Vice-Roy-ship put to death and massacred â— not so few as 100000 of the Natives amongst which the Counts Egmont and Horn with others of the Nobility were the chief which withstood his Tyranny and stood up in defence of their immunities which the King of Spain by power would have taken from them which was a just cause given to the people to revolt both for safegard of their lives and priviledges which the four great Dukes of Burgandy suffered them to enjoy so that on a right understanding of the Hollanders case which was just and but reason that when they could not obtain right from the King upon their many Petitions and complaints of the Tyranny of his Ministers they could do no less then endeavor the preservation of their lives and fortunes And therefore under the conduct of the Prince of Orange they seized on divers of the strongest Towns and the people unanimously fell in with the Prince and ever since manfully and fortunately have defended themselves But in the late defection of the English with the Parliaments raising of Armies against their Soveraign Lord there is no manner of similitude with that of Holland or any such cause given or ground of the peoples defection since I presume you will confess that not so much as one guiltless man during all the late Kings raign hath been put to death unless you object and instance in those which by the fatality of the late War befel both parties which you know to be no other then fortuna de la guâ—ra not the Kings Tyranny or the least desire of his that a drop of innocent blood should have been spilt and that which was was in his own necessitated defence But I pray take the case as now it stands between the present King and your States then you may soon see the difference for in confirmation of the Collonels assertion I dare affirm the King hath ten friends for one to those on whom the States may rely as firm and fixed to them since his late Majesty was put to death and that major number you may be sure on'â— are all his in body and soul and do utterly detest that his Royal Father and â— himself should be so unjustly cut off and excluded of his birth-right and by whom think you but by an inconsiderable part of the representative the Souldiery and a handful of the people their 's adherents and therefore I say that the King on a right estimate of his party upon the least turn of the wheel will have a surerer and a stronger side then possibly the States here can have Patri Doctor in this your last reply I observe some notable particulars first you approve of the justness of the Hollanders defection yet you say that it parrallels not with this of the States here and change of the Government the reasons you have given for justifying the Hollander I confess are most true self preservation being just and allowable by Gods Law and mans But that now you should defend their cause which none of your said party ever did till of late is somewhat strange unless it be for that as you believe they are secretly engaged in the Scotch Kings Cause and yet you condemn the late Parliament for defending themselves and their liberties against the late Kings Tyranny which you shamefully endevor to excuse and would quit him from all blood-guiltinesâ— To which I answer That had you thought upon your own instance of 100000 of the Natives massacred by the Tyranny of the Spaniard it would have put you in minde of a million of people throughout the three kingdoms slain and murthered by the meer Tyranny Plots and practises of the late King of which you take no notice but after the wonted manner of all Royalists you justisty his innocency so that to the worlds-end you give occasion to the Parliaments party to rip up the faults of the dead and cause them to display all his Falshoods frauds breaches of Oaths and Protestations But as to your assertion That the major number of the people here are for the Scotch Pretender in body and soul is in part granted you yet therein you extremly delude your self for the odds in that major number will little advantage him or his party since the major power lies evidently in the lesser number which are for the States what then will it avail a prince unexperienced to lead a great yet an undisciplin'd Army against a lesser number but well disciplin'd valiant and armed Souldiers though you cannot be ignorant that the States Armies are very strong and numerous in all the three Nations As to your denyall of the similitude and parallel I say on the same reasons that the Hollanders took up The Hollanders case and of the States here alâ—ke parallel arms in defence of their liberties the people here did the same for defence of themselves and their Representative so that the parallel on the actions of both States holds and is alike save only in the â—nanimity and universal promptitude of the Nether Lands in their joyning and uniting of all their Forces with the Princes * Orange retinnâ—e t is most true the parallel in this holds not so fully for I must confess the State of the matter and manner of the revolt of a part of the people from the late King is different remains doubtful what may fall out in the issue in respect that the other major part of the people are conceived still to wish well to his Son the present Pretender and that all the three Nations stand in a kinde of distracted condition in regard that they are divided into parties sides factions fractions fects schisms and opinions which I acknowledge may sooner mar the work of the States now in being then they are aware of But in a word more to the point that the major number of the people are for the Scocth Pretender I say again that that number considered as they are a naked awed and dejected bulk of discontented animals signifies little or nothing compared with that power of which the States here are possest neither in humane reason can we see how or by whom they can be dispossest But let us on all hands suppose that the present Pretender shall land again in England or Scotland as of late he did where you know he was beaten there and at Worcester and forc'â— to flâ—e for his life again suppose he comes in with a nâ—merous Army of French Dutch Lorrainers Germans Sweeds Dants together with all the prescribed Cavaleers and all these united with a good party of Scotch and Irish admit them to be in all 60000 fighting men which will be too great an Army to be transported without a very powerful Navie such numbers you 'l grant cannot stay long there unless they mean to eat one another well then you will say they may instantly march into England as of late they did and not unlikely in two or three several
â—or acknowledgement that any fault was in himself until he was a Prisoner but evermore laid all the blame on the Parliament 6. That in this long persistance he had wearied and beggered all his friends and assistants at home and abroad to the desolation of three flourishing Kingdoms by the continuation of his Hostility to the destruction of a million of poor Innocent souls without any remorse of so much blood spilt more then of one man his wicked * Straford Instrument 7. That when he protested most and to the height of imprecation the Parliament at last found by the Testimony of his own Letters under his hand-writing that he meant nothing less and more contrary then to his usual Protestations 8. That neither all the Honors Mannors and Lands of the Crown or his own blood without true repentance could be a sufficient expiation to God or recompence to his subjects for the infinite bloodshed rapines and dilapidatins made on the Natives of three Kingdoms 9. That such was his insensibility of bloodshed that the many Lords Gentlemen and infinite others of inferiour quality slaughtetered in his bloody quarrel he made no other reckoning of them then this viz. that they suffered no more then of duty they were bound to do for their King which he avouched on the death of the Earl of Northampton 10. That those unjust pretences which he made under the notion of his Royal Prerogatives viz. the Militia power of War Peace Leagues Treaties Array of the people his negative Voyce in all Parliaments pardoning of Murderers and Fellons condemned by the Laws of the Land were all at his only disposure whereas by the known Laws of the Realm they have been onely entrusted and conferr'd on our Kings by the indulgence of the people in their Representatives as hereafter shall manifestly appear 11. That all his Treaties with the Parliament for peace were persidious and his Propositions evermore umbrated under