The COMPLAINT of the Kingdom against the evil Members of both Houses, who have upon design brought in Ruin under a pretence of Reformation. Relating to that former Complaint made by the City and Counties adjacent.  
WE are glad our brethren are so well recovered out of their Lethargy, as to be able to inform us, that they are grown sensible of their miseries. We confess, ourselves lay stupefied in a too unhappy dream or tameness, till this Alarm did awaken us; and now besides the sympathy and compassion that we have of the afflictions of our neighbours, the sense of our own sufferings is so sharp, that we are forced to circumflect the sad accents of their just Complaint. More need not be added to that Relation by way of supplement, to perfect the horrible Anatomy of our miseries: Yet we conceive it will not be in vain to discover who they were that (pretending to reform even our happiness, and then to secure that happiness by such impregnable fortifications, as God never yet vouchsafed to defence in temporal blessings withal) did at the same time nothing else but make that interruption and breach of our sweet rest, which betrayed us unto all these distempers which have succeeded; and how our repose, which should be prevalent to restore us, is now discontinued, as it was at first disturbed, by the very same men against our wills.  
Under the pretence of the work of God these distractions crept in upon us, and what ever the design be (we shall examine that anon) God's title is made so strong to it, aswell by States men as Divines, that they think his omnipotency as deeply engaged, as their own dear interests, or seduced consciences to go through with it. But we must profess, that what that great work of God is, which their actions aim at, hath never been sufficiently, can never be unanimously (by themselves) declared. God hath many works, and some that are fit to go thorough none, but those accursed hands of Judas; and if they would prevail with us for our patience and submission, they must produce some prophecy; that infallibly makes them the ruin of their King and Country. But yet we should take leave to tell them, that it is not such a comfortable employment to be made the rod of God's anger, because though his wisdom useth, his goodness loveth not the instrument of his children's correction: The rod is always burnt for doing malicious execution.  
Was the work to chastise the pride of the King (as some have intimated) with a greater; or as some thought and expressed freely, to root out Episcopacy, Deans, and Chapters, that they might establish establish their own preaching Ministry, or themselves in their Revenues? This would have been a glorious Reformation of those grand errors of their forefather's charity, when that true Devotion that had expatiated their hearts, opened their treasures to, and made them too lavish in their expenses upon God's worship. Now the effects of that zeal which burneth in our Worthies, are to bring down the price of our Religion, to serve God at a cheaper rate, and to offer Sacrifice of that which cost them nothing. What ever the work was, we see what work it hath made amongst us; and if we observe the steps by which it hath ascended, we shall easily perceive, the Authors thought it could not succeed otherwise then by violence. What ever the model be, the structure was not likely to be set up, as the holy Temple was, without any sound of Axe or Hammer but with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood. The truth is, despairing of God's speed, we have cause to believe they resolved to take the Devils. Hence were those Tumults raised, Riots justified, some whereof were of that desperate nature, that the Ringleaders of them made it the emphasis of their enraged passion, to cry out, The King is the Traitor: The King is not fit to live: The Prince would govern better. Those that heard these things, and are ready to make proof of them, have good reason to think His Majesty was driven from London, and not much miss by those evil Counselors that advertised him of the danger.  
Thus was the King and many of His Subjects little better entertained in the streets: And did His Majesty's friends find any better welcome in both Houses? were not those Houses made a Sanctuary to the most desperate Delinquents, if they had learned to tune their Votes to the prevailing, because violent partly; whilst gallant sober gentlemen, who preferred solid reason and their own conscience, before any popular Arguments, were posted up and banished from them? For examples of the former. I need add no more to the Instances in the Complaint, than Master Griffith, who being guilty of a barbarous attempt upon the Lady Sidlyes' chastity, and complained of for the same, yet the House was so fare from suffering itself to be purged of this able Member, that they were pleased to advance him to an honourable office (if any office may be styled honourable) in their Holy Army: And this is the man that was lately sent out in so much pomp with his silver Trumpets.  
On the other side, because some worthy Members of both Houses were privy to more of their designs, than they could with a clear heart assent unto; 'tis probable (though for no other reason) if this violent party could have construed their actions (by any rules or exceptions) into Treason, they should have lost their heads to secure their memories from betraying Close-Committee secrets. Thus many Gentlemen of known integrity were deprived of those privileges wherewith they were invested aswell by the Authority of the King as the suffrage of their Country; and exposed to the rage of a rude multitude, causelessly incensed: and yet if they fled after their Sovereign, to seek that security at a distance, which (retaining a good conscience) they could not promise themselves under the influence of both Houses, they were presently declared Delinquents, as if they could not be friends to themselves, nor loyal to their King, without peril to the Kingdomed and after the power of the Country refused to bring them up, (finding no just ground for it) an Army is voted to be levied to apprehend them; and then all their miscarriages (possibly but of humane frailty) being summed up together, if the total would have amounted (as it easily might have done) to a constructive Treason, their lifes had been rendered a prey to a Legislative, that is, an unlimited power, as blind as a man's self-will or malice, and their fortunes an oblation to these men's ambition.  
Thus having cast out the great ones, who were not like to fall into, or continue in their own hands, and cunningly shuffled with the rest; they soon packed their Cards so, as the die should never be carried (in any matter of consequence, for in trivial things they could differ upon design) against them, The violent course they took made a strong side quickly, and indeed the stream grew too violent to be interrupted; and whatsoever was done by the wisdom of His Majesty to turn the Torrent, that it might not bring this Inundation, which it hath now brought upon His Royal Government; such was the power and reputation that these men had purchased amongst the people, not by their own merit, but His Majesty's Acts of grace conveyed through their hands to them, that it was easily made use of to His Majesty's disadvantage.  
His Majesty upon a timely discovery of the first rising of this proud malignant tumour, applied nothing but the gentle lenitives of his favour to assuage and allay it: At last after the emptying of a whole treasury of acts of grace unto his people, finding them ineffectual to stop the current of their blind fury, and desirous to prevent those inconveniences, which we now by that means groan under (justice being denied to his Ministers on this behalf) was drawn into a necessity of going into the House of Commons in his own person, ro demand the principal Engineers (as His Majesty had then good reason to conceive, and all men now to suspect) of this destructive stratagem. And seeing what we now see, and feeling what we now feel, we might have had a just occasion to have given that mistake the Title of an happy error, as being a likely means, if it had taken effect, to have prevented these distempers that have ensued, and settled our peace and truth to the general contentment of the whole Kingdom, and all this without any prejudice to those men's reputation, if that charge had not been proved against them. But this error was a weapon they have made much use of in all their Remonstrances and Declarations, and indeed the only one that hath been with any colour alleged to their advantage. As for the bringing up of the English Army, that was but a leaden Dagger that never wounded the King's honour amongst them that understood it truly. But this error in His Majesty was reckoned a crime of a greater magnitude, than the Treason itself whereof the Members were accused, and His Majesty is endighted for it in every pamphlet before the bar of every vulgar Judgement, where usually the charge is not sooner read, than the sentence of condemnation pronounced.  
After they had raised their greatness to this height upon those prejudices, which they had laid against His Majesty (especial upon this mistake for which he hath done penance so often in their foul sheets) they resolved either to settle what their fond ambition had designed, or else to sacrifice the peace and happiness of the Kingdom to their own fury. And having failed (God be praised) of success hitherto, they continue as far distant in heart from any inclinations to our redress, as the means is which they have propounded to effect it.  
When they seized upon the King's Militia they made fast addresses to our Ruin. And since we know by a sad a very sad experience what a long and effectual progress they have made in it. It cannot but seem strange that they should presume with so much confidence to derive a power of taking Arms to themselves, and ground it upon the fundamental laws of the Kingdom, and yet (having set up as strict an inquisition for precedents as for Delinquents) now after so many month's elucubrations, not one fragment of Law produced to that purpose. Nay, if our-owne skill and the opinion of learned and honest Judges, (who must not be consulted with in this controversy) deceive us not, it is an attempt which the Law provides against under no lower Title then high treason. And yet a circulation of reports had so charmed us, and breathed so many cold fears and jealousies upon us, and these so pressed by the weight of that Authority, which (whiles it moved upon its own Centre) we highly reverenced, that growing deaf to our own duty at home, we userpt the office of our Sovereign, for our protection against pretended foreign dangers. But after a little succession of time had undeceived us, we perceived no other dangers threatening us, than such as were now a casting in that very mould, which (we were told) was made for our security.  
The hedge of our Government (because some Weeds accidentally sprung up in it, or else for that it had many thorns, as all good fences should have, to afflict transgressors that run over it) was cried quite down, and pulled as low as libertinism could lay it, so that our fair and fruitful enclosure was laid into a wild and waste Common. Indeed they had very provedently designed a new pail, but the chief workmen could not agree in what fashion to saw it out.  
