they also set on foot in divers other Regiments If this became faithful servants I wonder who are Masters but for the honesty of the matter they thus combined to effect to instance only in one particular No Officer must be displaced but by a Council of Officers What is the mystery of this iniquity why all must turn out that will be faithful to the interest of the Nation and the trust reposed in them they would pack their Officers to their own mindes shuffle and cut both verily then if they should Petition in a peaceable way as they call it a priviledge not to be debarred the meanest Englishman I wonder what Supreme Authority durst say them Nay this is a thousand times worse providence then to grant them a General and to give him power to place and displace at pleasure worse providence for the Nation I am sure we might possibly finde one honest man in England whom we might trust if it could not otherwise be avoided but how to make a whole Councel of Officers honest most of whom have sprouted up from no very generous principles this is next of kin to an impossibility What a Corporation of the Army what the Army the Representative of England Must your General as of late be the Archon or Sole Legislatour your Council of Officers our Senate and your small Officers the people of England out upon it this is too bad in all conscience why not a Corporation of the Navy too as much reason every jot What the Supreme authority of England that pay you your wages that can put in and out at their pleasure and it is reason they should the Lords Keepers of the Great Seale the Judges of the Land the greatest Officers of State yea and Besides whom none can give you Commissions but they are Rogues Robbers as bad as any High-way-men and worse who take upon them to act and have no Commission from them it is the case of some among you T is a Combination and a Conspiracy among you to make a GENERAL and give him Commission and then he to give you Commissions or to set up any number of men as Supreme but such as the good people of the Land chuse and then to take Commissions from them this is Idolatry to fall down and worship the work of our own hands and to cry aha we are warmed aha we are warmed What not the Supreme Authority be able to remove a Lieutenant an Ensign a Serjeant a Corporal But by your leave most omnipotent Councel of Officers 't is true it is dangerous trusting a General with this Power he may turn all to his own interest which most commonly accords but little with that of the Nation you have had wonderful experience of this already but the Parliament whose interest is the interest of the Nation and can be no other that their noses should come under the girdle of an Army Oh sad contrivance What was it the Good Old Cause that the Parliament must have the Militia and not the King was it then reason they should command the Sword who carried the Purse and carried the interest of the Nation among them and poor King must he suffer death â—or standing upon his terms with them And now when the Parliament is by Your selves declared the Supreme Authority of England now they must touch none of your anoiyted now they must not so much as remove one single Officer of your Army but through the meditation of your grace and favour could the Pa liament say Amen to this part of your Petition and Representation and not betray the Nation and their trust and make themselves the scorn and hatred of the Nation and future Parliaments Yea could they understand this private Combination to force this unreasonable desire and proceed with lesse tokens of their displeasure and not give the Nation a jealousie that they would betray them And is this the reason why you hugge these 9 powder-plotters to effect this most horrid hellish mischief I can imagine nothing so like the truth of the Design if there be any design in it as this well should this be effected for you that you should give Law to England pray what will be the design of it to what end I pray to bewray your deep insight into the afrairs of State To gain your selves Honour and Renown for your rare Conduct of the State no I fear shame would be your promotion you would have little better successe then you have had you may joult your Jobernouls together long enough before you can hammer out a Settlement for us no body thinks that saying true of you I am wiser then all my Teachers Where will be the Design if when you have run your selves out of Winde and out of your Wits too you shall be reduced to the like exigency as of late and be forced to bewayl your Blindness and Apostasie again I say what is become of the Design then And it is not in reason to foresee how you can manage the Chariot of the State long but all must run into disorder your Sin yea and your undertaking will be a burden a punnishment greater then you can bear Very considerate men think you can hardly carry it a Moon Oh shallow oh incogitant oh pitiful oh foolish Army who hath bewitched you you did run well who hindred you will you now altogether run in vain will you lose the things you have wrought will you sell the righteous for nought Our Lawes Liberties our Good Old Cause for lesse then a pair of Shoos Will you harm us and do your selves no good Oh peevish oh wilful Are ye Children are ye Fools are ye Mad Do you discover your Gallantry by grapling with Impossibilities For shame men for shame give over Oh but you mistake us all this while our Design is To carry on the Refined Interest the Spirit of the Cause Good good is this the businesse what is this new thing nothing you may make spâ—rt withal a Refined Interest the spirit of the cause hard words what is the English on 't I wonder whether Sir Henry Vane hath opened these abstruse terms to your understanding you apprehend things more nimbly then it seems then honest old English-spirited Sir Arthur Haslerigâ—e that most highly deserving patriot I think it will be hard to understand the thing you drive at by the terms you dresse it in you will teach us to speak English after a new cut certainly such an Interest was never till now phrased a Refined one The Refined Interest saith Mr. Harrington is that which carries so much reason in it and so much the Interest of the Nation that it being once understood and we in possession of it needs not a Mercenary Army to keep it up Is your Interest refined in this notion you so much bless your selves in what course will you take for the carrying on the spirit of the cause the Refined Interest what will you preserve our choice
