Parliament observed at the Earls tryal that the Laws were the boundaries and measures betwixt the Kings Prerogative and the peoples Liberty But whether the king throughout the whole course of the late destructive War and â—ome years before was not a prompt disciple in the Deputies doctrine I leave to Royalists to make their own judgement And whether that which after befell the king and his Fathers house was not rather of the justice of heaven then of men I leave to the judgement of all the world Sure we are the best Jurists maintain Si Rex hostili animo arma contra populum gesserit amittet Regnum which is that if a King with an hostile intent shall raise Arms against his people he loseth or forfeits his kingdom Now that the late king assumed to himself such a Royal power as to raise Arms against the great Councel of the Land I suppose no man in his right wits can deny Its most true a moderate Royal power to rule by the Laws is doubtless of Gods Ordinance but a Tyrannical power to cut their throats I am sure is of no Divine Institution and a Dominion fitter for beasts then men yet this is that power which Royalists would have fastned on the king and too many there are which constantly believe that the more injury was done him that he had it not as by the Laws of the Land they erroneously conceive he ought to have had The Power of the Militia how the Kings BRiefly now to the Militia and what kinde of power our kings by the Laws of England have had therein It hath been often told the late king all along the late Controversie that the power of the Militia was in him no other then fiduciary and not at his absolute dispose or that at his own will and pleasure he might pervert the Arms and strength of the kingdom from their proper use and against the intent of the Law as ' its visibly known he did even to the highest breach of trust wherein a king could be intrusted Now for proof that this power was onely fiduciary and by Statute Law first confer'd on * Anno 7. Edw. 1. apud Westminster Edw. 1. in trust and not his by the Common Law is most apparent by the Express words of the Statute it self which as they are commonly inserted were onely for the the defence of the Land and safety of the people salus populi being that grand Law and end of all Laws now such as are verst in our Historie know that this Prince was one of the most magnanimous kings that ever swayd the English Scepter and therefore it cannot be imaginable that he would clip his own power and so great a right belonging to him by the Common Law in accepting a less by Statute Law to his own loss of power or that ever he would have assented thereunto by an after Act of his own as follows in haec verba viz. Whereas on sundry complaints made to us by the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament that divers of the standing Bands have been removed and taken out of their respective Counties by vertue of our Commissions and sent to us out of their Shires into Scotland Gascoyn and Gwoyn and other parts beyond the Seas contrary to the Laws of the Land c. Our Soveraign Lord willeth that it shall be done so no more Agreeable to this we finde Anno 1. Edw. 3d. viz. The King willeth that no man henceforth be charged to arm otherwise then he was wont in time of our Progenitors the Kings of England and that no man be compell'd to go out of his Shire but where necessity requireth and the sudden coming in of strange Enemies into the Realm And in the same kings time there being a peace concluded between him and the French king wherein the Duke of Britain was included whom the French king shortly thereupon invaded whereof complaint was made to king Edward he instantly summons a Parliament and there moves the Lords and Commons both for their advice and assistance whereupon it was concluded that the king should be expeditiously supply'd in ayd of the Britton but the Act was made with such provisoes and restrictions as Royallists happily and others of late years would have deemed them too dishonourable and unbefitting the late kings acceptance howsoever this Act shews that the ordering of the Militia of those times was not solely left to the kings disposure but that which is of more note was that both the Treasure then granted was committed to certain persons in trust to be issued to the onely use for which it was given as also that no Treaty or any new peace or agreement with the French King should be made without the consent and privity of the Parliament By these instances all Royalists may make a clear judgement that the Militia of those times and the power of the Arms of the Kingdom were never so absolutely conferr'd on our kings as that their power therein extended to such a latitude as they might use them as they pleased and to turn that power provided for the onely defence of the people against themselves and therefore wheresover we finde the Militia by other Statutes conferr'd and yeelded to the disposal of our kings without any particular mention of the word trust which is necessarily imply'd or exprest in most of the Statutes or their preambles viz. * Note that these words viz. for the defence of the Realm or common profit are afore inserted â—ither in the Stat. themselves or in their preamb. In these wotds For the honour of God the Church common profit of the Realm or defence of our people No man in common reason can conceive the Militia to be such an inseparable flower of the Crown as if it had been brought into the world with the King and chain'd unto him as his birth-right but onely as a permissive power recommended unto him by the people in their Representatives as the most eminent and illustrious person to be intrusted with such choyce weapons in trust and confidence that he will use them no otherwise then to the end for which-they were concredited unto him as the Soveraign of the people and for their onely safety and defence which trusted him in honour of his person and place Many other Statutes there are though some of them repealed which prove the Militia is onely fiduciary and not absolutely inherent to the Crowns of our Kings Now for our conclusion of this senceless illegal Prerogative as to the absolute power thereof let us in a word take notice of the destructive consequence admitting this power should be left to the Kings absolute disposure it then follows that he may take all that the Subject hath for he that hath the power of the sword on the same ground may command the purse which the late King not onely intended but practised witness the many great sums of money plate jewels and other moveables whatsoever
Earls and Barons without the scum of the Vulgar Patri Doctor 't is most true that upon the first view that remnant which so lately sate at Westminster in most mens understanding seemed to be no other then an usurped power and these back't by the Souldier but when we come to the Examination of their mutilation and how their number came to be diminished you will be of another minde for as the Author of the Kings Life and Raign exactly lays it down and resolves this doubt and tells you by whom it was first lamed and disordered this we all know that it was at first legally summoned by the Kings Writ with Lords Bishops and Commons which by your favour are not the scum of the people but as good Gentlemen as any of the Lords but as afterwards it fell out by the Kings practises and artifices it was first lessned in both Houses near to a moity to make up his Mungril Parliament at Oxford and yet the King himself and that Conventicle both calls them and acknowledges these at Westminster to be a Parliament though much against his will The late reliâ—k of the old Parliament though lamed and lessened by the late King and 't is a plain case that since the exclusion of another party by the Souldier that remainder or relick was still the Parliament and stood upon the same feet as 't was first summoned 3 Nov. 1640. with their full number and that piece of a Parliament left as you call them acted by the same power so that you must always take Powers in their present being not as they have been when inforc't from their old presidents and usages which I finde not to have been always one and of the same form but varied in all Ages according to the Revolutions of times and accidents for without all question that Magnum Consilium or Commune Consilium as Caesar calls it of the old Britons was not altogether Caesa Com. lib. 5. of the self-same form with the Witenagomots of the Saxons neither those with the Parliaments as they were after called on the coming in of the Normans and since the Conquest we finde them very much to vary Parliaments throughout all Ages not one the same in form though in substance neither is there any Record extant that shews the time when the late form with King Lords Spiritual and Temporal with the Commons had its institution but doubless 't is both a new and false assertion that the Commons had not their free voyce from the first foundation of Parliaments to this present as it evindently appears by the citations within mentioned which are authentick and incontradictable as for instance Quarto conquestoris Rex fecit summonâ—ri per universos consulatus Anglos nobiles sapientes sua lege eruditos ut eorum jura consuetudines ab ipsis audiret the fourth year of William the Conqueror the King caused to be summoned out of every Country of England all the Nobility the wise men and all such as were Learned in the Laws to the end that he might hear and understand what their Laws and customs were Hoved lib. de Litchfield Moreover Hen. 1. apud fontem Clericorum fecit summoneri omnes Arch-Epis Episcopos Abbates omnes nobiles Angliae sapientes omnes incolas Regni The King caused a summons go Clerkenwel of all the Arch-bishops Bishops Abbots all the Nobles Wise men and all the Inhabitants or as I conceive by Incolas the chief dwellers in the Kingdom which seems to be a multitudinous Aslembly Math. Paris Edm. de Loud Again Hov. 2. decimo Reg. praesentibus Arch-Epis Episcopis