Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	common_a	england_n	king_n	8,307	5	3.8915	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96744	A cordial confection, to strengthen their hearts whose courage begins to fail, by the armies late dissolving the Parliament. It is wrapt up in an epistolary discourse, occasionally written to Mr. Ro. Hamon, merchant, by Geo. Wither, Esq; about a week after the said Parliament was dissolved; and is thus communicated by a copy thereof, as very pertinent to these distracted times, and tending to preservation of the common-peace. for (other things of publick concernment, being inter-woven) it truly states the peoples cause (in plain expressions, suitable to the vulgar capacities) and frees it from many scandals. It contains an expedient, (hitherto not heeded, or neglected) whereby Charles Stuart may be settled in peace, if he please: whereby, we may have a better Parliament then we lost, or ever had: whereby, our armies may be kept constant to order, whilst they are needful, and in a short time quite disbanded: whereby, the peoples just freedoms may be recovered and perpetuated: whereby, not onely these nations, but all Christendome also, may be established in a righteous peace; and it hath neither destructive inlet, outlet, or false bottom.	Wither, George, 1588-1667.	1659 (1659)	Wing W3151; Thomason E763_13; ESTC R207097	68,046	43

wherein we have been like so many Beasts and Serpents to each other and of GOD's bringing us as it were back again toward Egypt when we were well onward in our way to the Land of Rest was the not understanding or not regarding to observe and prosecute what he intended and our adhering to humane policy rather then to Divine Indictions like Jeroboam and Jehu who when GOD gave unto them their Masters Kingdomes with conditional promises to settle them upon their posterities lost them with dishonour for their disobedience and unthankfulness And as those two Kings trusted to their own Policy so did our Parliaments and Protectors though they were told upon what conditions the Kingdoms of their Masters were conferred upon them and they have added this to the rest of their sins that they have endeavoured to improve GOD's Donations another way and to another end then was providentially intended by that Decree of GOD which was written in Red Letters at a Trial in his Martial Court with points of Swords For when that great Controversie which had depended many Ages betwixt this people and their Kings concerning the usurped Prerogatives of the One and the Spiritual and Temporal Freedoms of the Other which last mentioned are Rights so due to the People by the Laws of GOD and Nature though long usurped that none there of make question but Tyrants and their Parasites or persons of a bruitish sensual and slavish Qualification when I say those Claims had been after several days of hearing as it were argued in the high places of the field between the late King and that part of the People who thought it more noble to be Free-men then to have badges of their servility clapt upon them as Titles of Honour when they had upon a joynt Appeal and a Trial by the Sword according to the known Common Law of England and the Law in force throughout all Nations a Verdict at a Court from whence there is no further Appeal and when likewise that Trial was past and quiet possession thereupon given to the Conquerors Reason required prosecutions of another Nature then those which were afterward begun and pretended thereby to settle the people in a future enjoyment of their Liberties and ancient Rights For they should immediately have repealed or altered all those Laws which had relation to a Tyrannical Government and laid a new Foundation proper to the Popular Interest yea as the Gentiles heretofore in like Case used to consult with their Apollo they should have consulted the Oracle of GOD and searched after such Directions as He commanded his people the Israeiites to follow when he made them Conquerors of Canaan which would rightly have instructed them what course they ought to take Among which Directions those that I remember as most considerable in our case are to this effect They were neither to serve their GODS nor to observe their LAWS nor make peace with those among them who should adhere to their former Idolatries and heathenish Customes nor spare so many of them for politick ends or through foolish pity as might endanger their own safety nor root them out all at once nor permit any of their own Tribes to enjoy an inheritance there who had not assisted their Brethren in the Conquest with such like which if our Governours had heeded and made use of so much of those Cautions and Precepts as were pertinent to our observation and practice doubtless our troubles had been ended long ago or at least we should not have had so many thorns in our sides as at this day we have Somewhat of this Nature and to the like purpose I offered to their consideration whom it concerned to take notice thereof but with little or no regard for not remembring that but a while since some of themselves then in power were as inconsiderable persons as I am they were so elevated that they thought it a disparagement to take advice in such matters from so obscure a person yet knowing my self concerned in the Publick Welfare I persisted in endeavouring what I thought pertinent thereto And when Oliver Cromwel late Lord Protector had taken upon himself the Supreme Authority thereto providentially admitted both for his own Probation and our I submitted according to my Principle grounded upon Divine Precepts to that Power which was in being and complyed with him in things tending to preservation of the Common-wealth in hope to insinuate thereby somewhat into his Consideration for Publick Advantage And because I had not such a measure of the Spirit which rested upon Elias as might warrant me to say unto my Soveraign Prince in plain terms Thou art wicked when I saw him prevaricate from what he had professed yet I endeavoured as Paul did to work upon King Agrippa first by publishing somewhat whereby I might preserve and encrease a good opinion without any sor did flattery though some who misunder stood my Poems have conceived otherwise and then I sought by private Addresses to screw into him a serious Consideration of his Duty in many particulars relating to GOD to the People and to Himself declaring boldly and plainly not a little to my personal disadvantage that the power conferred upon him was not vouchsafed for his own sake but that he might thereby glorifie GOD and settle upon his People those Rights which were so anciently and naturally their due that no Prescription could be a just bar to their Claim And though perhaps he surreptitiously and unjustly hastned to get possession of that power which GOD had designed him as Hazael did after the Prophet of GOD had foretold him he should be King yet I perceiving by his honourable new Title and by other