â—pecious pretexts subtilties subtersuges and mental reservations as 't was evident in that at Colebrook and Vxbridge and more apparent by his own Letters to the Duke of * Vide The Kings Letters to the Duke of Rich. mond with others to the Queen Richmond viz. Not to forget to cajole well the Scots and by that at Oxford by Registring in the Councel-books his calling them a Parliament with mental reservations though not ex animo so acknowledged yet summoned by his own Writs and often so esteemed and call'd by himself and acknowledged to be a legal Parliament by his own mungril Conventicle at Oxford 12 That in all his Declarations and Expresses to the Parliament he evermore seemed to have a tender regard both towards them and the people when he onely intended his own interests with the advance of the Soveraignty to absoluteness by the power of the sword and to convey his designs to his Successors as in the instance of the * Vide One of the Kings Expresses where he yeelds the Militia during his own life but not sor his Sons Militia is most perspicuous when he perceived that the Parliament would no longer trust so dangerous weapons in his hands 13. That some of his best friends suspected him to be too much vers't in the Florentine Principles as indoctrinated by a French and Italian party constantly resident in his own Court and stickled on by the inâ—usions of the Queen-Mother the Daughter both which had gained a great interest had chiefest influence on his Concels and as'tis well known was wholy governed as the Queen lifted and at last his inclinations so strictly tyed up as that they were not subject to any other alteration then as she prescribed which was a Rule to whatsoever he undretook 14. That he was not wanting to himself for promoting of his arbitrary designs to make use of Machiavels principle Divide impera evermore to sow divisions and to cherish any dissention arising between the Parliament and their friends thereby to ruine them by themselves Thus Gentlemen according to your desires I have given you an accompt of those Reasons which have been given me wherefore the Parliament enterprized on the change of the Government by cutting off the King and his Posterity the premises being so true and undenyable that they satisfied me and prevailed so sar on my belief that I conceive the Parliament could not otherwise possibly have secured the Nation from farther ruine as also that their resolutions therein were directed by the special hand of God considered together with the and great constant charge incident to Monarchy the often pressures and oppressions of the subject through the Tyranny ambition and prodigalitie of most of our Kings the two last having beggered and impoverished them most of all others on which considerations the Parliament in reason of State and as the state of the controyersie then was between them and the King they found it much better to quit themselves and the people of Regal Government and to change it into a Republick as a more safe and cheaper Government rather then any longer to hazard the common liberty on the Rule of any one Prince whatsoever especially not to trust those of the Sotch Nation all our Histories and the Parliaments sad experience having taught them that of late years the Soveraignty by the ambition and artifices of both the late Kings was strain'd and tentered up to so high a pitch that it would not stoop to a lower power then that of absolutenes Now more particularly to answer your Querie as concerning the King of Scots the two Dukes with the rest of the late Kings loyns it seems likewise that the Parliament knowing them to be the Sons of that father who had more wasted the Land then all of the Norman Race before him they had small hopes left them that any of the same line would be much better being tutor'd afore-hand by the Father and at present residing in a French Academy which if admitted to the Government in all likelyhood would be no other then the cause of more blood more charge trouble misery and sorrow to the people very few of our Kings having given the Nation any great cause to be over-much enamoured with their Governments but most of the best much repentance through their Tyrannies and oppressions Prel Sir I profess you have given me fuller satisfaction then I could expect and I believe that you have taken the right measure of the Parliaments foot with the true reasons wherefore they have not onely cut off the Father but excluded all his Discendants onely in the point of their changing the kingly Government into a Republick as more secure and cheaper for the Nation this is a riddle to me for lamentable experience enforms us that all the oppressions and grievances of the people by all or most of our Kings and those so much upbraided and caft in the face of the late King I dare affirm amounts not to the fisth part of the charge and
but that constanrly they will be continued if not encreased and of this we have a president in the change of the Government in the Nether-Lands where on their revolt from the Spaniard the States were enforc'd to raise their Excise on all things which the Natives did eat or drink and to impose Customs on all sorts of Merchandize either imported or exported without which they could never have been enabled to pay their Armies and to wage war with so potent a Prince as the King of Spain and that for 80 years endurance at least which shewes out unto us what we are to expect even a continuation of our Taxes and well it would be if we escape so Prela It s a fine liberty and freedom then that the late Parliament and your reformers have procured to the Nation and indeed Patriotus I am of your opinion that the States here as you stile them must of necessity continue if not encrease the Contributions when as all the Kings Lands and goods the Bishops and Delinquents Estates are sold and spent and when the King comes in to multiply their charge and enforce them for payment of their Armies to take any thing as often they have done wheresoever the Souldier can finde it there being but one only way left us to preserve the Nation from utter ruine and a final destruction Neut I beseech you Doctor what one way is that I shall be very thankful unto you to shew me that learning that so we may see an end of our miseries and that such as my self who never bore Arms on either side neither had a hand in shedding of one drop of blood might come at length to know the uttermost of our pain and enjoy our wonted tranquillity Prel In brief Neutralis 't is the admission of the King to his Royal Rights for without a King and the restitution of the Crown-Lands and the Churches Patrimony never expect an end of our calamities but an everlasting war with the continuation of the Taxes and oppressions of the poor people so long as those innocent Princes of the Royal Line are unjustly kept out of their Inheritance the example whereof we may see in Holland very judiciously even now instanced by Patriotus to whose judgement I appeal as the readiest and surest remedy to cure the convulsions of the Land and to settle peace throughout the three Nations which otherwise is impossible to accomplish Patri Doctor give me leave to dissent from your Opinion and in the first place to remember you of that wherewith even now you and the Colonel taxed the Parliament with the oppressions of the people wherein you over-shoot the mark without looking to the original causes and the reasons which have enforc't the States to impose those payments on the Natives which are necessitated for keeping the poor people from farther bloodshed and oppression 'T is in part true that in case the King of Scots could be as readily admitted as you speak it and in a peaceable and safe way for the Nation both in respect of the present and suture security it might haply conduce somewhat toward a present settelment of affairs for a time which would not be either long or lasting but never disburthen us of our payments for as the case now stands on admission of any one of the late Kings Linage he would doubtless on all opportunities have an animum revertendi a minde to the old way viz. to rule at will and pleasure an ambition inseparably united to the Sepâ—ers of all Kings especially to these which claim successively and de jure Coronae so that in a short time we should be in statu quo priùs enforc't to fight over again again the old quarrel foâ— preservation of the common Liberty Therefore I beseech you Doctor consider well of the present condition wherein we are together with