Yet this can be no objection by those men who ascribe all infallibility to the Pope and that all his Acts and Decrees are to be received and obeyed by an implicite faith as Divine oracles Well but suppose these determinations of the Pope were not concerning matters of Faith as no doubt they were not then how comes the Pope because he is infallible in the Faith that he takes upon him to be Judge and Determiner of those things which no ways appertain to it but are as much where Christianity is not planted as where it is Object Yet it will be objected That if the Church be not Judge of what conduceth to the peace and safety of the Kingdom and Church then who shall and so farewell to all Government and peace in Church or State But before I answer this Quaere I would be resolved one Question or two Who shall be Judge whether the Pope or a General Council be superior Who shall judge whether in any Determination of the Popes it be concerning matter of Faith or not or whether it be determined in Gathedra or not In the many Schismes of the Papacy who should judg who was the true Pope or who shall judg whether Alexander the tenth be now the true Pope or who ever gave the Cardinals who were an humane institution many hundred years after our Saviour this power of Election of the Pope that whosoever they should so elect should be universal Bishop and St. Peters successor Although I might justly insist hereupon nor can these things upon these mens principles who maintain the Popes infallibility at least in my understanding be solved and so are they for all their boast of unity among themselves in as much confusion and dissention even in their very principles as other men yet am not I ashamed to give an account of my obedience both to my Church and King Answer I say that God hath made man a sociable intellectual and reasonable creature and endewed him with an immortal soule potentially capable of eternal happiness Nor will God be served by man having so made him only by a base servile feare and without the intellectual and rational faculties of the soule and therefore has engraven by nature in the heart of every man certain rules by which he is to direct his actions which are the first principles and foundations upon which I honor my Parents King and them who are set over me for my direction in order to my eternal good And although that out of the Church and not being preserved by humane Laws I can neither hope for safety in this world nor salvation in the world to come yet who he is from whom all humane Laws are derived or what is the Church in which I must hope for salvation there is no visible Judge under Heaven but only mens consciences to direct them viz. those directions which God either by nature has given to men or revealed supernaturally in the Scriptures Nor does a mans conscience thus informed leave him after it be informed who it is from whom he ought to expect protection and to whom he owes his obedience as well spirituall as temporal for though there be no visible means for men to hope for peace in Church or State yet does it not follow that by all men all things which may be commanded for the Laws of the Church and State are to be observed as the Laws of Church and State as if the Church command men to worship Images or any creature for the Creator which under the old Law it many times did nor do I understand how it can be excused in the Church of Rome or if men be commanded by higher powers immoral things as to dishonor them or their Parents or whenas temporal powers command things plainly derogatory to the ghostly power of the Church or the Church commands things contrary to the duty men owe to their King and Country which we daily see both the one and the other do which makes some men in their passion ultimately resolve their Temporal and Ecclesiastical obedience into the Church others into the secular power and many deny all obedience to either and set up themselves or something else in stead of either But though mens affections carrie them several waies yet ought not all reason therefore and conscience to forsake all men for although I ought not to judge either King or Church if they command any thing they ought not yet have I and every man else a conscience to direct them whether I ought to do all things whatsoever commanded by King or Church Nor ought men to be frighted out of their consciences viz. the Law of God by nature informing them or his Law supernaturally revealed by his grace directing them because a perverse company of Schismatical and seditious men have abused all Temporal and Ecclesiastical Laws and Powers by pretending conscience Nor will a blind obedience in all things to the Church of Rome cause unity and peace among Christians although it be so much magnified by them for let any man read the lives of H. 4. 5. 6. and 7. and Frederick 1. and 2. Emperors whenas the whole Empire was of the Roman Catholick Religion and see if ever greater broyles were in the Christian World and let them judge whether Obedience to the Popes by so great a part of the Empire were not the cause of them or whether all the Wars in Christendom caused by Boniface the eight and Julius the second were not against Christians in the communion and form of the Church of Rome But where secular or ecclesiastical Laws do plainly command things not plainly derogatory to Gods Law for where they do God is in all things to be obeyed before man so as it is doubtful whether they do repugne Gods Law or not then certainly the best way is to submit to them for a mans conscience wrong informed does not excuse him from any Article of his duty and if it may be the Laws do repugne Gods Law it may be they do not and in controverted and doubtful cases the Law is alwaies presumed to be on the Governors part Nor shall any mans conscience ever excuse him if the Laws either of Church or Country do command things repugnant to Gods word from the duty and obedience he owes to them in all things where they do not repugne it Nor does it free any man from his subjection to higher power but where he cannot submit he ought to suffer And no question that where two evils unavoidable happen the least is to be taken as if a man in the communion of the Church of Rome be reduced to that necessity of simply conforming himself to all things used in the Church of Rome although his conscience cannot digest many things or be excluded out of the visible Church of Christ he had better be of such a Church then of none at all Sure God never affixt such infallibility to men how great or good soever
nimirum uno praeter multa quod in omnibus illis inest unum idem fit principium artis scientiae artis si pertineat ad generationem viz. agenda vel efficienda scientiae si pertineat ad id quod est viz. cognitionem entis Itaque nec insunt definiti habitus nec fiunt ex aliis habitibus notioribus sed ex sensu 3. From which words of Aristotle it is cleerly manifest by what order By the opinion of Dr. Harvey the Knowledge of every Art or Science is acquired viz. from the sense the thing perceived remains still from the permanency of the thing perceived comes the memory from the memory multiplied experience from experience ratio universalis definitiones maxima sive axiomata communia cognitionis certissima principia ex gr Idem eidem secundum idem esse non esse impossibile Omnis affirmatio vel negatio aut vera est aut falsa hujusmodi alia Wherefore as we said before there is no perfect Knowledge which may be called ours which is within us unless by some means it does proceed from experiment made by us and our sense or at least by these examined proved and firmly builded it may appear above any pre-existent Knowledge in us Because without memory there can be no experience which is nothing else but multiplied memory in like manner memory cannot be without permanence of the thing perceived and the thing perceived cannot remain in what it never was c. 4. But multi multa nemo omnia vidit I do not think that all light of understanding was so shut up in Aristotles braine that all things pronounced Apology by him are to be taken for granted Principles yet do I entertain so venerable an opinion of Aristotle that I do admire him as the most eminent of all men in all humane learning among the Ancients and not to be paralleld by any of the Moderns but inventis addere is one of the chiefest ends of Mans being and there are yet and so will be until the end of the World many things received for truth which upon more search will be found but verisimilitudes and infinite things hidden from our Forefathers which will be infinitely found out by the present and subsequent generation that the Infinity of God may appear as well to the present and subsequent age as to the antecedent in all his works 5. Well then Aristotle saies and the Doctor subscribes to it that All things were nor in the senses before they are in the understanding according to the opinion of Aristotle and the Doctor Nihil est intellectu quod non prius fuerit in sensu I deny that there is nothing in the understanding which was not first in the senses for there are many things intelligible which are not sensible as time does every article of it intelligibly pass away not sensibly I understand that the centre of a circle is a point and that a point by the definition of it est cujus nulla pars est it cannot therefore according to the true definition of it be so expressed as to be the object of sense So a right line is longitudo latitudinis expers but neither a right line nor a point can be truly represented to the sense according to the truth of them as they arise in the understanding and so two right or supposed right lines which are not parallel cannot be infinitely produced according to sense but they will cut one another but intelligibly they may for no Man can understand so small a quantity of distance before the intersection but I can understand a smaller and another smaller then that and so ad infinitum and so Quantitas divisibilis est in semper divisibila potest infinitè augeri minui but this is only intelligibly it cannot be actually or sensibly done and so the contactus of a right line with a circle is a point in the understanding and not sensibly and so is the touching of two circles either within one another or without Nay neither Art Science nor any rational production whatsoever a priori but must necessarily be in the understanding before it can be in the senses I understand Animal to comprehend not only the Creatures I have seen but all those which are were or ever shall be and so I understand things equal to a third thing are equal to one another yet nor I nor any Man else ever saw two things equal to a third and the whole body of Geometry is of all Sciences most intelligible and yet abstracted from all sensible matter 6. If it be true that both Aristotle and the Doctor affirm that all No Art or Science arises from the Senses and memory Art and Science is acquired from the receiving a thing into the senses and that from the permanence of the thing in the sense the memory is made and from the multiplication of the memory Experience and from Experience the Principles of all Art and Science and that it be true which Aristotle saies to which the Doctor subscribes Fit ex memoriâ experientia hominibus multae etenim ejusdem res memoriae unius experientiae vim efficiunt Meta. l. 1. c. 1. Quare experientia pene simile quid scientiae ac arti esse videtur then does it most evidently and perspicuously follow that he that can longest retain things in his sense that is hath the best memory is the most scientifical and most artificial Man whereas we daily see that the Man that hath the greatest memory is usually a very blockhead and that he remembers almost all the things which are done and said yet cannot tell from what cause they did proceed but only remembers the things Nor will that which the Doctor saies Quippe sine memoria nulla fit experientia mend the matter for as I do deny any Art or Science can proceed from the sense memory and experience so do I not affirm that without the memory any Art or Science can be made I say no Art nor Science can arise from the apprehension of singulars into the sense and retaining of them there and from experiment only For Arts and Sciences are not things meerly apprehended and received into the sense and so retained in memory but something else which is truly and rightly derived from those things which are universally true and never before known to the senses or remembred 7. And as all the particular stories and things in the world retained Nor from the understanding without the memory and senses in the memory cannot move one step to the attaining of any Art or Science so cannot the apprehension of universal causes in the understanding of themselves produce any thing in order to the attaining of any Art or Science For universal causes in nature prove nothing but as meeting particular causes do determine those and specifie their Acts. The truth of both these is easily and daily seen in Men who
although no man can hope to preserve any thing which he hath but as he and what he hath is secured by that Power which gives him property which Power must be preserved by every mans life and fortune or else no man can hope to enjoy any thing he holds by that Power and the paying of Taxes is to maintain others who are to expose themselves and their lives in defence of what he and his fellow-subjects enjoy Yet are none of these things considered by the greatest part of men but as Mr. Hobbs observes The raising of Taxes makes men fire as those who are in Cap. 12. art 9. the disease called Incubus or as we say ridden with the Night-mare which rising from the stomach makes men think they are invaded oppressed and suffocated with great weight Which thing they who seem to themselves to be oppressed with all the weight of the City are prone to sedition and men declining in their fortunes will not spare though the fault be in themselves to impute their declining condition to the payment of the publick Taxes nor will avaritious rich men fail to pretend poverty and seek by innovation and sedition to prevent them 23. Honos est in honorante Honor is nothing else but the opinion of Passionate desire to punish Subjects especially where many are peccant moves to sedition anothers power joined with goodness Majesty does never appear so amiable as when arrayed in Clemencie whereas he who rigorously executes his power will be hated and servilely feared by them who otherwise would honor and willingly obey him It were the most easie and natural thing in the world to govern well if the violent and rigid execution of Laws against all offenders would cure the maladies of State nay Subjects ought to be preserved though peccant where the pardoning may appear an act of grace not remisness and the example not encourage others to the like offence Punishment ought always to look forward never backward that is Princes in punishing ought by the example to deter others from the like offence not to take pleasure in punishing any who hath offended him I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu and will cause to cease the house of Israel saith the Lord Hos 1. 4. How should God avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu whenas Jehu did nothing but what the Lord commanded him The reason is given that Jehu took pleasure in executing so dreadful a judgment upon his Masters house Weak and indisposed bodies are killed never cured by violent physick nor will Patients ever seek to Physitians who they fear will rather kill than cure them Princes who by violent and cruel ways do govern suppress yet nourish a fire which breaking out will hardly be quenched Yet it is sometime the fate I dare not think through the fault of most serene and clement Princes to suffer death and martyrdom from the sensless rage and fury of their seditious Subjects If then the insite piety of the most devout religious and best of Princes adorned with all the excelling virtues of Patience Temperance Chastity Justice Mercy love and tender care of his Subjects Magnanimity in Adversity Moderation in Prosperity could not secure Innocent Majesty from the violence of unnatural Subjects sure Peace and happiness may by other men be endeavored and prayed for in the next World but it can scarcely be hoped for in this If there were neither Heaven nor Hell no hope of bliss or fear of Annot. punishment hereafter yet sure so much Morality should be harbored in humane breasts as not causelesly to offer violence or injury to them of their own kind How much more unnatural ingrateful and inhumane then is it for Subjects against all Oaths of faith and allegiance not only not to make any restitution of those things which they hold of their Prince before they attempt any thing against him but also to imploy them all to the destruction of that Person and Power by whose grace and favor they enjoyed them And if that Monarchy be Tyranny as Libertines affirm and that all power is from the People then ought they not in reason to condemn it in the cause and allow it in the effect and rob the People of so great a part of their original right by retaining their Estates which were all mediately or immediately holden of the Crown If Regal power be unjust and usurped in the cause then cannot any act of it be just or legal and so by consequence all these famous Assertors of Liberty do unjustly and illegally hold their Estates which are nothing but Concessions originally from the Crown and do unjustly usurp them from the People from whom originally all power is derived And where these men complain so much of unjust illegal and arbitrary power of a Prince let any man shew where ever after they had usurped Regal power they made Justice Law Equity or Reason but only their Rage and Will the rule of their Actions and Laws 24. It is a vain thing to expect that Subjects will long be governed in By what degreâ—s and from what causes thâ—â— Nation became miserable peace where either they are not governed by force of Arms as the Turks English Scots Irish and Low-Dutch are or where the Subjects have not that estimation of their Prince that by his power they are protected in their lives and estates and from him do claim whatsoever may be called theirs and do not unite themselves in a Religious Unity which is the chiefest bond of Peace or Publique Form and Communion of serving God For both in Church and State there must be some one thing to which all Subjects must indifferently submit themselves or it is impossible there should be any decision of their differences in either Where men therefore will not indifferently submit themselves to the just and legal established Government in Church and State there necessarily must men whatever they pretend or hope for be forcibly governed by Arms or they will infinitely destroy one another It is true indeed that Henry the Eighth who being of all mortal men the most unfit for a Churchman ascribed to himself the Headship of the Church and having converted to his own use so great a part of the Church-lands the veneration which men retained of the Church became vile and contemptible and the Crown lost the chief support thereby The Crown thus left almost without support it descended to a Child in whose Aristocratical reign not only the Chantries and divers other Religious Houses were given by the Parliament and Bishops to the King but almost all things Sacred became a prey to the ravenous Courtiers Queen Mary endeavored to have had restored all to the Church again but the lands being incorporated into particular mens estates it was not in her power After her Queen Elizabeth by Act of Parliament so stopt the precipice of things that what was left in the Church
