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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93064	The dignity of kingship asserted: in answer to Mr. Milton's Ready and easie way to establish a free Common-wealth. Proving that kingship is both in it self, and in reference to these nations, farre the most excellent government, and the returning to our former loyalty, or obedience thereto is the only way under God to restore and settle these three once flourishing, now languishing, broken, & almost ruined nations. / By G.S. a lover of loyalty. Humbly dedicated, and presented to his most Excellent Majety Charles the Second, of England; Scotland, France and Ireland, true hereditary king.	G. S., Lover of loyalty.; Searle, George, attributed name.; Sheldon, Gilbert, 1598-1677, attributed name.; Starkey, George, 1627-1665, attributed name.	1660 (1660)	Wing S3069; Thomason E1915_2; ESTC R210007	99,181	247

honouring the King joyned in one sentence of branding such who condemn Authority and despise Governments of being subject for the Lords sake to all that are over us to the King as Supream c. all being New Testament Precepts together with the paterns and practises and professions of Primitive Christians have all been urged fully and satisfactorily to the Ingenuous by learned Mr. Prynne the honour of our English Nation in this time of the generall Apostasie and prevarication of this Nation from their duty to their King and yielding obedience to Gods commands and Christs and his Apostles both Precepts and Presidents and the Churches pattern and practise for these sixteen hundred years and upwards I shall return to the assertion before layd down namely that Monarchy was the best of Governments to which I added that ours was the best of Monarchies as to the dignity of Monarchy or Kingship to use the new word put upon our former Government by the Rumpers to both of which I have already spoken and urged as to the excellency of Kingly Government Gods promise to Abraham and the accomplishment thereof under David and Solomon that Nation never being so famous so glorious and so flourishing as during their Reigns besides whose examples let the whole world be sought for instances and never shall we finde the magnificence of a Common-wealth comparable to that of Monarchies How did the Roman Empire in Augustus time excell in glory the same Roman Common-wealth And yet who knows not that is moderately versed in the Roman History that their very Common wealths were but nominally so really Monarchies What were the Consuls but in stead of a King and the Senate his Councill Which Consuls though two yet how oft stood one for more then a Cypher What was Bibulus joyned with Julius but as his shadow What was Antonius with Cicero when he without mentioning the other boasts of himself not privately but openly even to Envy O fortunatam natam me Consule Romam You will say the Consule were changed yearly Granted but had they stood longer it had been better however the Senate being for life and the Consuls chose out of the Senate they were better able to understand the series of affairs yet how did one Consull envying his Predecessor carp at what Lawes were made in his time and labour to disgrace and repeal them the other making a party stood up and maintained them Thus the Agrarian and the Portian Laws with many others that might be named were polemically handled in the Pulpits and disputed in the field by bloudy battels that it was not amiss which was said by one concerning the Agrarian Law That the opposing and defending it had cost as much bloud and made as many breathlesse Carcases as would dung as much Land as was really benefitted by it How were they during their Common-Wealthsship plagued with continual aspiring minds whose thirst and rage was never quenched but with incredible bloudshed Sylla Marius the Gracchi with many others may be reckoned up whose ambition of overtopping all proved almost the Ruine of their Commonwealth How were they inforced sometimes voluntarily to choose sometimes perforce to endure a Dictator which was a King or Emperour with a new name not much unlike to our English Protectour When Rome was sackt the Senate slain and all things desperate the Capitoll only remaining in a manner of that great City the rest turned into rubbish and ashes by the merciless flames then something like a King was found necessary and that was a Dictator who having done his work and freed his almost ruined Country in plain hearted simplicity resigned his Dictatorship and was repayed his good service with the full measure of ingratitude If upon a force put a King or somewhat like a King be the best expedient it is doubtlesse best alwaies for non minor est virtus quam quaerere parta tueri Furius Garnillus found how ungrateful his countrymen proved when by his means they were delivered a good caution for men in Supream Authority to look to themselves But to return to the Roman Common-wealth so much admired by our modern Statists It will be no solaecisme to affirm that whatever was in it worth admiration was performed by such who wanted nothing of a King but the name and settlement for want of which they were ever rent with divisions Conspiracies and inbred tumults often inforced to make or to indure a Dictator or Protector or High-Gonstable call him what you will but an absolute Monarch he was untill Julius Caesar came who first being chosen perpetuall Dictator after assumed the title of Emperour and as an Empire Rome flourished as long and was incomparably more glorious then in its own condition when a Common-wealth As for the Civil warrs in the Empire that were frequent and bloudy it must be owned that peace and warre are in the hands of God by whom Kings Reign and injoy peace or enmity at home and abroad However the Reign of Augustus Caesar and of severall of his Successors shew evidently how happy and how peaceable it is possible if God please for an incredible Monarchy to be for a long season but the want of any example at any time for the like in a Republique shews it to be next door to impossible that is beyond Imagination improbable How glorious how stately and magnificent was the Babylonian Assyrian Persian and Grecian Monarchies And at this day the Turkish Tartarian Persian Chinensian Aethiopian and Indian Monarchies with that of the Moores in Affrica These I name as Heathenish but great Monarchies And of Christians the Russian Palonian German Spanish French and formerly English Monarchies how famous are they and were we To which you oppose the Venetian Seigniori the Low Country Boores and the rude Switzer Cantons Because I find you good at Comparisons I shall be with you there and let the effect speak the cause And because I perceive you liked very well of our Constitution from 48 to 53 as giving great hopes of a glorious rising Common-wealth I shal admit that time to come also into Comparison with our selves under Kingly Government during the Reign of our late King of blessed memory although unfortunate to the infamy of his Subjects as many as were guilty of his Tragicall misfortunes before these sad divisions appeared which produced in your opinion so glorious an effect As for the Athenian Lacedemonian and other Grecian Common-wealths they were of so old a date that the History of them is scarce to be had true and certain and therefore I shall speak little of them but as by the by perhaps I may glance at them as you have done First then as to the Venetian Seigniory I yeild its long continuance its abounding in Riches and traffique but withall I suppose you wil easily grant the power of its troublesome neighbour the Turk and the fear of its other neighbours who would soon swallow it up if divided hath been the chief

