AN ACT For setting apart a Day of public Thanksgiving, To be kept on Wednesday the 29th of August, 1649. Together with a Declaration & a Narrative OF The Grounds and Reasons thereof.  
 coat of arms of the Commonwealth of England, 1949  
Die Jovis, 16 Augusti, 1649.  
ORdered by the Commons assembled in Parliament, That this Act, Declaration and Narrative be forthwith printed and published.  
Hen: Scobell, Cleric. Parliament '.  
London, Printed for Edward Husband, Printer to the Parliament of England, and are to be sold at his Shop in Fleetstreet, at the Sign of the Golden-Dragon, near the Inner-Temple, 1649.   

A Declaration & Narrative OF The Grounds and Reasons for setting apart a day OF public Thanksgiving To be kept on Wednesday the 29th of August, 1649.  
SInce the time that the Lord brought up his People from the house of Bondage, by the Outgoings of his Almighty Power, in Signs and Wonders, it can hardly be observed, That ever His Almighty Arm was made more visibly bare in promoting, or that He hath by more evident demonstrations declared to the world, His approbation and owning of any Cause, then he hath done that, in which this Parliament hath been engaged, for asserting and recovery of their just Rights and Liberties, with the establishment of Truth and righteousness, and suppression and removal of Tyranny, and all the effects of it. And this hath been seen the more evidently and absolutely, since the time that the Parliament hath engaged most expressly and impartially against the greatest and highest Enemies of Religion and Liberty.  
With what a Series of Mercies, and Miracles of Victory and Deliverances we have been followed from the hand of our Merciful God, since the battle of Naseby till this present, cannot, we hope, be so far out of either the sense or memory of any good Patriot, as to need a Recapitulation or Rehearsal. He hath made us to Triumph over our Enemies, and wherein they dealt proudly, He was above them; giving them leave oft-times to swell their Waves, that He might set them limits, and say unto them, Hitherto shall you come, and no further. He hath made them feel the liftings up of his hand, which they would not see; and by His own Almighty wonder-working Power, defeated their Strengths, and confounded them in their Confidences: When heightened to Assurances of undoubted Success, they have promised themselves nothing but Victory, Spoil, and the full harvest of their Hopes, then sudden destruction hath befallen them from the Lord, and that so signally, and beyond ordinary Providences, as if the Stars in their courses had fought against them: When they have gone from Mountain to Hill to seek for Divinations against Israel, and called in Moab, and Ammon, and Amaleck, and the inhabitants of Mount Seir, against the worm Jacob, through the Power, and Presence of our God, no Sorcery hath prevailed, no weapon found against us hath prospered: The Lord hath declared to the world, That he is a God of Mountains and of Valleys, and every where a strong Rock, a mighty Defence for those that serve and trust in Him. Against all persons, and in all places, He hath appeared for Us, as against the old professed Malignants and Royalists all along in England; against the pretended Covenanters the last year from and in Scotland; so now of late most seasonably, and even miraculously in Ireland, against both Scots, Renegado English, and Irish formerly Commanded by Taaff, Preston, Clanrickard, Inchiquin, and now united and grown into a numerous Army under the Apostate Ormond, amounting in the whole, at their own account, to Nineteen thousand men. Now when by the Revolt of Inchiquin, all Munster was theirs; and by the force of Clanrickard, all Connaught, by the defection of the Scots, and treachery of the English deserting their Trust, all Ulster was lost, except Derry; and Lempster, even to Dublin. When all the English Interest in Ireland was reduced, and shut up in those two Towns, and the latter straightly besieged by so potent a force, whereby the Enemy was arrived to such a Confidence, as that the Lord Ormond began to be solicitous, and full of trouble to himself, what to do with our Men, when they should be in his power ( whereof he made no doubt) inclining( as he said) to sand them to the Barbadoes, and our other Plantations, if sufficient shipping could be gained; and the Lord Taaff, to ease him of that care, suggested( as an easier expedient) the throwing them into the Sea( such are the Mercies of the Wicked;) Then, when they onely stayed but for the coming up of their additional forces, to effect all this the more securely, then the Lord looked down from Heaven, the habitation of his Holiness, and His Glory, and defeated them; Then He sent forth his wrath, and consumed them as stubble, or as chaff before the wind. And thus hath He begun to avenge his Israel there, and visit for the Blood of his people  shed in that Kingdom, with a rage reaching up to Heaven, and therein given his Servants here cause with triumphant joy to say, Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like thee, glorious in Holiness, fearful in Praises, doing wonders?  
The particulars of which wonderful Mercy now given, are more fully and clearly certified in several Expresses from Lieutenant General Jones, the principal and most honourable Instrument in the Hand of God for this great Deliverance and Success, summed up into the ensuing Narrative.  
SInce Ormonds first setting himself before Dublin,( where he continued from the twentieth of June, to the second instant) little was done against this City; He aiming first at the gaining the principal Out-Garrisons, as Droghedah, Dundalk and trim, the last being taken the one and twentieth past.  
On the two and twentieth, Col: Venables landed with his Foot; the five and twentieth, Colonel Reynolds with his Horse; the six and twentieth, Colonel Moor, and Colonel Hunks with their Foot, and Captain Norwood, and mayor Eliot with their Troops, whereby this Party became in some sort considerable. Wherewithal, and by the report of the Lord Lieutenant's following soon after with the whole Army, the Enemy being awakened, thereupon resolved to set themselves wholly to this work; And in the first place, they did cut off that Water, whereby our Mills were driven, and thereby was our condition something straightened; but principally upon the second instant, they cast up a Work at Baggarath, within a quarter of a mile of this City, whither having drawn about fifteen hundred Foot, besides Horse, they thence purposed to work themselves forward in their approaches, and to take from us our forage for our Horse, and grass for our Cattle, without which this place could not long have subsisted; and they built Forts towards the Sea, to deprive us of the landing-place, for our coming Supplies, and this was the onely safe landing left for our Forces in the Dominion of Ireland.  
The Enemies Horse and Foot appearing at Baggarath, the second of this instant, about nine in the morning, Lieutenant General jones drew out twelve hundred Horse, and four thousand Foot; intending then onely to beat up the Enemies quarters, and not to engage with so small a party, their Camp being at Rathmines, within less then a mile of Baggarath; but God blessing our men with success, and by the coming on of parties on all sides, it came at length to a general engagement, and after more then two hours hot dispute, the Enemy was totally routed: Ormond hardly escaped with eight horse, and few had escaped of their whole numbers, but that there was cause to provide against a body of a thousand fresh Horse of the Enemies, commanded by sir Thomas Armstrong, which coming up fresh, and in our mens disorder, might have endangered all; but they in stead of advancing( which our men expected) fled toward Drogheda.  
Our loss of men was little, there not being twenty missing, but many wounded.  
Of the Enemy were slain about four thousand, some of considerable quality, and two thousand five hundred and seventeen taken prisoners, amongst whom Colonel Christopher Plunket, the Earl of Fingale, and Colonel Richard Butler, the Earl of Ormonds brother, were Principals, and with them sixteen Colonels and Field-Officers, forty one Captains, Lieutenants fifty eight, Ensigns forty two, of Cornets, Quatermasters, and other persons of inferior Offices and quality, great numbers; most of them of Inchiquins English, and our run-aways. To which is to be added Mr. John Herbert( servant to the pretended King) who about six days before landed his Masters household-stuff in gallovvay. Our men took in the place three Demi-canons, one large square Gun, carrying a Ball of twelve pound, one Sacre-Drake, and one Morter-piece, all these Brass. And our men also gained about two hundred Oxen for the train, besides carriages. The next day our men seized a Brass Canon, within five miles of the Camp, which Camp was richly furnished with great store of Velvets, Silks, Scarlets and other clothing of value, Wines, Grocery, with some convenient quantity of Money: all which they left behind them, and the neighbouring villages plentifully stored with cattle of all sorts, fit for food.  
There are also taken of Train-carriages and wagons, belonging to the Enemies Army, at the least three hundred, Tents five hundred, Cows three hundred, and Irish Nags, termed by them Garroones, eight hundred.  
It was for our advantage that Inchiquin had some days before gone towards Munster, yet intending to return shortly. As also that our men so engaged before Clanrickards coming up with his three thousand men out of Connaught, and seven thousand ulster Scots also upon advancing.  
All this was done but by a handful of men, and not the third part of our Foot coming in to the principal part of the Work; yet by them the Lord defeated an Enemy, by themselves now acknowledged Nineteen thousand, and they having a fresh reserve of Horse, little short of our numbers.  
The same night Rathfurnans( sir Adam Loftus his house) lately taken by the Enemy, was regained, and the Soldiers in number about Seven score, entertained into the Parliaments service, professing their abhorrence to accompany any longer with those bloody Irish Rebels, and that they were forced to do what they did, and that hereafter they would live and die with us. Nor did their fear leave them till they had also quitted Mannoroth,( the Earl of Kildares house, and one of the strongest pieces in Ireland the Naas, Donahedy, and Richardstown, each twelve miles at the least distant from Dublin▪  
Never was any duty in Ireland like this, to the confusion of the Irish, and to the raising up the spirits of the poor English, and to the restoring of the English Interest; Which, from their first footing in Ireland, was never in so low a condition, as at that very instant: there not being any one considerable landing place left us, but this alone, and this also almost gone.  

