A SECTARY DISSECTED, OR, The anatomy of an Independent fly, still buzzing about City and Country.  
In a sudden, but not rash censu●●● of a scurrilous Petition, intended to be obtruded upon the Parliament by our Sectaries.  
Haec est natura multitudinis superstitione  
Vecordis ut prius vatibus quam ducibus pareat.  
— Puniantur à te ne tu pro illis puniaris.  
LONDON, Printed by T.W. for IOS: KIRTON, and are to be sold at the sign of the white Horse in Pauls Church-yard. 1647.   

To the right Honourable and supreme Authority of this Nation, the Commons in Parliament Assembled. The humble Petition of many thousands, earnestly desiring the glory of God, the freedom of the Common-wealth and the peace of all men.  
Sheweth.  
THat no Government is more just in the Constitution, then that of Parliaments, having its foundation in the free choice of the People, and as the end of all government is the safety and freed●me of the governed, even so the people of this Nation in all times have manifested most hearty affections unto Parliaments, as the most proper remedies of their grievances, yet such hath been the wicked policy of those who from time to time have endeavoured to bring this Nation into bondage, that they have an all times either by the d●suse or abuse of Parliaments, deprived the people of their hopes; for testimony whereof, the late times foregoing this Parliament will sadly witness, when 'twas not only made a crime to mention a Parliament, but either the pretended Negative voice( the most destructive to freedom) or a speedy dissolution blasted the fruit and benefit thereof, whilst the whole Land was overspread with all kind of oppression and tyranny, extending both to soul and body, and that in so rooted and settled a way, that the complaint of the people in general witness●d, that they would have given any thing in the world for one six moneths freedom of Parliament which hath been si●●● evidenced in their instant and constant readiness of assistance to this present Parliament, exceeding the Records of all former ages, and wherein God hath blessed them with their first desire●, making this Parliament most free and absolute of any Parliament that ever was, and enabling it with power sufficient to deliver the whole Nation from all kind of oppression and grievance, though of never so long continuance and to make it the most absolute and free nation in the world.  
And it is most thankfully acknowledged, that you have in order to the freedom of the people, suppressed the High-Commission, Star-Chamber, and council Table, called home the banished, delivered such as were imprisoned for matters of conscience, and brought some Delinquents to deserved punishment; that you have suppressed the Bishops and popish Lords, abolished Episcopacy, and that kind of ascetic and persecuting government, that you have taken away shipmoney, and all new illegal Patents whereby the hearts of all the well-affected were enlarged, and filled with a confident hope, that they should have seen long ere this a complete removal of all grievances, and the whole people delivered from all oppression over soul or body. But such is our misery, that after the expense of so much precious time, blood, and treasure, and the ruin of so many thousands of honest Families, in recovering our liberty. Wee still find the Nation oppressed with grievances of the same destructive nature as formerly though under other notions, and which are so much the more grievous unto us, because they are inflicted in the very time of this present Parliament under God) the hope of the oppressed; For as then all the men and women in England, were made liable to the Summons, Attachments, Sentences, and imprisonments of the Lords of the council board, so wee find by woeful experience, and the suffering of many particular persons, that the present Lords do assume and exercise the same power, then which nothing can be more repugnant and destructive to the Commons just liberty. As then the unjust power of the star-chamber was exercised in compelling men and women to answer to interrogatories tending to accuse themselves and others, so is the same now frequently practised upon divers persons, even your cordial friends, that have been, and still are punished for refusing to answer questions against themselves, and nearest relations. As then the great oppression of the High-Commission, was most evident in molesting of godly peaceable people for non-conformity, or different opinion, or practise in religion, in judging all who were contrary-minded to themselves, to bee heretics, Sectaries, schismatics, seditious, factious, enemies to the State, and the like; and under great penalties, forbidding all persons not licenced by them to preach or publish the gospel; even so now at this day, the very same, if not greater molestations are set on foot, and violently prosecuted by the instigation of a Clergy, no more infallible then the former, to the extreme discouragement & affliction of many thousands of your faithful adherents, who are not satisfied that controversies in religion can be trusted to the compulsive regulation of any, & after the Bishops were suppressed, did hope never to have seen such a power assumed by any in this Nation any more. And although all new illegal Patents are by you abolished, yet the oppressive Monopoly of Merchant adventurers, and others do still remain, to the great abridgement of the liberty of the people, and to the extreme prejudice of all such industrious people, as do depend on Clothing, or woollen manufacture, it being the staple commodity of this Kingdom and Nation, and to the great discouragement and disadvantage of all sorts of Trades-men, Seafaring-men, and hindrance of Shipping, and Navigation. Also the old tedious and chargeable way of deciding Controversies, or suits in law is continued to this day, to the extreme vexation, and utter undoing of multitudes of Families( a grievance as great and palpable as any in the world) that old and most unequal punishment of malefactors, is still continued, whereby mens lives and liberties are as liable to the laws corporal pains as much inflicted for small, as for great offences, and that most, most unjustly upon the testimony of one witness, contrary both to the law of God and common equity, a grievance very great) but little regarded; And also Tithes and other enforced maintenance are still continued, though there be no ground for either under the Gospel, and though the same have occasioned multitudes of suits, quarrels and debates both in former and latter times. In like manner multitudes of people, poor distressed prisoners for debt, lie still unregarded, in a most miserable and woeful condition throughout the Land, to the great reproach of this Nation; Likewise Prison-keepers or jailers are as presumptuous as ever they were both in receiving and detaining of prisoners, illegally committed, as cruel and inhuman to all, especially to such as are well-affected, as oppressive and extorting in their Fees, and are attended with under Officers of such vile and unchristian demeanour, as is most abominable; Also thousands of men and women are permitted to live in beggary and wickedness all their life long, and to breed their children to the same idle and vicious course of life, and no effectual means used to reclaim either, or to reduce them to any virtue or industry.  
And last as those who found themselves aggrieved formerly at the burdens and oppressions of those times, that did not conform to the Church government then established, refused to pay shipmoney, or yield obedience to unjust Patents, were reviled and reproached with Nick-names of Puritans, heretics, schismatics, Sectaries, or were termed factions or seditious, men of turbulent spirits, despisers of government, and disturbers of the public peace; even so it is at this day, in all respects with those, that show any sensibility of the fore-recited grievances, or move in any manner or measure, for remedy thereof, all the reproaches, evils, and mischiefs that can be devised, are thought too few, or too little to be laid upon them, as roundheads, Sectaries, independents, heretics, schismatics, factious, seditious, Rebellious, disturbers of the public peace: destroyers of all civill relations, and subordinations, yea, and beyond what was formerly, non-conformity is now judged a sufficient cause to disable any person( though of known fidelity) from bearing any offices of trust in the Common-wealth, whiles Neuters, malignant and disaffected, are admitted and countenanced; and though it be not now made a crime to mention a Parliament, yet it is little less to mention the supreme power of this Honourable House, so that in all these respects this Nation remaines, in a very sad and disconsolate condition, and the more, because it is that with us after so long a Session of so powerful, and so free a Parliament, and hath been so made and maintained by the abundant love, and liberal effusion of the blood of the people, and therefore knowing no danger nor thraldom, like unto our being left in this so sad a condition by the Parliament, and observing that you are now drawing the great and weighty affairs of this Nation to some conclusion, and fearing that ere long you may be obstructed, by something equally evil to a Negative votes, and that you may be induced to lay by your strength, which under God hath hitherto made you powerful to all good works, whilst we have yet time to hope, and you power to help, and lest by our silence we might be guilty of that ruin and slavery, which without your speedy help, is like to fall upon us, yourselves and the whole Nation, we have presumed to spread our cause thus plainly, and largely before you, and do most earnestly entreat that you will stir up your affections to a zealous love, and tender regard of the people, who have chosen and trusted you, that you will seriously consider that the end of your trust was freedom, and deliverance from all kind of grievances and oppressions.  
