A LETTER FROM AN EJECTED MEMBER OF THE HOUSE of COMMONS, TO Sir JO: EVELYN: SHOWING, The Constitution of that Council, and the Influence it hath had on the present Times, with a judgement of future Events.  
Printed in the year, 1648.   

A LETTER TO Sir JOHN EVELYN, from an ejected MEMBER of the Commons House.  
Sir,  
I Am sorry I am not in a capacity of returning one civility for another, being bound up by the unfortunate aspect of my Nativity to receive benefits rather than to give. Only I can say, I have committed your obligations to a faithful memory and a grateful heart, who will at all times discharge their Offices I am sure, in paying you all just and due respects. But for your last discourse, wherein you endeavoured to have me accept the proceed of the House of Commons for my Ejection, and acknowledge the right of my successors place; I desire to be excused, till I am convinced by the Reason of Arguments, and not fortune of the Times.  
I must confess I do not envy him his cushion, nor the State, Dignity, & Degree of Membership: which if I mistake not, begins to want something both of the intrinsique and extrinsique value. And if my Arithmetic be good, the Houses had no sooner disordered their whole Number, but they have ever since been busied in Fractions.  
But I need not read Lectures to the wise; you remember as well as I, and are a witness to all the truth I know or can speak; How the things of this present age, were begun with most exorbitant Opinion and Pride, carried on with proportionable Injustice and Oppression, and are like to end with equal Shame and Folly to the first Attempters.  
With what an air of popularity was every man lifted up at the very first meeting? Flattering himself in the honour of being a public Champion for the almost captived liberty and interest of England: and of being a Member of that Parliament, which the People (who measure all things, not by what is fit and just, but by what themselves desire) already had in adoration. So that these men that could not govern themselves by their particular virtue, no sooner came to live in the hot air of vulgar acclamations, but they grew half mad.  
An absolute Calenture had seized on the head of the Body politic, which made them believe, they could do no business but by precipices.  
The Speaker was so giddy with his vertiginous Office, that after a whole day spent in hearing and doing public Affairs, he could seldom give account, you know, of what was said or done. Which, I suppose, proceeded from the various qualifications and tempers of the Members: whereof some were wise men, but seemed not so, being superseded with acute prejudices and passions: Some seemed so and were not, seeking Fame rather than deserving it: Others neither were nor seemed so, and yet had public Faculty to use their incorrigible confidence of troubling the House when they pleased.  
And though no man came to the Parliament but whom the Writ supposed both wise and valiant; yet that was to be understood favourably, for it appeared at last, that passions and fears had taken away the reputation of both.  
'Tis certain that these humours quite overthrew the State, Rule, and Order of a wise Council. Do you not remember how the Mornings were used to be passed away in longwinded declamations, brought thither elaborately composed, and read out of a hat perhaps, or behind a friend? And for the second Scene, How about Noon (for so the match was made) came some Petition, from a County, City, Corporation, Mystery, or Occupation, and made humble desires to have the same things done, which the Speech-makers had all the morning been debating of. Which also did not a little set forth the speculative prospect, and high wisdom of the said Members in public Affairs. And it may be, after all this, the same Members receive Letters (of their own procuring) from their Country, City or Burrow, to give the thanks of their trusties to them, and to acknowledge their unwearied pains for the public service. So that by this time, the Gentlemen, swelling with opinion above the bounds of all shame or fear, sent all their Orations to be Printed: whence came forth at any one time eight Speeches of Sir John Wray; and soon after, nine Speeches more of Sir John Wray: all penned without wit and understanding; (and they must needs be so, for the Knight had none, and, where there is nothing to be had, the King loses his right:) spoken without intelligible pronunciation and accent; and heard without attention; and yet sent abroad to busy the people with popular themes, and feed them with expectations of great effects. Whereas the wiser sort of men, thought it a great dishonour to Parliaments, that these and other Speeches should ever have been discovered to the world, to give Strangers & other Nation's occasion to think, what opinion they were to have of the great Assembly of Wise men in England.  
You must needs agree with me, that this liberty of Speech-making was Remora, if not the overthrow of all Parliamentary results; and made us many times more like persons convened in a Cockpit, than a Council: which caused a high resentment in some temperate old Members: Among whom, (quoth one, striking his hand on his breast, in our sight and hearing) I have been of all Parliaments since Duodecimo Jac. and never saw such do.  
