A PARALLEL Between the PROCEED of this present KING And this present PARLIAMENT.  Quicquid delirant Reges, plectuntur Achivi. 
LONDON: Printed in the year, MDCXLVIII.   

To the CITY.  
GOD was pleased to make you glorious instruments of our liberty in the last troubles; the Cavaliers account it your shame good men your glory: They for this cause hate you, and seek to divide you; These care for you, and endeavour to unite you: They endeavour to draw you to themselves, not that they love you, but that they may make good their aims by weakening you: These endeavour to set you upright for no other ends but your own safety, as knowing how dangerous your Auulsion were from the Common-weal. They can never love you, remembering how their Cause hath suffered by you: These will ever cleave to you be yourselves never so unwilling, as knowing how advantageous to the public you have been and may be. The way to continue you glorious, is to continue your old interests, and not seeking new ones, which will ever lead you into new precipices: If you mean to enjoy the fruits of your hazards and expenses, stick to your former Cause, and become not rennagadoes to your noble professions and adventures. If you do, I do not now admonish, but prophesy, your faces will be covered with shame, and your mouths filled with gravel, and those means which carnal wisdom may suggest to you, as the fittest for your security, will in despite of your policy, prove the unhappy and fatal causes of your devastation: It grieves me to think how forward you are in these forbidden paths: ye harbour Snakes in your bosoms; an especial antidote that may hinder the poison to come at your heart is more than necessary: God hath hindered many of your motions; if you go on, there may one be connived at, and then take heed, lest you gather the judgements of other Countries (as you have their people already,) contracted into your bosoms.  
Ye have yet wise Governors among you, follow them, and be advised by them; remember how like fathers they were to you when you last stirred at Guildhall; remember their safety is yours, they cannot undo you and preserve themselves: Hate all those murmurers that distil poison in your ears, and provoke you to discontent; yourselves may hereafter confess that this advice was faithful. Grudge not at the Army, though they may be a little burdensome: That handful of men (know it) stands between you and oppression; had that bank been pulled down, those waters which have lately overflowed some pieces of our Land, had broke in upon you, and overborne you.  
This address proceeds from my well-wishes; if prejudice will suffer you to peruse it, you, and the whole Kingdom (to whom it will not be unseasonable) may draw from it some useful conclusions, the God of union prosper it unto you, and continue you firm to your first love, lest you slide into a shameful and miserable Apostasy, which ever doubles the crime in a Malefactor. Adieu.   

A PARALLEL between the Proceed of this present KING and PARLIAMENT.  
§. I. AMong the many causes which have cherished and heightened our late and present distempers, there is none have been more powerful than the audacious liberty, and careless permission of printed Pamphlets, which seeming inconsiderable, have better familiarity with the vulgar, and being fraught with reasons fit for their capacity, do not only confirm those malignant whom they find so; but by their tart aspersions laid on the best Persons, and their bold misinterpretations put upon the sincerest actions, corrupt and poison many times the best and purest integrities; while they of the adverse Party laugh in their sleeves to see so many good fames sullied, and so little opposition to be made against them.  
§. II. Nor hath the Parliament been wanting to take notice at several times of this inconvenience; witness their many Votes and Orders, and appointing of Committees to this purpose, which as yet have effected nothing: For which, some have given these reasons: First, That no particular person of sufficient abilities, armed with sufficient authority, and encouraged by a competent Salary, hath been deputed to this employment; but the business hanging on many shoulders, hath through carelessness of the Superiors, the treachery and cunning of the Underlings (who are known to receive fees from the Hawkers and Printers for their connivance) fallen to the ground. Another cause is given, That the Mercuries and Hawkers (so they call the men and women that carry these papers up and down) are grown into a kind of a Corporation, and finding the sweet of it, will not be deterred by these empty threats of Bedlam and Bridewell, for needy people are in a manner lawless. A third cause is assigned, which indeed is the nearest from the truth, That a wrong course is taken to endeavour to suppress Libels in the hands of these people, when they ought to be originally suppressed at the Presses; which till it be done, they take but the same course, as if a Physician should endeavour to remove an internal fixed Disease, by the cutting off of some outward member.  
