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<DATE>2009-08-05</DATE>
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<NAME>Mona Logarbo</NAME>
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<FRONT>
<DIV1 TYPE="title page">
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<P>A BRIEFE ANSWER <HI>TO A BOOKE CALLED</HI> THE DECLARATION OF THE KINGDOMES of ENGLAND and SCOTLAND.</P>
<P>Sent in a Letter from a Member of the Hou&s;e of <HI>COMMONS.</HI></P>
<P><HI>OXFORD,</HI> Printed by <HI>H. Hall.</HI> An.Dom. 1644.</P>
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<DIV1 TYPE="letter">
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<HEAD>A Briefe An&s;wer to a Booke called <HI>[The Declaration of the Kingdomes of England and Scotland.]</HI></HEAD>
<HEAD TYPE="sub">Sent in a Letter from a Member of the Hou&s;e of COMMONS.</HEAD>
<OPENER><SALUTE>SIR,</SALUTE></OPENER>
<P>_I Have looked over the Booke you &s;ent me, intitled, <HI>[The Declaration of the Kingdomes of England and Scotland, &amp;c.]</HI> And &s;end you what occurred into my mind upon rea|ding the orders of the&s;e new States, who give loyalty and allegiance the reward of villany and trea&s;on, and evidence their &s;eeking of truth and peace by condemning the Kingdom to Anarchy, the Church to Schi&s;me, giving the lives of the Subjects for victims, their e&s;tates for a prey to lawle&s;&s;e rage and rapine: an unlikely way to &s;top or dry up the&s;e &s;treames of bloud, that have covered this nation with a prodigious inunda|tion, but a meanes to feed that unnaturall fountaine, that the children unborne may be bathed in bloud, and inherit the mi&s;ery of their parents; for it's not imagi|nable, that the oppre&s;&s;ing of a lawfull King, di&s;heri&s;on of a royall Progeny, to whom the right of a crowne hath beene tran&s;mitted through a race of &s;o many vi|ctorious Princes, the cheating and di&s;po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ing of a glo|rious nation of their Religion, Lawes and Liberty, can
<PB N="2" REF="3"><!-- PDF PAGE 33 -->produce other, then perpetuall divi&s;ions, betweene the ju&s;t demands of right by an injured King and people, &amp; the continuall feares and plots of guilty u&s;urpers to &s;e|cure them&s;elves, and confirme their &s;tolne Soveraignty.</P>
<P>If any man doubted heretofore of the intentions of the&s;e men, this book leaves no place to any, but the will|full: have any in a blinde confidence per&s;waded them|&s;elves that the&s;e men meant not to take away the King's Rights? the Title of this booke is a Declaration of the Kingdomes, again&s;t the will of the King. And &s;urly who|ever undertake to binde the whole Kingdome without him, exclude him from being the Head of the King|dome, that is, a King; and they that exclude him for an houre, may by the &s;ame rea&s;on exclude him for ever: and they have by their practice and former Declarati|ons told us a King con&s;enting not to what they thinke nece&s;&s;ary for the Kingdome is to be reputed as a minor, or incapable, and that they may a&s;&s;ume the royall po|wer and allow the King no more liberty but &s;ubmi&s;&s;i|on to their decrees. They claime a power under the name of States, without limitation of time or power, no appeale permitted from them, no po&s;&s;ibility of addre&s;|&s;es for the greate&s;t injury or inju&s;tice done by them, and you may now &s;ee they &s;et them&s;elves in the Throne, and admit the King to no other, then a private condition. Engli&s;hmen have beene accu&s;tomed to other language, their &s;tile being the King's Kingdome, People, Lawes, Peace, Armes; And I doubt not but they abhorre this Title, as an impudent forgery, which would involve them in a di&s;loyalty to their King, and expo&s;e them to the &s;corne of forraigne nations, and &s;ubject them&s;elves to u&s;urpers, to whom they owe not allegiance; and from
<PB N="3" REF="3"><!-- PDF PAGE 33 -->whom they mu&s;t not expect protection, but the di&s;&s;olu|tion of their Lawes, and an ab&s;olute Tyranny and arbi|trary government by them, who have broken their tru&s;t and faith with their King and Country.</P>
