Christs Kingdom the Extirpation of Popery and Popish Innovations the Priviledges of Parliament the Liberty of the Subjects and an equal Distribution of Justice were declared and fought for and Tyranny Oppression Injustice Arbitrariness Destroying the Priviledges of Parliaments we declared and engaged against But how far some men have now receded from and acted contrarily to the dishonor of God Scandal of Religion great grief of many faithful men and the strengthning of the wicked in their principles and justifying their practices we leave to the consideration of all those that are sober and wise III. Moreover the unadvised and unwarrantable changing of the Government and a swearing thereunto doth as we judge put a Necessity upon the chief Undertaker thereof to overthrow the very foundation of a Commonwealth and to maintain the things comprized in the said Instrument whether right or wrong And to turn the very edge and dint of his Sword against the faces and bowels of such as should or shall declare their Consciences contrary thereunto IV. As a consequence and fruit of this Forbidden Tree many of the choice Servants of God and Faithful of the Nation some Gentlemen Ministers of the Gospel Soldiers c. are imprisoned without knowing their Accusers or having so much as was granted by the Heathens to the Apostles or the benefit of a fair and publick trial according to the Fundamental Laws of this Nation V. Under pretence of Necessity still to continue the heavy Burthens of Taxes Art 27. â—â— 30. Customs Excize c. upon the Nation without yea contrary to the consent of the People represented in Parliament and contrary to their own Instrument VI. Notwithstanding all the fair pretences and promises of Reformation yet what abominable and horrible Impieties Injustice and Oppression are there couched and covered under this new Form from the head to the tail as the Prophet saith treading in the footsteps of their predecessors witness the receiving of the Honors Profits Customs Benefits Tenths and First-fruits coming in formerly to the Crown the Exalting of Sons Servants Friends and Favorites though some of them known to be wicked men to the highest places and greatest preferments which the good Rulers of old as Gideon Nehemiah and others did not do because of the fear of the Lord the bondage which was heavy upon the people Witness also the Unreasonableness of the Army to have so many Officers which might easily be reduced to a lesser number and both Officers and Soldiers for many years to receive their pay even in a time of Peace when the poor Peasants or Tenants who pay but Ten shillings Rent per Annum do pay out of their Penury to maintain them in their Pomp and Luxury VII We cannot without grief mention the sad eftects of the secret Design of Hispaniola to the loss of so many mens Lives Expence of so much Blood and Treasure and the indangering of this Commonwealth by Invasion as also thereby rendring us a scorn and a snuff to all the Nations round about Lastly We do Declare and publish to all from our very hearts and souls That those of us that hand any hand in joyning with the Parliament and Army heretofore had no other Designs against the late King or his party save as they were Enemies to the Lord Christ his Kingdom and people hinderers of his work and Oppressors of the Nation and that it never came into our hearts to think or intend the pulling down of one Person to set up another or one Unrighteous Power to permit another but as we aymed primarily at the Glory of God so likewise at the general good of the Nation and particular benefit and just Liberty of every man And it grieves us that any just cause is given them to stumble at Professors or complain that they are deprived of their Freedom and several ways more oppressed than in the days of the wickedst Kings We do also believe in our hearts That though the wors t things are not without Gods permission and providence yet that this Government is not of Gods Approbation or taken up by his counsel or according to his Word and therefore we do utterly disclaim having any hand or heart in it And for the Contrivers and Undertakers thereof we suspect and judge them to be great Transgressors therein and so much the more because they are Professors of Religion Declarers Engagers and Fighters against the very things they now practice And it is most evident to us that they thereby build again what before they did destroy and in so doing they render Themselves the Cause Religion Name and People of God abominable to Heathens Papists and profane Enemies which is a grief to our souls to consider We do also detest the practices of these men in imprisoning the Saints of God for their Consciences and Testimony and just men who stand for Moral and just Principles and the Freedom of the Nation and people and their breaking of Parliaments to effect their own Designs We do also from our souls witness against their new Modeling of Ministers as Antichristian and keeping up of Parishes and Tythes as Popish Innovations and we disclaim all Adherents to owning of or joyning with these men in their ways and do withdraw 2 Tim. 3. and desire all the Lords people to withdraw from these men as those that are guilty of the Sins of the Latter days Matth. 