A PARLIAMENTER'S PETITION TO THE ARMY The present Supreme Authority OF ENGLAND High and Mighty Masters IT hath been in every bodies mouth The Parliament were your drudges that you were twice or thrice about to discard them since they sat last No doubt they spake it most of them as they would have it Well you have broken this Parliament yea you have broken your selves and us too yee have turned all topsie turvie 'T is true of you These are they that have turned the world upside down you have made England Scotland Ireland a Chaos without-form and void and I doubt your Omnipotency will never speak the word for such a creation as any honest man shall say when he hath looked upon it that it is very good You may pardon me since you have put all out of Order if you have disordered my thoughts so that I observe no method when all is without any method among us I tell you this action is the most faithless senslesse bootlesse ruinous action that ever appeared upon the Stage of the world the most false hearted and traitorous the most ridiculous and insignificant the most rash and fruitlesse the most dangerous and destructive adventure that ever men took in hand Oh my soul enter not thou into their secrets nor let any honest men say a confederacy with them let them associate themselves they shall be broken to pieces God will find them out in due time I beseech you what do you mean are ye Christians and yet will not be men to passe by all former Obligations did you not the other day bewail your Apostasie that you had wandred from your GOOD OLD CAVSE did you not tell us You took shame to your selves and remembred from whence you were fallen and repented and would do your first workes and therefore finding that God blessed you all along till you forced the Long Parliament but after that made you labour as in the fire and no good came of all your after actions therefore you assured them that now they should sit freely and you would strengthen their hands and be their servants Is not all this truth in these very words or to this effect and much more if I had leasure to repeat but it is fresh in every bodies mouths and minds though you have forgot it and are you not past shame now must we bewail your Apostacy now as fearing since you are fallen away after being enlightned it will be hard to restore you again to repentance especially since ye have tasted of the powers of this world But besides this did you not every Mothers child of you Officers did you nor take your Commissions from the Parliament one by one promise your obedience Yes that most faithful and gifted Brother Colonel Packer promised when he received his Commission at Mr. Speakers hands that he would not only promise them to be faithful and obedient but they should see by his actions that he would be a true servant to them and the Common-wealth Yea Lambert himself was the greatest stickler for the Parliament God forgive him for what ends I know not and yet these men Act like as they had given the Parliaments Commissions and trurn them out whom they just now promised so seriously to obey a Turk a Heathen would have scorned this falshood and basenesse What not 〈◊〉 faithful to our trust O faithlesse and perverse Generation Add to this that flattering and insinuating Petition and Representations but the other day wherein they so sadly bemoan themselves that the Parliament should so sharpely rebuke their humble servants their faithful servants that meant nothing but to petition in a peaceable manner where they artificially conceal their intentions for a General only desire that Fleetwoods Commission may be renewed other things they Petition for we understand what your Petitioning signifies some to insinuate into the favour of the Militia others to secure the Government of the Nation in the hands of the Officers of the Army it is so in the effect and the most Saint-like promise all to be well-meaning then to be servants to the Parliament and the most sweet expressions imaginable But we have tryed them that say they are Saints they are the faithful Servants of the Common-wealth but are not and have sound them Lyars Who Lambert put the Northern Brigade to petition for a General no such matter he perswaded them good man all he could against it yes I 'le warrant you And yet the Fift Monarcky-men the Mad ones of them think now Christs Kingdom goes on amain and flock down in Shoals to Walling ford-house to make way for Christs coming who may be coming for ought that I know as he saith When the Son of Man comes shall be find faith upon the earth Upon my word these were fit to live and raign with Christ a thousand years who cannot keep Faith an hundred dayes Let me say with the Psalmist Help Lord for the Godly man ceaseth for the faithful fail among the Children of men they speak vanity every one with his neighbour with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak 'T is a most senselesse ridiculous and insignificant action you pleasure your Enemies and make your selves and us the whole Nation a scorn a derision and a Proverb in the earth I formerly have been dealing with a Malignant Impostor whose whole businesse was nothing else but to make you break the Parliament to serve his designs for I tell you they fear their Wisdome more then your Power Are the Cavaliers your friends are ye bewitched to believe them and to slight your old true friends I thought I needed not to say much to answer that treacherous Cavalier it was enough to tell you whose was the plot to preswade you to break the Parliament ye are cheated into a belief of his imposture Ah me are ye not proud of your wisdome Whose is this Invention who put you upon this exploit Oh sad Will you please your enemies and grieve your friends Know him or them that put you upon this gross piece of folly and avoid them We that put you upon calling back this Parliament and encouraged you in the day of your straights and told every body we met how honest the Army would be now they understood themselves that they would stand by the Parliament while they did settle the Nation upon the foundations of righteousnesse and truth We even we are laughed to scorn and I must speak to you in the words of Joab ye have shamed this day the faces of all your servants that have saved your lives that have saved your credits which should be as dear as life and that have appeared for you in the day of your distresse in that you love your Enemies and bate your friends for you have declared this day that you regard neither Princes nor Servants for this day I perceive that it pleaseth you well though all we dye so Absalom live We know not how to