Another cries out, that he had seen all the Parliaments of King Charles, and that of Oxford, where they were called Hornets, after they had been adjourned from Westminster where they were but wasps, all which were nothing to this. For whether it were the intemperate desire of fame, or private opinion of parties, which often deceives men, and never more than at this time, or temporal interests, or irregular zeal, or engagement in Faction and Design, certain it is, that all concurred to use a liberty could be denied to none of them: and they that held themselves before almost undone for want of liberty, were now about to be undone with too much. The truth is, much talking is troublesome in all companies, and in Counsels dangerous; where all matters are to be handled with gravity and weight. But you remember well enough, that our long debates, which sometimes held from morning till night, and then almost from night till morning again, looked little better than great brawls: and when the people supposed their Gallant wise Members were very busy, and took great pains, to sit up late a-nights, making them good Laws, they were then altogether by the ears perhaps, and drawing Swords, about the Candles. 'Tis as observable, how matters are not much mended, and that public Affairs move still by the like wild and preposterous consultations: For, as when the rest of the people lived in full peace, they were only then fight and quarrelling in the House of Commons; so now, when the Kingdom was put into open War, and different parties were every where acting Tragedies, on each other; when like wise patriots they should be quenching the flames of public discord, they are spending their time like young novices in Religion, and getting by heart a Catechism, which they have newly received from their reversed Tutor the Synod.  
But popularity that bewitches all natures, not mightily supported with virtue and wisdom, soon taught wise men, that there was no stop to be given to this career of Speech-making, unless the King should dissolve the Parliament: which as the King had not done formerly without great temptation; so now to prevent it, the temptation being greater than ever, you know the arts were used; with all the desired success that could be. And notwithstanding His Majesty's great alscrity in so important a matter, to consent to the perpetuity of this Parliament, yet this security was so far from working off the clamour of the Members, that it raised the key higher, and from general discourses they descended every day more and more to particulars.  
Happy was he that found out a Subject would tickle the attention of the Houses, and could set it forth pathetically. Do you not remember how Cromwell speaking for Layton out of the Gallery, dropped tears down with his words? and did not Lilburne, Burton, Prin, and Bastwick, find the like passionate Orators? and yet what effect did their glorious enlargements produce, but to let the world see the turbulent spirit of these men was habitual and not imputed; and justify the proceed of the late governor's against them? And that 'twas no wonder they fell out with the King, His Privy Council, and the Bishops; when now being all at liberty, they could not agree among themselves. For Prin was become a State-Presbyter, and Bastwick an Ecclesiastical; Burton an Independent, and Lylburne a Leveller; and all of them  to the interest of their several causes, did not only write and rail at one another, and at several Members of the Houses and the Army, but at the whole Army and Parliament itself.  
It was strange to see the cheapness of your Jurisdiction, and what a facile ear was given to all Accusations and Calumnies; as if the Parliament had been called only to hear Informations, or receive Intelligences, I pass by the Triumph was made over many great Personages in their loud Impeachments of High Treason, & the great labour was had to prove them. Some of which were sold afterwards for money, and others to this day lie by the walls unregarded, and forgotten. And those that did perish by their Accusations, suffered more, I doubt, to satisfy the pride and greatness of the Accusers than the merit of their Accusations. And when the wits and understandings of men failed, their revenge & malice bore up the undertaking; for when the whole House was graveled, & knew not how to proceed in the Trial of the Earl of Strafford, M. Pym, you know, was fain to call up that stupendious Oracle of all Learning, SELDEN the Great, to help the infirmities of the Members, and declare (to the form of proceeding what had been the practice of former Ages in the like Impeachments. The matter rested in the hearts of the Accusers, and needed no assistances. As appeared sufficiently upon the closing up the evidence at the Bar by M. Glyn, who ranging all his matter to the best order and advantage he could to charge the Prisoner; seconded with a reserve of his own aggravations, made such a tedious, unsatisfactory, impertinent clamour, that of those Lords who should have heard him, some fell asleep, others lay along tired, all found out some diversion for their tormented thoughts, representing to them, the fatality of that great Peer's life before them; which they could not save, because they saw the Commons would not.  
