A Copy of a Paper, containing 4. Propoſitions, ſet forth by Cornet Joyce, in behalfe of the Kingdome.

I. Now fellow Commoners, you who are borne to as large priviledges and immunities as any people on the earth, which you may all challenge as your birth-right, leſt you ſhould be induced through the ſubtilty of ſome litigious Lawyers, or through the policy and ſpecious pretences of any man whatſoe­ver to judge our action of guarding his Majeſty from Holmby to be illegall, and contrary to the truſt repo­ſed in us, aſſure your ſelves that action of ours was not a raſh precipitant enterpriſe, as ſome ſay, but challenges the law of Nature, Nations, this Kingdome, and our Commiſſioners derived from the Parliament for its foundation.

The lyw of Nature vindicates us, for as in a natu­rall body which is compoſed of ſundry members, may lawfully ſeek its own preſervation as from in­ward diſtempers, or outward dangers that threaten its ruine, ſo likewiſe may a politicall body do, if the head be in danger, the foot ought to run, and the hand to act for its preſervation, and in this endeavour every member particularly, as well as joyntly, is ob­liged, ſo that if one hand be cut off, one foot lame, one eye forth, the other hand foot and eye are not hereby diſingaged, but the more firmely bound to put forth their utmoſt powers for the bodies fence.

II. The Law of Nations warrants us, every Na­tion inviolably maintaining this, that every member in the Nation ought to preſerve the Nation as much as in him lyes; It is a univerſall principle, non nobis ſolum nati ſumus, &c. We are not born for our ſelves alone; but the Country in which we live challenges an inte­reſt in us, this principle made many rejoyce in dying, eſteeming it, dulce & decorum pro patria mori.

3. The Law of this Kingdome (by which we may expect to ſtand or fall) ſecures us in this Kingdome, we have this Maxime, that ſolus populi is ſuprema lex, The ſafety of the people is the ſupremeſt law; this was the hinge we moved upon, the Kingdomes ſafe­ty was endangered, and without a ſpeedy application of a timely preſervative was likely to be conſumed: the beſt preſerva­tive we could ſee, was the ſecurity of his Ma­jeſties perſon, which our act hath effected. Whoſe enemies are ſo dull, and whoſe un­derſtanding is ſo ſtupified & ſottiſhly blind, but may remember and know what a ſad diſaſter hath befallen the Kingdome, in the expence of ſo much blood and treaſure, by the ſurpriſing of his Majeſties Perſon in the late warres? who can but know, had they not had his perſon for their deſignes had proved abortive: We well know there was a deſigne to ſeize on his Majeſty, to raiſe a new Army, and unnaturally to involve this Kingdome in its own blood, and ſo to ren­der our latter end miſerably worſe then our beginning, but this we thought our ſelves bound to prevent if poſſible, which we ſtill judge and doubt not to prove it, and is yet lawfull for us to doe. As the King is by the law of this Kingdome bound to govern and ſecure us according to the Law, ſo are wee engaged to ſecure his Perſon againſt the vio­laters of the Law, which we have, through the bleſſing of God accompliſhed, Our end was not his enthrallment, bondage and ru­ine, as by our actions may appear, but his ſafety, and the Kingdoms preſervation, which otherwiſe we juſtly fear, had both been en­dangered; ſuppoſe the King through igno­rance of traitors intention to deſtroy His Perſon or His Kingdome, ſhould expoſe him­ſelf to the mercy of him that ſought his life, do you imagine it would be treaſonable for any one to remove his Majeſtie though without his conſent from the place the traytor ſought his life in, and to preſerve him? but the caſe is yet more faire for us, His judgement being ſatisfied, his will was likewiſe concurring to his remove, we hope this our action will be recented in good part by all the Nati­on for whoſe good it was effected. Had the King been ſurpriſed, another army been under his name raiſed, the Nation once more wallowed in its owne blood; then ſurely but too late, would the people have cryed out, oh that ſome had been ſtirred up to have ſtood in this breach.

IIII. The Commiſſion from the Parliament (whom ſome ſay though with more boldneſſe then judge­ment, more malice then wiſdome, and more envy then prudence or honeſty, wee have rebelled againſt and acted contrary to in this action) acquits us, for by our Commiſſion we are bound to ſeek the preſerva­tion of the Kings perſon, whether we have not ſo done let all the Kingdome judge: what hurt to his perſon have we done? what hurt to the Kingdome have we done? we are not conſcions to our ſelves that we have in this done amiſſe, who hath cauſe to complain, ſurely none can nor will, except thoſe who had thought to have made all men dance after their pipes, kiſſe their hands, and reſigne up their birth­rights, liberties and lives to their arbitrary and tyran­nicall, lawleſse, boundleſse wills, theſe Haman-like are mad to think a poore Mordecai will not ſtand cap in hand, bow his knee, and bend unto them.