THE best indeavours and greatest works wherin the good hand and Providence of God have been most evident and sensible , and the hearts and intentions of men , called to be the instruments , most pious and sincere , Though they found approbation with the wiser sort , and such as are given to observation , yet they have ever been subject to be misconstrued by blind suspition , to be reproved by cavelling censure , which maketh place for it selfe to enter where it findeth none , and to be condemned of the ignorant , but most of all of the malicious , who cannot be pleased even when God is best pleased ; and when men seek to approve themselves to every ones Conscience , but in their hearts wish rather that the Temple should not be built , Religion never reformed , and they themselves Issachar like , couch between the two burthens , then that they should be in their worldly projects or possessions opposed or troubled . The deliverance of the people of God of old from the Aegyptian servitude ▪ The redemption of the Church by the Son of God ; and the planting of Christian Religion by his servants ; and the vindication of Religion from Romish Superstition and Tyranny , which are the greatest and most wonderfull works of God , have been most bitterly calumniated , and spitefully spurned against by the wicked .

The nature and quality of this good worke wherin the Lord hath honoured us to be actors , and the experience which we have found of continuall opposition since the beginning , may teach us , if we be not as the Horse and Mule which have no understanding , that we are to expect the gainsaying of sinners , and that nothing can be hatched in hell by Satan , or prompted by his Supposts , on earth , which will not be produced to make us and the Cause of God which we maintain odious to all men , but most of all to our Neighbours and dearest Brethren . When we shall now enter into England it will be layed to our charge that we mind nothing but Invasion , and that no lesse hath been intended by us from the beginning , then under the retext of seeking our Religion and Liberties to enrich our selves with their possessions and goods : But our peaceable cariage many years past before the time of those late troubles , our Informations , Declarations and Remonstrances published to the world , wherin we have Cursed all Nationall Invasion , and our willingnesse when we were in Armes to lay them down upon the small hopes of injoying our Religion and Liberties ; and our forbearing now , by way of reprisall , to satisfie our selves upon the Ships and goods of our deare Brethren of England , for those Ships and goods of ours , that have been taken by the Kings Ships , which possibly we might have been able to doe , had not Justice forbidden us to take from them , whom we are assured , neither wish us harme , nor have done us wrong , will be conceived by the wise and well affected to be more plain and sure evidences of our meaning then all that malice can devise , or calumnie can expresse against us .

Neither have any new emergents altered , but rather confirmed our former resolutions : for although both before and since the Late Pacification we have been highly injured by some Papists and Prelats , and their adherents there , who have been , and are still seeking no lesse , then that we should no more be a Church or Nation , and therfore themselves cannot thinke but we must accompt of them as Gods enemies and ours : Yet above all the favours we have received from the good people and body of the Kingdome of England , One there is which hath highly honoured them before the world , and endeared them unto us more then before which shall never be forgotten by us , and we hope shall be thankfully remembred by our Children , and Childrens Children after us to all generations ; that when upon misinformation the Councell of England had concluded to raise Force against us , when the Parliament of Ireland had offered their Persons and Estates for supply against us , when all plots and policies were set on worke , and Publick Declarations by Authority were made , and the Parliament called for this very end , when we had been traduced , and Proclaimed as Traytors and Rebells at every Parish Church , yet so wise , so grave , so just was that High Court of Parliament ( to their everlasting honour be it remembred ) that no threatnings , nor feares , no