being only from the People For it is not the Persons or Names but the superiority of the Authority against which this Faction of Geneva levels all its aims and though for the accomplishment of their ambitious designs which they vail over with the name of Religion they are pleased in words to vest the Parliament in the name of the People and as their Representatives with Authority both over Church and Crown Yet do they at the same time declare that all men of what degrees ranks or conditions soever must be subject to the Scepter of Christ which Scepter they say is committed to their hands So that here is a Yoke ready for the Neck of a Parliament whose intolerable heaviness has already discovered that it is none of Christs but of these Modern Scribes and Pharisees who lay heavy burthens upon other Men but by advancing themselves into the Chair of Supremacy will not touch them with one of their Fingers For these Saints who pretend to a power of binding Kings in Chains will without scruple so claim the honour of shackling the Nobles with Fetters of Iron That this is most certain will appear if we consider that a Parliament can pretend to no right to Government but a Monarch may do the same and upon far better grounds now you see how all their Doctrines vest the people with a Superiority over Monarchy the same Arts and Arguments which subject the Regal Authority to their Will and Jurisdiction must of necessity bring a Parliament within their Power and it is no more but a Mutato Nomine de te narratur fabula turn the Tables and they will play the same Game at the one as the other for if a King for opposing which they stile persecuting them and their seditious practices may be called in question Excommunicated deposed and deprived of his Royal Authority for the same Crimes a Parliament and the Government by Democracy may be altered abrogated and the several members of it may by the people be punished with loss of Life Estate and all other lesser punishments and disgraces And all this must be fathered upon the Good People who shall be flattered into a belief that they have the Supreme Authority when in truth a few it may be one leading politick Presbyters who shall have gained the Sovereignty over the inferior Clergy and by their means and the severities of their Discipline over all the populace who must of necessity have their heads tyed under their Uncanonical Girdles will have under Christ the whole management of all the affairs of Church and State and whoever will venture to dive to the bottom of the Lake of Geneva wil find the fifth Monarchy of the Church which the Papists have so long been setting up but by an Earthquake was tumbled in thither which the Presbyters are weighing up again in order to the new trimming it and putting in a better figure that so it may pass upon the Princes and People of the World under the Notion of the Scepter of Christ and that it is the defire of Sovereignty under the Colour of Religion at which they aim and to which whatsoever is an obstacle whether King Parliament Prelates Lords or Commons shall all be declared Antichristian and Unlawful Powers THE little respect they have shewn to all Parliaments that have opposed them demonstrates the little value they have either for those Honorable Assemblies or their Constitution and they who could pull down the House of Lords because it stood in their light and are so eager to dislimb the Parliament of the Lords Spiritual cannot in reason be supposed to esteem the lower House further than they frame to themselves a prospect that it may be serviceable to their present Interest I need not go back to fetch instances from former times either in Scotland or England of which I could produce a Cloud of Evidences the rude and insolent treatment which this present Parliament has met with from their blades of the Pen is a conviction beyond exception Nor would a new one of which they appear so fond receive any better entertainment at their hands unless to advance the slavery of the Nation in promoting their interest it should imbarque in their design A short view of their Tyrannick Consistorian Government BUT because some peoples ignorance of their intentions is in probability the reason why they admire this Government let me present them with a short view of it in its proper Colours without the shining varnish which they usually lay upon it to deceive the credulous and unwary THAT they are the true Sons of Ishmael whose hands are against all Men will in short appear if we consider their procedure against all sorts of people whom they indeavour to reduce to Obedience to Christ by the method of their Consistorian Discipline Over the Magistracy WE will begin with the Magistracy If they do not their duty in promoting the Holy Discipline by which name is meant Presbyterian Tyranny of Parochial Ministers and the Lay Elders over their Parishes of the Classis or Presbytery over their Division and of the yearly Assembly over the whole Nation or much more if they oppose it or establish any other Church Government they may and ought to be excommunicated deposed and punished and the rule is Universal as to all and all manner of Magistrates whether Kings Parliaments Judges Counsellors or other inferiour and subordinate Governours Now what is the duty of the Magistrate and whether he performs this duty as he ought what means ways and methods of Government are conducive to the Salvation of Men and the good of the Society in order to the establishment of the Kingdom of Christ they are the only Judges and though they pretend to follow the direction of the Holy Spirit and the Scriptures yet will they put their own Interpretation upon them which though manifestly contrary to the construction of the most learned men in all Ages and to the universal practice of the Church as is plain in the Case of Episcopal Government Yet herein must they be obey'd under pain of Excommunication and though nothing be more manifest that herein their Will is their Law yet must the Magistrate as well as the People submit to this Arbitrary Supremacy premacy which hereby is manifestly vested in the Presbytery as to direction ultimate Judgment and final determination and the secular Magistrate is no more but the Executioner of their Commands No Law can be binding which they declare contrary to the great design of promoting the Gospel though by seditions violence and tumults and this interest of the Gospel is in reality their own absolute Sovereignty No Obedience is due to the Magistrate further than they assure the People the things commanded are lawful To them may be made all appeals even from the highest Courts of Judicature So that down goes Magistracy and its Power or however must receive its limits bounds measures and rules of Government
that will satisfie them I appeal to their own practice when in Power That this is a great necessary and Universal Truth That Lawful Government is not to be disobeyed in Lawful Commands but that therefore the Violators of Laws especially the Principal ought for example and in terrorem to feel the force and penalties of those Laws they break since to be merciful to those few were to be cruel to the whole Body of the Society and to ruine the very Foundation of all Government For what was it that brought so many Noble Heads to the infamous Scaffold and some Ilustrious Lives to most ignominious Deaths was it not for transgressing their Ordinances opposing their Way Government and Usurpations in defence of the Ancient Establisht Fundamental Laws Priviledges Rights and Liberties both of the Prince and People What was Justice Prudence and of necessity to be done by them for the safety and support of their ill-gotten Dominion must much more be so now unless they can convince us that their Power was Lawful but the present is not which how good soever their will may be and though it appears to be what they believe and aim at yet they will never be able to prove by Law Reason or Religion and I hope they will never be in the Capacity to demonstrate it a second time by force and violence the rude and compulsive Logick of the Sword or Cannon Law Lastly it follows That this generation of Men the Presbyters with their Confederates are never to be trusted but upon the Demonstration of their sincere Repentance and Conversion attested by their Actions in regard that whosoever owns a Power Superior to his Prince does at the same time find an easie refuge and evasion against all the verbal Assurances he can give or that can be taken of him that he will be a good Subject For no person can oblige himself to an inferiour Power against the Right of a Superior for if a Country Justice of the Peace a Judge of Assise a Deputy or a Vice-Roy should exact any subscriptions or promises of fidelity from any Persons or by threatnings and severities compel them to give such to the prejudice of the King his Lawful Superior in Power there is no Person but knows that the one having no lawful Authority to require it nor the other to consent to give away the Right of his Prince over him all such Actions Promises c. must therefore be as null and void as if I should promise to give the City of London to the King of Spain THIS is the plain Case The King as with good reason for his own security and the safety of the publick he may expects assurances from these People they for fear of the Laws make some faint promises for an Oath of Allegiance to renounce their Trayterous Positions is too binding to be taken with this reserve That the Presbytery or Popular Authority is superior to the King and that therefore he has no just right to require such promises and assurances from them to the prejudice of that supreme Power nor they to give it away and that therefore they are not binding in foro Conscientiae but being prejudicial to the right of such a Power as may call him to an account and by the Grand Charter of Salus Populi both free them from all such Obligations and punish him for exceeding his limits by intrenching upon their native right of being a free-born People all such stipulations being forced and violent the effects of fear without the consent of the will are therefore null and void And their Actions speak this Language however their Tongues may sometimes seem to be of so ill breeding as to give them the Lye by protestations of great Kindness Love and I know not what to his Majesty and the Government of which they are in some humours prodigal enough only to deceive the credulous and cover their ill designs LET them not therefore think to deceive us by the smooth flatteries of soft words their usual blandishments and pretences of Innocence and that they mean us no more harm than they do their own Souls which is true in their sense for they would have us believe that it is much for our advantage to be setled upon the true Fond and Basis of Popular or Consistorian Supremacy If they do believe these Principles we cannot be too secure against their dreadful and necessary consequences and if they do not believe them let us see it in their Actions by a hearty submission to the King and his Laws and Government Ecclesiastical and Civil and let them never pretend the obstacle of Conscience for if they were as really tender against Rebellion as they are against Loyalty they might nay they must do this without prejudice to the most nice and scrupulous amongst them nor can they refuse to do it if they mean honestly and to keep a Conscience void of offence towards God and all Men. And if they persist in the refusal of giving this Authentique and only creditable testimony of their Innocence and Loyalty and continue obstinately in the old road of their former practices no person can judge but that they are still managed by the same desperate Principles and though it is easie to determine from their own methods upon all that opposed them when in Power what they deserve according to the strictness of the Lex Talionis yet I will not pretend to Prophecy what they will receive they know by Experience which ought to have had another effect upon them and not this dis-ingenuous encouragement which they have taken from it that our Government is mild and gentle and has not taken any of its measures towards them from their proceedings But this they may assure themselves that their actings are too hot to hold long and they drive on too furiously in their desperate designs the dust which rises in such Clouds will give notice that their Troops are upon a hasty march and that the Conspirators of the zealous Reformer Jehu that furious driver are mounted in the Chariot of Rebellion which is drawn by the wild Horses of Ruine and Confusion In short I desire that all Judicious Sober and considering persons will without prejudice and partiality weigh in the just ballance of sacred Truth and convincing Reason whether the fore-mentioned Principles do not infallibly lead to the fatal consequences which have been shewn and if I have not been able to accomplish so great an affair as clearly to demonstrate the truth of it the defect is in my understanding not in my will and therefore may be my affliction but can never be my Crime However I flatter my self with the hopes of having the pleasure to see this small Essay give encouragement to some other hand which is furnished with more ability better opportunities and advantages than my present circumstances will allow me to evidence the greatness of these necessary truths and to give finishing strokes to this piece which I have according to my talent only rudely designed and though to some it may possibly appear too rough and bold yet the Masters of the Pencil say that freedom is no fault where it draws to the Life The imperfections are my own and no person shall be more ready to charge me with them than I shall be not only to own them but to indeavour to correct and amend them and from how inconsiderable a Person soever it comes Saepè olitor est valdè opportuna locutus Fools and Children speak Truth nor is it or ought it to be less considerable because it comes from them yet let it be remembred That Presbyterian Popular Consistorian Supremacy is and ever will be the unchangeable irreconcilable Enemy of Monarchy Law Liberty Peace Property and the true Protestant Catholick Religion FINIS Some Books Printed and Sold by Jonathan Edwin at the three Roses in Ludgate street THE Countermine or a short but true discovery of the dangerous Principles and secret practices of the Dissenting Party especially the Presbyterians shewing that Religion is pretended but Rebellion is intended And in order thereto the Foundation of Monarchy in the State and Episcopacy in the Church are Undermined The true Liberty and Dominion of Conscience vindicated from the Usurpations and Abuses of Opinion and Perswasion
