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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	find_v	great_a	know_v	2,951	5	3.3432	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63469	The True copys of several letters from Portsmouth directed by Col. Sir Arthur Haslerig, Col. Herbert Morley, Col. Valentine Walton, commissioners by act of Parliament for governing the armies, to the Lord Fleetwood at Wallingford-house, with the Lord Fleetwoods answers thereunto : also, their several letters to ... the Lord Mayor, alderman and common-council of the city of London together with their letters from Portsmouth, to the several militia's appointed by act of Parliament, for the cities of London, Westminster and Borrough of Southwark and their answers there unto.	Hesilrige, Arthur, Sir, d. 1661.; Morley, Herbert, 1616-1667.; Walton, Valentine, d. 1661?; Fleetwood, Charles, d. 1692.	1659 (1659)	Wing T2609; ESTC R21262	11,119	16

by the next The Lord perswade your hearts to resolutions of peace and that these sad breaches may be healed is the desire of Your Humble Servant Charles Fleetwood VVallingford-House Decemb. 10. 1659. If we must be looked upon as Enemies I shall desire you will release Cap. Brown Cap. Peacock and Cap. Hopgood I will release Col. Markham and Col. Atkins whose offence I am sure was much greater then any you can charge them with and are persons much more Considerable For the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common-Council of the City of LONDON My Lord and Gentlemen WE conceive it is not unknown to you the Trust the Parliament reposed in us before theit late interruption We have waited ever since expecting that the force would have been removed from the Parliament House at Westminster that the Members might have returned to their Duties but finding confusions and discontents to increase we came to this Town of Portsmouth which is of great concernment to the City and Publick The Governour and this Garrison have declared their faithfulness to the Parliament there are many Ships not paid off and Marriners ready for want of pay to go into Forreign parts for employment there must some speedy course be taken for preventing the great mischiefs which will otherwise follow We cannot but approve of General Monks Declarations and concurr with him fot the restoring of the Parliament We hope you do the like and intreat you that no time may be delayed but all endeavours may be used that the Parliament doors may be forthwith opened and the Speaker desired forthwith to send Letters to the several Members to perform their Trust in Parliament We know no other way under God to preserve your City and the Nations from inevitable ruin and to deliver us out of these miserable and woful confusions we are now in We beseech you move speedily in this for our Cause and the safety of the whole lyes bleeding We entreat to hear a word of your intentions Our affections as you well know being very great for the welfare and prosperity of the City and we find such absolute necessity of the Parliaments meeting though but in Order to the settlement of future Parliaments that if you cannot prevaile that they may sit quietly at VVestminster we shall write to the Speaker that he would be pleased to meet at Portsmouth where we doubt not through the mercy and goodness of God they may sit with honour and safety and Act freely for the good and preservation of the your City Nations We present our humble services to your Lotdship the Aldermen and Common-Council We are Portsmouth 7. Decemb. 1659. My Lord and Gentlemen Your most faithful and humblest servants Arth. Haslerig Herb. Morley Val. Walton For our Honourable friends the Commissioners of the Militia of the City of London appointed by Act of Parliament Gentlemen YOu know very well that we have the chief Command of all the Forces in England and Scotland by Act of Parliament We are now at Portsmouth a place of great concernment We hope you believe that we desire Peace and settlement not a new VVar we have no perticular design we apprehend there is no other means for the preservation of our Cause the City and Nations and deliver us out of the woful Confusions that we are now in but the opening the Parliament doors that the Members may return and perform their trusts VVe desire you to act your parts in pursuance of the trust reposed in you by the Parliament for removing the force from the Parliament we shall assist you to the utmost of our power and remain Gent. Portsmouth Decemb. 7. 