AN EXPEDIENT FOR THE KING: OR King Charles his Peace-Offering, Sacrificed at the ALTAR of PEACE, For a safe and well-grounded Peace, the welfare and happiness of all in general, and every subject in particular, of this His Kingdom of ENGLAND.  
Behold! all ye that pass by, stand still, and see the wonderful Salvation of the LORD, which he hath wrought for the people of this Kingdom, by his servant KING Charles.  
Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.  
Ask of the King, and he shall give you Not Stones, For Bread: Nor Scorpions, For Fish.  
Studied and Published for the honour of the King, and his Posterity and the universal happiness of the whole Kingdom of England.  
BY RICHARD FARRAR, Esq  
Printed in the Year, MDCXLVIII.   

TO The King's most excellent Majesty.  
Most Gracious sovereign,  
IT is the saying of Solomon (the penman of the Holy Ghost, and the wisest King that ever was) Prov. 21. 1. The King's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water; he turneth it whithersoever he pleaseth: I, a poor despicable man, (despicable because poor) do presume, out of my sincere loyal affection, and duty to Your Majesty, and my earnest desire for the reuniting of You with Your Parliament and Subjects of this Kingdom, to offer, or rather to sacrifice, my weak Conceptions to Your gracious Acceptance or Refusal. Sir, We are all in an Egyptian darkness, be You but pleased to cause the sunshine of your Mercy and Goodness to break out upon Your poor Subjects of this Kingdom, and there is great hope we may soon be delivered from this fearful Confusion whereinto we are fallen. For my own part, I believe, Your Majesties not being conscious of the misery Your poor Subjects are in (in regard of the unkingly restraint You are for the present unhappily under) is the cause You cannot be so zealous, as otherwise you would, to redress it; and that your want of knowledge of the present conjuncture of Affairs is that which renders Your People so infinitely miserable, that they are ready every minute to precipitate themselves into the Gulf of Despair. It is said of Almighty God, There is mercy with him that he may be feared, and his mercy is over (or above) all his works: And I believe (without least flattery I speak it) that there is abundance of Mercy and Bowels of Compassion with You, towards Your poor Subjects, that You may be both loved and feared; and that Your Mercy will shower itself down to the amazement & reproach of those that seem not to believe it: Did I say, Your Mercy, yea and Your Justice also, even against yourself, in the voluntary clouding of Your own Princely Royalty; and that Prince, who shadows his own Glory (Merely for the good of his Subjects) is a rare Pattern: And the first giver of so great an (unexampled) Example, must needs render himself glorious to all Posterity.  
Sir, in the first place, I presume (with boldness enough I confess, yet will I not flatter you so much as to say, I beg Your majesty's pardon for it) to remember you, that Self-Denial is the only way to happiness, Temporal (here,) Eternal (hereafter:) and had it been but a little practised on all hands (by the three Estates of Parliament) at the beginning or budding forth of these unhappy differences, (although Malice itself cannot but say, that Your Majesty acted Your part, and the very Lepers of Samaria shall one day rise up in judgement against some and say, that that was a day of good tidings, and they ungratefully held their Peace, In Your abolishing of Monopolies, putting down the Star-Chamber, disannulling the High Commission Court, outing of Bishops from the House of Peers, Regulating the council Table, granting of Triennial Parliaments, and continuing of This, not to be dissolved without the consent of both Houses;) Your Majesty and Your People had not felt God's heavy hand, as You and They have done for these seven years past, and yet do: but for me to presume to tell Your Majesty what Self-Denial is, were a most unpardonable offence: And, yet, for Your Majesty to believe that this Peace-Offering, which You sacrifice to the good and happiness of Your People (in this sad condition Your Majesty is in, and the most miserable one They are plunged into) can be happily begun without Self-Denial (on Your part first, and then all the people's part also) is (so far as I can apprehend in Reason and Religion) altogether unpossible: and by the sequel of my discourse I doubt not but to make good the Truth of it at the Full.  
Sir, look into Your own heart, and see whether informer times You were not more Your own (or others who abused you then Your Subjects universally: The word Proprium is of a near relation, and I doubt whether it sits not as close to the hearts of Kings as of Subjects, which your Majesty well knows is not compatible with Self-Denial. Sir, You are a great Monarch (true) yet You are but a Steward (nomine & re) a Steward of the great House of the commonwealth; and one day it shall be said to You, as to the Steward in the Gospel, (red Rationem) Give an Account of thy Stewardship; And the Accounts of Kings are of a vast extent. Sir, You are a shepherd also, a shepherd of a great Flock, (our Saviour calls himself a shepherd, the great shepherd of Israel,) and he tells you, a good shepherd will die for his Sheep; he did so: And S. Paul, Phil. 2. 5. speaking of our Saviour Christ, and there deducing him from all eternity to time, hath these words; Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross: Wherefore God highly exalted him, &c. And shall I doubt Your Majesty will imitate our blessed Saviour in all you can? I doubt it not: He prayed for his persecutors, (and taught us so to do); He forgave his enemies that crucified him even upon the Cross [Father, forgive them, they know not what they do]; nay he died for them, [who died, saith the Apostle, for the sins of the whole world:] You are not desired (Sir) to die out of the world, or to part with Your Soul, by a Sequestration of it from your body, (for then we were miserable): Let the greatest curse, that ever fell on the head of any man, fall on that head that hath but such a wish or thought in his heart. All you have to do or suffer, is but to part with a syllable or two, from one single word, a few letters cut off from that Monster, as the People call it (although there hath been held out to them, for a long time, a more Prodigious one,) PREROGATIVE, a little paring off some superfluous part of it, will prove Balm from Gilead, to heal the whole Nation of the most Epidemical disease that ever yet seized this poor dying Kingdom. Sir, I shall not need to court you, to what you are so willing, nor to enforce this argument, had I never so much Elocution, as God knows (and Your Majesty doth find) I have none: I wish Your majesty's People were all of my belief, concerning Your Mercy and Justice▪ I flatter not, (I wish the flattery of a Prince were high Treason, and so punished,) and may my soul never enter into rest, if I believe not that Your Majesty will grant more (if more with Reason and Religion may be desired) than I have too too audaciously presumed to press in my following Propositions.  
Sir, It was said in the beginning of this Parliament, (by M. Pym, if I mistake not) that the Parliament would make You a glorious King, and who knows whether your Majesty, when you were in the head of Your Army at edge Hill, (or else where) had not some hopes to make yourself a glorious King? And I have been told, that this Army would have persuaded You, when time was, that they (also) would make You a glorious King.  
Sir, You have failed in Your hopes, They in their promises; and who knows whether, what Your Majesty hoped and sought for, and They promised and performed not, may not yet be done another and a better way, if (at least) You will be pleased to take him for your guide (who hath hitherto so miraculously preserved you, and I hope ever will.) I say (Sir) taking God for Your guide all may be made good, and may (yet) be brought to pass by yourself, not by fighting any more to the hazard of Your Royal Person, and the Persons of your Princely Issue, and of Your Nobility, and the destruction of Your loving Subjects; but by extending and really performing of those two godlike Acts, of Mercy and Justice, without partiality, to all Your People. And this is Via Regia indeed, and well becoming the Majesty of King Charles.  
And now, Sir, behold how wonderful the ways of God are, (contrary to the ways of men) past finding out till himself discover them: You have long lain under the Cross, (restraint to a King is a great Cross, were there no more in it,) You are not free (I dare not say you are a Captive) and yet Your Person (with the power that God hath given You over yourself, and the Grace he hath endued you with to serve him must suddenly come forth to the redemption of Your Subjects out of their Captivity, (Captives in their native Country under their fellow Subjects) or they are lost▪ lost for ever.  
In this Abyss of Exigency, no Expedient can be found to save Your People but the presence of Your sacred Person, armed with Mercy and Justice (Mercy and Justice to your People, and Justice against yourself) nor could You so easily do it (as I believe) had not God thus fitted, prepared, and qualified You by the Cross; whereby You have obtained a fellow-feeling of the miseries of Your Subjects: David said of himself, It was well for me that I was afflicted.  
Great Sir, Let Your Engagements and Promises to Your People, for the time to come, (in Your perfecting of this blessed Peace) be like the Laws of the Medes and Persians, irrevocable.  
And so God shall bless You and Your Posterity for ever: So much of good towards his People, so much of honour to himself no King ever had in his Power to act, as Your Majesty now hath, by the saving of the effusion of so much innocent blood, and perhaps the Kingdom from utter ruin. God, I doubt not, will give Your majesty a heart to make a right use of it.  