§. III. But the troth is this, and which till it be remedied, all attempts in this kind will be vain: the permission of Bibles printed beyond Sea, and some others of the most saleable Books to be commonly vended, hath so discouraged the mystery of Printing here, that many Printers are necessitated to undertake of this nature, though never so hazardous, so they bring them in some little profit: and their Brethren knowing not how soon the case may be their own, out of interest dissemble it. This once remedied, there would not a Pamphlet peep out, but it would be tracked to its first rise, and discovered: And I believe, this wholesome policy put in execution, would of itself prove effectual, without that tyrannical passport of an Imprimatur; first spawned by the Inquisition, fostered by the Bishops and their Trencher-chaplains, and at last catcht by the turbulent Presbyterians.  
§. FOUR I must add, as a branch of this cause, that although Printing be decayed, Printers are increased, whereas the Presses were before of a set number, which must needs infer, there is danger in the multitude of them; whereas if they were limited as I said before, there might scarce be a Ballad done, but it would be accounted for, and the State might be satisfied, if it were injured by a piece, without need, to curb it by a Licence; which commonly rather defaces good pieces (according to the humour of the Licenser) than expunges bad ones. We shall not at this time insist any thing upon these excellent advantages, and horrible inconveniences, which may proceed from the good or bad managing of Printing, the wisdom of any State, though never so weak will find it out. But to the purpose, if this be beside it.  
§. V Among the many Pamphlets that have infected our Common-weal, two, in respect of their continuance and audacious impudence, have not been of the least note, Pragmaticus and Elencticus; the former for a watery and slight kind of bitterness, seasoned for the most, with profaned sentences of holy writ, whose abuse is all the ingenuity it can claim: The other (which occasioned this present task) by a malicious ribaldry, and desperate reviling of what persons it pleased, and upon what grounds he cared not, which being also followed with a frontless assertion of whatsoever might advance the cause he undertook, hath made itself the companion of its friends, to see what a stout and daring champion they had got, and the entertainment of many of his enemies, to see how unjustly and frowardly he struck at them.  
§. VI With these degrees hath this sheet of paper, in despite of the obscurity of its birth and Author, made itself the censor of most of the actions and passages of the Kingdom; insomuch, that having in late weeks foully fallen on my Lord of Warwick, my Lord Wharton, Master Speaker, Master Solicitor, Master Corbet, Master Bradshaw, Master Hall, Master Lily, with others of less note and quality; it struck in it its thirtieth sheet at the Parliament itself, and with a rascally comparison, endeavoured to make all the bitterness that could be emptied against them, to serve as a foil to set of the King, whom it doth rather injure, by how much he lays to his charge those virtues, which either are not found, or are wanting in him, and paints him with those colours, which any body that is not biased, may see are adulterate, and belong not to him; so that on the one side, his dispraises being scurrilously libellous, and not to be believed, his encomiums on the other side are merely petitionary, and not to be granted by any one that hath the least notice of the actions and carriage of this King.  
§. VI But because a general Answer is not enough to satisfy particular instances, we will run over the Particulars, and see by what truth, nay discretion, they can be made good: yet must we profess to retain all reverence to the King's person, whom we do not in the least level at, further than what may conduce to clear the understanding of this present comparison.  
§. VII. We shall only premise, that there is a great difference between the carriage of a Government a long time settled, and rooted in the opinions of the people, and one that is but new, and arises from a change: for men's expectations being in the later case raised, and not meeting perhaps with equal satisfaction, presently turn into disaffection, whereas in a settled government, men's thoughts are at a stand; and though they meet with some inconveniences, they are rather willing to suffer them, then run the hazard of an insurrection. To add, that a Government of some standing, hath commonly observed and remedied those inconveniences, which a State of a lesser standing cannot, as either being employed in other affairs, or else for the present not willing to note them: Withal in the former case, the Revenue is settled and certain, which is not so in the later, although there be much the more occasion, which may cause some unusual levies, yet without the imputation of tyranny.  