Circumstances that GOD had permitted a more absolute Arbitrary Power to be devolved upon him then any of our Kings ever had because without such a Power it was impossible for him to bring us to a perfect Settlement being so unsettled and divided as we then were and yet are I presumed both to declare unto him to what intent that exorbitant Power was permitted how long he was to enjoy it in what manner he should thereby proceed and what would follow if he employed it to any other end But before I had presumed so far or declared any thing to the making ineffectual my good Intents by ought which might be distastful I then perceiving he took as little notice as the Parliament had done before their first Interruption of that course which I tought pertinent to the introducing of a Righteous Government and that he probably intended rather to establish it for his own and his Posterities advantage then for the Peoples Accommodation or else that he might trifle away the Opportunities then given by prosecuting his own Designes until they were lost I signified unto him in a Discourse prepared in form of a Declaration to these Nations how he might settle a Righteous Government as I believed with safety and honour if he would engage himself to the

many even of their best Friends to be jealous doubtful of their sincerity and constancy to that Cause which they have heretofore owned and vindicated which is true enough An Answer in part to that Objection may be implyed toward the Extenuation thereof by asking what other Party or Persons impowred to serve the Publick in Place and Affairs of high Trust hath not as much failed in like manner and receded from former Votes and Resolutions with connivence when either they who should have called them to an accompt for it were as much guilty or when it could not be done without hazarding the Common Peace in regard of the Delinquents power Whether also it be not more agreeable to Justice and a good Conscience to vary our Purposes or counter-act to our former Engagements then to prosecute them when we find they will destroy that end for which we first engaged And whether we have not more cause to confide in those without suspect who are changeable upon that score then in them who foolishly think it a point of honour wilfully to persevere in what they have promised right or wrong though it be destructive to them unto whom their promises were made yea and to the Popular safety against which no Promise or Engagement is obliging What persons intrusted have not been sometimes inforced to mutability either by emergent accidents or by disagreement among themselves or by the counter-actings of those to whom they were subordinate or with whom they were co-ordinate or by some other distinct power But though neither their Judgment nor their Conscience nor a real necessity inclined the Officers of the Army to what hath been lately done but that a Souldier-like Indignation onely provoked by the apprehension of some undeserved affront or disrespect had rashly transported them yet their and the publick interest are so complicated that they being considered as men in whom humane infirmities are to be expected and then at this time as Causa sine qua non the persons who have now the most visible power of this Commonwealth in their hands it would at such a Juncture of Affairs evidence more madness in my judgment then prudence not to comply with them in an amicable manner to secure that which IS rather then to destroy it by quarrelling about that which IS NOT and which was likely enough as in effect it did to have destroyed it Self the Army and many other if it had much longer continued I will not defend any mans arregular actings of whose Irregularities I know not the Motives nor will I absolutely condemn them For though it be my Principle not wilfully to act contrary to Rule because I never had Motive internally nor warrant externally so to do by any compulsive necessity or otherwise Nevertheless I know there have been heretofore and that possibly there may be now and hereafter when the people of GOD are in extraordinary streights such impulses of spirit inducing other men at some times to extraordinary Executions that I dare not judge them to be performed with an evil conscience or without Divine approbation because I am not privy to the secret passages which are or may be betwixt GOD and the Prosecutors and because also I finde that the Holy-Ghost hath justified many in undertakings of that nature as Phineas Rahab Jael and others remembred in Holy Scripture who were active so repugnantly to common Rules of just proceeding and to the literal sence of Laws morally and ordinarily obliging that I should have thought them worthy to have been condemned for Murther Treason Truce-breaking and barbarously infringing the Law of Hospitality if the Spirit of GOD had not by Sacred Writ informed me that those Prosecutions were effects of their Faith The example which many do take from these aforenamed to precipitate themselves into the like actings by a deluding Spirit working upon their Corruptions who read the Scriptures with an unsanctified heart is nevertheless to be carefully heeded and a voyded and there are many Symptomes and concemitant Circumstances observable some of which I have enumerated in one of my private Addresses heretofore made to Oliver late Protector upon occasion offered whereby every man may discern infallibly whether a good or an evil Spirit hath inclined him to such undertakings and I do believe that there have been in these latter days as well as heretofore good causes why GOD should vouchsafe extraordinary dispensations For I have been an Eye-witness and according to my understanding a diligent Observer of what GOD and Men have done in these latter times by being constrained to reside most part of my life where Affairs of publick Concernment were managed and was bound to that attendance which gave opportunity to be assured of what I have heard and seen as also to be thereupon moved to publish Remembrances bearing witness for this and for future Ages as I believe touching the Controversies which GOD had with these Islands during the Reigns of King Charles and his Father with Memorials of the Prevarications that then were of the Interchanges of Judgements and Mercies whereby GOD visited them with timely Fore-warnings of what hath since befallen that Family and these Nations in many particulars wherein GOD's Justice is evident with what mind soever it was prosecuted by the Executioners thereof I have likewise for the most part been continually Resident ever since the beginning of the Parliament last sitting and lately dissolved where I might and did take notice of their most signal Transactions not without being made sensible of some of them I was personally known to the greatest number of them as likewise to very many of the following onventions called Parliaments and had so many occasions to know them that few private persons of my degree hath