in Parliament that takes not their Oaths at his entrance neither is it in their power to overthrow without and against the King that which is established by the King sitting in Parliament Also this is a thing that never entred into the spirits of the English before the times of this epidemical phrensie that the Kings Writs which makes the Estates to assemble and the deputation of the people that sends them should exempt their Deputies or Parliament men from the duty of Subjects and absolve them of their Oath of Allegiance and St. Pauls Command The Text of St. Paul according to the Greek requires that every Soul should be subjects If so be then that their Deputies or Parliament men have no souls they are not bound to give obedience to the King When we reason thus our adversaries are extraordinarily moved and would take this matter out of the hands of the Clergy saying that the Lawyers not the Divines are to decide where the Supream Power of the State rests whether it be in the person of the King or the people and with what limitations the King ought to be obeyed and that the Apostle requiring an obedience to supream Powers intends an obedience according to the Laws and the Laws are every where different and that one and the same Rule of Scripture cannot serve for all Kingdoms that the Kingdom of England not being formed as the Kingdom of Israel or the Roman Empire the Commands of the Old and New Testament alledged toucheth not the present Quarrel Now are they not ashamed to forbid our Clergy to discourse of Political affairs whilst the Gentlemen of the Bar take upon them to teach Divinity to the Clergy and by infinite Booâ—s as processes stir up the people to Rebellion by Reasons of Religion and to uphold staggering Consciences in the duty of Obedience and Christian Concord and to defend the Truth of God by our sufferances as we have endeavoured to do It 's not to meddle in the affairs of State but to discharge our Consciences and to keep that good thing which God hath committed unto us We cannot be accused to intrude our selves into the Civil Government as their Ministers who serve as Agents and Factors in publick affairs It s henceforth the duty of Divines to handle this point of State for the Lawyers and States-men of the Covenant who having lately built their New Policy upon a New Divinity of their fashion have forced the Divines to become Polititians at leaâ—â—o far as to defend true Divinity from the crime of Disobedience since they press us for Conscience to joyn with them to resist the King they must satisfie our Consciences that the fundamental Laws of the Kingdom require us so to do But if they would that Divines rest themselves upon the faith of the Lawyers in the point of resistance upon which there is no less penalty than damnation it is to press an implicit Faith and blind obedience upon those that preach the contrary Without exceeding then the limits of our vocation we do acknowledg that the Apostle requires an obedience according to the Laws of the State not only of the State of Rome but of every other form of Government and we deny that there may not be found in Scripture a Rule of Obedience which serves for all sorts of Estates for such is that of the present Text That every Soul should be subject to the Higher Powers and that he that resisteth the Powers resisteth the Ordinance of God and thereby shall receive to himself damnation the reason inserted between these two sentences do manifestly regard all forms of States that there are no powers but they be of God and the powers that are are ordained of God therefore the Command that goes before and after appertains to all sorts of Government Let every one be subject to the power and let none resist the power and threatnings also which is the terriblest of all threatnings that those that resist the Powers shall receive to themselves damnation Saint Peter wills us to be subject to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake that is we are to subject our selves to every form of Government lawfully established and to perswade our selves that that Ordinance is of God Generally the Scriptures before alledged oblige all persons of all Estates to yield Obedience to him and those in whom the Supream Power resides and there cannot 〈◊〉 brought any valuable reason why it is more lawful to resist the Supream Power in England than in Israel or in Rome Indeed if they could produce a fundamental Law of the Kingdom that did permit the people of England in certain cases to take up Arms against the King they had some reason then to say that Saint Paul did not forbid the English to resist their Prince beyond the nature of their Laws as the Princes of Germany when they took up Arms against the Emperor produced the Golden Bull of Charles the fourth and the Emperial Capitulation for by it they were expresly permitted to make war against him if he attempted any thing against their ancient composition although I account that this Capitulation could not be made without contradicting the Command of the Apostle for Histories mention that the Emperour was reduced to it by the threatnings and Menaces of the Pope but now by long prescription the Empire is not that it was and it 's a point disputable what is the Supream Power in divers States of Germany 'T is that which but of late hath been put to the Question in England and was never disputed before the year 1642. where the Supream Power of the Kingdom resides unless when the Crown was in dispute between two Princes The Kings enemies employed all their forces to prove that the Soveraign Authority appertained to the people to evade the Text of Saint Paul and other Texts of Scripture which did marvellously incommode their affairs imitating those that alter the Lock of their doors when the Key is in possession of their Adversary for beholding to their great regret that the Scripture is wholly ours commanding obedience and strictly forbidding resistance to Soveraigns yea under pain of damnation they labour with all their might to change the nature of the State that thereby the rules of subjection contained in the Scripture might be of no use One of their Authors of whom they make great account affirms boldly that the passages in Scripture against resisting the Supream Power are of no force but in simple and absolute Monarchies as that of the Jews and Romans and do no waies touch ours This is a clean shaver who cuts the knot that he cannot untie wherein he imitates the ingenuity of Buchanan who having taught Subjects to punish their King and feeling himself pressed by Conscience which suggested to him that the Scripture was wholly contrary to it prevents the Objection that might be made by maintaining that it 's ill inferred to say that the thing
this sole Religion with so many Asseverations in the head of Our Armies and the publick Attestation of our Barons with the circumspection used in the education of our Royal Off spring besides divers other undeniable Arguments onely demonstrate this but also that happy Alliance of Marriage We contracted twixt Our eldest Daughter and the Illustrious Prince of Orenge most clearly confirms the reallity of Our intentions herein by which Nuptial ingagement it appears further that Our endeavours are not only to make a bare profession thereof in Our own Dominions but to inlarge and corroborate it abroad as much as lieth in our Power This most holy Religion of the Anglican Church ordained by so many Convocations of learned Divines confirmed by so many Acts of National Parliaments and strengthened by so many Royal Proclamations together with the Ecclesiastick Discipline and Liturgy thereunto appertaining which Liturgy and Discipline the most eminent of Protestant Authors as well Germans as French as well Danes as Swedes and Switzeâ—s as well Belgians as Bohemians do with many Elogies and not without a kind of Envy approve and applaud in their publick Writings particularly in the transactions of the Synod of Dort wherein besides other of Our Divines who afterwards were Prelates one of Our Bishops assisted to whose dignity all due respects and precedency was given This Religion We say which Our Royal Father of blessed memory doth publickly assert in that His famous Confession address'd as we also do this our Protestation to all Christian Princes This this most holy Religion with the Hierarchy and Liturgy therof We solemnly protest that by the help of Almighty God we will endeavour to our utmost power and last period of our life to keep intire and inviolable and will be careful according to our duty to Heaven and the tenor of the foresaid most sacred Oath at Our Coronation that all our Ecclesiasticks in their several degrees and Incumbences shall preach and practise the same Wherefore we enjoyn and command all our Ministers of State beyond the Seas as well Ambassadors as Residents Agents and Messengers And We desire all the rest of Our loving Subjects that sojourn either for curiosity or commerce in any forraign Parts to communicate uphold and assert this Our solemn and sincere Protestation when opportunity of time and place shall be offered This Royal Declaration or Manifesto was committed to the management and care of James Howel Esq Clerk of His Majesties Privie Council who though then Prisoner in the Fleet performed the business very worthily and like himself CHARLES par la Providence de Dieu Roy de la grand ' Bretagne de France d' Irlande Defenseur de la Foy c. A tous ceux qui ceste presente Declaration verront particulierement a Ceux de la Religion Reformâ—e de quelque Nation degreou condition qu'ils soient Salut AYant receu advis de bonne main que plusieurs faux rapports lettres sont esparses parmi les Eglisses Reformees de là la mer par la politique ou plustost la pernicieuse industrie de personnes mal affectionnes a nostre governement que nous auons dessein a receder de celle Religion que Nous auons professè pratiquè tout le temps de nostre vie iusques a present de vouloir intro duire la papautè derechef