promises nor hopes , no finenesse , nor cunningly devised suggestion could move them to decerne a warre , or grant any Subsidie for a warre against us , but rather by their speeches , complaints and grievances parrallel to ours , did justifie the Cause ( so much as in them was ) which we defend . This rich and recent favour doth so binde our hearts , that were our power never so great , we should judge our selves the unworthiest of all men , and could look for no lesse then vengeance from the Righteous GOD , if we should move hand or foot against that Nation so comfortably to us represented in that honourable meeting . In this our thank full acknowledgement , we desire that the City of London may have their own large share as they well deserve by the noble profession they have given of their constant affection to Religion , and the peace of both Kingdomes , notwithstanding the continuall assaults of the misleaders of the King against them , alwayes rendering them seditious in his eares . And if this which doth so convince us shall not be thought sufficient to satisfie all the good people of England , We now before God and the World make offer in generall , and we make offer to so many of them as shall require it in particular , of the strongest and most inviolable bond of our solemne Oath and Religious attestation of the Great Name of GOD , who is our feare and dread , and from whom we hope for a blessing upon our expedition , that we intend no enmity or rapine , and shall take no mans goods , nor ingage our selves in blood by fighting , unlesse we be forced unto it , which we may look for from the Papists and Prelats : but if any such thing shall come from godly men , or good Patriots , who love the truth of Religion , or the Kings honour , and their own liberty , both the rule of charity ( which entertaineth no suspicion , where there is no evill deserving ) and the soule of wisdome ( which teacheth that both Nations must now stand or fall together ) doe forbid us to apprehend . All the designe of both Kingdomes is for the truth of Religion , and for the just liberty of the Subject , and all the devises and doings of the enemy are for the oppressing of both , that our Religion may be turned into Superstition and Atheisme , and our liberty into base servitude and bondage . To bring this to passe they have certainly conceived that the blocking up of this Kingdome by Sea and Land would prove a powerfull and infallible means , For , for either within a very short time shall we through want of trade , and spoyling of our goods be brought to such extreame poverty and confusion , that we shall miserably desire the conditions which we now despise , and decline , and be forced to imbrace their will for a Law , both in Church and policie , which will be a precedent for the like misery in England , who timously foreseeing it may be taught by their and our danger to be more wise , or upon the other part , we shall by this Invasion be constrained furiously and without order to break into England , which we beleeve is the most earnest desire of our common enemies , because a more speedy execution of their designe : for we doubt not but upon our comming Clamours will be raised , Posts sent , and Proclamations made , through the Kingdome , to slander our pious and just intentions ( as if this had been our meaning from the beginning ) to stirre up all the English against us , that once being entred in blood , they may with their own Swords extirpate their own Religion , lay a present foundation with their own hands for building of Rome in the midst of them , and be made the Actors of their own and our slavery to continue for Ever . But in this admirable opportunity of vindicating of true Religion and just liberty , if divine providence be looked upon with a reverend eye , and men fearing God , and loving the Kings honour , and peace of both Kingdomes , shall walke worthy of their profession , although the enemies have obtayned so much of their desires , as by cords of their own twisting , to draw us into England , yet may their maine designe be disappointed , the Rope which they have made brought upon their own necks , and their wisdome turned to foolishnes , which we have reason to hope for from that supreme wisdome and power which hath in all the proceedings of this worke turned their devises upon their own pates that plotted them .