And now, Sir, I will presume to set down what Acts of Grace You were pleased to pass this Parliament in Anno. 1640, &c.  
First, Your Majesty put down Monopolies.  
Secondly, You put down the Star-Chamber.  
Thirdly, You disannulled the High Commission Court.  
Fourthly, You consented to the outing of Bishops from the House of Peers.  
Fiftly, You Regulated the council Table.  
Sixthly, you granted the triennial Parliament.  
Seventhly, You condescended to the continuation of this, until dissolved by the consent of both Houses, &c.  
This was the Peace-Offering Your majesty then sacrificed for the good of your People.  

May it please Your majesty, as a second Peace-Offering to your People, to grant these following Propositions.  
1. THat you will not break any privilege of Parliament; and therefore it were fit that the particular privileges were set down, that so the King may not entrench upon them in the least.  
2. That your majesty will not diminish or entrench upon the liberty of the subject, but hold yourself strictly to the Laws of the Land.  
3. That your majesty will not extend your Prerogative in the least beyond the due bounds granted to your Predecessors, or to the prejudice of the Persons of your subjects, or the known Laws of the Land: To which end you desire the particulars and extent of it to be set down, and agreed upon, that so you may the better perform it.  
4. That you will grant nothing to any Person out of your Revenue, and this for your Posterities sake; that so by your own good husbandry, you may be the better enabled to reward those you desire.  
5. That you will answer no Petition, for matter of profit, to any Petitioner; but first that you will refer it to two Judges of the Law, to certify you the legality of it; and that no subject (or the Crown) be any way prejudiced by it; and if your majesty be abused in it, the judge to be highly punished, and if he die before the discovery, his estate to satisfy it to the Crown.  
6. That your majesty will protect the person of no Subject for debt, but only your menial servants, and yet not his Goods or Estates neither, but all things, except his person, to be liable to the Law.  
7. That your Majesty will give no protection to any person for above 6. months; but not for-their Goods or Estates at all.  
8. That your Majesty will demolish all Forts and Castles the Parliament shall desire within the Kingdom of England.  
9 That your Majesty engage yourself, That if you shall assist any foreign Prince, you shall do it out of your own purse and power, not constraining any subject, or pressing them any way, but what they shall willingly do of their own accord.  
10. That your Majesty will levy nothing by Tax, or any way, contrary to the known Laws of the Kingdom, but what shall be ordained by Act of Parliament.  
11. That your Majesty will confirm the Charter of London, and all Corporations in the Kingdom that shall desire it, not prejudicial to the Universal good of the Kingdom.  
12. That your Majesty will sit one day every Term [if you be in the Town] in every Court of Justice, at Westminster, and then to hear the Causes of poor men only, and to lay your severe Charge, that the Poor, the Widow, and the Fatherless have speedy Justice.  
13. That your Majesty will pass an Act, That any judge that shall be found guilty of Bribery, shall die for it, and his skin to be hanged over the Court for ever.  
14. That your Majesty will appoint a judge in every Court, called the poor man's judge, a man esteemed to be an upright man, and your majesty to allow him 200. l. per annum.  
15. That your majesty will appoint in each Court two Lawyers for the poor, who sue in forma pauperis, and your majesty to allow them 50. l. per annum, each Lawyer.  
16. An Act, That every fifth Cause that shall be heard in any Court, shall be the poor man's Cause, and called on by the judge for the poor man, that sues in forma Pauperis, and the party that is overthrown by the poor man shall have a fine set upon him for vexing the poor man; and if that the poor man be found a litigious fellow and malicious, he shall be punished as shall be thought fit.  
17. That your majesty enact a severe Law against Adultery, and a high fine and punishment for whoredom.  
18. That your majesty cause some order, way or means, by Act or otherwise, for a speedy ending of all suits against those wicked Dilemmaes of the Law, which are the ruin of thousands, and only the enriching of the Lawyers.  
19 That the Commons in the Country, in every Parish, be sold, and the poor allowed it; for many are so poor, they can make no use of the Common.  
20. That your majesty cause all Acts for the benefit of the Poor, to be put in execution, never more need, never more poor: And upon complaint made to your majesty, your majesty to redress it.  
21. The Excise to be settled for the payment and satisfaction of all Interests, which it will abundantly do, in some years, if it be farmed out, and ordered as in Holland; [the particulars too large to express here] and no bread, smal-beer, flesh or fish, to have any Excise set on them, but to be highly advanced on Tobacco, Wines, Sugar, Spices, and all outlandish commodities, Gold and Silverlace, &c.  
22. That Your Majesty promote the setting on foot the great and most necessary Trade of Fishing, as shall be thought best, by Corporation or otherwise by free Trade for all men; the employment of People, breeding up of Mariners, &c. it cannot be imagined how much the Kingdom would be the better for it; often thought on, never set on foot.  
23. An Act to be passed for the supply of all Poor, young and old, amongst whom how many thousands of maimed soldiers, and people made miserably poor by these Wars, on both sides; all to be taken care for in a way, or means, which shall be expressed; for the effecting of which the Kingdom shall be at as little Charge as now they are, and ever have been: and this shall be plainly manifested when occasion shall be too large to express here; which will be to the glory of God, the education of young Children, the maintenance of old decrepit people, and a provision for all and every poor man, woman or child in the Kingdom, though bedrid, blind, or lame; so as this course well observed, the reshall not be a Beggar in the Kingdom of England:— A pious Work.  
24. That Your Majesty pass a stricter Act, than ever, for the putting down of Alehouses, through the whole Kingdom: one for ten that now is in and about this City, were too much; so numerous they are, that almost every third house in the Suburbs is an Alehouse, Victualing-house, cook's house, or a Chandler that sells Bear and Ale, which ought to be regulated in a strict manner; so highly is God dishonoured by it, the poorer sort undone, and so many thousand idle lustily fellows, and young wenches and boys bred up in that way, and the most part of the money gotten by deocit of measure.  
25. That your Majesty pass an Act, that those that are not able to satisfy their Debts, their bodies not to be kept in prison, giving all they have to their Creditors (if less may not serve,) for if this be not done, besides the numberless number of men that now lie and starve in prisons, how many thousands (yea more) who have lived well, and yet merely by these Wars on both sides are utterly undone, not able to pay any thing? Shall they lie in a prison, and theirs starve or beg? If this Law be rightly enacted, no man shall deceive or cozen not one of twenty shall break, or be Bankrupts; or if they do, they shall gain nothing by it; nor shall any man (as many do) live in prison and not pay his Debts, if he be able, but his estate shall be sold: This Act, rightly ordered, is of a great benefit to the State, and aught to be done in Reason and Religion.  
26. That all Fees of Lawyers and physicians, attorneys, chirurgeons, and all Fees of all Courts of Justice, be brought to a fit rate: It is a shame, yea and a sin, that a physician and a Lawyer should have such great Fees.  
27. That the Estates of all Subjects be liable to their Debts, none excepted: this is rational and religious.  
28. An Act, that none of Your majesty's Servants be chosen of the House of Commons, nor no servant of a Lord, who takes wages of him.  
29. An Act, that no Lord or Person of honour, or other, shall write his Letters, or use any indirect means to procure any man to be a Member of the House of Commons, but folly left to the Country; and if it shall be proved that any Member hath so tampered, by money or friends, upon discovery to be turned out of the House.  
30. That all the King's forests and Chases be so ordered, that the Poor suffer not, but that the King rather suffer himself for the good of the Poor.  
31. That your majesty's Ear shall always be open to hear any complaint, and to punish it, against any Officer that you have placed in Court, City, Country, &c.  
32. That Your Majesty pass an Act, that henceforth balloting boxes be used in both Houses as in the State of Venice,) the benefit great, the dispatch sudden; and little partiality will be then expressed, but every man will do as his conscience informs him, without Fear, or for Favour.  
33. An Act about Gaming, some most severe Act, for it is the ruin of the Nobility, Gentry and of the City: It is not hard to prescribe a way to abolish it, so as that no man shall be prejudiced in his Estate; and if any shall break that Law, to be highly punished, to bear no office in this Kingdom: this may seem but of a small consequence, but it is upon due examination of a great consequence; as the State shall approve, so a further discovery may be made, with the remedies and limits of Gaming.  
