THat the 22 of March 1648, the Parliament declared, That they were trusted by the people, for the Common good, and to procure the well-being of those whom hey serve; and to remove Oppression and Arbitrary power, and all oppositions to the peace and freedome of this Nation; and that they intend the common Interest of those whom they serve, more then their own particulars: And they then promised the due reformation of the Law, for the taking away of corruption and abuses, delays, vexations, and unnecessary travel and expences, and whatsoever should be found really burthensome to the people, that e­vil might be punished, and the good rewarded, and the people be eased in their burthens and Taxes, and the debts of the Common wealth be justly satisfied. But alas, with grieved hearts we have long expected some fruit of their promises, and that multitude of days should utter knowledge: Yet all in vain, insomuch that we can no longer forbear, but shew our grievances for they are many and intolerable. My Lord, there was a time, when your Excellency and our unparalel'd Army was in a low condition, and in your straights, you affirmed that you called upon God, and he heard you and delivered you in your distress; sure God was pleased with you in that for he gave your enemies into your hands, and setled the soles of your feet in peace gave you large possessi­ons, houses that you built not: was all this that you onely might live in peace, ease and rest, and say you have married Wives, have Farms, [Page 2]Parks, Mannors, and Kingly houses to see; and forget the vows you then made? surely no. Are the people free? is perfect liberty wrought for them? or are your vows quite forgotten? Is not the safety of the peo­ple the supreme Law? Nay, are not you the peoples Army, and have they not paid you? Are your promises yet performed? Why are you so remiss in the work of the Lord? why do the people yet complain? Is not justice as necessary now, as when the Parliament began? Our eyes have been upon you, but our hope is in God; and though we be yet clouded, and in the dark, yet deliverance will come, and we shall not be deceived.

And though the sons of Zerviah have seemed too strong for you; yet if your Excellency now appear, all the honest members, which have not bowed their knees to Baal, will to a man second you, and make good every sillable of that Declaration, and revive the self deny­ing Ordinance, and scorn to sit with a company of mercenary Lawyers, who poyson the counsels of the Parliament, and turn justice and judg­ment to gall and wormwood, meerly to inrich themselves by the ruine of the people. Then your Excellency and those honest Members may forthwith pass an Act, to authorize the Justices of peace, to keep a Court in their several Counties, twice a week, in the most convenient place in each County, to hear and determine all matters of debt, titles of lands, and other civill differences, the same day they be brought before them, and put the people to no more charge, but their attendance, accor­ding to the practise of the Court of Requests, London, sitting in Guild-Hall, by vertue of an Act of Parliament, made in the third year of King Iames, and the 25 Chapter.

Then your Excellency and those honest Members may forthwith pass the annexed Act, to authorize Commissioners of known fidelity, for the speedy examination and redress of all the peoples grievances; though the several Committees appointed by Parliament, have done little or nothing therein. And then we shall see an Act to settle an An­nual equal Representative, and Indentures drawn between the Repre­sentors, and the Representative Counties, that we may no longer trust in man; but have it known to the world, that the people are the Legis­lative power, and that all that are entrusted by them, must act for them, and be accomptable to them: Surely then may there be found men of such pure principles, that will not forget the self-denying Ordinance, nor be seduced by the Clergy to act in Spirituals, when their Commis­sion is for Temporals. Then shall those faithfull persons who hazard­ed [Page 3]all for the Parliament, and many of them lent more then their whole Estates, and now live in prison, nay, starve for want of it; not to be put to uncover Cathedrals, and ransack the Monuments of the dead; but be honestly paid with thanks and requitals. Then should not the Publick Faith be out-pawned, and so little care taken to redeem it, whilest Millions of Treasure hath been conveyed beyond the seas.

Then should there be a new little Book of onely usefull Statutes, portable, that those that should keep them may know them; and not a Voluminous Idol, the studie of Lawyers their whole life time, to teach the people at great cost, and with the hazard of their lives. Then shall justice be done at the charge of the State, as of old, the poor fear no bribes, and the peoples whole inheritance not spent every hundred year, or less, in tedious and useless suits in Law, without accompt or punishment. Then should not poor Souldiers Debenters be sould for a Twentieth part, and the benefit of the reft redound to their enemies. Nor the honest Souldier pay twice for his quarter, whilest your bloudy enemies are forgiven plunder and outrages. Was not this the price of their bloud? and wo be to him that erecteth a City by bloud, &c. Nor the honest Souldier that would not do all things, laid aside without place or pay, and starve for want thereof; whilest unworthy persons are imployed both by sea and land, in very great trust, to the losing the Honor of the Nation, gotten by the bloud and treasure of those who are now laid aside. Nor should the honest sufferer for the Parlia­ment be left without all provision, as if they had no bodies promise for it. Nor should there be a five pound Act, a meer deceit, as it is now u­sed, while men of Estates lie in the upper Bench, and other prisons, and cheat the people, and their Lands unsold. Nor the poor distressed Protestants of Ireland, that lost their Estates, and fled hither for their lives, starve here, and no account rendred of the moneys that was col­lected for them, both in England and elsewhere; and many of their bloudy Enemies suffered to be released out of prison.