24. and that have left following the Lord and that Gods people should avoid their sin lest they partake with them in their plagues Thus concluding our Testimony we subscribe our Names hereunto William Jones John Morgan John Thomas Evan Jones John Philips Thomas Jones John Beevan Thomas Lewis Gabriel Lewis Howel Thomas Thomas Philips Willliam Howels William Waters Howel John John Price Meredith Philips William Jenkins Thomas Prosser Jenkin Grissith Howel Williams Thomas Williams Richard Howel Watkin Price William Powel Thomas Powel Lewis Williams Lewis Reece Reece John Howel Reece Richard John Richard Price John David David Morgan Morgan William Morgan Robert John William Lewis David Thomas Edwards Reece John Jenkin Jones William Jones Ienkin Rosser Rice Rosser Nicholas Griffiths Lewelin Beevan Iames Powel Mirick Morgan Evan Meredith William Jones Meredith Rees William Edward Richard Roberts Lewis David Morgan Iohn Richard Thomas Meredith William Wilkin Rice William watkin Reece David Watkin David David William William Philips Iohn Williams Henry Thomas Iohn Iones Iohn Farmer Henry Meredith Trehern Morgan Richard David Evan Iohn Edward Evan. Thomas Evan. David Evan. Howel Waters Ienkin Waters Iohn Howel Philip David Rice Richard Edward Matthews Watkin Richard Thomas Evan. Lewelin Ienkin. Ienkin William Thomas William Evan Lewelin Iohn Lewis William waters Morgan David Iohn David David Walter Reece Iones Philip Iones Iervice Iones Edward Ienkins Watkin Ienkins David Thomas Rice Iones Evan Iohn David William Henry Williams Iohn Bedward Thomas Tunman Robert Tunman Roger Grissith Thomas Morgan William Price David Davies David
in name Jewish but now in their use Moral and Christian as subservient to mercy in relieving hundreds of poor families And these upheld not in opposition to light nor in a superstitious love to the things but because they yet know not nor do you instruct them how to take them away without great injury to many people that have no other livelihood in the earth Love is the royal law the fulfilling of the law it may and must rule all things yea both Law and Gospel too it makes that lawful which were otherwise unlawful and that unlawful if against love which were other wise lawful And therefore a man may be a Pharisee in contending against Tythes as well as in a rigid observance of them if he either omit or oppose the weightier matters of the law judgement and mercy such a spirit seems to carry you in this zeal to sacrifice Tythes and First-fruits without either judgement to shew how it may be done in justice and righteousness and without mercy in considering the poor Ministers that live onely upon them III. Thirdly The next branch of abominable and horrible Impieties is The exalting of Sons Servants Friends c. though some of them known to be wicked men to the highest places c. What Servants or Friends are preferr'd that are suspected to be wicked I know not being no Courtier but for Sons they stand higher and are obvious to most mens knowledge or observation I dare not say neither do I know that any of them are wicked they are yong men and may have weakness but wickedness is a malicious opposing of good and practising evil But would you consider the Protectors family as an object of greater Envy and subjected to more danger and malice than others are may they not deserve a little more favor than ordinary and what great matters have they The eldest son is a Justice of Peace in the Countrey the second son commands the Forces in Ireland wherein there may be some favor shew'd to him being an Imployment possibly beyond his years and experience I doubt this is the Offence and the rather because the fame goes he inclines to a differing party For his sons by marriage The Deputy of Ireland is a friend to the Subscribers and may help to ballance some kindness that goes another way For the Master of the Horse if he do but perform that part of a righteous man to regard the life of his beast you will not judge him a wicked man nor unworthy of his Preferment But if the Protector should be an indulgent father and erre in an excess of natural affection in preferring his children it may finde a better name than abominable and horrible impieties For Gideon and Nehemiah 'T is not said expresly that I know in Scripture what they did for their children but there was as a good man and as good a Governor Samuel who had but two sons and he made them Judges in Israel and yet very ill men that were covetous took bribes perverted judgement 1 Sam 8.3 and yet he was not thus upbraided IV. Fourthly The last particular of these horrible and abominable Impieties is so many Officers in the Army and both Officers and Soldiers to receive their pay in a time of peace c. What number of Officers what their Pay is and how they spend it I do not know being a stranger to all these things onely I would advise you of a mistake to call this a time of peace for though the Enemy be not in the field he is in the house The enemy is broken and scatter'd but you can't say he is not if he were not we are enemies one to another there is war in every mans heart tongue and would be in the hands if they were not bound by an Army There is nothing at all done in the Nation towards a civil or religious Peace or Accord nothing declar'd wherein we agree either in Church or State This very Paper of yours cannot but be interpreted War for so great a number of people a little Welsh Army to declare against the present Power to disswade the people from their obedience to endeavor to set up another and that upon fighting principles is undoubtedly War therefore if you would have the Army reduc'd study to be quiet and to follow your private occasions for these insurrecting practises to disturb the people and molest the present