THE COMPLETE HISTORY OF Independency.  
UPON THE PARLIAMENT Begun 1640.  
By CLEM. WALKER, Esq;  
Continued till this present year 1660. which fourth Part was never before published.  Horat. 
Spe Metuque procul.  
LONDON, Printed for john Wiliams at the Crown in St. Paul's Churchyard, 1661.   

RELATIONS AND OBSERVATIONS, HISTORICAL and POLITIC, upon the PARLIAMENT begun Anno Dom. 1640.  
Divided into II. Books: 

1. The Mystery of the two Juntoes, Presbyterian and Independent.  
2. The History of Independency, etc.    
TOGETHER WITH An APPENDIX, touching the Proceed of the Independent Faction in SCOTLAND.  POLIB. 
Historici est, Ne quid falsi, audeat dicere:  
Ne quid veri, non audeat.  HORAT. 
Spe, metuque procul.  
Printed in the Year 1648.   

To my dread Sovereign.  
Royal Sir,  
YOU have Drunk deep in the Cup of Affliction, and we have all Pledged you; it is wholesome, though bitter; but let us pray to God to remove this Cup in time, for the dregs and lees are poison. You have learned by over-winding the strings of Authority, how to tune the People of this Monarchy, without breaking their Patience hereafter. Most Princes desire unlimited power, which is a Sail too great for any Vessel of Mortality to bear; though it be never so well Ballasted with Justice, Wisdom, Moderation, and Piety, yet one flarb or other will endanger the over-setting it. Those Commonwealths are most stable and pleasing where the State is so mixed that every man (according to his degree and capacity) hath some interest therein to content him. The KING, Sovereign Command and Power; The Nobility and Gentry, a derivative Authority and Magistracy; and all enjoy their Laws, Liberties, and Properties. God hath cursed him that removeth the Bound-marks of his neighbour: this is a comprehensive curse, King's enlarging their Prerogatives beyond their limits, are not excepted from it. You may be pleased to take heed therefore of two sorts of men, most likely to misled you in this point, Ambitious Lawyers, who teach the Law to speak, not what the Legislators meant, but what you shall seem to desire: To avoid this snare, suffer your Parliament to nominate 3. men for every Judge's place, out of which you may please to choose one, as in pricking of Sheriffs. For it is the people that are obnoxious to their wickedness, you are above the reach of their malice. The second sort is Parasitical Divines: These Ear-wigs are always hover in Princes Courts, hanging in their ears. They take upon them to make Princes beholding to their violent wresting of the Text, to bestow upon them whatever Prerogative the Kings of Juda or Israel used or usurped; as if the judicials of Moses were appointed by God for all Commonwealths, all Kings: as a good Bishopric or Living is fit for every Priest that can catch it. These men having their best hopes of preferment from Princes, make Divinity to be but Organon Politicum, an instrument of Government; and harden the hearts of Princes, Pharaoh-like: Kings delight to be tickled by such venerable, warrantable flattery. Sir, you have more means to prefer them than other men, therefore they apply themselves more to you than other men do. Tu facis hunc Dominum, te facit ille Deum. The King makes the poor Priest a Lord, and rather than he will be behind with the King in courtesy, he will flatter him above the condition of a Mortal, and make him a God Royal. Sir, permit me to give you this Antidote against this poison; let an Act be past, That all such Divines, as either by Preaching, Writing, or discoursing, shall advance your Prerogative and Power above the known Laws and Liberties of the Land, forfeit all his Ecclesiastical preferments ipso facto, and be incapable ever after, and for ever banished your Court. But above all learn to trust in your Judgement: Plus aliis de te quàm tu tibi credere noli: God hath enabled you to remember things past, to observe things present, and by comparing them together to conjecture things to come; which are the three parts of Wisdom that will much honour and advantage you. God keep your Majesty; so prays  
Your humble Subject, THEOPH. VERAX.   

To his Excellency Sir THOMAS FAIRFAX, and the ARMY under his Command.  
MY Lord and Gentlemen, I have here by way of Preparation laid open to your view, those Ulcers which you have undertaken to cure, viz. The 2 Factions in Parliament, Authors of Schisms and Divisions in the two Houses, from whence they are derived to the whole Kingdom, to the obstructing of justice, and of the establishment of our Laws, Rights, Liberties and Peace; the enslaving of the Parliament itself, and the dilapidating of the Public Treasure: whereby the whole Kingdom may be enfranchised, secured, and united; and the King and his Posterity settled in His due Rights; which is the sum of all your undertake in your many reiterated Papers. I confess a Herculean labour, and far beyond his cleansing of the Augaean Stable; That was performed by an Arm of flesh, this cannot be effected without an extraordinary calling (for ordinary calling thereto you have none, and God seldom blesseth a man out of his calling) and though an heroic heat and zeal may go far, yet it will tyre many miles on this side the work, unless it be blown and inspired with divine breath. And as Alchemists say of the Philosopher's Stone, so I of this work (which is the Philosopher's Stone in our English Politics) it cannot be effected but by a man of wonderful and unspotted Integrity and Innocency; free from all Fraud, Selfseeking, and Partiality. In order to this great work you have already begun to sift and winnow the House of commons, by charging 11 Presbyterian Grandees; who if they be proved guilty, must needs have their counterpanes equally faulty, even to a syllable; in the opposite Junto of Independents; for when two factions shall conspire to toss & keep up the golden ball of Government, Profit & Preferment between them, neither can be innocent; unless therefore you apply your corrosive to one Ulcer as well as the other, you will never work a complete cure, nor will be free from scandal and appearance of faction or design (that I may use your own words) to weaken only one party (under the notion of unjust or oppressive) that you may advance another more than your own. 
Representation p. 6. sect. 2.  Besides, it is observed that you speak but coldly to have the public accounts of the Kingdom Stated; putting it off with a wish only, as if you did secretly fear, what the Presbyterians openly say, That the Independents are guilty of more Millions than their party: your own words are, 
p. 14. sect. 7.  We could wish the Kingdom might both be righted & publicly satisfied in point of Accounts for the vast sums that have been Levied; as also for many other things, etc. But we are loath to press any thing that may lengthen dispute. Are so many Millions to be cursorily passed over without dispute? were they not the blood and tears of the exhausted people, and the milk of their Babes; are they not like Achan's wedge amongst us? would it not much ease the people of burdens, and go far in the payment of Soldiers and public debts, to have both the Kings and the Parliaments sponges (of what party and profession soever) squeezed into the common Treasury whensoever the Commonwealth settles? Review this clause well, and as the Parliament hath altered some Votes for you, so do you alter this clause for the people, who long not only to see the Kingdom, but also our newmade Gentlemen in statu quo prius. Gentlemen, you that will give Counsel will take it without offence, against him that dares lay as good claim to justice and honesty as yourselves.  
THEODORUS VERAX.   

The Mystery of the Two Juntoes, Presbyterian and Independent, with some Additions.  
THe Kingdom being overgrown with Prerogative, Corruption and Superstition, (the fruits of a long and lazy peace) by a long discontinuance of Parliaments; at last by Providence his Majesty was necessitated to call a Parliament, the only College of Physicians to purge the much-distempered body of the Commonwealth.  
In this Parliament a contest between the King's Prerogative and the People's Laws and Liberties begat a War. The Divines on both sides, out of their Pulpits, sounding Alarm thereto; and not only Sermons, but Declarations of Parliament and National Covenant, holding forth to the people the defence of Religion, Laws, Liberties and Properties inflamed the people to the rage of battle, as the Elephant is enraged at the sight of Red. This War occasioned extraordinary Taxes and Levies of money, such as were never heard of by our Ancestors, and were Irritamenta malorum, the nurse of our corruptions.  
This incentive working upon the humane frailty of the speaking and leading Members of the Houses, 
Grandees.  caused them first to interweave their particular interests and ambitions with the public, and lastly to prefer them before the public.  
Wherefore the said leading men or Grandees (for that is now Parliament language) first divided themselves into two factions or Juntoes, Presbyterians and Independents; 
Factions.  seeming to look only upon the Church, but (Religion having the strongest operation upon the spirit of man) involved the interests of the Commonwealth.  
The common people of the two Houses following (with an implicit faith and blind obedience) the example of their leaders, divided themselves also into the said Dichotomy; which they did with more seriousness than their leaders, as not perceiving any thing of design therein; but according to the diversity of their Judgements, or rather Fancies and Confidings (for to resign a man's judgement to the opinion of another man is but a silly trust and confidence) studied the upholding of their parties with earnestness, whilst the Grandees of each party in private close together for their own advancement, serving one another's turn.  
The Grandees (in all public debates) seem as real in their reciprocal oppositions, as those silly ones who are in earnest, whereby they cherish the zeal of their respective parties, keep them still divided (Divide & impera is the Devil's rule) and so amuse them, and take them off from looking after other interests, in which, were they conjoined, they might share with the Grandees themselves: and for the better contentment of such their Confidents, as looking too intentively after their own gain, the Grandees of each Junto confer something of advantage upon those that are subservient unto them, as five pounds a week, or some petty employment.  
The seeds of these factions spread themselves into the Commonwealth and Armies, as Rheum distils from the head into all the body.  
Thus the leading men or Bel-weathers having seemingly divided themselves, 
Monopolising profits and preferments.  and having really divided the Houses, and captivated their respective party's judgement, teaching them by an implicit faith, Jurare in verba Magistri, to pin their opinions upon their sleeves; they begin to advance their projects of Monopolising the Profits, Preferments and Power of the Kingdom in themselves. To which purpose, though the leaders of each party seem to maintain a hot opposition, yet when any profit or preferment is to be reached at, it is observed that a powerful Independent especially moves for a Presbyterian, or a leading Presbyterian for an Independent; and seldom doth one oppose or speak against another in such cases, unless something of particular spleen or Competition come between, which causeth them to break the common Rule. By this means the Grandees of each faction seldom miss their mark, since an Independent moving for a Presbyterian, his reputation carries the business clear with the Independent party; and the Presbyterians will not oppose a leading man of their own side. By this artifice the Grandees of each side share the Commonwealth between them; and are now become proud, domineering Rehoboams, even over the rest of their fellow Members, contrary to the liberty of Parl. which consists in an equality) that were formerly fawning ambitious Absoloms.  
There hath been lately given away to Members openly (besides innumerable and inestimable private cheats mutually connived at) at least 300000 l. in money, besides rich Offices, Employments in money Committees, Sequestrations, and other advantages. And those Members who have so well served themselves, under colour of serving the public, are, for the most part, old Canvasers of Factions, who have sat idly and safely in the House, watching their advantages to confound businesses, and shuffle the cards to make their own game, when others that have ventured their persons abroad, laboured in the public work, like Israelites under these Egyptian taskmasters, and lost their estates, are left to starve until they can find relief in that empty bag called by fools, fides Publica, by wise men, fides Punica, and are now looked upon in the House superciliously, like unwelcome guests, for it is known how malignantly, and how juglingly writs for new Elections were granted and executed, and called younger brothers, and like younger brothers they are used▪ their elder brothers having slipped into the World before them, and anticipated the inheritance; they have broken first into the common field, and shut the door to prevent after comers even from gleaning after their full harvest, for the better effecting whereof, they have now mortgaged, in effect, all the means they have to raise money, unto the City, and being themselves fat and full with the public Treasure, to express rather their scorn than care, they are making an Ordinance that no more money shall be given to their Members, and yet to show how careful they are of all such as have cheated the Commonwealth under them, I will not say for them, they have taken advantage of the Petition of the Army, wherein they desire Indemnity for all acts done in Relation to the War, and have passed an Ordinance of Indemnity for all such as have acted by Authority, and for the service of the Parliament, wherein, under great penalties, and with an appeal at last from the Judges of the Law to a Committee of Parliament, such as have gone beyond the Authority given by Parliament, and sequestered men unjustly, and so withheld their goods under pretence thereof, and such as have levied Taxes three or four times over, are quit from private actions, and the benefit of Law and Justice taken from the oppressed, to secure Country Committees, Sequestrators and others (not Prerogative but Legislative) Thiefs, contrary to Magna Charta, which says, nulli negabimus, nulli differemus justitiam, aut rectum; We will deny, nor defer justice and right to no man. Oh prodigious acts, and of greater Tyranny than any King ever durst adventure upon. What is become of our National Covenant, and the Parliaments many Declarations for defence of Laws and Liberty? Or have we fought our Liberty into slavery? By these devices the honest middle men of the House (whose Consciences will not let them join in any faction to rend the Commonwealth in sunder) are out of all possibility of repair, and made contemptible as well by their own wants, as the pride of the Grandees: and in the end, their poverty will enforce them to leave the sole possession of the House to these thriving Junto men, who do beleaguer them therein, making them (for farther addition to their losses) pay all taxes, from which the thriving men go free: so that the poorer part of the House pays tribute to the richer. Nay it is farther whispered, that at last the Junto men will quit the Parliament Privilege of not being sued, purposely to leave these younger Brothers to the mercy of their creditors, and disable them to sit in their House.  
Another ambitious aim of those Junto men is, their devise of referring all businesses of moment to Committees. 
Committees of the Houses.  For the active speaking men by mutual agreement naming one another of every Committee (or at least their confident Ministers) do thereby forestall and intercept the businesses of the House, and under colour of examining and preparing matters, they report them to the House with what glosses, additions, detractions, and advantages they please; whereby the House (judging according to their report) oftentimes misjudgeth, and if it be a business they are willing to smother, the Committees have infinite artifical delays to put it off, and keep it from a hearing, or at least from reporting. By this means the remaining part of the House are but Ciphers to value, and Suffragans to ratify what is forejudged by the said Committees. This usurpation of theirs is much helped by keeping the doors of their Committee-rooms shut, and dispatching all affairs privately and in the dark; whereas Justice delights in the light, and aught to be as public as the common air, it being against its nature to be Chambered up, and kept from the observation of eye, and ear-witnesses.  
And by their examining of men against themselves, contrary to Magna Charta, they much enlarge their power.  
Parts of this project we may well call the Multiplicity of money-Committees, as Goldsmiths-hall, Haberdashers-hall, 
Money Committees.  the Committee of the King's Revenues, Committee of the Army, etc. Where every man's profit and power is according to his cunning and conscience. Hereby they draw a general dependency after them, for he that commands the money, commands the men. These Committee-men are so powerful that they over-awe and overpower their fellow-Members, contrary to the nature of a free-Paliament; wherein the equality of the Members must maintain the freedom and integrity thereof, and suppress factions.  
The like may be said of such Members as (in scorn of the selfdenying Ordinances) hold Offices by gift or connivance of the Parliament, either openly in their own name, 
Members holding Offices, etc.  or secretly in the name of some friend. Their offices enabling them to do courtesies and discourtesies. And although there hath been a Committee appointed to certify all pensions, sequestrations, offices, employments of advantage and profits conferred by the Parliament upon any their Members, in which Committee Mr. Sands holdeth the chair; yet is this merely a formality to blind the eyes of the World, and fool the expectation of some losing Members, who were then resolute to know who had already received satisfaction for their losses, and how far they had outrun their fellow-Members therein. Yet this Committee is now let fall, no reports demanded of Mr. Sands, and when any is to be made, they are not unprovided of a means to make it fruitless, by putting every particular to debate; well knowing, that no man will be willing to argue against the particular persons and merits of his fellow Members, and thereby heap envy upon his own head, besides the delay of a particular debate.  
How frequently the Country Committees act contrary to the Laws of the Land; 
Country Committees.  how they trample Magna Charta under their feet; how boldly and avowedly they transgress all Orders and Ordinances of Parliament, and break our Solemn League and Covenant; how they ordinarily turn well-affected men out of their free-holds and goods, imprison and beat their Persons, without any known charge, accuser, or witness against them; nay murder them, as in the case of Doctor Rawleygh killed in prison at Welles by the Committees Marshal; and the poor men murdered at Bridgwater, whose bloods were shed like the blood of a dog, and no real prosecution thereof; how frequently they levy one Tax three or four times over, and continue their levies after the Ordinance expire; How cruelly they raise the twentieth and fifth part upon the well-affected, exercising an illegal, arbitrary, tyrannical power over their fellow Subjects, far higher than ever Strafford or Canterbury durst advise the King to; how ignorantly and unjustly they exercise a power to hear and determine, or rather to determine without hearing, or hear without understanding, private controversies of Meum & Tuum for debts, trespasses, nay Title and possession of Lands, without either formality or knowledge of the Law, not having wit, manners, nor breeding enough, as being chosen for the greatest part, out of the basest of the People, for base ends, to satisfy men with an outside, or Compliment of justice: Insomuch that nothing is now more Common, than an accusation without an accuser, a sentence without a Judge, and a condemnation without a hearing. How they exclude all other Magistracy, engrossing to themselves the power of Sheriffs, Justices of Peace, Churchwardens, etc. in an Arbitrary way; keeping Troops of Horse, upon pay and freequarter for their guards, like the 30 Tyrants of Athens, and if any man but speak of calling them to give an account, they presently vote him a Delinquent, and Sequester him. If any man, I say, be so deaf as not to hear the loud universal out-crying of the people, so great a stranger in our Israel as not to know these truths, let him peruse M. Edward King's discovery of the arbitrary actions of the Committee of Lincoln, and the heads of Grievances of Glamorganshire, printed 1647. where he may see these things briefly Epitomised; but to Historize them at large would require a volume as big as the Book of Martyrs. These Committees are excellent sponges to suck money from the people, and to serve not only their own, but also the Covetous, Malicious, Ambitious ends, of those that raked them out of the dunghill for that employment, and do defend them in their oppressions; who is so blind as not to see these men have their protectors? the Daemons to whom they offer up part of their rapines, to whom they sacrifice Occulta spolia, & plures de pace Triumphos.  
If there be any intention to restore our Laws and Liberties, and free us from Arbitrary Government, it is fit these Committees and all associations be laid down, having no enemy to associate against, and that the old form of Government by Sheriffs, Justices of the Peace, etc. be reestablished, and the Militia in each County settled as before in Lieutenants, and deputy Lieutenants, or in Commissioners.  
The rather, because the people are now generally of opinion, They may as easily find Charity in Hell, as Justice in any Committee; and that the King hath taken down one Star-chamber, and the Parliament hath set up a hundred.  
Nor is it a small artifice to raise money by so many several and confused Taxes. 
Taxes.  Whereas one or two ways orderly used and well husbanded, would have done the work. 1. Royal Subsidy of 300000 l. 2. Pole money. 3. The free Loans and Contributions upon the Public Faith amounted to a vast incredible sum in money, Plate, Horse, Arms, etc. 4. The Irish adventure for sale of Lands the first and second time. 5. The Weekly meal. 6. The City Loan after the rate of 50 Subsidies. 7. The Assessment for bringing in the Scots. 8. The five and twentith part. 9 The Weekly Assessment for my Lord General's Army. 10. The Weekly (or Monthly) Assessment for Sir Thomas Fairfax Army. 11. The Weekly Assessment for the Scotch Army. 12. The Weekly Assessment for the British Army in Ireland. 13. The Weekly Assessment for my Lo. of Manchesters' Army. 14. Freequarter (at least) connived at by the State, because the Soldiers having for a time subsistence that way, are the less craving for their pay; whereby their Arrears growing stolen, will at last either be frustrated by a tedious Committee of Accounts, or forgotten; in the mean time, the Grand Committee of Accounts discount it out of the Commanders Arrears, whereby the State saves it. 15. The King's Revenue. 16. Sequestrations and Plunder by Committees, which if well answered to the State, would have carried on the work, which thus I demonstrate; One half of all the goods and Chattels, and (at least) one half of the Lands, Rents, and Revenues of the Kingdom have been sequestered. And who can imagine that one half of the profits and Goods of the Land will not maintain any Forces that can be kept and fed in England, for the defence thereof? 17. Excise upon all things; this alone if well managed would maintain the War; the Low-Countries make it almost their only support. 18. Fortification-money, etc. By these several ways and Taxes, about forty Millions in money and money-worth have been milked from the people; and the Parliament (as the Pope did once) may call England, Puteum inexhaustum; yet it is almost drawn dry. A vast Treasure, and so excessive, as nothing but a long peace could import; and nothing but much fraud and many follies could dissipate, and we ought not to wonder if it be accounted inter arcana novissimi imperii, to be always making, yet never finishing an account thereof.  
And as they have artificially confounded the accounts by laying on multiplicity of Taxes; 
Accounts.  so (for the same reason) they let the money run in so many muddy, obscure channels, through so many Committees and Officers fingers, both for collecting, receiving, issuing and paying it forth, that it is impossible to make or balance any Public account thereof; and at least one half thereof is known to be devoured by Committees and Officers, and those that for lucre protect them. By these means, as they make many men partners with them in the public spoils, so they much strengthen and increase their party, whereby multitudo peccantium tollit poenam.  
If these things were not purposely done, 1. Our Taxes would be fewer in number, 
Accounts again.  and more in effect. 2. They would be put to run in one channel, under the fingering of fewer Harpies, and perspicuous and true Entries made of all receipts and disbursments, which would be public to common view and examination. The Exchequer way of accounts is the exactest, ancientest, and best known way of account of England, and most free from deceit, which is almost confessed de facto, when, to make the King's Revenue more obnoxious to their desires, they took it out of the Exchequer way, (contrary to the fundamental Laws of the Land; for both the Higher and Lower Exchequer are as ancient and fundamental as any Court in England) and put it under a Committee, which as all other Committees do, will render an account of their Stewardship at the latter day. In the mean time divers of that Committee buy in old sleeping Pensions, which they pay themselves from the first of their arrears; yet other men that have disbursed money out of their purses for the King's Service, can receive no pay for any money laid forth before Michaelmas Term, 1643. because (forsooth) than the Committee first took charge of the Revenue. In the mean time the King's Tenants and Debtors are deprived of the benefit of the Laws and Liberties of the subject, which before they enjoyed; all Debts and Moneys being now raised by the terror of Pursuivants and Messengers, whose Commissions are only to distrain and levy, etc. whereas formerly the Exchequer sent out legal Process, and the Tenant or Debtor had liberty to plead to it in his own defence, if he thought himself wronged; but now New Lords, new Laws; and to countenance their do, the Committee have gotten an addition of some Lords to them. 3. If there were fair play above board, so many members of both Houses would not be ambitious of the trouble and clamour that attends Task masters, Publicans, and such sinners as sit at the receipt of Custom, being no part of the business for which the Writ Summons, or the people choose or trust them, and whereby they are diverted from the business of the House: but would leave that employment to other men, who not having the character and privilege of Parliament upon them, will be less able to protect themselves and their agents from giving public accounts of their receipts and disbursments, and from putting affronts and delays upon the Committee of Accounts, (as it is well known) some of them have done. Lastly, it is scandalous that the same men should be continued so long in their money-imployments, because Diuturnitas & solitudo carrumpunt Imperia; and by long continuance and experience they grow so hardened, so cunning in their way, and so backed with dependencies, that it is almost impossible to trace them. And although (when we look upon the many persons employed) we cannot say there is solitudo personarum; yet when we consider that by a long partnership in their employments they are allied together in one common interest, they are to be esteemed but as one man, for a Corporation of men is but many men joined together as one man, and with one mind pursuing one and the same end or interest.  
And though they have a general Committee of Accounts, yet they were nominated by those Members that ought to give Accounts, 
Committee of Accounts.  and it must needs be suspicious for an Accountant to choose those persons before whom he shall account. And we see (after so long a time of their sitting) no fruit thereof. Whereas the people did hope, that after so much money spent, and such great debts and arrears left to pay, (whereby they are threatened with continuance of their Taxes,) that a full and exact general account of all Receipts and Disbursments would have been published in Print, for their satisfaction, as is usually done in the Low-Countries, and as was once done by this Parliament, Anno 1641. by a Declaration of the accounts of the Kingdom.  
But it may be the Synod in favour of the Grandees, have voted that place in Scripture (Render an account of thy Stewardship) to be but Apocryphal.  
By these exorbitant courses, though they have drained 40. Millions from the people, 
Wants of the Parliament and how occasioned.  yet (as Philip of Macedon was said to be Inter quotidianas rapinas semper inops) they are fallen to such ridiculous want and beggary, that they have lately pawned almost all the security they have, for 200000 l. to disband the Army, and enter upon the Irish employment. They have slit Goldsmiths-Hall in sunder, and given one side thereof to the City, and kept the other half thereof to themselves, and that already charged with 200000 l. at least. So that if any sudden occasion happen, they have put their purse into the hands of the uncircumcised Jews of the City, and cannot raise one penny but by new Taxes upon the people. It was worth observing to see how officiously some of the old Stagers took leave of the Public purse, before it came into Hucksters hands. Alderman Pennington had a debt of 3000 l. he owed to Sir John Pennington forgiven him, (he never asked forgiveness of his sins more hearty) and 3000 l. more given him out of Goldsmith's Hall in course; the reason of this bounty was forked or twofold.  
1. Because he hath got enough before.  
2. To comfort his heart, for being left out of the City Militia. But the most observable thing was, to see this old Parliament like a young Prodigal, take up money upon difficult terms, and entangle all that they had for a security.  
1. They gave way to the City to hedge in an old debt, being a loan of money after the rate of 50 Subsidies, and other old debts.  
2. Whereas 200000 l. only was the sum to be borrowed, the City enjoined them to take up 230000 l. whereof the odd 30000 l. to be bestowed for relief of decayed occupiers of the City; so that upon the matter the Parliament pays 30000 l. Broakage.  
3. That the City may not trust the greatest unthrifts of Christendom, with laying out of their own money; they put upon them 2 Treasurers of the City, to receive and disburse it for the service for which it was borrowed; so you see they have now neither credit, money, nor a purse to put it in.  
So that the modest Members, who have been more forward to help their Country than themselves, 
Modest and middle members.  are left in the lurch for their losses, and exposed to the laughter of their elder brothers, the old Junto men, and factious leaders of the House, all being now mortgaged to the Lombard's of the City. The thriving Members hope their younger brothers will continue as modest, as they have been, and digest all with patience; but others, and those neither fools nor knaves, hope all the modest and middle men of the Houses, such as are engaged in no faction, will be provoked hereby to draw into a third party or Junto, to moderate the excesses of the other 2. when any thing prejudicial to the Commonwealth is agitated; and to call the old Junto men, those land Pirates to account, making them cast up what they have swallowed, and bring it to a common dividend, or rather to pay the Army and Public debts, whereby the people may be eased of their pressures; nor let them be discouraged with the supposed difficulty hereof, since 20 or 30 men holding together, and observing the cross debates, and different sway of each party, may easily make themselves moderators of their differences, and turn the scales for the best advantage of the common, which way they please to cast in their Votes, since it is very rare to have any question carried by more than eight or ten voices.  
Most of these Grandees are reported to have, for their retreat, houses in the Low-Countries, 
Grandees provision to save themselves.  richly furnished with Sequestered Plate, Linen, and Stuff, and great store of money in bank for their shelter, against such storms as their Rapine, Tyranny, and Ignorance may happily raise here amongst us. In those their retirements, these Authors of our miseries will enjoy their sins, and our spoils in security, attending an opportunity to purchase their peace at last, and betray our Safeties and Liberties to the enraged Prince and People. This is called robbing of the Egyptians; and doubtless these ambitious State-Mountebanks have brought us into darkness worse than Egyptian. The text saith, the Egyptians risen not from their places in three days; they yet knew where they were, which is more than we do, every man being out of his place and rank; the Servant in place of his Master, the Beggar in place of the King, the Fool in place of the Counsellor, the Thief in place of the Judge, the cheater in place of the Treasurer, the Clown in place of the Gentleman, none but God alone can play Daedalus part, and give us a Clue to lead us out of this labyrinth, into which these unpolitick Hocas Pocasses have brought us. These unskilful workmen that have built up Babel, and pulled down Zion. Others are said to prepare Foreign Plantations for Retreat; to People which, Children are ravished from their parents Arms, and shipped away; an abomination not known in England before, and therefore no competent Law made against it; no more than in ancient Rome against Parricides.  
By what hath been already said, you see what the several, and what the conjoined interests of these two Juntoes or Factions, 
Grandees their several interests and designs and strengths.  Presbyterian and Independent are; let us now consider where their several strength lies. The Independent groundeth his strength upon the Army, which if he can keep up, he hopes to give the Law to all; and to produce that great Chimaera, Liberty of Conscience: not considering that the confusion and licentiousness of such a liberty will destroy itself, Libertas Libertate perit. The Presbyterians have three Pillars to support them. 1. The City is their chief foundation, with which they keep a strict correspondency, and daily communication of Counsels. Upon this consideration, they have lately put the Parliament Purse into the City's Pocket as aforesaid; settled and enlarged the City Militia. Whereas all the Countries of England (being more obnoxious to injuries than the City) suffer much for want of settling their Militia; the Parliament not trusting them with arms, so much as for their own defence: An evident sign, there is a farther design than disbanding this Army. And because the City Militia can only keep in awe the adjacent South and East Counties of the Kingdom; therefore to suppress the remoter parts, and enforce them to obedience, they keep up some inland Garrisons, and have the Scots and G. Poyntz supernumerary forces for the North. And in the West (under colour for sending men for Ireland) they keep upon free quarter and pay of the Country, many supernumerary Regiments and Troops, most Cavaliers, at least five times as many as they really intent to transport. These are always going, but never gone, like St. George, always in his saddle, never on his way. Something ever is and shall be wanting until Sir Thomas Fairfax's Army be disbanded; and then (it is thought) the disguise will fall off; and these supernumeraries shall appear a new modelled Army, under Presbyterian Commanders, you may be sure, and such whose Consciences shall not befool their wits where any matter of gain appeareth; if this be not their aim, why did they not disband those lewd supernumeraries before last Winter, since they might have raised as many men the spring following for half the charge their very free quarters cost? and most of these swear they will not go for Ireland, vowing they will cut the throats of the Roundheads.  
The Country is amazed, fearing these Cavaliers are kept on free quarter by a Cavaleerish party for some Cavaleerish design. Secondly, why did they not rather divide Sir Thomas Fairfax Army into two parts, one to go for Ireland, the other to stay in England, being already modelled, excellently disciplined, and having the visible marks of God's favour upon their actions? But to take a few for Ireland, a few for England, and leave a Coat in the middle to be plucked forth and disbanded, was the way to discontent them, and put them into mutiny, and thereby necessitate the Parliament to disband them all, and give an opportunity to them that seek it, to new model another Army out of the aforesaid Supernumeraries, more pliable to the desires of the Presbyrerian Junto: add hereunto the causeless exasperating speeches and aspersions cast upon most of the Army purposely, as moderate men think, to discontent them. Thirdly, If they have no intent to keep up an Army against the People, why have they continued the Military charge for another year, and enlarged it from 52000 l. to 60000 l. a month?  
Thus the City, Inland Garrisons, 
Presbyters.  and Supernumerary forces new modelled are like to prove the three-stringed whip, wherewith the Presbyterian Phaeton's will drive the triumphant Chariot if they prevail; to which may be added the Presbyters themselves, who by overawing men's Consciences with their Doctrine, will subdue and work men's minds like wax to receive any impression of bondage that tyranny and oppression can set before them, as they do in Scotland, the Clergy in all times and places have ever held with the mighty, as the Jaccal hunts still with the Lion to partake of his prey; The Clergy have ever had an itch to be meddling with State affairs, which shows how contemptible an opinion they have of their own Coat, that they can find no contentment in it; yet they would have the Laity to have a reverend opinion of it; the Popish Clergy draw all Civil Affairs, public and private, under their jurisdiction and cognisance, quatenus there is peccatum in all humane actions; the Presbyterians quatenus there is scandalum in all human actions, what is the odds? Peccatum is the Mother, Scandalum the Daughter, and both pretend they do this in ordine ad Deum; but universal experience teacheth us, how miserable that Commonwealth is, where the corruption of a Churchman proves the generation of a Statesman.  
The premises considered, I shall propound these ensuing Queries to those that are of better judgement than myself.  
1. Quaere, Why the title and punishment of Malignants is translated from the Cavaliers, 
Quaeres upon the premises.  who fought for regal Tyranny against the Parliament, and laid upon those that fought against regal Tyranny for the Parliament; is it not because those Cavaliers that have fought for one Tyranny, will not be scrupulous to fight for another? and such well-affected as have opposed Tyranny in one kind, will not admit of it in another? why is it now accounted a note of Malignity and disaffection to endeavour the putting down of Arbitrary Government, and re-establishing our Laws, Liberties and Properties, whereto the Parliament by their many Declarations and their National Covenant are bound? lay this to heart, and consider whether they have not changed these their first Principles, and consequently whether they are not desirous to change their old friends who resolutely adhere to the said Principles.  
2. If the King grant the Propositions, or if he deny them, and the Predominant Junto (or both Juntoes joined together, to drive on one Common interest?) for it is now thought they are upon an accommodation to keep up that lower Conjunctim, which they despair to uphold divisim) establish the military and civil power without him, according to their desires, and in order to their aims; Quaere, whether the said leading men settled in their posture, with their confident guards about them, may not draw after them so many of their party as upon an implicit faith will follow them, and lick up the crumbs of the public spoils under their tables, expelling or disabling (as aforesaid) the disengaged Members, and by this policy make themselves perpetual Dictator's, incorporating and engrossing to themselves both the Consultive, Directive, & Ministerial power of the Kingdom in all causes Civil and Military, setting up an Oligarchy or popular Tyranny instead of a Regal, as the thirty Tyrants of A●hens did. In order whereto, they already declare, 1. That an Ordinance of Parliament, without the King's royal assent, is equal to an Act of Parliament. 2. That an Ordinance is a above a Law by virtue of their legislative power: upon which presuming in their Ordinance of Indemnity, they have granted an appeal from the Judges of the Law to a Committee of Parliament; see the Ordinance May 21. 1647. 3. That they are the irrevocable trusties of the people's Lives, Liberties and Properties, without account, with other principles preparative to Tyranny.  
3. Quaere, Why Arbitrary and Barbarous Government by Committees and other illegal proceed (which in time of war were used upon real or pretended necessity, and were then only excusable, because necessitas tollit Legem) are still continued upon us now in time of peace, no enemies troubling our quiet; and without any further pretence of necessity, contrary to their National Covenant, and all their Declarations? is it not to inure the people to servitude, and exercise their patience?  
4. Quaere, Whether the prodigious oppressions of Committees, Sequestrators, etc. and of Freequarter, be not purposely countenanced to necessitate the people to rise in tumults, that thence occasion may be taken to keep Inland Garrisons and Armies?  
5. Quaere, Whether our Laws, Liberties and Properties, are not now as liable to an invasion from the Legislative power, as formerly from the Prerogative? considering that those who like ambitious Absalon courted and wooed the people in the beginning of troubles, now like haughty Rehoboams care not though the people complain, their little finger is heavier than the loins of the King, the controversy between the 2 Juntoes being no more, than whose slaves we shall be.  
6. Quaere, Whether if the King hereafter tread in the steps of this Parliament, and their Committees, he will not be a greater tyrant than either the Turk, Russee, or French, and have as absolute dominion over his Subjects, as the Devil hath over damned Souls in Hell? and how dangerous these precedents may be to those Laws and Liberties which we have sworn to maintain.  
If the middle and disengaged men in the House, do not speedily unite themselves into a party or Junto, 
Middle and moderate Members again.  as the factious have done, and communicate their counsels, they will be arena sine calce, lose and dissipated by every breath: and neither serviceable for themselves nor their Country. Whereas if they unite, twenty or thirty may become Moderators and Umpeers between both parties, (as hath been already said;) let the moderate men but consider how sad and dishonourable a thing it is, to see nothing almost of great and public concernment come into the House, but what hath been before hand contrived, debated, and digested in one or both of the two Juntoes at their private meetings, and put into so resolved and prejudicated a way and method of dispatch, that every man is appointed his part or Cue beforehand; one man to move it, and set it on foot, another to second him; one man speak to one part of the Argument, another to another part; another to keep himself to the last for a reserve, and speak to the question, which he is provided to qualify with a distinction, or vary it, if he find it difficult to pass. Thus all public businesses are measured by private respects; whereby it appears, that as frequent Parl. are good Physic, so continual Parl. are bad food; and the people may complain, that qui medicè vivit, miser● vivit. Parliaments are Bona peritura; they cannot keep long without corruption. Their perpetuity emboldens the Members, by taking from them all fear of being called to account, especially if they get their Sons into the Houses as well as themselves (as many have done this Parliament, and more endeavour to do) whereby they have an estate in their places for two or three lives. Moreover by long sitting they become so familiar with one another's persons and designs, as to serve one another's turns, to join interests, and to draw into factions, Hodie mihi, cras tibi. If you and your party will help me to day, I and my friends will help you to morrow.  
Miserima Resp. ubi majestas Imperii, & salus populi discordibus conflictantur studiis. 
Conclusion with some complaints,  What shall we say? En quo discordia terra— perduxit miseros?  
Shall we complain to God? God hath a controversy with us. Of whom shall we complain? Of ourselves? we must first reform ourselves: We that take upon us to reform Church and Commonwealth; Shall we complain of our sins? Ask the grace of repentance first, and so ask that we may obtain. Shall we complain of our punishments? Let us first repent, and amend our sins that caused them. Let us first pluck off the mask of hypocrisy, God will see through such a fantastical garment of Fig-leaves. Let us no longer make Religion a stalking-horse; God, who is all Wisdom and all Truth, will not be deceived. If we talk like Christians, and walk like Turks, Christ will not own us. To fast for a day, and hang our heads like bulrushes, will not reconcile us. We must fast from public spoils, rapines, and oppression, and not drink the tears of the poor and needy. Shall we complain with the Prophets; That our Princes are become Thiefs? that was heretofore our complaint, now we must invert it, and cry, That our Thiefs (mean and base people) are become Princes. We are sick, very sick, intemperately sick, and God hath given us a Physician in his wrath, a Leper as white as Snow, fit to infect, than cure us. What Physic doth he prescribe? Poison. What diet? Stones instead of bread, Scorpions instead of fishes, hard fare for them that formerly fed so daintily. Before I conclude, let me give you the pedigree of our Miseries, and of their Remedies. A long Peace begat Plenty, Plenty begat Pride, and her Sister Riot, Pride begat Ambition, Ambition begat Faction, Faction begat Civil War: And (if our evils be not incurable, if we be not fallen in id temporis quo nec vitia nostra, nec eorum remedia ferre possumus) our War will beget Poverty, Poverty Humility, Humility Peace again, S●c rerum revertentibus vicibus annulus vertitur Politicus. The declining spoke of the wheel will rise again. But we are not yet sufficiently humbled, we have not repent with Ninivy. We wear Silks and Velvets, instead of Sachcloath and Ashes (even the meanest upstart hath his thefts writ upon his back by his Tailor in proud Characters of Gold Lace) we have not watered our Couch with our Tears, but with an adulterous sweat. Look to it therefore ye State Incubi, that by an incestuous copulation have begot Plenty upon War, and filled your houses with the spoil and plunder of your dear Country; an inundation of blood, and of the tears of the oppressed, will wash away the foundation of your houses: And peace will be far from you in this World, but especially that peace which the world cannot give: And because Salamander-like you delight in the fire of Contention, an unquenchable fire will be your lot hereafter. And though you escape all accounts here, yet upon the great day of account when you shall receive your sentence of condemnation, those your Children for whose preferment you sell your Souls, your God for gold, shall not show so much thankfulness or pity towards you, as to say, alas our Father! But your hearts are hardened with Phoraoh, I leave you therefore to Pharaohs destiny, to be drowned in your own Red sea, as he was in his.  
Thus far I adventured to vindicate our Religion, Laws, and Liberties with my pen; 
Resolution & scope of the Author.  in discharge of my Conscience, and pursuance of our National Covenant, which obligeth us to defend them against whosoever to our power, neither knowing nor caring whether in so wicked an age (wherein vice is honoured, and virtue contemned) I may be thought worthy of punishment for being more righteous than my superiors. I know an honest man is wondered at like a monster, and the innocency of his life and conversation suspected as a Libel against the State, yet if I perish I perish; & pereundum in licitis: nor am I less provided of a safe retreat than our Grandees, my grave is open for me, and one foot in it already. Contempsit omnes ille qui mortem prius. He that contemns Death, scorns both Hope and Fear; which are the only affections that make Knaves, Fools and Cowards of all the World. The world is a goodly Theatre, we are the actors, God is Poet and chief spectator; we must not choose our own parts, that is at God's appointment; one man he appoints to play the King, another the Beggar; one a Comic, another a Tragic part; whatsoever part God hath appointed for me in this remainder of my life, I will have a care to personate it ingenuously and aptly, not doubting but my Exit shall be accompanied with an applause into my Tyring-room, my Tomb; nor will I refuse the meanest part that may draw a plaudit from so excellent a spectator, but will prepare myself for the worst of evils in this worst of times, and pray to God to Reform our Reformers. Amen.   
THE END.  

THE HISTORY OF INDEPENDENCY, WITH The Rise, Growth, and Practices of that powerful and restless FACTION.  D. AMBROSE. 
Nec nobis ignominiosum est pati quod passus est Christus, nec vobis gloriosum est facere quod fecit Judas.  TACIT. 
Scelera, sceleribus, tuenda.  VIRGILIUS. 
— sua cuique Deus fit dira libido.  1 St. JOHN, c. 2. v. 16. 
Quicquid est in mundo est concupiscentia oculorum, concupiscentia carnis, aut superbia vitae.  
LONDON, Printed in the Year 1648.   

Reader,  
GEntle or ungentle, I writ to all, knowing that all have now got almost an equal share and interest in this Gallimaufry or Hodgepodge which our Grandee Pseudo-Politicians with their negative and demolishing Councils have made, both of Church and Commonwealth: and therefore I writ in a mixed stile, in which (I dare say) there are some things fit to hold the judgements of the Gravest; some things fit to catch the fancies of the Lightest; and some things of a middle nature, applying myself to all capacities, (as far as truth will permit) because I foresee the Catastrophe of this Tragedy is more likely to be consummated by multitude of hands, than wisdom of heads. I have been a curious observer, and diligent inquirer, after, not only the Actions, but the Counsels of these times; and I here present the result of my endeavours to thee: In a time of misapprehensions it is good to avoid mistake, and therefore I advise thee not to apply what I say to the Parliament, or Army in general, if any phrase that hath dropped from my pen in haste (for this is a work of haste) seem to look asquint upon them: No, it is the Grandees, the Junto-men, the Hocas-Pocasses, the state-Mountebanks, with their Zanies and Jack-puddings, Committee-men, Sequestrators,, Treasurers, and Agitators under them, that are here historified: were the Parliament (the major part whereof is in bondage to the minor part and their Janissaries) and the Army freed from these usurping and engaged Grandees, who betrayed the Honour and Privileges of Parliament & the Army to their own lusts, both would stand right, and be serviceable to the settling of a firm lasting Peace under the King, upon our first Principles, Religion, Laws, and Liberties, which are now so far laid by, that whosoever will not join with the Grandees, in subverting them, is termed a Malignant, as heretofore he that would not adhere to the Parliament in supporting them was accounted; so that the definition of a Malignant is turned the wrong side outward. The body of the Parliament and Army (in the midst of these distempers) is yet healthy, sound, serviceable; my endeavour is therefore to play the part of a friendly Physician, and preserve the body by purging peccant humours: Were the Army under commanders and officers of better Principles, who had not defiled their fingers with public moneys, their consciences by complying with, and cheating all interests, (King, Parliament, People, City, and Scots) for their own private ends, I should think that they carried the Sword of the Lord, and of Gideon; but clean contrary to the Image presented to Nabuchadnezzar in a dream, the head and upper parts of this aggregate body are part of Clay, part of Iron, the lower parts of better metal: I cannot reform, I can but admonish; God must be both the Aesculapius and Prometheus, and amend all, and though we receive never so many denials, never so many repulses from him, let us take heed how we vote (even in the private corners of our hearts) no Addresses, no Applications to Him. Let us take heed of multiplying sins against God, lest he permit our Schismatical Grandees to multiply Armies and Forces upon us, to war against Heaven as well as against our Religion, Laws, Liberties, and Properties upon earth, and keep us and our estates under the perpetual bondage of the Sword, which hath been several ways attempted in the Houses these 2 last weeks, both for the raising and keeping of a new Army of 30000. or 40000. men in the seven Northern Associate Counties, upon established pay (besides this Army in the South) and also for the raising of men in each County of England, and all to be engrossed into the hands of his Excellency, and such Commanders and Officers as he shall set over them; and this work may chance be carried on by the Grandees of Derby-house and the Army, if not prevented; for the General (notwithstanding this power was denied him in the House of Commons) hath sent warrants into most Counties to raise Horse and Foot; yea, to that baseness of Slavery hath our General and Army, with their under-Tyrants the Grandees, brought us, that although themselves did heretofore set the rascality of the Kingdom on work in great multitudes (especially the Schismatical party) to clamour upon the Parliament with scandalous Petitions, and make peremptory demands to the Houses, destructive to the Religion, Laws, Liberties, and Properties of the Land, and the very foundation of Parliaments; to which they extorted what answers they pleased; and got a general vote, That it was the undoubted right of the Subject to Petition, and afterwards to acquiesce in the wisdom and justice of the two Houses: Yet when upon 16 of May 1648. the whole County of Surry (in effect) came in so civil a posture to deliver a petition to the house, that they were Armed for the most part but with sticks, in which Petition there is nothing contained which the Parliament is not bound to make good by their many Declarations and Remonstrances to the people, or by the Oaths of Allegiance, Supremacy, or Nationall Covenant, or by the known Laws of this Land. Yet were they, 1. Abused by the Soldiers of Whitehall as they passed by, where some of them were pulled in and beaten. 2. When those Gentlemen of quality that carried the Petition came to Westminster-hall, they found a Guard of Soldiers at the door, uncivilly opposing their entrance to make their addresses to the House. 3. When they pressed into the Hall, and got up to the Commons door, they were there reviled by the Guard. 4. The Multitude which stood in the new Palace, (because some of them did but whoop as others did, who were purposely set on work (as is conceived) to mix with them & disorder them) were suddenly surrounded with a strong party of horse from the Mews, 
It is reported by some that Sir H. Mildmay, Col. Purefoy & the Speaker (doubting the How. would give too good an answer to their Petition) sent for these Horse and Foot.  and some more Companies of Foot from Whitehall, who by the appointment of the Committee of Schismatics at Derby-House were ready prepared for this design, and catched them (as it were) in a Toil, and with barbarous and schismatical rage fell upon these naked unarmed Petitioners, slew and wounded many without distinction, telling them, They were appointed to give an answer to their Petition, and they should have no other; (as indeed they had not) though the Lieut. Colonel that did all the mischief, was called into the House of Commons, and had public thanks given him at the Bar, took many of them Prisoners, & Plundered their Pockets, Cloaks, Hats, Swords, Horses, & some of them (even Gentlemen of as good quality as their General) were stripped of their doublets: those Gentlemen of quality who where in the Lobby before the Commons door, civility expecting an answer, were abused, and violently driven out by the Guard, to take their fortune among the Rabble; what Tyrants ever in the World refused to hear the Petitions and grievances of their people before? The most Tyrannical government of the world is that of Russia, and Jo. Vasilowich was the greatest Tyrant of that Nation, yet shall this Tyrant rise up in judgement at the latter day against these Monsters. Behold what entertainment your Petitioners shall have hereafter, if public Peace be the end of their desires: yet many Petitions ready drawn are sent up and down in most Counties by Committee-men, and Sequestrators, to enforce men to give thanks for the four votes against the King; and many Petitions from Schismatics, destructive to Religion, Laws, Liberties, and Property, have been obtruded upon the Houses, and received encouragement and thanks, because they tend to subvert the fundamental Government of Church and Commonwealth, and cast all into the Chaos of confusion, whereby the Grandees may have occasion to keep up this Army, and perpetuate their Tyranny and our burdens. And from these Tumults of their own raising, the grandees pretend a necessity to keep this Army about this Town, to watch advantages against it. Cromwell having often said, This Town must be brought to more absolute obedience, or laid in the dust; in order to which, the Soldiers are now disarming the Country, and then the City is next, who being once disarmed, must prostitute their mony-baggs to these fellows, or be Plundered.  
Reader, having spoken my sense to thee, I leave thee to thy own sense; submitting myself to as much Charity as God hath endowed thee withal. God that made all, preserve and amend all, This shall be the daily prayer of him that had rather die for his Country, than share with these Godly Thiefs, in eating out the bowels of his Country, and enriching himself with public spoils.   

The History of INDEPENDENCY.  
YOU have in The mystery of the two Juntoes, 
The Preamble.  Presbyterian and Independent, presented to your view these two Factions, (as it were in a Cockpit pecking at one another) which rising originally from the two Houses and Synod, have so much disturbed and dislocated, in every joint, both Church and Commonwealth. I must now set before you Independency Triumphant, rousing itself upon its Legs, clapping its wings, and crowing in the midst of the Pit, with its enemy under its feet, though not yet well resolved what use it can or may make of its Victory.  
But before I go any farther, it is fit I tell you what Independency is.  
It is Genus generalissimum of all Errors, Heresies, Blasphemies, 
1 What Independency is  and Schisms; a general Name and Title under which they are all united, as Sampson's Foxes were by the Tails. And though they have several opinions and fancies (which make their vertiginous heads turn different ways) yet profit and preferment (being their Tails) their last and ultimate end by which they are governed (like a Ship by his Rudder) and wherein they mutually correspond; the rest of their differences being but circumstantial are easily plastered over with the untempered Mortar of hypocrisy by their Rabbis of the Assembly, and their Grandees of the two Houses and Army, in whom they have an implicit faith. As Mahomet's Koran was the Gallimaufry of Jew and Christian; so are they a Composition of Jew, Christian, and Turk; 
Independen●● is compounded of Judaisme  with the Jew they arrogate to be the peculiar people of God, the Godly, the Saints, who only have right unto the Creatures, and should possess the good things of this World, all others being Usurpers; a Tenent so destructive to humane society and civil Government, that by virtue hereof they may and do by fraud, or force, Tax, eat up with Freequarter, cousin and plunder the whole Kingdom, and count it but robbing the Egyptians: To this purpose they overthrow all the Judicatures, Laws, and Liberties of the Land, and set up Arbitrary Committees, Martial-Law, and Weathercock Ordinances in their room, made and unmade by their own overpowering faction in Parliament at pleasure, with the help and terror of their Janissaries, attending at their doors.  

●ristianism.  With the Christian, some of them (but not all) acknowledge the Scriptures, but so far only as they will serve their turns, to Pharise themselves, and Publican all the World besides; men filled with spiritual pride, mere Enthusiastiques, of a speculative and high flying Religion, too high for Earth, and too low for Heaven; whereas a true and fruitful Religion (like Jacob's Ladder) Stat pede in terris, caput inter nubila conduit, must have one end upon earth, as well as the other in Heaven. He that acknowledgeth the duties of the first table to God, and neglecteth the duty of the second table to Man, is an Hypocrite both against God and Man.  

●rcism.  With the Turk they subject all things, even Religion, Laws, and Liberties (so much cried up by them heretofore) to the power of the Sword, ever since by undermining practices and lies they have juggled the State's Sword into the Independent Scabbard.  

●he Earl of ●●sex and Sir ●ill. Waller ●●dermined 〈◊〉 let in the independents.  The Earl of Essex, General of all the Parliaments Forces (a man though popular and honest, yet stubbornly stout, fit for Action than Counsel, and apt to get a victory than improve it) must be laid by, and his Forces reduced. The like for Sir William Waller and his Forces; that Commanders of Independent Principles and Interests, with Soldiers suitable to them, might by degrees be brought into their room to reap the harvest of those crops which they had sown.  
This was the groundwork of the Independent design, to monopolise the power of the Sword into their hands.  
This could not be better effected than by dashing the Earl of Essex and Sir William Waller one against another: for which purpose the  schismatic Sir A. Haslerigge was employed with Sir William Waller and some others (whose Ashes I will spare) with the E. of Essex to break them one upon another. This was at last effected by taking advantage of their several misfortunes: the one at Lislethyell in Cornwall, the other at the Devises in Wiltshire, where Haslerigge (a man too ignorant to command, and too insolent to obey) not staying for the foot, who lay round about the Devises in a storming posture, charged up a steep hill with his Horse only against the Lord Wilmots Party, one Division so far from another, that the second Division could not relieve the first, thereby freeing Sir Ralph Hopton from an assured overthrow, and bestowing an unexpected Victory on the L. Wilmot: he received a wound in his flight, the smart whereof is still so powerfully imprinted in his memory, that he abhors fight ever since; witness his praying and crying out of Gun-shot at the Battle at Cheriton, when he should have fought; and his complaints openly made in the House of Commons of the Earl of Stanford for Bastonadoing him. Which rashness of his (if it deserve not a worse name) was so far from being discountenanced, that he received not long after a gift of 6500 l. from the House, and is lately made Governor of Newcastle, and 3000 l. given him to repair the works there. I shall not need the Spirit of Prophecy to foresee, that the tenth part of the said 3000 l. will not be bestowed upon those Works. Thus was he favoured by his party in the House, who were thought to look upon this action as an acceptable service.  
In farther porgresse of this design, Manchester (a Lord, 
3 The Earl of Manchester undermined.  and therefore not to be confided in) was undermined and accused by his Lieut. General Cromwell of high Crimes, whom he again recriminated with a Charge of as high a nature; and when all men were high in expectation of the event, it grew to be a drawn battle between them; whereby, all men concluded them both guilty: Manchester was discarded.  
Out of the ashes of these three arose that Phoenix (forsooth a new moddelled Army, under the Command of Sir Thomas Fairfax, a Gentleman of an irrational and brutish valour, fit to follow another man's counsel than his own, and obnoxious to Cromwell, and the Independent faction (upon whose bottom he stands) for his preferment, it being no dishonour to him to become the property to a powerful Faction.  

4 The Victories ●f the new ●odel how achieved.  It pleased God to bestow many Victories upon this Army over the King's Forces, then strong in bulk, but weakened by Factions, want of pay, and other distractions (whereby many of their Commanders not confiding in one another, began to provide for their future safety and subsistence) but above all, they had generally lost the people's affections. To these their Victories, the constant pay, and supplies, and all other helps and encouragements from a concurring State, which their working and restless Faction carefully accommodated them withal, (far beyond what any other Army had formerly) did much conduce, in so much as they cleared the Field, and took in all the enemies Garrisons, with so much facility, that to many men they seemed rather Cauponantes bellum quam belligerantes, to conquer with silver than with steel: a good Purse is a shrewd weapon.  

5 Artifices to make Cromwell and his ●ew Model popular.  Thus this Faction having got a General fit for their turn, and a Lieutenant General wholly theirs in judgement and interest, were diligent to make him famous and popular, by casting upon him the honour of other men's achievements and valour. The News-books taught to speak no language but Cromwell, and his Party; and were mute in such actions as he and they could claim no share in; for which purpose the Presses were narrowly watched. When any great exploit was half achieved, and the difficulties overcome, Cromwell was sent to finish it, and take the glory to himself, all other men must be eclipsed, that Cromwell (the Knight of the Sun, and Don Quixot of the Independents) and his Party may shine the brighter.  

6 The new Model new-modelled by degrees to put the Sword into the hands of Schismatics.  And that Cromwel's Army might be suitable to himself, and their Designs carried on without interruption or observation of such as are not of their Principles, all the Sectaries of England are invited to be Reserves to this Army; and all pretences of scandals and crimes laid hold of at their own Councils of War, to cashier and disband the Presbyterian party, that Independents might be let into their rooms, though such as (for the most part) never drew Sword before: so that this Army (which boasteth itself for the Deliverer, nay the Conqueror of two Kingdoms) is no more the same that fought at Nazeby, than Sir Francis Drakes Ship that brought him home, can be called the same Ship that carried him forth about the Earth, having been so often repaired, and therefore suffered so many subtractions and additions, that hardly any of the old vessel remained. It was therefore nominally and formally, not really and materially the same.  
The said mystery of the two Juntoes farther tells you, that the Independent Junto bottomed all their hopes and interests upon keeping up this Army, whereby to give the Law to King, Kingdom, Parliament and City, and to establish that Chimaera called Liberty of Conscience. That this was Cromwel's ambition formerly, the Earl of Manchester's aforesaid Charge against Cromwell (though let fall without prosecution, lest so great a mystery should be discovered) makes it probable, and his later practices upon which I now fall makes it infallible.  
The Houses long since (for ease of the people) in a full and free Parliament, ordained the disbanding of this Army: 
7. The Army voted to be disbanded through Cromwel's craft.  only 5000. Horse, 1000 Dragoons, and some few Firelocks to be continued in pay for safety of this Kingdom, and some of them to be sent for Ireland: for which purpose they borrowed 200000 l. of the City (being the same sum which disbanded the Scots) and for the rest of their Arrears, they were to have Debenters and Security without all exceptions; such terms of advantage as no other disbanded Soldiers have had the like, neither are these like to attain to again: so that they have brought the Soldiers into a loss, as well as into a labyrinth; their continuing in arms without, nay, against lawful Authority, being a manifest act of Treason and Rebellion, and so it is looked upon by the whole Kingdom; nor can the Parliaments subsequent Ordinances (which all men know to be extorted by force, as hereafter shall appear) help them.  
To the passing of this Ordinance, Cromwel's Protestation in the House with his hand upon his breast, In the presence of Almighty God, before whom he stood, that he knew the Army would disband and lay down tbeir Arms at their door, whensoever they should command them, conduced much: this was maliciously done of Cromwell to set the Army at a greater distance with the Presbyterian Party, and bring them and the Independent party nearer together; he knew the Army abominated nothing more than Disbanding and returning to their old Trades, and would hate the Authors thereof.  

8. Agitators raised by Cromw.  And at the same time when he made these protests in the House, he had his Agitators (Spirits of his and his Son Ireton's conjuring up in the Army, 
9 The beginning of the project to purge the Houses.  though since conjured down by them without requital) to animate them against the major part of the House (under the notion of Royalists, a Malignant party and Enemies to the Army) to engage them against Disbanding and going for Ireland, and to make a Traitorous Comment upon the said Ordinance, 
10. The Army put into mutiny against the Parliament, whereby Cromwell monopolizeth the Army.  to demand an Act of Indemnity, and rely upon the advice of Judge Jenkins for the validity of it, and to insist upon many o●her high demands; some private, as Soldiers; some public, as Statesmen.  
Cromwell having thus by mutinying the Army against the Parliament, made them his own, and monopolised them, (as he did formerly his Brewhouse at Ely) which he might easily do, 
11. Cromwel's family in the Army.  having beforehand filled most of the chief Officers in the Army with his own kindred, allies, and friends, (of whose numerous family, 
12. Cromwell and Ireton usurp Offices in the Army.  Lievt. Col. Lilburn gives you a list in one of his Books) he now flies to the Army, doubting (his practices discovered) he might be imprisoned: where he and Ireton assuming Offices to themselves, acted without Commission; having not only been ousted by the selfdenying Ordinance, (if it be of any power against the godly) but also their several Commissions being then expired; and Sir Thomas Fairfax having no authority to make General Officers, as appears by his Commission (if he make any account of it) and therefore Sprig, alias Nathaniel Fines, in his Legend or Romance of this Army, called Anglia Rediviva, sets down two Letters sent from Sir Thomas Fairfax to the Speaker William Lenthal, one to desire Cromwel's continuance in the Army, another of thanks for so long forbearing him from the House: see Ang. Red. p. 10, 11, 29. which needed not, had he been an Officer of the Army.  
And now both of them bare-faced, and openly, join with the Army at Newmarket, in traitorous Engagements, Declarations, Remonstrances, and Manifesto's; and Petitions penned by Cromwell himself, were sent to some Counties to be subscribed, against supposed Obstructors of justice, and Invaders of the People's Liberties in Parliament; and the Army at Newmarket and Triplo-Heath prompted to cry, justice, justice against them; and high and treasonable demands, destructive to the fundamental privileges of Parliament were publicly insisted upon; many of which for quietness sake, and out of compassion to bleeding Ireland, were granted; yet these restless spirits (hurried on to further designs) made one impudent demand beget another, and when by Letters and otherwise they had promised, That if their then present demands were granted, they would there stop and acquiesce; yet when they seemed to have done, they had not done, but deluded and evaded all hopes of Peace by misapprehension, and misconstruction of the Parliaments concessions; making the misinterpretations of one grant, the generation of another demand, so that almost ever since the Parliament hath nothing else to do but encounter this Hydra and roll this stone.  
Having thus debauched the Army, 
Securing Oxford, & plundering the King from Holdenby  he plotted in his own Chamber the securing the Garrison, Magazine, and Train of Artillery at Oxford, and surprising the King's person at Holdenby; which by his Instrument Coronet Joyce, with a commanded party of Horse, he effected; and when Joyce (giving Cromwell an account of that action) told him, He had now the King in his power; well (replied Cromwell) I have then the Parliament in my Pocket. O insolent Slave! O slavish English! thus to suffer your King and Parliament, together with your Wives and Children, Religion, Laws, Liberties, and Properties, to be Captivated by so contemptible a Varlet. If our Noble Ancestors (who vindicated their Liberties, and got Magna Charta by the Sword) shall look down from Heaven, and see their Posterity so cowardly resign them to a handful of bloody, cheating Shismaticks, they will not own us, but take us for Russian Slaves, French Peasants, and cry out, that we are a Bastard brood, Servi natura, born for bondage; yet afterwards (having recourse to his usual familiarity with Almighty God) Cromwell used his Name to protest his ignorance and innocence in that business, both to the King and Parliament, adding an execration upon his Wife and Children to his protestation; yet Joyce is so free from punishment, that he is since preferred, and his Arrears paid by their means; and though both Houses required the Army to send his Royal Person to Richmond, to be there left in the hands of the Parliaments Commissioners, whereby both Kingdoms might freely make addresses to him, (for they had formerly excluded and abused the Scots Commissioners, contrary to the law of Nations, and Votes of both Houses, and yet then granted free access to the most desperate persons of the King's Party) yet they could obtain no better answer from these Rebellious Saints, than That they desired no place might be proposed for his Majesty's residence nearer London, 
Manifesto of the Army June 27. 1647  than where they would allow the Quarters of the Army to be. This was according to their old threats of marching up to London, frequently used when any thing went contrary to their desires; they knew what dangerous and troublesome guests we should find them here.  
How much is this Army degenerated since Cromwell and his demure whitelivered Son-in-law Ireton poisoned their manners with new principles? Anglia Rediviva p. 247. tells us, that about Woodstock private overtures were made by some from Court for receiving his Majesty, who was minded to cast himself upon the Army; but such was their faithfulness in that point, that conceiving it derogatory to the honour and power of Parliament, (for his Majesty to wave that highest Court, and address himself to any others) and therefore inconsistent with their trust and duty, being servants of the State, they certified the Parliament thereof, and understanding it to be against their sense also, they absolutely refused to be tampered with. Oh, how faithful then! how perfidious and Cromwellized are they now! let their frequent tampering with the King and His Party, to the amazement of the Kingdom, and the abusing of the King, testify. Read Putney Projects written by a considerable Officer of the Army, and a friend to Cromwell, though not to his false practices.  

14. Their project to keep the Parliament in Wardship.  Having thus gotten the King (the first and most visible legal authority of England) into their possession, their next design is to get the Parliament (the second legal authority of England) into their power.  

15. Purging the Houses again.  This could not be effected but by purging the two Houses of Presbyterian Members (especially the most active, and such as had laboured their disbanding) that an Independent Parliament and Army might govern the Kingdom: In order to which design they sent to the House of Commons in the name of Sir Thomas Fairfax and the Army, 
16. Accusing the 11. Members.  a general and confused Charge of High Treasons and other misdemeanours against eleven Members, for things done (for the most part in the House) and many of the principal, such as the House had long before examined and acquitted them of, and such as the whole Kingdom knows Cromwell and Ireton to be apparently guilty of; as, Trucking with the King, etc.  
One chief Article insisted upon in the Charge was, That by their power in the House, they caused the Ordinance for Disbanding this Army to pass. Here you see where the shoe wrings them; This Charge was not subscribed by any informer that engaged to make it good, or else to suffer punishment, and make the House and the parties accused, reparations: as by the Stat. 25. Ed. 3. c. 4. 27. Ed. 3. c. 18. 38. Ed. 3. c. 9 17. R. 2. c. 6. 15. H. 6. c. 4. but especially by 31. H. 6. c. 1. concerning Jack Cade (which comes nearest this case) ought to be; and they professed in the 2. 3. 4. Article of their Charge, That they were dis-obliged and discouraged from any further engagement in the Parliament service, or Ireland's preservation; And demanded the House should forthwith suspend the impeached Members from any longer sitting and acting. Whereupon, the House after full debate in a full and free Parliament, Resolved, June 25. 1647. That by the Laws of the Land no judgement could be given for their suspension upon that general Charge, before particulars produced, and proofs made; Yet the Army (which had now learned only to acquiesce in their own prudence and justice) insolently threatened to march up to Westminster against the Parliament, 
17. Threats to march up to London.  in case the said 11 Members were not suspended; and courted the City of London to sit Newters, 
18. London solicited to fit Newters.  and let them work their will with the Parliament.  
The 11. impeached Members therefore modestly withdrew to free the House from such danger, as they might incur by protecting them, as in Justice and Honour they were bound to do: After this, the Army sent in their particular Charge; and libellously published it in print by their own Authority. To which the 11. Members sent in, and published their Answer. Upon which there hath been no prosecution, because they pretend first to settle the Kingdom, b●t if they stay till these fellows have either authority, will, or skill to settle the Kingdom, they shall not need to make ready for their trial till Doomsday; Here you have a whole Army for Accusers, and the chief Officers of the Army (being Members of the House) not only accusers, but parties, Witnesses, and Judges, and carrying the Rules of Court, and Laws by which they judge, in their Scabards. And the Charge of Impeachment, such (as all men know) mutatis mutandis are more suitable to Cromwell's and Iretons actions, than the accused Parties. If the proceeding in the King's name against the 5 Members mentioned in The exact Collection part. 1. p. 38. were Voted A Traitorous design against King and Parliament, and the arresting any of them upon the King's Warrant, an Act of public enmity against the Common wealth: How much more Treasonable were these proceed; and the Armies March towards London to enforce them; and their arresting Anthony Nichols, having the Speakers Pass, and leave of the House; Colonel Burch, being upon service of the Parliament going for Ireland; and Sir Samuel Luke, resting quiet in his own house?  

19 The first occasion of quarrel against the City.  Whilst these things were acting, Cromwell finding he could not have his will upon the Parliament, but that he must make the City of London, (who had denied the neutrality) his Enemies, cast about how to cheat the Country people of their affections; (for to have both City and Country his Enemies in the posture his Army was then in, 
20. Courting and cheating the Country and all other interest to lull them a sleep till the Grandees had wrought their will upon the City and Houses.  was dangerous) he therefore by many Printed Books and Papers, spread all England over by his Agitators, and by some Journeymen Priests (whose Pulpits are the best Jugglers boxes to deceive the simple) Absolom-like, wooeth them to make loud Complaints of the pressures and grievances of the People: to neglect the King and the Parliament, and make Addresses to the Army as their only Saviour's, the Arbitrators of Peace, Restorers of our Laws, Liberties and Properties, Setlers of Religion, Preservers of all just interests: pretended to settle the King in his just Rights and Prerogatives; to uphold the Privileges of Parliament, 
21. Petitions to the Army, and for the Army.  establish Religion, to reform, and bring to account all Committees, Sequestrators, and all others that had defiled their fingers with public money or goods; To free the people from that all devouring Excise and other Taxes; to redress undue elections of Members; To relieve Ireland: Things impossible to be performed by an Army, and now totally forgotten; so that they have only accepted of their own private demands as Soldiers; That the Parliament should own them for their Army; Establish pay for them; put the whole Militia of this Kingdom, and Ireland both by Sea and Land, into their Hands, and Vote against all opposite Forces. But they are now become the only Protectors of all corrupt Committee-men, Sequestrators, Accomptants to the State, and all other facinorous persons, who comply with them to keep up this Army, for their own security against public justice.  
Having thus courted and cheated all the public and just Interests of the Kingdom, they deceived the people so far as to make them Issachar-like, patiently to bear the burden of freequarter, and to make addresses to the Army for themselves; by Petitions, to which they gave plausible answers, That this, and this was the sense of the Army: As if the sense of the Army had been the supreme Law of the Land, and to make addresses to the Parliament for the Army not to be disbanded, (for which purpose their Agitators carried Petitions ready penned to be subscribed in most Counties.)  
The People being thus lulled asleep, 
22. A quarrel against the City invented.  they now cast about how to make benefit of a joint quarrel both against the Parliament and City, (since they could not separate them) or at least against the Presbyterian party in both; they had withdrawn their quarters (in a seeming obedience to Parliaments commands) 30 miles from London (of which they often brag in their Papers) and presumed the suspension of the 11. Members, had struck such an awfulness into the Houses, that most of the Presbyterian Members would either absent themselves, (as too many indeed did) or turn Renegadoes from their own principles to them: but found themselves notwithstanding opposed, and their desires retarded (beyond their expectation) by the remainder of that party. 
23. The Army demand the City Militia to be changed into other hands.  They must therefore find out a quarrel to march against the City, and give the Houses another Purge, stronger than the former.  
The Army being principled, and put into a posture suitable to Cromwel's desire, and the Country charmed into a dull sleep, now was his time to pick a quarrel with the City, that what he could not obtain by fair means, he might obtain by foul, to make them desert and divide from the Parliament, and leave it to be modelled according to the discretion of the Soldiery. He could not think it agreeable to policy, that the City which had slai● his Compeer and fellow Prince Wat Tyler (the Idol of the Commons in Richard the seconds time) and routed his followers (four times as many in number as this Army) should be trusted with their own Militia, the City being now greater, more populous and powerful than in his days. In a full and free Parliament upon mature debate, both Houses by Ordinance (dated 4 May 1647.) had established the Militia of the City of London for a year, in the hands of such Citizens, as by their Authority and approbation were nominated by the Lord Mayor, aldermans, and Common-Council; and though the Army had recruted itself without Authority, and had got themselves invested with the whole power of all the Land forces of the Kingdom in pay of the Parliam. so that there was nothing left that could be formidable to them but their own crimes; and that it was expected they should go roundly to work upon those public remedies they had so often held forth to the people in their popular Printed Papers: 
See the Letter and Remonstrance from Sir Tho. Fairfax and the Army, p. 8. 9  Yet the Army (contrary to what they promised to the City in their Letter 10. June, and their Declaration or Representation, 14 June, 1647. That they would not go beyond their desires at that time expressed, and for other particulars would acquiesce in the Justice and wisdom of the Parliament (behold their modesty!) by a Letter and Remonstrance from Sir Thomas Fairfax and the Army, with unresisted boldness demanded the Militia of the City of London to be returned into other hands; without acquainting the City of their Commissioners (than resident in the Army to keep a good correspondency with them) therewith; upon which Letter alone, the House of Commons (being very thin, and many Members driven away by menaces) upon July 22. Voted the repealing the said Vote of 4 May, and a new Ordinance for reviving the old Militia, presently passed and transmitted to the Lords the same day about seven of the clock at night, and there presently passed without debate, though moved by some to be put off until the City (whose safety and privileges it highly concerned) were heard what they could say to it.  
Observe that neither by the said Paper from the Army; nor by any man in the two Houses, any thing was objected against any of the new Militia.  
And indeed, formerly the Parliament never made choice of, enlarged, or changed the City Militia, but they were still pleased fi●st to communicate the same to the Common-Council; a Respect justly showed to that City which had been such good friends to them; but of late, since the Parliament have shifted their old Principles and Interests, they have learned to lay by their old Friends. The pretence for this hasty passing the Ordinance, was to prevent the Armies so much theatned march to London, if the Houses refused to pass it; and the City's opposition, if not passed before their notice of it. But the real design was to strike a discontent and jealousy into the City, thereby to force them to some act of self-defence, which might give a colour to the Army to march up against them, and their friends in the Houses.  
The unexpected news of this changing their Militia, 
24. The City troubled at the change of their Militia.  caused the City (June 24. being Saturday) to meet in Common-Council, where, (for some reasons already expressed) and because the repealing this Ordinance upon no other grounds than the Armies imperious desires, might justly be suspected, to shake all other Ordinances, for security of Money, sale of Bishop's Lands, 
I appeal to Colonel Harvy, whether this did not fright him?  by making them repealable at the Army's pleasure; they resolve to Petition the House upon Monday morning following, being 26. July, which they did by the Sheriffs and some Common-Council men; But so it happened, that about one thousand Apprentices wholly unarmed, 
25. The City Petition the Houses for their Militia again.  came down two or three hours after with another Petition, of their own, to the Houses; Therein complaining, that to Order the City's Militia was the City's Birthright belonging to them by Charters confirmed in Parliament, for defence whereof they had adventured their lives as far as the Army; And desired the Militia might be put again into the same hands in which it was put with the Parliaments and Cities consent by Ordinance, May 4. 
26. The tumult of Apprentices, 26. July.   
Upon reading these Petitions, the Lords were pleased to revoke the Ordinance of July 23. and revive that of May 4. by a new Ordinance of July 26. which they presently sent down to the Commons for their consents, where some of the Apprentices (presuming they might have as good an influence upon the House to obtain their due, as the Army in pay of the Parliament had to obtain more than their due) in a childish heat were over-clamorous to have the Ordinance passed, refusing to let some Members pass out of the House, or come forth into the Lobby when they were to divide upon the question about it, (so ignorant were they of the customs of the House) which at last passed in the affirmative about three of the clock afternoon; 
27. The Tumult of Apprentices ceased, but artificially continued by Sectaries.  and then most of the Apprentices departed quietly into the City. After which, some disorderly person (very few of them Apprentices) were drawn together and instigated by divers Sectaries and friends of the Army who mingled with them (amongst whom one Highland was observed to be all that day very active; who afterwards [26. Sept.] delivered a Petition to the House against those Members that sat, and was an Informer and Witness examined about the said Tumult) gathered about the Commons door and grew very outrageous, compelling the Speaker to return to the Chair after he had adjourned the House; and there kept the Members in until they had passed a Vote, That the King should come to London to Treat.  
This was cunningly and premeditately contrived, to increase the scandal upon the City; yet when the Common-Council of London heard of this disorder as they were then sitting; they presently sent down the Sheriffs to their rescue with such strength as they could get ready (their Militia being then unsettled by the contradicting Ordinances of the Parliament) who at last pacified the Tumult, and sent the Speaker safe home; which was as much as they could do in this interval of their Militia, being the Houses own Act.  

28. The Speaker of the Commons complained of a report, that he meant to fly to the Army; yet run away to the Army:  The Lords adjourned until the next Friday; the Commons but until the next day. Tuesday morning the Commons sat again quietly, and after some debate adjourned until Friday next, because the Lords had done so.  
The next day being Wednesday, the monthly Fast, the Speaker and Members met in Westminster Church; where the Speaker complained (in some passion) to Sir Ralph Ashton and other Members, of a scandalous report raised on him in the City, as if he intended to desert the House, and fly to the Army, saying, he scorned to do such a base, unjust, dishonourable act; but would rather die in his House and Chair: which being spoken in a time and place of so much reverence and devotion, makes many think his secret retreat to the Army (the very next day) proceeded not so much from his own judgement, as from some strong threats from Cromwell and Ireton (who were the chief contrivers of this desperate plot to divide the City and Houses, and bring up the Army to enthrall them both) That if he did not comply with their desires, they would cause the Army to impeach him for cozening the State of many vast sums of money.  
And truly I remember I have seen an intercepted Letter, sent about the time of his flight, from the Army to Will. Lenthal Speaker without any name subscribed to it, only the two last lines were of John rushworth's hand; earnestly importuning him to retire to the Army, with his friends.  
On Thursday morning early, 
29. The City proclaim against Tumults.  the newly renewed Militia of London, made public Proclamation throughout the City and Suburbs, and set up printed Tickets at Westminster, That if any person should distrub either of the two Houses or their Members, the Guards should apprehend them, and if resistance were made, kill them; yet notwithstanding, the Speaker and his party, (carrying the causes of their fear in their own consciences) in the evening of that day secretly stole away to Windsor to the Headquarters.  
Upon Friday morning at least 140 of the Members assembled in the House (they that fled being about 40.) 
30. The Houses appear, the Speakers being at the Army.  whither the Sergeant coming with his Mace, being asked where the Speaker was? answered, He knew not well; that he had not seen him that morning, and was told he went a little way out of Town last night; but said, he expected his return to the House this morning: after that, being more strictly questioned about the Speaker, he withdrew himself, and would not be found, till the House (after four hours' expectation, and sending some of their Members to the Speakers house, who brought word from his Servants, that they conceived he was gone to the Army) had chosen a new Speaker, 
31. New Speakers chosen.  Master Henry Pelham, and a new Sergeant, who procured another Mace. The like (mutatis mutandis) was done by the Lords, to prevent discontinuance and fayler of the Parliament for want of Speakers to adjourn and so to continue it; 
32. Petition and Engagement of the City.  and take away all scruples.  
As for the Petition and Engagement of the City (so much aggravated by the Independent party) it was directed to the Lord Mayor, aldermans, and Common-Council; from divers Citizens, Commanders and Soldiers, and was occasioned by some intelligence they had, that the Army would demand an alteration of the City Militia, in order to a design they had against the City. It was only intended to the Common Hall, but never presented, as the Soldier's Petition was to their General, which being taken notice of by the Parliament as it was in agitation, was so much resented by the Soldiery, as to put themselves into the posture they are now in (as Lieut. Col. Lilburn says in one of his books) to act no longer by their Commission, but by the principles of Nature and self-defence; nor did the said Engagement contain any thing but resolutions of self-defence, in relation to the City; so that we cannot see what the Army had to do to declare their sense upon it in their Letter 23. July, & so put a prejudice upon it in the Houses. I have insisted the more particularly upon this Grand Imposture, as being the Anvil upon which they hammered most of their subsequent designs, violent and illegal accusations.  

33. Votes passed after new Speakers chosen.  The new Speakers chosen; the two Houses proceeded to Vote and Act, as a Parliament.  
And first, The House of Commons Voted in the eleven impeached Members: next, They revive and set up again the Committee of safety by Ordinance of both Houses, enabling them to join with the Committee of the restored City Militia, giving power by several Ordinances to them, to List and raise Forces, appoint Commanders and Officers, issue forth Arms and Ammunition for defence of both Houses and the City against all that should invade them. Which Votes and preparations for their self-defence (warranted by the same law of Nature, as the Armies papers affirm) were not passed, nor put in execution until the Army (every day recruited contrary to the Houses Orders) were drawing towards London, and had with much scorn disobeyed the Votes and Letter of both Houses, prohibiting them to come within thirty miles of London.  

34. Members Engagement with the Army.  The Army, to countenance their Rebellion, draw the two Speakers and fugitive Members to sit in consultation, and pass Votes promiscuously with the Council of War in the nature of a Parliament, and to sign an Engagement (dat. 4. August) to live and die with Sir Thomas Fairfax and the Army under his command, affirming therein, that generally throughout, their sense agreeth with the Declaratitn of Sir Tho. Fairfax, and his Council of War, showing the grounds of their present advance towards the City of London. In which Declaration, the Council of the Army take upon them to be supreme Judges over the Parliament; Telling you who of the two Houses they hold for persons in whom the public trust of the Kingdom remaineth, and by whose advice they mean to govern themselves in managing the weighty affairs of the Kingdom. They declare against the late choice of a new Speaker by some Gentlemen at Westminster; And that as things now stand, there is no free nor legal Parliament sitting, being through the violence (26. July) suspended. That the Orders and Votes, etc. passed 29. July last, and all such as shall pass in this assembly of some few Lords, and Gentlemen at Westminster, are void and null, and ought not to be submitted unto.  
Behold here, not only a power without the Parliament Houses, judging of the very essence of a Parliament, and the validity of their resolutions, but usurping to themselves a negative Voice, which they deny to the King; and yet a Schismatical faction in the 2 Houses complying with them, and betraying and prostituting the very being, Honour, and all the fundamental rights and privileges of this and all future Parliaments to an Army of Rebels who refuse to obey their Masters, and disband.  
This Engagement so over-leavened the army, that their brutish General sent forth Warrants to raise the Trained Bands of some Counties to march with him against the City and both Houses; although Trained Bands are not under any pay of the Parliament; and therefore not under command of the General, by any Order or Ordinance. But what will not a Fool in authority do, when he is possessed by Knaves? Miserable man! His Foolery hath so long waited upon Cromwell's and Ireton's knavery, 
35. The City send Commissioners to the Army, Fowks, Gibs, and Estweck, by whom they are betrayed.  that it is not safe for him now to see his folly, and throw by his Cap with a Bell and his Babble.  
The Earl of Essex died so opportunely, that many suspected his death was artificial.  
Yet the City were so desirous of Peace, that they sent Commissioners sundry times to the Army to mediate an Accord; Who could obtain no more equal terms of Agreement than that They should yield to desert both Houses, and the impeached Members: Call in their Declaration newly Printed and published: Relinquish the Militia: Deliver up all their Forts and Line of Communication to the Army; together with the Tower of London, and all the Magazines and arms therein: Disband all their Forces: Turn all the Reformadoes out of the Line: Withdraw all their guards from the Houses: Receive such Guards of Horse and Foot within the Line, as the Army should appoint to guard the Houses: Demolish their works, suffer the whole Army to march in triumph through the City as Conquerors of it and the Parliament, and (as they often give out) of the whole Kingdom: terms which they might have had from the great Turk, had he sat down before them and broken ground.  
All which was suddenly and dishonourably yielded to, and executed according, by such an Army as was not able to fight with one half of the City, had they been united: But they are the Devils seed-men, and have sown the Cockle of Heresies and Scism, so abundantly in City and Country (especially amongst the more beggarly sort) that these men joining Principles and interests with the Army, weaken the hands of all opponents. They often brag that they made a civil march, free from Plunder: I Answer, they neither durst nor could do otherwise: their Soldiers being ill armed, and so few, that they were not able to keep stands in the streets, and keep the Avenues while their Fellows dispersed to Plunder. Charles 8. with a far greater, and more Victorious Host, durst not offer violence to the far less● City of Florence when Signior Capona put an affront upon him in the Townhouse; Bidding him beat his drums, and he would ring their Bells.  

36. The fugitive Members returned.  Upon the 6. of August, 1647. The General brought the fugitive Speakers and Members to the Houses with a strong Party, (who might have returned sooner without a Guard, had not their own crimes and designs hindered them) the two Palaces filled with armed guards, double Files clean through Westminster hall, up the stairs to the House of Commons, and so through the Court of Requests to the Lords House, and down stairs again into the old Palace. The Soldiers looking scornfully upon many Members that had sat in the absence of the Speaker, and threatening to cut some of their throats. And all things composed to so ridiculous a terror, as if they would bespeak (without speaking) the absence of those Members that sat; placed the Speakers in the Chairs without Vote, out of which they had been justly Voted for deserting their calling; where the General was placed in a Chair of State, (enough to make a fool of any man that was not fit for it) and received special thanks for his service from both Speakers. And in the second place, a day of thanksgiving was appointed to God, (I think) for his patience in not striking these Atheistical Saints with thunder and lightning for making him a stolen to their premeditated villainies.  
Here Sir Thomas Fairfax, with a breath (and before any man that was not privy to the design could recover out of his amazement) was made Generalissimo of all the Forces and Forts of England and Wales; to dispose of them at his pleasure: Constable of the Tower of London. The common Soldiers Voted one month's gratuity, besides their pay (the Commons being in good case to give gifts before they pay debts:) left to the discretion of the General to set what Guards he pleased upon the two Houses. Whereby you may perceive in what unequal condition those Members that did not run away with the Speaker, do now sit; after so many reiterated threats of the General against them in his printed Papers.  
After this, the General, Lieutenant General, 
37. The Armies march in Triumph through the City: with other subsequent Acts.  Major General Skippon (heretofore Waggoner to Sir Francis Pere, and one that hath got well by serving the City) and the whole Army, with the Train of Artillery, marched through London in so great pomp and Triumph, as if they would have the People understand that the Authority of the Kingdom (in whose hands soever it remains in these doubtful times) must submit to the power of the Sword, the hilt and handle whereof they hold. They turn out the Lieutenant of the Tower without cause shown. The consequences of these two actions were, that immediately the City decayed in Trade above 200000 l. a week; and no more bullion came to the Mint.  
They displace all our Governors, though placed by Ordinance of Parliament, and put in men of their own party; for this encroaching faction will have all in their own hands: they altar and divide the Militia of London, setting up particular Militia's at Westminster, Southwark, and the Hamblets of the Tower, that being so divided they may be the weaker: Demolish the Lines of Communication, that the City and Parliament may lie open to Invasion when they please, and fright many more Members from the Houses with threats, and fear of false impeachments.  
The 11. impeached Members, having leave by order of the House, and licence of the Speaker, some to go beyond Sea, and Anthony Nichols to go into his own Country to settle his Affairs; Some of them (as Sir William Waller, and M. Den: Hollis) were attached upon the Sea, Nichols arrested upon the way into Cornwall by the Army, and despitefully used. And when the General was inclined to free him, Cromwell (whose malice is known to be as unquenchable as his Nose) told him he was a Traitor to the Army. You see now upon whom they meant to fix the people's allegiance, (for where no allegiance is due, there can be no Treason) and to what purpose they have since by their 4 Votes (first debated between the Independent Grandees of the Houses and Army) laid aside the King, and (as much as in them is) taken off our Allegiance from him.  
Col. Birch formerly employed for Ireland by the Parliament, was imprisoned, and his men mutinied against him by the Army, and Sir Sam. Luke resting quietly in his own house, was there seized upon, and carried Prisoner into the Army.  
All these Acts of terror were but so many scarecrowes set up to fright more Presbyterians from the Houses, and make the Army masters of their Votes.  

38. Proceed of both Houses under the power of the Army.  I must in the next place fall upon the Proceeding in both Houses, acted under the power and influence of this all-inslaving, alldevouring Army, and their engaged party; to attain the knowledge whereof, I have used my utmost industry and interest with many my near friends, and kinsmen sitting within those Walls, heretofore (when Kings, 
39 Ordinance to Nul and Void all Acts passed in absence of the 2 runagado Speakers.  not Brewers and Draymen, were in power) the walls of public Liberty.  
The Lords that sat in absence of the two Speakers (all but the Earl of Pembroke, whose easy disposition made him fit for all companies) found it their safest course to forbear the House, leaving it to be possessed by those few Lords that went to, and engaged with the Army: which engaged Lords sent to the Commons for their concurrence to an Ordinance, To make all Acts, Orders, and Ordinances, passed from the 26, July, (when the tumult was upon the Houses) to the 6 of August following (being the day of the fugitive Members return) Void and Null ab initio. This was five or six several days severally and fully debated, as often put to the question, and carried in the Negative every time; Yet the Lords still renewed the same message to them, beating back their Votes into their throats, and would not acquiesce, but upon every denial put them again to roll the same stone, contrary to the privileges of the Commons.  
The chief Arguments used by the engaged party were all grounded upon the Common places of fear and necessity: 
40. Menaces used by the engaged party in the House.  Mr. Solicitor threatening if they did not concur, the Lords were resolved to vindicate the Honour of their House, and sit no more; they must have recourse to the power of the Sword; The longest Sword take all. That they were all engaged to live and die with the Army. They should have a sad time of it. Haslerigge used the like language, farther saying, Some heads must fly off; and he feared, the Parliament of England would not save the Kingdom of England, they must look another way for safety. They could not satisfy the Army but by declaring all void ab initio; and the Lords were so far engaged, that no middle way would serve. To this was answered, That this was an appeal from the Parliament to the Army. And when these and many more threats of as high nature were complained of, as destructive to the liberty and beings of Parliaments, the Speaker would take no notice of it. Sir Henry Vane junior, Sir John Evelin junior, Prideaux, Gourdon, Mildmay, Thomas Scot, Cornelius Holland, and many more, used the like threats.  
Upon the last Negative (being the fifth or sixth) the Speaker perceiving greater enforcements must be used) pulled a Letter out of his pocket, 
41. A threatening Remonstrance from the Army to the House.  From the General and General Council of the Army (for that was now their stile) pretending he then received it; But it was conceived he received it over night, with directions to conceal it, if the question had passed the affirmative. It was accompanied with a Remonstrance full of villainous language and threats against those Members that sat while the two Speakers were with the Army, calling them pretended Members, charging them (in general) with Treason, Treachery, and breach of Trust; and protested, if they shall presume to stir before they have cleared themselves, that they did not give their assents to such and such Votes, they should sit at their peril, and he would take them as prisoners of War, and try them at a Council of War.  
What King of England ever offered so great a violence to the fundamental Privileges of Parliament, as to deny them the Liberty of Voting I and No freely? Certainly the little finger of a Jack Cade, or a Wat Tyler, is far heavier than the loins of any King.  
Many Members were amazed at this Letter, and it was moved, That the Speaker should command all the Members to meet at the House the next day; and should declare, That they should be secured from danger: And that it might be ordered, That no more but the ordinary Guards should attend the house. But these two motions were violently opposed with volleys of threats, by the aforesaid Parties and others. And after more than two hours' debate, the Speaker refused to put any question upon them, or any of them; and so adjourned to the next morning, leaving the Presbyterian Members to meet at their Peril.  
The next day being Friday, the 20. August, there was a very thin Assembly in the House of Commons; the House having with so much violence denied protection to their Members the day before, made most of the Presbyterian party absent. Some went over to the Independent party: others sat mute. At last a Committee was appointed presently to bring in an Ordinance of Accommodation; which was suddenly done and passed, and is now printed at the latter end of the said menacing Remonstrance of the Army: a Child fit to wait upon such a Mother.  

42. Debate in passing the Ordinance of null and void.  Thus was this Ordinance of null and void gotten (which hath been the cause of so much danger and trouble to multitudes of people) by the Lords reiterated breaches upon the Privileges of the House of Commons; The engaged parties threats within doors: The Armies thundering Letters and Remonstrance, Their Guards upon their doors, and a Regiment or two of Horse in Hide Park, ready to make impressions upon the House, in case things had not gone to their minds: divers of whose Commanders walking in the Hall, enquired often how things went: protesting, they would pull them forth by the Ears if they did not give speedy satisfaction.  
Thus for the manner of passing that Ordinance.  
The matter of Argument used against it was (as far as I can hear) to the purpose following: It was alleged that the Force upon Monday, 26. July, ended that day, that the next day being Tuesday, the House met quietly, and adjourned: that upon Friday following, the Houses sat quietly all day, and gave their Votes freely, and so forward; the City having sufficiently provided for their security, that the transient force upon Monday, could have no influence on the Houses for time to come.  
That the Supreme power of no Nation can avoid their own Acts by pretended force: this would make the Common people, the Jurors, and Judges, to question all Acts done in Parliament, since one man can, and may judge of force as well as another: this were to bring the Records of the House into dispute: Magna Charta was never gotten nor confirmed but by Force: Force was threefold, upon one, or both Houses; or upon the King, in giving his Royal assent; neither could plead it: the Parliament is presumed to consist of such men as dare lay down their lives for their Country.  
When the King came with force to demand the 5. Members: When the City came down crying for justice against the Earl of Stafford: When the Women came down crying for Peace: When the Reformadoes came down in a much more dangerous Tumult than this of the unarmed Apprentices; yet the Houses continued sitting and acting, and none of their Acts were nullified.  
That to make their Acts, Orders, and Ordinances void ab initio, would draw many thousand men, who had acted under them, into danger of their lives and fortunes, who had no Authority to dispute the validity of our Votes: we must therefore give them power to dispute our Acts hereafter upon matter of fact; for to tie men to unlimited and undisputable obedience to our Votes, and yet to punish them for, obeying whensoever we shall please to declare our acts void, ab initio, is contrary to all reason. If to act upon such Ordinances were criminal, it was more criminal in those that made them. And who shall be Judges of those that made them? not the Members that went to the Army; They are parties preingaged to live and die with the Army; and have approved the Army's Declaration, calling those that sat, a few Lords and Gentlemen, and no Parliament: They have joined with a power out of the Houses to give a Law to, and put an engagement upon both Houses, a precedent never heard of before, of most dangerous consequence, it takes away the liberty of giving I and No freely, being the very life of Parliaments: If all done under an actual force be void, it it questionable whether all hath been done this four or five years be not void; and whether his Majesty's Royal assent to some good Bills passed this Parliament, may not be said to have been extorted by force. If the King's party prevail, they will declare this Parliament void, upon the ground yourselves have laid. 
Fabian's History.  1. Hen. 7. that King urged the Parliament to make void ab initio, all Acts passed Rich. 3. which they refused upon this ground, that then they should make all that had acted in obedience to them liable to punishment, only they repealed those Acts.  
The debate upon this Ordinance of Null and Void, held from Monday, 9 of Aug. to the 20. Aug. (when it was passed) but not without some interloaping debates of something a different nature, yet all looking the same way; occasioned by Messages from the Lords: 
43. The Lord's Message to the Commons to approve the Declaration of the Army:  Namely, once upon a Message from them, The said Declaration from Sir Thomas Fairfax and his Army, concerning their advance to London was read and debated in gross, whether the Commons should concur with the Lords in approving it? But almost all but the engaged party and their pensioners distasted it, it was laid by without any question put, lest it should prove dangerous to put a Negative upon their Masters of the Army. Yet many menaces (according to custom) were used by the engaged party to get it passed: Haslerigge affirming that those Gentlemen that sat and voted for a Committee of safety, and the Kings coming to London, 
44. The Committee of safety.  did drive on the design of the City Protestation and Engagement. To which was answered, That the Committee of safety was not then newly erected by those which sat, but of the old Committee, revived by that Vote, which had been long since erected in a full and free Parliament, when the Army first mutined, and threatened to march to London, and for the same ends, defence of Parliament and City; and for the Kings coming to London, it was Voted only to get him out of the power of the Army; as formerly in a full and free Parliament he had been Voted to Richmond for the same reason.  
Upon another Message from the Lords, 
45. A Committee to Examine the Tumult.  the Commons concurred in an Ordinance to erect a Committee of Examination, to inquire into, and examine the City Petition, Engagement, and the force upon the Houses 26. July, & all endeavours to raise any forces, etc. This Committee consisted of 22. Commons besides Lords, almost all of them Members engaged with the Army: but because there were some three or four Presbyterians gotten in amongst them, to shut these Canaanites forth, that the Godly, 
46. A Sub-committee of secrecy selected to examine the Tumult.  the true seed of Israel might shuffle the cards according to their own mind, the 13. August after (upon another Message from the Lords) there was a Sub-Committee of Secrecy, named out of this Grand Committee of Examinations, to examine upon Oath; the persons were, the Earl of Denbigh, and Mulgrave, Lord Grace of Wark, Lord Howard of Escrig, Sir Arthur Haslerigge, Mr. Solicitor, Gourdon, Miles Corbet, Alderman Penington, Allen, Edwards, Col. Venus, or any three of them; all persons engaged to live and die with the Army, and now appointed to make a clandestine scrutiny, and search into the lives and actions of the Presbyterian Party that sat in Parliament doing their duty, when the engaged Party fled to the Army, and brought them up in hostile manner against them.  
The unreasonableness of this way of proceeding was much urged, and farther alleged, 
47. Debate upon passing the Committee of Secret examinations  that it was neither consonant to the customs of the House, nor unto common reason, that a Sub-committee should be chosen out of the Grand Committee of Examinations, with more power than the Grand Committee itself had, and excluding the rest of the Committee, under the pretence of Secrecy; Besides, it was against the privilege of the House of Commons, that the Lords should nominate the Commons in that Sub-committee as well as their own Members. But the Independent Grandees would have it pass. Breach of Privilege and all other considerations are easily swallowed when they are subservient to their present designs.  

48. The manner of prosecution & proceeding upon the Tumult.  The party engaged were resolved to be Examiner's, Informers, and Witnesses, as well as Parties; (so active was their malice) and had so well packed their Cards, that eight or nine Schismatical Lords engaged likewise with them, and the Army should be Judges of the Presbyterian Party that sat in absence of the two Speakers, the better to give the two Houses a through Purge, and make them of the same complexion with the Army: without which they had no hopes to divide the power and profit of the Land between themselves by 10000 l. 20000 l. in a morning shared amongst the Godly; and to make the whole Kingdom to be Gibeonites, hewers of wood, and drawers of water to the faithful.  

49. Miles Corbet makes report of Examinations taken at the Close Committee First, against the Committee of Safety.  In order to the playing of this game, Miles Corbet (Interpreter to the State-puppet play behind the curtain, commonly called The Close Committee of Examinations) upon the 3. September, stood up and began his Report from that Inquisition, saying, He would begin with the Committee of Safety, wherein many Members were concerned, and it was necessary to purge the Houses first. But further said, he would suppress the names of many of his Witnesses, because the Depositions he should report were but preparatory Examinations, and it would be for service of the State to conceal their names.  
He first produced many Warrants signed at the Committee of Safety by the Earls of Pembroke, Suffolk, Middlesex, Lincoln, Lord Willoughby of Parham, Maynard, Mr. Hollis, Sir Phi. Stapleton, Sir Will. Waller, Mr. Long, Mr. Nichols, Sir William Lewis, Mr. Baynton.  

Against Master Baynton.  Next, Corbet reported, he had a Witness who deposed that a Gentleman with a Red head had signed many Warrants, supposed to be Master Edward Baynton; at length after much wyer-drawing of the business, one Warrant was shown to Master Baynton, which he confessed to be his hand. And presently Haslerig moved that Master Baynton might forthwith Answer; against which was objected, That since these were but preparatory Examinations, not legal proofs, no man was bound to Answer them; otherwise a man shall be but to as many several answers as several new matters of Charge come in against him, and shall day by day be liable to new vexations, and never know when he hath cleared himself. But Corbet (who of an examiner was now become the King's Solicitor, or Advocate Criminal) moved to proceed to Judgement against him: but first to ask him some preparatory questions. But it was answered, that it was illegal to squeeze examinations out of a man's own mouth; neither was a man bound to answer, where his words may condemn, but not absolve him: for so much as depends upon the testimony of Witnesses against this Gentleman, you cannot proceed unless he be by, and have liberty to put cross questions to the Witnesses. It is alleged, Warrants were signed, and all done in relation to a new War. It is answered, it was done in order to Self-defence (allowed by the Laws.) Long before this occasion, when the Army first mutinied and threatened to march up to London, and use such extraordinary means against the Parliament and City as God had put into their hands, you then in a full and free Parliament appointed a Committee of Safety for your defence, who sat and acted. This Committee was but the same revived, and upon the like or worse threats and menaces, as by the many printed papers from the Army will appear; you have no Testimony against this Gentleman by name, but only a character of his Hair: and for signing the Warrant confessed by himself he is acquitted by the Proviso of the Ordinance 20 August last, which excepted only such as acted upon the force; but when the Committee of Safety was revived, the Parliament was freer from force than it is now. Mr. Baynton notwithstanding, was adjudged to be suspended the House during pleasure of the House, which is as much as to say, So long as the Tyranny of this Domineering Faction lasteth.  
The 4 of Sept. Corbet reported he had a Witness (but named him not, 
Against Mr. Walker.  because they were but preparatory examinations) who deposed, that an elderly Gentleman, of low stature, in a Grey suit, with a little stick in his hand, came forth of the House into the Lobby when the tumult was at the Parliament door, and whispered some of the Apprentices in the ear, and encouraged them, (supposed to be Mr. Walker.) Mr. Walker denied he spoke then with any man in the Lobby, or saw any face that he knew there; and so neglected the business as a thing not considerable. But the next day Corbet moved that Mr. Walker might be ordered to put on his Grey suit again, and appear before the Close Committee, and the Witness, who saith, he knoweth him again if he see him. I hear Mr. Walker desired to know (seeing the Witness had not named him) by what Authority the examiners should take such a Deposition, and make application thereof to him; And seeing there were many Gentlemen in the House that day with whom that Character agreed as well as with himself, why the Reporter did not move that all to whom that Character was appliable might be put to that test as well as himself, but single him out for a mark to shoot at; complaining, that he was not ignorant out of what quiver this Arrow came: he had been threatened with a revenge by some of that Close Committee, and had other Enemies amongst them, that could by't without barking. He told them that yesterday Mr. Corbet reported that the supposed old man whispered, etc. but desired those that were then in the House to call to mind that the noise was then so great in the Lobby, that no whisper, nay the loudest words he was able to speak could not be heard. Then Corbet changed his Tale, saying, the words were, What you do, do quickly; and were spoken aloud; and said the Character agreed best with Mr. Walker, for that the Deponent said, the Gentleman was a Lean meager man.  
Here Mr. Walker desired the House to take notice, that the Reporter had twice varied his Report. 1 In the words spoken, from a whisper to loud speaking. 2 In the Character enlarged with the words lean and meager. Here is haile-shot provided, if one miss the other must hit; Yet with this addition, there were divers in the House with whom the Character agreed as well as with himself. And by the incivility of his words, it should seem the Witness is a man of no breeding; wherefore he desired to hear his name, that he might inquire of his credit and repute. If the Reporter thinks he may be practised, he doth not think him a man of honesty, and then he had more cause to suspect him. He farther complained, that to make Hue and Cry after him (as it were upon fresh suit) upon a Character of his person and  five or six weeks after the supposed fact (he never having absented himself one day from the House) savoured too much of a party overswayed with malice and revenge.  
Your Close Committee of Examination carry on businesses so in the dark (being parties engaged with the Army, and not sworn to be true in their office) that no man can see how to defend himself, or how he is dealt with, or when he is free from trouble and danger. It seems we are here called ex tempore to answer for our lives, ore tenus; and our Accusation beginneth with the Examination of our persons, to make us state a Charge against ourselves, to betray ourselves, and cut our own throats with our tongues, contrary to Magna Charta, the Petition of Right, and all those Laws of God and Man, which in the King's time were in use; and no Witnesses are produced, nor so much as named: methinks therefore we are compelled to play at blindman bough for our lives, not seeing who strikes us. You have the most summary way of hanging one another that ever I saw; it is a kind of Star-chamber proceeding in matter of life and death; your secret Examinations savours so much of the Spanish inquisition, and of the Council of troubles erected by the Duke d' Alva in the Low-countries (called Consilium Sanguinis) that they can never agree with the Laws and Nature of our Nation: if our Kings shall imitate you hereafter, they will be the greatest Tyrants in the World. Formalities and Privileges of Court, derogating from the common Rules of Law, and practice of the Land, are but curtains drawn before oppression and tyranny to dazzle men's eyes. Give me leave to tell you, that I have served you faithfully from the beginning, and have taken as much pains, and run as many hazards, as most men in your service, wherein I have lost my health, and above 7000 l. of my Estate, without one penny compensation, as other men have had; nor have I laid my hand upon any man's money or goods, or had any gainful employment from you; I contented myself to serve my Country gratis, and with some little honour I had gotten thereby, whereof you have now rob me, by a roving Accusation shot at random at me. Had I cheated the State of 40000 l. or 50000 l. peradventure I might have been thought a Godly, confiding man, of right principles, and have had 10000 l. given me for my pains. Sir, You have heard the voice of a Freeman (not of a slave) that dares keep his first Principles, Religion, Laws, and just liberties, whosoever lays them aside▪ and protest against Tyranny and oppression, wheresoever he finds it, whether in the Government of one or many. You may murder me by the Sword of Justice, but you cannot hurt me: but deliver me from the evils to come. Nor shall I be unwilling to suffer a Gaol-delivery of my Soul from the prison of my body when I am called to it.  
When Mr. Walker had done his defence, the debate followed much to this purpose, That to order him to appear in his Grey suit before the Close Committee and Witness was illegal, and against the Laws and Liberties of the Subject.  
1. It is to help another to accuse himself; which is all one as if he did accuse himself.  
2. To bid a Witness look upon a man (after he is engaged to name some body) is to prompt him to go no farther than the party shown.  
3. A Witness ought not to be twice examined against a man, that is, to draw him on by degrees to swear home, and to mend in his second Deposition what fell short in his first.  
4. If the Witness depose to the matter, not naming the party, and five or six weeks after declare the Person without Oath, this is no Deposition, and if the Oath be renewed, the Witness is twice examined: So the business was laid by, and Corbet allowed to show Mr. Walker casually as he could meet with him to his Witness, which was (in a manner) to draw dryfoot after him with his blond-hound.  
I was the more curious in gathering the circumstances of this business out of the reports of many several men, in regard of the rareness of the case, and the exquisitness of the malice with which it was prosecuted. And it seemed to me the more admirable, because I hear generally that Mr. Walker hath always been opposite to all parties and factions, both Presbyterian and Independent, upon whom he looks as the common disturbers both of Church and Commonwealth, and enemies of peace. Nor could he ever be persuaded to be at any of their Juntoes or secret meetings; and therefore it is not probable he should suddenly and in the open view of the House go forth and engage with a company of silly unarmed Apprentice Boys. But I hear they cannot endure his severity, nor he their knavery. What will not the malice of a desperate Anabatistical faction attempt? they have long sported in the blood and treasure of the Land, as the Leviathan doth in the Waters; and do now keep up a numerous Army to carry on those designs by force, which they can no longer make good by fraud. All England is become as Munster was, and our Grandees suitable to John of Leyden and Knipperdoling.  
The next report Corbet made concerning Mr. Recorder Glyn. 
Against Mr. Recorder Glyn.  The chief things objected were, That he had frequented the Common Council, the Committees of the Militia, and Safety, more than he was want to do: That he was silent and made no opposition; and that he gave thanks to the Apprentices when they delivered their Petition to the City, offering their help for defence thereof against whomsoever.  
The Recorder answered, The Charge was long, and his Memory short: He desired time to examine his memory, concerning the circumstances of time, place, persons and other matters; and that he might examine Witnesses for clearing his innocency. But his prosecutors (hoping to do more good upon him by way of Surprise, than in a deliberate and legal way of proceeding) put him upon it to answer ex tempore. He confessed and avoided some things, but denied the most material. He denied he was more frequent at their meetings than ordinary. For his silence, he alleged, he was but the City's servant, and had no voice amongst them, but when his opinion was demanded: That he gave thanks to the Apprentices as a servant by command, yet had mixed some admonitions and reprehensions in his Speech to them.  
So the Recorder withdrew. And presently Haslerig (according to his custom) moved judgement might be given against him. To which was answered, that the Recorder denied the principal parts of his Charge; and offered proofs by Witnesses: you must give him that leave, or take all parts of his speech for granted; as well that makes for him, as against him. Two or three days more will make this business ripe for judgement: let him have one judgement for all. If you judge him now to be expelled the House, he is already fore judged, and that will be a leading case to a farther judgement: for who dares acquit where you have condemned? A man ought to be but once judged upon one accusation. The dishonour of expulsion is a punishment exceeding death. If you judge now upon one part of the Accusation, and hereafter upon another part of the Accusation, he will be twice condemned upon one Accusation, and shall never know when he hath sati fied the Law, an endless vexation.  
Yet Haslerig moved he might receive judgement now, for what was already proved or confessed, to be expelled the House, (saying, The Lords went on without obstruction in their businesses, because they had purged their House) and that he might be farther impeached hereafter upon farther hearing. So he was adjudged to be discharged the House, committed to the Tower, and farther impeached hereafter.  

Against S John Maynard.  Sir John Maynnrd the same day was called to Answer. He desired a copy of his Charge, with leave to Answer in writing by advice of Counsel, as the 11. Members formerly did; to examine Witnesses on his part, and cross examine their Witnesses. But these requests were denied, and he commanded to Answer ex tempore. He gave no particular Answer, but denied all in general: as Col. Pride (whom he cited for his precedent) had formerly done at their Bar. He was adjudged to be discharged the House, committed to the Tower, and farther impeached.  
The like for Commissary General Copley, whose case differed little.  

Against the 7. Lords.  The 8. of Sept. the Earls of Suffolk, Lincoln, Middlesex, the Lords Berkley, Willioughby, Hunsdon, and Maynard, were impeached of High Treason in the name of the Commons of England, for levying War against the King, Parliament, and Kingdom. The Earl of Pembroke (then sent to Hampton Court with the Propositions on purpose to avoid the storm) was omitted until Wednesday following, and so had the favour to be thought not worth remembering.  
Sir John Evelin the younger sent up to the Lords with the Impeachment, and a desire they might be committed. They were committed to the Black Rod; and so the engaged Lords had their House to themselves according to their desires.  

50. Schismatical Petitions.  The 14. Sept. A Petition from divers Schismatics in Essex came to the Houses, bearing this Title, To the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled, distinct from the Lords and Commons that sat in absence of the two Speakers.  
16. Sept. a Petition from divers Sectaries of Ox fordshi. Bucks. Berksh. was delivered to the House against divers Members sitting in the House, Enemies to God and Godliness, Enemies to the Kingdom, etc. Usurpers of Parliamentary authority, who endeavoured to bring in the King upon his own Terms. They desired a free Parliament, and that (according to the desires of the Army) those that sat when the Parliament was suspended in absence of Tithes, etc. in it. Such another Petition came but the day before from Southwark.  
These Petitions were all penned by the engaged party of the Houses and Army, 
The aim of these Petitions.  and sent abroad by Agitators to get subscriptions. The design was to put the two parties in the House into heights one against another, to make the lesser party in the House (viz. the engaged party, but 59) to expel the greater party, being about 140. whereby the House might be low and base in the opinion of the people, and no Parliament, and so leave all to the power of the Sword. The Army daily recruiting, and thereby giving hopes to all lose people, that the Army should be their common Receptacle, as the sea is the common Receptacle of all waters, because those who had no hopes to be Members of Parliament, might become Members of this Army. Besides their plausible way of prompting the people to Petition against Tithes, Enclosures, and Copyhold fines uncertain, was to encourage them to side with the Army against all the Nobility, Gentry, and Clergy of the Land, (from whom the Army did most fear an opposition) and to destroy Monarchy itself; since it is impossible for any Prince, to be a King only of Beggars, Tinkers, and Cobblers.  
But these interlopping discourses omitted, 
Against the Lord Major Aldermen and Citizens.  let us again return to these prodigious Impeachments. The next in order comes in the Lord Mayor, aldermans and Citizens, with whom short work was made. Impeachments were sent to the Lords against them, and they sent to the Tower upon a bare report of the Inquisitor-general Corbet, and the reading of some depositions, the Witnesses names for the most part concealed, and none of them so much as called to the Commons Bar, to see what they could say for themselves; contrary to Magna Charta, 29. ch. and contrary to 28. Edw. 3. enacting, That no man shall be put out of his Land, etc. nor taken, nor Imprisoned, etc. or put to death, etc. without being brought to answer by due process of Law. That is, according to the Stat. 42. Ed. 3. c. 3. That no man be brought to answer without presentment before Justices, or matter of Record, or by due process, or writ original according to the old Law of the Land: not according to new invented Articles of Impeachment, but according to those Laws that were well known, and old in Edw. 3. time: See Stat. 37. Ed. 3. 1. Ed. 6. ch. 12. 6. Ed. 6. c. 11. and the Stat. 25. E. 3. saith, No man shall be taken by Petition or suggestion made to the King or his Counsel, etc. and the House of Peers is no more but the King's Counsel, as anon I shall make evident.  

51. Arguments against impeachments before the Lords.  It was moved by divers, that these Gent. might be tried according to Law at the King's Bench, by a Jury of twelve men de vicineto, their Peers and Equals to judge of matter of fact: alleging that the Common Law was the Birthright of all the free People of England: which was one of the 3. Principles for which the Parliament so often declared in print that they fought, and for defence whereof they had entered into a covenant, with their hands lifted up to God: the other two principles were Religion and L●berties.  
1. The Lords were not Peers to the Commoners: At the common Law they shall have sworn Judges for matter of Law, of whom they may ask questions in doubtful points, nor can they be Judges in their own cases.  
2. They have sworn Jurors of the Neighbourhood for matter of fact, whom they may challenge.  
3. The known Laws and Statutes for Rules to judge by, which in case of Treason in the Stat. 25. Ed. 3. you cannot Vote nor declare a new Treason: And if you could, to do it Ex post facto, is contraty to all rules of justice: The Apostle saith, sin is a breach of a Commandment (or Law) I had not known sin but by the Law: the Law therefore must go before the Sin.  
4. At the Common Law, They have Witnesses openly and newly examined upon Oath before the accused's face, who may except against them and cross examine them.  
5. Even in Star-chamber and Chancery (where only hear are upon Testimonies) the Examiner's are sworn Officers.  
6. A man hath but one Trial and Judgement upon one accusation: so that he knows when he hath satisfied the Law.  
In this way of proceeding, all these necessary legalities are laid by; and these Gentlemen have not so much fair play for their Lives and Estates, as Naboth had for his Vineyard: he had all the formalities of the Law; yea, he had Law itself; yet he had not justice, because they were the sons of Belial that were set before him: what shall we conceive these Witnesses are that do not appear? nay, whose very names are concealed? yet Naboth was murdered by the sword of Justice: for the honour of Parliaments give not the people cause to suspect these Gentlemen shall be so too: non recurrendum ad extraordinaria, quando fieri potest per ordinaria.  
But all this was but to charm a deaf Adder: 
52. Arguments proving the Lords to have no power of Judicature over the Commons.  the nine or ten engaged Lords that then possessed the House, were thought to be fit than a Jury of Middlesex to make work for the hangman, and yet they have no Judicature over the Commons, as appears by the Precedent of Sir Simon de Berisford, William Talboys, and the City of Cambridge. Note that one precedent against the Jurisdiction of a Court is more valued than a hundred for it: because the Court cannot be supposed ignorant of the Law, and its own rights; but a particular man or Client may: see Sir John Maynard's Royal quarrel, and his Laws subversion, Lieutenant Col. Lilburn's Whip for the present House of Lords, and Judge Jenkins Remonstrance to the Lords and Commons of the two Houses of Parliament, dated 21 Feb. 1647. As for the cases of Weston, Gomenes, and Hall, (cited by Mr. Pryn) they were for facts done beyond Sea, and before the Stat. 1. Hen. 4. ch. 14. whereof the Common Law could then have no connusance, and therefore an extraordinary way of proceeding before the Lords was requisite, and by the King's special authority it was done, without which (I dare boldly affirm) the Lords have no Judicature at all; which thus I make appear.  
1. The King by delivering the Great Seal to the Lord Keeper, 
53. The House of Peers no Court of Judicature at all properly and per se.  makes him Keeper of his conscience for matter of equity; By His Brevia patentia to the Judges of the two Benehes and the Exchequer, the King makes them administrators and interpreters of his Laws: But he never trust any but himself with the power of pardoning and dispensing with the rigour of the Law in Criminal cases. And though the Lord Keeper is Speaker of the Lords House of course, yet he is no Member of the Lords House virtute Officii: the Judges are not Members, but assistants only: so that no man in the House of Peers, as he is simply a Peer, is trusted by the King either with dispensation of Law, or Equity.  
2. When a Peer of Parliament, or any man else is tried before the Lords in Parliament criminally, he cannot be tried by his Peers only, because in acts of judicature there must be a Judge Superior, who must have his inferiors ministerial to him: therefore in the trial of the Earl of Strafford (as in all other trials upon life and death, in the Lord's House) the King grants his Commission to a Lord high Steward to sit as Judge, and the rest of the Lords are but in the nature of Jurors. So that it is the King's Commission that Authoriseth and Distinguisheth them.  
3. When a Writ of Error issueth out of the Chancery to the House of Peers, they derive their Authority merely from that Writ.  
For the three Reasons aforesaid, the House of Peers is no Court of Judicature, without the King's special Authority granted to them, either by his Writ, or his Commission; and the Lords by their four Votes having denied all further address or application to the King, have cut off from themselves that fountain from which they derived all their power; and all trials by Commission must be upon Bills or Acts of Attainder, not by Articles of Impeachment, a way never heard of before this Parliament, and invented to carry on the designs of a restless impetuous faction: Had the Faction had but so much wit as to try the Gentlemen by Commission of Oyer▪ and Terminer, before Sergeant Wild, he would have borrowed a point of Law to hang a hundred of them for his own preferment.  
Observe, that almost all the cases cited by Mr. Pryn concerning the Peers trials of Commissioners were Authorised by the King upon the special instance of the House of Commons; as for the House of Commons, they never pretended to any power of Judicature, and have not so much Authority as to Administer an Oath, which every Court of Pye-Poulders hath.  

54. Blank Impeachments dormant.  But this way of trial before the preingaged Lords, and upon Articles of Impeachment, (which they keep by them of all sorts and sizes fit for every man, as in Birchin-lane they have suits ready made to fit every body) was the apt means to bring men to death, whom they feared living, had not a doubt of the Scots coming in taught them more moderation than their nature is usually acquainted with; and to fright away, (at least) put to silence the rest of the Members with fear of having their names put in blank Impeachments; and that it might be so apprehended, Miles Corbet moved openly in the House of Commons that they should proceed with the Impeachments which were ready, nothing wanted but to fill up the Blanks, they might put in what names they pleased. This Inquisitor General, this Prologue to the Hangman, that looks more like a Hangman than the Hangman himself, hath since gotten a rich office of Register of the Chancery, as a reward for his double diligence: Oh Sergeant Wild and Mr. Steel despair not of a reward.  
Friday 27 Sep. t the advice of Sir Thomas Fairfax and his Council of War was read in the House of Commons, 
55. Establishment for the Army.  What standing forces they ought to keep up in England and Wales, and what Garrisons; also what forces to send for Ireland; namely, for Ireland, 6000 foot, and 2400 horse, out of the supernumerary lose forces, being no part of the Army; and for England, upon established pay 18000 foot at 8 d. per diem. 7200 horse at 2 s. per diem each Trooper, 1000 Dragoons, and 200 Fire locks, Train of Artillery, Arms and Ammunition, to be supplied. The foot to be kept in Garrisons, yet so that 6000 may be readily drawn into the Field▪  
The Independent party argued, that the Army were unwilling to go for Ireland, pretending their engagement to the contrary; If you divide or disband any part of your Army, they will suspect you have taken up your old resolution against them, to disband the whole Army: it is now no time to discontent them, when the King's Answers to your Propositions tend to divide you and your Army, and the people are generally disaffected to you.  
The Presbyterian Party argued, that the engagement of the Army ought to be no rule to the Counsels of the Parliament; otherwise new engagements every day may prescribe the Parliament new Rules; we must look two ways. 1 Upon the people unable to bear the burden. 2. Upon the Army. Let us keep some power in our own hands, and not descend so far below the dignity of a Parliament, as to put all into the hands of the General and his Council of War. You have almost given away all already. The Army adviseth you to keep up your Garrisons, then upon mature deliberation this House formerly Voted: you have already made Garrisons manned with gallant and faithful men, to whom you own Arrears; to remove them, and place new Soldiers in their rooms, will neither please them, nor the places whe●e they are quartered, who being acquainted with their old guests, will not willingly receive new in their rooms. These men have done you as good and faithful service as any in the Army; and were ready to obey you and go for Ireland, had they not been hindered by those, who under pretence of an engagement to the contrary (which they mutinously entered into) will neither obey you, nor go for Ireland, nor suffer others to go. Though you discharge these men without paying their Arrears, (which others of ●ther principles will not endure) yet give them good words. If you will be served by none, but such as are of your new principles; yet consider your Army are not all alike principled. and peradventure the old principles may be as good as the new for public, though not so fit for private designs and purposes. You have passed an Ordinance, That none that have born Arms against the Parliament shall be employed: if you disband all such, your Army will be very thin; many have entered into pay there in order to do the King service, and bring the Parliament low. There is no reason you should keep up 1400 horse more than you last voted to keep up, being but 5800 at which time 60000 l. a Month was thought an establishment sufficient both for England and Ireland. But now the whole charge of England and Ireland will amount to 114000 l. a month, which must be raised upon the people, either directly and openly by way of sessement, or indirectly and closely, partly by sessements, & partly by freequarter & other devices: nor will the pay of 2 s. per diem to each Trooper, and 8 d. to each foot Soldier enable them to pay their quarters. If you mean to govern by the Sword, your Army is too little: if by the Laws and justice of the Land, and love of the people, your Army is too great: you can never pay them, which will occasion mutinies in the Army and ruin to the Country. Thus disputed the Presbyterians, but to no purpose, it was carried against them.  
Observe that when the War was at the highest, the monthly tax came but to 54000 l. yet had we then the Earl of Essex's Army, Sir William Waller's, My Lord of Denbighs, M. Gen. Poyntz's, M. Gen. Massey's, Maj. Gen. Laughorn's, Sir William Brereton's, Sir Th. Middleton's Brigades, and other forces in the field, besides Garrisons.  
But now this Army hath 60000 l. a month, 
56. Monthly taxes.  and 20000 l. a month more pretended for Ireland; which running all through the fingers of the Committee of the Army,  
That Kingdom (which is purposely kept in a starving condition to break the Lo. Inchequins Army, 
57 Ireland why kept in a starving condition.  that Ireland may be a receptacle for the Saints, against England spews them forth) hath nothing but the envy of it, the sole benefit going to this Army. This 20000 l. a month being a secret unknown to the common Soldiers, the Grandees of the Army put it in their own purses.  
Moreover, this Army hath still a kind of free quarter, (under colour of lodging, fire and candle,) for who sees not that these masterless guests upon that interest continued in our houses, do and will become Masters of all the rest? and who dares ask money for quarter of them, or accept it when it is colourably offered, without fear of farther harm? besides, the Army, (whose requests are now become Commands) demanded that they might have the levying of this Tax, and that their accounts might be audited at the Headquarters; and though the Officers of this Army (to catch the people's affections) encouraged them often to Petition the Houses against Freequarter, pretending they would forbear it, after an establishment settled upon them; the use their party in the House made of these Petitions, was to move for an Addition of 20000 l. or 30000 l. a month, and then they should pay their quarters, lodging, fire and candle, nay stable-room too excepted.  
Here it is not amiss to insert a word or two of this villainous oppression, Freequarter; 
58. Freequarter.  whereby we are reduced to the condition of conquered Slaves, no man being Master of his own Family, but living like Bondslaves in their own Houses, under these Egyptian Taskmasters, who are spies and intelligencers upon our words and deeds, so that every man's table is become a snare to him. In the third year of King CHARLES, the Lords and Commons in their Petition of Right (when not above 2000 or 3000. Soldiers were thinly quartered upon the people but for a month or two) complained thereof to his Majesty as a great grievance, contrary to the Laws and Customs of the Realm, and humbly prayed as their right and Liberty, according to the Laws and Statutes of this Kingdom, that he would remove them, and that his people might not be so burchened in time to come, which his Majesty graciously granted. Yet now we are ten thousand times more oppressed with them, and if these quarterers offer violence or villainous usage to any man in his house or family, or commit murder or felony, they are protected against the Laws and Justice of the Land, and Triable only by a Council of War at the Headquarters, where a man can neither obtain justice, nor seek it with safety. 
59 Martial Law.  So that we live under the burden of a perpetual Army of 30000. or 40000. men, exempt from all but Martial Law, which frequently oppresseth, seldom righteth any man: witness Oliver Cromwel's taking of Tompson (being no Soldier) from the House of Commons door with Soldiers, imprisoning and condemning him at a Council of War, where he sat Judge in his own cause, there being a quarrel between them; yet it was held Treason in the Earl of Strafford, to condemn the Lord of Valentia so, being a Member of his Army, because it was in time of Peace, as this was. Many other examples we have of the like nature, and of this Army, enough to persuade us, that these vindicative Saints will not govern by the known Laws of the Land, (for which they have made us spend our money and blood) but by Martial Law, and Committee Law, grounded upon Arbitrary Ordinances of Parliament, which themselves in the first part of exact Collections, p. 727. confess, are not laws without the Royal assent.  
This Army hath been daily recruited without any Authority, far beyond the said number or pay established; the supernumeraries living upon freequarter; and when complaints have been made thereof in the House, the Army being quartered in several Brigades, supernumeraries have been disbanded in one brigade, & their Arms taken by their Officers, 
60. Cheats put upon the State.  and shortly after they have been listed again in another Brigade, and their Arms sold again to the State, after a while to new Arm them. And of this sort were those Arms which being found in a Magazine in Town by some Zealots, and rumoured to belong to the City for the arming of Reformadoes, were upon examination found to belong to Oliver Cromwell: so the business was buried in silence; for though the Kings over sights must be tragically published to the world, yet the heinous crimes of the godly must lie hid under the mask of Religion.  
And though they have usually taken freequarter in one place, 
61. Arrears secured although the State owes them nothing.  and taken Composition money for freequarter in another place, some of them in two or three places at once 3 s. a day, some of them 5 s. for a Trooper, and 1 s a day, and 1 s. 6 d. for a foot soldier, whereby no arrears are due to them, but they own money to the State, yet they have compelled the Houses to settle upon them for pretended Arrears.  
1. The moiety of the Excise (that they may have the Soldiers help in levying it; although to flatter the peope, the Army had formerly declared against the Excise.)  
2. The moiety of Goldsmiths-hall.  
3. Remainder of Bishop's Lands.  
4. The Customs of some Garrisons.  
5. Forrest Lands.  
This Army brags They are the Saviour's (nay conquerors) of the Kingdom. Let them say when they saved it, whether at the Fight at Nazeby, or taking in of Oxford, and we will pay them according to the than list. And for all the recuits taken in since the reducing of Oxford, it is fit they be disbanded without pay, having been taken in without, nay, against Authority, to drive on wicked designs, and enthrall King, Parliament, City, and Kingdom.  
24. Decemb. 1647. The two Houses by their Commissioners presented to the King (at Carisbrook-Castle) 4. 
62: 4. Dethroning Bills presented to the King at Carisbrook Castle.  Bills to be passed as Acts of Parliament, and divers Propositions to be assented to. They are all printed, so is his Majestis Answers to them, wherefore I shall need to say the less of them, only a word or two to two of the Bills.  
1. The Act for raising, settling, 
63. Acts for the Militia.  and maintaining Forces by Sea and Land, within the Kingdoms of England and Ireland, Wales, etc. (though it seems to be but for 20. years) devests the King, his Heirs, and Successors, of the power of the Militia for ever, without hope of recovery but by repealing the said Act, which will never be in his nor in their power: for,  
First, it saith, That neither the King, nor His Heirs, or Successors, nor any other, shall exercise any power over the Militia by land or sea, but such as shall Act by authority and approbation of the said Lords and Commons: That is, a Committee of State of twenty or thirty Grandees, to whom the two Houses shall transfer this trust, being overawed by the Army, (for the groundwork of this Committee was laid by these words, though the Committee be erected since.)  
And Secondly, it prohibiteh the King, His Heirs and Successors, etc. after the expiration of the said 20. years, to exercise any of the said powers without the consent of the said Lords and Commons, and in all cases wherein the said Lords and Commons shall declare the safety of the Kingdom to be concerned after the said 20. years expired, and shall pass any Bills for raising, Arming, etc. Forces by Land or Sea, or concerning Levying of Money, etc. if the Royal assent to such Bills shall not be given by such a time, etc. then such Bills so passed by the Lords and Commons shall have the force of Acts of Parliament without the Royal assent. Lo, here a foundation laid to make an Ordinance of both Houses equal to an Act of Parliament, & take away the King's Negative Voice, if this be granted in one case, it will be taken in another, and then these subverters of our Religion, Laws, and Liberties, will turn their usurpations into a legal Tyranny.  
2. It gives an unlimited Power to the two Houses to raise what Forces and what numbers for Land and Sea, and of what persons (without exceptions) they please, and to employ them as they shall judge fit.  
3. To raise what Money they please for maintaining them, and in what sort they think fit, out of any man's Estate. This is a Tax far more Arbitrary and unlimited than Ship-money, and the more terrible because it depends upon the will and pleasure of a multitude; who to support their own tyranny, and satisfy their own hunger after other men's goods, may and do create a necessity, and then make that necessity the law and rule of their actions and our sufferings: besides, they are but our fellow subjects that usurp this Dominion over us, which aggravates the indignity. If the 24 Conservators of the Peace in Hen. 3. time, were thought a burden to the Commons, and called totidem tyranni; what will our Grandees prove when the Power of the sword is theirs by Act of Parliament? Besides, if the King give them his Sword, they may take all the rest of the Propositions demanded without a Treaty.  
The Bill for adjournment of both Houses to any other place, etc. 
64. Bill for adjournment of the Parliament as well for Place as time.  will enable the engaged Party of the two Houses and Army to adjourn the two Houses from time to time, to, or near the Headquarters of the Army; where those Members that refuse to enter into the same Engagement, shall neither sit with accommodation nor safety, and so be shaken off at last: this is a new way of purging the Houses. Besides, the Parliament following the motions of the Army, the King shall follow the Parliament, whereby the Army having both King and Parliament present with them, whatsoever attempt shall be made against the Army, shall be said to be against the safety and Authority of the King and Parliament, and a legal Treason, triable by Indictment, not a constructive Treason only triable before the Lords.  
Note this Message to the King, plus significat quam loquitur, though it holdeth forth but four Demands to open view, yet it includes five; for, if the King pass these four Bills, as Acts of Parliament, either he must do it by his Personal Presence in the House of Peers, or by His Commission under the Great Seal; and so consequently must confirm the Parliaments Great Seal, and all things done by it, (to the nullifying His own Great Seal at Oxford.) His personal presence they will not admit; for, though they pretended heretofore they take up Arms to bring the King to his Parliament, yet now they continue in Arms to keep Him from His Parliament, lest the presence of the true Sun should obscure such Meteors, and Ignes fatni, as they are. Though this may be Godly and Saintlike dealing, yet it is not plain nor fair dealing, latet anguis in herba, there is Coloquintida, nay death in the pot. 
65. The Kings answer debated.   
Monday 3 Jan. the Kings Answer to the said Bills and Propositions was debated in the House of Commons. And first, Sir Thomas Wroth (Jack-Pudding to Prideaux the Postmaster) had his cue to go high, and feel the pulse of the House; who spoke to this purpose, That Bedlam was appointed for madmen, and Tophet for Kings: that our Kings of late had carried themselves as if they were fit for no place but Bedlam: that his humble motion should consist of three parts.  
1 To secure the King, and keep him close in some inland Castle with sure guards.  
2 To draw up Articles of Impeachment against him.  
3 To lay him by, and settle the Kingdom without him; he cared not what form of Government they set up, so it were not by Kings and Devils.  

Ireton's speech.  Then Commissary Ireton (seeming to speak the sense of the Army, under the notion of many thousand Godly men who had ventured their lives to subdue their enemies) said after this manner, The King had denied safety and protection to his people by denying the four Bills; that subjection to him was but in liars of his protection to his people; this being denied, they might well deny any more subjection to him, and settle the Kingdom without him: That it was now expected, after so long patience, they should show their Resolution, and not desert those valiant men who had engaged for them be and all possibility of retreat, and would never forsake the Parliament, unless the Parliament forsook them first.  
After some more debate, when the House was ready for the question, 
Cromwel's Speech.  Cromwell brought up the rear, and giving an ample Character of the valour, good affections, and godliness of the Army, argued; That it was now expected the Parliament should govern and defend the Kingdom by their own power and resolutions, and not teach the people any longer to expect safety and government from an obstinate man, whose heart God had hardened: That those men who had defended the Parliament from so many dangers with the expense of their Blood, would defend them herein with fidelity and courage against all opposition. Teach them not by neglecting your own and the Kingdom's safety (in which their own is involved) to think themselves betrayed, and left hereafter to the rage and malice of an irreconcilable enemy whom they have subdued for your sake; ●nd therefore are likely to find His future Government of them insupportable, and fuller of Revenge than Justice, lest despair teach them to seek their safety by some other means than adhering to you, who will not stick to yourselves; and how destructive such a resolution in them will be to you all, I tremble to think, and leave you to judge.  
Observe, he laid his hand upon his Sword at the latter end of his speech; that Sword that which by his side could not keep him from trembling when S. Philip Stapleton baffled him in the House of Commons.  
This concluding Speech having something of menace in it, was thought very prevalent with the House.  
The first of the four questions being put, 
66. The 4 Bills for no addresses nor applications passed.  That the two Houses should make no more Addresses nor Applications to the King; the House of Commons was divided, 141 yea, to 91 no's, so it was carried in the Affirmative.  
The other three Votes followed these Vote with facility: See them in print. Upon the last of these 4 Votes the House was divided, and candles were Voted to be brought it only to tell the House; yet (contrary to the said Order) when the candles were in they proceeded farther, as followeth:  
The Members had been locked into the House of Commons from before nine of the clock in the morning to seven at night, 
67. The Committee of Safety revived.  and then the doors were unlocked, and what Members would, suffered to go forth, whereby many Presbyterians thinking the House had been upon rising, departed, when presently (the House being grown thin) the Vote to revive the Committee of both Kingdoms called the Committee of safety at Darby-house, passed by Ordinance dated 3 Jan. 1647. in these words; Resolved, etc. That the powers formerly granted by both Houses to the Committee of both Kingdoms, (viz. England and Scotland) in relation to the two Kingdoms of England and Ireland, be now granted and vested in the Members of both Houses only that are of that Committee, with power to them alone, to put the same in execution. The original Ordinance that first erected this Committee, and to which this said Ordinance relates, beareth date 7 February 1643. in which the English Committees were appointed from time to ti●e, to propound to the Scotish Commissioners whatsoever they should receive in charge from both Houses, and to ●ake report to both Houses, to direct the managing of the War, and to keep good correspondency with foreign States, and to receive directions from time to time from both Houses, and to continue for three months and no longer. But this Ordinance, 3 January 1647. vests the said power in the Members thereof only, and alone: words excluding the two Houses; and for a time indefinite. 
* The Members of this Committee are now, the E. of Northumberland, Robert E. of Warwick, the E. of Kent, Ed. E. of Manchester, Wil L. Say and Seal. Phil. L. Wharton, Jo. L. Roberts, Wil Pierrepoint, Sir Hen. Vane sen. Sr. Gilbert G rrard, Sr. Will Armine, Sr. Ar. Haslerig. Sr. Hen Vane jun. Jo. Crew, Rob. Wallope, Oliver St. john's, Sol. O. Cromwell, St. Brown, Natha. Fiennes, Sr. Jo. Evelin. jun.  There were then added to this Committee, Nathaniel Fiennes, in place of Sir Phil. Stapleton; Sir John Evelin junior, in place of M. Recorder; and the Earl of Kent, instead of the Earl of Essex. 22 Jan. following, the Lords sent down a Message for a farther power to this Committee, which was granted in these words, Power to suppress Tumults and Insurrections in England, etc. and at Barwick; and for that purpose the Committee to have power to give Orders and Directions to all the Militia and Forces of the Kingdom. The addition of four Lords and eight Commoners likewise to this Committee was desired, but denied.  

68 Whitehall and the Mews Garrisoned.  Friday 14 January, after a long debate, it was ordered that Sir Lewis Dives, Sir John Stowel, and David Jenkins, be tried as Traitors at the King's Bench; the Grand Jury had found the Bill against Jenkins. Mr. Solicitor, etc. appointed to manage this business, 
* See Judge Jenkins' Remonstrance to the Lords and Commons of Parliament, 21. Feb. 1647.  but Jenkins is so great a Lawyer, that the Solicitor durst not venture upon him, the long sword being more powerful in his mouth than the Law; wherefore the Solicitor found an Error in the indictment, turned him back again upon the House to be impeached before the Lords, to whose Jurisdiction he pleaded: so the Solicitor put the affront from himself upon the Houses. It was now twelve of the clock, and many of the Independent party began to cry, Rise, rise; The Presbyterians thinking all had been done, many went to Dinner, yet the Independents sat still, and finding the House for their turn, moved, That a Letter might be forthwith sent to Sir Thomas Fairfax, to send a convenient number of Foot to Garrison Whitehall, and a party of Horse to quarter in the Mews. The Lord's concurrence was not desired to this Vote, but the Letters immediately drawn and sent.  
Observe, that before this Vote passed, divers forces were upon their March towards the Town, and came to Whitehall Saturday following by eight of the Clock in the morning.  
Saturday 15. Jan. The Army sent a Declaration to the House of Commons, Thanking them for their 4. Votes against the King, 
69. The Army's Declaration, thanking the Commons for their 4. Votes. 70. The Lords pass the 4. Votes.  promising them to live and die with the Commons, in defence of them against all Opponents.  
Many of the Lords had argued very hotly against the said four Votes, insomuch that it was 10. Lords to 10. but this engagement of the Army, and the unexpected garrisoning of Whitehall, and the Mews, turned the scales; so that they passed the said 4. Votes, only adding a short preamble (little to the purpose) holding forth some reasons for passing them, to which the Commons, when they came down, assented. When presently (about twelve of the clock the House being thin) Dennis Bond moved, That whosoever should act against those 4. Votes, or incite other to act against them, should be imprisoned and sequestered.  
Three or four days after the Lords had passed the said 4. Votes, 
71. The Army thanks the Lords.  the Army vouchsafed to spit thanks in their mouths, and make much of them. These 4. Votes were generally sinisterly taken, and filled men's minds with suspicion, what form of Government the Grandees would set up, now they had laid by the King; and every man's mind presaged a new War, which they conceived the Independent Grandees were willing to have, to colour their keeping up this Army, and raising money to maintain them, and every man began to lay the project of a new war at their door: notwithstanding, (by way of prevention) they had Impeached divers Members, and Citizens of London, for endeavouring a new War, when they did but raise men for their self-defence.  
To show the people therefore the reasons of these 4. Votes, 
72. The Declaration against the King.  the Independent Grandees appointed a Committee to search into the King's conversation and errors of his Government, and publish them in a Declaration to the World: wherein they objected many high crimes against Him concerning His Father's death, the loss of Rochel, and the Massacre and Rebellion in Ireland: which upon debate in the House, were very much moderated by the Presbyterians; of which Declaration I will only say, that they have set forth no new matter therein, which they have not formerly published in parcels, since which time they have taken, and caused others to take the National Covenant, whereby they vow to maintain the King's Person, Crown and Dignity, in defence of Religion, Laws, and Liberties: and therefore to reprint only the same things as arguments to lay by the King, savours more of design, than justice.  
I will wade no farther in the censure of the said Declaration, lest I imitate the Authors of it; and as they by a feeble accusation have done the King much right, so I by a weak defence should do him much wrong.  

73. Tho. Haslerig's Letter concerning the King.  The people were as ill satisfied with this Declaration, as with the 4. Votes; wherefore (24. Feb.) Mr. Speaker, with much seriousness, presented to the House a Letter out of Leicester-shire from Thomas Haslerig, (brother to Sir Arthur) which was read, to this purpose, That there was one Mr. Smalling, a Committee-man of Leicester-shire, who had been a Deputy examiner in the Star-Chamber, and affirmed, that above twenty years since there being a suit in Star-Chamber between the Earl of Bristol Complainant, and the Duke of Buckingham Defendant, concerning Physic presumptuously administered by the said Duke to King James; the said Smalling took many Depositions therein, and was farther proceeding in the Examinations, until a Warrant, signed by the King, was brought him, commanding him to surcease, and to send him the Depositions already taken; which Smalling did: yet kept notes by him of the Principal passages, doubting what farther proceed might be hereafter in a business of such importance. Sir Henry Mildmay moved that Smalling be sent for, and examined upon Oath by the Committee that penned the said Declaration; but upon motion of the Presbyterians, he was Ordered to be examined at the Commons Bar. Smalling came, produced the Warrant, but no Notes, so this Chimaera vanished.  
What the said Committee would have made of this, who knows? God bless us all from clandestine examinations, especially when they are taken by party's preingaged.  
3. Caroli, This business had been ventilated and examined against the Duke, and no mention made of poisoning or killing King James; it was then only called, An Act of high presumption and dangerous consequence in the Duke: nor was there then the least reflection upon King Charles; yet now because King Charles dissolved that Parliament, the Independent party were willing to raise a suspicion against him concerning His Father's death: whereas the accusation against the Duke of Buckingham, 3. Caroli, contained 7. or 8. Charges against him, the least whereof might occasion the dissolving of that Parliament.  
These desperate courses (to dishonour the King, 
74. Why the independents went so high against the King: To usurp the regal power into themselves, either in the Houses purged, or in the Committee of Safety at Derby house.  and make Him uncapable of Government, to ruin His Person, Crown and Dignity, and extirpate Monarchy root and branch) were taken in order to the usurping the Kingly power into the Grandees of the Parliament and Army, and in case they could not purge the two Houses, and make them wholly Independent, (which they now despair of) then into the Hands of the Committee, or Council of State at Derby-house, and Grandees of the Army. In order to which, they are now contriving to strengthen the said Committee with more power and more Members; and to adjourn the Parliament, and sent down the Presbyterian Members into the Country upon pretence of service, where if any Tumults happen (for which their extortions will give sufficient provocation) the said dissenting Members shall bear the blame; and have blank Impeachments given them to purge them out of the Houses, if not out of the world, or at least be sequestered: for now they have squeezed what they can out of the King's party by Sequestrations, the next fuel to their covetousness is to sequester the Presbyterians; and then to sequester one another: for they are already divided into Pure Independents and Mixed Independents, and have feuds amongst themselves, for this faction (insatiate with money and blood) are all beasts of prey; and when they want prey, will pray one upon another: nor shall the Houses meet above one month or two in a year to ratify and approve what Derby-house, and the Junto of the Army shall dictate to them; and to give an account to the domineering party how each Member hath carried himself in the Country. Thus instead of one King, 
75. Why the Grandees do still continue to truck with the King, notwithstanding the said 4. Votes.  we shall have twenty or thirty tyrants in chief, and as many subordinate Tyrants as they please to employ under them, with the Iron yoke of an Army to hold us in subjection to their Arbitrary Government.  
Notwithstanding the aforesaid four Votes and Resolutions, the Cabal of Grandees still keep Ashburnham and Barkley in the Army, and have sent divers Turn-coat-Cavaliers and Emissaries underhand disguised to the King, who pretending that by Bribes they had bought their admission to Him, after some insinuations endeavour with false and deceitful news and arguments to shake His constancy, and persuade him to pass the said 4. dethroning Bills, (for these Usurpers of Sovereign Authority long to turn their armed and violent Tyranny into a legal Tyranny) or (at least) to make him declare against the Scots coming in. In both which cases He will dishearten His Friends (who endeavour to take the golden reigns of Government out of the gripes of these Phaeton's, and restore them again to His hand) unking Himself and His Posterity for ever, be carried up and down like a stalking Horse to their Designs, and be Crowned Ludibrio Coronae, with straw or thorns. For who can think that at the end of twenty years, these Usurpers will lay down what they have so unjustly, contrary to all Laws, Divine and Humane, and contrary to their own Declarations, Oaths and Covenants, extorted? And who can, or dare, wrist these powers out of their hands, being once settled and grown customary in them; the people's spirits broken with an habitual servitude; a numerous Army and Garrisons hover over them; and all places of Judicature filled with corrupt Judges, who shall by constrained interpretations of the Law, force bloody precedents out of them, against whosoever shall dare to be so good a Patriot as to oppose their Tyranny? They could make Steel sharp enough to cut Captain Burlies throat for attempting to rescue the King out of the hands of a Rebellious Army, that neither obeys King nor Parliament, will find gold and silver enough to corrupt all the Judges: the mean to prefer and make them Wild and vild enough for their purposes. But it is hoped He hath more of a King, more of man in Him than to lose his Principles, and stumble again at the same stone, dash again upon the same Rock, whatsoever Sirens sing upon it; knowing He hath a Son at liberty to revenge His wrongs, all the Princes of Christendom His Allies, whose common cause is controverted in His sufferings; the greatest men of England and Scotland of His blood, and the People generally (whose farthest design was, to preserve their Laws and Liberties, and to defend the Parliament from being conquered by the Sword) looking with an angry aspect upon these Seducers, who by insensible degrees, and many forgeries have engaged them further than they intended, not to the Defence of Religion, Laws, and Liberties, but to the setting up of Schism, Committee Law, and Martial Law, Impeachments before the Lords, and unlimited slavery.  
And I am confident this Faction despair of working upon the King, who like a Rock is mediis tutissimus undis, whatsoever reports they give out to the contrary, having from the beginning made lies their refuge, which being wisely foreseen by the King, He sent a Message to both Houses (by way of prevention) delivered in the Painted-Chamber by the Lords of Louderdale, one of the Scots Commissioners, consisting of three heads,  
1 That He was taken from Holdenby against his will.  
2 That they should mantain the Honour and Privileges of Parliament.  
3 That they should believe no Message as coming from him during his Restraint in the Army, but should only credit what they received from His own mouth.  
These Grandees have cheated all the interests of the Kingdom, and have lately attempted the City again, and had the repulse. But the King is their old Customer, and hath been often cheated by them, and having him in strict custody, peradventure they may persuade Him it is for His safety to be deceived once more: wherefore (notwithstanding their many endeavours to root up Monarchy, dethrone the King, and His Posterity, and usurp his power; in order to which, they have overwhelmed Him, and all His, with innumerable calamities and reproaches) yet since the passing of the Declaration against the King, their desperate condition hath enforced them to make new Addresses in private to Him, notwithstanding their four Votes inflicting the penalitie of Treason upon the Infringers: But Treason is as natural to Cromwell, as false accusing, protesting, and lying; he is so superlative a Traitor, that the Laws can lay no hold on him. Lieutenant Colonel Lilburn in a verbal Charge delivered at the Commons Bar, accused him of many Treasonable Acts, which he avowed to make good: and in his Book, called, A Plea for a Habeas Corpus: But as if Cromwell were a Traitor cum privilegio, the House of Commons, (being under their Armed Guards) dares take no notice of it. But the Roman Tribune said to Scipio Africanus, in Livy, Qui jus aequum ferre non potest, in eum vim haud injustam fore, he that exalts himself above the Law, ought not to be protected by the Law.  
To conclude, Cromwell hath lately had private conference at Tarnham with Hammond.  
The Earl of Southampton hath been courted to negotiate with the King, and offered the two Speakers hands for his warrant.  
Capt. Titus taken into favour and employed that way.  
The Grandees have brought themselves into a mist, and now wander from one foolish design to another.  
The Spaniard is said to forecast in his debates, what will happen forty years after. But these purblind Politicians do not foresee the event of their Council forty days, nay hours beforehand; but it is a curse laid upon wicked men, to grope at noon day.  
About 5 or 6 of Jan. 1647. the Scots Commissioners had written certain Letters to the House of Commons; 
76. Debates in the How. of Commons upon the Scots Letters, 1 Concerning the said 4 Votes.  one whereof repeating the four Votes against the King, propounded to know, whether the Houses by their Votes, That no person whatsoever do presume to make or receive any Application or address to, or from the King, would debar the Scots to make or receive any Addresses to, or from Him, and so put an incapacity upon Him to perform acts of Government towards them. In the debate the Independents called to mind a more ancient Vote, whereby it was Ordered, That the Scots might be admitted to the King. Against which was alleged, That these latter Votes, being made general, without exception, Repealed that former Vote. At last by an interpretative Vote it was concluded, That notwithstanding the said four latter Votes, the former Vote, That the Scots Commissioners might make Addresses to the King, was still in force. Observe that this was done four or five days after the Scots Commissioners were on their way towards Scotland.  

