TO THE Most Reverend, the ARCH-BISHOPS, And BISHOPS, The Reverend Deans, Arch Deacons, and the rest of the Learned and much Honoured Convocation, now Assembled at Westminster; with all others of the royal and loyal Clergy, whom God and the King hath lately honoured, and dignified in the newly revived and restored Church of England.  
The Humble Remonstrance and Petition of Lionel Gatford, D. D. and chaplain to His Sacred Majesty, in the behalf of their and his Fellow-Sufferers, that are ready to starve and perish for want of present subsistence.  
THough I am myself reduced to a very low state and condition, and arrived at an age, almost uncapable of repair and recovery, as to temporals; yet I have, for the honour of others, as well as for the further magnifying of Gods graces in poor contented sufferers, hitherto forborn, either to complain of mine own continued afflictions, or to murmur at the prosperity of others. But now the sad complaints of multitudes of my fellow-sufferers, that languish and consume away, under the extremity of want and penury; and the dying groans of divers of them, that have starved and perished already, and are daily and, hourly like to starve and perish, through hunger, could and nakedness, and by weakness and sickness, from thence contracted, have so pierced my bowels, pained my heart, and broken to spirit; that I can no longer be silent, but must cry, and cry aloud; wishing with all my soul( as the Prophet Jeremiah sometimes did) That mine head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep out what I ●m not able to express, in the bemoaning their most deplorable condition. And to whom shall I cry( next after my crying to Heaven, and to the God of Heaven) but to you, their most Reverend Fathers and mine, and to the rest of my fellow Brethren, their Reverend Pastors and Teachers, that have been fellow sufferers with them, in, and for the same righteous Cause; and know best how, and wherefore, to have compassion upon them; and are, in many respects, better able then others to succour them, both by your own bounty, and by recommending them to others Charity. For as for the King himself, though his bowels are as much moved for them, and enlarged towards them, as ever any Kings were towards his afflicted subjects; yet either his own present and pressing domestic necessities, and his great and deep engagements abroad for the Honour and safety of the Nation, tie up his hands from relieving them; or some swift-winged, Eagle-clawed Harpies catch, what he hath at any time to spare, from him, and devour it, before those poor hunger-starved Loyalists can creep near him. And for his great Council; though they are the most really devoted to, and the most cordially affencted with, and the most ambitiously studious for, the supplying both his Majesties urgent occasions, and their importable indigencie, that ever any Parliament was, or indeed can be, yet the regular motion of that great body is so slow, and their legal ways of raising supplies of so long accomplishment; that a multitude of their pined carcases will be sunk into their graves, and their Father corruption have seized on them( though their Mother and Sister worms will be very much cheated by them) long before either food or raiment can be in that way provided for them. Whereas you may with very much facility and expedition, contribute so much to their relief, as may preserve their lives, both for a seasonable capacity of receiving what the King and his Parliament shall think fit further to bestow on them, and for an happy opportunity of adventuring them once and again in some more fortunate, though not more honourable( for that's impossible) service. And these scatterings of what ye have late reaped with full hands, will increase( as ye better know) your honour here, and glory hereafter, more then all that plentiful harvest, that your Coffers or your Graneries have been enriched with, except what hath, or shall be expended in the same, or the like eminent works of Charity, Piety, and Mercy. And this seasonable bounty of yours will be also( as you cannot but aclowledge) a provoking example of others to imitate you, and a most acceptable service to his Majesty, and to his great Council, as well as a most pleasing sacrifice to God himself.  
I know many of you have both seen divers of their ghastly Ghosts, that I am now interceding for, walking up and down the streets, and heard their moans, and refreshed some of their fainting spirits. But my greater acquaintance with very many of them formerly, when we acted and suffered together in that royal and highly to be honoured, but unfortunate, and therefore foolishly despised, cause, as also my still undistanced and more familiar converse with them, hath given me more opportunities of knowing them, and their inexpressible miseries, then others of you have had. And perhaps they have been the more willing to impart themselves and their condition to me, because they see that I am hitherto as much passed by, and as little regarded as themselves; though God is pleased to bear up my head somewhat above those waters, wherewith some of them( poor wretches) have been quiter over whelmed; and others of them have with much difficulty as yet struggled against, till their hearts are ready to break. For to whom will men in misery so soon complain, and so freely and fully discover themselves, as to those, whom they believe to have the most sense and compassion of their miseries, though they be otherwise the least able to help them? it being some ease to them to have such, into whose bosoms they may power out their complaints, and receive some pitty and commiseration from them, though they receive little or nothing else; they knowing that they have nothing else, wherewith to relieve them. And what are their complaints? Why, the very same some of them, that the Prophets most Lamented in their bewailing of the peoples miseries, unto whom God sent them: and some of them are such, as none of those great Seers did ever know or foresee( so far as we red) to be the lot of any people.  
