A LETTER FROM AN OFFICER in His MAJESTY'S Army, to a Gentleman in .  
UPON OCCASION OF certain Querees scattered about that Country.  
Printed in the Year, 1643.   

A LETTER FROM AN OFFICER IN HIS MAJESTY'S ARMY, to a Gentleman in . Upon occasion of certain Quaerees scattered about that COUNTRY.  
Sir:  
I Have received your Letter and your Quaerees, which you say makes a deep impression in many of whose honesty and public Affections I have a very good esteem, and that they are made by one who hath a great desire to receive case and satisfaction himself, as being of a nature very undelighted and passive in these distractions. The first (how strange soever it seems to Reason) I must believe, especially when I find yourself, whom I have often known very easily to master more difficult Contentions, brought to some pause, as it somewhat were said to you, you could not well get from; no doubt many other of less subtle understandings, and it may be hurt by the necessary pressures, and provoked by unwarrantable Insolences of the King's Soldiers, are, or seem to be really puzzled. But for the Author of those Quaerees, you must pardon me if I do not believe him to be a man of so innocent a nature as you would imply: doubtless these scruples never sprung from a mind in labour to find out truth; but are contrived by a Person very well able to answer his own Objections, and having pretended Conscience against his own understanding hath found these little excuses to make a party amongst weaker men.  
The first Scruple seems to be a tenderness of the Act for continuance of this Parliament, which that Gentleman would apprehend to be broken by His Majesties not consenting to all the Counsels now given Him by both Houses; If I thought this Objection to be of moment to you, I should give your understanding for lost, and expect your cure only by that which misled you, Success; but I must observe to you the uningenuity of your honest man, who would make the People believe that by His Majesty's consenting to pass that Act, that Assembly were authorized to command, and His Majesty obliged to obey whatever they prescribed; when that Gentleman well knows nothing is enacted by that law, but that this Parliament shall not be dissolved but by Act of Parliament. You well remember in what Condition things stood at the passing that Law, two Armies in the Bowels of the Kingdom at 800001. the Month, so much to be raised for the support of them, and a much greater sum to Disband them; all this Money was to be borrowed, and upon such security as Money in those happy days used to be lent, for the new merry security of the public faity, by a Vote of both Houses, was not then currant enough to be obtruded to the people, the Credit of many worthy Persons was to be used for the procuring this supply, and it seemed no unseasonable wariness of those who exposed themselves and their fortunes to this hazard; to desire that the body, at whose instance they undertook those Engagements, might not be dissolved, before it had taken some course to secure such undertake, and provision should be made for the indemnity of those who had submitted to such burdens. This Reason, and this alone prevailed with His Majesty to agree that this Parliament should not be dissolved without their consent, who seemed voluntarily to engage themselves for the Peace & benefit of the Kingdom. How this continuance of the Parliament should now give both Houses the Prerogative they have assumed, I cannot understand, and themselves have publicly acknowledged in their Declarations, that they were to blame if they undertook any thing which they would not undertake, if it were in His Majesty's power to dissolve them to morrow; Think now with yourself if the King should argue with both Houses upon their own Grounds, that the Trust being broken, the power may be reassumed immediately into the hands which reposed that Trust, might he not justly say, that they had betrayed and forfeited that Trust▪ by using the means which was given them to disburden the Commonwealth of a debt which was then thought insupportable, only to plunge it irrecoverably into a greater, and to ruin the Kingdom to prefer half a score men. And if the People should follow their Logic and be tried only by the Equity of the Law, might they not charge them with the breach of Trust, in changing the whole frame of the Government of the Kingdom, and subjecting them to so unlimited an Arbitrary power, that no man can know at the sitting of the Houses, what he shall be worth at their rising? Did they intent, when they let these men into that Assembly, that they should shut the Door, and keep those that sent them for ever from those Counsels? Did the King intent that they should rob, depose & murder him? And did the people intent that their fellows and Companions should imprison, plunder and destroy them? and if the abused King, and injured people should now declare this Act to be void and in itself against the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom, and so this Parliament to be dissolved, would not your Principles and foundations bear them out? You are one of the oldest Parliament men I know, and, however you may have since