power by certain humane means introduced by custome which notwithstanding hinders not but their power may be founded in the Word of God when they are once established for as we said before the Question is not of the means by which a Prince comes to the Kingdome but what Obedience is due to him after he is once instaled And therefore Saint Peter after he had called this Ordinance an humane Ordinance commands us to subject our selves for the Lords sake and to obey his command Whosoever makes the Authority of Kings depend upon the institution of men and not upon the Ordinance of God lessens their Majesty more then three quarters and takes from them that which secures their lives and Crowns more then their Guards or mighty Armies which plants in the Subjects hearts Fear instead of Love and Reverence Then the fidelity and obedience of Subjects will be firm and lasting when it shall be incorporated with piety and accounted a part of Religion and of the service we owe to God This foundation being over-turned that the Authority of Kings is but an humane Ordinance that which they build upon it must necessarily fall for to reason thus that the people may take away their Authority from the King because they gave it him is to prove one absurdity by another as if one should prove the Moon might be burnt because it s made of wood For to say the people gave the power to the King is to imagine that which never was no not in Kingdomes which are Elective The People give not the King his Authority for they cannot give that they have not but he defers his obedience to Henry or Charles But this Prince being elected receives his Authority from God as the beginning and source from whence all power flowes By me Kings Raign Pro. 8.15 And there is no Power but of God Rom. 13.1 None ought therefore to take this Power which God hath given him Thus the Wife choseth her Husband and gives him a promise of obedience in marriage but it is not she that gives him his Authority that comes from above And there is as great an absurdity to say that the People may depose the King because they chuse him as to affirm that the Woman may put away her Husband or subject him to her when she shall judge expedient because that she made choice of him For the woman loseth the liberty of her choice by the bond of marriage and the People likewise lose the liberty to revoke their choice when the Prince Elected is declared King 'T is a strange consequence to say that the people may take away the Kings Authority because they have sworn obedience to him the Election is no other thing And it 's a reason that overthrows it self to say that the people may take from the King his Authority because they gave it him For put the case that it were true that the people gave Authority to the King whom they Elect since then the people have given away their Authority 't is no more in them This maxime being once admitted that it is lawful for every one to take back again what he hath given it would break the Laws of Society and fill the world with injustice and confusion But let our enemies know that although the Authority of the King had not begun before the Oath of Allegiance which this Parliament took in a Body at the beginning of their sitting yet the Body of the State made thereby an irrevocable gift of their obedience to the King and from this Oath we draw a better consequence then theirs namely that they cannot dispose of their obedience since they have given it to the King So that were their reasons good they would be of no force but in Kingdomes which were Elective and make nothing against King Charles for neither he nor any of the Kings his Ancestors in all ages past ever came to the Crown by Election It 's not to purpose to alledge the Oath the King took at his Coronation as an agreement and paction made with his people equivalent to an Election for the King receives not his Kingdome at his Coronation he is King before his Crown is put on and therefore Watson and Clark who conspired against King James of glorious memory were justly condemned as guilty of High Treason although they alledged that the King was not then Crowned and it was judged by the Court that the Crowning was but a ceremony for to make the King known to his people It 's the like also in France I judge saith Bodin that no man doubts but the King enjoyes before his Anointing the possession and propriety of his Kingdome Before this ceremony the King enjoyes as fully all his Rights as after and according to the Laws of France and England the King never dies whilst there remains any of the Royal Blood for in the same hour that the King expires the lawful Heir is totally invested of the Kingdome Wherefore the Eldest Sonne of Edward the Fourth who was murthered by his Uncle Richard is by general consent numbered amongst the Kings and named Edward the Fifth although he never wore the Crown nor took any Oath nor exercised any Authority Henry the Sixth was not Crowned but in the ninth year of his Reign and yet before his Coronation many were attainted of High Treason which could not have been done if he had not been acknowledged King In the Oaths of the Kings of France and England at their Coronation there is no image of stipulation covenant or agreement betwixt them and their subjects They receive not their Crowns upon any condition and their people owe their obedience whether they perform or violate their promises This Oath is a laudible custome profitable to bear up the Authority of the Prince by the love of his Subjects and to give to the people this satisfaction that the King whom God hath given them hath an intention to govern them with Justice and Clemency and to preserve their Rights and Liberties If the King by his Oath should bind himself to fall from the Right to his Kingdome when he should violate his Promises he would then be lesser after his Oath then before and surely if the Kings did believe they should diminish their propriety by their Oath they would never take it and to shew that their Authority depends not of their Oath but their Oath of their Authority the Kings of England form it at their pleasure Very hardly shall you find three that have taken the same Oath without changing some things That which was presented to Henry the Eighth which is to be seen in the Rolls was corrected by his own hand and interlined And moreover the Oath is made to God and not to the People and binds the Conscience of the Prince but doth not limit his Soveraignty if the intention of this solemnity were to make a stipulation or agreement with the people the people at the same time should also
not alter the Nature of the two Houses and the Gentlemen of the Parliament have often protested that they would not make use of this Act of Grace to the disadvantage of his Majesty so then if there were no Soveraignty resident in the two Houses before this grant there is no more after and the pretended Fundamental Laws not written that parts Soveraignty between the King and his Subjects yea that transport it wholly to the people are much to be suspected of falsity since they never appear but since the promise they obtained of the King both to his and their great damage to perpetuate this Parliament as long as they pleased and since they have begun to exercise the Soveraignty by force of Arms. Thus the new Nobility after they had obtained the Firss by right or wrong produce Coats of Arms and Titles which were heretofore unknown They maintain this their New Soveraignty by a Maxime of Stephanus Junius Brutus Rex est singulis Major universis Minor That is to say as they expound it That the King is the Soveraign of Particulars but the Representative body of the State is greater then he and have Soveraignty over him and all their Writers and amongst others the Observator on the Kings Answers attribute Majestie to the Commonalty and not to the King or Supreme if this be true it 's very strange how this Representative Body of the State the Parliament have left it so long time to the Kings the Court of Wards and many other Rights of Soveraignty which they have enjoyed without Contradiction until that present Parliament This vile Maxime then being destitute of all proofs from the Laws and Customes of the State ought to be despised but moreover it is also void of all reason for if the English be subject to their King in Retail are they not in Gross if in pieces not in the whole being born Subjects have they power to give the Soveraignty to their Deputies or Parliament men and make them Chief that is to say can they give them that which they have not And seeing also that they cannot assemble in Parliament without the King or Supreme Magistrates Writ this Writ of the Kings doth it render them forthwith Soveraigns above the King The stile of the Writ calls them ad Consul andum de quibusdam arduis to consult with him about some difficult affairs and not to master him and to dispose of his Authority And since they call this great Court the Body Representative of Subjects they must needs then be Subjects otherwise they should not represent them who sent them and that which the King accords to should be granted to Soveraigns but his Subjects should receive no benefit thereby He who will well examine this Proposition That the Soveraignty over the Soveraign rests in the Representative body of Subjects shall find it full of contradictions and to destroy it self They cannot bring any probable reason saith Bodin that the Subjects ought to command their Prince and that the Assembly of Estates ought to have any power unless when the Prince is under age or distracted or captive then the Estates may depute him a Regent or Lieutenant Otherwise if Princes were subâ—ect to the Laws of the States and Commands of the people their Power were nothing and the Title of a King would be a Name without the thing moreover under such a Prince the Common-wealth should not be governed by the people but by some few persons equal in their Suffrages who who would make Laws and Edicts not by the Authority of the Prince but by their own who for all that come and present him humbly with requests every one apart by himself and all in a body making shew of Faithfulness and Obedience these things are as ridiculous as can be imagined thus saith Bodin Behold here the Form of State of our Covenanters in their beginning so drawn to the life by this learned Person that one would say he took the very Copie from them In effect when under a Monarchy a Faction in an Assembly of States shall take upon them the Soveraignty the State change not into an Aristocracy nor Democracy but into a pure Obligarchy which is the worst of all Forms of State and but the corruption of others The Royal Power being once usurped 't is not then the greatest nor the best nor the most who govern the affairs but some few unquiet and ambitious persons who love contention and know how to fish in troubled waters and as these men deceive the King with a false Idea of Soveraignty so they deceive their