subsequent minute that it was before and therefore the state of Humane affairs being every day variable and putting on a new face to morrow which they had not neither to day nor yesterday which cannot be certainly foreseen by any man or men no more then any Master of a Ship can foresee what winds will blow to morrow or next day or whether it will be serene or stormy weather whether deep or Rockey Seas Yet if no prudent Mariner will venture himself and those under his command to Sea without sufficient provision against all the contingencies which may happen and be prevented Then sure no man or men not vainly blinded with ambition will undertake to manage the Government of a Nation without sufficient means to protect themselves and Subjects from all future storms and confusions which may either arise from within the Nation or be caused from without Yet will it not follow that every day there should be new Laws made for Nihil semel perfectum inventum there is nothing which is perfect so soon as begun and many mischiefs and inconveniencies may be begun and yet be prevented before they can be brought to perfection But then it must be presupposed that there may be remedies used which must of necessity be that there be a present and coercive power in being which may suppress and dissolve those mischiefes and inconveniences by making new Laws if the old ones will not remedy them and this is no new thing but is and alwaies was in all governments that ever were whether Monarchy Aristocracy or Democracy A Parliament is a Politick body compounded of Heterogenial or Of what parts a Parliament is compounded Inst 4. pag. 1. dissimilar parts viz. the King the Lords spiritual and temporal in one distinct house and of a house of Commons another distinct house Since there has been so much contest about the power and jurisdiction What creates the Lords house and cause of Parliament and since it being compounded of unlike parts and some of these unlike parts nay pieces of those parts have assumed the name of Parliament We will examine all the parts of it and see whether it be not all made and created by the King and into him only can be ultimately resolved he being principium caput finis of it First For the Lords spiritual they are all parts of the Lords house and sit there by succession in respect of their Counties or Baronies parcell of their Bishopricks but all Bishopricks were originally of the Kings foundation and donative per traditionem baculi viz. the crosier annuli viz. Inst 4 par 1. the ring whereby he was married to the Church King Henry the first being requested by the Bishop of Rome to make them Eligible refused it but King John by his Charter bearing date 5 Iunii an 17. granted that the Com. Lit. Sect. 648. pag. 344. Bishopricks should be Eligible so that the foundation donation and election to Bishopricks was only and immediately caused by the King and in this capacity by virtue of the Kings Writ out of the Court of Chancery does every Bishop sit as a member of the upper house of Parliament So that Inst 4 par 1. 4. the Lords spiritual did immediately hold their Bishopricks of the King and were members of the upper house only by vertue of the Kings Writ Secondly That the Lords Temporal are created immediately by the King is so manifest that I think no man will question it and that every Temporal Lord is impowred to sit as a Member of the Lords house by vertue of the Kings Writ issuable ex debito justitiae out of the Chancery See Inst 4. part pag. 1. 4. All the Judges of the Realm Barons of the Exchequers of the Coif Temporal Assistants of the Lords house the Kings learned Council and the Civilians Masters of the Chancery all called to give their assistance and attendance in the Upper house of Parliament but have no voices in Parliament How their Writs differ from the Barons see Inst 4. part page 4. In every Writ of Summons to the Bishops there is a clause requiring Spiritual Assistants or Procuratores Cleri them to summon these persons to appear personally at the Parliament which is in these words Premonientes Decanum Capitulum Ecclesiae vestrae Norwicensis ac Archidiaconos totumque Clerum vestrae Dioces quod iidem Decani Archidiaconi in propriis personis suis ad dictum Capitulum per unum idemque Clerus per duos Procuratores idoneos plenam sufficientem potestatem ab ipsis Capitulo Clero divisim habentes praedict die loco personaliter intersint ad consciendum hiis quae tunc ibidem de communi Concilio dicti Regni nostri Divina favente clementia contigerit ordinari So that not only the Lords Spiritual and Temporal but their Assistants are only created by the Kings Writ or immediately by the Kings authority But since there is so much contest about the House of Commons and The House of Commons are not the Representatives of the Free people of the Nation men say they represent the Freeborn people of this Nation and are the Supreme Authority of the Nation We will therefore enquire into the cause and see what may be the Freeborn people and whether a House of Commons as it now stands can be their Representative and whether being their Representative they may be the Supreme Authority of this Nation First What are the People If any man had said the people of Rome or the people of Athens or the people of Carthage c. a man had understood them and only them of Rome Athens or Carthage c. who were civitate donati But in England the case is much otherwise for with us there is no civitate donatus in one more then another but all men are alike born free and so by consequence every man as a freeborn man of England has as much right to his freedom one man as another I say therefore if every man of England has not a like vote and power in electing Members for the House of Commons then cannot the House of Commons be the Representative of the Nation for Plus valet contemptus unius quâm consensus omnium But it is most manifestly evident that the House of Commons are not elected by the equal consent of the freeborn people of England for not only two parts of three have not Forty shillings a year yet are as freeborn as they who have and as liable to penalty for transgressing Laws made in Parliament as they who do elect but many men have double votes in the election in Corporations where they send Burgesses and yet have like power with the Forty-shillings-men in electing a Knight of the Shire and such a place as Rising-Chase and Old Sarum c. have a like power in this House with the County of York and the Bishoprick of Durham sends none
with the Opinion of Learned men That the marriage with his Brothers wife was contrary to the Law of God and void The King not expecting the Popes sentence anno 1533. marries his beloved Anne but such love is usually too hot to hold for about two years after he cut off her head yet the King did not wholly renounce the Papacy but still expecting the Popes sentence The Pope for the reasons aforesaid not desiring to end the business The slow proceedings of the Pope but to expect advantage from time reduces the matter into several points or heads which he would have particularly disputed and at the time of the Kings marriage with Anne was not got further then the article of Attentates in which the Pope gave sentence against the King that it was not lawful for him to put away his wife by his own authority without the Ecclesiastical Judge For which cause the King in the beginning of 1534. denied the Pope his obedience commanding his Subjects not to pay any money to Rome nor to pay the ordinary Peter-pence This infinitely troubled the Court of Rome and they daily consulted of a remedy Some thought to proceed against the King with censures and to interdict all Christian nations all commerce with England But the moderate counsel pleased best to temporise with him and to mediate a composition by the French King K. Francis accepted the charge and sent the Bishop of Paris to Rome to negotiate a Pacification with the Pope where they still proceeded in the cause gently and with resolution not to come to censures if the Emperor did not proceed first or at the same time with his forces They had divided the cause into twenty three articles and then they handled whether Prince Arthur had had carnal conjunction with Queen Katherine in this they spent time till Midlent was past when the 19. of March news came that a Libel was published in England against the Pope and the whole Court of Rome and besides a Comedy had been made in presence of the King and Court to the great disgrace and shame of the Pope and every Cardinal in particular For which cause all being inflamed with choler ran headlong to give sentence which was pronounced in the Consistory the 24. of the same month That the marriage between Henry and Katherine was good that he was bound to take her to wife and that in case he did not he should be excommunicated But the Pope was soon displeased with this precipitation For six days His rash censure repented of after the French Kings letters came That the King was content to accept the sentence concerning Attentates and to render obedience upon condition that the Cardinals whom he mistrusted should not meddle in the business and that persons not suspected should be sent to Cambray to take information â—and and the King had sent his Proctors before to assist in the Cause at Rome Wherefore the Pope went about to devise some pretence to suspend the precipitate sentence and again to set the cause on its feet But the King so soon as he had seen it said It was no matter for the Utterly loses the obedience of England Pope should be Bishop of Rome and himself sole Lord of his Kingdom And that he would do according to the antient manner of the Eastern church not leaving to be a good Christian nor suffering the Lutheran Heresie or any other to be brought into his Kingdom From that time forward Henry the Eighth of a zealous Assertor of the No anger lost between the King Pope Papacy both by pen and purse became the first and greatest Opposer of it of all the Western Christian Princes for the Eastern Christian Princes except sometimes the Emperors of Greece and the Kings of Holy Land did seldom or never submit to the Papacy in her Spirituals yet did he afterwards seed to be reconciled to the Pope even by means of his Nephew Charls the Fifth Nor were the Popes much behind hand with him For besides Clement's petty Excommunication Paul the Third Anno 1538. thundred out such a terrible Excommunication against him as the like was never heard of which deprived him of his kingdom and his adherents of whatsoever they possessed commanding his Subjects to deny him obedience and Strangers to have no commerce in the kingdom and all to take arms against and persecute both him and his followers granting them their states and goods for their prey and their persons for slaves But the Popes anger ended in words whereas the Kings deeds took place against the Pope But what there was in all the Kings reign which might be called Reformation What was the Kings Reformation I do not understand For whatsoever the King took from the Pope except Peter-pence he ascribed to himself If the Pope would be Head of the Catholique Church the King would be Head of the Church of England If the Pope challenged Annates and First-fruits of the Bishops and Clergy the King would do no less If the Pope did give Abbots and Priors power being Ecclesiastical persons to make divers Impropriations to their benefit the King will take a power to take them all away and convert them into Lay-fees and incorporate them so into particular mens estates that they shall never return to the Church more Nor had he any love or desire of Reformation of the Church but only to the Church-lands for all the Rites Ceremonies and Religion of the Church of Rome was continued and that with such bloody cruelty that a Stranger going over Smithfield one day and seeing two men there executed one for denying the Kings Headship of the Church and another for subscribing to the Six Articles cryed out Bone Deus quomodo hic agunt vivi hic suspenduntur Papistae ibi comburuntur Antipapistae And so zealous did he continue herein that Pope Paul the Third after he had fulminated so dreadfully against him Hist Conc-Trid fol. 90 proposed him for an Example to be imitated by Charls the Fifth Although such was the temper of this Prince that he never spared man The exclusion of the Papai jurisdiction was an act of the King Kingdom and Church of England in his rage woman in his lust nor any thing which might be called sacred in his avarice yet so absolute was he that his Divorce was attested by both the Universities at home besides that at Paris abroad his freeing himself and the Nation from the jurisdiction of the Pope was not only assented to by a Synod and Convocation of all the Clergy of England but the English and Irish Nobility did make their submissions by an Indenture to Sir Anthony Sellinger then chief Governor of Ireland wherein they did acknowledge King Henry to be their lawful Soveraign and confessed the Kings Supremacy Bram. Vind. of the Church of England p. 43. in all causes and utterly renounced the Pope But Divorce banishing the Papal authority
