the Rule of Government These will be the strongest Arguments that Defence was rather intended than a Conquest But if Armies shall be reteined when there are no Enemies and by them an Arbitrary Power held up over mens Lives Liberties and Estates and the King kept in the nature of a subdued and useless Person little will be believed of any Intention of taking only defensive Arms CHAP. X Shewing a particular Tye of Gratitude by the Generousness and Reconcileableness of the Kings Disposition THere was yet a further Tye of Gratitude put upon me by the Generousness and Reconcileableness of the Kings Disposition a virtue ever to be wished but not often found in offended Princes For I having been so unhappy as to have fallen very highly into his Disfavour and to have remained many years under a Cloud of his heavy Displeasure yet not long before the beginning of this Parliament having the opportunity of accesse unto him at the great Counsel at York And then being imployed as Prolocutor in the Commission for the Treaty with the Scots at Rippon for a Cessation and afterwards for the Peace at London he was pleased to receive so good satisfaction concerning me and all my former proceedings that he did graciously pass by whatsoever offence he had conceived against me and did not only call me to his Counsel-Table where in regard of my many years service under his Father he might have judged me usefull unto his service but out of a Confidence and Trust which to fail in even amongst Heathens would be held odious admitted me to the place of the nearest Attendance about his Person as a Gentleman of his Bed-chamber who besides the Privileges of Access in all places have the Honor to sleep by him in the night in his Chamber and to be trusted alone with the safety of his Person as I have often been And this place is accompanyed with a particular Oath of distinct services Of attending upon his Person of not Acting or Concealing any thing to his Prejudice and other things of particular service more than other subjects do swear unto And I must confess that if all the above alleged Reasons had been laid aside and that there had been no other Tye but this new Obligation of the Kings Reconciliation and of his trusting and confiding in me knowing him to be so free not only from all things that might justifie the taking Arms against him but from all things of doing wrong or oppression if other mens errors or corruptions were not put upon his Score That if all the misfortunes that have befallen me and my Family had been foreseen by me and might have been prevented by my forsaking of my Master only because he was in distress I would rather have embraced this poor and exiled condition than to have lived in any Estate of plenty whatsoever reproaching to my self daily and hourly my Infidelity and Ingratitude CHAP. XI A Brief Summary of the Reasons formerly set down for the not taking Arms against the King THese are the Reasons that have reteined me in that Duty which I conceived my self
his Power and Greatness why should he not expect that Subjects should make as bold to transgress the same Duties in hope of recovering Liberty with the false shew whereof people are apter to be further transported than by any earthly desire whatsoever Neither will the fear of Death or Danger restrain them because they will not attempt untill opportunity make them hopefull of prevailing and then they conceive by Power to provide for their own Impunities But besides this proness in people to be easily led perswaded into Rebellion under the false and specious shew of recovering liberty The great Monarchs Princes of Christendom have been in great part the fomentors upholders of Rebellion and their Doctors have not so much by their preaching and writing beaten it down as the Princes themselves have by their Examples and Actions given encouragement unto it for although I shall ever speak with Reverence of Princes and their Actions yet I shall hope that the humble representation of this truth will receive a fair interpretation For it is undeniably true that in this later Age all the great Monarchies and States of Christendom have been made unhappy by Intestine Wars which have been fomented if not contrived and designed by one Christian Prince against another every one countenancing and encouraging Rebellion untill it become his own Case and then he is offended of this I shall give no particular instances the Notariety of it is too great and I fear every State may too easily apply it to what they have done And it may be feared that the sad Condition of almost all the States of Christendom at this present day may feel something of Gods Iudgements who hath said With what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again And wicked Kings as they are sure they shall not escape the severe Iudgment of God in the next world if they do believe the Scripture So if they will believe Antient Histories of what hath passed in former times or