2 Concerning 100000 l. due to the Scots.  The second Letter was concerning 100000 l. due by contract to the Scots from the Parliament, whereof 50000 l. was payable by assignment to divers Scots Gentlemen who had advanced money to hasten the Scots Army to our relief; whereof 10000 l. was payable to the Earl of Argyle.  
Sir Henry Milmay made a long Speech in praise of Argyle; saying, That he and his party, and the Scotish Clergy, were the only men that upheld the English interest in Scotland, and were better friends to us than all Scotland besides: wherefore he moved, that Argyle might be paid his 10000 l. and the rest continued at interest, at 8 l. per cent. Presently the whole Independent gang, with much zeal, and little discretion, ran that way, until more moderate men stopping them in full cry, minded them what dishonour and danger they might bring their friend into by laying him open to suspicion.  
After this it was resolved to send four Commons and 2 Lords into Scotland as Commissioners, with instructions. 
77. Six Commissioners sent into Scotland.  To send all Independents, would not be acceptable; 2. Presbyterian Commoners therefore were sent, one whereof was sweetened with the gift of 1000 l. and an Office, before they would trust him: with them were sent Mr. Hearl, and Mr. Marshal.  
Marshal, when he saw Independency prevail, 
78. Mr. Marshal.  had secretly turned his coat the wrong side outward, and joined interest with Mr. Nye; but before he declared himself, he was to do some service for his new party: wherefore when the Army looked with a threatening posture upon the Parliament and City, before they marched through London, (the common Soldiers being in such discontent for want of pay, that they were ready to mutiny and disband, and their Officers scarce daring to Govern them) the first fruits of Marshal's service to his new friends, was, to persuade the City to lend the Parliament 50000 l. to pacify the Soldiers: assuring them by Letters, that the Army had nothing but good thoughts toward the City, only the common Soldiers were troubled for want of pay: After the City had laid down the said 50000 l. his next labour was, to persuade the Citizens to let the Army march through the City without opposition, for avoiding of bloodshed and firing; and to let them possess the Tower, and Line of Communication. After these services, the Grandees of the Parliament and Army, finding him suitable to them, received him into an avowed favour, and then four Independents and four Presbyterian Divines (conjoining their Interests) were sent to season the Army, and new tune them according to the more modern design: Marshal was one, where, after he had preached according to the Dictates of the Grandees of the two Houses and Army for divers weeks, Marshal was thought fit to attend the Commissioners into Scotland: He and Master Nye had been sent to Carisbroke Castle formerly with those Commissioners that carried the 4 Bills to the King, and had 500 l. a piece given them for their journey.  
Scotland, a longer journey, promised a larger reward; it is good being a Postilion of the Gospel at such rates.  
The Sunday before he went, he preached at Margaret's Westminster, and as much cried up Presbytery and the Covenant there, as he had before slighted them in the Army. This was a Preparation Sermon, to make him acceptable to Scots, that he might cajole them the easier. Before he went he sent his Agents from house to house at Westminster, to beg men's good wills towards his journey. He was willing upon this pretence to get what he could from St. Margaret's Parish, where he found the people to grow cold in their affections, and contributions to him. Wherefore having made his bargain before he went, to leave S. Margaret's, and officiate in the Abbey where he is to have 300 l. per annum certain allowance, he would rob the Egyptians at Saint Margaret's for a parting blow. This Priest married his own Daughter with the Book of Common prayer and a Ring, and gave for reason, that the Statute establishing that Liturgy was not yet repealed, and he was loath to have his Daughter whored and turned back upon him for want of a Legal Marriage: Yet he can declare against all use of it by others. He hath so long cursed Meroz and neutrality, that he hath brought God's curse upon the Land, and hath put Church and Commonwealth into a flame, but himself and his Brats have warmed their fingers at it: as moneys are decried or enhanced by the King's Authority, so is every man's Religion cried up or down by Marshal's authority and stamp.  

76. The Answer ●o the Scots Declaration.  About the 24 of February, the Answer to the Scots Declaration began to be debated in parts: in which Debate the Covenant was much undervalved, and called, An Almanac out of Date. Nathaniel Fiennes argued against it, That that clause in the Covenant, [To Defend the King's Person, Crown, and Dignity, etc.] was inconsistent with their four Votes, for making no Addresses to the KING: To which was answered by some, That then they would relinquish the four Votes and adhere to the Covenant.  
About the beginning of March, was given to Col. Sydenham and Col. Bingham 1000 l. a piece as part of their Arrears; 
80. Money shared amongst godly Members.  their Accounts not yet stated. To the Lord of Broghil 2000 l. To Mr. Fenwick 500 l. for losses. To Mr. Millington 2000 l. for losses. To Col. Venus 4000 l. notwithstanding in was moved he might first account for Contribution money, the plunder of the Country about Windsor, and the King's Householdstuff, Hang, Linen, and Bedding. Mr. Purie the Petty-bag office, besides 1000 l. formerly given him. To Purie's Son, the Clerk of the Peace's place, and 100 l. a year: all Independents.  
The 7. of March, an Ordinance passed the Commons to settle 2500 l. a year land, out of the Marquis of Worcester's estate, 
81. Cromwell.  upon Lieut. Gen. Oliver Cromwell. I have heard some Gentlemen, that know the Manor of Chepstow, and the rest of the Lands settled upon him, affirm, that in the particulars the said lands are so favourably rated, that they are worth 5000 l. or 6000 l. a year: It is farther said those lands are bravely wooded. You see though they have not made King CHARLES a glorious King, as they promised, yet they have settled a Crown Revenue upon Oliver, and have made him as great and glorious a K. as ever John of Leyden was. Wonder not that they conspire to keep up this Army, as well to make good these Largesses, as to keep their guilty heads upon their Shoulders.  
Thursday 9 March, 
82. A Message from the Lords desiring the Commons concurrence to the Engagement of the Members with the Army. The Ingagem, approved by threats.  the Lords sent a Message to the House of Commons, To desire their concurrence to the Engagement of those Members that fled to the Army, to live and die with the Army. It was debated all day until 7. of the clotk at night; and at last the ques' ion put. That this House doth approve the subscription of the said Members to the said Engagement. The House divided upon the question, yea 100 no's 91.  
Observe, 1. that Mr. Solicitor, Haslerig, and many more, when they perceived difficulty in passing it, began to skirmish with their long Sword again. And many told them, they must live content without doors (meaning the Army) as well as within, else all would go naught.  
2. 44. Of those Members that engaged with the Army sat in the House, and Voted in their own case; many of them carrying themselves very high and insolent in their gestures and expressions.  
3. Many Presbyterians left the House because it was late; and some (as it is thought) not daring to Vote in the Negative.  
4. This Engagement about six months ago had been sent to the Commons by the Lords, once or twice, and was rejected, yet now was obtruded upon them again by the Lords, who would not acquiesce, contrary to the privileges of the House of Commons.  
5. This approbation thus surreptitiously gotten, is equal to a Pardon sued forth before Conviction, which in Law amounteth to a Confession of the Crime.  

83. The temper of the House tried, had the Engagement not been approved, a new Charge from the Army intended.  6. The Agitators tell you in Derby-house Projects, pag. 7. That this Engagement was sent down to the Commons to try the temper of the House, and if the House had not approved of the Eagagement, the resolution of their secret Counsel was to fly to their Arms, and make a new Charge against their principal opposers; for they acknowledge amongst themselves, That they Rule by Power only, and that the House of Commons is no longer theirs than they overawe them, and that they fear the Critical day will come which will discover the Parliament to be no longer theirs than while they have a force upon it.  
As men ready to sink embrace every shadow of help, and catch hold of leaves, twigs, and bulrushes, to support them; so these desperate and purblind protectors, having engaged themselves in a way of Tyranny, out of which they can find no issue, lay hold of frivolous inventions to piece up from time to time their ill-laid designs, like the man in the parable, That patched up his old Garment with new cloth, which breaking out again, left the rent wider than it was before.  
Their last project was to unite all Interests in the Houses, City, and Army; 
84: A project to unite all Interests.  To which purpose Cromwell (the heaviest, basest, and most ridiculous Tyrant that ever any noble Nation groaned under) made a Speech in the House of Commons: To which was Answered, That the Members were chosen and trusted by the people, to pursue one common Interest, which was, the common good, the safety and Liberty of the People, and whosoever had any peculiar Interest eccentrick from that, was not fit to sit in that assembly, and deserved to be called to a strict account by those that trusted him.  
Observe, 
See the Argument against all accommodation between the City and Grandees, etc. and the seasonable caution to the City, printed at the latter end of this Book.  that the extent of this project was to conjoin these three Interests from upholding the greatness of the Grandees, in the Parliament, City, and Army; for in all three the vulgar multitude, and the more modest and honest sort, are but in the same condition with other men: the Parliament bearing the Authority, the Army the Sword, and the City the purse.  
The first, shall be the Taskmasters, and impose Tribute.  
The second, the Sheriffs, or rather freebooters, to levy it by distress.  
And the third, the Brokers, to receive and buy it off.  
But it pleased God to bestow so much providence and integrity upon the City, that when upon Saturday 8. April, 1646. Cromwell and his fellow Grandees offered this temptation (at a Common-Councel) to them,  
The City grew wiser than our first Parents, and rejected the Serpent and his subtleties, insomuch that Cromwell nettled with the affront, called his Solicitor Glover to account by what Authority he had offered the restitution of the Tower and Militia, and the enlargement of their accused Aldermen: who answered, he did it by his Authority, and delivered him a Warrant to that purpose signed by Sir Thomas Fairfax, Oliver Cromwell, Mr. Solicitor, and young Sir Henry Vane, which Cromwell had the impudence to put in his pocket.  
Cromwell had felt the pulse of the City long before by his Agents Glover and Watkins, 
85. A device to put the Apprentices into a Tumult.  and found them averse from complying with him: wherefore (being a man of an early, as well as an implacable malice) he (by the advice of the Committee of Derby-house) cast about with the Schismatical Lord Mayor Warner, (he that raised the ridiculous Tumult at Christmas about Rosemary and Bays, a man that had been chosen Mayor by power of Parliament, (out of course) to carry on the design of the faction) and with the Lieutenant of the Tower, how to put the City into some distemper, of which they might take advantage. The Citizens were well acquainted with their juggling tricks, they had no hopes to work upon them: wherefore they contrived how to put a provocation upon the silly Apprentice Boys, and put them forth into some rash action, of which they might make use to carry on their designs against the whole City: wherefore upon Easter-day, 1648. in the evening some few apprentices playing in Finnisbury fields, some Soldiers were sent to drive them away; which they did, and imprisoned some of them for not readily obeying: upon Sunday following, 9 April, divers Apprentices being at play (according to custom) in moorfield's, the Mayor sent Capt. Gale (one of the new Captains of the Hamlets, a Silk-Throster, and a Tub-preacher, and one that ran away at the fight at Newbury wash, and hid himself in a Ditch, as my L. Wharton at the Battle of Keynton hid himself in a Saw-pit) thither to disturb them, with about 50. or 60. of his Trained Band, and no more; (that he might the better encourage the Boys to resist him) who surlily ask them What they did there? some of them answered, they did no harm but only play; and since all Holy days have been Voted down, they had no other time of Recreation: The Captain insolently commanded them to be gone; they replied, he had no authority so to do, and continued playing: whereupon the Captain commanded his Musquetiers to shoot amongst them; which they forbearing, he took a Musket himself, and discharged amongst them, when presently two or three schismatical Musquetiers of his Company following his example, discharged upon them likewise, and killed (or, as the Schismatics say, wounded only) one of the Boys: whereat the Boys making a great outcry, more company gathered to them, and so with stones, brickbats, and sticks, they dispersed the Trained Band, and at last got their Colours, and instantly in a childish jollity marched (un-armed as they were) towards the Mews, when presently a party of Horse (ready prepared for this forelaid design) met them, charged, and with ease routed them; Cromwell himself animating the Troopers to shoot and spit them, and to spare neither man woman nor child. All Sunday night the Apprentices kept in a body in the City, locked the City gates, but set no guards upon them; whereby you may see this business proceeded merely from the rash and unpremeditated folly of Children, not from the advice of Men: howsoever the Independent faction in the House of Commons have since aggravated it: to countenance their future cruelty and rapines upon the City. Monday morning Sir Tho. Fairfax sent a strong party into the City, who fell upon the Boyish rabble, routed and killed many, and shot poor Women great with Child, sitting in their stalls, one whereof the Child lived two hours in her belly after her brains were shot out: a man likewise not knowing of their coming, as he was drinking Milk at the corner of a street, was shot (as it were) in sport: as they rid, they cried, Cuckolds keep your Houses, cutting and wounding all they met; Cromwell (who followed in the Rear safe enoogh; the Van having cleared the streets before him) cried out to them to Fire the City. Oh Oliver! what a barbarous John of Leyden art thou become? Oh London! how wretched a Munster wilt thou become? at last they drove those silly unarmed wretches into Leaden-hall, and took many of them Prisoners, none of the Trained Bands, nor Citizens, appearing to help those poor Boys, but leaving the Soldiers to get a bloody and boyish Triumph over them, as they pleased; they are now imprisoned in Cromwel's shambles at Whitehall. This is the truth of the business, notwithstanding, the longwinded lying report made by Alderman Fouks, at the Commons Bar: a man that hath feathered his nest well these miserable times, and hath much public money sticking to his fingers; who, when he gave in his account before the General Committee of Accounts, refused to give it in upon Oath, (as other men did) alleging Magna Charta, that no man was bound to accuse himself. It should seem he had something in his Conscience that would not endure the test of an Oath: but he is one of the Godly, and therefore the good things of this world belong unto him.  
The House of Commons (upon this occasion) gave 1000 l. to the Soldiers for their valorous exploit, and Voted 1000 Foot, and 100 Horse to be kept in the Tower. The Garrisons of Whitehall and the Mews to be strengthened: 3 Barges capable of 50 Musquetiers apiece to lie at Whitehall for the Soldiers to convey themselves to any landing place to disperse such watermen as shall assemble: The City Chains to be taken away from their Posts, and a Commission of Oyer and Terminer to issue forth to murder more of these Children legally.  
The Mayor having kindled this fire in the City, stole out at a window disguised, and hid his foolish head in the Tower.  
The House of Commons (overruled by the Grandees) Voted a day of thanksgiving for this delivery. So bold are these Saints, as to mock Gods holy name with impious devotions to colour their designs.  

86. The Lord Inchiquin.  The Lord Inchiquin, precedent of Munster and General of the Army there, had a long time been heaved at by the Independent faction. The Lord Lisle, (who gaped after his employment) Sir John Temple, Cromwell, the Lord Broughill, Sir Arthur and Sir Adam Loftus, and others: who by obstructing all supplies of Money, Ammunition, Victual, , laboured to mutiny and disband his Army, that they might send Schismatics of their o●n party to Lord it there, as they do here, and keep Ireland as a Retreat for the Saints: for the better effecting whereof they sent over many Emissaries, whom they had commended to him, to be officers in his Army. When this would not do, they Printed scandalous Articles against him, and put infinite provocations upon him to incite him to do that which they falsely accused him to have done already; But the many gallant-services he preformed since the publishing those Articles gave them the lie, and confuted all their slanders: at last (under colour of sending a supply of forces to him) they projected to surprise him, and bring him away prisoner; so that he hath suffered all the convulsions that treacherous friends, and malicious enemies could put upon him. And lately (for the more close conveyance of the design) the Houses sent three Commissioners towards Ireland, to survey his Actions; but (as if it were purposely done) when the Commissioners came as far on their way as Bristol, about a dozen renegado Officers of his Army met the Commissioners and turned them back again. The said Officers posted up to the Parliament before the Commissioners, and the 13 April were called in to the Commons Bar, where they made a relation to the House to this purpose; That the Lord Inchiquin having made an expedition into the County of Kerry, upon his return, sent for these Officers into his presence Chamber, and told them, He intended to declare against the Army and Independent party in England, who kept the King and Parliament under a force, that he would stand for the Liberty of the King and Parliament, and a free Conference to settle Peace; and that he expected all his Officers should join with him in so honourable an undertaking; but should take an Oath of secrecy, before he discovered himself farther to them. They Answered, They could make no such Oath before they knew whether they might with a safe conscience keep it, saying, they would be true to the Parliament. My Lord Inchiquin replied, So have I, and will be; delude me not with ambiguous words, do you mean this pretended Parliament? telling them farther, he had good correspondence with all the Presbyterians in Scotland and England, as well in the Parliament, as out of it; that he doubted not to go through with his undertaking; and if the worst happened, to make good conditions for himself and his party. That he would make peace with my Lord Taff, (and that he knew the Independents in England were upon Treaty with Owen Roe Oneal) who was a man of their humour, and loved to keep all in combustion. They refused to join, he dismissed them for England. The same day Letters from Capt. John Growthen (Vice-Admiral of the Irish Seas) from a shipboard, were read in the House, much to the same purpose, though not so large: wherein he said, He had already blocked up all my Lord Inchiquin's Havens.  
Presently Allen the Goldsmith moved, 
87. Allen the Goldsmith moveth to put the House to the touch by some Covenant, Declaration, etc.  That since the Lord Inchiquin had discovered that he had a correspondency with the Presbyterians in the House, before they dealt with their Enemies without doors, they should try who were their Enemies within doors, by putting all men to some Covenant, Engagement, or Protestation, etc. And Lieutenant General Cromwell said, That being to debate this business to morrow, whosoever with cross Arguments shall spin out the debate, and so retard our prceeding, (by my consent) shall be noted with a Black Coal: to which was answered, That this tended to take away freedom of debate, which was the life of Parliaments, and of all Councils; and was destructive to the very being of Parliaments.  
It is not amiss to insert here by way of digression, what I formerly omitted: Sir Henry Mildmay long since moved, That 150 rich Guard Coats of the King, might be sold for 800 l. to find Fire and Candle for the Soldiers in Whitehall. The question put: The Speaker gave judgement, the Yea had it. Mr. Edward Stephens declared the noah's had it. They were unwilling to divide upon such a question: but Mr. Stephen's persisted; and Robert Reynolds, said aloud, notice shall be taken of him for putting such a dishonour upon the House. Upon the Division, the noah's carried it by nine voices. Thereupon, complaint was made against Reynolds for attempting against the liberty of Voting, but no redress.  
But to return from my digression: the next day (14 of April) it was moved that my Lord Inchiquin's Son, a Child of 8 or 9 years old, going to School at Thistleworth, might be secured in the Tower and kept for a Hostage. To which was Answered, That no man could take an Hostage without consent: an Hostage must be given upon the public faith, upon some stipulation, and must be so received, by mutual agreement; you cannot punish the child for the Father's fault; yet he was voted to the Tower, and sent. My Lord Inchinquin's Commission as Precedent of Munster, and General of the Army, Voted void, and no man to obey him, himself Voted a Traitor; yet no man examined upon Oath against him, nor any man sent to take information of the business into Ireland, and his professed enemy the Lord Lisle, is to go General into Munster in his room; and the said fugitive Officers all rewarded, as if they had brought acceptable news.  
This day Reynolds revived Allens motion for putting the Members to the Test, by some Covenant, Protestation, or Declaration, subscribed, That this is a free Parliament, and that they would live and die with this Parliament and Army: To which was answered,  
1. That by Ordinance of both Houses, all men were enjoined to take the National Covenant. This Covenant is the true Touchstone of the Parliament, and so agreed upon by the wisdom of both Nations; yet many sit here who refuse to obey this Ordinance: I know no reason therefore why any man should obey you in any other Ordinance of this Nature: let us keep the old Covenant before we take any new.  
2. It hath been moved in the House, that the Oaths of Justices of the Peace, and Sheriffs, might be taken away: I hope you will not abolish legal Oaths, and impose illegal Oaths. This House hath not so much Authority, as to administer an Oath, much more to impose one: you must allow to others that liberty of Conscience which you demand for yourselves.  
3. Major Grace told you my Lord Inchiquin said he had correspondency with all the Presbyterians in the House, who had made their peace with the King. But my Lord Inchiquin told him farther, the Independents were upon Treaty with Owen Roe, and Oneal, let them clear themselves of that imputation first before they give a purgation unto others, otherwise what you do will savour of force.  
4. The true Touchstone to try every man's integrity is to examine, who have enriched themselves by the calamities of the times and your service, and who are impoverished.  
5. This is a new device to purge the House.  
The Grandees of the House have cantonized the Kingdom between them, 
88 The Counties compelled to give thanks to the Houses for their Votes against the King.  every man in his Division protecting the Country Committees, and receiving tribute from them in recompense of their protection; and Prideaux the Post master being King of the West Saxons, his Viceroy or Lord Deputy for the County of Somerset is that running Col. John Pyne, who being often inspired with Sack, rules the Committee and County by inspirations. Pyne and his Peers of the Committee, to please his superiors, set on foot a draught of a Petition to be handed by the Country, Giving thanks to the Parliament for the four Votes against the King, and promising to live and die with the Parliament and Army, and desiring the County might be freed from Malignants, Neuters, and Apostates; which (in their interpretation) signifies Presbyterians and moderate men, who will not dance about the flame when the Independents make a Bonfire of the Commonwealth. The Eastern Division of  rejected the Petition; in the Western Division Pyne and his Committee sending abroad his Sequestrators with the Petition, (threatened to take them for Malignants, and Sequester them that refused) got many Subscriptions; but the Subscribers since (better informed of the danger and mischief of those Votes) retracted what they had done by a counter Petition, wherein they declare, that their Subscription to the former Petition was contrary to their Judgement and Consciences, and extorted by the terror of Sequestrators, and threats of being Sequestered. This affront stung the Committee, and opened the eyes of the Country: As the like foolish attempt of Sir Henry Mildmay did the eyes of the County of Essex. Wherefore to find a Plaster for this broken pate, Sergeant Wild (he that hanged Capt. Burly) coming that Circuit, care was taken to have a select Grand-Jury of Schismatics and Sequestrators blended together, who made a presentment subscribed by 19 of their hands, which Sergeant Wild preserved in his pocket; and upon Tuesday 18. April, delivered with as much gravity as a set speech and a set ruff could furnish him withal in the House of Commons, and was read and harkened unto by the thriving Godly, with as much attention, as pricking up of ears, and turning up of eyes could demonstrate: the Contents of this presentment were the same with the aforesaid revoked Petition. Great care was taken to give thanks to the High Sheriff and Grand Jury, who had so freely delivered the sense of that well-affected County: and as much care taken to improve this Talon and put it to interest throughout the Kingdom. Colonel Purefoy is now at this work in . Sir Arthur Haslerig about Newcastle, others in other places. Pitiful Crutches to support a crippled reputation, which now halts, and begs for relief worse than their own maimed Soldiers do, and with as bad success, they have juggled themselves out of credit, and would fain juggle themselves in again. Behold the wisdom of our Grandees, wise, religious, new-modelled Politicians, who have brought themselves and the whole Kingdom into these deplorable, contemptible straits; take notice of your Representative, you that are represented, call them to a seasonable account: But whither doth my zeal carry me? I shall anon stumble upon a new fangled Treason to be declared against me, without, nay against Law.  

89. men's tongues tied up by an Ordinance.  Friday 21. April, An Ordinance was presented to the House, entitled, For suppressing all Tumults and insurrections (the Committee of Safety at Derby House had before an ample power conferred upon them for that purpose; but guilty consciences, though they be safe, are never secure; like Cain, they think that every man will slay them) it was passed after some amendments to this purpose, That any three Committee-men shall have Power to Imprison and Sequester all such as shall actually adhere to any that shall raise or endeavour to raise Tumults and Insurrections; or shall speak or publish any thing reproachful to the Parliament, or their proceed. Behold here an excise (amounting to the Value of all you have) set upon every light word; a man made an offender for a word, to the utter ruin of him and his posterity, under colour of defending Laws, Liberties, and Properties, you are cheated of them all, and reduced to mere and absolute slavery and beggary: you are not Masters of your own carcases, yet your mouths are but toned up; you must not be allowed that silly comfort of venting your griefs by way of complaint; what Tyrant was ever so barbarous, so indiscreet as to do the like? It was moved that Offenders of this kind might be bound to the good behaviour, and the offences proved openly at the Assizes or Sessions, before so destructive a punishment be inflicted. There are three principles in Law, of which the Laws are very tender, and will not suffer them to be touched but upon great Offences, clear proofs, and exact formalities observed, life, liberty, and estate: by Magna Charta, the Petition of Right, and many other Statutes, these principles are so sacred, that nothing but the Law can meddle with them, Nemo imprisonetur aut disseisietur nisi per legale judicium parium suorum. You have made the people shed their money and blood abundantly, pretending defence of Religion, Laws, and Liberties; let them now at last (being a time of peace) enjoy what they have so dearly paid for; and delay them not with a pretended necessity of your own making; you now make all that is, or can be near and dear to them, liable to the passions of three Committee-men, to judge and execute according to their discretion, without Law, or so much as a formality thereof: And yet both Houses of Parliament have often heretofore offered to abolish those Committees, as men whose wickedness and folly they and the whole Kingdom were ashamed of. The Grandees of the Parliament and Army, when the Houses are called, and full, have resolved to draw their forces near about the Town, and by that terror to try the temper of the Houses; such Members as will not comply with them, they will with fresh Charges purge out of the House, and publish base and infamous scandals against them, to which if they submit with silence, they betray their reputations for ever, and spare the credits of their juggling enemies. If they make any defence for their honours by way of Apology, they shall be brought within the compass of this devouring, enslaving Ordinance, as men that reproach the Parliament, and their Proceed. Thus the same whip shall hang over the shoulders of the Presbyterian party, (who will not agree to King-deposing Anarchy and Shism) as it did formerly over the King's party. And the Presbyterians shall be squeezed into the Independents coffers, as formerly the King's party were, so long as they had any thing to lose; for the whole earth is little enough for these Saints, who are never satisfied with money and blood, although they never look towards Heaven but through the spectacles of this world. The old elogium and Character of this English Nation was, that they were Hilaris gens, cui libera mens & libera lingua: But now (Countrymen) your tongues are in the Stocks, your bodies in every gaol, your souls in the dark, and estates in the mercy of those that have no mercy, and at the discretions of those that have no discretion: Farewell English liberty.  

90. The Kentish Committee-War.  In the Epistle to this book, I have given you an account of the bloody Answer given to the Surrey Petitioners, May 16. 1648. I must in the next place speak something of the Kentish Petition, and of the Committee-war they raised to oppose it; which took his rising and beginning partly from the insolences and oppressions of their tyrannical Committee-men, (persons for the most part of weak fortunes, and weaker wits) and partly from the frantic zeal of the Mayor of Canterbury (who for his Religion, prudence and honesty, may well be younger brother to Warner Lord Mayor of London) upon Christmas day 1648. sundry people going to the Church of Canterbury to solemnize that day, were uncivilly interrogated, and roughly handled by the Mayor, as if it were superstition, nay impiety to serve God on that day; or as if some days were exempted from serving God, as some days are exempted from worldly labour: This grew to a Tumult, which the Committee of the County hearing, they presently gathered forces to make ostentation of their power in suppressing it, but were prevented by intelligence that all was quiet; but this quietness was rather a truce, than a lasting peace, a desire of revenge against the Mayor for wounding some of the People, like fire hid under ashes, broke forth two days after, but was presently pacified by the discreet endeavours of Sir W. Man, Ald. Sabin, and Mr. Lovelace a Lawyer. The Committee of that County presently assemble forces, with which (together with their Chaplains & other instruments of war) they march to reduce the City, and (though they had news that all was appeased) yet would they not believe it, but continued their march in triumph; where finding the Gates open, they took them off and burnt them, threw down part of their Walls, thereby degrading the City, and turning it into a Village, as a trophy of their high indignation; committed many to Prison upon light suspicions, amongst whom, the aforesaid 3 Peacemakers, for being so saucy as to compose the difference, and thereby deprive their highnesses of a Triumphant Victory. For these upstart Committees mounted above the sphere of their activity, and having stolen his Majesty's Sword (His principal mark of Sovereignty wherewith he protects his people) out of his Scabbard, know not how to use it, but to the destruction of the people: like illnatured Children, they have gotten a gay thing, and must do mischief with it. And for farther magnifying of their power to the Country, and their diligence to the Parliament, they charged the prisoners with High Treason, and so forgot them languishing in Gaol, had not those Gentlemen remembered themselves and clamoured for a Trial; which at last was granted them by a Commission of Oyer and Terminer to Sergeant Wyld, and Sergeant Creswell: the Juries were men known to be well-affected to the Parliament, who found Ignoramus upon the Bill, and (notwithstanding many checks and taunts from the Committee, and the refusing of the return) adhered, so that the Court adjourned for some months: Hereupon the Kentish men fearing the tyrannical disposition of their Committees, consulted with the said Grand Jury upon the place concerning a Petition to the Parliament for Peace, to end our distractions; which Petition was subscribed by the Grand Jury, in the name of the whole County. The Committee jealous that these things would hearten the People, and loosen the bonds of that slavish fo●r, wherein they had hitherto held them captive, printed, and caused to be published in all Churches a Paper prohibiting the same Petition, and branding it with the name of seditious and tumultuous, saying, they would hang two in every Parish that were promoters of it, and sequester the rest. And endeavoured first to raise forces in the County; but at last made their complaint to the Army. When the Country saw their just desires like to be suppressed by Arms, and themselves to be still Committee-ridden, they resolved upon a place of meeting to promote their Petition, and to come Armed thither for their own defence only. But the County Committee plied their business so well with the Committee of Derby House and the Army, that they first drew a party of Horse into the County, who committed many murders according to Custom, and then the whole Army which at Black-heath encamped on the same place where the Petitioners intended to Rendezvouz. So the result of all is but this: The whole County of Kent oppressed by a tyrannous Committee, and a lingting war, now likely to be renewed, prepare to present a Petition to the Parliament for Peace, and had appointed a day and place of meeting, which by reason of the large extent of the County they could not alter at the pleasure of the Committee: and being terrified by the menaces and warlike preparations of the said Committee, brought their Arms with them in order only to self-defence, (allowed by the Laws of God and Man, and by the doctrine and practice of this Parliament and Army; and peradventure induced thereto by the sad Massacre of the Surry Petitioners) The Committee to support their usurped, illegal authority, invite an Army to break in upon them with fire and sword, and so enforced them upon thoughts and actions of War, never before thought on: as will appear,  
1. Because many of the Petitioners went home the next day after the Rendezvouz.  
2. The County had provided no General, nor no old Commanders.  
3. They never thought of forming an Army until Sir Tho. Fairfax was storming one of their Towns.  
4. The Kentish-men were compelled to take in Sandwich, and the 3 Castles, lest they should fall upon the backs of them when the Army marched against them; yet did they hurt no man in person or goods: which argued a peaceable disposition, aiming only at defence. Thus you see a whole County always well-affected to the Parliament, complaining of a few Independent sectary Committee-men, Sequestrators, etc. for infinite oppressions and cheats daily committed: they being weighed in the scales together, the whole County are thought too light for want of an unpartial holding the balance even: one prudential consideration, that they must not discountenance their friends (as they call the Committee) and something else more substantial, being put upon the Committees scale, hoiseth the whole County into the air. And when the Parliaments Army was at Black-heath, the County sending some of their Gentry with Petitionary Letters to the House of Commons, declaring the peaceableness of their inclinations, their continued obedience to the Houses, and a desire their grievances against their Committee might be put into a way of examination and redress, they could obtain no other Answer (the schismatical engaged party overpowering the House with the near approach of their own Army, for it is no bodies else) than, that they would send them an answer by their General; which was as much as if they had said, They would send an answer by the Executioner: the terror of this answer made the Country desperately engage in an un-premeditated War, for which they were wholly unprovided, as the irresolute and distracted managing of it makes manifest. But this advantage was greedily laid hold of by the Saints, to ravish a victory from the Country, which they were resolved to use with so much secrecy and solemn cruelty, that the example thereof should strike an awfulness into the hearts of all that should hear of it, and beget a slavish fear in the whole Kingdom to submit to the laying aside of the KING, and his Negative Voice, and the establishing of a tyrannical Oligarchy, in the Grandees of the two Houses and Army: for finding the whole Kingdom to hate them with a perfect hatred, they have no hope to govern by Love, but by Fear; which (according to the Turkish rule) is more predominant and constant passion. And certainly had not gore's passing over at Greenwich into Essex compelled Fairfax to follow immediately after with his Army, they had been used with much extremity: insomuch that Weaver, (a Member, fuller of zeal than wisdom, though wise enough for his own profit, as most Saints and knaves are) moved in the House, That all Kent might be sequestered, because they had rebelled, and all Essex, because they would rebel. And truly this is as good a way as Cromwel's selling his Welsh Prisoners for 12 d. a head to be transported into barbarous Plantations, whereby to expel the Canaanites, and make new plantations in old England for the Godly, the seed of the Faithful: for this faction (like the Devil) cry, all is mine.  

91. Banbury-Castle obtruded upon the State.  27. May A friend of my Lord Says moved in the House of Commons, That Banbury-Castle might be demolished to prevent any surprise thereof by Malignants, saying, it had already cost the State 200000 l. to reduce it, and had undone the Country, which was unable to pay for it: it belonged to a Noble, Godly person, the L. Say, and it was not fit to demolish it without his consent and recompense; it was therefore desired the State should bear the charge, his Lordship being willing to sell it for 2000 l. To which was answered, That other well-affected Gentlemen had their Houses destroyed for service of the State, without recompense, not so well provided to bear the loss as my Lord Say; as Mr. Charles Doyly, two handsome habitable Houses, Mr. Vachell, some Houses in Reading, and others well deserving of the State, though not of themselves. This Castle was unhabitable, a rude heap of stones, a public nuisance to the Country. It cost his Lordship but 500 l. and now to obtrude it upon the State at 2000 l. price, in so great a scarcity and want of money, the Kingdom graoning under Taxes, was not reasonable. So Divine providence not saying Amen to it, this Cheat failed like the untimely birth of a Woman.  

92: The Impeached Lords, Members and Aldermen.  About the beginning of June, a debate happened in the House of Commons about the four imprisoned Aldermen, occasioned by a Petition from the City, and concerning the impeached Lords and Commons. Mr. Gewen spoke modestly in their behalf, saying, That what they did was done by virtue of an Ordinance of Parliament made this very Sessions of Parliament, and without any intent to raise a new war, but only to defend the City against the menaces of the Army marching up against them and the Parliament. But Mr. Gourdon (a man hot enough for his zeal to set a Kingdom on fire) Answered, He thought they intended a new War, and were encouraged thereto by the Gentleman that spoke last; when he said to them at their Common Council, Up and be doing: Mr. Walker (perceiving Mr. Gewen to be causelessly reflected upon) replied, that since this debate upon the City Petition tended towards a closing up of all differences, it was unfit, men that spoke their consciences freely and modestly should be upbraided with Repetitions tending to dis-union, and desired men might not be permitted to vent their malice under colour of showing their zeal: when presently. Tho. Scot, the Brewer's Clerk (he that hath a Tally of every man's faults but his own hanging at his Girdle by virtue of his Office, being Deputy-Inquisitor, or Hangman to Miles Corbet in the clandestine Committee of examinations) replied upon Mr. Walker, That the Gent. that spoke last was not so well-affected, but that the close Committee of examinations would find cause to take an order with him shortly: Mr. Walker offered to answer him, and demanded the Justice of the House, but could not be heard: those that spoke in behalf of the Aldermen, were often affronted, and threatened with the displeasure of the Army, which they alleged, would be apt to fall into distempers if we discharged them. Notwithstanding these menaces, it was Voted, that the House would not prosecute their Impeachments against the said four Aldermen, Sir John Maynard, and the seven Lords; and that they would proceed no faother upon their Order for impeaching Mr. Hollis, Sir William Waller, etc. Two or three days after, a motion was set on foot, That the Order whereby the said Members were disabled from being of the House might be revoked; many zealots argued fiercely, and threatened against it; amongst many arguments for them, a Precedent was insisted upon, That Master Henry Martin was by Order disabled from being a Member, yet was afterwards readmitted upon his old Election: and desired these Gentlemen might find equal justice. The House having freed them à Culpa, could not in equity but free them à poena, and put them in the remainder of all that belonged to them. But Sir Peter Wentworth answered, That Mr. Martin's case and theirs differed: Mr. Martin was expelled for words spoken against the King, such as every man's Conscience told him were true; but because he spoke those words unseasonably, when the King was in good strength, and the words (whether true or false) were in strictness of Law, Treason: the House (especially the lukewa●n men) considering the doubtful events of War, disabled and committed him, lest the whole House might be drawn in compass of High Treason for conniving at them: which was a prudential Act contrary to justice, and contrary to the sense of the Godly and honest party of the House. But afterwards (the King growing weaker, and the Parliament stronger) the House restored Master Martin, and thought fit to set every man's tongue at liberty to speak truth even against the King himself; and now every day words of a higher nature are spoken against him, by the well-affected Godly in the House. After many threats used by Wentworth, Venus, Harvy, Scot, Gourdon, Weaver, etc. The said disabling Order was repealed.  

93. Members added to the Committee of Safety at Derby house.  About the same time the Lords sent a Message to the Commons, that they had named six Lords to be added to the Committee of safety, and desired the House to add twelve Commons to them. (This had five or six times been brought down from the Lords before, and received so many denials, but the Lords would not acquiesce) the Message came down about one of the Clock, the House being thin, many argued against it, saying, that there were seven Lords and fourteen Commons of that Committee already, enough (if not too many) to dispatch business with secrecy and expedition; that to add six Lords more to them was (in effect) to make the whole House of Peers of that Committee; so the whole House of Peers, and twenty six of the ablest and best spoken Commons being engaged in that Committee, that Committee would sway the Houses which way they pleased; draw, by degrees, all power and authority from the Parliament to themselves; cause the House to adjourn at pleasure, or leave them so evirtuated, and enervated, that they should no longer keep the dignity nor Authority of a Parliament; contrary to the trust reposed in them by those that chose them, and contrary to the tenor of the Writ of Election. It were more for the service of the Commonwealth to examine what the powers of that Committee are, and to set a short time to its continuance, and not leave it indefinite as now it is. After more than an hours debate, the Speaker (instead of putting the question, whether an addition or no?) called to have the names read, first of the Lords, who were Voted, one, by one; and then the Commons were named, who are almost all Independents; Weaver excepted against the naming of Major Gen. Brown to be of that Committee, for being disaffected to the Army; to which Major Gen. Brown gave a discreet and honest Answer; in reply to which, Weaver concluded, That the Parliament in the posture it was in, was not likely to save the Kingdom, but the Committee of Safety and the Army must save it: whereupon satisfaction was demanded against Weaver for dishonouring the Parliament, and alleged that the Honour of the Parliament was more considerable than the Honour of the Army, and aught to be vindicated before the Honour of the Army, whatsoever their Agents and Servants in the House (who gained by them) thought to the contrary, unless they would acknowledge the Parliament to be subordinate to the Army. It was farther said, that if the Parliament should relinquish the work of settling Peace, Religion, Laws, and Liberties in the Kingdom to the Committee of Safety, (as the Gentleman that spoke last seems to intimate, that in order thereto, the said Committee is enlarged) the Parliament should forsake their trust, and be no longer a Parliament, and all they had done, and should do in that way, (even the erecting, empowering, and enlarging of that Committee) is void in law. Note, that several Orders have been made, appointing set days to examine the powers of this Committee, and limit a time for its determination; but always upon the appointed days, either some Letters of news, or some new invented Plots have been cast like stumbling blocks in the way to put it off.  
The like for settling the general Militia of the Counties; all which are now left sine die.  
Thurday, 15. June, Mr. Solicitor reported to the House, 
94. 20. Royalists sent to the General in lieut of 10. Committee-men in Colchester.  That Sir William Masham and the rest of the Committee, were carried up and down in the head of gore's Army, hardly used, and threatened to be in the front of the battle whem they came to fight: and moved that 20. of the King's party should be seized, and sent to the General to be used in the like manner. But Gourdon moved, That the Lady Capell and her Children, and the Lady Norwich might be sent to to General with the same directions, saying, their Husbands would be careful of their safety: and when divers opposed so barbarous a motion, and alleged, the Lady Capell was great with child near her time, Gourdon pressed it the more eagerly, (as if he had taken the General for a Man-midwife) he was seconded by Venus, Sir Hen. Mildmay, Tho. Scot, Blackstone, Hill of Haberdashers-hall, Purefoy, Miles Corbet, etc. Note that Rushworth (Secretary to the General) reported at the Commons Bar, The Committee were well used and wanted nothing. And though they have had many Fights and Sallies, they did never put any of the Committee in the Front; so that it should seem this is only a fabulous pretence to carry 20. of the King's party in Front before them to facilitate and secure their Approaches against the Enemy's shot, which is the more credible, because the sense of the House was, not to exchange these for the Committee. This is to cheat the Enemy of a Town, not to conquer it. Behold the Saints way of getting Victories, and Cromwell practiseth the same in Wales, as I hear.  
And that it may farther appear, this Saintlike Army neither Conquers by Miracle, nor the Sword, but by the battery of Angels, I can assure you, that lately one of the setting-bitches of these States (as they now call themselves in their foreign negotiations) the hogen mogens of Derby-house, the Lady Norton (Wife to bul-headed Sir Grig.) offered a large sum of money to a Gentlewoman to procure her Husband to yield up a Hold he keeps for the KING, using this argument to persuade it, That most of the good Towns they seemed to conquer, were purchased of men that had wit enough to respect themselves, (for you must know that this virtuous Lady trucks as well for strong Towns and Forts, as for Plackets and other weaker pieces) but the motion was contemned; And the General having gotten together the Trained men of Suffolk and Essex to assist him, putteth them in the Forlorn Hope in all his stormings of the Town of Colchester, and drives them on with his Horse, using them as the Turk useth his Asapi to dead the first fury and edge of the Enemy, that his Janissaries may at last come on with the more safety, and carry the business.  

95. The National Covenant.  Saturday, 17. June. It was moved that no Commissions might be granted to any Commanders or Officers, until they had taken the National Covenant: against which, it was argued, That the Covenant was become the pretence of all Rebellions and Insurrections; that most of them that had Rebelled in Wales, Kent, Essex, had taken it; but those that refused it were true friends to the Parliament, and had done them gallant service. That the Covenant had so many various interpretations put upon it, that no man knew what to make of it, or how with a safe Conscience to take it: thus argued the Independent, as if the Covenant were malum in se. To which was answered, that by this last reason, they might lay aside the Scriptures, which were frequently and variously misinterpreted by Heretics and schismatics. If the Covenant in its own nature were the cause of Insurrections, it was unwisely done of the Parliament to impose it upon men; and to tie them by Vow to defend it, and one another in defence of it, with their lives and fortunes, whatsoever number of Armed men should gather together in defence of the King's Person, Crown and Dignity, or of Religion, Laws, Liberties, or of Privileges of Parliament, according to the said Covenant they have the authority of Parliament, nay of Heaven (where their Vow is recorded) for what they do, and cannot be said to Rebel, or War against the Parliament, but against a Faction, who having deserted or never taken the Covenant, to carry on new designs for their own advantage: do now misapply the title of Malignant and Rebel, to those which fight for the Covenant, because they will not change their principles with them for Company. And upon this ground only were the four Aldermen, seven Lords, Sir John Maynard, etc. impeached and imprisoned only for such actions as the Covenant (which they took by authority of Parliament) bond them in conscience unto; and for which they had a special Ordinance of Parliament, made this very Sessions, and not to raise a new War as was scandalously and violently enforced upon them: Had it come to a new War, it must have been laid at their doors that subvert the Principles in the Covenant. Many have taken the Covenant in obedience to you, and are bound up by it; and now to leave other men at large not to take it, and accuse them of Treason for endeavouring to keep it, is very unjust. You have lately promised the Scots, you will adhere to the Covenant: How can they believe this, unless you enjoin all to take it? And so long as you put all the Arms, Garrisons, and ships of the Kingdom, and all places of power, profit and preferment, into the hands of Schismatics and Antimonarchists, whose principles and actings run counter to the Covenant, and such as talk much of your service, but have done only their own, in order to which, they refused to obey you and Disband, ravished the King from you at Holdenby, kept you in wardship ever-since, and dishonoured and brought you low 〈◊〉 treasonable, scandalous, threatening Engagements, Declarati● 〈◊〉 Remonstrances, and other Papers? But those that would have had the Covenant current, could not get the question put.  

96. O●burn's information concerning a design to murder the King. See [The Independents loyalty] a Book so called.  Upon Saturday, 17 June 1648, about one of the clock afternoon (most of the House being gone to dinner, and very few Presbyterians left) the Speaker of the House of Commons stood up and told the House, that he had received Letters from Richard Osburn (he that projected to deliver the King out of the custody of Colonel Hammond at Carisbrook-Castle) that he conceived the Letters tended only to the setting of us altogether by the Ears; and propounded, whether they should be read or no? some were against the reading of them, but the Major part called to have them read; which was do●e accordingly. The Letter to the said Speaker had a copy of another Letter enclosed in it, to the Lord Wharton, which bore date 1 June, 1648. to this purpose, Giving his Lordship to understand, That upon private conference with Captain ROLF (a man very intimate with Colonel Hammond, and high in the esteem of the Army) the said Captain Rolf told him (the said Osburn) that to his knowledge Hammond had received several Letters from the Army, advising him to remove the KING out of the way by Poison, or any other means, for it would much conduce to their affairs. But (said Rolf) Hammond had a good allowance for keeping the KING, and is therefore unwilling to lose so beneficial an employment. But (saith Rolf) if you will join with me, we will endeavour to convey away the KING to some secret place, and we may then do what we will with Him. Osburn offers in his said Letter, That if he may come and go with safety, he would come and justify the same upon Oath. He likewise writ to the Speaker of the Lords House about it. Then was read Osburn's Letter to Mr. Lenthall Speaker, dated 10. June 1648. containing the same Narration, with an offer to appear, and make it good upon Oath if he might come and go with safety and freedom. The Clerk had no sooner done reading this Letter, but with a slight neglect, and the laughter of some Members, the business was passed over without debate, and Mr. Scawen stood up to propound a new business from the Army; when presently▪ Mr. Walker interrupting Scawen, desired to speak a 〈◊〉 to the late business; and asked Mr. Speaker, from whence 〈◊〉 Letter came, and who brought it? the Speaker called upon the Sergeant of the Mace, who Answered, The Letter was given him at the door by a man that he knew not; that he had many Letters and Papers thrust upon him of which he could give no account, but he would endeavour to find the Messenger. Then Mr. Walker urged that such an information coming to the House ought not to be neglected whether true or false, but to be examined and sifted to the bottom. If the KING should die a natural death, or any mischance befall him, (the People calling to mind how little care we had taken of his safety) would never be satisfied with our protestation; and moved, that a Committee might be named to examine Osburn, Rolf, Hammond, and such others whose names should occur in the Examination. This was seconded by Sir Simond Dewes, Mr. Henry Hungerford, Mr. Edward Stevens, and some others, who pressed it farther, but received a slight Answer. That those that desired to examine the business knew not where to find Osburn. That Osburn was a Malignant, and had attempted to set the KING at liberty. To which Mr. Walker replied, That the other day we had named a Committee to examine the business concerning the Footboy that struck Sir Henry Mildmay, and yet we neither knew then where to find the Footboy, or what his name was. If we do but publish that Osburn shall with freedom and safety come and go, in case he appear to make good his Charge, either he will appear, or we shall declare him an Impostor, and punish him when we take him, and clear the reputation of those upon whom this Letter seems to reflect. Consider how vast a difference there is between beating a Subject, and Killing a King. And if Osburn (whom I know not) be a Malignant, yet unless you can prove him a Nullifidian, or a person convict of Perjury, both according to the Rules of Christian Charity, and in the charitable intendment of our Laws, his Oath is valid and good. Then Tho. Scot stood up and said, That this pressing for a Committee to examine this business, was but a device to draw Colonel Hammond, and Rolf, up to Town to be examined, that the KING might the easier make an escape. And Sir John Evelin of Wilts, alleged that he conceived this was an invention of Osburns to bring the King to Town with Honour, Freedom, and Safety. Then Walker stood up again, but was interrupted by Master Hill, and not suffered to speak, having already spoken twice. At the end of almost every motion made for a Committee to examine the business, either Mr. Scawen, or Major General Skippon stood up and offered to divert the business by new matter concerning the Army, which usually beareth all other businesses down before it. At last those few that moved for an Examination of this Information, having spoken as often as the Orders of the House do permit, were forced to be silent; so the business was buried in silence. I hear that some of the Lords called upon this business the Monday following, being the 19 of June, and that the Lord Wharton being asked, why he did not impart Osburn's said Letters to the House? Answered, That as soon as he opened the said Letter he received from Osburn, and saw his name at the bottom, he looked upon the business as not considerable: yet he sent the Letter to Hammond. Upon Tuesday, 20 June, The Lords sent a Message to the Commons; the first paper whereof concerned Osburns said Letters: they desired that forty days might be assigned for Osburn to come and go with safety to make good his information. But Sir William Armine stood up, and desired, That the minutes of two Letters prepared to be sent into into Holland and Zealand concerning our Revolted ships might be first dispatched, as being of present use. And when the business was ended, Mr. Pierpointe propounded another part of the said Message. So Osburn's Information was left sine die, for that time, but since, the Lords have quickened it, and 40 days are given to Osburn to come and go with Freedom and Safety to make good his information; who is come, and avoucheth it; and one Dowcett, speaketh much in affirmation of a design of Rolfes to pistol the King. Rolf presents himself at the Commons Bar with a Letter from Hammond, which denies the Design, and pleads Rolfes cause for him. Rolf denied it at the Commons Bar with a trembling voice, yet afterwards hid out of the way; but being discovered upon search, he was found to have a Boil upon him, that disabled him from riding, otherwise (it is thought) he would have fled far enough. I do not hear that Hammond is yet sent for, or questioned. And for Osburn's endeavour to convey his Majesty from Carisbrook-Castle, it is alleged, he did it with a charitable intent to preserve his life, and not of any disaffection to the Parliament, to which he hath been affectionately serviceable. Though many take offence at Master Walker, as if his stirring of his business were only to cast an aspersion upon the Army: yet (I conceive) that what he did was commendable, in discharge of the duty he owes to God, his King, and Country, and of his trust as a Member of the Representative body of this Kingdom, and in performance of the obligations which the Oath of Allegiance, the Parliaments Protestation, the National Covenant, and the known Laws of the Land lay upon him, which duty he was bound to perform, (though with the extremest hazard of his life and fortunes) and though he may happily hope better things of this Army, yet since neither the Laws of the Land, nor common reason warrants him to presume upon his own private hopes and judgement (things which often deceive the wisest men in matters of far less moment) he could do no less than free his conscience, by making the whole House Witnesses of the clearness of his actions and intentions. Considering,  
1. The many high speeches and threats often used against the King in all places, none excepted.  
2. The dangers the King escaped from this very Army, which drove him from Hampton-Court to the Isle of Weight; and may possibly pursue him thither.  
3. The Antimonarchical Principles wherewith many Members of this Army, and their Chaplians, and many elsewhere are seasoned, who cannot govern this Kingdom at their pleasure by a military Olygarchy of Grandees of the Committee of Safety at Derby-house and the Army (and so establish the Kingdom of the Saints) nor yet bring it to their own level, but by taking off summa papaverum capita, all that is high and eminent. There is a Crowned Head in their way which must be removed.  
4. The corrupted fantasies of many Antimonarchical Schismatics with Revelations and Raptures, who serve the Devil for God's sake; making him the Author, and the doing of his will the pretence of all their crimes and villainies.  
5. The many desperate guilty persons that fear peace; and are resolved, now the Sword is out, to burn the Scabbard. These look upon the King with an evil eye, as the Centre in whom all Interests must unite before we can have Peace. Despair tempts these men to make one sin a degree, and step to a higher. These three last fort of men having cast off all fear of God, will as easily contemn God's substitute, the King; as he that casts off all reverence to the King will contemn his substitute, a Constable.  
6. The continual endeavours of the Grandees of Derby-house and the Army, to put all the Arms, Garrisons, Ships, and Strengths of the Kingdom into the hands of Antimonarchical, Schismatical Independents: in order to which, they are raising of new Forces, and erecting new Garrisons in most Counties. These men when they could not get a power from the House of Commons to raise what Forces they pleased, (for when it was moved, they there ordered, that no more motions should be made for raising new Forces, but between the hours of ten and twelve) yet what they could not get by their leave, they now take without their leave: the General granting Commissions for raising and listing Horse and Foot in almost all Counties; for example, Sir Hardresse Waller (that one eyed Polyphemus of Pastebord) lately sent forth Commissions in the County of Devon: (by virtue (as his Commissions say) of the power granted him from his Excellency) for raising, listing, and training Horse and Foot, which shall be no burden to the Country, but be in pay with the rest of the army. In these Commissions he styleth himself (untruly) Commander in chief of all the forces of the five Western Associate Counties: and gave authority and encouragement to the well affected (that is, to Independents, Sectaries, Antimonarchists, and the more desperate, forlorn sort of people) to enter into, and subscribe Engagements, to live and die with the Army (an imitation of the Members Engagement) in defence of the Parliament, (that is, of the engaged faction of Independents, Schismatics, and corrupt persons, whom only the Army looks upon as the Parliament) witness the Declaration of Sir Thomas Fairfax, and his Council of War, showing the grounds of his advancing up to London. This usurpation was complained of in the House of Commons, Monday 19 June, and prohibited then by Order.  
7. Peradventure the reason why this Letter was published so unseasonably in a thin House, in so slight and surreptitious a way (as aforesaid) was, in hope it would have been passed over in silence (as it had like to have been) and so the whole House should have been engaged in the crime (if any such thing be intended) as guilty of connivance and negligence, though not as Actors guilty of the fact. The main scope of this party hath ever been, by Treaties of Accommodation, uniting all Interests, and other devices, to involve others in their crimes, to infect others with their diseases; that all standing in need of one and the same desperate way of cure, may jointly have the same friends and foes, and the same sins and quarrels to defend.  
8. Friday, 16 June 1648. I was told, the Committee of Derby house had lately received a Letter from Col. Hammond, Governor of Carisbrook Castle, informing them, That unless they supplied him with Money and Men, he could give no good account of the King, in case the Revolted ships should attempt his rescue: and farther, That he had matters of great importance to communicate to them, but durst not commit them to Paper; but if they would send for him up, or send a Confident of theirs to him, he would impart them. This may probably be the business whereof Osburne gives information in his said Letters; and it may be Mr. Walker had heard of this report in the Hall, as well as myself, and might have the same conceit of it, that I have; if it be lawful for me to take measure of another man's judgement by my own.  
9 Lastly, who knows whether a powerful desperate party, may have a design to take away the King's life, and then declare his two eldest Sons uncapable of Government; supposing they deserted the Kingdom, and invited foreign States to invade it: and then Crown the Duke of Gloucester, and so (abusing his tender years) usurp the protection of him, and under colour of that authority, establish (by degrees) their own usurpation, and the people's slavery; having subdued their spirits by a long and customary bondage, under them; and having filled all places of power, profit and preferment in the Kingdom with men of their own principles and Interests, their own creatures and Confidents? This Army (last April) in their Council (amongst other things) debated, The Deposing of the KING, (why not murdering as well, since few Kings are deposed and not murdered?) Disinheriting the PRINCE, and Crowning the DUKE of YORK: which was then approved of by Cromwell and Ireton. Why may they not now disinherit both the elder Sons, and Crown the Duke of Gloucester as well? See the excellent Remonstrance of the Colchester Knights and Gentlemen, 1648. which I have Printed herewith for your satisfaction. That some such design might be to make away the KING, and disinherit the PRINCE, may well be suspected; because the 12. day of July, upon information, That the Prince had sent into England some Blank Commissions to List men: Weaver (an Implement of the Army, and Son to an Alehousekeeper in Wilish.) moved the House of Commons to Vote the Prince a Traitor, etc. And (I hear) that Mr. Solicitor (contrary to his Oath and duty of his place) refuseth to be of Council against the said Rolf; this Gentleman the Solicitor hath got above 300000 l. by keeping open shop to sell the cruel mercies of the new Great Seal to the Royalists.  

97. Trinity-house Petition for a Personal Treaty.  The 29. June. A Petition was delivered the House of Commons from the Masters of Trinity-house, Masters and Captains of Ships and Seamen, for a Personal Treaty with the KING; declaring the great decay of trade, to the undoing of many thousand families, and that they would not fight against the revolted ships, their Brethren, who desired but the same things with th●●. Tho. Scot said, That the Surrey-men first delivered a Petition for a Personal Treaty, which was seconded by the Kentish-men in Arms, and they by the City of London,: that all this was a design to ruin the Godly party. That he had read of a Man, who being asked when he was young, Why he did not marry? Answered, It was too soon: and being asked the same question when he was old, Answered, it was too late. So he was of opinion there could be no time seasonable for a personal Treaty, or a Peace with so perfidious and implacable a Prince; but it would always be too soon or too late. He that draws his sword upon his King must throw his Scabbard into the fire. All peace with him will prove the spoil of the Godly. To which was Answered, That some men got well by fishing in troubled waters; and accounted peace their spoil, because war was their gain: and they looked upon a Personal Treaty as a design against them (under the notion of the Godly, Honest, Confiding party) because a Personal Treaty was the high way to peace. But the generality of the people (who were despoiled of their Estates by the War) resolved upon a Personal Treaty, without which there is no hope of Peace: they would no longer be made fuel to that fire wherein these Salamanders live; nor any longer feed those Horseleeches, (the Army, their engaged party and Servants) with their blood and marrow. It now appears who desire a new War; namely, those Zealots who supply their indigent fortunes by War. These men fear peace, doubting they shall be forced to disgorge what they have swallowed in time of War: Venus, Miles Corbet, Hill the petty Lawyer of Haberdasher's hall, the two Ashes, Col. Harvy, and many other thriving Saints, opposed a Personal Treaty; so their Petition had no success. I hear that (not many days after) the Committee of Derby house (to take off this affront) employed Col. Rainsborough (the quondam Neptune of our Seas) to go up and down and solicit the Common sort of Mariners to subscribe, and present the House of Commons with a counter Petition, wherein they offered to live and die with the Parliament, etc. and that Rainsborough gave 12 d. a piece to as many as subscribed it. This Petition was delivered.  
The 2 of July, 
98. The City Petitions for a personal Treaty.  and after that (upon occasion of the City Petition for a Personal Treaty in London) upon the 5 of July, the House of Commons again took into debate a Personal Treaty. They spent much time upon the place where?  
1. Whether in the Isle of Wight? which the Independents principally affected.  
2. Holdenby? which they next inclined unto.  
3. Or any his Houses not nearer than 10 miles of London: at his own choice.  
4. Or in the City of London?  
Which two last places the Presbyterians approved of, but chief London: for London, it was argued, That the Common Council and Officers of the Soldiery would undertake for His safety against all Tumults. In any other place he would be within the power of the Army; who might probably take him away again (as they did at Holdenby) if they liked not the manner and matter of the Treaty. London was a place of most Honour, Safety, and Freedom; and would best satisfy the KING, the Scots, the people: In all other places (especially the Isle of Wight) He would be still a prisoner to the Army; and therefore all he should agree to, would be void by reason of Dures. Sergeant Wylde Answered, That Custodia did not always in Law signify Imprisonment; Though He was under restraint of the Army. He was not in Prison; making a wild kind of (nonsense) difference between Restraint and Legal Imprisonment, (which all but himself laughed at.) The King cannot plead Dures, no man can imprison or hurt the King in his politic capacity as King, though in his natural capacity, as man, he is as passive as other men. To which was replied, That it had been frequently said in the House, the King was a prisoner. That there was no difference in Law, between a restraint and an imprisonment, whether legal, or illegal. A tortuous restraint is called in Law, a false Imprisonment. That former Kings have avoided their own Acts by pleading Restraint (or Imprisonment) and Constraint, as R. 2. H. 3. That the King may as well plead Imprisonment, as the Parliament plead a Force, which they have lately done. That the King's Restraint in Law is Arcta custodia, God grant it be salva custodia; we have lately had Information to the contrary. The distinction between the King's natural and politic capacity was Treason in the Spencers, and so declared by 2 Acts of Parliament in the time of Edw. 2. and Edw. 3. See calvin's case in my Lord Cook, they are unseparable by the Law. Tho. Scot argued, That the City was as obnoxious to the King's anger as any part of the Kingdom; and if the Treaty should be in London, who shall secure us that the City will not make their Peace with the enraged King, by delivering up our Heads to Him for a sacrifice, as the men of Samaria did the heads of the 70 sons of Ahab? It was farther moved, That if the King came not to London, but to one of his houses about 10 miles from London, That He might be desired to give His Royal word to reside there until the Conclusion of the Treaty. Col. Harvy slighted this motion, vilifying the King's Royal word, and saying, There was no trust in Princes; he alleged, the King's promises had been frequently broken; as when he protested the safety and privileges of Parliament should be as precious to Him, as the safety of His Wife and Children, and within three or four days after came with armed Guards to force the House, and other instances which have been too often remembered, and shall be here omitted.  
At last they fell upon a report, that the Committee of Lords and Commons had Voted, They would not insist upon the 3 Votes preparatory to a Treaty, viz. Presbytery, the Militia, and recalling all Declare. Procla. etc. This was long argued to and fro. At last it was Voted, That the King be desired to assent to the said 3 preparatory Propositions, 
99: My Lord Says discourse about a Personal Treaty.  and sign them with his hand, to be passed as acts of Parliament when the King shall come to Westminster.  
My Lord of Warwick had moved in the Lord's House about this time for a Personal Treaty, and was seconded by the Earl of Northumberland; but my Lord Say opposed it, and prevailed against it: afterwards my Lord Say in his way home visited the Duke of Richmond, and amongst other discourse, told the Duke, He was sorry to find so great an indisposition to peace, saying, he had moved for a Personal Treaty, but could not prevail; this was done upon hopes the Duke would have writ so much to the Queen, or Prince. But the Earl of Holland coming that day to see the Duke, and the Duke relating to the Earl what the Lord Say had told him, the Earl of Holland discovered the truth to him, and so spoiled the design: you see the Devil doth not always own the endeavours of his servants.  
The said 5 July, the Speaker, as soon as he sat in his Chair, 
100 The news of the D. of Buck. taking Arms.  alarmed the house of Commons with the news of the Duke of Buckingham's, and the Earl of Holland's drawing into an hostile posture; relating they were 2000 that they intended to take Lambeth-house, that the Bullets would presently be about their ears if they did not rise; which put the zealots into such a rout, that they presently cried, Adjourn, adjourn, until Monday; and had hardly so much patience as to hear any reasons to the contrary; but this was but a counterfeit fear: the design hid under it was, to prevent the City from bringing in that day their Petition for a Personal Treaty, and to leave the whole power of the House, during the Adjournment, to the Committee of Derby house, to raise what Horse and Foot they pleased, under colour of suppressing this Insurrection.  
For when they found they could not prevail to Adjourn, 
101. Skippon authorised to raise 1000 Horse.  they moved for power to be given to Maj. Gen. Skippon to raise Horse, whether to possess the Avenues and passages from the City to the Earl of Holland's Army, or to keep the City under the terror of a Horse Guard, is doubtful.  
And the same day Mr. Swynfin reported from the Committee of Safety, That they offered to the Consideration of that House, 
102. A Report from Derby house that the Members should underwrite for maintaining of Horse.  that it was fit the House should have a Horse Guard, and that every Member should underwrite how many Horse he will pay for 10 days.  
This is refused by some Gentlemen upon these grounds:  
1. It bears the aspect of an Imposition or Tax set upon the House by their Committee.  
2. The Members have not suffered alike; and therefore cannot do alike, some have lost much and got nothing, others have got much and lost nothing: and it is not equal that Losers should bear equal burdens with Getters, and contribute out of their Losses to maintain other men's Gains, and preserve them in their rich Offices, and Bishops Lands purchased for little or nothing. Gentlemen are made Beggars, and Beggars Gentlemen.  
3. It is a dividing motion: tending to lay an imputation of Malignancy and disaffection upon those that cannot, as well as those that will not, subscribe: and so gives a great advantage to the Gainers over the Losers, which the Losers have no reason to submit to.  
4. A Personal Treaty being now in debate: this motion makes many Members forbear the House, who cannot grant, and dare not deny: It carries with it therefore something of design and terror, and so takes away the liberty of Parliament, which when so weighty a business is handling is aught to be.  
If this Horse Guard be raised, how shall we assure ourselves they shall be Disbanded after ten days, being once under Command? It is therefore a subtle, malicious, tyrannous act, for the Committee of Safety to put so tempting a motion upon the House, and give men cause to suspect that something of Design and Danger lies hid under it.  

103. The device of a forged letter.  About this time a Letter without any name subscribed, was left at Major General Brown's house, in his absence: consisting of two parts.  
1. A Preamble, of great respect and love born to him by the Epistoler for his fair carriage to the King, and good affection to peace, and reconcilement with the King.  
2. An Admonition to look to himself, and moderate his Actions, the Army looking upon him as their only Enemy, and Opponent in the City, lest they should seize upon him and carry him away, or do him some other mischief. This is conceived to be an Independent mousetrap set up to catch a Presbyterian in; for if the Major General had not discovered the said Letter, and it had been found about him, or in his House; or if it had been testified that such a Letter was left at his house and concealed: here had been matter enough for an Impeachment against him. 
104. Correspondency with Card. Mazerini.   
The Grandees of Derby house and the Army solicit the detaining of the PRINCE in France, and the delaying of his journey for England, lest he trouble the yet unsettled Kingdom of the Saints. To negotiate which, they have an Agent lying Lieger with Cardinal Mazarini (the great French instrument of State) who is so well supplied with Money, and so open handed, That it hath been heard from Mazarin's own mouth, That all the money the Queen and Prince hath cost the Crown of France, hath come out of the Parliament Purse with a good advantage. It is likewise said, Mazarini hath an Agent here, to drive on the Interests of France in England.  
The Grandees in reference to the pulling down of Monarchy, 
105. Doleman's Antimonarchical Book printed.  and the establishing of their Olygarchy or Tyranny (contrary to their Remonstrances, Declarations, the National Covenant, and their late Vote, That they would not alter the ancient form of Government by King, Lords, and Commons) have caused the Book written by Parsons the Jesuit, 1524 (under the feigned Name of Doleman) and called [A Conference about the succession of the Crown] to be published, under the Title of [Several Speeches delivered at a Conference, concerning the power of Parliaments, to proceed against their Kings for misgovernment.] Parsons had made this Book a Dialogue, these Men have made it into Speeches. The Arguments and Precedents are merely the same; you see they can join Interests with France: Doctrine with the Jesuits, to carry on their design, 
See the Conclusions, 15, 16, 17.  and reduce us to the condition of French Peasants or Slaves, under the Kingdom of the Saints. Doleman's Book was condemned by Act of Parliament, 35 Eliz. But what care the Grandees for Acts of Parliament, having fooled the people into a belief, That both the Legislative and Judicative power is in the two Houses of Parliament without the King, and that an overpowering party or Junto in the two Houses (complying with an Army to keep the rest under force and awe) is the Parliament. 
106. The Legislative, Judicative power, and the Militia, where they reside. See the Conclusions, 15, 16, 17.   
The Parliament consisteth of 3 Estates.  
1. The King, whom the Law calleth, Principium, Caput & finis Parliamenti: and therefore he only can Call, He only can Dissolve a Parliament, and is himself called and chosen by none, being primus motor, that animates all.  
2. The Lords: who have their creation and vocation only from the King's bounty.  
3. The Commons, who have their summons only from the King's Writ, though their election from the people; and in that respect only (the people being too diffused a Body to be Assembled) they have something of Representation in them, being the Epitome of the People. These 3 Estates concurring, have power to make news Laws, to change or repeal old Laws, and in some doubtful cases rarely happening (which the Judges dare not venture upon) they have power to interpret the Laws. This is a wise and politic constitution, for if any one, or any two of the said three Estates should make new Laws, Change, Repeal or Interpret old Laws, arbitrarily and at pleasure, without mutual agreement of all the three Estates, it were in the power of that one or two to enslave the other Estate or Estates so omitted. Besides, the Law doth not favour the making of new Laws, nor the changing and repealing of old Laws, being an innovation that stirs too many humours in a body politic, and endangers its health, and brings contempt upon the Laws: Leges priusquam latae sunt perpendendae, quando latae, sunt obediendae, saith Arist. Pol. But though all 3 Estates must assent to the making, altering or repealing a Law, yet any one of the 3 Estates hath a Negative Voice, and may descent from such making, 
2 H. 5. 4. H. 7. c. 18. 12. H. 7. c. 20. 1 Ja. c. 1. 2 Ch. c. 1.  altering or repealing, to avoid innovation, as abovesaid. How then can the two Houses of Parliament exercise the Legislative power, and make, change or repeal any Law by Ordinance, without the King, (the first Estate and head of the Parliament) and so deprive Him of His Negative Voice, and the people of their Laws, Liberties, and Estates, contrary to 9 H. 3. Magna Charta, 1 part. Instit. sect. 234. in fine. 7. H. 7. 14. especially when this very Parliament declares in the Exact Col. 1 part. p. 727. That the King hath a Negative Voice, and that Bills are not Laws (or Acts of Parliament) without the King's assent (consequently nor Ordinances.) And as the two Houses take upon them the Legislative power without the King, so in the case of the 4 Aldermen and Sir John Maynard, they usurped a Judicative Power in case of Treason tryable in the King's Bench: yet it is most certain, that when the 3 Estates in Parliament have passed any Act, their power determines as to that Act, and then the Authority of the Judges gins, which is Judicative: whose Office is (upon cases brought before them) to determine whether that Act be binding or not; (for Acts of Parliament against common right, Repugnant, or Impossible, are Void (Cook 8. f. 118. Dr. and Student, l. 1. c. 6.) and to expound the meaning, and signification of the words of such Act. If therefore the 2. Houses usurp the Legislative and Judicative power, or the Militia, otherwise than hath been by the fundamental constitution of this Monarchy, and the practice of all ages accustomed, the Grandees of the two Houses and Army seem to lay claim to them all by the Sword, for in the late Declaration against the Scots Papers, p. 64. they say, That they engaged in this war upon these principles, viz. To keep the Legislative power, and the exercise of the Militia, without and against the King's consent and p. 63. ibidem, the Members tell us, that in all matters concerning Church or State, we have no judge upon Earth but themselves. It follows then, the Grandees do it to subvert the ancient Government, Laws and Liberties of this Nation; and establish a Military Olygarchy, or the Kingdom of the Saints over us in themselves. In order to which design they have put all things out of order, and turned them upside down; nay, they have crucified the whole Kingdom with Saint Peter's Crucifixion, the head downwards, and the Heels upwards.  
When this King went into Scotland, He compared the Commonwealth to a Watch, which they had taken in pieces; and advised them to keep every piece and pin safe, and put all in their right places again; but now all the principal pieces are either broken, or lost. God grant them to number their hours better hereafter, and to close well with our Master Workman; for though this Kingdom hath always been Ruled by King, Lords, and Commons; yet by the KING, architectonicè; and by the other Two, organicè; the King as the Architect, the Lords and Commons as His Instruments; each in his proper sphere of Activity, without interfering: and till this again come in use, look for no peace.  
The Independent Grandees of the Parliament and Army are much offended with the City, and their adherents, 
107. The Army's Aspect upon the City and personal Treaty.  in Petitioning for a Personal Treaty with the King, and give out, That when they have done with Colchester, they will humble the City, and bring it to better obedience, for which purpose, they have already taken all the Blockhouses, upon the River East of the City, Windsor-Castle West of the City, and are now fortifying Gyddy-tall near Rumford in Essex South from the City; the like they intent at Hampton Court; and to build a Fort upon the Isle of Dogs, to keep under the Seamen: whereby, possessing the principal ways, and Avenues to the City, they shall neither feed, nor Trade, but at the discretion of the Army. In the mean time the City's desires of a Personal Treaty are delayed and made frustrate by a tedious Conference between a Committee of Parliament, and a Committee of Common-Council. And Counter-Petitions against a Personal Treaty are sent about by Alderman Gybs, Foukes, Estwicke, Wollaston, Andrew's, Nye the Independent Priest, and others, (who hold rich Offices by favour of the Grandees) to be subscribed even by Apprentice Boys; whereby it appears the Independents have no intent, to make peace with the King, but to engage in a new War, thereby to contiune their Army, and our Slavery.  
The yearly Income they raise upon the people under colour of this War, (besides the King's Revenue, Sequestrations, and Compositions) amounts to three Millions sterling per annum, being six times as much as ever the most greedy and burdensome of our Kings raised: where our Stewards hid these our Talents (public Debts and Arrears being unpaid) were worth finding out, if any but the Devil could give an Account thereof. But this is an unsoundable Gulf, here my plumbline faileth me.  

108. Major Gen. Skippon's complaint.  The 10. of July, Major General Skippon complained in the House of Commons of a printed Paper, called, [A Motive to all loyal Subjects, to endeavour the preservation of his Majasties Person] wherein (he pretended) he was falsely and scandalously slandered for speaking some words in the House to divert the Examination of Mr. Osborn's Charge against Rolf. The House (that is, the Independents) were as diligent to become his Compurgators, and vindicate his credit, by passing and Printing 5. Votes for him, as they had formerly been to ruin the KING'S Honour by passing a Declaration against Him. This fellow Skippon was heretofore Waggoner in the Low-Countries to Sir Francis Vere, after that came over into England a poor forlorn Commander, and obtained of the King his Letters of Commendation to keep a kind of Fencing School in the City Military yard, and teach the Citizens the postures of the Pike and Musket, and Train them; where he wore the mask of Religion so handsomely, that he soon insinuated into their favours, and found them very bountiful Patrons to him; there he got his fat belly, and full purse; from the City he became Major General to the new-modelled Army: and observing some discontents arising between the City and Army, and being willing to keep two strings to his bow, that he might uphold his credit with the City, he voluntarily submitted himself to some affronts, purposely and politicly put upon him in the Army; and yet that the Army might understand him to be their creature, he marched with the Army in their Triumph through the City, still carrying himself as a moderate reconciling man, and sweetening the insolences of the Army, by making mild and fair interpretations of their Actions; yet still so much magnified the power of the Army, as if he would persuade the City they were beholding to the Army, for making no worse use of their strength against them: Thus (as many other moderate, prudential men do) he lay a good while undescried in the bosom of the City, and there as a Spy and Intelligencer kept Sentry for the Army, until such time as the City petitioning the Commons for restoring of their own Militia to them again, the Council of the Army, (to mock them with an uneffectuall Militia) by their engaged party in the House, and the Committee of Derby-house (of which Cabal Skippon is one) caused their confiding man Skippon, not only to be named of the Committee of the Militia (although no Citizen) but to be obtruded upon the City as their Major General, Commander in Chief of all their Forces, without whom nothing is to be acted. This being resented and opposed, as contrary to the City's Charter and Liberties, Skippon found he was discovered, and then (taking advantage of the Earl of Holland's going forth into Arms) upon a Report from the Committee of Derby-house, the Commons ordered, that a Party of Horse should be raised and listed under Skippon: Skippon by virtue of this Order granted Commissions to divers schismatical Apprentices to raise men underhand, and authorised the said Commissioned Apprentices to grant Sub-commmissions again to other Apprentices under them for the like purpose: This was pretended to prevent Tumults and Insurrections, but indeed it was to join with the Independent party of the City, and the army, (when they have done their work at Colchester) in purging the Presbyterians out of the Common-Council and Parliament; in reference whereto, the Army have resolved not to march Northwards against the Scots, until they have brought this City to more absolute obedience, or laid it in the dust, according to Cromwel's advice; as a preparative to which design, the prevailing party in the House, 
Yet they knew they came in by Authority of the Parl. of Scotland.  July 15. (hand over head) Voted, All such Scots as are come into England in hostile manner, without consent of both Houses of Parliament of England, Enemies to the State; and all such English as do or shall adhere to, aid, or assist them Traitors: and the next day following, Weaver openly in the House affirmed, that the Scotish design of D. Hamilton, the Colchester design, and that of the Earl of Holland, were all begun and carried on in the City of London: to which Venus, the two Ashes, Harvy, Scot, Miles Corbet, Blackstone, Sir Peter Wentworth, and others gave applause: lo here a foundation laid for a new Charge against the City, when the Army are at leisure to make use of it. This Hypocrite Skippon, when he had spoken any thing in the House prejudicial to the King or City, about a Week after (when the venom he hath spit hath wrought its effect, and is past remedy) usually complains in the House, that his words are carried forth of the House, and maliciously and falsely reported in the City to his disgrace and danger, and repeating in a more mild and qualified way some part of what he had formerly said, appealed to the House, Whether that were not the full truth of his words? When the House, having forgotten his former words, no man can, and (for fear of the envy and malice of a powerful Faction) no man will contradict him; this is his way of Apologizing and clearing himself. He hath got above 30000 l. in his purse, besides 1000 l. a year land of Inheritance given him by the Parliament. He hath secured his personal Estate beyond Sea, and his Wife and Children, and thereby withdrawn all pawns and pledges of his Fidelity both out of the power of the Parliament and City, and is here amongst us but in the nature of a soldier of fortune.  
Note, that upon the said 15 day of July, when the debate was for Voting the Scots that were come in, Enemies, etc. the first question was put, 
106. D. Hamiltons' Army Voted Enemies.  that all such Scots as are, or shall come into England, in hostile manner, without consent of both Houses of the Parliament of England, were Enemies, etc. but upon farther debate, the words (or shall) were left out, upon this Consideration, that the Earl of Argyle might happily come into England with a Party, and fall upon Duke Hamilton in the rear to divert him.  
July the 20. The Speaker told the Commons, 
110. D. Hamilton's Letter and Decaration brought to the House.  that Major General Lambert had made stay of a Scottish Gentleman, one Mr. Haly-barton who passed through his quarters with Letters from D. Hamilton, to the two Houses, and the King; that he found about Mr. Haly-barton divers private Letters, for the carrying of which, he had public on Authority, and therefore Lambert made bold to seal those private Letters in a packet by themselves with his own seal and Mr. Haly-bartons: That Lambert had sent up Mr. Haly-barton with one Lieut. Col. Osburn, a Godly Scottish Gent. and another Keeper, in nature of a Prisoner. 
111. L. Col. Osburn a fugitive Scot  This Osburn delivered that private packet to the Speaker; so a Committee was named to peruse that private packet, and Osburn was called into speak what he knew; who delivered at the Bar, that the Godly party in Scotland were oppressed and trodden under foot by Duke Hamilton's party, that their very souls we afflicted at his proceed, that the Kirk of Scotland with one mouth proclaimed in their faces their engagement and proceeding thereupon to be damnable and destructive: he desired the House not to look upon these proceed as the Act of the Nation of Scotland, since there were a great many Godly men who hoped the Lord would enable them in his good time to march into England with the marquis of Argyle and fall into the rear of Duke Hamilton with a diversion. He reported, the Scots that came in to be but 8000 Horse and Foot, and Langdale but 2000 Then was read the Letters of D. Hamilton, wherein He complaineth no answer had been given to the Parliament of Scotland's just desires of the 26 April last, that by authority of the Scottish Parliament he was necessitated to come into England according to the Covenant, and not without the invitation of divers well-affected English who had taken the Covenant. There was a Declaration enclosed in the Letters, which the prevailing party obstructed the reading of (yet the Lords having printed it, they have since read it in the House) and presently the question was put, that all such English as have invited the Scots under D. Hamilton, to come in hostile manner into England, shall be declared Traitors? and carried in the Affirmative. I formerly told you, that about 12 July, Weaver moved, that the Prince of Wales might be Voted a Traitor: what they could not then carry with a forewind, they now brought in again with a side wind; but who doubts but the Prince invited in the Scots to the relief of his Father and himself oppressed and imprisoned, contrary to the Solemn League and Covenant, by a Rebellious Army, and a schismatical party of both Houses engaged with the said Army: And that the Scots are come in according to the Covenant only?  

112. A motion in the House of Commons to Bail Rolf.  A little before this time Tho. Scot, Sir P. Wentworth, Blackstone, C. Harvy, Hill the Lawyer, and others pressed the House with much earnestness to Bail Rolf, committed Prisoner to the Gatehouse upon the Complaint of Mr. Osburn for endeavouring to make away the KING: u●ing many words in his commendation for his godliness and faithfulness, and complaining of his hard usage in Prison where he lay amongst Rogues. It was opposed by many, because High Treason is not bailable by the Law, neither is the House of Commons a Court of Judicature; and therefore can neither Imprison, nor Bail any but their own Members. At last Mr. Sam. Brown moved, that a Committee might examine the business for matter of Fact, and report to the House, and then the House (if they saw cause) might Bail him; and bind over Master Osburn to prosecute him next term in the Kings-bench. This motion took effect, and great care was taken for the present, that Rolf might have better entertainment in the Gatehouse according to his quality; having been not long since a Shoemaker, one of the Gentle-craft.  

113. The Speakers Warrant to search for the Footboy that beat Sir Hen. Mildmay.  About this time, 2 Files of Musketeers, by warrant from the Speaker of the House of Commons, came in the dead time of the night to the Houses of Sir Paul Pynder, and Alderman Langham, pretending to search for the Footboy that beat Sir H. Mildmay. They forced open the doors of Sir Paul's house, and searched with great diligence; but could not do the like at Alderman Langham's, who being guilty of having some Money in his House, durst not adventure to obey the Warrant and open his doors; nor had he reason to do it, his House (by the Law) being his Castle of Defence, the privilege thereof not to be violated but in case of Felony or treason. Compare the diligent prosecutions in the behalf of Sir Harry Mildmay, with the slack and negligent proceed in the behalf of the King, and you will find a new practical Law (contrary to the old known established Law) that a trespass against a Grandee (though but a Subject) is more than a treason against a King.  
Fears and jealousies arising from several Informations (as that of Croply and Hyde, called, 
114. Fears and jealousies cause the City to resume the power of their own Militia.  The Resolutions of the Army) and divers other Symptoms of danger, but especially Skippons secret Li●ting of Schismatics in the City amongst the Congregations of Mr. Goodwin, Mr. Patience, and others, with power given him to kill and slay; his listing servants against their Masters, and setting up a Power against a Power, had provoked that dull beast the City to know their own strength, to look into their Charter and the Customs of the City, and to Counter-list in their own defence: for which purpose, they passed an Act of Common Council, dated 27. July 1648. which was soon complained of in the House of Commons by Venus, Harvey, Pennington, and other ill Birds of that Corporation, who usually defile their own nests, after many aggravations; that after they had fought with the King for the Militia, any power out of the Parliament should presume to exercise it: a Committee was appointed to Treat with a Committee of the Common-Council, to hear what they could say for themselves, and by what authority they claimed the use of their own Militia. The Committees met, and amongst other things the said question was asked, By what authority they listed men? To which was answered, That they did it by the Law of Self-defence, warranted by the Law of God, of nature, and of the Land: and by a farther Authority, to question which, would make lirtle for the advantage of the Parliament: This mysterious Answer stopped the mouths of the Parliament Committee. If London should plead their Charter and usages, other places might do the like; so this business was shut up in silence. Note that many Sectaries of Westminster, Southwark, and the Hamlets have been invited and countenanced to petition the House of Commons against uniting their Militia's with London, upon pretended cavils: As that they desired to have equal number of Voices in the Militia with London: But since London beareth 7. parts of 9 in the charge, it is an unreasonable demand.  
By Orders (as is thought) from Derby-house, 
115: The Governor of Dublyn seizeth and sendeth over Prisoners the Presbyterian Commanders.  Colonel Jones Governor of Dublyn, hath seized upon most of the Presbyterian Commanders thereabouts, and sent them Prisoners to Westchester, as Sir Maurice Eustace, Sir John Gyford, Col. Willoughby, Colonel Flower, Major Stephens, Major Capron, etc. to make room for Independent Officers in his Army, that the Saints only may possess the good things of this world; but chief, that his Army being Commanded by Antimonarchical Schismatics may the better sympathise and unite with the Antimonarchical Papists in Owen Roe Oneal's Army, against the Lord Inchiquin, whereof the said Lord hath given some hint, as I have aforesaid. You see the predominant Principle is Antimonarchy, which easily oversways Religion on both sides.  

116. A Frigate of the Princes taken with many Letters and Commissions.  Sir Milles Levesey having casually taken a little Frigate of the Princes, called the Chistopher manned with one Captain Green, and 8. men, took divers Commissions in her, and a Letter of Mart, granted to the said Captain to make prize of Rebels and Enemies Goods, and a Paper of Instructions, prohibiting Green to use any Hostility until the Prince had published his Declaration, and until it were designed who were His Enemies; other writings were then taken, which were referred to a Committee of the House of Commons to peruse and report. Mr. Lechmore reported from the said Committee, That some of those writings were not fit to be published in the House, (hereby you see that the House is already divested of that Power and Authority which the People have Trusted only them with, & all is now usurped by confiding Sectary Committees) so Mr. Lechmore reported, That there was an Adjudication out of the Prince's Admiralty held in the Isle of Jersey, whereby a ship belonging to one Tucknell was adjudged against him, upon this ground given in the Adjudication, That Tucknell had taken that damnable Oath, called [The National Covenant.] I appeal to any man that doth not hastily believe all he hears, whether it be probable the Prince (in such a conjuncture of time, when the Parliament itself says, That the Prince invited the Scots to invade England, and had declared for them) would hazard the losing of the Scots, by inserting such a clause in the Adjudication? All is not Gold that glisters; these Letters may be St. Martin's ware, counterfeit stuff.  

117. A design to seize on divers Presbyterian Aldermen, Lords and Commons.  About this time (it is reported by some that profess to know it) there was a design for Skippon's new listed-men to seize upon Alderman Langham, Alderman Bunce, and some of the Lords and Members of the House of Commons in the night; whereof notice being given, some of the Members knowing that Treachery (like the Basilisk) dies if it be first seen, to show that it was discovered, caused one of their Party in the House, to move, That Skippon might be Ordered not to seize on, kill or slay any Member of either House.  
An order passed the House of Commons for the Earl of Warwick, to fight the Prince at Sea. It was sent up to the Lords, 
118. An Ordinance for the Earl of Warwick to fight the Prince at Sea.  and passed that House too; whereby it became an Ordinance. Yet some of the Lords entered a protestation against it, as the Earls of Lincoln, Suffolk, Lord North.  
2. Of August, The Zealots of the House of Commons fell again upon the business of Rolf, 
119. More endeavours of the Independents in favour of Rolf.  at an unseasonable hour of the day, and in a thin House. They ordered a Conference with the Lords about him, and that the Lords be desired to join with the Commons in Bayling of him; and yet, for Treason, a man is not Bailable by Law. I cannot hear that Mr. Osburn's time of staying with Freedom and Safety to prosecute Rolf is renewed by the Commons, although it be expired; you see the Iron-bound Saints of the Army are impregnable, even against High Treason; if this Puny Saint be so inviolable, what hope have Major Huntingdon, and John Lilbourn to be heard against Cromwell?  
For if the man such freedom have,  
What then must he that keeps the Knave?  
Yet if Rolf had but bastinadoed Sir Henry Mildmay (and that's no great matter) peradventure he had been prosecuted in earnest.  
Thursday, 3. August, 
120. A Letter from the Earl of Warwick for Martial Law at Sea.  a Letter from the Earl of Warwick was read in the House of Commons, complaining of the Refractoriness of the Seamen, and that he could not govern them without a Commission for Martial Law; which was readily assented to; as any thing that cries up Arbitrary power, above the known Laws, usually is. But how this will agree with the discipline of the Sea, and how they will fight being so yoked, I know not.  
The same day a Letter passed the House of Commons, 
121. A Letter from the Parliament to the Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland.  directed to the Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland, setting forth what the Parliament had done in way of settling peace, reforming the Church and Universities, and maintaining the Covenant and union between the two Nations, and complaining of Duke Hamilton's Invading England under the Authority of the Parliament of Scotland, to the Kirk there. How dangerous this precedent may prove to both Kingdoms, to make a few ambitious, paedantical Churchmen supreme Judges over Parliament and State affairs, in ordine ad Deum: and how apt they are to lay hold upon such occasions, and kindle their zeal into a consuming flame, I leave to all wise men to judge.  

122. A Declaration and 2. Letters from the Prince, to the City. The Commons Debate upon them.  Thursday, 3. August. The Sheriffs of London and some of the Common Council brought to the House the Copies of two Letters they had received from the PRINCE; one directed to the Common Council, expressing his Highness' good affection to Peace, and to the whole City; and his endeavours to vindicate his Father's Liberty and just Prerogative and Rights; to restore to the People their Laws, Liberties, and Property, to free them from that bondage under which they were now held like a Conquered Nation, to ease them of Excise and Taxes, to settle Religion according to his Father's Agreement made with the Scots, and to reduce all things into their ancient and proper Channel. This Letter was accompanied with his Declaration to the same purpose. The other was to the Merchant Adventurers, Informing them he had made stay of 3. of their ships, but without any intent to make prize of them, desiring to borrow 20000 l. of them to be repaid out of the Customs, and requiring their speedy answer. To which Col. Harvy (first aggravating many faults in the King's Government, according to the scandalous Declaration against him) said, The Prince was his Fathers own Son, as like him as could be. That he had invited the Scots to come in, and declared for them; and had been formerly in Arms against the Parliament. That he was but a subject; And moved the House to declare him a Rebel and a Traitor. Sir Peter Wentworth, Mr. Knightly, and Mr. Blackstone seconded him with much earnestness; so did Edward Ash, who farther moved, That the Common Council and Merchants should give no answer to his Letters, saying, there was no danger the Prince should make prize of their ships, for that he had engaged to the States of the Low-Countries to do no act prejudicial to Trade. At last the Debate was put off until the next day, being Friday: when the Speaker putting the House in mind of it again, It was earnestly called upon by the younger Sir John Evelin (Mr. Solicitors shadow) Scot, Weaver, Holland, Boys, and almost all the Godly Gang. So the Debate was resumed: and Weaver went very high to try the temper of the House. But the Debate in Terminis, That the Prince should be declared a Rebel and a Traitor, was soon laid by (though violently pressed) chief upon these reasons.  
1. That they had not the Originals of the Prince's Letter and Declaration, (which the Common-Council still kept) but only Copies, not so much as attested upon Oath by any authentical Clerk; therefore no legal proceed could be upon them.  
2. To Vote the Prince a Traitor the same day when they sent Messengers to invite the King his Father to a Treaty of Peace, would argue no peaceable inclination in them, and would be so understood by the People.  
3. They were engaged by the Nationall Covenant to defend the King's Person, Crown and Dignity; but the Prince, Heir apparent to His Crown, was (next under God) the chief supporter of his Crown and Dignity, therefore to Vote him a Traitor was to subvert his Crown and Dignity.  
4. By the Stat. 25. Edw. 3. it is High Treason to endeavour the destruction of the Prince, the King's eldest Son; but to declare him a Rebel and a Traitor, was to endeavour to destroy him; and therefore High Treason.  
5. The people were already jealous that the KING and His Posterity should be laid by; and in them the Monarchical Government of this Nation subverted, and a new form of Government introduced; they had already by the Votes of No Addresses to the KING, and by their Declaration against Him (wherein they say, They can no longer confide in Him) laid by the KING, and now to Vote the PRINCE a Rebel and a Traitor, was to lay by both him, and his Brother the DUKE of YORK, who adheres to him, which would exceedingly confirm the people in their fears. But what they could not do expressly, 
All that adhere to the Prince, declared Traitors.  they did implicitly, by Voting All that should adhere to, aid, or assist the PRINCE, Rebels and Traitors: Hereby they put a tie upon the City not to redeem their Ships, by lending 20000 l. to the Prince; and yet had a Pirate taken them, it had been lawful to redeem them.  
Saturday, 5 August. 
123. The National Covenant.  The House of Commons went upon the Commissioners to judge of Scandals; there was a Clause in the Ordinance, forbidding the Nomination of such as refused the National Covenant, which was strongly opposed by the Independents, who argued, That the National Covenant was but a League sworn mutually by the two Nations; that the Scots by Invading England had first broke it, and thereby set the English at liberty from it, that the Covenant was not Jure divino, no more than Presbytery was. To which was Answered, That the large Treaty containing the League between the two Nations, so did not the Covenant, which was a Vow made unto God with our hands lifted up to heaven, for the maintenance and observation of the ends and principles expressed in the Covenant, from which no power on Earth can absolve. That though the Covenant was not Jure divino, yet the keeping of it after we have taken it is Jure divino, it being the revealed will of God, that we should not offer to him the sacrifice of fools; a Covenant to day, and break it to morrow.  

124. A new Militia erected in every County, in the hands of Sectaries.  Mondon, 7 August. A particular Ordinance to put the County of Wilts into a posture of defence was read, many that were named to be Deputy Lieutenants, or Commissioners, were mean petty fellows, as one Read a Servingman, and others, such as refuse to Act upon the Ordinances for settling Church Government, and declare that our Ministry is Antichristian, and are new dipped Brethren that have been rebaptized. These to have power to raise what men, and put arms into what hands they list; to fine 10 l. and twenty days Imprisonment for every default, and to levy 400 l. a week upon that poor County over and above the Taxes to Fairfax's Army, and Ireland and Freequarter. The general Ordinance to trust the Counties with their own defence, is obstructed, to give way to these particular Ordinances, That all the Arms and Garrisons of the Kingdom may be put into the hands of Antimonarchical Sectaries, and the Militia of Godly Cutthroats established in every County towards the putting down of Monarchy, and the erecting of the manyheaded Tyranny of the Saints of Derby-house and the Army. This Ordinance was committed.  

125. Letter's uncharacterized, a new invented net to catch Presbyterians in.  Tuesday, 8 August. Thomas Scot made report to the House of Commons of the private Letters brought out of Scotland by Master Haly-barton, (whereof I have formerly given you notice) this Gentleman being a public Messenger from the Kingdom of Scotland, (and not from Duke Hamilton or his Army, whom only the House of Commons have declared Enemies, without the concurrence of the Lords) hath leave given him by the Lords to stay a Month in England; yet the Commons have since Voted he shall be gone in twenty four hours, or else he shall be sent home in Custody. These Letters are most of them written in Characters, yet this wel-gifted Brother Scot, hath found out a New Light to Decipher them by; and can tell by Inspiration, or by Privilege of Parliament, what cipher or Character must signify such a Letter of the Alphabet, or such a man's name. This engine added to the Schismatical High Commission or Committee of Clandestine Examinations, is better than any spring or trap to catch any active Presbyterian that lies cross to the design of the Godly.  
They may suppose any man's name to lie hid under such or such Characters and Ciphers, and so accuse him by virtue of this mysterious art, of aiding or complying with the Scots or the Prince, and pin whatsoever the Faction pleaseth to call Treason upon his sleeve; these are the Arts of the Godly to make Innocency itself seem nocent, and remove out of the way such as hinder the erecting the Kingdom of the Saints.  
These Letters so deciphered, were afterwards at a Conference reported to the Lords.  
Wednesday, 9 August. 
126. The City Petition answered.  The Answer to the City Petition (the day before delivered to the House of Commons) was reported to the House. It was an Answer to some of the Prayers of that Petition only, but gave no Answer to their desires, for the Disbanding of all Armies to ease the people of their Burdens. The restoring of the people's Laws and Liberties. The enjoining all Members to attend the House; nor to the effectual observation of the selfdenying Ordinance: this last is a noli me tangere; if all Members should be enjoined to be selfdenying men, there would be few Godly men left in the House; How should the Saints possess the good things of this world? yet (after some debate, and divers expressions used by Weaver and Harvy, That it appeared by the Petition that the City would desert the Parliament) they gave an Answer to their desires concerning the union to be kept with Scotland, and a Cessation of all acts of Hostility during the Treaty of Peace; That they had Voted the Army under Duke Hamilton Enemies, and Declared, They would Act accordingly against them, to which they would adhere.  
Master Hugerford argued, 
127. The Commons debate to take away the Lords Negative voice and act without them.  That because the Lords had denied to concur in the said Vote, he conceived the House could make no such Declaration, nor act therein without them. This put the Zealous into a flame, that any Member should argue against the Privileges of their House, so far as to deny them to be Almighty singly, and per se: Reynolds the Lawyer positively affirming, that the Houses of Commons (being the Representative of all the People) had power to Act without the Lords for safety of the people, in case the Lords deserted their trust: you see in this doctrine (as it hath been already, and is likely to be practised hereafter) a ground laid to subvert the foundation of all Parliaments for ever, and to bring all degrees of men to a parity or level. For the Parliament (by all the known Laws of the Land) consisting of 3. Estates,  
1. King, 2. Lords, And 3. Commons.  
Two of the Estates (viz. the Lords and Commons) have already laid by the King, and His Negative Voice; and now the Commons debate of laying by the Lords, and their Negative Voice, because (in their judgement) they desert their Trust. And so the Commons alone shall act as a Parliament without KING or Lords, until falling into contempt and hatred of the people, (which will soon happen) the Grandees of Derby-house and the Army shall take advantage to lay the House of Commons by, and usurp the King's supreme Governing Power, the Parliaments Legislative Power, yea and the Judges Judicative Power to themselves, and establish the manyheaded Kingdom, Tyranny, or Oligarchy of the Saints (so much contended for) in themselves. O populum in servitutem paratum! as Tiberius' said of the Romans. This is the tail of the Viper, here lies his venom.  

128. Dead men Sequestered, and the Sanctuary of the Grave violated.  Saturday, 12 August, A Message was sent to the Commons from the House of Lords in the behalf of Commissary General Copley, who had bought, and had a grant of the Wardship of the Heir of Sir William Hansby, for which he paid Fine and Rent, and was outed of it by a Sequestration laid upon Hansby's Estate after his death, he having been never questioned for Delinquency during his life-time; and this was maliciously done about the time when Master Copley was Imprisoned by the power of the Independent Faction, (whereof I have already said something) Master Copley desired the Sequestration might be taken off, and he permitted to enjoy his Contract made with the Court of Wards; alleging, that to Sequester or condemn a man after his death, when he could not answer for himself, was against the Laws of the Land, even in the highest crimes of Felony and Treason: and produced a Precedent, That the Committee of Lords and Commons for Sequestrations had taken off a Sequestration from the Lands of Andrew Wall, for no other reason but because Andrew Wall was Sequestered after his death. The case was diversely argued; it was alleged, that in cases of the highest Treason no man was condemned after death, because he was not then in being to answer for himself, there could be no proceeding in Law against a non ens. In Felony if a man will stand mute, he forfeits not his lands, because there wants an Answer, and yet it was his own fault not to answer. The Parliament is bound by all their Declarations made both to KING and People, and by the Nationall Covenant which contains all the first and just Principles of the Parliament, to defend the Laws and Liberties of the Land, and not to subvert them. Take heed of giving so dangerous a Precedent for Kings to act by hereafter against the People, and against this Parliament and their friends; since no man yet knows which way the tide may turn. But the Independent Faction (whose interest it is to keep themselves rich, and all men else poor) argued the case merely upon point of profit and conveniency, and neglected the right and jus of the business. They alleged, That men of desperate resolutions would not reward the loss of their own lives, so as they might preserve their Wives and Children: That the State (as they pleased to style it) would lose much by such an example, they could not therefore approve of the lenity of the Lords and Commons used in Walls case; many had been Sequestered after death, and so arguing à facto ad jus; alleged, that in case of Monopolies, satisfaction had been awarded out of dead men's Estates. But they forgot that out of Sequestrations no satisfaction is given to the parties wronged; the Committees and Sequestrators imbezelling the profits of them to increase their own gains, not bestowing them to repair injured men's losses, and so the equity upon which this Precedent is founded, faileth in case of Sequestrations. Thus you see these greedy Cannibal Saints (like the hungry dogs that eaten Jesabel) will devour carrion, or any thing that will make them fat and full: yet they declared, They were willing this Sequestration should be bestowed upon Master Copley as a Gratuity, not as a Right for fear of the example. Observe, that if Master Copley had waived his Title by Composition, and accepted this Wardship as a Gift, they would presently have published it in their News books, and Gilbert Mabbot should have proclaimed to all the world, that Presbyterians and Independents might be thought alike guilty of impoverishing the Kingdom: for the Faction labours nothing more than to have Companions in their sins and shames: At last it was passed, That Mr. Copley should have the Wardship restored to him, but great care taken it should not be drawn into example hereafter, that a man may not be Sequestered for Delinquency after his death, Cavete vobis mortui atque sepulti, dead men's graves are not secure from these Lycanthropis, these Lou-garons.  

129. The Messengers to the King, Report their Message in the House of Commons.  Monday, 14. August, Master Bulkeley in the name of himself and his fellow-Commissioner Sir I. Hippesly (sent to the King to acquaint him with the Vote of the two Houses, That they desired a Treaty with the King upon the Propositions of Hampton-Court in what place of the Island of Wight He should think fit, and that the Treaty shall be with Honour, Freedom, and Safety to His Majesty) Reported to the House of Commons all the circumstances and emergencies of their employment, (the King's Letter of Answer being carried to the Lords by the Earl of Middlesex, and therefore not delivered to the Commons for the present) which with much candour were related as followeth, That the KING bade them welcome, saying, they came about a welcome business (PEACE) which no man desired with more earnestness than Himself; and if there did not ensue a Peace, the fault should not lie at his door; and that He feared no obstructions from any but those who gained by the War. He farther said, that His Majesty desired (immediately after the delivery of the Votes) to speak a word with them in private, which they modestly excused for want of Commission. That about two days after his Majesty seeing the said Commissioners of the Parliament standing in the Presence Chamber, first beckoned the Earl of Middlesex to him, and had some short discourse singly with him, and then with Sir John Hippesly and Master Bulkeley one after another. These three Gentlemen afterwards comparing their notes, found the King's discourse to every of them to be all to one effect, viz. Expressing His desires of a good peace; and importuning them to do all good Offices conducing thereto. He farther related, that when they took leave of His Majesty, He delivered His Answer in writng to them unsealed; telling them, He doubted not their fidelity, though ill use had been made of His last Answer which he sent open, it having been debated in private, and a prejudice put upon it, before it was presented to the Houses. This free and unpartial Report showing how earnest his Majesty is for Peace, did the King so much Right, that the Antimonarchical Faction looked upon it as done to their wrong, and Herbert Morley presently spit out his Venom to this purpose, Mr. Speaker, These Gentlemen have delivered all to you but what they should deliver, that is, the King's Answer, which they have suffered first to be carried to the Lords; they might have delivered you at least a Copy thereof (it should seem Morley had forgot that the House proceeds not upon Copies) My motion is, that since these Gentlemen have exceeded their Commission by conferring privately with the King, the House may do well either to question them therefore, or give them an Act of Oblivion for their good service: This was cried upon a long time by the whole kennel of the Faction, and at last put off till the next day, when the Lords sending down the King's Letter, the House should have the whole business before them.  
The next day being Tuesday, 15. August, 
130. The aforesaid Messengers again.  the King's aforesaid Letter of Answer with divers Votes thereupon were sent down from the Lords to the House of Commons, when presently the Beagles of the Faction spent their mouths freely against the said Commissioners again for lending the KING the civility of an ear in private, as abovesaid. After a long debate, at last this Objection stopped the Mouths of Malice itself, That if these Gentlemen had reported an averseness in the King to Peace (and aggravated His Words as other Messengers had formerly done, whereof the King seemed to complain) it would have proved a welcome discovery, and have been rewarded with Thanks instead of an Act of Oblivion. So with much ado, Thanks were given to the said Gentlemen, with approbation of their proceed.  
The same day the Militia of London were called into the House of Commons, 
131. The Militia of London: Concerning private Listing by Skippon; and the Militia of the City.  where Alderman Gybs in the name of the Common-Council and Militia (not by Petition, but in a set Speech) delivered the fears and jealousies of the City (even of the gravest, wisest, and best affected) occasioned by Skippon's underhand Listing of Schismatics, Antimonarchists; his setting up thereby a power against a power, to the endangering of a civil War within the Bowels of the City; weakening of the Trained Bands, deboshing Servants from their Masters, Children from their Parents. That under colour of Skippon's private Listing, other private Listing were carried on by Malignants, the Magistrates of the City not being able to question either, and distinguish one from the other. That fear was a violent passion, and was now grown so universal, that the Common Council knew not how to give satisfaction therein, the Citizens usually clamouring, that if the Houses did not give them leave to look to their safety, they must have recourse to the Law of Nature, and Act in their Militia without the Houses in order to Self-defence, allowable by all Laws, and practised by this very Parliament against the King, and by Fairfax's Army against this Parliament.  
The Prayers of his Speech were three.  
1. That Skippon's Listed men might be under the Militia of the City.  
2. That the expired Ordinance for Listing Forces might be revived.  
3. That the Militias of Westminster, Southwark, and the Hamlets might be united with the City as formerly.  
To this clause of having recourse to the Law of Nature for Self-defence, great exceptions were taken in the debate of the House by the two Ashes, Venus, Harvy, Scot, Weaver, and other of the Godly pack. That the Parliament having fought with the King for the Militia, and having got it by the Sword, any other Interest, upon any title whatsoever should dare to lay claim to any part of it. You see these Lions of the Tribe will allow no Beasts of different kind to share with them in their prey, although they did sweat and bleed with them in the hunting and catching it. The Grandees may as well say they have conquered our Laws and Liberties; for (as I have in my General Conclusion cited) they say, That they fought with the King for his Negative Voice, and Legislative Power, and that God hath by the Verdict of the Sword given judgement for them; and yet when the King claimed them by a better and more legal Title than the Sword, they could object the equity of the Laws against the kill letter of them, which they say, directs still to the equitable sense of all Laws, as dispencing with the very letter thereof as being supreme to it when safety and preservation is concerned, and alleging, That all Authority is seated fundamentally in the Office, and but ministerially in the persons; and that it is no resisting of Magistracy to side with the just Principles of Nature. See the Declaration and Papers of the Army, p. 39 40. and the Ectact Collect. p. 150. & alibi passim: In conclusion, after a tedious debate, the desires of the Citizens were referred to a Committee of the House to be wyerdrawn into an Ordinance, That all Forces raised, and to be raised in the City of London, and the Liberties thereof, should be subject to the Militia of London (whereof Skippon is a Member) and under the Command of Major General Skippon. When this Ordinance will be perfected, what the sense and meaning of this Riddle is, and what dangers may befall the City if Colchester be taken, or the Scots beaten, before they have leave to put themselves into a posture of defence, God knows. It was farther referred to bring in an Ordinance for uniting the aforesaid Militias. You see how jealous they are of late of the Militia, since the Grandees entertained new Principles, and new designs. In the Propositions presented to the King at Newcastle, the Proposition for the Militia hath this proviso, Provided that the City of London shall have and enjoy all their Rights, Liberties, Franchises and Customs, and Usages in raising and employing the Forces of that City for the defence thereof, in as full and ample manner to all intents and purposes, as they have, or might have used or enjoyed the same at any time before the making of this Act or Proposition: to the end that City may be fully assured, it is not in the intention of the Parl. to take from them any Privileges or Immunities in raising and disposing of their Forces, which they have, or might have used or enjoyed heretofore. This is a clear confession, that by the ancient Customs and Usages of the City, they have Right to their own Militia, or else this Proviso were vain; howsoever the learned Counsel of the City fool them. The like proviso word for word is contained in the Proposition for the Militia of Hampton Court, saving that the last clause, That the City may be assured the Parliament hath no intention to take from them any Privileges, etc. is omitted, I think to please the Army and their engaged party. See the Letters, Papers, Transactions of the English Commissioners in Scotland with the Scots, etc. p. 58.  
Wednesday 16 August. The Kings said Letter was read, 
132. The Lords Votes upon the King's Letter, debated in the House of Cmmons.  and the Lords Votes thereupon: first, (after some little opposition) the Commons concurred with the Lords in recalling the 4 Votes for making and receiving no Addresses to or from the King: thereby, 1. Absolving him from a kind of Parliamentary Excommunication.  
2. Restoring to all Freeborn Subjects the Liberty they are born to, of presenting their humble desires to his Majesty, and performing the duties of their Allegiance and Oath.  
And 3. Reducing themselves unto that scope, and end, for which only the Writ summons them as a Parliament, viz. To Treat with the King. The second Vote, was, To recall the Instructions of Parliament given to Hammond, how to carry himself in his Charge towards the King, His Servants, and all Resorters to Him, etc. This was laid by, to be debated in the last place, after all the rest of the Lords Votes. The third Vote read, was, That such men of all professions as the King should send for, as of necessary use to Him in the Treaty, may be admitted to wait on him, and that He might be in the same state of Freedom He was in when He was last at Hampton-Court. This Vote (instead of concurring with the Lords) was divided. The first part (after many objections to it) was moulded into this following question, and carried in the affirmative, that His Majesty might send for men of all professions, and he being desired first to send a List of their Names to the Parl. and nominating no Person excepted out of Pardon, none that have been in Actual War against the Parliament, nor any man that is under restraint of the Parliament. The latter part of this Vote, for enjoying such Freedom as he was in at Hampton-Court, was diversely argued for the Ambiguousnesse of it; the question being, Whether such freedom as the Parliament allowed him, or such freedom as the Army (for their own ends) gave him, de facto, were intended? at last the question was agreed to be in Terminis. The fourth Vote, was, that the Scots should be invited to the treaty: this likewise was doubtfully argued, 1. Whether they should be invited by the Parliament? considering they had broken the large treaty, National Covenant, and Union, by surprising and Garrisoning Barwick and Carlisle, and by entering England with an Army: This was carried in the Negative. The 2. Debate, was, Whether it should be left to the King to invite the Scots to send some persons authorized to treat upon such Propositions as they should make for the Interest of Scotland only? This likewise was opposed for the reasons aforesaid, and because the Power and Authority of Scotland was now in the hands of Duke Hamilton and a few dis-affected persons, who were not likely to send any of the honest Godly party to Treat, whereby the Treaty would be carried on to the disadvantage and ruin of the Godly and of the Church, our only friends there: And Mr. Ashurst related, That the major part of the past Parliament of Scotland overpowered the minor part by an Army, and so got the Engagement and other Acts, and the Committee of Estates passed, against which the Assembly of the Kirk (consisting of 400 persons) declared with one Voice. I know not what he meant, by saying the major part in Scotland overpowered the minor, when I consider that major pars obtinet rationem totius, the major part is virtually the Parliament, to which the minor part must submit; although here in England the lesser part of the Parliament engaging and conspiring with an Army (whom themselves in a full and free Parliament had formerly declared Enemies to the State) overpowred the greater part, contrary to reason and practice. This question seemed to agree with the sense of the Independents reasonably well, because it leaves it only to the pleasure of the King to Treat dis-junctively with the Scots upon the sole Interest of Scotland, as men no ways concerned in the settlement of Peace in England; whereby it is tacitly inferred, that the Treaties, Covenant, and Union between the two Kingdoms is dissolved, so the question aforesaid was put with this addition, That if the King shall be pleased to invite the Scots to send some Persons Authorized, etc. the Parliament will give them safe conduct. The fifth Vote of the Lords was, That Newport in the Island of Wight should be the place of Treaty: to which the Commons concurred. With these debates ended this Week the 19 day of August.  
About this time came forth a Book entitled, 
133. A pestilent Book, called, [The necessity of the absolute power of Kings, etc.]  [The necessity of the absolute power of all Kings; and in particular, of the King of England] concerning which, I am to admonish the Reader, that it is conceived to be a Cockatrice hatched by the Antimonarchical Faction, to envenome the people against the KING and PRINCE.  
The next Week gins with Monday 21 August, of whose proceed I can give you only an imperfect scambling relation; and so shall surcease all farther endeavours in this kind, because I have already delivered enough for your Instruction, if God have not appointed you to be led blindfold into the pit digged for your destruction; but principally because my good Genius, that furnished me with Intelligence, hath now retired himself from acting without hope, to praying with faith, for his Country; being tired out with hearing and seeing so much sin and folly as now reigns at Westminster: and I love not much to take news upon trust from the vulgar Peripatetics of the Hall. 
134. Mr. martin's levelling practices and principles.  The chief things of note were, More Complaints of Henry Martin, who now declares himself for a Community of Wealth, as well as of Women, and protests against King, Lords, Gentry, Lawyers, and Clergy, nay, against the Parliament itself, in whose bosom this Viper hath been fostered, and against all Magistrates; like a second Wat Tyler, all Pen and Inkhorn-men must down. His Levelling Doctrine is contained in a Pamphlet, called, [England's Troubler Troubled] wherein, All Rich men whatsoever are declared Enemies to the Mean men of England, and (in effect) War denounced against them.  

135. Skippon's Listing.  Next, the Ordinance for transferring over to the Militia of London Skippon's power of listing men in London, was passed in the House of Commons, with this Coloquintida in it, That Skippon should name and appoint Commanders and Officers for the Forces listed, to be approved of by the Militia of London.  

136. Cromwel's laureate letters 20 Aug. 1648:  A Letter from Oliver Cromwell was read in the House of Commons, relating his easy victory over Duke Hamilton and Major Gen. Bayly, (which puts me in mind of Ovid's Victory over Corinna, of whom he saith, Victa est, now aegrè, proditione sua.) and containing an admonition not to hate God's people, who are as the apple of his eye, and for whom even Kings shall be reproved: and exhorting the Speaker (to whom it was written) to fulfil the end of his Magistracy, that all that will live peaceably and quietly (viz. in Vassalage to Oliver and his Faction, and neglect Religion, Laws, and Liberties) may have countenance from him. (God bless all honest men from the light of Oliver's countenance, lest in an ignis fatuus misled them from the duties of their Oaths of Allegiance, Supremacy, Potestation, and Covenant) and they that are implacable, may speedily be destroyed out of the Land.  

137. Martial Law in London.  To prepare the way to whose destruction, it was Ordered, That an Ordinance be penned, and brought into the House of Commons, to try all such by Martial Law in the City of London as shall be found to plot, design, or contrive any thing, to endanger the Parliament or City. And yet London is no Garrison now as it was when Tomkims and chaloner were tried; not is there any Enemy considerable in the Field, whereby the known Laws of the Land may not pass currently through the Kingdom: but our known Laws are not written in blood; nor are they so flexible as to make all Traitors, the Faction pleaseth to call such.  
Yet as cruel as these Caco fuegoes of the Faction are to some, 
138. Rolf's Bail again pressed.  they have mercy enough for Rolf, whose Bail was again exceedingly pressed: and that his two Prosecutors Osburn and Dowcet should be under restraint in his stead; whom they have forejudged (out of the King's Letter to the Houses) not to be able to prove their information, whereas it may be discretion in the King not to increase his danger by acknowledging it.  
Saturday, 26. August. 
139. The KING'S Letter to the States of Scotland taken from Haly-burton.  The King's Letter to the Committee of States in Scotland, etc. in Answer to their Letter sent to Him by Haly-burton (which Letter was taken from Haly-burton, although a public Minister of State, and allowed by Parliament to carry their Letter to the King) was read in the House of Commons.  
I hear in general, that it was excellently well penned, and a very just, honest, and peaceable Letter. Yet it was Voted, neither to be sent to the Lords, nor to be restored to Haly-burton; but damned to close imprisonment in a Box, under Seal; lest the people should know how truly zealous his Majesty is to settle Peace in the Land: a mystery their understandings must not be trusted withal.  

Prolegomena. Promises, Protestations, and Covenants, made by this Parliament in behalf of the King and People.  
AFter a repetition of many good Acts and Concessions obtained by this Parliament of the King for the ease of the People, 
Remonstrance 15. December 1642. Exact. Collect. p. 15.  they say farther, that other things of main importance for the good of this Kingdom are in Proposition, etc. which yet before the end of this Session they hope may receive some progress and perfection; As the establishing and ordering the King's Revenue, etc. The Regulating of Courts of Justice, and the abridging both the delays and Charges of Law Suits, etc. Preventing the exportation of Gold and Silver; and the inequality of Exchanges between this and other Kingdoms; improving the Herring fishing upon our Coasts, etc. which things in all their Propositions and Addresses to the King have not been once mentioned, nor any thing else but what makes for the profit, preferment, and power of a few ambitious Grandees of the Parliament, and Army; in order to which, they demand the Militia of a standing Army, with an arbitrary power to raise what Forces by Land and Sea, consisting of what persons, and to raise what sums of Money out of every man's Estate they please: which power the King hath not to give, neither did He nor His Ancestors ever exercise: the only Militia they used having been either the Posse Commitatus under the Sheriffs, which is very legal and ancient, or the Militia of Trained Bands under Lord Lieutenants, and their Deputy Lieutenants, which is a new invention. Nor did the policy of our Law ever trust the power of the Sword, and the Purse in one hand, for fear of enslaving the People.  

Ex. Col. p. 19  They farther declare, That it is far from their purpose or desire to let lose the Golden reins of Discipline and Government in the Church, to have private persons or particular Congregations to take up what form of Divine Service they please, because they hold it requisite that there should be throughout the whole Realm a Conformity to that Order which the Laws enjoin.  

Ex. Col. p. 203.  They farther say there, That the gracious favour His Majesty expressed in the Bill for continuance of this Parliament, and the advantage and security which they thereby have from being Dissolved, shall not encourage them to do any thing, which otherwise had not been fit to have been done.  

Ex. Col. p. 281.  They conclude the said Declaration thus, That they doubt not but it shall in the end appear to all the world, that their endeavours have been most hearty and sincere, for the maintenance of the true Protestant Religion, The King's just Prerogatives, The Laws and Liberties of the Land, and the Privileges of Parliament, in which endeavours (by the Grace of God) they would still persist, though they should perish in the work.  

Ex. Col. p. 376.  In their Declaration, 4. June 1642. The Lords and Commons do declare, That the Design of their Propositions for Plate and Money is, To maintain the Protestant Religion, the King's Authority and Person, in his Royal Dignity; The free Course of Justice, The Laws of the Land, (what then becomes of Martial Law, and Committee Law?) The Peace of the Kingdom, and Privileges of Parliament.  
In their Propositions for bringing in Money and Plate, 
Ex. Col. p. 340.  10. June 1642. the Lords and Commons declare, That no man's affections shall be measured according to the proportion of his offer, so that he express his good will to the Service in any proportion whatsoever, (that is, so that he engage with them) yet notwithstanding the 29. Novemb. following, 
Ex. Col. p. 765.  the same Lords and Commons appointed a Committee of 6. persons, who should have power to Assess all such persons as were of ability, and had not Contributed, and such as had Contributed, yet not according to their ability, (which is now looked upon as a Malignancy) to pay such sums of Money, according to their Estates, as the Assessors, or any of them should think fit, so as the same exceeded not the 20. part of their Estates. The power is still exercised by all Country Committees, to a 5. and 20. part, charged upon all men, even such as have been destroyed and undone, or laid forth themselves beyond their abilities, for their service to this Parliament.  
In the National Covenant taken by this Parliament, and by them imposed upon the Kingdom to be taken with hands lifted up to the most High God, the Lords and Commons vow, To maintain the King's Person, Crown and Dignity, in Defence of Religion, Laws, and Liberties, etc. To suppress all Errors, Heresies, Blasphemies, and Schisms; and to defend one another mutually in the same work with their lives and fortunes; yet is the same Covenant now cast aside, and called, An Almanac out of date. Many men have been punished for attempting to keep it. And (I hear) the House of Commons are now upon passing an Ordinance for Martial Law to be executed in London, upon all such persons, as having taken the said Covenant, shall attempt or design any thing against the Parliament or City of London: what is this but to impose a special penalty upon such as have taken the Covenant, and leave those that have not taken it free? And who doubts but that the said Council of War shall consist of Anti-monarchical Schismatics and Anticovenanters, for the most part, who shall stretch every word to the utmost extent. And this is now in brewing, contrary to the Petition of Right, 3. Caroli, & Magna Charta, no considerable enemy being in the Field, and the Courts of Justice in Westminster hall sitting: nay, I hear (like Janus Bifrons) this Law (if I do not miscall it) looks backwards to Acts past, as well as forward, contrary to the nature of all Laws, which have an admonishing power to warn men of the evil to come, before they can have a punishing power for evils passed: Therefore the Apostle saith, Sin is a breach of a Commandment, (or Law) I had not known Sin but by the Law. The Law therefore must be previous to the Sin. How the said Promises and Covenant, and many more have been kept, let the world judge.  
What the Promises, Undertake, and Proposals of the Army have been in order to settling the peace of the people of this Kingdom, and of the King's just Rights and Prerogatives, and their own Disbanding, are to be found in their many printed Papers; which I will here omit, because they had no lawful calling or warrant for such undertake, and how they have been prosecuted and perfomed, is obvious to every capacity.   


General Conclusion.  Out of these Premises, I shall draw these Conclusions following.  

1. The Grandees have subverted the fundamental Government of the Kingdom, and why?  1. THe engaged Party have laid the Axe to the very root of Monarchy and Parliaments; they have cast all the Mysteries and secrets of Government, both by Kings and Parliaments, before the vulgar, (like Pearl before Swine) and have taught both the Soldiery and People to look so far into them, as to ravel back all Governments, to the first principles of nature: He that shakes Fundamentals, means to take down the Fabric. Nor have they been careful to save the materials for Posterity. What these negative Statists will set up in the room of these ruined buildings, doth not appear, only I will say, They have made the People thereby so curious and so arrogant, that they will never find humility enough to submit to a civil rule; their aim therefore from the beginning was to rule them by the power of the Sword, a military Aristocracy or Oligarchy, as now they do. Amongst the ancient Romans, Tentare arcana Imperii, to profane the Mysteries of State, was Treason; because there can be no form of Government without its proper Mysteries, which are no longer Mysteries than while they are concealed. Ignorance, and Admiration arising from Ignorance are the Parents of civil devotion and obedience, though not of Theological.  
2. Nor have these Grandees and their party in the Synod, 
2. They have subverted the Church.  dealt more kindly with the Church, than with the Commonwealth; whose reverend mysteries, their Pulpits and holy Sacraments, and all the functions of the Ministry are by their connivance profaned by the clouted shoe; the basest and lowest of the People making themselves Priests, and with a blind distempered zeal Preaching such Doctrine as their private spirits (spirits of illusion) dictate to them; But let them know, that their burning zeal without knowledge, is like Hell fire without light. 
The Sacrament of the Lords Supper discontinued▪ and why?  Yet the greatest wonder of all is, That they suffer the Lords supper (that Sacrament of Corroboration) to be so much neglected in almost all the Churches in the Kingdom: Is it because men usually before they receive our Saviour (that blessed guest) sweep the house clean, casting out of their hearts (those living Temples of the holy Ghost) Pride, Ambition, Covetousness, Envy, Hatred, Malice, and all other unclean Spirits to make fit room to entertain Jesus, that Prince of Peace, whereby the people having their minds prepared for Peace, Charity and Reconciliation, may happily spoil the trade of our Grandees, who can no longer maintain their usurped dominion over them, than they can keep them disunited with quarrels and feuds, and uphold those badges of factions, and terms of distinctions and separations, Cavaliers, Roundheads, Malignants, Well-affected, Presbyterians, and Independents? or is it because they fear, if the Church were settled in peace and unity, it would be a mean to unite the Commonwealth, as a quiet cheerful mind often cureth a distempered body? I will not take upon me to judge another man's Servant; but many suspect this is done out of design, not out of peevishness.  
3. That these Grandees govern by power, not by love, 
3. The Grandees rule by the arbitrary power of the Sword, not by the Laws.  and the Laws of the Land, (which was my last assertion) appears by,  
1. The many Garrisons they keep up, and numerous Army they keep in pay to overpower the whole Kingdom, more than at first the Parliament Voted, all in the hands of Sectaries.  
2. Their compelling the Parliament to put the the whole Militia of England and Ireland by Land and by Sea, in the power of Sir Thomas Fairfax and their party, together with all Garrisons.  
3. Nor do they think the Laws of the Land extensive enough for their purposes; therefore they piece them out with Arbitrary Ordinances, impeachments before the Lords, and Marshal Law, which is now grown to that height, that the Council of War, General, and Judge advocate of the Army do usually send forth Injunctions to stay Suits, and release judgements at Law, or else to attend the Council of War wheresoever they sit, to show cause to the contrary; and when Lieutenant Colonel Lilburn was ordered to be brought to the Kings-Bench-Bar, upon his habeas Corpus, Easter Term, 1648. Cromwell sent word to the Lieutenant of the Tower not to bring him; and Cromwell was obeyed, not the Judges. Thus the Laws of the Land are daily baffled, that men may be accustomed to arbitrary Government, and those actions which no Law of the Land calls a Crime, may be interpreted Treason when our Grandees please to have it so.  
4. Their allowing money to some Committees to reward Informers, Spies and Intelligencers, to betray even their nearest friends and relations.  
5. Their holding Honest, Generous, and Grave men in suspicion, and making the Houses of Parliament and Army snares to them, expelling them with false and extrajudicial Accusations.  
6. Their owning dishonest, baseminded men, that have cheated the State, as instruments fit to be confided in, and associate with them in time of danger.  
7. Their impoverishing the people with confused Taxes, decay of Trade, and obstructing of the Mint, and thereby breaking their spirits.  
8. Their changing and dividing the Militia of London purposely to weaken it.  
9 Their not restoring to the Counties their Militia, and trusting them to defend their own houses as formerly.  
10. Their nourishing Factions in the Commonwealth, Schisms in the Church.  
11. Expelling learned Divines to let in ignorant men. All these are tyrannical policies grounded upon the old principle, That a Tyrant should deprive his Subjects of all things that may nourish courage, strength, knowledge, mutual confidence and charity amongst them; which Maxim the Politicians say contains the whole Systeme or method of Tyrannical Government.  
4. 
4. The Independents divide the Taxes, Spoils, and preferments of the land between them.  As this encroaching Faction have usurped all the Military and Civil power of both Kingdoms; so they have monopolised all the great Offices, rich Employments, and Treasure of the Land; they are clearly the predominant party in all Money Committees; they give daily to one another for pretended Services, Arrears, and Losses, great sums of money; many of their Largisses I have already set down. They gave lately to Col. Hammond Governor of the Isle of Wight, for his Table 20 l. a Week, 1000 l. in money, and 500 l. a year land; to Major General Skippon 1000 l. per annum land of Inheritance; to Colonel Mitton 5000 l. in money; Prideaux hath 100 l. a Week benefit by the Post-Masters place; his whole Estate (before this Parliament) was hardly worth a 100 l. nor is he eminent for any thing but impudence and arrogance. Mr. Rowse hath Eton College, worth 800 l. per annum, and a Lease of that College worth 600 l. per annum, Sir William Alencon the Hamper-Office, and Crab Castle worth 600 l. per annum, bravely wooded: Alder. Hoyl of York, the Treasurer's Remembrancers Office: Mr. Sallaway a poor Grocer, the King's Remembrancers Office; neither of which, are able to read any one Record in those Offices. Tho. Scot, Lambeth-house: Sir Will, Brereton, Croyden-house. Col. Harvy, Fulham and Norwich-houses. Mr. Lisle the Mastership of St. Crosses: Dennis Bonds 3 Sons, each of them a Place worth 500 l. a year, besides many others. All the cheating, covetous, ambitious persons of the Land, are united together under the name and title of The Godly, the Saints, etc. and share the fat of the Land between them, few of them pay any Taxes, but all the Land pays Tribute to them.  
It is thought this Faction, their under-Agents and Factors have cost this Commonwealth above 20 millions never laid forth in any public service; nay, the Treasurers and Publicans of this Faction have clipped and washed most of the Money that comes into their fingers before they pay it forth, knowing that any money that comes out of their fingers will be accepted: two Goldsmiths are thought to be dealers this way, yet they lay the blame on the Scotish Army, as the Cuckoo lays her brood in other Nests.  
5. Having thus imped their wings for flight, 
5. The Independents provided of places of retreat to flee to.  they have provided themselves of places of retreat in case they cannot make good their standing in England: Ireland is kept unprovided for, that they may find room in it when necessity drives them thither. If their hopes fail in Ireland, they have New-England, Bermudas, Barbadus, the Caribby Isles, the Isle of Providence, Eleutheria, Lygonia, and other places to retreat to, and lay up the spoils of England in: nay they usually send chests and vessels with money, place and goods beyond Sea, with passes from the two Speakers to let them pass without searching: the Navy is in their power to accommodate their flight, and by their instruments called Spirits, they have taken up many Children and sent them before to be Slaves and drudges to the Godly in their schismatical Plantations, as the Turk takes up Tribute Children from the Christians to furnish his nursary of Janissaries; and so they have their Agents that buy up all the Gold they can get, Cromwell not long since offered 11000 l. in silver for the 1000 l. in gold; besides he is well furnished with the King's Jewels taken in his Cabinet at Nazeby; many of them known Jewels, as the Harry and the Elizabeth.  

6. The vulgar Independents but props and properties to the Grandees.  6. Nor shall the vulgar sort of Independents either in Parliament, Army, or City, far better than the rest of the Kingdom. The Grandees both of Parliament, and Army endeavouring to adjourn the Parliament, and draw all the power of both Houses into the Committee of Derby-house, consisting but of 30. or 40. the rest of the Independent Members will find their power dissolved in the Adjournment, and swallowed up by that Committee, and their services forgotten; nor shall they have any power in the Militia, which is the only quarrel between them and the King; the Grandees disdaining to have so many Partners in that which they have got by their own wits; for know, that the Grandees have always been winnowing the Parliament. First, they winnowed out the moderate men, under the notion of the King's party, than the Presbyterians, and now they will winnow forth the lighter and more chaffy sort of Independents, who stand for the Liberty of the People; a thing which Cromwell now calleth, A fancy not to be engaged for; and so they will bring all power into their own hands. Thus having contracted the Parliament into a Committee of safety, they will adjourn themselves (though the Parliament cannot) to Oxford or some other place which they more confide in than London: and this is the settling the Kingdom without the King, they so much aim at; and which, they had rather the people should be brought practically and by insensible degrees, than by Declarations held forth to them beforehand, or by politic Lectures in the Pulpit. Thus it is decreed, that this Cabal of Godly men at Derby-house shall with military Aristocracy, or rather Oligarchy, rule this Nation with a rod of Iron, and break them in pieces like a Potter's Vessel.  
Observe, that the Ordinance by which the Committee of Derby-house is revived, and the addition of Power to it, are purposely penned in such ambiguous terms, that He that hath the Sword in his hands may make what construction of them he pleaseth: neither were they clearly penned, Is it in the power of the Houses (being but the trusties of the people) to transfer or delegate their trust to a lesser number of men? a trust not being transferrable by Law, and the people having chosen a Parliament, not a Committee, to look to their safety and peace.  
7. 
7. The Army hinder Peace and Settlement.  The Grandees of the Parliament and Army have brought the Kingdom to so miserable a condition, that they have left no Authority in England able to settle peace: The KING is a close Prisoner to the Army, therefore all he shall do will be clearly void in Law, by reason of Dures: The Parliament is in Wardship to them, who keep armed Guards upon them, Garrisons round about them, and by illegal Accusations, Blank Impeachments, threatening Remonstrances, and Declarations, etc. fright away many Members, and compel the rest to Vote and un-Vote what they please, whereby all the Parliament doth is void and null in Law ab initio, it being no free Parliament, but a Sub-committee to the Army, and living as the Egyptians did, under vassalage to their own Mamaluchis, or Mercenaries: The people therefore must resolve either to have no Army, or no Peace.  
8. They have put out the eyes of the Kingdom, 
8. The two Universities destroyed.  the two Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and have brought the whole Land to make sport before them; knowing that Learning and Religion, as well as Laws and Liberties, 
9 Many honest men seduced by fair pretences took part with them; never intending to leave their first principles, and enslave King, and Kingdom.  are enemies to their barbarous, irrational, and Russian way of Government.  
9 Many honest men took part with this Parliament, seduced by those fair pretences of defending Religion, Laws and Liberties which they first held forth to the People; and being unwilling to have a Parliament conquered by the Sword, not thinking it possible that a prevailing Faction in Parliament should so far prevaricate as to conspire to enslave King, Parliament, and Kingdom, to subvert the Laws Liberties, and fundamental Government of the Land, under which they and their Posterity were, and were likely to be so happily governed; and betray Religion unto Heretics and Schismatics, and share the spoils of the Commonwealth between them, and think of enriching themselves with them in foreign Lands, yet many at the beginning much disliked, that Religion should be used an as ingredient to the carrying on of a Civil War, and that Schismatics should have so great a stroke in managing the business; yet were pacified with this consideration, that we must refuse no helps in our defence: if a man be assaulted by Thiefs on the highway, he will not refuse to join with Schismatics or Turks in a common defence; the same authority that then countenanced those Schismatics (it was hoped) would be able to discountenance them again when the work was done. But the Grandees of the Houses, (having other designs) had so often purged the Houses, that they left few honest moderate men in them to oppose their projects, still bringing in Schismatics, and men of their own interests, by enforced and undue Elections, into their rooms, and so by insensible degrees, new modelled the House suitable to their own corrupt desires, and new modelled the Army accordingly; so that the people (who had no intention to be interested so far) were step by step so far engaged before they were ware, that they could not draw their feet back, and do now find (to their grief) that the Bit is in their mouths, the Saddle fast girt on their galled backs, and these Rank riders mounted, who will spur them (not only out of their Estates, Laws, and Liberties, but) into Hell with renewed Treasons, new Oaths, Covenants and Engagements, if they take not the more heed and be not the more resolute: they have changed their old honest principles, and their old friends, who bore the first brunt of the business, and have taken new principles and friends in their room, suitable to their present desperate designs, and now (that they have squeezed what they can out of the King's party) they think of sequestering their old friends because they adhere to their old principles.  

10. Who are the King's bitterest enemies.  10. Amongst those that are most bitter against the King, His own Servants (especially the Judasses' of the Committee of the Revenue, that carry His purse, and have fingered more of His Money and Goods than they can or dare give an account for) are the greatest Zealots, those that take upon them employments about His Revenue, and share what allowances to themselves they please for their pains; those that buy in for trifles old sleeping Pensions, that have not been paid nor allowed this thirty years, and pay themselves all arrears; those that Rend parcels of the King's Revenue, for the eighth or tenth part of the worth, as Cor. Holland, who renteth for 200 l. per ann. as much of his Estate as is worth 1600 l. or 1800 l. per annum. Thus you see the Lion (Lord of the Forest) growing sick and weak, become a prey, and is gored by the Ox, bitten by the Dog, yea, and kicked by the Ass. Look upon this precedent you Kings and Princes, and call to mind examples of old, that of Nebuchadnezzer, and others, lest by exalting yourselves too high, you provoke God to cast you too low.  
When the Grandee Independents have a desire to raise new forces, or erect new Garrisons, or use any extremity against the City, 
11. Forged Conspiracies and false News.  or Royal party, they commonly usher in their design with reporting to the House the discovery of some new-invented conspiracy, or plot full of danger and destructinn; such as was that of many thousond consecrated Knives, and then propound their own forelaid design as a counsellable way to prevent it; and he that doth not hastily believe their Informations, or doth argue against the remedies they propound, (though he show never so great inconveniency in them) is presently cried out upon as a Malignant, that doth not take the danger of the Parliament to heart, and branded by the black tongues of the Godly; and when any great business is to be treated of in Parliament, or City, which they either desire to promote, or to obstruct, they commonly publish counterfeit News, and Letters of great victories and successes gotten by their Party in parts so remote that they cannot in a short time be confuted; this serves to credit and animate their Party to go on boldly with their work, and to dishearten their Opponents; and though the profit and reputation of a lie is seldom long-lived, yet if it last some few days, until they have carried on their present business, they care not: herein they imitate a skilful Architector, who building an Arch, supports it in the beginning with circular props, and pieces of Timber, until he hath closed it, and enabled it to support itself, and then throws away the props.  
When they have a design to ruin any man, 
12. The Art of Slander and Calumny.  before they fall openly upon his person, they secretly undermine his credit and reputation, that afterwards they may oppress him with applause, and they are so excellently well fitted with Agents and Instruments for this purpose, that they can prove what they list. The close Committee of Examinations is an excellent forge for these contrivances; they know where to find the sons of Belial (now commonly called Knights of the Post) who will trust God with their souls to advance the good Cause; they have secret Examinations of several sorts, some preparatory only, amounting but to suspicions and presumptions, to wound a man's good name, and make him liable to more deadly blows hereafter; and some consummatory, laying the Axe to the root at the first blow: nor is it a small Artifice of theirs boldly to accuse other men of those crimes they themselves are guilty of, as they did the 11. Members of trucking with the King, being their own fault; by this means it doth constare de re presently, it appears such offences are committed: and if they can but fix them upon the persons of other men by bold Accusations, close Examinations, and false Witnesses, then constat de persona, they have found men to personate them, deputies to bear the ignominy and punishment of their sins: so some lascivious persons free themselves, bestowing their diseases upon others.  

13. What a Confiding man is.  They account no man a Godly, faithful, confiding man, but he that engages as far in sin, and makes himself as hopeless of reconciliation, as themselves. Quis nunc diligitur nisi conscius?  

14. The last Retreat and Refuge of the Godly.  Since the revolt of some of their Ships hath almost made them hopeless of transportation to foreign Plantations, the schismatical Grandees have made Col. Walton (Brother-in-law to Cromwell) Governor of Lyn, Boston, and Crowland, and of all that level of morasse Ground in the Isles of Ely, Holland, and Marshland, which they can lay under water at pleasure: it is a plentiful and strong Fastness, able to feed 40000. men, besides the ordinary Inhabitants; there are but three passes to enter it, over three Bridges, upon which they have, or may build Forts, for their defence, and may from thence invade the adjacent Country at pleasure, being themselves free from incursions; or they may (if they list) break down the said Bridges. These places (already strong by nature) they daily fortify by art; for which purpose great sums of money have been sent to him, and much Arms, Powder, Ammunition, and Ordnance from Windsor Castle: Here (when all other helps fail) the Godly mean to take Sanctuary; this shall be their last retreat, from whence they will draw the whole Kingdom to Parley upon Articles of treaty, and enforce their peace from them at last. These are the stratagems of the Godly: These are our Saints, no where canonised but in the Devil's Calendar.  
As the Church of Rome is never unfurnished with dormant Articles of Faith upon all emergent occasions; 
15. Supposititious Privileges of Parliament: see The History, sect. 105, 106.  so the Grandees are never unprovided of dormant Privileges of Parliament (which they call (by a new canting word) lex Parliamenti, in opposition to lex Terrae) with these they bolster out their designs. These Privileges were much insisted on in their Impeachments of the Members and Aldermen; and whosoever pleads against them in his own defence, and flies from those Privileges to the known Laws for Sanctuary, is cried out upon for overthrowing the Jurisdiction and Privileges of Parliament, and therefore guilty of Malignancy; thus John Lylburn suffers: if he does not plead against them, he lays his head on the block at the mercy of those merciless men. This net caught many a Woodcock, until the said Aldermen and Sir John Maynard broke through it, and spoiled the cock-road.  
The Grandees of the Parliament and Army have so totally subverted our fundamental Government and Laws, 
16. The confusion this Monarchy is btought unto: see The History, sect. 105, & 106.  that they have neither Monarchy nor Commonwealth left; non jam Respublica sed magnum latrocinium est, we have not so much as a face and shadow of Government remaining; we have a KING de jure, but so wholly eclipsed and disabled to perform Acts of Government by his close imprisonment, that (for the present) we have no King de facto, and every man doth what seemeth good in his own eyes; we have Magistrates, Judges, and Justices de facto, but not being constituted and ordained by any lawful Authority, nor under any authentical Great Seal according to the Laws of the Land, they are not Magistrates and Judges de Jure, so that if we look upon the King our Supreme Governor, our violent Grandees have brought an Inter-regnum upon us; If upon our Magistrates, Judges, etc. they have brought a Justitium (a total eclipse of Justice) upon us: It follows then, that both the imperative and coercive power of the King and Magistrates, the legislative power of the Parliament, the judicative power of the Judges and Justices, are all suspended and in Abeyance: and like a Watch, when the principal wheels are broken, no part can move to perform its function. Contzenius the Jesuit in his Pol: says, He that will introduce a new Religion, or a new form of Government, must utterly abolish the old, and erect his new Fabric upon the ruins of it. You see they have been apt Scholars in this doctrine of the Jesuit this 7 years, which they have spent in Demolishing; but what form of Government our Grandees wi●● e●e●t upon the ruins they have made, doth not yet appear, nor how all just interests, and men's particular Estates shall be preserved from being buried under the ruins of this earthquake.  

