Seasonable ADVICE TO THE CITY, In a Letter from a Secluded Member of Parliament to a Gentleman in London.  
SIR,  
Fortune assists the bold; this you need not travel so far as Florence to experiment, seeing our great Officers of Safety stagger at noise. Had your City Magistrates been confident of their own Authority and Strength, the Iron Gate had opened, and these Inohantments which affrighted them had vanished, Your City, as Monsieur de Rohan said of England, is a Beast indomitable, when provoked; and cannot be destroyed but by itself, having now Besides the Magazine of Arms, 〈…〉 and Money, (the Sinews of War) that Authority which others want, with the Concurrence of all the Nation, except the common Enemy. All that can be required to a happy Issue, consists under GOD in your Resolution to Defend yourselves, and trust to your own Courage: all other Parties are only Factions and you the Umpaire. It lies now in your own Manage to break the yoke, and by gaining your Liberty, to set us Free. If you join with any particular Interest, you yield the Cause, and suffer them to ride you for their own business, changing your Masters not your Bondage. If you keep your Swords in your Hands, and your Money in your purses, the very Tax, Excize, and Custom which you may spare, will bear your change and tire your Opposers. Above all, suspect Cajoles; Treaties are yet new to you, and dagerous to the best experienced, having to do with Men that hold no Faith: Oaths Promises in such a Juncture serve only to delude the Credulous, and gain easy secure Victories: He that trusts not cannot be deceived. The yielding any Point in Treaty makes way for new Demands, and doth encourage hope to overcome. You will find it most safe and Honourable to insist upon a Free Parliament, and take in the considerable Vote of the Nation, without relying yond soldiers of Fortune, whose Trade is to perpetuate the War, and their Livelihood to eat up the industrious. I wish you the Honour to oblige that Thanks which the people's Deliverance may challenge. So rests,  
Your faithful Friend to serve you.   

London, Printed for N.B. 1659.