SUPPOSITIONS, With this HUMBLE REQUEST And ADVICE OF MANY THOUSANDS.  
To the Right HONOURABLE The HOUSES of PARLIAMENT.  
By J. W.  
London, Printed for Ralph Mab 1642.   

Suppositions, With this Humble Request and advice of many thousands, to the Right Honourable the Houses of PARLIAMENT.  
TOwards the completing of every Structure, three things are necessary: the workmen, the Materials, the Tools: this Structure is the Commonwealth; the Workmen, those good and indefatigable Members of the Houses of Parliament; the Materials are Orders, Rules, Ordinances, and good Laws, made, and to be made; the Tools are the judgements and opinions of Men; these Instruments (if necessary to the building) although never so mean, ought not to be neglected; and therefore though you find this paper amongst the Horchpot of Books, slight it not: the Widow in the Gospel was commended for her mite, as much as the bounteons' givers. I am a Native, and Freeman in this Common Weal, and desire among so many thousands to bring in my Manual also towards the good of this Fabric, and therefore ad rem.  
How horrible, how unchristianlike Civil War is, Volumes might be completed in manifestation, one year in that more considerable than thirty of War abroad.  
The cause of our Masacring one the other is not well understood; Reason in all men is not alike; shall we butcher each other, we having no for●●ine enemy amongst us, because each have not like understanding? O God forbidden. Misdoing, not misunderstandings, are just causes of punishment, and then surely not of War.  
Suppose the KING should conquer, were it certain whether all those good Laws made this Parliament should still continue? whether those worthy men of that great Council should not be miserably destroyed, yea, another Parliament had, and old Laws for Subjects benefit and privileges nullifyed, King's Prerogatives more enlarged, established? Would not our Religion be in extreme hazard, yea, his sacred Majesty, and Posterity, peradventure, by those treacherous Papists, together with many other rablements, taking the advantage of being in his Army, at the instant of his conquest, be in danger of being conquered? May we not then fear many of our chiefest Nobility might be attainted, or destroyed, and other upstarts, enroomed, and also many places of all sorts bestowed upon people, who are both empty of worth, birth, and fortune, in lieu of their own cankered pernicious counsels? might not we expect the plundering of our Estates, the ravishing of our Wives and Children; yea all our Laws, Liberties, Religion, all the good we now happily enjoy, all at once in the Laps and hands of Miscreants, Vermin, and base seducers of that our Noble King.  
Should we be conquerors, would not the King have it ever wrote in his heart, how stained should we be with the blood of our Fathers, Kindred, Friends, and Countrymen, & c? would not after-ages extremely blame us? would not other Nations deride us? may not Kings in future times hate the Laws now made, calling them forced? may it not happen, that in the trial of this victory, some mischance may fall upon his Sacred Majesty, or upon our Noble Prince? did not holy David's heart smite him for touching, yea, but the Lap, though of saul's Garment? Is every cranny of your heads pried into, and is there no other way but war? what shall I say, think, or do, my Pen cannot express the horrid conclusions of such a war? If there be any such that have drawn breath from the poisonous aconites of the earth, as now to belch forth such venomous counsels to proceed (if possible to the contrary) in this true-Religion-decaying war, my Pen shall not honour them so much as to set down their curse, it was prepared for them of old, and God is just, & in due time will render it them. Preces, & Lachrymae, Arma sunt Ecclesiae. Clergy methinks should take all caution, not to blow at the bellows of this dissension, but rather labour to sweat water and blood for prevention, and so to Oratory that to their Auditors. Religion, the true protestant Religion, I trust in my Redeemer, I shall defend with my life, next to that the Laws, and Liberties of our Nation, and the Parliament, and Privileges thereof, being the top of our Inheritance, I would sacrifice my dearest blood in defence of. But when these shall be but in dispute of violation (although I confessed I think the world is satisfied, that there hath been unparallelled mistakes) hrongs of people stand amazed at the beginning of such a war: yea, bleeding Ireland, those miserable comfortless people there, breath out such sighs and groans at these distractions, that heaven suffers violence. Changes and chances happen to all men in this mortal life, like chances of gamesters at Di●e. If good chance, it may miscarry by oversight, if bad, it may fortune to be amended by good play, shall then these my humble conceits happen in o the hands of any Member of that Great Council, let me beseech him, (and surely if God hear my earnest prayers, they are in some degree to do for me) let them promote with effect but this motion, that forthwith a day of humiliation be set a part, yea with injunction of more strictness then ordinary, to council with God in this great work, and I trust his Sacred Majesty will do the same. Where the wit of man ends, there the Providence of God gins. Come out of yourselves than you learned Council, and let us together with you, fall flat upon the earth before the Lord, that he the King of Salem, would now find a way of reconciliation. Cor Regis, manibus Dei. This being done, assure yourselves will vivify the doubting spirits of many thousands, and also God, even our own God, will give us his blessing.  
FINIS.