A Letter from a scholar in Oxfordshire to his Uncle a Merchant in Broad-street, upon occasion of a book entitled, A moderate, and most proper Reply to a Declaration, Printed and published under His majesty's Name, Decemb. 8. intended against an Ordinance of Parliament, for assessing, &c. sent to the press by the Merchant, who confesseth himself converted by it.  
SIR,  
I Received your Letter, and the two Books you sent me on Saturday last by the last Carrier, and have ever since employed my thoughts and best Reason upon them, and in summing up to myself the whole state of the Case; which is truly the subject matter of this dispute. You know, Sir, what obligations I have to you for your care and expense in my education, and for recommending me into so pious and honourable a Family, and therefore would not willingly dissent from you in an Opinion, to which (to my sorrow) I find you so much wedded; But since you require from me to try to persuade my Father (whom you call Malignant) to make himself a good Example in the City, by freely bringing in the twentieth part of his estate, before the Assessors fetch it; and to persuade, and enable me to persuade him to it, you enclosed the King's Declaration against the Ordinance for that Payment, and an Answer (as you are pleased to call it, a most clear and convincing one) to that Declaration. I suppose you will sooner excuse me for giving you my Reasons, why I cannot obey you, then for a silent sullen disobedience. And I differ from you with the more confidence, because it seems by your Letter that I have the Authority of a Father for me, though I have that of an Uncle against me. Truly Sir, I am so much satisfied with the King's Declaration, and so little with the Reply, That I cannot but think that the two Houses did purposely avoid replying themselves, and turned it over to another, as finding their side too weak to be maintained, and thinking it less dishonourable to be confuted by Proxy. And that the most proper Reply to such Declarations is to forbid the Printing and publishing under pain of Plundering and Imprisonment. And indeed, if all that hath been written on both sides had been suffered freely, and indifferently (as was required by Justice, and desired by the King) to have been communicated to, and examined by the People (to whom the House of Commons had first (and without any precedent) in that way begun to appeal) those Paper-bullets (as he calls them) would have killed this War in the womb, and the same People who have been now seduced into Rebellion, would have kept their Seducers to their. Loyalty, whether they would or no.  
I shall now come to the Reply itself, in answer to which, if I shall speak of things that you may conceive me a stranger to, I shall desire you to remember how industrious a curiosity, I have ever had to inform myself fully in all the Questions of the Times, how carefully I studied the Questions of Arminianism, the point of Ship-money, and the disputes about Altar and Table, and then you will not wonder, if in a question which concerned as well the subsistence, as the Salvation of all the Subjects of this Kingdom, I have not been lazy to satisfy myself, as well in Right as in Fact; of which though the latter (by reason of my condition) was harder to me, yet what with my Interest in the Gentleman of the House of Commons who was my pupil in Oxford: What with my acquaintance with some Exeter college-men, Chaplains to some of the King's Regiments (men ever till now rather esteemed Puritans, then Popishly affected) and by being often, present by their means, where some discreet Officers of the Kings have often met; I am confident, I am so well informed that what I shall say is come to me by very good Conduit pipes, though I had it not from the springhead.  
Me thinks, if the author of this Reply had intended, that his moderation should have reached any farther than the Title of his Book he would not in the very first lines have confuted his Title, and spoken so scornfully of a Declaration under His majesty's Name, as he doth in the Phrase of the Pen, that drops this Declaration, and so falsely and maliciously as to say, It is fellow to the Tongue which cuts like a sharp razor; to say, that Malignity was the Whetstone, and that it cares not though it mangle Truth and goodness: For suppose, that his implicit belief in some Vote of the House of Commons, as when to free Sir Henry Ludlow for saying in that House upon the reading of a Declaration sent from the King enclosed in a Letter signed and sealed by His own royal Hand and Signet, That he that made that Declaration deserved not to be King of England; they Voted as if pretending to Inspiration, that that Declaration was not the Kings (for you know I was present when this was related to you the same night at Supper by a Parliament man.) Suppose, I say, this confidence in some such new Vote upon this occasion, should have persuaded him, that the King did not wholly indite it himself; yet since He visibly did allow of, and send it, I wonder He should not conceive it to be as much His, as this very Ordinance is the Act of both Houses; Since it is more evident that the Houses did not write this, then that the King writ not the other, and that being drawn up by their Command, and published by their Authority (as the other is by the Kings) is all that can make it theirs; And yet I believe a Person that were brought to the Bar for using the same words of their Ordinance, would not be excused from breach of privilege, by answering that not the Houses, but some Committee, or particular Member of them was the Author of it.  
