Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n
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A43548
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The rebells catechism composed in an easy and familiar way to let them see the heinousness of their offence, the weakness of their strongest subterfuges, and to recal them to their duties both to God and man.
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Heylyn, Peter, 1600-1662.
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1643
(1643)
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Wing H1731A; ESTC R23968
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23,896
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33
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take up Arms against them under those pretences which is the rebellion of the hand 19. Quest What if the King be in the hands of Evil Counsellors may we not take up Arms to remove them from him Answ. Yes if the Earl of Essex may be Judg whose Father fell into Rebellion under that pretence a ut regnum ab impotenti quorundam dominatu liberaret as to free the Kingdom from some men who had got the Queen into their hands and consequently ingrossed unto themselves the principal managery of the Commonwealth But he had other aims than that as before was told you and so had they that went before him in the self same road When as Watt Tiler and Jack Straw and the residue of that Rascal Rabble had took up Arms against King Richard the second they made the Londoners believe who have been always apt to be deluded by the like pretences that when they had seized on the evil Counsellors b which abused the King and brought them to a legal trial then they would be quiet But under this pretence they broke open Prisons robbed Churches murdered the King's good Subjects and finally arrived to so high an impudence that Watt Tiler did not stick to say that within four days all the Laws of England should proceed from his mouth c And when Jack Cade had drawn the Kentish to Rebel against King Henry the sixth he gave it out that if he could get the King and Queen into his hands he would use them honourably d but if he could lay hands on any of the Traytors which were about them he would take care to see them punished for their misdemeanours But in good truth the end and aim of the Rebellion was to depose King Henry and the House of Lancaster in favour of the title of the Duke of York 20. Quest What if the King assaults a Subject or seek to take away his life may not the Subject in that case take up Arms against him Answ. Yes if e Paraeus may be Judg and some of the Genevian Doctors who have so determined But David's case which commonly is alledged in defence hereof if looked on with the eyes of judgment doth affirm the contrary For David though he had a guard of some friends and followers to save him from the hands of such wicked instruments as Saul in his unjust displeasure might have used against him yet he preserved himself from Saul not by resistance but by flight f by flitting up and down as the King removed and approached near him with his Armies For had he had a thought of War though Defensive meerly 't is probable he would have took the opportunities which were offered to him either of seizing on Sauls person when he had him all alone in the Cave of Engeddi g or suffering Abishai to smite him as he lay asleep in the Hill of Hachilah h or at the least in making sure of Abner and the Host of Saul who lay sleeping by him i But David was not so well tutored in the Art of Rebellion as to secure himself this way and wanted some of our new Masters to instruct him in it If from the practice of a pious and religious Iew we will look down upon the precept of a grave wise and learned Gentile we shall find this rule laid down in Aristotle k {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that if the Magistrate assault the person of a private Subject the Subject may not strike again nor lift hand against him Finally that you may perceive how much all sorts of men do oppose your Doctrines Calvin himself although no friend to Monarchy doth affirm thus much l qui privatus manum intulerit c. that any private person of what sort soever who shall lift up his hand against his Sovereign though a very Tyrant is for the same condemned by the voice of God 21. Quest Perhaps we may so far agree with you as to disable private persons from bearing Arms and lifting up their hands against Kings and Princes of their own authority But think you that inferiour Magistrates are not inabled by their Offices to protect the People and arm them if occasion be in their own defence Answ. 'T is true that some Divines of the Reformed Churches who either lived in popular States or had their breeding at Geneva or thought the Discipline by them defended could not be otherwise obtruded upon Christian Princes than by putting the Sword into the hands of the People have spared no pains to spread abroad this dangerous Doctrine in which they have not wanted followers in most parts of Christendom But S. Paul knew of no such matter when he commanded every soul to yield obedience and subjection to the higher powers and upon no occasion to resist those powers to which the Lord had made them subject So that although inferiour Magistrates may expect obedience from the hands of those over whom and for whose weal and governance they are advanced and placed by the Prince in chief yet God expects that they should yield obedience to the powers above them especially to the highest of all than which there is not any higher There is a golden Chain in Polities and every link thereof hath some relation and dependence upon that before so far forth as inferiour Magistrates do command the People according to that power and those instruments which is communicated to them by the supreme Prince the Subject is obliged to submit unto them without any manner of Resistance Men of no publick Office must obey the Constable the Constable is bound to speed such Warrants as the next Iustice of the Peace shall direct unto him the Iustices receive the exposition of the Law from the mouth of the Iudges the Iudges have no more Authority but what is given them by the King And thereupon it needs must follow that though the Iudges direct the Iustices and the Iustices command the Constables and the Constables may call the People to their aid if occasion be yet all must yield a free obedience without reluctancy or resistance to the King himself The reason is because as Kings or Supreme Magistrates are called Gods Ministers by S. Paul m so the inferiour or Subordinate Magistrates are called the Kings Ministers by S. Peter n Submit your selves to the King as unto the Supreme next to such Governours as are sent or authorized by him for the punishment of evil doers Besides there is no Inferior Matistrate of what sort soever but as he is a publick person in respect of those that are beneath him so is he but a private man in reference to the powers above him and therefore as a private person disabled utterly by your own rules from having any more authority to resist his Sovereign or bear defensive Arms against him as well as any other of the Common People The government of States may be compared most properly