companions perswading them that the have part in their Authority because they have voices in the House for in such Assemblies where the choice of persons is more by hap then Judgment the Suffrage is to all but the Power is in a few The same Author numbring the Soveraign and absolute Monarchies of Christendom places England and Scotland amongst them and saith That without all Question their Kings have all the rights of Majesty and that it is not lawful for their Subjects neither apart nor in a Body to attempt any thing against the Life Reputation or Goods of their Soveraign be it either by ways of Force or Justice although he were guilty of all the crimes a man could imagine in a Tyrant For the Subjection that the Parliament owe to their King we can have no better witness then the Parliament it self for that disloyal maxime that the body of the State is above the King is contradicted by the ordinary stile of their papers presented to the King by this Body The Two Houses most humbly beseech their Soveraign Lord the King and they qualifie themselves the most humble and loyal subjects of his Majesty 'T is the Presentative Body of the Kingdome who speaks and nothing by way of Complement but Duty This Preface hath an excellent Grace in the beginning of a Declaration of the Two Houses to their King wherein they tell him that they deal favourably with him if they do not depose him and that they may do it without exceeding the limits of their Duty and Modesty This discourse is like the Locusts of the bottomless pit Revelations 9. which had the faces of men but the tails of Scorpions and therefore to avoid this disproportion in their Articles presented to the King at New-Castle they left out the Qualification of Subjects The ordinary Preface of Statutes do lively express the Nature of the three Estates The King by the Advice and Consent of the Prelates Earls and Barons and at the instance and request of the Commonalty hath ordained c. For it 's the King alone properly that ordains the Peers as Councellors advise and Consent the Commons as Suppliants require and solicite The Parliament held in the twenty fourth year of Henry the Eight speaks thus By divers ancient and authentical Histories and Chronicles it is manifestly declared that this Kingdome of England is an
him that spake them like unto the bitings of the weasel who consumes his teeth by gnawing of steel Certainly when the Divines of France defend in their writings the Confession of Faith of his Majesty against the Doctors of the contrary Religion they account not that King a most mortal enemy of the Church That most holy Confession confirmed by the practice of that great Prince will serve as a bright shining light in the Church in after Ages and cover the memory of them who injured and reproached him with perpetual shame But for the present thâ—se rare Adages which curse the best of Kings and Royalty in general are gather'd as choice and golden sentences Witnesse this other which comes from the Authority of his Companion as great a liar as himself who hath this passage He erres not much who saith that there is in all Kings a mortal hatred against the Gospel they will not suffer willingly the King of Kings to govern in their Kingdomes yet God hath some amongst the Kings who pertain to him but very few it may be one in an hundred But since he is upon the number instead of counting a hundred Kings one after another let him account only a hundred years without going out of England and we intreat this good man to consider what Kings have raigned over this Kingdome within this hundred years and let him in good earnest tell us which of them he would leave to God and which he would give to the Devil let them consider the piety of him whom God hath made a Saint and they a Martyr let them find if they can in all his Kingdome a man more just and meek more temperate and religious and let envy and rebellion who finding nothing to bite at in the life of this Monarch burst asunder at his feet and hide themselves in their own confusion Let us say the same to the Observator upon his Majesties Declarations who speaking of all Kings now raigning but with a particular application to his Soveraign saith That to be the delight of mankind as Titus Vespasian is now a sordid thing amongst Princes but to be tormentors and executioners of the Publique to plot and contrive the ruine of their subjects which they ought naturally to protect is now accounted a work worthy of Caesar If reviling and speaking reproachful words against the King were blasphemy according to the stile of the civil Laws of Israel 1 King 21 10. then this impious person is a Blasphemer in the highest degree against the sacred Majesty of Kings and moreover exceeding ridiculous as well as wicked to appropriate this description to his King whose known piety justice and clemency deserved rather the title of the delights of mankind then that Emperour upon whom the love of the people conferred it The like I may speak of the Kings of France within these fifty years all the Lists of the French Kings furnisheth not such excellent Princes wherefore Aphorismes of Rebellion could never have been pronounced in an age more proper to give the Authors the lye The Lord rebuke these black souls who curse God in the person of his Anointed their sentence is written and their qualities painted out to the life by St. Peter 2 Pet. 2.10 11 12. who despise Dominions presumptuous self-willed they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities whereas Angels which are greater in power bring not railing accusations against them before the Lord but these are natural bruit beasts made to be taken and destroy'd speak evil of things which they understand not and shall utterly perish in their own corruption I might heap up many more passages of our enemies which teach murther rebellion and hatred of Kings in which they seem to dispute with the very Jesuites themselves this description of their devotion A seditious piety a factious Religion which would be Judge of the consciences of Princes who abhor their Religion because they hate their Government who make good subjects and good Christians to be things incompatible Whosoever would weary his patience and behold how ingenious the Covenanters have been even to exercise the patience of God and insult over the persons and authority of Kings let them read their Sermons which were daily printed by authority after they had preached them before the House of Commons wherein the filthy Torrent of seditious Eloquence and the fantasticalness of a Bastard Devotion were imploy'd to tear apieces the King to disfigure him in odious colours and stir up the people to all cruel and bloody courses against him out of which books we might collect thousands of Modern Authorities in favour of the wickedness of these times which passed from them as Doctrines of Religion but we esteem our selves worthy of a better imployment then to be poring on Carrion and stirring in sinks and puddles That which we have cited out of known Authors shall suffice to let the world see with whom we have to do and that we are call'd to the condition of S. Paul to fight with beasts CHAP. XII How the Covenanters wrong the Reformed Churches in inviting them to joyn with them with an answer for the Churches of France AS 't is the vice of those who are strucken with the Leprosie to endeavour to infect others so the Covenanters like to them labour by all means possible to spread abroad the poyson of their impiety Those who have preached and published their most infamous Doctrines which renders Christianity hateful both to Turks and Pagans were so bold as to address their publike Declarations to the Reformed Churches of France the Low Countryes and Switzerland as if they made profession of the same Doctrines they had the impudence to invite these so pure Churches to have society with them and to pray them to esteem the Cause of the Covenant that of all the Churches In this the Assembly of Divines at London were imployed by their Masters That which makes this Temptation less dangerous is That the Letter they wrote upon this subject to their Neighbours could very hardly be understood This Venerable Company of Divines of Consummate Knowledge and the Flower of Eloquence of that Party writ a Latine Letter to the French Flemens and Switzers wherein there wants nothing in the Outward but Language and Common sense a most worthy Cover for the Inward for so evil a drogue there needed not a Better Box. This Epistle amongst a ridiculous affectation of Criticismes Greek and Poetical phrases and many Rhetorical Figures is here and there fill'd with Solecismes Barbarismes and the like Grammar Elegancies like a foundred horse that goes up and down and it 's pity to behold hâ—w their Eloquence stumbles in Capriolinge This piece of Latine was much admired and many praises heaped upon the Authors and publick thanks by special command given to them by the House of Commons so much is knowledge valued in this Reformed party It 's likely many hands contributed to the composing of it for
to all the Reformed Churches how much our good King departed loved his Religion he would not grant peace to his Irish Subjects on the conditions they demanded advantagious to their Religion which if he had accorded he might have had Legions in stead of Regiments and not wanted neither the help of his Subjects nor their neighbours but rather then he would buy their assistance at that price he chose to sink and fall under the oppression of the Covenanters after this piety or humanity ought to have converted the enemies of the King if he had had to do with persons who had either the one or the other But if the Gentlemen at London lost their monies which they advanced upon the Irish affairs they have cause to complain of the Gentlemen at Westminster who made use of this money not to reconquer Ireland but to make war upon the King who had a great desire to terminate that business and would have gone in Person but not to serve the avaritious and barbarous intentions of these Merchants of blood but to recover his Rights and to restore a number of his exiled Subjects to their possessions Those ruined and remaining Families of the general Massacre cried aloud in the ears of the King and Parliament For to help them there was a generall Collection through the Kingdom and the Ministers by Order of Parliament were to excite the charity of the people to a liberal contribution which was done and great sums of money were raised for the Irish War But to what was the charity of many pious souls imployed to make War against the King The Armies which the cries of the poor exiled Irish had raised and were ready at their Port to be shipped were called back and conducted against his sacred Majesty and although many in those Troops had their Interests in Ireland they were constrained to forsake them for unknown Interests and an open Hostillity against their Soveraign 'T is no wonder then if part of