TO THE HIGH COURT OF PARLIAMENT.  
A DILEMMA, FROM A PARALLEL.  
HUMBLY PRESENTED.  2 TIM. 3. 1. 
Perilous times shall come; for men shall be, etc.  
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.  (2d 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 settling of Religion and Government by civil sanction, would often and sadly meditate upon this Scripture, and be wise now (whilst there's time) thus to serve the Lord, lest suddenly, when they least think 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 Ecclesiastical Stories, what hath befallen Princes for not serving the Lord in fear, and kissing his Son; and they see before their eyes the many evils that hath befallen the King, and the great straits to which he hath been reduced for favouring too much the Popish, and Prelatical party against the mind and humble desires of both his Kingdoms: 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 Kingdoms, and that the Kingdoms will not see and desire to understand how it comes about? and by whose means it is, that we having taken a Covenant for uniformity in Doctrine, Government, etc. and for extirpating of Heresy, Schism, 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 own 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 Presbyterial Government, and for all sorts of Sectaries? Yea, such persons are countenanced, preferred in all places, and to all kinds of Offices and employments (which makes many turn Independents,) and the most zealous cordial men against Sectaries are displaced, or discountenanced, or obstructed, etc. These things do seem 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 City and Country. In the worst times, when the King was most misled by the Counsels of Prelates and evil 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 we hear 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 back them, and stand by them; and the people inquire after, and speak who they be, and questionless will represent these things as unsufferable, and most dishonourable to the Parliament, and they will humbly desire these things may be remedied by the power and wisdom of the Parliament: and therefore O that all such would be wise in time, be wise now, desert the Sectaries, further the work so much the more as before they have hindered it, for there is an emphasis and weight in that Adverb now, signifying they should do it speedily, because the same opportunity will not be always given, and the Psalmist hints they may yet do it profitably, if they make haste; 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 find by sad experience: when his wrath is kindled but a little, Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.   

In the King's Declaration concerning the Militia.  
WE have been told that we must not be jealous of our great Counsel of both Houses of Parliament. We are not,— but of some turbulent, seditious, and ambitious natures, which (being not so clearly 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 witness, all our complaints and jealousies, which have never been causeless, nor of our Houses of Parliament: (but of some few Schismatical, Factious, and Ambitious Spirits,—  
In the Kings Answ: to the 19 Propositions.  
We would not be understood, that we intent to fix this Design upon both or either Houses of Parliament, we utterly profess against it,— But we do believe, & accordingly profess to all the world, that the malignity of this Design— hath proceeded from the subtle informations, mischievous practices, and evil Counsels of ambitious turbulent Spirits, disaffected to God's 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, only perhaps because they follow their Conscience, and preserve the established Laws, 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 seem to judge to be for the public good, and as are agreeable to that Utopia of Religion and Government, into which they endeavour to transform this Kingdom.  
In the Kings Declare: of Aug. 2. 1642.  
We well know the combination entered into by several persons for an alteration in the government of the Church— and observed that those men had greatest interest, and power of persuading of both Houses, who had entered into such Combination, yet— we believed, even those men would either have been converted in their Consciences, by the clearness and justness 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 mischief; [Afterward] When such licence is given to Brownists, Anabaptists, Sectaries, and whilst Coachmen, Feltmakers, and such Mechanic persons are allowed and entertained to preach by those who think themselves the principal members of either House; when such barbarous outrages in Churches, and heathenish irreverence and uproars even in the time of Divine Service, and the Administration of the blessed means 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 Laws of the Land are no less than Treason, and scarce a man in reputation and credit with these Grand Reformers, who is not notoriously guilty of this, whilst those Learned, reverend, painful, and pious Preachers, who have been and are the most eminent and able assertors of Protestant Religion, are (to the unspeakable joy of the Adversaries to our Religion) disregarded and oppressed.  
In the Kings Answer to the Declare: of the Lords and Com: of the 21 of June, 1642.  
This all men are bound to believe, though they see the Protestant Religion, and the Professors thereof miserably reproached, and in danger of being destroyed by a vicious and malignant party of Brownists, Anabaptists, and other Sectaries, (the principal Ringleaders 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 Lord: and Com: of 19 of May, 1642.  
What a strange time are we in, that a few impudent malicious (to give them no worse term) men should cast such a strange mist of error 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 Declare: 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 tenderness of Conscience could not submit to some things enjoined, or commended in the Government of the Church, had in truth a desire (and had entered into a Combination to that purpose) to alter the Government both of Church and State.  
The former Declaration begins thus.  
'tis more than time now after so many injuries and indignities offered to our Royal person— to vindicate ourself 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 quarrel 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.  