You must needs remember upon all occasions, how nice & tender they were ever of their Orders and Privileges; holding them superior to all Laws and Rules whatsoever. It was a State sacrilege to invade either of them. Whence it came to pass, that their own, and their servants persons were free from all Legal process in all causes and Courts. And one Benson a Yorkshire man, thought the virtue of Member-ship so great, that he extended it to protect fourscore persons, none of his servants, at one time, for which also he received 20s. a piece: and I believe, the first example that ever was, of protecting a Rape by Privilege of Parliament, was, in the person of that godly and faithful Member to the Cause, whom they called Prince Griffith. I know there hath been something done of late to remit protections, and humble the power of Parliaments; which signifies no more but this, that in a time, when people's minds were in a tumultuary dyscrasy, ready to break the reins of Government, and some temper was fit to be administered; nothing was thought more popular nor apt to court the People into their Obedience, then to offer them to lay down this Spell of Privilege, which, while they were about them, no creditor could do them hurt.  
What opinion the House of Commons had of the Lords was seen every day, for it appeared all along they were made servile to the designs of the Commons.  
And in truth, it were too much trouble to put you in mind how often, and how tamely they have suffered themselves to be baffled out of as much right and reason, as would have served for noble advantages to have raised their lost honours to their Ancient greatness and splendour. And in case (as of late it hath happened) that Petitions and Addresses were made to the Houses, which exactly suited not with the sense and success of their present designs: Do but observe what the different receptions of them were; with how much more secret State and Dignity the answers were delivered from the Lower House; who, when they dare, will be sure to reprehend; and when they dare not, their answers shall be made up of such supercilious sentences, as shall signify nothing; or some cold opinion of the action, and leave the Petitioners rather to study out their own duty, then expect redress.  
'Tis an athletic labour to put you in mind of every thing: But you may suppose, that when so many were got together, that could think themselves, any thing: that there was no Power, nor Jurisdiction, nor Rule, but they were that: it was no hard matter for them to make a transition from the power to the execution, and fall to acting any thing.  
Hence it came to pass, that Treason against the King, and Sacrilege against the Church were become popular Topics. The first was upheld under the pretences of restoring the Crown to a stability of Greatness and Sovereignty; and the other covered with the title of Reformation. But these appearing at last with their disguises off, discovered only the power of some active & subtle Members working out different designs through the borrowed resemblances of Justice and virtue.  
You need not be remembered with what notorious partiality and favour those Causes were received, which belonged to persons of Parliamentary affections; and how the others were either put off with terror, or so long tired with delays, (for which there were a hundred known tricks among Committee-men, and after a while grew no more to be any of the secrets of their Courts) that they were undone with hoping to be relieved; and had nothing left them but the memory of their innocency and right; which was now referred over to the day of Judgement for a hearing: where no art of a Chairman, or power of a worthy Member, can forestall the action, or pervert the just judgement.  
It well beseemed indeed the wisdom of the House, wand'ring in a wilderness of various matters without end or order, to take care that all Committees concerning private matters should be nulled: and yet when fourscore Committees were reduced at one time, M. Hollis had the favour to have that Committee continued, which concerned a suit of his own in the Court of Wards, (as I remember) because he was then a leading Member: which was noted at that time a gross partiality. But this, you know, was the common use of all Parliamentary references; for no Committee was so soon made, as it was immediately converted to serve the revenge, envy, avarice, or other corrupt humours and passions of the Authors: So that to commit a business signified no more, for the most part, but to give the Members advantages of working their own, or their friend's business and designs with success.  
But your partiality to friends was not more conspicuous, then to your reputed enemies was your indistinct rigour & impartiality: for, as if you had stoically held all men to be equal sinners, you did indeed make them all equal in oppression; the King, with his meanest Subjects. For you have oppressed all alike in their consciences, understandings, honours, dignities & fames: in their wives, children, kindred, friends and servants: in their lives, liberties, persons, goods, and properties. Notwithstanding that both of us have often heard some of these things called Tyranny in the King and others: and occasion thence taken to punish the Actors with the acts. Which kind of Justice how you will avoid, yourselves having been Judges in the case already, I cannot see. 'Twill be no plea to say, you were fools or knaves, though all the world think you are both. The best you can say for yourselves is, that you were mad; & that you may prove perhaps, by some of your late actions. For what else was the voting of your Members, in and out so often? Your Voting men into Prison for High Treason, and Voting them out again for you know not what. Your Voting there shall be no more Addresses to the King, and then Voting that there shall. A temper something like to that of Hen. 8. who advanced men in a good humour he knew not why, and ruined them again presently in another he knew not for what. But these resolutions of yours, are answered abroad with the like discourses: Some saying that you are, and other that you are not a Free Parliament: Some saying that many of you are, and others that you are not Members duly elected. Which, how true it is I examine not, but I have heard, that the virtue of the Army hath been at several elections, to keep the peace, as they call it: to say no more.  
