and few may ride safe by the Kings way except they ride strong not so much for feare of their goods which men esteeme lesse but also for danger of their life which every man loveth Worke is undone at home and loiterers linger in streets lurke in Ale-houses range in high-waies valiant beggers play in townes yet complaine of need whose staffe if it be once hot in their hand or sluggishnesse bred in their bosomes they will never be allured to labour againe contenting the themselves better with idle beggery then with honest and profitable labour And what more noysome beasts to be in a Commonwealth Drones in Hives suck out the hony a small matter but yet to be looked on by good husbands Caterpillers destroy the fruit an hurtfull thing and well shifted for by a diligent overseer Divers vermin destroy corn kill Pullein engines and snares be made for them But what is a loyterer A sucker of Honie a spoiler of corne a destroyer of fruit nay a waster of mony a spoiler of victuall a sucker of bloud a breaker of orders a seeker of breakes a queller of life a Basiliske of the Commonwealth which by company sight doth poyson the whole Countrey staineth honest mindes with the infection of his venome and so draweth the Commonwealth to death and destruction Such is the fruit of your labour and travell for your pretensed Commonwealth which justice would no man should tast of but your selves that yee might truely judge of your own mischiefe and fray other by example from presuming the like When we see a great number of flyes in a yeare wee naturally judge it like to be a great plague having so great a swarming of loytering vagabonds ready to begge and brawle at every mans dore which declare a greater infection can we not look for a grievouser and perillouser danger then the plague is Who can therefore otherwise deeme but this one deadly hurt where with the Commonwealth of our nation is wounded beside all other is so pestilent that there can be no more hurtfull thing in a wel governed state nor more throwne into all kinde of vice and unrulinesse and therefore this your sedition is not only most odious but also most horrible that hath spotted the whole Countrey with such a staine of idlenesse There can be no end of faults if a man rehearse all faults that doe necessary follow this unruly sturdinesse For not only vagabonds wandering and scattering themselves for mischiefe shall run in a mans eyes but also disorder of every degree shall enter in into a mans minde shall behold hereby the Commonwealth miserably defaced by you who should as much as other have kept your selves in order in it Neither be the Magistrates duly obeyed nor the lawes justly feared nor degrees of men considered nor Masters well served nor Parents truly reverenced nor Lords remembred of their tenants nor yet other naturall or civill Law much regarded And it is plainly unpossible that that Countrey shall well stand in government the people grow to wealth where order in every state is not fitly observed and that body cannot be without much griefe of inflamation where any least part is out of joint or not duly set in his own naturall place Wherefore order must be kept in the Commonwealth like health in the body and all the drift of policie looketh to this end how this temper may bee safely maintained without any excesse of unmeasurablenesse either of the one side or of the other And easie enough it is to keep the same when it is once brought into the meane and to hold it in the stay it is found in but when it bursteth out once with a vehemence hath gotten into an unruly disorder it spreadeth so fast overfloweth all honest mens resisting so violently that it will be hard to recover the breach of long time againe except with great and wise counsell which no doubt shall be in season used there be wonderfull remedies sought therefore And even as a man falling is easier holden up by stay than when he is fallen downe he is able to rise againe so is the Commonwealth slipping by the foresight of wisdome better kept from ruine then when it is once fallen into any kinde of misery the same may be called againe to the old and former state Doe we not evidently know that a man may better keep his arm or his leg from breaking or falling out of joint afore hurt come to it then after the hurt it may safely and quietly be healed restored to the former strength and health againe And now through your seditious meanes things that were afore quiet and in good order lawes feared and obeyed subjects ruled kept in dutie be all now in a great disorder and like if it be not holpen to grow to wildnesse and a beastlinesse seeing that neither common dutie can be kept which nature prescribeth nor common law can bee regarded which policie requireth How can yee keep your own if yee keep no order your wife and children how can they be defended from other mens violence if yee will in other things break all order by what reason would yee be obeyed of yours as servants if yee will not obey the King as subjects how would ye have others