A FULL ANSWER TO THE Levellers Petition Presented to the House of Commons On Munday Septemb. 11. 1648. VVherein the divellish poyson therein contained is discussed throughout By way of confutation of every materiall branch thereof Contrived for the satisfaction of all those who are not able to discover the danger of those destructive and abominable Principles therein delivered And to recall those who are or shall be misled thereby By a Lover of Peace and Truth Psal 2.1 Why did the Heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing Prov. 24.21 My son feare thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change 1 Cor. 14.33 God is not the author of confusion but of peace Printed in the Yeere 1648. To the Reader Christian Brother IF thou believe that herein I have sided too much with any Party thou doest me wrong for I have ever lookt upon the old rule Amicus Plato sed magis amica veritas I will labour to defend no cause further then I am perswaded truth will beare me out for that I am assured will prevaile at the last Therefore I beseech thee deal candidly and impartially with me as I hope I have done with thee That herein I am neither so large nor exact as may be expected I beseech thee excuse me in that the publike Fast did immediately succeed the delivery or at least publishing of this titular Petition and some important businesse hath taken me up since so that I had little above a day to finish this peece for the Presse Also the unworthinesse of the subject matter in the said Discourse or ill named Petition hath caused me to be lesse punctuall herein then otherwise I should have been But this I doubt not may be sufficient to help to remove so troublesome an obstacle that it may not hinder so great necessary and hopefull a work as a Personall Treaty which God of his infinite mercy blesse prosper and make successefull which shall be the daily prayer of one who is wholly devoted To the service of God and his Countrey A brief and summary Confutation of a divellish and disorderly Paper stiled The humble Petition of thousands well-affected Persons inhabiting c. THat great and grand Imposter never bewrayed his wants so much as now in making use of such weak and silly instruments to set up his Kingdome they having neither sense to expresse nor policy fitly to bring about their impudent and shamelesse levelling desires as is most manifest in that late published paper altogether repugnant and discrepant both in Title and Substance 1. In Title they calling it a Petition whereas there is nothing therein petitioned and an Humble Petition where as it is extreme saucie and Shismatical saucie reproving the King the Lower House thorowout Shismaticall in directing that which they so call a Petition not to the Parliament of England nor unto the two Houses but to the Right Honourable the Commons of England assembled in Parliament altogether leaving out the upper House and throughout the whole body of their Petition acknowledging the Lower House the Supream Authority of this Kingdome against both the Law of God and the Land and contrary unto both the Oath of Supremacie and Alegeance as hath been sufficiently proved unto all men but moderately rationall But herein the upper House may see what followes from their own sandie Principles they have been content to maintain the two Houses to be a Parliament first without Bishops and afterwards without a King contrary unto the Nature and Constitution of Parliaments as they should be by the great Charter of England the Statute Lawes thereof and the ancient fundamentall customes of our Nation and now the Levellers will have a Parliament without an upper House and all made fellowes at football But herein the wise Lords might see if they had any eyes in their heads how God hath brought it about that their rebellion may come to be repayed in it's own coin and if once their Lordships be got down have at the now Honourable Commons next they are now by the politick Levellers set highest that they may when time serves be the more easily laid lowest 2. In substance it is altogether differing from the title therein being nothing petitioned and thus it is a mere silly cobled Remonstrance of their own aimes and purposes who thus call themselves Thousands of well affected persons therein proclaiming themselves to be nothing but Independents who indeavour by their numbers being thousands and their own interest blood guiltienesse to bring on their designes Concerning the former of these if they were but sober minded they might remember Gods Prohibition which is this Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evill neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest Judgment Exod. 23.2 and withall they might consider there are many more thousands of wise understanding moderate and religious Christians throughout the Kingdome which disallow their folly The other thing whereby they show their folly in trusting to a broken staffe is their own interest bloodguiltinesse which they call ingaging on the Houses part and as in their own words they confesse was against the King and his adherents which by the Law of God and the Land makes them selfe-confessing Rebells and Traitors so that God at the great Parliament of all Parliaments the day of Doom may say unto every one of them thou art not onely ex ore tuo but also ex scripto tuo guilty of the said detestable and damnable crimes But to the businesse it is so botch't and patch't up that there is nothing but baldnesse and abruptnesse in it wherein in the very first words they would perswade the world that they are as earnestly desirous of a safe and well grounded peace c. as any sort of men whatsoever wherein they declare the weaknesse and shallownesse of their Judgements whilst they do perswade themselves and would others that a safe and well grounded peace may stand upon the bog and quagmire of disorder and confusion Next in the preface of their patchery they seem to lay down the grounds of this their manifesto of which was touched but now and thence they draw the sum of their discourse into three nastie rotten branches 1. The ground and reason which induced them to aid the honorable House against the King ad his Adherents 2. What their apprehensions are of the Treaty 3. What they expected from the House and doe still most earnestly desire In the first the ground and reason which induced them to aid the honorable House against the King and his Adherents they command the lower Houses pleasure to understand them be pleased therefore to understand c. A man would think such saucy peremptorinesse would have produced somthing worth notice but it is nothing but the disorderly and unreasonable reasons of their ingagement with the House against the King drawn from three most unsound Arguments 1. Their own