those Troops at the battel of Keinton turned to the King and took a bloody revenge of so great injustice For what a most horrible tyranny was this to make them fight against their King in England whilest the throats of their wives and children were cutting in Ireland We earnestly beseech the Covenanters that whensoever they curse the Irish Rebellion they would remember these two things the one that the Scots shewed them the way having before made a Covenant for Religion and levied Arms to maintain it and obtained by this way all that they desired The Irish seeing this was the way to obtain the liberty of their Religion presently followed the example of their Neighbours and as a judicious Writer saith pleasantly That if the Scots had not piped the Irish had never danced Let them remember also that the Irish as wicked as they were had without comparison more reason for their rising then either the English or Scotch for it 's most certain that the Irish were held in with a bridle which had a ruder bit then the other Subjects of the King Many of the Irish for their former Rebellions were dispossessed of their Lands and although the sentence was just the loss nevertheless was sensible moreover they had not the free exercise nor liberty of their Religion the English nor Scotch cannot alledge any thing like these Hardly shall you find in any History a raign of fifteen years more flourishing peaceable and mild then the fifteen first years of the Reign of the late King notwithstanding all the grievances the Covenanters reckon up to his disadvantage There never shined more happy days upon England and Scotland In effect they were Nations sick of too much ease When Subjects undertake to criticise upon mysteries of State and come to quarrel amongst themselves for subtilties of Religion or points of Discipline it s a symptome of an easie yoke and of excess of ease and prosperity Moreover the Irish fought against men of another Religion and of another Nation they fought not against the Person of their King cut not the throats of their Brethren nor ruined those of their profession imposed not necessity of Conscience upon others but only demanded publick Liberty of Conscience for themselves although many amongst them contented themselves with lesse for by the Articles of peace in Septemb. 1646. the King gave them no Toleration for the publike exercise of their Religion Certainly therefore as those of Niniveh shall rise up in judgment against the Scribes and Pharisees so shall the Irish against the English and Scotch Covenanters Further our enemies are very unjust to complain that the King assailed to bring over Irish Armies into England since they in effect a year and half before had brought Armies of Scotch into England to serve them If they take the boldness to entertain the Armies of strangers within the Kingdome of their Soveraign shall it not be lawful for the King to defend his person and Kingdom with his own Subjects which in this quality are not strangers in respect of him but the Scotch are strangers in regard of the English Histories furnish nought parallel to this crime to have brought the Scots into England and to move them to come gave them part of the Kingdom of Ireland but its easie for them to give that which was none of theirs with the same right the Devil offered to Jesus Christ all the Kingdoms of the world for they can produce their Authority no other where This Nation abounding in men living in a barren Countrey will be easily induced to plant Colonies in a more fertile soil and who will believe that having their weapons in their hands and being in England backed with their forces from Scotland they will govern themselves at the devotion of those that sent for them and go no further then they are comanded there is danger least it happen as to the fountain of Lucian which a student in Magick with certain words he had learn'd of his Master sent to fetch water to which the fountain obeyed but the poor apprentise knew not the words to make it stay which in the mean while went and fetched water without ceasing till it filled the house up to the windows Certainly our Mutineers had the wit to make the Scotch come to their help and there needed no great charm to perswade a people which had nothing and had nothing to do to come and fish in troubled waters in their neighbours pond But I have great fear that those which caused them to enter upon their March were ignorant of the charm to stay them that they should go no further and that the Scotch will not have done when the English have done with them It was not then an action of judgment to cause the Scots to enter England without having power to make them return and to hinder their coming again much less an action of piety for God needs not the wickedness of men to advance his Kingdom it was an
is very true that ordinarily Lying arms its weaknesse with thorns like Lizards who save themselves by running into Bushes Above all in a point where the Question of Right is founded upon that of Fact as this Question now whether it be lawful for the English to take up Arms against their Prince here to go about to satisfie Reason and Conscience with political and metaphisical Contemplations is not to purpose they should besides Divine Authority which should ever march before enquire whether the Laws and Constitutions of the Country authorize this War The Question being not to dispute which is the best Form of Government but to preserve the Form to which God hath subjected us and to observe the Laws of the Kingdom and after many Moral and Political Discourses for our Adversaries pay us with no other those that have any Honesty or Understanding come always to this that they would shew us by what Law of England it is permitted the Subjects to take up Arms without the Kings permission and against him When did the people ever make this Election Where is it that they have reserved the liberty to resume the Supreme Authority when they shall please Is there any Statute made during the Ages that this Monarchy hath continued that prefers or equals the two Houses to the King or doth authorize them to ratifie any thing without him Where is the Articles of that Capitulation which in some certain cases dissolves the Subjects Oath of Allegiance Is there any Case in the Law in which it should be lawful for Subjects to take from their King or Supreme Magistrate his Forts Navies and Magazines and to take into their hands the sole Administration of Justice and the Militia to confer the great Offices of the Crown to receive Ambassadors to treat with Forreign Nations and to dispose of the Goods and Lives of the Kings Subjects To these so important Questions for the duty and happiness of all the members of an Estate and the eternal salvation of their Souls and Bodies to answer with Platonick considerations and in stead of producing the Laws of the Kingdom to Philosophy upon the Law of Nature and form an appeal from Authentical and known Laws to a Word not written made at pleasure This is to mock God and men this is to insult upon the Brutality of the people and to take a wicked advantage from the wine of Astonishment or Senselessness which God in his just wrath hath poured forth upon this miserable Nation for if they did beleeve there remained any common sense in this blind and mad people durst they so boldly return so ridiculous an Answer to those that demand where are those Fundamental Laws written that now make all other Laws bow to them namely that the Fundamental Laws are not written and that if they were they should be superstructive and not fundamental after this account the command to love God with all our heart and our Neighbour as our self is not fundamental because it is written it were to profane Reason to imploy it to refute a reasoning so unreasonable it must needs be that these people know they have to do with Persons of great credulity since they dare give them for a Fundamental Law a Fantasie which they never heard before spoken of and whereof no Writings nor Histories make mention and this is to fight against their King overthrow the State lose their goods hazard their Lives and Consciences But what should I say There is no reason but is perswasive when the Conclusions are taken and there is strength to maintain them Christendome which have now their eyes upon our Broils will take notice of the open confession of the Troubles of this State That for the War against the King and for the form of Government which they establish in the kingdome a Superiour power that abolisheth the Royal they have no Fundamental Law written Is not this then marvellously to abuse the Justice of God and the patience of reasonable creatures made after his Image and indued with knowledge to constrain them to prostitute their Consciences and Lives in a Quarrel for which they openly confess there is not any Law written and for which there is not the least footing of Approbation in all that hath been established or left authentically written since England hath been a Nation We have let you see before how they decline the Defences of Scripture against the resistance of Soveraigns behold now they confess there is no fundamental Law written for to justifie their Arms and the superiority of the people above the King which they would introduce with the sword and thus they acknowledge they have no authority neither divine nor humane for what they do as Cardinal Perron having maintained the power of the Pope over the Temporal of Kings before the Estates of France in conclusion affirmed that it was an Article which was not decided neither by the Scriptures nor the Ancient Church so that the Pope and our Mutineers agree together to usurp an authority upon Kings without any ground or warrant in the Word of God and contradicted by all humane Constitutions that is to say that hoth God and man are contrary unto them CHAP. VI. What Examples in the Histories of England the Covenanters make use of to authorize their Actions BUt do we not much wrong them to say that there is nothing makes for them in all the ancient Writings and Histories of this Kingdom Do they not alledg the two Parliaments that deposed Edward the second and Richard the second yea truly and to their great shame as the wisest of their party do acknowledg affirming that those Acts of Parliament against Richard the second were not properly the Acts of the two Houses but of Henry the fourth and his victorious Army in which they say true for the Duke of Lancaster who after caused himself to be called Henry the fourth having prevailed with the people to rise against their lawful King assembled a Parliament which he made to do whatsoever he would and having deposed and imprisoned this poor King soon after caused him to be put to death though this action were as just as it is execrable yet it would make nothing to the purpose where the Question is of that which the two Houses may do separate from the King for the deposing of King Richard was by another King sitting in Parliament for until these last States the two Houses never thought that they were able to conclude any thing without the Royal Consent and since the Parliaments held under the House of York declared Henry the fourth Usurper of the Crown and therefore condemned the Parliament which had confirmed his usurpation The other example is no better than this the deposing of Edward the second by the Conspiracy of his Wife and the Favourites of this Queen who served themselves of a Parliament to execute this wickedness and having deposed the King and crowned his Son who
