SIR will you grant and keep and by your Oath confirm to the people of England the Laws and Customes to them granted by the Kings of England your lawful and religious predecessors and namely the Laws Customes Franchises granted to the Clergy by the glorious KING St. Edward your predecessour according to the Laws of God the true profession of the Gospel established in this Kingdome and agreeing to the prerogative of the Kings thereof and the ancient customes of this Realm The King Igrant and promise to keep them Lord Bishop Sir will you keep peace and Godly agreement entirely according to your power both to God the holy Church the Clergy and the people King I will keep it L. Bishop Sir will you to your power cause law and justice and discretion in mercy and truth to be executed in all your judgements King I will L. Bishop Sir will you grant to hold and keep the rightful Customes which the commonalty of this your Kingdome have will you defend and uphold them to the honour of God so much as in you lyeth King Igrant and promise so to do The Petition of the L. Bishops read by the L. Bishop of ROCHESTER O Lord our King we beseech you to grant and preserve unto us and the Churches committed to our charge all Canonical priviledges and due Law and Iustice and that you would protect and defend us as every good King in his Kingdome ought to be a Protector and defender of the Bishops and Churches under their Government The King answered With a willing and devout heart I promise and grant my pardon and that I will preserve and maintain to you and the Churches committed to your charge all Canonical priviledges and due law and justice and that I will be your Protector and Defendor to my power by the assistance of God as every good King in his Kingdome ought in right protect and defend the Bishops and Churches under their Government Then the King went to the Altar where laying his hand upon the Evangelists he took the Oath following The things which I have here before promised I shall perform keep so God me help and by the contents of this Book and so kissed the Book The Homage of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury for himself and all the Bishops he kneeling down and all the Bishops behind him said I William Arch-Bishop of Canterbury shall be faithful true Faith Truth shall bear unto you our Soveraign Lord and your Heirs Kings of England and I shall do and truly acknowledge the service of the Lands which I claim to hold of you as in right of the Church So God me help Then he arose and kissed the Kings left cheek as did the rest of the Bishops The Homage of the Nobility I James Duke of York become your Leigeman of life and limb and of earthly worship and Faith and Truth I shall bear unto you to live and dye against all manner of folk So God me help The Oath of a Lord Chancelour YOu shall swear that well and truly you shall serve our Soveraign Lord the King and his people in the office of Chancelour and you shall do right to all manner of people poor and rich after the laws and usages of this Realm and truly you shall counsel the King and his Counsel you shall layne and keep and you shall not know nor suffer the hurt or disheriting of the King or that the rights of the Crown be deceased by any means as far forth as you may let it and if you may not let it you shall make it cleerly and expresly to be known unto the King with your true advice and councel and that you shall do and purchase the Kings profit in all that you reasonably may As God you help and by the contents of this book The Oath of a privy Counceller YOu shall swear to be a true and faithful servant unto the Kings Majestie as one of his privy counsel you shall not know or understand any manner of thing to be attempted done or spoken against his Majesties Person Honour Crown or Dignity Royal but you shall let and withstand the same to the utmost of your power and either cause it to be revealed to his Majestie himself or to such of his privie Councel as shall advertise his Highness of the same You shall in all things to be moved treated and debated in Councel faithfully and truly declare your mind and opinion according to your heart and conscience and shall keep secret all matters committed and revealed unto you or shall be treated off secretly in Counsel and if any of the same Treaties or Counsels shall touch any of the Councellers you shall not reveale it unto him but shall keep the same until such time as by the consent of his Majesty or of the Councel publication shall be made thereof You shall to your uttermost bear Faith and Allegiance unto the Kings Majestie his Heirs and lawful successours and shall assist and defend all jurisdictions preheminences and authorities granted to his Majestie and annexed to his Crown against all forraign Princes Persons Prelates and Potentates by act of Parliament or otherwise And generally in all things you shall do as a faithful and true servant and Subject ought to do to his Majestie So help you God and by the holy contents of this book The Oath of a Secretary of State YOu shal swear to be a true faithfull Servant unto the Kings Majestie as one of the Principal Secretaries of State to his Majestie you shall not know or understand of any manner of thing to be attempted done or spoken against his Majesties person Honour Crown or Dignity-royal but you shall let and withstand the same to the uttermost of your power and either do or cause it to be revealed either to his Majestie himself or to his privie Counsel you shall keep secret all matters revealed and committed unto you or that shall be secretly treated in Counsel and if any of the said treaties or Counsels shall touch any of the Councellors you shall not reveal the same unto him but shall keep the same until such time as by the consent of his Majestie or the Connsel publication shall be made thereof you shall to your uttermost bear Faith and Allegiance to the Kings Majestie his heirs and lawful successours and shall assist and defende all jurisdictions preheminences and authorities granted to his Majestie and annexed to his Crown against all forraign Princes Persons Prelats or Potentates c. By act of Parliament or otherwise Generally in all things you shall do as a true and faithful servant and subject ought to do to his Majestie So help you God and by the holy contents of this book Subscription of such as are to be made Ministers according to the 37 canon and constitution Anno Dom. 1603. and in the reign of our Soveraign Lord Iames by the grace of God King of England Scotland France and Ireland
thus Homer honorably mentions Agamemnon n 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homer Iliad 18. the word was no sooner out of that great worthies mouth but it was his act and deed but Princes are of more sublime and higher qualities as being earthly Gods their words are more Sacred and Soveraign Thus Pylat though an inferiour Potentate toul'd the Jews quod scripsi scripsi And Servius commenting on those words of the Poet o Virgil. lib. 12. Aeneid Do quod vis bene inquit presenti usus est tempore nam promissio in Diis pro facto est I give what thou wilt the God did well to use the present tense as if the will and words of Princes were very Acts and Deeds but if any knot can binde faster then words or promises see the gracious dispositions and customes of the Kings of England offering up as in the beauty of holiness the sacrifice of pious resolutions to God Almighty in sacred oathes for their most Princely government And as Kings thus unite themselves by these most Sacred bonds to the King of Kings so their Officers and Ministers of State and servants of their Courts are engaged by special Oathes of Obedience and Fidelity and all their subjects are obliged by a national Law to swear to the Oathes of Allegiance and Supremacy no rank being to be excused at the age of Eighteen from these just and rational obligations unless the Lords and Peers of the Realm whose refined Honour being as equivalent if not more superlative doth as powerfully indear them to loyalty and true allegiance to their Princes it cannot then but be justly censured a crime of the highest nature to violate sacred bonds with treachery and infidelity and yet that soul sin may be presented more ugly when any in greater and neerer trust about the King as a Minister of his royal affairs or a sworn servant of his Court shall perfidiously or timorously forfeit his Faith which by duplicated Oathes being sealed on his Soul as a door more secure under a double lock ought to be more firm and not to be forced by any Art or Engine and if single perjury be so notorious a crime how horrid and hellish will it appear in the multiplication of false illegal perjurous and damnable Oathes The link and jonts of government thus reaching from Heaven to Eatth from God to Man and from the King of Kings to Kings and Princes on earth they thence graciously descend from royal thrones to the meanest and lowest of all their people who in a community participate of the blessings of Monarchy under the protection and Grace of their Prince and the benefit and provision of most excellent and wholesom laws against whose sacred Person as being Gods