GAllant Souldiers, you who God hath honoured with successe, to the admiration of your friends, and astonishment of your enemies: Now let us see whether you will prove faithfull to England yea, or no: VVHether the publicke peace and welfare of this poore sinking Kingdome; be of so high e­steeme, with you, as your owne ease and particular interest or no; if you dare not trust God at Jordan, which hath wrought wonders for you in the wildernesse; delivered you out of the hands of Pharaoh; and brought you through the Red-Sea; if you will say after all this Manna, but can God give us flesh also; if yee will thus dishonour God before the People; yee may come with Moses to see that good Land that shall flow with righte­ousnesse and peace; but not possesse it. [Therefore be of good courage, and let us play the men for our People, and for the City of our God, and the Lord doe that which seemeth him good: 2 Sam. 1. 12.]

If yee have hitherto had considence in your owne wisedome and strength. If yee have hitherto sought your owne exaltation and selfe interests in your actings. If yee hitherto preferred your owne pay and Arreares; your owne honour, and vindication; before the publick peace and welfare of the Kingdome; let us know it; do not dissemble any longer with us; let us have some time to prepare our selves to become slaves.

But if God have hitherto been your wisdome and strength; if the Kingdomes peace and safety have been of greater value with [Page] you then our own lives; if it hath beene the honour and glory of God; you hav [...] sough [...] more, then your owne vindication and reputation; why is it not so still? Did we ever thinke you would be mercinary Souldiers, you are not all French and Scotch, sure there is some of you free-borne English-men; wee thought you had been equally interested with us in the common-wealths good. VVhat, have you lost your interest and freedomes by fight­ing for them? If yee had beene in France sighting there for mo­ney against Spaine, yee might have demanded as much there up­on your disbanding, as you have requested here yet.

Surely there is some other grievances lies upon your spirits, besides particular interest, as arreares, Indemnity, Vindication; you pretend in your Declaration you could wish other things; wee hope your expectations in relation to your worke, will be equall to that of your wages. Have you taken all this paine, and put us to all this cost to set up the building of a well grounded peace, and will ye leave it so slightly pind, as the least blast of wind shall blow it over againe, and so make our latter end worse then our beginning?

But wee hope you cannot, you dare not thus deale with us. The generallity of your carriage and demeanour amongst us, hath promised better things; your severall Declarations to your Souldiers in the behalfe of the Country, as you marched along, your sincere and exemplary proceedings against any of them that did us any wrong; cannot but beget better thoughts in us towards you.

For wee must confesse, wee never could distinguish betwixt Caveliers and Roundheads by their carriage amongst us, till you were an Army, or at least a great part of you in armes for us; and since God hath made you usefull to affect many of us to the Parliament, by your faire carriage to us: Doe not leave us till in some measure wee be assured of our expectation; lest we have lust cause to say, you have therein beene a snare to us.

Therefore wee declare to you, if you disband or lay downe Armes, before wee have some farther and fuller assurance of a peaceable enioyment of our liberties and freedomes, and to live under the government and protection of our knowne Lawes, [Page] which you have often times pretended you fought to maintain, you doe as much as in you lies betray us into bondage and slave­ry; had wee not been conquered into subiection to arbitrary government, wee should never have been voted to it; therefore for your farther satisfaction concerning not dis-banding, wee shall referre to your consideration these following reasons.

1. Because we cnoceive you did not take up armes to defend either boundlesse prerogative, or unlimitted priviledges, but to maintaine the common liberties of all the free-borne People of England, against all tyrannicall usurpations, and uniust op­pressions by whomsoever exercised; and since by the blessing of God, you have delivered your selves and Kingdome from the former; wee conceive its your duty to doe your utmost to pre­serve us from the latter, at lest to let us know where the cause lyes wee are not eased of our unsupportable burdens, and setled in the enioyment of our Jus [...] Liberties and freedomes.

2. Because (we conceive) you are not engaged in this warre by any mercenary considerations, of profits or preferments, but as men equally interested in the things ye fought for. And ma­ny of you chosen and intrusted by the Kingdome as members of the Parliament; and you thereby are as equally concerned in the proceedings of the Parliament, be they good or bad, as you are in the actings of the Army; and what you have done or decla­red to do for the Kingdome as Parliament men, you ought to do your utmost to maintaine and make good as you are Souldiers: and considering that the late proceedings of the Parliament have beene absolute contrary to their former Declarations, and Protestations, whereby they will not only bring upon them­selves, but you, the guilt of all the blood which hath been shed in pretence of opposing tyranny and oppression; when at this present there is more arbitrary tyranny and oppression, upon the poore Commons, then ever there was since man can remem­ber; which wee hope you will not be the authors of.

3. Because this present Parliament is not a free Parliament, there being many of the late elections have had undue procee­dings in the choyce of new members, they having not been left to the free choyce of the People, but have been first chose by par­ticular [Page] Parliament men, and then recommended by insinuating Letters to the severall Counties and Corporations they are chosen by; which by reason of that influence some Committees and some others, had over the said Counties and places, they durst not doe other but choose them: many of the same mem­bers which thus chuseth others, are themselves guilty of high misdemeanour, some of them having long, lyen under the charge of betraying their trust, others of ingrosing the publicke stock into their own hands, and so have cheated the Common-wealth of vast summes of money; and for their owne security of being accomptable to the Kingdome for what they have done, have they procured by those uniust elections such men as are either interested with themselves in some guilt to the publicke as they have been Country Committees; or else such as they have had particular interest in, and relation to, and so might corrupt and sway them at their pleasure; by which meanes you had of late the maior part of the House carried on to such contradicto­ry proceedings to their former Declarations, and Protestations; they having beene more mindfull of deviding the Common-wealths money among themselves, then they have beene of pay­ing the Common-wealths iust debts; as if they were resolved ne­ver to leave raising of money as long as the Commons of Eng­lands be worth a penny.

4. Because the end of your dis-banding, is not to ease us of the charge of an Army, there being already provision made to continve an Army every whit as chargeable, and to be feared will be more oppressive, and abusive to us then ever you have beene: but their designe is (as fast as they can accomplish it) to new modelize the Army and Parliament too; and to intrust none but such, as are equally guilty with themselves, or in some kind interested in their design, which is to dis-throne the King, and inslave the People, and set themselves up as Lords and Kings in his roome, and so in stead of having an Army to protect us, wee shall have an Army in our owne bowels, paid by us, to in­slave us; but wee hope since you expect your due in point of wa­ges from us, you will give us leave to tell you wee expect the performance of your duty in point of faithfulnesse from you [Page] hardly thinking you can in honesty or conscience demand all your areares or wages till you have brought your work to some fuller perfection, for if you leave us thus, you leave us in a worse condition then you found us.

5. Because we have found more Justice and benefit from our trustees in Parliament, within these ten daies, since you have stood up and declared for us, then wee had formerly received in ten monethes, when you stood as it were Neuters to us: as witnesse those selfe-denying Votes; The taking off the Excise from flesh and Salt, except their desires to hasten the Propositi­ons to the King: their approving your Petition, and answe­ring your grievances; their relieving the necessities of seve­rall reformado Officers which formerly were out of hopes; all which makes us confident, that if according to your declaring there were a period set to this Parliament, and provision made for further Parliaments to succeed one another, whereby Par­liaments might know they were questionable, for their actions at such a period of time, and should then expect to find an im­partiall communicating of Justice to all the free-borne People of this Kingdome: and wee cannot expect it before. Therefore we declare to you, if you will stand by us in those iust and im­partiall things you have declared to us, wee are resolved to stand by you, and own you in them, to the utmost of our abili­ties and last drop of our blood.