lawful to proceed against him by way of Fact or Force For question is not here what men are able to do by Strength and Force but what they ought of Right to do as not whether the Subject have Power and Strength but whether they have lawful Power to Condemn their Soveraign Prince The Subject is not only guilty of Treason in the highest Degree who hath Slain his Soveraign Prince but even he also which hath Attempted the same who hath given Counsel or Consent thereto yea if he have Concealed the same or but so much as Thought it Which Fact the Laws have in such Detestation as that when a man guilty of any Offence or Crime dyeth before he be condemned thereof he is deemed to have died in whole and perfect Estate except he have conspired against the Life and Dignity of his Soveraign Prince This only thing they have thought to be such as that for which he may worthily seem to have been now already judged and Condemned yea even before he was thereof Accused And albeit the Laws inflict no Punishment upon the Evil Thoughts of men but on those only which by Word or Deed break out into some Enormity yet if any man shall so much as conceit a Thought for the Violating of the Person of his Soveraign Prince although he have Attempted nothing they have yet Judged this same Thought worthy of Death notwithstanding what Repentance soever he have had thereof Lest any men should think Kings or Princes themselves to have been the Authors of these Laws so the more straitly to provide for their own Safety and Honour let us see the Laws and Examples of Holy Scripture Nabuchodonosor King of Assyria with Fire and Sword destroyed all the Country of Palestina besieged Jerusalem took it rob'd and razed it down to the ground burnt the Temple and defiled the Sanctuary of God slew the King with the greatest part of the people carrying away the rest into Captivity into Babylon caused the Image of himself made in Gold to be set up in Publick place commanding all men to Adore and Worship the same upon pain of being Burnt alive and caused them that refused so to do to be cast into a burning Furnace And yet for all that the holy Prophets Baruch 1. Jeremy 29. directing their Letters unto their Brethren the Jews then in Captivity in Babylon will them to pray unto God for the good and happy Life of Nabuchodonosor and his Children and that they might so long Rule and Reign over them as the Heavens should endure Yea even God himself doubted not to call Nabuchodonosor his Servant saying That he would make him the most Mighty Prince of the world and yet was there never a more detestable Tyrant than he who not contented to be Himself Worshipped but caused his Image also to be Adored and that upon pain of being burnt quick We have another rare Example of Saul who possessed with an evil Spirit caused the Priests of the Lord to be without just Cause slain for that one of them had received David flying from him and did what in his power was to kill or cause to be kill'd the same David a most innocent Prince by whom he had got so many Victories at which time he fell twice himself into David's Hands who blamed of his Souldiers for that he would not suffer his so mortal Enemy then in his power to be Slain being in assured Hope to have enjoyed the Kingdom after his Death he detested their Counsel saying God forbid that I should suffer the Person of a King the Lords Anointed to be violated Yea he himself defended the same King persecuting of him whenas he commanded the Souldiers of his Guard overcome by Wine and Sleep to be wakened And at such time as Saul was slain and that a Souldier thinking to do David a pleasure presented him with Saul's Head David caused the same Souldier to be Slain which had brought him the Head saying Go thou Wicked How durst thou lay thy impure Hands upon the Lords Anointed Thou shalt surely Die therefore And afterwards without all Dissimulation mourned Himself for the dead King All which is worth good consideration for David was by Saul prosecuted to Death and yet wanted not Power to have revenged Himself being become Stronger than the King besides he was the Chosen of God and Anointed by Samuel to be King and had Married the King's Daughter And yet for all that he abhorred to take upon him the Title of a King and much more to Attempt any thing against the Life or Honour of Saul or to Rebel against him but chose rather to Banish himself out of the Realm than in any sort to seek the Kings Destruction We doubt not but David a King and a Prophet led by the Spirit of God had always before his Eyes the Law of God Exod. 22.28 Thou shalt not speak Evil of thy Prince nor detract the Magistrate neither is there any thing more common in Holy Scripture than the forbidding not only to Kill or Attempt the Life or Honour of a Prince but even for the very Magistrates although saith the Scripture They be Wicked and Naught The Protestant Princes of Germany before they entred into Arms against Charles the Emperour demanded of Martin Luther if it were Lawful for them so to do or not who frankly told them That it was not Lawful whatsoever Tyranny or Impiety were pretended yet was he not therein by them Believed so thereof ensued a Deadly and most Lamentable War the End whereof was most Miserable drawing with it the Ruine of many great and noble Houses of