had experimentally a more perfect cognizance of what they were or of what they did And I do profess in the fear of GOD that I conceived the few right-principled and conscientions men among them were able to do so little good and the rest to act so much evil that as I have sometimes publickly intimated I expected nothing from them but an encrease of Confusions likely to produce inevitable Destruction until the late Restoration of the first Parliament on whom I for a while hoped GOD's extraordinary Mercy to them vouchsafed might have so wrought that it would have produced extraordinary good effects But that miraculous Restoration was forgotten so quickly by too many of them that it produced little of that fruit which was expected though just prosecutions were as I believe seriously intented and endeavoured by some among them Their needless neglect of common Justice to distressed Suppliants ready to perish and their gross partiality was so apparent their time so wasted by impertinencies their proceedings otherwhile so slow and another while so rash the Notions of some so metaphysical and of othersome so meerly carnal their Results so wavering or contradictory interferings so frequent and their puzlings so many to

and their Abettors sharers in the goods they catried away when they are again recovered Or do we make them keepers or disposers of our persons or estates Did Gideon make them to be partakers of his Victory when he overcame Zeba and Zalmunna who when he was in pursuit of them derided him instead of relieving his fainting Army with bread Verily they ought to be rewarded like them who have opposed the Common Cause by their hands tongues or pens and even they also who have not therein assisted their brethren rather then to be vouchsafed partnership in their Freedoms And it would not only manifest these Nations to be very imprudent if without good assurance of their being better affected to their just Cause then heretofore they do admit them both to an equal enjoyment of that and all other Freedomes with themselves and to a capacity upon their imprudent claim thereof to be their Lawgivers the Keepers of their Liberties and Disposers of their Estates and Persons But it would imply also a high contempt of GOD's late Dispensations to communicate the benefit of them to his Opposers The right of chusing and of being chosen Members of Parliament is now in those onely who have gotten it by Conquest the Law of Conquest is paramount to all their humane Laws it is nor onely Municipal but Catholick and gives just Liberty to the Conquering Party to make new Laws as they please and to continue suspend abrogate or reform all other humane Laws within their own Territories as they conceive them to be helpful or a hinderance to their Common Welfare It is that Law by which the LORD of HOSTS hath decided our Cause as I said before it is that by which all the most famous Monarchies of the world in all Ages were first constituted and settled before they could safely lay the Sword aside to be governed by other Laws and they who are dissatisfied with that settlement are not to be regarded That therefore which the Parliament should have done in my judgement when the power of the Sword was in their hands and that which their late Successours ought to have prosecuted when for the Parliaments failings the same power was translated to them was not to employ their Authority and the Revenues of the Commonwealth thereby grasped that they might advance themselves build up what GOD hath broken down trifle away precious opportunities and consume the publick Treasure in making an Image of the BEAST formerly adored or in patching up that which was useless and not possibly repairable and would more encrease then diminish the Peoples Grievances They ought not under a pretended Zeal to the Common Welsare instead of contriving a Government whereby Justice might be indifferently and impartially administred to all and every man been thereby equally made capable of honour and profit according to his merit for an encouragement to Vertue to have plotted how to model it so as that Employments and Dignities whereby the publick Honour and Safety may be most advanced or hazarded should be continued to themselves conferred on their nearest Relations and derived to their Posterity But on the contrary they should have improved GOD's appearing for us and the power thereby acquired like magnanimous Conquerers to settle in despight of opposition such a Government as GOD would have given them a pattern of had they sought it and whereby Justice and Mercy should have been duly administred They should have exercised that power in making as it were a new Heaven and a new Earth by establishing the Superior Orbs in motions tending to Pious and Righteous Dispensations and by confining every part of their inferiour Globe to such Rules of obedience to their Governours and to such Agreements among themselves that good Influences might reciprocally descend and ascend to preserve the honour and well-being of both Which by prudent men having courage fearing GOD and hating covetousness might have been effected by the power which they had once yea oftentimes in their hands and made up these three Nations into one well-tempered Body though consisting of many thousands disagreeing in Judgements Manners and Affections some good some evil some indifferent so that they might have peaceably been made serviceable to GOD and to each other as a skilful Apothecary makes a wholsome confection by mixing many Simples of contrary qualities even of Vipers Serpents and some Drugs poysonous in their own nature which in Composition make the best Ingredients the more vertuous To this end was an Arbitrary Power put into their hands by the Sword which if they had known how they should have used it would have been a comfort to good men and a terrour to the wicked partial self-seekers onely to whom it hath been hitherto most advantageous We fought to preserve our Freedoms which were left and to recover those we had lost yea we fought for our Laws but not for those which were imposed upon us by their prevailings who had corrupted or over-voted our Trustees by a Party of their own and established wickedness for a Law by which means our Laws that are magnified by some as if it were more haynous then Sacrilege to seek to have any of them reformed are become in their execution at least more oppressive then the Sword For I am confident that the needless expences thereby yearly occasioned do amount to much more then all that which is yearly charged to maintain the States Fleets and Armies and that as many if not more are impoverished thereby every year as were in any one year by plundering during the late War It would fill a Volume to enumerate the Practises and Formalities occasioning the vast expence and intolerable Vexations whereto men plunged into that misery are liable especially such as are compelled to travel above 200 miles four or five times in a