THE OATH OF PACIFICATION: OR A form of Religious Accommodation: Humbly proposed both to KING and PARLIAMENT. THEREBY, To set an end to the present Miseries and broils of this discomposed, almost shipwrecked State.  
Claudite, Pastores, rivos, sat prata biberunt.  

Shut, shut the sluices of this purple flood,  
The meadows have caroused enough in blood.   
LONDON, Printed for ROBERT BOSTOCK, at the sign of the King's head in Paul's churchyard. 1643.   

The Oath of Pacification: OR A Religious form of Accommodation: Humbly proposed Both to the KING and PARLIAMENT, &c.  
THE Kings last Declaration of July the thirtieth was published as an Act of great grace to the subject: and being issued immediately after his majesty's good success, obtained against the Lord Fairfax, Sir William Waller, and colonel Fines, it emblematized the King (as some Courtiers fancied) with a victorious palm in one hand, and a peaceful Olive in the other. Nevertheless, it appears by the close of that Declaration, that the intent of it was, to bring in Men, Money, Plate, Horses and arms, as well as to proclaim pardon, for it proclaimed pardon to no other persons, than such as should forthwith apply themselves to the King, nor on no other Conditions than upon the bringing in of such like aids, and supplies. The favour was not to be extended to all, nor was it clothed in the habit of a Composition, or peaceable Accommodation, it only set to sale a pardon, and the price of that pardon was besides treacherous combination with the Papists against the Parliament, such Money, such Plate, such Horses, &c. 'Tis true the rate of the purchase was left indefinite; but it is well enough known that all such as have submitted to the King, and confessed a guilt of Treason in themselves, and undertaken to redeem the same by new services have found their penances rigorous, and their Ghostly Fathers very hard to be satisfied. The effect therefore which that Declaration had, was no other, as we can perceive, but to put more courage into the lovers of Parliaments, and to quicken all good men the more in the raising of new Forces, and embarking in harder Adventures: And God's Name be praised, who did not only then give us such pious and manly resolutions, but hath also sped & mercifully prospered our undertakings. The face of things is now changed: The Earl of Essex hath since that removed the King's terrible Army from before Gloucester, and after a bloody day fought by Newbury, is returned home victorious. Sir William Waller, and the Earl of Manchester are great in new hopes, and preparations, and the marquess of Newcastle is as fearful to receive annoyance from the Scots, as hopeful to do any to the Lord Fairefax: wherefore it seems to me, that if a fair way of Accommodation were now tendered by the Parliament, it would be held as honourable, as seasonable: and it seems not impossible to propose such terms of Pacification as may well stand with the honour of God, the safety of Religion, the advantage of the King, the justice of the Parliament, and the wishes of the people.  
The King hath divers times (though not with any public Ceremony or Solemnity) applied himself to satisfy his Subjects by protesting innocence, and appealing to the judgement of Almighty God; but there hath been such generality in his expressions, and defect in his forms hitherto, that his Subjects remain yet unsatisfied.  
That which I shall therefore now undertake, with my utmost discretion and ability, is to demonstrate wherein the King's oaths have been hitherto short, and of little securance, and how they may yet be completed, and made satisfying: I will in the first place set forth the form of the Oath, both as it is conceived in his majesty's own Words, and as it is altered with my additions and suplements; and then I will next address myself by way of Reason, to give some Account why it may be admitted and entertained by either side.  
In the Kings last Declaration of July aforesaid, I find the form of the King's vows, and Protestations to run in these very words.  

WHereas Almighty GOD, to whom all the secrets of my heart are open, knows with what unwillingness and anguish of soul, I first submitted myself to the necessity of taking up defensive arms. I having before with justice and Bounty to repair my Subjects former Pressures, made excellent laws for the preventing of the like, and offered further to add any thing else for the establishment of the Religion, laws and Liberty of the kingdom. And whereas in September, 1642. in the head of my army, (not then great) besides at other times I made voluntarily a Protestation to defend and maintain the true Protestant Religion, the just privileges, and freedom of Parliaments, and to govern by the laws of the Land, for whose defence only that army was raised, and hath been since kept: And whereas there cannot be a more seasonable time, to renew that Protestation then now, when God hath vouchsafed me so many victories. I do therefore now declare to all the World, in the presence of Almighty God, to whom I must give a strict account of all my professions, and Protestations, that I am so far from intending any alteration of the Religion established, or from the least thought of invading the Liberty and Property of the Subject, or violating the least privileges of PARLIAMENT. That I call God to witness, who covered my Head in the day of battle, that I desire from my soul, and shall always use my utmost endeavours, to advance and preserve the true Protestant Religion, and that the preservation of the Liberty and Property of the Subject in due observation of the laws of the Land shall be equally my care; as the maintenance of my own Rights, I being desirous to govern only by those good laws. And I do acknowledge the just privileges of PARLIAMENT, to be an essential part of those laws, and will therefore most solemnly defend and observe them.   
