3. If your practices be justifiable , it may very well be doubted , Whether there be any such sins in the world , as Rebellion , Sedition , despising of Dignities , and the like ? Forasmuch as there hardly is at this day in the world , and very seldome hath been in any age , more wise and religious Magistrates , than those Parliaments which have been the objects of your oppositions .

4. It may not a little stumble you , to consider what general offence your proceedings have given to the world , and particularly to this whole Nation . And if the offending of one little one be so hainous a crime , it must needs heighten the sinne , and cause you to question your actions , if you consider , that none are more grievously offended at you , then the wisest and best men in the Nation , there being few or none such in the Nation ( whose interests and concernments may not be suspected to balance their judgements ) who are not mourning in secret for those abominations .

5. It is most evident and plain ( what ever may be falsly suggested to you to the contrary ) that you have turned against you the most fervent prayers of many thousands of Gods elect , who cry day and night unto him for the vindication of his Name , and declaration of himself against all unrighteous persons and actions .

6. Your actions are manifestly repugnant unto all the rules of Righteousnesse Divine and Humane . If Christ himself would not , and durst not meddle in the office of a Judge about private inheritances , because not legally called thereunto , what shall we think of you , who have taken this honour to your selves , to make your selves Judges , the Supream Judges of three Nations , making even Parliaments ( hitherto reputed the highest Judicatories of the Nation ) give place to your private sentiments , and stand or fall at your Tribunals ? Nor must you think it without sinne , that you have trampled upon the Civil Laws and Rights of the Nation , by which alone Meum and Tuum are distinguished , and propriety secured , and by which alone those unrighteous actions are detected and discovered , which by Scripture are condemned .

7. What ever you who are concerned may think , and others , whose interests are in●erwoven in the same Cause , there are but few wise and serious Christians , who do not judge Necessity , good Intentions and Providences altogether incompetent to warrant mens transgressions of known rules , there being no action so wicked to which these fig-leaves may not easily be pretexed . To which may be added , That as your necessities have been very much of your own making , so there are many , and those as wise men , as any that have cooperated with you , that are altogether unsatisfied , as to the supposed necessity of your proceedings . And for your intentions , God only knows them ; and however we have a sure Rule , To do no evil that good may come of it . And for providence , I think its voice speaks as loud against you , as it hath sometimes seemed to speak for you .

My Lord , I think all these put together , may a little make you to suspect your selves guilty ; and O that God would open your eyes , and put it into your hearts to repent with a repentance , no more to be repented of ; to remember from whence you are fallen , and to do your first works ; which the rather you have cause to do , because your sins are cloathed with particular aggravations . My Lord , I beseech you believe it , I write it with a bleeding heart , Religion hath received its sorest wounds in the house of its friends . That those things should be done by men highly professing godlinesse , and that under the very pretence and profession of godlinesse , and they too tied up by so many and solemn engagements ; O tell it not in Gath , &c. It had been better for some , that they had never been born ( though for you I am perswaded better things , and that God will give you repenta●ce to the acknowledgment of the truth . ) O my Lord , This is that which makes us weep in secret , which makes us sigh to the breaking of our loins , and we cannot cease to complain of it to God daily . Be not angry if I say , By you the name of God is blasphemed among the Heathen , and Religion really believed to be but a politick device and imposture to carry on designs by . My Lord , by those actions of yours it is , That Protestants abroad are judged , censured , reproached and threatned ( as a people dangerous to Civil Authority , and despisers of Dignities ) Protestants at home divided , as highly as can be ( which hath alwayes been the wish , design and endeavour of our most cunning and cruel adversaries ) and exasperated one against another . You have made England naked to its shame before our enemies ; you have uncover'd your Mothers nakednesse , and exposed her to the danger of forreign invasions , and prepared the people of the Nation for a compliance with the very worst of their and our enemies . And , which is not the least ( though mentioned last ) you have done unspeakable wrong to all succeeding ages , in affording such Presidents , as will warrant and justifie all imaginable tyrannies , oppressions , invasions of liberties , trampling upon Parliaments , and such other mischiefs , as will make posterity curse the day wherein their Parents were born , that had an hand in such ●actions .