34. An Act for the calling in, and nulling of all his majesty's Declarations against both Houses of Parliament, or any other person that hath offended or seemed to offend the King; as also a calling in, and nulling of all such as the two Houses have set forth against the King, or his Friends, as shall be agreed on in the Treaty.  
35. That all things passed by the Seal, made by the Parliament, be set into a right order, yet so as the honour of the King Majesty be not touched upon to posterity: This is a weighty matter, and requires the gravest and wisest heads in the Kingdom to settle; and yet it must of necessity be so, in regard of after-questions, I leave it to the Treaty.  
36. That during the Treaty (which doubtless, if the People come with equal hearts to Peace, as the King doth upon these Resolutions,) his Majesty will take such order, that none of his Party shall come within so many miles of the Court: or who so doth, shall be by his especial licence, and knowledge given to the Parliament, and his Majesty to answer for them, for the not disturbing the Peacè of the Treaty.  
If your Majesty shall be pleased to add or diminish (as you are free;) This is far from being by me intended other, then to show the heads of so many necessary things, for the good of the People, which I conceive your Majesty might confer upon your people according to Reason and Religion.   

After these voluntary Offers of Your Majesty to Your People, or what You shall please to add, me seems it is very necessary for Your Majesty to make these Demands, and what other You shall be pleased.  
1. TO be settled in all your Revenues.  
2. To be invested in all your Customs.  
3. The tonnage and Poundage, formerly given to your Ancestors, and yourself, to be continued, in lieu whereof your Majesty will maintain the narrow Seas from pirates, as the custom was.  
4. That the bestowing of all honours and Offices, throughout the Kingdom, by Sea and Land; all that were formerly your Right, and never heretofore questioned in any Parliament since your reign, be in your Majesty; and your Majesty to place and displace all persons that are in Office under you, either by Sea or Land, none excepted.  
5. That the Court of Wards be again settled and regulated, if need be, or, if in the Treaty it be agreed otherwise, then to give 150000l. per annum, in lieu of it.  
6. The titles of honour, of what kind soever, your Majesty hath conferred on any person since the beginning of this Parliament, not to be disputed, but held good, for the honour of your Majesty.  
7. The naming of all Officers of Ireland, in the War for Ireland, if it be a War, to rest in your Majesty.  
8. That all your majesty's friends, who have any way adhered to you in these Wars, or otherwise, to possess all their Estates, and no man to lose any part of it, though given away or disposed by Ordinance of Parliament.  
9 That the Officers of your majesty's Army, and all the soldier's Arrears be satisfied.  
10. That the public Faith be satisfied.  
11. That the disbursements for Ireland, made by the City, be satisfied to them.  
12. That if your Majesty find a way or means of your own, not contrary to the Laws, nor opposing the Subject, whereby you can in 7 or 8 years redeem the Bishops Lands, and pay the interest, that the Lands be returned into Your majesty's hands, having first satisfied the Debt and Interest paid for them.  
13. That for the Queen's Majesty, care be taken for the settling of her Rights and jointures, and for the exercise of her Religion, as it ought in honour and Reason.  
14. That the Militia stand as it formerly did, before the beginning of these troubles, (without disputing,) and, if it be thought fit, to strengthen it in the hands of the Sheriffs, more for the people's safety, than advantage of the King.   

Peroratio.  
SIR,  
ALL the world now sees that you are the centre of Peace. I therefore the most humble and most unworthy of all your majesty's Servants and subjects, having a long time, from my very soul, grieved the sad condition of your sacred Person, your Royal Consort, and most Princely and Numerous Issue, the sad and languishing Estate of your majesty's three Kingdoms, the horrid and daily bloodshed of your poor Subjects, perpetrated by their own hands, after some earnest prayers to Almighty God (from whom alone cometh every good and perfect gift) to enable me some way to express to your Majesty and the Kingdom, something which might, at least, point out the way to a happy Peace, and a perfect and right understanding between you and your People. It hath pleased God of his infinite goodness and mercy, after some month's study, to open unto me this door or entrance, at least for your majesty, if you are so pleased, to pass through into the Temple of Peace; which Temple is only in your majesty's power to build, and in the power of no mortal man besides: your sacred Majesty must take the pains to lay the first and the last stone in this building; yourself must begin and perfect this great work: It is you alone that have found the Art of Oblivion, as well as you have the power to give an A●t of the highest Oblivion, that was ever read of in the Annals of any Monarch whatsoever. Your Majesties many Declarations to both Houses of Parliament, and to your three Kingdoms, have so deeply seized my soul with belief, that I am confident, your majesty will not refuse to do or ofter any thing to your People, in your power, that may conduce to a safe and well-grounded Peace, so as that you are not in the least prejudiced in what you are so great a Master of, Reason, and so great a Servant to, Religion; and for this poor talon which God hath vouchsafed me, and which I here, with myself, most humbly prostrate at your majesty's Feet. I hope you will not find, that in the least, I have been so presumptuous or proved myself such a traitor to your Reason or Religion, as to have offered any violence, in the least degree, to either of them; If your majesty, in the perusal, shall find it so, I know, as an Angel of God, so is my Lord the King to discern good and bad. Therefore Thy Lord, Thy God, shall be with thee, and so shall he for ever pray, who is  
Your majesty's Most humble and obedient Subject and Servant Richard Farrar.    

THE King's COVENANT With His PEOPLE.  
JC. R. Do here in the presence of the blessed Trinity [God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost,] profess to all the world, without any Equivocation or mental Reservation, that I now do, and for ever will forget and forgive all kinds of offences against me, either in word or deed, committed by any of my Subjects of England, and contained in the Act of Oblivion; and this of my own free will and desire, I do, that all my People may see and behold the candour of my Heart: and I do here bury in the grave of Oblivion, all things contained in the Act of Oblivion, in my soul not desiring to remember it, and vowing never to revenge it. So help me God, and the Contents of this holy Book: and this I confirm by the taking of the Sacrament.   

TO THE RIGHT honourable THE LORDS and COMMONS Assembled in PARLIAMENT. The humble Petition of Richard Farrar, Esq  
Showeth,  
THat (as an addition to his former Expedient, for the Peace and Safety of the Kingdom) he is very confident (by the mercy and goodness of God) he can express something more unto His Majesty so convincing in Reason and Religion, whereby there may be a sudden and unhoped for happy settlement of the Kingdom; and that (in a way unanswerably Rational and Religious,) for the satisfaction of all Interests (whatsoever,) and of all men, (not wilfully and wickedly opposite to Peace,) who have any spark of Reason or Religion left in their hearts.  
Your Petitioner doth, therefore, most humbly pray, that he may have free liberty from both Houses of Parliament (upon the score of his own abundant folly) to go to the Isle of Wight, and there to present His majesty, in writing, with such particulars as your Petitioner hath long since conceived and prepared, for the sudden and happy settling of the Peace of this unhappy Kingdom; (without further shedding of innocent blood; which hourly cries up to Heaven for vengeance on all hands:) your Petitioner being more confident then formerly (if possible it may be) that he is capable (by the mercy of God, who he believes hath enabled him for this Expedient,) to answer any objection, whatsoever, that His Majesty shall be pleased to allege in opposition to what your Petitioner shall propound to him for a safe and well-grounded Peace.  
And the whole Kingdom, with your Petitioner, shall, as in duty they are bound, daily pray, &c.   

TO THE RIGHT honourable THE Lords and Commons Assembled in PARLIAMENT.  