en nos Dominions Laquelle conjecture ou calumnie plustost appuyee sur nul fundement imaginable a suscitè ces horribles tumultes allumè le feu d'une tres sâ—nglante guerre en tous les quatre coins de ceste fleurissante Monarchie soubs pretexte d'une chymerique Reformation la quelle seroit incompatible avec le governement les loix fondementales de ce Royaume Nous Desirons quil soit notoire a tout le monde que la moindre pensee de ce faire n'a pas entree en nostre imagination de departir ancunement de cell'Orthodoxe Religion qu'auec la Couronne le sceptre de ce Royaume Nous sommes tenus par un serment solennel sacramentaire a proteger defendre Ce qu'appert non seulement par nostre quotidienne presence es Exercies de la dite Religion avec tant d'asseverations a la teste de nos Armees la publicque Attestation de nos Barons avec le soin que nous tenons en la nourrituredes Princes Princesses nos enfans Mais le tres-heureux mariage que nous avons conclu entre la nostre plus aisnee le tres illustrie Prince d' Orenge en est encore un tres-evident tesmoignage par la quell'alliance il appert aussy que nostre desir est de n'en faire pas vne nue profession seulement dicelle mais de la vouloir estendre corroberer autant qu'il nous est possible Cest'Orthodoxe Religion de leglise Anglicane Ordonnee par tant de Conventione de Teologues confirmee par tant de arrests d'Parlement fortifie par tant d'Edicts royaux auec la discipline la Lyturgie a elle appartenant laquelle discipline Lyturgie les plus celebres Autheurs Protestants tant Francois qu' Allemands tant Seudois que Suisses tant Belgiens que Bohemiens approuent entierement non sans quelqu envie en leur escrits particulierement en la Synode de Dort ou un de nos Euesques assistoit la Reverence precedence deue a sa dignite Ecclesiastique luy fut exactement rendue Ceste tres sainte Religion que nostre feu pere de tres-heureuse memoire aduoue en sa celebre Confession de la Foy addressee come nous faisons ceste Declaration atous Princes Chrestiens Nous Protestons que moyennant la grace de Dieu nous tascherone de conseruer ceste Religion inviolable en son entier selon la mesure de puissance que Dieu amis entre nos mains Et nous requerons commandons a tous nos ministres d'estat tant Ambassadeurs que Residens Agens ou messagers a tous autres nos subjects qui font leur seiour es pays estrangers de communiquer maintenir aduouer ceste nostre solennelle Protestation toutes fois quantes que l'occasion se presentera TO THE MINISTERS OF THE REFORMED CHURCH AT PARIS Gentlemen HAving to contend with them who invite you to uphold their disloyalty by your example nothing can be more to our purpose then to prefix your example in the front of this work to teach them Loyalty During the Agitations of the State your Church as the Needle in the Marriners Compass kept steady upon the point of rest which is God and the King And your obedience served as an Ensign on a hill to France to guide the people to their duty Whereby you have justified the holiness of your profession making the world know the Religion you teach binds you to be good subjects and that you honour the King because ye fear God Therefore the English Covenanters
holy Religion to stir up Princes against the Church and the pure profession of the Gospel T is the duty of the Reformed Churches to speak aloud that 't is not we that teach the people are above their King and that endeavour by Letters and Intelligences a general rising but that it 's the Covenanters of England who attempting to cut off their King and Monarchy by the sword labour in vain to seduce their neighbours to encrease their party thereby to hide themselves in the multitude of their complices they came forth of us long since but were not of us and for their Doctrines and actions which are the only things evil in their Reformation they never received any countenance or incouragement from us We assure our selves Gentlemen in that Divine assistance which hath to this present upheld you that ye will never be seduced to defend evil neither by complacency nor contradiction but will follow the precept of the Apostle Saint James Jam. 2.1 My Brethren have not the Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of Glory with respect of persons Ye will consider that those who chase us seek not your alliance but to strengthen their separation from us and not to imbrace good Doctrine or follow your councel which if they had asked and followed the one had never sold their King nor the other over massacred him Believe it Sirs they are your best friends at distance rather then neer and if ye never converse with them ye will never be weary of their company Your free meek and solid piety which feeds it self simply upon the substance of Religion without picking quarrels at the shell is very far from sordid superstition and the Hypocondriak and bloody zeal of these Covenanters who pretend to advance the Kingdome of Jesus Christ by cutting the throats of his Disciples and cementing his Temple with blood instead of the cement of charity and in the mean while make some petty circumstances the principals of Religion and cut out their holy Doctrine according to the Discipline which they are forging as he that cuts his flesh to make his doublet fit for his body By how much more these are wicked by so much the more are they worthy of compassion whom we must behold as people drunken with the Wine of Astonishment which they themselves confess in their Epistle they sent unto you they shall find the rest of their description in that place where they borrowed those words and shall there behold themselves set forth as a wild Bull in a net they are full of the fury of the Lord Isa 51.20 For as the wild Bull rageth when he feels himself intangled and intangleth and insnares himself more by raging so these miserable people who by an impetuosity without reason rid themselves out of all Laws Ecclesiastical and Civil are insnared in stronger bonds then before and by their bruitish fury are more and more intangled These these are the sad effects of the just wrâ—th of God who hath smote those with blindness who have abused the light of the Gospel and have given them the hearâ— of a beast Dan. 4.16 as he did to Nebuchadnezzar whâ— have cast off all humanity God by his mercy reduce to their senses and guide them and us in his paths and grant his peace to them that are far off and to them that are near Isa 57.19 For in civil wars that party that is neerest to God and right is yet very far from his duty Your wisdome will instruct you to profit by the folly of your neighbours and their evil actions teach you to do well they will let you see that to destroy the Ecclesiastical and Political Order by a bloody war to reform Religion is to commit the fault in the vulgar Latine Translation Evertit domum instead of Eveâ—rit Luke 15.8 That is to overthrow the house in stead of sweeping it the folly is the greater when its only to find a trifle and that they overthrow both Church and State for some particularity which were it good cannot recompence the general destruction You will also learn by the proceedings of these Covenanters that its impossible to alter the foundation of Church and State without pulling down the house which is the work of the blind as Sampson to over-turn the Pillars of the publick building that those that thrust them down might be crushed to pieces under the fall that those that take the Church and State apieces to cleanse it have not the power to put it together and in order again when they please and that all violent changes in a State as in an old body are alwayes for the worst We hope also that our good God beholding us with pity in this our weak condition will give you somewhat to observe and learn from us as that a Rebellion which pulls down Monarchy without thinking so lifts it up and fortifie't as a violent Crysis which if it takes not away the Patient contributes to his recovery For the insolence of the new masters doth mind the people of their duty to their lawful Prince and the unlocked for success of a new Obligarchy sowes dissention amongst the Usurpers The conduct of the Providence of God in the movings of States teacheth us that in chastising Kings by the rebellion of their subjects hereby he punisheth the people more then their Kings and those very Kings that God gives people in his wrath Hosea 13.11 are not taken away without his fury and the publick ruine which is then greatest when he takes from an ungrateful people a King whom he have given in his mercy the wise and fearing God should consider their sufferings under their Soveraigns as sinister influences of celestial bodies against which no man in his wits will draw his sword for both the one and the other comes from heaven and cannot be remedied but by humility prayers and veneration all other remedies are worse then the evil Also amidst your grief to behold the ruine of our not long since flourishing Churches you may comfort your selves in the weakness of our condition which now renders us less subject to the like dangers for as full and sanguine bodies are most subject to violent feavers and sharp diseases which those of weaker complexions are ordinarily free from so those persons who have power in their hands and are puffed up with a long prosperity ordinarily fall into most violent evils which seiseth not upon them but with too much strength Then when the Church hath the least lustre she oft times is neerest to God as the Moon is never neerer the Sun then when she is in the lowest degree of her declension and without light to our regard The Power of God is made perfect in our weakness and we hope to behold you subsist yea encrease and grow in bowing down under the storm whilst those that have so striven and contended against their Soveraigns shall be rooted out by their arrogancy By humility and submission under
