of the Nation and all the blood hath been spilt by the King and his party intimating thereby most inhumanely and unchristian like that there can for this Nation be no attaining unto the Haven of freedome and safetie but through the innocent blood of their true and naturall Soveraigne with his faithfull Subjects which wicked and canniball intentions God of his infinite mercie destroy and prevent that England may never more be guiltie of such horrid crimes Next they accuse their Gods the lower House for betaking themselves to a Treatie with His Majestie O hideous wretches is there anie other visible meanes left for peace and accommodation Doe you not see the Kingdome thorough their ruines brought unto an uproare which will never be appeased but by the restitution of his Majestie whereunto a Treatie is the surest and safest preparation but this is it which they are too sensible of now their eyes begin to be open and they see how they are guiltie of the breach of the Law of the Land and they who have so long bragged and boasted of their fear of God are now in a slavish fear of man but know they this that though for a time they may escape the hand of man yea and that though our gracious King which I know he is willing to doe give them all pardons yet except they repent they cannot escape the judgement of the Almighty for shame therefore let them cry out no longer the Law of the Land and the Law of the Kingdome and the like but cry out of themselves in that they have by their treason and rebellion transgressed the Law of God who is King of Kings and let them not for the safety of a few private men prefer the ruine of a glorious Kingdome before the peace and union thereof See these weak and false principles wherewith they seem to under-prop this falling and tottering conceit against a Treaty because the ruine of the Nation and the blood that hath been spilt hath been caused by the King and his party for so they speake almost totidem terminis good people take up your senses againe and then judge whether the breakers or maintainers of established Lawes are the cause of the ruine of a Nation and the blood-shed therein and then your consciences must needs tell you that you and your party and not the King and his party are the sole instruments whereby those your sad complaints have been effected Again you complaine against the lower House for putting one that is but one single person and a publike Officer of the Common-wealth in competition with the whole Body of the people whereas if this Parliament were the exactest and compleatest Representative that ever was in England it is preposterous for them to stand in competition with him though you falsly account them the supreme Authority of the Kingdom you are therein far from the truth for His Majestie is the supreme Power of the Kingdome whereunto every man ought to sweare in the Oath of Supremacie the words are these I A B doe testifie and from my conscience declare that the Kings Majestie is the onely supreme Governour of this Kingdome and all other his Majesties Dominions and Territories as well in all spirituall or ecclesiasticall matters and causes as temporall c. Which Oath every man now sitting in the two Houses of Parliament hath taken therefore their standing in competition with their Soveraigne whose Supremacy they have so solemnly sworne and unto whom they have sworne Allegiance proclaimes them unto all the world guiltie of traiterous and rebellious perjury and these titular Petitioners do clearly bewray their corrupt and unchristian minds by speaking so irreverently and unworthily of their rightfull Soveraigne calling him a single man and publike Officer c. as a man of the least consideration in the Kingdome What followes in this part their complaint of the lower House discloses their ill-will unto Monarchy and Kingly Government which considering what hath been hitherto said in the like case is not worth answer In their complaint of their own danger they show us how and which way they were misled they took false principles which have deceived them whereas if they had but remembred their rudiments of Grammar they might have called unto mind the old example Jusipientis est dicere non putaram I wil leave the English unto their School-boies still they run upon the old strain they have opposed their King in defence of the lower House its Supreme Authority is not this wilfull obstinate ignorance will not the same law of the Land which to use their own terms makes it expressely a crime no lesse then treason for any to raise warre against the King tell them where the supreme Power is but this their rash undertakeing and their forwardnesse in thus declaring themselves to have run into innocent bloodshed upon these grounds is another warrant to assure them it must be thus I am glad there are such pangs within it may please God they may produce good effects for they deem themselves in the most dangerous conditition of all others left without all plea of indempnity for what they have done oh it workes this is a verie good symptom they may become honester long it is true many of their Associates have already lost their lives and liberties for things done or said against the King the Law of the Land frequently taking place and precedencie against and before the Authority of the lower House their esteem whereof to be supreme cannot make it so but that against it the Law of the Land ought to be pleaded the Law of the Land is the safety of the people and if ever they will injoy themselves and their livelihoods they must recover their Lawes and though they will condemn these titular Petitioners yet we have a mercifull King who will and can give them pardon if they will have the grace to ask it which is a sure way but their depending of the supreme authoritie of the lower House is a broken reed which will pierce their hands and whereas they seem to be something conscious that they cannot be exempt from the guilt of Murderers and Robbers if the lower House persist to disclaim their supreme Authority they herein aggravate their fault in labouring to perswade the lower House to claim title unto that which is none of their own neither will conscience be able to acquit and justifie any for cruelty and unjustice such as is that which they call Murder and Robberie and their attributing of supreme Authoritie due or belonging unto the lower House neither will this plea hold that they have opposed none but manifest tyrants Oppressours and their adherents If they have opposed any other then whom they thus judge I leave them to be their own judges by their own principles but on the other side under the names of manifest Tyrants Oppressors and their adherents against some they have made opposition which can be against none but
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
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