of sober spirits and offended not the Parliament should out of their estates pay for those extravagant mens Delinquency rather than the Delinquents themselves And although the said Lieut. Gen. Ludlow and Miles Corbet Esq together with Col. John Jones and Col. Mat. Tomlinson stand impeached from hence most justly of High Treason and that charge against them being known to the House and there remaing yet they have admitted two of those persons namely the said Lieut Gen. Ludlow and Miles Corbet actually to sit in the said House And now the greatness of those miseries which have befaln these three Nations in General by such late actings in England and those heightned with many aggravations in the circumstances of them too many and too long to be repeated as it hath begotten in us and in all good men in the three Nations deep impression of astonishment and horror so it is evident that if it be any longer continued it will perpetually nourish dishonour to God grief to all god men and we doubt and fear utter infamy and destruction to the three Nations In contemplation whereof and considering how God hath in his justice blasted all attempts that since the year 1648. have been made for re-setling of these Nations in peace and tranquillity and that after all the trials and various changes of Government which we have in all that time with much long-suffering and patience endured there is no way visible to us under Heaven whence deliverance may be probably wrought or expected but from the care and wisdome of a Free and full Parliament in England which by the experience of all former ages hath been found the best and only expedient for providing remedies to be applied to so great and general mischiefs arising in Church or State And considering also that the marks of the true Reformed Religion according to the Word of God and of the fundamental Laws of the Land and of our now dying Liberties and Freedome are not yet so utterly razed and defaced but that some footsteps of them do yet remain so as by the wisdome of a full and Free Parliament they may be again renewed and firmly re-established and considering likewise that our hopes of having the said excluded Members restored and of new Elections to be made for vacant places whereby there might be a full and free Parliament as there was on Decem. 5. 1648. and the antient and long contested Liberties of the people might be asserted are much contrary to our expectations and contrary to the fundamental Laws of the Land and indeed contrary to all justice and become frustrated and considering further how unjust and unreasonable a thing it is that of above five hundred Members whereof the Commons House of Parliament usually consisted there were but four and forty or thereabouts when that fatal Vote passed for the keeping out the aforesaid excluded Members by the prevalency of a major part of the said 44. persons not much exceeding those who voted then on the contrary side which assumes to it self the Supreme Authority not onely of England but also of the three Nations without president or example of any former age there being above two hundred and fifty which stand eleven years excluded without so much as the least offer of an Impeachment against them in all that time which unexampled and unparallel'd assumption in those men is not possible to continue but by the force of an Army poisoned with Anabaptistical and corrupted principles to the continual grief and unsupportable burden and charge of the three Nations And besides that act of the aforesaid persons chasing away for so it now appears about two hundred and fifty Members of above five hundred chosen by all the several parts of England according to the known Laws of the Land to represent the whole Nation in Parliament and after the forcible exclusion of so many that the four and forty persons remaining amongst whom we believe there are some worthy Patriots who are not so fully concurring in the actings of the rest of their number as violently over-voted them which is a further aggravation of the others guilt should dare to usurp to themselves as is formerly mentioned contrary to all the Laws the Supreme power not only of England but also of Ireland and Scotland is a thing which none but Conquerors or Tyrants would attempt and in all circumstances is so hideous and monstrous to be endured by a Free people formerly famous to all the world for wisdome and valour as the English Nation have been as it will be incredible to all posterity And lastly considering that as in all Ages and more particularly since the beginning of the late horrid Rebellion in Ireland our Brethren in England have abundantly manifested a tender and compassionate sense of the condition in Ireland and were careful to relieve us in our lowest estate as bone of their bone and flesh of their flesh which we do and shal ever acknowledge with humble thankfulnesse and as a debt which we well know to be due from us to them above all people in the world shall be for ever as tender of their happinesse and welfare as of our own which indeed is involved in theirs and without whom Ireland cannot be happy We therefore remaining constant in the reasons of our said Declaration of Dec. 14. 1659. for adhering to the Parliament in defence of its Priviledges and the just Rights and Liberties of these Nations all which we see now are apparently more and more violated by the not admission of the said excluded Members and by not filling the vacant Places whereby the House might be full and being freed from force might uninterruptedly Act according to their Judgements and Consciences towards re-setling the peace of these Nations which otherwise in all humane probability can never be restored to Peace and Tranquillity We do therefore declare for a full and free Parliament in England consisting not only of those that sate on Oct. 11. 1659. but also of all such of the Members of Parliament imprisoned excluded or withdrawn in December 1648. as are yet living whom we desire may be restored to the freedome and liberty of sitting and acting according to the Trust committed to them by the several Counties and places which did chuse them that so they may be no longer debarred from discharging their said Trust and that vacant places may be speedily supplied by free and due Elections of the people yet so as none of the persons to be Admitted or Elected be any of those who have been in Arms or otherwise aiding abetting or assisting the late King or his Son in the late War against the Parliament and that the House being so filled may proceed unanimously to consult the best meanes for re-setling the Peace of the Nations the re-establishment of true Religion the surest foundaon as of all righteous Government so of all the happinesse of a Nation the fundamental Lawes of the Land whereby all mens rights