Next the King objects the total destruction of the Liberty and Propriety of all His Subjects by the imprisonment of their persons without cause, and disposing of their Estates without Law: and the Reply acknowledges as much as the Declaration objects, by that full and sufficient Answer. What have these men to do to talk of fundamental Laws? It were well he would have it moved that an Ordinance be made, that the Laws should no more be spoken of; for doing as they do, they can get little advantage by such discourses; else, that the King who is sworn to protect the Law should alone not have leave no name it, were a very hard case. But perhaps the Replyer may defend himself by saying he imitates only the Style of the psalms, why do the wicked take my Law in their mouth? and follows only the usual Style of all their Sermons, who whatsoever is said of wicked Kings and Persons, assume Authority to take it for granted as appliable to the Person of our gracious Prince, and of all those who venture their Lives to assist and defend Him: for to defend himself he may well accuse his Friends, I am sure, to defend his Friends, he is no other way able to do it then by recrimination upon his Enemies, and for that runs up as high as Loans, Knighthood, and shipmoney. His memory is very good concerning those grievances, but very ill to forget by whose just and gracious concurrence we have been cased both of them, and even of the fear of the like for the future; and sure, if any known Authors or Ministers of those Calamities, remain still about His Majesty to frame His Declarations, it hath been by their negligence, not by His majesty's opposal of their Remove and Punishment. And it is not so strange that His Majesty upon information, how grievous those pressures were to His Subjects, opposes the introducing of the same illegalities, and miseries under no other colour then of new names & hath learned Law enough this Parliament to know that the pretence of necessity & Propterea quod Regnum nostrum periclitatur, is no sufficient cause of levying money, either by Writ or Ordinance; As that this Author will talk of such past faults, when there was nothing then suffered by the Subject, which hath not upon the same Pretences, but with less colour, been since acted and exceeded by those, who were called together to ease them from the like sufferings. But alas, they only take away men's estates in the defence of their propriety, and imprison their persons in defence of their liberty, and I believe will shortly hang them up to save their lives (as they already shoot at the King in his own defence) for he says, the Parliament (and by that throughout he means both Houses) hath power not only of liberty and imprisonment, but of life and death. Nor are we like to stay here, for he saith, that the House of Commons alone is trusted with all the estates of the Commons of England, and consequently may shortly save the Lords a labour of joining with them in disposing of the estates of Commoners. And if they shall after pretend (as by the same Right they may) to a power over the lives of the Commoners too, a Member of such a House in a perpetual Parliament may get more Revenue and maintenance by His Place, than ever any Penman of his majesty's Declarations will do by His. The truth is, the King and Lords both are as much trusted with the Estates of all the Commons of England, as the House of Commons is; neither it without them, nor they without it can dispose of them: and whatsoever Rights the King hath in Him by the Law, as the choice of counsellors and Officers, of Commanders of Forts and Castles, and of the Militia of the Kingdom, and the like; with them He is trusted by the whole Nation, and neither one nor both Houses have any more superiority over that Trust, than he hath over any Trust committed to them. He represents the people too in what the Law hath left to Him, nor do they represent them in any thing which the Law hath not trusted to them. But unless such Ordinances be made, the War cannot be maintained. I wonder not, that this Argument should appear a good one in their Army which lives by War, bus I wonder, it should be suspected likely to prevail upon the City, which can as little subsist without Trade, as Trade can continue without Peace, and which by this War hath been so much already diverted, that many years will scarce return it into the former channel. I wonder the Citizens do not consider, that by this War their charge increases, whilst their gettings diminish: That their Train-bands are already suspected (and perhaps will shortly be disarmed and plundered too) and the City awed by Red-coats. That for this War the twentieth part of their estates is voted away, and Assessors most of one Faction appointed, who may call nineteen parts the twentieth; That they are (under that terror) imprisoned, upon grounds upon which no man should be imprison●d▪ and imprisoned by persons who ought to imprison nobody; (for suppose both Houses had an Arbitrary power over their goods and liberties, they never claimed any till now by Ordinance, or otherwise, to transfer that power to a Committee; which yet is daily acted by them without reporting to the Houses) and this slavery is only evaded by saying, it is thus far a voluntary slavery, that they may free their persons if they will by voluntary Contribution, and that it is done to fright them from a perpetual slavery: And truly, the Kings, attorney had no great invention, if he could not have found the same Answer to justify all the Imprisonments for Ship-money, Knighting-money, Coat and Conduct-money, &c. to have been both voluntary and necessary.  
Nor is this reason of maintaining the War any better as to the leg●ll, then as to the prudential part. The King (who hath power of making War and Peace, which both Houses, how ●●ll and free soever they are, have not) in never so just and necessary a War hath no legal power to levy money to maintain it, without consent in Parliament. But this War for which this Ordinance is made, is not only as illegal as the Ordinance itself, (I can make no greater expression) but it is as ungrounded as it is illegal. They first make a necessity, that they may make a War; and then root up liberty and property, that they may continue it: schism, Pride, Faction, and Ambition, were the only grounds; fears and Jealousies were the only pretences; and Misery, Slavery, and Desolation, are the only effects, of that which now to petition against is become a crime.  
And if I make this appear to you, I doubt not, Sir, but you will then confess, that not only these illegal proceedings of theirs are not justified by the War, but that even the illegal pressures to which they have necessitated the King; (what tax soever He can have laid upon Oxfordshire, or my Lord of Newcastle upon Yorkshire, or Sir Ralph Hopton upon the West) are to be imputed to the beginners of this war; and that both the plundering of Master Speaker of his Wine and his Battelaxe, and the plundering of Brainford, (which though it were done to a town taken by assault, yet for want of other instances is twice repeated) and the danger of London (which he says was as near to the state of Brainford, as Brainford is to London) is to be charged upon the same score. Let us consider the beginning of these distractions. When with so much difficulty, by so few voices, that unexampled Declaration of the house of Commons had been spread among the people, which incited them against the established laws, and against the house of Lords, which would not alter what was established▪ And when the people, giving credit to their information, that there was no hope of happiness for them without their concurrence, had (to the dishonour of Parliaments, and with the breach of the highest privileges of that most honourable Court) come down in Tumults to make them concur; and by affronting and injuring some of the Members of both houses, so awed the rest, that the Army, if it had really been brought up