deale orderly with you if yee will use disorder against all others Seeing then there is such a confusion now of things such a turmoile of men such a disorder of fzashions who can look to live quietly a great while who can think but that yee have miserably tossed the Common-wealth and so vexed all men with disorder that the inconvenience hereof cannot only nip others but also touch you But now see how that not only these unlooked for mischiefes have heavily growne on yee but also those commodities which yee thought to have holpen your selves and others by be not only hindered but also hurt thereby The Kings Majestie by the advise c. intended a just reformation of all such things as poore men could truly shew themselves oppressed with thinking equalitie of justice to bee the Diadem of his Kingdome and the safegard of his commons Which was not onely intended by wisdome but also set on with speed and so entred into a due considering of all states that none should have just cause to grudge against the other when as every thing rightfully had nothing could be but unrightfully grudged at And this would have beene done not onely with your glad and willing assent but also been done by this day almost throughout the whole Realme so that quietly it had been obtained without inconvenience speedily without delay And whatsoever had been done by the Kings Majesties authoritie that would by right have remained for ever and so taken in law that the contrary partie neither could by justice neither would by boldnesse have enterprised the break thereof But least wicked men should be wealthy and they whose hearts be not
we live now by your disordered mischiefe hath been by mens idlenesse and undutifulnesse let alone untouched so neither serveth the poore to make mony of nor any cattle to live with The corne was sowne with labour and the ground tilled for it with labour and looked to be brought home againe with labour and for lack of honest labourers is lost on the ground the owners being loyterers and seeking other mens have lost their own and hoping for mountaines lacked their present thrift neither obtaining that they sought nor seeking that they ought And how shall men live when the maintenance of their provision is lacking For labouring and their old store is wasted by wildnesse of sedition and so neither spare the old nor save the new How can men be fedde then or beasts live when as such wastfull negligence is miserably used and mispending the time of their profit in shamefull disorder of inobedience they care not greatly what becomes of their own because they intend to live by other mens Hay is gone corne is wasted strawe is spoiled what reckoning of harvest can yee make either for the aid of others or for the reliefe of your selves And thus have yee brought in one kinde of misery which if yee saw before as yee be like to feele after although yee had hated the Commonwealth yet for love of your selves yee would have avoided the great enormitie thereof into the which yee wilfully now have cast in your selves Another no lesse is that such plenty of victuall as was abundantly in every quarter for the reliefe of us all is now all wastfully and unthriftfully spent in maintaining you unlawfull Rebels and so with disorder all is consumed which with good husbandry might long have endured For so much as would have served a whole yeare at home with diligent skilfull heed of husbandrie that is wilfully wasted in a moneth in the Camp through the ravening spoil of villany For what is unordered plenty but a wastfull spoile whereof the inconvenience is so great as yee be worthie to feele bringeth in more hardnesse of living greater dearth of all things and occasioneth many causes of diseases The price of things must needs increase much when the number of things waxeth lesse and by scarcitie be inhansed and compelleth men to abate their liberality in house both to their own and also to strangers And where the rich wanteth what can the poore finde who in a common scarcitie liveth most scarcely and feeleth quickliest the sharpnesse of starving when every man for lack is hungerbitten which if yee had well remembred before as yee now may after perceive yee would not I think so stiffneckedly have resisted and endangered your selfe in the storm of famine whereof yee most likely must have the greatest part which most stubbornly resisted to your own shame and confusion Experience teacheth us that after a great dearth commeth a great death for that when men in great want of meat eat much ill meat they fill their bodies with ill humours and cast them from their state of health into a subjection of sicknesse because the good bloud in the body is not able to keep his temper for the multitude of the ill humours that corrupteth the same And so grow great and deadly plagues and destroy great numbers of all sorts sparing no kinde that they light on neither respecting the poore with mercy nor the rich with favour Can yee therefore think herein when yee see decay of victuals the rich pinch the