To the High Court of Parliament. A dilemma, from a parallel. Humbly presented. Published according to order. 1646 Approx. 23 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 6 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2008-09 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A83525 Wing E237A Thomason E341_10 ESTC R200905 99861526 99861526 113663 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A83525) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 113663) Images scanned from microfilm: (Thomason Tracts ; 55:E341[10]) To the High Court of Parliament. A dilemma, from a parallel. Humbly presented. Published according to order. Edwards, Thomas, 1599-1647, England and Wales. Sovereign (1625-1649 : Charles I). [12] p. Printed by Matthew Simmons for Henry Overton, and are to be sold at his shop in Popes-head Alley, London, : 1646. Wing attributes this to Thomas Edwards. Printed in two columns. The left contains selections from Edwards' "Gangræna"; the right, selections from various documents by Charles I. The anonymous author of the postscript uses the parallel to criticize Edwards. Signatures: A⁴ B² . Annotation on Thomason copy: "June 22th". Reproduction of the original in the British Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Edwards, Thomas, 1599-1647. -- Gangraena. Christian sects -- England -- Early works to 1800. Great Britain -- Church history -- 17th century. 2007-03 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2007-04 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2007-05 Mona Logarbo Sampled and proofread 2007-05 Mona Logarbo Text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion TO THE HIGH COURT OF PARLIAMENT . A DILEMMA , FROM A PARALLEL . HUMBLY PRESENTED . 2 TIM . 3. 1. Perillous times shall come ; for men shall be , &c. Multi Christum osculantur , pauci amant . Bucocl . Published according to Order . LONDON , Printed by Matthew Simmons for Henry Overton , and are to be sold at his Shop in Popes-head Alley , 1646. THE PARALLEL . Gangraena playes REX . ( 2 d par . Cor. 4. p. 201. ) FOr a conclusion of this Corallory , O that any particular members of Parliament who are for pretended liberty of Conscience , a Toleration of Sects , favourers of Sectaries , and out of those principles hinder all they can the setling of Religion and Government by civill sanction , would often and sadly meditate upon this Scripture , and be wise now ( whilest there 's time ) thus to serve the Lord , lest suddenly , when they least thinke of it , they perish from the way , and God make them examples , for adhering so pertinaciously to the Sectaries , and that party . They may read in Ecclesiasticall Stories , what hath befallen Princes for not serving the Lord in feare , and kissing his Sonne ; and they see before their eyes the many evills that hath befallen the King , and the great straights to which he hath been reduced for favouring too much the Popish , and Prelaticall party against the mind and humble desires of both his Kingdomes : and can particular persons think ( who are not Kings , but under that title of Judges ) that they can prosper long in standing for a Sectarian faction against the mind of both Kingdomes , and that the Kingdomes will not see and desire to understand how it comes about ? and by whose meanes it is , that we having taken a Covenant for uniformity in Doctrine , Government , &c. and for extirpating of Heresie , Schisme , and the Parliament , having declared in some Declarations and Remonstrances against Anabaptists , Brownists , preaching of men not ordained , and against leaving particular persons and Congregations to their owne Liberty ; that yet all things should be done quite contrary , with an high hand ? For may not now who ever will both preach and gather Separated Churches , print and act against Presbyteriall Government , and for all sorts of Sectaries ? Yea , such persons are countenanced , preferred in all places , and to all kinds of Offices and imployments ( which makes many turne Independents , ) and the most zealous cordiall men against Sectaries are displaced , or discountenanced , or obstructed , &c. These things doe seeme strange and against all reason , that the Parliament , professing and declaring one thing , yet the quite contrary in all things of this nature should be done daily in Citie and Country . In the worst times , when the King was most misled by the Counsels of Prelates and evill men about him , there were not actions more contrary in many Ministers of State and other persons to Proclamations and Declarations , then are now to Ordinances , Declarations , and votes of Parliament ; and yet wee heare of few censured or made examples . Now the people every where say , these things could not be , persons durst be thus bold to do these things but that they know they have some great ones to backe them , and stand by them ; and the people enquire after , and speake who they be , and questionlesse will represent these things as unsufferable , and most dishonourable to the Parliament , and they will humbly desire these things may bee remedied by the power and wisdome of the Parliament : and therefore O that all such would be wise in time , be wise now , desert the Sectaries , further the worke so much the more as