to London, could have done no more (though a mere discourse concerning that was voted to be Treason.) When all these Tumults (of which I speak the more knowingly, because I was then by accident in the court of Requests when the Rabble came up, and heard, no Bishops, no Bishops, cried with that animosity and violence, that it rings still in my ears; and saw Sir John Strangewayes threatened as their enemy; and one (I think they called him Master Killigrew) laid hands on, and so much fear in the faces of some other Members, that I believe they hardly knew what they voted in a week after, and the next day saw Westminster Abby assaulted by the same Rabble) when these Tumults were not only not punished, nor the Authors inquired after nor so much as the complaints of the particular Members considered, but the Lords were twice refused to be joined with in a Declaration against the like for the future, And this Rabble commended and styled their friends by the most eminent Members in that House: When Justice Long was committed by the House of Commons for obeying a writ sent by direction of the Lord's House, and sending a watch to guard them, and the sheriff forbid by the same House to proceed legally against a Riot in Southwark, When this countenance to Riots, and discountenance of Law had made Tumults ordinary and familiar even at the Gates of Whitehall and occasioned that accusation of the Lord Kimbolion; and the five Members which hath been since five hundred times repeated as the principal ground of jealousy, (though they were accused in so legal a manner, as had been formerly accepted by the House of peers in the Earl of Bristols Case: and though the King offered them so much satisfaction for it, that any private Christian that should refuse to receive it from his equal, were in no case to receive the communion.) Who ever after that saw the great levys of armed men in London, and the multitudes of people every day flocking to them from several Countries, and the low condition the King then was in, removing from place to place, without the convenience of ordinary Accommodation, (some of His servants leaving Him, and others refusing to attend him) could not believe that He could then give them such a Terror, as no less than all the Castles and Forts of the kingdom, and the sole disposal of the whole Militia could give them security enough against Him, who had not with, or near Him, money enough to pay a man, nor powder enough to kill a bird; and could never have arrived at such a condition, as to be able to raise an Army, if the violence which hath been since offered Him had not asisted Him. Nor were the Lords then so afraid of the King, or yet so afraid of the people, as to demand so unreasonable security; so that the House of Commons having twice in vain attempted their consent, were fain to ask it of His majesty alone. But when after the usual Satellites came up to them with a Petition, seconded and countenanced by the House of Commons, demanding those Lord's names who refused to join; This Eloquence prevailed, or rather this Militia made the other pass; and in a few days (the King granting most, but not all they asked) the Lords (who were unwilling to put the people to the trouble of comm●ng again) joined in Declaring (and were as good as their words) that if the King would not consent, they would put the Militia in execution without Him. Thus illegally was that Ordinance past both Houses, which would have been most illegal, however it had past. Thus was the Kings highest Right, His Negative voice, and in the highest point (which alone enabled Him to defend the rest) forced from him. Thus was England put in arms without his consent, whose Commission only could legally warrant the least Assembly in that kind▪ and a few Officers by his command in a peaceable manner, attending him at Kingston for his security, was voted levying of war against himself; and this was the first beginning of this necessary war, which now must make all things lawful in order to that necessity: whilst the King presses still his Message of the 20. of January, that he may but know what they would have, and is not thought worthy of an Answer. But to justify their actions by their fears, Armies are daily threatened from beyond-Sea, (though they have lain wind-bound ever since) because all the world saw he had nothing in England he could fright them with; but still the lower he was, the higher they grew; and the more they contemn him, the more they fear him: Nothing that he can do will satisfy them; Nothing that he can say shall satisfy the people, for they shall not be suffered to see it. Care is taken by order to the several Burgesses, That all the towns of England must hear of his coming to the house of Commons; and that in a manner in which he did no te●me. But his sorrow that he hath by this broke any privilege, his offers of satisfaction for it, and his Resolution both to observe & defend them all for the future; If this be printed and offered to be published, his Secretary must be questioned for sending it to the Sheriffs by his majesty's Command, and the Sheriffs forbid to publish it according to the Kings own Warrant, and sent for as Delinquents if they do. Would he have my Lord of Newcastle command his Town? he must not. Would he not have Sir John Hotham command it? he must. Dares he not come to London? He must. Would he be waited on in the country by his menial servants? he must not. Will he not choose such Officers and Counsellors as they will name, and displace such evil Counsellors as they cannot name? Then the prevalency of the Malignant Party is cried out upon; his not encountering colonel Burges and captain Venne in the head of their Mermidens, is called deserting his Parliament: The Rebellion of Ireland (which he had disarmed himself to resist) is laid to his charge, and his offer to venture his royal Person against the Rebels there, is voted to be an encouragement to that Rebellion. If he deny or delay any thing they ask, though never so much in his power to grant or deny, a new Vote passes upon the Advisers, of being enemies to the State; and (having once found that Word to have great influence upon the people) whatsoever he says or does, he cannot but break their privileges; and whatsoever they say or do, they cannot break his. And indeed their observing no Rule at all in their Votes, and the people's readiness to observe all their Votes as a Rule, had so hared him and all his servants, that I had rather be not only Master Pym or Master Hampden, but Master Cromwell or Master Pury, than King of England, Scotland, France and Jreland, in so sad and distracted a condition. And I wonder not, when they asked him his crown in the nineteen Propositions, that they thought they had made him weary enough of it, to part with it for asking. Still the Militia is everywhere pressed and Sir John Hotham having before pretended to keep Hull for the King, now keeps the King out of Hull, though he offered to enter but with twenty servants; he is justified in it by the houses, and the houses slander themselves that they may justify him, and acknowledge a direction they never gave. Upon this he takes to himself a much smaller Guard than they had daily kept together many months at Westminster, This is voted an intention to levy war against his Parliament, and the sheriffs are ordered to suppress it. All this while (to prepare the people to suffer any wrong to be offered the King) the Presses and the Pulpits (the two seed-plots of this war) had swarmed daily with slanderous Invectives against his majesty: (besides Declarations of a strange nature.) And if any grave pious Minister did write, preach, speak, or almost think for the King, he was accused by the factious part of his Parish before the Committee for scandalous Ministers, and their mere receiving and countenancing of such an Accusation, (though their leisure would not admit him to clear himself before them) was enough to blast him with the people.  