Many there are, who think you a mad company, in sensu composito, as well as diviso: You have two Speakers, a white Speaker & a Black Speaker: But the white Speaker like the white witch, soon unravelled all the spells of the black Speaker, when he once appeared with his Familiar in both Houses. Which was also, such a deep dissembled ceremony, that no man but saw through it; and did believe with reason, that the Members brought his Excellency to the Parliament, and not he them. I am sorry to hear, that you were one that ran upon this Errand: though I know many Presbyterians did it, whom temporal respects prevailed with, to be of the sure side. Yet, who would have thought that any worldly profit or preferment, could have moved old Rous, a man in matters of Religion and Conscience, always esteemed severe and resolute; now in his old age when he can keep nothing long, to run away from his imbibed Principles and persuasions, to be continued yet a little longer Provost of Eton.  
Oh, Sir, God will have an account of these things; and will let you see, that all those calamities that attend great alterations in States, are better prevented with wisdom, then punished with justice; and the day will come when the memory of your own Votes shall torment you more than a thousand deaths.  
For, if whatsoever comfort shall remain of our elapsed humane life, will consist in the charity which we exercised living, and in that Piety, Justice, and firm Faith, for which it pleased the infinite mercy of God in Christ to accept of us and receive us; what shall we think of you, whose actions have tended to banish all Charity quite out of Christian Churches & Societies; to dissolve in all families and nearest relations, the Bonds of natural Piety; to supersede in all Courts the execution of Common Justice; and to frustrate the virtue and power of all Religion towards God and Man, under pretences of higher perfection?  
A state as dangerous as that of the old Pharisees, whose strictness far exceeded yours; and yet, because they justified themselves in their sins, and busying themselves in small popular duties, omitted the weightier matters of the Law, Judgement, Mercy, and Faith, what woes unchangeable and eternal doth our Saviour Christ fulminate against their affected hypocrisy?  
Now, if you are not guilty 'tis well. But, how you have kept your Faith with Heaven in your Protestations, Vows, and Covenants?  
How you have kept your Faith the with King, in your Oaths of Allegiance, and your many Declarations to make him glorious and great?  
How you have kept your Faith with the Church in matters of Reformation? After you had declared, die Sabbati, 9 Aprilis 1642. That you intent a due and necessary Reformation of the Government, and liturgy of the Church, & to take away nothing in the one or the other, but what shall be evil, and justly offensive, or at least unnecessary and burdensome.— And to establish Learned and Preaching Ministers, with a good and sufficient maintenance throughout the whole Kingdom, wherein many dark corners are miserably destitute of the means of Salvation, and many poor Ministers want necessary provision. As if to take away nothing in the one and the other, but what shall be evil, and justly offensive, signified, to take quite away, both the one and the other: and to establish learned Ministers with good maintenance in dark corners, signified, to put out Learned Ministers, and put in young confiding dunces; divert the Church profits to your own uses, and make ten dark corners for one that was before.  
How you have kept your Faith with the Scots in your Treaties, (made when you were in adversity, and broke when you were out of it) and in the Solemn League and Covenant?  
How you have kept your Faith with the people, in securing to them, their known Laws and Liberties? And  
How you will keep your Faith with them in paying them all their moneys again? God knows. And our own sad experience in humane Affairs hath told us now sufficiently, that, Nulla fides pietasque viris qui castra sequuntur.  
For I look upon you now as Soldiers, and your mercenaries wear not more iron than you do about your hearts; where no precepts of virtue or Religion can make impression. Which made you so great enemies to peace and innocence, that you have not been satisfied with breaking your own Faith and Obligations, but have made others break theirs too. As in the North & West parts of England, in the infancy of these troubles, when the Counties there, had agreed upon Articles between them, and thereto engaged their Faith to remain Neutrals; you held it an odious resolution, and caused those of your Faction to break it, against the Laws of Justice and Honour. All which, with too many more of your Actions, have made the times so tragical and disastrous, that the prudence of those former Councillors of State seems fully vindicated, who (mistaken by the vulgar sense to have done dis-service to the Common wealth) well judging of the temper of late Parliaments; put a stop to their dangerous effects by dissolving them. And however it sounds to the ear to wish for no Parliaments; yet it is hard to wish, what we are all bound to do I think, that God would have removed far off from us this day of affliction, and not also to wish we had had no Parliament.  
