the Commonwealth And of the Law 1 Inst 73. Id. Inst 99. which he is presum'd to carry in Scrinio pectoris sui And then for the Statute-Law besides those Statutes that call the Kingdom the Kings Ligeance 27 Ed. 3. c. 1. 10 11. R. 2. c. 1. 25. H. 8. c. 3. the King Liege Lord the People his Leige Men it is further declared 16 R. 2. c. 5. That the Crown of England hath been ever so free that it is in no Earthly Subjection but subject to God in all things touching the Regality of the same Crown and to none other So that of Henry the Eighth which says That by sundry old Authentick Histories and Chronicles it is manifestly declar'd and expressed that this Realm of England is an Empire govern'd by one Supream Head and King 24 H. 8. c. 12. unto whom both Spiritualty and Temporalty are bound and owen to bear next to God a natural and humble Obedience And in another of the same King 25 H. 8. c. 21. the Crown of England is called An Imperial Crown recognizing no Superiour under God but only your Grace i. e. the King Which Statutes being declaratory Statutes as others of that kind made in affirmance of the Common-Law are a guide in praeteritis 2 Inst 308. as saith Sir Edw. Coke and shew us what the Law as before the making of those Statutes Which I the rather urge because our Answerer makes such a sputter about the old Law though as well here as generally throughout his Book he has an odd way with him of keeping it to himself However if this be to have a Superiour be the Superiour he that will and keep it without Envy And for what concerns me I hope I have prov'd that the King of England has no Superiour but God and that neither the Law nor his Coronation-Oath require his undeniable Assent to what Laws the Parliament agree upon but that he may well refuse them without the Imputation of Incomparable Arrogance aâ—â—Vnsufferable Tyranny as he is pleas'd to term it One thing I had forgot Suppose the King had never been Crown'd by which means he could not have taken the Coronation Oath was he the less King for that I should think not And if I am mistaken 3 Inst 7. Sir Edw. Coke was mistaken before me when he says The King iâ— King before Coronation So 7 Coke Calvin's Case and Coronation is but an Ornament or Solemnity of Honour Which in other Words may amount to this That he promises no more at that time that what he was morally pre-oblig'd to do viz. To discharge that Duty honourably which the Laws of God and Nature had requir'd of him without that Royal Promise CHAP. VII Vpon the Queen's Departure and Absence out of England AND truly this Chapter being but a kind of Re-capitulation of the mutual Endearments between the King and his Queen whose Sympathy with his Afflictions had assur'd him and might the World that she lov'd him and not his Fortunes might one would think if not for the King 's have for her own sake escap'd his Venom but poor Lady she was the King's Wife and Malice like Fear where it finds no real Object will be sure to create one And truly it was once in my Thoughts to have spoken more at large to it and had done it but that I fear'd even Truth it self might incurr the suspicion of Flattery What my end was in making this Reply I have already shewn it was to vindicate that good King from this ill Man's Calumnies and the Method I have taken in it has been from the History of that time and the Prior Law of the Land as it came in my way and therefore not to break that Method as I find him hereafter running wide of that Matter I shall purposely leave him as I do at present CHAP. VIII Vpon His Majesty's repulse at Hull and the Fates of the Hothams THIS my repulse at Hull saith the King was the first overt Essay to be made how patiently I could bear the loss of my Kingdoms The hand of that Cloud which was soon after to over-spread the whole Kingdom and cast all into disorder and darkness Which how Prophetically true it was the miserable effects of it both before and since the Restauration have too visibly spoken it And yet our Answerer thus slubbers it over That Hull a Town of great Strength and Opportunity both to Sea and Land Affairs was at that time the Magazine of all those Arms which the King had bought against the Scots The King had left the Parliament and was gone Northward The Queen into Holland where she pawn'd and set to Sale the Crown Jewels a Crime heretofore counted Treasonable in Kings and to what purpose the Parliament was not ignorant and timely sent Sir John Hotham Knight of that County to take Hull into his Custody and some of the Train'd-bands to his Assistance and seeing the King's Drift in raising a Guard for his Person send him a Petition that they might have leave to remove the Magazine of Hull to the Tower of London which the King denies and soon after goes to Hull with Four Hundred Horse and requires the Governour to deliver him up the Town whereof the Governour prays to be excused till he could send notice to the Parliament who had entrusted him and the King being incens'd at it Proclaims him a Traytor before the Town Walls and demands Justice of them as upon a Traytor who declare that Sir John Hotham had done no more than his Duty and therefore was no Traytor And this is the Substance of his 57. 