corrupt and erroneous judgement 2. Their mis-apprehensions of manifold oppressions brought upon the Nation by the King his Lords and Bishops c. 3. The illegall and rebellious practice of the lower House The first Argument whereby they were induced to rebell against their King was because they judged the lower House to be the supreme Authority of England as chosen by and representing the people and intrusted with absolute power for redresse of grievances and provision for safety c. 1. They say they judged the lower House unto whom they would seem to direct a Petition to be the supreme Authority of England Can there be anie greater errour in judgement then this For let us look back who they are that judged this do they not call themselves Thousands of well-affected persons inhabiting the City of London West-minster c Certainly then they must either all or the greatest part of them be Freemen who have taken the Oath of Allegiance which tells them what is the supreme Authority of England but theirs is a dangerous conscience which is not sensible of perjury whilst they obstinately persist therein They might also be informed by the Law of the Land whereby we are to judge the supreme Authoritie thereof to remain Rex habet potestatem Jurisdictionem super omnes qui in Regno suo sunt The King hath power and authoritie over all which are in his Kingdome see Judg Jenkins p. 7. But they seem to be perswaded unto this opinion because the lower House is chosen by and representing the people and intrusted with absolute power for redresse of grievances and provision for safety c. which Position in the former part is only a meere Supposition and therefore brings an untrue consequence along with it their Supposition is this that because in a legall Parliament the lower House are chosen by and representing the people therefote this is so wherein they are much mistaken for the Countrey ought to have a free choice of their Knights of the Shire and Burgesses of Parliament which never was so free as ought to have been in this Parliament but now the lower House is filled with men unknown unto their Countrey and therefore not being chosen by the people they cannot represent the people This false Supposition begets another as untrue which is that the lower House being chosen by and representing the people are intrusted with absolute power c. which absolute power they must either have by right of inheritance or by the Lawes of the Land or they do derive the said power from some other upon the virtue of their Election 1. They may not attain unto this power by right of inheritance because they are to sit there by the election of their Countrey according unto Law 2. Not by the Law of the Land because the Law of the Land gives this power unto none but the King 3. They do not derive the said power from any other because if so it must be derived from either King or people 1. It is not derived from the King for he calls them onely to appear and attend the Parliament consilium impensuri to give advice not to exercise anie absolute power 2. It is not derived from the people because they have no power at all the choosing the said men by vertue of the Kings Writ gives the people power to choose men qualified according unto the Laws and Customes of the Land to sit in Parliament only to represent the grievances of the Kingdome unto the King and the upper House and to advise with them concerning the same but they cannot give them anie greater power because nil dat quod non habet is true in this case After followes upon these another most Atheisticall Tenet that they did judge the King was but at the most a publike Officer of the Kingdome and accountable to the House the representative of the people from whence all just Authority is or ought to be derived for discharge of his Office Here every word hath its poison and to discover all therein would prove a tax too tedious therefore I will rank them into three principall errors 1. That they thought the King at the most was but the chief publike Officer of the Kingdome 2 That the King is accountable unto the lower House for the discharge of his Office 3. That all just Authority is or ought to be derived from the Representative of the people First that the King at the most is but the publike Officer of this Kingdome herein is a great deal of serpentine and Jesuiticall policie full of destructive poison unto all Monarchy which they bring in most cunningly and covertly by confounding of termes and judging the King to be most chiefe wherein they affirm his Supremacie but this they presently take away again by adding publike Officer of the Kingdome as if his power were by the election and donation of the people and not by right of inheritance assured unto him by the Law of the Land The second errour is that the King is accountable unto the lower House for the discharge of his Office contrarie unto the Word of God which saith Is it fit to say to a King thou art wicked or to Princes ye are ungodly Job 34.18 and who dare say unto a King what dost thou Him God hath made supreme 1 Pet. 2.13 and if he be supreme unto whom shall he give an account of his Office but unto him who hath made him so which Exposition is made good by the Statute Law of the Land Ann. 16. Rich. 2. cap. 5. The Crowne of England hath been so free