not alter the Nature of the two Houses and the Gentlemen of the Parliament have often protested that they would not make use of this Act of Grace to the disadvantage of his Majesty so then if there were no Soveraignty resident in the two Houses before this grant there is no more after and the pretended Fundamental Laws not written that parts Soveraignty between the King and his Subjects yea that transport it wholly to the people are much to be suspected of falsity since they never appear but since the promise they obtained of the King both to his and their great damage to perpetuate this Parliament as long as they pleased and since they have begun to exercise the Soveraignty by force of Arms. Thus the new Nobility after they had obtained the Firss by right or wrong produce Coats of Arms and Titles which were heretofore unknown They maintain this their New Soveraignty by a Maxime of Stephanus Junius Brutus Rex est singulis Major universis Minor That is to say as they expound it That the King is the Soveraign of Particulars but the Representative body of the State is greater then he and have Soveraignty over him and all their Writers and amongst others the Observator on the Kings Answers attribute Majestie to the Commonalty and not to the King or Supreme if this be true it 's very strange how this Representative Body of the State the Parliament have left it so long time to the Kings the Court of Wards and many other Rights of Soveraignty which they have enjoyed without Contradiction until that present Parliament This vile Maxime then being destitute of all proofs from the Laws and Customes of the State ought to be despised but moreover it is also void of all reason for if the English be subject to their King in Retail are they not in Gross if in pieces not in the whole being born Subjects have they power to give the Soveraignty to their Deputies or Parliament men and make them Chief that is to say can they give them that which they have not And seeing also that they cannot assemble in Parliament without the King or Supreme Magistrates Writ this Writ of the Kings doth it render them forthwith Soveraigns above the King The stile of the Writ calls them ad Consul andum de quibusdam arduis to consult with him about some difficult affairs and not to master him and to dispose of his Authority And since they call this great Court the Body Representative of Subjects they must needs then be Subjects otherwise they should not represent them who sent them and that which the King accords to should be granted to Soveraigns but his Subjects should receive no benefit thereby He who will well examine this Proposition That the Soveraignty over the Soveraign rests in the Representative body of Subjects shall find it full of contradictions and to destroy it self They cannot bring any probable reason saith Bodin that the Subjects ought to command their Prince and that the Assembly of Estates ought to have any power unless when the Prince is under age or distracted or captive then the Estates may depute him a Regent or Lieutenant Otherwise if Princes were subâ—ect to the Laws of the States and Commands of the people their Power were nothing and the Title of a King would be a Name without the thing moreover under such a Prince the Common-wealth should not be governed by the people but by some few persons equal in their Suffrages who who would make Laws and Edicts not by the Authority of the Prince but by their own who for all that come and present him humbly with requests every one apart by himself and all in a body making shew of Faithfulness and Obedience these things are as ridiculous as can be imagined thus saith Bodin Behold here the Form of State of our Covenanters in their beginning so drawn to the life by this learned Person that one would say he took the very Copie from them In effect when under a Monarchy a Faction in an Assembly of States shall take upon them the Soveraignty the State change not into an Aristocracy nor Democracy but into a pure Obligarchy which is the worst of all Forms of State and but the corruption of others The Royal Power being once usurped 't is not then the greatest nor the best nor the most who govern the affairs but some few unquiet and ambitious persons who love contention and know how to fish in troubled waters and as these men deceive the King with a false Idea of Soveraignty so they deceive their companions perswading them that the have part in their Authority because they have voices in the House for in such Assemblies where the choice of persons is more by hap then Judgment the Suffrage is to all but the Power is in a few The same Author numbring the Soveraign and absolute Monarchies of Christendom places England and Scotland amongst them and saith That without all Question their Kings have all the rights of Majesty and that it is not lawful for their Subjects neither apart nor in a Body to attempt any thing against the Life Reputation or Goods of their Soveraign be it either by ways of Force or Justice although he were guilty of all the crimes a man could imagine in a Tyrant For the Subjection that the Parliament owe to their King we can have no better witness then the Parliament it self for that disloyal maxime that the body of the State is above the King is contradicted by the ordinary stile of their papers presented to the King by this Body The Two Houses most humbly beseech their Soveraign Lord the King and they qualifie themselves the most humble and loyal subjects of his Majesty 'T is the Presentative Body of the Kingdome who speaks and nothing by way of Complement but Duty This Preface hath an excellent Grace in the beginning of a Declaration of the Two Houses to their King wherein they tell him that they deal favourably with him if they do not depose him and that they may do it without exceeding the limits of their Duty and Modesty This discourse is like the Locusts of the bottomless pit Revelations 9. which had the faces of men but the tails of Scorpions and therefore to avoid this disproportion in their Articles presented to the King at New-Castle they left out the Qualification of Subjects The ordinary Preface of Statutes do lively express the Nature of the three Estates The King by the Advice and Consent of the Prelates Earls and Barons and at the instance and request of the Commonalty hath ordained c. For it 's the King alone properly that ordains the Peers as Councellors advise and Consent the Commons as Suppliants require and solicite The Parliament held in the twenty fourth year of Henry the Eight speaks thus By divers ancient and authentical Histories and Chronicles it is manifestly declared that this Kingdome of England is an
Empire and for such hath been known in the world governed by one Soveraign Head having the dignity and Royal greatness of the Emperial Crown to which there is a Body Politick joyned composed of all sorts and degrees of people as well Spiritual as Temporal who are bound next to God to render unto him Natural Obedience If the Body Politick be naturally subjected to him as to its Head it 's contrary to Nature that it should be subjected to the Body Politick and his maxime Râ—x est universis minor is condemned as false by the Parliament they knew not in those daies what it was to make the Body of the State march with its head downward and feet upward but they were careful to maintain the Head in that eminent place where God had set it and hither also tend the words following That the chief Soveraign is instituted and furnished by the goodness and permission of Almighty God with full and entire Power Preheminence Authority Prerogative and Jurisdiction to execute Justice and put a final determination in all Cases to all sorts of his Subjects within this Kingdome and that many Laws and Ordinances had been made in preceding Parliaments for the full and sure conserving of the prerogative and preheminence of this Crown These good Subjects could not find words enough nor consult of means sufficient according to their mind to defend the Authority of their King esteeming and well they might that the happiness and liberty of the Subjects lay in the inviolable power of their Soveraign that the greatness of the State consisted in that of the Prince and that there is no other way to crown the Body but to place the Crown upon the Head This stile is very far from that of the nineteen Propositions presented to the King by the Two Houses in the beginning of the War which required that all matters of State should be treated of only in Parliament or if the King would treat of any Affairs in his Councel this Councel should be limited to a certain number and the old Councellors cashiered unless such whom it pleased the Two Houses to retain and that none hereafter should be admitted without their approbation that the King should have no power in the Education and Marriage of his children without their advice that all great Officers of the Crown and the principal Judges should alwayes be chosen by the approbation of the Two Houses or by a Councel authorized by them the same also in Governours of places and in the Creation of Peers which hath since been denied to the King in effect And as for the Militia they would have the King wholly put it into their hands that is to say he should take his Sword from his side and give it them which he could not do without giving them the Crown for the Crown and the Royal Sword are both of one piece so also for the point of Religion these propositions take from him all Authority and liberty of judgement yea even the liberty of Conscience for they require that his Majesty consent to such a Reformation as the Two Houses should conclude upon without telling him what this Reformation is Let all the world here judge if these men speak like Subjects they had reason to present these Articles with their swords in their hands but the King had more reason to draw his to return them an answer All these propositions are founded upon one only proposition which passeth amongst them for a Fundamental Law That the King is bound to grant to the People all their Demands but this is a Fundamental in the Ayr and made