II My presence here had not been requi­site for the passing these many Bills, I did alwayes intend to see you toge­ther before your Adiournment, that I might again thank you for the many good things you have done for Me and the Kingdom; and in truth I do thank you more for what you have done for the pub­lick, then what you have done for My own particular, and yet I do thank you too for that with all My heart: But I confess to you, I do thank you more for the pro­vision you have made to prevent Free-quarter, during the time the Army shall be disbanding, which I take to be given for My satisfaction, then I do for the other present you have made Me for My own particular occasions; and I do promise you, which is the best way I can take to gratifie you, I will not apply one peny of that money to My own particular occasions, what shift soever I make, till it is evident to Me, that the publick will not stand in need of it; and if it do, every peny of it shall be disbursed that way; and I dare say, I shall not be the poorer for it.

I cannot but take notice of one particular Bill I have passed, which may seem of an extraordinary nature, that concerning the Duke of Somerset, but you all know it is for an extraordinary Person, who hath merited as much of the King My Father and My self, as a Sub [...] [...] am none of those, who [Page 4]think that Subiects by performing their duties in an extraordinary manner, do not obliege their Prince to reward them in an extraordinary manner; there can be no danger from such a Precedent, and I hope no man will envy him, because I have done what a good Master should do to such a Servant.

My Lords and Gentlemen, I will not deny to you, that I had some inclination, when I consented, upon your de­sire, to your Recess, to have made a Session, which I thought most agreeable to the ancient order of Parlia­ments, and I hope you will all ioyn with Me in redu­cing the proceedings of Parliaments to the ancient Rules and Orders of Parliaments, the deviation from which, hath done us no good, and I think there were never so many Bills passed together, as I have this day given My Assent to, without a Session: But upon the Desire and Reasons given by the House of Commons, for an Adiournment without a Session, I did very willingly depart from that inclination, and do as willingly give you leave and direct you that you Adiourn your selves till the sixth day of November, when I hope you will all meet again, and in the mean time, that you will be all welcome to your Countries, and do me much Service there.

I have many other particulars to say and recom­mend to you, in which I cannot enough trust My own memory, and therefore I shall command the Chancel­lour to say the rest to you.

(After His Majesty had ended His Speech, the Lord Chancellor said, as followeth)

THe King tells you that He hath commanded me to say many particulars to you, and the truth is, He hath char­ged me with so many, that I have great reason to fear, that I shall stand in much need of His Mercy, for omit­ting many things He hath given me in command, at least for delivering them in more Diso [...] [...] matters of [Page 5]such moment and importance ought to be to such an Assembly, for which the King Himself hath even a kind of Reverence, as well as an extraordinary Kindness. I am to mention some things He hath done already, and many things He intends to do during this Recess, that you may see, how well content soever He is, that you should have Ease, and Pleasure, and Refreshment, He hath designed work enough for Himself.

The King hath thanked you for the Provision you have made that there may be no free Quarter during the time the Army shall be dis­banding, and hath told you what He will do with that Money you have given Him, if there should want wherewithall to disband it; And now I hope you will all believe, that His Majesty will consent to the bisbanding: He will do so; And yet He does not take it un­kindly at their hands, who have thought that His Majesty would not disband this Army; It was a sober and a rational Jealousie; No other Prince in Europe would be willing to disband such an Army; An Army to which Victory is entayled, and which, humanely speak­ing, could hardly fail of Conquest whithersoever He should lead it; And if God had not restored His Majesty to that rare felicity, as to be without apprehension of danger at home or from abroad, and with­out any Ambition of taking from His Neighbours what they are po­ssessed of; Himself would never disband this Army; an Army whose Order and Discipline, whose Sobriety and Manners, whose Courage and Success hath made it famous and terrible over the world; An Army of which the King and His two Royal Brothers may say, as the noble Grecian said of Aeneas,