at all times that it hath been in no earthly subjection but immediately subject unto God in all things touching the Regality of the same Crown and to none other The third error is that all just Authority is or ought to be derived from the Representative of the People Herein they discover their own weaknesse concluding though somthing misteriously their old feares and jealousies Where it is as good as confessed that all just Authority is not in the Representative of the People but ought to be by which tenet they argue either the established Law of the Land or the lower House or the upper House or the whole Kingdome or every of them with the supreme authority over them to be unjust a particular canvasing whereof would take up more time then now I am willing to spend so idly onely this all just Authoritie is decided and determined by the Law of the Land which gives it unto the King principally and originally This is the principall matter in the first argument of their ground and reason which induced them to aid the Commons against the King and his Adherents whereunto they adde a discovery of their mistakes that had they not been confident that these errours had beene truthes they had beene desperately mad to have taken up Armes against the King c. because the Lawes of the Land make it expressely
a crime no lesse then Treason c. Wherefore now their surest and safest way seeing they begin to be something lesse hoodwinkt is not to persist in but to recant and abandon their Errors for we are sure we have a mercifull God and we have found a mercifull King The second argument which they say induced them to maintain a warre against the King was the consideration of the manifold oppressions brought upon the Nation by the King his Lords and Bishops c. This argument breaths out a most audacious and uncivill accusation of both King Church and Common-wealth at once let it be granted that all herein said were true is it not a most inhumane and unchristian dealing when we have an overture of peace and reunion to rifle old sores which will sooner get a Gangrene then cure the wound but may it be granted which is there said those manifold oppressions lying now raked in covered with numberlesse cruelties and outrages of bloody Armies mercilesse Sequestrators unconscionable Excize men most tyranicall and arbitrarie Committee men with infinite Locusts more are of two sorts either by the King or his Officers those by the King were few the chiefest of all being Shipmoney and Monopolies whereunto his Majesty was driven by the unnaturall dealing of his Subjects who of late yeares were grown so factious and rebellious that Parliaments did not proceed legally as in former times but would ever be putting him upon unreasonable termes before Subsidies would be granted which compelled him to find out and make use of an extraordinarie course for his supply all which he willingly and freely took away this Parliament which were more then sufficient unto any man but wise and moderate The faults imputed upon his Subjects are of two sorts either of Ecclesiasticall or civill persons those of Ecclesiasticall persons are partially by heapes thrown upon the Bishops whom in all things I dare not vindicate yet Christian charity and experience causeth me to say thus much of them that there was too fatall a division in the Clergie of our Kingdome which rise from severall geniusses and dispositions which were two prevalent in this Nation which may be reduced unto these heads the Court Faction the Popular Faction and a religious party the Court Faction that laboured more after wealth riches honour preserment and the like laying aside a wholsome care for Christs flock The Popular Faction that stood in opposition thereunto and did fall so low that they laboured after nothing so much as to please the people and thereby forgot to please God which antipathy betwixt these parties falling out in an age wherein many lovers of truth with as much industrie as ever and with more moderation then formerly looking into the reformation found the same through the heat of opposition to have left out somethings advantagious to Gods Church in prosecution whereof some unusuall tenets and Ceremonies of indifferencies were received into the Church which being conscientiously maintained by the BB are now attributed unto them for oppression The manifold oppressions brought upon this Nation by the Lords Civill as well as spirituall were all remedied by this present Parliament if the Kingdomes Trustees had showed themselves right Patriots in contenting themselves with the good of the people when it was well these therefore were nothing but misapprehensions of danger where none was which had they been reall and upon good grounds could not have taken of that infamie of treason and rebellion in any one maintaining war against their Soveraign which wherof they are sensible is concluded by the Law of the Land Upon this ground they cast a most cruell and inhumane slander upon his gratious Majestie and his government suggesting unto the world that his Majestie had a purpose by force of Arms to continue oppression whereas taking up of Arms for the defence of that Law and his sacred Person is maintenance not dissolution of Government After this they bring in another addition unto their argument which is this that the safety of the People is above Law which misconstrued maxime I will not here meddle with onely it cannot plead for their warring against the King Because orderly and obedient Subjects were in no danger though hereby they would seem to make up something thence by a Jesuiticall and nonsensicall distinction betwixt the Supreme Authoritie and the Supreme Magistrate which are inseparable what succeeds in this Argument is sufficiently answered in the former The third Argument which drive them into rebellion is the illegall and rebellious practise of the Lower House which needs no farther answer then this vivitur lege non exemplo we are to live by law and not example except we will look a little further upon the unjust