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 where in so many Papists are predominant That though the Parliament might submit yet a faire Accommodation it could not obtaine except the King would equally condescend thereunto That if the Petitioners had found out a more safe and honourable Accommodation then the Parliament had yet discovered for that was possible the Parliament would embrace it That if none such could be found out the affections and judgements of the Parliament ought not to be censur'd or distrusted That it behooved the Petitioners to addresse themselves by the like petition to the King if no want of affection to peace were apparent in the Parliament as certainly none was In contradiction and opposition to all the severall poynts in this Analysis what the Replicant hath set forth wee shall now see in the same order 1. The great contrivers of our sad divisions which abuse the weake reason of the people to keepe up an unfortunate misunderstanding between King and Subject are not named by the Replicant but they are clearely pointed out to be the Chiefe Lords and Commons in Parliament for he saith Every new Vote of late hath been a new affliction and he makes Pennington and the Citty Lecturers to be but Iourney-men Rebels under them and even this Hellish slander he venteth under the name of the Petitioners whom he stiles the most considerable persons of the Citty and at the same time affirmeth that the people generally are of honest affections And the Answer to the Petition in which the words he saies are softer then oyle though the matter of it be poison of Aspes he attributes only to some Chiefe Engineers of mischiefe in the House though it carry in it the Authority of the whole House Here is a wonder beyond all wonders A few factious persons in Parliament over-awe the major better and wiser part in Parliament and by a few factious Instruments in Citty and Countrey abuse the major better and wiser part there also into the most miserable distempers and calamities that ever were and though the honest generality begin to grow wiser and are instructed by the sence of their miseries and by other advertisements from loyall Papists and Prelates and other pious Courtiers and souldiers to shake off their few Tormentors Nay and though the King himself has not onely publisht the most eloquent and subtill Declarations to disabuse the people that ever were himselfe being the most beloved and honoured Prince that ever was for his indulgence to Liberty and Religion but hath also advanced a most puissant and victorious Army to releeve these undeceived wretches yet the incantation holds no humane force either of Armes or Arts can dissolve it The miracles of Moses had an impression of divine vertue upon them and did therefore triumph over all the Egyptians spels but in this case Mr Pym with I know not what infernall engines distorts and wrests all the Orbes of a Kingdome from their naturall motions and yet no divine Art can resist him 'T was never beleev'd before that any but God could work contrary to nature but now it must be beleeved But is it so apparent that the Parliament is averse from peace yet saies the Replicant For withdraw the fuell and the fire is soon extinguisht Let the Parliament not soment the ill humour by supplyes of men Armes and Ammunition and the wound will heale of it selfe In the petition nothing but an Accommodation safe and honourable was pretended but now we see a meere submission is intended in this replication T is not prooved That the Armes of the Parliament are unjust 't is not prooved that it may be safe for the Kingdome to prostrate and subject Parliaments to the discretion of that faction which now has bereav'd us of the Kings presence and favour yet because the Replicant will take upon him to condemne Parliaments we must also allow of his Judgement But ' its further say'd by the Replicant that even Accommodation it selfe is not pleasing in Parliament witness◠that speech 〈◊〉 one I like not danbing and that of another I hate the name of Accommodation Hee which hates the name of an Accommodation as it has been used of late to signifie a totall submission may love a true Accommodation in it selfe and he that likes not the daubing of those which under the colour of Accommodation a yme at nothing but division and dissention amongst the people may more heartily affect a safe and honourable agreement then the Replicant himselfe Can the Parliament expresse zeale to peace better then by contracting all its right and priviledges into one compendious proposition for the setling of union To purchase true peace the Parliament desires nothing but to retain the meere being of Parliament that is to be the supreme Court of King and Kingdome And if it can stand with the essence of such a Court to be arraign'd tryed and sentenced by a faction of Papists Prelates Delinquents and Souldiers the Parliament will submit to that Condition also 2. When we expresse our feares of the King party and therefore deny submission thereunto as dangerous and dishonourable the Replicant tels us further we are required not to submit to our fellow subiects but to the King only and he tels us further that the Lawes are the best security and those we shall enioy and to claime any higher securitie is to assume the power of Kings How farre the Lawes of the Land have been sufficient to preserve to Parliaments and the better part of loyall Protestant subjects their rightfull portion and interest in the Kings favour for these 17. yeares last past is knowne to all The Lawes of Scotland could not secure the better and greater part there The Lawes of Ireland have not saved the Brittaines and Protestants from Massacres there and yet certainly both those Kingdomes are intitled to Lawes of as ample benefit and vigour as ours now is But what speake we of Common Lawes when even at this instant such a free subjects house is burnt and plundered by the Kings party in derision and despight of the Kings owne Proclamation and particular Placard granted for the safegard of himselfe and his family As our Judges preyed upon us heretofore in matters of State and Divines oppressed us in matters of Religion so our Martialists now have a power of spoyling above the generall Law or any particular protection If the King thinke fit to grant safety to such a person or such a Towne it must be provided alwayes that such a Dutch or Scotch Commander who conceives himselfe more skilfull in war then the King