In our Informations , Remonstrances , and the true representation of our proceedings since the last pacification , we have so farre expressed the wrongs which we have sustained , and the distresses which we suffer , as may make manifest our pressing necessity to take some other course for our present reliefe , then such petitions , supplications and commissions , as we have used before with lesse successe then could be expected of a Kingdome from their native King . Before we stirred so much as with a petition , we indured for many yeares not only the continuall opposition of the truth , and power of Religion by Prelates and Papists , but also the violation of all our liberties , and almost the totall subversion of our Religion , which was our comfort in the sight of God , and the glory of this Nation in the sight of other Churches , who by the testimony of their Divines made our Reformation the measure of their wishes , and would have redeemed it with their greatest worldly losses , when grosse Popery was notoriously obtruded upon us in the Booke of Canons and Common Prayer , without consent or knowledge of the Churches ; and the plot of the Prelats and Papists wholly discovered how to settle it in both Nations : We added to our former suffrings no other Armes but Prayers and teares unto God ; and Petitions to our King , which were utterly rejected ; the Books and corruptions against which we petitioned highly exalted , and by the insolent advise of those who govern now his Councells , labour to establish their own ill acquired greatnesse upon our oppression , and the ruines of our Religion and Liberties . We were forbidden to insist , under the pain of high Treason , when we found our selves thus opposed and born down ; still insisting in our humble desires we solemly renewed our solemn and Nationall Oath and Covenant for preserving of our Religion and Liberties , and of his Majesties Authority , knowing the violation of that Oath to be the guiltinesse which had procured our woes , and that our Repentance and turning to God were the meanes by his blessing for a good successe : when contrary to our deserving and expectation his Majestie was moved by wicked Counsell to march toward us with an Army , we choosed rather to neglect such courses as might serve for our humane safety , then to fall in seeming disobedience to our King , or to give the smallest distast to our Brethen in England , and therfore disbanded our Forces , delivered all holds which were craved in testimony of our obedience , and so farre complyed with his Majesties pleasure , that notwithstanding the determination of our lawfull former Assembly , called by his Majesty , we were contented that a new free Assembly and Parliament should be appointed , where all things both concerning our Religion and Liberties might againe be considered and established . When matters Ecclesiasticall were determined in the Assembly according to the Constitutions of the Church in the presence , and with the consent of his Majesties Commissioner ; and the Parliament was conveened for perfecting the worke , although we walked therin so warily that no just provocation was given to his Majesty , yet contrary to the Laws and Customes of this Kingdome , the Parliament so certainly promised , when his Majesty was free of those had Counsellours , was ( being againe in their power ) by their advise proroged , which to shew our invinsible obedience we were content to suffer , and did send up our Commissioners to London to render the reasons of our demands . When our Commissioners and Petitions of the Parliament , called by his Majesty , were so farre rejected , that they were never seen or heard . We send up our Commissioners againe with our propositions , which contayned nothing but what was necessary for the peace and good of the Kingdome , and was granted to us before under his Majesties hand , yet could they find no answer at all , which will be wondred at , and hardly beleved by so many as are strangers at Court , and know not the Bishop of Canterbury , and the Leivtenant of Ireland , with the Assistance of the too too powerfull Faction of the Hispanioliz'd Papists labour to shew their zeale for his Majesties greatnesse , by oppressing the just Liberties of the free Subjects , and the reformed Religion in all the three Kingdomes : But in place of the gracious answer which we expected , our Commissioners were restrained , and one of the Noble men imprisoned ; Garrisons of strangers set over our heads in an insolent and Barbarous way , exercising their cruelty even against Women and Children ; our Ships and goods taken and sunke , and the owners stript naked , and more inhumanely used at the Commandement of abused Authority , by the Subjects of our own King , then by Turks and Infidels , and great Armies prepared against us with a terrible Commission to subdue and destroy our selves , our Religion , Liberties , Laws and all . In this extremity for us to send new Commissioners and Petitions were against sence and experience , those that governe the Kings Counsells being farre from any inclination or intention to satisfie the just ●esires and grievances of the Subjects , as they have made manifest by breaking up of the Parliament in both Kingdomes , ( though we know them to be often countervoted by many of that Honourable Board , more candid and peaceably minded . ) To sit still in senselesnesse and security , wayting for our