I Know you doe expect I should deliver my Opinion in the present Affaires, which how much more weighty it is, so much more timorous am I to disco­ver mine Opinion in it, lest some should imagine my Vote to arrogate to it selfe a Definitive power, and looke to passe with­out any contradiction. But I disclaime all such haughtie in­tentions, and shall plainly, and according to my conscience, give in my true verdict of the affaire in agitation, namely, whether it were better for the honour and safety of his Ma­jesty, and the good of his Kingdomes to continue the present war or to aquire and endeavour a sudden peace betwixt his Majesty and his Court of Parliament.

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W [...] [...] my Lords the Physitians that [...]ough [...] to discourse of the [...] [Page 4]wholesomest remedies our art can invent, labour her sudden cure; But yet wee ought to take heed that the cure be not worse then the disease; that while wee strive to compose the differences which are but contingent to us, wee pull upon our selves and our families certaine and not to be avoy­ded ruines. Charity begins at home, sayes the Proverb, and in Wisedome wee are ingaged to provide, that by the pur­chase of the publique peace we do not intail upon our Poste­rities the cruellest of all wars; The wars which our children and their descendents must have with want and penury, the greatest and most depressing enemy that can manage armes against noble and generous minds: And to that exigent must we betray them for the future, our selves for the present, if we yeeld to, or determine of a peace. The Parliament hath de­clared divers of the greatest and most eminent in nobility amongst us, Delinquents, in the highest nature to the Com­mon-wealth, have proscribed our persons, and adjudged our estates no longer ours, but forfeits to the Cōmonwealth, and so have taken order for the receiving and securing our reve­nues into such hands as shall dispose them according to their intentions; and without this condition be ratified, it is most probably imagined they will hardly be drawne to an Accommodation for peace. In what state then will our for­tunes stand? In what deplorable condition shall wee leave our children? heires onely to their parents loyalties, not to their lands.

Wee shall justly verifie that sentence: escaping a quicke­sand, we shall fall upon a rocke that will split us, out of one evill into a worse; that condition of peace being incompa­tible with our existences. But grant that this Article were removed out of the Propositions, as the case stands, my Lords, I cannot (though I love peace, and pray for it with all my heart) see which way his Majesty can condescend to it with his honour. Is it fit for a King to beg peace of his Subjects? for the regall authority, the immediate figure of [Page 5]heaven and the Deity on earth, to descend from its supreme height, and, as it were, to derive its power from a subor­dinate power derived from its bounty? That were to in­vert and vitiate the course of nature, to inforce the cause to give place to its effect, the Sunne to acknowledge his all-quickning heat and light, emergent from the terrestriall fires, created (as it were) and issuing from his influence. In Spaine (where the long time I resided there as Embassa­dour, afforded me priviledge to be well acquainted with the state of that Kingdome) in no age or record can scarcely be found mention of intestine or civill war, till these very yeeres wherein all the world labours with dissentions; the reason is, because they are truly Subjects, and their Soveraigne tru­ly a Soveraigne. And since the state here will neither be so to the King, nor suffer the King to be so to them; my reason tels me, they should be compelled to it. It is no dishonour for Subjects to condiscend to any Propositions to their King, but it is an excessive declension and diminution to his Maje­sties royality, to submit himselfe to his Subjects: Fuisse faeli­cem miserrimum est. My Opinion therefore is (with all humi­lity to his Majesty) that He neither propound to the Parlia­ment, or receive from them any Conditions for peace, but such as shall absolutely comply with the Regall dignity and Prerogative, (which God and succession hath allowed him) and such as may be no way prejudiciall to us or our estates, his Majesties most faithfull servants and Counsellors. Wee have an Army on foot, a braver the Sunne never shone on, an Army, that by force can compell that which fair words can­not effect; and since Emori per virtutem praestat quam per dede­cus vivere, let us resolve, alwayes submitting to his Majesties judgement, to goe on cheerefully in these wars, which, though they be rough and churlish parents, will at the last bring forth that mild and gentle off-spring peace, and we shal enjoy that with honour and safety, which otherwise with disgrace and detriment we shall be inforced to abandon.

