THE PRELATICAL CAVALIER catechised, and the Protestant soldier encouraged. By a Missive sent to King CHARLES in the name of the Protestants beyond Seas.  
Wherein these three Questions are resolved. Viz. First, how inconsistent a prelatical Government is with the true Protestant Religion, and with the peace and welfare of this kingdom. Secondly, how absolutely necessary it is for King CHARLES and his associates, to entertain Peace with the Parliament at any hand, if ever he hopeth to recover or enjoy any glory or splendour of his Royalty. Thirdly, which are the best means King CHARLES, &c. can use for obtaining an honourable Peace for the present, and improving and continuing the same in time to come. Much conducing to encourage and confirm all true Protestants in the truth of the Protestant Cause, especially all soldiers that are for King and Parliament.  
Being a Work, very useful and profitable to be read of all.  
Presented to the honourable counsels of Great Britain, now sitting in Parliament; and the rest of the King's majesty's Subjects.  
By Eleazar Gilbert, a Minister of God's Word.  
Printed, and published according to Order.  
LONDON, Printed for Robert Leyburn, and Richard Wodenothe, and are to be sold at the Star, under Peter's Church in Cornhill, 1645.   


with brothels and whorehouses. But when did your highness, or any of your followers, tax these men? For not only dispensing with, but even selling and licensing adultery, fornication, Idolatry, perjury, &c. Yea, which is as it were, the very essence and soul of Church Discipline; (Excommunication) for so great was the corruption of your Bishops, and their Officials; that for the value of twelve pence or some other such trifling sum of money, a man might either be received in, or ejected and cast out of your hierarchical Consistory, so that they have made Excommunication almost a very Chimaera, and consequently have enervated, extenuated, or rather annihilated the whole strength and power of your Church Government.  
Furhermore, we appeal unto your highness and your Associates; what ungodly, unjust and preposterous thing it was, that these Bishop's Officials, being themselves but laic men; neither Prophets, nor perhaps bred in the Schools of the Prophets; should at their own pleasure, summon up from the furthest corners of your Kingdom; nay, and not only so, but punish, suspend, and censure, both the persons and doctrine of your most godly, learned, and orthodox Divines; if either themselves or their Bishop had conceived the least spleen against them: may not the Proverb be well applied to such unequal and rigid Judges, Sus Minervam; or may not such reverend men say unto such laic Bishops, as the Egyptian said to Moses, Who made you a Judge over us? In one word, if your highness will but with an impartial eye: behold or survey the stupendious insolency and corruption of your Bishop's Courts and their Officers, these twenty years past, &c. you cannot but confess with us, that they were and are no other than a company of covetous, temporizing horseleeches come to their Consistories (not so much to compose and decide differences, and to preserve peace and piety amongst your people; as to get money and enrich themselves by the sins of the people: whereas if this charge were committed to godly and conscionable Pastors and Ministers assisted with the Suffrages of their Elders and Deacons (as it is in the government presbyterial all this corruption might be, or at the least, the most part prevented. Finally, that we may persuade your highness, &c. not only to leave, but also to loathe the paps of that enchanting Sorceress: we will add this one thing more, viz. the greatabuse which was committed by your Bishops in their Ordination of Ministers, how contrary to the gospel? and inconsistent with the practice of a Protestant Church is it? that the Ordination of many Ministers should be committed to the hands and authority of one man: viz. a Bishop, and that when such easy terms, and so small a trial; that let an Artificer or Husbandman come to a Bishop or his Chaplain upon some Ordination day, provided with some perfunctory Letter, or superficial testimony from a man (if but of ordinary quality) always provided that he hath his fees in his hand, and a black coat upon his back, and then, although he were as false and wicked as ever was Judas or Cain: as void of feature and good manners, as was Thersites and had no more learning than had Balaam's ass. He shall be admitted to the ministry, quite contrary to Paul's charge to Timothy; which was not to lay hands suddenly upon any man. Not that this authority of laying on of hands, or ordaining Ministers belonged to him alone: as the prelates do allege, for this is contrary to his own practice, when 1 Tim. 3. 14. He would not be admitted himself without the laying on of hands, of the company of the Eldership; but rather to dehort him from being corrupted by the example of these men, who had arrogantly assumed unto themselves this liberty, and as contrary is it also to the practice of Paul and Barnabas, Acts 13. 1. and these Deacons mentioned, Acts 6. 6. From which pontificial presumption, it hath come to pass, that in your English Prelacy (as from the Trojan Horse) there have issued so many apostolical Preachers, who being for their fees admitted to the ministry by some Bishop, without any Church, stipend, or maintenance, are forced (as it were) to beg their bread from door to door, and that not out of conscience (as the Popish Mendicants) but of constraint: they not having so much by their calling, as will supply their necessary sustenance: or which is much worse, sometimes to go beyond the Seas, and there turn Apostates, either to the Roman, Nicholaitan, or Lutheran superstitions, or thirdly, which is as bad, or little better than the former, or rather than they should starve, some of them do wander to Amsterdam or New England, & their side with some new fangled schism: Good God how abominable should this be to your highness who profess yourself Defender of the Faith? How dishonourable is it to your Nation? and how prejudicial to the true Protestant Religion and professors thereof, who should have amongst them all but one God, one Faith, and one baptism, and who should have no more Ministers amongst them to work at their Altars, but such as have a competent maintenance, and are able to live by the Altar: Is this the care of your right reverend Fathers to provide for their children, or hath your highness all this time, suffered yourself so woefully to be misled by these ghostly Vultures, as to permit them so shamefully (as the Pope doth to himself and his Cardinal's Nephews) to engross unto themselves and their simoniacal friends (neither of whom, nor perhaps any of them ever dared to adventure themselves beyond the seas to see the face, or learn the posture of any Christian or Protestant Church, or it may be hath no more learning in them then to resolve the Bishop of that grand question) who was Melchisedecks' father? to permit such men, them we say, so shamefully to engross to themselves all the fattest Benefices in your Kingdoms, and that a few (perhaps forty or fifty prelatical Priests or Ministers, by their codpiece or Court simony, should have every one for his yearly stipend 1000 or 2000 li. a year at the least, when it may be, 5000 more godly, learned, and every way more worthy pastors, who have also a greater charge to maintain) shall not have so much amongst them all, but are enforced, notwithstanding, their assiduous labours, and conscionable conversation, to eat the bread of car fullness, and to drink the waters of affliction by measure. That such barbarous, or rather Antichristian inequality, should not only be tolerated, but also, with tooth and nail, so eagerly be maintained, without reformation and that by a Protestant Prince, who styleth himself, Defender of the Faith, and by his associates who pretend and profess so much of the Protestant Religion, is a thing we must needs confess beyond our admiration. What should wespeak of your admitting Popish Priests and sacrificatures unto your parochial charges, yea, and sometimes to steer the helm of Christ's ship amongst you, without any imposition of hands, admission, or vocation, other than they received from the Roman Bishops, by whom they were ordinated sacrificers; to offer in their blasphemous Masses a Sacrifice both for quick and dead which how far it doth derogate from the all-sufficiency of Christ's passion, and how far such Sacrifices and Sacrificers are different from those in the Gospel: Rom. 12. 