that they never heard the said Principles or had them any way communicated to them much lesse ever consented to the same or any of them This Court being deeply sensible of these great Indignities doth declare That the said Lord Mayor is so far from deserving any of the said Affronts or Aspersions that he hath highly merited the great Honour and Esteem of this Court and the whole City having in all things demeaned himself with much Prudence and faithfull Integrity to this City and Court which doth therefore return his Lordship their most hearty thanks And that the said Committee in all their Transactions touching the Peace and safety of this City have also discreetly and faithfully discharged their Trust to their own trouble and great satisfaction of this Court And whereas this Court and City hath been lately represented by some as having deserted their first Cause and Declarations in the use of all lawfull means for the maintenance of the true reformed Protestant Religion according to the Scriptures The support and maintenance of a settled lawfull Magistracy a learned pious Ministery and publick Universities with the ancient fundamental Laws of the Nation Just Rights Properties and Liberties of all Persons And for these ends will endeavour all they lawfully may the speedy convening of a Free Parliament to sit and Act without Interruption or Molestation by any persons whatsoever Sadler To the Right Honorable our worthy and grave Senators the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Comonalty of the City of London in Common Council assembled The humble Petition and Address of divers Young Men on the behalf of themselves and the APPRENTICES in and about this honorable City Most humbly sheweth IT hath pleased the good and only wise God for our and the Nations crying sins to manifest his displeasure for many years together against these our flourishing now sadly divided distracted and almost ruined Nations and yet blessed be God this honorable City hitherto hath been no proportionable sharer in the Calamities which our Brethren in other parts of these now miserable Nations have suffered which are now aggravated by our Divisions and such a general decay of trading as doth exceed the worst of former times all which we look upon as a most sad presage of some art and dismal judgement very near at hand if not our sudden ruine together with the destruction and utter dissolation both of Church and State which will inevitably ensue as a just reward upon our multiplied provocations under the most signal manifestations of Gods most gracious presence and the most engaging Mercies that ever People did enjoy unlesse it please our most gracious God whose Name hath been exceedingly dishonored by the violation of many sacred and solemn Oaths amongst us to work our deliverance out of this contexture of dangerous mischiefs into which we have already wound our selvs or which as the innundations of mighty Waters may suddenly break in upon us and being sadly sensible of the Calamities under which the three Nations groan for want of a well-ordered and established Government We being members in the same pollitical Body cannot but sympathize with the rest of our Brethren and forasmuch as our endeavours may contribute very much thereto and the well or ill management of your talents in the discharge of your Trusts may now make these Nations happy or else make them irrecoverably miserable We hold our selves obliged in conscience to God and our Countrey both by the Laws of God and the Land in the behalf of our selves and all good and peaceable People in the Land and the many thousands that know not their right hand from their left and in the behalf of the Children unborn who in time to come may have cause to blesse or curse the day of their birth for your sakes do make this humble Addresse to you as the only means under God now left us to redresse these growing mischiefs which make us and the three Nations in these times of our great trouble cry unto you as those of Macedonia did in the Apostles Vision Come and help us And we beseech you our most grave and worthy Senators as you tender the welfare of these bleeding Nations to stand in the wide gap of our breaches with your Prayers improving your Councils and every Talent which God hath reposed in you for the honour of God and the peace of his Church by a reall reformation and we question not but our most gracious God will then break through the thick Clouds of these black and dark providences and return unto us our Judges as at the first and our Counselors as at the beginning with the abundance of the blessings of peace that Judgement may run down our streets and Righteousness as a mighty stream And we humbly desire the two great Pillars of the Land Magistracy and Ministry may be asserted and encouraged in order unto which we humbly present unto your grave and serious consideracions First the Priviledges of the Gospel which we do enjoy at this day in the faithfull preaching and dispensing of Gods holy Word and Sacraments together with the labours of so many of his faithfull Servants in the Ministry and the liberty of these sacred Ordinances being the best and choicest of our National blessings in respect of which we may well say with holy David God hath not dealt so