We desire that the Lord Kimbolton, Mr Hollis, Mr Pim, Mr Hampden, Sir Arthur Haslerigge, Mr Stroud, Mr Martin, Sir Henry Ludlow, Alderman Pennington, and Capt. Venne, may be delivered into the hands of Justice to be tried by their Peers, according to the known Laws of the Land.  
In the Kings Answer to the Declaration of the 26 of May, 1642.  
But we doubt not all our good Subjects do now plainly discern through the mask and vizard of their Hypocrisy, what their Design is, and will no more look upon the Framers, and Contrivers of that Declaration, as upon both Houses of Parliament; (whose freedom and just Privileges we will always maintain, and in whose behalf we are as much slandered as for ourself) but so a Faction of Malignant, Schismatical, and ambitious persons, whose design is and always 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 mind to be Slaves) they are not unwilling to be Tyrants: (what is Tyranny, but to admit no rule to Govern 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 Hypocrisy against God and the public Good: (a thing horrid to apprehend) or, The Author of the Pamphlet fore-mentioned, is as guilty of the breach of Parliamentary Privilege, and sedition against the Kingdom, as the Contrivers of the King's 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 Kingdom's welfare (Right Honourable) sees he cannot keep the field against you any longer, he finds it best to recruit himself, by working his broken Swords into Pen-knives, and betake himself to his Study. He remembers how keen the Royal Style was, and how near it came to the heart of the Parliament; when He expressed greatest confidence in the Parliament, and only 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 party who would consecrate the Commonwealth to their own fury and ambition) the wisdom of Parliamen. The Honourable House of Commons in their late famous Declaration, of the 17. of April, 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 do 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 Zeal for you, and that now after you have almost brought this Kingdom (by the good hand of God upon you) to feast upon the remembrance of the forepassed gall and wormwood, and to satiate itself with the fat of security, Truth and Peace. But (as Solomon speaks) a Fool is never so troublesome as when he is filled with meat; even so now, Ingratitude hath taken the Balance into her hand, and Fancy sits upon the beam, and judgeth that the Talents of precious mercies which by you (Noble Senators) we enjoy, are light in respect of some still wanting: neither can all you have done be pawn enough of adding them hereafter; no nor any thing you can say though never so solemnly, and therefore cannot obtain the Credit, much less the Obedience: as to have your Declaration in that kind published; and because they despair in a way of duty to obtain their desires, have now borrowed the pen of Insolency out of the hands of Malignity, and as these formerly styled you Rebels, Traitors, Schismatics, etc. and another Party acted to a frenzy of zeal, wrote you, Antichristian, Popish, tyrannous: So these here spoken of express themselves of you, as Fautors of Error, Sectaries, Anarchy, intolerable Toleration: unless 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 Design 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 seems naturally to issue (by your Wisdoms to be considered) the forementioned DILEMMA.  
For though he lay it on some Members only, and grants that 
The proof of the result of the Dilemma from the Premises.  the Parliament hath ordained, etc. yet whilst he adds, that all things are carried with a high hand contrary, and persons dangerous to Church and State, Sectaries, etc. 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 City and Country, seeing this could not be done but by the Authority or connivance of the Parliament, what doth he but plainly insinuate what before he laboured covertly to hide? That this is the Author's 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 fifth page, where what he here chargeth upon particular Members, he there lays upon both Houses, as in these words; You have most Noble Senators done worthily against Papists, Prelates, scandalous Ministers, Images, Altars, Crucifixes, Ceremonies, etc. But what have you done against other kinds of growing evils, Heresy, Schism, 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, etc. and upon complaint have troubled some Sectaries, etc. yet notwithstanding there is a strange and unheard of bearing with them, as I believe all things considered never was the like under any Orthodox, Christian Magistrate and State; p. 9 Yet I do not say your Honours have done these things, for there are matters of this nature you hear not of: and upon complaints that have come immediately to your Houses, there hath been some redress; yet such things are done by Committees, or persons under your power and Government, and no effectual ways 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 yourselves] 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 do as they do. 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 success, etc. where the very charge and threatening that he denounces in his second part against some particular Members, is charged upon both Houses jointly. 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 Design at once both more dangerous and more feeble; for whilst it was in general 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 appear 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 Wisdoms might have judged whether it were fit for public view, but in a Book written purposely for the branding of Sectaries, Heretics, and the worst of men; and that without sufficient proof in a thing of so high a nature. There seems necessarily to arise from hence the double evil expressed in the latter member of the Argument, viz. an unlawful breach of Parliamentary Privilege; and a most perilous Introduction to the ruin of the Parliament itself 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 Book, be Alarmed on groundless misprisions to declare against certain of your Members as insufferable in their practices; 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 do, teach your understandings, comfort your hearts, strengthen your hands, and cover your Heads in this day of Battle.  
FINIS.