iniâ—yment of a petty inconsiderable nothing availe us what a small difference then betwixt us and bruits or rather what a great difference would there be for they which were made only for the service of man would after this little minute or moment of life past be in farre better state and condition then the reasonable soule for they shall returne to their first principles nothing but poore man be for ever even to the utmost extremity miserable If we give away our Religion we renounce our God fell Heaven and depart from all possibility of our succeeding eternall happinesse and the soule must have a being if not above yet below if not in blessednesse yet in perpetuall woe O then let us resolve to unite our selvs in a sacred combination and rather divest our selves of all we are have or enjoy then part with this pretious gemme which will bee our surest and most faithfull friend when either we forsake the happinesse of the world as certainly we must for so heaven hath decreed it Statutum est omnibus semel mori or when it shall leave and desert us as casually it may for there is no stability or constancy in any temporall happinesse Againe it is for our Parliaments and in them for our lawes liberties and properties if we maintaine not the former the latter will quickly be forced from us The policie of State erected Parliaments as the ultimum refugium in case other powers neglected their duty or abused their authority in preiudice of the publike for the subiect to flie to for redresse of their heavie pressures and grieuances and these always have been the certaine propps and pillers of State and the Patrons of our Laws and Liberties And if we shall now foolishly like Esau part with our glorious Birthright for a poore messe of Pottage sell our Parliaments for a trifle what wil become oâ— us and our whole posterity They are the onely evidences wee have to shew for all we enjoy and if wee loose these no other assurance whatsoever can secure our Titles As the Sunne is to the Earth The Phisitian to the weake Patient or which is yet more the life or soule to the body of man such and of the like consequence are our Parliaments to us While the Sonne appeares with its resplendent raise the earth fructifies and is beautifull but if that should hide or withdraw it selfe how would the glory of the spring flagge and hang down its head for want of that glorious lustre and the earth become sterill and barren bringing forth nothing but combersome weedes and fruitlesse Thistles And while the weake patient is ruled by the skilfull Phisitian and followes his prescriptions so long the violence of his disease doth abate and there is great hopes of a recovery but let him discontinue his course of Phisicke and desert his Phisitian and immediately he fals into a desperate relaps and becomes worse then ever And lastly while the life or soule of a man is united and continues with the body so long it is active and moveing but when once the soule hath left it's habitation and is departed the body then perishes decayes and moulders away into its fi st principles Iust thus it is with us while we enjoy the Sunshine of our Parliaments and desert not this great Phisitian which is as the very life and being of the State so long prospire succedunt omnia the State flourishes the King is happy in his people and the people blest in their King The King enjoyes his just Prerogative and the people their Liberties and properties But if once these be taken away or but discontinued for a time then multitudes of State pressures and unsupportable burdens croud in upon us the Law then looseth its strength and vigor and the Subject his liberty and property then forct benevolences and loanes a farre greater plague to the purse than the twentieth part will be imposed upon us Then will the Tyranny and Arbitrary power of the Lievetenants and deputies Lievetenants be againe revived amongst us then shall new imposts and excises againe vex us n d new found courts and Corporations farre worse then the old poster us then will the grand Proiect Ship-money and coate and conduct money of which now there may be greater need then ever the great drayners and exhausters of the subjects store be againe set on foot to undoe us Then will Monopolies the ruine and bane of a state like pests of lice and Locusts swarme amongst us then shall we have a High Commission Court and Starre-chamber againe to exercise a power and iurisdiction above and besides the Law to plague us with grand penalties for our small offences and then should a Proclamation crate Law and be of as good authority as my Lord Coke or any of our yeare Bookes and Magna Charta be as a dead letter not able to defend the Subiects Liberty or property thus would it farre with the State I and much worse if we were but once courted out of our Parliaments and which is above all our condition would be as bad if not worse in the Church then would the Pontificiall power Lord it over us againe and excommunicate praying and Preaching or those that use it without that they will follow the Episcopall straine crying up the Kings Prerogative and preâ—ching downe the subiects liberty and property as if the Kings honour and substance did depend meerely upon the ruine of his people No contientious Lectorers or pious and laborious Preaching Ministers should then be tollerated No the pride sloath and covetousnesse of the Prelacy and these are inconsistent they cannot possibly stand together but the one will detrude and depresse the other Then should we have the rabble of innovations introducted new disciplines I and new doctrines too broached Iesuits and Seminary