That Zions adversaries were become the chief, and her enemies did prosper, and magnified themselves, and spread out their hands upon all her pleasant things, and entered into her Sanctuary; whilst her own people did sigh, seek bread, and give their pleasant things for meat to relieve their soul; and that their comforters, that should relieve their soul, were far from them; and when they called for their lovers, they deceived them. That their children and sucklings swooned in the streets of the City, and said unto their Mothers, where is corn and wine, and so poured out their souls into their Mothers bosoms. That they that did feed delicately were desolate in the streets, and they, that were brought up in scarlet, embraced Dung-hills. That they that passed by did clap their hands at them, hiss& wag their heads at them,& open their mouths against them, and gnash their teeth at them, as if that were the day they looked for, &c. were some of Jeremiahs lamentations for the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And all these, and many more of his lamentations for that people, may be as truly taken up for the distressed Loyalists in England; as may also, very many other sad complaints and lamentations made by other Prophets in the bewailing the miseries of those unto whom they prophesied; though not without this difference observed. Those miseries, which those Prophets bewailed, were brought upon those people, by them that were strangers of other Nations, and in the times of open hostility and invasion: But the miseries of these English Loyalists, were brought upon them at the first by the seditious and rebellious of their upon Nation, in times of intestine commotions and warres, and are still continued on them by the slighting and disregarding of others, that profess themselves to be as Loyal and faithful subjects as themselves, and that too now in these times, when the peace and settlement of this Nation, is( praised be the Lord) fairly restored and in some good measure re-established amongst us.  
But then there are some agravations of these poor distressed Loyalists miseries, that are not to be found in any of the Prophets; no nor in any of the Evangelists or Apostles: Nor can indeed scarce be paralleled by any other peoples sufferings in the world. As namely, that they should spend their Estates, loose their Bloods, and hazard their lives for their King, Religion and Laws; and now when the first King, that they fought for, was barbarously murdered, and the true Heir of his Crown and virtues is miraculously restored, the same pure Orthodox Religion is happily re-established, and the same righteous Laws are effectually reinforced; they, that did so vigorously and valiantly contend for them all, should after all this, be neglected, passed by, and despised; and they that fought against, and helped to murder the Royal Father, and proceeded as far as they were able, in doing the like to his dear Son, their then undoubted sovereign, should be preferred, advanced, and honoured; and they that cried down, pulled down, and trampled on Bishops, Deans and Chapters, and then sacrilegiously invaded their rights and revenues, should divers of them be now dignified with some of those dignities, and others of them be admitted Tenants to those Revenues; and they that made all the righteous Laws of the Nation to truckle to their unrighteous and arbitrary practise, should now be permitted to enjoy some of the most profitable employments in the Law. That they, who persevered in their duties of Allegiance and Fidelity, and upon all occasions Acted as highly and courageously, and suffered as deeply and contentedly for eighteen years together in the defence thereof as mortals well could, should now, when they might in equity expect some recompense and reward for their so doing and suffering; especially these two last years, when Loyalty and Allegiance is so much pretended to, be in a worse condition, in respect of indigence and penury, then when the greatest enemies to both, that ever the earth groaned under, were in their highest power and prevalency. That they who, when some of their neighbours, and other caterpillars of this Land, had devoured all that they had, sought their bread out of desolate places amongst strangers and foreigners for sundry years, and there found it, should now, when they are returned home to their native country, and seen so great and miraculous mercies returned to it with the return of their long exiled sovereign, faint, swoon and dy away for want of bread in the streets and skirts of the great Metropolis of this Nation, wherein fullness of bread hath most superabounded, though at this present a scarcity and famine of bread is much to be feared, and the more for their not supplying their want. Lastly( which renders all their miseries the more insufferable and importable) that they, who for many years were the Kings and their professed enemies, but do now pretend to be his friends and true subjects, should still reproach and upbraid these poor perishing Loyallists, and scoff and mock at them for their Loyalty and their being so ill requited for it: Telling them that they may now see what their cause was, and what fools they were to adhear so fast and firm to it, even to the loss of all that they had and themselves with it: whereas, if they had been on the other side, they might have kept their own estates, and gotten not a little out of the estates of others, enough to be sure, to have fixed them to those places and offices which they could have pleaded any interest in, or at least, to have purchased some other, that they had a desire to. Ah! silly wretches( cry those scoffers) to leave your wives, children and estates to the mercy of your enemies, and to expose your lives to so many hazards, and perils for the King and his Cause, and to cleave so inseparably to His Son after him, till God brought him back to His Fathers Throne and Inheritance; And now to hear those wives and children cry to you for food and raiment, when ye yourselves have not a morsel to put into your own mouths, nor scarce a rag to hang upon your backs; and to see others possessing your Lands and Goods, when ye have not any Cottage to hid your heads in, nor the assurance of so much Land as a Cave or Grave to be buried in, no nor a winding sheet to wrap you in. And when all this misery is befallen you; to have your old friends and fellow sufferers, that have tasted of the same gull and Wormwood wherewith ye have been filled,( and so should know the better how to commiserate you) to pass by you at a distance( like that unkind and indeed unnatural Priest and Levite in the Gospel) and seeing you stripped and wounded and half dead, not to pitty you, or show any compassion to you; much less to perform the least good office of the good Samaritan to you. We hope you are now sensible of you mistake in taking part with those, that so little regarded or commiserate you; at least, we doubt not but others will hereafter, if there be the like occasion, beware by your example. Away, away, ye seditious and seducing spirits, spirits indeed of the infernal pit. Ye make false, rebellious and diabolical inferences( as it is usual with you) from premises that are too true.  