And in the interim most men (as they were engaged or encouraged) had quitted those Trenches, which Almighty God had digged for them in his holy Ordinances, and waited to take Sanctuary in the Fortifications of their projecting. Now to raise these (because they beware to encounter with many difficuties) they must have the Sword as well as the Trowel, that (if need were) they might build and fight together. To this end (the Scots who had been kept long upon this design, being dismissed) they attempted to wrest the sword out of the hand of the King, the proper owner. A fatal attempt that presaged peril to the assailants; for he that (thus) takes the sword (against that authority that hath the sole power of it) shall perish by the sword. And truly God hath miraculously made it evident, that his Vicegerent beareth not the sword in vain. Not that His Majesty delights to unsheathe the sword of Justice, more than for exemplary punishment, though he hath lately met with such extreme provocations, as were enough to exasperate the softest nature into fury. We find a sweet strain of grace and mercy run through the whole Tragedy of his sufferings, and doubtless had there been a suitable correspondence in the inclinations of others, the Kingdom had not at this day been stained in so deep a die of blood. How much of his undoubted rights did His Majesty freely sacrifice for the satisfaction of his people? If we should reckon up all his acts of grace (as well those which have been abused to our disadvantage, as those whereof we are in hope to reap the fruit hereafter) they will abvudantly recompense all those pressures which evil connsellours had formerly brought upon us. And (as if he could deny his people nothing whilst they suffered him to keep any thing for himself) he graciously offered to commit to hands of their own choosing, so large a share of the Militia, as might have rendered them secure, if security (in a just and legal way) had been all they sought for. But some of them having gotten too great an interest, as well in the faith; as in the affections of the people, (who could not prevail with themselves to be persuaded, they aimed less at His Majesty's Honour, then at the public good) in confidence of their strength came roundly to the business, and seized upon that by force, which (their very petitions can witness, for these were not petitions of right) was not due unto them. And now the King hath as much reason to exhibit a petition of right for the securing of his property, as ever the Subject had. His Forts and Towns are kept by violence, his goods arrested, and his own Arms taken up to resist him to his face, and these will not be restored, till he condescend to a composition. Nineteen propositions are sent down to him, that His Majesty would be content with a twentieth part, whilst the rest of the Crown is shared between both Houses. These seemed to be very strange propositions, in the opinion of Loyal Subjects, who wished their King as much glory, as these men had promised him. Yet these were so far from altering His Majesty's desires of peace, that he vouchsafed to answer them; and to give either the thing demanded, or a reason of his denial, which was better; and yet so fare from satisfaction, that wise men did equally admire the King's grace, and their unthankfulness.  
What should His Majesty do? It was high time (after so many threatening votes, and hostility actually exercised at Hull against His Royal Person) to provide for the defence of Himself, and His good Subjects that attended Him, lest their loyalty should betray them to inevitable destruction. Hence a guard was raised for the safety of His Majesty's Royal Person, and that consisted of the chief Gentry, that could not reasonably be presumed to contribute assistance to the enslaving of themselves & their posterity. And yet this small guard is presently declared to be raised for the subversion of Parliament & in that of all our native liberties. His Majesty was not so happy in His means of undeceiving His good people, (as He hath been since) the reputation of His Royal Word being blasted (to gain credit to themselves) by their black-mouthed Remonstrances. And yet all these reports (though their credit was much improved by the Authority of both Houses) had a very ample and sufficient confutation by several messages of peace sent from Nottingham. Now if we look to the reception, it was nothing suitable to the errand; which (if we may conclude from the entertainment) was so fare from finding a compliance of inclinations, that it met with very little Civility or good nature amongst them. For interpreting all these Acts of grace but instances of his weakness, they were more desperately bend, and urged by new votes, that their Army might advance to make a speedy assault upon them. Where by the way let me hint thus much: If those several messages proceed out of weakness, we may take notice of a special Providence, that so suddenly increased His Majesty's Forces even to admiration. But if the said proposals were the genuine offspring of a gracious Prince, than they were extremely unthankful to slight the noble messengers, and so scornfully to cast so many offers of a peace behind them. As weak as His Majesty was, Almighty God preserved him from their fury, and was his safe convoy to Edge-hill; where (having been formerly advertised of a petition) he might very well have expected some handsome address before an alarm from them. 'Tis true, they say a very humble Petition (subscribed with a deal of Ceremony by both Houses) was committed to the hands of the General (the Earl of Essex,) but it seems it was ordered (if they conceived it for their advantage, which they supposed they had then gotten) to be delivered and made report of by the mouth of a Cannon. Well, these men, who were too mighty to embrace an offered peace (as God's providence would have it) were so discomfited (if we may have leave to speak the truth) that by that time His Majesty was advanced to Colebrook, their weakness had inclined them (and in good time be it spoken, it was the first step they set) to an Accommodation. And His Majesty (not triumphing in the ruin of His worst subjects, being a losing Conqueror in so sad a victory, nor desirous to improve the use of His sword, beyond the recovering of His just rights; and settling that law by which He holds them) met them with a gracious and ready cheerfulness to accomplish it. But in the interim, whilst the Messengers are making their addresses to His Majesty, the soldiers pursuing their sad though just and necessary employment, advanced to Brainceford, and because they put the Red Regiment and some others (as is conceived) to the worst, they are accused of treachery. Nay the King Himself must be slandered, though (if the matter be well examined) they had no reason to complain, but that the day went against them: For can a soldier expect quarter before he asks it? Or an Army imagine to be at truce in the view of the enemy before a truce be moved? In other places upon Treaties of this nature, Courts of Guard are doubled; and were they so unacquainted with the customs of war, as not to provide against all advantages of the enemy? I know not what they expected from His Majesty, but I am sure His Majesty never found more fair play from them, (though His subjects) nor so much as he might have done from a foreign Enemy. Admit they did upon second thoughts send a Messenger to desire a Cessation from all hostile acts; we know the business was put in execution before the Messenger's arrival, nay, it stopped him in the midst of his journey. If they had been desirous to prevent all further effusion of blood, the motion should have been made more seasonably (as it might have been by their first Messengers) to His Majesty. What Revelations other men may go upon, we know not; but we are sure His Majesty doth not pretend to be acquainted with their desires by inspiration. And His Majesty's forces had great reason to use all means to frustrate the advantage which their enemies had taken. We know how their Soldiers had almost on all sides environed him, and new forces raised in London, advanced with speed towards them, and why might not his Majesty advance forward, as well as His Adversaries? If they say, their General did but pursue their order, which was given the night before their Messengers set forth, they do but tell us in effect, that they had laid the design so cunningly, that themselves might take any advantage freely; but if the King did the like, it was predestinated to be called Treachery.  
We could tell of gracious Letters directed to the House at that time, but intercepted by their Army, and committed close prisoners to the Earl of Essex pockets, for no other crime then bringing peaceable intimations. The truth is, the mannagery of this War was committed to such hands as were glad of any occasion, colourably to decline the way of peace: For what did they say; His Majesty is yet too strong to be dealt withal by a Treaty; which implieth, they must endeavour to secure His Royal Person by the ruin of those whose loyalty hath raised them up to guard it, that they may the better subvert his Government before their own design could be effected.  
Whilst all their preparations are for battle, His Majesty labours still for peace; to which He once again invites them by a Message sent from Reading: But they are now grown deaf on both ears to Propositions of that nature; and the very name of Accommodation (for we know the man that said he hated it) is become odious and malignant. They breathe forth nothing but challenge and defiance against His Majesty; and these men that could cheerfully entertain suitors of any condition, or any man's procuring: whilst their Courtship was taught to woo them not to embrace what was-fit or profitable for the Kingdom, but what their own affections had made choice of, in order to the satisfying of their ambition. Now they grow coy, and frown upon all such as solicit them in the name of peace; as if she were so fare from being an ingredient in it, that she were the only obstacle to our happiness.  
First, the bleeding miseries of the Kingdom of Ireland (which must wholly be laid upon the score, who have obstructed their relief through these distempers of their own raising) spurred them on to frame their sad Complaints into Supplications, to which his Majesty lent a gracious ear, and offered to contribute assistance in any way that could be propounded to Him: but the two Houses (who were formerly very angry, that they might not have all the honour of reducing that wretched Kingdom) afforded little pity, less aid unto them; many bitter discontented spirits raising seruples and murmur at the Petition, instead of applying themselves to the relief of their distresses for the present, or to make a peace with His Majesty, (as was desired) whereby they might be enabled to assist them for the future.  
Then the many prodigious tokens of our ruin here at home began to awaken us, and make us solicitous for our own safety. The most substantial Citizens meeting together in no other ominous or formidable posture, then with gloves on their hands to move a Petition for peace; and they are accused for committing a riot, and imprisoned, whilst forces sent to assault and murder them, are interpreted (by their great Doctors of the Law) to keep the peace of the Kingdom.  
These men that have so long beguiled the people with false Alarms, and never more than by pretending to have bend all their endeavours to work a good understanding and reconciliation with His Majesty, have been so fare from giving countenance to Petitions of that nature, that all their endeavours have been (and sometimes by Messengers directed on purpose) to strangle them; and such Gentlemen as have been employed in their Country on such errands, have for that service-sake been plundered, their Horses taken from them, (as our neighbours of Essex are able to depose;) and the authority of the Houses by which they were taken, either cannot or will not be effectually exercised to recover them, but an appeal must be made from them unto the close-Committee.  
But what! is there no excuse to be alleged to take off the blemish of this action? Truly, their web is not of so plain a spinning, but they have many pretty coloured threads run thorough it. They'll tell us, ' 'tis no more needful for the people to spur them on to their duty, then lawful to direct them in it; such Petitions are saucy breaches of their Privileges: They have the sole power to judge of sense and reason, and the dangers of the Kingdom. Indeed they have most reason to be acquainted with the nature of those dangers, that were first premeditated, and since of their own actual forging. Certainly, as these men have laboured to thrust out both our eyes, that we might not see; so they would extinguish our memories, that we might remember nothing. They should engage some of their instruments to teach us an Art of forgetfulness, in behalf of many Acts in the time of their own reign, as well as an Art of memory, in behalf of some sufferings under the reign of our Sovereign: at least, they shall have voted an oblivion, that their own late practices of encouraging Petitioners of another strain, as bold and directory, might not rise up to their condemnation.  
But why should it be reputed a breach of good manners for Petitioners to suggest the means of their own redress? Every man knows best where his own shoe pinches. Necessity stands not upon Ceremonies, and doubtless Beggars may be choosers, when the choice is, Whetherthey will submit to their own ruin against Law and Equity, or maintain those Rights wherewith they are legally invested, under the Protection of a gracious Sovereign, against the spoil and rapine of an, Arbitrary power.  