Germany with exceeding slaughter of the Subjects The Prince whom you may justly call the Father of the Country ought to be to every man Dearer and more Reverend than any Father as one Ordained and Sent unto us by God The Subject is never to be suffered to Attempt any thing against the Prince how Naughty and Cruel soever he be lawful it is not to obey him in things contrary to the Laws of God to Flie and Hide our selves from him but yet to suffer Stripes yea and Death also rather than to Attempt any thing against his Life and Honour O how many Tyrants should there be if it should be lawful for Subjects to kill Tyrants How many good and innocent Princes should as Tyrants perish by the Conspiracy of their Subjects against them He that should of his Subjects but exact Subsidies should be then as the Vulgar People esteem him a Tyrant He that should Rule and Command contrary to the good Liking of the People should be a Tyrant He that should keep strong Guards and Garrisons for the safety of his Person should be a Tyrant He that should put to death Traitors and Conspirators against his State should be also counted a Tyrant How should good Princes be assured of their Lives if under colour of Tyranny they might be Slain by their Subjects by whom they ought to be
case you or any other Sheriff of our said Kingdom shall be elected And at the Day and Place aforesaid the said Election made in the full County-Court you shall certifie without Delay to Us in our Chancery under your Seal and the Seals of them which shall be present at that Election sending back unto Us the other part of the Indenture aforesaid affiled to these Presents together with this Writ Witness our Self at Westmin By this Writ we do not find that the Commons are called to be any part of the Common Councel of the Kingdom or of the Supream Court of Judicature or to have any part of the Legislative Power or to Consult de arduis regni negotiis of the Difficult Businesses of the Kingdom The Writ only says the King would have Conference and Treat with the Prelates Great men and Peers but not a Word of Treating or Conference with the Commons The House of Commons which doth not minister an Oath nor fine nor imprison any but their own Members and that but of late in some Cases cannot properly be said to be a Court at all much less to be a part of the Supream Court or highest Judicature of the Kingdom The constant Custom even to this day for the Members of the House of Commons to stand bare with their Hats in their Hands in the Presence of the Lords while the Lords sit covered at all Conferences is a visible Argument that the Lords and Commons are not fellow-Commissioners or fellow-Counsellors of the Kingdom The Duty of Knights Citizens and Burgesses mentioned in the Writ is only ad Faciendum Consentiendum to Perform and to Consent to such things as should be ordained by the Common Councel of the Kingdom there is not so much mentioned in the Writ as a Power in the Commons to dissent When a man is bound to appear in a Court of Justice the words are ad Faciendum Recipiendum quod ei per curiam injungetur which shews that this Word Faciendum is used as a Term in Law to signifie to give Obedience For this we meet with a Precedent even as ancient as the Parliament-Writ it self and it is concerning Proceedings in Parliament 33 Ed. 1. Dominus Rex mandavit vicecom ' quod c. summon ' Nicolaum de Segrave ex parte Domini Regis firmiter ei injungeret quod esset coram Domino Rege in proximo Parl. c. ad audiendum voluntatem ipsius Domini Regis c. Et ad faciendum recipiendum ulterius quod curia Domini Regis consideraret in Praemissis Our Lord the King commands the Sheriff to summon Nicholas Segrave to appear before our Lord the King in the next Parliament to hear the Will of the Lord our King himself and to perform and receive what the Kings Court shall further consider of the Premises Sir Edw. Coke to prove the Clergy hath no Voice in Parliament saith that by the Words of their Writ their Consent was only to such things as were ordained by the Common Councel of the Realm If this Argument of his be good it will deny also Voices to the Commons in Parliament for in their Writ are the self-same Words viz. to consent to such things as were ordained by the Common Councel of the Kingdom Sir Edw. Coke concludes that the Procuratores Cleri have many times appeared in Parliament as Spiritual Assistants to Consider Consult and to Consent but never had Voice there how they could Consult and Consent without Voices he doth not shew Though the Clergy as he saith oft appeared in Parliament yet was it only ad consentiendum as I take it and not ad faciendum for the Word Faciendum is omitted in their Writ the cause as I conceive is the Clergy though they were to assent yet by reason of Clerical Exemptions they were not required to Perform all the Ordinances or Acts of Parliament But some may think though the Writ doth not express a Calling of the Knights Citizens and Burgesses to be part of the Common Councel of the Kingdom yet it supposeth it a thing granted and not to be questioned but that they are a part of the Common Councel Indeed if their Writ had not mentioned the Calling of Prelates Great men and Peers to Councel there might have been a little better colour for such a Supposition but