UPon consideration of all which, the Parliament for manifestation of their high and extraordinay sense of so signal and seasonable a Mercy, Have thought it fit, and their duty to set apart a time for public and Solemn Thanksgiving, to be rendered to the Lord the Author of that Mercy: And they do therefore Enact and Ordain, That Wednesday the Twenty ninth of this instant August, be observed and kept as a day of public and holy rejoicing and Thanksgiving to the Lord, in all that Churches and chapels, and places of Divine Worship within this Commonwealth of England, Daminion of Wales, and Town of Berwick upon Tweed; and that the Ministers of the respective parishes and places aforesaid, be and hereby they are required and enjoined to give notice on the Lords day next preceding the said Twenty ninth of August, of the day so to be observed, to the end the people of their several Congregations may the more generally and diligently attend the public Exercises of Gods Worship and Service there to be dispensed upon this occasion; at which time, that the people may be more particularly and fully informed of this great Deliverance and Success, the said Ministers are hereby required to publish and red this present Act and Declaration: And for the better observation of the day, The Parliament doth hereby inhibit and forbid the h●l●ing or use of all Fairs, Markets, and servile works of mens ordinary Callings upon that day: And all Majors, Sheriffs, Iustices of Peace, Constables, and other Officers, be and are hereby enjoined to take especial care of the due observance of the said day of Thanksgiving accordingly.    

Die Jovis, 16 Augusti, 1649.  
ORdered by the Commons in Parliament assembled, That this Act, Declaration and Narrative, be forthwith printed and published.  
Hen: Scobell; Cleric. Parliament.