annointed or rules of government if any should be so traitterous or seditious as to dare to contrive or conspire they merit the severest degrees of punishment and though they be as near to the Crown in blood as Absalon to King David or as near in trust and Counsels as the grand oraculous politician Achitophel yet no relation or employment can so palliat the blaknesse of their offences but that all good subjects are obliged as Hushai the Archite to preserve their Prince in his royal Crown and dignity and to detect and discover dissipate and destroy all treacherous conspiraces and rebellious Treasons against their Prince This was the resolution and adventure of Noble Hushai who commanded by King David obeyed his royal pleasure and leaving the King in a deplorable sad condition addressed to the usurper and traitor Absalon and seemingly confederated with that unnatural Arch Traitor and Achitophel and his complices but God had so appointed that this loyal subject by his wisdom and fidelity intrapped Absalon to his merited ruine and so infatuated the Councels of Achitophel that the despairing Traitor hanging himself became his own executioner and the rebellious army being routed and totally defeated and Absalon hanged by the head in a tree King David was gloriously restored to the royal City of Hierusalem But least any presume to be loyall Hushites who cannot reasonably merit the opinion or Name of true Royalists and so not prove King Davids friends It is necessary that some characters and distinctions be intermitted for cleerer truth and plainer perspicuiry of what is dross what is sophisticated false and fained mettal and what in this point by the impartial touch stone is judged pure and perfect gold The story of this concernment is a sacred record written by the holy Prophet Samuel p 2 Sam. 15. which describes King Davids danger and deliverance his enemies and his friends presents to the world the undutifulness of an unnatural Son and the rebellious attempts of ambitious and traiterous subjects Absalon was the Arch traitor and Achitophel the cheif Counselour in this foul conspiracy and black Treason and the Prophet as if to forewarn the world from future delusion and infatuation of that kind describes the Traitors and Conspirators Traiterous crimes or marks 1. defamation or detraction First defaming and dishonoring the Kings government sowing sedition and disgracing the royal Courts of Iustice saying 2 Sam. 15.3 See saith Absolon thy matters be good and right but there is no man deputed of the King to hear thee This design was countenanced with the pompe and pride of a popular train 2 Sam. 15.1 to amaze or allure the vulgar 2 Popular pompe pride Absolon prepared Charriots and Horses and fifty men to run before him A great pretence to execute judgement 3 A pretence to do justice and execute judgement and do justice promoted this rebellion so the grand Impostor made way to advance his rebellion saying 2 Sam. 15.4 O that I were made Iudge in the land that every man that hath any suite or cause might come unto me as the Supream Magistrate and cheif Iustice And I would do him justice 4 Restless watching day and night vigilancy diligence and indefatigable industry and attendance to caress and court the people were active practises of this popular politician so Samuel sets forth the traitour in the 2 Sam. 15.2 Absolon rose up early and stood beside the way of the Gate 5 Flattery and adulation and when any man that had a controvercy came to the King for judgement then Absolon called unto him and with oily courtship quickly deluded common capacities and simple credulity this venemous and traiterous infatuation that so swelled the people with avarice and ambition was as epidemick and national as infectious and insnaring 6 Traiterous infection is usually epidmical For on this manner did Absolon to all Israel that came to the King for judgement 2 Sam. 15.6 Traitors usually pules every vain try all tempers and incline all humours to augment and corroberate their party and to effectuate their evil contrivances and machinations 7 Traitors are most courty crafty and fullest of dissimulation And as traitors lay their plots and
2 Sam 15 vers the 32 Behold Hushai the Archite came to meet the King with his coat rent and earth upon his head Loyalty amongst REBELS The True ROYALIST Or HUSHAY the Archite A happy Counsellour in King's DAVID'S Greatest Danger Say unto Absalon I will be thy servant O King 2 Sam. 15.34 I Counsel thee to keep the Kings Commandement and that in Regard of the Oath of God Eccles 8.2 Written by EDWARD WOLLEY D.D. and Chaplain in Ordinary to his Sacred Majesty King CHARLES the II. LONDON Printed for Iohn Williams at the signe of the Crown in S. Paul's Churchyard 1662. To the Right Honourable JOHN Baron Grenvil of Kilkhampton and Biddiford Viscount Grenvil of Lands-Down and Earle of Bathe Groome of the Stool and first Gentleman of the Bed-Chamber Lord Warden of the Stanneryes Lord Lieutenant of the County of Cornwall and High Steward of the Dutchy and Governour of his Majesties Town Island Fort and Castle of the Garrison of Plimouth MY LORD I Have had the honour and happines to know you from your tender years and have discerned your cordial affections and endeavours to serve the Church as an obedient Sonne your Prince as a most Loyal Subject your Countrey as a most faithful Patriot And as Pompey when but a youth to experience your Fortitude fidelity to the Crown and without injury or flattery it may in some degree be said of you as Plutarch writes of that Noble Roman Is etiamnum adolescens totum se factioni Syllanae addixit cumque nec Magistratus nec Senator esset magnum ex Italiâ contraxit exercitum That you were a very early Commander in your youth and those four terrible wounds which you received in the fight at Newberry three in your head and one in your arm Continue those marks and cicatrices which as honourable badges of loyalty will bear you company to your Grave It was a question once started about Ascanius by Andromache whether he was like his Father Aeneas or his Vncle Hector Ecquid in antiquam virtutem animosque viriles Et Pater Aeneas a vunculus excitat Hector Andromache in Virgil Aeneid de Ascanio But there is not any need of such a question concerning your Lordship in whom the varietie of your Noble Ancestors seem to concenter So that the pietie of Richardus de Granâ Villâ who founded the Abbey of Neath in Glamorgan-shire in the fourth year of the raigne of King William Rufus liveth in you The courage of Sir Richard Grenvil your great Grandfather who commanded the Rear-Admiral a Ship called the Revenge wherein he so gallantly behaved himself that in a desperate fight at Sea with the Spaniards he sunk destroyed infinite numbers of Qu. Elizabeths enemies when others made all the sail they could to avoid the danger And the loyalty and great worth of Sir Bevill Grenvill seem as thriving seeds to grow up and flourish in you And it will be an honour and happiness to your Lordship to be not onely a Son and Heire of his Name loynes but of his virtues who so loved the Church of England that in person he guarded the late Lord Archbishop of Canterbury against the fury of the tumultuous Rabbles in all commotions and Rebellions either of England and Scotland in the late blessed Kings Raign he manifested the dutie of a Loyal Subject and of a noble Commander at the fight at Stratton he was successful against the enemie with a handful of men And at the fight at Lands-downe like another Epaminondas though he lost his life he got the Victory Et cum sentiret vulnus esse lethale non prius ferrum eduxit quam audisset Thebanos vicisse tum satis inquit vixi invictus enim morior To encourage his Souldiers he fought with bleeding wounds and finding that his countrey men like Gallant Thebans won the day animam efflavit he fell gloriously into the bosome of true honour renown These exemplars of virtue have doubtless attracted your Resolutions to imitation of your Ancestors and have enflamed your affections with true and right principles of Nobleness and honour But that which renders you most lovely to all who know your Lordship is that incomparable service which by your prudence fidelity secrecy and courage was transacted effected together with the Duke of Albemarle and his brother the Lord Bishop of Hereford in order to his Majesties Restauration which maketh three Kingdomes happy This is the chiefest loadstone motive that makes me address to your Lordship for patronage and protection in this argument wherein I endeavour to prove that truth may be in company with Traitors and Loyalty amongst Rebels as Hushai the Archite who was King Davids best friend and most faithful subject in his greatest danger It is true many worthyes did attend his Majesties Person in pinching extremityes abroad for many years and many thousand loyal Subjects of the three Kingdomes indured insupportable miseries from usurping bloody Wolves at home and the stings of a sort of Trepanning creeping Serpants as equally venemous as dangerous hardly to be avoided These true Royalists were on all occasions active in their persons in their counsels in their relations their friends in their