They have all three in several Countries found themselves en­gaged in the midst of these Troops, in the heat and rage of Battle, and if any common Souldiers (as no doubt many may) will de­mand the old Romans priviledge for having encountred Princes single, upon my Conscience, he will finde both Favour and prefer­ment: They have all three observed the Discipline, and felt, and admired, and loved the Courage of this Army, when they were the worse for it; and I have seen them [...] a season when there was lit­tle else of comfort in [...] themselves with joy, that [Page 6]the English had done the Great Work, the English had got the day, and then please themselves with the Imagination what wonders they should perform in the head of such an Army: And therefore when His Majesty is so intirely possessed of the Affection and Obedience of this Army, and when it hath merited so much from Him, Can it be believed, or imagined, that He can without some regrate part with them: No, My Lords and Gentlemen, He will never part with them, and the only sure way never to part with them, is to Disband them; Should it be otherwise, they must be exposed to the daily Im­portunity of His great Neighbours and Allies; and how could He refuse to lend them His Troops, of which He hath no use Himself? His Majesty knows they are too good English men, to wish that a standing Army should be kept up in the bowels of their own Countrey; that they who did but in Bello, pacis gerere negotium, and who, whilest an Army, lived l [...]ke good Husbandmen in the countrey, and good Citizens in the City will now become really such, and take delight in the benefit of that Peace they have so honestly and so wonderfully brought to pass: The King will part with them, as the most indulgent Parents part with their Children for their education, and for their preferment; he will prefer them to disbanding, and prefer them by disbanding, and will alwayes retain such a kindness for them, and such a memory of the service they have done him, that both Officers and Soldiers, after they are disbanded, shall always finde such countenance, favor, and reward from His Majesty, that He doubts not, but if He should have occasion to use their Service, they will again resort to Him with the same alacrity, as if they had never been disbanded: And if there be any so ill amongst them (as there can be but very few, if any) who will forfeit that Favor and Protection they may have from H [...]m by any withstanding His Majesties commands, and the full and de­clared sense of the Kingdom; His Majesty is confident they will be as odious to their companious, as they can be to any other honest men.

My Lords and Gentlemen, I am in the next place, by the Kings command, to put you in minde of the Act of Indempnity, not of any Grants or Concessions or Releases He made to you in that Act, I have nothing of that in charge; no Prince hath so excellent a memo­ry to forget the Favors he [...]oth. But of what He hath done against you in that Act, how you [...] that Act, if you are not [Page 7]very carefull to perform the obligations He hath laid upon you in it: the clause I am to put you in minde of, is this, And to the intent and purpose that all names and terms of distinction may be like wise put into utter Oblivion, Be it further Enacted by the Authority afore­said, That if any person or persons, within the space of three years next ensuing, shall presume malitiously to call, or alledge, or object against any other person or persons any name or names, or other words of reproach, any way leading to revive the memory of the late differences, or the occasion thereof, That then every such person, so as aforesaid offending, shall forfeit, &c. It is no matter for the Penalty, it is too cheap a one; the King wishes it had been greater, and there­fore hath by His just Prerogative (and 'tis well for us He hath such a Prerogative) added another Penalty more insupportable, even His high Displeasure against all who shall swerve from this clause in the Act. Give me leave to tell you, That as any name or names, or other words of reproach are expresly against the letter, and punishable accordingly, so evil and envious looks, murmuring and discontented hearts, are as directly against the equity of this Statute, a direct breach of the Act of Indempnity, and ought to be punished too; and I believe they may be so. You know Kings are in some sense called Gods, and so they may in some degree be able to look into mens hearts; and God hath given us a King who can look as far into mens hearts as any Prince alive; and He hath great skill in Physiognomy too, you would wonder what calculations he hath made from thence; and no doubt, if He be provoked by evil looks, to make a further en­quiry into mens hearts, and findes those corrupted with the passions of Envy and uncharitableness, He will never choose those hearts to trust and rely upon. He hath given us a noble and princely example, by opening and stretching His armes to all who are worthy to be His Subjects, worthy to be thought English men, by extending His heart with a pious and gratefull joy to finde all His Subjects at once in His arms, and himself in theirs: and shall we fold our arms to­wards one another, and contract our hearts with Envy and Malice to each other, by any sharp memory of what hath been unneighbour­ly or unkindely done heretofore? What is this but to rebel against the Person of the King, against the excellent Example and Vertue of the King, against the known Law of the Land, this blessed Act Oblivion?

My Lords and Gentlemen, The King is a Suiter to you, makes it His suite very heartily, That you will joyn with Him in restoring the whole Nation to its primitive temper and integrity, to its old good maners, its old good humor, and its old good nature, Good nature, a vertue so peculiar to you, so appropriated by God Almigh­ty to this Nation, that it can be translated into no other Language, hardly practised by any other people, and that you will by your example, by the candor of your conversation, by your precepts, and by your practice, and by all your Interest, teach your neighbours and your friends, how to pay a full obedience to this clause of the Sta­tute, how to learn this excellent Art of Forgetfulness.

Let them remember, and let us all remember, how ungracious, how indecent, how ugly, the Insolence, the Fierceness, the Bruitishness of their Enemies appeared to them; and we may piously and reasonably believe, that Gods indignation against them, for their want of bowels, for their not being English-men, (for they had the hearts of Pagans and Infidels) sent a Whirlwind in a moment to blow them out of the world, that is, out of a capacity to do more mischief in the world, except we practise their vices, and do that our selves which we pretend to detest them for: Let us not be too much ashamed, as if what hath been done amiss, proceeded from the hu­mor, and the temper, and the nature of our Nation. The Astrolo­gers have made us a fair excuse, and truly I hope a true one; all the motions of these last twenty years have been unnatural, and have proceeded from the evil influence of a malignant Star; and let us not too much despise the influence of the Stars: And the same Astrologers assure us, that the malignity of that Star is expired; the good genius of this Kingdom is become Superior, and hath mastered that malignity, and our own good old Stars govern us again, and their influence is so strong, that with our help, they will repair in a year what hath been decaying in twenty; and they onely shall have no excuse from the Stars, who continue their malignity, and own all the ill that is past to be their own, by continuing and im­proving it for the time to come.