the setled resolution of the State here in being which have not onely taken away the late Kings life as the onely remedy left them to settle a firm peace but farther have resolved to exclude his Posterity aâ— not holding the Fathers blood either a sufficient expiation for the infinity of blood spilt throughout the three Nations or the Royalties and Possessions of the Crown neither the Lands of the Bishops which without all question were the grand sticklers and promoters of all our late concussions a competent amends for the injuries and losses suffered by the three Nations but in detestation of Kingly Government whence through all Ages hath proceeded such numberless oppressions and imbroylments never to admit of any more Kings besides you may take it in the way what an essay the States have already made for the settlement oâ— an Aristocratical Government in imâ—â—acion of the Romans afâ—er their cuting of Tarquin us and his Posterity for Tyâ—anny anâ— aâ— of later days the States of Holland have done and prosperously accomphshed I appâ—al to your own judgement whether the King of Scots coming in by sorce of Arms or not at all wâ—ll The destructive consequence of the Scoâ—ch Kings coming in by the sword not plunge the Nation into an irreparable condition yea into ten degrees worse then at present we are in and that of necessity iâ— must be so and can be no other please you to have patience I shail render you many infallible reasons and such as I believe cannot be gainsaid besides 't is well known that the present Pretender is affected haply infected with his Fathers principles of absolute Soveraignty which will never sute with the genius of the States here in being which have the staffe in their hands with the Powers and strengths of all the Land at their only command and for ought I can perceive are both able intentive to uphold the present Government and so to establish it that in mans reason its impossible to divest them otherwise then by a stronger power which I believe lies not within the Scotch Kings reach to compass Prel Doubt not you of that for the King is not so destitute of friends and means to accomplish his designs as you imagine neither am I of your opinion that the Kings coming in will make our condition worse then now it is for worser it cannot be but on the contrary he will out of his innate goodness and compassion towards the poor oppressed people relieve them in what possibly he may and that by an act of Oblivion all old grutches with the late dissentions shall be coffin'd up and forgotten in his gracious and general pardon to all parties And I am cleerly of opinion that there can be no safer and readier way to compose all feuds and differences to ease the people of their Contributions and reestablish an everlasting peace throughout the three Nations then the acceptance of his Majesty to be our King as of right he ought to be and as I doubt not ere long he shall be in spight of all his enemies Patri Doctor I beâ—eech you let
Contributions imposed on the Natives by the Parliament if you grant this for truth as I presume you cannot gain-say it doubtless then the State here in being have brought the people to a very bad market since 't is manifest that what by the Monthly Contributions the rigorous exactions of the Officers of the Customs on all Merchandize together with the Excise on all we eat or drink with the free quartering of the Souldiers in most parts of the Land are far beyond all the Taxes Impositions and Subsides which the late King imposed or intended to lay on the people which gives them no great cause to rejoyce and make merry either for their safety or the cheapness of the exchange Answer me to this point and I shall as the Colonel even now said give you fair leave to carry away the bucklers and henceforth acknowledge you for an expert Fencer Thraso God amercy honest Doctor in good faith thou hast now given him a bone to pick that will stick in his teeth if he answers this to any purpose he shall not onely carry away the Bucklers but I shall willingly give him my sword into the bargain and then dam him for me that will ever fight one stroke more in the quarrel Patri Colonel you and your party have gotten such a habit of swearing and in such fearful volleys of Oaths as that had your cause been much better then it was God could not bless it or give you any good success therein but I beseech you leave your prophanation and then have patience a while for you have very good reason to leave fighting when you are so ready to depart with your weapons but lay your sword to the stake and then see what in the end will become of him for whatsoever the Doctor hath objected concerning the present impositions which are confest to be very heavie on the poor people yet when you know all it would have been much better he had said nothing since I perceive none of you all ever sounded the late Kings depth and what he intended or took the least measure of his foot for indeed he was too dark for any of your light to see into his designs and to tell you more he was too cunning for any that he employed though some there are which accounted him for little more then an Iguoramus but one of the shrewdest ones for his reaches to his own ends of any Prince of his time True it is that the Parliament though they suspected him at the first sitting down and before yet knew not a long time what he had in hand otherwise The Juncto and the Kings Letters taken at Nasby the onely means that the Parliament came to the knowledge of his Intentions then at random until the discovery of the Juncto which was the star that guided them to know somewhat more of his designs then they could clearly discern before and by degrees as God would have it more they came both to know and feel when a long time after his private Letters were taken at Nasby wherein more then enough came to light of his pernicious intents or was fitting for a King so much courted and beloved of English Nation to have attempted for their enslaving a design as I have said though long since by some of the more intelligent sort understood yet till that time never publickly known or visible the onely bar to the accomplishment was that Bellum Episcopale the Prelatical was against his Native subjects the Scots which brought it so about that the Kings game which was a fair fore-game became in the end by the Scots resistance and managety to an after and a lost game and the truth is the Scots were too subtile for all the kings Arbitrary Instruments and understood more of his reaches then happily all of us here shall ever know Now Doctor as to your Objections concerning the present Taxes Excises Customs and Free-Quarter I crave leave for a while to lay them aside to which anon I shall particularly make answer In the mean time I think fit to present you with a Preparative whereby to shew you that all changes and alterations of Government are and have evermore been accompanied with innumerable difficulties and hardships especially where the sword begets them who knows not but that the sword is a very chargeable weapon and such charges are most incident to green and new sprung up Governments and cannot be avoyded as in this case and alteration here with us you see cannot possibly be made good without a vast expence which necessarily ought to be defray'd by the people for whose sakes and conservation of the common freedom their Trustees the Parliament thought fit and best for their future indemnity to adventure on the change of the Government and then as the Adage speaks it They which reap the gains ought to indure the pains and 't is most true that although new gotten liberty be a sweet bait yet it often fals out that the enjoyment thereof brings with it a great deal of sufferance and yet must it be born with patience in hope of better times which may give way to the unburthering of the sufferers And so to your Objections which I shall answer in their ordâ—r and first to the Excise wherein I shall shew you the mistake since it seems you look onely at the present Impositions without minding their causes which as the postures of affairs now are were necessitated and insorc't on the Parliament to levie on the Nation neither do you look back to those times wherein during the late king and his Fathers raign there was no cause or a peece of a reason to be given why any Taxes should have been imprest on the people without their consents in Parliament yet for your better learning I shall assure you that the very same House in Broad-Street wherein the Office of the Excise is erected for the States use was 20 Moneths at least before the late Parliaments summons rented by Cottington and purposely for that use design'd by the King himself though protracted by reasons of the Scotch troubles As to the Customs we all know to what a height they were grown in the late Kings time to the great regret of the Marchant but that you may know what farther was much about that time in agitation there was a private * Vide That and other Commissions in the Signet Office Commission issued out under the Great Seal wherein twenty eight Lords and Gentlemen were nominated and Authorized to raise on all the Commodities of the Land what new Customs and Impositions the Commissioners should think sit which was the highest strain of Arbitrary power that ever was attempted by any of our Kings As to free-Quarter it is confest to have bin a very gâ—ievous burthen on the people not only to pay their Monthly Contributions but to be forâ—'t to give the Souldier free-quarter wheresoever he march't But to answer you in a word that
