<!DOCTYPE ETS PUBLIC "-//UMDLPS//DTD EEBOPROOF 2.0//EN">
<ETS>
<TEMPHEAD>
<REVDESCR>
<CHANGE>
<DATE>2014-09-25</DATE>
<RESPSTMT>
<NAME>Simon Charles</NAME>
<RESP>MURP</RESP>
</RESPSTMT>
<ITEM>Proofed and reviewed as part of batch Z140311.pdcc.</ITEM>
</CHANGE>
</REVDESCR>
</TEMPHEAD>
<EEBO>
<IDG S="marc" R="OX" ID="B21088">
<STC T="W">D669</STC>
<STC T="G">816.m.1[87]</STC>
<STC T="C">R225404</STC>
<BIBNO T="umi">99886101</BIBNO>
<VID>185924</VID>
</IDG><!-- alt.stc G816.m.1[87] --><!-- alt.stc CR225404 -->
<TEXT LANG="eng">
<BODY>
<DIV1 TYPE="declaration">
<PB REF="1" MS="y">
<HEAD>THE DECLARATION OF The free and well-affected People of England now in Armes against the Tyrant Oliver Cromwell E&s;q.</HEAD>
<P>BEing &s;atisfied in our Iudgment and Con&s;ciences of the pre&s;ent nece&s;&s;ity to take up Armes for the defence of our native Rights &amp; Freedomes, which are wholy invaded &amp; &s;wallowd up in the pride &amp; ambition of <HI>Oliver Crom|well</HI> who calls him&s;elfe Lord Protector of England, and hath rendered all Engli&s;h-men no better then his Va&s;&s;als, wee expect to be branded with the infamous name of Rebells and Traitors, or to be mi&s;repre&s;ented both to the Army Citty and Countrey as common enemies, di&s;turders of the publicke peace, arbitrary Cavileeres, Lewellers, or under &s;ome other odious notion, that may provoake the Army and People to endeavour our de&s;truction; but if wee may prevaile to be heard before wee be condemned and executed, wee &s;hall &s;ubmit our cau&s;e and righteous End wee &s;eeke to the judgment of the Army and every hone&s;t Engli&s;h-man, and if the army it &s;elfe ac|cording to their many Engagements will undertake (and their &s;trength be &s;ufficient) to redeeme us from our pre&s;ent &s;lavery, and &s;etle that Right and Freedome, unto which our Birth gave us title, wee &s;hall readily lay down our pre&s;ent armes.</P>
<P>The whole Chri&s;tian world knowes, that our Engli&s;h earth hath been drunke with blood the&s;e twelve yeares through the great conte&s;t for Right and Freedome, and the whole Trea&s;ure of the Nation exhau&s;ted in that quarell, how then can any man who&s;e hand or heart hath been ingaged in that bloody conte&s;t either acquit him&s;elfe to God his Con&s;cience or his Countrey in yeilding up tamely and &s;ilently all the Lawes Rights and Liberties of <HI>England</HI> into an V&s;urpers hand. Wee have for many yeares patienly borne all kinds of oppre&s;&s;ion, arbitrarines and tyranny, and &s;uffered under &s;uch heavy burthens of Exci&s;e and Taxes, as England never knew in former ages, having been fed by him that now calls him&s;elfe Lord Proctor and his army with &s;peacious pretences and mo&s;t alluring promi&s;es (&s;econded with many appeales to God for their integrity of heart in them) that true Engli&s;h Liberty &s;hould be &s;etled and &s;ecured, impartiall In&s;tice provided for, arbitrary powers aboli&s;hed, and every yoake of oppre&s;&s;ion broaken, and every burden ea&s;ed: and wee did beleive (as they tould us) that our pre&s;ent &s;ufferings were only like a rough &s;tormy pa&s;&s;age to the Haven of Iu&s;tice, Right, and Freedome, wee could not &s;u&s;pect the&s;e ambitious De&s;ignes in Cromwell and his con|federates, that are now proclaimed to the world: wee could not thinke it po&s;&s;ible, that a man of &s;uch a meane quality and e&s;tate as he &s;hould a&s;pire to make him&s;elfe an ab&s;o|lute Lord and Tyrant over three potent Nations, but above all his pretended zeale for God and his People, his high profe&s;&s;ions of Godline&s;&s;e, &s;implicity, and integrity, his hypocriticall prayers and dayes of fa&s;ting to &s;eeke the Lord, his di&s;&s;embled humility and meekene&s;&s;e, and his frequent compa&s;&s;ionate teares upon every occa&s;ion: wee &s;ay, the&s;e things together with his Engagements publicke and private, his mo&s;t &s;ollemne prote&s;tations with imprecations of vengance upon him&s;elfe and family if