Then should the head of no Injustice stand upon any shoulders, since for that the late King lost his. Then should perjuries, forgeries, and briberies, which are grown to a great head amongst us be punish­ed, though the Committee do little or nothing therein. Nor should Death be inflicted for a trifle of five shillings, (a thing called Felony) whilest vast sums are taken from the Commonwealth, without any ac­compt, by Committee-men, and others. Then should the poor be pro­vided for, both in Gaols, and without, at least by their own; and poor [Page 4]Sea-men invited home, by certainty of pay, and assurance of a compe­tent share of the prize-goods, and liberty to adventure five pounds a man, or more, according to their place and quality, in every Merchants ship, as in Queen Elizabeths days: this will endear them unto the States; and Lenity doth break more hearts then Sequestration. Then should Timber, the sinews of war by Sea, be planted and preserved; and not sold to the Hollanders. Then should Esquire Elsliott, and Edward Jinks not be stifled in that infamous prison of Newgate; but be inforced to make good their Charges against the several Members, or be punished severely.

My Lord, many of us were of this army under your own command, we fought for our liberties, our bloud, & our estates are in it, and we are witnesses that your Excellency promised it unto us, and so did the Parli­ament; what can be answered in this case? for when you wanted pow­er, our lives was not dear to us, and now you have power, our lives and liberties ought to be dear to you and them, and not suffer us to starve through oppression; is not this the time? the work is great; the children of Anack are mighty men, and have Cities walled high; yet fear them not; for the good land is before your Excellency; and if you will not enter in before us, but murmure, your Carcasses may be slain in the wil­dernesse, or you may be stung with fiery Serpents; and yet deliverance shall come, for the spirits anointing caused the people to destroy the yoke of the late King; and God hath promised, hat the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy, shall tread down them that dwell on high; Esa. 10.27. Esa. 26.5.6. would you have us think that God seeth not injustice in a Commonwealth as well as in a Kingly Government, or that our freedome consisteth in having the name of priviledge of Parlia­ment, instead of Kingly Prerogative, or The Keepers of the Liberties of England, instead of Charls by the Grace of God, &c. notwithstand­ing the same injustice and arbitrary power remaineth, nay and is much increased; for shame up and be doing; we beseech you consider what will becom of your posterities too, as well as ours; let no man take your honour from you, nor delude you, and lay your honour in the dust: for we professe to all the world, that whatsoever injustice, whatever we want of perfect freedom, and liberty, what bloud is not expiated, what treasure is mispent, all our complaints are before your Excellency, and the army, and must remain with you, and be charged upon you; therefore if you will rise like a mighty Giant refreshed with wine, and scorn a gift that blinds the eyes of the wise, and pervert the righteous in judgment, [Page 5]and go forth in the strength of our God, then shal the work of the Lord prosper in your hands. But if you will not, but say there is a Lion in the way, and forget your vows and promises, and lead us back again into Egypt; and say, the same old Kingly spirit in a new name shall reign; we shall be inforced to cease from your Excellency, and lift up our eys to the hills, and expect deliverance some other way. O how can we ex­pect to have injustice in superiors punished speedily, and not left to suc­ceeding Parliaments, and men starve the mean while in prison; when e­very man is left to act arbitrarily, and men accused of Treason, suffered to sit in the house? nay some of us, will with our lives make good, that there be some in the house that are utter enemies to the peace and safe­ty of the Nation. O how shall we be able to discern our friends from our foes in the house, except the faithfull Members do declare their pro­test to the people whom they serve, against all those that act contrary to their trust, oppugning the law of God, the law of the land, and the law of nature; for we humbly conceive this is the ready way to ease them and you of your endlesse trouble, and secure the Commonwealth from future dangers and miseries; for do we not see with what extream difficulty, you produce any thing that looketh like justice? and how can we expect that the grievances of the people should be redressed, when an eminent Member of the House and Councel of State, professed he would oppose the discovery of the grievances, both in house and Coun­cel of State, when there was offered four millions to have it done? as wit­nesse the insuing ingagement.

