IT is a double griefe to our soules, that we should be contrained to beg for our lives at Your (our fellow Subjects) hands, who are bound by the Law of God and nature, and by the Oathes & Protestations that you have taken, to preserve them; and that we should be forced to intreat you to spare our estates (which you have no­thing to doe withall) Liberties and blood, whose honour and strength depends so much on these our enjoyments: But extremity prevaileth, and drives us to You (the grand Court of England) and casteth us here prostrate at your feet; and let not your Greatnesse be offended, if we speake more plainely then usually becommeth us, for necessity hath no Law: It is for our lives and more, and therefore blame us not to speake, our Friends, our Wives, our Children, our wants, our dangers, our Coun­try, our blood, doe all pierce our eares and hearts with their daily and dolefull cries: O that our requests could finde as quicke accesse to yours!

Surely, it is impossible that you (being so many) should All be ignorant of the dolefull condition His Majesties two Kingdomes are in: Doe ye not know that our houses are plundered, and the fruit of our long labour taken from us? That men who have heretofore relieved hundreds of the poore, have not left them a Bed to lye on, food to sustaine them, or a house (except it be a Gaole) to put their heads in? And the poore they were wont to relieve, are become Souldiers, and rob us (even at noone day) by Your authority? Know you not how many thousand distressed soules cry to God day and night in their anguish and misery, while they see you (who have undertaken to relieve them) having no compassion on them? ‘Oh, where are now those Heroick and renowned Spirits that have formerly sate in your Seat? They were wont to beat downe Heresie and Schisme, to relieve the oppressed, to settle Peace, to suppresse Vice, and to endeavour a generall Reformation both in Church and State; but now you foster Hereticks and Schismaticks in your bo­some, You send Knaves to oppresse us and rob us of all we have, and then im­prison our bodies, where many thousand able and Religious men are ready to starve for want of sustenance. You breake the Peace and beget Rebellion and Confusion in all places. You countenance Vice and Sinne (how ever you would make the gul'd people believe that you are mighty religious, whilest you zea­lously [Page 4]pull downe Cross [...]s, and Pharisaically debarre men from workes of cha­rity, yea, necessity upon the Lords day, which is to straine at Gnats and swallow Camells: You have brought in a generall Deformation over the whole Kingdome.’ They were wont to take order for the reliefe of poore oppressed Prisoners at home, and Galley-slaves abroad, but now the loathsome Prisons of London, Lambeth, Cam­bridge, Norwi [...]h, Ipswich, Yarmouth, Colchester and other places, are filled with their miserable, starved, diseased bodies, who (some of them) would thinke them­selves halfe free-men, were they Turkish Gally-slaves, such is their cruell usage.

Know you not how our Lands lye untilled, whilest your Souldiers take away our Horses, and tolerate our servants to runne from us? And what can follow this but extreame Famine? Know you not how much precious blood is spilt, and the dead bodies of the Kings Subjects, yea, many of his Nobles scattered as dung upon the face of the earth? Have not many of your eyes seene it, and your eares heard the groanes of the wounded gasping for life? Is all this nothing in your eyes? To whom should we goe but unto You, who have taken upon you to relieve us in our distresses? You have disabled His Majesty from relieving of Himselfe; You have bewitched (or by force kept back) his Subjects every where from comming to His helpe; we have tryed all other knowne meanes, and professe in the sight of God, we know none but you, that can deliver us without more blood and desolation; and the World knowes you may doe it if you will, and doe it easily, and doe it with increase of your Honour, of your Loyalty, of your Honesty, of your and the whole Kingdomes safety and happinesse. What if it were to part with some thing of your owne wills, and quietly to yeeld up the bodyes of some few Delinquents and knowne Traytors to His Majesty, and enemies to the Peace, to save all the rest of the Kingdome?