58. 59 Pages How and by their own Authority which was none the Houses had rais'd an Army and made Essex General I have already shewn and though the King had not yet set up his Standard he knew he had a Magazine at Hull which might either help to defend himself or certainly annoy him if it fell into his Enemies Hands and therefore in order to a Self-Preservation takes a Journey to York where the Parliament had been before him with a Committee then lying there as Spies upon his Actions However upon Petition of that County to have the Magazine of Hull to remain there for the greater Security of the Northern Parts His Majesty thought fit to take it into his own Hands and appointed the Earl afterwards Duke of Newcastle to be Governour of Hull but the Townsmen had been so influenc'd by that Committee that they refused the Earl The Queen also had borrow'd some Moneys of the Hollanders upon the Crown Jewels a Crime heretofore counted treasonable in Kings but not a word of when or by what Law not in the least considering the Crown it self was the King's or how the King of England could commit Treason against himself The Houses during this time wanting no Intelligence from their Committee nick the Opportunity and send down Sir John Hotham who was receiv'd as
That all Kings are the Lord 's Anointed it were yet absurd to think that the Anointment of God should be as it were a Charm against Law I know not what he means by that all Kings Saul was David was and particularly laments the fall of Saul As if he had not been anointed with Oil. 2 Sam. 1.11 And I never found any reason to doubt but that all Christian Hereditary Kings are the same too and consequently exempt from the Law forasmuch as concerneth the coactive force of the Law though not forasmuch as concerneth the directive Power of the Law Lord â—leâ—meâ—'s post â—â—ti 106. Subjects are bound to fullfil the Law by necessity of Compulsion but the Prince only by his own Will in regard of the common good For seeing the Law is but a kind of Organ or Instrument of the Power that governeth Hist of the World 29â— it seems saith Sir Walter Rawleigh that it cannot extend it self to bind any one whom no humane power can controul or lay hold of And therefore till I find better Authority for this his Iustice than he has yet given I shall look upon it as I do on the rest of his Book a thing meerly stuffed out to deceive the People If Subjects also by the Law of the Church so much approv'd by this King be invested with a Power of Judicature both without and against their King it will be firm and valid against him though pretending and by them acknowledg'd next and immediately under Christ Supream Head and Governour But what King or Queen of England besides Henry the Eighth Edward the Sixth and Queen Mary for her two first Years ever us'd that word Head Or in what Age was it that the Church of England ever pretended a power of Judicature both without and against their Kings He says if they are invested with such a Power but shews not that they are and instead thereof tells us that St. Ambrose excommunicated Theodosius the Emperour which he calls a Spiritual putting to death The like did St. German by Vortiger And two other Kings of Wales excommunicated by their respective Bishops Subjects of those Kings And admitting it I never heard that any of those Bishops ever perswaded the People that it was lawful to Murther those Kings or how does it make out this his Iustice against the King 'T is a shrewd sign a Man is sinking when he takes hold of Twigs Then he comes up with the particular Laws and Acts of Greece Athens Sparta Rome c. But what 's that to England must we be govern'd as they were Their Laws were for it the Laws of England directly against it Nor is there any Country whatever but has its particular Laws or Customs If a Man steal an Oxe or a Horse in the Isle of Man it is no Felony 4 Inst 285. for having no Woods the Offender cannot hide them but if he steal a Capon or a Pig he shall be hang'd for it But what need we saith he search after the Laws of other Lands for what is so fully and so plainly set down lawful in our own Where antient Books tell us Bracton Fleta and others that the King is under the Law and inferiour to his Parliament As for Bracton the Words that he means may be perhaps these Rex habet Superiorem Deum scilicet Item Legem per quam factus est Rex Item curiam suam viz. Comites Barones The King hath a Superiour to wit God But doth not say Superiours in the Plural Number Also a Law by which he is made King i. e. He hath a Law but says not a word of Punishment