poore famish the following of diseases the greatnesse of death the mourning of widowes the pittifulnesse of the fatherlesse and all this misery to come through your unnaturall misbehaviour that yee have not dangerously hurt the Commons of your country with a dolefull and an uncurable wound These things being once felt in the Commonwealth as they must needs be every man seeth by and by what followeth a great diminishment of the strength of the Realme when the due number that the Realme doth maintain is made lesse and thereby we be made rather a prey for our enimies then a safetie for our selves And how can there be but a great decay of people at the length when some be overthrown in war some suffer for punishment some pine for famine some die with the camps diet some be consumed with sicknesse For although you think your selves able to match with a few unprepared Gentlemen put them from their houses that yee might gaine the spoile doe yee judge therefore your selves strong enough not only to withstand a Kings power but also to overthrow it Is it possible that yee should have so mad a frensie in your head that yee should think the number yee see so strong that all yee see not should not be able to prevaile to the contrarie With what reason could yee think that if yee bode the hot brunt of battle but yee must needs feele the smart specially the Kings power comming against you which if yee feare not belike yee knowe not the force thereof And so much the greater number is lost in the Realme that both the overcommer and the overcommed be parties although unlike of one Realme and what losse is not onely of either side but of both that doth plainly redown to the whole Then where so great and so horrible a fault is committed as worse cannot be mentioned of from the beginning and bringeth in withall such penury such weaknesse such disorder in the Commonwealth as no mischiefe beside could doe the like can any man think with just reason that all shall escape unpunished that shall escape the sword not many for terrour and example sake should be looked unto who haue been either great doers in such a disordered villanie or great Counsellours to such an outgrown mischiefe seeing the only remedy of redressing wilfull faults is a just and a severe punishment of such whose naughty deeds good men ought to abhorre for duties sake ill men may dread for like punishments sake and a free licence to doe mischiefe unpunished is so dangerous that the sufferance of one is the occasion of the fall of a great number and womanish pittie to one is a deceitfull crueltie to the whole inticing them to their own destructiō by sufferance which would have avoided the danger by fore-punishment And in such a barrennesse of victuall as must needs come after so ravening a spoile it must needs be that some though few shall be so nipt with eagernesse of famine that they shall not recover againe themselues out of so fretting a danger So in a generall weaknesse where all shall be feebled some must needs die and so diminish the number and abate such strength as the Realme defended it selfe withall afore Which occasion of never so few comming of so great a cause if yee should make just amends for not of recompence which yee could not but of punishment which yee ought how many how divers and how cruell deaths
setting out your selves Yee should submit you by humilitie one to another and yee set up your selves by arrogancy above the Magistrates See herein how much yee offend God Remember yee not that if yee come nigh to God he will come nigh unto you If then yee goe from God he will goe from you Doth not the Psalme say he is holy with the holy and with the wicked man hee is froward Even as hee is orderd of men hee will order them againe If yee would follow his will and obey his commandements yee should eat the fruits of the earth saith the Prophet if not the sword shall devoure you Yee might have eaten the fruits of this seasonable yeare if yee had not by disobedience rebelled against God Now not only yee cannot eate that which your selves did first sow by labour and now destroy by sedition but also if the Kings Majesties sword came not against you as just policie requireth yet the just vengeance of God would light among you as his word promiseth and your cruell wickednesse deserveth For whatsoever the causes be that have moved your wild affections herein as they be unjust causes and increase your faults much the thing it selfe the rifing I meane must needs be wicked and horrible afore God and the usurping of authoritie taking in hand of rule which is the sitting in Gods seat of justice and a proud clyming up into Gods high throne must needs be not only cursed newly by him but also hath been oftne punished afore of him And that which is done to Gods officer God accounteth it done to him For they despise not the minister as he saith himselfe but they despise him and that presumption of challenging Gods seat doth shew you to have been Lucifers and sheweth us that God will punish you like Lucifers