Bramble not only to King it over the Trees but a fire also to proceed out of it to the consumption of almost all the stately Cedars in our Lebanon So that instead of a wise prudent King for many Generations Royally descended we had sometimes a Link-boy a Cobler and a broken Citizen a Plow-man with some Apostate Lawyers and two or three unthrifty Sollicitors with a few twenty pound a yeer Yeomen domineering over us with rigor and swelling the least joynt of their fingers beyond our murthered Kings loyns yet all pretending Reformation otherwhiles the Fagge-end of the House of Commons dissolved actually by the Kings death insulting over their Fellow-brethren and the Lords and inslaving the whole Nation by usurping Supreme Authority and squeezing all sorts of people beyond any president to satisfie their exorbitant lust and covetousnesse For some years we endured an aspiring Tyrant oppressing grinding and afflicting the poor Now and then we had the Army Officers Lords paramount but all oppressing the people both in City and Countrey and writing their Dictates in bloudy Characters Could any plague be worse then these miseries and slavish being tossed from one Condition to another changing not only our Governours but also the Government as oft as a Harlot changeth her Paramours Our Fanatique Rulers setting up and again pulling down Governments as oft as they saw new light leaving us to the sad choyce of either dancing to their fantastical pipe or else being destroyed agreeing in nothing but in keeping out the true Heir and his faithfull Friends under the notion of the Common Enemy This God brought upon us for our great sins one while giving up the whole Nation the Lords and majority of the Commons to the odious servitude of a perjur'd Rump under whom besides monstrous Taxes which they extorted to maintain their Janisaries the Apostate Souldiers by whose mutiny and rebellion they were first constituted and by their assistance kept up in name and notion as the Supreme Authority of England men had not liberty to avoyd perjury but at the utmost peril of ruine to themselves and Family Ministers especially and all who were to be admitted to places of trust nor could they stand to their Oaths and Covenants vigorously and act what they covenanted solemnly to act and perform but they were declared Enemies to the Common-wealth for continuing constant and true to their Vowes and were rewarded with losse of Life and Confiscation of Estate God at length gives a check to this Tayle of Authority by the chief Instrument of their own Treachery and Villany and sells them and the Nation to the greatest Monster of cursed hypocrisie and damnable rebellion that ever yet Nature brought forth Who with reproach turns them out of dores giving them a serious but true Reproof calling them as they were a pack of Whoremasters Drunkards and base self-seeking Wretches and having thrown them aside with deserved scorn and contempt seats himself in the Supremacy calls and dasheth to pieces at his pleasure several ridiculous Juntoes or Mock-Parliaments makes Warre with Spain to almost the ruine of our Trade and Peace with France and Holland c. only to eject our Hereditary exiled distressed King from all Protestant supplies sends away thousands of the English to Hispaniola Jamaica and Flanders which proved a grave to the Men and a waster of some Millions of Treasure Orders Nineteen hundred thousand pounds to be setled on him as an Annual Revenue which he took by the Sword and would have had confirmed to him and his Successors by a Law of his own making and imposing Those who opposed him felt his fury and as many as disgusted his proceedings he had Court-plots to insnare them with Witnesses at hand who would not fail to accuse and Mercenary Judges Attorneys Generall and Sollicitors to impeach aggravate their crimes and condemn them and for failer here he had at his beck a Monstrous High-Court of Justice who like desperate Hounds would flie at and fasten upon any that he pointed out to the slaughter who were hanged beheaded drawn quartered their bowels burnt and what not cruelties done to them at the Tyrants pleasure Others suffered close and tedious imprisonment till with Nebuchadnezzar their Hair became like Eagles Feathers and their Nails like Talons or Clawes in comparison of what they were before such was the monstrous villany of this Tyrant and Vsurper and such cursed Instruments had he in readiness to execute what he should command Those who know not this are very strangers in our Israel Lord what Plague could equal the misery we suffered under this Monster At length God puts an end to his rage Death arresting him with fury madnesse and despair And his Son after him proclaimed proved moderate but was too good to hold God not yet seeing it meet to put an end to our plagues and miseries He through Gods judgement lost that Vsurped Government like an Asse which his Father got like a Fox and mannaged like a Lyon or Wolf And now again by the Swords determination the Rump was a second time Rampant and begin to act at first like themselves that is Monsters of perjury and villany The Gentry of Cheshire are proclaimed Traytors for declaring for a Free Parliament and the ruine of all their Estates and some of their Liues is agreed on for attempting it Praysegod is made chief Sequestrator with a Commission to pick the very flesh of all who should dare to stand up for a Free Parliament to the Barebones Yet God in mercy to the poor Nation hearing the grones of the oppressed did respite this Calamity and once more brought to ground the pride of the Rumpers turning them again out of dores by the same Instrument whereby it pleased him to defeat the Endeavours of divers of the Gentry who laboured after and Declared for a Free Parliament and then the Army Officers fall to tampering with the Government and rule and domineer with as much insolency as impurity And lest this Scene should want its solemnity the project of the Army Officers the Committee of Safety order Hewson and others to march into the City where they triumph in the innocent bloud of unarmed Apprentices whose only Crime was that they resenting their sad misery occasioned partly by so many Changes and wofull distractions but especially by the decay yea almost total want of all Trade by which thousands were undone and reduced to beggery formed and assayed to deliver a Petition to the Lord Maior Court of Aldermen and Common Council to incire them if possible to endeavour the removall of the cause of these their pressures and burdens greater then which were expected daily the insolent Souldier threathing the City and Alarming it from time to time with menaces of fire and plunder These Sword-men like Jehu drove the Chariot of their imagined Vtopian Common wealth with such fury and wanting Money withall ran upon so many Rocks and Sands that with much basenesse and sordidnesse they

or unsetled in their Constant Resolutions toward you for whose prosperity and speedy Restitution to your Just Hereditary Rights and long and happy injoyment of the same hath been is and shall be God assisting the constant Prayer of Most Illustrious Prince Your Majesties most faithfull And Loyall Subject And humble Orator G. S. A Serious and Seasonable WORD TO A Sober People BEfore I come to what I intend shall be the subject of this ensuing Discourse I think it very necessary to make way for what I shall hereafter say by removing in the first place whatever in probability may raise a prejudice against what I am about to write that so nothing of exception may lye against any circumstance after once the matter of my Discourse is allowed First I question not but my person will be enquired after and perhaps soon found out and known and it may be wondred at therefore why I do not as well set down my name as the two first letters of it If so let me crave of thee Reader not to harbour any Prejudice against the subject matter of the following Treatise therefore which I did for the end to avoyd prejudice thereby For I am not ignorant of the ability of Mr. Milton whom the Rump which was well stored with men of pregnant although pernicious Wits made choyce of before others to write their Defense against Salmasius one of the greatest Learned men of this Age both for reality and reputation who therefore was Royal prefessor of Philosophy as I take it but will not be positive herein in the Vnited Provinces and at his Majesties the present Scotch and Hereditary English King's request undertook the Defense of our Protoroyall English Martyr against those of his Subjects who with as much Treachery as Perjury and with as much cruel inhumanity as both murther'd him at his own Gate in the face of the Sun and in the presence of that God and before many thousands of that people by whom and before whom they had sworn with lifted up hands that they would with their lives defend his person Posterity and just Power with many other particulars contained in their Oath as may appear by it self known formerly by the name of The Solemn League and Covenant taken by all the Members of both Houses that remained sitting at Westminster after such who had left them were withdrawn and convened at Oxford Nor seemed it enough to them to take it themselves but it was by their authority tendred yea strictly imposed and upon severe penalties injoyned to thousands of men all the Kingdome over besides a Vow and Protestation equally sacred and binding to the same things which in the League and Covenant