Well! if men that have lived under the dominion of Mars and Sol, (being taught by their effects to put a difference betwixt them) finding the first to be incomparably most malignant, begin to desire to be looked upon with a more propitious influence. If it be imputed for a crime to these men to Petition, that the storm (without doubt raised by spirits, in whom the Prince of the air worketh, who worketh in all the children of disobedience) might be calmed, that they might enjoy their old comfortable Sunshine: Yet methinks a motion for Peace (which no State till our days condemned for an ill Minister) made by one of their own Members, might have passed without exception. That grand Assertor of the public liberty, who in civility gave the King the title of a Sovereign, when he kept the Authority to himself, and confounded the undoubted Rights of the Crown, with the never-heard-of Privileges of Parliament, we mean Sir john Hotham, (who out of a remorse of conscience, that he had been the prime instrument of this combustion, or out of an apprehension of an unlikelihood of prevailing, cursed himself) moved no less than three main wheels at once, to set forward the work of an Accommodation. (Those Letters of his to the Earls of Northumberland and Holland, and to the Speaker of the House of Commons, had been as well worth the people's reading (if they had had a purpose to let the people see any thing tending to their peace and happiness) as those from the Earl of Stamford, of the total defeat which he had given Sir Ralph Hopton; (of the truth of which the Houses have since been sufficiently informed:) Or those other of the Lord Fairefax, interlined with an ordinary gloss, and so printed for the benefit of the setters forth. But these from Sir john Hotham did not speak to the sense of the Lords and Commons, that use to sit in Merchant Tailor's Hall at midnight, and therefore were not fit to be communicated. And if we inquire how they were accepted, we shall find that they had but little better welcome than the Retitions of peace had to both Houses. Such a jealousy is presently raised against him, that though he had committed Treason against his King, to become their faithful servant, he gins to fear he shall be suffered to play Rex no longer, and complains of it: and many think if they had not more feared their own then his perishing by water, they had cast him out of his Ark, for bringing this Olive branch to them.  
As they were averse to motions of peace themselves, so were they strangely opposite to the tendering of such supplications to His Majesty. Indeed they had reason; for (wanting competent evidence to speak for them) they had often commended their own endeavours for peace, and made us believe that their frequent suits found His Majesty's ear inexorable. They were loath this device (which they had improved to some advantage amongst the ordinary and less knowing sort of people, where most of their game lies) should be discovered by any Petitioners personal attendance upon His Majesty. Hence the Messengers that carried the Petition of Westminster, etc. (though they had obtained a warrant from the House for their free and safe passage) were surprised in the way; and upon search made, some scandalous Pamphlets (as they called them for speaking the truth) which in all probability had been committed to the Coachman, by that setting-Dogge that discovered them; for the business was a deep mystery, and a very riddle to the Gentlemen: these were quickly found, (the searchers being pre-instructed in the plot) and so the Messengers were brought back again, that they might not present their prayers to His Majesty.  
But His Majesty's Grace, as it invited all, so it found supplicants from other parts of the Kingdom, whose distance from them was their best, if not their only privilege from interruption and imprisonment: (We say nothing of the usage of the Hartfordshire Petitioners.) And after these men perceived that no art or industry could prevent it, but the Court would be frequented with solicitations of this nature, as long as it had a gracious ear, that took so much pleasure to entertain them; they directed a contrival of a plausible Petition to be carried to the King in the name of the Common-council. His Majesty (never wanting to any thing that might repair our unhappy breaches) vouchsafed a gracious answer; and such as (if it had been duly followed) had led us the way to very just, and no less easy terms of Accommodation. But observe how careful these men are to work a good understanding between the King and His Subjects: They break through all the Liberties and Privileges of the City (when we see the Rights of the Crown trampled on, we cannot expect that any Privilege should stand before that of committing Treason.) And the people must not read the King's pleasure, unless they will put on Spectacles of Master Pyms making; nor hear His Majesty speak to them, unless His authentic Text be first corrupted by false Comments.  
Was any County willing to be disengaged, desirous (because they could not avoid it) to be sad Spectators, rather than wild Actors in this bloody Tragedy. Why such a neutrality is voted to be malignant, such a peace destructive? Though Articles be concluded, and ratified by their subscriptions, the mutual pledges of their faith, yet this must not atone those neighbours, that knew not why, nor wherein they differed. These men can find Principles in the Schools of Jesuits, (and such as are not where else to be found) that Faith is not to be kept with Heretics, with Malignants, and men Popishly affected; (they run parallel with them a great deal further) and hereupon they use those new Parliamentary Keys of their own making, to reverse all the bolts of these engagements, as if they had the same power to dispense with consciences, which they pretend to have in dispensing with the Laws of the Kingdom. Thus those two Counties of York and Cheshire, when they had set their hands to the happy bonds of peace, and might have sat quietly under their own vines, were by Votes, (and nothing else) provoked (like creatures without reason) to worry one another. These men that have so much of the public faith, how little would they have of public charity?  
Have many Gentlemen put themselves into a posture of War, and obtained their Commission only to stalk by them, that they might the better furnish themselves for His Majesty's service, which they aimed at? Have others, not a few, (and some of their nearest and dearest creatures) out of a late sense of the weakness of their cause, or party, or both, played the Soldiers indeed, and turned faces about, with a resolution and zeal to recompense His Majesty by their good service, for the opposition which they had too long, but ignorantly made against him? Have others (who by the loss of a good foregame, are taught to play an after-one) delivered up those Commissions, that enabled them to fight against their own honour, and spill all their noble blood? These, though they may prove dangerous forerunners of a grand Apostasy from the good work, yet we must be persuaded they do more animate unto the cause, then discourage them. The work is looked upon, as if God himself had actually cut it out, and appointed a select company, (though never so few, if desperately enough seditious) by an especial and immediate designation to finish it.  
Hence those Propositions for Accommodation, which most part of the Kingdom had sued for; and themselves (finding a necessity in it, to take off that dislike that began generally to fall upon them) had promised should be prepared, were delayed ten or twelve weeks together; and before they are carried, are taught to speak such a language as doth but beg their just denial. To answer these, His Majesty is allowed but ten days, and (willing to cut the sufferings of His people as short as He could) He graciously dispatched an answer almost in as few hours. He offers Propositions that a modest Conqueror would have accounted reasonable, and yet submits them together with their own, and a cessation to a Treaty. These are brought to the Lords House, and the violent party there not able to hinder it by Votes, endeavour to entangle it by intricacies. The hint is given to the leading men of the House of Commons; and instead of voting a Cessation in order to the Treaty, they require an absolute disbanding of all Forces, and yet no terms of peace concluded on: so that the result of all would be but this, the King must quit His Martial attendants, and resign Himself up once again into the hands of seditious Tumults; (for those must not be spoken against) & then they shall be prepared for their Treaty. Some were so taken with this piece of Sophistry, that they openly boasted; They had played their game too cunningly for His Majesty: Truly a masterpiece of his Policy, whose designs (if they be not made frustrate by a higher power) can find no period but in utter ruin. Some 14 days were spent upon this plot, and yet it was not ripened for His Majesty, which occasioned another gracious Message to prevent all mistakes, (for His Majesty must be very punctual, or else He is sure to be Declared Traitor) touching the limits of the Cessation; (which, as His Majesty was informed, they had at last voted.) What fruit all this seed will bring forth, perhaps the Spring may show us; in the meanwhile we are in a longing expectation, and must needs wonder, that having confined their King to so short a time, (which His Majesty in compassion of the miseries of His people, made nine parts shorter too) themselves should not be ashamed to spin out their debates, when it lies in them only (if they were not wanting to their duty, both to King and people) to put a present end to our calamities. At last (whiles we are penning these Observations) news is brought of their condescension to a Treaty, and (to show what real affections they have to peace, or what a plentiful number they have all this while had against it) one of the two appointed by the Lords must needs be the Lord Say, whose long-practised principles of Schism have led him so far in the advancement of Sedition, that he is deservedly proscribed a Traitor by His Majesty, so that (not able to do more to obstruct the way to our peace and happiness) they have brought the business to this Dilemma; His Majesty must either treat (and that face to face too) with a grand Rebel, (in all probability employed on purpose to give a defeat to the whole Treaty) or else must expect to have the Odium of refusing peace cast upon Him.  
Well! to draw a conclusion from these, but too true and too sad premises: If neither the gracious Messages and Invitations of His Majesty; nor the sorrowful prayers and supplications of the distressed, as well in England as Ireland, nor the earnest persuasions of their own discouraged, or relenting party; nor the frequent returns unto their allegiance, of such as are daily undeceived amongst them, If neither the bleeding miseries actually ruinating in two Kingdoms at home, nor the invied dangers threatening from abroad, If none of these can, or if all these, with our Religion, Laws, Lives and Fortunes, likely to be buried in the ashes of this imminent destruction, cannot prevail one whit upon these fierce spirits, to soften their hard and (hitherto) unrelenting hearts, and incline them to thoughts of Peace and Accommodation; what can the inference amount unto less, than what we promised to make good in the beginning? viz. That the firebrands of this pestilent faction are in a desperate travail for the birth of some monstrous design, which cannot be ushered into the world but by confusion's We all know whose expression it was, I hate the name of Accommodation; and the spirit of contradiction and dissension was not raised in them, as they raised it in the people, by the conjuration of Plots and Conspiracies, (underground works, which no body could discover but their own Artists, that invented them to embitter the minds of men against His Majesty.) But all this was the fruit of that Spirit of contention, which they first brought with them to the service (though it had proved the disservice) of the Kingdom; witness that prodigious Omen that long ago presaged ourapproaching ruin. When that potent Gentleman put Moderation into the Catlogue of his vices, he left us to expect nothing else but those bitter fruits of violence, which we have since too sufficiently tasted.  
