A LETTER FROM A TRUE AND lawful MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT, AND One faithfully engaged with it, from the beginning of the War to the end.  
To one of the Lords of his highness' council, upon occasion of the last Declaration, showing the Reasons of their proceedings for securing the Peace of the Commonwealth, published on the 31tg of October 1655.  
Printed in the year 1656.   

A Letter from a True and lawful Member of Parliament, and one faithfully engaged with it from the beginning of the War to the end.  
SIR,  
BEcause you accuse me so much of want of temper, and say that I am angry with you, when I cannot answer your arguments, and so that instead of finding a way to be of one mind, we lose ourselves in passion, and love each other worse than when we came first together: I have taken this uncholerique way of discoursing with you, and to inform you (since you enjoin me to use the same freedom with you, as if you were a private person) why I am so far from approving your Declaration of the 31th of October, as an Act agreeable to any rules of Right and Justice, or an Expedient to promote the Peace and Security of the public, that I take it to be inconsistent with the Elements of Law, Equity and Religion, and even destructive to the private Interest of those, for whose preservation it seems to be intended; And in the doing hereof, I shall first answer your Argumenta ad hominem; those Reasons by which you thought to have wrought upon my passions and infirmities, and to have induced me not to have found fault with that, which could do no harm to anybody I care for, and which I might in some degree be obliged to defend, in order to the support of somewhat else, which I myself, have done and countenanced.  
You tell me, that none are concerned in this Declaration, or in the most rigorous execution of it, but the Cavaliers, a people towards whose reduction to the low, and wretched condition they are now in, you say, no man hath contributed more than myself, and that I do confess myself to have been much deceived, and to have deceived others, to have been in the wrong, nay, to be guilty of all the innocent Blood that hath been spilled in this quarrel, if I, as well as you, do not prosecute those people to the utmost, upon whom we have laid all that guilt; and who will show little favour toward us, if once they grow to have no need of ours.  
I shall have so much occasion, upon several parts of your Declaration, to speak of the Case of the Cavaliers, and how necessary it is that Justice be observed even towards them, and of the consequence, and the concernment that all sorts of Men have in the administration of of that which is right and equitable, and how unsafe it is for the public, if the due Current of Law and Justice in respect of any persons be perverted, that I shall in this place only put you in mind of the Inhibition given in the Parable of the Sowers, to those overgood Husbands, who would make such haste to free the Field from Weeds; 
Matth. 13. 29.  the Master said, Nay, lest whilst you gather up the Tares, you root up also the Wheat with them. There is no man who reads your Declaration, and considers it, but discerns plainly, that under pretence of gathering those Tares, vexing the poor Cavaliers, whom you do not find to grow so fast, as much to disturb your corn, and which you intend at last but to gather, according to your several Appetites and Passions of loving and hating this or that man, or as you covet their Estates, not as they are dangerous to the public Peace, you root up the precious Wheat, all the Laws and foundations of Right, which are the only security of every honest and freeborn Englishman; and that in truth no person of the royal party is more concerned in this arbitrary, extravagant and unparalleled Act of Tyranny, than every man, who hath served the Parliament with the most fidelity throughout that war against the late King, if he do not submit to the present Power, and endeavour to reform and suppress that, which you cannot but believe involves a very considerable number of Men, who have deserved as well of their Country, and have been and are as great Assertors of the Liberty thereof, as any person, who consented to the publishing that Declaration; and therefore it is no wonder if you find me, and I suppose many more, who are not suspected to be over-inclined to the Cavaliers, no less offended at your resolution and proceedings, than they have good reason to be  
To your tenderness of my reputation, lest I suffer in my credit, by differing now with you, which you say is no less than to confess that I have been deceived heretofore, and that I have deceived others, who were engaged in the quarrel by my advice, or my example, though I will not answer you in the language of a much wiser man, even the excellent Philip de Comines. That a Prince, or any other man, who hath never been deceived, can be but a Beast, because he understands not the difference between good and evil; yet I may tell you, that whosoever hath not been deceived in the Current of these last fifteen years, hath been preserved from being so, by such an absence of friendship, confidence and Charity in and to mankind, by such a measure of distrust, jealousy and villainy in his Nature, that I had rather be a Dog than that man: For myself I am not ashamed to confess before God and the world, that I have been much deceived, miserably, and wretchedly deceived, but not half so much, nor so inexcusably as I shall be, if ever I trust those again, who have so much deceived me, or if I believe that my ruin and destruction is not as much designed by this Declaration, as any Cavaliers whatsoever; And that I may not hereafter trouble you in this discourse concerning myself, or with my own story, I will very ingenuously confess to you in this place, my part in the war that was carried on between the last King and Parliament, and then you will see how like I am to be immoderately inclined to the royal party, and yet how unsecure I am from being buried in the same ruin, that is prepared to overwhelm them, and consequently, whether I have not reason to protest and prepare against those, who threaten me with that ruin.  
When I was returned by virtue of the King's Writ to serve my Country in Parliament, I brought with me all that affection to the Liberty and benefit of my country, as the condition of it required, and all that Reverence and duty to the King, that was agreeable to the Oaths I & every man there took, before we could sit in that Convention; and truly I had no more desire to alter the fundamental Government of Church and State, than you have to restore it: I will not deny to you, that after a short time of sitting there, the continual fever of the House made my pulse beat higher too, and the prejudice I had to some persons in power, and authority, from whom, as I thought, I had received some hard measure, lessened my esteem and opinion of the Court; Then, the Lords free concurrence in whatsoever we proposed, and the Kings as ready granting whatsoever we desired, made me think myself in the number of those, who were to govern all the World, and insensibly I found myself a greater man, than I had before imagined I was: I chose the conversation of those who were believed most intent and solicitous to free the subject from the vexations and pressures he had been made liable to, and I thought them the most competent Judges of the remedies, which were to be applied to those diseases, which they had so exactly discovered: in a word I believed all they said, and out of the innate Reverence I had for Parliaments, I concluded it impossible for any thing to flow from thence, that could bring damage or inconvenience to King or People, wherein how much I have been deceived, the world knows, and I am not ashamed to acknowledge: And this opinion and resignation of myself to that infallible Guide, made me neither strictly weigh what they did, nor patiently hear those Objections, which I could not answer; thinking worse of the persons who objected, than of the things they objected against.  
When the matter of the Militia was first handled, I had no other understanding of it, than as I had observed it had been exercised very unequitably by the Lord's Lieutenants and their deputies, and therefore I harkened willingly to those Lawyers, who confidently averred, it was not in the Crown; yet the greatest reason, that persuaded me to join with those, who would press the King in it, was, that I thought and was assured, that he who had till then granted all we asked, would not then begin to deny; besides that I saw most of his council and Servants, who were of both Houses engaged in the same party and importunity. When so many Members of both Houses left the Parliament and went to the King, I could not deny that very many of them were persons of great Integrity and eminent lovers of their country; yet I thought their condition so desperate, that a sergeant at arms would have reduced them all, and was resolved not to embark myself in so hopeless a dependence; the Parliament being to common understanding possessed of the whole strength of the kingdom: Nor had I ever the least apprehension of a war, till we heard that some of our Troops were defeated by Worcester; and that the King began to gather an Army about Shrewsbury, which yet I thought would never have looked ours in the face; but that the King would upon some Treaty have given my Lord of Essex leave to have guarded him to Westminster; and that all, who had obeyed the Parliament, should have had offices, preferments and rewards, and this persuasion never departed from me, till we saw the King's Army drawing down Edghill towards us the morning before that battle.  
From that time I wished we had been to begin again, and that we had left off to ask, when the King was resolved to grant no more; I remember three nights after I was quartered near Warwick at the House of a Minister, whom I had known long before, and who was then fled, being reckoned one of the prelatical party, and so not taking himself to be secure among our Troops, which were not eminent for civility towards that part of the Clergy; I understood he was hid amongst his Neighbours, and thereupon sent to him to return home, assuring him he should be very safe▪ He came very willingly, and told me he could not fear the receiving any injury where I commanded, and so entertained me with much cheerfulness during the time I stayed there: sitting with him one evening, I told him, I believed the loss of blood on both sides, had so much allayed all distempers, that there would be no need of drawing more, but that the King and the Parliament would easily come to a Treaty, and compose all differences, and extinguish all jealousies, that had been between them. He smiled, and said, he had read a story in Aelian, that when in one of the States of Greece, Nicippus his sheep brought forth a lion, it was generally and justly concluded, that it portended a Tyranny, and change of the State from a peaceable to a bloody Government, and it fell out accordingly: Truly Sir, said he, when the two Houses of Parliament produced a sovereign power, to make a general, raise an Army, and to declare war, after that mild and innocent sheep, that legal venerable council had once brought forth that lion, which seeks whom he may devour, I gave over all my hopes of the continuance of that blessed, calm and temperate State of Government, by which every man eat the fruit of his own vine; and I expect nothing but rapine, blood and desolation; and if you have those hopes you mention, you will find yourself disappointed; and that they, who you think are of the same mind with you, have nothing less in their purposes than Peace, or to perform one promise they have made to the People; but they resolve to change the whole frame of Government, and to sacrifice the wealth and tranquillity of their Country to their own Ambition, Covetousness, and Revenge; and when once they discern that you will not pursue their most violent courses, they will more endeavour your destruction, than of them against whom you are both now so unanimously engaged.  