were upon Oath promised all which notwithstanding this their Liege King was murthered being sentenced and executed by those very men that had sworn to defend him the Parliament Garbled as to the Commons House and dismembred as to the House of Lords by those very men who had sworn to maintain and defend its Rights and Priviledges and severall both Nobles and Commoners lost their lives being sentenced by an High Court of Justice a stranger and contrary to our known Fundamental L●ws which was chosen and impowred by those who had Covenanted and sworn to maintain with their Lives and Fortunes the Fundamental Lawes of the Land And yet these men thus acting call themselves by the name of Gods people and the faithfull adherers to the work of Reformation and the Good Old Cause although nothing appear in their actions but Treachery Perjury Murder and Cruelty Against which Rebellious hypocrisie the most learned Salmosius under the borrowed name of Claudius Anonymus inveighed most justly and truly as well as Oratorically and no lesse deservedly then Eloquently Which Defense of his no lesse judicious then well-composed as for Language did render the deserevdly abominable Actors both notorious and odious among the foraign Nations of Europe the fame thereof by this Learned mans Eloquence being written in the Latine Tongue sounding far and neer To remedy which inconvenience if it might be done the Rump which now began to stink in the nostrils of every honest and wise man this bloudy butchery of theirs vying with yea out-doing not only the actions but the worst of the Jesuites professed Tenents and therefore to the perpetual ignominy of the Reforming Protestants justifying the fraternity of Loyola and silencing the others make choyce of Mr. Milton to be their Champion to answer Salmasius who as may be conceived not vulgarly rewarded for this service undertakes it with as much Learning and Performance as could be expected from the most able and acute Scholar living Concerning whose Answer thus much must be confessed that nothing could be therein desired which either a shrewd Wit could prompt or a fluent elegant style could expresse And indeed to give him his due in whatever he vomited out against his Majesty formerly or now declames against Monarchy in behalf of a Republique he then did and doth now want nothing on his side but Truth and the honesty of his Cause or Subject on which he did or doth discourse So that it was wisdome as I judge it in me being to reply to so acute and universally owned a learned man to conceal my Name at least not to expose it obvious at the first view that the prejudice which the known inequality of the Antagonists at the first sight begets in a Reader causing many Tractates to be thrown aside without reading being taken away or at least suspended till the Treatise is read the thing contended about may be judged according to the weight of the Arguments on either side and not according to the estimate of the persons allowing then Mr. Milton all the advantages which an acute wit ready invention much reading and copious expression will give him I shall only trust to the goodnesse of the Cause for which I plead in which had there been any proportion or equality between that which he and that which I contend for I should not only doubt but despair of conquest of which as the case falls out I am assuredly confident But expecting to be known both who and what I am I must expect to meet with such Questions as these What need you meddle with affairs not only out of but so far distant from your Sphere your profession much differing from Politicks and the Concernments of Majesty being far above your station This Objection if not satisfied because it may much prejudice the acceptance of what I write in the opinion and esteem of many Readers I shall therefore first speak to it before I proceed in my intended task and whether what I shall say prove satisfactory or no I shall leave to the judgement of the Candid Reader sl●ghting in the mean while the dissatisfaction of the obstinately or rashly censorious I answer therefore first that though the affairs of politick forms are besides my practise yet not besides my cognisance and

by setling the Nition into a Free Common-wealth for the attaining speedily firmly establishing and best ordering of which you give your judgement and that in some things Paradoxall but as you conceive the most necessary and best expedient to procure much good to and preventing much mischief in and managing affairs most wisely and experiencedly for the good of the Common-wealth And that is that the Grand Council of the Nation should sit perpetually of which you shew the good and conveniency on the one hand and the dammage and inconvenience of the contrary on the other hand which you illustrate by instances confirm by reasons and shew some Stumbling-blocks you would have avoyded in following your advice and Rules to be observed namely not to harbour any such fond conceit in our Republique as is the Duke in the Venetian or the Prince of Orange and House of Nassan in the Netherlandish Common-wealths Thus in order you come again to compare a Republique so contrived with Monarchy to admire the one and decry the other by shewing the Justice Freedome Plenty and Peace of the one and the difficulties uncertainties and impossibilities of the like injoyments under the other You proceed then more particularly to compare them together in their allowing or disallowing spiritual freedome or Christian liberty and herein also you give the priority to a Common-wealth concerning the promoting of which you adde some thoughts of your own concluding it an absolutely necessary thing for the obtaining or continuing Civil peace and will allow no Government so inclinable to favour and protect it as that of a Free Common-wealth but on the other hand you shew the unlikelihood that Kingship should ever give way to it as you instance in Queen Elizabeths not induring Calvinisme or the Presbyterian Reformation should be so much as proposed to her during all her Reign lest it should diminish Regall Authority Between which Queen of happy memory and our most pious Prince you make a short but scurvy scurrilous comparison impudently affirming him to be bad Principled from his Cradle trained up and governed by Popish and Spanish Councils and on such depending hitherto for subsistence From spirituall you come to Civil Freedome which consists in the Civil Rights and advancement of every person according to his merit and for the attaining of this end also you conclude a Common wealth far to excell in opposition to Kingship And for the reaping the larger benefit in this kind you propose an expedite way in your opinion By having Legall Jurisdiction without Appeal in each County providing also for such Controversies which shall happen between men of severall Counties that they may repair to the Capital City to conclude which head having vomited forth much of your filth against monarchy you close your discourse with a Patheticall Peroration to the People in which you do briefly hint and seem to wipe away what Objections may be made against a Free Common-wealth and so draw to this Conclusion That if we do return back to Kingship on that score that Jewes would have returned into Egypt for the sake of Onyons Garlick and Flesh-pots trading to wit which by our casting off Kingship hath been decayed our condition is unsound and rotten and that we are in the Road-way of all Nationall Judgements and Calamities You seem at last to fear the successe of what you have written only hope the best that though these lines should move most men no more then stones or stocks yet they may out of some of these stones raise up Children to Liberty That what you have spoken is the Language of the Good old Cause intended for the Conviction of Backsliders and if possible to give a stay or stop to our ruinous proceedings and to the general defection as you conceive of the abused and misguided multitude This Sir is a short or summary Epitomy of what I understand by reading your discourse but how far wide it comes from Truth and Reason I doubt not but before I end to make manifest and shall shew your intended Modell to be unpracticable by us if ever we expect peace and settlem●nt in these at present distracted Nations Your first stating of the Case is brief and might pass for current among such who are and have been strangers to the transactions of this Nation or whose memories are so short as not to be able to recollect how matters have been carryed on by and from the beginning of this Parliament but to others the fallacy