After this, all that could be taken of the Kings, or any of His Friends, arms, Goods, Ships, any thing is good prize; and (as if the maxim were inverted, and He now could receive no wrong, who was wont He could do none) they proceed really against Him (though in pure civility they pased no such Vote upon Him) as an enemy to the State. And at last, having protected all Delinquents against Him and the known Law, and voted all Delinquents who had refused to become so by submitting to their illegal commands: Though the King had for His Guard only one Regiment of the Yorkshire Trained-bands, and one troop of Horse, volunteers, of the Gentlemen of that Country, And though the King never protected any man, till Sir John Hotham was denied to be brought to a legal trial; yet an Army is voted to be raised to defend them from the King and His Cavaliers, and to fetch up his Majesty and His fellow Delinquents. Yet to this Vote his majesty opposes only His own Declaration, and that of the Lords with Him, (who saw best what was done towards it, being upon the place) that he had no such intention as was pretended; and till contributions were raised to raise men, He desired no contribution to be prepared by His friends for him; and till they had leavyed men, and mustered them in some number, He gave not out so much as one Commission to leafy a man; But then (not thinking it needful to stay till my Lord of Essex should come and take Him En Cuerpo, that he might satisfy the world how defensive the war was on His part) He grants out Commissions, but then grant not any to any Papists; and takes all possible care, and gives all possible Orders, that they entertain no soldiers of that Religion; yet these men (who well may couple Peace and Truth together, for their actions and words have a long time showed that they love them alike) charge him to the people in daily Declarations with raising an Army of Papists against the Parliament; which makes it the less strange, if his majesty since confented to have the assistance of some Papists, (for they are not so many as you think for) since he saw that without their assistance He could not avoid all the scandal, which having it could produce, especially since He saw many of that Religion were entertained in their Army; (having taken at Edge-hill several Walloons, English, and Irish, of that Religion, who confess of many more:) And since He saw a great part of the rest to consist of another kind of Recusants, which by the Law of this kingdom not only ought not to be armed in it, but not toremaine in it at all. Well, his majesty is come to N●tt●ngham, and though He was confident the Commissions he had sent forth, would time●y enough bring him in a sufficient▪ Army to beat theirs; (as the event hath since showed) yet preferring Peace even before Victory itself, he sent twice to desire it (I had almost said to petition for it) from both Houses: How it was received all the world knows. After this he meets them, he fights with them, he beats them, (of which the suffering their Ordnance to be taken away next morning before their faces, the quitting Banbury which they-came to relieve, and marching to London themselves in stead of bringing the King up thither, was so g●e●t a proof, as far outweighs the single assertion of my Lord Wharton, or my Lord Brooke to the contrary.) He is still constant to his Principles, and (though after a Victory) gives a quite other kind of Answer to their Petition at Colebrook, than they had done to his Message from Nottingham. VYhilest the Committee was with Him there, part of their Army marcheth out of London; That he might not be enclosed on all sides, he marches to prepossess Brain●ford, (but at the instant sends word of His march, and the reason of it to the Houses) He found them there, he beats them out; And if His intention had been to have Marched on and sacked London, what altered that intention? Could He think himself so much weaker by the loss of ten men, or them so much stronger by the loss of two of their best Regiments, besides their loss by water, as for that reason to change his mind? No: as soon as He found Kingston quitted behind Him before any approach or notice of any Forces of theirs, he gives orders to march away. He again and again repeats his desire of Peace, which is so far from being accepted, that the English Petitioners are threatened, hurt, and imprisoned, for desiring it too, and a Scots Army is invited to continue the war. But I hope our brethren will remember that those against whom they are called, have paid and are to pay them more of the brotherly assistance than those that call them; and these men will find themselves as much de received in their hopes of their own foreign Forces, as they were in their fear of the Kings, and that the Scots will stay till the Danes come.  
To sum up this point, If to take away by force all the others just Rights, be to begin the war, his majesty is not the Aggressor: If to have a Guard first be the beginning of the war, (as the Replyer pretends) certainly this war began at London, and not at York; the first being raised by the power of a Committee, upon some thing (which after came to nothing) fetched as far off as Edinburgh: If the raising men first by Commissions were to begin it, it was begun there too: If the denying of Delinquents to be legally tried were to begin it, London was the place, and Sir John Hotham the per on, where and for whom it was first begun: If the eagerness of continuing can show who begun it, does not this Aversion from Peace declare sufficiently that they begun the war, who now so carefully nurse their own child? And I suppose no indifferent person can think these visible Arguments confuted by the repliers wonder, and his only Arguments in the Reply to the contrary; which are a tale of a Papist in York, that should say, Let the sword try it; (when it were little to any other purpose whether a Papist had said so, then to show by the King's backwardness to follow this counsel, that the Counsels of Papists were more prevalent with the Parliament; then with Him;) And of Sir Francis Wortley's drawing his sword, and saying, who is for the King? when it is well known at York, that this was not said at all by him: and that what was said and done, was to a very Different end: But indeed upon such an information upon hearsay, (which Mr Rushworth brought from York in short hand) Sir Francis was likely to have been accused of high Treason, but it being put off for that time, the truth was discovered, the Relater was ashamed, and Sir Francis Wortley never further accused for it.  
