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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86876	The humble representation of some officers of the Army, to the Right Honourable Lieutenant General Fleetwood. November 1. 1659.	Morley, Herbert, 1616-1667.; Fleetwood, Charles, d. 1692.	1659 (1659)	Wing H3639; Thomason E1005_8; ESTC R202467	6,924	13

THE HUMBLE REPRESENTATION OF SOME Officers OF THE ARMY To the Right Honourable LIEUTENANT GENERAL FLEETWOOD November I. 1659. May it please your Lordship AS we are Englishmen and Christians as we have been imbarked from the beginning of the Wars have born our share in the burden and heat of the day are Commissioned by the Parliament as other Officers of the Army are and look upon our selves and our Families as concerned in the Weal or the Woe of the Land of our Nativity we cannot neglect any means that may prevent or be parties to any thing that may promote the destruction of this poor Nation And therefore beholding with sad and bleeding hearts the late renewed Breach made upon this Parliament the Consequents whereof will be in more then probable Conjecture not only the rendring of all the blood and Treasure shed and spent for the deliverance of poor England fruitless but also the bringing of these Nations into Blood Destruction and Confusion Than which nothing can be more advantagious to Papists and all bloody enemies to Justice and true Godliness so that we cannot with just Peace and satisfaction to our own Consciences sit down altogether in silence but as in some measure we do pour out our hearts before the Lord so we think it our Duty to present you with some of our serious Thoughts Apprehensions and Fears As also our desires that you would consider in time before the Lord what a Floodgate is opened for a Deluge of miseries to be poured down upon this Nation and how much you are concerned as you tender the honour of God the Vindication of Religion the Credit of the Gospel the Recouery of your own Reputation that now lies at stake the just satisfaction that all sober Christians and true Englishmen may challenge from you and the Relief of your native Countrey that is now sinking in her dearest concernments and cries out for help That you would before it is too late improve your utmost Interest and Power to put a stop to that destructive Cariere that the Army now is ingaged in to obviate the too great advantages that forreign and domestick enemies have now put into their hands and seasonably to hinder these new Counsels that have no Parlimentary Sanction and so must be grievous to the free born people of England in any thing they do We address our selves to you not only as being of eminent interest but because you have profest Religion and strictness of Godliness at a high rate and much tenderness of spirit Many sober Christians have had great hopes of you and we are not without confidence our selves yet we know that you are in a very great Tempration the Lord grant that your Temptation may not be seconded with a divine Desertion we are jealous over you many are at a stand what to think of you it was believed that when English Liberties were in late years so much infringed that you did rather bewail them then fully consent to what was done give us leave in faithfulness and with breakings of heart to tell you that present Actings do seem more transcendently to strike at the Liberties of the English Nation and there is none now upon the stage of Action that can pretend to the same advantages the former Protector had Let not our hopes as to you be fruitless nor our desires altogether rejected if you will not hear the cries of the condition of this poor Nation the Lord will in his time and believe it there are thousands of precious souls in England whatever some may think of them and will be found precious at the day of Christs appearing who are at this day weeping in secret places for the unwarrantableness of these undertakings and therefore let us speak this once to you enter into your Chamber yea into the Closet of your own heart come with your heart in the sight of that God whose cies are a flame of fire and whose eie-lids try the Children of men and then labour to give to England Scotland Ireland a through proof of your faithfulness humility selfe denial and publick spiritedness by timely retracting of late unjustifiable actings in violating that authority whom we have all lately owned and by whom we have lately been intrusted by Commissions The good people of this Nation have been formerly deceived by good words and fair promises Setting daies a part for seeking God in fasting when the way is not good will not hereafter blind English eyes doing things unwarrantably and then intituling God to them as they will never the more be owned by God so they will be never the more acceptable to decerning men He that doth Righteousness is righteous The fear of the Lord is to depart from evil and true Godliness cannot be without a denying of self in all ungodliness and wordly lusts They are just indeed who have opportunity and power to be unjust and yet dare not because of the fear of God they are truly faithfull who when they are tempted and provoked to be treacherous yea and have opportunity and power so to do yet will not dare not wound their Trust They have the name of God written in their hearts who stand in awe of his Precepts and dare do nothing meerly because their sword is long enough to do it and if this be according to the rule of Truth the question will be Whether the late and present actings of so many Officers of the Army be suitable yea or no The Parliament is interrupted and that by a great part of the Army and what Parliament is it not the long Parliament under whose Counsels the Army by the blessing of God hath wonne so many glorious Battles in the field both in England Scotland and Ireland That Parliament which through the Mercy of God together with the subordinate Concurrence of Land and Sea-Forces was a Terrour to Enemies both abroad and at home That Parliament which was so constantly willing and ready both to satisfie Publick Debs and contracted Arreares and to provide constant pay for the Army and Navy That Parliament whose former interruption was found to be no wayes advantagious to the Nation Have not the Affairs of England both abroad and at home been declining ever since And was not this Army brought into such a perplexed condition by an over-ruling hand of Providence that it was forced to profess before God and Man its sence of backslidings and its duty to take shame to it self even for that force it had offered to this Parliament Did not this Army acknowledge this Parliament the only visible Authority of this Nation And thereupon solemnly desire and invite them to the discharge of their remaining Trust promising all Faithfulness and assistance therein Is it not to be considered that this Parliament notwithstanding they could not but see that they must sit again under great difficulties disadvantages because the Treasure was exhausted vast debts were contracted and the Souldiery and Seamen unpaid yet being

