HIS MAJESTY'S DECLARATION CONCERNING LEVIES.  

Charles R.  
OUr express pleasure is, That this Our Declaration be Published in all Churches and Chapels within the Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales, by the Parsons, Vicars or Curates of the same.  
Reprinted at Oxford by His MAJESTY'S COMMAND.   
By LEONARD LICHFIELD, Printer to the University. 1642.   

¶ His MAJESTY'S Answer to a Printed Paper, entitled, A new Declaration of the Lords and Commons in Parliament, of the 21. of June 1642. in Answer to his Majesty's Letter dated the 14 of June, and sent to the Lord Major, Aldermen, and Sheriffs of the City of LONDON.  
IT seems by a new Declaration of the 21 of June, in Answer to Our Letter of the 14 of the same month to the Lord Major of London, that the Lords and Commons in Parliament have much more leisure than they pretend, or that those Persons whom We have before described in Our former Answers and Declarations, and of whom only We would be understood to speak, think such Declarations and Votes to be such unresistable Engines of Battery against Us and the Law, that no strength can oppose them: And therefore though they will take notice from whence that Letter came, they will vouchsafe it no other mention, but of a Paper (as if found by chance) inscribed, To Our trusty and well-beloved, etc. And it is wonder, that since they have usurped the Supreme Power to themselves, they have not taken upon them the Supreme Style too, and directed this very new Declaration, To their trusty and well-beloved, their Subjects of the City of London; For it is too great and palpable a scorn to persuade them to take up Arms against Our Person, under colour of being loving Subjects to Our Office, and to Destroy Us, that they may Preserve the King.  
They are offended that We should believe, That their end of persuading Our Subjects to raise Horse, and to furnish Money upon pretence of a Guard for the Parliament, is in truth to employ those Horse, Men and Money against Us: Let the reasons of Our belief be never so strong, and their Actions never so evident to compel all other men to believe so too, The Lords and Commons do declare (think what you will, and see what you can) That the Design of those Propositions for raising Men, Horse and Money, is to maintain the Protestant Religion, The King's Authority and Person in his Royal Dignity, The free course of Justice, The Laws of the Land, The Peace of the Kingdom, and the Privileges of Parliament against any Force which shall oppose them: And this all men are bound to believe, though they see the Protestant Religion, and the Professors thereof miserably reproached, and in danger of being destroyed by a vicious and Malignant Party of Brownists, Anabaptists, and other Sectaries, (the principal ringleaders of whom have too great a power, even with some Members in both Our Houses of Parliament) Our Authority despised, &, as much as in them lies, taken from Us, and reviled in Pulpits and Presses by persons immediately in their Protection, and of their recommendation, and Our Person driven away by Tumults and rude multitudes, against whom We can have no Justice; The course of Justice interrupted and stopped by Orders and Injunctions never heard of till this Parliament; The Laws of the Land trampled under foot and frustrated, and new Laws attempted to be made and imposed upon Our Subjects without and against Our consent; The Peace of the Kingdom shaken and frighted away by discountenancing the Laws, absolving (as much as in them lies) the people from the Rules of Government or Obedience, and even declaring a War against Us, and the Laws of the Land; And lastly, The Privileges of Parliament so far extended, as if to the bare sound of Privilege of Parliament, The Liberty and Property of the Subject, the dignity and certainty of the Law were in such subjection, that they may first make what Orders they please, and in what cases they please; And whosoever disputes those Orders, and submits not to those Votes, breaks their Privileges, and whosoever breaks their Privileges is an Enemy to the Commonwealth, and worthy of such other Attributes (either of favouring the Rebellion in Ireland, or advancing the War here) as are most likely to render that person suspected or odious to the People: If in truth this be evidently and demonstrably the case, such Declarations will no more gain credit with, or longer misled Our Subjects, then if they should tell them, That We are personally with them in London, when all men see Us here at York.  