MY Lords of the House of Peers, and you the Members of the honourable House of Commons, the Representative Body of the Kingdom of England, since I have taken the boldness (as a subject and Servant to His Majesty) to signify to him what I conceive his duty to be in the settling, or towards the settling, of a safe and well grounded Peace; Give me leave, I humbly pray, to say thus much, at least, that the welfare and happiness of every Member of both Houses, as of the whole Kingdom, lies at the stake, either for good or ill, according as God shall move your hearts in the tender and speedy care of the Peace of this Kingdom: and this Peace you can neither well begin, nor happily end, but by following the example of His Majesty, (Regis ad Exemplum, &c.) in taking out and practising a true Self-Denial, of any the least private Interest of your own, either of honour, Profit, or Revenge; making it subordinate to the public good and welfare of the Kingdom, your Nurse and Mother, who expects a speedy account of you; at the present, she being wounded all over, from head to foot, weltering in her blood, ready to give up the ghost; as God doth likewise look for a strict account, and will do to all Eternity, of your true and faithful performance of your duty, for the instant Peace and quiet of the Kingdom: To this purpose you were chosen, for that end was your Call by God and Man, and nothing else, but that, aught to have been, from the beginning to the end, your care and study day and night; but how you have performed this trust in your Endeavours, (and eight years sitting) and what success hath been, let the world, not I, judge: This I am too sure of; the neglect of many in attending their duty at the Houses, in the beginning, as if they had not been called to any such purpose, as to wait there daily,) the divisions amongst the Members of both Houses, from the first sitting to this present time; and the absenting of others (or worse, the breaking out of the pale of Parliament, which ought on no terms to have been done,) hath been no small cause of the Miseries of this unhappy Kingdom, who hath been still every way wounded by her own unnatural Children: Then, after that the great Eruptions, the differences of opinions in Church and State, the setting on foot of Self-Interests of several persons, and those not mean ones, neglecting the Peace of the Kingdom, as if it might have been had with whistling for, or at a beck; all these put together, were no small addition to our common Calamities: Add to this, the Reproach cast upon sovereignty, the promulgation of contentions and strifes, the prosecution of it to a War, and so an engaging of the whole Kingdom on both sides, in it; the taking of a Covenant, not of love I fear, to the extirpation of that Church-Government, that had been so long settled by so many Acts of former Parliaments, and the inducing of a new Government, more different in name then in essence, and truly, if rightly examined, scarcely differing much in either, at least, not worthy the making of such bloody differences as have been about it, & all this without any good success to the Kingdom, or content to many of your own particular Members, who have varied, many of them, even from the Covenant they once took, for what ends or Interests I know not. I cannot forget to put you in mind, or remember you also, the several Design, of the Army, and the grandees thereof, under the Earl of Essex, though they were put to a nonplus in it; nor of the backwardness to make Peace, when it might have been, nor of those whose Counsels modelled the new Army, which yet for all their successes, (successes, I confess, many great, and high,) had they made right use of them for the settlement of the King and Kingdom as they might, as they ought to have done; who yet not 18. months' since, when the Army was at Newmarket, it was a question, whether they should have been an Army, or no Army, kept a foot, or disbanded: Nor can I omit their rise again, if not upon the head, yet at least upon the shoulders, both of King, Parliament, City, and Kingdom; what Designs on all sides, and to what ends, or how the poor Kingdom hath been shaken with this long, and yet terrible Earthquake, through Self-Interests and Divisions, I press not, but this I must say, If Designs were well meant, and for the good of the Kingdom, (as I hope they were) there was no blessing went along with them, for they have not so well succeeded, as was by some hoped, and by all wished for: And then those yet unhappy Votes, of no Addresses to nor from His majesty; which I fear God Almighty is not well pleased with, or rather highly offended at. God never denied Addresses to him from the greatest Sinner (had he come with true repentance:) to Cain himself, God says, If thou dost well, shalt thou not be accepted? &c. and how amazed would the soul of any man be, (unless he were feared up by a total hardness of heart,) if God should from Heaven tell him, Pray not to me, come not to me with your Addresses, I will not hear you, I will shut my ears, and be deaf to your Prayers! But we all know the contrary of God: At what time soever the wicked man forsaketh his wickedness, &c. and who knows whether the scales may not turn, [Let not him boast that puts on his armour, &c.] And then if Addresses were sought and refused; and that the King should say, Did you not hate me, and expel me out of my father's house? How is that you come to me now in the time of your Tribulation; as Jephta did to the men of Gilead,) might not this seem to be a just Reproach? or as God in the same Book, Go to the Gods whom you have served: Remember what Solomon says, The Wrath of a King is as Messengers of Death; but a wise man will pacify it: And in another place, The King's Weath is as the roaring of a lion, but his Favour as the dew upon the grass. For your own sakes; for this bleeding Kingdoms sake, proceed to a sudden Personal Treaty with His Majesty: God treats with his greatest Enemies; nay he invites them continually, hourly, and minutely in their consciences, and cries, Return, O Shulamite, Return, Return▪ And again, How oft would I, and ye would not, O yet, if in this thy day, &c.  
The sum of all is, (and let it never be summed up) what is past (for actions cannot be recalled,) such offences or sins against God or man, may be repented, not repealed; but a wilful continuance in such horrid and bloody wars, as these are, and not to seek and endeavour Peace by all fair means in the world, would prove but a sad story to this age, and to posterity. I hope better things on your part; and my poor aim is, that all things amiss between King and Parliament (for who can free himself from guilt?) be from henceforth forgotten, forgiven, and amended on all sides, and that by a true and perfect (not counterfeit) Love and Union; to which end I published my poor Expedient for Peace and Safety, in Print, (and I would to God it had an Impression on all those who are opposite to Peace, if there be any such;) which although for the present it be laid aside, (as not worthy a thought) must and shall (if ever a Peace conclude it, and the all-devouring Sword consume us not totally) be made use of. Let the honourable Houses look, in Reason and Religion, what they can expect more from the King than he doth, if he will do them, as I am confident he will, in these Propositions preceding: can you demand more for the good of the Subject, he will do it; he that will do so much, will refuse nothing in Reason and Religion, and beyond these I know these honourable Houses will not demand; the honour, and restoring of the King, how many of yourselves have fought for, and for the safety of the Kingdom, privileges of Parliament, and liberty of the Subject, all have professed, vowed it, covenanted it, sworn it; hold to that, the work is done, (the King doing his part, (as doubtless he will, and I take it for granted,) turn the Tables, (as the Proverb is) and let the King's Game be yours, yours his, and then in God's Name, act according to Reason and Religion: Remember the Golden Rule, [Whatsoever you would that men should do unto you, do that unto them:] and I am confident the King shall be glorious, yourselves and the Kingdom happy; and for me, poor wretch, I know you will censure no worse of me, then that I am an earnest desirer and hunter after Peace, and the public good, and so he will live and die, who is  
My Lords, Yours, and the most humble Servant of the KINGDOM, Richard Farrar.   

TO THE SYNOD OR THE Assembly of Divines AT WESTMINSTER; AND To all the Clergy of the Kingdom of ENGLAND.  
SInce I have presumed to speak to his Majesty, the two honourable Houses of Parliament, and the Army, why should I spare to say something to you, O you sons of Levi! You that take liberty to tell all men of their fanlts, why should not you be told of your own? Sure I am you have as much need (if not more) to be put in mind of Self-Denial, as any profession whatever; and it had been happy for this poor unhappy Kingdom, if you, who profess yourselves our shepherds, had practised it a little better than you have hitherto done: The account that you of the Clergy of this Kingdom (for I exempt neither side) are to give to God Almighty at the great day, will, I fear, lie heavy on you: For, sure I am, had you been (what you would have the world esteem you) the ambassadors of Jesus Christ, and his Ministers, you would never have added so much oil to this flame, as you have done; but on the contrary, you would have brought the cold water of patience, humility, love and meekness (on all hands) to have quenched it: And this our Saviour (and your Master, as you call him) taught you, and all the world: How the Clergy of this Kingdom behaved themselves towards God and the Kingdom, in their duty to both, before the beginning of this Parliament, I leave to God and the world to judge; but how unanswerably, diametrically contrary to the example and precepts of our Saviour, you have demeaned yourselves, both in the Pulpit, and in the Press, since these unhappy differences between the King and Parliament; and how great Incendiaries and fomenters you have been, needs no witness to testify: Had the Clergy on the King's part, and the Clergy on the Parliaments part, plainly and truly (without fear or flattery) told both of them the danger and the devilishness of a War, both for soul and body, the wickedness and unlawfulness of it (on both sides,) and persuaded them both, to love, meekness, and forbearing one another, told the King his own, and the Parliament theirs, and yet nothing but truth neither (according to the Word of God;) I doubt whether it had ever come to a War at all; I am sure they would never have been so forward on either side, as they were; The truth is, (I speak to the hearts of all honest men) the Clergy on both sides (had they been of the mind of Christ and his Apostles) should have preached against it, printed against it; and if that would not have served the turn, should have denied both King and People the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper; (for with what consciences could either side give or take it, in the fury and rage of Blood and War, wherein they were hourly engaged: (I understand it not:) And if that would not have prevailed, they should not have afforded the Word, nor their Prayers in public, if they had continued still to persist in Bloody Designs and Self-Interests: and had you of the Clergy proceeded thus far, you had done but your duty to God, the King, and the People; and I am confident both sides would have stood at a gaze, and not have been so forward, as they were, perhaps not at all proceeded to pass through such a Sea of blood, as they have done: and how many of both sides have perished in that red Sea, from this world at the best, (I judge not of the next!) But was this course taken by you (or if by some, for I tax not all) yet I never heard of any; O no, woe is me, in stead of imitating our Saviour in these three particulars, which all good Christians must imitate him in, in his Life, in his Love, and in his Doctrine, (all of them imitated strictly by the Apostles.)  