Priests with their factious and damnable religion nouâ—ished I and wee our selves too poasting headlong to Popery To be short all things both in Church and state would change their habits and become new nothing then sh uld be tollerated but which should have the spetious and faire pretence of a refined government or of a more pure and glorious religion whereas the meere bent and aime would be gradually to introduct an Arbitrary power in the State pompous superstition and Popery in the Church Now our Parliaments are as a Hedge wall or fence against such incroachments or usurpations which while it stands secures us from all these but if we unwisely suffer this pertition to be broken or trodden downe then all these heavy burdens and miseries threatning ruine to our Religion Lawes Liberties and properties like an invation of the vast and irresistable Ocean flow in upon us O then worthy Citizens you whom succeeding ages will honour and dignifie with the style of your countreys Patriarches tye your selves together in the bend of Union and resolve never to desert the Parliament least Heavkn as a just judgement upon so vilde a defection
of our Parliaments Liberties and properties and therefore you cannot but expect that this should swell and increase the envy of that faction against you and more inflame their blood to a revenge upon you then upon any part of the Nation besides of ways the more potent and noxious the enemy the greater is the heart of malice and envy against him Now this likewise should ingage you to a strong indisolvable Vnion one with another by how much the greater their malice is that maligâ—e you by so much the more should your love and intire affection be augmented amongst your selves when rapinous and devouring wolves hearde and fllock together that is not a time for innocent and harmelesse Sheepe to be divided and strayning one from another Lastlâ— this City is as the center or middle point or as the heart or life of the Kingdome upon this is the eye of the whole Nation the good or ill successe of this City hath an influence upon the whole common wealth and if the Cavaliers once getting footing here which Heaven forbid t will not then be difficulte to make a Conquest of the whole Kingdome and that bei g brought to passe we know that then we are ad arbitrium Principis at the arbitrary will of our Prince for all that we enjoy then that position of the Civilians one of the main grounds of our present contention would be good law Voluntas regis legis habet vigorem the will of the Prince is a law then would all depend upon our Soveraignes pleasure we could make no certain claime or title to any thing under heaven and what assurance can we hope to get of that eiâ—he◠〈◊〉 when 〈◊〉 Religion shall be forced from us Now on you noble Citizens and on you alone under God doth all the future happinesse of this Nation depend if you faint the whole Kingdome will presently faile fall and come to utter unavoidable desolation Consider with your selves that this is a blessed and honourable opportunity that God hath put into your hands and who knowes but for this very cause God increased your store and reserved you and it for this occasion to be the meanes of preservation of your King and Countrey and in them of your Religion Lawes and Liberties What greater renowne or honour can possibly befall you then this to be the supports and patrons of so great happinesse to your Countrey to preserve a bleeding fainting dying Kingdom from utter confusion and desolation In your hands under God is wrapt up our very life and happinesse and you have the honour of the blessed opportunity of continuing and maintaining both and what ingagement can be greater or give fuller satisfaction to the most vast illimited ambitious desire in the world O then let this likewise move you to continue firme stable and united one towards another considering that your fractions and divisions will not only destroy your selves but expidite and post on the ruine of the whole Nation and if by your division yov shall worke out your owne confusion and by conâ—equence undoe the Kingdome no doubt the desolations of poore deplorable England will one day be accounted upon your score and rise up in iudgement against the City O then for the Kingdomes your owne and your posterity sake which are all bound up in this opportunity imbrace unity and follow peace one with another be of one mind live in peace and the God of peace shall be with you 2 Cor. 13.11 Rom. 16. ver 7. I beseech you Brethren mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them FJNJS
deprive you and your posterity of the future happy injoyment of so great a blessing Your Religion laws Liberty and property the compendium of all temporall happinesse doe now lye at stake in this unhappy contention and if you would be stript and divested of all these without which life is but a burden and that as a prologue of eternall infelicity ye most exact and compendious way to accomplish it is by erecting a Wall of division amongst your selves And if you would mainetaine and defend these as it concernes every one to doe who would not inslave himselfe and his whole posterity the onely meanes under God of preservation and continuation of our present felicity is by a sweet concord and union wherefore take your choice either divide and destroy or unite and preserve and over come either will perfect its worke amongst us But rather then live to see the former may Heaven be so proprious to me as to close mine eyes that they may not attest the just judgement of so unworthy an Apostesie or be sensible of the misery But yet to draw