may appear at the first reading Was it the Parliament of England that abolished Kingship and Kingly Government Where were the Lords Did they concurre in that action Certainly no for they by the same power and Authority if that can be called Authority which wants Justice to support it were abolished likewise about the same time and by the same Engagement afterwards that excluded Kingship cut off from having any share in Government And if they concurred not in that Act how can any man without impudence affirm that it was the Parliament of England that abolished Kingship Or can the Parliament of England consist without a House of Lords It is most evident that at the first sitting of this Parliament it consisted of both Lords and Commons who yet made no Parliament without him with whom they were to parly or consult and that was the King But it is not my task to discourse as a Lawyer but as an Orator intending to inquire into the truth and Reason of things and not to determine how the Case stands in point of Law Though Lords had been uselesse and unnecessary to sit as a House and assist in Government yet they were absolutely of use to the making of an English Parliament or else shew me any Parliament that ever was in England without them You confesse that the Parliament of England was assisted by a great number of faithfull Adherers to them in the defense of Religion and Civil Liberties and were not they as well the Peers as the Commons By what Power were Armies first raised Commissions granted and Moneys levyed but in the name of both Houses If the first making of Warre which judicious and conscientious men judge Rebellion but I shall wave that Enquiry nor hereafter meddle with it were for the defence of Religion c. the Lords as an House can claim as great a share in the glory of it as the House of Commons Yea if to have the honour of first kindling the fire deserve prayse One Peer with Five Commoners must share together Was not the case of Kimbolton once accounted of as high merit as that of Hoslerig and his fellow-partners And the Priviledges of Parliament equally pretended to be concerned in the defending of them all Or if the management of the Warre deserve commendation which you call the assistance of the Faithfull did not the Lords personally act as highly and adventure as far as any Commoner Or did not the faithfullest for I observe you use

the Superlative degree appear before the new modelling of the Army True there was no rebelling against all Authority King Lords and Commons at once till that time Sure Sir those Lords who were forward with the forwardest adventured their lives spent their bloud as well as others will have little incouragement to help manage and carry on such another War if we should finde occasion to fight all over again that hath been fought as you after insinuate unlesse they may have more thanks for their labour You must needs grant that the Warre at the beginning was raised and from the first carryed on for the defense of Religion and Liberty or else it was most hypocriticall and barbarous Rebellion and all the bloud shed therein inexcusable murder And if it were for the defense of Liberty and Religion from the beginning without doubt every rationall man must conceive that they who at first acted themselves in the War vigorously and stirred up others to it sedulously and continued constantly in the name of the Parliament of England with the distinction of both Houses did never imagine the Commons alone to be a Parliament But why speak I only of the House of Lords Did the House of Commons abolish KINGSHIP Were not above three parts of four of them not only not consenting to and active therein but protesting against and abhorring it So that in truth it was not only not the Parliament of England that did it but neither the Lords nor Commons House that either acted in or consented to it but a factious Combination of some of the rotten Members of the House of Commons who assisted by the factious and rebellious part of the Souldiery without consent of and in opposition to their Fellow-members contrary to the sense of the whole House of Lords not minding their former sacred Vowes and the scandall which the breaking of them would bring upon the profession of Religion murdered their KING divided his Estate and Revenue among themselves and their Abettors and to secure themselves from justice for these Enormous Villanies Vote down both King and Kingly Government turn out of dores the House of Lords and all their Fellow members and in their places seat themselves and vote themselves the Parliament of England and this they vote as they call it into a Free Common-wealth to which they endeavour by Conquest first to subject and then to unite Scotland and Ireland Now how just and how magnanimous this action was let any rational man judge 'T is strange that if it were so and that those Remnant of Patriots who delivered us from thralldome as you are pleased to miscall them could no otherwise secure us from slavery and bondage but by abolishing Kingship that no more of the Commons nor any of the Lords House could perceive it but themselves And how came they so late to see it Strange that their eyes were not opened so well before Or did they see it before and yet swear and compell others to swear to maintain that with their utmost hazard of both Loves and Fortunes which they had found and experimented to be burdensome uselesse expensive and dangerous and upon just grounds to be abolished Are these things think you consistent Mr. Milton how long experience had they of the dangerousnesse c. of Monarchy before they abolished it be pleased to tell us if before they Covenanted and protested the more Villains they to swear if after it were good to be informed when Were they faithfull Patriots if they knew and had experienced such a thing and yet never disclosed their mindes to their Fellow-members untill upon a Treacherous surprize they were turned out of dores by their mercenary servants the Army Are these the acts of men who are likely to secure our Religious and Civil Liberties Was it a Common-wealth that was fought for or a Free Parliament How then comes a Common-wealth to be the Good Old Cause Was it once in nomination at the first taking up of Arms Was not the thing pretended the removing of ill Counsellours from about the King and was there no way to do it but to send him thither where no evil counsel can have accesse even to Heaven Did they not vow to make his Posterity as well as him glorious and was there no way to it but to rob the Heir of his Earthly Crown that he might have the more leisure to contemplate upon his Heavenly one No way to make him a blessed and happy Prince but by intitling him ipso facto to one of the ten Blessednesses pronounced by Christ among others to those of whom men speak all Evil falsly and revile them Blessed God! if these be Saints where shall we find Wicked men But why Sir do you call Kingship a detested and once abjured thralldome Who abjur'd it and when I am sure that there was searce a Rumper in ten but swore to maintain and defend it besides the Oath taken by all Members at their first admission how I pray then and when was this Oath or abjuration taken and by whom Lately one Prayse God Barebone presented a Petition to that purpose which made his house appear like to a Bawdy house for broken windowes twice in a few dayes I hope Sir you have not a private Dispensation among you to swear to maintain and abjure the same thing at your pleasure and as oft as you please I doubt not but most of those who first assisted the Parliament had they heard but the least pretense this way from those who called them to their aid would have very hardly contributed the least Money to their supply nor the least help to defend their quarrel Then it was for the Parliaments service in defense of the KING and his Posterity that all was pretended to be done and now can we believe the Originall intention to be all those facred pretenses notwithwithstanding to destroy the King and his line and to abjure Kingship or Monarchical Government God forbid this is certainly no other then a new Invention suggested by the Old Serpent and fomented by his Instruments to the Dishonour of God whose sacred Majesty they appealed to and swore before and the reproach of the true Protestant Religion in the profession and sincerity of which made by and immovably fixed in the hearts and breasts of thousands of this once famous Nation England was exemplary among all her Neighbours but now by this act of some few of her perjur'd yet Saint professing Sons made infamous yea abhorred and detestable among al that live round about her I grant you Mr. Milton that this action of ours for ours we must call it till the Nation be vindicated from it or punished for it as it was a damnable president so it was commended to and laboured very hard to be made practicable and practised in our Neighbouring Kingdome France so willing are seared Consciences in sinne to involve as many as may be in the same guilt with themselves if not

