IT would not be believed ( at least great paines have been taken that it might not ) that the pretended Ordinance of the Militia ( the first attempt that ever was to make a Law by Ordinance without Our consent ) or the keeping Us out of Hull , and taking Our Armes and Munition from Us , could any way concerne the Interest , Property , or Liberty of the subject , and it was confessed by that desperate Declaration it self of the 26 of May , that if they were found guilty of that charge of destroying the title and interest of Our subjects to their lands and goods , it were indeed a very great crime . But it was a strange fatall Lethargy which had seised Our good people , and kept them from discerning , that the Nobility , Gentry , Comonalty of England , were not only stripped of their preheminences and Priviledges , but of their liberties and estates , when Our just Rights were denyed Us , and that no Subject could from thenceforth expect to dwell at home , when We were driven from Our Houses and Our Towns . It was not possible , that a Commission could be granted to the E. of Essex , to raise an Army against Us , and for the safety of Our Person , and preservation of the peace of the Kingdom , to pursue , kill and slay Us , and all who wish wel to Us , but that in a short time inferior Commanders , by the same authority , would require Our good Subjects for the maintenance of the property of the subject , to supply them with such sums of Money as they think fit , upon the penalty of being plundred with all extremity of War ( as the stile of Sir Edward Rayntons Warrant runs against Our poore subjects in Wiltshire ) and by such Rules of unlimitted Arbitrary power , as are inconsistent with the least pretence or shadow of that Property it would seem to defend .

If there could b● yet any understanding so unskilfull and Supine to believe , that these disturbers of the publique peace do intend any th●ng but a generall confusion , they have brought them a sad argument to their own doors to convince them ; after this Ordinance and D●claration t is not in any sober mans power to believe himself worth any thing , or that there is such a thing as law , liberty , property , left in England , under the ju●isdictio● of these men , and the same power that robs them now of the twentieth part of their est●tes , hath by that but made a claim and entituled it self to the other 19. when it shal be thought fit to hasten the general ruine . Sure , if the minds of all men be not stubbornly prepared for servitude , they wil look on this O●dinance as the greatest prodigy of Arbitrary power and tyranny that any age hath brought forth in any Kingdom ; other grievances ( & the greatest ) have been conceived intolerable , rather by the logicke and consequence , then by the pressure it self , this at once sweeps away all that the wisdom and justice of Parliaments have provided for them . Is their property in their estates ( so carefully looked to by their ancestors , and so amply established by Us against any possibility of Invasion from the Crown ) which makes the meanest subject as much a Lord of his own , as the greatest Peer , to be valued or considered ? here is a twentieth part of every mans estate ( or so much more as foure men wil please to call the twentieth part taken away at once , and yet a power left to take a twentieth still of that which remains , & this to be leavied by such circumstances of severity , as no Act of Parliament ever consented to . Is their liberty which distinguishes Subjects from slaves , and in which this free-born Nation hath the advantage of all Christendom , deare to them ? they shal not only be imprison'd in such places of this Kingdome , ( a latitude of judgment no Court can challenge to it self in any Cases ) but for so long time as the Committee of the house of Commons for examination shal appoint and order ; the House of Commons it self having never assumed , or in the least degree pretended to a power of judicature , having no more authority to administer an oath ( the only way to discover and find out the truth of facts ) to , then to cut off the heads of any our subjects ; and this Committee being so farre from being a part of the Parliament , that it is destructive to the whole , by usurping to it self all the power of King , Lords , & Commons . All who know any thing of Parliaments , know that a Committee of either House ought not by the Law to publish their own results , ne●ther are their conclusions of any force without the confirmation of the house , which hath the same power of controling them as if the matter had never bin debated ; but that any Committee should be so contracted ( as this of examination , a stile no Committee ever bore before this Parliament ) as to exclude the Members of the House , who are equally trusted by their Countrey , from being present at the counsels , is so monstrous to the Priviledges of Parliament , that it is no more in the power of any man to give up that freedome , then of himself to order , that from that time the place for which he serves , shal never more send a Knight or Burgesse to the Parliament , and in truth is no lesse then to alter the whole frame of government , to pull up Parliaments by the roots , and to commit the lives , liberties , and estates of all the people of England , to the arbitrary power of a few unqualified persons , who shall dispose thereof according to their discretion , without account to any rule or authority whatsoever .

Are their friends , their wives , and children ( the greatest blessings of Peace and the comforts of life ) precious to them ? would even their penury and imprisonment be less● grievous by those cordials ? they shal be divorced from them , banished , and shal no longer remain within the Cities of London and Westminster , the Suburbs and the Counties adjacent , and how far those adjacent Coun●●es shall extend no man knows .