the truth is such a Supposition doth make the Writ it self vain and idle for it is a senseless thing to bid men assent to that which they have already ordained since Ordaining is an Assenting and more than an Assenting For clearing the meaning and sense of the Writ and Satisfaction of such as think it impossible but that the Commons of England have always been a part of the Common Councel of the Kingdom I shall insist upon these Points 1. That anciently the Barons of England were the Common Councel of the Kingdom 2. That untill the time of Hen. 1. the Commons were not called to Parliament 3. Though the Commons were called by Hen. 1. yet they were not constantly called nor yet regularly elected by Writ until Hen. 3. time For the first point Mr. Cambden in his Britannia doth teach us that in the time of the English Saxons and in the ensuing Age a Parliament was called Commune Concilium which was saith he Praesentia Regis Praelatorum Procerumque collectorum the Presence of the King Prelates and Peers assembled No mention of the Commons the Prelates and Peers were all Barons The Author of the Chronicle of the Church of Lichfield cited by M. Selden saith Postquam Rex Edvardus c. Concilio Baronum Angliae c. After King Edward was King by the Councel of the Barons of England he revived a Law which had lain asleep three score seven years and this Law was called the Law of St. Edward the King In the same Chronicle it is said that Will. the Conquerour anno regni sui quarto apud Londin ' had Concilium Baronum suorum a Councel of his Barons And of this Parliament it is that his Son Hen. 1. speaks saving I restore you the Laws of King Edward the Confessor with those amendments wherewith my Father amended them by the Councel of his Barons In the fifth year as Mr. Selden thinks of the Conquerour was a Parliament or Principum conventus an Assembly of Earls and Barons at Pinenden Heath in Kent in the Cause between Lanfranke the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and Odo Earl of Kent The King gave Commission to Godfrid then Bishop of Constance in Normandy to represent His own Person for Hearing the Controversie as saith M. Lambard and caused Egelrick the Bishop of Chichester an aged man singularly commended for Skill in the Laws and Customes of the Realm to be brought thither in a Wagon for his Assistance in Councel Commanded Haymo the Sheriff of Kent to summon the whole County to give in Evidence three whole days spent in Debate in the End Lanfrank
somewhere to judge according to Law Law were vain It was soon therefore provided that Laws according to the dictate of Reason should be ratified by common consent when it afterward appeared that man was yet subject to unnatural destruction by the Tyranny of entrusted Magistrates a mischief almost as fatal as to be without all Magistracy How to provide a wholesome remedy therefore was not so easie to be invented it was not difficult to invent Laws for the limiting of Supream Governours but to invent how those Laws should be executed or by whom interpreted was almost impossible Nam quis custodiet ipsos Custodes to place a Superiour above a Supream was held unnatural yet what a lifeless thing would Law be without any Judge to determine and force it If it be agreed upon that limits should be prefixed to Princes and Judges to decree according to those limits yet another inconvenience will presently affront us for we cannot restrain Princes too far but we shall disable them from some good long it was ere the world could extricate it self out of all these extremities or find out an orderly means whereby to avoid the danger of unbounded Prerogative on this hand and of excessive liberty on the other and scarce has long experience yet fully satisfied the minds of all men in it In the Infancy of the world when man was not so artificial and obdurate in cruelty and oppression as now and Policy most rude most Nations did choose rather to subject themselves to the meer discretion of their Lords than rely upon any limits and so be ruled by Arbitrary Edicts than written Statutes But since Tyranny being more exquisite and Policy more perfect especially where learning and Religion flourish few Nations will endure the thraldome which usually accompanies unbounded and unconditionate Royalty Yet long it was ere the bounds and conditions of Supream Lords was so wisely determined or quietly conserved as now they are for at first when as Ephori Tribuni Curatores c. were erected to poise against the scale of Soveraignty much blood was shed about them and States were put into new broils by them and in some places the remedy proved worse than the disease In all great distresses the body of the people were ever constrained to rise and by force of the major party to put an end to all intestine strifes and make a redress of all publick grievances But many times calamities grew to a strange height before so cumbersome a body could be raised and when it was raised the motions of it were so distracted and irregular that after much spoil and effusion of blood sometimes only one Tyranny was exchanged for another till some was invented to regulate the motions of the Peoples moliminous body I think Arbitrary rule was most safe for the World but Now since most Countries have found an art and peaceable