to antidate our Ruine and beggery to spend all one year or two before our new found Patriots of never before heard of Liberty squeeze all out of us and get all from us Have not the Keepers of our Liberties like theevish Promethews dealt with our Liberties as he did with Pandoras Box Let fly among us only plagues and miseries and now they keep all close when there is left only hope and scarcely that in the bottome Where is there any reality of Liberty in any of our injoyments either civil or religious and yet that Oh that is pretended as a sufficient reward and price of our last bloud and expended Treasure In our Courts what unsettlement and upon every change what turning out of office whoever would not comply with the horrible villanous practises by which each interest supplanted another Look backward to the first gaining of this Nominal Freedome and you shall find many Judges discarded Sergeunts at Law layd aside Counsellours their Gownes stript over their eares Attorneys turned from the Barre Sollicitours and other attendants on the Law made uncapable of either publique imployment or preferment in a word all Officers of the Law in Civil as wel as Common courts of Judicature put out of place and by consequence cut off from all means of lively-hood upon no other ground then because their Consciences would not permit them so farre to sleight their duty of allegiance to which they were likewise engaged by a sacred and indispensable Oath as to take another league and covenant a vow and a protestation in their judgments Crosse to the former here was Liberty if ever with a plague and vengeance I doubt not but this with other things hath been the cause of the many Judgments since that poured forth and still continued upon this perjured Nation How was the Solemn League and Covenant obtruded upon all men that had any thing to be plundered of And what Liberty had they in case of refusal except we will account turning out of place of either honor or profit the Imprisonment of mens persons for a long time with barbarous cruelty during their imprisonment the violent taking away their estates by Sequestrators to be libertie No man could be permitted to crosse the Seas in almost any capacity whether of Merchant or Factor or passenger unlesse he would first swallow this potion Where then I would gladly be enformed lay our Liberty Unlesse we will confess and that God knowes and we have all felt it is the truth with Cicero Nomina rerum perdidimus jamque licentia militaris libertas appellatur We have left the true names of things since now the Souldiers petulancy is calthe Peoples Liberty And if we had such cause to complain of the beginning of these our distracted calamities when you seem to give the Army this Character that they were undeceived and in their own power with what reason may we lament and bewail the following times and changes which have been ever since And yet the peoples liberty hath been the thing cryed up Continually What think you Sir of the Engagement what agreement hath it with the Covenant And yet that must be taken or no judge must continue in office no Army Officer in Command no Minister must preach nor School-master teach School nay nor any man have the benefit of the Land either as Plaintiff or defendant And call you this Liberty Mr. Milton I confesse the tameness of our English Nation beyond any former either Antient or modern president gave the Rump liberty of perpetrating and persisting in never before heard of Villanies with as much impunity as impiety but accursed be that Liberty from the Lord which will only give a company of Villaines liberty to be as much Bloudy perjurd murderers and unjust oppressive Robbers as they please but abridge all other of former means of living unlesse they will assent to and approve of these actions or else appear so The end of all this is impoverishment of the Nation losse of Trade decay of Ingenious Arts and manufactures the ecclipsing of our former credit esteeme and reputation in the eys of our neighbouring Nations That we may truly say of England Our glory long since is departed from us How did the Rump first by secret complyance and complots animate the aspiring Commanders in the Army and then betray all their Counsel to them So that the Great Counsell of England the Glory of our Nation the foundation and fountain of our Laws having first made warre with their KING and those who stuck to him constant and faithfull were soon divided among themselves and the greater part thereof at last betrayed and turned out of doors by a small number of their own fellows who with a mutinous Army to back them assume the Supream Authority of England into their own hands and declare and act accordingly cashiering the house of Peers cutting off their KING disabling his posterity and to secure themselves in this unparelleld treason and rebellious innovation form an Engagement to be true to the Common wealth as it was then Established without a KING and House of LORDS This and these like actions and declarations you call just generous and magnanimous and such as gave hopes of a glorious rising Common wealth this you call our happily fought for and succesfully attained Liberty but I with more truth and reason know and shall justifie these actions to be rebellious perfidious and treacherous the declarations to be but heraulds for infamous perjury and discovered men made impudent by victorious successe who with faces of brass blushed not at what the Sunne could not but blush who declare their sinnes like Sodom and think Villanies because prosperous are heroick actions and noble performances What palpable prevarication is it Sir for you to give this for the happy End of the many and bloody battels and skirmishes which were fought between the two Armies of the King and Parliament Was the warre begun on such a design or wit●●hat pretence If not when came it to be the cause Mr Prynne in his historicall relation of things as they were acted in his vindication of the secluded Members cites their own votes consultations resolvs and messages to from the chief Officers of the Army and by all makes it apparent that the House of Commons were so farr from making that to be the mark shot at in their contest with the King that many daies were Elapsed before they could make up the Quorum of a House of Commons nor was the number of Rumpers to the very last greater then to argue our folly and misery and to aggravate their impudent imperiousnesse in curbing a Nation formerly so famous for valour so long a time and of our shame this is none of the least part that now hopes of our deliverance through Gods great mercy is appearing one should have so much confidence as to appear in publique and to court us not only to keep on but be in love with

how earnestly on the other hand did he desire it and yet factious spirits being crept into these grand Counsailes how was time spent in vain and nothing effected I speak not now as an Historian but as an Oratour my present task is to urge matters granted not to relate but for things of fact I shall recommend the Reader to the larger history of Mr Sanderson and the briefer of Lambert Wood Gent both relating the full substance of what was done and suffered by our happy had we known our happiness King CHARLES the First whole happiness as to himself is I question not beyond mortall capacity and whose glory honour and renown for his Conquest in his sufferings exceeds the most famous of all our former English Monarchs Our Kings before these reforming times had a splendid Revenue accommodated to the Majesty of a Court although much short of the expense which a warlike Camp and navy Call for to the former our Kings estate was fitted of the latter he was himself uncapable without the assistance of his Subjects nor was this to be had of them without their free consents in Parliament where neither the Lords nor Commons alone but both together were in a capacity to furnish the King Good Sir what burden was here But moneys you say were commonly extorted out of the Commons no just cause appearing to them Strange that Mr Milton should write such a foolish absurdity and yet considering him the Author