Also his Court to wit his Earls and Barons Not a Court as if it were of some others Constitution but a Court of his own Where the word habet in Propriety of Latin is necessarily understood 1 Inst 1. Or otherwise he would be contradictory to himself when he saith Omnis sub Rege Bra. l. 4. c. 24. S. 5. c. Every Man is under the King and he is under none but God He is not inferiour to his Subjects and hath no Peer in his Realm But saith no where that he is under the Law and inferiour to his Parliament which word his sufficiently denotes where the Superiority lies And for Fleta he saith Lib. 1. c. 17. f. 16. None can judge in Temporal Matters but only the King and his Substitutes Id. F. 66. And he hath his Court in his Council in his Parliaments c. And for the Mirrour of Justice a Book written in Edward the First 's time that says Mirâ— 232. Jurisdiction is the chief Dignity that appertains to the King And for what concerns the King's Oath it has been several times altered since that And what this King's Oath was I have particularly shewn before Chap. 6 Those objected Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy we swore not to his Person but as it was invested with his Authority The same said the Spencers in Edward the Second's time but it was condemned for Treason by two Acts of Parliament 7 Coke 11 12. And Sir Edw. Coke calls it a damnable detestable and execrable Treason For Corps natural le Roy politique sont un Corps Plowd 213.234.242 and are inseparable and indivisible for both make but one King 4 Inst 46. The death of the King dissolveâ— a Parliament Now if this referr'd only to his politick Capacity the Parliament would continue after his Death because a Body Politick never dies And now as the Covenant once help'd the Houses at a dead lift it must do our Accuser the like Job at parting or this his Iustice will be little beholding to it Certainly no discreet Person can imagine it should bind us to him in any stricter Sense than those Oaths formerly And truly I must approve him when he deals ingenuously no certainly it did not for they broke all three The intent of the Covenant as it was to extirpate Prelacy to preserve the Rights of Parliament and the Liberties of the Kingdom so they intended so far as it might consist with these to preserve the King's Person and Authority but not otherwise for that had been to swear us into Labirynths and Repugnancies We vow'd farther to bring Delinquents to open Tryal and condign Punishment So that to have done so by the King hath not broke the Covenant but it would have broke the Covenant to have sav'd him the chief Actor as they thought him at the time of taking that Covenant Ye have heard what he says and I leave it to every Man to apply it as he pleases But because this matter has already taken up a whole Chapter between us I referr my Reader to what I have there said Chap. 14 And now to close all and if there be any Man has a Mind to learn how to break Oaths by Providence and forswear himself to the Glory of God To say Grace to the action be it never so ungodly and give Thanks for the Success be it never so wicked To carry on a Design under the name of Publick Good and make the slavery of a Nation the liberty of the People Or in a word to hold forth any useful though notorious Untruth with convenient Obstinacy until he believes it himself and so renders it no Sin let him read this Book of Mr. Milton's and if he does not improve upon it he may thank God for it FINIS
about Six Thousand tumultuously flock to Westminster crying Justice Justice against the Earl of Strafford Which within a day or two they second with a Petition On which the Earl less valuing his Life than the quiet of the Kingdom writes a Letter to the King whereby to set his Conscience at Liberty and by his own Consent prays him to pass the Bill which in a few days after was by Commission to the Earl of Arundel and three other Lords accordingly done with this Proviso That no Judge or Judges c. shall adjudge or interpret any act or thing to be Treason nor hear or determine any Treason any other way than they should or ought to have done before the making of this Act and as if this Act had never been had or made A modest Confession and that nothing but an Act of Parliament could affect him Nor unlike that Clause in an Ordinance of the King and Lords for the Banishment c. of the Lady Alice Pierce a Favourite of King Edward the Third's viz. That this Ordinance in this Special Case Mr. Seldâ—n's Privilege of Baronage 71 which may extend to a Thousand other Persons shall in no other case but this be taken in Example However after the Bill was pass'd the King as deeming They will reverence my Son wrote a Letter to the House of Lords with his own Hand and sent it by the Prince of Wales in which he interceeds for that Mercy to the Earl which many Kings would not have scrupled to have given themselves