their own experience of what they see daily with their eyes or that they do believe that God will repay unto them that which they have either countenanced or contrived against others they must expect to have troublesome and uncomfortable lives accompanied with Hatred Hazard and Infamy And if these considerations will not restrain them yet we must not be wicked because they are so Neither will God admit of Recrimination for our Excuse Our Duty of not resisting is positive upon pain of damnation from which no good Success or Prevailing can keeâ— us although it may save us from the Gallows Besides this great hazard of our Souls Moral Prudence should teach us That a Civil War is commonly a Cure much worse than the Disease For no Oppression nay no Tyranny bringeth with it half those Miseries and Calamities which of necessity do ever accompany an Intestine War Wicked Kings may be Cruel Covetous and Licentious But their Oppressions and their Lusts are restrained to some Wickednesses and to some Persons But in a War Rapes Murthers Robberies Sacrileges and all Impieties break in and all sorts of People are made miserable which the poor Kingdom of England hath found by sad experience where within these five years last past more hath been taken from the Subject than would have been exacted by Subsidies Projects or any unjust Taxes whatsoever by the worst of Kings in the space of one hundred And so all other wickednesses proportionably have been increased I shall conclude this Discourse with my humble and hearty Prayers to God Almighty to avert his heavy displeasure from that most unhappy Kingdom which I have seen the most prosperous and flourishing of all the Kingdoms of Europe And by our own Dissention is now become of all other the most miserable And so like to continue unless it shall please God so to dispose the minds both of King and People that they may really desire and endeavour a just moderate equitable Accommodation Whereby they and the Kingdom may be again put into the Way of recovering some measure of happiness It not being to be doubted but that the many Afflictions which have happened to the King will adde much of Wisdom and Circumspection unto his other Virtues And the publique Calamities that have befallen the Kingdom and the Distractions that the War hath visibly brought both in Church and Commonwealth wil make the people value and esteem Peace and not so Wantonly be again ingaged in new Miseries And although unto me in regard of mine Age and other Considerations there remaineth little Hope of ever seeing my Country again Yet where or howsoever it shall please God to dispose of me I shall dye with Comfort if I may judge it in a probable way of recovering some measure of its antient Happiness and Honor THE APPENDIX Containing Many PARTICULARS Specified in the First Part of this DISCOVRSE With the Citations of the Chapters and Pages where they are Cited CAEN 1647. A Speech made by the Right Honorable IOHN Earl of BRISTOL in the High Court of Parliament MAY 20 1642. Concerning an Accommodation MY LORDS I Have spoken so often upon the subject of Accommodation with so little acceptance and with so ill successe that it was in my Intention not to have made any further estay in this kind but my zeal to the peace and happiness of this Kingdom and my apprehensions of the near approaching of our unspeakable miseries and calamities suffer me not to be Master of mine own Resolutions Certainly this Kingdom hath at all times many advantages over the other Monarchies of Europe As of Situation of plenty of rich commodities of Power both by Sea and Land But more particularly at this time when all our neighbouring States are by their sevetal interests so involved in War and with such equality of Power That there is not much likelihood of their Mastering one another nor of having their differences easily compounded And thereby we being only admitted to all Trades and to all places Wealth and Plenty which follow where Trade flourisheth are in a manner cast upon us I shall not trouble your Lordships by putting you in mind of the great and noble undertakings of our Ancestors Nor shall I pass higher than the times within mine own remembrance Queen Elizabeth was a Princess disadvantaged by her sex by her age and chiefly by her want of Issue yet if we shall consider the great effects which were wrought upon most of the States of Christendom by this Nation under her prudent government the growth of the Monarchy of Spain chiefly by her impeached The United Provinces by her protected The French in their greatest miseries relieved Most of the Princes of Germany kept in high respect reverence towards her and this Kingdom and the peace and tranquillity wherein this Kingdom flourished and which hath been continued down unto us by the peaceable government of King Iames of blessed memory and of his now Majesty
