A PLEA FOR THE KING.  
 royal blazon or coat of arms 
C R  HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE dieu ET MON DROIT  
OXFORD, Printed for LEONARD LICHFIELD, Printer to the University. 1642.   

A PLEA FOR THE KING.  
HE that provoketh a King to anger( saith Salomon) sins against his own soul. I shall not apply this to the Parliament, but will call to mind the several outrageous and mutinous uprisings of the no less ignorant, than disobedient multitude, whose Rebellious insurrections gave the first cause of offence to His Majesty; yet I do not aclowledge that affront to be a politic ground for the raising of His Majesties Army; for their desires were satisfied, being appeased with Straffords head: and have we not seen it ordinary both in England and in France, for a King to satisfy the demands of such Rebels, thereby to avoid a farther inconvenience? Did not K. Richard the 2. grant Pardon to the outrageous Rogues and murtherers that followed Jack-Straw and Wat-Tyler, after they had murdered his Chancellor, his Treasurer, Chief Justice, and others, and broken opon his Exchequer, and committed all manner of outrages and villainies; and why did he do it, but to avoid a greater danger? and shall it be called dishonour for King charles to yield to the honest desires of His Subjects? no, those that tell the King such tales, fear their own dishonour, not the Kings; for the Honor of the King is supreme, and being guarded by Justice and Piety, it can receive neither wound nor slain; nay, King charles hath shewed Himself in that respect no less royal then His Predecessors, for His offer of Pardon to those that in His opinion were than Traytors, proved much; nay, His frequent and public recantation as it were of accusing the five Members, and withdrawing His Accusation upon second thoughts, are good premises, to ground this conclusion upon, that he delights in peace, and ●ad rather divulge the possibility of his own erring, then be the author of that disquiet, which must have followed through the whole Kingdom, if he had wilfully persisted in a farther prosecution, a rare thing in Princes, and it shows him as divine as virtuous, in that the restitution he made them was of the same nature, ●s the wrong he supposeth was offered them, both being public: and is not this a sufficient ground for subjects faith, to believe that his Majesty tenders his subjects welfare as his own, and the preservation of our laws equally with that of his own prerogative; or if that suffice not, let his serious and often protestations being kingly, Command that honor you owe him of giving credit to his gracious promises: hath he not desired the just God to deal with him and his, as he deals with us? and shall we prove a faithless generation, as if he could flatter with God in whose presence he hath made those sacred vows? or as if he could surpass the devil himself, in being so unnatural to his children, as to break those religious protestations, upon the performance of which their welfare wholly consists? we were wont to hold none his equals, and sha●l we now take that in the worst sense, making Princes worse then Peasants, not to be believed? Besides, what reason have we now to suspect him, the jealousies of a foreign force being dashed by the command we have gotten of the Seas? or were the cost clear and all passages open, reason cannot yet entertain that fear, for what benefit could be to the King to usher in a foreign force, when as he and his are all subject to the same hazards that his subjects would in that case undergo; and the King himself cannot be ignorant, how dangerous a thing it is to call in other Nations both for the spoil they make, as also because they have often held the possessions of the best places with which they have been entrusted: and he must likewise consider that the greatest loss must at such time be his own, he having most to lose: Besides this, have you not seen these his protestations actuated by the Kings embracing all opportunities for ●his performance of them: witness the Act for the continuance of this Parliament, and for the past unhappy accidents in his government; see the abundant satisfaction he hath given to his people, by damning of watery, and passing the Act for taking down the Star-chamber and the high Commission Court: and then for his promise to defend the true Protestant Religion; call to mind the great desire of a through Reformation, which his Majesty expressed by passing the Act for taking away of Bishops Voting in the House of Lords, and likewise his desire of a long wished for Synod; his many Proclamations against Jesuits, and for expulsing of Recusants out of his army, all which are evident signs of a well-meaning Prince; and then for the Liberty of Subject which he vows to maintain, consider whether he hath refused to leave even those that have had the greatest share of hi● princely favour, to the justice of the Law, when they have traitorously con●pired together to subvert the fundamental laws of the kingdom, or have traitorously contrived or introduced an arbitrary and tyrannicall government against Law: nay hath he not crost those merciful desires which received life from his own breast at first, to fulfil the desires of his people, and waved his own purpose, the Subjects benefit and advantage carrying a greater stroke with him? witness that Letter he sent to the Parliament concerning the execution of my Lord of Strafford, which he desired might be recorded; nay to speak once for all, let me give but Caesar his due, and tell you that never any age or story could boast of a Prince more free from 'vice then our sacred Majesty, what though he hath at some time through the importunity of instruments no less mischievous to him then to the Kingdom, done that which hath a little thwarted the subjects liberty, must all his acts of grace and goodness be butted in oblivion,& a monument prepared for his misdeeds, are princes erratas the only mistakes that came not within the compass of a possible amendment; 'twas the Apostle; rule to mention the patience of Job, when he was not ignorant of his impatience, which intimates that the good acts of man should be remembered for a pattern to succeeding ages, his bad ones for posterity to avoid, and had the stars such a malignant aspect in our Horizon at the birth of King charles, as that his goodness must be obscured, and left for posterity to seek out, and his few slips though repented of, made obvious to future ages; no, let the foul mouthed Zealots learn modesty from those of authority, I mean the Parliament, and let them remember, that humanum est errare.  