By this time, you will believe, I have not argued myself into a desire of being amongst you again, or think myself, or any of my expulsed companions covetous of the Honour of being of a Parliament, which is neither just, free, nor compos mentis; (though it have sometimes lucida intervalla, which happens when some moderate men are only left in the House:) And whatsoever scandal you laboured to raise upon us for deserting our Trust, as you called it, (when we fled from the guilt of your designs, and left you going about by fine arts and force to raise the Ball of dissension betwixt the KING and His People) we know very well, that Game, if it began with Pym, Hampden, etc. and was handed over to Hollis, Stapleton, etc. is caught up now at last by Cromwell, Ireton, and their Complices: and whither it may be carried, God knows. But through all these alternative designs and variable interests, it cannot be said, I hope, that nothing hath been done, but what the people at first entrusted you to do. When it is notoriously known, that even at this time, the people every where dislike what you are now a doing: and are ready to pull you off those Benches, did not the Army you keep up restrain them. And though it be a long time since you branded all those who concurred not with you in your actions and designs, with the malevolent note of Malignants, yet now that all England is about to turn Malignant, with what pretences and arguments you will support your undertake we daily expect. If that of Salus Populi have any truth or reason in it; as your controversal Writers for the cause have taken most exact pains to prove by discourse, you must now prove it by your example, and yield yourselves a sacrifice to the common good; that the Kingdom may be restored to the peace it groans after, and is only obstructed by your obstinacy and malice: for as long as you sit together at Westminster, the people can neither be safe nor quiet. And truly, I have always esteemed it, a notable effect of God's divine anger upon you, designing you to that just destruction God hath prepared for you, that, as the case stands, you did not all, before this time rise & run away.  
Whence the general hate and detestation of your very Names and Persons proceeds, you need not much wonder, if you call to mind; First, that imprudent and irrational demeanour of yours, towards all those whom you had the fortune to reduce to your obedience. For among them who came in upon overtures of favour and candour, held forth in your Declarations (as many did, upon that Declaration of both Kingdoms of Jan. 30. 1643.) how were they received with neglect? looked on with contempt and scorn enough? and the favour signified, delusively denied or detained; till your distracted Proselytes gnashed their teeth at their supine error and folly of giving credit to your words and promises. And were not all those that made Conditions upon Surrender of Towns and Castles, like to have found little use and benefit of them, if the Honour of the General had not interposed to make them good, against the implacable and vindicative spirit of some amongst you, whom no Reason nor Religion could rule against the swinge of their own violent wills? Contrary to the justice of all Contracts, humanity of fellow-subjects, and policy of all conquering Parties, and your own Interests; whom it concerned always not to disoblige, Countrymen, friends, neighbours, and allies: but rather by love and mercy to work them over to receive with willingness your dominion. For it is a sure maxim, that Patestas humana radicatur in voluntatibus hominum. Where is then your power among a people that generally hate you? of whose affections while you are never sure, so consequently never of your own peace and safety. It is said of Caesar, Quâ vicit, v●o●●os protegit ille man●●. And by that means the infortunity of the Roman Conquests became sweetened with the prorection and security the Provinces received from the Roman Laws. For without question, the greatness of that Empire did owe as much to the heads of the Conscript Fathers, as to the hearts of the Praetorian Soldiers. It being the manner always of the Roman State after a new Conquest, to release unto their new Subjects, half of that Tribute they had been wont to pay to their former Lords: which wrought so much upon their affections, that 'twas no marvel that Petellia a City of the Brutians in Italy chose rather to endure all extremities of War, then forsake the Romans: and that too, after the Romans themselves had confessed they were unable to relieve them, and wished them to provide for their own safety, having been faithful to the uttermost. And as this liberty of Rome, made her a most indulgent Mother to all her Citizens; so was it exhibited to other Cities, to let them have a taste of her excellent Government; and in time became extended to those far off, even to Tarsus in Cilicia, where Saint Paul was born, whence it was, that he claimed the privilege of a Roman, Acts 22. Which examples have been so ill followed by you, that in stead thereof, you have injured all men; triumphing over your vanquished foes with savage freity, and over your Confederates, with falsehood, fraud, and treachery. For you may call to mind, if you please, your signal ingratitude to the Scots; to whom you own first the very Being, and after that the Well-being, nor only of the Parliament, but of yourselves, your Wives, and Children: who in all humane reason had inevitably fallen under the power of the King's justice, had you not been rescued from it by the assistance of your Brethren of Scotland, when you had with most pitiful moans and Messages called upon them for it. Then, your ingratitude to the City of London, who was your Judas to carry the purse for you; without carrying the Parallel any further, unless I should say, that ye may perhaps in one thing be like our Saviour Christ too; that as he was crucified, so ye may be all hanged.  