Abbattibus Prio. Comitibus proceribus Regni Math Paris But Hoveden Fitz-Steven make mention of Clerus Populus the Clergy and People to be then assembled the tenth of Henry the Second being present the Arch-bishops Bishops Abbots Priors Earls and Barons together with the Clergy and people Paris calls this Assembly Generale Consilium a General Councel Now amongst many other presidents I shall only instance in one or two more viz. Sexto Ioban at Oxford Communi consensu Arch-Epis Episcoporum Comitum Baronum omnium fidelium nostrorum Angliae by the common consent of Arch-bishops Bishops Earls Barons all our faithful men of England Parl. Rot. pat 5. there are some presidents which only mention Barones liberos bomines totius Regni onely the Barons and all the free-men of the Realm tempore Henrici 3. and another of this reign and before the Grant of the great Charter hath it Convocatum est Londoniis praesidente Arch-Epis cum toto Clero tota Sect a Laicalâ— An Assembly at London the Arch-bishops being President with all their Clergy and all the Laicks without any mention of Earls Barons or Bishops Auth. Eulog which seems to be a strange kinde of Parliament so that in an hundred more of Presidents which may be instanced it will manifestly appear that our antient Parliaments though they are acknowledged for a National meeting made and un-made Laws according to the vicissitude of times yet were they not always of one constant and set form though tending to no other and the self-same end salus populi the safety and conservation of the people by their Enacting such Laws as then were thought fit to be established for the common welfare of the Nation to which all our Laws and Statutes in the same words have special reference though 't is confest in ancient times often varied in the form but never from the end And 't is very observable that neither the ancient summons to our Parliaments were always of one stamp but varied in Neither that the summons to our Parliaments are of one and the self same form most our Kings Raigns sure we are that last of the kings was much different from those of old which evermore had in them inserted viz. ad tractandum consulendum ordinandum cum nobis c. the principle Gerund Ordinandum being purposely omitted least it might intimate a greater power in the Commons to act by then the King was willing they should have just in the same manner as the Archbishop curtald the most material clause of the Kings Coronation Oath that so he might assume to himself a greater power then of right belonged unto him but this is a subject which to dispute to the full would take up more time then we can at present well spare onely in a word that the Commons sate not in our ancient Parliaments and that now they onely sit there where the King and Lords sate alone without them Truly Doctor I retract not from that which I have often said viz. that these late times have produced such Monsters of men such Traytors and shameless Vipers that have endevoured to blot out of memory those ancient Rights and Liberties which the Natives have for so many hundred years enjoyed and to devour the mother that bare them most
grievance hath been a good space since taken away and the Souldier wheresoever he now Quarters pays both for horse and mans meat moreover the States have very much lessned their Forces onely retaining such numbers of horse and foot as may keep in awe such as you Collonel of the Royal Party which if not secured it may happily be more hurtful to the Nation then the not securing of our out-works against the ingrateful Dutch on whom the Malignant party which are still rotten at the heart looks upon with a pleasing eye in hopes so to order their designs as at last to bring in the Scotch Pretender though to their own particular ruine and the general destruction of the poor innocent people but in farther answer to your Objections suffer me to put you in remembrance what long since and before the late War began was projected by the late king when he was in peace and amity with all the Princes of Europe you shall finde it most true that in so great a calm of quietness divers Regiments of Germane horse were designed to be transpotted hither to keep all the Natives in awe and under the whip and in order to that the Deputy Straford in as calm a time of quietness as ever Ireland enjoyed had raised there an Army of near ten thousand Papists which for many Moneths and some years together were there both disciplined quartered and paid for the most part at the charge of private men and such as were averse to his Tyranous courses and in addition to those grievances on the Irish Scotch and English the imperious Deputy having taken to farm the Customs of that Kingdom at an excessive under-value he imposed on all the Commodities of the Land an incredible surplusage above the Rent he payd to the King Happily you may here ask the Question to what end such an Army was there raised and quartered on the Irish and so great Taxes impâ—sed on all the Commodities of that kingdom I answer The Deputy himself tells you the reason as you may see it in the * Vide. The Juncto Juncto You have an Army says he to the King in Ireland to reduce this Kingdom If you put the Question farther Why to reduce this kingdom being in peace I shall tell you that Army of foot with the Germane horse were all to be Garrisoned in England on free-quarter to amuse and keep the people in subjection whilst the king playd his game for the reducing the Scots to the Enslaving of all the three Nations If again you demand What the King would have done with so vast a Treasure as he intended to raise on both Kingdom the Deputy could have yeelded you a reason and president for this too viz. to erect Castles and Forts in both Kingdoms * Witness his great Structure not far from Dublin Houses of pleasure as capacious as Towns Parks of as large an extent as whole Parishes Masks Friscals Comedies Tragedies for the Saboth Banquets Junkets and such-like petulancies wherewith to please the Queen and the Court Ladies to gratifie Madam Nurse her Fidlers and Dancing-Masters for rest assured that the King meant not longer to depend on Parliamentary assistance for defraying of the Court expences neither to be controld for any irregularity he pleased to put in execution and this as tenacious as he was had often dropt from his own mouth and Cottington could openly say at his own Table 1638 when a Gentleman of honour told him That the best way for the King to fill his Coffers would be by the ayds of Parliament What needs that replies Cottington the King hath other ways in hand to supply his wants without Parliaments And indeed gentlemen as it seems you know not what the King had then in agitation some what more I shall tell you that there were certain odd * Dangerous Papers of the Duputies discovered Papers of the Deputies which I finde not were in question at his Arrainment for the Parliament had proof enough wherewith to charge him of his intention to alter the Government but those Papers intimate that the design was laid that no man was to stir above ten miles from his Habitation without leave and shewing his occasion and that no man was to be master of his own Train Arms either for his Domestick use or the Publick defence but that every Particulars mans Arms were to be deposited in one Magazin and in one place throughout all the Countries of England and Wales neither was any Houshoulder to be permitted to have the use of so much as a Pitch-forke without special license such a strange change of Soverainty was not only in hatching but in the high way of execution had it not been put by and obstructed as already is declared by the refractory Scot who marr'd all the Kings work the Deputies Archbishops and Cottingtons endevours to have accomplisht the whole design but how Almighty God iâ— his Justice hath disappointed and disposed of them all I leave to your second considerations Now Doctor if I have not given you a full Answer to all your Objections would my leisure permit my longer stay I could give you a little better satisfaction but for the present I say no more but examine well the case as the King before the Wars began was carrying on his designs and at a time when he had no cause at all to attempt as he did and then take into your more serious consideration the Parliaments case and condition which inforc't them for safeguard of themselves and those that trusted them to leavie men and money and since of necessity to Impose Contributions on the the people for support of the common Interest and then you will finde a great difference between one and the others case onely for a close of our Conference and in farther proof of the premises I beseech you tell me wherefore the King at this last Expedition against the Scoâ—s 1640 Commissioned Cottington Lord-Warden of the Tower with injunction to see that place well Fortified and man'd which in obedience to his Majestie in commands was presently put Execution but with such a refuse of Bankrupt * Billingsly and Suckling Colonels and Souldiers as could not be match't in all the Kingdom then to mount near upon twenty great Guns on the White Tower with their mussels turned against the City if you cannot tell the the reason I le tell it you That it was to awe the Citizens out of fear and jealousie that some one or other insurrection which the Projectors own guilty consciences suggested to themselves might fall out during the Kings absence in the North and to mar the work he had then in design before it came to maturity to be put in execution Why then and at the very same time the King should Commission the late Earl of Worcester a profest Papist as Cottington was no better as Lord President of the Welch-Marches commanding the Earl of Bridge-water a sound
