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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A78229 The case of the army soberly discussed. 1647 (1647) Wing C1013; Thomason E396_10; ESTC R201646 4,399 9

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THE CASE OF THE ARMY SOBERLY DISCUSSED LONDON Written and Printed by Friends to Religion and Well-wishers to the Army July 1647. Worthy Friend YOu have asked of me Vpon what Grounds I have adhered and do adhere still unto the Parliament in their late Warre and yet disavow the Army in their behaviour towards the Parliament which many well-meaning people think warranted by the aforegoing example as also how I can answer that other Allegation viz that they are for the Liberty of the Subject and are sellicited by sundry Petitions of the Countreys and some go so high as to say That as the Parliament is above the King so the people is above the Parliament and that the Army does but act in the Name and Right of the People To all this I shall answer as distinctly as I can though a man can hardly speak or write of so confus'd a businesse without some confusion in his own minde and clearly give you an account of my thoughts in the matter and the grounds upon which I go First The Parliament has an undoubted legall Authority during their Sitting to impeach and judge and punish Delinquents in the highest rank of Subjects and to prevent and suppresse the Power of Tyrany as is abundantly shewed in Declarations and Treatises and is Confessed by the King Himself in his Answer to the 19. Propositions But the Army hath no kind of Right as an Army to do any thing but to obey their Officers under the Parliament Secondly The Parliaments Authority was and is ratified by a Law agreed to by the King that it should not be dissolved not adjourned but at the pleasure of the Houses But the Army was Voted to be disbanded and the times and places nominated for their disbanding their severall Cegiments and Commissioners from both Houses sent down to the first Rendevous with Money to pay and disband them and so to go on to the rest Thirdly The Parliament never did pretend to be above the King but onely to have a Power to endeavour to save the Kingdom in time of Danger in case the King would not consent to the means of it for which they often Petitioned him and He acknowledging the Danger yet refused to consent to the necessary way of seeling of it But the Army when they first refused to disband did not so much as pretend any other reason for it but onely their own not being satisfied in their Demands as Souldiers and what they have since presented for Justice and the Peoples Rights do more and more appear pretended to conseal such Designes as are not yet ready for Discovery Fourthly the Parliament never offer'd to seize on the Person of the King or of the Prince though they might have easily done it before he went to York but onely followed Him with Petitions after Watre proclaimed untill he would receive no more But the Army have dared to seize on the King being quiet at H●lden●y according to the Order of both Houses and agreement of both Kingdoms and attended by Commissioners from both Kingdoms and to carry him away by force and the Parliaments Commissioners also as prisoners unto the Army And though the Generall and chief Officers disclaimed the knowledge of it yet they detain him still and have expressed so great discontent at the Houses demanding him to be conveyed to Richmond as amounts to an absolute denyall so as the Houses have been constrained to insist no longer upon His coming thither Fifthly The Parliament are without all contradiction the Representative Body of the Kingdom specially the. House of Commons being chosen by the Freeholders of the several Countreys and Inhabitants of the severall Towns and Cities and the House of Peers have an undenyable Right of Judicature by the Laws of the Kingdom And withall for the setling of the Militia a great part of the Counties of the Kingdom did Petition them with thousands of hands out of every County But the Army has no tolerable pretence at all to call themselves the Kingdoms Army or to Represent them for the people chose them not but the Parliament chose them not to say with the discontents of multitudes of the people and for the Petitions of some Countreys to the Army as if they did make them their Representees First the Army was in actuall disobedience against the Parliaments Votes for their disbanding before any one Petition was brought them Secondly no other County has yet petition'd them but those amongst whom they were whereas the Parliament sitting quietly at Westminster the Countreys took long journeys to come up in great multitudes with their Petitions to them Thirdly the Petitioners out of the severall Counties are very few as is very well known especially for Essex Suffolk and Norfolk in comparison of them that joyned not with them And certainly the lesser part of a County cannot represent the whole County much lesse foure or five Counties represent the whole Kingdom Fourthly there would be found I beleeve if they were counted aright many more Petitioners out of the City of London although they now seem to have forgotten it for the disbanding of this Army and take in with them some of those Counties that are now said to Perition to the Army for their Rights then all the Armies Petitioners can amount too again Sixtly For the Peoples being above the Parliament and the Armies representing the people to speak somewhat more of that which with some is the Great Plea for the Army I beleeve this will never be made good by Religion or Reason or the Laws of Nature or of any Nation especially in the sense of some whose Books talk of our Soveraign Lord the people First for Religion there is not a shadow of it in all the Word of God to make the people even the lowest of them the higher Fowers God saies By me Kings reign and Princes decree justice By me Princes rule and Nobles even all the Judges of the Earth But he sayes no where by me the People reign and they are all Judges He sayes to the Princes and Judges I have said ye are gods He never sayes so of or to the people Secondly For Reason who can imagine that so many millions as are in our Nation can agree to any Acts of Rule or Government more then to chuse in their severall places Rulers and Governors as a King or a Parliament who when they are once chosen cannot be upon any pretence of Reason put from their Rule by the People unlesse they do in like manner agree to their putting out as they did to their chusing where there is no Law to guide in it Much lesse can the whole people in reason be competent Judges of the fitnesse to put them out if they had any such power unlesse the abominable wickednesse of such Trustees be altogether undenyably manifest by the facts or by uncontrollable proofs which how far the whole people of a Nation is capable to take and to judge of so as