of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the defense of the people against English Salmasius and the Paradoxes concerning divorce the subject meethinks befits the pen. How is it possible for money to be extorted from the Commons in Parliament without their Consent When neither the Lords nor King both concurring could impose one Subsidy upon the Commons Nor was it ever known that the Commoners sate in Parliament under a visible compelling force untill these times of mysterious reformation It is certain the major part of the house of Commons must vote a subsidy or subsidys or else the King must go without them and this must passe the house upon a full debate of the question Now to imagine that monys voluntarily given should be extorted and where the question is put and each man without compassion hath liberty of giving his Ay or No without further rendring an account of the reason of his dissent more then he is free to or if he have reason as you insinuate and gave it he is not liable to the least question for any freedom used in expressing his mind in the house who but a man compounded and made up of ignorance and impudence would say that such moneys so given upon such debate and the question so oft put no man being bound up to either consent or dissent but as his judgment and Conscience gave him were extorted without any reasonable Cause appearing To this I know what you would reply namely That the House of Commons had within its Walls a Court faction and without both King and Lords who were his Creatures and all labouring to their utmost to supplant the sincere part of the Commons who were zealous in defense of the Peoples Liberty This Mr. Milton is soon said and Machiavell teacheth you no lesse but not so easily to be admitted The Commons are chosen by the Counties Cities and Burroughs for which they serve who usually choose such whom they most confide in to the Electors they are ingaged by Indenture or Covenant and so where a Free Choyce is there is less fear that men chosen by all impowered by all and representing all and willingly ingaging their Faith and Credit to all should contrary to their Trust betray all and comply with the Royall Interest to the prejudice of those who Elected and intrusted them to Represent themselves We know Mr. Milton that Elections then were Free and no Prohibition laid upon any that were by Law capable either from Electing or being Elected True since our Yoak as you term it hath been shook off and none are under restraint but only such who fear an Oath and make Conscience to keep those sacred tyes inviolable which judicially and conscientiously they took we have had at least nine parts of ten restrained from either choosing or being chosen so that the tenth part only hath had liberty of Ordering the Election and the other nine parts must upon penalty of being plundred sit still and call this a Free Parliament in such a House of Commons as this I doubt not but many may be found who will betray their Trust pretended to be committed to them because they indeed are not Elected by but Obtruded upon the people Thus we have had not only Knights but also Citizens and Burgesses more then formally yea really men cum accinctis Gladiis with their Swords girt for Army Officers have not seldome been the major part of the House or else such with the Officers who held places of great profit under the then ruling or rather Domineering Vsurpers But if really these men had as you say experimentally found and that upon long proof Kingly Government to be expensive and burdensome what can they pretend in excuse that they should Declare publiquely their intent to be to make this Kings Rvenue Larger and more Splendid Was this intent reall or did they make use of it as a decoy pretense to ingage the Common people of their side without whom they could not perform their work Yea I will appeal only to themselves had they not declared protested covenanted vowed and used all sacred and solemn means to perswade the Nation that their reall intent was only to remove some bad Counsellors from about the King and to bring them to Justice but that to his Majesties Person and Royall Issue they bore firm and inviolable Allegiance nor ever minded to abridge his just Prerogative only with it to confirm and secure and settle the Liberty and Priviledge of the Subject if I say they had not Declared this do they think that ever Money had been lent and raised or so many men would have ingaged their Lives and Fortunes No verily those turbulent spirits without these specious shewes had been left at first stript of all Friends and Abettors to the hand of Justice to have had their hot spirits cooled with deserved Imprisonment or perhaps with a Hempen Preservative against future infection with a treasonable Rebellious Spirit Well then if the People by such pretences were cheated into a Rebellious War it cannot so much be imputed to them considering what the Parliament with sacred solemnity vowed and swore enough to induce any but very discerning Judgements to side with them but the blame must for ever lie at their dores who have acted so rebelliously and perfidiously on one hand and dissemblingly on the other Consider I pray you things upon the account of Justice for Sir there is Justice among Thieves and High-way men if they share their Booty fairly and equally could these

conceive anticipated any material Objection that might be made for future in behalf of one or against the other I shall now conclude with you wishing you heartily true repentance and a sound minde Rayling against Majesty when insulted over by the permission of God and casting scurrilities in the face of Gods Anoynted is the mark of a Shimei let his profession of Religion be what it will and if God ever come to awaken your Conscience in mercy or in judgement you will finde such a like reproof in your breast as cursing Shimei had from Solomon Thou knowest all the wickednesse that is in thy heart and which it is privy to c. out of the abundance of which you belched forth your filthy Expressions against him of whom those who are truly pious fearing God and the King give a different Character But I hope all who are indeed wise will be enabled to judge of persons and things You say what you write is the Language of the Good Old Cause I am sure what I write is the Language and according to the sense of Good Old True Christians and of the Scripture What you wrote you wrote no more you say then if you had written to stocks or stones And what I reply to you or to the Ring-leading Rumpers I am confident I write to such that is scared Consciences and stony breasts but as you hope your writings out of those stones may raise up some Children unto Liberty so I hope these my Writings may meet with some who in simplicity are following Absalom in Hebron being by delusions won to desert their lawfull KING in Jerusalem I mean following an Vsurping Aspirer in contempt of true Authority and the true Church deserting their True KING and rejecting the true means of Grace to be only found in Zion But those who are True and Cordial Subjects and Sons to their King and of the Orthodox Protestant Church know that David whom Shimei reviled was a man after Gods own heart and one whom the Lord chose to make an Everlasting Covenant with so different is the esteem of good men being made by divers sorts of persons As an Eye that is distempered and bloud-shot dazles at the Sunne or any clear Light seeing by it nothing but bloud terror and amazement nor can abide to behold it but looking down on the green Earth is more contented and pleased So guilty mindes or restlesse spirits cannot endure the lustre of Majesty but go poring upon and admiring that which is more sordid and neerer the Earth as suting best to their capacity To both which the Poet thus alludes and shewes the fate of each Sapiens domin abitur astris Vir Terrae pronus sensibus is suberit But I hope these terrae filii will be no longer Remora's to our long wished for and expected Deliverance Settlement and Joy which that it may come certe citò both surely and speedily is and hath been my prayer and I hope every Cordiall Subject and loyall Breast in England Scotland and Ireland will say Amen A PERORATION To his EXCELLENCY the Lord Generall MONCK and his OFFICERS AND TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE The Two HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT Which are shortly to meet and Sit at WESTMINSTER Most Honourable LORD HAving in defense of Regall Government against Mr. Milton's Ready and Easie way to establish a Free Common-wealth brought by Gods