§. IX. So that were it true what the Pamphleteer says, that the people were weary of the oppression and slavery, which (he says) they now groan under; it might be rather their own inconsideracies then the misgovernment of this Parliament, whom yet (as being but men, and walking in slippery times) I suppose no man is bound to justify in every particular: yet for setting up any arbitrary or tyrannical Government, the best of them would as much loath the thought of it, as the worst would fear to attempt it.  
§. X. But how do they oppose a gracious, etc. King? when all their endeavours have hitherto been to draw him from those Counselors, which by the confession of his own party, have been too prevalent with him: and had we any leisure to make long reflections on the late war, it were no difficulty to demonstrate, that the stubbornness and averseness of Him and his Party, drew it out to that length, though the Pamphlet charges the People, that they embrace an unnatural and bloody War.  
§. XI. The people are also charged to abandon all Order Ecclesiastical, as if taking away of Bishops, whose gross enormities became the outcry of the whole Nation, reduced us into an Anarchy, or the taking away of superstitious Ceremonies (not only burdensome to tender consciences) innovated against Law, brought profaneness upon us, and shook the frame of all divine Worship: And whereas he says, that no government can suit with this Nation but Monarchy: 'Tis granted, only we desire it may not be Muscovitish or Turkish; and we now come to the Parallel.  
§. XII. We know (and the deadliest enemies he hath have acknowledged) that his Majesty conformeth himself unto the laws of Nature, which these Tyrants (at their pleasure) trample on. This fellow either not understood or explained not what he meant in that place by the laws of Nature; nor can we, till we be as wise as he, make an answer to it: only if he understand it as it is in the Schools, 'tis but a poor acknowledgement, every King having other Laws whereby to govern. But why did he not instance wherein the Tyrants (as he calls them) did trample on them; for by general criminations it is easy to overthrow the best integrity.  
§. XIII. The King respects Religion, Justice and Faith, whereas they regard neither God, Faith nor Law. For the King's Religion, we refer it to that power who best knows it. For his Justice, whether all the acts of his reign fall under that note or no, may be soon enquired. For his Faith (which we must interpret to be keeping of promise) 'tis well enough known how contrary his Declarations and Letters have been one to another. For the Parliaments regarding of God, his mercies to them, so many and so continued, show them not unsincere. For their regarding of Faith, tax them if thou canst with any breach of Promise. For their regard of Law, to what end have they fought so long? but to rescue it from oppression; and how can they not regard that whereof they are the makers? but indeed there is a height of malice in this expression; and there can be no more said against the Devil himself.  
§. XIIII. The King referreth all his actions to the good of the Commonwealth, and safety of his Subjects; whereas the other respect nothing more than their own particular profits, pleasure and revenge. If the King referred all his actions, etc. he were an Angel and no Man: But this is a mere hyperbolical common place of flattery. For the other, etc. That that there may be such aims among some particulars, we wish we could deny; but for the general, 'tis an imputation that a deadly enemy would hardly charge them withal.  
§. XV. The King always endeavoured to enrich his Subjects; whereas these Tyrants seek after nothing more, then by impoverishing of them, to increase their own wealth. If the King had such desires to enrich his Subjects, how came those unknown Taxes of Ship-money, Knighthood, Loan-money, etc. Not to note a kind of covetousness in the King, unsuitable to so great a Prince; though to charge the Parliament with such impoverishment, Prejudice itself can hardly do it, although in particular persons, it were to be wished there were occasion of more just vindication.  
§. XVI. The King accounteth his own Goods to be the Goods of his people; they reckon not only their goods, but even their bodies and their lives also their own. This is mere presumption, as a particular insistance on both parties would clear, in reflecting only on the intentions of either Party.  
§. XVII. The King severely revenged the public injuries done against the Kingdom, and easily pardon the wrongs done to himself; these men most cruelly revenge their own, and pardon what is done against others. For the King, the Isle of Rhee business, with that of Rochel, is not forgotten: and how sensible he is of particular injuries, they that know his disposition can best tell: nay, it is affirmed by some of his own Party, that the letting fall of some sharp speeches hath caused not a few to appear against him (as for example, he told Pembroke he was too long by the head, etc.) whereas all the Kingdom may know how merciful the Parliament have been to them whom they overcome; and let any indifferent man judge, whether such quarter would have been had, had the other side prevailed; nay, whether they have not suffered by their too much slackness.  