1 And that therefore in the first place you will be exceeding careful to preserve your just Authority from all prejudices of a Negative voice in any person or persons whatsoever, which may disable you, from making that happy return unto the people which they justly expect, and that you will not be ind●ced to lay by your strength till you have satisfied your understandings in the undoubted security of yourselves, and of those who have voluntarily, and faithfully adhered to you in all your extremities, and until you have secured and settled the Common-wealth in settled peace, and true freedom, which is the end of the primitive institution of all government.  
2 Secondly, that you will take off all sentences, fines, and imprisonments imposed on Commoners by any whomsoever, without due course of Law, or judgement of their equals, and to give due reparations to all those who have been so injuriously dealt withall, and for preventing the like for the time to come, that you will enact all such arbitrary proceedings, to be capital crimes.  
3 Thirdly, that you permit no authority whatsoever to compel any person or persons, to answer to any questions against themselves or nearest relations, except in cases of private interest between party and party in a legal way, and to release such as suffer by imprisonment, or otherwise, for refusing to answer to such interrogatories.  
4 Fourthly, that all Statutes, oaths, and Covenants may be repealed so far as they tend, or may be construed to the molestation and ensnaring of religious peaceable and well affencted people, for non-conformity or difference of opinion, or practise in religion.  
5 Fifthly, that no man for preaching or publishing his opinion in Religion, in a peaceable way, may be punished or persecuted as heretical, by Judges that are not infallible, but may be mistaken as well as other men in their judgements, lest upon pretence of suppressing errors, Sects, or schisms, the most necessary truths, and sincere professions thereof may be suppr●ssed, as upon the like pretence it hath been in all ages.  
6 Sixthly that you will for the encouragement of industrious people, dissolve that oppressive company of Merchant-Adventurers, and the like, and prevent all such others by great penalties for ever.  
7 Seventhly, that you will settle a just, speedy, plain, and unburdensom way for deciding of Controversies, and suits in Law, and reduce all laws, to the nearest agreement with Christianity, and publish them in the English tongue, and that all process and proceedings therein, may be true, and also in English, and in the most usual Character of writing, without any abreviation, that each one who can red, may the better understand their own affairs, and that the duties of all Judges, Officers, and practisers in the Law, and of all Magistrates and Officers in the Common-wealth, may be prescribed, their fees limited under strict penalties, and published in Print, to the knowledge and view of all men, by which just and equitable means, this Nation shall be for-ever freed of an oppression, more burdensome and troublesone then all the oppressions hitherto by this Parliament removed.  
8 Eighthly, that the life of no person may be taken away under the testimony of two witnesses at least, of honest conversation, and that in an equitable way you will proportion punishment to offences, so that no mans life be taken away, his body punished, nor his estate forfeited, but upon such weighty and considerable causes, as justly deserve such punishment, and that all prisoners may have a speedy trial, that they be neither starved, nor their Families ruined by long and lingering imprisonment, and that imprisonment may be used only for safe custody until time of trial, and not as a punishment for offences.  
9 Ninthly, that tithes, and all other enforced maintenances, may be for ever abolished, and nothing in place thereof imposed, but that all Ministers may be paid only by those who voluntarily choose them, and contract with them for their labours.  
10 Tenthly, that you will take some speedy and effectual course, to relieve all such prisoners for debt as are altogether unable to pay, that they may not perish in prison through the hard-heartedness of their Creditors, and that all such who have any estates, may be enforced to make payment accordingly, and not shelter themselves in prison to defraud their Creditors.  
11 Eleventhly, that none may be Prison-keepers, but such as are of approved honesty, and that they be prohibited under great penalties, to receive or detain any person or persons without lawful warrant, that their usage of Prisoners may be with gentleness and civility, their fees moderate and certain, and that they may give security for the good behaviour of their under officers.  
12 Twelfthly, that you will provide some powerful means to keep men, women, and children from begging and wickedness, that this Nation may be no longer a shane to Christianity therein.  
13 Thirteenthly, that you will restrain and discountenance the malice, and impudence of impious persons in their reviling, and reproaching the well-affected with the ignominious titles of roundheads, factious, seditious, and the like, whereby your real friends have been a longtime, and still are exceedingly wronged, discouraged, and made obnoxious to rude and profane people, and that you will not exclude any of approved fidelity, from bearing offices of trust in the Common-wealth for Non-conformity, but rather Neuters, and such as manifest disaffection or opposition to common freedom, the admission and continuation of such, being the chief cause of all our grievances. These Remedies, or what other shall seem more effectual in your grave wisdoms, we humbly pray may be speedily applied, and that in doing thereof you will be confident of the assistance of your Petitioners, and of all considerate well-minded people, to the utmost of their best abilities against all opposition whatsoever, looking upon ourselves, as more concerned now at last to make a good end, then at the first to have made a good beginning, for what shall it profit us, or what remedy can we expect, if now after so great troubles and miseries this Nation should be left by this Parliament, in so great a thraldom both of body, mind, and estate; Wee beseech you therefore, that withall your might, whilst you have time, freedom and power, so effectually to fulfil the true ends of Parliaments in delivering this Nation, from these, and all other grievances, that none may presume or dare to introduce the like for ever; And we trust the God of your good success, will manifest the sincerity of our intentions herein, and that our humble desires are such, as tend not only to our own particular, but to the general good of the Common-wealth, and proper for this honourable house to grant, without which this Nation cannot be safe or happy; And that he will bless you with true Christian fortitude, suitable to the trust and greatness of the work you have undertaken, and make the memory of this Parliament blessed to all succeeding generations.  
Shall ever be the prayer of your humble Petitioners.   

A SECTARY Dissected or the Anatomy of an Independent fly, &c.  
SIR,  
THrough your importunity, I have cast away some houres in perusal of this factious piece which I now return you with an Antidote against its poison. For how specious soever it may seem to some, as whatever pretends removal of grievances is catching, yet upon a second view, you may observe a continued vein of dangerous sophistry wrapped up in equivocal terms from the beginning to the end: so that to undeceive well meaning people it would require a more sad animadversion, then my present leisure or indeed abilities can afford you. Onely that I may not wholly frustrate your expectation. I am content to make myself a little merry with tossing of it in this sheet as men use to toss whelps in a blanket, viz. for pastime tanquam aliud agendo and as the French Man says par manner d'acquit.  
He that will hinder a Serpents entrance, must mainly take heed to the insinuations of the head, which once admitted steals in the whole body; Wherefore I will begin at the title and unravel the whole piece & in so doing I shal dissect a Sectary of whom I doubt not to evince that when their t●ngues are smoothest their minds are roughest, when they give fairest language, their intentions are foulest, fond designing with Mercury in the fable to pipe out Argus his eyes and imitate those thieves, who ro● with music.  
But withdraw the curtain now: To the right Honourable and supreme authority of this nation the Commons in Parliament assembled. The humble Petition, &c. Sheweth That no Government is more just in the Constitution then that of Parliaments join these together and spell them, you that pretend so great ●cquaintance with the constitution of an English Parliament: did you never hear of we the Lords and Commo●●, &c. If you think the constitution of Parliament just, do you think the conjunction of both houses unjust? Who are you that take upon you to legitimate one of these twins and bastardize the other? Are you ignorant how they have been born and bread together. This was the old plot, Divide & Impera. The court aim, to divide the two Houses, they knew well enough the fall of the one would be the evening of the others ruin, that the first could not be stisted, but the second would be stranged. Will you put a new scape upon an old cloak, and build upon a Malignant foundation? Sure some new light hath discovered unto these men, how to make a body subsist all of belly, for trial whereof they are whetting apace to cut of our Parliament at the wast; This is the reason why the Ordinances are styled illegal in the Warning piece because the Lords have a hand therein: The Peers are the skreene which sta●ds between Prerogative and Liberty and keeps each from scorching other: That Commissura cervicis which marries the head to the body: The mean between the extremes. A Gallery between Royalty and Property, which makes them keep their due distance: They are lenitives, which alloy Monarchy & of Mercury sublimate make it a wholesome medicine: In sum by their means we are famed & envied, for our happy mixed Government.  