(To add to the perfection of this Oath, and to make it satisfying, I shall supply as followeth.)  

And forasmuch as general professions of maintaining of Law, and doing justice, cannot end the present differences of this State, or secure us from the like hereafter▪ but particular judgement must be given according to Law and justice, in the main points now controverted betwixt us: and that judgement which shall ever rule, and conclude both sides must not be expected from my breast, or any inferior council, but from the supreme judicatory of the kingdom: by the Oath already taken, I further oblige myself, that I will ingeniously and with my utmost skill make strict inquiry what the supreme judicatory is, which in these grand disputes is to dispense Law, and to arbitrate betwixt King, and Subject: and the same being made known to me by the best and most impartial advice that can be gotten, I will most entirely, and freely submit all my claims and pretences to it, to be resolved and determined by it. I will not only employ my utmost power to remove all obstructions, and impeachments, which may obviate its proceedings, but I will vigorously concur myself in all good expedients for speeding, and facilitating its final awards.  
And lastly, since the safety and security of my Subjects depends upon my good administration hereafter, as well as for the present▪ and upon the comportment of my Substitutes and Favourites, as well as upon my own, and that in matters ecclesiastical, civil and military, as well as judicial: by the same Oath that I have already taken, I again engage myself perpetually to tender the propagation of the same Protestant Religion, and the Liberty and prosperity of the English Nation, equally with my own Rights and Royalties. And that the Lives, Liberties, Consciences, or Estates of my subjects may not be entrusted into the hands of such as are ill affected to them, I will exclude from my public counsel, and from all direct, and indirect power in State affairs, (especially of a high nature) all that are not of the Protestant Religion, of the British Nation, of the Masculine sex, all that are not generally reputed virtuous, and sworn to be faithful servants to the State, as well as to the Court. In testimony also that I do without all guile, equivocation, or mental reservation▪ swear and vow these things in this reverent place, now that I am to receive this blessed Sacrament before these Lords and Gentlemen here present, I do beseech Almighty God so to make these mysteries profitable to my soul, and this Solemnity satisfying to my people, as I do now cordially and sincerely transact this for an assurance, and not for a snare to them, if I do not in my soul purpose to fulfil the tenor of this Oath to my lives end▪ and in pursuance thereof, ever to oppose the introduction of Romish superstition into this Church, and the French arbitrary Royalty into this State, let this venerable flesh and blood prove mortal to me, let this imprecation testify against me; let God blot out his royal unction upon me, and let my Subjects justly, and by this my own Dispensation withdraw obedience from me.   
These two conditional Clauses I humbly present, as necessary either to explain what the King had sworn before, or to discover what the King intended before: for if this Oath (as it is now framed) be accepted, it will let us know how far we were secured formerly: and if it be rejected, it will be an advertisement to us, what little security we are to expect hereafter.  
The solemn and sanctimonious manner of taking this Oath, will next much conduce to the satisfying of the people; for paper oaths, as they are mingled with other matters in Declarations are not so authentical with the Phlebeians, and we should seem less Religious than our Ancestors were, in times of more blindness, if we should not observe a great deal of holy state in a business of this transcendent, and more than secular nature. The last cautionary advertisement that I shall humbly tender withal, is, that an Oath may be also administered to the Queen, and to all suspected Papists, Aliens, &c. to the restraining of them from all intermeddling in matters of our Church, or State, and from attempting any thing mediately, or immediately, directly, or indirectly against the peace of this kingdom.  
By this means, with some more perfect alterations▪ or provisions, under favour I conceive our greatest fears might be qualified, and our most desperate maladies assuaged, if not cured: But I know some Objections will be alleged on the King's Part, why he ought not to make this Oath, and on the Parliaments why they ought not to take it? Let me have a little Favour to say something herein.  
Oaths have been ever honourable, and sacramental Obligations, such as GOD himself hath not▪ disdained to use▪ for the taking away of doubt and distrust in man, and such as he hath prescribed to men for the composing of differences sometimes, as well betwixt public as private persons. But in this Contestation betwixt the KING and PARLIAMENT, though both sides have sundry times had recourse to oaths and Invocations of God's Name, and more especially the KING, yet that Pacification and amicable Accommodation, which might have been hoped therefrom, hath not been concluded and consummated. And I conceive there are two Reasons why the King's Protestations have not been so effectual, and available, as was intended they should.  
First, because there is great uncertainty, and dispute in that which the King's oaths principally take for their subject or matter.  
Secondly, because the KING seems totally mistaken in the end of his oaths, or rather in those fears and jealousies of Ours, which his oaths endeavour to remove.  