THe Earle of Bristoll has delivered his opinion, and my turne being next to speake, I shall with the like integrity give your Lordships an account of my intentions in this great and important busi­nesse; I shall not as young Students doe in the Schooles, argumentandi gratia, repugne my Lord of Bristols Tenents, but because my conscience tels me they are not Or­thodox nor consonant to the disposition of the Common­wealth, which languishing with a tedious sicknesse must be recovered by gentle and easie medicines, in consideration of it's weaknesse, rather then by violent vomits or any other corroding or compelling physicke. Not that I will absolutely labour to refute my Lords opinions, but justly deliver my owne, which being contrary to his, may appeare an expresse contradiction of it, which indeed it is not; Peace, and that a sudden one being so necessary betwixt His Majesty and His Parliament, as light is requisite for the production of the day, or heate to cherish from above all inferiour bodies. This di­vision betwixt His Majesty and His Parliament, being (as i [...] by miracle) the Sun should be separated [...] be divided from his proper Essence, I would [...] Lords be ready to embrace a peace that should be [...] [...]anta­gious to Us then the present war, which as the Earle of Bri­ [...] sayes, should destroy our Estates and [...] The [...] ­onely declares that against Delinqu [...] [...] con­jecture have miscounselled His Maj [...]ty, and be the authors [Page 7]of these tumults in the Common-wealth; but this Declara­tion of theirs, except such crimes can be proved against them is of ho validity; the Parliament will doe nothing unjustly, nor condemne the innocent, and certainly innocent men need not feare to appeare before any Judges whatsoever. And he who shall for any cause preferre his private good be­fore the publicke utility, is but an ill sonne of the Common­wealth: For my particular, in these wars I have suffered as much as any, my Houses have been searcht, my Armes taken thence, and my sonne and heire committed to prison; yet I shall wave these discourtesies, because I know there [...]as a necessity they should be so; and as the darling businesse of the kingdome, the honour and prosperity of the King, study to reconcile all these differences between His Majesty and His Parliament; and so to reconcile them, that they shall no way prejudice His Royall Prerogative, of which, I beleeve the Parliament being a Loyall Defendor (knowing the Sub­jects property dependent on it; for where Soveraignes can­not enjoy their Rights, their Subjects cannot) will never en­deavour to be an infringer; so that if doubts and jealousies were taken away by a faire treaty between His Majesty and the Parliament, no doubt a meanes might be devised to re­ctifie these differences. The honour of the King, the estates of us his followers and Counsellors, the Priviledges of Parli­ament, and property of the Subject, being inviolably preser­ved in safety: And neither the King stoop in this to his Sub­jects, nor the Subjects be deprived of their just Liberty by the King. And whereas my Lord of Bristoll affirmes, that in Spaine very few Civill dissentions arise, because the Subjects are truly Subjects, and their Soveraigne truly a Soveraigne, that is, as I understand it, the Subjects are scarcely removed a degree from slaves, nor the Sove­raigne from a Tyrant. Here in England the Subjects have by a long and received Liberty granted to their Aun­cestors from our Kings, made their freedome result into a second nature; and neither is it safe for our Kings to strive to [Page 8]introduce the Spanish Government upon this free-borne Na­tion, nor just for the people to suffer that Government to be inforced upon them; which I am certaine His Majesties goodnesse never intended. And whereas my Lord of Bristoll intimates the strength and bravery of our Army, as an in­ducement to the continuation of these warres, which he pro­mises himselfe will produce a faire and happy peace; in this I am utterly repugnant to his opinion; for grant that we have an Army of gallant and able men, which indeed cannot be denyed, yet have we infinite disadvantages on our side, the Parliament having double our number, and surely (though our enemies) persons of as much bravery, nay, and sure to be daily supplyed when any of their number failes, a benefit which we cannot boast; they having the most popular part of the kingdom at their devotion; all, or most of the Ci­ties, considerable Townes and Ports, together with the mai­nest pillar of the kingdomes safety, the Sea, at their com­mand, and the Navy; and which is most materiall of all, an un­exhausted Indies of money to pay their souldiers, out of the liberall contributions of Coyne and Plate sent in by people of all conditions, who account the Parliaments Cause their Cause, and so thinke themselves engaged to part with the uttermost penny of their estates in their defence, whom they esteeme the Patriots of their Liberty. These strengths of theirs, and our defects considered, I conclude it necessary for all our safeties, and the good of the afflicted Common­wealth, humbly to beseech His Majesty to take some present order for a treaty of peace betwixt Himselfe and His High Court of Parliament, who, I beleeve, are so loyall and obedi­ent to His sacred Majesty, that they will propound nothing that shall be prejudiciall to His Royall Prerogative, or repug­nant to their fidelity or duty.