good help and assistance my ●ntended task to an end it remains that I now addresse my self to your Excellency in a paraeneticall or congratulatory way for what you have through Gods blessing been instrumental in bringing to passe We are all deeply sensible and thankfully acknowledge that the Righteous God for our many and great sins had corrected us and brought us into such a state and condition as this Nation never before was in since it first was known to be a Nation to thi● day He had cut off from us the Ancient and the Honourable had deprived us of our happy Governors broken our once matchlesse peaceably setled and long happily Government Had set Ephraim against Manasse Manasseh against Ephraim and both against Judah so that the Syrians before and the Philistims behinde did all seem to devoure our Israel with open mouth Yet for all this his fierce anger was not turned away but his hand appeared stretched out still against us Our Kingdome was divided rent and tottering one part against the other the Son envying and betraying the Father and one Brother another so that there was neither peace nor truth among us Our Church also was broken almost to pieces with Schismes Factions and Heresies our profession scandalized with damnable Errors and Blasphemies so that we had scarce the face of a true Church left among us Our Principles were tainted and corrupted with the crying sins of murther sacriledge cruelty of pression hypocrisie rebellion and perjury breach of faith Vowes Covenant and Oaths with hard-heartednesse and impenitency that it was hardly to be discerned if any spark of true Religion and power of Godlinesse remained in this every way guilty Nation or no whose hands were deeply imbrued and beyond washing stained with the sacred bloud of Majesty nor was the cruelty perpetrated upon the Father so repented of as to give glory to the God of Heaven but it was continued upon us and justified by us in the rejecting of his whole Royall Lyne and Issue and neglecting his necessitated Orphons and Widow although by profession we owned our selves Christians and boasted of a far greater Light then had shone upon any of our Ancestors or Predecessors Yet among them in a time not much removed from Paganisme perjured Harold permitted Edgar the true Heir of the Crown to injoy a large part of his Estate and Revenue and to retain the title and command of Earle of Oxford one of his subordinate titles had he been Crowned KING as Harold by Oath engaged to Edward the Confessor he would see performed when Edgar came to years and in the mean time himself would only assume the Title exercise the Office and execute the Charge of Guardian or Protector of him during his minority notwithstanding which perjuriously he himself Usurped the Crown Deposing the right Heir howbeit left him the Title and Dignity of Earle of Oxford with a large Revenue so farre was he from conspiring against his life though he aspired unjustly contrary to his Oath to his Crown But among us Saints by profession enjoying the greatest light which ever appeared since the Apostles time is found Harold's perjury exceeded fourfold and his cruelty a thousand fold For besides one Oath of Allegiance and another of Supremacy given to all also another Oath sutable to the former at Admission to sit in Parliament the Authority of England which was subordinate to the King in order to manage a War against him with whom they were called to consult and to whom and his Queen with his whole Royal Issue they were sworn to be true to preserve his

that as you have happily begun so by means of the already convened Parliament which in few daies is to begin its sessions you may be instrumentall in the great work of setling these Nations once more upon a sure Basis of lasting peace and settlement England Scotland and Ireland call to you with stretched forth Arms not in a dream as the man of Macedonia did Paul but waking in affectionate addresses and sigh forth their desires groan out their wants before your Excellency saying come help us We are but as water spil upon the ground which cannot be gathered up again because the banish'd is not called back from exile nor the heir restored to his right we were robd my Lord of our King not legally deprived of him by such who usurped the Title and Authority of the supream power of England but upon examination were found not to be so but were proved Lyars we crave him in whom we al have an interest which yet we never forfeited however we were opprest in it by the audacious impiety of the Rumpers Now then what hinders but he may be restored to us and we to the enjoyment of him My Lord we beg humbly your assistance herein and blessed be God we find such incouragement and resolution both from your excellency and your officers together with the unanimous Consent of your whole Army viz. that you will acquiesce submissively in the determination and resolution of the Parliament Blessed be God who hath put such a determination in the heart of the General and such a concurring agreement in the whole Army That we once more find an Army acquiefcing in the resolves of not prescribing work and giving Lawes to the Parliament This next to God is to be attributed to the prudence and upright heartednesse of the Generall in whom these three Nations have already begun to be and I hope nay I question not will in due time be made under God compleatly happy For my part considering to what a height of malapert unrulyness the souldiery in England had arrived in these almost twelve years of Apostasy and Rebellion which was grown very familiar to most I seriously protest that I wonder so much toward settlement could possibly be performed in these Nations in so little time considering how many and great Commanders in the Army differ as much from the pious Principles of his Excellency the Lord Generall and the submissive truly Christian temper of his under Officers as light doth from darknesse by which is more then ordinarily confirmed that true saying of the Poet Regis ad exemplum totus componitur orbis My Lord England Scotland and Ireland and the neighbouring Nations take notice and we who are concerned desire gratefully to acknowledge the great difficulties and intricate perplexities God hath carryed your Excellency through in order to the bringing to passe what we see From whose high merits the fiery spirited friends to the Rump would detract and asperse you with unfaithfulness to them from whom you received a Commission We all know that are sober what you did and how they ingaged your honour in dishonourable pieces of service we know how your Excellencie declared against the force that lay upon them through the ambition of Lambert Desborough Fleetwood and other aspiring Army grandees and that if any other force lay upon them so as to render them not a Free Parliament you would endeavour to remove it This your excellency fully performed when you restored the secluded Members to liberty of sitting without excluding forcibly the worst deserving Rumper nor could it have been made good otherwise The Rumpers once layed the blame of the Members seclusion on the Rebellious Mutinous Army by whose means and power it is certaine that was first effected however since it appeared to be a plot of the fagge end of the Commons House with the rebellious Grandees of the Army who would be under no yoak None that was wise could expect other from your Excellency who was once one who hazarded your life in actuall defense of his Majesty Now my Lord I respect your excellency as so grave wise and judicious that you would not engage Life fortune reputation and all that was dear to you but where you were conscientiously satisfied of the J●stice of the Cause Yea and the worst of your Honors friends own that you continued to his Majesty actively or passively constant beyond being compelled or wonne by force or flattery so long as his Majesty had either hopes or any visibly appearing on his side But after when all was lost had you followed him with the rest into Exile you could have been but a burthen at least no advantage to his Majesty or his friends could have come thereby But as Hushai Davids friend pretending to stand for Absalon defeated for David the counsail of Achitophel yet did nothing but what became a pious honest man and faithfull Subject and friend So your Excellency by taking command of an Army after the War was ended with a resolution stil never to fight against his Majesty by managing also the Navy as Admirall against the Dutch and Spaniard by leading an Army in Ireland against the Rebels and in Scotland with an Army Governing the Nation with