give his approbation withall for my part I conceive it more honourable for the King to say that he cannot then that he would not save his people from all those cursed indignities and cruelties which have been multiplyed upon us during this warre and before by his adherents As for Lawes therefore we must take notice that they may be imployed either to the benefit or prejudice of any Nation and that they themselvss do require to be regulated by further Lawes No Nation can be free without a three-sold priviledge The first is in the framing and passing of Lawes The second is in declaring and interpreting Lawes And the third is in executing and preserving Lawes inforce Where the King is sole Law-maker all things are subject to his meer discretion and a greater bondage then this never was nor can be the English lie not under such base servitude their King claimes but a part in the Leg slative power and yet neverthelesse of late by discontinuing of Writs for the summoning of Parliaments and by the right of a Negative voyce in Parliaments and an untimely dissolving of Parliaments the peoples interest in this Legislative power has been much abridged and suspended In the like manner also if the sole power of declaring Lawes were so in the King as that he might himselfe give Judgement or create Judges at his pleasure without imposing Oathes of trust on them in behalfe of the people or should deny redresses upon Appeales from them our Legislative power would be vaine and uneffectuall to us For my part I hold it an equall thing whither just men make Lawes and unjust interpret them or unjust men make Lawes and just interpret them When it was just in the King of late to impose what taxes hee pleased and as often as he pleased upon us for the preparing of Armadoes all over England Our Nation was fallen into a most desperate thraldome yet the fault was not then in the Lawes but in the Judges and such as had a power over the Judges Lawes as they are deafe and by a strict inflexibility more righteous then living Judges so they are dumb also and by their want of Language more imperfect then the brests of men And indeed since the Lawes of God and Nature though knowne to all yet do not utter to all the same sense but remaine in many plaine points strangely controverted as to their intent and meaning how can we hope that any humane Lawes should satisfie all mens understanding in abstruse points without some living Key to open them the vast Pandects and digests of the Law sufficiently testifie that in the clearest Law which mankind could ever yet discover there are dark and endlesse Labyrinths wherein the weaker sort of lay men are presently lost the learnedst advocates are tediously perplext In the last place also if the sole power of inforcing and executing Lawes were so vested in the King as that he might use it to the cessation or perversion of all justice and the people were in such case remedilesse the interest in making and declaring of Law were invalid and frustrate in the people and the King might still inslave or destroy them at his pleasure The Replicant sayes That under a Monarchy much must be trusted to the King orelse it will be debased into Democracie T is confessed much must but all must not be trusted the question then is how farre this much extends in a Monarchy of such a mixt nature as ours is in such times as ours now are In absolute Monarchies all is trusted to the King in absolute Democracies all is vested in the people in a mixt Monarchy more is trusted to the King then is reserved to the people and in a mixt Democracie more is reserved to the people then is derived to the Prince In all formes of Government the people passes by way of trust all that power which it retaines not and the difference of formes is only in degree and the degrees are almost as various as the severall states of the world are nay the same state admits of often changes many times sometimes the people gaines and sometimes looses sometimes to its prejudice sometimes not and sometimes injuriously sometimes not but the degrees of ordinary power consist in the making declaring and inforcing Law except when forraigne warre is and then it is expedient that a greater and more extraordinary trust be reposed in one and this we see in Holland the most exact Republicke and in England the most exact Monarchy in the world But it is a leud conceit of our Royalists now adayes to attribute to our King an absolute power over the Militia of this Land at all times alike not distinguishing between Civill warres wherein he may be a party and suspected and between a forraigne warre where he is neither a party nor suspected for if our Kings will plead such a trust to out disadvantage 't is just that they produce some proofe for it and relye not upon meere Common use 't is true in case of Forraigne invasion 't is expedient that the King be farre trusted and yet even so if the King should conspire with forraigne forces or neglect to protect us against them contrary to the intent of his trust we might resume the common native Posse or Militia of the Land for our owne defence without his consent And much more reasonable is it in time of Peace or Civill warre if the King will deny his influences or withdraw his presence to obstruct Law or will by his Negative voyce or by force seeke to disable his highest Courts and Councels and reduce all to arbitrary government more reasonable is it that the people secute to themselves the Law their chiefest portion and best patrimony For as the King cannot by Law deny to the people their undoubted interest in passing of Lawes so neither can he defeat the same interest or destroy the benefit thereof by misinter pretations or by mis-executions of the same Lawes No Nation can injoy any freedome but by the right and share which it has in the Lawes and if that right and share doe not extend to the preservation of Lawes in their true vigour and meaning as well as to the Creation of them 't is emptie and defeasible at the Kings meere pleasure Much is to be trusted to the King true but all is not we see trusted some power we see is of Necessity to be reserved in free Nations such as the King allowes us to be and there is a difference also in the word Trust for there is an arbitrary and there is a necessary Trust and the one may be resumed the other not upon meere pleasure Without all question the wiser and juster Princes are esteemed the more the people ever trust them but this makes no difference in the Legall and fundamentall Trust of the Kingdome nor can infirme credulous and easie Princes pretend alwayes to the same degree of power as their Ancestors have held