changed your mind, have to me seemed the most scandalized at the Indignities offered to the very being of Parliament, by the wildness and fury of this. Did not you passionately reprehend the pert Burgess of your own Town, for arguing against the King's negative voice, because than it may fall out that the Commonwealth might be ruined for want of a supplemental Law, which the perverseness of one man would not consent to? Did you not then, after you had showed the impossibility and madness of such suppositions, and that from the beginning of this Monarchy to this day, no inconvenience had happened of that kind, say, that you were persuaded in your Conscience, that the Laws of the Kingdom were so very complete, in order to the Government of the Kingdom, that if there should never more be made, so the old were faithfully observed, the Kingdom would be at least without any diminution of its happiness: on the other side if the King's Consent were not necessary, you said all those Bills which had heretofore passed both Houses, and for want of the Royal Assent had been laid by, would now rise up 〈◊〉 so many Laws to as great a confusion as these Ordinances have made? Did you not then say, that when Parliaments left their modesty, they would lose their Reputation, and when they walked in any other Path then of their known Precedents, and judged by any other Rule then the known Laws, they would advance a Tyranny more insupportable than ever Rome or Greece endured? your Privileges, which are freedom of Speech, and freedom from Imprisonment, (except where the Law says you may be imprisoned) where are they? how violated? and by whom, but by yourselves? How many men, chosen & sent by their Countries, have you turned out of the House for not concurring with you in opinion? How monstrous is it that the King may not commit a Member, who attempts to kill Him, without your leave; & you may commit another for but desiring to kiss His hand? And whilst you will not suffer His Majesty, without breach of Privilege, to commit Traitors and Felons, because they are Members of either House, you are content that Alderman Pennington, or any of the City Captains commit those who sit amongst you, & you have not the courage to reprehend them. Do you think the people of England can look long upon sixscore or sevenscore men (for both Houses do not contain a greater number) as upon the high Court of Parliament? when the Major part of those too are Persons of such desperate fortunes, and contemptible understandings, as off from those Benches were never thought fit for sober and honest Counsels. You may break what lests you please upon the King and the Cavaliers, & say, that if He were in His own Power He would quickly return to His Parliament, but truly the Court here hath so much Charity to believe, if both Houses were at liberty to do according to their Consciences this public fire would be quickly quenched. Believe it no sober man looks upon you under any other Notion, then as men besieged by the desperate common Council of London and their Adherents, who awe and fright you to their wicked and damnable conclusions: Nay, the close Committee itself, is a greater breach of the Privilege of Parliament, than the Kings coming to the House, & the taking the five Members from thence could have been. I am as little pleased with the perpetuity of this Parliament, as I have been with the untimely breaking of others; and let me tell you, all the dissolutions of Parliaments from the beginning of them to this time, hath not done half that mischief, as the continuance of this hath done; and yet since it hath the countenance of a Law, I wish it may never be dissolved but by a Law. What designs these men have even upon Parliaments themselves, is too evident, whereas if the King prevails, parliaments are again restored to their full Lustre; you have read His Protestations solemnly made in the presence of God for the defence of the Privileges of Parliaments; He is too Just and too pious a Prince to break those promises, and to reproach Himself with His own Declarations; but if He should, inquire whether the Persons about Him, even the Officers of His Army are likely to concur with Him in those ends? I am persuaded it would be no more in His Power to employ His Army to the destruction of the Law, than you once thought it was to raise one for His preservation. In a word, as you esteem and reverence real Parliaments, abhor these men who would use the word Parliament only as a stalking Horse to destroy all acts of Parliament; there cannot be a more irreverent mention of Parliaments then to call the fanatique actions of a few desperate seditious persons the proceed of Parliament. A Parliament is the great Council of the Kingdom, graciously called by His Maiesiys Writ, confidently to present the grievances of the people, and humbly to offer their advice and Counsels for Reformation; if they come unsent for, irregularly call that a grievance, which the Law allows, and insolently command, instead of modestly advising the Royal power, by whose Authority they come together, they do, as much as in them lies, dissolve the Parliament by proceeding against the nature, of Parliaments.  