have said thus much to give Occasion to others to offer likewise their Opinions For if we shall sit still and nothing tending to the stay of the unhappy misunderstandings namely betwixt the King and his People be propounded It is to be feared that our miseries will hasten so fast upon us that the season and opportunities of applying Remedies may be past I have herein discharged my Conscience suitable to that duty which I owe to the King my Soveraign and Master and suitable to that zeal and affection which I shall ever pay to the happiness and prosperity of the Kingdom towards which I shall ever faithfully contribute my humble Prayers and honest endeavours And I shall no waies doubt whatsoever success this my Proposition may have it will be accompanyed with the good wishes of your Lordships and of all peaceable and well-minded men The Earl of Bristols Speech in the House of Peers The 11 of June 1642. My Lords YOu were pleased not many daies since to declare your displeasure for the printing of a Speech made by me in this House on the 20 of May last and the Cause of your displeasure was declared to be for that the said Speech did seem to insinuate that my former motions for Accommodation had found but little Acceptance whereby there was cast upon the House an Imputation as though it should not be inclined thereunto Your Lordships Displeasure in that kind hath given me Incouragement to renew my former Motion hoping it may be now more seasonable than at former times At least MY LORDS I fear it is at such a season that whosoever is desirous to move for the preventing of a Civill War ought to speak now or he may hereafter hold his peace For differences are reduced to that height of opposition betwixt his Majesty and the Houses that if some speedy means be not laid hold of for the allaying and reconciling of them it is to be feared that a very few daies will change our Contestations which yet are but in words and writing into actions of blood and open Hostility the which certainly may yet by your Lordships wisdoms be prevented but being once begun will not be remedied but after long time and unspeakable miseries The way that I presumed formerly to offer was that this Honorable House would be pleased to move that a select Committee of choise Persons of both Houses might be nominated who may truly state and set down all things in difference between the King and the Subject with the most probable waies of reconciling of them Secondly to descend unto the particulars which may in reason be expected by each from other either in point of our supporting of the King or of his relieving of us and lastly how all those Conditions being agreed upon may be fittingly secured MY LORDS The greatest difficulty as appeareth unto me in this point of Accommodation which so highly importeth the good of the King of the Kingdom and our own consisteth in the beginning of it For certainly if it once were put in a way being accompanyed with the Inclination which your Lordships express to it and with those earnest desires which the King professeth by his so many Invitations that we would clearly set down all that from him would give us satisfaction it could not miss of a happy and blessed Conclusion For in substance if our desires be suitable to our professions we are agreed For our professions are that we intend to pay unto the King all Duties of Loyalty and Obedience and to make him a Glorious King The King saith that to those great Liberties and Eases which he hath already granted unto us this Parliament he is ready to adde any thing that shall be with reason further propounded unto him for our Comfort and Satisfaction So that little seemeth to remain but that from Generals we fall to the Inviduals and express particularly what we mean by making him a Glorious King And paying unto him Loyalty and Obedience And likewise that the Individuals for our further Comfort and satisfaction be propounded So that the intentions of the one and the other being clearly known if any thing remain in difference it may by Treaty and by calm waies of Debate be reconciled Whereas the Professions which are now made on either side of desiring an Accommodation being only in Generals tend rather to a Vindication or Iustification of one part against the other than any way to advance an Accommodation whereas in particular Proposals Reason and Equity would sway and if we do really desire Peace as we profess we should on both sides stretch toward the effecting of it whereas if War be once on foot it is no longer Reason and Iustice which we make the Rules of our demands and Propositions but Success which as it is unequitable So it is a leaden uncertain Rule bowing and bending to the various chances of War and of Advantage And therefore if we do heartily desire Peace Let 's follow our Saviours Counsell Agree with our Adversary whilst he is yet on the way Otherwise we shall find by sad experience that that which might now be easily prevented shall hardly hereafter be remedied If a War happen to be here in England which God avert it