purses and their prayers and by all wayes and interests to promote his Majesties Restauration But your Lordship as a more signal instrument of much happiness hath received gracious markes of Noble trust honour and favour from his Majesty the thanks of all England in the Kingdomes Representative the Parliament which will prove a happy record of your honour to posterity and blessed for ever be those hands and hearts who have contributed much or cast in if but a mite to that blessed work There is another small tender branch which budded seasonably about seven years since and appeared in the Kingdom under the complexion and colour of a Translation in the case and Parallel of Lewis the fourth the French King This first went abroad to keep alive those loyal sparks which lay-under the ashes of Cruelty and Persecution in the year 1654. meeting with curteous tinder it took fire and inflamed many affections towards the King This small piece was reprinted eight moneths before his Majesties return to England and it proved so prosperous that some thousand copies were dispersed vented in fourty houres And then it grew suddenly a publick discourse in the City and Countrey videlicet the Kings Case in the Parallel of Lewis the fourth of France This Branch leans on your Lordships Patronage and favour is added to this discourse to perpetuate all Subjects resolutions in their allegiance to their Princes and as a part of justice and merit that his endeavours nay be discerned who gave it life first fixed and planted it in England and so not to be any longer fathered on adopted authors * Tulit alter honores Virgil. My Lord I shall not afflict your Lordship with any further present trouble but wishing
the increase of happiness and honour dayly to redound on your Lordship and your enobled family I cordially subscribe my Self My honoured Lord Your Lordships faithfully obliged Servant EDWARD WOLLEY D.D. LOYALTY AMONGST REBELS The true Royalist OR Hushai the Archite A happy Councellour in King Davids greatest danger DOminion and Soveraignities the highest trust and most illustrious gift that a Quid majus inter homines quam unum praesse pluribus leges jussa ponere maria terras Pacem bella moderari I. Lips ad Reges imperat Principes Epist dedica Polit. God bestoweth on his creature man for what degree can be more sublime then for one to be supream and to command many thousands to make lawes and to impose decrees that shall force obedience And having an influence on mens lives liberties and fortunes to hold the raines of government in all affaires both by sea and land and by the rights of an unlimited just prerogative to have power to regulate and moderate the vicissitudes of Peace and War and by grant and Commission from Heaven b to superintend and to exercise an imperial and soveraign power in all concernments 1 Cor. 3.5 whether Ecclesiastical Civil or Martial this dignity only suites and seemes fit for some terrestrial diety * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 82.6 Dixi dii estis Proverb 8.15 Per me Reges regnant and therefore may justly expect and challenge a Person of Greatest worth and most compleat capacities the rather because the state of d K Iames duty of a. K. in his Royal office p. 2. Monarchy is the supreamest thing upon earth And Kings are not only Gods Lievtenants upon earth but by God himself they are called Gods whom they much resemble in several Attributes of Wisdome Power justice Mercy and the like Thus Kings as mortal Gods create or destroy make or unmake at pleasure give life or send death to their subjects are judges over all owe accompt to none but God they humble or advance them at their pleasure and as Arithmeticians placing their figures cause their subjects at their pleasure to signifie a greater or smaller number or to be as meer cyphers that shall be utterly uselesse and insignificant To this supream order of mortals to Kings and soveraign Princes is due the affection of the Soul and the service of the body from all their subjects And from this principle and root of obedience springs up the branches of fidelity Allegiance and Loyalty which is to be paid and performed to lawful Kings and Princes from all their subjects none but seditious and traiterous spirits dare assert the contrary and this later Age hath too much been poysoned with such distillations and dangerous untruths which though they produced many horrid mischiefs and monsters the ugly common births of Rebellion and Treason are now unmasked and more clearly discerned by the beames of experience and a more perspicuous light which hath in a great proportion dispersed those mists and foggs that engendred and begat so many prodigious and horrid effects to a gracious * K. Charles the first the royal martyr King and a most unhappy and miserable People †A Civil war and confusion and distractions of almost twenty yeares So then there needs no dispute nor direction of the Subjects to there duty seeing all are involved to the rules of obedience by the lawes of God and man but it may be of some concernment to many who love the company and comfort of a good conscience as Christians and to others who thirst after nothing more then true honour and Reputation as men or subjects to make a privy search into their own soules and so to bring there actions words and affections to the touchstone of truth whereby they may finde there failings from or their performance in their loyal duties to wards their Soveraign and so abandoning all excuses and waveing all unjust pretences make out a happy satisfaction to themselves though not to others who either too supercilious as Cato * Cato uticensis stoica disciplina severus nudis interdum pedibus brevique toga in Publicum prodibat Plut. Timon Atheniensis temporibus Peloponia ci belli in humanus ab Atheniensibus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appellatus quasi genus hominum infensum fuerit Caro. Stepha or to rigid as Timon the Athenian undiscreetly or uncharitably censure all mens actions but their own in this scrutininy that so neerly concerns honour and conscience the proceedings ought to be impartial and the examination strickt because the concernment is so considerable and in this particular neither politick rules great and more eminent examples nor glorious and advantagious successes are to guide or gratifie affections or to blindfold and captivete reason but an untainted judgement setled and fixed on true principles of honour and Christian sincerity is the truest light in such a dark and dangerous path where self interest flattery opinion hope fear and many such inherent companions are industrious to divert good inclinations and to exchange them from the love of virtue and truth As to the rules of humain politicks as mush-rooms in a night they are conceived in secrecy of Councels and have their birth and appear in the day and those maximes are as alterable as the wind which in an instant moveth from one point to another of the card or compass As to examples though never so great or numerous they are not to sway a noble minde from what is truly honorable nor a good Christian from any point or tenet that is religious and just and as to successes though never so prosperous they ought not to move or prevail with a generous and pious spirit to make him vicious hyprocritical or false For if honour be rather in the opinions or estimations of others then in our selves rather in merit truth then titles and forced Ceremonies and victory unjustly or more cunningly and obscurely gotten brings less of true renown how ingrate must successes to riches and advancement to great places be without an honourable atchievement just acquisition These considerations stated a loyal person may more easily sift himself and after so many difficulties and tryals of a civil war enter more securely into the secrets of his own soul and their removing all scruples may more cleerly discerne how faithfully and sincerely he hath adhered too or how perfidiously and falsly he hath apostated and fallen from his duty to God and to his King It is true the world is too full of excuses and apologies each person clad with the resolutions of self interest either too much magnifying his owne merits or too much extenuating his own crimes and errors is sick of self love And as Minerva blowing a Flagellet or pipe puffed up her cheeks though to a deformity many swell and grow big with the breath of self opinion and though their wayes workes have been never so dissonant or opposite to honour reason