was under age caused the Father to be most cruelly put to death in prison yet the authority of the young K. must be made use of to make the resolution of the Parliament pass into an Act for without the King the Parliament can no more act than a Body without a Head But when the young King came to age he caused the Authors and Complices of his Fathers death to be executed and caused all the Acts of this Parliament to be broken by another And less than these to the purpose is which they alledg concerning the accord the Barons extorted from King John by which this unhappy and imprudent King being reduced to a straight promised to put himself into the power of twenty five of his Barons and submitted himself to divers other dishonorable Conditions and this accord was not made in Parliament but in the field by force of Arms there being no Parliament then sitting and therefore was of no force nor was ever kept These Articles of the Barons were much like those the two Houses sent the King to Beverly Oxford and New-Castle the Covenanters imitate these Barons in their affectation of Piety for they called their General the Marshal of the Lords Army and of his holy Church and these perswaded their Chiefs that they led the Battels of the Lord of Hoasts but these transferred not the Crown to another Prince as the Barons did but have taken away both his Crown and Life having long before declared by writing to their King that they dealt very favourably with him if they did not depose him and that if they did they should not exceed the Limits of Modesty nor of their Duty This Judgment was pronounced in the House of Commons without contradiction that The King might fall from his Office that the happiness of the Kingdom did not depend upon him nor the Royal Branches of his House and that he did not deserve to be King of England The Authors of these Opinions are declared in a Declaration of his Majesties In one point the Barons and Covenanters are very different for the Lords that remained with the Covenanters were without power all places of Honour and Trust being taken out of their hands by their Inferiours and at last their House abolished by the Commons so that in stead of producing this War of the Barons the Covenanters should rather have alledged the Seditions and Commotions of Watt Tyler and Jack Straw poor Artisans and followed with people of the same rank for these persons and the Cause of the Covenanters are far more alike Behold here with what authorities the Margins of their Books are stuffed Behold the Examples which the polititians of the times present to the Gentlemen of the Parliament for to teach them what they ought to do those infamous actions which were abhorred by the ages following them are become the supporters of ours and despair which makes men snatch up any sorts of weapons forceth our enemies to justifie their actions by the examples of Rebels and Paricides 't is not for nothing then that these Histories are so often alledged though nothing to the purpose and it 's not without cause that they print them apart for not being able to justifie their actions they have declared their intentions and made the King to see what he sholud trust to if he fell into their hands Certainly if there had not been a design laid to come to that both to prepare the people and intimidate the King those incendiaries who by these horrible examples and their Maximes of State grounded thereupon teaching the deposing of Kings should have been hanged long since with their Books about their necks For so many men which are studied in the Laws of the Kingdom and are at the helm of affairs cannot be ignorant of that which King James of happy and glorious memory marks in his Book of the Right of Kings that in the time of Edward the Third there was an Act of Parliament made which declared all them Traytors who imagined it's the word of the Law or conspired the death of the King â—on which Act the Judges grounding themselves have alwaies judged them for Traytors who dared but to speak of deposing the King because they believed that they could not take away the Crown from off the Kings Head without taking away his Life It was heretofore a crime worthy of death to speak yea to think evil against the King and moreover the Word of God which is to be obeyed forbids us to speak evil of the King no not in our thought but now it 's the exercise of devout Souls to write Meditations upon the deposing of their King CHAP. VII Declaring wherein the Legislative Powers of Parliament consists HAving no better Authorities in all the Examples of the Ages past they establish a New one which by the unlimited largeness supplies what it wants of length of time for when we require to be governed by the Laws they answer us that the Parliament is the Oracle of the Laws that it is for that great Court to declare what is Law and what is not to interpret the Laws to dispense with them or to make new ones That themselves are the Parliament excluding all others and that since they have declared that this War is according to Law and that such Maximes as they give us are fundamental Laws of the Kingdom we must remit our selves to them and receive for Law what they ordain But because strangers may read who have no knowledge of the Government of England for to examine this Imperious reason we are obliged to declare here what we know touching the present affairs We have learned to acknowledg the Parliament 〈◊〉 England for the Supream Court of the Kingdom that can make and unmake Laws and from whose Judgment there is no appeal But of this Court the King is the principal part and it 's he that renders it soveraign the two Houses in all their Legislative Acts acknowledg him their true and sole Soveraign the House of Lords only can evert the Judgment of the Courts of Justice but not their own without the consent of the King and the House of Commons the House of Commons is not a Judicial Court having not power to administer an Oath inflict a Fine or imprison any but those of theâ—r own House and these two neither apart nor together cannot make a Law but when they would enact any thing they both together present a Writing to the King in form of a request if the King approves of them the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal answers for the King in these French words Le Roy le veult and then it is made an Act but if the King refuseth it he returns answer Le Roy S'avisera and the business passeth no further Before the consent of the King the proposition of the two Houses contained in the Writing is like unto that which the Romans called Rogatio but when the King grants it
they may then give it the name of Lex and in effect it is but a request before the pleasure of the King makes it pass into a Law and was never other before this present Parliament Therefore the English Lawyers call the King the life of the Law for though the King in Parliament cannot make any Law without the concurrence of the two Houses yet nevertheless it 's his Authority only that gives it the strength and Name of a Law and they are so far from having any Legal Authority in their Commands without the consent of the King that the customary right gives them not so much as a Name neither takes any Cognisance of them To say then that the Parliament hath declared this War lawful and that the Orders of Parliament are Laws is by an ambiguous term to abuse the ignorance of the people for by the Parliament they understand somtimes one House somtimes both and somtimes the King and both Houses together it 's thus that men understand them when they speak of the Supream Court of Parliament and of Acts of Parliament for the King was ever accounted the first of the three Estate without whom the two other had not power to conclude any thing lawfully for all their Authority is derived from him not only for a time but by a continual Influence which being interrupted the power of necessity ceaseâ—h These three togeâ—her have power to interpret the Laws to revoke them and to make others therein properly lies the Oracle of the Laws A Judicious Writer of the Royal party calls the union of the three Estates the Sacred Tripos from whence the Oracles of the Law are pronounced When any one of these three are separate from other the other two stagger and are lame nor cannot serve for a firm foundation for the safety of the State and satisfaction of the Subjects Conscience But let us assume the business higher you cannot more vex our Enemies than to tell them this Truth that the Monarchy which is at this day began by Conquest this is that which by no means they will endure to hear of but would perswade men that it began by an Election and Covenant which indeed had never any being but in their own Fancies If they would be believed for this they should then produce some Records For the bold conjecturers are less credible than all the Histories which assures us of three Conquests in this Kingdom since the Romans and Picts Namely that of the Saxons Danes and Normans Moreover those that would abolish this Office and Dignity destroy that of their own Laws for all the Lands of the Kingdom are held of the King by right of the Sword as appears by the nature of Homages and Services that the Lords of Fiefes owe to the King when William the Conqueror took possession of the Kingdome strengthening the Right of his Conquest by the last Will and Testament of Edward the Confessor he declared himself Master of all the Land and disposed of it according to his pleasure His Son Henry the first eased the People somwhat of the severe and unlimited Government of his Father and confirmed to the English their ancient priviledges which since after long and bloudy wars were anew confirmed and the Quarrel determined by that wise King Edward the first who having as much valour as wisdom in condescending to the Rights of his Subjects knew well how thereby to preserve his own for after all the Soveraignty of Kings remained inviolable and those prerogaâ—ives were preserved which were only proper to him who is not subject but to God alone Such also is the Court of Wards by which a great many Orphans of the Kingdom are in Wardship to the King and almost all the Lands appertaining to him until they be of Age. In this thing the Kings of England exceed all other Christian Princes This being such an essential mark of absolute Soveraignty that there cannot be a greater Certainly