A LETTER FROM A WORTHY GENTLEMAN IN yorkshire, To His Friend a Member of the honourable House of Commons.  
Declaring 

1 That the Parliament hath, and continually ought to use their zealous endeavours and hearty desires, for a thorough reformation in Church and common wealth.  
2 That the same means the Prelates used to advance themselves to petty deities, and to bury the honor of religion in the grave of oblivion, hath now removed the stones that pressed down truth and piety, and confounded their carnal wisdom.  
3 That the Papists in England and Ireland by their own barbarous, savage and inhuman practices, as a just requital of their villainies, will be the actors and authors of their own Tragedies.  
4 showing though the honourable houses of parliament be by many evil affencted people scorned and derided, yet they ought to go on cheerfully in the establishment of the true Religion, and suffer patiently, after the example of Christ &c.  
5 The enemies of the Parliament and kingdom, are papists to root out Religion the clergy for bishoprics and pluralities, cloaked delinouquents that study day and night to make currant their counterfeit conditions.  
6 And lastly advice to the Parliament to go on with alacrity but not one foot but to God, to heavenly ends, divine rules, apparent truths, in the Churches walks, and then they shall not want the protection of the Almighty.    
LONDON Printed for R. Best October 6. 1642.   

WE can speculate nothing in this our Horizon but dismal aspects. Bella; horrida bella; horse and arms always in our eyes and ears; and yet we are born in hand with peace; it seems arms boads it, both by the profane Souldiers of the sword, and by the licentious and starnizing professors of the Word; both saying that the houses of Parliament are in the wane already, calculating that within one fortnights time, there will be an absolute change: the latter calls for all for the King as a speedy means to settle a present peace; and for that purpose do force through their Churches and Parishes, a Petition entitled of the gentry & Free holders, &c. at Hewarth-moore to the Parliament: Where no such thing ●s as there intended, by any considerable number, but just the contrary, speaking in the clouds, as though the heavens were presently to be folded up, and that new heavens and new earth are forthwith to be moulded again, new Parliament, new Lords, moderate Laws, pliable Knights, and Burgesses, their mindes and manners so full of accommodation, as though in stead of vexing Paritans and tormenting Roundheads, they might role and tumble without stop or rub to a paradise of union and sympathy: and yet these blind Egyptians will not see the truth of God which shines so clearly within the circumference of our Goshen; nor view the guards which the blessed God of Abraham, isaac, & jacob, hath placed about Sion; nor the fiery walls which encompass Jerusalem; neither will they deign to behold the Church of God; though as dear to him as the apple of his eye; whose fruitful blessings hath always accompanied and waited upon those that have been instruments of her good: of which number I hope yourself to be; as now witness the constant guard of Angels daily stoping the passages of satan and his adherents against you; 
The Lords work at this time is reformation of Church and State, and subversion of their enemies.  and enlarging your hearts above human courage in all affrighting oppositions against your civill and sacred employments wherein you have fully expressed your zealous endeavours, and hearty desires for a thorough Reformation both of Church and common wealth. And that this also is Gods purpose at this time it will evidently appear to any that hath observed the Lords usual manner of working in former ages; for it is likely he hath suffered his Church and common wealth to decline, his people to be wearied with so many taxes and heavy oppressions for many yeers together to move and stir them up, like Israel in Egypt, to shake off their tyrannical yokes, and to lay hold on the first opportunity and lawful means of their long desired freedom whereas if the Church and common wealth had continued in their perscribed forms and rules neither spiritualty nor lalty could ever have thought; much less have undertaken to involve themselves in so difficult a labyrinth as this hath been. And whereas the aspiring clergy would have by little and little imagined themselves to have been some ptety deities long ere now; if by chance looking down their black and earthy feet had not appeared below their white robes to male content( with the Swan) their overweaved conceits; and to frustrate their own vain and empty fantasies: therefore that they might still retain some majesty and superintendency above man, the better to insinuate their spiritual impositions, or r●ther to force their tyrannical oppressions, have laboured to transform themselves into the Statutes of immortal Gods, 
Woe to him that saith to the wood arise, it shall teach: behold it is laid ove with Gold, &c and their is noe breath in it.  that so for fear of their powerful shapes, and by virtue of their shrines, their much less and mute professions, their non vox hominum implying that admiration O deum cortè; cerre imagines; might serve to acquire some simplo respects; and attract some plain country reverence; But God hath drawn that veiled curtain to let men see they are but sons of the earth; too drossy substance to ascend divine climates, too far unsuitable for heavenly copes, charactered, and pictured out by the heavenly Prophet in worthless creatures, dumb dogs, being abjects, and contemptible objects of scorn for all sorts of people: so that by that self same means whereby they had thought to have advanced themselves and butted the power of Religion, in the grave of oblivion, it hath pleased him to effect his own ends to overshoot them in their own bows, to confounded their carnal wisdom, to remove the stones that pressed down truth and piety; and to smooth the way, for the lustre and glory of his divine worship. 
