TO rectifie, not to upbraid you: You have for divers years together been very well entreated by us of this Nation, and that from a willingless we ever had, as upon all occasions, so particularly in your per­sons; to manifest the brotherly respect we bear towards them who sent you: Upon the same ac­compt many former Boldnesses and Provocations of yours have been winked at by the Parliament, as (I am confident) this last Answer would likewise be, did you not therein seem to have remained here so long, as to have quite forgotten why you came.

You may therefore please to be remembred. That [Page 4]it was no part of your first business (whatever sup­plemental Commissions may since have been pro­cured for a further exercise of your patience among us) to settle Religion, not to make a Peace in Eng­land; so as all those devout-like and amicable En­deavors for which you think to be thanked, were not onely Intrusions into Matters unconcerning you, but so many Diversions from performing, as you ought what was properly committed to you.

As for our Religion, since the zeal of your Countreymen would needs carry their care thereof so far from home, me thinks their Divines, now sitting with ours at Westminster, might excuse your trouble in this particular, or at least might teach you by their practice, That your Advice therein to the Parliament is to be but an Advice, and that an humble one.

As for the other particular of Peace, it is true, that about three years agone here were Ambas­sadors from our Neighbors of the Low-Countreys, who having found the King almost weary of Fight­ing, made use of their Priviledge, and did his Er­rand (in stead of their Masters) which was with big words to beg a Peace.

After that, when the Kings Cause had nothing left to lean upon, but the Treachery of our false Friends and Servants, an Ambassador from our Neighbors of France did (en passant) make a certain overture of Accord betwixt the Crown and the Head. But your employment here from our Neigh­bors [Page 5]of Scotland had so little relation to Peace, that your onely work was to joyn Counsels with a Committee of ours, in ordering and disposing such. Auxiliary Forces as that Kingdom should send into this for carrying on the War.

As to the Delays you charge upon the Parlia­ment, in that they Answer your Papers sometimes late; and sometimes not at all, yet require peremptory and speedy Resolutions from you, as if their dealings were unequal towards you, I hope you will give over making such Constructions, when you shall consider how much more business lies upon their hands, then upon yours; and how much flower progress the same Affairs must needs finde, in passing both Houses, then if they were to be dis­patched onely by four or five Commissioners. Were not I conscious to this truth, and to the abundant civility they have always for you in their undelayed reading, present referring, and desire of complying with what you send them, so far as might consist with their Duty to this Common­wealth, and that they want nothing but time to say so, I should never have presumed to trust so great a Cause upon the Patronage of so rude a Pen: Neither indeed is it left there, my design being to let the world imagine, how strong a stream of Ju­stice runs on our side, when I dare oppose the Rea­sons of my single barque, against all the advantages of Number, Abilicies, and Countenance that you can meet me with.

For orders sake, I shall take the pains to set the [Page 6]body of your Discourse as upright as I may (its prolixity and perplexity considered) upon two feet.

One is, The Claim you make in behalf of the Kingdom of Scotland, to the inspection of and conjun­ction in the matter of our Laws, and the conditions of our Peace.

The other (mistaking the first for evinced) is, Your telling us what you think fit, and what unfit, for us to establish in our Church and State, and what way you conceive most proper for obtaining of a Peace betwixt the King and us; together with the Proofs wherewith you seek to fortifie your several Opi­nions.

It would give your first foot too much ground, to hold Dispure with you upon the second; therefore since a man may see by your forward­ness in printing and publishing both these and other your Transactions with the Houses, that your Arguments (like the Kings in His Messages) are not framed so much to satisfie the Parlia­ment, as to beget in the People a dis-satisfaction towards the Parliament. I will (God enabling me) take a time apart to undeceive my Countreymen concerning both the King and you, by laying the Hook as open as the Bait in all your lines; And for the present apply my self onely to the shewing you, That when you shall have offered your Coun­sel to the Parliament of England (as for ought I know any one man may do unto another) in matters concerning this Kingdom onely, though [Page 7]the most wholsom Counsel that ever was or can be given, and the Parliament shall not approve it, not so much as a Conference upon it, it is no more maners in you, then it would be in the same number of Spaniards, Indians, or of the most re­mote Region of the Earth, to press it again, to in­sist upon it, and to proclaim your unsatisfaction in it.

