THE Army's Declaration: Being a True ALARM IN ANSWER TO A False and fiery one made lately by a Member of that detestable RUMP And printed for Livewell Chapman.  
By a member of the Army now in LONDON.  
Printed for prevention of Sedition and Mutiny, in the Year 1660.   

The Army's Declaration, Being a true Alarm in answer to a false and fiery one, made lately by that detestable Rump, etc.  
Brethren and Fellow-soldiers,  
When I consider those unparallelled actions both of scandal and sedition, those many changes and overthrows in Government, those strange and horrid Oaths and Engagements, which by the subtlety of a few turbulent and seditious spirits, we have been seduced to make ourselves guilty of, how that by the knacks and pretences of ambitious Usurpers, we have almost been the ruin of our native Country: and under pretence of liberty both of State and Conscience, have almost overwhelmed the Nation with Anarchy in State, and the strangest confusion in the Church; whereby not only the glory of the Nation is decayed, but ourselves made infamous to all posterity, if by our speedy repentance, we do not return from our backslidings, and with heart and hand join together, for the restitution of it to its former happiness. When (I say) I consider these things, I cannot but with the greatest grief and regret detest and abhor those enormous crimes, which by the instigation and delusion of our Superiors we have daily been guilty of, and are (it seems) again courted unto, by those grand contrivers of the Nations ruin, which as they have formerly, so (conceive) once more they shall by their spurious mask of a Good old Cause, and defence of the good people of the Land, the glorious pretences of Freedom and Liberty, both as men and Christians, and such like hypocritical canting, seduce and draw us from the obedience of our General, and the real authority; to the Egyptian bondage of an Anarchical tyranny, and to the inevitable ruin both of ourselves, and the Nation.  
Being truly sensible of these their machinations, which are not only secretly carried amongst us, and the seeds of Sedition privately sowed, but they are bold to give us loud Alarms, and to our no small ignominy proclaim to the world, that they conceive us fit persons for any villainy, which can but cunningly be suggested to us, in defence therefore not only of myself as a Member of the Army, but also of you my fellow-soldiers (whom I am confident will unaimously subscribe to what I have here written) I here present both you and the world with a true Alarm, in opposition to that false fire which was lately shot in by the Rump amongst us.  
The Gentleman (or as some say the Villain, T. Scot) gins his Libel with something to our purpose: standers by do often see more than the Gamester, He little considers how ample testimony we can give to the truth of this; not knowing I suppose, that whilst we have resided in Scotland, and so have been remote from their actions and undertake we have had leisure and experience to search them to the depth, and find them to be a crew of Atheistical, perfidious, and traitorous Rascals, who whilst they have by a close and well-carried hypocrisy made the glory of God, and liberty of the people their outward pretences, have only bend themselves to increase their own estates, and perpetuate their power, to the utter enslaving of all English men. He need not tell us he hath discovered more than many of us, when either he hath not yet known, or else pretends him. self ignorant, that we so far detest such villanons' usurpers, that we almost hate and loathe ourselves, for our ever being seduced and drawn aside by such impudent and juggling Mountebanks  
I beseech you Brethren, pardon my transportation, which I confess to be a little beyond the bounds of a moderate Reply; but what can a person deserve at our hands, who hath scandalised, and traitorously endeavoured the ruin and destruction of our renowned General, who notwithstanding the black-mouthed envy of such hellish firebrands, will still be found to terminate all his actions in the peace and settlement of his Country and Nation. But lest my Gentleman should think he had too hard measure, and call this only railing at random, I shall take notice of such particular heads of his papers, as may best require an answer, or deserve taking notice of.  
The Basis on which he builds all the rest of his discourse, is the old cheat and juggle, wherewith we and the Nation were Gulled in 1648. Wherein, saith he, you engaged and promised, That you would see the Government of these Nations established upon the just and secure fundamentals and constitutions of Freedom: and Safety to the people, in relation as they were men and Christians, and that in the ways of a Commonwealth, and Free-State-Government, without King, single Person, or House of Lords. This is that (which the Gentleman endeavours to persuade us throughout his whole Pamphlet) we are obliged to perfist in to our lives end; and in this cause undertaking solely, we must (according to his Opinion) only expect the blessing and assistance of Almighty God; and to recede a jot from this, is to turn Apostates from the cause of God, and to encur the danger of our own ruin and destruction.  