or alteration though from a discontented party or reconciled enemy in policy was not to be refused or unacceptable for though it might not much strengthen the King yet in some proportion it did debilitate and weaken the enemy and it might be probably hoped that as some branches had fallen from the Rebellious body others might follow their example or at least learn from them that an Army or party like a house or Kingdome divided within it self hath no long duration and cannot stand this declension from evil principles as it was an external testimony of repentance and grace so it must be acknowledged to be good service and a fair praeludium to future good effects but duty and endeavour of this Nature may rather and more fitly be reputed expiations for former crimes then pretensions to reward and merit which ever as the acute School men testify i Moritum importat aqualitatem justitiae Aquin. 3. quas 19. implyeth and importeth an equality of justice and right and justice doth not beg but boldly plead for desert and merit and to have and receive its rights not out of bounty or favour but as its due and debt a soveraign Throne cannot endure such petulant and bold pleaders This temper were rather tolerable in equals and Kings know none then inferiours and might better sute with commanders and soveraign Kings acknowledge none but God Rex a Deo primus nulli secundus then with those who have been offenders and in the highest priviledges ought to attend as humble petitioners So then though the service be never so infinite yet rising from the art and power of those who have so deeply offended there can be no pretences to merit which in a second reveiw is not to be granted or admitted without a lessoning diminution to the prerogatives of soveraignty which is so absolute that it cannot endure any intimation of command k Meritum est actio qua justum est ut agenti aliquiddetur Aquin. 3.49 c. 6. Now merit as the Schools teach is an action whereby it is not only might but necessary that reward and recompence be payed as a debt to him who hath acted now when the Actions and prevarications of those who have so highy injured and deeply wounded soveraignty and disturbed the peace and prosperity of three Kingdomes are ballanced and put into the Scales with their good works of loyalty though never so weighty they will be found utterly too light for reward or merit and rather justly prove objects of their Princes grace and clemency and in case their soveraign like Ahasuerus have inclined his royal Scepter towards them and thereby testified his bounty and goodnesse and so capacitated them with royal favour trust and honour these obligations as they magnifie the virtue of the Prince so they are as so many stronger chains to bind those who are obliged by them to greater perfection of loyalty and more exact and vigilant performances of their duty or else those favours will prove as so many witnesses to evidence against them and to accuse them of odious and monstruous ingratitude Meritum congrui condigni Aquin. l. 2. q. I 14. c. 6. And as to the medium or modification of the School distinction of condignity or is not to be admitted in this case for that of condignity or adequate merit is absolutely taken away and that of congruity or rather conveniency is totally and intirely to be recommended to the Princes Will Grace Wisdome and Iudgement who as he pleaseth may promote or punish as well as pardon by act of indemnity or amnesty as to royal pleasure shall seem expedient Apologies and excuses in delinquents thus exploded and all pretences to merit in those who have legally forfeited their lives liberties and estates by the laws of the land utterly abrogated what refuge can such offenders fly and address to as cordials to preserve their honour or their consciences perhaps some may plead their promise their vow their protestation their engagement or the covenant or their abjuration these were if righty judged exammined cunning subtile and sinful designs in the projectors and contrivers who framed them were Trumpets of Rebellion Sedition and faction sounded and blown up by those who promoted them and proved as snares to their Souls who either weakly submitted or with temporizing appetites did greedily swallow them and these cobweb lines spun out of the body womb of a venimous spider are not strong enough to hold a subjects hand or heart from his duty of faith allegiance towards his Soveraign and each one of these feeble and subsequent obligations being sifted by truth and reason as well as laws and justice will crumble to nothing before the oathes of allegiance and supremacy and the light of that duty that by municipal decrees by the laws of nature birth-right every subject oweth to his Prince being born under his prerogative and power in any of his Kingdomes or Dominions First as to promises l Promissio est actus iationis quia est enuntiatio ordinatio alicujus T. Aquin. 22. quae 88. a. 1. which are the suddain and usually most transient verbal obligations and ought to be effected of all persons of understanding Religion and Honour they ought ever to be acts of sound reason and judgement raised on good foundations and duly considered before they come to be published and proclaimed by the tongue or signed by the hand and even the strictest promises or paroles do not oblige the Faith or Honour of him that m Promissa non debent securari si estillicitum quod promittiur vel si sint mutatae conditionis personarum vel negotiorum Ad hoc ergo quod homo debeat servare quod promiserat oportet ut sit licitum quod promittitur quod omnia immutata permaneant Aquin. 22 ae quest 110. a. 35. promiseth if what be promised be illicit or unlawful or if the conditions of Persons or affairs be changed and altered These essentials rightly considered what ever promises have been made by subjects against the soveraignty of their Princes liberties of their Country laws of the land do fall to the Ground dissolve of themselves because of their illicit ununlawful foundation And as to the mutation of persons or affaires subjects are not to make new promises of combination or conspiracy against the true old principles of faith and true allegiance to their Kings for whether they sit gloriously and puissantly on their thrones or by any black misfortune are reduced to a low degree their character is indelible and being Gods vice-gerent in all conditions their subjects owe them reverence and true allegiance The first scruple thus easily blown over the second may prove of lesser difficulty some more zealous then judicious proceed further and plead they have not only promised but vowed now a vow seems to be a cord of stronger twisting the rather because an act of more
Kingdomes or Dominions or to authorise any Foreign Prince to invade or annoy him or his Countries or to discharge any of his Subjects of their Allegiance and obedience to his Majesty or to give license or leave to any of them to bear Arms raise Tumults or to offer any violence or hurt to his Majesties Royal Person State or Government or to any of his Majesties Subjects within his Majesties Dominions Also I do swear from my heart that notwithstanding any Declaration or sentence of Excommunication or Deprivation made or granted or to be made or granted by the Pope or his Successours or by any Authority derived or pretended to be derived from him or his See against the said King his Heirs or Successours or any Absolution of the said Subjects from their Obedience I will bear Faith and true Allegiance to his Majesty his Heirs and Successours and him and them will defend to the uttermost of my power against all conspiracies and attempts whatsoever which shall be made against his or their Persons their Crown and Dignity by reason or colour of any such Sentence or Declaration or otherwise and will do my best endeavour to disclose and make known unto his Majesty his Heirs and Successours all Treasons and Trayterous Conspiracies which I shall know or hear of to be against him or any of them And I do further swear That I do from my heart abhor detest and abjure as impious and heretical this Damnable Doctrine and Position That princes which be excommunicated or deprived by the Pope may be deposed or murthered by their Subjects or any other whatsoever And I do believe and in conscience am resolved that neither the Pope nor any person whatsoever hath power to absolve me of this Oath or any part thereof which I acknowledge by good and full Authority to be lawfully administred unto me and do renounce all pardons and dispensations to the contrary And all these things I doe plainly and sincerely acknowledge swear according to these expresse words by me spoken and according to the plain and common sense and understanding of the same words without any equivocation or mental evasion or secret reservation whatsoever And I do make this Recognition and acknowledement heartily willingly and truly upon the true faith of a Christian So help me God c. The Oath of Supremacy I A. B. Do utterly testifie and declare in my conscience that the King 's Highnesse is the onely Supream Governour of this Realm and of all other his Highnesse's Dominions and Countries as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical things or causes as Temporal And that no Foreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate hath or or ought to have any Jurisdiction Power Superiority Preeminence or Authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within this Realm And therefore I do utterly renounce and forsake all Forraign Jurisdictions Powrs Superiorities and Authorities and do promise that from henceforth I shall bear Faith and true Allegiance to the King's Highnesse his Heirs and lawfull Successours and to my power shall assist and defend all Jurisdictions Priviledges Preeminences and Authorities granted or belonging to the Kings