This discourse, which I then considered only as proceeding from the spirit of a man, who I knew approved nothing that we did, afterwards made impression upon me, and I discerned every day men recede from the grounds they had before seemed to consent to, and to be less inclined to overtures of Peace, than they had formerly appeared to have been; yet upon those specious reasons; That our only security consisted in keeping so much power in our own hands, that it might not be in the King's power to do us hurt; That if we receded from those Propositions, which we had pressed the King to grant, we should shortly be bereaved of those good Laws he had already granted; at least, it would be necessary in all Treaties to insert, and in some degree to insist upon those Propositions (how extravagant soever) that by departing from them, we might pretend to pay a valuable consideration for those Concessions, which we must still require from the King for our own indemnity; and by these means our Treaties came to nothing, the Treators being never left at liberty to recede from those unreasonable Propositions, which were therefore made unreasonable (as was pretended) that they might be receded from. I will not deny to you, that when upon the King's successes, Commissioners were sent to invite the Scots to our assistance, and I saw a great Army of that Nation ready to enter the kingdom upon those unworthy Conditions on our part, that ought never to have been submitted to, I was in that perplexity, that I thought of nothing but casting myself at the King's feet; I was ashamed, that having so long reproached the King with designs of calling over foreign Forces, as if the affections of his People should fail in any thing that was just for him to attempt; and having prevailed so far upon the People by those reproaches, we ourselves should call in a foreign Army to help us, and after we had pretended to ask nothing of the King but what the People would not be contented without, and therefore because the kingdom generally did desire and expect it, that we ourselves should draw in an Army of Strangers, of which there could be no need, if it were not to impose that upon the kingdom, which it did not desire: I called to mind, that Plutarch seemed to commend Lysander, for having thought it less dishonour and reproach unto the Grecians to be overcome by other Grecians, than to go slatter the barbarous people, and seek to them that had gold and silver enough, but otherwise no goodness or honesty. I remembered what a costly Visit they had made to us two years before, and did truly believe, that what we could suffer from one another, could be nothing to the lasting Calamity they would bring upon us, who (I was confident) could never be a means of restoring Peace and Happiness to the Kingdom. In a word, I thought of nothing more, than of renouncing those who had so apparently renounced their Professions, and of cordially joining with the King's Party.  
Whilst I was thus resolved, I heard of the cold reception they had, who were already gone to Oxford, and that the Court there carried itself, as if it could do its business without help, and thought themselves losers, by passing by any thing that had been done amiss. The anger and indignation I contracted hereupon, made me change my purpose, and to revolve, that if others should be of the same mind I had been, and desert the Parliament, there would be none left to make reasonable Conditions for them, who had been engaged in the Quarrel, which I persuaded myself would at some time be done. And I was sure, that though we might have exceeded our Jurisdiction, and done many unlawful things, our being together was still lawful; and whilst it was so, we should at last, upon good or ill fortune, be Parties to such an Agreement, as would secure ourselves who stayed, which was more than they could promise themselves who went away: Hereupon I was fixed, never more to think of quitting the Parliament, but to run its fortune; and accordingly I proceeded to the end of the War, and never left the House, notwithstanding the several Factions and Animosities, and the Violence and Tumults which I much disliked, until I was with the m●jor part of the House of Commons, kept from thence by the Army, and used in that scornful manner, as is notorious enough, because after the Treaty at the Isle of Wight, I desired that an Agreement should be made with the King.  
I have troubled you with this short recollection of my part in this business, that you may see how far I have been from favouring Cavaliers, by whom I have had the honour to be thought so considerable, that I was always excepted from pardon in those Proclamations and Declarations, which then issued out. Whilst there was a War carried on by the Parliament, I ventured my life, and lost my blood in that War; and whilst there was a Parliament, I continued in the service of it; and since that time, I have enjoyed myself in as much peace and tranquillity as the Calamities of the time would suffer me, and without further opposing the present power, than in my heart not submitting to it, or taking it to have any colour of Law, or Justice, or Religion, or Reason to support it. And as I do heartily ask God forgiveness for the ill I have been guilty of during the War, so I do humbly thank his Divine majesty for preserving me from the guilt of the ill that hath been done since; and I hope the remembrance of the former, or apprehension of any thing that may be the consequence of it, shall never work upon me to approve the latter. And so I come to your Declaration itself, the several parts whereof I shall speak to, without observing precisely the order they are in, but taking the liberty to marshal them according to my own way and method.  
Let me then begin with complaining, that you assume to yourselves throughout the Declaration, the stile of the Best Affected of the Nation, of those with whom the Honour and Interest of the English Nation is deposited, and indeed of the Nation itself; and reckon all, who are not pleased with the Government you have so manifestly usurped, Enemies to the Nation; which you must give us leave, who have sweat and bled more than any of you, for the interest and liberty of the Nation, and are sure a more considerable part of it, both in weight and measure, to take very ill of you. We cannot, we must not, endure to have it believed, that the English Nation is shrunk into my Lord Protector and his highness' council, who all together had not the interest of one common Village when these Troubles began; you may be such a Nation as God threatened his chosen people withal in Deuteronomy, A Nation of fierce Countenance, 
Deut. 21. 50.  which shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favour to the young. The Latin Translation renders it, Gentem impudentem, an insolent sort of people, that cared neither for God nor Man. The Grammarians give the stile usually to Sects, or Professions of Men, Natio Philosophorum, Natio Poetarum; and among the Jews, the Sect of the Pharisees was frequently called the Nation of the Pharisees; you will find in Josephus a very lively description of them, 
Joseph, lib. 17. c. 3.  who, he says were so much addicted to self opinion, and boasted themselves to be the exactest Observers of the Law in all the Country, to whom the women were very much addicted, as to those who were much beloved of God, as in outward appearance they made show to be; These were such as durst oppose themselves against Kings, full of fraud, arrogancy and rebellion, presuming to raise War upon their motions of spirit, and to rebel and offend their Princes at their pleasure; and whereas all the Nation of the Jews had sworn to be faithful to Caesar, and to the Estate of the King, those only refused to take the Oath: so far he. And if you please this Nation, you may be, except you choose rather (for you bear great love and affection to the Jews) to be of their fourth Sect, which the same Author tells you was founded by Judas of Galilee, and accorded in all things with the Pharisees, but that they were so extremely zealous for, and jealous of their liberty; that they only acknowledged one God to be Lord and Master of all things, and had rather themselves, with their dearest children and kinsfolk, endure the most grievous and bitter torments that could be imagined, than call any mortal man their Lord. And this is the ancientest Record, I think, can be produced for those Friends of yours, who have lifted you up to the height you are now at, though it is plain yourselves are retired enough from those inconvenient scruples. Be what other Nation you will, how far you are from being the English Nation, or that part of it which is tender of, and like to advance its Interests, must appear in the further examination of the Principles of your Declaration.  
Since you would have it believed, that no part of the English Nation can be concerned in, or hurt by this destroying Act, but only the Royal Party; you should so clearly have set down the guilt of those you punish, and the rules by which you punish, that no innocent man could have thought himself involved in the one, or in the reach of the other: it had been to be wished, that since you take upon you to execute Justice and Judgement for the Nation, you had, according to the good old custom always observed in those Judicatories, plainly set out the known Laws of the Land, by which such and such Actions are declared to be Crimes, and by which those Crimes are to be punished in that degree; it being no more in the judge's power to exceed the punishment prescribed, than to declare that to be a Crime, which no Law hath declared to be so: whereas without quoting one judged Case in Law, or citing one Statute for your ground, or mentioning one precedent to justify your manner of proceeding, you wrap up your discourse in Metaphysical notions, and conclude by deductions from the Law, and Light of Nature, and from the dictates of Reason; a Reason so abstracted from practice, and so difficult to be understood, that we may well apprehend, that we shall hereafter be concluded guilty, and condemned, before we are accused, or able to accuse ourselves; and therefore it is not out of kindness to them, that we now endeavour to state the true Case of the Royal Party, the Crime they are charged with in this Declaration, the Judgement that is inflicted upon them, and the Grounds of that Judgement, that we may from thence be able to conclude, how far we are from their case, and consequently how secure we are from being liable to their punishments.  
The Case then of the Royal Party is this. After a War waged for some years between the King and the Parliament, after several great Successes on the Parliaments side, the King's Armies and Garrisons are reduced to those straits, that they thought fit to make Conditions; They do not confess that they owe their admission to compound for their Estates, or the moderation that was used in it, to that excess of good nature you reproach them with in your Declaration. But they say it was upon a full Contract between the Parliament and them, and upon Articles of surrender on their part of those places of strength which remained then in their possession; the which, together with their acquiescence from further opposing us, we of the Parliaments party (they say) then thought a valuable consideration for any Concessions we then made to them; and that they had the public Faith of the Parliament for the punctual and exact performance of the Articles on our part. That by our thus treating with them, and their compounding with us, we raised a vast sum of money for the support of our Armies, without which we had been in many straits; and if they had not totally declined any further thoughts of opposing us, amongst so many discontents which then raged in the Parliament, the Army, and amongst the Scots, it is not probable that we should have carried all before us with so little resistance as we did; so that the advantage we got by their Compounding, was not small or inconsiderable. That we were so far from requiring them to change their Principles (other than their no further assisting the King in a War against the Parliament, the which himself at the same time declined, and betook himself to Treaties) that there was a special provision in all Articles against any such pressure. That we of the Parliaments party were so far from urging them to wave their Allegiance to the King, that we professed the same with them in all our Professions, Declarations, and Protestations; and that the Crime we accused them of, and obliged them to compound for, was, for their offences against the King and Parliament, and therefore the Pardon drawn by order of Parliament, was granted to them in the King's name, and passed under the Great Seal of England: so that they were, and are by that (according to the Fundamental Laws of England, which are the only security every Subject hath for the enjoying his property and his liberty) free and absolved from all manner of Offences committed before the Grant of that Pardon; and by it put into as full a possession of their Estates, and all the Rights of a Subject of England, as they before enjoyed; and if they have committed no offence since that time against the Laws of the Land, they are, and aught to be accounted in the same condition with us, and not in any degree to be troubled for more than what they have done since. And this is in truth the state of the Royal Party, without strengthening it by any consideration of the Act of Grace and Oblivion, which was afterwards granted to them.  