Dread Senators, We beseech you consider, what hath His Sacred Majesty done that deserves this from you? Is it because He hath relieved you from oppressing Courts (a Grace beyond president) and biting Taxations? Is it because He hath condescended to the calling of a Trienniall Parliament (a thing never heard of in former ages) and granted His Royall Assent to the continuance of this as long as you please? Ought wee not all of us for these singular, and unheard of Acts of Grace, to lay downe our lives at His feet? Is it because He hath ever yeelded to the punishment of those that are called Delinquents (though it may be his best friends) and supposed enemies to the Kingdome? If you were a Court of Iustice, as you are the Highest Court, you would doe the like to those among you, that have de­served it But can those be friends to you and worth the defending, that are enemies to the King and Kingdome? And for His Forts and Navy which you have taken from him, were they not most of them bought with His owne money? And yet were they not alwayes imployed for the Kingdomes good? And are not you the Kingdome Representative (yet not so as if there were but two — Wise men in a County and all the rest Fooles?) And will you wrong that Trust that we have re­posed in you? 'Tis true, His Majesty cannot possibly manage all in His own Person [Page 5]but by His Ministers, and those chosen by Councell, and it hath been alwayes judg­ed that none have beene more able, impartiall, and faithfull to advise Him then His Parliament: but what? shall we call you a Parliament, when your Head and most of your best Members have deserted you? He offered not to stirre from you till abso­lute necessity constrained Him, till He saw Ireland in Rebellion, the Rebels threat­ning England, the same Spirits as malignant and active at home,White-Hall. even at His owne house, where His owne life (wee tremble to thinke of it) was in present ap­parent jeopardy, and your consent (since His constrained departure from you) to all His most gracious Messages denyed. We cannot but see the same Counsels a­mong you setting you on against His Majesty now, which have caused His so long discontinuance from you, (that they in the meane time might work their own ends) that caused the Ship-mony and other illegall (though not so known to His Majesty) Taxations, which caused the late innovations in Church and State, which caused the warre with Scotland, which broke up the last Parliament, and have caused so many invective Declarations against His Majesty in the very language of the present times. We cannot possibly conceive what His Majesty can doe now to remedy any of these miseries: We patiently abide your long sitting in vaine; the offenders among you Legally proceeded against, are defended from His Majesty, yea, those that your selves (if you durst (for feare of one another) speak your mindes) doe know to be such: that is denied His Majesty which is yeelded to every Subject in every lowest Court of Iustice, viz: to have a faire triall. We perswade our selves (by those many pro­mises, and deep Protestations His Majesty hath made, that He desireth nothing more (if it might be done with His safety) then to be present with you, and concurre with you, and if your mindes had not beene so haughty, and your thoughts so soa­ring as we finde they are, there would not have beene so long a distance. Neither is there any visible means left, but either give up our States, Liberties, Lives and Re­ligion to the dispose of your too long tried secret Counsels and Close Commitees, and make your meere Will the onely Law (as you have done ever since the King left you) and so prove disloyall to our Soveraigne, betray our Country and the Trust commit­ted to you (which God forbid) of else defend our selves (as you doe) by the Sword.

And for us the Kings Leige people what have we done that we are made a common spoile? Would you have us perfidiously to betray His Majesty into your Lauds? Would you have us prove disloyall unto Him, who hath alwayes beene so faith full unto us? to endanger Him, whom God hath appointed to save us? Should we be such unnaturall members as to offer violence to our Head? Then should we be the disgrace of the English Nation, the reproach of posterity, the very shame of nature, and should presently expect some strange judgment of God according to the strang­nesse of our offence.

