4 The HISTORY of the PuRITANS. VoL. rr. K. Charles I. king could not do it without confent of parliament, nor the parliament ~ without the royal alfent, and yet both had prap:ifed it fince the opening of the war. To have recourfe therefore to the laws of a well fettled govern– ment in times of general confuilon , was weak and impracticable. Befides; his majefty refufed to give up any of his late minifl:ers to the jnftice of par– liament ; for in his letter to duke Hamilton he fays, that his abandoning the earl if Stratford had gone fo near him, that be was refolved no cor!fi".. deration jhou!d make him do the like again. Upon the le refolutions, be de– clined the mediation of theJcots commiffioners, which gave the fev eral parties engaged againft him, a fair opportunity of uniting their interefts with that nation. This was a nice and curious affair; the friends of the parliament, who were agreed in the caufe of civil liberty, were far from being of one mind in points of church difcipline; the major part were for epifco– pacy, and defired no more than to fecure the conftitution, and reform a few exorbitances of the bithops; fame were era/lians, and would be content with any form of government the magiftrate fhould appoint; the real prejbyterians, who were for an entire change of the hierarchy up– on the foot of divine right, were as yet but few, and could carry no– thing in the houfe; it was neceli~1ry therefore in treating with the ]cots, who contended earneftly for their kirk government, to deliver themfelves in fuch general expreffions, that each party might interpret them as they were inclined, or as fhould be expedient. This contented the]cots for the prefent, and left the parliament at full liberty, till they faw what terms they could make with the king. Nor could the church-men be dilfatisfied, becaufe they knew if they could put a period to the war without the fcots, the two houfes would not call in their affifiance, much lefs fubmit to a kirk difcipline they bad no manner of acquaintance with; and therefore lord C!arendon was of opinion, that even at the treaty of U:xbridge, if the parliament could have obtained an act of oblivion for what was paft, and good fecurity for the king's governing by law, the ajj"air if religion might eafily have been compromifed; but it re– quired all the prudence and fagacity the two houfes were mafters of, to keep fo many different interefl:s in points of religion, united in one com– mon caufe of liberty and the conftitution, at a time when great num– bers of the king's friends in the very city of London, were forming con– fpiracies to reftore him without any terms at all. EncouraThe king's affairs had a promifing afpeCl: this winter; his forces in ging projp~a the north under the earl of N er,vcajtle, were fuperior to thofe of lord of thdmg s Ferdinando Faiifax. In the weftern and mid-land counties there were tu"ib:: feveral fieges and rencounters with various fuccefs, but nothing decifive. Vol. V. Divers counties entered into alfociations for their mutual defence on both P· 66. fides,
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