AN Antimalignant, or right Parliamen­tier, is one who layes aside all partia­lity, and makes reason his Perspective, through which he looks upon King & Parliament, weighing the ends & acti­ons of both in an equal ballance; nor is he so confident in the successe as the cause, knowing that when God purposeth to punish a people for their transgressions, he suffers (many times) their scourge to prevaile, till they be reformed or destroyed. And therefore if at any time the malignant party gets the better, it begets no doubts in him whether he be in the right or no, esteeming it not as a blessing upon them, but a just punishment upon the Nation. Neither is he so great a soother of the Parliament, as to main­tain that all their proceedings are (in some of their [Page 2]Agents) so exactly justifiable as their curse is un­doubtedly good: For being inforc'd to trust so many in all places of the Kingdome, with carrying the bagge) it is almost impossible but there must be some Judasses amongst them, who (with faire and splendid pretences) obscure their own foul and covetous ends; some Achans, who busie themselves more in hiding The Babylonish Garment, the Shekels of silver, and Wedge of gold, then the Reformation either of Church or Common-wealth, who are yet unfound out, which he conceives (though we humble our selves before the Lord) to be one main reason that the men of Ai have prevailed so farre (sometimes) against us; for God will accomplish his own work, his own way: but as He is not refractory to reason, and things proba­ble, so He will by no means be drawn to the belief of impossibilities and contradictions, as that Papists, Mo­nopolists, Fugitives from Parliament, Popish Pre­lates, corrupt Judges, and other Renegadoes, (who are the chiefe Fomentors of this unnaturall Warre, both in their purses and persons, and are all justly un­der the lash of the Parliament for their foule abu­ses, both in Church and Common-wealth) can by any possible meanes be likely men to assist his Maje­sty in fighting for the true Protestant Religion, the Priviledge of Parliament, and Liberty of the Sub­ject; and therefore cannot but acknowledge that his Majesty hath justly rendred his integrity suspected in the opinion of his people: For it is to Him a Riddle, (though it be the Common salve for the Kings evill, to put off all from him, and lay it onely upon his e­vill Councell) how any man can beleeve that evil [Page 3]Councellors make an evill King (who dare not appear before him, except they first find him fit for their pur­poses) that is, with a propensity and forwardnesse in him to consent to such things as by them shall be pro­pounded: So that upon the matter they are but onely Abettors and Cherishers of him in such wayes as (by their own former observations they have discovered him to be addicted unto. That the King hath consen­ted to his Parliament in the redresse of divers insuffe­rable oppressions, he doth not deny; but yet not without they cry of the people in his eares for justice, which the Malignants call driving him out of the Towne: But the evill he hath done us hath been vo­luntary, acted with much zeale & industry, to the great disturbance and hazard as well of his own Person, as three Kingdomes. Nor will He acknowledge that the very calling of this Parliament was a voluntary act of the Kings: For if you consider the abrupt and sudden dissolution of the former so little before, and in what condition the Kingdome stood when this was called, you shall easily perceive it was a thing to which he was absolutely necessitated, to still the people, who were otherwise resolved to throw off the burthen of oppression from their own shoulders with their own Arms, which he conceives might possibly have been done by them (though not so lawfull and loyall a way) yet with more facility, lesse charge, and effusion of blood then now. And from hence ariseth a quaere, which he knowes not how to resolve, that is, Why so many, who were implacable without a Parliament, should since have their understandings so infatuated, as to forsake the same Parliament, and draw their [Page 4]swords to purchase their own bondage against them who with the hazard of their lives and livelihoods, have faithfully endeavoured the preservation of their Liberties.

And this he looks upon with griefe, as a great fore­runner of ruine, it being an undeniable truth, that the misplaced confidence of the multitude, is the one­ly opener of a convenient gap for men that are great and bad, to bring in upon a Common-wealth unresistable destruction, which sad experience ma­keth too manifest amongst us; for by that meanes pretence hath raised all these powers against real­lity: So many false fighters for the priviviledge of Parliament, antd the liberty of the Subject against the Parliament, because they will not betray the trust of the Kingdome, in yeelding up both that and themselves to perpetuall slavery: So many quar­rellers with them, that nothing is made better, but all things worse, and the greivance of the subject greater then before; which he conceives to be as absurd to one of right understanding, as if a man in the hands of Theeves and Murderers, ready to be spoiled and rob­bed of all he hath, should quarrel with his Rescuers, because both he and they are wounded in his rescue. And his opinion is, that these preposterous mistakes proceed (in part) from the astonishment of the people, being so amazed with these miserable and unexpected alterations, that they are in their sufferings like a man in drowning, who distractedly catching at any thing to save himselfe, fastens upon his friend that comes to preserve him, to the losse or danger of both their lives: For he conceives that no well recollected man can pos­sibly [Page 5]beleeve, that his Majesty now fights to maintaine what he hath already granted, a Trienniall Parliament, the continuation of this, and the putting off all power from himselfe to dissolve this or any other at his own absolute pleasure; but rather, as one that hath gone too farre, to raze out the memory of those things by the sword, and make them not Acts but oversights. For the better illustration whereof, he would have you re­member what a Noli me tangere the prerogative hath been to former Parliaments, when the sole power was in his Majesty to dissolve them with a Sic volo, which doth plainly demonstrate his liberall yielding to this, in so many things, to be the highest point of policie; that his evill Councell did ever advise him to, since his coming to the Crown, being not done by them with the least intention of any performance (as we have since found by experience) but onely to incline the peoples mindes to an opinion of a refractory Par­liament, and the graciousnesse of the King: upon which foundation, his Army was first raised; whereas if o­therwise he had relinquisht the Parliament, without passing those satisfactory Acts, he had so evidently dis­covered himselfe to all his subjects, that this presence would rather have fastened their malignity upon him, then perswaded their assistance, which no man he con­ceives, can deny, that is not resolved to make his own humour and partiality, the only object of his will, and wilfully suffer his understanding to be led into error, by impossible positions, grounded upon contrarieties, as that his Majesty hath exprest much love to his sub­jects, and care of the Common-wealth, in being so in­dustrious to destroy both; or that he undoubtedly [Page 6]purposeth to govern a Parliamentary way, as his predecessors have done; because he hath so king strugled with the Lawes of the Kingdome, to rule by his Prerogative, without a Parliament, and at last forsa­ken it, when he knew not how to dissolve it: for thus a malignant must prove his tenents, and no otherwise.

His conclusion therefore is, that upon due conside­ration of these things, no man can repine or murmure at the Parliament, for his present sufferings, except he look only upon the present, and esteem future times impertinencies.