§. XVIII. The King willingly would forgive the offences of other men, but is of his own failings a severe Judge; whereas these bloody villains sharply revenge even the least offences of others, but unto themselves are most favourable. This is in effect what was spoken of in the last Paragraph; yet has not the King been noted as any such severe Judge of himself, but rather of a stiff nature, why complies he not else with the Parliament, while they by their several contrary Votes, show they are unwilling to stand to that long, which they suppose not so convenient. And for their hatred of Pamphlets (as Elencticus complains) let him speak if ever he knew one State in love with them: The truth is, they connive at them too much.  
§. XIX. The King always endeavoured to maintain his Subjects in Peace and unity; whereas they strive still to set them at odds, and by that means to ruin one another, and with the confiscation of their Land, Goods, every themselves. If it be so, why did the King desert the Parliament, and never yet return to it; and how much are they to blame when the frequent insurrections of the other Party, have set the Kingdom in a flame.  
§. XX. The King advanced to the highest degree of honour the best and most virtuous men; but these men promote the greatest thiefs and villains, whom they use as sponges to suck the wealth of the people. If the King advanced none but the best men, how came such a contamination of the Nobility? the King advanced many who since have adhered to the Commonwealth; either this assertion is false, or the men are good still: did all at Court enter the Temple of Honour through that of Virtue? you that remember those times, call back your thoughts a little, etc. Are they all bad the Parliament employs? or are they employed to that purpose? it cannot be denied, but that some have been faithful to their Charges, and must pass to Posterity, with the character of Honesty.  
§. XXI. The King frankly bestowed the greatest and most gainful Offices of the State upon men of best deserts, who free from bribery and corruption, might defend the people from all injury and oppression; whereas these Rebels set them to sale to those that will give most for them, and by their robberies and unreasonable exactions, keep the people under. Was bribery unknown at Court (far be it from me to charge the person of the King) or were all men that were advanced seraphical? was there not several and horrid corruptions? else, why were so many impeached and discharged of their Offices the very beginning of the Parliament? But can you charge the people with setting to sale any one Office, but rather disposed them into those hands who have been most active and constant in the Cause of the Commonwealth, which now groans as little under injustice as ever it did, say the adversary what he will.  
§. XXII. The King was ever ready to expose his Life to any hazard for the good of his Subjects; they durst never stir their Arses in their defence, but require it a duty to perish for them in their unjust quarrels. Instance us one eminent hazard and adventure of the King; the most of them (we know) had Military Commands and Offices, which they valiantly and faithfully executed from the beginning of the War, till a particular Ordinance proclaimed them, and ordered their services to Westminster.  
§. XXIII. The King (notwithstanding all the malice and venom of scandalous and detracting tongues & pens) is still beloved & honoured of his Subjects; these envious tyrants hate them all, and are reciprocally of them hated. There is no body that as a Subject does not honour and love the King, yea hate them that any way unjustly asperse him; but if a malignant humour prevail in the Kingdom against the two Houses, that may be the fault of the people themselves, and not theirs; for if they hated the people, they had never done so much as they have done, and suffered for them.  
§. XXIIII. The King in time of War had no other recourse but to his own loyal Subjects; when they have no other War then against them. How came it then that he had such assistances came over from Holland, and other places, to fight against his Subjects? why hath there been such solicitations of foreign Princes? and why was there a peace made in Ireland and Rebels brought over? while the Parliament held off their hands from any such engagements, and were desirous (if it had been possible) not to have made use of the assistance of their Brethren of Scotland, whose coming in notwithstanding brought those undue aspersions upon them, of calling in foreign Force: but this was without reason as I have made it good in sundry other places; which whoso pleaseth may read.  
