Plea for the Lords and House of Peers, Treatise
A Plea for the LORDS, AND HOUSE of PEERS. OR, A ſhort, yet full and neceſſary Vindication of the Judiciary and Legiſlative Power of the Houſe of Peers, and the Hereditary juſt Right of the Lords and Barons of this Realm, to ſit, vote, judge in the high Court of Parliament.
THe treaſonable deſtructive deſign of divers dangerous Anabaptiſts, Levellers, Agitators in the Army, City, Countrey, and of Lilburn, Overton, (their Champions, Ring-leaders in this Seditious Plot) to dethrone the King, unlord the Lords, new-model the Houſe of Commons, extirpate Monarch…, ſuppreſs the Houſe of Peers, and ſubvert Parliaments, (the only obſtacles to their pretended Polarchy & Anarchy) are now ſo legible in their many late printed Petitions, L…bels, Pamphlets, ſo viſible in their actings, and publike proceedings, that it rather requires our diligence and expedition to prevent, than heſitancy to doubt or dispute them, they poſitively proteſting againſt, yea denying both King and Monarchy, in their (a)A Remonſtrance of many thouſand Citizens to their own Houſe of Commons, p. 6. The juſt mans Juſtification, p. 10. Regal Tyranny Diſcovered, A Declaration from his Excellency, & the General Councel of the Army, Jan. 11. 1647. p. 7. Speeches, &c. at a Conference newly publiſhed by Walker, printed verbatim out of Dolman the Jeſuit his Book, condemned formerly as treaſonable.late printed Pamphlets, Remonſtrances, with the Power, Judicature of the Houſe of Peers, and their undoubted juſt Hereditary right to vote, act, or ſit in Parliament, becauſe they are not elec…ed by the people as Knights and Burgeſſes are; aſſerting, (b)Regal Tyranny diſcovered. Lilburns Juſt Man in▪ Bonds, p. 1, 2. A Pearl in a Dunghil, The Free-mans Freedom vindicated, An Anatomy of the Lords Tyranny; his Argument and Plea before the Committee againſt the Lords Authority; his Petition to the Commons, his Letters to Henry Martin: Overtons Arrow of Defiance ſhot into the Prerogative Bowels of the Houſe of Lords; his Petition and Appeal, A Defiance againſt Arbitrary Vſurpation, The Agreement of the People and Petitions wherein it was preſented to the Houſe of Commons, An Alarum to the Houſe of Lords. See M. Edwards Gangraena, part. 3. p. 192. to 204.That they are no natural iſſues of our Laws, but the Exorbitances and Muſhromes of Prerogative, the Wenns of juſt Government, the Sons of Conqueſt and uſurpation, not of choice and election, intruded upon us by power, not made by the people, from whom ALL POWER, PLACE, and OFFICE that is juſt in this Kingdom OUGHT TO ARISE; meer arbitrary Tyrants, Ʋſurpers, an illegitimate and illegal power and Judicatory, who act and Vote in our affairs but as INTRUDERS; who ought of right not to judge, cenſure, or impriſon any Commoner of England, even for libelling againſt them, refuſing to appear before them, reviling and contemning them and their Authority to their faces at their very Barr, (as Lilburn, Overton boaſt and print they did) or breaking any of their undoubted Privileges. To accompliſh this their deſign the better, they endeavour by their moſt impudent flattery to ingage the Houſe of Commons againſt the Houſe of Peers, the better to pull them down; ſtiling and proclaming the Commons in their (c)Overtons Petition and Appeal to the High and Mighty States, the Knights and Burgeſſes in Parliament aſſembled, Englands legal Soveraign Power, The Remonſtrance of many thouſands to their own Houſe of Commons, A printed Petition (now in agitation) of many Free-born people to the only Supreme Power of this Realm, the Commons in Parliament aſſembled. The Anatomy of the Lords Tyranny, An Alarum to the Houſe of Lords. See M. Edwards Gangraena, part 3. p. 154. to 204.Petitions and Pamphlets, The ONLY Supreme legal Judicatory of the Land, who ought BY RIGHT, to judge the Lords and their proceedings, from whom they appeal for right and reparations againſt the Houſe of Peers; affirming, That in the Commons Houſe alone reſides the formal and legal Supreme Power of England, who ONLY are choſen by the People; and THEREFORE IN THEM ONLY is the power of binding the whole Nation, by