year from their habitations Yea even our Trials by Juries which is applauded as one of these most equal ways of determining Controversies is no less injurious then any by reason of the Ignorance and Corruption of Juries packt by as corrupt Officers as also by the shortness of the time whereto a great number of Causes at times of trial are limited both at London and Westminster as also at the Assizes in the Counties where by the straightness of the place otherwhile and by other considerable defects Trials are frequently so superficially and hastily slubber'd over Parties and Witnesses on whose Testimony the whole Livelyhood of Persons and Families depend so thronged interrupted discountenanced or negligently heard and examined that a Cast at Dice would have given a cheaper and a more righteous Verdict then is passed in some Causes But this is beside my Text and not added out of any disaffection to our Laws or Lawyers for I honour the Laws and the Professors thereof who are unreproveable It may be for these and other Oppressions of that kind whose removal some grand Gown-men are thought to obstruct GOD hath stirred up the Sword-men to

way to what shall afterward be executed according to GOD's purpose are deluded by the Devil or by their own Lusts and Passions to be brought to condign punishment for some known or secret sins formerly committed rather then warrantably called Yea and when men are duly called to such attempts and the main work which GOD intended thereby is outwardly accomplished for his glory and the publick welfare yet if there be a defect of any such Circumstance or Qualification as is essential to the sanctification thereof or at least any falshood or hypocrisie unrepented of relating thereto in the Actors they will thereby lose much of their honour and reward Thus much is transcribed out of the forementioned Address Now whether that which was acted enormously by the Officers of the Army was accompanied with the fore-mentioned Circumstances or not it will more concern them then us to be assured of We can have no certainty of it because it is a Transaction between GOD and their Consciences onely but of this we may be certain to preserve in us a charitable hope of them that there may be sometime extraordinary actings contrary to ordinary standing Laws and Orders agreeable to the well-pleased Will of GOD both internally and externally warranted For Phineas upon his single knowledge of a transgression committed executed Justice upon the Offenders without an ordinary Commission yet he was highly honoured and rewarded for it and Jehu slew the King his Master which by Our Law made him guilty of a double Treason and High Treason it was questionlesly accounted by the Jewish Law yet GOD recompenced it with a Kingdom which his Posterity should have inherited for that service if he and they had but performed those conditions whereupon it might have been confirmed If it be alledged He was visibly anointed to that purpose by a Prophet I may answer That of little force his anointing had been if there had not been also a spiritual anointing much more effectual poured out in visibly upon him and his Companions for Jehu in himself was considerable for nothing that we know of but his furious march and his Companions as their own words imply judged the Prophet who anointed him to be a mad fellow by his deportment and for ought I perceive the Jews for the most part in those and future times had no better opinion of their Prophets then men have in these dayes of the Quakers and of some other among us because many of their actings whereby they were made signes to that Generation appeared to them as ridiculous as those which are perhaps permitted at this time to be signal to us And what would then the visible pouring forth of Oyl have effected without a spiritual anointing which like the white stone mentioned in the Revelation is onely known to him that hath it This consideration with such-like makes me think fitter to look to my own Actions and Warranties for them then to judge of other mens proceedings whose Warrants I cannot know This I well know That we are in an exceeding desperate condition and like the Frogs and Mice preparing to a Battel which if not prevented will expose us to the Kite nay we are in a far greater hazard according to my apprehension of it for we appear to my Fancie not unfit to be resembled in what may probably befal us to a great number of Bulls and Lyons Bears and Dogs Men and Horses Tygers and Goats Wolves and Sheep Foxes and Lambs Swine and Leopards Women and Children Innocents and Malefactors armed and unarmed Princes and Peasants Pastors and their Flocks Old and Young Poor and Rich thrust and thronged all together promiscuously into the Cirque of a Theater to be torn and to tear each other to pieces whilst our Neighbours Foes and Friends if we have any sit Spectators on seats round about to behold that horrible Spectacle till we being destroyed or wearied with destroying each other they may come down without danger to themselves and divide the spoil of that which is left possess our Estates and make slaves of our persons yet that Herd of Beasts which we call the common People is so stupid and insensible of what is likely to come upon them that like natural Fools they sit grinning on each other in those meeting places where they recreate themselves by hearing and repeating those things which are beginnings of their own destruction run together with a brutish delight to be Spectators of their own miseries and massacres to ensue if an over-ruling Providence prevent it not and like mad-men rejoyce when they think it begun Of this I my self have often took notice and particularly upon that day whereon the Parliament was last interrupted For when by the Vollies of Shot it was in London supposed that the Parliaments Guards and the Armies Forces were engaged the people who then flocked into the Temple to look toward Vestminster where they hoped that Engagament was begun did in my sight and hearing express their barbarous joy with so much disaffection to both Parties and with such unchristian Language and unmanly Gesticulations that being filled with grief and transported with indignation I could not withhold from openly reproving them O GOD By what ordinary course is such a Frenzie curable whose power can calm the rage of such Waters but thine onely who commandest the storming Winds and art obeyed and when thou sayest to the Seas Proceed no further The Vessel of this Commonwealth now weather-beaten and torn is in more danger then that wherein jonas would have fled to Tarsus for though we have cast forth a great part of our Goods to secure it our danger still continues and increaseth and we are not so sensible of it nor so much think upon GOD or on our sins which are the cause of it as the Heathen Mariners then did Moreover that Ship had but one Delinquent which occasioned the Storm and his being thrown into the Sea brought immediate safety They had many Skilful Sea-men to guide it but all our Pilots are cast over-board and none left in appearance but guilty Passengers This might make me despair yet my Hope is greater then my Fear by contemplating GOD's mercy to Jonas For though he were a Delinquent who had knowingly offended as it were in a contempt of GOD though he were cast out into the Sea far from Lan● where was no hope of escaping though it was when that Sea was so extraordinarily enraged by a Storm that it made safety less hopeful and though he was then swallowed by a Whale which was as it were conveying of him down quick to Hell as he himself apprehended it from whence there is no redemption yet he was preferved by that which was naturally irrecoverably of it self destructive and vouchsafed also so much Grace as to be imployed again in the service of him and by him against whom he had been rebellious Oh GOD how infinite are thy Mercies and how exceeding merciful are the severest of thy