For what though this be the lot of too many true hearted Loyalists? yet( praised be God for his mercy, and for ever magnified be the King for his goodness and love to such) many, yea very many of them, are already amply and superabundantly recompensed for all that they have done and suffered in and for that righteous cause. And that there are no more as yet rewarded, is principally to be ascribed and attributed( next after Gods alwise and unsearchable providence in exercising some by sufferings unto death, and reserving their reward and Crown for them in eternal life and glory) it is( I say) to be ascribed and attributed unto you, the Luciferian spirits, and to your worse then Ziba like flatteries, insinuations, and supplantations, backed perhaps with the rotten counsels and corrupt practices of some of their own covetous, ambitious, ungrateful and perfidious fellow-sufferers, and( which must not be forgotten) to the present urgent necessity( as was before hinted) of employing what can be fairly raised, for the public service, security, and honour of this Nation, which ye so many years, pillaged and harassed, wasted and almost ruined, and so rendered contemptible and despicable to our friends, as well as enemies. And yet if all true hearted Loyalists had been as ill rewarded, as some have been; had God enabled them to have born it with as much equanimity, patience, contentedness, and cheerful, perseverance, as he hath enabled some of them even unto Perishing. Surely their sufferings in and for that righteous cause and sealing it with their bloods, and Gods witnessing with them by his gracious enabling them so to suffer for it, had sufficiently justified the integrity of those Loyal sufferers consciences, that so propugned it unto death; and vindicated the righteousness of that cause itself, whereunto God enabled so many to give so great and unfeigned testimony.  
And whereas it is objected by others, that the late Kings Army did him more disservice by their sins and iniquities, then service by their persons; and to countenance that their calumny, and make a blind for their design thereby, have perverted a late saying of a Reverend Dean in his Sermon before the honourable House of Commons, namely, That the sins of the Royal Army( as they falsely relate his words) cut off the Kings head. I must first assure them, that( if mine own ears did not deceive me) they have dealt with that excellent Preachers saying, as their old father did with some sayings of God himself, when he tempted our Lord and Saviour. They have left out a part thereof, and wrested the other part to serve their own turns. For his words were these or to this effect.[ The rebel Army cut off the Kings head, and the sins of the Royal Army helped to bring him to the Block. And so the saying was most true and very seasonable for that day, wherein we were all invited to humble our souls for our sins, and particularly for those sins of this whole Nation, by which we all contributed so much to the sadness of that day and the black dismal occasion of it.  
In the next place, I cannot forebear the minding of all such as cast this objection in the poor loyal Sufferers way, That, if the sins of the royal Army did his Majesties renowned Father more disservice than their Persons did him service; and that be a reason of any validity, why these poor starving remains thereof should be now laid aside, cast off and passed by of his Majesty, and those that love and honour him,( for that I conceive to be a great part of their contrivement) then by the same reason his Majesty ought much more to abhor, detest, and abominate all those that had any hand in raising, continuing, and maintaining the Rebels army against his renowned Father; who were not onely guilty of far greater iniquities then they of the Royal Army were, such as Rebellion, Treason, Perjury, unparralel'd hypocrisy, sacrilege professed Blasphemy, against God and the King, &c. but their very being such an Army, and the hell-bred design thereof, were such matchless crimes, as transcended all the foulest crimes of the Royal Army by almost infinite degrees: though God was pleased, for some reasons best known to himself, and most suitable to his wisdom and justice, to punish the Royal Armies crimes with a severer stroke,& a sharper scourge as to temporal punishment; and to reserve the crimes of the Rebel Ar-( unless it be prevented by a timely repentance, of which they have not as yet, except some very few of them, shown the least sign or simpton) for eternal torments. And yet if that rebel Army and their friends, and favourites would but seriously consider, how God hath dealt with them, since the time of his making use of them, as his rod to scourge others; they would be constrained to aclowledge, that Gods wrath and indignation hath been already more visibly, and more emminently and remarkably manifested by his own immediate confounding them, then ever it was by his overthrowing the Royal Army by them. Besides suppose that the sins and iniquities of the Royal Army did the King more mischief, then their Fidelity and Loyalty, their Fortitude and Valour, did him good: Yet that is no just and reasonable allegation, either for not respecting their Persons, which were cheerfully and readily exposed to all hazards and dangers for the defence of his then sacred Majesty; or for the not rewarding those Graces of Fidelity, Loyalty, &c. which God enabled them to exercise in that defence. For if it were, why have some of the same Royal Army, which were as much guilty of the same, or as bad miscarriages and misdemeanours, been already graciously looked upon, preferred, and honoured?( Praised by the Lord for that mercy, and for ever magnified be the King for that graciousness) But it is evident that his Majesty knows how to distinguish betwixt his Loyal subjects persons and their sins, betwixt their Graces and their Vices. And so, though he have too much reason to hate and detest their iniquities, yet with all, he hath so much Religion as to love and honour their persons and Gods Graces in them, viz. those before name, their Loyalty, Fidelity, Valour, &c.  