The next scandal this wise Gentleman takes, is at the protecting Delinquents; does this trouble you too? Call your memory to an account, I think I have heard you say, you have been of eight Parliaments. How many Delinquents have you known sent for in seven of them? and what were they? were not most of them, only such as had presumed to sue or arrest privileged persons? How many men in your time have you known committed by the House of Commons before this Parliament? do you think it reasonable that they who cannot examine, should have power to judge? you had need take the course you do to slight and undervalue all Oaths, that they may not be thought necessary to legal and regular proceed, and yet why do you then at all intimate your own incompetency by some times desiring the Lords to help you examine men by Oath? How comes it that you confess Oaths at some time to be necessary for finding out the truth, and pass it over as impertinent at other? When you have evidence you think it a popular thing to use it, if you have none, you can judge as well without it. You have a trick to be satisfied in your own Consciences, (Consciences that can commit Treason, Felony, Rapes, and Sacrilege in the fear of God) & then all forms and essences of proceed, which can only distinguish right from wrong, must be dispensed with. If a Treason were committed, how comes my Lord Chief justice to be left out in the enquiry, and no other Minister employed but your Sergeant? why should not the Commonwealth hear of Treason and Misprision of Treason in Westminster Hall, where the terms are understood, but only in the House of Commons? If a man should come to the House of Commons-Barre, and desire the Sergeant of that House should be sent for a man as Delinquent, who took his Purse from him upon Black-Heath, or picked his pocket in Smithfield, if the Thief were not a Member of either House (God forbidden but they should have the Privilege to judge one another) would you not think the fellow mad, & wish him to go to the next Minister of justice? How come you to be so subtle to be able only to judge and define Treasons; about which your Ancestors have been so careful, to leave it in the view of any man what it is? Tell yourself without blushing, who you think are meant by Delinquents: Is it not visible to all the world, that you intent all such who are not or will not be Traitors to the known Laws, to be Delinquents to both Houses? and 'tis a notable breach of Privilege that His Majesty will protect these Delinquents from you; look over your own votes, and see if all men who do not assist you in your pious work of murdering the King, and destroying the Commonwealth, (for you have faithfully required the lazy Gentlemen who desired to be lookers on) are not comprehended in the number of Delinquents: What was St john Hotham for denying His Majesty admittance into His own Town of Hull? A privileged Person and an upright Patriot, what were they who attended His Majesty when He presumed desperately and rebelliously to offer to go thither? Delinquents: And yet His Majesty will not suffer those who kept Him out, to judge those who would have gone in with Him; wonderful breach of privilege, and protecting of Delinquents! If we cannot recover Law again, for God's sake let us have sense restored to us, and not grow Beasts in our understanding as well as in our Liberty; it will make us love mankind the worse to see men with sad brows, as if they believed themselves, seriously urge things in public, which in private would make friends quarrel for the scorn and Indignity offered to reason, such is all your discourse of Privileges and Delinquents.  
But you have at last found a pretty obligation upon yourselves to Rebel against Law and Reason, your late Protestation requires all this at your hands, in the behalf of the Privileges of Parliament, which by that you are bound to defend, and so you rescue yourselves from the duty of Allegiance, to which you have regularly and legally sworn, by a voluntary Protestation to do somewhat you do not understand; If there be any thing by that Protestation enjoined to be done, which was unlawful to be done before the Protestation was taken, 'tis no more to be justified by that Act, than any other unlawful thing is by a rash and wicked Vow, entered into by a Person who desires to do mischief; If there be nothing in it, but what before was the duty of every man, there needs no Argument from the Protestation; The truth is, though I like not the use hath been made of it to poison and misled simple people, nor the irregularity (to call it no worse) of compelling men to take it, when no Law requires it, I know nothing promised or undertaken in that Protestation which every honest man doth not, and always did hold absolutely to be his duty, no man being obliged by it to do any thing, but as fare as Lawfully he may. And would not a slander by think a man mad, that should swear to defend the King's Person, and to maintain the Privileges of Parliament, and immediately draw His sword upon the King whose Person he knew, in the behalf of somewhat he is told is Privilege of Parliament? we are gotten again into the old circle of folly and madness.  