not willing by an over-zealous confidence to erect a Trophy upon the Ruines of my modesty and if I transgress the limits of the decency which ought to bound every private quill I hope it will be attributed to fear and apprehension of danger which sometimes authorizes or at least renders a freedom pardonable which it may be cannot be reconciled to the severe rules of prudence or discretion And that this practice is not without most manifest danger former experience in whose severe School we have lately been disciplin'd into an unhappy certainty does sufficiently convince us Since it is beyond denial that we owe all those desperate misfortunes of our late dreadful revolutions to this great Art of Faction and making a party which by the secret and successful Industry of some people gave a prevalency to those Men who being in their principles opposite to the Interest of the Church and Crown in a short time by their furious practices ruin'd and overturn'd them both And the present prospect of the restless and unwearied Machinations of the same Faction may likewise make it appear no less necessary now it having always been esteemed as a wise and approved Maxim in the Physick of the Body Politick as well as Natural in times of spreading and Epidemick Contagions to prescribe Prophylacticks as well as Alexipharmacks one of which has and ever will be Principiis obsta venienti occurrite Morbo For Fatal Dangers Ill Events Early Prudence oft prevents And because I would shew a good precedent for these little shreads of the Muses I have seen it upon a quarry of Glass in the window of a publick house at Huntington written with the hand of the late glorious Martyr our Sovereign Charles the First agreeable to this purpose Errors in time may be redrest The shortest Follies are the best What from a Tragical experience he found fatally true certainly cannot be ill resented when from so great an authority offered as a necessary Caution for the future CHAP. VI. Of the Priviledges of the English Government and first of the Prerogative of the King The Imperial Crown of these Realms absolutely Independent The greatness of his Power according to Laws The Kings Person Sacred The Priviledges of the People First in sending their Representatives to the Parliament Secondly in having their property secured Thirdly in the Excellent and Constant method of Justice In particular Priviledges and Franchizes In all imaginable care to prevent the growth of the Poor and in providing for such as are so In committing the Execution of the Laws to such hands as will act with Justice and the care that is taken to prevent all abuses of Laws THUS have we taken a view of those choice Ingredients which compose the Government of the British Isles in which there appears the very refined extract and most sublime quintessence of all the several forms of Regiment in the World And from such a noble and well-temper'd mixture it is impossible there should naturally result any thing but the most sound and healthful Constitution in the Body Politick and a frame of Government built for wonder and Ages Certainly that bright Star to whose shining glories we owe the Day does not in all his travels round the Earthly Globe survey a more happy spot of Ground And if any place since the loss of Paradise can pretend to it this may justly challenge the name of Albion the Happy the Fortunate Island O nimiùm foelices bona si sua nôrint Anglicolae Pardon kind Reader the Pedantry of this little remaining Apollo which warms me with these fragments of his almost extinguisht fire O more than Happy â—ritish Land If our own Good we understand Happy by Nature Happy by Arts but much more Happy by the best Laws and Government that the whole Earth can shew THERE is nothing does so evidently demonstrate the excellency of a Cause as the noble effects which it does produce nor can any thing so plainly speak the goodness of a Covernment as the mutual happiness of the Governed and Governours To manifest this I wish my power carried a just proportion to my will and that my Pen were capable of keeping pace with my Intentions and both with the real worth and merits of this most incomparable Government IT is not without some degrees of arrogance to attempt it but it would be the most insupportable vanity and certain indication of a crazed fancy to pretend to the accomplishment of such a 〈◊〉 design He that will undertake to draw the picture of the Sun when he is mounted in his Meridian Chariot of Light and attended with all his dazling guards of Brightness can expect no other reward of his audacious folly but to lose his labour and his eyes The best and safest prospect of that glorious Planet is in his agreeable Reflections and benign Influences And for my own particular I am not so familiar with Majesty as to approach it though but with my Pen without some certain tremblings of my hand occasioned by that awful veneration which the very name of Dread Sovereign raises in my mind Nor can I believe that Great things and greater Persons are to be treated or so much as treated of but with the greatest respect and deference caution and the most profound submissions And therefore if whilest I endeavour to display their amazing glories and excellencies with a design of rendring them the greatest services I am capable of I draw them in the Miniature of this short Discourse I retain some faint hopes that the imperfections of so small a Piece being so much more pardonable by being little will be attributed to my timerous hast Fear is a passion which is apt not only to disorder the Fancy but even to discompose Reason it self And it is not uncommon for great Persons and generous Spirits to pardon with a gracious smile the effects of that veneration which they have occasion'd and which is apt to give such confusions to their Inferiors as sometimes makes them mistake the necessary decencies of their Duty even whilest they would endeavour most respectfully to preserve themselves within its Limits Let us therefore with all due humility look upon the Robes of Majesty the Ornaments and Ensigns of Royal Dignity those unvaluable Jewels whose radiant Lustre adorn the English Diadem and which is it self adorned by the Head that wears it Which will with ease convince us how happy that People must needs be who live under the kind Beams of such a Monarchy and such a Monarch Of the Priviledges of the English Government and first of the Prerogative of the King THE Excellency of the Ancient Flourishing and August Monarchy of Great Britain which God long preserve in Peace Glory and Prosperity consists principally in this That it is absolutely Independent and That the Sovereign and Imperial Crown of these Realms The Imperial Crown of this Realm absolute and Independent though it does admit of Foreign Equals knows no
Superior nor owes either Tribute or Homage to any other besides the Almighty Sovereign the Supreme Majesty of Heaven and Earth from whom as the King receives it so to him only is he accountable for the managery and administration of it The King is the sole Fountain of all Honour The greatness of his Power according to Laws and the Foundation of all Law nay the very Soul and Life of it for by his Royal word he gives it a Being and by his * Le Roy le veult Affirmative breath that which before was a dead and inanimate Bill becomes a living and an Active Law And in like manner by his powerful negative or ‖ Le Roy s' avisera suspending his consent any intended Sanction becomes abortive and never sees the Sun And as it is both his and his Peoples happiness that his Will is not his Law but that his Law is his Will so it is but highly reasonable that he should have the liberty and freedom of the choice of those Laws by which he obliges himself to Rule and Govern In him is the sole Power of the Sword the Power of making Peace and War and in order thereunto of raising Forces granting Commissions both for Land and Sea In him is the sole Power of Calling Adjourning Proroguing and dissolving Parliaments when and where he judges it most expedient In his power it is to remit the severities of the Penal Laws whereby he may manifest his goodness and clemency as well as his greatness and justice by graciously pardoning both the smaller breaches of his Laws and the more capital offences which he might most justly punish From him all metals receive their Impress and according to the Standard he puts upon them they become valuable and currant Coin From him all places of high Trust derive their Authority by his Commission they Act and put his Commands and the Laws in execution And in short without him or against his Will and Consent nothing can be legally acted or done The Person of the King most Sacred AND as his Power is thus Great so his Person is most Sacred and is therefore most strictly guarded by the Laws which like Solomon's Lions stand on each side of the steps and ascents of his Imperial Throne 13 Car. 2. and with no less Terror than Majesty declare That it is High Treason within or without the Realm to Compass Imagine Invent Devise or Intend Death or Destruction or any bodily harm tending to death or destruction maim or wounding imprisonment or restraint of the Person of the King or to deprive or depose him from the Stile Honour or Kingly Name of the Imperial Crown of this Realm or any other of his Dominions or Countries or to levy War against him within or without the Realm or any other of the Kings Dominions or Countries being under his Obeysance THESE amongst many others are the principal Jewels which adorn the glorious Diadem of the English Sovereigns whose Government being so remote from Arbitrary that it is altogether by the exact Rule of Law Justice and Equity as it must needs be easie for the people so it contributes extremely to the Happiness and prosperous tranquillity of the Princes Reign And were it possible to add one Prerogative more to the Crown That the King might rule in the Hearts and kind affections of his People as well as over their Persons certainly there could no greater happiness befall both the King and his Subjects in this World And as such a blessed Union and Agreement would be their great and Common Interest where the one ruling with Love the other should obey their Ruler from a principle of affection so it is to be hoped that time and a right understanding of the most obliging Temper of their Prince or some other wise expedients will at last allay that dangerous Democratick fury the only present visible obstacle to this desired Happiness which whereever it prevails or enters possesses men with the principles of Usurpation upon many other but more especially upon this fundamental prerogative of the Sovereign by devesting him of the loyal and sincere affections of his People HAVING thus taken such a short view of it as the dazling Lustre of Majesty will permit let us pass from the Sovereign to the Subjects and there likewise we shall most convincingly see the effects of the most prudent easie safe and happy constitution of the English Government under which there is no person who lives in obedience to it who escapes the particular care and cognizance of the Laws The Priviledges of the People first in the sending their Representatives to the Parliament THE first great and fundamental Priviledge of the Subjects consists in the free Choice which the Commons of England have of Delegates or Representatives to be sent to the most Honourable Assembly of the Parliament there to make known the just grievances of the People and to offer such good wholsome and necessary Bills in order to their being promoted into Laws by the Royal Will as may be most for the advantage and happiness of those whom they represent By reason whereof all those Laws by which the people are governed for the present or are to be Governed for the future are such as they themselves have a share in the propounding and preparing there being nothing that can by the Royal assent pass into an obliging Statute or Act of Parliament either against or without their knowledge and consent as is evident from the Proem to most of those Acts which compose our Statute-Law which are in these or the like words Be it Enacted by the Kings most Excellent Majesty by the Advice and with the Assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament Assembled and by the Authority of the same So that they must be the most unreasonable amongst mankind who are not contented to be obedient to those Laws which are by their King Enacted and Established not only according to their own preparation and with their free and full assent but at their earnest request and humble Importunity NOR are they only highly irrational but most barbarously treacherous and perfidious who make no account of such mutual stipulations and lawful contracts with which they have obliged themselves as the whole Nation does when by the Parliament they Petition the King to make such or such Laws and upon that condition that he will please to give them the force and power of Laws they will live in obedience to him according to the direction of those Laws For Obedience is the end of all Laws and solemn Faith of Contracts is the essential Foundation upon which all Government and Happiness in this World does depend and there can no Bill pass into an Act of Parliament but it obliges Universally all Subjects to obedience by vertue not only of Royal Authority but of every individual persons promise For whoever gives his Voice