Highness his Heirs and successours or united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm So help me God and by the contents of this book These Platforms and models of Oathes as they are of holy use to unite our fidedelity to God and Man so they are of Divine Authority and seem to be influential from Heaven from whence we have the Sacred example so the Scriptures testifie Exod 33.1 Depart hence unto the Land which I swear unto Abraham Isaac and Jacob. Thus divine usage is very frequent with God Deut 1.8.34.35 Psal 95.9 Luk. 1.73 Heb. 6.13 Heb. 7.21 And as God pleased to confirm his promise with an Oath So King David Gods annointed voweth and sweareth calling on God and praying Lord remember David and all his Afflictions how he swear unto the Lord and vowed to the mighty God of Jacob. Psal 132.1 2. And Solomon his royal Son gave Counsel to all his subjects and all the world I counsel thee to keep the Kings commandement and that in regard of the Oath of God Eccles 8.2 Having now set fourth the sacred ☜ Oaths and obligations of the Kings and Queens of England and of some of the cheif Officers and Ministers of State together with the Homage of the Ecclesiastical Hirarchy and temporal Nobility and of the three great Officers of Court the Lord high Steward the Master of the Horse and the Lord Chamberlain by their Oathes as privy counsellors under whose immediate command and power all servants at Court are sworn to fidelity and obedience in their respective relations and ranks of order degrees and subordinations It is plain and easie to every rational subject to discern and see the most excellent form of Government that the prudence and piety of former ages hath conveyed to the English to this present time and we cannot do less then admire and magnifie the gracious providence and riches of Gods favours to the Kingdome of England who hath with the golden chain of harmonious Government so lincked Kings and Queens to himself and all their subjects and people to their soveraign Princes that no Kingdome under the canopy of Heaven hath a better frame of Government either for Church or State or the transaction of Ecclesiastick or civil concernments and affaires in which there is such an incementing concatenation by wholesome laws and customes for justice and the happy preservation of all the peoples Rights that as the King may sit as happily and securely on his Throne as any Monarch on earth so his people may as prosperously thrive under his gracious Government and reposing themselves under their own vines and figtrees as cheerfully enjoy the inestimable blessings of their own just rights and labours Milk and Hony with the overflowing favours of Peace and Plenty How great a crime must it then be to wrest or break one of the invaluable lincks of this golden concatenation which Soveraign Princes graciously please to strengthen and consolidate if possible by their sacred Oathes to God which cannot but indear and more oblige ingenuous subjects to greater exactness of duty and fidelity considering that these pious proceeding are more acts of Grace and voluntary and Princely condescentions flowing from the fountaines of their own royal goodness being methods of high degrees of kindness and love where words or promises and those at their royal wills and pleasure are to be looked on not only as certainties and assurances but as deeds and compleat performances The civil Law expecteth as much from Noble men and Persons of Honour that there words be equally esteemed as their deeds m Promissa nobilinm pro factis habentur And Iser c. 1. Tantum fidei legalitatis presumitur in Nobilibus ut si quicquam promiserint id per equesit certum ac indubitatum ac si jam factum esset And Iser c 1.
Israelite was a person of honour and courage truly valiant 6 Temperance requisite in all royalists and therefore more proper for service of highest trust and as this bright shining virtue did shew it self in Hushai so temperance doubtlesse kept him company without whose influence understanding sence and reason or what can be thought honorable to a Prince will suddenly be drowned and overwhelmed in the stinking puddles of gluttony drunkennesse ryot luxury or detestable debaucheries Temperance and valour loves to keep company with justice And 't is very probable that this golden rule of doing right and giving to every man his due was a chief motive to King David to employ one of so just and righteous resolutions 7 Iustice and upright dealing who so dutifully paying his loyalty to his Prince as so cheerfully to hazard and adventure his life might possibly be more succesful in so near a concernment as the preserving of a King on his Throne and the appeasing and extinguishing of the flames of so formidable a treason These three fair Ladies are never without the society and counsel of Prudence 8 Prudence and in this perillous juncture she might be more highly useful because as Plato she is the cheifest guide that best adviseth humain actions q Prudentia sola praeit ducit ad recte faciendum Plato in menae Aristotle is more plain urging r Fieri non potest ut quisquam vere probus sine prudentia audiat Arist. hic that no man can be justly stiled good or honest who is not prudent as necessary to true Policy and Government as the line and plummet to the skilful Architect Å¿ Vt Architectis nullum epus recte processcrit sine libella I. Lips This as the rudder turnes the Ship and best steers the course when she is under saile the King experiencing a quick and lively spirit a great judgement and more solid understanding in his loyal subject the Archite resolved to make choice of his faithful abilities when his Crown and life and all that was soveraign and truly royal seemed to be in an ambiguous and dangerous state To all these the constancy the fidelity the secresie the extraordinary friendship passionate love and amity that King David had for Hushai or that Hushai had for the person and high calling of the King these happy experiences might rationally incline King Davids confidence 9 Constancy Fidelity Secresy are requisite in true loyalists to recommend and commissionate his faithful subject to manage and conduct this weighty business These are lively marks of true loyalists and well worthy and becoming the imitation of all who pretend to be loyal subjects yet this case of Hushai seems to be of a most remarkable and extraordinary quality both in respect of King David and in relation to Hushai First in regard of the King who surprised with a rebellion under a pretence of Religion and a vow to be performed at Hebron was forced to a suddain necessity to use his greatest Art and Policy to disperse and dissolve that growing traiterous cloud which began to spread and to look so formidable Thus a great Critick adventures to comment on the text t Non deserebant Davidem in tantis malis suae Artes sed ubi Leonina non proderat assumit vulpinam H. Grotius in 2 Sam. 1â— and saith David as a great commander and experienced general wanted neither wit nor arts and martial designs to crush in peices and counterplot Absolons ambitious aimes others conjecture that this extraordinary command and commission was given to Hushai from David as his King who having a soveraign power over all his subjects might exact obedience having a superlative Authority in so great a peril to circumstance his royal pleasure in this service as the King should please to judge fit for persons time and place and this seems very probable from the Prophet Samuel u 2 Sam. 15.33.34 Si veneris mecum eris mihi oneri who thus records the dialogue betwixt the King and Hushai If thou passest on with me thou shalt be a burden to me but if thou return into the City thou maist defeat the Counsel of Achitophel And Vatablus x Videsne tu valesne tu in concilio quod si vales concilio revertere plus enim mihi profueris redeundo quam manendo Vatablus in loc 2. Sam. 1â— seemeth to encline much to this purpose as if the King had reasoned y Nonne videns es nonne Propheta es si dominus responderit tibi redeundum in urbem redito Chal. Paraph. the case and debated with Hushai thus saying thou art a subject of great experience as sharp-sighted as an Eagle in popular commotions strong in judgement prudent in Counsels Eloquent and powerful in perswasion a Lion for courage and a Lamb for courtship civility and curtesie go thou into the City Hierusalem and if possible defeat Achitophels counsel there is a third conjecture which seems to carry with it the clearest truth and that is in this unexemplary command and service King David as a Prophet and the Lords annointed by a divine direction or infusion from above in this sea of troubles guided more especially by the dictates of Gods holy spirit found out this happy expedient to avoide his Enemies and to destroy their traiterous combinations this seem to be genuinly derived from the sacred history 2 Sam. 15.31 which relates that King David worshipping God fell to his prayers and said z 2 Sam. 15.34 Dixeris Absolom servus tuus sum Rex Patere me vivere O Lord I pray thee turn the counsel of Achitophel into foolishnesse and the King had no sooner ended his prayers and was come to the top of the mount where he worshipped God but Hushai came to meet him and the King as directed by the spirit of God immediately commandeth Hushai instructing him with the matter and a form of such words as seemed to be sutable only for such a service as he was employed in and as sent from Heaven to save a King from perishing and to preserve a Kingdome a Say Hushai unto Absolon I will be thy servant O King as I have been thy Fathers servant hitherto so will I now be thy servant also This commission was only sutable to such a soveraign Prince whose divine spirit was directed from above and it is very colligible from the context of this story that King David had for the transaction of this high concern wherein a King a Church and Kingdome were all in such eminent danger an extraordinary and prophetical spirit and that will plainly manifest itself when it is observed and scanned how Hushai comported himself in this royal trust wherein the King employed him which was so succesful that by Gods assistance it caused the ruine of the traitors and that high rebellion The Prophet mentions Hushai's insinuation into Absolons presence and into his Counsels wherein as he shewed
