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 [Page 2] 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 [Page 3] 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 [Page 4] 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 [Page 5] 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 [Page 6] 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.