AS the Grievances and Losses of no particular Persons since these miserable bloody Distempers have disquieted this poore Kingdom , can be compared to the losse and dammage . We Our Selfe have sustained , there having been no Victory obtained but in the Blood of Our Owne Subjects , nor no Rapine or Violence committed but to the Impoverishment , and Ruine of Our Owne People ; so a blessed and a happy Peace cannot be so acceptable and welcome to any man as to Us. Almighty God to whom all the secrets of Our Heart are open , who hath so often , and so miraculously preserved Us , & to whose power alone We must attribute the goodnes of Our present Condition , ( how unhappy soever it is with reference to the publique Calamities ) knows with what unwillingnesse , with what anguish of Soule , We submitted Our Self to the necessity of taking up Defensive Armes ; and the World knowes with what Justice add Bounty We had repared Our Subjects for all the Pressures and Inconveniences they had borne , by such excellent Laws as would for ever have prevented the like ; and with what earnestnesse and importunity We desired to add any thing for the establishment of the Religion , Laws , and Liberty of the Kingdom . How all these have been disturbed , invaded , and almost destroyed by Faction , Sedition , and Treason , by those who have neither Reverence to God , or Affection to Men , but have sacrificed both to their own Ends and Ambition , is now so evident , that We hope , as God hath wonderfully manifested his care of Us , and his defence of his and Our most just Cause , so he hath so farre touched the hearts of Our People , that their Eyes are at last opened to see how miserably they have been seduced , and to abhorre those Persons whose Malice and Subtilty have seduced them to dishonour him , to Rebell against Us , and to bring so such misery and calamity upon their Native Country .

We well remember the Protestation voluntarily made by Us , in the head of that small Army We were Master of in September last , to defend and maintain the true reformed Protestant Religion , and if it should please God by his blessing upon that Army to preserve Us from this Rebellion , that We would maintain the Just Priviledges and Freedom of Parliament , and governe by the known Lawes of the Land , for whose defence in truth that Army was onely raised , and hath been since kept . And there cannot be a more seasonable time to renew that Protestation then now , when God hath vouchsafed Us so many Victories and Successes , and hath rendered the power of those who seek to destroy Us , lesse formidable then it hath bin , ( so that We shall probably not fall under the scandalous Imputation which hath usually attended Our Messages of Peace , That they proceeded from the weaknesse of Our power , not love of Our People , ) and when there is more freedom in many Countyes for Our good Subjects to receive true Information of their owne and Our Condition , the knowledge whereof hath been with equall Industry and Injustice kept from them , as other Acts of Cruelty have been imposed on them . We doe therefore declare to all the World in the presence of Almighty God to whom we must give a strict Accompt of all Our Professions and Protestations , That We are so farre from intending any alteration of the Religion established , as hath been often falsly , scandalously , and against the Conscience of the Contrivers themselves of that rumour suggested to Our people ) or from the least thought of invading the Liberty and property of the Subject , or violating the just Priviledges of Parliament , that We call that God to witnesse , who hath covered Our Head in the day of Battell , That We desire from Our Soule , and shall alwayes use Our utmost endeavour to preserve and advance the true reformed Protestant Religion established in the Church of England , in which We were borne , have faithfully lived , and by the grace of God shall resolutely dye ; That the preservation of the Liberty and Property of the Subject in the due observation of the knowne Lawes of the Land , shall be equally Our care as the maintenance of Our Owne Rights , We desiring to governe onely by those good Lawes , which till they were oppressed by this odious Rebellion , preserved this Nation happy ; and We do acknowledge the just Priviledges of Parliament to be an essentiall part of those Lawes , and shall therefore most solemnely defend and observe them . So that in truth if either Religion , Law or Liberty be precious to Our People , they will by their submission to Us joyn with Us in the defence of them , and thereby establish that Peace , by which only they can flourish and be enjoyed . Whether these men , who are professed Enemies to the established Ecclesiasticall Government , who reproach and persecute the Learned Orthodox Ministers of the Church , and into their places put Ignorant , Seditious , and Schismaticall Preachers , who vilifie the Book of Common-Prayer , and impiously prophane Gods Worship with their scurrilous and seditious demeanour , are like to advance that Religion ; whether those men who boldly , and without the least shaddow or colour of Law , impose insupportable Taxes and odious Excises upon their fellow Subjects , Imprison , Torment , and murther them , are like to preserve the Liberty , and Property of the Subject ; and whether those men who seize and possesse themselves of Our own unquestionable Revenue , and Our just Rights , have denyed Us Our Negative Voyce , have by Force & Violence awed and terrified the Members of both Houses , and lastly , have , as far as in them lyes , dissolved the present Parliament by driving away & Imprisoning the Members , and resolving the whole power thereof , and more , into a Committee of a few Men , contrary to all Law , Custome , or President , are like to vindicate and uphold the Priviledges of Parliament , all the world may judge . We do therefore once more conjure Our good Subjects by their memory of that excellent Peace , and firme happinesse with which it pleased God to reward their Duty and Loyalty in time past , by their Oathes of Allegiance , and Supremacy which no new Vow , or Covenant contrived , and administred to and by themselves , can cancell or evade , by whatsoever is deare and pretious unto them in this life , or hoped or prayed for in the life to come . That they will remember their Duty and consider their Interest , and no longer suffer themselves to be misled , their Prince dishonoured , and their Country wasted and undone , by the malice & cunning of these State Impostours , who under pretence of Reformation would introduce whatsoever is monstrous & unnaturall both to Religion and Policy , but that they rather chuse quietly to enjoy their Religion , Property , and Liberty founded and provided for by the wisdom and Industry of former times , and secured and enlarged by the blessings upon the present Age , then to spend their lives and fortunes to purchase Confusion , and to make themselves lyable to the most intolerable kind of slavery , that is , to be slaves to their fellow Subjects , who by their prodigious unheard of Acts of oppression and Tyranny , have given them sufficient evidence what they are to expect at their hands . And let not Our good People , who have been misled , or through want of understanding , or want of Courage submitted themselves to unwarrantable and disloyall Actions be taught by their Seducers , that their safety now consists in despaire , and that they can only secure themselves for the Ills they have done , by a resolute and peremptory Disobedience . Revenge and Blood-thirstynesse have never been imputed to Us by those , who have left neither Our Government or Nature unexamined with the greatest boldnesse and malice ; and all those who since these bloody Distractions out of Conscience have returned from their evill wayes to Us , have found that it was not so easie for them to repent , as to Us to forgive ; and whosoever hath been misled by those , whose hearts from the beginning have designed all this mischiefe , and shall redeem their past Crimes by their present service and Loyalty in the apprehending , or opposing such who shall continue to beare Armes against Us , and shall use their utmost endeavours to reduce those men to their due Obedience , and to restore this Kingdom to it 's wonted Peace , shall have cause to magnifie Our mercy , and to repent the Trespasses committed against so Just and Gracious a Soveraigne . Lastly , We desire all our good Subjects , who have really assisted or really wished Us well , now God hath done such wonderfull things for Us , vigorously to endeavour to put an end to all these miseries , by bringing in Men , Money , Plate , Horses , or Armes to Our Aide , that so , We being not wanting to Our selves , may with confidence expect the continuance of Gods favour to restore Us all to that blessed Harmony of Affections , which may establish a firme Peace , without the speedy obtaining of which this poor Kingdom will be utterly undone , though not absolutely lost .