void by the practise of all Ages since Eng. was a Monarchy and by that Authentical Judgement of the States assembled under Henry the Fift That it belongs to the Supremacy of the King to grant or refuse according to his pleasure the Demands that are made to him in Parliament And in stead of the House of Commons being as it is now the Soveraign Court a thing never heard of until this present Age The House supplicated Henry the Fourth not to employ himself in any Judgement in Parliament but in such cases as in effect appertained to him because it belonged to the King alone to judge except in cases specified by the Statutes The same House under Edward the Third acknowledged that it did not belong to them to take Cognisance of such matters as the keeping of the Seas or the Marshes of the Kingdome yea even during the sitting of Parliaments the Kings have alwayes disposed of the Militia and Admiralty of the Forts and Garrisons the Two Houses never interposing or pretending any right thereunto they declared ingeniously to Edw. the First that to him belonged to make express Command against all Force of Arms and to that end they were bound to assist him as their Soveraign Lord. They declared also to King Henry the Seventh that every Subject by the duty of his subjection was bound to serve and assist his Prince and Soveraign Lord upon all occasions by which they signified that it was not for them to meddle with the Militia but that their duty as Subjects bound them to be aiding and assisting to him The Learned in the Laws tell us that to raise Troops of Horse or Foot without Commission of the King or to lend Aid is esteemed and called by the Law of England to levy war against the King our Soveraign Lord his Crown and Dignity In this point all that is done without him is done against him and this is conformable to the general Right of all Nations As for the Royal Estate saith Bodin I believe there is no person that doubts that all the Power both of making Peace and War belongs to the King since none dare in the least manner do any thing in this matter without the Command of the King unless he will forfeit and endanger his Head If the Two Houses were priviledged to the contrary by any Statute we should have heard them speak it but for what they have done we see no other Authority then their practice Therefore none ought to wonder if this their new practice hath less Authority with persons of a sound judgement then these practises of all ages past and if we cannot perswade our selves that without the Authority of the King they cannot abolish those of Parliaments Authorized by the King let them not then make such a loud noise with the Authority of Parliament 'T is in obedience to that Supreme Court of Parliament that we so earnestly strive to preserve the Princes Rights those Acts of Parliament are in full force which have provided with great care to defend the Royal Prerogatives judging aright that the Soveraignty is the Pillar of the publick safety and that it cannot be divided without being weakned and without shaking the State that rests upon it But we leave the reasons of the form of this Estate to them who formed it contenting our selves
Europe And yet we are herein to praise God that in this their astonishment he hath given them a little interval that they came to their senses to make this acknowledgement They needed not to specifie to us in what they were forgetful of their Duty their comportments justifie their words that they had wholly forgotten it It appears also that they had forgot their duty to God their King their Countrey and to the Church from which they received their Ministry and to which they had sworn Obedience and towards them also to whom they write For if they had born any Brotherly affection they would not have been so forgetful as to write to them and in such a stile and by a publick Declaration They would have taken heed to render them odious and suspected without cause and to draw upon them persecution from which there could proceed no other fruit unlesse to make them Companions in their miseries for to render us Companions in their crimes we hope they shall never obtain But these Divines and their Masters who employ them shall find themselves deceived in their design to induce the Reformed Churches of France to shake off the yoke of their King under colour of shaking off the yoke of Antichrist The fidelity and peaceable conversation of these Churches doth take away even the shadow of such things from their Superiours whose justice is such that they will not condemn the Subjects of their King for the offences of strangers but will be more careful to protect the innocent then their ill neighbours are active to render them blame-worthy and unhappy The King and his Councel need not fear the French of the Reformed Religion will take the Oath of the Covenant to which they are invited with so much earnestness and craft For to speak of them in the terms of one of their beloved Pastors They take no Oaths to others but to their Soveraign Princes they cast not their eyes on a stranger they hold that it is not for a Subject to find occasion of disobedience in the Religion of his Prince making Religion a Match to give fire to Rebellion they are ready to expose their lives for the preservation of their King against whomsoever it be were it one of their own Religion whosoever should do otherwise should not defend Religion but serve his ambition and should draw a great scandal upon the truth of the Gospel This is the Doctrine wherein they are instructed this is the Profession in which all good Frenchmen of the Reformed Religion will live and die But if strangers whose heads run round with the wine of astonishment will force the Churches of France to drink of their Cup they will use the French freedome refuse to pledge them and behold their zeal to press them to do as they do with despite and compassion Let them not think it strange that they run not with them into the same excess of riot they do not offend them for whilst they have this strong wine in their heads they keep their sobriety and are filled beseeching God to shew mercy upon those who would seduce them Now as it is the custome of drunken persons who would draw others into the same excess with themselves and to drink according to their pleasure to make them believe that they have seen them themselves in that condition so the English Covenanters to defend their actions and augment their Party alledge very often to the French Churches their wars for Religion the remembrance whereof is very sad and to use this Argument to seduce them is no other thing then to counsel them to be miserable because they have been so and to go with their eyes shut and run the remains of their broken vessel against the rock where they were shipwrackt Moreover it s very unjust in them to impute to the whole body the actions of a party for in the late wars all the Churches on this side the River Loyre continued in their obedience and very neer the half of the other Churches The people were carefully preserved in their duties by their faithful Pastors This holy Doctrine which condemns the resisting of higher powers and commands to wait patiently deliverance from God and to suffer for righteousness sake was most pressed and urged in their Churches and whilst some of the Religion were in Arms during the minority of the King they preached at Paris Their strength was to sit still Isai 30.7 There fell lately into my hands an Epistle well penn'd which was sent to the State-Assembly of Rochel in the beginning of their sitting to encline them to peace and the obedience of his Majesty Behold here a passage of it I think it very profitable for you to be informed the truth what the opinions and dispositions of our Churches are by persons that have a particular knowledge of them You are now debating Gentlemen of the separation of your Assembly for to obey his Majesty or of its subsistence and to give order to your affairs I am bound to tell you that the general desire of our Churches is that it would please God to continue peace unto us under the obedience of his Majesty and that seeing the King is resolved to employ his Armies to make you obey they promise themselves so much of you that you will do what possibly you can to avoid this tempest and yield rather to necessity then enter into a war wherein the ruine of a great part of our Churches are certain and into a trouble wherein we may behold the entrance but cannot see the issue and that ye will take away the pretext from them who drive on the King to fall upon us Those that fear God desire that if we must be persecuted it should be in bearing the Cross of Christ and for the profession of the Gospel In brief I assure you that the greatest and best part of our people desire you to decline this unjust enterprise Here is not the Authority of a Single Person 't is the testimony of the greatest and best part of the Churches of France 't is a general Declaration of the Churches and of those amongst them who feared God that the duty of Christians persecuted is to bear the Crosse not Arms. It 's then very falsly and injuriously done that the example of the French Churches should be so often and importunately alledged by the Covenanters to justifie the Subjects resisting their Sovereign since that ever in the time of war the greatest and best part were against it A French Divine who loved both his Religion and King found himself so prick'd by this reproach made to the generality of his Party that he prayed us to insert here this expression of his judgement and of the soundest part of the Churches of France The war for Religion in this Kingdome is a wound yet fresh and ye can hardly touch it but ye will hurt it and make it smart and it s very sore against my will that I
