it is Major or Minor be entertained in grace and equipage proportionably and this difference is composed 10 But sayes the Replicant the Kings party is the more just and therefore to be preferred and this is to be judged of by rule as thus the Parliament intrenches upon our Liberty by imprisoning without cause according to pleasure and claimes to be unquestionable therein The Parliament intrenches upon Religion by committing our best Professors and planting Sectaries in their stead the Parliament proceeds according to reason â—f State not Law and this places an arbitrary power in them aâ—d makes ordinances equall to acts of Parliament Heâ—re in a breif suâ—me all that ever has been spoken or can be spoken against the Parliament and all this is grounded upon an ungâ—aâ—â—ed proposition that the Parliament has no right to defend it self For if it be lawfull for both Houses of Parliament to defend tâ—emselves it must of necessity follow that they may and must imprison levye moneyes suppresse seditious preachers and make use of an arbitrary power according to reason of State and not confine themselves to meere expedients of Law Enough has been said oâ— this 't is impâ—ssible that any wise man should be opposite herein and the Kings party have more recourse â—o reason of State and arbiâ—raâ—y power by far than we have But iâ— it be said that the Houses abuse arbitrary power in imprisoning â—evying moneyes c. cauâ—â—lâ—sly this is a false calumny and not tâ—â—e granted without particular and pregnant proofes of which the Replicant produces none at all were it not for this great noise aâ—d boast of Arbitrary power our Academians would want matter to stâ—ffâ— their in numerable pamphlets withall and the sillyer sort of Malignants would want â—uell to feed their enmity And yet we know Arbitrary power is only dangerous in one man or in a â—ew men and cannot be so in Parliaments at any time much lesse in times of publick distresse for then it is not only harmlâ—ssâ—â— uâ—necessaâ—y The House of Commons without the other States hath had an arbiâ—rary power at all times to dispose of the treasure of the Kingdome and whâ—re they give away one subsidy they may give 20 and where they give 50000â— at one subsidy they may give fifty times so much and all this whether war or peace be Yâ—t when did either King or Subject complaine of this arbitrary power Nay if any parts of the Kingdom have repined at the abuse of this arbitrary power and refused to pay subsidys assessed by the house of Commons what Kings would suffer it when was it not held a good ground of War so both Houses have an arbitrary power to abridge the freedom of the Subject and to inlarge the Kings prerogative beyond a measure they may repeale our great Charter the Charter of Forrests and the petition of right if they please they may if they please subject the whole Kingdom for ever to the same arbitrary rule as France grones under nay they have often been with force and all manner of sollicitations almost violented into it and yet notwithstanding all this we are neither terrifyed nor indangered at all by this arbitrary power in both houses To have then an arbitrary power placed in the Peers and Comm. is naturall and expedient at all times but the very use of this arbitrary power according to reason of State and warlick policy in times of generall dangers and distresse is absolutely necessary and inevitable but 't is a great offence that both Houses should make ordinances generally binding They which would take from us all meanes of defence if they could dispute us out of the power of making temporary Ordinances hâ—d their wils upon us for defence without some obliging power to preserve order and to regulate the method of defence would be vaine and absurd but this is but one branch of arbitrary power and reason of State and to wast time in proving it necessary in times of extremity if defence be granted lawfull were childish and ridiculous I have now done with the Replicant so far as he hath spoken to the matter I shall now come to his emergent strange calumnious speeches against the persons of such and such men but this were Caninos rodere dentes I forbeare it only rehearsing some raylings which need no answer but themselves The two houses are generally railed at as guilty of Rebellion against the King All adherents to Parliament are railed at as Anabaptists Separatists c. The Lord Major is railed at for preventing bloudshed in the City when the Petitioners under the pretence of seeking for Peace had many of them plotted dissention and this his Office is stiled the stiffling of peace in the womb The City Preachers are railed at for satisfying our Consâ—ieâ—ces in the justifiablenesse of a defensive war for this they are charged to fight against the King in the feare of God and to turn the spirituall Militia into weapons of the flesh The framer of the Answer is rayled at for giving the Petitioners just satisfaction in peaceable language Though his words be confessed to be softer than oyle yet 'ts said that the poyson of Aspes is under his lips he is called a Cataline the firebrand of his Countrey whose sophistry and eloquence was fit to disturbe a State but unable to compose or setle it The judgment of all these things is now submitted to the world what the intent