illegall dealing of the Lower House with his Majestie and the Law of the Land denying him to be judge of safety and takeing away his Negative voice excluding the King from having any share in the Supreme Authority whereby they are transgressours of the Law of God the Law of Nature and the Common Law of the Kingdome again they would seem to make Bishops an essentiall part of Supreme Authority by tradition whereas they are so by the fundamentall Law of the Nation all herein worth notice is that they do show the illegall and unjust proceedings of the lower House from their own principles and practices What succeeds in the first branch of their titular petition is onely a publication of their own mistakes vain opinions and ungrounded hopes which are sufficiently answered in what hath been said in answer unto their severall arguments Thus I have done with the first branch of their discourse now to the second which is what their Apprehensions are of a Treaty wherin are heaps of durt and that so numerous as it is very troublesome medling yet something shall be done therein and thus we may discover their complaints and their feares their complaints 1. Of the lower House 2. Of their own danger In the former of these they proclaime their exceeding grief upon their observation of the Commons their ingratitude towards God who hath given them victory thereby inabling them to put the whole Nation into an absolute condition of Freedome and Safety wherein they deceive themselves in their own principle which is this that God having given victorie unto Rebells and Traitors approves their actions which way of arguing would set up Mahomet and pull downe Christ in the most part of the world and would pull down the Reformed Churches and set up Papistrie in the greatest part of Christendome witnesse Ireland besides if they would consider this aright they might remember the Psalmist tells us that God sets the wicked in slippery places but God give all men that are but morall much more professors of the Gospell grace to observe what crueltie these well-affected people breath out and what bloodie mindednesse they belch abroad into the world in accusing the Commons for an accustomed passing by the ruine
their lawfull King which they confesse is treason by the Law of the Land except as should seem they do suppose in these cases mentioned wherein they fall upon two dangerous errours 1. That it is lawfull to resist a Tyrant and Oppressour which is directly against the word and Law of God for there cannot be found greater Tyrants and miscreants upon the Earth then were Tiberius Claudius Caligula and Nero all which lived in the times of Christ or his Apostles yet did none of them give either precept or example for resistance or opposition to any of them therefore had his Majestie been a Tyrant it had not been lawfull for them or any of his Subjects to have maintained warre against him 2. The second errour is that his Majesty hath been a Tyrant which is a most shamelesse slander for there cannot be a Tyrant but either in his coming to governe or in his manner of governing he cannot be the former for his greatest enemies never yet had the impudence to avouch it neither can he be the latter because that is a governing contrarie unto Law whereof he is altogether guiltlesse for he hath ever governed by Law This whole part of this titular Petition what their apprehensions of a personall Treaty are contains nothing but complaints though I call it their feares because these complaints are full of those old feares and Jealousies and therefore they are verie much affrighted with a Treaty holding it altogether unfit because as they pretend it hath been cried up Principally by such as have been alwaies disaffected unto the lower House wherein all the world may see their aptnesse to prejudice other men for was it not first moved and cried for by their brethren the Scots who had entred into Covenant with them to execute cruelty are not the Presbyterians as active therein as any And if the lower House were guiltlesse and innocent have they need or sufficient cause to fear the issue of a personall Treaty there being none to deale therein on that partie which they account opposite but a wise loving gracious and mercifull King assisted by wise meek learned moderate men who prefer the common good before their owne And the Treaties being accompanied with underhand-dealing is more to be feared on the lower Houses part who are raising force in every County in England then the Kings party who are ruined unto nothing And for an alteration in the King and his party what may anie rationall man expect seeing they at first took the Word of God and the Law of the Land for their rule and the good of Church and Common-wealth for their aime which hath caused them with manly fortitude and Christian patience by the assistance of God and a good conscience honorably to suffer all injuries yea even death it selfe Their consideration of this that the present force upon his Majesty will in time to come be pleaded against all that can or shall be agreed upon is the effect of unjust dealings when men have so intangled themselves in mischief that they know not how to wind out thence It is true indeed those great provocations the King hath and that most basely and injuriously received from the two Houses might were he of an unregenerate temper be somwhat but all but cruelty which believes there is no mercy may safely trust to his clemency he is not of that fiery revengefull spirit that most of his Predecessors have been of These new warres risings and revoltings invasions and plottings which have been since the last cry for a personall Treaty have been acted in such an humble way of petitioning that the two Houses might therein see the Kingdomes desire of accommodation betwixt his Majestie and them which cannot be effected without the said Treaty the want whereof must most certainly increase repining grudgings murmurings and complanings amongst the people which ought rather to perswade unto a personall Treaty and not to