Refractoria Disputatio OR The Thwarting Conference IN A DISCOVRSE BETWEEN Thraso One of the late Kings Colonels Neutralis A sojourner in the City Prelaticus A Chaplain to the late King Patriotus A well-willer to the Parliament All of them differently affected and disputing on the subjects inserted after the Epistle on the dissolution of the late PARLIAMENT and other changes of STATE Porv. 12. 15. The way of a fool is right in his own eyes but he that hearkneth unto counsel is wise The wise man foreseeth the evil to come and preventeth it Eccles LONDON Printed by Robert White and are to be sold by Thomas Brewster at the three Bibles in Pauls Church-yard 1654. To the intelligent Reader whether Royalist Malignant or howsoever affected Gentlemen IT is a facete observation of * Mouâ—tague in his Essays a Person of honour that a diligent Reader may apprehend more then the Author himself ever meant or intended If then it shall be either thy fortune or neglect in reading this Thwarting Conserence to understand less then is intended for the general instruction that 's the Readers fault none of the Authors If so much as is presented for the rectification of particular mens judgements doubtful of their own principles and unsettled in their minds here is that which if they be afore-hand not infatuated will compose their distractions out of the whole the Reader may recollect his memory in some particulars of State as haply are either forgotten or unknown unto him and so he may take a review of things past as they were caried on in their various and mystical traverses of Court and thence to foresee what may be the event of the late miraculous change of Government If on thy first view of the Title thou findest any itching desire to know the scope and whereat the Discourse ayms as all novelties provoke appetite take this in the way of an advertisment that here are vetera vera novaque intermixta old true and new passages cursorily presented in an interlocutory Conference then look over to the next page and haply the Contents may set a new edge on thy desires then read all or none and not unlikely thou mayst go very neer henceforth to know how to order thy self to the best advantage under the present powers and therewith judge of the universal destiny of the Nation should it revert into Monarchy and on casting up of thy accompt take these following Animadversions into thy more serious consideration first with what labor travel care and vexation of spirit the two late Kings even from the very Ingress to their Crowns to the period of their days prepared the way to their own ruines by pursuing their ambitious designs of heightning their Soveraignties above and beyond the bounds and limits thereof whereas with much honour love loyalty content and profit to themselves peace pleasure security and tranquillity to their Subjects they might have spent those their vexatious days in the full fruition of all worldly happiness But intoxicated with those restless desires of greatness and of ambition to climb above the right end and orb of Government and inflamed with those over-high heats of strengthning themselves with that frail support of the arm of flesh verified in that their long continued and chargable negotiations to contract Alliances and intermarriages with Spain and France Families of contrary and Idolatrous Religions aspirations which were never yet prosperous to Princes professing as they pretended the purity of Religion without intetmixtures what Apologies and Defences have been made either by themselves living or by others surviving and exposed to the world in vindication of their actions and too too manifest errors are no other then the superfluity and fineness of mens wits byassed without judgement to discern between truth and falshood the infallible testimonies of humane frailty and the Devils juglings onely to deceive the common belief whereas truth is still the same and will one day clearly appear and discover those dark traces and ambages of the greatest Masters of Art and Policy though for a time they may be inveloped and hidden from the sight of the Vulgar and happily predominate on the credulity of too many that think themselves wise above the ordinary sort yet at length they must be unmask't and layd open to the Worlds view for magna est veritas c. and it cannot be resisted 'T is most true they were Princes of great parts and endowments though now in another World whether we must all follow to render an accompt of our Stewardships howsoever without prejudice to their memories both for our own and the instruction of posterity we may take into observation what they were living and what instruments they made use of for carying on their ambitious Designs to their own dishonour the blemish of their fames the disturbance of their domestick peace the publick tranquillity and of that secure settlement which the old King found here in a most perfect establishment on the decease of that unparalleld Princess Elizabeth and as to the late most unfortunate King to the destruction of three flourishing Kingdoms himself his Posterity the Royalty and the ruine of many of the Nobility Gentry and Commons of England Scotland and Ireland In the next Scene we may take a short view of that remarkable fate which befel the Authors Promoters Incendiaries and principal Workmasters both Ecclesiastical and Civil both before and throughout the whole managery of the late prodigious War and work of darkness to their own ruine as a just reward to such as in assistance and advance of a lawless and unlimited Soveraignty most unnaturally and treacheously steered in the Regal course of attaining and well-nigh to the accomplishing of more absolute power over the three Nations then ever was attempted on the Theator of this Kingdom whence we may learn and set up our rests on these infallible Aphorismes that Consilium malum consultoribus pessimuÌ„ evil counsel is most inauspicious to the Councellours themselves and on that other which by lamentable experience we have found most true Quicquid delirant Reges plectuntur Achivi whatsoever Kings project the poor innocent people must suffer for all and for their faults Gentlemen to come a little neerer unto you and more openly to explain my self you have in the following Discourse not onely a part of the old case between King and Parliament cursorily disputed but what the issue in all probability will be in case the Scotch King cometh in by the sword with the fearful consequences thereof both in relation to your selves and the universal people ye may by the way remember what work the late King made in all parts of the Land wheresoever his Armies and Garrisons were how many Counties he made the constant seats of a furious and bloody War how long he continued to embrew the land with innocent blood even to desolation in how many places the poor Inhabitants had neither bread left them to eat nor
us reason this case amongst our selves in moderation and with patience and let the first Quere be whether the States Government as 't is now setled or shortly may be with our present Contributions for payment of their Armies wil not be more safe and easie for the people then the Scotch Pretenders coming in by force of Arms to assume the Kingly Government Since by a peaceable and conditional way I suppose he will never be admitted So that Doctor without all question he hath no choice left him but that of the sword and then judge you of the issue and into what a lamentable condition the poor Natives will necessarily be reduced when the right of the crown comes again to be disputed on English ground the king as you would have him being personally present And after this Quere Let us compute the hopes helps strengths and assistances whereon both parties may depâ—nd for support of each others cause For one battel either by Sea or Land happily will not determine the controversie as t was conceived by some that one battel as that at Edghill in the begining of the late wars would decide the business which proved to be like the pullulation of the Monster Hidra's head which begot others in infinitum and when the late King was in person in the head of his Aâ—my Of the hopes assistances and Forces which the Scotch King may have to recover the Kingly Government compared with the strengths the States have to maintain the present Government argued on all hands I say then Let us make an â—stimate of the forces and assistances of each party which on a due examination and on consideration of that which must necessarily follow when at once as we may conjecture two four or happily six several Armies may be in the field will be so far from easing or dâ—sburchening of the people that what by free Quartering and inforcing of contributions by one or the other party that the Natives will curse the time that ever your King came amongst them Now Gentlemen do one of you tell me what Forces and Assistances as you conceive the King may have or presume upon for I believe he will come short of his expectation in receiving any considerable Assistance either from the Scotch or Irish and then I will tell you that which all men and your selves do know to be most true what the States here have and may have as well in their present power by Sea and Land as by their Politique managery in fastning friends unto them whereby to make good the present establishment Colonel You being a Souldier and not unlikely having better Intelligence from abroad then any of us what preparations the Scots King hath in forraign parts what friends at home and elsewhere begin you if you please and I will rejoyn Thraso With all my heart In the first place I 'le assure you that since the death of the late King my Royal Master his Majesty that now is whom the States here would exclude hath ten friends for one more then he had before thoughout the three Kingdoms so much your States have gotten by the bargains in Martyring their King neither ought you to believe but that the King hath both in Scotland and Ireland a very considerable party that will joyn with him as soon as he arrives and not a few even in the City of London which expect a good time though they lie still and quiet however the King hath their hearts and will have