Is there any thing now left to enjoy , but the liberty to rebell , and destroy one another ? are the outward blessings only of peace , property , and liberty , taken , and forced from Our subjects ? are their consciences free and unassaulted by the violence of these fire brands ? sure the liberty and freedome of conscience cannot suf●er by these men . Alas ! all these punishments are imposed upon them because they wil not submit to actions contrary to their natural loyalty , to their oathes of Allegianc● , and Supremacy , and to their late voluntary protestation , which obliges them to the care of Our Person and Our just Rights . How many persons of Honour , quality , and reputation of the severall Counties of England , are now imprison'd , without any objection against them , but suspition of their loyalty ? how many of the gravest and most substantial Citizens of London , by whom the Government and Discipline of that City was preserved , are disgraced , robbed , and imprisoned , without any processe of Law , or colour of accusation , but of obedience to the Law and Government of the Kingdome ? whilst Anabaptists , and Brownists , with the assistance of vitious and deboshed persons , of desperate Fortunes , take upon them to break up and rifle houses , as publique and avowed Ministers of a new invented authority ; How many godly , pious , and painfull Divines , whose Lives and Learning hath made them of reverend estimation , are now slander'd with inclination to Popery , discountenanced , and imprisoned , for discharging their Consciences , instructing the People in the Christian duty of Religion , and obedience , whil'st Schismaticall , Illiterate , & scandalous Preachers , fill the Pulpits and Churches , with Blasphemy , Irreverence , and Treason ; and incite their Auditory to nothing but Murther and Rebellion ; We passe over the vulgar charm , by which they have captivated such who have been contented to dispence with their Consciences for the preservation of their estates , and by which they perswade men cheerfully to part with this twentieth part of their Estate to the good work in hand : for whoever will give what he hath , may scape robbing ; They shall be repay'd upon the publike Faith as all other monies lent upon the Propositions of both Houses ; it may be so ; but men must be condemned to a strange unthriftinesse who will lend upon such security . The publike Faith indeed is as great an earnest as the State can give , and engages the Honour , Reputation , and honesty of the Nation , and is the Act of the Kingdome , 't is the security of the King , the Lords , and Commons , which can never need an Executor , can never dye , never be Bankrupt , and therefore We willingly consented to it for the Indemnity of Our good Subjects , of Scotland , ( who We hope will not think the worse of it , for being so often and so cheaply mentioned since . ) But that a Vote of one or both Houses should be an engagement upon the publike Faith , is as impossible , as that the Committee of the House of Commons for Examinations , should be the High Court of Parliament .

And what is or can be said with the least shadow of reason to justifie these Extravagances ? We have not lately heard of the old fundamentall Lawes which used to warrant the Innovations , this needs a Refuge even below those foundations : They will say they cannot manage their great undertakings without such extraordinary wayes ; We thinke so too , but that proves only they have undertaken somewhat they ought not to undertake , not that it is lawfull for them to doe any thing that is convenient for those ends : We remembred them long ago , and We cannot doe it too often , of that excellent Speech of Mr. Pyms . The Law i● that which puts a difference betwixt good and evill , betwixt just and unjust , if you take away the Law , all things will fall into a confusion , every man will become a Law unto himselfe , which in the depraved condition of humane nature , must needs produce many great Enormities , Lust will become a Law , and Envy will become a Law , Covetousnesse and Ambition will become Lawes , and what Dictates , what Decision , such Lawes will produce may easily be discerned . It may indeed by the sad instances over the whole Kingdome ; But will Posterity believe , that in the same Parliament this Doctrine was avowed with that Acclamation , and these instances after produced ; That in the same Parliament such care was taken that no man should be committed in what case soever , without the cause of his Imprisonment expressed , and that all men should be immediatly bayled in all Cases bayleable , and during the same Parliament that Alderman Penington , or indeed any body else , but the sworn Ministers of Justice , should imprison whom then would , and for what they would , and for as long time as they would ; That the King should be reproached with breach of priviledge for accusing Sir Iohn Hotham of high treason , when with force of Armes he kept Him out of Hull , and despised Him to His face , because in no case a member of either House might be committed or accused without leave of that House , of which he is a member , and yet that during the same Parliament , the same Alderman should commit the Earle of Middlesex ( a Peere of the Realme ) and the Lord Buckhurst ( a member of the House of Commons ) to the Counter without reprehension ; that to be a Traitour ( which is defined and every man understands ) should be no crime , and to be called Malignant ( which no body knowes the meaning of ) should be ground enough for close imprisonment ; That a Law should be made , that whosoever should presume to take Tunnage and poundage without an Act of Parliament , should incur the penalty of a premunire , & in the same Parliament , that the same imposition should be laid upon Our Subjects , and taken by an Order of both Houses , without and against Our consent . Lastly , that in the same Parliament , a Law should be made to declare the proceedings and judgement upon Ship-money to be illegall and voyd , and during that Parliament , that an Order of both Houses shall , upon pretence of necessity , inable foure men to take away the twentieth part of their Estates from all their Neighbours , according to their discretion .

But Our good Subjects will no longer look upon these and the like Results , as upon the Counsells and conclusions of both Our houses of Parliament ; ( though all the world knows even that Authority can never justifie things unwarrantable by the Law ) they well know how few of the Persons trusted by them are present at their consultations , of above 500 not 80 , and of the House of Peeres , not a fifth part , that they who are present enjoy not the priviledge and freedome of Parliament , but are besieged by an Army , and awed by the same Tumults , which drave Us and their fellow Members from thence , to consent to what some few seditious , Schismaticall persons amongst them doe propose ; These are the men , who joyning with the Anabaptists and Brownists of London , first changed the Government and D●scipline of that City , and now by the pride and power of that City would undoe the Kingdom , whilst their Lord Major ( a person accused and known to be guilty of high Treason ) by a new Legislative power of his own , suppresses and reviles the Book of Common-Prayer , robbes and imprisons whom he thinks fit , and with the rabble of his Faction gives Lawes to both Houses of Parliament , and tells them they will have no Accommodation , whil'st the members sent and entrusted by their Countries , are expelled the House , or committed for refusing to take the Oath of Association , to live and dye with the Earle of Essex , as very lately Sir Sidney Mountague . These are the men who have presumed to send Ambassadors , and to enter into Treaties with Forraigne States in their own behalfes , having at this time an Agent of their own with the States of Holland , to negotiate for them upon private instructions . These are the men who not thinking they have yet brought mischiefe enough upon this Kingdom , at this time invite and sollicite Our Subjects of Scotland to enter this Land with an Army against Us. In a word , these are the men who have made this last devouring Ordinance to take away all Law , Liberty , and Property from Our people , and have by it really acted that upon Our people , which with infinite malice , and no colour or ground , was laboured to be infused into them to have been Our intention by the Commissions of Array .