THere cannot be a better expedi­ent for removing the calamities and miseries of this languishing Kingdom, then cleerly and plainly to informe the World, and the Consciences and under­standings of all men, who they are that will not suffer the bles­sing of Peace to returne to us. For however the inclinations of many are so seduced, and their understandings so corrupted, that they are not, or seem not, to be convinced of the horror and odiousnesse of this Rebelli­on, yet none have owned so much blood-thirstinesse, so much folly & inhumanity, as to declare to the People, That Peace is not good for them, (though they have used all possible de­signes and Engines of Wit, Malice, and Perjury, to involve them in a desperate and eternall Warre) presuming that whatsoever absence there is of courage and conscience, of Re­ligion and Loyalty, that they are yet too wise and decerning in their own interest, bare-faced to affect Famine, Ruine and Desolation, and therefore in the middest of their blood and Rapine, in the very act of invading and infesting the Kingdom with forraigne Forces, and basely betraying the Wealth, Blood, and honour of their Country to strangers, they would [Page 2] faine be thought solicitous and importunate for Peace.

Vpon this ground, and for this reason (how perverse soe­ver the hearts of many are to the cleerest evidence, and how insolently soever even this overture was entertained, and since scornfully commented on) 'tis necessary to publish to the World, the last attempt made by His Majesty, to prevent the further effusion of Christian English Blood, with all the circumstances both of the sending and reception, that all men may see the difference between the spirit and temper of a just and gratious King, and of men whose Pride and Ambition have broken the bounds prescribed to them by Law and Reli­gion; and how hard it is for Persons who have once assumed and usurped a power too great for them, to quit and depart from that power, though they see it inconsistent with the preservation of themselves and their Country; and that all men may confesse (what Iudgement soever it shall please God to lay upon this miserable Kingdome) that he, to whom he intrusted it, left no means unattempted, that either pub­lique consultations, or private conjectures could think expe­dient to redeeme it from those Iudgements; and that him­selfe descended (notwithstanding the greatest discourage­ment and provocation that ever Prince endured) in his Princely and Fatherly care of his People, to all imaginable Arts and Offices, which might remove the present, or pre­vent the growing mischiefes.

His Majesty having alwaies principally chosen (though he hath consented to, and embraced all Councells and occasi­ons that looked that way) those seasons to desire and solicite for Peace, in which he might be understood to have some ad­vantages in Warre, (witnesse his Messages and Declarations after the Battell at Edge-Hill, after his taking of Bristoll, after the reliefe of Newarke,) no sooner freed himselfe from the attendance of Sir William Wallers Army (having routed a considerable part of it, taken tenne Peece of Cannon, and some principall Officers prisoners) and put himselfe into the head of an Army much superior in common understanding to the [Page 3] force he was to contend with; then he considered how to prevent that effusion of blood, which a Battell would pro­duce, and to procure such a Peace, as seemed to be wished by those, with whom he was to fight, and was the same he had alwayes desired. It was too evident upon so many, and a very late refusall, that such an overture would meet with nothing but scorne and insolence at Westminster, where without forme or Liberty of debate, Councells, and Resolutions are imposed by the fury and violence of those, who are too much concerned in the guilt and benefit of the Rebellion, to submit themselves to the old Lawes and Government. And many were of opinion that the Earle of Essex himselfe was so conscious of being made an instrument of so much misery and devastation to his Country, so sensible of the condition of the Nobility, Gentry, and Commons of England, of the Religion, Lawes, and Li­berties of the Kingdome, by this Invasion of the Scots, that he would willingly embrace any opportunity to relieve and redeeme himselfe, and his fellow Subjects from that thral­dome, and captivity he could not but see designed for them, and to preserve the Religion, Lawes, and Priviledges of Par­liament, which he was bound and trusted even by his Com­mission of Generall to defend, and which he saw without a speedy Peace could not be preserved. Hereupon His Ma­jesty having drawne His Army to Liskard within very few miles of the Earles Forces, on the sixth of August vouchsafed to send a Letter, all written with His owne Royall Hand, to the Earle of Essex (then at Listithen) in these words.

