little check) another opportunity renewed unto you to have made this nation as happy as it could have been; if every thing had smoothly run on from that first hour of your meeting.

And indeed (you will give me liberty of my thoughts and hopes) I did think, as I have formerly found in that way, that I have been engaged as a soldier, that some affronts put upon us, some disasters at the first, have made way for very great and happy

successes.

And I did not at all despond, but the stop put upon you, would in like manner have made way for a blessing from God, that that interruption being, as I thought, necessary to divert you from destructive and violent proceedings, to give time for better deliberations; whereby leaving the government as you found it, you might have proceeded to have made those good and wholesome laws, which the people expected from you; and might have answered the grievances, and settled those other things proper to you as a parliament, and for which you would have thanks from all that intrusted you. *

If I have had any melancholy thoughts, I have sat down by them; why might it not have been very lawful to me, to think that I was a person judged unconcerned in all these businesses? I can assure you, I have not reckoned myself, nor did I reckon myself unconcerned in you; and so long as any just patience

could support my expectation, I would have waited to the uttermost to have received from you the issues of your consultations and resolutions. I have been careful of your safety, and the safety of those that you represented, to whom I reckon myself a ser

I say I have been caring for you, your quiet sitting, caring for your privileges, (as I said before) that they might not be interrupted; have been seeking of God, from the great God, a blessing upon you, and a blessing upon these nations; I have been consulting, if possibly I might in any thing promote, in my place, the real good of this parliament, of the hopefulness of which I have said so much unto you.

I will tell you somewhat, that (if it be not news to you) I wish you had taken very serious considération of; if it be news, I wish I had acquainted you with it sooner and yet if ; any man will ask me why I did not, the reason is given already, because I did make it my business to give no interruption.

There be some trees that will not grow under the shadow of other trees; there be some that choose (a man may say so by way of allusion) to thrive under the shadow of other trees; I will tell you what hath thriven; I will not say what you have cherished under your shadow, that were too hard. Instead of the peace and settlement, instead of mercy and truth

being brought together, righteousness and peace kissing each other, by reconciling the honest people of these nations, and settling the woful distempers that are amongst us, (which had been glorious things, and worthy of christians to have proposed) weeds and nettles, briars and thorns, have thriven under your shadow; dissettlement and division, discontentment and dissatisfaction, together with real dangers to the whole, have been more multiplied within these five months of your sitting, than in some years

before.

Foundations have been also laid for the future renewing the troubles of these nations by all the enemies of it, abroad and at home. Let not these words seem too sharp, for they are true as any mathematical demonstrations are or can be; I say, the enemies of the peace of these nations, abroad and at home, the discontented humours throughout these nations, which I think no man will grudge to call by that name, or to make to allude to briars and thorns, they have nourished themselves under your shadow.

And that I may be clearly understood, they have taken the opportunities from your sitting, from the hopes they had, which, with easy conjecture, they might take up, and conclude that there would be no settlement, and therefore they have framed their designs, preparing for the execution of them accordingly.

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Is say unto you, whilst you have been in the midst of these transactions, that party, that cavalier party, (I could wish some of them had thrust in here to have heard what I say,) the cavalier party have been designing and preparing to put this nation in blood again with a witness; but because I am confident there are none of that sort here, therefore I shall say the less to that; only this I must tell you, that they have been making great preparations of arms, 'and I do believe will be made evident unto you, that they have raked out many thousand of arms, even all that this city could afford, for divers months last past.

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Now such as these also are grown up under your shadow. But it will be asked, what have they done? I hope, though they pretend the commonwealth's interest, they have had no encouragement from you, but that as before, rather taken it, than that you have administered any cause unto them for so doing, from delays, from hopes, that this parliament would not settle, from pamphlets mentioning strange votes and resolves of yours, which I hope did abuse you.

Thus you see, whatever the grounds were, these have been the effects. And thus I have laid these things before you, and others will be easily able to judge how far you are concerned.

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Is there not yet upon the spirits of men a strange itch? Nothing will satisfy them, unless they can put

their finger upon their brethren's consciences, to pinch them there. To do this was no part of the contest we had with the common adversary; for religion was not the thing at the first contested for, but God brought it to that issue at last, and gave it unto us by way of redundancy, and at last it proved to be that which was most dear to us; and wherein consisted this more than in obtaining that liberty from the tyranny of the bishops to all species of protestants, to worship God according to their own light and consciences? for want of which, many of our brethren forsook their native countries to seek their bread from strangers, and to live in howling wildernesses; and for which also, many that remained here were imprisoned and otherwise abused, and made the scorn of the nation.

Those that were sound in the faith,how proper was it for them to labour for liberty, for a just liberty, that men should not be trampled upon for their consciences? Had not they laboured but lately under the weight of persecutions, and was it fit for them to sit heavy upon others? Is it ingenuous to ask liberty and not to give it? what greater hypocrisy, than for those who were oppressed by the bishops, to become the greatest oppressors themselves so soon as their yoke was removed? I could wish that they who call for liberty now, also had not too much of that spirit, if the power were in their hands.