their hands on all fitting occasions Besides He hath at his devotion all the Catholikes and most of the Clergy of England with all the Lords so lately and Injuriously thrust out of their house together with the better part of the Members of the Commons house pulâ—ed out by the ears by the Independent Souldery all which refused to take the Engagement and when time serves will appear in Arms for him besides all the The Scotch Pretenders hopes in assistance for recovery of the Crown summed up old Royal party Banished the Realm for their fidelity to their old Master Thus much for the ayds and assistances his Majesty may relie on from his own Subjects And as to his forraign assistance you may rest assured that all the Princes through Christendom when the time serves will engage for him since it stands them upon so to do Neither may you doubt but that all the Princes his neer Kinsmen and Allyes will furnish him plentifully with all sorts of Ammunition and the Hollanders with shipping so soon as they have mastered the Seas and made all things ready for an Invasion for believe it as an evident truth that in the present quarrel by Sea between them and this State the Kings Interest is involved and will be pursued notwithstanding their late brush which they reckon not of neither of a few inconsiderable Ships they having enough of others to recrute in a trice so that you may evidently see that as soon as time serves the King cannot want men and for mony good Swords and Pistols will fetch it in with a vengeance Whence you may discern what an unwildy task the late piece of a Parliament and these new sprang-up States have undertaken and what will necessarily befall them through their own divisions when the King appears in power as of that you may be sure he will sooner then you think on then you shall see a world of the Parliaments friends to fall from them for their own sakes will fight for him and probable it is that a good number of the States Souldiers now in their pay on his Majesties landing with another manner of equipage then all of you are aware of will run from them to him with all their hearts as their indubitable Lord Soveraign Partri Colonel you have indeed succinctly summ'd up what Forces as you surmise the King may have and expect both at home and from abroad wherein you are very much mistaken and do reckon without your host you speak rather what you would have then in reason what the King can have still discovering your malignant heart and flattering your self as most of your party use to do with vain and imaginary hopes not considering how the late King notwithstanding all his wyles and attifices fail'd in all his designs and practises and at last brought him self and his friends to utter ruine to the great detriment and desolation of three Kingdoms still soothing up himself with the goodness of his cause which was as bad as bad might be to the last gaspe neither take you the least notice of Gods providence in the disposure of this wonderful work and change of Affairs neither the continued series of the many mitaculous Victories which it hath pleased God to give to the States Armies wherein the very hand of the Almighty is most perspicuous to all good men but to you and your complices hidden and unseen even to obduracy and hardning of your hearts The
bodies and in divers ways the more to distract our Armies where you ought to remember that this State hath both in Scotland and the adjacent parts a very considerable force to encounter these Invaders but admit again that the King advances so far as York though you cannot imagine but that he will be fought with twice or thrice over before he comes thither with fresh men and not unlikely rebeaten as at all places he hath been but let us again admit that he sâ—rmounts all difficulties both by Sea and Land and becomes victorious and triumphantly marches towards London and that the States Force cannot withstand him and that on the noise of such sad news the prevailing party as you are pleased to stile them being confoundâ—d with terrour betake themselves to their heels as their ultimum refugium and the best way to shist for themselves and that after this all is left to the Kings absolute disposement as all this not impossible but exceeding improbable what then on such sudden change of fortune think you may be the issnes thereof and what advantage either to your party or the generality of the people and all Countries through which his Armies shall march and Quarter accompaned with so many Nations diveâ—sly affected Prel I confess the people must neâ—essarily suffer and haply in a greater measure then hitherto they have done yet am I confident his Majesty will be very sensible of their sufferings and in prevention of their farther oppression and for settling of all things will immediately call a new Parliament and reduce it to the antient Form and Institution of the three Estates King Lords Spiritual and Temporal with the Commons and then commit all things to a sober legal and Parliamentary discussion and in what manner restitution may be made of his own Lands and goods the Churches Patrimony with the many other loosers of his own party and after all this in detestation of the foulness of the late War and bloodshed to buâ—y all discontents and heart-burnings as Judge Jenkins very jâ—diciously proposes in an Act of Oblivion with free pardon to all except some special persons that had a principal hand in his Fathers death and for all other of his Subjects to spare and cherish them in what possible his affaits will permit Patri Doctor excuse me since I utterly dissent from your opinion for it stands not with reason or with the Kings then present affaires to take a piece of that course which you suppose and should he be willing there would be so many of the old Cavalry attending his person as well Natives as Forraigners which would thrust in to be served and gratified that he should not be suffered to put in practise a title of that which is by you so vainly surmised but you may build upon 't he would take a clean contrary course and such a one as the necessity of his then urgent occasions would inforce and not tie up himself to his own disadvantage by an Act of Oblivion which necessarily must disable him either to help himself or friends when the power is in his hands to do what he pleaseth and carve as he listeth Prel Since you are so diffident of his Majesties good nature and intentions towards his Subjects tell us I beseech you what you conceive he will do for the speedy settling of peace and amity through the three Kingdoms Patri May I obtain your liceâ—ce and a favourable construction of that which I shall deliver I will tender my opinion and leave you all to make your own judgments thereon In the first place I believe that whereas then he comes in by the sword in order to his necessities he would rule by the sword and by an Army with Garrisons throughout the Land as now the States upon the point do and must do if they mean to go through stitch with their work and thenceforth begin a new Government as in like manner the States here intend to do the Laws of the Land which under the present power the people yet enjoy as they were wont to do in quiet and peaceable times would necessarily be subverted and turn'd topsie-turvie and such introduced in their room as should best sute with the will and pleasure of a Prince that comes in by Conquest and by the same power will have them to be no other then agrees with his Affairs and resolutions or as they are in France if not worse and more absolute where a single paper signed under the Kings hand hath the same efficacy as an Act of Parliament in England and in order to this you must expect that his mercenary Souldiers must and would be remembred If you demand in what I answer with the whole plunder of London as the readiest means to give them all content for their service and if this seem strange to you I pray call to minde that in the late Kings time when no occasion of wars or raising of Armies in any reason were necessary to be levied but such as our late Grandees the Earl of Strafford Canterbury and Cottington would have to be raised against the Scots that Earl spake it openly at the Councel-Table 1640 and to no other man then the Lord Mayor Sir Henry Garway and others of the Aldermen upon their refusing to lend the king 100000 l. for the Scotch War It will never do well says he till the King hangs half a dozen of you Aldermen and then put the whole City to ransome Which was proved against him at his Arraignment neither did the king forbear the seizing of the Mint for supply of that needless War so that 't is evident when Princes have power they will make no scruple to act any thing that conduceth to their designs or to take all things where they can finde it as 't is well known he did in the late barbarous War neither will it be impertinent to put you in remembrance of another instance of this kinde when at or before the beginning of the War the king took his journey towards Scotland and overtook the Scotch Army in their march homewards 1641 where he dealt with the principal Commanders to turn head on the Parliament in reward whereof they should have the plunder of London with Jewels for security an overture which some of them were not so dishonest as to conceal but gave notice thereof to the City and their own Commissioners then here residing Now if you farther demand What the present Pretender would do in the pre-supposed case I shall again answer you that in reason of State which with Kings and Conquerors hath an Of the miserable condition that will befal the Nation especially the City of London in case the Scots Pretender comes in by the sword immense latitude he would and could do no less then to take present order for the satisfaction of his Country-men the Scots as also for gratifying the proscribed and fugitive Lords Cavaleers both English Scotch and Irish which first