Wherefore rightly look as yee duly have deserved either for great vengeance for your abominable transgression or else earnestly repent with unfained minds your wicked doings either with example of death be content to dehort others or else by faithfulnesse of obedience declare how great a service it is to God to obey your Magistrates faithfully and to serve in subjection truly Well if yee had not thus grievously offended God whom yee ought to worship what can yee reasonably think it to bee no fault against the King whom yee ought to reverence Yee be bound by Gods word to obey your King and is it no break of duty to withstand your King If the servant be bound to obey his master in the familie is not the subject bound to serve the King in his Realmē The childe is bound to the private father and be we not all bound to the common-wealths father If wee ought to be subject to the King for Gods sake ought we not then I pray you to be faithfully subject to the King If we ought dutifully to shew all obedience to heathen Kings shall wee not willingly and truly be subject to Christian Kings If one ought to submit himselfe by humilitie to another ought we not all by dutie to be subject to our King If the members of our naturall body all follow the head shall not the members of the politicall body all obey the King If good manners be content to give place the lower to the higher shall not religion teach us alway to give place to the highest If true subjects will dye gladly in the Kings service should not all subjects think it dutie to obey the King with just service But you have not only disobeyed like ill subjects but also taken stoutly rule upon you like wicked Magistrats Yee have been called to obedience by counsell of private men by the advice of the Kings Majesties Councell by the Kings Majesties free pardon but what counsell taketh place where sturdinesse is law and churlish answers bee counted wisdome Who can perswade where treason is aboue reason and might ruleth right and it is had for lawfull whatsoever is lustfull commotioners are better then commissioners and common woe is named commonwealth Have yee not broken his laws disobeyed his Councell rebelled against him And what is the commonwealth worth whē the law which is indifferent for all men shall be wilfully and spightfully broken of head-strong men that seek against lawes to order lawes that thos may take place not what the consent of wise men hath appointed but what the lust of Rebells hath determined What unthriftinesse is in ill seruants wickednesse in unnaturall children sturdinesse in unruly subjects crueltie in fierce enimies wildnesse in beastly mindes pride in disdainfull hearts that floweth now in you which haue fled from housed conspiracies to encamped robberies and are better contented to suffer famine cold travell to glut your lusts then to liue in quietnesse to saue the Commonwealth think more liberty in wilfulnesse then wisdome in dutifulnesse and so run head-long not to the mischiefe of other but to the destructiō of your selues and undoe by folly that yee intend by mischiefe neither seeing how to remedie that yee judge faulty nor willing to save your selves from miserie which stiffe-neckednesse cannot doe but honestie of obedience must frame If authoritie would serve under a King the Councell have greatest authoritie if wisdome and gravity might take place they be of most experience if knowledge of the Commonwealth could help they must by daily conference of matters understand it best yet neither the authority that the Kings Majestie hath given them nor the gravity which you knowe to be in them nor the knowledge which with great travell they have gotten can move yee either to keep you in the duty yee ought to doe or to avoid the great disorder wherein yee be For where disobedience is thought stoutnesse and fullennesse is counted manhood and stomaking is courage and prating is judged wisdome and the elvishest is most meet to rule how can other just authority be obeyed or sad counsell be followed or good knowledge of matters be heard or commandments of Councellours be considered And how is the King obeyed whose wisest be withstāded the disobediētest obeyed the high in authority not weighed the unskilfullest made chiefe Captaines to the Noblest most hurt intended the braggingest brawler to be most safe And even as the viler parts of the body would contende in knowledge government with the five wits so doe the lower parts of the Commonwealth enterprise as high a matter to strive against their dutie of obedience to the Councell But what talke I of disobedience so quietly have not such mad rages run in your heads that forsaking and bursting the quietnesse of the common peace yee have hainously Traiterously encamped your selfe in field there like a byle in a body nay like a sinke in a towne have gathered together all the nasty vagabonds and idle loiterers to beare armour against him with whom all godly and good subjects will live and dye withall If it be a fault when two fight together and