But 't was resolv'd and nothing would do And thus between Accumulative and Constructive Treason nor better prov'd than I have shewn before Sic inclinavit heros caput Taken from Mr. Cleveland Belluae multorum Capitum Merces favoris Scottici praeter pecunias Nec vicit tamen Anglia sed oppressit Or if my Reader had rather have it in English take it from that happy Flight of Sir Richard Fanshaw on that Occasion And so fell Rome herself oppress'd at length By the united World and her own Strength And yet not to leave his Memory in the Dust there is an Act of Parliament that vindicates all I have said in the matter and that is The Act for reversing this Attainder 13 14. Car. 2. c. 29. which says thus That the Bill of Attainder was purposely made to Condemn him upon Accumulative and Constructive Treason none of the said Treasons being Treason apart and so could not be in the whole if they had been prov'd as they were not And the Act further says It was procured by an armed Tumult the names of Fifty nine of the Commons that opposed the Bill posted by the name of Straffordians and sent up to the Peers at a time when a great part of them were absent by reason of those Tumults and many of those present protested against it For which Causes and to the end that Right be done to the Memory of that deceased Earl it was enacted c. That the said Act c. be repeal'd c. And all Records and proceedings of Parliament relating to the said Attainder be cancell'd and taken off the File c. to the intent the same may not be visible in after-Ages or brought in Example to the prejudice of any Person whatever Provided that this Act shall not extend to the future questioning of any Person c. however concern'd in this Business or who had any hand in the Tumults or disorderly procuring the Act aforesaid c. A shrewd suspicion that they thought that Act of Attainder was not so regularly obtain'd as it ought to have been for if it had what needed that Proviso And having duely considered this Act I think the Wonder will cease why the King was so dissatisfied in his Conscience touching the giving his Assent to that Bill of Attainder His Speech on the Scaffold or that the Lord Capel so publickly begg'd forgiveness of God for having given his Consent toward it At least I presume it may startle any Man that from such repeated Calumnies has not yet come to be of our Answerer's Opinion That there may be a Treason against the Commonwealth as well as against the King only A Treason not mention'd in 25 Edw. 3. or in any Statute since saving those of the late Usurper's making inasmuch as no Estate or Estates of the Realm make any thing of themselves but as joyned to their Figure the King And therefore passing the King 's most detested Conspiracy as he calls it against the Parliament and Kingdom by seizing the Tower of London bringing the English Army out of the North c. I leave him and his Stuff together and come to the Third CHAP. III. Vpon His going to the House of Commons I Said ere-while His Majesty might think the Lords would reverence his Son nor was in to be doubted whether the Commons would himself Especially considering the business he went about It was faith the King to demand Justice upon the Five Members whom upon just motives and pregnant grounds I had charged and needed nothing to such Evidence as could have been produced against them save only a free and legal Tryal which was all I desired Which fill'd indifferent Men with Jealousies and Fears yea and many of my Friends resented as a motion rising rather from Passion than Reason See says our Answerer He confesses it to â—an act which most Men whom he calls his Enemies cried shame upon indifferent Men c. as before He himself in one of his Answers to both Houses made profession to be convinc'd that it was a plain breach of their Privilege Yet here like a rottâ— Building newly trimm'd over he represents it speciously and fraudulently to impose upon the simple Reader c. Words insolent enough without adding the rest though it had not been from his Matter if he had told that simple Reader in which Answer of his Majesties he might have found that Profession However for the discovery of the Truth on both sides it may not be amiss to make a few steps backward that considering the occasion we may the better judge of the thing It had been advis'd to the King by the then Privy-Council of Scotland to send the Book of Common-Prayer to be receiv'd and us'd in all Churches of that Kingdom The King's Declaration 1639. which was accordingly order'd And in the Month of July 1637. publickly read in the great Church of Edinburgh The Kirkmen took fire at it nor wanted there some in England to fan the Flame which in a short time got that head that they invade England but finding the design not ripe enough yet they humbly submit and the business is smother'd Whereas had those smoaking Brands been sufficiently quench'd they had not made a greater Eruption the next Year During this time the King had gotten into the matter and calls this Parliament with a real intention of quieting all They begin where the last Parliament