and for Laws you have heard their sence already Of the strength of Alliances Nor can the Royal Masters of the Universe expect more security from the strictest Alliances and strongest Confederations which knots cannot be so closely drawn but the Papal breath can effect that which the great Alexander was obliged to do with his conquering Sword Hear the Determination of Pope Urban the Sixth sent to Charles the Emperor Bull. Vrb 6. Ann. Pontif. â— and Wenceslaus King of Bohemia before the Council of Constance in which he declares That all Contracts Confederations Leagues and Alliances made with Hereticks who are separated from the Unity of the Holy Church or who shall afterwards come to be so are by the Divine Law Rash Unlawful Null and Void even though they be confirmed by giving the most solemn Faith and strengthened by Apostolical confirmation What Prince can now be secure in any of his Leagues or Alliances unless he will tamely take the Roman Yoke of Supremacy which to refuse is Heresie and that debars of any advantage of solemn Faith Leagues and Apostolically confirmed confederations if these be Tow Flax and green Wit hs what Bonds will avail against the Roman Sampson sure nothing but cutting off the winding Curles of this overgrown Supremacy Of the Fidelity of the People NOR shall the Sovereign Princes of the Earth find any Refuge by retreating to the Fidelity and Allegiance of their people founded upon the principles of Conscience For if this be taken for a Rule of Conscience which by being an Article of Faith it must necessarily be That the Papal Authority is Superior to the Imperial all men are bound to obey the Supreme power before the Inferior And so soon as a King for disobedience or any other Crime is declared Excommunicate his subjects are obliged not only to a non-obedience but to disobedience so that Rebellion and Treason are not only established by a Law but cease to be Crimes and become necessary Duties This gave the Original to all those Conspiracies and Treasons against Qu. Elizabeth and her miraculous Successor King James Viz. The Excommunicatory Bull of Pius the Fifth afterwards revived by Gregory the Thirteenth If we dare believe Hieronymus Gatena who writ the Life of the said Pope which was by licence from Sixtus Quintus then Pope printed at Rome Anno 1588. So that if kind Heaven as hitherto it has constantly done did not appear the solicitous Defender and Revenger of injured and oppressed Innocence and more particularly the Refuge and Protection of sacred Sovereignty which wearing its immediate character has rarely been exposed to contempt or been manifestly affronted without remarkable vengeance and were there not more Fidelity to be expected and found in the Generosity of Humane Nature than in this Religion all Kings would by this new Roman Faith be stript not only of all their Royal Robes their Divine Right and Title but left naked and exposed despoiled of all Humane helps and assistances to assure their Scepters in their hands or to recover them should they be lost NEITHER is it possible that they should be upon much better terms for their Succession and Posterity He who cannot assure himself of his own security and establishment is in little probability to do it for another though his Son and by right immediate lawful Successor You shall hear Bellarmine's opinion and judge whether I put an abusive construction upon their Faith If to this The Roman Church for Elective Kings Bell. de Rom. Pont. l. 1. cap. 3. says he were added that neither the chief King nor those inferior Princes should enjoy these as Hereditary Dignities but that the best Men should by the choice of the People be promoted to them it would be the best and in this mortal life most to be desired Government in the World Undoubtedly to the Roman Court to whose absolute will this pretended popular Right of Elections would presently devolve but a material Quaere whether to any other But adds he It would certainly be most agreeable to all Mankind I beg of his Eminence to except Sovereign and Successive Princes out of the number of the All for it would not be very agreeable to them who are the most considerable though not the Most because all love that sort of Government best of which they may hope to have a share such as without doubt this proposed by us is where Power shall be annexed to Vertue and not Descent The Cardinal might at least in his Levelling proposal have spared this last reflection upon those Illustrious persons as if generally they wanted that vertue which should be the ornament to a Crown THERE are several other most Impolitick inconveniencies which of necessity do attend the admission of the Roman Religion and are directly against the Interest of Princes as first that Hereby the Pope maintains a constant Intelligence and exact Correspondency with his Votaries of the Religious Orders who own a dependence only upon him for the Generals of every Order being usually resident at Rome receive a constant account from those of their Order who are Confessors to Kings Queens and great Ministers of State of all the affairs of those Courts where they are permitted the greatest freedoms which if it be of moment is immediately communicated to the Pope or Cardinal Patron SECONDLY He has a Spiritual Militia in constant pay of the Jesuites Dominicans Franciscans and other Orders who do not only strangely influence the people but are able of themselves to compose a formidable power if another Julius or Boniface the Eighth Plat. in vita Bon. 8. should as Platina writes of him repeat the design of striking a terror into Kings Princes Emperors Nations and People IN the last place Hereby a vast and immense Treasure is Yearly drawn out of any Kingdom whilest men purchase from Rome Heaven and Earth by Pardons Indulgences Templa Saccrdotes Altaria Sacra Coronae Ignes Thura preces Coelum est venale Deusque Mantuan Calam lib. 3. Dispensations Investitures Palls Suits Appeals c. So that a Martial Pope has all the furniture of War Men Mony and Intelligence provided at the cost of the Prince and his People to keep them under or reduce them to Obedience if they venture to affront his absolute Power and Supremacy HAVING thus seen what treatment Sovereigns must expect from the Papal Supremacy Papal Supremacy destructive of the Peoples Liberty and Property it is easie to conjecture what must become of the Subjects and that Power which pretends to Excommunicate and Depose Princes and dispose of their Crowns must make no difficulty to be most Arbitrary in the disposal of all private fortunes and if it be Heretical to think that our Lord God the Pope has not Power to Enact what he does Extra Jo. 22. Sect. cum inter nonnullos Gloss ibid. Sect. declar as the Extravagant properly so called and the Gloss there tells us the Power of the
the Coast of Loyalty made Shipwrack of their Lives and Fortunes as before they had done of their Allegiance and a good Conscience witness Mr. Love and several others with whose Martyrdom as they call'd it and some other trifling assistances to his Majesties happy Restauration which they could not avoid they would perswade the World that they have made such an attonement for the last that now they may run upon the score with us and have credit enough for a new Rebellion THAT they believe the People to be above the King which is a fair step towards one is plain for they take it for a fundamental of Government and the Liberty of the People That they may appeal from the King to the Parliament as did the Scottish Kirk whose words are That the Parliament ever retained a Jurisdiction in it self both over the Church and Crown though as I shall shew hereafter this is but a Presbyterian wheedle to a Parliament to make them give the King the Mate and the People I say the Good People are the Men in whom the Supreme Power resides that is the Presbyters and Elders assembled in the Great Sanhedrim who represent both Church and State which the Parliament as they would have it being dismembred of the Episcopal Clergy cannot properly do But to take them at their word for once though I know they do not mean as they speak and let it pass for one of their piae fraudes at which art they are more dexterous than an old Jesuit we know no appeal with hopes of redress can lie but from an inferior to a superior Power and all they aim at in it is to ruin Monarchy by advancing a Popular Supremacy above it which till by them they have accomplished their design they make Semblance as if it were in the Parliament yet Ultimately they intend it for themselves and the Spiritual Cabal for if the Parliament as the Peoples Representatives be Superior to the King all his Right as to Possession Power and Succession depends upon them and how incompatible a Superior Jurisdiction within the same Dominions is with absolute Monarchy we have already made appear since it is the same thing whether the Pope or Parliament in the name of the People have the Supremacy over the Unfortunate Prince The third Principle of Presbytery That Kings may by the People be called in Question for their Administration of the Government A third Principle of Presbytery and which is the natural consequent of the former is That Kings may by their People or their Representatives the Parliament by which word they always understand the Commons the Lay-Lords as well as the spiritual being in truth their great aversion and abomination as experience has told us be called in Question for their Miscarriages or ill Administration of the Government This is the Doctrine of Calvin and of Devils those Primitive Rebels and perpetual Incendiaries of the World the malicious disturbers of the peace and happiness of Mankind Our blessed Jesus the Everlasting Prince of Peace taught no such Doctrine for the word which God sent was preaching Peace by Jesus Christ he is Lord of all Obedience to Magistrates Acts 10.36 and to render to Caesar the things that are Caesars which by his great Example in paying tribute and working a Miracle for himself and St. Peter he confirmed and it may be in that single instance has cut the sinews of the Papal as well as popular Plea to Supremacy over Earthly Sovereigns But what sayes Mr. Calvin with his new Geneva Gospel Cal. Inst lib. 4. p. 540. cap. 20. §. 31. Audiant Principes terreantur Hear O ye Kings and be terrified and well they may at what follows if what he says be as true as the Gospel which though his believers credit I must beg their excuse if I dare not for saith he if there be any popular Magistrates appointed to moderate the lawless lusts of Kings such as were formerly the Ephori opposed to the Kings of Sparta the Tribunes of the people to the Roman Consuls the Demarchi to the Athenian Senate and with which Power it may be as things now stand the three Estates in all Kingdoms are vested when they meet in Parliament I do not forbid them to interpose as it is their duty against the fierceness of Kings so that if their impotent rage trample upon or insult over the meanest of the Populace and they wink at it I do affirm that such their dissimulation cannot be excused from a most wicked perfidiousness because they do thereby fraudulently betray the Liberty of the People of which they know themselves by Gods appointment the Preservers or Defenders according to the Commonwealth translation of the place the Keepers or as Nol render'd it the Protector of the Liberty of the People Private Men indeed he there teaches must submit but a Parliament may nay must Rebel by their own Authority and of necessity HERE is in little a true Landscape and prophetical direction of all our late Rebellion The Parliament he sayes the three Estates but his Disciples are greater Artists than their Master and can effect their design with a quarter of one of them are by Gods appointment the Keepers of the Liberties of the People they must not betray their trust by a base and wicked perfidiousness The King as they foreplot their suggestion to bait the people into Rebellion designs to take away these Liberties of the people and to enslave them under Episcopal Hierarchy in the Church Monopolies Purveyance Protections c. in their politick Liberties he insults over and tramples upon the Populace therefore the Parliament may and ought to defend them all Remonstrances and Petitions are in vain all the fair offers of Majesty in order to their satisfaction and a pacification are but pretences of kindness revocable at his pleasure and therefore there is a necessity to throw the fatal Dye of War and do themselves Justice by the Sword that Vltima Ratio Perduellionis rather than betray the trust reposed in them and which if it be true that he affirms that they know themselves appointed by God they have a Divine Authority to do and the Sovereign Power resides in them and the King is to be accountable for his ill administration of the Government and so farewel Monarchy for it is come to its Conclamatum est and must expire beyond all hope of recovery or resurrection A fourth Principle of Presbytery That Kings may by their People be deposed for miscarriages in Government AND this leads them to a fourth Principle by an unavoidable necessity for he that draws his Sword against his Prince must throw away the old Scabbard and find a new one for his own security in his Sovereigns breast Such dangerous Quarrels as are Competitions for Empire are not to be determined but by the fall of one Party and there is no hopes of comprimising where supreme Sovereignty is the apple
