ITs a double grief to our ſoules, that we ſhould be conſtrained to beg for our lives at your hands, who are bound by the Law of God and Nature, and by your Oath, to preſerve them, and that we ſhould be forced to entreat you to ſpare our eſtates, liberties, & bloud, whoſe honour and ſtrength depends ſo much upon theſe our enjoyments: But extremity prevaileth, and drives us to you, and c • ſteth us here proſtrate at the feet of your Majeſty: And let not your Majeſty be offended, if we ſpeak more plainly then uſually becometh us; for neceſſity hath no law: It is for our lives and more, and therefore blame us not to ſpeak; our friends, our wives, our children, our wants, our dangers, our country, our bloud, do all pierce our ears and hearts with their dayly and dolefull cryes: Oh that our requeſts could find as quick acceſſe to yours.

Surely! its impoſſible your Majeſty ſhould be ignorant of the dolefull conditions your two Kingdoms are in; Doe you not know th • t our houſes have beene plundered, and the fruit of our long labours taken from us; that men who have heretofore relieved hundreds of the poor, have not left them a bed to ly on, food to ſuſtaine them, or a houſe to put their heads in?

And the poore they were wont to relieve, are forced to become ſouldiers that they may rob us by authority.

Know you not how many thouſand diſtreſſed ſoules cry to God day and night, in their anguiſh and m • ſery, while they ſee you the Father of their Countrey, having no compaſſion on them? Oh! where is now your Majeſties ancient clemency? You were wont if we loſt our eſtates by Pyrats, or but a houſe by fire, to grant Your gracious Letters Patents for our relief; but now the ſouldiery rob us of all, and hav burnt our houſes to the ground, & this not only for obtaining victory in heat of fight, but upon deliberation a •• erwards.

Know you not how our bloud is ſpilt and the dead bodies of your ſubjects yea many of your Nobles ſcat • ered as dung on the face of the Earth? Have not your eyes ſeen it, and your eares heard the groanes of the wounded gaſpe for life? Is all this nothing in your eyes? To whom ſhould your people go but to your Majeſty in this our diſtreſſe? We have tryed all other known means, and profeſſe in the ſight of God, we know none but your Majeſty, under God, that can deliver us, without more bloud and deſolation; and the world knows it is in your hands, you may do it if you will; and doe it eaſily, and do it with encreaſe of your honour, ſafety and happineſſe. What if it were to part with ſomething of your right, yet ſhould not your Majeſty do it to ſave the life of your people, ſrow whom, and for whoſe goo, You firſt received it?

Dread Soveraign, We beſeech you conſider, what hath your Parliament and People done, that deſerves all this from You? Is it becauſe your Parl. relieved us from oppreſſing Courts, and illegall taxations? Was it not with your own conſent? and is it not your glory to be King of a rich and free people? Is it becauſe they proſecure Delinquents? Why, to what ends are your Courts of Juſtice elſe? and are not they your chiefeſt Court? And can thoſe be friends to you, and worth the defending, that are enemies to your Kingdoms? For your Forts and Navy, are they not yours for your Kingdoms good? And is not your Parliament, the Kingdom Repreſentative? We know your Majeſty cannot mannage them in your owne perſon, but by your Miniſters, and thoſe choſen by Councell; and can You or the Kingdom poſſible judge any more able, impartial, and faithfull to advi • e you in this then your Parliament? They medled not with it, till abſolute neceſſity conſtrained; till they ſaw Ireland in rebellion, the Rebels threatni • g England, the ſame ſpirits as malignant and active at home, and their own lives and the Kingdome in preſent apparent jeopardy, and your Majeſties conſent to their Bill denyed.

We cannot poſſibly conceive what your Parliament can do now to remedy any of theſe miſeries; they humbly ſeek your conſent in vaine; the offenders legally proceeded againſt are defended from them, yea thoſe that your Majeſty hath proclaimed ſuch; that is denied them which is yeelded to every the loweſt court of Iuſtice they deſire nothing more then your preſence and concurrence; and we know if humble Petitions or loyall affections would procure it there would not have been ſo long a diſtance. Neither is there any viſible means left, but either give up our ſtates▪ Liberties and Religion to the diſpoſe of your two-long tryed ſecret Councel, and make your Majeſties meere will the onely Law and ſo betray their Countrey, and the truſt committed to them; (which God forbid) or elſe defend us by the ſword.

And for us your people, what have we done that we are made a common ſpoile? Would your Majeſty deſire us perfidiouſly to betr • y them whom we have truſted; and deſert them that have been ſo faithfull to us? and to kill them whom we have choſen to ſave us? and deſtroy thoſe who are our ſelves repreſentatively? Then ſhould we be the diſgrace of the Engl • ſh Nation, the reproach of our poſterity, the very ſhame of nature, and ſhould preſently expect ſome ſtrange judgement of God, according to the ſtrangeneſſe of our offence. Its true, we were forced to take, Antidotum contra Caeſarem or rather to ſave our throats from the violence of deſperate perſons about You; But we beſeech you call not this bearing Arms againſt you, it may be againſt your wil, but if her ofore your followers were more reſpective of your royall authority eſtabliſhed by Law, more truely tender of your perſon then we; then let not God proſper our proceedings, but cauſe us to fall before them, and give us up into their hands.

We are fallen upon by the cruell, and becauſe we would not dye quietly & without reſiſtance, we are accuſed as traytors and enemies to your Majeſty.

