YOur Majesty was pleased on Monday last, to call the Lords of your privie Councel of Scotland, and the Committee to acquaint them with the Propositions, and told, that before the delivery of your answer, you would make the same known to them: the time assigned for the stay of the Commissioners is so short, and the consequence of your Majesties answer is of so great importance, either for the preservation or ruine of your Crown and Kingdoms, as we could not be answerable to God, nor to that trust reposed in us, unlesse we represent to your Majesty how necessary it is (as the condition of affaires now stand, and in so great an extremity) that your Majesty should assent to the Propositions, & that the danger and losse of your refusall will be remedilesse, and bring on sudden ruine and de­struction.

I shall begin first with the last, which is the danger, and shall next speak a word of the remedy. The differences between your Majesty and your Parliament (which no man knowes better then your Majesties self) are grown to such a height, that after many bloudy battels, there is no cure but a present peace, otherwise nothing can be expected but certain destru­ction. The Parliament is possest of your Navy, and of all the Forts, Garisons, and strong Holds of the kingdome. They have the Excise, Assesments, and Sequestrations at their disposall, & haue authority to raise all the men & money in the kingdom, and (after many victories and great successes) they have a strong Army on foot, & are now in such a posture for strength and power, as they are in a capacity to do what they will both in Church and State: And some are so afraid, others so unwil­ling to submit themselves to your Majesties Government, as they desire not you, nor any of your race longer to raign over them. Yet the people are so wearied of the wars, and great bur­thens they groan under, are so desirous of peace, and loath to [Page 2] have Monarchial government (under which they have lived so long in peace and plenty) changed, that such as are unwearied of your Maj. Government, dare not attempt to cast it totally off, till once they send Propositions of Peace to your Majesty, lest the people (without whose concurrence they are not able to carry on their design) should fall from them. And therefore all the people being desirous, that (after so great wars & trou­bles) that they may have a perfect security from oppression & arbitrary power, The houses of Parliament have resolved upon the Propositions, which are tendred to your Majesty, as that without which the kingdome & your People cannot be in safe­ty, and most part of the people think, that there cannot be a firme peace upon any other tearms.

Your Majesties friends, and the Commissioners from Scot­land (after all the wrestling they could) were forced to consent to the sending of those Propositions, or to be hated as the hin­derers of peace, and to send no Propositions at all. And now, Sir if your Majesty (which God forbid) shal refuse to assent to the Propositions, you will lose all your friends, lose the city and all the country, and all England will joyn against you as one man, and (when all hope of reconciliation is past) it is to be fea­red, they will processe and depose you, and set up another Go­vernment, they will charge us to deliver your Majesty to them, and to tender the Northern Garrisons, and to remove our Ar­my out of England, and upon your Majesties refusing the Pro­positions, both kingdoms will be constrained (for their mutuall safety) to agree and settle Religion and Peace without you, which (to our unspeakable grief) will ruine your Majesty & your Posterity. And if your Majesty reject our faithful advice who desire nothing on earth more, then the establishment of your Majesties Throne) and lose England by your wilfulnesse, your Majesty will not be permitted to come & ruine Scotland.

Sir, we have laid our hands upon our hearts, we have asked counsel and direction from God & have laid our most serious thoughts about the remedy, but can find no other (as affaires stand for the present) to save your Crown & Kingdomes, then your Maj. assenting to the Propositions. We dare not say, but they are higher in some things (if it were in our power & opti­on to remedy it, then we do approve of: But when we see no [Page 3] other means for curing the distempers of the kingdoms & clo­sing the breaches between your Maj. & your Parliaments, our most humble & faithfull advice is That your Maj. would graci­ously [...] to assent to them, as the best way to procure a speedie & happy peace; because your Maj. shall thereby have many great ad­vantages. You will be received again in your P [...]rl. with the applause and acclamations of your people: By your Royal presence your friends will be strengthned, your enemies (who fear nothing so much as the gra [...]ting of the Pr [...]positions) will be weakned: Your Maj. wil have a fit opportunity to offer such Propositions, as you shall in your wisdome judge fit for the Crown & kingdom. All Armies will be disbanded, and your people, finding the sweet fruits of your peaceable government, your Maj. wil gain the hearts & affecti­ons, which will be your strength & glory, and will recover all that your Maj. hath lost in this time of tempest & trouble. And if it please God so to encline your Royall heart to this advice of your humble & faithfull servants, who (next to the honour of God) esteem nothing more precious then the safety of your Person & Crown, our actions shall quickly make it appear to all the world; that we esteem no hazard too great for your Maj. safety & that we are willing to sacrifice our lives and fortunes for establishing of your Throne. And now, Sir, we prostrate our selves at your Maj. feet, & in the lowest posture of humility do beg; that your Maj. may (in end) grant the sute of your most humble servants & faithful subjects, who have no private aims but only the glory of God, & safety of your Maj. Person, Poste­rity, and Crown before our eyes. And the granting of our de­sires wil revive our fainting spirits, refresh our sad harts, which are over-whelmed and like to break with sorrow, and wil turn the prayers and tears of the many thousands of your people, in praises to God, and make them embrace your Majesty with acclamations of joy.