before they have hindred it , for there is an emphasis and weight in that Adverb now , signifying they should do it speedily , because the same opportunitie will not be alwayes given , and the Psalmist hints they may yet do it profitably , if they make hast ; but if any do persist and go on , working day and night , rolling every stone to uphold that party , he that strikes through Kings in the day of his wrath , will not spare them , and they shall finde by sad experience : when his wrath is kindled but a little , Blessed are all they that put their trust in him . In the Kings Declaration concerning the Militia . WE have been told that we must not be jealous of our great Counsell of both Houses of Parliament . Wee are not , — but of some turbulent , seditious , and ambitious natures , which ( being not so cleerly discerned ) may have an influence upon the actions of both Houses . In the Kings Answer to the Decla : of the Lords and Com : of the 19 of May , 1642. And we call Almighty God to witnesse , all our complaints and jealousies , which have never been causless , nor of our Houses of Parliament : ( but of some few Schismaticall , Factious , and Ambitious Spirits , — In the Kings Answ : to the 19 Propositions . Wee would not be understood , that we intend to fix this Designe upon both or either Houses of Parliament , wee utterly professe against it , — But we do beleeve , & accordingly professe to all the world , that the malignity of this Design — hath proceeded from the subtil informations , mischievous practices , and evill Counsels of ambitious turbulent Spirits , disaffected to Gods true Religion , and the unity of the Professors thereof . In the Kings Answ : to the 19 Propositions . But that without any shadow of a fault objected , onely perhaps because they follow their Conscience , and preserve the established Lawes , and agree not in such Votes , or assent not to such Bills , as some persons , who have now too great an influence even upon both Houses , judge or seeme to judge to be for the publick good , and as are agreeable to that Utopia of Religion and Government , into which they endeavour to transforme this Kingdome . In the Kings Declar : of Aug. 2. 1642. We well know the combination entred into by severall persons for an alteration in the government of the Church — and observed that those men had greatest interest , and power of perswading of both Houses , who had entred into such Combination , yet — we beleeved , even those men would either have been converted in their Consciences , by the cleernesse and justnesse of our actions , or would have appeared so unseasonable , or been discovered so seditious , that their malice and fury would not have been able to have done mischiefe ; [ Afterward ] When such licence is given to Brownists , Anabaptists , Sectaries , and whilst Coach-men , Feltmakers , and such Mechanick persons are allowed and entertained to preach by those who thinke themselves the principall members of either House ; when such barbarous outrages in Churches , and heathenish irreverence and uproares even in the time of Divine Service , and the Administration of the blessed meanes of advancing Religion , the preaching of the word of God , is turned into a licence of libelling , and reviling both Church and State , and venting such seditious positions , as by the Lawes of the Land are no lesse then Treason , and scarce a man in reputation and credit with these Grand Reformers , who is not notoriously guilty of this , whil'st those Learned , reverend , painfull , and pious Preachers , who have been and are the most eminent and able assertours of Protestant Religion , are ( to the unspeakable joy of the Adversaries to our Religion ) disregarded and oppressed . In the Kings Answer to the Declar : of the Lords and Com : of the 21 of June , 1642. This all men are bound to beleeve , though they see the Protestant Religion , and the Professors thereof miserably reproached , and in danger of being destroyed by a vitious and malignant party of Brownists , Anabaptists , and other Sectaries , ( the principall Ring-leaders of whom , have too great a power , even with some Members in both our Houses of Parliament ) our Authority despised , and as much as in them lies , taken from us , and reviled in Pulpits and presses by persons immediately in their protection , and recommendation . In the Kings Answer to the Declaration of the Lor : and Com : of 19 of May , 1642. What a strange time are we in , that a few impudent malicious ( to give them no worse terme ) men should cast such a strange mist of errour before the eyes of both Houses of Parliament , as that they either cannot , or will not see how manifestly they injure themselves , by maintaining these visible untruths ? In the Kings Declar : of August . 12. 