Yet as little as he can say to prove the War begun on the King's part, and as much as is said to prove the contrary, he hath the face to compare the Kings making war upon his Parliament to Saul's hunting of David, and that, as if the case were so exactly the same, that nothing but not having heard of the Bible could make us not know it. You took, I thank you Sir, very early care, that I should not be unacquainted with the book he speaks of, and I wonder not (knowing it so well as I do) that he should be better able to justify this Rebellion (though this case too differs wholly from that there quoted) out of Bodine, then out of the Bible. A Popish Author is fittest to justify, that which hath been raised out of Popish Principles. But to return to David; had he ever given Saul any cause to fear him by spreading Declarations, or raising and encouraging Tumults, against him and the established laws? Had he nothing to make him apprehend Saul, but mere fears and Jealousies? Did Saul attempt him with an Impeachment, or with a Javelin? And did he ever offer after to quit him by a Bill? Did David upon his Apprehension seize the citadel in Jerusalem and keep Saul out with armed men? Did he seize his arms, Goods, and Ships, and then justify the seizure by saying, he took from him not the Property, but the mischief? or fly into a remote Cave for security? Did he invade Saul's privileges, and deny him a Negative voice? Did he pretend to command the Militia of all Israel without Saul's consent? Did he ever demand from him such nineteen Propositions, as the only way to compose differences between them? Did he raise an army to fetch those evil counsellors from about Saul who had persuaded him to seek his life? Did he pursue him with it, and give him battle, and then charge the malignant Party about him, for going about to destroy him, by bringing him ●etweene the two Armies, and so into the danger of that Destruction? Or did l●● ●eart smite him for cutting but the lap of his Garment? Did David ever reject such messages from Saul as that of the 20 of January, and those from Nottingham? Or did he ●…er imprison any of his followers for desiring an accommodation? Certainly who ever hath read that story and seen this, will find a wide difference between what the King●id, and what was done to him; and Saul's provocations of David, and David's returns ●owards Saul. And who ever had waited on the King this last year from place to place would easily conclude, whether he or the Parliament were hunted most like the Par●ridge.  
Yet, Sir: I charge not the Parliament with this. The replier thinks not so well of, and wishes not so well to that honourable Assembly, as I do: Nothing offends me more in the present Actions of the remaining part of the Parliament, then that by them they furnish those who wish Parliaments but ill, with Arguments to infuse into Princes an ill Opinion of Parliaments, and furnish Princes with principles which with more pretence may be applied by them to the Destruction of their Subjects. Parliaments are indeed the Root of our propriety, and their genuine privileges are the root of Parliaments. But the Parliament consists of three estates, and for any two to deny the third his just Rights and privileges, and for one, or both, or a part of both or either, a Committee, to usurp the rights and privileges which belong only to the whole three, is the way to root up both privileges, Property, Parliaments, and all; and to make the People more weary of their physicians, than they were before of their diseases. Who knows not that the House of commons consists of near five hundred Members, and that usually fourscore is now counted a full House, and that of at any time they make one hundred and forty (as for a rare instance, the replier tells us of once or twice, and that only by report) it is when the military Members are sent for up from the Army to pay their gratitude to their new profession by opposing of Peace? And that many of those, who are present do not believe themselves secured by their Army, though they are too much frighted to dare to complain of fear? And can it be thought that so many persons of Honour, trusted by their country, would be absent from the service of it, if they thought the work now in hand so necessary to the public defence of Religion, laws, Liberty, Property, and Parliaments, and that the highest service they could do them were to countenance the present cause with a full House, as they must do, if they were of the same opinions with the remaining party? and on the other side, if they be confessed to be of contrary opinions can it be thought, that so many as are able to make up a major part (for that is most true ●…ill as to the house of commons, though they have put out a great number, because their conscience bound them either to defend their King, or not to assist against him, and it is evidently true as to the House of Lords) would not have chosen rather to have stayed and hindered this war, or yet to come up and compose it, by over voting the rest, if they had not known, or did not know, that then and now, the tumults, and the Red-coats had and will have the casting voice in all such Debates? And if the example of Sir Sidney Montague, by so much as the Replyer confesseth, did not show them, that if they came not at all at a time, any single men that should refuse to swear to assist them, in that which already by several Oaths they are bound to resist, and bei●g asked their reason, should say that which their absence hath expressed, believe the statute of 25 Edw: 3. before some late ordinances, and call a Spade a Spade, and Treason Treason, they should but change their places in the House for one in the Tower; since my Lord Kimbolton himself upon such an occasion could not save his uncle, though he could his Father. And indeed who ever observes the differences betwixt the Actions of the Houses, will find something to have interceded besides time, and that either they are not composed of the same men, or the same men have not the same freedom. In a fortnight's space the Lord's House twice denied to ask the Militia of the King, and declared that they would put it in execution without Him. In two months' time the Lord's House desired the House of Commons to join with them in a Declara●ion against tumults (with reasons expressing a great sense how scandalous it would be even to the past laws made by this Parliament, if such meetings were not suppressed) and joined with the House of Commons in a Declaration to His Majesty denying that there had been any tumults, and justifying those meetings which they had called so before, When His Majesty was going into Scotland▪ it is well known that the principal reason upon which both Houses pressed his stay, or to have a Custos Regni in his absence, was that without His authority concurring, money could not be raised ●n that time of extreme necessity: and yet it seems they have now discovered, that His absence From, is a desertion of His Parliament; and that This and necessity enables them by the fundamental laws to impose levyes, and other laws upon his Subjects, without his consent, and contrary to his command: and that the case is now the same as in the minority of a King, though even then Sir Simon Dewes himself cannot produce one record, that ever such levy was made by both Houses alone, without the concurrence of the royal assent by some protector. It is well known by the many long debates about it without prevailing, what little hopes at first appeared in the House of Commons, that the Bill against Bishops root and Branch, should pass in that House; that a clause to that purpose was dashed even out of their first Remonstrance, when the appear not to have been in any humour of complying beyond their ordinary inclinations▪ and how impossible it appeared for a long time after, that such a Bill should ever pass in the House of peers, not six Lords then appearing of that mind, and yet since a Declaration is past, and a Bill is passing both Houses to that purpose. They passed a Bill upon my 〈◊〉 of Strafford, of which the principal ground was, that he had said, that the King having endeavoured to have the assistance of his Parliament in great necessity, and for the defence of himself and kingdom, and being deserted by them, was absolved from all the rules of government: and yet since (as if his judges had been his successors, and had cut off his head only to take out his princi●les) they upon the same pretences have absolved themselves from all rules of obedience, and only differ in not using the power they claim with the limitation he gave, that is Cand●de & Ca●te. Nor is this only since an actual war (though that being begun by them is no excuse) but when all was quiet, and no dangers but from fears, Mr. Hotham's Letter (in answer to a complaint he expected from the inhabitants of Hull for some violent and illegal actions) was read and not reproved in the House of Commons, saying, that he hoped, since what he did was in order to their commands, they would not stand upon the form●lities of Law and Lawyers.  