if this Monarchy had begun either by Election or Covenant the Subjects would never have given the King so vast a power over their Estates and Families Amongst the priviledges of the English these three are the principal That the King cannot make a Law without the consent of his Estates That no Law made in Parliament can be revoked but in Parliament and that the King can levy no moneys of his Subjects beâ—â—des his ordinary Revenues without the concurrence of the Two Houses in the intervals of Parliaments the King according to his Supream Power may make Edicts seem burdensom to the Subjects or to impair their Laws and Priviledges they humbly present them in the next Parliament the K. when the complaint appears just unâ—o him easeth them for to make their requests pass for Acts without the pleasure of the K. they cannot neither can the K. make new Acts in Parl. without their consent In the mean while the King makes not them partakers of his Authority but assembling them in Parliament he renders them capable to limit his Authority in Cases that appertain to their cognisance for there are many cases wherein they are not to meddle at all in the point of the Militia and for fear they should forget that even this power they have to limit the King comes from the Authority of the King and he can take it away from them when he pleaseth for when he breaks up the Parliament he retires to himself the Authority that he gave them to limit his and moreover if they stretch their priviledges beyond the pleasure of the King he hath power to dissolve the Parliament and after the word of the King is passed which dischargeth them and sends them away they have not power to sit or consult a minute Whence Bodinus well versed in the nature of the States of Christendome concludes the King of England to have Soveraign Authority The Estates of England saith he cannot be assembled nor dissolved but by the Edict of the Prince no more then in France and Spain which proves sufficiently that the Assemblies have no power of themselves to command or forbid a thing and he laughs at the ignorance of Bellaga who affirm the States of Arragon to be above their King and yet nevertheless confesseth the States cannot assemble nor separate without him Illud Novum planè absurdum That saith he is New and altogether a most absurd Doctrine And therefore it was that which occasioned them who had a design to overthrow Church and State to labour to draw a promise from his Majesty that the late long Parliament should not be dissolved without the consent of both Houses well knowing that without that granted the King when he pleased might have overturned their designs which they having obtained shewed by their Actions that they thought themselves then priviledged to do what they would without his Authority and thus it is with us at this day Yet so it is that they themselves do confess that this grant did
Empire and for such hath been known in the world governed by one Soveraign Head having the dignity and Royal greatness of the Emperial Crown to which there is a Body Politick joyned composed of all sorts and degrees of people as well Spiritual as Temporal who are bound next to God to render unto him Natural Obedience If the Body Politick be naturally subjected to him as to its Head it 's contrary to Nature that it should be subjected to the Body Politick and his maxime Râ—x est universis minor is condemned as false by the Parliament they knew not in those daies what it was to make the Body of the State march with its head downward and feet upward but they were careful to maintain the Head in that eminent place where God had set it and hither also tend the words following That the chief Soveraign is instituted and furnished by the goodness and permission of Almighty God with full and entire Power Preheminence Authority Prerogative and Jurisdiction to execute Justice and put a final determination in all Cases to all sorts of his Subjects within this Kingdome and that many Laws and Ordinances had been made in preceding Parliaments for the full and sure conserving of the prerogative and preheminence of this Crown These good Subjects could not find words enough nor consult of means sufficient according to their mind to defend the Authority of their King esteeming and well they might that the happiness and liberty of the Subjects lay in the inviolable power of their Soveraign that the greatness of the State consisted in that of the Prince and that there is no other way to crown the Body but to place the Crown upon the Head This stile is very far from that of the nineteen Propositions presented to the King by the Two Houses in the beginning of the War which required that all matters of State should be treated of only in Parliament or if the King would treat of any Affairs in his Councel this Councel should be limited to a certain number and the old Councellors cashiered unless such whom it pleased the Two Houses to retain and that none hereafter should be admitted without their approbation that the King should have no power in the Education and Marriage of his children without their advice that all great Officers of the Crown and the principal Judges should alwayes be chosen by the approbation of the Two Houses or by a Councel authorized by them the same also in Governours of places and in the Creation of Peers which hath since been denied to the King in effect And as for the Militia they would have the King wholly put it into their hands that is to say he should take his Sword from his side and give it them which he could not do without giving them the Crown for the Crown and the Royal Sword are both of one piece so also for the point of Religion these propositions take from him all Authority and liberty of judgement yea even the liberty of Conscience for they require that his Majesty consent to such a Reformation as the Two Houses should conclude upon without telling him what this Reformation is Let all the world here judge if these men speak like Subjects they had reason to present these Articles with their swords in their hands but the King had more reason to draw his to return them an answer All these propositions are founded upon one only proposition which passeth amongst them for a Fundamental Law That the King is bound to grant to the People all their Demands but this is a Fundamental in the Ayr and made void by the practise of all Ages since Eng. was a Monarchy and by that Authentical Judgement of the States assembled under Henry the Fift That it belongs to the Supremacy of the King to grant or refuse according to his pleasure the Demands that are made to him in Parliament And in stead of the House of Commons being as it is now the Soveraign Court a thing never heard of until this present Age The House supplicated Henry the Fourth not to employ himself in any Judgement in Parliament but in such cases as in effect appertained to him because it belonged to the King alone to judge except in cases specified by the Statutes The same House under Edward the Third acknowledged that it did not belong to them to take Cognisance of such matters as the keeping of the Seas or the Marshes of the Kingdome yea even during the sitting of Parliaments the Kings have alwayes disposed of the Militia and Admiralty of the Forts and Garrisons the Two Houses never interposing or pretending any right thereunto they declared ingeniously to Edw. the First that to him belonged to make express Command against all Force of Arms and to that end they were bound to assist him as their Soveraign Lord. They declared also to King Henry the Seventh that every Subject by the duty of his subjection was bound to serve and assist his Prince and Soveraign Lord upon all occasions by which they signified that it was not for them to meddle with the Militia but that their duty as Subjects bound them to be aiding and assisting to him The Learned in the Laws tell us that to raise Troops of Horse or Foot without Commission of the King or to lend Aid is esteemed and called by the Law of England to levy war against the King our Soveraign Lord his Crown and Dignity In this point all that is done without him is done against him and this is conformable to the general Right of all Nations As for the Royal Estate saith Bodin I believe there is no person that doubts that all the Power both of making Peace and War belongs to the King since none dare in the least manner do any thing in this matter without the Command of the King unless he will forfeit and endanger his Head If the Two Houses were priviledged to the contrary by any Statute we should have heard them speak it but for what they have done we see no other Authority then their practice Therefore none ought to wonder if this their new practice hath less Authority with persons of a sound judgement then these practises of all ages past and if we cannot perswade our selves that without the Authority of the King they cannot abolish those of Parliaments Authorized by the King let them not then make such a loud noise with the Authority of Parliament 'T is in obedience to that Supreme Court of Parliament that we so earnestly strive to preserve the Princes Rights those Acts of Parliament are in full force which have provided with great care to defend the Royal Prerogatives judging aright that the Soveraignty is the Pillar of the publick safety and that it cannot be divided without being weakned and without shaking the State that rests upon it But we leave the reasons of the form of this Estate to them who formed it contenting our selves
