MAy it please your sacred Majesty, I am by the commands of that lively Image of your Royall virtues, your gracious Sonne, our hopefull Prince Charles, first, to make an humble tender of his duty to your Majesty, and then to remonstrate to your su­preme wisdome the sense His High­nesse hath in these so tender yeers of the calamitous and intollerable afflictions that march as it were magnis Catervis, through your Majesties Dominions, and the resolution his gracious desire hath fixt on; (with your Majesties favourable allowance) for their sudden cure and remedy: Your Highnesse was pleased in his infancy to commit the Prince, the darling and little eye of this King­dome, to my tuition, and without arrogating any thing to my owne paines (in that absit jactantia verbis) I must assure your Majesty in his very disposition then appeared the tru [...] character of Royaltie, written by the hand of nature in the faire Table of his mind; and though velle & nolle was not then in his reach, it being not capable in so young yeare [...] of [Page 4] the use of reason; yet that strong propension was in his soule to good, that he appeared in all his actions as if he had been moulded for the Soveraignty and Empire of the world. And those childish and gentle vertues once meeting (as now by his age they have done) with the guidance of reason and discre­tion how incomparable and admirable they will grow, to the joy of the whole kingdome, and comfort of your Majesty, may be conjectured by this, that he does with so much ten­dernes and griefe resent the distractions and dissentions, see­ming in every place of your Majesties dominions, and with much earnestnesse, beseech your goodnesse to accept from me his intentions and resolutions concerning the composing these differences, which certainly have not been infused into the Prince His Highnesse, by any counsels or perswasions of mine, or any other that attend his gracious person, but are meerly the issues of his owne Minerva, the conceptions of his excellent and increasing fancy. He is not ignorant (as sayes his Highnesse, and so injoyned me to informe your Majesty) that the injuries and disobediences which have been attempted against your Royall dignity, by divers of your sub­jects, ought not to be put up without punishing the offen­dors; but his Highnesse humbly beseeches you to make more use of your mercy then justice; and surely in that (under your Royall pardon) the judicious infant hath delivered that which heaven commands, and commends to Rulers of the Earth; namely, to shew mercy, I will shew mercy to the mer­cifull; but your sacred goodnesse is so well skilled in all the works of mercy, that it does appeare a needlesse labour in his Highnesse to incite your disposition to that which is already as inseparable to your Royall nature, as is your reason. The particular, if it please your Majesty, in which His Grace implores (for his sake) your compassion, is, that you would graciously be pleased to let no further prosecution of justice, or punishment, be used against the persons of Captaine Lil­barne, and others of the Parliaments Commanders, now pri­soners here, and by the severe Letter of the Law condem­ned [Page 5] to death, his Highnesse beleeving, and not without rea­son (the Parliament having declared as much) that what­soever punishment shall be inflicted on them, the same will be extended to the persons of such noble Gentlemen as in your Majesties service by the uncertaine chance of war have been made their Captives. And surely my opinion in that is concurrent with that of the Princes: besides, there can be no greater ornament to Imperiall Majesty, then to remit the of­fences of their Subjects, especially when it is apparent they were not intentionall nor malicious offences, as my charity induces me to beleeve these Captaines never entertained the meanest thought of disloyalty to your sacred person or dignity, but came into the field as it were in the Company, and by the examples of their neighbours; nor should a pub­lieke crime be attributed to a few private men, such as these are, who having the authority of Parliament for their putting on Armes, beleeve in their misled Con­sciences, it was warrant sufficient for them to doe their endeavours in these unhappy Civill warres: For the generall State of the Kingdome now dissected into severall factions and distractions, the Prince hath often­times even with teares bewailed to me and others the mise­ries which oppressively are did used throughout your Ma­jesties (his royall fathers) dominions; of which, though his yet budding reason cannot comprehend the absolute causes; yet he gives a shrewd guesse at them, far above the expecta­tion of his tender yeeres: hee hath informed mee out of his owne Genius, Royall Sir, that hee conceives businesses have beene transacted between your sacred Selfe and your high Court of Parliament, with too much acrimony and violence, for as much as his small reading had informed his under­standing, he had gathered, that the English Parliaments were the best and most necessary Counsellors of the Engl sh Kings, and then againe complained hee was fearefull your Majesty had beene mis-informed against your Parliament by some, who for their owne pernicious ends, affected the fomenta­tion [Page 6] and continuance of these dissentions, so prettily reason­ing the causes and effects of these distractions, that in truth with much joy I heard his Highnesse, resembling him to that young hopefull Monarch of this Nation, Edward the sixth, who was indued with an inspired wisdome above his yeeres; concluding with my selfe, that if that Kingdome were to be held unhappy that had a child to their King▪ how fortunate and blessed were ours, that had a Prince, who, though in yeeres a child, was a man in the purity and solidnesse of his discretion another Salomon; that (when heaven takes your Majesty from us) might sit upon the throne of his father Da­vid, and governe his people Israel with wisdome and equity: and surely we may believe, that heaven, as it hath conferred an eminent dignity upon Princes, transcending that of other inferiour persons, it hath likewise furnished and adorned them with more select and superlative understandings and indowments of the mind then are in other men.