If any body here, or any where else, be too much exalted with what he he hath done, or what he hath suffered, and from thence thinks himself warranted to reproach others, let him remember the story of Nicephorus; it is an excellent story, and very applicable to [Page 9]such distempers: He was a pious and religious man, and for his Piety and Religion was condemned to the fire; when he was led to execution, and when an old Friend who had done him injury enough, fell at his feet and asked his pardon; the poor man was so elated with the triumph he was going unto, with the glory of Martyrdom, tthat he refused to be re­conciled unto him; upon which he was disappointed of his end; and for this uncharitableness, the Spirit of God immediately forsook him, and he apostatized from the Faith. Let all those who are too proud of having been as they think, less faulty then other men, and so are unwilling to be reconciled to those who have offended them, take heed of the Apostacy of Nicephorus, and that those fumes of Envy and Uncharitableness, and Murmuring, do not so far transport and intoxicate them, that they fall in­to those very Crimes, they value themselves for having hitherto declined.

But, my Lords and Gentlemen, whilest we conspire together, to exe­cute faithfully this part of the Bill, to put all old names and terms of dis­tinction into utter Oblivion; let us not finde new names and terms to keep up the same, or a worse distinction: If the old reproaches of Cava­lier, and Round-head, and Malignant be commited to the Grave; let us not finde more significant and better words, to signifie worse things; let not Piety and Godliness grow into terms of reproach, and distinguish be­tween the Court and the City and the Countrey; and let not Piety and Godliness be measured by a morosity in Manners, an affectation of Ges­ture, a new mode and tone of Speaking; at least, let not our Constituti­ons and Complexions make us be thought of a contrary party; and be­cause we have not an affected austerity in our looks, that we have not Piety in our hearts. Very merry men have been very godly men; and if a good Conscience be a continuall Feast, there is no reason but men may be very merry at it.

You, Mr. Speaker, have this day made a noble Present to the King. Do you think that if you and your worthy Companions had brought it up with folded Arms, down-cast looks, with sighs and other instances of desperation, would it not have been a very melancholick Present? Have not your frank and dutiful expressions, that chearfulnes and vivacity in your looks, rendered it much more acceptable, much more valuable: No Prince in Christendom loves a chearful giver so well as God Almigh­ty does, and he of all gifts, a chearful heart; and therefore I pray, let not a cloudy and disconsolate face be the onely, or the best sign of Piety and Devotion in the heart.

I must ask your pardon for misplacing much of [...] Discourse, which I should have mentioned, when I came to speak [...] the Ministers Bill; they, I hope, will endeavour to remove these [...] [...]rks of distinction and reproaches, and keep their Auditorie [...] [...]osed upon by [Page 10]such characters and descriptions. The King hath passed this Act very willingly, and done much to the end of this Act before; yet hath willing­ly admitted you to be sharers and partners with Him in the Obligation: I may say confidently His Majesty hath never denyed his Confirmation to any man in possession, who hath asked it: and they have all had the effect of it, except such, who upon examination and enquiry, appeared not worthy of it, and such who though they are pardoned, cannot yet think themselves worthy to be preferred. His Majesty well knows that by this Act he hath gratified and obliged many worthy and pious men, who have contributed much to his Restauration, and who shall alwayes receive fresh evidence of his Majesties favour and kindness, but he is not sure that he may not likewise have gratified some who did neither contribute to his coming in, nor are yet glad that he is in; how comes it else to pass, that he receives such frequent information of seditious Ser­mons in the City and in the Countrey, in which all industry is used to alienate the affections of the people, and to infuse Jealousies into them of the King and his Government; They talk of introducing Popery, of evil Councellors, and such other old Calumnies as are pardoned by this Act of Indempnity.

His Majesty told you when he was last here, what rigour and seve­rity he will hereafter use, how contrary soever it is to his Nature, in these cases; and conjured you, My Lords and Gentlemen, to concur with him in this just and necessary Severity, which I am sure you will do with your utmost vigilance, and that you will believe that too much ill cannot befall those who do the best they can to corrupt His Majesties Nature, and to extinguish His Mercy.

My Lords and Gentlemen, I told you I was to acquaint you with some things his Majesty intends to do during this Recess, that you may see He will give no intermission to His own thoughts for the publick good, though for a time He dispences with your assistance.

