FOR THE KING AND HIS COUNCIL, THESE.  
OH King CHARLES,  
our desire is, that thou mayest live for ever in the fear of God, and thy Council: we beseech thee and thy Council to read these following Lines, and in tender Bowels and Compassion to read them over; for we writ in love and compassion to your souls, and for your good.  
And this consider, we are above four hundred imprisoned in about this City, of men & women from their Families, in close Holes and Prisons, besides in the Country Gaols above ten hundred: And this we desire, that our Meetings may not be broken up, but that all may come to a fair Trial, that our innocency may be cleared.  
Oh! how have you given us up, who are innocent, to be butchered, who wrong no man, nor lift up a hand against any man, neither against you nor your Soldiers! But oh how have you let all men, that have neither reason, nor mercy, nor distinction upon us, which we are known all along, by all the Powers before you, to have been trodden upon by them, as sheep for the slaughter; and now we are bruised; stoned, prisoned, men and women knocked down, trodden down in the streets, and dirt crumbled in our mouths; the simple, innocent and harmless, that envies no man upon the earth, cannot pass up and down in the streets: And it's known, that our Principle is, and hath been, not to revenge ourselves; & it's known, that them that you have numbered us amongst, who never denied the bearing of Sword nor outward Weapons, but whose Principle is to avenge themselves.  
Oh that you should make no more distinction, and should have no more consideration! For its Sin, and Wickedness, and Filthiness that we have always declared against, that brings people to Riots, and Plots, and tumultuous Meetings: Therefore, oh that the innocent should be numbered amongst such, even we who seek the peace of all people, and the good of all men; and the Lord God Almighty judge for us, betwixt us and them that we are numbered amongst, and plead our Cause; for we are given up to all the wild people in thy Dominions, that have neither mercy nor manhood, but lost the state of very Nobility; for we have been a People known in all thy Dominions, and in all thy Islands about it, and in many other Nations, to whom the Lord hath made many to go out of this Nation, where they have had their passage amongst the heads of other Nations, and had liberty to preach the Gospel, so that many have through the Gospel been turned to God, yea the very Heathens. And now that we should be reckoned amongst a people whose Principle is to fight and swear upon occasion, and to avenge themselves, which astonishes all them which know it; I believe your own consciences tell you, that we are harmless, and would do you no harm nor hurt, but wish your good: Therefore how can you now make us amends, and clear yourselves in the sight of God, for bringing guilt of the innocent upon you, who are in God's hand, to whom we do commit ourselves, our souls, and cause, and innocency? and if we be thus wronged, the Lord is our Helper, and we know we are in his hand; therefore can we give our backs to the smiter, and our cheeks and hair to them that will smite, and pluck it off.  
But oh how we are grieved for you, who hath thus numbered us, and given us up to be a prey to the Wicked, and are put in your Declaration to be amongst the Plotters and Fighters, so that in all parts, without Mercy or Compassion of Men or Women, young or old, with Swords and Pistols, Clubs and Staves, Dirt and Stones, they fall upon us; yea before Thy Declaration came out against us; but now the wicked rejoices.  
But oh! our sorrow and grief is for your own selves, though we do suffer on every hand; and many of our friends are made a prey upon by armed men, drawn out of houses, and taken up in the streets to get money of them, under a pretence as taking of them up in suspicion, and making thy Name for a cover; and for money might many have their liberty: This is for the liberty of all bad people, now to spoil, and to make havoc, and to make a gain upon the Innocent: Oh that we should be thus sold! and oh that violent men without mercy, and compassion, and distinction, you should put the Sword into their hands: Therefore who should order the multitude, who should order the rude people, who should give understanding to the placing of Soldiers, and distinguish unto them what they should lay the Sword upon, but you that have the Authority? Vengeance is the Lords, and he will repay it; we cannot revenge ourselves, though by your Declaration we are published as amongst the Plotters, to all Nations; but the Lord shall plead our Cause, to whom we commend ourselves, and to the hearts of all People our Innocency appears, who trieth us: Therefore our desire is, let all the Prisoners be brought forth to a Trial, out of their Holes and Dungeons; And all that lie in the Commonwealth's Name before you; For there is a Testimony that we have been sufferers by the Powers before you; for that is for your honour to do Justice, and let Justice be done, and let the Offenders be punished, and let the Guiltless be set free. And now we must not meet to Worship God, neither must we meet together to Edify one another, according to the Apostles Doctrine, and stir up the gift in one another; they that feared the Lord spoke often together, as you may read in Malachy; but this is forbidden, we must not meet. And did not the Council forbidden the Apostles to speak any more in the Name of Jesus? and did not they preach up and down from house to house? and had not they Meetings in several houses? And did not Paul preach together two years in his own hired house, in the seat of the Emperor at Rome.  