Now the said accounts of War have taught the people the price of Peace; what, do they oppose to stop the current of their solicitations? 1. They make speeches in the House, in disgrace of Peace; and from that common sense, a sense must be derived unto the whole Kingdom. Till they have spilt all the blood of the ungodly, or malignant, (as they term them) they plead an impossibility of enjoying peace with her due investitures, as if (because they have begun such a War) they could not conclude any other Peace, but what is a stranger unto truth and righteousness. The Lord Brookes and others have made great use of their talents this way, to their great honour amongst the brothers of the Separation. When these prevailed to thrust peace out of the Houses, there was anot her plot to cut the throat of it in the City. A multitude (as they had sound by long experience) is good at a dead lift; and if they be set upon't, to have all matters tried by club law, there is no appealing from them. Well! such forces must be levied as offer up their prayers unto both Houses by an implicit faith in a language they understand not, thinking any thing a blessing that such a heavenly man as Doctor Burgess invites them to petition for, and so poor fools are earnest suitors to be wedded to the miseries of a civil war, from which other Nations long to be redeemed. If shame, or discretion, or conscience makes men backward to this hellish design then the Pulpit must be turned into a Mount Ebal. from whence the Emissaries of the House of Commons curse them. Lest sedition should not thrive fast enough, they suborn these Preachers, and obtrude them upon (almost) every Parish, to sow the seeds thicker; and these men though not of so long a standing, have improved their stock of impudence beyond the Devil himself. He came whiles the servants slept, but these disperse their tares in the field whiles they look upon them. These are the bellows to this fire, the Trumpets to this war, that boggle nor at blasphemy, to persuade the people that God is engaged in their conspiracy against his Anointed; and to this end their prayers are of a more saguine complexion, than Esau's pottage, These are they that have taken this advantage of stirring up the people to spoil and rapine, that they may (this way) root out a regular Ministry, and be planted in their places: Insomuch as one of them tells us in his Plain English, He hath a great deal of reason to be confident, that scarce any considerable man (he speaks of the Clergy) who hath been engaged in this quarrel on the Parliament part, if he retains his integryty, (he should have changed that word for sedition) dares abide the issue of a present Accommodation. Certainly there can be nothing but their own guilt that should move them to distrust the protection of that Law which they have been bred and borne to. These men can have no fishing but in troubled waters▪ and therefore when they have done sweeting in the persecution of Peace in the Pulpit, they assault her in the Press; and in both they have a great advantage: for they wrestle at liberty, whiles the Champions of Peace have their hands tied behind them. They speak plain English, whiles the other have their tongues clipped; or if they speak out, are imprisoned: So that Peace is first awed into silence, and then by these men pressed to death, because she doth not plead to her endightment. These are the instruments so destructive to our peace, so industrious in fomenting this execrable War. These are the very beacons, that (being set on fire themselves) with their prodigious blazes have raised so many Countries in Arms, to their own ruin, These are the grand Projectors to raise men and money, making their Ministry but a Pander to Rebellion. Their stratagems have been to awaken them by sounding this Alarm in their ears: That God's cause, the Protestant Religion, Laws. Liberties, Properties, Privileges of Parliament, yea their lives, with the lives of their dear wives and children, lie all at the stake. They went a step higher in the beginning, persuading them they were to fight for the defence of the King's Rights, and to rescue His Sacred Person from the hands of the Cavaliers; (so in a disgrace they termed His Majesty's Illustrious Nephews, with the chief Nobility and Gentry of the Kingdom) who (as they said) had surprised Him.  
When they were supplied with men, (animated by these devices) what course did they leave unattempted to raise money to maintain them? Under the name of the public faith (a chest that is bottomless and insatiable) they have erected a new lottery; (to cheat our faith, and beggar the public.) From hence the adventurers were sure to carry away nothing but blanks, the prizes being designed for themselves, and the Officers that were near them; some of which are not ashamed to sound the Trumpet for it. When the free Contrbutions were exhausted from Volunteers, men came to be pressed to these prodigal expenses. After they had lent some, they were justly paid the use by having the rest taken from them. Men were not only forced to part with their own, but to disburse others money also, or committed to prison for their refusal. This was langhorne and Vivians case, who were committed to Colchester Goal, for denying to pay 2000l. which was due to the Prince from them, and yet the Receiver plundered of the money. These men are no less careful for the maintenance of the King's children then of his Majesty, provided it may be done by taking away their Revenues; and thus all the Rights as well of King as People, have been secured by an Antiphrasis of Parliament. When the Merchants were in dispute about the lading of the Ship called Sancta Clara, these charitable men (that love no strife between brethren) umpired in the business, and to reconcile the difference, seized upon the goods, which must not be redeemed to the use of the right owner, under the loan of 20000l. I pray God they have not this trick to compromise all the differences of the Kingdom. To raise money they have rob both the Church and the Spittle, six thousand pounds being collected for the repairing of S, Andrew's Holborn, were fetched away by the Earl of Manchester and others, in the night. If this Church fall, they have engaged themselves to build God a new house in blood. We read of Hezek●ah, that he gave all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord to make his peace with a foreign and idolatrous King: but for subjects to take God's money to wage War against a pious Prince. we believe this may be made one of the first precedents; They have not been more favourable to the mystical then to the material Temples of God. A great collection was made for the relief of the poor Protestants in London Derry, and (besides those vast sums raised by Subsidy for the Armies there) this was all converted to the use of this bloody War, whilst those our miserable brethren are ready to perish (as many that went before them) in their distresses. To recompense them from this wrong, they have employed their Preachers to advance another collection for them; which coming into the same hands, we suspect will be conveyed the same way. They took like care for the disposal of that collection made for Brainceford, for the poor of the Parish have not been a farthing the better for it hitherto, and we believe the Spring will have so well recovered them, that their Physicians will think it needless to administer what was so long ago provided for them. Whether these men, that would have no sum pass by their own bag, care more to relieve the poor then Judus did, may appear by divers instances: amongst the rest they broke into the Hospital at Gilford in Surrey, and took 400l, from them: and a fine device was lately set on foot to raise another sum. There is a pretence for poor children to be sent over to get good breeding in New-England, a collection must be made for them, and this must be committed to the hands of their trusty and wellbeloved Alderman Pennington, which is like to be employed to the use for which it was pretended, as faithfully as those sums gathered for London Derry and Branceford were.  
Now, lest the people's zeal should waste with their purses, they keep them warm by a continual breathing of reports upon them. If Letters come that speak but upon hearsay, they first expunge so much of the relation as might tend to the discouraging of their party, and then publish them as the History of some great defeat; and (if need be, as there is need enough) they have their Observatour to write Commentaries upon them, lest the people should mistake the rare passages of God's providence on their side. Another while they declaim against the King's Army as Popish, (forgetting that their good wroke is supported by men of any Nation or Religion; and that the Lord Say and the Lord Brookes, two leading Cards of that faction, have often protested they would dispense with all sorts of Religions, (though now they make an exception of the true Protestant) so they might exercise their own freely; and that such a general Toleration ought to be granted is their avowed opinion; and indeed, their independency cannot consist otherwise, for if I be accountable to none, I will use what Religion I please, without control.) It hath been well observed, that when there hath been any business of consequence to be debated in the Houses, they have still had the good fortune to be encouraged by the news of some strange success, or exasperated by some great provocation, suggested by such as made the discovery for advantage: But they have been so provident as to lay reports of this nature at a considerable distance, that they might not be confuted before the present turn were served. Thus we were made believe, whilst His Majesty's Army was in Yorkeshore, and in those remote parts, that they consisted of none but Papists and Delinquents; but this mist cast before the people's eyes to blind them, was soon dispelled by the rays of our Sovereign's piety, as He drew near us. And however the Earl of Newcastles Forces lie all under the same scandal now, yet as great a cloud as this hath vanished into nothing; and 'tis possible they may draw so near us, that (notwithstanding their duty and allegiance have brought some Papists into that Army) we may distinctly understand, that the Mass, which they say is so commonly used, will prove no other than the Book of Common-Prayer.  
With these juggling and slight-of-hand tricks we have been long amazed, but they have been played so often over that every man who is not wilfully blind discovers them; and now they serve for no use but for wise men to lament, and boys to laugh at; we may justly wonder what springs they move by, that drive them on so furiously against the stream of truth, law, and reason: and yet we may cease to wonder, for we have been sufficiently informed, that some of this violent party are spurred on by the law of their own necessities. A Captains pay per annum is Moore money than five of their prime Instruments were ever owners of. The Honest Letter hath told us on which side the beggarly Lords and Gentlemen are of; and 'tis easily concluded, if we consider who they are that take the present pay out of a public stock, whilst their Cure is served by their under-officers and who they are that serve in their own persons; and besides the hazard of their residence raise and maintains Forces at their own charges. Others we know pursue this design out of an inveterate malice unto Majesty. It was an expression of but little loyalty, (and not the further from truth because uttered in a Tavern) that They would make the King as poor as Job, unless he did comply with them. That Champion that wrestled so stoutly with his Sov●raigne at Law, in the case of Ship-money. might have come off with honour, if he had stayed there: But seeing him (after satisfaction) one of the first in the field, desperately provoking His Majesty to the sharp, we suspect malice, though we hope he will be deceived in the length of the King's weapon, and so perish by it. Others know and have protested the King cannot in honour pardon them; and if they should submit to the Law, they are too sure that would prove a kill letter to them, and therefore they dare not abide the issue of an Accommodation. Others having transformed themselves into Angels of light, possessed the people, that they were of a nearer communion▪ even of the cabinet-councel with God himself, and broached their illusiions for divine Revelations. These men could see, that God had plainly chalked out a way in his holy Word, which our forefathers for 1500 years together could never see: That Jesus Christ had sat all this while besides his Throne, and they must dispossess Antichrist (whose spirit and manner of working by lying wonders, &c, they are very well acquainted with) before our Saviour's government can be established. These men being canonised for Saints by the ignorant multitude, (that understand not the depth of Satan's delusions) think it too great a disgrace to be stigmatised with an ignominious death for Sedition, which they know they are by Law guilty of.  