of the Petition was in some master-plotters and contrivers of it will appeare by the arguments of this â—ell Replicant Whereby it is now seconded That the name of an Accomodation was pretended to force the two Houses under colour therof to cast themselves upon a meer submission or to be made odious and lookt upon as foes to peace which was a Scilla on one side and Charybdis on the other is here manifested Whether the Answer to the Petition favour of so much malice and enmity to peace as this Replication does let indifferent men censure Lastly whether the soule of that man which thirsts for a firme Peace may not dislike these practises of pretending to it and the soule oâ— that man which hates peace may not make advantage of the name of peace let all wise men proved and examine FINIS
THE Contra-Replicant HIS COMPLAINT To His Maiestie A Petition for Peace is presented to the Parliament by some thousands of Citizens the Petition findes a peaceable answer and that Answer as I shall now set forth is opposed by an unpeaceable Reply but that time may be the better husbanded and indifferent Readers the better satisfied before I undertake the Replication it selfe I desire all men to be preadvertised of some few things Schollars have been very active in this unnaturall warre both in raysing and fomenting it the tongue hath made some wounds as well as the hand and the sword had never been so keene had it not been whetted by the Pen but Schollars are not active on both sides alike to shew their partiality and interest in this cause 't is only on the Kings side where the Pen and the Launce are both brandisht in the same hand And it is wisely ordered for the Kings Interest will be the more hopefully pursu'd when Schollars second it with their Arts and the Schollars Interests will be the easier gained when the King seconds them with his Armes But of all kindes of Learning Oratory is most relyed on and of all kindes of Oratory that is most made use of which is most wantonly painted and dressed and borrowes most from ostentatious Art and is therefore most unfit for businesse either of Law or State because it is most fit to inveagle and deceive with its false graces and flourishes The tongue of Cyneas was very advantageous to Pyrrhus in subduing Townes and Cities but 't is likely more of manly Logick then of effeminate Rhetorick flow'd from that tongue of his or else Townes and Cities in those dayes were governed by very illiteraâ—e men None but the duller sort of people are to be catcht by pure Oratory the wiser sort are well enough instructed that when the Fowlers pipe playes most melodiously the snare is coucht most pernitiously That man is very unworthy to judge of Papers that cannot distinguish betweene foundations and superstructions reasons and Assumptions that cannot discerne betweene prooving of premises and pursuing of conclusions and yet the chiefest fraud of the Orator is to passe over that part of the businesse which requires most proofe without proofe at all and that which is most darke without light at all and that which is most important without mention at all 'T is enough for the Orator to blazon the bloudy shield of warre in generall when 't is his sole charge to dispute who are the guilty causers and promoters of this particular warre 'T is enough for him to take it for granted or at most upon his owne credit to affirme it That the Kings party of Papists and Arminian Clergy men and delinquents were first assayled by this Parliament without cause or danger and so per saltum to proceed to venemous invectives and cursed censures against the Parliament when his maine taske is to proove either that a Parliament may in no case whatsoever defend it selfe or that this warre in the Parliament is not defensive If wee peruse all the papers which have come out in the Kings behalfe under his name or otherwise we shall find nothing proper to be insisted on but these two points That defensive warre is unlawfull in Parliaments or that this warre in the Parliament is not defensive and yet nothing lesse hath been insisted on nay though the Fabricke bee vast that is built and raised thereupon yeâ— that which ought to support all the fabrick is utterly neglected so in this reply now to be examined if much be affirmed yet little is prooved and if any proofe be made 't is of sequels not of premisses 't is of assumptions deduced not of Theses deducing and 't is plaine and obvious to all that the Replicant here pleads not as if he stood at the barre but pronounces sentence as if he sate on the Bench We may justly therefore suspect that he aymes not at the satisfying of wise men but the dazelling of simple men and that he would not daube with his sucusses every line and embellish with his Caressing Phrases every sentence if he did not affect the pompe of Mr Rhombus the Pedant rather then the gravitiâ— of a Statist The next Art of our Replicant is to impose those his nude averments which are most false and improbable with most boldnesse and assurance assailing as it were thereby the beliefe of other men with armed violence That it may passe for currant that Farnham Castle was surprized contrary to the faith and Treaty of Sir William Waller with whom no Treaty was ever entertained nor spoken of it must be further averred That our