in the matter I shall not be shie in it It is and ever was the Law of England that the sole supream Government Command and Disposition of the Militia and of all Forces by Sea and Land and of all places of Strength is and ever were the undoubted Right of His Majesty and of his Royal Predecessors Kings and Queens of England Or else what means that of Fitz-Herbert Nat. Brev. p. 113. It is the Right of the King to defend his Kingdom To make Leagues and denounce War only belongs to the King 7 Coke 2â— as a Right of Majesty which cannot be conferred upon any other And how can he do it without the power of the Sword that is the sole Command of the Militia To levy War within the Realm without Authority from the King unto whom it only belongeth Id. Coke 3 Inst 9. was High Treason at the Common-Law before the Statute de proditionibus 25 Ed. 3. And a latter Statute not introductive of a new Law but declaratory of the old Law has the very Words touching the sole Command of the Militia 13 Car. 2. c. 2. c. before-mention'd with this farther That both or either of the Houses of Parliament cannot nor ought to pretend to the same nor can or lawfully may raise or levy War offensive or defensive against his Majesty his Heirs and lawful Successors Short View c. Fol. 86. And was confest by themselves when they acknowledg'd the Militia an inseparable Flower of the Crown and subject to no command but his Authority And yet contrary to this known Law these two Houses not only Petition the King That the Tower of London c. as before be forthwith put into such Hands as shall be recommended to him by both the Houses but upon his recess from Whitehall send him a Peremptory Petition That unless the King by those Commissioners then sent assure them of their former desires Mar. 1. 1641. Rushw Col. Fol. 92. they shall be enforced to dispose of the Militia by the Authority of both Houses which upon the King's refusal Sir Will. Dugdale 's Short View p. 85. they Vote a Denial and dispose of it themselves And now they begin to unpin the Mask and publish a Declaration wherein they say That what the Houses declare for Law ought not to be question'd by the King That the Sovereign Power resides in both Houses That the King ought to have no Negative Voice That Treason cannot be committed against the King's Person otherwise than as he is entrusted with the Kingdom and discharges that Trust and that they have a Power to judge whether he hath discharged that Trust or not 7 Coke 11. Fine dainty Law And the Spencers Treason in Edward the Second's time but better improv'd In the May following they fall a-branching it into nineteen Propositions Rushw 307. V. The Statutes at large many of which are but the substance of those Acts pass'd by Edward the Third in the fifteenth of his Reign and revoked by him the same Year as derogatory to his Crown and send them to the King which being refus'd by him they Vote The King intended a VVar upon them and thereupon raise an Army and suffering the Mask to drop off make Essex General thereof 12 Jul. 42. and farther Vote They will live and die with him On which the King sets up his Standard at Nottingham the August following Nor will I carry it further at present because I design not a History but only to shew which of the two the King or the Houses intended a Civil VVar and whether they did not undoe what they found well done In short their Endeavours were to strip the King of what God and the Law had given him the King 's was but to keep what he ought to have and therefore viewing both by a true light How can the King be justly charg'd with intending a VVar when it was in a manner but a suing for his own CHAP. VI. Vpon his Majesty 's retirement from Westminster WITH what unwillingness saith His Majesty I withdrew Westminster let them judge who unprovided of Tackling and Victual are forced to Sea by a Storm yet better do so than venture splitting or sinking on a Lee-Shoar And if the Parallel held not in all its Parts our Answerer had done well to have shewn in which it fell short whereas instead thereof he only says He was about to have found fault with the Simile as a garb somewhat more Poetical than for a Statist and finds it the strain of other of his Essays But what 's this to the matter farther than that in the Words His Essays a Truth slipt from him unawares in confessing them to have been written by the King and not by his Houshold Rhetorician as before But to the Argument saith he and I follow him with this by the way to my Reader That he would consider how the Houses had depriv'd the King of his Friends disrobed him of his Power trampled his Authority affronted his Person baited him with a Rabble and left