17. The Regal Legislative, and Judicative power usurped.  The King is the only supreme Governor of this Realm of England, to regulate and protect the people by commanding the Laws to be observed and executed, and to this end He (and He alone) beareth not the Sword in vain; yet the KING by himself can neither make, repeal, or alter any one Law, without the concurrence of both Houses of Parliament, the Legislative power residing in all three, and not in any one, or two of the three Estates, without the third, and therefore not one or two of them can exclude the other from having a Negative voice in passing, repealing, or changing of Laws; nor can the King by himself, or jointly with the Lords and Commons judge what the Law is, this is the office of the sworn Judges of the two Benches and Exchequer, who are the known Expositors, and Dispenser's of Law and Justice in all causes brought before them, yea they do declare by what Law the King governs, thereby keeping the KING from governing arbitrarily and enslaving the People. And these Judges of the Law have always been authorized by the King; and all legal proceed have been in his Name, and by his Authority 1200 years before Magna Charta granted, or any set form of Parliament established. The Law itself is called, the King's Law; the Realm, the King's Realm. He is the fountain of justice, mercy, honour, witness all our Statues, Law-Books and Histories, and the Oaths of Supremacy, which every Member taketh before he sits in Parliament. Now for any one man, or any Assembly, Court, or Corporation of men (be it the two Houses of Parliament) to usurp these three powers, 1. The Governing power, 2. The Legislative power, 3. And the Judicative power, into themselves, is to make themselves the highest Tyrants, and the people the basest slaves in the world; for to govern supremely by a Law made, and interpreted by themselves according to their own pleasure, what can be more boundless and arbitrary? they may put to death whom they please for what cause they please, and confiscate his estate to their own use; yet this the two Houses of Parliament, or rather an overpowering party in the two Houses, seasoned with a Schismatical humour of singularity, have lately done.  
1. For the Governing power. 1. They coin, enhance, and abate money. 2. They make War and peace, and continue an extraordinary Militia of an Army upon us. 3. They declare who are Enemies to the Realm. 4. They maintain foreign negotiations. 5. They regulate matter of Trade, and exercise other Regalities: whereas all Jura Regalia belong only to the King as Supreme Governor.  
2. For the Legislative power. They exclude the King from his Negative Voice, and the two Houses obtrude their Ordinances (things so new, that they are not pleadable in any Court of Justice) as Laws upon the people; laying an excise, Assessments, and Taxes upon the People: They Vote and declare new-Treasons, not known by the statute 25 Edw. 3. nor by any other known Law; yea even to make or receive any address to, or from the King; and they account it a breach of Privilege, if men do not believe it to be Treason, being once declared. They out men of their free-holds, and imprison their Persons, contrary to Magna Charta, by Ordinances of Sequestration, etc.  
3. For the Judicative power. They erect infinite many of new Judicatories under them, as their Committees of complaints, of secret Examinations, of Indempnities; their Country Committees, where businesses are examined, heard, and determined without, nay against Magna Charta, and the known Laws: nay even in capital crimes they wave the Courts of Law, and all Legal proceed by Outlawry, Indictment, or Trial by Peers, and Bill of Attainder; (which is the only way of Trial in Parliament: For the Parliament cannot judicially determine any thing, but by Act of Parliament) and set up new-invented forms of proceeding before the Lords (even against free Commoners, although the Lords be not their Peers) as in the case of the four Aldermen, etc. and the Archbishop of Canterbury: They defend these do by a pretended necessity of their own making: but when the King had neither Army nor Garrison in the Kingdom, and thereby this necessity was removed, why did they not (to prevent Tumults, Insurrections, and a new war) content the People, and return all things into their old Channel, and restore to the people their Religion, Laws, and Liberties, being their first principles, for which they engaged them to spend their blood and treasure, and for defence whereof, they engaged themselves and us in a Covenant, with Hands lifted up to the High God? Why did they then provoke the Scots to a new War? but that they might have occasion to keep up their Army still, and enthral the Kingdom: look upon their Doctrine, as well as their aforesaid practices, and you will find that all they do, is but to carry on a forelaid design, to lay by the King and enslave the People, under the new erected Kingdom of the Saints: the Grandees of Derby-house and the Army. In the Declaration against the Scots Papers, p. 67. They have adjudged the King unfit to Govern, and p. 70. they say, the power of the Militia was the principal cause of their War, and quarrel with the King; and in their Declaration against the King, they say, they cannot confide in Him. It hath been commonly spoken in the House of Commons, that the two Houses, nay, the House of Commons alone, is the Supreme power of this Nation under God. 16. Mach, 1642. Both Houses Voted it a High Breach of Privilege of Parliament, for any Person, (not excepting King or Judge) to oppose their Commands, or to deny that to be Law, which the two Houses declared to be so. In their Declaration against the Scots Papers, p. 63. The Members say, That in all matters either concerning Church or State, we have no Judge upon Earth but themselves. Who will account the Pope's plenitude of power monstrous hereafter, that shall observe this Doctrine and practice of Subjects in Parliaments, claiming and exercising a Supreme Government, (whereof the Militia is a part) a Legislative and Judicative power over the Consciences, Lives, Liberties, and estates of their Fellow Subjects; And all this under colour of a necessity, raised by themselves out of a dispute they set on foot against the King, which they have affirmatively adjudged and determine for themselves against Him, without consulting the Laws, Statues, and usages of the Realm; Nay, the very Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance, which all with one voice speak against them? Who would think that a faction in Parliament, or any pest less than an Earthquake or Deluge should in seven years' time reduce so wellformed a Commonwealth into such a Chaos? Yet even now the People are promised to be governed by the known Laws, and Judges are appointed to determine suits according to the Laws. Surely, There never was Tyrant that deprived his Vassals of a known Law amongst themselves, this were to disable them to acquire wealth, and so lose his own benefit of Taxes and Confiscations. By the Laws of England, a villain was protected in his goods against all men, his Lord excepted: The Turkish Vassals heap up much wealth, and are protected against their fellow slaves, though not against their Grand Seigneor who may seize their estates, and take their lives at pleasure: And this is all the protection the people of England have now by the Laws. We have the benefit of Law one against another, (unless some Powerful Member interpose) but against the two Houses, or either of them, or any Grandee, what Law, what Justice can protect our lives, liberties or estates? and yet we were allowed heretofore to make our defence in Law against the King. And until the King be again restored to his Right, expect no better Right to be done you by this heedless headstrong Faction in Parliament.  
The sum of all their endeavours is no more but this; 
18. The final scope of the Grandees endeavours.  The Grandees of Derby-house and the Army have already by their Votes of No Addresses, and their scandalous Declaration, laid by the King, and in Him Monarchy, (notwithstanding they delay and fool the people with tedious debates of a Personal Treaty,) And when this innovation is digested by the people, their next step will be to make use of the Schismatical, Antimonarchical party in the House of Commons, Army and City, to cast off the House of Peers, as Prerogative creatures and rags of Royalty: (some Schismatical Plebeian Lords excepted, who shall recruit the Power they lose in the House of Lords, by being of the Committee of Derby-house) and when the people are well enured to this change, and the grievance of it worn out by custom, then to lay by the House of Commons, and usurp the full Power of the King and Parliament into the Committee of safety at Derby-house, who by way of preparation, do already style themselves in all foreign Negotiations, The STATES: Nay they do already act all matters of moment at home, and assume unto themselves all the properties of a State, the Parliament being but a Sub-Committee to them, upon whom they put what Impositions and Injunctions they please; witness the design put upon the House of Commons for every Member to subscribe what number of Horse he would maintain for a Guard; I know not whether to the Parliament, or to the Committee of Derby-house.  
This disease being now come to its Crisis, 
19 The Prognostic of this Disease.  it is no hard matter to pronosticat, That nature (that is, the King, our natural liege Lord) must inevitably prevail at last against this Antimonarchical Faction, for these reasons.  
1. The King can never want a Party: the Parliament (or rather Antimonarchical faction in Parliament) can never manage a party without faction and confusion.  
2. The King may hushand his treasure to His best advantage: the faction in Parliament cannot, but must necessarily be cheated; that they may be followed and befriended: since only common crimes, and common profit glues and cements them together; and only such are found to be confiding men to them.  
3. The King is now discovered, (to every common capacity) to have all the known Laws on His side: the Parliament all known Laws against them, and the people will no longer be governed without Law, by new Arbitrary inventions.  
4. The King hath recovered all the people's affections: the Parliament hath lost them; a privation which can never be reduced into habit again.  
5. The King is allied both in Consanguinity of Blood, and affinity of Cause with all the Princes of Christendom: the faction in Parliament are terrae filii, faterculi Gigantum, Mushrooms.  
6. The King's Army will obey Him and His Interest: the Parliaments Army will command them and their Interests; besides, they are men of different Principles and Interests, only held together by profit; and when that fails, they fall in sunder.  
Nothing therefore but a free Personal Treaty in London can prevent a Conquest, whatsoever desperate forlorn people say to the contrary.   

The Epilogue.  
I Am not Ignorant that there is a natural purging, a natural phlebotomy, belonging to Politic, as well as to Natural bodies; and that some good humours are always evacuated with the bad; yet I cannot but deplore what I have observed, That the honestest and justest men on both sides (such as, if they have done evil, did it because they thought it good; such as were carried aside with specious pretences, and many of them seduced by Pulpit-devils, who transformed themselves into Angels of light) have always fared worse than other men, as if this difference between the King and Parliament were but a syncretismus or illusion against honest men: nay, I do further foresee, that in the period and closing up of this Tragedy, they will far worst of all, because they have not taken a liberty to enrich themselves with public spoils, and fat themselves by eating out the bowels of their mother, but are grown lean and poor by their integrity; whereby being disabled to buy friendship in the days of Trouble, they will be put upon it to pay other men's reckon. When Verres was Praetor of Sicily, he had with wonderful corruptions pillaged that Province; and at the same time the Praetor of Sardinia being sentenced for depeculating and Robbing that Province, Timarchides, Verres Correspondent at Rome, writ a very anxious Letter to him, giving him warning of it: But Verres in a jolly humour answered him, That the Praetor of Sardinia was a fool, and had extorted not more from the Sardinians than would serve his own turn; but himself had gathered up such rich booties amongst the Sicilians, that the very overplus thereof would dazzle the eyes of the Senate, and blind them so, that they should not see his faults: Such (I foresee) will be the lot of the more just and modest men, who shall be guilty because they were fools, as the other sort shall be innocent because they were knaves. Whatsoever befalls (you clear and innoxious souls) be not ashamed, be not afraid of your integrity: if this Kingdom be a fit habitation for honest men, God will provide you a habitation here: if it be not capable of honesty, God will take you away from the evils to come, and pour out all the Vials of his wrath on this totally and universally corrupted Nation, this incurable people, Qui nec vitia sua nec eorum remedia ferre potest: for my own part, (if I am not such already) I hope God will make me such a man, Quem neque pauperies, neque mors, neque vincula terrent; and if Moses in an heroic zeal, to draw a remission of the people's sin from God, desired to be blotted out of his Book, (the Book of Life) and St. Paul to be Anathema for his Brethren; why should not I (with relation to myself, and submission to Christ) say, oportet unum mori pro populo, it is fit one man die for the people, and devote myself to death for my Country, as the family of the Decii in ancient Rome were wont to do? I have read and admired their examples, why not imitate them? is it because (as Machiavelli saith) The Christian Religion doth too much break, enfeeble, and cowardice the spirit of man, by persecuting and subduing nature, by denying her due Liberty, and tying her to be more passive than active? At facere & pati fortia Romanum, imo Christianum est; or is it because in this general deluge of sin and corruption, a public spirit, and excellency in virtue is accounted a degree of madness? or is it because of the corrupt judgement of these times, which makes a man more infamous for his punishment than for his sin? and therefore Heroic acts are out of fashion: the circumstances and ceremonies of Death are more taken notice of, than Death itself; these follies weigh not with me. Sublimis an humi putrescam, parvi refert. The Thief upon the Cross found a ready way to Heaven, How much more an honest man? Many a man out of Prison steps into Heaven, no man out of Paradise ever found the way thither: Salebrosa sit via, modo certa modo expedita; altè succinctus ad iter me accingo.  
THe Premises considered, I do here in the name and behalf of all the free Commons of England declare and protest, that there is no free nor legal Parliament sitting in England, but that the two Houses sit under a visible, actual and an horrid force of a mutinous Army, and of a small party of both Houses conspiring and engaged with the Army, to destroy, expel, and murder with false Accusations, and Blank and Illegal Impeachments and prosecutions, the rest of their fellow Members, who sat in Parliament doing their duty, when the two Speakers with a small company of Members, secretly fled away to the Army, and sat in Council with them, contriving how to enslave King, Parliament, City, and Kingdom, and how to raise Taxes at their pleasure, which they share amongst themselves and their party, under the name and title of the Godly, the Saints; and afterwards they brought the Army up to London against the Parliament and City in hostile manner, a design far exceeding the Plot of Jermine, Goring, etc. to bring up the Northern Army to London, to over-awe the Parliament: I do farther protest, that the two Houses have sat under the said force, ever since the sixth of August 1647. and therefore all they have done, and all they shall do, in the condition they sit in, is void and null in Law, ab initio, by their own doctrine and judgement included in their Ordinance of the 20. of August last, whereby they null and void, ab initio, all Votes, Orders, etc. passed from the 26. July, 1647. to the 6. August following.   

Arguments against all accommodation and Treaties, between the City of LONDON, and the engaged Grandees of the Parliament and Army.  
1 IT will never be safe nor honourable, for so great a City to accommodate and join interest with a conspiring Party, that by frequent violations of their faith and duty, have enslaved King, Parliament, City and Kingdom, and broken the Faith of this Nation, given to the Scots in the large Treaties, and in the National Covenant.  
2. By accommodating with them, you make all their crimes your own; their subtlety being to involve you to join with them in defence of their crimes.  
3. The Scottish quarrel is not against the English Nation, but against the treacherous and hypocritical Grandees, who by perjuring themselves, and falsifying their engagements both unto Kingdom and Army, keeping the Soldiers by false suggestions from disbanding, and totally obstructing Ireland's relief; and also a conspiring party in Parliament, who keep them up to make good the aforesaid crimes, forcing what Votes they please to pass, by over-awing the Parliament: Witness Cromwel's laying his hand upon his Sword, and forcing the House to pass those traitorous Votes against the King, contrary to their own Consciences, Allegiance, Protestations, Vow and Covenant, and to raise Taxes upon the people, which they share among themselves. This war is not like to be of any continuance, considering there being in the Army many conscientious men, who have had such ample experiment of the falsehood of their Grand Officers, that they are not like to hazard their lives again under the command of such Grand Impostors as they are, also knowing the General hatred of the Kingdom to them, under whose insupportable burdens and oppressions it groaneth. Nor have we any way to break the power of the said Grandees of this Army but by the Scots, whereby the just rights and Interests of all the three Kingdoms may be settled, and Ireland relieved; All which the Scots have declared in their former Papers delivered to both Houses of Parliament.  
4. If you accommodate with this faction, you must have the same friends and foes with them, as well as the same sins and quarrels; and than it will grow to a Nationall quarrel between England and Scotland, which will be of long continuance and misery: and the Interest of the King and his Children, and of all Princes of Christendom concerned in the example, will be carried on in the Kingdom of Scotland against you, if you join with those beggarly Grandees, who have enriched themselves, and their fellow-Impostors, by the ruins of the Kingdom. You will lose your credit and interests with your friends and brethren of Scotland; the only fear and terror of whose coming into England kept this Faction (which all men know is never satisfied with money and blood) from taking many of your innocent heads from off your shoulders, and confiscating your Estates to pay the arrears of the Army: witness their often speeches to this purpose in the house of Commons, and their illegal and violent proceed against you: you will likewise lose all the people of England.  
I have showed you your losses, let me show you your gains by this accommodation, that by comparing one with the other, you may cast up your account whether you shall be gainers or losers by it.  
1. They offer you the Tower of London, and your Militia to be restored (things of no great consideration) and your Aldermen and Citizens to be set at liberty: they do not offer to disband their Army, which makes them Lord it over you, and overpower both Tower and Militia; and when they have divided you from all your friends, and destroyed your reputation, and are secure from the Scots, the same violence which at first took your Tower, your Militia and your most honest Citizens from you, can deprive you of them all again at pleasure, when you shall have none to stick by you: your obligation to them shall be of steel, theirs to you but of straw, he that gives me that he can deprive me of at pleasure, gives me nothing.  
2. Cromwell and his party knew your City to be the entire strength of England. In Rich. 2. days (when it was not half so great and populous as now) it slew Wat Tyler and routed his rabble, six times as many in number as the Army. They therefore fear you, and consequently hate you, and labour nothing more than to divide and weaken you, which is their proper interest: For which purpose (to divide the City in itself) they caused the Parliament to change your Militia into other hands: they cut off Westminster, Southwark, and the Hamlets from your Militia, to weaken it; they have divided you from the Parliament, they have endeavoured to divide the Country from you, Ut dividendo singula imperent universis. Wherefore the Army in their Remonstrance 7. December 1647. Insolently demand Reparations from the City to the Country adjacent, for above 100000 l. loss sustained through the Army's attendance on the City's defaults; which was a device only to make the Country quarrel with the City, and to make the Army Umpiers.  
3. Consider you shall join with them that never kept Faith longer than they may gain by it, whereof you have many examples. Any honest man may be deceived once, but he is a fool that will be deceived twice by one man.  
4. Nay you cannot treat with these men, nor give them a Common Council, or Hall, without loss and danger: they have always made lies their refuge, and built their Designs upon the sandy foundations of Rumours and Fables.  
Cromwell and Glover already give out, that they and you are as good as agreed, that you differ only upon a puntilio of honour, which will soon be reconciled: what is the meaning of this? but that they (having creatures of their own, Commissioners in Scotland) have advertisement to spread the same reports there, thereby to take off the edge of your friends affections; to lay an imputation of inconstancy upon you, and make you inconsiderable in the judgements of your best friends, and retard all endeavours for your succour. In the mean time, this party hath blocked up all passages to Scotland, that truth can have no access to you, and you have only such news as Derby-house doth please to impart to you. These men have committed those crimes that cannot be safe without committing greater: they must on headlong: go not with them for company; they desire to bestow their plague-sores upon others. Let it not trouble you, that the Parliament hath approved their subscription of the Engagement, with the Army; it was a Vote extorted in a thin house, many Members having been driven away by threats of the Army before, and there were many dissenting Members. A little patience and constancy will settle you in a lasting peace.  
To petition the Houses to repeal their four Votes against the King, is to save their reputation, that seek to destroy yours.   

A seasonable Caution to the City of London.  
Gentlemen of the City.  
YOur Neighbours of Kent, and other Counties wishing well to them, take it unkindly, that (notwithstanding all these former admonitions) you should let down your chains, and give a free march to this bloody, cheating, schismatical Army at all hours of the night through your City, to cut their throats, and lend them 6000 l. to enable them to march: when they had no other design, but in a peaceable way to deliver a Petition to the Houses, demanding nothing but what the Parliament by their Declarations, Covenant, the Oaths of Supremacy and allegiance, and the known Laws of the Land ought to grant: Only, being forewarned by the inhuman assassination of the Surrey Petitioners, they had some men in Arms, a sufficient distance from the Town, to secure their Messengers. They have by their Letters to yourselves and the Houses manifested the clearness of their intentions to you all. They are known to be men of settled habitations and fortunes (for the most part) not vagabonds and Soldiers of Fortune like the Army. Their commerce with you help you both to trade and feed: whereas the Armies insolent march in triumph through your City, so far lessened your reputation ever since, that you constantly lose in your trading 200000 l. a Week, and no Bullion comes into the Mint; whereby multitudes of you are undone, and yet the Armies Arrears, and all other Taxes are exacted from you with as much cruelty, as you lost nothing.  
Remember that Butchery committed upon the unarmed Apprentices, when Cromwell cried to the Soldiers to kill man, woman, and child, and fire the City: at which time his Nose looked as prodigiously upon you as a Comet.  
Remember the scorn put upon you by a Grandee when you were enabled to put up your Chains again; That the House had consented your Posts should have Chains as well as your Aldermen, and did as well deserve them. And Weaver's word when your Guards came to attend the House, that 60 of the Army should beat 3000 of them.  
Remember how unwillingly and juglingly they restored unto you the Tower (first plundered of all its ammunition you formerly had in it) and part only of your Militia, and that clogged with many restrictions: they that bestow gifts so grudgingly upon you when they are weak, will deprive you of them again when they are strong. Adversity makes them your false friends, Prosperity your real Enemies, Necessity only ties them to you: have a care therefore you do not relieve their necessities, lest you lose them; like the frozen Snake in the bosom, when they grow warm they will by't and sting.  
You seem to have forgotten the unjust imprisonment of your Aldermen; the unfaithfulness and inconstancy of their Votes, and Ordinances, even for security of Money, and Land bought; the several Informations and Testimonies you had of their good intentions to borrow more of your Money, not by way of Loan, nor upon the Public Faith, but by way of plunder. Notwithstanding all these injuries, and many more, (as if God had infatuated you, to destroy you) you suffer a corrupt Faction within you to List men (to the amazement of your neighbour Counties) whose principles you first examine; and if they be not Independents, you trust them not with Arms. I hear of a young man, who being asked, of what principles he was? he answered, That in these doubtful times he professed no principles but gain: to whom was replied, than we are of one principle, for we are resolved to keep what we have got. Behold the Principles of these men that obstruct our peace! consider that Heaven and Earth have denounced war against these men, and that God himself hath touched the hearts of all men as one man to rise against them, and demand to have Peace, Religion, and Justice restored. When the whole Kingdom shall rise in a flame, what will be your lot, but smoke in your eyes, and at last a consuming fire in your bowels? when you only shall be left to maintain this domineering Army with your money, and to recruit them with your blood? many of their Officers say already, That the Country is exhausted of Money, and you shall be their purse-bearers: but because you are a cursed Cow, they must keep the Army about you, that the Soldiers may hold you by the horns whilst their friend's milk you.  
Consider how absolute a necessity, and how general a resolution there is, that all things should return to their old channel: If you stop the violence of this Torrent, it will swell until it overwhelm and drown you. You that are guiltless, join not with the guilty; you that are guilty sin no more; there will be mercy for you if you repent, and amend in time. The very multitude of offenders will help to excuse your offences; let not despair hu●● you from one sin to another until you fall into destruction, as ●●aid Judas, whose Despair (by all Divines) is held to be a greater impiety than his Treachery; by the first, he sinned against the Godhead of Christ, by the second against his Manhood only.   

The Remonstrance and Declaration of the Knights, Esquires, Gentlemen, and Freeholders in COLCHESTER.  
PEtitions (the birthright of Subjects) are by Law our addresses to our King, (God's Vicegerent) by custom our approaches to the Houses of Parliament, (His Majesty's great Council,) by them we used humbly to present our modest desires, and were wont to receive answers (as gideon's fleece the dew) without noise, yet satisfactory; but that was denied our first Petition, and before our second could be ready, our brethren of Surrey by theirs echoed our prayer to both Houses of Parliament, but received their answer, (as the Jews their Law) in thunder and lightning, a two-edged sword the tongue, and the report of Muskets the voice, which spoke nothing but wounds and death.  
We therefore thus admonished, resolved thus to present our grievances to the World, and our Petitions to Heaven, for a blessing upon our intended endeavours.  
Our grievances are these:  
1. First, the distraction and threatened ruin of our glorious Protestant Church, the neglect and abuse of Religion, the destruction of our Universities (the springs of all Learning; Divine and Humane) occasioned by the fierce and ignorant Separatists, set up and maintained as Rulers both in Church and State, by the prevalency and violence of a rebellious and destructive Army, under the command of the L. Fairfax, and countenanced by the seeming Authority of a pact, unfree, and overawed House of Parliament.  
2. Next, that contrary to the Oath and duty of Allegiance (from which no power can, nor yet hath pretended to absolve us) our Sovereign Lord the King is by the design of the said Army, drawn from His House at Hampton Court to the Isle of Wight, and there by the power of Col. Hammond and others of the Army Imprisoned, and detained from His Parliament; by which act the said Hammond, and all adhering to him, are according to the Votes passed in both Houses, 16. March, 1641. Enemies to the peace of the Kingdom.  
3. A third, is the violent and unchristian separation of the King, His Royal Consort and Children, at once depriving His Majesty of the two first blessings bestowed on Man.  
4. The forcing the Queen and Prince of Wales, to seek in a foreign Nation, what in their own they could not enjoy, liberty, safety, and support.  
5. The exercise of Martial Law while the Courts of Justice are open, and sitting at Westminster, the obstructing justice in our Courts of Judicature, and by the private Committee of Indemnity perverting judgement, and exercising arbitrary power, which is a subversion of our ancient Laws, and an introducing of a tyrannical government, as was resolved by both Houses in the Cases of the E. of Strafford, and Archb. of Canterbury, and writ in their blood.  
6. Sixtly, the present mischief and future danger to the whole Kingdom, by reason that the public affairs of highest concern, are managed and carried on by a few particular men in a private Committee at Derby-house, wherein (contrary to the selfdenying Ordinance) the prime actors are chief Officers of the Army, and have by our unhappy differences, possessed themselves of the most beneficial offices and employments of the Kingdom; and the other Places of profit and commodity, are by their design conferred on others, Members of the Army and Houses of Parliament, to purchase their compliance and Votes in all matters agitated in the Houses of Parliament: by reason whereof all motions for His Majesty's return to his Parliament (the first step to our desired Peace) have been either totally rejected, or by them politicly delayed, because Peace would determine both their power and profit.  
7. The Estates of Delinquents, the Lands of Bishops, Deans and Chapters, (designed by several Ordinances for discharge of public Debts) are by the Houses and power of the Army shared and divided amongst themselves, while the public debts be unsatisfied, the common Soldier unpayed, the maimed unrelieved, the Widows and Children of the slain unprovided for, and all left burdens to the Commonwealth.  
8. That the Army consisting of mean, ignorant and illiterate men, (only gilded with hypocrisy, divine and civil) under pretence of tender Consciences (the better to induce and tolerate all Heresies) have expelled and suppressed all learned Orthodox Divines, and Church Government, and crying Liberty, Liberty, have subjected our Persons and Estates to arbitrary Law and tyranny; and by Rape embracing the Legislative power, cuckolds the body Politic, giving Laws to the whole Kingdom, and yet by Petitions and Remonstrances make both House's father (as their own) the adulterous issue.  
9 That this Army assuming to themselves the modeling and settlement both of Church and State, at Windsor in April last, in their Council did consult these 3. Questions.  
First, Whether shall we join with the Levellers, and new model both Church and State?  
Next, Whether with the moderate Party, Treat, and receive the KING with more qualified and limited Power?  
Thirdly, Whether Depose the KING, Disinherit the PRINCE, Crown the DUKE of YORK, and appoint a Protector?  
The first was held to promise most of liberty and profit; but threatened greatest danger in effecting, and difficulty in continuing.  
The second was said to be easiest obtained and continued, because nighest to the present frame and constitution already settled; but would bring them little of profit, and less of Sovereignty.  
The third (like Benjamin, last in birth, but first in the Parent's affections) was held not difficult to be acted, but to be maintained; for it would require both the expense of much blood and money, and the Kingdom to re-act York and Lancaster, under the names of Wales and York.  
To this Lieut. Gen. Cromwell answered, It was the better, for that would necessitate the continuance of our Army, which secures our persons, will enforce our reasons, make just our demands, and facilitate their grant; For the blood, that will flow from the cheapveins of Common Soldiers, whereof England hath plenty, and we will not want; For the money, London is our bank, and from their Purses it shall drain to our Coffers.  
Commissary Ireton, L. Gen. Cromwel's Son-in-law, said, The work was half done; for we have already Voted no Addresses to be made to the King, and Him guilty of crimes enough to Depose Him, and by Imprisoning His Person, have fitted Him for a private life, and by it taught the people that He is subject to the dispose of both Houses of Parliament, whole Ordinances are only powerful by our Swords, and therefore our Actions shall be legal by their Vote. Further, the Prince (said he) is linked with his Father in crime, and therefore cannot be severed in punishment, he hath been General in a Western Army, warring (as his Father) against the Parliament, a crime that as it rendered the Father fit to be Deposed, so doth it the Son unfit to succeed in the Government. And that the descent of the Crown purge not him, (as it did Hen. 7.) let us in the Father's life time Crown the Duke of York, now in our power, whose tender years have preserved him innocent, and presents him fit for protection and our design, and should any blame our severity towards the King and Prince, others will commend our clemency towards the Duke of York.  
Upon the result of this Council, L. Gen. Cromwell in the House of Commons, tells Mr. Speaker, That it was time to set on foot our great design, and that such as should not concur in Votes with us, be not continued of us.  
The motion being mistimed, and divers of his party absent, it was only wondered at by Master Knightly, and died with the words. The Scene now altars from Westminster to Carisbrook-Castle, and the King that could not be removed by Votes, must now by Poison, the Actor Col. Hammond, Major Rolf, etc. all Members of the Army: yet must we by cursed Excise that insensibly devours the poor, by insupportable Monthly Taxes that impoverish the rich, contrary to Law and our Allegiance, contrary to our Protestation and Covenant (enforced upon us) we must traitorously maintain and pay this Army that traitorously contrive and endeavour the deposal and murder of our Sovereign Lord the King, the subversion of our Protestant Church, our Fundamental and known Laws.  
We therefore declare to the World, that God blessing us, we will with hazard of our lives and fortunes, disband and dissipate this Army, the Suppressors of the pure Protestant Religion, the Imprisoners, and would be the Murderers of their Sovereign Lord the King, and grand Oppressors of the Commonwealth; then free from Imprisonment our said Sovereign, and him (God-willing) restore to his lawful Government, just Rights, and Throne in Parliament; this done, we shall joyfully and readily, deposit our justly assumed Arms, and on our knees beg what his Majesty hath often most graciously offered, and will undoubtedly grant, his most Royal and gracious pardon to all his misled Subjects, will return to their Allegiance, and forward to bring the King back to his own house.  
We therefore hereby earnestly desire and request all loyal and well-affected Subjects as well Members of both Houses of Parliament as others, to be herein aiding and assisting to us. First, by not recruiting the Forces of the Lord Fairfax. Next, by withdrawing all aid and assistance from his Army, by withholding Excise and Monthly Taxes allotted for their pay and support, and to give us with their prayers such assistance as their Allegiance and opportunity shall advise; and we trust that the God that judgeth rightly will crown our loyal action with happy success, and our success with a glorious peace, which is hearty prayed for, and shall (God willing) be resolutely fought for by us, His Majecties loyal and faithful Subjects in Colchester.   

A List of the Names of the Members of the House of Commons, Observing which are Officers of the Army, contrary to the selfdenying Ordinance: Together with such sums of Money, Offices, and Lands, as they have given to themselves for service done and to be done, against the KING and Kingdom. Corrected and augmented.  
Note, Reader, that such as have this mark [*] coming immediately before their Names, are Recruiters, illegally elected, by colour of the new Seal, the power of the Army, and voices of the Soldiers, and are unduly returned, and serve accordingly.  

The first Century.  
1. WIlliam Lenthall, Speaker of the House of Commons worth 2000 l. per an. besides rewards for courtesies; (not to say Bribes) Master of the Rolls, worth 3000 l. per an. beside the sale of Offices: Chamberlain of Chester in the Earl of Darbies' place, And until of late Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, worth 1230 l. per an. and one of the Commissioners of their great Seal, worth 1500 l. per an. and had 6000 l. given him at one time by the House.  
2. Bulstrode Whitlock, Commissioner of the great Seal, worth 1500 l. per an. and had 2000 l. given him out of Mr George Minn's estate.  
3. Edmund Prideaux, formerly a Commissioner for the great Seal, worth 1500 l. per an. Now by Ordinance practices within the Bar, as one of the King's Council; worth 500 l. per an. and is Postmaster for all Inland Letters; worth 100 l. every Tuesday night beside his supper, and it was thus got: The Lord Stanhop, the Postmasters and Carriers of England complained in Parliament, against Mr. Witherings and others, touching the carrying of Letters, whereupon the benefit of foreign Letters were given to the Earl of Warwick; worth 5000 l. per an. and the Inland Letters to Mr. Prideaux: good Parliament Justice.  
4. Roger Hill, a Barrister of the Temple, in no practice, nor of a considerable estate, till this Parliament, hath now from the House the Bishop of Winchester's Manor of Taunton Dean, being the best of England; and worth 1200 l. per an. when the estates for lives determine.  
5. Humphrey Salway, the King's Remembrancer in Mr. Fanshaw's place; worth 200 l. per an.  
6. Francis Rous, Provost of Eton, in Dr. Steward's place; worth 600 l. per annum, and hath got a College Lease worth 600 l. per annum.  
7. John Lisle, Barrister of the Temple, Master of St. Crosses in Dr. Lewes his place, being a place for a Divine; and worth 800 l. per annum.  
8. Oliver St. John, by Ordinance both Attorney and Solicitor to the King, worth what he please to make it; and hath the passing of all Pardons upon Commissions, worth 40000 l.  
9 Sir William Allison, Alderman of York, Clerk of the Hamper, worth 1000 per an. he hath Crabb-Castle; worth 600 l. per an. Sometimes the Bishop of Yorks in Yorkshire.  
10. Thomas Hoile, Alderman of York, Treasurer's Remembrancer in the Exchequer, in Sir Peter Osburn's place, worth 1200 l. per annum.  
11. Thomas Pury Senior, first a Weaver in Gloucester, than an ignorant Country Solicitor, had 3000 l. given him, and Mr. Gerrard's place in the Petty-bag, worth 400 l. per an.  
12. Thomas Pury Junior, Son to the Elder, Receiver of the King's Rents in Gloucester and Wilts, Clerk of the Peace of , worth 200 l. per an. and Captain of Foot and Horse, the first year of this Parliament, servant to Mr. Towneshead, an Attorney of Staple Inn.  
13. William Ellis, Steward of Stepney, worth 200 l. per an. and by him sold to one of the Temple.  
14. Miles Corbet, at the beginning of the Parliament 3000 l. in debt for himself and his Mother, more than he was worth: now one of the Registers in Chancery, worth 700 l. per an. besides Chairman for scandalous Ministers, worth 1000 l. per an. And hath money in his purse.  
15. John Goodwyne, the other Register in Chancery, worth 700 l. per annum.  
16. Sir Thomas Widdrington, a Commissioner of the great Seal, worth 1500 l. per. an.  
17. Edward Bishe, Garter Herald, in Sir Edward Walkers place, worth 600 l. per an.  
18. * Walter Strickland, Agent in Holland for the two Houses of Parliament, worth to him 5000 l.  
19 Nicholas Love, Mr. Speakers Chamber-fellow, one of the six Clerks in Chancery, in Mr. Penruddocks place; worth 2000 l. per annum.  
20. Sir Gilbert Gerrard, much in debt before the Parliament, paymaster to the Army, and had 3d. per pound allowed, besides Gratuities, worth 60000 l. and now Chancellor of the Duchy, worth 1200. per an.  
21. Gilbert Gerrard, his second son, Clerk of the Duchy, and for whose benefit the Clerk-ship of the Assize in Norfolk, is granted to Mr. Edward Garret his Cousin by the procurement of Sir Gilbert, and is worth 500 l. per an.  
22. John Selden, had given him 5000 l. of which he received 2500 l. pound.  
23. * John Bond, (Son to Dennis Bond, a Parliament man) made Master of Trinity-Hall in Cambridge, which Mr. Selden refused to accept of.  
24. Sir Benjamin Rudiard, given him 5000 l. And hath he not deserved it?  
25. * Lucas Hodges, Customer of Bristol.  
26. Sir John Hipsley, hath the keeping of three of the King's Parks, Mary-bone-Park, that was Mr. Carewes, Hampton-Park, and Bushy-Park, and given him 2000 l. in Money.  
27. Sir Thomas Walsingham, the Honour of Eltham, that was the Earl of Dorsets, the middle-Park and house, which was Master Whines, and hath cut down 4000 Timber Trees:  
28. Benjamine Valentine, given him 5000 l.  
29. * Sir Henry Heyman, given him 5000 l.  
30. Denzell Hollis, given him 5000 l.  
31 * Nath. Bacon, given him 3000 l.  
32. * John Steevens, given him out of the Lord Astley's Composition 1000 l.  
33. * Henry Smith, made one of the six Clerks; worth 2000 l. per annum.  
34. Robert Renolds, had 2000 l. given him; Besides Abingdon-Hall, and the Lands, worth 400 l. per annum. Hath bought a good pennyworth of Bishop's Lands, hath 20000 l. beyond Sea, as he made appear upon his Marriage.  
35. Sir John Clotworthy, Treasurer for Ireland, and by the Army charged with defrauding of the State of 40000 l. which may be one reason the King could never get an Account of the moneys rai●ed for the Irish, though he desired it.  
36 ●ohn Ashe, given him out of Mr. John Coventry's Composition 4●00 l. out of Sir Edward Mosely's 1000 l. out of Mr. Edw. Ph●●'s 1200 l. out of Sir John Powel's estate 8000 l. And (which is w●●ll this) is the great Chairman at Goldsmiths Hall. Is not this better than clothing?  
37. * John Lenthall, son to the Speaker, made one of the six Clerks, worth 2000 l. per annum.  
38. * Francis Allen, a poor Goldsmith at St. Danstans' in Fleetstreet, now made a Customer for London. In honour of whom clipped moneys are called (Allens.)  
39 Giles Green, the Reciver of Yorkshire, being put out of his place, got it for his Son-in-Law, is Chairman for the Navy, and for Sir Thomas Daws his estate, and what it was worth to him, Sir Thomas Daws his Creditors will tell you; for they got nothing.  
40. Francis Pierpoint hath the Archbishop of York's Lands, lying in Nottinghamshire.  
41. William Pierpoint hath 7000 l. given him, and all the Earl of Kingston's personal Estate, worth 40000 l.  
42. * John Palmer, Mr. of All-Souls in Oxford, in Doctor Shelden's place, a Divine.  
43. * John Blackeston, a poor shopkeeper in New Castle, was Executor to the Executor of Sir John Fenner, trusted with 6000 l. for Charitable uses, and was sued in Chancery to perform the trust; but got himself returned a Burgess for Newcastle by the Scots Garrison there; had 3000 l. given him out of one Gentleman's Composition, and out of others as much as made it up 12000 l. as was made appear at a Committee before Mr. Sandis of the Temple Chairman; hath also a Cole-meeter's place worth 200 l. per annum, and the Bishop of Durham's Castle at Durham, and Lands of great value.  
44. Tho. Ceely, long a Prisoner for debt, helped out by the Parliament, and made Recorder of Bridgewater.  
45. * Thomas Moor, a Officer in the Custom-house, and his brother Governor of Ludlow.  
46. * Scawine, given him 2000 l.  
47. Isaac Pennington, twice broke; once Lieutenant of the Tower; a year and a half Lord Mayor of London before his time; had 7000 l. given him, and hath store of Bishop's Lands.  
48. Samuel Vassel given him 1000 l.  
49. Oliver Cromwell Leiut. Gen. hath 2500 l. per an. given him out of the Marquis of Worcester's Estate, for which 4000 l. per an. is set out at the rate of 2500 l.  
50. Sir Wil Brereton, Col. Gen. for the Cheshire Forces, hath Cashobery, and other Lands of the L. Capulets worth 2000 l. per an. and the Archbishop's house and Lands at Croyden, where he hath turned the Chapel into a Kitchin. A goodly Reformation, and fits with his stomach as well as his Religion.  
51. * Thomas Wait, Colonel, Governor of Burley, where he thrives so well, as he is now buying 500 l. per an. who before was not able to buy 5 l. a year.  
52. Sir Oliver Luke, decayed in his Estate, Colonel of H rse.  
53. Sir Samuel Luke his Son, Colonel, and Scout-master for the Counties of Bedford, etc.  
54. * Thomas Gell, Leiut. Col. to Sir John Gell, made Recorder of Derby, in Mr. Allistrie's place.  
55. Valentine Walton, Colonel, and Governor of Lin Regis.  
36. * Richard Norton, Colonel, Governor of Southampton.  
57 * Edward Harvy, late a poor Silkman, now Col. and hath got the Bishop of London's House and Manor of Fulham.  
58. Edward Rossiter, Colonel, and General of all the Lincolnshire Forces, and Governor of Belvory Castle.  
59 * Sir Michael Livesey, Col. Sequestrator, and Plunder-master General of Kent.  
60. * Henry Ireton (son in Law to Lieutenant General Cromwell) Colonel, and Commissary General.  
61. * Richard Salway, Col. formerly a Grocer's man.  
62. * John Birch, formerly a Carrier, now a Colonel.  
63. * Thomas Rainsborough, a Skipper of Lin, Col. Governor of Woodstock, and Vice-Admiral of England.  
64. * Robert Black, Col. Governor of Taunton.  
65. * Francis Russel, Colonel.  
66. * Rowland Wilson, Colonel.  
67. * Robert Harley, Col. son to Sir Robert Harley.  
68 * Richard Brown, Major General, and Governor of Abingdon.  
69. * Peter Temple, Captain of a Troop of Horse.  
70. * John Venus, Colonel, Governor of Windsor, had 4000 l. given him.  
71. * Algernon Sidney, Governor of Dover-Castle.  
72. * Richard Ingolsby, Colonel, Governor of Oxford.  
73. * John Hutchinson, Colonel, Governor of Nottingham.  
74. * Sir John Palgrave, Col. at the siege of Newark.  
75. * Edmund Ludlow, Governor of  
76. * Cornelius Holland renteth as much of the King's Grounds for 200 l. per an. as is worth 1600 l. or 1800 l. per an.  
77. * Philip Skippon, Sergeant-Major-General of the Army, Major-Gen. of London, and Governoor of Bristol, had 1000 l. per an. lands of inheritance given him.  
78. * Charles Fleetwood, Colonel.  
79. * Thomas Westrow, Capt. under Sir Michael Livesey, was nothing worth, until a Captain and a Parliament man; and now hath gotten the Bishop of Worcester's Manor of Hartlerow, which proves he hath two good and beneficial offices.  
80. Henry Martin, Col. of a Regiment of Horse, and a Regiment of Whores.  
81. Nathaniel Fiennes, Col. once Governor of Bristol. Thereby hangs a Tail.  
82. Anthony Stapley, Col. Governor of Chichester.  
83. Alexander Rigby, Col. and Governor of Bolton.  
84. Charles Pym, Captain of a Troop of Horse.  
85. Sir Arthur Haslerig, Colonel, Governor of Newcastle, and hath the Bishop of Durham's house, Park, and Manor of Aukland, and 6500 l. in money given him.  
86. William Jepson, Colonel.  
87. Sir Thomas Middleton, Major-General for Denbigh, and five other Counties.  
88 Godfrey Boswell, Colonel.  
89. The Lord Grace of Grooby, (son to the E. of Stamford) Col. and hath given to him the Queen's Manor house, Park, and Lands at Holdenby, and there's a great fall of the Woods.  
90. Sir Will. Constable, Col. Governor of Gloucester, he sold his lands to Sir Marmaduke Langdale, for 25000 l. and is restored to it again by Parliament.  
91. Sir Will. Purefoy, Col. and Governor of Coventry, fought resolutely against the Cross in the Market place at Warwick, and against the Ancient Monuments in the Earls Chapel in St. Mary's Church there; for which he had 1500 l. given him, but when he should have fought with the Enemy, hide himself in a Barley-field, for which a Waterman at Temple stairs (that had been his soldier) refused to carry him.  
92. Sir Edward Hungerford, Col. famous for plundering Warder Castle, hath the Lands of the Countess Dowager of Rutland, worth 1500 l. per an. and she allowed but 500 l.  
93. Harbert Morley, Col. Plunder-master of Surrey.  
94. John Moor, Col. of the Guards, and for some time had the benefit of Passes out of London.  
95. Walter Long, Col. had 5000 l. and the Office of Register for 4. years.  
96. Sir Will. Waller, General, and lost two Armies, yet a gainer by the employment.  
97. John Alured, Col.  
98. Michael Oldsworth, no Col. but Governor of Pembroke and Mountgomery, and hath a share with his Lord out of Sir Henry Comptons' Office, worth 3000 l. per an. and is Keeper of Windsor Park.  
99 Tho. Scot, a Brewer's Clerk formerly, hath the Bishop's house at Lambeth.  
100 Master Ashhurst, when he went Commissioner into Scotland, had the Clerk of the Peace's place for Lancashire, and 1000 l. in money given him.  
Besides these Offices, Commands, and Gratuities, every Member of the House of Commons, being in all 516. are by their own Order allowed 4 l. per Week a man; which amounts to 110000 l. per annum.  
By the Ordinance for sequestering Delinquents (1 April, 1643.) it was declared, That their Estates should go for maintenance of the Public Affairs, and several Ordinances designed Bishops Lands for pay of 200000 l. Public debt: Yet by this, and the following Centuries, thou shalt see how both Delinquents Estates and Bishops Lands are by Members of Parliament shared amongst themselves, whilst the 200000 l. is unpaid, the public affairs supported by unsupportable Taxes, and that Dutch Devil Excise, that insensibly devours the poor, and will impoverish the rich.  
These are they that with Hananiah, break the wooden yoke from our necks, (28 Jeremiah) and put on one of Iron; free us from a little Ship-money paid thrice in an Age, and impose as much at once for a Monthly Tax; quit us of the Monopolies of Tobacco, and set up Excise on Bread and Beer: The first easeth the wanton rich man, and the latter grindeth the needy and poor. Yet these are thy Gods O London! these are the Idol Calves the People have set up and do worship: these be the Molec to whom ye sacrifice Sons and Servants by Troops, Regiments, and Armies, to maintain their sovereignty, rebellion, and profit.  
And that these and other their actions may never be questioned, they His Majesty's loyal and obedient subjects, will always Imprison their King, continue their Army, perpetuate their Parliament, and entail their Memberships (as the Priesthood on Levi) upon confiding Families, to furnish them with Votes, as Mr. Gilbert Gerrard and his 2 Sons, Brampton Guidon and his 2 Sons, Sir Robert Harley and his 2 Sons, 3 Fines, 2 Ashes, 4 Stephens, 4 pelham's, 4 Epirotes, 4 Temples; it were endless to name the Father and the Son, Brother and Brother that fills the House; they come in couples more than unclean Beasts to the Ark: 2 Vanes, 2 Puries, 2 Chaloners, 2 Bacons, 2 Pierpoints, 2 Bonds, 2 Onslowes, 2 Lenthals, etc. And that our ecclesiastics may comply with our Temporal Governors; the Houses abolish (as superstitious because Legal) the Convocation of learned Divines, (regularly summoned by the King's Writ, and duly elected by the Clergy) and the House of Commons nominates an assembly of gifted Divines (indeed wicked Simons) that slander the Godly Onias, (2. Mac. 4.) to out him of his Priest's place; so that at this day there is not one Assembly-man but is illegally thrust into another's Benefice, a Catalogue of whose names and Preferments expect shortly, and with them a view of the Militia and Common-Council-men of London, observing what Places, Offices and salaries they have from the Houses of Parliament, and then thou wilt know the reasons of their Votes and Actions in the City.  
You see in part what the Grandees have done for themselves. Consider after 8 years sitting what they have done for the people, when amongst all their Propositions to the King for Peace, hardly any one respects the good of the People, but their own grandeur and profit. They demand a Militia to keep up this Army upon us, which is not the Kings to give. No King of England ever governed by a standing Army. They demand likewise power to raise what Forces for Land and Sea, consisting of what Persons they please to press; and to raise what money to maintain them out of all men's Estates, to be laid on at their discretion, and as partially as they please, so that they may favour one Faction, and oppress the other at pleasure; for, so much the Act for the Militia as it is penned imports: and this is more than his Majesty hath power to grant. The late Militia of Trained Bands, and the Posse Comitatus under Sheriffs (being the only legal Militia of England) will not serve their turns. It hath always been the Policy of England, to trust the Militia and sword in one hand (viz. the KINGS) and the Purse that should pay them in another (viz. the PARLIAMENTS) whereby one power might bond and limit the other. For to put the Sword and the Purse into one hand, is to make that hand absolute Master of our Persons and Estates, and so reduced us to absolute slavery under the Arbitrary power of one man, without appeal or redress. Awake and look about you good People.     
THE END.  

AN APPENDIX TO The History of Independency, BEING A brief description of some few of ARGYLES proceed, before and since he joined in Confederacy with the Independent Junto in ENGLAND: With a Parallel betwixt him and Cromwell, AND A Caveat to all his seduced Adherents.  CICERO. 
Totius injustitia nulla capitalior est quam eorum, qui cum maximè fallunt, id tamen agunt, ut viri boni esse videantur.  
LONDON, Printed in the Year, 1648.   

AN APPENDIX TO The History of Independency. BEING A brief description of some few of Argyles proceed, before and since he joined in confederacy with the Independent Junto in ENGLAND: With a Parallel betwixt him and Cromwell; AND A Caveat to all his seduced Adherents.  
THe Covenant being at the first taking, held to be the true Touchstone whereby the Religious Royal Subjects were discerned from all those who were unwilling to submit to the yoke of Christ in matters of Religion, or to the just and lawful Government of our dread Sovereign his Vicegerent; now a subtle generation of men (or rather Vipers) in both Kingdoms, who did take the Covenant, and did magnify it so long as it could serve them for a Ladder to mount to their intended Greatness, being now at the top, have kicked away the Ladder, and standing (as it were) on the pinnacle, look with disdain on all their old friends, who out of the integrity of their hearts, did for the good of Religion, and His Majesty's honour, join in that solemn engagement, it being far from their thoughts that their modest and humble desires for the Reformation of some abuses both in Church and State (all which, His Majesty in the respective Kingdoms did (or was willing to) cure) should have struck so deep as to endeavour the overthrow of all lawful Governments, Civil and Ecclesiastical; bringing, instead of a promised Reformation in Religion, a cursed Toleration of the most damnable Sects, Errors, and Heresies that ever Hell did send forth; and for the Civil State, instead of a well-setled Monarchy, a most confused tyrannical Anarchy, quite contrary to the words and meaning of the Covenant, and the honest intentions of all truehearted, Religious and loyal Subjects in the three Kingdoms, who did take that solemn Covenant with a purpose to keep it, and of very many thousands who did never take the Covenant, (yet very good Protestants and loyal Subjects) being more affrighted with the compulsory way of enforcing it on all, than unsatisfied in the matter, being introduced in a legal way, none of these deserving the name of Malignants, or to be so cruelly dealt with either for their persons or Estates, as hath been too too common in both Kingdoms; but the Covenant itself, doth best decipher who are Incendiaries, Malignants, and evil Instruments, viz. those who hinder the reformation of Religion, who divide the King from His People, or one Kingdom from another, or make any Faction or Parties amongst the people, contrary to the League and Covenant. Yet by our new tenets, none must be called Malignants but those that have loyal hearts towards their Sovereign, though otherwise never so Religious, and all of them (with Master Martin) would gladly make the Covenant an old Almanac, that they might be rid of that tie of preserving His Majesty's Person and Authority, in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms, that the world may bear witness with their consciences of their loyalties, and that they have no thoughts or intentions to diminish His Majesty's just Power and Greatness.  
As the History of Independency hath discovered the practices of the Independent Junto, so this Appendix will discover their chief Confederate in Scotland, namely the Marquis of Argyle; whose dealing with his Kindred, Friends, and Confederates mentioned in the following discourse, will be a warning to all religious Protestants, how they trust such an Apostate Covenanter, whose ambition and avarice hath ruined the KING, Church and State, or three flourishing Kingdoms. Although it may seem a paradox to many, I dare boldly aver, that Argile and his Faction in Scotland, have been, and are the chief Malignants, Incendiaries, and evil Instruments, who have been the Ruiners of these three flourishing Kingdoms, and the Authors of the blood shed in all of them, as I hope by this following Discourse will be made appear to every impartial and unprejudicate Reader, who hath, or may have the certain knowledge of every particular when time shall serve. This Argile's Father, after the Marriage of his English Lady, having turned Roman Catholic, and this his only Son by his first Lady being carefully educated by the Earl of Morton, by whose means he obtained the possession of his Father's whole Estate for a small Pension, and by His Majesty's special favour (for out-quitting his pretended Title of Justice General (of the Kingdom of Scotland) did obtain an Heritable Justiciary of Argile, Lorn, Kintyre, and many of the Western Isles; which power he did execute with that cruelty, that he disgusted all the Islanders, and Highlands of Scotland, who were never so tyrannised over by any of their Kings, till his Father's death (still fearing his return) he kept himself somewhat moderate for the engaging for the Covenant, or keeping company sometimes with those that were against it; but his Father being dead, finding himself idolised by those who had taken the managing of all affairs into their hands, and that by his power and policy he could prevail with them in any thing, to endear himself the more to that party, he did seem exceeding zealous for the Covenant, and pretending great fears from Ireland, (which the then Lord Deputy Strafford his Greatness, and known averseness from the Covenant, did make the more easily to be believed) whereas the true cause of his fears was for the loss of Kintyre, (whereof he cozened his Brother long before his death) Isla, and divers considerable Isles which were and aught to be the possessions of the Mackdonalds, and his indiscreet provoking of Strafford, who in revenge of him did use very hardly all the Scots in Ireland who would not renounce the National Covenant of Scotland: he dis-arming them, did Arm and Train many Irish, who (after his Head was off) shed so much blood in Ireland, and upon pretence of divers of the Mackdonalds (Argile's own Tenants for the time) were accessary to the Plot, fearing his Judiciary power where he was both Judge and Party, they were enforced to fly to Ireland till their peace should be made; to prevent which, he sent their Wives and Children after them, took possession of all their moveables, and placed other Tenants in their Room; but being grieved that Culkettough and his Sons, who had goodly Possessions, were not gone with the rest, he caused cite them before the Council, as accessary to an Invasion to be made by Antrum and some of their friends; which citation (as legal men and not guilty in the least) they did obey, and after some days stay in Edinburgh (taking their walk daily before Argile's door) they did humbly entreat his Secretary to plead for them, that they might have a speedy hearing, since they were weary of their attendance; which the Secretary acquanting the Lord Argile, returned them this Answer, That since they had testified their obedience by their appearance, they might go home and he have themselves civilly, not meddling with their Rebellious friends, (as he was pleased to term them) and be ready upon any new citation, they should be excused for that time: they did humbly thank his Lordship, and his Secretary, for this courtesy, and did presently departed from Edinburgh towards their home; whereof my Lord (by his Spies upon them) having notice, did immediately convene the Council, and whereas in many days before (during their stay in Town) they could not be heard, that day they were first Called, and upon their not Answering, my Lord aggravating their Accusation by their departure, occasioned by his own and his Secretaries contriving, procures a Warrant to make them prisoners till they should be Tried, and to seize upon their Estates; which out of his zeal to the Covenant (God knows) he did carefully perform, and made Culkettough and his two Sons Prisoners before they were half way at home; which Alexander Macdonald (afterwards Sir Alexander Macdonald) being fled to Ireland (having no valuable possession to look to at home) did associate himself with the Irish in the beginning of their Rebellion; but so soon as the Scots Army came over, he did apply himself to them, assuring them that he would do them faithful service against the Irish Rebels, if they would release his old Father and his two Brethren, unjustly detained prisoners, or bring them to Legal Trial, whereof having assurance given him, he brought with him two hundred gallant men of his friends, and did more execution upon the Irish than half of the Scots Army, their horse being not able to follow through Bogs, and their Foot not so swift as the Irish, and did in one morning bring in six or seven thousand Cows to the Scots Camp (the like booty they did never take at any one time before or since) for which good service, the General did of new engage for his Father and brethren's releasement; but when the Committee of Estates had consented, Argile did reverse all, and frustrate the General's promise: which Alexander Macdonald perceiving, said no more (but well) I will yet cause my faithful service procure my Father's enlargement, and did continue without pay, or hope of pay, saving a very spare allowance of quarters, until Argile sent over and caused him to be discharged of all quarters, to the grief of all the Scots Officers, who did well know what faithful service he had done, and was able to do them: so that mere necessity did enforce him to make his peace with the Irish, by whose help he did come over into Scotland, merely to be revenged on Argile, and to relieve his Father, hoping the Estates of Scotland would not blame him for suing the performance of what their General had promised unto him, intending no more till Montrosse out of his desire to be revenged on Argile did enforce Alexander Macdonald to join his Majesty's Interest, as Montrosse pretended, with the said Macdonald, hoping he would find (as indeed he did) a great many discontented persons to join with them, all which, or the most considerable, were parties and persons wronged, oppressed, and ruined by Argile, as chief (besides the forementioned Islanders and these Highlands that were under his lash) the Athol men twice or thrice plundered by him; Montrosse himself provoked by many wel-known injuries, which no Noble heart could endure, as the death of Mr. James Stewart who was no Traitor either to King or Country save only to Argile. The Earl of Airly having his estate plundered, and his House thrown down in revenge of an ancient quarrel amongst their Predecessors, for the Earl of Airly having some Lands in the Bray of Angus, out of which Argile's men did many times drive Herds of Cattle, Sheep, and other Beasts, for which the Lord Ogilbee could have no remedy, these Thiefs being protected by the Earl of Argile, by advice of his Lawyers he did Charge the Earl of Argile, that he should find surety not to maintain or protect such Outlaws; but before he could obtain the same, he was obliged (according to the custom of Scotland) to give his Oath, he did fear bodily harm from Argile, which he was unwilling to do; alleging, it were only a Beastly harm that he did fear, for if he would not protect those that did steal his poor men's Beasts, he was nothing afraid of his body. This tart Answer, after an age must (under colour of service to the State) be so revenged.  
The Gourdons, divers of whom he betrayed under trust, and under pretence of securing his Neces Portions that he was engaged for, possessing himself of Badinoch and Lochabar, and plundering friends and foes indifferently in his marches too and fro, and the inexhaustible treasure of the Scots Exchequer must allow him eleven or twelve thousand pound sterling for every Voyage; whereas his Breechlesse Soldiery were well content with their Beef and Bannocks, and such convenient plunder as the Country could afford: these (as I conceive) were the most considerable Forces Montrosse ever had, unless some that were through fear, compelled to yield for the time, so that the bloodshed in Scotland by Montrosse and Macdonald do properly fall upon Argiles score, no other under Heaven having occasioned both their out-breaking, and all their partakers, who did see no other way to be revenged on him (that had made himself Master of all the Estate, having made Argile's quarrel their own) than by heaving at all under the specious pretext of the King's interest: which if God in mercy had not prevented, they had almost effectuate through Argile's misgovernment; wherein it is to be remarked, that when he was overthrown by Montrosse in Lochaber the second of February, 1645. many of his friends being killed, and others taken, he who would not release Culkettough for his Sons good service, nor the General's engagement, or the Committee of Estates desire (you must not speak of Command) for Master James Hamilton, a faithful Minister of the Gospel, who found more kindness from Culkettough than from this Cannibal Covenanter, is now content to release all to get a poor Company of his Countrymen, leaving the Godly Minister in cruel bondage, whom Culkettough did release upon his Paroll and promise to send him a Boy that was forgot behind.  
This religious Covenanter, out of his pious care for the education of his Sister, in the true Religion as he pretended, did by His Majesty's special favour overthrow the last will and Testament of his Mother-in-law, by getting himself made Administrator in the room of him who was nominated therein, whereby he got the Gentlewoman his Sister's whole patrimony into his hands; but before he could prevail in this, his Majesty did take special care that sufficient Surety should be given that the Will of the Dead should be truly performed by payment of their respective portions when they were Married, and sufficient maintenance until they were Married: the Elder whose Portion was Five thousand pound sterling, is presently sent for, and one thousand pound or thereby given to a Gentleman for his second Wife, the rest (there being a clause, that if any of them should enter into Nunneries, they should only have 300 l. sterling for all) being kept so scarce of their due maintenance (the Gentleman who was surety, having advanced of his own above 1000 l. whereof he is not as yet repaid) were seduced to go to Monasteries all save one, who is now ready to enter through his neglect; so this 12000 l. of his Sister's Portions (with the ruin of their Souls to boot) is a part of Argile's wel-made purchase.  
The great care taken by the Earl of Morton for Argile's education and preservation both of his life from the crafty designs of a Stepmother, and recovery of his almost ruined Estate, was so well requited, that (notwithstanding he hath the Earl of Morton's Daughter in his bed) in open Parliament he spoke what became him not both of that noble Lords Person and Estate (only, as he pretended, out of his zeal to the welfare of the Kingdom) whereas the truth is, it was merely out of his ambition to have that Honourable place conferred upon himself, which was intended by his Majesty upon that noble Lord; but finding His Majesty not inclinable that way, the next assault was, for one of his own name, a man truly well-deserving (for to say, better deserving than himself, is no great praise) and if, his two much favouring of him do not slain his reputation, worthy to be beloved.  
Thus having shortly viewed Argile's religious carriage towards his Vassals and Tenants, Parents, Friends, and Allies, Brother and Sisters, Neighbours and fellow-Patriots, let us take a short view of his Loyal carriage towards his Sovereign, and his due observation of the Solemn League and Covenant with his covenanted Brethren of England, and then let the impartial Reader judge whether he be not such as is affirmed in the proposition, the greatest incendiary in the three Kingdoms.  
It cannot be denied, but His Majesty (as is mentioned before) did confer many great and Princely favours upon him at the Earl of Morton's desire when he was Lord of Lorn, such whereof as required confirmation were approved and ratified in Parliament, His Majesty being present, anno 1641. with the addition of the honour and title of marquis, and a full Pension well paid ever since whoever want, together with (not only an act of oblivion, but) an approbation of all his tyrannical proceed against the Athol men, the Earl of Airely, and others, though not particularly mentioned, yet as done in obedience of Orders from the Committee of Estates (obtained by his own procurement) therefore to be no further questioned.  
The first endeavour in requital of these and many other Royal favours was the entering in conspiracy with certain his Confederates (whom I forbear to name) to transform the Kingdom of Scotland into a Free State like the Estates of Holland, and because some truly noble Lords did abhor such a disloyal motion (after so many Acts of favour, witnessing to all Posterity his Royal bounty both to Church and State, whereof these chief Conspirators tasted not a little) he did at that time forbear not so much to prosecute his design, as to conceal their Counsel from all these that had thoughts of Loyalty, though most faithful to the true Religion and their Country, according to the Covenant. The Irish Rebellion breaking out, fearing his own stake if Antrim should grow strong, he procured one Regiment for himself, another for his Cousin lawyers, a third with the place of L. General for that most ungrate Gentleman the Earl of Lothian (who was married to his Niece and one of his Confidents, who was once heard say, That the 3 Kingdoms would never have peace so long as King CHARLES his Head was on his shoulders: and yet it is only King CHARLES his favour that hath made him and his Father exceed the estate of Gentlemen) with many other places to divers of their friends, intending a full Conquest of Ireland (at least) to banish Antrim and the Mackdonalds from thence, as he and his Predecessors had done many of them out of Scotland, taking a gift from the Parliament of England of some of the Earl of Antrims Lands in Ireland, especially the Island of Rachera; to the which, one of the forementioned Regiments was sent, and kept there a long time, so that all the three Kingdoms must be at the charge to maintain Armies and Garrisons for enlarging the Dominions of Argile. His next project, having begun his Confederacy in England, by showing them the ways to get money by Taxes and Excise, 10. and 20. part, bringing in of Plate, voluntary Contributions, borrowing on the Public Faith, tyrannising over the Persons and Estates of all that durst be so bold as speak against the Illegal Orders, and all this Money in both Kingdoms to be employed against His Majesty, whom their renewed Covenant did oblige them to defend, having good opportunity to traffic betwixt under the pretence of Commissioners for the Kingdom of Scotland, the rest for the most part either his Creatures or Confidents; so that he ruled all the Council at home and abroad, sending Lothian to France to have them brought in a Confederacy, abusing his Majesty by procuring His Commission for Treating concerning the keeping and preservation of that ancient League betwixt France and Scotland (begun in Charles the Great's time, with Achaius' King of Scotland) but the effect of the Treaty was to bring money to Argile, who, at that time when the Kingdom stood in much need of men, sold five thousand to the French to be under his Brother, (from whom he had, as formerly the Estate, so now the Title of Kintyre, and he must be Earl of Irwin, all the Interest he had there being by his quondam Tutor (now Slave) Barcley, his being sometime Provost thereof) and the Chancellor's Brother Lundie sur France and Irwin had bad penny worths, although Argile made a good market for the Men, like Money trusted in a Jugglers hand, were gone with a puff: thus you see how much both KING and Kingdom were obliged to him in this particular. But to come to the main point of the Conspiracy, finding Scotland (although he had all the power of the Persons and Estates in his hand) not pliable as yet to cast off Monarchy, and embrace Aristocracy, of whom (as affairs stood) none could be the chief Ruler but himself, he did employ the Zealots of the Clergy to asperse those who did oppose him (especially some most faithful and religious Noble men) as if they were fallen from their first love, turn, enemies to the cause of Christ, had with Demas embraced this present world, and that Argile was the only man that stood in the gap; threatening out of their Pulpits all such as would think or speak evil of him; but when the State-juglers with their Clergy-Impostors, could neither shake the Loyalty of the one, who were really for the Covenant and Monarchical Government, nor plaster over the many fraudulent cheats of the Argathelian party, now become a most odious and heavy burden to the Kingdom, harased and ruined from the one end to the other by him and his Armies on the one part, and Montrosse and his Confederates on the other part, (Argile, of the two, being the Kingdoms most cruel Enemy) was simulat humiliation, having the Churchmen still his friends, did reconcile himself to the other noble and loyal Patriots, by suffering them to take some share of the Government, that the (by him) disjointed State might by them be set in a right frame again, with a resolution, when all things were right, to usurp his wont Authority, and follow his old trade of Dethroning His Majesty, and cantonizing the Kingdom; but things falling out so, that one day at Nazeby, quelling the KING'S party in England; and one day at Philipshaugh, almost quieting Scotland; finding the Presbyterians in England inclinable to peace, and desirous of his Majesty's re-establishment according to the Covenant, he leaves them, and joins Counsel with Say, Perpoint, Cromwell, and others of the Independent Junto, doing them that Masterpiece of good service, First, under colour of Loyalty and friendship to prevail with His Majesty to return to the Scots Army then at Newark, Cromwell contributing a Pass to Hudson and Ashburnham with a slack Guard, that His Majesty might the more freely escape. Secondly, after many learned and loyal Speeches for Monarchy, the Kingdom of Scotland's interest in the person of the KING, and many Vows and Protestations both in private and public, not to abandon His Majesty without his own consent, contrary to all which, he and his Party did overthrow the Loyalty of That once famous Gentleman, Lieuten. General David Leslie (who had deeply sworn, and engaged himself to His Majesty, to convoy him safely into Scotland, or then to see His Majesty peaceably settled in his Throne in England) forcing him, and he persuading and prevailing with the Soldiers to march away, leaving his Majesty behind little better than (but now an assured) Prisoner, and the whole power of the Sword in the hands of the Independents and Sectaries, to the ruin and overthrow of their Presbyterian friends in the City and Parliament, as the History of Independency doth Witness, encouraging the Independent Party (by their Letters) to proceed in their dethroning Votes, and accusation of his Majesty, assuring them that no party from Scotland shall be able to hinder them in their proceed; but finding the body of the Parliament, and the Kingdom of Scotland to be sensible of the ruin of Religion and Monarchical Government if the Sectaries prevail, and their resolution to adhere to their Covenant, and re-establishing his Majesty, being in fear their party shall not be able any longer to delude the Kingdom, or hinder the Army designed to come in for the vindication of the many breaches of the Solemn League and Covenant, and the several Treaties betwixt the Kingdoms, they have solicited the Armies of Sectaries to come to their assistance, some of their Ministers professing in their Letters They have no hope of safety, unless it be by means of this (rebellious) Army now in England, thereby endeavouring to make Scotland the seat of War.  
And if these troubles in Wales, and cutting Petitions from Essex, Kent, Surry, and Sussex, had not hindered them, their resolution was to have sent Cromwell thither, it being debated before he went to Wales, which of the two he should take in hand; but the constant assurance they had from Argile, and those accursed Clergymen that were bribed by Stephen Marshal, That there was no fear of danger from Scotland in haste, made them hasten to finish the enslaving of England and Wales, and then they resolve to conquer Scotland; which they conceive may be quickly done, having Argile and his Faction so firm to them, that although he would, neither he nor his Partners dare revolt from them, having received so much of their money, lest they should reveal more than he desires should be known; and as the Independents sent their Emissaries through all Counties and Corporations to get hands to Petitions for thanks to the House for their dethroning Votes, so Argile and Marshal's Hirelings have been very active to get hands to Petitions in many Shires, Corporations, and Provincial Assemblies, for hindering the engagement against the rebellious Army of Sectaries, and the Independent Junto their Confederates: whereas there is no intention against the Parliament, or Body of England; but to comply with all religious honest hearted and loyal Subjects, who desire that His Majesty may be enlarged and brought to a Personal Treaty, whereby Peace and Truth may be settled in the three Kingdoms; their chief pretences being, that Religion is not secured: the Religion now established in Scotland was by Act of Parliament (His Majesty present) so well secured as the most religious Churchmen, and most skilful Lawyers could devise; if you have got New Lights, and desire any other Religion to be established, vindicate His Majesty's Honour, and put up your Petitions to Him in an orderly way, and He may possibly vindicate you from the Yoke of Slavery which some of your tyrannising Clergy desire to put upon you; The next is a wonderful increase of your fears by the great Trusts put upon such persons, of whom you have just cause of jealousy to this Kingdom, and the Cause of God; though you do not speak plain, your Pamphleteers do, and your Pulpit Incendiaries to some purpose; you mean Duke Hamilton now General of the Forces, des gned by the Kingdom and Parliament of Scotland for vindicating the Honour of the Nation, and revenging His Majesty's Captivity upon that perfidious rebellious Army of Sectaries, and their adherents: what he did before the subscribing of the Covenant ought not to be objected, (his moderation even then deserving the honour and love of his Country) and since his subscribing, malice itself cannot tax him that he hath done any thing contrary to his Covenant or his Country; what Montrosse doth asperse him with, that he hindered his intended invasion of Scotland, and so consequently His Majesty's Service; none of those who stand for the Covenant who did think Montrosse an enemy to the Covenant, and to his Country, aught to object this to my Lord Duke, whose tender care of the safety and welfare of his Country may evidently appear even in the relation of one of his most deadly enemies; and whereas his good advice for moderation was misconstrued by Argile and his prevailing Faction on the one side, as if he had done things contrary to the Covenant; and by Montrosse and his Confederates at Court on the other side, as if he had connived or been accessary to those violent courses against his Majesty, which (God knows) he was not able at that time to hinder; his intentions being still for Peace, and such a Peace as might consist with the safety of Religion, and His Majesty's honour; whereof he was very hopeful, being confident of His Majesty's propenseness to Peace, and the interest he had in His Majesty's favour: but the watchful malice of his enemies, and the enemies of Peace, did cunningly prevent his going about so good a work, making him Prisoner without His Majesty's knowledge, hindering by all means a meeting betwixt them, knowing that his Majesty's justice, and the Duke's innocency, would quickly make their calumnies to vanish: what a sad imprisonment did he endure, much heightened by the then impossibility of clearing his innocency to his Sovereign (the loss of whose favour would be more bitter than a thousand deaths) and his real intentions for the good of his Country, for whose cause he hazarded and suffered so much misery and imprisonment? Yet this noble Duke's implacable and malicious enemies do further asperse him as a man of no Religion, a mere Politician, and one that seeketh the ruin of his Sovereign, by the aspiring to the Crown of Scotland: It would trouble the best Politicians, and the most Religious upon earth, in these distracting and distracted times, to distinguish rightly betwixt the duty we own to Religion, and the duty we own to our Prince, supposing them enemies; but the falsity of this supposition, (which hath misled many thousands, and been the ground of all our miseries) being evident to the Duke, who had the honour to be educated and intimate with his Majesty from his youth, knowing his Majesty to be a lover and honourer of the true Protestant Religion, a lover of justice and mercy, and a practiser of all Christian and moral virtues, and with a most munificent hand a royal Benefactor to himself and his Family. It may be asked, if it had been either piety or policy in the Duke to have kicked off so loving and so liberal a Lord and Master, (although he had not been his Sovereign) or to have engaged against his Country with any Party that for their own ends more than the good of their Sovereigns, were disturbers of all moderate Counsels, so long as he had any hopes of Peace; especially seeing so many sad precedents in both Kingdoms, where many powerful Subjects, lovers of the true Protestant Religion, not joining prudence with their loyalty and innocence, have crushed them under the Load, and nothing easeth His Majesty's burden, but rather increaseth the same; all their wealth and power being now made instrumental to enslave both KING and Kingdoms: the Duke's prudence having vindicated him from the ruin intended against him by his enemies, and reserved him (through God's blessing) to vindicate his Loyalty by re-enthroning his Majesty so soon as God hath enabled him with any power to do it. As for his Religion, it is known he is neither Popishly affected, nor a Sectary; but who hath ever been a professor of the true Protestant Religion, a lover and Patron of all Godly men and honest Ministers, even in the time of Episcopacy, when few or none but himself durst appear for them; if his judgement had not been overswayed in some Star-Chamber sentences before he had that wisdom and experience which he now hath, and long before he did take the Covenant; if he had been ambitious of popular applause, he had been more renowned for his Religion, than for his Princes royal bounty; but wishing rather to be religious, than seem so, his favours were given in secret to many godly Ministers, and his Majesty's honour and good chief aimed at in the bestowing of them: and that you may take a short view of his proceed, as you have done of Argiles, by comparing them, you will find who doth deserve the Title of the most Religious.  
Duke Hamilton suffered his worthy Mother to enjoy, besides her own Jointure, all his Estate, (whereby, indeed he lost nothing, she improving it much to his advantage) hath helped his Brother to a great estate, with Titles and Places of Honour and profit, suitable to his birth and worth; his Sisters, and now some of his Neices matched in the Noblest and best Families of the Kingdom.  
1. Whereas Argile did in his Father's life time bring him to a Pension, outed his Brother of his Estate, Kintyre, and ruined his Sisters by cheating them of their portions, and so enforcing them to go to Cloisters.  
The Duke had no quarrel with any save Montrosse; the ground you heard, for crossing his first intention for the Invasion of Scotland, to prevent the misery and bloodshed that he did foresee was like to follow.  
2. Argile, for private quarrels betwixt him and Montrosse, Culkettough, and the Athol men, the Earl of Airely, and other, hath drawn much misery and bloodshed upon the Kingdom, whom he enforced to espouse his quarrels.  
The Duke had no spoils nor gifts given him since ever he signed the Covenant (save the Title of DUKE) but hath been spoilt both himself and friends by those that followed Montrosse.  
3. Argile had enriched his Country with the spoils of the Kingdom, and himself with the great treasure bestowed on him both by Scotland and England, which is well secured without the reach of an Impeachment.  
The Duke stands firm to his Covenant for the established religion, loyal to his Prince for Monarchical Government, faithful to his Country against all foreign Invasion.  
4. Argile hath contrary to his Covenant, Duty and Allegiance, conspired to extirpate Monarchical Government, to introduce foreign forces of Sectaries, to the utter overthrow of the established Religion.  
The Duke acts nothing but according to the Laws established, according to the Covenant, and the duty of every good Subject.  
5. Argile hath overthrown all Laws, tyrannising over the Lives, Liberties, and Estates of the Subjects.  
Duke Hamilton hath been of that temper to mediate for a wel-grounded Peace, his Majesty's deliverance, and the Personal Treaty, being the only probable ways for settling the three Kingdoms, and settling the power where it ought to be for the Honour and safety both of King and Subjects.  
6. Argile opposeth all ways of the Peace, & settlement of the three Kingdoms, His Majesty's deliverance, and being brought to a Personal Treaty, lest the power should be taken out of his and his Confederates hands whereby they oppress and ruin both King and Subject.  
The Duke hath used, and is using all endeavours to Vindicate the oppressed Subjects in both Kingdoms, never changing Interests, being always faithful to all those to whom he did profess love and friendship.  
7. Lastly, Argile hath betrayed his old friends the Presbyterian party in both Kingdoms, especially the Presbyterians in the Parliament of England and City of London, not only suffering them to be made a prey to their enemies, but obstructing their relief.  
Let the impartial Reader now judge which of the two is most religious. As this opposition betwixt Duke Hamilton and Argile makes them both to appear what they are; so this following Parallel betwixt the Argathelian Faction and the Independent Junto will serve for an eyesalve to cure the eyesight of both Kingdoms, and let them see clearly how near they are to the brink of an intolerable and perpetual slavery.  
Argile and his Faction styled by the Independents, the Godly party in Scotland, the rest all Malignants.  
1. The Army of Sectaries in England (however formerly Preached and wrote against) now called by Argile's faction the hope of their safety.  
The like in England by the Army of Sectaries and Independent Junto, above twenty millions shared amongst them, whereof the Kingdom can never get account; all places of Honour and Trust of England still in the hands of those that are engaged for, and with the Army of Sectaries.  
2. The heavy Taxes imposed and continued upon Scotland by Argile and his Faction, and all the benefit thereof, and most part of the moneys got from England, shared amongst them, and no satisfactory account given to the Kingdom thereof.  
Cromwell and the army for the King in their first engagements; but having enslaved the City, enforced the Parliament to the dethroning Votes, and as not formerly acquainted therewith, gave thanks for them, and sent their Emissaries to some seduced Counties and Corporations to do the like.  
3. All places of Honour and trust usurped by Argathelians (till of late) and the Army modelled to maintnin their Interest.  
4. Argile formerly (yet but seemingly) for Monarchy, now really against it, and all that desire to assert it.  
Cromwell contributes a Pass to His Guides slacking the guards, as he did the second time, when he frighted him with a Plot from Hampton-Court to the Isle of Wight, where he remains close Prisoner.  
5. That Faction first betrays the King to come to the Scots Army, promising protection, and then most perfidiously delivered Him up to the mercy of His most cruel Enemies.  
The blood shed in England under colour of justice in cold blood, calls aloud for vengeance; and the  breaches of the Army of their promises to King, Parliament and Country, is too too evident.  
6. Argile and his Faction have been most cruel to those they call their Enemies, especially in cold blood; and perfidious to their friends, deserting and betraying them.  
What the insolent Army did, coming with Bays in their hats when they enslaved the Parliament, and riding in triumph through the City, by whose bounty they were made and maintained an Army, will to their perpetual infamy be registered to all posterity.  
7. Argile when he had done mischief, must have both thanks and reward; and like a Conqueror, march through the Kingdom in triumph: a thing never granted amongst the noble Romans to triumph for a Victory in a Civil War.  
The Army, and some others by their instigation, petition that the Kingdom may be settled without the King, and that Army continued to enslave the Kingdom, especially the Presbyterian party, their Army being for Toleration.  
8. Argile's Faction petitions, That the Army intended for His Majesty's enlargement, and the relief of our Presbyterian Brethren shall not come in.  
Cromwell was ready to comply, but got some other work for the time; and if God prevent it not, will now speedily be able to obey Argile's desires; but if that fail, Argile shall have money, and send David Lesley to levy Forces abroad to work Argile's ends.  
9 Argile and his Faction desires but five thousand Horse to assist them to subdue Scotland, which must be turned a Province to the Kingdom of the Saints.  
Let this serve for a Caveat to the misled and deluded Protestants of the three Kingdoms not to trust the fair promises or pretences of these seeming Saints, who have made the solemn League and Covenant, (intended for preservation of Religion, His Majesty's Honour, and the just Liberties of the Subject) to be the ruin of Religion, the dishonour (so far as in them lieth) of His Majesty and the most absolute enslaving of all free Subjects, not to Kings or Princes, to Great men or Good men, but to the very scum and offscouring of both Kingdoms; it being no● small grief to all that truly feared God, that so many of the reputed honest Presbyterian party should (out of base fear, or other by-respects) comply so long with these Stare-Juglers, the Clergy being most active, hastening thereby their own and the Kingdom's misery; for they may be well assured, if these Saints prevail, they must (as some of them have done already) turn their Coats once more, and become the Hirelings, and tonguetied Tenants at will to their Brethren of the Independency, or be kicked out of their fat Benefices, and possibly out of the Kingdom to prevent new Insurrections against them, which they are cunning to procure, having the power in their hand to repress all that dare appear against them may be ruined, others by their example terrified, and their Saints may enjoy the fatness of England; but I would ask these violent Clergymen of the Presbyterian Party that are unwilling His Majesty should be brought speedily to a Personal Treaty, what their Assemblies of Divines have been doing? for if that Confession of Faith set out in England, approved of in Scotland, be agreeable to the truth of God's word (as I know nothing to the contrary) why should the chief Magistrate our dread Sovereign be any longer debarred of his just deuce? is He worse than Infidel, that you will assist those that deny His sacred Majesty that which they allow to Infidel Magistrates? blush for shame, and repent in time, lest as they change their Votes every day, according as the tide of their power ebbs and flows; so they may soon force you to repeal that Article concerning the chief Magistrate, or (like the gloss of Orleans) put an exposition upon it which destroyeth the text. God send us peace and truth, and preserve His sacred Majesty, and his Posterity, and confound the wicked counsels of all such as are enemies to Peace, Truth, and Monarchy.  
— Si quid novistirectius istis,  
Candidus imperti; Si non, his utere mecum.   
THE END.  

ANARCHIA ANGLICANA OR, THE HISTORY OF Independency.  
THE SECOND PART.  
BEING A Continuation of Relations and Observations Historical and Politic upon this present PARLIAMENT, Begun Anno 16. CAROLI PRIMI.  
By THEODORUS VERAX.  PSAL. 8.8. 
Virum sanguinum & dolosum abominabitur Dominus.  
Printed in the Year, M.DC.XL, IX.   

THE PROTESTATION AND DECLARATION.  
THe premises considered, I do hereby in the name and behalf of myself, and of all the Free People of England, Declare and protest, That the General, Council of War, and officers of the Army, by their said violent and treasonable force upon the fare major, more honest and moderate part of the House of Commons (being above 250.) and leaving only 50. or 60. Schismatics of their own engaged party, sitting and voting under their Command, and almost all of them such as have and do make a prey of the Commonwealth, to enrich themselves and their Faction; have broken, discontinued, and waged War against this Parliament, & have forfeited their Commissions. And the remaining Faction in the House of Commons, by abetting▪ aiding and concurring with the said Council of War, in the said rebellious Force; & by setting up new, illegal, and arbitrary Courts of Judicature to murder King Charles the First, our Lawful King, and Governor, (who by his Writ according to the Law) summoned and authorized this Parliament to meet, sit, 
Principium, Caput & finis Parliamenti. Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy.  and Advise with Him, and was the Fountain Head and Conclusion, or consummatory End of the Parliament, and Supreme Governor over all Persons, and in all Causes of this Kingdom) and by Abolishing the House of Peers, and the Kingly Office, and disinheriting the King's Children, and Usurping to themselves the Supreme Authority and Legislative Power of this Nation in order to make and establish themselves a Council of State, Hogen mogen's, or Lords States General, and translate the said Supreme Power and Authority into the said Council of State and then Dissolve this Parliament and perpetuate their said Tyranny and this Army, and Govern Arbitrarily by the power of the Sword; and raise what illegal Taxes they please, and eat out, consume and destroy whosoever will not basely submit to their Domination, 
See 1. part, sect. 105, 106. and the Conclusions; 15, 16, 17, 18. and return to sect 79, 109 110. Stat. of Recognition, 1. jac. Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy.  have by the aforesaid ways and means totally subverted this Kingdom, and destroyed the fundamental Laws, Authority and Government thereof, Dissolved and Abolished this and all future Parliaments, so that there is now no visible, lawful Authority left in England, but the Authority of King CHARLES the Second, who is actually KING of all his Dominions presently upon the Decease of the King his Father, before any Proclamation made, or Coronation solemnised, notwithstanding that by his unjust Banishment (caused by the interposition of the said traitorous, combined, Antimonarchical Faction) He be eclipsed for the present, and not suffered to perform any Acts of Government to his three Kingdoms, and restore peace, plenty, justice, mercy, Religion, Laws, and Liberties, to them again, which no Hand but his own can bestow; and therefore in vain do the people long for & expect Figs from thistles, Grapes from thorns: This Kingdom of the Brambles now set up, being only able to Scratch and Tear, not to Protect and Govern them. I farther Declare and Protest, That this combined traitorous Faction, have forced an Interregnum and a Justitium upon us, an utter suspension of all lawful Government, Magistracy, Laws and Judicatories: so that we have not the jure, any Laws in force to be executed, any Magistrates or Judges lawfully constituted to execute them: any Court of Justice wherein they can be judicially executed; any such Instrument of the Law as a lawful Great Seal, nor any Authority in England that can lawfully Condemn and Execute a Thief, Murderer, or other Offender, without being themselves called Murderers by the Law, all legal proceed being now coram non Judice; nor can this remaining Faction in the House of Commons show any one Precedent, Law, Reason or Authority whatsoever for their aforesaid doing, but only their own irrational tyrannical Votes, and the Swords of their Army, Wherefore I do further Declare and Protest before God and the World, That all freeborn subjects of the Kingdom of England and Ireland, are bound by the Stat. of Recognition, 1. Jac. and by all our Laws and Statutes, By their Oaths of Allegiance, Obedience and Supremacy the Protestation and National Covenant, by very many Declarations, Remonstrances, Petitions, and Votes of this Parliament; and all Soldiers are engaged also by their own Declarations, Remonstrances, and Proposals, to defend, assert, and vindicate, with their Lives and Fortunes, the Person, Authority, & Title of our aforesaid Lawful KING and Suprem Governor (the undoubtful Heir of all his late Father's Dominions) CHARLES the Second, by the Grace of God, King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, etc. against all opposites and pretended Authorities whatsoever, unless they will be guilty of the foulest sins of Treason, Rebellion, Perjury, and Perfidiousness against their God, their King and Country; and of prostituting the Religion, Laws and Liberties of the Land, their Wives, Children and Estates, to the lusts of an Armed Faction, usurping a fare more Arbitrary and Tyrannical Power over our Consciences, Persons, Liberties and Estates, than ever was known in England before, or then is now used by the Ruff, Turk or Tartar, or any the most enslaving and lawless Tyrants under Heaven.   

An Exhortatory CONCLUSION to the English NATION.  

Compare the Date of the K. Commissions with those of the Parliament and their Declarations on both sides.  TO conclude the series of Affairs and Action on both Parties (especially of late) rightly compared, it appeareth by the sequel, That KING CHARLES the First, from the beginning took up Defensive Arms, to maintain Religion, Laws, Liberties, and the Ancient fundamental Being of Parliaments, and this Kingdom: and that there always was, and now especially is, a predominant Faction in Parliament, (notwithstanding their frequent Declarations, Remonstrances, Petitions, Protestations, Covenant, and Votes to the contrary) conspiring with a Party (especially of Commissioned Officers of the Army) without the Houses, to change the Fundamental Laws and Government of the Church and Commonwealth, to usurp into a few hands the Supreme Authority, to enslave the People with an Oligarchical, Military, and Arb trary Government, to raise what illegal Taxes they please, to establish their Tyranny, and enrich themselves and their Party, to oppress, consume and devour all Men of a judgement contrary to their Interest: to Murder them by new declared arbitrary Treasons, contrary to the Stat. 25. Edw. 3. for ascertaining Treasons: to Disfranchise them of their birthrights, and make them Adscriptios Glebae, Villains Regardante to their own Lands, which the Nobility, Gentry, and Yeomanry plough, sow, and reap, whilst Brewers, Dray-men, and Cobblers eat, drink, and play upon the sweat of their Labours; and are the Usufructuaries of their Estates. All which they have lately brought to pass, wherefore let all true Engl shmen (as becomes good Christians, good Patriots, and gallant Men) claim their Birthrights; and with one voice cry out,  
1. We will not Change our Ancient, settled, and well-approved Laws to which we are sworn.  
2. We will not Change our Ancient and well-tempered Monarchy to which we are sworn.  
3. We will not change our old Religion for New Lights and Inventions.  
4. We will not subject ourselves to an eighth part of one Estate or House of Parliament; sitting under a force, and having expelled two hundred and fifty of their Fellows (more Righteous than themselves) by force, and usurping to themselves the Supreme Authority.  
5. We will not be subjected to a new Supreme Authority usurped by forty ambitious, covetous Tyrants, arrogating to themselves to be a Council of State, and designed to supply the room of Parliaments, under what name or title soever they shall mask themselves.  
6. We will not submit ourselves to a Military Government, or Council of Officers.  
7. We must and will have A KING, 
See the Star. of Recognition, 1. jac. and the Oaths of Allegiance, Obedience, and Supremacy.  and The KING whom the Laws of God and this Land have designed to us, we being by the Oaths of Allegiance, Obedience, and Supremacy sworn to bear faith and true Allegiance to KING CHARLES the First, his lawful Heirs and Successors.  Hic telum infigam, moriarque in vulnere—  

Postscript.  
REader, at the latter end of my First part of The History of Independency, I have presented to thy consideration some General Conclusions arising out of the Premises: the same Conclusions does naturally arise out of the Premises of this Second Part of the History, and do as aptly serve to illustrate this Second, as that First part; wherefore to that First Part I send thee for opening thy understanding.  
When our old Laws run again into their Ancient Channel, and the Sword of Murder is sheathed, and the Sword of Justice drawn, the Author engageth to publish his Name and Apology, and show what he hath done and suffered for the Parliament and Kingdom.  
THE END.   

TO THE READER.  
READER,  
having spoken to thee in the First Part, I might have forborn thee in this Second, did I not fear to seem guilty of the sullenness and malignity of these times. The subject-matter of my Book is a Combination or Faction of Pseudo-politicians, and Pseudo-Theologicians, Heretics, and Schismatics, both in Divinity and Policy; who, having sacrificed to their Fancies, Lusts, Ambition, and Avarice, both their God and Religion, their King and Country, our Laws, Liberties and Properties, all duties Divine and Humane, are grown so far in love with their prosperous Sins, as to entitle God himself to be Father and Author of them: from whose written Word and revealed Will held forth to us in the Scriptures as the only North Pole and Cynosure of our Actions (where they find no warrant for their doing) they appeal to the secret Will and Providence of God, to which they most Turkishly and Heathenishly ascribe all their enormities, only because they succeed: and from that Abyss of God's Providence, draw secondary principles of Necessity and Honest Intentions; to build the Babel of their confused Designs and Actions upon; not considering that wicked Men perform the secret Will a God to their Damnition; as good Men do the known Will of their Father to their Salvation; If a Man lie sick to death, and his Son wish him dead, this is Sin in the Son, although his desire concur with the Secret Will of God, because the Son ought to desire the preservation of his Father's life; whereto the Will of God revealed in his Word obligeth. him: and, vivendum secundùm Praecepta, non secundùm Decreta Dei; The secret Will and Providence of God can be no rule and law of our Actions, because we know it not, nor can search into it without presumption: We must not therefore, altum sapere, think ourselves too wise and well-gifted to tie ourselves to the Scripture of God; and lust after Revelations and Inspirations; expecting God should rain Bread from Heaven for us, (Manna, Exod 16.4.) but be wise unto Sobriety. But, prosperum scelus, virtus vocatur: Thus casting off the written Word of God (unless where by an enforced Interpretation they can squeeze Atheism and Blasphemy out of it (as they do sometimes rack Treason, Murder, and Nonsense out of our Laws and Parliament-Priviledges) conducible to their ends they insensibly cast off God himself, and make themselves both the supreme cause and final end, the Alpha and Omega of all their do, whilst they use the hidden and unsearchable Providence of God, but as a Disguise and Vizard to mask under, like Caelius the Atheist in Martial. Prosperity is become a snare to them, and a Topick place out of which they draw Arguments to satisfy themselves there is no God, no Religion, but a prudential one to fool the people with. 
Nullos esse Deos, inane Coelum,  
Affirmat Caelius, probatque,  
Quòd se videt, dum negat haec, beatum.   
But O wretched unholied men! What are they that thus commit Burglary in the Sanctum Sanctorum of God's Providence? That presume not only to pry into, but to thrust their hands polluted with blood and rapine into God's mysterious Ark? Thus much for the subject-matter. For the manner of my writing, I confess, as to the Style, it is not aequabile scribendi Genus, all of one weaving and contexture: It is a History writ with a Satyrique style and vein: 
— Nam quis iniqui;  
Tam patiens orbis, tam ferreus ut teneat se?  It is a virtue to hate and prosecute vice. The Scripture tells us, there is a perfect hatred, a Holy Anger. And our Chaucer tells us, The werds must be of kin unto the deeds: otherwise, how can they be expressive enough? I detest vitia pulcherrimè mangonizata vice tricked up in virtues raiment; and prostituted under her modest dress to stir up Adulteries. Quicquid agunt homines nostri est farrago libelli. An huge Gallimaufry, an Oglio of all villainies I here set before thee: it cannot be all of one dressing and seasoning, it must be a mixture, a Hogo of all Relishes: like Manna in the Wilderness, it must be applicable to all palates: wherefore according to the variety of every present subject-matter, vel ridenti rideo, vel flenti fleo, I become all things to all Men, I assimilate my affections and humours to every Man's humour as well as to the present Theme; that I may take every Man by the right hand, and lead him out of this Ur of the Chaldeans, this Land of Egypt, this House of Bondage in judgement and conscience, though not in person and estate: which must only be the mighty handiwork of that God who is able to divide the Red Sea, and give us a safe march through it upon dry Land.  
Which that he would vouchsafe to do let us all join our hearty prayers, and that we may instrumentally serve him in it, let us all join our heads, hearts and hands together, since God neglects faint-hearted and cowardly prayers: Let us not lie in the Ditch, and cry, God help us, But let us help God to help us: and keep cor unum, viam unam, in the doing of it.   

The Ordinance passed, 20. Aug. 1647. To thursdays and void all Acts, etc. passed under the force of the Apprentices. Die Veneris 20. Aug. 1647. An Ordinance for Declaring all Votes, Orders, and Ordinances passed in one or both Houses, since the Force on both Houses, July ●6. until the 6. of this present August 1647. to be null and void.  
Whereas there was a visible, horrid, insolent, and actual force upon the Houses of Parliament, on Monday 26. July last; whereupon the Speakers, and many Members of both Houses of Parliament, were forced to absent themselves from the service of the Parliament: and whereas those Members of the House could not return to sit in safety before Friday, the 6. August. It is therefore Declared by the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled, that the Ordinance of Monday 26. July, for the Repealing and making void of the Ordinance of the 23. of the said July, for settling of the Militia of the City of London; being gained by force and violence; and all Votes, Orders, Ordinances, passed in either, or both Houses of Parliament, since the said Ordinance of the 26. of July, to the said 6. of August, are null and void, and were so at the making thereof, and are hereby Declared so to be, the Parliament being under a force, and not free: Provided always, and be it Ordered, That no Person or Persons shall be impeached, or punished for his or their Actions, by, or upon, or according to the aforesaid Votes, Orders, or Ordinances, unless he or they shall be found guilty of contriving, acting, or abetting the aforesaid visible and actual force; or being present at, or knowing of the said force, did afterwards act upon the Votes so forced, or were guilty of entering into, or promoting the late Engagement for bringing the KING to the City, upon the Terms and Conditions expressed in his Majesty's Letter of the 12. of May last.  
John Browne, Cler. Parl.   

THE SECOND PART OF The History of Independency.  
MY first Part of Relations and Observations Historical and Politic upon this present Parliament, 
1 The Proem.  begun Anno Dom. 1640. Anno Car. primi. 16. is divided into two Parts or Books [The Mystery of the two Juntoes, Presbyterian and Independent] wherein I show with what art (to advance their designs) the Grandees divided the Houses into the said two Factions; which Factions entertaining the Quarrel in earnest, their respective Grandees were forced to turn their jest into earnest too, for upholding their Authority, with their several Parties: not unlike Butchers, who, in a Country Market set their Dogs together by the ears in sport, and at last own their Dogs quarrel themselves in earnest. The second Book is [The History of Independency] wherein I show the Rise, Growth, and Fractises of that Party; which being full of schimatical quicksilver, restless and stirring, and tenable by no Oaths, Principles, Promises, Declarations, nor by any obligations or Laws, Divine or Humane, doth now enjoy the fruits of their perfidiousness and treachery, a Conquest gotten over their Adversaries by pretending, protesting, and false promising, which they attribute to the bounties and Mercies of God: and from the success of their villainies argue most Turkishly his blessings over them; and as Jewishly arrogate to themselves to be the peculiar People and Saints of God, although he useth them but as a Rod in his hand to scourge the sins of the other Party, and of the whole Kingdom. It is the usual method of God's justice not only to punish one sin by another, but one Sinner by another; nay, a lesser Sinner by a greater, and at last to receive the humble and corrected Sinner into Abraham's bosom, and cast the insulting Executioner of his wrath into the fiery furnace of his anger. In my aforesaid [History of Independency] you have that Faction conquering: In this Continuation or Supplement of the said History, I represent them to you triumphing, using and abusing their Victories to the dishonour of God, destruction of the King, beggering and enslaving of the Kingdom, depriving us of our Religion, Laws, Liberties, and Estates, and consequently, making our Wives and Children the objects of our fear, despair, and ill boding doubts, not the objects of any comfort and joy we can take in them, whose miseries we foresee, but cannot help. When I consider the intricacy of this my undertaking, how perplexed it is, how entangled with various change, counterchanging, revolutions, revoltings, and betrayings of Parties (such are all Civil Wars, but especially those where the most uncivil and barbarous sort of men, the dregs and lees of the People swim a top) how full of divisions, and subdivisions; insomuch that they who are Friends, and hold together in one Interest or Faction, are Opposites in another. Methinks my labour is as vain as his that attempted to take the Picture of Proteus; or his, that endeavoured to shape a Garment for the Moon: When God brought a confusion but of Lips and Tongues upon Babel, what man was able to reduce them into order again? But God hath brought upon us a Confusion, a Babel, not only of Lips and Tongues, but of Heads, Hearts, Hands, etc. What Historian can find a method in so universal a Chaos? can draw light out of so palpable a darkness? Besides, I foresee my reward to be envy, hatred, malice, contempt, slanders, sequestration, beggary, imprisonment, and at last an Arbitrary death without any legal trial, proceed, Jury, Judges, or Court, or any known established Law to judge by, Obsequium amicos veritas odium parit. I have already followed truth so near at the heels (although but a private retainer to her) that almost all my teeth are secretly stricken out▪ what dare they not now do openly against me? since by murdering our King, disinheriting his Posterity, subverting Monarchical Government, abolishing the House of Lords, and perverting the House of Commons, setting up new Representatives, with Supreme and Legislative Power, and new Courts and Jurisdictions against all Laws, they Proclaim themselves Conquerors of King, Parliament, and Kingdom, Victors of our Religion, Laws, Liberties, and Properties, and Triumphers over our Persons, Wives, Children, and Estates? since they profess their will and power, to be the only Laws and Rules of their do, and our sufferings. But when I consider, that as no man's inncency, so no man's reservedness can protect him; but that some men must die (according to Catiline's rule) to make up the number, others to multiply confiscations, others to satisfy private suspicions, malice, and revenge, and they must die to cement and foment this new erected Tyranny with their blood, I thought it as easy and more honourable to die waking and working for my God, my King, and Country, than to die sleeping, and have my throat cut in a Lethargy. I know these Schismatics thirst as much after blood, as they hunger after money: and I am sure to be involved in the common and inevitable ruin of my Country, why should I not rather perish for it now, then with it hereafter? It is more manly, more noble, more Christian; Dulce & decorum est pro patria mori, was the saying of an Heathen, why not of a Christian? Religion, Laws, and Liberties, lie now at stake, why should not I come in for a Gamester? It is a mixed cause, and he that dies for it is a Martyr. He that fears Death, must be a slave to those Tyrants that carry the Sword; he that fears Poverty, must be a Villain to those Judasses' that bear the Purse; but he that fears God, will borrow strength from him to contemn them both: Thus putting my trust in God, I put Pen to Paper, and put my life into the scales, where God (I know) holds the balance; he whose providence takes notice of a Sparrow falling from the housetop, will watch over me, and either protect me against them, or receive me from them. 
2 An Introductory Repetition. See my 1 Part of the History of Independency, sect. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13 & 14.   
Cromwell, and Ireton (by advice of their thriving Junto of Independents in the two Houses) having mutinied the Army against their Masters the Parliament, found that crime could not be defended but by committing greater; wherefore they seized the King's person at Holdenby to gain Authority with the People, that they might the better subdue the Parliament to their lusts: for the better expediting whereof, 
Sect. 18, 119.  they courted the City of London to sit Neuters, and let them work their wills with the Parliament; which Mine not taking fire, they united the schismatical party of the City and Country to them, and all such as being guilty of public cheats and sp●●ls, desired the protection of the Sword to make good their rapines, and accounted all men else as Enemies; applying themselves to woo and cajole the People, easily wrought upon as being weary of the War, and of the misgovernment, Factions, confusions and oppressions of their new Masters the Parliament, which indeed were very great, but aggravated by them and their Agitators beyond the truth: and the whole weight of them charged upon the more moderate and innocent party (only because they were their Opposites) whereas had they set the saddle upon the right horse, as sure as Judas bore the Bag, the Independents must have rid before the Cloak-bag; they being the Publicans and Sinners that handled most public treasure. The Layers on, Exactors, Treasurers, etc. of Taxes, the far more numerous and busy party in all Mony-Committees, and gainful employments, Engrossers of all great Offices, and the greatest sharers of public money amongst themselves for Compensations for Losses and Rewards for Services pretended; and consequently, that Faction were the greatest Dilapidators of the Commonwealth, Oppressors of the People, and Authors of confusion, though (according to custom) by an impudent fallacy, called (Translatio criminis) the Independent Faction lay their Bastards at other men's doors, making a show to redress those faults in other men, which themselves are chief guilty of; wherefore the better to ingratiate themselves with King and People, they printed and published Engagements, Declarations, Remonstrances, Manifestoes, Proposals, and Petitions of their own penning, and sent them by their Agitators and sectary Priests into all Counties for concurrence and Subscriptions, the better to steal the respects of the People from the Parliament to themselves, like Absolom, they flattered the People to make Addresses and Complaints against public Grievances to them only; Boasting themselves for the sole Arbitrators of Peace, Restorers of Laws, Liberty, and Property; Setlers of Religion, Maintainers of the Privileges of Parliament, Reformers and Callers to Account of all Committees, Sequestrators, Treasurers, etc. Deliverers of the People from that intolerable Excise, and other Taxes: But above all, Preservers of all just Interests, and Restorers of the King to his just Rights and Prerogatives with honour, freedom, and safety to his Person, (originally their own words, 

Book of Declarations of the Army, pag. 112.  
Represent. of the Army at S. Albon, June 23. 1647.  
B Decl. again, p 64.  
Sir Tho. Fairfaxs Letter to the Houses from Reading, July 6. 1647. B. Decl. again, p. 75.  
Proposals of the Army, Aug. 1. 1647. Putney Projects, p. 13, 14, 43. and my Animadversions upon the Army's Remonstrance, delivered to the Commons, Novemb. 20. 1648.  
The second part of England's New Chains; and the Hunting the Foxes from Newmarket and Triplo heath to Whitehall by five small Beagles, p. 6, 7.  
See my Animadversions upon the Army Remonstrance, Nou. 20. 1648. and Putney Projects, p. 43. and Major Huntington's Relation in a Book called, A Plea for King and Kingdom, in Answer to the Army Remonst. presented Novemb. 20. 1648. pag. 14, 15, 16. and Second part of England's New Chains; and the said Hunting of the Foxes, &c, And the Reasons inducing Major Robert Huntingdon to lay down his Commission.   though since they Quarrel with Parliament and City for using them) and Reducers of his Queen and Children; without which they openly profess and declare positively in many printed Papers to the world and the Parliament, There can be no settled peace nor happiness to this Nation. The truth of this Assertion was obvious to the meanest Capacities; and will suddenly be proved by dear and lamentable experience. To all these undertake they now hunt directly counter, yet in pursuance of these undertake the Army (by their own Authority) made Addresses to his Majesty, and presented to him more tolerable Proposals than any he could obtain from his Parliament: They treated with him, yea, they wrought upon him underhand to neglect the Propositions from Parliament tendered to him at Hampton-Court, and to prefer the Proposals of the Army; and then (presuming they had him fast limed) they propounded to him anew (as I have it from good hands) private Proposals from the Interest of the Independent Grandees and the Army, derogatory to the Kingly Power and Dignity, to the Laws, Liberties and Properties of the Subject, and destructive to Religion. To which his Majesty giving an utter denial, they began to entertain new Designs against the King's Person, and Kingly Government, which they ushered in by setting the Schismatical and Levelling Party on work in City and most Counties, to obtrude upon the Houses clamourous Petitions against further Treaties, and demanding exemplary Justice against the King: exceedingly laboured by Cromwell himself in Yorkshire both amongst the Gentry and Soldiers, etc. (amongst these the Petition, D●cemb. 11. 1648. was the most eminent) these men that insolently petitioned against the fundamental Government of the Land, and peace by Accommodation, were entertained with Thanks; Others that petitioned for Peace by Accommodation were entertained with Frowns, disfranchising, sequestrations, wounds and death, as the Surrey Gentlemen! this showed with how little reality the overruling party in the Houses Treated with the King. 
2. part of England's Chains discovered. 1. ●reaty in the Isle of Wight.  In order to this Design of laying aside the King, and subverting Monarchy, They 1. frighted his Majesty into the Isle of Wight. 2. The Parliament (that is, the predominant Party) pursued him thither with offer of a Treaty upon Propositions: conditionally (that before he should be admitted to Treat) he pass 4. Dethroning Bills; of so high a nature, that he had enslaved the People, subverted Parliaments, and had made himself but the Statue of a King and no good Christian, had he by his Royal assent passed them into Acts of Parliament; 
1. par. Hist. In●. sect. 62, 63, 64.  and the Parliament (or rather the Grandees) after his Royal assent, might have made themselves Masters of all the other Propositions without his Consent: so that this Treaty was but a flourish to dazzle the eyes of the world. His Majesty therefore denied the 4. said Bills, and thereby preserved the legal Interests of King, Parliament, and People; yet the Faction presently took a pretence and occasion thereupon to lay aside the King, 
Ibidem, sect. 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71. 72, 74. 75. And my said Animadvers p. 10. And the 2 part of England's new Ch.  by passing 4. Votes for no more Addresses to him; and a Declaration against him: which were not passed without many threats, and more show of force than stood with the nature of a Free Parliament, the Army lying near the Town to back their Party: the design having been laid beforehand between Sir Henry Vane Junior, Sir John Evelyn of Wilts, Nath. Fiennes, Solicitor Saint john's, and a select Committee of the Army. I told you before, the People had been throughly instructed formerly by the Army and their Agitators, That there could be no peace nor happiness in England, 
2 part of England's new Ch. discovered, p. 4, 5.  without restoring the King to his just Rights and Prerogatives, etc. notwithstanding which the people now found their hopes that way deluded by the Army and their Party; who had cast off the King upon private discontents, the true grounds whereof did not appear; and had obstructed all way s to Peace and Accommodation, and made them dangerous and destructive to such as traveled peaceably in them, witness the sad example of the Surrey-men, Kent, Essex; and all to perpetuate their great Places of power and profit. The minds of the people therefore troubled with apprehension that our old Laws and laudable form of Government should be subverted, and new obtruded by the power of the Sword, suitable to the power and lust of these ambitious, covetous men; and finding besides evident symptoms of a new War approaching to consume that small Remainder, which the last Wars had left, grew so impotient of what they feared for the future, and felt at present (insupportable Taxes, Freequarter, insolency of Soldiers, Martial Law, Arbitrary Government by Committees, and by Ordinances of Parliament changed and executed at the will and pleasure of this Grandees, instead of our settled and well approved Laws) that despair thrust them headlong into Arms in Wales, Kent, Essex, Pontefract, etc. and at the same time a cloud arising in Ireland, a storm poured in from Scotland, and the Prince threatening a tempest from Sea; these concurrences looked so black upon the Independent Grandees, that they gave way to a second mock-Treaty in the Isle of Wight; 
2. Treaty in the Isle of Wight.  which was the fruit of their cowardice and subtlety; as appears by Sergeant Nicholas (a Creature of theirs) who (upon Saturday, Octob. 28. 1648.) moved in the House, That the Lord Goring might be proceeded against as a new Delinquent out of mercy, because he had Cudgeled them into a Treaty; though now they attribute all to the King's corrupt Party in the two Houses: the Army likewise kept a mock-Fast or day of Humiliation at Windsor, to acknowledge their sins, and implore God's mercy for their former disobedience to the Parliament in not Disbanding, and their insolent Rebellion in Marching up in a Hostile and Triumphant posture against the Parliament and City, August 6. 1647. promising more obedience hereafter, and to acquiesce in the judgement of the Parliament, and Declared, 
Decl. Jun. 14. 1647.  That it was proper for them to act in their own sphere as Soldiers, and leave State affairs to the Parliament: but this was done but to recover the good opinion of the people and City, and to keep them from stirring, and to stay the moderate Party of the two Houses from Declaring the Army Enemies, recalling and Voting their Commissions, and established Pay void, which they might have done with ruin to the Army and their Party in that Conjuncture of Affairs, and with safety to themselves, and applause of all honest men of England that had taken part with the Parliament from the beginning; had not some Grandees of the rigid Presbyterian party (both within and without the Houses) some cursed thing, some Achans wedge in their bosoms which suggested, Their sins were greater than could be forgiven; and therefore they durst not cast down the partition-wall between them and the King (this Army) though it lean so hard upon them, it is ready to overwhelm them: War is necessary for some men of every Faction, whose crying sins peace will lay open and naked to the scorn, derision, and detestation of the world. How well these sanctimonious Sword-players of the Army have observed the Duties and Undertake of their said Humiliation, let the world judge: Have they not returned again with the Dog to the Vomit? have they not cozened God, and their own Souls? Sure they fasted from sin then, that they might sin with the more greedy appetite now; and asked God forgiveness of the old score, that they might sin again upon a new score. Thus you see the two Treaties in the Isle of Wight were begotten by fear and (that Idol of the Independents to which they offer up all their knaveries) necessity. They were Cockatrice Eggs laid by their Grandees when they had been Crow-trodden by Armies from abroad, and Tumults at home; 
See my 1. part sect. 65, 66, 105, 106, 107, and the Conclusions there. Sect. 16, 17, 18.  upon which they s●te abrood only to hatch Scandals and new quarrels against the King, Anarchy and confusion to the State, and Tyranny and oppression of the People: to set up the Olygarchy of the Saints, or Council of State, the Kingdom of the Brambles, which since doth scratch the wool from off the skin, the skin from off the flesh, and the flesh from off the bones. I have been compelled to use some introductory Repetitions in this part of my discourse, that I may give you the whole mystery of the 2. Treaties with the King in the Isle of Wight, with the causes efficient, and final of them, under one view; lest some one link of the Chain escaping your observation, it become a Chain of errors to you.  
My first part of the History of Independency ends with that which was but an unlucky preface to a Treaty with the King; 
3. Hamilton overthrown. See my 1. part. sect. 136.  namely, Cromwel's menacing Letters to the Speaker of the House of Commons, dated August 20. 1648. Relating his easy purchase of a great Victory over Duke Hamilton, and Lieut. Gen. Bayly; wherein he relates the number of the Scotish Forces, fare differing from the former Report of Lieut. Col. Osborne a Scottish Gentleman, made in the House of Commons, July 20. 
Sect. 110, 111.  (whereof I have spoken in my first part) who (to take away the terror of them) estimated hamilton's and Langdales conjoined forces to be but 10000 and it was then thought a note of disaffection to report them any more; but this Letter (for the greater glory of his sanctified Army) multiplies them to be 21000. The manner of the Fight was very strange and Exceedingly to be suspected (especially by any man who hath heard or read of Bayly's former demeanour in his own Country at Kylsythe and Auforte Kirke) It was little better than a beating up of Quatters for 20. miles together (for so far the Scots Army lay scattered in their Quarters, the Horse so fare distant from their Foot, they could bring them no seasonable relief) Sir Marmaduke Langdale with his small Party drew forth, and made an honourable resistance, had he been timely and strongly seconded: on the Scotish Party the Fight began at Preston in Lancashire, where the Duke being worsted, retreated to Wigon, from thence to Warrington thorough Lanes and Fastnesses, where Bayly, Lieut. General of the Scotish Foot, being strongly quartered upon a Bridge and Pass, yielded up 6000. Foot and Arms without fight, and so ruined his whole Infantry: from Warrington the Duke fled with 4000 Horse to Namptwich, from thence to Vtoxeter, where his manner of yielding himself to Colonel wait (a Member of the House of Commons) take out of Waits own report in the House, who said, the Duke yielded simply; and without any Articles of Surrender; that he voluntarily gave him his Sword, Scarf, Signet of Arms, and his George; that he hung upon him so that he could not get from him, desiring him to secure him from the rage of the Soldiers; saying, He had not come into England, but that he was invited by a greater part of Lords, Commons, Citizens and Covenanters then called in the last Scotish Army: presently the Bloodhounds of the Faction in the House scented this, and called upon wait to know whether he named any? wait Answered that Hamilton was ● subtle, politic Lord, and no doubt (for the saving of his own life) would do that in more convenient time. Hereupon a Committee (all of Cannibal Saints) was presently packed, and ordered to go down and examine the Duke, but no particulars could they get from him: which was an honourable silence, and made amends for his former lavish speech. It was happy the Prince did not trust himself in the Head of this Army. Had Hamilton marched immediately to Colchester, or but to Pont●fract, (which he might easily have done, Lambert his only Opposite still retreating before him) the whole Country had risen with him. But he knew the Presbyterian party had rendered themselves contemptible, and he as much contemned the Independents, therefore he foreslowed his march, willing Cromwell and Fairfax should subdue all other Parties, and that he only might have Arms in his hands to bring in the King upon his own terms; this over-confidence undid him: He was too much a Statesman, and too little a Soldier.  

4. The insolency of the schismatical Members upon report of the Victory.  This Victory did work like Botled-Ale with Scot, Thomson, Cornelius Holland, Sir Henry Mildmay, and many others of the light headed Saints, who were so puffed up with the windiness of it, that they began to swell with disdain and malice against the Personal Treaty, and to threaten and insult over all that had either Petitioned for it from abroad, or spoke for it in the House, as the only means of peace and a settlement.  

5. The wiser sort subtly continue a mock-Treaty.  But the wiser sort (more crafty to do mischief) knowing that the people were weary of Taxes and the Army; and had no hopes of peace but by a Personal Treaty; and were resolved to purchase peace, although at the price of a new War, that Colchester, Pontefract, Scarborough, and a Castle or two in Kent were not yet reduced, the people in Wales, Kent, Essex, the North, not yet settled in such a calm, but that a new storm might arise: a considerable party of the Scots yet unbroken in England, and fronting Cromwell and Lambert, under the Command of Monroe, a daring, knowing, and uncorrupted Commander; Scotland itself not yet assured to them: and above all, the Prince of Wales with a strong Fleet at Sea, likely to raise new tempests at Land, had he landed some men ●n Kent or Essex, to gather up the malcontents there but newly sc●●tered and broken, and ready to adhere to any Party to defend themselves from the fury and rapines of their Committee; Warwick but a freshwater Admiral, lying in the Thames under Protection of the Blockhouses, and relying upon Land-souldiers, to awe the Mariners from mutinying; a cloud arising in Ireland ready to break into a storm: upon these considerations, the Cabal or close Junto of Grandees thought fit to dally on the Treaty, the better to keep the Prince quiet, in expectation thereof, and gain time to work upon his Seamen, (already corrupted with want of work and pay) and to gull and pacify the rest of the Members and People, (not patiented of a sharper remedy,) until Oliver had quite finished his Northern work, a●d marched nearer London, Colchester reduced, and the Prince's Fleet retired to Harbour to avoid Winter, and then to break off the Treaty, and purge the House of those Members that sought Peace by an accord with the King, under the notion of the King's corrupt party; to blind their eyes therefore, the Speaker Lenthall, (though at this time the Foreman of oliver's shop) when it was debated in the House, Whether a Treaty should be had with the King in the Isle of Wight upon the Propositions of Hampton-Court? The Question much opposed, and at last put, the noah's and the Yea were equal, 57 to 57 insomuch that the Speakers voice was put in to turn the Scales; he gave his voice in the affirmative, that time following his conscience against his Interest, and my Lord Say (openly in the House of Lords) said, God forbidden that any man should take advantage of this Victory to break off the Treaty: and the Armies Scout, from Tuesday Novemb. 14. to Novemb. 21. 1648. propounds three Riddles to the Reader, 1. Why the Grandees of the Junto that use to rule the Army are the most active Solicitors for an Agreement of the Parliament with His Majesty when then the Army are acting to the contrary? 2. Why His Majesty, stumbles only at the matters wherein the Presbyterian Interest are concerned, when that Faction is the only visible prop to His Life, Crown, Dignity, and dying Interest? 3. Why the Soldier's Petitions for Justice upon his Majesty were ill resented, and they thought worthy to be tried by a Council of War, as Offenders, yet a Remonstrance was then framing by the Grandee-Officers to the same purpose, and much more against the present Authority? and in this the General concurres.  

6. New Instructions to Hammond in order to the Treaty, sect. 132.  The next thing taken into consideration in relation to the Treaty, was, the giving new instructions to Hammond the Head-Goaler, how to demean himself in the Treaty, which had formerly been Voted to be in the Isle of Wight, with honour, freedom, and safety to his Majesty: The Instructions were, 1. That the King should enjoy the same liberty during this Treaty that He had at Hampton-Court. 2. That no person excepted out of mercy, none now Imprisoned by the Parliament, nor none now in actual Arms against the Parliament should be admitted to come to the King. 3. That no foreign Agent should make any Address to him without leave of both Houses. Against these Instructions it was argued, That some of them contradicted the former Votes, That the King should Treat in Honour and Freedom, and that He should enjoy the same Liberty He had at Hampton-Court, which could not be so long as He was denied to correspond with other Princes His Allies (with whom He was in league and amity) by their Ambassadors and Agents, a Royalty inseparable from the Crown, allowed Him at Hampton-Court, and to deny it was implicitly to dethrone Him. To which was answered, That this was true of a King in actual exercise of his Regal power, which this King neither is, nor aught to be until He hath given satisfaction to His Parliament: That it was a great condescension in them, and below the Dignity of a Parliament to recall their Votes of Non-Addresse, and put the business of the Treaty thus forward; and if He would not accept of a Treaty upon such conditions as the Parliament thought fit, than things would be but where they were. The peaceable moderate Party, perceiving what operation the Scotish Victory had already upon the fancies of those  Men, knew they must speak mannerly and modestly for fear of correction, and must take what they could, since they could not have what they would. 4. That the King should give His Royal word not to remove out of the Island during the Treaty, nor in 20. days after, without consent of the two Houses: this was to make his chains a link or two longer, 
7. The Earl of Warwick's Letter to Derby-ho. complaining of his Seamen.  yet the King did give His Royal word accordingly.  
Thursday, Aug. 24. a Letter came to the Committee of Safety at Derby-House from the Earl of Warwick, complaining of the perverseness of his own Seamen, and that those with the Prince would not yet stoop to the Gods of Gold, (his own words) That some other way must be thought of besides force, to undermine the Prince, that since they had subdued their Enemies by Land, it would be a good preparative to work upon their Enemies by Sea with the same Engine. You see these Saints having gotten a public Purse into their hands, are (at the people's cost and charges) bountiful Corrupters of other men's faith, having none of their own.  
About this time a new kind of picklock was invented to open the iron Chests and Counter-Boards of the City; 
8. A Committee to make effectual the Sale of Bishop's Lands; and cajole the City.  and invite them to throw more money after that they had cast away already in purchase of Bishop's Lands; namely, a Committee to consider of a way to secure unto the Purchasers the Money they had already disbursed upon the said Lands; and to remove all impediments in the Sale for time to come. To which Col. Harvy said, That he had experience in the late defection of the City; when the Men most backwards in the Parliaments service, were such of the Presbyterians as had no engagement upon Bishop's Lands; whereas others of the same Party that have interest in the same Lands, are as forward as any the best affected. Here you see what it is that chains the affections of the City to this Parliament, and what it is that divides them amongst themselves; self-respects makes them run along blindfold with the Grandees in any design or faction. A good bargain makes a bad Man; Harvey needs no other precedent but himself, nor no more visible monument than his exceeding cheap bargain of Fulham-house and Manor; which hath changed him from a furious Presbyter to a Bedlam Independent.  
About this time it was Ordered, 
9 A Commission into the North to inquire what damages they have sustained by the Scotish Invasion.  That Commissions should be issued forth into the Northern Counties, to inquire what Damages they have any ways sustained by Hamilton's Invasion? This device was of a twofold use, 1. To cut off the Scots demands for Money due to them for their last Brotherly assistance, and otherwise. 2. To cajole the poor Country into a belief they shall have reparations against the Scots, and raise them into a clamorous complaint against the Scots; and at last a deadly feud when they shall find their hopes denied by them and disappointed. In the mean time they are patiently eaten up with Taxes and Freequarter, and while they look for what they shall never have, they lose what they have already; This was the much applauded invention of Master St. J●hns of Lincolns-Inne.  

10. Col●hester surrendered, with the sequel thereof.  About this time the news of the Surrender of Colchester inflamed the Antimonarchical faction from a Fever to a frantic Calenture. They yielded to mercy, and within 4 hours after Sir Charles Lucas, and Sir George Lisle (for the better explanation what Independent mercy is) were shot to death; some attribute it to an old quarrel between him and General Fairfax, others think it was done to put an affront upon the King and the Treaty: Colonel Fare was likewise condemned by the Council of War at the same time, but is reprieved as a witness against the Earl of Warwick when time serves, for when Warwick long since waited at the Commons Door with some Ladies to petition for a Reprieve for the Earl of Holland, a Soldier of the Guard insolently told him, He had more need petition for himself.  

11. Instructions for the Commissioners to Treat with his Majesty.  Instructions for the Commissioners to Treat with the King were Debated. The Independents propounded, that those Propositions that were most advantageous to the Parliament should be first debated, and if the King did not confirm them all, the Treaty to break off: But it was held unreasonable in any Treaty, that one Party should bind himself before the conclusion, and leave the other at large, and himself in the lurch; so it was Ordered, They should be Treated of in order as they lay, and (according to His Majesty's desire) nothing binding to either Party until all was agreed of. The next stumbling block cast in the way was, that seeing 40 days only were allowed for to Treat, that they should limit how many days (and no more) should be spent in Treating upon every several proposition: But this was looked upon as a cavil to make void the Treaty, and so overruled; you see what use these men that gain by War make of their Victories.  

12. A Debate what Gentl. should be allowed to attend his Majesty in the Treaty.  The next thing debated was, the List of such Gentlemen as were named to attend the King in this Treaty: The moderate Party excepted against Ashburnham (a great man with Cromwell) and Leg, as being Prisoner to the Parliament: The Independents excepted Dr. Shelden, Hammond, and Oldsworth, for the same reason; but the next day the Speaker moved, that Leg and Ashburnham might go to the King; and to satisfy such as had objected their Imprisonment against them, the Independents alleged they were unduly imprisoned, and moved, a Committee might be appointed to examine the cause of their Restraint: but the moderate alleging the same reason for the said three Doctors, and making the same motion for them, there was no farther proceed therein. 
13. Master pryn's speech in the House; proving the King's concessions to be a ground for a setlement.   
Thus fare I have briefly set down the Preparations towards a Treaty; the Treaty itself between the King in the Isle of Wight, and the Parliaments Commissioners; their Reports of the Results to the Houses; and the Houses Debates and Votes upon them took up almost all the time until the 6. December, 1648. (some few businesses of no great moment intervening) many imperfect and partial Relations of them have been printed cum Privil gio; but Mr. Will. Pryn in his excellent Speech made in the House of Commons, 4. Decemb. 1648. and since printed, hath set down all the most material Arguments on both sides, with great candour and ingenuity, and hath confuted the Enemies to Peace and Accommodation: if strength of Reason can confute those men that follow only their own Interests of power and profit, whose wills and lusts have always been their own Laws, and are now become the only Laws of this Conquered Kingdom: I love not actum agire, I refer my Reader therefore to his Speech, and will only trouble him with some Observations upon this Treaty.  
I have said something of the Militia, 
14. The Militia, and Negative Voice. sect. 62, 63, 64, 106. and the Conclusions. 15, 16, 17.  and the King's Negative Voice, in the 1. part of this History, especially in the Conclusions at the latter end; I will only say that without them the King cannot be a Governing King, but a bare titular King, a picture, a shadow, because the protection of the people depends upon the power of the Sword; He cannot protect them and their Laws with the Scabbard: The Authority of the Sceptre follows the power of the Sword; wherefore to give away one, is to lose both, nor can the Subjects be any longer his Majesty's Subjects, but Slaves to their fellow Subjects, when so many petty Kings (not authorized by any Law of God or Man to protect the People) shall hold the Sword over their Heads, and distract them with different Opinions, disagree in Commands, according to the variety of their several lusts, factions, and interests: how can the King according to his Coronation Oath and duty (to which God hath called him) Govern and protect his People, 
1. part sect. 40. 41, 42.  when he hath given away his Sword to a factious Parliament where one Party tyrannizeth over the other, and threatens the other with the longest Sword? how absurd and impossible it is for the Subject to expect protection from one hand, and to swear and pay Allegiance to another hand, that hath divested itself of all power to protect them; let our Laws, the practice of all Nations and times, and the judgement of the learnedst Politicians tell you, whose Maxim is, Illa optima est Respublica ubi Princeps quàm maximum potest boni, & quàm minimum mali; Primò ne nova Tributo indicere, nova victigalia constituere possit, inconsultâ Republicâ: Deinde legum condendarum anti quandarumque poenes Rempublicam, non unum aliquem Magistratum esse debet potestas; nulla enim in re gravius peccatum admittitur, nusquam graviores turbae minantur quàm hisce de rebus; That is the best form of Government, where the King can do most good, and least evil: 1. Let Him be disabled to raise new Taxes, and lay on new Tribute. 2. Let Him not have the sole power to make or repeal Laws, which ought to belong to the Commonwealth; not any one Magistrate; for no power is more hurtful to the people, nor stirs more Commotions than these two: such is the Kingdom of England; the King hath neither the power of our Purses, nor the changing of our Laws in His hands, and if he give away his Sword, he will be such a King of clouts as can do neither good nor evil, like Rex Sacrificulis at Rome, ea summa potestas dicitur, quâ secundum Leges non est major neque par; such was the Dictator at Rome, he had no equal there; Papyp: cursor dictator, adjudged to death his General of the Horse Fabius, for fight against his command though prosperously; and rejected all appeal to the Senate and Tribunes of the People; yielding at last only to their prayers, with this saying, Vicit tandem imperii majestas: such is the King of England, the Commonwealth cannot compel him to grant a Pardon, or dispense justice or mercy as they please; the Oath of Supremacy calls Him Supreme Governor in all Causes, over all Persons, so do all our Statutes, to whom in Parliament (which is his highest sphere of majesty) is the last appeal by Writ of Error, who is, Principium, caput & finis Parliamenti, the beginning, head and end of the Parliament: and therefore he only calls the Parliament, to advise with him, and dissolves it when he is satisfied: He makes War and Peaee, 
See the 1. part of this History, Prolegomena, 1.  and is Protector of the Laws, and of all just interests; only the policy of the Law disables him to make, repeal, or alter Laws, or raise moneys without consent of both Houses by Bill passed; (which is but an Embryo until he quickens it by his Royal Assent) because this way the King may do most hurt, and wrong to his people, (as I have already said) it being the wisdom of our Laws to keep the Sword in one hand, and the purse in another.  
The 1. 
15. The 1. Proposition for justifying the Parliaments, and condemning His own quarrel.  proemial Proposition for justifying the Parliaments Cause and Quarrel, and condemning his own Cause and Party, was a bitter pill; but an earnest desire of peace sweetened it, and guilded it over, and invited him to swallow it without chawing or ruminating upon it: but how devilish, unchristian, and illegal a use the Faction hath made of this extorted confession, let God judge.  
Their insisting upon it, that the King should take the Covenant, 
16. The Covenant endeavoured to be put upon the King.  was an error in Policy, whereof the rigid Presbyterians are guilty; they (supposing the King would take it at last) stood upon it, and intended thereby to join the King to their Interest and Party. The more subtle Independent knew the King would not, nor could not take it; and therefore complied with the Presbyterians in obtruding it upon him, to break off the Treaty: many things in the Covenant were vain in the Person of His Majesty, as, that He should swear to maintain his own Person, etc. which the Law of nature binds him to without an Oath, which in this case is idle, and a profaning of God's name: some things in the Oath were contradictory to what the Parliaments Propositions desired of him, as, to maintain His own Authority in defence of Religion, Laws, and Liberties, which was impossible for Him to do unless he kept the Militia in his own hands, and his Negative Voice also, which that clause in the Bill of Militia, That all Bills for levying Forces should have the power of Acts of Parliament, without the Royal Assent, etc. would have deprived him of, by making their Ordinances Acts of Parliament in effect, binding to the Persons and Estates of the People in an Arbitrary way, to their utter enslaving: To swear to Abolish Bishops, etc. was against his Coronation-Oath, To swore to extirpate Heresies, Schisms, &c, is more than the Independents would permit; To swear to maintain the Union between the two Nations, which the Parliament declare already to be broken by the Scots Invasion, is vain: besides, how unjust a thing was it to impose that Oath upon the King, when most Members of the Parliament, Army, and others, are left at large not to take it? The Parliaments Demands, That the King should declare against the marquis of Ormonds' proceed to unite all the Interests of Ireland for the service of his Majesty, was no part of the Propositions upon which the Treaty was begun, but a subsequent request upon an emergent occasion; and therefore I see no reason why the King should have given any answer to it, but only have held himself to the original Propositions, yet he did Answer, That the whole business of Ireland was included in the Treaty, and therefore a happy Agreement thereupon would set an end to all differences there, which being voted unsatisfactory, and moved that a new Declaration might be published against him; the King was enforced to put a stand to the Marquis' proceed by his Letter, to his great prejudice; yet these Declarers against him do now comply with Owen Roe Oneale, and have entertained O Realy, the Pope's Irish-Vicar-general in England, to negotiate for the Irish massacring Rebels with the Parliament: These things considered, prove what I find in our late King Charles the 1. most excellent Book, Chap. 18. That it is a Maxim to those that are Enemies of peace, to ask something which in Reason and Honour must be denied, that they might have some colour to refuse all the rest that is granted. More observations upon this unlucky Treaty I will not trouble my Reader with, these being enough to show the vanity of those Propositions; by these he may take a scantling of the rest ex pede Herculem. I cannot but blame the indiscretion, if not the indisposition of those Commissioners who cavilled away so much time in the Treaty, 
17. Jones complains by Letters that Ireland was like to be lost.  until Cromwell had done his work in the North, and marched up to Town to make the Treaty ineffectual.  
About the latter end of Octob. 1648. Col. Jones sent whining Letters from Dublin, to the Steersmen at Derby-house, complaining that all Ireland was like to unite and prosecute the King's Interest, and therefore he cried for help; but neither the said Committee, in their consultations, nor the Army in execution of what was resolved, could agree amongst themselves: the Engrossers and Monopolizers of Oligarchy into a few hands, desiring to make themselves a Corporation of Tyrants, suspect an opposition from the Levellers; and would feign turn them out of the Kingdom, into Ireland, to seek their fortunes, and practise their Levelling principles in a strange Land: The Levellers (more numerous in the Army, though less numerous in the said Committee) strain courtesy with their Betters, and would have them go first, thinking the seeds of liberty and equality will prosper better in the soil and air of England; While they were disputing, if marquis Ormond had been acting (as he had been, had not the King been necessitated to retard him, by his said Letters, sent from the Isle of Wight during the Treaty,) the King had recovered that Kingdom entirely to himself, which had been of great advantage to him.  
The 20. Novemb. 1648. Col. Ewers with seven or eight Officers more, presented at the House of Commons Bar a thing called (by those that use to miscall things,) An humble Remonstrance of the Army: It is founded upon these five Anarchical Principles. 1. That themselves and their faction only (whom they call exclusively, the Well-affected, Godly, Honest Party, the Saints) are the People of England; all the rest but Philistines, Amorites, or (at the best) but Gibeonites. 2. That their Interest only is the public Interest of the People. 3. That the People (that is, themselves) are the only competent Judges of the people's safety (contrary to the Laws and Practice of all Nations, which bestow that Prerogative only upon the Supreme Magistrate) but it may be here lies hid another subsequent principle, That they are the Supreme Magistrates, armed with Supreme Authority, as well as with their Swords, and hereupon, they as good as tell the House, That if their supposed dangers be not removed, and those remedies which they Remonstrate admitted, they shall make such appeal to God, (that is, their Sword) as formerly they have done. 4. Principle is consequential to the 3. That they may drive on their design (upon pretence of necessity, self-preservation, honest intentions, providence, or revelation) against all Powers, Forms of Government, and Laws whatsoever, under colour of the much abused Maxim, Salus Populi Supremae Lex esto, the safety of the People is the Supreme Law; which hath been the fruitful Mother of many Rebellions in all Ages, to serve the corrupt ends of ambitious Persons; who usually fish in troubled waters to attain to those ends which they could never arrive at in settled Governments. This is a Principle, or new light discovered by Major Huntingdon, That it is lawful to pass through any forms of Government, for accomplishment of their ends, and therefore either to purge the Houses, and support the remaining Party by power everlastingly, or put a period to them by force: and themselves employ as much in this Remonstrance, p. 45. saying, It cannot be safe to accommodate with the King, because if He return, and this Parliament continue long and unlimited, He will make a Party amongst them; He hath bid fair for it among the Commons already, and the Lords are his own out of Question; and therefore we dare not trust the King amongst them. Again they say, That if the King come into the Parliament, He will be looked upon as the Repairer of breaches, Restorer of trade, peace, plenty, etc. and if the Army should keep up (as it must) upon Taxes, the Houses and Army will be looked upon as Oppressors; and the jealousies and discontents of the People be increased against them, and make them apt to join issue with the King's interest, and may yield us up a sacrifice to appease the King and his Party; out of these words, and their own practice, I concluded for them, ergo, They may carry on their design upon necessity for self-preservation, against the Monarchical Government, and Law of the Land, to murder the KING, as they have since done. Again they say, If the King were returned, each Party would strive first, and most to comply with Him, ergo, there is a necessity to subvert the Kingdom and murder the KING. Behold what use these cowardly Saints make of necessity, and self-preservation. 5. That they may appeal to their Sword against the Authority of any their Governors, in order to public safety; which two last conclusions set the door wide open to Faction and Rebellion; since the People are ever floating and given to change, and every turbulent ambitious Fellow, is apt to raise them into a storm against their Governors, for their fabulous assertions wherewith these Saints usually gild over their foul actions, 1. That the Houses were free when they passed the 4. Votes for Non-Addresses. 2. That they were not free when they recalled them. 3. That the People were quiet and contented until the recalling those 4. Votes; and afterwards were unsettled, and presented clamorous Petitions. 4. That the Army did not apply themselves to the King until he proffered himself to them. 5. That when they made Addresses to Him, it was but to prevent the Presbyterian Party. But it appears, their aim (from the beginning) was to suppress the Presbyterian, and advance their own Party, and lay by the King, and domineer over Him and the Kingdom; for when Cromwell had brought his Design to perfection, he said at Kingston, That he was as fit to rule the Kingdom as Hollis. 6. And then but hypocritically. 
Sect. 65.66, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 88, 89, 97, 98.  All these are sufficiently confuted in my said Animadversions, and in the said Plea, for the King and Kingdom, in Putny Projects, and in my First part of the History of Independency. After all this tedious stuff aforesaid, they make Propositions to the Parliament of two sorts, all founded upon the said five Antimonarchical Principles; The first for satisfying public Justice, (that is, for the Hangman to teach the Judges who they shall sentence to execution) 1. They demand, the Person of the King may be brought to speedy Justice; this affront they put upon the Parliament when they were near conclusion of their Treaty with Him: when He had already granted more to his Subjects than ever any King condescended to: 
The King's Supremacy; and from thence his indemnity proved.  this is through the sides of the King to give Monarchy, the fundamental Government, and Laws of this Land, and consequently the Liberty and Property of the People, their Deaths-wound. By the Law of God, nature, reason, and the Laws of all Kingdom's impunity is an inseparable prerogative of Kings, as they are Supreme in their Dominions; 
See the Oaths of Allegiance, Supremacy. Stat. of Recognition. 1 Jac. Coke. Institut. 5.1. Stamford's Pleas of the Crown, l. 1 ch. 1, 2, Stat. 25. Edw. 3, 42. E. 3. Read Mr. pryn's Memento to the unparliamentary junto, his Speech in the House of Commons, 4. Dec. p. 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77. and my 1. part, sect. 106. The Conclusions; sect. 17. and my Animadversions. p. 18.  the Petition of Right, 3. Caroli, Declares, That they had no power to hurt the King's Prerogative, much less (I think) to hurt his Person, the Laws, are the King's Laws; Courts the King's Courts: Judges his Judges; Great Seal, his Seal; Writs, the King's Writs; the Justice and Peace of the Land are his, consequently the Wars his Wars; he is the fountain of all Authority as well as of all Honour; 
* 1 Pet. ●. 13 H●●e the King is called Supreme, not the People; and tho●gh said to be an ordinance of man in some respects, yet St. Paul, R●m. 13. saith, He is ordained of God: 2. Governors are distinguished, the King is supreme, and Governors are sent by him, and his Commission. Besides, it appears, Gen. 3.16. and 4.7. God gave not to all men that freedom which is supposed the foundation of supremacy, in the people; He made them not Masters of their own liberty, for even then he laid the foundations of obedience in Abel to Cain▪ Eve to Adam. If a people choose a King, it is the act of every particular man, of whom the Commonalty consists; and each individual, nor the whole Commonalty can give him more power than himself hath. But no man hath power over his own life, neither arbitrarily, nor judicially; but on●y over his liberty, which he may so give away, as to make himself a subject, or a slave, this makes him so chosen a Ruler, or Protector of them, who have parted with their liberty, and subjected to him; and than God, (who only hath power of life and death, invests the King with power to be the Minister of God, to exec●te vengeance, not bearing the Sword in vain, Rom. 13. See Dr. Hammonds Letter to the L. Fairfax, Jan. 5. 1648.  Thou shalt not speak ill of the Governor of the People: therefore not accuse him. The King hath no Superior nor equal in England, contrary to that false distinction of the Observator, that he is, Major singulis, minor universis. When David would have gone forth to Battle, his Army dissuaded it, using these reasons, If we flee, they will not care for us, neither if half of us die, will they care for us; But thou art worth ten thousand of us: Here you see the King is reckoned, major universis, more than all his Army; and yet that Army was (at that time) in effect, all the well-affected of the Land; and therefore (by the Anarchical Principle aforesaid) the only People of the La●d; for further proof hereof I appeal to all our Laws and Statutes, how will they Try him? Who shall Judge him? who are his Peers, that he may be Legally Tried like a Freeborn man (for sure they cannot deny him that right) according to Magna Charta, per legale judicium parium suorum? It is a grounded Maxim in our Laws, The King can do no wrong; wherefore then will they Try him, for doing no wrong? The policy and civility therefore of our Laws, (and of our Parliament too, in all their Declarations, Remonstrances, so long as they continued (in any state or degree of innocency) always accused his Evil Counselors and Ministers, and freed Himself, lest they gave advantages to ambitious men, Absalom-like, to scandalise and dishonour him, and render him low and vile in the eyes of the People; to the disturbance of the peace of the King and Kingdoms, and shaking of the Royal Throne which is always accompanied with an earthquake of the whole Land. Saint Peter bids us, Submit to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake, whether it be to the King as supreme, or unto Governors, as those that are sent by him. As free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but Fear God, Honour the King: But these rebellious Saints abusing Christian liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, will (according to their 4th Antimonarchical Principle) make the giddy, ignorant, tumultuous, manyheaded multitude Judges of their King, and make the confused Rabble his Superiors, thereby setting up two Superiors one contradictory to the other, and so turn the Kingly Government into a popular Military Government, abolish our Laws, and leave all to the power of the Sword in an Arbitrary way, to carry on their design: to which purpose they have lately caused their Journeymen, the present House of Commons, to Vote, (contrary to our known Laws) That the Supreme Authority of this Nation is in the People of England, and therefore in themselves as their Representative. This is a 6. Anarchical Principle of the Army and their Party, who wanting reason to prove it, assert it by the Authority of their Mock-Parliament, and must now make it good by the Sword to justify their proceed against the King and People. These popular principles are mere empty notions, whereby the Grandees draw the Supreme Authority thorough the People to themselves, the better to enslave them; for the liberty of the Commons doth not consist in a licentiousness to interrupt the Government of their Superiors, and change the Government according to their fancies; but the liberty of the People consists in the enjoying the fruits of their labours, their goods, possessions, estates, and their personal liberty, according to the known Laws of the Land. When Harry Martin in Berkshire forbade the People to stand bare at the Sessions, and do homage and fealty to their Lords; he gulled them; and gave them that which was not their due, to rob them of that which was their due; their Horses, Goods, Money, plundered from them, for service of the State (forsooth) and beat them that defended their own; so that while he flattered them to be the Supreme Authority and Lords Paramount, and the Parliament to be their Servants; he used them like Slaves conquered by the Parliament. Besides, it is not all the People, nor the thousandth part of them, but a few covetous, ambitious men, that desire to bring the King to capital punishment, and subvert our fundamental Government and Laws, that have usurped the power of the Kingdom into the hands of their Faction, and now require this to keep themselves from being called to account. The second Demand tends to disinherit his Posterity, viz. That the Prince and Duke of York come in by a day appointed, and acquit themselves of their capital Delinquency, or else to be Declared incapable of Government, and to die without mercy, if afterwards found in the Kingdom; th●s Summons is but to insinuate their guilt; if they refuse to appear, as reason tells us they must and will. This is to shut the door after Monarchy, and keep it out for ever; in farther pursuance, they demand the Revenue of the Crown to continue still in Hucksters hands to pay public Debts, and repair the Losses of the People, (that is) themselves. The second sort of Propositions are, for settling of the Kingdom upon their own Grounds and Interest, That a certain period be set to this Parliament, by which time the Supreme trust in them may return unto the People: that is, still to themselves and their Faction, the new erected Committee of State, the hogen mogens at Whitehall. Thus you see having removed out of the way the King, the first and most visible legal Authority: they will now put down the Parliament, the second visible Authority of England, who are now the only Bulwark against the Tyranny of the Sword, and then (as Major White said at Putney long since) there will be no visible Authority left in England but the power of the Sword, which will introduce a new Parliament, or rather fantastical new invented Representative (destructive to Parliaments) all of their own Creatures: as appears by their next Proposition, concerning succession of Parliaments. 2. That n●ne shall be capable of Electing, 
This is so explained by the Moderate (one of the raling Penmen of the Faction who hath a large share in the 500 or 600. a year allowed to these Pamphletires, for divulging State-lies and slanders amongst the People) who from Novemb. 14. to Novemb. 21. 1648.) Number. 19) defineth the People of England to be only such as have not engaged for the King; and such as shall sign to the Agreement of the People, which is to be above Law; and all the rest are to be Disfranchised.  or being Elected, that have engaged against the public Interest, (that is, the Interest of them and their Party, as appears by their 5. Anarchical Principles in the beginning of this Paragraph) nor any that oppose this Agreement: By what Authority (but the arbitrary sway of the Sword) shall Freemen be Disfranchised, and lose their Birthrights for not changing the fundamentals of Parliaments, Government, and Law, and yielding them up to the lusts of an Army of Rebels, that brag they have Conquered the Kingdom, and we are their Slaves? 3. That Elections may be so distributed, as to render the House of Commons a Representative of the whole People, (that is, tag and rag and Canting Beggars, who have nothing to give or lose, as well as Freeholders') so farewell Writs of Summons, and all orderly, legal forms; if all men, without any distinction, may Elect, and be Elected, all will fall into confusion; the Rabble will never agree, all things will tend to Riots and Tumults; so that the better and soberer fort will, and must forbear, and leave all in the hands of the Rascality, and at last no Representative will be chosen, or such an one as the People will be ashamed to own, and will desert them, and leave them to be ordered at the pleasure of the Army. 4. Prop. That our Kings hereafter may be Elective, and disclaim a Negative Voice: how frequent Civil Wars are in all Elective Kingdoms during the interregnum, or space between the death of the old, and choice of the new King; how obnoxious to the Soldiery, let the old Emperors of Rome, those later of Germany, the Kingdom of Poland, and heretofore Bohemia, and Hungary tell, all Histories are full of examples; yet if our elective Kings shall have neither the Militia, nor a Negative Voice in Counsels, and the Crown Revenues be otherwise disposed of (as is inferred) and their Heads exposed to the humours of the People, or their Representative, the Office will be so unworthy of any wise man, that I do by these presents freely give my voice to the Lord Fairfax, and so unfit for any honest Gentleman; that I do hereby give my voice to Cromwell the perfidious Brewer; catch who catch can, let them agree amongst themselves, I care not which of the two shall be set up for the new State's Scarecrow. This Remonstrance was about a Week after seconded with a most insolent threatening Declaration, composed altogether to terror; it was occasioned as followeth. About the latter end of November, the Parliament was informed the Army was upon their march to London, whereupon (not without great opposition by the Army's Party in the House, and with great caution it should be mannerly phrased for fear of angering his insolency) a Letter was Voted to be sent the General, forbidding his nearer approach. In contempt whereof the Army immediately printed the said Declaration, accusing the Parliament of Breach of Trust, Lightness, Inconstancy, Indiscretion, saying, They would appeal from them to the People (that is, still themselves; you see they hold one and the same Rod over King and Parliament) and threatening to advance presently to Westminster, to do what God should enable them unto: The same night they came to Hyde-Parke-corner, and kept Guards there: Hereupon it was put to the Question; That the Armies approach was prejudicial to the freedom of Parliament? but through the cowardice of some, whose hearts now began to melt, and the impudent restless bawling of those cheating Saints, that comply with the Army to keep themselves from giving Accounts, it passed in the Negative.  

