IT is a common Observation, that New Laws ever beget new doubts and Questions: so have some New Ordinances and Declarations concerning the Militia, Petition and En­gagement of London, in the Common-Coun­cel an Saturday last; reducible to the ensuing six Queries.

1. Whether Ordinances and Votes of both Houses, passed with mature deliberation in a ful and free Parliament, over-awed [Page 4] by no armed power, may or can in point of Honor, Law, or Ju­stice, be retracted or repealed on a suddain, upon the request or demand of a mutinous Army, by any contrary Ordinances or Votes, made upon less debate or consideration; when the Hou­ses were neither so sul nor free as befo [...]e, and divided in the later, but not in the former Ordinances and votes, and that in the same session of Parliament? And whether the Armics and Indepen­dents end in putting the Houses now upon such repealing Ordi­nances and Votes, (for which they have sufficiently jeered and abused them in print, and manifested the dishonor and prejudice of it, in their Humble Remonstrance of Iune 23. P. 8. 9.) is not to render Parliaments vile and odious to the people; and thereupon to abolish them, and change the whole frame of Government of this Kingdom, into a Councel of war, and Agitators for the present, and a popular Anarchy for the future? But we trust all wel-affected intelligent people wil be so discreet, as to turn the blame and odium only upon the cheif plotters, and drivers on of this design; and never grow weary of Parliaments, but of that factious Army & their confederates, who thus pervert and abuse them, and deserve exemplary punishment for it.

2. Whether such a manner of revoking Ordinances, and eating or repealing former Votes, wil not render all Ordinances and Votes contemptible, ridiculous, and of little or no validity; and shake all the Ordinances and Votes of both Houses, either for the Souldiers and others Indempnity, in acting for the Parlia­ment, upon any Ordinances; or for the security of moneys ad­vanced for the Publique service, upon the Excise, Goldsmiths Hall, Sale of Bishops Lands &c. and make all such security in­valid, since revokable at pleasure, if the Army or Independents shal but propound it? And then in what sad condition are the poor Presbyterians, who have engaged all their Estates upon the faith of such Ordinances and Votes, to raise, maintain, and gratify Independent forces, Officers, Members (who have contributed least of any, and received most) who may dash and null all their securities in a moment, if they comply not with them? And whe­ther the Citie, Common-Councel, and all others who have ad­vanced moneys, or acted upon any Ordinances, have not just cause to question the validity of such repealing Ordinances and Votes, which may endanger their very lives, Liberties and E­states, [Page 5] and expose them to all kind of extremities; notwithstand­ing their oft promised protection and indempnity?

3. Whether the suddain repeal of the Ordinance of Parliament, of the 4 of May 1647, for the Militia of London, setled by una­nimous consent of the Common-Councel▪ and both Houses when ful and free, to continue for a ful year (at least) upon a bare motion from the Army (whom it no ways concerned, and who never motioned it to the City or their Commissioners, in any of their Letters or Treaties with their Commissioners, for ought appears) only to the Commons House, without any grounds or satisfactory reasons alledged for this suddain change, or once hearing or conferring with the City or Militia (as they have usually done upon all other occasions of far less consequence then this) by an Ordinance of 23. July 1647. (before three moneths of the time expired) which renders no reason at all of the altera­tion; be not a Jesuitical device of some swaying Sectaries and Independents; partly for to alienate and divide the City from the Parliament (who cannot but resent it as an high discourtesie and affront, and a very ill requital of all their former services and fide­lity to the Parliament, which hath been so oft supplied by their bounty, and preserved by their valour, when few or none else stood by them to the effusion of their blood, & advanced no less then 80000. l▪ at once for the new-modeling & raising of this very ungrat­ful Army, which now thus unworthily puts such an insufferable dis­grace upon them.) but principally to gain the Tower of London and Magazines in it, into the Independents and Armies custody, to inslave and Command the City at their pleasure; they having formerly plotted to surprise it by stratagem, which would have rendred them very odious; and this being a far more plausible way to gain its possession, by color of an Ordinance of both Hou­ses, who must bear all the blame, and envy, whiles the Contrivers of it go Scot-free.