1642. We were able to discover that — there was , still a faction of a few ambitious , discontented and seditious persons , who under pretence of being enemies to Arbitrary power , and of compassion towards those , who out of tendernesse of Conscience could not submit to some things enjoyned , or commended in the Government of the Church , had in truth a desire ( and had entred into a Combination to that purpose ) to alter the Government both of Church and State. The former Declaration begins thus . T is more then time now after so many injuries and indignities offered to our Royall person — to vindicate our Selfe from those wicked and damnable Combinations and Conspiracies which the implacable malice and insatiable ambition of some persons have contrived against us . In the Conclusion of that Declaration . Our quarrell is not against the Parliament , but against particular men , who first made the wounds , and will not now suffer them to be healed , but make them deeper , and wider , by contriving , fostering , and fomenting mistakes and jealousies betwixt body and head , us and our two Houses of Parliament ; whom we name , and are ready to prove them guilty of high Treason . Wee desire that the Lord Kimbolton , M r Hollis , M r Pim , M r Hampden , Sir Arthur Haslerigge , M r Stroud , M r Martin , Sir Henry Ludlow , Alderman Pennington , and Capt. Venne , may be delivered into the hands of Justice to be tryed by their Peeres , according to the knowne Lawes of the Land. In the Kings Answer to the Declaration of the 26 of May , 1642. But wee doubt not all our good Subjects doe now plainly discerne through the maske and vizard of their Hypocrisie , what their Designe is , and will no more looke upon the Framers , and Contrivers of that Declaration , as upon both Houses of Parliament ; ( whose freedome and just Priviledges wee will alwayes maintaine , and in whose behalfe wee are as much slandred as for our Selfe ) but so a Faction of Malignant , Schismaticall , and ambitious persons , whose designe is and alwayes hath been to alter the whole frame of Government , both of Church & State , & to subject both King and people to their own lawless arbitrary power & government . In the Kings Answer to the Declaration of the Lords and Com : of 26 of May 1642. For the Contrivers of that Declaration , ( though they have no minde to be Slaves ) they are not unwilling to be Tyrants : ( what is Tyranny , but to admit no rule to Governe by but their own wills ? ) and we know the misery of Athens was at the highest , when it suffered under the Thirty Tyrants . From the foregoing Parallel , ariseth the DILEMMA : That either the HIGH COURT OF PARLIAMENT is chargeable with Obstinacy and Hypocrisie against God and the publick Good : ( a thing horrid to apprehend ) or , The Author of the Pamphlet fore-mentioned , is as guilty of the breach of Parliamentary Priviledge , and sedition against the Kingdome , as the Contrivers of the Kings papers have been by the Parliament declared to be . TO THE LORDS and COMMONS Assembled in PARLIAMENT ; A POSTSCRIPT . NOW the Adversary of yours and this Kingdomes welfare ( Right Honourable ) sees he cannot keep the field against you any longer , he findes it best to recruit himselfe , by working his broken Swords into Pen-knives , and betake himselfe to his Study . He remembers how keen the Royal Stile was , and how neare it came to the heart of the Parliament ; when He expressed greatest confidence in the Parliament , and onely struck at some particular Members ; thus in Answer to your Declaration of the 19 of May , 1642. We shall never [ and we hope our people will never ] account the contrivance of a few factious , seditious persons , ( a Malignant partie who would consecrate the Common-wealth to their owne fury and ambition ) the wisdome of Parliamen . The Honourable House of Commons in their late famous Declaration , of the 17. of Aprill , have discovered that there are still the same spirits stirring , and humours working though under other disguises and upon other grounds . Since this discovery , these spirits doe not blush to proceed according to the first beginnings , and to reflect the like crimes on the Parliament , under the persons of some particular Members , and this done by men professing great Zeale for you , and that now after you have almost brought this Kingdome ( by the good hand of God upon you ) to feast upon the remembrance of the fore-passed gall and wormewood , and to satiate it selfe with the fat of securitie , Truth and Peace . But ( as Solomon speaks ) a Foole is never so troublesome as when he is filled with meat ; even so now , Ingratitude hath taken the Ballance into her hand , and Fancy sits upon the beame , and judgeth that the Talents of precious mercies which by you ( Noble Senatours ) we enjoy , are light in respect of some still wanting : neither can all you have done be pawne enough of adding them hereafter ; no nor any thing you can say though never so solemnly , and therefore cannot obtaine the Credit , much lesse the Obedience : as to have your Declaration in that kind published ; and because they despaire in a way of duty to obtaine their desires , have now borrowed the pen of Insolency out of the hands of Malignity , and as these formerly stiled you Rebels , Traitors , Schismatiques , &c. and another Party acted to a frenzie of zeale , wrote you , Antichristian , Popish , tyrannous : So these here spoken of expresse themselves of you , as Fautors of Errour , Sectaries , Anarchy , intolerable Toleration : unlesse you put life into , and take it from what they point you to . Now this sheet of paper hath humbly presented to your Honours , the Designe and Language of these in Parallel with the former , aspersing the Honour and enervating the