THE DECLARATION OF The free and well-affected People of England now in arms against the Tyrant Oliver cronwell Esq.  
BEing satisfied in our Iudgment and Consciences of the present necessity to take up arms for the defence of our native Rights& freedoms, which are wholly invaded& swallowd up in the pride& ambition of Oliver cronwell who calls himself Lord Protector of England, and hath rendered all English-men no better then his Vassals, wee expect to be branded with the infamous name of Rebells and Traitors, or to be misrepresented both to the Army city and country as common enemies, disturders of the public peace, arbitrary Cavileeres, Lewellers, or under some other odious notion, that may provoake the Army and People to endeavour our destruction; but if wee may prevail to be heard before wee be condemned and executed, wee shall submit our cause and righteous End wee seek to the judgement of the Army and every honest English-man, and if the army itself according to their many Engagements will undertake( and their strength be sufficient) to redeem us from our present slavery, and settle that Right and freedom, unto which our Birth gave us title, wee shall readily lay down our present arms.  
The whole Christian world knows, that our English earth hath been drunk with blood these twelve yeares through the great contest for Right and freedom, and the whole Treasure of the Nation exhausted in that quarrel, how then can any man whose hand or heart hath been engaged in that bloody contest either acquit himself to God his Conscience or his country in yielding up tamely and silently all the laws Rights and Liberties of England into an usurpers hand. Wee have for many yeares patienly born all kinds of oppression, arbitrarines and tyranny, and suffered under such heavy burdens of Excise and Taxes, as England never knew in former ages, having been fed by him that now calls himself Lord Proctor and his army with speacious pretences and most alluring promises( seconded with many appeals to God for their integrity of heart in them) that true English Liberty should be settled and secured, impartial justice provided for, arbitrary powers abolished, and every yoke of oppression broken, and every burden eased: and wee did believe( as they told us) that our present sufferings were only like a rough stormy passage to the Haven of Iustice, Right, and freedom, wee could not suspect these ambitious designs in cronwell and his confederates, that are now proclaimed to the world: wee could not think it possible, that a man of such a mean quality and estate as he should aspire to make himself an absolute Lord and Tyrant over three potent Nations, but above all his pretended zeal for God and his People, his high professions of godliness, simplicity, and integrity, his hypocritical prayers and dayes of fasting to seek the Lord, his dissembled humility and meekness, and his frequent compassionate tears upon every occasion: wee say, these things together with his Engagements public and private, his most solemn protestations with imprecations of vengeance upon himself and family if he dissembled, and his most frequent appeals to God for the truth of his professions and Declarations that he designed nothing but securing the liberty of Gods people, and administration of impartial justice, and sought no power honour riches or greatness to himself or any particular party or interest: we say, these things rocked us so asleep with the pleasant dreams of liberty and justice, until he hath made a sacrifice of all our laws, Liberties, and Properties unto his own ambition, and now is not afraid to own what he before disclaimed and declared against: He that formerly protested before the dreadful God and to the long Parliament, that he and his army should be wholly subject to their Civill Authority, and that whosoever should attempt any violence against them should make his way through his blood, he now owns the breakeing them in pieces with scorn and contempt: He that Declared so much humility and self denial, claims and owns a power supreme to Parliaments, and exerciseth an absolute Dominion over the laws and Estates of three Nations: he that seemed so zealous for Liberty, now dares own every private English-man his vassal, and their Parliaments his Slaves: he publisheth in his Printed speeches to his Parliament that the benefit that all English men have in the execution of any laws amongst them is from him,& the Authority that their Parliaments have& shal have is wholly deridved from him; he hath published to the whole world, that he hath dissolved all Civill Government, and that he had in himself an absolute unlimited arbitrary power without check or control until he put some limits upon himself, if he may be believed in his paper of Government: Now what Patroone in Argeire ever claimed more Mastery over his Slaves bought in the Market then this claim of Cromwells extends unto over us? If wee have the benefit of the execution of no laws but from him, then all the Rights privileges and Estates wee have, are enjoyed by his mercy only: without the execution of laws no man hath more right to Lands or goods then an other, nor is any mans life under any security, if an other be stronger then he: So that cronwell owns and prosesses, that the bread that every man eats, is by his mercy: and if his power was without limit( as he says) until he had put some bounds then tis of his grace and favour only that all English men have now a seeming Right in their Wives, Children, Seruants, Lives and Estates, if his own limits of his power gives any such right, and if he please to throw away,( or burn by the hand of the haug man) his limits in his paper of Government, who can control him? he may do what he list with things of his own making, tis the old English proverb, He that can bind, can loose: and he may do what he list also with the authority of Parliaments, if it be as he says, of his own giving: Now wherein doth a Patroones power over his purchased Slave exceed this, which cronwell owns over us? The Patroone can but give the Slave his laws, his clothes, his meate, his life, and all those cronwell owns to have given to us, only he speaks it in such language at sounds not so harshly.  