And as the end of all Government is the safety and freedom of the Governed, &c. What do you quote the end of Government to the Parliament? for did they ever abridge just freedom? but what ever you talk of freedom you mean licentiousness as is evident as well by the whole tenor of this Ochlocraticall Petition, as by the report of that warning piece( but charged with murdering shot) which is but the construing book of this, as appears by its complaint of the stop of this very Petition and other seditious pamphlets in the last page.. Now what great difference is there between tyrannicall and licentious Government? Are not both Arbitrary? The one pleaseth not good men, the other displeaseth wise men: The one can easily do evil, the other can hardly do good: in that the insolent have too much sway, in this the foolish, yet is there more hope in Tyranny, for be there one or two evil Princes like droughts of immoderate rains, and river overflowing their banks, a good successor like a fit of seasonable weather may repair the others breaches and render us our own with Interest: but in an Anarchy what can be expected, but a never dying succession of confusion? There is a live●y analogy between the populacy and the Sea. Both uphold only light things, let the heavy sink, witness the horrible ingratitude to their bravest Captaines and best deserving Citizens of the Roman and Arhenian people. However the Sea may sometimes deceive the eye, with the smoothness of its glassy surface, yet we know it always liable to storms & tempests & that as inconstant as the Planet whose influence moves it, it hath suddenly wrapped itself up in furd billowe and devoured whom ever now it smiled upon: Thus the unbridled multitude when at the calmest want but their flattering orators to blow up their waves till they tumble and gather, then foam by mutual attrition then roar and rage till the mast cracks under the sails, the rudder deceives the hand of the Pilot, and anon the whole Ship of the Common-wealth split against the rocks of their inconsiderateness. Every head of this Hydra is another aeolus who makes use of the popular winds viz. their affections, to reach the haven of his private aims, and then shift for yourselves. Of this tribe seems to me the primum mobile of this Petition whom I vehemently suspect to be some Licinius or Sextius that gapes for the first fruits of a Plebeian Consulate. And to make it the most absolute and free nation of the world. I am here extremely puzzled how to tie up the end of Goevrnment and absolute liberty into one knot, neither with all my tugging can I make the ones end reach the others beginning for what need Government where every man according to their principles may be his own governor, or do they mean their Governours should be like glass eyes in a blindmans head for fashion not use? Tell us in plain terms what you mean by most absolute and free: If you mean an unrestraint in doing good, tis every true, Patriots wish that piety and virtue may be the onely ways to honour in this nation and that hereafter good men may reap some other recompense besides the conscience of their own well doings: but if your sense of absolute freedom stretch to an unlimited free-will to do what ever shall seem right in your eyes to act your own dreams where and when you please without fear of control, in contempt of authority, all which you daily practise; If this be the, Butt you shoot at, give me leave to invert your maxim, and tell you that the end of all Government is indeed the safety of the Governed, in kerbing that licentious and absolute freedom here aimed at, and in restraining that Liberum arbitrium, in conceit whereof all flesh is so prove to swell. But this is the common sin of Prince and People who caught with the same fallacy, wherewith the devil foiled our first Parents and not content with the safe freedom of knowing and doing good, are still fancying an additional perfection till they are justly left miserable free to bewail the loss of their original power, and fall from their primitive estate of freedom.  
Next follows a Catalogue of their grievances; They begin with the house of Lords( though not vouchsafed that title viz. of a house) whose just convening of Delinquents before them, they compare to the former supercilious proceedings of the council board: but how justly we shall see, by examining the argument. Some Court Lords who moved but by the wire of their masters passions did amiss; therefore no more Lords are to be trusted: Divers particular Noblemen usurped an illegal authority over their inferiors, some out of arrogance, others onely by imitation; therefore the house of peers now acting as a court of Judicature according to the known laws, is repugnant and destructive to the Commons just liberty, how does this comparrison hold.  
1. And therefore in the first place you will be exceeding careful to preserve your just authority, from all prejudices of a negative voice in any person or persons whatsoever &c. and that you will not be induced to lay by your strength, till you have satisfied your understandings, in the undoubted security of yourselves, and those who have voluntarily and faithfully adhered to you, &c. Here you tell the House of Commons in plain terms, the Lords are but ciphers, which added indeed to their figure increase the sum, but of themselves make no number, whence learnt you this Parliamentary arithmetic? Since when came an Ordinance to bee of no more force then an Order? this is to tell the Supreme authority of this Nation, that they understand not themselves, nor their privileges, when they desire, to any thing, the Lords concurrence: You'l alter your tone shortly, and tell the House of Commons too, they shall be Supreme no longer then they please you. Doth not the same spirit of wild-fire, which here breaths upon the Nobility drive equally against Lords and Commons in the Warning-piece? Where their councils are termed destructive, their Votes, votes for Norman bondage, their Ordinances illegal, where the Whole body of the City is railed against, and no other term bestowed, then Proud Malignant, illegal mayor of London, and his like brethren the Aldermen, and a few illegal common-council men. Who sees not by your insolent carriage, that your venom is against all distinction of Orders? while you may be permitted to spit your poison in secret, and to hatch young Cockatrices in your mysterious seminaries, you put on a v●zard of zeal to the House, and are sure to hoist up title enough;( enough to drown them, if they set sail therewith) but upon the least alarum against your party, they shall be no more the supreme authority of this Nation, But the vile of the House and their Confederates, a company of Traytors to God and their Country, for thus are they already styled in the Warning-piece; Nay, King, Parliament, Priest and People are there inveighed against. I wonder whence these are, who are comprehended under none of those. Shortly wee shall have some of these seditious Tribunes step up, and prefer Agra●ias leges: Is it not against the Common privileges to suffer any enclosure? Why should any Patrician possess more land then a Plebeian? hath not the one as much of Adams blood in his veins as the other? The truth is, they fear the State of Licinius, condemned by his own Law De quingentis jugeris possidendis, and therefore aim at nothing less then an equality, or extension of the Commons privileges. How pregnant is histories of examples of such as always pretended the case of the Beast, till themselves got into the saddle, and then who road harder then they? who ever tyra●nized more then these kind of people, who now wear the pleas of Liberty and Conscience thread bare, where they have enjoyed but an inch of Government? Let all Histories ancient and modern speak. Let none of my Country-men therefore he kindled by these Jack-strawes, who will in conclusion burn themselves and those who are set on fire by them. learn to know, that in a well ordered Common-wealth, there is nothing more unequal then equality; let not the hands strain to submit the head to the st●●● trampling, lest the neck of the body be thereby broken. You know what became of the divisions between Abimele●h and the men of Sichem; if you opinionatly persecute the house of A●i●●●●●●, a fire may issue thence, when you little dream thereof and consume you. Pray what got Athens by the Fines, impriso●m●nt●, banishments of their Nobility? Even as much as 〈◇〉 by their Agrarian laws and other encroachments of the Tribun●● upon the Patrician privileges, which fits of convulsion extinguished that flourishing Common-wealth. During the War between the Florentines and Millan●si, an dom. 1427. The popular faction at Florence having abated the insolence of the Grandees, by subjecting their movables, and other goods to proportionable taxes, beg●n now to swell, and not content with presentredresse of grievances, fell to ripping up old sores, and demanded satisfaction of the Nobility for all unequal levies past: Indignation whereas had occasioned( saith my Author) the conjunction of the Nobility and Gentry with the common Enemy,( as upon the l●●e occasion they had formerly called in the Duke of Athens) had not John de M●●●ci timeously stopped the flux of these peccant humours, remonstrating the folly of freting at old wounds, when they ought rather to prevent new; and if their usage had formerly been unjust they ought to thank God, who had shewed the way to make it just, and content themselves with a middle-s●ed victory; For he frequently ●●-does who over-does. 'Twas an ancient ●reanu●●, Non in om●ia ●●licta, nec in singul●s Authores inquir●re: Who ever desires a Map of our English chao●, let him turn to the valentine History, where he shall find the mutual obstinate persecutions of the factions, ever barking at the pr●s●nt government, to have strangled that Common-wealth, and introduced a Tyranny, under which they yet groan; His ego grati●ra ●●ctu alia esse scio: said 〈◇〉 vera pro gratis loqui etsi meum ingenium 〈◇〉 moveret, necessitas cogit, Vel●●● eq●idem vobis placere, Quirites, said multo m●lo vos salvos esse, &c.  