First, the KING by his Imprications would assure us that he intends no ill to Religion, Law, or Liberty, as they are established in ENGLAND; but our main strife and controversy here is how Religion, Law, and liberty are established in such and such points, and who shall judge of that establishment: wherefore to decide that controversy and atone this strife, no general Oath of the KING can be held sufficient. In private suits betwixt Subject and Subject, the Law permits nor the KING to judge, much less does it stand to the King's judgement, when the suit is betwixt a Subject and the KING himself; and least of all does it rest upon the King's determination, when the KING is a party of one side, and the whole kingdom on the other. Nevertheless, in this our present grand debate, the KING swears in general to do justice, and yet what that Justice is, which is to be done, he himself is ignorant; nay the greatest of our professed Lawyers adventure not to determine, (they have great Divisions, and Contesttions amongst themselves about it) although all unanimously affirm, that the KING quatenus a party, and quatenus a layman, is of all men most incompetent for the determination thereof. When the kingdom groaned heretofore under the oppression of the Shipscot, and divers other Taxes utterly inconsistent with the Subjects liberty, the KING intended no violation of the Subjects liberty. He had sworn, or might have sworn then in general terms the same thing, with the same safety as he swears now. So if the like dispute arise hereafter, of the like difficulty, about some other branch of Prerogative (for Prerogative is not made now more known, but more unknown of late) there is no hindrance but the King may treat us as he did then indeeds, yet protest as he does now in words.  
The like may be said of Religion, the KING intends no alteration of Religion, and expects that we should acquiesce in that profession of his, and yet we fear he judges of alteration therein by his Bishops, who aim at nothing more than Innovations, wherefore this can be no ground of confidence in us, because▪ the KING in his own understanding, may both make and keep such an Oath, yet popery shall still prevail, and Protestantism decline, as it hath done hitherto. 'Tis far then from being a security, 'tis rather a danger to a state to depend on a Princes general Oaths, when these oaths depend upon his mere understanding, forasmuch as Law does not direct us to the King's breast, as our sole and supreme tribunal, but rather dehorts us from the same, as most of all to be disinherited: This is a Dilemma not to be excepted against: either the KING relies upon his own Knowledge and Judgement, concerning alterations in Law, &c. when he abjures them; or not: if he does undertake to know, and judge of all alterations, and of all differences raised thereupon in Church, and State, betwixt himself and his Subjects, then is our Government merely arbitrary; more arbitrary than the French; then are his Edicts and Acts of State our best arrests, and Acts of parliament; then does our Law, and Religion, import no more to us, than his mere pleasure. Let it but be maintained, that we must expect satisfaction, and decision from the King's breast, where popery and Protestantism, where Prerogative and liberty confine, and border one upon the other; and let the main Secrets and queries of Law be subjected to the King's Cognizance, and and for my part, I shall ever conceive, that enacted Law, and public Right, are nothing else but royal pleasure, and one single man's fancy, or humour; but on the other side, if the KING do presuppose himself an incompetent Judge, and as liable to gross misakes, and dangerous deviations in Law, and Religion, as he hath been formerly, when we were almost at an utter loss in both; if he will acknowledge that there may be as intricate controversies, and as undeterminable debates betwixt him and his Subjects hereafter, as have been formerly, and as now are at this instant, than all that we can hope for from his oaths, is but this, that we shall be as much distracted hereafter, and as remedilessely torn and divided with dissensions, as we were formerly, or are now: all our assurance is, we shall be permitted to remain and continue in the condition as we were, and as we (which makes his Oaths of no effect) now are.  
Secondly, the next Reason why the KING renouncing by Oath all alterations in Law and Religion, does not put us out of all our fears, is, because he always swears for himself, not his Favourites and councillors; and yet our fears have more respect to his Favourites than▪ to himself. And so notwithstanding the security which his oaths gives against any ill intentions, or Machichinations from himself, we still remain exposed to ruin, by the ill intentions, and machinations of such as have a great sway in his counsel, and affections, he himself perhaps being neither privy nor confenting thereunto.  
The KING favours not the Irish Rebellion, yet such as were the Favourers, nay the Plotters, and Actors in it find favour, and receive power from the King: and what difference is it to us, whether we perish by the King's hand immediately, or by his Favourites mediately; by the Kings own accord directly, or by his only permission indirectly? Ireland hath seen more than two hundred thousand Families of British Protestants dispeopled and massacred by treacherous Papists, (notwithstanning that all this Deluge of blood might have been prevented by the King's timely foresight and care) and ENGLAND is now falling into the same desolation by the same faction, and yet the KING is so far from withdrawing favour or power from Papists and their accomplices, that he puts more arms into their hands here, and holds further correspondence with them abroad: how can we then but seem as stocks, or more stupid than beasts, if we now expect no assurance but an Oath, and include none in that Oath but the KING?  
Eli was a good man, but an ill magistrate, he knew better how to moderate his own affections, than to bridle the insolences of such as were subordinate to him; insomuch, that that good which he did by himself was far out-poised by that evil which he permitted in others, and his lenity to his Children became cruelty to the people.  