Your last Scruple I will be serious with you in▪ 'tis that (however thrown among the people maliciously, and indeed against the Conscience of the Contrivers) which I know startles many well meaning, and well wishing men, you are afraid of the Papists, and that if the King prevails, that Religion will have too great a countenance and growth, to the scandal of ours; Indeed if this fear were well grounded, you would have so many partners with you in your trouble, that you would even be satisfied in your company, and by that, think yourself secure against your fears; what makes you doubt this, an Inclination in the King Himself? Let His life be examined, His continued public Acts of Devotion, (examples indeed for a through Reformation) His understanding the differences between the Church of Rome and us, and so not only utterly dissenting from them, but knowing why he doth so, and He will be found above the reach of Envy or Malice, and indeed above your own fears and jealousies: Take a list and survey of His Servants and Counsellors, who are suspected to have the least interest in His favours and inclinations, you will not find a man under the least taint that way, and most of them (till your dishonest uncharitable distinction of Popish and Popishly affected was thrown among the people) thought eminent advancers of the true Protestant Religion established. And let me tell you, if there should be a breach made upon that Religion, these men would stand in the Gap, when half your Zelots would submit to an Alteration, if it brought any satisfaction to their worldly Ambition. But you say the Queen is of that Religion, and She hath a great influence and power over His affections, and you think it an unkingly thing to be a good Husband, and whilst yourselves are guided and swayed by other men's Wives (for 'tis not Women you are angry with, you allow them whole sharers with you in your mischiefs) you cannot endure He should so much as advise with His own; indeed I cannot blame you to desire to keep Him from any Conversation with one you have used so ill: But how comes this Melancholy upon you now, Is She more a Catholic now then She was fifteen years since? Why did not these Fears and jealousies break out into Rebellion when He was first Married? before the Nation knew any thing of Her, but Her Religion? After the experience of so many years; after the enriching the Kingdom with so hopeful and numerous an Issue, after the obliging all sorts of People with Her favours, without disobliging any body that I have heard of, after fifteen years living here with great expressions of Love and Affection to the English Nation, without any other activity in Religion, then to live well, and wish well to Her own, with equal esteem of those who are not of the same Profession, to desire to break and interrupt that excellent Harmony in Affections, is an ingratitude, an impiety worthy the contrivers of these bloody distempers: Look into the Persons who have received the greatest testimonies & evidence of Her favours, you will not find them to be Popish or Popishly affected, but in the list of your own Religious Men and Godly Women; If you will convert Her, let your Charity and Humility, the principles of true Religion, let your Obedience and Loyalty, the effects of true Religion, be an Evidence to Her that yours is the right; the course you take will rather fright good People from any, then invite them to yours; She is a Lady too well understands Her own share, and Her own adventure in the public distractions, not to endeavour with Her soul a reconciliation of them, I would your Ladies were like Her, She is as fare from revenge of Injuries and Indignities, as from deserving them. You have the advantage in your Provocations, you have met with tempers as apt to forgive, as you are to offend, who are as unlimited in their mercy as their enemies are in their insolences, make good use of it, set your hearts upon Peace, and you will easily find the▪ way to it, be once ingenious, and you will be quickly safe.  