4. Whether this President at the Armies instance, of repealing the old Ordinance of the Militia by a new; may not prove a dangerous leading case for the Houses sodainly to repeal Sir Tho­mas This Lilburne affirmeth in his Epistles p. 13▪ Fairfax and all his Officers Commissions, which are but durante beneplacito: & quamdiu se bene gesserint; (and there­fore all * forfeited by their mutinies and disobedience:) and the late Votes for putting all the forces in pay within the Kingdom [Page 6] under his command, and for the continuance, pay and establish­ment of the ARMY: with all other late Votes passed in their favour and at their desires, and their very Act of Indempnity? And then what wil become of their Worships? Have they not then made a rod for their own tails; and a halter for their own necks, in stead of the Cities by this new Ordinance of repeal, made with more hast then good speed?

5. Whether the House of Lords and Commons have not by their Ordinance for the taking of the Solemn League and Cove­nant, authorized, obliged, and engaged all wel-affected Citizens, Gentlemen, Soldiers, and Subjects of the Kingdom, who have taken it, solemnly to unite their heads, hearts and forces together at this present (and upon all other just occasions) for the preser­vation of Religion and Ʋniformity in Church-Government a­gainst Heresie, Error, Blasphemy and Schism; the safety of the Kings person and authority; the defence of the just Rights and Priviledges of Parliament, and of their own Lives, Estates, Liberties; (all now endangered by a Schismatical mutinous party in the Army and their Confederates) the present effectual relief of distressed Ireland, and bringing his Majesty to or neer his Parliament, in an honorable and just way, for the speedy settlement of a firm and happy peace, after all our expensive and bloody▪ Wars, so long delayed since the War hath ceased, to their great grief and dammage? If not, then they and others are all mistaken in the words and tenour of the League and Covenant, engaging them thereunto in positive terms under pain and censure of detestable perjury, apostacy; neutrality; and that they shal not suffer themselves directly or indirectly by WHATSOEVER COMBINATION PERSWASION OR TERROR (be it of an whole revolting Army or a Declaration of high Treason either from his Majesty or any Independent Members of either House, or any Sectaries who have either not taken, forgotten, or abjured the Covenant) to be divided or withdrawn from this bles­sed Ʋnion and Conjunction, either to make defection to the con­trary (Prelatical, Sectarian or Independent) Part, or to give themselves to a detestable indifferency and neutrality in this cause which so much concerns the glory of God, the good and peace of the Kingdoms and honor of the King: But shal ALL THE [Page 7] DAYS OF THEIR LIVES ZEALOƲSLY AND CONSTANTLY CONTINƲE THER­IN AGAINST ALL OPPOSITION, AND PROMOTE THE SAME, ACCORDING TO THEIR POWER AGAINST ALL LETS AND IMPEDIMENTS; be it from the Army or any other? If yea, as is irrefragable; then with what conscience, face or Justice can such be declared Traytors, or guilty of Trea­son, who shal now re-engage themselves to make good this League and Covenant, and that by those very Houses (perchance not persons) who formerly enjoyned and earnestly pressed them to take it, and proclaimed them treacherous and perjured if they brake it? Was ever such a strange contradiction as this, heard of in the world before? The King proclaimed those Traytors here­tofore, who should adventure to take it by the Houses command; and the Independents in the Houses must now declare those, who have taken it by their order, Traytors, because they consciona­bly keep it against a perfidious Armies mind, who have high­ly violated it in every particular branch. But to requite their kind­ness, those honest Covenanters wil inforce them and make it good at their utmost perils before all the world: That those who wil­fully and treacherously break this League and Covenant, are Traytors; not those who zealously and constantly continue there­in: and if their decryed Petition and engagement be Treason; the Armies seditious, mutinous Petitions, Declarations, Demands and Letters, and seising and detaining of the King from the Par­liament against their Votes and Covenant, is much more Treason: And therefore this strange subitane Declaration of their Friends and Party serves only for this good use, implicitely and by way of necessary sequel; to proclaim the Generals, Officers, Agitators and Armies Declarations, Proceedings and Demands High Treason at the least; seeing they resolve and declare (by what Law is questionable) the very signing of this new harmless ingagement, (warranted by the Solemn League and Covenant) to be such; which they had neither justice nor courage to do before in direct and positive terms, as they ought and should have done: which Declaration is as justly revocable no doubt as that, and may be more reasonably excepted against, then that against the Armies [Page 8] See Lilburns Letters to Cromwel, and the Armyes Solemne En­gagement. seditious Petition, & Engagement, the* seminary and ground-work of all their undutiful and treasonable proceedings since, against the King, Parliament, and poor dying Ireland.