I shall not perplex the man with multiplicity of words, only desire him to ponder these two particulars. First, Whether his Masters and fellow partners in iniquity, who were the cause and promoters of this Engagement, did not long before (not only at their entrance into the , but also solemnly in the solemn League and Covenant) swore and protest in the presence of God, and the face of the world, that they would maintain the King in his just Rights and Privileges, and preserve his posterity; and whether this was not the only ground and reason that we, and so many honest men in the Nation were induced to take, up arms and assert their interest. Secondly, Whether it can be made out by the Laws of God or man, that an Oath utterly unlawful in itself, and wholly destructive to the good of a Nation, ought rather to be kept, then repent of.  
I suppose neither he nor his Companions can be so impudent as to deny (though they have been so impious as to forswear themselves) the first particular; but methinks I hear them presently ready to reply, that they intended no more by the taking that Oath, than the maintenance and preservation of themselves and the people; and that they found it absolutely necessary for the good of the Nation, to infringe and forget this their solemn Covenant: That they always reserved to themselves that mental reservation, provided the safety of the King, might be for their own, and the security of the good people of the Land: That where the Liberties of the Nation were so highly concerned, there Salus Populi, suprema Lex esto; The safety of the people must be the only interpreter of all their reiterated Oaths and protestations; and upon these specious and guilded pretences they proceeded to the cutting off their lawful Sovereign, and craftily draw us in to be Bawds to their actions, whilst we suffer ourselves to be cheated with those Golden baits of Religion and Liberties; and so whilst we mean nothing but good, cause us to perpetrate the height of ' mischiefs: Having broken the first Article of their Oath, the preservation of the King's Majesty, they presently conclude there can be no way to maintain their wicked actions, but by committing a second as horrid and villainous, and so proceed to the utter exclusion and banishment of his Posterity; a crime which even the Turks themselves would be ashamed to perpetrate.  
And now must we be drawn in to be compartners of their Villainies? they by all the canting terms and spiritual expressions, the quaintest of their Independent adherents can invent, represent the Kingly Government as arbitrary and tyrannical, and that England could never enjoy a firm peace and security, but by the utter abolishing of a Monarchical Government; and we who were only led by the blind faith we had in our (as we thought) Religious Commanders, are easily drawn into the net, and suffer ourselves to be caught in that snare, which have since found, did entangle the Nation in such fetters as have not been by any Power to be knocked off.  
But now since it hath pleased God of his mercy to open our eyes, and make us (by his blessing upon our General's indefatigable endeavours) in some sort instrumental to the restoring of our Country from that bondage which she hath by our delusions long groaned under; let not these impious and unparalleled Traitors think us either so sottish as to return with the Dog to his vomit, or so seired in our consciences, as not seriously to repent of our former miscarriages. We confess we took an Oath to set up a Commonwealth; but we never swore to destroy the Nation, we engaged to defend the People of God, but never to maintain a crew of Atheistical hypocrites: Nay further, We confess we engaged against a King or House of Lords, but did not by that intent the ruin of our Native Country; and when these two come in competition, that either we must relinquish and recede from this our Engagement, or else still be made use of to enslave our Countrymen, and utterly destroy our already dying Stare: We cannot be so stupid and sencelessy bewitched, not to think it better seriously to crave pardon of God for this our Engagement, and the Nation for the wrong we have hitherto done them, then by our obstinate persisting in such wicked Engagements, sell ourselves to the Devil, and the Kingdom to ruin.  
The next point of this pious Gentleman's design, is no less, to make us turn absolute Rebels to our General, and upon this his grand endeavours are, under the notion of Cavalier-Reports, to make him a designer of bringing and restoring the late King's Son. We will not dispute whether this be his insentions, only we shall take occasion to tell the Gentleman in a word, That we are no such Enomies to the Nation as he takes us to be, but do solemnly resolve, That if it shall seem good to the Nation and our General to restore the banished Prince to his rightful Inheritance, we shall with one heart and hand readily submit to, and concur with them in it; and as we have been so signal for our disobedience, so for the future endeavour to testify ourselves true and loyal subjects to our Prince, and faithful and loving defenders of our Country.  