Sir, it is true, those formalities are now wholly laid by, but till we shall return to them, and by them to some known Rule, we shall have a most miserable form of Government. If we fight yet another year in this kingdom, by that time this kingdom will not be worth the fighting for; And when those armies which shall have impoverished you by their 〈…〉 y, shall have kept the land from being tilled by their te●rour (for the Countryman will not sow what he cannot hope quietly to reap) as omnipotent as an ordinance is, it will not be able to forbid a famine, and to secure you from starving by the authority of both Houses: you may yet secure yourselves if you please; make but good your Protestation; let ●ot London help to undo itself, and the Country, and the thing is done. Defend the Religion established Suffer not Alderman Pen●ington (so known a Brownist and des●iser of the commonprayer that the replier hath done his best to prove him none, when he hath been able to name one time in which he could bring himself to endure to be present at some twenty lines of it in the House of Commons, as good an argument as he is a Major) to encourage ●rabble of the same opinion whom I will name, when he names that new Truth which he would have joined to our Peace) to suppress That, and the Act of Parliament that appoints it Defend your Liberties, and suffer not a close Committee (for your last jour●all tells us, that such an excluding Committee there is, and that they commit men by their own orders as Col●onell Bro●●e for one, whether that be the same with the Committee for examinations is not much material, which by the course of Parliament can have no other course derived to it, then to consider and report; to imprison you by no Rule, but that of their discretions (which is more than they from whom they have their power have right to do) or suffer an Order o● the House of Commons to stop Habeas corpuses, the birthright of every subject. Defend your Propriety, and suffer not the twentieth (for as much they will call the twentieth) part of your estates to be taken from you, by so insufficient Authority, upon so invalid security, for so rebellious an end, as are an ordinance, public Faith, and this present War. Defend the Privi●edges of Parliament, and His majesty's honour and rights, and join not to take away His majesty's negative voice, by submitting to that authority, to exclude him as no part of the public; by accepting of that security, to include him among the public enemies, by contributing (beyond your abilities, and contrary to your Duties) to a war against him. Let not your money and plate be turned into the price of the blood of your fellow Subjects. Suffer not a few men to set a whole kingdom on fire to roast their own eggs by it; at lea●●, become not you the incendiaries, by ministering fuel to this public fire, which else must instantly go out of itself; and give the King but what is his, and that you may keep what is your own. Who can secure you, that his Majesty may not prevail by force? And if he do (after so many desires of peace, and proffers of pardon) who can secure you from an offended P. and a victorious army, that your Citizens shall not be destroyed, and your City ashes? Who can secure you (who believe His majesty's Protestations no better) that if he come once aga●ne to govern by the help of an army, that he may not be tempted to govern always by one, and learn of you to declare necessi●e, and rule according to those principles, which you have taught Hi● to be lawful by the fundamental laws in times of Necessity, and acce●t of no security from future rebellions, but such as shall leave us none from future oppressions? Who can secure you, th●t if the Papists shall have assisted Him in the actual recovery of his crown by force, in so great an exigent, (and in so great numbers, as you would have us think they do) that his gratitude to them may not be a temptation, to incline Him to such favours towards, and trust in them, as may in time be more prejudicial to us and our Religion, than he may either discover or suspect? But who can give you hope if the rebels prevail, that the close Committee will be ever content to be private men again. That the Parliament shall not be everlasting, and their necessity, and your pressures as eve●lasting a● the Parliament; and that you shall not suffer more under the Tyranny of many th●n any one (how witty and industrious soever in it) can inflict upon you? be●●des the perp●tuall danger of war from abroad (from the potent allies to the Crown who for the general interest of Princes, and hope of particular advantages, will be always ready to assist the discontented party here in the recovery of the just Rights of it for the King and his posterity) and of schisms and Factions at home, and many other evils not to be particularly foreseen, which will undoubtedly arise from the total alteration both of Church and State: whereas if such moderate and equal propositions shall be offered, as may and aught to produce a Peace, either they will be excepted, or refused. If they be refused, your cause will be mended, and your Power increased: if they be accepted, the Armies will be disbanded, poor Magna Charta (which hath of late been so ●●u●ht between two supposed Necessities) will be again in credit and estimation, and will be preserved in it by triennial Parliaments; and the people having now so full a s●nce of their Liberties. and His majesty having such experience, how much it endangers the Prerogati●e to encroach upon those Liberties, and being restored to that sweetness of honour and quiet, which no reasonable man thus warned, will endanger, and quit, for a possible increase of unnecessary power, there will be little cause to fear any slavery for the future, and the King will have no more temptation or means, than I hope he hath will to oppress us. Then the Papists (when Peace hath resettled the laws) will be disarmed by those laws to secure us from them for the present, and the Law (of which His majesty hath showed himself so desirous) for the education of their children in the Protestant Religion, will (when it is past) secure us from them for the future: and then the Government of both Church and State being new settled in the old way, the King may again be honoured, the Parliament again respected, Ireland regained, and this kingdom happy, Which. God of his mercy grant. Amen.  