19 The King's Concessions debated; and young S. Hen Vanes insolency.  Decemb. 2. The King's Answer was debated; and as a prologue to it, young Sir Henry Vane (a Whelp of the Old Cur) spoke thus, Mr. Speaker, By this Debate we shall know who are our Friends, and who are our Foes; or to speak more plainly, We shall discover who are the King's Party in the House, and who the People's: To which was Answered, That since this Gentlemen were so bold, to deal thus by way of prevention, in a threatening manner; and had forejudged and divided the House into two parts: I hope it is as lawful for me (who am no Grandee, nor no Gainer by our troubles,) to put you in mind of another Division of the House. Sir, you will find some desirous of peace, and they are Losers by the War; Others are against peace, and those are Gainers by the War, My humble motion is, that the Gainers may contribute to the Losers, that we may all stand upon equal feet for till then, the Balance of the Commonwealth will never stand right towards a settlement. True jests by't sore. He and his Sire oppose peace: lest the King's Revenue being restored, they should lose a good Trade there: the old Dog is Chairman of that Committee; the young one is a principal Publican and Treasurer; they get constantly above 6000 l. per annum, between them besides private cheats by paying half Debts, and taking Acquittances for the whole; and then discounting for the whole; buying in old sleeping Pensions for trifles, that have not been paid in many years, and paying themselves all Arrears, Cornelius Holland is Servant to them both, and hath gotten as much wealth as makes him saucy enough to hire William Lily, and other Pamphletiers to derive his Pedigree from John Holland Duke of Exeter, although it be known he was originally a Linkboy, but he is now one of the New Lights, an illuminated Brother. Master Pryn moved the debate of the Kings Answer might be laid aside until it was a free Parliament not environed by the Army: but (said Mr. Rich. Norton) Take heed what you say against the Army, for they are resolved to have a free Parliament to Debate the King's Answer, if we refuse.  
This day the General took possession of White-Hall for his Quarters, 
20. The General Garri●ons Whitehall and the Mews upon h●s own head.  as if he meant to keep out the King in defiance of the Treaty: he brought to Town with him four Foot Regiments, and six Regiments of Horse; part whereof quartered at White-Hall, the rest in York House, and other great Houses; the Horse turned the Reformado Horse Guards that attended the Houses, and lodged in the Mews by their order, out of their Quarters, without applying themselves to the Houses.  
Upon Monday, Decemb. 4. 
21. T●e House informed that the King was surprised by the Army, and ca●●ied Prisoner to Harst Castle.  News came to the House that by several Orders from the General, His Majesty was seized in His Bedchamber, and hurried away Prisoner to Hurst Castle, a Block-house out of the Isle of Wight, standing about a mile and a half in the Sea, upon a Beache full of mud, and stinking oaze upon low tides; having no freshwater within two or three miles of it, bitter cold, and of a foggy and pestilent air, so noisome that the Guards thereof are not able to endure it long without shifting their Quarter. This was a torment beyond Pistol and Poison, many spoke against the insolency of this fact, as being committed against the life of the King, and against the honour and public faith of the Parliament; who had Voted, He should Treat in Honour, Freedom and Safety, in Newport in the Isle of Wight; and had accepted His Royal Word not to withdraw out of the Island during the Treaty, nor in 20. days after; (which were not yet expired) and now to have the Houses debates and results forestalled, and the Treaty made frustrate by such an act of violence and prevention committed upon the Person of the King, was a presumptuous and rebellious act: It was moved therefore that it might be Declared That his Majesty was removed out of the Isle of Wight by his Excellencies Warrant, without the consent or privity of the House: But those Members that Idolise that Bell and the Dragon, the Army, and are but Priests fatting themselves upon the Sacrifices of that Image; insisted upon it to have two words amended in the Question, 1. The word [Declare] would be construed to be a Declaring against the General and Army: 2. The word [Consent] to be left out, lest it argued a disagreement in opinion and practice between the Army and the House, as if the Houses dissented from it. And certainly those Gentlemen that stood upon these niceties, could not say, it was done with their consent, for it was hatched in the Junto; so it was barely voted, To be done without privity of the House, nevertheless,  

22. The Debate upon th● King's Answers resumed.  The same day, they resolved to resume their last Saturdays debate upon the King's Answers to the Propositions of both Houses: The first Question debated was, Whether they were satisfactory or no? The Army Party argued, They were not satisfactory because the King had not granted all their Propositions in Terminis: To this was Answered, That these Propositions were not sent to his Majesty as Bills to be passed in Terminis, without debate: but as Propositions to be Personally Treated upon, (as the Votes of both Houses, and the Instructions of their Gommissioners prove) now it is against the nature of all Treaties Personal, to tie up the Parties of either side so precisely, that they shall have no liberty to vary in any circumstance or particular; so that if all be not precisely granted, the Condescensions shall not be satisfactory, though all just things are yielded to; as appears by all Treaties between Nation and Nation where their first demands are never fully granted, but always qualified and limited, if not diminished, the rule being, Iniquum pitas ut justum feras; so in all Treaties between Enemies, Party and Party, see Mr. Pryn's said Speech, Decemb. 4. 1648. where to avoid cavils, he waves this equivocal Question, and propounds the Question anew in these terms, Whether the King's final Answers to the Propositions of both Houses in this Treaty, considered altogether, be not so full and satisfactory in themselves, that this House may, and ought accept of, and proceed upon them for the speedy setlement of a safe and wel-grounded Peace both in Church and Commonwealth, rather than reject them as unsatisfactory, and so hazard the loss of all, and the perpetuating of our Wars and miseries? This he held in the Affirmative, with so many strong and solid Reasons, Arguments, and Precedents both out of Divinity, Law, History, and policy; and with so clear a confutation of the opposite Arguments, that no man took up the Bucklers against him to refute him: the Arguments are too many, and too long to be here repeated. Nor do I love to abridge that which hath little or nothing in it superfluous; or to make that short-lined by epitomizing it (such is the laziness of men to prefer Epitomies before Large works) which I desire should be long-lined, and pass through many hands: This Debate lasted until Tuesday morning, 5. Decemb. eight of the clock (the Independents hoping to tire out and fright away the moderate men) and then it was Resolved upon the Question (notwithstanding the terrors and menaces of the Army) That the Answers of the King to the Proposition of both Houses, are a ground for the Houses to proceed upon, for the settlement of the peace of the Kingdom; It was carried affirmatively by 140 Voices, against 104. that this Question should be put, and the Question itself was carried clearly Affirmative without dividing the House: presently after this House appointed a Committee of 6. Members to attend the General, to confer with him and his Officers▪ and keep a good correspondency between the House and the Army; who had so much surly pride, and so little manners, as to give them leave to take a nap of three or four hours long (after their nights watching) before admittance, and at last dismissed them with this churlish Answer, That the way to correspond, was to comply with the Army's Remonstrance: The House adjourned until Wednesday following.  
Wednesday, Decemb. 6. 1648. 
23. The Armies treasonable violence upon the House in s curing and secluding their Members.  The Saints militant being enraged that the House had recovered so much courage and honesty as to Vote according to their Consciences, and neglect their wild Remonstrance and threatening Declaration, (after some private conference in the morning between Pride, Hewson and other Officers, and the Speaker in Westminster-hall with the doors shut (they sent to the House of Commons a Paper, requiring that the impeached Members and M. G. Browne, (who they belied to have called in Hamilton) might be secured and brought to justice, and that the 90. and odd Members who refused to Vote against the late Scotish Engagement, and all that Voted for recalling the 4. Votes for Non-Addresses, and Voted for a Treaty, and concurred in Yesterday Vote, [That the King's concessions were a ground for the H●●se to proceed to a Setlement:] may be immediately suspend t●e H●u●e, and that all such faithful Members who are innocent of 〈…〉 s would by Protestation acquit themselves from any 〈◊〉 in them that they may be distinguished: This is ●o subv●●t the foundation of Parliaments, and appeal to the judgement of the manyheaded multitude without doors, and put all into Tumults. You see what kind of Parliament the Kingdom hath had ever since the Army Rebelled and Refused to Disband: a ●eer free-school, where Crommel is Head-school-master, Ir●●n Us●e●, and (that cipher) Fairfax a Prepositer; surely these ●en are either the supreme Judges, or the supreme Rebels and Tyrants of the Kingdom: This Paper was delivered in, but they scorning to s●ay for an Answer, (by advice of their Independent Grandees of the Junto) upon Wednesday morning, Decemb. 6. 16●8. Sent two or three Regiments of Horse and Foot to W●stminster, set strong Guards at the Houses doors, the Lobby chairs, and at every door leading towards the House, admitting none but Parliament men to enter Westminster-hall, where Col. Pride, Col. H●wson, and Hardres Waller (sometimes a Cavalier, than a violent Presbyterian, and now a tyrannical ●ndependent) violently seized upon divers Knights and Burgesses upon the parliament stairs and elsewhere going to the House, and forcibly carried them away Prisoners to the Queen's Court without any warrant showed, or cause assigned: and there set strict Guards upon them, Mr. Edward Stephens and Col. Birche being in the House of Commons were called forth by feigned Messages sent in by some Officers under other men's Names, and there violently pulled out of the door, though they called to the Speaker to take notice of the force. The House sent the Sergeant of the ●ace to command the Imprisoned Members attendance: but the Guards would not let them come. A second time the Sergeant was sent with his Mace upon the same Errand, but Col. Pride in the Lobby would not let him pass: which contempt was entered in the Journal Book. Hereupon the House concluded not to proceed in business until their Members were restored; and sent to the General about it: yet afterwards when the Officers had several days secured, secluded, and frighted away more of the Members: and made the House a Conventicle of their own Complexion, than the House prevaricated and deserted their Members: About three of the Clock afternoon Hugh Peter with a Sword by his side, (but not the Sword of Saint Peter) came into the Queen's Court to take a List of the Prisoners Names by order from the General (as he said) where being demanded by what Authority they were imprisoned? he answered, By the power of the Sword: Night being come, the Imprisoned Members (41. in number) were conveyed away to a Victualling-House called HELL, and there kept all Night without Beds, or any fitting Accommodation, when it grew late some of them had offers made them to go upon their parols to their own Lodgings, and to appear the next morning at Whitehall; but this was but a juggling trick to make them acknowledge the Lord Fairfax Authority, and become voluntary prisoners upon their own engagements and was therefore refused. The next morning being Thursday, the Imprisoned Members had warning given them to meet the General and his Council of War at Whitehall, whither they were guarded in Coaches, tired out with watching and fasting: But the mechanic Council took so much state upon them, that after six or seven hours' attendance until dark night, and no admittance nor application to them; they were led away from thence on foot with Guards of Musketeers like Thiefs and Rogues, and thorough the kennels like Col. Pride's Dray-horses, to the Swan and Kings-head, two Inns in the Strand, and there distributed under several Sentinels: The Soldiers making a stand with them sometimes half an hour together in the snow and rain, until they had put their Guards into a ma●ching posture; and reviling them, 
See the 2. part of England's Chains discovered; and the Hunting of the Foxes, etc.  that they were the men that had cozened the State of their money, and kept back their Pay: Upon which scandalous provocation, some of them Answered; That it was the Committee of the Army, and their own Officers that had cozened them: which some of the Foot-soldiers then acknowledged. Besides the 41. Imprisoned Members, the Officers standing several days with Lists of Names in their hands at the Parliament-door, have turned back from the House, and denied entrance unto above 160. other Members, besides 40. or 50. Members, who voluntarily withdrew to avoid their violence, all whom they know to be Losers by the War, and therefore desirous of a safe and wel-grounded peace; so that they have made war against the majority of the House, (that is) against the whole House, for, major pars obtinet rationem totius, by all our Laws and Customs, The major part of the House is virtually the whole House; which is Treason by their own Declarations and Remonstrance fare higher than that whereof they accuse the King; and for which they demand Justice against Him: and the remaining faction of 40. or 50. engaged Members who now pass unpresidented Acts of Parliament of the House of Commons (as they call them (without the Lords, ought not to sit, Act, nor take upon them the stile of a House under so visible, actual, and horrid a force, both by the Laws of the Land, and their own Ordinance, passed August 20. 1647, To thursdays and void al● Orders, Votes, and Acts passed under the Tumult of Apprentices, from July 26. to the 6. August following; and yet the said Tumult ended the said July 26. when it begun. See the said Ordinance herewith printed. The Army (who now acknowledge no power but that of the Sword (as Major White long since foretold at Putney) and whose principle it is, To break the Powers of the Earth to pieces, as Will. Sedgewicke in his Justice upon the Army-Remonstrance, saith: And who (as Joh. Lilburne in his Plea for Common Right, p. 6. saith) have by these extraordinary proceed overturned all the visible supreme Authority of this Nation, now suffer only their own party of 40. or 50. Members to sit, and do journeywork under them, who are Enemies to peace, and have got well by fishing in troubled waters, and hope to get better: so that hardly a seventh or eight part of the Counties, Cities, and Burroughs that ought to have Members sitting, have any body to represent them, and therefore how they shall be bound by the Votes and Acts of this fag end, this Rump of a Parliament with corrupt Maggots in it, I do not see. Friday, Decemb. 8. a Message from the General was brought to Sir Robert Harlow that he might go home to his house, giving his engagement not to oppose the actings and proceed of this present Parliament and Army: The like was offered to divers others: you see hereby what the offence of these Imprisoned Members is, only a fear that they will defend the fundamental Government, the Religion, Laws, and Liberties of the Land, the King's Person and Authority, & the being of Parliaments; against the Tyrannical and Treasonable practices of the Army and their House of Commons.  
The small remnant of the House of Commons sent sundry times to the General to know why be Imprisoned their Members, 
24. Reasons, proving that the remaining faction or junto sitting under the force of the Army, were consenting to the securing & secluding their Members, sect. 134. 135.  and humbly to beseech him to set them at liberty if he had nothing against them: But all this was but prevarication and false shows: for, 1. Their base and conditional way of demanding their Liberty [if he had nothing against them] implies an acknowledgement of the General's jurisdiction and conusance over them, and an invitation of him to accuse them. 2. Their sitting and acting under so brutish a force before their Members righted, or the honour of the House vindicated, is a deserting and yielding up of their Members & honour. 3. Their Voting an approbation of the matter of the General Officers scandalous and juggling Answer to their said Demands concerning the secured and secluded Members (as afterwards they did) without hearing what the said Members could say for themselves, is clearly a fore-judging and betraying them. 4. Their late Votes, That no man shall peruse their Journal Book of Orders, etc. without special leave: is purposely done to bar the said Members who cannot make any perfect Answer in confutation of the Scandals cast upon them by the General Counsels printed Libel against them, without having recourse to the said Book, to see what Votes passed for I●eland for the 200000 l. and other matters. To say nothing how unuseful and unjust it is to keep the Records of the House from the view and knowledge of any man. & yet to expect their obedience to them. 5. Their exceeding strict and severe prohibiting the printing any Books not Licenced, and employing Soldiers to Search all Printing Houses daily, is done in order to bar the said accused Members from publishing an Answer in their justification. 6. Their Summoning Mr. Pryn by order to appear at the Commons Bar, knowing him to be still a Prisoner to the Army; shows, that the Army and they serve each others turns against them. 7. And Lastly, the Declaration of the present House of Commons, dated Jan. 15. 1648. is nothing but an echo of the said answer of the General Council, against the said secured and secluded Members. They that are so wickedly industrious to destroy these gentlemen's credits, do this as a preparative to destroy their Persons, and seize upon their Estates, for the maintenance of a new War, (which they foresee their violent courses will bring upon them) and for the farther enriching of themselves, and establishing their Tyranny, which they miscall, The Liberty of the People. This violent purge wrought so strongly upon the House, and brought it to that weakness, that ever since it is eleven or twelve of the clock before they can get forty Members together to make an House, of which number they sometimes fail: One time the Members would have had the Speaker go on upon businesses with a less number than forty, but he knowing all so done to be illegal and void, refused; and yet (to piece up the House) they permit Mr. Blagrave, Mr Frye, and Humphrey Edwards to sit as Members, notwithstanding their Elections are Voted void by the Committee of Elections; and one day an Officer of the Army having taken some Members going to the House, and secured them in the Tobacco Room, under Guard: The Speaker not being able to muster enough to make a House, was fain to send to the said Officer, to lend him his said Prisoners to make up a Free Parliament: This disgrace put upon the Imprisoned Members is purposely intended as an Invitation to all their Enemies to come in and accuse them; nay, it can be proved that means hath been used to suborn Witnesses against them: besides which, the Faction have made a strict Inquisition into their lives and conversations, and have hitherto met with nothing.  

25. The day after the House purged, in comes Dr. Cromwell and Henry Martin his Apothecary.  Thus the House being throughly purged, the next day in comes the Dr. O. Cromwell out of the Country, bringing in under his Protection that sanctified Member Henry Martin, who had spent much time in plundering the Country, had often baffled the House, and disobeyed many of their Orders; sufficient to have made an honest man a Malignant liable to Sequestration: But great is the privilege of the Saints. It fortuned that day the case of the secured Members was reported to the House, which Harry interrupting, desired them to take into consideration the deserts of the Lieutenant General; which with all slavish diligence was presently done. And the Speaker moved, that to morrow might be a day of Humiliation to be kept in the House, to humble the Spirits of the Godly, much overleavened with the Scotish Victory. That you may the better understand how fare they mean to be humbled, Hugh Peter the Pulpit-Buffon was one of their Chaplains, who in stead of delivering the Oracles of God, delivered the Oracles of the Council of War to them, talking obscurely of Accommodation and Moderation, and advising them to adjourn till Monday or Tuesday (I think) that the Army might cut out work for these Journeymen of theirs; and might work their wills upon the City in the mean time, when no House should be sitting for the Citizens to address their Complaints to; for in the interim they Garrisoned Black Friars, and S. Paul's, reforming it, from the Church of God, to a Den of Thiefs, Stable of Horses, and Brothel of Whores, and Robbed divers Halls in London of vast sums of money by the prerogative royal of the Saints.  
The 11. day of Decemb. 1648. 
26 A declaration of the secured and secluded Members, against the violence of the Army.  the said secured Members published a printed Paper, as followeth: 

A solemn Protestation of the imprisoned and secluded Members of the Commons House: Against the horrid force and violence of the Officers and Soldiers of the Army, on Wednesday and Thursday last, the 6. and 7. of Decemb. 1648.  
WE the Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses of the Commons House of Parliament, (above one hundred in number) forcibly seized upon, violently kept out of the House by the Officers and Soldiers of the Army under Thomas Lord Fairfax, coming thither to discharge our duties on Wednesday and Thursday last, being the 6. and 7. of this instant December; do hereby, in our Names, and in the Names if the respective Counties, Cities, and Burroughs for which we serve, and of all the Commons of England, solemnly protest and declare to the whole Kingdom, That this execrable force and open violence upon our Persons, and the whole House of Commons, by the Officers and Army under their command, in marching up against their command, and placing strong armed Guards of Horse and Foot upon them, without and against their Order, is the highest and most detestable force and breach of Privilege and Freedom ever offered to any Parliament of England; and that all Acts, Ordinances, Votes and proceed of the said House made since the 6. of Decemb. aforesaid, or hereafter to be made during our restraint and forcille seclusion from the House, and the continuance of the Army's force upon it, are no way obligatory, but void and null to all intents and purposes: And that all Contrivers of, Actors in, and Assistants to this unparallelled force and treasonable armed violence, are open Enemies to, and professed Subverters of the Privileges, Rights, and Freedom of Parliament, and Disturbers of the pace and settlement of the Kingdom; and aught to be proceeded against as such: and that all Members of Parliament, and Commoners of England, by their solemn Covenant and duty, under pain of deepest perjury and eternal infamy, are obliged unanimously to oppose and endeavour to their utmost power to bring them to exemplary and condign punishment for this transcendent offence, tending to the dissolution of the present, and subversion of all future Parliaments, and of the fundamental Government and Laws of this Realm.  
All which we held it our duties to declare and publish to the world, for fear our stupid silence should give any tacit consent or approbation to this most detestable crime, and make us guilty of betraying the Privileges, Freedom, and Honour of this Parliament, to our perpatuall reproach, and the prejudice of all succeeding Parliaments.  
Dated at Westminster, Decemb. 11. 1648.    

27. The tame Lords and insolent Commons pass and print a Declaration against the said Declaration.  The said solemn Protestation of the secured Members being complained of, was sufficiently barked at in the House of Commons; and the Lords fell a barking at it too for company: and at last (that they might confute it with Authority instead of Reason) both Houses passed this following declaration against it: 

The Declaration of the Lords and Commons: Against the first Declaration of the secured and secluded Members.  
THe Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament, taking into their consideration a printed Paper, entitled [A solemn Protestation of the Imprisoned and secluded Members, etc.] wherein amongst other things, it is Declared, That all Acts, Ordinances, Votes, and proceed of the House of Commons, made since the 6. of this instant Decemb. or hereafter to be made during their restraint and forcible seclusion from the House, 
The present visible Government is the Power of the Sword in the hands of Rebels. The fundamental Government of this Kingdom is destroyed by the Faction remaining in the House of Commons, by their Acts, For abolishing Kingly Government, The House of Peers, their putting down Trials by Jury of 12. men, and setting up illegal High Courts of Justice, their usurping the Supreme Authority, their m●k●ng Treason an Arbitrary crime, their erecting a Council of State, o●, Hogens mogens, forty Tyrants in lieu of one King, their altering the stile of Writs and Legal Proceed, etc. Sentence given before any person accused, or heard to speak for himself. Oh the brutish understanding of men whose sins and fears have intoxicated their wits!  and the continuance of the Army's force upon it, are no way obligatory, but void and null to all intents and purposes: The said Lords and Commons do thereupon judge and declare, the said printed Paper to be false, scandalous, and seditious, and tending to destroy the visible and fundamental Government of this Kingdom: And do therefore order and ordain the said printed Paper to be suppressed, and that all persons whatsoever that have had any hand in, or given consent unto the contriving, framing, printing or publishing thereof, shall be adjudged, and hereby are adjudged uncapable to bear any Office, or have any place of trust or authority in this Kingdom, or to sit as Members of either House of Parliament. And do further order and ordain, That every Member of either House respectively now absent, upon his first coming to sit in that House whereof he is a Member, for the manifestation of his innocence, shall disavow and disclaim his having any hand in, or given consent unto the contriving, framing, printing or publishing of the said paper, or the matter therein contained.    
The 12. and 13. Decem●er, 
28. The Conventicle of Commons repeat ex tempore in a thin House under a force; the Votes deliberately passed in a full and free House.  the Commons (that they might purge their Journal Books of all State-Heresies, as well as their House of all State-Hereticks) voted this Index expurgatorius, which in their own canting language I here present to you.  
1. Resolved etc. That the Vote of this House, Jan. 3. 1647. for revoking the Order, Sept. 9 1647. for suspending Commissary Lion●l Copley from being a Member of this House; is of dangerous consequence, and tending to the destruction of the justice and peace of the Kingdom, and is hereby repealed. The like for the rest of the Impeached Members, mutatis mutandis.  
2. Resolved, etc. That the Vote of the House, June 30. 1648. whereby this House did concur with the Lords (for opening of a way to the Treaty with His Majesty for a safe and well-grounded Peace) That the Votes. Jan. 3. 1647. forbidding all Addresses to be made to, or from the King, be taken off; was highly dishonourable to the proceed of Parliament, and apparently destructive to the good of the kingdom, (sure they meant the kingdom of the Saints.) They likewise by four several Votes, revived the said 4. Votes, Jan. 3. for no Addresses, in terminis.  
3. Resolved, etc. That the Vote, july 28. 1648. That a Treaty be bad in the Isle of Wight with the King in person by a Committee appointed by both Houses, upon the Propositions presented to him at Hampton-Court; was highly dishonourable, and apparently destructive to the good of the kingdom. 
The House adjourned.  Good Boys, they can say their Lessons well, and apace too, when the Army whips them on; they will shortly have a jubilee of play-days for their pains, 40 or 50 new Lights snuffed by the Council of War, can better discover what is dishonourable, and apparently destructive to their own kingdom, than 340. or 244 could do at other times: If you ask what Debates they had? they could have none, being now freed from the contradiction of sinners: being all Birds of a feather, taught the same tune by the same Masters, and singing in the same cage.  

29. A Protest to be entered against the Votes, That the King's Grants were a ground for a settlement; a Touchstone of I Gourdons. See the Order, Dec. 5. 1648.  Yet the unanimous recalling those Votes was not thought (by those that think one thing and say another) a sufficient Test all were confidently for them, that voted with them; wherefore godly John Gourdon (a Fellow that spits venom as naturally as a Toad) moved, That a Protestation might suddenly be drawn up, and every Member to set his hand to it, in detestation of those repealed Votes. A Committee was appointed accordingly. The 14 Decemb. the said newfound Shiboleth was brought in by Gourdon, which caused divers that were not yet mad enough for Bedlam to forbear the House, or rather Conventicle.  
Decemb. 14. They repealed the Ordinance lately passed (after mature debate) for settling the Countie-Militias of the Kingdom, 
30. The Militia of the Counties new settled in Independent hands.  because there were some Presbyterians in it not well-affected to the Army; and in that new sense, Malignants: And ordered, that a new Ordinance, with a List of new Names, of Saints Militant (sounding like a Jewish pedigree) be brought in; for (through the indiscretion of the Presbyterians) the Independents have had the custody of our Purses a long time, and now must keep our Swords too, and then, Stand and deliver, will be the only Law of the Land.  
About this time Major General Brown, one of the Sheriffs of London, was fetched out of the City by a Party of Horse, 
31. Sheriff Brown carried away out of the City Prisoner to S. James'.  and carried before the mechanic Council of War at Whitehall, (although a Member of Parliament, and consequently one of their Masters) where he told them, He knew they had nothing to charge him withal, but his honest endeavours to preserve His Majesty, and His Posterity, together with the Parliament, City, and Kingdom, with the Laws and Government thereof from being rooted up by them, and that he feared them not. Col. Hewson (the one-eyed Cobbler) was so saucy as to tell him, He was too peremptory; at last they committed him Prisoner to S. James'.  
And that he might not want company, 
32. Sir Will. Waller, etc. removed to S. James'.  they sent a Warrant to Capt. Laurence Marshal General, to remove Sir Will. Waller, Sir John Clotworthy, Major Gen. Massey, and Commissary General Copley from the King's Head to him.  
The Marshal showing them the Warrant, 
33. They protest against the General's Authority.  they protested against the Authority, and offered the Protest to the Marshal in writing, desiring him to show it to the General; which he refusing to receive, Sir Will. Waller desired all the company to witness what Protestation they did make in behalf of themselves, and all the Freeborn people of England, against the violent and illegal encroachments of the General and Council of War, against the Laws and Liberties, and read it aloud, as followeth: 

A Declaration of the taking away of Sir Will. Waller, Sir John Clotworthy, Major Gen: Massey, and Colonel Copley, Members of the House of Commons, from the King's Head in the Strand to S. James': Together with their Protestation read at their removal: With a Copy of the L. General's Order for the same. Tuesday, Decemb. 12. 1648.  
Marshal Laurence came and acquainted Sir William Waller, Sir John Clotworthy, Maj. Gen. Massey, and M. Lionel Copley, Members of the House of Commons, That he had Orders from the Lord General and Council of the Army, to remove them from the other Prisoners to S. James': They replied to him, That they desired to see his Orders: The Marshal answered, They were only verbal; but the Gentlemen insisting to see a Warrant for their remove; the Marshal went to the General, and from him about six a clock brought an Order; a true Copy of which follows, Viz.  
YOu are upon sight hereof, to remove Sir Will. Waller, Sir John Clotworthy, Major General Massey, and Colonel Copley, from the King's Head Inn (where they are now in Custody) to S. James': And for so doing, this shall be your Warrant.  
Given under my hand, Decemb. 12. 1648. T. Fairfax.  
To Marshal General Lawrence.    
This Order being showed unto the foresaid Gentlemen, Sir Will. Waller produced a Paper, desiring that the same might be presented to the General; which Marshal Laurence refused to receive: Upon which, the said Sir William Waller, and the other three Gentlemen, desired the said Marshal and all the Gentlemen there present, to attend and witness to that Protestation, which they did there make in behalf of themselves, and all the Commons and Freeborn Subjects of England, so with a distinct and audible voice read their Protestation, as followeth: 

WE whose Names are hereunto subscribed, being Members of the House of Commons, and Freemen of England, do hereby declare and protest before God, Angels, and Men, That the General and Officers of the Army, being raised by the Authority of Parliament, and for defence and maintenance of the privileges thereof, have not, or aught to have any power or jurisdiction to apprehend, secure, detain, imprison, or remove our persons from place to place by any colour or Authority whatsoever; nor yet to question or try us, or any of us by Martial Law, or otherwise, for any offence or crime whatsoever, which can or shall be objected against us: And that the present Imprisonment and removal of our persons is a high violation of the Rights and Privileges of Parliament, and of the Fundamental Laws of the Land, and a higher usurpation and exercise of an Arbitrary and unlawful power, then hath been heretofore pretended to, or attempted by this or any King or other power whatsoever within this Realm; notwithstanding which, We and every of us do Declare our readiness to submit ourselves to the Legal trial of a Free Parliament, for any crime or misdemeanour that can, or shall be objected against us.  
At the Kings-head in the Strand. In witness whereof, we have hereto subscribed our Names the 12. of December, 1648. 

William Waller,  
Edward Massey,  
John Clotworthy,  
Lionel Copley.      
About this time, Mr. Pelham, Mr. Lane, Mr. Vaughan, 
34. Four secured Members discharged.  Sir Simon Dewes, (Members secured) were set at liberty without any engagement, although at first it was demanded they should engage not to attempt any thing against the present actings of this Parliament and Army; which they refused.  
About Decemb. 11. 1648. 
35. The Agreement of the People published and Answered.  was delivered into the world a monstrous Beggar's Brat, called [The Agreement of the People.] It is very judiciously Answered by Mr. William Ashurst; all the Contents thereof is in the Remonstrance of the Army. 20. Nou. 1648. whereof I have spoken already.  
1. It proposeth, That the People (that is, some small part of the People, the Army and their faction) without any colour of Law or Right should agree together to take away finally the present Government by King, Lords, and Commons, which the King's Party heretofore charged upon the Parliament as their Design for which they fought, whereupon, the Parliament to vindicate themselves, published many Declarations, and passed sundry Votes, That they would not alter the Government by King, Lords, and Commons; it also takes away the legal right from Burroughs to choose members of Parliament; this admitted, they may as well conspire to take away any Law, or any man's Life or Estate, by which rule we could enjoy nothing but as the will of any number of men that shall call themselves The People. And upon the same ground that those that shall subscribe this Agreement may call themselves the People, may those that shall refuse to subscribe call themselves the People, and upon far better grounds, as being fare the more numerous, and standing for defence of those ancient Laws, which do constitute the People and Commonwealth of England, which will breed infinite confusions and divisions: and what those that call themselves the People now agree to, they may alter upon the next change of humour or interest.  
2. The inconveniences of the present Government have not yet been plainly discovered, nor no Trial hath been made by the present known legal power of England; whether those inconveniences may not be removed without subverting the present Government, and introducing so total a change as will be very dangerous and grievous to all sorts and conditions of men.  
3. In the Protestation, May 5. 1641. and the Covenant, Septemb. 27. 1643. we are bound to defend Parliaments, and to oppose and bring to punishment all such as shall endeavour the subversion of Parliaments, which this Agreement clearly doth.  
4. This Agreement encroacheth desperately upon the liberty of the People of England, in the Election of this Representative; depriving them that have constantly adhered to this Parliament as well as the King's Party (if they cannot in conscience subscribe it) from Electing, or being Elected; yet they shall have Laws and Taxes imposed upon them by Subscribers, who are the least, and the least considerable party of the Kingdom, and upon whom they confer no trust; which is to disfranchise the Nonsubscribers, and reduce them to the condition of Conquered Slaves. It is a known Maxim in Law, Quod omnes tangit, ab omnibus tractaeni debet, what concerns all men must be debated and agreed to by all men, either personally or representatively.  
5. It will raise factions and feuds between the Subscribers and Non-subscribers of the Parliament party.  
6. It takes away Magistracy and Government, not only by placing such a Supreme power over them as is disputable; nay, apparently illegal: But by making the heady multitude (the People) supreme Judges over the said Representative: for although it inflicts the penalty of death upon the Resisters of their Orders; yet is with this salvo, except such Representative shall expressly violate this Agreement, which makes every man or number of men that shall get power into their hands Judges of it; nor is there any other Judge designed: and (if there were) who shall judge that Judge? & sic in infinitum, the legal supreme Trust of all public interests being taken away, our vagabond thoughts wander in a circle, not knowing where to repose our trust, all Judges, all Counsels may err, but the rascal multitude are the very sink of errors and corruptions. If therefore the Supreme, the Representative have so unstable an authority, what shall the subordinate Magistrate acting under them have?  
7. It smells so much of the Jesuit, that it tolerateth Popery in private Houses; contrary to the known Laws of the Land: Popery (like the old Serpent) if it once get in the head, will soon insinuate the whole body, being so well backed by Potent Princes and Counsels from beyond Sea. And truly I know not what to say against Popery, where Heresy, Schism, Atheism, and Blasphemy are openly tolerated, and exempted from the power of the civil Magistrate, as in this Agreement.  
8. It will lose Ireland; the managing of the War there being legally in this Parliament by Act passed, not in this new-fangled Representative.  
9 It divides us from Scotland.  
10. It destroys the Cause for which the Parliament so often Declared, Voted, Protested and Covenanted that they fought, viz. Defence of Parliaments, Religion, Laws and Liberties, and bestows the Cause upon the King, as if He only (from the beginning) had fought for them: which all men have reason to believe, when they shall see the Parliament make such ill use of their Victory, as to root them all up. And this and all other Parliament-Armies were Commissioned to preserve this Parliament; by this Authority they have their Pay and Indemnity, without which they are Thiefs, Rebels, and Murderers.  
11. It demands, that there be no Lawyers nor Laws, but new Rules in English to be made from time to time by the new Representative, who are to be chosen and trusted only by a small faction of Subscribers, (as hath been said) according to which justice shall be administered, not by Mayors, Sheriffs, Justices of the peace, Officers always ready, but by hundred Courts, who are to supply the room of all the Judges and Lawyers of the Kingdom: and all this to lie in the breasts of 12. Men in every Hundred (of the Tribe of the Godly be sure) who peradventure can neither write nor read, nor have responsible Estates to satisfy wrongs done: these shall do justice by providence and revelation,  
12. It destroyeth all great and public Interests (and therefore cannot stand) Kings, Lords, Soldiers, Magistrates, Parliaments, Lawyers, Ministers, who will oppose it, because it confounds and destroys Religion, and depriveth the Ministry of its lot, Tithes: stopping their mouths with famine, purposely to cast them off: and generally all men of quality and discretion will withstand it; because it gives no security for enjoyment of liberty and property, nor for increase of learning, civility, and piety; who then are left to own and subscribe it but desperate forlorn Persons, who, because they cannot bring their actions under the protection of our present Laws and Government, will bring the Laws and Government to their own corrupt wills and interests, and therefore will sign this Agreement: no obedience being given to this Representative, but upon condition (that they kept this Agreement) and their being no other Judges of their keeping it but the Subscribers; who in the result of all, hath the Law in their own Wills.  

36. This Agreement of the People was condemned by the House of Commons. 9 Nou. 1647.  This Agreement of the People is the same which was subscribed by 9 Regiments of Horse, and 7. of Foot, and presented with a Petition to the House of Commons, Novemb. 5. 1647, by the Agitators, Gifforde the Jesuit being then in the Lobby with them, and very active therein. Upon reading and debate hereof the House then declared their judgements against it, by passing these Votes: 

Die Martis, 9 Nou. 1647.  
A Paper directed to the Supreme Authority of the Nation the Commons in Parliament assembled, The just and earnest Petition of those whose Names are subscribed, in behalf of themselves and all the Freeborn people of England: Together with a Paper annexed, entitled, An Agreement of the people for present and future peace, upon grounds of Common Right, avowed. How these Papers come now to be owned, those that oppose them violenrly secured by the Army, by the connivance (at least) of the dregs of the House now sitting, let the Saints now voting in the House examine their pockets, for (I am confident) their consciences had no hand in the business.  
Resolved, etc. That the matters contained in these Papers, are destructive to the beings of Parliaments, and to the fundamental Government of the Kingdom.  
Resolved, etc. That a Letter should be sent to the General, and those Papers enclosed; together with the Vote of this House upon them: and that he be desired to examine the proceed of this business in the Army, and return an Account thereof to this House.    
The General and Council of War in pursuance of this Vote, 
37. The said Agreement damned by the General and Council of War, and a Soldier shot by sentence for promoting it.  condemned one of the Agitators who promoted it, and shot him to death at Ware (you see what it is to do a thing unseasonably, this Design of the Army and their Party was not yet ripe) wherewith they acquainted the House; yet they kept in the same fire in the City still, where some of their Confederates, 23. of the same Novem. sent the same Agreement, etc. enclosed in a Letter, with a Petition into the House of Commons: whereupon the House (giving thanks to the General for the execution done at Ware, and desiring him to examine that business to the bottom) unanimously passed these Votes: 

Die Martis, 23. Nou. 1647.  
A Petition directed to the Supreme Authority of England, 
38. The said Agreement condemned by the House a second time. 23. Nou. 1647.  the Commons in Parliament assembled, and entitled, The humble Petition of many Freeborn People of England, sent in a Letter directed to Mr. Speaker, and opened by a Committee thereunto appointed, was read the first and second time.  
Resolved, etc. That this Petition is a seditious and contemptuous avowing and prosecution of a former Petition and Paper annexed, styled, An Agreement of the People, formerly adjudged by this House to be destructive to the being of Parliaments, and fundamental Government of the Kingdom, etc.  
Resolved, etc. That Tho. Prince, Cheesemonger, and Sam. Chidley, be forthwith committed Prisoners to the Prison of the Gatehouse, there to remain Prisoners during the pleasure of this House, for a seditious and contemptuous avowing and prosecution of a former Petition and Paper annexed, styled, An Agreement of the People, formerly adjudged by this House destructive to the being of Parliaments, and fundamental Government of the Kingdom.  
Resolved, etc. That Jeremy Ives, Tho. Taylor, and Will. Larner, be forthwith committed Prisoners to the Prison at Newgate, etc. as last aforesaid, in Terminis.  
Afterwards by an Ordinance, Decemb. 17. 1647. for Electing Common-Councel-men, and other Officers in London, they expressly ordained, That no Person who hath contrived, abetted, persuaded, or entered into that engagement, entitled, [The Agreement of the People,] declared to be destructive to the being of Parliaments, and fundamental Government of the Kingdom; be elected, chosen, or put into the Office of the Lord Major of the City of London, Sheriff, Alderman, Deputy of a Ward, or Common-Councel-man of the said City, or shall have any voice in the election of any such Officers, for the space of one whole year; and be uncapable of any of the said Places: yet now these petty Fellows keep the whole City in awe.    

39 Yet this Agreement since inserted into the Remonstrance of the Army, owned by the General and Council of War; and Nou. 20. 1648. obtruded upon the House.  These multiplied Votes and Ordinance, laid this Agreement of the People asleep until the beginning of November, 1648. when (to hinder the peace of this Kingdom, and relief of Ireland) the Jesuits and Agitators prosecuted it again in the Army, and inserted it again verbatim in the Remonstrance of the Army, Novemb. 20. 1648. to break off the Treaty with the King, bring him to capital punishment, and cast the odium of all upon the Parliament: And the General and his Council of Officers (though they had formerly shot a Soldier to death for prosecuting it) unanimously approved it at Saint Albon, November 16. 1648. and obtruded it upon the House the 20. Novemb. and when they found the House so resolute in the Treaty as to proceed, they first seized the Person of the King, and carried Him to Hurst-Castle, as aforesaid; and when the House at last closed up the Treaty with this Vote, That the King's Answers to the Propositions of both Houses were a ground for the Houses to proceed upon towards a settlement: 
40. Why they purged the House.  They seized upon 41. Members of Parliament, secured them, and villainously treated them; secluded above 160. and frighted away at least 40. or 50. more, leaving only their own  Junto of 40. or. 50. thriving Members sitting to unvote in a thin House under a force, what had been voted in a full and free House; To vote down the Kingly Office and House of Peers, to vote the Supreme Authority to be in the People, and in the House of Commons as their Representative, clean contrary to their three last recited Votes. To bring the King to capital punishment, before a new invented, illegal, mixed Court, (consisting of engaged persons) erected for that purpose, that hath neither foundation by Prescription nor Law, and to erect a Council or Committee of States, out of their number (in the nature of Lords, State's General, or Hogen Mogens) with an unknown and therefore unlimited Authority, to continue in being after the dissolution of this Parllament. So farewel Kings, Lords and Commons, Religion, Laws and Liberties, and all Votes, Declarations, Remonstrances, Protestation and Covenant, made heretofore only to gull the People, and carry on their design.  
About 19 Decemb. 
41. Divers Lords do homage to the General, and wave their honours.  divers Lords went to do homage to the General, to express their good affections to him, and their concurrence with him for the Common good, and their readiness to wave their privileges and Titles if they shall be found burdensome to the liberty of the People, and had a gracious nod for their pains.  
About this time the Lords and Commons passed an Ordinance for electing Common-Councel-men and Officers in London for the year following, to this effect, 
42. An Ordinance to curb the City in electing Officers.  That no Person that hath been imprisoned or sequestered (rightfully or wrongfully) or hath assisted the King against the Parliament in the first or second War, or hath been aiding or assisting in bringing in the Scots Army to invade this Kingdom, or did subscribe or abett the treasonable Engagement, 1647. or that did aid, assist, or abett the late Tumult within the Cities of London and Westminster, or the Counties of Kent, Essex, Middlesex, or Surrey, shall be elected, chosen, or put into the Office or Place of Lord Mayor of London, Alderman, Alderman's Deputy, Common-Councel-man, or into any office or place of trust within the City, for the year ensuing, or be capable to give his voice for choosing any Person to any the Offices aforesaid; And that if any Persons comprehend under the aforesaid exceptions being chosen, shall presume to sit in the Court of Aldermen, Common-Councel, or execute any of the aforesaid Offices, he shall forfeit 200. And all such Elections to be null and void, the Lord Mayor to take order that this Ordinance be read at all Elections, and punctually observed: and also to afford the liberty of the Pole, it being required by any of the Electors present. But this Ordinance not giving full satisfaction to the Zealots, Skippon stood up, 
Skippon moveth for an Addition to the said Ordinance.  and looking as demurely as if he meant to say Grace, he told the House, That the late Ordinance was not sufficient to keep Malignants out of Office in London, for Mr. Speaker (said he) It is not enough to exclude Delinquents, or the Abettors of the late Insurrections, etc. for there are a more dangerous sort of men amongst them: They which promoted the Treaty, and endeavoured to have the King brought to London, except these be made incapable of Authority, it will be a great discouragement to the Godly party of the City. So an additional Ordinance to this end was ordered to be brought in; you fee to endeavour peace and settlement, is accounted by these Saints militant a sufficient crime to forfeit a man's Birthright.  

43. The Members subscribe John Gourdons Protestation, sect. 29.  I formerly told you of John Gourdons motion, That all Members might subscribe a Protestation against the Votes for a Treaty with the King in the Isle of Wight, and especially against the Vote, 5. Decemb. 1648. which declareth, That His Majesty's Answers to the Propositions of both Houses were a ground for the two Houses to proceed to a setlement: and until such dissent or disapprovall to forbear the House: This was done in obedience to the demands of the Army in their Remonstrance presented 20. Novemb. 1648. 
Sect. 23.  And although it be so clearly against the Orders and Privileges of Parliament, that divers members formerly (and some this Parliament) have been suspended the House, and committed to the Tower for offering it, because it tends to breed factions and divisions in the House, and Tumults without doors; yet every request from an Armed man is a Command and must be obeyed.  
The List of the Names of these new Protestants followeth, and (it is hoped) they will in time give better Reasons then (the power of the Sword) for it, 20. December 1648. subscribed, The Lord lisle, Col. Boswel, Io. Gourdon, Lord Grace, Peregrine Pelham, Col. Jones, Col. Temple, Col. Venus, Sir Tho. Malevourer, Sir Thomas Wroth, Sir Jo. Bourcher, Col. Peter Temple, Humphrey Edwards, (who waited on the King to the House when he demanded the 5. Members, and his Election is adjudged void by a Committee) Mr. Tho. Chaloner, Sir Gregory Norton, (who gave a man 20 l. to wait on the King in his place as Pensioner when He demanded the 5. Members) Michael Oldsworth, Augustine Garland, Sir Jo. Danvers, Mr. Dove, Mr. Henry Smith, Mr. Frye, (whose Election is voted void) Mr. Searle, Nich. Love, John lisle, Coll. Rigby, Cornelius Holland, Coll. Ludlow, Greg. Clement, Coll. Purefoy, Coll. Stapeley, Mr. Dunch, Mr. Cawley, Coll. Downes, Jo. Carey, Jo. Blackiston, Tho. Scot, Decemb. 22. Coll. Hutchinson, Sir Hen. Mildnay, Sir James Harrington, Decemb. 25. Col. Edward Harvey, Alderman Pennington, Alderman Atkins, Dan. Blagrave (voted out of the House) Coll. Moor, Coll Millington, Mr. Prideaux, Roger Hill the little Lawyer, Dennis Bond, Coll. Harrington, Master Hodges, Master Valentine.  
Sixteen of the imprisoned Members were about this time sent for by the General; when they came, out came Ireton, 
44. Sixteen imprisoned Members discharged without engagement.  and finding Mr. Pryn amongst them, he chid the Martial for bringing him, and commanded him to be taken away; but Mr. Pryn refusing to departed, Ireton commanded him to be thrust out by head and shoulders: whereupon Mr. Pryn openly protested, That the Army endeavoured utterly to subvert the fundamental Laws of the Land, and Privilege of Parliament. That they had no power over him, nor any Member of Parliament. That their late force acted upon them, and their proceed was illegal, and traitorous, That all men were bound to bring them to condign punishment as Rebels and Traitors to their God, their King, Country and Parliament. So Mr. Pryn was removed by the Martial, and Ireton went in once more to consult the Oracle, and at last came out again to the Gent: telling them, It was the General's pleasure they should be all released, attempting nothing against the actings of this present Parliament and Army, but (said the insolent fellow) let that be at your peril: so the Gentlemen expressing that they would give no engagement, were released without any.  
The 22. Decemb. both Juntoes of four Lords, 
45. A mock-Fast kept by the two Houses, and Hugh Peter's Comic Sermon.  and twenty Commons, kept a mock-fast at Saint Margaret's, Westminster; where Hugh Peter's the Pulpit-Buffon, acted a Sermon before them; the subject of his Sermon was, Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt, which he applied to the Leaders of this Army, whose design is to lead the people out of Egyptian bondage: But how must this be done? that is not yet revealed unto me (quoth Hugh) and then covering his eyes with his hands, and laying down his head on the cushion, until the People falling into a laughter, awakened him: He started up, and cried out, Now I have it by Revelation, now I shall tell you; This Army must root up Monarchy, not only here, but in France and other Kingdoms round about; this is to bring you out of Egypt: this Army is that corner stone cut cut of the Mountain, which must dash the powers of the earth to pieces. But it is objected, The way we walk, in is without precedent; what think you of the Virgin Mary? was there ever any precedent before, that a Woman should conceive a Child without the company of a Man? this is an Age to make examples and precedents in. 
46. The Council of War vote a Toleration of all Religions.   
Decemb. 25. The Council of War voted a Toleration of all Religions: you see they vote like Statesmen, as well as their Parliament.  

47. The Common Council petition against Skippons additional Ordinance in vain  About this time, a Committee of Common-Councel-men came complainning to the House of Skippons additional Ordinance, That none should Elect, or be Elected, or execute the place of Lord Mayor, Alderman, Alderman's Deputy, Common-Councel-man, etc. that had signed the Petition for a Personal Treaty, etc. because they found the City generally engaged in the said Petition: so that they could not find men enough to Elect, or be Elected: Wherhfore it was referred to a Committee to think of a remedy worse than the disease, as it proved afterwards. You see the petitioning for a Personal Treaty was so universal and public that it could not be carried on by any private design in Conventicles and corners; as are all the bloody Petitions for justice, justice against capital Delinquents, and the most High, which being penned and solicited by the Army, or sectary Committee-men, 
48. Somersetshire encouraged by the House to associate all the well-affected, i. e. all the Anarchists and Cheaters.  and subscribed and prosecuted by some few beggarly Schismatics without Cloaks in the Names of whole Counties, (whom they had the impudence to belie) were entertained in state; and they, and that well-affected County (though they abhorred the villainy) thanked for their pains.  
* 25. Decemb. The House voted a Letter to be sent by way of encouragement to the County of Somerset; to go on with settling their association with the well-affected, and forces of the Counties adjacent; this is to associate and Arm all the Schismatics, Committee-men, guilty and desperate Persons, Antimonarchists, and Anarchists, against all the peaceable and honest men of the Kingdom.  
26. Decemb. Mr. Pryn sent a Letter to the General, 
49. Mr. pryn's Letter to the General, demanding his liberty.  demanding his liberty; and seconded it with a Declaration, as followeth:  
Mr. Pryn's Demand of his Liberty to the General, Decemb. 26. 1648. with his Answer thereto. And his Declaration and Protestation thereupon.  
For the Honourable Lord Fairfax, General of the present Army.  
THese are to acquaint your Lordship, 
50. Mr. pryn's Declaration seconding his said Letter.  That I being a Member of the Commons House of Parliament, a Freeman of England, a great Sufferer for, and an Assertor of the Subject's Liberties against all Regal and Prelatical tyranny, and no way subject to your own, your Council of Wars, or Officers military power or jurisdiction, going to the House to discharge my duty on the 6, of this instant December, was on the stairs next the Commons House door, forcibly kept back, entering the House, seized on, and carried away thence, (without any pretext of Lawful Authority thereto assigned) by Colonel Pride, and other Officers and Soldiers of the Army under your Command. And notwithstanding the Houses demand of my enlargement both by their Sergeant and otherwise; ever since unjustly detained under your Marshal's custody, and tossed from place to place, contrary to the known Privileges of Parliament, the Liberty of the Subject, and fundamental Laws of the Land, which you are engaged to maintain against all violation. And therefore do hereby demand from your Lordship my present enlargement, and just liberty, with your Answer hereunto.  
From the Kings-head in the Strand, Decemb. 26. 1648. William Pryn.  
This was delivered to the Generals own hands at his House in Queen-street, about three of the clock, the same day it bears date; by Doctor Bastwijcke: Who returned this Answer by him, upon the reading thereof:  
THat he knew not but Mr. Pryn was already released, and that he would send to his Officers to know what they had against him.  
Who it seems act all things without his privity, and steer all the Armies present counsels and designs according to their absolute wills.  

The Public Declaration and Protestation of William Pryn of Lincoln's Inn, Esquire; Against his present Restraint, and the present destructive Counsels, and Jesuitical proceed of the General, Officers, and Army.  
I William Pryn, a Member of the House of Commons, and Freeman of England, who have formerly suffered 8. years' Imprisonment (four of them close, three in exile) three Pillories, the loss of my Ears, Calling, Estate, for the vindicating of the Subjects just Rights and Liberties against the arbitrary tyranny & injustice of King and Prelates, and defence of the Protestant Religion here established; spent most of my strength and studies in asserting the People's just freedom, and the power and privileges of Parliament, against all Opposers, and never received one farthing (by way of damages, gift, or recompense) or the smallest benefit or preferment whatsoever, for all my sufferings and public services; Do here solemnly declare before the most just and righteous God of Heaven and Earth (the Searcher of all hearts) the whole Kingdom, English Nation, and the World, that having according to the best of my skill and judgement faithfully discharged my trust and duty in the Commons House, upon real grounds of Religion, Conscience, Justice, Law, prudence and right reason, for the speedy and effectual setlement of the peace and safety of our three distracted, bleeding, dying Kingdoms, on Monday, Dec. 4. I was on Wednesday morning following (the 6 of this instant) going to the House to discharoe my duty, on the Parliament stairs next the Commons door, forcibly seized upon by Col. Pride, Sir Hardress Waller, and other Officers of the Army (who had then beset the House with strong Guards, and whole Reg: of Horse and Foot) haled violently thence into Queen's Court, notwithstanding my Protestation of breach of privilege, both as a Member and a Freeman, by a mere usurped tyrannical power, without any lawful Authority, or cause assigned; and there forceibly detained Prisoner (with other Members there restrained by them) notwithstanding the Houses double demand of my present enlargement to attend its service by the Sergeant, and that night (contrary to faith and promise) carried Prisoner to Hell, and there shut up all night, (with 40. other Members) without any lodging or any other accommodations, contrary to the known Privileges of Parl. the fundamental Laws of the Realm, and Liberty of the subject; which both Houses, the 3. Kingdoms, the General with all Officers and Soldiers of the Army, are by solemn Covenant and duty obliged inviolably to maintain. Since which I have, without any lawful power or authority been removed and kept prisoner in several places, put to great expenses, debarred the liberty of my person, calling; & denied that hereditary freedom which belongs to me of right, both as a Freeman, a Member, an eminent sufferer for the public, and a Christian, by these who have not the least shadow of authority or justice to restrain me, and never yet objected the least cause for this my unjust restraint.  
I do therefore hereby publicly protest against all these their proceed, as the highest usurpation of an arbitrary and tyrannical power, the greatest breach of faith, trust, Covenant, privileges of Parl. and most dangerous encroachment on the Subject's liberties and Laws of the Land, ever practised in this Kingdom by any King or Tyrant, especially by pretended Saints, who hold forth nothing but justice, righteousness, liberty of conscience, and public freedom in all their Remonstrances; lest they are triumphantly trampling them all under their armed iron feet. And do further hereby appeal to, & summon them, before all the Tribunals and powers in heaven and earth for exemplary justice against them, who cry out so much for it against others less tyrannical, oppressive, unjust, and fedifragus to God and men than themselves. And do moreover remonstrate, that all their present exorbitant actings against the King Parl. present Government, and their new modled representative, are nothing else but the designs & projects of Jesuits, Popish Priests and Recusants; (who bear chief sway in their Counsels (to destroy and subvert our Religion, Laws, Liberties, Government, Magistracy, Ministry, the present and all future Parl. the King, his Posterity, and our 3. Kingdoms, yea, the General, Officers, and Army themselves, and that with speedy and inevitable certainty; to betray them all to our foreign Popish Enemies; and give a just occasion to the Prince and Duke, now in the Papists power, to alter their Religion, and engage them, and all foreign Princes and Estates to exert all their power to suppress and extirpate the Protestant Religion and Professors of it through all the world, which these unchristian, scandalous, treacherous, rebellious, tyrannical, Jesuitical, disloyal, bloody present Counsels and exorbitances of this Army of Saints, so much pretending to piety and justice, have so deeply wounded, scandalized, and rendered detestable to all pious, carnal & moral men of all conditions. All which I am, and shall always be ready to make good before God, Angels, Men, and our whole three Kingdoms in a free and full Parliament, upon all just occasions? and seal the truth of it with the last drop of my dearest blood.  
In witness whereof, I have hereunto subscribed my Name: at the Sign of the Kings-head in the Strand, Decemb. 26. 1648. William Pryn.   

51. The Council of War forbidden all state and ceremony to the King. From Dec. 25. to 1. January, Num. 283.  27. Decemb. The Council of War (who manage the business in relation to the King, saith the Diurnal,) ordered, That all state and ceremony should be forborn to the King, and his Attendants lessened, to mortify him by degrees, and work Him to their desires.  
When it was first moved in the House of Commons to proceed capitally against the King; 
52. Cromwel's Sp. in the Ho. when it was first propounded to try the King.  Cromwell stood up and told them, That if any man moved this up●n d●signe, he should think him the greatest Traitor in the world; but since providence and necessity had cast them upon it, he should pray God to bless their Counsels, though he were not provided on the sudden to give them counsel: this blessing of his proved a curse to the King.  

53. The Ordinance for electing Com: Council men confirmed.  28. Decemb. was brought into and read in the House an Ordinance, explaining the former Ordinance for electing Common-Councel-men, which confirmed the former Ordinance. It was referred back again to the said Committee to consider of taking away the illegal (as they please to miscall them) Oaths of Allegiance, Supremacy, and other Oaths usually administered to Officers, Freemen, etc. of the City.  
The 28. Decemb. Tho. Scot brought in the Ordinance for Trial of the King, it was read and recommitted three several times, 
54. The Ordinance for Trial of His Majesty passed the Commons.  and the Commissioners Names inserted consisting of divers Lords, Commons, aldermans, Citizens, Country Gentlemen, and Soldiers, (that the more persons of all sorts might be engaged in so damnable and treasonable a design) and because this Ordinance, and the proceed thereupon had no foundation in Divinity, Law, reason, nor practice: The Commons to give it a foundation and ground from the authority of their Votes, declared as followeth.  
Resolved, etc. 
Diurnal from 1. jan. to the 8. of jan. 1648. Numb. 286.  That the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament, do declare and adjudge, That by the fundamental Laws of the Realm, it is Treason in the King of England for the time to come to levy War against the Parliament, and Kingdom of England.  
So together with this declaratory Vote the said Ordinance was carried up to the Lords by that Renegado Lord Grace of Grooby, Jan. 2. 1648. 
55. And sent up to the Lords,  The Lords met that day fare more than ordinary, 16. in number, and promising to send an Answer by Messengers of their own.  
The first Question started by some Lords (who had rather have had a thinner House) was, 
56. And Debated.  Whether it should be presently debated? which passed Affirmatively. The first Debate was upon the said Declaratory Vote: The Earl of Manchester told them, The Parliament of England, by the fundamental Laws of England consisted of three Estates, 1. King. 2. Lords. 3. Commons. the King is the first and chief Estate, He calls and dissolves Parliaments, and confirms all their Acts: and without him there can be no Parliament; therefore it is absurd to say, The King can be a Traitor against the Parliament. The Earl of Northumberland said, The greatest part (at least twenty to one) of the people of England were not yet satisfied, whether the King levied war first against the Houses, or the Houses against Him? 
57 The Zealots of the H. of Com: offended with the Lords for casting forth the Ordin: for Trial of the King.  And if the King did levy War first against the Houses, we have no Law to make it Treason in Him, so to do: And for us to declare Treason by an Ordinance, when the matter of fact is not yet proved, nor any Law extant to judge it by, is very unreasonable: so the Lords cast off the Debate, and cast out the Ordinance: and adjourned for seven days.  
Jan. 3. The Zealots of the Commons were very angry at the Lords, and threatened to clap a Pad-lock on the Door of their House: but at last they sent up some of their Members to examine the Lords Book, and see what they have done, who brought word back, that their Lordships had passed 2. Votes; 1. That they do not concur to the said Declaratory Vote. 2. That they had rejected the Ordinance for Trial of the King.  

58. Votes passed by them thereupon.  Hereupon, the Commons resolved to rid their hands of King and Lords together; and presently they voted, That all Members of the House of Commons, and others appointed by order of that House, or Ordinances of both Houses of Parliament, to act in any Ordinance wherein the Lords are joined, shall be empowered and enjoined to sit, and act, and execute in the said several Committees of themselves, notwithstanding the House of Peers join not with them therein. Upon the debate, many hot-brained men insisted upon it, That the Lords who rejected the Ordinance should be themselves Impeached for favouring the grand Delinquent of England (you see the King was likely to have much justice, when his Judges must either condemn Him, or be condemned) others thought it more prudence to touch their Privileges, and let alone their Persons.  
Die jovis, 4. Jan. 1648. The Commons passed these 3. Votes,  

A question in Divinity voted in Parliament never agreed to by Divines. This we find the fact●, in the subversion of our Religion, Laws, Liberties and Properties, though not de Jure. You see that since both Houses ravished the Supremacy from the King, and a petty faction from the Houses; our Laws are first shrunk into arbitrary Ordinances of both Houses; and now into Orders of a remaining Faction of one House.  1. That the People (that is, their own faction, according to their said Principle) are under God the original of all just power.  
2. That the Commons of England in Parliament assembled, being chosen by, and representing the People, have the supreme power of this Nation.  
3. That whatsoever is enacted or declared for Law by the House of Commons assembled in Parliament, hath the force of Law: and all the People of this Nation are concluded thereby, although the consent or concurrence of the King or House of Peers be not had thereunto. This chain-shot sweeps away King, Lords, Laws, Liberties, property, and fundamental Government of this Nation at once; and deposits all that is, or can be near or dear unto us in scrinio pectoris, in the bosoms and consciences of 50. or 60. factious covetous Saints, the dregs and lees of the House of Commons, sitting and acting under the power of an Army: and yet the House of Commons never had any Power of judicature, nor can legally administer an Oath; but this in pursuance of their aforesaid Principle, That they may pass through any form of Government to carry on their Design: The Diurnal tells you, there was not a Negative Voice: this shows under what a terror they sit, when in (things so apparently untrue) no man durst say, No: so the said Declaratory Vote and Ordinance for Trial of His Majesty (by a Court Marshal, if the Diurnal speak true, and yet the King no Prisoner of War) was passed only in the name and by the Authority of the Commons: Notwithstanding, the Order of the House, That the Clerk should not deliver a Copy of the said Ordinance to any man, I here present the Reader with a Copy thereof.  

* An Act of Parliament of the House of Commons for Trial of Charles Stuart King of England. 
59 The Act for Trial of the King.   
Whereas it is notorious that Charles Stuart the now King of England, was not content with the many encroachments which his Predecessors had made upon the People in their Rights and Freedom, hath had a wicked Design to subvert the ancient and foundamentall Laws and Liberties of this Nation, and in their place to introduce an Arbytrary and Tyrannical Government, 
Quaere, Whether the Faction do not translate these Crimes from themselves to the King, with many others.  and that besides all evil ways to bring His Design to pass, He hath prosecuted it with fire and sword, levied and maintained a Civil War in the Land, against the Parliament and Kingdom; whereby this Country hath been miserable wasted, the public Treasure exhausted, Trade decayed, thousands of People murdered, and infinite of other mischiefs committed, for all which high offences the said Charles Stuart might long since have been brought to exemplary and condign punishment.  
Whereas, also the Parliament well hoping that the restraint and imprisonment of His Person, after it had pleased God to deliver Him into their hands, would have quieted the distempers of the Kingdom, did forbear to proceed judicially against Him, but found by sad experience that such their remissness served only to encourage Him, and His Complices in the continuance of their evil practices, and raising new Commotions, Rebellions, and Invasions: For prevention of the like and greater inconveniences, and to the end no chief Officer or Magistrate may hereafter presume Traitorously and maliciously to imagine or contrive the enslaving or destroying of the English Nation, and to expect impunity. Be it enacted and ordained by the Commons in this present Parliament assembled, and it is hereby enacted and ordained, that 

Thomas Ld. Fairfax, General.  
Oliver cromwell. Lieu. General.  
Com. Gen. Ireton.  
Major. Gen. Skippon.  
Sir Hardresse Waller.  
Col. Valentine Walton  
Col. Thomas Harrison  
Col. Edward whaley.  
Col. Thomas Pride.  
Col. Isaac Ewer.  
Col. Rich: Ingolsby,  
Sir Henry Mildmay.  
Sir Tho: Honywood.  
Thomas Lord Grey.  
Philip Lord Lisle.  
Will: Lord Munson.  
Sir John Danvers.  
Sir Tho: Maleverer.  
Sir john Bowcher.  
Sir james Harington.  
Sir William Brereton.  
Robert Wallop, Esquire  
Will: Henningham, Es.  
Isaas Pennington, Alderman.  
Thomas Atkins, Ald:  
Col. Rowland Wilson.  
Sir Peter Wentworth.  
Col. Henry Martin.  
Col. William Purefoy.  
Col. Godfrey Bosvill.  
john Trencherd, Esq.  
Col. Harbottle Morley  
Col. john Berkstead.  
Col. Mat. Tomblinson.  
john Blackstone, Esq.  
Gilb: Millington, Esq.  
Sir Will: Constable.  
Col Edward Ludlow.  
Col. john Lambert.  
Col. Io. Hutchingson.  
Sir Arthur: Hazlerigge.  
Sir Michael Livesley.  
Rich: Saloway, Esq.  
Humph: Saloway, Esq.  
Col. Rob: Titchburn.  
Col. Owen Roe.  
Col. Rob: Manwaring.  
Col. Robert Lilburn.  
Col. Adrian Scroop.  
Col. Richard Dean.  
Col. john Okey.  
Col. Robert Overton.  
Col. john Harrison.  
Col. john Desborough.  
Col. William Goffe..  
Col. Rob: Dukenfield.  
Cornelius Holland, Esq.  
john Carne, Esq.  
Sir Will: Armine.  
john jones, Esq.  
Miles Corbet, Esq.  
Francis Allen, Esq.  
Thomas Lister, Esq.  
Ben: Weston, Esq.  
Peregrin Pelham, Esq.  
john Gourdon, Esq.  
Serj. Francis Thorp.  
john Nut, Esq.  
Tho: chaloner, Esq.  
Col. Algern: Sidney.  
john Anlaby, Esq.  
Col. john Moor.  
Richard Darley, Esq.  
William Say, Esq.  
john Aldred, Esq.  
john Fag, Esq.  
james Nelthrop, Esq.  
Sir Will: Roberts.  
Col. Francis Lassels.  
Col. Alex: Rixby.  
Henry Smith, Esq,  
Edmond wild, Esq.  
james Chaloner, Esq.  
josias Barnes, Esq.  
Dennis Bond, Esq.  
Humph: Edwards, Esq.  
Greg: Clement, Esq.  
john Fray, Esq.  
Tho: Wogan, Esq.  
Sir Greg: Norton.  
Serj. john Bradshaw.  
Col. Edm: Harvey.  
john Dove, Esq.  
Col. john Venn.  
john Foulks, Ald.  
Thomas Scot, Alder.  
Tho: Andrews, Ald:  
William Cawley, Esq.  
Abraham Burrell, Esq.  
Col▪ Usum Stapley.  
Roger Gratwicke, Esq.  
john Downs, Esq.  
Col. Thomas Horton.  
Col. Tho: Hammond.  
Col. George Fenwick.  
Serj. Robert Nichols.  
Rohert Reynolds, Esq.  
john Lisl: Esq.  
Nicholas Love, Esq.  
Vincent Potter.  
Sir Gilbert Pickering.  
john Weaver, Eq.  
john Lenthall, Esq.  
Sir Edward Baynton.  
john Corbet, Esq.  
Thomas Blunt, Esq.  
Thomas Boone, Esq.  
Augustin Garland, Esq.  
Augustin Skinner, Esq.  
john Dickswell, Esq.  
Col. George Fleetwood.  
Simon Maine, Esq.  
Col. james Temple.  
Col. Peter Temple.  
Daniel Blagrave, Esq.  
Sir Peter Temple.  
Col. Thomas wait.  
john Brown, Esq.  
john Lowry, Esq.   

Mr. Bradshaw, nominated Precedent.  
Counselor's assistant to this Court, and to draw up the Charge against the KING, are, 

Doctor Dorislau.  
Master Steel.  
Master Ask.  
Master Cook.    
Sergeant Dandy, Sergeant at Arms.  
Mr. Philip's, Clerk to the Court.  
Messengers and doorkeepers are, 

Master Walford.  
Master Radley.  
Master Paine.  
Master Powel.  
Master Hull.  
And Mr. King Crier.     shall be, and are hereby appointed Commissioners and Judges for the hearing, trying, and Judging of the said Charles Stuart; and the said Commissioners, or any 20 or more of them shall be, and are hereby Authorized and Constituted an High Court of Justice, to meet at such convenient times and place as by the said Commissioners or the major part, or 20. or more of them under their hand and seals shall be appointed and notified by public Proclamation in the great Hall, or Palace-yard of Westminster, and to adjourn from time to time, and from place to place, as the said High Court or the major part thereof meeting shall hold fit, and to take order for the charging of Him the said Charles Stuart with the Crimes above mentioned, and for the receiving His Personal Answer thereunto, 
These wise men of Gotham could not tell wh● her Witnesses upon o●th were necessary upon Trials of life and death. But (I confess) that upon the defensive part, upon Indictments; Witnesses upo● oath were not to be heard against the King, much more Accusers of the King.  and for examination of Witnesses upon oath (if need be) concerning the same; and thereupon or in default of such Answer to proceed to final Sentence according to justice and the merit of the Cause, to be executed speedily and impartially. And the said Court is hereby Authorized and required to choose and appoint all such Officers, Attendants, and other circumstances as they, or the major part of them shall in any sort judge necessary or useful for the orderly and good managing of the premises: and Thomas Lord Fairf●x 
* The General is no Officer of justice. All well affected Persons tag and rag invented to assist in a Tumultuaty way to destroy the King, if need had been, that is, all Antimonarchists.  the General, with all Officers of justice, and other well-affected Persons are hereby authorized and required to be aiding and assisting unto the said Commissioners in the due execution of the trust hereby committed unto them, provided that this Ordinance, and the Authority hereby granted do continue for the space of one Month from the Date of the making hereof, and no longer.   

60. A new Great Seal to be made.  But at last they stumbled at a rub not foreseen; they could not use the old Great Seal against Him, because it was the King's Great Seal (no more could they use any of our Laws, Courts, or Judges against Him, because they are all the Kings) the Sculpture upon it is, Carolus Dei Gratia, neither would the Grace of God square with their proceed: they must therefore make a new Great Seal; but that was long a making, and their fingers were in the fire; they therefore proceeded without any Commission under Seal, only upon the said Ordinance, and every Commissioner set his own hand and seal to the public instruments of their proceed: what need ceremonies when men are resolved upon the substance?  

61. The jews petition the Council of War to have the Stat: of their banishment repealed.  About this time the Hebrew Jews presented a Petition to the uncircumcised Jews of the Council of War, That the Statute of Banishment against them may be repealed, and they readmitted to a Synagogue and Trade amongst us; They offer for their readmission, S. Paul's Church, and the Library at Oxford, 500000 l. but 700000 l. is demanced: Hugh Peter and Harry Martin solicit the business. Upon this occasion was published this Paper ensuing.  

* The last damnable Design of Cromwell and Ireton, 
62. A Paper published upon occasion of the Jews Petition.  and their Junto or Cabal; intended to be carried on in their General Council of the Army, and by their journeymen in the House of Commons, when they have engaged them deed perately in sin, past all hope of Retreat by murdering the King.  
Mayor White, a Member of the Army, long since at Putney foretold, That shortly there would be no other power in England, but the power of the Sword; and Will. Sedgwick in his Book called [Justice upon the Army's Remonstrance] saith, The Principle of this Army is, To break the Powers of the Earth to pieces: and John Lilburn in his [Plea for Common Right] p. 6. saith, The Army by these extraordinary proceed, have overturned all the visible Supreme Authority of this Nation, that is they have, and will, by seizing upon the Members of Parl. dissolving it, and setting up a new invented Representative, and bringing the King to capital punishment, and disinheriting his Posterity, subvert the Monarchical Government, and Parliaments of this Kingdom; the Laws and Liberties of the People, and so by bringing all to Anarchy and confusion, put the whole Government of the Land under the Arbitrary power of the Sword.  
In order to which, they have, and will overturn the Government of the City of London by a Lord Mayor and Aldermen, and govern it by Commissioners, and a schismatical Common Council of Anabaptists illegally chosen, and deprive them of their Charter of Incorporation and Franchises; and this shall be a leading case to all the Corporations of England.  
Their next Design is, to plunder, and disarm the City of London, and all the Country round about; thereby to disable them to rise when the Army removes, but not to the use of the Soldiers, (although they greedily expect the first Week in February the time appointed) from whom they will redeem the plunder at an easy rate; and so sell it in bulk, to the Jews, whom they have lately admitted to set up their banks and magazines of Trade amongst us, contrary to an Act of Parliament for their banishment; and these shall be their Merchants to buy off for ready money, (to maintain such Wars as their violent proceed will inevitably bring upon them) not only all Sequestered and plundered goods, but also the very bodies of Men, Women, and Children, whole Families taken Prisoners for sale, of whom these Jewish Merchants shall keep a constant traffic with the Turks, Moors, and other Mahometans; the Barbadus, and other English Plantations being already cloyed with Welch, Scottish, Colchester, and other Prisoners imposed by way of Sale upon the Adventurers: and this is the meaning of Hugh Peter's threat to the London Ministers, That if another War followed, they will spare neither Man, Woman, nor Child: For the better carrying on of which Design, the said Cabal, or Junto, keep a strict correspondency with Owen Roe Oneale, the bloody Popish, Antimonarchical Rebel in Ireland, and the Pope's Nuntio there. The Antimonarchical Marquis of Argyle in Scotland; the Parisian, Norman and Picardy Rebels in France, and the Rebel King of Portugal. If danger be not held so close to your eyes that you cannot discern it, look about you English. But this Kingdom is not to be saved by men that will save themselves; nothing but a private band, and a public spirit can redeem it   

63. Master pryn's second Letter to the General.  The 3. Jan. 1648. Master Pryn sent a Letter to the General, demanding what kind of Prisoner, and whose he was? as followeth.  
* To the Honourable, Thomas Lord Fairfax, General of the present Army, these present.  
My Lord,  
IT is now a full Month's space since I (with other Members of the Commons House) have been forcibly apprehended and kept Prisoner by some of your Officers and Marshal, against the Privileges of Parliament, the Liberty of the Subject, the Laws and Statutes of the Realm, and all Rules of justice, conscience, and right reason; without the least shadow of Authority, or any cause at all yet made known to me, of which (were there any) neither God nor man, ever yet made your Lordship or your Officers, Judges. I therefore desire to know from your Lordship, what kind of Prisoner I am? and whose? If a Prisoner of peace, neither your Lordship, nor your Officers, are any Justices of peace, or Civil Magistrates in this place, to restrain me for any civil crime were I guilty of it; much less without proof or hearing, in case I were no Member: but being neither guilty nor accused of any such crime, and a Member too, no Magistrate can, nor aught to imprison me upon any pretext, at least without the Houses licence first obtained, If a Prisoner of War, which I cannot probably be, being never in Arms, and apprehended near the Commons House door, going peaceably and unarmed thither to discharge my duty; than you, and your Officers thereby acknowledge, That you have levied War against the Parliament, and its Members: and what capital offence this is, and what a punishment it deserves, I need not inform your Lordship, or your Council, who have for this very crime, condemned and shot some to death, as Traitors; and demanded speedy justice and execution for it upon the King himself.  
I have but one thing more to trouble your Lordship with, and that is to demand whose Prisoner I am? having yet seen no Warrant nor Order from yourself, or your Officers, for my restraint, though I have oft demanded it of your Marshal: If your Lordship's Prisoner, there appearing yet no legal Authority, cause, or Warrant, for my restraint; I must then crave so much justice from your Lordship (being but a Subject, and not yet paramount all Laws) to order your Attorney to give an Appearance for you in the King's bench, the first return of the next Term, to an action of false Imprisonment, for this my unjust restraint; which I intent (by God's assistance) effectually to prosecute. If your Officers Prisoner only, and not yours, which I conceive, who yet abuse your name and authority herein, though it be a rule in Law and Divinity too, Qui non prohibet malum quod potest; jubet; yet I shall be so just, as to set the saddle upon the right horse, and commence my action only against such of your Officers, who have been most active in my Imprisonment, for damage and reparations; which if there be any justice remaining under Heaven, I doubt not but I shall recover in Gods due time, in this public cause, which so highly concerns the honour, freedom, and Privileges of Parliament, and Subjects Liberties; for defence and maintenance whereof, as I have hitherto spent my strength, adventured my life, body, liberty, and estate; so shall I now again engage them all, and all the friends and interests I have in heaven and earth, rather than they shall suffer the least diminution, prejudice or eclipse by my stupid patience under this unjust captivity; though I can as willingly forgive and put up private injuries, when the public is not concerned as any man. All which, I thought meet to inform your Lordship of whom I am hearty sorry to see so much dishonoured, abused and misled by rash ill-advised Officers, and dangerous, destructive (and I dare say, Jesuitical) Counsels, to the Parliaments dissipation, the Kingdom's prejudice, Ireland's loss, most good men's, and Ministers grief, your best Friends astonishment, your Enemies and the Papists triumph, our Religion's scandal, and your own dishonour: which I beseech you as an Englishman, a Christian, a Professor of piety and Religion, a Soldier, a General, to lay sadly to your heart, as the earnest request of  
From my Prison at the Sign of the King's Head in the Strand, 3. Jan. 1648. Your Lordship's faithful Friend and Monitor, William Pryn.  
* An Additional Postscript.  
WE read, Luke 3.14. that when the Soldiers demanded of John Baptist, saying, and What shall we do? he said unto them, Do violence to no man, (or put no man in fears) neither accuse any falsely, and be content with your allowance: not imprison, depose, or murder Kings, pull down Parliaments, imprison, violently shut out, and drive away Parliament men, and then lay all false accusations and scandals upon them, to colour your violence, subvert Kingdoms, altar States, break all bonds of Laws, Oaths, Covenants, Obligations, Engagements to God and Men; usurp all Civil, Military and Ecclesiastical power, and the King's Royal Palaces into your own hands, as supreme Lords and Kings; raise what new forces, and levy what new Taxes you please, take up what Free-quarters and Houses, seize and plunder what public Treasuries & moneys you please, without Commission or Authority, obey neither God nor Man, neither Parliament nor Magistrate, and be content with nothing, but altar, and subvert all things. These are Saint Peter's new doctrines and Revelations, to our Officers and Soldiers now, & those Jesuits who lurk amongst them, not John the Baptist, whose Canonical advice is now rejected as Apocryphal, even among the Army Saints, who prefer every ignis fatuus, though from Douai or R●me itself, before this burning, and shining old light, and are guided only by a new minted law of pretended providence or necessity of their own forging, and not by the revealed will and law of God, the sacred light whereof their present works of darkness dare not approach, lest they should be reproved and condemned by them. But some 43. Actions of false imprisonment by the imprisoned, and 150. Actions of the Case by the secluded Members, brought against these domineering lawless Officers and Grandees of the Army, wherein good Damages will be recovered, and some 12. Indictm: of High Treason against them for laying violent hands upon the King's Person, and the Members, and levying War against the Parliament, will teach them more obedience, humility, and modesty then either John Baptist, Saint Paul, Saint Peter, or Saint Peter, will do; and be like Gideon thorns and briers of discipline to these men of Succoth, with whom no fair means will prevail; who might have learned so much law and justice from a Heathen Soldier and Governor Festus, Acts 25.27. It seemeth unto me unreasonable to send (much more to commit) a Prisoner, and not withal to signify the crimes laid against him; and come short of that ingenuity of the heathenish chief Captain who seized upon Paul, thereby to appease the Tumult at Jerusalem, Acts 22.27, 29. who as soon as ever Paul told him, he was a Roman, & Freeborn; then strait way they departed from him who should have examined him: and the chief Captain also was afraid, after he knew that he was a Roman, and because he had bound him. And should not false imprisoning of a Parliament-man & Freeborn Englishman be as formidable to our chief Captains (being a Christian, I say, sworn and vowed to defend the Houses Privileges, and Members Persons) as the Imprisonment of a Roman was to this chief Captain, and they as ingenious and just as he, who shall rise up in judgement against them, and condemn them at the last.  
I shall close up all with this observation. That as the most glorious Angels in Heaven, when they fell (through pride and ambition, as most conceive) became the very foulest Devils in Hell; so the most resplendent seeming hypocritical Saints when they fall through the like sins, and have power in their hands, become the most incarnate Devils, and Monsters of treachery and tyranny upon earth, exceeding Turks and Pagans therein, of which we have now sad experience in our Army-Saints, who every day aggravate, and yet justify their impieties and exorbitances▪ 2 Chron. 28.11. Now hear me therefore, and deliver the Captives again, which ye have taken Captives of your Brethren: for the fierce wrath of God is upon you.  
Will: Pryn.  

64. Another forged Letter endeavoured to be fastened upon Sheriff Brown.  The Saints having nothing to say against Major Gen. Brown, (unless they should accuse him for being true to King, Parliament, City, and Kingdom, and to all the first declared Principles of this Parliament) fell to their old trick to fasten another counterfeit Letter upon him: wherefore a Man coming to S. james's (where he was then imprisoned) desired, in the hearing of all present to speak with him in private: Major Gen. Brown told him, He was not for private conference, and bade him speak openly; then the Fellow presented a Letter to him, saying, It was from the Prince: but Major Gen. Brown (remembering the like trick put upon him before) called for the Guard to apprehend him, when presently the Messenger threw the Letters into the fire, and the Marshal catching them out half burnt, affirmeth, He saw Charles Prince, written upon them. Sanctified eyes may see through the spectacles of their own fantasy what they please, to accomplish their Design, and therefore they have a new principle or light (which as the 7. May, be added to the aforesaid 6.) that though they have no proofs nor evidence against a man, yet if in their consciences, they think him guilty, they may condemn him upon the testimony of their own consciences; this is to condemn by Revelation such whose blood they desire to suck. This supposed Messenger from the Prince was seized by the Guard, but no proceed against him heard of; which argues it was but a snare set to catch the Major.  
About this time (to second this device) a man gallantly clothed and mounted, comes to the Bear in the Strand, 
65. Another more general forgery to endanger whom the Faction please. It will be proved, that divers Witnesses have been practised and tampered with against Mr. Brown, and others.  gives the Ostler a Piece, and bids him have a care of his Horse; then goes into the City, and (the Plot being forelaid) was taken there with Letters subscribed with the Prince's name, to divers Citizens and Members against whom they want matter of accusation. I hear no more of this matter yet; this is a device dorman●, to be awakened hereafter, if any shall oppose the present actings of the Army, and their Parliament.  
Cromwell, Ireton, and Hugh Peter have several times made it their errand to go into the City and visit the Ministers, giving them threatening Admonitions, not to preach any thing against the Actings of the Army and their Parliament: 
66. London-Ministers threatened. See the Ministers of London's Letter to the General, called, [A serious Representation.] Dated Jan. 18. 1648.  But Hugh acted his part above them all, he took some Musketeers with him to the house of Mr. Calamy, and knocking at the door, a Maid asked whom he would speak with? he told her, with her Master? she asked his name? he replied, Mr Hugh Peter, the Maid going up the stairs to acquaint her Master, (who was above-stairs in conference with some Divines) overheard Peter say to the Soldiers, The very name of Peter's will fright them all: Peter being called up the stairs, told Mr. Calamy, He was commanded by the General to warn him to come before him: Mr. Calamy (leaving Peter's vapouring and canting Religion and nonsense to the rest of the Divines) slipped down stairs and went to the General to know his pleasure, telling him, He had been summoned before him by Hugh Peter's: the General said, Peter was a Knave, and had no such directions from him.  
Since this, 
67. The C. of War consider how to shut up the Church's doors.  the Council of War (finding it difficult to stop the Ministers mouths) have sundry times debated, How to shut up the Church's doors in the City, for Reformation of the Church, and propagation of the Gospel: they have imprisoned Mr. Canton (a worthy Minister) for praying for King CHARLES, and threaten to try him for his life in the Upper Bench (forsooth) which all the Laws call, the King's Bench: and upon their new Acts of Parliament, made by a ninth part of the Members, the small remnant or Junto of the House of Commons; notwithstanding, by The Directory for public Worship, (established by both Houses) the Ministers are enjoined to pray for the King. It is said that Monsieur Paux (one of the Dutch Agents here) hath advised Cromwell, to stop the Ministers mouths by hanging up a dozen of them: and vouches a precedent for it in the Low Countries.  

68 The Lords sent some Votes to the Commons' for their concurrence.  Jan. 9 The Lords sat again and passed some Ordinances, which they sent down to the Commons for their concurrence, to feel their pulse whether they would vouchsafe to take so much notice of them; the Commons laid them aside after some expres●ions of disdain.  

69. Sergeant Dandy proclaimeth the sitting of the new H: Court of Justice.  This day Sergeant Dandie, Sergeant at Arms to the Commissioners for Trial of His Majesty, road into Westminster-hall with the Mace belonging to the House of Commons upon his shoulder, and some Officers attending him, all bare, and 6. Trumpeters on horseback before him, Guards of Horse and Foot attending in both the Palace-yards, the 6. Trumpeters sounded on horseback in the middle of the Hall, and the Drums beat in the Palace-yards, after which a Proclamation was read aloud by Mr. King, one of the Messengers of the said High Court of Justice, to this purpose; To give notice, that the Commissioners were to sit tomorrow, and that all those that had any thing to say against CHARLES STVART King of England might be heard. The like was done in Cheapside, and at the Old Exchange.  

70. The Great Seal voted to be broken.  This day the remainder of the House voted their Great Seal to be broken, in order to the making of a new one, justly putting the same affront upon their own Seal, which they had formerly put upon the Kings. 
71. Mr. pryn's Memento to the unparliamentary Junto  Upon these occasions Mr. Pryn (it is said) published his Memento to the unparliamentary Junto, therein telling the House, That being forcibly secluded from the House by the Officers of the Army's violence, whereby he could not speak his mind to them freely in, or as the House of Commons, yet he would write his thoughts to them as private Persons only under a force, consulting in the House without their fellow Members advice or concurrence, about speedy Deposing and executing CHARLES their lawful Sovereign, to please the General, Officers, and Counsel of the Army, (who have usurped to themselves the Supreme Authority both of King and Parliament) or rather the Jesuits and Popish Priests among them.  
1. By the Common Law the Stat. 25. Edw. 3. 
Cok. 5. Inst 4. 1. Stamf. Pleas of the Crown, l. 1. c. 1, 2.  and all other Acts concerning Treason, It is High Treason for any man by overt act to compass the death of the King, or his eldest Son, though never executed; and so adjudged by Parliament in the Earl of Arundels' Case, 21 Ric. 2. Plac. Coronae, n. 4, 6, 7.  
2. In the Oath of Allegiance (which every man takes before he sits in Parliament) you acknowledge him to be lawful and rightful King of this Realm; and that the Pope neither of himself, nor by any authority of the See of Rome, or by any other means, with any other, hath any Power or Authority to depose the King, etc. 
Exact Collect. p. 16, 19, 21, 59, 66, 83, 102, 103, 118, 123, 125, 141, 142, 143, 173, 180, 195, 219, 259, 281, 307, 380, 312, 360, 376, 457. A Collect. etc. p. 13, 18, 41, 43, 44, 49, 51, 61, 64, 96, 181, 182, 340, 341, 424, 425, 499, 599, 623, 696, 806, 807, 879. Appendix p. 15.   
3. Yourselves amongst other Members, in above one hundred Remonstrances, Declarations, Petitions, Ordinances, etc. in the name of the Parliament have professed, You never intended the least hurt, injury, or violence to the King's Person, Crown, Dignity, or Posterity; but intended to Him and His Posterity more Honour, Happiness, Glory, and Greatness than ever any of His predecessors enjoyed: That you would make good to the uttermost with your Lives and Fortunes the Faith and Allegiance you have always born to him. That all Contributions, Loans, should be employed only to maintain the Protestant Religion, the King's Authority, Person, Royal Dignity, Laws of the Land, Peace of the Kingdom, and Privileges of Parliament. That the Forces raised by the Parliament were for defence of the King's Person, and of both Houses. That the Parliament will ever have a care to prevent any danger to his Person. That they are resolved to expose their lives and fortunes for maintenance of the King's Person, Honour, and Estate, and the Power and Privileges of Parliament, when the King taxed the Houses for insinuating, 
Exact Collect. p. 298, 695, 696, 657, 658, 991.  That if they should make the highest Precedents of other Parliaments their pattern, (that is, depose the King) there could be no cause to complain of them: Both Houses by two Declarations protested against it, saying, That such thoughts never entered, nor should enter into their loyal hearts. 
Collect. of all Orders, p. 8, 13, 41, 43, 44, 49, 51, 61, 64, 96, 99, 623, 696, 879. Appendix p. 15.   
4. By the Protestation, They declare in the presence of God to defend the King's Person and Estate, and that their Armies under Essex and Fairfax, were raised for that purpose inter alia.  
5. By the National Covenant, They vowed to defend the King's Person and Authority in preservation of true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdom, and that they will all the days of their lives continue in this Covenant against all opposition.  
6. You monopolise the Supreme power into your own hands, robbing both King, Lords, and the rest of your fellow Members thereof, whom you are content should be violently shut out by your Army, who have levied War against the Parliament to dissolve it; till the removal of which force, and restoring your Members with freedom and safety, 
Also, 15. E. 3. n. 5. 17 E. 3. n. 2▪ 6. 18. E. 3 n 1. 2. 5. etc. 1. R. 2. n. 1. 2. R. 2. n. 1. 3. R. 2. n. 1. 4. R. 2. n. 1. 5. R. 2. Parl. 1. n. 1. Parl. 2. n. 1. 8. H. 4. n. 28.  you ought not to sit or Act in your Armies own doctrine in their Remonstrance, Aug. 18. and by the Declaration and Ordinances of both Houses, Aug. 20. 1647. Sec 21. R. 2. c. 12. 1. H. 4. c. 3. 31. H. 6. c. 1. 39 H. 6 c. 1. See the memorable Record, 6. E. 3. Parl. apud Ebor. n. 1, 2 dorso clauso. 6. E. 3. m. 4. 6. E. apud Westm. Parl. 2. n. 1. 13. E. 3. Parl. 2. n. 4. & many more Rolls, where Parliaments, when any considerable number of Members of either House were absent, refused to sit (though under no force) till the House were full.  
You have neither Law nor precedent for what you do, Edw. 2. Rich. 2. were forced by Mortimer and H. 4. to resign their Crowns in a formal way, one to his Son, the other to his conquering Successor, neither of them to the Parliament, and at last Deposed by a subsequent Sentence of Parliament, as unfit to Reign, without any formal Trial.  

* 72. The Army's party in the H: approve the matter of the Co: of Officers accusatory Ans. against the secured Memb: with out hearing them. See Mr. Io: Geerees Ans. to that silly Sophister Io: Goodwin, called, Might overcoming right.  Jan. 11. 1648. The House read the Answer of the General Counsel of the Army, concerning the secured and secluded Members, and (as I have formerly said, without hearing what the said Members could say for themselves, approved the matter of it: whereupon the secured and secluded Members, 20. Jan. 1648. (with much ado) got printed their Vindication, against the Aspersion cast upon them in The humble Answer of the General Counsel of the Officers of the Army, concerning the securing & secluding of the said Members: The sum whereof is as followeth.  

73. The sec. and secls. Memb. Defence against the scandalous An: of the C: of W:  By the Preamble of this Answer, and by the Proposals of the 6. Decemb. and the late Declaration and Remonstrance therein cited, it appears this Design to break the House by force hath been long since plotted and contrived with action. The General Council of the Army in their said Answer, say, Is a course in itself irregular and not justifiable, but by honest intentions and extraordinary necessity: the weakness of which Answer we must examine, but first must state the case b 'tween us: They are an Army raised by Ordinance of Parliament, of 15. Febr. 1644. for defence of King and Parliament, the true Protestant Religion, the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom, and to be from time to time subject to such Orders and Directions as they shall receive from both Houses of Parliament: and to this end they stand commissioned by them, and receive pay from them to this day. And besides this trust thus lying upon them, they are under the obligation of a solemn Covenant, sworn to God, That they will in their place and callings, with sincerity, reality, and constancy with their estates and lives, preserve the Rights and Privileges of the Parliament, and the Liberties of the Kingdom, and defend the King's Person and Authority in defence of the true Religion, and Liberties of the Kingdom; they being under the said trusts and Oath, march up to Westminster (contrary to order) in a hostile way, forcibly secured, secluded, and drove away many of the Members: the Question is, Whether this Action be Justifiable upon pretence of Honest intentions and Necessity?  
Their good intentions cannot be known but by their expressions and actions, and they refer us to their Proposals, Declarations, and Remonstrances, where we find their desires are: 

1. To take away the King's life.  
2. To take away the lives of the Prince, and the Duke of York; at least to disinherit both them and all the King's Children.  
3. To put a period to thi● Parliament.  
4. To set up a new Representative of their own, which takes away all Parliaments.  
5. To have an Elective King, if any.   These are their Honest intentions for public good, which must come in to justice their waging war against their Masters this Parliament: To name them, is to confute them, as being apparently against the Laws of God and the Land, under which they live, and which they are engaged to maintain, we shall produce no other Witnesses to prove this but themselves. On the 15. of Novemb. 1647. The agreement of the People, (which is lower in demands than these which they call, Honest intentions for public good) was condemned by the Army. The promoting it in the Army judged mutinous and capital; Col. Rainsborough and Major Scot complained of in the House for appearing in it, and-the Paper itself adjudged by the House, destructive to Government, and the being of Parliaments.  
The second pretence or principle is, Extraordinary Necessity for the same end.  
To this we say, 1. The Army made the same plea of necessity in their Remonstrance, June 23. 1647. upon quite contrary grounds to what they express now, and both to justify the same violent proceed against the Parliament, then when the King was seized upon by a party of the Army (without Order from the House) and the Army advanced against the Parliament. They say in their Letter to the House. July 8. 1647. There have been several Officers of the Army upon several occasions sent to his Majesty: The first, to present to Him a Copy of the Representations; and after that some others, to tender Him a Copy of the Remonstrance: Upon both which, the Officers sent were appointed to clear the sense and intentions of any thing in either paper, 
Turn back to sect. 2. and see my Animadvers. upon the Army, 20 Nou. 1648. p. 4, 5, 6, 7.  whereupon his Majesty might make any Question. There the Army treated with the King, yet now they offer violence to the Parliament for treating with the King. Then in their Remonstrance, 25 June 1647. they say, We clearly▪ profess, we do not see how there can be any peace to this Kingdom firm and lasting without a due consideration of, and provision for the rights, quiet, and immunities of His Majesty's Royal Family, and his late partakers; now they judge the majority of the House corrupt for moving one step towards a peace with the King, 
The Parliament thought it not reasonable the King should be sole Judge of public necessity in case of shipmoney. Return to sect. 18. where I set down six of their Principles.  though he hath now granted more to them then all the Armies Proposals then demanded of Him. Thus they make this general plea of Necessity serve to justify the considerations; which they are put to by making themselves Judges of those things they have no calling to meddle with; for by what Authority are they Judges of public Necessity?  
2. This principle (Necessity) is destructive to all Government, for as the General Officer urgeth necessity for acting against the Commands and Persons of his Superiors; and arrogates to be Judge of that Necessity, the Inferior may urge the same Necessity (in his judgement) to act against the Commands of his General. The Soldiers 'gainst their Officers: any other 20000. men in this Kingdom against this Army, and this Army (as against this Parliament) so against any other Representative or Government; and so in infinitum.  
3. 
The Commons have their Authority from the Writ of Election, though their election from the people: See the Writ Cromton's Jurisdict: of Court, Tit: Parliamen.  The Commons in Parliament are not accountable for the use of their trust to any but the House, being trusties of the People, not by Delegation, but by translation: all the power of the people being transferred to them for advising, voting, and assenting (according to their judgements, not according to the judgements of those that sent them) for otherwise the parties electing, and those elected, differing in judgement, one might protest against what the other had done, and so make void all Acts of Parliament. But if their Acts were valid or void at the Electors judgements, yet were the Members only accountable to them that sent them, not to Strangers, and in no case to the Army, who are themselves but in subordinate trust to the Parliament for their defence.  
4. This violence upon the Members, is not only contrary to the Armies trust, but against their Covenant and Protestation: the breach whereof being a moral evil cannot be made good by honest intentions and necessity.  
The particulars of the said General Officers Answer, upon which this pretended Necessity is grounded, are six: but we must first take notice what is said from the end of the 2. pag. to the end of the 5 before we enter upon them: the sum is, 
In all new Elections there were 2. Independents chosen for one of any other principles, Independents were then Commissioners for the Great Seal, and delivered Writs to men of their own Party, who had the advantage to keep them, and choose their own time to deliver them and Soldiers (under colour of keeping the peace) became great Sticklers in Elections.  That by the endeavours of some old Malignant Members, and by practices used in new Elections there came in a flood of new Burgesses that either are Malignant or Neuters. To this we say, what is done by the majority, is the Act of the whole House; and what is done against the majority, is done against the whole House: nor was the Ordinance for New Elections carried on by old Malignants, unless the major part of the House were always such, and before the new Elections. It is not hard to show that many of the Officers of the Army came in upon the last Elections, and were chosen by those places where they are scarce known: upon what influence therefore they came in, let the world judge. And now for the said 6. particulars objected.  

The Army betrayed Ireland by their disobedience. They would neither go for Ireland themselves, nor suffer others to go, 1 part. sect. 16. & 55.57.  1. The betraying of Ireland into the Enemy's hands, by recalling the Lord lisle from his command there, and putting the best part of the said Kingdom and where the Parliament had the strongest footing (Munster) into the hands of Inchiquine a Native Irish; who hath since Revolted from the Parliament, hath lately united with the Irish Rebels; and with them and Ormond for the King. To this we ●ay, the Lord Inchiquine came in and brought Munster to the Parliament, and preserved their Interest in Ireland, in all the heat of their Wars in England, when they had little other Interest there, and less means to relieve them; the Lord lisle was not recalled from his Command there, 
This Lo: went late, carried over 160000 l. for which he hath not yet accounted, began a quarrel with Inchiqueen and put him into discontent, and then returned. See the Irish Letters and Papers to the the House in print.  but his Commission for Lord Lieutenant expiring, 15. April, 1647. on the 17. April, he hoist sail for England: after the Lord Lysles return for England, the Lord Inchiquine did gallant service against the Rebels, took many strong Holds from them, and won the Battle of Knocke-knowes, one of the greatest that ever was gotten of the Rebels. The House therefore approved of his behaviour until 3. April, 1648. when (the Army having led the way) the Lord Inchiquine (taking distaste thereat) by way of imitation, began to enter into Engagements and Remonstrances against the Parliament, (as it was then constituted) for which he made the Remonstrances, Engagements, and Declarations of the Army the Summer before, both the cause and precedent; as by the printed Relation doth appear.  
2. Their endeavours to bring in the King upon His own Terms, without satisfaction and security to the Kingdom, v●z: upon His Message of the 12. of May, 1647. and to this end to Disband this Army before any peace made or assured. To this we say, the House of Commons upon the first notice thereof, voted the said Engagement of the 12. of May Treasonable; and by Ordinance, 17. Decemb. 1647. put an incapacity upon such Citizens as had any hand in it, which evidenceth, we were here in a right majority, as in other parts of their Paper they take the Votes of the House to prove us a corrupt majority: The charge here lying in general, and not fixed upon any particular. Concerning Disbanding the Army; we say, the House voted 8. Regiments of Foot, 4. of Horse and 1. of Dragoones, to be sent out of the Army for Ireland, and resolved to keep 10000 Foot, and 5400. Horse under Command of the Lord Fairfax for defence of England. This was, 1. For Relieving Ireland. 2. For easing the heavy pressures of the poor People in England. And 3. an honourable employment for the Forces of the Army, to prevent such high distempers as have since ensued. 
See my 1. part. sect. 16. 17. 18. and my said Animadversions, pag. 2. neither were they legally impeached. See Ardua regni, or twelve arduous doubts written in defence of the expulsed Memb: and the sa d Members Ans. to the Armies Charge.   
3. That they endeavoured to protect the 11. impeached Members from justice, and with them to raise a new War. To this we say, we gave them no other protection than the Laws allowed them. For the mispending 200000 l. designed for Ireland; we say, that 80000 l. thereof was paid to Nicholas Loftus, and others, for service of Ireland, and above 50000 l. to the Treasurers at War for the Army; which may more reasonably be said to be misemployed (because the Army had an established pay another way) than what the Reformado Officers and Soldiers (who obeyed the Orders of the House for Disbanding) received, who nevertheless pressed upon the House the more earnestly for their Arrears, after the Declarations and Remonstrances published by the Army for paying the Arrears of all the Soldiers of England.  
4. Their countenancing, abetting, 
There was a close Inquisition of Godly Cutthroats purposely chosen to examine this Tumult; which proceeded illegally, and used so much foul play as to accuse men upon characters of their clothes, & persons; yet malice itself could find nothing. See my 1. part. sect. 45, 46. to sect. 54. Return to sect. 2. & 5.  and partaking with the Tumult of Apprentices, and others against both Houses of Parliament. To this we say, that we wonder they should urge the force offered to the House then (which they declared, horrid and treasonable) to justify the violence acted upon the House by themselves of a much higher nature. This is a mere fiction of the Penmans', which we do every one of us for ourselves respectively deny.  
5. The holding correspondency, engaging, and assisting the tumultuous Petitioners last Spring, the rebellious Insurrections in Kent, the Revolted Ships, Prince of Wales, with the Scots Army: We do every one of us for ourselves respectively deny these.  
6. That when the Army was dispensed and engaged in several parts, etc. and many faithful Members employed abroad upon public services; and others through Malignant Tumults about this City, could not with safety attend the House. Then the corrupt and Apostating Party taking advantage of these distractions which themselves had caused: First, recalled in those Members, etc. Then they recalled those Votes for Non-Addresses, and voted a Personal Treaty. To this we say, that if the proceed of the Treaty were surreptitiously gotten in a thin House, why do they then complain in other parts of their Paper, that the majority of the House is corrupt, 
Return to sect. 2. & 5. there see the true grounds of these Tumults. See wh t u●e they make of provide nce in the 1. part of England's new Chains.  and form to serve the King's corrupt Interest? why did they force from the House above 200 Members at once; the Counties never expressed so high contempt of the Parliament, until the like had been first done by the Army's quartering upon them.  
And now let us come to that Vote of the House, 5. Dec. 1648. That the Kings Answer to the Propositions of both Houses are a ground to proceed upon to a settlement of Peace: of which they say, That though they advanced hither to attend providence for opening some way to avoid the present evils designed, and introduce the desired good into the Kingdom, yet they said nor acted nothing in relation to the Parliament, nor any Member thereof, until by the Vote passed, Decemb. 5. they found the corrupt majority so resolvedly bend to complete their Design in bringing in the King. Do they call their threatening Declaration and Remonstrance a saying nothing? and their marching up against the House, contrary to the Order of the House, a doing nothing in relation to the Parliament? But by these words it appears that this Vote, 5. Decemb. is the very point of that necessity they now rely upon to justify their force upon the House: For, before that passed, they say, They acted nothing, etc. we must now state the difference between the Houses Propositions, 
See. Mr. Pryn's said Speech in the House, 2 Decemb. 1648. more at large.  and the King's Answers, and see whether the King did not grant all those Propositions in which the main security of the Kingdom resteth.  
He granted the first Proposition for taking off all Declarations; as was desired.  
And the third Proposition for the Militia, as was desired.  
He assented to the Proposition for Ireland; limiting the time of the Parliaments disposing Officers there to 20▪ year.  
He consented to such Acts for public Debts and Public Uses, as should be presented within 2. years, and incurred within that time.  
He granted the Proposition concerning Peers, as was desired.  
He granted the Disposing Offices in England, to the Parliament, for 20. years.  
He granted the taking away the Court of Wards, having 100000 l. per ann. in lieu thereof to be raised as the Parliament should think fit.  
He granted to declare against the Marquis of Ormond's power and proceed after an Agreement with the Parliament.  
The only difference therefore remained upon two Propositions: 

1. Delinquents.  
2. The Church.    
For Delinquents, though He doth not grant all, His Majesty consented they shall submit to moderate Compositions, according to such Proportions as they and the two Houses shall agree.  
2. He disableth them to bear Offices of public Trust, and removes them from the Kings, Queens, and Princes Court.  
3. For such as the Houses propounded to proceed capitally against, He leaves them to a Legal Trial, and declares, He will not interpose to hinder it: which satisfies the main complaint of the Parliament which was (in the beginning of the War, (That the King protected Delinquents from justice. And all that the House desired in the Propositions presented to him at Oxford, Febr. 1642. was, That His Majesty would leave Delinquents to a Legal Trial and judgement of Parliament. But that his Majesty should join in an Act for taking away the Lives or Estates of any that have adhered to Him (He truly professeth) He cannot with Justice and Honour agree thereto.  
4. Nor do we see how Delinquents (being left to the Law) can escape justice, the King having granted the 1. proemial Proposition, and (so by a Law) acknowledged the Parliaments Cause and War to be just.  
For the Church, The Houses propound the utter abolishing of Archbishops, Bishops, etc. The sale of their Lands, that Reformation of Religion be settled by Act of Parliament as both Houses have, or shall agree. The King's Answer takes away Church-Government by Archbishops, Bishops, etc. by taking away their Courts and Officers, and so far takes away their power of Ordination that it can never be revived again but by Act of Parliament, so that Episcopacy is divested of any actual being by the Law of the Land, and instead thereof the Presbyterian Government settled for three years by a Law; which is for so long a time as the Houses formerly in their Ordinances presented to Him at Newcastle, did themselves think fit to settle it: For the Sale of Bishop's Lands upon the public F●ith; 
Every cheating Saint of the Faction must have the Public Faith exactly kept, though he bought the Lands but at 2 or 3. years just value, and with such moneys as he had formerly cheated the State of; when other men who have lost the best part of their Estates by and for the Pa li●ment, for compensation whereof they have the public Faith engaged by Ordinances, are consumed by Taxes, and repaied with reproaches only.  we say, That although the Purchasers might well have afforded to have given the same rates for their Purchases (which they now give) if they might have had them assured by Act of Parliament for 99 years, and such moderate Rents reserved as the King intimates in his Answer; yet (in His Answer) he expresseth a farther satisfaction to be given them: upon which we should have insisted, n●●with● anding the said Vote.  
5. Decemb. 1648. We farther allege, That the King having granted the rest of the Propositions ●●d ●o much in these 2. Delinquents, and the Church; the Natio●●l Covenant doth not oblige us to make War upon this poi●● nothing can make Presbytery (nor the Purchasers of Bishops L●● is more odious, nor endanger them more, than to make them the sole obstacle of Peace; nor could any thing more work the King to comply with our desires herein, than for us to draw a little nearer Him.  
The Considerations leading us to pass the said Vote, 5 Dec. 1648. come next to be considered: 

1. The saving of Ireland.  
2. The regaining the revolted Navy and freedom of the Seas.  
3. The support of the Ancient Government of the Kingdom.  
4. The putting the people into a secure possession of their Laws and Liberties.  
5. The avoiding such evil consequences as were apparently to follow a breach with the King.    
As 1. the Deposing the King, if not the depriving Him of life: 
Return to Sect. 71.  whereupon floods of misery will follow, and scandal to the Protestant Religion, which we (from our hearts) detest and abhor: See the many Declarations of Parliament against it.  
2. The necessitating of the Prince to cast himself into the Arms of Foreign Popish Princes, and embrace Popish Alliances for his succour.  
3. It may beget a change of Government, and a laying aside of Monarchy here: and so a Breach with Scotland, and this Kingdom (being the more rich) likely to be the Seat of the War.  
4. The vast Debts of this Kingdom upon the public Faith, will never be paid in War, but increased and multiplied: multitudes of Sufferers by, and for the Parliament like to be repaid only with new sufferings, and every years War destroys more Families, and makes more Malignants through discontenting pressures: until at last the Soldier seeing no hope of pay, the People no hope of peace and ease, fall together into a general and desperate tumultuousness; the power of the Sword apparently threatening a dissolution of Government both in Church and Commonwealth.  
To that scandalous Objection, which saith, The corrupt majority will not l●nd an ear to admit a thought towards the laying down their own power, or rendering it back to the People from whom they received it. We say, this Objection is unreasonable from men who endeavour to perpetuate an Army upon the Kingdom; nor is the continuance of this Parliament singly objected, but that they will not render it back to the People, Viz. To a new Representative, invented and made by the Army, that is, We will not render our power into the hands of the Army.  
Another Objection is, That whatsoever the King granted, He might plead Force to break it, and spoil us by policy. This Objection might have been made against all our Treaties: If there be any Force, it is from the Army, for spoiling us by policy. The Kings of this Land could never encroach upon our good Laws, but by corrupt Judges and Ministers, who though they could not abrogate the Law, made it speak against itself, and the intended good of the People, or else by the power of Courtiers, stopping the course of Justice at the Council Table; and in other Arbitrary Courts: both which are taken away by the King's Concessions.  
1. That the Nomination of Judges and Officers be in the Parliament.  
2. That the King make no new Parliament Lords for the future to Vote there.  

For this you must take the faith of the misty brained Penman, who had this (as well as many other gross Lies) by Revelation. The Army had had the King in h●ir power, and had the Parliament adjourned, the sole power of the Kingdom had been left in the Army; which is a thing aimed at by them:  Another Objection is, That they had intelligence, that had they been suffered to meet all in the House once more, it was designed to have passed some higher Resolutions, to lay farther foundations of a new quarrel, so as to carry therein the name and countenance of Parliamentary Authority together with the Kings, upon an acceptable pretence of Peace, to draw men in, and then to have adjourned the Parliament for a long time, excluding all remedy in this case but by another War. To this we say, the House immediately upon passing the Vote, 5. Decemb. sent a Committee to the General to confer with him and his Officers, and keep a good correspondency with them: To which, the General promised his readiness, howsoever it was hindered afterwards. And then they seized upon one of the Commissioners appointed to Treat, affronted another, and left no way free for a Conference, which shows they were resolved to do what they had designed.  
The last Obj. is, That those Members that are yet detained in Custody, are either such as have been formerly Impeached, and (in part) judged by the House for Treason, and other Crimes, and never acquitted, and against whom they can, and very shortly will produce new matter of no less crime; or else such who have appeared most active and united in Counsels with them: against whom also they are preparing, and shall shortly give matter of particular Impeachment. To this we say, that when it appears what those crimes are, and what persons are charged with them, we doubt not but they will sufficiently acquit themselves, if things may be legally carried in a judicial way by competent Judges not preingaged. In the mean time we conclude, That Soldiers, whose advantages arise by War, are not fit to judge of the Peace of the Nation.  

74. A Declaration by Mr. Walker, and Mr. Pryn  The 19 Jan. 1648. Mr. Pryn, and Mr. Walker, (two of the secured Members) published in print their Declaration and Protestation, against the actings and proceed of the Army and their Faction now remaining in the House of Commons; as followeth: 

A Declaration and Protestation of Will: Pryn, and Clem: Walker, Esquires; Members of the House of Commons: Against the present Actings and Proceed of the General, and General Council of the Army, and their Election now remaining and sitting in the said House.  
WHereas long since, for ease of the People, both Houses in a full and free Parliament Voted the Disbanding of this Army: in opposition to which, some great Officers of the said Army, (to continue their rich Commands) with some Members of the House of Commons, (who daily enrich themselves by the troubles of the times) secretly mutinied the Army against the Parliament. And whereas, lately the fare major part of the House of Commons, pitying the bleeding condition, and tears of the oppressed People, Voted, and entered into a Personal Treaty with the King: without which (by the Armies own confession in their Remonstrance at Saint Albon, p. 64.) there can be no peace; which the Army interrupted by obtruding upon the Commons a treasonable Remonstrance, 20. Novemb. 1648. tending to destroy the King, and His Posterity, and wholly to subvert all Parliaments, Religion, Laws, and Liberties for ever; whereby the Commons in Parliament found it absolutely necessary to prevent such pernicious innovations, by concluding a safe peace with His Majesty; whereupon (after mature debate) the House of Commons the 5. Decemb. 1648. Voted, That the Kings Answer to the Propositions of both Houses upon the Treaty, were a ground for the Houses to proceed to the settlement of a safe and well-grounded Peace: Upon which, the General, and Council of War, Wednesday morning, 6. December, 1648. Seized and Imprisoned 41 of the Members going to the House of Commons to do their Duty, secluded above 160. other Members, besidss 40. or 50. Members who voluntarily withdrew themselves to avoid their violence, leaving only their own engaged party of 40. or 50. Members sitting, who now pass Acts of Parliament of the House of Commons (as they call them) without the Lords; and comply with the said Council of War, to carry on the said Remonstrance: To which purpose this present remnant of the Commons have unvoted in a thin House under the force of the Army, what was deliberately Voted in a full and free House; whereas by their own Ordinance passed upon the Tumult of Apprentices, 20. August, 1647. to null, and make void ab initio, all Acts, Orders, Votes, etc. passed under the said force: This remaining Party ought not to sit, act, nor take upon them the style of a House, under so visible, actual, and horrid a Force.  
The premises considered, We whose names are hereunto subscribed, Members of the House of Commons, do declare and protest, That the said General, Commissioned Officers, and General Council of the Army, by the said act of violence, upon the major part of the House, which legally and virtually is the whole House, have waged War, and Rebelled against the Parliament their Masters, who raised them to defend the Privileges of Parliament, and the King's Person and Authority, in defence of Religion, Laws, and Liberties, and have thereby forfeited their Commissions, and have broken and dis-continued this Parliament; so that, until this force be removed, punished, the Honour of the Parliament and their wronged Members vindicated, and all the Members resummoned, all the Votes, Orders, and Actings, passed, and to be passed by this nominal House of Commons, are, and will be void, ab initio, and all such as do, or shall obey them, are and will be punishable, both by the Armies own judgement in their Remonstrance, August 18. and by the Houses Declaration, and the said Ordinance, 20. August, 1647.  
We do farther declare and protest against this present House of Commons illegal Acts, Order, or Ordinance, for erecting a High Court of Justice, and usurping a power without any Law or precedent, to Try, Depose, and bring to capital punishment the King, and to Disinherit His Posterity, or any of them, and against the said General Council of Officers, aiding and abetting them therein, as highly impious against the Law of God, Nations, and the Protestant Profession, Traitors against the Stat. of Treason, 25. Edw. 3. and against all Laws and our Statutes, perjurious and perfidious, against the Oaths of Allegiance, Supremacy, Nationall Covenant, and Protestation; all the Parliaments Declarations and Remonstrances held forth to the world; their Treaties and promises made to the Scots when they delivered the King's Person into our hands; against our promises made to the Hollanders, and other Nations, and against all the Professions, Declarations, Remonstrances, and Proposals made by this Army; when they made their Addresses to the King at New-market, Hampton-Court, and other places.  


William Pryn.  
Clem: Walker.   January 19 1648.    

75. The Count: of Officers order 2. Petitions for the Commons House against Tithes. 2. against the Stat. for Banishing the Jews.  Aout this time the General Council of Officers at White-Hall, ordered, That two Petitions (or mandates rather) should be drawn, and presented to their House of Commons; One against Payment of Tithes; the other, for Repealing the Act for Banishment of the Jews: Hear you see they shake hands with the Jews, and crucify Christ in his Ministers, as well as in his Anointed, the King.  
About this time Col: Tichburn, and some schismatical common-councel-men, 
57 Col: Tichburns Petition and complaint against the Lord Mayor, and their Orders thereupon. The like Petitions were invited from most Counties, where a dozen Schismatics and two or three Cloaks represented a whole Country.  presented a Petition to the supreme Authority the Commons in Parliament, demanding justice against all grand and capital Actors in the late Wars against the Parliament from the highest to the lowest: the Militia, Navy, and all Places of power to be in faithful hands, (that is, in their own Faction, all others being displaced under the general notion of disaffected) to settle the Votes, (That the supreme Authority is in the Commons in Parliament assembled.) They complained, That the Lord Mayor, and some Aldermen, denied to put their Petition to the Question at the Common Council, and departed the Court, with the Sergeant and Town-Clerke, That the Court afterwards passed it Nemine contradicente. The Commons thanked the Petitioners (for the tender of their assistance) and Ordered, That the Petition should be entered amongst the Acts of the Common Council, and owned them for a Common Council notwithstanding the departure of the Lord Mayor, etc. And about four or five days after, the Commons Ordered, 
* See a just and solemn Protest: of the free Citizens' of London, against the Ordinance, 17. Decemb. 1647. disabling such as had any hand in the City Engagement to bear Office.  That any six of the Commons Council, (upon eme gent occasions) might send for the Lord Mayor to call a Common Council themselves, and any forty of them to have power to Act as a Common Council without the Lord Mayor, any thing in their Charter to the contrary notwithstanding. Thus you see the Votes of this supreme thing (the House of Commons) are now become the only Laws and Reason of all our actions.  

77, An Act passed for adjournment of part of Hillary Term, and the Lords concurrence rejected.  The 16 Jan. 1648. was passed an Act of the Commons for adjournment of Hillary Term for forty days This was in order to the King's Trial, but the Commissioners of the Great Seal, declared, That they could not agree to seal Writs of Adjournment without the Lords concurrence, (the assent of one Lord being requisite) their tame Lordships sent down to the Commons to offer their readiness to join therein. But the Commons having formerly Voted, The Supreme Power to be in themselves as the People's Representative, and that the Commons in every Committee should be empowered to Act without the Lords. The Question was put, Whether the House would concur with the Lords therein? which passed in the Negative: so the Lords were not owned. Afterwards they ordered, that the Commoners (Commissioners for the Great Seal) should issue forth Writs without the Lords.  

78. The Agreement of the People presented to the House of Commons by the Officers the Army. Diurnal, from Jan. 15. 10. 22. 1648. nu. 286.  20. January, Lieut. General Hammond, with many Officers of the Army, presented to the Commons from the General and Council of the Army, a thing like a Petition, with The Agreement of the People, annexed. Mr. Speaker thanking them, desired them to return the hearty thanks of the House to the General and all his Army for their gallant services to the Nation; and desired the Petition and Agreement should be forthwith printed, to show the good affection between the Parliament and Army. I cannot blame them to brag of this affection, being the best string to their bow. About this time some well-meaning man (that durst think truth in private) published his thoughts under the Title of [Six serious Queries, concerning the King's Trial, by the High Court of Justice ..  

79. 6. Queries concerning the King's Trial by the new High Court of Justice.  1. Whether a King of three distinct Kingdoms can be condemned and executed by one Kingdom alone, without the concurrent consent, or against the judgement of the other two?  
2. Whether if the King be indicted or arraigned of high Treason, he ought not to be tried by his Peers? & whether those who are now nominated to try him, or any others in the Kingd: be his Peers?  
3. Whether if the King be triable in any Court, for any Treason against the Kingdom, He ought not to be tried only in full Parliament, in the most solemn and public manner, before all the Members of both Houses, in as honourable a way, as Strafford was in the beginning of this Parliament? And whether He ought not to have liberty and time to make His full defence, and the benefit of his learned Counsel, in all matters of Law, that may arise in or about his Trial, or in demurring to the jurisdiction of this illegal new Court, as Strafford and Canterbury had?  
4. Whether one eighth part only of the Members of the Commons House, meeting in the House, under the Army's force, when all the rest of the Members are forcibly restrained, secluded, or scared away by the Army's violence, and representing not above one eighth part of the Counties, Cities, & Boroughs of the Kingdom, without the consent and against the Vote of the majority of the Members, excluded and chased away, and of the House of Peers, by any pretext of Authority, Law, or Justice, can erect a New great Court of Justice to try the King, in whom all the rest of the Members, Peers and Kingdom (being far the Major part) have a greater interest than they? Whether such an High Court can be erected without an Act of Parl. or at least an Ordin. of both Houses, and a Commission under the Great Seal of England? And if not, whether this can be properly called a Court of Justice? and whether it be superior or inferior to those who erected it? who either cannot or dare not try and condemn the King in the Com. House; though they now style it, The Supreme Authority of the Kingdom; and whether all who shall sit as Judges, or act as Officers in it towards the Deposing or taking away the King's life, be not really guilty of High Treason, and all those who were aiding or assenting to the erection thereof in such an irregular manner, by the Laws and Statutes of this Realm?  
5. Whether those who are professed Enemies to the King, and by their Remonstrances, Speeches, and actions, profess they desire his blood and seek his life, can either in Law or Conscience be reputed competent Judges to try him for his life? It being a just exception to any Jury man, who is to try the basest or poorest Felon, and a legal challenge for which he must be withdrawn; that he is a professed Enemy and Prosecutor who seeks his life, and therefore no lawful nor indifferent trier of him for it.  
6. Whether the trial and taking away of the King's life by such an illegal and arbitrary High Court of Justice, as this, will not prove a most dangerous inlet, to the absolutest tyranny and bloodiest butchery ever yet heard of, or practised in this, or any other Nation? and a ready way to teach us, how to chop off one another's heads, till we are all destroyed? For if they may take away the King's head in it without, and against all rules of Law: then by the same or stronger reason, they may in like manner chop off the heads of any Nobleman, Peer, Member, Gentleman, or inferior Subject for any imaginary Treason or offence, and confiscate their Estates, there being no assurance they will stop at the Kings: 
The Answer of the General Council of Officers touching the secluded Members, Jan. 3. 1648.  And if those who are confessed to be the Majority of the Com. House, and therefore excluded, or the Prince of Wales next Heir to the Crown, or the Malignant party, or any other Faction whatsoever which may arise, should at any time hereafter get the upper hand by the people's general adhering to them, or any divisions of the Army, or by any means God's providence should administer (who hath thousands of ways to pull down the proudest Tyrants, and dissipate the strongest Armies in a moment, as he did Senacheribs, the Midianites, the Moabites, and Ammonites, with sundry others recorded in sacred Writ, and profane Stories, and the Scots Army but few months since) they may by like authority and precedent erect the like new Court, to cut off the heads of all the Members now sitting, and of the present General Council of the Army, and all the Commissioners acting in this new Court; and so fall a murdering and butchering one another, till we were all destroyed one by another, and made a spectacle of most unnatural tyranny, and cruelty to the whole world, Angels, and Men, and a prey to our common Enemies. Upon which consideration, let every man now seriously lay his hand upon his own breast, and sadly consider what the bloody tragical issue of this new Phaleris Bull, may prove to him or his; and whether every Freeborn Englishman (especially of Noblest birth, and amplest Estate) be not deeply obliged in point of prudence and conscience to use his utmost endeavour with hazard of life and estate, to prevent the erection of such an exorbitant and illegal Authority, in the very rise and foundation, ere it be over-late; and not patiently suffer a rash inconsiderate number of Hotspurs (of mean condition and broken desperate fortunes for the most part) out of private malice, fear, or designs to secure and enrich themselves by the ruins of others of better fortunes and quality; to set up such a new shambles to butcher and quarter the King, Nobles, Parliament-men, Gentlemen, and persons of all conditions, as was never heard of among Pagans or Christians, from the Creation to this present, and will no way suit with our English soil, already overmuch watered with English blood; and so deeply engaged against all arbitrary and tyrannical usurpations and proceed (especially capital) in any hands whatsoever, which have cost us so much blood and treasure to oppose and fight against for seven years' last passed.  
Saturday, jan. 20. 1648. 
80. The first days Trial of his Majesty.  The new thing called The High Court of Justice sat: Bradshaw being Precedent, who had the Mace and Sword carried before him, and 20 Gentlemen (forsooth) with Partisans for his Guard, under the command of Colonel Fox the Tinker. a O yes being made, and silence commanded: the said Act of the Commons for erecting the said Court was read, and the Court called, there being about 70 of the Commissioners present. Then the King was brought to the Bar by Col. Hacker with Halberdiers, the Mace of the Court conducting him to his chair within the Bar where he sat. And then Pres. Bradshaw said to the King, Charles Stuart King of England; The Commons of England assembled in Parliament being sensible of the great calamities brought upon this Nation, 
Prove this power and trust: The whole Kingdom (in effect) deny it. So do all our Law-Books, and the practice of all Ages.  and of the innocent blood shed (which are referred to you as the Author of it) according to that duty which they own to God, the Nation, and themselves, and according to that power and fundamental trust reposed in them by the People, have constituted this High Court of Justice, before which you are now brought, and you are to hear your Charge, upon which the Court will proceed.  Solicitor Cook. 
My Lord, in behalf of the Commons of England, and of all the People thereof, I do accuse Charles Stuart here present of High Treason and misdemeanours, and I do in the name of the Commons of England desire the Charge may be read unto him.  The King. 
Hold a little.  Precedent. 
Sir, the Court commands the Charge to be read; afterwards you may be heard. The Charge was read, as followeth: 

The Charge against King Charles the First, January 20. 1648.  

The Charge read.  THat the said CHARLES STUART, being admitted King of England, and therein trusted with a limited power to govern by, and according to the Laws of the Land, and not otherwise: And by his Trust, Oath, and Office: being obliged to use the power committed to him, For the good and benefit of the People, and for the preservation of their Rights and Liberties; yet nevertheless, out of a wicked design, to erect and uphold in himself an unlimited and tyrannical power, to rule according to his Will, and to overthrow the Rights and Liberties of the People: Yea, to take away, and make void the foundations thereof, and of all redress and remedy of misgovernment, which by the fundamental Constitutions of this Kingdom, were reserved on the people's behalf, in the right and power of frequent and successive Parliaments, or National meetings in Council; He, the said Charles Stuart, for accomplishment of such his Designs, and for the protecting of himself and his Adherents, in his and their wicked Practices to the same Ends, hath traitorously and maliciously levied War against the present Parliament, and the People therein Represented.  
Particularly, upon or about the thirtieth day of June, in the year of our Lord, one thousand six hundred forty and two, at Beverley, in the County of York; and upon, or about the thirtieth day of July, in the year aforesaid, in the County of the City of York: and upon, or about the twenty fourth day of August, in the same year, at the County of the Town of Nottingham, (when, and where he set up his Standard of War, and also on or about the twenty third day of October in the same year, at Edgehill, and Keinton-field, in the County of Warwick: and upon or about the thirtieth day of November, in the same year, at Brainford, in the County of Middlesex: and upon, or about the thirtieth day of August, in the year of our Lord, one thousand six hundred forty and three, at Cavesham-bridge, near Reading, in the County of Berks: and upon, or about the thirtieth day of October, in the year last mentioned, at, or near the City of Gloucester: And upon, or about the thirtieth day of November, in the year last mentioned, at Newbury, in the County of Berks: And upon, or about the one and thirtieth day of July, in the year of our Lord, one thousand six hundred forty and four, at Cropredybridge, in the County of Oxon: And upon, or about the thirtieth day of September, in the year last mentioned, at Bodmin, and other places near adjacent, in the County of Cornwall: And upon, or about the thirtieth day of November, in the year last mentioned, at Newbury aforesaid: And upon, or about the eighth day of June, in the year of our Lord, one thousand six hundred forty and five, at the Town of Leicester: And also, upon the fourteenth day of the same month, in the same year, at Naseby-field, in the County of Northampton. At which several times and places, or most of them, and at many other places in this Land, at several other times, within the years aforementioned: And in the year of our Lord, one thousand six hundred forty and six, He, the said Charles Stuart, hath caused and procured many thousands of the free-people of the Nation to be slain; and by Divisions, Parties, and Insurrections, within this Land, by invasions from foreign parts, endeavoured and procured by Him, and by many other evil ways and means. He the said Charles Stuart, hath not only maintained and carried on the said War, both by Land and Sea, during the years before mentioned, but also hath renewed, or caused to be renewed, the said War against the Parliament, and good people of this Nation, in this present year, one thousand six hundred forty and eight, in the Counties of Kent, Essex, Surrey, Sussex, Middlesex, and many other Counties and places in England and Wales, and also by Sea. And particularly, He the said Charles Stuart, hath for that purpose, given Commissions to his Son, the Prince, and others, whereby, besides multitudes of other Persons, many such, as were by the Parliament entrusted and employed, for the safety of the Nation; being by Him or his Agents, corrupted; to the betraying of their Trust, and revolting from the Parliament, have had entertainment and commission, for the continuing and renewing of War, and Hostility, against the said Parliament and People, as aforesaid. By which cruel and unnatural Wars by Him, the said Charles Stuart, levied, continued▪ and renewed, as aforesaid, much Innocent blood of the Free-people of this Nation hath been spilt, many Families have been undone, the Public Treasury wasted and exhausted, Trade obstructed, and miserably decayed, vast expense and damage to the Nation incurred, and many parts of the Land spoilt, some of them even to desolation.  
And for further prosecution of His said evil Designs, He, the said Charles Stuart, doth still continue his Commissions to the said Prince, and other Rebels and Revolters, both English and Foreigners; and to the Earl of Ormond, and to the Irish Rebels and Revolters, associated with him; from whom further Invasions upon this Land are threatened, upon the procurement, and on the behalf of the said Charles Stuart.  
All which wicked Designs, Wars, and evil practices of Him, the said Charles Stuart have been, and are carried on, for the advancing and upholding of the Personal Interest of Will and Power, and pretended prerogative to Himself and his Family, against the public Interest, Common Right, Liberty, Justice, and Peace of the people of this Nation, by, and for whom He was entrusted, as aforesaid.  
By all which it appeareth, that He, the said Charles Stuart hath been, and is the Occasioner, Author, and Contriver of the said unnatural, cruel, and bloody Wars, and therein guilty of all the treasons, murders, rapines, burn, spoils, desolations, damage and mischief to this Nation, acted or committed in the said Wars, or occasioned thereby.  
And the said John Cook, by Protestation (saving on the behalf of the people of England, the liberty of Exhibiting at any time hereafter, any other Charge against the said Charles Stuart; and also of replying to the Answers which the said Charles Stuart shall make to the premises, or any of them, or any other Charge that shall be so exhibited) doth for the said treasons and crimes, on the behalf of the said people of England, Impeach the said Charles Stuart, as a Tyrant, Traitor, Murderer, and a public and implacable Enemy to the Commonwealth of England: And pray, that the said Charles Stuart, King of England, may be put to answer all and every the premises, That such Proceed, Examinations, Trials, Sentence, and Judgement may be thereupon had, or shall be agreeable to Justice.    
The King smiled often during the reading of the Charge, especially at these words: Tyrant, Traitor, Murderer, and public Enemy of the Commonwealth.  Precedent. 
Sir, you have now heard your Charge, you find that in the close of it, it is prayed to the Court in behalf of the Commons of England, that you answer to your Charge, which the Court expects.  King. 
I would know by what power I am called hither? I was not long ago in the Isle of Wight, how I came there is a longer story, than I think fit at this time for me to speak: But there I entered into a Treaty with both Houses of Parliament, with as much faith as is possible to be had of any People in the World: I Treated there with a number of Honourable Lords and Gentlemen, and treated honestly and uprightly, I cannot say but that they did very nobly with Me: We were upon a Conclusion of the Treaty. Now I would know by what lawful Authority (there are many unlawful Authorities, Thiefs and Robbers on the Highway) I was brought from thence, and carried from place to place? (and I know not what) and when I know by what lawful Authority, I shall Answer. Remember I am your King, your lawful King, and what sins you bring upon your own heads, and the judgement of God upon this Land, think well upon it, think well upon it, I say, before you go on from one sin to a greater; therefore let me know by what lawful Authority I am seated here? and I shall not be unwilling to Answer. In the mean time I shall not betray My Trust: I have a trust committed to Me by God, by old and lawful descent; I will not betray it to answer to a new unlawful Authority.  Bradshaw Pres. 
If you had been pleased to have observed what was hinted to you by the Court at your first coming hither, you would have known by what Authority: which Authority requires you in the name of the People of England, of whom you are Elected KING, to answer them.  King. 
I deny that.  Bradsh. 
If you acknowledge not the Authority of the Court, they must proceed,  King. 
I do tell them so, England was never an Elective Kingdom, but an Hereditary Kingdom, for near these thousand years: Therefore let Me know by what lawful Authority I am called hither? I do stand more for the Liberty of My People then any here that come to be My pretended Judges: and therefore let Me know by what lawful Authority, and I will Answer, otherwise I will not Answer.  Bradsh. 
Sir, How really you have managed your Trust is known: your way of Answer is to interrogate the Court, which beseems not you in this condition you have been told of it twice or thrice.  King. 
Here is Lieut. Colonel Cobbet, ask him, if he did not bring Me from the Isle of Wight by force? I do not come here as submitting to the Court; I will stand as much for the Privilege of the House of Commons, rightly understood, as any man here whatsoever; I see no House of Lords here that may constitute a Parliament, and (the King too) should have been. Is this the bringing the King to His Parliament? Is this the bringing an end to the Treaty on the public Faith? Let Me see a Lawful Authority warranted by the Word of God, the Scriptures, or by the constitutions of the Kingdom. I will not betray My Trust, nor the Liberties of the People; I am sworn to keep the Peace by that duty I own to God, and My Country: and I will do it to the last breath in My body. As it is a sin to withstand lawful Authority, so it is to submit, to a Tyrannical, or any otherwise unlawful Authority.  Bradsh. 
The Court expects your final Answer, and will adjourn till Monday next: 
Brutish.  we are satisfied with our Authority that are your Judges, and it is upon God's Authority, and the Kingdoms; and that peace you speak of will be kept in doing Justice, and that's our present work. So the Court adjourned, and the King was conducted back; 
Note.  They had so contrived it, that divers Schismatical Soldiers, and Fellows were placed round about the Court, to cry Justice, Justice, when the King was remanded, thinking all the rest of the people would have bleated to the same tune, but they (almost all) cried God bless Him, and were (some of them) well cudgeled by the Soldiers for not saying their prayers handsomely after the mode of the Army; one barbarous Soldier (it is confidently reported) spat in the King's Face as he bauled for Justice: 
Whether this were the first day, or afterwards, I know not.  The King only saying, My Saviour suffered more for my sake, wiped it off with His Handkerchief, yet the Court took no notice of this Affront, so fare was His Majesty already forejudged and condemned to Sufferings.  
Monday, January 22. 
81. The second day's Trial of his Majesty.  The KING was brought again to His Trial.  Solicitor Cock. 
May it please your Lordship, I did at the last Court in behalf of the Commons of England, exhibit, and give in to this Court a charge of high Treason, and other High crimes against the Prisoner at the Bar: whereof I do accuse him in the name of the people of England, and the charge was read unto Him, and his Answer required: My Lord, He was not then pleased to give an Answer, but instead of answering did dispute the Authority of this High Court; My humble motion to this High Court in behalf of the Kingdom of England, is, That the Prisoner may be directed to make a positive Answer, either by way of confession, or Negation: which, if He shall refuse to do, That the matter of charge may be taken pro confesso, and the Court may proceed according to Justice.  Bradsh. 
Sir, you may remember at the last Court you were told the occasion of your being brought hither, and you heard a charge read against You, etc. You hear likewise what was prayed in behalf of the People, That you should give an Answer to that charge: You were then pleased to make some scruples concerning the Authority of this Court, and knew not by what Authority You were brought hither: You did divers times propound your Questions, and were as often Answered, That it was by Authority of the Commons of England, Assembled in Parliament, that did think fit to call You to account for those High and capital Misdemeanours, wherewith You were then charged. Since that the Court hath taken into consideration what You then said, they are fully satisfied with their own Authority, and they hold it fit You should stand satisfied therewith too: And they do require that you do give a positive and particular Answer to this Charge exhibited against You; they expect you should either confess or deny. If you do deny, 
Without any Law, Precedent, rational debate, or Arguments to prove it: Oh brutish Tyranny.  it is offered in the behalf of the Kingdom to be made good against You, Their Authority they do avow to the whole world, that the whole Kingdom are to rest satisfied therein, and You are to rest satisfied in it; and therefore You are to give a positive Answer.  King, 
When I was here last, its true, I made that Question; and truly, if it were only my own particular case, I would have satisfied Myself with the Protestation I made here the last time, against the Legality of this Court, and that a King cannot be tried by any Superior Jurisdiction upon Earth: but it is not my case alone, it is the Freedom, and the Liberties of the People of England, and (do you pretend what you will) I stand more for their Liberties; for if Power without Law may make Laws, nay, altar the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom, I do not know what Subject he is in England that can be sure of his Life, or any thing that he calls his own. Therefore, when I came hither, I did expect particular Reasons to know by what Law, what Authority, you proceed against me here? and therefore I am a little to seek what to say to you in this Particular, because the Affirmative is to be proved, the Negative (often) is very hard to do. I shall tell you My Reasons as short as I can. All proceed against any man whatsoever—  Bradsh. 
Sir, I must interrupt You; what You do is not agreeable to the proceed of any Court of Justice: 
False.  You are about to enter into Argument and Dispute concerning the Authority of this Court, before whom You appear as a Prisoner, and are charged as a High Delinquent; You may not Dispute the Authority of this Court, nor will any Court give way unto it, You are to submit to it, etc.  King. 
Under favour; I do plead for the Liberty of the people of England more than you do; and therefore, If I should impose a belief upon any man without Reasons given, it were unreasonable—  Bradsh. 

Oh Brutish Asinine Kingdom, to be Governed by an upstart Authority. without use of Reason.  Sir, I must interrupt You: You may not be permitted, You speak of Law and Reason, and there is both against you. Sir, The Vote of the Commons of England assembled in Parliament, is the reason of the Kingdom, and they are those that have given You that Law, according to which you should have Ruled and Reigned; Sir, It will be taken notice of, that you stand in contempt of the Court, and Your contempt will be recorded accordingly.  King. 
I do not know how a King can be a Delinquent, but by all Laws that ever I heard, all men may put in Demurrers against any proceed as Illegal: and I do demand that, if you deny that, you deny Reason.  Bradsh. 

Overrule a Demurrer without Argument: If a man may not Demur to the Jurisdiction of any Court, that Court may enlarge its bounds, and become a Corporation of Tyrants.  Sir, Neither You, nor any Man are permitted to Dispute that Point, You are concluded; You may not demur to the Jurisdiction of the Court, if You do, I must let you know, that they overrule Your demurrer, they sit here by the Authority of the Commons of England; and all Your Predecessors and You, are responsible to them.  King. 
I deny that, show Me one Precedent.  Bradsh. 
Sir, You ought not to interrupt while the Court is speaking to you: this point is not to be debated by you, if you offer it by way of Demurrer, to the Jurisdiction of the Court, they have considered of their Jurisdiction, they do affirm their own Jurisdiction.  King. 
I say Sir, by your favour, That the Commons of England were never a Court of Judicature: I would know how they came to be so?  Bradsh. 
Sir, you are not to be permitted to go on in that Speech, and these discourses.  
Then the Clerk of the Court read, as followeth:  
Charles Stuart, King of England, you have been accused in the behalf of the people of England, of High Treason, and other high crimes, the Court hath determined that you ought to answer the same.  King. 
I will Answer the same so soon as I know by what Authority you do this.  Bradsh. 
If this be all that you will say, than Gentlemen, you that brought the Prisoner hither, take charge of Him back again.  King. 
I do require that I may give My Reasons why I did not Answer, and give Me time for that.  Bradsh. 
Sir, 'Tis not for Prisoners to require.  King. 
Prisoners! Sir, I am not an ordinary Prisoner.  Bradsh. 
The Court have affirmed their Jurisdiction, if You will not Answer, We shall give order to Record your default.  King. 
You never heard my Reasons yet.  Bradsh. 
Sir, Your Reasons are not to be heard against the highest Jurisdiction.  King. 
Show Me that Jurisdiction where Reason is not to be heard? 
Reasons are not to be heard against a remaining faction of the Commons of England.   Bradsh. 
Sir, we show it you here, the Commons of England, and the next time you are brought, You will know more of the pleasures of Court, and it may be, their final Determination.  King. 
Show Me where ever the House of Commons was a Court of Judicature of that kind.  Bradsh. 
Sergeant, take away the Prisoner.  King. 
Well Sir, Remember that the King is not suffered to give in His Reasons, for the liberty and freedom of all His Subjects.  Bradsh. 
Sir, You are not to have liberty to use this language, how great a Friend You have been to the Laws and Liberties of the People, let all England and the world judge.  King. 
Sir, under favour, it was the Liberty, Freedom, and Laws of the Subject that ever I took— defended Myself with Arms, I never took up Arms against the People, but for the Laws.  Bradsh. 
The command of the Court must be obeyed, no Answer will be given to the Charge.  
So the King was guarded forth to Sir Robert Cottons, and the Court adjourned to the Painted-Chamber, Tuesday twelve a Clock.  

82. The 3d. day's Trial of His Majesty.  Tuesday, January 23. The Court sat again, seventy three Commissioners present.  
The King brought into the Court, sits down.  Solicit. Cook. 
May it please your Lordship my Lord Precedent, This is now the third time that by the great grace and favour of the Court, the Prisoner hath been brought to the Bar, before any Issue joined in this Case. My Lord, I did at the first Court exhibit a Charge against Him, containing the highest Treason that ever was wrought on the Theatre of England, That a King of England trusted to keep the Law, that had taken an Oath so to do, that had Tribute paid Him for that end, should be guilty of a wicked Design to subvert and destroy our Laws, and introduce an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government in defiance of the Parliament and their Authority; set up His Sandard for War, against his Parliament and People: and I did humbly pray in behalf of the People of England, That he may speedily be required to make an Answer to the Charge; but, my Lord, in stead of making any Answer, He did then dispute the Authority of this High Court; your Lordship was pleased to give Him a further day to put in His Answer, which day being yesterday: I did humbly move, That He might be required to give a direct and positive Answer, either by denying, or confessing of it; But, my Lord, He was then pleased to demur to the Jurisdiction of the Court, which the Court did then overrule, and command Him to give a direct and positive Answer: My Lord, besides this great delay of Justice, I shall now humbly move your Lordship for speedy Judgement against Him: I might press your Lordship upon the whole, That according to the known rules of the Laws of the Land; that if a Prisoner shall stand contumacious in contempt, and shall not put in an Issuable Plea, guilty or not guilty of the charge given against him, whereby he may come to a fair Trial, that by an implicit confession it may be taken, pro confesso; as it hath been done to those who have deserved more favour, than the Prisoner at the Bar hath done. But besides, my Lord, I shall humbly press your Lordship upon the whole fact, 
You see the emnant ●f the House of Comm. had forejudged the King before they erected this new Court to sentence him; and claim a Jurisdiction, as well as a Supreme Authority.  That the House of Commons, the Supreme Authority and Jurisdiction of the Kingdom, they have declared, That it is notorious that the matter of the charge is true; as it is in truth my Lord, as clear as crystal; and as the Sun that shines at noonday; which if your Lordship and the Court be not satisfied in, I have notwithstanding on the People's behalf, several Witnesses to produce; and therefore I do humbly pray, (and yet I do confess, it is not so much I, as the Innocent blood that hath been shed: (the cry whereof is very great) for Justice and Judgement) and therefore I do humbly pray, that speedy Judgement be pronounced against the Prisoner at the Bar.  Bradshaw. 
Sir, You have heard what is moved by the Council on behalf of the Kingdom against you; you were told over and over again, That it was not for you, nor any other man to dispute the Jurisdiction of the Supreme and highest Authority of England, from which there is no appeal, and touching which there must be no dispute; yet you did persist in such carriage as you have no manner of obedience, nor did you acknowledge any authority in them; nor the high Court that constituted this high Court of Justice: Sir, I must let you know from the Court, that they are very sensible of these delays of Yours, and that they ought not (being thus Authorized by the Supreme Court of England) be thus trifled withal, and that they might in Justice, and according to the rules of Justice, take advantage of these delays, and proceed to pronounce Judgement against you, yet nevertheless they are pleased to give direction, and on their behalf, I do require you, That You make a positive Answer unto this charge that is against you, in plain Terms (for Justice, knows no respect of Persons) you are to give your positive and final Answer in plain English, whether you be guilty or not guilty of these Treasons laid to your charge.  King. 
When I was here Yesterday, I did desire to speak for the Liberties of the people of England, I was interrupted; I desire to know yet, whether I may speak freely, or not?  Bradsh. 
Sir, You have had the resolution of the Court, upon the like question the last day, and you were told, that having such a charge of so high a nature against you, Your work was, that you ought to acknowledge the Jurisdiction of the Court, and to answer to your charge; when you have once Answered, you shall be heard at large, make the best defence You can: But Sir, I must let you know from the Court, (as their commands) That You are not to be permitted to Issue out into any other di●●●●●ses till such time as You have given a positive answer concerning the matter charged upon you.  King. 
For the charge I value it not a Rush, it is the Liberty of the people of England that I stand for; for Me to acknowledge a new Court that I never heard of before, I that am your KING, that should be an example to all the people of England, to uphold Justice, to maintain the old Laws, Indeed, I do not know how to do it: you spoke well the first day that I came here, (on Saturday) of the Obligations that I had laid upon me by God, to the maintenance of the Liberties of my people, the same Obligation you spoke of, I do acknowledge to God, that I own to him, and to My people, to defend as much as in Me lies, the ancient Laws of the Kingdom; therefore until that I may know, that this is not against the fundamental Laws of the Kingdom, I can put in no particular Answer, if you will give Me time I will show you My Reasons, and this— here being interrupted, the King said again, 
Whether these breaches and interruptions were made by Bradshaw, or whether they are omissions and expunctions of some material, parts of the King's Speech which this licenced Pen man durst not let down; I Know not: I hear much of the King's Argument is omitted, and much depraved, none but Licenced-men being suffered to take Notes.  By your favour, you ought not to interrupt Me, How I came here I know not; there's no Law for it to make your King your Prisoner; I was in a Treaty upon the public Faith of the Kingdom, that was the known— two Houses of Parliament, that was the Representative of the Kingdom, and when I had almost made an end of the Treaty, than I was hurried away and brought hither, and therefore-  Bradsh. 
Sir, You must know the pleasure of the Court.  King. 
By your favour Sir—  Bradsh. 
Nay Sir, by your favour, You may not be permitted to fall into those Discourses: You appear as a Delinquent, You have not acknowledged the Authority of the Court, the Court craves it not of You, but once more they command You to give your positive Answer. Clerk do your Duty.  King. 
Duty Sir!  
The Clerk reads.  
Charles Stuart, King of England, You are accused in behalf of the Commons of England of divers high Crimes and Treasons; which Charge hath been Read unto You, The Court now requires You to give Your positive and final Answer, by way of confession or denial of the Charge.  King. 
Sir, I say again to you, so that I may give satisfaction to the People of England, of the clearness of My proceed, not by way of answer, not in this way, but to satisfy them that I have done nothing against that Trust that hath been committed to Me, I would do it; but to acknowledge a New Court against their Privileges, to alter the fundamental Laws of the Kingdom, Sir, you must excuse me,  Bradsh. 
Sir, This is the third time that You have publicly disavowed this Court and put an affront upon it: how far You have preserved the privileges of the people, Your actions have spoken, but truly Sir, men's intentions ought to be known by their actions, You have written Your meaning in bloody Characters throughout the whole Kingdom, but Sir, you understand the pleasure of the Court; Clerk Record the default; and Gentlemen, you that took charge of the Prisoner take Him back again. So the King went forth with His Guards, and the Court adjourned to the Painted Chamber; the Crier (as at other times) crying, God bless the Kingdom of England. 
83. The fourth and last day's Trial of His Majesty.   
Saturday, 27. Jan. 1648. The Court sat again in Westminster-hall, the Precedent was in his Scarlet Robes, after him 67. Commissioners answered to their Names; The King came in, in His wont posture with his Hat on, a Company of Soldiers and Schismatics placed about the Court to cry for Justice, Judgement, and Execution, The people not daring to cry God bless Him, for fear of being again beaten by the Soldiers.  Bradsh. 
Gentlemen, it is well known to all, or most of you here present, that the Prisoner at the Bar hath been several times convented, and brought before this Court, to make Answer to a charge of High Treason, and other high crimes exhibited against Him, in the Name of the people of England; to which charge being required to Answer, He hath been so far from obeying the commands of the Court, by submitting to their Justice, as He began to take upon Him Reasoning and Debate unto the Authority of the Court, And to the Highest Court that appointed them to Try and to Judge Him; but being overruled in that, and required to make His Answer, He still continued contumacious, and refused to submit to Answer. Hereupon the Court (that they may not be wanting to themselves, nor the Trust reposed in them, nor that any man's wilfulness prevent Justice) they have considered of the charge, of the contumacy, and of that confession which in Law doth arise on that contumacy, they have likewise considered the notiority of the Fact charged upon this Prisoner; and upon the whole matter, they are resolved, and have agreed upon a Sentence to be pronounced against this Prisoner, but in respect He doth desire to be heard before the Sentence be Read, and pronounced, the Court hath resolved to hear Him; yet Sir, thus much I must tell you beforehand, (which you have been minded of at other Courts) that if that which you have to say, be to offer any debate concerning the Jurisdiction, You are not to be heard in it: You have offered it formerly, and you have struck at the root, that is, the Power and Supreme Authority of the Commons of England, which this Court will not admit a Debate of: and which indeed is an irrational thing in them to do, being a Court that act upon Authority derived from them. But Sir, if you have any thing to say in defence of yourself concerning the matter charged, the Court hath given me in commands to hear You.  King. 
Since I see that you will not hear any thing of debate concerning that which I confess I thought most material, for the peace of the Kingdom, and for the liberty of the Subject, I shall wave it; but only I must tell you, that this many a day all things have been taken away from Me, but that, that I call dearer to Me than My life, which is My Conscience and Mine Honour: and if I had a respect of my life, more than the peace of the Kingdom, and the liberty of the Subject, certainly I should have made a particular defence for My life, for by that at leastwise, I might have delayed an ugly Sentence, which I believe will pass upon Me, therefore certainly Sir, as a man that hath some understanding, some knowledge of the world (if that my true zeal to my Country had not overborne the care that I have for My own preservation) I should have gone another way to work than that I have done: Now Sir, I conceive that a hasty Sentence once passed may sooner be repent of than recalled; and truly, the selfsame desire that I have for the peace of the Kingdom and the liberty of the Subject, more than My own particular ends, makes Me n●w at last desire, that I having something to say that concerns both, I desire, before Sentence be given, that I may be heard in the Painted-Chamber before the Lords and Commons, this delay cannot be prejudicial to you, whatsoever I say, if that I say no reason those that hear Me must be Judges, I cannot be Judge of that that I have: if it be reason, and really for the welfare of the Kingdom, and the liberty of the Subject, I am sure its very well worth the hearing, therefore I do conjure you, as you love that which you pretend (I hope its real) the Liberty of the Subject, and peace of the Kingdom, that you will grant Me this hearing before any Sentence passed; but if I cannot get this Liberty, I do protest that your fair shows of Liberty and Peace are pure shows, and that you will not hear your King.  
The Precedent said, This was a declining the Jurisdiction of the Court, and delay: Yet the Court withdrew for half an hour, advised upon it, and sat again.  
Bradshaw said to the King, That the Court had considered what He had moved, and of their own Authority; the return from the Court is this, That they have been too much delayed by You already, and they are Judges appointed by the highest Authority, and Judges are no more to delay, than they are to deny Justice; and notwithstanding what You have offered, they are resolved to proceed to Sentence, and to Judgement, that is their unanimous resolution.  
The King pressed again and again, that He might be heard by the Lords and Commons in the Painted Chamber, with great earnestness, and was as often denied by Bradshaw: at last, the King desired that this Motion of His might be entered.  
Bradshaw began in a long Speech to declare the Grounds of the Sentence, much aggravating the King's offences, and misapplying both Law and History to his present purpose: When Bradshaw had done speaking, the Clerk read the Sentence drawn up in Parchment to this effect: 


84. The Sentence against His Majesty.  THat whereas the Commons of England in Parliament had appointed them an high Court of Justice for the Trial of Charles Stuart King of England, before whom He had been three times convented; and at the first time a charge of High Treason and other high crimes and misdemeanours was read in behalf of the Kingdom of England, etc. 
* Here the Clerk read the aforesaid Charge.  Which charge being read unto Him as aforesaid, He the said Charles Stuart was required to give His Answer; but He repused so to do: and so expressed the several passages at His Trial in refusing to Answer. For all which Treasons and crimes this Court doth adjudge, That He the said Charles Stuart as a Tyrant, Traitor, Murderer, and a public Enemy shall be put to Death, by severing of His Head from His Body.    
After the Sentence read, the Precedent said, This Sentence now read and published, it is the Act, Sentence, Judgement, and resolution of the whole Court; Here the whole Court stood up, as assenting to what the Precedent said.  King. 
Will you hear Me a word Sir?  Bradshaw. 
Sir, You are not to be heard after the Sentence.  King. 
No Sir!  Bradshaw, 
No. Sir, by your favour Sir! Guard, withdraw our Prisoner.  King. 
I am not suffered to speak; expect what Justice other people will have.  
These are the Names of such Persons as did actually sit as Judges upon the Trial of His Majesty, with the Council and Attendance of the Court.  