Protestant to desert that government by Letters under his own hand which on his examination in Parliament wherefor he waved that command he produced for his justification where the reason inserted was for his special service a proper service if you mark it Now if you demand What that service might be I shall instantly tell you to what purpose as 't was then spoken publico consensu neither ever since denyed viz. the same Earl being Owner of one of the strongest * Ragland Castles in those parts seated amidst the greatest neast of Papists of any one place in the Kingdom had private Commmission from the King to raise 6000 of them for his Mâ—jesties service and that service was to convoy the Irish Army on their arival and to joyn with them when the King pleased to transport them for mastering all those Western parts and to be farther employed as his occasions should require for of such kinde of occasions though never so needless unnecessary and destructive through the whole course of his Reign as a fate that followed him to the last he would not be unfurnished Why then the late Earl of Arundel another suspected Papist was at the very same time Commissioned for the North parts you may safely aver there was no very good meaning in these exorbitant undertakings or other reason to be given for their constant pursuance but that they all tended to enslave the three Nations and to subject them all under his Arbitrary Power If any of you here think otherwise as many thousands there are which will not believe it I say no more but that they want wit but more wisdom to make a right judgement not of things doubtful and hidden but of matters visible and acted on the Theater of the Kingdom Therefore Gentlemen be not still blind neither wilfully stupid but lay your hands to your hearts and bethink your selves wherefore the Parliament be-took themselves to their defensive Arms and the Scots on the same grounds to side with them can you imagine for any other reasons then the conservation of their joynt interest the freedoms and liberties of both Nations since all the world can witness that they were not onely first invaded by the King but designed together with the English to envassaladge that on the same design he first bâ—gan the quarrel with the late Parliament and therefore as 't is aforetold you they could not in any reason or with safety of the people trust a perfidious Prince any longer with the Government or admit of any more Kings but in prevention of worse evils which in all probability would happen to the prejudice of the universal Nation to alter the Government as now you see it established in peace and in hopes that in short time it may prove much better safer and less burthensom to the people then the Regiment hath been which you may be sure o' nt would have been much worse had the Kings designs prospered and taken effect whether we look back on all the Motions of his Government before the Wars or forward on that which had he been Victor would necessarily have befallen the Nation as to that God knows he came very near the accomplishment But all of you may evidently see throughout the pursute that Almighty God did not neither could he give a blessing to his bloody designs and that a most fearful fare hath befallen the Prosecutor and his Fathers house together with most of his Assistants in that work of darkness for their bloody and ambitions affectations in opposition to Gods Law the Laws of the Land and that of Natures birth-right so that on a right understanding you which are so much devoted and besotted to magnifie and adore a Tyrant cut off as well by the hand of Gods justice as mans have rather cause with thankfulness to adore his infinite Providence in taking him away likewise to magnifie the Parliament as the instrument ordain'd of God for the preservation of your libertie the common interest of the Nations much rather then to grutch and repine against the present settlement rail and storm against those Magistrates whom God in his great mercy hath set over us under whom he that will may live quietly and contentedly as to such as will not I leave them to their fortune and so Gentlemen for this time I take my leave Thra. I vow Patriotus I never till now understood so much of the Kings intentions I could wish with all my heart I had known his minde twelve years since Sure I am he deceiv'd me and a thousand more of us with as fair words and plausible Protestations as ever could come from a Christian but now I perceive your infallible proofs and many of them as I well remember of his own hand-writing and of my own knowledge that all is not gold that glisters and I protest on the reputatio of a Souldier I now begin to have a better opinion of the Parliaments cause then hitherto I have had Patri Good Colonel I have not the command of your opinion I leave you to your own election to believe and judge as you shall see cause onely as you wish you had known the Kings minde sooner I wish he had known himself rather for this nosce teipsum the knowledge of our selves is the best piece of Philosophy that any of us can possibly learn and as to his fair and plausible language whereby to attract to himself friends and assistants I shall tell you somewhat which I believe you took no notice of for you were deceived in the King who had such a faculty of his own that heretofore you could not say he was ever known to be over-cheap to any whom he found not fit and serviceable for that purpose to which he would employ him but on the beginning of the wars the case was altred for then it stood him upon to be more then ordinarily affable to all you of the Souldiery since he was to make use of your service for the accomplishment of his ends which with all my heart I have often wish't that they had bin better byassed and so Gentlemen we must have a time to depart sinace for these five hours or more we have cost the ball from one to the other and yet at last how different soever in our opinions I joy in this that we shall depart in love and friendship not doubting but this meeting may make way for another of more mirth and less distaste wishing and praying to the God of Peace that in this universal disagreement of opinions in these times that odium and hatred which so unhappily hath been contracted between brethren of one and the self-same English blood upon the late fatal quarrel may yet at length be buryed in that pleasing Sepulcher of a cordial reconciliation and that we may all submit first to Gods good will and pleasure and next to that Government which by many visible manifestations he hath been pleased to establish