law and his commandment is that every man should safely keep his own and use it reasonably to an honest gaine of his living Yee violently take and carry away from men without cause all things whereby they should maintaine not onely themselves but also their familie and leave them so naked that they shall feele the smart of your cursed enterprise longer then your own unnaturall and ungodly stomacks would well vouchsafe By justice yee should neither hurt nor wrong man and your pretensed cause of this monstrous stirre is to increase mens wealth and yet how many and say truth have yee decayed and undone by spoiling and taking away their goods How should honest men live quietly in the Commonwealth at any time if their goods either gotten by their own labour or left to them by their friends shall unlawfully and unorderly to the feeding of a sort of Rebels be spoiled and wasted and utterly scattered abroad The thing yee take is not your right it is another mans owne The manner of taking against his will is unlawfull and against the order of every good Common-wealth The cause why yee take it is mischievous horrible to fat up your sedition Yee that take it be wicked traitours and common enimes of all good order If he that desireth another mans goods or cattle doe fault what doth he think you whose desire taking followeth and is led to and fro by Iust as his wicked fancie void of reason doth guide him He that useth not his own well and charitably hath much to answer for and shall they be thought not unjust who not only take away other mens but also misuse and waste the same ungodly They that take things privily away and steale secretly and covertly other mens goods be by law judged worthie death and shall they that without shame spoile things openly and be not afraid by impudence to professe their spoile be thought either honest creatures to God or faithfull subjects to their King or naturall men to their Countrie If nothing had moved you but the example of mischiefe and the foule practice of other moved by the same yee should yet haue abstained from so licentious and so villanous a shew of robbery considering how many honester there be that being loath their wickednesse should be blazed abroad yet be found out by providence and hanged for desert What shall we then think or say of you shall we call you pickers or hid theeves nay more then theeves day theeves Herd stealers Sheire spoilers and utter destroyers of all kinde of families both among the poore and also among the rich Let us yet farther see is there no more things wherein yee have broken the Kings lawes and so uildly disobeyed him contrary to your bounden dutie Yee have not only spoiled the Kings true subjects of their goods but also yee have imprisoned their bodies which should be at libertie under the King and restrained them of their service which by dutie they owe the King and appaired both strength and health wherewith they live and serve the King Is there any honest thing more desired then liberty yee have shamefully spoiled them thereof Is there any thing more dutifull then to serve their Lord and Master But as that was deserved of the one part so was it hindered and stopped on your part For neither can the King be served nor families kept nor the Commonwealth looked unto where freedome of liberty is stopped and diligence of service is hindred and the help of strength and health abated Mens bodies ought to be free from all mens bondage and cruelty and only in this Realme be subject in publike punishment to our publike Governour and neither be touched of headlesse Captaines nor holden of brainlesse Rebels For the government of so pretious a thing ought to belong unto the most noble ruler and not justly to be in every mans power which is justly every living mans treasure For what goods be so deare to every man as his owne body is which is the true vessell of the minde to bee measurably kept of every man for all exercises and services of the minde If yee may not of your own authority meddle with mens goods much lesse you may of your own authoritie take order with mens bodies For what be goods in comparison of health libertie and strength which be all setled and fastned in the body They that strike other doe greatly offend and be justly punishable And shall they that cruelly and wrongfully torment mens bodies with yrons and imprisonments be thought not of other but of themselves honest and plaine and true dealing men What shall we say by them who in a private businesse will let a man to goe his journey in the Kings high way Doe they not think yee plaine wrong Then in a common cause not onely to hinder them but also to deale cruelly with them and shut them from doing their service to the King and their dutie to the Commonwealth is it not both disobedience crueltie and mischiefe think yee What an hinderance is it to have a good garment hurt any jewell appaired or any esteemed thing to be decayed And seeing no earthly thing a man hath more pretious then his body to cause it to be cruelly