Those men that began the War upon such unwarrantable gronnds, and have purused it to the murdering of so many thousands, will undoubtedly drive it (if it be possible) to the last pinch: For although, we hope, they shall never compromise differences to their own personal safety and preferment, and out irrevocable slavery, as one of their Clerks (in his frivolous paper) saith they may do; yet they will drive it on as long as they have any hopes to get so great a pawn into their hands, as shall enable them to make their own conditions. If this fail, having shipped away so much of the Treasury of the Kingdom as may make them considerable and welcome guests to New-England, or such other places, they care not how miserable they make this Land before they leave it. And here by the way we could wish, that our own money (that was ordered to be transported in Trunks without searching) might not be brought bacl to buy our goods withal; for our stock being plundered by them, if they may have the liberty (as they take liberty to do any thing) to prise it for themselves, we may presume they will afford good pennyworths, and never leave us till they have removed both the Exchanges, with the King's Exchequer and the Chamber of London, into the Earl of Warwick's new Liberties. 'Tis time to look about us, for we are to play our game with the greatest Cheaters in Christendom, who think they have as good a Warrant to spoil such as they have called Malignant, (for no other reason then their loyalty) as ever Israel had to spoil the Egyptians.  
Let us no longer suffer ourselves to be abused, and misled by those false lights which they have hung out to deceive us. Do not all their practices run counter to their pretences? Do we not perceive them look one way, and steer the contrary? Let us learn to know their aims, not by their words, but by their actions. If we trace them through all their proceed▪ we shall find they have given the lie to every particular pretence, though never so speciously alleged for their justificaon in this war.  
Who was more cried up then the defence of the true Protestant Religion? This was the very shield and buckler of their Army. This is made the Generalismo of all their Arguments, and marcheth in the front of all the battle. If this were not at the stake, most men conclude the war absolutely unlawful. But how a quarrel can be justly made to defend a Religion, that condemns such a quarrel and such a defence, (as the true Protestant Religion doth) I profess I understand not. If our Religion did run an aparent hazard, I am confident this scandalous and offensive defence cannot be justified, but by such I●fuitidall principles, as all the Schools of Protestants (except the Scots, and not all of them neither, for the Ministers of Aberden have declared themselves clearly and solidly of this opinion in their Duplies) have unansmously exploded. But we have sufficient grounds of suspicion, that the Religion which is so barbarously militant in a Buffcoat, is not the same Religion which was peaceably obedient in a Surplice. We read in Plain English of hopes they have, not only of reforming, that is, rooting out our Discipline, but also of purging our Doctrine: notwithstanding they have bound themselves by a solemn Protestation, (if any such thing can bind them, for they have done as much for the King's Person, Rights and Dignity) to maintain it. We had thought they would have made their new experiments only upon our old Governmnet; but it seems that wise College of State-Physicians think it fit to make the Doctrine of our Church their Patient, and we are afraid they will let too much blood there too; and their purge, if they be suffered to administer, will be strong enough to overthrow it. Well! whether the maintenance of the true Protestant Religion be the Argument of this sword-dispute, may be decided by a speedy trial: Let them reduce the Fabric of our Religion according to the Model of Queen Elisabeths' time, in which those foundations were laid, which made the Church of England the most eminent and glorious of all Protestant Churches: If His Majesty consents not to all this, and to something more (upon the advice of a grave and learned Synod) for the satisfaction of tender consciences, but recedeth from His many free and gracious offers to that purpose, then let those bitter and scandalous imputations of inclining unto Popery be never washed away from Him. But if this be one of the main Arguments of His Majesty's taking up just, necessary, and defensive Arms against Anabaptists, Brownists, and Sectaries, who have already thrown down the hedge, and now fall to pillaging of the grapes of the Lords Vineyard, and that with countenance and encouragement from a party in both Houses; then we may conclude we approach very fast unto Atheism and Profaneness, and are fallen into those times which Sir Walter Raleigh speaks of in his History of the Word, B. 2. Chapt. 5. sect. 1. speaking of the care that Moses had of all things that concerned the worship and service of God; which care of his all ages have in some degree imitated: Yet (says he, and we may say so more truly) it is now so forgotten, and cast away in this super fine age, by those of the family; By the Anabaptists, Brownists, and other Sectaries, as all cost and care bestowed and had of the Church, wherein God is to he served and worshipped, is accounted a kind of Popery, and as proceeding from an Idolatrous disposition; insomuch as time would soon bring to pass (if it were not resisted) that God would be turned out of Churches into Barnes, and from thence again into the Fields and Mountains, and under the Hedges; and the offices of the Ministers (robbed of all dignity and respect) be as contemptible, as these places: All Order, Discipline, and Church-Government, left to newness of opinion, and men's fancies: yea, and soon after, as many kinds of Religion would spring up, as their are Parish Churches within England: Every contentious and ignorant person clothing his fancy with the Spirit of God, and his imagination with the gift of Revelation; insomuch, as when the Truth, which is but one, shall appear to the simple multitude▪ no less variable than contrary to itself, the faith of men will soon after die away by degrees, and all Religion held in scorn and contempt. Doth not this directly hit the temper of our times, wherein the conformable ministry is generally discountenanced, ignorant and seditious persons, men of all qualities and professions, s●t up like Jeroboams Calves to outface them? Wherein all sorts of Conventicles (forbidden by Law) are tolerated and frequented by those that aught to punish them: wherein men will take upon them to be Magistrates, and declaim against the public worship and service of God, as it hath stood ever since the Reformation in the Church of England, and shut up the doors of the Mother-Church, (if it be lawful to use any name of reverence and authority, besides the name of a Parliament) that the solemn service of God may not be administered, as it hath been, for a precedent to other Churches: wherein men are imprisoned and cannot be enlarged, unless they will promise to forbear the use of the Common-Prayer, the Cross in Baptism, and kneeling at the holy Communion; wherein the holy Apostles of our Saviour are unsainted, as if we now doubted of their salvation: all this, and more than this, can be proved against Alderman Pennington, If we look into the House, lest their Members should not be infected fast enough with this pestilent disease, the Preachers of their choosing were for the most part notorious, schismatical Separtists. And for the Synod (of their own setting forth, after a new translation) for fear the Clergy should have sent men that were too orthodoxal, they deprived them of their rights, (forgetting their Protestation, or taking them to be not the Subjects intended in it) and made choice of as many men as they could get, under no remarkable character, but for their ignorant novelty, and factious singularity of opinion. If we look upon the men they most confide in, we shall find them of the same stamp, or else their prisoners must not be committed to them. Doctor Leyton an old Scottish Preacher, stigmatised long since for Sedition, Gaoler at Lambeth House. Dillingham a notorious Brownist, with his wife and family, Gaoler at London-House. Devenish the Keeper, and Randall the Porter, both Conventicle-Preachers, at Winchester-House: and the Porter at Ely-House can deliver as much extemporary Sedition as the best of them. If we look into their Army, we shall find their intemperate zeal (not without encouragement from some great ones) hath transported them, not only to the profanation of Churches, defacing of Monuments, tearing of holy Books, and decent Vestments, but even to the murdering of the true sons of the Church for joining in her devotions, as the late example at Lambeth evidenceth.  
We see then what is done for the defence of the true Protestant Religion, as it stands reform and established in the Church of England. This Religion is pretended, but another is practised; and in order to this new one, (for the old hath consisted with the old government) Episcopacy must be rooted out: and to this end, they have used the most Reverend Bishops, (for no other crime then for being of that function) as whilom the enemies of the Gospel did the holy Martyrs of Jesus Christ, when they clothed them in the skins of wild beasts, to animate the dogs to tear them: so the Fathers of the Church have been set forth under the most scandalous and ignominious character, to enrage the people against them. And although they are as fare from discovering, as from agreeing what they would have in the room of it, yet this must down, that's concluded; and though a Synod be desired, as the most competent Judge of such Controversies, yet this is to be convened only for colour fake; the work must be done, or rather undone, before they be consulted with, or assembled. We may expostulate, though they will not allow their Votes, how unreasonable soever, to be disputed. How came Episcopacy, that hath stood so long a pillar in the house of God, to grow so diametrically opposite to the truth or peace of the Gospel? Was not our Religion reform under that Government, and hath not our Church and State flourished (to the envy of our neighbours) under it? If some tares have sprung up under it, have they not sprung up much faster, and spread further under other forms of Government beyond the Seas? If inconveniences have crept in through that wall, which, if not of Christ's own, is doubtless of his Apostles building: much more through those low hedges of their setting up, who hhve no grounds besides their own fancies to plant them on. There is a necessity of emerging offences, and tares will grow amongst the Wheat until the Harvest, or else our Saviour hath deceived us. His wisdom sees, that the very chaff may contribute something to the benefit of the good grain in this life, and therefore hath reserved the thorow-purging of his floor till his own coming unto Judgement. A little breaking in of the salt waters makes our helds more fruitful: Our chief care must be to keep out Inundations, and the way to do that is to keep the banks up and to keep them sound, not to level them.  
The Houses did once think it convenient to declare by Votes (which we see religiously observed in other things) that they intended the abolishing, neither of the Liturgy▪ nor of the Church-Government: And truly if we perceive Vote● (which have presumed ●o challenge so much respect and veneration from us) created only to serve turns upon occasion, and carried Pro and Con, as emergent advantages are administered, they will presently lose their reputation (amongst us) of being infallible, and gives us hopes, that upon the more mature deliberation of second thoughts, at least all groundless Votes, apparently and experimentally destructive to the Kingdom, shall be recalled. And for the Government of the Church (being purged of some abuses) we profess we like the Preachers advice so well, and have found their principles so pestilent, that we would not willingly meddle with them that are given to change, unl●sse we can see better Arguments produced (though this last of the sword hath been the strongest) to move us. We are of their opinion, that having drank old Wi●e, cannot desire new, for they know the old is better. And it is not an idle observation, that since they fell from pruning to rooting up, their endeavours have been almost miraculously blasted, by an immediate and remarkable curse upon them.  