invited how did they break through those dis-couragements and undertooke difficillimam Provinciam who were no sooner assembled but a general desperate and deep laid-plot stares them in the face and in many places breaks forth upon them and can it be denyed that the Lord was pleased in every part of the Nation where the plot brake forth to take the honour of the success chiefly to himself and we may truly say that by Grace we were outwardly saved least any man should boast and can any be so injurious as not to acknowledge that by the late sudden Calming of the storm God was pleased afresh to own and that signally the Counsels of this Parliament Yet this Parliament must againe be interrupted and that by those who had several wayes engaged solemnly to them afresh and in the late Petition how many times do the Officers engaged therein seem to take a pleasure in styling themselves the faithfull servants and faithfull Army of this Parliament Yet now with what reality we shall with griefe of heart consider and the world will judge especially because already there are so many at worke with Tongue yea some with pen to bespatter the Armies acknowledged Masters and consequentialy to bring Parliaments out of credit if possible so as to besool people into a belief that Parliaments will not do the work but the eys of Englishmen are not so easily put out We have not forgotten that it was an old Court designe not only to allure but to affright Englishmen out of their love to and their very discourse of a Parliament yet there was a Parliament at last which found work enough for all the Courtiers in the Nation We are not ignorant how that there have been Attempts of later date to wean this English Nation from love unto their Parliament and fair things have been promised and some good things have been endeavoured to have been done by another hand yet there was still a necessity of calling Parliaments and when an intire house of Commons would not doe a part thereof shall be made use of and when a part would not serve the turn it also must take its turne to goe off the stage and when now Parliaments seemed troublesome the long Parliament styled by the Army the famous long Parliament must be called again which is not an obscure evidence that the spirit of the free-born Englishmen notwithstanding Parliament interruptions yet is still working towards a Parliament and that old Maxime will not easily be obliterated out of the Tables of English hearts Quod omnes tangit ab omnibus tractari debet This English Nation will be loth to lose their Hereditary and Birth-right priviledge of making their own Laws by which they shall be governed We have had such experiences of a Parlamentary States-Physitians that have attempted in an uncouth way to heale the Nation and this with so little success as that we and we do believe that there are many thousands of our minde doe know no helpe under God like that of a Parliament But now wee are told that as there is noe Authority in the Nation so all Authority is devolved upon and resides in the Army that is in the Officers and our Government must be a Sword-Government And shall this be spoaken by any that shall preesume to take the name of an holy just God into his mouth Is Englands Dear bought freedome come to this Our hearts would sinke but that we know the Lord doth raign and if it were possible for to prevent it we would say Tell it not in Gath and let it not be published in the gates of Ashkelon lest the Daughters of the Philistims triumph Have men been beheaded banished and slain in the Field for doing things contrary to English Lawes and shall this Army bury English Lawes and the Legislature it self all at once and take all into their own hands But no question some will say there shall be just things It is not the doing of some seeming righteous things that will satisfie the just expectations and Claims of this English Nation when they see that all that they have lyes at the mercy of their Fellow-servants We have not forgotten what was once told to the late King and that by a Parliament That it is better to rule in the hearts of men by love and justice then to rule over them by force and power An Arbitrary Sword may tyrannize over mens persons and estates for a time but it doth never conquer Spirits We would have hoped that no part of this Army that professeth so much for Christ and his Kingdome would have ever so much as coasted upon the course of the Egyptian Mamalukes or the Romane Pretorian Bands But let men make sure of this that what God did seem to wink at amongst ignorant Heathens that were no better taught he will not so easily overlook when acted by those who should have better learned Christ For Christ hath said it That he that takes the Sword shall perish with the Sword And for certain what was lately acted and now acting will come under the judgement of Christ who is no respecter of persons and before whom all the power and force of this world is as nothing but as the drop of the Bucket and as the dust of the Ballance We are not ignorant of the great Argument why this Parliament was interrupted What Must nine Families be undone at once Far be it from us to desire the undoing of any much less of those for whom we have so great a respect And we could heartily wish that affairs might be composed to mutuall satisfaction and we are apt to fear that all good men will at the long-run find the smart and inconvenience of these unhappy Divisions But what are Military Commands so essential to the well being of men if not to their beings that they shall count themselves undone if their Commissions be but vacated by Parliament If vacating of Commissions be an undoing how many hundreds of Families have been undone time after time at the pleasure of the Parliament Did not the Parliament in the year 1645 think fit to lay aside these General Officers ensuing namely the Earl of Essex the Earl of Warweck the Earl of Manchester Ferdinando Lord Fairfax Sir William Waller Major General Massey Sir William Brereton Collonel Ressiter and many other Officers Yea how many Commissions have been vacated lately by the Committee of Nominations and the former have for many years sate down in silence and peaceably at home who have been known in their time to have done as good service and happily divers of them might be thought to deserve a Military trust as well as some others But let the utmost be granted which cannot be imagined that it were a kind of outward undoing must the Parliament be broken up Must the only Authority of the Nation be trampled upon to prevent such an undoing Nay more must the saving of nine Commissions be of such weight in