Oliver Cromwell, L. Gen.  
Com. Gen: Ireton.  
Major Gen. Skippon.  
Sir Hardresse Waller.  
Col. Thomas Harrison.  
Col. Edward whaley.  
Col. Thomas Pride.  
Col. Isaac Ewer.  
Col. Rich. Ingelsby.  
Sir Henry Mildmay.  
Thomas, Lord Grey.  
Philip, Lord Lisle.  
Will. Lord Munson,  
Sir John Danvers.  
Sir Tho. Maleverer.  
Sir John Bowcher.  
Sir James Harrington.  
Sir William Brereton.  
Will. Henningham, Esq.  
Isaac Pennington, Ald.  
Thomas Atkins, Ald.  
Col. Rowland Wilson.  
Sir Peter Weentworth.  
Col. Henry Martin.  
Col. William Purefoy.  
Col. Godfrey Bosvill.  
Col. John Berkstead.  
Sir Will. Constable.  
Col. Edward Ludlow.  
Col. Jo. Hutchingson.  
Col. Robert Titchburne.  
Col. Owen Roe.  
Col. Adriaen Scroop.  
Col. John Oky.  
Col. John Harrison.  
Col. John Desborough.  
Cornelius Holland, Esq.  
Miles Corbet, Esq.  
Francis Allen, Esq.  
Peregrin Pelham, Esq.  
John Gourdon, Esq.  
Serj. Francis Thorp.  
Tho. chaloner, Esq.  
Col. John Moor.  
John Aldred, Esq.  
Col. Francis Lassels.  
Henry Smith, Esq.  
James Chaloner, Esq.  
Dennis Bond, Esq.  
Humph. Edward's, Esq.  
Gregory Clement, Esq.  
John Fray, Esq.  
Tho. Wogan, Esq.  
Sir Greg. Norton.  
Serj. John Bradshaw.  
Col. Edm. Harvey.  
John Dove, Esq.  
Col. John Venn.  
John Foulks, Alder.  
Thomas Scot  
Tho. Andrews, Alder.  
William Cawley, Esq.  
Col. Anthony Stapley.  
John Lisle, Esq.  
John Corbet, Esq.  
Thomas Blunt, Esq.  
Thomas Boone, Esq.  
Col. George Fleetwood.  
Col. James Temple.  
Sir Peter Temple.  
Col. Thomas wait  
John Browne, Esq.  
William Say, Esq.  
Col. Matth. Thomlinson.  
John Blackston.  
Gilb. Millington.  
Abraham barrel.  
Col. Jo. Downes.  
Norton.  
L. Gen. Tho. Hammond.  
Nich. Love.  
Vincent Potter.  
Augustine Garland.  
Sir Miles Lyvesey.  
Jo. Dixwell.  
Simon maine.  
Daniel Blagrave.  
Col. Robert Lylburne.  
Col. Rich. Deane.  
Col. Huson.  
L. Col W. Goffe..  
Master Carewe.  
Jo. Joanes.  
Mr. Bradshaw nominated Precedent.  
Counselors assistant to this Court, and to draw up the Charge against the KING, are, 

Doctor Dorislaus.  
Master Ask.  
Master Cook.  
Sergeant Dandy, Sergeant at Arms.  
Mr. Philip's Clerk to the Court.    
Messengers, and Dore-keepers, are, Master Walfard. Mr. Radley Mr. Pain. Mr. powel. Mr. Hull. and M. King Crver.   

85. Observations upon the trial of His Majesty.  This is a Relation of his Majesty's Trial by a mixed Court of Justice erected by 50. or 60. confederate Members of the House of Commons, sitting under the power of the Army, after all the rest of the Members above 250. had been violently secured, secluded, and frighted away. And in order to this design against the King, the House of Peers ●●●d down, and yet the House of Commons (when entire) ●s 〈◊〉 Court of Judicature, nor can give an Oath. Had indifferent 〈◊〉 been permitted to take Notes, you had had a more perfect narrative; yet as it is, truth shines forth to the confusion of this bloody, cheating, Tyrannical faction: could they have wrought the King to have submitted to the Jurisdiction of this Arbitrary Court, His example should have been urged as an irrefragable Precedent against the lives and liberties of the whole Kingdom, and urged to be of as great Authority, as if He had established that Court by Act of Parliament: So that the King is to be looked on as a civil Martyr, dying for the Liberty of the people. And although they have failed of this device, yet they will have some other Arbitrary bloody Inquisition to cut off the lives (without Law) of such as they desire to remove, without which this Tyrannous Kingdom of the Saints, or Brambles, cannot subsist; And therefore on Thursday, 2. February, Cromwell and Ireton, and their cannibal Counsel of Officers projected to get an Act passed by their House of Commons (where all their requests, are commands) to enable the said Council to hang all such as they shall adjudge Disturbers of the Army, 
2. Part of England's liberty in Chains▪ sub fine And the Hunting of the Foxes, etc.  although no Members of the Army: they must have public Slaughter-houses in terrorem, as well as private ad poenam, the nature of their cause, and their natural conditions requiring it. Oliver is a Bird of prey, you may know by his Bloody Beak; so was his Prodomus that Type and figure of him, John of Leyden; than whom, this Fellow will shortly prove fare more bloody: you see this schismatical remnant of one House, have the impudence to usurp the Supreme Authority to themselves: And then to tell you, that the Votes of this petty conventicle (calling themselves the Commons) are the Law, nay the Reason of the Land, thereby divesting us of those Laws which shall distinguish us from Slaves, and denying us the use of our reason, whereby we are differenced from Beasts, and expecting an implicit faith and blind obedience from us, to all the Votes of this half-quarter of an House of Commons, so fare that they Vote obedience to the known Laws (in many cases) to be Treason, and what all our Laws call Treason, they Vote no Treason: nay, should they vote a Turd to be a Rose, or Oliv●rs Nose a Ruby, they would expect we should swear it, and fight for it. This legislative Den of Thiefs erect new Courts of Justice, neither founded upon Law nor Prescription, theatres of illegal tyranny and oppression, to take away men's lives Arbitrarily, for Actions which no Law makes criminous, nay, for such acts as the Law's command, where their proceed are contrary to Magna Charta, and all our known Laws and usages, not per probos & legales homines, no Juries, no sworn Judges, authentically chosen, no Witnesses face to face, no formal Indictment in which a man may find error, and plead to the jurisdiction of the Court; or where the Court ought to be of Council with the Prisoner: but the same engaged and vowed Enemies, are both Parties, Prosecutors, Witnesses, Judges, (or Authorizers and Nominators of the Judges) Actors of all parts upon that stage of blood.  
The King pressed earnestly (especially upon Monday, 22. Jan.) to have his Reasons against the Jurisdiction of the Court heard, but was as often denied, He intended then to give them in writing, which was likewise rejected, so they were sent to the Press. A true Copy whereof follows: 

His Majesty's Reasons against the pretended Jurisdiction of the High Court of Justice, which he intended to deliver in Writing on Monday, Jan. 22. 1648.  
Faithfully transcribed out of the Original Copy under the Kings own hand. 
86. His Majesty's Reasons against the Jurisdiction of the high Court of ●ustice; published after His condemnation.   
HAving already made my Protestations not only against the Illegality of this pretended Court, but also that no earthly power can justly call Me (who am your King) in question as a Delinquent, I would not any more open My mouth upon this occasion, more than to refer myself to what I have spoken, were I alone in this case concerned. But the duty I own to God in the preservation of the true Liberty of my people, will not suffer Me at this time to be silent: For, how can any freeborn Subject of England call life or any thing he possesseth his own, if power without right daily make new, and abrogate the old fundamental Law of the Land. which I now take to be the present case. Wherefore when I came hither, I expected that you would have endeavoured to have satisfied Me concerning these grounds, which hinder Me to answer to your pretended Impeachment; but since I see that nothing I can say will move you to it (though Negatives are not so naturally proved as Affirmatives) yet I will show you the Reason why I am confident you cannot judge Me, nor indeed the meanest man in England; for I will not (like you) without showing a Reason, seek to impose a belief upon My Subjects.  

* 93. Hereabout I was stopped. and not suffered to speak any more concerning Reasons.  There is no proceeding just against any man, but what is warranted either by God's Laws, or the municipal Laws of the Country where he lives. Now I am most confident, that this days proceeding cannot be warranted by God's Law, for on the contrary the authority of obedience unto Kings is clearly warranted and strictly commanded both in the Old and New Testament; which if denied, I am ready instantly to prove: and for the question now in hand, there it is said, That where the word of a King is, there is Power; and who may say unto him, what dost thou? Eccles. 8.4. Then for the Laws of the Land, I am no less confident, that no learned Lawyer will affirm that an Impeachment can lie against the KING, they all going in His Name; and one of their Maxims is, That the King can do no wrong. Besides, the Law upon which you ground your proceed, must either be old or new; if old, show it; if new, tell what authority warranted by the fundamental Laws of the Land hath made it, and when. But how the House of Commons can erect a Court of Judicature, which was never one itself (as is well known to all Lawyers) I leave to God and the World to judge; And it were full as strange that they should pretend to make Laws without King or Lords House, to any that have heard speak of the Laws of England.  
And admitting, but not granting, that the People of England's Commission could grant your pretended power, I see nothing you can show for that; for certainly you never asked the question of the tenth man of the Kingdom, and in this way you manifestly wrong even the poorest Ploughman, if you demand not his free consent, nor can you pretend any colour for this your pretended Commission without the consent at least of the major part of every man in England, of whatsoever quality or condition, which I am sure, you never went about to seek, so fare are you from having it. Thus you see that I speak not for My own right alone, as I am your King, but also for the true Liberty of all My Subjects, which consists not in sharing the power of Government, but in living under such Laws, such a Government as may give themselves the best assurance of their lives and propriety of their goods. Nor in this must or do I forget the privileges of both Houses of Parliament, which this day's proceed doth not only violate, but likewise occasion the greatest breach of their public Faith (I believe) ever was heard of, with which I am fare from charging the two Houses: for all the pretended crimes laid against Me, bear date long before this late Treaty at Newport, in which I having concluded as much as in Me lay, and hopefully expecting the two Houses agreement thereunto. I was suddenly surprised, and hurried from thence as a Prisoner, upon which account I am against my will brought hither, where since I am come, I cannot but to My power defend the ancient Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom, together with My own just Right, then for any thing I can see the higher House is totally excluded.  
And for the House of Commons, it is too well known that the major part of them are detained or deterred from sitting, so as if I had no other, this were sufficient for Me to protest against the lawfulness of your pretended Court.  
Besides all this, the peace of the Kingdom is not the least in My thoughts, and what hopes of Settlement is there so long as power reigns without rule of Law, changing the whole frame of that Government under which this Kingdom hath flourished for many hundred years, (nor will I say what will fall out in case this lawless unjust proceeding against Me do go on) and believe it the Commons of England will not thank you for this change, for they will remember how happy they have been of late years under the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, the King my Father, and Myself, until the beginning of there unhappy troubles, and will have cause to doubt that they shall never be so happy under any new. And by this time it will be too sensibly evident, that the Arms I took up were only to defend the fundamental Laws of this Kingdom, against those who have supposed My power hath totally changed the ancient Government.  
Thus having shown you briefly the Reasons, why I cannot submit to your pretended Authority without violating the trust which I have from God, for the welfare and liberty of My People; I expect from you either clear Reasons to convince My judgement, showing Me that I am in an error (and then truly I will readily answer) or that you will withdraw your proceed.  
This I intended to speak in Westminster-hall on Monday, 22. January, but against reason was hindered to show My Reasons.    

87. Alteration of the forms and styles of Writs and Legal proceed.  The 27. Jan. The Commons read the Act for Altering the forms of Writs, and other proceed in Courts of Justice, which (according to all our known Laws, the custom of all Ages, and the fundamental Government of this Kingdom) ever ran in the King's Name. This Act upon the Question was assented to, and no concurrence of the Lords desired, of this more hereafter.  

88 A Proclam. to be brought in, prohibiting the Pr. of Wales, or any of the King's Issue to be proclaimed King of England.  The Junto of 50. or 60. Commons appointed a Committee to pen a Proclamation, That if any man should go about to Proclaim Prince Charles, or any of that line King of England (after the removal of King Charles the Father out of this life,) as is usually, and aught to be done by all Mayors, Bailiffs of Corporations, High-Sheriffs, etc. under high penalties of the Law for their neglect) or shall proclaim any other without the consent of the present Parliament: the Commons declare it to be High Treason; and that no man under pain of Imprisonment or such other (arbitrary) punishment, as shall be thought fit to be inflicted on them, shall speak or preach any thing contrary to the present proceed of the Supreme Authority of this Nation, the Commons of England assembled in Parliament. Your hands and feet, liberties and consciences were long since tied up, 
89. The Bishop of London appointed by the Ho. to administer spiritual comfort to the condemned King; and the King's usage by the Army. See Mr. Jo Geree's Book against Goodwin, called, (Might overcoming right.) And Mr. pryn's Epistle to his Speech, 6. Dec. 1648.  now you are tonguetied.  
Upon motion, the House ordered, That Doctor Juxon Bishop of London, should be permitted to he private with the King in His Chamber, to preach and Administer the Sacraments, and other spiritual comforts to Him: But notwithstanding, their Masters of the Council of War, appointed that weathercock John Goodwin of Coleman-sireet (the Balaam of the Army that curseth and blesseth for Hire) to be Superintendent both over King and Bishop, so that they could hardly speak a word together without being overheard by the long-schismaticall-eares of blackmouthed John: Besides, I hear that for some night's aguard of Soldiers was kept within His Chamber, who with talking, clinking of Pots, opening and shutting of the door, and taking Tobacco there (a thing very offensive to the King's nature) should keep Him watching, that so by distempering and amazing Him, with want of sleep, they might the easier bring Him to their bent.  
28. January, being the last Sabbath the King kept in this life, 
90. A Paper-book of Demands tendered to be Subscribed by the King the Sunday before He died. See sect. 94.  some of the Grandees of the Army and Parliament tendered to the King a Paper-book, with promise of Life and some shadow of Regality (as I hear) if He subscribed it: It contained many particulars destructive to the fundamental Government, Religion, Laws, Liberties, and Property of the People: One whereof was instanced to Me, viz. That the King should (amongst many other demands,) pass an Act of Parliament for keeping on foot the Militia of this Army, during the pleasure of the Grandees, who should be trusted with that Militia, and with power from time to time to recruit and continue them to the number of 40000. Horse and Foot, under the same General and Officers, with power notwithstanding in the Council of War to choose new Officers and Generals from time to time, as occasion shall happen, and they think fit, and to settle a very great Tax upon the people by a Land-Rate, for an established Pay for the Army; to be collected and levied by the Army themselves, and a Court-Martial of an exorbitant extent and latitude. His Majesty (as I hear) read some few of the propositions, and throwing them aside, told them, He would rather become a Sacrifice for His People, then betray their Laws and Liberties, Lives and Estates, together with the Church and Commonwealth, and the Honour of his Crown, to so intolerable a bondage of an Armed faction.  

91. The S●ile and Title of Custodes libertatis Angliae, voted to be used in legal proceed, in stead of the sty●e of the King. These Gaolers of the Liberties of England are Individuum vagum, not yet named. See a Continuation of this madness in an Act for better settling proceed in Courts of Justice, according to the present Government. Dated 17. Feb. 1648.  Monday 29. Jan. 1648. The Legislative half-quarter of the House of Commons, voted as followeth, (harken with admiration Gentlemen) be it enacted by this present Parliament, and by Authority of the same, that in all Courts of Law, Justice, and Equity, and in all Writs, Grants, Patents, Commissions, Indictments, Informations, Suits, Returns of Writs, and in all Fines, Recoveries, Exemplifications, Recognizances, Process, and Proceed of Law, Justice, or Equity within the Kingdoms of England or Ireland, Dominion of Wales, etc. in stead of the Name, Style, Teste, or Title of the KING heretofore used, that from henceforth the Name, Style, Teste or Title Custodes libertatis Angliae, authoritate Parliamenti, shall be used, and no other: and the Date of the year of the Lord, and none other, and that all Duties, Profits, Penalties, Fines, Amerciaments, Issues, and Forfeitures whatsoever, which heretofore were sued for in the name of the KING, shall from henceforth be sued for in the name of Custodes libertatis Angliae, authoritate Parliamenti: and where the words were (Juratores pro Domino Rege) they shall be (Juratores pro Republica) and where the words are (contra pacem, dignitatem & coronam nostram) the words from henceforth shall be (contra pacem Publican.) All Judges, Justices, Ministers and Officers are to take notice thereof, etc. and whatsoever henceforth shall be done contrary to this Act, shall be, and is hereby declared to be null and void; the death of the King, or any Law, usage or custom to the contrary notwithstanding, 
Another device to mortify the King.  etc.  
The King lay in Whitehall Saturday (the day of his Sentence) and Sunday night so near the place appointed for the separation of his Soul and Body, that He might hear every stroke the Workmen gave upon the Scaffold (where they wrought all night) this is a new device to mortify him, but it would not do.  
Tuesday, 30. Jan. 1648. was the day appointed for the King's Death; He came on Foot from Saint James' to Whitehall that morning: His Majesty coming upon the Scaffold, made a Speech to the People; which could only be heard by some few Soldiers and Schismatics of the Faction who were suffered to possess the Scaffold, and all parts near it; and from their Pens only we have our Informations.  

His Majesty's Speech upon the Scaffold, and his Death, or Apotheosis.  
The KING told them, 
 THat all the world knew He never began the War with the two Houses of Parliament, and He called God to witness (to whom He must shortly give an account) He never intended to encroach upon their privileges; They began upon Me, it was the Militia they began with, they confessed the Militia was Mine, but they thought fit to have it from Me: and to be short, if any body will look to the Dates of the Commissions, Theirs, and Mine, and likewise to the Declarations, will see clearly that they began these unhappy Troubles.  
And a little after He said, I pray God they may take the right way to the peace of the Kingdom; 
Soldier's Rebelling against their Master or Sovereign, though they prevail, cannot claim by Conquest, because their quarrel was perfidious, base, and sinful from the beginning.  But I must first show you how you are out of the way, and then put you into the right way: First, you are out of the way, for all the way you ever had yet (by any thing I could ever find) was the way of Conquest, which is a very ill way, for Conquest is never just, except there be a good just Cause, either for matter of wrong, or just Title, and then if you go beyond the first Quarrel that you have, that makes it unjust in the end, that was just in the Beginning: But if it be only matter of Conquest, than it is a great Robbery, as the Pirate said to Alexander, and so (I think) the way that you are in hath much of that way; Now (Sirs) to put you in the way, believe it you will never do right, nor God will never prosper you, until you give him his due, the King (that is, My Successor) his due, and the People (for whom I am as much as any of you) their due.  
1. You must give God his due, by regulating rightly his Church, (according to his Scripture) which is now out of order, to set you in a way particularly now I cannot, but only a National Synod freely called, freely debating amongst themselves, must settle this: when that every opinion is freely and clearly heard.  
2. For the King, the Laws of the Land will freely instruct you, and because it concerns Myself I will only give you a touch of it.  
3. For the people (and truly I desire their Liberty and Freedom as much as any man whatsoever) I must tell you, their Liberty and Freedom consists in having such a Government, whereby their Lives and Goods may be most their own, it lies not in having a Share in the Government, that is nothing pertinent to them; a Subject and a Sovereign are clean different things: and therefore until you restore the People to such a Liberty, they will never enjoy themselves; Sirs, it was for this I now come hither, if I would have given way to an Arbitrary sway, to have all Laws changed according to the power of the Sword, I needed not to have come here; 
See Sect. 90.  and therefore I tell you, (and I pray God it be not laid to your charge) that I am the Martyr of the People, etc.   

The House had the Impudence to answer the Dutch Ambassadors, that what they had done to the King, was according to the Law of the Land. They mean, that their Lusts are the Laws of the Land: for other Law they can show none.  This was the effect of his Majesty's Speech, who shown much Magnanimity and Christian patience, during all the time of His Trial and Death, notwithstanding many barbarous affronts put (by way of tentation) upon Him, He had his Head severed from his Body at one stroke, the Soldiers and Schismatics giving a great shout presently.  
Thus this noble Prince (a Gentleman sanctified by many afflictions) after He had escaped Pistol, Poison, and Pestilent air, could not escape the more venomous tongues of Lawyers and Pettyfoggers, Bra●shaw, Cook, Steele, Ask and Dorislaus; thus the Shepherd is smitten, and the Sheep scattered.  
THe said High Court of Justice, with the downfall of King CHARLES the I. thereby, and in Him of the Regal Government, Religion, Laws, and Liberties of this ancient Kingdom is Emblematically presented to the Readers view: See the Figure, before the Title page.  
Presently after this dissolution of the King, 
94. Proclamations published against proclaiming the King.  the Commons sent abroad Proclamations into London, and all England over, reciting, That whereas several pretences might be made to this Crown, and Title to the Kingly Office set on foot, to the apparent hazard of the public peace. Be it enacted and ordained by this present Parliament, and by the Authority of the same, that no Person whatsoever do presume to proclaim, declare, publish, or any ways to promote Charles Stuart (Son of the said Charles) commonly called Prince of Wales, or any other Person to be King, or Chief Magistrate of England, or Ireland, or of any Dominions belonging to them; by colour of Inheritance, Succession, Election, or any other claim whatsoever, without the free consent of the people in Parliament first had and signified by a particular Act or Ordinance, for that purpose, any Law, Stat: Usage or custom to the contrary notwithstanding; 
Who shall judge when these Fellows will be thought free, and when not?  and whosoever shall contrary to this Act, Proclaim, etc. Shall be deemed and adjudged a Traitor, and suffer accordingly.  

95. A Proclamation privately printed and scattered, proclaiming CHARLES the second.  Notwithstanding which inhibition, the 2. February 1648. was printed and scattered about London-streets this following Proclamation:  

* A Proclamation proclaiming CHARLES Prince of Wales, King of Great Britain, France and Ireland.  
WE the Noblemen, Judges, Knights, Lawyers, Gentlemen, Freeholders, Merchants, Citizens, Yeomen, Seamen, and other freemen of England, do, according to our Allegiance and Covenant, by these presents hearty, joyfully and unanimously acknowledge and proclaim the Illustrious CHARLES Prince of Wales, next heir of the blood Royal to his Father King CHARLES (whose late wicked and traitorous murder we do from our souls abominate, and all parties & consenters thereunto) to be by herditary Birthright, and lawful succession, rightful and undoubted King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, and the Dominions thereunto belonging. And that we will faithfully, constantly and sincerely in our several places and callings defend and maintain his Royal Person, Crown, and Dignity with our Estates, Lives, and last drop of our Bloods, against all Opposers thereof; whom we do hereby declare to be Traitors and Enemies to his Majesty and his Kingdoms. In testimony whereof, we have caused these to be published and proclaimed throughout all Counties and Corporations of this Realm, the first day of February, in the first year of His Majesty's Reign.  
God save King CHARLES the Second,   
The fag end of the House of Commons, Febr. 1. 1648. 
96. A V●te that such Members a● had assented to the Vote. 5. Dec shall sit no more: others to enter their d s●e●● and disappro all.  passed a thing they call an Act, That such Members as had assented to the Vote, 5. Decemb. 1648. That the King's Concessions were a ground for the House to proceed to a settlement, should not be readmitted to sit as Members; such as were then in the House and voted in the negative should first enter their dissent to the said Vote, such as were absent should declare their disapprovall before they sit. You see the cheating Godly are resolved to keep all to themselves.  
This day their tame Lordships sent a Message to the House of Commons, but they were too surly to call the Messengers in: 
97. The Lords send a Message to the Commons but the messenger not called in.  the substance of the Message was, That their Lordships had appointed 7. of their House to join with a proportionable number of Commons, to consider of a way how to settle this Nation.  
Monday, 5. Febr. 1648. 
98. The house of Lords voted down.  The Commons debated whether they should continue the House of Lords as a Court Judicatory, or Consultory only? And the day following they put this Question, Whether this House shall take the advice of the House of Lords, in the exercise of the Legislative power of the Kingdom, in pursuance of the Votes of this House, 4 Janu: last. This was carried in the Negative by many Voices: in farther pursuance of which Vote, they farther voted, That the House of Peers in Parliament is useless and dangerous, and aught to be abolished; and that an Act be brought in for that purpose, and voted down their Privilege of being exempt from Arrests; yet they graciously condescended they shall be capable of being elected knights of Shires, and Burgesses, if any will be so mad as to choose them: yet my Lord of Pembroke is as much overjoyed with gay Privilege, as if they had bestowed a new Cap with a Bell and a Babble upon him: who will not now conclude that the Votes of this Legislative, this supreme piece of the House of Commons, is the only Law and reason of the Land, which leads all our Laws and reason captive, and is almighty against all but the Council of the Army.  
The 8. Febr. came forth A Declaration and Protestation of the Peers, Lords and Barons of this Realm, 
99 A Protestation of the Peers.  against the late treasonable proceed and tyrannical usurpations of some Members of the Commons House, who endeavour to subvert the fundamental Laws, and Regal Government of this Kingdom, and enslave the People to their boundless Tyranny in stead of Freedom. The Protestation followeth, 

WE the Peers, Lords and Barons of this Realm of England, for the present necessary vindication of the undoubted Rights and Privileges of Parliament, and more particularly of the House of Peers, the just Prerogatives and Personal safety of our Kings, the known Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom, the Hereditary Freedom of all the Freemen of this Nation, and our own affronted and contemned Honours and Authority, against the many late unparallelled dangerous Invasions, and treasonable Usurpations of a few insolent mis-advised Members of the (late) House of Commons, whiles the greatest and ablest part of that House were forcibly detained or deterred from thence, wherewith we find ourselves and the whole Kingdom unsufferably injured, and deeply afflicted. Do, after a long patiented expectation of their own ingenious Retractions of such injustifiable Exorbitancies, which their own judgements and consciences cannot but condemn, whereof we now utterly despair; being thereto engaged in point of Honour, Loyalty, Conscience, Oath, and love to our Native Country, as also by our Solemn League and Covenant, publicly declare and protest to all the world, That by the Laws and Customs of this Realm, and usage of Parliament time out of mind, ever since there were Parliaments in this Island, the principal Authority and judicatory of the Parliaments of England hath always constantly resided, and aught still to continue only in the King and House of Peers, (wherein He always sits) and not in the Commons House, who never had, claimed, nor aught to have any right or power to judge any Person or Cause civilly or criminally (having no authority to examine any Witnesses upon Oath, and being no Court of Record) but only to accuse and impeach Delinquents in and before the House of Peers, where they always have used to stand bare-beaded at their Bar; but never yet to stand covered, much less to sit, vote, or give Judgement. And that the House of Commons without the concurrent assent of the House of Peers, and Kings of England, never heretofore challenged nor enjoyed, nor can of right pretend to any lawful power or Jurisdiction to make or publish any form or binding Ordinance, Vote, Act, or Acts of Parliament whatsoever, nor ever once presumed to pass any Act or Acts to erect a new High Court of Justice, to try, condemn, or execute the meanest Subject, least of all their own Sovereign Lord and King, or any Peer of the Kingdom (who by the Common and Statute Laws of this Realm, and Magna Charta, aught to be tried only by their Peers and not otherwise) or to disinherit the right Heir to the Crown, or to alter the Fundamental Government, Laws, Great Seal, or ancient forms of process and legal proceed of this Realm, or to make or declare High Treason to be no Treason; or any Act to be Treason, which in itself, or by the Law of the Land is no Treason, or to dispose of any Offices or Places of Judicature, or impose any Penalties, Oaths, or Taxes on the Subjects of this Realm. And therefore we do here in the presence of Almighty God, Angels, and Men, from our hearts disclaim, abhor, and protest against all Acts, Votes, Orders or Ordinances of the said Members of the Commons House lately made and published, for setting up any new Court of Justice to try, condemn, or execute the King, or any Peers or Subject of this Realm: (which for any Person or Persons to sit in or act as a Judge or Commissioner, to the condemning or taking away the life of the King, or any Peer or other Subject, We declare to be High Treason, and wilful Murder, to disinherit the Prince of Wales of the Crown of England, or against proclaiming him King after his Royal Father's late most impious, traitorous and barbarous murder, or to alter the Monarchical Government, Laws, Great Seal, Judicatories, and ancient forms of Writs, and legal process and proceed; or to keep up, or make good any Commissions Judges, or Officers, made void by the King's bloody execution; or to continue any old, or raise any new Forces or Armies; or to impose any new Taxes, Payments, Oaths or forfeitures on the Subjects, or to take away any of their Lives, Liberties or Estates against the Fundamental Laws of the Realm, or to make any new Judges, Justices or Officers; or set aside the House of Peers (far ancienter than the Commons House) and particularly this insolent and frantic Vote of theirs, Feb. 6. [That the House of Peers in Parliament is useless and dangerous, and aught to be abolished, and that an Act be brought in for that purpose] to be not only void, null, and illegal in themselves by the Laws and Statutes of this Realm, but likewise treasonable, detestable, tyrannical and destructive to the Privileges, Rights and being of Parliaments, the just Prerogatives and Personal safety of the Kings of England: the Fundamental Government and Laws of the Realm, the Lives, Liberties, Properties and Estates of the People, and the most transcendent tyranny and usurpation over the King, Kingdom, Parliament, Peers, Commons, and Freemen of England ever practised or attempted in any Age, tending only to dishonour, enslave and destroy this ancient flourishing Kingdom, and set up Anarchy and confusion in all places.  
All which exorbitant and traitorous Usurpations; We and all freeborn Englishmen, are by all obligations bound to oppose to the uttermost with our ●●●es and fortunes, lest We should be accessary to our own and our Posterities slavery and ruin, for preventing whereof We have lately spent so much blood and treasure against the Malignant Party, whose Treasons and Insolences they far exceed.    

* 100 The Kingly Office voted down, after almost 1000 years, it is now discovered by these new Lights to be inconvenient to be in one hand, therefore it must be in the Council of State, forty Tyrants for one King; that is, the Army, and their Party.  The 7. Febru. the Commons debated about the Kingly Office, and passed this Vote.  
Resolved, etc. By the Commons of England assembled in Parliament, that it hath been found by experience, and this House doth declare, That the Office of a King in this Nation, and to have the power thereof in any single Person is unnecessary, burdensome and dangerous to the liberty, safety, and public Interest of the People of this Nation, and therefore aught to be abolished, and that an Act be brought in for that purpose.  

101. A Committee to bring in a list of Names for a Council of State.  A Committee was named to bring in a list of Names (not exceeding 40) to be a Committee of State, by Act of the House of Commons. This is to pull down one King to whom we own Allegiance; and set up forty Tyrants, to whom we own no Allegiance.  

104. New Commissions for the Judges, whereof six hold, and six quit their places.  Instructions were given by the Commons for drawing new Commissions for the Judges, according to the new Antimonarchical stile and way, the new Great Seal being now ready, a Committee of the House met the Judges about it; whereof six agreed to hold (upon a Provision to be made by Act of the House of Commons, that the Fundamental Laws be not abolished.) This very provision so made by Act of the Commons (beside all their former Votes against Monarchy, Peerage, altering the stile of Writs, coinage of Money, etc.) is itself an abolition of the Fundamental Laws: This is but a Fig-leaf to cover their shame. Those that held were, Of the King's Bench, Mr. Justice Rolls and Judge Jerman; of the Common Pleas, Mr Justice S. John, and Judge Pheasant; of the Exchequer, Chief Baron wild, and Baron Yates: those which quitted their places and kept their Consciences, were Justice Bacon, and Justice Brown, Sir Tho. Beddenfield, Justice Creswel, Baron Treaver, and Baron Atkins. 
103. Cyrencester election: But the Clerk of the Crown certified, that between the Committee of Elections, and himself, they could not find the Indentures of return: the House therefore Ordered, That they should sit, and do service; so they are Burgesses not returned, but ordered to sit.   
8. Febr. The Election of the General and Col. Rich at Cyrencester, which never durst see the light before, after about 3. years lying dormant, and no account made of it; is on a sudden reported to the House, approved of, and the Clerk of the Crown (for whom they have not invented a new name yet) ordered to mend the return of the Writ at the Bar.  

* 104. A Declaration, That they will keep the Fundamental Laws, (lives) why did they erect the High Court of Justice, and do still continue Martial Law? (liberties) why do they press Seamen then? (properties) why do they levy illegal Taxes by Soldiers, and continue illegal Sequestrations.  They likewise passed a Declaration to this purpose, that they are fully resolved to maintain, and shall and will uphold, preserve and keep the Fundamental Laws of this Nation; for and concerning the preservation of the lives, liberties, and properties of the People, with all things incident thereunto, with the alterations concerning Kings, and House of Lords, already resolved in this present Parliament.  
Monday, February 12. The Commons appointed the Circuits for those Judges that held, 
105. The Judge's Circuits appointed, the Benches filled up, and their Oaths altered.  and passed an Act for completing the Judges of the several Courts, filling up the rooms of those that held not, with some alterations in their former Commissions, and a new Oath to be given them, to swear well and truly to serve the Commonwealth in the Office of a Justice of the Upper Bench (which all our Laws call the King's Bench) or Common Pleas, according to the best of their skill and cunning. 
106: A new Oath for the Freemen of London, and other Co●porations.   
The House passed an Act that the Oath under-written, and no other, be administered to every Freeman of the City of London at his admission, and of all other Cities, Burroughs, and Towns Corporate.  
YOu shall swear, that you will be true and faithful to the Commonwealth of England, and in order thereto, you shall be obedient to the just and good Government of the City of London, etc.  

107. An Act to repeal the Oaths of Allegiance, Obedience, and Supremacy.  They passed an Act also, to repeal the several Clauses in the Statute, 1. Eliz. & 3. Jacob. enjoining the Oaths of Allegiance, Obedience and Supremacy, That the said Oaths, and all other Oaths of the like nature shall be, and are hereby wholly taken away, the said Clauses in the said Acts be made void and null, and shall not hereafter be administered to any Person, neither shall any place or office be void hereafter by reason of the not taking of them, or any of them, any Law, Custom, or Statute to the contrary notwithstanding.  

108. Another Declaration and Protestation of the secured and secluded Members.  In opposition to these tyrannous, destructive, illegal and traitorous proceed of 40. or 50. cheating Schismatics, sitting under the force, and promoting the Interests of will and power, of the rebellious Council of Officers in the Army, The secured and secluded Members of the House of Commons Declared as followeth, 

* A public Declaration and Protestation of the secured & secluded Members of the House of Commons; Against the treasonable and illegal late Acts and proceed of some few Confederate Members of that dead House, since their forcible Exclusion, 13. Febr. 1648.  
WE the secured and secluded Members of the late House of Commons, taking into our sad and serious Considerations the late dangerous, desperate, and treasonable proceed of some few Members of that House (not amounting to a full eighth part of the House, if divided into ten) who confederating with the Officers and General Council of the Army, have forcibly detained and secluded us (against the Honour, Freedom, and Privileges of Parliament) from sitting and voting freely with them, for the better settling of the Kingdom's peace; and contrary to their Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy, their Protestation, the Solemn League and Covenant, and sundry Declarations and Remonstrances of both Houses, to His late Murdered MAJESTY, His Heirs and Successors, the whole Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and to all foreign States and Nations (since our exclusion and forced absence from their Counsels, by reason of the Army's force) most presumptuously arrogated and usurped to themselves the Title of, The Supreme Authority of this Kingdom: and by colour and pretence thereof have wickedly and audaciously presumed, without and against our privities or consents, and against the unanimous Vote of the House of Peers, to erect a High Court of Justice (as they term it) though never any Court themselves, to Arraign and condemn His Majesty, against the Laws of God, and the municipal Laws of the Realm: which Court (consisting for the most part of such partial and engaged Persons, who had formerly vowed His Majesty's destruction, and sought His blood) most illegally and unjustly refused to admit of His Majesty's just Reasons and exceptions against their usurped Jurisdiction; and without any lawful authority or proof against Him, or Legal Trial, presumed most traitorously and impiously to condemn and murder Him: and since that, have likewise presumed to Try and Arraign some Peers, and others free Subjects of this Realm for their Lives, contrary to Magna Charta, the Petition of Right, the Laws of the Land, and the liberty of the Subjects, to the great enslaving and endangering of the lives and liberties of all free People of England.  
And whereas the said confederated Commons have likewise tyrannically and audaciously presumed contrary to their Oaths and Engagements aforesaid, to take upon them to make Acts of Parliament (as they term them) without our privity or assents, or the joint consent of the King and House of Lords, contrary to the Use and Privileges of Parliament and known Laws of the Land, and by pretext thereof have traitorously and wickedly endeavoured to Disinherit the Illustrious CHARLES Prince of Wales, next Heir to the Crown, and actual KING of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, immediately after His said Royal Fathers barbarous Murder, by Right of descent; and proclaimed it Treason for any Person to Proclaim him KING; (whereas it is high Treason in them thus to prohibit His proclaiming) and have likewise traitorously and impudently encroached a tyrannical and lawless power to themselves to Vote down our ancient Kingly and Monarchical Government, and the House of Peers; and to make a new Great Seal of England without the King's Portraiture or Style, and to alter the ancient Regal and Legal Style of Writs and proceed in the Courts of Justice, and to create new Judges and Commissioners of the Great Seal, and to dispense with their Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance, and to prescribe new Oaths unto them contrary to Law, (though they have no Authority by any Law, Statute, or custom to administer or enjoin an Oath to any man) and thereby have traitorously attempted to alter the fundamental Laws and Government of this Kingdom, and to subvert the freedom, privileges, and being of Parliaments; for which Treasons, Strafford and Canterbury (though least criminal) lost their Heads this last Parliament, by some of their own prosecutions, and the judgement of both Houses.  
We in discharge of our respective duties and obligations both to God, the King, our own Consciences, our bleeding dying Kingdoms, and the several Counties, Cities and Burrroughs for which we serve, do by this present Writing, in our own Names, and in the Names of all the Counties, Cities, and Burroughs which we represented in Parliament, publicly declare and solemnly protest before the allseeing God, the whole Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the world, that We do from the bottom of our hearts abominate, renounce and disclaim all the said pretended Acts, Votes, and proceed of the said confederate Members, (acted under the Army's power against our consents) as treasonable, wicked, illegal, unparliamentary, tyrannical, and pernicious both to the King, Parliament, Kingdoms, and all the freeborn People of this Realm; extremely disadvantageous and dishonourable to our Nation, scandalous to our Religion, and mere forcible Usurpations, and Nullities void in Law to all intents and purposes; which we, and all the Freemen of this Kingdom, and all the Kingdoms and Dominions thereto belonging, are bound openly to disavow, oppugn, and resist as such, with our purses, arms, lives, to the last drop of our bloods; and to which, neither We, nor any other can, ought, or dare to submit or assent in the least degree, without incurring the guilt of High Treason, and the highest perjury, infamy, and disloyalty. And in case the said confederates shall not speedily retract, and desist from those their treasonable practices, and tyrannical usurpations; (which We cordially desire and entreat them by all obligations of love and respect they have to God, Religion, their King, Country and Posterity timely to do.) We do hereby denounce and declare them to be Traitors and public Enemies both to the King and Kingdom, and shall esteem and prosecute them, with all their wilful Adherents, and voluntary Assistants as such; and endeavour to bring them to speedy and condign Punishment, according to the Solemn League and Covenant; wherein, We trust the whole Kingdom, all those for whom We serve, and the Lord of Hosts himself to whom We have sworn and lifted up our hands, hearts, and fervent prayers, will be aiding and assisting to us, and all our Brothers of Scotland and Ireland who are united and conjoined with us in covenant to our GOD, and Allegiance to our Sovereign King CHARLES the Second, who (we trust) will make good all His destroyed Father's concessions which really concern our peace, or safety, and secure Us against all force and tyranny of our Fellow-subjects; who now, contrary to their Trusts and former Engagements, endeavour by the mere power of that Sword, (which was purposely raised for the protection of our Persons, Government, Religion, Laws, Liberties, the KING's Royal Person and Posterity, and the Privileges of Parliament) to Lord it over Us at their pleasure, and enthrall and enslave Us to their armed violence, and lawless martial wills; which we can no longer tolerate nor undergo, after so long fruitless and abused patience in hope of their repentance.    
About the same time came out another Paper, entitled: 
109. A Paper entitled [Four true Positions, etc.]  

¶ Four true and considerable Positions for the sitting Members, the new Courts of Justice, and new Judges, Sheriffs, Officers, Lawyers, Justices, and others, to ruminate upon.  
1. THat the whole House of Commons in no Age had any Power, Right or Lawful Authority to make any Valid or binding Act or Ordinance of Parliament; or to impose any Tax, Oath, Forfeiture, or capital punishment upon any Person or Freemen of this Realm, without the Lords or Kings concurrent assents: much less than can a small remnant only of the Members of that House do it, sitting under an armed force (which nulls and vacates all their Votes and proceed, as the Ordinance of 20. August, 1647. declares) whilst most of their Fellow-Members are forcibly detained and driven thence, as Mr. St. John proves in his Speech concerning Shipmoney, p. 33. and in his Argument concerning the Earl of Strafford's Attainder, p. 70, 71, 76, 77, 78. and Sir Edw. Coke in his 4. Instit. c. 1.  
2. That the few Members now sitting in, and the House of Commons being no Court of Justice of itself, and having no power to hear and determine any civil or criminal causes, nor to give an Oath in any case whatsoever, cannot by the Laws and Statutes of the Realm, nor by any pretext of authority whatsoever, erect any new Court of Justice, nor give power or authority to any new Judges, Justices, or Commissioners to arraign, try, condemn or execute any Subject of meanest quality, for any real or pretended crime whatsoever; much less their own Sovereign Lord the King; or any Peers of this Realm, who ought to be tried by their Peers, and by the Law of the Land alone, and not otherwise. And that the condemning and executing the King, or any Peer, or other Subject by pretext of such an illegal Authority, is no less than High Treason and wilful Murder, both in the Members, and Commissioners, Judges or Justices, giving and executing Sentence of Death in any such arbitrary and lawless void Court, or by virtue of any such void and illegal Commissions.  
3. That the House of Commons and Members now sitting, have no power nor authority to make or alter the Great Seal of England, or grant any Commissions to any Commissioners, Judges, Sheriffs, Justices of the Peace, or any other. That all the Commissions granted by them, under their New, or any other Seal, are merely void and illegal; and all the new Writs and proceed in Law or Equity before any Judges, Justices, Sheriffs, or other Officers made by them, merely void in Law to all intents, & coram non judice,  
4. That the denial of the KING's Title to the Crown, and plotting the means to deprive Him of it, or to set it upon another's Head, is High Treason, within the Statute of 25. Ed. 3. ch. 2. And that the endeavouring to subvert the Fundamental Laws and Government of the Realm of England [by King, Lords, and Commons] and to introduce a tyrannical or arbitrary Government against Law, is High Treason at the Common Law (especially in Judges and Lawyers) not taken away by any Statute. Both which Mr. St. John in his Argument at Law, concerning the Bill of attainder of high Treason of Tho. E. of Stafford, published by order of the Com. House, An. 1641. p. 8. 14. to 33. and 64. to 78. And in his Speech as a conference of both Houses of Parl. concerning Shipmoney, An. 1640. hath proved very fully by many reasons and precedents; and Coke in his 7. Report, f. 10, 11, 12, and 3. Instit. c. 1. That the Commons now sitting, in making a new Great Seal, without the King's Image or Style, in granting new illegal Commissions to Judges, Justices of Peace, Sheriffs, and other Officers, in the name of Custodes Angliae in the general, in omitting and altering the King's Name, Style and Title in Writs, Process, Indictments, and proceed at the Common Law, and thereby endeavouring to Disinherit the Prince, (now lawful King by and since his Father's bloody murder) and to alter and subvert the Fundamental Laws and Government of the Realm, by such commissions and proceed, and by the power of an Army to enforce them; and the Judges, Justices, Sheriffs, and other Officers who accept of such Commissions, and all those (especially Lawyers) who voluntarily assist, consent, and submit to such Commissions and Alterations by such usurped illegal Authority, and the Commissioners sitting in the new Courts of Justice are most really guilty of both these high 
* Whereupon six Judges refused to accept any new Commissions, or to act as Judges.  Treasons (in which there are no Accessories) and less excusable than Strafford or Canterbury, whom some of these new Judges and sitting Members impeached and prosecuted to death for those very Treasons themselves now act in a more apparent and higher degree than they, and (in respect of their oaths, covenant, callings, and places) are more obliged to maintain the King's Title, the Fundamental Laws and Government, the Rights and Liberties of the Kingdom and Parliament than they; and therefore (if they persevere therein) may justly expect the selfsame capital punishments they underwent, if not fare worse; especially since they attempt to reduce the ancientest Kingdom of all Christendom, into the puniest and most contemptible State in all the World; and thereby to render us the most infamous, perfidious and dishonourable Nation under Heaven, both to the present and all succeeding Ages: which must needs make the contrivers and Abetters thereof the most detestable Traitors and public Enemies to their King and native Country, that ever this Realm brought forth in any Age. Repent therefore of these your Treasons, and amend your lives, if you expect the least hope of pardon from God or Man; and expiate all your former high misdemeanours, by engaging all your power and endeavours to settle all things in Church and State according to your primitive engagements; instead of accumulating one sin and Treason to another, which will prove your certain ruin in conclusion, not your safety.    
About the same time, and (it is thought) from the same Author came forth a Paper bearing the Title of, 


110. Six propositions of undoubted verity Another Paper. Every Act of Parliament relateth to the first day of the same Parliam. but it cannot be, that any Act passed in the Reign of King Charles the second, should relate to the first day of this Parliament, which happened in the sixteenth year of Charles the First, ergo this Parliament is determined by the death of King Charles the first.  ¶ Six Propositions of undoubted verity, fit to be considered in our present exigency by all loyal Subjects and conscientious Christians.  
1. THat this Parliament is ipso facto Dissolved by the King's death; He being the Head, Beginning and End of the Parliament, called only by his Writ, to confer with Him as His Parliament and Council about urgent affairs, concerning Him and His Kingdom, and so was it resolved in 1. Hen. 4. Rot. Parl. n. 1. 14 H. 4. Coke 4. Instit. p. 46. & 4. c. 4. f. 44. b.  
2. That immediately upon this Parliaments dissolution by the King's death, all Commissions granted by the King, or by one or both Houses to the General or Officers of the Army, the Commissioners of the great Seal of England, Judges of the King's Courts, Justices of Peace, Sheriffs, Excise-men, Customers, and the like; with all Committees, and ordinances of one or both Houses made this Parliament, did actually determine, expire, and become merely void in Law to all intents and purposes, and cannot be continued as good and valid by any Power whatsoever.  
3. That instantly after the King's decease, the Imperial Crown of this Realm of England, and of the Kingdoms, Dominions, and Rights thereunto belonging, was by inherent Birthright, and Lawful undoubted succession and descent, actually vested in the most Illustrious Charles, Prince of Wales, being next lineal Heir of the blood Royal to his Father King CHARLES: and that He is actual KING thereof, before any ceremony of Coronation, as is resolved in full Parliament, by the Statute of 1. Jacobi, ch. 1. and by all the Judges of England since. Coke 7. Report f. 10, 11. in calvin's case, Whose Royal Person and Title to the Crown all loyal Subjects are bound by their Oaths of Supremacy, Allegiance, and Solemn League and Covenant, with their Estates, Lives, and last drop of their bloods to maintain against all Opposers.  
4. That all Peers of the Realm, Mayors, Sheriffs, chief Officers of Cities and Corporations in this Kingdom, are obliged by their Places and Allegiance, without any delays or excuses, to declare and proclaim Prince Charles to be rightful King of England, and of all Kingdoms and Rights thereunto belonging; notwithstanding any illegal prohibitions or menaces to the contrary by any usurped Power whatsoever; under pain of being guilty of High Treason, and forfeiting their City and Corporation Charters, in case of supine neglect or refusal thereof; through fear, terror, or any sinister respect.  
5. That till King Charles be settled in his Throne, or give other Order, the present Government of the Kingdom is legally vested only in the Lords and Peers of the Realm, being by Inheritance, custom and Law in such case, the Kings and Kingdoms great Council, to whose lawful commands all other Subjects ought to yield ready Obedience.  
6. That every professed actual endeavour by force or otherwise to alter the fundamental Monarchical Government, Laws, and legal Style and proceed of this Realm; and to introduce any new Government or Arbitrary proceed contrary thereunto, is no less than High Treason, and so declared and resolved by the last Parliament, in the cases of Strafford and Canterbury, the loss of whose Heads (yet fresh in memory) should deter all others from pursuing their pernicious courses, and outstripping them therein; they being as great, potent, and as fare out of the reach of danger and justice in humane probability as any of our present Grandees.    

111. A New Stamp for Coin.  That no Act of Rebellion and Treason might be unattempted by this Conventicle, no part of the Regalities of the King, or people's Liberties unviolated; they considered of a New Stamp to be given to all Coin (for the future) of this Nation.  

112. Instructions for the Council of State.  13. Febr. They considered of Instructions and Power to be given by way of Commission to the said Committee, or Council of State. 1. For the Government of the two Nations of England and Ireland; appointing a Committee to bring in the Names of these Hogens Mogens; and to perfect their Instructions: for, (1) Ordering the Militia. (2) Governing the People, (they were wont to be Governed by known Laws, not by Arbitrary Instructions, and by one King, not by forty Tyrants, most of them base Mechanics, whose education never taught them to aspire to more knowledge than the Office of a Constable.) (3) Settling of Trade▪ (most of them have driven a rich Trade in the work of Reformation for themselves.) (4) Execution of Laws, (this was wont to be done by legal sworn Judges, Juries, and Officers.)  

113. Powers given to the Council of State.  14. Eebr. The Committee reported to the House the Names of the Committee of State, or Lords States General. Also the Power they were to have, viz: 1. Power to command and settle the Militia of England and Ireland. 2. Power to set forth Ships, and such a considerable Navy as they should think fit. 3. Power to appoint Magazines and Stores for the Kingdoms of England and Ireland, and dispose of them from time to time for the service of both Nations, as they shall think fit. 4. Power to fit and execute the several powers given for the space of one whole year: with many other powers not yet revealed, and daily increased: besides what improvements of Power they are able to make hereafter, having the Militia of an Army (that formidable Hobgoblin) at their command. They have two Seals appointed, a Great Seal, and a Signet Patents for Sheriffs, and Commissions for Justices, and Oaths for both, were reform according to the Godly cut.  
When the Committtee of State was nominated in the House, 
114. An expurgatory Oath put upon the Council of State, scrupled by some of the Members, and moderated by Cromwell ●n opposition of the Level●ers.  divers Gentlemen of the best quality were named; whom they could not omit, because they had sat with them, and concurred in all their great debates: although they had more confidence in those petty Fellows, who had, or would sell their souls for gain, to make themselves Gentlemen, to debar the said Gentlemen of quality therefore and make them forbear, they invented an expurgatory Oath or Shibeleth to be taken by every Member before his initiation, whereby they should declare, That they approved of what the House of Commons and their High Court of Justice had done against the KING, and of their abolishing of Kingly Government, and of the House of Peers, and that the Legislative and Supreme power was wholly in the House of Commons, 22. Febr. Cromwell (Chairman of that Committee of State) reported to the Commons, That according to the Order of that House, 19 of the said Members had subscribed to that form of the Oath, as it was originally penned: but 22. of them scrupled it, whereof all the Lords were part, not but that they confessed (except one) The Commons of England to be the Supreme power of the Nation, or that they would not live and die with them in what they should do for the future, but could not confirm what they had done in relation to the King and Lords: so it was referred to a Committee, to consider of an expedient.  
Cromwell (having made use of the Levellers,, 
115. Cromwell's usurped power. When the House of Commons opposed Cromwel's and Iret●ns designs, they cried up the Liberty of the People, and decried the Authority of Parliament, until they had made use of the Levellers to purge the House of Commons and make it subservient to their ends, and abolish the House of Lords: and then they cried up the Supreme Authority of their House of Commons, and decried the Liberty of the people, and the Levellers who upheld it. So Charles the 5. first made use of the Pope's Authority to subdue the Protestant's of Germany, and then used an Army of Protestants to subdue and imprison ●he Pope.  (Assertors of public Liberty) to purge the House of Commons, and abolish the Lords House) doth now endeavour to cast down the Levellers once more, finding himself raised to so great an height, that he cannot endure to think of a levelling equality; he oversways the Council of War, over-awes the House of Commons, and is Chairman and Ringleader of the Council of State: so that he hath engrossed all the power of England into his own hands, and is become the Triple-King, or Lord Paramount over all the Tyrants of England; in opposition therefore to the Levelling party, and for the upholding his own more Lordly Interest, he procured an expedient to Alter and Reform the said Oath, which at last passed in this form following: 

February the 22. 1648.  

116. The form of the said reform Oath.  I A. B. being nominated a Member of the Council of State by this present Parliament, do testify, that I do adhere to this present Parliament, in the maintenance and defence of the public liberty and freedom of this Nation, as it is now Declared by this Parliament, (by whose Authority I am constituted a Member of the said Council) and in the maintenance and defence of their resolutions concerning the settling of the Government of this Nation for the future, in way of a Republic without King or House of Peers, and I do promise in the sight of God, that (through his Grace) I will be faithful in performance of the trust committed to me as aforesaid, and therein faithfully pursue the Instructions given to the said Council by this present Parliament; 
Mere you see a curtain drawn between the eyes of the people, and the clandestine machinations and actings of this Council.  and not reveal or disclose any thing in whole or in part, directly, or indirectly, that shall be debated or resolved upon in the Council, without the command or direction of the Parliament, or without the order or allowance of the major part of the Council, or of the major part of them that shall be present at such Debates or Resolutions: In confirmation of the premises, I have hereto subscribed my Name.    

117. The C. of War debate to massacre the King's party. See Will. Sedgwicks' [justice upon the Army's Remonstrance.]  About this time it was debated at the Council of War to Massacre and put to the Sword all the KING'S Party, The Question put, was carried in the Negative but by two Voices. You see what Furies pursue these sinful Wretches, and what dangerous rocks they dash upon, in order to that base and cowardly principle of Self-preservation.  
The Army hath in every County of England packs of schismatical Beagles, 
118. Schismatical Petitions for 2. or 3. principal Gentlemen in each County to be brought to justice.  whom they hollow on to hunt in full cry (by Petitions to the House) after the blood of such whom they design for slaughter. Many Petitions have been lately presented, That two or three principal Gentlemen of the KING'S Party (by name) in each County, might be sacrificed to Justice, whereby the Land might be freed from blood-guiltiness.  
Divers Merchants have contracted to send forth several Ships for the next Summer's Fleet, at their own charge. 
119. Merchant's arming Ships for this Summer's Fleet.   
The Prodigious High Court of Justice was revived in order to the Trial of the Earl of Holland, the Earl of Cambridge, the Earl of Norwich, the Lord Capel, and Sir John Owen's; 
120: The High Court of Justice revived.  the Commissioners were changed (that they may engage as many men in arbitrary, illegal tyranny and bloodshed as they can.)  
Hamilton was exceedingly importuned by Cromwell (who took a journey to Windsor purposely) to name such Members of Parliament and Citizens as had any hand in calling him in: 
121. The History of Hamiltons' imprisonment and death. See digitus Dei upon Duke Hamil●on.  this he either could not, or would not do; he had (in order to his own ambition) first exasperated the Independent party against the KING, and afterwards sought their ruin by engaging for the KING: and he doubted that to undertake so odious an office as to play the Devil's part, and be an Accuser of his Brethren, would but set a gloss upon the Independents intended severity against him. Being brought to St. James' in order to his Trial, Cromwell (hoping to train him to a confession) caused all his Creatures to carry a favourable countenance to him. Bradshaw smoothed him up with soft language at the Bar; the Lord Grace of Grooby, Col. wait, and Hugh Peter, gave him hopes that they would not much obstruct his pretended Plea of Quarter from Lambert upon Articles, Peter's avouched Quarter so given by Lambert; notwithstanding Colonel wait (when he made Report to the House of Commons how he took him) affirmed, He yielded at discretion, and Lambert was not then near him: after this Peter gives Hamilton a Visit, who gives Peter's thanks and money to boot for his late favour done him in Court; 
Quaere, What an accusation extorted for fear of death, ●nd hope of life is worth? Hamilton confessed at his death, he had been much pressed; yet had named no ma●. Argyle.  and knowing him to be an Instrument of Cromwell's, employed him as his Solicitor to the Members of the House and Army. Peter's prays for Hamilton openly as his Lord & Patron, still feeding him with hopes If he would Impeach their Opposites: yet still he waved this, offering them 100000 l. for his life, and often inculcating what services he would do them in Scotland; for which purpose he offered to join Interests with Argyle, and be a Servant to their Party. Messengers were posted into Scotland to know Argyles pleasure: But he had been overreached formerly by Hamilton, and he was resolved to admit no Competitor, which would have eclipsed his greatness, and have made him not the sole Patron of Scotish Independency: Besides, the Kirk so fare hated Hamilton that they preached off his head in Scotland, before it was cut off in England: the High Court of Justice lingered long in expectation of an Answer; at last such a one came as decried all reconciliation with Hamilton, whereupon the scene was altered presently, Bradshaw handled him roughly at the Bar, Mar. 6. Those which smiled on him before, frowned now; being asked what he could say? he pleaded Quarter, and vouched Peter's Testimony: who with a brazen face renounced his former Testimony, 
When Hamilton was upon the Scaffold, divers Officers of the Army, and Hugh Peter's conversed familiary with him to the last, and Messengers passed to and fro.  saying, He now remembered no such matter, but that the Army scorned to give quarter to him, or any of his Nation: whereupon he was condemned to the Block; which Sentence was executed upon him, March, 9 yet they fed Hamilton with vain hopes to the last gasp, for fear he should give glory to God, and throw shame and infamy upon themselves by a Christian confession of his, Argyles, and their mutual villainies: besides, such a Discovery would have made Argyle less serviceable to them in Scotland, whose next design is to cajole the Kirk by seeming an Enemy to the Sectaries of England, and pretending to serve the Presbyterian Interest. Thus I conclude the Tragedy of Duke Hamilton.  

122. The Death of the Lord Capel.  In opposition to whom, I will briefly relate the Tragedy of the noble Lord Capel, a Gentleman of great courage and integrity. He had made an adventurous escape out of the Tower, but was retaken by the treachery of a limping Waterman, (if I knew his Name I would bestow a blot of Ink upon him.) He pleaded for himself Articles of Surrender (which were real in him, though not in Hamilton) that divers that were in Colchester, and in his condition, had been admitted to compound; and desired to be referred to Martial Law, which being denied, He moved, he might not be debarred of Additionall defence; if he must be judged by the Common Law, than he demanded the full benefit of that Declaration of the Commons, 19 Feb. 1648. which Enacteth and Declareth, That though King and Lords be laid aside, yet all other the fundamental Laws shall be in force concerning the lives, liberties, and properties of the Subject: and recommended to them Magna Charta, The Petition of Right, 3. Caroli. and the Act made, H. 7. for indemnity of all such as adhered to the present King in possessione also the exception in the Act of Attainder of Strafford and Canterbury, which says, Their Cases shall not be used as a precedent against any man: He desireth to see his jury, and that they might see him, and so might be Tried by his Peers, saying, He did believe no precedent could be given of any Subject Tried, but by Bill of Attainder in Parliament, or by a Jury. But all was but to charm a deaf Adder. He was a gallant Gentleman, and they durst not let him live.  
The KING'S Library at St. James' was given (I hear) to that ignorant Stage player Hugh Peter. 
123. The King's Library at Saint James' given to Hugh Peter's   
26. Febr. John Lylburne delivered to the Commons (by the name of the Supreme Authority of England) A Petition in the name of many thousand well-affected, with a Book annexed, entitled England's new Chains discovered. The most material points thereof are, 
124. L. C. Lylburnes Petition to the House, with England's new Chains, annexed. See the Hunting the Foxes, etc. pag. 8.  that they find fault with The Agreement of the People, presented to the House by Lieu. Gen. Hammond, from the Officers of the Army: because,  
1. They like not there should be any intervals between the end of this Representative now sitting, and the beginning of the next, whereby during the said Interval the Supreme power will be left in the new erected Council of State, a constitution of a new and unexperienced nature, which may design to perpetuate their power, and keep off Parliaments and Representatives for ever.  
2. They conceive no less danger in that it is provided that Parliaments for the future, are to continue but 6. months, and the Council of State 18. Months; in which time having command of all the Forces by Sea and Land, they will have great opportunities to make themselves absolute and unaccountable.  
3. They are not satisfied with that Clause in the said Agreement, That the Representative shall extend to the erecting and abolishing Courts of Justice; since the alteration of the usual way of Trials by 12. sworn men of the Neighbourhood may be included therein, as hath lately been done by erecting a new High Court of Justice criminal under a Precedent and Commissioners, or Tryers picked and chosen in an unusual way, all liberty of exceptions against them being overruled.  
4. They are not satisfied with that Clause in the Agreement, That the Representative have the Highest final Judgement; since their Authority is only to make General Laws, Rules and Directions for Courts, and Persons assigned by Law to execute them, unto which the Representatives themselves are to be subject, it being a great partiality and vexation to the People, that the Lawmakers should be Law-executors.  
5. They find fault with the Excise, calling it, The great obstructor of all Trade, fare surmounting Ship-money, and all Patents, Projects, and Monopolies before this Parliament.  
6. The Act for Pressing of Seamen.  
7. The General and Officers obstructing the Press.  
8. The Chancery and Courts of Justice not regulated.  

Hunting the Foxes. p 8. says, it was Iretons invention  9 They complain, That a Council of State is hastily chosen as Guardians of the People's liberties, with a vast and exorbitant power: 1. To command, order, and dispose of all Forces by Sea and Land, and all Magazines of Store in England and Ireland. 2. To dispose all public Treasure. 3. To command any Person whatsoever before them, to give Oath for discovery of Truth. 4. To Imprison any that shall disobey their Commands, and such as they shall Judge contumacious: what now is become of Magna Charta, and the Liberties of the People, That no Man's Person shall be Attached or Imprisoned, or Disseised of his  or Free-customs but by lawful Judgement of his Equals? This Council of State hath got all power into their hands (a project long laboured) and now their next motion will be (pretending ease to the People) to Dissolve this Parliament.  
10. The Petitioners complain, that in order to settle their Tyranny, the Council of Officers insisted upon it, That a motion should be made to the House of Commons, to enable them to put to death by Martial Law all such as they shall judge by Petitions, or otherwise to disturb the present proceed, whether Members of the Army, or not. And when it was urged, That the Civil Magistrate should do it: it was answered, 
* The saying of Col. Hewson the one-eyed Cobbler. See Hunting the Foxes. p. 10.  They could hang twenty ere the Magistrate could hang one. The prayer of their Petition is:  
1. That the Selfdenying Ordinance be observed.  
2. That they would consider how dangerous it is, to continue the Highest Military Commands so long in the same Persons, especially acting so long distinct, and of themselves, as those now in being have done, and in such extraordinary ways, whereunto they have accustomed themselves, which was the original of most Tyrannies.  
3. That they would appoint a Committee of Parliament-men, to hear, and determine all controversies between Officers and Officers, Officers and Soldiers: to mitigate the rigour of Martial Law, and to provide it be not executed upon any, not Members of the Army.  
4. That they will open the Presses.  
5. That they will dissolve this Council of State, threatening so manifest Tyranny.  
6. That they will severely punish all such as acting upon any Order, Ordinance, or Act of Parliament, shall exceed the power conferred on them.  
After this came forth a second part of England's new Chains discovered, 
125. A second part of England's New Chains.  setting forth the hypocrisy and perfidiousness of the Council of the Army and the Grandees, in cheating all Interests, King, Parliament, People, Soldiers, City, Agitators, Levellers, etc. which tells you, That the Grandees walk by no principles of Honesty or Conscience, but (as mere Politicians) are governed altogether by occasion as they see a possibility of making progress to their Designs, which course of theirs, they ever termed, A waiting upon Providence, that under colour of Religion, they might deceive the more securely. It tells you, their intent is to Garrison all great Towns, to break the spirits of the People with oppression and poverty. It farther Declares, that these Grandees judge themselves lose, when other men are bound; all Obligations are to them Transitory and Ceremonial; and that every thing is good and just as it conduceth to their Interests. That the Grandees never intended an Agreement of the People, but only to amuse that party, whilst they hastily set up a Council of State to establish their Tyranny, that to prepare the way to this, they broke the House of Commons, took away the House of Lords, removed the King by an extrajudicial way of proceed, and erected such a Court of Justice as had no place in the English Government. That the remainder of the House of Commons is become a mere channel through which is conveyed all the Decrees and Determinations of a private Council of some few Officers. All these, and the Votes, That the Supreme power is in the people, and the Supreme Authority in the Commons their Representative, were only in order to their Interests of will and power. That they place their security in the divisions of the People. That if the present House of Commons should never so little cross the ambition of these Grandees, they would show no more modesty to them then they have done to the excluded Members: 
See the Hunting of the Foxes, etc. p. 6, 7, 8.  And so it concludes with a Protestation against their breaking the Faith of the Army with all Parties, their dissolving the Council of Agitators, and usurping a power of giving forth the sense of the Army against the Parliament and People, against their shooting to death the Soldier at Ware, 
Return to sect 2. & 5.  and their cruelties exercised upon other Persons, to the debasing of their Spirits, and thereby new-moulding the Army to their Designs: against their playing fast and lose with the King and His Party till they had brought a new and dangerous War upon this Nation. They also protest against their dissembled Repentances, against their late extraordinary proceed in Bringing the Army upon the City, (to the ruin of Trade) their breaking the House of Commons in pieces, without charging the Members particularly, and then judging and taking away men's lives in an extraordinary way, as done for no other end but to make way for their own absolute Domination. They also protest against the Election and establishment of those High Courts of Justice, as unjust in themselves, and of dangerous precedent in time to come; as likewise against the Council of State, and putting some of themselves therein, contrary to their own Agreement. They also protest against all other the like Meetings of those Officers, that on Thursday, 2. Feb. Voted for so bloody a Law, as to hang whom they should judge disturbed the Army, as having no power either by such Counsels to give the sense of the Army, or to judge any Person not of the Army, or to do any thing in reference to the Commonwealth. 
126. The Hunting of the Foxes from Tryplo and New-market by 5. small Beagles, p. 8.   
About this time also became public a pretty Book, entitled [The Hunting of the Foxes from New-market and Triploe to Whitehall by 5. small Beagles,] which tells you, That the Grandee-Officers of the Army to keep the Soldiers quiet, did formalize about an Agreement of the People whilst they carried on their platform of absolute tyranny (long since hatched by Ireton) by erecting a Council of State: no sooner was this monster born, but it devoured half the Parliament of England, and now it is adorned itself with Regal magnificence, and majesty of courtly Attendants, and like the 30 Tyrants of Athens, to head itself over the People; this is, and yet this is not our new intended King, there is a King to succeed, this is but his Viceroy. O Cromwell! whither art thou aspiring? the word is already given out amongst their Officers, That this Nation must have one prime Magistrate or Ruler over them, and that that the General hath power to make a Law to bind all the Commons of England: This was most daringly and desperately avowed at Whitehall, and to this temper these Court-Officers are now a moulding: He that runs may read and foresee a new Regality, thus by their Machivilian pretences and wicked practices, they are become Masters and Usurpers of the name of the Army, and of the name of the Parliament, under which Visors they have leveled and destroyed all the Authority of this Nation; for, the Parliament indeed and in truth is no Parliament, but a Representative Glass of the Council of War; and the Council of War but a Representative of Cromwell, Ireton, and Harrison: and these are the All in All of the Nation, which under the guises and names of Parliament, Army, General Council, High Court, and Council of State, play all the strange pranks that are played. And further, p. 13. The conclave of Officers have sucked in the venom of all former corrupt Courts and Interests, the High Commission, Star-chamber, the House of Lords, the King and his privy Council, 
The House by Votes, 5. Dec. 1648. voted, the King's Concessions a ground, etc. And the Army secured a d expelled 250. Members for using liberty to vote according to their consciences, and overruled those few left sitting to unvote in a thin House, what was voted in full House; this is more than to usurp a Negative Voice over them: return to sect. 18.23.28.  are all alive in that Court called, The General Council of the Army. 1. The King stood upon it, That he was accountable to none but God, that He was above the Parliament and People; and to whom will these men be accountable? to none on earth: and are they not above the Parliament? they have even a Negative Voice thereover, formerly the Commons could pass nothing without the House of Lords, and now they dare pass nothing without the concurrence of the conclave of Officers: we were formerly ruled by King, Lords, and Commons; now by a General, Court Marshal, and House of Commons: what is the difference? the Lords were not Members both of the House of Peers, and of the House of Commons, but the Officers, (our martial Lords) are Members both in the House, or Council of Officers, and in the House of Commons, we have not the change of a Kingdom to a Commonwealth; we are only under the old cheat, A transmutation of Names, but with the addition of new Tyrannies, for casting out one unclean Spirit, they have brought with them in his stead seven other unclean Spirits more wicked than the former, and they have entered in and dwell there, and the last state of this Commonwealth is worse than the first. Lastly, they set down some illegal proceed and Examinations before the Council of War, exceeding the High Commission, and Star-Chamber.  

127. The Author's censure of the Levellers.  These three Books show the late endeavours of the Agitators, and that party, which the Grandees politicly miscall (to cast an odium upon them) Levellers; they are the truest Assertors of humane Liberty, and the most constant and faithful to their Principles and party of any in the Army, and though they have many redundancies and superfluous Opinions fit to be pruned off by conversing with discreet honest Men, or rather by a discreet and just public Authority, (which I am confident is feasible, since their principles concentre in the public, not in their own private Interest and Opinions, and are no other ways changeable than conduceth with the emergent occasions of the Commonwealth) yet they are but like the water-boughs of a healthy fruit, Tree▪ rather troublesome than dangerous, whereas the designs of their Antagonists (like rocks under water, or poison in well-cooked meat) destroy before they are discovered.  

128. The Author's censure of His Majesty's Posthumus work, I entitled, (The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Majesty in His S●litudes and Sufferings.)  About this time arose a Phoenix out of His Majesty's Ashes, that most excellent Issue of His Brayn, entitled, [THE POURTRAICTURE OF HIS SACRED MAJESTY IN HIS SOLITUDES AND SUFFERINGS.] A Book full fraught with wisdom, Divine and Humane, showing Him to be more than Conqueror of His Enemies in His rare Christian patience and charity; the very reading of it aggravateth our loss of so Gracious and excellent a Prince, that had learned the whole method of humane perfection in the school of adversity. Herod and his Jews never persecuted Christ in his swadling-clouts with more industrious malice, than the antimonarchical Independent Faction, this Book in the Presses and shops, that should bring it forth into the world, knowing that as the remembrance of Heaven strikes a horror into us of Hell, So the contemplation of his virtues will teach us to abhor their vices.  
March 8. 1648. 
129. The form of Writs for Elections changed.  The Commons assented to a new Form of a Writ for election of Knights and Burgesses for the Parliament.  
But three days before it was reported to the House from the Council of State, what number of Horse and Foot they thought fit to be kept up for the service of England and Ireland, 
130. A new establishment for the Army reported to the House from our new Masters the Council of State.  and the Monthly charge, which estimated come to 160000 l. per mensem. You see we are likely to find these our new Lords such gracious Masters to us, that (as the second part of England's new Chains saith) We shall have Taxes, though we have neither Trade nor Bread. In the Earl of Essex time (when the War was at the highest) the Monthly Tax came but to 54000 l. a Month, yet had we then seven or eight Brigades besides his Army and Garrisons: but that the Faction of Saints may carry on the work of a thorough Reformation in our purses, as well as they have done in the Church and Commonwealth, they first raised the Tax to 60000 l. a Month for England, besides 20000 l. a Month pretended for Ireland (but I believe little of it slips through their sanctified fingers to go thither.) And now (to show they can use double dealing against the Ungodly) they would double the sum from 80000 l. to 160000 l. a Month; this is to break our hearts with property, and make them take what impressions of slavery they please to set upon them; this Conventicle of State will engross all the Coin and Treasure of the Land into their own hands, and then subdue us therewith, and make us (like slavish Egyptians) cell ourselves and our Lands for Bread, or money to buy Bread, when (that inseparable companion of a long war) Famine approacheth, which their barbarous and illegal Sequestrations (unstocking men's Farms and laying them waste) will inevitably bring upon us; they have more hope to subdue and lessen the number of their Opposites by famine and want, then by the Sword; in order to which, they have destroyed the Trade of the City, and undone multitudes of Tradesmen, who being disabled to pay their Taxes, the Army cause all their Arrears to be levied upon the City by a new Tax upon the rest of the Inhabitants and the Outlandlords; and when Cromwell was told, this would undo the City, He answered, It was no matter, the more were undone, the more would clap Swords to their sides and come into the Army: you see Soldiery is intended to be the chief Trade.  

131. An Act for Abolishing the Kingly Office, etc.  March 17. 1648. The empty House of Commons in farther prosecution of their said Design, and to please their Masters of the Army, passed, printed, and published in the form and style of a Statute this Paper following: entitled, 

An Act for the Abolishing the Kingly Office in England.  
WHereas Charles Stuart late King of England, Ireland, and the Territories and Dominions thereunto belonging, hath by Authority derived from Parliament, 
Since by the Law, the Crown cures all defects; how can the King's blood be attainted?  been, and is hereby declared to be justly condemned, adjudged to die and put to death, for many treasons, murders, and other heinous offences committed by him, by which Judgement he stood and is hereby declared to be attainted of High Treason, whereby his Issue and Posterity, and all others pretending Title under him, are become uncapable of the said Crowns, or of being King or Queen of the said Kingdom or Dominions, or either or any of them:  
Be it therefore Enacted and Ordained, and it is Enacted, 
We have sworn faith and Alleg●ance to K. Charles the First, His lawful Heirs and Successors, and our Vow is recorded in Heaven from which no power on earth can absolve us. See the Oaths of Allegiance, Obedience, and Supremacy. The Statute of Recognition, 1. jac. But the Commons are now Supreme, as in imitation of the Pope to bring this Claus in practice, Licet de jure non possumus▪ tamen pro plenitudine potestatis nostra volumus, etc.  Ordained, and Declared, by this present Parliament, and by Authority thereof, That all the People of England and Ireland, and the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging, of what degree or condition soever, are discharged of all Fealty, Homage and Allegiance which is or shall be pretended to be due unto any of the Issue and Posterity of the said late King, or any claiming under him; and that Charles Stuart eldest Son, and James called Duke of York, second Son, and all other the Issue and Posterity of him the said late King, and all and every person and persons pretending Title from, by or under him, are and be disabled to hold or enjoy the said Crown of England or Ireland, 
All our Laws cut off by the non obstante of an eighth part of the House of Commons sitting under a force. After almost 1000 years' experience it is now found to be dangerous. The English were never one half-quarter so much enslaved since William the Conqueror subdued them, as they have been since Oliver the Brewer subjugated them.  and other the Dominions thereunto belonging, or any of them, or to have the Name, Title, Style, or Dignity of King or Queen of England and Ireland, Prince of Wales, or any of them; or to have and enjoy the power and Dominion of the said Kingdoms and Dominions, or any of them, or the Honours, Manors, Lands, Tenements, possessions, and Hereditaments belonging or appertaining to the said Crown of England and Ireland, and other the Dominions aforesaid, or to any of them, or to the Principality of Wales, Duchy of Lancaster or Cornwall, or any or either of them, Any Law, Statute, Ordinance, Usage, or Custom to the contrary hereof in any wise notwithstanding: And whereas it is and hath been found by experience, that the Office of a King in this Nation and Ireland, and to have the power thereof in any single Person is unnecessary, burdensome and dangerous to the liberty, safety, and public interest of the people, and that for the most part, use hath been made of the Regal power and prerogative, to oppress, impoverish, and enslave the Subject; and that usually and naturally any one person in such power, makes it his interest to encroach upon the just freedom and liberty of the people, and to promote the setting up of their own will and power above the Laws, that so they might enslave these Kingdoms to their own Lust: 
* But in a Council of State of forty Tyrants sitting under the protection and awe of Oliver.  Be it therefore Enacted and Ordained by this present Parliament, and by Authority of the same, That the Office of a King in this Nation, shall not henceforth reside in, or be exercised by any one single Person; and that no one person whatsoever, shall or may have, or hold the Office, Stile, Dignity, Power or Authority of King of the said Kingdoms and Dominions, or any of them, or of the Prince of Wales, Any Law, Statute, Usage, or Custom to the contrary thereof in any wise notwithstanding. And it is hereby Enacted, That if any person or persons shall endeavour to attempt by force of Arms, or otherwise, or be aiding, assisting, comforting, or abetting, unto any person or persons that shall by any ways or means whatsoever, endeavour or attempt the reviving or setting up again of any pretended Right of the said Charles, eldest Son to the said late King, James called Duke of York, or of any other the Issue and Posterity of the said late King, or of any person or persons claiming under him or them, to the said Regal Office, Stile, Dignity, or Authority, or to be Prince of Wales; or the promoting of any one person whatsoever, to the Name, Style, Dignity, Power, Prerogative or Authority of King of England and Ireland, and Dominions aforesaid, or any of them: That then every such offence shall be deemed and adjudged High-Treason, 
High Treason is what these Legislative Thiefs list to make it, an Arbitary crime, notwithstanding the Stat. 25 Ed. 3. for limiting and ascertaining of Treasons, for security of the people. Tiberius and Nero's days are fallen upon us; Of which Tacitus, Ingens crimen divitiae; & complementum omnium accusationum laesa majestas.  and the Offenders therein, their Counsellors, Procurers, Aiders and Abettors, being convicted of the said offence, or any of them, shall be deemed and adjudged Traitors against the Parliament and People of England, and shall suffer, lose and forfeit, and have such like and the same pains, forfeitures, judgements and execution, as is used in case of High Treason: And whereas by the abolition of the Kingly Office provided for in this Act, a most happy way is made for this Nation (if God see it good) to return to its just and ancient right of being Governed by its own Representatives or National meetings in Council 
* When was England governed by their own Representative? or had any other regliment than Kings? But what the Legislative Conventicle declares, we must believe, though contrary to our knowledge. They will lead our Faith and Reason in a string, or have our necks in a halter. A period to this Parliament, and leave the Supreme power in the Council of State, a design long since attempted. See First and Second Part of England's New Chains, and the Hunting of the Foxes. No obedience is due by Law to them, which takes no notice of this form of Government. , from time to time chosen and entrusted for that purpose by the People; It is therefore Resolved and Declared by the Commons assembled in Parliament, that they will put a period to the sitting of this present Parliament, and dissolve the same so soon as may possibly stand with the safety of the people that hath betrusted them, and with what is absolutely necessary for the preserving and upholding the Government now settled in the way of a Commonwealth, and that they will carefully provide for the certain choosing, meeting, and sitting of the next and future Representatives, with such other circumstances of freedom in choice and equality in distribution of Members to be elected thereunto, as shall most conduce to the lasting freedom and good of this Commonwealth: And it is hereby further Enacted and Declared, notwithstanding any thing contained in this Act, no person or persons of what condition and quality soever, within the Commonwealth of England and Ireland, Dominion of Wales, the Islands of Guernsey, and Jersey and Town of Berwick upon Tweed, shall be discharged from the obedience and subjection which he and they own to the Government of this Nation, as it is now Declared, but all and every of them shall in all things render and perform the same, as of right is due unto the Supreme Authority hereby declared to reside in this and the successive Representatives of the People of this Nation, and in them only. 
132. An Act for abolishing the House of Peers. More New lights, new discoveries made by forty or fifty Ignis satui, gross fiery Meteors remaining in the House of Commons.     
About the same time they passed another Act, for Abolishing the House of Peers, to this purpose.  

THe Commons of England assembled in Parliament, finding by too long experience that the House of Lords is useless and dangerous to the People of England to be continued, have thought fit to Ordain and Enact, and be it Ordained and Enacted by this present Parliament, and by the Authority of the same, That from henceforth the House of Lords in Parliament shall be, and is hereby wholly abolished and taken away, and that the Lords shall not from henceforth meet, or sit in the said House called the Lords House, or i● any other House or place whatsoever, as a House of Lords, nor shall sit, vote, advise, adjudge, or determine of any matter or thing whatsoever, as a House of Lords in Parliament. Nevertheless it is hereby Declared, That neither such Lords as have demeaned themselves with honour, courage, Fidelity to the Common wealth, nor their Posterities who shall so continue, shall be excluded from the public Counsels of the Nation, but shall be admitted thereunto, and have their free Vote in Parliament if they shall be thereunto elected, as other persons of Interest elected and qualified thereunto aught to have: And be it further Ordained and Enacted by the Authority aforesaid, that no Peer of this Land not being elected, qualified, and sitting in Parliament, as aforesaid, shall claim, have, or make use of any Privilege of Parliament, either in relation to his person, quality or estate, any Laws, Usage, or Custom to the contrary notwithstanding.   
And to lessen the amazement of the People, the same day they passed and ordered to be printed, 
* 133. A Declaration of the Commons, to show the Reasons of their said proceed. The State is Free, but the people Slaves; as a Galley is free, but the Rowers Slaves; 1 part. 72, 73. See these Books, (A full Answer to an Infamous Pamphlet, Entitled, A Declaration of the Commons of England.) [The Charge against the King discharged.] (The Royal and Royalists Plea.) (King Charles vindicated, etc.) And his Majesty's last Book, or Pourtraicture, and His Maj. Gracious Messages for Peace.  a Book called, [A Declaration of the Parliament of England, expressing the grounds of their late proceed, and of settling the present Government in the way of a Free State:] when they formerly passed the 4. Votes for no more Addresses, to our late King, they seconded it with a Declaration, to show the Reasons of those Votes, wherein they set forth no new matter but what they had formerly in parcels objected against Him; and yet they have since that time made Addresses to ●im, and both taken and caused others to take the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy, and the Protestation & Covenant to defend his person and Authority, etc. And in this Declaration there is no new Objection of moment, but what is contained in the former Declarations against Him, and as I looked upon the first Declaration as a Prologue, so I look upon this last as the Epilogue to His Majesty's Tragedy. The whole matter of charge in both of them hath been sufficiently answered in several Books, and either confuted or justified, to which I refer the Reader, whom I will only trouble with some few short Observations of my own upon it: (p. 5.) The Parliament (in imitation of their Masters, the Council of Officers) pretend a necessity to change the fundamental Government into a Free-State, to prevent Tyranny, Injustice, and War, etc. (I doubt rather to promote them.) It affirmeth, (p. 15, 16.) That Offices of Inheritance are forfeited by Breach of Trust, (a condition annexed to every Office) and seems to imply as much of the Kingly Office: but this Penman had forgot, that by the Law the Crown takes away all defects, and the King being Supreme Head and Governor over all Persons, and in all Causes, it were absurd to make Him accountable to any Authority; for in such case that Authority would be Supreme to Him, and so erect two Supremes one jarring and interferring with the other, which in Law and Policy is as absurd as to suppose two Almighty's or Infinities in Divinity, which cannot be, for that one Infinity would terminate another: Impossibile esse plura Infinite, 
See Greg: Th●losanus. l. pol. 1. Keckerin: Sistema pol. l. 1. Conezenii. l. politic. 1. à c. 17 ad. c. 25. and many good Authors quoted by him. Moecenalis' orationem ad Augustum, apud Dionem Cassium.  quoniam alterum esset in altero finitum, saith Cusanus. (pag. 16.) The Declarers play the Orators in behalf of the felicity of Government by Free-States, rather than by Kings and Princes. This is a spacious field to walk in, I will only cite some learned Authors living in Republics of a contrary opinion, and send my Readers to them for their Arguments. It applauds the prosperity and good Government of the Switz: which (I think was never comm●nded before) a gross-witted People, living in a confused way of Government, where virtue and industry find no reward, the Rich become a daily prey to the poor, and their popular Tribunes, who uphold their credits by calumniating the wealthy, and confiscating [or sequestering] their Estates, the best wealth of this Nation is Pensions from Neighbour Princes, to whom they let their Blood to Hire, and become Mercenaries many times to the extreme damage and (if their Country were worth subduing) danger of the State. For Venice, it is an Aristocracy (if not Oligarchy) of many petty Kings, so burdensome to all their Subjects upon Terra firma, that they dare not trust them without Citadels to keep them under; they never confide in any of their number or Natives to be Commander in Chief of their Land Forces) fearing to be tyrannised over by a Cromwell, or an Ireton, or by some property subordinate to them in all but Title. The Morlachy, and many Inhabitants of Dalmatia, and Candia, have lately preferred the Turkish Government before theirs. As for the Low-Countries, (their nearest example) peruse Bernavelt's Apology, and many good Histories. For Rome, from their Regifugium, they were never free from Civil Wars, cecessious Tumults, and changes of Government, first to Patrician Consuls, Regia potestate; then to promiscuous Consuls (plebeians as well as Patritians) with popular Tribunes to control them (then to Decemviri legibus Scribendis; then to Tribuni militares consulari potestate, Dictator's upon all special occasions, sometimes an Aristocracy, sometimes a Democracie, between two Factions Patrician and Plebeian. And never could that unhappy Idol of the multitude [Liberty] find any time of settled rest and Government until their giddy Republic was overthrown by Julius Caesar, and turned into a Monarchy by Augustus, which approved Cratippus saying, Vitiosum Reipub: statum exigere Monarchiam; and then (and not till then) Rome came to his height of Glory, 
See some Authorities cited verbatim in the first Page.  and Dominion, and continued so a long time, sometimes impaired by the vices of some Emperors, and sometimes repaired by the virtues of others: he that reads Livy and Tully's Orations, with many other Authors, shall find how infinite corrupt the People were, both in making and executing Laws, in dispensing Justice both Distributive, and Commutative; what Complaints, that their comitia were venalia; what Bulwarks they were fain to erect against the ambition and covetousness of their Great men; Leges Ambitus, leges Repetundarum peculatus; all to no purpose: the great abuse of Solicitors and Undertakers in every Trybesto contract, for suffrages; the Domestic use of their Nomenclators, their Prehensations, Invitations, Client ships; their kiss and shaking hands (even from the greatest Personages) prostituted to every Cobbler and Tinker; their costly public Shows and spectacles to woe the Rabble; he that reads observingly shall find that ambition and covetousness (nurses of all corruption) were the best part of the wisdom and industry of that Republic until it came to be a Monarchy, and shall farther find, that those corrupt manners and customs which the People (from the highest to the lowest) had contracted during the several licentious Alterations of their Commonwealth, from one form of Republic to another: were (like a second nature) not to be corrected by the better discipline of a Monarchy, and (at last) occasioned the ruin of that Monarchy, together with the desolation of that Nation, which shows, that Monarchy (with which their Nation began) was their natural and genuine Government, when it could not be taken away sine interitu subjecti, without the ruin of the whole subject matter. (p. 11.) It is said, It hath been lately computed, that the Court purveyances (notwithstanding many good Laws to the contrary) cost the Country more in one year, than their Assessments to the Army; what? above 100000 l. a month, when the charge of the KING'S House-keeping came but to 50000 l. a year: (I speak not of Wages and Pensions) I know not who should make this computation, unless old Sir Hen. Vane, and his Man Cornelius Holland, (the latter of which was turned out of his Office in the Green-cloth for abusing this Place) not in whose time of employment (unless their own) such prodigious abuses should happen. (p. 19) It is said, 
The King's Revenue by a medium of 7 years was yearly 700000 l.  The legal and justifiable Revenue of the Crown fell short of 100000 l. per annum: I perceive this is all the Account the Commonwealth is likely to have from the Committee of the Kings, Queens, and Prince's Revenue, nor do I know what a pruning-hook that phrase (legal Revenue) may prove: But I conceived all that Q. Elizabeth, the King's Father and Himself received, had been His Revenue de jure; I am sure it was de facto, and the Parliament in their Declarations promised, to settle a better Revenue upon Him than any of His Ancestors enjoyed: neither did this, nor any former Parliament complain, that His Purse was grown too full, or His Revenue too fulsome: and if the Commit of the Revenues had enjoyed no more but their own legal and justifiable Revenue, so many of the KING'S Servants and Creditors had not starved for want of their own. (p. 19) They very much aggravate Monopolies, Patente, and Projects: I wonder they suffer so many Men guilty in that kind to sit in their House, old Sir Henry Vane, Sir Henry Myldmay, Sir John Hypsley, Cornelius Holland, Laurence Whytakers, etc. (p. 20. 
2 Part of England's New Chains discovered, &c and the Hunting the Foxes return to s. 127. ) They speak against the Lords Negative Voice, but not a word against the Council of Wars Negative Voice, who march up in hostile manner against Parliament and City, and secure, seclude, and drive away 250 Members at one time, if they vote any thing contrary to their Interest. They speak likewise against the Lords Judicial power over Commoners, but have forgot what unjust and illegal use themselves attempted to make of the Lords jurisdiction against the 11 impeached Members, the 4 Aldermen, and Citizens. (p. 21. 
1 Part. sect. 45. 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54. ) They excuse their receding from their Declaration of April, 1646. (they might have minded you of a Vote of a later Date, had it made for their turn) for Governing the Kingdom by King, Lords, and Commons. To this it is said, the King nor Lords could take no advantage thereof being a contract they never consented unto, indeed it was never presented to them; but I shall ask whether the people may not take advantage thereof? for whose satisfaction this was Declared, (a general grudge being then amongst them) that the Parliament and Army would subvert the ancient Fundamental Government, (p. 22, 23.) They answer an Objection, that these great matters ought to be determined in a full House, not when many Members are excluded by force, and the privileges so highly broker, and those who are permitted to sit, do act under a force. To this is answered (how truly let any man that hath read our Histories tell) That few Parliaments have acted but some force or other hath been upon them, (I wonder they did not argue thus for the silly Tumult of Apprentices) for Breach of Privileges of Parliament. They Answer, It will not be charged upon the remaining party, or to have been within their power to prevent it, or repair it, (to this I reply, that it is doubted the remaining party (being the Army party) contrived it in their Junto at : for (p. 23.) it is acknowledged, they called and appointed the Army for their Guard, which was not openly done by a full House: it must be therefore secretly done by a party. See many Reasons for this conjecture before Sect. 24. Farther they say, That the safety of the Kingdom ought to be preferred before privilege of Parliament; and that if their House had declined their duty (viz: by not Acting) they had resigned up all to ruin and confusion: from whence should this ruin and confusion come, but from their own Army, which they perpetuate to eat up the Kingdom; and continue their own power and profit? and I wonder they did not use the same moderation after that childish Tumult of Apprentices, but Declared all Acts, etc. passed from 26. July (which day the Tumult began and ended) to the 6. August, null and void. And endeavoured to make the very sitting of the Members and the Citizens obeying to the said Orders (though no Judges of the force) Treasonable: they deny they sit now under a force, the Army being their best friends, called by them for their safety. Indeed it is generally thought the Army and this remnant of the House of Commons, are as good Friends and Brethren as Simeon and Levi, Pilate and Herod were; and were called to secure the Members and purge the House: yet if the remaining party should Vote contrary to the Dictates of the Council of War, Quaere, 
2 Part of England's New Chains, and the Hunting the Foxes, etc.  Whether they will not be used as uncivilly as the secured Members? nay worse, by being called to account, for cozening the State (p. 24.) They say, There is a clear consistency of our Laws with the present Government of a Republic. I desire to know who by our Law can call or bold a Parliament but the KING? who is, Principium, Caput, & Finis Parliamenti? who is the fountain of Justice, Honour, Peace, when we have no King? who is Conservator of the Laws and Protector of the people? where is the Supreme Authority? to Vote it (in their own case) to be in a Representative of 50 or 60 Commons, without legal proofs or precedents is to lead men's reason captive, as well as their Persons and Estates, (to impose an implicit faith upon Man, not to use discourse and reason against their Votes is to take Man out of Man, to deny him his definition, Animal rationale) to whom doth the Subject own Allegiance? and where is the Majesty of England when there is no King? for all Treason is, Crimen laesae majestatis, contra debitam ligeanciam. Therefore where (by the known Laws) no Allegiance is, there is no Treason. Lastly, if our present Laws be so consistent with the Republic, I desire to know why they did not Try the 4 Lords legally at the Common Law by their Peers, and Sir John Owen by a Jury of 12 Men of the Neighbourhood, according to Magna Charta, and other good Laws? but were feign to put a Legislative Trick upon them, and erect such a Court for the Trial of them as was never heard of in England before, nor hath no place in our Government. They conclude (p. 26.) That as they have not intermeddled with the affairs and Government of other States, so (they hope) none will intermeddle with them: This assertion is as true as the rest, it being well known, that for about 3. years' last passed they have boasted, That they have many Agents in France, who under colour of Merchandise, vent antimonarchical and anarchical Tenants, and sow seeds of Popular Liberty amongst the poor Peasants, and Huguenots of France, which they brag prospered well there, their very declared principles and doctrine of their Pulpits and Army are, That they must break the powers of the Earth in pieces. Monarchy must down all the world over, first in England, than this Army must put over and manumit the Peasants of France, the Boor of Germany, etc. And divers of this party have reported, That they have supplied the Revolters of France with money; their Licenced News-Books are full of this Doctrine, and of many Invectives against the Tyranny of the French King.  

134. Harry Martin's Judgement of the King and Kingly Government.  Such were their proceed against the King, or rather against Kingly Government, which was cut off by the same Axe that murdered the King, and was (indeed) first in their intention, though last in execution; as appeareth by Harry Martin's Speech in the House upon the Debate, Whether a King, or no King? That if they must have a King, he had rather have had the last than any Gentleman in England? he found no fault in His person, but in his Office.  

135. The Council of Officers endeavour to join Interest with the Papists in England and Ireland.  The King had offended the Papists in the last Treaty, by granting so much to the Parliament for their suppression: The Independents perceiving it, and willing to join with any Interest to make good their design. It was proposed at the Council of Officers, That the Papists should raise and pay about 10000 Additional Forces for this Army, in recompense whereof, all penal Laws concerning them should be repealed, all Taxes and Contributions taken off, and they to have the protection of this Parliament and Army. Under the same notion they endeavoured to join Interests with Owen Roe Oneale, 
Owen Roe Oneale.  that commanded the bloody party of massacring Irish (with which they had formerly taxed the King) they supplied him with Ammunition, and admitted O Realy, 
The Pope's Nuntio.  the Pope's Irish Nuntio to a Treaty here in England, Sir John Winter was taken into employment, and the Arrears of his Rents gathered for him by Soldiers, to the regret of the Country. Sir Kenelm Digbie had a pass to come into England, and came, as was foretold by a Letter from an Independent Agent for the Army, from Paris to an Independent Member of the House of Commons, a creature of the Army, bearing date, 28. Nou. 1648. and printed at the latter end of [The true and full Relation of the Officers and Armies forcible seizing of divers eminent Members, etc. Walter Montague let forth upon Bail; what becomes of this Negotiation? and whether those that have played fast and lose with all Interests in the Kingdom, have not done the like with the Papists? I cannot yet learn.  
This Winter, 
136. Scarcity of Coals how occasioned, and why?  Coals (as well as other things) had been at excessive rates in the City, whereby many poor perished with cold and hunger; what the reason thereof was (besides unreasonable Taxes, Excise, and Soldier's quartering in and near the City) was diversely disputed: most men imputed the blame to Sir Arthur Haslerigge Governor of Newcastle, who (without any public Authority) presumed to lay on a Tax of 4 s. a Cauldron upon the Coals there; which is estimated to amount to 50000 l. a year; what use that Money was put to was as variously whispered: as likewise what design they had in bringing so pinching a want upon the City? some said, it was to enforce the poorer sort into Tumults, and then to charge the wealthier sort with the crime, and ensnare them; others said, it was to cast an odium upon the PRINCE, as if His Ships had kept in the Colliers.  
The 23. March 1648. The Commons ordered, 
137. The Lo. Major ordered to proclaim in person the Act for abolishing the Kingly Office, and punished for neglect.  That the Lord Major of London in person be required to publish and proclaim in the City the aforesaid Act for dissolving Kingly Government: and to give an account thereof to the House. The Major refusing this service, was by the Commons called to the Bar, fined 2000 l. committed prisoner to the Tower, and outed of his Majoralty; and Alderman Andrews (a man after their own heart) chosen by a few Schismatics in his place.  
Ordered by the Commons (upon a report from the Council of State) that Commissioners he appointed to make Sale of the Kings, 
138. The Kings, Queens, and Princes personal Estate ordered to be sold.  Queens, and Princes personal estate, upon Inventory and Apprisal, for satisfaction of all just Debts due to well-affected persons (Viz. Men of their Faction) in this Nation, before the beginning of these Wars: But first 30000 l. to be taken out of it for the use of this Summer's Fleet, and that it be referred back to the 40 Hogen Mogens, or Council of State to consider what they think fit to be sold, and what they think fit to keep and reserve for the use and furniture of them and their Attendants. Observe, that by that time this gulf is stopped, the whole remainder to be sold for payment of Debts aforesaid, may be written with a cipher. 
139. Crown Lands shared amongst the Godly.   
I hear the House hath given away the King's House, Parks and Honour of Eltham to Sergeant Bradshaw, their quondam Precedent. Greenwich to Bulstrode Whitlock. The Lion's Skin is now dividing amongst the party. Thus have they killed and taken possession: and the King's Revenue hath proved as ominous to Him as Naboth's Vineyard was to his Master.  

140. Another Report for an establishment for the Army. Diurnal, Mar. 30, 31. 1649.  This day another Report was made to the House from the Committee of the Army of the particular sums to be Monthly levied in each County, to make up the whole sum of 90000 l. Monthly for the Armies of England and Ireland, besides 20000 l. per mens. out of Fee-farm Rents.  
28 March 1649. The Commons in pursuit of the advice given them by Monsieur Paw, 
141. An Order that no Preacher meddle with State affairs.  and according to the example cited by him of the Low Countries, Ordered, That no Minister in his Pulpit, should meddle with any State affairs: had this been observed from the beginning, these Pulpit-Incendiaries had never kindled a War between the King and Parliament. 
142. The 5. Lights of Walton.   
About the beginning of Lent last, Master Faucet Minister of Walton upon the Thames in Surrey, preached in his Parish Church after dinner, when he came down out of his Pulpit it was twilight; and into the Church came six Soldiers, one of them with a Lantern in his hand, and a Candle burning in it, in the other hand they had four Candles not lighted: He with the Lantern called to the Parishioners to stay a little, for he had a Message to them from God, and offered to go up into the Pulpit, but the Parishioners would not let him; then he would have delivered his errand in the Church, but there they would not hear him; so he went forth into the Churchyard, the people following him, where he related to them, That he had a Vision, and received a command from God to deliver his will unto them; which he was to deliver, and they to receive upon pain of damnation. It consisted of 5 Lights:  
1. That the Sabbath was abolished as unnecessary, Jewish, and merely ceremonial: And here (quoth he) I should put out my first Light, but the wind is so high I cannot light it.  
2. Tithes are abolished as Jewish and Ceremonial, a great burden to the Saints of God, and a discouragement of industry and tillage: And here I should put out my second Light, etc. as aforesaid, which was the burden of his song.  
3. Ministers are abolished as Antichristian, and of no longer use now Christ himself descends into the hearts of his Saints, and his Spirit enlighteneth them with Revelations, and inspirations: And here I should have put out my third Light, etc.  
4. Magistrates are abolished as useless, now that Christ himself is in purity of Spirit come amongst us, and hath erected the Kingdom of the Saints upon earth; besides, they are Tyrants and Oppressors of the Liberty of the Saints, and tie them to Laws and Ordinances, mere humane inventions: And here I should have put, etc.  
5. Then putting his hand into his pocket, and pulling out a little Bible, he shown it open to the People, saying, Here is a Book you have in great veneration, consisting of two parts, the Old and New Testament; I must tell you, it is abolished: It containeth beggarly rudiments, milk for Babes; But now Christ is in Glory amongst us, and imparts a fuller measure of his Spirit to his Saints then this can afford; and therefore I am commanded to burn it before your faces: so taking the Candle out of his Lantern, he set fire of the leaves. And then putting out the Candle, cried, And here my fifth Light is extinguished.  
Upon a Report from the Council of State, 
143. The Earl of Warwick's Commission recalled; and 3 Admirals appointed.  the Commons Voted void the Earl of Warwick's Commission for Admiral, and appointed three Commissioners to have and execute the Admiral's Place, with 3 l. a day a piece; a Commission for Martial Law, and Land Soldiers aboard to keep under the Seamen, The three Admirals are, Col. Edw: Popham, Col. Rob: Blake, and Col, Deane.  
Sunday after Easter-day, 
144. Cromwell turned Preacher.  six Preachers militant at Whitehall tried the patience of their Hearers; one calling up another successively: at last the Spirit of the Lord called up Oliver Cromwell, who standing a good while with lifted up eyes, as it were in a trance, and his neck a little inclining to one side, as if he had expected Mahomet's Dove to descend and murmur in his ear; and sending forth abundantly the groans of the Spirit, spent an hour in prayer, and an hour and an half in a Sermon. In his prayer he desired God to take off from him the Government of this mighty People of England, as being too heavy for his shoulders to bear: An audacious, ambitious, and hypocritical imitation of Moses. It is now reported of him, that he pretendeth to Inspirations; and that when any great or weighty matter is propounded, he usually retireth for a quarter or half an hour, and then returneth and delivereth out the Oracles of the Spirit: surely the Spirit of John of Leyden will be doubled upon this Man.  

145. The last Retreat of the Faction by H. Martin's report.  About this time the Palsgrave took his leave of the Parliament being much courted and complemented by them, and his 8000 l. per annum with all Arrears confirmed to him: since his departure Harry Martin (in a jolly humour) was heard to say, If the worst happened, and that they should not he able to stand their ground in England, yet the Palsgrave would afford them a place of retreat in the Palatinate; the seeds of these anarchical, anabaptistical humours (upon the reducing of Munster) spread themselves in England, and now have a mind to return into Germany to kindle a fire there.  

146: Io. Lilburn's third Book, called, (The Picture of the Council of State.)  About this time John Lilburn, and his Company, set forth a Book, called, [The Picture of the Council of State, etc.] wherein they set forth the illegal and violent proceed of the said Council against them in seizing upon them with armed Bands of Soldiers, and interrogating them against themselves, etc. (where they have these words) The Faction of a Traitorous Party of Officers of the Army hath twice rebelled against the Parliament, and broke them in pieces, and by force of Arms culled out whom they pleased, and imprisoned divers of them, and laid nothing to their charge; and have left only in a manner a few men, (besides 11 of themselves, viz: the General, Cromwell, Ireton, Harrison, Fleetwood, Rich, Ingolsby Hazelrigge, Constable, Fennick, Walton, and Allen Treasurer) of their own Faction behind them, that will (like Spaniel dogs) serve their lusts and wills; yea, some of the chiefest of them, viz: Ireton, Harrison, etc. yea, Mr. Holland himself styled them, a Mock Parliament, a Mock power, at Windsor▪ yea, it is yet their expressions at London: And if this be true that they are a Mock-power, and a Mock Parliament, then. Quare, Whether in Law or Justice (especially considering they have fallen from all their many glorious promises, and have not done any one action that tends to the universal good of the people) can those Gentlemen sitting at Westminster in the House (called, the House of Commons) be any other than a factious company of Men, traitorously combined together with Cromwell, Ireton, and Harrison, to subdue the Laws, Liberties, and Freedoms of England, (for no one of them protests against the rest) and to set up an absolute and perfect tyranny of the Sword, will, and pleasure, and absolutely intent the destroying the Trade of the Nation, and the absolute impoverishing the people thereof, to sit them to be their Vassals and Slaves. And again, the three forementioned Men, viz: Cromwell, Ireton, and Harrison, (the General being but their stalking horse, and a cipher) and their traitorous Faction, having by their wills and Swords got all the Swords of England under their command, and the disposing of all the great Places in England by Sea and Land, and also the pretended Law making power, and the pretended Law executing power, by making among themselves (contrary to the Laws and Liberties of England) all Judges, Justices of Peace, Sheriffs, Bailiffs, Committee-men, etc. to execute their wills and tyranny, walking by no limits or bounds but their own wills and pleasures, and traitorously assume unto themselves a power to levy upon the people what money they please, and dispose of it as they please, yea, even to buy knives to cut the people's throats that pay the money to them, and to give no account for it till Doomsday in the afteroon; they having already in their wills and power to dispose of the Kings, Queens, Princes, Dukes, and the rest of the children's Revenue; Deans and Chapters Land, Bishop's Lands, Sequestered Delinquents Lands, Sequestered Papists Lands, Compositions of all sorts, amounting to Millions of money, besides Excise and Customs; yet this is not enough, although (if rightly husbanded) it would, constantly pay above one hundred thousand men, and furnish an answerable Navy thereunto: But the people must now after their Trade● are lost, and their Estates spent, to procure their Liberties and Freedoms, be Assessed about 100000 l. a Month, 
Master Boon a Member of the House, lately a Tapster, hath 6000 l. given him. Sir Arthur: Hazelrig 3 great Manors, Bishops-Aukland, Ev●r-wood, and another Col. B●rkstead (the pitiful Thimble and Bodkin Goldsmith) bought as much Bishop's Lands as cost 10000 l. at two or three years' purchase, and hath already raised his money.  that so they may be able like so many Cheaters and State-thieves, to give six, eight, ten, twelve, fourteen, sixteen thousand pounds a piece over again to one another, (as they have done already to divers of themselves) to buy the Commonwealth's Lands one of another, (contrary to the duty of trusties, who by Law nor equity, can neither give nor sell to one another) at two or three years' Purchase, (the true and valuable rate considered) as they have already done, and to give 4 or 5000 l. per annum, over again to King Cromwell, as they have done already out of the Earl of Worcester's Estate, etc. besides about 4 or 5 l. a day he hath by his Places of Lieu. General, and Colonel of Horse in the Army; although he were at the beginning of this Parliament but a poor Man; yea, little better than a Beggar (to what he is now) as well as others of his Neighbours.  

147. A Petition in behalf of Io: Lylburn and his company.  2. April 1649. A Petition subscribed by divers Persons in behalf of John Lilburn and his company, was presented to the Commons, wherein (amongst other things) are contained these three just demands:  
1. That no man be censured, condemned, or molested, but for the breach of some Law first made and published to the People, whereby is avoided that uncertainty and hourly hazard that otherwise every man is subject to, both in respect of his Estate, Liberty, and Life.  
2. That every crime have not only its penalty annexed, hut together therewith the manner and method of proceed ascertained.  
3. That the execution of Laws be referred to ordinary Magistrates and Officers by Law deputed thereto, and that the Military power be not used, but where the Civil is so resisted, as that of its own strength it is deficient to enforce obedience.  

148. Itinerant Ministers, an invention to undermine our Orthodox settled Ministers, and infect the people with Schisms and anarchical principles, suitable to the manyheaded tyranny of the Grandees.  April 12. 1649. It was referred to a Committee to consider of a way how to raise Pensions and Allowances out of Deans and Chapters Lands to maintain supernumeracy Itinerant Ministers, who should be Authorized to go up and down compassing the earth, and adulterate other men's Pulpits and Congregations, and put affronts and raise factions and scandals upon such orthodox and conscientious Ministers (in order to their Sequestration) as cannot frame their Doctrine to the damnable practices and anarchical principles of the times. These wandering Apostles are to preach antimonarchical seditious doctrine to the people, (suitable to that they call the present Government) to raise the rascal multitude and schismatical rabble against all men of best quality in the Kingdom, to draw them into Associations and Combinations with one another in every County, and with the Army against all Lords, Gentry, Ministers, Lawyers, rich and peaceable men, and all that are Lovers of the old Laws and Government, for the better rooting of them out, that themselves alone may inhabit the earth, and establish their new tyranny or Kingdom of the Saints upon the ruins of our ancient Monarchy. These men (like Balaam) shall bless and curse for hire, and vent State-news, State-doctrine, and poison the people with such changeable and various principles as from time to time shall be dictated to them by those Pseudo-politicians as now sit at the Helm; they shall cousin the people with pretended Illuminations, Revelations, and Inspirations, and pour out all the Vials of God's wrath amongst them.  
Cromwell and Ireton and their Faction, 
149. A fraudulent Reconciliation and uniting of Interests attempted with a mock-fast for that purpose.  having formerly deluded all the Interests and Parties of this Kingdom, were arrived to that height of impudence as to endeavour to cheat them all over again, they had by murdering the King, abolishing the House of Lords, putting an execrable force upon the far major part of the House of Commons, making themselves and their Party a tyrannical Council of State to usurp the Supreme power and Government, endeavouring a Toleration of all Religions, attempting to take away Tithes, 
See a Paper, called, Arguments against all Accommodation between the City of London, and the engaged Grandees of the Parl. and Army; And A seasonable Caution to the City of London? printed at the latter end of Relation and Observations, Hist. and Pol. etc.  mocking and then tyrannising over that part of the Army they please to miscall Levellers, distracted and discontented all Parties within the Kingdom, and stirred up all the Princes of Christendom to defend the common Interest of Kings, now controverted in England. This cloud threatened to pour down a new War upon them; to provide a remedy therefore for this sore, Cromwell moved in the House of Commons, That the Presbyterian Government might be settled, promising his endeavours thereto; but whether he meant a Classical or Congregational Presbytery (which differs little or nothing from Independency) he did not declare● and here lieth the fallacy; he likewise moved, That the secured and secluded Members might again be invited into the House: they sent their Agents both Laymen and Ministers (amongst whom Mr. Marshal, Nye, carrel, Goodwin, and Hugh Peter's were chief) to cajole and decoy the Ministers, Citizens, and the expulsed Members, with discourses and propositions, they told them, The Presbyterians had differed from the King in point of civil Interest, which was more irreconcilable than that Interest of Church-Government, whatsoever show was made to the contrary, (They will not endure to hear of the KING'S exemplary patience and Christian charity to all; nor of His precepts and strict injunctions to His Son of clemency and abstinency from revenge, contained in His last Book, [The Pourtraicture of His Majesty.] These things will both apologise for our young King, and condemn our bloody vindicative Saints.) That the Presbyterians as well as the Independents made War against the late King, brought Him low, and prepared Him to receive his late deadly Blow from the Independents, and therefore the King would look upon both parties as equally guilty, and was deeply engaged in point of Interest to cut off both Parties: Endeavouring by these discourses to put the Presbyterians into despair (their own and Judas' sin) and then to work upon that base and cowardly principle of self-preservation, and invite them to join with them in point of civil Interest and common Defence. But their kindness was but like that of a malicious Man, who having plague-sores upon him, embraceth his friend rather to infect then cherish him: they know that by sitting, voting, acting, and complying with them, (whose actions the Laws of God and the Land have damned and anathematised with the highest condemnation) they should contract the guilt of all their forepast crimes and treasons; in the mean time the Presbyterians should sit and act but as a suspected Party, and should be baffled and turned out again when the danger is past; the Independents keeping in their own hands all the power, profits and preferments of the Land, and using the Presbyterian party but as Gibeonites, Hewers of wood, and Drawers of water under them; they invited them therefore to share with them in their sins, shames, and punishments, but would keep achan's Wedge and the Babilonish garment (the profit of their crimes) to themselves: And (as if it were not sufficient to cousin Man without mocking God) the House of Commons Ordered a strict Fast to be kept upon Thursday, 19 April 1649. as a day of Humiliation to implore God's forgiveness for the ingratitude of the people, who did not sufficiently acknowledge with thankfulness God's great mercies upon this Land in freeing them from Monarchy, and bestowing liberty upon them, by changing Kingly Government into a Free-State or Republic. The Faction knew that to partake with them in these prayers, was to partake of their sins. God deliver us from those deceitful lips, whose prayers are snares, whose kisses prove curses, and whose devotion leads to damnation: Never was Fast enjoined with more severity, nor neglected with more contempt and horror; men shunning it like the sins of Rebellion and Witchcraft. Besides, their Consciences told them, that they never suffered the thousandth part of the oppressions they now groan under.  
About this time it was debated to send supplies for Ireland; 
150. The juggling design of sending part of the Army for Ireland.  the predominannt Grandees were desirous to purge the Army (as they had done the House) and send the Levellers (Assertors of Liberty) thither: the Levellers were desirous to keep their ground here, and send the more mercenary enslaving and enslaved part of the Army; the better to colour the design, Cromwell undertook to be Conductor of this expedition, and light them the way into Ireland with his Illuminated Nose; having taken Order before hand that his precious self should be recalled time enough to keep up his party in England from sinking by his longer absence, and the better to accommodate the business, Lots were several times cast what Regiments should go; but the Lots not falling out to the minds of the General Council of Officers, they cast Lots again and again, until fortune agreed with their desires: This being discovered, a printed Paper was scattered about the streets, 26. April, 1649. as followeth: 

ALL worthy Officers and Soldiers who are yet mindful that you engaged not as a mere mercenary Army, hired to serve the arbitrary ends of a Council of State; but took up Arms in Judgement and Conscience in behalf of your own, and the people's just Rights and Liberties, you may see plainly by the proceed of Col. Hewson with his Regiment, that the design of your grand Officers is, to reduce the Army to a mere mercenary and servile temper, that shall obey all their commands, without so much as ask a question for Conscience sake. Intending by this blind obedience in you to make you be whatsoever they shall find requisite to establish their own absolute power over the Commonwealth, yea, though it be to cut off your best friends, or perpetuate this their own Parliament and Council of State, things so evidently destructive to your own and the people's just Rights and Liberties as nothing can be more.  
And for compassing whereof, you know they have long since dissolved the Agitators, and erected a Council amongst themselves, by which they have moulded the Parliament and a Council of State to their own wills; both which, are to be as a screen between the People and your Grandees, to make the world believe, they do nothing but by Order of Parliament, and Council of State, when they order all things themselves; and indeed are confederated together to defend and protect each others in their defrauding and enslaving the Commonwealth.  
This they have long aimed at, but cannot possibly effect it, until they reduce the Army to a servile and base temper, which they have been labouring to bring to pass along time; as by picking quarrels with most Officers and Soldiers, that have manifested any sense of Common Right, and so vexing them and wearying them out of Troops and Company. And (you know) they have been more than once disbanding twenty of a Troop, upon pretence of easing the public charge all their mischief being ever done, after either fasting and prayer, or upon some very specious pretence; but the care and resolution of the honest Ofificers and Soldiers ever prevented this.  
But now the business for Ireland (it seems) must do the deed; that being a service that must be preferred before the settling of the Liberties and Freedoms of this Nation; and all that are not for this service must be esteemed no better than Enemies and Traitors; and therefore an Ahab-like Fast goeth before the Lots are cast: And Col. Hewson falls to work and disbands all those Soldiers and Officers that refused to engage for the service of Ireland, before the Liberties of England (which we never trod under foot) be restored to the people.  
The end of this being to be a leading case to all other Regiments both Horse and Foot; not that they certainly intent for Ireland, but by such man's to be rid of all such as are apt to desire to be satisfied in their Consciences of the justice of the Cause before they engage in the kill and slaying of men any more; or before they see some fruits answerable to the blood that hath been spilt.  
And being rid of this kind of Officers and Soldiers, then to fill the Regiments as this Hewson doth, with such ignorant, needy, or servile men, as these miserable times (through loss of Trade) have begotten.  
And this being done, then to make more strict enquiry after this sort of People in the Army, and all other places, suppress meetings, and if that will not do, then to disarm all from whom they suspect the least repining or opposition.  
And therefore all those Officers and Soldiers, and all people in all places are concerned in a very high nature, even as much as the freedom of the Nation is worth, yea, as they tender the good of their Wives, Children, Families and Posterity, to venture their lives and all they have to make opposition against this the greatest mischief that ever was attempted; the greatest Treason that ever was committed against the liberties of the People: and not to stand any longer in a mix-maze between hope and fear; for if this design take place, your great Officers and their Confederates in Parliament and Council of State, will be as so many Kings, Princes and Lords, and yourselves, and all the people, their Slaves and Vassals.  
Therefore keep every man his place and post, and stir not, but immediately choose you a Council of Agitators once more to judge of these things; without which we shall never see a new Parliament, or ever be quit of these intolerable burdens, oppressions, and cruelties, by which the people are like to be beggared and destroyed.    
About this time Master Robert Lockier, 
151. M. Lockier condemned by a Council of War, with his honourable death and burial: and lilburn's Letter to the General.  and five or six other Troopers of Captain Savages Troop were condemned for a supposed mutiny; in behalf of whom Lieut. C. John Lilburne writ this Letter following to the General, dated 27. April, 1649.  
May it please your Excellency,  
WE have not yet forgot your Solemn Engagement of June 5. 1647. whereby the Army's Continuance as an Army was in no wise by the will of the State, but by their own mutual Agreement: And if their standing were removed from one Foundation to another, (as is undeniable) then with the same they removed from one Authority to another; and the Ligaments and Bonds of the First were Dissolved, and gave place to the Second; and under, and from the head of their first Station, viz: By the Will of the State, the Army derived their Government by Martial Law; which in Judgement and Reason could be no longer binding then the Authority (which gave being thereto) was binding to the Army: For the denial of the Authority, is an Abrogation and Nullment of all Acts, Orders, or Ordinances by that Authority as to them: And upon this Account, your Excellency with the Army, long proceeded upon the Constitution of a new Council and Government, contrary to all Martial Law and Discipline, by whom only the Army engaged to be Ordered in their prosecution of the Ends; to wit, Their several Rights, both as Soldiers and Commoners, for which they associated; Declaring, Agreeing, and Promising each other, not to Disband, Divide, or suffer themselves to be Disbanded or Divided, without satisfaction and security in relation to their Grievances and Desires in behalf of themselves and the Commonwealth, as should be agreed unto by their Council of Agitators: And by virtue, and under colour of this Establishment, all the Extraordinary Actions by your Excellency, your Officers, and the Army have passed: Your refusal to disband, disputing the Orders of Parliament: Impeachment and Ejection of Eleven Members; your first and second march up to London; your late violent Exclusion of the major part of Members out of the House, and their Imprisonment without cause, etc. which can no way be justified from the guilt of the highest Treason, but in the accomplishment of a righteous end, viz. The enjoyment of the benefit of our Laws and Liberties which we hoped long ere this to have enjoyed from your hands: Yet when we consider and herewith compare many of your late carriages both towards the Soldiery, and other free people, and principally your cruel Exercise of Martial Law, even to the Sentence and Execution of Death upon such of your Soldiers as stand for the Rights of that Engagement, etc. And not only so, but against others not of the Army; we cannot but look upon your defection and Apostasy in such deal, as of most dangerous Consequence to all the Laws and Freedoms of the People.  
And therefore, although there had never been any such solemn Engagement by the Army, as that of june 5. 1647. which with your Excellency in point of duty ought not to be of the meanest obligation. We do protest against your Exercise of Martial Law, against any whomsoever, in times of Peace: where all Courts of justice are open, as the greatest encroachment upon our Laws and Liberties that can be acted against us; and particularly, against the Trial of the Soldiers of Captain Savages Troop yesterday, by a Court Martial, upon the Articles of War, and sentencing of two of them to death; and for no other end (as we understand) but for some dispute about their Pay: And the reason of this our Protestation, is from the Petition of Right, made in the third year of the late King, which declareth, That no person ought to be judged by Law Martial, except in times of War; And that all Commissions given to execute Martial Law in time of Peace, are contrary to the Laws and Statutes of the Land. And it was the Parliaments complaint, That Martial Law was then Commanded to be executed upon Soldiers for Robbery, Mutiny, or Murder. Which Petition of Right this present Parliament in their late Declarations of the 9 of February, and the 17. of March, 1648. commend as the most excellentest Law in England, and there promise to preserve inviolably, it, and all other the Fundamental Laws and Liberties, concerning the preservation of the Lives, Properties, and Liberties of the People, with all things incident thereunto. And the Exercise of Martial Law in Ireland, in time of Peace, was one of the chiefest Articles for which the E. of Strafford lost his Head: The same by this present Parl. being judged High Treason. And the Parliament itself, neither by Act nor Ordinance, can justly or warrantably destroy the Fundamental Liberties and Principles of the Common Law of England: It being a Maxim in Law and Reason both, that all such Acts and Ordinances, are ipso facto, null, and void in Law, and binds not all, but aught to be resisted and stood against to the death. And if the Supreme Authority may not presume to do this, much less may You, or Your Officers presume thereupon; For where Remedy may be had by an ordinary course in Law, the Party grieved shall never have his recourse to extraordinaries. Whence it is evident, That it is the undoubted Right of every Englishman (Soldier, or other) that he should be punishable only in the ordinary Courts of Justice, according to the Laws and Statutes of the Realm in the times of Peace, as now it is; and the extraordinary way by Courts Martial, in no wise to be used.  
Yea, the Parliaments Oracle, Sir Edward Cook, Declares in the third part of his Institutes, Chap. of Murder, That for a General or other Officers of an Army, in time of Peace to put any man, although a Soldier, to death, by colour of Martial Law, it is absolute murder in that General, etc. Therefore erecting of Martial Law now, when all Courts of justice are open, and stopping the free current of Law, which sufficiently provides for the punishment of Soldiers as well as others, as appears by 18. H. 6. c. 19 2 & 3 E. 6. c. 2. 4. & 5 P. & M. c. 3. & 5 El. 5 & 5 Jam. 25. is an absolute destroying of our Fundamental Liberties, and the razing of the Foundation of the Common Law of England; the which out of Duty and Conscience to the Rights and Freedoms of this Nation (which we value above our lives) and to leave You and Your Council without all excuse, we were moved to represent unto Your Excellency, Earnestly pressing You, well to consider what You do, before you proceed to the taking away the lives of those men by Martial Law; lest the blood of the Innocent (and so palpable Subversion of the Laws and Liberties of England) bring the reward of just vengeance after it upon You, as it did upon the Earl of Strafford: For Innocent blood God will not pardon; and what the people may do (in case of such violent Subversion of their Rights) we shall leave to Your Excellency to judge, and remain  
Sir, Your Excellencies humble Servants, 

JOHN LILBURNE.  
RICH. OVERTON.   From our Causeless, and unjust, and Tyrannical Captivity, in the Tower of London, April 17. 1649.  
Notwithstanding which Letter, and much other means made, the said Lockier was Shot to Death in Saint Paul's Churchyard the same day, to strike a terror and slavish fear into such other Soldiers as shall dare to take notice of their approaching slavery; but his Christian and gallant deportment at his death, with the honourable funeral pomp accompanying him to his Grave turned all the error of his Tragedy into hatred and contempt of the Authors thereof. 
152. Arrears given to Col. A. P●pham, & H. Martin, & temptations put upon Lilburne and Joyce.   
About this time the House of Commons gave to Col. Alexander Popham all his Arrears, and to Harry Martin 3000 l. to put him on upon the holy Sisters, and take him off from the Levellers: And Cromwell is now playing the Devil's part, showing the Kingdoms of the earth, and tempting John Lilburn to fall down and worship him, to forsake his good principles and engagements, and betray the liberties of the people, but L. Col. Lilburne is higher seated in the good opinion of the People than to be suspected of so much baseness, who are confident he will as constantly resist false promises and vain hopes, as he hath vain threats and terrors of Indictments, and not cast away the hold he hath of immortality, by harkening to such a Siren whose promises are but baits with a hook hidden under them; and his preferments but like Mahomet's paradise; he that hath cozened all the Interests of the Kingdom will not scruple to cheat his enemy, a free-spirited plain meaning man. This is to undermine and blow up his credit with his party, and make him liable to a revenge hereafter: He that stoops to the lure of a known enemy is guilty of inexcusable folly, and a Betrayer of himself, especially having had so fair a Copy of Constancy set him by Coronet Joyce, who hath with much faithfulness resisted the like allurements, and so foul a Copy of Inconstancy by Reynolds.  
The Commons have ordered, 
153. The design of making Members of Parliament liable Arrests.  That upon Complaint made to any Judge of the three Benches, the Judges shall send a Letter of Summons t●●● ch Member of their House as shall be complained of, to give an appearance, and submit to legal proceed, otherwise his person to be liable to Arrests. But our present Judges are Creatures to the House of Commons, and know beforehand what Members are Babes of Grace in favour, and must be privileged; and who are out of favour, and must not be privileged; they have an Index tells them when to grant, and when to deny, Sinners must not be partakers of the same Laws with Saints: This is a Whip and a Bell to drive such dogged Members out of the Hall as will not hunt in pack with the Grandees in pursuit of their design, and are quick-sented enough to smell out their Knavery, if they come too near their door: It is thought the tyrannical Hocas Pocasses had an aim hereby to lash Harry Martin off from the Levellers, and make him come in to them. 
154. Women Petition the House for L. Col. Lilburne and his Company.   
About this time some thousands of well-affected Women of London, Westminster, Southwark, and the Hamlets, stormed the House of Commons with two Petitions in behalf of Jo. Lilburne and his Company; They complain of the Council of States violent and illegal proceed against them, in seizing them in the night by Soldiers; of Lockiers being shot to death by Martial Law; of their Arbitrary Government, Taxes, Excise, Monopolies, etc. That there was a design to fetch Lilburne and his Fellow Prisoners out of the Tower at midnight to Whitehall, 
Second part of England's new Chains discovered.  and there murder them; That the House by Declaring the Abettors of the Book laid to those Prisoners charge Traitors, have laid a snare for people; when as hardly any discourse can be touching the affairs of the present times but falls within the compass of that Book; so that all liberty of discourse is thereby utterly taken away, than which there can be no greater slavery.  
They received not so good Answers to these Petitions as they were wont to receive, when they had Money, Plate, Rings, Bodkins, and Thymbles to sacrifice to these Legislative Idols, they were bid, Go home and wash their dishes; to which some replied, They had neither Dishes nor Meat left.  
Note that the Commons have returned answer to some Petitioners, that Lilburne shall be Legally Tried by Laws preceding the fact, 
155. Observations upon the Commons Answer to those that petitioned for Lilburne, etc.  and yet by their Order, 11. April, 1649, it is Ordered, That the Attorney General be required to take speedy course for prosecution of Lieu. Col. John Lilburne, etc. in the Upper Bench this Term, upon the Declaration of this House touching the Book, entitled (The second part of England's new Chains discovered.] if this Order be not a Law and preceding the fact too, than our suprene Saints have told a Legislative Lie. In the latter end of the said Answer they are angry the Petitioners should discover so much of their baseness, That Cromwell and Ireton rides them, and therefore (contrary to all men's knowledge, and their own Consciences) they term those Intimations, seditious Suggestions; and Ordered, that Cromwell and Ireton should draw up a Declaration to prevent the people from being misled by Sowers of sedition; 
Humiliter servivunt, aut superbe dominantur.  such are the degenerous Spirits of under-Tyrants, who are Asses to their Superiors; and Lions to their Inferiors: Cromwell and Ireton, that have subverted all civil Authority, murdered the KING, possessed themselves of what they please, and enslaved the Kingdom with a Military tyranny, must draw up a Declaration according to their fancy, for their own vindication, and the Commons must Father the Bastard and set the stamp of their Authority and privilege upon it, lest any man should confute it, and beat back the Authors lies into their throats. But this is no new invention, for formerly when the Council of Officers set forth their Answer to the House of Commons Demands concerning their secured Members; 
Ireton penned this scandalous Answer of the said Officers.  Cromwell and Ireton caused their Journeymen of that Conventicle to Vote, That the House did approve the matter of the said Answer; thereby owning all the gross lies therein contained to deter the imprisoned Members from replying to it, and so by a  confession to acknowledge themselves guilty.  
About this time appeared out of the East a New Light in our Horizon, 
156. The Turkish Koran taught to speak English.  the Koran of Mahomet (Predecessor to Cromwell) and of Sergius (forerunner of Hugh Peter) naturalised and turned English. Now the Jews (Professed Enemies to Christ (which Mahomet is not) are accepted of) it is believed that their Thalmude and cabal will shortly be made English too, that this Island may be rendered a complete Pantheon, a Temple and Oracle for all Gods and all Religions; our lightheaded innovating People being like Reeds as apt to be shaken by, and bend unto every wind, every breath of pretended Inspiration, as the ancient Arabians were.  
May 1. 1649. The frighted Conventicle of Commons considered of an Act (forsooth) to fortify themselves and their usurpations with a Scarecrow of new-declared Treasons, 
157. New-declared Treasons to defend tyranny and usurpation, and ensnare the People.  to the purpose following.  
1. If any man shall maliciously (this is a word of qualification, a backdoor to let out such as they shall think fit) Affirm the present Government to be tyrannical, usurped, or unlawful, or that the Commons in Parliament, are not the supreme Authority of the Nation, or endeavour to alter the present Government.  
2. If any affirm the Council of State or Parliament to be Tyrannical or unlawful, or endeavour to subvert them, or stir up sedition against them.  
For Soldiers of the Army to contrive the death of the General, or Lieutenant General, or endeavour to raise mutinies in the Army, 
Quere, whether Cromwell be Lieutenant General, or no?  or to levy War against the Parliament to join with any to invade England or Ireland, sergeant the Great Seal, kill any Member of Parliament, or Judge, or Minister of Justice in their duty: All these several cases to be Declared, Treason. You see the terrors of Cain pursue these guilty Cowards.  
This Fools Bolt is chief aimed at the honest Levellers; this Junto of Commons have made themselves legal Traitors already, and would now make all the Kingdom legislative Traitors, but I hope none of those that arrogate the Reverend Title of Judges of the Law (although against Law) will be so lawless as to give Sentence of Death upon any such illegal Act of the House of Commons; nay, this very Act denounceth slavery and bondage to the Nation, and therefore is an Act of the highest tyranny, and a snare.  

158. The Levellers Randezvouz in Oxfordshire.  May 6. 1649. The honest Levellers of the Army, (for that is the Nickname which Cromwell falsely and unchristianly hath christened them withal) Enemies to Arbitrary Government, tyranny and oppression, whether they find it in the Government of one or many? whether in a Council of Officers, a Council of State; or a fag end of a House of Commons? whether it veil itself with the Title of a Supreme Authority, or a Legislative power?) drew together to a Randezvouz about Banbury in Oxfordshire, to the number of 4000 or 5000. others resorting to them daily from other parts. This gave an Alarm to our Grandees, fearing the downfall of their domination. Cromwell (not knowing what Party to draw out against them, that would be steadfast to him) shunned the danger, and put his property the General upon it to oppose the Randezvouz, and (looking as wan as the guilles of a sick Turkeycock) marched forth himself Westward, to intercept such as drew to the Randezvouz. In the mean time the said Levellers printed and published this ensuing Paper, entitled.  

England's Standard advanced: or, A Declaration from Mr. Will. Thompson, and the oppressed People of this Nation, now under his conduct in Oxfordshire.  
Dated at their Randezvouz, May 6. 1649.  
WHereas it is notorious to the whole world, that neither the Faith of the Parliament, nor yet the Faith of the Army formerly made to the people of this Nation, in behalf of their Common Right, Freedom, and Safety, hath been at all observed, or made good, but both absolutely declined and broken, and the people only served with bare words and fair promising Papers, and left utterly destitute of all help or delivery: And that this hath principally been by the prevalency and treachery of some eminent persons (now domineering over the people) is most evident. The Solemn Engagement of the Army at New-market, and Triploe-heaths by them destroyed, the Council of Agitators dissolved, the blood of War shed in time of Peace, Petitioners for Common Freedom suppressed by force of Arms, and Petitioners abused and terrified, the lawful Trial by 12. sworn men of the Neighbourhood subverted and denied, bloody and tyrannical Courts (called an High Court of Justice, and a Council of State) erected, the power of the Sword advanced and set in the Seat of the Magistrates, the Civil Laws stopped and subverted, and the Military Introduced, even to the hostile seizure, imprisonment, trial, sentence, and execution of death, upon divers of the Free people of this Nation, leaving no visible Authority, devolving all into a Factious Juncto and Council of State, usurping and assuming the name, stamp, and authority of Parliament, to oppress, torment and vex the People, whereby all the lives, liberties, and estates, are all subdued to the Wills of those Men, no Law, no Justice, no Right or Freedom, no Case of Grievances, no removal of unjust barbarous Taxes, no regard to the cries and groans of the poor to be had, while utter beggary and famine (like a mighty terrent) hath broken in upon us, and already seized upon several parts of the Nation.  
Wherefore through an inavoidable necessity, no other means left under Heaven, we are enforced to betake ourselves to the Law of Nature, to defend and preserve our selves and Native Rights, and therefore are resolved as one Man, (even to the hazard and expense of our Lives and Fortunes,) to endeavour the Redemption of the Magistracy of England, from under the force of the Sword, to vindicate the Petition of Right, to set the unjustly imprisoned free, to relieve the poor, and settle this Commonwealth, upon the grounds of Common Right, Freedom, and Safety.  
Be it therefore known to all the free people of England, and to the whole world, that (choosing rather to die for Freedom, then live as Slaves) We are gathered and associated together upon the bare Account of Englishmen, with our Swords in our hands to redeem ourselves and the Land of our Nativity, from slavery and oppression, to avenge the blood of War shed in the time of Peace, to have Justice for the blood of M. Arnold, shot to death at Ware, and for the blood of M. Robert Lockier, and divers others who of late by Martial Law were murdered at London.  
And upon this our Engagement in behalf of the Commonwealth, We do solemnly agree and protest, That we will faithfully (laying all self-respects aside,) endeavour the actual relief and settlement of this distressed Nation.  
And that all the world may know particularly what we intent, and wherein particularly to centre and acquiesce for ever, not to recede or exceed the least punctilio. We do declare from the integrity of our hearts, that by the help and might of God we will endeavour the absolute settlement of this distracted Nation, upon that Form and Method by way of an Agreement of the people, tendered as a peace-offering by Lieuten. Colonel John Lilburne, Mr. William Walwyn, Mr. Thomas Prince, and Mr. Richard Overton, bearing date May 1. 1649. the which we have annexed to this our Declaration as the Standard of our Engagement, thereby owning every part and particular of the Premises of the Agreement, promising and resolving to the utmost hazard of our Lives and Abilities, to pursue the speedy and full accomplishment thereof, and to our power, to protect and defend all such as shall Assent or Adhere thereunto: And particularly, for the Preservation and Deliverance of L. Col. John Lilburn, M. Will. Walwin, Mr. Thomas Prince, Mr. Richard Overton, Captain Bray, and Mr. William Sawyer, from their barbarous and illegal Imprisonments: And we Declare, That if a hair of their heads perish in the hands of those Tyrants that restrain them, That if God shall enable us, we will avenge it seventy times seven fold upon the heads of the Tyrants themselves and their Creatures.  
And that till such time as by God's Assistance we have procured to this Nation the Declared purpose of this our Engagement, we will not Divide nor Disband, nor suffer ourselves to be Divided or Disbanded, resolving with soberness and civility to behave ourselves to the Country, to wrong nor abuse any man, to protect all to our power from violence and oppression in all places where we come; resolving to stop the payment of all Taxes or Sessements whatsoever, as of Excise, Tithes, and the Tax of Ninety thousand pounds per mensem.  
And having once obtained a New Representative, according to the said Agreement, upon such Terms and Limitations therein expressed: We shall then freely lay down our Arms, and return to our several Habitations and Callings.  
And concerning the equity, necessity, and justice of our undertaking, We appeal to the judgement of the oppressed, betwixt their Destroyer's and Us; Whether by the Law of God, of Nature, and Nations, it be not equally justifiable in us to engage for the Safety and Deliverance of this Nation, as it was with the Netherlanders, and other People for theirs, and upon the same Principles that the Army engaged at New-market and Triploe-heaths; both Parliament and Army declaring, That it is no resistance of Magistracy to side with just Principles, and Law of Nature and Nations: And that the Soldiery may Lawfully hold the hands of that General, who will turn his Cannon against his Army, on purpose to destroy them: The Sea men the hands of that Pilot, who wilfully runs his Ship upon a Rock. And therefore, (the condition of this Commonwealth considered) we cannot see how it can be otherwise esteemed in us. And upon that Account we Declare, that we do own, and are resolved to own all such persons, either of the Army or Countries, that have already, or shall hereafter, rise up and stand for the Liberties of England, according to the said Agreement of the people: And in particular, We do own and avow the late proceed in Colonel Scroops, Col. Harrisons, and Major General Skippons Regiments, declared in their Resolutions published in print; As One Man, Resolving to live and die with them, in their and our just and mutual defence.  
And we do implore and invite all such as have any sense of the Bonds and Miseries upon the people; any Bowels of Compassion in them, any Piety, Justice, Honour, or Courage in their Breasts, any Affections to the Freedoms of England, any love to his Neighbour or Native Country, to rise up, and come in to help a distressed miserable Nation, to break the Bonds of Cruelty, Tyranny, and Oppression, and set the people Free.  
In which Service, Trusting to the undoubted goodness of a just and righteous Cause, We shall faithfully discharge the utmost of our Endeavours; Not sparing the venture of all hardships and hazards whatsoever, and leave the Success to God.  
Signed by me WILLIAM THOMPSON, at our Randezvouz in Oxfordshire near Banbury, in behalf of myself, and the Rest Engaged with me, May 6. 1649.   

For a New Parliament, By the Agreement of the People.  
About this time Doctor Dorislaus a Civil Lawyer, 
159. Doct. Dorislaus stabbed to death in Holland.  sometimes Judge Advocate to the Earl of Essex, and Lord Fairfax, and lately one of the Council in the High Court of Justice against the KING, and the 4. Lords, was sent from the Parliament, Agent into Holland, where about 18. Scots-men, repairing to his lodging, 6. of them went up the stairs to his Chamber, whilst 12. of them made good the stayre-foot, they stabbed him to death, and escaped.  
About the 14. day of May, 1649. 
160. Haslerig's barbarous motion to murder six Royalists of the best quality in revenge of Dorislaus.  Report was made from the Council of State to the House of the examination of 3. Servants of Doctor Dorislaus, concerning the Death of their Master; and what allowances were fit to be given to his Children out of the King's Revenue, thereby to lay an aspersion upon the King (as if He having had an influence upon that Fact, His Estate must make the recompense, notwithstanding Scotish-men did the deed in revenge of Hamiltons' death) Dorislaus had been a poor Schoolmaster in the Low Countries formerly, from whence he was translated to read the History-Lecture at Oxford, where he decried Monarchy in his first Lecture: was complained of, and forgiven by the benignity of the King. Then he became Judge Advocate in the King's Army in his expedition against the Scots: afterwards he had the like employment, under the Earl of Essex: and lastly, under Sir Tho. Fairfax. a great Gainer by his employments, but withal, a great Antimonarchist, and a Saint in Cromwell's Rubric, and therefore had a magnetic virtue both living and dead to draw money to him in abundance. Upon occasion of this Debate, Haslerigge moved, That 6. Gentlemen of the best quality [Royalists] might be put to Death as a revenge for Dorislaus, and to deter men from the like attempts hereafter. (That you may the better see of what Spirit Haslerigge is known, That some Northern Counties having petitioned the Commons for relief against the miserable famine raging there: Haslerigge opposed their request, saying, The want of food would best defend those Counties from Scottish Invasions.) What man that had any sense of Christianity, Courage, Honesty, or justice, would have been the Author of so barbarous and unjust a motion, That six Gentlemen no way conscious nor privy to the fact should be offered up a sacrifice to revenge and malice, nay, to guilty fears and base cowardice, to keep off the like attempts from Haslerigge and his Party. I wish this Gentleman would read the Alcharon (or new Independent Bible of the new Translation) and from thence gather precepts of more Humanity, Justice, Honesty and Courage, since he hath Read the Old and New Testament of Moses and Christ to so little purpose. Yet the House, 18. of May, passed a Declaration, That if more Acts of the like nature happened hereafter, it should be retaliated upon such Gentlemen of the King's Party as had not yet Compounded. But this is but a device to fright them to Compound, unless it be a forerunner to a Massacre heretofore taken into consideration at a Council of War: See Sect. 117.  