Whether those Articles have been so punctually performed as you say; whether that Court, which was purposely erected to do them Justice in that particular, was erected soon enough, and before they were broken with intolerable oppression; or whether that Court hath since executed Justice so effectually on their behalf, as you declare, I leave to themselves to make manifest; being in truth (as I said before) no otherwise concerned for them, than as the equal administration of Justice to all sorts of people, is, and must be, the foundation of peace and happiness to any Commonwealth, according to the Ordinance of God himself, 
2 Sam. 23. 3.  He that ruleth over men, must be just, ruling in the fear of God. Where there is not exact and precise Justice, there can be no fear of God, pretend what you will; and you cannot but have heard, that very many learned and pious men have attributed the ill success which the Christians received in the several attempts which have been made, with so vast a consumpsion of men and treasure in the Holy Land, to that perfidious breach of faith made by the Christians, after the first taking of Jerusalem, in the year 1098. when after Mercy proclaimed to all that would lay down Arms, it was concluded necessary for their defence) upon the rumour or apprehension of the approach of a new Enemy, and the number of the Captives being very great) to put all the Turks to the Sword, which was performed accordingly, without favour to age or sex, three days after their promise made, to the infinite reproach of Christian Religion; though (as my Author says) some slew them with the same zeal that Saul slew the Gibeonites, 
Full. Ho, War, ●… 41.  and thought it unfit that those goats should live in the sheep's pasture. But the noble Tancred was highly displeased at it, and knew that Christianity abhorred any such violation of Contract, and expected the miserable success that attended it. And it may be, that unjust proceeding might be one of the reasons that moved our Robert of Normandy to refuse that Crown which was then offered him, and afterwards conferred on Godfrey of Boulogne.  
We have set down the state and security they were in by that Agreement and Pardon; let us in the next place examine how they become Reprobate, & fallen from that state of Grace, and what the Crimes are which you now object to them. Before you opening the Design, you prepare us to be content with very slender Evidence, by telling us, that Conspirators are a sly and secret generation of men, whose walks are ever in the dark, and the measure of all their feet cannot be exactly taken and compared. Truly if they walk so much in the dark, that they cannot be found out to be tried, they ought not to be found out to be executed: yet in the very Preliminaries to the Conspiracy, you charge them with matters as evident and manifestable in their nature, as any part of a Conspiracy can be. That persons were sent from hence to Charles Stuart with Letters of Credit, and a considerable sum of money. That a select number of persons were chosen by the name of a Sealed Knot, who were to reside about London, and to keep and maintain correspondence with those of their party beyond Sea; both which are particulars, if true, as easy to be made appear to be, as levying of War, or any other act of outrage. You have Ordinances severe enough against those, who send money to Charles Stuart; or those, who correspond with them; produce the persons, make good the Charge, and we shall not think ourselves in danger by your sentence upon them; but, if you will infer, that because he is not starved abroad, he is supported from hence: and that all, who do not wish you your heart's desire, conspire to promote his interest, we must not consent to such consequences, in which we are no less involved, than they.  
You speak of one Fitz-James, who went from hence to the late King's eldest son, then at Paris to promote some design of Assassination of particular persons; of a Conjunction between him and John Gerard; of Major Henshaws going to Paris concerning the same design, and that Charles Stuart refused to see him, but relied on Gerard and Fitz-James, to whom he gave precise directions, that they should not make their attempt, till all his friends were ready in England: Then you say, there was one Boswell, and also one Pierce, and several other persons employed at other times for those Assassinations, and had laid the place and manner of execution; and the means whereby to attempt it; All the particulars whereof (you say) would be too large to set down; as it would the several gracious Providences of God in the disappointing of them. Truly, if this short Recollection of such important particulars be only to put you in mind in your devotions, to acknowledge to that Providence, those signal deliverances, you may be as reserved in the discovery as you please; but if you desire to engage us in the belief that such attempts have been real, and in a detestation of the Abettors of them, you ought to enlarge yourselves in the relation, and to publish such evidence as may satisfy the world, that your deliverances have been more than from your own imaginations. What the other persons are you mention, I meet with nobody that knows; and for Fitz-James, I hear all those of the royal party, who upon the publishing this Declaration have occasion enough to speak of him, say, that they always looked upon him, as a Spy of yours, and not of their party; and you may remember, when you and I were once walking in James' park, and he passing by, I asked you who he was, you told me that you hoped by the means of that Gentleman, that Dunkirk would be shortly put into your hands, it being then in the hands of the French; and that he was newly returned from thence, with some assurance to that purpose; how he came so soon after to be so dangerous an Enemy to you, and so much trusted by your enemies, I cannot imagine, and had need to be made manifest by some authentic testimony.  
You proceed in huddling up another design, of working upon discontented humours, which are observed to be stirring in the Nation upon pretences of liberty, and the Rights of the freeborn people of England, which were supposed to be infringed by keeping up an Army, and by enforcing taxes from them, and by not calling free & equal Representatives, chosen by all the people; and than you accuse John wild-man and some others of the like Principles (whom you do not name) as fitting Instruments for managing that part of crying for liberty: And these you say, were to carry on a design, which should in outward appearance be different from the other, although in truth it came from the same root, and was directed to the same end. And you say John wild-man had brought his part to such maturity, that he wanted very little, but the open declaring himself in arms, having in effect finished his declaration, which was to be published upon that occasion, and the time you say did fully answer the Rising designed by the royal party, which fell out but a few days after: When you say, there was another Insurrection that was to keep company with this, and that part of your Army in Scotland should have mutined, surprised their Generals, thrown off their Officers, and marched up to London under the command of Major general Overton: Whereas you forget, that no longer ago, than in page 15t● of your Declaration, you say it was the principal business of those, who were sent with letters of credit and a considerable sum of money, to assure Charles Stuart, that the reason why the Nobility and Gentry, and bulk of the Kingdom of England, (which they said were episcopal, and of his former party,) did not rise with him upon his late March from Scotland, was, because he was believed to have gone upon grounds disagreeable, both to their affections and interests, and also to the good of the Nation, and inconsistent with the ancient Constitutions both of Church and State; but that if he would return to his former Principles, to wit, To cast himself totally upon his old party, they would venture both their lives and fortunes for his recovery. And in page 27. after the affairs grew apace into a ripeness, and some were of opinion, that they should take in some persons who had been for the Parliament, you say, It was denied upon this reason, that seeing they had no need of them, as their affairs then stood, it would be prejudicial to his majesty's service, and their common interest, to take in persons, whom they should afterwards be troubled to be rid of. How comes it then to pass, that this severe royal party, without regard to their principles, on a sudden should incorporate itself with John wild-man, and Major general Overton, who in their several Stations, have most advanced that interest, which is most destructive to theirs; and who have never been suspected for inclination to Episcopacy; and yourselves tell us, after you have amused us with the discourse of John wild-man, and Major general Overton, that those, that were to be made use of to bring the design to pass, were the Revellers, who did not, as you hope, intend to serve the interest of Charles Stuart. What the merit of those two persons hath been towards the Commonwealth, is enough known to all lovers of their country; nor can their reputation be blasted by such obscure insinuations. It is now many months since they have been in your hands, under a very strict restraint, and if you could prove any thing against them of adhering to the royal party, and promoting that interest, you would have used the same expedition in proceeding against them, as you have done against those at Salisbury and Exeter, and therefore we have reason to conclude, that their being so honestly concerned for the Liberty and Rights of the freeborn people of England; their supposing it to be infringed by keeping up an Army, and by enforcing Taxes from them, and by not calling a free and equal Representative chosen by all the people, is their Crime and Guilt, and if you cast in all those▪ who are of the same opinion with them, into the royal party, and think to make them odious, under that imputation, you will indeed make a party strong enough to vindicate a very royal quarrel● and interest.  