us these scourges for our sins by this our impatience will be bridled by Humility Moreover le ts remember that it is not for us to remedy these evils and that all that we have to do is to beg help of God in whose hands the hearts of Kings and motions in Kingdoms are He said a little before That the Word of God bound us not only to be subject to Princes that are worthy of our duty but to all Princes whatsoever and howsoever they came to the Soveraignty and although they do nothing less then perform the duties of good Soveraigns In his Commentary upon Daniel Let us learn saith he by the example of the Prophet to beseech God for Tirants if it shall please him to subject us to their inordinate pleasure for what though they be unworthy of all Offices of Humanity yet neverthelesse because it is by the will of God that he commands it s our duty to bear the yoke patiently not only because of wrath as Saint Paul admonisheth but also for Conscience sake otherwise we are not only Rebels against them but against God This Lesson is of the same Authors Let this be ever in our memory that the same Divine Authority that gives Authority to Kings establisheth also the most wicked Kings Oh let never these seditious thoughts enter into our spirits that we should deal with the King as he deserves and that it is not reasonable to yield the duty of Subjects to him who will not perform the duty of King to us Which is notwithstanding the arguing of the Covenanters Peter Martyr an Italian but a Minister in those Churches our enemies invite to associate with them is not less contrary to them Expounding that place of the Proverbs By me Kings reign saith That under the name of Kings the Text understands also Tyrants Whence he collects this consequence Therefore learning hence that thy K. is established by God beware thou never conspirest any seditious thing in the State all that thou must do when thou art oppressed is to appeal to the Tribunal of God there being no other superiour power to whom a Tyrant ought to obey He saith also very pertinently worthy our best observation That then when God Would chastise the Kings of Judah for their sins he did not do it by the Jews but by the Babylonians Assyrians and Egyptians shewing by the conduct of his justice and providence that it is not for subjects to take knowledge of the faults of their soveraigns but that they ought to leave them wholly to God who hath other means in his hand to punish them and reduce them to their duty Surely if Calvin and Martyr had lived in these days and were benificed in England they would eject them out of their benefices for this troublesom doctrine which hinders the progress of the holy Covenant and fils their consciences full of scruples whom they instruct to rebel against their Soveraign for the Lords sake And above all Monsieur Deodatâ— would be very ill dealt with by them for being Author of that excellent Epistle sent from the Church of Genevah to the Ecclesiastical Assembly at London in which your good King is highly prais'd for the justice and clemency of his proceedings in this present quarrel the popular tumults condemned which forced him to retire from his Parliament and these Gentlemen earnestly entreated to dispossess their spirits of all factious inclinations and to wash off this foul spot by which they have and do defame the pure profession of the Gospel giving occasion for the world to believe that the reformed Religion hath a secret hatred and antipathy against the Majesty of Kings and soveraign authority against this Epistle our enemies vomited out many outragious words in their books maintaining that it was supposititious and invented by some prophane Atheist Behold here the thanks that this great and learned person and the reverend Ministers his brethren received for their charitable and truly Christian counsel And this is further to be observed that the Assembly at London having sent their Epistle and Oath of their Covenant to seventeen forraign Churches whereof the Churches of France made but one they make no noise of the Answers they received which doth evidently testifie they did not satisfie them and that they durst not produce them for fear of making it appear that the generality of the reformed Churches were ashamed of their actions and condemned the insurrections of Subjects against their Soveraign under pretence of reformation This Divinity of Rebellion being founded upon one only Maxime that the power of Kings is of humane and not divine right and that their right to the Kingdom is but a paction between them and the people It s much to purpose to produce here what the Churches of France hold hereupon and how they refuse the reasons of the Jesuits which are the same with the Covenanters Behold the last Chapter of the Buckler of Faith which is a garment so fit for the size of both parties that after the one hath made use of it the other may put it on they need change nothing but the persons Thomas the Prince of the School Divines saith that the power of Princes and Lords is but of humane institution and comes not from God to whom we may joyn Cardinal Bellarmine in his Book against Barkley and Monsieur Arnoux who upon the second Article of our confession cals the power of the Magistrate a humane law conformable to the Apothegme of reverend Father Binet the Jesuit who told Mr. Casaubon that it were better all Kings were killed than a confession should be revealed because the power of Kings is but an humane right but confession is of Divine right The Reasons they bring for this opinion are 1. That the first King that was raised in the world namely Nimrod was raised by violence and not by the ordinance of God 2. That the most part of the Empires and Kingdoms that ever have been came by conquest one Nation overcoming the other or by some Prince whose ambition moved him to pick an unjust quarrel with his Neighbour 3. That Emperors and Kings are established by humane ways whether they come to the Crown by hereditary succession or by election since there is no extraordinary revelation nor no rule in the Word of God that a Nation are bound to follow rather Succession which is hereditary than that which is by Election 4. That there is no express command of God to obey Henry rather than Lewis or to acknowledge this man rather than that for King 5. That for these considerations the Apostle St. Peter calls our obedience to Kings an Ordinance of man saying Submit your selves to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as supream or unto Governours c. 1 Pet. 2.15 These are the ordinary reasons of the Covenanters if they should disavow them their Books would witness
it was declared by the House of Commons at Westminster That the Kings coming to their House was Treason as if the Majesty resided in the Commons but how ridiculous and false this is hath heretofore been shewed and yet they could in no other sense call the Houses at Westminster his Parliament since they had taken up Arms against his Majesty doubtless those of both Houses who adhered to the King at Oxford without comparison the more considerable in quality were rather his Parliament for these were for him and the other against him Moreover by this frequent expression they would frequently signifie that the King was the Aggresseur and he that first assaulted them a thing which they have much laboured to perswade the world although it be notoriously known that his enemies had seized upon his Forts Towns Magaziens Ships Revenues and Levied Souldiers before ever the King had so much as one single company of Horse or Foot When he first came to York he had not so much as his ordinary guards whereas his enemies had all the strength of the Kingdom they wanted only God on their side and this great power encouraged the seditious in all countries where he passed to entertain him with the same courtesie the Gergasites received Christ Jesus beseeching him to depart out of their quarters and the good King had then this conformity with his Saviour that he had not where to lay his head He was then in a condition to suffer but his enemies in a posture to oppose When he would in a peaceable manner without Arms enter into his Town of Hull he found the gates shut and the walls garnished with Souldiers presenting their Muskets against him upon this his Majesty levied fix companies of Foot and two Cornets of Horse for the Guard of his Person but set not up his Standard until four moneths after this prodigious act of hostility and rebellion having often before endeavoured to reduce his Subjects to their obedience by all reasonable and Christian offers witness a number of most excellent Declarations composed and written by himself wherein the world beheld the sincerity of his actions with the piety and candor of his spirit worthy so great a Prince The Covenanters considering that they could not perswade them who had any remembrance or common sense that the King began the War laboured to prove that although they began yet their Armies were but defensive affirming that a War undertaken upon a just fear was defensive yea although they struck the first blow and that they seized upon the Forts Magaziens and Revenues of the King because they feared he would make War upon them That is to say that they made War upon him least he should make War upon them A reason much like that of Count Gondomore Ambassador of Spain in England who by his cunning and subtilty had wrought so far as to have a gallant English Knight to be condemned and put to death being demanded what evil he had done that he so persecuted him Answered That it was not for any evil he had done but for that evil which he might do But the Court that did it had just reasons far from the Spanish interests but in these mens dealings with the King were he even a Subject the injustice is both without reason and without example For was there ever any Court of Justice which condemned a man to lose both his goods and his life not because he had done any evil but for fear he should That which would be most unjust against the meanest Subject can it possibly be thought and reputed a work of Piety and Justice against their lawful Soveraign But leaving these persons who from the beginning had