BESIDES the very Foundation of such an Opinion is absurd and unreasonable for there can be no Laws till there be some frame of Government to establish and enact such Laws nor can any thing have the force or power of a Law or oblige men to obedience unless it does proceed from such a Person or Persons as have a right to command it and Authority to punish the Disobedience or neglect of those who ought to be subject to it And to say that this Right is in the People who by their suffrages Elect the Supreme Magistrate is so far from mending the matter that it makes it worse and more dangerous for then the People may in reason fairly presume when ever they please to say That the Sovereign Power is abused to their prejudice which was contrary to their Design in granting it to reassume their own Right and either keep the Power themselves or proceed to a new Election which is the direct Way to fulfil the prediction of the Necromantick Head which was once said at Oxford Bakers Chrons pag. 167. to have given this fatal Oracle Caput decidetur Caput elevabitur Pedes elevabuntur supra Caput which was tragically translated into English in the transactions of the late unhappy Times when Monarchy beheaded lay The head of Traitors bore the Sway. The feet of * Dan. 2.33 Iron and of Clay Became a monstrous head they say K. Charles Martyr O. Cromwell Army and Rump Parl. BUT further the universal Testimony of all Ages Nations and Places derive the beginning of Positive Laws from a Government justly impowred to make enact and command Laws and a superior Power that had a Right to exact Obedience to them So that it is almost impossible to find the least footsteps of Law Law of Nature and Law of Nations of Divine Institution that is by far so ancient as Government As for that Jus Naturae and Jus Gentium they are more properly Common and Universal Principles of Nature and all Nations than Laws and owe their establishment to a Divine Authority and not to any Humane Power and there is a vast difference between the very Words Jus and Lex though our Language does not admit of it in the common use of Expression for Jus properly signifies a Right or Propriety and such a Right as if it be common as the Right of Nature and Nations are every man by vertue of his Being lays a claim unto The word Lex or Law seems derived from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 finem facio termino to put an end and determination to things which before were undetermined or from the Latin word Ligc to bind and oblige as Laws do all people to Obedience or possibly as Tully observes à Legendo from chusing what is best for society So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 distribuo pasco rego to distribute Justice and Right to feed the people with care and diligence as a Shepherd his flock for which reason Homer calls Kings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Shepherds of the People who rule and govern them So the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is rendred Law signifies Doctrina teaching instruction because Laws teach and instruct all people what is their Duty All which words of the most ancient and universal Languages plainly intimate that there must be some person or persons who must have such Authority as may inable them to determine Differences oblige men to Obedience to those Laws they chuse as best for them seed govern and teach their Inferiors their respective Duties and who must therefore by necessary consequence be Governours before the Laws were made by which they and their successors afterwards directed and managed the Societies over which they were the Primitive Rulers Princes and Law-givers CHAP. II. Of the danger of Anarchy the necessity of Government and Laws to prevent it All People not fit for one kind of Government Of the three forms of Govenment Democracy Aristocracy anâ— Monarchy Some Considerations anâ— necessary Animadversions upon our laâ— English Republick THE goodness of the Divine Nature has not more visibly appear'd in any thing of humane affairs than in bestowing this principle of Self-preservation in so high a degree upon Mankind as to make it universally out oâ— Love to themselves oblige them to enter into Communities and Societies An effect so Noble that possibly that and Religion may more truly be said to distinguish Men from Brutes than Reason which though we ambitiously endeavour to ingross to our selves yet am I to learn how they can without some injustice be excluded from a share and lower portion of it some of their Actions being so remarkably Logical and Discursive as will never be solved either by mere matter and motion or the higher principles of bare sense and fancy But for this principle of Self-preservation though they enjoy a great measure of it in common with us yet not so much as to teach them for their security to enter into the mutual obligations of Laws Government and Society And 't is happy for us that this Wisdom was deni'd them since there are few Creatures so inconsiderable but if they had the Policy for their common safety to unite they would in a little time grow so numerous and powerful as to be able to enter into open hostility with Men and in probability either wholly extirpate humane race or at least as that Monopolizer of Wit and Fancy the most ingenious Mr. Cowley expresseth it Cowley Pind. Odes upon the 34. Cap of Esay stanz 6. pag. 50. And if of lost mankind Ought happen to be left behind If any Reliques but remain They in the Dens should lurk Beasts in the Palaces should Reign whereas now if they attempt any Rebellion or Disobedience they are easily subdued and kept under subjection by their own Disunion WITHOUT Laws or Government men would be but a more cunninâ— kind of Brutes and therefore we sâ—â— that where these prevail there humanâ— Nature is most refined civilized anâ— polite but where Laws are wanting iâ— any measure there in proportion meâ— degenerate into the greatest Barbarism Infidelity Ingratitude Treachery Inhumanity and almost brutish Anarchy and Confusion Nay their very Religion which is the highest exaltation oâ— the nature of Man and possibly the oâ—ly thing that perfectly and incommunâ—cably differences it by setting men in 〈◊〉 degree so superior to Beasts that they can never arrive at it even Religion 〈◊〉 self for want of Laws and Government becomes sensual and Barbarous if not Devilish THERE has therefore appear'd to all the World for self-preservation and mutual advantage an absolute necessity of Society The danger of Anarchy shews the necessity of Government Nor has it been less evident that it is absolutely impossible there should be any such thing without Government Superiority and Subjection For Anarchy is indeed the state of Nature but it is only of
their Party against it and therefore as they can blame no body but themselves so certainly all the loyal and good Subjects have a great deal of reason to complain of them who are the principal occasions of those Impositions which lye so heavy upon them AS for their conclusion that these and multitudes of other grievanceâ— should be taken away by turning the Monarchy into a Free State These were but fair words and fine promises to deceive the ignorant and credulous multitude for a miserable experience taught us the contrary And for one King who according to the most mild and easie Laws governed with the greatest wisdom and clemency they set up and established an Oligarchical Democratick Tyranny like that of the Thirty Athenian Tyrants And every one of these Parliament Demarchs was as absolute by himself as the Law of his own Will could make him Nor could any person question either their Actions or Authority without paying his Life and Fortune or one of them for so great a presumption And I remember when the late King at his Trial before their pretended High Court of Justice questioned their Authority they gave him no other answer but that they were abundantly satisfied with their own Authority and from his dreadful example it was easie to conclude that whoever would not be satisfied with their Power was certain to follow him in suffering under it and 't is easily remembred how arbitrarily all things were managed and the whole Kingdom brought into a slavery far greater than theirs who wear Canvass-cloaths and Wooden-shooes and look like Ghosts for they did not only amongst the multitudes of grievances which were redrest make men look like such but really made such of all those whom they either feared suspected or hated AND for their observation of the situation of the Nation for Trade and Manufactures it was so pretty a new Nothing to pin upon the peoples sleeves that it could not but please extremely As if all our Monarchs had liv'd in such profound Oscitancy and Ignorance that they never knew what Ports Havens or Creeks they had within their Dominions or as if the Sea-men knew not without this new Chart of discovery that Portsmouth lay more conveniently for a Trade with France than Robin Hoods-Bay or John-a-Groats-house in the remotest Orcades Or as if the common people whose great interest and constant employment it is from their very leading-strings were by these sons of Bacchus to be taught the art of Agriculture and under Monarchy could not tell the nature of their Lands or what Countries were fit for such or such Manufactures or any other thing relating to Trade or Husbandry but these great Ingeniosos of the Republick must have the honour of these happy Inventions which the people understood before far better than they could instruct them as is but too evident to all those Gentlemen who of late years having their Lands by the universal fall of Rents thrown upon their hands could never make those improvements and advantages of them which the Rusticks did by their better understanding of the Lands and the methods of Husbandry in which they had their education which the Gentlemen who are owners of the Land wanted And for their taking care for the Poor in one sence it was true enough they took all the care they could to keep the Nation as poor as it was possible that if ever they should have any such intentions or inclinations they might never have the power or the purse to effect their Design in bringing back their banish'd Sovereign to his undoubted Right the Royal Throne of his Illustrious Ancestors for which purpose they kept a continual standing Army at Land and a Navy at Sea to the incredible charge oppression and impoverishment of the Subjects of these Realms both their Friends and Enemies though they had the policy to lay the heaviest load upon the backs of their Enemies if possible to break them and they kept the Loyal Gentry and Nobility so poor that many of them have not been able or ever will to forget the kindness of that Government which was the utter ruine of them and their families SHOULD the same method be made use of with them sure then they would make a horrible out-cry but some people may better steal a Horse than others look over the Hedge and what was Wisdom Prudence and Justice in a Republick would be Tyranny Oppression and Cruelty in a Monarch AS for the last clause that Monarchy never had the leisure effectually to advance or encourage the Trade of the Nation How comes our Statute-Law to be so full of such Acts as are for the Improvement and Regulation of all Trades and Manufactures How come all those Charters and Grants to Corporations Fairs Markets and to the several Companies of the City of London However we will agree to them that some of our late Monarchs have not had the leisure effectually to look after these affairs but who was it that gave the obstruction and how come they not to have so much leisure Even these kind publick-spirited Commonwealths-men who from the very moment that our Nation began to look abroad into the World and by Navigation to advance the Interest of our Country even these great Merchants of Faction Sedition and Rebellion began to set up for themselves and to spoil our Markets by giving such disturbances to Queen Elizabeth in the last years of her Reign to King James during all his and to the Royal Martyr whom at last they bought and sold that Monarchy had something of nearer concern to mind than Foreign Trade viz. Domestick Peace and found work enough to quench those flames which they saw ready to blaze out or already broken out in the State which were kindled and blown up by the fiery Zeal of these hot-headed Republicans And our Kings by that Charity which begins at home were obliged first to take care of their own Preservation which yet so violent was the rage of that unruly combustion that they were not able to effect but all was laid in heaps and ashes thank the good honest men of the Commonwealth for their industry and successful pains they took about it God reward them for it BUT God have the praise who had compassion upon our Ruines and pitied to see us lye in the Dust we have seen a glorious Resurrection of Monarchy we have seen all these frivolous calumnies confuted We have seen Monopolies taken away and yet the Court remain Purveyance restrained and both the Waggoner and Barge-man paid for serving the King to their own content we have seen unnecessary Protections taken away and Courtiers obliged to pay their just Debts which the Democratick Government for all their publick Faith never did We have seen all incouragement given to Manufactures Navigation and Merchandize the Pooâ— taken care of and all this done mosâ— effectually And much more we mighâ— see England the most Potent flourishing and quiet Kingdom in thâ— World