I say, in all these three, the Clergy (generally to our view) have opposed our Saviour Christ in a strange manner.  
First, in his Life, that was poverty and contempt, all along, from the Cradle to the Cross; Yours as full of Glory, Jollity, and honour, as you can advance it. Secondly, in his Love; he was all Love, he preached it, he practised it; My Peace I leave with you: That was Christ's Legacy; How well have you disposed of it? or what executors are you of this his last Will and Testament? He abrogates the old Law in that particular, where it was said of old, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth &c. But I say unto you, it shall be so no more: You shall love your enemies, &c. And behold I bring you a new Commandment, that you love one another. This was spoken to all the world of believers; much more to you, who profess to be the ambassadors of Christ, as you do: You take Texts out of the Old Testament in opposition to Christ, [Curse ye Merosh,] and you encourage to fight, and cry, The Cause is good, it is God's; (I speak to both sides,) yea an you conjure the people to fight in the name of the Lord, tell them they are Martyrs, they cannot miss Heaven, if they die for the Cause; (such Martyrdom God deliver me from:) The Conscience, not the Cause, makes a Martyr; and if that be not purged by the blood of Christ, in true Faith and Repentance, though a man suffers Martyrdom for Christ, he is no Martyr: He whom God calls to be a Martyr, he fits him first, and makes him a Martyr to the world, in crucifying the lusts of it and sure, men that fight for power, though Kings, or Subjects for privileges & Liberty, are not so well seasoned with Self-Denial, as is requisite to make a Martyr: And for the Doctrine of Christ, it was humility, Learn of me, for I am humble & meek: OGod! have you of the Clergy practised this humility and meekness? Nay, have you not boldly, to the world, expressed the contrary in most of your conversations? Had there been a palsy in your tongues, (your tongues set on fire from hell, as the Apostle speaks) and in your hands, this Kingdom had been happy: Ye take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi; Did I say you do? You ever did, and you will do, till the time come that Malachi the Prophet speaks of, (I hope) nearer at hand than you believe; were you true Prophets, you would tremble at the Text, and by the Spirit of prophecy discern the time: Malachi 3. 3. He shall sit as a refiner, and purifier of Silver; and he shall purify the sons of Levi: And doubtless, that is not the Reformation that you pretend to; you do but take up the Stone, and turn the other side. It is you that have put us all in a flame: your Tribe hath done, and doth it all the world over: Is there any evil in a Kingdom, or rather this great evil in this Kingdom, and have not you done it? You have either done it, or had the greatest share in doing it, or not hindered it when you might; you seek your own, and not the things of God, God forgive you: why do you not imitate Saint Paul? Be ye followers of me, as I am of Christ; if he had erred that way, (which he could hardly do) yet he forbids to follow it; and must we follow you, when you command things contrary to Christ? But great is your Diana, and you voice her high up; she is (for all your roaring) but an Idol, she cannot stand, she is falling, she is falling. Our Saviour says, He that is greatest amongst you, shall be the least; and he that is least among you in the Clergy, would be greater than the Civil Magistrate, if he could: Oh the ambition of the Priesthood! (Read the Prophets of old against the Priests: and is not the Priesthood of these times worse? compare them together.) What Aaron before Moses? it was not so of old: Nor will God ever have it so, where his Spirit governs. The Luciferian Pride, Ambition, and Covetousness of the Clergy, is not the least quarrel God hath with this Nation; what will you say, or answer, When God comes to make inquisition for blood? where is the Vrim and Thummim, (in Aaron's breastplate it was) purity of Doctrine and Integrity of Life? I fear, it is not to be found in your hearts, in your Doctrine, nor Life. Open your eyes, the time is yet, Repent and amend: Great would be the joy in Heaven for such sinners, more than for any; and great would your glory be here▪ and hereafter. Return, O Shulamite, return, return, and be not ashamed to do it: Your example, on all hands, I am persuaded, (if sincere) would strongly build us up in a better way: A worse than you have taught us, and a worse than we are in, out of hell, is not. If the Apostle say, Contention, strife, debate, is carnal, earthly, devilish; What is Plundering, Murdering, Ravishing, Robbing, and Confounding? How can a man of God appear in a Pulpit, and not Preach, and speak against it, pray against it, print against it? and lo, you have done the contrary: Shall I praise you? I praise you not. God forgive you, with my soul I beg it.  
To conclude, for God's sake, inform me, I am a poor weak man, What warrant in Religion to Fast for strife, and to give thanks for Victories, and shedding blood? both sides, King and Parliament have done it: God have mercy on them for it. How can you approve of it, ye sons of Levi? Look into your Consciences, (those Glasses which will not, cannot flatter;) and say, How comes this to pass? Where are you? O God, That I a poor ignorant man am forced to tell you, and the world this! Amende, and that suddenly, Preach love, and practise it; Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he comes shall find so doing; or as the sin now lies at your door, and the whole Kingdom, it is to be feared, will curse you for it: so a heavy, and sad, unexpected punishment here, and hereafter, must happen to you, without Repentance; which God grant, and is heartily prayed by  
Richard Farrar.   

To the Right honourable Thomas Lord Fairfax, Captain General of all the Forces Of the PARLIAMENT, And to the lieutenant General, and to all the Commanders and Officers, and every soldier in the Army.  
NExt to His Majesty, the two honourable Houses of Parliament, and the Clergy; I presume to make my address to you, The sons of Mars; I would I could say. The sons of Peace. That which I aim at in this my Discourse, (with a peaceful mind, God knows, not wishing ill to any man, but desiring to have peace with all men) is, to persuade you (in whose hand the power of the Sword is) that you would remember you are Englishmen; that we have one Common Mother, (the Kingdom wherein we live) whose bowels are daily ripped up by this bloody unnatural War. When the Soldiers, in the New Testament, demanded of John, What shall we do? he said unto them, Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content with your Wages: If any Soldier now, high or low, Commander or Officer, should demand of me what he should do, I should first answer him as S. John did: but in regard you are Christians (which those Soldiers were not, nor Jews neither, but Romans) I shall take the boldness to say much more than S. John did there to those Soldiers, and yet no more than our Saviour left in Command. For your Pay, to begin there, God forbid you should not have it at the full, and that quickly; You have ventured hard for it, body and soul: My former Expedient for Peace and Safety, expresses my desire in that; As for Liberty of tender Consciences, I wrote it not out of Fear or for Flattery; but what I did, and do, believe, aught to be: But I must profess I am infinitely afflicted to see the high calamity (like to be greater) which by a most bloody intestine War this poor Kingdom groans under; and fain I would find an Expedient for it, at least I would spend my poor talon, to make some stop of this great issue of blood: And therefore I take this boldness to speak to your Excellency (the General,) and all subordinate Officers of this great Army of the Parliament, (not leaving out all those, who have been, and now are in Arms against you,) for my discourse is to all; but my chief aim and hopes are in you: for I am persuaded it is in your power, next to the King, under God, to procure a sudden Peace, (if you will have it the right way, who dare oppose it?) and so suddenly to still the raging and furious fire of this most unnatural War. If you will but practise that lesson (which I have dictated to his Majesty, the two honourable Houses, and the Clergy) of Self-Denial, how exemplary will ye be to all posterity! and how well will it become you, in the midst of all your strength and power, to decline it? I mean not to lay all down instantly, and let your enemies (who, God knows, I believe, are far from desiring peace theright way) cut your throats or subject yourselves to them: it were folly in you to trust them, and wickedness in me so to counsel you; but you to begin first (though more powerful) and to desire Peace, and endeavour it: If therefore you will begin as I said] with Self-Denial of all Self-Interests, be it honour, or profit, or what ever it be, Peace, I think, may be easily obtained: Why do we fight, kill, and ruin one another? Are not we brethren? May not Treaties end it better than the Sword? Remember, I pray you, what Abner said to Joab, Shall the Sword devour for ever? Knowest thou not that it will be bitterness in the end? And God saith, He will not pardon innocent blood; and I am sure, there can be no War where many Innocents [yea those that know not the right hand from the left] do not suffer: God will not be answered by your saying, It is the inevitable fate that