A LETTER OF AN INDEPENDENT, To his Honoured Friend IN LONDON.  
SIR,  
WIth what Sympathy and Unanimity we first engaged ourselves in this present Cause, I need not call to your remembrance: nor can you forget what lists and bounds we then set ourselves: Reformation was our earnest desire. Petition was our only way; To live and die together in one and the same opinion was our mutual promise; To preserve our Ancient and Fundamental Laws, to purchase our just Liberties, To conserve the King's known Rights, were our solemn Protestations. All these being now like Sampsons' cords, broken, I believe myself disengaged: The Reformation desired is extirpation endeavoured; In stead of Petition, as Subjects ought, we command as Rebels use; The preservation of our Ancient and Fundamental Laws, is outlawed by new Votes, and illegal Ordinances; The purchase of our just Liberties, is turned into unjust licentiousness; And the conservation of the King's known Rights, is overturned by unknown wrongs; And our living and dying in one and the same Opinion, is crumbled away into So many men, so many minds; of our first Juncto, how many Presbyterians, how many Independents we both know; of those Presbyterians, how many are Anabaptists, how many Jacobins you know not; of those Independents, how many are Antinomians, how many are Brownists, I know not: And though we both know what we would not have, yet neither of us know what we would have.  
Would we have no Bishops Sat in Parliament? an Act is passed for it, the King hath signed it. Though I must tell you, that very Act hath canceled one of our best Fundamentals; The best part of Magna Charta is thereby dissolved, and hath put the whole into an Ague.  
Would we have no imposition of Ship-money? the like course is taken, and the like power hath confirmed it. Though I must tell you, this very ease of Ship money, hath brought a disease upon our Ship-strength; and whereas before we were well nigh able to cope with all the Navies of Christendom, we have scarce any more left now then the bare name of a Navy.  
Would we have no Monopolies? They are damned too by the like Authority; though I must tell you, the very taking away of this yoke hath made the whole Kingdom a Monopoly; the several Committees have got a Monopoly of our Coin and all that is Coynable; The several Commanders have got a Monopoly of our Cattles, and all that is Edible; some there be that have got a Monopoly of our Wives, and all that is Amiable; others of our Children, and all that is Delectable; others of our Servants, and all that is Profitable; others of our Neighbours, and all that is Sociable.  
Would we have no Ceremonies lie heavy upon tender Consciences? That hath been offered us too; Though I must tell you we that stumbled at these Gnats, have since swallowed Camels; we that would not be imposed upon ourselves, do ourselves impose upon others, But thence too heavy for them, ourselves, or any man else to bear,  
Would we have no Papists? we were in a fair way for that too; we might have forced their children to an education under Protestants: Though I must tell you, but under the Rose be it spoken, This had been a piece of absolute Tyranny; and would have been requited with the Abolition of all Protestants in all the World, save England.  
What is it we did privatively desire, and the King did positively deny? He was not weary of Granting, till we were shameless and unreasonable in demanding. To a Regulation of Bishops He consented; He declined only their Extirpation; would we have no Bishops? Why? because they have not Jus divinum to plead for them? it remains yet undecided; the Episcoparians affirm it; The Anti-Episcoparians deny it; and yet grant by consequence, what they challenge by conclusion. That Episcopacy hath Jus Apostolicum for their Advocate. Or is it because some of them are bad? Upon the same ground would we have no Judges, no Aldermen, no Knights, no Lords, no Parliaments; All have not been good: because some are, let their prescription of time forbidden the proscription of their Function.  
Mistake me not yet, Sir, I am no Patron, no Advocate, no Pleader for Episcopacy; I am an Independent, I was so when I first entered into this combination, and so will die; And such a one were you at that time, though now you have forgot your first Faith, and are turned Presbyterian; yet still I am, as I was then, a perfect Bishop-hater; but why I am so, I know no more than you do. Herein we still both agree; In all things else we are at odds: you will have Presbytery established; I am for Independency; And which of these two are most consistent with the essence of this Kingdom, I wish you would put it to the Issue upon a fair and calm disputation betwixt my good Lord Say, who well knows what the new Directory is, and how to confute it; and your good Earl of Pembroke, who for three Months (his own words) could not understand it, but now by the help of Mr Olsworth (it seems) knows it to be the best Nursery of Devotion in the World, and yet neither understands nor knows how to maintain it: or betwixt our Learned Mr Goodwin, and your learned Mr Calamy, who yet never answered that Quotation of his, from the best Astronomers that ever writ, in the year 1640. plus vel minus, there would be universalis totius Mundi insania, to which I should have pinned my Faith, if he had but added the whole Truth, saying with Tycho-Brahe, Erga Reges: so the words stand, and ought not otherwise to be repeated: or by determination of the Sword, betwixt Noble Cromwell, our General, and valiant Massey, yours.  