nothing else to doe but to study how to Rule and Reign and hereby I shall enforce you to believe that you shall not be able to make a Royal Throne a passage into my Fathers prison And after you have presented me with a Crown to dare to wish me so much ill as once to think of Chains and Irons I know well that this discourse will surprise you and that you did not believe when you presented me with a Scepter that I should not rather have received it with Thanks then Reprehensions but this act is extraordinary in its commencement in its progress and in its conclusion and it is just that all circumstances should be proportionable Let it then suffice you onely to know that if I be ignorant to what point Subjects are to pay their obeisance yet I am not ignorant to what degree Soveraigns may extend their clemency Notwithstanding there is this difference betwixt them that the Subjects have no limits for the first but Soveraigns have for the latter The People are obliged to the Princes wills both by their Births their Lawes They owe them their goods their lives and their liberties and their Princes owe them nothing but Iustice which can hardly pardon Traytors If these Truths Maximes had been equally understood and followed by the late King my Soveraign and you his People affairs had not been in that sad condition as they now are The State had not been reduc'd to such confusion the Provinces had not been Cantonized Germany had not been so full of Factions Italy had not been so divided all the Cities of the Kingdom had not had so many kings as they now have Governours you had not been guilty of the crime of Treason in elevating an Usurper to the Throne the King my Father might still have Reigned or at least I might have received the Crown from his hands and not from yours his Tomb might have been bedewed with my tears his Scepter had not been prophaned his Hearse might have been covered with Trophies not with Chains you might have been happy and innocent But as his Clemency and your Rebellion were the sole causers of all these evils so your Obedience and my Iustice are the only means to make reparation Consider a little I pray you that you fall not back in the same estate wherein you were in what Relation you now stand and in what condition I am First you have violated all sorts of Rights in the person of your King you have raised a War against him you have assaulted him and afterwards poysoned him you have abused the confidence he had in you you have detained him prisoner with as great Treason as Injustice with as great insolency as cruelty an injury which was never offered hardly to the person of an ordinary Herald Thus you have violated and impudently abused your King you have detained him prisoner during a Treatie of Peace for five years together led him from prison to prison you have forced him not only to set by his Militia and to depose his Crown but you have constrain'd him with violence to transfer it into other hands then to mine To conclude you put him to death and you have reduced my self to a strict necessitie to search my safetie in my flight and to go and shew my miserie beyond the Seas Yet this is not all you have done one thing which never any did before it hath been seen sometimes that the Grandees of a Kingdom have interposed themselves against a Tyranny and have destroyed it but 't was never seen that they themselves elevated a Tyrant to the Throne as you have done In these kind of crimes the Abettors may be said to be more criminal then he who hath received all the fruit For if each one of you in particular had aspired to set the Crown upon his own head you might have been more excusable then to have snatcht it from your lawfull Prince to place it on the head of an Vsurper But you 'l say to me the Prince that bore it was not able to support it To that I shall answer As I have the honour to be his Son and was his Subject it belongeth not to me to determine what he could or what he could not seeing he was my Father I ought not to presume to be his judge and seeing he was my King I ought not to be so impudent to censure much lesse to condemn his actions he being not obliged to render an account to any But God alone Believe then the same respect I have for his memorie you ought to have had for his person he was your King as well as mine seeing then that Kings are called the Fathers of the people Their Subjects are obliged to have for them a true resentment of a respect which their very birth may infuse into them Besides as Soveraigns are the true Images of God and that the splendor of their puissance is abeam and ray of his power Subjects ought to have an equal submission to their Soveraigns will When you see a Comet appear the Sun eclipsed the Thunder bolt fall on innocent heads when you see Floods drown whole Towns by their inundation and the Sea passing his bounds and swallowing whole Provinces in the bottome of the deep devour them up When you see an Earthquake make Kingdoms tremble and cause horrid devastations of whole Countries then I say it is permitted to the People to murmure Do you not discern the contrarie how in these occurrences they redouble their vowes and prayers and that they are never more obedient to God then at such a time as if God had forsaken his providence of the Universe and when it shall so happen that Heaven for the punishment of your sins gives you a Prince under whose Reign policy and prudence are not well observed during whose Government Forraign and Civil Wars devour all with cruell ravages it belongeth not then to you to reprehend and condemn your Soveraign for is he feeble then you ought to sustain him is he unfortunate you ought to bemoan him is he wicked you ought to look upon him as a scourge and chastisement sent from Heaven and to wait with Patience for a remedie from that hand which hath caused your evil For when a Prince commands an Armie and gives Battail if it so happen that the Souldiers perform not their devoirs and dutie that his squadrons yield the main body be broken and in the end after he hath done even miracles in his person he be yet constrained to quit the field and to retreat from his Enemies is it not the Prince that loseth the Battail Is it not the Prince that suffers the disgrace Is it not the Prince that is reputed vanquisht And that bears the loss and infamie of the day Notwithstanding that by his own particular actions he hath merited to be conqueror seeing it is thus why will not you in such conjunctions bear with the infirmities misfortunes
of your Princes as well as they do with yours Or to speak something yet nearer to the quick why doe you not repair these disorders by your own more exact obedience The Prince alone is obvious in a Battail to the infamie Cowardise and misfortune of his whole Army and you are thousands who are obliged to strengthen the Authoritie and honour of your King which he cannot support with his single valour Believe me if all Subjects would be loyal no Kingdome could be miserable and if all Princes thought more of severity then of Clemencie there would not be so many Subjects Rebels Moreover if it were permitted to the Capritious people to take and give Crowns when they fancied a change I conceive there is not a Shepheard but might hope to be a King and not a King but might be reduced to be a Shepheard so unruly and uncertain are their floating judgements But to speak the truth to you these things ought not thus to pass we are your Masters and you ought not to become ours It is not that I am ignorant that God disposeth of Scepters and Crowns as he pleases and gives them as he lists and bestowes them on or takes them from whom he will and what he alwayes doth is without all injustice sometimes permitting that the people shall elevate to the Throne those who never pretended to such a high degree But when such an accident happeneth it is usually in favour to those extraordinary persons in whom Virtue hath imprest a Royal Character so visible that it were almost injustice not to admit them Kings To conclude that which