disswade therefrom And as for those victories which the Army hath obtained they ought to be considered quo jure by what right and quo modo in what manner they were mannaged then quo effectu by what effect this may give false judgement in such a case This wonderfull piece endeth this dolefull part with a profest wonder and amazement to consider the inevitable danger these titular Petitioners are in though all things in the Propositions were agreed unto because of the resolutions of the King and his party wherein they display how conscious they are of the wrongs and injuries done unto them whom they so much fear accounting them as revengefull as themselves and thereby labour most impiously to disswade their great Lords and Masters from all confidence in His Majesty but I pray God it may be that we may have no more irregular licentious tyrannicall and usurping two Houses but I wish and hope we may have many glorious and free well-regulated Parliaments The third and last branch of this their titular Petition is what they expected from the House and do still earnestly desire in the delivering whereof they pretend a great deale of seeming reluctancy as if they were inforced thereunto which desires being granted they are confident would have given satisfaction unto all serious people of all parties which is but their fond conceit they not being able to give satisfaction unto any wise man who will be subject unto the reines of Government and love the Common-good above his private interests as is clear in their immediately succeeding desires which they have reduced unto 27. headlesse and senslesse heads upon each whereof to speak in particular requireth more time then such stuffe is worth wherein the Levellers crosse their own Principles having much laboured to settle supreme Authority in the lower House now they take it unto themselves by their making of Laws and unalterable Decrees which in the end would bring the lower House to give an account of their actions unto these our new Law-givers as well as his Majesty and Nobilitie unto the House of Commons But to the businesse In the four first of their desires they labour to bring all Law Order and Government into such a confused Chaos that both Church and Common-wealth thereupon must needs fall into its own ruin by taking away all Negative voices in the King and Lords which would prove a gap to let in all mischief an earnest whereof we have had by too dear experience their directions therein likewise practised would bring in all licentious and arbitrarie liberty both in Church and Common-wealth which is not onely contrarie unto the revealed will of God but would prove destructive unto all men therein In the four next are they absolute Levellers labouring to make Kings Queens Princes Dukes Earles and Lords with themselves fellowes at football and equall unto the poorest Peasant a desire against all Law and president of all Countries and Ages In the four next which are the ninth tenth eleventh and twelth of their desires they run on in the same strain only they desire well in the eleventh and twelth which is that all Excise may be abolished and that all inclosures of Fens and other Commons should be laid open or inclosed onely and chiefly to the benefit of the poore whose Patrimonie they are In the four next they much discover their ignorance and weaknesse in desiring those things for which the Law hath either altogether or for the most part provided a remedie if they were put in execution but in the sixteenth of their desires they belch out their impiety against both God and man in robbing the Church of her right and portion by moveing a repeal of both the Law of God the Law of Nature and the Land for the paiment of Tithes In the four next of their desires which are the seventeenth eighteenth nineteenth and twentieth they desire that from the lower House which is far above both their authority power and ability therefore we will let them passe In their 21. 22. 23. and 24 desires they would perswade the lower House unto all cruelty and injustice against Religion reason and Humanity except in the 22. wherein they desire the abolishing of all Committees which is not onely justice but necessary for the good of the whole Kingdome In the three last they go on in their naturall strain of selfe seeking hoping to beget their own security by most bloody and barbarous cruelty executed upon others whose inhumane desires may be answered by any who have but the least tincture of reason and honesty wherefore I forbear them any one but rightly understanding what hath been hitherto said in this kind being sufficiently able to give answer thereunto After this they relate the old and many hopes and come nearest unto a Petition yet fall short in making it but an earnest desire that the lower House would set themselves speedily to effect the ruine of themselves and the whole Nation by a new found way of levelling colouring the same with some vain idle and Triviall pretences and promises presumptuously concluding a few giddie brained Levellers to be the People of the Land and the main strength thereof Thus they end taking Gods name in vain by praying that he may be their guide in most cruell bloody destructive and unwarrantable waies Thus I have done only I wish that all true Christians may heartily and earnestly pray unto God to turn and amend their hearts so as they may truly and seasonably see the sinfulnesse of their waies and the vanity and destruction which attends such ungodly indeavours so as now at last they may betake themselves unto such good and sound principles as may bring peace unto our almost destroyed Kingdome and stand in the day of triall when the secrets of all hearts shall be made knowne and that he may grant this and all other things which are or shall be necessary for the happinesse and salvation of them and us and all the elect in the name and for the merits of Christ Jesus to whom be all Honour Glory Power Praise Might Majesty and Dominion from hence forward and for evermore Amen Septemb. 19. 1648. FINIS