§. XXV. The King had neither Garrison nor Guards but those of his own household; whereas they dare not show their brazen faces without Garrisons and Guards, and Armies of the most dissolute and desperate Villains that the whole Kingdom affords, to protect them in their tyranny, and to keep the poor Subject in a continual slavery. What Garrisons or Army were needful for the King in time of peace, when all the Kingdom was under his only beck, and all the Militia of the Kingdom in hands of his own? when the Parliament were in a manner compelled to take in what they had by the dint of the sword; which if they should lay down (there being so many drawn every day about them) were mere folly and stupidity in them: but that which galls them most, is the keeping up of the Army, the next means under God of their safety, they being such as had before got them the best Victories, yes, more than all their other Armies besides, that so suddenly to disperse them in the midst of so much need they could not have been excused from a breach of trust, which lies, upon them from the Kingdom. But how desperate and dissolute villains are the Army? hath it not been confessed of them, that they kept as good order and civility as any have been known in the last Wars? what outrages can they be taxed with at Whitehall? or whether doth the Country man cry more out of them then the Cavalierish Army? but if you take desperate in such a sense, as to undergo any hazard or any danger, when they are directed by their Commanders, 'tis granted they are desperate, and that they have adventured as much as could be required from men and Soldiers; and these sufferings hath been requited with as many Victories.  
§. XXVI. The King lives securely in all quiet and tranquillity of mind, for they confess weekly in their ordinary Pamphlets, he is merry and pleasant (notwithstanding his close imprisonment, and most barbarous usage;) whilst these traitors are possessed and troubled with careful and contrary thoughts, still languishing in a perpetual horror and fear, and gnawed to pieces by the worm of their bad consciences. If the King be in that quiet and tranquillity, he may enjoy it, there is none envies it to him: But if you have no greater authority for it then printed Pamphlets, we will not so easily believe it; there is none will scripturize them no more than they will the ungodly Pamphlets of your Party: yet let us know, what barbarous usage is that he is under, or wherein he is unchristianly dealt with; Haply he may be a little restrained, but that is only to prevent the access of bad Counsel to him, and other inconveniences that might dog such a freedom: But wherein hath the Parliament dealt unmercifully with him, when their care and provision for him is so well known? And how is the Parliament gnawed with fear and horror of a bad conscience? Verily for confutation of this, 'tis enough to say it came from Elencticus; for what other pen could inhumanely charge such desperation and horror of conscience on so many select and worthy Patriots:  
§. XXVII. The King is assured of a most blessed and eternal life in heaven; the other still expecting when they shall be swallowed up among the damned in hell. There are not a few of the King's Party that deny any particular assurance can be had of salvation, whether himself do or no, 'tis better known to him then Elencticus, who it seems hath been his Confessor, he is so well acquainted with him. But by what inspiration had he it, that the Parliament expected to be all damned; for first, many are damned whose consciences are so seared, that they cannot be sensible of it; next, them that are terrified with damnation, and do not endeavour to lay hold on God's mercy in Jesus Christ, offend in that the most of all; so did Cain, when he said, his sin would not be forgiven; thirdly, are there any such horrible sins to answer for? and fourthly, doth this impudent wretch know, but, if they were as base devils as ever were incarnate, God might give them a time of mercy before they die; I am ashamed to insist on such basenesses of a Christian pen.  
§. XXVIII. The King hath the immortal God Author of all his actions; they have the Devil for precedent in all their consultations and counsels. If God be so the author of his actions, he would have showed some more visible mercies upon him, and will do, if the others be so diabolical, as the Libel says they are; for none must expect to prosper but the friends and servants of God.  
§. XXIX And because the misconceit of the Parliaments do, and the small satisfaction is to be had among the generality about the true ends and use of Government, we shall for thy better satisfaction (O Christian Reader) set down our thoughts concerning Government, and communicate them unto thee; in which Discourse (setting aside the impertinencies commonly used in Controversies) we shall observe this method: first, we shall consider the ends of Government: secondly, the several Governments themselves: thirdly, the right that people have to their Government: fourthly, how far we can perceive by Scripture light, that God entrusts every people with the right of Government: lastly, we shall say somewhat about change of Government, and upon what means and grounds it is to be admitted. And in this performance we shall neither be negligent nor slack, if we shall perceive this weak Discourse to be grateful unto thee; and the eternal Wisdom be pleased to make our Labours as successful as they are honest.  
The End