Souldiers if any be depraved or make the Souldiery by their Officers late example to cast off their obedience to them as they did cast off their obedience to the late Parliament and perhaps with as good or a better Conscience then some of them have so done though they were thereto really necessitated For if the Souldiery shall be jealous of any self-ends in their Officers from whence the late Innovation might spring or are not convinced in their Consciences that the late defection was warranted by GOD and by an unquestionable necessity apparent to them and shall withal perceive that it will plunge them into a Bloody Engagemem against each other both to the destroying of themselves and to the endangering of their Country as probably it will I hope they will consider by whom they are paid their Wages for whose defence and service they are imbodied that they are a part of the same Body which is to be secured which is exposed at this time to hazard and that they are not obliged to obey those who abuse their trust contrary to that end for which they had it conferred upon them and that then they will deliver up their Delinquent Officers and not make themselves guilty of other mens crimes lest they hazard the whole Army as the Benjamites did their whole Tribe by not delivering up the Delinquents of Gibea who did abuse to death the Levites Concubine But if the Parliament cannot be restored or if though they may the said Parliament cannot confide in the Army or if the Army being reconciled shall be perswaded in Conscience that the late Parliament was not capable of making a firm Settlement and that their Officers having with good warrant done that which they did and knowingly intend such a course as will more conduce to an Establishment of the Peoples just Liberties and safety then that which the Parliament prosecuted and that it will be also more speedy and more honourable both to these Nations and to them what must we then do Doubtless we must then submit to the present necessity and to that expedient which they will prosecute and those men of understanding courage honesty and piety who believe it to be so and rake notice what a hazardous and desperate condition this Commonwealth is visibly and unquestionably in at this time being called together and impowered by those on whom the supreme Power is now devolved must act for our preservation so far forth as they are able notwithstanding any Law heretofore made to discourage them and leave the event to GOD for no man that acts for common safety when the Sword hath absolute power and shall also command it can justly be questioned afterward for acting contrary to any former Law which could be binding no longer then during that time wherein the Civil Sword had Soveraignty Indeed if during that time he acts contrary to such Laws as were made for a Legal Government and to the destroying thereof or shall not conform again to those Laws when a Military Jurisdiction is to be laid aside he is a Traytor is lyable to condign punishment and not for acting that which necessity required when the Sword superseded the Law formerly in force But who hath Authority to levy money for payment of the Souldiers and to defray other contingent expences that a proceed may be made toward settling a Government and that Plunder Free quarter and the common Enemies attempts may be prevented the mean while I will imply an Answer to these Questions by asking who is not authorized to do it in such a case as we are in or may be in if he be actually in Arms and sufficiently strengthned so to do especially if commissioned by those who have the most visible supreme Authority to secure the Publike Interest Or who though not commissioned by any is not warranted if he be enabled and shall do it sincerely to endeavour preservation of the Common safety and interest by an Arbitrary Proceeding in a time of universal danger and when it cannot be done in a legal manner May any man come without blame and with thanks to help save a single City endangered by a raging Fire and take Instruments useful thereto out of any mans possession Yea enter into his house and pull it down if need be or burn the Suburbs of a City whereby an Enemy may be advantaged in laying a Siege thereunto and the said City be lost And shall it not be allowable for any man to do as much for preservation of the whole Commonwealth consisting of many Cities Counties Towns and Villages yea of three populous Nations when they are in danger to be destroyed or which is worse to be inslaved Are not all the Goods and Lands yea and the Persons also within a Commonwealth her Goods and Lands and Persons whose soever they are or in whose occupation propriety or possession soever they be This cannot be denyed and may she not then take her own to secure her self wheresoever she findes it Verily it may lawfully be taken by the Law of Nature and Salus Populi which is the Supreme Law whereto all other humane Laws are subservient and cursed is he above all other Transgressors of humane Laws who either abuseth this Law by neglecting to put it in execution so far as he is able when need requires it or who shall pretend to a necessity when there is none or make it seem greater then it is to advantage his private Designes to the oppressing of other men and wicked and unjust is that Commonwealth o● Ciyt which when the danger is past doth not contribute out of the Common Purse a reasonable repair of their particular damages whose goods were seized or spoiled to prevent a general detriment by an Arbitrary or irregular Act. One Objection more may be yet made which is implyed in this Verse of the Poet Nulla fides pietasve viris qui castra sequuntur No Faith or Piety is in their words Who have no living but their Swords Armies are as dangerous and unstable as the Seas ebbing flowing calmed inraged turning and returning as Windes and Tydes move them They are but an Arm of Flesh you will say and we can have no assurance of their constancy whereby we may be confident thereof and our Army may set up one of their own Officers or call in Charles Stuart or make some other use of their power at last for their own advantage to the destroying of the Peoples interest and what shall we then do Truly we must then do as I hope you and I do now and ever shall do in prosperity and adversity We must do as the Israelites did when they were oppressed It is recorded that when for their sins they were as we now are at such and such a time so and so oppressed they cryed unto GOD and obtained deliverance They cryed and were delivered and sinned again and cryed again and were again and again delivered as we have often been Yea