him nothing but what could not be taken from him a good God and the satisfaction of a Conscience founded on a Compositum jus fasque animo Sanctosque recessus Mentis incoctum generoso pectus honesto And then tell me in what condition he was when he left Westminster I stay'd at Whitehall saith His Majesty till I was driven away by Shame more than Fear to see the barbarous rudeness of those Tumults c. a thing so true for matter of Fact that being not able to deny it our Answerer turns it thus That in the whole Chapter next but one before this the King affirms That the danger wherein his Wife his Children and his own Person were by those Tumults was the main cause that drove him c. Whereas what the King and that but in one place of that Chapter says of it is this That he thought himself not bound to prostitute the Majesty of his Place and Person and the safety of his Wife and Children to those who are prone to insult most when they have objects and opportunity most capable of their rudeness and petulancy With this other from Digby as he calls him who knew his Mind as well as any That the principal cause of his Majesty's going thence was to save them from being trod in the Dirt. And where in the name of Goodness lies the Contradiction The Tumults were such they might have been call'd Legion and well make a King asham'd to see them and not be able to disperse them But a direct Fear it could not be in him whom Ille timorum Maximus hand urget Lethi timor and who refused Life at the price of an inglorious Submission And yet in the Case of a private Person was not this ground enough to apprehend a danger and the consequence of it to be trod in the Dirt How much more then in the Case
single Opinion of my own but the Authority of the Law that I think it needless actum agere Only when he says The Noblest Romans when they stood for that which was a kind of Regal Honour the Consulship were wont in a submissive manner 〈◊〉 go about and beg that Highest Dignity of the Meanest Plebeians which was call'd Petitio Consulatûs He would have done well to have cover'd his Hook a little better if he ever expected to catch any Fish If he had said they chuse their Consuls as we do our Knights of the Shire he that has most Voices carries it bating the Ambitus it had been well enough But when he speaks of a King of England what Mischief brought it into his Head to confound the Irregular Practices of a Democratical State with the settled Constitutions of an Hereditary Imperial Monarchy which this of England is or those several Statutes as well as Common Law of which before are grosly mistaken And therefore for the rest it bring but mere catching at Words whereby to wrest the Sence I had as good leave it and go to somewhat else CHAP. XII Vpon the Rebellion and Troubles in Ireland IT is the Nature of Flies to be ever buzzing and blowing upon any thing that is raw and has been the only design of our Answerer throughout his whole Book not to deliver Things as they truly were but to rake together old exploded Forgeries that having dress'd up the King as like a Tyrant as he can he may have the more to say in Defence of the Parricide It is the Way of Witches to foretell those Storms themselves intend to move Nor had the Contrivers of ours been wanting to that Part of it but the Earl of Strafford's Watchful Eye lay so close for them that nothing could be done unless they first brought his Masts by the Board And having gotten that Point of him and the Rebellion of Ireland falling close upon it they only make an advantage of it and buzze the People that it was done with the King's Privity at least if not by his Commission Whereby to represent him to the World as the more Inhumane and Barbarous Nor is this our Accuser less wanting to insinuate it over again when he says That it cannot be imaginable that the Irish guided by so many Italian Heads should have so far lost the Vse of Reason and common Sense as not supported with other Strength than their own to begin a War so desperate and irreconcilable against both England and Scotland at once without some Authority from England or great Assistance promised them and assurance which they had in private that no remedy should be apply'd against them All which being merely conjectural by the same Reason it may be true by the same Reason also it may be false without there were somewhat more than Words to evince the Truth of it And so taking that for granted which should have been first proved he audaciously Charges the King as the Prime Author of that Rebellion though both here and elsewhere he denies it with many Imprecations but no solid Evidence And how solid his on the other hand are may be worth the viewing It is most certain saith he that the King was ever friendly to the Irish Papists and in his Third Year against the plain Advice of Parliament sold them Indulgences for Money and engaged them in a War