161. An act declaring more new Treasons.  About this time came forth that prodigious Act, declaring four new Treasons with many complicated Treasons in their bellies, the like never heard of before in our Law, nor in any Kingdom or Republic of Christendom: Because I have formerly spoken of it, the Act itself printed, published, and dreadfully notorious throughout the whole Kingdom; I will refer you to the printed Copy; only one clause formerly debated was omitted in the Act, viz. That to kill the General, Lieuten. Gen. any Members of this present Parl. or Counsel of State, to be declared Treason; this would have discovered their guilty cowardice so much they were ashamed of it: besides it was thought fit to make the People take a new Oath of Allegiance to the new State. First, I will only give you some few Observations thereupon. This Act declares to be Treason unto death and confiscation of Lands all Deeds, Plots, and Words: (1.) Against this present fag end of a Parliament, and against their never before heard-of Supreme Authority and Government: for, when was this Kingdom ever governed by a Parliament, or by any power constituted by them? (2.) All endeavours to subvert the Keepers of the Liberty of England, and Council of State constituted, and to be from time to time constituted by Authority of Parliament, who are to be under the said Representatives in Parliament, (if they please, and not otherwise; for the Sword and the Purse trusted in the power of the Council of State) yet the Keepers of the Liberties of England and the Council of State of England to be hereafter constituted by Parliament, are Individua vaga, airy notions not yet named nor known, and when they are known we own them no Allegiance, (without which no Treason) by the known Laws of the Land, which is only due to the King, His lawful Heirs and Successors thereto sworn; nor any the particular Powers and Authorities, granted to this Parliament by the said Keepers of the Liberties of England, and Council of State yet any any where authentically published and made known to us by any one avowed Act, (unless we shall account their Licenced New Books to be such) and therefore they may usurp what powers they please: So that these men who involved us in a miserable War against the late Murdered KING, pretending He would enslave us, and they would set us free; have brought us so far below the condition of the basest Slaves, that they abuse us like brute Beasts, and having deprived us of our Religion, Laws and Liberties; and drawn from us our money and blood, they now deny us the use of reason and common sense, belonging to us as Men, and Govern us by Arbitrary, irrational Votes, with which they bait Traps to catch us: Woe be to that people whose Rulers set snares to catch them, and are amari venatores contra Dominum, Men-hunters against God: nay, to move any Person to stir up the People against their Authority is hereby declared, Treason: mark the ambiguity of these words (like the Devils Oracles) which he that hath Power and the Sword in his hands will interpret as he please: If the Keeper of the Liberties of England, or Council of State shall extend too fare, or abuse their Authority never so much contrary to the Laws of the Land, Reason, Justice or the Laws of God (as hath been lately done in this Case of Lylburne, Walwyn, etc.) no Lawyer, no Friend shall dare to perform that Christian duty of giving council or help to the oppressed▪ here Fathers and Children, Husbands and Wives, Brothers and all relations must forsake, nay, betray one another, lest these Tyrants interpret these duties to be, A moving of them to stir up the People against their Authority. 3. All endeavours to withdraw any Soldier or Officer from their obedience to their Superior Officer, or from the present Government, as aforesaid, By which words it is Treason: First, if any man's Child, or Servant, be enticed into this Army, and the Father or Master endeavour to withdraw him from so plundering and roguing a kind of life back to his profession. Secondly, If any Commander or Officer shall command his Soldiers to violate, wrong, or rob any man for the party so aimed at, or some well-meaning Friend to set before the said Soldiers the sin and shame of such actions, and dissuade them from obeying such unlawful commands. 4. If any man shall presume to counterfeit their counterfeit Great Seal, It is declared Treason. I wonder it is not Treason to counterfeit their counterfeit coin! Behold here new minted Treasons current in no time and place but this afflicted Age and Nation: Edw. 3. anno 25. regni. ch. 2. passed an excellent Act to secure the People by reducing Treasons to a certainty, as our New Legislative. Tyrant's labour to ensnare the People by making Treasons uncertain and arbitrary; 
Sic volo, sic ju beo, it shall be Treason, be cause they will call and Vote it so.  what they please to call Treason shall be Treason, though our known Laws call it otherwise: we have long held our Estates and Liberties, and must now hold our Lives at the will of those Grand Seigniours, one Vote of 40. or 50. factious Commons, Servants and Members of the Army vacates all our Laws, Liberties, Properties, and destroys our Lives. Behold here a short view of that Act which hath no Additions by any Act subsequent. See stat. 1. Mariae, c. 10. Whereas divers opinions have been before this time, in what cases Treason shall be said, and in what not, The King at the request of the Lords and Commons, Declares:  

See 1. H. 4. c. 10. 11. H. 7. c. 1.  1. That to compass or imagine the Death of the KING, (how much more to act it) Queen, or their eldest Son and Heir.  
2. To violate the KING'S Companion, eldest Daughter unmarried, or the Wife of the KING'S eldest Son and Heir.  
3. To levy War against the King, or adhere to his Enemies in his Realm, and thereof be proveably attained of open deed by people of their condition.  
4. To counterfeit the King's Great or Privy Seal:  
5. Or his M neigh.  
6. To slay the King's Chancellor, Treasurer, Justices of one Bench or other, Justices in Eyre, Justices in Assize, and all other Justices assigned to hear and determine, being in their Places doing their Offices.  
If any other case supposed Treason which is not above specified, 
So the four Lords ought to have been Tried, not by a new shambles of Justice.  doth happen before any Justices, the Justices shall tarry without any going to Judgement of the Treason, till the Cause be showed and declared before the King and his Parliament (not before the House of Commons only, or before both Houses without the King) whether it ought to be adjudged Treason.  
You see how few in number these Treasons specified are, and that they must be attained of open deed by their Peers; our words were free under Monarchy, though not free under our Free-State; so were they under the Romans. Tacitus, An. 1. sub finem, seaking of Treasons, facia arguebantut, dicta impune erant. These horrible tyrannies considered (and being destitute of all other less desperate relief) I do here solemnly declare and protest before that God that hath made me a Man, and not a Beast, a Freeman, and not a Slave, that if any man whatsoever that taketh upon him the reverend name and title of a Judge or Justice shall give Sentence of Death upon any friend of mine upon this or any other illegal Act of this piece of a House of Commons, I will, and lawfully may (the enslaving scarecrow doctrine of all time-serving, State-flattering Priests and Ministers, notwithstanding) follow the examples of Samson, Judith, Jael, and Ehud, and by Poniard, Pistol, Poison, or any other means whatsoever, secret, or open, prosecute to the Death the said Judge and Justice, and all their principal Abettors: And I do here invite and exhort all generous freeborn Englishmen to the like resolutions, and to enter into Leagues defensive and offensive, and sacramental associations (seven or eight in a company, or as many as can well confide in one another) to defend and revenge mutually one another's Persons, Lives, Limbs, and Liberties as aforesaid, against this, and all other illegal and tyrannous Usurpations.  

162. A motion to enlarge Sir Will. Waller, etc. And the Generals Answer intimating the securing of the Members to be done by confederacy with the Army-party in the House.  About this time, or a little before, the General was moved to enlarge Sir William Waller, and the other Members illegally kept Prisoners in Windsor: He answered, They were no longer his, but the Parliaments prisoners: It should seem the Brute hath made a private deed of gift of them to his Journeymen of the House. The Generals Warrant seized and imprisoned them, and notwithstanding the Council of Officers declared in Print, that they were preparing a Charge against them, yet the Knaves lied like Saints; they were then so far from having matter to accuse them of, that they have ever since, hunted after a Charge against them, and endeavoured to suborn Witnesses; but after 24 week's restraint (whereas by the Law no man ought to be committed without an accusation) they have found nothing against them. This turning over of these Prisoners to the House of Commons, proves what I formerly asserted in Sect. 24. That the violence of the Army in securing, and secluding the Members, was by consent of their  Junto now sitting in the House of Commons,  

163 The General sends forth Warrants to all Justices of the Peace to attach those Levellers that he had routed.  The honest Levellers (most of them Countrymen) endeavouring to draw to a Randezvouz, about 600. or 700. of them marched from Banbury to Burford in Oxfordshire, where lying securely (because they were upon treaty with the Enemy) their Quarters were beaten up, and about 180. of them taken Prisoners, which their enemies (according to their usual custom) to gain reputation by lying, reported to be so many Hundreds. And the General (as if they had been all routed) sent forth his Warrants to all Justices of the Peace in the adjacent Counties, requiring them to apprehend and secure all such of them as shall be found; I desire to know by what Authority the General takes upon him to command Justices of the Peace who are not under his Power, and what tame Animals these Justices are that will submit to his commands? and whether he thinks the Civil Magistrate to be obnoxious to the Power of the Sword, and the Council of Officers? 
See the Vote and Act for abolishing the Kingly office. 164.  and his single self the Supreme Magistrate, or Tyrant Paramount, notwitstanding the Vote of his Journeymen Commons, That no single Man should be trusted with the Supreme Power.  
The Levellers having possessed themselves of Northampton: the General (it is said) thought fit to take hold of the Horns of the Altar, 
The General sends to the City for additional Forces  and wrote to his vassals of the City to send their Trained Bands to his relief, that he might the better domineer over them; and continue their slavery hereafter. But if the Citizens have no more wit, I wish their Horns may be as visible in their foreheads, as the Nose in oliver's face.  
To cousin the honest Levellers, 
165. The Commons colourably debate to dissolve this Parl. and settle a succeeding Representative.  the Commons (in order to the ending this present Parliament) are debating how to pack a succeeding Representative as wicked as themselves, and of the same leaven; whose Election shall not be free, but bounded with such Orders of limitation and restriction as shall shut out all men from electing or being elected, as are not precisely of the same principles and practices, and as deep engaged in their tyrannical, traitorous, cheating, bloody designs as themselves, guilty Committee-men, and Accountants to the State shall be the next Representative; and for the better lengthening of the business (that they may see what success (in the mean time) the Levellers will have) they wiredraw it through a Committee, and refer it to be debated by a Committee of the whole House. And at last (if they must dissolve) having packed themselves into a Council of State, they will usurp the Supreme Authority there: to prepare the way to which design, they have passed another Act, May 19 That the People shall be Governed as a Free-state by Representatives, and by such as they shall constitute; and then consider what kind of Representatives we are like to have.  
Great care is taken that the State (or rather our statesmen's private pockets) might not be prejudiced by Judgements, 
166. A debate how to defeat Judgements, Extents, etc. upon Delinquents lands. sect.  Extents, etc. lying upon Delinquents Estates: you see notwithstanding their Declaratory Vote, That in things concerning the Lives, Liberties, and Properties of the People, they would maintain the known Laws of the Land; yet this Vote (as well as all others) hath a condition implied, that is do no ways hinder the Gains of our godly Grandees, otherwise they would not consider how to defeat Creditors of their legal assurance.  
John Lilburne being ordered a close Prisoner in the Tower by the Commons without Pen, Ink, or Paper, 
167. John Lilburne starving imprisonment in the Tower.  (which was tyranny under King Charles, but not under K. Oliver) a Petition was presented to the Commons by many well-affected, that John might have the allowance usually and legally due to Prisoners in the like case for his support; 
The allowance is 4 l. a Week as I conceive.  which was rejected, insomuch that John was kept 3 whole days with one half meals meat: this is to condemn men unheard to be murdered by famine in their private slaughter-houses, when they cannot, or dare not murder them in their pretended Courts of Judicature, or public shambles: yet afterwards, when the drawing together of the Levellers, and discontents of Newcastle affrighted the Commons, they Voted him the short allowance of 20 s. a week. Thus you see nothing but fears and dangers can kindle the least spark of goodness and compassion in their woolvish breasts: wherefore Lord (I beseech thee) heap fears and terrors upon their guilty pates, till with Judas Iscariot they cry out, We have sinned in that we have betrayed innocent blood.  

168. Why Ireton laid down his Commission.  Cromwell being to march against the Levellers, left Ireton behind him (like a hobby daring of larks) to over-awe the Conventicle at Westminster, and see they chant no tune but of their setting, the better to keep himself in a neutral reconciling posture: Ireton laid down his Commission, (which he can take up again at pleasure) whereby he puts off all addresses to him from the levelling party for the present. This poor fellow now keepeth his golden Coach which cost 200 l. and 4 gallant Horses. The world is well altered with such petty Companions; and hereby the Soldiers may see what becomes of their Arrears. There hath been a seeming falling out between Cromwell and Ireton.  

169. Hugh Peters ●isits J. Lilburne in the Tower, and ●he sum of ●heir Conse●ence. Witness his ●ampering with Hamil●on, etc.  John Lilburne being a close Prisoner in the Tower (as hath been said) Hugh Peter (Chaplain in Ordinary to-two great Potentates, Lucifer and Oliver) came about dinnertime (May 25. 1649.) to visit him; and though admittance be denied to other men, yet to him the Gates flew open: as sure as Saint Peter keeps the keys of Heaven, Hugh Peter keeps the keys of our Hell and our Grandees Consciences, and openeth and shutteth at pleasure: he is Confessor at Tyburn, and hath a great power over damned Spirits, or rather over such Spirits, as not submitting basely to the tyranny of our State-Mountebanks, incur their condemnation in this world (by God's permission) in order to their salvation in the next world: the tyranny of these Usurpers implying at once, their cruelties over our bodies, and God's mercy to our souls. Hugh's first salute was, That he came merely to give John a visit, without any design (his guilty conscience prompting him to a voluntary Apology.) John answered, I know you well enough, you are one of the setting Dogs of the great Men of the Army, with fair and plausible pretences to intimate into men, when they have done them wrong, and to workout their designs when they are in a straight, and cover over the blots that they have made. Then John complained of the 
‖ Compare this Act of the Kings, with the violent act of those Traitors and Tyrants, Fairfax and his Council of War in imprisoning and secluding above 200. Members at once without cause shown, and leaving only 40 or 50 of their cheating Faction in the House to carry on their bloody Anarchical designs; some of which secured Members with barbarous usage were almost brought to death, and their murder since attempted by Soldiers.  illegal and violent seizing upon him by Soldiers, and carrying him before that new erected thing, called [A Council of State] who committed him without any Accusor, Accusation, Prosecutor, or Witness, or any due process of Law; and yet when the King impeached the five Members, and preferred a Charge of high Treason against them; Recorded 1. part Book of Decl. p. 35. and only failed in a single punctilio of due process of Law, they cried outs, it was an invasion of the People's Liberties; so that four or five Recantations from him (recorded in their own Declarations) would not serve his turn. Peter's half out of countenance (if so prostituted a Villain that practices impudence amongst common Whores, and whose Pulpit is more shameful than another man's Pillory, can be out of countenance) takes up one of Coke's Institutions, and pofessed Lilburn was merely gulled in reading or trusting to those Books, for there were no Laws in England. John answered, he did believe him, for that his great Masters, Cromwell, Fairfax, etc. had destroyed them all. Nay (quoth Hugh) there never were any in England; with that John shown him the Petition of Right, ask him, whether that were Law? which Peter had the impudence to deny, ask, what Law was? John replied 
* The Law is now taken away and all things in confusion by turning our Monarchy (without or consent) into a Free-State of Slaves governed by Tyrants.  out of the Parliaments own Declarations, The Law is that which puts a difference betwixt good, and evil; just, and unjust: If you take away the Law, all things will fall into, confusion, every man will become a law unto himself, which in the depraved condition of humane nature must needs produce great enormities; Lust will become a law, Envy a law, Covetousness and Ambition will become laws; and what dictates, what decisions such laws will produce, may easily be discerned. This (Mr. Peter) is a Definition of Law by the Parliament in the days of their primitive purity, before they had corrupted themselves with the Commonwealths money. And elsewhere the Law is called, The safeguard, the custody of all private Interests, your honours, lives, liberties, and estates, are all in the keeping of the Law, without this every man hath a like Right to any thing; It is the best birthright the Subject hath: It is a miserable servitude or bondage where the Law is uncertain, or unknown. To this the Comic Priest replied, I tell you (for all this) there is no Law in this Nation but the Sword, and what it gives; neither was there any Law or Government in the world, 
This doctrine of Devils, that it is lawful to submit to any present power that is strongest, is broached in a Pamphlet by old Rowse the illiterate Jew of Eaton-Colledge. And by John Goodwin the sophistical Divine; which is fully confuted in A Religious Demurrer concerning submission to the present power; an excellent piece.  but what the Sword gave. To this the honest Lieutenant Colonel answered, Mr. Peter, You are one of the Guides of the Army, used by the chief Leaders to trumpet their Principles and Tenants; and if your reasoning be good, then if six Thiefs meet three or four honest men and rob them, that act is righteous, because they are the stronger Party. And if any power be a just power that is uppermost, I wonder how the Army and Parliament can acquit themselves of being Rebels and Traitors before God and man, in resisting and fight against a just power in the King, who was a power up and visible, fenced about with abundance of Laws, so reputed in the common acceptation of Men, by the express letter of which all th●se that fought against him are (ipso facto) Traitors; and if it were not for the preservation of our Laws and Liberties, why did the Parliament fight against Him a present power in being? and if there be no Laws in England, nor never was, than you and your great Master's, Cromwell, Fairfax, and the Parliament, are a pack of bloody Rogues and Villains, to set the People to murder one an●ther, in fight for preservation of their Laws (in which their Liberties were included) which was the principal declared Cause of the War from the beginning to the end. I thought (quoth the Lieutenant Colonel) I had been safe when I made the known Laws the rules of my actions, which you have all sworn and declared to Defend; and make as the standard and touchstone between you and the People. 
* The Laws are now no protection to us, nor the rule of our actions, but the arbitrary wills and lusts of the Grandees.  I but (replied Hugh) I will show that your safety lies not therein, their minds may change, and then where are you? I but (quoth the Lieutenant Colonel) I cannot take notice of what is in their minds to obey that; but the constant Declaration of their minds (never contradicted in any of their Declarations) as, That they will maintain the Petition of Right, and Laws of the Land, etc. This was the substance of their discourse, saving that John pinched upon his great Masters large fingering of the Commonwealth's money, calling it Theft and State-Robbery, and saying, That Cromwell and Ireton pissed both in one quill, though they seem sometime to go one against another; yet it is but that they may the more easily carry on their main design, To enslave the People.  
Reader, I was the more willing to present the sum of this Debate to thee, that by comparing their doctrine and principles with their daily practices, thou mayst perfectly see to what condition of slavery these beggarly upstart Tyrants and Traitors have reduced us by cheating us into a War against our lawful Sovereign, under pretence of defending our Laws and Liberties, and the Privileges of Parliament, which themselves only (with a concurring faction in the House) have now openly, and in the face of the Sun pulled up by the roots; and now they stop our mouths, and silence our just complaints with horrid, 
Sect. 162.  illegal and bloody Acts, Declaring words and deeds against their usurpations and tyranny to be High Treason: nothing is now Treason but what the remaining faction of the House of Commons please to call so. To murder the King, break the Parliament by hostile force, put down the House of Lords, erect extrajudicial High Courts of Justice to murder Men without Trial by Peers, or Jury, or any legal proceeding; to subvert the fundamental Government by Monarchy, and dispossess the right Heir of the Crown, and to usurp his Supreme Authority in a factious fagg-end of the House of Commons, to put the Kingly Government into a packed Junto of forty Tyrants, called, A Council of State; to exercise Martial Law in times of peace, and upon persons no Members of the Army; to raise what unnecessary illegal Taxes they please, and share them and the Crown Lands and Revenues amongst themselves, leaving the Soldiers unpaid to live upon Freequarter, whilst they abuse the People with pretended Orders against Freequarter; to alter the Styles of Commissions, Patents, Process, and all Legal proceed, and intoduce a foreign Jurisdiction; to Counterfeit the Great Seal and Coin of the Kingdom, and to keep up Armies of Rebels to make good these and other Tyrannies and Treasons, is High Treason by the known Laws; but now (by the Votes of the Conventicle of Commons) it is High Treason to speak against these crimes. Good God how long will thy patience suffer these Fools to say in their hearts there is no God? and yet profess thee with their mouths? to break all Oaths, Covenants, and Protestations made in thy Name, to cloak and promote their Designs with days of impious fasting and thanksgiving? how often have thy Thunderbolts rived senseless Trees, and torn brute Beasts that serve thee according to their Creation? yet thou passest over these men who contemn thee, contrary to their knowledge and professions: Scatter the People that delight in War: Turn the Counsels of the wise into folly, let the crafty be taken in their own net; and now at last, let the Oppressed taste of thy mercies, and the Oppressor, of thy justice; throw thy rod into the fire, and let it no longer be a bundle bound together in thy right hand, They appeal to thee as Author of their prosperous sins, become (Lord) Author of their just punishments; bestow upon them the rewards of Hypocrites, and teach them to know the difference between the saving strength of Magistrates, and the destroying violence of Hangmen: But what am I that argue against thy long-suffering (whereof myself stand in need) and seek to ripen thy vengeance before thy time? Shall the Pot ask the Potter what he doth? I beheld the prosperity of the wicked, and my feet had slipped: Lord amend all in thy good time, and teach us hearty to pray, Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven.  

170. The Act for Abolishing Monarchy proclaimed in London.  May 30. 1649. The aforesaid Traitorous Act for abolishing Kingly Government, and converting England into a Free-State, (consisting of forty Tyrants, and many millions of slaves) was proclaimed in London by the newly intruded illegal Lord Mayor Andrew's, accompanied with 14 Aldermen of the same pack; the People in great abundance crying out, Away with it, away with it; GOD save King CHARLES the Second: and bitterly reviling and cursing it and them, until some Troops of Horse (ready prepared in secret) were sent to disperse, beat, and wound them: and yet the Trial of the King, and the subverting of our wellformed Monarchy (under which we lived so happily heretofore) with all other Acts of the like high nature, was done in the name of the People of England, although (I dare say) at least five hundred to one (if they were free from the terror of an Army) would disavow these horrid Acts; so little are the People pleased with these do: notwithstanding the new Title the Conventicle of Commons have gulled them withal, Voting the People of England to be The Supreme Power, and the Commons representing them in Parliament, the Supreme Power of the Nation under them: This was purposely so contrived to engage the whole City, and make them as desperately and impardonably guilty as themselves; and certainly if this Tumult of the People (amounting to a public disclamour of the Act) had not happened, the whole City had been guilty by way of connivance, as well as these Aldermen, and the illegal Common Council, newly packed by the remaining Faction of Commons, contrary to the City's Charters, to carry on these and such like Designs, and entangle the whole City in their Crimes and Punishments.  

* The Names of the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City of London that personally proclaimed the Act for abolishing Kingly Government.  
Alderman Andrews, Lord Mayor.  
Alderman Pennington,  
Ald. Wollaston,  
Ald. Foulkes,  
Ald. Kenrick,  
Ald. Bide,  
Ald. edmond's,  
Ald. Pack,  
Alderman Bateman,  
Ald. Atkins,  
Ald. Viner,  
Ald. Avery,  
Ald. Wilson,  
Ald. Dethick,  
Ald. Foot.   
The Pharisaical House of Commons voted an Act, June 1. 
171. A  Dinner in the City for the General, etc.  for a day of  to set off K. oliver's Victory over the Levellers with the more lustre, and to sing Hosanna to him for bringing the grand Delinquent to punishment. The wise Lord Mayor and his Brethren (in imitation) invited the Parliament, Council of State, the General, and his Officers, to a  Dinner upon that day. The Commons appointed a Committee (under pretence of drawing more money from Adventurers for the Relief of Ireland) to engage the City farther to them; Cromwell had the Chair in that Committee: the device was, that the Common Council should invite the Parliament, Council of State, and Officers of the Army to Dinner, and feast them as a Free-State, and then move the Supplies for Ireland. But if the Levellers had prevailed, the  white-broth and custard had been bestowed upon those free-spirited Blades, whom Oliver raised into a mutiny with one hand, (and by advantage of his Spies) cast down with another, for the glory of his own Name, and that he might have occasion to purge the Army (as he had done the Parliament) of all freeborn humours.  

172. The Council of State sit in pomp at Whitehall.  Whitehall is now become the Palace of a Hydra of Tyrants instead of one King, where our Hogens Mogens, or Council of State sit in as much state and splendour, with their Rooms as richly hanged (I wish they were so too) and furnished (if you will believe their licenced News-books) as any Lords States in Europe; yet many of these Mushrooms of Majesty were but Mechanics, Goldsmiths, Brewers, Weavers, Clothiers, Brewer's Clerks, etc. whom scornful Fortune in a spiteful merriment brought upon the Stage, and promoted to act the parts of Kings (to show that Men are but her Tennis-balls) and when she is weary with laughing at their disguises, will turn them into the Tiring Room out of their borrowed cases, and show us that our Lions are but her Asses. The King's poor Creditors and Servants may gape long enough (like Chameleons) to see the aforesaid Ordinance executed, for sale of the King's Goods to pay their Debts; they (poor Souls) are left to starve while these Saints Triumphant revel in their Master's Goods and Houses.  

173. A general survey to be taken of the whole Kingdom; that every man's Estate both real and personal may be taxed.  Orders about this time were sent forth into London and the Counties adjacent for certain Committees to inquire upon Oath and certify the improved value and revenue of every man's estate real and personal, wherein good progress hath been made already; the like is to go forth throughout the Kingdom. That our forty mechanic Kings now sitting in Whitehall, and the self-created supreme Authority of the Nation, may take an exact survey (in imitation of William the Conqueror's Book of Survey, called Doomsday, remaining in the Exchequer) of their new conquered Kingdom, and know what they are like to get by their villainies; and how to load us with Taxes and Freequarter, and what the value of their Estates are when they have completed their Design of Sequestering the Presbyterians as they have done the Royalists.  
The faction in the House are, this beginning of June, 
174. An Act enabling Committees to give Oaths.  1649. sitting abrood upon an Act to enable Committees to give Oaths in some cases; and yet the House of Commons never had nor pretended to have power to give Oaths themselves (though every Court of Pyp wders hath) because the House of Commons is no Court of Judicature, but only the Grand Inquest of the Kingdom, to present to the King the grievance and the necessities of the People by way of humble Petition; as appears by the Law-books and Statutes: and therefore the Commons can grant no more than they have themselves. But now the remaining faction of the House have voted themselves to be the supreme Authority of the Nation, and have a Sword to maintain it, they and we must be what they please; yet I must affirm, that to take illegal Oaths is never justifiable before God nor Man, and no less than damnable. But it may be) that by accustoming the People to take these new-imposed, illegal Oaths, they hope to make them the more easily swallow their intended new Oath of Allegiance to their new State and their own Damnation together hereafter.  
All the Scrivenors about the Town are commanded by the Supreme thing to produce their Shop-books, 
175. Scrivenors' commanded to show shop-books.  that notice may be taken who are guilty of having money in their purses, that the fattest and fullest may be culled out, and sequestered for Delinquents, now that their almighty Saintships have occasion to use it for defence of their Free-State, if they would but search one another's private pockets they would find money enough. The like attempt (only) in the King's time was cried out upon as a high piece of tyranny, but nothing can be tyranny under a Free-State: The Supreme Authority being so full a Representative-glass of the People, that it takes our very substance into itself, and leaves us only the shadow, whilst we wander up and down like our own Ghosts, who having lived under the Monarchy of Good King CHARLES, are now dead and descended like shades into the Kingdom of Pluto.  
The 7. June, 
176. The aforesaid Thanksgiving solemnised.  1649. the  (spoken of Sect. 172.) was solemnised in the City: The Lord Mayor meeting the Speaker, resigned to him (as formerly was used to the King) the Sword of State (as had been ordered by the House the day before) and received it again from him; and then the Mayor conducted them all to Christ-Church, where the Commons, Council of State, General, and his Officers, together with the Mayor, aldermans, and Common Council, etc. mocked God with their Devotions, where Mr. Tho. Goodwin, and Mr. Owen preached out of the Politics to them; from thence they were conducted to a great Dinner at Grocers-hall, and entertained in the quality of a Free State, no man bring admitted without delivering his Ticket. They were all strongly guarded with Soldiers, and every Cook had an Oath given to be true to them, which showed they had more of fear and guilt thah of confidence and innocency within them. Great Presents of Plate given to his Excellency Fairfax, and to his Super-excellency Cromw l, and to others, fit to be chronicled in Stow● and Hollingsheads Volumes, 
177. A necessary advertisement to all honest Presbyterians See K. Charles the first his book [The Portraiture of his Majesty in his solitudes & sufferings] Some over-hastily expect the King should satisfy the Presbyterians by his Declaration; but the height of the Independents malice & their guilty fears are such as may endanger the d awing on a Massacre upon them by such a course.  amongst other solemn Fooleries; let it not be omitted that Hugh Peter and many other Saints were too full of the Creature (anglice) Drunk.  
I am to give a necessary advertisement to all men, that though the young King shows much respect and a desire of reconcilement (according to his dead Fathers neverdying precepts) to all moderate men and Presbyterians that make Addresses to Him, yet it is complained of by some (who look not into the undermining practices of our new Statists) that some few of His Counsellors and Followers are as violent against the more moderate and honest Presbyterians, as against the Independents who murdered his Father; but these zealous Royalist, are either some passionate light-brained men of little discretion and less power with him, or else some falsehearted Pensioners to our new State, and such as have underhand an Indemnity for their own Estates in England, who stand like Scarecrows about His Majesty to fright away such as return to their Loyalty, and tender their due Allegiance to Him, thereby to weaken the hands of his Majesty, and cut off the hopes of this Nation from depending upon him, who as our undoubted Sovereign (both by the Laws of God and the Land) and Gods Vicegerent in His three, Kingdoms, only can and will (if we forsake not him and ourselves) free and protect us from the manyheaded, miserable, arbitrary tyranny we now starve and bleed under; and restore unto us again our Religion, Laws and Liberties, our Wives, Children, and Estates, Trading, Husbandry, peace and plenty now held in more than Egyptian bondage, by our cruel, bloody, and thievish Taskmasters; 
See a Book, entituted [His Majesty's gracious Messages for peace.] Mr. pryn's Speech, 5. Dec. 1648. in the House. And the secured Members Reply to the Council of War.  Remember his deceased Majesties gracious Messages frequently sent for peace and reconcilement; Remember His Concessions to His Parliament upon the last Treaty; (more than ever any King granted to His People.) Remember His pious meek and Christian Martyrdom suffered for His People, which bitter Cup had passed from Him if He would have built up and established this Babel of Tyranny now insulting over us, and have turned our wel-mixed Monarchy into an Olygarchical legal Tyranny, by adding His Royal Assent to their wicked Demands tendered to Him but two days before His Translation from this valley of tears. Remember His Posthumus Book to His Son, full of Precepts, savouring merely of piety, Christian wisdom, charity, and forgiveness, to His very Enemies; and then judge whether our late King, or our usurping Kinglings (now scratching and tearing us, making one War beget another, 
1 King. 3.  perpetuating an Army, and domineering over us by the power of the Sword) were the natural Parent, whose bowels yearned upon this (now) Orphan Child, the English Nation dying and expiring under this new Corporation of Tyrants, 
Oath of Allegiance, and Stat. of Recognition, 1 Jacobi.  (the putative Patent) which overlayed it? He that acknowledged Allegiance to the Father, cannot deny it to his Son, as having sworn to hear faith and true Allegiance to the King his Father, and to his lawful Heirs and Successors; which our usurping Hogens Mogens cannot pretend to be: so that as well for duty and conscience to God and their own Souls, as for a necessary and just protection of their lives and estates, all honest and wise men ought to cast themselves into the Arms of his Dread Majesty our present KING, as the only sanctuary of their salvation, and not suffer themselves to be so far misled by vain reports, as to be more afraid of their cure than of their disease.  Stultorum incurata pudor malas ulcera celat. 
S●lomon hath showed you out of the Cabinet of Nature the difference between a Natural-mother and a Stepmother; 
Dictum de Kennelworth.  and that you may see the difference between a natural King, correcting his own people with fatherly compassion for examples sake; and a Usurper, wounding, kill and robbing (those which are none of his own) his fellow-servants for his lust and lucre sake, I will set down a short Abridgement of our own famous Dictum de Kennelworth, and first the occasion thereof, which was thus:  
Simon de Montford, Earl of Leicester, conspiring with many other great men, rebelled against Henry 3. pretending (after the manner of all Rebels) Reformation of public Grievances. He overthrew the King in battle, took Him and his Son Prince Edward Prisoners; the Prince after a while escaped out of Prison, raised an Army, overthrew and slew in the Battle of Evesham Simon Montford, subdued the whole Party, rescued and re-inthroned his Father. Cummissions were sent forth to prevent future troubles, and settle man minds grown desperate with fear what horrid punishents so horrible a Rebellion would bring upon them: The result of all is contained in the said Dictum de Kennelworth, as I find it in Magna Charta veteri, fol. 60. part. 2. observe the moderation pf it; No man bled to death for it but in the field; the blood of war was not shed in time of peace; the King did not slay those whom he had taken with his Sword and with his Bow, but reasonably fined them, not unto destruction: though the known Laws called them Traitors, 
See the late History of the Marquis of Montross, what gentle use he made of his Victory after he had subdued the strength of Scotland at Battle of Kylsythe.  and put them into his power for life, lands and goods; they were but once punished, not always tormented and kept upon the rack, after the late custom of our fellow-Servants and Subjects; who will never suffer the partition-wall between us to be thrown down, England once more to become one Nation, and one people; and our broken bones to be again set and knit together.  

Dictum de Kennelworth.  
None to be Disinherited, but only fined: As namely, Those  
1. That began and continued in War. 2. That held Northampton against the King. 3. That fought against him at Lewis, Evesham, Chesterfeild. 4. That were taken at Kenilworth. 5. That sacked Winchester, being yet unpardoned. 6. That voluntary sent against him, or the Prince. 7. The officers of the Earl of Leicester's who molested their Neighbours with Rapine, Fire, Murder, or otherwise, to pay in three years five years' value, and half their estates of Land. If they sell it, such as are by the Kings grant possessed of them to have them, giving as any other, etc. and so if it be to be Let, those who pay the whole to have all instantly, and that pay half, to have half: If in three years the whole be unpaid, the Land to be divided between him that owes it, and him to whom the King hath given it. If any have Woods by sale of which he would pay his Fine, the money to be paid by two, of which either side to choose one.  
2. Knights and Esquires, who during the War have enriched themselves by Rapine, having no Land, to pay half their goods, and be bound with Sureties to the peace; if no goods be acquitted by Oath, exceptis bannitis quibus solus, Rex potest remittere.  
3. Lords of Wards to pay for them, and be answered by their Wards when they come to age; which if they accept not, the Wardship to accrue to such as the King hath given the Ransom to, and they to be so answered.  
4. The King's Wards to remain where they are placed, and be Ransomed as others, but without destruction.  
5. Such as were with the King before the battle of Lewis, and since are Disinherited, His Majesty to declare his pleasure touching them.  
6. No man possessed of wood to fallen any, but only for repair, till the last day of payment be passed and not observed.  
7. The King and the Pope's Legate to send beyond sea for a time such as are likely to trouble the peace of the Kingdom, which if it hindered the paying of their Ransom, not for that to be Disinherited.  
8. Such as were grieved with this Agreement might appeal to the King's Court before S. Hilary, and such as were beyond sea to have inducias transmarinas.  
9 Because the King was to reward many and some had too much, the King out of the Fines to provide for them.  
10. The Legate, King, and Henry d'Almain to Elect twelve who should eause these Articles to be executed, and to see performed what they ordain, according to the estimates already taken, or if not to have new rates taken reasonable and true.  
11. Tenants that were against the King to lose their Leases; but at the expiration of their time the Land to return to the true owner.  
12. Forts built by the assent of the King, but without that of the Person disinherited, after the Fine paid in three years, to pay the costs of building of it in six years, or receive a reasonable exchange in Land.  
13. Such of the Lay as apparently drew any to the part of the Earl of Leicester to pay two years' Revenue.  
14. The Buyers of other men's goods wittingly, to restore the value of that they have bought, and be at the King's mercy, because that they did was against justice.  
15. Those that at the Earls command entered Northampton, yet fought not, but entered the Church.  
16. Such as held not of the Earl, yet at his command entered to the action with him to pay half one years' Revenue.  
17. Such as held of the Earl to be only at the King's mercy.  
18. Impotent persons, and such as did nothing to be restored to their Possessions, and by justice recover their damages, their Accusers punished by Law, yet without loss of life or limb.  
19 Maliciously accused to have their Estates immediately restored.  
20. Women to have their own Lands, and what they had of their first Husbands; if their late Husbands were against the King to be restored according to Law, or Fined.  
21. None to be fined but such as were against the King.  
22. Such as have been pardoned to remain so.  
23. Those that are fined to answer no Loss done to any, but all damages to be remitted on every side; except those that intermeddled not, and of the Church, whose actions are saved.  
24. The King by reasonable Exchange to receive the Castles of Erdsley-Bishop, and Chartley, it seeming dangerous to leave Forts in their hands who have carried themselves ill towards the King.  
25. Those that in the future shall commit any outrages to be punished by Law.  
26. An Oath to be taken where it shall be held convenient, not to pursue each other with revenge; and if any shall attempt the contrary, to be punished according to Law.  
27. The Church to be satisfied by those that injured it.  
28. Such of the Disinherited as refuse this Composition to have no Title to their Estates, and to be esteemed public Enemies to the King and Kingdom.  
29. Prisoners to be freed by the advice of the King and Legate.  
30. No Person to be Disinherited by reason of these Troubles by any to whom he ought to Succeed.   
You see what great care was here taken to prevent spoil and waste of Woods, etc. whereas in this latter Age the first thing taken into consideration, is, how to raise ready Money by destruction of Woods, Housing, and selling of the Stock, to lay the Lands waste, and decay Husbandry to the endangering of a Famine for the present, and the Disinheriting our innocent Posterity for the future; so little care is taken to keep that well which is so ill and illegally gotten. And how much regard was had to preserve innocent Persons from suffering wrong in any just claim or Title they could make to any Land possessed by a guilty Person; whether they claimed by Dower, Jointure, Title or Estate in Reversion, or Remainder, or otherwise: I wish the like justice were now observed.  
Monday night, 4. June, 
178. The loss of Ships at Kingsale suppressed, and misreported in the House, and why?  1649. that third part of a Lord Admiral, Col. Edw. ●opham came to Westminster, and presently made his Addresses to the high and mighty Estates in Whitehall, giving them a dismal Relation of his ill success in tampering with the Governor of Kingsale in Ireland, who (proving honester than the Saints expected) took a sum of money of him to betray the Town, Forts, and Ships in the Road: but when Popham came in to the Haven to take possession of his new purchase, gave him such a Gunpowder welcome, that he lost most of his Men, landed to take livery and seisin, and divers Ships; he was commanded to conceal this ill news, lest it discouraged the City to engage so far with them, as to entertain them in the condition of a Free-State, and surrender the Sword to them, and so spoil the Design of their Thanksgiving Devotions and Dinner to be celebrated together, in, and with the City upon Thursday ensuing the 7. of June; and lest it should dishearten more secluded Members from coming to sit in the House with them again, knowing, that Tyrants are followed for their fortunes, not for themselves; wherefore, upon Tuesday following (being the 5. Jun:) Popham made another kind of Report to the Plebeians of the Commons House (who must not be trusted with the truth of State-mysteries, but (like Woodcocks) must be led in a mist) That he had left Kingsale blocked up with ten Ships, and the Seas secured in peace and quietness; and the better to adorn the fable, and suppress the truth from approaching the ears of the people, the House that day (15. June) passed an Order, That for this remarkable additional mercy bestowed upon them in the prosperous success given to their Fleet at Sea, upon Thursday next, 7. June (the day set apart for public Thanksgiving) the Ministers should praise God. Lord! since there audacious Saints are so thankful to thee for one beating, bestow many more beat upon there, for they stand in need of all thy corrections. The like attempt hath been upon Scilly with the like success, 
Scout, from June the 8. to 15. 1649. 179. Gifts given amongst the Faction.  since which time forty sail of Ships are pressed in the Thames to recruit the shattered Navy, given forth to be a Winter Guard at Midsummer.  
John Blackiston is packed away to the other world; and the House upon 6. June, voted to Wife and Children 3000 l. out of the Earl of Newcastles, and Lord Wytherington's Estates, in compensation of the loss of his Pedlery Ware, in his Shop at Newcastle; he had formerly given to him 14000 l. you see the insatiate hunger of Gold and Silver survives in the very Ghost of a Saint after he is dead: 500 l. more was given to John's Brother; an Estate out of the Rectory and Demesnes of Burford was settled upon the Speaker. 400 l. per ann. Lands are be settled upon the General out of the Duke of Buckingham's and his Brother the Lord Francis Villers Estates. 400 l. per ann. out of Claringdon Park upon the Earl of Pembroke. 1000 l. was bestowed upon an eminent Member of Parliament for his many good Services. 4868 l. to the Lord Lisle, out of the Monthly Assessment for Ireland, for his pennyworth of good service done there; you see to what purpose we pay Taxes. 2000 l. Land per an. and 1000 l. Money given to Bradshaw, the price of Bood. And 400 l. more given to the Poor of the City (to stop their mouths from cursing upon the Thanksgiving-day) out of the 2000 l. Fine set upon the Lord Mayor Reynoldson for not proclaiming the Act for abolishing Kingly Government; this is (according to the Spanish Proverb) To steal a Sheep, and give away the Trotters for God's sake. You see the Saints can find Money to give Gifts, though not to pay Debts; although the Public Faith lie at pawn for them. A Committee is appointed to consider how to prefer Mr. Tho. Goodwin and Mr. Owen to he Heads of Colleges in Oxford as a Reward for asserting the late proceed of Parliament upon the aforesaid Thanksgiving-day. It is not fit such men should serve God for nothing: in the times of S. Peter and S. Paul, Godliness was great Gain; but in the days of our modern Saints, Gain is great Godliness.  
The thing that miscalls its self a Parliament, 
180. The Kxcise enlarged upon Salt.  hath set an Excise of 1 d. the Gallon upon all foreign salt imported; which is, in effect upon all the salt we use, (our home-made salt being inconsiderable) you see our Cups, our Spits, our powdering-tubs, our washing-bowles, our Kettles, our Hats, Doublets, Breeches, Stockings, Shoes; nothing we use, eat, drink or wear, is free from being devoured by these sanctified Locusts of the Free-State, who complained of the King for that petty inconsiderable Tax of Ship-money, which His Majesty spent in maintaining Guards of Ships upon our Seas, so much to the Honour of our Nation, that the King of Spain trusted all those vast sums of Bullion he sent to the Low-countries, to be Coined in our Mint, and above a third part yearly to be laid out here in English Cloth and Commodities, which with the residue of the Spanish Treasure was afterwards wafted over into Flaunders in English Bottoms, for which they were liberally paid; whereby every man's estate was increased 10 l. in the hundred, England infinitely abounded with Coin and Plate, as appears by those many vast sums that have been constantly extorted from the People since the beginning of these Wars; more, I dare say, than all our Kings since the Conquest, (excluding William the Conqueror and Henry the Eighth) ever raised upon the People) and by those many vast sums our seeming Saints have sent into banks beyond Sea, and buried in their private Coffers.  
Reader, let me admonish thee, 
181. A Vindication of the Levellers in some things; and a further design to garble and enslave the Army.  That the Levellers (for so they are miscalled, only for endeavouring to Level the exorbitant usurpations of the Council of Officers and Council of State) are much abused by some Books lately printed and published in their names, much differing from their declared Principles, Tenets, and Practices; but forged in Cromw●ls and Ir●tons shops to cast an odium upon them. These State-wolves by such forgeries endeavour to make the Sheep forsake and betray the Dogs that faithfully guard them; that they may with more security fleece them, flay them, and eat them hereafter. Ireton, H●slerig, and Postmaster-Attorney Prideaux, by themselves and their Bloodhounds (Spies and Intelligencers) have been very diligent to draw dryfoot after Mr. Lilburne, Walwine, etc. and suborn witnesses against them, but (not having yet quite extinguished all sparks of truth and honesty, unless it be in their own breasts) failed of their purposes. Yet they go on to purge the Army (as they have done the Parliament and Conventicle of State) of all freeborn humours (in order to their destruction) that the Army may consist of mere mercenary brutish spirits, such as will so far neglect the duties of men and Christians, as to execute all their tyrannous, bloody, illegal Commands, with a blind obedience and implicit faith, without ask a question for Conscience sake, the better to enslave both the Kingdom and Common Soldiers. In farther prosecution of this Design, they have projected to levy seven new Regiments, which (by way of Gullery) they call Presbyterian Regiments, and shall be raised by Presbyterian Commanders, but those Commanders shall only be employed to countenance the work for a time, and then for pretended offences be purged out of the Army, if not out of this world, by the Council of Officers, and more confiding men put in their rooms: and then shall these new Officers and Regiments be used as Catchpoles and Hangmen (contrary to the honour of Soldiers) to persecute and execute such Members of the Army as retain any sense or memory of their old Engagements and Principles.  

* 182. The pretended Parliaments Council of State and Officers confederated with Oneale. See An Aftergame at Irish, etc. 1649. and the Propositions p●inted at Cork and reprinted at London. From June 6. 1649. June 8. 1649.  I formerly told you of an underhand combination between the domineering Independent party here, and Owen Roe Oneale; which is now openly declared and avowed by their own licenced News-books. Owen Roe and Colonel Monk are joined (saith the Modest Narrative) our Party have permitted 300. of Oneals own Regiment to Quarter in our parts amongst the Creates within two miles of Dundalke, (saith the Scout) Owen Roe and Berne are come towards Col. Jones, and Col. M nks Quarters, he is so fair as to pay Contribution: his Quarters are to the Scots side of Dublin, to prevent their giving aid to Ormond in his attempt upon Dublin: 
Moderate Intelligencer, from June 7. to 14. 1649. num. 221.  who can blame necessity? nor do our Grandees now deny this Confederacy with the bloody Popish massacring Rebels, although they had the impudence to make the only supposition thereof one of the principal Charges against the late King; and to raise a great outcry against the Marquis of Ormond and Lord Inchiquine for their conjunction with Pr. stone: yet they joined but to prevent the Cromwelists, who offered to associate with him upon conditions much more prejudicial to the Protestant Religion, and English Interests, than Ormond hath given them. They have offered this Oneale all the Lands in Ulster forfeited by his Grandfather Tyrone, Shane Oneale, and others attainted, thereby destroying the British Planters there; and this is the reason they employ so few old Irish Commanders into those parts, lest the Oneals should doubt they came to recover their own lands again. But our Atheistical Saints account themselves lose when other men are bound, nothing but a halter can hold them; all obligations to men, all duties and vows to God, 
See the Council of Wars Answer concerning the secured and secluded Members; from 6. June to 13. num. 3.  they break upon pretended necessity and honest intentions. Their Metropolitan Nuntio, Judas Haclet, tells you, Their Party will not join with the bloody Irish, until they are brought to such a pinch, as to say, Flectere sinequeo superos, Acheronta movebo. If God will not be the Author and Patron of their Designs, the Devil shall; you see these Independents hang between God and the Devil, Michael and the Dragon, not resolved which part to take.  
Be it known unto all men by these presents, 
183. Parker the Observator.  that Harry Parker the Observator is returned from Hamborough, and highly preferred to be Brewer's Clerk, (alias Secretary) to Cromw●l; to whose Designs he hath prostituted his pen.  
There is lately come forth a Book of John Meltons' (a Libertine, that thinketh his Wife a Manacle, 
184. Meltons' Book, the Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, etc.  and his very Garters to be Shackles and Fetters to him: one that (after the Independent fashion) will be tied to no obligation to God or man) wherein he undertaketh to prove, That it is lawful for any that have power to call to account, Depose, and put to Death wicked Kings and Tyrants (after due conviction) if the ordinary Magistrate neglect it. I hope than it is lawful to put to death wicked Cromwel's, Counsels of State, corrupt Factions in Parliament: for I know no prerogative that usurpation can bestow upon them. He likewise asserteth, That those, who of late, so much blame Deposing, are the men that did it themselves, (meaning the Presbyterians.) I shall invite some man of more leisure and abilities than myself, to Answer these two Paradoxes: But shall first give him these cautions:  
1. That for the Polemic part he turn all his Arguments into Syllogisms, and then he will find them to be all Fallacies, the froth of wit and fancy, not the Dictates of true and solid Reason.  
2. That for the Historical or narrative part, he would throughly examine them, and he will find few of them consonant to the plumbline of truth.  
3. That he would consider, that from the beginning of this Parliament there were three Parties or Factions in it: 

1. The Royalists.  
2. The Presbyterians.  
3. The Independents.    
For though they were not then notorious by their name, yet the Persons confederated were then extant and active; being a complication of all Antimonarchical, Anarchical heresies and schisms, Anabaptists, 
See the Mystery of the two Juntoes, Presbyterian and Independent.  Brownists, Barrowists, Adamites, Familists, Libertines of all sorts; the true Heirs and Successors of John of Leyden and Knipperdolling in all their principles and practices united under the general Title of Independent: and these were originally the men that by their close insinuations, solicitations and actings began, and carried on the War against the KING, with an intent (from the beginning) to pull down Monarchy, and set up Anarchy, notwithstanding the many Declarations, Remonstrances, abortive Treaties, Protestations, and Covenants to the contrary; which were Obligations (from time to time) extorted from them by the Presbyterians, although not strong enough to hold such subtle sampson's, whose strengths to break such Withes lay not in their Bushes of Hair, but in the Ambushes of their Hearts, wherein there always lay hid some evasion, equivocation, or mental reservation, which, like a backdoor, gave them leave to make an escape. In the beginning almost of this Parl. the Independents (that is, the Schismatics) in the Parliament insisted openly upon it, to have the Papists in Ireland rooted out, and their Lands sold to Adventurers, and passing an Act to that purpose, necessitated the Irish Papists to massacre the English Protestants, which was purposely done by the Independents, that both Papists and Protestants might destroy one another there, that they might the better subvert Protestancy in England, which is now in hand. And though it be true that the first General, the Earl of Essex was a Presbyterian, yet he was acted by Independents, as the L. Sa● and others of the like stamp; and had a clause in his Commission [to forbear the King's Person] which clause upon the Independents new modeling the Army under Fairfax was omitted at their especial instance.  
Monday 18. June, 
185. L.C. lilburn's Book [The Legal fundamental Liberties of the People, etc.]  1649. came forth that most useful Book of John lilburn's, called [The Legal fundamental Liberties of the People of England Revived, etc.] wherein he excellently well sets forth the new usurped tyranny of that Hydra of Nimrods' now subverting our Laws, Liberties, and Property, consuming us with illegal Taxes, Excise, Freequarter, Monopolies, and sharing Land, Money, Goods, and Offices amongst themselves, perpetuating an Army to enslave us, and overthrow the fundamental Government of this Nation, in order to which they have complied with, and cheated all Interests, broken all their Obligations to God and Man, violated all the Laws of this Land, their own Protestations, Covenants, the Oaths of Allegiance, Supremacy (which themselves caused the People to take) and their own Votes, Declarations, etc. The illegality of their late erected High Court of Justice, and their unjust proceed therein, the tyranny and usurpation of the Council of State and Officers of the Army. And proveth that Col. Pride's new purged, new packed House, is neither a House of Commons, nor Parliament; their usurped Supreme Authority to be a mere nullity or fiction, and especially, That this Parliament is clearly dissolved and ended, which he proveth by the Death of the King, and by many other solid Arguments; and therefore all their Actings to be void and null, with many other cosiderable passages, where he ingeniously confesseth, that being the King's Prisoner at Oxford, with many other of the Parliament Party, the King did strictly observe the Laws of the Land in His proceed against them, which this Parliament doth not do in any their most legal proceed, for all their pretended Engagements, Declarations, Votes, Protestations and Covenants to maintain and defend the Laws and Liberties of the People, Ergo, the King really, the Faction in Parliament, but pretendedly fought for our Laws and Liberties.  

186. Tithes to be Sequestered for the State.  The Faction are now contriving to seize all the Tithes of the Kingdom into their own hands (yet they are the Ministers Freehold) and to make all the Ministers their stipendiary Lecturers, that they may preach and teach only such Doctrine to the people as may bring them under a blind and slavish obedience to our forty Tyrants of the new Council of State, presuming that all our Ministers carry their Consciences in their purses, because the Independents do so. Look to your ways Christian Brethren, you are likely hereafter to have Oracles of State obtruded upon you instead of the Oracles of God. If the Ministers will not parrot forth the new State's Doctrine to you, they shall be starved out of their Pulpits.  

187. An Adjournment of this pretended Parliament considered of.  The thing called a Parliament is now likely to have so general a purge as will leave neither life nor soul, dung, nor guts, in the belly of it. K. Oliver (unwilling to go for Ireland, and leave them fitting, who may unvote all he hath compelled them to vote) hath commanded his Journeymen to think of an Adjournment for some good time, that they may take the air, and grow wholesome again; and then (without some dire mischance) they never meet more; but this Supreme thing hath learned to use so much modesty to their Superiors, as to refer it to the Hogens Mogens, or Council of State, to consider what Votes and Acts they shall pass beforehand for establishing their Highnesses in their new Dominion: And when (out of their usurped Supreme Authority) they have conferred as much upon the Council of State as their ambitions aim at, they (good Boys) shall have leave to break up School and go into the Country to see their Friends, and visit their Foes; that is, all such as have full purses to be squeezed. Thus you see the method of Divine vengeance observes a Degradation; 1. Down went the King, and His Authority lapsed into the two Houses. 2. Down went the Peers House, and all Authority fell down into the Commons House. 3. Down goes the House of Commons, and the Supreme Authority translates itself into a Council of State. And (if my conjecture fail me not) 4. Down will go the Council of State, and all Authority be grasped into the iron hands of Campson Gaurus and his Mamaluchy, his Council of War, when they shall think fit to Act bare-faced without using a packed piece of a Parliament or Council of State as a screen or vizard to cousin and befool the people.  
In order to which Government by the Sword, 
188. Cromwell voted for Ireland with full power Civil and Military.  Cromwell is voted to go into Ireland with his own confiding Officers and Army, with all power Civil and Military for three years; what doth this import less than that he is to be K. of Ireland? there to practise the first rudiments of Kings-craft, and when he hath enured those Semi-barbarians to a Military Government, he shall return with his Janissaries, and subdue the English to the like obedience: In the mean time his property Fairfax shall be under the observation of the Council of State here, and be beleaguered both in his own house and Army with oliver's Creatures; and in this dishonourable fickle condition he shall have the vain honour to keep oliver's Regalia, (the Crown sitting upon one side like a Fool's Cap upon his head) until he return, and shall then be called to account for all odious and unfortunate accidents that shall happen (for it is not for the Majesty of Oliver to bear the blame, although they fall out by Cromwell's own oversights, or God's anger upon him) thus Cromwell's shadow being removed, himself may take substantial and actual possession of the Throne which he already enjoys in all things but the Title. And then let all true Saints and Subjects cry out with me, God save K. Oliver and his brewing Vessels.  
The Junto of Titular Supremists at Westminster (especially so many as have not packed themselves into the Council of State) are very unwilling to quit their long-held Dominion, 
189. 13 Bills enjoined to be passed by the Commons before Adjournment.  and submit to their own Bastard-brood, The Lords States at Whitehall; but there is no remedy, Oliver is resolved to unyoke his  and turn them to grass; he knows they may unvote all they have voted at his Command, if (during his absence in Ireland or Scotland rather) a new emergent power should overawe them; the present fear being always most terrible to Cowards. But the Council of State hath set them their task, which they must speedily perform before they Adjourn, consisting of 13 Points:  
1. That all Acts concerning the Loans of Monies, Excise, Sequestrations, Goldsmiths-hall, Haberdashers-hall, Assessments for England and Ireland be passed. These reprobate Saints will sooner forget their God, than their Mammon [money.] You see they mean to perpetuate our burdens, as well as their own Army; and domineer over us with an arbitrary, military tyranny for ever.  
2. That an Act be passed for settling the Militia of the Nation. This amounts to a new-invented Commission of Array (lawful for usurping Saints, though not for a lawful King) by virtue of which the scum and dregs of the people (base enough to associate with the Army) shall be Armed, & all men of quality and fortunes (unless such as owe their fortunes to their crimes) dis-armed.  
3. Against exporting Wool and Fuller's Earth. Unless it be for the benefit of the Saints.  
4. To prohibit exportation of Gold and Silver. The Saints have exported all our Gold already, and most of our Silver; and will never give over the Trade themselves though they prohibit others. But Gold and Silver are drawn out of Mines Royal, and belong to the Saints by their Prerogative.  
5. An Act to be passed for punishment of Revolted Seamen and Mariners. None against traitorous, tyrannous, thievish Saints.  
6. An Act for relief of well-affected Tenants against Malignant Landlords; who have compounded for their Estates, rack their Tenants Rents, or turn them out of doors. This is a device: First, to make work for such Members as not being of the Council of State, would become as contemptible as they are hateful, being devested of all power to play the Tyrants after Adjournment. And secondly, to stir up all the Tenants of England (especially Schismatics) to combine with them, against their Landlords, and deprive them of the legal use of their Estates, and the benefit of their Compositions; for, to what purpose shall Gentlemen compound for their Estates, when they must let and set them at the discretion of domineering Committees, or Commissioners, conspiring with the high Shoes, to oppress, make a prey of, enslave and unspirit all the Nobility and Gentry of England here aimed at under the general Title of Malignants? Oh perfidious Tyrants! keep your money Gentlemen, or turn it into Iron and Gunpowder.  
7. An Act to suppress Malignant Pamphlets aspersing the present proceed of the Parliament, Council of State, and the Army, and prevent Printing as much as may be. This is to set truth in the pillory, whilst her counterfeit, impudent, lying and slandering sits in state in Parliament, Council of State, and Council of Officers, and rides triumphantly Coached into the City to Thansgiving Devotions and Dinners.  
8. That the Pulpits being as scandalous as the Press against their proceed, they enjoin that a more strict course be taken to stop the mouths of the Preachers hereafter. You see how Ahab-like these Subverters of Church and Commonwealth, 
1 King. 18.17.  accuse our Prophets for troubling our Israel (being their own sin) and seek occasion to bring a spiritual as well as a corporal famine upon the Land, cutting off the staff of bread as well from our souls as bodies, by stopping the mouths of God's Ministers. But I hope they will remember the duty they own to the honour of him that sent them upon his Embassage to his people, and fearing God more than Man, every man cry out to his own soul and conscience with S. Paul, 1 Cor. 9.16. Vae mihi si non praedicavero, Woe be to me if I do not Preach.  
9 That an Act be passed that that clause of the Stat. 23. Eliz. 25. Eliz. 1 Jac. against Sectaries, should be repealed, that none may be questioned thereby in the vacancy of Parl. What is this but to pray in aid of Turks, Jews, Anabaptists of Munster, nay the Devil himself to join with them, as they have already joined with Owen Roe Oneale, and his bloody massacring Irish Papists against the Protestant Religion, which was part of the design of the schismatical Party in Parliament in waging war against the King from the beginning. See Sect. 184. the Marginal notes there. This impious Liberty of Conscience to destroy the Protestant Religion, is all the liberty we are like to enjoy under the Kingdom of these bloody cheating Saints, in all things else we are mere and absolute slaves.  
10. That an Act for a General Pardon be passed to all Persons except such as are particularly named therein, and declaring no Pardon to any that shall for the future raise War in this Nation against the present Authority thereof. This is a project, 1. To pardon themselves and their Party for their transcendent villainies, and to stop the mouths of the Country from complaining of them after their Adjournment, and this shall be effectually done. 2. To befool silly weak-spirited people with general words of a Pardon which shall be made ineffectual by many exceptions and limitations. 3. This is principally intended to fright men from attempting any thing against the usurped Supremacy and Tyranny of the Council of State: and therefore all Pardons to such Attemptors are beforehand declared against. This with them is (as a sin against the Holy Ghost) unpardonable; to deny their Supreme, Arbitrary Authority.  
11. That the Act for relief of poor Prisoners for Debt may be passed. Though I can with as much Charity as any Man wish a relief to them; yet I like not that Charity should be made a cloak to ambitious Knavery; and all the Creditors of the Kingdom be made liable to the vexation of a covetous Committee, who, under colour of Charity shall raise up all the indebted Men of the Kingdom against all the moneyed Men, if they will not sacrifice their purses to the Foh-Gods of the new State, and be bountiful to the Committee; which is the full scope of this Proposition.  
12. That the Soldiers may be secured their Arrears out of the late King's Lands. This is to tie all the Soldiery by the purse-strings (which is Saint's Tenure) to make good that horrid, traitorous Murder.  
13. That an Act be passed for Probate of Wills, Granting Administrations, and investing of Ministers presented. These lunatic Saints should have thought upon a new way to be set up before they throw down the old one, and not have left men in an uncertainty how to dispose of their Estates, and a Justitium, a vacancy of Justice upon the Kingdom: you see what Mountebanks our new State-Juglers are. The good Boys began to learn these Lessons upon Monday, 25. June.  

190. Things undertaken by the Council of State during the Recess.  The Council of State likewise reported to their said Free-School of Commons several things which they (in order to their future greatness) would put into a way during the Recess: against the Houses next meeting, when two Sundays come together.  
1. That Commissioners be appointed in every County to make an estimate of all Tithes, to the end they may be taken away for the future, and some other provision designed for Ministers. This is a whip and a Bell to lash Ministers to Preach State-Divinity.  
2. That the Council of State consider of settling future Parliaments, and the constant time of their calling, sitting, and ending, after this Parliament shall think fit to dissolve themselves. If they are not dissolved already (which is the constant opinion of many great learned Lawyers well-affected to the Parl.) they will never be dissolved without the help of a Hangman. But I would gladly know by what Authority a Pack of forty Knaves calling themselves a Council of State, and usurping Regal power, shall take upon them to abolish our ancient form of Parliaments, contrary to the fundamental Laws of the Land, their own Declarations, Protestations and Covenants, and to pack and shuffle new Parliaments, to dispose of our Religion, Laws, Liberties, Lives and Estates, against the consent of the far major part of the people.  
3. That they shall consider of an Act for regulating proceed in Law, and prevent tediousness of Suits. There are too many Lawyers in the Council of State to do any thing effectual that way; but it may be they will consider how to make the Laws of the Land more suitable to an Olygarchical tyranny, and less agreeing with Monarchy.  
4. That they will consider what Laws are fit to be repealed. That is, all Laws enjoining uniformity in God's Worship, all Monarchical Laws, and all Laws allowing more civil Liberty and Privileges to the People, and to several Degrees of men than squares with the Designs of our new upstart State.  
So many men have been cheated with Public Faith, 
191. Dean and Chapters Lands purchased by the Godly.  Irish Adventures, and Bishops Lands, that the Market is spoiled for sale of Dean and Chapters Lands, wherefore the Saints (being the only moneyed men left in the Kingdom) have now agreed to buy them themselves, considering, that since they hold their Heads and all that they have in Capite of their Lords Paramount, the Council of Officers, they may as well buy dog-cheap, and hold Deans Lands by the same Tenure. For which purpose they have their Brokers abroad to buy in Soldiers and Officers Debentures for Arrears at 5 s. and 6 s. in the pound, though they are allowed the whole sum of the Debentures in the Purchase, which doubling in ready money, they purchase upon such easy particulars, as brings it down from ten years' purchase, to two or three years' purchase. They are not seen in the business themselves, but buy them in other men's names, and to the secret use of their Wives and Children. The Lord Munson, Hump●rey Edwards, and Sir Greg. Norton, (who hath sold his own Land to purchase new upon this Title) and many other Saints have lately trod this obscure path.  

192. Soldier's insolences remediless.  Great complaints are made by the Country of the Soldier's insolency (amongst many other things) in putting their Horses into mowing Grass. The General hath ordered the next Officer in chief to cause double damages to be given by the Soldier; and if the said Officer neglect, he is to answer it at a Council of War at the Head Quarters. This remedy is worse than the disease, and as mere a gullery as the Act for taking off Free quarter. The chief Officer will laugh at the Complainant, the Head Quarters are far off, and the Council of War will tyre him with delays, and expose him to more injuries of the angry Soldiers. The Officers will not, nor dare not keep a strict discipline.  

193. The Earl of Denbigh and Henry Martin referred to Committees.  The Earl of Denbigh referred to the Committee of the Revenue to consider the Arrears of his Embassy in Italy, and of his 1000 Marks per ann. pension bestowed upon him by the late King. If his deserts had been better, his Reward had been worse, and worse paid. Also Henry Martin's Losses and Arrears referred to the consideration of a Committee. If the Committee would know what Harry hath lost, they must examine his Barber-Surgeon. Rowland wilson's Arrears and Losses, and the L. Gray's Charges and Arrears to be considered and reported: you see charity gins at home, and the Members exercise it (for the most part) in their own House.  

194. The Council of State authorized to grant Letters of Marque.  June 25. An Act passed, to enable the Council of State with absolute power to grant special and particular Letters of Marque or Reprisal in the name of the Keepers of the Liberties of England by Authority of Parliament: what is this but to empower the Council of State to make War at Sea with all Princes and States at their discretion? they have already so far decayed all the Trade of this Nation, that ere long Traffic will be totally destroyed; whereby our Seamen with their Ships will be necessitated (for want of employment) to revolt to the PRINCE: to prevent which inconvenience, they will find work for them by granting so many particular Letters of Marque to all such as shall but pretend themselves wronged by Foreign Nations as will amount to a General practice and profession of Piracy, and turn England into a second Argires, whereby all Princes and States will be provoked to make a Pyratical War upon England, as against a Den of Thiefs and Robbers, Common Enemies to Traffic and humane Society: as the Romans did under the Conduct of Pompey, against the Cilician, and other Asiatic Pirates.  
Captain Young hath blown up with Gunpowder a Ship of the Princes, called the Antilope, 
195. Cap. Yongue's blowing up the Antilope in Helversluce; with a Caution.  lying at Anchor in Helversluce, under the protection of the States of Holland, whereby the Chamber of Holland, and the honour of their Inland Sea is ravished from them. By this, and by some former actions of the like insolency (as the firing upon their Ships, and killing their men for not striking Sail to them) you may see what good Neighbourhood the Dutch are like to have of their younger brother State, when they are once settled and confirmed in their yet infant Government: even the very same which the Carthaginians found after the new erected Commonwealth of Rome grew up to maturity, which proved so dangerous a Competitor in point of power, profit, and honour, as buried the more ancient Free-State of Carthage in its Ruins. Free-states (especially Aristocracies) are very quarrelsome with their Neighbours, and never want many of their Patrician most potent Families ambitious to increase their own power and glory by Wars: and therefore seek occasions of quarrel with their Neighbours; such was the whole Family of the Barchines at Carthage; the Scipio's, Fabii, Camilli, Crassis, Pompeii, Casares, and many more at Rome: Thus was Greece torn in pieces by its Free-states.  
The Commons have bestowed St. Crosses Hospital upon Cook for acting the part of an Attorney General against the late King. It is fit every Judas should have his reward; 
196. More Gifts to the Godly.  the New Park in Surry bestowed upon the City in reward of their Thanksgiving Dinner, that the new-packed Court of Aldermen and Common-council may not want Venyson to fill their Wife's Bellies, nor they Brow Antlers to hang their Hats on.  

197. Order 9 June 1649. referring all secured and secluded Members to be examined before a Committee.  The 9 June the Commons (about 46 in number) had passed an Order concerning their secured, secluded, and absented Members, and referred all such as had not already entered their dissent to the Vote, 5. Decem. 1648. to a Committee to give such satisfaction to them as the House should approve of before the 30. of June instant, or else the House would take order for New Elections. This was to bring the said Members (300 in number at least) to the winnowing, that they might admit such as were for their turn to recruit their thin House, and expel the rest: few repaired to them, and of those very few were chosen, the Speakers Son, Sir John Treavor (who hath a Monopoly of 1500 l. per annum, out of Newcastle Coles, for which he was many Months kept out of the House, and at last admitted (only to comply with the Faction) and his said Monopoly continued) Sir Henry Haymonde, and two Sons of the Earl of Pembroke, were received. This was thought very unreasonable that so many Gentlemen either kept out, or driven away by force should, by a far less number sitting and acting under the same force, be sent to attend a Committee, to stand with their Hats off to Holland, Scott, etc. and be examined and expelled for giving their Votes (Yea, or No) in the House according to their Consciences. This was to subvert the Liberty of all Parliaments for the future, and to make this House (which calls itself a Parliament) a mere packed Junto to carry on forelaid Designs. Besides, to expect they should approve all that the sitting Party in the House had done in the absence of these non-sitting Members, who neither heard the Debate, nor reasons, whereupon they grounded their Votes against the King and House of Peers, nor for the abolishing Monarchy, and turning it into a Free-state, erecting a Council of State for that purpose, voting the Supreme Authority to be in themselves, and many other matters of the like high nature, which have no place in the Laws of England, was such an imposition as neither agreed with the known Parliament Privileges, Liberty of Conscience, (so loudly professed by these sanctified Members which sit) nor with humane reason and sense. And at last to sit under those Armed Guards that put a force upon them (the 6. Decemb.) before; promised as little of safety, unless they would renounce their own Consciences and Act the wills of their Janissaries and their Party; and would render them contemptible to all the world, especially to those men who put this insolency upon them.  
I formerly told you how unwilling the Members were to adjourn and resign their more than Kingly Power to the Council of State; 
168. Articles of Impeachment against the Speaker.  wherefore Cromwell finding he could not obtain that of them by a Vote, projected another way to work his Design, not the old way of a violent purge by securing and secluding the Members with his Myrmidons, that is already infamous, 
Note that Oliver, before he left the Town, erected a Committee of Officers of the Army to prosecute and bring to punishment grand Delinquents. This is a new kind of Star-Chamber o● military Nobles, held like a Rod over the Mock-Parliament. Council of State, and the General, in case they shall oppose oliver's Designs.  and would savour too grossly of the Power of the Sword; and would show Oliver to be rather a Quack-salving Doctor of Physic than a Doctor of the Civil Law. He caused the Officers therefore to frame certain Articles of Impeachment against Mr. Lenthal their Spearker, as followeth: 

1. FOr releasing out of Newgate three of the Queen's Priests and Jesuits by his Warrant.  
2. For maintaining and protecting several Spies and Agents for the late King within the Line of Communication during the late War.  
3. For conveying divers remarkable prisoners of War out of the Line of Communication unto the late King.  
4. For assisting and protecting several Plotters on the behalf of the late King, to destroy the City of London.  
5. For suffering above 30000 l. to be conveyed to the late King out of the Line of Communication, wittingly and willingly.  
6. For sending Horses of War, with Men and Arms to the late King.  
7. For holding an intercourse of Letters with the late King.  
8. For maintaining and keeping an Agent in the Garrison of Oxford, for expediting the foregoing Treacheries.  
9 For corrupting many Members of the Parliament, some lately excluded, and some now sitting in the House to conceal and smother the foreging Treacheries.  
10. For endeavouring to take away the Lives of several the Prosecutors and Witnesses unto the foregoing Treacheries.    
You see there is not one word in them of Cozening the Commonwealth (which is now become the Private wealth of every particular Saint) because this would have broken universally the whole communion of Saints, and would have set them all together by the ears, to defend themselves by recriminating one another: The device was, by taking off the Speaker to Dissolve them, since they cannot by the Privileges of the House choose themselves a new Speaker without the consent of a power higher than their own (to wit) the Kings, and though they will be so much Masters of their own Privileges, as to coin new every day upon emergent occasions, yet those irregularities are always done under the power and protection of the Sword, which they could not expect against their own Visier Bassa Oliver. This trick being smelled out, was so highly resented, that it perished in the birth; only (I hear) the Speaker bled in private 15000 l. towards Olivers expedition.  

199. 50000 l Adance money ●r Cromwels ●xpedition.  All the sinks of tyranny and oppression about the Town, the Committee of the Revenue, Goldsmith's hall, Haberdasher's hall, the Excise Office, etc. are all emptied into that Common-Sewer oliver's expedition into Ireland (or rather Scotland) or engaged as a security to furnish him with 150000. part whereof only he is accountable for; the residue is left to his discretion and conscience to buy Towns and Victories with, and to be offered upon an Altar to be erected Deo ignoto.  
At oliver's request, the House admitted Sir Edward Ford to compound upon the Articles of Oxon, notwithstanding his lapse of time; Ford married Ireton's Sister, and the Lord Culpepper's Son married Forde's Daughter. Observe how the General is lessened to advance Cromwell. 1. The Command o●●e Irish Forces taken from him, and Cromwell sent with a Higher power than ever any went with into that Nation. 2. All Soldiers that will, are enabled to leave their Regiments, and List under Cromwell: so that the discontented and Levelling Party only are left under the command of Fairfax.  
Col. Martin's Accounts brought into the House, 3. July, 
200. More Gifts to the Godly.  1649. his Arrears came to 25000 l. and 1000 l. per ann. Land ordered to be settled upon him and his Heirs. The Lord Grace of Grooby's Arrears for the last Summer only against Duke Hamilton, 1500 l. These things considered, I cannot wonder at the Petition presented to the General by Captain Jubbs, in the name of Col. Hus●n's Regiment about July 6. wherein (amongst other things) they complain, 
The Moderate, from July 3. to July 10. 1649.  That the House do weekly bestow 1000 l. per an. upon themselves out of the public Treasury of the Nation, when as the Soldier's wants are great, and all the people are in great necessity.  
As if the dividing of the Army, 
201. Endeavours to lessen the General.  and putting the most confiding men under Cromwell, the taking the whole command of Ireland from the General, and conferring it upon Cromwell, the drawing dry all Treasuries of Money to furnish Cromwell, and leaving no Money to content the General's remaining part of the Army, the turning the odium of seizing and secluding the Members, and Murdering the KING, upon the General, were not sufficient diminutions of the General, and augmentations of his Lieutenant General: The Welsh Counties are set on work to desire Harry Martin for their Commander in Chief; and the Western Garrisons (the most considerable of England) are to be taken from the General, and put into the hands of Cromwell and his Party, for his retreat from Ireland; so that if all this do not enable him to ruin the General, it will (at least) enable him to divide the Army, and cantonize the Kingdom, and turn the General into the dangers and troubles of the starving, forlorn, North Counties bordering upon Scotland. And if Cromwell find Ireland too hard a bone for him (it is thought) he will endeavour to surprise the Isle of Man, and from thence infested Scotland and Ireland.  

202. An Inquisition for blood, an ingenious piece newly come to light.  About the 18. July, 1649. was presented to the world an ingenious ●ce, entitled, [An Inquisition for Blood] to the Parliament, instatu quo nunc. And, to the Army, Regnante: wherein the Author proves, That the KING did not take the guilt of blood Himself by granting the Preambulatory Proposition in the late Treaty in the Isle of Wight, in these words, (viz.) That he acknowledged that the two Houses of Parliaments were necessitated to undertake a War in their own just and lawful Defence, etc. And that therefore all Oaths, Declarations, or other public Instruments against the two Houses of Parliament, or any for adhering to them, etc. be Declared null, suppressed and forbidden.  
His Majesty in yielding to this Grant, had reference to two ends: 1. To prepare the way to peace, which without this had been hopeless. 2. To secure and indemnify the two Houses, with all their Adherents, and rid them from those despairing fears and jealousies which made them adversaries to Peace.  
For the words of the Preamble, they were not of His penning, He was not Author of them, but an Assentor to them: nor was He, or his Party accused or so much as mentioned in them.  
He made this Concession sub stricta novacula, when the Razor was (as it were) at his throat: 1. An Army of 30000. Horse and Foot effective against Him. 2. When He was endangered and tired out with a long and close Imprisonment. 3. When many dangerous and menacing Petitions against His life, had been encouraged and entertained: so that the King may seem to have been necessitated to yield to this Grant for His own just and lawful defence.  
His Majesty passed this Concession with these two Prouisoes: 1. That it should be of no validity until the whole Treaty were entirely consummated. 2. That He might, when he pleased, enlarge and clear the truth with the reservedness of his meaning herein with public Declarations. Now the Treaty being powerfully carried on without Debate; or receiving any Proposition from the King, as was capitulated (and reciprocal Proposals are of the Essence of all Treaties) this Grant could never bind Him.  
This Grant was a mere Preambulatory Proposition not of the Essence of the Treaty. Philosophers and Schoolmen tell us, 
Proems to Laws are condemned by many Lawyers and Politicians. Est nihil frigidius Lege cum Prologue, jubeo lex, non suadet.  No valid proof can be drawn out of Proems and Introductions, but out of the body of the Text. So in the Laws of England, and in all Accusations and Charges, Prefaces and Preambles are not pleadable. They are the last in penning of Laws, lest in account, nor never had the force of Laws.  
There's not a syllable in this Preface which Repeals any former Law inflicting a Penalty upon such Subjects as bear or raise Arms against their KING: nor those Laws which (è contrario) exempts from punishment all subjects adhering to the Person of the KING in any Cause or Quarrel.  
Whereas the said Preface saith, the two Houses were necessitated to make a War, etc. This may relate to a necessity à parte post, not à part ante, self-defence is the universal Law of nature, extending to all Creatures; it is, non scripta sed nata Lex. 
By raising Tumults, etc.  Therefore when the two Houses (or rather a schismatical Party in them) had brought upon themselves a necessity of Self-defence, His Majesty was content to acknowledge that necessity. If one man assault another upon the Highway, and the Assailed furiously pursue the Assailant, putting him to the defensive part; the Assailant is now necessitated to fight in his own defence, although he drew that necessity upon himself, yet is he now excusable à posteriori, not à priori. And as Civilians say of clandestine Marriges, Quod fieri non debuit, factum valet; for multa sunt quae non nisi peracta approbantur.  
Lewis the 13. of France, had many Civil Wars with his own Subjects, amongst other Treaties to compose them, upon the Treaty of Lodun he was enforced to publish an Edict, approving of all that had been done by his Opposites as done for his service. The like extenuations are not unusual at the close of Civil Wars; and the only use made of them was never other than to make the adverse Party more capable of pardon, to secure them against the brunt of the Laws, to salve their credits, and pave the way for an Act of Oblivion, and restore a settled peace; Peace and War, like Water and Ice, being apt to beget one another. But never was use made of such Grants to ruin the King that Granted them, or his Party.  
Thus having confuted that misprision, That the King by Granting that Introductory Proposition, had taken all the Blood upon His score: my Author having cleared his way to his farther Inquisition after Blood, proceeds, and tells you, Blew-Cap was the first that opened the Issue of Blood by entering England, and showing Subjects the way of representing Petitions to the King upon their Pikes points: That the Irish took their rise from him. And whereas occasion was taken to calumniate His Majesty for having a foreknowledge thereof (amongst many other convincing Arguments to clear him) my Lord Macguire upon the Ladder, and another upon the Scaffold, did freely and clearly acquit Him. And (in regard great use was made of the Irish Rebellion to embitter the People against the King) the Author winds up the causes thereof upon one bottom. Telling you  
1. They who complied with the Scots in their first and second Insurrection.  
2. They who dismissed the Irish Commissioners (sent to present some grievances to the Parliament) with a short, unpolitick harsh Answer.  
3. They who took off strafford's Head (the only Obstructor of that Rebellion) and afterwards retarded the Earl of Leicester's going into Ireland.  
4. They who hindered part of the disbanded Army of 8000. Men, raised by the Earl of Strafford, being Soldiers of Fortune, to go serve the Spaniard, as his Majesty had promised the two Spanish Ambassadors, the Marquesses of Velada and Maluezzi: which cashiered discontented men first put fire to the Tumult. They who did all this, are guilty of the Irish Rebellion, and of the blood of above 100000 Protestants who perished in that War. Add, They who importuned the King (contrary to His judgement) to make the Irish desperate by passing an Act to confiscate their estates, and grant them away to such as should advance moneys upon Irish Adventures.  
Touching the War kindled in England, the Author confesseth it was a fatal thing there should be a withdrawing of the King's Person from the Parliament. But averreth it was a barbarous thing that the King with above four parts in five of the Lords, and two parts in three of the Commons, should be frighted away by Tumults raised by Venus and Bourges, and a Design to seize the King's Person; yet it is fit it should be remembered.  
1. What reiterated Messages his Majesty sent, offering to return, if there might be a course taken to secure his Person, with those Peers and Commons rioted away.  
2. That there was not the least motion towards War, until Hotham shut the Gates of Hull against the King, attended only with some few of his household servants; which Act of his was approved of afterwards by the House of Commons Vote, as if he had done it by their warrant.  
3. That a while after, there was an Army of 16000 men effective enrolled about London, to fetch Him to His Parliament, and remove ill Counsellors, under the Earl of Essex, long before the King began to set up His Standard.  
4. That the same Army so raised, to bring the King to His Parliament, was continued two years after to keep Him from His Parliament.  
5. Who interdicted Trade first, and brought in Foreign Force to help them? and whose Commissions of War were near upon two years' date before the Kings.  
6. That in all His Declarations, He always protested, He waged not War against the Parliament, but against some Seditious Members, against whom He could not obtain Common Justice.  
7. That upon all good Successes, the King still courted the Parliament and City to an Accommodation.  
8. That upon the Treaty of Uxbridge, The King moved, that (to prepare men's minds to Peace) there might be freedom of Trade from Town to Town: A cessation of all Acts of Hostility for the time, that the inflammation being allayed, the wound might be cured the sooner.  
9 That this present Army remember how often in their Proposals and Declarations they protested, That their aim was, to restore His Majesty with Honour, Freedom, and Safety, whereunto they were formerly bound by their Protestation and Covenant; and that the two Commanders in Chief pawned their Souls to Him thereupon.  
10. That to settle Peace, the King did in effect (by His Concessions) part with His Sword, Sceptre, and Crown, and every thing that was personal to Him.  
11. With what admired Temper, Prudence, Constancy, He comported Himself in His Afflictions; and how many of His engaged Enemies became His Converts thereby, speaking Panegyrics in His praise.  
12. That though there be some precedents in our Histories for Deposing Kings in point of Competition for the Crown; yet it is unexampled, That a King of England, of an undoubted Title, should be Summoned, Arraigned, Tried, Condemned, and Executed at His own Door, by His own Subjects, and by the Name of their King, to whom they had sworn Allegiance; Contrary to the whole Current of the Law, which saith, The King can do no wrong, The Crown takes away all defects: Wherefore it was adjudged superfluous to take off Attainders, under which Hen. 7. and Queen Eliz. lay, because the Crown wiped off all Blots. Rex non habet Parem in suis Dominiis nec Superiorem, satis habet Rex ad poenam, quod Deum expectat ultorem. If therefore by the Laws of the Land, all men must be Tried by their Peers, and the King have no Peer, what power had these Men to Arraign their King? to be both His engaged Enemies, Accusors', and Judges; and to Erect an unpresidented Tribunal, without the least Foundation in Law, with power, and purpose to condemn all that came before it; and that Sentence of Death should pass without conviction, or Law, against the Head, and Protector of our Laws, and Fountain of Justice and Mercy.  
13. That they who (by their own Confession) represent but the Common People, should assume power to cut him off, who immediately represented God.  

203. Mr. pryn's excellent Book entitled [A legal Vindication of the Liberties of England] illegal axe's, and pretended Acts of Parliament abridged in part, but the whole commended to be seriously read by all men.  About the same time Mr. William Pryn Assigned his Reasons, why he could neither in Conscience, Law, nor Prudence, voluntarily submit to pay the Arbitrary illegal Tax of 90000 l. a Month, imposed upon the People, by a pretended Act of the Commons, bearing Date 7. of April 1649. towards the maintenance of Forces to be continued in England and Ireland.  
Because by the Fundamental Laws, and known Statutes of this Land, No Tax, etc. aught to be Imposed, or Levied, but by the Will and common Assent of the Earls, Barons, Knights, Burgesses, Commons, and whole Realm, in a free and full Parliament. See Magna Charta, 29, 30. Stat. 25 Edw. 1. chap. 5, 6. 34 Edw. 1. De Tallagio non concedendo, c. 1. 21 Edw. 3. Rot. Parl. nu. 16. 25 Edw. 3. c. 8. 36 Edw. 3 Rot. Parl. nu. 26. 45 Edw. 3. Rot. Parl. nu. 42. 11 Hen. 4. Rot. Parl. nu. 10. 1 Rich. 3. c. 2. The Petition of Right, and Resolutions of both Houses against Loans, 3 Car. The Votes and Acts against Ship-money, Knighthood, Tonnage and Poundage, and the Star-chamber this Parliament, 17, 18. Car. agreed to by Mr. William Hackwel, in his Argument against Impositions. Judge Hutton and Crock in their Arguments; Mr. Saint john's in his Argument and Speech against Ship-money, with others Arguments and Discourses upon that subject. Sir Ed. Cock in his 2 Instit. pag. 59 60 527, 528, 529, 532, 533. But this Assessment was not so legally imposed, Ergo, I, nor no man else aught to pay it. 1. This Tax was not imposed by any Parliament; The late Parliament being actually dissolved above two months before this pretended Act was passed for imposing it, by the Murder of the King, as is resolved by the Parliament. 1 Hen. 4. Rot. Parl. nu. 1. 4 Hen. 4. and 1 Hen. 5. Rot. Parl. nu. 26. Cooks 4. Institutes, p 46. 4 Edw. 4. 44. 6. For the King being both the Beginning, End, and Foundation of Parliaments (according to Modus tenendi Parliamentum, and Sir Edw. Cook 4. Instit. p. 3.) which are Summoned and Constituted only by his Writ, the Writ is actually abated by his Death. 1 Edw. 6. c. 7. Cooks 7. Rep. 30, 31. Dyer 165. 4 Ed. 4. 43, 44. 1 Ed. 5. 1 Brook Commission, 19 21.  
It appears by the Writs of Summons to the Lords (Crompt. Jurisdiction of Courts, fol. 1. Cooks 4. Instit. p. 9 10.) and of Elections, 
Quere, How a Parliament Summoned by the Writ of K. Charles I. and called Parliamentum Nostrum ad tractandum nobiscum super arduis negotiis regni nostri, can be continued one and the same Parl. after the King's death that called it; and the Monarchy changed into a Commonwealth? formally it cannot be the same, the Head thereof being gone. The Lord's House and Monarchy being abolished, and the State not the same; materially it cannot be the same, so many of the ancient Members being thrown out, and new ones unduly elected brought in. But there are some pragmatical Tailors in the House, who can make a garment fit for all states of the Moon, and a Parl. fit for all changes of the State.  and levying their Wages: That the Parliament was only Parliamentum nostrum, the Parliament of the Kings that is Dead, not of his Heirs and Successors, They are all Summoned to come to his Parliament to advise with him (nobiscum, not with his Heirs and Successors) of great and weighty Affairs concerning, Nos & Regnum nostrum, Him and his Kingdom, 5 Edw. 3. 6. part 2. Dors. Claus. Regist. fol. 192, 200. So the King being dead, and his Writ and Authority by which they were Summoned, and the end for which they were Called: Ad Tractandum ibidem nobiscum, super arduis negotiis nos & statum Regni nostri tangentibus, being thereby absolutely determined without any hope of revival: The Parliament is determined thereby, especially as those who have Disinherited his Heirs and Successors, and Voted down Monarchy itself, and the Remnant now sitting are no longer Members of Parliament, as all Judges, Justices of the Peace, Sheriffs, made only by the King's Writ or Commission, and not by Patent, Cease and become void by the King's death, for this very reason, because they are constituted, Justitiarios & Vicecomites nostros ad pacem nostram, etc. custodiendum. The King being dead, his Writs and Commissions expire with Him. 4 Ed. 4. 43. 44. Brook Office and Officer 25. Commission, 19 21. Dyer. 195. Cook 7. Rep. 30, 31. 1 Ed. 6. c. 7. Daltons' Justice of Peace, chap. 3. pag. 13. Lambert, pag. 71.  
Object. If any object the Act of continuance of the Parliament, 17 Car. That this present Parliament shall not be dissolved unless it be by Act of Parliament for that purpose.  
Answ. It is Answered, That it is a Maxim in Law, That every Statute ought to be expounded according to the intent of those that made it, and the mischiefs it intended only to prevent. 4 Edw. 4. 12. 12 Edw. 4. 18. 1 Hen. 7. 12, 13. Plowdens Comment. fol. 369. Cooks 4. Institutes pag. 329, 330. Now the intent of the Makers of this Act, was not to prevent the Parliaments dissolution by the King's Death (no way intimated in any clause thereof, although it be a clear dissolution of it to all intents, not provided for by this Act) but by any Writ, or Proclamation of the Kings by his Regal Power, without the consent of both Houses, which I shall prove by the Arguments following.  
1. From the principal occasion of making the said Act. The Commons in their Remonstrance, 15. Decemb. 1642. complain, That the King had dissolved all former Parliaments against approbation of both Houses of Parliament; Wherefore to prevent the Dissolution, Prorogation, or Adjournment of this present Parl. by the King's Regal Power, after the Scots Army should be disbanded, and before the things mentioned in the Preamble could be effected, was the ground and occasion of this Law: and not any fear of Dissolving the Parliament by the King's death, Natural, or Violent, which is confessed by the Commons in the said Remonstrance, Exact Collect. pag. 5, 6. 14, 17. compared together, where they Affirm, The abrupt dissolution of this Parliament is prevented by another Bill, etc. In the Bill for continuance of this Parliament, there seems to be some restraint of the Royal power in Dissolving of Parliaments; not to take it out of the Crown, but to suspend the execution of it for this time, and occasion only, which was so necessary for the Kings own Security, and the Public Peace, that without it we could not have undertaken any of those great Charges, but must have left both Armies to disorder and confusion, etc.  
2. The very Title of this Act [an Act to prevent inconveniences which may happen by the untimely Adjourning, Proroguing, or Dissolution of this present Parliament] intimates as much, compared with the body of it, which provides as well against the Adjourning, or Proroguing without an Act, as against a Dissolution. Now the Parliament cannot be said to be Adjourned, or Prorogued untimely by the King's Death (which never Adjourned, or Prorogued any Parliament) but only by his Proclamation, Writ, or Royal Command to the Houses, or their Speaker executed during his life-time, See Parl. Rolls, 6 Edw. 3. 2. Rot. Parl. 3. 6. 5 Ric. 2. n. 64, 65. 11 Ric. 2. nu. 14, 16, 20. 8 Hen. 4. nu. 2, 7. 27 Hen. 6. nu. 12. 28 Hen. 6. nu. 8, 9, 11. 29 Hen. 6. nu. 10, 11. 31 Hen. 6. nu. 22, 30, 49. and Cooks 4. Instit. p. 25. Dyer fol. 203.  
3. The Prologue of the Act implies as much, whereas great sums of Money must of necessity be speedily advanced for relief of His Majesty's Army (not his Heir or Successor) and for supplying other His Majesties (not his Heirs, nor Successors) occasions, which cannot be so timely effected as is requisite, without credit for raising the said moneys; which credit cannot be attained until such Obstacles be first removed, as are occasioned by Fears and Jealousies; That this Parliament may be Adjourned, Prorogued, or Dissolved, before Justice shall be duly executed upon Delinquents (then in being, as Strafford, Canterbury, not since made) Public Grievances (then complained of, as Star-chamber, High Commission, Ship-money, Knighthood-money, Tonnage, and Poundage, etc.) redressed: Peace concluded between the two Nations, sufficient provisions made for repayment of the said moneys (not others since) so to be raised. All which expressions related only to His late Majesty, as to His Acts of Royal Power, not to His Heirs and Successors, after His Natural (much less) Violent death, which was not then thought on, but publicly Detested, and Protested against; no Man being so hardy as to mention it for fear of the Law, not then subdued by the Sword; And the several Principal Scopes of this Act are fully satisfied long before the late King's death.  
4. It is clear by the Body of this Act; And be it declared, etc. That this present Parliament, etc. shall not be dissolved, unless it be by Act of Parliament to be passed for that purpose; nor shall at any time, or times during this present Parliament, be Adjourned, or Prorogued, unless it be by Act of Parliament to be passed for that purpose; and that the House of Peers shall not at any time, or times, during this present Parliament, be Adjourned, unless it be by themselves, or by their own Order. And in like manner, That the House of Commons shall not at any time, or times be Adjourned, etc. as aforesaid. From whence it is undeniable.  
1. That this Act was only to prevent untimely Dissolving, Proroguing, and Adjourning of that present Parliament then assembled, and no other, by Acts of Royal Power.  
2. That the King was the Principal Estate, and Member, yea, our Sovereign Lord, the sole Declarer, and Enacter of this Law, by Assent of the Lords and Commons.  
3. That neither this Act, nor any other, for Dissolving, Proroguing, or Adjourning this Parl. could be made without the King's Royal Assent, which the Lords and Commons in their Remonstrance, 26. May, 1642. often acknowledge, together with His Negative Voice to Bills, exact. Collect. p. 69, 70. 736. 709. 722.  
4. That it was not the King's intent in passing this Act, to shut Himself out of Parliament, or create Members of Parliament without a King, as He professeth, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, ●. 5. Nor the Lords and Commons intent to Dis-member Him from His Parliament, and make themselves a Parliament without Him, as their said Remonstrance testifies; and the words of the Act import, much less was it their intent to pack a Parliament of 40 or 50 Commons only, selected by Colonel Pride, to Vote according to the Dictates of a Council of War, after they had destroyed the King, and House of Peers: Against which transcendent usurpation this very Act provides, That the House of Peers shall not be so much as Adjourned, or Prorogued, but by themselves, or their own Order.  
5. Neither did King, Lords, and Commons, in passing this Act intent, That by Murdering the King, Abolishing the House of Lords, and expelling by power of the Sword eight parts of ten of the Commons, the remaining Faction should con titute themselves, their Heirs and Successors, a perpetual Parliament, 
It is against the nature, and essence of a Parl. to be Perpetual, and against the Liberty of the People.  which would Cross, and Repeal the Act for a Triennial Parliament made on the same day in Law. Brook, Parliament 80. Relation 85. Dyer 85.  
6. The last Clause of this Act concludes as much. And that all, and every thing, or things whatsoever done, or to be done (to wit, by the King, or his Authority) for the Adjournment, Proroguing, or Dissolving of this Parliament, contrary to this present Act, shall be utterly void and of none effect. Now Death of the King, and Dissolution of this Parliament thereby, cannot properly be styled a thing done, or to be done by the King, if by those words (things done, or to be done for the dissolving, etc.) they shall say, they related to the King's Natural Death: Natural Death is the Act of God, which these Saints cannot make void, if they related to His violent Death, it could not then be said a thing done, or to be done for the unlawfulness and injustice of it. This Act passed long before any War or Bloodshed; The only pretence they have since found out for the King's Murder.  
2. If this Parliament were not Dissolved by the King's Death, Yet the House of Peers (formerly Voted) down by the Commons, gave no consent to the passing this Act, Entitled, An Act of the House of Commons; who, without the concurring Assent of the Lords, and the King's Royal Assent, have no power to pass any Act, Make, or Declare any Law, or impose any Tax, as appears by the forerecited Acts; The Petition of Right, The Act for the Triennial Parliament, and this very Act against Dissolving, Proroguing, etc. with all our Printed Statutes, Parliament Rolls, and Law-Books. The Commons being so far from claiming the sole Legislative power heretofore, as that they were not Summoned to our Ancient Parliaments, (which consisted only of King, Lords, Temporal and Spiritual) until 47 Hen. 3. nor had they so much as a House of Commons, or Speaker, until the Reign of Edw. 3. nor never tendered any Acts, or Bills to the King, but Petitions only of Grievances, until long after Rich. 2. time. See the Printed Prologues to the Stat. 1, 4, 5, 9, 10, 20, 23, 36, 37. 50 Edw. 3. 1 Ric. 2. 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11. 13 H●n. 4. 1, 2, 3, 4, 8. 9 Hen. 5. 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 28, 29. 39 Hen. 6. 1, 4, 7, 8, 12, 17. 22 Edw. 4. 1 Rich. 3.  
3. But suppose the Commons alone had p were to impose Taxes, yet it must be in a full, and free House: whereas, when this Act for 90000 l. a Month passed, the House was neither Full, nor Free, The Major part of the House (who by Law are the House) to wit, 8. parts of 10. at  least, being Secured, or Secluded by Col. Pride, and his Soldiers, by Confederacy with those 40 or 50 then sitting when this Act passed, and passing the Wills of the Council of Officers, to the subversion of Parliaments, and the great wrong of those Counties and Burroughs for whom they served.  
Object. If it be objected, that by usage of Parliament, 40 Members make a House of Commons.  
Answ. 1. I Answer, not to all intents and purposes; Not to grant Subsidies, nor pass Laws, or matters of greatest moment, Modus tenendi Parl. Cooks 4. Instit. pag. 1, 2, 26, 35, 36. Cromptons' Juris. of Courts, fol. 1. 39 Edw. 3. 7. Brook, Parl. 27. 1 Jac. 1.  
2. 40 Members make not a House, when the rest are Excluded by force without doors, and fraud of their Fellow-members within doors, on purpose, that (being the Major number) they may not over-vote them. The Commons not having power to expel any of their Members, without consent of King and Lords, in whom only the Judicial Power resides. Paribus in Pares non est Potestas, Claus. Dors. 7 Rich. 2. M. 27. Seldens Title of Honour, pag. 737, Baron Camoyes case discharged by the King's Writ, and Judgement from serving amongst the Commons, because a Peer of the Realm: The practice for Members to Expel and Sequester their Fellow-members, being a late dangerous innovation, to pack a Factious Conventicle instead of a Parliament.  
If the King should send forth no more Writs than would Summon forty or fifty Commons, it were no House. 
Added by the Abridger.   
So Mr. Pryn concludes, That if he should voluntarily submit to pay this Tax, by virtue of the said pretended Act of Parliament Dated 7. of April, 1649. made by those now sitting (some of whose Elections have been Voted void, others of them Elected by new Illegal Writs, under a new kind of Seal, since the King's Beheading; as the Earl of Pembroke, and Lord Edward Howard, uncapable of being Knights or Burgesses by the Common Law, because Peers of the Realm, as was adjudged in the Lord Cannoyes case, Claus. Dor 7 Rich. 2. M. 32. and asserted by Mr. Seldens Titles of Honour, Part. 2. chap. 5. pag. 735. Seconded by Cooks 4. Instit. pag. 1, 4, 5, 46, 47, 49.) As he should admit those to be lawful Members, so he should assent to ex post facto, some particulars against his Knowledge, and against the Oaths of Allegiance, Supremacy, Protestation, Solemn League and Covenant, taken in the presence of God, with a sincere heart, and real intention to perform the same; and persevere therein all the days of his life, without suffering himself directly, or indirectly, by whatsoever Combination, Persuasion or Terror to be withdrawn therefrom. As for example, he should thereby acknowledge contrary to his knowledge, and the said Oaths and Covenant.  
1. That there may be, and now is, a lawful Parliament of England, actually in being, and legally continuing after the King's Death, consisting only of a few late Members of the Commons House, without either King, Lords, or most of their fellow Members.  
2. That this Parliament sitting under a force, (and so unduly Constituted, and packed by power of an Army combining with them) hath just and lawful Authority.  
1. To violate the Privileges, Rights, Freedoms, Customs, and alter the Constitution of our Parliaments themselves.  
2. To Imprison, Seclude, and Expel most of their fellow Members (the far major part of the House) for Voting and according to their Consciences (in favour of Peace, and settlement of the Commonwealth.)  
3. To Repeal all Votes, Ordinances, and Acts of Parliament they please.  
4. To Erect new Arbitrary Courts of War and Justice.  
5. To Arrain, Condemn, and Execute the King himself, with the Peers and Commons of this Realm, by a new kind of Martial Law, contrary to Magna Charta, The Petition of Right, 3. Car. and the known Laws of the Land.  
6. To Disinherit the King's Posterity of the Crown.  
7. To extirpate Monarchy, and the whole House of Peers.  
8. To Change and Subvert the Ancient Government, Seals, Laws, Writs, Legal proceed, Courts, and Coin of the Kingdom.  
9 To Sell and Dispose of all the Lands, Revenues, Jewels, Goods of the Crown, with the Lands of Deans and Chapters, (for their own advantage, not the easing of the people from Taxes.)  
10. To absolve themselves (by a Papal kind of power) and all the Subjects of England and Ireland, from all the Oaths and Engagements they have made to the King's Majesty, His Heirs and Successors; yea, from the very Oath of Allegiance, notwithstanding this express Clause in it (fit to be laid to heart by all conscientious Christians) I do believe, and in conscience am resolved, That neither the Pope, nor any person whatsoever, hath power to absolve me of this Oath, or any part thereof, which I acknowledge by good and full Authority to be lawfully Ministered to me, and do renounce all Pardons and Dispensations to the contrary.  
11. To dispense with our Protestation and Covenant so Zealously enjoined by both Houses on all sorts of people.  
12. To dispose of the Forts, Ships, Forces, Offices, and places of Honour, Power, Trust, or Profit, to whom they please (to their own party.)  
13. To Displace and Remove whom they please from their Offices, Trusts, Pensions, Callings and Franchises at their pleasures, without any Legal cause, or Trial.  
14. To make what New Acts, Laws, and Reverse what Old ones they think meet, to ensnare and enthral our Consciences, Estates, Liberties and Lives.  
15. To create new monstrous Treasons never heard of before, and to declare Real Treasons against the King, Kingdom and Parliament to be no Treasons; and Loyalty, Allegiance, due obedience to our known Laws, and a conscientious observing our Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy, and the Covenant, to be no less than High Treason; for which they may take away our Lives, and confiscate our Estates to their new Exchequer. Thereby at once repealing Magna Charta, c. 29. 5 Edw. 3. c. 6. 25 Edw. 3. c. 4. 28 Edw. 3. c. 3. 37 Edw. 3. c. 18. 42 Edw. 3. c. 3. 25 Edw. 3 c. 2. 11 Rich. 2. c. 4. 1 Hen. 4. c. 10. 2 Hen. 4. Rot. Parl. 11. n. 60. 1 Edw. 6. c. 12. 1 M. c. 1. The Petition of Right, 3 Car. So much commended this Parliament, and laying all our Laws, Liberties, Estates and Lives waste, after they have drawn so much Blood and Treasure from us, in defence of them.  
16. To raise and keep up what forces by Land and Sea they please, and impose what Taxes they please, and renew, increase, and perpetuate them to support their more than Regal or Parliamentary power.  
17. To pack and shuffle themselves into a Council of Lords, 
This 17. is added by the Abridger.  State's General (without any provincial States) forty hogen's Mogens, with Supreme, Regal, and Arbitrary power, in absence of Parliaments which are Abolished by these Usurpations as well as Monarchy.  
4. The principal ends proposed in the pretended Act for imposing this 90000 l. a month's Tax, oblige all men not to pay it, viz. The keeping up this Army under the Lord Fairfax.  
1. Because this Army, by rebelling against their Masters, the Parliament, and waging War upon them; and by conspiring with their own party of the sitting Commons have occasioned all the Mischiefs last mentioned, to the ruin of King, Parliament, and Kingdom, Religion, Laws, Liberty, and Property; and daily threaten an utter dissolution, both in their Deeds, and Words. Both Officers and Soldiers Boasting, That the whole Kingdom, and all we have is theirs by Conquest; That we are but their conquered Slaves and Vassals, and they Lords of the Kingdom, That our Lives are at their Mercy and Courtesy; That when they have gotten all we have from us by Taxes and Freequarter, they will seize our Lands, and turn Us, and our Families out of Doors, That there is no Law in England but the Sword (as Hugh Peter's the Rebel's Apostle saith) The present power must be obeyed (saith parasitical John Goodwin) that is the power of the Sword still.  

More hath been raised by Taxes these last eight years, than in all the Kings Reigns since the Conquest, and no account given,  2. No Tax ought to be imposed but upon necessity, for good of the people, 25 Edw. 1. chap. 6. Cooks 2. Instit. pag. 528. But the keeping up this Army is the Bane of the people.  
1. Because they are already exhausted with war, Plunder, Taxes, Freequarter, etc.  
2. Because the Soldiers have decayed Trade, and brought a Dearth upon the Land.  
3. This Tax of 90000 l. a month destroyed Trade, by Forestall and Engrossing most of the Money now left in the Kingdom.  
4. There is no Enemy in the Kingdom visible, nor no fear of any, if we will believe our Grandees.  
5. When the King had two Armies in the Field, and many Garrisons, this whole Army consisted but of 22000. Men, and had an Established pay but of 45000 l. a month. See Ordinances 15. Feb. 1644. and 6. April 1646. Exact Collect. pag. 599, 876. But when the Army (by confederacy with their party in the House) took the boldness to increase their number without Order, 60000 l. a month, was thought abundantly sufficient to pay the Army, and take off Freequarter: And why this Tax should now be raised to 90000 l. a month, when sundry Regiments of it are Assigned for Ireland, and yet Freequarter continued, is a mystery of Iniquity which fills the Saints pockets with Money, and all the World with Wonder.  
6. The Counties Militia (so much contended for with the King) would better defend the Kingdom from Foreign Invasions than a Mercenary Army. Therefore there is neither necessity, nor public utility in keeping up this Army, or raising Taxes to maintain them, or pay their pretended Arrears. The Freequarter they have taken in kind, and levied in money, will triple their Arrears, and make them much indebted to the Country. Thus far (and much farther) Master Pryn, whose whole Book at large I commend to all men's serious perusal.  
The Marquis of Ormond's happy achievements in Ireland beginning to look formidably, 
204. Cromwell sets sail for Ireland.  had cooled the heat of K. Oliver's courage (though not of his Liver) insomuch that he and his intimate friends began to project how (without loss of reputation) to take him off from so desperate an Engagement, as (at that time) that seemed to be: unnecessary delays were used in Shipping his Men. Haslerig and his Party reported great terrors from Scotland. Oliver and his Bloodhounds of the Faction made a shift to smell out a silly Plot in Dorsetshire for surprisal of Weymouth and Portland for the KING: now laughed at, and exploded by their own News-books. And the tender-conscienced Brethren were prompted to apprehend their own dangers, and put into a Petitioning posture, That such a Worthy of Israel, such a chosen Instrument of God's mercy, might not in a time of danger leave the Land of his Nativity, the Habitation of the Saints, to seek foreign adventures in a Heathen Land: Whilst these preparations were making to withdraw oliver's stake, he appeared not openly in them, but making more show of the Lion's skin than the Foxes, had written to Col. Jones how heartless his Soldiers were, and that unless Jones did by some successful Sally lessen their terror, he should not be able to get them on Shipboard. This was (like the Monkey) to rake Chessenuts out of the fire with the Cat's foot; to take a presage of his own success at Col. Jones hazard. Jones makes an attempt with better luck than he expected, though not with half so good success as was reported. Saturday, 12. August, when the news first came to Town, (the Lion is not so terrible as he is painted) it is a peculiar privilege of the Saints to lie (without sin, or at least, without imputation of sin) for the good Cause, either in Re, or in modo Rei; in the matter, or manner; in the thing, or the extent thereof: yet this success was enough to invite Cromwell over to pursue the Victory, and partake of the spoils, if not to usurp the whole Honour of the Atchieument to himself, by his accustomed special prerogative. So upon the 16, or 17. of August, K. Nol set sail towards his new Principality, carrying (contrary to the custom of the Sea) his Lantern in his Proawe, not in his Poop; where we will leave him for the present to his adventures.  

205. The Association between O Neale and C. Monck. See the Paper at large.  I have formerly hinted to you the Agreement made between Colonel Monck in behalf of the Parliament of England; and Owen Roe O Neale, the massacring Irish Rebel: I have now occasion to speak more at large of it, and examine the truth of a Paper, called, [The true state of the Transactions of Col. George Monck with Owen Roe Oneale, as it was reported to the Parliament by the Council of State, etc.] Printed by Edward Husbands, 15. August, 1649. The said agreement made between the Antimonarchical Independent Party in Ireland, and the massacring Antimonarchical Popish party under Owen Roe O Neale (being a mere conspiracy to root out Monarchy and Protestancy: first, in Ireland, and then in England: and a second crucifying of Christ in his members between two Thiefs, the Schismatic and the Papist) was so generally abhorred by the English Soldiery, that many there took occasion to forsake the English Parliament; and many here disbanded rather than they would accompany Cromwell in so wicked an expedition. Wherefore Cromwell writ Letters to his Creatures of the Council of State by Monck himself, complaining how much the miscarriage of that Agreement had retarded his said Voyage; desiring them (for satisfaction of the Soldiery and People) to Treat with Monck to take the whole business upon himself, and to clear the Council of State, the Parliament, and Cromwell himself, from having any hand at all in it, which upon Terms of safety and advantage (he said) he already found him inclinable to do. The better to carry on the scene, this Agreement was with much heat of zeal complained of in the Apocryphal House of Commons by a Brother who had his cue beforehand, and by the Juncto was referred to the Council of State as was forelaid, where their High and Mightinesses (after some private conference with Monk to accommodate the business) voted their dislike of it: 
Scot having studied the Politics in a Brewer's Tally, is become a great Statesman in our new Babel. See the said Paper, The true state, etc.  Bradshaw reprehending Monck in jest therefore. And at last they Ordered, That the whole business, with Monks Reasons for his justification, should be reported by Thomas Scot to the House of Commons; which was accordingly done Upon Friday, 10. August, Monck was called in to the Bar, where (amongst other things) the Speaker asked him, What Persons he meant in his Letter to the L. Lieutenant of Ireland; wherein he saith, He made the Agreement with O Neale with the advice of some others? Monk answered, that he did it upon his own score, without advice of any other person; only having discourse with Colonel Jones: Jones told him, if he could keep Owen Roe and Ormond from joining, it would be a good service. This Answer (such as it is) was taken for satisfactory in so Comic an Interlude. The next demand was, Whether he had any Advice or Directions from the Parliament, Council of State, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, or any other Person here to do the same? which he did expressly deny, saying, he did it upon his own score. Hereupon the House voted as followeth:  
Resolved, etc. That the House doth utterly disapprove of the proceed of Col. Monck in the Treaty and Cessation (as they please to call it) made between him and Owen Roe O Neal, and that this House doth detest the thoughts of any closing with any Party of Popish Rebels there, who have had their hands in shedding English blood. Nevertheless the House being satisfied that what the said Col. Monk did therein, was, in his apprehension necessary for the preservation of the Parliament of England's Interest: That the House is content the farther consideration thereof, as to him, be laid aside, and shall not at any time hereafter be called in question. So exit Monck, and the Play was done: wherein take notice of these following Observations.  
1. The Army's Doctrine, 
See the Answer of the Council of Officers to the Parliaments Demand, concerning their secured Members: And their Answer thereunto.  and use of apprehended necessity and good intentions to justify evil actions; approved of by this example of the Parliament (as they will be called.  
2. This Agreement (though it were at least twelve Weeks ago publicly known in England, and divulged in their own Licenced News-books) was never scrupled until now: That 1. the said Agreement was expired. 2. That O Neale was so beaten by the Lord Inchiquine, that he is (as their own News-books say) inconsiderable, and must suddenly join with the marquis of Ormond, or be destroyed.  
3. That these Votes call this 
* Let me not seem overbold in maintaining a different opinion, since Parliaments are no more infallible than Popes; and all humane opinions are equal unless Reason make the difference. I hope we have not lost our Reason with our Laws and Liberties, nor the exercise and use of it.  Agreement but a Treaty and Cessation of Arms: which (I affirm) to be a League Defensive and Offensive against Ormond, Inchiquine, and all that do and shall uphold Monarchy (if not Protestancy too) for these Reasons: 1. Article second saith, That upon all occasions both Parties be ready with their Forces to assist one another until a more absolute Agreement be made and condescended unto by the Parliament of England. This is beyond a Cessation. 2. Article third, saith, That the Creaghts of Ulster residing within the Quarters of Col. Monck, shall pay Contribution to General Owen Oneale. This is a Concession of a great latitude, far beyond the authority of any subordinate Commander or General, and against the Laws and Liberties of the Land to grant Taxes. It should seem by this, that Oneale and his Army were become Mercenaries, taken into pay by Monck. 3. Article fourth, saith, That if General Owen Oneale shall happen to fight against the Forces under the Command of the marquis of Ormond, the Lord Inchiquine, or any other Enemies of the Parliament of England, and thereby sp●nd his Ammunition, if he be near unto my Quarters, and be distressed for want of Ammunition, I shall then furnish him. This was actually performed when my Lord Inchequine Besieged Dundalke. I make the same interpretation of this Article that I have made of the third. 4. The fifth Article alloweth to Oneale the use of any Harbours within Col. Monks liberty; which likewise is too much for a bare Cessation or Truce.  
4. Who can believe that any subordinate Officer commissionated to prosecute a War against Owen Roe and the rest in Arms in that Kingdom, should dare to Treat and conclude an Agreement and conjunction with that very Enemy he had Commission to fight against without the knowledge and directions (public or private) of those from or under whom he hath his Authority; and should be so bold when he had done to come over and justify his said do, notwithstanding they proved unprosperous? Col. Monck being so much a Soldier as to know, That (all the world over) to exceed the bounds of his Commission (much more to act against his Commission, as in this case) is assured death without mercy, both by the Law Martial (without which Military Discipline will perish) and by the Laws of her Land.  

See the said Letter, printed at the latter end of a Relation of the securing and secluding of the Members by the Army.  5. Wherefore was Sir John Winter and Sir Kenelm Digby sent for over (as was foretold by an intercepted Letter, whereof of I have formerly spoken) and O Realy the Pope's Irish Agent, and another Agent from Owen Roe O Neal privately entertained in England (as I have formerly hinted) but to drive on Treaties and Associations of this nature? insomuch that long since it was whispered amongst Cromwel's party in England to uphold their spirits) That upon his showing himself in Arms in Ireland, Ormonds Catholic Irish party would all forsake him and go over to O Neal, who maintained the Pope's Interest in that Kingdom. 
Nota.   
The aforesaid paper prinred by Authority, and styled The true State of the Transactions, etc. besides the said Articles of Cessation, setteth down other Articles, called, 

The Propositions of General Owen O Neale, the Lords, Gentry, and Commons of the confederate Catholics of ULSTER: To the most High and most Honourable, The PARLIAMENT of ENGLAND.  
1. INprimis, That such as are already joined, or shall within the space of three Months join with General Owen O Neale, 
[Within the space of three months'] is not in the said Copy printed at Cork.  in the service of the Parliament of England, in this Kingdom, as well Clergy, as others, may have all Laws and Penalties against their Religion, and its Professors, taken off by Act of Parliament, and that Act to extend to the said parties, their Heirs and Successors for ever, while they Loyally serve the Parliament of England.  
2. The said General O Neale desireth an Act of Oblivion to be passed, to extend to all and every of his party, for all things done since the beginning of the Year, 1641.  
3. They desire that General Owen O Neal be provided with a competent Command in the Army befitting his worth and quality.  
4. They desire that they may enjoy all the Lands that were, or aught to be in their, or their Ancestors possession.  
5. That all incapacity, inability, and distrust hitherto by Act of State, or otherwise, against the said party, be taken off.  
6. That on both sides all jealousies, hate, and aversion be laid aside, Unity, Love, and Amity be renewed and practised between both parties.  
7. That General Owen O Neale may be restored and put in possession of his Ancestors Estates, or some Estates equivalent to it in the Counties of Tyrone, Ardmarch, or Londondery, in regard of his merit, and the good service that he shall perform in the Parliament of England's Service, in the preservation of their Interest in this Kingdom.  
8. That the Army belonging to General Owen O Neale, and his party be provided for, in all points as the rest of the Army shall be.  
9 That the said party be provided with, and possessed of a convenient Seaport in the Province of Ulster.  
I do upon receiving a confirmation of these Propositions, forthwith undertake and promise in behalf of myself, and the whole party under my Command, faithfully and firmly adhere to the State of the Parliament of England in this Kingdom, and maintain their Interest hereafter, with the hazard of our lives and fortunes:  
In witness whereof, I have hereunto put my Hand and Seal this 8. day of May, An. Dom. 1649. Signed, Owen O Neale.    
Thus far the said paper, styled [The true State, etc.] goes on with the Relation of the said Treaty and Agreement, but conceals what farther Transactions passed between Monk and O Neal upon the last recited Propositions: Wherefore I shall be bold to continue the Story of a paper, 
The Story of the father Transactions between O Neale and Monk continued and enlarged out of the Propositions printed at Cork.  entitled [The Propositions of Owen Roe O Neal sent to Col. Monk, and a Cessation for three Months concluded between them. Together with a Letter thereupon sent by a Gentleman at Dundalk, to his Friend at Cork. Printed at Cork, 1649.] The last recited Propositions were sent to Monk 25. day of April, 1649. who perused them, and made some considerable Alterations in them, as appears by Monk's Letter of Answer thereupon to Owen O Neale, dated from Dundalke, 26. April 1649. as I find it in the said paper printed at Cork in these words:  
SIR,  
I Have received yours of the 25. April, and I have seen your Order given to Captain Hugh Mac Patrick Mac Mahon to Treat and conclude a peace with me in the behalf of yourself, and the Forces under your Command. I have perused your Propositions, and conceiving there are some particulars in them which at first view the Parliament of England may scruple to grant, I have made a small alteration in some of them, being well assured, by it, you will not receive the least disadvantage, but it will rather prove a means to beget an increase of their good opinion towards you and your party; which I believe your reality, fidelity, and action in their Service will sufficiently merit, and in case you approve of them, as I have revised and altered them, I desire you to send them to me Signed and Sealed by you, that I may present them to the Parliament of England, to obtain their favourable Answer in return of them: And in the mean time I desire that according to this enclosed paper, three months' Cessation between us to be condescended unto, and inviolably kept between our Forces during the same time.  
Dundalk, 26. April, 1649. George Monk.  

1. Observations upon Monk's letter.  1. Col. Monk in his said Letter to O Neale, 26. April, answereth him: 1. That he had perused his Propositions, and conceiving there are some particulars which at first view the Parliament of England may scruple to grant, etc. A gentle phrase to nourish hopes in O Neale even of obtaining all his Demands (if need be) upon debate and deliberation, though not at first view. That he hath made a small alteration in some of them (I confess very small) being well assured he should not receive the least disadvantage by it, etc. From whom had Monk this Assurance, unless from those Men by whose Authority and Directions (private or public) he presumed to Treat with that Enemy he was Commissioned to fight with, and whose Names he doth conceal? That it (yielding to M●nks amendments) would rather prove a means to beget an increase of their (the Parliaments) good opinion of Owen Roe O Neale and his party, etc. It should seem then the Parliament had entertained a good opinion of O Neale and his party before hand; for every thing must have a being, before it can have an increase of being. In case you approve of them (the amended Articles) I desire you to send them to be signed and sealed by you, that I may present them to the Parliament of England to obtain their favourable Answer in return of them, etc. You see all Monk did was in reference to the Parliaments ratification; and therefore reason tells us the Parliament was originally privy to the Treaty: It is not likely Monk should Treat upon his own head, and abruptly send the result of the Treaty to be confirmed by the Parliament without any warning foregoing to prepare them.  

2. Observations upon the Propositions amended. See the said Paper printed at Cork, especially Monks Letter.  O Neale sent his Letter and Propositions to Monk, Dated 25. April, 1649. Monk answered his Letter, and corrected O Neales' Proposition the day after, being the 26. April.  
And the last mentioned Propositions of Gen. Owen O Neal, the Lords, Gentry, and Commons of the Confederate Catholics of Ulster, etc. as well as the first mentioned Articles for three months' Cessation, etc. bear Date 8. May, 1649. which I conceive to be the Date given them when they were ratified by the Parliament, or Council of State. See the said Paper [The true state of the Transactions, etc.] Then follows: 

A second Copy of Owen Roe Oneales' Propositions as they were corrected by Col. Monck, 
Paper printed at Cork.  and sont to Oneale to be subseribed: And then sent by Monck to the Parliament to be granted: as followeth verbatim.  
1. INprimis. That such as shall join with General O-Neal in the Service of the Parliament of England in this Kingdom; may have Liberty of Conscience for themselves and their issue,  
2. The said General O Neale desireth an Act of Oblivion be passed, to extend to all and every of his Party for all things done since the beginning of the Year, 1641.  
3. They desire that General O Neale be provided for a competent Command in the Army befitting his worth, place, and quality.  
4. They desire that they may enjoy all those Lands that were in their possession at the beginning of this War for themselves and Heirs during their fidelity to the Interest of England.  
5. That all incapacity, inability, & distrust hitherto by Act of State or otherwise, against the said Party, be taken off.  
6. That on both sides all Jealousies, hate and aversion be laid aside; unity, love, and amity, renewed and practised between both Parties.  
7. That Gen. O Neale may be restored and put in possession of his Ancestors Estate, or some other Estate equivalent to it, in regard of his merit, and the good Service that he shall perform in the Parliament of England's Service in the preservation of their Interest in this Kingdom.  
8. That the Army belonging to the Gen. O Neale and his Party be provided for in all points as the rest of the Army shall be.  
9 That the said Party be provided with, and possessed of a convenient Seaport in the Province of Ulster.    

See the Date in The true state of Transactions, etc. It seems to be 8. May, 1649.  And I do, upon receiving a Confirmation of those Desires, undertake and promise in the behalf of myself and the whole Party under my Command, faithfully & firmly to adhere to the Parliament of England's Service in this Kingdom, and to maintain their Interest hereafter with the hazard of our Lives and Estates against all Opposers whatsoever.  Given under my Hand and Seal. 
In the said Paper, printed at Cork, is also contained, [A Letter from a Gentleman in Dundalke, dated May 20. 1649.] which take kere verbatim; that you may see what opinion Men there (upon the place) had of that business  
at Cork in Munster. To my worthy Friend, SIR,  
YOu may wonder, my Obligations being so great towards you, that my returns of acknowledgement should be so seldom as they have been, but you must know there is no defect in my desires to be at your ears often; 'tis only the preservation of my Liberty and Safety in these parts that makes me forbear the frequency of such intercourses. I am confident these Letters, this Messenger, and the enclosed papers which I here send you (containing a true Copy of the Propositions and Letters of Agreement between Owen Roe O Neale, and Col. George Monck) will be able to give you some account of the passages in these parts, and will make you assured that I do not forget the respects I own unto you.  
I must confess to you that (as you ever conceived) I never could imagine that the Parliament proceed would have advanced to so high a degree of rage and wickedness as I see now they are come to, and are resolved to act by: but being amazed at the KING'S Murder, and seeing the Gangrene doth so cruelly spread, I will impart to you my resolution, That I am resolved to get into your parts with the first conveniency, and adhere to you there, whose actions are more conducing to the preservation of our Religion, Law, and common Interest, than any where else that I can find. But that this my so sudden resolution may not be conceived the fruit of some vain fear, miscarriage in myself, or light desires to abandon my former principles, I shall give you a right understanding of all the motions and passages of my soul, since I was acquainted with this late Treaty between Col. Monck, and Owen Roe O Neal, that thereby you may judge of the ground of these my Designs and distastes, and my resolutions taken thereupon.  
And before I consider the particulars of the Treaty, the thing itself is so odious to me, that if they could have made the best bargain to be imagined for the English Safety, the manner of it would have appeared to me very unsavoury.  
For although it cannot be denied that almost the whole Irish Party (in regard of their Confederacies and Combinations) have not been innocent in all particulars of that vast Ocean of English Blood that hath been shed; yet it is most clear, that the Plotters and Contrivers of this Treason, and the unnatural and butcherly Executioners thereof are that Party principally which are now Headed by Owen O Neale; for, although many of the pale, with others of Conaught, Leinster, and Munster, entertained the Design, when they saw it was so far spread, and the English so much weakened in their persons and possessions, yet it cannot be denied but this Kingdom had still many moderate-minded Men that loathed their Countrymens' barbarity, and could never be drawn to adhere to their Party in their least consent.  
Now for the Parliament Agents to gather up these Men (and these only) that have been drunk with the blood of their Brethren, and to fortify them with Arms, Counsels, and conjunction of Forces, that thereby they may preserve to themselves the Triumphs of their Cruelty and Treachery, and to lap them up in their affections with promises of reward, if they will persevere to act with them the ruin of the KING and Monarchy, the destruction of the remnant of the English Protestants, and the ancient Irish who have now declared their Loyalty, and submitted to, and consociated with them, are things that I much loath, and can no way embrace.  
Besides, if you consider the passages of the Treaty, you will easily be drawn (I suppose) to cast away your former entertained scruples, and not condemn me for being out of love with mine.  
1. For first. The Title to Owen Roes Propositions excludes all other of his Nation but such as will join with him, though they be far more capable of peace & pardon than himself or his party.  
2. He and his party, who in a late paper of theirs styled the Parliament of England, Monstrosum Parliamentum, (the monstrous Parliament) when (as then) it had not besmeared itself with Royal, Sacred, and Noble Blood, as since it hath done: yet now where he sees them act like himself, he hath taught his tongue to quaver, and calls them, The most Honourable and Potent Parliament; when all Honour is persecuted by them, and no power exercised by them but brutish violence, and extreme tyranny.  
3. In the second Proposition: That an Act of Oblivion be passed to extend to all and every of Owen O Neales' party for all things done since the Year, 1641. You shall find that Monk approves of it totally, without the least reserve of punishment to any the most bloody plotters and Murderers whatsoever that are in that Crew, which makes me more in love with my Lord of Ormonds' peace than I was before.  
4. It is propounded by Owen Roe, and approved by Monk, That he shall have a Seaport to himself, to make use of, for the perfecting of his designs, when (as we hear) the least Traffic will not be allowed to you in Munster.  
5. Although Col. Monk do a little  his Propositions concerning the Repealing of Statutes against Roman Catholics since Hen. 8. lest he should offend the people: And though he do not absolutely undertake to grant him his Ancestors Lands (which when he is once styled O Neale, he will challenge to be the six escheated Counties) yet by Monks Letter he is assured, that he shall not receive the least disadvantage thereby. All which directions, counsels, and assurances (I am confident) Col. Monk would not have used towards him, if he had not had a Parliament foundation to warrant it.  
Thus you see these Men who lately were utter Enemies, have confederated together to ruin Monarchy, and the Protestant Religion, merely to raise themselves, and support their own Faction. They will not here allow the King to make use of his own Subjects to revenge His Father's blood, to Reinthrone Himself, to re-establish Religion and the Laws, and the just Liberties, and yet they allow themselves a latitude of calling in any party, though the most bloody and inhuman, to assist them, in the carrying on their wicked Designs.  
We have seen Col. Jones his Letters, censuring the Lord of Ormond for joining the Irish to his party (though the best and least culpable of them) and yet the same Jones (whose head and hand is in this Treaty and Conclusion) thinks it allowable in himself to close with the worst, and that upon his own terms. And though Col. Monks hypocrisy (in correcting Owen O Neales' 7. Article) will not allow that unity and amity shall be publicly proclaimed between them; yet he is willing it shall be practised, and they shall mutually assist one another against all Opposers whatsoever, that is, the King, and all in Authority under Him.  
The consideration of these things hath left such an impression upon my soul, that I am resolved to make speed to you, no way desiring to live under their Commands, whose actions increase in horror, and beget new afflictions to all honest English hearts. So praying you to forbear further writing to me, because I mean speedily to see you, I rest,  
Dundalk, May, 20. 1649. Your assured Friend and Servant.  
Upon which Propositions so corrected by Monk, and the close carriage of this business, I shall trouble my Reader with these following Observations.  
1. Article. You see the Counterfeit, Alchemy Saints, are content to join covertly with Massacring Irish Parpists, to carry on their Antimonarchical Designs, and to make a false Religion and corrupt worship of God the wages and hire of righteousness.  
2. Article. You see those Men that are so bloodily zealous to bring Protestant Delinquents (nay, the King himself, under the notion of the Grand Delinquent, the Man of Blood) to punishment, and pretend themselves engaged by Oath so to do; can dispense with the Massacre of two hundred thousand English Protestant's barbarously and inhumanely slaughtered in Ireland in time of full peace; and can grant an Act of Oblivion to whole Armies of their Murderers, thereby at once making their Antimonarchical interest the price for which they sell the innocent blood of their Brethren, and defrauding the Irish Adventurers of that Money which the Parliament persuaded them to lay forth to purchase Rebels Lands in Ireland, for which they have an Act of this Sessions of Parliament.  
The like may be said of the 4. and 7. Articles, whereby Rebels attainted and convict are restored to their confiscated Lands, and the English Protestant planters that purchased them of the Crown, are expelled out of their Inheritance; what is this but a design to root out Protestancy, as well as Monarchy?  
5. Article. Taketh off all Incapacity, Inability, and distrust from O Neal and his party at that very time when with much counterfeit zeal they pretend great severity against the English Papists; I think because they are not so very Rebels as the Schismatics.  
According to their usual custom, to accuse other Men of their own Crimes, they charged King CHARLES the First, (upon light surmises) with complying with the bloody Irish Papists; and do themselves actually combine with them to root out Monarchy and Protestancy, giving them a Toleration of their Religion, and the possession of the English Protestants Etates for their Hire.  
And it now appears by Letters newly come to London, the 24. August (notwithstanding the said Votes of the Commons against all association with the Irish Murderers) That Sir Charles Coote, and O Neale, are associated; 
See the Perfect Occurrences, nu. 17. 138. from Aug. 17. to the 24. 1649.  and that the Siege from Londonderry was raised by O Neales' help, which plainly proves, that the Treaty and Conjunction was not only between Monk and O Neale, but between O Neale and the Parliament, or Council of State; and that the said Propositions so altered by Monk are confirmed by the Parliament, or Council of State; 
206. Cromwell's Soldiers desert him at Milford-haven, and upon his complain his House of Commons vote their Debentures void.  and do still serve for a foundation for O Neale to assist the Parliament upon, who have turned out O Neale at the Fore-door (to gull the People) and taken him in again at the Backdoor.  
Many of K. oliver's Officers and Soldiers, abhorring the said Association with O Neale, deserted him at Milford-haven (as I have related) and came to London, whither they were pursued at the heels by a Letter from his Mushroom Majesty, directed to his Viceroys at Westminster, willing his Parliament (that since (to encourage the Soldiers to undertake the Irish expedition only) their Accounts had been Audited, and Debentures granted for their Arrears) they should recall and null their said Debentures: In obedience to which Command, a thing like an Act of Parliament is drawn up, and order taken that the Commissioners that attend Cromwell into Ireland should certify the Names of them all to the Parliament, that they may be punished in purse, for not prostituting their Consciences, and shedding more innocent blood, with an implicit faith and blind obedience, to K. oliver's unquestionable commands, in maintenance of usurpation and lawless tyranny. The rest of the Army may see, by this precedent, they may as well hope to recover a damned Soul out of Hell, as their Arrears out of this bottomless Gulf, the New State: (notwithstanding all their fair promises, Orders, weathercock Acts, and Debentures, which are all written in waste-paper, and as changeable as Tickets and Securities for the Public Faith.) It being their constant resolution and best policy to feed them (from time to time) with vain hopes, and a little spending-mony (for which they are never the better) now a bit of money, and then a bob of Martial Law; and always to promise, never to pay their Arrears, thereby to keep them together from Disbanding, and going to their own homes and callings; whilst the Council of Officers (who only are accounted the rational part of the Army) receive duly the hire of unrighteousness, and whatsoever else they can shark from the private Soldiers (who are looked upon but as the Brutish part of the Army) in whom it is become a capital Crime to question whether their Superiors deal justly with them or no? as is proved to Lockyer. The Common Soldiers, as well as the Common People, paying for the Riot of their Colonels, and superior Officers (who Lord it in their gilt Coaches, rich Apparel, costly Feast (though some of them led Dray-horses, wore Leather-pelts, and were never able to name their own fathers or mothers) I, and for the Lands they purchase too; yet the Officers have one device more to keep the Soldiers together, which is, They make them believe they are so generally hated, they cannot with safety Disband and go home; whereas it is the Superiors only that are looked upon with hatred as the Authors of Tyranny and Oppression: The Private Soldier being esteemed but their Instruments, and such as (in their kind and way) are sufferers under the hand of oppression as well as other men; many Soldiers have been purged out of the Army; others have voluntarily quitted the Army and returned to their callings, without being endangered or injured after their retirement, which shows this objection is but a Scarecrow.  
For the clear manifestation of the Association between O Neale and the Parliament, 
207. A League Defensive & Offensive, concluded between O Neal and Sir Charles Coote Governor of Connaught for the Parliament: See the last Section save one.  there are lately come to the Council of State two Letters out of Connaught from Sir Charles Coote; one Dated the 14. the other the 15. of August, 1649. informing them with how much zeal to the Parliaments Interest Owen O Neale had freely raised the Siege of London-Derry. Upon which Letters, and the Votes and proceed of Col. Pride's Parliament thereupon, I shall commend to my Readers observation these following particulars:  
1. The 15. August, Letters inform, that O Neale freely offered his assistance to Coote, professing much affection to the Parliament of England, and an earnest desire to maintain their Interest, etc. (which is, his own Interest) you may remember that this bloody Rebel O Neale heretofore (when the Parliament was not half so corrupt as now) styled it, Monstr●sum Parliamentum, the Parliament of Monsters: but now that he sees them act his way, and concur with him to destroy Monarchy and Protestancy, he styles them, The Honourable Parliament, aids, and affects them.  
2. The 14. August, Sir Charles Coote informs, that he hath found O Neale and his Army very punctual and faithful in all their Promises and Engagements, and he makes no doubt but they will continue so unto the end, etc. The reason is, becruse they aim all at one end and interest: Subversion of Monarchy and Protestancy, and go one way to effect it, by a Conjunction of Forces and Counsels.  
3. The 16. August, that O Neale in his Express to Coote enclosed some Letters he had received from Monck; and amongst the rest, a ●opie of a Letter from Monck in Answer to a Letter of the Lord Inchiquine, charging Monk with joining with O Neale and his Party; wherein Monck insinuated, as if Oneale's submission to use the Parliaments Power, were already accepted by them, etc. Monck needed not insinuate it, but might have spoken it plainly: as he hath done to sundry of his Friends in England, who reprehended him for joining with O Neale, to whom he Answered, That he had the Authority of his Superiors to warrant his do therein: But this was before he went to Milford-haven to Cromwell, who then taught him the art of Cromwellizing to carry on their design.  

Why did they cry out upon King Charles I. upon a surmise that He used the help of the more innocent Irish Papists, being His own Subjects under His Allegiance and Protection? but we find the Godly are above all laws.  4. The 15. August, Cootes Letter (to justify his do) delivers a piece of Doctrine to the Council of State; the Use whereof they were very perfect in before, viz. Calling to mind that it is no new thing, for the most wise God, to make use of wicked Instruments to bring about a good Design, for the advancement of his glory, etc. This Casuist in Buff had forgotten, That we must not do evil that good may come thereof; and that both the just and the unjust, the righteous and the unrighteous man being all of God's Creation and making, he hath the same prerogative over them all jure creationis, that a Potter hath over his pots, he may use them, and do with them what seemeth best to his most holy will: and it is therefore good, holy, just, because he willeth it. His Divine pleasure being the rule and Standard of goodness, holiness, justice. Mistake me not; I do not mean his bare providence, or permissive will, which no man can take notice of, and Traitors, Tyrants, Thiefs, and Reprobate Saints execute, and boast of, to their own assured damnation. Therefore Gods employing wicked Instruments can be no precedent for our Alchemy Saints to do the like; unless Cromwel's 
* Council of Officers, of State, and Parliament.  three Juntoes and Faction will usurp God's prerogative, as they have done the Kings.  
5. The 15. August, the Letter saith, that Coote called a Council of War, and resolved, It was better to accept of the assistance of those who proclaimed themselves Friends to us, and the Interest we fight for, etc. Here you see O Neales' bloody Party and those Parliament Champions united, and friendly conspiring to uphold one Common Interest, which can be nothing but the downfall of Monarchy and Protestancy.  
6. The 15. August the Letter further saith, that we (Coote and his Council of War) added to the Article this wary Proviso, not to use their assistance longer than the approbation of the State of England should go along with us therein, etc. It should seem by this wariness, that for the time they had used their help (which was ever since the 22. of May last) the approbation of the said State (as they call it) hath gone along therewith. And for the time they mean to use their assistance hereafter, it is left indefinite; (no longer than the approbation of the State shall go along with us therein) which may happily be until Doomsday: notwithstanding the Order, Dated the 24. August, 1649. voting That their Vote of the 10. August, in the Case of Col. Monck, be communicated to Sir Ch. Coote, as the Resolution of the House, etc. For, who knows whether the Copies of that Vote may miscarry, or be stayed by the way either accidentally or purposely.  
7. The 14. August, the Letter saith, 
See Monk's Letter of Answer to O Neale, Dated 26. April, 1649. from Dundalk, contained in the last foregoing Section but one: See tie said Paper, entitled, [The Propositions of Owen Roe O Neale, sent to Col. Monck, etc. Printed at Cork, 1649.  O Neale was pleased to communicate to him certain Proposals, which (he saith) were long since transmitied into England to the Parliament, by Col. Monck, and though for his own part and the prime Officers with him, (these are privy to the secret carriage of the business, and therefore may well be satisfied with what is done already) they do not doubt but the Proposals are already yielded to by the State; yet in regard their Army and Party in all other parts of the Kingdom (these are ignorant of the juggle, and causes thereof) cannot be satisfied therewith, until the Parliament be pleased to declare themselves more publicly therein (it should seem they have done it privately already for satisfaction of O Neale and his said prime Officers) he hath therefore desired me humbly to intraat your Lordships to declare your resolutions therein, with as much speed as may be. Here you see O Neale and his prime Officers (who know the juggle) satisfied already with a private confirmation of the Articles. But to satisfy the rest of his Army and Party (to whom this mystery is not yet revealed) a public Declaration thereof is desired, that they may unanimously and cheerfully endeavour the preservation of the Parliaments Interest.  
The Articles of Agreement between O Neale and Coote conclude clearly a League or War Offensive and Defensive against the Enemies of both, or either, until a more absolute Agreement be made and condescended unto by the Parliament of England. This more absolute Agreement is now agitation, and private Directions sent to Coote how to behave himself in the Transaction thereof. See the 1 Vote, die veneris, 24. Aug. 1649. See the Relation of the Transactions between Sir Charles Coote and Owen Roe O Neale, printed by Order, 28. Aug. 1649.  
The Votes upon these Letters and Articles were two: Upon part, in the first Vote I have observed something already in the 6. branch of this Section (viz.) that their Votes of the 10. Aug. in Case of Col. Monck be communicated to Coote; and a Direction for him how to behave himself in the Transaction between him and Owen Roe O Neale; this Transaction is called in the Articles (ut supra) a more absolute Agreement. These Letters, Articles, and Votes being Apologetically published for satisfaction of the Soldiery and People, it had been fit to have communicated the said Directions also to the Trustors and Sovereign Lords the People, that they might have seen fair play above board, and not to have sent clandestine Directions to Coote (in so suspicious a business) how to behave himself in the Transaction with O Neal; which implies the said Transaction shall be continued and may be completed; the rather for that their second Vote saith, The House is well satisfied of the diligence, faithfulness, and integrity of Sir Charles Coote in preserving the Garrison of London-Derry: now it was preserved by his said Conjunction with O Neale, who raised the Siege.  

208. The Levellers vindicated: or, The Case of the twelve Troops, etc.  About this time came forth a Book, called, [The Levellers vindicated: or, The Case of the 12. Troops which (by Treachery in a Treaty) were lately surprised at Burford: Subscribed by Six Officers in the name of many more.] Wherein (p. 2.) they say, That under colour of the Armies solemn Engagement at New-market and Triplo-heath, June 5. 1647. and many other their Declarations, Promises, and Protestations in pursuance thereof (which Engagement they affirm (against their Preaching Coronet Den) was never retracted by any General Council of the Army, nor upon any Petition of the Soldiers, nor their Agitators ever by them recalled or dismissed) The whole Fabric of this Commonwealth is fallen into the grossest and vilest Tyranny that ever Englishmen groaned under, all their Laws, Rights, Lives, Liberties and properties wholly subdued to the boundless wills of some deceitful Persons, having devolved the whole Magistracy of England into their Martial Domination, etc.  
Pag. 7. They say, That the Soldiers Paper-Debentures are good for nothing but to sell to Parliament men for 3 s. or 4 s. in the pound. (which they are forced to sell them for to keep them from starving, because they will not pay one penny Arrears to such as they put out of the Army any otherways) that so they may rob the Soldiers of their Seven years' Service, and make themselves and their Adherents Purchasers of the King's Lands, for little or nothing: and (for aught appears) the Money they buy these Debenters with, is the Money the Nation can have no Account of. That they have dealt as basely with other Soldiers who never resisted their Commands. 1. They turned them off with only two months pay. 2. They have taken away three parts of their Arrears for Freequarter, without satisfaction to the Country. And at last force them to sell their Debentures at the aforesaid rates, that those Soldiers that are continued in Arms shall far no better, when they have served their turns with them.  
Pag. 10. they say, Their Engagement against the King was not out of any Personal enmity, but simply against his Oppressions and Tyranny on the people; but the use and advantage on all the success God hath been pleased to give us, is perverted to that end, that by his removal the ruling Swordmen might intrude into his Throne, set up a Martial Monarchy, more cruel, arbitrary, and tyrannical, than England ever tasted of, and that under the notion of a Free-State, when as the people had no share at all in the constitution thereof, but by the treachery and falseness of the Lieutenant General Cromwell, and his Son in Law Ireton, with their Faction, was enforced & obtruded by mere Conquest on the people. And a little after, now rather than to be thus vassalized, thus trampled and tr●d under foot by such as over our backs have stepped into the Chair of this hateful Kingship over us, in despite of the consent, choice, and allowance of the Free-people of this Land the true fountain and original of all just Power (as their Votes against Kingly Government confess) we will choose subjection to the Prince, choosing rather ten thousand times to be his Slaves than theirs, etc.  
Pag. 11. They Vote and Declare, The People the Supreme Power, the Original of all just Authority, pretend the promotion of the Agreement of the People; style this, The first year of England's Freedom; entitle the Government, A Free State; and yet none more bloody, violent and perverse Enemies thereto; for, not under pains of death and confiscation of Lands and Goods, may any man challenge or promote those Rights of the Nation, so lately pretended by themselves. Nothing but their boundless, lawless wills, their naked Swords, Armies, Arms is now Law in England, etc.  