The clear matter of fact, which seems to have some manifestation, is this, That some persons have been particularly trusted in this Kingdom by Charles Stuart, to dispose the people to a general rising, to provide money, to buy arms and Munition; and if they could to surprise some Sea town; That he himself was so pleased to hear how careful and solicitous they were for him, that though out of the tenderness he had for his friends, he had deferred to call upon them, till he could give them encouragement from abroad; yet since that came on so lowly, he would no longer restrain their affections; but if they were able to make any handsome appearance in any one place, he would be sure himself with them, and sent them word, that he would to that purpose keep himself within a reasonable distance; and this letter was writ in July 1654. near eight months before appearance of trouble. After this, to make good his promise, he removed himself from Cologne into Zealand, on purpose to attend the rising, and the Lord Wilmot, Wagstaff and Oneile came over actually to conduct and lead the design, and agreed to make their attempt upon the twelve of March 1654. An Insurrection accordingly was made in the West, and had in all probability increased, if it had not been seasonably suppressed: That in Yorkshire separated, as soon or before they came together, and so in all other places, and thus by the goodness of God that bloody design was prevented; yet (you say) some who run away from their Rendezvous, did it with a resolution to take a better opportunity, when the Government in confidence of the present success shall be secure, and less aware of them, and they are at this day at work upon other designs both here and in Scotland, to begin new troubles and rebellions amongst us; And this is the Charge of what they have done.  
Let us now see the inferences that are drawn from hence, and the judgement that is given thereupon, and it will be then easily discerned, whether we, (who are not accused of the guilt, for you say the design was general, and leveled against all those, who had upon any account whatsoever adhered to, and owned this Cause) are not by those inferences to be made liable to the same judgement, when ever you conclude it convenient to your affairs that we undergo it. You infer from your own Narration (the truth whereof I have nothing to do to question) that their pretended King, who was ready to embark for England, would never have put himself in the eye and face of the world, if those, who showed themselves in arms, were to have no other seconds but what appeared; and you say, it cannot be imagined, that the Lord Wilmot and Wagstaf, and others, would have run so great hazards upon so weak grounds; Or that those Gentlemen who did actually rise, could suppose that the Army would be so easily overrun, and therefore you conclude, that what was done by them, proceeded from the consent of the whole party, and upon this assumption, you adjudge their liberties and their fortunes to be at your mercy; and that all the pardons and Acts of indemnity, which have been passed on their behalf, are void; and rather aggravations of their guilt, than security against any other judgement you will hereafter pass against, or upon them.  
Is it possible, that you can satisfy your own Consciences with this kind of argumentations or can you believe your Army strong enough to impose this Tax upon men's understanding, tha● they shall think your proceeding consistent with Justice, or agreeable to reason? It had been more suitable to your greatness, and more ●●spect to the Nation, to have shut up Westminster-hall, that old Conservatory of our Liberties, and to cause over the Gates thereof, and in the front of your Commissions to be engraven in letters of Steel, that short Adage of the Poet;  
— Pro foedere, proque  
Justitia est Ensis:—  
Than to imagine that you could compose their minds with this Declaration; Can you think it a good Argument, that the whole party intended to rise, and so ground enough to judge them, because their pretended King, the Lord Wilmot and some others believed they would? and do you not rather think their not rising, when if they had, they might have given us all trouble, an argument that they never intended it? You say, that the first of the three things which were chiefly designed by them in this business, was, To prepare and engage every individual man of their own party, who had either been in the former wars, or had been a friend unto them, or was likely by reason of his alliance, breeding, or discontents, to engage therein, who being engaged, were to bring all their Tenants, and those who depended upon them: and also to lay designs for the possessing of Garrisons and strong Holds. And is it not very manifest by no one man's appearing with all his Tenants, and very few men's appearing who had Tenants, by their not possessing one Garrison, or strong hold, or house, that what design soever some particular persons might have, the whole party did in no degree cherish or assist the design? Shall the presence of those who were there, though many probably might not know what they came about, be enough to condemn them, and shall not the absence of others, except you can prove they were at least privy to what was designed, absolve them? You say, that what Major general Overton designed, 
Pag. 21.  was to be brought to pass by the Levellers, and some others, who did not (as you hope) intend to serve the interest of Charles Stuart. And why have you not so much Charity for the royal party, of which there did not appear enough at any Rendezvous (Salisbury only excepted) to put you to the trouble of dispersing them, to hope that whatever the Lord Wilmot and the rest intended, to bring to pass by them, they never thought to second them? It can neither be just in itself, nor prudent in you, to give the royal Party cause to believe, that they hold their liberties and Estates by no better a tenure, than the good behaviour of every man who keeps them company, or hath been heretofore engaged in the same quarrel with them; That the Earl of Kingston, who therefore compounded, because he had a great estate to enjoy, should lose his, when ever Major general Wagstaffe shall rebel against you, who never compounded, because he had nothing to save, and will be always venturing, because he hath nothing to lose. You have not reduced the royal party into a Corporation, that by the misdemeanour of some of the Members, their Charter should be avoided: They of them, who never had pardon, have received no benefit by what the other procured for themselves, and there is no reason they who compounded with you, should without committing new faults, receive prejudice by the transgressions of other men. Can you imagine, that they who were admitted by you to compound, would ever have been at the charge and trouble of it, if they had thought they should incur any danger, or pay the penalty, for any attempts made by the Excepted Persons? As long as they, who are not suffered to live amongst you, are projecting against you (as they will always be) must not the rest, who dwell at home as much as you, enjoy what is their own? In a word, every man compounded for himself, sued out his own pardon, and can only be punished for his own offences: And it is expressly provided for by several Statutes of Magna Charta, that no man shall be condemned without being brought to his answer, and how the sworn Judges of the Law, who do not relieve those, who demand protection from them for their Liberties or Estates, will answer the breach of their duty and their Oaths I cannot foresee; especially, if they remember, what the Lord Chief Justice Cook puts them in mind of, 
Cook's Pleas of the Crown fol. 23.  in his Pleas of the Crown, printed by order of Parliament. That it was Enacted in the first year of H. 4. that the Lords, nor the Judges shall never be admitted to say, That they durst not for fear of death to speak the truth. For my own part, I am content, that I was one of that party, which reduced them to a necessity of compounding, and admitted them to conpound upon such terms, that they might enjoy their country with some satisfaction and comfort: Let it be your glory, to break and violate all those conditions, and to be recorded, as those were by the excellent Historian, in the declination of the Roman State from Justice and Honour: 
Sallust.  Ignavissimi homines per summum scelus, omnia ea sociis adimêre, quae fortissimi viri victores hostibus reliquerunt; That you have by transcendent wickedness and Tyranny stripped them of all, whilst they lived as friends peaceably with you, and under you, which we were contented they should enjoy, after we had conquered them as Enemies: and so let them stand or fall, as they can.  
I come now to consider, how we, who are not yet accused by you, may expect upon the same inferences, to have the same judgement let loose upon us, which for the present you intend shall immediately destroy only the royal party: you will not suffer us to think it strange, that so many persons are secured, although they were not visibly in arms, upon the late Insurrection, or that you have laid a burden upon their Estates, beyond what is imposed upon the rest of the Nation, towards the defraying that charge, of which they are the occasion: you have at present in custody under the same general reproach persons, who from the beginning to the end of the war, served the Parliament as faithfully and as eminently, as any who were Members of it: now it is not probable, that they would have engaged themselves in so unequal an enterprise, if they had not expected to be seconded by their friends, why should not we therefore look to be involved under the same judgement? You say, John wild-man, and others of the like Principles, were most fitting Instruments for the carrying on the design, and that Major general Overton was to make use of the Levellers, and it cannot be supposed, that they would have proceeded so far, without having some assurance of assistance from their party, and I pray then where is the difference between the Levellers, those who insist upon the Rights and Liberties of the freeborn people of England, who would have Taxes taken off, and a free and equal Representative (those are their Crimes) and the royal party which is condemned, because some of their friends appeared in the Insurrection? It is plain enough, what they are in due time to expect at your hands, who in the last Parliament Insisted to have part of the Army disbanded, which you insinuate, was done upon no less than Combination with that party you have condemned: But we need not take such pains by such inferences to discover your good purposes towards us, 
Pag. 14.  you have ingenuously declared, That your quarrel is against all, who retain their old Principles, and still adhere to their former interest in direct opposition to the Government established: Let the old Principles retained, be what they will, and the Interest adhered to what it will, parliamentary Principles and parliamentary Interest, Presbyterian Principles and Presbyterian Interest, Independent Principles and Independent Interest, if it be in direct opposition to the Government established, the same measure of persecution must be their portion, which you would have us think is only now assigned to the Cavaliers. Alas it is not their Principles you are angry with, but their obstinate adhering to their obligations, and their interest; Let them depart from those, and no longer oppose the Government established, and you will like them the better for their Principles: the truth is, you think none worthy of their estates, but they who have their Principles, and therefore you resolve to take both Estates and Principles to yourselves: No other Principles will serve your turn, witness the weekly Sermons preached by your Proselytes, of obedience, and subjection to Government; so diametrically contrary to what the same men preached in the beginning of these troubles, that if their Sermons of the year 1641. were bound up in the same volume with those they preached in 1654. and 1655, they might be taken to be Vincent and York bound together, by their Invectives, Contradictions and Positions; and Prin and Montague are not more unlike, than this offspring begotten by the same Parents; witness the Principles and Grounds of this Declaration and Judgement, which are more arbitrary and tyrannical than ever were vented or laid down, and owned by the most exorbitant person of the Royal Party, which pulls up all Property and liberty by the roots, reduces all our Law, Common and Statute, to the dictates of your own will, and all reason to that which you, and you alone, will call reason of State, and which we are obliged in the next place to examine, as our Parva Charta, and the Funeral Oration upon Parliaments, Law, Conscience, and Equity, and we shall then see how near our condition is to that of the poor Sicilians, which Plutarch tells us of, when the two Captains, Calippus and Pharax, professed they would set Sicily at liberty, and drive out the Tyrants, but did in truth exercise so much cruelty upon the people, and brought them to such calamity and misery, that (he says) all that they had ever suffered under all the Tyrants, 
Plut. vitâ Timol.  seemed to be pleasure and delight, to the insupportable yoke of servitude they were forced to submit to under those Reformers; and they desired nothing more, than to exchange the liberty they had so dearly purchased, for the Government they had so foolishly wished to be freed from.  
