ignorance drawing out of broken cisterns the seditious writings of the Roman and the Reformed Jesuites and transcribing one another and so are taught and reach to despise dominion and speake evill of those things which they know not §. 3. I Make no question the proposition is now evident that the supreme power in any State let it be where it will somewhere it must be for else it were an Anarchy and no government ought not to be resisted This makes rebellion sin as transgressing divine and humane lawes In the next place for the perfect direction of conscience Most necessary to know the subject of Supremacy wee must examine in whom the supreme power is placed a mistake in this is as dangerous as an errour in the former For as zeale which is not according to knowledge is impiety for though it have the heat it hath not the light which is required to true devotion so the most scrupulous obedience is but humble rebellion if it be misplaced and yielded to fellow Subjects against him who hath jus regnandi the right to command them Thus in an Aristocracy to aide one man against the Senate is Treason against the State and in a Monarchy because the constitution is different and places the supreme power in one to aide the Senate of which that one is the head and opposed to him they are but a livelesse trunk in order to those things to which his influence is necessary Fortescue warrants the expression sine capite communitas non corporatur against the Monarch and supreame Ruler is rebellion and treason against the State The Assumption therefore shall be The King of ENGLAND hath this supreame power when this is proved the conscience must take law from this necessary Inference therefore it is unlawfull for Subjects to hold up armes against the King of England Because as it is an absurdity in speculation so it is sinne in practice to deny the conclusion there they offend against Logique here against Religion also For whatsoever is not of faith that is not of judgment whatsoever wee doe against our owne reason and the light of conscience is transgression The matter of this discourse is of high concernment For as things now stand on it hang Heaven or Hell our salvation or eternall damnation If the King be the highest power you are bound to submit to him but if you have new Soveraignes if your fellow Subjects are become the Lords anoynted there may be some colour of justification Except this be proved you are altogether inexcusable as appeares in the last Section and therfore it will behoove you to hearken to Solomons advice My sonne feare thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change For their calamity shall rise sodainely Prov. 24. 21. 22. Certainely unconcerned men will thinke I have undertaken no very difficult taske The Kings Supremacy witnessed by out Oath If I can but perswade the Kings adversaries they have not forsworne themselves I shall recover them to due obedience but I must tell them if they were not perjur'd in taking the Oath of Supremacy not to mention now that of Alleagiance they are so in breaking it The words are so expresse that not any colourable glosse can be invented to excuse the violation of this solemne Sacrament I A. B. doe utterly testifie and declare in my conscience that the Kings highnesse is the only supreame Governour of this Realme and of all other His Highnesse Dominions and Countries as well in all Spirituall or Ecclesiasticall things or causes as Temporall c. I d◠promise that from henceforth I shall beare faith and true allegiance to the Kings Highnesse His Heires and lawfull Successours and to my power shall assist and defend all jurisdictions priviledges preheminences and authorities granted or belonging to the Kings Highnesse His Heires and Successours or united and annexed to the Imperiall Crowne of this Realme So helpe me God and by the Contents of this Booke It hath beene replyed That this Oath is taken in opposition to the Pope to exclude the Supremacy usurped by him for many yeares They speake truth but not all the truth for there are two parts in it One negative by which wee professe that not any forraigne State or Potentate nor the Pope hath this power The other positive by which the Subject of this power is specified The Kings Highnesse is the onely supreame Governour of this Realme as in all Spirituall things and causes so likewise Temporall Both Ecclesiasticall and Civill supremacy are here asserted to be in the King It was not thought sufficient to tell who was not Supreme but they declare also who was When we had truly sworne the Pope out of this Kingdome what necessity was there to make the people perjur'd for certainely they forsweare themselves who solemnely testifie and declare in their conscience That the Kings highnesse is the onely supreme Governour if the meaning of those words be onely this that the Pope is not It concernes us as highly as our Soules are worth reddere juramentum domino to performe unto the Lord our Oath and not to lift up those hands against the King which were layd upon the holy Gospell in witnesse of our submission to him as the onely supreme Governour What desperate malice is it to expose our Soules to every Musket shot if wee fall we perish eternally This sad contemplation that wee stand on the very brinke of Hell ready to be turned into the Lake of everlasting woes by every sword every bullet will smite our hearts and make our armes feeble in the day of battaile what confusion amazement and horrour of conscience must needs seize upon all considering men Think upon the heinousnesse of parricide to murther a Father is a sin greater then any one is able to beare But to spill the bloud of our Soveraigne which they have done who fought against him for it is murderin Gods sight his goodnesse in protecting his servant doth not excuse their sin in endeavouring to destroy their King whom God commands not to touch and whose life we have sworn to defend with the utmost hazard of our owne and we have desired the Lord to revenge it in our destruction if we doe otherwise is of a much deeper dye For the King is Pater patriae a common Father to all without a Metaphor what ever power Fathers had over and consequently whatsoever honour as an effect of this power was due to them from their children he hath right to challenge the same of all And though we should joyne together King hath paternall powers from consent of the people and call our selves the Common-wealth we can no more lawfully dis-respect give law to resist upon hard usage or say he is lesse honourable then all we then children by agreement may dispense with their duty to their parents It was our owne act which united all particular paternall powers in Him and that these
