arms of Charles II 
dieu ET MON DROIT  A LETTER TO A MEMBER Of the Honourable House of Commons, Speaking his Humble Desires of the Receiving the KING, without dishonourable Conditions, according to his just Rights, and the confirming the ancient Privileges of Parliament, and the Liberty and Propriety of the Subjects according to the known Fundamental Laws of the NATION:  
AFter those many Tragical Scenes of strange Governours and Governments, which have been so long acted upon the Fatal Stage of this sad Nation, to itis almost utter Subversion, and the Worlds Amazement; I cannot but glorify God, who out of the most gracious dispensation of his Providence, hath so wisely and mercifully disposed your blessed convention: in which I highly congratulate the Kingdoms invaluable happiness, which surpriseth every loyal heart with raptures of joy, that after the severe frowns of a tedious Winter, we are now presented with the sweet smiles of an amiable Spring, and after our long Voyage on the Tempestuous waves of a raging Sea, we shall suddenly arrive to a safe Haven, and after the harsh howling of Lachry●ae and discord, as a foil to the Letter harmony of heretofore disagreeing judgement, now most firmly consenting in you, our Honourable Justices deputed to compose our grand differences in a mutual peace and settlement of the Nation.  
In order to it, that you being fore-warned, may be fore-armed; I do most humbly desire you would be pleased to heat your Eye with your horrid transactions of the late times, which in their unparallelled violations have out done all the tyrannies and Usurpations of former Ages, and in a most impudent mockery of Justice have sacrificed our most Gracious sovereign( after his many condiscentions, and royal recessions from his ●●n honour to gratify his people) to their most barbarous Malice and Ambition.  
Of whom it was said by the Bishop of Monspelier in France, when I was there, that if he had been of their Religion, he had out, shined all the Saints in their calendar. And at the reading of his most Elegant Book( translated into Dutch) a true entract of refined policy and regular piety) I saw a Jew weep in the low Countries in a compassionate resentment of his meek patience under the savage deportment of his cruel Enemies, most undeservedly acted upon him.  
And if this had not been enough to satisfy their arrogance, they most inhumanly banished that great person of Honour, and Master of all Moral Virtues and Christian graces, the just Heir of the Crown, and his Royal Relations, being ashamed to see them they had so highly injured; and to complete their wickedness( after they had visited their Fellow Members, because they were more honest and more numerous than themselves) resolving to take away whatsoever should give control to their Avarice and Tyranny, they cut down those Branches of Honour, the House of Lords, pulled down those Reverend Fathers, the great Pillars of the Church, ●o support it against heresy and Scysme.  
And by the advice of their Masters the Jesuits( the designers of the ruin of our truly reformed Church, and well-established State) under the fair glosses of Common Safety, Liberty, and Propriety,( which they meant only to themselves) they have destroyed and enslaved the free-born people of England, and have killed and taken possession, making themselves first Saints, and then the only Proprietors of other mens Estates and Fortunes.  
They pretended to vindicate the privileges of Parliament, and indeed raised the very Fundamental of it in their Arbitrary Power, whereby contrary to the known Laws of the Land, they have erected High Courts of Justice, wherein they have murdered the Lords Anointed, and Sons of the Loyal Nobility, and divers of the Gentry and Commonalty, persons of approved piety and integrity.  
Under the veil of being good Husbands for the Nation, they have altered the whole frame of the best Government of the Universe, to secure themselves from the just Account the established Laws would have called them to for their due delinquency, and giving it out, that Monarchy is chargeable, have raised greater Sums of Money by illegal Taxes and Impositions in a Common wealth, then all the Kings have done since the Conquest.  
I humbly beg your pardon for giving you the trouble of the great Eye sore of our grievous miseries, the most unfortunate product of their greater Crimes, desiring you would be pleased to act with the timely reflections of their unhandsome Errors, as so many clear mementoes to guard yourselves from those dangerous Rocks, which have most unhappily Ship-wracked us and themselves. Wherefore out of a compassionate esteem for their Souls, that have been the grand Contrivers of our Calamities, you are obliged to do Justice to the Nation, and Charity to themselves, as to give them a sight of their sins, in a sense of their sufferings, in inflicting a condign punishment upon them, that it may be recorded as a signal memorandum to deter others by their exemplary penalty, not to render themselves guilty of the same enormities. Impunity in some Cases may be truly styled a merciful folly, keeping the Offenders in impenitence, and giving encouragement to others to run into the same cheap Errors.  