side was false at Winchester false in Yorkshire false every where but these things â—adem facilitate negantur quâ affirmantur Another advantage of the Kings party is by multitude of writings invective and Satyricall both the Universities are become mints of defamatory disgracefull papers the Regiments of the Kings Pen-and-Inkhorne men are more and fuller then of his sword-men and though too many papers are scattered of both sides yet those of the Kings are most of them serious and done by able men whereas those of the Parliaments side for the most part are ridiculous done by Sots or prevaricators to the disadvantage of the partie After these premonitions I come to the Replication it selfe The substance of the Petition was That the Parliament would tender such Propositions for Accommodation as might be accepted with honour to his Maiesty and safety to the Kingdome The substance of the Answer was that the Parliament was truly and heartily desirous of a safe and honourable Accommodation and for an instance of that their desire would seeke nothing from the King but to enjoy the due essentiall Priviledges of his highest Court of Law and policie which priviledge must needs qualifie and fit them rather to judge then to be judged by any other inferiour partie That a totall submission to the King he being so farre addicted to a faction of Papists and haters of Parliaments could neither be safe nor honourable That to submit to the Kings party were to submit to the foes of Religion and Libertie foes irreconcileable and such as ever had been dangerous and were now made more furious by bloud against the Parliament That if the Petitioners being but a part of London and that but a part of England should in stead of an honourable safe Accommodation presse the Parliament to a dishonourable unsafe submission to the Kings party it were a breach of publike trust in the Parliament to yeeld therein the Parliament being trusted by the whole Kingdome that if a just fit Accommodation be intended the King ought to trust the Parliament in part as well as the Parliament ought in part to trust the King That both parties being equally disarmed the Protestants being lesse countenanced by the King and more obliged in Conscience by oathes and agreements would be more obnoxious to disadvantages then that party
we know our slanders and calumnies cannot deceive him wee submit our selves and our cause to his revenging hand But thou wilt say the Kings party in this warre are good Protestants and we are Anabaptists c. The tyranny and superstition of Bishops has driven some of our tender and stricter protestants into utter dislike of Ceremonies and that pompous or rather superstitious forme of Church discipline which has beene hitherto used in England Some of us desire an alteration of some things in our Lyturgy by advice of a learned and uncorrupt Synod others perhaps scruple Church musick and any set forme of divine service to be imposed of necessity liking better the single order of Scotland What new Creed is there in all this or what change of Religion were this if there were any great numbers of men so opinionated But it is well enough knowne to our Adversaries that there is not one man of both Houses of Parlialiament that is violent against all publick set formes of prayer or that forme which is now in use or that desires any alteration of Doctrine in Essentialls nay nor of Discipline except in things very few and inconsiderable And it is well knowne that the Parliament as it would loosen the rigour of Law in some scruples for the ease of tender consciences so it abhors utterly all licentious government in the Church and all by-wayes of confusion In the City the King has instanced in Pennington Ven Foulk and Mannering as notoriously guilty of Schisme and doubtlesse they were named for want of worse try these men now by the old Creed or by the nine and thirty Articles nay examine them concerning the Common prayer Book and it will soon appeare how farre they are strayed into Brownisme or any other Schisme it will appeare how they are wounded in schismatick and all protestants in them and the true Religion in us all it may be they have not put pluralities or the Parliamentary Votes of Bishops into their Creed it may be they have reserved no implicite faith for Convocation acts and Canons which the Replicant may perhaps judge very irreligious but they hope this never had any anathema pronounced against it in the old Church by any Councell before Antichrists dayes Let not railing passe for impleading and condemning and we will all be tried in the same manner and if any new Creed be found amongst us differing in substance from the old let our adversaries themselves give and execute sentence upon us If Brownists could be as well distinguisht and nominated in our Army as papists are in the Kings or were really as many and as far countenanced we would distrust our cause whereas we now beg no otherwise the blessing of God upon our Armies then as we are enemies both to Popery and Brownism Dares our Replicant make such a prayer no somtimes he owns Papists and somtimes he seemingly disowne them speaking of the Kings party once he saies As for the establisht religion we will become suiters to you that you will severely punish all persons whatsoever