Let us (with your favor) confider your pre­tences: You do not aym (as your selves profess in the second Paragraff of your fourth page) at sha­ring in our Rights, Laws nor Liberties, but in other Matters, viz. such as either in their own Nature, or by Compact, are common to both King­doms; which I take the more notice of, because one would suppose you to be grown kinder now then you were the other day, when you went about to make us believe, that nothing in our Laws did properly belong to us, but the form and maner of proceeding therein, the matter of them being held in common with the Kingdom of Scotland; and therefore, and for their possibility of containing something prejudicial to that Kingdom, to be re­vised by you before they receive their perfe­ction.

But the truth is, you are still where you were; onely the Peoples ears are by this time so habitu­ated to the Doctrines you frequently sow among them, those Doctrines so improved by your Se­minaties, who finde their own Interest interwoven with yours, and the Parliament seeming but a [Page 8]looker on, that you perswade your selves any thing will pass that you shall set your Stamp on, otherwise you would certainly have been asha­med to disavow the busying your selves with our RIGHTS, LAWS and LIBERTIES, and with the same breath to dispute our Rights, correct our Laws, and infringe our Liberties.

Nay, contrary to that moderate concession of yours, you do in this Answer intrench upon the very form and maner of our Bills and Propositions; and as if the marshalling them, the putting them into rank and file, were to be by your order, you take upon you to appoint which of our Desires shall have the Van, and which the Rere in this Ex­pedition.

And (which is the most pleasant part of the Story, if it would take, as truly such a thing might have done, when you and we were first acquaint­ed) though the Parliament of England (as I told you even now) would not order the motions of the Scottish Army that served us in our Countrey, and for our Pay, but by Conjunction of Counsels with Commissioners of that Kingdom; yet you (as you could not forbear medling with our Army when it was in modelling, so) do in this Paper con­tinue the Office (you put your selves into) of Dis­posing, Disbanding, Dismembring, Catechizing and Reviling this Army of ours, the greatest Bul­wark, under God, of our Liberties, that yet had proved ineffectual, if your Counsels had been followed, or your Importunities regarded.

Since then your way of advising us is not in a modest or submitting manner, but as if you meant to pinne your advice upon us whether we will or no; give me leave, I pray you, to examine quâ fiduciâ, promising you faithfully for my part, that whensoeever you shall bring the mat­ters contested for, within the rules of your own setting downe, that is, either in nature, or by Covenant, or by Treaty to be of a mixed con­cernment; I will either not deny you a joynt interest in them, or acknowledge my selfe to have no more honour nor conscience in mee, then he may be said to have, who being en­trusted for his Countrey, gives up their dearest Rights to the next stranger that demands them without so much as arguing the point.

Your arguments (by my computation) are five, and (if I understand them) speak thus.

Arg. 1. The same common interest upon which Scotland was invited and engaged in the warre ought to be [continued] (so I read you, and not improved, that being a wilde expression, and reaching neither you nor I know whether) in making the peace.

For answer thereunto, should I admit it, the word [invited] puts you in minde that your Countrey-men came not to the warre before they were called, keep you the same method in accedendo ad consilium, and we shall still be friends. But I cannot subscribe to this position, for I be­leeve it was a duty that the people of Scotland did owne unto themselvs to give us their assistance [Page 10]in the late warre, though they had not been invi­ted; yet doth it not follow from thence that when the warre is ended (as you often say it is, and yet most riddlingly take huge paynes for Peace) they are bound to mingle with us in our Councels, nor help us to settle our own King­dome, which we thinke our selves able to settle well enough without them, at least without their prejudice to whom a good Peace or a bad, so as it be a Peace is the same thing. For instance, the Law of this Land that gives me leave to pull down my neighbours house when it is on fire, in order to the quenching of it for the securing of my own, will not authorize me against his will, to set my foot within his threshold, when the fire is out, though I make it my errand to direct him in the rebuilding of his house, and pretend the teach­ing him so to contrive his Chimneyes as may in all probability prevent for the future a like losse to him, a like danger to my selfe.