wisdome and in peace you have been made under God instrumentall to doe that in order to a true firm settlement without bloud which for above these twelve years hath been prayed for without answer and endeavoured in vain with the loss of the lives of many and the estates of thousands This is the Lords doing for which your Excellency deserves by a Statue of Brasse and a Monument of Marble to be made famous to all posterity I know the fame Soul lodgeth in your Noble Brest now as did then the same Loyall bloud runs in your veins and I am assuredly confident that so soone as interests can be so reconciled and pacified as that between his Royall Majesty and his Subjects who by sufferings have learned Wisdome to prize a good pious Prince for the future there may be no jealousie on either side there will be no obstacle remaining to hinder our long wayted for happinesse In hope and certain expectation of which I shall and I doubt not but all sober men in these three Nations will wait for the two Houses determination and I beseech God that all difficulty may vanish before the Parliament which is now shortly to fit as smoake is driven away and disappeares before a smart gale of wind or as snow melts before the Sunne so let all obstructing disputes I beseech God wast away to nothing AND thus Noble and Honourable Senators I am brought in Order to addresse my self unto your pious Wisdome and Religious Discretion having already made an acknowledgement to his Excellency the Generall for two Causes First because he under God was the immediate and next cause of this your Convention to the disappointment of the Rumpers who intended this last time to have Earbored the

Nation and made us their servants for Ever But especially because of his performances we have already had the taste and in a great measure fruition but the good to be reaped from your Honourable Consultations is yet in expectation to you therefore I addresse my self as an humble Suitor and yet Confident Petitioner but to his Excellency thanks is already due for a large portion of benefits which we have received of him in this kinde To which I may adde that this being written and intended to be published before your Session Reason and Order call for it that I should in the first place addresse my self to the Power in being especially of whose good we have so largely tasted and next to the Power which is in Expectation shortly after My Addresse Right Honourable and Worthy Patriots to you is to intreat you not because I in the least doubt your own most ready inclination thereto to set your selves seriously to the healing of our breaches Yea I know you will do it however it will not be amisse nor I hope interpreted peremptorinesse for me your faithfull Honourer to submit a few Considerations to your most judicious censure first inviting to a settlement upon our Ancient Basis and only firm Foundation not barely Kingly Government but our most Virtuous King Charles the Second to whom God grant a long and prosperous Reign whose Restitution I hope and pray for and doubt nothing Right Honourable Senators but by your means to see accomplished But Secondly giving your Honours the groun●s why I wish it may be effected and brought to passe as soon as possible I shall after conclude this Discourse humbly begging that the great God of Heaven would give you wisedome and courage that He who sitteth among the Gods may sit among you directing and guiding you in the ready way to settle these Nations in firm peace that Religion may be countenanced and flourish our Rights as Men and Christians asserted vindicated and preserved to the glory of God and the comfort of all that fear him in all three Kingdomes This Right Honourable Lords and Gentlemen can be no way brought about but by restoring the true Heir to his Inheritance all other wayes or means are but only suggestions of the Adversaries of the Nations happinesse who would continue things in unsettlement on purpose only to secure and indemnifie themselves from deserved justice Consider I beseech you how many prejects have been contrived towards our Settlement upon different Foundations which all proved sandy and so the Building thereon raysed though cemented with Bloud and Rapine soon fell and we were ever put after each Change upon greater straits and left in worse confusion then we suffered before So that the change of our Medicaments and Physicians in order to the Recovery of this sick State hath been far worse than our Disease it self the one causing us to languish in unsettlement the other accelerating our Destruction and threatning our utter Ruine Which must needs be attributed to the Justice of God who hath forsaken us because we forsook him He hath seen and beheld all the guilt under which this Nation lyes and if for two Transgressions and for three the Holy and Righteous God would not turn away the punishment of severall Nations what shall be done to us for seven crying Sins yea rather for seven times seven Abominations How have Rebellion and Treason Perjury Persidiousnesse and Murther Hypocrisie and Sacriledge besides all sorts of Heresies profanenesse beastlinesse unmercifulnesse cruelty and oppression reigned in these Nations and raged as if in contempt of Heaven How hath bloud touched bloud How have the Rumpers and after them the Vsurping Protector filled London and the whole Land with Innocent Bloud the cry of which is come up to Heaven and there calls aloud for Vengeance But now at last God in unspeakable mercy hath seemed to return to us and as a Father doth offer in love to embrace us to him be the praise In answer of whose so great tenders of favour and future blessing give me leave Honorable and Worthy Patriots to grone forth my most affectionate desires before your Wisdoms The cause of our long continued Calamities hath been and is unquestionably a spirit of ungratefullnesse toward a signally gracious God and a spirit of Rebellion toward his Vicegerent on Earth the KING also a spirit of profanenesse in contemning his Worship and Service together with the Ministers and Dispensers of the same This wicked ungodly spirit like a fertile although accursed Root hath brought forth numerous branches of such crying sins which at this day are to be found among us and formerly have been practised and remain yet unrepented for Now most Worthy Senators it behoves you seriously solemnly and industriously to endeavour a Nationall amendment of these Nationall Abominations Nor is it enough to bewaile the guilt but by amendment and restitution we must endeavour to wipe away the blot and expunge the stain contracted The Villany committe● against the Father and his Off-spring w●o was the Father of these Nations was committed upon a Na●all pretense and therefore it behoves it should be Ntiona●ly disclaimed In that act God was highly provoked by Oaths Vowes and Covenants not more sacredly made and solemnly taken and entred into but as perjuriously broken in the face of the Sun yet the perjury justified and defended under the Cloak and pretense of Religion Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum My Lords and Gentlemen you are the Successors of that Parliament and many of you the very persons that sate therein It behoves you now to testifie openly and effectually against this treacherous perfidious perjury which ended in bloud or else you will be found Justifiers of the same Gods wrath is not to be appeased without hearty contrition and repentance of these sins for time past and an amendment for future which Amendment must be answerable unto that praevarication wherewith God was and is provoked else the Plaister will be too narrow for the Sore Consider my Lords and Gentlemen our fault in all its branches Ingratefulnesse towards an● perjury against God Apostasie from our Religious profession to the toleration of all Heresies and Blasphemies and perfidiousnesse unto Rebellion from with contempt and rejection of our Liege King and his Posterity contrary to Duty Oaths and Protestations this must be adaequately repented of and satisfaction reparation and restitution made to parties injured if ever we expect Gods return to us in mercy and not a Visitation in judgement For with Majesty many thousands were injured in the highest degree to whom if at least justice be not done for the future and an acknowledgement of and taking shame for what is past where reparation cannot be made God without a miracle can and no doubt will make use of these to be the Executors of his Vengeance and fierce displeasure against this Nation who then would be not only here and there bespotted but over head and ears