Your first Principle is, That as well the Articles of War, as the favour and grace granted by the Act of Oblivion, contained in them a reciprocation. As there did a real benefit accrue to the Grantees, so certainly there was a good intended and designed by them to the State; and if the State do not attain their end, neither ought the other to accomplish theirs: From hence you argue, That none have signed to Articles of War, that are not conditional; and that when those, who received those Articles, resolved to break the conditions, they had not then the consent of those that gave them. Let us speak first to the Articles of War; and if you had not a wonderful delight to make easy things hard, and to perplex the common people with difficult words, you could not apply this discourse to your purpose: Nor do Articles of War contain any secret Conditions that are not expressed. The reciprocation is, that one delivers what he is in express terms obliged to deliver, and thereupon that he receives what was promised that he should receive; if he performs not his promise at the time he is engaged, or embezzle any thing he promised to deliver, he hath forfeited the benefit that should accrue to him by the Articles. But when he hath performed his part (I speak purely of the Articles of War) he is not obliged to change his Party, nor to love those with whom he hath capitulated, nor shall forfeit the benefit due to him by those Articles, though he should seize the Town delivered by him within one month after, except he were by his Articles expressly restrained from any such attempt.  
For the Act of Oblivion, you declare, That must needs be meant as an Obligation upon the Enemy, and as a proper means to take away the Enmity contracted by the War, intending by Mercy to reform those who had opposed, &c. And that this doth imply such a condition in the nature of it. Whereas in truth any Condition is contrary to, very inconsistent with the nature of it; nothing more absolute, nothing less conditional, than an Act of Oblivion, which wipes out all that is past, without the least prospect to come. Nor are they always granted out of mercy, but from conveniency, when they who give them usually receive as much benefit from them, as they to whom they are granted; when the number or power of the guilty is too great and too hard for the innocent, the latter are more concerned to give, than the other to receive the Act of Oblivion, in which of old there used to be this Clause, 
Liv. li. 7.  Ne quis eam rem (whatsoever it was they had been guilty of) joco seriove cuiquam exprobraret; which if it were an essential Clause, hath been very ill observed by you.  
You heighten this Doctrine by a very notable Maxim, in the point of Pardons, which you say are always granted with Clauses of good behaviour, either explicit or implicit, because else whosoever granted them, let's lose a Delinquent to future offence; and he that answers not the end and consideration of the Pardon, cannot in reason be said ever to accept it; For, you say, an Oblivion was not only intended of the offences, whereby they had rendered themselves obnoxious, but that this kindness should be answered with obedience on their part, and produce a real change in their Principles and Interest, as to the Common Cause. I have heard, that it is usual that men, who plead their pardon for any capital offence, are obliged to find Sureties for their good behaviour: but I never heard, that for the breach of the good behaviour, they were proceeded against, and executed for their old offence, as if they had no pardon, that is sure against the nature of the Pardon. Nay, if a man be pardoned under the Great Seal of England for the highest Treason, and afterwards commit a new Treason, he shall not, without a new Process, be executed for the old, but must be formally convicted for the new, and can be punished only for that; nor can the former be any other aggravation, than to make him appear less worthy of a new mercy. But let us see now how far this new Law, and new logic, concerns ourselves; and first, give me leave to put you a Case, which may or might have much concerned one of your own Body; and we find those instances illustrate most, which come nearest to our own interest. My Lord Commissioner Fynes (who they say was the sole Architect of this goodly Structure, your Declaration) was, you know, once governor of Bristol, and for the base surrendering that City to the late King's Forces, out of want of Courage to defend, was adjudged by a Court of War at Saint Albans, to lose his head; my Lord of Essex, according to the authority he then had, gave him his pardon under his hand and seal, by which alone he was preserved from Execution. Now the intention of that Pardon was, that this kindness should be answered with obedience on his part, and that he should not swerve from the Principles of that Cause then in contest▪ nor from his affection to that General, who gave him his life. How far he hath been from performing those Conditions, all the World knows, and yet he would not sure be willing to forfeit the benefit of his Pardon. Another intention of that Pardon, was, that he should have Courage and Magnanimity to discharge any Trust the State should confer upon him, without being corrupted with fear or hope, to betray it: If he shall by money or threats be wrought upon to do injustice in the place in which he is trusted, since he that answers not the end and consideration of the Pardon, cannot in reason be said ever to accept it, shall he forfeit the benefit thereof, and lose his head upon the former Judgement? Have you forgotten how many persons stand secured by your Act of Oblivion and Pardon, besides the Royal Party? and will you, that you may elude the one, lay down those rules, which must cancel the peace and quiet of the other? What have many faithful people of the City, and other good Patriots, to secure them for many things they did during the contest between and in the two Houses of Parliament, and whilst one part went to the Army, and the other remained in their places, but Acts of Oblivion and Pardon? What have the Agitators of the Army, and indeed those parts of the Army itself, not inconsiderable, who upon several occasions refused to obey their orders, and sometimes mutined against their Officers, to secure them that they should not lose their heads to morrow, but Acts of Oblivion and Pardon? And must they now be told of intentions in granting them, which they never heard of? And that if the State do not attain their end, in such an obedience on their part, as produces a real change in their principles and interest, all is void that hath been done, and they liable to the same punishment, as if no such Acts had passed? If this be their Case, they had need provide other security for themselves.  
Your next Principle is worthy of yourselves, and a fit cornerstone for your foundation of tyranny, That forbearance from outward actions will not avail nor entitle to the benefit of the Pardon, if yet there be malice and revenge in the heart, and such a leaning and adhering to the old interest, that nothing is wanting for the discovery thereof, but a fitting opportunity; for (you say) as such men cannot in justice and ingenuity claim the benefit of an Act of Favour from that supreme Magistrate, to whom they know themselves to be Enemies: so neither is that Magistrate bound in justice before God or Men to give it to them, if he hath reason to believe from the course of their conversations, that they are such, and that their intentions towards the Government, under which they live, are the same as when they were in open Arms against it, and is at liberty to carry himself towards them, as if no such act had been; nay, he may proceed against them with greater severity, &c. Truly if this be so, the large bulk of our Laws and Records, which establish our liberty, and our property, may be reduced into a very small Volume; and we are so much the worse for the Reformation you have wrought, that we have not only fought away our Arms, but all those Rights for which we took them up. And if after all our clamour against Oaths ex officio, and men's being compelled to accuse themselves, against the Star-Chamber, and the High-Commission, we are now to be undone for the thoughts of our heart, and our intentions towards the Government, and that you will take upon you to know those thoughts and intentions, and that not from any thing we know or do ourselves, but from the course of our conversation, which may be from what others say or do, with whom we converse; it is more than time for us either to seek security in some other Climate, where this Day of Judgement is not yet come to pass, or so to purge our own, that we may be out of the danger of those, who with impious presumption take upon them to do that office, and make that inquisition into the hearts of men, which God Almighty hath reserved for himself, and who will then proceed with less rigour upon what he knows, than these terrible Inquisitors do, upon what they unreasonably say they have reason to believe. Let us revolve the vast Treasure we have lost, and compare it with the Nothing we possess. The Law says, no man shall be punished, if his offence be not proved by credible Witnesses; this Declaration says, though we abstain from any unlawful action, we shall be punished for the malice and revenge in our heart. 
Cook's Pleas of the Crown, fol. 9  The Law says, that a Conspiracy to levy War, is no Treason, except there be a levying of War in facto; your Declaration says, If you have reason to believe that we have evil intentions against the Government, we are without any right or title to any thing we enjoy, and are at your mercy to dispose of us as you please; which is the lowest condition of Traitors. If this be Liberty, what Nation in Europe lives in Servitude?  
I have been longer than I meant to have been, and therefore I shall only mention one more of your Principles; which if Machiavel's Prince, Hob's Leviathan, and all other Institutions of tyranny were lost, would be sufficient to avoid all established Laws, and insensibly to bring the freest People into the most insupportable bondage, and to resolve all Obligations of Government into the good will and pleasure of the governor. That if the supreme Magistrate were in these Cases tied up to the ordinary rules, and had not a liberty to proceed upon illustrations of reason, against those who are continually suspected, there would be wanting in such a State the means of common safety. The illustration of Reason is this; That when they who are peaceably minded in the Nation, are ready to say, These are the men of whom we go in danger, it is both just and necessary that all those, of whom the people have reason to be afraid, should pay for securing the State against that danger which they are the Authors of. If you thought it operae praetium to have given any satisfaction to the poor People of the Nation, for whose liberty you are so zealous, and that it were not below you to make your commands appear reasonable, to which you expect precise obedience, being able, as you say, to give many pregnant instances, That former times have held this way of proceeding just and reasonable, as well in this, as in other Nations, you would have vouchsafed to have given one, especially since you say, such have been in the memory of several persons now living. That which came nearest it, yet strayed at a great distance from it, seems the resolution of the Judges in the case of Ship money, which were with so great detestation condemned by the Parliament, and yourselves, before you were in a posture of governing, and for which they paid so dearly: yet in that Case there was to be real necessity, an imminent danger that the supreme Authority might foresee, as the Sentinel discovers the Enemy first, and so was bound to provide against: but that your fears must be so complied with, that Armies must be raised to secure you, and whosoever you are pleased to be afraid of, must be compelled to defray the charge of those Armies, is a Doctrine never heard of before this Declaration; and your fear is so useful to you, that no proportion of Courage would do your business half so well.  