making, altering, or aboliſhing Laws, without the Kings or Lords concurrent aſſents: to whom they now abſolutely deny any Negative voice; making the Commons a compleat Independent Parliament of themſelves; & therefore preſent all their Petitions, add eſſes to them alone, without any acknowledgment or notice of the Houſe of Peers, to whom they deny any right or title to ſit or vote in Parliament, unleſs they will firſt diveſt themſelves of their Peerage, and Barons right of Seſſion, and ſubmit to ſtand for the next Knights and Burgeſſes place in the Houſe of Common that ſhall fall void; where, if they may have any voice or influence, the meaneſt Cobler, Tinker, Weaver, Waterman, ſhall be elected a Knight or Burgeſs, ſooner than the beſt and greateſt Peer, and every John of Leyden preferred before King or Prince Charls himſelf: Sic Sceptra ligonibus aequant; Which Petitions and Pamphlets of theirs have ſo puffed, ſo bladdered up many Novices, and raw Parliament-men in the Commons Houſe, unacquainted with the original Constitution, bounds, proceedings, Laws, Cuſtoms of the Parliaments of England, that they begin to act, vote, diſpoſe of the Army, Navy, &c. without, yea againſt the Lords, not expecting their concurrence, contrary to all former proceedings of Parliament, the Lords juſt Privileges, and their own Solemn League, Covenant, to maintain them; which may prove very deſtructive to both Houſes, the Parliament, King, Kingdom; oppreſſive to their Repreſentatives the people, (who generally diſlike it) if not timely redreſſed; and breed ſuch a deadly feud between the Houſes, as may ſoon ruine them both and the Kingdom to boot. The end of theſe Anabaptiſts, Levellers, Lilburnians being only to *See M. Edwards Gangraena, part 3. where this is fully demonſtrated.deſtroy the Parliament, by ſetting both Houſes at variance, they inveighing as bitterly againſt the power, proceedings, Ordinances, Votes, Members, undue Elections, unequal Conſtitution of the Houſe of Commons, as they do againſt the Lords; Hereupon they have moſt earneſtly preſſed in their (d)Lilburns Letter to a friend. Innocency & Truth juſtified, and his late Letters to Cromwell, H. Martin, Sir Thomas Fairfax, and others. Englands Birthright. Englands lamentable Slavery. Another word to the wiſe. Comparata Comparandis. Liberty againſt Slavery. The Arraignment of Perſecution. The Ordinance againſt Tithes unmounted. See M. Edwards Gangraena, part. 3. p. 109. to 204.Pamphlets, their late (e)See the ſeveral Remonſtrances from his Excellency and the Army, from June, til December laſt, 1647. and ſince in November and January, 1648. The Agreement of the people, the grand Deſign, Putney Projects.Remonſtrances, Engagements from their Confederates and Agitators in the Army, a ſpeedy period and diſſolution of this Parliament, a new modelling and more equal diſtribution of the Members in the very Houſe of Commons for the future, &c. All which Petitions, Papers, Remonſtrances, Pamphlets of theirs tending to the utter ſubverſion of Parliaments, the fundamental Laws, Government of the Kingdom, yea, to an introduction of arbitrary popular Polarchy and Tyranny, are rather to be ranked among and more agreeable to Jack Cades, or the Earl of Straffords and Canterburies Treaſons, (which they exceed by many degrees) than to be ſlighted or countenanced as they are; the keeping up the honour of our Peers, the rights, Privileges of both Houſes within their juſt bounds, without interfeiring or incroachment upon one another, or invading the peoples Liberties, being the only probable means of their, of our preſervation, ſettlement, ſecurity; Upon which conſideration, I ſhall here endeavour as briefly, yet fully as I may, to vindicate the undoubted Right of the Lords or Peers of this Realm to ſit, vote in Parliament, notwithſtanding they are not elected by the people; and to make good their right, power of Judicature, as well of Commoners as Peers, againſt all the cavils of Jeſuited Anabaptiſtical Levellers, Lilburnians, Sectaries, Agitators, whom I hope ſo farr to ſilence and ſtop their mouths, if not convince their judgements, that they ſhall never be able to reply hereunto.