1. which consists principally in killing and mortifying our sinful lusts and affections; we hope may appear easily to any true Protestant whom God hath not given over to believe strong delusions, and to hold the truth in unrighteousness nor is there any less difference betwixt the calling of a Priest by a Popish Bishop, we speak as they are devoted to the errors and blasphemies of the See of Rome, as now it is unto the dispensation and ministry of the gospel, and the calling of a Protestant Minister by a lawful Presbyter (for aught we know then there was betwixt the calling of Annas and Caiphas, and that of Paul and Barnabas: Act. 13. 1. And so also we could tell your Prelates of their permitting women to baptise children in case of weaknesle, and if they cannot conveniently be brought to Church, as if the salvation of infants did depend upon the act of baptism and not upon the free grace of God, who according to the good pleasure of his will; and in relation to the covenant he hath made with our fathers hath elected them to salvation in Christ their Saviour for by the ministry of the Sacraments, God's promises unto us are not accomplished and finished, but only established and confirmed: here therefore is one gross error more to permit women to baptise, whom the Apostle, 1 Tim. 2. 12. will not permit to teach or speak in the congregation, nor to have any public charge in the Church; certainly, if they may lawfully be permitted to minister the one Sacrament, we know no reason why they may not as lawfully minister the other, which we hope no sound protestant will deny to be flat contrary to the ordinance of Christ, and a mere profanation of those holy mysteries. The like also we might allege of the Anabaptiss, Brownists, and divers other schismatics, that are permitted by you on both sides to the great disparagement of our Protestant Religion who although they were never brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, nor bred in the schools of the Prophets, but mere husbandmen or tradesmen, whose credit wealth and wit lieth in their hands and fingers, yet forsooth will brag of the Spirit and without any warrant or commission from Christ or his Church, will presume to take upon them this sacred function, and both preach and baptise without any warrant or calling, other than their own private fantasy or some brainsick enthusiasm. What need we say more? seeing that which we have already affirmed, is abundantly sufficient to discover to the world that your late English, episcopal prelatical Government, which your highness and your associates do so stiffly maintain, hath been no other (we mean especially in point of discipline) than a pattern of Popery, a map of machiavelism, a rhapsody of Superstition and a bundle of corruption, in regard whereof (for aught we know) we may as lawfully say, that of your Church and your Church government, as Buchanan your highness' father's Schoolmaster spoke of old Rome.  
Totam denique quantacunque Roma est  
Nascentom, vegetem excute & florentem  
Nihil invenies nisi lupercal  
Lupercale, Lupos, Lupas, Lupanar.  
To conclude, therefore this first question, and apply it to the use of your highness, and your Associates seeing that your late Prelacy, as it was exercised in England: and as it is now so stiffly maintained by you, hath not, nor ever had any just ground from the Word of God, nor from Christ, institution nor the practice of God's true Church for divers hundred of years after Christ, until Antichrist began to shoot out his horns. And for as much also as the true and solid peace and prosperity of a people, and their welfare also in respect of political government depends much, if not altogether, upon the right and orthodex government of the Church, consisting in soundness of doctrine, and integrity of discipline. It is high time for your highness, (seeing that you Hierarchy can hold no water, is not like to hold water) although with the Papist you should plead never so much antiquity for it (for as your own hierarchical Civilians will confess) Quod non valet ab initio, tractu temporis non convalescit.) To bethink yourself of some more sound, lawful, and warrantable way of governing your people in matters of Religion which is grounded; not to much upon men's inventions and pontificial Canons, as upon the Institution and written Word of God, and of his Son Christ, whose Gospel and Ordinance, doth not only bless and sanctify but authorise and qualify all human actions, and that as well under the Gospel, as under the Law: for why should we think, that Almighty God should be less careful of the Government of his Church under the New Testament, than he was in the time of Moses, or that he should then leave, or now under the Gospel allow all things in his Church; nay, any thing to be managed by the will and determination of subordinate Officers and Magistrates, without any ground (explicit or employed) from himself, whereas we know, that (not only Moses under the old Testament was so shy to do any thing) in the government of God's people of his own head. and without a special direction and commandment from God: that he would not admit unto the Passeover, one that at a funeral had touched the corpse of a dead man: before he had asked counsel of God, as you may see, Numb. 9 6, 7, 8 verses, and in Exod. 25. 40. he is expressly charged by God not to make the Tabernacle after any other fashion than was showed him in the mountain; but also Christ himself, who was Moses prototype; whom God in the 18 of Deuteronomy 15. did promise to raise up as a Prophet like unto Moses, (although much more excellent) for Moses as a servant, but Christ as a son, Heb. 3. 5, 6. Did dispose and regulate his little flock according to the will of his Father; not according to the will of man, nor according to his own will as he was man: but according to the will of his Father; for as himself witnesseth, John 5. 30. He came not to seek his own will, but the will of his heavenly Father: and this kind of government revealed in his Gospel without all question he will continue and have amongst all his chosen people to be continued until his second coming whose voice all Christians but especially, all Protestants, or reformed Christians must obey, unless they will deny Christ to be their Prophet or derogate from the worthinesle of his prophetical office; one principal part whereof was not only to reveal unto his people his Fathers will concerning their redemption, but also to govern and rule them in the performance and execution of that will unto the end of the world: wherefore to draw the frame and authenticalness of a Church government, from any other pattern then from Christ and his Apostles, is no other then to deny both the prophetical and regal office of the son of God; who if he be a King over his people, why should he not be able both to prescribe laws unto them, and also guide and rule them according to these Laws so far as may conduce to his owngory and their happiness: Surely they that draw the frame and government of an Evangelical Church under the Gospel, from any other authority, or build the same too much upon the placets and inventions of men who are not only vain, but vanity itself, nor subject to deceive, but also to be deceived, do but take their marks by the moon, build their house upon the sand. preferring Eleazar the servant to Isaac the son, and Moses the messenger, unto Christ the master and Judge of all the earth. In a word to say that Christ is not as careful of his Christian Church under the Gospel as Moses was of the Church of the Jews; and that he hath not in his Gospel prescribed, what kind of Magistrates, Ministers; and Officers he would have, and by what Laws he would have them to be governed, were to make him more negligent of his people then was Numa of the Romans, Solon of the Lydians or Lycurgus of the lacedaemonians; all which (although Heathens did prescribe wholesome Laws unto their commonwealth) which so much as to think of the Lord Jesus (in whom were hiden all treasures of wisdom and knowledge) were most damnable and blasphemous. So much of the first Question, viz. How inconsistent your late Church government was with the Gospel, and how far it hath been of late years in your Kingdoms abused.   