Not long since the kingdom was haraced by the fury of the late Jun●o, some of them driven Jehu like in pulling down the Gates of the City, impris●ning divers Members of the Common-Council, eminent for Religion and Loyalty, threatened to bury the City in its own Ashes, so that we were brought to the brink of a great praecipe, ready to be thrown down headlong, and entombed in our own ruin, had not the merciful hand of the Almighty interposed, and made his Excellency General Monk highly instrumental to rescue us from the Jaws of Death and Destruction, in putting in the Secluded Members, who by their prudence handsomely allayed the others violence, repealing whatsoever was unjustly enacted by them, and to cancel the most illegal perpetuating of the Junto, issued out Writs to the people, who have deputed you their true delegates, as persons of Religion and Loyal Principles, to transact their public concerns, and to repair the wide Breaches of Church and State, in the gentle closing of those bleeding Wounds, which the ruder hands of the new Statists have most barbarously made.  
And now I take the freedom to tell you the desire and expectation of the whole Nation is, that you would be pleased to be so just to yourselves and the kingdom; as first to complete your own Body, consisting of the three Estates, a most accomplished policy, the best of Common-wealths, made up of the grand trade of Government, Monarchy in the King, Aristocrasie, in the Lords, and Democrasie in the Commons, by which the Royal Prerogative is asserted, and well tempered by the prudent assistance of the Lords and Commons, all degrees having a sha●e in the conduct of the publ●ck Affairs of the Nation, and therefore they are in all reason obliged without dispute to submit to whatsoever shall be rat fied by the Kings most Excellent Majesty, and the H●use of Lords, as their lawful Governours, and the Commons as their Substitutors and Trustees.  
It is your part therefore, to entreat the Peers of the Land( unjustly secluded by the insolent junto) whose birth-right it is, to sit in the upper house) and not to exclude any for pretend●d delinquency, who out of principles of Honour and Conscience have served the King, which if it be a fault, most of them have most dearly paid for it, in their severe compositions, and therefore it is very reasonable after those honourable Barons have redeemed themselves and their privileges by great sums of money, and divers acts of oblivion passed, in favour of all Delinquents, that they should be admitted into their just rights, which they may claim by the Laws of the Land, as their due inheritance.  
And now these streams of honour being let in, I hope the fountain will suddenly follow, the Kings most sacred Majesty, who is the lawful head of the Parliament: It is fit therefore, he should be united to the Lords and Commons the Members of it; had he no Title of inheritance legally transmitting it to him, from a lingure discent of his royal Progenitors, his merits would seal him a lawful Patent to it, he being much admired abroad for the proper and well propo●tioned gracefulness of his person, accompanied with a comely deportment, and accomplished with most significant language, the Herald of his sage and pious notions of his mind, which highly speak him a great Master of Reason and Religion.  
H● being endowed with so much personal valour as to dare to encounter the most resolute Champion, and with so much humility as to discourse the meanest person without contempt. He is so much a man as to treat himself with a freedom from passion, and so much a Gentleman a● to entertain others with an obliging candour and compleasance; and so much a Christian as to be out of Charity with nothing, but revenge, frequently testified in giving his pardon to those that have highly disobliged him, ever accounting it the most heroic act to imitate our blessed Saviour, in forgiving his enemies; And he is of so even a frame of temper that he is not elevated by good success, nor deprived by bad. In a word he is a true son of the Church of England, and amongst the Romanists a stout Defender of the catholic apostolic faith. and adorned with all intellectual, moral and Theological virtues, which render him most accomplished both as a King and a Christian.  
So that it is easy for an ordinary eye to see how much the late Junto, and their Imps the jesuits and gives, have been enemies to the peace and prosperity of this Nation, and the true reformed Religion, in detaining this glorious person of honour the just heir from his Crown, who by his great prudence and Christian moderation would have long ago composed all difference of our Church and State, and with his high alliance with the most eminent Princes of Europe will now perfectly reconcile us to them and gain us such a foreign repute, as to enrich our Nation in the advancement of our decayed Trade.  
Now the eyes of the whole world are fixed on you, to see with what wisdom you will manage your great concern of the reception of our most gracious King. I hope you will have so much obedience for God, and loyalty for your Sovereign, as not highly to capitulate with him, nor present him with such conditions, as you in duty cannot propound, nor he in honour receive, be pleased to consider his moderation on all sides must give a period to our miseries, no● countenancing on one side the animosity of the ranting Royalist; nor on the other the fond vale of the rigid Presbiterian.  
His ●oy●l Father that glorious Saint and Martyr, laid down his life to preserve the privileges of Parliament, and the just rights of the Crown, be pleased therefore not to deny him that, which cost so dear as his Fathers innocent blood, from the guilt of which, I desire God of his infinite mercy to wash this polluted Nation in the pure bath of his Sons most precious blood, which God in justice cannot grant, except we first wash ourselves in tea●s of ●ontrition and make restitution to his son, his immediate heir● seeing it cannot be done to himself, in possessing him with his Fathers Throne and royal dignities, without such ugly obligations, as entrench upon this just person, to which the Law of God and this Nation doth entitle him.  