Some men are much mistaken, if there be not something of Eli in our King's disposition, for though he be esteemed inflexible by such as he hath once judged adverse to his ends, yet he is much too ductile by those who have once gotten prepossession in his good thoughts. Wherefore if his majesty seriously desires to put us into a Condition of security, (which is the only remedy of our present distempers) he must rather provide for our indemnity by protesting against connivance at evil in his Substitutes, than doing evil in his own person. For he himself may be as guiltless privately as Eli was, and yet in publke we his Subjects may live as miserably under his Popish councillors, as the Children of Israel did under Hophni and Phineas.  
The Law says the KING can do no wrong, and out of its civility it imputes all miscatriages in Government to inferior agents: but policy teaches us, that though a Prince in Law be not questionable for it, yet in nature he is strangely blameable, and deeply chargeable, when bee makes an ill choice of inferior Agents.  
In Law, it was the blame of Rehoboam's young councillors, that so unpolitic, and unworthy a disgust was given to the great and honourable State of Israel: and it was great pity that they did not suffer for it: But it was Rehoboam's blame in policy, that he would choose young councillors, and he himself was the greatest loser by it. The wisdom of SOLOMON would direct him to make use of that wisdom which is seldom to be found but in hoary heads, but the more foolish Rehoboam is, the more solicitous he will be to find out vain Consorts, fit only to comply with his own folly. Had there been any particular good which Rehoboam might have attained too by the prejudice of his Subjects: the old councillors in probability would have advised him to it▪ for they seemed to take more care of the KING than of the people, (as they had done in their old Master's days, to the danger of the nex Successor) But such is the temerity of these green headed Statists, that they neither aim at the good of the people, nor of the KING: They seemed to imagine, that it was a sufficient recommendation of a thing to a Prince, to represent it as disadvantageous to the People, and in this they▪ failed not to please their rash Lord, who was so far from giving satisfaction to the People, as that he thought it profitable to him to purchase their displeasure, though with the imminent hazard of his own crown; wherefore it does not seem so probable, that Rehoboham did take preposterous courses, because he happened upon preposterous Counsellors, as that he did choose preposterous councillors, because he did affectedly addict himself to preposterous Courses. And when the main fault was in his will, rather than his understanding, 'twas easy for him to err in the most fundamental point of all politics, and to place his own peculiar good, rather in the public disprofit, then in the benefit of his Subjects. Machiavelli had never past for a wise man, had not all his subtle grounds tended to the pursuing of that advantage of KINGS, which consists in the people's disadvantage; and yet nothing can be more contrary to wisdom, or more repugnant to the Principles of solid policy, than this very doctrine; and without doubt, no wise man will seek to excuse him of sottish folly, but by accusing him of pernicious flattery; for if he did not wilfully betray PRINCES, as perhaps Rehoboam's councillors did, surely he did but publish to the world, the sickly conceptions of his own narrow heart. The vast business of Government, especially where the Nation is great, or where many Nations are united, is not to be transacted by any one man: where one man commands in chief, the most sublime office of Government is attributed to him, but the greatest burden, and most important charge must rest upon the shoulders of thousands, as well in Monarchies▪ as in democracies, or else great obstructions will follow.  
When the Jews were but few in number, and mean of condition in the wilderness, Moses found the rule of them insupportable without many assistants, he was driven to follow jethroes counsel, as well to preserve himself from being crushed under too great a weight, as to open the course of justice to the Israelites.  
That part of Government, which is most extensive, and laborious, which requires not only most activity, but most skill in many several Arts, and Sciences must be undergone, and managed by multitudes of Agents, and in Monarchies, these Agents are more subject to one man's will, in Democracies less; but that part of Government which is supreme, and may be concentred in one man, is more facile and narrow, and many times 'tis best discharged, when that one man leaves most to his Substitutes, and assumes least to himself. Henry the third ruled better in his minority, when the highest Acts of his royal superintending power were exercised by his servants, then in his▪ maturity, when he would arbitrarily strain his superintending power, to the overruling of his good councillors, and preferring of bad. The greatest honour of PRINCES▪ is to be wise, and the greatest wisdom of PRINCES is, to choose fit instruments, and this choice cannot be without public advice, yet weak PRINCES relish no Honour in any thing, but in enjoying their own wills, and their wills they conceive then to be most gloriously fulfilled, when they please themselves by displeasing their Subjects, when in their elections of Counsellors and Favourites, the State has no share at all, but is rather crossed, and opposed. Was Gaveston so dear to Edward the Second, because he was a good Patriot? No, if he had been such, it had been a vulgar thing in Edward to uphold him, the power of a great PRINCE is more eminent in choosing instruments for his own wicked pleasure, and then to uphold them, when whole Nations seek to tear them from their Master's bosoms.  