more close and neare unto you worthy Citizens this City is the Metropolis the onely renowned and famous City of the whole Kingdome that which hath bread and raised so many great and glorious lights both in Church and State the most faithfull and tender Mâ—ther to a vigilant and dutifull childe that ever England had where have you found men raised even from the most low and indigent condition to those vast and almost unfadomable Mines and Treasure of wealth that many men have attained to through their sedulous care and industry in this City Some of your Families being Noble others matched with Nobility and thousands of you attained to great dignities and I may justly say that this City never failed any man of his great reward that hath beene true and faithfull to God and his owne soule O then doe not by fraction and division amongst your selves goe about to destroy this great and glorious City your noursing Mother that hath bread nourished elevated you above the vulgar condition no greater or more crying sinne against nature and gratitude then this to be a cause or meanes of the destruction of that which hath beene thy life and preservation Matricide of all other crimes is the most unnaturall most detestable doe not to spare a poore patrimony which thou art not sure thou shalt preserve neither sell thy glorious Mother to utter ruine and confusion least one day the ruines and desolations of this famous City rise up in judgement against you it is division onely that can raze and overthrow it and unity alone that can and will preserve and support it Againe as this City is the greatest so it is the richest and most wealthy City in all the Kingdome this is as it were the Apotheca repository or Treasury of the Kingdome where the common Stocke or Treasure is reposited or laid up and is from hence as occasion cals for it disbursed scattered and diffused into the whole State Now would you keepe and preserve the Stocke and Treasure of the City the onely way to doe it is by unity division like a theefe will robbe and spoyle you of it and make the Cavaliers master of all you enjoy this is their hopes and you are their envy they long to enrich themselves by your Coffers rapine is their pray and livelyhood and they know here is good plunder I here is that that will make abundant restitution to such who pretending they have lost that they never had doe in these troubled waters make a rich booty of poverty and labour to patch up a decayed fortune by the ruines of others I this will make a full satisfaction to the Cavaliers if they could attaine it which judgement I beseech God divert from this poore distracted City for their ill service to the publique And let not those that are Malignant in the City out of I know not what vaine hopes promise to themselves a greater freedome or security in a common Plunder then others and so be wrought upon to betray this great and glorious City to utter ruine and destruction for let them know t is a mercy that none yet could meet withall to spare even their owne faction and why should they then feed themselves with such idle and almost impossible possibilities Besides the souldiary is for the most part the scumme and â—â—ffamanicke of the heady rude and untamed multitude made many degrees worse by that desperate and bloody profession and therefore it is not to be expected that they will shew favour to any when they have sufficient power and fit opportunity to be cruell or if they would shew mercy a rare and unusuall qualification with men of that profession doe you thinke or can you discover so much folly in your selves to beleeve that they would stand to dispute or enquire who are Malignants and who not or to sever the Goats from the Sheep and to spare the former but destroy the latter it is the extremity of folly to conceive it their necessity and cruell desire of spoyle and plunder would not permit them to make any demurre or distinction and rather then they would suffer one Round-head as those men of blood are pleased to style all such as are faithfull to God loyall to their King and true to their owne soules to escape free from the hand of violence such an odium they beare in their hearts to all honest men they would robbe and plunder their owne freinds and make such as a just judgement upon so horrid a Treachery prove actors in their owne ruine why then if this be true as I beleive every wise and judicious man will easily without much perswasion conceive so let this abate and conjure backe againe that dangerous destructive Spirit of division that is risen amongst us wee raised it and the Devill foments and increases it and if we be not the more vigilant and carefull over our selves and labour while it is time to reconcile and make up our fractions and oppositions will never be at rest or cease blowing of this Coale untill he hath made an unquenchable flame and fire amongst us let us not then nourish the Devill Brat or foster such a Scorpian in our breasts as will sting us to death and undoe us and our whole posterity for ever Againe this City is the Bâ—â—â— of malice against this doe the Cavaliers bond all their aimes as being their principall Opponent and maintainer of the cause in question T is you brave Citizens that have freely to the great honour of your Nation disbursed and expended your Treasure for the good of your King and Countrey and have withheld nothing neither estate nor persons which might conduce to your Countries welfare and happinesse for which Heaven grant you an eternall reward I say it is you and you alone that have beene the maine propp and support of the cause of God of our religion