precedes and that which follows ought to be sufficient to justifie the effect and it became Charles Martel Pepin and Charlemain puissantly to erect a Throne which was not founded upon a line of right succession yet even in this re-encounter you will see the event to this present hath not authorized your design The Engine of this enterprize hath been slain in battail The Arch-Bishop of Rhemes preserved not his life but three dayes after he had anointed the Usurper But it is not seasonable to day to exaggerate the injustice of your proceedings I am not willing to particularize other things and I shall satisfie my self with telling you in general that Kings ought not to lose their Crowns but with their lives and that nothing can dispense Subjects from the respect and loyalty which they owe to their Soveraigns nor any pretence whatsoever Authorize Treason and Rebellion If sacred persons may not enjoy their particular priviledge which is derived from none but God they shall be exposed more then others to all sorts of miseries Their guards will appear to them instead of enemies their Thrones will rather seem a direful precipice then a place of honour and safety a King of this kind is no better then an illustrious slave when he shall have as many Masters as Subjects This first disorder will quickly cause a second for when the Nobles of a Kingdom fail in their duty to their Prince their own Vassals and Tenants will forfeit their fealtie to them and then Rebellion communicated from the Grandees to the Commons and so descending from one Soul to another an universal confusion swells and devours all Every one will command and no person obey and in this resentment of Levelling equality each person proves a slave to his own ambition no one either rationally Commands himself or others In effect this is the most sad condition that a Kingdom can fall into when there is no subjection and where for their punishment the Prince hath not force to reduce the people to their obedience For mine own part when I consider my self to be the Son of a King the successour of so many Kings and yet notwithstanding that I immediately succeed not my Father This Idea imprints in me a strange confusion as towards you and an extream grief as towards my self for when I reflect how the same Subjects who inchained Charles in Fetters and gave the Crown to Robert placed Lewis on the Throne the malice which they bore to the Father may it not easily fall upon the Son and may not they fear that the Son will revenge the outrages committed against the Father but yet may some one say those who have searcht after you and pass'd the Seas to present you with a Scepter they need not fear that the memory of their ancient injustice will obliege you to punish them They have reason rather to believe that this submission should blot out the memory of the first disservice It is certain in the exact Rule of justice no noble Action ought to pass without his recompence and it is really as true That no crime ought to escape without his punishment After all these reasons what ought you not to fear and what not to hope you have recalled me to the Throne 't is true but if you had not had you not been as Criminal against Lewis as you had been against Charles he who gives to another that which he hath taken from him restores without doubt that which he hath taken but his restoration is not a free present and he ought not to expect thanks for an Action of that nature No it sufficeth of one punish not the first without intending any recompence for the second I may say also that you understand not rightly all my present concernments for why because you have not left me still in exile because you have rendred what justly appertained to me Because you understood that I came to re-demand mine own not with a powerful Army and being tired with your crimes and miseries you believe you may probably disarm the furie of Heaven by this Act of justice No no confide not in any of these pretences for if I had not stronger considerations then these I should commence my Reign with the punishment of your treasons I should send them to prison who restrained the person of my Father expose them to the most cruel tortures who contrived and caused his death with the greatness of his misfortunes Those black crimes are such which nothing can exterminate Repentance and tears from common errours where humane frailty may plead excuse and not for Traitors and Rebels nor for those who have destroyed Thrones and Scepters inchaind Kings created and protected Tyrants Think not then that by taking an Oath of fidelity which is your dutie that I am thereby ingaged not to doe what becomes a King No I scorn a Throne where I should be a slave and I had rather be obscured in prison as my Father was then not to Reign as Soveraign Those people with whom Loyalty is elective forbear not to make their Kings absolute because they could have no pretence of Iustice to do otherwise judge then if those who hold their Crowns from Heaven ought to acknowledge their subjects for their Masters whether they ought not rather to punish or pardon as best agreeth with their
pleasure In a word I find it far more glorious to be a loyal Subject then to be a King disobeyed Prepare then your selves to render me all that obedience which you owe me and without farther informing you whether you are to hope more for Clemency or Iustice resolve your selves to an absolute submission I know well some peevish Polititians will censure that I act not as I ought in this conjuncture and that I should reflect on former passages with some sweetness and gratifie you with Presents to encourage you with future hopes but I presume my Policy is more generous and more secure then theirs for if I had so perswaded you perhaps you would have believed me to have been more fit to wear my Fathers Irons then his Crown and would have more suspected me of weakness and dissimulation this excessive indulgence would give you more of fear and me less of honour and estimation I being then so far from following such Maximes tell you once more that I declare my self to be your King And without farther capitulation with you I ascend the Throne by the steps of mine own Authority as Soveraignly as if not recalled by you at all Hitherto I have let you know I am not ignorant how far the duty of Subjects ought to bend But moreover I judge it fit to acquaint you to what degree Soveraign Clemency may extend it self to this end that by that resentment you may reasonably know what to fear and what to hope Know then that although a Prince may justly punish Traytors he may likewise pardon penitent offenders principally then when he discerns his pardon shall reclaim insolency to obedience and fidelity For seeing Kings are the Fathers of the people they ought not alwayes to be too severe in justice and seeing that a Prince may afford grace and pardon to his enemies he may without doubt shew pity and mercy to his own Subjects He cannot well punish them all but must in part enfeeble himself nor sluce out their blood without emptying his own veins wherefore he ought to spare as far as Reason and Iustice can make the way passable When then a particular accident grows up against a Prince or State it may suffice that the heads of some chief offendors be sacrificed to a reparation and that by some severe examples others may be instructed with exemplary terrour But seeing that the number of the offendors may prove infinite and if all should be punish't a desolation of entire Provinces might succeed and consequently more men be lost then 15. main Battails could devour so that the piles of dead corps should make mountains and severe execution of revenge cause Rivers of bloud in such considerations I say It may be better to use a great example of Clemencie then of Iustice and hazard something rather then to loose the lives of so many miserable souls and there cannot be a greater Victory then to vanquish ones own passion in such dangerous conjunctures Fear not then that I shall abuse my Authority since if I should punish all who have offended I should reduce my Kingdom to a forlorn Desart For who is there among you that hath not failed of his duty Some have done mischief others have desired it or at least permitted it to be acted some have assisted Robert others have directly fought against their King some have most perfidiously laid their hands upon their Anointed Lord committed a sâcred person into prison and others have at least forsaken him The publick good is pretext of all things but Rebellion alone is the mother of that horrid Monster The Nobles agitated as they did for their own interest and the people by their madness and unavisedness seconded their fury and put in execution the intention of the Parricides Your wives and your children are not exempt from these crimes seeing without doubt they made vowes for their Parents offending and prayers against their Prince Whereas then I cannot punish you all but that I must utterly exterminate you it resteth at my choice whether I would become a King without Subjects or to pardon you out of pure grace and bounty and not by Obligations It may be that during your lives you may repent