The second Question.  
HOw inconsistent this kind of Church government is unto your highness' safety and prosperity of the republic: and consequently what a preposterous thing it is to continue the same in these Kingdoms?  
This Question is easily resolved, if you will suffer your judgement without partiality: but to reflect upon these three Objects, viz. First, the disposition and affections of your own Subjects. Secondly, the reputation and expectation of Protestant Princes and Professors amongst us beyond the Seas. Thirdly, the condition and nature of the true Protestant Religion, and Protestant Professors established and regulated by a Presbytery; which, without all peradventure of all Christian professions this day in the World, is that which is most sound and orthodox in itself: as being most free from corruption, and most safe for a true Protestant Prince which undertaketh to maintain (not a Protestant Religion, for so do the Kings of Poland, Sweden, and Denmark, although corrupted with the Roman and Lutheran Superstitions) but the Protestant Religion, which only is most consonant with the doctrine and practice of Christ and his Apostles, and most agreeable to that pattern of wholesome doctrine expressed in the Gospel, the patronage whereof no Prince can deny that is a true Protestant unless it be such a Prince that affecteth tyranny; and would make under the cloak of religion (not the Word of God and welfare of his people; but worldly policy and private respects,) to be rule of his government.  
First then, May it please your highness and Confederates, to cast your eyes upon the people (we mean not such people, whom malice, corruption, or covetousness, (without any respect to the Word of God, or a good conscience) have drawn to your side) but the main body of the two of your best Kingdoms of England and Scotland, for the most and best part, how exasperatly and uncontrollable are they set against this way: maintaining it for a maxim (as your Associates do) No Bishop, no King, so they (No Bishops, no Popery:) where by the word Bishop, they do not understand any of Paul's Bishops mentioned in the Epistle to Timothy and Titus, for such Bishops as these they seek for, and their Petition unto your highness is; Da nobis tales Timothaeos', & nos eos cib abimus auro, & potabimus balsamo; Such Bishops as these may be well consistent with the presbyterial Government, and by the prayers and suffrages of such Bishops (before ever he meddled with a Hierarchy) your royal Father King James did enjoy many peaceable and happy days which (if it had pleased our Great landlord) might have been continued unto your highness and your posterity, and which (We beseech the Almighty, mangre the unhappiness of your present distempers,) may be continued unto you and yours (as long as the Sun and Moon endureth.) But by a Bishop, your people for the most part, understand a domineering, temporizing and self-seeking prelate; where by the word Bishop or prelate, they do not so much conceive one particular office, or individual person of one Clergy man, but collectively, all his subordinate Officers Assistants, and Attendants; such as Deans, Archdeacons, Prebends Surrogates, chancellors, Commissaries, Registers, Proctors, Apparitors, chanters, Choristers, Canons, Pety-Canons Vergers, and all their ecclesiastical Courts, Laws Canons, Orders, Innovations and Ceremonies which although they were in themselves never so indifferent, decent, or commendable yet the Commons for the most part of both these kingdoms are persuaded, and hold it for▪ Maxim irrefragible, that dictates such a Bishop (we say not such a Prines, maintaining or approving such persons or things) is no other than a relic of popery; a limb of Antichrist: a wen upon the face, or a boil upon the blessed of a true Protestant Reformed Church. Nay, there be many thousands of Husbandmen, Artificers and Tradesmen; besides people of greater quality (if we be not much misinformed) within your Island, whom (if we should go about to persuade of the lawfulness of such a Bishop but in jest) they would be ready to cut our throats in earnest so rigidly are they set against this kind of prelacy: the Hierarchy, that the very name of a Bishop, is to an ordinary English or Scotish country man as the King of Spain is to a Hollander: for as the one taketh it for an argument somuch honesty to rail against the Spanish King, so doth the other hold this to be a special mark of a good Protestant to condemn and cry down Episcopacy, the very name of a Bishop they hate worse than a young Court Lady doth old age, or a Jew Images.  
Seeing therefore your people (for the most part are thus disposed) it is the duty of a wise Prince, being Pater patriae, to comply to their desires; your greatest strength consisting in their affections, and their affections being so brittle as a crystal glass, which being once broken can hardly be souldred together again: yea, although that which they desire should be unreasonable, yet (if the common stream be very strong; a discreet Prince can have no better policy then to row with the tide (although he should be forced, through the violence of the weather, to land at the wrong stairs) it is but a little going on foot (if he cannot have a Coach or Sedan) that will bring him to his right Harbour. Nor can the foregoing or quitting the Prelacy Hierarchy, detract any thing (if you consider rightly from the stature of your magnificence. For why, may not a Moderator (in a government presbyterial) be as safe and honourable unto your highness, and as well endowed by your highness' bounty; as any prelate under the government hierarchical; your highness especially, having therewith (which we are sure you have not now) the affections and consent of your people. Neither can it any ways be dishonourable to admit of this change at the request of the Commons, seeing you have the precedent of divers wise and mighty Potentates for the same; who rather than they would admit of war to come within the channel of their Dominions, upon any terms; did think it no disparagement to subscribe unto their people's demands; although sometimes absurd and ridiculous: witness jews the Eleventh, and Henry the Seventh; than which all England and France; cannot point forth two of more profound judgement, and better versed in the mystery of government, who in cases of controversy with their subjects, were the first propounders and seekers of peace; and by their soft compliance, did dint the bullets of their people's fury; and so by this means, when the storm was over, and business came to be debated upon the great Carpet; did in a short time, and by degrees become Masters of their own ends, and their subjects affections: Yea, which is yet more, Suppose that your Great counsel would comply with your highness to continue this Hierarchy, (which as we understand they will yet hardly do) yet shall not ever your highness or your posterity have any settled peace in your Dominions, unless you abolish the same: The people will still once in twenty or thirty years run into their old bias, Episcopacy (as it hath been there amongst you exercised) being in their construction (as is aforesaid) no other than a wound or gangreen upon the breast of the English Church in which wound, so long as there remaineth any corruption, so long there will be pain: and so long as there is pain, the patient will complain, the humour therefore must be purged, and the wound before it be sewed up, well cleansed, lest it burst out again, or if it be a gangreen, the part that is festered must be cut off:  
— Immedicabile vulnus,  
Ense recidendum ne pars synceratrahatur.  