are the English and Scottish And also since the corruption of the best thing is worst it will not be amiss before we conclude this Chapter and Book to discourse this Probleme whether upon all occasions it be the only and necessary way to cure all distempers of State by a full convention in Parliament according to the usuall constitution And first we will see what may be said for it That the passing of Lawes in Parliament where the major part of the Object 1 Freeholders are represented creates and begets a right understanding between the King and his Subjects that it is not the intention of the Prince to alter the old Lawes and introduce new ones to their prejudice To this I subscribe That when Lawes are so passed it confirmes and strengthens the Prince both by the person and purse of his Subjects in any designe he shall undertake because the representatives of the Freeholders consent unto it To this I subscribe That Parliaments have been of that antiquity and the Nation so habituated to them that it will never long be governed peaceably without them To this I subscribe That the grievances of the Nation can never be so well represented and redressed as in Parliament where the major part of the Freeholders are represented To this I subscribe That men will lesse dare to abuse their Prince or Country by any sinister or indirect means when Parliaments are frequent and free To this I subscribe The frequent use of Parliaments takes away all strangenesse between the King and his Subjects and begets a confidence and right understanding between them To this I subscribe That since it is necessary that every Prince in governing must necessarily ultimately resolve his confidence into something besides the Lawes to which upon all occasions he may betake himself for the Execution and defence of himself and Subjects and this must be by a constant Army in pay of his Subjects according to the institution of the Roman Legions or out of a diffidence of his own Subjects or from some reason of state trust the protection of his Person and Lawes into the hands of Foreigners as did the Kings of Aegypt before Sclymus conquered them or as the King of France now does in the hands of Switz and Scots or he must betake himself to the protection of a mercinary Army made up of his Subjects and Foreiners as the Turks Janizaries and Spahi are or establish his security and refuge up-the affection of his subjects and intrust them with the Militia in such manner as hath beene used heretofore in England and that this agrees better with the nature and constitution of English-men then any of the other as being established as well by common-Law as many Acts of Parliament To this I subscribe To these may be added that Tacitus in the life of Agricola makes it one great cause of the Romans conquering our Ancestors That they consulted not in common Nec aliud adversus validissimas Gentes pro nobis utilius quam quod in commune non consultant Rarus ad Propulsandum commune periculum conventus It a dum singuli pugnant aniversi vincuntur Quaere Yet quaere whether Rising-Chase in Norfolke and old Sarum in Wilts where are no Inhabitants but a few meane Tenants sending twice the numbers to the Parliament with the county of Yorke and whether the County and City of Durham sending none at all and whether Cornwall's sending ten times as many as either Warwick-shire or Leicestershire and yet eyther of them bigger and far more rich Counties Or whether Cities and Boroughs not only sending a like number of Citizens and Burgesses with the County having alike Vote with them of the County be an equall representative of the Freeholders Or whether the waies used in the Elections doe not animate the Electors and those that stand in Competition against one another and that to such a height That many of the Electors and those who stand are never after reconciled Answer It is true indeed that if God had determined all things in this inferior Orbe without any variation and that this thing were alwaies to be attained only by some one means that this in governing were by councell in Parliament then could there be neither reason or discourse upon variation and alteration of things and no difference betweene the wisest of Princes and the most foolish but this is so far from truth that there is nothing sublunary not only variable but doth vary every moment neither is there any thing in Reason Physick or State alike to all men nay in all of them the same thing may be at one time good and profitable at another time bad and hurtfull What man sees not that in health nature is not repaired by any man without a proportionable measure of diet which when he is indisposed may surcharge nature to the overthrow of it in him Strong physick may be proper to a man at one time and kill him at another Parliaments although ordinarily are the Kings surest refuge yet by how much they are more excellent by so much the worse are they corrupted Times are and will be bad when they are not made so by any cause in the Prince and so bad that in such conjuncture it may prove the utmost evill if the Houses or eyther of them shall assume the title of Parliament or give head to such Factions and distempers And no question when the Scots invaded England in 1640 it was unsafe Councell that advised the King to summon a Parliament and worst of all to convene it at London as things then stood For that saying of Tacitus it is rather Rhetoricall and makes against the Antiquity of Parliaments then any way proves necessity of them upon all occasions unless he could make consulere and pugnare the same thing nor could Agricola ever have obteined such victory against our Ancestors if he had fought with no more then had councelled him Epilogue WHen I looke back and consider the unstable condition of mankinde especially among Islanders and that often times the fate of good religious and just men is in this World more calamitous then of bad and vicious men I did then conclude with my self that Religion Justice and Piety cannot of themselves procure peace and society to mankind nay what is yet more lamentable that first sublunary cause from whence all Subjects derive and expect their protection is more subject to calamity then the condition of the meanest of mortall men Let a man take a survey of all the Kings in Britain since there were any Records of time and see whether neer one halfe of them did attain a naturall death nor is this confined within the Seas which encompass our Isle or a new thing in other parts of the world for Adgenerum Cereris sine caede sanguine pauci Juvenal Sat. 10. Descendunt Reges I shall therefore before I conclude endeavour to shew whether any peace and happinesse may be reasonably
creature until they become united into some place apted and disposed for production where from the benign influence of the Sun or celestial bodies as from a more universal and efficient cause they evade into living creatures Nor does this hold less true in the production or generation of all rational Science for the Reason by it self without matter cannot form dispose or define any thing Nor does the outward sense or memory apprehend things otherwise then as seen c. or remembred not as formed disposed or defined so as to be the subject of a Proposition Since therefore the Reason cannot prepare apt or define unless the Memory or outward senses supply matter nor the Memory without the Reason dispose prepare or define any thing so as to be the subject of a Proposition it does necessarily follow that the Reason united or conjoined with the Memory does prepare the subject of every Scientifical Proposition But in every Scientifical Proposition there must be a Predicate which comprehending the Subject must be understood The Understanding therefore is the prime and efficient cause of all rational Science and the Reason is the formal cause which does dispose and prepare the matter in the Senses or Memory to be comprehended judged or discerned by the Understanding And by consequence the Reason and Memory or Senses are but the Instruments by which the Understanding does generate and produce Science 63. Only Man can rightly infer and deduce particular Conclusions Why only Man is a reasonable creature from universal Causes and can direct his actions conformable to things in his understanding and not to his appetite and senses which is common to all living creatures as well as man only Man therefore is a rational creature 64. All men naturally desire to know And though by Aristotles judgment By what means men attain to Science all Science is begotten from preexistent Knowledge which from things granted does demonstrate the Conclusions yet must there be some manner and method which men must use by which others as well as themselves may understand this or that thing to be a Science or scientifical Conclusion Men therfore must propose that method which Euclid observes or all their science will be equivocal and obscure viz. First to define all those things of which his science is compounded in such terms that every singular or individual may be so comprehended that it may be wholly with all the parts of it contained in the definition excluding every thing else For if a man define a thing so that there be any so much as equivocation in it as that it does not signifie this only thus desined but may something else then of necessity must all the Science that bears a part of this definition be equivocal and uncertain And as the definition must not be equivocal to signifie more then the thing defined another thing as well as this so neither must it signifie less viz. any part of the thing defined for the thing for then all in which this thing is a part will be infinitely deficient and imperfect Secondly After the definitions I require such things as no ingenuous man will deny As that I may adde divide multiply convert c. these things thus defined Thirdly I set down those Axioms Principles Effata Pronuntiata Common Notions or Indemonstrable Propositions which are the first causes of the Science and do demonstrate all the Conclusions of it but in themselves are indemonstrable and for which no reason can be given but only the good will and pleasure of him that made them so And these Principles must be granted before any man can by his Reason produce any Conclusion And if a man denies these Principles all Argumentation is at an end for Contra negantem principia non est disputandum And no mans Reason can work upon nothing nor prove nor find out any thing before something be first granted by which a man may prove it or find it out 65. I have known and know many men who have vast memories Why some men are more phantastical then others and very strong phantasies who notwithstanding have been as unreasonable as any and would never admit of any discourse of any thing they fancied to themselves but upon a very slender opposition would fall into passion And the reason is because they phancie things only because they please them and do not understand them as true And if any man shews such a man some Consequence which will not follow from what he phancies or that it is inconsistible with some known universal Truth then does he seek to supply with passion what he wants in reason because he is crossed in what he desires should be true Whereas men who understand or desire to understand their Thesis or Notion not only take pleasure that nothing can be inferred from it which is false and that it is not inconsistible with any thing true whatsoever but will be so far from falling into passion with any man that opposes it that they would thank any man and take him for their friend that can shew them wherein what they suppose to be universally true is not or that it is inconsistible with something which they suppose to be universally true The Spirit of God says He is a fool that rages and is confident These light phantastical men who will phancie things for truth not because they are so but because they would have them so do not only rage when they are convinced that those things they phancie for truth are made to appear either but verisimilitudes or falshoods but will take them for illwillers who convince them and continue as confident in their foolish apprehensions as before 66. As the levity of the Phantasie which is always in agitation apprehending Why some men are more dull then others things without Reason is the cause why men too suddenly apprehend Verisimilitudes for Truth so the want of Phantasie is the cause why many men of vast memories very slowly apprehend the cause of any thing Where the Phantasie is too light there men apprehend or believe every thing for Truth they affect or desire and are soon perswaded to any thing they are not wilfully prejudiced to Where it is crass and dull and moves slowly or as we say where men are endued pingui Minerva there men are hardly moved to understand any thing 67. Sensible Knowledge is the retaining the Idea of things in the What is Sensible Knowledge memory which before were in the outward senses And there being neither Reason nor Understanding to the attaining of this Knowledge it is common to other Creatures as well as Man The Ox knows his owner and the Ass his masters crib says our Saviour 68. But all Causes from whence men do infer and discourse are not Of Argumentation à Posteriori so perspicuous as are the Axiomes in Geometry or the Laws of God and a mans Country But some Causes are known to Nature and
not to us as the Quadrature of a Circle and what proportion or ratio rather the subtending side of an Isoceles right-angle Triangle hath to one of the comprehending sides And some Effects are certainly known to us but the Causes are not known either to the understanding or outward sense as that Summer is hotter then in Winter and that men are sick and indisposed I say therefore where the Causes are but probable and conjectural whatever the Effect be no Conclusion can possibly amount any higher for Conclusio sequitur deteriorem partem 69. All Arts and Sciences are begotten from pre-existent Principles No Art or Science arises from Argumentation à Posteriori which are known to be necessarily true But in argumentation à posteriori the Effects are only known to be but not the Causes which are only probable No Art therefore or Science does arise from argumentation à posteriori 70. By the 38. Proposition it is impossible that any thing in the memory No probable Conclusion arises from Experiment or Memory or the outward senses should be judged phansied or concluded but by something which was before in the understanding Experiment therefore memory or the outward senses which only apprehend the material forms and effects of things seen c. cannot conclude any thing probably any more then a dead body can move without life besides it is so ridiculous that I wonder every man does not deride it Will any man say a great Lout new whipt is probably like to make a good Schollar because he hath made experiment of the strokes of a Rod or that the Fool in St. Joneses is a wise fellow because he makes experiment of the power of the Sun by his every daies sleeping in the raies of it Or that a Butcher is an excellent Philosopher because he makes experiment of killing Cattel And that experiment and memory does not move one step to the attaining of any probable Conclusions the Physitian or Philosopher reads the lecture on the parts Anatomized whereas the Surgeon dissects and makes the experiment And if experiment were the only way to attain to probable conclusions in Physick and Philosophy then not the Physitian but the Apothecary were the There is no probable Conclusion without Experiment or Memory better Philosopher 71. If by the 7. Proposition the apprehension of universal Causes certainly and necessarily true in the understanding cannot produce or prove any thing without the concurrence of particular causes then in reason cannot probable causes of themselves without the concurrence of particular causes either known to the outward sense or remembred produce any thing I will not therefore give one rush for any Physitians or Philosophers judgment who is not an experienced man 72. There are some things which nature brings to pass without any From whence men attain to probable conclusions art or help of any Creature others never without art and industry as a House and all Arts and Sciences In the first God is the great and only Opificer And it is only He who made Man and all other Creatures not meerly spiritual of such principles and so compounded that they every minute tend to the resolution of their first principles and yet in their thus dying something should generate in them which should perpetuate the generation of them in their species as they shall dye in their individuals Thus we see some soyl brings forth without any art or industry of man Grass Firr Broom c. Some is of a petrifying quality in other are Mines of Silver Gold Coal c. non omnis fert omnia tellus Some men grow sick others well without any cause from themselves These causes therefore being only known to God there cannot be any demonstrative conclusion from them by men because the causes are not evidently and necessarily known But although it be not Gods pleasure that men should understand the causes of these things so as to conclude demonstratively from them yet as having made two lights of different splendor vix the Sun and Moon though men see clearly only by the light of the Sun yet do men see although obscurely and but probably by the light of the Moon so though men do not in natural Philosophy and Physick from prime and necessary causes as from the light of the Sun see so as to conclude demonstratively yet hath not God always in these things totally shut out all light from men but they see as by the light of the Moon and in Philosophy are Theses and Aphorisms in Physick from whence by these senses memory and experiment men proceed infinitely and daily probably finde out things which before were not so 73. As in all Argumentation a priori there must be Principles assented No argumentation a Posteriori where Men agree not upon Principles to which must be the rule and reason of the argumentation and where men either by stubbornness or defect of understanding apprehend not Principles there of necessity can be no Art or Science taught so in argumentation a posteriori men must agree upon some Theses or Aphorisms which must be the rules of the argumentation men may discourse of the causes of things and not improbably conclude where they can make no experiments as in the causes of Meteors and Comets but no man can from all the experiment in the world conclude any thing but from something in the understanding which must be assented and comprehend that thing of which the experiment was made When therefore men by a defect in the understanding cannot apprehend Theses or Aphorisms or by stubborness they will not there all argumentation in either Physick or Natural Philosophy is at an end and it is impossible such men should either learn or be taught 74. Only man can by his reason from causes probable in his intellect Why only man attains conclusions a Posteriori Annot. rightly infer and conclude the causes of things in the memory or outward sences only man therefore can attain probable conclusions or concludge a Posteriori King James would affirm of his Hounds that in their hunting they used reason for when they had overrun the scent they would return on both sices of the path where they came and if on neither side they hit the scent off they would run back concluding because it was not on nor off on neither side it must necessarily be back where they came But more narrowly looking into this is not done of the Hounds by any reason or acquired habit but from an internal excited apperite moving them as Birds make nests and Bees hony-combs which they cannot but do at such times but cannot at other times nor yet learn nor teach them other creatures nay nor of the same kinde with themselves take a Hare Dear or Fox c. and let them be kept among Hounds in their kennel or so that the venatious appetite of them is not excited and they will not meddle with them whereas men
