SOone after the beginning of the late unnatural Warre between the King and his Parliament, the issue where­of hath proved destructive to them both, as I foretold the one of them that it would prove, before they, or some of them had destroy'd the o­ther; I was bold to dedicate certaine considerations thereupon to the then Lord Mayor, and Aldermen of the City, together with a project for a Petition tending to a speedy accommodation of these unhappy differences, which some wise men have thought might have been of as good use as any other of the three then in agitation in the City; if it had found entertainment with them, who then were in authority there­in. And in the year, 1648. when the said Warre was near to an end with us, and the then King and Parliament yet in being, I presumed to addresse cer­taine Problems to the then Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Common-Councel, which I thought necessary to be determined by all, that either had, or had not ta­ken part on either side in the said Warre, for the making of their peace with God, and the disposing [Page] of them to an hearty peace one with another, which I hope was no evil designe, though for good reason I disguised my self in the making of that, as I had concealed my self in the former addresse. I shall now with open face make a third Addresse to your Lordship, the Aldermen, and Common-Councel, and in particular to the now chosen Members of Parlia­ment for the City, when I shall first have given your Lordship and them a short account of my being as dis-interessed a person in the sad divisions of the times as any other; which I cannot do more briefly, or more fully any other way, then by referring you to the annexed relations of my comportment in the late Warre towards both sides, written at the date of them upon the occasion of my having then been a Pe­titioner to the Committee of Coventry for liberty to have gone up to London, there to have compounded for a part of the estate of a Nephew of mine, a little be­fore slaine on the Kings side, to which I was his heir at Law, but could not then obtaine that favour, nor the year after neither, but upon the termes you may finde in the addition to what hath passed between me, and the said Committee. By which relations, your Lordship and the rest may see, what my opinion of the said Warre was from the beginning to the end there­of, and that my behaviour was ever conformable to my opinion, the grounds whereof I have discovered in my said Problems. To which relations I have but this to adde, that in many extraordinary occasions I have had since to examine my conscience, I never yet found cause to repent me either of my opinion, or of my behaviour in reference to the said Warre, and that my daily private prayers have been, and to this day [Page 3] constantly are agreeable unto them. In which a­mong many other relating to this Church, and State, I do ever make one Petition to this purpose, That God would be pleased to forgive all the National and personal sinnes of the people of this Kingdome, but more especially those sins (certainly known to his Di­vine Majesty onely) for which he did first dash the late King and his Parliament one against another, then raised up weak means by his Almighty power to de­stroy them both, and for which he hath already sore­ly shaken, and now threatneth utterly to ruine this Church and State. And how near they now are to utter ruine by our divisions at home, and Warre, and feare of more Warres from abroad; I would it were not too visible to every one that hath but half an eye. For the prevention whereof I humbly beseech your Lordship and the rest to give me leave to propound these few things to your mature consideration, and deliberate resolution.

First, because it is impossible that we should ever be brought to any good and perfect agreement among our selves (which if we once were againe, we need be in no more feare of all the world besides then heretofore we were) until we have all made our peace with God, whether it may not be fit for your Lordship and the rest speedily to petition his Highnesse, and his Parliament (who this very day are keeping a Fast in their respective Houses) to joyne together in the pro­claiming not of such a Fast as we have already kept too many, but such a one as was proclaimed in Niniveh by the decree of the King, and his Nobles, and observed by the people thereof, when perhaps that great Ci­tie was not in greater danger then yours now is. And [Page 4] that as a necessarie preparative thereunto, there may be a convenient number of godly, wise persons cho­sen, and commissioned by them to make a prudent, and diligent enquirie after all the most crying sins of this Kingdome, and those in special, which may have been committed by the late King and his Parliaments, and for which it may most probablie be collected that God permitted the devil, and his instruments to stirre them up to the making of such a Warre one against another, as I think is without president; till they were both destroyed: To which Commissioners, if by them commanded, I shall by letter, (for I am now too old for travels) freely declare the apprehensions which have been now a long time fixed in my profoundest thoughts.

Secondly, whether it may not be, not only fit, but ne­cessarie for your Lordship, and the rest in the same Petition: humblie to move the Lord Protector and his Parliament, that by their Authority an Act may spee­dilie be passed for the re-assembling of all the Mem­bers of both Houses, who constantlie adhered to that Parliament of this Kingdome which was latelie in Warre with their King, and which certainlie was in­tended by the contrivers, and authorizers of the Solemn League and Covenant. For I humblie pray your Lordship and the rest, to weigh the force of this Di­lemma in the balance of your most serious thoughts; That either that Parliament was dissolv'd by the late Kings death, or it was not. If it were, then all the Acts and Ordinances of that piece of Parliament, which called it selfe a Parliament, and continu­ed to sit after that time are Nullities, the many infallible consequences whereof I will not deduce. [Page 5] If it were not, then though it have been discontinued now a great while, yet is it not dissolv'd, this having been the peculiar right, and priviledge of that Par­liament, that it could not be dissolv'd, prorogued, or adjourn'd but by Act of Parliament, which right and priviledge all that have entred into the said Solemne League and Covenant are thereby obliged in their several Vocations to endeavour mutually to preserve. And perhaps all you, my Lord and Gentlemen, I am sure the generalitie of the Citie (not to mention thou­sands in the Countrey, as well of the Kings Partie as of the Parliaments) have sworne that Covenant with hands lifted up to the most High God, who will not be mocked. And besides this, how the ancient and undoubted Liberties, and priviledges of Parliament, which by the additional Petition and Advise the late Lord Protector, and all his Successors was, and are bound to preserve (as I humblie conceive) and not to suffer them to be broken or interrupted, can be pre­served, and secured from being broken and interrupted: Or how the Rights and Liberties of the people of this Kingdome, which by the same additional advice eve­ry member of Parliament, as a Member of Parliament, is by his Oath bound to endeavour to preserve, can be preserved by any other means beside the recontinuing of that Parliament the contriver or contrivers, and the givers of that Advice might possibly comprehend, and so may the Members of the present Parliament (for so many quick-sighted eyes may see much more then any one) but I will here freely acknowledge, that it is be­yond the reach of my understanding.