Authority of Parliament under the Notion of accusing some particular Members ; and that done with expressions so high and dangerous , whether respect be had to the Consciences of the people over awed , or to the safety of the State at this time , especially , thereby imperilled : that hence there seemes naturally to issue ( by your Wisdomes to be considered ) the fore-mentioned DILEMMA . For though he lay it on some Members onely , and grants that the Parliament hath ordained , &c. yet whilest he addes , that all things are carried with a high hand contrary , and persons dangerous to Church and State , Sectaries , &c. countenanced , and preferred in All places and to All kind of Offices , and that the Parliament professeth one thing , yet the quite contrary in all things , in Citie and Country , seeing this could not be done but by the Authority or connivence of the Parliament , what doth he but plainly insinuate what before he labour'd covertly to hide ? That this is the Authors true meaning , you may please to reflect on his Epistle before the first part of his Gangraena to both Houses of the Parliament ; particularly , in the fift page , where what he here chargeth upon particular Members , he there layes upon both Houses , as in these words ; You have most Noble Senatours done worthily against Papists , Prelates , scandalous Ministers , Images , Altars , Crucifixes , Ceremonies , &c. But what have you done against other kinds of growing evills , Heresie , Schisme , disorder , Seekers , Anabaptists , Antinomians , Brownists , Libertines , and other Sects ? in the seventh page thus . Now Right Honourable , though you have made Ordinances against Anabaptists , Brownists , other Sects , &c. and upon complaint have troubled some Sectaries , &c. yet notwithstanding there is a strange and unheard of bearing with them , as I beleeve all things considered never was the like under any Orthodox , Christian Magistrate and State ; p. 9. Yet I doe not say your Honours have done these things , for there are matters of this nature you heare not of : and upon complaints that have come immediately to your Houses , there hath been some redresse ; yet such things are done by Committees , or persons under your power and Government , and no effectuall wayes taken to prevent , discover or remedy these things . Now I humbly submit to your deep Judgement , whether God account not men guilty of that which is committed by others under them . [ Nay to take off all scruple touching his meaning , his next words fasten the charge upon your selves ] as also whether it will not be interpreted by men , that there is certainly great countenance and favour above , or else persons below durst not doe as they doe . So page 10. Reformed Churches abroad say , why may not the King as lawfully tolerate Papists one false Religion , as the Parliament suffer all Sects to grow ? And lastly , page 11. Know God is a righteous God , and will require it at your hands , visit and be avenged for these things . Let no man flatter you with your great prosperity and successe , &c. where the very charge and threatning that he denounces in his second part against some particular Members , is charged upon both Houses joyntly . And why now he should endeavour to cast that odium upon particular Members which he before charged upon the whole , ( though this also fall upon the whole ) the Reason may be to make the Designe at once both more dangerous and more feeble ; for whil'st it was in generall the reverence of so great a Court might justly awe the People , whereas now some particulars being singled out , he might with more colour and possibility excite , and stir up the people to appeare against them . Now for this to be done not by any considerable number of men by way of humble Petition , upon indispensable necessity , but by a private person , and that not in a Petition first presented unto you , that your Wisdomes might have judged whether it were fit for publike view , but in a Book written purposely for the branding of Sectaries , Hereticks , and the worst of men ; and that without sufficient proofe in a thing of so high a nature . There seems necessarily to arise from hence the double evill expressed in the latter member of the Argument , viz. an unlawfull breach of Parliamentary Priviledge ; and a most perilous Introduction to the ruine of the Parliament it selfe by raising the people to sedition against it . For as the King upon the like distinction of some Members from the rest , demanded six of your Honourable Members to Justice , as a Prologue to the Tragedy . If now the People should by such a pestilent Booke , be Alarm'd on groundlesse misprisions to declare against certaine of your Members as insufferable in their practises ; though under notion of Petitioning against them , it may be doubted whether afterward first six , and then sixteen , and after that sixty shall not be demanded , yet with pretence held out before the people of all honour and obedience to the Parliament . The Lord , whose work you doe , teach your understandings , comfort your hearts , strengthen your hands , and cover your Heads in this day of Battaile . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A83525-e1920 The proofe of the result of the Dilemma from the Premises .