with any Nation which with thankfulnesse we desire to ackowledge as a great mercy to this Land And should the Lord remove this Candlestick out of its place as we have just cause to fear he will unlesse we do repent Then may we indeed complain with Phineas his Wife the glory is departed from our Israel and a dark and dismal night of black and gloomy Ignorance Error and Prophanenesse will envelope our Valley of Vision And to the end that this choice Blessing which we account more precious than our lives may be conveyed to Posterity we most humbly desire the Ministry may be Countenanced and encouraged the Universities upheld and maintained which have nursed many famous Preachers for Piety and Learning in this and former Ages and your Authority used for the terror of evil doers but the praise of them that do well Secondly we esteem and assert as our undoubted birth-right the Freedom and Priviledges of our Parliaments as being the great Charter of the people of England which we account equally dear with our lives in the enjoyment of which we yet hope under God to see a happy and lasting settlement both in Church and Scate Therefore we most humbly desire that a new Election may be made or else that those worthy Gentlemen chosen to serve as Members in the late free Parliament may be restored to their priviledges and sit without disturbance or force from the Army that they may consider in this evil time what England Scotland and Ireland ought to do which with submission to your grave judgements we humbly conceive to be the most probable means under God to
establish the true Protestant Religion reform the Laws secure our Liberties and preserve our lives and outward concernments to promote Learning end encourage Vertue whereby peace with our neighbour Nations may be renewed and established the Army satisfied their Arrears paid and Trading restored In all which most grave and worthy Senators your own concernments as well as ours are so deeply engaged that we perswade our selves you will be instumental to further our desires by all peaceable and lawfull means and we hope it will put an end to our Divisions which if God in mercy prevent not may soon break out into another civil War and render us as a prey to a forreign enemy For a Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand Now we leave it unto you our most grave and worthy Senators duly to consider if you part with these our great National Blessings whether you will not discover a palpable breach of trust and leave your names for a reproach to the generations following who will in the Ages to come rise up and call you blessed if you be carefull to preserve them now and convey them to Posterity And now we beseech the Lord to strengthen both your hearts and hands and give you wisdom from on high to direct you in all your Consultations as may be most for the honour of God the peace of his Church throughout the world and the settlement safety and happinesse of these poor Nations And by his assistance we resolve to stand by you and with you to the utmost hazzard of our lives and all that is deare unto us to promote the same Munday 5. December This day the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common Council being assembled the fore-recited Pitition was presented by several Young-men and Apprentices in behalfe of themselves and several thousands which have subscribed the same the which being received was ordered to be read and thereupon a Committee chosen to consider thereof and to give their speedy Report unto the next Court concerning the same At the same Court it was likewise Ordered that the Lord General Fleetwood should be desired to draw off the Soldiers unto their several Quarters it being then also Ordered that every Common Council man in his several Precinct should give notice to the House-keepers within the same that they should keep their Servants and Apprentices at home thereby to preserve the peace of the City To his Excellency the Lord General MONCK The Vnanimous Representation of the APPRENTICES and Young-men inhabiting in the City of LONDON Humbly sheweth THat the Glory of our Nation and the greatest Comfort of our Lives in our Civil Interests consists in the Priviledges and Liberties to which we were born and which are the undoubted Inheritance of all the free people of England among which the grand and essential Priviledges which discriminates Free-men from Slaves is the Interest which every man hath in the Legislative power of the Nation by their Representatives assembled in Parliament without which however we may flatter our selves or be flatter'd by others we are truly no better than Vassals govern'd by the will and pleasure of those who have no relation to us or our common Interest Now how much this dear Priviledge of the People hath been assaulted by the open violence of some and secret artifice of others and to what a deplorable condition we are brought at this present period when heavy Taxes are imposing upon mens Estates and new Laws upon our Persons without any consent of the People had in a free Parliament and how generally through the said distractions in Government Trading is decayed and how much we are likely to suffer thereby in our times and places we cannot but remonstrate to your Excellency constrain'd through the sense of our present sufferings and apprehensions of greater to implore your assistance most humbly beseeching your Excellency by that ancient love you have born to your Native Countrey zeal to our Liberties by that great Renown you have lately gain'd in opposing the cruel raging of the Sword by the common Cries of the People and by the hopes and cheerful expectation of all England now fix'd upon you and lastly by your own Personal Concern in the same common Cause as a free-born English man that you would be pleased to use those great advantages Divine Providence hath now put into your hands to the securing your Native Countrey from those dangerous usurpations and preserving us in those Liberties to which we were born That no Tax may be imposed nor new Law made nor old abolisht but with the consents of the People had by their Representatives in Parliament freely to be chosen without terror or limitations and freely to sit without any Oath or Engagement previous to their entrance without which special Liberties the Parliament cannot in any construction be esteemed the free Assembly of the People and by your Excellency's asserting of those our undoubted Rights in your present advantages you will certainly by the blessing of God and unanimous concurrence of the People accomplish our ends and will thereby gain the hearts and hands of the whole Nation and the City in particular and purchase to your self a Name that shall make every true English man call you blessed and Posterity shall hereafter delight to recount the famous Acts of their worthy Patriot This was delivered to his Excellency at S. Albans on Thursday Febr. 2. 