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
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
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