'tis not so Kingly to be regulated by wisdom of Parliaments, as to do acts of mere will; nor to concur with the public suffrages of a State, in the promoting of good men, as to reject the prayers, & tears and cries of Communities in the defending of incendiaries, nor to aim at the safety, and prosperity of the people, as to compass private designs utterly opposite thereunto. That Royalty which proposes to itself the flourishing condition of the Subject as it's best establishment: has more regard to the deputation of worthy Officers in State, then to any other particular interest: but since flatterers have found out an other Royalty which proposes to itself common servility for the truest basis of it's grand our; He which can invent any thing for the Subject below wooden shoes, and canvas breeches is a rare politician, to be valued equally with a Prince's life, honour and prosperity. Why was the price of Strafford of greater esteem than the peace of three Kingdoms? because he was a Minister better affected to this new Royalty than the several States of the three several Nations: because he was devoted not only to serve the King more than the kingdom, but even against the kingdom: because if he could not add to the King's public puissance by adding to the state's wealth and honour, yet he could add to the King's private splendour, by depressing the state's wealth, and honour. If the King did profess that he ought to look upon the Community as having ends contrary to his true sovereignty, and the happiness thereof, as inconsistent with his legal Prerogative, than it were just and reasonable that he did embrace no Ministers, but such as were odious to the people, nor pursue no ends but such as were destructive to common Liberty. But since his professions and oaths look an other way, 'tis most wonderful that in delegating of Officers Military judicial, &c. He should so far abhor Parliamentary advice, and approbation, and prefer all the miseries of this bloody war before it: for it were better for us that Parliamentary advice, and approbation were rejected in all other things, then in the placing of public Ministers, upon whose rule the welfare of the State more depends then upon any other Act of Royalty itself▪ if we are not utterly mistaken in point of Law, the great Officers of the Chancery, Admiralty, Treasury and others, that are more properly the kingdoms, than the King's Ministers, are to be chosen in Parliament: and if the Law in special terms were not such, yet by general intendment of law all arduous affairs of general and great importance are to be transacted by the Common counsel of the Land. Now we well know, that the choosing of public Officers under good Kings, which will not choose a miss, is not of so general, and great importance, as it is under perverted Princes, who will choose none but such as shall employ all their abilities and endowments against the State, and to the disservice of the people; Lawyers and divines seldom distinguish rightly betwixt that power of the King which is invested in him by absolute donation, and that which is merely fiduciary. Neither do they distinguish betwixt that power which is originally entrusted to the King, by the fundamental constitution of this kingdom, and that which is occasionally by intermission or non-user left to the King at such or such times upon special confidence of his goodness. But policy must needs teach us, that no State can be long safe where all Kings are equally trusted, and enabled, where the same King shall enjoy that for ever as appertaining to his undoubted Prerogative, which at any one time he has gained, or wrested from the people by his own fraud, or force; or perhaps by the people's negligence, or indulgence to his wise predecessors. Without all question, many smaller matters are entrusted to the King's mere discretion, but yet quateus smaller matters only. Whereas if the same things become greater matters, as they may, than the people's right is not to be prejudged, because the Law of public safety is above all laws of Prerogative, or any other laws whatsoever. For example, if J. S. be to cut of the entail of his Land in Parliament; the King by his negative voice may oppose him at his pleasure: but if judgement be to be given against such a notorious traitor 'tis otherwise; and yet even such a judgement too is not always alike: for in times of great distress it cannot be retarded, interrupted, or denied; because of the extreanc hazard to the State, & in such case the King has less colour to pretend to a negative voice then at other times of more security: for as that which is of greater concernment, is not so much within the King's power as that which is of lesser, so that which is of lesser concernment at one time in one respect, is of greater at an other time in an other respect. And if Lawyers find not these distinctions in their reports, and year books, or if divines find them not in the old Fathers, or in their Cannons of the Church, they must not forbid other men that study the intrinsical Rules of State, to make use of more general knowledge, then that which their books afford. The Bishop of Armach has declared himself in point of judgement against the Parliament; I shall only demand of him whether he thinks himself wiser than the laws of England, or whether he thinks himself wiser in the laws of England then the major part of both Houses in Parliament. One of these he must affirm. Master Holborn his judgement does not concur with the Parliaments in such a point of Law. I should demand of him, whether Law must needs observe one rule in all cases of public and of private moments or whether we are restrained from all equitable distinctions, and interpretations except such as we find in Fitz Herbert, Cook and Plowden? or whether his or the Parliaments resolution herein be more authentical? surely 'twere in vain to trouble all our Counties, Cities, and boroughs with such Ludibrious elections, if some one Bishop or one Barrister could declare Law better than those which enacted it, or enact Law better than those for whom all Law was ordained. The kingdom itself taken in it's diffusive body cannot convene in any one place, nor fix upon any one certane resolution, otherwise in all extraordinary cases, and judgements, the final decision ought to proceed from thence, therefore it must be formed into such an artificial body as is fit to convene, and to deliberate. And being so formed, it has in it all the persection, and excellence of the defusive body. 