These acts of high persecution of your Enemies, and shameless ingratitude and falsehood to your Friends, renders you equally hateful to both. And if that of Claudian be true — neque enim libertas tutior ulla est, Quam domino servire bono: then are we become the greatest Slaves in the world, because we serve the worst Masters; whose arts have not been very admirable neither, since it did not require any great reach to carry on designs with that rule, of making great Engagements and Promises, and of never keeping any.  
But I'll be brief with you, and tell you; That there was a time when the name of Parliament was used to intimidate Kings and Princes, and the Great men of the earth; so now the time is coming, and is at the very door, when the Name of a KING, (a Name in which there is power, says Solomon) shall, by the revolution of Divine justice, intimidate all the lofty Titles of Members, Chair-men, Committee-men, and whatsoever other Offices and Dignities are thereunto belonging.  
I know very well, the religious refuge you make to your famous Mother Shipton; from whose Oracles you think yourselves ordained to depose, not only the King, but the Throne itself, in the succession of the Royal Line; because she hath said, there shall be no more Kings and Queens of England: which is a truth the Devil hath told you enigmatically, to make you more sure his own. For I am ready to believe as well as you, that there will be no more Kings nor Queens of England; and yet I do believe too, this Monarchy was never at that height it is now about to arrive to; by the blessing of God, on the present undertake of men.  
For the union of the 2 Crowns of England and Scotland, so prudently forelaid by Hen: 7. in the Marriage of His Daughter Margaret to James 4. King of Scotland, had no sooner received the wished-for success in the Person of our late Sovereign King James; But both Kingdoms entered into a Treaty of rendering the Peace and union between them inviolable. And the wisdom of the Commissioners of the Kingdom of Scotland then employed to the Parliament of England for establishing that union, considering that to advance the same, it would be profitable to remove all memorial of the disunion and separation, endeavoured also that the common name of Great Britain might be reciprocally taken up by both Nations. Which though it produced no other effect at that time than a Proclamation from K. James (as I remember) yet that shown a true understanding that wise Nation had, in improving the union to the utmost, both in name and interest: And to this day the same hath been prosecuted in the transactions between the Parliaments of both Kingdoms: and was intimated by the Lord Lowden in a Speech at a Conference of both Houses: and will no doubt have its just and reasonable effect upon the settling of that Peace, both Kingdoms are now fight for, against a generation of Vipers would eat out the Bowels of their Native Country, with a malicious and obstinate endless War; to maintain the variable revolutions of their fancies, humours, and passions, which they call their Conscience; and support the necessity of their fortunes, which they call the Liberty and Property of all the Subjects of England. I say, that you and I shall in a short time live to see this Riddle of your Prophetess made good, against all the malice and power of your wicked sense and actions: and these two Nations united into one common name of Great Britain. And His Majesty's residence being drawn into the middle part of this hopeful Empire, (which the world will then grow jealous of) may perhaps give a further issue to your reverend Sibylls Prophecies, that York shall be. Where His Majesty and His Posterity, no more using the stile of Kings and Queens of England, shall be saluted Kings and Queens of Great Britain, to the world's end: which God grant.  
