A Declaration of many thousand well-affected Persons, Inhabitants in and about the Cities of London and Westminster, expressing their adherence to this present Parliament; as also their sense of a Free Parliament, so much cried up by the Cavaliers and others, that know not what it is; but go along in company with them; Together with divers other expostulatory Particulars.  
WE should wonder at the late, and still brutish looseness of men's Tongues and Pens, did we not (without much scrutiny,) know, that the spirit of the unreasonable and unplacable Cavaliers (we mean (mostly) the sottish, profane, beggarly, and spendthrift ones) appear in all the sordid Pamphlets that daily fly abroad without check or control; who by these means (we know) would put upon us Bears skins, and when they should do it, would inflame the windy headed vulgar to rend us to pieces, as Monsters not fit to converse amongst sober men. We do therefore hereby declare, and let them and others know, that though we have been hitherto silent, yet we are not sottish or afraid (through the strength of Jehovah) of their fury; the Lord will in his due time rebuke them again, after often former rebukes unheeded, and enable us to say, Where is the fury of the Oppressor?  
And although we shall not at all justify the late heady and faithless expulsion of this Parliament in October last passed, by the (once renowned) Officers of the Army, who (we hope) do (as we are confident they ought) bitterly lament their miscarriages therein, In pursuing good ends by indirect and unjustifiable means, in breaking Gods Institutions in pursuit of his glory: Or (in a word) In doing evil that good may come thereby, by reason whereof they are for the present rejected, Because they rejected the word of the Lord, and what wisdom is in them? Yet we cannot but sadly deplore, that they are tolerated to be scandalously reproached almost every day by the 
Jer. 8. 9  public and filthy gazettes and pasquils of tinkerly brains, that scarce drop so much common sense or modesty, as deserves the cursory perusal of a man that hath but a slender value of time; nay, that do nauseate men of mere honest morals, for fear of being tainted with the contagion of their familiarness and frequency.  
And it is our sad observation, That the spirit of profaneness is now triumphant every where in this Nation; yea so triumphant that Magistracy and Ministry are debased even at the unhallowed feet of the rabble, and ready to be kicked at by them upon the least pretended occasion; insomuch that none that ought in duty, dares without danger punish or reprove things done, even against the common light of men as men, even that of nature.  
We observe also to our great grief an unparallelled Apostasy, from once common and undeniable principles, among those that once encouraged themselves in their God, and strengthened the hands of one another in the late sharp civil Wars, so that now they cry up that which once they helped to pull down, and call back exploded abominations, and lick up what they once vomited into the nastiest corners they could find to discharge themselves.  
We are ware and have considered who they are that with a wide, yet wry mouth cry up a Free Parliament (a thing taken in some sense, that is very desirable in times of a long continued peace) but where was it ever known in a prudent State after a Civil War? Did the wise and politic State of Rome suffer free Conventions without due qualifications after a Civil War? We say no; we know this is the Cavaliers Trojan-horse lined within with rapines, murders, and what not, of them that fought and acted against them? Nay, we boldly affirm, That England in the vulgar notion of a Free Parliament never had any such, since Magna Charta (and some of us are not altogether ignorant of the Laws of this Nation) nor was Magna Charta neither free. Was not that a forced Charter in its creation? (this cannot be denied us) Nay, in the continuance too; through thirty Parliaments by the strict Rules of Law, who can give us instance of a Parliament in England, where no armour were worn in or near the Town, or place where the Parliament sat, but by Parliament men, and Officers of Justice during their sitting? Or that no games and plays were used in or near the Town or place where the Parliament sat, by men, women or children, during its sitting? If not, which we are sure no man living can deny; then when was there 
Coke 3d Inst. 160.  a Free Parliament by strict Rules of Law? if these free Parliamentiers mean not this (which yet the intention of a Free Parliament includes) What do these men mean? They must be ingenuous to confess, they mean three Estates of King, Popish and other Lords, Archbishops, Bishops, etc. the prodigious concomitants, and effects of such an Assembly, are too long, and too foul, as much as to touch upon here, yet are easily discerned by men that have not made themselves blind in the colours of good and evil. These, or most of these, they once decried and crucified, and now they cry Hosannah to: Are not these things abominable incosistencies? Oh where are you English men? And what, are you men still? If you be not, the Lord bring you back from grass, like Nabuchadnezzar again, and lift up your eyes to 
Dan. 4. 33, 34.  Heaven, and make your understanding to return to you, that you may praise the most High, etc.  