Government 1. That all persons whosoever pretending right to a Supremacy over these Nations were to be for ever excluded 2. That no other single person or number of men great or small should have a Perpetual Soveraignly but be sometimes reducible to a condition of Subjection 3. That none should govern Arbitrarily but by positive Laws except in extraordinary emergent necessities so long time onely as the necessity should require it by their Judgement and Assent who are competent Judges of that necessity 4. That no mans Propriety should be infringed but in the like necessity and that recompence should be made out of the Publick Purse as soon as may be after the necessity is removed to every one then damnified thereby 5. That the Peoples Trustees may have election of all Publick Officers and GOD have his choyce by lot out of those Elections 6. That GOD 's Throne in the Consciences of men may be usurped by no humane Power and that no man or men impowered under pretence of Conscience or otherwise may enjoy any Liberty or Priviledge contrary to the Moral Laws of GOD or the Law of Nature or destructive to humane society or to the giving any Forraign Power or Person a Jurisdiction within this Commonwealth or to the obstructing of Common Right and Justice 7. That whosoever will not submit and subscribe to those Fundamentals when it is required shall be as an excommunicated person having no benefit of the Laws or Protection by the said Government and suffer as a Traytor if by act or word he wilfully infringe them Such Contemplations as these relating to our future Government I long since had and here and there hinted them in Publick and Private expressions to some in Authority and though they were then little regarded I hear that some of them are lately taken into Consideration and I might have added more perhaps as considerable as those if I had not perceived that my Overtures had been sleighted by them who saw they obstructed what was designed for their private advantages But why this Generation which pretendeth much to the gifts of the Spirit that shall be vouchsafed to his Children in the last Ages of the world should be so averse from those Cautions Forewarnings Tenders and Expedients by me exhibited I conceive not unless it be out of Self-wil and Pride of Heart Why may not GOD if he so please save this Commonwealth by a poor mans Expedient that is not very wise as well as he did heretofore save a City by a poor wise man that was as little regarded Some indeed have been pleased to ask my Advice with seeming seriousness as if they thought it might be pertinent to their well-being as the Jews did some of their approved Prophets pretending Conformity therein but when they perceived it was not consistent with their own D●signes and Self-ends they wholly waved it as those did If to have Evidences of my being rightly informed by a measure of Divine Grace and by what hath succeeded on my Pre-conjectures there have been some such evidences on my part If Education may be a means of informing me I was educated in our Universities and Inns of Court If to be a Souldier may ought qualifie me I was a Commander in our first Army so conformable to the Precept given to Souldiers by John Baptist in resting content with my pay that I have not been malevolently discontented though nigh 1700 l. made due to me by an Ordinance of Parliament hath been kept from me almost 17 years without receiving either the Principal or Interest though 700 l. thereof was money lent and for which I have paid interest ever since and though I may possibly be kept without it 17 years longer longer If Manifestations of my good Affection to the Common Safety and Welfare may make my offers considerable I have contributed without compulsion the adventuring of my Estate and Life If my Religion be of any concernment I am a Christian and a Protestant If my Conversation be pertinent who can object ought against it or lay any thing to my charge If a competency of Estate be requisite to gain esteem I wanted not that until I was deprived thereof by Oppression and by the want of Justice and Mercy in other men If to have conversed with Books and to have observed long time the manners of men and to have heeded the Constitution of our present times and Affairs may be any thing helpful to inform me what may be now expedient I have had those helps also Nay if to be poor ignorant contemn'd meanly gifted and of a low and obscure condition are such qualifications as make men in these days most capable of illumination and of that knowledge whereby they may best serve their Country in giving good advice I am in all these respects as likely to be that way serviceable as any of those Huntsmen Falconers Taylors Tinkers Coblers Plow-men Brewers or Dray men which are now or have been heretofore Officers of the Army Members of Parliament of Committees of Safety or Counsellors of State And if I had the volubility of tongue which is in some Ignorance enough to make me confidently speak Non-sence and many words to little purpose the shamelessness of a Whore the Conscience of an Hypocrite and the valour of an English Mastiff to flye upon any dangerous attempt without fear or wit and but that advantage which two or three Officers of the Army have at this present I should not think it a hard matter if GOD as one of the Royal Party once said stood neuter and as our Affairs now stand to make my self a King or a Protector or something equivalent either before next March or else before Spain and France had complemented themselves into a firm and lasting Reconcilement as near to a conclusion as they now think it to be Though I have hitherto publickly contributed my endeavours in vain yet I will privately as I do now employ my Talent to preserve the Common Peace in hope to bring in by a more acceptable hand those things which I conceive pertinent to consideration and which will be a means to stir abler Instruments to become active toward establishing such a Righteous Government as is yet possible or at least to prevent some of those mischiefs which Anarchy threatens For if all the Premises were duly considered by those whom they concern and what Results may rationally be deduced from them they would discover an Expedient and the onely Expedient now loft if they be capable of any wherein they themselves may be active by which these Nations Charles Stuart our Governours that are or may be and all the Princes of Europe may be happy make all their Subjects and Neighbours partakers of the same happiness and escape that Doom which they are in danger to undergo with that Scarlet Whore by whose Cup of Fornications they have been made drunk I will declare without respect of persons what that Expediont is though I

