Basiliká the works of King Charles the martyr : with a collection of declarations, treaties, and other papers concerning the differences betwixt His said Majesty and his two houses of Parliament : with the history of his life : as also of his tryal and martyrdome.

His MAJESTY'S Message to both Houses May 19. in pursuance of the foregoing Message.

SInce His Majesty's Message of the twelfth of April (in which he conceived He had made such an Overture for the immediate Disbanding of all Armies and Composure of these present miserable Distractions, by a full and free Convention in Parliament, that a perfect and settled Peace would have ensued) hath in all this time (above a full Month) procured no Answer from both Houses, His Majesty might well believe Himself absolved before God and Man, from the least possible Charge of not having used His utmost endeavour for Peace: Yet when He considers that the Scene of all this Calamity is in the Bowels of His own Kingdom, that all the Blood which is spilt is of His own Subjects, and that what Victory soever it shall please God to give Him, must be over those who ought not to have lifted up their hands against Him; when He considers that these desperate civil Dissentions may encourage and invite a Foreign Enemy to make a Prey of the whole Nation; that

Ireland is in present danger to be totally lost; that the heavy Judgments of God, Plague, Pestilence and Famine, will be the inevitable Attendants of this unnatural Contention; and that in a short time there will be so general a habit of uncharitableness and Cruelty contracted throughout the Kingdom, that even Peace it self will not restore His People to their old Temper and Security; His Majesty cannot but again call for an Answer to that His Message, which gives so fair a Rise, to end these unnatural Distractions. And His Majesty doth this with the more earnestness, because He doubts not the condition of His Armies in several parts, His strength of Horse, Foot and Artillery, His plenty of Ammu∣nition (which some Men lately might conceive He wanted) is so well known and under∣stood, that it must be confessed, that nothing but the Tenderness and Love to His People, and those Christian Impressions which always have and He hopes always shall dwell in His heart, could move Him once more to hazard a Refusal. And He requires them, as they will answer to God, to Himself and all the World, That they will no longer suffer their fellow-Subjects to welter in each others Blood; that they will remember by whose Authority and to what end they met in that Council, and send such an Answer to His Majesty as may open a door to let in a firm Peace and Security to the whole Kingdom.

If His Majesty shall again be disappointed of His Intentions herein, the Blood, Rapine and Distraction which must follow in England and Ireland, will be cast upon the Account of those who are deaf to the motion of Peace and Accommodation.

CHARLES R.

OUR express Pleasure is, That this Declaration of the Lords and Commons of Par∣liament assembled at Oxford be read by the Parson, Vicar or Curate, in every Church and Chapel within Our Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales.

May 19. 1643.