REASONS OFFERED By a Wellwisher TO THE KING and KINGDOM, To some Justices of the Peace Met at the Sessions in one of the Northern Shires, AGAINST ADDRESSING to the KING WITH A PETITION For the Sitting of the Parliament. JANVARY ●6. 1679/80.  
Now Published For the Justification of all those Loyal Persons, who opposed the Petition in any parts of the Nation.  
IF it be the undoubted Prerogative of the King to Call, Adjourn, Prorogue, and Dissolve Parliaments at his Will and Pleasure; it is a high Impudence in any Subject, or Assembly of men, to take upon them to Advise him (unasked) how and when to execute his Power: for it concludes, that the Advisers or Petitioners do believe that he is either so weak, as not to be able to judge when and how it is fit for him to do it; or so ill a King, that he will not do it, when he knows 'tis for the Advantage of himself and the Kingdom; and is in plain terms to say, the King is either a Fool or a Knave: which if not High-Treason, I am sure is a violation of Duty, and a breach of good Manners. But to go on with such an Advising Petition, when his express Proclamation does forbid any thing of this nature, is a most superlative Insolence: Nor can all the formal words used in such Addresses, of Humble, Dutiful, and Loyal, palliate for this Wheedle, or make other construction, than that his loving, humble, and dutiful Subjects do with all Modesty beseech him to permit them to share with him in the most important Trust, and most eminent Mark of Sovereignty that God Almighty hath endowed him with.  
Should the King, by any manner of Application, and with all the terms of Kindness that words can express, send a gracious Message to the Parliament, wherein he should advise them to part with any (though never so small a Privilege) they would resent it to a strange degree. And is not the Prerogative as dear to the King, as Privilege to the Parliament?  
Let no Sophister say, that the Proclamation is not meant to intent this way of Petitioning, by alleging, that it is the only lawful Means and Intercourse 'twixt the King and his People. 'Tis certain he meant this very way of Petitioning; for till there was a previous Address from the Lords, and Endeavours to get Hands to such Petitions, there was nothing heard of a Proclamation: which when it appeared, did fully denote this very Method of Petitioning, so fatal to his Father, and this Kingdom; and aught by all Loyal Gentlemen to be taken notice of as such.  
I confess it is one of the worst things imaginable, to remember Injuries; but it is as unpardonable a folly, to forget the Rock we have once shipwracked on, and not to avoid it, when it is fully in our power so to do. 'Tis therefore highly worth our note, what sort of men they are who first set this Business on foot; not to reflect on any things they have done, but only to avoid being led into a second Mischief.  
Of the seventeen Lords, by whose order and in whose name the Address was presented to the King, there is not one who either in himself or his Father, can lay a claim to any honourable Service performed either to this King or his Father, during the time of the late Rebellion; but on the contrary, I find several of their Names subscribed to the Covenant; and have heard of most of the rest under the names of Generals of Horse, Colonels and Commanders in the late Rebellious Armies, or constant Sitters in the Rump, Committee of Safety, and all Junctoes' against the King. And if the late Wars were begun with Petitions, and by these very men and their Fathers, it cannot but be advisable by all Loyal Gentlemen what may be the end of their Petitions: And whether they are set on foot for the Public Good by private men, or for private Ends with the name of the Public.  
An Enquiry were worth the while, 
* Whereof some were old Officers, and others Committee-men and Sequestrators, etc.  who they are that promote their Petitions in other Countries, and observe by whom their Petitions are addressed from above to ours, or who are the men that are most active in the prosecution amongst us; I am afraid we shall find as few Loyal Gentlemen in the Country to better themselves, as we have found Lords at London: And if any old Royalists appear, we shall find them either such as are concerned in the late unheard-of Vote about the Succession, or such as are grown waspish that they are not better preferred for services bypast, and hope to repair broken Fortunes by a public Ruin.  
Since then this Undertaking is to Invade the Crown, Affront the Person of the King, warranted by no Precedent but such as begot Rebellion, nor led by any body of eminent note for Loyalty, but rather on the contrary, expressly forbidden by the King; (which is sufficient warning itself, were there no other apprehensions of evil intentions;) it will become all persons who abhor Sedition, and have an honour for the Royal Name, to obey the King's Proclamation; the only way to secure the Peace of the Kingdom and their own.  
FINIS.