Keeper Finch Secretary Windibank Piercy Jermine Suckling all of them prime sticklers for the advance of the Kings designs c. In the next place the Kings continued practises to corrupt his own Army and that of the Scots inviting them with great rewards and promises of preferment to march against the Parliament which on any conditions he was then resolved to destroy his then succeding journey into Scotland with the breaking out of the Irish Rebellion during his residence there his assault of the House of Commons on his return his then fortifying and manning of White-hall with the Cavaleers and when he found that by none of these artifices he could break the Parliament he leaves them and departs to York sends Eliot for the Great Seal and procures as many as possibly he could of both Houses to falsifie their trust and adhere to him so to divide and destract them and then raises an Army causing the Lords there attending him to attest that he raised that Army onely for a Guard to his Person and not against the Parliament and immediately sends out his Commissions of Array and marches through several Counties to Nottingham where he erected his Standard of War and after marches to Edgehill where he fought with the Parliaments Army notwithstanding that before from Nottingham he would have perswaded the Parliament by an Express of his own that he did not set up his Standard against them all which and much more of his prodigious Stratagems known to all the World makes it apparant that his intent was to destroy the Parliament and consequently to alter the Government and the Laws as he listed and yet there are at present a new sprung-up number of perverse people amongst us besides the old Royal party that impudently deny the premises and take occasion upon this late change and dissolution of the Parliament and the continuation of the Contributions to asperse the present Parliament with most opprobrious language I wish they would look back to the cause and how diffident soever they are of the kings destructive intentions yet may they please to take a review of his after-actions and what horrible cruelties and oppressions were perpetrated throughout most parts of the Land by his Commanders authorized under his own Commissions after he began the War at Edgehill and made Oxford his Head quarters then questionless they may take the true dimensions of a most unfortunate and tyrannical King neither would it be amiss for them to take it into their remembrance what the Parliament in so perplext times were constrained to put in execution as well for their own safeties as the preservation of the Laws and Liberties of the people Thus far in brief we have made a recital of the principal transactions before that fatal battel at Edgehil whence all Royalists and others diffident of the Kings destructive intentions may evidently see unto what plunges the Parliament was put unto upon the Irish Rebellion in relief of their poor distressed brethren in Ireland that affair by the King himself bring wholy recommended to the Parliaments disposement 400000l in Subsidies assented by himself to be levied to that onely use and the Earl of Leycester by his own approbation design'd for that imployment whom he so long protracted that the term of his Commission was near expired before he went over and as to his proclaiming them Rebels to which the Parliament often prest him he would not in a long time suffer his Proclamations to come forth and at last permitted no more then 40 Copies to be printed notwithstanding these his impediments the Parliament with their best Expedition sent over divers Regiments of foot some horse and cloathes by the way of Minyard and Chester The premises considered by any indifferent man with what honour then or justice could the king countermand those Forces and seize the cloathes horses and money sent to the relief of the poor distressed Irish Protestants against his own Act and Assent and by what law or colour of Reason could he in honor grant the remainder of the third part of that Subsidie to his Lieutenant-General of South Wales for raising of an Army there against the Parliament diverting the use thereof for the relief of Ireland What answer can be made to this other then that which with impudence of the highest strain is commonly alledged by Royalists viz. That the king stood bound both in honour and reason of State to support the Rebellious Irish in what possibly he could so to lessen the Parliaments power by what means soever for advance of his own If this be the reason surely then 't is evident that he not onely favoured the Irish but authorized their Insurrection and that his intent was to incumber and cut out as much work for the Parliament as possibly he could invent and in that course to protract the War in Ireland and to pursue it in England as 't is most manifest he did during full six years together neither would he be induced by the Parliaments many and most humble Petitions really to apply himself to a safe and well-grounded Peace for the Nation though still pretending how willing he was to embrace it when as by the sequel he intended to have it no other then as suted to his own will and pleasure and yet all of the Royal party as constantly defends him as himself obstinately persisted so long as his power lasted to embrew all the three Nations with blood fire and devastation and to his last * Vide The Kings Speech on the Scaffold hour stood stiffly in the affirmative that the absolute command of the Militia was his and that the Parliament on that only ground first began the War and not he contrary to his own acknowledgement in the I le of Wight and elswhere viz. That he had been the cause of all the innocent blood spilt throughout the Land I wish he were not guilty of that in Ireland the presumptions being so pregnant as that thousands of honest and knowing men cannot be otherwise perswaded sure enough he was most notoriously guilty of all the blood spilt in England and Scotland We now come to the kings Prerogatives as the basis on which all Royalists ground the lawfulness of their partaking with him in the late War as bound by Oath their Allegiance and in conscience to support his Soveraign Rights We shall for their better satisfaction present them in a Catalogue and answer them in their order forasmuch as they still constantly maintain them to be the kings inseparably united to the Crown and that full sore against his will he was inforc't to uphold them as invaded by the Parliament since then that as Royalists aver the King onely fought to uphold his inheritance and themselves with him let us briefly examine by what Law and right he claimed them together with the destrctive consequences should he have obtained them by the sword and whether then he had not carved out his own
taken either by his command or permission in the late Wars the instances whereof would amount to a volumn and as to his intentions without injury to his memory we may take notice of his own expressions in his Letters to the Queen viz. That though he wanted money yet good swords and Pistols would fetch it in Ex unque Leonis We may judge of the Lyons strength by his paw and of the kings intentions had he lighted on the fortune to have mastered the Parliament Of the Kings Negative Voyce in Parliament WE now come to that so much asserted and inseparable Flower of the Crown as the king and Royalists would have it believed viz. his Negative voyce in Parliament a claim so absurd and contrary to Law and Reason that wise men may laugh at it and fools discern the distructive consequence thereof for at one blast or breath of the kings it utterly frustrates the very Essence and Being of all Parliaments and obstructs all their Consultations and whatsoever they shall never so well advise and agree upon as a necessary Law shall be made of no effect with this one single word of the kings Negatur which is point blank against his Corronation Oath where he swears or ought to swear to Govern both by the old Laws per istas bonas leges quas vulgus eligerit though it pleased the Archbishop to emasculate that most essential part of the Oath so to leave the king at liberty and by such good Laws as the Parliament shall chuse so that the Legislative power hath always resided in that Soveraign Court to make and unmake Laws according to the vicissitude of times and change of mens manners and not at the kings choyce who hath only the distributive power when Laws are made to see them duly executed and the Law of the Land also limits that power for the king as before 't is noted cannot execute the Laws at his own pleasure but in and by his Courts of Justice But strange it is what a ridiculous construction Royalists have made of the verb eligerit to be meant in the preterpersect Tense and not of the future to make any new Laws though never so necessary but that the people must stand to their old Laws though some of them never so fit to be abrogated unless the king please to give way to the establishing of new or repealing of the old which is a most irrationall and destructive assertion Neither may we omit to shew what Royalists farther aver that such is the necessity and force of the Kings assent that be the Law never so useful and beneficial for the people to be established yet without the Kings fiat it can never have the force and stamp of a Law which is the same as