content them without considering the salvation of their souls the safety of their persons make publick prayers in their Assemblies for the Covenanters Preach to the people that their War is lawful and holy and that after being questioned by the Magistrates of a contrary Religion constantly maintain that it is the cause of God whatsoever may happen to their Goods Lives and the profession of the Gospel But behold here that which is worse in the conclusion of the Oath of the Covenant which they sent with their Epistle to all the Neighbour Churches they invite them earnestly to take this Oath or the like And above all they invite those Churches who live under the power of a contrary Religion The Invitation is in form of a Prayer That it would please God to encline by their examples the other Churches that groan under the yoke of Antichrist's Tyranny to associate themselves with this Covenant or the like For to take then their Summons in their own sense that is to say That the Churches of France to please them would make a Covenant against their Soveraign expecting as a thing which they need not doubt that the English Covenanters would overcome their enemies in an instant and would be ready at the day appointed to succour their Confederates beyond the Seas with their victorious Armies before their King justly provoked should ruine them The Covenanters Declarations especially in the year 1642. flatter these poor Churches with this hope and through all their discourse clearly resolv'd to go forth and pull down Antichrist in all Countries and make a general conquest for Jesus Christ These are very like the Messages that John of Leyden sent to Munster to make all the Commons in Germany to rise and all the world if it were possible Not that the Leaders of the Covenant considering their strength and interest thought themselves capable of so vast a design but according to my opinion they had two ends in making this so open a profession The one to draw to their party the weak and passionate who in enterprises have regard to the lustre and promise of the design and not to the possibility of the execution Of such spirits the great Herd of the world is composed who in the great and publick Motions suffer their fancies to be bewitched with Poetical hopes incompatible with the nature of the affairs Such was the promise of another Declaration which lul'd the imaginations of the adherents That this War would bring them deliverance from all their sufferings and fears and be the beginning of a new world of joy and peace which God would create for their consolation For this new world of peace and joy which was but three skips and a stride off as they thought they found such besotted spirits who cast themselves headlong into a Gulph of evils without bottom or bounds The other apparent end was to gain credit to their party by the applause of Forreign Churches to fortifie themselves by the powerful association of the Low-Countries and to try whether the French of the Reformed Religion were so ill affectionate as to take up Arms against their King without ever caring what should come after when they were once engaged in a war wherein formerly they had ill success And these people were so void of charity and humanity that they were content to buy an unprofitable reputation to their party by the certain ruine of those they invite to alliance with them As he that cared not to cut down his Neighbours Oak were it but to make himself a pick-tooth For suppose that the French Churches should have suffered themselves to be gained by their perswasions In what condition were they in to succour them Could they have furnished Money Armes Men and Shipping Had they the means to put out the Fire when they had once kindled it All the Succours that these Gentlemen could give them would be to declare the Votes of the two Houses That the Armes of the Churches of France were Defensive and Just and those of their King Offensive and Unlawful Or have Declared his Majesty fallen from his Dignity and Crown of France as they declared those two Illustrious Princes Prince Rupert and Prince Maurice Sons of the late King of Bohemia excluded from Succession in the Palatinate which Vote shall take place when the Masters of the Covenant shall have Conquered the Palatinate by their Armes in spight of the Forces of France the Emperour and Spains and they become sole Arbiters of the Empire Before the Covenanters come to the end of this design a little too far off these brave Princes will have leasure to make their peace and many things may intervene which will induce their Judges to abate of their so great severity For to perswade these poor Churches to cast themselves headlong into ruine the Assembly at London in their Epistle labour to exasperate them by the remembrance of all that they had suffered and perswaded them that all Churches on this side as well as on the other side of the Seas were concluded to be ruined by the same Agents that after the Churches of England and Scotland should be devoured they would then fall upon their Neighbours and that it was not against the men but against the profession of the true Religion and against Godliness that their Enemies made War Whereby they would make the Neighbour Churches believe that King Charles confederated with the Pope to ruine the Reformed Religion and that after he had dispatched his own subjects he would do the like to his Neighbours of the same Religion There needs no great measure of the Gift of discerning Spirits to judge by what spirit these Grave Divines were led who take such pains to send their Brethren to the slaughter within and out of their Kingdome and to make the Doctrine of the Gospel a Trumpet of Sedition to arm subjects against their Princes and put all Christendome into a flame of bloody and unnatural wars And therefore they had reason to confess themselves thus to Forraign Churches they beseech them to excuse them that they had not writ sooner alledging according to the second Interpretation of their Friend That since they were assembled they found themselves so amazed with the Wine of Astonishment that God had given them to drink that they had wholly forgot their duty But in the Addition which they disperse amongst all the Churches they do not acknowledge themselves only Attonitos amazed but Ebrios drunken and both in the one and the other they had great reason Oh the force of Truth Oh the wonderful Providence and Justice of God to draw from these subtil and crafty souls their own condemnation How is it possible that so many choice and picked Divines whereof this Assembly was composed should be so blinded as to let pass from them so shameful a Confession in the name of all their Body and of all their Party to be divulged through all the Churches of
can depâ—se the King or dispense with their Subjects Oath of Allegiance If any of ours speak otherwise we are ready to disavow it Very often those that teach well are seduced to do ill being overcome by temptation and yet very few ever go so far as to teach ill to justifie their Actions God hath kept us hitherto from that And although it may happen unto us as unto others to break the Commandments of God Mat. 5.19 but we hope never so to be forsaken of him to teach others to do so Thâ—n is the evil desperate when vices become manners and yet more evil when the evil manners become Doctrines that poor souls are instructed to sin for Conscience sake Oh observe that there is not a more certain sign of a people forsaken of God than this Therefore with the same liberty you invite us to maintain your Opinions by a publike Association we earnestly beseech you to correct your own and condemn all your Maximes contrary to sound Doctrine Enemies to the peace of States Majesty and the safety of Kings taking heed of drawing reproach and persecution upon the profession of the Gospel and to render your neighbours suspected for the faults of others Also that you re-establish the use of the Lords Supper intermitted in divers places these many years that ye give order for children to be baptized and that there be no more aged persons rebaptized That they print not any more that all Churches which baptize Infants are a faction of Antichristians that none teach any more that the Sacraments are not necessary and that for a quarrel of State they dispossess not faithful Orthodox Pastors of their Benefices to put Hereticks in their places As for the quarrel ye have against Antichrist we should be very glad to joyn with you provided that ye observe these two conditions the one not to call Antichrist that which is not for we gather by your Epistles and Declarations that you give the Title of upholders of Antichrist to many of our Brethren whose confession agrees with ours and with whom you ought to bear and with Charity amend their faults on condition that they may deal the like with you The other condition is That ye fight against Antichrist by lawful ways prescribed in the Word of God namely by the Spirit of his mouth that is by the power of the Gospel for as they were not the warlike Engines of Joshua but the Trumpets of the Sanctuary that made the walls of Jericho to fall down so it is not the Cannon but the Trumpet of the Gospel which is required to pull down the walls of Babylon These are the weapons of our warfare which are mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds 2 Cor. 10.4 they are not carnal And besides Divine Authority experience should have have taught you that God blesseth not these designs of pulling down Antichrist by the Sword It was the Epidemical Phrensie of Germany now sixscore years since which turn'd into smoak and confusion Indeed if our King should Covenant in a just quarrel against Antichrist and Lewis the 14th assume for the devisoe of his Mony that which Lewis the 12th stamped upon his Crowns at Pisa Perdam Nomen Babiloniâ— we would with a great deal of cheerfulness follow him in this War but we cannot approve of a Covenant or League against Antichrist made and agreed upon in spight of the Supreme Powers who chuse Chiefs other then their Soveraigns For such Leagues or Covenants are the open Rebellion of Subjects againâ—t their Prince Upon which the Observation attributed to Bullinger is very remarkable and which should extreamly move you That the Anabaptists began with the destruction of Bishops accounting as you the Office and dignity of Bishops was an appurtenance of Antichrist but they ended with the destruction of Magistrates Our Churches look upon the predictions of the fall of Antichrist and the establishment of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ as objects of their Hope and not as Rules of their Duty They govern not themselves by Prophesies but by Commands and make Conscience of transgressing the Laws of God out of zeal to advance his Kingdom so leaving to God the execution of his counsels we keep our selves in a peaceable obedience to our Sovereign and in doing that we yield obedience to God who commands to submit to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake 1 Pet. 2.13 and to pray for Kings and for all that are in Authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God and our Saviour 1 Tim. 2.2 If we embrace your Covenant or make one like it we cannot obey these commands of the Gospel for to Covenant without permission of our Sovereign would be to Covenant against him to take up Arms in the Kingdom without him or against him comes all to the same thing What Cannot our sufferings which you remember so often to us perswade you from following so dangerous a Councel for we retain and persevere in the Instruction given us that we must not remedy an evil by sin nor defend Piety by Disloyalty God hath no need of our sins to defend his cause the preservation of the true Religion is the Cause of God and his work which he will never forsake and even then when all humane means seems to fail he watcheth for the preservation of his Church which if he is pleased to afflict it s our duty to humble our selves and when he is pleased also to raise her up we need not carry to his help Sedition and Rebellion In fine We love the King that God hath given us by duty and inclination trembling at the mention of your Covenant and the younger his Majesty is the more we account our selves bound to endeavour to preserve peace in his State hoping that when he comes of years he will acknowledge the services we have done him in his Minority and that he will consider with what Fidelity and Integrity his Subjects of the Reformed Religion have cast off the instant solicitations of Strangers conceiving they can never be good Christians without being good Subjects and that to obey their King and to offer up their Goods and Lives to his service is a great part of the service they owe to God The English Covenanters may receive this Answer as the Answer of the Churches of France until they have disavowed it by a publick Declaration CHAP. XIII The preceding Answer confirmed by Divines of the Reformed Religion with an Answer to some Objections of the Covenanters upon this Subject TO the end it may better appear that the preceding Answer for the Reformed Churches of France is drawn from the Model of their Doctrine behold here some few passages Calvin speaks thus If we be persecuted for piety by a wicked and sacrilegious Prince before all things let us remember our sins not doubting but God sends