cannot be but most bloody and feirce for being shut up here in an Island we shall fight as in a Cock-pit And there being in the Kingdome few considerable strengths there must of necessity be more fighting in a year or two than hath been in the Low Countries in twenty It is probable the War will not be so long but it will be more bloody And if we should prevail for the present there will remain a succession of troubles We all bear a reverence to Monarchy under which we and our Ancestors have lived so many Ages And the King is blessed with a plentiful Issue And our Professions and Intentions are not to cast off just Subjection but to preserve just Liberty which I am most confident we may do without the hazard of a War And what with our ancient Privileges his Majesties new Concessions and what he yet further offereth we may remain the happiest and the freest Subjects that live under any King The King likewise whatsoever Successe he may have will be no Gainer by a War For if he should conceive by Force to introduce an Arbitrary Government which I am most assured is far from his thoughts he will find his own Adherents his chief opposers who although they may fight in defence of his Person and just Rights according to their Oaths and Allegance yet they will be loath to fight themselves into slavery So that what is good for him will be good for us which is an happy and equitable Agreement and the contrary will make both miserable in so great a degree that as now we may be justly esteemed the happiest Kingdome in Europe and the very Envy of all our Neighbours So in a short time if a Civill War
whether they be within the Kingdom or fled out of it And that all Persons cited by either House of Parliament may appear and abide the Censure of Parliament 14. That the general Pardon offered by your Majesty may be granted with such Exceptions as shall be advised by both Houses of Parliament 15. That the Forts and Castles of this Kingdom may be put under the Command and Custody of such Persons as your Majesty shall appoint with the Approbation of your Parliament and in the Intervals of Parliament with the Approbation of the Major part of the Counsel in such manner as before is expressed in the Choise of Counsellors 16. That the extraordinary Guards and Military Forces now attending your Majesty may be removed and discharged and that for the future you will raise no such Guards or extraordinary Forces but according to the Law in case of actual Rebellion or Invasion 17. That your Majesty will be pleased to enter into a more strict allyance with the States of the United Provinces and other Neighbour Princes and States of the Protestant Religion for the defence and maintenance thereof against all designs and attempts of the Pope and his Adherents to subvert and suppress it whereby your Majesty will obtain a great access of Strength and Reputation and the Subjects be much incouraged and enabled in a Parliamentary way for your aid and assistance in restoring your Royal Sister and her Princely Issue to those Dignities and Dominions which belong unto them and relieving the other distressed Protestant Princes who have suffered in the same Cause 18. That your Majesty would be pleased by Act of Parlia to clear the Lord Kimbolton and the five Members of the House of Commons in such manner that future Parliaments may be secured from the Consequent of that evill President 19. That your Majesty will be pleased to pass a Bill for restraining Peers made hereafter from sitting or voting in Parliament unless they be admitted thereunto with the Cansent of both Houses of Parliament H. ELSYNG CLER. PARL. D. COM. The Oath of Supremacy Cited page 31. I A. B. do utterly testifie and declare in my Conscience that the Kings Highness is the only Supreme Governor of this Realm and of all other his Highness Dominions and Countries as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical things or causes as Temporal c. I do promise that from henceforth I shall bear Faith and true Allegeance to the Kings Highness his Heirs and lawfull Successors and to my power shall assist and defend all Iurisdictions Privileges Preheminences and Authorities granted or belonging to the Kings Highness his Heirs and Successors or united or annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm So help me God and by the Contents of this Book The Oath fa Privy-Counsellor Cited page 32. You shall swear to the uttermost part of your cunning wit skill and power you shall he true and faithfull to the Kings Majesty our most dread and Soveraign Lord and to his Highnesse Heirs and Successors Kings and Queens of England according to the Statute for the establishment of the Succession of the Crown Imperial of this Realm You shall not know nor hear any thing that may in any wise be prejudicial to his Majesty or to his Heirs and Successors in form aforesaid or to the Common Wealth Peace and Quiet of this his Majesties Realm but you will with all diligence