XVIII. From OXFORD, Jan. 17. MDCXLV. VI. For an Answer to His former Messages.
CHARLES R.
HIS Majesty thinks not fit now to answer those Aspersions which are returned as arguments for His not admittance to Westminster for a Personal Treaty, because it would enforce a style not suitable to His end, it being the Peace of these miserable Kingdoms: yet thus much He cannot but say to those who have sent Him this An∣swer, that if they had considered what they have done themselves in occasioning the shedding of so much innocent blood, by withdrawing themselves from their Duty to Him in a time when He had granted so much to His Subjects, and in violating the known Laws of the Kingdom to draw an exorbitant power to themselves over their fellow-Subjects, (to say no more, to do as they have done) they could not have given such a false character of His Majesties Actions. Wherefore His Majesty must now remember them, that having some hours before his receiving of their last Paper of the 13. of January, sent another Message to them of the 15, wherein by divers particulars He enlargeth Himself to shew the reality of His endeavors for Peace, by His desired Per∣sonal Treaty (which He still conceives to be the likeliest way to attain to that blessed End) He thinks fit by this Message to call for an Answer to that, and indeed to all the former. For certainly, no rational man can think their last Paper can be any Answer to His former demands, the scope of it being, That because there is a War, therefore there should be no Treaty for Peace. And is it possible to expect that the Propositions