do not acquire Arts and Sciences by any necessary impluse moving them and only at such times when they cannot do otherwise nor are they excited thereunto by any material outward object but may learn and teach them other men and not upon necessity but upon all occasions as they shall judge requisite 75. Since every conclusion does follow the weaker part of the premises and since in all conclusions a posteriori the effect is onely known to the Things known to the outward senses are more evident then any probable conclusion outward senses and the cause but probable in the intellect the conclusion cannot amount any higher then probable But Men by their outward senses do apprehend things more then probably Things therefore apprehended by the outward senses are more evident then any probable conclusion and by consequence no man will reasonably dispute probably against what another hath seen or felt c. 76. There is nothing so much resembles God or Heaven as Light nor Things known to the understanding are more evident then to the outward senses any thing so much Hell as Darkness So incomprehensible is Light that it cannot be defined In all other things the motions actions accidents or passions happen in succession of time only light diffunditur ab instanti The rays and effluence of the Sun notwithstanding the immense distance of all the created bodies in the Universe at the same instant of time not only give light to them all but their power and influence is the prime and efficient at least instrumental cause of the generation and preservation of all corporeal creatures in them If a man considers the Light of the little world Man in the eye how it at the same time sees notwithstanding the vast interposition of space so many and so admirable works of the Creation it cannot less then beget an astonishment in him of the great power and goodness of God towards him yet how infinitely short this outward visible sight of the eye is Note the divine excellency of the understanding to the Divine Ray in the understanding appears in this that more is to be applyed to one principle known to the understanding or to one demonstrative conclusion from thence then to the sight or sence of all the men of the world to the contrary Should therefore all the men in the world affirm That they had seen two things equal to a third and not equal to one another or that they had seen an Orthogonial Triangle the square of whose subtending side were not equal to the squares of the comprehending sides or a right lined Triangle whose three angles were not equal to two right c. yet would I ascribe more to the truth of these thinge known to the understanding and from thence truly demonstrated then to the affirmation of all the men in the world nay so necessary are these things that God who can annihilate all the Universe in a moment cannot make them otherwise or should all the men in the world affirm that I ought not to serve God nor honor my King and Parents nor keep promise nor give every man his due c. yet more is to be ascribed to these Laws engraven in the minde of every man then to the affirmation of all the world to the contrary 77. Arithmetical proportion is when three or four numbers are so The wonderful Harmony of the Faculties of the Soul ordained that they increase equally the extremes added make the same number with the mean added or doubled if the numbers be but three As 3. 4. 5. 6. are in Arithmetical proportion for they increase equally and 3. added to 6. is equal to 4. added to 5. And so 3. 5. 7. are in Arithmetical proportion for they increase equally and three added to 7. is equal to 5. doubled By Def. 4. lib. 5. Eucl. Proportio est rationum similitudo And Def. 5. it must consist of three terms at least though indeed it must of four For where the terms are but three the medium is iterated twice as what proportion 4. hath to 6. 6. hath to 9. All Geometrical proportion is either discrete or continued Discrete is when the similitudo rationum is only between the 1. and the 2. and the 3. and 4. term As 2. 3. 4. 6. is in Geometrical discrete proportion for the similitudo rationis of 3. to 2. and of 6. to 4. is the same viz. sesquialtera but the similitudo rationis of 4. to 3. is not the same it being sesquitertia In continued proportion the similitudo rationis is the same in all the terms as in 2. 4. 8. 16. the similitudo rationis of 4. to 2. and 8. to 4. and 16. to 8. is the same viz. dupla In all Geometrical proportion the extremes multiplied into themselves produce the same number with the mean terms multiplied into themselves Harmonical proportion increases neither equally nor proportionally nor do the extremes added or multiplied produce the like number with the mean And yet in an admirable manner and sweetness do the extremes so connect the mean that the proportion of the greater extreme to the lesser is the same with the differences between the two greater and the two lesser As 2. 3. 6. increase neither equally nor proportionally nor is the mean number 3. added or multiplied the same with the extremes 2. and 6. added or multiplied but is in harmonical proportion because the difference between 6. 3. the greater extreme is triple to the difference of 2. 3. the lesser extreme which is the proportion between 6. 2. viz. triple And if there be any variation of either of the extremes all Harmony ceases All Harmonical proportion consists only in three terms As in Harmonical proportion the terms are necessarily three so are the Faculties of the Soul viz. the Will the Understanding and Memory And as the mean term in Harmony is so placed that if there be any excess or defect in either of the extremes all Harmony ceases so hath God placed the Understanding in a mean between the Will and Memory that if there be any defect or excess in either or both do not conform to the Understanding all Harmony of good and prudent actions ceases and they become wicked and foolish 78. Experience is the trial or apprehension of things from the outward Of Experience and what Knowledge arises from thence Eth. lib. 9. c. â— senses and this is common to all sensible creatures as well as man And therefore although according to the judgment of Aristotle Scientia be activa and therefore being only in the immaterial object of the understanding it may be learned and taught without experience yet Art being faction as it is applicable to some material subject cannot be taught without experience Notwithstanding de facto from the outward senses only may many Conclusions in Arts be taught men who apprehend them not from their causes as we see in mechanical Handicraft-men
seen that the Turkish Muscovitical and other whatsoever Governments setled upon this principle That the goods and lives of the Subjects are the Princes not to defend as our Laws go but to dispose at will c. neither do nor can breed any obligation of Obedience in the Subject more then of Fear and present Utility Observ It seems then neither Fear nor Utility may be expected from our Authors Laws with which his absolute Trustee is impowered And what other means besides the law of God which commands us to be subject to the higher Powers Rom. 13. and S. Peter 1 Ep. cap. 2. 13. To submit our selves to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether to the King as supreme c. can any Governor propound to his Subjects for their conformity to his Laws but utility and reward for their obedience and fear of punishment for their disobedience And here our Author calls them Tyrannical c. What 's the matter Have they too much power They have no more then God hath given them and in having less they should soon actually have none at all and Aristocraties and Democraties assume as much Do they eat too good meat or wear too good clothes Why sure Nature intended that the best things should be used and who better use them then the King What are many of their Subjects poor and miserable 'T is not their fault 't is the curse of God upon the ground for Adams sin in not giving up his will to Gods command that in sorrow man should eat of it all the days of his life Gen. 3. 17. And if any of these Tyrannical Governors as our Author calls them should divest themselves of all their power and greatness yet there would not be fewer poor laboring men And let our Author shew me in any of these Goverments half so many Slaves and miserable men as I will shew him have been under the Romans and other popular States Nor need any man in any of these be a Slave if he will become Renegado to his Faith and Religion whereas under the Romans c. they were necessitated to it at the will of their Lords Will they if they fear the power of any man to grow too great use means not fully warrantable in the known Laws either to make it less or none at all why the Portian Law prescribed only banishment to the Citizens of Rome in any offence yet Cethegus Lentulus Longinus c. were put to death for being agents in Catilines Conspiracie The Athenians would by their Ostracism banish any man that they but suspected would grow too great Will they make unjust war without any cause given why the Romans undertook the protection of the Mamertines Livy lib. 16. a company of * Sir Walter Raleigh book 5. ch 3. Hellhounds who had murdered their Hosts the Messanians and took possession of Messana against the Carthaginians which was the ground of the first Punick war And when Greece was divided amongst Athenians Lacedemonians Arcadians Corinthians Achaeans c. when was there any faith or troth among them but the weaker still bandying against the stronger till they were all brought in subjection to Philip the father of Alexander Will they put men to death upon no sufficient proof of crime against them why what proof of suspicion of crime was there against the most excellent and divine Philosopher Socrates or against the victorious Athenian Captains at the battel of Arginusae Will they not reward their good Servants and Captains what reward had Camillus Coriolanus both the Scipio's African and Asiatick See Dio Siculus Bib lib 13. Where the Syracusans before Dionysius his time made it their pastime to reward the vertue of their worthiest Commanders with death or banishment And Nicias lost the whole Athenian Army in Sicily consisting of above forty thousand men for fear if he had preserved them he should have been proscribed or put to death by the Athenians Thucid. lib. 7. Themistocles Alcibiades Hermocrates the noble Syracusan Dion c. Will they take severe revenge upon their enemies although it may be they had no just occasion given The poor Melaeans who were content not to have medled in the wars between the Athenians and Lacedemonians and no occasion of war against them but the will of the Athenians after they were forced to yield up their City at discretion were all of military age slain the women and children made slaves and Melos made a Colony to Five hundred of these cursed Demagogues as you may see at the end of the 5. book of Thucidides And see Plutarch in the Life of Sylla what came upon the Athenians who first called the Romans into Greece when Sylla took Athens Will they take severe revenge where as our Authors calls it the obeyer does not understand that it is his own profit which the action aims at that is to say when the Subject will not obey Let him see the fate of the Capuans in Livy lib. 26. and of the Mytileneans and Scionians in the 3. and 5. book of Thucidides What do they not govern their Subjects in peace Where was there ever any such dissention and confusion as in Democratical and Aristocratical States And the Grecians have seen less war and disquiet two hundred years together under the Turk then ever they saw in three years when it was divided into so many Aristocraties and Democraties But our Author will not endure that the Subject should be protected in his life and estate by the Law of these Tyrannical Governors Why what greater obligation of obedience can there be to Government on the Subjects part then that he is thence protected in his life and from thence holds whatsoever may be called his And since there never was nor can be a fourth species of Government how much better is it for a Subject to obey one Individual Prince then by an imaginary liberty to make his obedience to many for Quantae molis erit dominis servire duobus Author Well but let us compare one of these Tyrannical Governors with our Authors Absolute Governor For though our Authors Absolute Governor be a Mungrel extracted from equivocal generation and such a Beast as Nature never intended and Ground 8. tied up to certain Laws and Limits of the People yet for all that our Author can have a course too with his Lycisce though tied up in a line But then it must be agreed between our Author and his Lycisce that they say it be for the good of the People and then Ground 11. they are his Laws alack the while what is become of the Peoples Laws c. And Gr. 13. p. 101. The lawfulness of a Soveraign Commander is no other then that he truly thinketh to be for the good of the Commonwealth Observ So now Casting of Dollars and Coining of Dollars is all the difference between our Authors Trustee and one of these Tyrannical Governors the same thing differently called by the Author
do and are neither pleased with the remembring of what is past nor can hope well in time to come And indeed no Man is so miserable as he who knows not how to entertain a day but by being vicious in it Vicious Men desire that all their actions should be buried in oblivion with them and will make it a cause of quarrel for any Man to mention those things they daily do as their actions whereas it is onely Virtue that does eternise Men to all Posterity for the whole Earth is a Monument for famous Men and their Virtues shall not onely be testified by inscription of Stone at home but by an unwritten Record of the Minde which more then any Monument will remain with every one for ever Sir Francis Bacon in his Life of Henry the Seventh compares Times to Ways whereof some are more uphil and downhil some are more plain and even the one is better for the Reader the other for the Liver Sometime it pleases God that Virtue should be as it were so in fashion That to be virtuous is commendable and rewarded other while Virtue is not onely persecuted by all the contrary names but virtuous Men are butchered imprisoned sequestred c. and for no other cause but onely their Virtue Tacitus accounteth it a rare felicity of the Times whenas an Historian may without danger Record the History of the Times Polybius affirmeth of truth That she ought to be Proem Hist esteemed of Men as the greatest Goddess and that the greatest Power ought to be attributed to her For though all Men oppose her and sometime many kinds of verisimilitudes and appearances stand against her for a Lie yet I know not how she by her self insinuates her self into the mindes of Men And sometime on the sudden shews how potent she is and sometime after she hath been along time obscured by darkness at length of her self prevails and expugneth the Lie If a Man vary the terms of Truth and Lie into Virtue and Vice this affirmation will not less hold true Virtue was never so oppressed by Ignorance and Faction but that the virtues of good Men shall finde honorable mention afterward And Vice and Faction however cryed up at present shall hereafter be fully laid open and their deformity discovered to all Posterity Virtue is the same in all Ages and most amiable in her simple nakedness and it is Vice which hath need of false glosses and hath such specious shewes and pretences put upon it to make it seem Virtue which fucous and false paint continues no longer then the present Faction Of all Virtues next after Religion Justice is the most worthily ranged in the first place not only as including all other Virtues but as excluding it all a Mans actions are rendred as Vile and contemptible other Vices are like Moats in running waters and the smallest Moats are easilest seen in purest streams but injustice is like the poysoning the Fountain which corrupts all the stream There is no Man that is so perfect but some spots and stains may be spied in his actions which are soonest spied in the best Men but no Man Heathen or Christian can deserve the least reputation of being good or Virtuous who is an unjust Man It was not Alexanders Venery Ryot Drunkenness and Captivity to the Persian Effeminacy Vices though bad enough but his occidit etiam Callisthenem that was put in Counterpoiz Senec. de beneficiis to all his Virtues It is Justice which next after the most immortal greatest best God and Religion fabricates connects and establisheth Nations and Kingdoms in Unity and Peace It is injustice which next after Gods punishments for their sins subverts them to the ruine of the greatest part of the inhabitants so that Justice deservedly hath the pre-eminence of Virtues next after Religion and Injustice is the foulest and vilest of all Vices after Atheisme Though Justice be so high and noble a Virtue yet I think there was never any thing by learned Men as Xenophon Plato Aristotle Bodin Grotius more mistaken Not that I deny but that many Virtuous Men from their innate good nature have in their actions practised that which hath been rarely well defined like Men who by a habit speak well yet cannot give a Grammatical construction of their speech or like the Romans who though the Grecians were best at the Theory of Rhetorick and Poetry were the best Orators and Poets or like the Physitians who in blood-letting supposed the circulation of the blood yet none asserted it before the most renowned Philosopher Doctor William Harvey or like a Musitian who composes well yet understands but little in the Theory of Musick For my part as I hate Flattery as one of the basest Vices and the most inconsistent with Ingenuity or Integrity so had I much rather that these Elements should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though a present sufferer for them then by any sinister means to attain to any greatness whatsoever All things are at first appearance curiously scanned and censured by Men it may be most by them who least understand them for Nihil est facilius quam reprehendere alium I desire nothing else of any ingenuous Reader then that in censuring any thing in this following discourse he would declare what he would have instead of it Carpere vel noli nostra vel ede tua I know it is Humanum errare and I not having a beaten path to direct me to my journies end and being unfit for so great an underraking although supplied with greater helps then I have found shall very probably be subject to stumble having had so dark and feeble means to keep my self upright However in all this Apostacy of Men in general from all Faith Religion and Moral honesty I have endeavored to shew from what causes all Vitues as well Theological as Moral flow and that Men by forsaking them must necessarily fall into all those calamities and confusions which now involve us Whatsoever therefore my errors and defections are they ought rather to be forgiven then to cause anger in any candid Reader for my part I profess ingeniously I will ascribe it an Act of friendship in any Man who shall direct my going in a more plain path or shew me where I have strayed out of the way by treading in this THE APPARATUS OR The different Nature of Man from other Creatures And why only Government is necessary to Mankinde SInce there is nothing more manifest then that there is every where in the World Government for no man can say That this thing is his or that thing another mans but he must presuppose a Superior Power which gave him and the other man a Right in this or that thing And since from the evidence of all Sacred and Prophane History no time was ever recorded in which men were not in subjection to one another And since from * Viz. Grotius Hobbs White these mens Principles it is not