all such rapacious arts and methods and by a common consent for their mutual advancement father the great expences of their Private gains upon the publick Necessities aâ— well as draw them from the Publick stock Nor will their successors be very forward to call them to a strict accompt fearing the like treatmenâ— themselves and to their prejudice to draw it into a precedent for succeeding Authorities FROM hence it is easie to observe with what fidelity the common Interest will be served which must almost unavoidably fall into the hands of such persons whose designs will be so faâ— from promoting the common good and protecting it from the Rapacious attempts of others that they will be sure to make a certain prey and revenue of it for themselves and the inconvenience will be so little remedied by frequent Changes and new Elections that it will rather prove a new increase of the Malady and the application of fresâ— and hungry Leeches to the Temples of the Body Politick will rather be a means to suck out its very heart-bloud than to preserve its health and wellfare AND that this is not only very natural but experimentally true no bare supposition but a deadly Recipe to which we can all write a sad Probatum est we shall need no further proof than to take a short review of the transactions of the late English Republick whose great business was to inrich themselves and their Confederates by the Ruines of others and by impoverishing the whole Nation And to what Estates by their ill-imployed Power they did most of them arrive is still visible in that though they were forced to their great affliction to disgorge a great part of their acquisitions by restoring the Crown Bishops Dean Chapter and Cathedral Lands to the right heirs and owners yet still some of them had so well feathered their Nests out of the publick stock that they or their posterity might have lived in the greatest splendor or plenty if their fear to be taken notice of or their narrow penurious and covetous humour would have permitted them or in truth if the dangerous Curse upon such as make more haste than good speed to be Rich had not like a secret rust consumed those ill gotten greatness and riches Prov. 20.21 the end of which that Royal writer assure us shall not be Blessed BUT more particularly as to the happiness of any Society by protection from Foreign Force and Injuries No security against Foreign Force can be expected from a Democratick Republick especially in the greatest dangers it is impossible that any persons should endeavour this so heartily and with that fidelity of resolution as to defend it to the utmost with their Lives and Fortunes who having a distinct Interest from the Publick may therefore hope to save their own stake and survive the fate of the expiring Government And this every one who is a sharer in the Government of a Republick may easily hope to do and though he be devested of his Authority by an invading Power that is no greater loss than in a few years or it may be days he is sure to do of course without such violent means when by resigning his place he must be reduced to the condition of a private man yet still he may hope even under the prevailing Power to enjoy his Life and private Fortune Nay further it is possible that by selling the present Power he does possess and bartering away the publick Interest he may arrive at a higher pitch of greatness and a more durable command than otherways he could ever have hoped for And certainly there cannot be a stronger temptation to such men to betray the Liberty of their Country than assurances that they shall reserve to themselves not only the continuance of the present but also an additional power and greatness and all the advantages of it by such a profitable treachery AND though so long as a Common-wealth can keep a-float the sweetness of Sovereignty and the other advantages which the present possession of gives them a greater satisfaction in than the largest promises of an Enemy of whole fidelity they cannot be absolutely certain and such like considerations may make them struggle hard to preserve the Bird in hand rather than trust to two in the Bush by resigning their Power yet most certainly when they see it in manifest danger of sinking which is the only season for trial of Courage and Fidelity they will be so far from employing their utmost efforts to buoy up the Ship of the Common-wealth that they will quit the crazy and leaking Vessel and fairly tack about in their own private Chaloup and stand in with the next shore of safety or by striking Sail and coming under the Lee of the Conqueror save their own Interest and it may be obtain honourable and advantageous conditions for their early submission BESIDES in all Democratick Governments there dwells a certain dangerous and mischievous person which the common people call No Body who always walks invisible and shelters himself from discovery amongst the crowd of Governours So that when there happens any notable miscarriage of State No body knows the occasion or Author or who it was that did it and if at last the publick sink and perish No body must be charged with it because amongst so many it will be difficult to fix it upon any particular person or persons and they who are really guilty will yet have the confidence to protest their Innocence and it may be that they may appear so will be forward-enough to charge any such miscarriages upon the opposite Faction which this kind of Government is never without whereby they do not only shelter themselves but expose their Enemies to the general Odium and it may be to the popular Rage and by that means at the same time secure their treachery and revenge themselves THUS it was with the Romane Senate who though for above four hundred years they stood many violent shocks yet still they were never in a manifest danger of an intire Ruine till such time as the conquering Genius of the mighty Julius had overthrown the great Pompey and his Confederates who appear'd the defenders of the Republick though possibly had victory waited upon their Eagles they would have made the same Quarry of the Commonwealth that Caesar's did for immediately the Senate gave way to the Conqueror and his fortune and decreed him a Triumph the first badge of their cowardize treachery and slavery And though the ingrateful Brutus and his conspiring Friends thought by his death with three and twenty wounds to have revived the expiring Republick and healed those which Caesar had given it yet were they but such convulsive struggles as did presage its certain and near approaching death for no sooner had Augustus the heir of Caesar's Fortune and Empire overcome Anthony but the tame Senate resigned it self and the Government into his hands and the rather in regard he permitted them to
Government by Faction can never be for the general good of any Community of Men. For all Factions and Parties are constantly for oppression of those who are opposite and contrary to them Esteeming that the securest method to keep them under and to disable them from opposing or however from overthrowing their Power So that no man can have any assurance of safety or property but by swimming down the stream of a prevailing Party and in the beginning of such Factions it is impossible for any person to prophesie which will be so or how long their power shall continue in regard of the frequent change of Governours He that unluckily espouses the falling side is sure to be crushed with them and if for his security any person shall embrace a cunning Neutrality he does thereby expose himself a prey to both parties for neither of them will look upon him to be theirs but will be jealous that secretly he is of the adverse Faction and accordingly whilest he is a declared friend to neither he will be treated as a secret enemy to both so that it is impossible there can be any such thing as quiet security where Property is always left to the mercy of perpetual changes and revolutions of Faction which inconvenience like its shadow is the inseparable companion of a Commonwealth so long as the Sun of prosperity shines upon it BUT further where there are many Governours who as before was said have a separate Interest distinct from that of the Publick these Interests are dispersed through the several parts of the Dominions where their particular Estates and Places of Residence are And if they are Proud Ambitious Covetous or Imperious Men they will be most absolute and arbitrary in all such places And if they be not naturally guilty of those Vices Government and supreme Authority are but too apt to taint all such persons with some measure of them who are exalted and not born to the greatness of Sovereignty and Power for where these are not hereditary men look upon such promotions to be the pure effects of their merit and whoever sets that high value upon himself as to be of that belief cannot escape the danger of insupportable pride as well as vanity for all promotion comes from a higher and unseen Power But however there will be found few amongst the ordinary rank of people let them be great by chance or merit who will have the spirit or confidence to contradict or oppose them though they do invade their property or incroacâ— upon their rights to advance their own greatness riches and power and with very good caution lest being exasperated by any such treatment from their Inferiors though but in maintaining their own priviledges they should make use of that power which they have in their hands to revenge their private quarrels or however as they may easily do them many ill offices Nor would there be any remedy by complaints every offence committed against such a person as he would represent it nay the very complaint it self would be look'd upon as a contempt or affront of Authority which in probability would procure severe rebukes if not punishment rather than redress to such foolish complainants there being nothing to be expected but expence of time money in the pursuance of an affair where the application must be made to those who are both Judges and Parties ALL this and much more was exactly verified by the Members of the late Rebel Faction of a Parliament and the Officers nay the very common Soldiers of the Army who were such absolute Princes in the several Counties and places of their Residence or Quarters that no person durst question any of their Actions though never so unjust for fear they should question him for a Malignant and make his Estate a Delinquent which most certainly they would have done it being an infallible sign that a man was disaffected to the Government if he went about to oppose their most Lawless Actions And to satisfie their private splene they would not fail to execute upon him the publick revenge for he that could not submit to be a slave to the Governors was presently adjudged an Enemy to the Government and for that was sure to suffer in his Estate if they were so abundantly super-merciful to let him preserve his Life in a tedious Prison No equal Distribution of Rewards and Punishments can rationally be expected from a Republick which must of necessity be managed by Faction and Interest NEITHER is the Government of a Republick much more happy in the thirds particular required to the prosperity and well-being of Society which is the equal distribution of Rewards and Punishments 3 and it being impossible to separate Faction and Interest from this kind of Authority it will likewise be impossible but that there will be the greatest inequality in the administration of distributive Justice for it will never be proportioned to the real worth or merits of Men or Actions but according as they shall be judged favourable or advantageous to the Interest of the Ruling Faction which most commonly will happen to be the worst the number of good Men in all Ages and Places being much inferior to that of the Vicious and Ill So that all Offices of Profit and all Places of Trust Dignity or Honour will most certainly be conferr'd upon such persons as are esteemed Friends and their want of merit or ability to discharge such considerable employs will be abundantly recompenced by the fidelity they either have or well dissemble to the side and Interest of their Patrons who will always be willing to gratifie such to depress their Enemies and to support their own Party and Power judging that their gratifications will oblige to a firmness and fidelity lest they should be deprived of those advantages they possess from by and under them Though after all the obligations that can be laid upon them these Mercenary fidelities are all like Soldiers of fortune who will certainly list themselves under those Standards where there is the best pay and preferment Whereas on the contrary no ability to discharge any Place or Office of trust no Integrity shall be able to turn the balance of Rewards against the heavy charge or but suspicion of being no friend to the present over-ruling Faction or their proceedings So that in short all Vertue if we measure it by what is rewarded or incouraged in a Commonwealth will consist either in the artifice of a well manag'd flattery or a real joyning with that party of the Government which is uppermost without which unmanly compliances no other sort of goodness will recommend any person to the capacity of Rewards and will scarcely be able to protect him from Injuries and Punishments And since Vertue is not over natural to Mankind it is like to thrive but very poorly in a soil where it is not tenderly cherished and frequently refreshed with the incouraging Dews of Rewards and Benefits they being