209. Col. Morris Governor of Pontefract for the King, Indicted at the Assizes at York, condemned and executed.  16. August, 1649. Col. Morris (who kept Pontefract Castle for the King) was Indicted before Judge Thorpe and Pulleston at York Assizes upon the Stat. 25. Edw. 3. for levying War against the late King and Parliament. The Colonel challenged one Brook (Forerman of the Jury) for being his professed Enemy; but the Court (knowing Brook to be the principal Verb, the Key of their work) answered Morris, He spoke too late, Brooks was sworn already. Brook being asked the Question, whether he were sworn or no: replied, he had not yet kissed the Book. The Court answered, It was no matter, that was but a Ceremony, alleging he was recorded Sworn, there was no speaking against a Record; Sure they made great haste to record him sworn before he could kiss the Book; so Brooke was kept in upon this cavil, by whose obstinacy, Morris was condemned. I cannot wonder that legal Forms and Ceremonies are laid by (although justice cannot subsist without those Legalities to ascertain her proceed, which otherways would be left at large to the discretion of the Judge) when I see our known Laws, Magna Charta, the Petition of Right. 3 Carol. and the rest, with the fundamental Government of this Nation, pulled up by the roots to carry on their Designs of enslaving the people to their lusts, notwithstanding the Parliaments Declarations, Remonstrances, Protestations, Covenants, and Oaths to the contrary; and their late Vote in the Act for Abolishing Kingly Government. That in all things concerning the Lives, Liberties, Properties and Estates of the people, they would observe the known Laws of the Land. But to return to our Relation: Then Morrice challenged 16. more of the Jury, where Pulleston was so pettish, that he bad Morris keep his compass, or else he would give him such a blow as should strike off his head. Until Morice cited the Stat. 14 Hen. 7. fol. 19 whereby he might challenge 35. men without showing cause: Here you see the Judges (which ought to be of Council with the prisoner in matter of Law) endeavouring to outface, and blind the prisoner with ignorance of the Law, being a Martial-man. Then he desired a Copy of his Endictment, that he might know what to answer, saying, he might plead Speeial as well as General, which the Court denied him. Next because there was point of Law in it, he desired to have Council, citing the Stat. 1 Hen. 7. fol. 23. which was likewise denied him; yet (I am deceived, if Rolfe had not Council allowed him, being indicted at Winchester for an endeavour to murder King CHARLES the First) and had many other favours denied to Morris. Then Col. Morris for his discharge produced the PRINCE'S Commission as Generalissimo to the KING his Father. The Judges answered, The Prince was but a Subject as Morris was, and if he were present must be tried as he was, and rejected the Gommission without reading: Morrice told them, the Prince had his Authority from the King, in whose name all Judges and Officers did then Act. The Court answered, the power was not in the King, but the Kingdom. Observe, they indicted him for Levying War against the King and Parliament. The word [Parliament] was a surplusage; for which no Indictment could lie: no Allegiance, no Treason; and we own Allegiance to the King alone; whosoever Leavieth War in England (in the intendment of the Law) is said to Levy War against the King only; although he aim not at his Person, but at some other Person: And if he that Leavieth War against the King, his Crown, and Dignity, be a Traitor; how much more must they be Traitors that have actually murdered the King, and Disinherited and proscribed his lawful and undoubted Heir; and (as much as in them lies) have subverted the Monarchical Government of the Land, and consequently all Monarchical Laws; whereof the Stat. of Treasons for Levying War against the King's Majesty is one; and therefore Morris under a Free-State ought not to be condemned or tried upon any Monarchical Law. So Morris was found guilty by a Jury for that purpose. And an illegal precedent begun to cut off whom the Faction pleaseth, under a pretence and form of Law, without help of a Council of War, or a private Slaughter-house, or a Midnight-Coach guarded with Soldiers to Tyburn. These Usurpers have got the old tyrannical trick, To rule the People by the Laws, but first to overrule the Laws by their Lawyers; and therefore,  rei innocentes pereant, fiunt nocentes judices; that true men may go to the Gallows, Thiefs must sit on the bench; but, silent Leges inter arma; and now, silet Justitia inter Leges, 
Three headed consisting of, 1 Council of War. 2 Council of State. 3 Parliament  filet Jus inter Judices: The mongrel, hypocritical, threeheaded conquest we live under hath despoiled Justice of her balance, and left her in a Military posture, with a Sword to strike, but no scales to weigh withal: Our licenced News Books (like Ill-Boading-Birds) foretell and forejudged Morrice's death a month before: He died resolutely. Observe the thing aimed at in this new form of Endictment of High Treason, for levying War against the King and Parliament, is, first that the word [King] may hold in the Endictment, which otherwise would be found to have error in it; and though the word [for Levying War against the Parliament] be a vain surplusage, signifying nothing; yet at last (by help of their own Judges, and newmade precedents) to levy War against the Parliament, shall stand alone, be the only Significator, and take up the whole room in the Endictment, and thrust the word [King] out of doors; and then Treason shall be as frequent as Malignancy is now. Morrice had moved, he might be Tried like a Soldier by a Council of War, alleging the inconvenience of such a precedent if the King's Party should retaliate it, which would not be granted; yet Col. Bethel writ to the General, and his Council of War, desiring he might be reprieved: but Col. Pride opposed it, urging, That it would not stand with the justice of the Army (you see now who is the foun- of Justice) nor the safety of the Commonwealth, to let such Enemies live, the Parliament having adjudged him worthy of death, (without hearing) and given instructions to the Judges accordingly. (O serviceable Judges!) so the General was overborne by this Dray-man. This fellow sitteth frequently at the Session's house in the Old Bailie, where the weight of his Slings turneth the scale of Justice which way he pleaseth. 
210. Cap. Plunkett and the Marquis of Ormonds' brother voted to be Tried.   
Col. Pride's Dray-horses, the Commons in Parliament assembled, not yet satisfied with Blood, because they are out of danger of bleeding themselves, have voted that Capt. Plunckett and the Marquis of Ormond's Brother (Prisoners in Ireland) shall be brought to Trial. If the King's Party (in imitation of their Cruelty) shall put to death the Prisoners they have taken, the Parliament will save their Arrears for their own privy purse: These two cases, are examples of the greatest danger, and the highest contempt of Soldiers that ever were set on foot in any Age or Nation.  
29. August, 1649. came forth a Book, called, 
211. An outcry of the young men and Apprentices of London concurring with those falsely called, Levellers.  [An outcry of the young Men and Apprentices of London: Or, An Inquisition after the lost fundamental Laws and Liberties of England.] truly and Pathetically setting forth the slavery, misery, and danger of the Common Soldiery and People of this Nation, and the causes thereof: well worth the reading.  
About this time came forth an Act (forsooth) for the speedy raising and levying money upon the Excise: that is (as the Act telleth you) upon all and every Commodities, Merchandizes, 
212. Excise.  Manufactures, as well imported or exported as made or growing, and put to sale or consumed, etc. That is, to lay impositions upon all we eat, drink, wear, or use, as well in private houses as victualling houses, warehouses, cellars, shops, etc. as well what the Soldier devours in Freequarter upon us, as otherwise, under unheardof penalties, both pecuniary and personal to be paid, and levied with rigour. And to make every man's house lie open to be searched by every prowling Rascal as often as he or they please.  
The Traitors, Tyrants, and Thiefs, 
213. Foreign Plantations.  the Commons in Colonel Pride's Parliament assembled, are now again frighted into a consideration of Foreign Plantations: And passing Acts, That they shall all be subject to the new Babel, or State of England: for which purpose they are very busy to undermine, divide, and subject the old and first Planters, that (if need be) these reprobate Saints may come in upon their labours, and the better to accommodate themselves there. In the Act for the sale of Kings, Queens, and Princes Personal Estate, they have given leave to their Agents the Commissioners to transport beyond sea (that is to say, to their own Plantations) (under pretence of sale) the rarest and choicest of the King's Goods; they heap up abundance of wealth by Excise, Taxes, Goldsmiths-hall, Haberdashers-hall, Sequestrations, cozening the Soldiers, etc. That they may transport the whole wealth of the Land with them, and leave England naked, disarmed and oppressed with famine, and disabled to pursue them for revenge, or recovery of their losses.  

214. More gifts to the Faction.  The said Commons are never wearied with exercising their bounty amongst their own Faction out of the public purse, about 1300 l. to Col. Fielder: to Scobell their Clerk (heretofore a poor under-Clerk in the Chanery, who writ for 2 d. a sheet) besides an employment he hath already in the sale of public Lands worth 1000 l. a year) a Pension of 500 l. a year; and a Noble Fee for every Copy of an Order taken forth, toties quoties; although most of their Orders contain not above three or four lines; an extortion far surmounting the Star-Chamber, or Councel-Table, of which themselves so much complained: the Diurnal tells you, 
Numb. 319. from Monday Sept. 3. to Monday, Sept. 10.  an Act was read for satisfying the sufferings of two Members, who have been in the late War damnified many thousands: these (I conceive) to be Sir Tho: Jervys and Mr. Robert Wallope; this satisfaction must be made out of the public purse, which must be filled by Taxes again out of their private purses who have lost as well as they without satisfaction, or hopes of satisfaction, notwithstanding many Votes that all should be satisfied.  

215. O Cromwell reduceth Iones' own Regiment and other Regiments in Dublin. Let Sir C. Coote and his Regiment in London-Derry expect the like  O Cromwell hath reduced the Officers in Col. Jones his Regiment, and other Dublin Regiments, notwithstanding their valour and fidelity shown in raising the Siege of Dublin: you see he will trust none but his own immediate Creatures: this Faction casts out all other men, as Quicksilver spews out all other metals (Gold excepted) so that by this, and many other examples, they may see that all their faithful services and bloodshed are poured into the bottomless tub of oblivion; as their Arrears are cast into the bottomless bag of the Public Faith.  

216. A violent irruption of the Parl. Janissaries upon the Protestants at Church in St. Peter's Paulswharf, Sunday morn, 9 Sept. 1649.  Sunday 9 Sept. 1649. At the Church of Saint Peter Pauls-wharf, Master Williams reading Morning Service out of the Book of Common-prayer, and having prayed for the KING, as in that Liturgy (established by Act of Parliament) he is enjoined: Six Soldiers from St. Paul's Church (where they quarter) came with Swords and Pistols cocked into the Church, commanding him to come down out of the Pulpit; which Williams immediately did, and went quietly with them into the Vestry: when presently a party of Horse from St. Paul's road into the said Church with Swords drawn and Pistols spanned, crying out, Knock the Rogues on the Head, shoot them, kill them; and presently shot at random at the crowd of unarmed Men, Women, and Children, shot an old Woman into the head, wounded grievously above forty more, whereof many are likely to die, frighted Women with Child, and rifled and plundered away their cloaks, hats, and other spoils of the Egyptians, and carried away the Minister to Whitehall Prisoner. You see these Heretics, Schismatics, and Atheists, that cry so loud upon Liberty of Conscience for their own Blasphemies, will allow no Liberty of Conscience to Protestants, notwithstanding their Doctrine and Form of Service is ancient, allowed, and commanded by known Laws, and approved of by all the Reformed Churches of Christendom. This strongly argues a Design in the three Kingdoms to root out Protestancy, as well as Monarchy, carried on by a conjunction of Counsels & Forces between that Triumvirate of Rebels, O Neal, O Cromwell, and (as many wise men think) Argyle: who would not otherwise keep the Scots from complying with the KING upon modest and moderate terms, such as shall leave him in the condition of a Governing King able to protect His People from injuries at home and abroad, without which he is but— magni nominis umbra, the shadow and May-game of a King. Observe, this provocation was put upon the City when an Artificial Mutiny was raised at Oxford; 
This Mutiny was not begun by Levellers.  and against the Great Horse-race appointed to be at Brackley, the 11. September, to draw both City and Country to join with the Mutineers: and then the Soldiers should have made their peace by themselves, and have left the rest to the mercy of the State, to raise more money upon them for O Cromwel's expedition in Ireland, who hath writ for more Recruits of Men and Money,  
Those bloody Saints that accompanied O Cromwell into Ireland (to make that Kingdom as miserable and slavish as they have made this) do now pour forth the blood of their own bowels in great abundance: 
217. O Cromwel's men sick in Ireland.  God's vengeance having visited most of them with the bloody flux; whereof many die: But this is a secret that must not be known to the Ungodly, and therefore O Cromwell and his Council of War at Dublin have made an Order, Declaring, That if any Person residing within the Garrison of Dublin, whether Inhabitants or Soldiers, shall (upon pretence of writing to their Friends) signify the Transactions of the Army (between O Neale, and O Cromwell, it may be) or their Engagements with the Enemy, so as to set forth their Success, or Loss, until first the General or Council of War have signified (falsified the same to his Parliament of England, they shall incur the breach of the Article against Spies, and be accordingly punished with Death, etc. Here you see O Cromwell, in the first Year; nay in the first Month of his reign, sets up a military tyranny in Ireland, to which all People, as well not Soldiers as Soldiers, must submit their lives and fortunes, and the writing of news to their Friends of England (whereby their Lies and Forgeries may chance to be contradicted) shall be construed to be a Breach of the Article against Spies: not because Reason a●d Truth, or the Customs of War calls it so, but because the Sword puts this construction upon it. Take notice Ireland that this is the first year of thy Bondage if they prevail. And take notice England that O Cromwell and his Council and Party are resolved to Lie without control if they prevail not; their Letters speak him to be 15000 strong before Tredah, which hath Articled to yield: That the next he will vouchsafe is Dundalke, and that Ormond flies from the face of this Josua; and Lying Prophets are sent over to gull the people into a belief. But the truth is, he is not able to draw together above 4000 or 5000 men, unless his Confederate O Neale join with him: And Ormond hath wit enough to know that sickness and famine in that wasted Country, are sufficient to deal with O Cromwell without his running the hazard of an engagement with such desperate forlorn wretches.  

218. Unreasonable Fees extorted by Birkhead by Dures of Imprisonment; with the connivance of the Commons.  Col. Bromfield, Hooker, Cox, and Baynes, Citizens, who the last year were committed upon suspicion of High Treason (to which every offence against this new Babel-state is now wrested (notwithstanding the Stat. 25 Edw. 3. for limitation of Treasons) as in an infectious season all diseases turn to the plague) and were then discharged for want of matter to make good the Charge: are now again imprisoned (in the first year of England's Liberty) at the request of Birkhead (Sergeant at Arms to the Commons) until they pay such unreasonable Fees as he pleases to exact from them: This had been great Extortion and Tyranny in the KING'S time, when this Nation enjoyed so much freedom as to call a Spade a Spade; an Extortioner, an Extortioner; and a Tyrant, a Tyrant. And reason good; for if such Fees be legally due, Birkhead hath Legal means to recover them; if not Legally due, it is Extortion in him to demand them in so violent a way; and Tyranny in his Masters the Commons to maintain him in it.  
Sir Henry Mildmay lately coming to the Tower, and perceiving the Countess of Carlisles window had some prospect to Col. Lilborns Grates (out of his parasitical diligence) told the Lieutenant of the Tower, 
219. Sir Har. Mildmay's Politic Observations, Chaste Conversation, and first initiation at Court.  That notwithstanding the distance was such as they could not communicate by speech, yet they might signify their intentions by signs upon their fingers, to the prejudice of the tender, infant State; and accompanying this admonition with some grave and politic Nods, hasted away to the Council of State, and (being both out of breath and sense) unloaded himself of his Observations there; and was seconded by Tho. Scot (the Demolisher of old Palaces, and Deflowrer of young Maidenheads, before they are ripe) who much aggravated the danger, and applauded the Observator. Sure Sir Henry hath not yet forgot the bawdy Language of the hand and fingers; since he first, in Court began, to be Ambassador of Love, Procuror, Pimp or Pander to the Duke of Buckingham; and laboured to betray the honour of a fair Lady (his nearest Ally) to his Lust, had not she been as Virtuous as he is Vicious (if it be possible for any Woman to be so) and did actually betray others to him. I can tell you that very lately Sir Harry (pretending himself taken with the Wind-colic) got an opportunity to insinuate himself into a Citizen's house in Cheapside, and tempted his Wife; but had a shameful repulse: but more of this I will not speak, lest his Wife beat him, and give an ill example to other Women, to the prejudice of our other New Statesmen, 
220. Felons fetched out of Newgate to inform against Merchants for not paying Customs  and their New erected Sodoms and Spintries at the Mulbury-garden at St. Jamses.  
Master Gybs (Master of a Ship) having caused three fellows to be committed to Newgate upon Felony, for Robbing him: These Fellows sent to Col. Harvey, That if he would procure their Liberty, they would discover to him several Merchants who had lately stolen Customs: Whereupon, Harvey sends for those Rogues out of Newgate hears their Accusation, approves it, prosecutes the Merchants upon the Information of those Villains, discharges them of their Imprisonment by his own power, and recommends them to Col. Deane to be employed in the Navy. And one Master Lovel a Silkman in Saint Lawrence-lane, is committed to the Gatehouse Prisoner, because he refuseth to swear how many Bayls of Silk he hath come over: If the first year of our Liberty make such precedents, what Monsters will the Sixth and Seventh year produce? All Princes begin with moderation: The Elders gave good Council to Rehoboam, Serve the People one day, and they will serve thee for ever hereafter. Nero had a commendable Quinquennium; But our Novice Statists are Tyrants ab incunabilis; Oppressors with shells upon their heads, from the Nest, before they are fledge; what will they be hereafter?  

221. Sommer-hill given to Bradshaw. A sop for Cerberus.  Sommerhil, a pleasant Seat, worth 1000 l. a year, belonging to the Earl of Saint Alban, is given by the Juncto to their Bloodhound Bradshaw, so he hath warned the Countess of Leicester (who formerly had it in possession to raise a Debt of 3000 l. pretended due to her from the said Earl, which she hath already raised ) to quit the possession against our Lady-day next.  

The Protestation and Declaration.  
THe Premises considered, I do hereby in the name and behalf of myself, and of all the Free people of England, Declare and Protest, That the General, Council of War, and Officers of the Army, by their said violent and treasonable force upon the far major, more honest and moderate part of the House of Commons (being above 250.) and leaving only fifty or sixty Schimaticks of their own engaged Party sitting and voting under their Command, and almost all of them such as have and do make a prey of the Commonwealth, to enrich themselves and their Faction, have broken, discontinued and waged War against this Parliament, and have forfeited their Commissions. And the remaining Faction in the House of Commons by abetting, aiding, and concurring with the said Council of War, in the said rebellious Force, and by setting up new, illegal and arbitrary Courts of Judicature to Murder King CHARLES the First, our lawful King and Governor (who by his Writ (according to the Law) summoned and authorised this Parliament to meet, sit, 
Principium Caput & fini● Parliamenti. Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy.  and advise with him, and was the Fountain, Head, and conclusion, or su●matory end of the Parliament, and Supreme Governor over all Persons, and in all Causes of this Kingdom (and by Abolishing the House of Peers and the Kingly Office, and Disinheriting the King's Children, and Usurping to themselves the Supreme Authority and Legislative P●wer of this Nation, in order to make and establish themselves a Council of State, Hogen mogen's, or Lords States General, and translate the said Supreme Power, and Authority into the said Council of State, and then Dissolve this Parliament, and perpetute their said Tyranny and this Army, and Govern Arbitrarily by the Power of the Sword; and raise what illegal Taxes they please, and eat out, consume and destroy whosoever will not basely submit to their Domination. 
See 1. part. sect. 105, 106. and the Conclusions, 15, 16, 17, 18. and return to sect. 79, 109, 110. Stat. of Recognition, 1 Jac. Oaths of Algiance and Supremacy.  Have by the aforesaid ways and means totally subverted this Commonwealth, and destroyed the fundamental Laws, Authority and Government thereof, Dissolved and Abolished this, and all future Parliaments, so that there is now no visible, lawful Authority left in England, but the Authority of King CHARLES the Second, who is actually KING of all his Dominions presently upon the Decease of the King his Father, before any Proclamation made, or Coronation solemnised, notwithstanding that by his unjust Banishment (caused by the interposition of the said traitorous, combined, Antimonarchical Faction) He be eclipsed for the present, and not suffered to perform any Acts of Government to his three Kingdoms, and restore Peace, Plenty, Justice, Mercy, Religion, Laws, and Liberties to them again, which no hand but his own can bestow; and therefore in vain do the people long for, and expect Figgs from Thistles, Grapes from Thorns: This Kingdom of the Brambles now set up, being only able to Scrath and Tear, not to Protect and Govern them. I farther Declare and Protest, That this combined traitorous Faction, have forced an Interregnum and a Justitium upon us, an utter suspension of all Lawful Government, Magistracy, Laws and Judicatories; so that we have not the jure, any Laws in force to be executed, any Magistrates or Judges Lawfully constituted to execute them; any Court of Justice wherein they can be judicially executed, any such Instrument of the Law as a lawful Great Seal, nor any Authority in England that can lawfully Condemn and Execute a Thief, Murderer, or other Offender, without being themselves called Murderers by the Law, all legal proceed being now coram non Judice; nor can this remaining Faction in the House of Commons show any one Precedent, Law, Reason, or Authority whatsoever for their aforesaid do, but only their own tyrannical Votes, and the Swords of their Army: Wherefore I do further Declare and Protest before God and the World, That all Freeborn Subjects of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland, are bound by the Stat. of Recognition, 1 Jac. and by all our Laws and Statutes, By their Oaths of Allegiance, Obedience, and Supremacy, the Protestation and National Covenant, by very many Declarations, Remonstrances, Petitions, and Votes of this Parliament, and all Soldiers are engaged also by their own Declarations, Remonstrances, and Proposals, to defend, assert, and vindicate with their lives and fortunes, the Person, Authority and Title of our aforesaid lawful KING and Supreme Governor (the undoubted Heir of all His late Father's Dominions) CHARLES the Second, by the Grace of God, King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, etc. against all Opposites and pretended Authorities whatsoever, unless they will be guilty of the foulest sins of Treason, Rebellion, Perjury, and perfidiousness against their God, their King and Country; and of prostituting the Religion, Laws, and Liberties of the Land, their Wives, Children, and Estates to the lusts of an Armed Faction, usurping a far more Arbitrary and Tyrannical power over our Consciences, Persons, Liberties, and Estates, than ever was known in England before, or then is now used by the Ruff, Turk, or Tartar, or any the most enslaving and lawless Tyrants under Heaven. 
223. Compare the date of the K. Commissions with those of the Parliament, and their Declarations on both sides.     

An Exhortatory Conclusion to the English Nation.  
TO conclude the series of Affairs and Action on both Parties (especially of late) rightly compared, it appeareth by the sequel, That King CHARLES the First, from the beginning took up defensive Arms to maintain Religion, Laws, Liberties, and the ancient fundamental being of Parliaments and this Kingdom: and that there always was, and now especially is, a predominant Faction in Parliament (notwithstanding their frequent Declarations, Remonstrances, Petitions, Protestations, Covenant, and Votes to the contrary) conspiring with a Party (especially of Commissioned Officers of the Army) without the Houses to Change the fundamental Laws and Government of the Church and Commonwealth, to usurp into a few hands the Supreme Authority, to enslave the People with an Olygarchical, Military, and Arbitrary Government, to raise what illegal Taxes they please to establish their tyranny and enrich themselves and their Party, to oppress, consume, and devour all men of a judgement contrary to their Interest; to Murder them by new-declared arbitrary Treasons, contrary to the Stat. 25 Edw. 3. for ascertaining Treasons; to Disfranchise them of their Birthrights, and make them Adscriptios Glebae, Villains Regardant to their own Lands, which the Nobility, Gentry, and Yeomanry plough, sow. and reap, whilst Brewers, Dray-men, and Cobblers eat, drink, and play upon the sweat of their labours; and are the Usufructuaries of their Estates. All which they have lately brought to pass; wherefore let all true Englishmen (as becomes good Christians, good Patriots, and gallant Men) claim their Birthrights, and with own voice cry out.  
1. We will not Change our Ancient, settled and well approved Laws to which we are Sworn.  
2. We will not Change our Ancient and well-tempered Monarchy to which we are Sworn.  
3. We will not Change our old Religion for New Lights and Inventions.  
4. We will not subject ourselves to an eighth part of one Estate or House of Parliament, sitting under a force, and having expelled two hundred and fifty of their Fellows (more Righteous than themselves) by force, and usurping to themselves the Supreme Authority.  
5. We will not be subjected to a new Supreme Authority usurped by forty ambitious, covetous Tyrants, arrogating to themselves to be a Council of State, and designed to supply the room of Parliaments, under what name or Title soever they mask themselves.  
6. We will not submit ourselves to a Military Government, or Council of Officers.  
7. We must and will have A KING, and The KING whom the Laws of God and this Land have Designed to us, 
See the Stat. of Recognition, 1 Jac. and the Oaths of Allegiance, Obedience, and Supremacy.  we being by the Oaths of Allegiance, Obedience, and Supremacy sworn to ●ear Faith and true Allegiance to King CHARLES the First his lawful Heirs and Successors.  Hic telum infigam, moriarque in vulnere—  

Postscript.  
REader, at the latter end of my First part of The History of Independency, I have presented to thy consideration, some General Conclusions arising out of the Premises; the same Conclusions do as naturally arise out of the Premises of this Second part of the History: and do as aptly serve to illustrate this Second, as that First part; wherefore to that First part I send thee for opening thy understanding.  
When our old Laws run again into their Ancient Channel, and the Sword of Murder is sheathed, and the Sword of Justice drawn; the Author engageth to publish his Name and Apology, and show what he hath done and suffered for the Parliament and Kingdom.   
THE END.   

THE High Court OF JUSTICE, OR CROMWEL'S New Slaughter-House in ENGLAND. With the Authority that Constituted, and Ordained it.  
Arraigned, Convicted, and Condemned, FOR Usurpation, Treason, Tyranny, Theft and Murder.  
Being the Third Part of the History of INDEPENDENCY, Written by the same Author.  
Printed Anno Domini 1660. In the second Year of the State's Liberty, and the People's Slavery.   
Plin. Paneg. ad Trajanum. 
Olim criminibus, jam legibus laboratur; & metuendum est, ne legibus fundata Respublica, sit legibus eversa.  Isaiah 59 vers. 3, 4. 
Your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity, your lips have spoken lies, your tongues have muttered perverseness. None calleth for Justice, nor any pleadeth for truth; they trust in vanity and speak lies, they conceive Mischief, and bring forth Iniquity.  Vers. 7. 
Their feet run to evil, and 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, and there is no judgement in their go.  Vers. 11. 
We look for Judgement, but there is none; For Salvation, but it is far from us.  Vers. 14. 
Judgement is turned away backward, and Justice standeth afar off; For truth is fallen in the streets, and Equity cannot enter.   

THat every thing is kept and maintained by the same ways and means it was got and obtained, 
Vnumquodque conservatur eodem modo quo fit.  is a rule true both in Philosophy and Policy. And therefore Dominion gotten by fraud and force, must by fraud and force be preserved. Things impiously got, must be impiously kept. When usurped Tyranny lays its foundation in blood, the whole Superstruction must be built with Mortar, tempered with blood. One sin must defend and make good another. And hence ariseth a Necessity upon Ambitious men to flank and fortify one Crime with another. But to plead this Necessity, which they have so wilfully drawn upon themselves, in justification of their wicked Courses. To expect submission, obedience, and an equal engagement from men uninterressed therein; and to entitle the Divine Providence and unrevealed Will of God thereto (in opposition to His Will revealed and declared in the Scriptures, as is now a days used) is to accuse the Holy Ghost of our Sins, and an Hypocrisy so impudently sinful and damnable, that I doubt no Age but this (the Dregs and Lees of time) ever gave an example of the like.  
TO illustrate my first Maxim by some foreign Examples (before I lay the Bastard at our own Doors) Sylla at Rome, by the power of the Sword, proclaimed (or voted) himself Dictator, to make good which usurpation with a Mask of Authority, he compelled the Senate, or Parliament) to approve of all his forepast Villainies, Murders and illegal Acts, and to confer a power upon him; To kill whom he pleased and confiscate their Estates; To build and destroy Cities; Dispose Kingdoms; And exercise an Arbitrary, Supreme Authority, and then (to establish himself in his self-created power) he posted up at Rome, and in most Cities of Italy, Bills of Proscription or Outlawry, containing the names of such persons, as (without any form of Law or Justice) he appointed to be slain by his Soldiers. These Proscribed men were (for the most part) such as having some sparks of Roman virtue in them, durst love the ancient Government, Laws and Liberties of Rome, and were therefore thought fit to be weeded out, as Malignants against his Innovations and arbitrary courses. Yet many mean spirited fellows, were proscriscribed and murdered, partly for confiscation of their Estates, and partly to gratify the malice and hatred of particular friends who (in that carnage) prayed in aid of Sulla's sword to rid them of their Enemies.  
After this Augustus Caesar at Rome, having by terror of Arms made himself Consul, and finding himself not strong enough singly to subjugate his Country, he called Antonius and Lepidus to join with him, with whom entering into confederacy to subvert the fundamental Government, and usurp the Supreme Authority; they divide that vast Empire between them, and passed a Decree amongst themselves, that they should be called the Triumvirate for Reforming and Re-establishing the Commonwealth (well enough before if they had let it alone) with Supreme Authority to give Estates and Offices to whom they thought fit, without ask the advice of Senate or people. They appointed what Consuls, Magistrates & officers they pleased They designed rich donatives, and 18 of the Chief Cities of Italy to be given to their Soldiers, if, by their valour they should obtain victory over Brutus and Cassius. They fixed public lists or Tables of Proscription, naming such persons as they exposed to slaughter. They proscribed at one time 130 Senators, at another time 150 and 2000 Knights. Whereby the best men for understanding, Conduct, Resolution and Affection, being cut of, the rest (terrified by their example) became but Terra Maledicta (as Chemics call it) dull liveless Ashes or clods of Earth, without power or virtue to quicken them, or make them productive. After some revolutions, wherein Augustus and Antonius had discarded the dull and stupid Lepidus, and (at last) Augustus had subdued Antonius: Augustus usurped the Title of Tribune of the People, whereby his Person became sacred and inviolable; and (humouring the irrational Animals) took upon him the special Protection of that Brutish Herd, the Rascal Multitude, the Tribunes of the people having been originally instituted to Protect the people. His next step was to make himself Perpetual Dictator, whereby he arrogated to himself a vast unlimited power above all Laws. The Tribuneship was his Buckler. The Dictatroship was his Sword. And last of all (for Ornament only) He having already full power of an absolute Monarch (although he forbore the Title of (King) because it was hateful to the people, and against the Laws evea since the Regifugium) he took upon him the Title of Princeps Senatus, or Precedent of the Senate; to keep a corresponding power over that great Counsel or Parliament: And finally usurped the Title and Office of Imperator or Generalissimo of all Forces by Land and Sea, Garrisons, etc.  
Philip King of Spain, Lord of the 17. Belgic Provinces, by several Titles, and under several limitations, Privileges, Exemptions and Fundamental Laws, according to which he was to govern, and they to obey: 
In nevum regnum vi armisque partum redigere, atque aliis Novis legibus domare ac guhernare Belgium. Meteran. in anno 1567. Roidan in an. 1566. John Frances Petit. Thuanus.  Resolving to subvert the Fundamental Laws and Government, and reduce those 17. petty Signiories into one mere absolute Monarchy, sent the Duke D' Alva thither (a Warrior of a resolute stern nature) Governor, with a powerful Army; Who taking advantage of some rude Commotions formerly raised by the Protestants, in throwing down Images, and Sacrilegiously plundering Churches, erected a New Tribunal Criminal, or (to speak in our modern uncouth Language) A High Court of Justice, consisting of 12 Commissioners or Judges purposely chosen, most of them hangers by of the Law, of mean fortunes, practice, birth, and breeding; Covetous, Ambitious, and slavishly addicted to the Spanish Faction. To these was given by special Commission full Power and Authority to inquire into, and judge (or to hear and determine) the forepast Commotions, whereupon they styled this Court, Concilium Turbarum, but the multitude called it Concilium Sanguinis, or the Bloody Conventicle. This Council or Inquisition did supersede or extinguish the Authority of all other Courts of Judicature, and make void all Laws, Constitutions, Jurisdictions, and Privileges of the Nation, as to the aforesaid commotions, and all other causes they pleased to call High Treason. They had no other bounds nor limits in their proceed, than what they prefixed to themselves in certain Articles. Some few whereof I will here present unto my Reader, because they judged of High Treason by those Articles, not by the known Laws of the Land (a thing very observable and applicable to my purpose) so that they were not only Judges, Leges dicere, but also Lawmakers, Leges dare: as all Judges are who take upon them a liberty to observe no set forms of proceed, but at their own pleasure.  
1. Article. 
Petitioning against Innovations in Government, and for the known Laws made Treason, the like the Parliament practiseth against such as petitioned for peace by accommodation. And against our High Court of Justice, Arbitrary Imprisonments and Taxes.  All Petitions heretofore tendered to the States, or Cities Corporate against the erecting of new Episcopal Sees: or against the Holy Inquisition: or or requiring a Moderation of Decrees or Acts of State Parliament, are accounted mere conspiracies against God and the King.  
2. Art. All Nobles, Gentry, Judges, Magistrates, and all others who connived at Heretical Sermons, plundering of Churches, and delivering such Petitions as aforesaid, pretending the necessity of the times, and did not resist and oppose them.  
3. Art. Whosoever affirms that all His Majesty's Subjects of Belgia have not forfeited their ancient Privileges, immunities and laws for Treason: 
We have forfeited our laws by conquest, or else our Grandees would not pass the two Acts for Treason, 14. May, 17. July, 1648. nor erect the High Court of Justice, and abolish our ancient laws and government. See Pol. 3. Oct. 1650. and the Case of the Kingdom stated.  and that it is not lawful for the King to use and handle them for the aforesaid Treasons as he pleaseth, to prevent the like Treasons for the time to come, and that the King is not absolved thereby from all Oaths, Promises, Grants, Contracts and Obligations whatsoever.  

Compare this with the two Acts for New Treasons, 14. May, 17. July, 1649. and the Act 26 March, 1650. and Sir John Gells Case stated.  4. Art. They that affirm this Council or High Court of Justice exercise Tyranny in their Proceed, or Judgements; and that they are not Supreme and competent Judges in all causes Criminal and Civil.  

Our High Court of Just. exceeds all this. See Sir John Gells Case stated, Printed Aug. 1650.  5. Art. Those that in case of Heresy deny, that all manner of Informers and Witnesses of whatsoever Degree and condition they be, are to be credited: and that upon the Testimony of any two witnesses, this High Court ought to proceed to Judgement, Execution, and Confiscation of life and goods, without publishing the cause or charge, and without any legal form of Trial. All these are guilty of High Treason against God and the King.  

The Rigour, Cruelty, and Injustice of this New erected Counsel of Blood, or High Court of Justice, enforced the Low Countries to revolt and cast off the King of Spain.  
LEt us now examine whether in some one little Province or Island belonging to that vast Roman Empire: and in some mean petty fellows (Natives of that Island) men even at home of obscure Birth, Breeding, and Fortunes; we cannot find examples of Ambition Usurpation, and Tyranny, as high and transcendent, as bloody and destructive, as covetous and greedy, as any of the forerecited precedents: And (which is worst of all) carried on by those that call themselves Christians, nay Saints, (which is more than they vouchsafe to Saint Peter and the rest of the Apostles, though glorified Saints in the Church Triumphant) and such as in all their bloody, oppressing, cheating Designs (promoted by Perjury, Treachery, breach of Faith, Oaths, and public Declarations) pretend to the singular favour, Providence and will of heaven, as confidently, as if they could show Gods special Commission, to warrant Usurpation, Treason, Tyranny, and Thievery.  
It is not unknown by what Artifices, frauds, falsified promises, Oaths, and Covenants, a party of Antimonarchists, Schismatics, and Anabaptists lurking in the Parliament fooled the people to contribute their blood and money towards the subduing of the King (and in him of themselves) and how by the same ways and subtleties the said party in the two Houses (now combined openly, under the General Title of Independents) engaging and conspiring with the Officers of the Army and Soldiery expelled by armed force seven parts of eight of the House of Commons, leaving not above 43. or 44. of their own engaged party sitting, men enriched with public spoils) and voting under the power of the Armies Commanders, whose commands are now become a law to the said sitting Members, as their Votes are become Laws to the Kingdom. In Obedience to their said Masters of the Army, The said remainder of Commons voted down the House of Lords (though an integral and principal Member of the Parliament of England, far ancienter than the House of Commons, and having a power of Judicature to administer an Oath (which the House of Commons never had, nor pretended to have, until this time that they overflow their Bounds, and the whole Kingdoms, under the protection of their Army) which prerogative of the House of Lords is clearly demonstrated by the House of Commons standing bare before them at all conferences, as the Grand Inquest doth before the Judges) because they rejected the Ordinance for Trial of the King. And now these Dregs and Lees of the House of Commons, take upon them to be a complete Parliament: To enact and repeal Statutes; To subvert the Fundamental Government, Laws and Liberties of the Land; To pull up by the Roots without Legal proceed) every man's private property and possession, and destroy his life: To burden the people with unsupportable, unheard of, unparliamentary Taxes, Impositions, Excise, Freequarter, buying of New Arms after the Country have been disarmed of their old Arms three times in one year; 
In their Tax Rolls they usually set in the Margin to every name private notes of distinction, an M. an N. or P. The letter M. stands for Malignant; he that is so branded, is highly taxed, and his complaints for redress slighted. N stands for a Neuter, he is more indifferently rated, and upon cause shown, may chance to be relieved. The letter P. signifies a perfect Parliamentarian. He is so favourably taxed, as he bears an inconsiderable part of the burden, and that they may the better consume with Taxes and want, all such as do not concur with them in the height of their villainies. The pretended Parliament, are now debating to raise the Monthly Tax to 240000 lib. or to deprive every man of the third part of his Estate; both Real and Personal, for maintenance of their immortal Wars, and short lived Commonwealth. Besides Excise, Customs, Tonnage and Poundage, Freequarter, finding Arms and Horses, and the sale of Corporation Lands now in agitation. Whilst our Grandees enrich all the Banks of Christendom with vast sums raised by public Theft and Rapines.  Press and Levying of Soldiers, Sequestrations, Plundering of Houses and Horse, and many other oppressions, more than the Turk, Russee, or Tartar ever heard of: of all which our Grandees are free, and lay them upon others as partially as they please, purposely to consume them. To make Religion but a stalking horse to their Designs, and the Ministers thereof but Ostlers to rub down, curry, and dress it for their riding; to whom they send Commands, what they shall, and shall not preach to the people; as if preaching were the Ordinance of man, not of God. At last by way of preparative to their machinations, they pass these following Votes.  
1. That all Supreme power is in the people.  
2. That the Supreme Authority under them, is in the people's Representatives, or delegates in Parliament assembled. Meaning themselves (you may be sure) the Quintessence and Elixir of the House of Commons, extracted by those learned Chimcks, Doctor Fairfax, Doctor Cromwell, and the rest, graduated at that degraded University of Oxford. Here note they voted the Supreme power to be in the people, that they might use those Gulls as Conduit pipes or Trunks to convey the Supreme Authority into themselves, the better to enslave the people; And tickle them, whilst they fasten about their necks the Iron yoke of a Military Oligarchy, wearing the Mask of a perpetual Parliament.  
3. That whatsoever the Commons in Parliament shall enact, shall have the power and force of an Act of Parliament, or Law, without the consent of the House of Lords, or the King's Royal Assent; any statute, law custom or usage to the contrary notwithstanding (they might have said all our statutes, laws, customs, etc. notwithstanding) This one vote hath more of Dissolution and more of Usurpation and Innovation in it, than any I yet ever read of; This is universally Arbitrary, and lays the Axe to the root of all our Laws, Liberties, Lives, and properties at once.  
What these men will, they vote:  
What they vote is Law.  
Therefore what they will is Law.  
4. That to wage war, or to bear Arms against the Representative body of the People, or Parliament is high Treason. By the Law all Treasons are committed against the King, his Crown and Dignity.  
5. That the King hath taken up Arms against this Parliament, and is therefore guilty of all the blood shed this War, and should expiate those crimes with his blood. If the King were not guilty, these men are; And therefore they passed this Vote, Se defendendo. Yet observe that herein they became Judges in their own cause, and forejudged his Majesty before his Trial, if that may be called a Trial, that was carried on by men, who were both Accusers, Prosecuters, parties and Judges; and had neither Law, precedent, formality of proceed, nor any other foundation of Justice or Reason to warrant them, nor were delegated by any lawful Authority?  
These Votes thus passed, and by this kind of men, were the foundation upon which they built their great Engine to destroy the King and Kingly Government together with the Religion, Laws, Liberties, Lives, and properties of the people; all condemned in that deadly sentence given against the King) For having (as aforesaid) created (by their own Votes) themselves as absolute a power as they pleased and cast the people and all they have into that bottomless Chaos of their Arbitrary Domination: They erect an Extrajudicial, unpresidented High Court of Justice to Try (or rather to condemn without Trial) the King, consisting of 150. Commissioners, Soldiers, Parliament men, Trades men; the most violent, engaged and factious incendiaries of all the Antimonarchical faction: Amongst whom were many low conditioned Mechanics, and Bankrupts, whose Fortunes are since repaired out of the King's Estate, and other public Lands, Goods, and Offices, 
See Stat. Recognition 1 Jac. The Oaths of Algiance, Obedience and Supremacy, and all our Law-books.  as a reward for that Royal Blood they spilt. The King the Fountain of Law, Justice, Mercy, Honour, War, and Peace; the Head of the Parliament, and Supreme Governor over all persons, and in all causes) thus violently removed; presently (as if the Mounds and banks of the Sea had been overturned) an impetuous inundation of bloody, thievish Tyranny and Oppression broke in upon us: So that no man can call his life, liberty, house, lands, goods, or any other his Rights, or Franchises his own, longer than the gracious aspect of some of our Grandees shine favourably upon him.  
In the next place: contrary to their own Declarations of the 9 Feb. and 17. March 1648. Wherein they promise that in all things concerning the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, they will observe the known laws of the Land, with all things incident thereto) They pass misbegotten Acts of Parliament, 
This Stat. 25 Ed. 3. c. 2. S. john's against Strafford, calls the security of the people. And the Stat. 1 Hen. 4. cap. 10. Ed. 6. cap. 12. 1. Mariae 1. ratify and highly commend.  one of the 14. of May, another of the 17. of July, 1649. whereby (in derogation and annihilation of that excellent Stat. 25 Ed. 3. Chap. 2. Ascertaining Treasons, and reducing them to a small number, and leaving nothing to the interpretation of the Judges, that the people might not be ensnared) they exceeding by multiplying Treasons, bringing bare words as well as deeds within the compass of that offence: and making many duties to which the laws of God & the land, the Protestation & Covenant, the oaths of allegiance, obedience, & supremacy oblige us, to be high treason, & these new acts of treason penned in obscure, ambiguous terms, purposely to leave a latitude of Interpretation in (their own creatures) the Judges, that the People may be ensnared.  
The King thus taken out of their way. They pass pretended Acts. 1. To Disinherit his Children. 2. To abolish Kingly Government for ever. 3. To convert our ancient well-tempered Monarchy into that (which they call a Commonwealth, 
They have converted our ancient Monarchy into a Free-state; and tell us they are the State. They tell us they have bestowed Liberty upon the people: but they and their faction only are the people. All the rest of the English Nation are annihilated, and reduced to nothing, that these fellows may become all things: Mere cyphers, serving only to make them of more account. And this gross fallacy must not be disputed against, lest their New Acts of Parliament call it Treason.  or Free-State; although nothing be therein free but their lusts: nor hath it any form or face of Civil and just Government; wherein a confused Multitude rule by their own Wills, without Law: and for their own benefit; no consideration being had of the good and happiness of the people in general. 4. They Constitute a Senate, or Council of State of 40 men (amongst which some Tradesmen, Soldiers, illiterate Lawyers, Parliament-Members, men already engaged over head and ears in sin, therefore to be confided in) to these or any nine of these they entrust the Administration of this Utopian Commonwealth, and these they would have us believe (without telling us so) are the Keepers (or Gaolers) of the Liberties of England.  
These things being but Introductions to the Usurpation of these Kinglings: and having been already showed to the world by many pens. I content myself to give a cursory view of them, and haste to my intended task, to show that this Usurped power is kept and administered by as wicked and violent policies, as it was gotten by.  
The first endeavour of all Tyrannical Usurpers is, To lessen the number of their Enemies; either by flattering and deceiving them: or by violently extirpating and rooting them out. And such have been the attempts of our new Cromwellian Statists, ever since (without any calling from God or the people) they took upon them the Supreme Authority of the Nation; subverted our well-mixed Monarchy, and created themselves a Free-State  
1. They endeavoured to sweeten and allure to act with them, 
1. A Collusive Accommodation.  as many of the Secured and Secluded Members, Ministers, and other Presbyterians, as they could, to the end that ex post facto being guilty of their sins, they might be engaged in one common defence, and go halfs with them in their ignominy and punishment, though not in their power, profit, and preferments, in which the Godly will admit no Rivals, but (like their Patron the Devil) cry all's mine. But this Design failed for the most part.  
2. Their second Endeavour was how to diminish the number of their Opposites, 
2. An intended Massacre.  Royalists and Presbyterians, by a Massacre, for which purpose many Dark Lanterns and Poniards were provided last Winter, 1649. But fame prevented this plot: which coming to be the common rumour of the Town, put them in mind of the danger, infamy, and hatred that would overwhelm them. So this was laid aside.  
At last they invented two other Engines, no less bloody then, and as effectual as a Massacre.  
3. The Engagement is the first of these two Gins) which all persons are enjoined to subscribe by their Act 2 Jan. 1649. 
3. The Engagement.  To be true to the Commonwealth of England, as it is now established, without a King, or House of Peers. And this is obtruded under no less penalty, than, To be totally deprived of all Benefit of Law whatsoever. Now the Laws of the Land being the only Conservators of our Lives, Liberties and Estates (without which Laws all men have a like property to all things, and the strongest have right to all is possessed by the weaker; since the Law only distinguisheth Meum and Tuum) what is this but to expose the Liberties of the Non-Engagers to false Imprisonments; our Estates to rapine, spoil, and injustice: and our Lives and Persons to wounds and murders, at the will and pleasure of such as will engage with our Usurpers: but especially at the pleasure of their own Soldiers: to whom (I conceive) this Outlawry was intended as an Alarm or Invitation to plunder and massacre the Non-Engagers, and to pay themselves their Arrears of which these Parliamennt men have cozened them) out of their Estates, and though the Soldiers were not so wicked as their Masters, yet we daily see many good Families in England despoiled of their Estates, for want of protection of the Laws, brought to miserable beggary, rather than they will wrong their consciences by subscribing this damnable Engagement contrary to the Protestation and Covenant imposed by this Parliament, contrary to the known Law of this Land, which this Parliament hath declared to observe and keep in all things concerning the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, with all things incident thereto; contrary to this Parliaments reiterated Votes, that they would not change the Ancient Government, by a King, Lords and Commons. And contrary to the Oaths of Allegiance, Obedience, and Supremacy: whereby (and by the Stat. of Recognition, 1 Jac.) our Allegiance is tied only to the King, his Heirs and lawful Suceessors; from which no power on earth can absolve us, and so much we attest in the Oath of Supremacy. Politicus (Interpreter to our new State-puppet play) Numb. 19 from Sept. 19 to Sept. 26. out of the dictates of his Masters tells us, that in Answer to the King's Act of oblivion granted, the Parliament intends to pass an Act of General pardon; for which they expect in future a General obedience and submission to the Government (you see though they will not be the King's subjects, they will be his Apes) and in the beginning of the said Pamphlet, Politicus saith, That Protection implies obedience, otherwise they may be handled as public Enemies and Outlaws, and aught to be destroyed as Traitors. Here you have the end to which this general pardon is intended; it is but a shooing-horn to draw on the utmost penalty upon Non-engagers, appointed by the said pretended Act 2. Jan. 1649. to weed them out of this good Land, that the Saints only may enjoy the earth and the fullness thereof; to which purpose all their new coined Acts and Laws are directed. The Scripture points forth these kind of men, when it saith, The Mercies of the wicked are cruel. The sum of all is, If we will not acknowledge Allegiance to these Mushrooms, we shall be Traitors without Allegiance (a Treason never yet heard of in any Law) If we will acknowledge Allegiance, we put ourselves in a capacity to be Traitors, when they shall please to make us such. But let them know, That we are all Englishmen, Freeborn alike, under the protection of an ancient, legal Monarchy, to which we own Allegiance; and how we come to forfeit that legal Protection, our settled Laws and Government; and be subjected to a New, unknown protection obtruded upon us by a company of upstarts (Mushrooms of Majesty, so mean in birth and breeding (for the most part) that the place of a Constable equals the highest of their education) imposing what Laws and conditions upon us they please; I would be glad to hear without being hindered by Guns, Drums, High Courts of Justice, and other Instruments of Violence and Murder. But the greatest Mystery in this cheat is, That our Self-created Supremists, having voted the original power to be in the people, and but a derivative Authority to be in themselves as the Representative of the people, should notwithstanding so yoke their Sovereign Lord the people, and make them pay Allegiance to their own Delegates (the eighth part of a House of Commons) under the penalty unless they subscribe as the far major part have not) of out-lawing and depriving all the people of this Land of all benefit of the Laws they were born to; and consequently of annihilating and making them no longer a Nation or people. As if they were mere Savages, newly conquered, collected and form into a politic body or Commonwealth, and endowed with Laws newly invented by the Novice Statists. But the unlawfulness of the said Engagement with the Injustice of the Self-created power that obtrudeth it hath been handled by many good pens, especially by the Cheshire and Lancashire Ministers in their plea for Non-subscribers. Therefore I pass on to my principal scope; The second Engine appointed to root out all such as are of a different party, the High Court of Justice. A formidable Monster, upon which no pen (that I know of) hath yet adventured.  
4. In treating of the High Court of Justice, 
4. The High Court of Justice.  I must consider, 1. By what persons and Authority this new erected unpresidented Court is constituted? 2. Of what persons it is constituted? 3. The way and manner of their proceed? What Formalities and Laws they observe therein? How suitable to the known Laws of the Land, and the Parliaments Declarations, Protestations and Covenant they are? 4. To what end this Court is constituted?  
1. The Persons constituting this extrajudicial Court are the present pretended Parliament, consisting of forty or fifty thriving Commons only, who conspired with Cromwell and the Army to expel seven parts of eighth of their Fellow-Members, without any cause shown, abolished the House of Peers, erected this High Court of Justice (in nature of a Court Martial) to murder the King, abolished Kingly Government, turned it into a thing they call a Free State, disinherited the Royal Family, and now usurp to themselves (without any calling from God or the People) more than a Regal, Legal or Parliamentary Authority, wherewith they have subverted the Fundamental Government, Religion, Laws, Liberties and Property of the Nation, and envassallised and enslaved them to their Arbitrary Domination; the Authority by which they erect this extrajudicial Court is, The usurped, Legislative power; by colour of which they passed an Act dated 26. March 1650. establishing the said High Court of Justice. Yet their own creature Master St. john's, in his Argument against the E. of Strafford (in a Book called Speeches and Passages of this great and happy Parliament, printed by William Cook, 1641. pag. 24.) saith, The Parliament is the Representative of the whole Kingdom, wherein the King as head, The Lords are the more Noble, and the Commons the other Members, are knit together as one body politic; The Laws are the Arteries and Ligaments that hold the body together. (And a little after) Its Treason to embesel a Judicial Record, Strafford swept them all away. It's Treason to counterfeit a 20 s. piece; here is a counterfeiting of Law (so in these counterfeit new Acts) we can call neither the counterfeit nor true one our own. It's treason to counterfeit the great Seal for an acre of land, no property hereby is left to any land at all (no more is there by the votes and practice of our new Supremists (thus far Mr. St. john's.) But that the Parliament doth necessarily consist of the King and the two Houses assembled by his Writ, & can pass no Act without their joint consent. See the preambles of all our Statutes, all our Parliament Records, all our Law books, Modus tenendi Parliamentum. Hackwels' manner of passing Bills. Sir Tho. Smith de Repub. Anglorum. Cambdeni Britania. All our Historians, Politicians, and the uninterrupted practice of all Ages. That it is now, lately otherwise practised, is not by any Law of the Land, but by the will of lawless power and Rebellion, that hath canceled all our Laws, Liberties and Properties, and subverted our Fundamental Government, and disfranchised and disinherited the whole Nation. Yet Master St. john's in his said Argument against Strafford, pag. 38. was then of opinion, That to subvert the Laws and Government, and make a Kingdom no Kingdom, was Treason at the Common Law. This Act 26. Mar. 1650. is a new modelled Commission of Oyer and Terminer; and all the people of the Land, are by the consequence thereof disfranchised and proscribed. The illegality and tyranny thereof, they have introduced, who in this Parliament so zealously complained against the Court of the Precedent and Counsel of York, or of the North, as an intolerable grievance (notwithstanding it had been of as long continuance as from 41 H. 8.) as appears by a worthy Members Speech or Argument against it (in the said Book of Speeches and Passages p. 409. made by order of the House of Commons in April 1649. I find not one Exception there made against the Court of York, to which this upstart High Court is not more liable than it. 1. The Commissioners of this High Court are not appointed to inquire, per Sacramentum proborum & legalium hominum, that is, by Juries; as by Magna Charta, and above 30. Statutes confirming it, all Commissions ought to run. 2. They are not appointed (nor sworn) to hear and determine, Secundùm Leges Angliae, according to the known Laws (as they ought to be) but according to certain Articles and powers given in the said Act 26. March, 1650. 3. The said Act 26 March leaves a dangerous latude to the interpretation and discretion of the Commissioners (contrary to what is done in the Act 25 Edw. 3. chap. 2.) namely; It hath one Clause enabling them to inflict upon Offenders such punishment, either by death or otherwise corporally, as the said Commissioners, or the major part of them present shall judge to appertain to Justice. This leaves it in the breasts of the Commissioners (without any Law or rule to walk by) to inflict what torments and ignominious punishments they please, although not used in our Nation; and arbitrary corporal pains are proper to slaves, not to subjests. Here (after the loss of all but their bodies) the people may see their bodies subject to the lawless wills of our Grandees. And by another clause, this Act impowereth the Commissioners. To examine witnesses upon oath, or otherwise, if need be. This word (or otherwise, etc.) gives them power to examine witnesses without oath (if they cannot procure witnesses so far the sons of Belial, and cauterised in conscience as to adventure upon an oath) even in case of life and death, and mutilation of members; contrary to the current of all our Laws, and practise of all our Courts of Law, and of all Nations. See Stat. 1 Edw. VI chap. 12. 5 Edw. VI chap. 11. Cooks 3. Inst. p. .24, 25, 26. Deut. 17.6. Ex ore duorum vel trium peribit qui occidetur. Deut. 17.6. Matth. 18.16. John 18.23. 2 Cor. 13.1. Heb. 10.28. This is the most arbitrary and destroying liberty that ever was given to Judges; And such as none but professed thiefs and murderers will accept or make use of. The Scripture saith, An oath is the end of controversy between man and man. How then can they end and determine a controversy without oath? But the end of all controversies before this Butcher-row of Judges, is cutting of throats., and confiscation of estates. And by the same clause of the said Act (To examine witnesses) they may, and (I hear) do examine witnesses clandestinely, and proceed upon bare Depositions read in Court, whereas they ought to produce the witnesses face to face in open Court, 
See Stat. 5 Ed. 6. chap. 11. & Cooks 2. Inst. pag. 26.  and there swear them, that the party accused may interrogate them, and examine the circumstances, and whether they contradict themselves, or one another, for clearing the Evidence? And whether they be lawful witnesses or no? Nay (I hear) they do privately suborn and engage witnesses without oath. And then produce them to swear what they have formerly related only: and if they scruple at an oath; punish them for mis-informing the State. 4. That I may make some more use of the aforesaid Members words, Whether the King, or a prevailing Party usurping his Kingly power, may canton out a part of his Kingdom (or cull and mark out for slaughter some principal men, and deny them the benefit of Law, in order thereto, as these Judges do) to be tried by special Commission, since the whole Kingdom is under the known laws and Courts established at Westminster? It should seem by this Parliaments eager complaint against the special Commission of York, this Parliament hath determined this question in the negative already (whatsoever their present practice to carry on their Design is) See Stat. 17. Car. 1. against the Star-Chamber. To what purpose serve those Statutes of Magna Charta, and the Petition of Right, if men may be fined and imprisoned (nay murdered) without Law, according to the discretion of Commissioners? This discretion is the quicksand that hath swallowed our Properties & Liberties (but is now ready to swallow our carcases.) Thus far that Gentleman, Whose words then carried the Parliamentary stamp upon them. Let me add some more exceptions of my own against this High Court of Injustice. 5 Soldiers of the Army are appointed by the Act 26 March, to be assistant to the Commissioners, contrary to the peaceable proceed of the Law, which never makes use of any but Civil Magistrates and Officers of the Law. See Stat. 7 Ed. I 2 Ed. III. chap. 3. 7. R. 2. chap. 13. 6. And contrary to the old oath which all Judges ought to take, in these words. You shall swear well and faithfully to serve the King and people, in the Office of Justice, etc. And that to what estate and condition they be come before you in the Sessions with force and arms, against the peace, against the Statute thereof made, to disturb the Execution of the Common Laws, or to menace the people, that you arrest their bodies, etc. Stat. 18 Ed. 3. in An. Dom. 1344. p. 144. Poultons' Book of Stat. at large. But the oath appointed for these Commissioners to take, is not penned in terms of indifferency, nor doth any ways oblige them to the people, 26. Mar. 1550. viz.) You shall swear well and truly according to the best of your skill and knowledge, to execute the several powers given you by this Act (not well and lawfully to serve the people.) Besides, they swear to execute the several powers given (not to do Justice according to the Laws. Now the Laws are the only rules of Justice, by which we distinguish crooked from straight, true from false, right from wrong. This is not the work these Judges are packed for, but to execute Acts of power and will. But powers are often usurped, tyrannical, illegal and unjust: So are these. Injuria est quod contra legem fit. 7. How can the House of Commons (if it were full and free) constitute a new unpresidented Court of Justice, nominate and ordain Judges, and enable them to administer Oaths, having never had, nor so much as pretended to have any power to judge, to nominate Judges, or to administer an Oath; as having never been more than the Grand Enquest of the Kingdom, humbly to present to His Majesty in a petitionary way, the grievances of the people? Nemo dat quod non habet. 8. Suppose the House of Commons had power of Judicature, delegated to them from the people as their Representative? Delegati non possunt substituere Delegatos, & Protestatam sibi concreditam, in alios transfer. Delegates cannot make subdelegates, and transfer their trust to others. See Col. Andrews 3. Answers given into this High Court, for his defence. Printed at the latter end hereof.  
2. My second consideration will be, Of what Persons delegated or Commissioned, this Court consisteth? The pretended Act. 26. March 1650. names 25. Commissioners, all which (for their better credit) it enacteth Esquires, amongst whom are 4. or 5. that have professed the Law, (as fare as wearing a Lawyer's Gown comes to) but were better known by their leisure then by their Law; until by adhering to our prevailing Schismatics, in subverting our Laws, they seem to be eminent Lawyers. Of Keeble see the Trial of L. Colonel John Lilburn, first and second Part. Steel cited expired Statutes at Winchester against Captain Burley. The rest are (for the most part) poor ignorant Trades men, some so young they are but lately out of their Apprenticeships, others Broken Tradesmen that have compounded with their Crediturs, some of vild and base professions; One or two of these Wolvish Saints (I hear) have with some difficulty escaped the Gallows for Manslaying: William Wibeard Esquire is a Ropeseller: this employment may happily help him to the Hangman's Custom. William Pemoier Esquire was heretofore an Ape-carrier, Cherry-lickom or Mountredinctido. Cook a Vintner at the Bear at the Bridge-foot, he keeps a vaulting-School for our sanctified Grandees, and their Ladies of the Game. If the House of Commons had power to make Judges (which I have disproved) yet, Ex quovis ligno non fit Mercurius. They must name such Persons as may be competent Judges. And therefore must not choose. 1. Ignorant men. 2. Nor such as the Law calls, Viles Personas, men base or contemptible for their Persons or Sordid callings; Mechanics of the lowest rank. 3. Persons of Scandalous life and conversations. 4. Not Bankrupts and Indigent Persons. Necessitas cogit ad turpia. 5. Not partial and preingaged Persons, chosen to suppress another party. As these Commissioners are engaged to the present power to suppress all others. 6. Nor such as Schismatically or Heretically affected, are seasoned with such Doctrines and Principles, as neither agree with the Duties of a good Christian, a good Commonwealth's man, nor a good Judge. Which two last Objections not only these Commissioners, but the pretended Parliament that commissioned them are apparently guilty of, as being all of the Independent Faction conspiring to rob and rout out all other Parties: Royalists, Presbyterians and Levellers: For which purpose this New Tribunal or Inquisition is set up. Independency being a mere complication and Syncretismus, or rather a Sink and Common Sewer of all Errors, Heresies, Blasphemies, and Schisms, (though they peevishly differ in some inconsiderable Tenants) yet having one General End or scope at which they all chief aim (viz.) power, preferment, profit, and the suppression of the Truth and Magistracy, they have likewise some common principles to soader them together, which they use as a Means conducing to that General End. Some few whereof I will here set down for my Readers satisfaction. 1. To tolerate no King nor Magistrate Superior to themselves, as Being a Tyranny or Bondage over the Christian Liberty of the Saints and Kingdom of Christ. Because they know no Christian Magistrate can tolerate them, being (by the Genius of their Sect) enemies to all Civil Societies, whether Monarchical, Aristocratical, democratical or Mixed; as the Kingdom of England was before these men destroyed it. Besides their common Doctrine, That they are appointed to break the powers of the Earth to pieces, To level the hills and fill up the valleys, That they are called, To bruise the Nations with a rod of Iron, and break them in pieces like a Potter's vessel: Which they have done in England, and threaten the like in France, Germany, etc. whereof, their Pulpits and discourses sound. Observe their Practices in the Low Countries. Where having by their spies and Emissaries, found out some Burghers of the same humour with themselves; They propagated their Doctrine so far; as to endeavour to strike the Aristocratical Members out of that Commonwealth by abetting some of the State's Provincial to lessen (and so to abolish by degrees) The Lords States General (the Optimates of that State) To ruin the Prince of Orange, to whose Family they own their Liberty; To dissolve the General Union of the said United Provinces, and so take in pieces the whole Frame of that Republic. To say nothing of their Insolences in fight and killing their men, because the Belgike Lion will not strike sail to their Cross and Harp; and in blowing up the Antelope in Helversluce: Which shows what good Neighbours Holland, and other Parts, are like to have of the New State of England and Ireland (when they have made themselves entire by the purchase of Scotland) that is born (like our English Richard III) with Teeth in its head; and snappeth at its Neighbours before it be out of its Swaddling clouts. This is the cause that Cromwell, before he set sail for Ireland, caused his Journeymen, the pretended Parliament. To pass an Act for Toleration of all Errors, Heresies and Schisms, under the Notion of Liberty of Conscience, and Ease for Tender Consciences. 2. Their second Principle is, That the Good things of this World belong only to the Saints (that is; Themselves) all others being usurpers thereof: and therefore they may rob, plunder, sequester, extort, cheat and confiscate (by illegal Laws of their own making, by extrajudicial Courts and partial Judges of their own constituting) other men's goods and estates, upon as good Title as the Jews spoiled the Egyptians, or expelled the Canaanites. 3. Their third Principle. That the Spirit (which sanctifies and illuminates these men) in every particular man blows when and where it will, sometimes this way, sometimes that way, often contrary ways: And therefore they can make no profession of any certain Rule of Doctrine or Discipline, because they know not which way the Spirit will inspire. For this reason they are still pulling down old and setting up New Doctrines, as the Nomads do cottages, only constant in unconstancy. They profess their consciences are the Rule and Symbol both of their Faith and Doctrine, by this Leaden Lesbian Rule they interpret, and to this they conform the Scriptures; not their Consciences to the Scriptures; setting the Sundial by the clock; not the clock by the Sundial. That every man must pray according to the Dictates of his Private Spirit; They reject the Lords Prayer, for fear of quenching the Spirit. When they break their Faith, Articles, Promises, Declarations and Covenant; they Allege, the Spirit is the Author thereof. When Cromwell (contrary to his vows and Protestations made to the King) kept him close Prisoner in Carisbrook Castle; He affirmed the Spirit would not let him keep his word. When, contrary to the Public Faith, they Murdered Him: they pretended: They could not resist the Motions of the Spirit. Sua cuique Deus fit dira libido. This Hobgoblin serves all turns. 4. Their fourth Principle is, That they may commit any sin, and retain their Sanctity in the very Act of sinning: For what is sinful in other men, is not so in the Saints; who may commit any crime against the Law of God, and yet it cannot be imputed to them for sin; Because they know in their Consciences what they do. So tender and delicate are their Consciences, That they are capable of any Offence against their Neighbour, without breach of Justice or Charity. A righteous man is a Law to himself. 5. Their fift Principle is, That 7. make a Church: although men, women and children, and that this Church is Independent upon any other. The Anabaptists (though they neither profess to follow Paul nor Cephas) yet declare themselves to be some of Cromwell's Church, some of John goodwin's, some of Kiffins, some of Patiences, and some of Carters Church. 6. Their sixth Independent Principle is. That if a man be questioned for any crime, though his Judges have neither competent witnesses, proofs nor Evidence of his guiltiness, yet if they think in their Consciences he his guilty; they may condemn him out of the Testimony of their own Private Consciences. Is it not fit men so Principled should be Judges and Jury too; and condemn men by inspiration? So Colonel Andrews and Sir John Gell were condemned; for Bernard and Pits (witnesses against them) were apparently suborned by Bradshaw and Sir Henry Mildmay against them, and forsworn in the same cause; and good proof offered to the Court, that they were both Flagitious men, of scandalous life and conversation. The letter (supposed to be sent by Andrews to Gell) was delivered to Bradshaw, whereof Bradshaw sent a Copy only to Gell at 10. of the clock at night; and had a warrant then ready to arrest Gell, which was done early next morning before he could conveniently discover it: Yet was Gell sentenced for Misprision of High Treason. See Sir John Gells case stated August, 1650. with Colonel Andrews Attestation (in his behalf) under his hand a little before his death. And though Sir John was Impeached and Mr. Attorney prosecuted him only for Misprision; yet had he much ado to keep that bloodthirsty, old cur Keeble from taking a leap at his throat, and giving Judgement against him for High Treason. So for want of Law Sir John had like to be hanged by Inspiration and Instinct of the Spirit. He that will see more of the Independent Tenets, Let him read Cl. Salmasius chapter 10. Defensionis Regiae, Elenchus Motuum nuperorum in Anglia. And the History of Independency first and second part. These 6. I have selected, that by comparing their Doctrine with their daily Practice, the Reader may perceive what pious Christians, good Patriots, and upright Judges, these engaged, Independent Commissioners of the High Court of Justice are like to prove. The bvilders of this New Commonwealth or Babel, hold forth to the People, Justice and Liberty, as their Motto: as if those excellent gifts had never received their birth, nor been so much as shown to the People until they murdered the King, and stepped into his Throne. But how righteous a Free-State or Commonwealth is this like to be? And how well are the People therein likely to be instructed in the ways of Righteousness, Justice and Charity, and improved in good life and conversation, by men so principled as aforesaid, Let the world judge. Especially when they observe, That our New Statists have enacted in the said pretended Act. 2. January, 1649. enjoining the Engagement, That whosoever will promise Truth and fidelity to them by subscribing the Engagement may deal falsely and fraudulently with all the world besides. And break all Bonds, Assurances and Contracts made with Non-engagers, concerning their Estates; and pay their Debts by pleading in Bar of all Actions, That the complaint hath not taken the Engagement: This is to rob the Egyptians of the good things of this world, This is to break their Faith by the Motions of the Spirit, This is to cheat and rob their Neighbours without breach of Charity or Justice, and without imputation of Sin according to their aforesaid Tenets.  
3. I am come now to consider in the third place, The way and Manner of their proceed; How consonant they are to the usual proceed of our known Laws, and Legal Courts of Judicature; (the best Inheritance of all Freemen) whereof see Colonel Andrews 3. Answers in his Defence given into the said High Court, herewith printed.  
1. The first course they commonly take is; To break open men's Houses, Studies, Chests, etc. and seize their Papers; and thereby hunt for Matter of Charge against them: And then to examine them against themselves, upon the said Papers, contrary to Magna Charta which saith, Nemo tenetur prodere seipsum. And contrary to the Doctrine of Christianity, which forbids a man to destroy his own life, or be, Felo de se, as many men unwittingly do, who answer to captious, ensnaring questions. When that tempting question was put to Christ; Art thou the King of the Jews? He returned no other Answer than Thou sayest it: Why askest thou me? Ask them that heard me, That is, Ask witnesses. It was objected against the Oath ex Officio, That it was High Injustice to examine a man against himself: Because his Answers may only serve to condemn, but not to acquit him.  
2. They usually break open houses with Soldiers, at all hours of the night, pulling men out of their beds with great violence and Terror, and so carry them away, under pretence whereof Robberies and Murders have been committed, Whereas by the Stat. 1. Ed. VI chap. 12. and 5. and 6. Ed. VI chap. 11. A man ought not to be accused of High Treason but to one of the King's Counsel; or to one of the King's Justices of the Assize; or to one of the King's Justices of the Peace being of the Quorum: or to 2. Justices of the Peace where the Offence is committed. Cooks 3. Instit. chap. High Treason, pag. 26. 27, 28.  
3. They Commit men to Prison without any Accusation or Accusor made known, and during pleasure: and detain them in Prison many years together without any Legal proceed or Charge against them; sharing their Estates, Offices and Revenues (by Sequestrations and Suspensions of the Profits) amongst themselves; without any Crime objected: And so leave them to starve, rot and die in nasty Gaoles for want of Maintenance, under the cruelty of covetous and merciless Gaolers, whom they bear out (for money) in all their Extortions. And being thus imprisoned and wounded with the displeasure of the State, no man dares adventure, upon any security, to lend him money for fear of incurring the disfavour of the State, and a Note of Malignancy, 
Witness about 3000. Scottish Prisoners of War starved to death at Durham: where they eat one another for hunger. These were taken at the battle of Dunbar on. 1650. 3. Sept. and many hundred Prisoners have been murdered in Gaoles, with hunger, cold, nastiness and contagion, after they have been rob of their Estates and no Crime laid to their Charge: this is become a daily practice.  whereby their Prisons are become private Slaughter-houses, as well as their Courts Public shambles of Injustice. Prisoners in the Tower of London (To which prison no Goal-delivery belongs) were always wont in the time of (that supposed Tyrant) King Charles I. and his Predecessors, to have allowance from the King, according to their several degrees; As 5 l. a week for an Esquire, etc. although the King deprived them of no part of their Estates until conviction, and this Maintenance was provided for them by the Lieutenant of the Tower; and in respect of his care and pains in procuring it he had Fees, and not otherwise, though now they continue and increase the said Fees; the cause being taken away the effect ceaseth not. But these men now in power, after they have Committed men and rob them of their Estates, without cause shown, are so far from giving them any allowance to feed them; that they shut them up close Prisoners in unwholesome Chambers, denying them the Liberty of the Tower, and the benefit of fresh Air (the Cameleons Diet) for their health, and resort of friends, for their accommodation. And that they may be sure to deprive them of all legal means by habeas corpus to recover their liberties; They Commit men by illegal warrants not expressing any particular Offence or cause for their Commitment: so that it is impossible for the keeper of the prison to obey the habeas corpus, which is directed to him in these words: Praecipimus tibi quod corpus A. B. unâ cum causa detentionis suae, habeas coram nobis, etc. ad recipiendum ea quae curia nostra, etc. Whereupon the Gaoler or Sheriff is to bring his Prisoner to the Bar, and tender his mittimus to the Court, showing the particular cause of his Imprisonment, that the Court may judge whether it be Legal, or no. Dolosus versatur in Generalibus. In the Acts of the Apostles, chap. 25. vers. 26, 27. Festus thought it unreasonable to send Paul a prisoner to Cesar (to whom he had appealed) and not withal to signify the Crimes laid to his Charge. See Cooks 2. Instit. fol. 591.  
4. Their usual Course of practising and suborning witnesses, tempting them with hopes and terrifying them with fears, is so notorious; That it is known the Counsel of State have hundreds of Spies and Intelligencers, Affidavit-men and Knights of the Post, swarming over all England as Lice and Frogs did in Egypt: and have both Pensions and set rates for every Pole brought in: So that now the whole Nation is proscribed, and every man's head set to sale, and made a staple commodity, (far beyond the definite Proscriptions of Silla and the Triumvirate aforesaid) These Sons of Belial are sent forth to compass the earth seeking whom they may devour. These, (with the Liberty of Privileged Spies) speak bold language to draw other men into danger: and plot conspiracies, which themselves detect, and are rewarded like Decoy Ducks for their pains. Of this sort are Bernard and Pits set no work to betray Gell and Andrew's, as aforesaid. For which Bernard had 300 l. and a Troop of horse conferred upon him. Johnson that falsely accused Sir Robert Shirley, and Colonel Egerton for their charity in relieving his wants, is another; Varney is a Fourth. So well are they fitted with these Sons of Belial, that no Naboth can keep his Vineyard, if a Grandee cast a covetous eye upon it; they can prove what they list. Nay it is usual for our Grandees to molest one man with examining him 20. or 30. several times, against one Prisoner, and upon one point, to distract his memory, and not to let him be quiet until he perceive he must speak what their questions and discourses lead him to, to redeem himself from vexation. To say nothing of their Menaces, To torture men if they will not confess, what they impudently pretend is already discovered by other means: And their insinuating into the Affections of witnesses, by ask them, Whether the State doth not owe them money? And why they do not use fitting means and opportunities to recover it? And why they do not make means for some beneficial employment?  
5. In Magna Charta, chap. 29. it is enacted, That no Freeman shall be taken or imprisoned; or be disseised of his  or Liberties or Free-customs, or be outlawed or exiled, or any otherwise destroyed; nor we will not pass upon him or condemn him, but by lawful Judgement of his Peers, or by the Law of the Land. We will sell to no man, we will not deny or defer to any man, Justice or Right. See Statute 2. Edward III. chap. 8. 5. Ed. III. chap. 9 14. Ed. III. chap. 14. 25. Ed. III. chap. 4. 11. R. II. chap. 10. Pet. of Right. 3. Car. 1. 10. Edward IU. fol. 6. Dier folio 104. Cook lib. 5. folio 6. lib. 10. folio 74. lib. 11. folio 99 Regist. folio 86. Where note the word (Peers) signifies, that no man is to be condemned or destroyed, but by the lawful verdict of a Jury of 12. sworn men of the Neighbourhood where the Fact was committed; because (in probability) Neighbours may have best cognisance of the Fact, and of the life and conversation of the Party Accused. And these only are Competent Judges of Matter of Fact; and in many cases of Matter of Law too, if they will take the knowledge of the Law upon them. Neither can this Petty Jury of 12. men go upon the Prisoner unless a Bill of indictment containing the whole Matter of charge be first found in open Court by a Grandee Jury or Enquest of sworn men; who are to inquire of the Fact upon the Oaths of two lawful witnesses (at least) to every material Point of the indictment: and then, when the Grandee Enquest are all agreed, the Foreman endorseth upon the back of the Bill (Billa vera) and then presents it in open Court, as the Information for the King of the whole enquest: otherwise the indictment is quashed, and null. Cooks 3. Instit. chapter High Treason and Petty Treason. And whereas the Statute saith, (but by his Peers. or by the Law of the Land) Lex Terrae, signifies, The Ancient Customs of the Land; Amongst which Fundamental Customs; Trials by Juries hold a principal place. And when the King Charles I. accused this Parliament, That they disposed of the Subject's Lives and Fortunes by their votes, contrary to the known Laws of the Land, This Parliament in their Remonstrance, Sept. 1642. (1. Part of the Book of Declarations fol. 6 9 3. highly resented it. And Magna Charta being nothing else but an Affirmation of the Common Law, inserted this Clause (or by the Law of the Land) as a special caution, not to annihilate or frustrate (no; not so much as tacitly, or by preterition) any of the said Fundamental Laws or Customs; nor any other particular lawful Customs, which are not one and the same in all parts of England: Witness the Custom of Gavelkind in Kent. I have told you what our known ancient Legal Courts of Justice do. And I must tell you that Legal forms and set Modes of proceed are so essential unto Justice, that without them we can not measure the Rectitude of Obliquity of Justice or Injustice: where they do not chalk forth the way, both Judges, Lawyers, Officers and Attorneys will tread what subtle, obscure paths they please, usurp an Arbitrary power and latitude to prevaricate; and so far corrupt and work the Law of their sense, that they will rather Leges dare, then Leges dicere, so that what is Law in one man's case, shall not be so in another man's, They will so intricate and entangle causes; that every case shall be Casus pro amico; as Civilians call it; when upon full hearing, The Merits of the cause appear so equal, and undistinguishable on both parties; that the Judge may (according to his discretion) look upon the Merits of the Persons only: and give the cause; Pauperiori, viâ Charitatis, or digniori, ratione virtutis. Justice not fixed by Formalities, will become such a vagrant, that no man shall know where to find her. Let us now see what our new shambles, our upstart High Court doth. Which in this work of Reformation and Destruction, so much abhors Superstition and Ceremonies, and sticks so close to a Summary way of proceeding, that they have not only stripped, but flayed her: as their Masters the Parliament not only fleece but flea the People. In lieu of a Bill of presentment, by a Grandee Enquest, the pretended Parliament or Counsel of State, send a List of such Persons names, as they have proscribed, And set a Nigrum Theta upon, (as men dangerous to their designed interest) to the Masters of their Slaughter-house, The said High Court, together with such Depositions as they have taken in corners, against the Prisoners: and this is such a forejudging of them that the said Court neither will nor dare acquit, whom their Masters and Paymasters have precondemned. Next Articles of Impeachment in nature of a charge are drawn up against the Prisoner (although such Articles are nothing in Law, which regards only a Bill of Indictment) Then the Prisoner (after a close Imprisonment for he knows not what) upon two day's warning is led to the Bar; where the first work is to dazzle his eyes, amaze and distract his Judgement and Memory with the terror of their Soldiers, the numerousness, high affronting words and looks of his Judges; having thus mortified the Prisoner, he is commanded to hear his charge read: and bid plead to it, Guilty, or not Guilty. If he own their Jurisdiction and plead the said General Plea, they have him where they would have him: they never ask him; how he will be tried, Whether by God and his Country? For God hath no hand in these proceed, nor amongst such Judges: and this rod of Iron is provided to bruise his Country, as well as himself. Lieutenant Colonel Lilbornes' Trial hath taught them That it is an easier Matter for them to pack a Butcher-Rowe of confiding, partial Judges, than a Jury; who are liable to be challenged, if suspected of partiality. When Colonel Andrew's claimed to be tried legally as a Freeman by a Jury, and vouched Great Charter, and many other Statutes, (whereof see his aforesaid 3. Answers) that sneaking Bloodsucker, illiterate Keeble answered, Those Statutes were out of date now, (meaning, They were taken away by conquest.) So that this Shambleses Row of Judges, take upon them to be, both Judges of the Law, (without acknowledging the Fundamental Laws of the Land, or taking any Oath of Indifferency to the People) Triors of the Fact, or Jurates of life and death (without being sworn to find according to Evidence) as well as Parties and Prosecutors. Thiefs upon the high way may as justly arraign a True man before them, because he brought no more Money in his purse, offered to draw his sword and hid his money about him in contempt of their Jurisdiction and Authority; and condemn him upon such a Mock Trial and Mummery or Interlude of Justice, as these Fellows. If they allow him Counsel, his Counsel must apprehend the minds of his Judges, at his peril; and not be so faithful and diligent as to help his client in earnest; Lest the Counsel of State, or some other power (whose will is a Law) interpose, and banish him 20. miles from London; as they did Master Sprat, Sir John Gells Solicitor, before Sir John's business was ended; whereby Sir John was left destitute of means to follow his business, himself being Close Prisoner. If they permit any witness to speak on the prisoners part, He comes at his peril: Sir John Gells first witness was so baffled in Court, that the rest stole away and durst not appear. I have not heard whether they give any Copy of their Aricles of Impeachment to the Prisoner, (for they cover all their do with such a Plaguy Egyptian Darkness, that we cannot see a glimpse of light) or whether they go a Star Chamber way, and make him Answer o'er tenus, and ex tempore for his life and Estate. But if they give him any Copy, or any time to answer, it is not above four or five days or a week, nor do they allow him Counsel or any other Clearing of the way to his defence, until he have ensnared himself by owning their Jurisdiction, and pleaded the General Plea, Not Guilty. If he plead not an Issuable Plea, and yield to their Jurisdiction, quitting all benefit of the Law and Legal proceed; the Razor is at his throat, they thirst after his Blood; and they presently sentence him guilty of contumacy and take it pro confesso. And if he do submit and plead: His plea will have the operation but of a Psalm of Mercy, prolonging his life but for a short time, in the interim Keeble and his Court plays with him as a Cat with a Mouse, and then devours him. For no man is sent to this Court to be Tried, but to be condemned. In hac arena dimicatur sine missione. Herein they show themselves much more Tyrannous and bloody than the Duke D' Alva when he erected his said Counsel of Troubles, called Concilium Sanguinis, or the Bloody conventicle; as this will shortly be. For saith Strada Declar. 1. lib. 7. Procurator reginus menses 4. Conficiendae Accusationi accipiens sibi; 5. Concedebat ad Defensionem regis (Egmontio, Hornano, etc.) The King's Attorney took 4. Month's time to draw up the charge or accusation, and gave 5. Month's time to the Respondents to make their defence. And had he given less than 5. Month's time, To Instruct Counsel, Pen their Answers, produce and summon witesses, inquire into the lives and conversation of their Accusors', his feet had been swift to shed blood. Nulla unquam de morte hominis cunctatio longa est, But our Inquisitors take whole years to themselves to hunt for Matter of Accusation, and hire and engage witnesses against men kept in ignorance and want with close Imprisonment: and allow not them so many days to make their Defence. All manner of Accusors' and witnesss, though apparently suborned and forsworn in the same cause, and proofs without exceptions offered to the Court that they are of infamous life and conversation, are in this Court (the Object of whose desires are Blood and Confiscations, not Justice) lawful witnesses, such witnesses were the said Bernard and Pits; Monsters of men. See Sir John Gells case stated: Printed about August, 1650. To cite any ancient known Laws or Statutes, or any other than their own new coined Acts, passed by this 8th. Parts of a House of Commons, (since they became elect Members chosen by Thomas Pride) is to incur the High Indignation of the Court, expressed abundantly in their words and looks. But to put them in mind of the Parliaments many Declarations, To maintain the ancient known Laws, Liberties and Properties of the People, is to scandal the present Government and incur the Censure of that unknown Mysterious Crime which knaves call Malignancy. The witnesses and Judges being thus irrefragable; the first may swear what they will, the second may judge what they will, since they are left at large and have all things in scrinio pectoris: and Book Law must give place to Bench Law, The Jurisdiction and Authority of this New unparalled Court is such a Mystery of iniquity, so unscrutable and unquestionable, that if a Prisoner scruple (in the least) either it, or any of the uncouth proceed of it, it is a Mortal Sin to him; and he is presently interrupted, 
See the Trial of King Char. I. in the History of Independency 2. Part. pag. 91. etc.  and affronted both with disdainful words and looks, And told, We are satisfied with our Authority that are your Judges, (So are Thiefs upon the high way satisfied with their Authority that rob and murder us by God's Providence and permission.) It is upon God's Authority and the Kingdoms (yet what they do is against the will of God revealed in his Scriptures: and against the known established Laws, Statutes and continual Practice of the Kingdom:) Which Authority commands you in the name of the People of England to answer them. (Yet at least) 9 Parts of 10. of the People so much abhor these and other their Practices, that every man's mouth speaks against them with bitter curses and reproaches, to restrain which they have minted Acts of New Treasons, to make men Offenders, nay Traitors, even for bare words; and erected this bloody, illegal Theatre, The High Court (so called, for its High Injustice) as a Spanish Inquisition over them, and every man's hand would be about their ears, did they not keep an Army of Janissaries to suppress them.) Their Authority they do avow to the whole World, that the whole Kingdom are to rest satisfied therewith. (You see here a Whip and a Bell provided to keep the whole Kingdom in awe: the declared Supreme power of their Sovereign Lord the People, must resign their known Laws to their trusties, their Representatives in Parliament, and take New Laws from their Arbitrary votes, or woe to be to their Necks and Shoulders.) I must interrupt you, what you do is not agreeable to the Proceed of any Court of Justice. You are about to enter into Argument and dispute concerning the Authority of this Court: before whom you appear as a Prisoner; you may not dispute the Authority of this Court: nor will any Court give way to it, you are to submit to it. (It is not safe to confute a lie told with Authority. Yet if a man be Indicted of Treason or Felony in the Court of Common Pleas, a man may Demur to and dispute the Jurisdiction of that Court; because it is not in Criminal Causes, Competens Forum; nor the Judges Competent Judges: every man, and every cause must be tried Suo Foro, non Alieno. So if a Peer be arraigned in the King's Bench. And for this upstart, unpresidented High Court; it is no Court of Judicature at all; as being erected without lawful Authority; Consisting of Incompetent Judges: no Records belonging to it: and tending to disinherit, and disfranchise all the People of England, and to murder them.) You may not dispute the Jurisdiction of the Supreme and Highest Authority of England, from which there is no Appeal, The votes of the Commons of England assembled in Parliament is the Reason of the Kingdom. (Oh Brutish, irrational Kigdom! Where 40. or 50. anabaptistical Members, the Dregs and lees of the House of Commons, after all the best and sincerest (7. Parts of 8.) had been racked and purged out at the Bunghole by Cromwell the Brewer and Pride his Dray-man shall be called the Reason and Law of the Land. This confirms the truth of what King Charles I. Objected to the Parliament (whereof I have formerly spoken) That they disposed of the Subject's Lives and Fortunes, by their own Votes, against the known Laws of the Land. But that there should be no Appeal to their declared Sovereign Lord the People, from their subordinate trusties in Parliament is wonderful; Considering that in all Governments the last Appeal is ever the Highest and most Absolute power. But it may be they will be the People's trusties in spite of their Teeth, and by the power of the Sword; and so free themselves from rendering any account of their Stewardship. You may not demur to the Jurisdiction of the Court. If you do, they let you know, that they overrule your Demurrer, and affirm their own Jurisdiction. Reason is not to be heard against the Highest Jurisdiction, the Commons of Engl. make a direct and positive Answer, either by denying or confessing, and put in immediately an issuable Plea, Guilty, or Not Guilty of the Charge, or we will record your Default and Contumacy, and by an implicit confession take you Guilty proconfesso, and immediately give Judgement against you. This (as I told you before) is it that blanches the Deer into the Toil, But God deliver us from that Jurisdiction that is too high to hear Reason: and that overrules Demurrers before they be heard.) I have told you as much of the proceed of this Court as the Novelty, Obscurity, Uncertainty and confusion thereof will give me leave. Let me now (by way of overplus) give you the great dangers and Slavery that will befall all sorts of People if they tamely and cowardly suffer themselves to be deprived of their ancient, Legal Trials by indictment and Juries of the Neighbourhood: (than which the whole world cannot boast of a more equal way) and suffer their Lives, Liberties, Estates and Honours to be subject to an Arbitrary, extrajudicial conventicle of Blood, (Cromwell's New Slaughter-house) which hath neither Law, Justice, Conscience, Reason, Presisident or Authority Divine or Humane, but only the pretended Parliaments irrational Votes and the Power of the Sword to maintain it, which will prove a Citadel over their Liberties, a Snare to their Estates, a Deadfall to their Lives, and Scandal to their honours and Families, if not timely opposed.  
1. By the Law The indictment must specify what the Treason is, and against what Person committed; As, against our Sovereign Lord the King, his Crown and Dignity. But in the said Articles of Impeachment, it is alleged that the Treason is committed against the present Government; or, against the Keepers of the Libe●ties of England; but in this dead-water our turning Tide between the old Regal, and this New, unknown Government; no man knows how to do, look or speak for fear of contradicting the guilt of an Interpretative Treason, upon the said two Statutes for New Treasons, and before this boundless, lawless New Court. And to say that Treason is committed against a Government in abstracto is Nonsense: it must be said that Treason is committed against the Governors in Concreto, naming them. For there being, no Treason without Allegiance; And Allegiance being a personal Obligation, must be due from a certain known Person, to a certain known Person or Persons. And therefore the Keepers of the Liberties of England, not being yet made particularly known to us, who they are, or where to be found, or what their power, Duty or Office is; and being not tied by any set Oath, to deal well and truly with the People, (as Kings are by their Coronation Oath; for if the stipulation be not mutual, the People are Slaves, not Subjects.) Since the Duties of Allegiance and Protection; Obedience and Command being reciprocal (as they must needs be, the Parliament having declared the Supreme power to be in the People; they must not govern them Mero Imperio (by Lawless votes) like Turkish Tartarian and Russian Slaves.) I cannot owe nor perform Allegiance to those Individua vaga (the Keepers or Gaolers of our Liberties) nor to an Utopian Commonwealth. And without Allegiance no Treason: for in all Enditements of High Treason it must be alleged, That the Accused did (Proditoriè) perpetrate such and such Crimes, Contra debitam Allegantiam suam. And the word (Proditoriè) signifies the betraying of a Trust: According to the Proverb; In Trust, is Treason. Now where there is no profession of Allegiance, there is no Acceptance of a Trust, no man can trust me against my will. I was born under a Regal Government, have read the Stat. Recognition, 1. Jac. Have taken (as well as others) the Legal Oaths of Allegiance, Obedience and Supremacy to the King his Heirs and Lawful Successors, imposed upon me by lawful Authority, and from which no power on Earth can absolve me: and so much I attest in the Oath of Supremacy. And how I should now come (after the New Moduling of the Parliament and Kingdom by Soldiers) to owe Allegiance to Cromwell the Brewer, Scot the Brewer's Clerk, Bradshaw the Murderous Petty fogger, Sir Henry Mildmay the Court Pander and Projector, Holland the Linkeboy, John Trencharde that packed a Committee (in which he was a Member) and voted to himself 2000 l. Love the super-inducted Six Clerk, or any other of that Self-created Authority, let them sheathe their swords and tell me.  

See the Additionall Postscript at the Latter end of this Book.  2. An indictment must certainly allege the Offence committed, in respect of the Matter, Time, Place, Persons and other Circumstances; But in these Articles of Impeachment they tie themselves to no such certainties; Whereby the Accused knows not at what ward to lie, nor how to make his Defence. The Circumstances of Time, Place and Persons, being the assured Testimony of all Humane Actions. This Lawless Court leaves him in a vast Sea of Troubles, without Polestar, card or compass to steer by: The Arbitrary Opinions of this Court, declared upon emergent Occasions, being a falsehearted Pilot to him. These Judges not being of Counsel with the Prisoner, as our Legal Judges are, who swear to do Justice according to the Law.  
3. By the Law, any learned man that is present, may inform the Court, for the benefit of the Prisoner, of any thing that may make the proceed erroneous. Cooks 3. Instit. p. 29. But the whole Proceed of this Court, their Meeting and sitting being erroneous, here is no room left for Admonition, To take away their errors, is to take away Court.  
4. Cooks 2. Instit. pag. 51. expounding the 29. chapter of Magna Charta hath these words. All Commissions ought to be grounded upon the Laws of England (not upon the votes of the House of Commons) and to contain this Clause in them. To do what is just according to the Laws and Customs of England, (not to execute the several powers given them by the Act. 26. March 1650) and a little further he saith, Against this Ancient and Fundamental Law I find an Act of Parliament made 11. Hen. VII. c. 3. That as well Justices of Assize as Justices of the Peace, without any finding or presentment by the verdict of 12 men, upon a bare Information for the King before them made, should have full power and Authority by their Discretions, to hear and determine all Offences and Contempts committed, or done by any Person or Persons, against the Form, Ordinance or effect of any Statute made and not repealed; saving Treason, Murder or Felony. By colour of which Act shaking this Fundamental Law, it is not credible what horrible Oppressions and Exactions, to the undoing of infinite number of People, were Committed by Empson and Dudley Justices of the Peace throughout England. And upon this unjust and injurious Act, a New Office was erected (as commonly in like cases it falleth out) and they made Masters of the King's Forfeitures. (I hear such an other Offfce will be erected, when the Novelty of this wonderful High Court is lessened, and the yoke thereof throughly settled upon the People's Necks) Yet observe the said Act. 11. Hen. VII. c. 3. went not so high as to Treason, Murder and Felony: But by the Stat. 1. Hen. VIII. chap. 6. the said Act 11. Hen. VII. was repealed, and the reason given, For that by force of the said Act it was manifestly known; That many sinister and crafty, forged and feigned Informations had been pursued against many of the King's subjects, to their great damage and wrongful vexation. The ill success hereof (saith Cook) and the fearful end of these two Oppressors, (who were Indicted and suffered for High Treason for all the said Act 11. Hen. VII. passed in a full and Free Parliament. Cooks 3. Instit p. 208.) Should admonish Parliaments, That instead of this Ordinary and precious Trial by the Law of the Land, they bring not in Absolute and Partial Trials by Discretion. And in his 4. Instit. page 41. Cook saith, Let Parliaments leave all Causes to be measured by the golden and straightened wand of the Law, and not the uncertain and crooked cord of Discretion: for it is not almost Credible to foresee, when any Maxim or Fundamental Law of the Land is altered, what dangerous inconveniences will follow; as appears by this unjust and strange Act 11. Henry VII. chap. 3.  
5. This Parliament always declared they bore Arms against the King, in Defence of the Laws, Liberties and Properties of the People. This way ran the whole current of their Declarations. And they always reckoned Magna Charta, the Petition of Right and Trials by Juries, the Chief and most Fundamental of all our Laws. See their 1. Remonstrance: Therefore in their 7. Article against Strafford. They charged him with High Treason, for giving Judgements against men's Estates, without Trials by Juries. Much aggravated by Master St. john's in his aforesaid Argument against Strafford. And for the better preservation of Legal Trials by Juries, it is provided in the Bill of Attainder of Strafford, that the case of the same Earl should not be used as a Precedent in succeeding times. And in two of this Parliaments late Declarations 9 Febr. and 17. March 1648. The Parliament promiseth, To preserve and keep the fundamental Laws of the land, for preservation of the lives, liberties and properties of the people, with all things incident thereto. Now to erect an arbitrary lawless high Court, to give judgement against men's lives and estates, and attain their bloods, without indictment found by a grand Jury, and a trial by a Jury of twelve sworn men vicineto, is a far fouler breach of trust in them against their Sovereign Lords the People, than all they charged the King withal, and a far higher act of tyranny and injustice than either the late King, or Empson and Dudley, or Strafford were accused of. But if they allege, They do not put down Juries in general, but only in some particular men's cases and upon necessity. I answer, That we are all born Freemen of England alike, That our ancient known Laws, Laws Courts and trials by Juries are our inheritance equal alike to all. And one party or part of the people ought not to be disherited, disfranchised or forejudged no more than another. No man can be said guilty of any crime until he be legally convicted and sentenced, the Law must first go upon him and condemn him, Ubilex non distinguit, non est distinguendum. If we do not live all under one Law and form of Justice, we are not all of one Commonwealth. See the aforementioned Gentleman's Argument, against the special Commission of the Court of York. For Necessity; our present power is under none, but the fears and terrors of their own guilty consciences. No appearance nor probability of any enemy by their own confession; nor can they plead in their excuse, a necessity which they have brought upon themselves. I know some Kings have, de facto, used the Animadversion of the Sword to cut off such powerful and dangerous persons as could not safely be called to account by the Law; so died Joab, Adonijah, etc. for which the rule is, Neminem adeo eminere debere, legibus interrogari nequeat; qui jus aequum ferre non potest, in eum vim haud injustam fore. No man ought to advance himself above the powers of the Law; he that will not submit to equal right, if he be cut off by violence, suffers no wrong; but this is to be understood of the eminency and greatness of the person, not of the greatness of the crime, whereof no man is to be forejudged, because a great crime may prove a great calumny, until a legal trial have adjudged it. But there is no person in England so eminent for power or Authority, but that the least of bradshaw's Bandogs can drive him to the Slaughter-house, & make him offer his throat to Keeble. Therefore Animadversio Gladii, if at any time lawful, is now unlawful. To make great examples upon men of little power, is great injustice. But the way of this Court is not Animodversio per Gladium. It is a Mocking, a Counterfeiting, an Adulterating and Alchimisting of Justice; it is to falsify her weights and balance, and steal her sword to commit Murder withal.  

See Col. Andrews three Answers.  6. By the known Laws Matter of fact is entrusted to the Jury, matter of Law to the Judges, to prevent all errors, combinations and partialities. The Judges are sworn to do justice according to the Law; the Jury are sworn to find according to their evidence. But in this high Court the Commissioners or Judges are all packed, confiding men, chosen by and out of one party, to destroy all of a different party. They usurp the office of Judges, not being sworn to deal well and lawfully with the people (as by the said Stat. 18 Ed. 3.) nor to do justice according to the Law. But only to execute powers given by the said Act, 26. Mar. 1650. And they arrogate (as Jurymen) to be Triers of the Fact, without being sworn, to find according to evidence. So that they are Judges, Juries, and parties, (& for ease of their tender consciences (without any Oath of Indifferency. A most excellent Compendium of Oppression. They may go to the Devil for injustice, and not be forsworn. Great is the privilege of the godly.  
7. The prisoner may except against his Jurors, either against the Array, if the Sheriff or Bayly impannelling the Jury, be not wholly disengaged and indifferent, both to the cause, and to the parties, prosecuting, and prosecuted; or against the Poll, he may challenge 35 peremptorily, & as many more as he can render legal cause of challenge for. As for defect of estate, or other abilities, or for partiality, Disaffection, Engagement, Infamy. But this Array of Jurymen Judges (a Medley so new we know not how to express it) though picked and empanelled by an engaged remainder of the Commons, and abnoxious to all exceptions, must not be challenged, their backs are too much galled to endure the least touch. Take heed you scandal not the Court (cries Mr. Attorney) See Col. Andrews three Answers.  
8. Many exceptions in a legal Trial, are allowed against Imperfections, Uncertainties and Illegallities in the Bill of Endictment, for the advantage of the Prisoner. But no Exceptions are allowed against these illegal Articles of Impeachment, which are made uncertain, intricate and obscure and ambiguous purposely to puzzle, confound and entangle the Respondent.  
9 By the Law a bill of Endictment must have two full and clear lawful witnesses to every considerable Matter of Fact, both at finding the Bill and at the Trial. 
Where there is but one witness, it shall be tried by combat before the Earl Martial Cook, ibidem  Cooks 3. Instit. pag. 25, 26. And Probationes debent esse luce clariores. Proofs must be as clear as the Sun, not grounded upon Inferences, Presumptions, Probabilities. And the Prisoner must be Provablement Attaint, saith the Stat. 25. Ed. 3. chap. 2. Cooks 3. Instit. pag. 12. The word (attainted) shows he must be legally proceeded with; not by absolute power as formerly had been used (and as is now used by this bloody High Court) But before these Slaughtermen of the High Court, all manner of witnesses, Legal or Illegal, one or two, sworn or not sworn, or apparently forsworn and suborned, and all proofs clear or not clear are sufficient. The Prisoner is sent thither foredoomed, and hath its deaths Mark, his fate in his forehead.  
10. The said Act 26. March 1650. carries two faces under one hood, and looks backwards as well as forwards. To facts precedent as well as subsequent the said Act, contrary to the nature of all Laws, whose office is to prohibit it before it punish, to warn before it strike. Where St. Paul defineth Sin to be the breach of Commandment, or Law. I had not known Sin but by the Law. The Law must therefore be precedent to the Offence. But these Acts are not Laws to admonish, but Lime-twigs and Traps to ensnare and catch men. See Col. Andrews 3. Answers at the latter end of this book.  
Fourthly and lastly, I am to consider, To what end and purpose this new invented High Court is constituted and appointed? Concerning which see a Letter dated 6. June 1650. Stilo veteri, from the Hague, (supposed to be Walter strickland's, the Parliaments Agent there) as I find it in Walter Frosts brief Relations of some affairs and transactions, etc. from Tuesday June 11. to June 18. 1650. wherein the Epistoler hath these words, One piece of the cure (viz. of the dangers that threaten your new State) must be Phlebotomy, but than you must begin before Decumbency, and then it will be facile to prevent danger, etc. they are here most of all afraid of your high Court of Justice, which they doubt may much discourage their party, they wish you would not renew the power thereof, but let it expire: then they think that after Michaelmas they may expect Assistance with you. And indeed that Court is of almost as much use to you as an Army: and will prevent the rising of as many Enemies, as the other will destroy, only you must be sure to execute Justice there with all severity. A few of the first stirrers taken away, by the power thereof, without respect to cousin or Country, will keep all the rest quiet. But whosoever that Court condemns, let them be as already dead, etc. But let them be most free in cutting the vena Coephalica (that is the Presbyterian Party) for the Basilica (or Royal Party) will be latent. The Median (or Levellers) would be spared as much as may be, that the body be not too much emaciated. Besides, the blood is most corrupt in the Coephalicks (or Presbyterians) and is the very causa continens of your disease. You need not fear to take freely of this vein, etc. Here you see this State Mountebank gives you the use and application of this corrasive. (The High Shambles of Justice) so fully that I shall not need to comment upon it. And in the latter end of a Letter from Cromwell, dated from Dunbar, 4. Sept. 1650. (as I find it in Politicus) speaking of his new purchased victory over the Scots, Cromwell saith; God puts it more and more into your hands to improve your power, (viz. your absolute Authority) we pray own his People more and more, (that is, the Army) they are the Chariots and Horsemen of Israel (of the Kingdom of the Saints) disown yourselves but own your Authority (which you enjoy under the Protection of the Army, your Lords Paramount) and improve it; to Curb the Proud and Insolent, etc. (That is, all men of different opinions and parties from them, that will not engage to be true and own Allegiance to the Kingdom of the Saints, and resign their Laws, Liberties and properties to their lusts and wills.) That I have not misconstrued the contents of Cromwel's mystical letter, will appear by a Discourse in the same Politicus, Numb. 17. from Thursday Sept. 26. to Octob. 3. 1650. Where (according to his custom) delivering forth State-Oracles to the people, He tells them in plain English, That after the Confusions of a Civil War, there is a necessity of some settlement, and it cannot be imagined (the Controversy being determined by the Sword) that the Conquerors should submit to the conquered, though more in number than themselves. Nor are they obliged to settle the Government again according to the former Laws and Constitutions, but may erect such a form as they themselves conceive most convenient for their own preservation. For after a Civil War the written Laws (viz. established Laws of the Nation) are of no force, but only those which are not written. (And a little after) the King having by Right of war lost his share and interest in Authority and power, being conquered, by Right of war the whole must needs reside in that part of the People which prevailed over him: There being no middle power to make any claim, and so the whole Right of Kingly Authority in England being by Military Decision resolved into the prevailing Party, what Government soever it pleaseth them to erect, is as valid de Jure, as if it had the consent of the whole Body of the People. That he should affirm, That after a Civil War the Established Laws cease, is so gross a piece of ignorance, that there is hardly any History extant but confutes it: After our Baron's war, and the Civil War between York and Lancaster, Our Established Laws flourished; so did they after the Norman Conquest. How many Civil Wars in France have left their Laws untouched? That of the Holy League lasted 40 years; Belgia keeps her Laws maugre her intestine Wars: What is now become of the Parliaments declared Supreme Power and Sovereign Lord the People, the Original and Fountain of all just power? are they not all here proclaimed Ear-bored slaves for ever? But I had thought that an Army of Mercenary Saints raised, paid and commissioned by the Parliament to defend the Religion, Laws, Liberties and Properties of the people, and the King's Crown and Dignity, according to the Protestation and Covenant, and the Parliaments Declarations, would not have made such carnal and hypocritical use of their Victories gotten by God's providence and the people's money, as to destroy our known Laws, Liberties and Properties, and claim by Conquest, and impose their own lusts for Laws upon us, thereby rendering themselves Rebels against their God, their King and Country. Nor was it ever the State of the Quarrel between the King and Parliament whose slaves the people should be? Or whether we should have one King, Governing by the known established Laws? or 40 Tyrants Governing by their own lusts and arbitrary votes, against our written Laws? Nor can the success make n Conquest just, unless the cause of the war were originally just, and the prosecution thereof justly managed. As 1. To vindicate a Just Claim and Title. 2. Ad res repetendas. To recover Damages wrongfully sustained. 3. To repel an injury done to yourself, or to your Ally in league with you.  
The ultimate end of these wicked endeavours is, To establish and cement with the blood of their adversaries, the Kingdom of the Brambles or Saints, already founded in blood, by cutting of all such by their said New Acts of Treason and High Court of Justice, as will not bow their Necks to their Iron yoke. Which appears more clearly in an Additional Act giving farther power to the said High Court, (dated 27. Aug. 1650.) To hear and determine all Misprisions or Concealments of Treasons mentioned or contained in any of the said Articles or Acts of Parliaments: And to inflict such punishments, and award such execution, as by the Laws and Statutes have been, or may be inflicted. This Law (if I miscall it not) considering how they have multiplied Treasons by their said 3 New Statutes, 14. May, 17 July 1649. and 26. March 1650. Whereby bare words without Act are made High Treason, contrary to those well approved Statutes, 25 Edw. 3. chap. 2. 1 Hen. 4. chap. 10. 1 Edw. 6. chap. 12. 1 Mariae, chap. 1. Cook 3 Instit. saith, That words may make an Heretic not a Traitor, Chap. High Treason. And the Scripture denounceth a woe to him; That maketh a man an Offender for a word, is one of the cruelest, and most generally dangerous and entrapping that ever was made. For hereby all relations, Husband and Wife, Parents and Children, Brothers and Sisters, Masters and Servants, are all enjoined to be informers against, and accusers of one another (which is to take upon them the Devil's office (and be Accusatores Fratrum) for light and vain words spoken only in passion or ignorantly: or else they fall into the jaws of this alldevouring Court, from whence, no more then from hell, there is no redemption) for Misprision of Treason: the Penalty whereof is loss of liberty and lands for life, and of goods for ever, Who can imagine less hereby, but that our Statists intent to raise a yearly revenue by this Court, by Forfeitures and Confiscations: and to erect an Office of Master of the States Forfeitures: like empson's and Dudleys' in Hen. VII. time aforesaid. And so continue this Court, 
10. Decemb. 1650. A New Act passed, for establishing an High Court Justice in N●●folk, Suffolk, Huntingdon, Camb idge, Lincoln, and the Isl● of Ely, etc. And so by degrees this gangrene shall enlarge itself all the Kingdom over.  to weed out the Ancient Inhabitants Canaanites and Amalekites. The said Additional Act, 27. Aug. 1650. concludes, That the said High Court shall not Examine, Try or proceed against any person other than such as shall be first by name appointed by the Parliament or Council of State. It should seem the Parliament and Council of State supply the want of a Grand Inquest; and their Appointment is in stead of a Bill of indictment found and presented. As Assuredly as the High Inquisition was erected in Spain by Ferdinando and Isabel to extirpate the Mahometan Moors: And the said Council of Blood in the Low Countries, by the Duke D' Alva to weed out the Lutherans, Calvinists and Anabaptists. So is this High Court set up in England, to root out the Royalists, Presbyterians and Levellers; and generally all that will not wholly concur with our Independents in Practice and Opinions. As will manifestly appear when their work is done in Scotland, which will soon be effected: the more zealous Scots being now as ready to sell their Kingdom; as they were formerly to sell their King.  
I. Conclude therefore upon the Reason's aforesaid; That because the Commissioners or Judges are not sworn to do Justice according to the Laws: and are parties pray engaged (as well as their Masters, and pay Masters, that named them) ignorant men, and of vild & base professions, uncapable of places of Judicature, Necessitous Persons, and some of them Scandalous, and the High Court itself hath neither Law, Precedent, nor any just Authority for constituting thereof or the Judges therein. And all proceed before them are directly Contrary to Magna Charta, the Statute 25. Edw. III. chap. 2. The Petition of Right and all other known and Established Laws, and the continual Practice of our Nations; and (in many points) contrary to the Law of God and the Dictates of Right Reason. That these Commissioners are Incompetent Judges; Their Court an Extrajudicial Conventicle, tending to disinherit, disfranchise and enslave all the Freemen of the Nation; and all Proceed before them are void, and coram non Judice. See Col. Andrews 3. Answers, The said High Court of justice to be a mere bloody Theatre of Murder and Oppression. It being against Common Reason, and all Laws divine and humane, That any man should be judge in his own Cause. Neminem posse in sua causa judicem esse. Is the Rule in Law. But this Parliament and Council of State know they cannot establish and confirm their usurped Tyranny, (The Kingdom of the Saints,) eat up the People with Taxes, and share public Lands, Offices, and Money amongst themselves, enslave the Nation to their Lawless wills and pleasures, but by cutting off the most able and active men of all opposite parties by some such expedient as this Arbitrary Lawless High Court is. The old Legal way by juries (being found by john Lilbourns Trial) to be neither sure enough nor speedy enough to do their work. A Butcher-Rowe of judges being easier packed, than a Jury who may be challenged. So that it fareth with the People of England, as with a Traveller fallen into the hands of Thiefs. First, they take away his Purse. And then, to secure themselves, they take away his life. So they Rob him by Providence, And then Murder him by Necessity. And (to bring in their third insisting Principle) they may allege; They did all this upon Honest intentions; to enrich the Saints, and rob the Egyptians. With these 3. Principles they justify all their Villainies. Which is an Invention so merely their own, That the Devil must acknowledge: They have propagated his Kingdom of Sin and Death more by their impudent justifications, then by their Turbulent Actions.   

An Additional Postscript.  
SInce the Conclusion of the Premises hath happened, the Trial of that worthy Knight Sir john Stowell, of the County of Somerset: Who having been often before this Court, hath so well defended himself, and wiped off all Objections, and made such good use of the Articles of the Rendition of Excester, that in the Opinion of all men, and in despite of their ensnaring Acts for New Treasons, he cannot be adjudged guilty of any Treason, Old or New, which was the Sum and Compliment of the Charge against him. Wherefore the Court put off his Trial for a longer time, to hunt for New Crimes and Witnesses against him. At last came into the Court as a witness john Ashe, notwithstanding he is a Party many ways engaged against him. 1. Ashe is a Parliament-man; in which capacity Sir john Stowel bore Arms for the King against him. 2. Ashe as a Parliament-man is one of the constitutors of this murderous Court and the Judges thereof, and therefore their Creatures (who expect rewards from them) bear a more awful respect to his testimony, than a witness ought to have from judges. 3. It is publicly known that Ash hath begged of the House a great sum of money out of the Composition for, or Confiscation of Sir john's Estate. And 4ly. It is known to many, That during Sir john's many years Imprisonment Ashe often laboured with Sir john to sell unto him for 4000 l. a Parcel of Land which cost Sir john above 10000 l. promising him to pass his Composition at an easy rate, to procure his enlargement from Prison, and send him home in peace and quiet if he granted his desire. But although with all their malicious diligence, they cannot find him guilty of High Treason, yet their Articles of Impeachment Charge him in general Terms with Treason, Murder, Felony, and other High Crimes and Misdemeanours; and amass together such a Sozites and an Accumulation of Offences, as if one fail another shall hit right to make him punishable in one kind or other: such an hailshot charge cannot wholly miss; either they will have life, estate, or both; Contrary to the nature of all Enditements and Criminal Charges whatsoever; which aught to be particular, clear and certain (Lamb. page 487.) that the accused may know for what Crime he puts himself upon issue; But this Court (as High as it is) not being Constituted a Court of Record; the Prisoner, and those that are concerned in him, can have no Record to resort to either. 1. To demand a Writ of Error, in Case of Erroneous Judgement. 2. To ground a plea of Auterfois Acquit, in case of New Question for the same fact. 3ly, Or to demand an enlargement upon Acquital. Or 4ly, To demand a writ of conspiracy, against such as have combined to betray the life of an innocent man. Whereby it follows, That this prodigious Court hath power only to Condemn and Execute; not to Acquit and give Enlargement; Contrary to the Nature of all Courts of Judicature, and of Justice itself: it is therefore a mere Slaughter-house to Commit Free-State Murders in, without, nay against Law and Justice: and not a Court of Judicature; to condemn the Nocent, and absolve the Innocent. And the judges of this Court run Parallel with their Father the Devil; who is ever the Minister of God's wrath and fury, never of his Mercy.  

The humble Answer of Coll. Eusebius Andrews Esquire, to the Proceed against him before the Honourable, The high Court of Justice 1650.  
THe said Respondent (with favour of this Honourable Court) reserving & praying to be allowed the benefit and liberty of making farther Answer, if it shall be adjudged necessary, offereth to this Honourable Court  
That by the Stat. or Charter styled Magna Charta, (which is the Fundamental Law, and aught to be the Standard of the Laws of England, Confirmed above 30. times, and yet unrepealed, it is in the 29. Chapter thereof granted and enacted,  
1. That no Freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or be disseised of his Freehold or Liberties, or Free Customs; or be outlawed or exiled, or any other ways destroyed, Nor we shall not pass upon him but by a lawful judgement of his Peers, or by the Law of the Land.  
2. We shall sell to no man, nor defer to any man justice or Right.  
By the Stat. 42. Ed. III chap III. The Great Charter is commanded to be kept in all points: and it is enacted.  
That if any Stat. be made to the contrary, That shall be holden for none.  
By the Act 26 March 1650. entitled, An Act for establishing, An High Court of justice, Power is given to this Court; To Try, Condemn, and cause execution of death to be done, upon the Freemen of England, according as the Major number of any 12. of the Members thereof shall judge to appertain to Justice.  
And thereupon the Respondent doth humbly infer, and affirm that the Tenor of the said Act is diametrically opposite to, and inconsistent with the said Great Charter. And is therefore by the said recited Stat. 42. Ed. III. to be holden for none.  
Secondly, That it can with no more Reason, Equity or Justice, hold the reputation or value of a Law, (if the said Stat. had not been) then if (contrary to the 2d. Clause of the 29. chap of Magna Charta) it had been also enacted, That justice and Right shall be deferred to all Freemen, and sold to all that will buy it.  
By the Petition of Right, 3. Car. upon premising: That contrary to the Great Charter, Trials and Executions had been had and done against the Subjects, by Commissions Martial, etc. it was thereby prayed, and by Commission enacted. That:  
1. No Commissions of the like nature might be thenceforth issued, etc.  
2. To prevent least any of the Subjects should be put to death, Contrary to the Laws and Franchises of the Land.  
The Respondent hereupon Humbly observeth; and affirmeth: That this Court is (though under a different stile) in nature, and in the Proceed thereby directed, the same with a Commission Martial. The Freemen thereby being to be tried for life, and adjudged by the Opinion of the Major Number of the Commissioners sitting, as in Courts of Commissioners Martial was practised; and was agreeable to their constitution: And consequently against the Petition of Right: in which he, and all the Freemen of England (if it be granted there be any such) hath and have Right and Interest, & he humbly claims his right accordingly.  
By the Declarations of this Parliament, Dec. and Jan. 17. 1641. The benefit of the Laws, and the ordinary course of Justice are the Subjects Birthright.  
By the Declaration, 12. July. 6. 1. Octob. 1642. The Prosecution of the Laws, and due administration of justice, are owned to be the justifying cause of the War, and the end of the Parliaments affairs managed by their Swords and Counsels, and God's curse is by them imprecated, in case they should ever decline those ends.  
By the Declaration 17. April 1646. Promise was made not to interrupt the Course of Justice, in the ordinary Courts.  
By the Ordinance or Votes of Non-addresses, Jan. 1648. It is assured, That, though they lay aside the King; yet they will govern by the Laws, and not interrupt the course of justice, in the ordinary Courts thereof. 
* Th' y forget the 2. Declarations 9 Febr. 17. March 1648.   
And therefore this Respondent humbly averreth and affirmeth, That the constitution of this Court, is a breach of the public Faith of the Parliament exhibited and pledged in those Declarations and Votes to the Freemen of England.  
And upon the whole matter, the Respondent (saving as aforesaid) doth affirm for Law and claimeth as is Right. That:  
1. This Court in defect of the validity of the said Act, by which it is constituted, hath no power to proceed against him, or to press him to a further Answer.  
2. That by virtue of Magna Charta, The Petition of Right, and the before recited Declarations, he ought not to be proceeded against in this Court, but by an ordinary Court of justice, and to be tried by his Peers.  
And humbly prayeth: That this his present Answer and Salvo may be accepted and registered. Eusebius Andrew's.   

The Second Answer of Col. Eusebius Andrews Esquire, To the Honourable, The High Court of Justice. 1650.  
THe said Respondent (with the Favour of this Honourable Court) reserving and praying to be allowed the Benefit, and Liberty of making further Answer, if it shall be Necessary. In all humbleness for the present Answer offereth to this Honourable Court.  
That by the Letter and genuine sense of the Act, entitled An Act for establishing an High Court of Justice. The said Court is not qualified to try a Freeman of England, (such as the Respondent averreth himself to be) for life in case of Treason. For that: 1. The said Court is not constituted a Court of Record; neither hath Commission returnable into a Court of Record.  
So that: 1. The State cannot upon the Record (and but upon Record cannot at all) have that account of their Freemen, which Kings were wont to have of their Subjects, and States exact else where at the hands of their Ministers of Justice.  
2. The Freemen, and those who are or may be concerned in him, can have no Record to resort to, by which to preserve the Rights due to him and them respectively. viz.  
1. A writ of Error in case of erroneous judgement.  
2. A plea of Auterfoys acquit, in case of new question for the same fact.  
3. An Enlargement upon Acquittal.  
4. A Writ of Conspiracy, not to be brought until Acquital, against those who have practised to betray the life of the Respondent.  
1. The Writ of Error is due by Precedents. Paschae 39 Ed. III. John of Gaunts Case Rot. Parliament. 4. Ed. III. Num. 13. Count de arundel's Case. Rot. Parliament 49. Ed. III. Num. 23. Sr. John of Lees Case  
2. Auterfois acquit appears by: Wetherell and Darl●is Case. 4. Rep. 43. EliZ. Vaux his Case. 4. Rep. 33. Eliz.  
3. The Enlargement appears by: Stat. 14. Hen. IU. chap. 1. Dyer's Reports fol. 121. The year book of E●●. iv 10. fol. 19  
4. The writ of Conspiracy, by: The Poulter's Case. 9, Rep. fol. 55.  
This Court is to determine at a day; without account of their proceed, and have power to try, judge, and cause Execution: but not to acquit or give Enlargement. So that the nocent are thereby punishable; the injured and betrayed not vindicable. Which are defects incompatible with a Court of justice, and inconsistent with justice itself; and the honour of a Christian Nation and Common wealth.  
2. The Members of this Court, are by the said Act directed to be sworn.  
1. Not in conspectu populi; For the Freeman's satisfaction.  
2. Not in words of Indifferency and obliging in equality.  
3. But in words of manifest partiality, viz.  
You shall swear; That you shall well and truly, according to the best of your skill and knowledge, execute the several powers given you by this Act.  
1. If the Court be Triers and judges too, it is humbly offered by the respondent, that it is but reasonable; that they should be sworn as triers; in the sight of the Freeman who shall be upon his Trial.  
2. And, that as justices of Oyer and Terminer (They being authorized to hear and determine by the words of the Act. They should take an oath, such as is usual and equal, set down E. III. Viz. You shall swear, that well and lawful you shall serve our Lord the King, and his People in the Office of justice, etc. And that you deny to no man Common Right.  
3. Or that this Court (taking Notice of such high matters as Treason, upon the guilt whereof the Freeman's life depends) should take an Oath (at least) as equal as a justice of the Peace. Daltons' Iust. of Peace, fol. 13. the words are,  
I A. B. do swear that I will do equal Right, etc. according to my best wit, canning and power, after the Laws and Customs of the Land, and the Statutes thereof made, etc.  
4. If the Court will be judges and Triers too: (for they have power given them to conclude the Freemen, by the opinion of the major number of twelve, holding some resemblance (but with a signal difference) with the verdict of a jury) it were but reasonable that they should take an Oath correspondent to that usually administered to jurymen. The words are,  
You shall well and truly try, and true deliverance make between the Keepers of the Liberties of England, and the Prisoner at the Bar, according to your evidence. So help you God, etc.  
5. When this Court (as it is now constituted) hath condemned a Freeman, by applying their skill and knowledge to the power given them, whether justly or not: the Oath enjoined them by the Act 26. Marh, 1650. is not broken, literally; as to be exactable by man, though God will have a better account.  
And therefore upon the whole matter premised: The Respondent (saving as before) averreth for Law and Reason: This Court by the words of the Act constituting it; is not qualified, (in respect of the objected defects) to pass upon him for life in case of Treason, And prays this his 2: Answer may be received, with the Salvoes, and registered,  
Eusebius Andrews,   

The third Answer of Coll. Eusebius Andrews Esquire, to the Honourable, The High Court of Justice. 1650.  
THe said Respondent (with favour of this Honourable Court) reserving and praying to be allowed the benefit and liberty of making further Answer, if it shall be necessary, in all humbleness for present Answer offereth to this Honourable Court,  
1. That it is his Right (if he admit this Court to be duly and legally established, and constituted as to their being a Court) to be tried by his Peers; men of his own condition and Neighbourhood.  
2. That it is within the power of this Court, by the Letter of the Act, 26. March 1650. Or (at least) not repugnant to the Act, to try him by such his Peers, etc.  
1. That it is his Right to be tried only so: appears by 

Magna Charta, chap. 29.  
25. Ed. 3. chap. 9  
28. Ed. 3. chap. 4.  
42. Ed. 3. chap. 3.  
25. Ed. 1. chap. 1. and 2.  
25. Ed. 3. chap. 2. and 4.  
37. Ed. 3. chap. 18.    
By all which this Right is maintainable; And the Proceed contrary thereunto will be held for none, and to be redressed as void and erroneous.  
So that if the Laws and Courts were not obstructed in the cases of some sort of Freemen of England, the whole Proceed contrary to these Laws without a Jury of his Peers, were avoidable and reversible by Writ of Error, as appears by the Precedents vouched in the Respondents second Answer.  
3. That it is in the Court's power, To try the Freeman, & consequently the Respondent, by a jury of his Equals; The Court is humbly desired to consider the words of qualification.  
1. The Court is Authorised; To hear and determine: and so (if at all Commissioners) than Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer, and such Commissioners, in their natural constitution and practical execution, do proceed against Freemen according to Law by a jury of their Peers, and not otherwise.  
2. Authorised to proceed to Trial, condemnation and execution: But not restrained to the manner limitative: As, to Trial by the Opinion of the Court, as Triers Nor exclusive. As, to Trial per pares. But is left in the Manner, as in the judgement itself, To the Opinion of the major part of 12. and if they shall think fit to try by a jury, it will be no offence against the Act, there being no Prohibition to the contrary.  
And though this Respondent insisteth upon his said Right, consisting with the Courts said power, and the more to induce the Court to grant him his said Right; He humbly representeth the wrong done to himself, and in him to the Freemanzy of England in the following particulars, against their just Rights depending upon such Trials to be allowed or denied.  
1. Challenges to his Triers peremptory, or with cause of Challenge.  
2, Seeing, hearing, and counter-questioning the witnesses for clearing of the Evidence: in matter of Fact and Circumstance.  
3. The being convicted or acquitted by a full and fully consented verdict.  
To all which benefits as his undoubted Right, and the Right of all the Freemen of England, the Respondent maketh claim by these Reasons, Laws and Precedents following.  
1. The benefit of Challenges by the learning of Stanford in his Pleas of the Crown, Title challenge fol. 150. To challenge 35. without Reason shown; and with Reason shown, without Number adjudged 32. Hen. VI in Poinings case, abriged by Fitzherb. Tit. Challenge, fol. 26. allowed in Hillary 1. Jac. Sir Walter Raleigh and Brooks.  
2. To the hearing and questioning the value and weight of the witnesses. The Laws are plain in Stanfords' pleas of the Crown fol. 163, 164. Stat. 1. and 2. of Phil and Mary, Chap 10 11. 1 Ed. VI chap. 12. Cooks 3 Instit. pag. 12. upon the words in the St. 25. Ed. III. chap 2. (Provablement attaint) Because the punishment was heavy, the proof must be punctual, and not upon Presumptions, or Inferences, or Strains of wit, nor upon Arguments simili, or Minori ad Majus, etc. But upon good and clear proofs, made good also by the St. 1. Ed. c. 6. 19 Ed. c. 1.  
3. A verdict by jury passeth from all, or not at all, in this way of proceeding by the Court immediately: it passeth by way of concurrence (or voting) the great fault found with the Star-Chamber; and all Commissionary Courts, proceeding without presentment or indictment.  
4. A Verdict passeth from a jury before discharged, upon their Affairs of business, or supplies of Nature; to prevent corruption by money or power. In this way of Trial a man may be heard to day, and a Sentence given at leisure, when the power and will of those by whom the Freeman is prosecuted, be first known. And from such a proceeding this Respondent can hope little equality; he being (to his knowledge) forejudged already by them.  
And therefore (if at all this Honourable Court think fit to proceed to a Trial of this Respondent) he claims the benefit of Trial per pares: by Evidence viva voce. And rests on the Opinion of the Court; saving (as formerly) Liberty of farther Answer, if overruled.  
And prays that this his Answer and Salvos may be accepted and registered. Eusebius Andrews,   
WHereas mention hath been made in several printed Books, that John Fowke Alderman, was one of those persons, that did actually sit as Judges upon the Trial of his Majesty, with the Council and Attendants of the Court. And was in the number of the Judges at the King's sentence of death. These are to give notice to all men, that the same is most false and scandalous, as will many ways appear; And in particular, by the Certificate of Henry Scobell Clerk of the Parliament, in these words following, (ViZ.)  

IN a Book Ordered by the Parliament to be kept among the Records of the Parliament read in the House the 11. of December 1640. and Entitled, A Journal of the Proceed of the High Court of Justice, erected by Act of the Commons of England, Entitled, An Act of the Commons of England in Parliament Assembled, for Erecting of an High Court of Justice, for the trying and judging of Charles Stewart, King of England; In which Books are set down the Names of the Commissioners, appearing each day in Court. Having diligently searched the same, the name of John Fowke Alderman of London, is not therein mentioned, as being present with the Commissioners at any meeting upon the said Trial, either public or private.  
March 28. 1660. Henry Scobell Clerk of the Parliament.     

THE HISTORY OF Independency.  
The Fourth and last Part.  
Continued from the Death of his late MAJESTY, King CHARLES the First of happy Memory, till the deaths of the chief of that Juncto.  
By T. M. Esquire, a Lover of his King and Country.  Cicero Epist. Lib. 2. Ep. 3. 
Civem mehercule non puto esse, qui temporibus his ridere possit.  Id. Lib. 5. Ep. 12. 
Habet autem praeteriti doloris secura recordatio delectationem.  
LONDON, Printed for H. Brome at the Gun in Ivy-lane; and H. Marsh at the Prince's Arms in Chancery-Lane. 1660.   

TO THE SACRED MAJESTY OF Great BRITAIN'S MONARCH.  
(The Triumphant Son of a most Glorious Father, who was in all things More than Conqueror.)  
The Illustrious offspring of a Royal Train of ANCIENT PRINCE'S CHARLES The second of that Name, Entitled PIOUS By the sole Providence of an Almighty hand, of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith.  
Restorer of the English Church unto its Pristine State and Glory.  
Patron of Law and Liberty, Not to be Seconded by any but himself, Who is the best of Kings.  
And of all Virtue to the World THE GRAND EXEMPLAR.   

Most Dread Sovereign.  
IT is neither arrogance nor ambition that makes me thus boldly to intrude into your presence, for I know so great a Sun will quickly dazzle my weak eyes, but because the former parts were honoured with your royal Father's name, this therefore hopes to be sheltered under your Princely wing, this but concluding what they begun, and making you the happy repairer of those Breaches, which that powerful and restless faction of Independency made on the Regalia of England, that posterity may as well see, in this, their felicity, by you, in the ruin of that faction, as formerly they read their own misery, in the Treasonable actings thereof, against his late Majesty of ever glorious memory.  
I have no more but only to pray, that you may in this World be blessed with the wisdom, and happiness of Solomon, a peaceable, long and all glorious Reign: the age of Methuselah, wherein you may enjoy the full contents of a most happy life, and at last full of honour and days arrive to the perfect fruition of a more glorious Kingdom, in God's presence, before whom is fullness of joy, and at his right hand pleasures for evermore.  
29. Oct. 1660. This from his soul is the daily prayer of Your Majesty's most faithful subject and Servant. T. M.   

To the Nobility, Gentry, Clergy and Commons of ENGLAND.  
IT is I think more out of custom than necessity, that I do at this time premise any thing, the Subject whereof we treat, having been fatally felt by most of the Nation in some way or other, yet is it necessary that the history of such turgencies in the State should be communicated, that posterity may hereafter see, in their rise and fall, the certain punishment of Treason, though for a time guarded and upheld by armed violence, and the highest policies of a subtle malice.  
It is said of the Epicureans, that, though they acknowledged no providence, nor any immortality of the soul, and proposed pleasure as the only end of their lives, yet they maintained (most of them) that they that were lovers of pleasure, must of necessity be lovers of Justice, and that without virtue it was not possible for men to live in true pleasure, So as it was said of the Stoics (who were for the most part notable hypocrites) that they spoke good things, and did foul actions, but that the Epicureans spoke and taught things that seemed foul and shameful, but did that which was fair and honest.  
Certainly these two sects of Philosophers might be the very parallel of our late times, wherein our Stoical Grandees could speak nothing but holiness, where the practice of their lives was a continued series of horrid Treasons, while a little innocent mirth and freeness of speech was the greatest that lay, or indeed could be cast, upon integrity of their despised Antagonists: so that we might see Cucullus non fecit Monarchum.  
It had been well for England if the sad occasions of writing this history of the times had never happened: but they have been: And, as our Saviour saith, Offences must come, but woe be to them by whom they come, so then to declare the actings, and their method and manner, is but so to lay them open, that they may for the future be the better avoided and prevented.  
The knowledge of all persons, the meaning of all matters, 
Voss. de s●ri Ag●. & de art. histor.  and the depth of all secrets, is locked up in history according to that of Vossius, alluding to that of the Roman Poet, 
Qui quid sit turpe, aut pulchrum, quid utile, quid non  
Plenius & melius Chrysyppo & Crantore dixit.   
And this I dare promise you in the ensuing Manual; without too violent reflections to widen differences: all the observations arising as naturally from the relations, as suitable words do fitly supply the ready tongue of a Learned Orator.  
It is the general happiness at this present, that we can, read the downfall of faction, and rejoice in the glory of restored Majesty with safety and content; and I pray God, that all the mischiefs of the remaining Achitophel's, Shimei's and Rabshakehs, may fall upon their own heads: but peace, happiness and prosperity, may wait on our Solomon, that he may be blessed, and his throne be established, before the Lord for ever.  
To Conclude; As your Loyalty in the worst, oftentimes hath been signal (if in nothing else yet in sufferings) so despise not to read this tractate, wherein, I dare presume, you will find something which before you knew not: the work, ' its true is short, but will not, I hope, want substance, inest enim sua gratia parvis; and to remember these things certainly cannot be irksome— — Saepe recordari medicamine melius omni. to see and escape danger causeth, not only admiration but pleasure: which that you may receive with content by the perusal hereof is desired.  
I shall only add one word in particular, first to the Nobility; You are Right Honourable Princes in the Congregation of our Israel, Men of renown, exemplarily both in your names and honours. Be as eminent in service for your Prince, as obliged to him for favours, that it may be recorded of you as it is of David's Worthies. These are the mighty men which David had, who strengthened themselves with him in his Kingdom, according to the word of the Lord.  
2. To the Gentry, You are they whom Jethro counselled Moses to provide out of all the people to assist him, and be mediators between Prince and People; approve yourselves according to that counsel to be able men, such as fear God, men of truth and hating covetousness, so shall the Lord give a blessing as he hath promised.  
3. To the Clergy, God hath made you as a Beacon upon an hill, that you might forewarn Israel of her sins, ye are the salt of the Earth, while you preach to others be not yourselves cast away, but in season and out of season labour, labour to declare Christ not of contention and strife, but sow the word to effect that fruit may grow thereby.  
And lastly to the Commons, who are tumidum & instabile vulgus: I shall only wish that they will labour for peace, and, according to their Royal Princes dictate in his late Declaration concerning Ecclesiastical affairs, acquiesce in his condescensions concerning the differences which have so much disquieted the Sat: by which endeavour all good Subjects will by God's blessing enjoy as great a measure of felicity as this Nation hath ever done; which is the earnest prayer of  
No. 2. 1660. Your, etc. T. M.   

THE HISTORY OF Independency. The Fourth and Last part.  
THE former parts of this Book having traced the prevalent and strong Factions of Presbyterian and Independent, 
The Proem.  through the several devious paths wherein they marched, and with what devilish cunning they did, each, endeavour to be greatest, by surprising, or at least undermining the other, until at last they unriveted the very foundations of Government, by the execrable murder of their undoubtedly lawful Sovereign, a crime so abhorred, that it is even inexpiable, not to be purged with sacrifice for ever: I say, these things having received so lively a delineation in the former parts, shall need no new recitals. I shall then begin at the end thereof, which was; when the sacred Relics of betrayed Majesty, specie justitiae, received a fatal stroke from bloodthirsty hands, neither able to protect itself, or be a shadow and Asylum for rejected Truth, and unspotted Loyalty. Thus in an unsettled and confused posture stood poor England, when the Sceptre departed from Israel, and the Royal Lion was not only rob of, his prey, but his Life: which Barbarism once committed, what did the Independent Faction, now grown chief, ever after stick at? Having tasted Royal Blood, the Blood of Nobles seemed but a small thing: to which end, and to heighten and perfect their begun villainies, they erect another High Court of Justice, 
Lords H. H. C. tried.  for the Trial of James Earl of Cambridge, Henry Earl of Holland, George Lord Goring, Arthur Lord Capell, and Sir John Owen Knight: whereof that Horseleech of Hell, John Bradshaw, was also Precedent, who with sixty two more (as honest men as himself) by a Warrant under the hands of Luke Robinson, Nicholas Love, and J. Sarland, summoned for that purpose, did accordingly appear upon Monday the fifth day of February, 1648. for the putting in Execution an Act of Parliament (as they called it) for the erecting of an High Court of Justice, for the trying and adjudging the Earls and Lords aforesaid; with whom (according to their fore-settled resolution) making short work (for they would admit of no plea) of the five they presently condemned three to lose their heads on a scaffold in the Palace-yard at Westminster, 
Lords condemned.  on Friday the ninth day of March: which day being come, about ten of the clock that Morning, Lieutenant Colonel Beecher came with his Order to the several Prisoners at S. James', requiring them to come away; from whence they were immediately hurried in Sedans, with a strong guard, to Sir Thomas Cottons house at Westminster, where they continued about two hours, spending the whole time in holy devotion and religious exercises. After which the Earl of Cambridge preparing first for the Scaffold, after mutual embraces, and some short parting expressions to, and for, his fellow-sufferers, he took his leave, and went along with the Officers, attended on by Dr. Sibbalds', whom he had chosen for his Comforter in his sad condition. Being arrived at the Scaffold, and seeing several Regiments both of horse and foot drawn up in the place: after he had waited a little while with a fruitless hope and expectation of receiving some comfortable news from the Earl of Denbigh who was his Brother; having sent for his Servant, who being returned, and having delivered his Message to the Earl of Cambridge privately, he said, So, It is done now: 
Hamiltons' speech at his death.  and turning to the front of the Scaffold he spoke to this effect. That he desired not to speak much, but being by providence brought to that place, he declared to the Sheriff, that the matter he suffered for, as being a Traitor to the kingdom of England, he was not guilty of, having done what he did by the command of the Parliament of his own Country, whom he durst not disobey, they being satisfied with the justness of their procedure, and himself by the commands by them laid upon him; and acknowledging that he had many ways deserved a worldly punishment, yet he hoped through Christ to obtain remission of his sins. That he had from his Infancy professed the same Religion established by Law in the land. That, whereas he had been aspersed for evil intents towards the King, all his actions being hypocritically disguised to advance his own self-interest: hereto he protested his innocency; professing he had reason to love the King, as he was his King, and had been his Master, with other words to the same effect. That, as to the matter of invitation into the kingdom, he referred himself to the Declaration then in Print; and setting forth how ready and willing he was ever to serve the English, wishing happiness and peace to them, and praying that his blood might be the last that should be drawn, hearty forgiving all, saying, I carry no rancour along with me to the grave. That his Religion was such as he spoke of before, whose Tenets he needed not to express, as being known to all, and himself not of a rigid opinion, being not troubled with other men's differing judgements; with which words, and forgiving all that he might have even the greatest animosity against, he kneeled down with Dr. Sibbald, and prayed with much earnestness and devotion: which pious exercise performed, and some short ejaculations passing between himself and the Doctor, the Earl turning to the Executioner, said, Shall I put on another cap, and turn up my hair? Which way is it that you would have me lie, Sir? The Executioner pointing to the front of the Scaffold, the Earl replied, What, my head this way? Then the Undersheriffs' son said, My Lord, the Order is, that you lay your head toward the High Court of Justice. Then the Earl, after some private discourse with his servants, kneeled down on the side of the Scaffold, and prayed a while to himself; afterwards with a smiling and cheerful countenance he embraced the Doctor in his Arms, and then his servants, saying to them, Ye have been very faithful to me, and the Lord bless you: then turning to the Executioner, said: I shall say a very short prayer while I lie down there, and when I stretch out my hand, (my right hand) then, Sir, do your duty, and I do freely forgive you, and so I do all the World. So lying down, and having fitted himself, 
Hamilton executed.  devoutly praying to himself a short space, he stretched out his right hand, whereupon the Executioner, at one blow, severed his head from his body, which was received by two of his Servants, then kneeling by him, into a Crimson Taffata scarf; and that with the body immediately put into the Coffin brought thither for that purpose, and so carried to Sr. John Hambletons' house at the Mews.  
This Execution done, the Sheriff's guard went immediately to ●●tch the Earl of Holland, whom they met in the midway, where the under Sheriff's son having received him into his charge, conducted him to the Scaffold, Mr. Bolton passing all the way hand in hand, with him. Being come upon the same, and observing he could not spoke aloud enough to be heard by the People, by reason of the numerousness of the Soldiery that encompassed him, he said. 
Holland's speech on the Scaffold.  I think it is to no purpose to say any thing; then proceeded. That his breeding had been in a good family, that had ever been faithful to the true Protestant Religion, in which he had ever lived, and now resolved by God's grace to die. That he hoped God would forgive him his sins, though he acknowledged his Justice in bringing him thither for punishment of them in this World. He observed, that he was looked on as one that had ill designs against the State. Truly (saith he) I look upon it as a judgement, not having offended the Parliament in any thing, save an extreme vanity in serving them very extraordinarily. That his affections had been ever known to be faithful, and without wavering: where the Parliament wrought changes beyond and against reason and Religion, there He left them. That he ever sought the peace of the Kingdom, and that made him do what he did. That he knew not how to judge of (the then) present affairs; but should pray, that the Kingdom might be again governed by the King, by the Lords, by the Commons: and that the People may look upon the Posterity of the King with that affection they own: that they may be called again without bloodshed, and admitted into that power and glory that God in their birth intended to them.  
That he wisheth happiness even to the causers of his death, praying hearty to God to forgive them. And as Chancellor of Cambridge really praying, that that University might flourish, and be a continual Nursery both to Learning and Religion. Then mentioning again his Religion and family, relating something to his own behaviour, and his being a great sinner, yet that he hoped God would hear his prayers, and give him faith to trust in him, with his prayers for the People, he ended. Then turning to the side, he prayed for a good space of time: after which by the instigation of Mr. Bolton, he said. That he was the less troubled with his violent death, when he remembered how his Saviour suffered for him; and again, when he considered the King his Master not long before passed the same way; with others at this time with himself, with a serious and pithy justification of his said Master the late King's Majesty, a short recapitulation of his first speech concerning his Actions, Religion, breeding and sufferings. After all, wholly casting himself, on the merits and mercies of Jesus Christ, forgiving his Enemies, praying for peace, and that their blood might be the last, which was shed strangely, the trial being as extraordinary as any thing in the Kingdom: but he owned it as God's hand: then having, some divine conference with Mr. Bolton for near a quarter of an hour, and spoken to a Soldier that took him prisoner and others, he embraced Lieutenant Colonel Beecher, and took his leave of him. After which he came to Mr. Bolton, and having embraced him, and returned him many thanks for his great pains and affection to his soul, he prepared himself to the block: whereupon turning to the Executioner, he said; here my friend, let my  and my body alone, there is ten pounds for thee, that is better than my , 
His behaviour.  I am sure of it. And when you take up my head, do not take off my cap: then taking his farewell of his Servants, he kneeled down and prayed, for a pretty space, with much earnestness.  
Then going to the front of the Scaffold, he said to the People, God bless you all, God give all happiness, to this Kingdom, to this People, to this Nation. Then laying himself down, he seemed to pray with much affection for a short space, and then lifting up his head (seeing the Executioner by him) he said, stay while I give the sign and presently after stretching out his hand, and saying, now, now; just as the words were coming out of his mouth, the Executioner at one blow severed his head from his body. 
E. of H●ll. death.   
The Execution of the Earl of Holland being thus performed, the Lord Capell was brought to the Scaffold as the former: and as he passed along, he put off his hat to the People on both sides, looking about him with a very stern countenance; when mounting on the Scaffold having before taken his leave of his Chaplain, and bidding his Servants that were with him to refrain from weeping, coming to the front of the Scaffold, 
Lo. Capell his speech before his death.  he spoke to this purpose.  
That he would pray for those that sent him thither, and were the cause of his violent Death; it being an effect of the Religion he professed, being a Protestant, with the profession whereof he was very much in love, after the manner as it was established in England by the 39 Articles. That he abhorred Papistry, relying only on Christ's merits. That he was condemned to die contrary to the Law that governs all the World, that is, by the Law of the Sword, the Protection whereof he had for his Life: yet among Englishmen, he an Englishman acknowledged Peer, condemned to die contrary to all the laws of England. That he died (as to the cause he fought in) for maintaining the fifth Commandment, enjoined by God himself, the Father of the Country, the King, as well as the natural Parent being to be obeyed thereby. That he was guilty of Voting against the Earl of Strafford; but he hoped God had washed off the guilt of his blood with the more precious blood of his Son. That his late Majesty was the most virtuous, and sufficient known Prince in the World. God preserve the King that now is, his Son. God send him more fortunate and longer days. God restore him to this Kingdom, that that family may reign till thy Kingdom come; that is, while all Temporal power is consummated. God give much happiness to this your King; and to you that in it shall be his subjects. That he did again forgive those that were the causers of his coming thither from his very soul: so praying again for the King and his restoration, and for the peace of the Kingdom, he finished his speech.  