accompanies War, it cannot be avoided: The question will then be, Who bid you go to War? S. John bid you, Do violence to no man: and Christ he comes but a very little after the Baptist with Forgive your enemies, Away, saith he, with an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, &c. (that is, wrong for wrong:) Bless them that curse you &c. And surely it were the best Christian Courtship to appease all differences by Peace: The bloodthirsty man, saith the Scripture, shall not live out half his days: and if he do grow old in blood here (as few do) yet shall he never see the Lord in the Land of the living, unless he get it with a hearty repentance; and what hope can he have that dies in a battle, killing, and killed? whose soul in the instant of separation, is wrapped and enveloped with rage, revenge, blood, horrot, and height of fury against his opposite; (as the body, for the most part, at the same time, is environed with dreadful sounds, howlings and shriekings, with fire and smoke, the very Emblem of Hell itself.) And what says our Saviour: As the Tree falls, so it lies: I would to God, every soldier would think of this hourly, and believe it ever: Suppose, I pray you: A common drunkard (whose practice it is daily so to be, dies drunk, by a fall or other accident, as we have had many such fearful examples;) do, or can you in any charity hope well of such a soul? shall he be received into the everlasting joys? the like of Adultery or fornication (I speak of a common adulterer and fornicator) whose God is his lust, who dies in the arms of his Dalilah▪ can you hope well of him? I am sure it is a high presumption so to speak: sure I am his case is fearful, and by the Rule of Scripture we may be hold to judge no happiness could arrive that soul so dying. The Case is the same with those that daily fight battles (nay, who long for it if but a little retarded;) if war be unlawful, (I dispute it not, I take it for granted:) and I am sure by the new Testament utterly condemned: Now, if so, he that dies killing, and killed (as I said before;) what a most miserable condition is that soul in? for their works, good or bad▪ follow them, saith the scripture: do they so? in what a state than is that soul in doged and clogged with such deeds of darkness before, at, & after the expansion of it? what time is there of repentance, when the outward man is in such a Confusion and horror? for battles afford not many quiet and calm slumbers. Sure I am, he that is lives by the mercy of God most strictly, & with S. Paul mortifies himself, and dies daily to the world; yet such a soul works out it is salvation with Fear & Trembling, and finds it (not too) scarce well prepared for its separation. Judge than ye Men of war. E. Contra. Remember for God's sake, for your soul's sake, what our Saviour saith, Matth. 24. 48. But if that evil servant shall say in his heart, my lord delayeth his coming, and shall begin to smite his fellow servants &c. The Lord of that servant shall come in a day that he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with Hypocrites; there shall be weeping, and gnashing of Teeth. Our Saviour denonneeth all this woe, but for smiting of a fellow servant: what would he have said, of Plundering, Murdering, Ravishing, utterly ruining the poor, the fatherless, and the widows? This is violence in a high degree: and how Guilty the soldiers of this land, (on both sides King and Parliament) have been in all this seven years' war, I leave to God to judge; and those to lament it, who have seen and felt it. I know will the common question shall we stand still, and have our throats cut? I say not so. I know offences must come: [Christ says it] but he likewise saith, woe be to them by whom offences do come: And the Apostle says, have Peace with all men, if it be possible; he doth not for all that add, but if you cannot have Peace Peacefully, fight, kill, &c. O no, he could not preach such a doctrine: how easy were it to spend sheets of paper to prove this by very texts of Scripture, viz. the unlawfulness and wickedness of war: [yet I am no Anabaptist:] Are the works of war from the Principles of light and love, if so, well and good, happy your souls; if not, and there be self-interest in it, Pride, Malice, Rage, Revenge, Ill yea ill indeed is it with your souls without Repentance; [& no man repents who forsakes not the evil way●●] I am sure those works come out of the Principle of Fire and darkness, out of Hell itself. And such a people, such a God. saith the Psalmist. His servants ye are whom ye obey: with the froward thou art Froward, and with the holy thou art holy, saith the Psalmist, speaking of God: God still. But God in his Excellency is Love: for God, saith the Apostle, is Love: and for certain the Children of God are the sons of Peace. My Peace I leave with you, was our saviour's Legacy: To conclude, no man, I say, no Man must do evil that good may come of it: and I am sure, our war for these eight years hath done no good in Church or state; [though God knows best where a True Church is, and we poor subjects can at the present scarce discern where the state is, involved on all hands with mysteries and ruins:] And for any man, be he Emperor or King, State or republic, I am confident the sin as great, yea greater than great in the eyes of God, to begin a War: and if the hearts of such were searched (as God can, doth, and will.) it would be found, it is Self-Interest, let them plead and say what they will; and to fight for Religion, for Reformation, be they who they will, they have no true Christian Religion in them: Religion, by all Kings, since Christ's time, hath been made but the stalking horse, to catch up their other ends in the world: Without holiness no man shall see God: Is there holiness in War? be not deceived, God will not be mocked. Let the soldier therefore lay by all Self-Interest; in your Declarations you have professed it, and seek the Peace of the Kingdom, the settling of the King in his just Rights, Him and his Children, the Parliament in their privileges, the Subject in their true Liberties from Tyrannical Government, and Arbitrary too; You have promised it, do it; and the King, I believe, is ready to perform his part: but do it by Love, by Peace; and God shall bless you, and you shall find rest to your souls: but if you proceed to do it by blood, on that you will have a Peace of your own moulding: I pray remember your own words, p. 4. nothing more abhorring to you then a new flame of War: I fear, that will not discover the practice of Self-Denial to be yet embraced of you; and had you all your desires for this world, (as I am confident the soldier's profession, Kings and Subjects, have rarely, or never obtained their hopes, the reason is, the blood that is by them spilled, which God abhors:) Look upon the King of Swede, see his end, killed in a battle, by one of his own side, it is thought; and see yet how his people fare, and what rest have they, or when are they like to have any?) Yet what shall it profit a man, saith Christ, (Believe him ye men of War) to win the whole world (that's more than a Kingdom) and lose his own soul? I speak to all who adore and dote on that Heathen God, Mars (War,) rightly interpreted according to the Dialect of the Holy Ghost, by the Apostles, in divers places, the very Devil himself. Now the works of the flesh, saith S. Paul, Gal. 5. 19 are manifest, which are these, Adultery, Fornication, uncleanness, Lasciviousness, Idolatry, Witcheraft, Hatred, Variance, Emulations, Wrath, Strife, Seditions, Heresies, Envyings, murders, Drunkenness, Revelings, and such like; of the which I tell you now, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not wherit the Kingdom of God. But the Fruit of the Spirit is Love, Joy, Peace, Long-suffering, Gentleness, Goodness, Faith, Meekness, Temperance, against such there is no Law. And they that are Christ's, have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts: If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit: Let us not be desirous of vainglory, provoking one another, envying one another.  
You have held out Reformation in Church and State, take heed of Deformation in both, or rather utter ruin of all: where is your Commission to proceed in blood? Learn of me, (saith Christ) for I am humble and meek: Is there meekness in War? He that taketh up the sword, shall perish with the sword, (saith Christ.) I know well, he once asked his Disciples for a sword; he was answered, there were two; he said it was enough, and perhaps thought it too much; he did not bid them use it, nor did he ever make use of it, or command it, but the contrary. You are Subjects, as well as I am; remember you are so: and you are (or were) Servants also to the Parliament, who employed you. Act both parts according to Reason and Religion, and then this bleeding Kingdom shall owe no small share of its happiness to you; but if you fail to do it, assure yourselves the end cannot be good: Love is the fulfilling of the Law. Now the God of Peace, and the Peace of God which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the Fear and Love of God, &c. So prays he, (that believes no man should dare to say the Lord's Prayer, Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us, if he wash his hands in the blood of another, by War) Who is,  
My Lord, Your excellency's most humble Servant Richard Farrar.   

TO THE RIGHT honourable THE Lord Major, The Right worshipful the Aldermen, the worshipful the Common Counsel, and every freeman of the city of LONDON.  
