No PEACE till the KING Prosper.  
A LETTER WRIT FROM A true LOVER OF PEACE, To one that is both, modestly inquiring, and Discovering the true and false Paths to a present PEACE.  
That if the Parliament prevail against the KING, Peace cannot be; But if the KING prevail, it must be; And if neither prevail, it will not be.  MATTH. 5. v. 9 
Blessed are the peacemakers—  
OXFORD, Printed by Leonard Lichfield, Printer to the university. 1645.   

No Peace till the King Prosper.  
A LETTER WRIT FROM A TRUE LOVER OF Peace, to one that is both, moderately inquiring and discovering the true and false Paths to a present Peace.  
HAd Reason and Religion at once so far forsaken us, as to cease all our Prayers and endeavours for Peace, contrary to the many laws of Christ, yet even sense itself were sufficient to make us weary of war; for who smarts not grievously under that Rod, and bleed not under that Sword, unless some whose hands hold it, and (as the only Kings and Lords of the Time) bear rule and master great Revenues and Riches by it, who would else be (as they were) poor and powerless without it. Do we not see and feel our Goods and Estates wasted and wrung from us by daily payments and Plunders? Our ancient laws and privileges lost by camp and Committee Orders and Ordinances? Are not our towns turned great goals, and our Houses (if We be not in others) become Prisons to us? Is not the dearest blood of ourselves, Children and Friends, spilled in daily Fights and battles? And (which above all should be dear unto us) is not our Religion made away betwixt new Ordain'd-Directions, and old allowed Sects and Heresies? So that, according to the known laws of the Land, for Minister or People to be a Protestant, is to be a Malignant; and to use that Service and form of Prayer, and Religion established by Law, for which our forefathers died Martyrs, is to make us live and suffer as Malefactors. In a word, is not our Livelihood, Liberty, Property, Religion, all gone, and nothing left we can call our own, but a miserable life scarce worth the owning? And that hardly to be counted our own neither, for the violence and Tyranny of those who have the Sword in their hands, and us at their Command, with no Law, and as much Conscience to guide it? He is a block, a stone, not a Man, a Christian, that is not weary of war and greedy of Peace.  
But as all desires meet in the end of bliss, but vary infinitely about the way; so of those who are all for the bliss of Peace, all are not of one opinion about the means: some say, Subdue the King once, and we shall be for ever quiet: and therefore upon every prosperity cry (and oft prevail) for more Men and money to follow the blow, and make an end of all: so King and kingdom, all shall be ours, and no more need will be to press more money or Men. Others say, let us engage to neither part; but stand upon our own preservations and our countries, indifferent against both: So We shall either persuade or force a Peace, at least we shall be quiet. If you will have my opinion, I believe both ways to be wrong, I shall desire your assent no farther than you shall see and approve my reason for it.  
I say then first, The war will not cease, if the Parliament prevail against the King. For how then will they govern the kingdom? If by the known laws of the Land, these will set the crown on the King's head again, which they have taken off (for to have this kingdom ruled without a King, is to those laws utterly unknown;) then the King will be in as good condition as He was, and they in far worse (and that (surely) they do not mean.) If by new and unknown laws they must maintain an unknown, and unheard of Government, the want of the sceptre must be supplied by the Sword, and that which was the Mother of so great a change and Innovation of Church and State, must of necessity be the Nurse to violence and war, so this will be an alteration, not an end of the war. Nor can it (reasonably) be imagined, so long as the King himself is, or any of His royal Line Lives, or any of their Posterities ever shall endure, or any of their royal Allies have power abroad, or loyal conscience any place at home, that ever this will be a quiet kingdom, when robbed of its lawful sovereign and anointed King, no more than a body without bloodshed can be cut off from its natural Head. And were there a common security against all this, guilt in the breasts that bred these Woes, will be an enemy potent enough to maintain the war against others. if Divisions and jealousies turn not the Sword upon themselves, whilst they contend who shall possess and put on the regal Power, which the right and royal owner is divested off. So that, of necessity (for a long time at least, if not for ever) the Kingdom must be governed by Force.  
If it be said; Though not His Majesty that is, there may be a King: what then can be expected, but Woe upon Woe to the kingdom? Ask our forefathers and they will tell us, what calamity they suffered of old under crown Competitions: Till the two Houses of Lancaster and York were married, and so made one, was not this Land a very field of blood? And during the 30 and odd 
* 80, of the blood royal slain in these wars. Speed.  years of these cruel. Wars, what fearful Slaughters of Princes, Nobles, and Commons, were made; whilst the doubtful Right of the crown, was disputed by the whole kingdom; divided and enraged about it? Behold Germany, and it will show us what a dear-price they have paid for the seizure of the Bohemia crown, albeit (that having been Elective) fair Right was pretended and pleaded for the seizure? How many Millions of Pounds, and Lives, hath that crown-quarrel cost them? Are not their Countries, Cities, towns, Villages, Houses, Lands, Estates, Goods, all destroyed by the wars? Are they not overwhelmed in a Sea of blood to this day, after six and twenty years of reigning wars and Woes, no sign of Peace appearing, or likelihood of their end, till want of Men for war, or Bread for them, shall force it? He is a Stone, that sees not, Marble, that melts not, to think how England, too like poor Germany already, would be yet more miserably like it, should any Head, but the right-born, wear the English crown. That, than should it be (as God forbid it ever should) would be the beginning, rather than an end of the wars.  
Nor is Indifferency of Counties and Persons, the way to bring it to an end. For so the King shall be oppressed (if not assisted) in His extremity, and the Parliament will prevail; without a miraculous blessing it must needs be so: if they have all the Purse of the Land, and most of the Power and People for them, whilst We stand betwixt both, looking on, that should balance the force, or cast it against them.  