own destruction at the discretion of our mercilesse enemies ( which were it not at this time with the Cause of God would move us the lesse ) is not only against Religion but Nature , teaching and commanding us to study our owne preservation . To indure continuall threatnings , and so great hostility and invasion from yeare to yeare , which is the professed policie of our enemies is impossible , and when we have examined our own strength , more then we are able to beare : We have therfore after much agitation and debating with and amongst our selves ; resolved to have our proceedings which have been canvased by so many , and are brought to some point of determination in our own Parliament , to be better known to the Kings Majesty , and the world , and especially to the Kingdome of England , that against all false and artificiall relations , they being nakedly seen to be what they are , we may obtaine a better grounded and more durable peace for the injoying of our own Religion , and Laws ; and as we desire the unworthy Authors of our troubles , who have come out from our selves to be tryed at home , and justice to be done upon them according to our own Laws , so shall we presse no further processe against Canterbury , the Lievtenant of Ireland , and the rest of those pernicious Counsellours in England , the Authors of all the miseries of both Kingdomes ; then what their own Parliamant shall discerne to be their just deserving . When we look upon this work of reformation from the beginning , and perceive the impressions of the Providence of God in it , we are forced in the midst of all our difficulties and distresses to blesse God for his Fatherly care and free love to his Church and Kingdome , and to take courage and spirit to proceed in patience aed perseverance whither He shall goe before us , and lead us on . When the Prelats were grown by their Rents and Lordly dignities , by their power over all sorts of his Majesties Subjects , Ministers and others , by their places in Parliament , Councell , Colledge of Justi●e , Exchequer and High Commission , to an absolute Dominion and Greatnesse , and setting the one foot upon the Church , and the other upon the State , were become miserably Insolent , even then did the worke begin , and this was the Lords opportunity . The beginnings were small , and promised no great thing , but have been so seconded and continually followed by divine providence , pressing us from step to step , that the necessity was invincible and could not be resisted . It cannot be expressed what motions filled the heart , what teares were powred forth from the eyes , and what cryes came from the mouthes of many thousands in this Land at that time , from the sence of the love and power of God , raysing them as from the dead , and giving them hopes after so great a deluge and vastation to see a new world , wherin Religion and Righteousnesse should dwell . When we were many times at a pause , and knew not well what to doe , the feares , the furies , the peevishnesse and the plots of our dementat adversaries opened a way unto us , and taught us how to proceed , and what they devised to ruine us served most against themselves , and for raysing and promoting the worke . O Providence to be adored ! Although neither Counsell nor Session , nor any other Judicature hath been all this time sitting , and there have been meetings of many thousands at some times , yet have they been kept without tumult or trouble , and without excesse or ryot in better order and greater quietnes , then in the most peaceable times have been found in this Land . When we were content at the pacification to lay down arms , and with great losse to live at home in peace , our wicked enemies have been like the troubled Sea when it cannot rest , whose waters cast up mire and dirt , and will have us to doe that which it seems the Lord hath decreed against them . The purity of our intentions farre from base and earthly respects , the bent and inclination of our hearts in the midst of many dangers , the fitting of instruments , not onely with a desire and disposition , but with spirit and abilities to overcome opposition , and the constant peace of heart accompanying us in our wayes , which beareth us out against all accusaions and aspersions , are to us strong grounds of assurance that God hath accepted our worke , and will not leave us : we know the Lord may use even wicked men in his service , and may fill their failes with a faire gale of abilities , and carry them on with a strong hand , which should make us to search our hearts more narrowly . But as this ought not to discourage his own faithfull servants , who out of love to his Name intend his honour , walke in his wayes , find his peace comforting them , his providence directing them , and his presence blessing them in their affaires . So can it not be any just ground of quarrelling against the worke of God . Yet all these our incouragements which have upholden our hearts in the midst of many troubles , could not make our entry into England warrantable , if our peace ( which we earnestly seek and follow after ) could be found at home or elsewhere . Where it is to be found we must seek after it , and no sooner shall we finde it clearly secured to us , but by laying down our Armes , and by the evidences of our peaceable disposition , we shall make it manifest to the world , and especially to the Kingdome of England , that we are