been a King and not a Tyrant and would have raigned in Righteousness as by the Laws of GOD and Nature he was obliged to do For it cannot be reasonably imagined but that those were the implicite conditions of all their Protestations and Engagements But he so obstinately persevered in his wilfulness even when there was a Treaty for Reconcilement that he disobliged them from all their promises and compelled the prosecution of that which afterward ensued and was not at first intended And I do here to the Glory of GOD aver though I know it may be to my personal disadvantage that GOD's doom was justly executed upon him for his own sins and the sins of his Fathers house with what intent soever and with what juglings soever it was prosecuted by men and that the Peoples Cause was and is a Righteous Cause though it was not so prudently and righteously managed as it might and ought to have been and I believe it is too evident that some of both Parties by seeking to screw in personal advantages to themselves at the Treaty and at other times were the Causers of all that mis-befel both to the King and to the People I may rationally believe this because I had opportunities to discover much of their sinister actings on both sides tending to the trapanning of each other if I am not mis-informed which justly provoked GOD and occasioned Confusions to the insnaring of many well-meaning men to the involving them in guiltiness troubles and hazards from which they will not easily be delivered I many times adventured not without danger to my self to inform the King what I had observed and when he was Prisoner in the Isle of Wight signified by what means he might then unquestionably have made his peace both with GOD and Men as I have done without regard to his Successours but he adhered still to his evil Counsellours or rather to his own wilfulness which was enough to have depraved them if they had been good and instead of complying with his Parliament so endeavoured even when he was their Prisoner by corrupting the Scots and a great number of the Parliaments Members with large Promises that he was likely by plowing with their Oxen either to have cheated them of all the Peoples Freedoms or to have plunged the three Nations into a new War and this caused the Armies first extraordinary attempt at which the Royal Party and their Confederates have so much railed as a high breach of the Parliaments Priviledges and of the Peoples Freedoms whereas they could not at that time have been any other way preserved in humane understanding And therefore then and not before that part of the Parliament which was true to the trust reposed in them by the People did with the Assistance of their Army seeing as I conceive no way else but removing him out of the world to prevent the treacheries of their corrupt Members and the Kings Destructive Designes carried on by their complyance they out-witted him at his own game and Stratagems being as lawful against an Enemy as Force got possession of his person brought him to a Legal Tryal and condemned him to death A Legal Tryal was it you will say perhaps by what Law or by what Authority Truly I was heartily sorry for him when he was condemned and so far from having any hand therein or assenting thereto that I drew a Petition to the Parliament to forbear from executing the sentence of the Court by reason the rarity of such an Act made me then abhor it but no Member daring to present it and I having thereby opportunity to consider better of my intention was satisfied in my Conscience that he was Legally condemned by that Law which makes it Treason for a Servant to seek the destruction of his Master who had trusted him that he was no more but a principal Servant to the People justly questionable for breach of his Trust and that by the same Authority whereby the People might raise any one from among themselves to be their Supreme Officer they might for his ingratitude and violation of the trust reposed in him judge depose or condemn him to death as his Crime and the necessity of preserving the Common Peace or Safety should require and the Son of him whose Predecessours had for many Generations been Steward of a Princes Family and who was executed for his Treason thereto may as justly claim that he and his Posterity should be still Stewards thereof because his said Predecessours had been injurious and false unto it for many Ages together as Charles Stuart may claim to be King by inheritance over these Nations Upon these Considerations it seemeth to me and may appear to others that the Peoples Cause hath been unjustly scandalized and that a false opinion derived unto the late King from his Progenitors settled in him by long Usurpation and confirmed by the Flatteries of his Courtiers Chaplains and other Parasites made him believe that GOD had given him a right to all that which he claimed though it were contrary to the positive Law whereby he had commanded Kings to be regulated and repugnant also to that Law which was written in his heart until he had blotted it out For none but they who are more worthy to be made Beasts then Men can imagine that our ever-wise just and most merciful GOD except by permission when a Nation depraved by their own vanity foolishness and slavish mind desires it would have constituted such a destructive Monster as an unlimited Governour and advance a few men in every Generation yea and sometimes the vilest out of the vilest among them to subject all the rest to his lust and ambition upon a just Title as if all the residue of man-kind had been created for the sake of Tyrants Doubtless no reasonable Creature can imagine this or think it impossible as in appearance many do that they cannot be well governed without such a gay Bable as they usually make of it or that it is displeasing to GOD that when he hath given them power and opportunity so to do a People should endeavour to shake off their Fetters and establish such a Government as may preserve their Temporal Rights and Freedoms without admitting such Disturbers of humane society for the time to come These and such things as these must be well considered by Charles Stuart to prepare his heart before my Expedient will be pertinent and profitable unto him As I had means to be rightly informed of the Kings Cause so I had of the Parliaments also by being thereby called to a Military Command in their first Army to the execution of Civil Magistracy in the Commonwealth and by being inforced to attend almost 18 years at the latter end of my life in hope to obtain Justice from them or their Interruptors For by these means I knew the greatest part of them so far forth as Trees are known by their Fruits which may accidentally be made better or worse