But Disputations we have had already, to no purpose, you will confess with me; For the Episcoparians are the better Scholars, and have confuted us both; you for too heavy Taskmasters, and us for too easy: And justly; For your Assembly with the power of your Party in the Parliament, have imposed Oaths and Covenants contrary to Law and Religion; yes, and imprisoned Lilborn for his defence of Magna Charta, and refusing the new Oath, Ex Officio, which yourselves condemned in the Ecclesiastical Court: Nay, and beyond this too, divers of your Assembly of Divines, have in their Feast-meetings declared, That their Presbytery being Jure divino, hath a Supreme power in Causes both Ecclesiastical and Civil over King and Parliament, and so instead of ruling by Law, will rule all by their own lawless Arbitrary Injunctions.  
Battles we have also had to as little parpose; For until this last Summer, the King's Soldiers were the stronger men, and gained against us both: you know in what a low Condition we both were, when Sir Thomas Fairfax lay before Oxford, how tumultuous the Londoners were when Leycester was taken, and how we were resolved to pass over the Channel, if Nasby fight had gone against us: And to whom we own the thankfulness of that, whether to General Fairfax, and the Presbyterians under him, or to General Cromwell, and the Independents under him, let our Enemies speak; Their witness will be the best, we may be partial to ourselves.  
That we have since taken Bristol, the Devizes in spite of Lloyd, Winchester notwithstanding Ogles strength there, and Bazing House, where many of our Armies were till then crushed; It is well known we own more to Cromwel's Horse, then to Fairfax Foot, or Dalbeers Engines: And that Dalbeer should have 6000 l for Basin, Fairfax 500 l for Bristol, Massy the like, in jewels, which they wear as Badges of Honour, and Cromwell no acknowledgement for all; yes, and instead of it, you suffer him to lie under an impeachement of Treason suggested by the Earl of Manchester; is a shrewd evidence to me, That if your Presbytery be once established, we must look for as little favour as the Episcoparians: And this you already partly showed, by your self-charity in your great care of Skippon, to cure his wounds which he received at Nasby fight, and suffering all ours to sink or swim.  
Well, notwithstanding all these Successes, are either of us nearer to our ends? If the King can but live and rub out this Winter, we shall save Him a labour next Spring of calling in any Foreign Forces: It is resoived upon amongst us, and for that ancient love's sake which hath been betwixt us, I give you notice of it, that you may return to us, That if the King will give us Liberty of Conscience, and not subjugate us to Ecclesiastical Power, we will submit ourselves to His Civil Power; and rather live with Episcopacy to establish Monarchy, then under Presbytery to pull it down.  
Episcopacy may stand, and we enjoy our Consciences, Presbytery will not allow it; Episcopacy may enjoy their Lands, and we our Farms, not so with Presbytery; For they intent as well a Reformation of the State, as of the Church, i. e. of long Gowns into short Cloaks, of Lawn Sleeves into fine Shirts, of Meum & Tuum into Suum, of Godliness into Gain; And our Copy holds, if they once come to the question, whether they be as Antichristian as the Church's Lands, into their own Purses: It is not a Reformation they seek, but an Alteration; and that Alteration shall but make way for an Alienaton, To bring the King's Crown under Christ's Sceptre, which themselves will manage, not for Christ, but against Christ; For his Kingdom is not of this world.  
We Independents seek only a Reformation, not an Alterations we have yet so much Reason, as to see, The further we swerve from our first Constitutions, the nearer we hasten to Desolation; The further from our Fundamental Principles, the nearer to our perpetual Ruin. It is so in the Church, it is so in the State. I instance only in the State: The first Constitution, and Fundamental Principle of this Kingdom is, There should be a King, and Subjects; That the King should Rule, the Subjects should obey: He Rule according to Law, They obey according to Conscience. That He should secure the Kingdom against Foreign Enemies; That they should assist him therein; That both should conscientiously intent the public Peace, and the Kingdom's happiness: we find all this done, while we had but one King, and many Subjects; And we find all this undone, now we have many Kings, and no Subjects: To regain all, we would come to our first Constitution, and live in subjection under that one whom God hath made our Superior, and not any longer in vassalage under many, whom ourselves have made.  