THis great M●tropolis of yours, lifts not up her head so high, but that [having so boldly adventured upon the Clemency of his Sacred majesty, the patience of the two honourable houses of Parliament, the Freedom of my speech to the Clergy, the high priests, Scribes and Pharisees of this Kingdom; and the hazard of distasting the Army: An Army, and such an Army, as hath made your proud walls shake at the very sight of it, and for aught I know, or you eith●r, the earthquake 〈◊〉 yet past] I may presume to cry aloud in your gates, and to proclaim in your streets, that if any city in the Christian world, had need to be summoned to self-denial; It is this great city: whose Inhabitants were grown so proud with prosperity, that they said in their heart's 〈◊〉 least, (and too much expressed it in their words and actions) a Babylon did, Revel. 18. 7. she said in her heart. I sit a Queen, I am no widow, ●nd shall see no sorrow, therefore shall her 〈…〉. &c. And did not you, eight or ten years since, sit as a Queen, in your bed of State and rest? but lo, Almighty God brought war into your gates, and the sword into your Stately Palaces: and your young men felt it: you made but a sport of it at the first, you courted the sons of Mars, and you discovered all your wealth unto them (as Hezekiah did to those that were sent from Babylon, read the place, the 20. Chapter of the second of Kings, beginning at the 1●. verse, until the 20. I pray God, it have no allusion in time to your city;) and now after seven years' Apprenticeship, are you not weary? would you not be made free? Remember those days of peace, when every man did eat of his own vine, and sat under his own figtree: did you make good use of it? no: you grew wanton with ease, and proud with folly, and therefore God sent war amongst you: your hearts were always various from the ways of God, and therefore God suffered you to be diversely minded, to make way for your destruction; and now at last, for your wickedness, hath suffered the spirit of giddiness and divisions, to be even in the midst of your city, yea in every corner of it; and it is just with you: for you were so far from self-denial, that you denied yourselves nothing you had a mind to; (I pass by the excess of pride in apparel, like Princes rather than apprentices; and for Gluttony and Luxury, the world could not match you: I say nothing of your Epicurism every way, with your neglect of the poor that daily begged at your doors.) I speak not this to all: I am confident, God hath a Remnant in this city, who serve him most faithfully, and who are not only free from those sins, but daily lament them in others; who stand in the Gap; and for whose sake this city hath stood so long, and doth yet stand: Great hath been your Diana of profit, and you have sacrificed so long at her shrine, out of hope or fear; that if God open not your eyes, and that you suddenly repent, your destruction is at hand: Go into self-denial, or you shall have no peace: lay aside all private and self-interests, that of the public Faith, disbursements for Ireland Bishops Lands, Excise, custom house &c. and repent; nor upbraid your for wardness at the first to help on the work, had it been holy and pious: The end shows plain [now] and it did long since appear, you did it for your own ends; it was fear or hope of profit put you on, not the Zeal of God's Glory, the honour of the King, or the good of the kingdom: [I speak not this to all, but to the most; and chiefly to those, whose private interests, engage them, now, so hotly in the progress of a war; that the whole Kingdom is in hazard of utter ruin:] look into your own hearts, and say, how true or false I speak: if true, make good use of it, that is, repent and amend; and that not with cast down looks, but humble hearts: You petition for Peace, it is well, (so you did once for War, God forgive you,) but do you desire and pray, that God will give you Peaceful minds one towards the other? Do you endeavour it? Have you not (like the rest of the world) Peace in your mouths, War in your hearts? I wish I could forget, that not many years since, you cried one day, Hosanna and Crucifig the next:) If so, you cannot 〈◊〉; deceive not yourselves, nor be you deceived by others, that misguide you: pray to God to open your eyes, you are blind, (your wealth blinds you) you cannot see where your safety lies: Not in yourselves, not in your strength, (that is already proved,) not in your wealth, you do but hoard it up for others, unless God give you open and repentant hearts; your safety lies in your Self-Denial, and in your suffering, not your doing; away with all warlike and bloody designs, you will be lost here, and for ever, by them; add not to your former evils, blood to blood; there is no ill so great which you are not guilty of; you have done like the rest of the Kingdom, or rather you were their example: You have sought your own, and not the things of God; nay, you have fought for them more than once. And now it is just with God, to leave you a prey to your enemies. Yet let me tell you, your greatest enemies are not only within your walls, but within your own breasts: It is your Treachery to God, and to some body else, hath betrayed you to hourly fears: You look down to the earth, you grovel there; lift up your heads, lift up your hands too, but chiefly lift up your hearts to God, from whom alone must come your salvation. Do all you can for Peace, in a godly way, not by plots and strife: We must not do ill, that good may come of it: This City hath a great account to give, when God shall make inquisition for blood. There is no worldly Counsel, mere worldly, can do you good: God alone must do it, by turning your hearts to him, and to your lawful King, and in your love to your fellow Subjects; but add no more blood to blood. The Militia of good consciences, is better and safer for you, than all your Arms, or the Army, if it were yours; in the day of Trouble you will find it so: If there be any means or power in you, by Prayers to God, Petitions to men, or the opening of your purses in a peaceful way, to procure Peace; forbear not to do it. Sero sapient Phryges. Do it, and that quickly, for God's sake, for the King's sake, for your own sake, for the whole kingdom's sake, delay not to do it; and believe me, it is better to give willingly, what you may spare, then to have all you have taken from you: who can give you a better hope? No man can say, who will be the Victor (if Peace end it not:) You see a foreign Nation come in already; and perhaps many of you laugh at it in your sleeve, and rejoice in it: Alas poor abused souls! Do you think you shall not be the Spoil, who ever is the Conqueror? Be not so sottish: There is no party in Arms already, or like to come into Arms, belonging to these three Kingdoms, but hath just cause to upbraid and reproach you; and will certainly ruin you at the last.  
Nulla Fides, Pictasque viris qui castra sequuntur,  
Said the wise Poet, and a good Christian knows it to be true; Buy Peace at any rate (but not with a drop of blood, take heed of that:) But first get internal Peace (else never hope for external) and then you are in the way to eternal Peace: And thus he prays you may do (who was the Son of a Citizen of the best rank & quality, and bred up amongst you) and heartily wishes, and would endeavour, to his power, for the Peace and welfare of this honourable City; to whom he professes himself (though no Freeman of it) a Servant in a peaceful way, and ever will be, whilst he is  
Richard Farrar.   

THE COVENANT OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND One with another.  
I A. B. Do here in the presence of the blessed Trinity [God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost] profess to all the world, and that without any Equivocation or mental Reservation; that I now do, and for ever will, forget and forgive all kinds of offences against me, either in word or deed, and committed by any of my fellow-Subjects of England, and contained in the Act of Oblivion, from Anno. 1648. to this present day; and this of my own free will and desire I do, that all my fellow-Subiects may see and behold the candour of my Heart; and I do here bury in the grave of Oblivion all things contained in the Act of Oblivion not desiring to remember it, and vow never to revenge it. So help me God, and the Contents of this holy Book: and this I confirm by taking the Sacrament.   

TO THE whole kingdom OF ENGLAND, And to every particular Subject therein.  
IN order to the Peace of this Kingdom. I published my first Expedient, for the Peace and Safety of all the People of England: I refer myself to the world, to judge, whether better security can be had or hoped for, than is contained in that Expedient; and in His majesty's Covenant set down in this Book: I have (you see) finished a second Expedient for the King: But I desire the whole Kingdom not to mistake me, (at least, all that shall read it,) as if I, in the least, intended that either the Offers which I have set down, from the King to his People, or his Demands from them, should strictly be insisted on in this great work. [Ear be such a presumptuous thought from my heart.] No, they are only heads of a few, (such as in my poor apprehension might usher in more from His Majesty, as doubtless, he will offer and perform all that he can for the good of his People,) and otherwise I intended them not. It will appear to the whole Kingdom, that His majesty begins with Self-Denial: Read his second Peace-Offering, [and pass not over the first, which he offered to you all, 1640.] And Faithfully believe, that for the good of his People, he will, yet, deny himself more than ever any King did: In the name of God try him; but still remember, he is your King; and forget not that saying of Solomon, Fear God, and honour the King; and give unto Caesar that which belongs unto Caesar, and Caesar will give you more, rather than less, than belongs unto you. If the whole Nation, now, will but imitate the King, and begin with Self-Denial, (without which there can be no Peace, no Religion;) How happy shall both Prince and People be! If you are not so minded, (chiefly those who sit at the helm,) do you hope for Peace by a bloody War? Let no man tell me, Peace is the end of War: Be not deceived, my beloved countrymen, if you keep your old hearts, of Self-Interests, and proceed on to a new War, you will find the greatest destruction that ever Nation did: For, as there is no Peace to the wicked, saith my God, so there is no holiness, but hellishness in War. The Apostle tells you, whence strife and contention proceeds, from below, says he; and do you expect a blessing upon War and blood, from above? That any man should dare to blaspheme God so highly, to pray to God to prosper him in his bloody undertakings, (daub it over with what specious pretence of privilege or Liberty you can;) what doth that man less, then pray to God to bless the actions of the Devil within him? Blasphemy worthy the tearing of garments, and for which God will (amongst other sins) sorely visit this Nation.  