an implacable hatred do you of the old Cavalry in general bear towards the Citizens that if God aveâ—t it not in all probability the whole City will run the same fortune with Saguntum in Spain Carthage in Africa and Jerusalem in Asia and this fate the Cavaleers themselves have often in my hearing wisht unto it Neut Gentlemen your divinations seem strange to me and they very much trouble my cogitations to hear you talk in such horrid language I hope you believe the King of Scots to be a Christian and not that he will destroy himself which will be as good as done whensoever so great and oppulent a City becomes ruined which is the key of the Kingdom and from whence issues the greatest Revenue and Income the Kings of England have ever received by Customs and Imposts from the Merchants but more especially since he cannot be ignorant that he hath within this City a world of loyal Subjects as I my self for one which never bore arms against his Father nor voluntarily contributed to the Parliament one groat otherwise then needs he must whom the Devil drives therefore I doubt not however the game goes he will remember his friends and distinguish them from his foes Patri Excellently well infer'd Neutralis it seems then you conceive your self safe and sure for that in all the late Wars you have carried your self in a neutral way according to the old adage bene vivit qui bene latuit he fares best that keeps himself close and out of the scuffle But suppose the King after his Victory and march comes to be possest of the City accompanied as that you may believe with four or five several Nations can you imagine that so numerous an Army attending his person will or can Quarter elswhere then in the City and when they are there think you not but that the Souldier will have a minde to the business viz to take A continued description of the lamentable effects that willâ— besal the Nation in the case aforesaid up their pay out of the ransacking of the Citizens and that without any distinction of persons haply you conceive that the King out of his Grace and good will towards his friends will cause a mark or some cross to be set up at their doors whereby to difference his loyal Subjects from those which assisted the Parliament and took up Arms against him and his Father No Neutralis let not such a Chimaera enter in your thoughts when you shall finde your imagined cross to be no other then in so promiscuous a plundring that your self or any others of your mode shall escape scot-free or that whensoever the Souldierie falls to riffling think you any of them will be so nice and mannerly as to forbear any that lies in the way of their fury or that in such a confusion the King himself were he willing can stay them which afore-hand are prompted to enrâ—ch themselves with a booty which lies so readily before them or that the Souldier will be so modest as to omit so fair an opportunity and suffer the Citizens to convey their cash and commoditities out of the way of their needy and greedy clutches Let me I beseech you dispute this case a little farther with you for rest assured that not onely those which had a hand in his Fathers death whom long since he hath doom'd to death and confiscation by his own Dâ—clarations but even all those which assiâ—ted the Parliament or stood neutral will necessarily sall into the number of plundred persons yea all such as at the begining of the War took up Arms and were listed under the Earl of Essex which indeed were the first that broke the Ice and made the way open to the new Model under the Lord Fairfax and the now Lord General Cromwel Do you think that any of those of the first establishment which laid down Arms when the Lord General Essex layd down his Commission divers of which either before or after have been chosen Parliament Members and were known to be bold speakers in the behalf of the late Kings re-admission to the Kingly Government will or can escape If you conceive they will your imagination is vain and reasonless since it stands not with reason of State or the Kings necessities to lose the least grist that otherwise may come to his wanting Mill Moreover you may be sure on 't that in order to all the premised plundrings and confiscations you shall finde all rich men or so accounted will be cal'd to an after reckoning and holes pickt in their coats of what party soever they have been to the end to supply the Kings great debts and urgent necessities for who knows not but that he hath borrowed much and yet wants more then can well be Of the fearful consequences that attend a Conquest imagined and that having the sword in his hand he will and must have money wheresoever it is to be had and then believe it the next bout will be a strict inquisition whom they are or have been which have taken the old Covenant and the new Engagement or have bought any of the Crown-Land or goods of the late Kings the Bishops Delinquents estates and in order to this progress a rigorous inquiry will of couâ—se fall in who they are which the Parliament hath employed as actors and instâ—uments for the promoting of their designs whether in the City or elsewhere in the Country neither may you doubt on'c but that all the Judges Serjeants at Law Officers Clerks of the Crown and Chancery Sheriffs Justices of peace Commissioners Committees with all other inferior Clerks and Officers whom the Parliament have employed throughout the Nation acting by and under their power will by degrees be fetcht over and enforc't to come off with greater Fines then possibly they are able to bear and this in part was put in practise by the late Kings Commissions thoughout all his Quarters and wheresoever his Armies had prevalence when he resided at Oxford and elswhere and enough there will be which will not fail to instruct and inform this King that all the riches of the Land saved from the spoyl of his Father will not be sufficient to make him satisfaction for the infinite losses which the Crown hath sustained since the beginning of the late War and to recompence such as have suffered by taking his part Thraso Signiour Patriotus dam me if all that you have now said be not Oracles and the King ought not or can in honour do less then that which with well measured reason you have declared and in case he doth it not to a hairs breadth I shall take him not to be so wise as he should be for in confirmation of your opinion I le tell you a story and 't is a true one on my life and the reputation of a Souldier that all of us at Oxford concluded * This is a known truth and hath been often aver'd by many residing
at Oxford 1642. when to all mens thinkâ—ng the King was in a sairer way to have carried all before him that after the destruction of the Parliament the King undoubtedly was resolved both to alter the Laws and change the Government hang all the Parliament men at Westminster for high Treason and then banish all the Puritans in England and next the design was to take the same couâ—se with the Presbyterians of Scotland as the greatest Enemies to Monarchy and Episcopacy in the World and if ever the King comes to be Master and in the way wherein I doubt not but he shall be with the sword in his hand and we of the Cavalry at his heels if he hangs not ten thousand of these Puritans Independants and Presbyterians I shall for ever hereafter judge him uncapable of the managery of any other Scepter then that of a sweetch or an honâ—st riding rod and be confident Genâ—lemen of the truth of this Story in confirmation whereof I remember that my Master commissioned the chief Justice Heath the Atturney Harbert with divers more of our Lawyers at Oxford to go in their Circuits as I remember they cal'd their Commissions of Oyer and Terminer with Authority to hang all those as they well deserved of the Parliaments party but a pox take them they were so much aforehand with us of his Majesties party that the King was compeld to * The reasons of the late Kings withdrawing of his commissions of Oyer and Terminer retract his Commissions for saving of such of his own party then in the Parliaments custody though one Francklin whom I took prisoner at Marleborough and one Sir Hugh Owins Burgess of Haverford-West both Parliament Members the first whereof indeed dyed in prison at Oxford before his Tryal but as to the other I well remember he was design'd by the King himself to be tryed in his own Country and for High Treason however as afterward I heard he escaped the halter but no otherwise then for the reasons before told you moreover I am confident that if his Majesty that now is comes once to ride on the fore-horse he will not fail to make sure work with all * The late Kings design to quit himself of all Parliaments Parliaments and that neither himself or Successors shall stand in fear to be farther controuled by them or made slaves to their Subjects Prel Gentlemen you have all spoken according to your fancies and affections sure I am 't is very fit that restitution should be made where estates have been been injuriously taken from the right Owners and services rewarded by him for whose use and benefit they were performed and 't is Divinity That the Labourer is worthy of his hire but in case the King cannot come to his own otherwise then by the sword I say that such as shall assist and enable him to obtain that which no man can deny to be rightsully his own ought in all equity to be recompenc't by some means or other for as the present condition of the King now stands I see no other means left him but by seisure of the Parliaments estates and plunder of the City from whom my late innocent Master received his bane and the Parliament the means both to furnish and maintain an Army against him at an instant Patri Pardon me good Doctor since I perceive you somewhat mistake me for I say not that in case the King comes in by the sword he then ought to ransack the City but that of necessity he will be compel'd to do it otherwise the Souldiers will of courle do it of themselves since 't is well known to be the design of the Royal party both at home and abroad to be