Arg. 2. You demand the same conjunction of in­terests to be given you, that was had of you. There I joyne issue with you, and professe, that if ever the Parliament of England or any autho­rity derived therefrom did offer to put a finger into the proper affaires of Scotland, or into the Government, Civill, Ecclesiasticall, or Military of that Kingdome, and being once required to desist, did notwithstanding prosecute their title of advising volentibus nolentibus, I shall readily so farre as in me lyes, grant you to have a hand with us in the managing of this Kingdome, and the government thereof.

Arg. 3. You affirm that the Covenant entred into betwixt us makes you co-partners with us in eve­ry thing there mentioned, by which reckoning neither this Nation, nor that of Scotland hath a­ny right law or liberty which either can properly and distinctly call its own, but both interests are jumbled together, and the two Kingdomes are not confederate, but incorporated Concerning the Covenant therefore (which my selfe, among others considering it first as well as I could) have taken) I shall shortly give you my sence in relation to the point before us.

First, I do not conceive the parties to that League intended thereby to be everlastingly bound each to other, the grounds of striking it being meerly occasionall for the joyning in a war to suppresse a common enemy, accordingly we did joyn, the enemy is (if we be wise) suppressed, and the warre (as you say) ended, what should the Covenant do, but like an Almanak of the last yeer shew us rather what we have already done, then what we be now to do.

Secondly, what would it do, were it renewed and made perpetuall? Thus much it saith in my opinion, and no more. Whensoever you shall be violently hindred in the execution of that Religion you had amongst you at the time of the engagement, and shall require our assistance, we must afford it you, for the removall of that vi­olence. In like manner, whensoever we shall be so hindered in the exercise of that Religion which we according to that Covenant shall esta­blish [Page 12]here, upon request to you made for that effect, you are tyed to assist us. And so throughout all the other clauses respective­ly and equally, carrying this along with you; we are hereby obliged to the reciprocall defence of one another according to the Declaration of the party wronged in any of the particulars there comprised, without being cavilled at, or scrupled by the party invoked, whether your Religion be the same it was, or ours the same it should be, whether the bounds of your liberties or ours be not enlarged beyond their then-line, whether your Delinquents or ours be justly so or no. For, the native rights of both peoples being the prin­cipall, if not the onely thing we looked on, when we swore; we do not keep our oath in preserving those rights, if we do not allow this master-right, to each severall people, namely, to be sole judges within themselves, what Religion they will set up, what kind of Lawes they will have, what size, what number of Magistrates they hold fit to exe­cute those Lawes, and what offenders to be tryed by them. Hereupon you know we did not en­quire at all how Orthodox your Religion was be­fore we vowed to maintain you in it, that is, in the quiet professing of it, (not in the Theologi­call truth of it, a businesse for a University per­haps, not for a Kingdome) being well assured, it was established by them who had all the authority that is visible to chuse for themselves, and could not without apparent breach of order, and injury to fundamentals be disturbed in the exercise of what they had so chosen.

So farre is the plaine text of this Covenant from confounding interests that it cleerly settles and confirmes them upon the severall bases where it found them. And it would not be unworthy of you to take heed lest this Covenant upon which you seem to set so high a rate, be not as easily vio­lated as slandered, since the most deadly warres have been said at least to begin with mis-under­standings.

