A LETTER From Sixteen Gentlemen of Kent, NAMED In the Ordinance for the Militia of that COUNTY, To the House of Commons, Saturday 16 Decemb. instant, Desiring satisfaction of Conscience in several things mentioned in the said Ordinance, before they act thereupon.
With the Answer of the House thereunto.
As also the REMONSTRANCE AND Petition of divers honest Inhabitants of the City of BRISTOL, and the adjacent Villages,
To His Excellency, THOMAS Lord FAIRFAX, And the Honorable, The Councel of the Army.
London, Printed for R. White, Decemb. 19. 1648.
For the Honorable William Lenthal Esq; Speaker of the Honorable House of Commons.
UPon perusal of an Ordinance of Parliament of the second of this instant December, for the settling of the Militia of the Kingdom, wherein we are named Commissioners for this County of Kent; and upon consideration of the Ends and Rules in the said Ordinance proposed and prescribed for the execution thereof, we finde our selves under some straights and difficulties, in which before we can proceed to act upon that Ordinance, we humbly crave the Honorable House will be pleased to clear our way, and namely, as to these ensuing particulars:
1. That in regard (as hath been several times declared by the Parliament) That the King hath leavied and carried on a long and bloody War against the Parliament and Kingdom, in opposition to Religion and Liberties; and that the end of putting the Kingdom into a Posture of Defence, is by the said Ordinance declared to be for the Preservation and Safety of the King, Parliament and Kingdom joyntly, That the Honorable House would please to give us to understand, whether the King and Parliament be at Unity, and agreed between themselves or no, touching the said matters of difference, which have been the grounds of the said late Wars.
2. That in case they be so agreed, the Honorable [Page 4]House would likwise please to give us to understand, upon what terms the said Agreement is, in order to those ends for which the Kingdom hath been ingaged in the said Wars, and for which our selves and others are now required to be engaged in the Militia established by this Ordinance, to the end that we may endeavor to satisfie our own and others Consciences, who shall be imployed by us in our and their future actings upon this Ordinance.
3. That in case the King and Parliament be yet at difference, upon the same grounds on which the said Wars were undertaken, we then desire the Honorable House would please to help our understandings, to reconcile that seeming contradiction, viz. That we should act for the joynt Preservation and Safety of the King and Parliament, when as they are at so great an opposition against each other, especially as the King is represented by you in your Declaration of no further Addresses to Him.
4. Whereas by the said Ordinance is required, That all and every the Commissioners therein nominated, and all Officers of War, shall before they enter upon the execution of their respective Offices and Trusts, take the National League and Covenant, We humbly crave leave to minde you of those Reasons mentioned by you in your Declaration of the thirteenth of March, 1647. whereby you have informed us of the inconveniency and incongruity of taking and pressing of that Covenant, in reference to the then present state and condition of the Kingdom, so far different from what it was, when the Covenant was first set forth, or hath been formerly required and [Page 5]taken. Besides, what the Covenant seemed to hol [...] forth in reference to the Person of the King, we humbly conceive to be inconsistent with your said Declaration of the seventeenth of Febr. 1647. shewing the Reasons why you could not repose any more Trust in Him; since which time no Declaration to our knowledge, hath proceeded from you for the removal of these Reasons of your Resolutions of no more Addresses, nor for removal of the Reasons urged by you in your said Declaration of the 13. of March, 1647. concerning the inconveniences of the pressing and urging of the Covenant.
All which several difficu [...]ies, in reference to our present forbearance of acting upon the said Ordinance, we submit to your serious considerations; as also what course you sh [...]ll in your wisdom think fit to direct, for the present safety of the County, in this interim of our suspension from acting upon this and all other former Ordinances for the Militia thereof. We rest,
The Answer of the House of Commons.
THe House did wel resent this Letter, and ordered a Letter of Thanks to the said Gentlemen; and withal to acquaint them, That they had repealed the said Ordinance.
To His Excellency THOMAS Lord FAIRFAX, AND The Honorable, The Councel of the Army.
The humble Representation of divers honest Inhabitants of the City of Bristol, and the adjacent Villages.
WHen we behold the glorious Splendor of Justice and Righteousness, beaming forth it self in your Remonstrance to the House of Commons, Nov. 18. 1648. we were filled with Joy and Satisfaction, That the Divine Presence had again overshadowed you, and appeared hereby to us with smiles of Love, and pledges of Favor, when with the night of Ruine we were almost overwhelmed: For which, as we kiss the Footstool of that glorious Majesty, who thus rarely brings forth our Deliverance; so we chearfully confess you to be his glorious Instruments, whereby he hath stilled the Enemy and the Avenger.
We must seriously profess, That though your former proceedings against that generation were exceedingly prospered, beyond the Parallel of former ages, and had engraven upon them, The kindeness of God to a distressed people; yet they had but served to have made us the more exquisitely miserable, if your former Conquests should have acquiesc'd in the Actions of that House, Who were bringing your Conquered Prisoner with Honor and Safety, into the Throne of [Page 7]Power, Majesty and Greatness, without Satisfaction for the Blood that hath been shed, or sufficient provision made for the Security of the Liberties of England, and their faithful Assertors: And should you now (which God forbid) forbear the effectual prosecution of what you have now Remonstrated and proposed, we may from that sadly write all imaginable misery upon us and our Posterity for ever.
We were filled with sorrow, when we saw the abominable Apostacy, and degenerated actings of the majority of the House of Commons, who after we had bought their Security with our most precious Blood and Treasure, should by their treating with the King, so cruelly sell us into the Blood and Revenge of him and his desperate Confederates, so contrary to their first Principles and Declarations, and to Justice and Equity, esteeming the effusion of the most excellent English Blood, to be but a just Homage to his Lusts and Tyranny, and all their Unhappiness to be but an equitable Tribute to his Will and Pleasure: The consideration of which, as it filled us with amazement, so it drew from us thereof a sad Remonstrance, which we made ready to present them; but when we saw what would be its portion, in the laying aside of other Petitions of that nature, through the prevalency of the Royal Faction, we were put into great perplexities and thoughts, which way we might avoid our Destruction, and then were directed to your Excellency and Army, as those who were the Sword of the Lord, and the onely way we could imagine for our Preservation; To you then, as the last hopes of our dying Spirits, did our thoughts hasten, if so be [Page 8]God laid up in you Salvation; and to that end unbosom'd our troubled souls with an humble Representation, and with our desires, that you would pity your selves and England, and take notice of our Apprehensions and Condition in that and the Petition we intended to the House, and act in order to them both; and we were ready to have presented it, but such was the goodness of God, that in the moment of time he appeared upon you beyond all expectation, with the glorious presence of Justice and Equity, and with excellent remedies for the healing of the Nation, laid down in your Remonstrance; with which, as we are really one in all things, so as life upon the giving up of the ghost, was it to us a seasonable refreshment.
In the prosecution of which, go on noble General, and worthy Gentlemen, in the strength of the Lord of Hosts, according to his power acting in you, and his people your friends in England, and cease not till the Cedars of Tyranny be laid even with the ground, and the happiness of this Nation be established upon the Pillars of Judgement and Equity: For the accomplishing of which, we do hereby assure you, that with our Lives and Estates we shall readily follow you in all your Engagements.
We who prescribed a Petition to your Excellency, presented at Kingston in August, 1647. Do desire our loving friends Mr. Robert Stapleton, Mr. James Powel, Major Samuel Clark, and Captain Norris, or any two of them, to deliver this Representation to your Excellency and Councel in our Names, and at our Requests.