Can the rude and scandalously unlawful expressions that some vulgars of our time use, be thought the fruits of a good zealous spirit? or have those men discharged their obedience they owe their King, that kick against royal authority, as if God had given them Letters Patents to dispense with their loyalty with a non obstante? if the way to honour God be to dishonour the King, I am sorry I have so long mistaken myself; But 'tis to be hoped that a settled peace will teach them both their duties and their prayers; yet that must needs give comfort to his Majesty, that they despise not only him, but he that sent him; and that Sect that hold themselves not bound by human laws, do not tie themselves to an observance of Gods laws; for whieh if a happy and speedy course be not taken by these of authority, 'tis to be feared we shall have Innovations in Religion as bad as heresies slowly creep in, which will at length pled a saucy legitimacy by uncontrolled prescription: those people with their irreverent and frequent treasonable speeches, resemble the opacious body of the earth, enterposed to eclipse that light and vigour, which the solar aspect of his majesty would communicate to his subjects; surely 'twas partly for this purpose( I mean for the Churches good) that the royal authority summoned this Parliament, that like Beacons upon high hills, they should discover and proclaim each Innovation and Stratagem against either Church or Commonwealth;& these things being in the first place remedied in the Church, the affairs of the Commonwealth will succeed the better: and that being done by this happy Parliament, the very punishment of the Anabaptists, Brownists, separatists, and I know not what to call them, will speak these times as glorious to posterity in their Reformation, as now they are lamented in their persecution: nunquam prosper succedunt res humanae ubi negliguntur divinae.  
The next way for Subjects to enjoy a free quiet and peaceable life, is not to stand too much upon their pantofles with their lawful Prince; what by force they compel their Prince too, by the same authority it is usually broken, but when Kings do freely grant, it is always shameful to them to withdraw; for 'twas never suitable to royal dispositions, to be forced to that which they intend to keep unviolated; and if necessity force them to make a Law at any time, they think a fortiori, that Subjects are liable to the same Law; for ubi eadem est ratio est eadem lex; for though King Edward the third was not subject to force, yet he was to necessity; which, because it was violent, he gave way to it, and at the request of the Parliament holden in the fiftieth year of his reign, he did remove and discharge from his presence the Duke of Lancaster, the Lo: Latimer his Chamberlain, Sir Richard Sturry, and others whom he favoured: which being done, he had the greatest gift but one that ever he received in all his dayes, viz. from every person, man and woman, above the age of fourteen, four pence of old money, which made many Millions of Groats worth six pence of our money; this he had in general, besides he had of every beneficed Priest twelve pence, besides what he had of the Nobility and Gentry. But as soon as he had the money in his purse, he recalled the Lords, and restored them, and who durst call the King to account, when the Assembly was dissolved? Where the word of a King is, there is power( saith Ecclesiasticus;) who shall say unto him what dost thou? Consularius nemo melior est quam tempus.  
And if this were but considered the blood-thirsting sword of an hostile enemy, by a timely union and preparation may be prevented, and the thin rib'd carcase of an universal famine may have his consumption restored by a supply from our neighbouring Nations, and the quickspreading venom of an infectious Pestilence may be prevented by antidotes, and qualified by physical remedies; yea, like the Kings-evill it may be cured, by His Majesties free permission of the Parliaments modest and g●ntle proceedings, both for His vindication, and our preservation therein included. What if the Parliament in their vast wisdom should be content to pardon those great Delinquents on the Kings, must the people therefore murmur at their proceedings, as if they had authority to do nothing but what pleaseth them? or what though those that have done their duties in lending the Parliament Money and Plate, should be content to receive an equal share of that which is yet unspent, and stay for the rest upon the same faith they have for it all, so there might be Peace( Must the irreligious multitude, or those of the fraternity grieve, because of the fair end would then be agreed upon without the effusion of more blood? is it not better to save somewhat certainly, than hazard all, and possess nought surely? especially, when the gainers must of necessity sit down by the loss; will not the glory of England be abated with the loss of so much noble blood, and so many brave Families, to which the continuance of this unfortunate doth threaten ruin? will our fields grow fertile by inundation of blood? or doth any one delight in beholding pensive Matrons, solemnizing too too frequent funerals for their slaughtered husbands and issues? let every one consider whose duty 'tis to stoop first, in those things that may not trench upon our Religion, and then they will find this kingdom personated in the sable habit of a widow, with dishelved hairs, seems to Petition those of Authority, that since she is the Mother of most of us, and a Nurse unto us all, that they would take some speedy order for her redress.  Nulla salus bollo pacem nos possimus omnes. 
FINIS.