travel so far back as to unravel all the German History the late ruinous affairs of the Crown of Poland which being one of the Bastions of Christendom seems to have been therefore preserved from the Infidels by a miracle and most miraculous Prince are capable to satisfie any person who is the fondest of Elective Monarchy And if he has not either deposed Reason the King of his Soul and elected in its place Prejudice or Passion to Govern there or if he dare credit the Universal experience of the World he may easily be convinced of the great necessary and desperate inconveniences of a long Interregnum and Elective Monarchy BUT to proceed secondly from this bounty of our Princes and for the advantage of Counsel and that all Estates and Conditions who are under the obedience of this happy Monarchy may receive such ample satisfaction as they can rationally desire Of the Interest which the three Estates have in preparing Bills for the Royal Assent to be by that past into Laws the King is pleased according as in his wisdom he judges it expedient and the necessity of publick affairs requires it to call together the Nobility of the Realm the great Lords both Spiritual and Temporal who are two of the three Estates of Parliament to sit in common consultation and to advise about the weighty and difficult affairs of State And by their prudent deliberations and suffrages to discharge that duty they owe to their Prince and the Publick by preparing wholsom Bills in order to their passing into Laws by the Royal Assent for the good safety and prosperity of the Community As also to remonstrate to Royal Authority what former Laws are by experience found to be useless or inconvenient in order to their alteration repealment or abrogation THIS priviledge the Spiritual Lords enjoy by vertue of their Temporal Baronies to which for their eminent Piety Learning Prudence and Integrity they are by the Bounty of their Sovereign and his Illustrious Predecessors elevated and promoted And they are more particularly in that Place interessed and consulted in all debates which may arise about the affairs of Religion and the Holy Church though they are not at all excluded from a voice in the concerns of all Civil and Politick Sanctions And this cuts off the hopes of Turbulent Factious Ambitious Spirits from aiming at those High places of Trust and Council in Church and State to which none are in a probable capacity of arriving who do not tread the paths of sublime vertue and merit which are the only steps and ascents which lead to this excellent Temple of Honour into which any persons rarely are permitted to enter of whose ability and fitness for such high and honourable Offices a long tract of knowledge and experience has not given a fair character and advantageous testimony and where no person arrives but by the gradual progressions of several lower employs as a state of probation to fit him for those high advancements and eminent dignities AND however the malice of some people may suggest the contrary who are enemies to their Office and eo nomine not to be credited yet is there not the least probability that any persons should arrive at these great Temporal Honours and Ecclesiastical Offices by the favour and bounty of their Prince but that they must be such as have either highly obliged him by their eminent fidelity and services in a lower sphere or who for their excellent qualifications draw the discerning and judicious eye of Majesty upon them and are by those Honours and Estates enabled to be more serviceable to his which is the publick Interest than they could possibly be in the meaner condition of private men and narrow fortunes I KNOW this is not a Rule without an Exception and that it has been the great misfortune of the best and wisest of Princes sometimes to have been mistaken in conferring Honours and Favours both upon Temporal and Ecclesiastical persons who in the succeeding actions of their lives have manifested that they did not deserve them But these are rare and extraordinary examples of Ingratitude rather than Inability and they must be extraordinary Artists in Hypocrisie and Dissimulation who appearing the best whilest they are the worst of men do thereby sometimes deceive the best and most wary and cautelous Princes and certainly they must have tempers of the basest allay upon whom the bounty and Majesty of a Prince are not able to make such impressions as are capable by such high obligements to change their Natures into what he mistook them for when he conferr'd his kindnesses upon them Which doubtless no Prince ever does upon any person but he rationally supposes either that he does or at least will most zealously endeavour to merit that bounty and esteem by all possible fidelity and future services THE Temporal Lords by a Right of Hereditary succession enjoy this Favour of their Prince as a priviledge of their Illustrious Birth and honourable Extraction and therefore being sensible from their early Age of the Honour and Dignity to which they are intituled and the heavy as well as honourable charge they are to sustain in those great deliberations about publick affairs it puts their Parents upon the performance of their duty in giving them that generous and vertuous Education which may render them the ornaments of their Noble families and may qualifie them to be useful to their King and Country to which they are incouraged by the consideration that there is no Subject so great but may still hope for advantages and accession both of Honour and Estate upon the account of serviceableness and merit either as to Counsel in times of Peace or Conduct and Courage in time of War Which are such considerable incouragements to vertue and greatness of mind as will quickly give the young Nobility a delightful and tempting prospect of the High Honourable and advantageous Employments at which they may arrive and by what ways and methods they must hope to obtain them AND if we could uncharitably suppose them either to be defective as to the natural endowments of mind or apt to be mis-lead by the heats and prevailing extravagancies of warm and sull veins or the luxuriant spirits of youthful years yet certainly there is no such School either for Wisdom or Vertue as that Illustrious Assembly of the English Nobility in Parliament And the repeated wise deliberations of those great Senators are capable of elevating even the lowest parts beyond all expectation And constant experience in the conduct and management of the greatest Affairs will in a little time be capable of advancing the slowest Natures to be prompt and addressful in the dispatch and performance of them And besides those constant Lectures and Examples which they will there meet with of Justice Temperance Magnanimity Honour Fidelity and Loyalty must if any thing be capable of effecting it be able to change the very Natures of Men of Reason and not only to
over all Temporal affairs LET us now consider how inconsistent this fundamental Article of the Roman Faith is with the Monarchy of the Prince and the Liberty and Property of the people which we shall easily discover by considering the practical Inferences which are necessarily to be deduced from it AND first this devests the Prince of his absolute and Independent Sovereignty Papal Supremacy devests the Prince of his absolute Sovereignty For it is impossible there should be two Supremes in being at the same time over the same places persons and things If the King be Supreme the Pope ought to obey him if the Pope be Supreme the King owes obedience to him and by plain consequence is no more than a greater and Crowned subject and must have a dependence on the Papal power which if it be admitted only purely in Spirituals will yet take away the Divine Right of Kings and if once you remove that foundation down goes Monarchy For it must have either a Divine or Humane right if their right be from Men as it must necessarily be if we admit a superior to it or a dependency upon any humane Creature the power upon which it has a dependency and is superior to it may whensoever it pleases reassume that Right Which would render the condition of Kings more unhappy because more uncertain than that of the meanest private Man by subjecting them to the Caprichio of any humane Authority whereby they may be deposed a degraded greatness being more subject to the greatest inward agonies and affliction and outward contempt than downright poverty and no misery being comparable to a fuisse foelicem NAY further if once you admit this superiority of the Papacy over Kings they thereby become only his Vice-Roys and Deputies and if he judges it expedient to exercise the Authority himself he may supersede theirs as superfluous and you destroy the absolute necessity of inferior Monarchy and the Kingly Office according to the doctrine of Zamorensis Rod. Sanccius Ep. Zamor ut citatur à Carrerio lib. de potest Rom. Pont. p. 131. who boldly tells us That the Papal Sovereignty being the of the World in Temporals as well as Spirituals the Secular Power is neither of pure nor expedient necessity but only where the Church cannot Act. Which in explicite terms is that it is absolutely unnecessary where the Government of the Church is established There is but one step between the unnecessariness and uselesness of Princes and their abolition Thus the second Rome bids fair for a Regifugium in order to the establishment of her Spiritual Empire and Temporal Dominion which can never be effected without destroying this Claim and Title of Princes to the Supreme and absolute Authority within their own Dominions BUT secondly This does intirely ruine and abolish the Legislative power Secondly it â—â—â—es away the Legislative Power of Princes and Executive Dominion of the Prince For if the Pope be superior to him all Laws must depend upon him for their ratification For no inferior Power can make a Law without or against the consent of the superior every such action being a manifest infringement of the Right and Prerogative of that Power which is Supreme nor can any Establishment or Law be put in execution by the Prince but there will lie an appeal against him if there can be any exception found which will never be very difficult Thus Bellarmine tells us That the Pope has power to make or abrogate Laws not as a Political but a Spiritual Prince if they be for the health of Souls or he may repeal them if he judged them dangerous in that particular So that it seems he may do it nor is it material how it is done whether as a Political or Spiritual Prince since how much soever he gains the Prince loses his Legislative power being thereby taken from him and vested ultimately in the Pope And the Gloss upon the Roman Law is clear in the case That if the Imperial Law contradicts the Papal if there may be the danger of Souls the Imperial Law is ipso facto abrogated by the Pontificial Now to disbelieve the Popes Supremacy being against an Article of Faith must needs be dangerous to Souls and by consequence to believe he may not make alter or abrogate any Temporal Law which would be a manifest Heresie and damnable Sin Laws are the Guard of Princes and the sword of Justice is one of their principal securities and if once they come to be disarmed they must lye at the mercy of all Enemies Affronts Insolencies and Injuries which the Envious Ambitious or Discontented with the ungenerous baseness of prevailing Cowards will dare to throw upon naked and exposed Majesty AND without all dispute the belief of this Doctrine of the superiority of the Papal Power and that for Heresie Disobedience and many lesser Crimes Bos de Sig. Eccl. l. 17 c. 3 4. pag. 406. and even unpardonable old age if Eosius be a Catholick Doctor Princes may be excommunicated deposed and punished with Capital punishments as it gave incouragement to the Infamous writings of Pope Urban the second Bar. Ann. vit Vrb 2. Ann. 1089. n. 11. Marian. Inst Reg. pag. 61. Suarez Def. Fid. Cath. adv Angl. l. 6. c. 4. n. 18. Sect. Ergo. Mariana Suarez and others not fit to be named amongst Christians and at which the very Heathens and savage Indians would turn pale so if we will give any credit to the Catholick Historians Sigonius Nauclerus Urspergensis Guicciardine and the French Chronicles the practice has not come short of the principle Instances of which are amongst a multitude Leo Isaurus Henry the Fourth of Germany John King of England Henry the Third of France and Henry the Fourth the most Illustrious Life and greatest Character in Europe and it may be in the whole World and since Treason Rebellion and even the murders of Princes if done in defence of the Papal supremacy will not only find Advocates but narrowly miss of Canonization no Prince can promise himself any security against the Dangers of this Doctrine which is always able to inspire the Race of Ravailac to adventure at the fatal blow Thirdly it renders them insecure as to Possession and Succession AND this conducts us to the third consequence of this Faith That no Prince can be secure either as to Person Possession or Succession of his Crown which by admitting a Power superior to his own must of necessity depend upon its pleasure supposing the Papacy in a condition by Coercion to justifie the Right it claims It bereaves them of the guard of Laws TO manifest this we must consider upon what humane grounds the Establishment of Crowns depends and they are principally these Laws Consederations and Alliances or the Love and Fidelity of their people upon the account of Conscience and Religion As for the Divine Right we see that is not allowed to any Crowned head by the Roman Doctrine