For if it be let alone, the whole body will be thereby endamaged so long as the cause remains, so long will the effect be continued; so long as your highness doth maintain and patronize episcopacy, so long will your people murmur and grudge at your government. As therefore you tender the health of the commonwealth, and as you desire the settled peace of this kingdom; venienti occurrite morbo: purge out this old leven, clear the breast, and heal the heart of your political body, and that so seasonably and speedily, that your miseries come not to a greater height; for,  
— Sero medicina paratur,  
Cum mala per longas invaluere moras.  
If your disposition to jarring turn once into a settled habit of warring (without the rich mercy of God.) there will be nothing wanting to make your calamities irrecoverable.  
Furthermore let your highness and your Confederates (if you be as you profess yourselves to be true Protestants, duly consider what a great improvement this will be to the Protestant Religion; if you will abandon this kind of government, and establish throughout all your Dominions the government presbyterial; what a great heartening and encouragement to all foreign Protestant Princes and professors throughout Europe, who do worship God in spirit and truth & are resolved to maintain their Religion in the same purity it was in the Apostlestime, and many years after, until pride, ambition and corruption began to sway: What joyful news (we say) will this be to them? that your highness and Associates have resolved to put to your helping hands towards the curtaling of the Pope's horns, and that you have given such a blow to the Roman Antichrist, as that you have not only (within your Dominions) cutoff the head and members (that is, the prelatical Bishops and their Court-keepers, but also demolished and defaced the very Images, and representations of that Babylonish Monster; yea, that you have not only cashiered and discarced all open professors of popery (such as were Jesuits, Priests, and others their Disciples and Emissaries; but also all ecclesiastical Dignities, Orders, Canons, Courts and Conditions of men, which did any ways concern or relish a popish hierarchy. For certainly (say what you will) their is no Religion in the world next to the Muscovites, (except the Lutherans) who yet in their Prelacy and Church Discipline, are not so corrupt and extravagant) which doth more punctually resemble the government of the Roman Church, than doth the English hierarchy in so much that since the beginning of your late intestine broils in Great Britain, the Jesuits have not failed to stir up and incense the King and Parliament of Poland, either to banish and exterminate all your highness' Subjects and Countrymen out of their kingdom, or else to vex and charge them yearly with such grievous and unaccustomed taxations, as that now they can hardly gain livelihood amongst them (notwithstanding their laborious endeavours, good desert, and great services which they have done for them) and why is all this forsooth, but because they will not be of their own King's religion; which they take for granted (to be Roman Catholic) else why did the Jesuits of the City of Vilna, (wherein is the chief tribunal and university of the great dukedom of Lithuania) in Anno 1641. upon their Saint Ignatius day (at which time the Jesuits do use to keep a solemn Feast, for the honour of their Patron and Founder: with great joy and acclamations, singing of Anthems, drinking of Healths and shooting off divers great pieces of Ordnance which they had planted upon the top of a hill close by the City) congratulate and give thanks to God for the happy conversion of the King of England.  
Thirdly, for we will speak no more of this second Question, doth your highness and Associates think, that the presbyterial government (if you should forsake the other) will be prejudicial to Monarchy? Surely, howsoever your Prelates have scandalised and spoken ill of that way, calling the followers and professors thereof, and that in an ill sense, and that by way of obloquy; Puritans: yet (if our observation fail not in most parts of Christendom (which some of us have surveyed; and so have few or none of your English prelates, or Dirgy-men: For as we understand, they are none of the greatest Travellers, they think this quality no ways suitable to their grandeur, and therefore leave it to Seamen, or others of a meaner condition: and so receive all things willingly (which they are to know or speak of, of other Nations) at the second hand. Showing themselves hereby more careful and vigilant for the bodies, then for the souls of men: if our observation (we say) fail not; you shall find that in all the World there is no Religion to a sovereign, that desires to make himself absolute, and would have a continued permanence of his Monarchy) even to such a Prince, we say again: that there is no Religion under Heaven so competent and agreeable as a Protestant Presbytery; in so much that we cannot but wonder; that a Prince professing Religion only for policy's sake: should suffer any other to be within his Dominions. For let a Protestant King (we mean one that rules over a people of that profession) be never so notoriously wicked in his person, and enormous in his government: let him stamp vice with his example, and make it currant by being his, let him remove the ancient bound-marks of lawful Sovereignty, and every day make more yokes and new scourges for his poor people: let him take reward and punishment out of the hands of Justice, and distribute them without any respect to right or wrong: in a word, let him so exceed in mischief, ruin and oppression, as that Nero being compared with him may be held to be a very Father of the people. Finally when he hath done all that he can to procure hate and contempt yet shall he not for all this have occasion to fear such a people, but may boldly go in and out to his sports, without either a public guard or privy coat; nor need he take the less drink when he goeth to bed, or the more thought when he riseth: but may without the least suspicion of a Jesuited Raviliac, solace himself in his bedchamber; or elsewhere, more securely than the Grand signior can do in his Seraglio.   

The third Question, which is this, viz.  