possible that any Power in Government can be derived For to suppose by the Law of Nature all men to be equal and to have a common and undivided Right to all things it is impossible that they can create a power which may give Law Property and Power of Life and Death when as they themselves have none at all But suppose all Men are by nature equal and yet have a right to create a supream Power which may give Property yet then it must follow That all the Men of the World must be subject to one Individual Government For ex hypothesi the Inhabitants of Greece have as much right to all the things in Britain as the Inhabitants of Britain have and the Men of Spain have as much right to all the things in Italy as the Italians have and so have the French to all things in Italy Germany Persia c. Nor can the Inhabitants of France Germany Spain c. frame to themselves any Government for ex hypothesi by the Law of Nature the Persians Indians Moscovites c. have as much right in France Germany Spain c. as the French Germans and Spaniards have And to suppose that by the Law of Nature all Men have all things in common and to suppose that whatsoever is or shall be renewed in Spain England France c. is due by the Law of Nature only to Spaniards Englishmen and French c. is to suppose a contradiction and impossibility Nor is that Fancie less groundless which supposeth that Regal power or government was first instituted from an aggregation or consent of Families For how is it possible there should be a Family where there is no Supreme power which gave Property in that place and habitation where that Family is Nor where there is no Law precedent obliging can it be expected that any man will where he may be free at his own pleasure be a Servant Nor can it in reason be supposed that any man will contract with another to be his Servant whereas he may as well expect to be his Master It shall be therefore our endevour to find out the true Causes and Principles of Power and Subjection But before we proceed it will not be amiss to see in a short view the natural difference between Man and other Creatures of this inferior orb and why Humane or Politick Government is only necessary to Mankind Of all the Creatures of this inferior orb only Man uses Reason by which with the help of his Memory and Experience he proceeds from things manifest and known to the Understanding to find out things less known and more obscure yet still so that subsequent Generations may infinitely adde to what precedent Ages had found out whereas other Creatures do by an impulse of Nature being taught of no Creature nor from any observation by themselves insite and connatural with them at first attain to such perfection that in succession of time nothing is added to it Thus we see all Birds at their first trial make their nests with as much art and ingenuity as those that do live longest And so the younger Bees make the honicomb as perfect as those who had done it twice or thrice before And certainly it is an admirable thing to consider with how great providence these smallest Creatures and imperfect Animals do choose out places for their conceptions even before they be living creatures and but only so in power and with what unimitable art they build fortifie and hide the place wherein they repose them I have seen an Indian Birds nest which was made upon a small bough growing over waters which bough was too weak to support the weight of a Monky the Monkies in those parts of India use to prey upon young Birds and provident Nature points out these places to those Birds for the security of their young ones from the Monkies for of all terrestrial creatures only Men and Monkies and their kindes swim not naturally and the Monky if he in seeking to get the young birds falls into the water drowns himself I have with great admiration seen Frogs which are usually generated in the moneth of March confidently and carelesly swimming croaking upon one another upon the surface of the water whenas Horses and other cattel have been there but upon the coming of Ducks who naturally prey upon and devour them they have been all husht and gone and not one to be seen It being sure worthy admiration that Providence should so direct those spurious and imperfect animals and but of yesterdays being and not of much longer continuance to know without any apprehension of danger those creatures who are not hurtful to them and to fear and avoid those who are enemies and prey upon them Neither is Providence less seen in all creatures if a man considers it in the preservation of themselves and their young ones so that a man must needs confess that in them is some particle of Divine air and this their unlearned art and wisdom is rather to be admired their imitated by us Man by his observation and experience findes out what things and Creatures are hurtful or helpful to him other Creatures by an instinct of Nature at the first sight know what things and Creatures are hurtful to them or not thus we see the timerous young Hare feedes securely among Horses and Cowes and the oldest Hart flyes afrighted from the smallest dogge Man can never attain to the knowledge of what things conduce most for his corporal preservation and therefore the oldest and most experienced and learned Physitian may to morrow find what the day before he was ignorant of and yet shall never attain to the perfection of knowing what is best for his own body which other Creatures by avoiding those things which are hurtful and choosing those things which are most beneficial for themselves do The careful Navigator by the help of some Theorems of longitude and latitude and the use of his Card and Compasse sailes from one Coast to another whereas other Creatures by a propense disposition to this or that place without any observations and direction of their senses fly to other regions where they never were before So Faulcons Wildgeese Woodcocks c. come from other regions into England in the Autumn and at the Spring forsake us And Swallowes Martyns Hobbyes c. which brood with us in the Summer when the Antumn approaches leave this Clymate for another to which they cannot attain by any sense or observation of their own A Gentleman living in Buckingham-shire had a Beagle sent him by Sea from the most Eastern part of Suffolk to London and from thence was conveyed by water into Buckingham-shire some time after upon some distaste taken by the dogg he returned home to his old Master by land which was above an hundred miles But what is most admirable is that omne genus Balaenae as Dolphins Whales Porpices which do not keep in shoales or company and although
might not be aliened or made worse by the Possessor yet so that she left a gap open for herself and her Favorites to prey upon it which was after shut by King James and with great care secured by King Charls All this while grew up a Faction in Church and State which became the ruine of both For not only in the Church the Publique Liturgy Communion or Religion was vilified and defamed but the Governors reviled with all opprobrious names of Tyrannical Antichristian c. It is true the Majesty of the King was not so openly reviled yet was it insensibly daily undermined by them in which they were much assisted by a company of half-headed Lawyers who in all Assemblies distilled this doctrine into ignorant men That the Law was above the King and that they had Property against him in their estates and goods Whereby not only Citizens and Great places became generally inclined to this new doctrine of the Teachers and Lawyers but the Country-Gentleman thought himself independent from the King both in his life and estate the Yeoman cared not for the Gentleman and as little regarded the King so that the veneration of the Royal Name became every day more contemptible and despised all honor and reverence due to the King Church was converted unto these Patriots of their Countries Liberty and New Lights Nor could the Church relieve the Crown although the Governors were well-affected towards it being by all the Faction more hated than the King became despised until in the end the chief Governors both of Church and State not only became Victims to the rage and lust of seditious men but the Revenues of both a prey to their avarice And now what is left for this miserable Nation to expect having forfeited all Piety and Allegiance to Gods Church and his Anointed but after all this consumption of the Blood and Publique and Private Revenue of the Nation and having lost all Reputation and Commerce abroad for the future to be Turk-like governed by armed and hungry Soldiers without any probable hope of Redemption Object It may be it will be here objected That though poor and contemptible Princes be rarely long obeyed especially where their Subjects are opulent yet had the Church never so great veneration both for power and piety as when in the Primitive times it was poor whereas afterward when it became rich and mighty it did degenerate into many vices and heresies and lost much of estimation and piety which it had in its poverty Answ I grant that God did by his grace and power originally by a company of poor men and Fishermen against all the greatness of worldly power miraculously plant a Church and that those poor men sent by God were supernaturally inspired by his grace which not their poverty was the cause of their piety and sanctity and that they were so highly honored by primitive Christians yet sure when God hath supernaturally planted his Church it cannot be in reason expected he should preserve it always by miracle And sure those are very ungrateful men not to contribute ordinary means for the preservation of what God hath extraordinarily planted Nor is there any thing more vain then to imagine that men are better for being poor or that according to the ordinary course of things they will not be by men in general esteemed vile and contemptible who are so Nil habet infaelix paupertas durius in se Juveual Quâm quod ridiculos homines facit CHAP. VI. Of the Fathers power 1. UNumquodque resolvitur in id ex quo componitur Dust shall return to the Introduction earth as it was and the Spirit to God who gave it Eccle. 12. 7. It is not the good will and pleasure of the All-prepotent God that only the individuals of one age should see the greatness of his Majesty and power therefore he was pleased to create man as well as other Creatures in this inferior or be in a * If Adam had not been created in a Mortal State the Sacrament of the Tree of life had been a vain institution mortal state yet he endewed him generativa facultate that though he does dye in his person yet he should live in his posterity and as one generation passeth away so another commeth but the earth abideth for ever Eccle. 1. 4. 2. There is nothing more evident then that in perfect Creatures of The power of Parents alike over their Children which man is the most perfect that God is the prime and efficient cause or God working by naturall causes the Sun is the efficient cause and Male and Female the Instrumental Sol per hominem generat hominem See Harvey de generatione Animalium Cap. 33. Man and Woman therefore being the means whereby God does renew the species of Mankind and all Creatures having power over themselves in all things wherein they are not restrained by some natural or humane Law and every Child being alike part of either of his Parents the Power of Father and Mother is alike over their Children and so by consequence the subjection and obedience of every Child is alike due to Father and Mother And to honor thy Father and thy Mother is the First precept of the second Table of the Decalogue 3. Man and Wife being but one person and the Husband being the Why in Matrimony the power is in the Father head of the Wife and the Wife being in the power of the Husband the Husband hath the power and command as well of the Children as of the Mother yet the piety and observance of Children to their Mother is as much due as to their Father 4. Grotius cap. 5. art 2. de jure belli pacis out of Arist pol. 1. cap ult Grotius his opinion of the Fathers power eth 5. cap. 10. distinguisheth the Fathers power over Children into three times viz. 1. The time of their imperfect judgment 2. The time of their perfect judgment 3. The time when they are out of the Fathers family In the first all the actions of the Children are under the command of the Parents In the second time whenas judgment is matured by age and are of the family they are subject as part of the family In the third when he is matured by age and out of the family the Son is in all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of his own right Yet he says and truly parag 5. The Fathers power so follows the Fathers person that it can never be pulled off nor transferred to any other for the Fathers power arising from generation is due to him by the Law of Nature and so always the same if not aliened by the act of God And therefore * Confuted Quando Ubi make no alteration in the Fathers power for it is the same when the Son is an Infant and when adult when he is part of the family and when not 5. Where the Law of Nature gives a