when the King chosen Generalissimo and trusted with the conduct of the Kingdoms Armies will turn the mouth of the Canon from the Enemy on his own Souldiers and deny them to provide for their own safeties such absurdities have the late and present Licenciates of this time ran into as if men had been bewitch't to betray their own freedoms It is not denyed but that the Kings assent to a Law thought fit by the Parliament to be Enacted is very necessary yet it follows not that it must be of necessity for if the King out of a perverse humour will not after some time of consideration assent to such a Law which if not ratified by his fiat tends to the inevitable destruction of the Common-wealth shall the publick safety be neglected for the humoring of one mans obstinate will and in such a case ought not the States Assembled in Parliament provide against a common mischief Enact and Ordain for the publick indemnity as former Presidents in such cases may direct them and when no other remedy can be had The Lords in the time of king Richard the Second would not be so answered when they sent him word that if he would not come to the Parliament according to his promise and joyn his helping hand to theirs in redress of the publick grievances they would chuse such a King that should The Array of the People WE now come to the principal and practical part of the kings power over the Militia for the Array of the people is the grand piece of that usurpatious claim viz. That at his own will and pleasure he may send forth his Commissions to Array the people against themselves and this power under colour of Law and of right belonging unto him the universal Nation knows he forbore not to put in execution against their Representative summoned by his own Writs a president without president neither for the legality known either in our Histories or Law-books otherwise then by consent of Parliament and in cases of immiment danger for opposing of an invading Enemy but for a king trusted with the defence of his people in calms of peaceable times and on no necessity to put in execution such a reasonless and unlimited power as one of his Royal Prerogatives and to maintain it by the sword was besides the breach of his Royal trust such a daring action as none but a Tyrant in folio would have attempted 'T is true that heretofore during that long continued feud between the English and the Scots divers Gentlemen of the North parts and others on the Welch-Borders of the kings Tenants were by their Tenures bound to rise watch and wind * Cornage Tenure horns on all incursions of the Scots and of these kind of Tenures Littleton treats in his chapter of petty Serjeanty but I suppose none so very cowards though not bound by their Tenures but would take up Arms in the common defence and contribute their best assistance for the expelling of an invading Enemy though in this very case by the Law of the Land 'T is very dangerous for him that shall raise Forces without special Commission from the King and Parliament and * The Lords Cromwels Case Cromwel Earl of Essex in Henry the Eigth's Reign though at that time Lord President of the North dyed for no other cause then this that he raised an Army both for the suppression of an insurrection and expulsion of the Scots so nice and provident our Ancestors have ever been of levying Armies in the bowels of the Land on any pretence whatsoever But for the king first to raise an Army at York assuring the Parliament that it was to no other end then for a Guard to his Person and therewith to cause so many half-witted Lords then attending him to attest that for truth which was false as it manifestly appeared by his immediate marching to Nottingham where he set up his Standard of War as a summons of the people to his assistance against the Parliament when himself was both the first Assaulter and Invader and yet at that very instant of time to reassure the Parliament that he raised not his Standard against them and at the same conjunctureâ— of
time to send out his Commissions of Array was doubtless such a breach of Trust and a Treachery of so deep a die as that in all our Histories we finde it not parrallel'd amongst all our kings but onely in that Tyrant of Tyrants king Iohn who indeed invaded the Land and ruined the Castles and Houses of the Barons Gentry that opposed his Tyrany and came not to his assistance at a call and in this kinde of Tyranny it cannot be gainsaid the late king came not behind him if not exceeding that irregular king as 't was evident by this instance that immediately after the sending forth of his Commissions of Array on the heels of those issued out his Commissions of Oyer Terminer to hang all those which adhered to the Parliament But in a little more to the illegality of the kings Commissions of Array both before and after the setting up of his Standard surely those Lawyers that waited on him first at York and after at Oxford were doubtless those which misâ—ed him and with such artifices and pains drew up his Answer to the Parliaments Declaration of the first of Iuly 1642 against the legality of the Commissions of Array He that will take the pains to examine that Declaration compared with the kings Answer may soon perceive that the Contrivers and Penners thereof were not so honest as they should have bin neither as it seems so wel read in the Laws or so expert workmen as to avouch the Statute of the 4. 5. of Hen. the 4. 150 times over in that Answer and notstanding all their endeavors to entrust the King with a legal power to send forth his Commissions for arraying of the people at his own will and pleasure without consent of Parliament yet those fine Iohns for the king have not neither could they produce any scrap of Law or piece of Statute that enables the king to Array the people against themselves to engage English against English and to set so many as came into his assistance together by the ears with those which adhered to the Parliament and at a time when there was not the least fear or expectation of an invading Enemy more then of those which the Parliament feared should be sent him out of France Lorrain and Denmark but to what other ends then to ruine the Parliament let any impartial Royalist make his own judgement 't is true that in case of Forraign invasions the king by Law hath been evermore trusted as Generalissimo to command the Forceâ— of the Kingdom for defence and safety of the people and to no other end and so was the Law expounded in Parliament the thirteenth of Queen Elizabeth but never so wrested before by any of our Lawyers as by those that waited on the King would have enforc't thereby to impower him at pleasure to command the strength of the Kingdom against it self and surely it appears to me and thousands more that forty Judges Serjeants and Lawyers then in both Houses of Parliament should better understand and know more of the Law in the case of Commissions of Array then those eight or ten * Littleton Banks Lane Heath the Atturney Herbert Palmer c. sycophant fellows that followed and animated the King in such irregular motions onely in hopes of preferment and to form him into such a posture of absolute power that when he pleased he might destroy himself and the Kingdom as that to our grief we may remember they had taught him and put him in the high-way of the accomplishment I remember a pertinent passage related in our Histories how that the Earls of Warwick and Leycester being peremptorily summoned to attend Edward the First into France the Earls in plain English told him that by the Laws of the Land they were not bound to wait on him out of the Land at his pleasure but onely within the Realm and for the defence thereof and that onely on Invasions of Forraign Enemies which agrees with that before recited of his taking the Train-men out of their respective Counties by his Commissions to serve him in Gascoyn Gwyn and other places beyond the Seas contrary to the Laws of the Land which grievance the King then redrest neither could I ever yet finde any one express Law or Statute that enables any of our Kings by their sole power without consent of Parliament to Array the people but onely in the case of Forraign Invasions and coming in of strange Enemies howsoever the Penners of the Kings Answer to the Parliaments Declaration have laboured though to no purpose to prove it otherwise however 't is worth the observation what fruitless pains they have taken in their frequent recitals of the Statutes of the 4. 