THis day I hope will bring our Conference to some results to be reported to the Houses, and therefore I shall frame [Page 4] my Discourse and Arguments with that succinctnesse as may bring us soonest to a close,

At our first meeting, the subject of our debate was; whe­ther the Right Power of disposing the Person of the King is solely in the two Houses as they shall thinke fit, or in the two Kingdomes; and at our last meeting, we had some arguing a­bout the same question, but your Lordships did still assert the Vote of the Houses, and we say in respect of the interest and relations which both Kingdomes have equally to the King, e­specially in the present juncture of affaires, when both King­domes are entred in the same League and Covenant, have jeoparded their lives in the same War, are labouring under the same danger, are seeking the same remedies, and stand in need of the same peace and security; and both Kingdomes are bound by our Covenant to preserve unity, and are obliged by Treaty that none of us shall make any peace, cessation, or a­greement whatsoever, without mutuall advice and consent of both) That the Person of the King cannot be disposed of with­out the joynt advice and consent of both Kingdomes. But as we do acknowledge that England hath parity of interest with Scotland, so do we still offer that they shall have parity of pow­er in disposing of the King: and we do affirme, That the Per­son of the King, who is King of Scotland as well as of En­gland, and is Head and Monarch of both Kingdomes, cannot be disposed of by any one of the Kingdomes alone: but what ever is to be done concerning his Majesties person, ought to be done by joynt advice and common consent of both, as may serve most for the Peace, security, and happinesse of the King­domes, which wee did prove by severall Arguments: To which there was nothing answered in effect, but, that the King being within England, his Person was to be disposed of as the two Houses shall thinke fit, and that the King being with the Scottish Army, and they being paid by the Parlia­ment of England, he is in effect in the power of the Houses, & ought to be at their disposing in the [...]me way as if he had come to the Army of Sir T. Fairfax, or any other of the Parlia­ments Armies▪ To which we shall not need to make any reply other then we have made already, That the Kings present resi­dence in England, nor no locality, can take away the reality [Page] of our relations formerly mentioned by us, far lesse can it take away the ingagements and stipulations betweene the King­domes; and though the Scottish Army paid by the Parliament of England, yet they are the Army of Scotland, raised for pur­suance of the ends of the Covenant, and are to be ordered and directed by the Parliaments or Committees of both King­domes; And therefore they cannot with conscience, duty, nor honour deliver the person of the King without his owne con­sent to be disposed of as the two Houses shall thinke fit: but we have declared and do still declare▪ That we are content that the person of the King be disposed of (the word Disposed be­ing taken in a right sense) as may serve most for the peace, safe­ty, security honour and happinesse of the King and both King­domes: and did offer to your Lordships consideration his Ma­jesties comming to or neere London, as the most probable meanes for a speedy and well-grounded Peace. And seeing your Lordships have done us the honour to meet with us in this free and brotherly Conference, we do expect that you will concurre and assent to this Proposition. or propound a better expedient for the good of both Kingdomes.

But if the honourable Houses will not admit of this Proposi­tion, our next desire is (that it may appeare, no lawfull and pos­sible meanes are left unassayed which may procure a happy a­greement betwixt the King and his Parliaments, and for our further exoneration) That Commissioners may yet once more be sent from both kingdomes to his Majesty, to shew the mea­ning of our Propositions and to assert them, and to heare the Kings doubts and difficulties, and desires, who may further in­timate that (if his Majesty shall not give a satisfactory answer to the Propositions) then both kingdomes will without making any such further application to him, take such course as they shall judge fittest for the peace and security of the kingdomes.

And as at the opening of this Conference I did begin with an humble, lawfull, and laudable desire for unity in relation, the King, and amongst our selves, so shall I close in the same dia­lict; for the first of Religion, if we do remember our vowes to God to performe them, and uniformity according to our Co­venant, we may certainly expect that God will crown this great work, wherin he hath honored us to be actors, with his blessing; but if in place of uniformity, which we are obliged to endea­vor, there shall be a toleration of all Sects and sores of Religion, [Page] and if we neglect to build the house of God, and become inso­lent upon our successes, although we could mount up with Ea­gles wings, and build our nests as high as the starres, and had an army who for valor and strength could march to Constanti­nople, God shall lay our glory low in he dust, and suffer the work to fall in our hands, like the confusion of Babell; And whatever hath been moved by us concerning the King, we de­sire it may be rightly constructed, as proceeding from such as have not wavered from their first principles; for when the King was in the height of his power, we did not, and (I hope) never shall flatter him; and when the enemy was in the height of their pride and strength, Scotland did feare no colours: and now when the King is at his lowest ebb, and hath cast himselfe into our Army for safety, we hope your Lordships will pardon us from our sense of honour and duty to be very tender of the person, and posterity of the King, to whom we have so many neer relations, and not like the worse of us: that we cannot so farre forget our allegeance and duty as not to have an antipa­thy against the change of Monarchicall government, in which we have lived through the descent of so many Kings, and un­der which both Kingdoms have been governed so many ages, and flourished in al [...] happinesse. And now my last word shall be for constant unity between the Kingdoms, which as it hath been the chiefe meanes to pr [...]mote the great worke wherein both kingdoms are so deepely engaged, so there is nothing can make us so informidable to our enemies, nor so much ayding one to another as the cherishing and continuing thereof; and I dare say that no man would divide the one from the other, but such as desire to fish in troubled waters, and are reall enemies to both: God hath blest the ioynt endeavours of both Nations, both are in one ship, and are come through a very great storme, and now when we are come into the harbour, it would be great shame to both to split upon the rocks of division (& devorato bove deficere in cauda) and your Lordships may be confident that Scotland who have esteemed no hazard too great for set­ling of Religion and love to their Brethren, will stick so fast & firmly to you, (so [...]ong as you hold the principles of your Co­venant) as no feare nor favour will ever be able to divide them from you, and we do expect that reciprocall amity which may perpetuate our un [...]ty.