gentem robustam longinquam quae destruet eos c. by the way he does not say that Subjects shall call in a forraigne Nation that is treason But the Lord will bring them in because they would not judge their people righteously The distinct answer to it is that Bracton layes not this downe as Law but when he had taught the quite contrary Omnis quidem sub eo ipse sub nullo sed sub Deo tantùm and non habet parem and sufficit ad paenam quod Dominum expectet ultorem He puts this speech into the mouth of a man discontend at the abuse of regall power and arguing from the practise of that Age wherein he wrote for the Rebellious Barons seized on the Militia of the Kingdome which of right appertained to Hen third as Bracton clearely delivers himselfe ea quae sunt justiciae paci annexa ad nullum pertinent nisi ad coronam nec à coronà separari potâ—runt That he speakes it in the person of another appeares from hence that he begins it with dicere poterit quis some body may say The King hath done Justice and it is well and why hath he not the same liberty to censure him if he doe iniustice and accordingly to require him to performe his dutie lest he fall into the hands of the living God He proceeds immediately to Rex autem habet superiorem c. It would be very easy for one better read in our Lawes then I am to shew that the King of England hath supreame right from the nature of all Subjects lands holden of him in fee which though it gives a perpetuall estate Kings supremacie proved from the nature of all his Subjects tenures yet not absolute but conditionall for it depends upon the acknowledgement of superiority and is forfaitable upon a not performance of some duties and therefore it returnes unto him For the breach of Fidelity is losse of Fee as appeares in Duarenus Wesembechius Farinaccius Molina Socinus Gail and they tell us that all Lawyers agree that all Feuda are lost by rebellion as also by our common Law which according to the nature of the trespasse varies the forfeiture In case of Treason as taking up Armes against the King for so you may find it determined 25 Edw. 3. c. 2. after legall conviction all their lands and tenements are absolutely in the Kings disposall in case of felony the King hath a yeare a day and the wast after which it passeth downe to the heires It is very evident that the King onely hath that high degree of property in his lands which Lawyers call alaudium or alodium The sense is the same though the words differ for it is not materiall whether with Budaeus we derive it from the privative particle a and Laudum which signifies nomination so that it denotes praedium cujus nullus author est nisi Deus to hold in his owne full right without any service any payment of rent because from God onely or like to those of Heinault who acknowledge no tenure but from God and the Sunne Pays de Hainault tenu de dieu du soleil or else we may derive it from the same privative particle a and the Saxon Leod or the French leud a vassall or leigeman and then it expresses thus much a tenement without vassallage without burden to which our English Loade retaines some resemblance But Subjects of what degree or condition soever hold their lands ut feuda in the nature of Fee which implies Fealty to a superior It is all one whether they belong to them by inheritance or by purchase for though they may sometimes be dearly bought yet such is the condition of the alienation that they cannot be conveyed without those burdens which were layed upon him who had novell Fee So that Camden pag. 93. of his Britannia observes very truly that the King only hath directum dominium this being reserved by the conouerour who changed many of our lawes and introduced the customes of Normandy and instituted all our pleas in French and passed over the utile dominium only he gave though not absolute yet perpetuall right conditions being performed to use and enjoy such and such lands The highest expression of a Subjects right which law will justify is this seisitus inde in dominico suo ut de feudo He is seized of such lands in his demaine as of fee. Now Feudum is manifestly a derived right and founded in him who hath supreame right in consideration whereof all lands held by Subjects are burdened with some services which differ according to the variety of grant from the King Hence some tenures expire with life others goe downe to our posterity by discent to whom the law gives usum fructum a right to use injoy and make all profits but they are properly but mesn or mesme Lords as holding of an over Lord or Lord paramount who is the King The Kings supremacy is as strongly proved in that he is our Leige Lord Leige Lord bound to some duties as appeares by sundry Statutes for such an one can acknowledge no superiour as Duarenus shewes in comment de consuetudin seudorum c. 4. num 3. And all Subjects are homines ligii leige men and owe faith and true alleagiance to him as their superiour The definition of Legeancy is set down in the great customary of Normandy Ligeantia est ex quâ domino tenentur vassalli sui c. Ligeancy is an obligation upon all Subjects to take part with their leige Lord against all men living to aid and assist with their bodies and minds with their advise and power not to lift up their armes against him nor to support in any way those who oppose him but not under paine of forfeiture as Leige men are The Lord like wise is bound to governe protect and defend his leige people so the English are often called in Acts of Parliament according to the rights customes and lawes of the Country If Subjects breake their faith and prove disloyall their estates and lives are expressely forfeited and the King is enabled by law as the fountaine of all Jurisdiction to seize upon their goods and lands and to destroy their persons If he performe not his duty for there is a mutuall obligation betweene leige Lord and leige men yet notwithstanding this failing neither his Crowne or any rights belonging to his Royall dignity are subject to forfeiture Let them if they can produce any one law to maintaine their assertion If there had beene any it would not thus long have been concealed for they are not accustomed to dissemble any advantages by overmuch modesty Indeed they have not any shadow of proofe or colour of reason for it and yet upon their bare word how many thousands have hazarded their soules by assisting rebells which are eternally lost if they perish in their sinne What madnesse is it to beleeve their saying before their and your owne
must not returne ill language because he was the Ruler do clearly evince their argument not concluding Saul was a bloody tyrant hee made the Priests a sacrifice to his cruelty yet notwithstanding he continued Gods anointed It were easie to instance in many examples which shew the vices of man making ill use of the power do not voyd the ordinance of God There are who answer these places very piously but as I think not altogether to what Saint Paul aimed at Rulers are not a terrour to good workes and he is the minister of God to thee for good that is though they oppresse nay kill innocent men yet they cannot hurt them For God will recompence their sufferings it is in bonum afflictis though affligentibus in malum because all things worke together for good to them that love that is are obedient to God Rom. 8. It seemes to me more probable that the scope of the Apostle was to inforce the duty of subjection pressed in vers 1. by a second reason for he had urged before the ordinance of God drawn from the benefits which will be reaped from Governours And the motive is the consideration of that happinesse which wee have reason to promise our selves from the preservation of order the end of which is publique tranquillity This is enjoyed under very bad Princes which will abundantly recompence some particular sufferings whereas if wee should goe about to right our selves when power is abused to say nothing that it would alwayes be pretended to be so by ambitious men who have this advantage that the common people have but weake judgments in State matters and yet appeales are especially directed to them and since our miseries have growne upon us the contrivance of our calamity was very visible the fatall arts which ruined this Kingdome were to make the meaner sort of men Judges of Policy and women generally the Judges of Religion and they are easily perswaded to reckon misfortunes amongst crimes and to confound ill intentions with ill successe If I say wee should take upon us to governe our Governours