revenged on the Citizens whensoever opportunity serves them for 't is confest on all hands that in the beginning of the War they voluntarily came in with their moneys jewels and plate and trusted it on the publick Faith without which on an instant the Parliament could not possibly raise and pay such an Army as they did and there is no doubt on 't that in case the King shall make scruple to plunder the City yet am I confident he shall be sufficiently prest and invited to do it or at least to impose such a ransome on it as the Citizens shall never be able to undergo but God forbid either of them should be put in execution Thraso Now Patriotus I perceive your meaning but what you would not should be put in execution rest assured If I can help it on it shall not be left undone and I farther say that in case any such opportunity shall be offered God forbid it should be omitted Neut And I am glad Colonel I know your good meaning towards the City but I hope God will so provide for us as hitherto he hath done that as yet we have not tasted of those cruelties which you of the Kings party have committed in several parts of the Land whereby you have made the Kings memory odious to the present times and future so I doubt not but the same God will preserve and defend us from your malice But I beseech you Patriotus may there not some way or other be thought upon to admit of his Majesty who now is on safe and honourable terms and such as may sute with the security of the Nation Patri Surely in my poor judgement as the late King and present Pretender hath handled the matter there are no hopes left to any of that Family by a peaceable way to re-invest themselves with the Regal Dignity but onely that of the sword and then I have already told you in plain English what in all probability will be the sad issues either continual attempts made on the present power by the Pretender or a perpetual continuation of war so long as any of the Family and dissendants of King * King James the first plotter of absolute soveraignty projector to dissolve destroy Parliaments and this design farthered by the Prelates James remain alive who to speak the truth lead the way to all our miseries and concussions both in the Church and State and his Successor pursuing his principles what through his own inclinations to absolute Soveraignty the Queens Mother and her Daughters Councels furthered by the Bishops and other corrupt instruments so brought it about both to his own ruine and the dis-inheriting of the present Pretender so fatal a thing it is when Princes will be more then of right they should be and will not remember that they are no otherwise to govern their people committed to their tuition but by the same Rules * Daniel in vita Reg. Johannis Laws and conditions as at their first ingress they received their Crowns on Oath and when the Grand father and Son shall forget their own Engagements and recede from their own principles viz. that if * Vide Basilicon Doron Kings would but consider that they are ordained of God for
was a known Tyrant an Usurper and a murtherer of his own Brothers children an Enemy to the Clergy and the greatest depopulator of the Kingdom that ever before it had and yet the States and Nobility forget all his Tyrannies misdeeds and after his poysoning at Swinsteed admitted of his innocent young Son after call'd by the name of Henry the third and soon quitted the Land of Lewis the Dolphin of France whom before they had call'd in to their assistance and to whom most of the great Lords had sworn fealty In like manner the Parliament after the deposiog of Edward the second for his Tyranny made choyce of his young Son Edward the third who proved a very galland Prince likewise on the Parliaments deposing of Richard of Burdeaux for his misgovernment the State made choyse of his cousin-german Henry of Bulling-brook who though not the next in blood and consequently an Usurper as to the right of Succession yet was he made King by consent of the Parliament and he approved himself a very wise and politick Prince whence it appears that the Parliaments and Nobility of those times had ever an eye on the next Successor or to such a one of the blood-Royal as in their judgements they conceived to be most capable and fit to undertake the kingly Government as it may be instanced in their Election of Steven Earl of Bulloyn in the absence of Maude the Empress next in blood and since that of Henry of Richmon after the killing of that Tyrant Richard of Glocester on these premises I beseech you a little extend your patience and tell me what you conceive to have been the reasons that the late Parliament not only took away the Kings life by a new president and under colour of a legal hearing to the great regret of the major part of the Nation but have rerejected the young Prince of mature years hopeful and able to govern together with the Duke of York and Glocester with all the discendents of King James and have changed the Royal Government into a Common-wealth have sold all the Lands Honours Mannors and Revenues anciently by right belonging to the Crown as the proper Inheritance of the Kings of England Now Sir By what Law of God man or reason of State they have attempted on so strange an enterprise passes my understanding especially the exclusion of the poor innocent Princes goes directly against my conscience yet if you please I shall willing hear what you can say for my better satisfaction Patri Doctor your questions necessarily will require a long search into the reasons wherefore the Parliament enterprized on so high a concernment yet in brief I shall tell you what hath been told me and by some of the late Members on the same Queres you have propounded First they say that on consideration of the Kings seldom calling and often dissolving of such Parliaments as he summoned without their due effects and that for ten years together he refused to summon any but ruled during so long an intermission at will and pleasure whereby the common interest and liberties of the people were so much invaded and so many grievances and oppressions crept both into the Church and State that when this late Parliament was through the extremity of his wants call'd the Assembly was to seek where to begin to rectifie and repair the decays of the Commonwealth which through his own misgovernment the prodigaltie and dissoluteness of the Court and Clergy had befallen the universal Nation which although he wholly then left to their rectification yet immediately thereupon he not onely went from his word and falsified his promise but by the continuance of innumerable practises and his uttermost endevors he sought nothing more then to obstruct their Reformation ruine the Parliament and put all the Kingdom into consusion by a most bloody and destructive war which the Assembly perceiving and that his intent in pursuing his designs full six years together and so long as he was able aimed at the utter overthrow of the Laws and envassaladge of the people and that he had entailed this quarrel on his Son and his Heirs-males in perpetuum how impossible then it was for the Parliament to settle a firm peace throughout the three Kingdoms by re-admitting the King full fraught though a prisoner with his wonted Principles and designs or to take in any of his Posterity afore-hand indoctrinated in their Fathers frauds and subtilties might amaze the wisest of men even Salomon himself to finde out any other way how to free the Nation from peâ—petual Tyranny and bloodshed but by cutting off both the Father and Son which were so deeply interessed in the controversie and to make the same use of their victories for the future security and indemnity of the people as the King himself intended to do in the behalf of himself and his Successor had the fortune of a Conquest befallen him thus much in general as to the grounds of the Parliaments resolution of cutting off the King and his Posterity as to the particular reasons I pray take them in their order 1. They alledge that they had no choyce left them whereby to save the Nation from utter ruine but were by the Law of necessity inforc't upon them by the King himself and of his own seeking both to cut off him and exclude his Postâ—rity 2. That having had so long patience and taken such infinite pains during all the wars after he had lost all and was a Prisoner to satisfie him from time to time in what possibly they could in all things questionable between them and on all his exceptions to reason the case all along with him in their several Answers and Replies to his Papers Expresses and Protestations attested before God and his Holy Angels pretending still how really he meant when by long and sad experience they found all his pretences fraudulent yet could they never satisfie him with any Arguments either of Law or Reason but that his own Reason his Will his Honour his Conscience must be the onely Directory to the Parliament theirs of no esteem with him 3. That notwithstanding their many Addresses and humble Petitions presented unto him after his causless recess from the Parliament for his return with honor and profit with this onely reservation to leave Delinquents to the judgement of his Supream Court they prevailed not but he defended them and was the skreen to most notorious Offendors professing still a willingness to peace and Treaties onely to get advantages when he most intended War and Conquest 4. That such was the obstinacy of his natural inclination which himself miscalls constancy from which they found it was impossible to disswade him or yeeld to any reason never so well measured by them but that they must yeeld to his though never so unreasonably prest by himself 5. That in this wilsull pursuance to obtain his most unjust ends he incorrigibly persisted to the last without the least reluctation