If there be any that thinks this order in the Church is not worth the strife about it, and that our Religion may consist without it, let them with a sad and serious heart ponder these Considerations. 1. That instead of these, by the independent way, a Pope, and however, a Bishop will be set up in every Parish. 2. That there was no other Government (though perhaps some other qualifications in it) heard of in the Church of God; till about 100 years since, insomuch as some (of no small note for learning and piety) stand in great doubt, whether there can be any lawful Ordination, and consequently any lawful Ministry without it. These (who make up a fare more considerable party in this Church, than those who have already separated, and therefore ought▪ in the first place by all the rules of Christian charity, to have their scruples satisfied) upon the rooting out of this Ancient Government, must needs abandon our Communion. 3. That the true Protestant Religion established in the Church of England, was never so much undermined and blemished whilst some of the Bishops slept; and others were too active, as it hath been by new sprung up Sects, and monstrous opinions, since their office was suspended. 4. That the next Orders like to be quarrelled at (if it be not too evident they are quarrelled at already) will be the Nobility and the Gentry; and if we should allow the argument against the Order of Bishops, that the Protestant Religion, and the general safety of the Kingdom may consist without them: may not the same argument with as good reason be taken up against the other by the meaner sort of people (who shall have hopes to share their estates amongst them) till all degrees be leveled? Lastly, That the argument of the dispute is not so much, whether Bishops, or no Bishops: as whether a King, or no King: for we must hold the negative, if Subjects may be allowed by force of Arms, when they cannot get the King's consent, to pull down any piece of his settled Government.  
With the Fathers they pretend to thrust out the Children and those are commonly deciphered under the notion of scandalous Ministers. The truth is, it were well for the Church of God, if all that were such were thrust out of her bosom: But they have stretched the Word to such a latitude, that if they should go on, there would scarce be found an Orthodox man in the Kingdom out of this Catalogue. For there are a company of scorners and terrible ones, That watch for iniquity, that make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of nought, Isa. 29. 20, 21. Is he loyal according to the obligation of divers oaths sundry times repeated by him? He is a scandalous Minister. Is he a man well affected to the present Government, etc. or to peace? he is a dangerous man, and scandalous. In the interim they set up their railing Rabshachaes, that blaspheme God, and slander the footsteps of his Anointed in such sort, as their Prayers and Preaching are a very scandal, (except enmities, seditions, reviling of God's Ordinances and Ministers, when practised by them, with the countenance of a party in both Houses cease to be works of the flesh.) If we should form comparisons, we should find moats in some men's eyes, made greater by the multiplying-glass of malice, (which they make too much use of) than the beams, that are most conspicuous in the eyes of others. In some men they persecute their humane frailties and indiscretions, whilst they protect others, whose offences are died in grain. Master Pigott (amongst other such like Articles) was accused by some few seditious men of the Parish of S. Sepulchers, for drinking a Beer glass of White-wine, with a Lemon and Sugar: and though vindicated by the testimony of 600 of the a●●est men, had his reputation blasted (with no credit to his witnesses) by Master Corbet, who sat then in the chair of Examinations,? I had like to have called it the seat of the scornful) and gave his hand afterwards that he was unworthy to exercise his Ministry, by which means he hath since been put by two Lectures, at All-hallows Berking, and Broad-street. I make no question they have met with some scandalous enough: I do not excuse them. But others they have prosecuted, whom they might with much more honour have acquitted, and given a check to their too officious and troublesome neighbours. Look we upon such as are in most favour and esteem with them, we shall find they have trodden their shoes awry, aswell as others. We may ●et Doctor Burgess in the front, and because he was so busy to pick holes in the coats of his brethren, and racked up, the very ashes of the dead to discover their corruptions, we shall be the bolder to remember him, not only of a man that was a Pluralist, but of one that the High-Commission looked upon for Adultery; And of one that with continual suits of Law vexed two Parishes and must have been calculated in the Black-bill, if he had not taken himself off by his good service against Bishops. Doctor Downing a reputed weathercock, that turns which way soever the wind of his own humour, or ambition blows him; sometimes a great suitor to be the Earl of strafford's Chaplain, thinking that the readiest way to a Bishopric; and whilst he had hopes of the preferment, writ stoutly in justification of that calling, Master Calamy, another great Evangelist of the new way, sometimes complied with Bishop Wren, preached frequently in his surplice and Hood, read Prayers at the Rails, bowed at the name of jesus, and undertook to satisfy and to reduce such as scupled at these Ceremonies, insomuch as the Earl of Warwick said, He would be lost if he were not taken off, and so removed him to a living in Essex. This was all the Physic that was given him, to purge him from that which he now styles Superstition, though it was never so before he left it. Master Harding another great Apostle for that way, if he had not secured himself by complying with that faction, had been complained of for his vicious life, being a notorious fornicator, often taken by the Watch in a disguise with Harlots; and since he engaged himself for the good work, attempted a rape upon a Vintner's wife in Southwark; yet he hath made up all these breaches in his life, by making a greater in the Church, Master Bridge of Norwich being called to an account by the Bishop (as we are credibly informed) for keeping another man's wife, left his Cure, and then pretended he was driven away, because he would not submit to Innovations. Master Goodwin of Coleman-street in great esteem amongst some of them, yet (let him spin his opinion into never so fine a thread) a Socinian. Maste● John Sedgewi●ke of London-wall, a simoniacke and perjured, both upon Record. And every one hath heard of that light and profane speech of M. Evans; that he did break the poor women's hearts with preaching of damnation, and carried the pieces in his pocket. And (if we may touch the apple of their eye) we have heard (for our eyes are not every where to see them) that Master Martial hath a powerful faculty of persuasion with the weaker sex, (and all seducers after their old master go that way) to draw the affections, and then the estates from brother's children unto his own. By these instances it is evident, that notwithstanding their zeal for a thorough reformation, they can dispense with offences, aswell in the Clergy as in the Laity, if they will become serviceable unto the present design.  
Another thing pretended to be reform in the Church, was Pluralities and Nonresidence; and this was not so much, because they thought these things unlawful, as to make room for their own Emissaries. Who would think that men, who have voted it a thing unlawful and unconscionable to hold two Live▪ or but one and not reside upon it▪ should practise it themselves. Nothing hath been cried down more by divers Lords and Commons, since the sitting of this Parliament, and yet we find many late examples of their own making. Master Goodricke of little Houghton hath been taken from his residence at his Cure, and made Lecturer at Tottenham, by the means of Sir Edward Barkeham and Master Stroude. Master Theodor Graves Parson of great Linford, in the County of Bucks, made nonresident by an Order of Parliament. Master George Horiford of Stutsbury, in the Diocese of Peterborough, made Vicar of Banbury by the Lord Say; it seems his Lordship can dispense with a double Benefice in his own Chaplains. Doctor Wincop (whose new preferment hath made him forget some of his old principles) though he had the fleece of a good flock before, the House of Commons hath given him Institution and Induction into Doctor Brays living, S. Martin's in the fields; but whether they can vote him into the profits, as they have done into the pains, is doubtful. Many other Pluralists have been made this Parliament, (and some since the Bill was drawn up against them.) Master Henry Trewman, Rector of Cornwall and Newarke, by the Earl of Clare. Master Tho: Caril of Slindon and Harting, by the Lord Saint-iohns'. Master john Dixon of Glenfold and Baynes, by the Lord Hastings. Who can think that these men were in earnest, and not rather upon design, when they cried out so bitterly against Pluralities? We would feign know what gift of ubiquity hath been voted into Master Martial, that he should be able to officiate at S. Margaret Westminster, Windsor, or any where, and yet not neglect his Cure at Finchinfield in Essex. Master Case officiates at London, and leaves his Cure in Cheshire to be supplied by Rawbone an illiterate Layman.  
Another thing pretended for the advancement of Religion, was the establishing of a Preaching Ministry throughout the Kingdom. Certainly a very pious work, if Orthodox men be planted in all Parishes: But if such be rooted out as are of ●●lest parts to instruct, and men of desperate principles and factious spirits thrust into their places; this (as by too woeful an experience is now made evident) will prove destructive both to Church and Commonwealth. Yet this is the great work for which way must be made (saith the Author of Plain English) by displacing idle, scandalous, superstitious, ignorant persons: And how must these be displaced? Why saith he, If this advantage against them of stirring up the people to spoil and rapine were taken▪ it were a good likely means (very warrantable and honest means surely, according to Wa● Tilers and jacke Straws Doctrine) of rooting out them who had shuffled their Cards so cunningly, as to be out of the reach of the Law in other respects. This puts me in mind of that which Colonel Cromwell said to Master Gatford at Cambridge, (when he took away his book out of the Press, for speaking for obedience unto Magistrates, against the Anabaptists:) He told him he had been a great opposer of the Archbishop's Innovations, but carried himself so cunningly, that the Law could not lay hold upon him, and so (he told him) he had behaved himself now; (in opposition to the Anabaptists) but though the Law could not lay hold upon him, they had a power could reach him; and this was the power of the Dragooneers, which brought him up a Prisoner forthwith to Ely-House. The truth is, what ever they say, their aim is not so much at the idle and ignorant, for the one winks at all their false and odious principles, and the other concur with them in the practice of them. Their chief envy is at the most learned and most painful Preachers (if they keep not silence at their faction.) Why is the Lord Primate of Ireland, Bishop Morton, Bishop Hall, Bishop Prideaux, Bishop Brownrigg, Doctor Hildsworth, Doctor Featly, Master Shute, and others of singular learning and piety, under a cloud with them, and some of them ordered to be imprisoned? Why are so many Prisons full of men that are Preachers, as well by their Examples as their Sermons? Master Squire, Master Stone, Master Swadlin, that are scarce allowed straw to lie on, (whilst His Majesty is exclaimed against, when he affords Rebels better usage.) Master Reading of Dover, Master Griffith of London, Master Ingolds by of Wa●ton in Hartfordshire, Master Wilcocks of Goudhurst in Kent. These, and many others, having done nothing worthy of death, or of bonds, are inserted into the bl●ck ●ill of scandalous and superstitious Ministers, for preaching nothing but obedience to Sovereign Authority, and points consonant to the Holy Scriptures, and the Doctrine of the Church of England, as it stands established by Act of Parliament. I confess Master In golds by aggravated his crime of preaching for obedience, by setting forth the Doctrine of our Church (in six Homilies established by Parliament, for the use of every Parish) against Rebellion, and the oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance, with the Protestation, and an Epistle prefix● to light the people unto their duty; for which he was sent for up (the second time) with a Troop of Horse: but escaping from them, he came of his own accord to his prison, desirous to make his answer, which they ●●nd no leisure yet to hearken 〈◊〉 Nay, they will not permit that holy man Master Thrush-crosse, to t●ach White-Hall to continue loyal, and Protestant. He seemed to task the Justice of this bloody War, with reflection upon this new design, and presently an inquisition is made after him, and the Sunday following a Guard is set upon every Gate▪ (if no● for other malicious ends likewise) to fright him from the Pulpit. This is their account of scandalous Ministers, whom they would have, either rooted out, or silenced.  