1659. Your affectionate Friends and Servants Arth. Haslerig Herb Morley Val. VValton The same Letter was sent to the Militias at VVestminster and Southwark For the Right Honourable the Lord Fleetwood at VVallingford house My Lord WE shall not trouble you with any tedious reply to your Letter but this we must affirm That neither joyntly nor seperately did we or any of us either to your self or any other person passe our Engagements to do otherwise then we have done And if you had given any of us a perticular Charge we should readily have vindicated our selves Neither did we endeavour to remove the Parliaments good opinion from you though we well perceived your coldness in their service else the Paper sent from the Northern Brigade had never produced the sad consequences that since have ensued And if it was against your Conscience to act as one of the seven Commissioners appointed by Act of Parliament to govern the Army we marvel with what satisfaction you can now act by the Call of private men without any publick Authority and yet pretend you desire retyrement Whether you have not been instrumental to destroy the Parliamentary Authority and how farr we have been instrumentall to any such ends we leave it to the Lord and all indifferent men to judge Neither shall we dispute the necessity that induced the Officers to interrupt the the Parliament for if you and they say it was necessary no man must dare to say otherwise It is an easie matter to pretend to good things for the Nation Oliver did the like but the sequell manifested h●s own advancement to be at the bottom And it is well known when you remove us from our Foundations you may carry us whether you please We all deny to have been instrumentall in any breaches made upon the Parliament but if we had we should not be ashamed to ask God and the world forgiveness and resolve by our future deportments to repair such breaches Concerning oppression imposing restraining Liberty taking away property Governments and Authority we shall only say That whosoever takes away our Parliaments takes the ready course to let them all in like a floud upon us neither do we think the Council of Officers competent per sons to Judg of Government and to break Parliaments and put new fancies of their own instead thereof as they please How far your actings against the Parliament or outs in persuance of the PARLIAMENTS Commands have given encouragement to the Common enemy we leave to your own consideration or because the Parliament will not Act what some Officers of the Army please they must be inte●●upted And if any prove faithful to discharge the Trust reposed in them they are the only troublers of the Nation and give advantage to the Common enemy We are not ambitious of Commands having more given us by the Parliament then we desired but conceive we have more Authority to gran● Commissions in Order to the Parliaments restitution then you can have from the Call of any private persons to continue their interruption You say The Marriners had been paid if we had not been here We suppose some of them are gone to London for their pay and if money were sent to discharge the rest we should be far from hindering their payment or diverting the money

You pretend good intentions to the Nations settlement We are sure our hearts thirst after it and that we are not guilty of any Hostility in this place In the interim we resolve by Gods blessing to defend the same for the Parliament If what you are doing might satisfie all the Parliaments party and secure Parliamentary Authority the Rights Liberties Properties of the people and Religion which is the Good Old Cause so much owned by God and valued by all goodmen we should really rejoyce and bless God for it and readily return to our former friendship it being the desire of our hearts that all misunde standings may be removed the Parliament restored old friends reconciled the Commonwealth settled upon righteous lasting Foundations And if you are as peaceably minded as we you may make it appear by directing the withdrawing of the Forces you sent toward this place that so esfusion of blood may be prevented If otherwise we cannot believe you in●end Peace We are Portsmouth Decemb. 14. 1659. My Lord Your Lordships Servants Arth. Haslerig Hetb Morley Val. Walton For the Honourable Sir Arthur Haslerig Col. Walton and Col. Morley at Portsmouth Honourable Gentlemen I Have received yours and finding that our personal reflections doth but provoak each other and therefore I shall rather desire to commit my case unto the Lord then to argue it with man not doubring but that he will plead my innocency for me and convince me wherein I may be found guilty being desirous to bow before him in any thing wherein I may be found faulty and take the shame unto my self rather than be a reproach unto his name by any action of mine the Lord grant that this may be more and more yours and my frame whatsoever our contests are yet I am sure of this by reason thereof the Common enemy is like to have the advantage and which of us may have the Conquest We shall none of us be but loosers I wish ir be not found that whilst you dispute the form you destroy the end and though I may with others so much justifie our selves yet that old friends that have but one interest should engage as enemies is that which we have cause to take up as a lamentation and let us take heed that Saints blood be not layd to our Charge it is a strange hand of God upon us that there should not be found a wise man amongst us who might direct some Medium to make up these Breaches Your actions have greatly widened our Breach I have that comfort that I have no personal design of my own but that this Common Cause and Interest wherein we are all concerned may prosper is my design and whatsoever you may satisfie your selves in the treachery and falsness of some persons who after assurances given of their faithfulness