delivered from by a Miracle makes even that appear small in comparison of our being again deluded by those Persons whose hands were washt in Rebellion and Murder instead of Innocence whose tongues are tipt with lies calumnies and blasphemy and whose Garments over which they throw the Prophets Mantle to keep them from discovery yet wear the indelible stains of that humane blood in which they were rolled of so many thousands of Illustrious and Innocent Lives as in that Unnatural War whereof they were the Occasions Maintainers and Defenders fell as Sacrifices to their fury and their Sovereigns Right and Countries Liberty I shall not attempt a solemn confutation of these Positions judging them far more fit for the conviction of the Law than of the Gospel to both which they are directly contrary as also in regard it has been so often done by others of greater abilities and better oppertunities However that Kings Reign by a Divine Right and if they do then all these Positions are Treason Rebellion and Usurpation not only against them but God I refer these Haters of Monarchy and Plagues of Mankind the implacable Enemies of our Peace and Happiness to that place in Daniel Dan. 4.25 to which if they do not assent they are Insidels and no Christians and deserve the strange doom of Nebuchadnezzar to be driven from amongst Men and to have their dwelling amongst the Beasts of the Field to eat grass as Oxen and to be wet with the dew of Heaven till they know and acknowledge that the most highest ruleth in the Kingdom of Men and giveth it to whomsoever he pleaseth From which place it is as clear as the brightest Day That the sole Sovereignty and disposal of Crowns is immediately in the hands of the most high God and that they who have them hold them of his Gift and if that be not a Divine Right there is no such thing in Nature and if they have a Divine Right no People or Parliament or Earthly Power can pretend by calling them to an account deposing or punishing them to rob Kings of this Title and Authority which they hold by the immediate Grant of Heaven but at the same time they invade the Prerogative of the most High Ruler of Heaven and Earth and rob him of his incommunicable Right in the disposal of Crowns I cannot believe them so ignorant but that they know what must be the end of such an audacious Sacriledge If they admit Kings to have a Divine Right which they must either do or deny this to be Scripture they cannot pretend to any Power to take it from them for nothing can invalidate any Grant but the same or a greater Power than that which gave it and therefore if Kings offend though Subjects may in all humility Remonstrate and Petition for Redress yet are they by the Laws of Religion utterly prohibited to make use of force or violence either to obtain their desires or satisfie their Revenge for as our learned Bracton religiously observes Deum expectat Vltorem And if God Almighty reserves vengeance as his peculiar Prerogative and will not permit us to execute it upon private men Dearly Beloved avenge not your selves for vengeance is mine saith the Lord and I will repay it how can any person in reason think that private Men and Subjects should have a power to execute it upon Princes who bear his immediate Characters and are his Vice-gerents and as he himself stiles them Earthly Gods Or if they dare attempt to do it 1 Sam. 26.9 Or if they dare attempt to do it Who can lift up his hand against the Lords Anointed and be guiltless Undoubtedly whoever does it is guilty not only of Treason against the King but of Rebellion against God and whoever is so audacious to draw his Sword against his Sovereign does so far as he is able indeavour to wrest the dreadful Sword of the Lord out of the hand of Omnipotence to carve out vengeance for himself and I dare boldly say that whoever takes that Sword against his Will shall perish by the Sword for this is an Honour which he will not part with Hear him speak himself and he who will not believe God when he speaks is not to be believed to have any Religion which is properly the fear of God whatever he may pretend Deut. 22.34.35.40.41.42 Is not this saith the Almighty laid up in store with me and sealed up amongst my Treasures To me belongeth vengeance and recompence for I lift up my hand to Heaven and say I live for ever if I whet my glittering Sword and my hand take hold of Judgment I will render vengeance to my Enemies And what greater Enemies to God than such persons as indeavour to rob him of that which he has not only laid up but sealed amongst his Treasures And they who are so audacious as to attempt this Sacrilegious Felony against Heaven to break up his treasury whatever they may say of themselves cannot be supposed to fear either God or the Devil and certainly all Mankind have a great deal of reason to fear and indeavour to suppress men of such daring confidence and mischievous Principles CHAP. IX Presbytery in reality as great an Enemy to Democracy and Parliaments as to Monarchy A short view of their Tyrannique Consistorian Government over the Magistracy Clergy and Laity Of the latitude and power of scandal to draw all affairs into the Consistory Of their kindness to their Enemies The small difference betwixt a Jesuit and Geneva Presbyter Both aim at Supremacy THUS have we seen that Presbyterian Supremacy is by its avowed Principles not only inconsistent with but destructive of Monarchy Let us examine it a little more severely and we shall find that it is absolutely inconsistent with all Government except it s own oligarchique Spiritual Tyranny and even that adored Democracy Presbytery in reality as great an Enemy to Democracy and Parliaments as to Monarchy which it pretends to hug and embrace with so much tenderness and affection and the kindness which it seems to have espoused to a Parliament which has so unfortunately decoy'd some people into that party is nothing else but a politick flattery and temporizing godly fraud the real design is to dash a Parliament against a King to break them both in pieces and like the Ape in the story to make a Cats foot of a House of Commons to pull the Nut out of the Hot Ashes of Rebellion into which they shall have reduced the Monarchy for when once by that assistance they shall have procured their own establishment they will render it as absolute a Slave as they would do Monarchy For according to the Model of their Consistorian Government the supreme and ultimate underivative Authority is resient in the High and Mighty Sanhendrim or annual Assembly of Presbyters and Elders to whose definitive sentence a Parliament must be subordinate the Authority of that being from Christ the Power of the Parliament
from their Arbitrary will and determination So that hereby the Great Assembly and the Moderator for the time being is the absolute and supreme Sovereign Power of the Nation where Presbytery bears the sway HAVING thus by the Power of the Keys lockt up the Temporal Sword in their Ecclesiastical Scabbard and made sure that they will be out of the danger of its Correction Let us see how they manage their Empire and Government towards their Brethren of the Clergy their friends of the Laity and their Enemies of both such as differ or dissent from them in Opinion or Practice though but in the most indifferent things Their Tyranny over the Clergy It was a saying of a wise man That no Government was so happy as where either Kings were Philosophers or Philosophers Kings and which certainly deceives many of the Spiritual Function they think and are made believe by the Arch-Presbyters that those would be Golden and Halcyon days indeed where Presbyters who are all equal and may hope for a turn in it should come to have the sole and supreme management of all affairs and not be subject to the temporal Power of the Laity on the one hand nor the Tyranny of the Episcopal Hierarchy on the other but being equal in their Function calling and office should all be Brethren and sharers of the Common Happiness of Rule and Government over the People of God But soft my Masters lest a great and sudden joy prove dangerous Great expectations are often defeated by contrary events I must tell you there is a little mistake The Metropolis or Capital City is the Watch-tower and the rural Presbyters for all their hast and the parity must not only give the Wall to the grave City divine but must be wholly at the direction and will of the Synod the Synod at the will of the great Assembly and the Assembly at the will of the Moderator and his Faction during the Session and in the Interregnum of the Session at the disposal of the virtual Council which is the Grand Cabal in Epitome who rule the rost all the year long the Inferior Presbyters must believe such things as he or they shall command teach such Doctrines as they shall appoint use such modes gestures and habits as they enjoin and command though never so much against his Judgment or Conscience for if he trips never so little into a wilful disobedience against a commanded Punctilio of Opinion or Practice up goes little Don Presbyter's heels and a more edifying that is a more slavish Brother is clapt into his Benefice unless he will openly recant and do Penance at their discretion and if he has a good and inviting Living let him resolve either to be a bustler and busie stickler and by those Talents exalt himself and make a Party which is the best way to be secure and somebody or otherwise he must resolve to be an absolute Slave and by perpetual presents which is a very safe Tenure and a kind of Post Simony keep in with the top and top Gallant of the Junto for otherwise he shall be sure of a remove to a leaner Parish And pray what is now become of the Glorious Parity of Presbyters of the Dear Liberty of Conscience and Liberty of Prophesying What difference now betwixt a Lord Bishop and a Lord President of the Assembly good Mr. Rural Minister Only this that what the one is falsely said to do to Lord it over the flock of Christ the other outdoes in reality Methinks I see a second Peters strutting in querpo beaten Velvet like a lofty Cedar of Presbytery over-looking and over-shaddowing all the little bramble Brethren of the Wood condemning reproving placing displacing injoining and punishing like a Geneva Massanello with the wink of his Eye or the motion of his Finger and like that Insolent Fisherman wanton with his unbounded and most dreadful Power Then should you hear the groaning Presbyters and whining Elders sighing under the heavy burthen of Arbitrary Spiritual Government and lamenting the loss of Episcopal Liberty Leaving therefore these Ruling Elders and their Lay Brethren with a shaddow of Liberty Equality and Rule but the substance of the most servile slavery let us see after what rate this Government will treat their Friends of the Laity by whose industrious folly they have obtain'd their Dignity and Power Their Tyranny over the Laity And here you shall see that these high obligations can raise no sense of Gratitude in the Rigid Presbyter the People whom but just now they flatter'd with the supreme Authority have done no more but their duty in defeating themselves of it to bestow it on the Ministers and you shall see into what a condition those people plunge themselves who put their tame necks under the Yoke of the Consistory for first the Parish Minister and his Elders are absolute Judges and Lords of all their Actions and if they be refractory can bring before the Lords of the Synod and they hoist them up to the Grand Assembly and there they are sure to be swing'd for contumacy or contempt tempt of their Authority So that though a man could keep the whole Decalogue yet can he not be secure against Malice or Envy but by the trap of Scandal he shall be drawn into this Geneva Inquisition The Latitude and Power of Scandal to draw all affairs into the Consistory It is easily remembred what a Tumult a poor Ball or Dancing meeting made at Geneva and how the Gentleman that made it though a principal person of the City and a Souldier too and a man of a good ruffling Spirit yet was at last forced to dance into banishment for that horrible scandal If your goods commit a rape upon Mr. Elders Corn or Hay and you will not make him an unreasonable recompence 't is odds but he claws you off with a Scandalum Magnatum against his Elderships freehold if a young Lady refuses Mr. Booby the Elder 's Son for a Husband let her have a care how she converses with another for if she do he will clap a scandal upon her back which if their tongues be any slander may spoil her Reputation and her Marriage as long as she lives and the report is credited and in truth so great is the Latitude of the Power of Scandal that I am perswaded if Virtue her self could be tempted to converse with the Elders as once the surprized Susanna did they would treat her with the same measure as those their brethren did that Innocent Lady and bring her into the Consistory for a scandal Nay so long Ears and Armes has this Scandal that your House which is your Castle your Table nor your Bed can be secure from it but if you be so indiscreet to discover your follies to your Wife and she in pet or zeal reveals it to the good Minister he will not fail to make you do publick Penance for your fault and folly If you make a contract with