Oportet neminem esse sapientiorem legibus, is a Maxim in the Law; and what is that Arbitrary Power we have so long inveighed against, made so many men odious with the reproach of, made, but the endeavour to set up an Arbitrary Government, the Abridgement of all Treason, against which we first took up Arms; and for the rooting out of which, we have shed and lost so much blood, what is it but the assuming (in what extraordinary Cases soever) upon discretion to require us to do that which the Law does not require us to do, to forbid that which the Law doth not forbid, and to punish us to a degree beyond what the Law directs us to be punished; to swerve from that rule, is to take it away; and being gone, we are no longer Subjects, but Slaves. In the Roman State, during the reign of the Kings, who whilst that Government lasted, were very absolute, the King himself could not do an Act against the letter of the Law, in favour or disfavour of any person, be his merit or guilt what it would; but in such extraordinary Cases, the Appeal was to the People, who were to judge whether the rule was to be declined, or no. So Horatius, for the killing his Sister, was condemned by the Duumviri, who had no other power than to proceed upon the letter of the Law; nor was it in the power of Tullus Hostilius, who was King, to alter it. But the appeal was to the people, they considered the provocation, the tears of his Father, who said, if he had judged that his Daughter had suffered unjustly, Se patrio jure in filium animadversurum fuisse; 
Liv. lib. 1.  they considered the great merit of the person, absolveruntque admiratione magis virtutis, quàm jure causae: thus deviations from the known Law, whether in mercy, or in rigour never extended farther than a particular person, never comprehended a multitude.  
Our Ancestors were so vigilant on our behalf, that they would not have us accused without some witness, not condemned in matters of importance without the full evidence of two or three witnesses; Nor is the same person capable by the Law of being witness and Judge, if he saw the Malefactor commit the offence of which he stands accused, he cannot give his evidence as witness, whilst he is Judge; every witness, how devested soever of passion and affection, having in the wise jealousy of the Law, too much of a party, to be the Judge; Whereas your supreme Magistrate, need no other evidence, but his own suspicion, and if he be afraid, we are undone, for it is plain enough, though out of your abundant tenderness you impute all the fear to the people, reserving to yourselves only the benefit of your suspicion, to suspect whom you please; you will not trust the people with the Prerogative of their own fear, that they may fear as much and as little as they see cause for, your Supreme Magistrate hath the monopoly of that commodity; and it is very observable, that you do not say these extraordinary payments for securing the State, shall be made by those of whom the People are afraid, you will not give them leave to tell you how much they are afraid, or of whom they are afraid, but by those of whom the people have reason to be afraid, and they are not reasonable enough to know that themselves, you will do it for them; and so you are the Law, the Witness, the Judge and the party, and therefore no doubt will proceed in that manner as you think best for yourselves.  
Jus meum metu tuo non tollitur, say the Civilians, and the incomparable Grotius, after he hath inveighed against that unreasonable opinion in policy, That it is lawful in Princes to take arms against a growing power, which being grown may be able to oppress their Neighbours, as disaouwed by all sober Casuists, and looked upon as an extravagancy by all regular Judges of the Jus Gentium, concludes excellently, That we live upon those disadvantages in this world, 
Grot. de Jure Bel. & Pacis  Ut plena securitas nunquam nobis constet, adversùs incertos metus, a Divina Providentia & ab innoxia cautione non vi praesidium petendum est: It is very natural to fear those most, whom we have most injured, and it would be very unnatural that we should be thereby warranted to do new injuries to them: 
Wisdom 17. 12.  And it is too great a privilege for the basest and most unworthy passion that can be harboured in the mind of man (for fear is nothing else but a betraying of the succours which reason offereth, says Solomon;) instead of being a torment to the servile spirit that is possessed by it (as most other passions are) to torment and destroy those they are unreasonably afraid of. Besides all other judgements are determined within some extent of time, whereas no period can be set to your fears, nor consequently to our punishments; And I remember Sallust says of Catiline, that after he had caused his son to be killed, that he might persuade a Lady to be the more willing to marry him; Animus impurus, Diis hominibusque infestus▪ neque vigiliis neque quietibus sedari poterat, ita conscientia mentem excitam vexabat. I know not how many of you are in that condition, and if that part of the Commonwealth must be at the charge of armies to preserve you against all whom you will be afraid of, it must shortly raise new Armies to suppress the old, and to free you from the fears you have of one another. How strong your love is, few have had evidence to discern, but your Jealousy is like that in the Canticles, 
Cant. 8. 6.  cruel as the grave, the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame: In a word your fears are grown so terrible, that we have no other security, than by being as much afraid as yourselves, and providing for ourselves accordingly.  
You see now the reason that warranted that passion which I expressed to you, when I first read your Declaration, and that the judgement in it is come home to our own doors, and concerns the poor royal party no more, than it doth ourselves; and it may be, it is come the sooner home to our own doors, for the little consideration we had of any Acts of power, how exerorbitant soever, that we thought only related to them. You know the wise answer given to him that asked what City he believed to be best governed, 
Plutar. vitâ Sol.  Solon said, That City, where such as receive no wrong, do as earnestly defend others to whom wrong is offered, as if the wrong and injury had been offered to themselves: And that general was worthily extolled, qui aliquid esse crederet & in hostem nefas; Our too little circumspection and tenderness of that, hath brought the Case to be our own; If the royal party will change their interest, that is, keep their old monarchical Principles, and apply them to the support of your interest, they shall be received, entertained and preferred by you; you have manifested it enough to them, by trusting none more than those who have done so. They are only in danger, of whom you are afraid, in respect of their conversation, of their intentions towards the present Government, and of their interest not to submit to that Government, which you say is established, and they believe or know to be but usurped. And we shall the better find who they are, and make some discovery of the number of them, and consequently of the danger that is threatened from them, if we take a short view of the Government, by what degrees, and by what Authority it is imposed upon us and how far the several interests of those, who have at least equally with yourselves opposed the common Enemy, are secured and provided for, and we shall thereby the more easily judge, how far we are obliged in conscience or discretion to submit to it, of whom you are most like to be afraid: and so, who are most probably in the end, to be charged with the maintenance of those forces, which you will find necessary to secure that Government, and your fears that it will not be secure.  
What is become of the Parliament; and the Parliament party, that first undertook that war and pursued it, till they were without an eneny, is too melancholic a question to expect an answer to? You cannot take it ill, that I say this is not the Government we then undertook and engaged to preserve and defend; and you will give me leave to observe, that there is not one officer in all your Armies, that in the beginning of that war, was above the degree of a captain; so far are you from being the People, who bore the heat of the day, or who deprived the enemy of of their arms: Nor is there one person amongst you, who had then interest or reputation enough to engage ten men in the quarrel; nor is one of those who had in any credit now with you, or trusted in any part of your Government: So that you may reasonably conclude, that as they cannot hold themselves obliged to submit to it, so much less engaged to support it, and consequently amongst that number of which you have reason to be afraid.  
After you had by bringing your Army to London, and imprisoning the major part of the Commons, and dissolving the House of peers, extinguished Kingly Government, erected yourselves into a Commonwealth, and instead of one, set up as many Kings, as you had left members of your Parliament, all who were uncontrollable and above the reach of Justice, and exercised what kind of Power and tyranny they pleased upon their fellow subjects; The people were universally engaged to maintain and defend that Government of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England; All Princes and foreign States taught to make their addresses to it; war and Peace declared by it; The Keepers of the Great Seal of England, the Judges and Ministers of Justice, appointed in the same manner, and the whole Administration of Justice throughout the kingdom was in the name of the Keepers of the Liberty of England, The Army professed itself entirely at the obedience of the Parliament, and absolutely to be disposed by it, and well it might do so, there being so many Officers of the Army, Members of Parliament, that they had reason to believe all Commands would be suitable to their own desires, if they desired no more than what they hitherto professed, the support of that Government, which not only every person who had the least trust, share or benefit in it, had sworn to defend, but whosoever sued for favour or Justice from it, were bound to subscribe to. In this manner all things were ordered; Ireland reduced to perfect obedience, and our enemies there to perfect slavery; Scotland (as your own Poet says) was preferred by Conquest to serve us: So that we were not only without any visible Enemy, and so sufficiently revenged of our friends, that they could be of use to none but ourselves. The Parliament now thought it high time, that they who were in truth the Conquerors, the People at whose charge alone the war had been carried on, should receive some benefit from their Conquests; That when they had no enemy at all, they need not have so great an Army, and therefore they betook themselves to counsels of good husbandry, and to think of preferring them, who had taken so much pains in their service, to ease and plenty; to give those Estates to them, which they had taken from others, and by these gratuities to disband some part of their Army; But that was a Jurisdiction, you never intended they should exercise, you were well enough contented that they should have the sovereign power to raise money, for the payment of the Armies, but when they presumed to speak of disbanding those Armies, you wisely remembered how insecure you should be without those forces, which had raised you to the height you were at, you remembered how many former orders you had disobeyed▪ how you had triumphed over the long Robe, and the privileges of Parliament; and albeit Acts of Prdon and Oblivion had been passed for your Indemnity, you concluded, if the Government should once fall into those peaceable hands, they would find ways enough to avoid the observance of any promises, they had been compelled to make against their wills; and hereupon for the good of the people, you resolved to take the Government into your own hands; and according to the advice given by the Servants of the King of Syria, Take the Kings away, 
1 Kings 20. 24.  every man out of his place, and put Captains in their rooms. You brought armed men into the house of Parliament, forced the Members with many opprobrious speeches to leave their places, locked up the doors, that there might be no more resort thither, and appointed a select number of the Officers of the Army to provide for all, that King or Parliament used to do; and here was an end of your Commonwealth, which Government all were so solemnly engaged to defend; nor is there any person, who adheres to the Principles of a Commonwealth in any trust or esteem with you: Nay, it is very observable and notorious, that of all that select number which helped you to be free from Monarchy, by sitting in that Court, and who dare no more look a Monarch in the face, than they dare justify what they have done at the day of judgement, there is not one man in credit with you, nor of command in any of your Armies by Sea or Land; nay; whom you have not eminently affronted, disobliged and and oppressed, except he hath such a relation of blood, as may render him unsuspected. And can you think these men friends to your present Government? and consequently can they but think themselves involved in this Declaration, and designed to maintain those additional forces, which are, or must be raised to defend you from those of whom you see reason that the people should be afraid.  