6. What Reason or justice is there, that Sir Thomas Fairfax, Cromwels, Cornet Joyce, the Agitators and Armies confederacy Of Iune 8. 14. 20▪ 23.and * solemn Engagements to seize the Kings person; march up to London to enforce the Houses, impeach and de­mand XI. eminent Members at once, without just cause; subvert the Rights and freedom of Parliaments; propose very high and unreasonable demands, to which they must receive a present an­swer, or else be enforced to take extraordinary courses; draw all other forces in the Kingdom, and those designed for Ireland to combine with them against the Parliament; their seizing of Ge­neral Poyntz, and sending him to the Army to be tryed by a Councel of War for his life, only for disswading his Officers to joyn with the Agitators and Armie in these Treasons; should never be declared nor proclaimed Treason by the Houses all this while; and yet the poor faithful Citizens (to whom the Hou­ses owe their lives and preservation more then to the Army) be so­dainly declared Traytors by them, only for reingageing themselves according to their Covenant, to defend the King, Parliament, and City, against these revolters, and to endeavour a safe & speedy Peace; which the world wil beleive the Army and their freinds in the Houses never cordialy intended, but pretended, only to delude the people; because they declare the Citizens desire and engagement Yea high trea­son, punisha­ble with the forfaiture of life and e­state, so are the words of the Declara­tion.to effect it, to be no less then * Treason, and a very dangerous design, discovered to the Speaker, in a Letter by Col. Harvey, with the names of the chief Conspirators, from his Bishoprick of Fulham, the purchase whereof, and something else hath made him lately Independentish: And why was H. M. that Chast and Saint-like Independent, (who hath so much honesty as never in two years space, after divers summons, to give an Account of the States money he received, and so much piety, as to plead for that most damnable Heretick and Blasphemour, Best and his Books) imployed to draw up this Declaration against the Citizens Petition and Engagement; who pleaded so violently for the revocation of the Declaration against the Armies Petition, as an high Breach of the Subiects Priviledg [...] and Birthright, fit to be revoked? [Page 9] Surely it seems it is either because some Independent Grandees of the Houses were privy and consenting to all these Trayterous Actions and Proceedings of the Army and so would not declare a­gainst them▪ for fear of proclaiming themselves Traytors, as wel as Joyce and the Army; or because the times are now so metamor­phosed, and the Independent party become so strong by the Im­peachment and d [...]iving away of the Presbyterian Members; that High Treason in an Independent and Sectary, is become a com­mendable vertue, at least an irreprehensible offence, and a Presby­terians meer performance of his Solemn League and Covenant (which this Declaration, it seems, would utterly repeal) become no less then Treason; so much are Presbyterians down the wind, and such is the Independents and Sectaries brotherly affection and Liberty of conscience towards them, even for doing their consci­ence. What may they expect from them hereafter, who are so injurious and harsh towards them already? The Independent and Sectarian party now are grown so confident, that they think the whole Kingdom and both Houses theirs, and the Presbyteri­ans quite defunct: And thereupon have newly published a Libel with this Title: The last Wil and Testament of Sir John Pres­byter; who dyed of a new disease, called, The Particular Charge of the ARMY, &c. With his Life, DEATH and BƲRIAL; also his Epitaph: (discovering their mortal hatred to Presbyterians, and the Armies design to kill and bury them,) which they presume already done