It's true we are forced (and it is high time too) to look about us, and (if we can) to save our throats from the violence of some desperate persons among you, but we beseech you call not this a bearing Armes against the Parliament, it is against our wils (God knowes) as it is against His Majesties. But if any of your party be so [Page 6]respective of His Majesties Royall authority established by Law, so truely tender of His Person and Honour, so heartily desirous of a happy Reformation as we, then let not God prosper our proceedings, but cause us to fall before you, and give us up in­to your hands: We are fallen upon by the cruell, and because we will not give the Nineteenth (according to His Majesties Presage) with the Twentieth part of our e­states, and breake our Oath of Allegiance, and goe contrary to our Protestation, and turne Rebels to His Majesty, and so damne our soules, we are counted Traitors to the State and Enemies to the Common-wealth. We beseech you consider in the pre­sence of God (if you have not forgot that there is a God) if any one of the Lords should run upon any of you of the Commons with his drawn sword, whether would you suffer death without resistance, or take the sword pro tempore out of his hand, and yet neither be averse to his honour and person (if you can possibly think any of them more Honourable then your selves) or his propriety in his weapon? And may not the King much more seck to defend Himselfe against you His Subjects that have taken up Arms against Him? Doth not nature teach us the preservation of our selves? will not the eye wink without deliberation, and the smallest worme turne backe if you tread upon it? ‘Yet the argument is stronger, for He is not a meere man, one of your fellows; but a King, the Lords Anointed against whom there is no rising up, Pro. 30.31. Be He never so ill conditioned (as we are sure you cannot say ours is) it is damnation to resist Him being offended by him, Rom. 13.2.’ But against these Precepts some are wont to bring examples of Rebellion, and so argue a facto ad jus, and say in effect, that it is lawfull for the Subject to rise up against their Sove­raigne because they find some have so done: Pray marke it; We are peremptorily commanded in holy Scripture not to Touch the Lords Anointed, or to resist Him being offended by Him, we find that some Rebels have transgressed these commands, and have unnaturally risen up against their Soveraigne, therefore we will doe so too; which conclusion I leave to your understandings to judge how fair it is, for you are — wise. ‘But you war not you'l say against His Majesty, you Honour and love His Person and labour to make Him Great, your only aim is against His wicked Coun­sellors and cursed Cavaliers: Truly (let them be what they will be) but if you should come to one of us, and protest so much, that you love us deerly and wish us well, and in the meane time Plunder our house, drive away our wife, keepe our children from us, imprison our servants, and undoe all that take our part; Wee thinke so well of our selves as to thinke that there are very few of us (except some fooles that will let you cut their throats if you please) that durst beleeve you.’

But if all this were nothing, what an unmatched Act of Grace was it in His Ma^tie to call a Parliament first, & then to assent to the continuance of it during your pleasure? (yet not so as if He then resigned all his Power into your hands, giving you leave to do what you will, for He is still your Head: & hath his negative voice, and can affirm or deny whatsoever is voted by you) and will you be so unnaturally, so unmannerly ungratefull, (et si ingratum dixeris omnia dices) as to restraine His Power, who hath given unto you yours? He hath given you one end of the staffe into your hand, & will [Page 7]you now pluck the other out of His? He hath made you Men, will you make no bo­dy now of Him? You could doe nothing without Him before, and will you doe all things without him now?

But it's confest on all sides, that the Major part hath the authority of the whole; & if so, pray tell us, hath not the Head (the King) the Souldiers (the Nobles, most of them) the Heart (the Learned and Religious Clergy) the Armes and Hands (the valiant and well skill'd Souldiers) have not most of these deserted you? And wee are sure if this be not the Major part, it is the Melior, and that's better. And for the Common inferior parts, we would fain know how many are agents in your Cause; are not all things done by ten or twelve Sticklers, whilest all the rest (more for feare of the rod, then for love to the Cause (God knowes) sit with their fin­ger in their mouthes, and say and doe just nothing?