Can any men be so void of reason, as to perswade us that they can be true to their trust, who act so contrary to the safety of the nation, and refuse such an offer as this? doth it not declare that they are guilty per­sons? we beseech you Gentlemen consider, that God will not be mock­ed (Galat. 6.7.) though you and the corrupt members of the house, have very sufficiently mocked this nation for divers years past, feeding us with shals and shals; but truly we never knew good words fill the bellies of the hungry, nor cloath the backs of the naked. Oh how have we been betrayed both by sea and land! and when men shun the light, it is be­cause their deeds are evill, Iohn 3.19, 20, 21. and hence it is, that so ma­ny do oppose a new Representative; how can any rational man think it safe to confide in such unfaithfull trustees, who neither discharge their trust reposed in them, nor make conscience of their oaths nor promises, in paying their debts; but let the most faithfull friends of the Common-wealth, lie starving in all corners of the Common-wealth? and yet they can take care to provide for our enemies, by an Act of free pardon. O how do these, and a multitude of other actions declare their unfaith­fulness! certainly they are not the men whom we chose; if they be we were deceived in them, and will no longer trust in them, but will have all Traitors, Cheaters, Arbitrary actors, and betrayers of their trust, cal­led to a strict account, that so many industrious families may not starve [Page 8]through oppression; the Prophet telleth us, that Christ is just, Zacha­ry 9.9. therefore we will never own any other King but him, he shall be our King and our Law-giver, and at his feet will we sacrifice our lives, and all that is dear unto us, Esay 33.22. Iames 4.12. therefore all those that are for Christ and justice, let them declare themselves, that we may know and own them, and then we shal adhere to them even from Dan to Beer-sheba; for we are resolved, that all those that have been faithfull in the House, Army, Navy, and Commonwealth, by owning of Christ, and standing for Justice, shall be had in singular honour, and shall shine like stars in the firmament; and those that stand for Anti­christ, in the opposing justice, or oppressing the people, shall like clods of dirt, or unsavory salt, be thrown to the dung-hill, and there remain, Matth. 5.13. for we do clearly see that we are sold to the bloudy But­chers of Rome, but we are resolved we wil not be delivered up to them.

Therefore we beseech you, before it be too late, to go with us to the House door, and not depart thence, till we have an Act for a Commit­tee, to discover and redress the grievances of the Common-wealth, that so those that have betrayed their trust, and sold us to Antichrist, may reap the fruit of their treachery; for these men, as they stand cor­rupted, will never let us have a new Representative: How many moneths, nay, years we think, have they spent in contriving a way for a new Representative, and will not do it? But we doubt not, but a Committee of upright unbiassed men, will quickly find out the Achans, and the execrable things; which will so unite us together in love, and raise such a vast Bank of treasure, and perpetual revenue, as will make this Nation a terrour to the whole earth; and then our Trustees may carry on the work of the Nation with ease and chearfulness. And we do heartily beseech you, as you tender the safety of your own persons, families, estates, and this whole Common-wealth, that you do forth­with call a General Councel, that so we may not be betrayed in our discoveries, nor destroyed for our fidelity to our Countrey: And then we shall discover a most dangerous design, tending to the destruction both of Army, and Common-wealth; For God hath made the hearts of those men fat, and their ears heavy, that they will not hear the crie of the poor, Esay 6.10. Therefore they shall cry, and not be heard, Prov. 21.13. They are Physitians of no value; they will not cure us, but rather make our wounds deeper and wider: But the Sun of Righ­teousness will arise with healing on his wings, Mal. 4.2. and all Na­tions, people, or persons, that will not submit to his Government, and [Page 8]let him rule over them, shall be destroyed, Luk. 19.27. Esa. 60.12. For behold the day commeth that shall burn as an Oven, and all the proud, and all that do wickedly shall be stubble, and the day that commeth shall burn them up, saith the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch, Mal. 4.1.

And now my Lord, and Gentlemen all, we do humbly spread these things before you, conceiving our condition just paralel with Pauls, when the ship was between Sylla and Charibdis; and as we know you in your full condition, swimming in prosperity, cannot be without strong temptations; neither can you conceive, that we can be free from the like, and greater; for you know what oppression will make wise men do, Eccles. 7.7. Therefore if we in our sinking condition shall catch at any thing, hoping to be delivered by it, & if it prove to be our destruction; we do appeal unto God, Angels and Men, whether you shall not answer for all the bloud which shall be spilt upon this ac­count, or no? For we dare call the most High God to record, our onsciences also witnessing with us, that we have nothing in our eye, but the preserving of this nation from perpetual slavery, or from suddain de­struction by unsatiable, bloudy monsters: & so we do commit both you, & these lines into the hands of that God, who is able to give them such a setting on upon your spirits, that both sleep and food shal depart from you, until you by joining with us, have put us into a safe posture.