'tis true, the King may be held a representative of the people in ordinary cases, for avoiding of a more troublesome convention, but in extraordinary cases when such a convention is necessary, the Parliament is the only true representative, and congregated to the King for more perfection sake, or else it were vainly congregated. And because the people cannot be congregated at all, much less in any more perfect form then in a Parliament, therefore the people's utmost perfection is truly residing in the Parliament. Let not then any private man, Let not the King himself undertake to define how far regal power shall extend in judicial or Military affairs (as such a particular position of things may happen, and according to all emergences) better than the representative body of the kingdom, which in no respect ought to be held any other thing than the whole kingdom itself: much less let it be held against Law, or disparagable to the King, to harken to his Parliament, in the choice of State Officers, when so great a flux of Protestant English blood is to be staunched thereby. If the King would exempt us from fear, and therefore swears that he may exempt us, and yet will neither suffer us to choose Confidents for him, nor swear for such as he himself shall choose, when our fears are chiefly grounded upon them, either his intentions will seem fraudulent, or his oaths nugatory; besides our fears now cause us to look upon our Enemies not merely as men that have a power in the Kings▪ affections, but as men that are likely to have a power over the King's arms, and when the King perhaps may want protection for himself (if some timely prevention be not used,) how will he be able to protect us? 'tis possible for an Army composed of Papists, strangers and those of the mercenary trade of war, not only to awe us, but such also as first raised them against us. Absolute Empire ends not (as is expected) in the freedom, but in the servitude of him, which sores to the highest pitch of it. If the Praetorian Legions set Caesar's foot upon the senate's neck, they will so far set their own feet upon Caesar's neck, as to sell the Empire when they please, and to whom they please; A hundred Nations remain in bondage to one Grand signior by means of the janissaries, and yet those janissaries retain to themselves a supreme control over the Grand signior himself. The French King enjoys an arbitrary Prerogative more entirely, and more cheap than any Prince that I have read of, because he neither relies merely upon an Army, nor merely upon the Noblesse of that State whereby to oppress the Pesantry, but very subtly he so makes use of both, as that he is totally engaged to neither. But that crown has not of late suffered any violent shock, or concussion, if ever it does, that frame of Government will soon be shattered, and the great body of the Community will gain a party either amongst the Noblesse or the Souldiary. When marquess Hartford first strained himself, to bring in Forces for Prince Rupert he did not perhaps intend to make Prince Rupert so imperious over himself, & over all our English Nobility, as he is now grown. Neither did Sir Ralph Hopton think by all his meritorious services to gain such a rival to himself, and to all the Gentry of England, as captain Leg. But now I fear they are subject to more unlimitable Lords in the camp, than ever they stomached in the Parliament. I pray God the King himself do not find the like. His majesty needs no foreign discovery by Sir William Boswell's Letters, to advertise him of dangers, and conspiracies against his sacred Person, the designs of the Jesuits (if they prosper, as by favour at Court they are likely) can never end but in the ruin of himself, or of the Religion which he professes, there need to be no strange Intelligencer to inform his majesty of this. We may then knit up this point in a more short discourse: sometimes Princes are voluntarily in bondage to their own Creatures, as Themistocles was, who whilst he overruled all Athens, and Athens overruled all Greece, yet he was himself overruled by his wife, and his wife was overruled by her son: but this kind of bondage is commonly more comical. At other times, Princes stand engaged to the factions and forces by which their Dominions were achieved, and must be supported, and this kind of engagement uses to be often very tragical; as the old Stories of the Roman Emperors, and the modern Stories of the Turkish Sultans, and of sundry other insolent usurpers in other nations do sufficiently testify. It behooves Princes therefore, as well for their Subjects, as their own sakes, to avoid either of these servile Conditions: let them not impose too heavy a yoke upon their Subjects, and they shall neither have cause, nor disposition to receive any other yoke upon themselves. But though these additional causes are free from exception in themselves, yet as the case now stands, and as the King's success of late hath been, some men may cavil perhaps, and oppose the taking of this Oath at this time. I shall reply little herein▪ for it appears, as I conceive, that this Oath, as it is now formed, does but open and explain the same intention which the King had, or aught to have had in the other: and therefore without great imputation, and suspicion this form cannot be refused. I shall only supplicate his majesty, that he will please yet more solicitously, and intentively, to review and research the true state of this transcendent Case, and to come to a more equal impartial debate about it, as well with other men, as with his own conscience: Let it be his majesty's care to hear whatsoever can be enforced by reason from any person whatsoever, let him put the Case all manner of ways, & take a just consideration, in what condition he remains, if his Cause be just, or if it be unjust, or if it be