I, but there are a world of Papists and other Malignants in His Majesties Army, and 'twere a wonder if they should sight for the Protestant Religion: It were in­deed, but no wonder at all that they should seek to defend themselves being per­secuted, this nature teacheth Papists as well as Protestants; as for the Protestant Re­ligion, we never yet heard it called into question, His Majesty hath with so many Promises, Protestations and Execrations upon Himselfe & Children vowed the pre­servation of It, that we doe not so much as feare any alteration of It. But whilest you fear the bringing in of Popery, blame us not we beseech you, to fear likewise (whilest we see no contradiction appeare to Prins, Burtons, with innumerable o­ther anonomicall, Seditious, Trayterous, and Blaspheamous Pamphlets, sold openly and read and sung under your very Noses) the introduction of Atheisme, Rebellion, and all kind of Prophanenesse.

Nobles and Gentlemen, many of both your Houses did sit a long time with you af­ter the King had left you, ‘but after they descried your wayes & discovered your Plots (your plots are then discovered as well as others) and took notice of your Close proceedings, How you delude the People with vain hopes; How you hire men with large rewards to come posting in (when you mean to goe a begging for another summe) all besmear'd with dirt and mire from such and such places,I pray Sa [...] with such newes as will please the people, when as they have never stirred foot out of Town, when they descerned how you transported the Wealth of the Land whilest your Souldiers starve; How you aime altogether at your own ends, not caring for the Distraction and Destruction of the Kingdom; How whilest (to please the people) you pretend to beat down Popery, you set up Prophanesse and open a door to Libertinisme and Licentiousnesse; How Loose and Luxurious, how Blaspheamous & Atheisticall many of your selves are, they then thought it high time to look about them, and to come out of Babell, least they should be consu­med with you in all your sinnes:’ Oh, that the Lord would make it your Case, and glorify His mercy on you and us, in making known to you the things concerning our Peace, and not His justice in hardning you to destruction! That it may be never [Page 8]read in our Chronicle by the Generations to come, that England had a [...] that sought the desolation of the King and Kingdom. But although you will not suf­fer His Majesty to be your King, yet know there is a King and a Iudge above yo [...] before whom you must very shortly stand, & give an account of that trust which we have reposed in you. We desire you in the presence of God, to thinke and thinke seriously, and think again and again, how sad it will be to have all this blood cha [...] ­ged upon your soules. Can you think of this with comfort when you are dying [...] those few stickling Counsellors which have put you on, then bring you as safely o [...] Your Greatnesse may despise what we say, and cast a way our Petition, & i [...]p [...]ison us who had a hand in it (if you can catch us) & count us your Enemies because we are the Kings friends, and tell you the truth, & speak as dying men in the sorrow of our soules; but you cannot so put by Divine Iustice nor quiet conscience at the last. As true as the Lord liveth before whom you stand, you will one day know that Blasphe­mers, Whoremasters, Schismaticks and Traitors are not Gods friends, nor doe they fight His cause, but plain dealers, who do assure you the way you take tends to the utter ruine & desolation of your selves & Kingdom. And can your Hearts [...] can your Hands be strong in the day the Lord will reckon with you for this [...]. People, whose charge you have taken out of His Majesties Hands? Oh, suppos [...] that you heard the blood of this People, already spilt, crying in your eares, and saw the many thousands yet living a life worse then death, lying in their sorrowes at your feet crying for Pitty, Help, Oh Help, or we loose our Liberties, Lawes, [...] and Religion, Help that your selves, who have in this time horded up men [...] E­states, come not to want and Beggery; help as ever you would have God help you in the day of Death and Iudgement, when your selves shall cry for help and pitty; help that Redemption come not some other way, that we be not all destroy [...]d by some Forraign Nation. The Lord God of our hopes, who hath for our sinne [...] most justly afflicted us in You, give you all discerning eyes, holy and tender hea [...], to yeeld to the Petition of His Majesties distressed Subjects, to concurre with His Ma­jesty, and the rest of your Assembly, that God and man may forget your Mistakings▪ that His Majesty may be once again a Blessed Prince. yea the blessedest [...] raigned in our Land, the Terrour of all His reall Enemies, the joy of His [...], and the Glory of Posterity: Such shall be the Daily and hearty Prayer of,