HOw much it concerneth your highness and your Confederates at any ●●nd and upon any conditions: not only to embrace peace with your Great counsel (if it be offered) but also eagerly to pursue and seek after 〈…〉 such things as may concern the same (if the Lord hath not given you over to believe strong delusions, and passed the same sentence against you and your Kingdoms as he did once against Belshazzer, Daniel 5. 25. Mene, Mene, Tekell Uphansin: that is (in our construction and as we probably conetjecture by the ways which you have taken) to weigh you in a balance, with your Father, Queen Elasabet, of ever blessed memory and divers other good and glorious Kings of England, and f●●e find you too light, then to number you: that is, to abate the number of your Kingdoms and finish the glory and splendour of your Monarchy. For who is he that hath but half an eye, and doth not perceive this course of war if it be not both throughly and speedily diverted) to be altogether fatal and destructive unto your highness but especially in these four respects, viz. First in respect of your Kingdoms. Secondly in respect of the Protestant Religion, if you be, as you profess a lover of it. Thirdly, in respect of your Sister and Nephews; who in all likelihood can never be restored, so well into their rights as by the prosperity and success of the Protestant cause: and fourthly, in respect of the duty which by the Law of God, you owe unto your Subjects. First, in respect of your Kingdoms which by this course are almost already consumed as by a raging fire, which consumeth the houses or Millo and Sechem, and the Cedars of Lybanon, Judg 9, 15. ●o for by war (as one house setteth another on fire one kingdom destroyeth another. This means therefore to allay your discontentment being too rigid and destructive, ought both seasonably and speedily to be prevented, left your Kingdoms being hereby depopulated the Revenues of Great Britain; prove as small unto your highness as are this day the Rents of Pomerland, unto the Duke of Prussia, which within these twenty years and less; might pro tanto, have vied happiness, with any part of your three Kingdoms: and yet they were consumed by strangers in a public war, by an open and known enemy the wound reached no further than the flesh & therefore the more curable: but you have struck yourself into the bowels, it is a private, as it were; an intestine and civil War: which you have fomented and consequently, the more ominous, execrable and incurable, For if a kingdom be divided against itself, how can it stand? and if you thus bite and devour one another how can you chose but be destroyed one of another? If then war considered absolutely, and in itself be so rigid and exigent, that it should never be undertaken, but in case of extremity (as a man should never let blood but in case of necessity. How much more to be abhorred is that civil war, wherein all things are miserable? For it is not an open enemy that you fight against, but even your own familiar friends; it is not a Turk, the common enemy of the Gospel; nor a Spaniard the known enemy of England: but your own Brethren and countrymen; who do profess with you to have all one God for their Father, one Christ for their Redeemer, one truth for their Religion, one CHARLES for their King, and one Great Britain for their country: and yet alas, how doth Manasseh advance against Ephraim, Ephraim against Manasses; King against Subject, County against County, Father against Son, and Son against Father; and that in such bitterness and eagerness of spirit, that one is become a curse to another blowing the Trumpet of Sheba one against another; and saying one of another; They have no part with us of God nor in the inheritance of Christ Jesus; every one to his Tents o Israel so that, while as both of you seem to strive about one Religion; there is in effect betwixt you both as much as no Religion▪ Religion itself is almost lost through the quarrels and questions for Religion: it faring with her as it did with the woman in Plutarch, who having many Suitors (when every one could not have her to himself, they cut her in pieces, that so none might have her. For certainly (if our information fail not, there be almost as many false brethren, and professors of the one side) as there be abettors of the Prelacy, and Papacy on the other; yea, and as obstructive and obnoxious to the Protestant Cause though both of them be eq●ally enemies to peace: being not only contentious but lovers of content on: However we conceive the separating schismatics to be the most dangerous they being so wedded to their own fantasies and onthusiasmes, that whatsoever opinion they once lay hold on (let it be never so contrary to the analogy of faith, or the rules of charity in the communion of Saints) these men we say, are so zealously confident in their way, that they had rather there should be no Protestant Religion at all in the world, than that opinion or fantasy which they have conceived of it, should not prevail, atque hinc illae lachrymae: From hence your Kingdoms have received a double blow, one from your professed Friends, another from your professing enemies, whom because, nec verit ati nec paci cedere norunt: they neither can, nor know how to give way to a true Protestant peac●; we will leave to themselves, and proceed unto the second motive which should incline your highness and your confederates to peace. And this is the respect you should have to the Procestant Religion: where by a Protestant Religion we understand, not a profession of Christianity which is reformed only an part, such as is that of the Lutherans, and your late hierarchy in England, which though (as is aforesaid) it was purged by the care of godly and orthodox Princes from the heresies of the Roman Church (in matters and points of doctrine yet did it in matters of discipline retain diverse exorbitant scandalous and corrupt customs; and superstitious ceremonies, which made the English Church (although not the same) yet to resemble, and be too too like that, which is maintained by the Roman Antichrist) but by the Protestant Religion we understand such a profession of christianity as is reformed in both these (so far as the excellency, perfection and purity of a militant Church may subsist withal) without any excessive or corrupt mixture of human inventions or superstitious customs and ceremonies either in doctrine or discipline (such as we believe yourself will confess (if you know any thing of a presbyterian government) to be this day amongst all Europian Christians most candidly and incorruptible maintained and practised by the Presbyterian Protestants.  
This is that Religion which is in every godly and decent respect, most consistent with the truth and purity of the gospel and which ought to be maintained, preserved and cherished by Protesiant Princes and States with as much eagerness and industry as the Jesuitical Pentificians have to maintain their Romish idol which an all probability can never be done by war, especially by such a war as that is which is abetted by your highness and Confederates; for hereby (if we be not much deceived) you do what you can to encourage and hearten the Papists against the Protestants and proclaim (as it were with open mouth to the wide world) that you are turned Apostates from the Protestant Religion: For what great cause or occasion can your highness and your associates give unto the Papist to work the final overthrow and ruin of the Protestant Churches and States, then to entertain and harbour prejudicate and inreconcilable affections against your Protestant Subjects and brethren: this is all they seek for ●●fer if your Italy, Gallico, Haspamol●sed Austrian Papists can have but such a strong foundation to build upon (as the distance and estrangement of Protestant Spirits, either opposed or alienated one from another in points of Religion, then are they persuaded (and so in all human reason they may well be) that neither their Counsels nor intentions can neither fundamentally nor essentially concur, and conscquently no confederation nor conjenction in real endeavours, will ever be brought to any settled purpose or period, either in Great Britain, or elsewhere.  