tormented with yrons feebled with cold weakned with ordering can it be thought any other thing but wrong to the sufferer crueltie in the doer and great disobedience transgression to the King How then be yee able to defend it But seeing yee so unpittifully vex men cast them in prison lade thē with yrons pine them with famine contrary to the rule of nature contrary to the Kings Majesties laws contrary to Gods holy ordinances having no matter but pretensed and fained gloses yee be not only disobedient to the King like Rebels but withstanding the law of nature like beasts and so worthie to dye like dogs except the Kings Majestie without respect of your deserving doe mercifully grant you of his goodnesse that which you cannot escape by justice Yet yee being not content with this as small things enterprise great matters and as though yee could not satisfie your selfe if yee should leave any mischiefe undone have sought bloud with crueltie and have slaine of the Kings true subjects many thinking their murder to be your defence when as yee have increased the fault of your vile rebellion with the horrour of bloudshed and so have burdened mischiefe with mischiefe while it come to an importable weight of mischiefe What could wee doe more in the horriblest kinde of faults to the greatest transgressours and offenders of God and men then to look straightly on them by death and so to rid them out of the Commonwealth by severe punishment whom yee thought unworthie to live among men for their doings And those who have not offended the King but defended his Realme by obedience of service sought to punish the disobedient and for safeguard of every man put themselves under dutie of law
those have yee miserably and cruelly slaine and bathed you in their bloud whose doings yee should have followed and so have appaired the Commonwealth both by destruction of good men and also by increase of Rebels And how can that Commonwealth by any meanes indure wherein every man without authoritie may unpunished slay whom he list and that in such case as those who be slaine shew themselves most noble of courage and most readie to serve the King and the Commonwealth and those as doe slay be most villanous and traiterous Rebels that any Common-wealth did ever sustaine For a Citie a Province bee not the faire houses and the strong walls nor the defence of any engine but the living bodies of men being able in number and strength to maintain themselves by good order of justice and to serve for all necessarie and behoueable uses in the Common-wealth And when as mans body being a part of the whole Commonwealth is wrongfully touched any way and specially by death then suffereth the Commonwealth great injurie and that alway so much the more how honester and nobler he is who is injuriously murdered How was the Lord Sheffeld handled among you a noble Gentleman and of good service both fit for counsell in peace and for conduct in warre considering either the gravitie of his wisdome or the authoritie of his person or his service to the Commonwealth or the hope that all men had in him or the need that England had of such or among many notably good his singular excellency or the favour all men bare toward him being loved of every man and hated of no man Considered yee who should by dutie be the Kings Subjects either how yee should not have offended the King or after offence have required the Kings pardon or not to have refused his goodnesse offered or at length to have yeelded to his mercy or not to have slain those who came for his service or to have spared those who in danger offered ransome But all these things for gotten by rage of rebellion because one madnesse cannot be without infinite vices yee slew him cruelly who offered himselfe manfully nor would not spare for ransome who was worthy for noblenesse to have had honour and hewed him bare whom yee could not hurt armed and by slavery slew nobilitie indeed miserably in fashion cruelly in cause divellishly Oh with what cruell spite was violently sundred so noble a body from so godly a mind Whose death must rather be revenged then lamented whose death was no lack to himselfe but to his countrey whose death might every way been better borne then at a Rebels hand Violence is in all things hurtfull but in life horrible What should I speake of others in the same case divers notable whose death for manhood and service can want no worthy praise so long as these ugly stirres of rebellion can bee had in minde God hath himselfe joyned mans body his soule together not to be parted asunder afore he either dissever them himselfe or cause them to be dissevered by his minister And shall Rebels and headlesse camps being armed against God and in field against their King think it no fault to shed bloud of true subjects having neither office of God nor appointment of ministers nor just cause of rebellion He that stealeth any part of a mans substance is worthie to loose his life What shall we thinke of them who spoile men of their liues for the maintenance