THE EARL OF LINDSEY HIS Declaration and justification, Who is now prisoner in Warwick Castle: Wherein He Declares the justice of His Majesty's cause in taking Arms for the preservation of His Royal Person and Prerogative.  
Being A pattern of Loyalty, and Mirror of Obedience, for all His Majesty's loving Subjects to be rightly guided by  
Printed in the Year M.DC.XLII.   

A DECLARATION AND justification of the Earl of Lindsey, now prisoner in Warwick Castle, where he makes apparent the justice of His Majesty's cause in taking Arms for the preservation of His Royal Person and Prerogative.  
MY LORDS,  
IN the distress wherein I do remain, it doth bring great comfort unto me to hear of the continuance of your health, and of the good success of His Majesty's Arms, there is no happier news that can arrive to turn my fetters into freedom, or my sorrows into hopes, or which can prefer them sooner into the absolute possession of joy. In this apprehension (me thinks) I am not the person which I was, and the more close my body is restrained, the more enlarged and noble is my mind. This is the happiness which I have gained by the solitude of my thraldom, and whiles my enemies have endeavoured to afflict me, they have befriended me: In this only I have just reason to lament, that I cannot enjoy that immediate influence from His Majesty's aspects which you do, and I have those his incomparable virtues in contemplation only, which you really do behold and daily do derive from them more glory, by the full observation of their admirable working. His Majesty like unto Him whose second he is, gives restless Demonstrations of Religion, Justice, Prudence, and Moderation unto all; and constant in His own goodness, offers mercy unto those whose swords have taught Him to be merciless: And by a high example of wonderful piety to avoid the effusion of their own blood, the King stoops unto His Subjects, and the Conqueror unto the conquered. I would willingly fall a martyr in this cause, and I am sorry that I have not lost my life rather than my liberty for the justice of it. I have a long time been detained a prisoner, (for who can charge me of any other crime?) my adversaries would make the world believe, that they do me some great favour when they leave it to my free election, whether I will be so, or no. Do they believe that any is so in love with fetters that he would not change them for his freedom, were the conditions equal and proportionable to them? Some of my friends have told me, and would persuade me to a belief, that my liberty may be gained: It may be gained peradventure indeed, but how? As from Merchants that value it at so high a rate that my fidelity, honour, and all that is dear unto a noble mind, must be the price to purchase it. If I refuse what they propound, the loss of goods, of lands, and by the length of my restraint, peradventure the loss of life itself must be the price that shall pay my ransom. This is a hard choice; it is in my power to be a freeman they do allege: but how? if I will be a slave, fall off from the example of my noble Father, and Predecessors, who laid the foundation of their first honours on their loyalties and their obedience to their Prince▪ If I will abandon His Majesty's service in the war, and enter into a new covenant and Protestation with them to take up Arms on their side, as if treason were nothing unless I made it Sacramental. I have already given my faith unto my Prince, (upon whose head this Crown is by the law of Nature and of Nations justly fallen) shall I falsify that faith, and join unrighteous hands with theirs to trouble the peace and the splendour of it, Heaven forbidden? But they allege again; that in this cause of theirs, Religion, the privileges of Parliament, the Liberty of the Subject, and glorious hopes and shows are pretended. Dare not all Rebel's cloak their purposes with such goodly titles? Hath not His Majesty, in whom alone the chief power doth consist, given many and strong assurances to maintain the same? hath He not taken Protestations too sacred to be profaned by the jealousies, or misconstructions of any whatsoever? that He will preserve the Protestant Religion in that form and purity, as it was in the days of Queen Elizabeth, and His Father of blessed Memory? Hath He not with true zeal and justice, complained of the great scorn and disregard, that is cast upon the Service of God in the Book of Common Prayer? and that while Religion is pretended to be reform it is destroyed? Truly (my Lord) they are much deceived who think that Religion and rebellion can be companions, or that God will favour their attempts that strike at himself through the Prince's sides. In that very word the King, there is such a Deity enclosed, that who wounds them wounds the Divine Nature. Why then should the sword be so rashly drawn under so holy a veil? was Religion ever built on blood? 