Government do necessitate and establish the sword amongst us and therefore we that do desire Peace and an Ease of our Burthens have cause to complain of the unquietness of your spirits and of all that go fretting and rayling about to raise up strife and War The seventh Testimony mentions the sad effects of the secret Design of Hispaniola c. I am not able to judge absolutely of the good or evil of this Work but this I know 't is not safe to judge by the Success especially at first for we our selves succeeded but ill in the beginning of these wars I fear you do but take advantage of our loss to express your enmity for if we are not mistaken in you you are for war with all the world and therefore can't be against the Design though you grieve for the Success and 't were well if you don't mis-call the Affection and say 't is Grief fox the Loss when 't is anger or enmity at the persons and then you do not grieve but rejoyce at the evil that befals your brethren What ever the nature of the Design be or what ever the Success may be this I have observ'd that this Quarrel with Spain and about the West-Indies hath been long in the hearts of many honest people and that the well-affected of England have had a greater antipathy to this proud cruel and most antichristian Nation the Spaniard than to any Nation in Europe Though the Design was laid in private yet the publick Declaration shews a true English and Protestant spirit rather to ingage in war than to submit to the Inquisition and the usurp'd Tyranny over the West-Indies I confess I much desire and love a General Agreement of Godly men in publick and great Affairs but if there be the spirit reason and justice of the good party I cannot but alow it though it want the vote and outward suffrage Your last Witness is various consisting of divers parts I confess I do not well understand all things in it First you testifie for your selves with what hearts you joyn'd with the Parliament and Army against the King and his Party that you had no other design save as they were enemies to our Lord Christ c. I know your spirits are at a very great distance and enmity against the King and his Party and therefore cannot think you intend to bespeak their good thoughts of you yet your declaring onely against the enmity not against Office or Person and your care of the general good of the Nation particular benefit and just liberty
ANIMADVERSIONS UPON A Letter and Paper first sent to His Highness by certain Gentlemen and others in VVales And since printed and published to the world by some of the Subscribers BY ONE Whose Desire and Endeavor is TO Preserve Peace and Safety By removing Offence and Enmity Printed in the year 1656. A Preface to the Subscribers of the Paper FRIENDS I Have formerly been ingaged in our publick Affairs but have since been so long disingaged as may well free me from the suspition of being a Courtier being both offended at and an offence to them that be in Power I am free from all Parties that are in the Nation and shall use my Liberty in dealing as impartially as I can or as my weakness will permit 'twixt you and our present Governors whom you oppose if I do incline to either side 't is to you as most needing Pity 'T is true they are to be pitied rather than envied yet your condition seems to me much worse than theirs every way as much weaker and darker in your way and spirits as you are in outward place 〈◊〉 power I am a man so much under Temptation Offence Persecution and Contempt that if there be a Party of such I am very natural to them and if there be any by as in my temper to incline me to any it is to such I assure you upon the review of what I have written my Judgement smites me for having been more gentle to you than in Justice and in true Love I ought to be or than your case requires I should be and therefore shall I doubt in transcribing of it be necessitated to more sharpness than I intended But if I were not conscious to my self of a Design of Love to you in it and that in this work I should more serve you than them I could not proceed in it I have examin'd and observ'd all things of this nature that I have met with against this present Government they have pass'd the private censure of my Pen though not publish'd and this I must say of yours and the rest That though this present state of things be very reproveable having much evil in it yet none of you have come forth in Righteousness and Judgment against it nor in a Light that is able either to Convince or Instruct but a deal of weak and dark Accusations from mindes uncasie and sick with Passion and Discontent all tending to blow up a Spirit of Wrath and Violence and so to multiply our Wounds and Maladies not to cure them I have hitherto been silent thinking that those weak Passions that have looked out would vanish quickly as smoke and so they have But in this Paper of yours the humors are more gross are gather'd together and come out in an outward Tumor as if you intended to make a business of it and therefore I am drawn forth in publick to Treat fairly with you and to divert you from your course which I fear is dangerous to your selves and to us all And this I do upon a double ground I. First As one that hath an Interest in the common Peace of the Nation and in the Safety of the Honest and Religious Party both which are lodg'd for the present in this Government be it never so corrupt This Open and Vnited declaring against it with such Violence and Boldness tends to undermine our Peace by Raising a New War and