because they rule not for our advantage wee should pull upon our heads much greater mischiefes Experience shewes that Kingdomes suffer infinitely more by Civill Warre then by the most Tyrannicall Princes If wee call to mind the most vicious King that ever reigned in England wee shall find though he did injure some particulars indulging to some inordinate affections against the tenor of Law yet justice was favoured in the generall and the greatest part of the Kingdome reaped the fruits of order Whereas illegall endeavours to force him to amendment introduce a cessation of all law and justice and the Subjects will be plundered more in one night then the greatest monopolyes and most unjustifiable taxes of many yeares robb'd them of The Apostles sense is expressed fully by Tacitus Ferenda Regum ingenia néque usui esse crebras mutationes The reason why it is better for a people though oppressed to submit with patience even to a Tyrant is this if he be put to recover his owne by conquest and prevaile he may be tempred as highly provoked to rule them with a rod of iron and to provide for future safety by utter disabling them to hurt him but if they get the better their victory doth but confirme our calamity wee cannot see any probable end of our unhappy distractions Because forraigne Princes will certainely afford supplies for recovering his just rights for it might suddainly be their owne case and they are bound to it in State interest that they send not aid sooner is because it is for their advantage to have a neighbour Kingdome weakned but not the Prince ruin'd and it is very unlikely he should ever want a very considerable party at home many out of conscience more out of discontent and envy towards their fellow Subjects prosperous treason endeavouring to restore their injur'd Soveraigne to his undoubted Rights and Prerogative So that England would be the unhappy scene where the tragedies of Germany would be reacted But grant a totall extirpation and that they shall be able to go through with their wicked designe and not only branch but even root Monarchy also for this is aimed at by some who feare it may sprout againe if the stock be left have wee yet at last any hopes of peace when wee are so undone by warre that wee have nothing left to loose but our lives truely no then like theeves when once secure of their booty we should have thousand differences in dividing the prey all of them challenging preferments great as their sinnes and setting such a price upon their wickednesse as the estates of all honest men will not be able to pay it is not possible what they have gotten can be pleasant to them when they consider much more might be enjoyed and sadly recollect the inequality of the recompence to the adventure for their lives were exposed to the danger of the law their reputation is lost with all good men and their soules are eternally ruin'd They would fall out amongst themselves who was the greatest Traytor and never yeild precedency in mischiefes because that is the measure of Sharing Some would plead they contrived others they acted the Treason and thinke a subtile braine should have no priviledge above a couragious heart it being more easie to fright the people by inventing false dangers then to lead them on and make them stand the brunt of true It is beyond my skill to proportion the wages of sin determine whether the slye and cunning setter or the stout thief can claim greatest share in the spoyle But commonly the speculatively malicious men are miserably deceived of their expected requitall For though they set the mischiefes on foot yet their journey-men quickly apprehending the mystery are easily tempted to set up for themselves It hath beene often seene that to end such quarrells he that was head of the conspiracy in reference to the active part of it and who had force enough to oppresse a Tyrant would use the same to establish himselfe their Lord and Master and his government was so much the more rigid severe and miserable because he was frighted with his owne example upon his predecessor This I conceive to be the Apostles sense that wee must submit even to bad Governours such they were when he wrote this Epistle not only out of honesty but prudence also because if wee goe about to make them better wee shall put the Kingdome and consequently our selves in farre worse condition After this explanation I will reduce their Argument into forme that I may thereby give more distinct satisfaction Non resistance is forbidden only to the powers ordained of God But powers used tyrannically are not ordained of God therefore wee are not forbidden to resist them The assumption is absolutely false For though tyranny be not the ordinance of God yet the power which is commanded to rule justly but withall inabled to
the observations pag. 17. and again pag. 18. in answer to the 24. Hen. 8. cap. 12. The King is supreme head unto whom a body politique compact of all sorts and degrees of people are bounden and owe next to God a naturall humble obedience wee must not understand this that the body politique doth owe obedience but that the severall sorts and degrees of people of which this body is compacted and made that they doe owe obedience for to take it otherwise were to make an absurd and impossible construction c. If every particular man performe his duty of alleagiance as he stands obliged by oath let him oppose his met a phisicall body to the King even as he pleases If the body politique have not sworne allegiance or supremacy because it is a body only in consideration of law that hath neither life or motion like other invidualls p. 17. and for the same reason doth not owe homage and obedience p. 18. How is it capable of rebelling against the Head for it cannot fight but by the hands of particular men and all these are tyed up by divine law and their owne oathes 3. They acknowledge themselves his subjects as united in Parliament and if they should deny it they could not challenge any benefit from his royall protection 4. The lawes intrust him not the Houses to protect us 5. The Houses represent only subjects opposed to the King who is their superiour by humane and consequently divine law both as their naturall King and as Gods anoynted his representative 6. There is a great difference between the reall and representative all for though it were true as it is not that he were lesse then the whole people yet this would not bring the conclusion home to the Houses Who are the people only to such purposes as the law nominates viz. for consenting to Lawes or Taxes upon the Subject To all other purposes wherein Regall power is not expresly limited the King is the whole people and what he doth is legally their Act. Aristotle tells us of some Kings that had as full right over their whole realme as a popular state can have over it selfe and all things belonging thereto 3. pol. 14. To such an one that of the Tragaedian is truely and properly applyed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You are the whole City the whole Common-wealth and therefore not responsable for any actions This shewes the falsehood of their principles Quicquid efficit tale est magis tale and constituens est major constituto c. for though they meane to make advantage of them only in this Kingdome yet they conclude against the possibility of making any King absolute which reason and experience have clearely confused For a people if conquered their lives and all they have being then in the hand of the victor or if in feare to be swallowed up by a more potent enemy they may and often have very prudently consented to