together with that Moral Law which was universally obliging And as GOD and the People had then a concurrence in the Election of their Magistrates so it will be when the Kingdom of CHRIST is settled among us LORD Hasten the coming of it and let not the many struglings of thy people in these Nations at this time to make way for it be altogether in vain You must pardon my Immethodical Ramblings to remove such Obstructions as I conceive may hinder my Expedient and bear with my suddain stepping aside otherwhile from the matter in hand to do that which I think pertinent to my purpose whilst it is in my remembrance for the disorders of these times do not afford me leasure to order my own musings but having expressed as much as I can at present think on by way of Preparative I will now apply my Expedient to those whom it may concern I am grieved to perceive how witty most men are to raise Arguments against Truth and their own Peace and should be glad that our greatest Enemies might be reducible to that happiness which they have lost and that they who are exposed to many Temptations by dwelling in Mesech and sojourning in the Tents of Kedar might have a more comfortable habitation For I believe some among them who opposed our Cause acted in their understanding upon a principle of Justice or Honour which they thought obliged them unto what they did which makes me much pity their misfortune I never heard any dishonourable mention of the two Brothers of Charles Stuart or that they acted against this Commonwealth maliciously but were active onely so far forth as they thought themselves in Conscience Alleageance and Natural Affection obliged to their Brother and I wish they might enjoy the Conveniences whereof they are deprived with our safety and though their Brother hath acted upon his own accompt and yet prosecuteth such things as are destructive to our Peace and though by that which we are informed of his inclination we have cause to be suspitious that those prejudices and affections which are settled in him will never be so clearly removed as to make him capable of any Expedient which may bring him hither in Peace and to the advantage of these Nations yet not knowing how that GOD who hath all mens hearts in his hand may please to sanctifie his afflictions and thereby prepare him to what seems else impossible and considering that all the other Parties aforementioned are as unable as he to perform of themselves the conditions of my Expedients without special grace they shall have a Latitude as well to comprehend him respectively as any other whom they may concern that he or they who shall first conform thereto may first have benefit thereby without respect of persons I have declared what Prejudicacies must be removed before they can be effectually entertained and therefore now I come to the Expedients themselves which I communicate to you in private rather then by Publication because what I have heretofore offered of that nature hath been little regarded and because I know that if any of the Parties aforementioned shall be capable of them GOD will either by you or by some other hand cause them to be seasonably brought to their Cognizance or direct them thereunto by his immediate grace All those Parties in general must resolve in the fi●st place to deny themselves and act more for GOD's Glory and for the Publick Welfare according to his revealed Will to the Dictates of a rectified Conscience so must Patriots in particular more faithfully then they have done for the most part heretofore among which I have less hope of them who by their deportment words and actions seem to call out as Jehu did to Jehonadab Come see my zeal for the LORD c. Governours by what Title soever they are called who desire to be at peace with their Neighbours and their Subjects over whom they reign or to recover that Dignity and Authority which they have lost or to be made happy and contented without it must consider that GOD the LORD of HOSTS who is Soveraign Paramount over all Kingdoms and Republicks in the world beholds all their unrighteous Designes proceeding from Ambition Lust or Avarice that notwithstanding all their hypocritical Pretendings to Religion and Justice he knows when they regard it no further then it may advance their corrupt interests that he heeds their bruitsh bustlings and dissembled complementings one with another their barbarous and inhumane devastations of their own and other Countries to satiate their revenge or to uphold their pomp by Fire Sword and Rapine to the destroying of Humane Society and to the making millions of men miserable who might have lived comfortably if they who were advanced for their Weal had not made themselves a plague to Man-kind by tyrannizing no less over their Consciences then their Estates and Persons under pretence of being GOD's Vice-gerents whereas they do rather make true the Devils vaunt who boasted that all the Kingdoms of this world were at his dispose which implies that they are then his Vice-roys and Deputies They must also consider that GOD's Long-suffering permits their extravagancies not as prerogatives justly due unto them but that every thing should for a time onely manifest it self in its own nature to be purged in its own fire that evil men may be mutual Corrections for their own sins that by inter-wrangling Judgements and Mercies he may bring them if possible to timely repentance and amendment and that if they bring not forth fruits at last answerable to his expectation he may be glorified in executing Justice call them to a strict account and with his Iron Mace break them in pieces like a Potters Vessel which can never be set together again as lately and often heretofore he hath done to other Tyrants and Oppressours Having duly considered these things with such like they must then resigne to GOD his Throne in mens Consciences and permit his People to enjoy the Liberties due to them by the Laws of Grace and Nature ruling for the future in Righteousness By practising this Expeent and continuing constant therein they shall be established in Power and Peace both at home and abroad as Vice-roys and Vice-gerents to the King of kings and Lord of lords with more honor then a Tyrant can acquire by an Universal Monarchy and unlimited Prerogatives yea if they can but get hearts willing to embrace this Expedient after they are irrecoverably cast out of their Governments or Kingdoms they shall be as happy and as well contented as if they were again restored This is my Expedient for all Governours in general and it will be pertinent to Charles Stuart in particular But there may somewhat more be added which will specially belong to him and I could wish it might be to him so seasonably and respectively communicated that not being entertained as a jeering of him in his affliction which baseness my Soul abhors he