reveal and disclose the same to his Majesty or to such Person or Persons of his Highness Privy-Counsel as you shall think may and will honestly convey and bring it to his Majesties knowledge You shall serve his Majesty truly and faithfully in the room and place of his Highness Privy-Counsel You shall keep close and secret all such matters as shall be treated disputed debated and resolved of in Counsell without disclosing the same or any part thereof to any but only to such as be of the Privy-Counsell And yet if any matter so propounded treated dispated and debated in any such Counsell shall touch any particular person sworn of the same upon any such matter as shall in any wise concern his fidelity and truth to the Kings Majesty you shall in no wise open the same to him but keep it secret as you would do from another person till the Kings pleasure be known in that behalf You shall in all things to be moved treated disputed and debated in any such Counsel faithfully and truly declare your mind and opinion according to your heart and conscience in no wise forbearing so to do for any matter of respect or favour love meed dread displeasure or corruption Finally you shall be vigilant diligent and circumspect in all your doings and proceedings touching the Kings Majesty and his Affairs All which points before expressed you shall faithfully observe fulfill and keep to the utmost of your power wit and cunning So God you help and by the holy Contents of this Book The Negative Oath Cited page 32. I A. B. do swear from my heart that I will not directly nor indirectly adhere unto or willingly assist the King in this War or in this Cause against the Parliament nor any forces raised without the Consent of the two Houses of Perliament in this Cause or War And I do likewise swear that my coming and submitting my self under the power and protection of the Parliament is without any manner of design whatsoever to the Prejudice of the proceedings of the two Houses of this Present Parliament and without the privity or advice of the King or any of his Counsel or Officers other than what I have now made known So help me God c. An Act of Parliament 1 Iac. cap. 1. acknowledging the Right of the Crown to him and his successors by inherent birth-right c. Cited page 19. We do upon the knees of our hearts agnize constant Faith Loyalty and Obedience to the King his Royal Progeny in this high Court of Parliament where all the body of the Realm is either in person or by representation We do acknowledge that the true and sincere Religion of the Church is continued and established by the King And do recognize as we are bound by the Law of God and man the Realm of England and the Imperial Crown thereof doth belong to him by inherent Birth-right and lawful and undoubted succession and submit our selves and our posterities until the last drop of our blood be spent to his Rule And beseech the King to accept the same as the first fruits of our Loyalty and Faith to his Majesty and his posterity for ever And for that this Act is not compleat nor perfect without his Majesties Consent the same is humbly desired A Declaration which Offences shall be adjudged Treason Anno 25 Edvv. 3. cap. 2. Cited pa. 35. Whereas divers Opinions have been before this time in what Case Treason shall be said and in what not The King at the request of the Lords and of the Commons hath
made a Declaration in the manner as hereafter followeth That is to say when a man doth compasse or imagine the death of our Lord the King or if our Lady his Queen or their eldest Son and Heir or if a man do violate the Kings Companion or the Kings eldest Daughter unmarried or the Wife of the Kings eldest Son and Heir or if a man do levy War against our Lord the King in his Realm or be adherent to the Kings Enemies in his Realm giving to them aid and Comfort in the Realm or elswhere and thereof be proveably attainted of open deed by people of their Condition And if a man Counterfeit the Kings great or privy Seal or his money and if a man bring false mony into this Realm counterfeit to the money of England as the money called Lushburg or other like to the said money of England knowing the money to be false to merchandise or make paiment in deceit of our said Lord the King and of his people c. Certain Articles taken out of a Protestation of the Kings Supremacy made by the non-conforming Ministers which were suspended or deprived 3 Iac. Anno Dom. 1605. Cited page 51. Art 4. We hold that though the Kings of this Realm were not Members of the Church but very Infidels yea and Persecutors of the truth that yet those Churches that shall be gathered together within these Dominions ought to acknowledge and yield the said Supremacy unto them And that the same is not tyed to their Faith and Christianity but to their very Crown from which no Subject or Subjects have power to separate or disjoin it Ar. 6. We hold that no Church or Church-Officers have power for any Crime