But oh the great Army of Papists, if that were disbanded, your fears and jealousies would infinitely abate; that's well; pray observe how these Papists come together: Remember Nottingham when you had a form Army of 10000 men and His Majesty not 800. Muskets at His command in all His dominions? if you had then fallen upon Him and destroyed Him, as, if Your Pride had not been greater than your Loyalty, you had done; you meant to strip Him by Votes and Ordinances of all Succours and Assistance, that He should be compelled to put Himself into your hands for Protection, and so confess your Army to be raised for His defence. Would not now all Christian Princes have thought His Majesty guilty of His own undoing, who would not suffer Himself to receive Aid from any of His own Subjects, though they were Papists▪ You tell me the Author of these Queries is learned in the Laws; pray get him to show you one Law, whereby the Papists are inhibited to serve their Sovereign against a Rebellion, because Papists may not come near the Court without the King's leave, or wear Arms, may not a Papist ride post to tell the King of a design to murder Him? or being present take away a sword from that man who attempts to kill Him? Sure there is no Law hath prohibited the Allegiance of the Papists, and because they will not come to Church, forbidden them to be Subjects. If a Fleet arrived from France or Spain to invade us were it not law full for a Papist to endeavour to destroy that Fleet? and must he sit still in a Rebellion, and see his Sovereign, and the Laws of the Land (in which he hath an equal interest with any other Subject) in imminent, visible danger to be destroyed, and must not 〈◊〉 either? yet observe now (how much soever you seem to be scandalised at it) what you yourselves have done towards the raising this Army of Papists, and indeed if there be such an Army, whether yourselves have not raised it, without breaking your own jests and saying ●●is mysed by the power of both Houses, as yours is by the King's Authority you seize upon all the papists estates, plunder their Houses, imprison their persons, without the least Colour of Law, leaving them no place to breath in but under the shelter of the King's Army, and thence you would have the King drive them too, for being papists. You suffer Mr. Griffith to raise a Troop of that Religion for your service and when they cashier their Captain, and come in to His Majesty, you would have Him disband them because they are Papists. For God's sake get one of your Orators to make a Speech for the King to a papist, who shall say to him; Sir, I have lived modestly and dutifully at my own House, without assuming to myself any Licence which the Law gave me not, I have humbly submitted to the penalties imposed on me, and contented myself with what the Law hath left me, I am driven from thence by force of Arms, my Estate taken from me, my liberty endeavoured to be so too, I am Your Subject, and You are my King, vouchsafe me the Protection You own me. what answer shall He make; Sir, you are a Papist, and you shall not come near Me, or, Sir, I am content you shall be under the shelter and security of my Forces, but upon your life use no weapon, bear no Arms, help them not though they are in danger to be cut in pieces before your face. Let a sober man find a way to get out here, to be a King and not protect them. And after all this what a goodly Army of Papists hath His Majesty got together, not to compare with you, for you say 'tis no matter what number of Papists you have, because there are no Fears and jealousies of your favouring of popery; I am confident and I have my Information from no ill hands, that in all His Majesty's Armies the Papists cannot make one good Regiment. Get but the honest sober, true Protestants once of your mind, and my life upon it, you shall not see the papists grow above the Reach of the Law.  