And now if you suspect us, or have jealousy of us, which you need not, let men come in all our Meetings without violence, and see our Order and manner of our speaking in our Meetings. For it cannot be said that we have forfeited our liberties which was given unto Tender Consciences, so as to be numbered amongst them that are Fighters; Therefore take not away the Liberty that You have given to Tender Consciences, that cannot defend themselves with outward Weapons: For they that Fight and Kill, and rise up with Carnal Weapons, and plot and rise up against Brethren to kill; they cannot be said to love Enemies. Therefore expose us not to all Kingdoms upon the Earth, nor number us among the Plotters; when many of us are to go into many Kingdoms and parts of the World, to declare the Everlasting Truth and Gospel, which is no disgrace to thy Kingdom and Family, that there should be a family of Prophets in it of the most High GOD: But if we be numbered amongst Plotters and Fighters, who never were any Plotters, which was never our Principle; yet in truth we are the Sufferers, and have suffered all things for Christ the Elect sake, and do keep to Yea and Nay in all our Communications; who desires that our lives only may preach to all people upon the Earth. So this we desire, stop the violence of the rude people, this will not be to Your disgrace: Stop the violence of the Soldiers, that we may not be made a prey upon, nor abused, who cannot defend ourselves against them; for you have our Tribute and Assessments: And you know this, we might have our liberty in Turkey, as both Christians and Jews have, and other parts of the world: And let not our Meetings be broken up, but let us have our Meetings peaceable in the fear of the Lord God, and edify one another to pray in the Holy Ghost, and to build up one another in the holy Faith: For what good will it do you to cast us into Prison, and to make yourselves Examples to other Nations and Kingdoms for so doing? Would you separate us from the love of God which we have in Christ Jesus?  
London, 16 day, 11 Month, 1660. From friends of Truth and Innocency, 

G. F. &  
J. S.     

Oh KING!  
WE would have thee to do nothing against thy Prosperity and Nobility. Oh! Hath the like ever been done, as is done to us, (who are an innocent People, and Thy Friends, and not Thy Enemies) among all the Princes in Christendom, to mingle the Innocent among the Transgressor's? Oh! thou shouldst have sent for half a dozen, or half a score of us, and have examined us, that Thou mightst have been further satisfied concerning our Fidelity and Principles, and that would not have been against Thy Nobility: But oh! how is the Innocent mangled by merciless men, as though they neither feared God nor man! Oh! limit not the holy One, and quench not the Spirit; nor go about to take away the Lives of the Just and Innocent from the earth; Let none persuade Thee to root out the Saints of the Most High God, nor to destroy the Meetings of such who meet in the fear of God, and call upon his Name from a pure heart, and are gathered together in the Name of Jesus: Nor let none persuade Thee to destroy the Heritage of God; for that will not be for thy own comfort with the Lord in the end, for to destroy and waste, and let up the rude people upon the meek and innocent. Neither lay the Law upon such as it was not made for, that seek the Peace of Thee, and all Men upon the Earth. Oh stop those hasty Decrees, Declarations, or Proclamations, and call them in that doth offend the Righteous and upright in heart; for what could You have done more against us, if we had been as the Plotters and Fighters, and such as will take Covenants, and swear, and break them upon occasion? For our Principle is known (I believe) throughout all Christendom, and many other parts of the World, That we can neither bear Arms, nor Swear; And I believe that Thou in Thy Conscience hath a Testimony so for us, and believes the same. And now the Prisons in every place is filling, and many now full with the innocent and meek of the Earth, and the Lambs of Christ, which cannot defend themselves, which many now in Thy Name will dishonour themselves with, or through their violence and cruelty against them; and honest men coming out of the Country about their business, being Tradesmen, are taken up, and the Oath put to those whom they know for Conscience-sake cannot swear, and so are cast in prison, and made a prey upon.  
Oh that any such things should proceed from those called Christians, seeing that the Christians in the primitive times, were not to swear at all, being forbidden by Christ, Matth. 5. and by the Apostle, as Jam. 5.  
But the Lord is our God, who will plead our Cause, who hath the hearts of all Kings and men in his hand: But oh that we should find such things among you that have been sufferers by the same as we have suffered before you! And oh that such cruel imprisonments & havoc should be found amongst them that are called Reform Churches! But we do appeal in our Cause to God, and to the Witness of God in all your consciences, that these things will not be to your honour in the sight of God, in the end: Nevertheless, if thou wilt do that favour, as to let half a dozen, or half a score, or what number thou pleasest, come before Thee, that Thou mayest be further satisfied concerning us, before You act so against us. Oh the violence that is acted in the countries' and Cities! for now have the wicked people their hearts desire; this is the day they looked for; they would have had this of the changeable Powers that were before Thee, though under cruel sufferings and whip, and banishments, and imprisonments until death, which we suffered by them; and many Petitions and Addresses there were to them, against us, whom God did restrain from a general falling upon us. Nevertheless, we cannot look that these things are altogether in thine own heart to be inflicted upon us; For if thou didst but know the usage of men and women, which is not within the bounds of modesty to mention; and if thou didst but know what a prey we are made of, it could not but break Thy heart, or the heart of any Christian Prince upon the Earth. Is not the Seed of the Church known in Persecution? Consider, what wouldst Thou have done to Peter and John, when they spoke in the Name of Jesus after the Council had forbidden them, and they met in several Houses, which is called the Infancy of the Church? But that these things should be found amongst them that think they are in fuller age! Oh that Christians should stop Christians for meeting together to worship God Oh that ever it should be said that such things should be amongst Christians in Christendom! that they should be restrained from meeting together, to build up one another in the most holy Faith, which is according to God and Christ, and the Apostles Commands, as it is declared in the Scriptures of Truth. Therefore let these things be considered; for Prisons and Dungeons are so full, that Friends can scarce sit or lie. Therefore, oh that honest men, and such as love Peace and Righteousness, and Thy good, and all men's, should see this day! We are against violence and plots, and we that be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Wars and Fightings, Strife and Plots are not, but they are below, and in the Fall from God. And this we say, which is more to us then an Oath.  
Henry Fell.   
THE END.