Habbakuk. 2.19.  How miserable then are they who when they are highest? abuse their power to keep the people of God lowest, for though they, 
Zachariah 10.2.11.17.  who should be nursing fathers and mothers to the Church of God forsake her and become her enemies; they shall perish, yet comfort and deliverance shall still appear to Gods people, either by one or other. When the appointed time of mercy was come that the people of Israel should be delivered from captivity, he so ordered the state of earthly power afore the a complishment of his will, 
Isaiah. 2 10.  that no impediment might hinder Cyrus from performing of his promised deliverance; so the Lord that he may work his reformation by manumitting us from Egyptian slavery, 
Malachy. 2.8.  and redeeming us from Babylonish captivity, hath reunited England and Scotland that they may be cohelpers; hath so subjugated, and muzzled the bloudhounds of Ireland that we are in no great danger of their rebellious and savage teeth, other nations also having their respective prizes to play that so your heavenlyaimes maugre all hellish inventions whatsoevr may produce blessed and peaceable conclusions. But I hear some say the case is not so clear, as we take it to be; yes it is judged already; but we must temper our spirits with patience, and not think to conquer at the first strroke, nor expect to have the prise before we have run the course. The children of Israel were sure of victory in their peregrination to Canaan; and yet they were forced to strive till they got possessions let us herein exercise our faith, and knit the beginning, progress and end together, and we shall soon see, that he that begun this work will in good time bring it to perfection: for where Christ begins to rule, he rules for ever; of his kingdom there is no end. When the fuel strives with the fire the heel kicks against the prick; and when the creature advanceth himself against his Creator it is easy to infer the conquest. What if Antichrist doth march furiously, and his supports use their utmost endeavours and parts to trample upon truth and piety? they can extinguish their light no more then the morning clonds can do the suins, which by little and little expels their gatherings, and wastes their packs, that in an iustant none of them are to be seen. Can we think that he which threw the angels out of heaven, will suffer mortals to run a contrary course without either curb or bridle, and to prevail against heavenly powers? was there ever any fierce against God and prospered? surely the rage of man contrary to his own intendment shall turn to the praise of Christ, and furtherance of that work which God in his appointed time hath proposed to himself, 
Subversion of the enemies.  as now( blessed be God) before our eyes we may see in Ireland, for could ever flesh and blood have attempted the subversion of those matchless multitudes in their own country, if they had not made rods for their own correction & engine for their utter ruin? or could a Christians hart, so merciful, pitiful, tender, and so full of compassion, have ever thought of any bloody enterprises or destructive designs against them had they not pulled them upon their own heads by their own barbarous, savage and inhuman practices as a just requital of their own villainies? As for our own Papists, they now show of what spirit they are; They have got their heads so much into the wind that they cannot be turned by a gentle hand, whose insolences and provocations rebound so high, that any finger may point at the mark of their hearts by the level of their tongues, so that we need not doubt but their judgements also will fall upon them, so soon as their treacheries are grown to full maturity, yet these men had they guided themselves modestly, and tempered themselves civilly, being all either allied kinsmen, or intimately friendly and familiar with either one or other, how ha●dly could they have been rooted out by any impartial doom? and this is the Lords doing, that they should be justly offensive, and it is marvelous in our eyes that they should be actors of their own tragedies: and yet we are so voided of all sense, that we will neither see, hear, nor give thanks to God for those things which make for our peace. Ye● I hear some say, they are so far from rooting out, that they rather increase and rise again: it is true, but onely to harden them that they may receive the greater fall, for howsoever the church hath justly provoked God, yet the cause shall stand impregnable & as firm as a rock to dash in pieces all waves, & stroms of threatening oppositions, For Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords & will not suffer dust & worms-meat always to ruffle his beloved spouse; for Babylon shall fall; for strong is the Lord that hath condemned her. Nay the Parliament shall fall says some; for almost all have left it. Just as Gedeons 32000 too many to fight the Lords battle, were reduced to 300 upon trial approved for a sufficient number to vindicate the honour of God. What if some be gone out from them who was not of them? What