This Letter was delivered by the Lord Beauchamp; the Earle having read it, Master Richard (who attended on the Lord Beauchamp) told him, that he was to desire a safe passe for M ^r Harding to come to him, who had authority from His Majesty to make particular Propositions in order to Peace; his Answer was, he would not permit M ^r Harding to come to him, neither would he have any Treaty with the King; whereupon M ^r Richard replyed, that he was commanded from His Majesty to let him know his very earnest desire of Peace, to prevent that ruine and desolation which would inevitably ensue this unnaturall Warre; that the Peace His Majesty desired, should be established by the settlement of the true Protestant Religion, the Lawes of the Land, the Li­berties of the Subject and the Priviledges of Parliament, and that the Earle might be assured that this was His Majesties Reall Intention, His Majesty would give any security He [Page 6] could propose, as well by the Trust, Power, and Confidence he would put in himselfe, as by any other the most solemne way of engagement that could be devised. The Earle seem­ing not moved with what was said to him, was then desired to returne an Answer to His Majesties Letter, he replyed he would make none, and so turned away.

This strange neglect of His Majesty and His Message, pro­duced no other effect with His Majesty then an opinion, that there could be no reason, for a man to refuse all that he pre­tended to desire, but onely a doubt in the security of the pro­mise, which no man could so well aske, as His Majesty him­selfe could offer, and therefore His Majesty was pleased, that they by whose assistance he was principally to manage the Warre, should be his security for a Peace; and so the next day after His Majesty understood what reception his Letter had, this other, under the hands of the chiefe Officers of His Army, was sent to the Earle of Essex, in these words.

[Page 9]This indeed procured an answer, (which His Majesties could not) but such a one as would not suffer the bleeding wounds of this poore Kingdome to be closed up: the Earle hath onely power to kill, murder, and destroy: none to save, cherish, and protect, or to joyne with those that can. The Answer was this.

Let the World now Judge, without looking back upon that blessed flourishing condition this Kingdome enjoyed, before these men frighted our Peace from us, at a time when we wanted nothing but gratitude to God and the King, to acknowledge the fullest measure of happinesse that ever Na­tion was possessed of; onely reviewing those very gratious Messages and Sollicitations on His Majesties part for an Ac­commodation from that at Nottingham to this present; I say, let the World Iudge who they were that procured this [Page 10] Warre, and who they are that will not suffer the Warre to have an end; who it is that endeavours and desires to preserve the true Reformed Protestant Religion, and who to confound and destroy it with all Licence, Impiety, and Prophanation; who it is that would maintaine and defend the Lawes of the Land, by which the Liberty and Property of the Subject is established, and who it is that cancells all those Lawes, and subject's the freeborne Subjects to the most unlimited, law­lesse, arbitrary power and servitude that ever Christian State groaned under; lastly who it is that labours to uphold and vin­dicate the Priviledges of Parliament, and who to dissolve and pull up Parliaments by the rootes, by usurping an unnaturall power not belonging to Houses of Parliament, and confound­ing that power which in truth doth belong to them, with admission of Forreigners and Strangers, and abridging them­selves of their owne Rights, by which onely Parliaments can consist. If there be Courage and Conscience enough to take these things to heart, and the preservation of these be indeed the end and resolution of all good men (and without the pre­servation of them no happinesse is to be hoped for) they will in a peremptory and constant love of Peace joyne with those who endeavour Peace, and not suffer men who grow fat [...]nd rich with the blood and spoiles of their Brethren, and whose greatnesse and authority cannot be preserved but by these distractions, to sacrifice their poor Country to their owne Pride, Lord Brook. Sir Iohn Ho­tham. M. Hambden. M. Pym. M. Fiennes. M. Arthur Goodwin. M. Iohn Ho­tham, &c. Covetousnesse and Ambition. However let the Con­trivers of this most unnaturall and unparalelld Rebellion as­sure themselves, however God may permit them to be in­struments of his Vengeance upon this unhappy Kingdome, that as he hath already shewed his Iudgements in a very ex­emplary manner upon many of the principall of them, so he will not suffer one of them to live to receive the fruit and benefit of his prosperous wickednesse.