place all the legall power of the Kingdome in one man that he may thereby be enabled to protect them and where the legislative power is unrestrained there the rule is absolute To apply this doctrine In those things wherein the King of England is not absolute as in the exercise of his legislative power and raising money without consent The Houses together with him represent the people but in such matters wherein he is absolute that is wherein he is not restrained by lawes which are but limitations of Regall power there he is Populus Anglicanus legally the English Nation For example sake I will instance in the power of making Warre and Peace if any take up Armes by vertue of any other then his Commission they oppose not the King alone but the King and People as People is to be understood in law for their hands are tyed up and all their legall strength is in the Kings disposall Let us examine their Argument The whole people are above their King therefore the Houses because they represent them The Antecedent I have shewed false because the whole people are but such a number of Subjects who can have no colour of pretence to be above him whom God and the law hath placed over them The consequence is as infirme and the reason of it fallacious for if representatives might challenge all rights appertaining to the persons by them represented then a Jury shall be concluded as honourable as the House of Commons and then too because the Emperour of Germany may challenge of the King of France or England not superiority for they are as supreame and independent Princes as he is but praecedence an honour due to the antiquity of the Empire for nations as well as persons injoy the benefit of primo geniture his ambassadours also might sit above those Kings which the Court of honour guided by the law of nations and reason would pronounce very absurd Againe they represent the people only to some purposes to make warre is none of them The King alone can declare the peoples mind in this case they have no legall way of expressing themselves but in his Commissions and therefore the warre is not betweene King and People but so many particular persons exceeding the trust committed to them against the duty of allegiance oppose both King and People It is very remarkeable that in the begining of these unhappy contrivances some multitudes appearing in tumultuous wayes what ever they desired or did was called the Act of the People providing for their own safety But after the sense of miseries had bettered their understandings to make them discerne this unnaturall warre was not like to improve the meanes of preservation many of them make a Covenant to live peaceably and honestly amongst themselves so in Yorkeshire long since and lately between Cornwall and Devonshire and now the Houses interpose and will not permit the people who were stirred up and encouraged to raise a warre against law to make a peace according to law let them trouble the waters as much as they please they shall be borne out in it but they must not thinke of setling them till they have done fishing This would be a breach of Priviledge The People are now forced to defend themselves and their goods violently taken from them for their security who might soone be happy againe if their friends would be lesse carefull of their safety It is well knowne who began to appeale to the People withall my heart if law must be suspended let them arbitrate the differences The certaine way to know their judgement and whom they apprehend to be a reall defender of what both pretend our lawes and propertie and liberty and the established religion is to cease plundering of both sides and leave them to their naturall inclination That side which confesses it cannot subsist without using violence and oppression and forcing their estates from them acknowledges that the people whom they pretend to fight for is clearly against them and they
which States are setled overthrowne if the people be made Judges of their safety and allowed to use any meanes which they fancy conducing thereto without any consideration of the ground-workes Populi salus suprema lex is the Engine by which the upper roomes are torne from the foundation and seated upon fancy onely like Castles in the aire For the safety of the people is really built upon governement and this destroyed the other non jam aedes sed cumulus erit will be soone swallowed in the common confusion but this is evidently and demonstrably ruined by these principles For government is an effect not of a people 's divided naturall powers but as they are united and made one by civill constitution so that when we call it supreame power we impose an improper name and have given occasion for mistakes yet I shall not endeavour to alter the common use of speaking but onely to prevent a misunderstanding of it because indeed this power is simply one and when it doth expresse it selfe by one person or more according to different formes who yet are but severall parts of one governour there is not left in the Kingdome or Common-wealth any civill that is any legall power which can appeare in resistance because all of them have bound their naturall hands by a politique agreement Hence it followes those that will allow any power to Subjects against their ruler let it be Liberty to resist those in whom the Law places jus gladis the right of the sword destructive to the very nature of governement one man or many united by one common forme which is the consent of the major part and this is not capable of division do thereby dissolve the sinewes of government by which they were compacted into one and which made a multitude a people and so breake the Common-wealth into as many peices as they have set up opposers against it For there cannot be two powers and yet the Kingdome remaine one This is that which distinguishes Francs and England and Spaine from one another because they have three powers legally distinct and are the same in relation each to other as three particular men meeting in some wildernesse and considered as not having agreed to any Lawes of Society I am fully perswaded no sober man can imagine the policy of this State is so defective as to open a necessary way to its owne ruine that is to divide the Kingdome legally in it selfe and therefore it must necessarily be granted those that take up armes being not authorized so to do by law are guilty of rebellion and the consequences of it murder and rapine It is very easy to determine whom the Law hath armed with power because not any part of the people not the two Houses but the King alone is sworne to protect us which is an evident argument he is enabled to effect this end and that the necessary meanes to compasse it which is the posse regni is at his disposall By these generalls throughly digested and rightly applied we shall be able to rule particular decisions I shall desire one thing especially may be remembred as which hath great influence upon all cases Though what is truly the right of any one doth not cease to be so naturally by anothers sentence to the contrary yet after positive constitutions upon a Judges decision he can challenge no title to it because by his owne deed and consent he passeth it away in that judiciary determination And equity and prudence both dictate that it was a most honest and reasonable agreement as conducing to publique peace and the quiet of mankind that persons publikely constituted and more unconcerned in the decisions should put an end to all debates Because otherwise the controversie was not likely to be ended but with one of the parties For each man out of naturall favour the strongest corruptive of judgement inclining to his owne Interest there was nothing left but force to determine it There cannot be a more unhappy administration of Justice then when strength is made the measure of right and when all Iudges are bribed as passing sentence to their owne advantage §. 