whatsoever to deprive the King of the least of his Royal Prerogatives whatsoever much lesse to deprive him of his Supremacy wherein the height of his Royal Dignity consists Ar. 9. We hold that though the King should command any thing contrary to the word unto the Churches that yet they ought not to resist him therein but only peaceably to forbear Obedience and sue unto him for Grace and Mercy and where that cannot be obtained meekly to submit themselves to the punishment Animadversions upon some particulars set down in the 57 58 pages of this Discourse there referred to this Appendix for not interrupting the Series thereof here expressed more fully If Ordinances without the Kings assent 1. That Ordinances of the two Houses without the King have not the power of Acts of Parliament should have the force of Acts of Parliament our Lives Estates and Laws might be Arbitrarily disposed of by the two Houses for that Acts of Parliament have undeniably Power over them all If Ordinances have power of Acts of Parliament the King hath no negative Voice which hath been acknowledged in all times and that no Act of Parliament bindeth the subject with out the Kings assent neither is it otherwise a Statute 1â—H 7.24 H. 8. cap. 12.25 H. 8. cap. 21. This hath likewise been acknowledged several times at the heginning of this Parliament before the Doctrine of Coordination was hatched as will appear by their books of Ordinances and Declarations 1 par fol. 727. 1 Iac. cap. 1. 1 Car. 1 Cap 7. If the King hath not his negative Voice he were the only Slave in his Kingdom for that he alone should be tyed to Laws to which he had not assented whereas all other men either by themselves or their Representatives give their Consents to the Laws they live under which is the true mark betwixt Slavery and free Subjection Slaves living under the will of the Prince free Subjects under Laws to which themselves or their Ancestors have assented And the King only shall be bound and sworn to those Laws which are imposed upon him without his Consent which were irrational as well as illegal Ordinances were never pretended but only pro tempore 4 part Inst. fol. 23.48.292 2 part Inst. fol. 47 48. Rot. Paâ— 1 num 4 Ed. 3. 2. â—â—at the ordeâ—â—â—g of the Militia appertainetâ— to the K. The Militia belongeth to the King as unseparable from the Crown without which he cannot protect nor punish withstand Enemies or suppress Rebels The Lords and Commons cannot assent in Parliament to any thing that tends to the disherison of the Crown 4 Par. Inst. fol. 14.42 Ed. 3. The Law doth give it him Stat 7 Ed. 1. with many other Statutes besides practice of all times and custome of the Realm Cook 4 part Inst. 51.125 The Forts and Navy Royal are his and to seize any of them is Treason 25 Ed. 3. 1 Ma. c. So declared by all the Iudges of England in Brookes Case 3. That the great Seal appertaineth only to the King The great Seal being the Power by which the Kings Royal Commands are legally distributed and conveyed cannot be severed from the Crown without the overthrow and destruction of Soveraignty 2 part Inst. 552. And to counterfeit the great Seal is high Treason 25 Ed. 3. 1 H. 4. cap. 2. 1. Marsess 2. cap. 6. For the Church Government The Houses have sworn the King to be the only Supreme Governor in all Causes and over all Persons as well Ecclesiastical as Civil 4. The Church Government The two Houses of Parliament may humbly offer to the King such Alterations and Reformations in Government as they shall think fit But to overthrow and change the Government without the Consent of the sole Supreme Governor nay contrary to his expresse Command and publique Declarations is against natural Reason and Common Law as well as against the said Oath The two Houses are as they say the Kings great Counsel which is true of the House of Peers The House of Commons Writ is only ad faciendum consentiendum But admitting them to be the Kings great Counsel it is a great absurdity and Non-sense that Counsellors should compel consent The Government of the Church is established by Law and by many Acts of Parliament To advise the repealing of the said Acts the Houses may do But without the Kings assent by force to endeavour the Change of the Government either in Church or Estate is high Treason so acknowledged by Mr. St. Iohns at the Arraignment of the Earl of Strafford and so declared by several Laws And was one of the Charges of Treason against the Lord of Canterbury Ir is contrary to all Divine and humane Laws that any Man should be condemned unheard or untryed 5. The prescribing of their fellow Subjects without tryal And the Law of the Land in Magna Charta ordereth That no man lose Life or Estate but per judicium parium aut legem terrae And the Stat. 2. Phil. Ma. that all Tryals for Treason be by Course of the Law Petition of Right 3 Car. It is an Inherent flower of the Crown 6. To grant Pardons belongeth only to the K. And by the Common Law Mercy belongeth to him