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 discovery to me as well what the papist as what the Delinquentis And this age must prove monstrously unnaturall in producing a wonder never heard of in all former ages if Iustice doe now rest on the Kings side For surely no King ever till now having a iust cause was opposed therein by the maior and better part of his subiects much lesse was it ever seene or heard of that any King in a iust cause was deserted by the maiority of his Orthodox subiects and supported by the unanimous aid of such as hated his true protested Religion God send the King to lay these things seriously and pensively to heart for since none of his wise and worthy Ancestors ever yet had cause to wage war either with the Collective or Representative Body of the People so none at all ever in any warre sided with a false Religion or against the true till this unhappy day in the King Charles is the first and I hope will be the last and therefore this is worthy to make a sad impression upon his soule But our Replicant will tell us That the Kings Iustice may yet govern and awe both parties by the same Law whatsoever their antipathy be The King has Law and power by the Law to protect the better partie and to provide for the peace of both parties But not withstanding that Law and that power the poore British Protestants in Ireland have beene left unprotected and lamentably exposed to a generall Assassination And had they not beene betrayed by their vaine confidence in the Law and in the Kings protection they perhaps might have found other meanes to defend themselves therefore it is no refuge or comfort to them now to hear the name of Law proclaimed reiterated when as things hapned there it has been the very shelfe and rock whereon the Protestants have been miserably bulyed and wricked then pardon pray if the same name of Iustice also sound but harshly at this time in our eares when papists which have destroyed our religion in Ireland are raysed to preserve it in England and protestants which were sending succours and supplyes into Ireland are in the instant invaded here in England for the better suppression of Popery both here and in Ireland T is a strange kinde of assurance or ioy to us to see the names of Religion Liberty and parliamentary priviledge stamped upon our coyne or interwoven in our Standard when at the same time we see the same Coyne imprested for the entertainment of a Popish Army and the same standard marching against the representative body of our Nation and the supreame Court of Iustice in our State Nay and the strange time that is taken for the righting of Religion Law and Liberty amongst us makes our assurance and joy the lesse triumphant for we plainely see that as the season now is no one Protestant falls here by the Kings sword but by the same stroak three Protestants at least are cut off in Ireland And lastly the manner of rightting Religion Law and Liberty is most strange of all for open warre is not now sufficiently destructive though it be spread all over the face of the Kingdom subterranean plots are brooded further in the dark and by privie intelligence the whole City of London is to be engaged in a tragicall conspiracy to murder it selfe in one night What the benefit therefore is of Law and Power and Iustice for the disabling of Papist and Delinquents and for the safe guarding of loyall Protestants we all know But when papists and delinquents finde countenance and the true religion is abandoned and lest obnoxious to mischiefe by the perversion of Law Power and Iustice the names alone will not availe us but our Replicant further saith Subjects must not give Lawes to Princes courtesies In matters of a private nature Princes are absolute but not so in publike affaires where the publike safety or liberty is touched In their own pallaces Princes may dispose of Offices but in the State if they make Patents prejudiciall to their revenues to their prerogatives or to the peoples interest the Iudges shall pronounce them deceived in their grants and make the deeds void and null in Law Princes cannot alien any parcells of their Crownes Hull may not bee transferred to the King of Denmark nor Portsmouth to France nor Falmouth to Spaine for Kings have no sole propriety in such things and the same reason is in the super intending Offices of Royalty it selfe they are not transferible at pleasure Some Princes to use the words of Tacitus are so infirme and credulous that they remaine jussis alienis obnoxii and non modo Imperii sed libertatis etiam indigent they are so enslaved sometimes to their basest flatterers that their very Diadems are as it were aliend and made prostitute to seducers and these their flatterers and seducers in the â—xpressions of the same Tacitus Minore metu mâ—â—â—ore praemio percant The unhappy Protestants in Ireland were of late undone by the vaste power which was put into the hands of the Earl of Strafford and all the Ecclesiasticall if not Civill disturbances and distractions which have of late infested these three Kingdoms were in great part caused by excesse of power over the Church delegated to the Archbishop of Canterbury Without doubt when the foundation of Popery was first to be laid it did not prosper and advance so much in sixscore yeers under the first Popes as it did in six yeeres here under Canterbury And Nero himselfe in his first three yeeres did not attaine to so much insolence and tyranny as Strafford did in one yeare The Kings freedom therefore in favours will never justifie the preferring of such men to an unquestionable command nor the subjecting the lives liberties and soules of so many millions of Religious Protestants to their corrupted disaffected wills Neverthelesse for ought I can see we have since but changed one Strafford for another and one Canterbury for another Only to stop our complaints This Replicant tell us That the courtesies of Princes are not to be questioned by subjects The Queen has now attained to a great heigth of power as formidable as she is to us in regard of her sex in regard of her Nation in regard of her disposition in regard of her family in regard of her Religion and lastly in regard of her ingagments in these present troubles some think shee has an absolute unlimitable power over the Kings sword and Scepter which if it beâ— so no end of our feares and calamities