And to this purpose, we cannot admire enough of your highness, and your Great council, that you should take so shall notice of the Spanish King, and the German Emperor, who are so fast vying stakes with the French King which of them should soonest by this means engross unto themselves the European States, and erect a Catholic Christian monarchy, to which purpose, they omit no way or means to make the Protestant Princes and States fall by the ears together, and keep their Houses and Territoires in perpetual division. To omit Germany, and other places, where we have not been so well accuainted: we appeal to the verdict of your own Countrymen, Merchants that travel into Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Russia, amongst almost an innumerable multitude of Lutheran Protestants, who (if they understand, or have taken notice of the practice or preaching of these Luther Priests and Ministers, cannot but acknowledge and testify how carefully and industriously the Jesuits (especially in Poland and Prussia,) do foment and hire unconscionable Divines to maintain pretences of a fundamental difference in Religion betwixt us and them: which in truth and substance is but all one giving unto the Lutherans many promises and privileges, which they will not so much as proffer unto the evangelic Protestants that separation being made between the Lutheran Protestant and the Reformed evangelic Protestant, the occasion of Disputes envy strife, railing and evil ●●mising might never be wanting amongst them; and that as well for temporal and worldly, as for heavenly and spiritual respects.  
The third motive to induce your highness unto peace, is the Obligation which God and Nature hath laid upon you, to maintain the Rights of your Sister and Nephews, whose parents, if they had been either Papists or Neuterals, might have this day been sitting in their Castle or Wittenbergh. For although ambition, was the cause pretended; yet who knoweth not that knoweth any thing? that their Religion was the cause intended. For had they complied so much as some other Princes do that bear the name of Protestants (with the Spanish King, and the German Emperor) neither had their Confederates so miserably flinched from them us they did, nor they had been so rigidly and cruelly ejected out of their own inheritante us they were. But because God's judgements are unsearchable, and his ways past finding out; for, who knoweth God's mind? or who hath been his Counsellor? and also because no man can discern God's love and hatred in this respect by this event of any temporal occurrence, all things falling out to all to them that swear, as to them that fear an oath, we will neither think the worse of them, because of their present afflictions nor the better of their enemies, because of their achieved victories. The Almighty hath his own fullness of time, for the managing and disposing all important passages under the sun, but especially for such as do more immediately concern his own glory and the good of his Church; and although he hath suffered the Roman Antichrist and his Catholic children, for these thirty or forty years past, to ride over the bellies, plow, and make long furrows upon the backs of these and some other Protestant Princes, Psal 129. 3. yet as God is just, and his Gospel true, the feet of all the enemies of Protestant Religion shall slide in due time: Yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry, Deut. 32. 35. For when, That seven-headed and ten-horned monster, having caused the Kings of the earth to commit fornication with her, Rev. 18. 3. and stirred them up by policy and machiavelism to fight against the Lamb, Revel. 17. 14. so soon as she shall be fully drunk with the blood of the Saints, and of the Martyrs of Jesus Christ, and also hath made these King's drunken with the wine of the wrath of her fornication; in a word, when she hath for a long time sitten upon that septicolled city like a Queen; saying, and domineering over it, I am no widow, and shall see no mourning: then shall there come upon her a sudden alarm, as there did upon Samson, Up Samson, the Philistines are upon thee: Up Romish Babylon, for all thy strength and cunning, a lamb shall overcome thee, and these Kings which thou cast been so much in love with, and have been so much in love with thee, they shall stand afar off because of thy torment; saying, alas Alas for that great City, for in one hour is thy judgement come.  
If therefore your highness and your Confederates have not already given your names to this Beast: and if you be not yet drunk with the wine of the wrath of her fornication. For the Lord's sake, come out of her let not your souls come into her counsels, neither be ye joined with her Assemblies, lest partaking of her truelty you partake also of her plagues: For as the lamb overcometh and destroyeth all such as oppose and contradict him in the truth and purity of his worship; so doth he in his appointed time, honour, crown, and bless all that in sincerity and simplicity of heart join with him for the maintenance of the purity and truth of his Ordinances, of which number are (not only these noble Princes) so many of them as have declined that broad way, and embraced this narrow way; one that leads to the new Jerusalem, but also the main body of Great Britain, England and Scotland, which have mutually and interchangeably Hungary, engaged themselves (besides a considerable number of Reformed Protestants beyond the Seas; yea, and the Luther an Protestants also 
Transilvania, France, Ireland.  in Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Prussia, &c. besides the protestants of the Greek Church, inhabiting the Territories of Muscovia, white Russia in Poland, and other places, who are almost allequally engaged with us towards the curtaling of the horns of the Romish Bishop: all which (as we conceive) if there were any firm compliance betwixt you and your Great counsel of State, might here be brought easily to reconciliable minds towards us, to join with us in one common cause, for the abandoning and abolishing all Antichristian and and unlimited Jurisdiction from the protestant Churches throughout Europe. So that in all places and Dominions of Christendom, there may be but one Shepherd, and one sheepfold, every several kingdom and Province thereof (through the annual and mutual correspondence of their Princes and States; and the strength of a general council, by their authority seasonably convocated, being persuaded and throughly informed in the truth of all essential points that may any ways concern our salvation, and finally, all that profess the name of Christ may be brought to consent together to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, that there may be but one Faith, one Lord, and one Baptisine, one Father in us all, through us all, and for us all, and then, what an easy thing it were for a Christian King, that is, Defender of the Faith Inot only to enlarge his Dominions, but also to improve his just splendour and privileges both for himself and for all that he hath relation to throughout the known world, we leave to the censure of the indifferent reader.  
But if wilfulness and prejudicacy have so much preposessed you, and your associates, that you will not think of any other or better way to prevent your own and your kinsmen's ruin, then that which you have now in hand: we have no more to say to you but what Mordecay said to Ester, Ester. 4. 13. Deliverance will be brought another way: For as God is true, you will find this certain that so many of your kindred, and other Protestant Princes and States that do justly suffer for the cause of Religion if they persevere unto the end) God will exalt and raise them by the same Religion and work their deliverance by no other means then by the same whereby they have suffered.  