This devolving so much upon the people causeth a double evil. 1. H●nors are helped upon such as having never tasted therof, relish them the less, and have less occasion( going without them) to complain. 2 They are taken away from such, as having been accustomend thereto, will never rest till they be restored; as the Sea after a storm never leaves tumbling and tossing till his waves are leveled. Thus the injury on the one part, outweighs the benefit on the other, and for few friends, you make many enemies, who will always be more ready to hurt, then those to help you; Since men are naturally more prove to revenge of injuries, then recompensation of benefits, this seeming to import damage and loss, the other profit and pleasure.  
In the other branch of this Article, you desire the Parliament not to disband, before they have well provided for their own safety, and their adherents. All their Adherents, that I know, would be glad to see Armies disbanded, places disgarrison'd, and the poor wasted Countries in some measure eased; as soon as the Parliament shall judge it safe, whose very being induced thereunto is argument enough to their modest friends of its safety. But who induces them to divest their strength? any thing save reason? what sauciness is this to charge Supreme Authority, with so supreme weakness, as that they are apt to be induced to things against the●r own understandings? They know their greatest strength lies in the peoples hearts, and out of mere returns of love have entertained a tender care of then disburdning, as ●ar as wisdom will dictate. But who  told you they were voting down the Army? Nay you knew the contrary, by their late Votes for a new establishment under Sir Thomas Fairfax, unless you interpr●t the voting of some troops for Ireland a disbanding; however it bee, the Votes were already passed long before this bast●rd Petition was born, and which render● your impudence ine●cusable, in your magisterial demands of undoing what you knew was already done. But you love to walk in cloud●, and may you at length embrace a cloud in stead of your ambition'd J●●o, shall be my prayer: In plaint English you are loth to see this Army by sub divisions enfeebled upon whose strength you rely for support wherein you think are many props of your extravagancy: you fancy to yourselves wings o●● of their feathers, and therefore unwillingly see any qu●ll dropped; foundlings, you dream! The bulk of the Army are otherwise possessed; The sounder part begin to smell your rottenness; I know not by what misfortune, you have not so close gird your Lambskins of late, but that your F●x lenings have appeared.  
2 That you will take off all Sentences, Fines and Jmpriso●●●●● imposed ●n Commons by any whomsoever, without due course of Law or judgement of their equals and to give due reparations to all these who have been so injuriously dealt withall, and for preventing the li●● for time to come that you will enact all such arbitrary proceedings to be capital crimes. Here is a fine spun not to catch the simplo: but what greater enemy to truth then likelihood? If you understand by due, that ordinary course of law what Malignant could speak higher language, or find a fitter engine wherewith to better down what ever the Parliament hath been rearing up these five yeares? The safety of the governed, the end of government( to speak in your own dialect) hath occasioned the doing of many things above the ordinary course of law: strange diseases, unknown to Gall●● and Hippocrates, have forced our State Physitians to new ways of cure. If shane forbids you now the owning this construction, all the sense I can squeeze out of this expression, is a charge upon the Parliament for their commitment of some of your m●ti●ou● rabble, for which you you would be loth to stand to the due course of law. Dare you ●●lke of the due course of Law, which you labour to overthrow in dive●● Articles of this very Petition? The complaint were just●r, than the laws are no more duly executed upon such trouble●s of our Israel. So when you demand repar●tions, you must unfold the riddle, for verily to us poor Ig●●r●nts you speak in parables. I think you intend no● Delinq●●n●● compositions be restored, although its possible to get some of their ●●nds to your Petition you may have gratified them in this Article. For whom else hath the Parliament sinned, sentenced, or imprison●d? O, itis true, I had f●rgot ●●●s●●k●● Lilb●●rne, whose sufferings merit at least Letters of recommendation, to his name-sake, John of Leyden K. of Munster, for the office of Grand Master of his Ordnance.  
3 That you permit no authority, &c.) again, so fierce for legality? long may you be in this good humour! But I am afraid you will shake hands with it at the next turning. In the mean time let's examine whence cometh this zeal against an Oath ex Officio; is it not because they abhor the very name of duty? will you allow never a grain more to the Parliament then star-chamber? Must what this assumes for the present be unwarrantable because the other used it? sundry emergencies daily happen which escape the foresight of the most provident Lawgivers, who therefore have in every State, betrusted some with a Prerogative, whereby the supreme Magistracy is impowred to provide in cases extra legal for the Common wealths indemnity. The rule indeed usually ho●ds Nemo tenetur seipsum prodere, but if the State judge it expedient for the di●covery of any Jesuit, or jesuitical— shall not the public obtain that favour which the Law allows in case of Private interest? A clear conscience fears not the touchstone, and whoever innocent starts from the trial is therein nocent because contemptuous. Onely such owls as you, dread discovery and fly the day, therefore, whatever you may boast of your new light● they are at best but candle lights.  
4 That all stat●tes, oaths and Covenants may be repealed &c. What an ambush of Ban●iti is he●e broken out against the poor Statutes? Did not I tell you wha● would become of your pleas for legality? My Gentlemen are already skipped from the Law, to a false Gospel: but no wonder they snarl here at mens Statutes when they bark in the next at Gods Ordinances What a bitter pill is this same Covenant? These Ostriches who so easily swallow iron( they swoon at the noise of disbandig) cannot digest the Covenant: oh this lies ha●d at their heart, for why? it is a Shibboleth whereby the mutinous Ephra●ites are discovered; I commend Vulcan● ingenuity out of whose forge came the warning piece, who although he halt villainously in other matters yet tells you like an honest rogue the Covenant is Antichristian because it distinguishes the vile of the house from the faithful of the house what unparallelled malapertness is this to demand the abrogation of our laws, the nullity of our solemn vows as far forth as they may be constr●●d to their molestation? By whom shall they be construed? by you? we are like then to have pretty endless work: for you know you are not bound to believe to morrow, what you make us believe you do to day, so that should we model our laws to your present liking, before we had done you may have sprung a new opinion, or another tender-hooft Sect may arise and task us anew; May not Priests turn Independents and with equal reason Petition against the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance? But you are peaceable and well affencted: I wish you may prove so, if you have helped us hitherto we see in this Petition by what hopes you were lead, and that in the work you were well affencted only to yourselves. For suppose a compliance with all your fanatic desires, which yet is impossible, you draw so unevenly among yourselves, would not your peaceable maxims suddenly set the kingdom on fire with war, spiritual war, debates, heart-burnings, envies, strifes, contention? red the histories of your forefathers, and tremble at their examples; Who pleaded more piece then the German Anabaptists, till they got the reins of government into their hands, and then what divels incarnate ever acted such villainies? O shun their foot-steps who so desires to tread in the paths of life! Those Dutch Sectaries fi●st, to make way for their innovations, that no regard of Conscience or fidelity sworn to the Magistrate might stop their proceedings broached this doctrine that all Oaths in the time of the new Testament were unlawful, and that therefore taken, or to be taken, they were of no validity. Ours only slice them as yet, and desire their qualification: when they have obtained this, they will have something else ready to obtrude upon us; for he that thinks they will ever be content is to learn the nature of a Sectary: In the tail of this Article lies this venomous clause, That none may be disturbed for difference of opinion or practise in Religion: A worthy grievance! that every Enthusiast, should not have his allowed Teraphim! nay, they are not content to believe as they list, nor to practise what they list, unless they have Letters of Mart to take up Proselytes. All they can catch must be lawful prise, and therefore they ask.  
