WHereas the King seduced by wicked Counsell hath raysed an Army; and leavied Warre against the Parliament, and great number of Forces are daily raised under the commands of Papists and other ill-affected persons, by Commissions from His Ma­jesty; And whereas divers Delinquents are prote­cted from publike Justice by his Majesties Army, and sundry out­rages and rapines are daily committed by the Souldiers of the said Army, who have no respect to the Lawes of God or the Land, but burne and plunder the Houses, and seize and destroy the persons and goods of divers His Majesties good Subjects; And where­as for the maintenance of the said Army divers assessements are made upon severall Counties, and His Majesties Subjects are com­pelled by the Souldiers to pay the same; which said Army if it should continue, would soon ruine and wast the whole Kingdom, and overthrow Religion, Law, and Liberty. For suppressing of which said Army and ill-affected persons, there is no probable way under God, but by the Army raised by authority of the Parliament; which said Army so raised, cannot be maintained without great summes of Money, yet for raising such summes, by reason of His Majesties withdrawing Himselfe from the advice of the Parlia­ment, there can be no Act of Parliament passed with His Majesties assent, albeit there is great Justice that the said Monies should be raised. The Lords and Commons in Parliament, having taken the same into their serious consideration, and knowing that the said [Page 2] army so raised by them, hath been hitherto for the most part main­tained by the voluntary contribution of divers well-affected per­sons, who have freely contributed according to their abilities.

But considering there are divers others within the Cities of London and Westminster, and the Suburbs of the same, and also within the Borough of Southwarke, that have not contributed at all towards the maintenance of the said army, or if they have, yet not answerable to their Estates, who notwithstanding receive be­nefit and protection by the same army, as well as any others, and therefore it's most just, that they should as well as others be char­ged to contribute to the maintenance thereof.

Be it therefore Ordained by the Lords and Commons in Parlia­ment assembled, and by authority thereof; that Isaac Pennington Lord Major of the Citie of London, Sir John Wollaston Knight and Alderman, Alderman Towes, Alderman Warner, Alderman An­drewes, Alderman Chambers, Alderman Fowkes, Sir Thomas Se­ham Knight and Alderman, Samuel Vassell, John Venn, Morris Thompson, and Richard Warrin, Citizens, or any foure of them, shall hereby have power and authority to nominate, and appoint in every ward within the City of London, sixe such Persons as they, or any foure of them, shall think fit, which said six so nominated, or any foure of them, shall hereby have power to enquire of any that shall remain, or be within the said severall Wards that have not contributed upon the Propositions of both Houses of Parlia­ment, concerning the raising of Mony, Plate, Horse, Horsemen, and armes, for the defence of the King & both Houses of Parliament, & also of such as are able men, that have contributed, yet not accor­ding to their Estates and abilities. And the said six persons so no­minated, or any four of them within their severall and respective wards and limits, shall have power to assesse such person or per­sons, as are of ability and have not contributed, & also such as have contributed, yet not according to their ability, to pay such sum or sums of Mony according to their Estates, as the said Assessors or a­ny foure of them shall think fit & reasonable, so as the same exceed not the twentieth part of their Estates, and to nominate and ap­point fit persons for the collection therof. And if any person so as­sessed shall refuse to pay the money assessed upon him, it shall be lawfull to and for the said Assessors and Collectors, or any of them, [Page 3] to leavie the said summe so assessed by way of distresse, and sale of the goods of the person so assessed, and refusing; And if any person so distrained shall make resistance; it shall be lawfull to and for the respective Assessors and Collectors, or any of them, to call to their assistance any the Trained Bands of the said City of London, or any other His Majesties Subjects, who are hereby required to be aid­ing and assisting to the said Assessors and Collectors in the premi­ses; And it is hereby further ordained that the respective. Burgesses of Westminster and Southwark, together with the severall Com­mittees appointed for the subscriptions of Money, Plate, Horse, Horsemen and Arms within the said City and Borough, shall re­spectively have power hereby to nominate Sessors for the same City and Borough, in such manner as the Lord Maior, &c. hath for the City of London, and the said Assessors or any four of them, to name Collectors as aforesaid; Which said Assessors and Collectors shall have the same power respectively, within their respective li­mits, as those to be nominated within the said City of London have hereby limitted to them. And for the Suburbs of London and West­minster, the respective Knights of the Shires where the said Sub­urbs are, shall have hereby the like power to name Assessors, and they so named, or any four of them, and the Collectors by them to be nominated, or any of them within their respective limits, shall have the like power respectively as the Assessors and Colle­ctors for London have by vertue of this Ordinance. And be it or­dained that the summes so assessed and levied as aforesaid shall be paid in at Guild-hall London, to the hands of Sir John Wollastone, Knight, John Warner, John Towes, and Thomas Andrews Alder­men, or any two of them; And the Assessors and Collectors to be nominated by vertue hereof shall weekly report to the Committee of the House of Commons, for the Propositions aforesaid, what sums of Money have been assessed, and what sums have been levied weekly according to the purport hereof, and the said mo­nies so levied and paid in, shall be issued forth in such sort as the other monies raised upon the Propositions aforesaid, and not o­therwise.