In the third place my humble request to your Lordship and the rest is, that either by a Petition from [Page 6] your selves, in the name of the whole City to his Highnesse the Lord Protector, or by a motion from those chosen by the Citie to serve in this Parliament, or by both, as to your wisdomes it shall seeme most expedient, you would be pleased to move, that all Members of both Houses of this, and of all future Parli­aments may take that Oath, which with the Bill to that purpose hereunto annexed, was by me drawn up in the third year of the Reign of the late King, by the advice of the Lord Cook, and by me offer'd to the then House of Commons, after I had therin made the speech hereunto annext, which I had before that shew'd by a friend to a Peere of this Kingdome, then, and yet of greatest reputation for wisdome, and had his approbation thereof; Or if that Oath shall be found either defe­ctive, or inconvenient in any respect, then some other Oath of their own framing to the same purpose. The chief of the Aldermen who served in that Parliament for the Citie (whose name I have now forgotten) was pleased to second me very affectionatelie, when I brought in that Bill, yet, by the occasion I have toucht in the adjoyn'd Advertisement, after a second Read­ing it was so committed, that it hath been a close prisoner ever since. For though it were by me since put into the hands of a Member of the House of Commons, soon after the opening of the late long Parliament, with a desire to have had the Act first turn'd into an Ordinance, and then passed by the Upper House unto the late King for his Royal Assent, which no doubt his Majesty would most gladly, not onely have given, but have taken the same Oath himself, if that had been humbly desired of his Majesty, and that, by Gods blessing, might have been a means to have pre­vented [Page 7] the great mis-understanding between his Ma­jestie and that Parliament at first, afterwards set on fire, and blowne up into the flame of a most unnatu­ral War by Jesuitical counsels, given on both sides so craftilie, that they who gave these councels were ne­ver discovered on either side. For the men of that Sect have been long vers'd in the trick, to set up a pack of Cards in such a manner, that all the Diamonds (I meane Puritans) from the Ace to the Ten, shall by tales suggested to them, seem to be they that throw down all the Coat Cards of that colour, when in truth the knave of Clubbs is the first mover of the Bunch. But that Member of the House of Commons conspired with the formerly intimated, to keep the said Bill close in his own hands, for ought I know, why he knoweth best. I have therefore now set it at full libertie, and do hereby humblie recommend it not onely to your Lordship, and the rest of the Gentlemen to whom it is addressed, but under their good favour, and with due submission to the consideration of all the Members of both Houses of the present Parliament. From whom if it, with the rest I have now taken the boldnesse to offer to you, my Lord, and Gentlemen, shall be so happy as to passe to his Highnesse the Lord Protector, I can therefore have no doubt of his Highness assent thereunto, because to the best of my poore understand­ing, no humane means can tend more to the settling of his Highness, and of this, and the neighbour Kingdoms too in a happy condition. Wherein, after some months (I might say years) debate thereupon with my selfe, and as long continued prayers to God night and day for the assistance of his holy Spirit of wisdom, which he hath promised to give to them that want and ask it, I [Page 8] am grown so confident, that if I were as much and nearly interested in his Highness prosperity, as his Con­sort and children are, and in the prosperity of these Kingdoms as himself is, and had the honour to be as high a favourite of his affaires, as Cardinal VVolfey sometime was to King Henry the eighth; I would give his Highnesse the same councel I have now presum'd in all humility to propound to your Lordship, and the rest, but with this caveat, that the matter might be so manag'd by his wisdome, that it might be given to him by others, and not be known to have been either given by me, or taken by himself.

Whereunto I have but this to adde in the fourth and last place, that you my Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Common-Councel, and by your perswasion, the whole City would withal be pleased unanimously to resolve, and as unanimously to declare your full re­solution, to stand by his highnesse with your lives and e­states against all opposition whatsoever, if it may please his Highnesse to re-continue the said long Parliament (which heretofore stood chiefly by your support under God) according to the tenour of your Petition to his Highnesse, or his Parliament, or rather to them both. And that your Lordship, and the Citie, which payeth most by much in all imposed taxes, would in that re­spect, do your selves the honour, and right to be the first to move in the House of Commons, that a sufficient supply may be by them presently granted and sent up to the Other House, and without any delay ten­dred to his Highness for the supplie of the many great and urgent occasions of the State at home, and abroad, till the alreadie longest Parliament that ever met may be re-assembled, and continued so much longer onelie, [Page 9] till now this extreamlie discompos'd and disordered Church and State, may be by them through Gods bles­sing reduced to some good settlement upon righteous foundations (no other being durable) which if I may live to see, I shall then joyfully sing my Nunc dimittis, this being the seventie third Year of my age. The God and Lord of the Spirits of all flesh put such thoughts and resolutions into the heart of your Lord­ship, and of all those to whom these poor papers are addressed, and of all other into whose hands they may come, as may tend most to the advancement of his own honour, and of the weale of this Church and State, ac­cording to the prayer of