whereof not only substance and riches bee sought for but also all common wealths be devised Now then your own consciences should be made your judges and none other set to give sentence against yee seeing yee have been such bloudsheders so hainous man-quellers so horrible murderers could you doe any other then plainly confesse your foule and wicked rebellion to bee grievous against God and traiterous to the King and hurtfull to the Commonwealth So many grievous faults meeting together in one sinke might not onely have discouraged but also driven to desperation any other honest or indifferent mind But what feele they whose hearts so deep mischiefe hath hardned and by vehemencie of affection be made unshamefast and stop all discourse of reason to let at large the full scope of their unmeasurable madnesse Private mens goods seeme litle to your unsatiable desires yee have waxed greedie now upon Cities and have attempted mighty spoiles to glut up if you could your wasting hunger Oh how much have they need of that will never be contented and what riches can suffice any that will attempt high enterprises above their estate Yee could not maintaine your camps with your private goods with your neighbours portion but yee must also attempt Cities because yee sought great spoiles with other mens losses had forgotten how yee lived at home honestly with your own and thought them worthy death that would disquiet yee in your house and pluck away that which yee by right of law thought to be your own Herein see what yee would have done spoiled the Kings Majesties subjects weakned the Kings strength overthrowne his townes taken away his munition drawne his subjects to like rebellion yea and as it is among forraine enimies in sacking of Cities no doubt thereof yee would have fallen to slaughter of men ravishing of wives deflouring of Maidens chopping of children firing of houses beating downe of streets overthrowing of all together For what measure have men in the increase of madnesse when they cannot at the beginning stay themselves from falling into it And if the besetting of one house to robbe it be justly deemed worthie death what shall we think of them that besiege whole Cities for desire of spoile We live under a King to serve him at all times when hee shall need our strength and shall yee then not only withdraw your selves which ought as much to be obedient as we be but also violently pluck other away too from the dutie unto the which by Gods commandment all subjects be straightly bound and by all lawes every nation is naturally led The townes be not only the ornament of the Realme but also the seat of Merchants the place of Handycrafts that men scattered in Villages needing divers things may in litle roome know where to finde their lack To overthrowe them then is nothing else but to waste your owne commodities so that when yee would buy a necessary thing for mony yee could not tell where to find it Munition serveth the King not only for the defence of his own but also for the invasion of his enimie And if yee will then so straitly deale with him that yee will not let him so much as defend his own yee offer him double injurie both that ye let him from doing any notable fact abroad and also that yee suffer not him quietly to injoy his own at home But herein hath notably appeared what Cities have faithfully served and suffered extreame danger not only of goods but also of
truly bent to obedience should obtain at the Kings hand that they deserved not in a Commonwealth yee have marvellously worthily hurt your selves and graciously provided except the Kings goodnesse be more unto you then your own deserts can claime that yee be not so much worthie as to be benefitted in any kinde as yee be worthie to lose that ye have on every side Yee have thought good to be your own reformers belike not onely unnaturally mistrusting the Kings justice but also cruelly and uncivilly dealing with your own neighbours Wherein I would as yee have hurt the whole Realme so ye had not enterprised a thing most dangerously to your selves and most contrary to the thing yee intended If yee had let things alone thought good by your selves to be redressed dutifully looked for the performance of that the Kings Majestie promised reformatiō they should not have been undone at this time as in a great sort of honest places they be nor those countries who for their quietnesse be most worthie to be looked on should have been unprovided for at this day But this commodity hath happened by the way that it is evidently knowne by your mischiefe that others dutie who be most true to the King and most worthie to bee done for and who be most pernitious and traiterous Rebels And it is not to be doubted but they shall be considered with thanks and finde just redresse without deserved misery and you punished like Rebels who might have had both praise and profit like subjects For that as yee have valiantly done of your selves think yee it will stand any longer then men feare your rage which cannot endure long and