A true COPY OF THE PROPOSITIONS OF THE KING'S Commissioners; Presented to the Commissioners of the Lords and Commons of the Parliament of ENGLAND, now Assembled at uxbridge.  
WITH A Letter from a Grave Divine of the Assembly to an Honourable Person concerning the TREATY.  
As it was sent Printed from London, wherein( by their own confession) it is most evident the KING'S Commissioners have offered all Reason concerning the Church-Government.  
OXFORD, Printed by LEONARD LICHFIELD, Printer to the University. 1644.   

For the uniting and reconciling all differences between us in the matter of Religion, and procuring a blessed Peace, We are willing  
I THat freedom be left to all persons of what opinion soever in matters of Ceremony; and that all the penalties of the laws and customs which enjoin those Ceremonies, be suspended.  
II. That the Bishops shall exercise no Act of jurisdiction or Ordination; without the consent and counsel of the Presbyters, who shall be chosen by the clergy of each diocese, out of the learneast and gravest Ministers of that diocese.  
III. That the Bishop keep his constant residence in his diocese, except when he shall be required by his majesty to attend Him on any occasion. And that if he not hindered by the infirmities of old age or sickness, he preach every Sunday in some Church within his diocese.  
IV. That the Ordination of Ministers shall be always in a public and solemn manner, and very strict Rules observed concerning the sufficiency and other qualifications of those men who shall be received into holy Orders; and the Bishop shall not receive any into holy Orders without the approbation and consent of the Presbyters, or the mayor part of them.  
V. That competent maintenance and provision be established by Act of Parliament to such Vicarages as belong to Bishops, deans and Chapters, out of the Impropriations, and according to the value of those Impropriations of the several Parishes.  
VI. That for the time to come no man shall be capable of two Parsonages or Vicarages with cure of souls.  
VII. That toward the settling of the public Peace, 100000l shall be raised by Act of Parliament out of the estates of Bishops, deans and Chapters in such manner as shal be thought fit by the King and two Houses of Parliament, without the alienation of any of the said Lands.  
VIII. That the jurisdiction in Causes Testamentary, Decimals and matrimonial, be settled in such manner as shall seem most convenient by the King and two Houses of Parliament, and likewise that one or more Acts of Parliament be past for regulating of Visitations, and against immoderate Fees in ecclesiastical Courts, and the abuses by frivolous Excommunications, and all other abuses in the exercise of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, in such manner as shall be agreed upon by His Majesty and both Houses of Parliament.  
And if your Lordships shall insist upon any other thing which your Lordships shall think necessary for Reformation, We shall very willingly apply ourselves to the consideration thereof.   