Another project to advance Religion was, the taking the Clergy off from Temporal employments; and this is stretched so fare, that they are reputed Excentrickes, as moving out of the sphere of their calling, if they study to preach down Rebellion and disobedience. And yet all the world knows, their own Clergy have been as active instruments here, as Mr Henderson in the State affairs of Scotland. Doctor Burgess (we find him at every turn) and Mr john Sedgewicke, must be made Members of a Sub-Committee, for advancement of moneys. Nay, the Doct●r● (who hath obtained the Title of a Colonel this Military Commencement, for riding to encourage the work, with his case of Pistols) was so officious as to assist Plundering at the Globe Tavern in Holborn. And there is not a design▪ but th●se men have a singer in it, and of their tongues more than their share.  
We have seen how faithful they have fought for the Church? they promised and protested they did as much (and they have done no less) for the King and Kingdom. That this wa●●e was for the defence of the King's Person is such a pretence as honest men are ashamed of, and all men la●gh at, unless you can persuade them, you teach your bullets to distinguish as nicely as yourselves, between the King's Personal commands, and his Person. Those that have heard it delivered for sound doctrine (and without control) that the King might have been killed in the crowd with a good Conscience, and have seen what Regiments and Troops were most aimed at (according to Captain Blague's directions) at Keinton battle, and heard the bullets sing about His Majesty's ears, cannot believe you did more than compliment, when you styled His royal person Sacred; unless you can change the property of Sacred Persons, as well as of Sacred things, which you go about (though all men account it Sacrilege) to alienate. And how should we believe you would fight for the defence of His Person, when you seize upon all His provision, that if you cannot do it by the sword, you may murder him by famine? But admit they fight not for the defence of his royal person, yet they may fight for his Crown and Dignity: this hath been much pretended to, and that they did so in some sense, may very well be believed. But in earnest, how can we be persuaded they tender the Honour of the Crown, when they employ their Rabbis to satisfy (if it were possible) men's consciences in a wilful and groundless disobedience, by returning ill languages to sober and solid arguments against it? How do they maintain Prerogative, when they pretend to a power Coordinate with their Sovereign, and set up men to clear the Title for them, though they have no evidence, but such as was never seen by our wise Ancestors? The very name of Monarch implies a soleship of Government, to them that understand it. If the Monarchy be mixed, 'tis not so, as if the Sovereignty were shared amongst divers, for that were a meers Bull: But this mixture consists of these two ingredients, viz. settled law, and (where a law is not settled) the discretion and prudence of the Governor. In making laws (wherein their chief power consisteth) they may propound and consent, but it lies still in the King's power to refuse, or ratify. If the power of the three Estates be Coordinate, and the rule hold (as the Fuller answer will have it) Coordinata se invicem supplent, Coordinates' supply one another, he presently brings the three Estates into the House of Commons (and they delegate the power to a close Committee) and so makes them a Court of Record to give oath, commit, and sentence at their pleasure (as they have done too many) and every Vote of theirs (though the King and the Lords descent from it) by virtue of this power of Supplying inherent in them, shall be made an Act of Parliament. And if the King be brought thus low, shall he stand there? shall he not from Coordinate be brought a step lower, and be made subordinate? why, yes, that is another Doctrine, He is Vniversis minor, a Subject to all his Subjects; and those mistakes, which were so often condemned as breaches of their privilege, were nothing else but so many acts of His Majesty's disobedience. And His people being greater than he, and above him, may take his own Forts and Arms, to reduce and compel him. Was there ever any jesuite outwent them in defending the rights of Kings? Some are so tender of His Majesty's Crown, that they are not ashamed to say, the oath of Allegiance was never made to bind the Protestants, but the Papists only.  
If they fight not for the rights of the Crown, perhaps they fight for the rights of Parliament. That hath been pretended too, yet who ever broke the Privileges thereof more, than tumults of their own countenancing and raising? The carriages which themselves only have managed, have brought Parliaments under so much prejudice and disparagement, that the ceremony of a due reverence, will be as much denied unto them as unto any thing else, till some other course be taken to restore them to their Ancient reputation.  
Their Plea for the Laws of the Land is no less vain: for if they had any Law for their proceed, there should be no need of so many strange wild, and never-before-heard of Ordinances. Insomuch as the Contra-Replicant confes●esseth on their behalf, in this manner. Nothing has done us more harm of late, than this opinion of adhering to law only for our preservation. It would be good to add more (arbitrary) power to the Earl of Essex for (saith he) till I see him looked upon and served as a temporary Dictator, and the bounds of his Commission to be only thus; Ne quid detrimenti cap●●t Respublica cavere: I shall never think the Parliaments safety sufficiently provided for. The Law than is not the thing you fight for, for you fight against it. And the Judges sit in the House for cyphers, as the Clergy in the Convocation.  
Do you fight to maintain the Liberty of the Subject? Indeed you stand deeply engaged to do your best for that; for it was never so infringed since the Conquest, as it hath been by yourselves since you have taken the charge of the Militia. If we calculate the number of Prisoners, who have been committed this year, we shall find hundreds restrained of their liberty most unjustly; for Master Pym told us in the name, and as the sense of both Houses (in that speech at Guild-Hall) That it is against the rules of justice, that any men should be imprisoned upon a general charge, when no particulars are proved against them; and yet we know no particulars were proved or alleged against the Lord of Middlesex, the Lord of Portland, etc. How many men petitioning for enlargement, when no charge could be brought against them, have notwithstanding been detained in prison, because they had not contributed to the maintenance of the war? And if it be so fare from truth, that any particulars have been proved, that not so much as a general charge hath been produced, than either Master Pym in the name of the House abuses the sense of the House, or else th●● imprisonment is against the rules of justice. But perhaps these rules of justice are made in favour of Isaac Pennington, and his three fellow-Citizens, Kimbolton, and the five members. Such men as these, that are members of the House, or engaged in their service, these men may not be imprisoned upon a general charge, though it be a charge of High Treason. And yet I must tell you, if this be a true maxim of State, it is the greatest Solecism that can be imagined, and I am sure, contrary to the practice of all Indiciall proceed upon criminal causes; For if there should be no imprisonment upon a general charge before particulars are proved, then there can be no Commitment before some kind of trial, and ● Constable could not apprehend a fellow, (though he had a warrant for it) without offending against the rules of Justice; for his apprehension is an imprisonment, and yet no particulars proved; which says Mr Pym, speaking the sense of both Houses) is against the rules of Justice. Well! if such an imprisonment be against the rules of Justice, we are taught from the prisons, the way to the unjustest Court extant. And if those rules had been as well observed on▪ the behalf of all His Majesty's good subjects, as they have been sound preached to some of them, there had not been that need (as we see there is) of a Monthly consecration of new prisons. But perhaps the fence of the House is, that the King cannot commit to prison upon a general charge, when no particulars are proved (His Majesty's power hath been cut very short of late.) But the Houses being more indulgent to their own privileges, may Carve themselves a power of a greater latitude (and they have carved themselves very freely of the prerogative of the Crown) and as occasion serve declare and use it. They may commit upon a due information, without any proof of particulars▪ (and this is a new created privilege of the House of Commons, which heretofore could commit none but their own Members) Master Pym in his said speech declares the practice of the House, That they never have committed any man, but such men as by due information (and perhaps not so due neither) they conceived to be seditious persons, and like to trouble the peace of the State. What ● against the rules of Justice to imprison any men upon a general charge (though of high treason) when no particulars are proved, and in his next observation but one, men committed upon Informations and conceits? what is become of the rules of justice now▪ or what is become of the Gentleman's memory? If he hath forgot his owner rules of Justice so suddenly, we may cease to wonder, that he hath forgot the rule of our law, which he so much magnified in his speech upon the Attainder of the Earl of Strafford. But what! have they committed no man but such as by due information they conceived seditious? I believe none but such as they conceived seditious. Conceit doth much: and if they conceive a man so, they never travail long, before their Sergeant plays the Mid wife, and assists them to bring him forth such as they had conceived him to be. But we much doubt. whether this were always by due information; for we know some, that after three week's imprisonment (and no hearing) put in bail, and within a fortnight returned out of the Country, continued in prison a good while longer; and at last, the information was found so undue, that they were dismissed. And we have seen an Order under Master Laurence Whitakers hand, that such Gentlemen should be moved to bring in the accusation against such prisoners; and if none could be ●ound, that then they might be discharged. When the high Sheriff of Essex pleaded, he had done nothing; (knowing innocence was wont to be a fair excuse) the Speaker told him, They did commit him for prevention. Where is the due information now, upon which prisoners are committed? Nay, these great Assertors of the subjects liberty, have restrained the grey hairs to their great hazard. Alderman Backhouse, not so rich as honest. And Archdeacon Hilliar, though above 80. years of age, and so infirm, that he had been a long time bedrid, for refusing to pay down 800. 1. was carried five miles from Exeter to be shipped away, to the endangering of his life. And Sir George Whitmore, very aged, was shipped away for Yarmouth, and could not have the liberty of a Coach for his health, though he promised to be at the charge of any guard they should think fit to send down with him. Have not some Parliament men come upon the Bench, and forbade the Judges granting of Habeas Corpuses? Can we then think these to be the practices of men, that stand for the liberty of the Subject?  