The fourth and last motive, which we shall mention at this time, is the duty, which by the Law of God you owe to your people, which is to show your chiefest care, and use your best means, for the preservation of their lives and liberties, especially, seeing they are all members of that political body whereof your highness professeth yourself to be the head, and seeing also that in them, viz. in then good affections, health and welfare, doth consist (as Samsons did in his locks) your great strength and livelihood. For if there be a sympathy and fellow-feeling, in the body natural, in so much as when the foot is trod upon, or any other member hurt, the head will complain, as if the injury were done unto it and so likewise in the true Church of Christ, or body mystical (as the Apostle emplyeth when he biddeth us rejoice with them that rejoice, and weep with them that weep: Rom. 12. 15. And be like affectioned one towards another. And again, Who is weak and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not? if (We say) there is such a sympathy in the mystical and natural body, why should not the same be also in the body political? if therefore any, or many members of the body of Great Britain. be diseased or distempered through malignant humours, which may perhaps, not only work obstructions in the pipes of government, but also make the head complain, and cry out for pain; yet are not these members (by war or any other means of this nature to be cut off from the head, unless they prove so poisoned putrified, and gangrened; that they are destructive to the whole body. But God be thanked Sir, the humours of your people are not yet so desperate, but that if your highness (like a good physician) will vouchsafe in love to visit them, feel their pulses, and apply unto them a dosis or potion suitable to their distempers, they may be easily, both cured and qualified: but as for the medicine which you have applied to them hithertils, (if we be not much mistaken; the ingredients thereof have been too sharp, and if you give them any more of it, you are like to mar all.) For there be some humours and diseases that are sooner expelled and cured by lenatives then by corasives by gentle potionsr than by sharp purgations: and such are these of the Inhabitants of Great Britain, both Scots and English; but especially the Scots, whom I cannot more fitly compare then to a Cannon bullet, which is dinted and quelled with the least softness, and is never so rigid and piercing, than when it is most resisted would you therefore have the people's sore healed? why then, Sir, correct your physic, this plaster of war is too corasive; Bellona should be a Kings ultimum refugium, his last, because his worst refuge; Be therefore persuaded by us, that whosoever did first persuade your highness to this course, had as good advised you to tread upon a thorn, or put your hand into a Wasps nest. For when you conceived, White Hall to be on fire, they did what they could to add fuel to the flames, and cast on faggots when your house was burning, making the rent greater, and the wound deeper; and consequently the remedy worse than the disease. As therefore your highness doth tender your own Honour and safety, welfare of your Children, and Friends, and prosperity of your people (if it be possible) and as much as you can divert from them this course of war. Remember that God will require the life of a man at the Hands of his brother, and if of a brother; much more of a father. Gen. 9 5 For a King is the nursing Father of God's people; take from henceforth a precise account of the death of your meanest subject; and let his blood and life be precious unto you. Seeing that homo quilibet, est pars communitatis: every particular person is part of the whole State; a Subject of one Kingdom, and 
Aristot. Ethic. lib. 5.  member of one political body; If therefore one member suffer, let all the members (especially your highness the head of all) suffer with it. 1 Cor, 12. 26. Otherwise it is a dangerous symptom that the body of these Kingdoms is palsy-stricken, or at the least some Lethargy or mortal sickness is approaching, to it, which rendereth it both insensible and incurable.  
The fourth and last question is, what is the best means or which may be the chiefest preparatives for your highness and your Associates to obtain an honourable and lasting peace.  
We shall in this point also endeavour to give you satisfaction if either you will follow our advice, or receive the same without partiality or prejudice. And first, we say, that the best way to a firm and honourable peace is by the work of righteousness, For the work of righteousness is peace, and the effect thereof joy and assurance for ever: as the Prophet speaketh, Esay 32, 17. Where by the work of righteousness, we do not so much understand that imputed righteousness of Christ, which is truly and properly inherent in him, but so made our by faith, that God doth accept of us as righteous for his sake, as if this righteousness were properly and truly inherent in ourselves, which is called the righteousness of faith, Rom. 1. 17. and the righteousness of the kingdom of God, Matth. 6. 33. nor by this work of righteousness do we understand altogether thut actual righteousness which is to be performed by us: whereby we show the truth of our faith, by the works of piety, charity, humility &c. (although the words may admit either of these without prejudice) but by the work of righteousness we conceive principally, an habitual disposition and inclination, both to practise and affect things that are good and righteous: in a word we mean no otherwise than that your highness would withdraw and alienate your affections from unjust and unrighteous persons. Offices and Officers, who have these many years past maintained, and still hope to maintain themselves by the ruin of the Church and commonwealth, who (like so many Sirens) have so long and so miserably inveighled you; and by their Circean enchantments, moved you to press that prerogative (which the Almighty gave you for the preservation and welfare of the people) and that both in Church and State Affairs; so much and so far as that whereas it should have been as a Diamond in your crown, to honour and adorn you, they have made it by their sophistical and Machiavilick insinuations, as a prick in your side, or a thorn in your foot, to hurt and mischief you.  
May it therefore please your highness, to let this be the first preparative to an honourable and happy peace, even to withdraw your royal person and favour from the contagious company of such flattering Sycophants; that from henceforth you may not only profess, but practice that part of the royal Motto; Salus Populi, suprema Lex: And to this purpose, because your Great counsel of State are now about a work of Reformation, let not your highness fail to comply with them in the same, than which you shall find nothing more pleasing to God, and profitable to yourself, and that in these two things, viz. First, in contenting yourself with such a competency of royal privileges, Revenues, and Prerogative, as may be most consistent with the truth and purity of that Religion which you profess; manners of the Country, and affections of your Subjects, showing rather a royal and Christian moderation, than an imperious and insatiable ambition: and (so you may enjoy it peaceably and comfortably) think your self-sufficiently enriched, although you have no more for the present than what is shared out for you by the providence of God, and love of the people; yea, although it were much less (especially, rebus sic stantibus, then was left you by your royal progenitors. For what greater happiness can come to a King than contentment, who is never more excellent and commendable, then when his affections are most moderated; and what contentment can your highness' want (when, if complying to the complexion and disposition of your political body) you continue to be the head of such a wise, noble, and godly Nation; to sway the sceptres of three almost angelic Kingdoms in one City, whereof there is to be found more wealth, lustre, beauty: Prudence Temperance, Justice, Valour; and finally, all the delights of the sons of men: then the Emperor of Muscovia, and divers others great Potentates can command within the Circumference of their vast Dominions. Happy therefore is that Prince, who knowing that he cannot have all contenteth himself with a part, even with such a part as he may quietly and honourably possess with the suffrages of his people; for if the greedy appetite be not satiated, a poor shepherd shall find more hearts case in a beggar's cottage then a great Emperor (if ambitious) in a Princely Palace. Let Kings therefore consider, that the more they abound with worldly wealth: the more do abound their cares, for when goods increase, they are increased that eat them; and the best way for a King to be rich is to know when he hath enough: and not to improve his revenues through pilling and polling his Subjects by sordid and unnecessary Taxations and Monopolies, for hereby he doth not strengthen his crown, but bewray his tyranny, nor increase his honour; but call in question that love which he oweth to his people.  