In the next place our Libeler craftily endeavours to render our General odious to the Presbyterian party, and like a wise man indeed, hath no other way to bring it about, but by telling them he will and doth intent to bring in King Charles, as if that were such a  to a sober Presbyterian: but (saith he) if he be restored, there must necessarily likewise throng in with him Arch-Bishops, Bishops, and the rest of that Hierarchy, and they shall then be accounted no other by them, but Sectarians and fanatics, etc. Alas my friend! you are too well known for a lying imposter, to be able to impose any of these forgeries upon any sober or godly Presbyterian whatsoever; nor is there so great difference between a moderate Episcopal man, and a sober Presbyterian, but that both will jointly meet and kiss each other, for the settlement of the Nation in peace and unity. But the man hath yet a fetch farther, The Queen's Mother will come, and then Monks, jesuits and Priests of all sorts will she bring with her, and so Popery will (cum Privilegio) be again readmitted into the Nation. I perceive that a small supposition is sufficient for this Libeler to build a conclusion on; it is ten to one whether ever the Queen return again, though the King be restored to his Right, and should she, yet cannot those household servants she brings with her, though they should all be Jesuits, Priests, etc. be so dangerous and destructive to Religion as those innumerable multitudes of those people who at present lurk in our Fanatic Conventicles.  
His next particular consists in advice and dehortations from those persons whom he calls our bests friends, and the good people of the Nations, those whom he saith bled with us, prayed for us, and been constant assertors of the Interest of the Nation, against King-ship, single person, or House of Lords; and what think my Brethren, are these our so good friends, but those who having made a gainful bargain by embarking themselves in a quarrel against their Prince, do shiver at all thoughts of a reconciliation, lest a restitution of their ill gotten goods should follow; and would now make us believe it is the Interest of the Nation, though with never so much expense of blood and treasure; never so many perjuries and acts of Rebellion, to maintain these men in their wrongfully gotten, and we might justly say as wrongfully detained Possessions and Acquists.  
But to proceed; they tell us, We are the only Bulwark they must rely upon, and if we fail, the Cause of God must sink with us; and that to bring our destruction about (and for no other ends) the Militia throughout England is settled in such hands as are perfect haters and opposers of our Interest; and that above all others the Militia of London do threaten (as the Danes were formerly served) to make a black and bloody Night in cutting our throats, and offering whole Hecatombs of our Carcases to the restitution of Charles, whom they call their King. Surely the Gentleman thinks we have as bad consciences as themselves, and that because we cannot pardon ourselves, the Nation can never be induced to pardon us; but let him and his fellow fanatics know, That the Army hath no reason to fear the People of England, when they separate themselves from their corrupted interest, and the Army can expect no truer friend, or surer paymaster than the City or London, as long as the army shall truly prove friends to the cause of the Nation; and that this Cause and the Gentleman's are quite distinct things, the Voice of the people, and our own experience, will testify.  
In the next place he endeavours to fright us to his party, by telling us, that on whatsoever terms the King may be brought in, and whatsoever fair pretences he may make, yet at last all must terminate in the loss of our friends, wives, and children, and the for ever misloving of our posterity. Alas, Sir, the cheat is now stolen, and we understand ourselves better than so, as to think any man, much less the King, so strange a master, that he must sacrifice us all to his lust and revenge. Now we find where the  wrings; 'tis not the soldiery are like to suffer by his restitution; no, 'tis a Scot, a Hasilrigge, a Walton, and such, who having been already drunk with the blood of the slain, and gorged themselves with the plentiful dishes of other men's estates, do now begin to be terrified in conscience, and to fear the disgorging of their so sweet morsels.  