5. That no man for preaching or publishing his opinion in Religion in a peaceable way may be punished or persecuted as heretical by Judges that are not infallible, but may be mistaken as well as other men in their judgements, least upon pretence of suppressing errors Sects or schisms the most necessary truths and sincere professors therof may be suppressed, as upon the like pretence it hath been in all ages. Mark how the Serpe●t creeps, and every where leaves a filthy slime behind him; Hitherto they never pretended more then a toleration now they will have a patent under the broad seal for public vent of their false ways. While they only used the buckler and weapons of defence, we pitied and connived at their weakness, supposing that nothing but a certain habit of private assemblings forced upon conscientious people by prelatical tyranny, without any other obstinacy, had continnued their withdrawings from public worship: But now that they furbish the sword and whet their teeth like sharp arrows, blow the trumpet with that man of Belial, Every man to his tents O Jsrael! It is high time to rub our eyes, and watch their progress. Had they contained themselves within their first desires, and stuck to their Penates, they might still have pleaded the ease of weak brethren: But that al markets should be open to their putid errors plainly shows they never intended them other then for sale and I appeal to all understanding Christians, and such as cherish the practise of piety and power of godliness, whether this be not a strain beyond the tedder of a tender conscience! Did not the devil by these same instruments o●struct the growing reformation in Germany? They complain the Parliament and Assembly have done so little: Thanks to these Remoras? They should do less if they could hinder them. These vermin that ferr●t into by corners grawing out the bowels of religion, and eating out the power thereof, first biting at Ministry, then at Magistracy these dungwagons make us stink in the nostrils of all neighbouring Nations. But for soothe their Judges are not infallible; Very true. If you ask seeing we may possibly err, how can we be assured we do not? I ask you again seeing your eye sight may deceive you, how can you be sure you see the sun when you do see it. Perhaps you may be in a dream, and perhaps you and all the men in the World have been so, when they thought they were awake, and then only a wake, when they thought they dreamed. Because we challenge not an impossibility of erring, can we not be sure that all ought to be subject to the higher powers,( which you labour to kick off) and that all sowers of envy and strife, and contentious persons are in the wrong not to say what Saint Paul says that such shall not enter into the kingdom of God? Because the Bishops imposed the wick●●●●●s of P●rit●● and Sectary, cannot we be sure they are your true ●●●●s, and pitty it is they should be Christian names? do you think there ever was any such thing as schism or faction? if so, gave the Magistrate leave to find it out and punish it or else set up your standard and own it. What pitty tis these men are not allowed to ride on a while. What a fine Egyptian miscellany of religions would be intro●●ced▪ We should shortly have Mahomet the second appear with new revelations freshly coined in the mint of some Ulcerous brai●●s the itch of whose wit daily breaks out into some new botch or boil, for which they deserve not little a clawing. Sure they have retrieved St. thomas his gospel out of the Vatican, and would expound ●t in their Synagogues. Profecto si essent in republica magistra●●●, 〈◇〉 futurum f●●sse Ro●ae,( vel Londinis) nisi publicum consi●●●: ●●●c in ●●ille curias concionesque cum alia in esquiliit, alia in Av●●●●● fiant consilia dispersa● & dissipatam esse rempublicam? Under the notion of a new mystery crept in the Bachanalia to Rome, a Seminary of the most horrid impieties, that ever were heard of yet veiled over with such a faire show of pure devotion, that it was spread all over italy before the Senate took notice thereof, and then hardly with the death of many thousands, and banishment of more, could stifle this graecian Independency.  
do not many modern Libertines tread the same path, rending man and wife, Father and Son a sunder, breaking the nearest ban●s, and captivating simplo souls into their new mysteries which hardly three or four of their whole tribe understand, where for ought we know, they are innitiated into as arrant deeds of darkness, as those of the Bacchanalia? I am sure these and the German An●baptistick conventicles run but too parallel. Neither will thoughts of charity h●re satisfy a Master of a family, who is knowingly to rend account of all those committed to his care. But thus most necessary truths may be suppressed. Thus those errors which are necessary indeed for your building, and without the rooting whereof, your babel will tot●er, shall be suppressed, together with their insinuating Brokers, as upon the like cause it hath been in all ages. I will brand them in the forehead and leave them: They are Intruders into other mens labours, reaping where they have not sown, worthless dron●●, who can by no embl●me be livelier represented, then of Ants, that rob others barns to increase their proper store, stealers of corn for their own provisions, industrious for themselves to all others unprofitable: The true Pastor is not so, but like a Be● innoxious, in offensive, without any's prejudice, gathers his hony for others, eating as pleasant as profitable.  
Yet again They are not satisfied that Controversies in Religion can be ●●usted to the c●●pulsive regulation of any. No, that's agreed upon, you a●● pretty well resolved against satisfaction. Must nothing then be done in a St●te, till every mutineer be pleased to be satisfied, no law pass till every cobbler be first made to comprehend the reasons which urged the enacting? what if his brains be ●oo swimming, and will no● admit of impression? What if the Tinker tell us the Tavern is his mo●●ing house, where he first draws the barrel dry, then sets himself a●●oach, and inspired by the spirit of win●, spi●s out his froth( miscalled preaching) in the same vessel? Truly sirs, you must come off your stilts, and have this principle beat into you; That not the Magistrate ought to render you reason, much less gospel, for all his ordinances; but unless you can dismount them with demonstrative arguments, not simplo cavillations, out of Gods word, Gods word commands you to submit.  
Note. Two sorts of people offend in point of Religion, some have a depraved notion of God, and his worship, but confined to themselves; and these deserve a teacher, rather then a tortures, and to be deal withall in the spirit of meekness. Others are not only Er●●●●● but Turbones, stirr●rs as well as errors, and have suck the same maline from their errors, as is said to be concomita●● of the plague, viz. an it●h of spreading their leprosy. Now if it be felony to intrude into company with a Plague sort, what punishment deserve these s●●●● inf●cto●s? Since the Jews for their malicious artifier in sowing the P●●tilence, were justly banished many Countries, what shall be done to these, who by their Emissaries scatter their poison in all places? Either confine them to the pesthouse, or let them not walk without a white wand some distinguishing mark whereby they may be known and shunned. 'Twas a a Heathens speech, Sen. de Ben l. 3. cap. 6. Vi●l●●●● religi●num aliubi atque aliubi diversa p●●na est, said ubique aliqua; Better one perish then unity. Can an injury be done to God, and not us? Therefore Clemency is here cruelty: for certainly if the laws are binding only to moral duties, and loose to Christian, the Magistr●te to us bears the Sword in vain.  