Tribute or of St. Peter Cap. 20. Who shall deny the peny of St. Peter the peny let him pay by the Justice of the Church and thirty pence forfeiture and if he will be impleaded concerning it by the Justice of the King let him forfeit to the Bishop thirty pence and forty shillings to the King Of Religion and the publick Peace 51. First of all we Ordain above all things That one God be worshipped all over our Kingdom and the one Faith of Christ be always kept inviolate c. The Laws are Translated out of the Original set forth by Mr. Abraham Whelock in his Appendix to the History of Bede from page 150. to 107. Sir Ed. Coke in Caudrys Case cites a quare Impedit 7 Ed. 3. tit 19. where it is agreed that no man can make an appropriation of any Church having cure of souls being a thing Ecclesiastical and to be made by some person Ecclesiastical but he that hath Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction but William the first of himself without any other as King of England made appropriation of Churches with cure to Ecclesiastical persons wherefore it does follow he had Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Here is nothing but argumentum à facto ad jus and a man may as well infer that Saul Jeroboam and Azariah did offer sacrifice and burn incense and therefore they had Sacerdotal power in them or that King John did give the Crown and received it again from him and therefore the Crown of England is holden of the Pope Ecclesiastical Laws made by Henry the first Who began to Reign in the year of Christ 1100. THese at last are the happy joys of the long wished for peace and liberty Proem by which the glorious Cesar Henry doth shine forth to his whole kingdom in Divine and Secular Laws written Institutes and Exhibitions of good Works Moderate Just Valiant Prudent whom God may make to command with happy auspices and healthful prosperity of body and minde with his famous wife Maud the second and their children for ever and the everlasting peace of this Nation His Epistle to all his Leigmen 1. Henry by the Grace of God King of Englishmen to all Barons and his Leigmen French English health Know that I by Gods mercy and the Common Counsel and consent of the Barons of the Kingdom of England am Crowned King of the Kingdom aforesaid and because the Kingdom was oppressed by unjust exactions I in respect of God and the love which I have towards you all first of all make the Church of God free so that I will neither sell nor let to farm nor after the death of an Archbishop or Bishop or Abbot will take any thing of the Demesns of the Church or her men until the successor be come in c. Of the propriety of Causes Cap. 5. In all Causes Ecclesiastical and Secular legally and in order to be handled some are Accusers some Defenders some are Witnesses some are Judges In every discussion of honesty fitting men are to be joyned together and that without any exaction until the quality of the Causes and the intention of the Accused the manner of Witnesses and election of Judges be weighed with upright scrutiny Let there be no foreign Judgements nor celebrated by their improper Judge in place or time nor in a doubtful case or the party accused being absent the sentence being pronounced notandum that for all if the accused had competent warning and lawful leave of answering and defending he be not denied or impleaded or outlawed or circumvented by some stealth or judged by deceit If he be satisfied in the Witnesses Judges and Persons If he consent to the Judges or hurt or contradict It is not altogether so in Ecclesiastical business as Secular in Secular business after that any is called shall come and begin to plead in the Court it is not lawful to go back before the Cause be determined although they shall agree but in Ecclesiastical business it is lawful to go back in the Cause aforesaid If a man suspect a Judge or think himself oppressed surely Judges ought not to be so nisi quos impetitus Elegerit Neither may any one be heard or give judgement before that they be chosen and he who refuses to consent to the elected let no man communicate with him until he obey but if in judgement there arises dissention among the parties of which a strife comes forth let the sentence of the more prevail It is Enacted in the Cause of Faith or of any Ecclestastical Order he ought to judge who neither takes reward nor is of another Law and will do nothing without an accuser For God and our Lord Jesus Christ did know Judas to be a Thief but because he was not accused therefore he was not rejected and whatsoever he acted among the Apostles for the dignity of his Office remained firm As also Clerks ought not to receive Laiks Accusers so ought not Laicks to receive Clerks to be Accusers of Clerks in their Accusations and Informations and Witnesses ought to be legitimate and present without any infamy or suspition or manifest spot because they cannot rightly accuse Priests who cannot be Priests nor of their Order nor is it needful to Judge a man before he hath had lawful Accusers present and accepts a place of defence to wash out his crimes And it is our pleasure as often as many crimes are objected to Clerks by Accusers and they cannot make good one of the first of which they are accused they shall not be admitted to the rest And a Bishop shall not be condemned unless by seventy two Witnesses nor the Archbishop be judged of any A Presbyter-Cardinal Note the preheminence of a Bishop in England at this time above a Cardinal shall not be condemned unless by forty four Witnesses a Deacon-Cardinal shall not be condemned unless by twenty six Witnesses nor a Sub-Deacon under seven nor let the greater despair for the force of the lesser men and there always the Cause may be Pleaded where the Crime is admitted If a man stricken will he may plead his cause before his Judge and if he will not before his Judge he may hold his peace and as for men stricken as often as they desire respit let it be granted And every man which objects a crime let him write that he will prove it and if before he be changed he will not follow he is convinced no crime is to be accounted But if he will prosecute if he shall not prove what he objects let him undergo the penalty which he brought the Apostle says Against a Presbyter a writing is not to be received without two or three approved witnesses how much more against Bishops if these things be observed of Presbyters and other faithful men If any one will accuse any of the Clerks in an accusation of Fornication according to the precept of St. Paul two or three testimonies are required from him but if he
It was afterwards in open Parliament by grievous complaint of all the St. 25. Ed. 3. Commons of this Realm shewed that the grievances and mischiefs aforesaid did daily abound to the great damage and destruction of this Realm more then ever before viz. that of late the Bishop of Rome by procurement of Clerks and otherwise had reserved and did reserve daily to his collation generally and especially as well Archbishopricks Abbeys and Priories as all other dignities and other benefices of England which were of the Advowry of people of the holy Church and gave the same to Aliens as well as to Citizens and taketh of all such benefices the first fruits and many other profits and a great part of the treasure of this Realm was carried away and dispended out of the Realm by the Purchasers of such graces and also by such privy reservations many Clerks advanced by the true Patrons which peaceably holden their advancements by long time were suddenly put out Wherefore the said Commons did pray the said Soveraign the King that since the right of the Crown of England and the Law of the said Realm was such that upon mischiefs and damages which hapned to this Realm he ought and was bound of the accord of his people therefore to provide remedy and Law c. The said King Ed. 3. seeing the mischiefs and damage aforesaid c. and forasmuch as he was bound by his Oath to see the same to be kept as a Law of this Realm though that by sufferance and negligence it had been sithence attempted to the contrary also having regard to the grievous complaints made to him by his people in divers his Parliaments holden heretofore willing to ordain remedy for the great damage and mischiefs which had hapned and daily did happen to the Church of England by the said cause by the assent of all the great men and the commonalty of the said Realm to the honor of God and profit of the said Church of England and of his Realm did order and establish that the free election of all Archbishops Bishops and all other dignities and benefices electory in England should hold from henceforth in the manner as they were granted by the Kings progenitors and founded by the ancestors of other Lords and that all Prelates and other people of the holy Church which had Advowsons of any benefices of the Kings gift or of any of his progenitors or of other Lords and Donors to do divine service and other charges thereof ordained should have their collations and presentments freely as they were enfeoffed by their donors and in case that reservation collation or provision be made by the Court of Rome of any Archbishoprick Bishoprick Dignity or other Benefice in disturbance of the election collation or presentments aforesaid That at the time of the avoidance that such reservations collations and provisions ought to take effect the said Ed. 3. and his heirs should have and enjoy for the same time collations to the Archbishopricks and other dignities elective which is of his Avowry such as his Progenitors had before that free election was granted since that the elections were first granted by the Kings progenitors upon a certain form and condition as to demand license of the King to chuse and after the election to have his Royal assent and not in other manner which condition not kept the King ought by reason to resort to his first nature Upon complaint made by the great men and commons it was assented St. 27 Ed. 3. and accorded by the King great men and commons aforesaid that all the people of the Kings Allegiance of what condition that they be which shall draw any out of the Realm in plea whereof the conusance pertaineth to the Kings Court or of things whereof Judgement were given in the Kings Court or which did sue in any other Court to defeat or impeach the Judgments given in the Kings Court should incur the danger of a Premunire Made to confirm the Acts made the 25. and 27. years of the said Kings Reign but those that made those good Laws against such capital offenders St. 28 Ed. 3. Cap. 1. 2. 3. 4. were cursed defamed and reproved by such as maintained the usurped jurisdiction of the Church of Rome against which an especial Act of Parliament was made by the King and his whole Realm prohibiting thereby such defamations and reproofs In the Reign of Richard the second Against an Incumbent of the Church of England another sueth a provision 12 Rich. 2. tit Jurisdict 18. in the Court of Rome and there pursueth until he recovereth the Church against the Incumbent and afterward brought an action of account against him as receiver of divers sums of money which in troath were the oblations and offerings which the Incumbent had received and the whole Court was of opinion against the Plaintiff and thereupon he became nonsuit It is declared by that Parliament that the Crown of England hath been St. 16 R. 2. Cap. 5. so free at all times that it hath been in subjection to no Realm but immediately subject to God and none other and that the same ought not in any thing touching the Regality of the same Crown be to the Bishop of Rome nor the Laws and Statutes of this Realm by him frustrated or defeated at his will to the perpetual destruction of the King his Soveraignty Crown and Regality and of all his Realm And the Commons in that Parliament affirmed that the things attempted by the Bishop of Rome be declared against the Kings Crown and his Regality used and approved in the time of all his Progenitors In the Reign of H. 4. H. 4. fol. 9 It is resolved that the Popes Collector though he hath the Popes Bull to that purpose hath no jurisdiction within this Realm and there the Archbishops and Bishops c. of this Realm are called the Kings spiritual Judges By the ancient Laws Ecclesiastical of this Realm no man could be convicted of Heresie being high-Treason against the Almighty but by the Archbishop Fitz. nat B. 269. Candries Case and all the Clergy of that Province and after abjured thereupon and after that newly convicted and condemned by the Clergy of that Province in the general councel of the convocation but the St. of 2 H. 4. Ca. 15. doth give the Bishop of the Dioces power to condemn a Heretick and that before that Statute he could not be committed to the secular power to be burnt until he had once abjured and was again relapsed to thar or some other Heresie whereby it appeareth that the King by the consent of Parliament directed the proceedings in the Court Ecclesiastical in case of Heresie and other matters more Spiritual Well but suppose the King did so it proves nothing for it is but matter of Fact But it does not appear neither that this direction of the King by consent of Parliament did direct the proceedings in the
person sueth another Spiritual person in the Court of Rome for a matter Spiritual where he may have remedy before his Ordinary that is of the Bishop of the Diocess within the Realm Quia trahit ipsum in placitum extra regnum incurreth the danger of a Premunire a hainous offence being contra Legiantiae suae debitum in contemptum Domini Regis contra coronam dignitatem suam In the Kings Court of Record where Felonies are determined the Bishop or his Deputy ought to give his attendance to the end that if any man 9 Ed. 4. 28. that is Indicted or Arraigned for Felony do demand the benefit of his Clergy that the Ordinary may inform the Court of his sufficiency or insufficiency that is whether he can read as a Clerk or not whereof notwithstanding the Ordinary is not to judge but a Minister to the Kings Court and the Judges of that Court are to judge of the sufficiency or insufficiency of the party whatsoever the Ordinary do inform them and upon due examination of the party may give judgement above the Ordinaries information For the Kings Judges are Judges of the Cause whether the Ordinary be a Judge of Legit or non Legit matters not much for if he be Judge or Minister no doubt but he is the Kings Judge or Minister And I my self have seen Chief Justice Littleton overrule the Ordinary in the Case of one Brudbank after the Ordinaries Deputy had pronounced legit ut Clericus and give sentence of death upon him for his non legit and he was hanged The Popes Excommunication is of no force within the Kingdom of England 12 Ed. 4. f. 46. In the Reign of King Ed. 4. a Legat came from the Pope to Callis to have come into England but the King and his Councel would not let him come into England until he had taken an Oath that he should attempt nothing against the King or his Crown And so the like was done to another of the Popes Legates And this is so reported 1 H. 7. fol. 10. In the Reign of Richard the third It is resolved by the Judges that a Judgement of Excommunication in the Church of Rome shall not prejudice any man within England at the Common Law In the Reign of Henry the seventh 1 H. 7. fol. 10. The Pope had Excommunicated all persons whatsoever who had bought Alume of the Florentines and it was resolved by all the Judges that the Popes Excommunication ought not to be obeyed or to be put in execution within the Realm of England It was enacted ordained and established by the advice and assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in the said Parliament assembled That it be lawful to all Archbishops and Bishops and other Ordinaries having Episcopal jurisdiction to punish chastise such Priests Clerks and Religious men being within the bounds of their jurisdiction as shall be committed afore them by examination and lawful proof requisite by the Law of the Church of Advoutry Fornication Incest or any other fleshly incontinency by committing them to ward or prison there to abide in ward until such time as shall be thought to their discretions convenient for the quality and quantity of their trespass And that none of the Archbishops Bishops or Ordinaries aforesaid be thereof chargeable of to or upon any action of false or wrongful Imprisonment but that they be utterly discharged thereof in any of the cases aforesaid by vertue of this Act. The King is a mixt person because he hath Ecclesiastical and Temporal 10 H. 7. 18. jurisdiction By the Ecclesiastical Laws allowed within this Realm a Priest cannot 11 H. 7. 12. have two Benefices nor a Bastard can have a Priest But the King may by his Ecclesiastical power and jurisdiction dispence with both these because they be mala prohibita but not mala per se How far Henry the Eighth exercised his Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction IT was enacted That if any person or persons at any time after the St. 21. H. 8. 13. first of April 1530. contrary to the Act should procure and obtain at the Court of Rome or elswhere any Licence or Licences Union Toleration or Dispensation to receive or take any more Benefices with cure then was limited by the said Act or else at any time after the said day should put in execution any such Licence Toleration or Dispensation before that time obtained contrary to the said Act That then every such person or persons so after the said day suing for himself or receiving or taking such Benefice by force of such Licence or Licences Union Toleration or Dispensation that is to say the same person or persons only and no other should for every such default incur the danger pain and penalty of Twenty pounds sterling and should also lose the whole profits of every such Benefice or Benefices as he receives or takes by force of any such Licence or Licences Union Toleration or Dispensation And that if any person or persons did procure or obtain at the Court of Rome or elswhere any manner of Licence or Dispensation to be nonresident at their Dignities Prebends or Benefices contrary to the said Act that then every such person putting in execution any such Dispensation or Licence for himself from the said first of April 1530. should run and incur the penalty damage and pain of Twenty pounds sterling for every time so doing to be forfeited and recovered and yet such Licence or Dispensation so procured or to be put in execution to be void and of none effect It was enacted That no person from thenceforth cited or summoned 23 H. 8. cap. 9. or otherwise called to appear by himself or herself or by any Procurator before any Ordinary Archdeacon Commissary Official or any other Judge Spiritual out of the Diocese or peculiar Jurisdiction where the person which shall be cited summoned or otherwise as is abovesaid called shall be inhabiting and dwelling at the time of awarding or going forth of the same citation or summons Except it be for in or upon any of the cases or causes hereafter written viz. for any Spiritual offence or cause committed or done or omitted forstowed or neglected to be done contrary to right and duty by the Bishop Archdeacon Commissary Official or other person having Spiritual jurisdiction or being a Spiritual Judge or by any other person or persons within the Diocese or other Jurisdiction whereunto he or she shall be cited or otherwise lawfully called to appear and answer And that every Spiritual Judge offending contrary to the purport of this Act shall forfeit Ten shillings sterling the one half to the King the other half to any person that will sue for the same in any of the Kings Courts in which action no protection shall be allowed nor Wager of Law or Essoine be admitted In which Sir E. Coke Cawdries case says there were twenty four Bishops Stat. 24. H. 8. cap.