But to tract him a little further, he seems already somewhat like mad Tom, but now turns right Tom Fool, and tells us that his Majesty's readmission must be necessarily destructive to the welfare of the Nation; and to prove this, he asserts the  charge the Nation must groan under, by the debts of his father, and himself, which remain unsatisfied. But see what a ridiculous account he makes. As first, the Arrears of the King in his war against the Parliament: but I beseech the Gentleman to inform us where those Armies are which should receive those Arrears, or those soldiers which should demand their pay, or who ever knew that routed forces had ever any right to demand their salaries.  
Th● next is the young King's charges in Scotland, and at Worcester, to which what I have already said is sufficient answer: so that the Gentleman must already be fain to subtract above half of his twenty years doubled impositions. The rest, as the debts the King hath contracted beyond seas, the dowry of the Queen Mother, and the debts of his Brothers and Sister, are such imaginary trifles, that it is more than probable that less than the sum of a six months' Assessments, will defray the charges with an overplus.  
And for the next particular, furnishing and maintaining of his Court and Train, I would desire the Gentleman to consider what was said in the Parliament House, by a person, who demanded of one of these pretended Commonwealths men, what he thought the charge of maintaining themselves, and keeping out the family of the Stuarts would yearly amount to; his answer was, To twenty hundred thousand pounds; Very good, replied the other, and I dare undertake, that half that sum would bring him in, maintain him in a just splendour and dignity, and defray the charges of the Nation besides. And yet these impudent Cozeners would make us believe, that it were far better to keep him out with the intolerable oppression and taxation of the people; then by bringing him in to release them from the greatest part of their burdens and misery.  
But to make up his bill of fare, he adds in the next place, That those Dukes, Earls, Lords, etc. whose estates have been sold and disposed by Authority of Parliament, must either be restored, or satisfaction given for the same: Yes, here is that which bites to the quick, and this is the real definitiod of their Good Old Cause. But I desire Mr. Scot and his friends to consider, whether, if they should lose all their illgotten purchases, they can any way repine against God's just judgement, who seldom or never continues such unjust possessions to a second or third generation. But yet if these men can patiently be quiet, and not by their new acts of treason against the quiet of the Kingdom, irritate and incense the people against them, there will doubtless be found out such a medium as may make them no loser's, and yet the Estates return to the right owners; for I would fain know, if that money which they purchased these Lands with, be returned to the purchasers, whether they will not be sufficient gainers by having them so long in their hands; or if this be too much, as indeed it is to be reason granted, I would fain know whether the time they have already possessed those Lands, hath not already paid them both principal and interest; but there is another thing which these men fear, that is, divers of them have purchased Crown, Church, and Delinquents Lands, and have agreed to pay at several payments, & some of them have never satisfied above the first portion; and these are the men which fear (if account should come to be taken) they might justly be adjudged to part with these Lands at as trifling a price as they bought them; but I shall say no more as to this particular, having (I doubt) too far intruded into matters of State, for a man of the profession of a private Soldier, but shall with the rest of my fellow-brethrens acquiesce, as to this and all other points, in the determination of the joint body of the Nation.  
I shall not proceed much further, or meddle any longer with the rest of his rabblement, which contains nothing but motions to Seditition, and the ready way to make us deserve a halter; but for his comfort do tell him, that we really protest against all such mutinous thoughts and are resolved to live and die with our worthy General.  
But before I conclude, seeing the Gentleman hath been pleased to say so much to us, let me be so bold as to demand a question of him; Whether one grand reason of their being Enemies to the King and a free Parliament, do not proceed from the consciousness of their notorious cheating of the State, and privately pocketing up the Wealth of the Nation which was raised and paid for discharging the arrears of the Soldiery, who in the mean time have undergone all hardships and penury; and yet these Gentlemen can have the impudence to think that we should leave the assured hope of our pay, and be contented once more with their imaginary promises, and that we should forsake the service of the nation in general, to make ourselves slaves and Janissaries to the arbitrary wills of such bloodsucking tyrants. I have done with him; and if he conceive I have handled him too sharply, let him know I have discharged but the part of a Gentleman and a Soldier, to vindicate myself and my fellow-soldiers from those detestable Titles of Villains and Mutineers.  
FINIS.