this Diabolical design which since they have inhumanely executed we will believe of many of the Covenanters that the intent of their Army was not to punish the King for the pretended exorbitancies of his past Government although they laboured by all means to perpetuate the memory and to stifle those eminent and signal acts of grace by which the King had merited the love of his people beyond all his Predecessors We are willing also to believe that some amongst them condemn the Doctrine of Goodman turned since into sad practice That Judges ought to summon Princes before them for their offences and proceed against them as against other Criminals and Malefactors If it were not then for the punishing of what was passed it was for fear of the future they took up Arms which indeed is the only reason left them For after the King had promised to give content to his people in all their reasonable requests represented to him and they had taken the power out of his hands then when he would have accomplished his promises all the reason they give for so violent a proceeding is That they durst not trust the King Which verily is a most frivolous and injurious excuse Which is as if one had a Neighbour that dwelt by him more mighty then himself and whose displeasure he feared it should be permitted him to watch his opportunity to surprize his house seize upon his revenues and drive from his possessions to free and deliver him from fear But such an action as this from Subjects towards their Prince is beyond all comparison more unjust The Question between the King and his Subjects being not Whether they may with confidence leave the Sword in the Kings hand but whether God hath committed the Sword to the King to be born by him Now in this their dealings with the King they give him an evil example for by the same reason he may take from his subjects the propriety they have in their estates because he dares not trust them and finds by sad experience they use it for his destruction And he should have much more reason to do it since the Subjects hold their Lands of the King but the King holds not his power of the people Prudence ought not to seize upon Justice The care of a mans self cannot give him a right to the goods of another The duty of a Christian is not to fortifie himself against his fears but to obey the Commandments of God But if his fear and forecast carries him beyond his duty he should above all fear him that can cast both body and soul into hell Yea I say unto you fear him Luke 12.5 Taking then that which themselves accord that the Subjects took up Arms to secure themselves against their fears Had not the King as much reason to take up Arms after their example to provide against his If he had been their equal this reason had been sufficient enough how much more then being their Soveraign for the sword that they had drawn against him was his own those Forts Towns Ships Arms and Revenues which they imployed against him were his therefore he had a double reason to take up Arms one to defend himself and another to recover his own rights By all Laws Divine and
Humane the King alone hath the power of the Sword whosoever strikes without him is a murtherer Saint Bernard preaching to the Knights Templers of Hierusalem to perswade them from Duells saith that two things are required to make a combat just and lawful The defence of a just cause and obedience to a lawful power The last of these is the principal and that alone which gives to Souldiers a just call for in wars ordinarily the interests of Princes are only known to themselves and often the right and wrong being of two sides we esteem it not necessary that every Souldier be perfectly satisfied of the Justice of the Armies of his Soveraign but as for obedience to a lawful power it s a condition absolutely requisite to justifie the taking up of Arms of a Souldier and there is no exception nor modification that can be brought against it Saint Augustine saith That a just man bearing Armes under a sacrilegious Prince may justly obey his commands if he knowes not the war wherein he serves is against the Commandment of God or if he be doubtful of it So that the Prince may be faulty in commanding and the Subject innocent in rendring the duty of his obedience According to this wise Councel if it be not palpably manifest that the commandment of the Prince do transgress the Laws of God whom we must ever obey rather then men the subject in matter of war be it forraign or civil hath but one thing to consider for conscience namely where the lawful power is Who he is to whom God hath committed the sword and who hath power to give it to others and to whom God hath subjected him in taking up the sword at his command we cannot do amiss This gives full satisfaction to their consciences who took up Arms and fought for the King for besides the goodness of his defence which is just and necessary if ever any were they learn that it is possibly to fight justly for him even when his cause may be unjust but without him it is impossible to draw the sword justly much less against him how just soever the complaints and fears of the contrary party that draws the sword be All lawful demands religious intentions specious pretexts pretended necessities the publick good the Masque of all Rebellions prayers fastings Covenanting with God all this and much more can never make a war just which receives the sword from him to whom God hath not given it and draws it against him to whom God hath committed it Therefore the principal of the Covenanters well perceiving this endeavoured from the beginning to make the King either give them or lend them the power of the Militia In doing whereof they did much wrong to their cause for if they had the lawful power of the sword why did they then so often demand it of the King And if they had it not why did they draw the sword without the lawful power and against him to whom the power appertained by their own confession Why else should they ask it of him They either did injustice to the King to take from him the Militia or else they did injustice to themselves to demand it Certainly by their importunity for the Militia they manifestly condemned themselves and acknowledged that the Militia belonged to the King and that they made the war without his authority and therefore they had great need of many Sermons fastings prayers protestations Oaths upon Oaths to bind in many knots this Covenant which otherwise held by nothing and to perswade the people that instead of the Lawful and Ordinary Power they had an Extraordinary one which was conducted by Revelation Rebellion is against nature Samuel saith It s as the sin of Witchcraft or Divination 1 Sam. 15.23 It is composed of such charms which for a time corrupts the use of reason but cannot destroy the faculty but at last the cloud will vanish and they shall retain nought but the impression of shame and astonishment for their past errors and an earnest desire of an acknowledgment This natural notion is imprinted in the hearts of Subjects That they ought to obey the King and that to him pertaines the Power of Peace and War The very Name of King will make even Souldiers spring from the ground to serve him the Plow-shares shall furnish him with Swords and the Flayls and long Staffes shall fight so his Crown The Arms which they have ravisht from him shall acknowledge their Master and return of themselves to him as those which were unjustly taken from Ajax It 's a very hard thing to fight against nature This appeared in the Counties of the Covenanters wherein whilst the King was Master he raised Ten Thousand men in Eight Daies but after the Covenanters commanded in them although they levied Souldiers continually their Forces ever decreased and those they listed in the day disbanded and run away in the night That if the secret judgment of God which would chastise us had not rendred the people fearful and dismayed for a time such was their number and hatred against the Party of the Covenanters that they had easily dispatched the Countries against the King though themselves were disarmed And it must be in the end that Nature surmounts the constraint for the King is the center of the State whither all parts tend by their own proper weight and wherein all the lines of the common interests terminate Their complaints of violence by the Kings Forces are of no consideration the Armies of the King as well as those of the Covenanters were not composed all of Saints but these complaints sound ill in their mouths who lifted up their hands against their Soveraign those who had so often planted their Artilery against the Squadron where the person of the King was and had shot fifty Cannon shot against the Queen in her bed and after all this cut off the Head of their lawful Soveraign can they assume the impudence to complain of our Souldiers taking away their poultry and killing their sheep If those who were in actual Rebellion against their King had been punished by our Souldiers as they deserved they would never have had the power to complain that their houses were plundered or that they spoyled and destroyed their Goods We dare maintain that those amongst the Covenanters that suffered less than death have suffered less than they deserved we do not desire that every one should be punished according to his deserts for we would not that God should so deal with us but that our enemies may know both by the divine Law and the Law of Nations every person that rebels against his Prince is guilty of death Josh 1.18 and loseth his propriety in his Goods and Possessions Let them know also that being destitute of lawful Authority for the war and drawing their swords against him that bears the sword by Divine Authority every stroak they struck against the faithful Subjects of the King