Here is an end of your Author, a word now to your own Letter, I find you much transported with the apprehension of God's wonderful Blessings upon the proceed of both Houses, that their progress and Success hither to hath not been less than miraculous; Indeed there are negative Miracles, as well as affirmative, for God to forbear what according to his justice and goodness, and other attributes We might expect from him by the way of punishment & revenge, is a miracle of his mercy, in this Sense, the world which hath seen your Treason and Rebellion, your Acts of Injustice, Cruelty and Inhumanity, your Lying and Blasphemy, your profaneness and Sacrilege (if your Divines have left you the apprehension of such a Sin (and by the way if they have, pray send me word what they mean by it) they who have observed the ill Arts you have used to compass things in themselves lawful, and the wicked Arts you daily use to compass things unlawful, and see that stones in the Streets have not risen up against you, and fire from Heaven hath not consumed you, must say you have tempted God so fare, so insolently, that less than a Miracle could not preserve you. Bate me this one Miracle, & tell me if the hand of God hath not been upon you and pursued you from the first hour you entered into Rebellion, are you not fallen from your universal Interest & Reputation with the people, to that degree of hatred that they curse you to your face? Are you not shrunk from the honour and Reverence due to a Parliament to the Imputation of a vile crowd of mean, guilty, seditious persons? Do nor your friends every day forsake you, and those persons of Quality whom'you misled, with more bitterness fall from you, than your first Delinquents? Are not your own Weapons turned upon you, and are you not afraid of those Petitioners, whom with so much skill and Industry you taught to Petition? Is not your own Army, raised and maintained by yourselves, grown so undevoted to you, that some Commanders every day leave you, and others are committed by you for fear they will do so too? Are you not brought to that straight as to fear a Mutiny for want of Pay, and not to dare to pay for fear of a disbanding? Have you not by blood and Rapine, with the curses of all good men gotten the Treasure of the Kingdom into your hands, and wasted it so, that your wants are as not orious as your Crimes? Lastly, are you not so jealous, so divided amongst yourselves, that if your Army prevailed to morrow, you were as fare from compassing your own ends, as when you began your desperate undertaking, your principal Commanders being as fare from their ends, who cozened them into this Rebellion, as the prime Cavaliers in the King's Army, excepting only their Affection to the King's Person.— There is the Miracle on your parts; see now what God hath done for His Anointed? Call back your memory to the 10th of January, look upon Him driven furiously from Whitehall, with His Wife and Children, for fear of His Life, whilst His own Servants for their security durst not be near him; look upon him at Hampton-Court, scornfully accused of levying War against Himself, and the Sheriffs and Constables appointed to disperse his Army; Remember Him at Windsor without ordinary, necessary support; think of the 20th of January, when you would not vouchsafe to tell Him what you would have, requiring nothing but His submission to your Counsels: Remember Him at York and Beverley, after you had Possessed yourselves of all His Arms, Castles, Forts, Towns, and Ships, and seized upon all the Arms of the Kingdom, stopped His Rents, and incensed the people in all parts against Him; Oh think upon Him at Nottingham when you would not vouchsafe to Treat with Him, only giving your great General power of receiving him to mercy, when you had reduced him to that Condition, that He had neither Arms, Men, or Money, or knew as you thought where to have any, and this at a time when you had a wanton flourishing Army of 10000 men within two days March of him, to bring Him back to London, here is an Argument for a Miracle; observe Him in a moment, as if Regiments fell from the Clouds, hasting his own March to the place where he was expected without staying to be called upon at Shrewsbury, view Him at Edgehill, with a handful of men (and if they were more, imagine how he got them) finding out this formidable Army, and dispersing them, Himself taking as much pains to save those who came to destroy him, as others had done to seduce them; Instead of being brought up by the Earl of Essex, as by the vote of both Houses He ought to have been, See Him making his own way, scattering those at Reading, and showing himself at Brainceford, that if indeed He were so much desired at London, and might be worthily received there, they might have their wish. Believe it Sir, His Majesty hath not so great a journey to the Conquest of Spain, as he had from Nottingham to Brainceford. If you cannot suddenly find how this Army was raised, inquire how it hath been kept together, a fit of Loyalty and Affection, a little dislike and indignation to see a good King ill used, might procure a present supply; but that this Army raised without Money, and armed without Weapons, should live and grow six months together, that no Soldier should starve for want of Meat, or murmur for want of Pay, that the King should have a Magazine, and you want Arms, that the King should pay his Soldiers, and you have no money, is such an instance of the power and presence of the Almighty, that if any such Argument were currant with you, your principal Members would no longer have tempted God in this Kingdom, but have sought him in a strange Land. Improve all these instances by your own Observations, and tell me sadly on whose side the Miracles have appeared.  