Sir, 
 I confess, I have been transported into an unusual stile, and less remembered to whom, then against whom I writ this. But I beseech you pardon me for it, since it is my affection to you, and desire to disengage so good a man from so ill a cause, that hath so transported me. Nor would I have hazarded your displeasure, and the loss I may sustain by it, if I had not been far more concerned to save your soul, then to inherit your estate. And so Sir, beseeching you to commond my duty to my Aunt, and God to have you both in his h●ly protection, I remain  
Your most affectionate and dutiful Nephew.   

A brief Relation of the great Victory obtained by Sir RALPH HOPTON near Bodmin, in the County of Cornwall, Ianua●y 19 Anno Dom. 1642.  
AMongst those fortunate successes, wherewith Almighty God hath crowned His majesty's designs, for the redem●tion of his Church and State, from that calamitous condition, in which they have been plunged of late by some factious spirits, there is not any more remarka●le, then that which hath b●fallen Him in the Western parts. For if we look upon the Theatre where this prize was played, it is a country most remot● from the power and presence of His Majesty, and therefore less provided of such help●s by which the sub●ects might receive encouragement in their faith and ●oyalty. Next look we on the principa●l Actor, and we shall find he was a stranger to the place, a man of no al●iance nor dependence th●re, and so by consequence of little power and estimation amongst that p●ople. In each regard we must acknowledge his success, or rather His Majesties by him, to be more than ordinary; and that there is a special providence which guides His majesty's affairs, even there where human reason could conceive least hopes. We will not recap●tulate the story of his carriage there since the first beginning, when he was forced to fly to Cornwall for his life and safety like one abandoned to all extremities ●f ill fortune; nor make a general muster of th●se happy accidents which gave him credit and authority amongst the natives of that country, These have a long time been the subjects of our tongues and pens. The Argument of this relation shall be ●hat notable and signal victory, which he obtained against the Rebels not far from Bodmin, that being as the latest, so the greatest evidence of God's blessing on him and his affections and fidelity to God's anointed.  
How after his retreat from Exeter he was pursued almost to the edge of Cornwall by the Rebels forces, and with what courage and felicity he made those fly before him, who had followed after him, hath formerly been imparted to the Court by letters of unquestioned credit, and from the Court communicated to the rest of the kingdom. His purpose was to rest and refresh his soldiers till the spring came on: and would have sat down quietly till then, if the unquiet nature of the Rebels, or rather their unlucky destinies would have given him leave. But they forgetting with what ill success they had in vain attempted to cut him off in his march through Devonshire, gathered their scattered troops together, which they increased by the accession of new forces; some from the Garrison at Plymmouth, some from other places till they had made themselves so strong, as to adventure once more on their own destruction. In the mean time, he seeing how the clouds did begin to gather, and that some terrible storm was like to fall upon him from the hills of Devonshire, thought it not fit to stay at Lanceston or Saltash, towns on the very e●●e of Cornwall, and therefore more in danger of the threatened tempest, but retreated towards Bodmin, being more in the middle of the County; and consequently far more l●kely to afford him shelter, than the other, places. The fury of the storm might break in so long a course; if not, he should be better fitted to withstand the violence.  
Two things there were which gave him some apparent hopes, not only that he might be able to make resistance, but presume of victory. The one was, that the Rebels as they marched through the Country, committed such intolerable out rages and rapines, th●●●ll the people of those parts who were fit for arms, came freely to him, and offered ●●m their ●blest service, that by his conduct and command they might reprieve themselves 〈◊〉 so 〈◊〉 deaths as did daily threaten them. There is a London Pamphlet which 〈…〉 last week, The kingdom's Int●lligence, I suppose they call it; wherein it is a 〈…〉 d 〈◊〉 certain, (and who is of so little faith as to think the contrary) that the Cor 〈…〉 men being weary of Hopton's government, had craved the Earl of Stamford to pro●●●● them against his Forces; and that the Earl consenting to their just desires, had so dist●essed the man both by Land and by Sea, that there was no possibility for him to escape. if he should attempt it. How impudent a tale this is, need not hee●e be told? It is enough to say it came from London, where there is coining every day of these foolish ●●●tions, though of nothing else. But losers must have leave to talk, there's a proverb for it. The other of those happy accidents, which advanced his hopes, was that whilst he provided for the entertainment of such troublesome guests, a fleet of forty sail of ships were driven by weather and good fortune within the Ordinance and command of Pend●nnis Castle, then and before that long, in his possession. These ships being bound for London, and the two Houses of Parliament, he stayed and seized on, and took their lading into the Castle: in which he found some store of arms: and such a liberal stock of ready money, as did not only serve to pay his soldiers the Arrears than do, but encourage them to stand stoutly to him, by giving them a fortnight's pay before hand, to their content. There was no need to bid his Soldiers work● out their own safety, when once they were assured of so good a paymaster; or to persuade his men to stand bravely to it, when they perceived they should not sell their lives for nothing. The victory must need● be clear, and eminent, when not God only, but his enemies did contribute towards it.  
Tuesday the 17. of this Month was that lucky day in which the lading of these ships was brought in by Sir N. Slaning and the soldiers satisfied. And the next day, colonel Ru●hen who hither to had kept a garrison in Plymouth, by the appointment and command of the two Houses of Parliament, drew up his forces towards L●stithell, ten miles from Bodmin: and thence, as if he had waited a convenient time to ruin both himself & all his followers, he sent a challenge to Sir Ralph Hopton to meet him the next day being thursday, and to commit the point which was then in difference unto the issue of a battle. The place designed for this great trial, was in the middle way betwixt Lestithell & Bodwin, where they might meet on equal terms, and so fight it out. Sir Ralph who knew his own advantages, did willingly accept of the invitation▪ and very early on Thursday morning marched unto the place, where he expected the approach of his daring enemies on a little hill upon the brow whereof he had planted six good piece of Ordinance, and by advantage of the ground had so hid his men, that those who did appear were not held considerable. What his whole number was is not yet made known. The Army of the enemy consisted of 4000 men, conducted by a man much spoken of for his abilities in the art of war, and one thought himself much wronged in that he had so weak an adversary to encounter with. For thinking the King's Army to be all in sight he fooled himself into a false conceit of an easy victory; and ran so fast upon the sp●●● on the hopes thereof, that unawares he came within the reach of Hopton's C●●he p●ed so fast upon him with all care and diligence, that he retreated with more haste than he came upon him:  
Sir Ralph perceiving their retreat, fell furiously upon their horse, which he charged in ●●●reate, and routed them with little labour, b●ing before disordered by the Cannon.  