seeking nothing els but peace , and that our taking up of Armes was not for Invasion but for Defence . No man needeth to plead by positive law for necessity . It is written in every mans heart by nature , and in all actions we find men have received it by practise , that Necessity is a soveraignity . A Law above all Law is subject to no Law , and therfore is said to have no Law . Where Necessity commandeth , the Laws of nature and Nations give their consent , and all positive Laws are silent and give place . This Law hath place , somtimes to excuse , somtimes to extenuate , and somtimes to justifie and warrant actions otherwise questionable : and no greater necessity can be then the preservation of Religion , which is the soule ; of the Countrey , which is the body ; of our lives , who are the members ; and of the honour of our King who is the head . All these at this time are in a common hazard , and to preserve and secure all , we know no other way under the Sunne ( And if any be so wise as to know it , we desire to here it , and shall be ready to follow it ) but to take order with our common Enemies where they may be found , and to seek our assurance where it may be given . The Question is not whether we shall content our selves with our own poverty , or enrich our selves in England ? that Question is impious and absurd . Neither is the Question whether we shall defend our selves at home , or invade our neighbours and dearest Brethren ? this also were unchristian and unreasonable . But this is the Question , whether it be wisdome and piety to keep our selves within the borders till our throats be cut , and our Religion , Laws and Countrey destroyed ? Or , shall we bestirre our selves , and seek our safeguard , peace and liberty in England ; whether we shall doe or dye , whether we shall goe and live , or abide and perish ? Or more largely to expresse all , Whether we who are not a few private persons , but a whole Kingdome , shall lye under the burthen of so many accusations , as scarcely in the worst times have been charged against Christians , receive the Service Book , and the whole body of Popery , imbrace the prelates and their abjured Hierarchy , renounce our solemn Oath and Covenant , so many times sworn by us , loose all our labour and paines in this Cause , and forget our former slavery and wonted desires of redemption at the dearest rate ; tickle the minds of our enemies with joy , and strengthen their hands with violence , and fill the hearts of our Friends with sorrow , and their faces with shame because of us ; desert and dishonour the Sonne of God whose Cause we have undertaken , whose banner we have displayed , and whose truth and power hath been this time past more comfortable to us , then all the peace and prosperity of the world could have rendered , and draw upon our selves all the judgements which God hath executed upon Apostates since the beginning , and shall we fold our hands and wayte for the perfect slavery of our selves and our Posterity , in our soules , bodies , and estates , and ( which is all one ) foolishly to stand to our defence where we know it impossible ? Or shall we seek our relief in following the Calling of God ( for our necessity can be interpreted no lesse ) and entring by the doore which His providence hath opened unto us , when all wayes are stopped beside . Our enemies at first did throude themselves so farre under the Kings Authority , that they behooved to stand or fall together , and that to Censure them was Treason against the King . Now we have shewen that a Kings Crown is not tyed to a Prelats Mitre , and that the one may be cast unto the ground , and the other have a greater lustre and glory then before . Now they take themselves to another starting hole , and would have men to thinke that to come into England against them is to come against England , and to pursue them although Legally is to invade the Kingdome were they live , as if the cutting away of an Excressence , or the curing of an Imposthume were the killing of the body . Let them secure themselves under the shelter of their own phantasies , but we are not so undisserning as like mad men to run furiously upon such as we first meet with and come in our way : for although it cannot be denyed but the wrongs done to us , as the breaking of the late peace , crying us down as Rebells and Traytors , the takeing of our Ships and Goods , the Imprisoning of our Commissioners ; the Acts of Hostility done by the English in our Castles : had they been done by the State or Kingdome of England , there might have been just causes of a Nationall quarrelling , yet seeing the Kingdome of England conveend in Parliament have refused to contribute any supply against us , have shewen themselves to be prest with grievances like unto ours , and have earnestly pleaded for redresse and remedy , and a Declararation made that his Majesty out of Parliament will redresse them , which might be a cure for the grievances of particular Subjects : but Nationall grievances require the hand of the Parliament for their cure , for preventing wherof the Parliament was broken up and dissolved . Neither do we quarrell with the Kingdome for the injuries which we sustaine , but our quarrell is onely with particular men , the enemies of both Nations : nor can they quarrell with us , for taking order with the prevalent Faction of Papists and Prelats the Authors of so many woes to both Nations .