prejudicial to the Rights and Liberties of the people Now forasmuch as Royalists do still constantly maintain that their first engagements with the King were undertaken on just loyal honourable honest and religious grounds and that the king suffered as an innocent Martyr in his own defence under the specious pretexts of his injustice and Tyranny and that themselves are enforc'â— to live under Powers utterly unlawful usurpatious and tyrannical May they be pleased to give me leave briefly to sum up the whole Controversie intended for their own good the quieting of their distempered spirits the settlement of the universal people in the blessed harmony of peace and unanimity their onely distance and refractory humour to that of the present establishment being the onely cause that the old Rupture cannot be sodred up and cemented as it ought to be between brethren of one stock that the States after their many miraculous Atchievements Victories over so powerful enemies are inforc'c to the great charge and grievance of the Natives to keep in pay so many Armies for the prevention of such dangerous conspiracies as are daily hatcht and seen to flow from the fountain of their malitious hearts whereas their conformity with the rest of the Natives in obedience to the present powers would be the speedy remedy and abatement of those heavie and Monethly Contributions continued on the people wherein themselves would partake in the easement the State and Common-wealth in the happiness and comfort that so many Proselytes should be added to their number Now in as much as the nature of this subject by way of advice will necessarily require some short repetition of the Kings proceedings in the late prodigious War wherein the grounds of their partaking with him are briefly stated I shall intreat the Reader of what garb or party soever not to conceive that herein I take occasion to rake over the ashes of him who is at rest but onely for the better manifestation of truth never more opposed then at present and to let the universal Nation see and understand on what sandy foundations not onely the King but the Royalists themselves built the whole fabrick of his designs how and by whom they were promoted to his own ruine his posterity and most of the Royal party to the irreparable loss of three flourishing Kingdoms Briefly then that the King at his first access to the Crown had it in design as an unhappy legacy left him by his Father King Iames to advance the Regal power to absoluteness conformable to the French Model is a truth so perspicuous as that divers persons of honour then in Court both perceived it and feared the sad issues that would follow the Kings ambitious affectations True it is the design a long time was carried on in the dark and mystical traverses of Court and State but 1638 and 39 the King by his active * Strafford Canterbury Cottington Agents haing prepared all things in readiness for the accomplishment both in England and Ireland the onely rub that then lay in his way of compleating an universal invassaladge over the three Nations and conforming the Church Government of Scotland sutable to the Episcopal Discipline of England was the refractory Presbyterian Scot whom he first tempted with the bait of a new Liturgy and whether they should perceive the meaning thereof or not was amongst the first Projectors of this Innovation here in Court not much reckoned of for that in case of the Scots refusal they very well understood the King was resolved to compel them to submit by force of Arms but the Scots utterly rejecting the Liturgy as an Innovation and Invasion on their National Laws and Liberties the King raised his first Army against them and then the second after a Pacification given them passages so commonly known to both Nations that there needs no farther manifestation of their contrivances But most certain it is that then the Kings grand design began more openly to appear and that those two Northern Expeditions having exhausted his Treasure with all that he could shift for and the extremity of his want of money succeeding produced the first and the late Parliament Where we may not omit to shew how the King at his first entry to the Crown was after misled and most grosly betray'd and by persons of his own choyce from the very beginning of his raign to the last of his power who had chiefest influence on his Councels which principally were the Bishops and his Court Chaplaines which more studied his inclinations then Divinty and then to comply with whatsoever they found most agreeable to his natural appetite which was the usual ladder wherewith they climbed to preferment these sycophants well perceiving the bent and promptitude of his ambition to absolute Soveraingty had learn'â— the faculty of wresting of Scripture answerable to Arbitrary power and made it their ordinary Pulpit-stuff to instill into his apprehensions that the Subject had no other propriety in any thing he enjoyed but at the Kings good pleasure And to these there were another sort of * Lawyers Gown-men that could stretch Law and Statutes to the tenter of the Kings designs neither were there wanting many about his person even from the first to the last of his Power that to gain his favour had learn't the art of compliance so that I am confident to affirm as being often conversant in the Court that no Prince of his time and of his abilities was ever so nurst up what between those Clergy Laquies and his jugling Judges in the principles of Tyranny leaving out those forragn Pedagogues as well masculine as femine always in Court and most near his person insomuch as at last he knew not or would not know the nature and constitution of the English Soveraignty neither what the nature of those Royal Prerogatives he claimed were how intrusted and invested in him but took them for no other then his own proper inheritance to be used as his he should think most conducible to the advance of his absolute power But to return to the late Parliaments first sitting down and to relate what in the first place they fell upon as of highest concernment to be redrest most certain it is that they finding the many grievances of the people with the various innovations disorders and distempers of the State and Church all concentring in the Kings indigence they took it into their serions consultations first of all to call to an accompt such Participants of the Kings Councels as were well known to have been the principal Instruments for promoting of Arbitrary power and then to apply themselves to the redress of the Publick disorders and rectifying of the obliquities both in the Church and Commonwealth crept in through the long dis-use of Parliaments We shall onely touch on the most eminent passages during their first fifteen Months sitting viz. The Attaching and Arraignment of the Earl of Strafford the Archbishop the flight of the Lord
Ramsey to accept of 3000. l. ready money to to be quit of him Of the Kings assertion that he was not accomptable for his actions to any but to God alone AS to that odious position or rather Tyrannical assertion both of the Fathers and the Sons that they were not accomptable for their actions to any but to God alone doubtless 't is an impious position and in the next degree to blasphemy and cannot be without repentance forgiven of God nor forgotten of men and those of their subjects which felt the effects thereof Should we longer insist on this Theam and produce proofs that Kings for their irregularities and Tyrannies have in divers Kingdoms been call'd to account they would amount to a Volumn The Justice of Arragon the Ephori amongst the Lacedemonians the Senate of Rome the Parliaments of England and Scotland will soon evince and put this question out of doubt for Kings as well as subjects both by Gods Laws and mans are under the Law and in this kingdom and many other well regulated Soveraignties they have been often over-ruled withstood in their exorbitancies sued at Law and evicted and some deposed expeld and sentenced to death and should it not be so Subjects would be no other then inanimate slaves sure we are Almighty God never impowered Kings with such absolute Soveraignty that might enable them to trample on their subjects without controule Saul made a rash vow as a Law to the Isaelites that none should eat any food all the day until the evening but he should die Ionathan being then absent not knowing thereof had dipt his rod in a Honey-comb and tasted it but being told of his Fathers Law he answered the people My Father troubles Israel and indeed such troublers there are amongst kings howsoever Ionathan was sentenced to death but the people withstood the king and swore that a hair of his head should not fall and they rescued him in the face of the king certainly should not there be some one other power in a kingdom to curbe and controule the exorbitancies of irregular kings for few of them are Saints no man should be exempted from their oppressions and therefore Bracton delivers it as the law of the Land that in such cases the Barons or Parliament ought not onely to withstand oppressive kings but to call them to account for their misdemeanors which may suffice to show how much the two late kings were mistaken in this their Tyrannous assertion Now Gentleman Royalists these Soveraign Rights as you would have them so often treated on utterly dissonant to the Laws of the Land whereunto particularly I have briefly made answer are those goodly Prerogatives wherewith you would have invested the late king as his indubitable birth-rights and inseparables of his Crown for which you still constantly aver he was compeld to fight and your selves with him to uphold them where I must by the way remember you of a time when he shamed not to * Vide The Kings Coyn at Oxford divulge it to the whole Nation that he fought for the Protestant Religion the Laws of the Land and Priviledges of Parliaament for he was not to seek wherein to please the people and win them to his cause though never so unjust when as in truth he fought against all those three and so long as untill he could fight no more but by what law or reason other then his own none may better know then