As they have Declared (the best Argument or Evidence you are to look for) that all that they do is lawful, because they do it; so they proceed, by the same power, to assure those, who are apt to be deceived by them, that the Force already attending Us (they would certainly do otherwise if they did really believe such Force to be about Us) and the Preparation We are making, do evidently appear to be intended for some great and extraordinary Design, and do justify their former Votes of Our intention of Levying War against Our Parliament: And they have at last given some Reason for that Vote and Declaration; They find by our several Declarations that We intent force against those who shall submit to the Ordinance of the Militia, and that We intent to make an attempt upon Hull: In both which Cases they are pleased to declare, That whatsoever violence shall be used either against those who exercise this Militia, or against Hull, they cannot but take it as done against the Parliament. We are beholding to them that they have explained to all Our good Subjects the meaning of their Charge against Us; That by Our intention of making War against Our Parliament no more is pretended to be meant, but Our Resolution not to submit to the high injustice and indignity of the Ordinance, and the business of Hull. We have never concealed Our intentions in either of those particulars (We wish they would deal as clearly with Us) but have always, and do now declare, That that pretended Ordinance is against the Law of the Land, against the Liberty and Property of the Subject, destructive to Sovereignty, and therefore not consistent with the very Constitution & Essence of the Kingdom, and to the Right and Privilege of Parliament; That We are bound by Our Oath (and all Our Subjects are bound by theirs of Allegiance & supremacy, and their own Protestation lately taken, to assist Us) to oppose that Ordinance which is put already in execution against Us, not only by Training and Arming Our Subjects; but by forceably removing the Magazines from the places trusted by the Counties, to their Own houses, and guarding it there with Armed men; whither it will be next removed & how used by such persons We know not. That the keeping Us out of Hull by Sir john Hotham was an Act of high Treason against Us, and the taking away Our Magazine and Munition from Us was an Act of Violence upon Us (by what hands or by whose direction soever it was done) and in both Cases, by the help of God and the Law, We will have Justice or lose Our life in the requiring it, the which We do not value at that rate as to preserve it with the infamy of suffering Ourselves to be robbed and spoiled of that dignity We were borne to. And if it be possible for Our good Subjects to believe, that such a defence of Ourselves, with the utmost power & strength We can raise, is making a War against the Parliament, We do not doubt (however it shall please God to dispose of Us in that Contention) but the justice of Our Cause will at the last prevail against those few Malignant Spirits who for their own ends and Ambitious designs have so misled and corrupted the understandings of Our People, and that both Our houses of Parliament will in short time discern by their own observation and the Information We shall speedily give them, how near this Flourishing Kingdom is brought to ruin and confusion by these Persons.  
And since neither Our Declaration, nor the Testimony of so many of Our Lords now with Us can procure credit with these Men, but that they proceed to levy Horse, & to raise Money and Arms against Us; We are not to be blamed, if (after so many gracious expostulations with them upon undeniable Principles of Law and Reason, which they answer only by voting that which We say to be neither Law nor Reason, and so proceed actually to leavy War upon Us to justify that which cannot be otherwise defended) at last We make such Provision, that as We have been driven from London, and kept from Hull, We may not be surprised at York; but in a condition to resist & bring to justice those Men, who would persuade Our People, that their Religion is in danger, because We will not consent it shall be in their power to alter it by their Votes; or their Liberty in danger, because We will allow no judge of that Liberty but the known Law of the Land: yet what ever Provision We shall be compelled to make for Our Security, We will be ready to lay down as soon as they shall have revoked the Orders by which they have made Levies, and submit those persons who have detained Our Towns, carried away Our Arms, and put the Militia in execution contrary to Our Proclamation, to that Trial of their Innocence the Law directs, & to which they were born. If this be not summitted to, We shall with as good a Conscience (and We believe We shall not want the affections of Our good Subjects to that end) proceed against those who shall presume to exercise that pretended Ordinance for the Militia, and the other who keep Our Town of Hull from Us, as We would resist persons who came to take away Our life or Our Crown from Us. And therefore We shall again remember and require Our City of London to obey Our former Commands, and not to be misled by the Orations of those Men (who are made desperate by their Fortunes, or their Fortunes by them) who tell them their Religion, Liberty, and Propertie is to be preserved no other way but by their disloyalty to Us; That they are now at the brink of the river, and may draw their Swords, when nothing pursues them but their own evil consciences. Let them examine what excellent fruits of Religion the lives of those Men have brought forth, and what great Advancers they have been of the Public Liberty, and Property; How long they have had those Opinions they would ruin them to defend, and how they came to those Opinions; Let them consider whether their Estates come to them, and are settled upon them by Orders of both Houses, or by that Law which We Defend; What Security they can have to enjoy their Own, when they have helped to Rob Us; And what an happy Conclusion that War is like to have, which is raised to oppress their Sovereign; That the Wealth and Glory of their City is not like to be destroyed any other way, but (and that way inevitably it must) by Rebelling against Us; nor their Wives and Children to be exposed to violence and villainy, but by those who make their Appetite and Will the Measure and Guide to all their Actions. Let them not fancy to themselves Melancholic apprehensions, which are capable of no satisfaction, but let them seriously consider what security they can have, that they have not under Us or been offered by Us; And whether the Doctrine these men teach, and would have them defend, doth not destroy the foundations upon which their security is built.  
And We do lastly declare again, and publish to all the World; That We shall proceed against all Persons whatsoever that shall assist those Levies, by furnishing of Horse, Money and Plate, as against the Disturbers of the Public Peace, and the Authors of those Distractions which threaten the Ruin of Us and this Kingdom. * ⁎ *  
FINIS.