so to let in miserable Confusion amongst us Your Design seems to be To take the Power out of these mens hands into your own which is 〈◊〉 a vain and irrational Attempt for the Sword is already dâ—â—â—sed of and setled not to be removed You may Disturb Waâ—â—e and Destroy by opening a way for your and our Enemies but not get it to your selves and if you had it you would undo us and make your selves more miserable by your Reigning than you can be by Suffering God I know can bring Light out of Darkness and Salvation out of Confusion but as a Man my Nature is much ingaged to uphold this wretched Frame of things in which our Peace and Safety seems to lie till God be pleas'd to finde a better way for us rather than the whole work should run back into utter Desolation and Confusion And therefore cannot but withstand your Spirit in which there doth not appoar either Strength to get or Wisdom to use Power if you should have so much Wrath and Fury to administer as to overthrow this Power you might continue a time to Torment the Nation but the same Violence and Wrath would hurry you on to such things as would Ruine both your selves and us II. Secondly I would deal with you as a Christian and one that earnestly desire to see the least Beam of the true Glory of that Kingdom of Christ that you profess for True you have the Name and Notion of it amongst you and that too pitifully besmear'd with Darkness and Folly but for the thing it self you are so short of it yea so opposite to it that when it shall come forth in Truth and Power you will not be able to stand before it I am very much perswaded that if you had any thing of a sober and real sence of your selves and it of your own Vileness and Vncleanness and of its Majesty and Purity you would hide your selves in Shame and Self-condemnation and not appear openly for it And therefore I cannot but in that little knowledge that I have of Religion appear against your Vnjust and Vndue claim to the Kingdom of Christ It may be you are confident you have it and act for it and do expect that all should bow to that broken Image of it that you have set up whatever you now think 't will be at last found a great kindeness to you to tell you That you in your present Actings are not so much as in a way to it but are setting up Passion Enmity Darkness and Wrath not the Grace of Christ and His Kingdom O take no pleasure in medling with Sin and Evil in any God knows is a grief to me to deal with it were it not necessary for your Instruction I could not at all take notice of I am sorry I am not able to do you good without discovering your weakness to you and the world my intention is not to condemn or dishonor you but to direct you into a better path You are now come forth against your Brethren in the common Road of Accusation and worldly Enmity wherein you disturb the peace of your own house where you may live quietly you gratifie your Enemies and that railing wrathful Spirit that is abroad in the world and cannot but wound and vex your own souls I shall onely wish you to retire into your selves and your own souls you fight now with the Fame Appearance and outward Shew of Sin in your Brethren you may at home deal with the very Spirit Body and Root of the same Unrighteousnes where if you
person and I am glad I have done with it I may say of my commending him being a great person as Paul said of his commending himself 2 Cor. 12.11 I am become a fool in glorying ye have compelled me It looks foolishly and uncomely to me and it may be to others more but I have been compell'd to it to testifie the truth against mens ignorance and malice For the Title given him Captain General of all the Forces in England Scotland and Ireland I am not offended at it for though some may think His Highness is degraded by it from Protector to General yet he that will look beyond that vail of discontent that for the present covers your faces and will look into the more inward reason of your mindes in retaining this Title of General will not be much troubled at it though he be very zealous of His Highness honor That which I think either is or should be your intent in it is this if you consider First That the Forces and Armies in England Scotland and Ireland are the sole and proper interest of the godly party being at first rais'd and since mantain'd for the safety of good people their spirits have most freely and lively acted in them and been the chief strength of them so that the Forces are theirs or rather they are vertually and truly the Forces of England Scotland and Ireland and that in distinction from and opposition to all other people of the Nation of which the honest party may say as Jacob said of Reuben Gen. 49.3 Reuben thou art my first-born the beginning of my strength This military Power is the first-born the beginning of strength that God hath given his people in the earth Secondly I suppose you may consider that this Power of the Militia you now have or are is as Jacob said of Reuben The excellency of dignity and the excellency of power The absolutest and perfectest power in the earth having the substance of all Government in it it gives both reason and being of all Government Safety the name also whence all Governments are called Powers and the Sword in scripture and that which makes it very suitable to this season that having the Forces in our hands we have our Lives and Liberties secured and so may quietly wait for more light and are free to dispose of our selves according to the best light and understanding that