He is under God the Protector of the Law, and how can he defend it and the privileges of Parliament without the power of the Sword. In him resideth the supreme Authority of the Nation, which you then take into your own hands, and in effect depose him, if you make yourselves absolute masters of his Militia. And be pleased to give me leave freely to tell you, the Nation never prospered since the usurpation of it, what blood and treasure hath been exhausted to gain it? what horrid violations have been acted to preserve it? and the vengeance of God( I doubt) will still hang over this Nation until it be restored to the just owner the K●ng.  
It is no less his own inclination than his grand interest, to improve his power to the advantage of the Nation, as well in protecting & rewarding his deserving people in remunerative Justice, as in corbing and punishing stubborn Offenders in vindicative; He being sensible of other mens sufferings in his long sufferage under the severe discipline of his own, will impose nothing upon his subjects that shall not be very proportionable to their desires, and consistent with the ancient privileges of Parliament, and the known Laws of the Nation, and the liberty and propriety of the Subject.  
If you shall be so severe as to bereave the King of his Legal Rights before he is guilty of miscarriage in Government, which as yet he is not capable of, being not entrusted with the managery of it, you will render yourselves unjust in punishing him, before he hath offended, in taking away or lessening his power of doing the Nation Justice, because others vainly fear, that their guilt hath out done his mercy, which I am confident will be more freely evidenced to them in his future Clemency, than their former base actions can pretend in the least to merit.  
Be pleased to consider the King( beside the honour of his Soul, which obligeth him to preserve the people committed to his care and charge) doth solemnly engage himself by Oath at his Coronation to Govern according to the ancient known Laws of the Nation, wherein the privileges of Parliament, and propriety of the Subject, are secured from Tyranny and Violations, do not make yourselves guilty of so great a breach of Chariry, as to doom the King( of whom Foreigners of a different faith, do give so high a Character for his most honourable converse among them) should so far degenerate in his own Climate, as to cancel all principles of Nature and Religion, and forfeit his hopes of Eternal happiness in the breach of his Oath.  
Nothing is so repugnant to the Common dictates of reason, as for a person to be guilty of destroying himself, which the King must necessary be, if in making himself absolute in power, he shall ruin his own people, whom by Oath, and the Law of God and the Nation, he is bound to protect, it being his near concern( the King and his Subjects being correlatives, or mutually to preserve and defend each other) to promote their welfare and prosperity, which highly is echoed from them upon him, his flourishing Estate thereby being involved in theirs, whence arise mutual reflections of happiness interchangeably consisting in the Kings just Commands, and the peoples due obedience, which God of infinite mercy remonstrateth here with outward blessing, and hereafter with Eternal.  
Pray be pleased not to importune him( contrary to his own inclinations and the principles of Justice) to ratify h●s royal consent the illegal purchase of his own, and the Church, and commonly called Delinquents lands and estates, to charge him with sacrilege and Oppression, it being not in his own power to give away the Crown Lands, he being but a Tenant for life, much less to alienate the Church revenues, which by the pious Charity of the deceased Saints are dedicated to God in the maintenance of his Priests and P●ophets. Nor can he dispose of his Subjects estates( many of them being ready to ●●mish for want) without their consents, lest he make himself really guilty of taking away their just propriety, which by the Seditious party was only pretended in his royal Father.  
Though it would be just to take away those ill gotten estates from the purchasers( they having no title to them by Law,) to warn others for the future according to that received maxim in Law; Cave●t Emp●or; yet this may be done in moderation, let them return the esta es( all the profits being justly audited) to the Church and Crown, and to private Sufferers the justs owners) the mon●es principal and interest being paid which the purchasers have expended for them.  
To conclude I shall ever in my meaner judgments deem it requisite, as well in justice to the King, as reason of State to the people, not to impose rigid conditions upon him( he being a person of so high honour and most obliging moderation and ingenuity) let him enjoy his just prerogatives, which on occasion may give bounds to the Democratical power of the house of Commons, a late faction of which( the just power of the King having been disputed & laid aside, in taking away the great flower of the Crown, the Militia from him) prevailed so far, as first to erect their own Members, and then the house of Lords, and at last to sacrifice the King to their malice.  
The Prerogative of the King is already moderated in a Parliamentary Government, take heed of diminishing it now, least in time it be wholly nulled, and the people inserted with too large a proportion of power, which in them will easily degenerate into anarchy; Be pleased to count it the best result of your most mature Counsels, inviolably to conserve the particular stream of grand Interests of the Nation in the old and safe Channels, to let the Parliament enjoy its ancient Privileges, and the Subjects their due Liberty and Propriety. And the Church as well regulated Episcopacy, according to the primitive Apostolical justitution, and the King his just rights, according to the known established Laws of the Lands, so that this Nation under his most wise and pious Government, may be truly styled the glor of christendom, and the envy of the world.   

LONDON, Printed in the Year 1660.  
FINIS.