12. twenty nine Abbots and Priors for so many then were Lords of Parliament It is declared That where by divers sundry old authentique Histories and Chronicles it was manifestly declared and expressed that this Realm of England is an Empire and has been so accounted in the world governed by one Supreme Head and King having the dignity and Royal estate of the Imperial crown of the same unto whom a Body Politique compact of all sorts and degrees of people divided in terms and by names of Spirituality and Temporality been bound and ought to bear next to God a natural and humble obedience He being also institute and furnished by the goodness of God with plenary whole and entire power preheminence authority prerogative and jurisdiction to render and yield justice and final determination to all manner of folk resiants or subjects within this his Realm in all causes matters debates and contentions happening to occur insurge or begin within the limits thereof without restraint or provocation to any Forein Princes or Potentates in the world The body Spiritual whereof having power when any cause of Law Divine happened to come in question or of Spiritual Learning that it was declared interpreted and shewed by that part of the said body Politique called the Spiritual body then being usually called the English Church which always hath been reputed and also found of that sort that both for knowledge integrity and sufficiency of number it has been always thought and was also at that houre sufficient and meet of it self without the intermedling of any exterior person or persons to declare and determine all such doubts and to administer all such offices and duties as to the the rooms Spiritual did appertain For the due administration whereof and to keep them from corruption and sinister affection the Kings noble Progenitors and Antecessors of the Nobles of this Realm have sufficiently endowed the said Church both with honor and possessions And the Laws Temporal for trial of Property of Lands and Goods and for the conservation of the people of this Realm in unity and peace without rapine and spoil was and yet is administred adjudged and executed by sundry Judges and Ministers of the other part of the said Body Politique called the Temporalty And both their Authorities and Jurisdictions do conjoin together in the due administration of Justice the one to help the other This Statute does moreover affirm that Ed. 1. Ed. 3. Rich. 2. H. 4. and other Kings did make divers Laws Ordinances Statutes c. for the entire and sure conservation of the prerogatives liberties and preheminences of the said Imperial Crown and of the Jurisdictions Spiritual and Temporal of the same to keep it from the annoyance as well from the See of Rome as from other Forein Potentates and does make all Causes determinable by any Spiritual jurisdiction to be adjudged within the Kings authority All First-fruits and all contributions to the See of Rome by any Bishop St. 25. H. 8 cap. 20. were forbidden upon pain of forfeiture of all the goods and cattals for ever and all the Temporal lands and possessions of every Archbishoprick or Bishoprick during the time that he or they who offend contrary to the said Act shall possess and enjoy the said Archbishoprick or Bishoprick And that if any presented to the See of Rome by the King to a Bishoprick and he be there delayed he may be consecrated by an Archbishop in England and that an Archbishop presented to the See of Rome to be there consecrated and there letted may be consecrated by two Bishops of England And because the Pope hereof informed did not redress and reform the said exactions nor give answer to the Kings mind therefore the said Statute did prohibit any man to be presented to the See of Rome for the dignity of an Archbishop or Bishop or that any Annates or First-fruits be paid to the Bishop of Rome and that upon the avoidance of any Archbishoprick or Bishoprick the King his heirs and successors may grant to the Prior and Covent or Dean and Chapiter of the Cathedral Churches or Monasteries where the See of such Archbishoprick or Bishoprick shall happen to be void a Licence under the Great seal as of old time hath been accustomed to proceed to Election of an Archbishop or Bishop of the See so being void with a Letter missive containing the name of the person which they shall elect and choose and for default of such Election the King by his Letters Patents may nominate an Archbishop or Bishop and that every Archbishop Bishop to whose hands any such presentment or nomination shall be directed shall with speed invest and consecrate the person nominated and presented by the King his heirs and successors And if any Archbishop or Bishop Prior and Covent Dean and Chapiter shall for the space of twenty days next after such Licence or Nomination come to their hands neglect or shall execute any Censures Excommunications Interdictions c. contrary to the execution of any thing contained in this Act that then they incur the penalty of a Praemunire An act concerning the exoneration of the Kings subjects from exactions St. 25. H. 8. cap. 21. and impositions before that time paid to the See of Rome and for having Licences and Dispensations within this Realm without suing further for the same The King shall be reputed Supreme Head of the Church of England St. 26. H. 8. cap. 1. and have authority to reform and redress all Errors Heresies and abuses in the same Every Archbishop and Bishop disposed to have a Suffragan may elect 26 H. 8. c. 14. discreet Spiritual persons being learned and of good conversation and present them under their seals to the King making humble request to his Majesty to give to one of the two such title name stile and dignity of Bishop of such of the Sees as the King shall think fit and that every such person to whom the King shall give any such stile and title of the Sees abovenamed viz. the Towns of Thetford Ipswich Colchester Dover Gilford Southampton Taunton Shaftsbury Molton Marlborough Bedford Leicester Glocester Shrewsbury Bristow Penrith Bridgwater Nottingham Grantham Hull Huntington Cambridge and the Towns of Perth and Barwick S. Germans in Cornwal and the Isle of Wight shall be called Bishop Suffragan of the same See whereunto he shall be named and that every Archbishop and Bishop for their own peculiar Diocese may and shall give to every such Bishop Suffragan such Commissions as have been accustomed for Suffragans heretofore to have or else such Commissions as by them shall be thought requisite reasonable and convenient And that no Suffragan shall use any ordinary jurisdiction or Episcopal power otherwise nor longer time then shall be limited by such Commission upon pain of the penalties mentioned in the Statute of Provisions made the 16. of Rich. 2. The King shall have authority to name Thirty two persons sixteen
28. H. 8. 7. for the establishment of the succession of the Imperiall Crown of this Realm that concerneth a Prohibition to marry within the Degrees expressed in the said Act. Stat. 31 H. 8. 9. authorising the King to make Bishops by his Letters Patents Stat. 32 H. 8. 38. concerning precontracts of Marriages and touching degrees of consanguinity Stat. 35 H. 8. 3. for ratification of the Kings Stile The corporall oath made in the Stat. of 35 H. 8. 1. that every Subject of this Realm should be bound to take against the power authority and jurisdiction of the See of Rome Stat. 37 H. 8. 17. That the Doctors of the Civill Law which were married might exercise Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction So much of that Statute of the first Ed. 6. 1. as contains certain Provisions Pains Penalties and Forfeitures for and against such as should by open preachings expresse words sayings writing printing overt-deed or act affirme or set forth That the King of this Realm for the time being is not or ought not to be the supreme head in earth of the Churches of England and Ireland nor of any of them or that the Bishop of Rome or any other person or persons other than the K. of England for the time being is or ought to be supreme head of the same Churches or any of them as in the said Act more at large may appear It is enacted that these clauses and other of the foresaid Act concerning the Supremacy and all and every branch article words and sentence in the same sounding or tending to the Derogation of the supremacy of the Popes Holiness or the See of Rome and all pains penalties and forfeitures made against them that should by any means set forth or extol the said Supremacy should from thenceforth be utterly void It did moreover generally repeal all clauses sentences and articles of every other Statute made since the 20 H. 8. against the supreme authority of the Popes Holiness or See Apostolick of Rome The Lords Spirituall and Temporall and Commons professing themselves reduced and received by their Majesties intercession to the unity of Christs Church and obedience of the Apostolick See of Rome and the Pope governing the same did make humble suite to their Majesties to be Intercessors that by authority of the Popes Holiness and by the ministration of Cardinall Poole by dispensation tolleration or permission respectively as the case shall require be abolished these Articles following and generally all others when any occasion shall so require may be provided for and confirmed 1. That all Bishopricks Cathedrall Churches Hospitalls Colledges Schooles and other such foundations now continuing made by authority of Parl. or otherwise established according to the order of the Lawes of this Realm since the Schisme may be confirmed and continue for ever 2. That Marriages made infragradus Prohibitos consanguinitatis affinitatis cognationis spiritualis or what might be made void propter impedimentum Publicae honestatis justitiae or for any cause prohibited by the Canons only may be confirmed and children born of those Marriages declared legitimate so as those Marriages were made according to the Lawes of the Realm for the time being and be not directly against the Lawes of God nor in such case as the See Apostolick hath not used to dispence withall 3. That institution of Benefices and other promotions Ecclesiasticall and dispensations made according to the form of the Act of Parliament may likewise be confirmed 4. That all Judiciall Processes made before any Ordinaries of this Realm or before any Delegates upon any Appeals according to the order of the Lawes of this Realm may likewise be ratified and confirmed 5. That the Lands and Goods of Bishopricks Monasteries Chanteries c. dispersed abroad to sundry persons by gift exchange purchase c. according to the Lawes of the Land for the time being shall so continue It was enacted that the title of supreme head of the Church never was nor could be attributed to by any King or Governor It was enacted that all Bulls Dispensations and Priviledges obtained before the 20 year of H. 8. or any time since of the See of Rome and not containing matter prejudiciall to the Imperiall Crown or Lawes of this Realm should be put in execution This Statute did restore the Pope and Apostolick See together with the Jurisdiction the Bishops had in the Realm to all the Authority they had before the 20 of H. 8. It is a very remarkable thing that this Statute does affirme that nothing done or moved in this Statute should be prejudicall to the Liberties of the Crown before the 20 of H. 8. and that the Statute of 24 H. 8. 12. and the Statute of 25 H. 8. cap. 20. which takes away all Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction from the Pope and vests it in the King should be but declaratory of the ancient and common Law of this Land See Coke de jure Regis Ecclesiastico 28. a. b. 31. one of these must necessarily be false Thus did Queen Mary restore by Parl all the Papall Jurisdiction which Description of Queen Mary was exercised before the 20 of Henry the 8. and would have restored all the Abbey and Chantery Lands taken away by her Father and Brother had it been in her power but many alienations descents and purchases having been made of them she was not able to performe it being a Princess no doubt wondrous free from sacriledge zealous and constant in her Religion mercifull when her Religion was not concerned and just Her mercy appears in her not only pardoning all the Councell who had subscribed to her disinheriting but it was thought she would not have taken away the life of the Lady Jane although guilty of so high a crime as having actually invaded the Crown if the Duke of Suffolk her Father formerly pardoned by the Queens meer grace had not most unjustly and unthankfully excited her Subjects against her which together with Wiats Rebellion for her own security did necessitate her for her own security to execute her Her justice appears in this the Lord Sturton having been at variance with one Hargill and his Son Gentlemen knocked the poor Gentlemen on the head and after cut their throats and buried their bodies in a Pit 15. foot deep hoping this villainy would never come to light or if it did he assured himself of the Queens favour being zealously addicted to the Popish Religion which did him not good for the Queen abhorred and rejected all mention of Pardon for him only he had this grace that the other Murderers were hanged in a hempen but he in a silken halter Ecclesiasticall Lawes made in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth IT is declared that in the Reign of H. 8. divers good Lawes and Statutes Anno 1. Eliz. cap. 1. were made as well for the utter extinguishing of all usurped and forrein Powers and Authorities of this Realm and other her dominions and Countries as also for the restoring and
of them or by any Generall Councell wherein the same was declared heresie by expresse and plaine words of Scripture or such as should be determined Heresie by the high Court of Parl. with the assent of the Clergy in their Convocation This Statute revives the 23 H. 8. 9. 24 H. 8. 12. 25 H. 8. 20. 25 H. 8. 21. 26 H. 8. 14. 28 H. 8. 16. So much of the Act of the 32 H. 8. 38. concerning precontracts of Marriages and touching degrees of Consanguinity as by the 2 Ed. 6. 23. was not repealed the 37 H. 8. 17. the 1 Ed. 6. 1. This Act repeales the Statute of the 1 2. Ph. M. 6. the 1 2 Ph. M. 8 except those things touching the Premunire in the said Statute It repeales the 5 R. 2. 5. the 2 H. 4. 15. the 2 H. 5. 7. made for the punishment of Heresies by fire and faggot This statute repeales the statute of the first of Mary and the 2 and revives Stat. 1 Eliz. cap. 2. the statute of the 5 6 of Ed. 6. for the uniformity of Prayer and administration of the Sacraments with the alteration or addition of certain Lessons to be used every Sunday of the yeere and the forme of the Letany altered and corrected and two sentences only added in the delivery of the Sacrament to the Communicants If any Parson Vicar or other whatsoever Minister that ought or should say or sing Common-Prayer mentioned in the said Booke in such Cathedrall or Parish-Church or other places where he should Minister the same in such manner and forme as is mentioned in the said Booke refuse to doe the same or use any other forme or shall preach declare or speake any thing in derogation of the said booke or any thing therein contained or any part thereof and shall thereof be lawfully convicted according to the Lawes of the Land by the Verdict of 12 men or confession or notorious evidence of the fact shall forfeit to the Queene c. for the first offence the profits of one whole yeere next after such conviction of all his spirituall Benefices and suffer imprisonment for the space of six moneths without Bayle or Mainprize If any such person once convicted concerning the Premisses shall after such conviction offend and be thereof lawfully convict shall suffer imprisonment for the space of one whole year and be deprived ipso facto of all his spirituall promotions and that it shall be lawfull for all Patrons and Donors of such Spirituall promotions to present or collate to the same as if the person or persons so offending were dead If any person be convicted the third time of the premisses he shall ipso facto be deprived of all his spirituall promotions and shall suffer imprisonment during life Any person that shall offend and be convicted inform aforesaid concerning any of the premisses not being beneficiall or having any spirituall promotion shall for the first offence after such conviction suffer imprisonment for the space of one whole year without Bail or Mainprise and for the second offence after lawfull conviction shall suffer imprisonment during life If any person shall doe or speak any thing in derogation of the book of Common-prayer or disturb or interrupt any Parson Vicar or other Minister in any Cathedrall or Parshi Church or Chappel in the celebration of the Common-prayer or ministration of the Sacraments or shall compell or cause any other Service to be celebrated being thereof lawfully convict shall for the first offence forfeit to the Queen c. the summe of one hundred Marks and for the second offence the summe of four hundred Marks and for the third offence he shall forfeit all his Goods and Chattels and suffer imprisonment during life If any person shall for the first offence be convict of the premisses in form aforesaid and shall not pay the sum to be paid by virtue of his conviction that instead thereof he shall suffer imprisonment for the space of 6. moneths without Bail or Mainprise and he that shall not pay for the second conviction shal suffer imprisonment for the space of 12. moneths without Bail or Mainprise Every person shall having no lawfull or reasonable excuse to be absent diligently and faithfully endeavour to resort to the usuall places where Common-prayer and such Service of God shall be used upon Sundayes and other dayes appointed to be kept holy and there abide orderly and soberly during the time of Common-prayer Preaching and other Service of God upon pain of punishment by censures of the Church and twelve pence to be levied by the Church-wardens to those of the poor of the Parish by way of distress The Ordinaries and all other Officers Ecclesiasticall as well in places exempt as not exempt within their Diocess have power and authority by this Act to correct and reform and punish by Church censures all who shall offend within their Jurisdictions The Justices of Oyer and Determiner or Justices of Assise in open and generall Sessions have power to hear determine and punish these offences yet so that every Arch-bishop and Bishop in their severall Diocesses by virtue of this Act may associate or joyn themselves with the said Justices No person shall be molested for any offences abovesaid unlesse he be indicted at the next generall Sessions next after such offences are committed All Lords of Parliament for their third offence shall be tried by their Peers Chiefe Officers of Cities and Boroughs have the like authority to hear and determine the offences aforesaid as the Justices of Assize and Oyer and Determiner have Arch-Bishops Bishops their Chancellors Commissaries Arch-Deacons and other Ordinaries having any peculiar Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction have by virtue of this Act power in their Visitations Synods and elsewhere within their Jurisdictions to enquire and take the accusations and informations of all the offences aforesaid and to punish the same by Admonition Excommunication Sequestration or Deprivation and other censures in like form as heretofore has been used by the Queens Ecclesiasticall Laws Any person offending in the premisses and punished therefore by the Ordinary having a testimoniall thereof under the Ordinaries Seal shall not for the same offence be convicted before the Justices and likewise punished for the first offence by the Justices he shall not again receive punishment of the Ordinary Such Ornaments of the Church and of the Ministers shall be reteined Anno 5 Eliz. cap. 1. and be in use as was in this Church of England by authority of Parliament in the 2 year of the Reign of Ed. 6. untill other Order shall be taken by authority of the Queen with the advice of the Commissioners appointed and authorised under the Great Seal of England for causes Ecclesiasticall or of the Metropolitan of the Realm It was enacted That whatsoever person inhabiting in the Queens Dominions who by word or deed should maintain that the Bishop of Rome had any authority or jurisdiction in any of the