they committed an execrable Murther 1 Sam. 11.12 And every Penny they levied upon them they committed Rapine employing their Robberies to maintain Murther and Rebellion If the Names of these crimes offend their ears the crimes themselves should much more afflict their Consciences these terms proceed not from passion but flow from the necessary consequence of this Truth That the war of the Covenanters is destitute of all Authority lawful and divine Oh that every Christian who hath drawn his sword in this sinful cause would seriously consider how he should answer it before God and man and that he may have horrour and dread in him for the evil he hath deserved and yet much more for that which he hath committed CHAP. XXII Of the Depraved and Evil Faith of the Covenanters BUT we cannot so slightly let them pass with their fore-alledged excuse for the War that they durst not trust the King The cause is evident which is because they had taken from him all the ground of reason that might be that he should trust them nothing being more to be distrusted than a Depraved and Ill Faith The King permitted them to perpetuate the Parliament as long as they pleased he committed himself wholly over to their Faith Affection and Conscience if any thing obligeth a man to be faithful it is to repose an entire and free confidence in him and there is nothing more odious and unworthy the name of man than to employ that assurance and confidence they have freely committed to us to deceive and ruine them They themselves after this signal favour without example often declared to the world that if they should abuse so great a trust to the dammage and detriment of his Majesty they should be unworthy to live upon the earth but this was before the Loyal Subjects had separated themselves from their company They are then condemned by their own confession for that most signal Act of Trust such as never King gave to his Subjects they returned him the most infamous and perfidious Acts and base ingratitude that ever Subjects rendred to their King He that said Fidelem si putaveris facies the means to make men faithful was to think them so was never known to these men In Conscience can ye believe that when the King committed to them this great power that he understood it thus That when he should refuse to do any thing they requested him he gave them liberty to force him to do it or to do it without him to take from him his Children to seize upon his Revenues to turn his Armies Navies and Forts against him to make a broad Seal and to break his to dispose of all the Offices of the Crown to levy Forreign Souldiers and bring them into his Kingdom to deprive his Subjects of their Goods and possessions to drive the Ministers of the Gospel from their flocks to rob the Church of her Revenues to overthrow the ancient Laws of the Land and to make a Religion all new After all this can any man wonder if they durst not trust the King For where is the Criminal or Malefactor that dares commit himself to or trust the Judge and where is the Cozener and Deceiver who being discovered dares trust him whom he hath cozened and deceived If by these vile actions they have violated the trust the King reposed in them and if by the Act for the continuance of the Parliament the King gave them a power to deal thus with him we refer our selves to the better part of the Parliament who withdrew themselves to the King abhorring such a prodigious violation of the publick faith and of the duty of Subjects and Christians unfaithfulness they committed the like to the people who deputed and committed to them the publick safety For doubtless in their choice it never enter'd into the Spirits of them who sent them to invest them with an absolute power over their goods and persons much less over their King for they could not give that which they had not nevertheless they have executed this power casting their fellow-Citizens out of their houses and possessions and gather'd together great treasure out of the rents of the King and his Subjects manifesting themselves very liberal of the goods of others But they defend these actions by a new Maxime of State invented upon this occasion Some of the principal Citizens of London being oppressed by their great and often Taxes came to the House and represented to them that it was their duties to maintain the Subjects in the propriety of their goods and beseeched them not to fall themselves into that inconvenience which they were bound to remedy The Gentlemen of the House of Commons answered them that in truth the Subjects might plead the propriety of their goods against the King but not against the Parliament to whom it appertained to dispose of all the goods of the Kingdom but to perswade the people to believe this is a very hard task who rather judged that the Parliament whom they had chosen had violated the publick faith and the trust committed to them and had taken that into their disposing which was never committed them Let these Gentlemen never hereafter speak so loud of their publick faith since they have lost it nor ever attempt to borrow more money upon so sorry a caution There were none in either Houses who had not often taken the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy by which they acknowledge the King their Soveraign depending of none and had sworn to him loyalty and obedience They moreover took the protestation made in the beginning of the Parliament and imposed upon the whole Kingdome wherein also they swear the same thing The Oath of the Covenant which was taken after renew'd the same promise and there they swore to defend the Person and Authority of the King and cause the world to behold their fidelity and that they would not in the least thing diminish his just power and greatnesse Consider here good Reader Oaths enough to binde them to perform and keep their promise But this multitude of oaths is a kind of proof of their ill faith for they that swear often manifest thereby that they think themselves unworthy to be believed and distrust that every one mistrusts them It had been better for them to have been faithful to their King without swearing for as in the Grammar Latine two Negatives make an Affirmative these on the contrary in stead thereof would seem to make two Affirmatives to make one Negative and that many oaths to be faithful to their Soveraign bound them to do the contrary for in effect these last oaths were solely imployed to ruine the antient Oath of Allegiance for if their intentions had been simply to be faithful to their Soveraign they needed have taken no other oath then the first Therefore after these two new oaths came the third which they called the Negative Oath in which they caused men to swear That they should neither
mennaces against him and all those who should dare to receive him forced this poor Prince to travel disguised in great danger of his life through their Armies which besieged Oxford and to go and cast himself into the arms of the Scots as a chased Boar casts himself into the toils He found by sad experience in this his miserable refuge that the Covenanters were of the same Genius in other Nations and of the same evil Faith It imports not much whether it be true or false which was said of the Scots that they had secretly invited him and promised to expose both their goods and lives for his defence and safety but how ever it was they were bound by their natural duty to do so But instead of rendring him the duties of faithful subjects as crafty Merchants they made their profit of him for after they had kept him captive some moneths at length they drew two great benefits by him the one upon their promise to imploy their Armies for his service they made use of his Authority to make that Miracle of Valour and Fidelity the Marquess of Mentrâ—sse the Kings Lieutenant in their Country and the terrour of the Rebels to disband and lay down his Armes the other in making sale of his Majesty to the Gentlemen at Westminster for two hundred thousand pounds sterling in ready money obliging them to pay the like summe more two years after Upon which this most wise Prince being demanded whether he had rather continue with his Scottish Subjects or go to his Subjects in England answered with an excellent grace and serenity Without question I must be with those who have bought me and not with those who have sold me And in his meditation upon this subject Since I am thus sold by them I am only afflicted for the evil they have done and to behold my self valued at a higher price then my Saviour These words proceeding from a quick and well governed Spirit a King of his passions and so conforming himself to the passion and obedience of the Sonne of God cannot be heard nor read by good Christians with the same moderation they were pronounced but this magnanimous patience should produce in every pious soul a most just execration of this the most base and barbarous treachery that hath been committed since that of Judas and which in iniquity yields only to the abominable paracide to whom he was deliver'd by this infamous sale It matters not much what is said hereupon that the Scots in delivering up the person of the K. to the Gent. at Westmin drew from them a promise to treat him with safety liberty and honor for they ought not impose upon other then themselves this duty which was natural to them Neither could they expect that the English should render him that safety liberty and honor which themselves refused him or that the buyers should not as well search to make their profit by him as the sellers and to reimburse themselves with usury by his ruine But for their care they took of the K. when they deliver'd him let us do them the favour to pass by their perfidiousness and behold how the Gent. at Westm performed their promise to treat the K. with safety liberty and honor Behold how they led him captive to Holmby house where they set a guard of souldiers his enemies upon him denied him his Revenues Rights liberty children servants and that which with greatest earnestness he desired his Chaplins and the free exercise of his conscience extremely misusing him with insolent threatnings and injurious demands And for all this the Scots never seemed