by the Armies Charge: But, Gentlemen, be not over hasty: Sir John Presbyter, though he hath silently slept a while, is now awaked; and neither dead nor buried, but alive, and alive will be, when King John of Leyden, the Anabaptist, and Saint Ignatius Loyola, the Jesuited Inde­pendent may be strangled at Tyburn, or lose their Pates on Tower­hil for their sacred Treacheries; the whole series and History whereof, with the names, places of meeting, Debates, Letters and Resolutions of the chief Heads of the Faction from time to time, and those who have Treacherously revolted to them for base pri­vate ends, he wil speedily publish to the world to their eter­nal Infamy, to shew he is still alive and unburied, and privy to their deepest secrets; which he wil not only charge but make good against them, in a more honorable and Parliamen­tary manner, then the ARMY did, or can make good [Page 10] their Charge against the MEMBERS they impeached; who dare trie their Innocency by Battle in the open feild (so ma­ny to so many and one to Boote) against the Gallant General and Lievt. General, and any 9. or ten Officers of the Army more, that are Gentlemen born, to end the Controversy and Wars without more expence of blood, as wel as answer them at the Commons Bar; and wil prove themselves more faithful to the state, then any of their greatest Accusers, if both sides may come to a free and fair Tryal. In the mean time he wil pray; that the Armies, Sectaries, and Independents private ends, and self-seeking Designs; may never be able to obstruct the spee­dy settlement of our Publick Peace in England, or releif of des­perate Ireland, now gasping out it's last breath; whose loss and blood must onely rest on their score. Whom their great Friend and Patron John Lilburn in his new-printed Epistles to Cromwel thus paints out in their Saint-like colours; p. 9, 10. You have robb'd by your unjust subtilty and shifting tricks the honest and gallant Agitators of a [...]l their power and authority, and solely placed it in a thing called a Councel of War or rather a Cabinet Juncto of 7 or 8 proud self-end d fellows, that so you may without controul make up your own ends: The chiefest of them are as base as base may be; and wil sel Christ, their Country, Friends, Relations, and a good Conscience for a little money or worldly riches. And are such Saints to be trusted by Parliament or King?

In fine, if Parliament Members out of by-ends, or fear of, or compliance with any particular Party whatsoever, wil pass any unjust, dishonorable or inconsiderate Votes or Ordinances; it is a just judgment of God upon them, that they should be enforced and induced publiquely to retract them with shame and dishonor, even by the meanest of the people: whose late tumultuous proce [...] ­dings, though no ways justifiable or excusable, but deserving ex­emplary Censure, and carefully to be prevented, suppressed on all hands by the Militia and other Officers appointed for that purpose, for the future: yet they must be looked upon by all wise conscientious people, as fruits of the Armies pernicious disobedience and exorbitancies, and permitted, ordered by Gods providence to punish & correct, if not reform, the obliquity and iniquity of such timerous▪ self-seeking, or time-serving warping Members, who out of fear, self-interests, or to please a prevailing party or Ar­my, [Page 11] care not what they pass or Vote, to the Parliaments disho­nor, and the publick prejudice, or hurt of those who side not with them; the late sad effects and dangerous consequences whereof, may (through Gods blessing) convince them of their former Errors in this kind, and engage them to vote and act with more syncerity and publique generous spirits for the future; aiming only at the Common good, Peace and speedy settlement of our distracted and almost ruin'd Kingdoms.