<P>Surely the Commons of <HI>England</HI> gave no power to their Knights and Burge&s;&s;es to depo&s;e their King, or de|&s;troy their Lawes; they cho&s;e them for the Kings Coun|&s;ell, not for Kings over him and them; to advi&s;e him, not to treate or advi&s;e with forraign nations, much le&s;&s;e to invite &s;trangers to the bloud and de&s;olation of the whole Kingdome, which is herein avowed and whereby all men may &s;ee as them&s;elves phra&s;e it, our Religion, Liberty and Lawes, which have &s;tood again&s;t the grea|te&s;t a&s;&s;aults of forraigne power envying our happine&s;&s;e, are oppre&s;&s;ed and troden under foot by the craft and cruelty of our owne neighbours and Countrymen.</P>
<P>I wonder our brethren the Scots are &s;o &s;oone weary of that amiable title and their owne peace, and not one|ly as <HI>Ameleck,</HI> who&s;e name God threatned to blot out from under heaven, that &s;ell upon his weary brethren, &amp; cut off the hindmo&s;t of them, but rake in the wounds of their langui&s;hing brethren, and adde &s;mart and death to their hurts: and they would per&s;wade us that their oppre&s;&s;ions of us are out of affection to us, and for our liberty, their di&s;tre&s;&s;ing the King, for his honour and &s;afety; and we may beleeve them in that, a&s;well as the lawfullne&s;&s;e to unite them&s;elves in this warre without their King, in whom they are united with this nation, without con&s;ent of their owne Parliament, without which it's trea&s;on and a breach of the Act of Pacificati|on, &s;o &s;olemnely vowed by them to be kept, as if they would tell the world no lawes, loyalty, oathes, or duty
<PB N="4" REF="4"><!-- PDF PAGE 34 -->can hold them longer, then it &s;tands with their advan|tage.</P>
<P>And for their taking up armes, for which they bring neither law, Soveraigne command, nor former practice of any but Traytors, never were any borne more oppo|&s;ite to our duty to God, Scandalous to our Chri&s;tian Profe&s;&s;ion, more unnaturall to our native Country, more di&s;honourable to His Maje&s;tie, more offen&s;ive to God, more injurious to men. Then the&s;e that fight again&s;t all whom the King commands to come to His defence, or that a&s;&s;i&s;t him, under the name of a Popi&s;h, Prelaticall, and malignant party: it's trea&s;on without contradiction to a&s;&s;ault the King in any pretence; and can. He be killed by His Subjects through the &s;ides of others, or a&s;&s;aulted in the head of an Army? &s;urely <HI>va&s;tantia peccata,</HI> &s;innes that lay wa&s;t the con&s;cience, corrupt the judgement, and deface all &s;hame and mode&s;ty, and where men have ca&s;t off loyalty and fal&s;ified their oathes, they grow bold with God, and pretend feares and dangers they never beleeved, Honour to His Maje&s;ties Per&s;on they pur&s;ue and reproach, pre&s;ervation of His Rights they take Armes to de&s;troy.</P>
<P>The &s;ucce&s;&s;e of their many Petitions, Declarations, and Remon&s;trances, hath beene &s;utable to the merits of them, and have very well &s;erved to informe the people how much they were deceived, if they expected peace and unity from them, that would &s;ever the Body from the head in the &s;tate, &s;et up Schi&s;matikes to alter the do|ctrine and di&s;cipline of the Church, confederate them|&s;elves with Strangers, impo&s;e Religion and Law upon King and People, and authorize murder, theft, as war|ranted by law and con&s;cience, as tho&s;e barbarous nati|ons
<PB N="5" REF="4"><!-- PDF PAGE 34 -->that enacted the mo&s;t odious oppre&s;&s;ions for Hero|icke vertues.</P>
<P>This pre&s;&s;ing and patheticke Declaration, which they &s;ay they are put to, wanting truth and right, cannot with adulterate language, legitimate &s;uch horrid crimes, win credit to &s;uch incredible untruths, nor con&s;ent to &s;uch unnaturall cour&s;es, which would rather have the Sub|jects of <HI>England</HI> drench them&s;elves in each others bloud, that the wor&s;t of mi&s;eries a civill warre, be per|petuated upon the Kingdome to it's finall de&s;truction, which mu&s;t inevitably follow; then that their po&s;itions be not received, the Church de&s;troyed, the Lawes &s;ub|verted, and all men enter into a new Covenant, again&s;t Religion, Law, and Loyalty; and this they call truth, without which they defie peace till there be no man left to enjoy it.</P>