By this time Ruthens foot were got into a lane which they were to pass, the horse coming after in the rear: who were so closely followed by the conquering army, that ●●ey had no other way to save themselves, then by riding over their own men, whom they killed most miserably. Sir Ralph pursuing his good fortune, not only drove them to, but out of Lestithell, and there took all their carriages and money, and a thousand ●●mes, which they had thrown away as heavy lu●gage, unuseful unto those who resolved to fly and trust unto their legs, since their hands failed them. It is most credibly ●●ported, that the Rebels lost three parts of their army, of which 200 only were taken prisoner; the rest being killed either in the battle, or the chase. And of the Prisoners those of special note were Sir Shelson Colmadam (the Knight of the hard name as they ●se to call him) one of the Pophams, together with Sirode of Strete, and Pine of Somer●●●shire; which two his majesty hath excepted (amongst others) out of his general ●●●don for that County: and as he hath attached them without a Sergeant, so he may ●arrantably proceed against them without breach of privilege. Some other Gentlemen of quality were then taken also, whose names as yet are not come unto us: and it is ●●id that Ruthen was himself either killed, or taken: but this is built upon report only, and not yet signified by letters.  
Whether the Earl of Stamford were there in person, is not yet ass●red: but s●re it is that he was present there in his power and forces; the certainty whereof appears by some particulars▪ which are these that follow. For upon friday, being the morrow after this famous victory, news came to Exeter, that the Earl of Stamford had lost ●500 foot, 300 of his horse, and 3 pieces of Ordnance, requiring some supplies from thence with all speed that might be; and the next day there was an hundred foot sent towards him, as part of those supplies which he had required from t●at City, which though they were many as the town could possibly provide in so short a warning most of the●r men being gone before in pursuit of Sir Ralph Hopton, when he re●re●ted from that City:) yet were not many enough; as the case then stood, to be a gu●rd unto ●●s p●rson in that desperate exigent. And it was generally said, that some of tho●e his ●●de, and sacrilegious soldiers, who had so more than barbarously demeaned th●mselves in the Church of Taun●on, were the first men that were cut off in the day of battle wherein 'tis pity that they were no better followed, by him who should have punished such a misbehaviour. The story is, that upon Thursd●y, being Twelfth Eve, the Earl of Stamfords Chaplain, a vicious and sed●t●●u● fellow preached a Sermon like himself in the Church of Taunton, which was no sooner done, (as he, and such a●, he have most excellent ar●s to inflame the p●ople) but presently the soldiers ●u 〈…〉ed into the chancel, where they broke down an Organ which the Parish had set up of late, at no less charges than the sum of 400l. That done they went next to the Reading pew, where they found the book of Common Prayer: which though they spared, I know not upon what notion, yet they thought fit to purge the same of some unnecessary prayers, those namely for the King, the Queen, the royal Issue, and the Bishops, We see by this what ● that grieves them, and that they will not be content with defacing Churches, or destroying Bishops, as long as there is King or Queen to control their insolences, and any of the royal issue, left to revenge those injuries, which with such bold pretence● are committed against sacred majesty. But this is somewhat from my purp●se, I rather should have noted God's most righteous judgement, in bringing those unchristian sacrilegious wretches to such a speedy execution, and hastening them to their destruction, when in all likelihood they took most delight in such a special piece of service.  
But to go on, the news of this defeat fell very heavy on all those, who either have their hands or hearts in this Rebellion. One writes from Exeter, unto a zealous Minister in Somersetshire, in these words that follow: There is very sad news come hither▪ God hath not blessed us in this expedition into Cornwall, most o● our forces are cut of● There are some achan's amongst us not yet discovered. We desire you would double your prayers for us; there never was more need. Farewell. Never was truth more fully spoken, where it was less me●nt. There are indeed to many achan's; he saith true in that, (for Achan's sin we know was the sin of sacrilege) and those not yet so perfectly discovered, as it is wished they were. Till they be rooted out there is no peace for Israel. Another writes from Dorchester to a friend in London, That a post came from Exeter thither with a letter to Sir Walter Earl, bringing intelligence that Sir Ralph Hopton had cut off 1500 of the Parliament Forces, and took many prisoners, which had put that town into great sadness, I must needs say the gentleman to whom this letter came, was most fitly chosen, to be the man that should receive the first intelligence of that heavy accident. He may new set himself on work in finding out some notable piece of treason against colonel Ruthen, and the Earl of Stamford, whereby they came to be defeated by so weak an enemy: having so fine a faculty in disc●v●ring of treasons which never were intended against the State. Seriously to conclude this business, although it be not known at how dear a price, His majesty's Army bought so great a victory, yet it is hoped that it was purchased at an easy rate, because there is no mention in those letters which came from Exeter and Dorchester, or those dispatched unto the Court of any loss that did befall them: Not that we think so great a victory could be obtained against an Army of the Rebels, but with expense and loss of some faithful Subjectis but that the loss was inconsiderable both for the number and quality of those happy souls who gladly sacrificed their lives for their King and Country. The like success God send His majesty in His enterprises, till these disturbers of his peace be all rooted out. And that no hand be left to hold a sword against HIM.   
FINIS.