L. C. his carriage.  Then turning about to the Executioner, he pulled off his doublet; when the Headsman kneeling down, Lord Capell said, I forgive thee from my soul, and shall pray for thee; There is five pounds for thee, and if any thing be due for my , you shall be fully recompensed. And when I lie down, give me a short time for a prayer: then again blessing the People very earnestly, and desiring their prayers at the moment of death, he said to the Executioner, you are ready when I am ready, are you not, then as he stood putting up his hair, with hands and eyes lift up he said. O God, I do with a perfect and a willing heart submit to thy will. O God, I do most willingly humble myself, so kneeling down, and fitting his neck to the block, as he lay with both his hands stretched out, he said, When I lift up my Right hand, then strike. When after he had said a short prayer, 
L. Capell beheaded.  he lifted up his right hand, and the Executioner at one blow severed his head from his body, which was taken up by his servants and put into a Coffin.  
Having thus brought to pass their bloody purpose, shortly after they acquitted the Lord Goring, and Sir John Owen as to their lives, but seized upon all they had: according as they did upon most of the Estates of the Nobility and Gentry throughout England; for such now was their unsatiable malice, that they thought it not enough to ruin and destroy the heads of Families; but, 
The barbarousness of the faction.  with devilish rancour, endeavour to blot out the name and memorial of Posterity, by such unheard of cruelties, and barbarous actions, as would make a Savage Scythian or Barbarian blush to think on, so that we may say with Cicero in the like case; Rem vides, quomodo se habeat: orbem terrarum Imperiis distributis ardere bello: urbem sine legibus, sine judiciis, sine jure, sine fide relictam direptioni, & incendiis. Which indeed is the very present case.  
Thus did they grow from bad to worse, acting rather like butchers than Men, each one of them proving to all about him, a devouring wolf, whose insatiate gorge was never filled with his prey, so that having in effect the mastery of them (whom they called their Enemies) like true thiefs they fall out about parting the stakes: 
The Army and Independent close  the Presbyterian faction will brook no superior, the Independent no equal, upon these terms stands the Kingdom divided, when the later grown now more powerful by the additon of the Army, whose guilt in the murder of the King had suggested to them, that the only way to save and raise themselves, was to confound and reduce all things else to an Anarchy. In pursuance of which Principle they at last proceed against the very root of Monarchy: and after many uncouth debates resolved, that the Nation should be settled in the way of a free State, 
Free-state appointed.  and Kingly government be utterly abolished. Now was the stile in all proceed at the law altered, the seals changed, and the King's arms and statues in all places taken down, that so their seared consciences might not at the sight thereof be terrified, with the sad remembrance of their committed crimes. And that no spark or attendant of ancient Majesty might be left remaining, soon after, they vote the house of Lords to be burdensome and useless: 
Lord's house voted useless.  and that the People might understand their meaning also, on the 21th. of February they proclaim at Westminster, and send it to the City the next Day to the like purpose, but the than Lord Mayor refusing to do it, as being contrary to his honour, conscience and Oath, rather chose to suffer an unjust imprisonment, which he did in the Tower: Any honest Man would have thought this example would have put a stop to the attempt of any villain for the making that proclamation, but so far were they from being deterred, that they rather grow more implacable, and having found some hair brained, and half decayed, Citizens, out of them, one is set up as a mock-Mayor, who being a fellow fit for their turns, after a short compliment or two with the Juncto: 
The Proclamation against Kingship.  he enters the Stage and Proclaims, the abolishing of Kingship, and the House of Lords. Having thus brought their design to some kind of maturity, they find another invention to be as a Shibboleth, a mark of distinction, between themselves and other men, 
The engagement a mark of distinction.  and that was the engagement forsooth, whereby every man should promise to be true and faithful to the Commonwealth of England, without a King or house of Lords, and he that would not subscribe to this, was forced either to fly, or which was as bad, to stay at home, and have neither the benefit, nor the protection, of the law of the land, nor any advantage either of his liberty or Estate; Now might you have seen Vice regnand, and nothing but Schism and faction Countenanced, now might you have beheld England, sometime the Glory of the World, now become its by words, the name of English being among foreign Nations esteemed as a crime sufficient, so did the Land mourn for oaths that she was ready to vomit out her inhabitants, while the Juncto still endeavour to palliate their villainy, and to get allies among neighbour Princes and States, to many of whom they send Ambassadors (as they styled them) and were again reciprocally courted and owned, and particularly by the Spaniard and the French; but the Dutch did seem to be Men of a better mould and temper, 
The dutch quarrel.  and therefore having no better ground they quarrel for superiority; denying to vale to the English, because they were the younger State, yet still owning that respect to the Monarchy: hereat the English (though yet but an) Embryo begin to startle, and weighing the unsetledness of their basis, and that all they had hitherto done was only daubed together with untempered mortar, they resolve to try all ways rather than fall out, 
St. john's sent to treat, but returns without doing any thing.  and will seek to gain that by Courtship, which they are unwilling to hazard by force; as a fit Man for this work they pick out a pure Saint, Mr. Oliver, St. john's, and dispatch him into Holland with, as large a train, as great State, and as full instructions as they could possibly afford or invent, whether when he is come, he makes his address to the Lords States, but with so little approbation and success, that in a little time he began to grow weary of his business, especially, when the multitude began to grow clamourous against him, insomuch that he durst hardly stir abroad, so that being both outworded, and outwitted, after many debates, brotherly expostulations, Declarations, and hearty desires to small (or rather indeed to not) purpose, he gravely makes his Congee, takes his leave and vanisheth; The Juncto at his teturn, somewhat discontented at his fruitless Embassy, yet finding no other remedy, and willing to make the best of a bad market, prepare for war, (for by this time the Dutch had begun both to affront them and seize on what they could catch as lawful prize) which so vexed the English Puny State, that they presently fall to an open war, the various successes of which, and the losses that accrued thereby to each party by means of the same, I shall not make the work of my pen, having only designed to delineate those black deeds of impiety acted within the narrow limits of our England, by the horridest crew of bloody miscreants that were ever spared by Divine vengeance from sudden destruction.  
The English affairs and Government being thus wrested into the hands of a few desperate persons, 
Ireland looked at.  the next thing aimed at is, the reducing of Ireland: for effecting whereof they give a Commission to, and raise an Army under the Command of, Cromwell, 
Cromwell sent to Ireland and prove Victorious.  which he as suddenly transports thither, Ormond and Inchequeen having at that time all the Country in obedience to his Majesty, (save only Dublin kept by Col. Michael Jones, and  by Sir Charles Coot) when lo, as it were to welcome Cromwell, Jones, immediately before his arrival, had made way for him by the overthrow of Ormonds' forces about Dublin: And now, as if fortune had already designed him the laurel, St. Charles Coot, in an other place at Londonderry, worsteth a Second party, and the Earl of Ormond, and the Lord Inchequeen, having joined their broken forces into a considerable strength, are again together overthrown at Connaught.  
The concatenation of these successes, together with the cruelty exercised by Cromwell at the taking of Tredagh by storm, where his rage spared neither age nor sex, a barbarism scarcely used by the very Turks, cast such a Panic fear over the whole Nation, that the strong holds fell into his power, like over-ripe fruit into the prepared hands of its ready gatherer.  
So hidden and mystical is the series of God's providence, that for a time, the most enormous crimes are counted virtues, & the poor losing honest soul constrained to stoop and bow under the heavy yoke of a prevailing tyrant; yea Majesty itself enforced, (like the clouded Sun) compulsively to hid his beams, and retire with his light for a while, as though it had been but borrowed, but as the Sun, so Majesty can never be kept in perpetual darkness: for by this time the Independent, who had for a space been chief, find a Competitor of the Leveller, 
The Leveller gins to ●●r.  who resolves either to share in the whole, and so reduce and keep all in an equality, whereby himself may be one of the greatest, or else to endeavour to b●ing back all into its original channel, and to show they meant as they said, with better hearts than success or strength they rise in three or four places, for they are assoon quashed as seen, and themselves and their design end both together: A garment of linen and woollen was forbidden to be worn by the levitical law, and I suppose because the mixture would be improper either for wearing, or handsomeness of sight, in the same manner may I say of the Levelling faction, that though they in intent were real for restoring the King, yet God would not suffer it to be brought to pass by such hands, that had been so deeply died before in royal blood. The royal party though under hatches, and now suffering for their loyalty, having passed and been refined in the fire of affliction must be the Men, whose unspotted fingers shall not only pull down the Idolized Babel of the People's imagination, but repair the decayed ruins of our broken Government, and reinstate exiled Majesty upon its throne adorned with safety, and with beauty both, and guarded with the safest strength of faithful hearts and hands, better than walls of brass or form troops of mercenary Soldiers.  

Scots send to the King.  But that time was not yet come, although the Scots sent a peculiar messenger, the Lord Libberton to the King, desiring him among other things, that he would please to appoint a place for a Treaty to be between his Majesty and his Kingdom of Scotland, which offer of theirs, was graciously accepted, and a Treaty appointed at Breda, on the 15th. of March, whither the Scots Commissioners came the 16th. and on the 19th. fell to their business, neither would by any means relinquish their Presbytery though but in part, and as to the particular person of the King himself, whom they strongly bound up to the Covenant, Directory and Catechisms, 
Treaty at Bredah concluded.  whereto his Majesty; after many long and serious debates, having unwillingly consented. The Scots on their part did promise. 1. That his Majesty should be admitted to the throne of Scotland. 2. That his Rights then should be by Parliament, recovered from the hands of Usurpers, and 3. That they would assist to bring the murderers of his Father of blessed memory, to condign punishment, and to restore him to his Native Kingdom of England.  
A happy, Omen, surely was this promise and undertaking hoped to be, and so indeed it might have proved, if it had been gained from any but the worst of Scotchmen, the Presbyterians, for, at the very same time as it were, when they had concluded the Treaty, and thus highly promised the King as is before mentioned, I say at the same time, having gotten the famous Marquis of Montross into their hand, whose only fault was Loyalty to his Prince, having brought him with as much ignominy as they could devise to Edinburgh, they there charge him for keeping away the King (observe the King was now upon the point of coming to them) from his subjects. 2. For the invading that Kingdom. 3. For all the murders in the war, and for waste upon Argiles Estate, etc.  
Mark, here I pray, 
Montross murdered and the reasons thereof.  Montross must be murdered (the best subject the King had in Scotland) and just when the King is ready to come thither, (as if it were done in despite to him) but why? for keeping away the King? No, he had promised to be with them with all speed, which Montross in prison could not have hindered. Was it for invasion? alas neither, for he had none but his own Countrymen, and of them but a very few and they quickly, and easily defeated; what, was it for then, for murder? alas neither, what then? O! here's the Devil that murdered the famous Montross, for waste upon Argiles Estate; Argile, I say that underminer of his Sovereign, who in a short time after, upon his arrival, was by the means and instigation of him, upon pretence of non-performance by the King, left destitute either of friends (whom they banished from his Court, 
The K. in Scotland. held to hard meat. ) means, (which they curtailed him of) and strength (allowing him neither a Soldier nor a garrison, nay not a town where he might with safety repose his head); things being at this pass, and his Majesty with much ado gotten into Scotland as aforesaid, which the Juncto at Westminster, having perfect intelligence of, and weighing with themselves that promise of the Scots, to bring the murderers of the King's Father, to condign punishment, they begin to think it high time, to provide for their own safety, in consulting whereof, after much time spent, it is resolved the safest, wisest, and to them least chargeable course to wait, on the Enemy in his own Country, whereby they carried the war from home, and not to stay for him to bring it to their own doors.  
As a strong motive to this, just at the instant, they discover that many of the Presbyterians of England; had by their agents agreed with the Scots at Bredah, to re-establish his Majesty in all his Dominions: Whereupon many eminent persons are seized on, and among them, Mr. Case, Mr. Jenkins, Mr. Jackson, Mr. Love, etc. Which Mr. Love together with one Mr. Gibbons suffered death together on Tower-hill, 
Mr. Love and Gibbons beheaded.  at the earnest suit of Cromwell, protesting he would not march into Scotland, unless they were cut off: Being moved hereby as well as by their own fear and guilt, 
Cromwell invades Scotland.  his Majesty is scarce in Scotland, but Cromwell is at the borders with 16000 Horse and Foot, on their behalf; to whom Leslly, L. G. of the horse, which were now raised, after some expostulations by Letters and Declarations, sends word that he is in arms upon the account of the good old cause, and not upon the account of the King, 
Scots divided among themselves.  whom he clearly disowned; Straughan and Ker, not only disown the King, but say positively they will fight against him, so that now it was not Bellum Regale, a war to maintain the King's honour, and the points of the treaty, but bellum Presbyteriale, a war for the Kirke of Scotland, against the Independent faction of England (those two great parties being come now to a second contest for superiority) for Leven commanded the Foot, and Leslly as I said before the horse, and these two unaminously drew out against Cromwell, and fought him within six miles of Edinburgh, though to little purpose, for he immediately after became Master of the field, 
1. Fight at Edinburgh.  and took Garririsons, as fast as he came to them, defeating them at Musselbourgh, and pursuing them to Pentlan-hills, 
2. Fight at Musselbourgh.  where the Scots had him in a strait, and might have destroyed him, but the certainty as they thought of the victory, caused them to delay, by which, and the fatal necessities of sickness, hunger and cold pressing upon Cromwell's Army, made them choose rather at one fight desperately to hazard all, then timourously to become the scorn of an insulting foe, which they knew they should find: following this resolve with diligence, they whisper about the word to each other, in the midst of a dark and rainy night, they crept up the hill and fell on the Scots so suddenly and beyond expectation, that they were disordered by the first attempt, yet by reason of, their multitudes, 
3. Dunbar fight and total defeat.  and a little courage, they held up a while, till surrounded on the back by Cromwell's horse, the Scots horse affrighted, begin to retreat, and soon after to fly in good earnest, leaving their foot to mercy, who were taken in greater numbers than the English Army consisted of; the Independent power by this victory being absolute conquerors, 
King in the North of Scotl. private.  and the Presbyterian pride laid grovelling in the dust.  
During this quarrel between the said two factions, the King (as disowned so) not interested therein, retires first to St. Johnstons', and after that, privately into the North of Scotland, where he continued, expecting what God would do for him; assuring himself that this defeat at Dunbar (as things then stood) could not be for his prejudice: 
King sent to and returns.  which indeed, quickly fell out according to his expectation; for the Scots upon that overthrow were somewhat humbled in Spirit, and now began again to think of their late abused King, wishing in their hearts he were among them, (fearing to speak the truth) lest he would have joined with Northern and loyal Highlanders, to prevent which they send M. G. Montgomery with forces to entreat his Majesty's return, who finds him out, and affectionately delivers his message: which the King received even with joyful tears, as minding the justice of God upon those perfidious Scots, whose pride in success carried them beyond all bounds of allegiance (and like a stubborn child must be sound whipped ere they will kneel and the good manners they obtain must be beaten into them): Yet he accepts of their request, and accordingly goes towards them. Who but so good a King would have exposed himself to such men's trust, in so dangerous a time? Innocentia est sibi munimentum, for he resolves to return. 
King crowned.  Upon notice hereof and his arrival, the Parliament address themselves to him, and appoint the time for his Coronation: which was accordingly with much State, pomp and Ceremony, performed on the first of January following at Schone; the particulars whereof I shall not enter upon, several relations thereof being already extant.  
His Majesty thus invested in his throne, undauntedly proceeds to secure both his person and Kingdom: 
K. raiseth an army.  to which end he gins to raise and levy an Army, both of horse and foot, which in short time, by the conflux of loyal hearts from all parts, became even formidable to its Enemies, especially having their Prince engaged in person, (whose every hair was valued at ten thousand lives) and an equal sharer with them in all things. As they did encourage the hearts, and strengthen the hands of all that were faithful, so they were a torment of Spirit to the insulting Enemy, who for the present, seeing that force alone would not serve the turn, politicly resolves, to undermine and weaken them by division among themselves, knowing that rule to be true, Divide & impera, and indeed so it proved: for with so much devilish cunning did the English work, 
Scots divided.  that they procured Straughan with some forces together with Ker to declare against the King, Lastly with others, stand for Kirk and King. But Brown, Middleton, etc. with the best and honest part of the Army, vow to sacrifice their Lives and Estates in defence of the King's person. In this tottering and unstable condition stood affairs, when Cromwell always mindful to lay hold on the first advantage, and being certainly informed of the height and heat of these divisions, he takes time by the forelock, and striking while the Iron was hot, he sends to Straughan and wins him over to him, to fight against his lawful Sovereign, rejoicing to have debauched such a Soldier, whose infidelity must now make him sure to Cromwell, not daring to rely on the good of those whom he had so traitorously deceived; the remaining two parties, continuing yet in their feuds, are at length, to prevent the destruction of both, 
The royalists and Kirk reconciled.  by the care of the Parliament then sitting taken into consideration, and reconciled by the equal distribution of commands, upon the most eminent persons of both factions; under one only head and General commander, which was the King himself. By this union being again become considerable, yea and indeed in a posture of defence, the King deliberately sets forward toward the Enemy, who hearing of it, with more, both fury and expedition marcheth to meet him. And here you might have observed the different means used by two potent armies to destroy each other, Cromwell would ruin the King by fight, the King endeavours to conquer Cromwell by delaying: never were Hannibal and Fabius so truly patterned as at this time, for the King knowing it to be an invading Army, took the best means to break it by delays, getting away all provision, that the Enemy might have no forage, and as occasion served, giving ground, till some notable advantage might be found, as might give an hopes if not an assurance of a victory; and according to expectation so had it proved, for being desirous to fight, and hearing the King intended to pass at a certain narrow Island, 
Fight in life.  thither he commandeth two Regiments against whom Brown did march with five or six, fell on them, and in probability had destroyed them utterly, had not relief come with speed, and in the nick of time, whereby after a hot and eager fight for some hours, both parties retreated with no small loss to either, yet such was the fortune of that ambitious wretch Cromwell, that notwithstanding this, and that his Majesty had still a good Army in the field, he over-ran the whole Country and conquered with less difficulty than he marched; which his Majesty perceiving, he resolves on new designs, and accordingly within a short time, with his choicest friends and the remains of his Army amounting to 16000 he privately, gives Cromwell the go-by, and marches by Carlisle into England: 
K marches into England.  so have I seen a bird decoy the greedy fowler from her loved nest, by a seeming neglect thereof in the retiring from it.  
It was generally believed that the King's arrival in England would have been a motive to all that loved him to stir and show themselves in arms for his defence, but such was their hard fate and sad misery at that time, that they durst not stir, the yoke lay so heavy, that it was imprisonment if not death, but to look towards the King, yet maugre all devices against him, he came through all the North into Warrington in Lancashire, 
K. wins War●ington bridge.  where at a bridge the passage was disputed with the Enemy, who did endeavour to break it down, but with such advantage, that the Rebels were forced to fly and leave the King master of the place, 
Comes to Worcester.  from whence with his whole Army he marched towards Worcester, where contrary to the rules, both of reason and war, and contrary to his own mind and resolution, overswayed by the treacherous Counsel and persuasions of some too near, and in too great command about him, he stayed. what might be the motives to delude the King into such a trap the L. G. is better able to give account off than my pen; but where treason lies in the heart, there must all things of force be bad, no relations, ties, or duty can hold or convince him who hath sold his conscience. About this time, the whole Kingdom, having taken the Alarm, run in troops and multitudes, some one way, some another, several of the Gentry, particularly the Earls of Derby and Cleveland, the Lord howard's Eldest Son, Colonel Howard, with many others bring what strengths, in such a confusion of affairs and straight of time, they could gather together, but to little purpose: for they are as it were besieged within the City of Worcester, all the Counties of England having powered out their auxiliary forces against that place, to heighten and increase whose malice Cromwell is sent to head them. Now might you have seen Herod and Pontius Pilate reconciled, and both against Christ: Those two restless and adverse factions, the Presbyterian and Independent faction, could join together, both in their arms, and prayers against his sacred Majesty, belching forth the scandalous language of their ulcerous tongues to incense the People, and bring them into frenzy against those few poor despised loyal ones, & so indeed they did; those very pretended Ministers not only preaching, but largely contributing to the raising of more forces from day to day, yea some of them going in person to assasinate the poor enclosed Royalists, who yet resolved, that though they foresaw their ruin, as not being able without a miracle to cope with such an innumerable multitude, they would sell their lives at a dear rate, and make some of the purchasers at least share in an equal fate with them, and so in truth they did. For Cromwell now being very near, commands Lambert to take and secure Hopton bridge, 
Worcester. fight.  in the defence of which passage Massey shown both much courage and experience, though forced to retreat thence and leave the same unguarded, being overpowered with Lambert's multitudes: after which, for a Day or two, there happened divers Skirmishes with as various fortune as is usual at such times; but Cromwell not brooking such delays (as fearing they might prove dangerous, if any part of his forces should bethink themselves) resolves upon one general attempt: and to find work for all hands, himself falls on upon one side, and Fleetwood on the other, so that now there's nothing but rage, slaughter, and blood, the loyal Highlanders even standing to fight when they had lost their legs, not at all daunted at the several horrid shapes-Death presented himself to them in, but covering the ground with their slaughtered bodies, in death made good that place, which in life they undertook to defend: while the increasing Enemy by his numbers, rather killing then conquering, their fear and guilt guiding them to exorbitances, which the other valiant, though dying souls were not capable of, proving that maxim true, that fear is far more painful to cowardice, than death to a true courage. But Actum est, their end is concluded, the decree is gone forth: so after several routs and rallies, a general defeat succeeds with the death of between 4000 and 5000. and about 7000. or 8000. taken prisoners, the pursuit being both hotly and eagerly pursued, each villain hoping to enrich himself by seizing on the Royal prey. But Heaven had sent a Guardian Angel to protect him, that at length he may once more come and be the restorer, both of our peace, Religion, and Liberty. I shall not mention the means were used, or the Spirits which God raised up to be instrumental, in that miraculous deliverance, let it suffice they have their honour and reward, and bless we Cod; who hath made us worthy to be partakers of the inestimable good that hath accrued thereby, invoking Heaven to crown his life with length of days and health, and to settle his throne by a decree as unalterable as that of the Earth which cannot be moved.  
Thus once more we see Rebellion flourish and applauded; for after this, the seeds of ambition begin to grow higher in Cromwell, it is not enough that his faction is the strongest, and he the head of it, unless he may as well govern as command: The military sword will not satisfy him, he must and will also have the civil; but as he sees it must not be done rashly or suddenly, lest he should miscarry, so knowing that fair and softly goes far, and festinare lente is the best haste, he concludes in his heart either to have all at his own book, or die in the attempt; and the better to moddell his design according to his resolution, he comes to the Juncto, gives them account of all his transactions, and so insinuates into them that he g●ts his Son Ireton to be made Deputy of Ireland, 
Cromwel's policy and power.  and entrusts Scotland into the hand of L. G. Monk, a revolted Cavalier, by which two persons in a short time he so roughly handled both those said Nations, that they were reduced to as perfect a slavery as could be imagined.  
Upon consideration of these successes on all hands, he gins now more publicly to unmask himself; As General he places and displaces Officers in the Army at his pleasure, until he have so fitted them to his own humour, that he dares begin to take them into his Council, where the first thing resolved is, still to hold up the mask of religion, there is no bait so catching to the vulgar: religion therefore must be cried up, methinks I see Cromwell, like Catiline at Rome, with all his crew of bankrupt and much worn Officers about him, speaking to them thus. Surely I need not tell you the great things the Lord hath done for us, yourselves are witnesses thereunto: I confess, our actions seem not to agree to our professions, but 'tis no matter, let People say what they will, so we be still gainers, let Governments totter and fall, the whole World be made but one Enthusiasm, or reduced into its primitive Chaos, rather than we shall now lose or hold, yet still the mask of zeal must be kept on that we may not appear in our natural colours, villains ab origine; By these and the like words is that vicious brood soon instigated to act what his ambition dares command.  
Now was he grown so lofty and imperious that he even grows weary of the Juncto, and especially because they were at the present the main bar that hindered his greatness: To remove therefore that obstacle, on the twentieth of April 1653. early in the morning he seizes the keys of the Parliament house, 
Long Parliament turned out.  shuts up the doors, and tells the Members that they must come no more there, having already sat too long, meriting rather punishment than applause, being no other than an assembly of Whoremasters, Drunkards, Hypocrites, Knaves and Oppressors; thus was the pretence of the Parliament taken away, and no face of Government visibly appearing: Never was the faults of Usurpers with more bitterness laid open than now by him, whom we shall shortly, as transcendently, to outdo them in all acts of Tyranny and Usurpation, as the brightest beams of a midday sun excel the glimmering light of a midnight candle. 'tis true as Seneca saith, Nulla tam modesta est faelicitas ut malignitatis dentes vitare possit, 
Sen. ep. 3.  there ever was and ever will be some murmurers at present Governors, but so far were either they, or he from being belied, that unless a Man do speak all that may be imagined evil, he must needs fall short of their wickedness,  
The Government being thus altered, first by laying aside and murdering their lawful Sovereign, then by sifting and purging the Parliament, till losing its original, it either became as nothing, or at the best but a Juncto, and when it would no longer suit with Cromwell's ambitious ends and soaring thoughts by turning it absolutely out of doors; At last after much pretended seeking of God by days of humiliation, Cromwell forsooth is counselled to call together an assembly of men, picked out and called as fit for his design. These he summons together by a Letter under his hand and seal directed to each single Man; 
Barchones' Parliament.  who (in their way of canting) admiring at the great goodness of God, that had put it into the General's heart to select them to so great a work as the settlement of the Kingdom, and to show their skill, and as an Essay of their zeal, they first vote down all Tithes, discourage the Ministry, abuse the Universities, and endeavour to abolish the law, and consequently to take away all propriety. By which Acts the Nation beginning to be sensible of the Devil, where with they were possessed, did frown upon them, which so disanimated our Fanatic Enthusiasts, ha' a he very first blast they left the helm, and like good boys and well-taught, having drawn up formally an instrument under their hands and Seals, they repair to Cromwell, and (according as the design was laid) together with the said instrument deliver and resign the Government to him and his Council, 
They resign to Cromwell  who (though at first he seemingly denied) yet immediately after, with much solemnity he accepts thereof, before the Mayor, some Aldermen, some Judges, and the Officers of the Army. Having thus far perfected his devilish design, and made all his own, by modelling the Army under the command, of his own Creatures; settling the Government of Ireland, upon his Son Harry, and Scotland reduced to obey and submit to him: It is now thought fit he should declare himself, 
Cromwel's first Parliament do nothing.  which to please and gull the people the better, he does by abasing himself, and calling (as he termed it) a Parliament, to meet on the Third of September 1654. Which it did, but the poor animals not having well conned their lesson beforehand, were, suspected dull, and turned a grazing to get more understanding, the very first instant he might lay hold on to do it; By which means once more all pretence of Government being utterly abolished, he himself plays Rex, and by an arbitrary power beyond, without, and against, law, doth what he list, 
Major Gen. set up.  by Mayors-general (a name in England unknown) oppressing the Country, robbing the Gentry, spoiling all, and murdering many, so that none durst say what dost thou? A question was converted into a plot, and to deny a tax merited decimation. It was not enough, to have suffered all former rapines, imprisonment and plunderings, fines and taxes, but at last we must all be decimated. We were tanquam Oves destined for slaughter, and such was our misery there was none to redeem: sad testimonies whereof were Gerard, Grove and others about this time, whose blood only could expiate a crime they never thought or were guilty off.  
In this unlimited posture of arbitrary power did the the Kingdom stand, when that Arch-Machiavilian Cromwell adding strength to the wings of his ambitious mind soared an Eagle-height, and made all the circumference of his actions to centre at the royal State, thinking with a grasp of the Sceptre to ennoble his name and family, not minding either the danger of the passage or the slipperriness of the station, when arrived at the top: And indeed such was his fortune that he did ascend the throne, in which it was for the future, his restless endeavour to settle himself and his posterity, and the better to cast a seeming gloss of legality upon his usurpation, 
Cromwel's second Parliament confirm him as Protector.  he summons another Parliament, in the Year 1656. hoping thereby to work his ends unseen, and so he did (as to the vulgar eye) for soon after their meeting and first trial of their temper, he so moulds them to his own humour by a recognition, that they are over-hastily delivered of a strange abortion, by them called the petition and advice, etc. in which with much solemnity, though damnable hypocrisy, they desire him to be King, but in more general terms to take upon him the government, and be chief Magistrate, which he very gravely considering of divers days, returns his denial, in part, but withal insinuates in part, his willingness to be settled Lord Protector, at which news his faction rejoicing, (with many Eulogies for his humility in refusing the Kingship) he is by the said Parliament, who adjourned for the same end, solemnly installed Protector at Westminster by Widdrington, who was the Speaker to that convention, by Whitlock, Lisle, Warwick, etc. And upon their resisting, he is petitioned to accept of almost two millions, by the year for his support, to maintain a crew of idle wenches his daughters, whose pampered lusts were grown almost insatiable) 2. To erect a new house of Lords of his own Creatures, who being indebted to him for their raising, durst do no other than by a slavish submission, perform his tyrannous will, 3. To name his successor, that so he might entail his yoke of tyrannical Usurpation and slavish oppression on the Kigdom, and several other things: which with much ado, after many persuasive entreaties and much unwillingness, God knows) he accepts of.  
No sooner is this done, 
The said Parliament dissolved.  but the fox laughs in his sleeve to see how he has cheated the Parliament. And therefore to make them know their rider, after a few words of exhortation to them of the want of them in the Country, and the necessity of their retiring thither for the peace of the Nation, with a friendly nod he dismisseth them and sends them home.  
Thus with much cunning and dissimulation having attained the perfection of his desires, 
Cromwell seeks to strengthen himself.  knowing that such greatness must be upheld with allies, and every noble coat of arms must have his supporters, he strengthens himself at home, by intermixing with noble blood marrying own of his Daughters to the Lord Faulconbridge, and an other to the heir apparent of the Earldom of Warwick, the later of which though in the prime of his youth, finding the disagreement between N●ble and Rebel blood, was soon overheated and by the suddenness of his death left his wife the widow of a loathed bed. In the next place he seeks friendships and leagues abroad, and intending to close with France, 
He closeth with France.  he directly quarrels with the Spaniard, and affronts him in several places near about one time, particularly he sends one part of the Fleet under the command of Pen to Hispaniola, but with so little disadvantage that he was enforced to retreat thence, with no small loss, falling soon after on Jamaica with better success, winning a part thereof, though most inconsiderable, the whole Island being not worth the tenth part of the blood and treasure it hath cost this Kingdom, being no way at all serviceable, either for the advance or security of trade in those parts; Mazarine in France, finding the benefit of these helps, upon the very first motion strikes with him a league offensive and defensive, Cromwell promising to assist the French with 7000. Men to maintain the war against the Flanders: which at this time he sent, they proving so helpful by their valour, that in a short time they gain Mardike, Gravelin, and Dunkirk, 
Dunkirk gained.  the last of them according to articles, being delivered up to the English, in whose hand it yet remains. In the interim while these things were transacting, Cromwell suspicious of every blast of wind, and fearful of every motion, contrives in himself to take off two or three of the most eminent of the King's party in England to daunt the rest, among whom he separates one layman, Sir Henry Slingsby, and one Churchman, Dr. Hewit, 
Dr. Hewits' death.  for the slaughter: and conscious to himself that they had done nothing contrary to the law of the land, he durst not try them by a Jury, but re-erects his monstrous high Court of Justice; before which being brought, they denied the authority thereof as unwarrantable, which so wrought upon the patience of Mr. Lisle their bloodily learned Precedent and the rest of the gange, that they (according as they were fore-instructed by their Master Devil Oliver) without any great matter of circumstance condemn them both to be beheaded, which sentence was accordingly executed, on them the 8th. Day of June at Tower-hill, notwithstanding all the means their friends could use of engagements, persuasions and money, and the deep, earnest and continued entreaties, solicitations and supplications of Mrs. Claypoole his best beloved daughter, 
Mrs. Clapooles death.  for so inexorable he continued, that like the deaf adder he stopped his ears to the charmer, charm he never so wisely: at which unheard of cruelty, and for that Dr. Hewits' Lady (as is said) was then with child, Mrs. Claypoole took such excessive grief, that she suddenly fell sick, the increase of her sickness making her rave in a most lamentable manner, calling out against her Father for Hewits' blood and the like, the violence of which extravagant passions working upon the great weakness of her body, carried her into another World, even at the highest thereof.  
No sooner did Cromwell receive the deplorable news of this sad death of his Daughter, but himself falls into a desperate melancholy, which never left him till his Death, which was not long after. 
Observe.  Give me leave here to relate a passage which I received from a Person of Quality, Viz. It was believed, and that not without some good cause, that Cromwell the same morning that he defeated the King's Army at Worcester Fight, had conference personally with the Devil, with whom he made a contract, that to have his will then, and in all things else for seven years after from that time (being the Third of September 1651.) he should at the expiration of the said years have him at his command, to do at his pleasure, both with his soul and body. Now if any one will please to reckon from the third of September, 1651. till the Third of September, 
Cromwel's death.  1558. he shall find it to a Day just seven years and no more, at the end whereof he died but with such extremity of tempestuous weather, that was, by all men judged to be prodigious, neither indeed was his end more miserable, (for he died mad and despairing) than he hath left his name infamous; this was the end of our English Nero, and thus having laid the best foundations, his short and troublesome Reign would give leave to have continued his posterity in the same unlimited Dominion, at his death, (si ulla fides viris, qui castra sequuntur) declaring his eldest Son Richard his successor in his Usurpation. Leaving his Son Henry Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and his Daughter Fleetwood, married to the Commander in chief of the Army under himself, and the only Man suspected for a Competitour in the Protectorship, for Lambert had been laid aside long before as a person of too dangerous and aspiring principles to be trusted.  

Richard Cromwell Protector.  Richard Cromwell p esently ascends the Throne, being but a private Gentleman of Hampshire, invited thereunto and encouraged by Fleetwood, Desborow, Sydenham, the two Jones, Thurloe, and others, the relations and confidents of his Father: His first work is to take care for his Father's Funeral, his corpse being shortly after interred among the Kings and Queens at Westminster, at a far 
* 29000 l.  greater charge than had been used upon like occasions in the richest times, death giving him that honour which he aspired to, but durst not embrace in his life time, which solemnity ●ast, by the contrivance of the new Courtiers, congratulations are sent (prepared at Whitehall) from most of the Counties, Cities & chief Towns of England. And from the Armies of England, Scotland, & Ireland, with engagements to live and die with him. Addresses from the Independent Churches, by Mr. Goodwin and Nye, their Metropolitans, and was indeed worshipped by many as the rising Sun in our Horizon.  
This Introduction being made for transferring the Government of these Nations, from the Royal family of the Stewarts to that upstart of the Cromwell's: it was thought fit, that a general Convention, 
Di●ks Parliament now model ed.  after the manner of a Parliament wisely chosen by influences from Whitehall should be called, to meet the twenty seventh of January, and (upon pretence of restoring the people to their ancient way of Elections, but real) that the Court might command the more votes, the Burroughs also had writs sent to them, and the Elections were all made in the ancient way, only thirty members were called by writs from Scotland, and as many from Ireland, according to the late combination of the three Nations into one Commonwealth.  
This new kind of Parliament being met at the time and place appointed, God who had so well ordered the Elections, notwithstanding the practices of Men, that their English Spirit quickly appeared against Impositions, both from Court and Army, 
Act of Recognition.  which being discerned by the Protector and his Grandees, a Recognition is sent to them to be drawn into a bill, the debate whereof taking up a whole fortnight's time, and they still remaining in a great straight, till, by the expedient of an honest Gentleman, they were extricated thence by passing these votes on Monday the 14th. of February, 1658. without any division or negative.  

Resolved, that it be part of this Bill to Recognize and declare his Highness Richard Lord Protector, and chief Magistrate of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging,  
Resolved, that before this Bill be committed, the House do declare such additional clauses to be part of this Bill, as may, bound the power of the chief Magistrate, and fully secure the Rights and Privileges of Parliament, and the Liberties and Rights of the People, and that neither this nor any other previous vote, that is, or shall be, passed in order to this Bill, shall be of force, or binding to the People, till the whole Bill be passed.   

Committee of inspection.  This done, a Committee of Inspections is appointed to take a view of the accounts and revenue of the Commonwealth, & twelve Members versed in matters of account, were selected and fully impowered for that work, in order to the lessening the charge of the Commonwealth.  
On Saturday the 19th. of February, they re-assumed the debate upon the Act of Recognition and resolved. That it be part of the bill to declare the Parliament to consist of two houses: 
Parl. to consist of two houses.  after which they fell upon the point of bounding the chief Magistrates power and the bounds and powers of the other house, the Protectors party standing for the powers, given by the Petition and advice, and the rest of the house withstood it as of no value being obtained by force, by which force also thirteen hundred thousand pounds a year was settled for ever upon the single person: and the ruling members of the other house, being a hotch potch or medley of Officers of the Army, and Protectorian Courtiers, contrary to the law of the land, 
The other house debated.  and to the enslaving of the people. By this means nothing being done herein as to the powers, the Cromwelians, that they might enforce something, propose the question of transacting with the persons sitting in the other house as an house of Parliament, urging both law and necessity for the same, yea threatening force from the Army upon refusal; notwithstanding all which a whole fortnight the honest party of the House thought of nothing less, asserting the undoubted Right of the ancient Peers, and denying all the rest, but seeing nothing could be done till this was over, in a very full house they came at last to this well qualified resolve.  

Resolved.  
That this House will transact with the Persons now sitting in the other house, as an house of Parliament, during this present Parliament. And that it is not hereby intended to exclude such Peers as have been faithful to the Parliament, from their privilege of being duly summoned to be Members of that house.   
Herein may be seen something of the old English gallantry, for in this vote those in the other House are not owned as Lords, 
Not owned as Lords.  (but called the Persons now sitting in the other House as an house of Parliament) neither would the Commons treat and confer with them in the usual way, as with the house of Peers, but found ou● a new word (to transact) and that neither but upon trial, Viz. during this present Parliament. And the better and more legally to curb them if they should begin to grow imperious, they inserted the privilege of the ancient Peers as a good reserve, concluding also to receive no message from them, but by some of their own number.  

The intent of that Parament.  During this time, they had under consideration several good Acts about the Militia, against Excise, concerning Customs, etc. and questioned divers illegal imprisonments, calling some Jailers to the Bar, and preparing a strict bill to prevent the unlawful sending Freeborn Englishmen against their wills to be slaves in foreign Plantations; They also examined several grievances, by the Farmers of the Excise, Major Generals, and tyrannical, and exorbitant Courts of Justice. The Committee of Inspections having by this time brought in their report by which it did appear, that the yearly incomes of England, Scotland, and Ireland, came to Eighteen hundred sixty eight thousand seven hundred and seventeen pounds, 
Committee of inspections report.  and the yearly Issues to, Two Millions, two hundred and one thousand, five hundred and forty pounds. So that, Three hundred, thirty two thousand eight hundred twenty three pounds of debt incurred yearly by the ill management of double the revenue that ever any King of England enjoyed: And to maintain the unjust conquest of Scotland cost us yearly, One hundred sixty three thousand six hundred and nineteen pounds more than the revenue of it yields.  
At these proceed the Protector and the Army, who were already jealous of one another, 
Divisions between the Protector Praliament and Army.  grew both suspicious of the Parliament, because the people begin to speak as if they expected great good from the issue of their Counsels, therefore the Army, (lest they should come too late) put in for to get the power into their hands, and according to the method used by them in like cases, erect a General Council of Officers who daily meet at Wallinford-house, which the Protector hearing, endeavours to countermine at Whitehall; but they, better skilled in their work than he was, conclude a representation, which is with speed both drawn and presented to him about the seventh of April, a copy whereof the next day after is sent enclosed by him in a Letter to the Speaker of the House: who hereupon takes the Alarm, and while the Protector thinks to secure himself by standing on his guard, they not fearing the menaces of the Soldiers, but resolving to behave themselv●s like true Englishmen, on Monday the 18th. of April passed these votes following. 
Resolved, 
 That during the sitting of the Parliament, there should be no general council or meeting of the Officers of the Army without direction, leave and Authority of his Highness the Lord Protector, and both houses of Parliament.  
Resolved, 
 That no person shall have and continue any command, or trust in any of the Armies, or Navies of England, Scotland, or Ireland, or any the Dominions and Territories thereto belonging, who shall refuse to subscribe. That he will not disturb or interrupt the free meeting in Parliament, of any the members of either house of Parliament, or their freedom in their debates and Counsels.   
Now that this bitter pill might be the easier swallowed, knowing, or at least believing that want of money was the thing that pinched in chief as to the private Soldier, (without whom the Officer was worthless) they passed a vote to take into consideration how to satisfy the Arrears of the Army, and provide present pay for them, and also to prepare an Act of Indemnity for them. But all this tended nothing to satisfaction, for the Soldier being through leavened with the wicked designs of their Officers, did nothing but murmur, especially since the Protector in pursuance of the votes of the house had forbidden the meetings of the Officers; so that now the animosities grew so high, that guards were kept night and day by one against the other, in which divided posture the management of affairs, continued till Friday the 22. of April, on which day early in the Morning, Fleetwood, Desborough, and the rest of the Mutinous Officers, with the greatest part of the Army at their beck, 
Dicks Parliament dissolved.  the Cromwelian party not daring to stir, got the supereminency, and forced young Richard to consent to a commissiion and Proclamation ready pre-prepared, thereby giving power to certain therein named to dissolve the Parliament, although he had with much serious earnestness protested and promised, rather to die than be guilty of so pusillaminous an act, which he was well assured would work for his confusion. But actum est, for the same day the black rod was sent twice to the house of Commons to go to the other house, which they refused and scorned, but understanding there were guards of horse and foot in the Palace yard, after some ebullient motions, without resolving any question, they adjourned till Monday morning, the five and twenty of April, and with much courage and resolution attended the Speaker in order through Westminster-Hall to his Coach, even in the face of the Soldiery.  
The Army having thus for the present miss their design, resolve no longer to dally; whereupon they, lay aside their new Mr. Richard, and all the Officers, great and small with one consent, take the Government into their own hands, having shut up the house of Commons door, whither when the Members came on Monday, entrance was denied them by the Soldiers, who had possessed themselves of the Court of requests and all avenues in all places, giving no other account to the Members than this, Viz. They must sit no more. 
The Army new modelled.   
The next meeting of Officers new modeleth themselves, some they cashier as Whaly, Ingoldsby, Goffe., etc. others they re-admit, as Lambert, Haselrig, Okey, and others, in which time not knowing how to behave themselves in such a condition, and weary of the perpetual toil they foresaw, they must still with ceasing undergo; they mean to cast the burden off from their own shoulders, and to that purpose they send to some of their old hackney drudges of the long Parliament, 
The Rump comes in.  (as they then did call it) at that time about London, whose consciences they knew would digest any thing, and did not care how, per fas aut nefas, so they might again be suffered to sit, with several of these, I say, upon the fifth and sixth days of May they had conference, the last of which was at their never failing Speakers, the Master of the Rolls house in Chancery-Lane, where both Officers of the Army, and pretended Members, to the number of twenty solicited William Lenthall Esquire to sit Speaker again, but he objected divers scruples in judgement and conscience: (But O how soon had the sweet ambition of domineering obliterated all such idle fancies?) yet nevertheless instantly fifteen Articles being agreed upon among themselves, they conclude to meet in the house on Saturday the 7th. day of May, and the better to compass their ends by a base and clandestine surprise, they gave out that they would not sit till Tuesday the tenth of May, yet surreptitiously, as I say, they met early on Saturday in the painted Chamber at Westminster and wanting of their number to make up a house, they sent for those two debauched lustful Devils, the Lord Munson, and Harry Martin out of prison, where they were in Execution for debt, with Whitelock, and Lisle of the Chancery Court, making in all forty two, the Chancery Mace also for haste being carried before them, William Lenthall Esq. their tender conscienc'd Speaker, together with the said 


Names of the Rumpers.  L. Munson.  
Henry Martin.  
Mr. Whitlock.  
Mr. Lisle.  
Mr. Thomas Chaloner.  
Alderman Atkins  
Alderman Penington.  
Thomas Scot  
Cornelius Holland.  
Sir Henry Jane.  
Mr. ●rideaux Att. Goe  
Sir James Harrington.  
L. G. Ludlow.  
Michael Oldsworth.  
Sir Arthur Haselrig.  
Mr. Jones.  
Col. Purefoy.  
Col. White.  
Harry Nevil.  
Mr. Say.  
Mr. Blagrave.  
Col. Bennet  
M. Brewster.  
Sergeant Wild.  
John Goodwin.  
Mr. Nich. Lechmore.  
Augustine Skinner.  
Mr. Downes.  
Mr. Dove.  
Mr. John Lenthall.  
Mr. Saloway.  
Mr. John Corbet.  
Mr. Walton.  
Gilbert Willington.  
Mr. Gold.  
Col. Sydenham.  
Col. Bingham.  
Col. Air.  
Mr. Smith.  
Col. Ingoldsby.  
And Lieutenant General Fleetwood.   Stole on a sudden into the house, the invitation of the Army for sitting of the long Parliament being first published in westminster-Hall.  
Upon notice of this surprise of the house by so few, there being more than double the like number of members of the same Parliament there, and about town, some of them at the same instant in the Hall, they to prevent future mischief, (whereof this packing of Parliament men was an ill Omen) to the number of fourteen, went immediately into the Lobby, and the persons that did so were these, Viz.  

Mr. Anslewy.  
Sr. George Booth.  
Mr. James Harbet.  
Mr. Prinne.  
Mr. George Montague.  
Sir John Evelin.  
Mr. John Harbert.  
Mr. Gewen.  
Mr. Evelin. 
Secluded members.   
Mr. Knightly.  
Mr. Clive.  
Mr. Hungerford.  
Mr. Harbey.  
Mr. Peck.   
But assoon as they came near the door, they were not suffered by the Officers of the Army to go into the house, though they disputed their privilege of sitting, (if the Parliament were not dissolved) but reason not prevailing, after they had thus fairly made their claim they retired, resolving to acquaint the Speaker by letter of their usage. And accordingly on Monday the 9th. of May they went to Westminster, where the guards being not yet come, Mr. Ansley, Mr. Prinne, and Mr. Hungerford, went freely into the house, receiving the Declaration of the 7th. of May at the door, But Mr. Ansley walking down into the Hall, (the house not being ready to sit) at his return was by one Capt. Lewson of Goffes' Regiment and other officers denied entrance, Mr. Prinne continued within and resolved so to do, 
Vote against the secluded members.  since he saw there a new force upon the house, whose only staying (so guilty were the rest of their evil actions) made them lose that morning, and adjourn without the Speakers taking the chair. And to prevent his or any other honest man's coming in among them, after that they barred the door by the following Vote. 
Ordered. 
 That such persons heretofore, Members of this Parliament, as have not sat in this Parliament, since the year 1648. And have not subscribed the engagement in the R●ll of engagement of this House, shall not sit in this house till further order of the Parliament.   
Thus (to the grief of all honest and true hearted Christians) the same pretended Parliament that was sitting in 1653. (till Oliver disseized them) sitting again in 1659. upon a Declaration of the Army, with the same resolutions they had before, minding nothing but preferring one another, 
The good old cause what.  and their friends into good Offices and commands, and Counsellors places, as appear by their Vote of the 29th. of May, Viz. The Parliament doth declare, that all such as shall be employed in any place of trust or power in the Commonwealth, be able for the discharge of such trust, and that they be persons fearing God, and that have given testimony to all the people of God, and of their faithfulness to this Commonwealth, according to the Declaration of Parliament of the 7th. of May.  
Now who they mean by persons fearing God in their canting language, by their very next work you shall see, which is the nominating a Council of State, 
Council of State nominated.  into whose hands is given the dispose of all places of trust and profit, yea and the command of the wealth of the Kingdom; those of the house are as follow.  

Sir Arthur Haselrig.  
Sir Henry Vane.  
Ludlow.  
Jo. Jones.  
Sydenham.  
Scot  
Saloway.  
Fleetwood.  
Sir James Harrington.  
Col. Walton.  
Nevil.  
Chaloner.  
Downes.  
Whitlock.  
Harb. Morley.  
Sidney.  
Col. Thomson.  
Col. Dixwell.  
Mr. Reignolds.  
Oliver St. john's.  
Mr. Wallop.   

Of Persons without the house Ten. Viz.  
John. Bradshaw.  
Col. Lambert.  
Desborow.  
Fairfax.  
Berry.  
Sir Anthony Ashley-Cooper.  
Sir Horatio Townsend.  
Sir Robert Honywood.  
Sir Archibald Johnson.  
And Josia berner's.   
Who under the mask of the good old cause began now to act as high villains as ever before; having forgotten how justly they formerly had been laid aside, but they are like the dog that returns to his vomit, and with the sow that is washed, to her wallowing in the mire.  

The good old cause what it is.  And the better to cast a seeming gloss over the foulness of their actions, and their clandestine intrusion into the Government, they send forth a Declaration in print, the particulars whereof might very well have been here observable, if they had not already been so clearly demonstrated, by the laborious pen of learned Mr. William Prinne, in his book entitled, The Republicans good old cause stated; having therein so fully detected them, 
Remainder of Crown lands to be sold.  that there remains nothing more to be said in the same matter.  
And now, as if already they had not wasted enough, by exposing to sale the Kings, Queens, Princes, Nobles and Gentry's, Lands and Goods, being very quick sighted, and of a long and large memory, whereby they knew all was not sold: therefore about the beginning of June, to show us further what they meant by the good old cause, they ordered the bill for public sales to be brought in; A sweet act, to enrich the saints, as they in their canting language called themselves; but their necessities (by the long detaining of the public purse from them) being grown very pressing, and though they thought the money arising from those sales would be sure, yet for their present urgencies (not being able to stay till that could be raised) they appointed the same afternoon to consider of a more speedy way for raising money, for that was all they ever aimed at, or hoped for, and to this purpose a bill of Assessment is concluded the most fitting: 
Qua●enda pecunia primum est.  And because they would leave no stone unturned, from which they might hope gain, see how ingeniously they can project, making an order to the Committee of inspection (a precious crew) to take special care that such persons who have assumed the titles of Honour, Dignities and precedencies heretofore conferred on them by the late King, since the same were taken away by act of this present Parliament, do pay the several sums of money by them forfeited, 
Honours given by the late King or his Son to be null.  and that the said Committee do also examine whether they have brought in their Patents, and to report how the said moneys may be employed to the best advantage of the Commonwealth, and to offer an act to take away all honours conferred by the late Kings Son. Was there ever such a piece of unseemly inconsistency, that the Fountain of honour should be debarred of its spring by a company of peasants, whose Acts were no better than of an assembly of rogues at beggar's bush; but would you know why they were so much troubled; 'twas precedency that stuck in their stomaches, those noble souls went before them both in honour and honesty therefore seeing they could not hinder them from being called Lords by others, yea the generality, they lay it as a crime of pride upon them, that they did assume such titles, for which imaginary fault they must pay the sums forfeited for such insolence against their Rumpships. O this Auri sacra fames, quid non mortalia pectora cogit, what will it not make them do? They first must pay, then bring in their Patents, otherwise pay again: thus the Devil rangeth, fiercest, when his time is most short; for so general was theirs hoped to be, in regard they and their Masters of the Army could not cotton together, 
The Army fright the Grandees.  being already alarmed from them by a petition and address, yet they grew a little more confident upon the news of Harry Cromwell's submission, and falling down to worship the image which they had set up, Monk also having about the same time, sent them the resolutions of himself and his Army to adhere to them, as a testimony whereof he informed them of a design of an Agent from the King of Scots (as they called him) which his diligence and care in the Highlands had prevented.  
These news so animated our Juncto, that thinking all cocksure, 
Money matters only taken notice of.  they fall to their old Trade of raising money. First by assessments, then by continuing the Excise and Customs until the first of October, and lastly by ordering the trusties for sale of Crown Lands, forthwith to proceed to the sale of all computed within the Act for sale thereof, and that they take care of the profits arising from the same, for the use of the Commonwealth till sale thereof be made.  
Money being thus taken care for to be raised by all means, suddenly after by a Vote they revive the Committee for plundered Ministers (or rather for plundering Ministers) that so they may also provide them of hackneys who shall infuse into the people strange Enthusiastic ways of Government. 
Plundered Ministers and Tithes.  It was not enough with Jeroboam to cause a general rebellion, but with him also to uphold it, they make of the lowest and basest of the people, Priests of their high places, for whom the old way of tithes is not thought good enough, it was consulted how a more equal and comfortable maintenance might be settled on the ministry for satisfaction of the people, whom thus intending to lull asleep: they resolve to advance their own safety by colloguing with the land forces with promises of sudden pay, 
Seamen to be impressed.  and strengthening the Navy by impressing Seamen, which about this time, in June they were about, And lest they should be wanting to themselves in any thing, mercenary drudges of the Juncto begin to take upon them as may appear by this order.  

22. June. 1659.  
By the Contractors for sale of Crown Lands. 
Crown lands exposed.   
These are to give you notice, that  with the Appertenances, and Hampton-Court with the parks, etc. Thereunto belonging, are speedily to be exposed to sale, and that the Contractors intent to sit on Wednesday next the 29. instant, to take in desires of such as intent the purchase of any part of , and on Wednesday the 6th. of July, the desires of any that intent the purchase of any part of Hampton-Court, the premises are to be sold for ready money.  
Will. Tailor Clark attending the said Contractors.   
Indeed the last clause for ready money was very necessary, as affairs than stood, for the Grandees at Westminster, having only wasted and embezzled the rest by divisions and sharings among themselves and friends, with no advantage to the public Exchequer, they would now seem to begin to amend, but it is according to the Proverb like sour ale in Summer, for they intended nothing less than increasing the public stock, but rather by augmenting and converting it to their own use, make a hoped provision against an ensuing storm, which they foresaw would ere long fall upon them without any means of prevention: yet resolving to share the spoil as long as they could, at Midsummer, they remade their everlasting Speaker, 
Offices bestowed and on whom.  Custos rotulorum, of Oxford and Berkshires. And that worshipful Judas, Sir H. Mildmay, Custos rotulorum for Essex, with several other the like places to divers of their leading members, as the Government of Jersey to Col. Mason, and several Regiments in Ireland to Col. Cooper, Col. Zankey, Col. Sadler, 
H. Cro mwell leaves I eland.  and Col. Laurence.  
Having proceeded on thus far successfully, they now begin to clap their wings as invincible, Ireland being delivered up wholly and quietly into their power by that pitiful cowardly Imp H. Cromwell who had already attended their pleasure at the Commons bar, for which good service they stroaked him on the head, told him he was a good boy, for which kindness he bussed his hand, made a leg and Exit.  
But leave we him to stupid folly, and let us see what rates Crown land bears, the Contractors lately were very busy, and behold the product.  

June. 29. 1659.  
By the trusties and Contractors appointed by Act of Parliament, for sale of the Castles, parks, etc. exempted from sale by a former Act.  
These are to give notice, that there are Competitors for the purchase of , 
Sommerset-house set to sale ctc.  with the Appurtenances in the Strand, Middlesex, which therefore is to be exposed to sale for ready money, by the box to be opened on Friday, the eight of July next. The annual value being 233. l. the gross value of materials, etc. 5545. l. 1. s. 3. d. At which time such as desire to purchase the same may put in their papers with their name subscribed into the box aforesaid at Worsester-house, containing how many years purchase, (not under 13.) they will give for the annual value, etc. and he that offers most is to have the purchase.  
William. Tailor Clarke, etc.   
At the same time they appointed to sell ten brace of Bucks, or more out of Hampton-Court Parkes, and so from time to time.  
Thus did they strive to make havoc of whatever belonged to the King, which indeed, and no other, was the good (or rather cursed) old cause that these miscreants so lustily fought for, and so loudly cried up.  
And now, lest they should seem ingrateful to Richard Cromwell, who had so tamely left the chair of State to these Mountebanks to sit in: they vote him an exemption from all arrests, for any debt whatsoever, for six months, and appoint a Committee to examine what was due, for mourning for the late Lord General Cromwell, 
R. Cromwell protected.  and to consider how it may be paid for, without charge to the Commonwealth.  
Kind Gentlemen surely they are, they take all he hath from him, and then allow him a pension; they rob him of a pound and give him a farthing, not a feather of his own bird, and well so too: for his ambitious stepping into the royal seat, deserved a greater punishment, which 'twas a wonder how he escaped, since Usurpation and Tyranny in different hands are generally vehement scourges to each other, and always torments to themselves; as will appear by the sequel.  
For these godly great ones, being now newly warm in their seats, 
New plots and jealousies.  begin (as of old) to dream of Jealousies and fears: Plots, Plots, nothing but Cavalier plots rings either in their ears or mouths: if two Gentlemen do but meet accidentally in the Street, and talk together, strait there is a confederacy, and they must be committed to prison for doing nothing, so that we might say with that Noble Roman Cicero, Circumspice omnia membra Reipublicae, quae nobilissima sunt: nullum reperitur profecto quod non fractum, debilitatumve sit. O rem miseram! dominum ferre non potuimus, conservis vero jam servimus. A sad cause of complaint, to live in such a slavery; but our Taskmasters would fain seem merciful, witness their Act of Indemnity, 
Act of indemnity pardons all but Cavaliers.  which came out in print about July, wherein they except none from pardon but only such whose consciences are not large enough to approve of open Rebellion, as the last clause of their said mock-Act will show, wherein all are debarred the benefit of the same, even from sixteen years of age, unless they subscribe against a single person, Kingship or house of Peers; all sins can be digested by these fellows, except lawful obedience to magistracy, which they so abominate that all persons that are tainted therewith must not only departed out of London, but out of England, in either whereof if they be taken, they shall be proceeded against as Traitors: and all persons are impovered to take and apprehend them, for encouragement of which roguery every one that discovers, or takes such a person was to have ten pounds from the Council of State; Surely they are in a great fear, else what should they make all this noise, and bustle so furiously on a sudden, to settle and raise a new militia, but latet anguis in herba, for now (it being the Dog-days) the house grew so hot, that divers members withdrew, whereby the rest in regard of their fewness, being become incapable to act, because not enough to make up a house, according to their own fantastical model on Friday 22. of July did Resolve. 
Members to attend.  That the Members of Parliament, who have had Letters to attend the service of the Parliament, or have actually attended since the 7th. of May, 1659. be hereby enjoined to give their attendance in Parliament every Morning at eight of the clock, for fourteen days, and if employed by Parliament, within a fortnight.  
Alas, poor men, the harvest truly was great, but the labourers few; therefore it was time to call for more help, for which now they are so put to it, that they hardly know which way to turn themselves: they complain of designs, & of buying up of Arms to disturb the peace, which made a great one among them say, this restless Spirit of the common Enemy should excite the friends of the Commonwealth to diligence and to study unity, that advantage may not be given by divisions, but that we may be all of one Spirit to uphold and promote the common cause that hath been contended for. And the better to colour their villainies (according to their usual custom in like cases when they had mischief to do) they set apart a day of fasting and humiliation; 
A fasting day set a part for mischief.  and to show that they were the same men and of the same (if not worse) mind than formerly for rapine and blood, they proclaim J. Mordant Esquire, with several others traitors; and order the Lady Howard, Sr. E. Byron, and Mr. Sumner, to be brought to a speedy trial, for dangerous and traitorous designs, of bringing this Nation into blood and confusion again: that is for endeavouring to restore his Sacred Majesty to his lawful birthright and dominions, for which the whole current of the law is constant encourager, although these men's effrontery is such, that they dare say any thing by an infallible Spirit as they imagine, and the World is bound to believe them. But their vizor being now ready to fall off, 
Commoti●ns.  and the people not willing to be any longer blinded, begin to move in most parts of England, which so mads the Fanatic faction, that they seize upon persons, horses, and arms all about London, increase and double their guards, stop passengers, even on the Road, the Council of State (so called) sits night and day without intermission, whereby the City militia and all the forces throughout England were drawn into a body to prevent the danger. Yea so general was the fear that they begin to court the people in their canting way.  
And because you shall see their desperate fear of, and devilish malice to, the King and his Friends, take the words of one of themselves as they pass, Viz. 
A canting lie.  The Lord stir up the hearts of his people to prayer and sincere humiliation, and fill them with unanimity and courage in this evil time, and make the People to see, that whatever fair pretences may be made use of by the common Enemy, to get power into their hands, yet should they prevail, no man that hath been of a party against them heretofore, yea no man that hath been a mere Neuter, but must expect that his private Estate, as well as the public Liberty, shall become a prey to a desperate crew of ravenous and unreasonable men: for (saith he) like an irreverent Villain) let but CHALES STUART get in, and then to satisfy the rabble of followers, and the payment of foreigners to enslave you, you shall soon see them entailed upon yourselves and your Posterity, to maintain the pomp and pride of a luxurious Court, and an absolute Tyranny. Thus far he, which how much truth, yea or but probability thereof is therein; I dare appeal to the greatest Enthusiast among their whole gange: for if there were nothing in it else but the railing (besides all the falsity and Scandal) it were sufficient to convince the Speaker to be a Son of belial, as having so far forgotten grace, and laid a side all honesty, that he durst rail against the Lords anointed, concerning whom the Scripture forbiddeth to have an evil thought, but 'tis the custom of rebels to go on from bad to worse, and when they have once drawn the sword against their Prince, to throw away the scabbard, and never entertain a thought of return or repentance, like the bold Usurper in the Poet.  
The more we are opposed the more we'll spread,  
And make our foes our fuel: To be head  
we'll, cut off any member, and condemn  
Virtue of folly for a Diadem.  
Banish Religion, etc.  

The use of the Juncto's fasting.  And such was their practice, though sometimes (especially when encompassed with dangers) they hang their head like a bull rush, and even but mock God with a fast, while they only pray to be prosperous in their villainy  
About this time, the whole Nation of England began to grow sick of the abhorred fag end of a Parliament, endeavouring to make head against them in Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Hartford, Hereford, Gloucester, Bristol, in Cheshire especially, where many of the Gentry were actually engaged, correspondence maintained, 
England sick of the Rump.  a rendezvous appointed, and the ancient City of Ches●er surprised: this indeed was the most formidable appearance in all England, for the only appeasing whereof most of the County forces in those parts, and several Regiments of the Army from London, did speedily march under the command of a hotspur zealot, Mr. G. Lambert, whose ambition made old Nol lay him aside as dangerous, and that dishonourable discarding, created him a desperate Enemy to the Cromwelian name and family, which made the Juncto think him the fit man for their service, 
A rising in Ch●shire by Sir G. B.  Sir G. B. appeared commander in chief in Cheshire, though many other Noble Gentlemen, were present, so that this seemed to be the most likely place for Action. Lambert according to Order being upon his march thither, with three Regiments of horse, and three Regiments of Foot, and one Regiment of Dragoones, besides a train of Artillery: and the Juncto for his encouragement shot a paper gun (by them called a Proclamation) after him against Sir George Booth, Sir Thomas Middleton, Randolph Egerton, proclaiming them and their adherents to be Rebels and Traitors, and all else that should any way assist, abet or conceal the carrying on of their design; backed thus he marcheth furiously, and in a fortnight or three week's time draweth near to Cheshire, in the mean and during his absence, the congregated Churches of Schismatics and Sectaries in and about London, raise three Regiments for the security of those parts, in the intervalls' of which time, Sir George Booths Declaration came out in print, the contents whereof was setting forth how the Westminster Statesmen had violated all laws of God and Men; that the defence of the laws and lib●rties was the chief things he and his aimed at, which would never by these self seekers be settled, and therefore desired a new free Parliament. This, as it carried nothing in it but what was real true, so it gave very great satisfaction to all understanding people, though by the Fanatic rout it was descanted upon otherwise: but God's time was not yet come, for Lambert no sooner arrived with his Army near Sir George Booth, and his forces, 
Sir G. B. ●●u ed.  but he fell on them with valour and violence, which produced a very sharp engagement, but the Country not being acquainted, nor used to such hot & furious work quickly yielded ground: Sr. George's whole body being afterwards drawn forth near Northwich, and possessed of the bridge, they drew up their foot in the meadows, yet Lambert's Men being commanded to attempt the pass, did it with such resolution that they soon beat the Enemy from them, and made way for the whole Army, who having passed the river immediately gave them a total rout.  
The news of this victory so fleshed our bloodhounds, that they began to boast above measure, vaunting the Lord's mercy to them (his own people forsooth) but Justice to their adversaries in so apparently blasting their Traitorous undertake in every corner of the land; like the turks, reckoning the goodness of their cause by the keenness of their sword, 
Their maxim to make good their cause.  and denying that any thing may properly be called Nefass, if it can but win the Epithet of Prosperum.  
The Juncto upon this, set forth a Declaration to invite all the people to thanksgiving, for this great deliverance to the Parliament, and Commonwealth, (as they styled themselves): 
Lambert's policy.  but Lambert intends to make use of his success against the loyal party for himself, and to that end in a seeming, slighting and neglect of himself, writes to the Parliament his Soldier's merits, with whom (the sooner to endear them) he is more than usually familiar: and the Parliament have no sooner voted him 1000 l. to buy him a Jewel, as a mark of their favour, but he presently distributes it among his Soldiers, endeavouring by that and all other means to engage them wholly to himself, so as to venture in one bottom with him; he yet carried himself so, that his ambitious design was not discovered, and that he might the better conceal: at this time Sir George Booth, 
Sir G. B. taken.  who had fled from the battle, at Northwich in Cheshire, was taken at Newport-Pannel in disguise; upon notice whereof, he is committed close prisoner to the Tower of London. for high Treason, in levying war against the Parliament, and Commonwealth, and that a Committee be appointed on purpose to examine him, all which was done accordingly, and Sir Henry Vane, and Sir Arthur Haselrig, (two Saints of the Devil's last edition) went to him to take his examination.  
While things are thus in handling here, Lambert seeks cunningly to get all the strength of those Counties into his own hands, which the Parliament at his request grant him, by giving him power to seize all arms for their use (as he pretended) in the same: of which piece of service they seemed to be very glad as also of letters that came out of Scotland, assuring General Monks fidelity to them against the interest of the Stuarts, or any other whatsoever, so that now they began to descant on the late design, laying all the blame on the loyal party, 
A trial of the royal family.  whose game they said it was, though he lest appeared in it, taking occasion also from thence to blast the royal family with hellish scandals: the safety of which the divine providence hath always had a particular and peculiar care of, but as it were in despite of Heaven, they are not content with all their former wickednesses of banishing, exiling, and railing against their lawful Sovereign, but now they will enforce all to renounce him, which in September they Resolved in these words. 
Oath of abjuration.  J. A. B. Do hereby declare, that I renounce the pretended title of CHARLES STUART, and the whole line of the late King James, and of every other person, as a single person, pretending to the Government of these Nations, of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging. And that I will by the grace and assistance of Almighty God be true, faithful, and constant to this Commonwealth against any King, single person, and house of Peers, and every of them, and hereunto I subscribe my name.  
Thus may every one see, that it was not to amend or reform any errors in the State, but only their particular malice to the Royal line and covetousness after their Estate, that made them run into such desperate designs, wherein having so deeply engaged themselves, that there was no going back, they mean to make all sure to their interest: and to that end take into debate in the beginning of September, the matter of the Government, and referred it to a Committee upon the votes in 1648. 
The blindness of the Juncto.  To prepare something in order to the settlement of the Government, on or before the tenth of October.  
See here the indiscretion of these men, after a ten years' unsettlement and bringing all into confusion, in all which time they have minded nothing but their own private wealth, and till this last minute of time have not so much as thought of resettling; and that they now have, is so weakly, that it tends no further than to an offer: thus running willingly into one crime, they daily perpetrate new ones without any sense of evil, or will of amending, attributing the guilt of their faults to all that endeavour either to reform or punish them.  
The business of Cheshire thus blown over, and the great hopes that were grounded thereon blasted; the Juncto fall to their old humour of raising money, no less will serve their turn than 100000. l. a month, besides Excise and Customs, 
●●xes and excise confirmed, new delinquents made and militia arreas collected.  together with the hoped benefit that would arise from the sequestered Estates of new Delinquents; and lest any thing should escape them, the 16th. of September they vote. 
That such persons as have been assessed to find horses and Arms, by virtue of the Act of Parliament, for settling the Militia, and have not brought in their horses and Arms, nor paid in lieu thereof the sum of money, appointed by the said Act. That every such person and persons do under the penalty in the said Act mentioned pay, after the rate of ten pounds for an horse and Arms for such number of horses and Arms respectively as they have been charged to find.  
Resolved, 
 That such person and persons as have been assessed to find Arms for a foot Soldier, and have not sent in the same, or money in lieu thereof, do under the penalties in the said Act mentioned pay, respectively for every such foot Arms, such sum of money as the Commissioners shall appoint, not exceeding twenty five Shillings for every such foot Arms.   
'Tis no matter, you see, by this, whether any Horse or Arms be brought in at all, so that the money be paid, Oh! 'Tis the money that adds Life and Legs to a decrepit and dying old cause: The Grandees would never take so much pains, unless an extraordinary profit also waited thereon; which they resolve to compass, though with the extremest hazards, whereof there began to be some kind of an appearance, by the growing of heart-burnings, and multiplying fears and jealousies between their late great Champion Lambert and themselves, 
The Juncto grow suspicious o Lambert  the sparks of which animosities growing into a flame, quickly increased to that height, that not daring to trust him any longer with the Army, they send a seeming courteous Letter to invite him home; which he, taking no notice of any thing further than the pretended outside fair show, acceps of; and on the 20th. of September returns accordingly to London, but immediately before his arrival there, the Juncto, 
He comes to London.  to show the great charity, wherewith they abounded, took into consideration how to cousin the poor Knights of Windsor, and to engross into their hands all Hospitals and their reveneves, by these two following votes. Viz. Tuesday September 20th. 1659. 
Resolved, 
 That it be referred to a Committee, to look into the revenue for maintenance of the poor Knights of Windsor, 
The Juncto intent to seize on all Hospitals and convert their rents.  to examine what the same at present is, and will be for the future, after Leases expired, and to see that the charitable uses, to which the said revenue was granted, be performed, and the residue to be answered, to the use of the Commonwealth, (by all means pray take a care of that) and to examine the Leases that have been made, and the fines that have been paid thereupon, and how disposed, and by what authority; with power to give relief and allowance to the said poor Knights, and other poor people not exceeding their former allowance (Oh, take heed of too much charity!) and also to take a Catalogue of all Hospitals within this Commonwealth, and the revenues of them (they are sure to mind that.) And that the Masters and Governors do return to this Committee, the constitution of the respective hospitals, and how the profits thereof have been, and are disposed of, and by what authority, before the first of December, 1659. And to report the whole matter to the house.  
Ordered, 
 That all Masters and Governors of hospitals, be, and are hereby prohibited to grant or renew any Leases of any Lands, Tenements and hereditaments belonging unto any of the said respective hospitals, until this house take further Order. Notice of which is to be given to the respective concerned persons, by the Council of State.   
See here how greedy is the zeal of these devouring Statists, which yet is clothed in the garb of a seeming Sanctimonious care, but this hypocrisy must not go long unpunished, neither does it, for now gins to appear the result of Lambert's designments abroad, in a remonstrative address from the Army: at the very first news, whereof the Parliament is so startled, that, fearing to be whipped with their own rod, they ordered, Col. Ashfield, Col. Cobbet, and Lieutenant Col. Duckenfield, 
Armies remonstrate the Juncto send for ●ome Officers.  (three of the chief promoters of it) to bring to them the original paper, intended to be presented; upon notice of which order given, immediately, a letter was delivered into the house signed by many persons of the Army, superscribed to the said three summoned persons, by whose hands they desired the enclosed paper might be presented to the Lord Fleetwood, and after to the general Council, which enclosed paper was entitled, to the supreme authority of these Nations, the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England, The humble Petition and proposals of the Officers under the Command of the Right Honourable the Lord Lambert in the late Northern expedition, the manner and method of which paper the Juncto so highly resented (as supposing it to strike at their very root) that they presently voted. That this house doth declare, 
Observe this crack.  that to have any more General Officers in the Army, than are already settled by Parliament, is needless chargeable and dangerous to the Commonwealth.  
Here was the first step to that division, which afterwards grew into a flame but the Army Officers finding their design, was not yet ripe enough, by a dissembled acquiescency, seemed to lay aside their proposals, by signifying to the Parliament, that they would adhere to their authority in opposition to the common Enemy, and that they would stand by them in the settlement of the Commonwealth, against all disturbances whatsoever, which lulled the Juncto into a kind of security, the City also at this time seeming to claw them by an invitation to a Thanksgiving dinner, whereat the field Officers of the Army were also to be present; 
Thanksgiving dinner in the City.  so that now being in a manner rid of their fear, they fall upon sequestering the Gentry, about Sir George Booths business, settle the Excise, and revive the Assessments for the Militia, using all their skill and power for amassing together the wealth of the Nation into their private purses, concluding with the Epicureans, ede, lude, bibe, post mortem nulla voluptas, so sottishly stupid were they grown in their high flown ambition.  
But now, lest they should forget their duty, the Officers of the Army present a new address requiring answer thereto, 
Armies new address.  which made them take it into the several pieces wherein it was proposed, wherein among other things (to show you the harmony that was then between them) they give to their third proposal this answer. 
Juncto angry there with.  Viz. The Parliament declares, that every Member of the Army, as free Men of England, have a right of petitioning the Parliament, but withal thinks fit to let them know, that the Petitioners ought to be very careful, both in the manner, and in the matter of what they desire, that the way of promoting and presenting the same may be peaceable, and the things petitioned for, not tending, to the disturbance of the Commonwealth, nor to the dishonour of the Parliament. And that it is the duty of petitioners to submit their desires to the Parliament, and acquiesce in the judgement thereof.  
By this Declaration they intended to curb the Wallingford party, by teaching them manners, and to know their distance; but they being Men of another spirit, and knowing they had the power of the sword in their own hands, would not be so put off: which the Juncto, perceiving, and beginning to grow jealous of their own safety, and satisfied that the Army could not subsist without money (which is the Nerve of War) to engage the People to themselves, and to dis-inable the Officers from raising any money (in case they should (which they now much doubted) interrupt them in their sitting) they passed an Act against raising of moneys upon the people, without their consent in Parliament. Part whereof take as followeth. 
Be it enacted, etc. That all Orders, 
Act against raising money without consent of Parliament makes the Soldiery mad.  Ordinances, and Acts, made by any single person and his Council, or both, or either of them, or otherwise, or by any assembly or convention pretending to have Authority of Parliament, from and after the 19th. Day of April, 1653. and before the 7th. of May, 1659. And which have not been, or shall not be enacted, allowed, or confirmed by this present Parliament be, and are hereby declared, deemed, taken and adjudged to be of no force and effect from and after the said seventh day of May 1659.  
And be it further enacted, that no person or persons, shall after the eleventh of October, 1659. Assess, Levy, Collect, gather or receive any Custom, Impost, Excise, Assessment, contribution, Tax, Tallage, or any sum or sums of money or other imposition whatsoever upon the people of this Commonwealth, without their consent in Parliament, or as by law might have been done before the third of November, 1640. And that every person offending contrary to this Act shall be, and is hereby adjudged to be guilty of high Treason, and shall forfeit and suffer as in case of high Treason.   
When the Juncto had thrown abroad this kill thunderbolt, to show that they durst own the power which they yet conceived themselves Masters off, they took into consideration a Letter, dated October the 5th. and signed by divers Officers of the Army, and directed to Col. Okey, and also a printed paper, called the humble representation and Petition of the Officers of the Army to the Parliament, etc. Upon the reading of which two papers, the house was so highly incensed and flew into such a sudden heat of passion, that without any more ado they resolved.  
That the several Commissions of, 
9 great Officers displaced and voted out of commission.  Col. John Lambert, Col. John Desborow, Col. James Berry, Col. Thomas Kelsey, Col. Richard Ashfield, Col. Ralph Cobbet, Major Richard Creed, Col. William Packer, and Col. Rob. Barrow, were null and void, and every of them discharged from military employment. And that the Army should be governed by seven Commissioners, 
Commissioners to govern the Army.  Viz. L. G. Charles Fleetwood, L. G. Edm. Ludlow, General George Monck, Sir Arthur Haslelrig Baronet, Col Valentine Walton, Col. Harb. Morley, and Col. Robert Overton, or any three or more of them, which said Commissioners, were to give notice to the said nine Officers of the discharge of their Commissions, which being accordingly communicated, now might you have seen the smoking embers of dissembled friendship, break out into an open flame of violent enmity, this great and so long domineering faction, being divided in itself, and each side prepairing for its own, 
The feud betwixt the rump and the Soldiery breaks out.  both defence, and elevation, for now a Quorum of the Commissioners which were appointed to govern the army, being gotten together, and sitting all night in the Speakers chamber, which was within the Parliament house, to issue forth orders; part of the army with most of the discharged Principal Officers presently drew down to Westminster in a warlike order, where they possessed themselves of the great Hall, the Palace yard, and all avenues, and passages leading thereunto, having before given out, that they found it absolutely necessary for the good of the Nation, to break up this Parliament, for the maintaining whereof another part of the army were as active in drawing together, the same night also marching down to Westminster, and planting themselves in Kingstreet, and in and about the Abbey Church and Yard: This unusual assembly at such an unaccustomed hour caused a general terror in the hearts and minds of the Inhabitants, who dreaded some greater mischief than they were sensible of, but the night being past, in the morning the Speaker Mr. W. Lenthall, at his usual time came along Kingstreet, and had passage through the ranks of Soldiers, till he came to the new Palace gate, 
The Rump turned out of doors.  where his Coach was stopped, and himself compelled to return home, as wise as he went, whereby the house was interrupted from sitting; which was the chief thing that Lambert aimed at; yet though he had thus wrought his purpose, he durst not withdraw, but make good his station against the other faction, the greatest part of the day, each of the Fanatic leaders (for so indeed they were both) expecting who should give the first blow, of which meekness the then council of State taking notice, required both to draw off to their quarters, which motion was willingly accepted on all hands, and so both sides marched away.  

Observe.  Thus have we seen that rump of pretended authority, which in May was, with much soliciting, many entreaties, and not a few specious pretences, courted to come into play, now again in October, with as great scorn and malice laid a side and trampled on: Nec lex est justior ulla, quam necis artifices arte perire sua, It hath been a general Observation, that Treason is always the greatest punishment to itself, like the Viper, it breeds young with her own destruction, and as the Poet speaketh of envy, sit licet injustus livor, so may I say of it, though it be unjust to others, yet is it very just, to destroy them first that would destroy others.  
The Council of Officers having thus seized the Government into their hands, 
Officers meet.  played with it for certain days, till (with the old Philosopher, in the question about God) finding, the more they studied, the less they understood, and that they were led by an Ignis fatuus, which only trained them to the sight, but would never bring them to the certainty, of a settlement, and pondering their own many weaknesses, and infirmities, with the exigency of affairs, they fell into consideration of what was fit to be done: In the debate whereof, after many frivolous essays, they agreed at length among themselves to nominate some persons to be a Council of State, which device being applauded, and a new name devised for them (for they will be called forsooth the Committee of safety) these following persons were pitched upon, 
They erect a Committee of safety, their names and characters.  Viz. Fleetwood, whose folly would have exempted, but they were afraid he would have cried. Knowing also that the best play ever hath a fool in it.  
Lambert a seeming Saint, but chief Engenier of the model.  
Desborow a drunken Clown, skilled in Harrassing the land steel, once a sneaking petty fogger, now Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and a Traitor.  
Whitlock a lump of ingratitude and deceit.  
Sir Henry Vane, chief secretary to the seven deadly sins.  
Ludlow, once a Gentleman, but since by himself Leveled into the plebeian rank.  
Sydenham, nothing good in him but his name.  
Upstart Saloway Strickland, once a rumper, after a Lord of Nolls edition, than a convert to the good old cause.  
Berry, pedum nequissimus, the wickedest villain among 10000  
Laurence, once an upstart privy Counsellor, now scarce a Gentleman.  
Sir James Harrington, Per risum multum possis cognoscere.—  
Wareston, a much knave geud faugh Sir.  
Ireton, and Tichborn, two of the City Puckfoists, who lie leger in the Common Council, to discover plots for the getting of money.  
Henry Brandrith, fit for mischief, else he had not been here.  
Thompson, a dull fellow, but a soaking Committee-man.  
Hewson, the Commonwealth's upright setter.  
Snivelling Col. Clarke Factious, Col. Lilburn, preaching, Col. Bennet, and Cornelius Holland, a most damnable Apostate, both to God and his King.  
To these fellows thus fitly accoutred, is the Government committed, 
Come safety their power.  and not only so, but they have power to call Delinquents to account, to oppose, and suppress all insurrections; to treat with foreign States, and Princes, to raise the militia's in the several. Counties. To dispose of all places of trust, with many other things: by which may be seen, what an unlimited arbitrary power they assumed to themselves over the lives and estates of all Englishmen. And that all England might take notice hereof, they send out a Declaration in print, 
Army's declaration.  entitled a Declaration of the General Council of the Officers of the Army, wherein they say they have lodged the civil and executive part of Government, in the Committee of safety, whom they have obliged to prepare such a form of Government, as may best suit with a Free-State, without a single person, Kingship or house of Peers: with many equivocating, though Saintlike, expressions to the like effect, with which they hoped to delude the World, and continnue their usurpation, but Sera venit sed certa venit. All their hypocritical shows cannot cheat God, who raiseth up the Spirit of one among themselves to chastise the errors of their pride, and vain glorious attempts: for no sooner is that Infernal crew of Atheists met in their Committee, but they are alarmed with a letter from General Monck out of Scotland, wherein he gives them notice that both himself and some Officers of the Army in Scotland, 
Monck dissatisfied with their proceed.  were much dissatisfied in reference to the transactions of affairs in England, at the same time receiving intelligence that he had, seized several strong holds, secured divers of his dissenting Officers, and possessed himself of Barwick, 
Seizeth Barwick.  which drove them for a time into a kind of Fanatic stupidity, that they knew not which way to move in the management of their affairs, but at last willing to preserve themselves, they order the forces in the North into a posture, and command Lambert with more Regiments out of the Southerly parts to join with them, that so they might appear formidable at least at a distance, and put a stay to the violence which they foresaw was approaching to them; for the prevention of which storm Col. Cobbet is sent to General Monck with insinuating relations, 
Lambert marcheth against him.  whom the General immediately upon his arrival commits to custody, thereby, preserving his Army from the dangerous contrivances that Person brought along with him, and depriving of the intelligence he might have carried to England back with him: which being done by the power of his Commission (as one of the seven) he strait new models his Army, according to his own mind, and then declares his resolution to assert the authority of Parliament, against all violence whatsoever. Upon news of this, our safe Committeemen, knowing the pulse of the late Juncto to beat after the mode of a free-state, think they shall merit highly at the hands of the General, if they promote that, though they disown the Parliament he pretended to declare for, and to that purpose having nominated several Gallant fellows of their own number, Viz. Fleetwood, Vane, Ludlow, Saloway, Tichburn, Lambert, Desborow, Hewsen, Holland, and others, to consider of, and prepare, a form of Government to be settled over the three Nations, 
Safe Committee for a free-state.  in the way of a Free-State and Commonwealth, they send away whaley, Goffe., Caryl, and Barker, to show the same to General Monck, and thereupon to mediate with him for avoiding the effusion of blood: the Officers at London writing also to his Officers, and expostulating with them, touching the necessity of a brotherly union, crying out of nothing but Liberty, while the Nation groaned under their oppression; But Monck revolving with himself, both the greatness, difficulty, and hazard, of his design, concludes not to be rash in a direct quarrel, but rather by procrastinations to weaken the force of his enemies (which he knew could not continue long without money) and so to gain the victory without striking a blow, therefore to amuse them, and cast the more seeming gloss upon his action he order Col. Talbot, 
Monck desires a treaty.  and Dr. Clargies (who were the first messengers sent to him) to send Fleetwood word that himself and his Officers had nominated Col. Wilkes L. C. Cloberry, and Major Knight, to repair speedily to London, and treat with the like number of Officers there, for a firm unity and peace, and the better to confirm it, he sends another Letter from himself to the same purpose, with promise that his forces should advance no further. But the Committee of safety, willing by strength to hold what they had got, and not knowing what to think of the General, issue out many several Commissions to raise forces throughout all England, to anticipate him, and to settle Militia's to be ready in a moment, 
Militia settled.  as it were to resist him: which he hearing, and that Lambert was coming against him with thirteen thousand men, he according to his before mentioned Letter, forthwith sends his three appointed messengers for peace, upon whose arrival at York, in November, and speech with Lambert, he became so far satisfied of their intentions towards an Accommodation, that thereupon he gave order his forces should advance no further Northward in their march.  
Things being brought now into this posture, 
The treaty begun.  the General's three Commissioners arrive at London, November the 12th. where the Treaty is immediately begun: which lulled the Committee of safety into such a security, that they begin to think of shareing great Offices and places of trust and profit among themselves, to this end, appointing Fleetwood, Desborow, Sydenham, Saloway, Cornelius Holland, Col. Clark, Col. John Blackwell, or any two of them to be Commissioners for the Treasury, and to manage the affaris of the public revenue, with power as large as could be desired: (And would it not be well managed think you in the hands of such bankrupts) but while these men mind their own wealth only, the Treaty must not be forgotten, which was now in hand, and on a sudden brought to such an issue, that it startled the City, who had by Col. Alured, and Colonel Markham received Letters from Scotland of another purport, for at last the Commissioners on both sides agreed on these heads ensuing, that is to say.  

The articles of the Treaty.  That the pretended Title of CHARLES STUART, or any other claiming from that family should be utterly renounced. (O horrid Treason, first murder the Father, and then abjure the Son!)  
That the Government of these Nations, shall be by a free State or Commonwealth, and not by a single person, King, or house of Lords. What must the new settlement utterly abolish all the old fundamental Laws of England at one breath? Your Precipitation bodes your ruin.  
That a Godly and learned Ministry, shall be maintained and encouraged: 'Tis well the General's Men thought of it, for you may be assured it is against the principle of Anabaptists, and fifth-Monarchy Men;  
That the Universities shall be reform and countenanced, so, as that they may become Nurseries of Piety, and Learning. That the Officers and Soldiers, and other persons on either side be indemnified for what is past, touching their late difference, and that all unkindness betwixt them be buried in perpetual Oblivion; pray take care of that: but it may be supposed you shall be the furthest off when you think yourself nearest.  
That the Officers which were made prisoners in Scotland, be forthwith set at liberty; How will the General like that?  
That the Armies be presently disposed into quarters, and that there be a committee of nineteen whereof nine to make the Quorum, who were to meet about qualifications, for succeeding Parliaments.  
This was the effect of part of the agreement, which was sent away with all speed to General Monck; upon knowledge whereof, and by reason, the conclusions of the said Treaty were so contrary to the Letters, by them formerly received, the City was startled, 
The City startle.  having (as they supposed by order) been encouraged to stand fast in their liberty for their Laws, Privileges, Properties, and lawful Government.  
But the General in a wise foresight, and providential care, having cast in his mind the danger he stood in (for he had a wolf by the ears) though he sent his Commissioners aforesaid, yet reserved to himself the ratification, so that nothing should be of force until it were confirmed with his own seal: But now the articles of the Treaty being come to his hands, he commands the return of his Commissioners, which they obeying, he presently commits Col. Wilks to custody for going beyond his Commission) declareth the Treaty void, 
Monck commits one of his Commissioners.  and marcheth toward the borders: which the Committee of safety being advertised off, fall to their old tricks to delude the people, endeavouring to make them believe it was only a rumour grounded on a feigned Letter pretended to be by him sent to the City, whereas they seemed to be assured that he would acquiesce in the former agreement, but truth who is filia temporis, the daughter of time, quickly appeared to undeceive the people; for in this interim his excellency (having as himself expressed it a call from God and Man, to march into England, for resetling the Parliament) calleth an assembly of the Nobles and Gentry of Scotland at Edinburgh, 
He calls an assembly in Scotland.  to whom he proposed these three things.  
1. That they would, during his absence, which would not be long, preserve and secure the peace of that Nation.  
2. That they would supply him with some men for his undertaking (which he engaged upon his honour should be to their satisfaction) and that if any troubles should arise, they would assist him in the suppressing thereof.  
3. That they would advance and raise what money they could before hand.  
To these Propositions the Earl of Glencarn, who was chairman of that assembly, returned these modest answers.  
1. That they could not engage to preserve the peace of the Country in his absence, wanting arms, and so in no condition to do it, but they should with all faithfulness notwithstanding endeavour it.  
2. That they were uncapable to answer his desires for the reasons aforesaid, neither did they think it prudent for them to engage in a war, which if it should prove unsuccessful on their part, would be a ruin to them: or if successful, they did not understand, that it would be advantageous to them in any measure. But as to the third.  
3. That they were content to levy moneys, and advance a years tax aforehand.  
General Monck highly satisfied with those civil returns, endeavours to caresce and endear them by.  
Giving the Lords and gentry power to arm themselves, by satisfying them privately in the design of his expedition, and accepting of their years taxes.  
Hereupon he resolves now to dally no longer than his supplies of Men and money come in, in the mean while holding correspondence and intelligence with his friends all over England, 
He keeps intelligence.  from whom he a new received advertisement, that if he could yet for a little time keep fairly at a distance, his work should be done even without any noise of drum or trumpet except it were in exultation and triumph. This advise caused him to make some seeming overtures of a second treaty with Lambert, yet all along insisting upon the readmission of the Parliament, before they began it.  
As a balk to which the Committee of safety declared, 
The Wallingford in government.  (hoping thereby yet to lead the Nation into further error and mischief) that they had transmitted a great part of a form of government for these Nations to a Committee of the Officers of the Army ('tis like to be well done if it must be hewn out by a dint of the sword) to be considered by them, (a mad crew of Gotamists) who daily meet, and are gone through a great part of it with much satisfaction, (to themselves possibly to think how finely they should Lord it, but to no body else surely) they are very desirous to have such a Government, as may preserve the Liberties of the Nation (this is the old cheat) and secure the cause they have contended in (which is flat treason and rebellion) both against CHARLES STVART, and any other that may disturb the peace: hoping in time to make it appear, that their Enemies are Liars when they traduce them and render them a people that seek only themselves. Then they conclude, that they hope the faith of God's people will hold out and not make haste, and that good men will help them in their prayers, that God the Lord would bring forth righteousness and truth, and discover, and bring to nought the secret contrivances of all his adversaries: And so no doubt, he will to the shame and ruin of all such dissembling Hypocrites.  
About this time being the later end of November, the People beginning to smell their knavery, drew several Petitions, with an intent to deliver them, but their crazy stomaches being not able to bear such strong Physic, belched forth a Proclamation against all such Petitions, 
Proclaim against subscriptions.  which they call undue and dangerous papers, and prohibit all persons to subscribe any such papers, and if offered to suppress them, or cause the person endeavouring to get subscriptions to be apprehended, upon penalty of being accounted disturbers to, and enemies of, the peace.  
But this not working its desired effect, but rather making men the more eager, so as they began to fear tumultuous proceed, therefore the Mayor is commanded and he accordingly sent warrants to all City Officers to charge all Masters of families to keep in their Sons and Servants: This enraged the youth of the City to such a height, that the Committee of safety fearing their own danger to arise from some disturbance there, gave order December the 5th. to part of the Army, 
Hewson goes into London.  both horse and foot to march into the City, which they did early in the morning, where being entered, great multitudes of all sorts of people gathered together in the Streets, the shops were shut up, and the Soldiers in all places affronted, which so madded them, that by command of their Col. Hewson, they fell on the people with some violence, and killed two or three persons, wherewith the multitude for the present dispersed, but began to bear a grudge, whose revenge would not be satisfied but with the ruin of their oppressors. This was the last help they had to rely on that they would rather reduce all to a Chaos, than quit their hold, snatching at every the least opportunity that did but flatteringly seem to offer them an advantage: for by this, though unwillingly, foreseeing their Catastrophe at hand they are driven into more sad thoughts of their dissolution, by the revolt of Portsmouth, which Haslerig, Walton, and Morley, with the consent of Col. Whetham, the Governor had gained: now might any man guess their time to be short by the violent extravagancy of their actions, for nullum violentum diuturnum; the news of which arriving to them, they sent some horse and foot either to reduce or block up that garrison (here we see, now we see that great and devilish faction of Independency strongly divided) but soft and fair, the game goes quite contrary, as will appear afterwards.  
During this dealing at Portsmouth, the Army Officers finding that nothing would satisfy the People, but either to re-admit the Rump Parliament or have another, they to give them hopes of a glimmering of content, Ordered. 

Parliament proclaimed by Committee of safety.  That a Parliament shall be called and appointed to sit down in or before February next.  
That the Parliament to be called as aforesaid, shall be according to such qualifications as are or shall be agreed upon, and may best secure the just rights, liberties, and privileges of the people.   
This must be solemnly proclaimed forsooth by their journey men of safety, together with another edict of the same stamp, commanding all honest and loyal souls out of the Cities of London, and Westminster, upon pain, of imprisonment, and to be proceeded against as traitors, and executed: By this means, they thought to walk in a mist without any supervisors, but alas they were much mistaken, for though they thus cleared themselves, as they thought, from fear of the Common Enemy (as they termed all loyalists) yet they could not free themselves of their new got Enemies at Portsmouth, by whose policy they were out-witted and cashiered: yet nevertheless seven principles and unalterable fundamentals are agreed on, which were published to this effect, by these high and mighty john's a Leyden.  
1. That no Kingship shall be exercised in these Nations. 
Wallingford 7. principles of Rule   
2. That they will not have any single person to exercise the office of chief Magistrate in these Nations.  
3. That an Army may be continued and maintained, and be conducted, so as it may secure the peace of these Nations, and not be disbanded, nor the conduct thereof altered but by consent of the conservators appointed.  
4. That no imposition may be upon the consciences of them that fear God.  
5. That there be no house of Peers.  
6. That the Legislative and Executive power be distinct, and not in the same hands.  
7. That the assemblies of the Parliament shall be elected by the people of this Commonwealth, duly qualified.  
Here you see the scope of these Bedlamites, and what a fine hotch potch they would have made, 
Lawson declares.  but their sport was quickly spoiled by a Declaration from Vide-admiral Lawson giving several reasons of a necessity for the long Parliament to sit again, neither would any thing else satisfy him, though Sir Henry Vane himself with his Jesuited and poisonous breath sought to infect him.  
Now also had Haslerig, Morley, and others so bestirred themselves, and by their policy wrought upon the Soldiers that were sent by the Wallingfordians against them that they all came over to them, and relinquished their pretended Masters, whose want of money (if nothing else) would have made their cause seem bad enough, especially since the rogue of all the Kingdom ran directly encounter to their designs, their being motions almost in every County, some for the Rump wholly, others for the joining of the secluded members to them, but most, and they the wisest, moderatest, and not least considerable were for a full and free Parliament, but Independency being not yet arrived at its full period, 
Independencies first declining.  gins first to decline by the General advance, though in part seemingly upheld by admitting the Rump-Parliament again into their full power, as when they were interrupted the thirteenth of October before going, who accordingly, on the four and twentyeth day of December, were owned by all the Soldiery, both in England and Ireland, as the suprem authority with much solemnity, the Speaker Lenthall going immediately to take care of the Tower of London, the Government whereof he committed for the time present to Sir Anthony Ashly-Cooper, Mr. Weever, and Mr. berner's, and on Monday the 26th. of December, in the evening by twilight began to sit again, and were as peremptorily imperious as before, commanding Lambert to London, 
Lambert's Army vanisheth.  whose forces were all, either revolted away to General Monck, or piece-meal retired into quarters for want of pay, yet notwithstanding all this removal of force from them, they thought not themselves secure, until he by his authority came to awe the Soldiery, and people, who were now grown tumultuous, and as ready to throw them out of the saddle, as they had done the Wallingford faction.  
H s excellency therefore, 
Monck marches to Enggland.  (who could never be persuaded out of Scotland, since he first went thither) now lays hold on this opportunity, to do his Country service, having therefore, as is before mentioned, secured Scotland, he likewise deals with Sir Charles Coot, and others in Ireland, who striking a perfect harmony with him, did surprise the most eminent fanatics in the midst of their designs in Dublin Castle, and stop Ludlow, who was commander in chief in Ireland, at Sea, by this means making all Ireland sure for the Parliament [for such yet was the pretence] as it was in the 12th. of October, 1659. This wrought so effectually, and even to such an excess of joy in the Parliament, that they not only approved of all General Monks former actions, but ordered the hearty thanks of the house to be given to him for his fidelity, and faithful service, and a letter of thanks to be sent to him, signed by Mr. Speaker, a proper reward surely, as if one word of their mouths were a sufficient recompense for all labours, hazards, and travels.  
While they are thus minding themselves and boasting of their own strength, they receive a cooling card from some of the secluded members, who demanded to be admitted to sit, if that Parliament were not broken, which put our mushrooms Juncto into such a dump, that they were fain to pass this following Resolve. 

Tuesday 27. December. 1659.  

Note this.  Resolved, 
 That on the fifth of January next, this house will take into consideration the case of all absent Members, and also how to supply the vacant places in order to the filling up of the house; and that in the mean time it be referred to a Committee, to consider of all proceed, and all orders, and cases touching absent members, and make their report at the same time.    
But this did not prove satisfactory, as they expected it should, for the City gins to grow discontent, preparing themselves for a posture of defence; In the Country the cashiered Officers, and the depressed Nobility and Gentry bestir themselves, courting his Excellency all along in his march, and echoing in his ears perpetually a free Parliament, to whom he generally gave no other answers, but that he would use his utmost interest, to persuade them to reason and Justice, in the mean time wishing them to acquiesce in what they should order; thus he marcheth with his whole Army, modelling to his own mind all Garrisons and forces in his way: This and his number of men that he brought with him, being far beyond allowance, (for they ordered only three hundred) put our Rumpers to a stand, and they could not be satisfied until they send the subtlest couple in the house, 
Scot and Robinson are sent to Monck.  Scot and Robinson, to sound his intention, under pretence of congratulating his coming to England, and complementing him, to whom he carried himself with so much gravity and reservedness, that they could not catch one dropping syllable that might betray him.  
About this time the City by their Sword-bearer, 
The City Cou●t him.  send to him, to whom he returns, that he is for the Parliament as aforesaid, yet assures them that, when he came to the City, he would satisfy their desires and hopes conceived of him, thus owning the authority then in being, he keeps close to his commission, notwitstanding all the addresses of the Countries for a free Parliament, promising nothing more but that he would see all force removed from the Parliament, 2. The House filled, and 3. That there should be good provision made for future Parliaments. Thus with a slow and orderly march, attended by the prayers and wishes of the whole Nation, he comes at length to St. Alban. 
He comes to St. Alban.   
In this interval of time, the Rumpers minding to engross the whole power, both Legislative, and Executive into their own hands, and to share all places of trust and profit among themselves: on the fifth of January pass this following vote. 
Resolved, 
Observe this.  
 Touching absent Members, that the Parliament doth adjudge and declare, that the Members who stand discharged from voting or fitting in the years 1648 and 1649. do stand duly discharged by judgement of Parliament from sitting as Members of this Parliament, during this Parliament; and that writs do issue forth for electing of new Members in their places.   
Thus did they intent to have perpetuated themselves for their l●ves, and to have bequeathed their villainy in succession, to such as were to be new chosen, having already concluded, 
Oath of abjurai●on.  that the Oath of renunciation of the title of CHARLES STUART (as these unmannerly mongrels were pleased to style their Sovereign) and the whole line of the late King James should be taken by every member that hereafter shall sit in Parliament, nay so high were they now grown, that they committed divers for but Petitioning for a free Parliament.  

M. comes to London.  This made his Excellency hast up to London, where his Lady and Family were come before him by Sea; into which City he comes about the beginning of February, and takes up his lodging at White-Hall, as the Parliament had appointed him (contrary to the thoughts of many) and after two or three day's refreshment (taking no notice of his resentment of the aforesaid insolences) he solemnly attends the house according to their order, 
Goes to the house.  and with much modesty gives them an account of his undertake, refusing the chair offered him for his ease and honour, but leaning on the back of it, he delivered himself to this effect.  

H●s speech then.  That he deserved not the thanks they gave him, having done no more than his duty, but wished them rather to praise God for his mercy: then he humbly desired them to satisfy the expectation of the Nation in the establishment of their laws, liberties, properties, etc. God having restored them, not so much that they should seek their own, as the public, good. He desired them in particular to take away the jealousy, men had of their perpetuity, by determining their own sessions, and providing for future Parliaments, wishing them to use the Nobility and Gentry civilly, intimating that it was their wisdom rather to enlarge, than contract their interest, he told them, that the fewer qualifications they put upon succeeding Parliaments, the better, and desired them to be tender in imposing new oaths (for he had heard of the oath of abrenunciation) alleging there was more reason to repent of those already taken, than to take new ones, so warning them to take heed of Cavaliers, and fanatics, he concluded, commending Scotland to their care, and assuring them of Ireland, and hinting at a Free-State.  
This done, and he retired loaden with thanks, 
How the P. employ him.  he withdraws to his place in the Council of State, where the first that he finds under consideration is the reducing of the City, (which to make a short digression was now grown unruly, being stiffly resolved to own no power, but that of a full and Free Parliament, whereto they had been encouraged by the Country in several Declarations, but especially that of Devonshire, which in regard it gives the sense of all in one, and was that chief stuck to by the City: I shall give it you at large, as Mr. Bamfield, the Recorder of Exon, sent it to the Speaker, January the 14th.  

The Declaration.  
We the Gentry of Devon, finding ourselves without a Regular Government, after your last interruption, designed a public meeting to consult remedies, which we could not so conveniently effect till this week at our general quarter Sessions, at Exon; where we found divers of the Inhabitants groaning under high oppressions, and a general defect of trade, to the utter ruin of many, and fear of the like to others, (which is so visible in the whole Country) that it occasioned such disorders, as were no small trouble and disturbance to us, which (by God's blessing upon our endeavours) were soon suppressed without blood: And though we find, since our last purposes, an alteration in the State of affairs, by the re-assembling you at the helm of Government, yet we conceive that we are but in part redressed of our grievances, and that the chief expedient to amend the whole, will be the recalling all those Members that were secluded in 1648. And sat before the first force upon the Parliament, and also by filling up vacant places, and all to be admitted without any Oath and engagement previous to their entrance, for which things if you please to take a speedy course, we shall defend you against all opposers, and future interrupters, with our Lives and fortunes: for the accomplishment whereof we shall use all lawful means, which we humbly conceive may best conduce to the peace and safety of this Nation.   
This was signed by most of the chief gentry of the Country.  
Now the City, owning the purport of this Declation by one of their own, and refusing to pay taxes, had drawn the Council of State to that violent ebulliency, of reducing it to a submission, which was, as I said before, the point, upon which they fell, when first General Monck, came first among them; for they had rather bring the whole World into a combustion than their usurped power either to equals or superiors, 
Mo. goes into the City and demands taxes.  they were so in love with power, that they would not have left pilling, as long as there had remained any matter either to satisfy their ambition or covetousness; wherefore they resolve to drive on furiously, and therefore give order to the General to march into the City, with so many horse and foot, as should reduce them to an obedience, and compel them to pay the Assessment. His excellency according to their command, being then their servant, went to the City, and at Guildhall peremptorily demandeth, by order from the Parliament and Council of State, the payment of their taxes: this so sudden demand, coming from him (from whom they hoped better things) and quite contrary to their expectation, drove the Citizens to such a nonplus, that for a time they were as ecstasied not knowing what to say, but at last, recollecting somewhat of an English temper, they return this answer. That in Magna Charta confirmed by the Petition of right, and renewed by the present Parliament, a day before their forceable dissolution upon the 11 of October, they were to pay no taxes, etc. but by their consent in Parliament, which now they had not: yet to avoid giving any offence, they desire time to consider of it, which the General grants, but in the mean time writes to the house to know their pleasure, to which they presently answer, that 1. he should imprison Col. Bromfield, Alderman Bludworth, L. C. Jackson, Major Cox, Col. Vincent, etc. Some of which had waited upon him from the City but a little before; 2. that he should remove their chains, dig up their posts, and break their gates.  

M. his carriage in that exigent of affairs.  These strange orders being brought to him, did a little startle him, knowing they were sent as well to try his patience and obedience; as to breed an open enmity between him and the City, thereby to compel him to serve them perpetually, by being assured that they were mortal enemies; yet not willing, since he had gone so far with success, to lose all now by passion, he with silence obeys them readily, and thereby clearly finds the temper of the City to be positively resolute for Liberty and right, so that being sensible they might be trusted, he hopes shortly to make them an amends, which he had an occasion offered to do soon than he expected, 
Is ungeneralled.  for the Parliament had a double design upon him, first to weaken him in his interest and credit, by an employment which they knew would so incense the City, and then while he is acting their unreasonable commands, they are busy in undermining him in his power; for when he had done their design as they thought, to the enraging of the Citizens, and breeding in their hearts revengeful thoughts, 
He joins with the City.  he returns to White-Hall upon Friday the 10th. Day of February, upon which day his Commission did expire, instead of the renewing whereof, which he might with much justice have expected, as the reward of his merit, he is made a Colonel again, and only made equal in command with six men more, as short of him in desert, as in honesty, wherewith when he had acquainted the Officers of his Army, who were much unsatisfied with such a reward for their late abominated employment, agreed unanimously among themselves, that the Parliament intended to lay them aside, notwithstanding their former faithful service to them, and to perpetuate the Nations slavery, by their datelesness: and therefore they resolved to march with their General into the City to join with them, and declare for a free Parliament: to this purpose a conference is had at the Three Tons near Guildhall, where the City and Army strike hands, at which time his Excellency's Officers remonstrate the resent they had of the violence they were commanded to offer that famous City, which was of a stamp unparallelled in the most horrid rage of former ages, whose barbarousness even spared that, when they harassed the whole Nation beside, then give warning of several persons, both within and without the City, whose tyrannous minds they feared, abhorring in an especial manner a late petition delivered in the house by one Praise-God Bare-bone, being a treasonous libel, subversive of all order and Government, dangerous to religion, both in discipline and worship, and destructive to all Laws, Statutes and Customs, even in fundamentals, wishing at last the Parliament to think of determining their Session, and provide for future Parliaments.  
This being, by his Officers I say, presented to his Excellency, and by him in a letter communicated to the Speaker, he marcheth into London, and taketh quarters, declaring for a free Parliament; and this blow was it, 
Free P. promised  made Independency stagger, for so highly were both City and Country pleased with this Declaration, that they did hardly know in what manner to express their joy, ringing their bells, making bonfires, the air resounding nothing but the name and praises of Monk, and the Streets filled with grateful hearts, who on bended knees prayed for blessings on the head of the hoped restorer, both of the Church and Commonwealth, and in this resolution he persisted, notwithstanding all the flatteries, threaten and snares of the house, who now studied nothing more than his ruin, as in him foreseeing their own, nevertheless he waits for the Parliaments answer to his last letters to them, but finding they neither minded him nor them, and thought of nothing but settling their own interest, and continuing themselves in power, he procures a conference between some sitting members of the house, and some of the honourable Gentlemen and worthy Patriots that were excluded from it, at which himself being in person present, and weighing judiciously the reasons and arguments form on both sides, which he heard with a deep and reserved silence, after all were withdrawn, he concluded with himself, upon result from the whole, that the pretended settlement proposed by the house, was of compass too narrow, and too weak of foundation to bear up the Nation, and repair its breaches: 
Secluded members admitted.  he resolved therefore to withdraw all manner of force from the house, and to admit men of more sober, moderate, and less biased judgements, whose Spirits being more apt for public good, would establish the Kingdom, upon terms comprehensive of every considerable interest therein: hereupon, on the one and twentyeth day of February, meeting the secluded members at Whitehall, and expressing himself to them in a speech not delivered by himself, but by his Secretary, wherein he commended to their care,  
1. Religion, that great primum mobile & unum necessarium, without which to live rather befits beasts than men, and this was proposed in the most sober and moderate way imaginable, yet neither countenancing error nor allowing libertinism.  
2. He commended to them the State, desiring them to be good Physicians to its crazed body, by applying suitable Physic, which (he said) he supposed would be a full and a free Parliament, upon whose resolves, as himself; so he doubted not but the whole Nation would acquiesce, he told them the house was open for them to enter, and prayed for their good success.  
The secluded members being thus admitted, 
How they begin and wherein proceed.  fall immediately to work where they were abruptly forced to break of in December. 1648. Confirming their Vote made then by another now, that the concessions of the late King were a sufficient ground to proceed on for settling the peace of the Kingdom, hereby not only vindicating themselves, but as it were at once disannulling all that had been done as dissonant thereto, during the whole time of their recess.  
This began to infuse a new spirit of life into the Kingdom, in whom at this springing season of the year, began a new to bud and peep out the blooms of a too long frost-nipped loyalty, so that one now might have seen what twenty years before could never show, countenances, that lately were dejected through the cruel tyranny of their Aegipitian task masters, now gather cheerful looks, and like fresh blown roses yield a fragrant savour.  
The Parliament thus sitting, freely vote his Excellency Lord General of all the forces in England, Scotland, and Ireland: by virtue of which Commission he disarms all the Fanatic party, both in City and Country, the Parliament in the mean time providing to secure the Nation by two seasonable Acts, the one of Assessment, and the other of the Militia; the last impowering and arming Gentlemen, and Men of worth and power, to stand up for their Liberties, and Privileges, and put the Country into a posture of defence, against all encroaching pretenders whatsoever; and the former enabling them to raise monies (which are the sineves of war) for maintaining of the forces, so raised to assert their and our rights.  
Thus settling the ancient Government of the City, and vacating the Fanatic power in the Country, they commend the establishment of the Nation to a full and free Parliament, to be called the 25th. of April, 1660. Issuing out writs to that purpose in the name of the keepers of the Liberty of England, by authority of Parliament, and settling a Council of State of most discreet and moderate men, to whom the affairs of the three Nations, in the interval, and until the meeting of the Parliament, on the aforesaid 25th. of April was committed, who with much discretion managed their power, to the satisfaction of all sober minded men, and so (saving to the house of Lords their rights, notwithstanding the Commons were in this Juncture of time, put upon necessity to act without them) commending the Soldiery once more to his Excellency upon the sixteenth day of March, in the year of our Lord 1659. (a day worthy to be remembered) they dissolved themselves, 
Lorg P. legally ended.  and so at last put a legal period to that fatal long-Parliament, which could not be dissolved by any but by itself.  
And thus we see Independency laid in the dust, and ready to give up the ghost, and indeed not long after we shall see fully to expire the Prodromi, of whose miserable end might be these and the like.  
The Council of State in this interval of power, 
The interval.  with very great caution and wariness, manage their affairs, turning neither to the right hand nor to the left, but keeping a direct course, as knowing in medio ibunt tutissimi, they set out a Proclamation against all disturbers of the peace, under what pretence or name soever, sparing none that in a time of such hopes durst either move a hand or tongue to work a disturbance, taking care also that the order of the last Parliament touching elections should be duly and punctually observed, as considering that the peace or ruin of the Nation would lie in their hands. 
Elections for a new Parl.   
His Excellency the Lord General in this interregnum accepts of several invitations and treatments in the City by several of the worthy companies, yet still having an eye to the main, he keeps close to his Officers (who were not yet fully resolved) and often confers with them in a more familiar manner than ordinary, whereby he so wrought on them, that at last he brought them to declare that they would acquiesce in the resolves of the approaching Parliament; and indeed this was a shrewd forerunner of the fall of Independency, as I said before, whose only hope was builded on the averseness of these men to lawful power, which when they saw frustrated they might well depair; yet endeavour once more to endeavour a confusion, which being observed by the Council, and that a discontented Spirit possessed some of the old Officers and Grandees, according to the power given them to that purpose, they send for all suspected persons, confining them unless they subscribed an engagement to demean themselves, quietly, and peaceably, under the present Government, and acquiesce submissively in the determination of the Parliament next ensuing, which reasonable engagement Lambert and some others refusing, were carefully confined to several prisons, by which means the peace was wonderfully preserved: but notwitstanding all this care, such were the restless endeavours of that devilish faction, that (whether by the neglect or treachery of his keepers is not yet known) Lambert gets out of prison cunningly, who being a man of lose principles and desperate fortunes, so encouraged the Fanatic party, and stirred up their drooping Spirits, that they began to threaten great matters, and for perfecting their wicked design, begin to gather to an head near Edg-hill, which they hoped would prove to them an auspicious Omen for the beginning of a Second war, but Heaven would no longer wink at such intolerable villainies, for the sins of these Amorites were fully ripe for judgement, so that they were discovered and quickly nipped in the bud, Lambert and his accomplices being so eagerly pursued by Col. R. Ingoldsby that they were suddenly forced to scatter and shift for themselves by flight, 
Taken and sent to the Tower.  neither was that so swift or secure, but that Lambert was taken prisoner by the said Col. Ingoldsby, and sent prisoner up to London, at which time passing by Hide park, on the twenty fourth of Ayril, he saw all the City Regiments both of horse and foot, Trained Band and Auxiliaries, complered, armed, and trained, and ready to hazard their Lives and Fortunes against all seditious and factious Traitors to their King and Country.  
The news of this first appearance of armed loyalty being spread abroad into the countries', 
The first loyal muster.  did so animate and encourage the old oppressed, that casting off their fetters and fears together, they begin to appear in their wont guise, and because they were by the fanatics traduced as men of blood and full of revenge, not to be satisfied but with the utter ruin of their adversaries, thereupon to undeceive the vulgar, who might possibly have been misled by such lies, if not answered, did from their several and respective Counties, as also in the Cities of London and Westminster declare, 
The Gentry declare.  that they were far from any thoughts of revenge, it belonging to God alone (alluding to that text of Scripture, Vengeance is mine, I will repay saith the Lord) but as for Justice they would acquiesce in the judgement of the approaching Parliament.  
This being done, and the whole Parliament at the appointed time, 
The Parliament gins.  beginning first with their duty to God (they follow that golden Pythagorean rule.) 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.)—  giving him hearty thanks for that their freedom of meeting, which when they had cordially done, they fell in order to their Governor—  
First, They fear God, then honour the King. As the same Pythagoras goes on; 
— 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  The very Heathen we see, by the mere light of Nature, could dictate that which our Grand Enthusiasts of Religion would not for these many years, by the ignis fatuus of their new lighted notion walk after. But the Parliament were better principled, for after their devotions regularly paid to God, they in the very next place own their duty to their Prince, upon the first day of May (a happy day to be remembered to posterity) voting the Government to be by King, 
Kingly government voted.  Lords, and Commons, a constitution so incomparably mixed, that it may rather be admired then envied: neither were they satisfied to rest there but on the Eighth day of the same May, caused his Majesty to be proclaimed King of England, 
King proclaimed.  Scotland, France, and Ireland, which was performed with so much Solemnity and Joy, as I presume England, I dare say hardly any Kingdom in the World, ever saw or were sensible of the like, the shouts and acclamations of the pleased people rending the very skies as a token of their extraordinary Thankfulness to Heaven, and at night by the multitude of their bonfires, turning the Darkness into a kind of lightsome day.  
This happy beginning thus owned by the general consent of all honest men, made the Parliament resolute to prosecute their begun endeavours; which the more orderly to do (for order befitteth men best both as Subjects and Christians) they immediately prepared Commissioners, 
Commissioners sent to the King  who were persons choice for their integrity and wisdom, (like those heads of the children of Issachar which were men that had understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do) being entrusted to wait on his Majesty, and to desire him to come to his Parliament and People with all convenient speed. Before whose arrival his Majesty had withdrawn himself from Brussels, not upon any account as was by the ignorant and malicious insinuated, but out of a design of safe guard to his own sacred Person, as knowing those two principles of the Romanists, (si violandum est jus, Regni causa violandum est; and nulla fides servanda est haereticis) might prove dangerous, if not fatal to his interest as affairs then stood. He well remembered Richard the first his case surnamed Caeur-du-Lion, and what his detention once cost England, and therefore had no reason to cast himself into the like hazard. Therefore having discharged all Accounts whatsosoever at Brussels, he as (I said) removes his Court to Breda. As that first, he might hold the more certain and quick intelligence with his friends in England, where there hardly wanted any thing to complete his Restoration and the Kingdom's satisfaction, but his Personal presence; so in the second place he there knew himself safe, being within the jurisdiction of his beloved sister, the Princess Royal Mary Princess of Orange, 
King at Breda.  whose tender love and zeal to him in his affliction deserves to be written in brass, and graven with the point of a Diamond.  
During the time of his residence there to show himself to be a second Solomon, a Prince of Peace, and not only so, but the most pious and merciful of Princes, who was wise as a Serpent, yet innocent as a Dove, by the Honourable the Lord Viscount Mordant and Sir Richard Grenvile (since by his Majesty's special grace created Earl of Bath) Gentleman of his Majesty's Bedchamber; He sent a most gracious Declaration, with respective Letters to the Lords, to the Commons, to the City, and to the Army: 
Whetein, 
 
His Majesty's Declaration lays Independency dead.  His Majesty first offers a Pardon for all miscarriages and misdemeanours against his Father, or himself, to all persons (such only excepted as shall be excepted by the Parliament,) promising likewise security to all, whose guilt might otherwise endanger them, so as they laid hold on his Majesty's Pardon within 40. days after the publication thereof.  
2. He refers the purchasers of Kings, Queens, and Bishops Lands to Justice, to the Law, and to the Parliament.  
3. He assures the Soldiery of their Arrears for past services, although done against him, and of encouragement and pay for the future under him.   
This Declaration was received with no ordinary joy and solemnity, the messenger Sr. john Greenvil being rewarded with 500 pounds ro buy him a Jewel, and upon reading thereof and a conference had with the Lords, (who had now reassumed their Native right by taking their places in the higher House) they agree unanimously each in their several house; That a Letter be sent in answer to his Majesty's gracious Letter and Declaration, superscribed To his most Excellent Majesty; which were since more immediately drawn up and sent by Commissioners (before prepared as is already mentioned) six from each House, who were in the name of both Houses,  
1. To give his Majesty most humble and hearty thanks for his gracious Letter and Declaration.  
2. To desire his Majesty to return to the exercise of his Regal Office, and come to his Parliament and people with all speed possible.  
And thirdly, to that purpose to desire him to appoint a place for the Navy to attend him: the Commissioners that went from the house of Peers were these.  

The Earl of Oxford,  
Earl of Warwick,  
Earl of Middlesex,  
Lord Brook,  
Lord Berckley, 
Commissioners names that went to the King.   
Lord Visc. Hereford.   

Of the House of Commons were selected these following,  
Lord Charleton,  
Lord Bruce,  
Lord Falkland,  
Lord Mandevile,  
Lord Herbert,  
Lord Fairefax.  
Sir George Booth,  
Sir john Holland,  
Sir Antho. Ashly-Cooper,  
Sir Horatio Townsend  
Sir Henry Cholmly,  
Mr. Hollis.   
The City of London having also received the like Letters and Declarations, the Lord Mayor, aldermans and Common-Council appoint a loyal and humble answer to be returned, wherein they give his Majesty thanks for his tender care, grace and favour to their ancient and renowned City, which was sent by these worthy Gentlemen.  

For the City of London.  
Alderman Adam's  
Recorder Wild  
Alderman Robinson  
Alderman Bateman  
Theophilus Biddolph  
Richard Ford  
Alderman Vincent  
Alderman Frederick  
Alderman Wale  
John Lewis Esquire  
William Bateman Esq.  
Alderman Bludworth  
Major Chamberlain  
Colonel Bromfield  
Sir James Bunce Bar.  
Alderman Langham  
Alderman Reinoldson  
Alderman Brown  
Sir Nicholas Crispe  
Alderman Tompson   
All these Letters were sent away, but the first that arrived to his Majesty's hand was from his Excellency the Lord General Monck, who by the leave of the House sent the same by his brother in Law, Sir Thomas Clergies, who was (as being the first) beyond all expression welcome, and after some long but not tedious conferences Knighted, and at length dismissed with as much kindness as he was at first received with joy.  

Commissioners how received by the King.  After whom arrived shortly all the forenamed Commissioners, together with some of the Ministry, and were received by his sacred Majesty, his two illustrious brothers of York and Gloucester, and his sister of Orange, with demonstrations of affections on both sides such as are not capable of a description by my rude pen, for they were such as may be imagined only not defined, like the joys of a condemned soul now at point to die, when suddenly and beyond expectation it is not only snatched out of the very jaws of death, but mounted aloft into a seat of Honour, how it is even overpressed with the overflux of such a sudden, yet joyful change, and stands ecstasied, not knowing, or at le●st not well discerning the realities of those violent emotions under the happiness whereof it at present labours; which surpassing joy grown over, and they dismissed with abundance of satisfaction, with all speed his Majesty according to the earnest request of his Parliament prepared for England, his Royal brother, the most illustrious Duke of York, Lord high Admiral, taking order for the Navy. And in the way to the Seaside his Majesty was honourably entertained by the State's General at the Hague, of whom having taken his leave, and thanked them for their Treatment and Presents, he proceeded in his journey.  
During this time, the Navy under the conduct of General Montague, was come to attend and wait on his Royal pleasure; upon notice of which, attended by the Princess of Orange and her son, and the Queen of Bohemia, he comes aboard the Naseby Frigate, 
The King comes aboard for England, and lands at Dover.  by him then named the Charles, and after a repast there, parting with high satisfaction, pleasure and content on both sides, with his Royal and Princely attendants, he launched forth, and quickly with a prosperous and safe gale of wind, anwente Coelo, came within two leagues of Dover, 
Monck meets him.  (a place formerly not so infamous for receiving the Barons in their rebellious wars against the King, and harbouring Lewis of France, as now it was famous for its loyalty in the joyful reception of its lawful Sovereign) when he was come thither, he sends Post for the General (being resolved not to set foot on English ground till he came thither) who upon the first hearing of that happy news, presently took Post to meet him, having before taken care for Palaces to entertain him, and left order for several Regiments of Horse to attend him, for his Majesty's security; Providing with valour against open enemies, and with prudence against pretended and basely false friends, which being performed according to Order, His Excellency waits upon his Majesty at Dover.  
He is no sooner come thirher, but upon knowledge thereof, the King Landed, at whose Honoured feet in the most humble posture of a Loyal Subject, on his Knees Our Great General presents himself, and was received and embraced by his Majesty in the open arms of an endeared mercy, with so much affection as might well manifest the great respect the King bore to his high deserts; for to show that his embrace was signal, and far from a mere compliment, he went nearer and kissed him. No endearment is ever thought too great, where there is grounded Love, neither rested he there, but like a true friend and lover indeed, takes a delight in his society; for the more clear demonstration whereof to all the world, he took him with his two Brothers the Dukes of York and Gloucester into his Coach with him to Dover aforesaid, 
KING'S journey to London, and the manner of it.  where after a dutiful acknowledgement from the Magistrates there, and solemn though short entertainment he rid to the City of Canterbury (so famed for her Archbishops Sea) his Majesty being in the middle between his two brothers; and the Duke of Buckingham and the General riding bare before him.  
In this Equipage with the whole Gentry and Nobility of England attending, and thousands of the meaner rank; he arrived as I said at Canterbury, being met by the Magistracy in their richest habiliments of Honour, and by the Ministry of the place, who after a grave Speech and hearty Gratulation, presented him with a rich Bible as He was Defender of the True Faith, and afterwards with a Golden Boul full of Gold, rendering it as a Tribute to him to whom Tribute was due. From Canterbury, where he rested all Sunday, and gave thanks to God his Father and mighty Deliverer. On Monday he came to Cobham-Hall in Kent, a House belonging to the Duke of Richmond, but without any stay there passed on the same night to Rochester, from whence on Tuesday, May the 29. (the day of the week which was fatal for the murder of his Royal Father, but happy to himself, not only for his Birth, but also for giving the first hopes of his long wished and prayed for return by the Vote of the Parliament on Tuesday the 1. of May, and his being proclaimed nemine contradicente on Tuesday the 8. of May.) I say on that day, attended by the Duke of Buckingham, the Earl of North-hampton, the Earl of Cleaveland, the Earl of Norwich, the Earl of Shrewesbury, and many others with their several respective Troops of the choice Nobles and Gentry of the Land, and his Excellency with many Regiments of his best Horse, the Lord Gerard with the choice Lifeguard, and the whole Country flocking in, & cutting down Palms, and strowing the ways with all sorts of Fragrant Flowers and decking the Lanes and Passage, with the greatest variety of Country Pomps, Garlands, beset with Rings, Ribbons and the like, the Air echoing all along and redoubling the perpetually iterated Hosannas; He came to London (The Metropolis of his Kingdom, whose preparations were no less sumptuous than joyful,) making a short stay only at Black-heath; (a place many years since, and more than once noted and remembered for the tumultuous assemblies of several Rebels, but now much more famous for the united Congregation of the whole Kingdom's Loyalty) from hence about n on, order was given for a speedy march to London, in which Major General Broun did lead the Van with a complete Troop of Gentlemen, all in cloth of Silver Doublets: Alderman Robinson followed him with an other select company, the several Lords came after with their respective Troops, than came the Lifeguard: After the Marshals and Heralds, with some ancient Lords, the Duke of Buckingham, and the Lord General bareheaded; and then his Majesty rid between his two brothers, the Duke of York on the right hand, and the Duke of Gloucester on the other; after whom followed his Excellency's Lifeguard, and then the Regiments of the Army all completely accoutred with back breast and Pot. In this order they came to Saint George's fields, in a part of which towards Newington was a Tent erected, in which the Lord Mayor, 
King rides through the City.  and Aldermen in their most solemn Formalities, with their Officers, Servants, Livery-men, and Lackeys innumerable waited, to which place when his Majesty came, the Lord Mayor presented him on his knees with all the Insignia of the City, viz. Sword, Mace, Charter, etc. Which he immediately returned with promise of Confirmation, and conferred the Honour of Knighthood on the Lord Mayor in the place, whereafter a short refreshment, three hundred in Velvet Coats and Chains representing the several Companies passing on before, the Lord Mayor bearing the Sword before the King, they proceeded in an excellent order and equipage into and through the City, which was all hung with Tapestry, and the Streets lined on the one side with Livery men, on the other side with the Trained Bands, both taking and giving great satisfaction, until at last even tired with the tedious pleasure of his Welcome Journey, he came to the Gate of his Palace of Whitehall, which struck such an impression of grief into his sacred heart, by the Remembrance of his Father's horrid Murder there, as had almost burst forth, if not stopped or recalled by the Joy he received from the acclamations of the people, and the thought that he was peaceably returned after so many years unto His own House.  
The King being come in, went presently to the Banqueting House, where the Houses of Parliament attended for him, to whom the two Speakers severally made an incomparable Speech, wherein, with great eloquence, they set forth the many years misery under which the Nation laboured, then repeated the Kingdom's Joys at present, for their hoped happiness in the future by his Majesty's Restauration, and so commended to his Princely care his three Kingdoms and people, with their Laws and privileges, whereto the King in a Majestic style, made this short, but full return.  
That he was so disordered by his Journey, and the Acclamations of the people still in his Ears, which yet pleased him as they were demonstrations of Affection and Loyalty, that he could not express himself so full as he wished, yet promised them, that looking first to Heaven with a Thank-ful heart for his Restoration, he would have a careful Eye of especial grace and favour towards his Three Kingdoms, protesting that he would as well be a defender of their Laws, liberties, & properties, as of their faith.  
Having thus received and taken several Congratulations and Entertaiments, and dismissed his Noble, Honourable, Worshipful, and Reverend Guard of the Nobility, Gentry, Citizens, and Ministry, he retired to Supper, and afterwards having devoutly offered the Sacrifice of Prayer and Praise to the most high, for his safe return, he went to his Repose and Bed. The first Beam that darted from our Royal Sun, infused such a sense of piety into the people's Affection, that it even made them break into an Excess of Joy, it was that happy Omen of a virtuous Government, the admirable Proclamation against debauchedness, (wherein such is his Majesty's zeal) he takes no notice of his Enemies, but our sin which had so long occasioned his exile, not sparing therein those who pretended to be his friends, yet by their profaneness, disserved him. A happy Prince and happy people sure! where the Extremity of Justice endevoureth to take nothing from the Subject but a Liberty to offend, which so highly pleased the people, that their Joys rather increased then diminished according to that of the Poet. 
— Littora cum plausu clamour, superasque Deorum  
Implevere Domos, gaudent, generumque salutant  
Auxiliumque Domus servatoremque fatentur.  
The Shore's ring with applause, the Heavens abound  
With grateful Clamours which therein resound.  
All men salute him, Father, Prince, and King;  
That home again their banished peace doth bring.   
Which is further also expressed by the Poet in these words, 
— Largesse satiantur odoribus ignes  
Sertaque dependent tectis, & ubique lyraeque  
Tibiaque & cantus animi felicia laeti  
Argumenta sonant: reseratis aurea valvis  
Atria tota patent, pulchroque instructa paratu  
— Proceres ineunt convivia Regis.  
The Bonfires light the Sky, Garlands adorn  
The Streets and Houses: Nothing is forborn  
That might express full joy, while to his Court  
The King by Nobles followed doth resort,  
And in their Feasts Gods wondrous Acts report.   
So restless were the Nights of our pious King, that he began to account all time spent in vain and amiss, wherein he did not do or offer some good to his Kingdom: to this purpose, on the first of June, (the very next day but one after his Arrival, accompanied with his two Brothers and Sir Edward Hid, Lord Chancellor of England, with many other honourable persons, went by water to the House of Lords, where having seated himself in his Royal seat, the Black Rod was sent to the Commons to inform them of his being there: They immediately adjourned, and with their Speaker, waited his Majesty's pleasure, who in a short speech acquainted them with the Occasion and Cause of his present sending for them, viz. To pass those Bills which he understood were prepared for him; the said Bills being therefore read according to ancient form by the Clerk of the Crown, were passed by his Majesty,  
First, The Bill constituting the present Convention to be a Parliament.  
Secondly, For authorising the Act of Parliament for 70000. l. per mens. for 3 months.  
Thirdly, For Continuance of Easter Term and all proceed at Law, which done the Lord Chancellor Hid in a pithy Speech, told both Houses with how much readiness his Majesty had passed these Acts and how willing they should at all times hereafter find him, to pass any other that might tend to the advantage and benefit of the people, desiring in his Majesty's behalf, the Bill of Oblivion to be sped, that the people might see and know his Majesty's extraordinary gracious care to ease and free them from their doubts and fears, and that he had not forgotten his gracious Declaration made at Breda, but that he would in all points make good the same.  
Things being brought to that happy issue, the King wholly intends to settle the Kingdom, and because that in the multitude of Counsellors there is both peace and safety, he nominates and elects to himself a Privy Council, whereof were, 

The Duke of York  
The Duke of Gloucester.  
The Duke of Somerset.  
The Duke of Albemarle.  
The Marquis of Ormond.  
The Earl of Manchester.  
The Earl of Oxford.  
The Earl of Northampton.  
Lord Seymour.  
Lord Say.  
Lord Howard.  
Sir Atho. Ashly Cooper.  
Sir William Morris.  
Mr. Hollis.  
Mr. Annesley.    
On several such men he bestowed great offices, as Marquis of Ormond to be Lord Steward of His Honourable Household. The Earl of Manchester Lord Chamberlain. The Duke of Albemarle to be Master of the Horse, and Knight of the Garter. Sir Will. Morris one of the Secretaries of State: which took up some time, in which the Parliament according to the Kings desire proceeded in the Act of Oblivion, which at last, after many tedious and strong debates passed both Houses, and on the _____ day of _____ in the Twelfth year of his Majesty's Reign, had his Royal assent and was confirmed, wherein were excepted from pardon both as to Life and Estate, 

john Lisle  
William Say  
Sir Hardresse Waller  
Valentine Wauton  
Thomas Harrison  
Edward whaley  
John Hewson  
William Goffe.  
Cornelius Holland  
Thomas Chaloner  
John Carew  
John Jones  
Miles Corbet  
Henry Smith  
Gregory Clement  
Thomas Wogan  
William Heveningham  
Isaac Pennington  
Henry Martin  
john Barkstead  
Gilbert Millington  
Edmund Ludlow  
Edmund Harvey  
Thomas Scot  
William Cauley  
John Downes  
Nicholas Love  
Vincent Potter  
Augustine Garland  
John Dixwell  
George Fleetwood  
Simon Meyne  
Sir Michael Livesey  
Robert Titchburn  
Owen Row  
Robert Lilburn  
Adrian Scroop  
john Okey  
James Temple  
Peter Temple  
Daniel Blagrave  
Thomas Wait  
John Cook  
Andrew Broughton  
Edward Dendy  
William Hewlet  
Hugh Peter's  
Francis Hacker,  
and Daniel Axtell.    
Who had sat in judgement on, sentenced to death and did sign the instrument for the horrid murder, and taking away the precious Life of our late Sovereign Lord King Charles the First, of Glorious memory; several of whom have by divers means in sundry places been taken, and others have surrendered themselves according to a Proclamation of summons set out by the King for that purpose, the persons that surrendered themselves were these.  

Owen Row  
Augustine Garland  
Edmund Harvey  
Henry Smith  
Henry Marten  
Simon Meyne  
William Heveningham  
Isaac Pennington  
Sir Hardress valer  
Robert Titchborn  
George Fleetwood  
James Temple  
Thomas Wait  
Peter Temple  
Robert Lilburn  
Gilbert Millingon.  
Vincent Potter,  
Thomas Wogan,  
and john Downes,   
And therefore though they be all attainted & convicted of High Treason by the Law of the Land at a fair and legal Trial by a special Commission of Oyer and Terminer directed to several of the Judges learned in the Law, and to divers other worthy and honourable persons, yet they are not to suffer the pains of death, but their executions are to be suspended until his Majesty by the advice and assent of the Lords and Commons in Parliament shall order the execution by Act of Parliament to be passed to that purpose.  
The persons that have been taken were, 

Thomas Harrison  
Adrian Scroop  
john Carew  
john jones  
Francis Hacker  
Gregory Clement  
Thomas Scot  
john Cook  
Hugh Peter's  
Daniel Axtel,  
and William Heulet.    
Thomas Harrison having received his Trial, and being condemned to be hanged, drawn and quartered, accordingly on Saturday betwixt nine and ten of the clock in the morning the thirteenth of October 1660, he was drawn upon a hurdle from Newgate, to the place that is railed in by Charing-cross, where a Gibbet was erected, and he hanged with his face looking towards the Banqueting-house at Whitehall (the fatal place pitched upon by those infernal Regicides, for the solemn murder of our late Sovereign Charles the first, of glorious memory) when he was half dead, the common Hangman cut him down, cut off his privy members before his eyes, than burned his bowels, severed his head from his body, and divided his body into four quarters, which were sent back upon the same sledge that carried it, to the prison of Newgate, from thence his head was brought and set on a pole at the South end of Westminster-hall, looking toward the City of London, but his Quarters are exposed to view, as a public example upon some of the Gates of the same City.  
His pleading at his arraignment were nothing but treasonable and seditious speeches, rather justifying the crime he had committed, than any whit relenting; and so he continued a desperate Schismatic to the Church of England to the last moment of his breath.  
2. John Carew was the next that followed, who at the time of his trial, endeavoured only to justify the late Rump and their actings, but that would not serve his turn, for it was proved that he did consult and meet together with others how to put the King to death, that he sat at the time of the sentence, and signed the Warrant for execution, so that the Jury found him guilty of compassing and imagining the King's death; for which he was also condemned to be hanged, drawn, and quartered, etc. which sentence on Monday the fifteenth of October, in the morning, was put in execution on the body of the said Carew, his Quarters being likewise carried back on the Hurdle to Newgate; but such was the goodness of his Majesty, that upon the humble intercession of his friends, he was graciously pleased to give them his body to be buried, though his execrable treasons had merited the contrary.  
3, 4. The next in order, were Mr. John Coke the Solicitor, and Mr. Hugh Peter that Carnal Prophet, and Jesuitical Chaplain to the traitorous High Court; upon Cooke's Trial it was proved against him, that he examined witnesses against the King, that he was at the drawing of the Charge, that he exhibited it in the name of the Commons assembled in Parliament, and the good people of England, that this Charge was of High Treason, that he complained of delays, prayed that the Charge might be taken pro Confesso, and at last, that it was not so much he as innocent blood that demanded Justice, and that notwithstanding all this, he acknowledged the King to be a gracious and wise King, upon which the Jury found him guilty.  
2. Then Peter was set to the Bar, against whom was proved, that he did at five several places consult about the King's death, at Windsor, at Ware, in Coleman-street, in the Painted Chamber, and in Bradshaw's house, that he compared the King to Barrabas, and preached to bind their Kings in chains, etc. That he had been in New England, that he came thence to destroy the King and foment war, that he had been in arms, and called the day of his Majesty's Trial a glorious day, resembling the judging of the world by the Saints that he prayed for it in the Painted Chamber, preached for it at Whitehall, St. James' Chapel, St. Sepulchers, and other places: upon which proofs the Jury finding him guilty also, of compassing and imagining the King's death, the Court sentenced them, viz. (Cook and Peter both) to be led back to the place from whence they came, and from thence to be drawn upon a Hurdle to the place of execution, etc. On Tuesday following, being the sixteenth of October, they were drawn upon two Hurls to the railed place near Charing-cross, and executed in the same manner as the former, and their Quarters returned to the place whence they came: since which, the head of john Cook is set on a Pole on the North-east end of Westminster-hall (on the left of Mr. harrison's) looking towards London; And the head of Mr. Peter's is placed on London Bridge, their Quarters also being exposed upon the tops of some of the Gates of the City.  
5. The next brought to Trial, were Scot and Clement, Scroop, and jones; against Thomas Scot was proved, that he did sit and consult about the King's death, that he agreed to the sentence, and signed the Warrant, whereby the King was murdered, that since he hath owned the business of the King's death, by glorying in it, defending it, and saying he would have it engraven on his Tombstone, that all the world might know it, which being high aggravations of his crime, he was soon found Guilty by the Jury.  
6. Then Gregory Clement was set to the Bar, who immediately confessed himself Guilty, modo & forma, and so without troubling the Jury was set aside till Judgement.  
7. Next was brought Mr. john jones against whom the proofs were short, that he did sit upon the King in that monstrous Court, and that he signed the Sentence and horrid Instrument whereby the King was ordered to be put to death, upon which the Jury found him guilty.  
8. Then Scroop was tried upon the like Indictment for compassing the King's death, and against him was proved that he sat in the Court, and did Sentence the King, and sign the bloody Warrant, and after the coming in of his Majesty that now is, justified the committing of that detestable murder, for which the Jury finding him guilty, the Court gave sentence of death against them as the former to suffer as Traitors, and accordingly on Wednesday the 17. of October, about 9 of the clock in the morning. Mr. Thomas Scot, and Mr. Gregory Clement were brought on several hurdles to the Gibbet erected near Charing-cross, and were there hanged, bowelled and quartered, and about an hour after Mr. Adrian Scroop, and Mr. john Jones together in one hurdle were carried to the same place, and suffered the same pains of death, being afterwards returned to Newgate, and thence their quarters placed on several of the City Gates, and their heads deservedly disposed on the top of London Bridge and other places.  
These being thus dispatched, & having received the reward of their Treason, Mr. Daniel Axtel, and Master Francis Hacker were brought before the Court to be tried; Against the first of whom, viz. Axtell, was in proof, that is the imagining and compassing the death of the King, that he bid his Soldiers cry out Justice, Justice, and Execution, Execution; and beat them till they did it; That he bid shoot the Lady that spoke and called Cromwell Traitor, saying, not a quarter of the people of England consented to their wicked Charge; that he said to Col. Hunks upon his refusal to sign the warrant for executing the King: I am ashamed of you, the Ship is now coming into Harbour, and will you strike sail before we come to Anchor; that he laughed at the Transactions, as applauding them while others sighed; that after the King was murdered, he kept Guards upon the dead body, and knew who cut off the King's head, having sent one Elisha Axtell for the Executioner; upon which proof the Jury found him guilty of the said Treason whereof he stood indicted.  
10. Francis Hacker was arraigned, and by divers witnesses it was sworn against him, that he was Commander of the Halbeteers, who kept the King prisoner, and would not suffer any access to be unto him; that he guarded him to their mock-Court, and after kept him sure till he was murdered; that he was one of the persons to whom the Warrant for execution was directed, and that he signed it, that he brought the King to the fatal block and was upon the scaffold, being a principal agent about the King's death; for which horrid Treason the Jury found him guilty: after which the Court sentenced both him and Axtell to suffer death as Traitors, according to which judgement they were on Friday the 19 of October, about 9 of the clock in the morning, drawn upon one hurdle from Newgate to the common place of execution, generally called Tyburn, and there were hanged. Mr. Axtel was bowelled and quartered and so returned back and disposed as the former, but the body of Mr. Hacker, by his Majesty's great grace and favour, and at the humble suit and intercession of his friends was given to them entire, and by them afterwards buried.  
The last of this crew that was for present execution was Will. Hulet, against whom was proved that he was one of those which came with a Frock on his body, and a Vizor on his face to perpetrate the horrid murder on the Person of the King, and that being so disguised upon the Scaffold, he fell down before the King and asked him forgiveness, being known by his voice; that himself said, He was the man that beheaded K. Charles, & for that he had one 100 l. and preferment. That Hewson said of him that he did the King's business upon the Scaffold; That he either did cut it off, or took it up and said, Behold the head of a Traitor. That being questioned about the said words, he said, whosoever said it matters not; I say now, it was the head of a Traitor, with many other things to the like purpose; for which most abhorred Treason, the Jury found him guilty, and he was condemned to be hanged drawn and quartered at Tyburn.  
This was the deserved Catastrophe that was set to these men, who without any reason, nay contrary to reason, Laws both Divine and Humane, yea, even in defiance of Heaven, dipped their hands in the sacred blood of their lawful Sovereign, according to that of the Wiseman, The eye that mocketh his Father, (Rex Pater Patriae) and despiseth his Mother, (Ecclesia est Mater) the Ravens of the Valley shall pick it out; which which we see befallen them, their heads in several places being become a spectacle both to Angels and Men, and a prey to the Birds of the Air.  
In the last place, it is provided by the said Act of Oblivion, that if William Lenthal, William. Burton. Oliver St. john, john Ireton Alderman, Col. john Disborrow, Col. William. Sydenham, john Blackwel of Moreclack. Christ. Pack Alderman, Richard Keeble, Charles Fleetwood, John Pyne, Rich. Dean, Major Richard Creed, Philip Nye Clerk, john Goodwin Clerk, Sir Gilbert Pickering, Col. Thom. Lister, and Col. Ralph Cobbet, shall after the 1. of September 1660. accept or exercise any Office Ecclesiastical, Civil or Military, or any other public employment within the Kingdom of England, Dominion of Wales, or Town of Barwick upon Tweed, that then such person or persons as do so accept or execute as aforesaid, shall to all intents and purposes in Law stand, as if he, or they had been totally excepted by name in the Act. The like penalty is imposed on all such who did give sentence of Death upon any person or persons in any of the late illegal or Tyrannical high Courts of Justice, or signed the Warrant for execution of any person there condemned.  
Thus by the blessing of God I have waded through the many intricate Meanders and Revolutions, until at last I have as it were brought you by the hand to see that desperate Faction of Indepencency (as one may say,) laid into its Grave; all the heads thereof being so annihilated by the justice of the known Law of the Land, that I hope its memory shall be raked up in such an Eternal forgetfulness, that posterity seeing no footsteps thereof, shall conceive it to be a bare name, a mere notion, or aliquid non ens, of which in nature there can be no subsistence.  

An Appendix.  
HOw far the Treasons of faction have reached, and how high they durst soar is to be seen before, I shall only now in short give a hint how highly the Law of England resents such impious acts: I say then, the wisdom and foresight of the Laws of this Land in all cases of Treason maketh this judgement: that the Subject that riseth or rebelleth in forcible, to overrule the royal will and power of the King, intendeth to deprive the King both of Crown and Life, and this is no mystery or quidity of the Common Law, but an infallible conclusion drawn out of reason and experience; for the Crown is not a ceremony or Garland, but as Imperial consisteth of pre-eminence and power. This made former Traitors in all their quarrels against their Princes, not to strike downright, because God unto Lawful Kings did ever impart such beams of his own glory, as Rebels never durst look strait upon them, but ever turned their pretences against some about them; this caused the Judges sometime to deliver their opinions for matter in Law upon two points.  
The first, that in case where a subject attempteth to put himself into such strength as the King shall not be able to resist him, and to force and compel the King to govern otherwise then according to his own royal authority and direction, it is manifest rebellion.  
The second, that in every Rebellion, the Law intendeth as a consequent, the compassing the death and deprivation of the King, as foregoing, that the rebel will never suffer that King to live or reign, which might punish or take revenge of his treason; And this is not only the wisdom of the Laws of our own Kingdom, but it is also the censure of foreign Laws, the conclusion of common reason, (which is the ground of Law) and the demonstrative assertion of experience, which is the warranty of all reason.  
For the first the Civil Law, that saith, Treason is nothing else, but Crimen Laesae vel dimminutae Majestatis, making every offence which abridgeth or hurteth the power and authority of the Prince, as an insult or invading of the Crown, and extorting the imperial Sceptre.  
And for common reason and experience, they cry, it is not possible that a Subject should once come to that height, as to give law to his Sovereign, but what with terror of his own guilt, and what with the insolency of the change he will never permit the King if he can choose to recover his authority, nay or to live Experience further tells us, and 'tis confirmed by all stories and examples; two notable ones we had formerly in our own Chronicles, the first of Edw. the 2d. who when he kept himself close for danger, was summoned by proclamation to come and take upon him the Government, but as soon as he presented himself, was made prisoner, next forced to resign, and shortly after; was tragically murdered in Berkly-Castle. The other is of K. Rich. the second, before whom the Duke of Hereford (afterwards K. Hen. the 4th) presented himself with three seemingly humble, but indeed flattering reverences, yet in the end both deposed him and put him to death: but our own experience outvies all else, in the Horrid murder of our late dread Sovereign, which is related in the former parts, the punishment whereof is fully related in this last part, and therefore I shall no more thereof in this place.  
You may have observed that the practice of our Regicides was after they had ruined the Gentry, to advance their own kindred and allies, though never so insufficiently unworthy, to the most profitable places of the Common wealth; by which means all kind of exorbitances were committed without control, the Death of the King being attended with infinite oppressions, as in such changes is usual; which made Writers say, that the Death of Caesar was no benefit to the Romans, but rather brought greater Calamities on them they underwent before, as may be found in Aspian. The success was the like when Nero fell, for the next year that followed after his Death, felt more oppression, and spilt more blood than was shed in all those nine years wherein he had so tyrannically reigned. So when the Athenians had expelled one Tyrant, they brought in thirty; and when the Romans expelled their King, they did not put away the Tyranny but only change the Tyrants.  
But such and so tender is the hand of heaven over us, that he hath not only restored our Kings as at the first, and all our Counsellors as at the beginning; but brought us home our King so accomplished and pious, that we must needs confess with the Children of Israel, because the Lord hath a delight in us, therefore hath he made him King over us.  
Oh then let us render without grudging unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, acknowledge him as God's immediate Vicegerent, not prescribing him in what manner we will be ruled, nor by what means: But in all things with obedience and humility to submit to his command, like Julian the Apostata's Soldiers who would not sacrifice at his words, sed timendo potestatem, contemnebant potestatem, in fearing the power of God, they regarded not the power of man; yet when he led them against his enemies, Subditi errant propter Dominum eternum, etiam Domino Temporali.  
I will conclude all with one word of Advice: Since God hath so bettered our condition, that our words are hardly able to express our happiness, to avoid the danger of a relapse through a too careless security, let circumspection & moderation take away all bitterness, rather reflecting on the offences than the persons of any offenders, so it may be those concerned will not be so desperate to proceed on further in their wicked courses, but with speed retire, and make some recompense to in●ured parties, by their future provident endeavours for the Common good. And for these Loyal hearts who have borne the brunt of the storm both at home and abroad; since God hath rescued them as brands out of the fire; 'tis hoped they will be nothing the more secure in their vigilant care of future occurrences, having always a provident eye for the timely prevention of such inconveniencies, as might steal on them in their own, or be intended against them from foreign parts. That so the Throne of our Solomon may continue for ever, and peace be upon our Israel.   〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Sed & bene velle meretur veniam. Cicero.  
THE END.  

☞ There is now in the Press ready to come forth, that so much desired Book, entitled, An Exact History of the Life and Actions of Hugh Peter: As also his Diary, Sold by H. Brome, and H. Marsh, etc.