you of your ancient crimes and become as faithful as you have been disobedient But perhaps you will tell me as to our selves we have repented formerly before we sent to you to come and receive the Scepter which belongs to you 'T is true it may be as you have said and that I have considered your Addresses to me were to make reparation of what formerly passed and that with those hands you would advance to the Throne his Son whose Father you had barbarously removed But after all whosoever can abandon the path of Virtue to make choice of that Vice can again embrace that occasion if presented Wherefore you owe greater obligation to me then I can confidence to you for had I not resolved to shew Grace and Pardon the great number of Nobles which the King of England my Uncle hath presented to me to attend my person had not come without Souldiers each one of these who incircle me have troops at their command and I would not have received my Fathers Crown but in the head of a victorious Army in the midst of a Field covered with dead and dying men bedewed with the blood of ten thousand Rebels I would have been the Conquerour of my Kingdom and not have mounted unto the Throne supported by the same hands who snatcht it from my Fathers head But I call to mind I am your King as you are also my Subjects and in this relation I can love you yet as guilty as you are I can have pitty for your errors and kindness for your obstinacy and I will not put my self into a condition of sadness after the Victory I am then come to you without an Army to receive what is mine This Action without doubt is hardy bold and well deserveth glory and is sufficiently obliging to demerit your acknowledgement in all degrees of fidelity Before that you were criminous the Divine humane right conjured you notto forsake your Prince but this day a new obligation chaineth you to more strict obedience It is not enough alone to be faithful so to satisfie your dutie but it is your part to blot out the memorie of what is past and to justifie what is present you ought not to look on me meerly as your King but as a King of your own choice as a King who hath pardoned you as a King who confideth in you who now is commending his person into your hands and commits the very care of his life to your protection next to Heaven Studie then to gratifie such pressing endearments and provoke not the wrath of Heaven uppon your heads by new rebellions Those who have examined your by past actions approve not doubtless that resolution that I have taken to return into France as I have done for
they will tell me what confidence can you have in those who had no regard to their lawfull Sovereign They pretend much to desire your presence but their fears exceed their desires And it is rather to secure your person then to advance your Scepter that though you are this day recalled yet as long as your youth continu'd they suffer'd you to live in exile obeyed Robert but he being dead at present and they seeing that you were in a condition to obtain by force that which they now offer they seem to repent not so much regarding your loss as themselves Behold the reasons which have here contested with my resolution which seeing they are not without some rational ground I have not desisted to perswade my self and that in double choice whether to make a War with you or confide in you I have chose the latter as more glorious and I love rather to hazard my person then the destruction of all my Kingdoms Those who taught me the art to Reign have well fore-seen the Exigencies to which I am now reduced and therefore without doubt they took so much care to advise me what to do in justice and what I might be allowed to doe in Clemencie These two Virtues appear as contraries but are not they accord easily in the heart of a Prince They mutually give place each one to the other in the Empire of his Soul according to the divers occasions which are presented for he ought alwayes to abound in Clemencie and he ought not likewise to be ever too severe with the strict measure of justice Mercy and justice are two excellent Virtues but Prudence ought to imploy them both And the Princes sole Will ought to be the only rule to guide them Having then conjured you to an equal confidence in me as I have in you let an Act of Oblivion pass and let us remember no more former crimes unless it be to prevent relapses Let us not look on the Tomb of Charles but meerly to bedew it with the tears of tender Repentance Not to make it an Altar whereupon to sacrifice his Enemies let us Raze to the ground those horrid Cells which served for his Imprisonments thereby if possible to destroy the memory and not to leave a mark or point to posterity of those black crimes let us ascend the Throne with as much splendor as if it had never been prophaned and let us Reign if possible with more honour King my Soveraign did But do not think I shall be able to effect it without the aid and succours of my Subjects deceive not your selves the valour and prudence of the Prince are not sufficient of themselves to make a Kingdom happy The Subjects ought to contribute their proportions The Nobles are to offer their loyal Obedience and the people to follow their good example and both degrees ought to be united in virtue for otherwise he who giveth Victory and Masters Fortune will approve the virtue of the Prince in punishing the vice of the Subjects Those who are valiant do not alwayes gain the Battail and those who are wise are not alwayes fortunate However let us place our selves in such a capacity that we may be successfull though we cannot merit it See here what your Prince hath said unto you who in Lieu of punishing you hath pardoned you instead of fighting with you prepares to defend you instead of being your Enemy becomes your Conservator and who by his own birth and your choice is now your Lord your Master and your King These two qualities permit me not to Capitulate farther with you It sufficeth that I onely adde this That I admit you to hope for clemencie whilest I Reign as I wish you to fear alwayes my justice and beware that you put not your selves in a condition to make tryal of the second or of loosing the former FINIS The Censure on King LEWIS the IV. of FRANCE C Iulius Caesar did in his youth a C. Iulius Caesar quam Syllam fugeret etiamnum adolescens incidit in Piratas Cilices derisit praedones vilut quē ignaros cepissent seque duplum dare pollicitus est imperavit illis ut silerent nec sibi dormienti ob streperent Stupidos ac barbaros appellabat cumque risu minitabatur se illos acturum in crucem quod perfecit sparkle and radiat forth the beams of Majesty who avoiding the rage of Sylla and then falling into the hands of the Cilician Pyrats contemn'd those barbarous Sea-Rovers who asking a poor sum for Caesars Ransome francly promised twice as much as they demanded and being detained until his Ransome was paid boldly commanded the slaves to silence and not to dare to interrupt their Prisoners rest with noise When they vilifyed verses and orations of Caesars own Composure he called them dull and stupid barbarians and was so incensed highly displeased that he did threaten the villains with the Gallows which decree and resolution was in a short time most puissantly effected And as Caesar so Alexander did suffer no thought to rise from his magnanimous soul but what was truly Great and Noble b Plutarch An non hie statimagnescis indolem Alexandri Magni cui nihil mediocre satis esse posset idem in vitâ It is from the stemm and Root of Royalty that Princely Actions bud and Germinate and such an action and endeavour became Lewis at this juncture and glorious opportunity which did carry with it much of generosity as well as prudence and did not so much savour of fierceness and the impetuosity of youth as of the sage and noble Conduct of a truly Generous and magnanimous Prince Yet some may object and politickly urge what state prudence counselled this young Monarch to speak to his Subjects so high when he was so low and having scarce got well on horsback thus to salute his Subjects who had there Arms in their hands Rebels Subjects who had lately tumbled his Father from the Throne who had torn the Crown from of his Sacred Head changed his Scepter into chains and his Pallace into a prison might not this bold entrance to the Throne have rather provoked them to desperation then obedience and raised a new tempest which could not be appeased without much difficulty might not this noise have served to awaken them to fresh jealousies and fears which their own prudence should have taught them Certainly this objection at the first view seems invincible that Lewis did not appear so discreet and judicious as his condition required notwithstanding he failed not in his kingly craft for whosoever shall examine this great Action from the bottom and weigh the arguments maturely will be convinced of this opinion and neither condemn the Generosity nor the resolution of Lewis in this eminent action The Counsels of prudence prove different according to several conjunctures of occasions and ought to change their countenances according to the present diversities and important alterations of affairs And