against the Scotch Protestants What he means by that Sale of Indulgences I know not nor does any History of ours that I yet met direct me to it The Irish were his Majesty's Subjects as well as the Scots and if he was friendly to them though Papists he did but the part of a prudent Father who seldom chucks one Child more than another for fear of breeding a Quarrel in the Family And besides though the Scots were Protestants there is not any one English Law against Papists i◠Force in Ireland and Sanguinary Law none◠But that the King engaged them in a War against the Scots wants Proof and as such I pass it To this he adds That several of the most active Papists all since in the Head of that Rebellion were in great Favour at Whitehall and in Private Consultations with the King and Queen and that he gave them more than Five Irish Counties at an inconsiderable Rent And for the Proof of all this quotes a Scotch Author but says not a Word who or what this Author was Tho' if he had call'd him Squire Meldrum the Cherry and the Sloe or David Lindsey against Side-Tails it had past not a Jot the worse with the People If they were in great Favour at Court it was no more than what the Scots also were if they had private Consultations c. Charity would have presum'd the best and that it was in order to the Quiet and Peace of that Kingdom and if the King gave them Five Counties he gave but his own which if he had shared among the Five Members we had not perhaps heard a Word of the Story But that they should ungratefully rebel against him how could he more foresee it of them than he did of the Scots And after this if any Vnderstanding Man yet doubts who was the Author and Instigator of that Rebellion I referr them saith he to that Declaration of July 1643 concerning this Matter Very good The Word of a King is but the bare denial of one Man and what is one Man against the Credit of Both Houses though they were Judges Witnesses and Parties I offerred saith his Majesty to go my self in Person upon that Expedition But happy it was that his going into Ireland was not consented to saith the other for certainly he had turn'd his intended Forces against the Parliament Whereas it seems more probable that without this Rebellion in Ireland they could never have rais'd their Rebellion in England For upon the Credit of the Acts for the borrowing of 400000 l. for the necessary Defence of England and Ireland Both of them 17 Car. 1. and for the Encouragement of Adventurers for the reducing the Rebels in Ireland they got ready Moneys into their Hands V. His Majesty's Answer to their Irish Papers In his Large Book f. 537. and rais'd Forces as was pretended for the Relief of that Kingdom but in truth fought the King with them at Edge-hill But enough of this Matter CHAP. XIII Vpon the Calling in of the Scots and their coming AND here again our Answerer lays his Foundation to this Chapter upon what he has so often run off to before and been by me and I hope fully answered That the first Original and Institution of Kings was by the Consent and Suffrage of the People and calls them the entrusted Servants of the Commonwealth but in his wonted way says not a Word how they came by this Power of choosing i. e. whether it were given them by God or they took it themselves If God gave it them he ought one
would think to have prov'd where when and how at least rendred it probable that there was once some such thing done though the Grant be lost And if they took it themselves it was Unjust in its Original and consequently they had no more Right to chuse their Kings than Children have to chuse their Fathers And yet from this false Position magisterially determines That Kings do no Acts of Grace and Bounty but in discharge of their publick Duty The Sum of the King's Discourse saith he is against settling Religion by violent Means and yet never did thing more eagerly than to molest and persecute the Consciences of most religious Men and made a War and lost all rather than not uphold an Hierarchy of persecuting Bishops That Consciences are not to be forced but to be reduced by force of Truth aid of Time and use of good Means of Instructions and Perswasions was his Principle as well as Queen Elizabeth's but saith Sir Francis Walsingham concerning the Queen's proceedings in the like Cases Causes of Conscience when they exceed their Bounds V. Hist of the Reform Part 2. f. 418. and grow to be matter of Faction lose their Nature and Sovereign Princes ought distinctly to punish their Practices and Contempt though colour'd with the pretences of Conscience and Religion And according to this saith he the Queen proceeded And if the King also did distinguish Faction from Conscience and Tenderness from Singularity blame the Law not him But He obtruded new Ceremonies upon the English and a new Liturgy upon the Scots with his Sword Saving the Reverence of the Thing it is Indifferent