he di&s;&s;embled, and his mo&s;t frequent appeales to God for the truth of his profe&s;&s;ions and Declarations that he de&s;ignd nothing but &s;ecuring the liberty of Gods people, and admini&s;tration of impartiall ju&s;tice, and &s;ought no power honour riches or greatne&s;&s;e to him&s;elfe or any particular party or intere&s;t: we &s;ay, the&s;e things rocked us &s;o a&s;leepe with the plea&s;ant dreames of liberty and ju&s;tice, untill he hath made a &s;acrifice of all our Lawes, Li|berties, and Properties unto his owne ambition, and now is not afraide to owne what he before di&s;claimed and declared again&s;t: He that formerly prote&s;ted before the dreadfull God and to the long Parliament, that he and his army &s;hould be wholy &s;ubject to their Civill Authority, and that who&s;oever &s;hould attempt any violence a|gain&s;t them &s;hould make his way through his blood, he now ownes the breakeing them in peices with &s;corne and contempt: He that Declared &s;o much humility and &s;elfe deniall, claimes and ownes a power Supreame to Parliaments, and exerci&s;eth an ab&s;olute Dominion over the Lawes and E&s;tates of three Nations: he that &s;eemed &s;o zealous for Liberty, now dares owne every private Engli&s;h-man his Va&s;&s;all, and their Parliaments his Slaves: he publi&s;heth in his Printed &s;peeches to his Parliament that the benefit that all Engli&s;h men have in the execution of any Lawes among&s;t them is from him, &amp; the Authority that their Parliaments have &amp; &s;hal have is wholy deridved from him; he hath publi&s;hed to the whole world, that he hath di&s;&s;olved all Civill Government, and that he had in him&s;elfe an ab&s;olute unlimited arbitrary power without checke or controull untill he put &s;ome limits upon him&s;elfe, if he may be beleived in his pa|per of Government: Now what Patroone in <HI>Argeire</HI> ever claimed more Ma&s;tery over his Slaves bought in the Market then this Claime of Cromwells extends unto o|ver us? If wee have the benefit of the execution of no Lawes but from him, then all the Rights Priviledges and E&s;tates wee have, are enjoyed by his mercy only: without the execution of Lawes no man hath more right to Lands or goods then an other, nor is any mans life under any &s;ecurity, if an other be &s;tronger then he: So that Cromwell ownes and pro&s;e&s;&s;es, that the bread that every man eates, is by his mercy: and if his power was without limit (as he &s;ayes) untill he had put &s;ome bounds then tis of his grace and favour only that all Engli&s;h men have now a &s;eeming Right in their Wives, Children, Seruants, Lives and E&s;tates, if his owne limits of his power gives any &s;uch right, and if he plea&s;e to throw away, (or burne by the hand of the haug man) his limits in his paper of Government, who can controll him? he may doe what he li&s;t with things of his owne makeing, tis the old Engli&s;h Pro|verbe, He that can bind, can loo&s;e: and he may doe what he li&s;t al&s;o with the autho|rity of Parliaments, if it be as he &s;aies, of his owne giving: Now wherein doth a Pa|troones power over his purcha&s;ed Slave exceede this, which Cromwell ownes over us? The Patroone can but give the Slave his Lawes, his cloathes, his meate, his life, and all tho&s;e Cromwell ownes to have given to us, only he &s;peakes it in &s;uch language at &s;ounds not &s;o har&s;hly.</P>
<P>Now after the expence of &s;o much preatious Chri&s;tian blood for the &s;etling the Rights and Liberties due unto us as men and Chri&s;tians, when he that was tru&s;ted with an Army for that purpo&s;e, hath &s;o unworthely betraved his tru&s;t, &s;pilt innocent, blood like water, falsified all his Declarations, Promi&s;es, Prote&s;tations, and Oathes, and a&s;&s;umed to him&s;elfe &s;uch a Dominion over our Countrey, as is de&s;tructive unto all Right and Liberty, and renders us and our po&s;terities Slaves to him and his Suc|ce&s;&s;ors, with a payment of a fifth or their abouts of our E&s;tates