If you now enquire what is the remedy in this dangerous posture , that needs no taedious nor scrupulous disquisition ; it is so obvious , that he that runs may read ; vox populi ( which oft-times is vox Dei ) will tell you : There is one Remedy , ( without which all other things are but palliative cures and skinnings over of the wound while it festers inwardly , and which alone is sufficient and satisfactory ) and that is a Parliament , which though it be not universally free , yet if it have as much freedom for elections as former Parliaments have had in the late Protectors daies , will give content to the generality of the sober and Parliamentary party in the Nation . My Lord , I hope you will pardon my plainnesse , The great grievance of the Nation , and burden upon the hearts and backs of the people , is the soveraignty of an Army : Nor will the spirits of English-men longer bear , that Parliaments should be empty titles without reall power , or ( as the King once said of his own ) that the Power and Priviledges of Parliaments should hang like Mahomets Tomb by a Magnetick charm , between the strength and interest of an Army in an airy imagination of Authority . My Lord , The Priviledges of Parliament are , as to civil things , our life , and the length of our daies ; and that solemn Covenant ( which God remembers however men may forget ) layes you under the highest obligation , that is possible , to maintain them , and having so notoriously violated them , you are the more ingaged to a restitution of them : Nor will it any way satisfie , but exasperate the spirits of people , to have Titular Parliaments , while the power shall remain in other hands ; it matters not whether Army or Senate or any other Name ; for people are too wise to be deceived with Names , so long as the thing is the same for Substance .

I know it will be said against this , that you see no security for Religion , or the Interests of Gods people ; persecution will be brought in , and the cause you have fought for given up . But , my Lord , give me leave to mind you ,

1. That a Parliament so constituted as before , will consist of Persons ingaged in the Parliament cause , who have Estates to loose as well as you , ( and in as much danger as yours ) who also are as wise to discern and prevent such danger as those that dissent from them .

2. It were happy for us , if Christians would resume their ancient Principles , and mind duty more , and security lesse . It is indeed a distrust of Gods Providence in the use of lawfull means , that hath engaged you ( as others in such cases ) to sinfull shifts , which yet you may observe , have been altogether insufficient to heal our maladies , and rather have increased and heightened them , and ( which nothing else could have done ) they have divided the sober godly Parliamentary Party among themselves , and thereby exposed all to ruine .

3. It is most evident ( whatever is maliciously suggested or zealously surmised to the contrary ) that there is in Presbyterians and many other sober persons , a reall love and tendernesse toward such as differ in lesser things ; that Parliaments will consider the state of the Nation , and that in turbido statu , they will be necessitated to a Toleration of divers things , and the allowing of a liberty to them , which otherwise had not been fit nor lawfull ( it may be ) to afford .

4. It is certain there must be a trust some where , and it is an hard case , that you will force all the people of the Nation to put their trust under your shadow , the influence whereof hitherto hath been very ungratefull to them , and deprive them of that experienced , approved , and generally desired way of Parliamentary authority , ( by which , as such , England seldom or never received hurt . )

5. Although , if a suffering time comes , it is like Presbyterians as well as Congregationall men , will feel it ; yet really , when I consider all things , I do without haesitancy conclude , that it is unspeakably more desirable by true Christians , ( though not by self-seeking Politicians ) that some , yea all religious men should suffer , rather then Religion should suffer , as it doth beyond expression by such irregular courses .

6. Lastly , Though it must be confessed there is some danger , and so is like to be however things go , ( and most of all when we enter into untrodden paths , the ill consequences whereof , because not yet experienced , are by few discerned , ) yet it is not difficult to conceive of such a disposall of affairs as may give the generality of the sober and good people of the Nation , competent and moral security : And we must never expect an infallible and Mathematical certainty in political things .