1. THe following Section shall be spent in proving the proposition by which the consciences of all Subjects must be directed It is unlawfull to resist him or them in whom the supreame authority that is all the legall power of the Kingdome is placed and no dispensation grounded upon what persons soever as inferiour Magistrates or upon any cause as the extreame abuse of this power to their oppression can excuse such resistance from the sin of rebellion Upon this pillar not onely monarchy stands firme but all other governements are equally supported the generall reason being applicable according to the difference in severall formes In the third Section I will bring the case home to our selves by proving this assumption The King of England hath this supreame power and then I shall leave it to every mans conscience to inferre the conclusion therefore it is unlawfull to make resistance against their Soveraigne In the fourth Section I will answer all the evasions how plausibly soever founded which I could meete with in the severall writings of those men who though they strike at the King downe right and more immediately yet by plaine and evident cousequences they destroy all civill society By way of conclusion I will shew though such a power of resistance as they or any others have yet openly pleaded for should be granted lawfull as when in their owne defence or when he that hath the highest authority and is bound by the law of God and his owne oath to administer justice equally yet after frequent representations of their grievances and most just Complaints of their great sufferings affords no redresse yet this can be no justification of the present warre against the King nor acquit the Actors in it from being rebels Because this case is evidently not now as will appeare after a view taken of the causas of this unnaturall and illegall division The proposition to be proved is It is unlawfull to resist him or them in whom the supreame authority that is all the legall power of the Kingdome in order to raise armes is placed and no dispensation grounded upon what persons soever as inferiour magistrates or upon any cause as the extreame abuse of this power to their oppression can excuse such resistance from the sin of Rebellion I make no question every man will apprehend that by resistance here Differences betweene not obeying against law and hostile resistance to a lawfull Soveraigne is meant only hostile opposition and not a refusall to put unjust commands measured by divine or humane laws in execution for the truth is if they are or seeme repugnant to Gods law for then they are so really in respect of those who have that apprehension idem est esse apparere in this case of good and bad because whatsoever is not of
an unheard of co-ordination such as creates Regnum in Regno and rents this Country into distinct Kingdomes shall be refuted Since what is called mixt Monarchy cannot give such a right as is pleaded for that Subjects should be free to wage warre against their Prince because this liberty makes two independent States which are not compatible in one body but would be as really distinct Kingdomes in England as Spaine and France are I will endeavour to declare the true meaning thereof If we speake properly there cannot be such a thing as mixtum Imperium a mixt Monarchy or mixt Aristocracy or mixt Democracy Because if there are divers supreame powers it is no longer one State If the supreame power be but one that is that authority unto which Le dernier ressort de la justice the last appeale must be made and against whose sentence though unjust we have not any legall remedy this must be placed either in one man who is the fountaine of all jurisdiction and then it is a Monarchicall government or in some Nobles and then the Regiment is Aristocraticall and the sentence of the major part of them becomes Law to all effects whether concerning our goods or lives or if the civill constitutions of a State direct us to appeale to the people this is an absolute and true Democracy By a mixt Monarchy therefore not to quarrell about words nothing but this can reasonably be understood that it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherein the will of the Prince publiquely made knowne gives the Law Quodcunque Principi placet legis habet vigorem but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a government not arbitrary but restrained by positive constitutions wherein a Prince hath limited himselfe by promise or oath not to exercise full power This grant is of force because any man may either totally resigne or diminish his rights by Covenant Hence it is that in Monarchies all Kings have supreame power though they have not all the same jura Regalia their prerogatives are larger or narrower according to their particular grants For example our Kings have retained to themselves the rights of coyning money making great officers bestowing honours as Dukedomes Baronies Knighthoods c. pardoning all offences against the Crowne making warre and peace sending Ambassadors to negotiate with forraigne States c. and they have restrained themselves from the use of that power which makes new Lawes and repeales old without the consent of the Lords and Commons in Parliament as likewise from raising money upon the Subject without their consent Some doe aske How are we the better if we must suffer him to breake this Covenant as oft as he pleases it is the same thing not to have any Lawes and not to have provision for the observance of them First Difference betweene arbitrary rule and government restrained by Law notwithstanding hostile resistance unlawfull though in case of violation I must tell you this objection is answered by shewing there is a necessity that some body must be trusted It is no discretion to prevent a possible mischiefe by probable inconveniences if you will not trust one you must trust more that is if you are weary of Monarchy under which your fore-fathers enjoyed happy times and experience cannot cozen you though arguments may you know the way to cast it off by placing so many guardians over your Prince but have you any greater assurance then before Quis custodiet ipsos custodes They have as great temptations to faile their trust as he had and it is likely being warned by such a president of deserting your naturall Prince they may feare your inconstancy and upon pretence that you are subject to mistake and because they suspect you may be willing they will take such order you shall not be able to call them to an accompt But suppose this may not be and that those who suppresse Tyrants or perhaps excellent Kings under that name may not be frighted with their owne example to make use of their present power to exercise a greater tyranny for it is not impossible they should grow jealous too and tell you plainly they have no reason to trust you If you deny them money here is ground of diffidence your designe is to expose them to poverty so to contempt so to ruine But suppose I say nothing of this but that they will be secure amidst your jealousies which manifestly endanger their safety yet you will be forced at last to trust the giddy multitude who are alwayes weary of the present government because there are still some unavoidable defects and these are discerned by sense and they