1659. by persons elected for that purpose and had a very cheerfull Reception THE DECLARATION Of the Nobility Gentry Ministry and Commonalty of the County of KENT Together with the City and County of Canterbury the City of Rochester and the Ports within the said County HAving with sadnesse weighed the multiplied calamities wherein we are at present involved how friendlesse we are abroad and how divided at home the loud and heart-piercing cries of the poor and the disability of the better sort to relieve them the total decay and subversion of Trade together with the forfeiture and losse of the Honour and Reputation of the Nation what is more dear to us than all these the apparent hazzard of the Gospel through the prodigious growth of Blasphemies Heresies and Schism all which own their birth to the instability of our Governors and the unsettlement of our Government Lastly how in all these an universal ruine threatneth us and will if not timely prevented doubtlesse overwhelm us We thought it our bounden duties both as Christians out of tendernesse to our Religion as English men to our Countrey and as Friends to our selves and our Relations to represent and publish to the world our just griefs for and our lively resentments of this our deplorable condition and to seek all lawfull and probable means to remedy and redresse the same Wherefore having the leading Examples of the renowned Cities of London and Exeter together with the Counties of the West before our eyes and the clamors and out-cries of the People always in our ears whereof the one encourageth and
two hundred and fifty when the remaining Members charged the Army with the guilt of that force and sent to the then General of the Army for the restitution of those excluded Members which was denied them how many and manifold have been the miseries and calamities under which these Nations have laboured and do stil labour is evident to all equal minded men The godly Ministers of the Gospel despised The Ministry it self villified Tythes and other means of their maintenance particularly in Ireland taken from them and mis-applied the Protestant Religion shaken and almost overturned Anabaptists Quakers and other Sectaries set up and countenanced Heresies and Schisms increased The fundamental Laws of the Land trampled upon and an Arbitrary Government endeavoured to be introduced The Civil Rights Properties and Liberties of the people in their persons and estates broken in pieces Impositions and Taxes on the people without example laid and increased in an excessive manner and measure whereby thousands of Families have been ruined and enforced to beg their bread Manufacture at home discouraged publick Trade and Commerce abroad interrupted The Nations become deeply indebted and generally impoverished the reformed Protestant Churches abroad exposed to great danger wanting the wonted support of England which under God was the Bulwark and chief strength of the Protestant Religion throughout all Christendome and finally the English Nation which was alwayes deservedly in so high honour and estimation at home and abroad as it was a bridle and terrour to their Enemies and a countenance and support to their Friends and Allies is now become we tremble and grieve to have so just cause to speak it a scorn and dersion to all Nations round about us and all this is brought to pass to satisfie the Avarice Ambition Lusts and fears of a few inconsiderable persons of Anabaptistical and other Fanatique spirits who have made it their business to occasion still one trouble on the neck of another so to imbroil and continue the Nations in Division War and bloody confusion that sober men might not have time or leisure with maturity of judgement or counsel to look into the inwards of their designs or actings And after we had beheld all this with bleeding hearts and calling to minde that when in December 1648. the said force was put upon the Parliament the then remaining Members sent sundry times to the General to know why he imprisoned their Members and desired him to set them at liberty which was not done and we gathering from all this that if the House were once freed from the force of an Army and they again restored to Freedome and Liberty of sitting and and acting they would then upon the firmer grounds in conscience of their duties to God and their Country and in testimony of their high resentment of that breach of priviledges of the Parliament have taken into the House those excluded Members and filled vacant places by due and orderly Elections of the People and after so many years unhappy interruption unite again in a full and free Parliament and there assert the Rights and Priviledges of Parliament and Liberties of the people which from the very beginning of the War of England have been not the least ground of their contest with the late King and ever since and joyn their counsels and endeavours for restoring these Nations to peace and tranquillity And thence it was that on the 14. day of December 1659. several Officers of the Army here on the behalf of themselves and those under their Commands by their joynt Declaration declared and published their stedfast resolutions to adhere to the Parliament in defence of its Priviledges and the just Rights and Liberties of the people of these Nations as Men and Christians In which Declaration afterwards concurred the whole Army of Ireland but now finding much contrary to our expectations that when the Members of Parliament now assembled at Westminster were in Decemb. 