a Saint that is a puling favourite and flatterer of the Presbytery and he is minded Religiously to do himself a kindness call'd cheating you though you produce Deeds Evidences or Speacialties all 's one if he does but whine out the suspicion of a scandal of Forgery and appeal from the rigor of the Law to the Court of Conscience the Equity of the Consistory by their Decree you shall lose not only your money but your Credit too If a Merchant trade to the Papal Dominions and in a time of Famine furnish them with Corn he may chance to suffer Shipwrack at home for feeding and maintaining Gods Enemies abroad and it will never be forgotten what a horrible Sin the transporting of Wax from Scotland to the Spanish Territories was adjudged because it was employed to Idolatry and making Tapers to the Altars of the Saints SEE now the kindness of this Government here 's a new way to pay old Debts out of the bank of Scandal A free trade open'd to inrich the People of the Nation by forcing them to keep the glut and surplusage of their Native Commodities at home for fear of Scandal And indeed there is no Law Sanction Action or Profession Civil or Political that may not easily be brought to be cognizable before them under the notion of Scandal Nor will there be any Right or Justice but according to the partiality of their belief of the Integrity of the Parties that is if they be men of their Interest the affair shall be managed in favour of them in despight of Law Justice Right or Equity AND now my neighbours of the Laity what think you of Monarchy and the good old Common and Statute Law and Episcopacy is not this Scandal the servant of the Consistory a more dangerous and troublesome Fellow than an Apparitor or a Pettyfogger I leave it to your Consideration and Judgment Of their kindness to their Enemies IF this be the Entertainment of their Friends what may we expect will become of their Enemies and such are all those who either oppose them or dissent from them whether of the Laity or Clergy Papists or Episcopal Protestants Sectaries or Dissenters I need not be tedious they are to expect as much favour at their hands as the Enemies of God and Religion can hope for and that is punishment in all its terrible dresses shapes and degrees as far as Banishment loss of Estate Liberty Fame Reputation and Life will go and further if they have any Power of the Keys they are sure to be given up to the Devil and shut out from their Kingdom in Heaven I wish that all our Dissenters would consider this and reunite with the Church of England where they may expect pity and compassion for their Errors and a right information of their Understandings in those mistakes about the Circumstantials and Ceremonies which are the principal occasions of our differences and their separation certainly whilest they raise the Interest of the Presbyters by swelling their Party and agree with them in opposing the Church they act directly against their own which is to unite with the Episcopal Party against the Consistorian the common Enemy both of Conformist and Non-Conformist and which should it prevail would shew equal kindness to the one as to the other and though they now cry out against Persecution and Compulsion it is only for their own sakes and had they the supreme Power at which they aim and which the other dissenters though beyond their intention whilest they oppose Monarchy and Episcopacy assist them in they would not fail to execute the rigors and severities of all Penalties upon all such as should dissent from them and their Opinions Doctrines Faith Discipline and Practice FROM all which considerations it is most clear and evident as well as from their practice at Geneva and in Scotland from the Authentick Records of their proceedings The small difference betwixt a Jesuit and a Presbyter of Geneva both aiming at Supremacy in which place all and much more than I have said may be justified That Presbytery aims secretly at Supremacy and that there being no great difference between those of the foundation of Loyola and Geneva but that the latter have by their horrible Actions brought that Infamy upon the Protestant Cause and Reformation which the other had in vain attempted they are both inconsistent with Monarchy and indeed all Government over which they pretend a Power and Jurisdiction from Christ the one for the Pope and the other for the Presbytery from which there lies no appeal and the Genevian Faction who pretend to detest and abhor Rome for her Tyranny do even out-do her at least in pretensions to absolute Temporal Sovereignty and Dominion over all Persons Cases Actions and things which must submit to the Scepter of Christ which they tell us is their Holy Discipline CHAP. X. Presbytery as destructive of the Peoples Liberty and Property as it is dangerous to Monarchy and all Government Some necessary Conclusions from the former discourse FROM the Premises of this excellent frame of Spiritual Government of Presbytery it is easy to conclude That this Doctrine is every whit as dangerous and destructive of Property as Prerogative of Liberty in the People as Authority in the Prince or Government For if it be a good and sound way of Reasoning that the Power which can do the greater can certainly do the less then they who can for any crimes against the Law of God of which they are the only Judges and Interpreters take away the Crown and Life of a Prince the Power and being of a Parliament may undoubtedly for any scandals or offences against themselves and their Divine Authority take away the Life Liberty and Property of any private Man and it is easily remembred and ought never to forgotten how all those were treated in the Late Times who were either declared supposed or suspected to be Enemies to the State as they called that Eaction of a Parliament which was imbarqued in their Holy League and Covenant and though their Friends scap't with their lives their Estates paid many Millions Ransome for those and their pretended Liberty It is true some particular persons were strangely advanced both in Power and Riches so are some Pirates and Highway-Men by rich prizes and good Booties but it is all out of the publick stock of the Nation which was just so much Poorer as they were Richer Nor had the principal of the Faction any other design then or have they any other now but their own private revenge or advantage Discontent and Ambition are constantly at the bottom of Faction and Innovation and Oppression always at the top For though these men pretend to be the great Patrons of the Peoples Liberty and Defenders of Religion they have no real value for the one or the other further than to serve their own designs which is only to wheedle the credulous Populace into their Party and when by the
for such a person to represent him in Parliament as all the Freeholders in behalf of the rest of the inferior Commons do does thereby transfer his own right to the Representative and gives him as ample power and Authority to act for him and in his Name as to him shall seem expedient both for his private and the common Interest as if he did act in his proper person for himself And he who did not give his voice for the elected Representative being ingaged in an opposite interest to give his suffrage for another yet upon the prevailing number of the Poll even he likewise gives his suffrage for him and the person so elected is as much and truly the Representative of those who voted for another as of those who gave their voices for him For though there may be many Candidates to the office but one only can be chosen and it is by the common consent of all such as have a vote in such Elections tacitly before-hand agreed that he who has the plurality of voices shall be their Representative in Parliament And therefore in hopes of the benefit of that implied agreement all the several Interests and Parties at such Elections repair to the usual time and place appointed to see the decision and final determination of that affair So that the person who is chosen a Knight or Burgess by the major part though my voice was against him for another is after such a trial as much a Knight or Burgess and as truly my Delegate and has as full power to act in my Name as if I had given my Vote for him in regard I did not come to that Election before I had given my consent to that Preliminary contract that he should be the common Representative or Parliament-man for the whole Body of the people of that place who should by the greatest number of qualified voices appear to have the justest Right And those persons who do not think themselves obliged to stand to such a solemn Contract as this or that they are not bound in Foro Conscientiae to be obedient to those Acts of Parliament which as is plain are by their Petition and Assent as much their proper Acts and Contracts as if they were under their most authentick Hand and Seal however they may pretend Religion and Conscience for their Disobedience are so far from being true Christians that they are not yet good enough for Heathens and scarcely deserve the name of Men if Rationality be the thing that differences them from Brutes for amongst all Nations it has been esteemed a Maxim upon which the security of Mankind is built Fidem esse servandam That Fidelity in solemn Contracts is to be observed and preserved sacred and inviolable for otherwise Men could have no Commerce no Government no Peace no Safety no Property no Laws because no confidence one of another or of any truth in the most deliberate Contracts and mutual Stipulations Cicer. Off. I. To this purpose is that of Tully The Foundation of all Justice says that excellent Heathen is Faith And Faith or Fidelity is the Constancy and Truth of all our Words Promises and Contracts Off. 3. And he tells us That Regulus returned to Carthage although he was not ignorant that he went back again to his most cruel Enemies and most exquisite Torments only because it was his judgment that Faith in solemn Promises and Contracts ought to be observed and kept How will these Generous Heathens rise up in Judgment against the Men of this Generation who are so far from making it a scruple of Conscience to break their Faith as to Obedience to Laws and Government their own voluntary Contracts and Stipulations that they esteem it the greatest and most Essential part of their Religion to break the Laws and be disobedient to Government Certainly that Heroick Seneca was much a better Saint than such Christians and almost perswades me to believe he will either have a share in Heaven or a more tolerable Hell than they who could so nobly say Senec. Ep. 88. Solemn Faith is a Good so Sacred to Humane Nature that it cannot that is it ought not to be compelled by any necessity nor corrupted by any Rewards Burn Cut Kill me I will not be a Traitor to my Faith bat the further and deeper these torments search for it by so much will I more diligently and safely endeavour to preserve and hide it Expressions capable of making many who call themselves Christians blush at their Religious Treachery Disobedience and Infidelity to their own Promises and Contracts if they had not at once abandoned all remainders of Modesty as well as Loyalty and Fidelity IT is a subject capable of giving astonishment rather than admiration that there should be any persons who enjoy so fair a Priviledge as to be admitted by their Sovereign to consult their own concerns and to offer unto him such Bills as they judge most advantageous for their own Interest and Petition him to establish them as Laws who yet when he has condescended to gratifie them in it cannot be contented unless they may have a Prerogative with the guilded Title of Liberty of Conscience whereby at their pleasure they take the freedom to break and abrogate those very Laws and thereby do not only exalt their power above that of their Sovereign but subject all that is great and sacred in Laws and Government to the idle Caprichio of every private Humorist who has but the confidence to face it with Religion Let them take care lest the dangerous consequences of this later Priviledge so destructive to all Society and which they maintain by Usurpation do not in the end oblige Authority for its own preservation and the publick security to disrobe such dangerous people of that which they do and may if they will be quiet with it long and lawfully enjoy Let them remember Aesop's Dog and the Moral of the Fable in our English Proverb All covet All lose The second Priviledge of the English Subjects Property secured A SECOND priviledge of the Subjects of England consists in their Property secured which is so surrounded with the Laws that one may truly say of an English Commoner as the malicious spirit the envious surveyor of his happiness said to God Almighty concerning his upright servant Job Hast thou not made a hedge about him and about his house and about all that he hath on every side In some Monarchies the Subjects cannot say their Estates are their own as under the Ottoman Mogul Russian and Tartarian Empires in others they cannot say their Bodies are their own as amongst all the barbarous Indian Nations and in some places according to our Adage men dare scarcely say their Souls are their own certainly not their lives amongst all the Governments before named and many others so great are the Arbitrary Tyrannies and lawless and sometimes even wanton cruelties of their Superiors to whom they are as absolute slaves