We beſeech your Majeſty, conſider in the preſence of God, if your own Father and King had run upon you with his drawn ſword whether would you have ſuffered death without reſiſtance, or have taken the ſword pro tompore ou • of his hand; & yet neither be a verſe to his honour & perſon, or his propriety in his weapon.

Doth not nature teach us the preſervation of our ſoules? will not the eye wink without deliberation? and the ſmalleſt worm turne back if you tread on it?

And beſide nature, we have frequent preſidents in ſacred Writ, for even more then defenſive reſiſtance of Tranſcendent Monarchy, 1 Sam. 14.44, 45.

But if all this were nothing, yet we know your Majeſty hath paſſed and Act for the continuance of this Parliament: and ſure that Act muſt needs mean a Parliament with its power and authority, and not the meer name and carkaſſe of a Parliament; Its not only that they ſhall ſtay together in London, and doe nothing, or no more then another Cour • ; but that they continue your chief Councel, your chief Court, and have ſole legiſlative power, which are your Parliaments peculiar properties.

And if your Majeſty hath enacted the continuance of a real Parliament in its power, who ſeeth not that you have thereby joyned with them your Royall Authority, though not your perſon.

Doth not your Majeſty in your Expreſſes oft Mention your ſelfe a part of the Parliament? and that the Head without which the Body cannot live? and is the Parliament valid without your authority?

Therefore, if your Majeſty have formerly withdrawne from them your Royal Authority, then you have broke your own Laws; which we dare not judge after ſo many ſolemn Proteſtations to maintain and rule by the known Laws.

Wherefore, we hope your Majeſty muſt needs diſcerne that wee fought not againſt you, but for your known eſtabliſht Authority in Parliament.

And we hope your Majeſty will not deny them to be your entire Parliament; for is the Act recalled whereby they were eſtabliſhed? If not, how can they ceaſe to be your Parliament? neither let the fault be laid on part of them; for we all know the major part hath the Authority of the whole; and if it were the minor part, why did not, or doth the major over-vote them.

And we beſeech your Majeſty, blame us not to think our Religion and all lyes at the ſtake while we look back by what a train Popery had been almoſt brought upon us by that party, and ſee them ſtill the chief in favour and when ſo many Papiſts Engliſh and forreign have been in Arms againſt us, and know no one Papiſt in the Land that is not zealous in the cauſe.

Wonder not, Dread Soveraign, if we hardly believe that thoſe who would ſo cruelly have deſtroyed us, ſhould be moſt zealous in fighting for the Proteſtant Religion. Blame us not, we beſeech you, to fear, while we ſee no contradiction appear to Mounſieur de Cheſne his book, ſold openly for many yeers, not in Paris onely, but in London, and read at Court, which records your Maj. Letter to the Pope, promiſing to venter Crown, and all to unite us to Rome again.

Dread Soveraign many Princes have gone aſtray through ſtrength of temptation, and after have been happy in repenting and returning; Oh that the Lord would make it your caſe, and glorifie his mercy on you and us, in making knowne to you the thing concerning our peace, and not his juſtice in hardning you to deſtruction: that it may never be read in our Chronicle by the Generations to come, that England had a Prince who lived and dyed in ſeeking the deſolation of his people, and the Church of God. Your Majeſty knoweth there is a King and a Judge above you; before whom You muſt very ſhortly ſtand and give account of your Government; We deſire you in the preſence of that God, to think, and think ſeriouſly, and think again how ſad it will be, to have all this bloud charged on your ſoule; Can your Maj. think of this when you are dying? Can thoſe Councellours that have ſet you on then bring you as ſafely off? Your Maj. may deſpiſe wha • we ſay, an • judge us your enemies becauſe we tell you the truth, & ſpeak as dying men in the ſorrow of our ſoules; but you cannot ſo put by divine juſtice, or quiet conſcience at the laſt: As true as the Lord liveth, your Maj. will one day know that Blaſphemers and Flatterers are not your friends; but plain dealers, who do aſſure you, the ways you have taken, tend to the utter ruine and deſtruction of your Kingdome. And can your heart endure, or can your hands be ſtrong in the day the Lord will reckon with you for his people committed to your charge? O think of the low condition your Majeſty is now in, how your friends have left and forſaken you; and in ſtead of commanding three Kingdoms, confin'd to a petty Iſland. Suppoſe you now heard the bloud of your people already ſpilt, crying in your ears, & ſaw the many thouſands yet living a life worſe then death, lying in their ſorrows at your feet, crying for pitty, help, O King help, or we loſe our liberties, laws, lives and Religion; help, that you • Self and Royall Poſterity be not Princes of an impoveriſhed deſolate Nation: helpe as ever you would have God help you in the day of death and judgment, when your Self ſhall cry for help and pitty; helpe, that deliverance come not ſome other way, while you and your Fathers houſe are deſtroyed. The Lord God of our hopes, who hath for our ſins moſt juſtly afflicted us in You, give Your Majeſty a diſcerning eye, a holy and tender heart, to yeeld to the Deſires of your diſtreſſed Subjects, To return to and concur with your Parliament, that God and Man may forget your miſtakings, and you may be the bleſſed • ſt Prince that ever reigned in our Land, the terrour of your reall enemies, the joy of your people, and the glory of poſterity; Such ſhall be the dayly and hearty prayers of