A Letter from a Divine in LONDON, to an Honourable Person, concerning the Uxbridge Treaty.  
My Lord,  
I Shall according to my custom give you notice of the chief Occurrents which this week hath brought forth; considering that now in time of Treaty, you who are a lover of Peace and Truth, will be a little impatient to hear what is done at Uxbridge toward the joining of those two together. To this purpose I was afraid I should have had but little to advertise, for the nine first daies produced little; but when the business of the Church returned again, although there was great contention to keep up all for the prelatical party in its former height, and to that purpose little done in the two first daies, besides Disputation betwixt their Divines and ours, they holding stiffly that Episcopacy was instituted by Christ and his Apostles, and that the destroying it would induce sacrilege, and be against the Kings Oath, directly taken to preserve the Bishops; yet at the third and last day the great Lords and other Commissioners on their side began to speak some reason; and though for soothe to please the Divines they would not yield to our Bill in the form that it was offered to them; yet to tell truth between you and me, they have done more then ever we thought they would have done, and that( as cunning as they are) which will serve our turns as well as if they had past the whole Bill, and set up presbytery as high as we desire it should be set; for you know 'tis not a Scotland, or a Jure divino, Presbytery that we are for, that would give us but little ease from our former pressures, but onely change the seat of that power, and give us many instead of one Bishop in every diocese. But that which we desire, is such an one as will be most agreeable to the Word of God, according to our Covenant, and to the Civill State, which being of a King ruling in Parliament, and doing nothing but upon the Advice and Consent of this great council, is directly proportionable to what is here offered in the Church by the Bishop and his Presbyters, who also must be chosen by the Clergy, as our Knights and Burgesses are by the Free-holders. If this be resolved on, we shall have our good Lord Bishops a little humbler then they were, and if you mark, they must be set to Preaching too, and if they do that according to this order once a week, we shall not hear so often from their Courts, but oftener from their Pulpits, where we shall be as glad to meet them, as before we were sorry in that other more chargeable place.  
I have here enclosed the several Propositions which were then offered, and by the Postscript you will perceive that they are not now so straight laced, but that they will hear of some more too, if these will not serve. But if all these be once really granted, and that grant formed into a Law, or laws, and moulded handsomely in a Parliamentary way, I think we shall not need trouble them with more Propositions, whatsoever were farther taken from them, and added to the Presbytery, would make that government less convenient for our turn, and within a while bring us news of as many grievances from that, as you and I have ever talked of in the other. And truly under the Rose I see not what more to ask. For you know and remember what those grievances were, which moved us to think so earnestly of a change, and because we could not be heard in our just desires, at length to proceed to that Ordinance and our Covenant against root and branch; and for a Presbytery in its stead. One was the Antichristian Tyranny of the Bishops upon our Consciences in point of Ceremonies, which were prest so bard where there was any Law to avow it, and brought in so insidiously where there was none, and all our godly Ministers silenced that would not obey the first, and discountenanced and kept out of preferments that would not advance the second sort, all of us blasted for Puritans and roundheads, and, when they durst, cited to Courts, and high Commission, because we would not, ( i.e.) could not in conscience conform to those traditions of man. Well, now you see their stomacks are come down, they will hear reason in this point in their first Proposition, and so farewell Ceremonies and Bishops Courts, and Visitations, that never looked after nothing else but the observation of these.  
Another thing that we were wont to dislike in them, was their Lording it over the Clergy, no body worthy to do any thing about the government of the Church, but my good Lord Bishop; and his chancellor, and official; and they could do what they pleased, and no body permitted to interpose for us, but excommunications come out against us, sometimes, before ever we heard that we were in the Court; But now in the second Proposition the Presbyters must have as much to do in all Acts of jurisdiction as he, and he can never do any thing without the consent of all, or at least a mayor part of them, and if they will be so base as to complot and concur with him against us, especially when they are chosen by the Clergy, and have no dependence on him. I confess I cannot much hope for any great comfort or joy we should have reaped, if the whole government had by way of perfect parity been put into Presbyters hands.  
Another quarrel we had to them,( and that sine so just an one, that the Papists themselves insisted upon it vehemently in the council of Trent) was their non residence from their diocese, but living at their ease or pleasure wheresoever they would, & never preaching( some of them) once in a twelve month. But now in the third Proposition they must be sent home from tithing to tithing, if they are vagrant, and kept close to their duty, and taught to Preach again, which their greatness had made them forget, and you shall see how handsomely some of them will do it once a week, who never penned a Sermon yet but what they had sweat a month for.  
Again you know nothing was more frequently and justly declaimed at, then the stealing in of unworthy men into the Clergy, at the window or the back door, who could not venture on the course required to a faire admittance: and hence is it that so many Popish idle fellowes that were for nothing but ceremonies, and reading of prayers, and so many debauched ignorant fellowes crept into benefice, or Curateships. Now the fourth Proposition if it may be observed, will make sufficient provision against all this, and provide for us a sufficient or thodox, learned, painful, orderly Clergy, and if such laws when they are made, be neglected, I know not what to say, but that if that our whole bill had past, we should have still been in that danger.  
Another intolerable abuse was, for the Bishops and Cathedrall Churches who held Impropriations, and ought to have taken good care for the serving of the Churches, and to have given good example to the Laity, did yet most scandalously leave a Vicar to discharge the whole burden, & add nothing to his vicarage, which was worth sometimes but 20 Nobles a year, sometimes but little more, and accordingly was fitted with some poor soul that would sit down upon such a pension. But now the fifth Proposition makes provision for that, and I hope the Parliament will not leave them to proportion it, but appoint them to make every such Vicarage worth 50l or 100 mark per annum at the least, and let the parish have such an one as they like, to enjoy it, and preach constantly among them.  