Arg. 4. Your entituling your selvs to a conusance in the conditions of our Peace, and consequently in the matter of our Lawes (when they relate to an agreement, as I confesse the four Bils do which were sent) is grounded upon a very great mis­take of the eighth article in the treaty, the words whereof are indeed very rightly incited by you, and the article it self so rationall, so ordinary, so necessary in all warres joined in by two States, that I do almost wonder as much what need there was to have inserted it, as I do how it is possible for you to mistake it. It stands briefly thus. One of you (for the purpose) & I (pardon if you please the familiarity of the instance) have solemnly enga­ged our selves each to other for our mutuall aid a­gainst a third person, because we conceived him too strong for either of us single, or because one of us doubted he might have drawn the other of us to his party, if not pre-engaged against him, but which soever of us was first in the quarrell, or what ever was the reason of the others coming in, we are engaged, & though there were nowritings drawn betwixt us, no terms expressed, were not I the [Page 14]veriest Schelm that ever looked man in the face if I should shake hands with the common adversa­ry and leave you fighting? against such a piece of basenes (supposing it belike to be in nature) this Ar­ticle provides, and saies that since these two King­doms were content to joyn in a war which without Gods great mercy might have proved fatall to them both, neither of them shall be suffered to make its peace apart; so as if the Parlianent of Scotland upon consideration of reasons occurring to themselves should offer to readmit the King in­to that Kingdom (I say not with honour, free­dome, and safety but) in peace, the Parliament of England might step in and forbid the banes, tel­ling them we are not satisfyed that an agreement should yet be made, similiter, if this Parliament would come to any Peace with him by Bills or Propositions, or by what other name soever they call their plaisters, you may (being so authorized) in name of that Kingdome or the Parliament, thereof intervene, and oppose, telling us that you who are our fellow-Chirurgions, meerly in launcing of the sore, are not satisfied in the time for the healing of it up. But for you to read a lecture to us upon our medicaments and their in­gredients, to take measure of our wounds, and to prefer your measure before that of our own ta­king was never dreamt on by the Framers of this article.

Here it may perhaps be demanded though not by you, whether (according to my sence of the treaty, tying up both Kingdoms to a consent in the [Page 15] Fiat, not in the Qualis fuerit of Peace) if one should be obstinately bent to hang off, the other be necessitated to welter everlastingly in blood for want of such a concurrence. I answer, yes, for these reasons.

First, a wise man will fore see inconveniences, before he make his bargaine, and an honest man will stand to his bargaine notwithstanding all in­conveniences.

Secondly, there will be no great encourage­ment for any obstinacy of that kinde when it shall be remembred that the party obstructing the peace must continue to joyne in the warre, and is ly­able to all the consequences thereof.

Thirdly, there is another and a more naturall way to peace and to the ending of a warre then by agreement, namely by conquest. I think he that playes out his set at Tennis till he win it, makes as sure an end of it, and more fair, then hee that throwes up his Racket when he wants but a stroke of up, having no other way to rook those of their money that bet of his side. If I am trusted to follow a suit in Law for friends concerned there­in, together with my selfe, and daube up a rotten compromise with my adversary, my fellowes not consulted, but desiring the suit should still goe on, it is not fit they should be bound thereby; but if I continue to doe my duty and bring the cause to hearing to a verdict thereupon, and to judge­ment upon that; such an end of the quarrell I hope I may make without their leave, and if the [Page 16]tryall went with me, certainly without their of­fence.

To returne to the nature of confederacies, Is the warre wherein we are joyned an invasion from without? any one man of either side if he have strength enough, hath authority enough to end it by repelling the invader, is it a rebellion from within? it were strange to think that any Law or engagement should hinder a single man from end­ing it, if he be able by suppressing of the rebels. The unworthy friend in the fable, when his compani­on and he met a bear in the wood, might have been allowed to kill her himselfe, but he should not have sought his safety in a tree, without ta­king his friend along with him.

One thing more I shall adde to justifie the rea­son of this 8. Article, such as might (for its clear­nesse of being implyed) have excused its be­ing listed among the rest. Never did any peo­ple that joyned in armes with a neighbour-na­tion patch up a peace apart, with more disho­nour to it selfe, then either of us should do, if we could imagine our selves to be so vile; for the common enemy in this warre is not a stran­ger unto either Kingdome, but the King of both, so as which soever of the two closeth with him by it selfe, before consent, that there shall be at all a closure, doth not onely with­draw from the other those aides it should con­tribute, but of a sworne Brother becomes an open enemy.