order for publick Assemblies whereby the people may assume its own power to do it self right without disturbance to it self or injury to Princes he is very unjust that will oppose this art or order That Princes may not be Now beyond all limits and Laws nor yet be tyed upon those limits by any private parties the whole Community in its underived Majesty shall convene to do justice and that the Convention may not be without intelligence certain times and places and forms shall be appointed for its reglement and that the vastness of its own bulk may not breed confusion by vertue of election and representation a few shall act for many the wise shall consent for the simple the vertue of all shall redound to some and the prudence of some shall redound to all and surely as this admirably-composed Court which is now called a Parliament is more regularly and orderly formed than when it was called mickle Synod of Wittenagemot or when this real body of the People did throng together at it so it is not yet perhaps without some defects which by art policy might receive farther amendment some divisions have sprung up of late between both Houses and some between the King and both Houses by reason of incertainty of Jurisdiction and some Lawyers doubt how far the Parliament is able to create new forms and presidents and has a Jurisdiction over it self all these doubts would be solemnly solved but in the first place the true priviledges of Parliament belonging not only to the being and efficacy of it but to the honour and complement of it would be clearly declared for the very naming of priviledges of Parliament as if they were chimera's to the ignorant sort and utterly unknown unto the Learned hath been entertained with scorn since the beginning of this Parliament In this large passage taken out of the Observator which concerns the original of all Government two notable Propositions may be principally observed First our Observator confesseth arbitrary or absolute government to be the first and the safest government for the world Secondly he acknowledgeth that the Jurisdiction is uncertain and the priviledges not clearly declared of limited Monarchy These two evident truths delivered by him he labours mainly to disguise He seems to insinuate that Arbitrary Government was but in the infancy of the World for so he terms it but if we enquire of him how long he will have this infancy of the World to last he grants it continued above three thousand years which is an unreasonable time for the World to continue under-age for the first opposers he doth find of Arbitrary power were the Ephori Tribuni Curatores c. The Ephori were above three thousand years after the Creation and the Tribuni were later as for his Curatores I know not whom he means except the Master of the Court of Wards I cannot English the word Curator better I do not believe that he can shew that any Curatores or caetera's which he mentions were so ancient as the Ephori As for the Tribuni he mistakes much if he thinks they were erected to limit and bound Monarchy for the State of Rome was at the least Aristocratical as they call it if not popular when Tribunes of the People were first hatched And for the Ephori their power did not limit or regulate Monarchy but quite take it away for a Lacedemonian King in the judgment of Aristotle was no King indeed but in name only as Generalissimo of an Army and the best Politicians reckon the Spartan Commonwealth to have been Aristocratical and not Monarchical and if a limited Monarchy cannot be found in Lacedemon I doubt our Observator will hardly find it any where else in the whole World and in substance he confesseth as much when he saith Now most Countries have found out an art and peaceable order for publick assemblies as if it were a thing but new done and not before for so the word Now doth import The Observator in confessing the Jurisdiction to be incertain and the priviledges undetermined of that Court that
Defended In a well-ordered State the Soveraign Power must remain in One onely without Communicating any part thereof unto the State for in that case it should be a Popular Government and no Monarchy Wise Politicians Philosophers Divines and Historiographers have highly commended a Monarchy above all other Commonweals It is not to please the Prince that they hold this Opinion but for the Safety and Happiness of the Subjects And contrariwise when as they shall Limit and Restrain the Soveraign Power of a Monarch to Subject him to the General Estates or to the Council the Soveraignty hath no firm Foundation but they frame a Popular Confusion or a miserable Anarchy which is the Plague of all Estates and Commonweals The which must be duly considered not giving credit to their goodly Discourses which perswade Subjects that it is necessary to subject Monarchs and to give their Prince a Law for that is not only the Ruine of the Monarch but also of the Subjects It is yet more strange that many hold Opinion that the Prince is subject to his Laws that is to say subject to his Will whereon the Laws which he hath made depend a thing impossible in Nature And under this Colour and ill-digested Opinion they make a mixture and confusion of Civil Laws with the Laws of Nature and of God A pure Absolute Monarchy is the furest Common-weal and