Ὁ ἈΥΤΟ-ΚΆΤΑΚΡΙΤΟΣ. THE SELF-CONDEMNED. OR, A LETTER TO Mr Jo: Goodwin:  
Showing, That in his Essay to justify the equity, and regularnes of the late, and present proceed of the Army by Principles of Reason, and Religion, he hath condemned himself of iniquity, and variableness in the highest degree, until he shall explain himself in public.  
By Sir Francis Nethersole Knight.  
Jan: 11th London, Printed in the year 1648.   

SIR,  
I Was willing to have done you a good Office, and to have discharged one part of that duty, which I own to the King my most gracious Sovereign, and to my Country in a private way, as I have done many times of late years upon other considerations, and for this among the rest, that I had, and yet have reason to apprehend, the ascribing of my name would rather have substracted from, then added any thing to the weight of those discourses, which I have either privately insinuated to divers persons in Authority, or published to the world. But it is now more than high time for every good Christian, and loyal subject of this Kingdom, to take off his mask, and to acquit himself of that allegiance, under which every of us was borne, and which many have, all of age should have sworn, with a resolved heart, and open face; And for me to avow, who it was that sent you a written letter the other day, wherein he let you know, that being one of those many you take notice of, who is not afraid to profess his being in some respects much unsatisfied with some of the Armies late, and present proceed, and that as well in regard of the want of Conscience and Justice, as of Moderation, and prudence in them; he came to the reading of your Right, and Might well met, with great expectation. But soon found he should fall as short of his hopes, as you have, and will of your aim, expressed in the rest of your title Page; if you think you can compass your design by a figure, as you pretend to do in your second Section. In which respect he prayed you to tell him in a few lines of plain English by the return of the Messenger he sent to you, whether your intention were, and be to maintain the equity, and regularness of all the said proceed of the Army, as they have been designed in their late Remonstrance, in pursuance whereof they do still act at present, for aught he then knew, or yet knows; or in case that be more than you meant, he then took the liberty, and boldness to require you to do yourself the right, to let him as one of your Readers, understand at what part, or parts of the Remonstrance you leave them, whereupon he promised you should hear further from him. Whose purpose, was if you should have under-taken the full defence of the whole design of the Army already Declared by them, in that case to have remembered you, that unless your imitating them in their variations with the sword, may be thought to render you a fit Champion for them with the pen, you are the most unfit man in the whole Kingdom to charge yourself with that task, because you cannot so much as make an essay to Justify the main piece of their design, without condemning yourself. Which friendly purpose of his to have given you a fair warning in secret of the necessity lay upon you to save your reputation, by a timely explaining of your meaning, in your said title, since God did not give you the grace to entertain with suitable friendliness, but suffered you to reject it, with this slighting, if not scornful return, that you would make no answer to the letter of an unknown person, you have hereby obliged me to endeavour to engage you to vouchsafe me a better Answer to this printed Letter. Whereby I must pray you to take a review of a passage in the seventh page of your Anticavalierisme, which stareth the composer of your late Pamphlet in the face with a wide open mouth in these words. As for offering violence to the person of a King, or attempting to take away his life, we leave the proof of the lawfulness of this to those profound disputers the jesuites, who stand engaged by the tenor of their prefessed doctrine and Practice, either to make good the lawfulness thereof, or else to leave themselves and their Religion an abhorring and hissing unto the world: As for us who never traveled with any desire or thoughts that way, but abhor both mother and daughter, Doctrine and Practice together; we conceive it to be a just Prerogative of the Persons of Kings, IN WHAT CASE SOEVER, to be secure from the violence of men, and their lives to be as consecrated corn meet to be reaped and gathered only by the hand of God himself. David's conscience smote him, when he came but so near the life of a King, as the cutting off the lap of his garment. Of which mind & judgement that you have been ever since, and are still, if you shall instantly with creddible circumstances declare yourself so in Print, I shall think myself bound in charity to believe it, notwithstanding the great appearance of the contrary in the face, and body of your last published Pamphlet. But if you shall either fail to do this in a due manner, which I need not teach you, who know it much better than I, or shall but be slack in the performance thereof; I do here in that case pronounce you a self-condemned Heretic, unless you shall presently give me and the world such reasons for the change of your judgement in this point, as may satisfy me, and other rational men, that the said Reasons are of sufficient importance to make such an alteration in you, and that there is a probability at least, that they were not known to you, or considered by you when you published your Anticavalierisme. Which it will be very hard for me to believe, if you shall produce no other than are common in the books of Jesuits, and are as commonly confuted in the books of all Protestant Writers of Controversies, whereunto you were not much more a stranger seven years ago, then at this day, to which, for aught I know, you are the first and only Minister of any Reformed Church, that ever was of this, by yourself styled Jesuitical, opinion. In which respect I shall hope that in the abovementioned case, not only all those of your own Congregation, but all other of the Independent way in Old and New England, and in all other Countries (if there be any any where else) will appear against you in such a manner, as they are obliged by their own principles. And that all those of that way in the Army, aswell Soldiers, as Officers of all degrees, who may reasonably be judged to have been seduced by you, will lay hold on the opportunity of this discovery of you, to discharge you for their whether Pope, or Pastor. And I shall yet further hope, that all the Members of the Hovourable House of Commons now sitting at Westminster (in what capacity I am not wise enough to be able, if I were willing, to determine) will take the same rise, instead of going on in their proceed against their and our Sovereign Lord the King, to proceed against you, as the great New Light, by the observation of whose irregular motion, they also may perhaps have been led so wide out of the road of their Loyalty. From which wild wand'ring after you in untrodden paths, that will certainly end in their own destruction, I hearty wish that they would return into the good old way of the Church of England, laid down at large in the Homilies of Rebellion, before they be deserted by the Counties for which they serve, & by all loyal people of the Land. Whom with yourself I do hereby exhort in the most serious manner to follow my example, in making (so far as it is lawful for private men) as I here do, a most solemn Declaration, that I do from my soul abhor and disclaim having any part, or giving any abetment to the proceed of any, that have or may go about to Depose, or take away the life of the King, which I do for the delivering of my own soul from partaking in the guilt of so crying a sin. And so in great longing for your Answer hereunto, I rest till then, and shall he glad if I may ever remain  
Your ever loving friend, Fra. Nethersole. Janu. 8. 1648.   

SIR,  
I do here avow my having written the Problems, the strong motive to the passing of a general Pardon, and Act of Oblivion; the other parcel of Problems, and the Parables reflecting upon the times, all printed after the resolution for a Personal treaty with the King; and I suppose sufficient to show what justice there will be in taking away his Majesty's life upon the charge of his having made war against his Parliament. In which respect I recommend them to your perusal, conceiving that if you shall read them with attention, and a mind disposed to yield to reason, and without prejudging whatsoever you may meet with that you had not thought on before, you may peradventure find more cause to retract the main scope of your whole Anticavalierism, than the above mentioned passage thereof. And I shall not despair that you may let me know you are of the same mind therein; though for a man to confess himself convinced of an error he hath made public, especially if his judgement have not been swayed by weight of reason, but overbalanced by private interest, be one of the hardest points of self-denial. Ishall not need now to tell you that I am also the Author of the Project for an equitable and lasting Peace, which you may please also to take the pains to read, and then to judge whether the middle way therein traced between the two extremes, the Army have been engaged in, be not more just & prudent then either of them. Ishall tell you how P. D. can stand for the first letters of my name in due time. I rest as before.  
January 8, 1648.