Let all who love Leligion and their liberty joyne against the common enemies , and let them be accursed that shall not seek the preservation of their neighbour Nation , both in Religion and Laws , as their own , as knowing that the ruine of one will prove the ruine of both . And knowing well ( as having from their own Councels discovered it ) that the ruine of both was intended , and that it was ever their plot and purpose , that if they could not ingage our dearest Brethren , and neighbour Nation in a Warre for our destruction ; then to give us some ill assured peace , which might bind our hands and hold us quiet , untill the yoake of bondage were more heavily and unremoveably layd upon our Brethren of England by the help of such an Army as was pretended to be gathered against us , rooting out the Godly people and active spirits of that Nation , and all those who as good Patriots stand well affected to Religion , and their just liberties , and might be suspected would dare stirre for the defence and maintenance of either , and thereafter easily find ground to break againe with us , when they were once assured that we were like to stand alone : And all the benefit of our peace should be to be last destroyed .

And as we attest the God of heaven that those and no other are our Intentions , so upon the same greatest attestation doe we declare that for atchieving those ends , we shall neither spare our paints , fortunes , nor lives , which we know cannot be more profitably and honourably spent . That we shall not take from our Friends and Brethren from a thread even to a shooe latchet , but for our own moneys , and the just payment : That we come amongst them as their Friends and Brethren , very sensible of their by past suffrings and present dangers both in Religion and Liberties , and most willing to doe them all the good we can , like as we certainly expect that they ( from the like sence of our hard condition and intollerable distresse which hath forced us to come from our own Countrey ) will joyne and concurre with us in the most just and Noble wayes for obtayning their and our most just desires . And when our own money and meanes are spent , we shall crave nothing but upon sufficient surety of payment how soon possibly it can be made , what is necessary for the etertaynment of our Army , which we are assured so many as love Religion and the peace of both Kingdomes will willingly offer , as that which they know we cannot want , and in their wise foresight will provide the way to furnish necessaries , and to receive the surety . This course being kept by both sides , will neither harme our Brethren ( for they shall be satisfied to the last farthing ) nor our selves , who look for a recompense from the rich providence of God , for whose sake we have hazarded the losse of all things .

The escapes of some Souldiers if any shall happen ) we trust shall not be imputed to us , who shall labour by all meanes to prevent them more carefully , and punish them more severely then if done to our selves , and in our own Countrey . Our professed Enemies the Papists , Prelats , with their adherents , and the receivers of their goods and geir , we conceive will be more provident then to refuse us necessary sustentation , when they remember what Councell was given by them for Declaring all our possessions to be forfeited , and to be disposed of to them as well deserving Subjects .

Wee shall demand nothing of the Kings Majesty but the settling and secureing of the true Religion and liberties of this Kingdome according to the Constitutions and Acts of the late Assemblies and Parliament , and what a just Prince oweth by the Lawes of God and the Countrey to his grieved Subjects , coming before him with their humble desires and supplications . Our abode in England shall be no longer time then in their Parliament , our just grievances and complaints may be heard and Redressed , sufficient Assurance given for the legall tryall and punishment of the Authors of their and our evills ; and for Reforming and injoying their and our Religion and Liberties in peace , against the machynations of Romish contrivance acted by their degenerate Countrey-men . Our returning thereafter shall be with expedition in a peaceable and orderly way farre from all molestation ; and we trust the effect shall be against Papists , the extirpation of Popery ; against Prelats , the Reformation of the Church ; against Atheists , the flourishing of the Gospell ; and against Traytours and Firebrands , a perfect and dureable union and love between the two Kingdomes , which He grant who knoweth our Intentions and desires , and is able to bring them to passe . And if any more be required , God will reveale it and goe before both Nations , and if God goe before us , who will not follow , or refuse to put their necks to the worke of the Lord ?