benefit of the Nation by disturbing our Settlement by obstructing our Trade by beggering the Nation by undoing every thing as fast as it is done by breaking our Parliaments by setting the Sword above our ancient Birth-rights is this your providence for us Gramercy Horse But stay what did you get by breaking this Parliament before but subject your selves to the pleasure of your General who turned out all he pleased that would not be his Janisaries and after Six years were forced to call them back again with shame enough And now you have broken them again what will you be gainers Whoever gets the power and not by right will make us Slaves and you too insinuations and fair pretenses must be used to Trepan you at first but they that are faithful among you will be known and weeded out as soon as the businesse is effected honest men may be instrumental to set up a Tyrant but are not fit instruments to keep them up nay honest men shall be so sure to be rooted out that it is among their Politicks to remove all that have been the instruments of their advancement least they should presume that their good Services had for ever obliged their Master or Masters and so should not be so wholly at their devotion as others that they should gratifie with their places who were bound to deserve that which they received without any merit Are the pretenses fairer now then before No there is not half that pretense that was on old Olivers side Can you not see through them No single Person no by no means we abominate the thoughts of that What then No body knowes unlesse something that is a thousand times worse Three Ten Thirty or it may be Seventy Tyrants for a while till some one can get above the rest The Second General Officer is an unlucky place it was Lieutenant General Cromwell once and then he was a Saint a precious Saint could preach and pray and promise strange matters then it was Is thy servant a dog that he should do so and so what be Protector be King rule by my meer will no by Gods grace I will never doe it But case Fleetwood will not act as General nor grant Commissions to them that have none them the Parliament Voted out and those that shall be brought into the place of those honest Commanders that did their part for the Parliament the salt of the Army who being put out as certainly that will be their fate if the weather clear towards the North the Army will stink in the noses of all Europe I say if Fleetwood will not I hope somebody else will what 's next then why not a King one King or another King and then what is the benefit Richard Lord Protector is laid aside and King JOHN the Second comes up in his place At first it may be a Senate but then something for the honour of England a Duke of Venice Elective Election will do the work to get into the Throne but when once up it must be theirs and their heirs for ever if it be not made hereditary I 'le warrant you they know whom to nominate their Successor for it will not be prudence to leave that matter undetermined to go out of the world lest these Disciples should fall together by the ears about the question Who should be greatest If you will not believe your own experience who can help it I hope by this time your Commander in chief may make bold to put in and pull out who he please out with an Overton a Rich a Harrison and in with my Son Falconbridge my Cozen Lockhart and the rest of his well affected kindred and I shall not pity you a jot But if it should hap to Lamberts chance to be Dominus fac totum I hope those thorough-paced Protectorians who laughed so heartily when his Lordship was turned out of service by the Old Protector some of whom told me when I complained of my Lord Protectors carriage to him that it was no matter never was any man lesse pitied or lamented after he was all for himself he hoped to be next Protector and because nominating a Successor was agreed of therefore he was discontented I say certainly these men will now be contented to yield their places to men that were better affected and are the more endeared friends of his Lordship hitherto then you have notably well projected for your selves ye are shrewd Politicians What then shall you Govern the nation your selves a great purchase a burden to any honest man more then a benefit how many of you are like to share in this if that were true two or three of your Grandees and there 's your design no you hate the thought of this we mistake the matter and do you a great deal of wrong to suspect this What then you shall be better paid that 's well guessed in good sooth how will you have it why one way or other any how rather then fail we will have it by foul means if it will not come fairly no no you abuse us nothing shall be gathered but what is levyed by the people in Parliaments so far you are right and if ever you see a Parliament in England that will take so much care of you as this Parliament hath taken and was a taking for you that will raise you 120000 l. per mensem or 100000 l. per mensem as they have done for you if you could have kept your selves honest then spit in my face and tell me I lie No t is this Parliament that must hazard their Reputations to pay your Arrears and the Debts of the Nation and then future Parliaments may be more easily perswaded to grant such a Tax as may keep us always out of your Debt What then hath the Parliament Voted 9 of your Commanders out of their places doth this anger you and is this the bottom of the business and is this all your design to be avenged of them and the Nation for it goodly great ones What are these men trow that their particular concernments to be kept in Pay and Command should stand in competition with the Ruine of Three Nations a huge reach indeed But pray was it without good reason could the Parliament do lesse had not some of them promoted a General being of the Northern Brigade notwithstanding after the Parliaments dislike of it and after the Petition and Representation of the Army was presented and debated in the House which though it did not expresly require a GENERAL yet did strongly imply it and required some things of lesse consequence I say after this these 9 Grandees combined together in a Letter signed by them all to engage the subscriptions of a Regiment thereunto which was produced in Parliament and could have no other construction but if the Parliament would not grant their commands they should be made to do it which deserved a greater severity then being put out of their places The like practise