that yee shall not then bide the rigor of the law for your private injuries as yee used the furie of your braines in other mens oppressions Will men suffer wrong at your hands when law can redresse and the right of the Commonwealth will maintaine it and good order in Countries will beare it Yee amend faults as ill Chyrurgions heale sores which when they seem to be whole above they rankle at the bottom and so be faine continually to be sore or else be mended by new breaking of the skin Your redresse seemeth to you perfect good yee have pulled down such things as yee would yee think now all is well yee consider no farther yee seek not the bottome yee see not the sore that yee have done it by no law yee have redressed it by no order what then If it be none otherwise searched then by you it will not tarry long so either it will be after continually as it was afore your comming or else it must be when all is done amended by the King Thus have yee both lacked in the time and mist in the doing and yet besides that yee have done which is by your doing to no purpose yee have done the things with such inconveniences as hath been both before rehearsed and shall be after declared that better it had been for you never to have enjoyed the commoditie if there be any then to suffer the griefes that will ensue which be very many In every quarter some men whom yee set by will bee lost which every one of you if yee have love in yee would rather have lacked the profit of your inclosures then cause such destruction of them as is like by reason and judgement necessarily to follow What Commonwealth is it then to doe such abominable enterprises after so vile a sort that yee hinder that good yee would doe and bring in that hurt yee would not and so finde that yee seek not follow that yee lose and destroy your selves by folly rather then yee would be ordered by reason and so have not so much amended your old sores as brought in new plagues which yee your selves that deserve them will lament and we which have not deserved them may curse you for For although the Kings Majestie c. intended for your profits a reformation in his Commonwealth yet his pleasure was not nor no reason gave it that every subject should busily entermedle with it of their own head but onely those whom his Councell thought most meet men for such an honest purpose The Kings Majestie c. hath godly reformed an unclean part of religion and hath brought it to the true forme of the first Church that followed Christ thinking that to be the truest not what latter mens fancies have of themselves devised but what the Apostles and their fellowes had at Christs hand received and willeth the same to be knowne and set abroad to all his people Shall every man now that listeth fancieth the same take in hand uncalled to be a Minister and to set forth the same having no authoritie Nay though the thing were very godly that were done yet the person must needs doe ill that enterpriseth it because he doth a good thing after an ill sort and looketh but on a litle part of dutie considering the thing and leaveth a great part unadvised not considering the person when as in a well and justly done matter not only these two things ought well to bee weighed but also good occasion of time and reasonable cause of the doing ought also much to be set afore every doers eyes Now in this your deed the manner is ungodly the thing unsufferable the cause wicked the person seditious the time traiterous and can yee possibly by any honest defence of reason or any good conscience religiously grounded deny that this malitious and horrible fault so wickedly set on is not only sinfull afore God and traiterous to the King but also deadly and pestilent to the whole Commonwealth of our Countrie and so not onely overfloweth us with the miserie but also overwhelmeth you with the rage thereof Yet further see and yee be not weary with the multitude of miseries which yee have marvellously moved what a yoke yee wilfully doe bring on your selves in stirring up this detestable sedition and so bring your selves into a further slavery if you use your selves often thusinobediently When common order of the law can take no place in unrusy and disobedient subjects and all men will of wilfulnesse resist with rage and think their own violence to be the best justice then be wise Magistrates compelled by necessity to seek an extreame remedie where meane salves help not and bring in the Martiall law where none other law serveth Then must yee be contented to bide punishment without processe condemnation without witnesse suspition is then taken for judgement and displeasure may be just cause of your execution so without favour yee finde straitnesse which without rule seek violence Yee think it a hard law and unsufferable It is so indeed but yet good for a medicine Desperate sicknesse in physick must have desperate remedies for mean medicines will never help great griefes So if yee cast your selves into such sharp diseases yee must needs look for sharp medicines again at