1659. by an extraordinary providence restored to their Freedome and Liberty of sitting and acting as in Parliament and that divers of those formerly excluded Members of Parliament on the 27. of Decem. 1659. as they had formerly done in May 1659. offered themselves to discharge their Trusts for the several Counties and places for which they were Elected and formerly served those their Fellow-members assembled at Westminster did not onely deny them admittance but also voted and ordered the utter exclusion of all the excluded Members with this further addition that none of them should be chosen in future Elections to sit in this Parliament whereby they have a more unnatural violence taken away from above the one half of the people of England their Representatives in Parliament and limited and abridged in a high degree the Liberty and freedome of the people in further Elections which denial and order of theirs in a time when they were under no force is so much the more strange in regard that in December 1648. when they were under a force they transferred that guilt for themselves to the Army and pretended a willingness to re-admit those Members if it were in their power as is formerly mentioned And whereas Lieut. Gen. Ludlow had placed in Ireland several Officers who are Anabaptists and persons of the like fanatique spirits many of whom had been very active in the late conspiracies and actings of the factious part of the Army in England even against those Members of Parliament now sitting at Westminster of which Officers so placed by Lieut. Gen. Ludlow it was found necessary to purge the Army and to put in their places persons more soberly minded and well affected to the Parliament yet after all that done and after Lieut. Gen. Ludlow stood justly deservedly charged with High Treason the said Lieut. Gen. Ludlow himself and some others of the like principles with him were by a report from the Councel of State proposed to be appointed to governe not onely the Army but also the whole Nation of Ireland to the astonishment of the people and Army here to the unsetling of those persons so well deserving to the hazard of the peace of the Nation and Army and which is above all to the endangering even of Religion it selfe And here it is observable that those Members now sitting at Westminster by their Declaration of 23. of January 1659. since their restitution to their present liberty of sitting have published that extravagant Councels and actions have engaged the Nations in a great debt and charge which it seems necessitates their laying a new increase of charge on the Nations and yet so indulgent they are to those persons that in a high degree created that necessity of so unreasonably charging the people and whose estates might well bear a great part of that burden as without so much as any suit made to them by those Delinquents they granted them indempnity for their persons and estates whereby it seems the said Members now sitting at Westminster hold it fit that those who are
A Happy Handfull OR Green Hopes in the BLADE In order to a HARVEST OF THE Several SHIRES humbly Petitioning or heartily Declaring for Peace Psal. 34. 14. Seek Peace and follow after it LONDON Printed for John Williams at the Sign of the Crown in St. Pauls Church-yard 1660. TO His Highness The Lord General MONCK MY LORD WHat formerly was in single Arrows is here bound in a Sheaf I conceive it good that by such conjunction they might mutually reflect light one on another Posterity will probably be pleased to look back on such passages Some love to see the little coats they then did wear when children Alas these all were the Essayes in the Infancy of our Liberty now grown a stripling God send it to be a Man yet they differ rather in Sound than in Sense variously expressing the same matter So many men and but one minde is admirable prompted certainly by the Spirit of unity inditing them Factious Petitions gave the beginning and Loyal Declarations must give the end to our Miseries But here is the difference the first were made by the Scum these by the Cream of the Nation Aeneas did beg the Boon of the Sybil that she would not write her Oracles according to her usual course in leaves of Trees blown away with every wind These Declarations formerly were printed in Leaves or single Papers which are soon lost not to say The best of Papers so printed are oft consigned to the worst of uses This is a way to preserve and to propagate them I remember the Verse of the Poet Singula cum valeant sunt meliora simul Take each of them asunder good as either Then needs they must be best all put together What as single Stars was good must be best in a Constellation God happily perfect what is so hopefully begun by your Honour though my voice is too weak to be the Eccho to the sound of the whole Nation Your Honours most humble Servant JOHN WILLIAMS AN EXPRESS FROM THE KNIGHTS and GENTLEMEN OF CHESHIRE Now Engaged with Sir George Booth To the City and Citizens of London and all other Free-men of England Worthy Citizens and all other our English Free-men and Brethren AS we are English-men we are all incorporated into one Body and though distinct and different Families Fortunes and Qualities yet fellow Members and Coheirs of one and the same Birth-right not onely by nature as we are the Sons of men nature obliging all in one common and equal Bond of Freedom and Unity but by certain sacred Laws and Customs of peculiar and inherent Right to this Nation general equal and impartial to all without respect of persons rank quality or degree derived through all successions of Ages by the Blood Justice and Prudence of our Fore-fathers to us their Posterity as ours and the Right of our Children