that transgress against it Papists certainly have transgrest against our religion if the rebellion in Ireland be a transgression or if the instant taking up of arms here against the parliament be a transgression yet see at the same time when they call us to punish the papists they themselves arm enable papists to punish nay to destroy us is this all the ingenuity we shall expect well to our law notion it is argued in the next place that a Papist fighting for the King though in a notion of Theology he may be accounted an enemy quatenus a Papist yet in understanding of Law hee was accounted the Kings friend as to his fighting Priest squires Doctrine just hee that fights for the King or rather at the Kings command let the cause be what it will he is the Kings friend When Saul gave a furious command to fâ—ll upon the Priests of Iehovah amongst all his servants he had no entire loving freind but Doeg so when his unnaturall rage â—ncited him to take away the life of Ionathan the whole Armâ— that defended Ionathan were his foes and if it had proceeded to parties as it had if Saul had had as many Idumeans in his service as King Charles now has those onely which had been the execrable instruments of the Kings Tyranny had been the Kings friends and had fought for their King so those six hundred men which adhered to David out of a pious intent to preserve his innocent soule from the bloudy hands of Saul and his three thousand impious murderers and the Keilites also if they had been faithfull to David as they ought to have been were guilty of Treason and drew their swords against their master But I expect now that the Replicant insist upon the Iustice of the Kings cause as not taking armes to master the Parliament but to defend themselves against the Parliament this if it could be proved would over-rule all but it being in question and as resolutely denied by one side as affirmed by the other the Replicant must evince by reason all that he expects to gaine from us 'T is not so probable that a Parliament should invade a King as a King a Parliament 'T is not so probable that a Parliament should be misled and have ends to enrich it selfe by oppression as a King 'T is not so probable that that Army which consists all of Protestants should be so adverse to the reformed Religion as that which admits and favours all Papists and Delinquents T is not so probable that that Army which is raised and payed by Parliament that is by the flower of all the English Nobility and Gentry should fight for Arbitrary government and against propriety liberty and priviledge of Parliament as that which hath nothing considerable but rapine and pillage to maintaine it If many evidences of facts many pregnant proofs and many lively circumstances of time and place did not absolve the Parliament of trayterous conspiring against the Kings Crowne Dignity and person and convince Digby Percy Iermin and divers of the Kings and Queens party of conspiring against the priviledges of Parliament and the lives of many of our noblest Pariament men If all other arguments did faile the very invitation of Papists to the Kings Standard the rising of the Papists with such generall consent now that all Ireland is almost lost to the papists and some hopes were else to recover it would sufficiently assure me that religion and liberty stand in more danger of the Kings party than of the parliaments I could not with more cleare and cheerfull confidence die for the truth of the protestant Religion then for the Iustice of the parliaments cause in this warre noscitur ex Comite c. Let the papist plead for the Delinquent and the Delinquent for the papist those ends which have so closely cemented and kindly incorporated both together make a sufficient
lesse feare in the party striking to break and retard its violence It issues like a bullet whose line is not direct but with some elevation in the ayre or with some windings in the barrell of the gun whereby it doth more execution at a further distance Therefore our Kings many and dreadfull Oaths and Vowes of sincerity in the Protestant Religion are not satisfying if in the mean time any of his Kingly prerogative bee shared with such as are not sincere in the Protestant Religion it were farre safer for us that hee would sweare for his party then for himselfe But our Replicant will never have done with the Law hee still tells us That every man is to bee tryde by his Peeres the Lords in the Lords House and the Commons at the Kings Bench and though the House of Commons have no right of Iudicature yet there is another tryall for Treasons and our mâ—â—â—e pâ—int in difference at this time is concerning Treason The Parliament is nothing else but the whole Nation of England by its owne free choice and by vertue of representation united in a more narrow roome and better regulated and qualified for consultation then the collective body without this art and order could be The Lords and Commons make but one entire Court and this Court is vertually the whole Nation and we may truly say of it that by its consent Royalty it selfe was first founded and for its ends Royalty it selfe was so qualified and tempered as it is and from its supreame reason the nature of that qualification and temperature ought only to be still learnd and the determination