HE that provoketh a King to anger ( saith Salomon ) sins against his own soule . I shall not apply this to the Parliament , but will call to minde the severall outragious and mutinous uprisings of the no lesse ignorant , than disobedient multitude , whose Rebellious insurrections gave the first cause of offence to His Majesty ; yet I do not acknowledge that affront to be a politick 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 satisfie the demands of such Rebels , thereby to avoyd a farther inconvenience ? Did not K. Richard the 2. grant Pardon to the outragious Rogues and murtherers that followed Jack-Straw and Wat-Tyler , after they had murthered his Chancellor , his Treasurer , Chief Justice , and others , and broke opon his Exchequer , and committed all manner of outrages and villanies ; and why did he do it , but to avoyd a greater danger ? and shall it be call'd dishonor for King Charls to yeild to the honest desires of His Subjects ? no , those that tell the King such tales , fear their own dishonor , not the Kings ; for the Honor of the King is Supream , and being guarded by Justice and Piety , it can receive neither wound nor stain ; nay , King Charls hath shewed Himself in that respect no lesse Royall then His Predecessors , for His offer of Pardon to those that in His opinion were than Traytors , proved much ; nay , His frequent and publick recantation as it were of accusing the five Members , and withdrawing His Accusation upon second thoughts , are good premisses , 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 shewes him as divine as vertuous , in that the restitution he made them was of the same nature , ●s the wrong he supposeth was offer'd them , both being publique : 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 Lawes 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 gratious promises : hath he not desired the just God to deal with him and his , as he deales with us ? and shall we prove a faithlesse generation , as if he could flatter with God in whose presence he hath made those sacred vowes ? or as if he could surpasse the Devill himself , in being so unnaturall 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 equalls , and sha●l we now take that in the worst sence , making Princes worse then Peasants , not to be believed ? Besides , what reason have we now to suspect him , the jealousies of a forraign force being dasht by the command we have gotten of the Seas ? or were the coast cleer and all passages open , reason cannot yet entertain that fear , for what benefit could be to the King to usher in a forreign force , when as he and his are all subject to the same hazzards that his subjects would in that case undergoe ; and the King himself cannot be ignorant , how dangerou● a thing it is to call in other Nations both for the spoile they make , as also because they have often held the possessions of the best places with which they have bin intrusted : and he must likewise consider that the greatest losse must at such time be his own , he having most to lose : Besides this , have you not seene these his protestations actuated by the Kings embracing all opportunities for ●his performance of them : witnesse 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 peop●e , by damning of Shipmony , and passing the Act for taking downe 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 express'd 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 signes 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 Trayterously con●pired together to subvert the fundamentall Lawes of the Kingdome , or have Trayterously contrived or introduced an arbitrary and tyrannicall government against Law : nay hath he not crost those mercifull desires which received life from his owne breast at first , to fulfill the desires of his people , and waved his owne purpose , the Subjects benefit and advantage carrying a greater stroak with him ? witnesse 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 lesse mischievous to him then to the Kingdom , done that which hath a little thwarted the subjects liberty , must all his acts of grace and goodnesse be buried in oblivion , & a monument prepar'd for his misdeeds , are princes errata's the only mistakes that came not within the compasse of a possible amendment ; 't was 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 avoyd , and had the stars such a malignant aspect in our Horizon at the birth of King Charls , as that his goodnesse 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 foule mouth'd Zealots learn modesty from those of authority , I mean the Parliament , and let them remember , that humanum est errare .

Can the rude and scandalously unlawfull 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 royall authority , as if God had given them Letters Patents to dispence with their loyalty with a non obstante ? if the way to honour God be to dishonor the King , I am sorry I have so long mistaken my self ; But 't is 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 humane laws , do not tye themselves to an observance of Gods lawes ; for whieh if a happy and speedy course be not taken by these of authority , 't is to be feared we shall have Innovations in Religion as bad as heresies slowly creep in , which will at length plead a sawcy legitimacy by uncontrolled prescription : those people with their irreverent and frequent treasonable speeches , resemble the opacious body of the earth , enterposed to Ecclipse that light and vigour , which the solar aspect of his Majestie would communicate to his subjects ; surely 't was partly for this purpose ( I mean for the Churches good ) that the Royall authority summon'd 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 , Seperatists , 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 prospere 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 pantables with their lawfull Prince ; what by force they compell their Prince too , by the same authority it is usually broken , but when Kings do freely grant , it is alwayes shamefull to them to withdraw ; for 't was never sutable to Royall 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 yeer of his Raign , 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 mony , which made many Millions of Groats worth six pence of our mony ; this he had in generall , besides he had of every beneficed Priest twelve pence , besides what he had of the Nobility and Gentry . But assoon as he had the mony in his purse , he recall'd the Lords , and restored them , and who durst call the King to accompt , when the Assembly was dissolved ? Where the word of a King is , there is power ( saith Ecclesiasticus ; ) who shall say unto him what doest 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 carkasse of an universall famine may have his consumption restored by a supply from our neighbouring Nations , and the quickspreading venome of an infectious Pestilence may be prevented by antidotes , and quallified by physicall 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 wisedom should be content to pardon those great Delinquents on the Kings , must the people therefore murmure 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 equall 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 bloud ? is it not better to save somewhat certainly , than hazard all , and possesse nought surely ? especially , when the gainers must of necessity sit down by the losse ; will not the glory of England be abated with the losse of so much noble blood , and so many brave Families , to which the continuance of this unfortunate doth threaten ruine ? will our fields grow fertile by inundation of bloud ? or doth any one delight in beholding pensive Matrons , solemnizing too too frequent Funeralls for their slaughter'd husbands and issues ? let every one consider whose duty 't is to stoope first , in those things that may not trench upon our Religion , and then they will finde this Kingdome personated in the sable habit of a widdow , 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 redresse .