6 The Remonstrative part winds up the sixth grievance in these terms: The oppressive Monopoly of Merchant-Adventurers, and others do still remain, to the great abridgement of the Liberty of the People, and to the extreme prejudice of all such industrious people, a● do depend on Clothing, or Woollen manufacture, it being the staple Co●●●●●ty of this kingdom, and to the great discouragement of all Trad●s●●●, Seaf●ring-men, and hindrance of Shipping and Navigation. Grant all this to be true, yet you must give us leave to doubt of your ho●●st meaning; for he that useth by-ways, is justly mistrusted when goody keeps the road. The ingenuous are to be construed by their natures, the crafty, by their ends: The plain hearted seldom suppress their inclinations; The cunning man looks one way, rows another, and while he holds up artificial hands, with his natural under his cloak, cuts your purse. Here 'tis called a Monopoly, in the sixth Article a Company, so that when they cry down this Company and others, till they explain, we may fear they strike obliquely at all the London Companies, at least of Merchants. And indeed this is but consonant to their doctrine, which urges an universal Community, and esteems every enclosure a Monopoly. But that, part hereof is false, and all the rest mistimed in the motion; The western Gentlemen will b●are me witness, who in the House have no small sway, and will for their own Interest have a special eye to Clothing, the chief riches of their country, the West being the staple of this staple commodity.  
7 In the Preface I find these motives to your seventh Article. Also the old, tedious, and chargeable way of deciding sa●es in Law is continued to the undoing of multitudes of Families. The more undone, the better for you, for the poorest are a p●est to embrace your doctrine of Community besides, whence comes this care of us, since all out of your Church are Heathens in your account? No wonder, if your new worships love not to walk in any old way: But wiser men then you, who ever you are, did not use in old ways to stumble at every ston, nor to cast off old customs, till old customs were ready to cast off them, and if any law grew burdensome, they let it fall through disuse, and antiquated rather then innovated; Physitians will tell you it is unsafe to disturb an evil settled humour, and when an infirmity hath kept possession twenty, thirty, forty yeares, 'twere madness to try experiments upon an aged body. Many Mountebanks, indeed by boasting their new receipts, as you do, often find some impatient fool or other, who had rather die quickly, then live in a little pain, and weighs not the hazard, in respect of the dispatch. But we poor mortals are content to think the old way the safest, till your new lights discover a better, for a Tinker will tell you, 'tis easier to find holes then mend them. again, you shoot beyond the moon, when you style this the most palpable and greatest grievance in the world; For who so knows any thing in foreign affairs, knows there is never a kingdom in the Christian world, where the course of law is more regular less tedious, and consequently less chargeable, although indeed, their Fees be lesser, then in England; Nay therefore is the foreign way more tedious, because less chargeable, therefore in demanding a more speedy, plain, unburdensome way of deciding controversies, and the publication of our laws in English, you do like the sons of Zebedee, and ask you know not what. Sure I am in France and other parts, where the Fees are moderate, and the laws in their own language, there are a hundred Families to our one, utterly ruined by suits which continue from Father to son, even to the third and fourth generation▪ for where it costs but twelve pence a time, every one will run to the physician, and where every worm eaten cankered fellow can have his Advocate for his half crown, the least Punctilio must bee pleaded, and the smallest difference turn to a process. There is another reason of their mischief: for where the Law is not locked up, as it were in a strange character, as with us, but the way easy, and the door open for all comers; Every Peazants son leaps to the Bar, till Lawyers swarm like Locusts, as in France, whereas their principal study most be in each Village to sow and foment divisions, for fear of starving? Do not we frequently see fellows otherwise quarrelsom● eno●gh, & mutually incensed commit their differences to the arbitrement of neighbours, merely for fear of charges? And if yet some peevish people will never be well till they have paid for it, how outrageous would they be, when they might disquiet others with less detriment to themselves? for my part I cannot but esteem it wisely done of our State to fix some difficulties upon the study of the Common Law, which were they all removed we should soon have all England full of brawls because full of leaders even as now the facility of going to Law tempts many near to London and Westminster to their utter undoing who had they lived in Wales or Lancashire would never have dreamed thereof. Well, but is this all? are they content to accuse our laws of injustice: no they further require that they be reduced to the nearest agreement with christianity & that all process and proceedings therein may be true that so this nation may be freed of an oppression more burdensome and troublesone then all the oppressions hitherto by this Parliament removed.  
How furiously these Jehu's drive boasting their zeal for the Lord pray God it end not as Iehu's in the accomplishment of their own ends. In the interim we stand deeply charged with paganism, what no less then unchristian? I confess they are ancient yet can hardly believe K Alfred fetched his laws from China or that our forefathers have since borrowed any of the Turkish Alcoran or Jewish Talmud although all these have many excellent constitutions, As impertinent, is the other charge of untruth upon the proceedings which is an arrant falsehood. But give the child his babble before he cry! Suppose now the Law's in English without any abbreviation, all fees limited and in print, will it therefore follow this nation shall be for ever free? you Platonicks may please yourselves with your fine ideas, but verily you seem to underst and the world as ittle as you understand yourselves, and those that know you say that's little enough, The regular usual fee of a Physician's but ten shillings yet whether to engross the doctors care or out of ostentation, I know not by what means it's come about that between the Physician and Apothecary many are pu●ged of superfluities and are hardly left so much gold in their purses, as there is about their pills, whose fault is this now? must each mans fault be laid upon the States shoulders? so were the councillors highest legal fee, a piece, might not one all whose hopes lay at stake in one cause underhand quicken his diligence with ten, The like a second and a third in a like necessity, till the wheels run in the old crack? Nay may he not with more equity demand of me ten pounds, in some cause then one in another? should the fees he prescribed according to the p eaders pains, or the causes importance? for may not a business of mighty concernment be often dispatched with less trouble then a petty but knotty case can be opened? as you may sooner red two chapters in a fair legible character then one in a small impression. Again how can a Lawyers pains be estimated? either in the well timing a motion,( for every business hath its golden hour) or in the manner, or in the choice of the matter, or in the expedition, a hundred ways, order it how you can, an active faithful mans pains are invaluable, and in many cases cannot be weighed in other balances then those of discretion To conclude, you may as easily make a coat for the Moon as limit Lawyers sees. Something perhaps might be amended, and will in time convenient, but to make such a mountain of this mole hill, as in comparison thereof to make nothing of the star-chamber, High Commission, Court of Wards, and all other Court tyranny makes manifest to all who eye your practices, that there lies a shake under this green grass; once I will be your Edipus and unfold this riddle. I find in my story of Muntzer that Arch-Anabaptist, among other his tenants That Iustice and Iudgement under the new Testament ought to be framed and administered only out of the word of God, by which doctrine be made the poor People of Thuringia believe their Laws and Governments were unlawful, and challenging to himself by degrees the cognizance of all both ecclesiastical and Civill matters. Our Anabaptists are not yet grown big enough to speak plain and therefore whisper in their preachments, that there are stronger truths to be r●v●●●ed but we are not yet able to bear them. First our laws must be disgraced and accounted as remote from Christianity, no doubt because they are not all drawn out of the gospel. Next our Parliament must be besp●ttered, because they will not after them to their mind●: then will some contrary justinian commend himself to the people, by condemning our Statutes for tedious, and extracting a quite-essentiall Law out of his chimerical revelations, which his Sectaries shall cry up for gospel. Whosoever reads me, red but the lives of these Plebicolae, and after a month or two's observation you shall find them singing Absolons tune in every corner to the people; Your matters are good and right but there is no man deputed to hear you O that our gospel might ones prevail in the land, that every man that hath any svit or cause might come unto us and we would do them Iustice. The whole bent of their wit all their turnings, and windings and fetches, tend but to this to possess the people against the present Government for this they assume as many divers shapes as Protens, with the honest minded insinuating a certain mysterious strictness of conversation with the ambitious, they deal by communications of honours, telling them what a sweet thing it is to be looked upon as chief of a party, that itis better being the head of a Cat then the tail of a Lion; But deal how you can with them they will amuse and hold you in suspense, but you shall never squeeze out of them what they would have, nor indeed can they tell you being resolved to set up more or less sail according as the wind shall blow. mark this phrase in conclusion. To the nearest agreement with Christianity as if political laws could not quiter agree therewith, or we be other then sorrel Christians while we retained any. This is pure Liberty.  