dubious, or partly just, and partly unjust; if he does not cast thus about in spite of all prejudice, and take in all suppositions from all sides, as the fatality of this controversy now stands, no excuse will be large enough to cover him from the condemnation of God or man. We will first suppose his majesty's Cause to be just▪ that he has only the defensive part, and is necessitated to fight, and that the Parliament as yet hath offered no terms of Accommodation to him, but such as are more unjust, than all the plagues of this calamitous war. This, so being supposed, makes him innocent, but yet most unfortunate, it makes him the first man that ever Fortune picked out to engage in such a wretched destruction of men and treasure without blame. Amongst all his Ancestors there will not appear, upon search, one of them who was just, and maintained a just cause▪ and yet met with such general opposition from his Subjects, much less from the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament: How trivial soever the King's side account this, there was not ever a worse prodigy in the world to amaze any State, than this is, if it be true that the orderly presentative Body of this Nation, has, causelessly, and unnaturally, risen up against their righteous king to pursue him so far, as ours now is. It is not to be denied, but that some Parliaments have done some unjust things, when they have been wrought upon by the force or fraud of Princes; but no example can be showed, that ever any Parliament did such an unjust thing as this, contrary to all motives and influences of a gracious and religious Prince. Some of the King's party have argued thus▪ if Parliaments may err when they are perfect, having the concurrence of the royal State with them, much more may they err when the royal State recedes from them, &c. But this I hold a grand mistake, for if I have any reason to make a right use of Story, Parliaments are represented to me never less liable to error, than when they receive least impressions from the king. With what regret then ought the king to look upon this unprecedented disaster? Certainly, if he look upon us with a natural eye, under such unparalleled sufferings, or upon himself with a pious eye, under such an unequalled affliction, it cannot but administer thoughts of horror to him. Bonus Pastor ponit vitam pro ovibus, so said that Prince of Peace, in whom only there was no sin, and in whose flock, jointly, and severally taken, there was nothing else but ●in, and yet his death sealed as much as his mouth affirmed. Moses seemed to prefer the welfare of the obstinate Jews, not only before all his temporal interests, but also before his eternal diadem in heaven; and Saint Paul seemed to be rapt up with a species of the same zeal. The passions of some heathen and heretical Princes towards their liege Subjects, have been almost above the pitch of humanity: with what a strange kind of hypochondriacal frenzy did Augustus Caesar cry out, red mihi Legiones Vare? If the blood of his Subjects had been drawn forcibly out of his own dearest veins, it could not have parted from him with a stronger resentment. How did our Queen Mary▪ even to the death, deplore the loss of one Town in Picardy? With what strange instruments did grief make incision in her heart, whilst it would in grave the name of Callice there? The loss of all kings in all wars uses to be very dolorous, but native kings in civil wars, when they look upon such vast desolation, as is now to be seen in England and Ireland, must needs think that their own interest, their own honour, their own safety is of less consequence. We will now suppose the King's Cause to be unjust, that the Parliament has had none but loyal intentions towards him, and his royal Dignity, nor has attempted any thing but to defend Religion against the Papists, the laws of the Land against Delinquents, and the privileges of both Houses against Malignants: and on the contrary we will suppose that that private council which the king has followed rather than his public one, has aimed at the Arbitrary rule of France, and to effect the same has countenanced Popery, and but pretended danger only from the Parliament, from the City of London, and from the best affected of the whole Kingdom. Qui supponit, non ponit: We will not assume, but presume only that the great council of the Land is in the right rather than the King, and his clandestine council; but see what will follow upon this supposition, if it prove to be true, as it is neither impossible, nor improbable; if this be true, what a formidable day is that to be, wherein the king shall render a strict account for all the English Protestant blood which has been issued out, and is to be yet issued out in this wicked unnatural quarrel? Manasseh which filled Jerusalem with blood, and made the kennels thereof flow with the precious blood of Saints, could not contract so black a guilt, as he that imbrues two large kingdoms with blood, and that with the blood of the best reformed Professors of our saviour's gospel. That blood of Protestants which has been shed by Papists, as in the Parisian massacre; that blood of Christians which has been shed by infidels, as in Turkey; that blood of Saints which has been shed by heretics, as in the Arian Emperors days; that blood of strangers which has been shed by Conquering Usurpers, as in Peru of late, may admit of some colour, or excuse as to some degree of heinousness, and may plead for some kind of expiation, but this is beyond all thought or expression: The goodly kingdom of Ireland is almost converted into a Golgotha, and the more goodly kingdom of England is hasting to a worse point of desolation: It must needs be therefore, that he to whose cruelty and injustice so much confusion shall be imputed, must be perpetually abominated as a plague of human kind more monstrous, and portentous than any age formerly had the strength to produce. The ripping up of a mother's womb, the firing of such a Metropolis as Rome was, were but strains of vulgar, narrow-hearted cruelty; Antichrist himself may own the depopulation, and vastation of our British lands, as acts worthy of his dying fury.  