<P>The &s;umme of this Declaration is a denunciation of warre again&s;t all that enter not into this new Covenant, and which they &s;ay God would never have put into their hearts, if he had meant to de&s;troy them. It &s;eemes they &s;hake hands with their brethren the Anabapti&s;ts, in re|lying on their fanaticke enthu&s;ia&s;mes. True Chri&s;tian humility is farre from the&s;e pre&s;umptions, and guides it's wayes by the light of Holy Scripture, trying the &s;pi|rits whether they be of God, or no, and tru&s;ting not the&s;e injections, which the Prince of darkene&s;&s;e ca&s;ts in|to un&s;table mindes; it were &s;trange pre&s;umption to pre|tend particular divine in&s;pirations to any Politicke though ju&s;t Con&s;titutions, but to tho&s;e that are again&s;t duty to God and his Vicegerent, can have no other e&s;ti|mation then of grand impo&s;ture, &s;acrilegious u&s;urpation and prophanation of the name of God, who is thereby
<PB N="6" REF="5"><!-- PDF PAGE 35 -->endeavoured to be made patron of &s;uch works of dark|ne&s;&s;e. The ends of <HI>Lopez, Faux,</HI> and other a&s;&s;a&s;&s;inats might &s;trike men with horror when they goe about to intitle God with au&s;pications &s;o oppo&s;ite to his truth and holine&s;&s;e, and their Covenant being no better then the Vow of the Jewes, not to eate or drinke, till they have killed <HI>Paul,</HI> their prayers and fa&s;tings for the &s;uc|ce&s;&s;e of it, are no other in Gods account, then <HI>Jezebells</HI> fa&s;t, and <HI>Ab&s;olon</HI>'s &s;acrifice, the one the di&s;gui&s;e of an horrid murder, the other of unnaturall rebellion.</P>
<P>They declare the taking of their Covenant is the one|ly way to their favour, and doe not tell where it's ex|pre&s;&s;ed or implyed in the word of God, or enjoyned by the Lawes of the Land; and yet the not taking of it, drawes the lo&s;&s;e of Life, Liberty, Propriety, and Privi|ledge of Parliament, which the authors per&s;wade men they fight for, and which they have &s;olemnly prote&s;ted to defend; and how can they &s;atisfie any man, or them|&s;elves, that they ob&s;erve their oathes, while they de&s;troy that which they &s;wore to pre&s;erve?</P>
<P>And as God put it into their hearts to enter into their Covenant, &s;o they tell us he hath di&s;played their ban|ner. The cur&s;ing A&s;&s;yrian told Gods people he was come up in the name of the Lord again&s;t <HI>Jeru&s;alem;</HI> and this pre&s;umption of the&s;e authors of our troubles, truly entitles them to be &s;ucce&s;&s;ors of the&s;e unhappy troub|lers of Kingdomes and States, who fighting the Devill's quarrell under Gods colours, and &s;educing the credu|lous multitude into the lewde&s;t opinions, and mo&s;t exe|crable actions under the fal&s;e pretences of divine reve|lations, have &s;ubverted the foundations of peace and government in mo&s;t flouri&s;hing nations.</P>
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And they hope to affright all men from their con&s;ci|ence by the&s;e new edicts, whereby the King hath nei|ther right nor forfeiture, nor power of pardon; and they that fight for law, judge crimes and inflict puni&s;hment again&s;t law, and allow no man life, liberty, or e&s;tate but at plea&s;ure.</P>
<P>They proclaime &s;ome favours &s;o they be taken in time, but it is upon the condition of future good beha|viour, that they may po&s;&s;ibly obtayne mercy for their lives, that have no e&s;tates to loo&s;e by adventuring their lives and &s;oules in defence of this Covenant. But E|&s;tates they are loath to part with, le&s;t their owne occa&s;i|ons, whereunto all their proffers and promi&s;es are &s;ub|&s;ervient, &s;hould need them, or &s;uch as have beene mo&s;t eminent in this Rebellion loo&s;e the reward of their Countryes ruine, and therefore the&s;e are re&s;erved to di&s;cretion: neutrality is odious to them, and they may perhaps be in&s;truments to puni&s;h the coldne&s;&s;e of &s;ome that preferre their private ea&s;e before their loyalty and love to their Country, and a good con&s;cience; though they want not guilt, who having no Commi&s;&s;ion from God or his Vicegerent inflict it on them.</P>