have lately forfeited the same Be confident the Lord will not prosper such practises It is very vvell known I am no enemy to Parliamentary Authority and vvha●soever you may charge me vvith therein Yet I hopeing actions shall manifest the contrary And as for the Forces which are before Portsmouth if you will engage that the Nations Peace shall not be disturbed by your endeavours to raise Forces against us We shall easily be perswaded to withdraw ours and in any thing with a Saving to this Cause shall be ready to expresse the respects which I have had formerly for you and being in some haste I have only this to desire further of you that would release one M. Jennyns and Mr. Lucas who though they are strangers to me yet hearing they are vnder restraint upon our account I desire their Liberty And shall give the same return of friendship as their occasion offered to Your humble servant Charles Fleetwood VVallingford house 17. Dec. 1659. For the Right Honourable the Lord Fleetwood My Lord HAving received and read your Letter dated the 17th instant we find the expressions to be so mild and to savour so much of godliness and self-denial that we cannot but speedily return you this hoping that if the Lord be pleased to give you a heart really to act what you write the Nations may yet be made happy We shall not labour to convince you of your being faulty because you appeale unto God who only is able to make you bow down before him And for our parts we have examined our heatts and we find joy and comfort believing our selves to be in the way that God commands We begun no contest we waited two Moneths and nothing was brought forth but confusion We believe the Common enemy may gain great advantage by our divisions But who gave the occasion we are innocent and we know for either of us to conquer the other is no gain to our Cause If you look upon the Parliament but as a Form and disputing for that but disputing for a Form we differ from you and take it to be the Foundation upon which our Liberties are upheld and our Religion under God to be preserved That we old friends should engage as enemies 't is indeed great cause of lamentation and we are not only sensible of it but those that truly fear God sigh and mourne in secret for the great shame and reproach that the Authors the●eby have brought upon the professors of godliness We have been tender of Saints blood and very careful that poor innocent Souldiers should not be destroyed being sent by your Commands to oppose the Authority of Parliament but we have waited their coming in to us and they have not as yet received any hurt from us If the great providences of God working contrary to your expectation and the wonderful confusions and distractions may work upon you and stir you up to be that wise man to make up these breaches while you have time we shall have cause to blesse God for it VVe hear Vice-Admiral Lawson declares for the restoring thu Parliament and is in the Thames with the Fleet in Order to it His Declaration is sober General Monck desires the like we believe thousands will joyn with them Why should we divide upon this point We have seen a Paper for a Parliament to sit down the 24 of January we cannot think the people will choose upon that Authority we are sure no Qualifications can be made without Parliament so that the time will either be lost or the Cause hazarded by such proceedings We cannot but grieve to see the delay in restoring the Parliament We believe God will again restore it and those that contest against it will in Conclusion be found fighters against that which God hath owned and will yet make instrumental for his glory and the Nations good For our own parts We are most ready and willing to lay down all or any of our imployments for the publick Peace neither do we desire to hurt the persons or Estates of any of those that have formerly been instrumental in the Parliaaments service We desire to be not mistaken we

charge me with a Horrible and Amazing Act in my breach of Trust and why you should accuse me who are so guilty your selves I do not know unless by your Accusation you think your selves freed from that confidence and trust that was put in you That you would make good your word which I must say some of you have sadly forfeited engaging so solemnly as you have done and yet being in that Hostile manner in the place where you now are I will not take your course by excusing my self further to aggravate your crime But in short Answer that for my breach of Trust you well know through some of your means That trust the Parliament was pleased to deliver me from and quit me of that Confidence which they had been pleased to favour me with which I must needs say did deliver me from a great exercise of trouble which otherwise I should have been under had their trust continued in me VVho they were that were Instruments to take the Parliaments good opinion from me you well know I served them faithfully and as for what you charge me with destroying Parliamentary Authority I desire the Lord may give you hearts to consider how much you have been instrumentall therein and how sadly your own Actions did put the Army upon doing such things which I know were grievous to