5. of Hen. 4th the 13. of Edw. the 1o. 1. Ed 2d. 25. of Edw. the 3d. 9. of Edw. 2d. the 4. 5. of Phil. and Mary 1º Iacobi with divers others all of them principally tending to the Assize of Arming the Subject secundum facultates according to his ability those Assizes having been almost in every Raign altered and the Statutes according to the vicissitudes of times change of Arms and invention of Guns for the most part of them repealed and new Statutes made in their rooms with power of Commissions to be issued as the exigency of affairs should require on Invasions from abroad home defence on Insurrections c. All which so often and so much prest in the Kings Answer made nothing to the matter in question between him and the Parliament 1642. The point in question was not then concerning the old Commissions of assizing Armes or Commissions of Lieutenancies in every County but the reasons of the Parliaments Declaration and the exceptions they took were against that exorbitant power the King assumed to himself under pretext of Law to Array the people one against the other and against their Representative as that sure enough he failed not to put in practise howsoever disguised under an elaborate and ridiculous Answer when as we have noted before there is not one Statute or scrap of Law to be found in all our Law-books that legally enables the King to raise war against a Court of Parliament and raise combuston in the bowels of the Kingdom which I trust may satisfie all Royalists that the Parliament had then good cause to complain when in times of Peace he made them times of war and desolation by sending out those his illegal and destructive Commissions which whether they were so or not doubtless the Parliament was better able to judge and determine then the King or his Minions then attending his Person Of the Kings Prerogative to call and dissolve Parliaments at his own will and pleasure AS to the Kings power to call and dissolve Parliaments at his will pleasure to summon a Parliament with one breath and blow it away with another blast of his mouth as 't is still frequently maintained by Royalists and others newly started up that by
Law and presidents he was enabled to do is an assertion so irrational as that I wonder not so much at their ignorance as their audacious language since 't is the known Law of the Land and by two Statutes of near 400 years standing ordained That Parliaments shall be call'd once every year and oftner as the emergency of affairs may give occasion why then it should rest in the kings onely power to call them and that his assent to a Triennial Parliament should be such a boon bestowed on the people surely may encrease the wonder since by our old Laws and the usuages of former times they ought not to be dissolved until all grievances be heard and redrest otherwise to what end or use were Parliaments Instituted which as one calls them are the Beasoms that sweep clean all the nasty corners of the Common-Wealth But observe the sad consequences of this absurdity for suppose the King would not call any Parliament in ten or twelve years together till his necessities inforc't him how then should the publick grievances be redrest and by whom shall the disorders and obliquities of the Church and Commonwealth be rectified Royalists Answer by the king alone or his Councel of State as the suprem Magistrate within his own Dominions A strange task surely for one man to undergo and more then that active Magistrate Moses was able to perform as we may see by * Exo. 18. Iethro's Counsel who advised to take into his assistance the Princes and best of the people to ayd him in the Administration of Justice to the Israelites and all that with the least in a populous Nation Well then let it be considered how many grievous enormities and disorders during that interval of ten years discontinuance at least of Parliaments were crept into the Church and State meerly through their disuse we have sorry cause to remember when through the pangs of the kings necessities the ill managery of the publick affairs the prodigality of the Court the corruption of all Courts of Justice the Judicature with the licentiousness of a dissolute Clergy inforc't him at last to cal the late Parliament yet how soon he endevoured by his many wiles practises to annihilate it nay by all possible means he could invent hindred their endeavors in reducing the Church and Common-wealth into order never ceasing to interrupt their consultations purposly to disorder and thrust all into a Chaos of confusion insomuch as to this day the Parliament have had their hands full to finde out the means how to reduce and settle things in that order as at first they might have been had not the publick affairs been obstructed and all reformation hindred by his onely means so to render them as odious to the future and as contemptible to the people as heretofore they were boloved and desired of them notwithstanding that at their first sitting down he promised to contribute his own Authority to theirs and to leave the re-ordering of all things amiss to their onely managery an overture so acceptable unto them as that in retribution thereof how willing and intentively bent they were in the midst and heat of their distractions to make him rich and glorious and how indulgently ready to cover his faults in the recovery of his honour at home and his reputation abroad none unless blinde men or besotted but may remember But the truth was he could not brook any Rival with himself in the Government pursuing to the last his design of absoluteness so long that in the end the Parliament was inforc't not to retain any longer such a Rival as a King amongst them but rather chose to estate the people in the same peaceable Government as we see it now established then to imagine themselves able to better it by retaining of Kingship Of the Kings Prerogative in granting of Pardons to Murtherers and Fellons WE now come to that Prerogative or rather lawless usuage of our Kings in granting their Charters of pardon to Murtherers and Fellons condemn'd by the Laws of the Land 'T is confest that it hath been practised by all or most of our Kings though as it may be supposed rather permissively then by vertue of any Law extant but by what warrant in Justice they have assumed such a Soveraign power to themselves will be the question for by Gods Law 't is absolutely forbidden Yee shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murtherer which is guilty of death but he shall be surely put to death Numb 35. 31. and vers 33. Ye shall not pollute the Land wherein ye dwell for blood defileth the land and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein but by the blood of him that shed it Thus much briefly may suffice as to Gods Law Now as to the Laws of England the King cannot pardon a Murtherer or Fellon condemn'd by the Laws of the Land without a plain breach of those Laws and his Coronation Oath for Anno 2d Edward the Third it was by Act of Parliament ordain'd that Charters of pardon should not be granted but onely where the King may do it by his Oath And further amongst this Kings often breaches of the Laws this very particular of his frequent granting of pardons to Murtherers was complained of in open Parliament and the King by three several * 4. Edw. 3. I dem 16. Acts was restrained in those cases but how faulty both the late Kings were in pardoning both Murtherers Fellons condemn'd by the Laws is too well known and how guilty and insensible the late King was of shedding of innocent blood three Kingdoms have lamentable cause to remember Of Wards Ideots and Mad men AS to the Kings Prerogative in taking of Wards and their Marrages it hath been granted him by Statute Law as hereafter shall appear and as to Ideots incompos mentis and madmen or such as have by accident fallen into destraction for the king to assume to himself their estates doubtless there is no Law for it as I can remember extant otherwise to dispose of their estates but an accompt to be given to the next Heir at Law and this of late years was resolved by Mr. Calthrop his own Aturney in the Court of Wards in the case of the Widdow of whose husband being burnt with powder at a muster in Moorfields dyed his wife for grief falling distracted the King gave her estate to one of his * Mr. Ramsey servants a Scotch-man but she having many children and good friends they petitioned the King therein and in the end he was pleased to retract his grant as to the whole of the estate but with this proviso that Ramsey should have the use thereof during the Widows life in case she continued incompos giving security for the repayment to the children but the Gentlewomans friends found it unsafe to trust so great an estate as 30000. l. in Ramseys hands and therefore with great difficulty they drew