have not such depth of understanding as to foresee greater mischiefes which can onely be judged of by reason and therefore are easily perswaded to attempt a change so that your peace is built upon a very weake foundation you have no better security against a civill warre then that the greater part of the people will be discreet If things prosper not according to their wishes crafty men perswade them the fault lyes in those who have the managery of the publique and if these be not removed and honest and wise men meaning themselves put in their places their miseries will daily grow upon them A generall accusation of ill affected malignant persons wicked Counsellors is cause sufficient to out their supposed enemies of all preferments and put their pretended friends in their roomes This opens a gap to all confusion civill warre and most unnaturall distractions are the certaine issue of it Our owne lamentable experience confirmes this sad truth After you had obtained a perfect confirmation of all your ancient rights and liberties with a gracious enlargement of them by new grants and with such security as your fore-fathers were not acquainted with you are frighted with the possibility of a relapse To prevent which it was thought fit to take away the Kings power with which our Lawes had invested him as the necessary meanes for our protection because it was not impossible he might use it for our oppression Accordingly the Kings Navy His Forts Magazines and the Armes of the Kingdome are put into such as you would call safe hands I doe not aske with what conscience but with what judgement you did this The want of prudence was as great as that of honesty what hath beene the successe of confiding in those whom the Lawes had not intrusted are not your sufferings infinitely multiplyed are you not extreamely sicke of your remedy The tables are quite turned and your friends have undertaken the same bad game and play it much worse you onely make the stakes and are in a probable way to loose all that you have What one thing did you complaine of which is not exceeded by them your grievances are highly improved Magna Charta and the Petition of Right are now malignant they speake not the sense of the House but take part with the King To quote our
and gaine time and if that would not doe he would dismisse the assembly and command another meeting Then would he appeare first upon the place in mourning apparell and with afflicted lookes and humble countenance sadly requesting the people to take compassion on him who suffered such miserable things and feared worse only for doing them service and desiring them to reward his faithfull endeavour by loving his poore Wife and little Children for he gave himselfe for a lost man since he had reason to feare yet the cause in which he should fall was an unspeakable comfort that the enemies of the Common-wealth and such as maligned their happinesse would come upon him in the night and force his house and murther him These well dissembled griefes so wrought their passions that the abused Citizens set up Tents about his house at their owne charges and maintained a constant Guard for his protection When such men shall make a State miserable under pretence of improving its happinesse and challenge to themselves a right to breake all setled constitutions under colour of forcing upon the Kingdome new Lawes which will be more beneficiall when they shall imprison us at pleasure that wee may injoy our liberties and take away our goods to secure our property and punish the most orthodox conscientious and painfull Preachers and impose upon Congregations factious Lecturers to settle true Religion and when they have acted such high mischiefs shall tell us the Nobility and Gentry of the Kingdome are Malignants and delight in and contribute their aides to advance an illegall government who are certaine to suffer most in it it is then time to cry out Quis tulerit Gracchos de seditione querentes I have beene tempted to a large digression because the same Artes which made Rome miserable are visible in our calamities I will now proceed with Calvin after he hath very conscientiously instructed us in our christian duty by saying all resistance is unlawfull unlesse undertaken by the authority of Magistrates whom the Law enables to be the peoples protectors and gives them the highest power which can only be in an Aristocracy or popular State he hath afforded too great an occasion for mistake by an ungrounded conjecture Et quâ etiam fortè potestate ut nunc res habent funguntur in singulis regnis tres ordines quum primarios conventus peragunt And the same power which the Tribunes of Rome c. had as things now stand peradventure belong to the three Estates when they hold their principall assemblies I could wish I were able to excuse him from temporizing yet he layes it down extream cunningly perhaps peradventure if this chance to be otherwise you have nothing to say for your selves you are condemned out of his mouth and in a poynt of such higly concerning consequences you have no reason to change his adverbe of doubting into an assertive I shall oppose to his perhaps it is certainely not so in England because our Lawes make this a Monarchicall government and so different from that of Rome or Athens or Sparta and therefore conscience hath no warrant for resistance against him in whom the supreme power is placed The worke of the second section was to prove it unlawfull for Subjects to resist him or them in whom the supreame authority that is all the legall power of the Kingdome in order to raise armes is placed I shall now shew the invalidity of their exceptions against it by manifesting that no dispensation grounded upon what causes soever as indeavours to make them slaves or beggars or to introduce another and a false religion and what else may be comprehended under the extreame abuse of this power to their oppression or upon any persons as inferiour magistrates or any colour of preserving the authority of the man by fighting and as much as in them lies destroying the man in authority or of making the power well used for the good of the people and not the person abusing that power to be the minister of God c. can excuse such resistance from the sin of rebellion and from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fighting against God in despising his ordinance Tyrannicall abuse of power doth not make taking up armes against the supreame governour lawfull This truth is confest in words even by their cheife writers Tyranny doth not dispense with the Subjects duty of alleageance though in the meane while they make use of such arguments to prevaile on the peoples affections and exhort them against the King in the feare of God as clearly overthrow this acknowledgment The fuller answere to Doctor Ferne saith thus there are two kinds of tyranny regiminis and usurpationis that of government though never so heavy yet must be indured not only to the good sayes the Apostle 1. Pet. 2. 