against them for they are full of them But I would they could get them out of the Schools of the Jesuits and come and learn the Doctrine of the Reformed Churches which speak thus Wee on the contrary maintain that Obedience to Kings and Magistrates is of Divine right and founded upon an Ordinance of God for which purpose those passages serve which commands obedience to Kings and the higher Powers as to Persons whom God hath set up and whom we cannot resist without resisting God There is no power but of God the powers that be are ordained of God whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the Ordinance of God Rom. 13.1 2. Item We must be subject not only for wrath but also for Conscience sake V. 5 7. And Saint Peter in that place they object against us wills that we yield our selves Subjects to Kings for the Lords sake So that although Nebuchadnezzar was a wicked King and a Rod in the hand of God to destroy the Nations notwithstanding God speaks thus to him by his Prophet Daniel Thou O King art a King of Kings for the God of Heaven hath given thee a Kingdom power strength and glory Dan. 2.37 Moses the first Prince Lawgiver of Israel was established by an Ordinance of God and Joshua after him Num. 27.18 Saul the first King of Israel and David his Successor were anointed by Samuel and consecrated to be Kings according to the Ordinance of God 2 Kings 9. God sent to Jehu a Prophet for to anoint him King of Israel It s God that girdeth the loins of Kings with a girdle Job 12.18 God is he that governs or as our Translation read it God is the Judge he pulleth down one and setteth up another Psal 75.7 The Lord raiseth the poor out of the dust and lifteth the needy out of the dunghil that he may set him with Princes Psal 113.7 8. Certainly if the providence of God extends it self even to the feeding of Fowls and giving food to the young Ravens when they cry unto him Psal 147. Yea as to number the very hairs on your head so that not one of them falls without his Providence who believes that when God will establish or set up a man on the top of mankind and make him Head of Millions of people the counsel of God doth not intervene and that he leaves not all things to go at adventure and by chance The reasons they alledge against so evident and apparent a truth are lame and interfere 1. They say that Nimrod the first King in the World was raised by violence But that is false that before Nimrod there was no Soveraign Prince in the World Before Nimrod the Fathers and Heads of Families were Kings and Priests and Soveraign Princes of their Families For after the Flood men lived five or six hundred years So that it was easie for one man to behold five hundred yea a thousand persons of his Posterity over whom he exercised a paternal power and by consequence a Soveraignty for there was no other form of Royalty in the earth whose children servants being joyned together one Family could make a great Commonweal And even in the time of Abraham then when the life of man was shorter we read how Abraham was called by the Children of Heath a Prince of God Gen. 23.6 that is to say a mighty Prince and of his own Family he drew out three hundred and eighteen Souldiers to whom if we joyn the Maid-servants and those servants who were not fit to bear arms in war ye cannot but confess that although he had no children yet his own Family were capable to fill a good Town 2. They object to us also that the most part of the Empires and Kingdomes have had their beginning by Conquest and violence and therefore not by the Ordinance of God And that if the Conqueror had invaded the Country of another by the Ordinance of God the Inhabitants of the Country had offended God in opposing and resisting him Upon which I say that those Inhabitants in a Country whom a strange Prince will invade do well to oppose and resist him and if in this defensive war the Usurper is slain he is justly punished But if he become Master of them and if all the ancient Possessors of the Kingdome are extinguished and the States of the Country assembled contrive a new form of State and all the Officers throughout the Kingdome give to the new King an Oath of Fidelity then we must believe that God hath established such a Prince in the Kingdome then I say the people ought to submit to the Will of God who for the sins of Kings and People transfers Kingdomes and disposeth of the events of Battels according to his good pleasure 3. It matters not to say that Princes who enter Kingdomes by Hereditary Succession or by Election come in by wayes introduced by Custome and not by the Ordinance of God For the Question is not by what wayes or means a Prince comes to the Kingdome but whether if being once established by the Ordinance of God we are bound to obey him Our Adversaries indeed would have the Power of Parliament of Divine Right although the Members of Parliament enter by Election and oft-times by close and under-hand dealing and by some crafty Caballe Let them hold that the Parliament is by Divine Right it appears by their authentique Catechisme that they teach us this Doctrine Page 5. It 's a gross error to say that the King is the Supreme Power but that power appertains to the Soveraign Court of Parliament which not to obey is to resist the Ordinance of God But let us hearken to a better Author 4. That if there be no Command in the Word of God to obey Henry rather then Lewis c. It 's sufficient that there is a command for to obey the King and a command to keep our Oath and Fidelity we have sworn and by consequence to be faithful to the King to whom we have taken the Oath of Allegiance There is no more command of God found to injoyn us particularly to obey the Parliament that began November the third 1640 to which nevertheless our adversaries accounted themselves to be subject by Divine Right So that if this consideration should take place it would follow that none of them that are now in the world are obliged by Divine Right to fear God or to believe in Jesus Christ because the Scripture hath not particularly appointed Thibalt Antony or William that they should fear God and believe in Jesus Christ It sufficeth that the Word of God contains Rules which bind particulars without naming them S. Peter truly in the place before cited calls the obedience we owe to Kings a humane Ordinance and that either because Kings command many things which in their nature are not of Divine Right as their commands which forbid wearing of gold or silver or the like things on their apparrel or because they attain this
seems superfluity in the eyes of envy and untill these hungry Harpies have caught that little which hath escaped the claws of Sacriledge they will never leave calling for the Reformation of the Clergy that is to say wholly to ruine them The devil who hates the Gospel labours to ruine iâ— by the poverty of those who preach it knowing well that the indigence of Ministers brings contempt upon the Ministry And that the Rewards being taken away the Study of Divinity will be neglected and then there will be none but the meanest of the people like to the Priests of Jeroboam Poverty abates the courage and clips the wings of conception and oft-times occasions evil designs and Councels in those whose means are too small for their Degree To do well in Pulpit and by Writing to build up indeed the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and to destroy the works of the devil they ought to have their spirits free and not oppressed through necessity Magnae mentis opus nec de Lodice paranda Attonitae They that require and would a man should do well and yet will not do well to him t is an unjust demand and many now in England pass the unjustice of Pharaoh requiring double the number of Bricks and yet give to them less straw If they alledge to us that Jesus Christ and his Apostles were poor we answer that so were their auditors and the condition of our Lord and his Disciples is a pattern as well for Layicks as the Clergy And if the Primitive Church of Hierusalem spoken of in the Acts ought to be proposed for an example of the Ecclesiastical and Civil Government of all Christendom the Clergy of England humbly beseech the Gentlemen our Reformers to imitate these pious souls who sold their possessions and brought the price and laid them down at the Apostles feet Let them sell their Lands and bring the mony to their Pastors to dispose of according to their discretion and the Ministers will part with their Tithes If we were now to speak to the Clergy of England we would exhort them to love their Office and their Benefice and now that God hath called them to the Cross and poverty to rejoyce in their conformity to Jesus Christ who made himself poor to enrich us expecting their reward in Heaven bearing patiently the spoyling of their goods accounting themselves rich enough if God be glorified and his Gospel purely Preached but these Exhortations have an evil grace in the mouth of them who come to plunder or Sequester them which is as if a thief in robbing a traveller should preach a Sermon to him of Christian patience and contempt of the world 't is the method of our enemies who driving their Ministers from their houses and Revenues read such Lectures of Divinity to them For the present some Ministers who have been the principall instruments of their party have means and honour and yet little enough considering the great service they have done them Peters their great and active agent had for a recompence given him but with great glory and ostentation two hundred pound 〈◊〉 Annum in Land But who so considers well the geniâ— of the Faction will judge that that little good they do now to their Ministers will not long continue It were a pleasant thing to consider if there were not greater cause of sorrow in it how of two Ambitions the simple serves the Ambition of the crafty for the Ministers who animated the people against their King are people impatient of subjection who would be every one of them Kings and Bishops in their Parishes and during