But by this means, necessity will enforce and effect a Treaty of Peace: The unbloudy, doubtless, is the most blessed Peace (Cursed be he that is against it! Thrice happy he, or they, who shall make it!) But what hopes then to see it, when already all means have failed it? Will they, who upon even and equal terms of Strength, are unreasonable in their Propositions, by prosperity grow more moderate? For His Majesty to yield to their demands, whatsoever they are, is not to make an end of the debate, but himself, (His crown and His Conscience, That may bring things to a Period perhaps, but not to a Peace:) Victory can do no more but what it will, when the opposite Party is destroyed, that before hindered it: And what can the King more yield, than what He hath already offered and assured for Peace? For himself, half His Sword in the Militia, and a good piece of His crown; And for the Church, as much as can consist with His 
In the Treaty at Uxbridge, the Militia offered by the King to be put into the hands of twenty, of which the Parliament to choose 10. and so the Forts and Castles of the kingdom.  Honour and Oath to Almighty God, and the Peace of His Conscience? If this was not thought price enough for the Purchase then, will it come at a rate more reasonable, now? No; We have great reason to suspect, that, if where the power is, mind had been ever truly to it, it would have come then. For, though it be m●st sure, that the King, both in Reason and Religion, hath been a vehement Seeker of it, and offered so much to purchase it; and, as certain, that even of them who sit at Westminster, and live in London, and in the country under Parliamentary power, many, for their parts, do heartily desire it, (foreseeing the ruin of all without it:) it is to be feared, That the Authors and Actors in these wars, will not (for particular Reasons and respects) ever allow of Peace; but whilst the power is in their hands, for ever abet and maintain the war. They may think, that no Security can warrant their indemnity. If one Parliament, for the present necessity, should pardon all, another (more free) may revoke it: If the State should, particular Persons of ruined Fortunes, and Families, will never forgive it: If they would; they should live the hate and scorn of the Land, that now at pleasure rule it, and all their fellow Subjects, and the King himself in it. I would they did not both think, and assuredly know, and believe it.  
And will a County stand safe, if a kingdom fall to ruin? Alas! what Lands or Houses can be dry in a Common deluge? How can the limb live, if the Body languish? The kingdom thus may fall into a Consumption (it must, if the vital and substantial parts fail in an altering of the fundamental Constitution of it) and these may be the last Limbs that fall, and that's all they get by their Neutrality, to be the last. Nay, perhaps (by the just judgement of God and Man) they may be the first; hated of both sides for their Indifferencies, and destroyed by the prospering side, for not aiding the prosperity. Surely, as those are Enemies to the Peace and country that resist the King, and wage war against Him with His own Weapons, People, moneys, means, and so distress and drive Him to extremities, to defend himself against them: So those who do not assist the King, are not friends to the Peace of the kingdom. And if Divines say true, that he murders life, who can, and doth not preserve it, as well as he that destroys it, I dare excuse neither, of the blood that is shed in the interim; The Resistant from being positively guilty of it all, and the Non-assistant, privatively engaged in the Guilt.  
And though (I confess) it seem some Plea, that many in the King's Armies, are so insufferable in their Carriages, that even they breed a loathing of His Cause for it; yet this will not hold good, till it appear, that the King doth not abhor and bewail the injuries of His good People, and yet, is in so great extremity for want of means and Supplies, that He knows not (to His great grief) how to remedy it. Nay, it recoils upon them; for did they join hands with Him to assist with their lives and fortunes to uphold Him, in whom their safety, as much as His own consists; this would not be done, and suffered. For, than a due Pay, would maintain an exact Discipline; and the first offenders, having their due punishment, the rest would not dare to transgress. Then the use of foreign hands would be needless, most apt on both sides to offend. Nor would cause be, to call in the Irish, to balance the power of the invading Scots, to the impoverishing and endangering, if not undoing of the Land.  
To conclude then, (for my Lines have already exceeded a Letters bounds) whosoever fears God, and honours the King, (as every Christian should) or loves Church, or kingdom, or country, (as every Child of either aught) let him take this to heart, and ponder it well, and he will see, there is no way left to Peace, but to raise the King to prosperity; to assist Him with our means and Lives, Valiantly and Vigorously to hasten it; lest for want of aiding Subjects in the just defence of himself, and the Throne by God committed to Him; He be forced (as his Predecessors of old, and his Enemies now) to sue and seek for help from others, His own People failing Him, the sad, but only remedy for a disease so desperate, which is then left Him. A sad and woeful case (God knows) to fall into such hands for cure, and he best sees, what Calamities it may bring upon us, but to us it will be more sad, if our guilt cause them all, because that had never been, if after all Supplies of ours, sought again and again, our Native King had not been first forsaken of us.  
Nor let that which runs in some minds trouble us: That the King than will come in conqueror over us, and so rule us; And therefore the Scale of war is to be kept in such a Poise, that He prevail not so far as to prosper and subdue His Enemies: No, If He Conquer His Enemies, His Friends and good Subjects will Conquer Him, by free Parliamentary advices to settle a shaken State, and prevent like Conclusions in time to come, by wholesome laws begot of those bad manners which are past, and were so perilous to Him, and pernicious to all of us. His own Prudence and Conscience will Conquer him, who hath in this school of war learned (He and His Children with Him) that the happiness of a King, consists in such a Government, as yields a Loving, not Rebelling People; His own uncruell, and un-Tyrant Spirit, and disposition, will Conquer him; So far from thirst of blood, and severity of Vengeance, that Justice may rather seem to complain of being cloyed with so great a sweetness. Sir, if you know me, you know me to be a Lover of my Religion, and Nation, and of my Conscience, as my King; and so, I believe you to be, else this, had never come to you, from  
SIR, Your, and your country's friend, A. A.  
FINIS.