without Comparison the Best of all Wherein many are abused who maintain that an Optimacy is the best kind of Government for that many Commanders have more Judgment Wisdom and Counsel than One alone For there is a great difference betwixt Councel and Commandment The Councel of Many wise men may be better than of One But to Resolve Determine and to Command One will always perform it better than Many He which hath advisedly digested All their Opinions will soon Resolve without Contention the which Many cannot easily perform It is necessary to have a Soveraign Prince which may have Power to Resolve and Determine of the Opinions of his Council FINIS AN ADVERTISEMENT TO THE JURY-MEN of ENGLAND TOUCHING WITCHES THE late Execution of Witches at the Summer Assises in Kent occasioned this brief Exercitation which addresses it self to such as have not deliberately thought upon the great difficulty in discovering what or who a Witch is To have nothing but the publick Faith of the present Age is none of the best Evidence unless the universality of elder Times do concur with these Doctrines which ignorance in the times of darkness brought forth and credulity in these days of light hath continued Such as shall not be pleased with this Tractate are left to their liberty to consider whether all those Proofs and Presumptions numbered up by Mr. Perkins for the Conviction of a Witch be not all condemned or confessed by himself to be unsufficient or uncertain He brings no less than eighteen Signs or Proofs whereby a Witch may be discovered which are too many to be all true his seven first he himself confesseth to be insufficient for Conviction of a Witch His eight next Proofs which he saith men in place have used he acknowledgeth to be false or insufficient Thus of his eighteen Proofs which made a great show fifteen of them are cast off by himself there remains then his sixteenth which is the Confession of a Witch yet presently he is forced to yield That a bare Confession is not a sufficient proof and so he cometh to his seventeenth proof which is two credible Witnesses and he here grants That the League between the Devil and the Witch is closely made and the Practices of Witches be very secret that hardly a man can be brought which upon his own knowledge can averr such things Therefore at last when all other proofs fail he is forced to fly to his eighteenth proof and tells us that yet there is a way to come to the knowledge of a Witch which is that Satan useth all means to discover a Witch which how it can be well done except the Devil be bound over to give in Evidence against the Witch cannot be understood And as Mr. Perkins weakens and discredits all his own Proofs so he doth the like for all those of King James who as I remember hath but Three Arguments for the discovery of a Witch First the secret Mark of a Witch of which Mr. Perkins saith it hath no power by Gods Ordinance Secondly The discovery by a fellow Witch this Mr. Perkins by no means will allow to be a good proof Thirdly The swimming of a Witch who is to be flung cross-ways into the water that is as Wierus interprets it when the Thumb of the right Hand is bound to the great Toe of the left Foot and the Thumb of the left Hand to the great Toe of the right Foot Against this Tryal by water together with a disability in a Witch to shed Tears which King James mentions Delrio and Mr. Perkins both argue for it seems they both writ after King James who put forth his Book of Daemonologie in his youth being in Scotland about his age of thirty years It concerns the People of this Nation to be more diligently instructed in the Doctrine of Witchcraft than those of Foreign Countries because here they are tyed to a stricter or exacter Rule in giving their Sentence than others are for all of them must agree in their Verdict which in a case of extreme difficulty is very dangerous and it is a sad thing for men to be reduced to that extremity that they must hazard their Consciences or their Lives A DIFFERENCE Between an English and Hebrew WITCH THE Point in Question is briefly this Whether such a Witch as is Condemned by the Laws and Statutes of this Land be one and the same with the Witch forbidden by the Law of Moses The Witch Condemned by our Statute-Law is 1 Jacob. Cap. 12. One that shall use practise or exercise any Invocation or Conjuration of any evil or wicked Spirit or consult covenant with entertain or employ féed or reward any evil or wicked Spirit to or for any intent or purpose or take up any dead man woman or child out of his her or their grave or any other place where the dead body resteth or the skin bone or other part of any dead person to be employed or used in any manner of Witchcraft Sorcery Charm or Enchantment or shall use practise or exercise any Witchcraft Enchantment Charm or Sorcery whereby any Person shall be killed destroyed wasted consumed pined or lamed in his or her Body or any part thereof such Offenders duly and lawfully Convicted and Attainted shall suffer death If any Person shall take upon him by Witchcraft Inchantment Charm or Sorcery to tell or declare in what place any Treasure of Gold or Silver should or might be found or had in the Earth or other secret places or where Goods or things lost or stoln should be found or become Or to the intent to