to be moved or troubled whilst the K. was in the Presbyterian parties custody But when the Independents had seised vpon his person although his captivity was a little sweetned over it was before the Scotch began to demand aloud the accomplishment of their promises for his liberty whereupon the Gent. at West made a Declaration to break and null all their former promises of loyalty and respect made to his Majesty by this Parl. Telling the Scots that these promises were formed published and imploid according as the state of affairs then stood but they might now be altered and yet nevertheless these promises to preserve the person and authority of the K. had been made with the solemnest and sublimest protestations we protest say they in the presence of Almighty God which is the strongest bond of a Christian and the publick faith the most solemn that any State can give that neither adversity nor success shall ever cause us to change our resolutions Now at this day it sadly appears how much they respect the presence of Almighty God and how much they find themselves obliged by the strongest obligation of a Christian and the Publick Faith the most solemn that the body of an estate can give It is to be doubted whether they believe there is a God or that he is Almighty or so just as to call them before him in Judgment for the prophanation of his most Holy Name Before these Gentlemen did openly manifest that they would not grant the King neither liberty honour nor safety they set awork their hypocrisie and treachery The Independent Army having taken away the person of the King from the Presbyterians began to use him more Honorably but not out of love to him but in hatred to his former Goalers and to flatter and lull asleep the Royal Party and for this effect this Army made some Declarations in favour of his Majesty See here some of their expressions Forasmuch as a scandalous information hath been presented to the two Houses importing that his Majesty is kept prisoner amongst us and uncivilly and barbarously dealt with we judge our selves bound to declare that this suggestion and all other of the same nature are most false and absolutely contrary not only to our requests but also to our principles And a little after we profess openly that we see not how there can be any firm or durable peace in the Kingdome without a due consideration and provision for the rights repose and immunities of his Majesty and his Royal Family And in another place they promise that until such time as there be made a settlement his Majesty shall find amongst them all civil and personal respect with all reasonable Freedome But let us next see how they performed this promise after they found this great Prince inflexible to all their unjust and dishonourable propositions and especially to those which concerned the ruine of the Church they restrained his liberty and set over him more insolent guards in his house at Hampton Court at which nevertheless Oliver Cromwell who was then in effect chief of the league seemed to be much troubled and very careful of the life of his Majesty and therefore perswaded him to escape by night and to save himself out of such wicked hands into the Isle of Wight for being resolved to charge the King with a criminal process
suit or cause might come unto me and I would do him justice 2 Sam. 15.4 In publick grievances good Subjects are wont to cast the blame upon the Ministers of State and rest satisfied in seeing some of them punished accounting it their principal interest to preserve the honour of their Soveraign and good Princes when they are informed that the Ministers of State have abused their Authority to the damage of their Subjects which is theirs are wont to examine them and judge them according to the Laws And in this the King did as much as possible they could require of him having submitted the persons of those whom the Covenanters complained against to be judged and tried by lawful and ordinary waies But whilst they tread under foot the Royal Authority the Power of Parliament and the Majesty of the Laws and that they were in open war against him what reason had he to submit his Servants and Ministers to the judgment of his enemies Being certain that whilst the War continued they would aim most at them who served him best Then when the Parliament was whole and entire there passed a Vote worthy the gravity of that great Court That the King could do no wrong and that his Officers and not he were guilty of the evil which was done in the publick Government But since those who loved the King departed and withdrew themselves to him those which remained at Westminster followed a way quite contrary for they cast upon the King all the faults of his Servants and made use of them against him whom they ought should have punished for having ill served him Then when they took in hand to examine the Ministers of State in stead of punishing them which were guilty they received them into favour yea after their â—aults proved against them and turned all the discontent of the people upon the King What a great noise was there in the House of Commons against the forgers of Monopolies One would have thought that hardly any should have escaped with their lives but there happened altogether the contrary For because the Monopolists and other accused persons made a considerable number in Parliament they made use of their faults to make a strong faction against the King terrifying and making them understand there was no way left to preserve them from utter ruine but to joyn with the new party which was forming and hereupon they were promised impunity for what evils they had done on condition they should do greater Some of these were sent to the King to Newmarket in the behalf of their companions to whom his Majesty said these words capable to convert them or to make their Indiâ—emenâ— at the day of Judgment Gentlemen lay your hands upon your Consciences Who are they which invented those Taxes by which you have so provoked my people against me For whose advantage and profit were those Imposts â—â—â—ied Were my Revenues encreased by them It was you that induced and moved me 〈◊〉 them for your own particular profit and now you return me a worthy recompence Other Parliament men guilty of many crimes were kept in the Parliament in hope of impuâ—ity the holy Covenant 〈◊〉 a Garment which covered a multitude of sins even to the violating of a great Lady and abusing her by own of their Members almost in the sight of the Parliament Behold these the Reformers of Church and State Others which were not of the Parliament but under censure for having been Councellours or Instruments in the Imposts and Taxes of the people were released by them and employed for the same business as persons who well understood the Trade who pillaged then with a good Conscience for the advancement of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ Those whose infamous life was the shame of the Royal Court were the honour of the Court at Westminster and the Pillars of the Covenant Likewise the Judges accused of corruption and the Ministers of a scandalous life in taking the Covenant obtained a plenary indulgence of all their sins for after that there was no more to say to them for those who washed themselves in this water returned as white as if they had been washed with Ink or with the second Baptism the Anabaptists use at this day But now let us look upon the Armies Our enemies cry aloud that the King made use of those of the Church of Rome to serve him in his Wars Upon which an excellent Writer makes this gentle Question to them How many were in their Armies or how many they would have had For if the common report do not much wrong them they employed divers persons of that Religion there were persons of Honour and Quality who assured us that they Prisoners of the same Religion served the Covenanters We refer our selves to their own Consciences if they gave not a Commission to my Lord Aston to levy Forces The Relation in notable the King being at York this gallant man accounted the most experienced and best Commander of War of his time came to present his Service to his Majesty the King gave him thanks and withal told him he was resolved to employ none of his Religion in his Army Well saith he I will go then to those who will employ me and indeed went presently to Westminster where he was received with open Arms and a Commission given him written and signed which he carried to the King Ye cannot wonder then that the King made use of him and others of his Religion whom before he was resolv'd not to employ although he had to take away all shadow of occasion from his enemies who sought somthing whereat to quarrel with him made a Proclamation that none professing the Religion of the Church of Rome should come neer his Court. After this the Covenanters used all their power to make them draw to the Kings Party well considering their party being so small would bring more hatred than help to the King and for this effect they treated them with great inhumanity forcing them to forsake their Houses and Lands and run and hide themselves under the Kings Protection and this the King could not refuse them for as they owed him their Subjection the King owed them his Protection so long as they governed themselves according to the Laws and accomplished the Conditions whereby they were permitted by Act of Parliament to live in the Kingdom By this reason of Reciprocal duty the King protecting them as his Subjects they were bound to defend him as their King and ye shall not find in all the Statutes which concern them that they are exempted to serve the King in his Armies neither is it reasonable that they only should be free from the perils of war whilst thâ—ir fellow Subjects venture their lives and are shedding their bloud for the defence of their Country The Covenanters made it appear sufficiently to the world that they judged that Religion ought not to exclude any from bearing Arms in the publick danger for