18. but the froward too and therefore I know no man that defends the ten tribes revolt from Rehoboam p. 22. when they complained of some greivances under which they had groaned in his fathers reigne he was as indiscreete as unjust and told them he would oppresse them more and yet because he had jus regiminis it is ingenuously granted it was unlawfull for them to Rebell The breife answere to Doctor Ferne thus we professe against resisting power authority though abused He doth not hide himselfe as ordinarily by dividing the power from the person who is invested therewith but concludes against resisting the men also If those who have power to make lawes shall make sinfull lawes that is prove tyrants and so give authority to force obedience we say here there must be either flying or passive obedience p. 113. By the same reason if he that hath the only power by lawes already made to traine array and mustar and to dispose of the Militia with which he is intrusted for his Subjects protection and his owne safety should put them into hands which they cannot confide in yet there must be no warre waged to prevent a supposed danger there must be either flying or passive obedience But if one that is in authority command out of his owne will and not by law I resist no power no authority at all if I neither actively nor passively obey no I do not resist so much as abused authority If you meane by not passively obey take up armes ◠against which you must if you speake pertinently and would make an application of this answer to the justification of hostile resistance in Subjects you do resist power and authority in this case For though you are no obliged to yeild obedience either contrary to divine praecept or the knowne lawes of the realme yet by making use of armes you transgresse that law which disables Subjects to make warre without the Princes authority much more against his expresse command to the manifest indangering of his royall Person He answers this had beene but accidentall p. 121. and so we are told by others he might have stayed away Those damn'd assassins and
the crosse of our Saviour by taking up carnall weapons I wish from my soule all such as pretend to the Reformed Protestant Religion had beene unblamable in this respect and that they had rather chosen to manifest their christian then their martiall spirit Wherever armes have beene lifted up against their lawfull Magistrates though they were unjustly afflicted for the testimony of a good conscience I cannot excuse them from resisting the ordinance of God who would have beene glorified in their martyrdome I am sorry to meet with objections drawne from the unwarrantable practise of some which doe not conclude you innocent but that others were likewise faulty I am certaine the primitive Christians were better catechised and wee read the same doctrine of true patience in their lives as in their schooles which taught them to take up Christs crosse and to follow him in that yoak in which he drew They fought not against their Arrian Emperours in defence of the Nicene Creed no rebellion was undertaken by them under colour of preventing their consciences from being forced which is indeed an impossible thing we may be robbed of our goods we cannot be plundered of our religion Did not Christianity thrive upon persecutions Sanguis martyrum semen ecclesiae The bloud of the Saints made their surviving brethren fruitfull in good workes Their patience wearied the cruelty of their adversaries and gained innumerable converts who began to suspect christianity was true when they saw it so powerfull as to make the professors live with so much innocence and dye with so great meekenesse and to neglect all earthly interests in expectation of Heaven Exc. Though private men should not yet Inferior Magistrates may force him who hath the Supreame power to rule according to justice and the established Lawes Answ The same reason which disables private men from righting themselves concludes likewise against inferior Magistrates that is want of Jurisdiction For if opposed to him whose authority only can alter the nature of revenge and make it justice for inferior in superiorem non habet imperium they are but private persons It is an unreasonable impossible thing that men should be obliged to obey two Masters commanding contrary duties because this would impose upon them a necessity of sinning which must be layd upon him who was the author of that necessity And therefore God hath appointed a convenient subordination in all authorities Vt sol delet minora sydera as the lesser lights are extinguisht by the greatest Luminary the fountaine of all light so minor jurisdictions must give place to him who is the fountaine of justice If God command one thing the King another wee must be obedient to divine ordinance because wee cannot be subject to mans command for conscience sake against him who hath the sole authority to oblige conscience So if the King command one thing and his Ministers inferior Magistrates another wee must submit to regall power either by obeying or suffering because they can challenge our obedience onely by virtue of his authority and this cannot be set up in an hostile way against his person Whether it be reasonable to obey the Kings Officers who can doe nothing but in his name against the King judge yee Souldiers are bound to execute the commands of their Captaine yet not if they are contradicted by their Colonell and he must not be obeyed against an expresse order from the Generall In thus doing St Augustine and reason also assure us wee despise not the power but choose to submit to the higher lesser Magistrates have no just grounds of complaint if we preferre the supreme for in reference to the highest their magistracy ceases and they become our fellow Subjects Let every soule be subject to the higher powers saith Saint Paul We must obey the King and His Officers also as they represent the King for quod per officiarios facit per se facere videtur and they must be obedient as well as wee as they represent Subjects Thus Nehemiah receiving commission from Artaxerxes armed his countrey-men against those who governed under the King Saint Peter very appositely differences this duty in respect of King and Magistrates Submit your selves unto the King as Supreme but unto Governours as unto them that are sent by him and derive their power from him and are His Ministers to execute His commands 1 Pet. 2. 13 14. Exc. It is objected but very impertinently if a King command against established Lawes and inferior Magistrates according to the Law they ought to be obeyed Answ This comes not home to the case I grant obedience to the Kings command against law is unwarrantable but this doth not conclude the lawfulnesse of hostile resistance Wee doe our duty in submitting to His legall will though against his Letters or words of mouth for he hath obliged us so to doe and by his owne grant hath restrained his right to recall and abrogate Lawes except by advice and consent of both Houses in Parliament If He be offended without cause we are bound by christian and civill constitutions to submit though to His unjust wrath If they meane to conclude their owne innocence they must frame their Argument thus If a King command against Law and Magistrates resist according to Law wee may without guilt take part with them This is true if they resist according to Law but this cannot be in a Monarchy for if the Lawes grant a right of resistance in any case when that case comes the Monarchy is dissolved for those who are enabled to take up armes against Him are His equalls or colleagues at least the union is destroyed and they are not to be esteemed Rebels then but just enemies because they cease to be Subjects They cannot vindicate themselves from Treason and Rebellion except they can produce some Law of England which dispenses with their Alleagiance in such cases and shew that our civill constitutions are so framed as to make Bellum Civile Bellum utrinque justum a Civill Warre a just Warre of both sides in the law notion which cannot be except there be two supreme authorities to proclaime and manage it That this is not so the Houses shall give testimony against themselves for they acknowledge themselves in their addresses to His Majesty His humble and loyall Subjects assembled in Parliament Exc. Another maine exception and which they most triumph in is this I will deliver the words of one of them who hath expressed it the most fully As it is a Parliament it is the highest Court of Justice in the Kingdome therefore hath power to send for by force those that are accused before them that they may come to their triall which if I mistake not power inferior Courts have much more the highest 'T is out of doubt agreed on by all that the Parliament hath a power to send a Serjeant at Armes to bring up such an one as is accused before them and if they have power to send one Serjeant at