of the Commons Lawes of this Land yet a great assertor of them and in disgrace with him would oftentimes affirm that there was no time whenever he could speak reason but the King would hear him With the reputation of these virtues he governed these Islands in greater peace then posbly in the ordinary nature of things could be expected In the 3. year of his Reign viz. Anno Dom. 1605. was a most hainous and The cause of the many Laws made against Popish Recusants vile attempt intended not only against the very Person of the King but even of his Posterity which had not advanced the designe of the conspirators and the Church and all the Nobility not of their faction with the Commons in Parliament assembled And the conspirators had proceeded so far that they had not only made provision to have effected their purpose and intended the fifth of November being the day for the convention of the Parliament after their Proroguement and therefore probably expecting not only a more then usuall convention both of the Lords and Gentry but even of the King himself to have blown up the Parliament House But the designe being as foolish as desperate was discovered the night before it should have been executed although it is thought that it was known even to the King himself and the Earl of Salisbury before as by accident and so had no other effect then what the conspirators might reasonably have expected had it succeeded viz. ruine to themselves for their faction being so very few in proportion to the rest of the Nation and without either money Forts or Army in reason they could not have done any thing considerable in order to their further designes and severe Lawes against all which might be suspected to be of their faction to prevent any such further attempts It is true where Tacitus observes that the conspiracies of Subjects where His defects and frailties they succeed not doe advance the Soveraignty and verefied in this attempt of the Gunpowder-Treason for how many Lawes were that Parliament and afterward enacted against all Popish Recusants we have before shewed yet so it happened and so usually happens when not carefully minded by Princes that another faction far more formidable both to King and Church openly pretending assistance to the King and Church in persecuting this faction secretly acquired strength to themselves in so doing Nor was this unseen by this wise King being naturally a greater enemy to the Faction persecuting the persecuted but either not having that magnanimity which is so requisite in a Soveraign or apprehending he had not means sufficient to goe through he neglected to apply such medicines as were necessary to the curing of this Gangrene so dilating it self both in Church Court and State but desiring Peace especially at home although almost upon any termes he rather sought to repell the breaking out of Puritanisme during his Reign then to eradicate it for the future Add hereunto that being excessively addicted to Hunting and not greatly loving the Common Lawes and finding it impossible to govern this Nation otherwise and minding controversies in Divinity more than the management of his temporall affaires and though free from Sacriledge and Corruption in his person yet carelesse of it in his Favourites and Countrymen and nothing so prudent a Manager of the Revenues of the Crown as his Predecessor whereby being forced to recede from many of his Regalities the Reins of Government both in Church and State became so loose that in the ordinary nature of things it was very difficult they should be reassumed by his Successor Ecclesiasticall Laws made by King Charles THere were some few Lawes made against Interludes c. on the Lords day and 10. groats penalty for offence to be levied by Justices and Constables which a man may read in the first Car. 1. 3 Car. 1. There had never in any time been before this Kings Reign so long Peace The state of the Church State in the beginning of K. Charles his Reign viz. for neer 80 years in this Nation as in the beginning of his Reign but neither doth peace make mens minds peaceable nor were things otherwise well disposed for the continuance of it for not only the zealous and obsequious duty which the Subjects paid to the Royall name in the person of Queen Elizabeth was quite dead and almost forgotten the great wisedome and learning of his Father not to be hoped for in the tender years of the Son the Exchequer without money and yet the King engaged in a Warre against the Spaniard for recovery of the Palatinate but the Puritan Faction which Queen Elizabeth desired so much to suppresse and so much hated by his Father was grown so farre up in Church State and Court that in all they were far more numerous both in England and Scotland and all forein Plantations then all his other Subjects Nor was the condition of Ireland better for not only the Protestant party were jarring among themselves but the Popish intent upon their destruction which after they did execute in a terrible manner To these may be added the government both in Church and State so neglected that the exercise of any Lawes to reduce them to conformity would be imputed to have been Innovations and Tyranny The Kings Councell either uncapable of giving counsell or not faithfull to their Prince Nor was there any thing left to oppose all these growing calamities but the hopefull virtues of a young Prince unacquainted in Temporall affaires and a stranger to all worldly calamities which are of no more power to protect him against seditious and rebellious Subjects then the Lawes of God and all which may be called sacred will retain men in obedience where they are not restrained by a present coercive power But these stormes which after brought this Saintlike Prince and this wofull Church State to so lamentable a condition as they lately lay under did not breake out in the very beginning of his Reign but in all three Nations did gather into such black clouds in all his reigne that almost at once breaking forth in such a terrible Tempest as upon the matter it so overwhelmed King Church and Government that there was scarce any footsteps of them left I had here designed to have inserted a short History of the chiefe occurrences of his Reigne and by what degrees this saint-like Prince became a victim to the rage and lust of his seditious subjects and have the papers now by me but in regard it must needs rub soares which may rather in their tendernesse anger then ease them and also because the History of his life hath been by others more fully written but most of all because it is his Majesties pleasure to have the memory of things rather buried in oblivion then renued I shall forbeare and doe no more then give the description of him and shew the consequence of his calamities The Description of King
expected in this World and if that may then by what means it is to be attained but that I might by degrees accomplish my end I begin with man in his first Cause and being Man then in his first being is to be considered either as created or begotten as created sure no man in his wits will deny but that God was the prime and only efficient cause of his creation who without any ordinary concurrence of naturall causes did so create him and that this was not from a confluence of naturall causes is evident for otherwise it had been a Generation not a Creation and necessarily something must be Created before any thing can be Generated of it Nor is God if a man rightly considers it lesse the prime and efficient cause of man in his Generation then in his Creation for it must needs be evident to every man That male and female are not the first cause of Generation because then they would alike of themselves without the influence of a superiour cause be apted for Generation and so every Creature of it selfe in a like power of Generating one as much as another the contrary of which every one daily sees Nor are all Creatures at all times alike disposed to Generation but apted and disposed thereunto from some exterior cause as we see in Foxes about the Brumall solstice and Ravens in January other creatures generally about the Vernal Equinox and Deere about the Autumnall which without all doubt doth proceed from the influence of the Sun which in those seasons disposes them thereunto but that the Sun is not the prime and efficient cause of Generation is confessed by Aristotle where hee faith * That in omni creature divinum quid reperiri respondens Elemento stellarum Lib. 2. cap. 3. de Gen. Anim. esseque omnipotentis creatoris vicarium It is not therefore the Sun nor male and female which can be the first cause of a man or any other creature but that minde or Soul which governs the innumerable and vast bodies of the Univers and by a perpetuall motion of the Earth from West to East according to the new Hypotheses in Astronomy or of the Sun from East to West after the former Hypotheses through the divers Regions of the Earth doth apt and dispose all things therein to their production and dissolution So that God is the prime efficient cause as wel in the generation as creation of man other creatures the manner only is different God in generation from the confluence of necessary contingent causes doth Generate Man and other creatures and originally did create them without any confluence of causes Nor is God lesse the prime preserver of all Creatures then the first cause of the Creation and Generation of them for not all the sublunary meanes of eating drinking sleeping exercise physick c. can preserve any creature thus Generated or Created but some internall cause whether it be called anima or pars animae or quid animae or aliquid habens animam aut intellectus aut denique numen and this is it in every Creature which doth worke towards its end and orders all these things with unimitable and incomprehensible art and providence alwaies procures what is best as well for its being as well-being as well for defence as ornament Spiritus intus alit totamque infusa per artus Mens agitat molem Virg Aenei And though all these outward things however necessary for the preservation of every Creature are accidentall and may be more or less acquired and communicated by every creature yet this internall cause this numen this Lar familiare or anima which disposes and orders all these outward causes is not to be acquired or communicated by any Creature So that a man must needs confesse That in all Creatures as well as Man there is some particle of divine Aire which doth order and dispose of all sublunary meanes in a wonderfull and diverse manner towards their preservation untill by a propense naturall disposition they all resolve into their first Principles But these outward meanes are acquired and communicated by severall Creatures divers and severall waies Some doe acquire these outward meanes from an innate impulse never with understanding or reason moving them others rarely without their understanding or reason and this latter only is Man Yet how fraile a mans reason and understanding is even to the acquiring of things necessary for his preservation is evidenly seen almost in all men for there is no man in this world who can by his understanding and reason so govern his actions that those things so directed by him have alwaies a like event nay often times the same thing propounded by the same man upon the same grounds and reasons hath so contrary an event that at this time it ruins him which other while was of much advantage to him And this is daily seen among all sorts of men so that it is most manifest that a mans understanding or reason cannot preserve him as he is an intellectuall rationall Creature nor Justice Religion and Piety as a sociable but somthing superior to these What then shall we say to these things Is Religion Justice and Piety and a mans understanding and reason of no account because they cannot procure peace and preservation Nothing lesse for God having first created man and other creatures without the confluence of naturall causes did ever after their first creation cease to make any other but the species of all things have ever since been renewed by Generation but in Generation God doth not renew the species of all creatures from an absolute act of his own but from the coition of male and female disposed thereunto in perfect creatures oftentimes from matter disposed many creatures are aequivocally generated without the coition of male and female which thing is evidently seene from the yeerly renuing of of frogs caterpillars c. The antient Aegyptians from the observation of the very many creatures thus generated in the River Nile did believe that all perfect creatures were originally not from creation but from aequivocal generation Yet though these spurious and imperfect creatures are thus generated yet do they all generate their like Aristotle Hist Anim. only excepts the Eele and I could never yet see either Row or Milt in any of them But though God be the prime efficient cause of the generation all creatures and therefore absolutely necessary to the production of every creature and though the conditions which he hath ordained be absolutely necessary to the generation of every creature yet are not these conditions alwaies performed from any absolute necessity of the part of God but oftentimes from contingent causes and the will of the creature For example it is necessary that the influence of the Sun from matter disposed in standing pools should produce Frogs yet are not alwaies those Pooles necessary to be but are often made and often filled up
from voluntary and contingent causes of man so contactus naturalis in bodies apted and disposed doth necessarily generate yet is there no necessity that this contactus should bee but it might not have beene c. Universall causes in nature produce nothing of themselves but as meeting with particular and materiall causes disposed to production the universall causes are alwaies prime and necessary but their meeting with particular causes are not alwaies so but often times contingent and voluntary As God by the confluence of naturall causes is alwaies the first cause of all creatures by Generation so is he the first cause of the preservation of all Creatures yet doth not he preserve them by any absolute necessity of his part alone but by such meanes as he hath ordained for every Creature I say this meanes doth not alwaies come to passe from inevitable necessity of the part of God but often times from the will of men and contingent causes for example no man lives but as he daily repaires nature by eating and drinking yet there is no necessity that he should eat or drink but he may choose whether he will or not Nor is God less the prime preserver of intellectuall and rationall creatures yet doth he not preserve them as other creatures void of understanding but thus using the intellectuall and rationall faculty of their Soul yet there is no man but may chuse whether he will use his understanding and reason in his actions and that man who doth not use his understanding in his actions but only his affections and passions how great soever he be will live to see misery enough And though Religion and Justice cannot of themselves preserve men in Peace and Happinesse but some superior cause which must order and dispose them thereunto yet so necessary are they for the preservation of peace and happiness that whersoever they are neglected men did ever degenerate into straction confusion and prophanenesse this superior cause which dignifies men above all other creatures as well intellectuall as sociable is God who is the prime efficient and necessary cause of peace and happinesse among sociable Creatures and Religion and Justice are the necessary meanes which he hath ordained therefore But though Religion and Justice be necessary for the peace and happinesse of any Nation yet is it not alwaies necessary on Gods part men should be Religious and Just but men may chuse whether they will do religious and just acts or not God therefore is the first and necessary cause of peace and happinesse among men and Religion and Justice the necessary meanes which he hath ordained thereunto and this to be performed by man and let no man thinke that God will save any man in this world or blesse him in the world to come against his Will when men will not endeavor these things by such meanes as hee hath ordained Man therefore by Religion and Justice ought to endeavour through God's blessing to attaine to Peace and Happinesse as well in this World as in the next without which hee cannot reasonably hope for eyther Having thus far treated of the causes of all society and vindicated the Government and Lawes of my native Country and mother-Church of England It will not be amisse before I conclude to add a word or two in vindication of Sir Edward Coke my most honored Ancestor since by words and writing he is so traduced as indeed Quis ille a tergo quem nulla aconia pinsit by men so maliciously or ignorantly or both Among the rest one a late writer of a Pamphlet I will not call it because of the subject being the life of our late Soveraigne yet it is without name although I thinke few men but are sufficiently assured of the Author upon a seditious and reproachfull speech he sayes tending to the dishonour of his Majesties Government made by Mr. Coke after the wonted rate of his lavish pen without any more adoe makes him a Chip of the old Block But of all men I am content he next after one of our Mercuries should say it since if he be not traduced unjustly hee can asperse the Nobility upon the faith of a Mercury and so many others upon none at all and his Quotations upon his Geography So fals that upon search made by a Reader and scarce any to be found to be true upon the reprinting he blotted out the pages and only quoted the Authors and left the Reader to finde them where he could If these be true then certainly his ipse dixit is of small account if false then let him deny them But I can tell our Historian newes of his Soldier whom he page 156. made openly to be shot to death in Saint Pauls Church yard for as is confidently reported and beleeved he was apprehended about Whitehall June 17. and is at this time in faire election of being hanged And being no lesse a more famous Geographer then Historian though his second Edition suffers much for want of his expunged pages to finde out his quotations hee page 123. makes the Town and Castle of Conway a place of principall command on that narrow channell which runs between the County of Carnarvan and the Isle of Anglesey whereas the Town and Castle of Conway stand upon the River Conway which parts Denbighshire from Carnarvanshire a little below the mouth of the River Gessen nay let any man see whether the River Conway falls not into the Irish or Virgivium Sea but whether it fals into the Irish or Virgivium Sea or not yet certainly it cannot fall into the narrow Channell which parts Carnarvanshire from Anglesey which begins at Abermenay ferry and ends at Porthathir ferry whereas the mouth of Conway is little lesse distant from Porthathir ferry then that is from Abermenay Porthathir ferry being upon the matter equidistant from either What heed then is to be taken to the ipse dixit of such a Geographer and Historian let any man Judge Sure he had more need mend his own Errors then be so rash and lavish a Censurer of other mens Although I take not this mans tongue to be any slander so not worth an answering or at most a bare denyall of what he sayes were sufficient which I doe since it is but gratis dictum yet since other men have assumed to themselves such licence of aspersing him it will not ill become mee to shew how unjustly he is aspersed in those things whereof they traduce him as first this man makes him a seditious man certainly it is very strange that in the living of 83 yeeres the many of his writings and his many imployments doth not produce so much as any suspicion thereof that I ever heard of One thing yet pleases me that in all these seditious commotions Judge Jenkins and almost all the assertors of the Kings Cause have next after Divine Laws maintained it principally out of his writings nor doe I remember that any of the adverse part I am sure