Precedent to us who are not governed by the Iudicial Law of Moses but by the common Law of England and the ruled cases in that Law And therefore tell me if you can whether our own books of afford you any of the like examples Answ. Our own books do afford us many as viz. in the case of Walker a Citizen g of London and that of Mr. Burdet g an Esquire of Warwickshire both executed in the time of King Edward 4th for words which might be construed to a treasonable and rebellious sense tho perhaps no ill meaning was intended that of the Windsors h Butcher in the reign of King Henry 8th for saying that rather than sell his meat at so mean a rate he would send it to the Rebels in the North and finally of one Oldnoll one of the Yeomen of the Guard in Queen Maries time i who had judgment of death for certain traiterous and seditious words spoken against her Majesty altho no insurrection or Rebellion did ensue upon them For the particulars I must refer you to our law books and the common Chronicles 7. Quest Proceed we now unto your third and last sort of Rebellion and tell me what you mean by the Rebellion of the hand and how many sorts there are of it Answ. The Rebellion of the hand is of two sorts whereof the first is the composing dispersing of false scandalous Books and Pamphlets tending to the dishonour of the King His Subordinate Officers Form of Government of purpose to alienate the affections of his Subjects from him and make them the more apt to Rebel against him And this is punishable with death also by the law of England as may appear by the examples of k Bugnall Scot Heath and Kennington being Sanctuary men in S. Martins Legrand London who had judgment to be hanged drawn quartered in the time of K. Hen. 7th for setting up seditious Bills to the scandal of the King and some of his Council of Penry Udall Barrow Greenwood Studley Billott and Bowdler l zealous Puritans all all of which were condemned and three of them hanged in Q. Elizabeths time for writing treasonable seditious Books by wch the peace of the Kingdom might have been disturbed tho no Rebellion followed on them of Copping and Thacker m who were hanged at S. Edmunds bury in the said Queens time for publishing the Pamphlets writ by Rob. Browne against the Book of Common-Prayer which Compton thus reports in his Lawyers French n Deux executez pour poublier les livres de Robert Browne encontre le livre de common praut And finally witness the example of Mr. Williams o a Barrister of the Middle Temple who was executed in King Iames his Reign for writing a defamatory Book against the said King and his Posterity 8. Quest What is the other sort of that Rebellion which you call the Rebellion of the hand Answ. The other sort of the Rebellion of the hand is that which commonly is called Actual Rebellion and is defined by the Statute of the 25 of King Edward 3. p to be a levying of War against our Sovereign Lord the King in his Realm or an adhering to the Kings Enemies in his Realm giving to them aid and comfort in the Realm or elsewhere And so it is determined also in the Civil Laws by which all those q qui arripiunt arma contra eum cujus jurisdictioni subditi sunt who take up Arms against such Persons to whose authority they are subject are declared to be Rebels Where note that not the open Act only but the attempt machination is brought within the compass of Rebellion Rebellio ipse actus rebellandi est qui non solùm facto sed machinatione committitur as those Lawyers tell us r And it is worth our observation that not only the bearing Arms against the King is declared to be Rebellion by the law of England but that it was declared to be Rebellion by the chief Judges of this Kingdom s at the arraignment of the Earl of Essex the Father of him who now is in the head of this Rebellion for any man to seek to make himself so strong that the King should not be able to resist him altho he broke not out into open act 9. Quest What is the end that Rebels do propose unto themselves when they put themselves into Rebellion Ans. The deposition destruction of the King in possession an alteration of the present Government And so it was determined by the joint consent of all the Judges t at the Arraignment of the Earl of Essex above mentioned by whom it was resolved for Law that in every Rebellion there was a plot upon the life and deposition of the Prince it being not to be conceived that the Rebels would suffer him to live or reign◠who might have opportunity in the change of things to punish them for their Rebellions and avenge himself upon them for their Treasons And this they did confirm by the Civil Laws and further justifie and confirm by the strength of Reason with which it seemed inconsistent ut qui semel Regi jus dixerit that he who had once over-ruled his King by force of Arms should either suffer him to live or recover the possession of his Realm again All which they made good by the sad examples of King Edward the second and King Richard the second who did not long enjoy either life or Crown after they came into the hands of those who rebelled against them 10. Qu. But those Examples which you speak of were in times of Popery have you the like to shew since the Reformation Answ. I would to God we had none such but we have too many For not to look into our neighbouring Realm of Scotland and the proceedings of some there who called themselves Protestants against their Queen the Rebellion plotted by the Earl of Essex in Queen Elizabeths time though there was nothing less pretended was to have ended in the death of the Queen and the alteration of the Government For as was afterwards confessed by some of his Accomplices the secret part of the design was to have seized upon the Queen and secured his Adversaries in the Court whom when he had condemned and executed u Parliamento indicto reipub formam immutare statuit he then resolved to call a Parliament and settle a new form of Government Which how it could be done and the Queen alive I believe you know not And so much was acknowledged by the Earl himself after the sentence of death was passed upon him when he affirmed to certain of her Majesties Council Reginam sospitem esse non posse si ipse supersit x that whilst he lived it was not possible for the Queen to continue in safety Thus have you seen the main design of that Rebellion as of all others whatsoever what his pretences