[Page 4] [...] destroy one another? are the outward blessing 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 freedom of Conscience cannot suffer by these men: Alasse! all these punishments are imposed upon them because they will not submit to Actions contrary to their naturall loyalty, to their Oathes of Allegiance 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 Imprisoned, without any objecti­on against them, but suspition of their loyalty? How many of the gravest and most substantiall 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? whil'st Anabaptists and Brownists with the assistance of vitious and de­boshed persons, of desperate Fortunes take upon them to breake up and rifle houses, as publike and avowed Ministers of a new invented Autho­rity; How many godly, pious, and painefull 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 in instructing the people in the Christian duty of Religion and Obedience, whilst Schismaticall, Illiterate, and 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 w ^ch they have captivated such who have beene contented to dispence with their Consciences for the preservation of their estates, and by which they perswade men cheerefully to part with this twentieth part of their E­state to the good worke in hand, for who-ever will give what hee hath may scape robbing; They shall be repaid upon the publike faith, as all other Monies lent upon the Propositions of both Houses; It may bee so, but men must bee condemned to a strange unthriftinesse who will lend upon such security.

The publicke Faith indeed is as great an earnest as the State can give, and engages the Honour, Reputation and honesty of the Nation, and is [Page 5] the Act of the Kingdome, 'tis 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 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 publicke 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 think so too, but that proves only they have undertaken somewhat they ought not to un­dertake, not that it is lawfull for them to do any thing that is convenient for those ends: We remembred them long ago, and we cannot do it too often, of that excellent Speech of M ^r Pyms. The Law is 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 himself, 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, Coveteousnesse and Ambition will become Lawes, and what Dictates, what Decisions such Lawes will produce may easily be discerned. It may indeed by the sad instances over the whole Kingdome; But will Posteritie beleeve, 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 al [...] men should be immediatly bayled in all Cases bay leable, and during th [...] same Parliament that Alderman Pennington, or indeed any body else, but the sworn Ministers of Justice, should imprison whom they would, and for what they would, and for as long time as they would; That th [...] King should be reproached with breach of Priviledge for accusing Si [...] Iohn Hotham of high treason, when with force of Armes he kept him ou [...] of Hull, and despised him to his face, because in no case a Member o [...] either House might be committed or accused without leave of tha [...] [Page 6] House, of which he is a Member, and yet that during the same Parlia­ment, the same Alderman should commit the Earle of Middlesex (a Peer 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 incurre the penalty of a Premunire, and 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 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 Peers, 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 seditions, Schismaticall Persons amongst them do propose; These are the men, who joyning with the Anabaptists and Brownists of London, first changed the Government and Discipline of that City, and now by the pride and power of that City would undo the Kingdome, 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 Countryes, are expelled the [Page 7] House, or committed for refusing to take the Oath of Association, to live and dye with the Earle of Essex, as very lately Sir Sidny Mountague. These are the men who have presumed to send Ambassadors, and to enter into treatyes 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 Kingdome, 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 Commission of Array.

We have done; what power and Authority these men have, or will have, we know not, for our self we challenge none such; We look upon the pressures and inconveniences our good Subjects beare, even by us and our Army, (which the Army first raised by them enforced us to leavy in our defence, and their refusall of all offers and desires of Treaty enforceth us to keep) with very much sadnesse of heart; We are so farre from requiring a twentieth part of their Estates (though for their own visible preservation) that as we have already sold or pawned our own Jewells, and coyned our own Plate, so we are willing to sell all our own Land, and Houses for their reliefe; yet we do not doubt but our good Subjects will seriously consider our Condition and their own Duties, and think our readinesse to protect them with the utmost hazard of our life, deserves their readinesse to assist us with some part of their fortunes, and whil'st other men give a twentieth part of their Estates, to enable them to forfeite the other nineteene, that they will extend themselves to us in a liberall and free proportion for the preservation of the rest, and for the maintenance of Gods true Religion, the Lawes of the Land, the Liberty of the Subject, and the safety and very being of Parliaments, and this Kingdome: for if all these ever were, or can be in manifest dan­ger, 'tis now in this present Rebellion against us.

Lastly; We will and require all our loving Subjects of what degree or quality soever, as they will answer it to God, to us, and to posterity, by their oathes of Allegeance and Supremacy, as they would not be looked [Page 8] upon now, and remembred hereafter, as Betrayers of the Lawes and Li­berty they were borne to, that they in no degree submitt to this wilde pretended ordinance, and that they presume not to give any encourage­ment or assistance to the Army now in Rebellion against us, which if notwithstanding they shall do, they must expect from us the severest punishment the Law can inflict, and a perpetuall Infamy with all good men.