after us not dis-inheritable though this Age were wholly made up of Apostates and Traytors to Common Justice and Freedom and should make sale of and deliver up their Children as slaves and Vassals yet English Right abideth to wit our just Laws and Liberties and may justly be re-inforced as opportunity may present Sometimes they sleep but never die their total Extinguishment is not to be imagined so long as any Englishman or English blood abideth and whoever undertaketh though by Arms or otherwise their recovery and redemption is justified in that very Action by the Laws of God of Nations Nature Reason and by the Laws of the Land and within the Bowels of our Nation amongst our selves no War can be justified but upon that score the contrary is Sedition Murdeâ— Treason Tyranny and what not and the Instruments thereof no other in the Eye of English Freedom and Right but as Bears Wolves and other Beasts of prey Now right worthy and noble Citizens and all other our English Brethren let us consider and lay to heart the sad and deplorable condition of our native Countrey Oppression Injustice and Tyranny reigneth division discord and distimulation fomented and fostered Trade and industry discouraged our Land rent into Parties and Factions and the common Band of Unity Cancell'd our fundamental Laws supplanted High Courts of Justice introduced the blood of War shâ—d in times of Peace Arbitrary and illegal imprisonments Patents Monopolies Excise and other payments brought upon us and continued contrary to Magna Charta and the Petition of Right no form or face of Government of English Constitution amongst us the Name and Athority of the People in Parliament usurped and abused and the stamp thereof put upon strange and prodigious Actions vexing and oppressing the People with dayly Changes and Alterations in government as the Interest of some few ambitious Grandees alter and change or get advantages one of another and all under the Name of a Common-wealth when as the Nature is not practised or intended at all it being utterly inconsistent with their very temper and interest they are wrapt up and compounded of nothing but guilt-blood and Tyranny and equal and common Justice the essence of a Common-wealth are utterly repugnant thereto and whatsoever they can do must be planted and maintained by Sword and violence against the very Heart and Sence of the Nation and they know not where or how to centre an Oligarchy or something they would have to be Masters of the People and perpetuate their power and Tyranny and therefore would amaze and confound us with their New Debares of a Coordinate Power or Senate for Life such as our English Laws and Liberties know not of and of pernicious consequence to this Nation so that from these men that thus handle the Stern at Westminster there is no expectation of any just settlement of Peace or Freedom from Oppression especially considering the Apostacy Hypocracy Deceipt and perjury of those men their manifold solemn Engagements Oaths Vows Protestations Appeals unto Heaven Promises Remonstrances Declarations all by them broken again and again never keeping Faith Truce or Oath being unbounded unlimited certain to nothing not to be held either by the Law of God or Man of Conscience or Reason And from such Persons in Government Good Lord deliver us and all the good People of England and that all this is true of them your Consciences Noble Citizens and all other the Free-People of England can witness there is no tongue no pen is able to vindicate them in this point it is known of all owned by all and can be denied by none how then can any honest or just man shed any blood in their Quarrel or lend them assistance surely that blood will be required at their hands and we doubt not but you will be carefull what you do And therefore from those Considerations and just provocations that we have taken up Arms in pursuance of and Inquisition after our Government Laws and Liberties that every English-man may be protected and secured in his Religion Liberty and Property and though it may be suggested that we intend to
Monies Customes Excises Rents Revenues Taxes Imposts Sequestrations or other goods profits whatsoever to the use of the publick may be speedily called to account in each County by fitting unaccountable persons appointed for that end and all their frauds and abuses therein enquired of and condignly punished 14. That all good Laws formerly enacted for the preservation and defence of the Persons Lives Liberties Properties of the Subjects against illegal Imprisonments Banishments Restraints Confinements corporal punishments execution by any Person or Persons Powers Committees Council of State Military Civil Officers or Judicatures whatsoever and against all unjust Taxes Confiscations Sequestrations Rapines Plunders may be ratified and the late and future violations of them exemplarily punished 15. That every person who shall from henceforth Canvas for voices to make himself a Knight Citizen Burgess or Baron of the Ports in the next or any ensuing Parliament either by Letters of Recommendation from Great men feasting the Electors before at or after Elections Gifts Bribes or otherwise shall upon due proof thereof be made uncapable to sit or serve in Parliament 16. That all Members of Parliament Officers of State Justices Sheriffs Mayors Recorders shall henceforth take a Corporal Oath to the best of their knowledge skill power inviolably to preserve the Fundamental Laws Liberties Franchises of the Free-men of England and to give all Lawes for the defence of them in charge to the Grand Jury in their respective Assizes and General Sessions of the Peace that they may enquire and present all offences against and violations of them to be condignly punished according to Law 17. That all unnecessary Garrisons Supernumerary Souldiers and Sea-men may be speedily paid off dismantled disbanded and all superfluous Officers excessive Fees and extortions whatsoever taken away for the impoverished peoples ease and the manifold extortions abuses of Gaolers