We may not also but take notice of the Cavaliers and malcontents publishing without colour of truth, divers Declarations Subscribed with the names of several Persons, who never knew of such Declarations, or of their names put to them, till they saw them in Print, as divers of the Persons whose names are to the said Declarations, have told some of us: this is an old Artifice of the Father of lies, and forged upon his infernal Anvil, and will prove (we hope) to the Author's expectation but a broken reed, and a disappointment suitable to the design.  
Having thus far observed some of the raging evils of this day, and suspecting the Devil's chain to extend to a greater length than we have yet discovered, we here openly Declare our Resolutions to stand to (whether it be unto life or death) these Principles following.  
1. That we do own this present Parliament, as it now sits as the Supreme Authority of these Nations, and that we will adhere to them with our lives and other dearest concernments, in pursuance of their settling a Free-state, without single Person, King, or House of Lords, and in pursuance of their Declaration of the 7th of May last past.  
2. That we will stand by a godly Gospel's Ministry in these Nations, adhere to them, and countenance them against all Opposers, together with a public comfortable maintenance for them.  
3. That we are not either for the Secluded Members (though we honour and highly respect some of them, who have not been Advocates and Agents for Charles Stuart) to sit in this Parliament; nor do we own a Free-Parliament in the general unlimited notion of it at all, nor for any Members to sit in future Representatives without due and fitting qualifications to be agreed on by this Parliament, without which we must necessarily set up our enemies, and the enemies of God and Religion, to be Judges of our lives and dearest properties, which neither reason, safety, nor yet prudence will prompt us to.  
4. That we detest and abhor the wicked and profane Pasquil's every day uttered abroad against the Parliament, and divers other eminent and worthy Persons, as tending to the scandal of Magistracy, and the corruption of manners; which we humbly conceive the civil Magistrates ought to withstand and severely punish, these Pasquil's being observed to be the griping of the bowels of the Nation, and portending civil tempests and troubles.  
5. That we shall willingly according to our abilities pay our proportion of Taxes and other necessary impositions for maintenance of the Army and Navy, in pursuance of the Authority of this Parliament, while it shall be thought necessary to continue them.  
6. That we do and will own the Universities, and Nurseries of Learning, as very much conducing to reduce Men to purer Morals, and as Handmaids of the Gospel of Peace.  
7. That we do and will own the Laws of the Land as our Birthright, derivable to our Posterities, and as the fences of our Lives, Liberties, and Estaes', and make it our requests to this Parliament, that where they are defective, oppressive, tedious, or chargeable, they may be in due time reform.  
8. That we shall and will assist the Parliament, their Army, one another, and all other Persons in the three Nations, in pursuance of the particulars before mentioned to the utmost of our power maugre the most stareing difficulties that we shall meet withal, and will not be drawn therefrom by fear or favour, or any other the plausible pretensions of any Man or Men whatsoever.  
And now having unbosomed ourselves to all Men; First, We desire our Adversaries (we wish they were not so) to consider what it may cost them before they invade our Lives, Religion and Liberties; and to consider what they now enjoy, and yet may enjoy by a quiet submitting to the present Government, and to the Hand of God, bowing themselves before his past fearful rebukes, before they provoke him again; and to put these in Balance, and wisely to weigh which will counterpoise; a present security, and enjoying more than they deserve, or a hazard of more wrath as well as War. In the strength of God we dare say, we fear them not; He that delivered us from the Lion and from the Bear, he will deliver us still. Secondly, We desire our friends embarked in the same common cause with us, to consider what salvations God hath wrought for them; and now to fear before him alone. Doth not the Lord say, Who art thou that thou shouldest be afraid of man that shall die, and of the son of man that shall be made as grass; and forgettest the Lord thy Maker, that hath stretched forth the Heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, and hast feared continually every day, because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? AND WHERE IS 
51. 22, 23.  THE FURY OF THE OPPRESSOR? Lo, he appears, would destroy you and us, but cannot, than he disappears; If the enemies of God be vigilant to hurt you, be you vigilant to defend yourselves; if they be active for their Master the Devil, be you more active 
64. 1, etc.  for God your better Master. He will rend the Heavens, he will come down and the Mountains shall flow down at his presence, etc.