thereof sought For who can better expound what Kings and lawes are and for what end they were both created then that unquestionable power which for its own advantage meerly gave creation to them both If Kings and nationall lawes had any humane beginning if they be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as the Scripture sayes they are they had not their being from themselves and from nations collectively taken they could not have their being for nations so are not congregable nor consultable nor redeemable from confusion pardon the hardnesse of words and therefore it must follow that both Kings and laws were first formed and created by such bodyes of men as our Parliaments now are that is such Councells as had in them the force of whole Nations by consent and deputation and the Maiesty of whole Nations by right and representation The enemies of Parliaments seeing this not to be gain-said and seeing that it must needs follow that that cause which first gave the being and prescribed the end of that being must needs have most right and skill to limit and direct the manner of that being they seek to divide the coactive from the representative body of the people they seek to divide between the two houses of Parliament and these seek to divide between the head and the body of the Parliament They perswade the multitude that they have entrusted the Parliament only with their purses to give away subsidies and replenish the Kings coffers but not to settle their rights and franchises and to make knowne the bounds of Prerogative and restraine the unnaturall encroachments or erruptions of the same If the community have beene agrieved to complaine or almost accuse is a sufficient priviledge of the house of Commons and this but to avoid further repining shall not be granted them T is pity that our Doctors doe not study the Law further for with a little more industry they might perhaps finde out that every private man as well as the house of Commons or the whole Community out of Parliament as well as our Knights and Burgesses in it may give the King money and if occasion be preferre an accusation against such a â—yrrannicall Lord or favourite well if such Rabbies and expounders can satisfie any of the unworthy vulgar and some Gentlemen and Lords who have spirits below the Yeomanry of England for such I have seene too many since 3. Novemb 1640 they shall be no further disabus'd by me In the next place They attempt to work a disunion between the Houses the Lords shall have a power of Judicature â—ver their Members so they will exclude the Commons from any part therin and upon condition that they will so farre disclaime them as to leavâ— them obnoxious for tryalls at the Kings bench This sitting of the Lords and Commons in severall Houses does not prove them severall Courts nor does the observance of particular Priviledges in either House and not laying all things common between both prove any independance of either doubtlesse they are like the twines of Hippocrates they both must live and die together In former ages judgement was so given upon the greatest Delinquents at that the Commons were parties in the judgement And sure whilst they were Judges over Lords themselves were not subjected to inferiour Courts the Lords then knew they could not indure any indignity to fall upon the Commons being but distinct parts of the same Court but it would reflect upon themselves and the Commons knew that the honour of the Lords was an addition to themselves whilst the Curiatii stand close together their three adverse Combatants are too weake for them but when they are divided by unwarinesse in the encounter they prove all three too weake for one of their enemies I will not make any comparisons or say whither the Lords or Commons deserted by the other suffer more I will only say that nothing but fatall want of policy can divide or diminish their mutuall love and correspondence In the last place division also is raised betwixt the King and Parliament there is a generation of men which seâ—ke not the good of King and Parliament nor could prosper if the King and Parliament were united as they ought to be These men because their suggestions cannot prevaile to alienate the Parliament from the King apply all their indevours to alienate the King from the Parliament their perpâ—tuall suggestion are That the greatnesse of Kings is eclipsed by Parliaments That there is in Lawes themselves a kind of enmity and something that is inconsistant with royalty That Kings are bound to seek nothing but themselves That Kings can seeke nothing in themselves so nobly as the satisfying of their wills especially when their wills are fixt upon things difficult and forbidden Neverthelesse there is nothing but falsety in all these suggestions For Princes are the Creatures and naturall productions of Parliaments and so are their Prerogatives as has been set forth and every rationall and naturall thing loveth its own off-spring and that love is rather ascending then descending it is liker the sap of the root then of the branch viz. The people are more inclinable to love Princes then Princes to love the People There is likewise a neare consanguinity and reflexive benevolence of aspects between Lawes and Princes they are both of the same descent and tend