Marshals Messengers and other detainers of Prisoners punished and redressed 18. That Able Faithful Consciencious fitting Persons fearing God and hating covetousnesse may be preferred to all Offices Places of publick Trust and Administration of Justice and detur digniori made the only rule in all Elections and Preferments whatsoever 19. That all Universities Colleges Schools of Learning in our three Nations with all Lands Rents Annuities Gifts Revenues for their support may be constantly maintained preserved from rapine and all mis-imployments substractions of them and of any Lands Rents Annuities Monies Gifts Legacies to them or any other publick or charitable use whatsoever diligently enquired after and reformed All which Proposals we are resolved by Gods gracious assistance with unanimity constancy and activity in our several stations with our lives and fortunes to prosecute and accomplish to our powers by all just and legal wayes with what ever else may conduce to the Peace Safety Unitie Wealth Prosperity of our Lacerated Macerated Naufragated Church and State wherein as we shall constantly pray for Gods Divine assistance and blessing upon our weak endeavours without which they will be altogether succeslesse So we cannot but confidently expect and shall importunately desire the cordial concurrence assistance prayers of all other Noblemen Knights Gentlemen Clergy-men Free-holders Citizens Burgesses and English Freemen without the smallest opposition that fo Righteousness and Peace may kiss each other and glory once more dwell within our Land wherein they have been strangers over-long And let all the People by their joynt subscriptions say Amen Amen Amen THE DECLARATION Of the Gentlemen Free-holders and Inhabitants of the County of BEDFORD WE the Gentlemen Free-holders and Inhabitants of the County of BEDFORD being truly sensible of the heavy pressures that we lie under having all our Civil and Religious Rights and Liberties daily invaded cannot in this common day of Calamity be silent but with the rest of the Nation make some enquiry after the way of Peace and Settlement And having met and considered thereof doe humbly Propose as the most probable meanes under God to compose all our Differences and cement all our Breaches both in Church and State the Assembling of a Full and Free PARLIAMENT without any previous Oaths or Engagements or Qualifications whatsoever saving what was in the year 1648. before the Force put upon the Parliament Or the re-admitting of the Secluded Members to the Execution of their Trusts with a full and free Supply of their Vacancies by Death And until one of these be done we do declare We shall not hold our selves engaged to pay the Taxes imposed upon us without our Consents so first had in Parliament THE DECLARATION OF THE Gentry Clergy and Commonalty of the County of ESSEX WEre it not that our former too unhappy Zeal in Idolizing those persons who are now become by far more oppressing than the Egyptian Task-masters at this time seconded with silence would bespeak us stupid and insensible we needed not to repeat the Sighs and Groans of an Oppressed and almost Ruined Kingdome But lest a tacit silence should render us complaint with Their Sacrilegious and Regicidious Proceedings we are necessitated to declare our present Thoughts and future Resolutions We cannot look upon our present Rulers without casting an Eye upon a Militant Church and there we finde them converting a House of Prayer into a Den of Thieves an Orthodox Learned and Reverend Clergy by them reduced to the extremest want under pretence of propagating the Gospel and those who are yet permitted to exercise their Ecclesiastical Function treatned to be deprived of Gods Allowance except in effect they will forsake Him and fall down to their Baal We cannot look into our Cloathing Towns but we behold Famine ready to assault them the poor and diligent Labourer for want of work not able to buy him bread so that those who before wrought with their hands at home are now forced to wander abroad and work with their tongues to beg life whilst we who although willing are hardly able through the Oppression which lyes upon us to relieve them And when we look upon the Instruments of these our Miesries and consider their Persons and Qualifications we cannot finde one publick Spirit not one wise man among them Their number is inconsistent with our Laws and a large part of that small number are reputed Relatives to Gaoles and Brothil-houses Persons who outwardly profess God but in their lives and actions utterly deny him who through their most perfidious Treacheries and reiterated Perjuries have blasted the honour of our Nation and rendred our Religion contemptible to all our Enemies Who while they pretend to strive for Religion and Liberties of the people have no other Cause but Cains thinking their Sins greater than can be forgiven and therefore per fas aut nefas they endeavour to lay a foundation for their own Security although in the Church and Kingdomes desolation These Premises considered we conceive our selves obliged and therefore readily and unanimously we do declare That with our Lives and Fortunes we will protect abet and assist all tho e