But it remains now in the last place that we suppose some doubt to be in the case, or some mixture of injustice in some circumstances: as that, though the King incline not at all to Popery himself, yet he has favoured▪ and enabled Papists too far to do mischief; and though he cannot with safety cast himself wholly upon the fidelity of the Parliament: yet he has no cause utterly to reject their consent, and approbation in the filling up of all places of public power and trust as the emergent necessity of the times now is, nor to persist in this all-consuming war, rather than to condescend to an Accommodation of that nature; if we lay down but this for supposed, we must needs conclude that the King has not punctually and duly discharged his Office, so as that he can clearly acquit, and absolve himself before God of this lamentable effusion of Christian blood: For there must not only be a perspicuous justice in the Cause, but an absolute necessity of the war, when kings take up the sword against such a considerable number of their Subjects as our King now fights against. Though the cause may be just, yet the war is not lawful where the miserable consequences of it do too far outbalance the iniquity of the conditions offered, and proposed by the assailed party; wherefore if the mere and clear justice of a cause cannot always wipe off guilt, how shall he be purged from offence, whose cause is not totally just, nor undeniably evident in a war of this nature? If the King does not apparently fight for Antichrist, yet 'tis most apparent that Antichrist does fight for the King, the whole Hierarchy has declared their engagement by publishing Bulls, & by sending supplies into Ireland, & England out of several Popish Countries: On the other side if the Earl of Essex does not apparently fight for Christ, yet it seems very probable that Christ fights for him, for our great Armies within the circle of this last year have four times met, and still the King's side hath gone off with loss and disadvantage. Redding being begirt with his excellency's forces, all his majesty's power could not relieve it, yet Gloucester being begirt by his majesty's forces, his Excellency found means to relieve it. And as for Edge-hill and Newberry, though neither side was totally routed, yet the mastery of the field was left to his Excellency, and had not fraud done better service to the King than force, scarce any other encounters in other parts had been prosperous to his Popish Armies. These things seem to make the King's Cause at least dubious, for it were strange if in these latter days Christ and Antichrist should be so far reconciled in any one cause as to unite their battles in the same expedition, or to pitch their tents in the same field; and grant any doubt in this case, and the king can never be capable of justification in prosecuting it so far with fire and sword; for the king has already sworn to uphold and preserve in their entire vigour the laws of the Land, and the privileges of Parliament, and we cannot deny but even this doubt might be decided by the laws in Parliament, or by some other Judicatory out of Parliament, if the king would refer it to such a decision; if the king will admit of no Judicatory to determine this matter, what are all our Laws, and privileges worth? If he will admit of one, but doubts what it is, and will not be resolved by his Parliament in that doubt, what will all his oaths profit us, what will all his deep professions of favour to our Laws and privileges stand us in stead? All those suppositions severally or jointly make it manifest, that this war, if it can be ended by a just oath on the King's side, not at all departing from the sense, and intent of his former Oaths, or from the nature of his kingly office, will charge all these inexpiable mischiefs upon him, if it be refused: Nay, when the king is not certain of Victory, and yet hath by so many dreadful oaths debarred himself from all advantages by victory, if this devouring war (wherein so much loss is, and no gain at all to countervail it) be still protracted, and preferred before a composition of this nature, future ages must needs suspect, that love of ruin, and distraction, and a perfect hatred to the very nature, and being of man was the execrable cause of it: To recommend this method of Pacification to the king, I shall say no more, and to recommend it now to the Parliament, very little will be fit to be said, in regard that kings are more devoid of counsel, than Parliaments; I shall thus only contract myself.  
If we have respect to Almighty God, an appeal to him by Oath, is not less beseeming Christianity than an appeal by sword; for aught I can understand, this is rather a way of engaging divine Justice, then of disingaging it, if we may be permitted to use such a word. If we have respect to the king, no course can better save his honour or oblige his justice then this.  
If we have respect to the Parliament, no other argument can more clearly vindicate their innocency and loyalty than this.  
If we have respect to Precedents, this is a transaction of State exceeding ancient.  
If we have respect to the present occasion, our affairs are now in a condition so good, that fear cannot be upbraided to us, and the Summer is so far spent, and our success hath hitherto been so equilibrious, that we have no reason to presume.  
If we have respect to the future, as the Armies may disband without turmoil, so we may all meet and incorporate again by this means upon more equal and friendly terms then by any other. The old word of Command (As you were) will reduce us to that Posture, in which the beginning of this Parliament found us; and then if the King observe this oath, he will incline to favour a due reformation, and consequently decline those rocks upon which he has of late unpolitickly both cast himself, and the State; if he observe it not, no new advantage will accrue to him by this disbanding of both Armies, but perhaps disadvantages, rather; and certainly he will neither ingratiate himself with God nor man by temerating such a Sacred Paction.  
The cause of all our miseries is mere obstruction of justice, and such obstruction as nothing could work but the utmost power of a king: Now for the opening of obstructions, this oath, if it be kept unviolated, is as effectual as any other expedient whatsoever; and we may hope that it will be kept.  
But soft, I crave pardon for saying so much, or insisting upon any inducements at all, for I know both Scots and English are now interessed herein, and I represent these things to the supreme wisdom of two the most religious kingdoms in the world.  
FINIS.