8. That the life of no person may be taken away under the testimony of two witnesses to do it upon the testimony of one you say is contrary to the law of God or common equity. This is a grievance you have learned by revelation, for I find no such thing in our laws: Indeed in some cases of main importance for the example, where many circumstances compose a chain of strong probabilities concurring with the deposition of a disinteressed eye witness I say in some such rare case, the law allows punishment of a notorious offender; And what can you pick out of this b●ne now? But you must be applauded for the sole deliverers from all bondage? And that in an equitable way you will proportion punishment to offences so that no mans life be taken away, his body punished nor his estate forfeited but upon such weighty and considerable causes as justly deserve such punishments. What your Synagogues account just we neither know nor care, but there is no man punished by the laws in any of these respects without such cause as the whole kingdom of England for many, many hundred yeares successively have deemed weighty. And that all prisoners may have a speedy trial? Amen so be it, and may yours led the dance; that they be neither starved, nor their families ruined by long and lingering imprisonment. And that imprisonment be only used for safe custody not punishment. To a Gentleman complaining of the dearnes of sack, his companion merrily answers, If it were at a crown the quart we should have fewer drunkards: So say I, if prisons were yet more troublesone persons would be more orderly; you see as bad as they are, there are still enough found, that by their folly or obstinacy will venture the going thither. But now what if there arise crimes of contumacy, obstinate opiniatnesse, sedition, pertinacity in speaking evil of dignities, &c. By the practise of all the Common-wealths that ever I red or heard of, Imprisonment hath been judged the most expedient punishment. 1. Because these crimes are of a diffussive nature and therefore confinement the most proper remedy. 2. That solitariness might breed in their minds, reflex thoughts and so occasion repentance. 3. The indulgence of the magistrate could pitch upon no milder way, unless he should proclaim impunity for all crimes not capital; This being the ordinary gradation of such, that the first fault draws on Imprisonment, and sometimes fine, continuation in it. Banishment, surreptitions return from exile, or a third guilt of the same crime, death, What interest: you have in deprecating such penal proceedings, Let your own Consciences determine.  
Another fools boult is shot against tithes & al other enforced maintenance and that nothing in place therof be imposed but that all Ministers may be paid only by those who voluntarily choose them, and contract with them for their Labours. That is being interpnted, that excepting London and the adjacent. Counties, all Ministers should be expelled the realm of England, and how many think you would be left in the Dominion of Wale●? Truly considering the pretty mad age we live in; I wonder no such whimsy call Petition as this was ever tendered, Humbly showing &c. That whereas for divers yeares past there have been sundry differences happened in and about Religion to the detriment of the public peace, They would be pleased to order a suspension of all the Ministry for 12. months, till all contentions about Gods worship cease. How think you? would not hands enough be got thereto? I, and seals too: Within a while people would be so far from disputing of God, that they would never think of him, your Petition hath the same sense, under other terms. The old proverb was Like Priest, like People and both were bad enough; But if it be inverted, Like People, Like Priest, we shall see famous contracts, and as worthy labours all performed in a blind alehouse. If tithes came so hardly, when e●acted from them by authority, is it to be imagined, their contributions will flow in more liberally? The naked truth is this; If these shockes were out of the way John of Leydens Prophets might happily reap the better harvest; for itis probable they would plant their gospel, with equal zeal, to the Spaniards in the Indies. We are  told there is no ground for either under the gospel. A simplo cavil: The whole Orthodox Church of God for these fourteen or fifteen hundred yeares, that is ever since any Churches were established, have acknowledged more then abundant ground for both; Now because these fanatic dreamers find it not co●ched in so many Letters and Sylables they most simply yet most wickedly cry down all legal maintenance and upon the same ground all our other laws: For t●t●es or any other maintenance were never urged 〈◇〉 as a prec●pt of the gospel, but as the law of England, and 〈…〉 i● t e seventh Petition they i● effect demand the abrogation 〈◇〉 our a●● because not expressly contained in the Gospel there tea●●● Christianity: Yet I need not grant them thus much for all son 〈◇〉 ●hri●tia●s acknowledging a perfect harmony in the word, that t e old Testament is but Christ under the veil, and the new Moses unvetled its enough for us to practise what God thought fit to and in●oyned in the one, till we find it positively or by strong inference( for we will not tie them so strictly to it as they do us) ret●a●ted in the other. But this is another dream of these Pseudo-Evangelists to oppose Moses and Christ, contending that the doctrine of faith delivered in the old and new Testament is divers in su●stance and that Christ in the new Testament proposed quiter a new doctrine. Those that will be blind. Let them be blind still; But God forbid the whole Kingdom should therefore put out their eyes.  
10. That you will take some speedy and effectual course, to relieve all such prisoners for debt as are altogether unable to pay, that they may not perish in prison, through the hard heartedness of their Creditors, that the potion may go down the better, they annex this clause as a gobbet of sugar and that all such who have estates may be enforced to make payment and not shelter themselves in Prison to defraud their Creditors. This was wisely moved believe me; could you but set the doors open and proclaim jubilee to all prisoners you might happily gain no small store of Proselytes, your communion of goods would take fire here like Gunpowder; how quickly would such as have nothing left, cry halves with their neighbours,? but by your leave, this motion had been juster that some stricter punishment besides, prison may be inflicted upon all such desperate spendthrifts as will rather obstinately hazard the perishing in prison through their hard heartedness to their Creditours then bait an ace of their vain expenses wherewithal to discharge the debt. Sure while the worst of it is a retreat to prison ' where many live jollily and in riot they bear up as long as they may and then let posterity sink or swim. Now admit the worst what proportion is there between the ruin of one man who hath spent his dayes in vanity and folly and the whole families desolation? They err who think punishments invented onely for the offenders; they are for example sake and to deter others. Are not many for crimes, which by reason of age or other impediments they are no more able to commit yet hanged up for scar crows? It's a most unjust custom of the Hollanders, when any man is attached for murder, the people usually help him to escape with this boorish argument one man is killed already why should we lose another? most foolish pity yea most wicked! I myself have known a dozen murders in one year by this means escape unpunished, all which might possibly have been prevented, had the f rst myrtherer been hanged. Those who pity not themselves who can pity? and in case of suretyship the usual weakness of soft natures, or whatsoever else may merit regulation we leave it to those whom it concerns without imposing our sense upon the supreme Magistrate.  
11 In the next place here ●s a great stir about Prison keepers, & their under Officers, I will join with you herein, and wish they may be of approved honesty, but rather wish it, then hope it, for I know not by what fate, they have never been better then they are; The contagion of the place, I think, infects them. But that you should now foist this i●, to make up your Bakers dozen of grievances, is most, most ridiculous! What a happy condition were we in, if we lay under no greater burden then this of Knavish Prison-Keepers. It's a sign you have little to say, when you interrupt the State-proceedings with such petty matters: Is not this a worthy business, think you, for the Parliaments cognizance, in the midst of the greatest difficulties, that ever Parliament groaned under? This is with Rachel to say, Give me children or else I die: Is the Parliament in stead of God? Sometime you revile them, here you deify them. Can they make men honest? they may indeed displace knaves, but to hinder others from becoming as bad, is not their work but Gods; Must the State be troubled with the placing and displacing every under Officer? There is one mysterious phrase lurks here, That they may detain no person or persons without lawful warrant. do they otherwise? why do not those so detained exhibit their complaints? for this is absolutely illegal, and the Prisonkeeper would be soundly fined in any Court of England: So that 'tis frivolous here to trouble the supreme Court. Stay a little, for I profess, I can't pick sense enough out of this to fill a nut-shell, except you mean a Parliament Warrant is unlawful; for who else hath committed any? 'Tis even so, The House of Peers, or a Committee of Commons, hath sent some of your Knipperdollings to prison for their rudeness, and this makes you pled so hard for prisoners; All the rest of the Article was but a shooing-horne to draw on this clause. But I would wish you to be more modest, and not to harp too much upon this string▪ for verily, if you scratch your superiors too hard, you may chance draw the smart upon yourselves. Qui nimis emangit, sanguin●m elicit.  