Is it not time then, Sir, for you to look about you? and in stead of wishing me the Honour of being a Member, wish yourself the happiness of being none. Give me seriously in one breath, the just account of those vast sums you would willingly give, to have lived these last fix years at my little private Tusculanum, reaping the joys of innocent and peaceful hours: free from the disorder and affranation of Tumults, prejudice of Factions, and injuries of War. And tell me freely, or rather tell your own heart, what course of life you would not rather undertake, were you to begin again, than the unprosperous profession of a Soldier: For beside the envy and rage of men; the spo●les, rapes, famines, slaughter of the innocent, wastings, and burn, and other miseries laid on the labouring man by you, have been so great, that were not the merc●es of God infinite, it were in vain for any of you to hope for any portion of them, seeing the cruelties by you perm tied and committed have also been infinite. Your Votes for a Personal Treaty, can give us small assurance of your affections to Peace, since you seem to be necessitated to them, by the importunate desires of the people; whom it was necessary to suspend, by giving them a crust, or something to bait upon; while yourselves acted all the while artificially and cunningly to render your own Counsels ineffectual: for to that purpose tended the neglect of your own Votes after they were made: your clogging them with preparatory Bills: your receiving Petitions, praying you to proceed in your own way: your discountenancing others desiring a Treaty; not to say, taking occasion from thence perhaps, to murder and destroy the Petitioners themselves: your limiting the place of Treaty to an Island, which is itself but a larger Prison: your attending the business, with men of war; which invades the freedom of it. So that what you were ashamed to deny in words, you profess not to like in actions; and so long as Treaties and reconciliations are made up of the same ingredients as the late War, Fears and Jealousies; 'tis not like that any other fruit should be expected, no more than we can expect grapes from thorns. And whatsoever the pretences of some be, 'tis notoriously known, that those who are esteemed stars of the first magnitude in your Faction, by whose influence you act and move, have openly declared their Antipathy to all Treaties, and tenacious resolutions to have the right of all controverted interests ended by the Sword; because they very well know, the dissolution their principles bring with them upon the present state of England, and the novelty upon the whole world, will render them hopeless of an establishment by deliberation and Counsel. And if the worst should come to pass, the success of your designs I mean, which God forbidden, I doubt whether any acquisitions could give rest to the turbulent activity of some of your minds; or whether there be any Kings under the Sun, whose means are answerable to some of your desires.  
But to me it would seem a great wonder; did not the consideration of the frail state and continual fluctuation of all sublunary things, hinder; from whence, I see the present state of the war quite altered from the principles of the first undertake, because the worse sort of men perhaps by the variable succession of time and accidents, are grown worse than they intended to be; That about five years since, the Committee appointed to manage the Treaty at Oxford in March, 1642. should be tied up to Treat only with the KING, when He was free, and had many Noblemen and Privy Counselors about Him, to have employed in that business; And at this time, when He is a Prisoner and denied the access of His Servants and Friends, it should be held so piamlous, and perilous and undertaking to Treat with Him alone, when there is no body else to do it for Him.  
If the thing were unreasonable, or disadvantageous to you, yet many wonder, you should run into a worse hazard, by choosing of two evils much the greater; in displeasing one whole Kingdom; and probably the much greater part of another; in which, you yet presume to sit and rule like Tyrants; thereby preparing the hearts of others to use you, just as you were using them so long as you had power to do it. For all men are now grown full of hope, that the Horns of your strength and power are much shorter: and as you grow less able to offend, so much the more will your majestical offers of mercy and indemnity be contemned and derided. That Indemnity you sent to the County of Essex shown the weak and shallow state of your Authority: For after a few Gentlemen had raised the County into Arms against you, you held forth your golden Sceptre of Indemnity; which the Gentlemen for themselves accepted of, but not being able to lay down the Arms they had raised, went home to live in Peace, leaving the Country to fight it out with the Parliament; which they have done to some purpose: whereby you are gulled of your mercy and your honour both at once. To the incomparable merit of that gallant old Peer the Earl of NORWICH, who went out of SUSSEX into KENT to embark himself amongst Strangers in the cause of Loyalty; where he assumed the conduct of a business as full of hazards, as the Sea is full of waves: and when the success of that undertaking failed, put over into another County at the Isle of Dogs; where he was received by a currish generation of men, making such effectual opposition, with the advantages they had, that Sir William Compton was forced to article for the Soldiers, that at such a place within a miles march, they should all surrender their Arms: whither being come, and finding their condition desperate, they resolutely refused to part with their Arms, and, in case they were denied, would force a passage: which having effected, the marched to Bow Bridge; where they placed a Guard; while their painful old General, sent to Chelmsford, and next day road thither himself alone, to understand the result of the Rendezvouz there: who by the example of their newly arrived neighbours and friends, passed so many hazards to come to them, and the encouragement of their gallant Countryman S r Charles Lucas, resolved to join Bodies; and so marched to Colchester.  