certaine in Taxes, to be intailed upon our po&s;terities, be&s;ides other burthens, wee appeale to the con&s;cience of every hone&s;t man, whether a pre&s;ent nece&s;&s;ity and an incumbent duty be not upon us to arme our &s;elues in defence of our antient Lawes, and deare&s;t Birth rights again&s;t the pre&s;ent Impo&s;ture and V&s;urper; and we hope mo&s;t of the pre&s;ent Army have not extingui&s;hed their love to their Countryes Freedome (although Cromwells hypocri|ticall Profe&s;&s;ions, Prayers, and Teares, have much deluded them) but that they will readily concur with us, and other hone&s;t Engli&s;h-men in our pre&s;ent attempt by force of Armes to redeeme our Countrey out of the V&s;urpers bonds, and to &s;eeke tho&s;e righteous ends, which wee doe hereby Declare to bee tho&s;e, for which we now hazard our lives, and with which we &s;hall re&s;t &s;atisfied, and returne to our homes in peace and they are the&s;e following, viz.</P>
<P N="1">1. That all a&s;&s;umed and u&s;urped Powers and Authorities over our Countrey may be utterly aboli&s;hed.</P>
<P N="2">2. That the Government may be &s;etled upon a ju&s;t ba&s;is with due bounds and limits to every Mage&s;trate.</P>
<P N="3">3. That the antient Liberties of England &s;etled by Magna Charta, the Petition of Right, and other Lawes may be &s;ecured inviolably: That no mans per&s;on may be mo|le&s;ted, impri&s;oned, re&s;trained, or touched without a Legall Cau&s;e &s;hewne in the war|rant, whereby he is mole&s;ted or re&s;trained, and that al&s;o in a due cour&s;e of the Lawes known proceedings, without Countermands from the will of any man; whereas now mens per&s;ons are trobled and re&s;trained at will, and de&s;troyed by long impri&s;oments, no man knowes for what. And al&s;o that no mans E&s;tate may be liable to any di&s;po&s;all or prejudice but by the known Lawes of the Land, and the lawfull Iudgment of his equalls.</P>
<P N="4">4. That free &s;ucce&s;&s;ive Parliaments may be &s;etled with times of their beginning and ending, and with their antient power and priviledges.</P>
<P>And that the Jurisdictive powre which Parliaments have taken upon them to excer|ci&s;e in the&s;e times of warre and de&s;traction by taking upon them the Iudgment of par|ticular Cau&s;es concerning mens per&s;ons and e&s;tates, &s;omtimes by their Committees and &s;omtimes by them&s;elves, contrary to the knowne Proceedings of the Law, that &s;uch power (we &s;ay) may be Declared again&s;t, and &s;ecure provi&s;ion made again&s;t the &s;ame, that thereby Parliaments may be free from the temptations of profit, frein&s;hip, and all private Intere&s;ts, by which only they can be corrupted.</P>
<P N="5">5. That the Militia of the Nation may be &s;o di&s;po&s;ed, that no man may be able to be Ma&s;ter of Parliaments, and al&s;o that &s;ecure provi&s;ion may be made, that no Par|liament &s;hall make it &s;elfe perpetuall and in&s;lave the people to them.</P>
<P>And that &s;uch a &s;etlement may be made of Right and Freedome, and the&s;e our ends obtained, and a peace firmely e&s;tabli&s;hed, we know no meanes under God but a truly free Parliament,</P>
<P>Now for the defence of the&s;e our Rights and Liberties we are re&s;olved to expo&s;e our Lives to the utmo&s;t hazards, and we &s;hall neither wronge nor oppo&s;e any man, who doth not ioyne him&s;elfe to the pre&s;ent V&s;urper, to de&s;troy or prevent the&s;e our righteous ends; and though we have rea&s;on to beleive, that no per&s;on fea|ring God, or of Con&s;cience, Honour, or Rea&s;on can &s;atisfie him&s;elfe to &s;hed our innocent blood for &s;eeking the&s;e things; yet however we &s;hall commit our &s;elues and our ju&s;t Cau&s;e to the tuition of the righteous God, and hope in his mercy, that our endeavours may procure Iu&s;tice, Freedome, Peace, and Setlement unto this di&s;tracted Nation.</P>
</DIV1>
</BODY>
<BACK>
<DIV1 TYPE="colophon">
<P>Printed in the Yeare, 1654</P>
</DIV1>
</BACK>
</TEXT>
</EEBO>
</ETS>