He doth consider the infinite importance the improvement of Trade must be to this Kingdom, and therefore His Majesty intends forthwith to establish a Council for Trade, consisting of some principal Merchants of the several Companies; to which he will adde some Gentlemen of quality and experience; and for their greater honour and encourage­ment, some of my Lords of His own Privy Council.

In the next place, His Majesty hopes that by a well settled Peace, and Gods great blessing upon Him and you, this Nation will in a short time [...]ish to that degree, that the Land of Canaan did, when Esau found [...] [...]cessary to part from his brother — For their riches were [...] that they might dwell together, and the Land where [...] not bear them, because of their Cattle, [Page 11]We have been Our Selves very near this Pinacle of happiness, and the hope of contemplation that we may be so a gain, disposes the King to be very solicitous for the improvement and prosperity of His Plantations abroad, where there is such large room for the Industry and Reception of such who shall desire to go thither; and therefore his Majesty like­wise intends to erect and establish a Council for those Plantations, in which persons well qualified shall be wholly intent upon the good and advancement of those Plantations.

There are two other Particulars, which I am commanded to mention, which were both mentioned and recommended to You by His Majesty in His Declaration from Breda; The one, for the Confirmation of Sales, or other recompence for Purchasers; The other, for the composing those differences and distempers in Religion, which have too much disturbed the Peace of the Kingdom. Two very weighty particulars, in which His Majesty knows You have spent much time, and concerning which he should have heard from You before this time, if You had not met with great difficulties in the disquisition of either.

For the first, His Majesty hath not been without much thought upon the Argument, and hath done much towards the accommodation of many particular persons, and You shall not be at Your Journeys end before his Majesty will put that business concerning Sales into such a way of Dispatch, that he doubts not You will finde a good progresse made in it before Your comming together again, and I believe the Per­sons concerned, will be very much to blame; if they receive not good sa­tisfaction; And some of You who stay in Town, shall be advised and consulted with in that settlment.

The other, of Religion, is a sad Argument indeed; it is a Considera­tion that must make every religious heart to bleed, to see Religion, which should be the strongest obligation and cement of affection, and brother­ly kindeness and compassion, made now by the perverse wranglings of passionate and froward men, the ground of all animosity, hatred, malice and revenge: And this unruly and unmanly passion (which no que­stion the Divine nature exceedingly abhors) sometimes, and I fear too frequently transports those who are in the right, as well as those who are in the wrong, and leaves the latter more excusable then the former, when men who find their manners and dispositions very conformable in all the necessary obligations of Humane nature, avoide one anothers Conversation, and grow first unsociable, and then uncharitable to each other, because one cannot think as the other doth. And from this separa­tion we intitle God to the patronage of, [...] [...]ncernment in our fancies & distinction, & purely for his sake [...] [...]her heartily. Its was not so of old, when one of the most [...] of the Church tells [Page 12]us, That Love and Charity was so signal and eminent in the Primitive Christians, that it even drew Admiration and Envy from their Adver­saries. Vide (inquiunt) ut invicem se diligunt! Their Adversaries in that in which they most agreed, in their very persecution of them, had their Passions and Animosities amongst themselves; they were onely Chri­stians, that loved, and cherished, and comforted, and were ready to die for one another; Quid nunc illi dicerent Christiani, si nostra viderent tem­pora? sayes the incomparable Grotius: How would they look upon our sharp and virulent Contentions in the debates of Christian Religion, and the bloody Wars that have proceeded from those Contentions, whilest every one pretended to all the Marks which are to attend upon the true Church, except onely that which is inseparable from it, Charity to one another.

My Lords and Gentlemen, This Disquisition hath cost the King many a sigh, many a sad hour, when he hath considered the almost irreparable reproach the Protestant Religion hath undergone, from the divisions and distractions which have been so notorious within this Kingdom. What pains he hath taken to compose them, after several discourses with lear­ned and pious men of different perswasions, you will shortly see, by a Declaration He will publish upon that occasion, by which you will see His great indulgence to those who can have any protection from Con­science to differ with their Brethren. And I hope God will so bless the candor of His Majesty in the condescentions He makes, that the Church as well as the State, will return to that unity and unanimity, which will make both King and People as happy as they can hope to be in this world.

My Lords and Gentlemen, I shall conclude with the Kings hearty thanks to you, not onely for what you have done towards Him, which hath been very signal, but for what you have done towards each other; for the excellent correspondence you have maintained; for the very seasonable deference and condescention you have had for each other, which will restore Parliaments to the veneration they ought to have. And since His Majesty knows, that you all desire to please him, you have given him ample evidence, that you do so; He hath appointed me to give you a sure Receipt to attain that good end, it is a Receipt of His own prescribing, and therefore is not like to fail.

Be but pleased your selves, and perswade others to be so; contrive all the wayes imaginable for your own happiness, and you will make Him the best pleased, and the most happy Prince in the World.