The King must, if he will prosper, begin with Self-Denial, (and that to some purpose too;) so must the two honourable Houses of Parliament; the Clergy should begin to all the Kingdom, they have most need, (I will not say they are the most backward;) The Army, great as it is, is under the power of the Lord of Hosts; and (as they have long since in their Declarations promised it) God he expects Self-Denial from them; if not, he will one day deny their entrance into the Eternal Tabernacles of Rest, prepared for those only that deny themselves: Those blessed Mansions are not to be purchased, but by storming of them with Self-Denial: Our Saviour saith, The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force; (I hope no man thinks Christ meant by force of arms, by killing, plundering and ruining the bodies and souls of men, women and children;) sure it was meant, by the violence of the good Spirit of God, moving in the hearts of his peaceful Children, the earnestness of whose souls is such, in resisting and opposing the deeds of darkness, and the fiery darts of the Devil, which is in them, in the old Adam, that they have a daily storming, combat and strife, with all violence within themselves, to dispossess the old Adam of his strong hold, and then the Kingdom of Heaven so much is it can be in this life is gotten and obtained; for he that gets it not here, shall never possess it hereafter; as the tree falls so it shall lie.  
The city also must go into self-denial, my discourse to them tells them no lesss; And lastly, you the whole Kingdom (under whom the four last are comprehended) must likewise go into self-denial: For all of you in general (I exempt not myself) have and do abound with all sorts of sins, yea with the greatest sins, and particularly that of Bloody a fearful and a crying sin; which how you will answer, when God shall come to make inquisition for Blood; I know not: how will you answer it, you blood, Subjects of this bleeding Nation, who joy and delight in Blood and Revenge, who regard not the cries and the tears of those poor Innocents, which your swords make Widows and Orphans? whose cries (yet) ascend up into heaven, and must (without sudden repentance) bring done a most unheard-of judgement upon this Nation. For you the Subjects of this land (who are not soldiers,) are equally guilty, in your willing Contribution to bothsides: and how many of you are ruined by your own party, to whom you gave assistance? And it is just with God, it should so be: A Land so defiled with Blood, that professed such purity of Christianity, and hath practised on all hands, the most horrid and barbarous Acts that ever were read of. The Father against the Son, the Son against the Father, &c. And do you expect Peace; by going on in Blood? b●leeve no Minister, that preacheth War, lawful: (Read my Epistle to the Clergy;) when they preach such stuff, that's some of the leaven which those Scribes and Pharisees mingle with their other good Doctrine, and so spoil the whole Lump.  
Alas! did they not mix some good things with the bad, who would come near them? Christ taught the contrary, viz. Love one another, (by suffering, never came ill, but much ill by resisting) believe Christ and follow his precepts and example: he that teacheth you other, is an Antichrist. This Kingdom is highly guilty of all the sins, that all the Prophets denounced judgements against in the old Testament, Israel, Judah, or any other Nation. I shall not need to name them: Prov: 6. 17. God hates hands that shed innocent blood. Isa. 59 7. Their feet run to evil & they make haste to shed innocent Blood, their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity, wasting and destruction are in their paths, the way of peace they know not, &c. read on to the end of the 15. verse: and behold, the Prophet speaks what we with our eyes have seen, and do see daily acted by Authority, on both sides, in this miserable Land: And now, as if that it were not enough that the Land hath been made drunk with our Blood (and God knows, how much innocent.) The other Element of Water, the Sea, that must be died of a bloody Colour [Preparations on all hands:] And for that sin of oppression of the poor and innocent, never the like that hath been on both sides within these seven years, and yet is. In a word the cry of the sins of this Kingdom is gone up to Heaven, like that of Sodom and Gomorrah, & without sudden repentance, we must expect the like plagues: had there not been, and were there not still, some righteous Lots amongst us, sure we had been destroyed long since; and when those righteous Souls die away or depart, God's wrath will suddenly rain done upon us, (without Repentance) to our utter Confusion: Repent therefore and that suddenly, and (as I said before) go into self-denial: be quiet, let no man force you to fight on either side, (much lesss be forward to go yourselves, as too many have done, and paid dear for it.] Pray, but fight not, fight against your lusts and worldly corruptions, against all self-interests whatsoever (that's self-denial) and then all will be well: the peaceful-minded, their prayers, with the Widows and Orphans, if they prevail not with God to turn the hearts of the wicked, shall at one time or other, prove of such strength, that like the Angel that destroyed the host of Sennacherib in one night, so shall God's Judgements find, hunt out, and destroy the wicked out of the land, who hate the Children of Peace [and laugh at them;] for the Children of God, are the Sons of Peace.  
What would you have? would you have a King, a good King, & the best of Kings? and would you have Peace? Behold, he brings you the Olive-branch of Peace by his self-denial: he denies, or will deny himself, for your good, as never King did: [were the best of you a King, it would not be found an easy thing; you are Subjects, and yet you cannot part with your petty private Interests, Molehills to the Mountains of those of a King:] Look upon the King's Picture of Mercy and Love, in my first Expedient, and upon his Covenant in this tract: you are equally safe with himself. [A better safety than the Militia,] Look every Subject into his own heart, for I write to all,] and deny himself but half as much for a Subject, as the King for a King; and I dare say, we shall have Peace, a blessed and a happy Peace, a Pious Peace, [away with a politic Peace, it will never hold▪]▪ we shall have a Confident Peace on all sides; away with a Jealous Peace, a distrusted Peace. Think of no Peace but what comes by the security of Self-Denial, on all hands: it is above all your Militia's, and casts down all Malice: If no Peace must be, till the fearful hearts and guilty consciences of all men be satisfied, than we must never look for Peace. In what a condition are you then in▪ O ye Inhabitants of this Land! I write unto you all: Consider of it. And let those men be branded to all posterity, who will take or receive no security, but what is beyond all history or example, [as this truly is] nay beyond all reason, and thereby render themselves the progeny of Cain himself▪ I say once more, Consider of it.  
To conclude, if speaking truth to his Majesty, to the Parliament no lie, to the Synod orthodox Divinity, to the Army what Christ himself preached: to the City, what their own Consciences know to be true; and to [you] all the Subjects of the whole Kingdom of England (I except none) what you are, most of you, highly guilty of, even by the very Word of God; I say, if This be Treason, I am a traitor, a traitor against all, and let me suffer for it; but let my trial be at the judgement-seat of Love, at the Bar of the New Testament, my Saviour my judge, the Apostles my Jury, and then proceed, I fear not: You have all of you (King, Priests and People) pursued your own ends, your Self-Interests, and you must cast away your Babylonish garment and wedg of gold; or God, who can do it, will spew you all out, and give this Land to a more deserving People; [Not the Scots or Irish; alas! their Graves must be digged before your Funeral be fully solemnised,] or perhaps to some of your poor innocent babes, who are not old, like you, in sins and iniquities; they may perhaps partake of that blessed Peace, you would, but cannot have, so long as you wilfully resist God in your abominable sins of Malice, Envy, Revenge, Hatred, Blood-thirstiness, Covetousness, and that which is the centre of all, and contains all the mischief that is, Self-Interest: the only venom that hath of late years poisoned this goodly and once flourishing Kingdom.  
Christ denied himself, who should not? The King denies himself, and you will not. Oh beloved Countrymen (I speak to the whole Kingdom, I wish every Ear heard me,) look yourselves in this glass that I have here presented you with: it is not of so pure a crystal as it might have been made, but it will show you plainly the ugliness of your painted holiness, and rotten-heartedness to God, your King and fellow-Subjects: that so by a true Repentance [forsaking the evil and doing the good] you may come to a sight of your grievous sins, of God's infinite Mercy, of your Kings abundant Love, and your own future happiness, which is uncessantly prayed for at the hand of God, by  
The greatest Sinner of you all, yet ready to sacrifice himself for a safe and well-grounded PEACE, Richard Farrar.   

Errata. Page 6. line 7. read fought for sought. Pag. 29. l. 36. read that lives.  
FINIS.