if God would not honour them to fight his battle against the mighty? Cannot God effect his own ends without a set number? Does not Gods glory appear more without means then with means; more with less means then with greater? Can God( says one) get none but a company of roundheads, puritans, seditious, factious, beggarly fello was to labour in his cause? who are all for schisms and their own ends? O how far are these from discharging their duties, in giving to these public ministers of the state the best interpretation that their actions will bear; that they invert all their honest actions, and traduce and reproach their innocent persons? but it is no matter, for it was Christs and Iohns lot, austere John hath a devil, sociable Christ is a wine bibber, &c. Whereas the holinesse of the one should have procured reverence, and the sociablenesse of the other been rewarded with love; but it is the lot of them and all christians, the disciple is not above his Master. Men may do well, but must look to hear ill; wicked men, when they learn to think well, they will learn to speak well; and no marvel if man want his praise, when God is without his deserved glory. Wheresoever Christ cometh, there will be divisions, that the very thoughts of mens hearts may be laid open: The flesh always rebells against the spirit and endeavours to maintain its own regency, and crieth down whatsoever crosseth it, be they laws whether human or divine, be they never so well framed for repairing the breaches both of Church and Common-wealth, View the opposers of this parliament, and you shall find them like so many wild beasts heading together to break down the s●●ts and hedges of this vineyard; First you have the Papists encompassing both Sea and Land to roote out our religion, then have you the clergy courting for bishoprics and Canterburiing for pluralities; Thirdly, The thirsty soldier gapes with open mouth to swallow down the golden juice of this kingdom; Lastly, the cloaked delinqents that dare not come near the touch-stone, they study day and night to make currant their counterfeit conditions: These are the aims of these men, whose invectives must carry such credit with them as alone to condemn those men whose words may be laws, and lives rules, for them to square their actions by, whose outward man may serve as looking glasses for them every morning to discover the spots and stains of their colluding thoughts and corrupted conversations, Contraria interse opposita magis elucescunt, it would be lost Jabour to compare the together, aliud noctua sonat aliud cornix: They are so far sundered, and distanced in qualities, that any purblind critic may justly carp at those tricks whereby they play their game, so that there is no hazard at all in the cause; for sincerity will demonstrate itself in plain and untraversable evidences, and seal up its deeds with such authentical witnesses, as that it shall not need to bribe sipister and indirect means to make it transparent in the great Quest of this common wealth, Veritas non quaerit angulos, Truth is bold and like a standardbearer will manifest itself before all the world: let therefore your ends be heavenly, the bent and sway of your resolutions holy, wind up your souls higher and higher, soare and mount up cloft, and then no plots below, no stormy designs beneath, can beat you from your wished haven: for in vain is the net spre●d in the sight of that th●t hath wings. Thus may you raise yourself above the reach of human policy; and make yourself safe in spite of satan and his complices. I have blessed Jacob and he shall bee blessed, but can you not spare, or have you not provided; one blessing for us also? Yes promote your begun Reformation in truth and sincerity, and it will divert all imminent plagues whatsoever, for where there is repentance it will bind up Gods hands by his promises that he cannot power out his vials of wrath upon us, and where there is reformation without which there can be no repentance, there is alively expression and vigorous manifestation of repentance as we may now see begun & declared in our heads. But still I hear cursings upon Meroz & the inhabitanfs thereof, t were to be wished that every county & kindred would lay their hands upon their harts, & see how forward or rather froward they have been in the grand concernments of this Church and commonweal, that when they which have done most may see they have but done their parts, they which have been contrary minded may redeem their by-gone neglects and perverseness by their more earnest and present endeavours to prevent the bitter evils which the angells of God are ready to let fall upon us. Can meat fatisfy the hungry wight? & drink appease the thirsty soul if they be not tasted & digested? shall we hunger an thirst forth blessings of our kingdom, the fruits of this parliament, and desire to be feasted with them, and will neither comply with them, nor apply them to ourselves, that they may be fit nourishment for our livelihoods? Nay like stocks and stones we lye in their way, and yet we cry out they run no