shall be brought forth amongst us which is no small mercy if we had hearts to improve it to be once free from all the yokes that were upon our necks by the blinde and malignant Constitutions of the Nations and set free to follow the best light God shall shine forth to us Thirdly You have reason to consider that as all former Powers are dissolv'd viz. The Power of King and Parliament by their irreconcileable Breaches and continued Wars so this Title of Captain General of all the Forces of England Scotland and Ireland doth not onely extinguish the three distinct Kingdoms and their Governments and subject them to these Forces but lays waste the pales whereby they were formerly divided and turns them all into one Militia under the command of one General for the Command of the Forces of all three Kingdoms is both a greater Power and of another kinde and must needs swallow up the three particular Governments into it self which is a large field that we are brought into that now the General of these Forces hath an unlimited Power to enlarge his Militia to take in all honest men if he please and to give them what pay he judges reasonable and in order to it to raise what money he pleases in the three Nations to restrain and secure what persons he suspects to be Disturbers of his Army and Command to inflict what punishment he pleases upon his enemies to make what Constitutions he will for the securing these Forces and to repeal all Laws that are against their Safety and Quiet These things are natural and essential to a General in and with his Army which will be accounted absurd for either King or Protector of England to do so royal and absolute Authority in the hands of an honest General intrusted for and in fellowship with the whole Party in a capacity distinct from the Nations is a thing worth remembring Fourthly You cannot but consider that the General hath been the chief Instrument of getting the sword into the hands of honest men You cannot but remember how industrious he was to have an honest Regiment then an honest Army at least under honest Officers how he sent for honest men from all parts of the Nation and imployed and encouraged them and this favor he shewed to honest men as honest men without partiality when he had gathered them together pleaded their Cause against their enemies You know how constantly the Work prosper'd in their hands under his Conduct and how they have been kept in union and in order and discipline by his Wisdom and Government so that if the honest people of the three Nations have obtain'd an outward and visible Power in the earth and to be above their enemies safe and secure the General is the immediate Patron and Father of it it being first conceived and since brought forth and cherish'd principally as by an instrument by his Counsel and Conduct and if he that gave life to this Body should not uphold and preserve it it would in all probability fall into division and confusion therefore you have reason to challenge him to be General of all the Forces they consisting by him and we in and by them Fifthly This his Authority is so bright and unquestionable that none can deny it nor you or any honest man a snare in it This Title Captain General of all the Forces and so of all the Armies of honest men in the three Nations it hath been the product of Providence after our many years wars openly declared and seal'd to by the Lord in all parts of the three Nations therefore if you had but united your selves to it and taken in the interest and relation of all honest men which is your and their due and must be implied though not express'd it is then I think the honorablest Title in the world a mercy beyond all we could expect had we eyes to see it and hearts to make a sober use of it I judge these very fundamental Considerations First The union of all honest men to the Armies as their own Secondly The excellency and freedom of Military power Thirdly That the Forces of the three Nations being united under one General are a Power larger and greater than their former civil and divided States and fully comprehends them in it self Fourthly That the General is the Natural Father of this power Fifthly And all this the workmanship of Providence justified by Success in the face of all the world which put together would make a good Ground for us to unite and stand upon The reason why you
power of the Sword and so of the Nation That Government that deryed these poor people the common Freedom of Life and Being is totally dissolved their Enemies overthrown and they that were the Tail made the Head indowed with the most absolute Power 'T is a thing that the Protector hath seem'd a long time to design and that good people have talked of That Honest men should onely have place and power and yet now we have it we either minde it not or know not which way to settle it I do heartily wish that we understood what a Prize we have in our hand and had light and judgement either to keep it justly or to resign it wisely Your third Article is this The unadvised and unwarrantable changing of Government and swearing thereunto c. This is the chief of your witness The great offence taken against the Protector and indeed the chief difference 'twixt you and him the very substance of your Paper other things being either appurtenances and flourishes or petty inconsiderable things brought in to make number and weight but here is the stress of the business and the chief ground of your quarrel now you come to the point 't is an unadvised and