O what great grief it is to loyal and loving Subjects, to see their sovereign undo himself, for the enriching a company of unworthy, temporizing, and self-seeking Parasites? Who perhaps (if his back should be at the wall) would turn their backs upon him, and like a shadow, follow him no longer than the Sun shineth, or if he should stand in need of their counsel, could give him none better than that of Achitophel. That any Prince should thus mistarry, is grievous and lamentable; but for such a King as your highness should be who have so often smarted through the Machiavillick impostures of the Roman Antichrist and his Abettors; for such kind of men: expose yourself, your posterity and Crowns to such extreme exigencies. Quis talia fando, temp●ret à lachermis?  
Be wise therefore, ye Kings, and be learned, ye Judges of the earth be careful as to have the wicked removed, so also to have your desires moderated seek no more than is enough either for yourselves or others: for then certainly you shall find in your Thro●e more cares than comforts, and in your Crowns, more thorns than Diamonds for he that loveth silver shall never be satisfied with silver, nor he that loveth abundance with increase: as wealth cannot fill man's heart so cannot grace his purse: natural desires are finite but the desires of the soul are infinite, which when they are not watched but let go loose roving up and down, and not composed and limited according to the rules of godliness have brought men even Kings and Princes into infinite labyrinths and anxieties: witness that insatiable conqueror, whose unlimited ambition the Poet thus bemoneth:  
Unus Pellaeo Juveni non sufficit orbis  
Aestuat infoelix angusto limit mundi.  
And many also of the Roman Caesar's, whose time we may read in their insatiable affections and whose covetousness hath brought their Titles and Diadems unto their uttermost period, of whom we may almost say, etiam perire animae that little of them that is left is perished: in a word, therefore, happy is the man be he King or Subject, that delighteth more in piety then in pelf, in heavenly goodness then in worldly goods.  
— Cui paternum  
Splendet in mensa tenui salinum  
Nec leves somnos timor, aut cupido  
— Sordidus aufort:  
Secondly, for the obtaining an honourable and lasting peace, and performing this work of righteousness, your highness must look well to the rightness of Religion viz. that the Religion which you establish be made choice of not according as to the eye it seemeth gayest, but as it is most free from, and most contrary to all corruption of man's life and manners, such as is grounded, not upon men's invention, but divine direction: That your highness give way to such a kind of divine worship as is not according to the nature and will of man but according to the will of God who being a Spirit loveth best to be worshipped in spirit and truth, and not in or by any painted or graven images, outward pomps, gaudy clothes or superstitious representations of any thing that is in heaven above or in earth beneath, such as all false Religions abound withal, and whereby heretical and Idolatrous Priests, delude and dazzle the eyes of simple people, who are naturally inclined to affect that soonest which to the eye seemeth gayest, making them believe that these dumb shows and pictures, are lay men's books, in the mean time hiding from them the power of Christ in the work of the ministry.  
And seeing there is no difference between your highness and us in points of doctrine (the word of God being preached by us both in as great purity and orthodoxness as can be consistent with a militant Church) our request unto your highness is (as you tender either your own or our peace, to admit with us the same reformation and purity in matters of discipline, as is employed in the premises for certainly Sir solong as the discipline of your Church remaineth unpurged, the members and professors thereof can never properly be said to be of the true Protestant Religion: well they may be called Protestants, and said to be of a Protestant Religion, viz. comparatively as they have relation to Eutherans or Nicholuitans, or some other sect of Protestantism but to be Protestants indeed, that is, true Protestants, of the true reformed Protestant Religion they cannot because their Religion is reformed only in part. viz. in matter of doctrine, the discipline remaining and being retained in the same corruption and superstition as they received it from the Roman Church: whereas the true Protestant Religion exercised in the presbyterial government is equally reformed as well in discipline as in doctrine, depencing absolutely upon the word of God, without any excessive or scandalous mixture (other than accords with Christian simplicity decency, and charity) of human inventions, or superstitious innovations: But if you highness will needs maintain some disparity amongst Ministers, preferring some before others, who in respect of their eminent parts, may seem to deserve better we will not discommend it providing that your highness remember well your father's council in his Basilicon Doron, pag 44. viz. so to charge and change them with such bonds as may preserve them from creeping into corruption.  
A third mean to procure an honourable and lasting peace is to unite the people, as well as the countries of England, and Scotland, (which can never be effected by your highness so long as you stand in opposition to the Parliament; But an if you can be so happy as to come in then we conceive it may easily be wrought in this manner; viz. First, by making an universal act of oblivion in both Parliaments for all national quarrels and deadly feuds, which have been a prohibition from all, which in time to come may accrue betwixt the natives of either kingdom by reason of any occurrence or passage of preceding or future times. Secondly, by abolishing the respective names of English or Scotish men; which (in respect of the great controversies and differences, which have been between the two Kingdoms) do still continue names of prejudice, to the great exasperating of the affections of both sides, and possessing them with rigid and implacable minds, one against another, upon the least and most slender occasional distastes, and that all the inhabitants of this one Island may be called by one name, of East, West South or North Britains; with some aditional title of the Shire or County, prefixed for disinction sake. Thirdly, by engaging an equal number of both Kingdoms in their fellowship at arms, in some public and fortunate lawful war, beyond the Seas, where their honour and danger may be equally divided, and no jealousies, nor contention arise amongst them, but of well doing, certainly, one victory obtained by the sound valour of the Scots and English, (wheresoever it be, so it be not at home, let it be in Bohemia, France, Spain, or where your great council will think fitting) will make a stronger and more indissoluble knot of union both between them and your highness, and amongst themselves then ever your highness could make by choosing your Minions alternatively out of each Nation, or by making Scotch men Lords of England; English men Lords of Scotland; or yet by mixture of marriage, for although marriage may make two persons one, yet can it not make two people to be one; certainly, all these are too weak ingrediences to compound a love-potion for them that were wont to thirst after one another's blood, it must be something more energetical and virtuous that must qualify and chain the different humours of these two Nations; and make them forget whose fortune it was to be envied, and whose to be contemned in times past; and to speak ingenuously: never had King a fairer opportunity to effect this, as your highness hath now, all the Kingdoms in Christendom almost being now by the ears together, especially if in this your day, your highness would resipiscere, and come to yourself, and so much tender your own health and welfare, as to apply unto your almost gangreen, and incurable wounds, a salving plaster of Parliamentary Union.   
FINIS.