<P>Papi&s;ts are not to have mercy for any loyalty to their King, their Religion is not the object of the hatred of the&s;e Legi&s;lators, but a crime more unpardonable, their ab&s;tinence from Trea&s;on. Such as have mi&s;guided the Kings coun&s;ells are joyned in the &s;ame li&s;t with Papi&s;ts, and the&s;e mu&s;t be taken into con&s;ideration by the&s;e States or their Committees: &s;urely where Rebells judge their Princes Coun&s;ellours, fidelity mu&s;t be a crime, and no man that hath had courage enough to pre&s;erve his con&s;cience, but may come within this pale, and be|come
<PB N="8" REF="6"><!-- PDF PAGE 36 -->an example of this arbitrary power; and where onely a fal&s;e finger mu&s;t guide the Coun&s;ells they ap|prove, it's apparent what mi&s;guiders they intend.</P>
<P>Hereby you may rightly &s;tate the que&s;tion, touch|ing the pre&s;ent differences; which is not, whether the&s;e men fight for Religion and Lawes; but whether their taking Armes again&s;t the command of the King to alter Religion, and Lawes, be Trea&s;on or not: they never yet afford Petitions of right, but Propo&s;itions again&s;t Right; and their pre&s;ent edicts again&s;t Law, Loyalty, and Liberty of the Subject, is a convincing evidence of this truth.</P>
<P>If the truth they &s;o much de&s;ire be divine, they would not maligne our Church which rejects none, and hath had the concurrent Te&s;timonies of the be&s;t Reformed Churches for the truth of her Doctrines, which were never denied by any but Athei&s;ts, Papi&s;ts, or Sectaries; Some truths may &s;afely be unknowne, wherein the be&s;t Reformed Churches and Orthodox profe&s;&s;ors have not beene of one judgement, yet have kept the unity of the &s;pirit in the band of peace, and were never the creed of the Church of God in any age, but that the &s;word might be taken up by Subjects again&s;t their King to im|po&s;e &s;uch opinions, as nece&s;&s;ary to be beleeved, had ne|ver le&s;&s;e cen&s;ure among&s;t &s;ober Chri&s;tians, then of Ty|ranny upon the con&s;cience, di&s;turbance of the Church|es peace, &s;candall to Religion, and Rebellion again&s;t the Lords Anointed: but it &s;eemes that which they call their Religion is a heape raked together our of the in|con&s;i&s;tent dictates of di&s;agreeing Sectaries, which con|&s;pire in the Churches ruines to e&s;tabli&s;h their tumultu|ary licence, and though their Babell laid in Rebellion
<PB N="9" REF="6"><!-- PDF PAGE 36 -->again&s;t God and his Vicegerent, and built in &s;uch divi|&s;ions of languages, cannot po&s;&s;ibly pre&s;erve truth and peace, yet the&s;e men that have thus taken up the &s;word, will either fini&s;h the de&s;olation of their native Country, or erect this monument of confu&s;ion. Surely Sir, if the&s;e men regarded the teares of age, or bloud of innocents, the penury, exile and di&s;tre&s;&s;e of men of all e&s;tates, the decay of the beauty, honour and &s;trength of this nati|on, the fainting of all arts, learning and indu&s;try, the lo&s;&s;e of trade, increa&s;e of Widowes, Orphans and mai|med poore, if they had any feeling of the mi&s;eries of &s;ickene&s;&s;e, &s;word and famine, if any tenderne&s;&s;e of their brethren or Country, if any re&s;pect of honour to their King, reverence to the Church of God, or glory of his name, they would not preferre uncertaine opinions of unnece&s;&s;ary truths before the certaine ruine of Church and State.</P>
<P>The wor&s;t dayes we formerly &s;aw were a golden age to the pre&s;ent, and we may rather de&s;ire then expect a re&s;titution of our former happine&s;&s;e, which the&s;e men are not affected to, that will not admit it without the &s;atisfaction of their owne inordinate pa&s;&s;ions; and as if they were afraid of their owne affections, they fetter their con&s;ciences to &s;hut out all con&s;iderations that may incline them to peace.</P>
<P>I hope if you were not you are &s;atisfied, that the &s;ame men that cau&s;ed the warre are enemies to peace, and that the Authors of this Declaration are the Authors and Maintainers of our troubles; for if they meant to have conditions, which they give as Conquerors, ac|cepted, they would at lea&s;t &s;pare the con&s;cience, though they devoured the State: I commit it to your judgment.</P>
<TRAILER>FINIS.</TRAILER>
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