unwarrantable act and swearing thereunto You differ not in Principle or in your Spirits or in Work and Ends onely the Protector hath rashly and unadvisedly clap'd up a Government which you cannot warrant to be sound and good or a private thing that hath no publick Warranty neither the consent of the People nor of the Honest party I must confess to form a standing Government for three Nations so unadvisedly upon such slight and sudden Council and to have no more Law Authority or Reason from men nor any thing from Heaven to warrant it and then as rashly by Oath to engage to it and so to involve himself in it as to render himself uncapeable of better Counsels and a better way if it should appear is not a thing justified by that light either of Religion or Reason that I understand And therefore though I can submit either to a forc'd and impos'd or an undue Authority or Government for I think all the Governments now in the world are no better yet if I may speak my minde freely 't is this To huddle up a business of so vast a concernment as the Government of three Nations in a corner in such haste upon so slender advice without a Commission either from God or men and to binde it by an Oath is unjustifiable and doth require repentance in them that did it But though I do agree with the Subscribers That this act is unadvised and unwarrantable yet it is upon a different ground for they say That change of Government and swearing thereunto doth put a necessity upon the chief Vndertaker thereof to overthrow the very Foundation of a Commonwealth this is as they judge Now I judge that one great reason why that Government and Instrument was set up and sworn to was to uphold the Foundation of the old Commonwealth and this they did as I suppose in some kinde of opposition to the Fifth Monarchy men who as these men judged would have led them by their unsetled principles into a notion or cloud of a New Kingdom from the very Foundations of an old Commomwealth and to avoid this danger they took the materials that were next old Laws and Parliaments and a new Protector and Council which are all Fundamentals of Government and so patch'd up the business in haste and fear lest they should lose all their footing in a Commonwealth Now here I think was their error That they did re-build what was really pull'd down and maintain what God had destroyed and set themselves and that Power that God had given them upon a rotten Foundation which is dark and unclean full of wrath and curse which hath put a necessity upon the chief Vndertaker to uphold an old ruin'd House and all the Breaches Confusions perplexed Suits and Quarrels Enmities and Miseries occasioned by our late Civil Wars and Distractions the weight of which must needs be so heavy that he cannot but now feel that he did unadvisedly in taking up the burthen of it The Reasons why I thus judge are First The ancient Form of this Kingdom or Commonwealth and the Government thereof is certainly dissolv'd and the heart or life of its Union broken by that irreconcileable breach 'twixt the Head and Body the King and his Parliament or People A Kingdom so divided cannot stand in its most essential or integral parts by a continued War which could never be compos'd but in the utter destruction of one party The Union betwixt these two principal parts being broken there necessarily follow'd by degrees a dissolution and mouldering away of all the other parts so that at last there is not one stone left upon another no one piece of the old Building whole If there be any thing standing 't is not in its place nor upon its own Basis but upheld by force unduly and to serve another Power so miserably broken and sunk like a milstone cast into the sea so that none knows where her parts are or which way to re-unite them All things are set at such a distance and enmity in judgement principles and affections and things gone so far into Oathes and new Engagements so many new Ways and Forms set up one upon another and the old so confounded that they that have the power to do it cannot move one step rationally cowards a recovering the old frame The ancient Government being irrecoverably lost and the Kingdom divided into two Armies and the Kings Army subdued and wholly vanquished you will easily conclude in what a condition the Conquerors are which is this A General of a gallant conquering Army commanding all the Forces in three Kingdoms in excellent order and discipline soundly joynted and knit together in love and affection confirmed by long experience in great service with great success that could never be divided by policy nor shaken by force or difficulties a religious praying believing as well as a fighting Army having the royal stamp of such a constant success as made them famous and terrible to the world Within this Army lay the hearts and affections of all the Honest people of the Nation having plac'd all their Safety Liberty and Lives in it did heartily engage their Prayers Purses and Persons with them as their onely strength against their Enemies In this Army and the Honest people in it and with it was said all our Priviledges our Peace and Freedom together with the Honor of the Nation and all the good things that had been pray'd for spoken of and expected in Reformation and as secure as the Sword and Honest hearts could keep them preserv'd and safely lodg'd within the strength of an Host or Army encamping about them an Army being a Government as ancient as natural as honorable as rational and as just as any other kinde of