But to his Highnesse resolution, with which hee desired me to acquaint your sacred Majesty, hee doth first resolve, that if God should please to take your Majesty from him and us (which in his mercy wee all hope hee will not) du­ring the time of these afflictions and distractions, that hee a childe should then come to a Scepter so incumbred, a King­dome so perplexed and rent in pieces with civill troubles, that it were impossible for him ever to quench the wildfire of these distractions, which out of the confidence of his weaknesse, and the inabilities of his youth, would increase past his extinguishment, and so diminish the Royalty of this Crowne; that he should be impossibilited for ever attaining to the full Imperiall State and absolute Monarchall dignity of his famous ancestors, a fortune I know to the greatnesse of his spirit far more intolerable than death it selfe. Next, may it please your Majesty, he resolves, that if these bloody and inhumane wars run thus through the body of this King­dome, that as their subsequents must necessarily follow, de­vastations, ruines of Cities and Townes by fire and sword, [Page 7] murthers of men, women and children by the cruelty and barbarousnesse of the souldiers, the utter extirpation of Gods true Religion and worship, sects and schismes usurping the face of truth, and bewitching the mindes of ignorant minded people: All which misfortunes he imagines are reflexive on his gracious selfe▪ as he is your sonne and (if God doe not for our sinnes take him away from us) must succeed your Grace in the royalties of this and your other Dominions; the townes or Cities that shall or have been ruined in these wars; his Highnesse accounts as part of his patrimony rioted from his inheritance; the subjects your Majesty loses, he con­cludes might have lived to have been his, and believes that their decreasing is a diminution to his power and the abili­ties of this Kingdome. Finally, he takes to heart so all the evills which now overspread the face of this our earth, that they almost include his gentle and sweet disposition to an unwelcome melancholly; that it may prove prejudiciall to his health and our hopes. And truly, so please your Majesty, if when your wisdome shall fully take it into your gracious consideration, nothing can be more destructive to the obedi­ence which the Subject of Engla [...]d (should the Prince ever arrive to be King) ought to pay his Highnesse, then the re­membrance of these warres hapning in your raigne: the people who alwayes believe of times past according to the traditions they have from their father, being apt to credit that those bloody mischiefes were onely occasioned by your Majesty, and so your memory will be nothing gratefull to posterity; and where they doe not affect the memory of the father, hardly can that various beast, the multitude, ever be induced to love and reverence the sonne. Besides, should the wars continue, what insufferable daily miseries must this wretched Kingdome expect, when all places shall onely be, as it were, constant scenes where Tragedies are daily acted; and for that Phenix, true Religion, which hath long beauti­fied this Nation, if she expire by the malignity of these wars, we must not expect a new one will miraculously arise out of [Page 8] the parents ashes; a new one there may, but not a true one, it will rather be a Harpy then a Phenix, some strange com­pound of sundry schismes, polluting the beauty of the Church of God, or perhaps every man will be of his owne Religion, or else be of none at all.

And what a strange and uncouth metamorphosis this will be, your Majesty may judge, and so depresse the Serpent while it is in the Egge, lest if brought forth, it grow up a Dragon formidable for its poysonous venome to all your Dominions. In the Princes name therefore, most dre [...]d Soveraigne, and by his appointment, and for his sweet sake, the staffe and prop of your age, and the growing hope of this Kingdome, I am to beseech your Majesty to thinke on some way for a speedy Accommodation betwixt your Self and the honourable your High Court of Parliament. The Prince, your gracious and hopefull sonne intreats it, your Nobles hope and expect it, and briefly, as the maine support of your Royall dignity and the prosperity of all your King­dome, your people that bleed with these wounds, and groane under that burthen of war, implore it from your goodnesse; for all their sakes, in especiall for your Princely sonnes, for whom I am now imployed an inelegant Orator, great King performe it. And so begging your Royall pardon, if the zeale I have to the Cause and your Majesties service, have made me transcend my Commission, I beseech him in whose hands are all the corners of the earth, and the hearts of Prin­ces, to give no lesse then Methusala's date to your raigne over us, in peace, prosperity and plenty.