Here I must observe, that as you put an inter­pretation upon this Article, which it wil not bear, and from the power you have thereby of hindering us from agreeing with the King at all, would enable your selves to pry into the particulars of our Agreement, so you do not once glaunce at the point which was the true genuine scope of the Article: You do not pro­test against our making peace with this man; and give such reasons as Jehu did, upon a less occasion: You do not wonder what confidence we can repose in him, after all this experience of him, and before so much as a promise of any amendment from him; you do not warn us, by the example of your Country men, what a broken reed we shal lean upon when we make a paci­fication with him: You do not remember us with what horror the Assembly of your Church did look upon his misdoings; nor what sence both Kingdoms had (not of a reconcilement with him, but) of suffering him to come neer the Parliament of England, until sa­tisfaction were given for the blood which he had then cau­sed to be shed in the three Kingdoms. In fine, You do not say (for you need not give us your reasons) that you wil make no peace with the King; therefore we ought not, but you do as bad as say that you have made your peace already, and that not only without our consent (in despite of the Article which you urge against us) but without our privity, that you are come a degree beyond being friends with him, to be advocates for him, not in mediating that his submission might be accep­ted, his crimes obliterated, and their salary remitted, but in asserting the same cause which we have been [Page 18]all this while confuting with our swords, the same cause, which, what English-man or Scotish-man soever shal have endeavored to maintain in Arms, is a decla­red Traytor to his Country, if by his tongue or pen in that Kingdom of the two where he is no Native, a ma­nifest incendiary. But there wil be time enough to do your errand into Scotland after I have proved England to be a Noun Substantive, against which you have the shadow of one Argument left stil.

Ar. 5. The strength of your last Reason is this. Our Parliament hath formerly communicated unto you the matter of their Propositions, and of their Bils, in order to Peace, and generally indeed whatever hath passed betwixt the King and us, since the conjunction of the two Kingdoms against him. Thereupon you have offered us your Advice concerning the Particulars so communicated, and we have re-considered them upon your Advice, sometimes complying therewith, other times making it appear to you why we could not; that communication of counsels, say you, we would never have suffered, if we had not been bound to it, which if we ever were, we stil are.

Custom and constant usage (I acknowledg) doth commonly obtain the name of Law: but the late pra­ctise of some four or five years, hath not an aspect reverend enough to deserve the name of Custom; it is as old (you wil say) as an usage can be that is grounded upon a treaty of the same age, and shal be sufficient to signifie how the parties to the Treaty did understand their own meaning. I should not deny this pretence of yours to be more then colourable, [Page 19]if you could prove that our transactions with the King were imparted to you in relation to that Engagement, nay if I could not shew you upon what other ground we did it, and that we could not reasonably be imagined to do it upon that.

First, to prove, what the Parliament had in their inten­tions, when they advised with you, I beleeve you wil not undertake, especially this being the first time, to my remembrance, that this point came in question betwixt us. I shal therefore endeavor to tel you, as neer as I can, (having been an attentive witness to most of their Debates upon that subject) what it was that moved them to give your challenge so much probability of advantage as this amounts unto. You ask that now, without being answered, which you were wont to have without asking. You were so; and that from these two Roots: One was the extraordinary care the Par­liament had to omit no act, no circumstance, of civi­lity towards you, which might express or preserve the amity and correspondence betwixt them and your Ma­sters, though they were not ignorant what extream prejudice courteous and good natured men have often drawn upon themselves in their dealing with persons of a contrary disposition. Another was, since both King­doms have been imbarqued in the same cause, as men of War, and were afterwards resolved to trade for peace, since the commodities of both were to be stowed in the same bottom, and bound for the same Port; we thought it but an ordinary piece of friendship, for us who could make no markets, when we should be arrived without your allowance to open and let you see before we laun­ched [Page 20]our several parcels and instructions concerning what we would export and what bring home; not that we meant to consult you what kind of Merchandize you thought fittest for us to deal in, which questionless is better known at the Exchange then at Edinburgh, nor to follow such advice therein as you should give us without asking any further then we liked it; and so far the best Merchant in London is content to be ruled by the Swabber of his ship: but meerly to the end, you might (if you pleased) from our example, and from your aprobation of the ware we were resolved to deal in, furnish that Kingdom (whose Factors you were) with Merchandize of the same kind, and for evidence that the Freedom we used towards you was no other­wise understood by you, you did actually under write divers of our Bils of Lading in these sillables: The like for the Kingdom of Scotland.