Your next Government was entirely by the army, which as if it had not fought to suppress all exorbitancy of power, but to possess itself of it, and was now sufficiently qualified to do all, that others had or would have done before, laid Taxes and impositions upon the Kingdom, repeated over all the ill things which had been complained of before, in most intolerable and insupportable degrees, and improved the confusion to that height, that there was no shadow or formality of Justice left; and that dist●action in God's worship, that there were more Religions than Regiments, and all practised with equal licence, and animosity against each other, when on the sudden the general of the Army (if he can be called a general whose Commission was determined, by the determination of that Body that granted it, the Parliament) takes upon him to assemble another number of people, every man chosen by himself, and that council of Officers of the Army, who were constituted by himself, and making their appearance before him, called them a Parliament, called himself their servant, and besought them to repair those breaches and ruins of the Commonwealth, which their wisdom could only do, most of them being men of no parts, no experience, no quality, no interest in the Kingdom, serving only to render the venerable name of Parliament ridiculous by their frivolous and impertinent consultations, without doing any sober act in order to the healing the wounds of the Commonwealth, as their Predecessors had made it odious by taking upon them so unlimited a power to vex and grieve, and devour their Brethren. And when these had brought themselves into a sufficient reproach and disestimation of the people, and yet could not be enough united amongst themselves, to serve the general's turn, part of them went to him, confessed themselves too weak to sustain the great burden he had laid upon their shoulders; and desired him to take the power again, which he he had so graciously conferred on them, and that he would take upon himself the ordering and repairing the Commonwealth, which they had not wisdom to do. The other part, that had a better opinion of their own abilities, and believed they might find some proper remedies for the public grievances, were according to the late method turned out of doors by the soldiers, that they might no more continue those unprofitable Consultations: And so by these few Bankrupts repaying the small money he had lent them, the general takes Livery and Seisin of the whole Treasure of the Kingdom, and thinks this a sufficient delegation of the power, and interest of the Nation into his hands, of which he makes use within few days after, and with a sudden and unexpected solemnity, the Lord Major of London, the Judges and the Keepers of the great Seal, being summoned to attend, without knowing any part of the business, upon the advice and by the consent of half a score of his friends, who were like to look that he should receive no hurt, He degrades himself from the Office of general, and unlimited power thereof, as he says; and is contented under the stile of Protector of the three kingdoms, of England, Scotland and Ireland, to be restrained within the limits he had prepared for himself, laid aside his Excellency to be his Highness, and contented himself with all the Crown Lands which were left unsold, and a limited power (as he called it,) extending farther than ever King pretended to; and this was the rise and progress of your present Government, to which you expect such an obedience, as must produce a real change of all our Principles and interest; and if we are but thought to have evil intentions towards this Government, we must be at the charge of the Armies raised to secure it.  
That which disposed the minds of the people to abstain from a present Protestation against this Government, besides the Agony of the late confusions, and the astonishment upon the new wonderful alteration, was, that it was but temporary, and that limited to a very short time; A free Parliament was to be called within so many months, which was entirely to consider and settle the Government of the Kingdom, to remove all those obstructions which hinder the Peace and happiness of the Nation, and to restore it to that tranquillity and quiet it had been so long deprived of: And the Protector was sworn to a due observation of all those Articles, which he had himself prescribed for his own rules and bounds, and therefore the more hope that he would be contented to be limited by them. It cannot be denied that the Kingdom chose many worthy persons of fortune, interest and experience, as their Deputies to provide for the public security, who entered upon a free disquisition of the state the Kingdom was in, according to the very Method prescribed by the Instrument of Government; and to inquire by what means and title; so vast and transcendent a power was gotten into the hands of one man; so contrary to what had been before determined; many men professing, that if after so much blood spilled and calamities undergone by the people, to free them from monarchic Government, it should be now found most agreeable to the Nature and temper of the Nation, to return to the same form of subjection, there could be little doubt, it would be much better to restore it to the royal Person, to whom by the line of succession the unquestionable Right was derived, and whose being possessed of it would in a moment restore the whole Nation to a full and entire Peace, from whose unblemished youth and gracious disposition, as much of happiness might be expected, as had been enjoyed in any former King's reign, than by continuing it in the hands of an Usurper, who had violated so many Oaths and Protestations already, and had ascended to this pitch only by the most bare-faced breach of several trusts, that ever Christian or Gentleman was guilty of, to expose the Kingdom to a war, that could have no end, but in the ruin and desolation of it. These grave, necessary and important debates, were no sooner entered into, than in contempt of all Privileges of Parliament, which will not allow matters in debate to be taken notice of, the Protector, like a King; Nam impune quaelibet facere, id est, Regem esse, summons them into his presence, with the highest and sharpest language, reproaches them for disputing his Authority, by whom they were called together; requires them to renounce and disclaim that liberty, before they proceeded to further consultation, and to that purpose delivered an Instrument without subscribing to which, the Band of soldiers which guarded the door of the Parliament house, would not suffer any man to enter, whereupon a Major part of the Parliament departed to their houses, and they only went in, who submitted to the conditions, which many afterwards did, who in detestation of the violence, at that time had forborn to subscribe. Thus he, who without the consent or privity of a dozen persons, had assumed to himself the title and stile of Protector of three kingdoms, and therefore found a general submission, because he had bound himself within a short time to call a Parliament, that might settle the Government, when it was now met and possessed of the power it was to have, because they came together upon his call, would not suffer them to question any thing he had done, or what he should do hereafter, their submission (as he said) to his Authority of summoning them, being a tacit acknowledgement of his power, which he would not endure to be argued against, without calling to mind (besides the practice of these last ill years) that by the express letter of the Law, 
Lo. Cook Jurisd. of Co. fol. 42.  any restraint from altering or revoking an Ordinance or Act of Parliament itself, is void, being against the jurisdiction and power of Parliament.  
When he had thus reformed his Parliament, he gave them leave to sit together, to consult how they might contribute to the support of that power they were not able to impair, and to lay new burdens on the People, the envy whereof they should rather bear than himself. But as the Pope (Paul the 4th.) complained in the Consistory of those who reported he could make but four Cardinals, 
Hist. Conc.  in regard of that which he had sworn in the Conclave, and said, 
Tr. fol. 396.  That this was to bind the Pope's Authority, which is absolute; That it is an Article of Faith, that the Pope cannot be bound, and much less can bind himself; and that to say otherwise, was a manifest Heresy. So he took it very ill, that they should believe upon any Articles in the Instrument of Government, to which he had so solemnly sworn before he assumed the Title, that they might lessen his Power, or the Army, by which it is supported; and therefore when he saw they betook themselves to those Counsels, which might lessen the insupportable burden the People undergo for the maintenance of as numerous Forces, and greater indeed, than were ever on foot when the Common Enemy had Towns and Armies to oppose, and that they presumed to speak of disbanding part of them, he sent for them, and after he had, stylo Imperatorio, reprehended their presumption, and checked them in sharper language than ever King gave himself leave to use to his Subjects in Parliament, contrary to his Oath, and before the time was expired which was assigned for their sitting, he dissolved them, and takes upon himself Authority, with the consent of such, whom he pleases to make of his council, to make and repeal Laws, to lay Taxes and Impositions upon the People, and, which is the highest expression that can be made of his tyranny, to publish this Declaration; whereas it is notorious in the Law, That to commit the power of Parliament to a few, is against the dignity of Parliament▪ and no such Commission can be granted, even by the Parliament itself.  