A second or another first Constitution of this Kingdom, is, we should have Parliaments; that those Parliaments should consist of three States, Lords Spiritual, Lords Temporal, and the House of Commons; But one of these three, the Lords Spiritual being found superfluous, we say of two States, the House of Peers, and the House of Commons; The House of Commons to find out the Grievances of the Kingdom, and to prepare Redresses of those Grievances for the House of Peers, the House of Peers to present them to the King, and the King to sign them with His Royal Fiat for Laws: All this hath been done while the House of Parliament prepared Laws for the King to confirm them; All this hath been undone, since the two Houses have made Laws for the King to obey them: our Grievances were redressed before. They are increased now; we had some Liberties then, and hope of all Liberties we could desire: we have no Liberties now, nor hope of any; we had good Laws before, whereby we knew sin; we have many sins now, yet know no Law: To regain our Laws and Liberties, we would come to our first Constitution, and have two Houses to acknowledge one King above them, and not one King to acknowledge two Houses above H●m.  
It may be you will say, Turpe est Doctori cùm Culpa redarguit ipsum, why have I hitherto took part with the Parliament against the King? with the Parliament, I confess, I have, but not against the King: For when I first entered into this Compact, by Protestation, by Vow, and Covenant, is was to fetch the King up unto his Parliament, out of the hands of Evil Councillors; That was the only pretended reason for the raising of all our Armies, save the very last under Sir Thomas Fairfax; He was the first General, that ever received Command to deny Quarter to any, even to the King himself: And this was not disclosed until of late, else I had published it, and our resolution in this point sooner.  
But now it is known; and yet I still side with the Parliament? I confess I do; but not as I did before; Before I did it sincerely; now I do it politicly; The Parliaments Cause, Rebus sic stantibus, is a good Cause to live in; For hereby I save mine own stake, and a good share in other men's; But now I am weary of it; For now I would manage such a Cause as I might live and die in: live in with Profit, and die in with Comfort: The course I have hitherto taken, I profess, I have undertaken for mere gain; The course I would now take, I profess, I would undertake for mere Godliness; I would not at my Death renounce a wicked course, as Colonel Sandys did at Worcester, and Major Abercromye in Buckinghamshire; For than it would be too late, because I cannot go to Heaven without Repentance; and Repentance cannot be true which hath not this Ingredient, Do good, as well as that, Cease to do Evil: I must receive the Kingdom of Heaven, The Gospel, into me, before I can hope to be received into the Kingdom of Heaven, Glory. And you know, To the Poor is the Gospel Preached; And though I am rich in substance, yet I am poor enough in spirit, I thank God for it, and would you were so too, to receive the Gospel.  
Sir, by this that hath been said, you know the Resolution of our Party; There wants nothing but the Kings offer to invite us, and ere long we intent to invite Him to that offer, viz.  
That we shall be obliged only to honest Conversation by the common Laws of this Kingdom, and freed from any, and all Ecclesiastical Censures for point of Religion.  
This is all we desire; and if this be granted, we presently declare ourselves for the King, will join with Him, will fight for Him, and either end our lives, or settle His Crown fast upon His Head, His Sword in His Hand, and Himself in His Chair.  
This we will do, maugre the opposition of all Presbyterians in great Britain, and the whole World besides: we will make our Army equal with that under Montrosse, who we hear is already on this side Tweed, with no sewer than 14000 Foot and Horse: The like Assistance he shall have from us, under the Command of Cromwell, or whom else His Majesty will put in Chief. And let it be tried then, whether any Parochial, consistorial, Provincial, or General Classis of the Clero-Laicall-Presbytery, dare think to Depose, or whisper, to Excommunicate the King or any of his Loyal Subjects.  
And now, Sir, if you will go on in your Apostasy, Go and perish: If you will return, Welcome and be safe; with them who say, GOD SAVE KING CHARLES. I leave you to your Choice; but will be glad to embrace you in the arms of, Sir,  
Your Worship's affectionate Kinsman and Servant,  
FINIS.