Now after the expense of so much preatious Christian blood for the settling the Rights and Liberties due unto us as men and Christians, when he that was trusted with an Army for that purpose, hath so unworthely betraved his trust, spilled innocent, blood like water, falsified all his Declarations, Promises, Protestations, and oaths, and assumed to himself such a Dominion over our country, as is destructive unto all Right and Liberty, and renders us and our posterities Slaves to him and his Successors, with a payment of a fifth or their abouts of our Estates certain in Taxes, to be entailed upon our posterities, besides other burdens, wee appeal to the conscience of every honest man, whether a present necessity and an incumbent duty be not upon us to arm ourselves in defence of our ancient laws, and dearest Birth rights against the present Imposture and usurper; and we hope most of the present Army have not extinguished their love to their countries freedom( although Cromwells hypocritical Professions, Prayers, and tears, have much deluded them) but that they will readily concur with us, and other honest English-men in our present attempt by force of arms to redeem our country out of the usurpers bonds, and to seek those righteous ends, which wee do hereby Declare to bee those, for which we now hazard our lives, and with which we shall rest satisfied, and return to our homes in peace and they are these following, viz.  
1. That all assumed and usurped Powers and Authorities over our country may be utterly abolished.  
2. That the Government may be settled upon a just basis with due bounds and limits to every Magestrate.  
3. That the ancient Liberties of England settled by Magna Charta, the Petition of Right, and other laws may be secured inviolably: That no mans person may be molested, imprisoned, restrained, or touched without a legal Cause shown in the warrant, whereby he is molested or restrained, and that also in a due course of the laws known proceedings, without Countermands from the will of any man; whereas now mens persons are troubled and restrained at will, and destroyed by long imprisoments, no man knows for what. And also that no mans Estate may be liable to any disposal or prejudice but by the known laws of the Land, and the lawful Iudgment of his equals.  
4. That free successive Parliaments may be settled with times of their beginning and ending, and with their ancient power and privileges.  
And that the Jurisdictive power which Parliaments have taken upon them to exercise in these times of war and distraction by taking upon them the Iudgment of particular Causes concerning mens persons and estates, sometimes by their Committees and sometimes by themselves, contrary to the known Proceedings of the Law, that such power( we say) may be Declared against, and secure provision made against the same, that thereby Parliaments may be free from the temptations of profit, freinship, and all private Interests, by which only they can be corrupted.  
5. That the Militia of the Nation may be so disposed, that no man may be able to be Master of Parliaments, and also that secure provision may be made, that no Parliament shall make itself perpetual and enslave the people to them.  
And that such a settlement may be made of Right and freedom, and these our ends obtained, and a peace firmly established, we know no means under God but a truly free Parliament,  
Now for the defence of these our Rights and Liberties we are resolved to expose our Lives to the utmost hazards, and we shall neither wrong nor oppose any man, who doth not join himself to the present usurper, to destroy or prevent these our righteous ends; and though we have reason to believe, that no person fearing God, or of Conscience, Honour, or Reason can satisfy himself to  shed our innocent blood for seeking these things; yet however we shall commit ourselves and our just Cause to the tuition of the righteous God, and hope in his mercy, that our endeavours may procure Iustice, freedom, Peace, and settlement unto this distracted Nation.   

Printed in the year, 1654