their thoughts to be necessitated unto The memory of that Parliament in what God did make use of them as instruments I hope I shall alwaies own and Honour and were all our actions weighed in a due Ballance from the first time of their last Sitting to their Rising I doubt not but I shall appear to be a more Innocent person and even more faithfull to them then by some of your actions it will appear you are I delight not in changes It is neither my Principle nor Interest The Government of Parliaments is that I own and Honour And though my steps you mention may be displeasing to your selves yet I hope the Lord will not leave me so without His presence but to manifest I designe nothing of self Interest but the good of these poor Nations and the Interests of the people of the Lord and the Liberties of men as men might be preserved But how easily is your Rule To do to another as one would be done to broken by your selves and yet directed to be observed by others And therefore as to that of imposing upon Parliaments who has more had a hand in things of that Nature then some of your selves I delight not in words of Provocation but for Oppression Imposing Restraining Liberty taking away Property and Advizing and Abetting to the Overthrowing of Government and Authority which you urge I beseech you give me leave to use the words of Freedom who hath had a hand in things of that Nature more you or my self Indeed I can truly say the thoughts of doing any thing of that sort or what may lead thereunto at any time is that which I dare not give way unto not for fear of displeasing men only but because I know such actions will be judged and condemned of the Lord And wherein I have in anything been guilty upon any of those accounts I desire to take the shame thereof to my self I would be loath to be found a wilfull Transgressor therein the thoughts thereof are with abhorrancy to my self I have no Interest of my own to mind I had rather be in a Corner then in the Station where I am and if my silence and Retirement might but save this Cause it would be the chearefullest work that ever I did engage in and as by your Letter it seems you judge me the great troubler of our Peace If I be so My desires to the Lord are to Convince me thereof and to make a way for my silence rather then continue me in a Condition to trouble these poor Nations But alas how little is your actions considered by you in order to this thing What can it tend unto but only to give a further encouragement to our Common Enemy to endeavour the destruction of the whole I know you are persons of Interest and I speak it not therefore with reflections upon your own Merrits But give me leave to tell you that I am confident in the way you are in you will be Blasted and only give the Advantage to those who would destroy both the Parliament and their Friends so far will you be from restoring the Parliament that your actions will lead if the Lord prevent not to the destruction of Parliamentary Power As to your Authority I will only say this I am confident the Parliament never intended you should make use of any of their forces against the rest And the truth is I beleive it will be found you are mistaken in your Commission for you have only that Power which I had as Lieutenant General and not as Commanders in cheif And what Authority I had to Command the Forces was by vertue of my Authority as Commander in Chief and not as Lieutenant General Besides I had no Power to Levy Forces but to Command those which were raised and I am sure you have no greater power given to you then I had When yet you extend your Authority to the Levying of new Forces which I dare confidently say you cannot justifie by that Commission As for my Authority of granting of Commissions I have the call of all the Forces in England except where you are which I hope I shall not so mannage but that either the Power I have may be confirmed by a Supream Authority or disposed of to a fitter person then I am to which I shall readily yeild obedience Your words are very severe calling me little better then a Murtherer It s well known I have as little practised severity as any Person that hath borne Armes And to be looked upon as a person greedy to shed blood I have a Conscience otherwise exercised and wish that may not be laid to your charge which you do readily apply to me As to Marriners which you take notice of that they spend the States money as not being paid off their Arreares They may thank you that they are not paid for it is well known there was money assigned for them and would have been with them before this time had not you interrupted the peace of that Town where you are And as soon as you return to your former Peaceableness and Friendship the Marriners shall certainly be paid If you have nothing in designe but the good of this Cause I hope what we are doing may give you satisfaction and if you are in the Capacity of Friends as formerly you have been your advice would be hearkened unto in any thing wherein we might be satisfied that the good of this Cause might be preserved thereby As for General Monck your good Opinion of him I hope he will make good by his speedy Agreement with us A return of which I expect to have