your selves which as well as infinite others that opposed him have felt the fruits of your unadvisedness the effects of his obduracy his cunning and crafty fetches to attract friends for backing of an unlimited Soveraignty to which had he attained it would have been no other then too heavie a burthen for him to bear a sting in his own conscience a sore in yours which you will all finde whensoever it shall please God to open the eyes of your understanding and enable you to see how you have bin decoyed in with Oathes Protestations and hopes of preferment made the instruments of your own Invassalage This if you believe not to have been the design yet you may finde it legible not onely in the claims and pretences he made to those illegal and irrational Prerogatives before recited but more apparently figured in that bloody Rubrick of a continued War which he so long waged to be absolute master of them and consequenly over all the free people of England Thus have I shewed you how invalid the grounds are whereon you continue to insist in justifying the late king and your selves how dissonant and contrary to the Laws usuages and Statutes of the land such was the wisedom and providence of our ancient Parliaments in all their enactings evermore to prefer the common interest before the kings though they failed not to gratifie them as they found them compliable to the redress of the publick grievances with many Royal immunities as we may finde them registred in the Statutes at large on the Title of Prerogative some whereof I think fit here to present to your view that so you may judge whether Sir Walter Rawly was not in the right who avoucheth that few of our kings but have gotten ground and improved their Soverainties meerely by their Parliaments as I verily believe none more then the late unfortunate King had he been pleased in imitation of Queen Elizabeth to have complyed with the late Parliament But as to his Prerogative of Wardships and Marriages they were first conferr'd on our Kings 17 of Edw. 2d their primer session 52. Hen. 3d the tuition of Ideots and distracted persons 17. of Edw. 2d 32. of Hen. 8th but with several proviso's of accompts to be made to the next Heirs of Ideots and the children of him that was incompos mentis As to wracks of Sea Whales c. they were given by Parliaament to Edward the Second the 17 of his Raign Felons goods the 9 of Hen. 3. power to make Justices of peace 27. of Hen. 8. the Legitimation of the Kings children born beyond the Seas 25. Edw. 3. Tonage and Pondage to Edw. 4. pro tempore yet granted to every of his Successors by the meer indulgence of their Parliaments though the late King challenged it as his own right I may not omit farther to inform you that this Nation hath not been so much abused and deceived by any one proficient in our Laws as by that false and jugling Judge Ienkins who in his Lex * Lex Terrae a most vile and fraudulent peice Terrae by his accumulation of several Statutes insinuates and endeavors to make the Kings power absolute and consequently the people meeâ— Slaves and Vassals alledging this and that to be the Law of the Land which is not or ever was taking his Authorities and Authors by piece-meals curtaling the Statutes in their sense without the explanation of their meanings and intents whereby on my own knowledge he hath deceived and prevailed on the
belief of many in the Nation But not longer to insist on this subject I shall onely say that the Soverainty of our kings hath been ever of a mixt nature and not absolute and as Bellarmine affirms of Monarchies in his Chapter De Romano Pontifiee Monarchiam temperatam mixtam inter Aristocratiam Democratiam semper meliorem esse puts That a Monarchie mixt and tempered between an Aristocratical Government and a Democratical is the best of all Governments so am I bold to avouch such hath ever been the nature of our English Soverainty would the late King have so conceived of its constitution or given credit to the old learned Lawyers viz. Bracton Fleta Fortiscue and many others for the Kings of England have originally received their power from the people Potestatem à populo effluxam Rex habet quo non licet â—â—potestate alia populo suo dominari Fort. de leg Aug. The King hath his power from the people and ought not to govern them but by that Power and Law which he had from them though Royalists generally have otherwise conceived thereof supposing that the King cannot be a King unless he be absolute in power and command over the people which was the error or rather wilfulness of the late King who knew not or would not know the extent of the English Soveraignty but what out of his own inclinations and others infusions he was induced to believe that he could not rule otherwise then by a plenary power which is most dangerous to himself for plenitudo potestatis est plenitudo tempestatis and enables him to destroy himself at his own pleasure though the late King conceived otherwise and that to be subject to the controule of a Court of Parliament he could be no more then a mock-King or a Duke of Venice And certainly the generality of the people thought no less and that a king was such a supernatural and Divine creature not made up of sinful flesh and blood like other men as the poor woman conceived of Henry the Eighth who riding in progress through a Country Village attended with a great train of Nobility the Woman cryed out Shew me the king which of these is the king He quoth a foot-man whom thou seest with a Feather in his Cap and a blew Ribban about his neck Whoo crys out the woman will you make me believe the Moon is made of Cheese that 's a very man or else I never saw one in all my life And the silly soul was in the right for kings in their humane nature are no other then mortal men though in their other capacity as they are kings the best of men in Supremacy yet the worst if they neglect the duty of that great Office wherewith they are invested by Gods appointment for the publick good more then their own but I have taken too much liberty in expatiating my self on a subject so often treated of though my design therein extends not beyond my affection which hath lead me rather to perswade by the soft Argument of Law and Reason then in bitterness of language to exclaim against any mistaken in their opinions not doubting that either themselves or any other on due consideration will tax me for impertinency when as 't is well known the whole state of the old Controversie since the dissolution of the late Parliament hath been and is assidually revived by Royalists and a new disconted sort of male-contents which forbear not to justifie the late King in all his errors and condemn the Parliament for invading his just and rightful Prerogatives so that what and how many soever they are they must not expect but that of necessity there will new Answers be made though upon the old matter to new objections which may satisfie all such as out of the over-fineness and sharpness of their wits will censure whatsoever hath been afore said on a subject long since determined to be both needless and impertinent But to conclude It now onely remains that we proceed to the Law of God and by Scriptural proof to facillitate a reconciliation betwixt Royalists and that party which adheres to the present Government wherein I shall briefly shew first the justness and lawfulness of their cordial submission to the powers in being secondly the necessity of their union one with the other with the profit which thereby will redound to the mutual benefit of the whole Nation not doubting but that by this little which hath been spoken as concerning the Royal Prerogatives they may receive some kind of satisfaction that neither the Kings Interests in them were sufficient grounds whereon to lay the foundation of those bloody wars he so long waged against the great Judicature of the Nation or that they were so valid in Law as to warrant Royalists to assist him to win them by the sword That controversie being long since decided and the Power of Government in other hands yet in a little let us now examine to whom in conscience we all ought to yield our obedience S. Paul to the Romans 13. on this very subject of obedience to Authority prescribes this as a general rule to all men viz. Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers The reason of this Precept follows viz. for there is no power but of God And thereupon he infers Therefore ye must needs be subject not onely for wrath but for conscience sake and to this he exhorts Timothy to pray for a blessing upon all those in Authority Now if Royalists make question as usually they do of the lawfulness of the present Authority and say 't is usurpatious and unlawful then they fall foul on Gods Oordinance and they question S. Pauls Doctrine and contradict the very reason of obedience in the Text viz. for the powers that are are the Ordinance of God Now that this may more evidently appear upon what a rock Royalists fall by calling into question the lawfulness of the present powers I shall intreat them to take it into their second considerations whether then the Apostle was not out of the way when he delivered this Doctrine of Obedience to Authority to his Country-men the Jews which was in the raigns of Claudius Caesar and Nero both which came to their powers meerly by usurpation and the sword but these Emperours being in possession S. Paul takes no exception as Royalists do against their unlawful coming into power but enjoyns obedience to be yielded to them and can any of them positively and of truth affirm that the powers of this Common-wealth are not devolved and confer'd on the States here by the Ordinance of God Bucer on this very Text. Rom. 13. says That when the question is whom we should obey we ought not to question what he is that exerciseth the power or in what manner he dispenseth it but it only sufficeth those which live under it that he hath power for if any man hath obtained power it s then out of doubt that he received