'Tis true indeed, the blood of the martyrs hath been the foundation of the Church. But (my Lord) we must know again that it is not their blood, but their Cause that made them martyrs; and that the best Martyrs were so far from opposing the authority of Princes, that they willingly did submit their lives to their commands. I can never read that they made any one insurrection to oppose their Prince, or any inferior Authorities derived from Him. Tertullian and St. Hierome (to whom I am beholding to my imprisonment for our best acquaintance) doth inform me, that in those ancient times of elabourate Persecution, when invention lived almost altogether on the blood of Christians, and cruelty grew witty to torment them, that they only contended against them in the Prayers for their conversion, and in the holy examples of a virtuous life, whereby they so much multiplied, that in few years the army of the Christians were the best protection and Lifeguard of their Emperors, although Heathens; And thus the Primitive Christians did ever propagate the Gospel with no other than their own blood, which at all times they did shed, not only to God, but to their own Princes although Pagans, but never against them. As the Devil was the first Rebel, so judas was the first traitor amongst the Apostles, and shall we rank ourselves with such hated Examples of Disloyalty and Treachery. But were the cause good? Are the arms of the Parliament to be preferred to the Army of His Majesty? are they able to contend with Him? when have we fought with them, but they have been beaten? At the battle of Keinton where my Father lost his life, and myself my liberty, (although in my own particulars, I have small reason to speak of the success of that day) yet I believe in that field was tried to the uttermost what the courage or the numbers of our Adversaries could perform. We observe that His Majesty with His Army still kept the field, and I would it had been my happiness to have kept it with Him, or to have sealed there the obligation of my Loyalty with the dearest blood I have. We shall find the forces of our Adversaries, or rather the relics of their forces to retreat with what speed they could to this place of safety, where they made myself and some other captives the excuses of their coming, when indeed their own necessities were the chief occasions that did induce them to it, whiles the Army of His Majesty unfollowed by the enemy, in a secure march was making up towards Lòndon. I will pass over the fight before near unto Worcester, & the defeat given them after near unto Brainceford. We shall find that victory hath been careful always to attend the sound of His Majesty's drums and His Cannons, and with broad wings to cover his head in the day of battle, and at the end of every fight to be seen to perch again and to rest herself on the safe crest of His glorious helmet: we find His Majesty's Armies to increase daily both in number & in courage, whiles their expectations, and aid from Scotland, move not at all, or very slowly forward. They have no new places to resort unto for succour. To look for it in the Netherlands is in vain, the English Regiments you know are there wholly devoted to His Majesty's service, and a league betwixt both Princes is cemented by a strong tie of Marriage: To depend upon any foreign assistances were to build new Castles in the air, and besides wheresoever they shall address themselves, they shall find that who appear disloyal to one King, will be distasteful to all Kings. Their persons and their cause, will be there no less odious than their religion. It is easy to begin, but let them observe the event of such ill-grounded war. We have seen with horror the miseries that attend it, as the firing of houses, wasting of goods, famine, Rapes, Ruin of towns and cities, and the unjust Liberty usurped, lost in an instant, and for ever. The respects of wife, children and blood, are ties which by nature man doth hold most dear. If we pity not ourselves, let us not forget them that are so precious unto us, Kings have strong hands to put bits in the most stubborn mouths: if they cannot relish gentle subjection, how will they digest slavery? I would advise them therefore, not to put back this blessed Arm that stretcheth out to receive them when the sword hath made more havoc, and all is wilderness, they will then beg for that they now refuse. For my part (my Lord) I am in their powers, and if it should fall into their hands, I know not how this free speech of a prisoner would be taken by them. Howsoever they dispose of me, I will never distain my Ancestors, nor leave that foul title of a traitor, as an inheritance to my Posterity: they may when they please take my head from my shoulders, but never my heart from my Sovereign. All my hopes are anchored on God, and the good success of His Majesty's Arms, and on the Justice of His cause, for which my prayers shall never be wanting. Through the sad misfortune and melancholy of my bondage, I have now exchanged the practice of a soldier for pensive solitude, and the sloth of contemplation; wherein I receive the more delight, that I have the more leisure to observe and collect the activeness of your spirit, the action of your virtues, and the brave Sphere in whom they move: which might puzzle a fare better Mathematician than myself. I have the leisure to peruse and contemplate sometimes on those excellent speeches, delivered by the Lord Digby, and the Lord Falkland, men of admittable faculty, and who can conquer with their pea, as well as with their swords: and I do congratulate the happiness of Oxford that in their ages, doth now again enjoy those wits which in their infancies she did nourish. I look on the advancing of my Lord of Newcastles Forces with a great deal of hope, & believe as he marcheth by, he will do us the good office, as to make it his compliment to wish his friends so happy as to keep him company in his approach to His Majesty: Assureing you that nothing under Heaven, can convey a more absolute content unto my heart, then to be so happy as to kiss again His Majesty's hand, and to express myself to be,  
(My Lord) Your most humble, and most affectionate servant, LYNDSEY.