AS we do no less wonder at the wise orderings and Government of God in these many changes and vicissitudes, which within these twelve years have befallen these miserable and destracted Nations, then those who pretend to be guided by these lea­ding Providences (as they call them) measuring and calculating by them, not God, but by their own ends and interests of one another; so we hope we shall not uncharitably be censured if we presume also (with reverence we speak it) to construe some of these Dispensations otherwise then those men will think fit or allow, being confident how e're we may erre in the inscrutable ways and counsels of God, we shall hardly erre in the discovering and investigating the practices and contrivements of those men, who have and do exalt themselvs by the depression and debasement of the whole Kingdom: And therefore for the encourage­ment of one another in these our Just and Honost Resolutions, we have presumed to publish this our REMONSTRANCE, to the end the World may see that we are not totally degenerated (as our Enemies slander us) from the Ancient Spirit of Honour and Gallan­try, for which this Renowned City hath been so long and deservedly Famed. We could take an Estimate of our selves from the repute the Parliament had of Us in the years 43, 44, 45, &c. were it not that we take no pleasure in the remembrance of our unhappy Valour, ha­ving wasted a great deal of brave Blood in the purchasing of our shame, and in serving the ambitious Designs of some Grandees, which ne­vertheless we have seen frustrated and disappointed as well as our good intentions deluded; But we intend not to insist on our Reputation, thereby to raise any opinion or expectation of us or our Abi'ities and Power, (we could please our selves better in the remembrance of that peaceable and quiet posture this detestable War found us in) further then to vindicate and assert this our REMONSTRANCE from being deemed or censured frivolous, and our Concernments mean and inconsiderable, whereas our share and part in either a well establish­ed or subverted Government is of as much moment as any conditions of Englishmen whatsoever; and that, were it the purpose of this Pa­per, we could plainly and fully prove. Seeing therefore the many imminent and impendent dangers, which highly threaten these Nations, and in particular Our Selves, both in the decay and loss of Trade, and some other dormant wills, which time we fear will soon bring to light, we do Declare and Remonstrate,

1. As for Religion we are not ignorant what a blind it hath been to us in preciptating us into very dangerous Actions, when we knew not what it was, nor what a Cloak and Colour it hath been for the most enormous perpetrations, we may sadly compare it (we mean here the name of it) to that Trojan Horse, which that people with so much reverence and solemnity received and entertained, being filled within with armed men, that presently sacked their City. We cannot well say whether more Sects or Mischiefs have sprung meerly from hence; & therefore it is high time now we should consider how to attain the substance of that whose shadow hath cost so dearly. For our parts we do declare, That the Religion established in this Kingdom by Law in the Reins of our three last Princes, with some amendment in Discipline, is the on­ly true and perfect pattern of Divine Worship. We are very sensible what Inconveniencies Innovations bring with them, we shrewdly con­j [...]cture that that cry of No Bishops hath been sadly ecchoed with the complaint of No Trade, especially to the Rabble that were most clamo­rous in that Crucifige. We will not presume to interpose our opinion in matters Ecclesiastical any further, we intend not to give Laws to any, but this is generally our own private judgement, by which (as God shall please) we are resolved to stand or fall.

2. We will assert with our Lives and Fortunes the Laws of this Land and Liberty of the Subject, as for the subsequent clause the freedome of Parliament, we will not be so ridiculous as to mention it, it being exploded and hist like the Members themselves out of doors; yet we cannot but cast a transient eye upon that businesse, and see how justly those men are repayed, who for a pretended violation of their privileges so forwardly imbrued this Nation in blood, and now cannot find any one that will expend a tear for their total dissolution, Orphans and Widows tears they have too many. But to return from this digression, wee look upon the Laws as our Birth-right, that distri­butive part of Justice, that gives to every one his due, we have therefore highly wondered at the strange Attemps of this late Parliament, who by their forfeitures, sales, undue and arbitrary proceedings in all Courts of Iustice in erecting new ones, have left such a model of Tyranny, that we fear it may be a Iustifiable precedent for any exorbitant Practices of succeeding Governours. We hope however that though our Laws have run so long in so bad and corrupt a Channel, yet the freedome of the Air (more serene and quiet times which we hope are approaching) may purge them of that ill smack they have contracted in the conveyance, and that the filth will settle with them­selves in the bottom, and when we have rescued and secured our LAWS (as we will endeavour to doe if the same FORCE continue as hath done for these many years last past) from usurpation, we shall not need to trouble our selves concerning the LIBERTY of the SUB­JECT, that being bound up safe and secure in the Iustice and due execution of the LAWS.

3. We shall now speak more peculiarly in relation to the Estate and condition we are now in, that is, in reference to TRADE so dimi­nished and decayed, that we know no fitter Heroglyphick of it than those seven Pharaoh's lean Kine; since these seven years last past have al­most devoured the Wealth and Credit that this CITY had for seven hundred years before. The other two RELIGION and LAWS are as the Esse but to us considered simply and abstractedly, as Citizens TRADE is that bene esse the prosperity and felicity of this place; and as the Aegyptians gathered the fertility of their Country by the increase of the River Nile, so may wee the Plenty and Riches of ours by the increase of TRADE. That Maxime of keeping us poor and there will be the more Souldiers is none of the falsest, but whose part such Souldiers will take is all the dispute; we think the Advice of Henry the 4th to his Son the Prince was more prudential, where speaking of this City, saith he, keep their purses fast and you keep their hearts; For though the ripe iniquity of the late times and that excesse of plen­ty (never known before in LONDON) accelerated this Judgement on us, yet are we ready to redeem our Errors, and if God shall put an opportunity in our hands will find or make away out of this Laborynth, into which by the cunning insinuations of some desperate Persons a­mong us we were formerly seduced.

But for what TRADE shall we now declare, or what means are there visible to advance it, since the Spaniard hates us, the Dutch be­traies us, the French slights us, neither have we any security either of Persons or Estates in their Dominions, further than their will and plea­sure; and how can we reasonably expect that abroad which we cannot promise to our selves at home; we cannot hope like the Army to live by an Inland TRADE, sure we must not send all our Commodities for Iamaca? what will be the issue? why before all's gone, as the Parliament Dined with us, so the Army must Break-fast with us, and perhaps for Supper may meet with the Sicilian Vespers.

There is only one expedient to recover and retreive our Religion, Laws, and Trade, that is a returning to the Condition and State of Af­fairs where we begun, in the doing whereof, it [...]eing retrograde work, we hope to find our Masters our Auxiliaries.