It remains to be shewed how litle reason there is you should fancy to your selves such a ground of the Parlia­ments former openness to you, as you strive to father upon them. For, first, If they had communicated their Propositions to you as conceiving the word [A­greement] in the eighth Article to comprehend all the preparations to, materials of, and circumstances in an Agreement, they would not have adhered (as many times they did) unto their own resolutions notwith­standing your reiterated dissatisfaction. Again, If they had conceived themselves bound to any such thing by this Article, would they not have thought the Kingdom of Scotland as much bound for their parts; Should we not have been as diligent inspectors and ca­stigators [Page 21]of your Propositions as you have made your selves of ours?

When you shal ask me, setting the point of duty aside, and granting all that hath bin done by us in this kind to have been voluntary; Why we do not observe the same forwardnes in communicating our matters to you, the same patience in expecting your concurrence with us, and the same easiness of admitting your Ha­rangues and Disputations amongst us, which you have heretofore tasted at our hands, and how we are be­come less friendly then we were. I have this to say. There is some alteration in the condition of affairs: So long as we needed the assistance of your Country­men in the Field, we might have occasion to give you meetings at Derby House, and now and then in the Painted Chamber, it being likely that the Kingdom of Scotland might then have a fellow-feeling with us of the wholesomness or perniciousness of your counsels; whereas now since we are able (by Gods blessing) to protect our selves, we may surely (with his holy dire­ction) be sufficient to teach our selves how to go about our own business, at least without your tutoring, who have nothing in your considerations to look upon, but either your particular advantage, or that of the King­dom whence you are. And as there is some alteration in affairs, so there is very much in persons, I mean in your selves, unless being indeed the same at first which now we find you, you only wanted an opportunity to appear; but whether you be changed or discovered, what English-man soever shal peruse the Papers that you have shot into both Houses of Parliament, espe­cially into the House of Commons these two last years [Page 22]had as lieve take advice from the King as from you, & if a stranger should read them, he would litle suspect the writers for Friends, or Counsellers, but for Pleaders, for Expostulators, for Seekers of a quarrel, and that (which is the most bitter weed in the pot) in the behalf, not so much of them who did employ you, as of him against whom you were employed, and against whom, if you were Scottish-men, nature would teach you to employ your selves.

By this time I hope you see we have greater cause to repent, that we have kept such thornes thus long in our sides, then to return with the dog to the same vomit, and with the lazy Sow, scarce clensed of herformer wal­lowing to bemire our selves again. I bestow a little the more ink upon this point, because I would prevent the like claim hereafter, and have it left to the liberty of this nation, next time they shall be invaded or op­pressed, though they did once call in their Brethren of Scotland to their aide, whether they wil do so any more or no.

Having gone through your 5 Arguments, at the end of your dozen Commandements (so I call desires that must not be slighted ou pain of incurring the guilt of violating Engagements, and of such dangers as may ensue thereup­on) I observe one engine you use, whereon you lay more weight then upon all you say beside; It begins with a flourish of oratory bespeaking a fair Interpreta­tion of your meaning, though your motion be to take the right eye out of every one of our heads; then you think to make your desires legitimate with fathering them upon a Kingdom, and put us in mind how wel that Kingdom hath deserved to raign over this. For to the [Page 23]offering of desires, as desires, there needs no merit, sure, but since your opinion, (that the advantages of honor lie all on that side, and that Obligations of this sort have not been as reciprocall between both Nation, as those of Leagues and Treaties,) wil force my pen upon this Sub­ject. I shall let you know that some what may be said (when modesty gives leave) on this side too; and yet all the kindnesses we have received from Scotland, shall (by my consent) not only be payd for, but acknowledg­ed: and I can be content to beleeve, that our Neigh­bours did not know how ill we were, till we were al­most past cure, and therefore came slowly to us; that they did not know how wel we were in a year after we had nothing for them to do, and therefore went slowly from us. Only I would have it confessed, that the fire we talk of, was of your Countrymans kindling, began to burn at your house, to be quenched at ours and by our hands. But admit this Nation had been meerly passive in this War, and did owe their deliverance out of the Kings Talons wholly to the Scottish Nation, if the rescuer become a ravisher, if they have protected their own prey, they have merited only from them­selves, and have their reward in their hands. What have we gotten by the bargain? What have we saved? What have we not lost? For if once you come to fetch away my Liberty from me, I shal not ask you what o­ther thing you wil leave me: and the Liberty of a peo­ple governed by Laws consists in living under such Laws as themselves or those whom they depute for that purpose shal make choice of: To give out orders is the part of a Commander; to give the Law, of a Conque­ror; [Page 24]although our Norman did not think sit so to ex­ercise his right of Conquest; Nay our condition would be lower and more contemptible, if we should suffer you to have your will of us in this particular, then if we had let the King have his.