doe otherwise for the use is left indifferent in respect not of the Magistrates but Subjects duty so that abuse doth not voyd authority when swerving from lawes is of divine constitution The obligation not to resist superiour powers receives not strength from mans justice nor is it weakned or made null by injustice Saul was Gods anoynted and Pilate had authority from Heaven notwithstanding the extreame abuse of it Had the Apostle meant as they endeavour to perswade the world considering what Governours the Christians then lived under he had laid downe a doctrine of rebellion whereas he labours to teach them patience Thus much in answer to their objections against what was delivered in the second Section I shall now examine their exceptions against what was assumed in the precedent Section The King of England hath Supreme power Exc. There is a mixture or coordination in the supremacy and the English Monarchy is compounded of three coordinate estates Answ I have shewed before that a mixt Monarchy is a contradiction and that by this name can only be meant a restrained and limited Monarchy that is that such a King though he have Supreme yet hath not absolute power By reason of this restraint from his owne grant and positive constitutions active obedience is not due to his illegall commands and by reason of his supreme power and sole right to make Warre and Peace passive obedience is necessary Monarchy compounded of three coordinate Estates in plaine English speaks this nonsense the power which one only hath is in three joyntly and equally The ground of this invention and so much fancyed coordination which our ancient Lawyers never dreamt of may be this If they meane by it that the consent of all three Estates I will not alter the new manner of expressing this government but only take notice by the way that heretofore the Parliament was taken for an Assembly of the King and the three Estates and that in all other Kingdomes likewise there are three States the Clergy the Nobility and the Commonalty distinct from the Head are equally required for transacting such businesses as the King hath obliged himselfe not to doe without them and that they have the right of a negative voice wee shall indulge to them the name of coordination to two purposes which are making new repealing old lawes and supplying the Kings necessities in such proportion as they shall think fitting These are great democraticall advantages but include no authority of making hostile resistance against their soveraign in case he should do contrary to the established laws These are still in force till abrogated by joynt consent and bind his conscience but he cannot be forced to put them in execution because he hath no superior in jurisdiction and he hath no equall in managing jus gladii the materiall sword which is necessary to distinguish their resistance from rebellion and give it the title of a just warre For except they can prove themselves not be His Subjects I am forced to tell them if they fight against him they are by the law of Nations and of this land worthily reputed Rebells and by divine law they are assured of damnation Thus therefore the two Houses or two Estates of Lords and Commons are not bound to submit their consent to the Kings command in matter of Subsidy or taking away any ancient Law if they conceive it disadvantageous to the Common-wealth Par in parem non habet imperium in those things in which they are equall as a rather and a sonne being joyned in commission in this sense let them be called coordinate Yet they are subject in all other things and therefore may not take up armes without his consent for this is destructive of their alleagiance If there be a Coordination in the supremacy that is if the King and Lords and Commons are joyntly the supreme governour the Correlatum is wanting none are left over whom they should Reigne wee should have a Kingdome without a Subject because all may challenge a share in soveraignty The Parliament not sitting they will not deny the supremacy to be solely in the King and certainly by calling His great Councell together he doth not empty himselfe of any regall power it were very strange our lawes should be guilty of such vanity to make a uselesse coordination for if His rivalls should make any attempts upon His Prerogatives He can legally dissolve them except when he hath past a particular grant for their continuance and then the enlargement of their time of setting doth not enlarge their power and after He hath dismist the Assembly as the right to doe so is unquestionable then He is Supreme againe none being left to stand in competition The cleare businesse is this all markes of supremacy are in the King nor is it any Argument of communicating His power that He restraines Himselfe from exercising some particular acts without consent of Parliament for it is by vertue of His owne grant that such after acts shall not be valid He hath not divided His legislative faculty but tyed Himselfe from using it except by the advice and consent of the Peeres and at the request of the Commons their rogation must precede His ratification I shewed this in the Roman Empire likewise and yet none fancyed an equality between Subjects and the King or Emperour was thereby introduced As the houtefeus of France argued from the denomination of Pares Franciae to make them equall with the King so our Incendiaries from Peeres and Comites to bring in a coordination whereas it is evident that Peeres referres not to the King but signifies as the Persian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mentioned in Zenophon Subjects in the same ranke of honour and enjoying equall priviledges one is another And to make Comites is called by Lampridius in conubernium imperatoriae majestatis asciscere our lawyers derive them from having that speciall honour to be in comitatu regis Suetonius calls them comites peregrinationum expeditionumque Tiberii They were of three rankes under the Emperours Comites intra consistorium were the highest and in the nature of privy councellours but created by the Emperour the fountaine of all honour and so not similes altissimo equall to him though exalted above fellow Subjects The briefe is the frame of governement as it is established by our lawes clearely condemnes their undertakings and therefore they have laid such a foundation as will support the building For if they can but prove that Parliament men and those who are stirred up to fight against their Soveraigne are not the Kings Subjects they have acquitted them from being Rebells We have seene the ground worke and shall now take the superstructure into due consideration the whole fabrick is comprised in that exiome so frequently applied to justifie all illegall proceedings Coordinata se invicem supplent Coordinates ought mutually to supply each others failing that we may not suffer whether by necessary or voluntary defects and that