In the next place you know how justly we complained of the two steeples, the spiritual Bygamy or Polygamy, & what a horrible corruption that was in itself, and what consequents attended it, that the Kings and Lords Chaplains must have all,( every man his tot quot & omnes) and an honest man not able to get one, but content himself with a Cure or a Lecture, and take all the pains for a pittance, when the fat Pluralist had 2 or 3 hundred a year for doing nothing. But now, their sixth Proposition hath fetched them off from their jewish Polygamy, & will make every one live with his own wife according to the Apostles rule of a benevolence, and then the wife will be brought to love and reverence her husband.  
Again you know how oft we have talked of the riches of the Bishops and Cathedrall Churches which came into them for doing of nothing, while the Country Clergy could scarce pay their first Fruits, Tenths, and Subsidies, & live in any tolerable manner upon the remainder, and that in all charges, the poor Vicar( being so high in the Kings books) had nothing to think of but how he might provide for bread, and payments. But now the seventh Proposition lays that on the right shoulders, and( besides that I hope this may be a president for the future) this sum of 100000l being to be raised on so few, and those for the most part old men, will be a pretty fleecing of them after the sequestrations are taken off, and by that time that burden is off from their shoulders, it is to be hoped that honest and grave men of our friends may be gotten into their places, who sure may deserve to enjoy what these are fit onely to receive, and pay in, to the good of the State.  
You know our last but foreste grievance was ecclesiastical Courts, which no body could keep from having to do with sometimes, if not about Ceremonies, yet about probates of Wills and tithes, &c. and when once we came into their clutches, then Master official, and Master Register, and Master Proctor, and Master Goodman Apparitor, must have each their pennyworths out of us; But now the eight Proposition hath released us from all those setters, and pressures; and the wisdom of Parliament, I hope,( to whom it is referred) will put it into some director and easier course by entrusting the common law with it, or finding out some other way which shall be most agreeable, and medicinal to our disease.  
And truly let me make you my Confessor, I know not what can make the Parliament unsatisfied in this point of the Church, the first and main part of our Treaty;( if the Militiae and Ireland may be agreed on) unless it be th●…, concerning the Lands, which you know are to be given to the Scots, as appears by the reference in our Bill to that in Edinburgh. But this our Assembly I believe will take as ill, as the Prelates, for all of them, that I ever met with, are against alienating of the Lands to any but sacred uses; and the truth is, the giving them to the Scots( if they were alienated) would give them too great a hold in our Kingdom, every bishopric will plant them in a faire mannor and demeans in each diocese through England and Wales, and then having a third part in the Commission for the Militiae, though they may if they please be by that the better fitted to be the Conservators of the Peace of the kingdom, yet if they should have any respect to their own interests, any ambitious or insidious designs, this with the strength they have already both in England and Ireland, may be a good faire step toward the Command of all the three kingdoms.  
The truth is, I hear some conceive themselves obliged by the Covenant which we have taken, not to lay down arms without root and branch, the absolute abolition of the whole order. But sure these men do either not mark, or not understand the Covenant aright. For to that part of it which concerns our Brethren of Scotland, and the securing of them in the continuance of their Government against the Machinations of the Prelates here( which sure was the sole reason that at their late coming in, they desired we should join with them in that Covenant) I have no reason to doubt but that work is done.  
And for that which concerns this kingdom, the taking away the present form of Prelacy by Arch-Bishops, Bishops, deans and Chapters, &c.  
1. I conceive that all that we have sworn, is but to endeavour that, and in that we can perfectly satisfy ourselves; that if the spending our Estates, venturing our Lives, doing what ever the Parliament hath required of us, may be called Endeavouring, we have then discharged our Oath.  
2. I make no doubt, but if a new form of Government be drawn up according to the Propositions now offered, it will be quiter another form from that of Arch-Bishops, &c.  
And 3. I must add, that we meant not to take away what was good or lawful, but onely that which was unlawful and grievous; and many of the Assembly in expounding the Covenant to their people,  told them that it was not against a moderate or limited Presidency or Episcopacy,( wherein Presbyters should have joint social power) but onely against the sole tyrannicall Antichristian power of Bishops, &c.  
4. To shrift myself to you; seeing we have generally consest that it is not lawful to fight for Religion, especially for so slight a part of it, as the Government of the Church, we should not be able to stand to our Principles, if we should break the Treaty for Peace upon these terms, and fall to fighting again, which you know we profess to do, onely on that other ground of defending the privileges of Parliament, and that just legal power of theirs of bringing Delinquents to condign punishment; and if they be opposed in it, of raising the Posse Regni, for that purpose.  
I have kept you too long in this discourse, the Conclusion whereof shall be willing to give you some reward for your patience of all this trouble, by telling you what I hear; that though these Propositions be not yet accepted, yet if the two other businesses can be composed in the other six dayes, there will be two dayes of the Twenty left; and in them, if no more will be yielded to, these that are offered shall be accepted, which may produce a happy Peace. For which that it may be to Gods glory, and the satisfaction of all our Consciences, that we have sincerely done our duties, is the Prayer of  
Your Lordships, &c. FEB. 17.   

Commis. pro Rege.  

Duke of Richmond and Lenox.  
marquis of Hertford.  
earl of Southampton.  
earl of Kingston.  
earl of Chichester.  
The Lord capel.  
Lord Seymour.  
Lord Hatton.  
Lord Culpeper.  
Sir Edward Nicholas.  
Sir Edward hid.  
Sir Richard Lane.  
Sir Tho. gardener.  
Sir Orlando Bridgeman.  
Master John Ashburnham.  
Master Jeffery Palmer.  
Doctor Steward.    

Commis. pro Parl.  

earl of Northumberland.  
earl of Pembroke.  
earl of Salisbury.  
earl of Denbigh.  
Lord Wenman.  
Master Ho●….  
Master Pairpoint.  
Sir Henry Vane, 〈◇〉  
Master Crew.  
Master Whitlock.  
Master Saint Johns.  
Master Prideaux.  
Lord Lowdon.  
Sir Charles Erskin.  
Master Dundas.  
Master Brackley.  
Master Henderson.   
FINIS.