faster on, and like Remoraes we retard their Navigations, and yet want patience to expect their arrival, we undermine them by all assays. and yet we proclaim to all the world that they go not forward upon sure grounds; were these the helps that former Sages received? or was ever such requitals heaped upon the grave consultations of ancient times, O quantum mutati ab i●is? how far are we degenerated from our former births and strains, if we consider the mutual correspondency, of our forefathers who lived together; ac si omne● ejusdem musae essent ae●… u●, every man stud●eing how to ac●ommodate his neighbour in what might advance his preferment, every man more officious then other forthescommon good, gird yourselves therefore with undaunted res●lutions that thee vexing distempers, being removed, you may reduce us to those pristine times, so friendly in their familiarities and sympathies, to fruitful in neighbourly passages, of intimacy and dearness, go on with alacrity, but set not one foot forward without your God; be so true to heavenly ends, and fast to divine rules that no hopes or fears bee able to sway you from apparent truths; for assure yourselves so long as you are in the churches walks, you shall not want the protection of the Almighty. Nec flexit humeros molis immense labor●, immota cervix coelum & sideratulit. Hercules was but one, and what wonders he hath done famed hath made report; Atlas he hath born that high and burden Paramount, transcending all comparison and without any joynt-tenant of that unwieldy weight, but you are many, vis unita ●ortior, many hands make light work, and the choice workmen of our kingdom also, able if need require to build a new worlds much more skilful to close the gappes, and bind up the wounds of a little common wealth, a few propps upholds a ruinous house. What if Giants assault you? ●… va lernae monstra, numerosum matum docuit mori. David cut off that out-daring Goli●… h and if more heady monsters of mankind do still bud out take notice of that conqueror, and you may know his weapons also. There is no horrid or monstrous villainy hatched either by Sea or Land, but it is mortal, it cannot exceed its growth, nor pass its limits, for space and leisure will either wear them out, or truth expel their poison, or time calcine them to their first principles again: what if nulla lux u●… quam secura ful●… r●…, what if finis u●… ius mali 〈…〉 ●… turi? though every day hath threatened your fall, yet experience hath seen the furious fates to have had their own destinies; and that the raging and gloomy daies have often been silenced upon faire and clear terms, and though restless assaults as they spring up link themselves together against you, yet if your comforts, as we hope, grow and multiply with them, you shall out-●… ride all their engines with invincible courage, for victory over by-gone practices promises victory over all succeeding intended evils; the sharper the conflict, the more honourable shall be your conquest; when the Lord of hosts shall crown your actions with trophies of everlasting famed and immortality, when after-yeares shall make report, how you have emulated the stoutest of times, and stood out to the hazard of your dearest blood for the repairing and vindicating the honour and glory of your great God, for the advancing your King, and preserving his Dominions, for the enacting laws for freeing your Country from slavery and bondage. O how sovereign then will be your present praise, digito monstrari & dicur hic est, when every tongue shall be telling, how you and he, and the rest have done things never to be forgotten when the labour is gone, the danger out of doubt, then the glory of the cause will be your own, haec olim meminisse iuvabit, good God ab his cripe flammis & iam tandemgravibus aerumais statue modum finemque cladi, deliver us from all the fiery contentions of these daies, and let not the double guilt of our high ingratitude die us in our purest blood, give bounds to these merciless waves which threaten to shipracke our welfare for ever, and secure our honest commerces with calm roads to safe harbours, bless the season of the summer unto us, and grant that at last comfortable issues may flow from the well-springs of our hearty desires, that no alarum be heard by night, no lamentations by day, nor let doleful ditties at any time hereafter ever sound out to our succeeding posterities the discording jars of forefathers unhappy divisions.  
Thus presenting my love and service unto you in the weak expressions of my apprehensions of these times, not as doubting of your constancy in your station, but that thus I thought fit to manifest my settled resolutions in this common cause wherein I hope the God of heaven will not onely bless you but also  
Your Loving cousin, R. R.  
The fates foretell the stars and times decree:  
That you a scourge to Papists now must be:  
That you your oppressed kingdom having born,  
It being free, yourselves, and it adorn  
With peace, with plenty, and blessings divine,  
Such as no heart can wish, or tongue define.  
FINIS.