And certainly( most Reverend and Learned Fathers and Brethren) ye cannot but subscribe to that distinction and Practise, as most warrantable and double. And therefore suppose, that these poor Loyal sufferers were greater sinners then others, which ye know, both by the example of Job and other just and upright men in the old Testament, and by our Saviour Christs doctrine, and a multitude of examples in the new, ye ought not to suppose; at least, not from the greatness of their sufferings; Yet I am sure, ye are not to learn how to relieve their persons, and to encourage those graces, that have manifested themselves in them; and to pass by their sins and infirmities, as you see God himself and his vicegerent have done yours, and many others, that are of the same Loyal Principles, without being extreme or severe to mark what hath been done amiss. It is excellent counsel, that St. Augustine gives in this case, saying If a wicked man do at any time meet thee, &c. and desire an alms of thee, ne pigrescant in hoc viscera misericordia, let not thy bowels of mercy be straightened towards such a one, because he is a wicked man; homo enim peccator occurrit tibi, &c. for a wicked man meets thee, &c. Now when I name a wicked man, I name two things, one thing that is wicked, and that is the work of man, another thing that it man, and that is the work of God, Dato igitur operi Dei, &c. Give to that which is the work of God; but do not give to that which is the work of man. Give to the man to maintain him in his life, but give not to his wickedness to maintain him in his sin. And this is all that is now Petitioned and begged at your hands. That you would be pleased to give so much only to poor starving Loyalists, as may help to preserve them in their lives; that they may live to repent of their sins, and to spend the short remainder of those lives better, in God and his Majesties service, and in praying to and praising of God, both for his Majesty and you, their principal preservers under God.  
And therefore seeing your lots are fallen in faire places, and God and his Majesty hath honoured you with eminent dignities and comfortable preferments; for Christs sake, for your Religion sake, for your King and Countrys sake, for that righteous Cause sake, whereof ye have shown yourselves most courageous and constant propungners, and for your own honour sake, and what else is most precious to you, remember( as the Prophet Jeremiah in his Lamentatious brings in Zion crying to God by prayer) remember, what is come upon some of your poor afflicted fellow-sufferers; consider their miseries, and behold their reproach. Spare them but so much out of your abundance to supply their wants, as to help to keep them alive, till his Majesty and his most Loyally devoted Parliament, encouraged by your pious example, and quickened by your recommending them to their charity; can better provide for them, and disposed of them. And to that end, be pleased to choose and appoint two( or more if you think fit) that are approvedly honest, conscientious, discreet, compassionate men, that may have free access to you; and to whom those poor, modest, miserable wretches may have the like access, to collect speedily your alms and charitable benevolence; and to dispense them prudently upon good and sufficient testimony and assurance of their several necessities that shall receive them; giving you a just and exact account thereof to a farthing, under the hands both of the givers and receivers in a book to that purpose. And without all peradventure ye cannot do any one Act, that will cause more thanksgiving to God on your behalf, that will bring more honor and esteem to your honourable Profession, stop the mouths of your enemies, cheer the spirits of your friends, endear the King and his Parliament, recover the lost reputation of the Nation, refresh the hearts of the fainting Loyalists and all their well-wishers, and fill your own hearts with more joy and comfort, then this seasonable and most Christian Act of mercy and commiseration; unto which you are thus earnestly and humbly supplicated by one, that desires to live no longer, then whilst he does most studiously and industriously endeavour, upon all seasonable opportunities,( whereof he hopes this will be reputed one) to approve himself,  
Your most Observant Son and faithful Brother in the Lord Christ, L. G.