12 That you will provide some powerful means to keep men, women and children from begging, and wickedness, that this Nation may be no longer a shane to Christianity therein. I am confident no Nation under heaven hath better provided for the poor by laws, then ours, nor any where, Holland excepted, are they better executed: name me any kingdom in christendom where are fewer poor? besides that, many who seem poor among us are but counterfeit, and beg out of wantonness, out of a vagrant humour of libertinism, which me thinks, you of all others should not gain-say. nevertheless I deny not but they might be better ordered, and would be in that Government which you so much withstand. It cannot be unknown to you also, how the City for their parts, have been of late consulting hereabout; so that it ill becomes you Plebicolae, to act the Publicolae, and to commend yourselves to the people for the first movers of that, which hath been above these twelve moneths, to my knowledge, in agetation, and that's a point beyond motion. But such is your arrogance, as that you would infer to the people, that no body sees their grievances, but you, all the rest of the world is blind, and hardly can you afford the Parliament one ●ye as the Chinesi do the Europeans. And whence( I pray) this tender regard of the poor? do not we know that we are all Infidels in your esteem? What care you for all the poor in the world, that are out of your congregations? Verily of all graces, you have least cause to brag of charity. Well, I say no more, but wish your heart may here have kept your tongue company; So shall I hope, you may in time come to be honest Elders, since you are already so stout Deacons.  
13 The last is a Voluminous complaint, 1. That men call them by their names, of Sectaries, schismatics, factious, &c. 'Tis well they are ashamed of the name, 'twere better they were ashamed of the thing; they disavow the titles, but not the ●enents. Their argument runs thus; All honest people, and such as would not conform to the superstitions under Episcopacy, the then present Government, were formerly most unjustly reproached as P●ritan heretics, schismatics, &c. therfore neither are we truly so called so resisting the present Government, ( Although all those stumbling block be now removed, and so the r●●sons why you refuse to join with us yet invisible.) I will match their Arguments and then turn them both loose to stand or fall together. In the reign of Queen Mary, divers Socinians suppressing their blasphemous te●ents, and only preaching against adoration of Images, Purgatory, Invocation of Saints, and other popish superstitions, are therefore taken for Protestants, and together with the true Protestants persecuted as heretics for opposing papistical Government. Afte●ward in the beginning of Q. Elizabeths reign while the reformed discipline of the Church was yet unsettled, they begin to ●eep as from under the mark, and by degrees to appear in their own likeness, seducing many simplo people, who had admired them for their zeal against the Papists. Now if these men apprehended for their horrid blasphemies against the Trinity, and other fundamental Article of our Creed, should come and pled not guilty, because the best Christians had been branded with the name of heretics, as well as they, deny that they were schismatics, although they rent the Church, and obstructed the reformation, because the most godly had likewise refused to communicate with the Papists, I suppose you would think this inference more worthy of laughter then an answer. We do not say some of you are heretics, and others of you are schismatics, because so called; but we call you so, because you are so: Neither do we term you factious and seditious; only because you refuse to conform to the present government, but for that you therefore refuse it, because enjoined by the Magistrate, out of a pure spirit of contradiction whereby you shake the foundations of all Authority. And therefore to your second branch of this Article, That you will not exclude any of approved fidelity from bearing office of trust in the Common-wealth for nonconformity. I return this answer: If any remain unsatisfied in any point of the present government, and be ready modestly to render a reason of his non-conformity, no doubt he shall be born withall, and not excluded therefore from any office of trust; for such a one will be content to keep his opinions to himself. But we know that most of you value not that toleration which allows not the spreading of your Heresies, wherefore we have as little reason to trust you, as the Protestants in the former case to have trusted the Socinians, who might have pleaded as much fervour against the Papists, as you can against the royalists. What are we the better for your milk, if now you kick down the pail? If you are good, and do good, shall you not be accepted? and if you do not good, sin lies at the door, and punishment under the threshold. You say you are the Parliaments real friend●, but I am sure you show little respect, and less friendship, when you tell them( to their face? Nay, to the face of the whole world) that their Promotion of Malignants is the chief cause of all our grievances. Lastly, that you may end like yourselves, you tell the Parliament, they are going to leave this Nation in great thrald●●● both of body, mind, and estate( is not this to hunt counter to the title of right Honourable in the beginning), the sole prevention whereof consists in the granting your humble desires, without which this Nation cannot be safe and happy. This is a very humble conclusion indeed! but something unlike a Petition, to say you must have what you ask, and cannot bee without it. Beggars had not wont to be choosers till of late, can you tell better what's proper for the Parliament to grant, then they themselves? you pretend I confess, the general good of the Common-wealth, but in your lives and conversations you walk more like our Antipodes then our Country-men.  
But I am weary of raking in this dunghill. He that would know what we may justly fear from this Gallimaufrey of errors, let him read Spanhemius historical narration of the German Sectaries, where in the beginning of the second Chapter, you shall meet with a description of our present calamities: Those that are unacquainted with History are apt to think all Relations of such proceedings fabulous, so ridiculous and fantastic are many of their principles; But so much the more dangerous are the effects, because we are so prove to slight the causes. mark but the progress of heresy in all ages, and you will easily discover whether we are going: for that which hath been, shall bee, and there is no new thing under the Sun. The pretences have alalwayes been the same, of sweet communion, and increase of knowledge, the progress the same, the casting of the Ordinances of magistracy, and ministry, the event the same, the trouble of the Church for a while, but ever in the end their own confusion. The storm of Persecution was no sooner blown over in the Primitive times, then those civill warres of Religion began to divide the Church, and so from time to time interchangeably continued till all settled in a gross fog of ignorance under Popery: again, God no sooner stirred up Luther and his fellowes to reform●, then the devil transforming himself into an angel of light, stirred up the Anabaptists to retard and corrupt the reformation. And how? by exclaiming against it as imperfect, condemning Luther for a flatterer of Princes, as if he had left the people under tyranny, and had not preached the full liberty of the gospel; by which doctrine and cruel indulgence of the Magistrate in a short space they drew after them whole armies of licentious people, and led them against their Princes. Which example puts me in mind of Appius, saying in Livis, Non misiriis, said licentia tantum concîtum turbarum: et lasci●●●● mag●● plebem q●●● s●●●●●. All the fury is derived from the heads of th●se factions, the rest are mad by contagion. To wind up all in a Character of our P●titioners 1. The whole ●abble of them, is a beggars cloak made up of divers pa●ches. A far well built body to the eye but u●ease is, and you find an ill shapen carcase covered over with a thick crust of ●ppe●rances. 2. Their voice is Jacobs, but their hands are Esa●'s. 3. Their design is to clog the Parliament with endless intricacy of work, that they may scape in the crowd unseen, till the Monster be full grown, and then look it in the face who dare. Every good Patriot weigh well, and consider their actions! Trace them afar off, but tread no● in their footst●ps: hearken rather to Salomon, Pr●v. 22. v, 8. Pro. 24. v. 21. R●move n●● the ●●tient landmarks which thy Fathers have set, and again. My son fear thou the Lord, and the King: and meddle not with them that are given to change. If God challenge the firstlings, give the Magistrate the second fruits of thine Obedience.  
FINIS.