1. A King is but one Master, and therefore likely to sit lighter upon our shoulders then a whole Kingdom, and if he should grow so heavy as cannot wel be born, he may be soo­ner gotten off then they. You shal see a Mounsi­ours horse go very proudly under a single man, but Note: PLACE="marg" n="*" To carry double to be Charge en crouppe, is that which nature made a mule for, if nature made a mule at all.

2. The King never pretended to the framing and imposing of Laws upon us as you do; he would have been content with such a negative voyce therein, as we allow you in the making of our peace with him; did we fight rather then afford him so much, though seemingly [Page 25]derived unto him from his Predecessors; and shal we tamely give you more? Give you that which your Ancestors never yet durst ask of ours?

3. Lastly, it had been far more tolerable for the King, then for any Forraign Nation to have a share in the making of our Laws, because he was likely to partake, and that largely in the be­nefit of them, if good; in the inconveniences, if bad; which strangers are not: nay contrarily, it is matter of envy and jealousie betwixt neighbours to see each other in a flourishing estate. So as the proper end of Laws, being to advance the people, for whom they are made in wealth and strength, to the uttermost; they are the most incompetent Judges of those Laws in the world, whose interest it is to hinder that people from growing extreamly rich or strong.

By what hath been already said, and by a word or two of close, it wil (I hope) appear, that the claim you make to the voting with us in the matter of our Laws, and the conditions of our peace as a thing whereunto we should be obliged by agreement, is;

1. Mistaken in matter of Fact, there being no such engagement on either side.

2. Unreasonable for the considerations above mentioned and for being destructive to the ve­ry principles of property.

3. Unequal (notwithstanding the reciprocati­on) more then Cyrus, his childish judgment was, in making the little boy change coats with the great one, because his was long and the o­thers short: For our coats are not only longer then yours, but as fit for us that do wear them, as for you that would.

4. Unusual, there being no president for it, that I could ever read or hear of; and yet there have been leagues betwixt states of a stricter U­nion [Page 27]then this betwixt us, as offensive and de­fensive, ours only defensive.

5. Unsafe, for the keeping up of hedges, bounda­ries and distinctions (I mean reall and jurisdi­ctive ones, not personal and titulary) is a surer way to preserve peace among neighbours, then the throwing all open. And if every man be not admitted wise enough to do his own busi­ness, whoever hath the longest sword will quickly be the wisest man, and dis-inherit all his neighbours for Fools.

6. Impossible to be made good to you, if it had been agreed: For the Parliament it self, from whom you claim, hath not in my humble opi­nion authority enough to erect another autho­rity equal to it self.

As for your exhortations to piety and loyal­ty, wherewith you conclude. When you have a mind to offer Sacrifice to your God, and Tri­bute [Page 28]to your Emperour (since the one wil not be mocked, and the other should not) you may do wel to do it of your own, and to re­member, that the late unnaturall war with all the Calamities that have ensued thereon, took its rise from unnaturall enchroachments upon the severall Rights and Liberties of two Nati­ons, resolved it seems to hold their own with the hazard of a war, and all the Calamities that can ensue thereon.