So that if Kent have not done the work alone, yet it hath given fire to the train, which is like to run through all England: and hath begun a work, will end in the greatest happiness this Kingdom could ever expect, viz. To unsettle this Parliamentary Army which is, to settle Religion, Laws, and Liberties.  
And in spite of all your confidence in the arm of flesh, you will find, your glory is setting; and the fortune of your Arms changing; the Lord Fairfax being about to lose, together with his 50001. per annum, all the honour Sir Thomas Fairfax won; and the Predictions of your own Saint Mr Saltmarsh to be fulfilling upon you, who before he died declared his revelations of your approaching ruin. And therefore, as Lot said to his Sons-in-Law, so say I to you, Up and get you out of this place, for the Lord will destroy this City, Gen. 19.14.  
Your condition seeming to me very desperate; for as you have ordered the matter, what confederate States have you abroad to help you, and receive you? as once you had of the Scots, in the like necessity. Or if you had, what Ships have you to carry you thither? Are you not in a pound? and will not every Petty Constable be helping to catch you when you run away? your very faces will betray you, being complexional Traitors, and Rebels by elemental constitution: for who can look upon Corbet, Gourdon, Say, Scot, Armyne, Cromwell, Rainsborough, Heyman, Ireton, Holland, Westrowe, Boys, Vane's, Father and Son, Morley, Weaver, Martin (that rhapsody of all villainy, and legislative Priapus, who was sent for from fortifying of Reading, without impeachment of High Treason; because though he be not for the Parliament in all things, yet if he be against the King in all things, he is an instrument, par negotiis) Wentworth, Hill, Bond, Ashe, Rous, Hoyle, Pury, Strickland, Blakeston, Walsingham, Allen, Harvy, Walton, Skippon, Venus, Livesey, Luke's, Father and Son, Vassell, Love, Prideaux, and the rest of the Saturnine crew, and not presently see strange apparitions in their very Phisnomy, of Churches overthrown, Towns flaming, Houses plundering, Widows crying out for their Husbands and Children, and Orphans for their Moneys. I must tell you, Sir, your very face, though it be one of the best in the company, looks strangely when you come abroad amongst honest men.  
Some believe, God hath suffered this defection amongst you, to produce some great good to this Kingdom: For this state, being to suffer a total abolition of the Government Ecclesiastical so long exercised in it; and to admit the erection of another, with many alterations and qualifications in matters Civil; upon which depended the good estate and happiness of great numbers of men and families; besides, the questions in Divinity set on foot and maintained plausibly by very learned and pious Doctors and Preachers, would probably have had no rest, so long as all those persons whose dependences and relations were also great, should remain unsatisfied either in interest or conscience. Which work how to effect, it seemed impossible in the eyes of man: and therefore Almighty God, by raising up a third sort of people, teaching principles and doctrines destructive of all the politic forms maintained by the other two, hath begot an union betwixt the Royalist and Presbyterian: and engaged the Scots upon such good and acceptable offices to the King and His loyal Subjects, that whereas all the world, expected with hopes, a great contest betwixt the two Nations about settling of their Church discipline in England: it is now like to be received, aequo & grato animo, and all matters candidly carried, to a lasting good understanding between both Nations: which God of his good mercy grant.  
That at last we may see an end of this devouring Faction, whereof you are the Head, and is directed by your Counsels, and maintained over us by your commands and authority: whose ends, are without end; and vary according to the liberty they take of thinking. A company of men that agree in one only resolution, of undoing of King and Kingdom: and are made up of as many different opinions among themselves, as must certainly ruin them, when they have ruined every body else. Such as God hath suffered to get together, that being now known, and cast out of the Commonwealth, the Kingdom may hereafter be secure, and the Government flourish. In order to which, we see every day strange beginnings, which in a short time will evidence, I hope, to the settled world; That as Saul, travelling long and far, with little success, seeking Asses found a Kingdom: So you, to invert the Simile, having seven long years given chase to a King, and lifted up yourselves in the high confidence and assurance you had of obtaining a Kingdom, found at last you were yourselves but Asses. And so I rest,  
Sir, (Not of the House of Commons I thank God, and therefore the more likely to be) Your faithful and humble Servant, G. S. Aug. 16. 1648.  
FINIS.