and properties are preserved and the liberties and freedom of the people which are supported by those Lawes And for those ends and in discharge of our duty to God and to our Country We do resolve by the blessing of Almighty God to joyn with our Brethren in England Ireland and Scotland who have or shall joyn with us for the ends aforesaid and do resolve for the maintenance and preservation thereof to hazard our Lives and Estates and all that is dear to us And we doubt not but all our Brethren in the said Nations who disdain to be made Slaves will joyn with us herein as being with wisedom and reason desirous to deliver over to their Posterity that Liberty and Freedom which was conveyed to them at so dear a rate by our Ancestors And then we trust that by the great mercy of God will speedily follow a happy settlement of these yet miserable and distracted Nations and consequently that the true Protestant Religion in the power and purity thereof may be established the Godly Learned and Orthodox Ministers of the Gospel maintained by their Tythes and other their accustomed rights their persons supported and countenanced the Universities and all other Seminaries of Learning cherished Heresies and Schisms suppressed needless Impositions and Taxes on the people removed and no charge to be laid on any of the Nations without their own free consents given by their Representatives in their several and respective Parliaments Manufactures and Publique Trade and Commerce at home and abroad advanced Justice in its due and wonted course administred the just debts of the Nation satisfied the Treasure and Revenues thereof preserved and returned to their right and proper Channels the Arreares of the Army and other publique debts duly satisfied the Armies and Forces continued in due obedience to the Supreme Authority and not presume as some have done to give Lawes thereunto which hath been the root of a great part of our miseries the Nations enriched united and strengthened the Reformed Protestant Churches abroad supported and countenanced the honour of the English Nation restored to the comfort of Friends and terror of Enemies the Plantation of Ireland in the hands of Adventurers and Souldiers and other English and Protestants advanced as a farther accession of honour and greatness to the English Nation and so by the blessing of God all will shortly terminate in the glory of God the Peace and Tranquillity of these Nations the strengthening of them against forreign Invasion and intestine Rebellion and the comfort contentment of all the good People in these Nations Which the Lord of his mercy grant Dated at Dublin Febr. 16. 1659. Sir Charls Coote William L. Cawfield Sir Theo. Jones Sir Oliver St. Ceorge Sir Hen. Ingoldsby Sir John King Col. Chidley Coote Col. John Cole Col. Will. Warden Col. Richard Coote Col. John Georges Col. Hen. Owen Lt. Col. Tho. Scot Lt. Col. W. Purefoy Lt. Col. Oliver Jones Maj. Tho. Barrington Maj. Alex. Staples Maj. Rich. Bingley Maj. George Pepper Lt. Col. H. Smithwick Capt. Henry Baker Cap. Rob. fitz Gerald Cap. Cha. Wenman Cap. Adam Molineux Col. Hum. Barrow Cap. Sam. Foley Cap. John Salt Cap. Simon Garstin Col. Cha. Blunt Col. Hen. Slade Cap. Ant. Stamp Cap. Art Purefoy Cap. George S George Cap. Peter Purefoy Cap. Thomas Curd Cap. Tho. Newcomen Cap. Tho. Newburgh Cap. Hen. Thrimpton Lt. Hugh Clotworthy Lt. Peter Flower Lt. Her Langrish Lt. Rich. Morrick Lt. Brian Jaques Lt. Richard Butler Lt. John Ottway Lt. John Evelin Lt. Tho. Flint Lt. Edw. Harrington Corn Art Vsher Corn Donw Prothers Corn W. Pinsent Ensign John Hiad Tho. Sheppard Mar. Quarter-Master W. F. John Payn Comptr. A DECLARATION Of the GENTRY of Somerset-shire Who were of the late KINGS Party WHereas God by many gracious Appearances haâ—h raised the hearts of this Nation to a great confidence that their tottering condition draws near to an Establishment by the Re-settlement of their antient just and solid Foundations We doe Declare That in thankfulness to our great and good God we hold our selves bound to look upon and with humble longings to wait for the accomplishment of this great Work as the largest National blessing we are capable of being presented to our hope without blood and ruine And likewise that we set up Pillars in every of our hearts to the honour of his Excellency the Lord General Monck who hath not as others either feared or affected the Tyrannical greatness of our Oppressors but as he undertook the Redemption of his Countrey with singular Resolution and hath carried it on hitherto with unparallel'd prudence so we doe not in the least doubt but that by the good hand of God he will perfect it with shining and glorious sincerity And because we finde as we hope the last Engine of the Enemies of our Peace now set on work for the embroiling of the spirits of the well-meaning people of England by suggesting an unchristian inclination remaining in us of waiting opportunities of Revenge We do here in the sight of God and to all the world disown and abhor all Animosity and Revengeful remembrance of Sides and Parties in the late War And do promise and resolve to co-operate within our Sphere towards the publique Settlement with such faithfulness and constancy as neither to occasion or entertain the least jealousie upon the account of any past difference whatsoever fully resolving to submit to the Determinations of the Parliament both in Ecclesiastical and Civil Affairs which we hope will remove all occasion of Jealousie and Distinction for the future John Lord Paulett Sir Francis Paulett Sir Amos Paulett William Paulett Esq. Edward Phillips William Helliar Peregrine Palmer Henry Barkley Charles Berkley Thomas Warr John Brice Robert Hawly John Bonvile Francis Windham Thomas Pigott William Wandrond George Waldrond Edward Berkley Francis Hawly George Speake John Tynt Sam. Gorges George Syddenham Francis Harvey c. AN ALARUM TO THE COUNTIES OF ENGLAND AND WALES With the Ab-renunciatiation of the OATH By Tho. Fuller B. D. OUr Nation which long since hath lost the Lustre and Well-being now at last-strugleth for the Life and Being thereof Our many temporal miseries are reducible to two principal Heads Daily 1. Decrease of Trading 2. Increase of Taxes So that every hour the Burden groweth weightier and the Back of our Nation weaker to support it 2. 'T is sad to see in Cloathing Countreys what swarms there are of poor people the true objects of Charity if any were as able to give as they worthy to receive relief for they would work and can work yet cannot work because there are none to employ them 3. As for the Sea which is the Land of Port-Towns it returneth small benefit for since Dunkirk was ours more to the credit than benefit of our Nation the fire of Searobberies is removed out of the Chimney and scattered about the House not lesse destructive but more diffusive So that our Merchants could better guard themselves against that