If they have forborn us in the liberty of our Persons, they have paid us in the property of our Goods. Since they have applied the sword, we are so fare from recovery, that the Incision they have made renders our cure worse than ever our disease was. Our property received a little scratch by the point of prerogative before, but now by the privilege of Parliament the point of the sword hath made the wound desperate. When we read this question propounded by one of their great Clerks (in his answer to the friv●lous paper, for so he is pleased to style the Petition for Peace▪) Have they (the two Houses) not us as at such advantage, that they may undo us every hour? Truly, till we had found they had made so ample proof of their ability that way, we had thought it had been but a Paradox, or at most but an Article of their State-Creed; We never dreamt it would have been made a piece of their Commandments. We must confess you sweetened the cup before you gave us our bane in it. Our restraint is mollified by the fine term of securing our persons, (we pray this securing may not be extended to cutting of our throats.) And for our estates, you are too merciful to destroy them at one blow; you will have but a twentieth part at once, that they may consume and bleed to death gently. What comes freely from us you accept of kindly, and we had thought you had given us the public faith for an Acquittance, (till we see you come now again) that we might not have been cozened to pay the same score twice over. But we must tell you, when we are come to our ruin, it will be all one to us, whether we were led by the back stairs with Ceremony, or thrown down headlong to it. And we take it more unkindly to be led down by those we put in trust, then if we had been maliciously precipitated by others. And if you have forgotten the Antidote you gave us, we mean the Protestation, it works too much upon us to be forgotten, and by virtue of that we shall join ourselves to repel that violence, which hath been too long offered to the property of our estates, and liberty of our persons.  
Having taken this strict view of so many particular pretences, and finding them but colourably alleged, what airs can we imagine, they should hear so pleasing in the sound of the Drum and Trumpet, to be witch them to continue this most unnatural and most bloody War? And what advantage will accrue to the whole Kingdom (for we would not be engaged further in the quarrel for particular men's ends and benefit) to countervail the charge of our expenses? Is it the Militia that we fight for, and will nothing make you forbear the use of the sword, till you have gotten the full power of it? then we must profess His Majesty hath not given so much as a colourable ground for this quarrel; unless it be thought ground enough for his subjects to quarrel on, that His Majesty does not as unreasonably resign up all his just rights, as you demand them of Him. If His Majesty delights in Peace, and to see His Subjects flourish under it, (as the long experience of His gracious disposition showeth) what use have you for a Militia? I pray God restore us to that happiness which we enjoyed, when the sword and sheath too were both in the Kings own keeping. Is a War the way to conquer the King's affections? and do we think to force Acts of grace from Him? Your sword is like to be the way which God hath appointed for you to make Him glorious; but remember you may have need enough to find Him gracious, and therefore provoke His Majesty no further unto a just severity.  
Is the quarrel continued for Delinquents? then you should have done well to have the set King a precedent, in delivering Alderman Ponnington and the rest to a legal trial. That would have been a fair invitation to His Majesty to have resigned up those that are about Him, to the proof of their innocency. And whatever the Author of Plain English, and other seditious and schismatical Clergymen, (that cannot be preferred for their merit, and therefore seek it by faction) what ever these men are afraid of, if you have retained the integrity of honest men, and worthy Patriots, you may dare to abide the issue of a present Accommodation. And let me tell you, if those about His Majesty laying down their relation to the House of Parliament, (the privileges whereof, if any were to this purpose, are as common and beneficial to them, as to yourselves) offer to submit to a legal trial (as Subjects should do) when the Government and known Laws may have their free course; and you being under as high a charge, can plead nothing but privilege of Parliament for your justification, and in the interim refuse to submit to the like legal trial, you must needs be reputed Delinquents indeed, whilst they are cleared by the verdict of every impartial Judgement. And if you have gone so fare beyond and against the Law, that you are grown afraid to be tried by it, what shall we conclude from hence but this, that you have undertaken this War in the prosecution of some new design, and not (as hath been all this while pretended) for the security of our old Protestant Religion, Rights, and Liberties?  
That this design was the subversion of the ancient Government of the Church and Kingdom, is upon these grounds more than probable.  
That a change was aimed at in the Church, no man can deny; and it is made evident, 1. By the suspending of all Ecclesiastical Laws and Censures, (according to ancient Constitutions) insomuch as Incest, Rapes, and all Vices have gone unpunished: and this Jubilee of Indulgence hath drawn all offender's to comply with them. 2. By setting the people a-work (for some Close-Committee was the first wheel that moved this business) to petition against the present Government and Service of the Church. 3. By the Bill long debated, and since concluded on, for the abolishing of that Government. 4. By the chief persons countenanced and employed in the business, who were Brownists, Anabaptists, and all sorts of Sectaries and Schismatics.  
The Patrimony of the Church was to be alienated under a pretence of establishing a preaching Minister throughout the Kingdom: but the truth is, if their zeal had been but in a seventh degree so hot for that good work, as it was for fight for a bad one, they might have finished it for a twentieth part of that charge, which they have in a desperate fury put the Kingdom to. Now we believe, if the Revenue of the Church were at their disposal, they would change those colours, (which they have worn so long for fashion-sake) and make the religious charity of their Ancestors for the advancement of God's worship, under a learned Ministry, serve only to disengage their public faith, which is not like to be a saving faith otherwise.  
When the Government of the Church had been subverted, the design than was to be put in execution upon Monarchy: This is not a groundless conjecture, if we consider there evidences.  
1. That Declaration upon the Earl of strafford's suffering, with this caution, that it might not be drawn into example for the future. Certainly this was with an eye to that subversion of Government which themselves (I mean the Projectors of this design) intended; that being more guilty of the same crime, by virtue of such a Declaration, they might be secured from the punishment.  
2. The pulling down of so many Courts of Justice, (which were thought to be of very good use, in the time of our wise Ancestors; and if there be no way of Reformation left, when exorbitances are crept into Courts and Callings, but their extirpation, as their practice hath been of late, what will the doom be of the Supreme Court, and the several callings of the Kingdom?) with a notable blow at the Council-table. These may relieve a part of the Subjects from some pressures; but if something be not settled in their room; may encourage others in lioenciousnesse, and prove the Prodromes (as we see by these beginnings) to the ruin of our Monarchy.  
3. The nineteen Propositions, whereby the King was demanded to lay down His Crown, to compound for His Peace with them.  
4. That expression (so little understood, and so much talked of in many of their papers) of a power of resuming the trust, which is falsely pretended to be derived unto His Majesty by the mere humane pactions and agreements of the politic body of the people. And,  
5. According to this Doctrine, their pretending to, and usurping of the power of the Militia, both by Sea and Land.  
6. Their actual exercising of this power in disposing of offices, having made their Speaker Master of the Rolls.  
Lastly, that expression of the Gentlemen to Sir Edward Deering, (when he was privy to some of their Cabinet consultations) That if they could bring down the Lords to the House of Commons, and make the King as one of the Lords, the work were done. It seems they intended to reserve the honour of the Chair for His Majesty, when they had taken down His Throne; and it might have been His good fortune to have had a casting voice, though he is now denied His negative one amongst them. This plot was laid, and this design in agitation (though it be a night-piece, which few have hitherto discovered fully) before the War commenced; and in order to this work, without doubt the Militia was first exercised, and the Scots a second time invited. (But we hope their Commissioners that tasted so much of the late feast, will not encourage their brethren to the fray.)  
When we consider these things, adding to them those bloody Treasons uttered publicly (without check) as well against the whole Line of the Blood Royal, as against the sacred Person of our Sovereign, and those several assaults made upon them; our hair gins to stand upright on our heads, and our consciences often reflect upon our oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy, together with our late Protestation; whereby we stand obliged, to our utmost power, to maintain His Majesty's Royal Person, Crown and Dignity, against all treacherous practices, that may ruin, dishonour, or impair them, and so by God's help we will do. And finding His Majesty's late Propositions (as His Messages formerly) so just and reasonable, as nothing can be more, and yet so little listened after for our peace: We advise all our Knights and Burgesses to vote no more against our gracious Sovereign, or the peace of the Kingdom, that they make no further use of our own trust to murder us; for 'tis not our sense that they should proceed to shed the blood of the ungodly, (as they term them) when they mean all such as descent from their wild opinions. And as we do protest against such Ordinances as are made against the King, or without His consent, so shall we withdraw our trust and power of representation from such as shall go on to abuse it. And finding no possibility of peace, till the pack (that contrived this new design, and this War in order to the effecting of it) be new shuffled, we shall jointly labour to shuffle that pack, and dissolve that knot wherein we see our miseries are tried; and (after due election of new Members into their places) resolve to call them to a strict account for betraying our trust, interrupting our peace, and violating all our ancient liberties, and shall not doubt of the assistance of all good men to effect it.  PSAL. 5. 6. Thou, O God, shalt destroy them that speak lies: The Lord will abhor both the bloodthirsty and deceitful man. 
FINIS.