You would know my Opinion what the Burgess of D. should do, and you tell me, his Honour will not suffer him too apparently to recede from those with whom he hath kept so much Company. I know not what Counsel to give upon that principle, If his Honour and his Innocence have not a care of each other, neither can be safe; Me thinks the King himself hath given you a rare Pattern of Modesty in this point, he did not satisfy himself with consenting to new laws, but acknowledged passed Errors. Reparation is as Sovereign a thing as Bounty, and except there be this Ingenuity, Reformation can never be perfect, you say, he doubts what he hath done formerly will be more remembered than what he hath since done or shall do for the future; he is too blame, he hath not a generous nor a Christian mind, who thinks ill services may not be throughly repaired by future duty. I am so fare from that opinion, as though his mistakes have been of as ill consequence to the public as most men's, I believe he hath so good an opportunity by some eminent service to repair himself, that he may even lay an obligation of Gratitude upon the King, not only to forgive but reward his Affection. There is no such way to have what he now does, not valued, as by justifying what he hath done, so contrary to this: 'tis no scandal to be deceived, less to confess he was so. Let him take the same pains to oppose and suppress unreasonable Persons, as he doth to persuade others to consent to what himself thinks unreasonable, and the work is done. As he hath a task to do somewhat that is noble, so he hath a fair game before him having done it.  
I know nothing of yours unanswered, you must give me leave hereafter not to believe you, if you stumble any more at these straws, rather consider what he is to Answer to God, the King, his Country and Posterity, that sits idle without resisting the violence and indignity offered to all four, that is content to see this precious game of Religion, Liberty and Honour played at other men's Charges, and possibly in hazard of being lost for want of his Assistance; Consider whether you and the rest who first exercised the Militia in , and so discomposed the Government, and first taught the People a new obedience, have not to Answer for all the miseries, and pressures which have since befallen that poor Country. Let those who have contributed to the raising, and maintenance of that Rebellious Army, think sadly, whether they are not guilty of all the bloodshed on either side, and in this meditation that virtuous Lord, (who had long since been starved but for the King's Meat, and been naked, but for His Clothes,) may find himself guilty of the murder of his Father; Remember the blessed Condition we were in Eighteen Months since, and be proud if you can of the State you have now brought us to. Think of the firm, stable happiness our Ancestors enjoyed, and resolve there cannot be security but by the same Rule. 'Tis not laying down Arms makes a Peace, but such a Union of affections, that neither party unpleasantly remembers the way to it. If King or People be enforced to give away that which properly belongs to them, it will produce rather rest then Peace, & the memory there of will be so grievous to the loser, that perpetual jealousies, and discontents will be between them; Insist upon your Rights, let all doubts which may concern Religion, Liberty, and Property be cleared, & secured; Let Parliaments recover their good old Privileges, these are all our Birthrights, and hath been that which hath made the happiness and freedom of the English Nation loved and envied throughout Christendom; we will not part with a tittle of them, but when they shall be in danger will join with you in their Defence. But let us rest here, Press not the King to part with what properly belongs to Him, 'tis our right to see that He enjoys His, the hour that he grows less a King, We have lost a part of our freedom, if the power of Subjects be once enlarged, we are loser's by it, and affect an Authority will destroy us; Do not think the King's love of Peace, can invite Him to part with the benefits of Peace; what would the world thing of Him, if after the taking up Arms for the defence of His own, he should, upon Condition he might lay them down again, part with that, for the maintenance of which He took them up? would he not justify what hath been done against Him, if He yielded that now, which if He had 8. Months since, all this Confusion they will say might have been prevented, and will he not leave an excellent Encouragement to Posterity, to tread in their Father's steps, and to follow the example of their prosperous wickedness? Do not think a jewel plucked out of the Royal Diadem, can help its brightness, and lustre in any other place, 'tis a loss to the Nation, which cannot be repaired by an access of power to private hands; If this be Reason, Let not the folly and madness of other people make you quit it; War itself is not half so grievous, as the jurisdiction of these men who would have you resign your understanding to their fury and madness. Let them shift for themselves, and you shall quickly see what a contemptible People they will prove: Let Religion, Reason, Law, justice, and Honour be your guides, the Kingdom will flourish, and we shall again be happy in each other.  
From my Quarter this 10th. of April. 1643.  
FINIS.