whether a Man Preach with his Hat on or hung upon a Pin the Hugonots have one way and the English another The same also may be said of Ceremonies but how indifferent soever they are in themselves when they are once commanded the indifferency ceases in the Law that enjoyns them And for that other of the Liturgy upon the Scots the King obtruded it not on them much less with his Sword because it was sent them at their own Request as I have shown before But admitting their Kirk liked it not what had they to do with a Church that did Or what Authority had Tweed to reform Thames least of all to give Law to their King and that too with beat of Drum and Colours displayed Especially when one of their own Acts of Parliament says Continuation of Sir R. Baker f. 514. That it should be damnable and detestable Treason in the highest Degree to levy Arms or any Military Forces upon any pretext whatever without the King 's Royal Commission Nor is this all For their National Covenant oblig'd them to his Defence or else what means this Expression in it Sir W. Dudg his short View f. 132. That whensoever his Majesty's Honour and Interest should be in Danger they would as one Man obliged by the Laws of God and Man apply themselves to his Succour and Defence And the Chancellor and others the Lords of that Kingdom had by their Letter of 1. July 1643. assured his Majesty That no Arms should be raised without his special Commission And after all this and contrary to the Common tye of Nature to run into open Rebellion against him What may it mean I 'll tell ye This Matter had been hatching ever since the Third of his Reign and though the Chick appear'd not till the Year 1637 yet it could run about with the Shell upon its Head and it wanted not Friends in England to keep it alive till it could feed it self and if it liked not one Barn-door take to another The Metaphor is too visible to need Application There was a kind of a Kirk Party in England that finding the King firm to his Principles knew there was no better way to deal with him than by reducing him to Necessities to the end that being forc'd to extraordinary means for Supply he might disgust the People and consequently attract an Odium But what 's a Bow without a Bowman The Scots and they made but one Kirk Money was the Nerve that would keep them together and what need many words among Friends Nor were they long without the occasion of shewing their Fidelity The new Liturgy as before had been sent to Edinburgh The Scots presently take the Alarm are quieted again but lost nothing by it and in return make the King all Protestations of future Loyalty How comes it then you 'll say that it was not long after that they invaded England and after that took Arms for the Parliament against the King The Case is plain the King had no Money the Houses had or at least knew where to get it Nor will it be unworth any Man's while to see what that was They had as a Relief to the Scots for their Losses 17 Car. 1. and a supply of our Brethren of Scotland for so the Act words it 220000 l. rais'd for them by Act of Parliament By an Ordinance of Lords and Commons Vid. Hughes's Abridgement of Acts and Ordinances p. 92. 27 Octob. 43. 66666 13 4. for their Brotherly Assistance in the defence of the common cause of Religion and Liberty By a like Ordinance Feb. 20. 1644. 21000 l. per Mens Id. p. 178. for the maintenance of the Scots Army under the Earl of Leven Further confirm'd Id. p. 197. June 13. 1645. Continued for four Months more Id. p. 220. 25 Aug. 1645. By a like Ordinance Id. p. 201. June 20. 1645. 130000 l. for enabling the Scots Army to advance Southward And by a like Ordinance Decem. 3. 1645. 31000 l. Id. p. 237. for payment of the Scots Army Besides all which I find in the continuation of Sir Richard Baker Fol. 611. Several other Moneys rais'd for the Scots which because they agree neither in Sum nor time I thought fit to transcribe and leave it to my Reader to judge of it as he thinks fit Taxed by them in 16 Car. 1. 350 l. per diem on the Bishoprick of Durham and 300 l. per diem on the County of Northumberland on the penalty of Plundering In the 20th they were impowered by Parliament to assess for themselves the twentieth part of the North c. In the 21st sent them 30000 l. to induce them to besiege Newark In the 22d 200000 l. more for delivering up the King And another 200000 l. secur'd them out of the publick Faith And 16000 l. allowed them for the charge of their Carriages All which I leave as I said to my Reader to judge and whether notwithstanding all that cry of Religion and Loyalty it far'd not with them like Atalanta in the Fable Declinat cursus Ovidâ—◠〈◊〉 l. 10. Fâ—â— 15. aurumque vâ—luâ—ile tollit And truly considering all if they were not well paid for their Pains I wish they were CHAP. XIV Vpon the Covenant UPON this Theam saith our Answerer his Discourse is long his Matter little