that power of God and then without farther scruple thou must yield thy obedience to him and heartily obey him And 't is manifest that when Christ and Iohn Baptist preach't the Gospel it was at that very time that the Romans by plain Conquest and Usurpation had gotten the possession of all the Territory of Iudea neither of them did then teach or disswade the people from their obedience to them or that they should not yield submission to those that had Tyrannically obtained their power by the sword for 't is plain Mat. 22. that Christ did teach that Tribute was due unto Caesar and he himself paid it Again Pet. 2. Be ye subject either to the King as Suprem or unto Governors as those which are sent of him It would be superfluous longer to insist on this subject on which so much hath been exposed to the publick view it may therefore suffice without other Arguments then such as our blessed Saviour and his Apostels taught and practised to perswade obedience to powers in â—eing Onely I shall close up this hearty adâ—ress to all Royalists with a piece of a Speech delivered by a Learned Gentleman * Mr Thomas Warmistry in the Convocation 1640. viz. The Law of God in Scripture and Reason is the main and general root and trunk and all good Laws are banches that grow from thence and whatsoever humane Constitutions cannot either in a direct line or collateral derive themselvs from them are bastard Issues and shameful to their Parents and the Law-makers sins in framing of them yet the difficulty of Government is to be considered and many things to be born with for though they have no ground in Gods Law for the injunction but are meerly frivolous and perhaps burthensome yet if their Authority disables them to make it and enjoyns me to no Act contrary to my allegeance to God it is their sin but my affliction and must be born as other calamities for though that law hath no good end yet my obedience hath Obedience it self is a good and laudable thing and I may have the end of maintaining order or preserving peace and avoyding disturbance in the Church and Commonwealth of preventing scandal and the like which are ends prescribed by Gods Law to regulate and frame our actions by All things are not to be turned upside down upon every inconvenience that may be apprehended in a Law whether it be Ecclesiacal or civil for besides that there are few that are fit Judges of a Law that may be unlawful for Governours to command which yet is not unlawful but expedient for me to obey being commanded as it was unlawful for Pharoah to command the children of Israel to make Brick without Straw as being tyrannons and so sinful in him as it was unlawful but rather commendable in them to obey it as far as they could and S. Paul will have servants to be obedient unto their Masters though they be froward and perverse Indeed if they enjoyn me to do any thing wherein I should offend against Gods Laws in the least degree no pretence of any though never so many or so great good ends must make me withdraw my allegeance from him and pay it to humane powers The authority of all men is limited and so must our obedience to them be also The Supream power of God is the foundation of all Authority and therefore our duty unto that must be preferr'd in the first place and without all leave or exception whatsoever peace must be maintain'd with the rules of piety and trust and any scandal to my brother must rather be admitted then I should prevent it without Gods leave The rule of Mr. Calvin is good here Sicut libertas charitati ita charitas fidei subjicienda est yet in this case I am to disobey as modestly and as inoffensively and with as much shew of reverence to the Magistrate as may stand with our duty unto God yet resolutely too not faintly or fearfully as the three children unto Nebuchadnezzar Dan. 3. 17 c. And where we cannot yield obedience we must yield the third duty of subjection especially where the Authority is absolute and supream under God which may be variously stated according to the Laws and Customs of several Countries and Dominions then in case we cannot obey we ought not to resist but suffer and yield a passive obedience where we may not yield an active one according to the rule of Gods Word They that resist shall receive unto themselves damnation Thus Royalists and all may see the judgement of a Gentleman of temper and learning concerning obedience to be given to powers and Magistrates in being I come now to the necessity of Royalists obedience to the present Government with the profit and security that of course will acrew to themselves and the whole Nation by their cordial conjuncture and compliance with the present powers As to the necessity thereof I shall say no more but that if they continue obstinate and fix'd to their erroneous principles and look back with Lots Wife to him that claims as heir to the late unfortunate king the consequences and sad effects whereof are particularly layd down in the former discourse if they be not hardned and past understanding they will make the best of them to tremble to think upon the issues whensoever he comes in by their assistance though surely very improbable and their posterity will doubtless curse the time that ever they had such Fathers as were the unhappy Authors of their invassaladge and the betrayers of the common freedoms of the English Nation which of necessity must follow whensover the Scotch Pretender comes in by the sword so that the necessity of their compliance depends on this hinge onely their present conjuncture with the present establishment since this state cannot be secure so long as such a numerous party of rotten hearts remaines lurking in all corners of the Land and lying at catch on all opportunities to disturb the present settlement for prevention whereof it hath been the advice of none of the worst heads on their next disturbance or insurrection to proscribe not onely all such as shall be suspected but to take the course of Justice with those that shall be known actors in any such attempt neither let any of them think this course strange since there is no reason to be given to cherish the Viper too long in the bosom of the Nation least in the end he eats through the bowels thereof and as a wise man says What wisdom or providence can it be for this State to suffer such to live amongst them that will not co-operate act and joyn with the present powers And what sense is there that after so bloody and rapacious a war ended and peace resettled that if Royalists will they may live quietly and peaceably yet cannot forebear to spit their venome against those which have rescued them from invassalage why then should others be seen in unlawful things for their benefit which refuse to do right to others and themselves Gentlemen Royalists I have now done and more I would be willing to do for you may it be to your advantage but I know not a more ready way thereunto then at least to advise you to sit quiet or cordially to employ your selves in the publick service To conclude I wish you all to call to minde the late banishment of the Moors out of the Kingdom of Granado into Africa for no other cause but that the * Philip the Second King could not convert them from their Mahometan to the Roman Catholick Religion a punishment that at best will befall you whensoever you shall be found contriving of any new disturbance On this consideration I leave it to your selves to make judgement whether there be not a necessity of your timely compliance and conjuncture with the rest of the Nation that stands firm and faithful to the present Authority under which we are all bound to give God the glory and praise that since the sheathing of that raging and bloody sword of the late kings we may if we list live quietly enjoy the benefit of our old Laws if not better and the peace of our own houses in security blessings which of late years we had not neither can we ever have them by the way you perserve to walk in and wish for by re-introducing Regal Tyranny inseparably united to the Scepters of most Kings but undoubtedly to all those which are brought in by the power of the sword from such that our good God will deliver us shall be the hearty prayers of Yours most devoted to serve you in all honest and just Endeavors T. L. W. FINIS