I Was willing to have done you a good Office, and to have discharged one part of that duty, which I owe to the King my most gracious Soveraigne, and to my Countrey in a private way, as I have done many times of late years upon other considerations, and for this among the rest, that I had, and yet have reason to apprehend, the ascribing of my name would rather have substracted from, then added any thing to the weight of those discourses, which I have either privately insinuated to divers persons in Authority, or published to the world. But it is now more then high time for every good Christian, and loyall subject of this Kingdome, to take off his maske, and to acquit himselfe of that allegeance, under which every of us was borne, and which many have, all of age should have sworn, with a resolved heart, and open face; And for me to avow, who it was that sent you a written letter the other day, wherein he let you know, that being one of those many you take notice of, who is not afraid to profes his being in some respects much unsatisfied with some of the Armies late, and present proceed­ings, [Page 4]and that as well in regard of the want of Consci­ence and Justice, as of Moderation, and prudence in them; he came to the reading of your Right, and Might well met, with great expectation. But soone found he should fall as short of his hopes, as you have, and will of your aime, expressed in the rest of your title Page; if you think you can compasse your designe by a figure, as you pretend to do in your se­cond Section. In which respect he prayed you to tell him in a few lines of plaine English by the return of the Messenger he sent to you, whether your in­tention were, and be to maintaine the equity, and regularnesse of all the said proceedings of the Army, as they have been designed in their late Remon­strance, in pursuance whereof they do still act at pre­sent, for ought he then knew, or yet knowes; or in case that be more then you meant, he then took the liberty, and boldnesse to require you to do your selfe the right, to let him as one of your Readers, un­derstand at what part, or parts of the Remonstrance you leave them, whereupon he promised you should heare further from him. Whose purpose, was if you should have under-taken the full defence of the whole designe of the Army already Declared by them, in that case to have remembred you, that un­lesse your imitating them in their variations with the sword, may be thought to render you a fit Champion for them with the pen, you are the most unfit man in the whole Kingdome to charge your selfe with that taske, because you cannot so much as make an essay to Justifie the main peece of [Page 5]their designe, without condemning your self. Which friendly purpose of his to have given you a faire warning in secret of the necessity lay upon you to save your reputation, by a timely explaining of your meaning, in your said title, since God did not give you the grace to entertain with suitable friendlinesse, but suffered you to reject it, with this slighting, if not scornfull returne, that you would make no answer to the letter of an unknowne person, you have hereby obliged me to endeavour to engage you to vouch­safe me a better Answer to this printed Letter. Whereby I must pray you to take a review of a passage in the seventh page of your Anticavalie­risme, which stareth the composer of your late Pamphlet in the face with a wide open mouth in these words. As for offering violence to the person of a King, or attempting to take away his life, we leave the proofe of the lawfulnesse of this to those profound disputers the Iesuites, who stand engaged by the tenor of their prefessed doctrine and Practice, either to make good the lawfulnesse thereof, or else to leave themselves and their Religion an abhorring and hissing unto the world: As for us who never travelled with any desire or thoughts that way, but abhorre both mother and daughter, Doctrine and Practice together; we conceive it to be a just Prerogative of the Persons of Kings, IN WHAT CASE SOEVER, to be secure from the violence of men, and their lives to be as consecrated corne meet to be reaped and gathered only by the hand of God him­selfe. Davids conscience smote him, when he came but so neare the life of a King, as the cutting off the lap of his [Page 6]garment. Of which mind & judgment that you have beene ever since, and are still, if you shall instantly with creddible circumstances declare your self so in Print, I shall think my selfe bound in charity to be­leeve it, notwithstanding the great appearance of the contrary in the face, and body of your last published Pamphlet. But if you shall either faile to do this in a due manner, which I need not teach you, who know it much better then I, or shall but be slack in the performance thereof; I do here in that case pro­nounce you a self-condemned Heretique, unlesse you shall presently give me and the world such reasons for the change of your judgement in this point, as may satisfie me, and other rationall men, that the said Reasons are of sufficient importance to make such an alteration in you, and that there is a proba­bility at least, that they were not knowne to you, or considered by you when you published your Anti­cavalierisme. Which it will be very hard for me to beleeve, if you shall produce no other then are common in the books of Jesuites, and are as com­monly confuted in the books of all Protestant Wri­ters of Controversies, whereunto you were not much more a stranger seven yeeres ago, then at this day, to which, for ought I know, you are the first and only Minister of any Reformed Church, that ever was of this, by your selfe stiled Jesuiticall, opi­nion. In which respect I shall hope that in the a­bove-mentioned case, not onely all those of your owne Congregation, but all other of the Independent way in Old and New England, and in all other [Page 7]Countries (if there be any any where else) will appeare against you in such a manner, as they are obliged by their owne principles. And that all those of that way in the Army, aswell Souldiers, as Officers of all degrees, who may reasonably be judged to have beene seduced by you, will lay hold on the opportunity of this discovery of you, to discharge you for their whether Pope, or Pastor. And I shall yet further hope, that all the Members of the Houourable House of Commons now sitting at Westminster (in what capacity I am not wise enough to be able, if I were willing, to determine) will take the same rise, instead of going on in their proceedings against their and our Soveraigne Lord the King, to proceed against you, as the great New Light, by the observation of whose irregular mo­tion, they also may perhaps have been led so wide out of the rode of their Loyalty. From which wilde wandring after you in untrodden paths, that will certainly end in their own destruction, I heart­ily wish that they would returne into the good old way of the Church of England, laid downe at large in the Homilies of Rebellion, before they be deserted by the Counties for which they serve, & by all loyal people of the Land. Whom with your self I do here­by exhort in the most serious manner to follow my example, in making (so far as it is lawfull for private men) as I here do, a most solemne Declaration, that I do from my soule abhorre and disclaime having a­ny part, or giving any abetment to the proceed­ings of any, that have or may go about to Depose, [Page 8]or take away the life of the King, which I do for the delivering of my owne soule from partaking in the guilt of so crying a sinne. And so in great longing for your Answer hereunto, I rest till then, and shall he glad if I may ever re­maine