You know, how strange soever it be, that all this is true; and you may then easily compute, of what rank or kind of men they must be, who are delighted, or in their hearts not opposite, to your present Government: how very few there are in your council or Army, who were for King and Parliament, and how those Principles have been asserted by you, is known to all men; what affection they have for you, who with so much hazard and infamy served you in the extinguishing the Monarchy, and what indignities they receive at your hands, is likewise within your own view. What is become of those two swelling names, which for so long time filled our mouths, and under the shelter of one of which all men took Sanctuary, the Presbyterians and Independents? Is there one man of either party, who without renouncing the Principles of his party, is in credit or trust with you? and do they not both every day expect from you the exemplification of that memorable Judgement of Philip of Macedon, who upon the hearing a difference that was fallen out between two men of very seditious and turbulent natures, determined, That the one of them should presently fly out of Macedon, 
Vit. Phil.  and the other should run after him as fast as he could. You see then how very few there can be in the three kingdoms (except those who possess great Offices and Estates from you, (and even of those, many think themselves disobliged, by seeing others of less merit than they think themselves, more obliged) who are without malice and revenge in their heart, and such a leaning and adhering to their several old interests, that nothing is wanting for the discovery thereof, but a fitting opportunity; and you have declared that propension and disposition in them, to be Crime enough to forfeit all that they have; and you cannot wonder, if upon so fair warning, they prepare as well as they can, and at least good resolutions, for their own security. Alas, Sir, we know how little confidence you have in any of your old Friends, who you believe will never heartily submit to a Government they never intended to erect, and who have not sacrificed their wealth, their blood, and their peace, to suppress a Royal Family, accustomed by a succession of so many hundred years to command, and to be obeyed; and to invest another, inferior to most of ourselves, in the same interest and power, and so (to use your own expression) to entail the quarrel, and prevent the means to reconcile Posterity. 
Pag. 38.  You say, you will not in express terms lay to the charge of the Royal Party, the swarming of those Jesuits, which are now croaking amongst us, turning themselves into all forms and shapes, to deceive and seduce men from the Truth. I wish we had not all too much reason to charge you in express terms with what you will not, and no doubt cannot charge them. What liberty the Priests and Jesuits take, how far they prevail upon the People, what countenance they receive from this Government, is apparent enough, by not proceeding against them in Justice, as if no Laws were in force for their punishment. Your private Negotiations with the Pope, and your promises, that as soon as you can establish your own Greatness, you will protect the Catholics; and the insinuations that you will countenance them much further, are sufficiently known and understood? And of their dependence upon, and devotion to you, there needs no evidence beyond the Book lately written by Mr. White, a Romish Priest, and dedicated to your Favourite, Sir Kenelm Digby, entitled, The Grounds of Obedience and Government; in which he justifies all the Grounds and Maxims in your Declarations, and determines positively, That you ought to be so far from performing any promise, or observing any Oath you have taken, if you know that it is for the good of the People, that you break it, albeit they foreseeing all that you now see, did therefore bind you by Oath not to do it, 
Pag. 89.  That you offend against both your Oath and Fidelity to the People, if you maintain those limitations you are sworn to: and sure what you do, must be supported by such Casuists. Lastly, we know very well, how far you are from confiding in your own Army, how jealous you are of many of the Officers, and more of the Common soldiers, and therefore that you raise those several little Armies in the several Counties, with which you hope to suppress or control the standing army upon any occasion, when the sense of their own and their Countries miserable condition shall render it less devoted to you. And we likewise know, how in distrust of the whole English Nation, you are treating to bring over a Body of Swiss to serve you, as the janissaries do the Turk, and in order to control your own Army, as well as to reduce the People to an implicit obedience to your Government. That most of the Money which was collected amongst us for the poor Protestants of the Valley of Lucern, is returned and applied to the carrying on those Levies; and that many are already landed in England, and are now about London, upon pretence that they are to be sent to plant in Ireland, whereas they are kept for the completing those Regiments which are every day expected to arrive: and then you have completed your work, and brought the only lasting calamity upon the kingdom, which you have hitherto forborn to do, and with which odious reproach you charged the Counsels of the former times, only for intending to introduce foreign Forces.  
I cannot end this Discourse, without taking notice of your so frequent mention throughout this Declaration, and indeed upon all occasions in your ordinary conversation, of the continued assistance and presence of God in whatsoever you have gone about, of his gracious dispensations, and his visible hand manifested in your successes, and of his more than usual care and kindness towards you; whereas if you would soberly revolve what is passed, and dispassionately consider and weigh your present condition, it may be you would find your Case so rare and wonderful, that there have seldom been a People in the World who have had more reason to believe themselves to lie under the signal and terrible displeasure of God Almighty, and against whom his vengeance is more manifestly threatened, than you at present have. You have had all the advantages, and all the successes, which you could ever propose and hope for, and some greater than you could hope for, and your perplexities and insecurity remains greater than before; you have not an Enemy in the three kingdoms, who stands in opposition of your power, or who indeed is Owner of a Sword to resist you, and yet you avow and discover such a proportion of fear, that new Armies must be raised for your defence; you have gotten all the Wealth of the three kingdoms into your hands, and enjoy none, your wants and necessities being so great; when you had little credit, and less interest to do good or harm, you had many Friends, and few who hated you; and now it is in your power to make great whom you please, and to destroy all whom you are angry with, your Friends leave and forsake you; and you are grown so universally odious, that you may say to those who adhere to you, 
Sallust.  as Catiline did to his Army, Neque locus, neque amicus quisquam teget, quem arma non texerint. All your safety is in your Army, and yet you fear that little less than your Enemies. How many of those who bore parts with you in your darkest Designs, have laid violent hands upon themselves, out of the conscience of their own wickedness? And is not that Curse in Leviticus fallen upon the rest? And upon them that are left alive of you, 
Lev. 26. 36.  I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies, and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them, and they shall flee, as fleeing from a sword, and they shall fall, when none pursues. Can there be a greater slavery, than to be afraid of those whom you have subdued? And hath not God delivered you, as he did those of Judah and Jerusalem, 
2 Chron. 29. 8.  to trouble, to astonishment, and to hissing, as you see with your eyes? So that in truth, setting aside the peace and tranquillity of mind, which must prepare the joys of the next World for us, and considering merely the delight and pleasure in this, into which some degree of reputation, the affection of some Friends, and the fidelity of those we trust, are necessary Ingredients; I had rather be the most undone man that this Declaration hath preyed upon, than my Lord Protector, or any one of his council in whose names it is published.  
To conclude. As it is manifestly destructive to all the liberty and property of the People, and to the Laws of the kingdom, by observation whereof alone those liberties, and that property can be preserved: so to common understanding it must be the most fatal Instrument against your own interest and security, and make all men see how inconsistent theirs is with the Government you have erected. You have pulled up Parliaments by the roots, which are the only natural security the Nation can have against Oppression and tyranny, and which we thought we had exactly provided for by the Triennial Bill, and which will at present authorise the People to assemble and make their Elections. You have canceled all Obligations of Trust, and taken away all possible confidence from all men that they can ever enjoy any thing that they can call their own during this Government; and having so little pleasure left them in life, they will prefer the losing it in some Noble Attempt to free their Country and themselves from the bondage and servitude they live under, to the dying ignobly in some loathsome Prison, when you please to be afraid of them. Do not value yourselves upon the terror you infuse into the People, by your frequent Sacrifices of Blood, and exposing their Friends to them on Scaffolds, and on Gallows. Remember that it is recorded of Ann de Burg, who was burnt in France in the year 1559. upon matter of Religion, That the death and constancy of a man so conspicuous, did make many curious to know, what Religion that was, for which he had so courageously endured punishment, and made the numbers increase exceedingly. Trust me, you have gotten nothing by those Spectacles, and men return from them more confirmed in their detestation of you, than terrified from any of their purposes towards you. And when the despair you have put them into shall make them consider, that as the misery, calamity, servitude and infamy under which the three kingdoms suffer, proceed entirely from you, so, that they will be determined with you. That the general hatred and detestation of you is such, that it is very probable that those Noble Patriots, whose spirits shall be raised to destroy you, shall not only reap unutterable Honour from it, but find safety in it, either from the Confusion that must instantly attend, or from the abhorring your Memories in those that shall survive you. If they shall perish in or upon their Attempt, what a Glorious Fame will they leave behind them? what a sweet Odour will their Memories have with the present and succeeding Ages? Statues will be erected to them, and their Names recorded in those rolls, which have preserved the Brutis, the horatij, the Fabii, and all those who have died out of debt to their Country, by having paid the utmost that they owed to it; their Merits will be remembered, as those of the Primitive Martyrs, and their Children and Kindred will be always looked upon as the Descendants from the Liberators of their Country, and esteemed accordingly; their Fate will be like his in the Son of sirach, 
Ecclesiastic. 39 11.  If he die, he shall leave a greater name than a thousand; and if he live, he shall increase it. And all the Peace, Tranquillity, splendour and Glory, which the kingdoms shall hereafter enjoy, which will be the greatest that any Nation in Europe hath been possessed of, in the awe and dread their Enemies will have of them, in the reverence of their Friends, and the full veneration of all the World, will still be imputed and attributed to those heroic Spirits, the Authors of this first deliverance. And besides the preventing that Deluge of Blood, with which the Land will be otherwise overwhelmed, by this means the Nation will be restored to the Honour it hath lost, by freeing itself, without any foreign help, from that miserable Condition, into which we are fallen by our own mere Folly and Madness.  And they that come after him shall be astonished at his day, as they that went before were affrighted, Job 18. 20. 
FINIS.