these agitations they reign in the Pulpit a time bâ— they are set a work by those who manage the publique affairs who raise them up and flatter them to the people untill they have done their work with them for when these Gentlemen shal have done to destroy Church and State and built their Imaginary Throne of Jesus Christ upon the ruines of the Kingdom they will have so strict a hand of the Discipline that the power and the profit shall remain with them allowing their spiritual Fathers a portion purely spiritual and will discharge them of those cares which accompany the riches and honours of the world Before these Civil Warres the Bishops were profitable to all Ministers friends and enemies for those who submitted themselves freely to them enjoyeâ— their protection and those who opposed them were respected and secretly maintained by the adversaries of the Episcopal Order but now the Bishops are cut off there is neither protection nor opposition that can gain respect or support to the Clergy The stubborn and refractory Ministers have struck so violently at the root of that great tree which they have now made to fall after they had been a long time cover'd under the shadow of it but they may assure themselves that it will not be long before they themselves be crushed under the fall of it and draw upon themselves a just punishment They will then consider too late that they have been but Instruments to the covetousness and ambition of others and in the dissipation of the Goods of the Church they shall be dealt with as the Captain of Samaria to whom the King of Israel committed the keeping of the Gate where the Provision was to enter then when the people after a long Famine pressed to enter they shall behold the plenty but not taste of it but be trodden under foot CHAP. XX. Of the Corruptions of Religion objected to the English Clergy and the ways that the Covenanters took to Remedy them WEE will answer to the Objections against the King and his Party and will begin with the most ordinary Now they reproach us with corruption in Religion in such an accusation we must have regard to them that speak it it s those who turn the rising up of the people against their King into a Doctrine and Article of Faith it s those that have absented themselves from the Lords Supper for these many years those who summoned their King before them to give account of his actions those who have committed against his Sacred Person an execrable Paracide those who will employ the Body and Blood of our Lord to knit up a conspiracy against their King Those who neither teach the people in the Church nor their children at home the ten Commandments the Creed nor the Lords Prayer those who suffer and make use of all damnable Sects and punish none but those who â—each to suffer for righteousness and not to resist the Supream Powers to all these we might add many more hateful Truths but we will not without necessity publish the evil that may be hid for we love not to teach evil by representing it Whosoever shall consider their belief and practice will never wonder that such kind of People find something to say against our Religion God be praised that thus opposing us they make all the world to know that we are not guilty
mennaces against him and all those who should dare to receive him forced this poor Prince to travel disguised in great danger of his life through their Armies which besieged Oxford and to go and cast himself into the arms of the Scots as a chased Boar casts himself into the toils He found by sad experience in this his miserable refuge that the Covenanters were of the same Genius in other Nations and of the same evil Faith It imports not much whether it be true or false which was said of the Scots that they had secretly invited him and promised to expose both their goods and lives for his defence and safety but how ever it was they were bound by their natural duty to do so But instead of rendring him the duties of faithful subjects as crafty Merchants they made their profit of him for after they had kept him captive some moneths at length they drew two great benefits by him the one upon their promise to imploy their Armies for his service they made use of his Authority to make that Miracle of Valour and Fidelity the Marquess of Mentrâ—sse the Kings Lieutenant in their Country and the terrour of the Rebels to disband and lay down his Armes the other in making sale of his Majesty to the Gentlemen at Westminster for two hundred thousand pounds sterling in ready money obliging them to pay the like summe more two years after Upon which this most wise Prince being demanded whether he had rather continue with his Scottish Subjects or go to his Subjects in England answered with an excellent grace and serenity Without question I must be with those who have bought me and not with those who have sold me And in his meditation upon this subject Since I am thus sold by them I am only afflicted for the evil they have done and to behold my self valued at a higher price then my Saviour These words proceeding from a quick and well governed Spirit a King of his passions and so conforming himself to the passion and obedience of the Sonne of God cannot be heard nor read by good Christians with the same moderation they were pronounced but this magnanimous patience should produce in every pious soul a most just execration of this the most base and barbarous treachery that hath been committed since that of Judas and which in iniquity yields only to the abominable paracide to whom he was deliver'd by this infamous sale It matters not much what is said hereupon that the Scots in delivering up the person of the K. to the Gent. at Westmin drew from them a promise to treat him with safety liberty and honor for they ought not impose upon other then themselves this duty which was natural to them Neither could they expect that the English should render him that safety liberty and honor which themselves refused him or that the buyers should not as well search to make their profit by him as the sellers and to reimburse themselves with usury by his ruine But for their care they took of the K. when they deliver'd him let us do them the favour to pass by their perfidiousness and behold how the Gent. at Westm performed their promise to treat the K. with safety liberty and honor Behold how they led him captive to Holmby house where they set a guard of souldiers his enemies upon him denied him his Revenues Rights liberty children servants and that which with greatest earnestness he desired his Chaplins and the free exercise of his conscience extremely misusing him with insolent threatnings and injurious demands And for all this the Scots never seemed to be moved or troubled whilst the K. was in the Presbyterian parties custody But when the Independents had seised vpon his person although his captivity was a little sweetned over it was before the Scotch began to demand aloud the accomplishment of their promises for his liberty whereupon the Gent. at West made a Declaration to break and null all their former promises of loyalty and respect made to his Majesty by this Parl. Telling the Scots that these promises were formed published and imploid according as the state of affairs then stood but they might now be altered and yet nevertheless these promises to preserve the person and authority of the K. had been made with the solemnest and sublimest protestations we protest say they in the presence of Almighty God which is the strongest bond of a Christian and the publick faith the most solemn that any State can give that neither adversity nor success shall ever cause us to change our resolutions Now at this day it sadly appears how much they respect the presence of Almighty God and how much they find themselves obliged by the strongest obligation of a Christian and the Publick Faith the most solemn that the body of an estate can give It is to be doubted whether they believe there is a God or that he is Almighty or so just as to call them before him in Judgment for the prophanation of his most Holy Name Before these Gentlemen did openly manifest that they would not grant the King neither liberty honour nor safety they set awork their hypocrisie and treachery The Independent Army having taken away the person of the King from the Presbyterians began to use him more Honorably but not out of love to him but in hatred to his former Goalers and to flatter and lull asleep the Royal Party and for this effect this Army made some Declarations in favour of his Majesty See here some of their expressions Forasmuch as a scandalous information hath been presented to the two Houses importing that his Majesty is kept prisoner amongst us and uncivilly and barbarously dealt with we judge our selves bound to declare that this suggestion and all other of the same nature are most false and absolutely contrary not only to our requests but also to our principles And a little after we profess openly that we see not how there can be any firm or durable peace in the Kingdome without a due consideration and provision for the rights repose and immunities of his Majesty and his Royal Family And in another place they promise that until such time as there be made a settlement his Majesty shall find amongst them all civil and personal respect with all reasonable Freedome But let us next see how they performed this promise after they found this great Prince inflexible to all their unjust and dishonourable propositions and especially to those which concerned the ruine of the Church they restrained his liberty and set over him more insolent guards in his house at Hampton Court at which nevertheless Oliver Cromwell who was then in effect chief of the league seemed to be much troubled and very careful of the life of his Majesty and therefore perswaded him to escape by night and to save himself out of such wicked hands into the Isle of Wight for being resolved to charge the King with a criminal process
action purely of spight and stomack a stroak of despair proceeding from persons resolved to destroy their Country with them rather than to suffer the insultation of a Conqueror or the reproach of their treachery But in doing this they have rather augmented their reproach and drawn upon themselves perpetual infamy For as long as there is a God in Heaven and Conscience in the world the memory of those who had but a finger in so base an action will be hateful to all good men their names will offend their ears and their posterity will be forced if any remain to change their Names for fear of being stoned by the publick But le ts return to Ireland and poure into the bosom of our enemies the Objection they have so often pressed against his Majesty that he invited Irish Papists over to his party and shew to the world that it was the Covenanters and not the King who really employed them For to unwind this intangled and intricate business we must take the thred of the affair higher ye must then know that there are two sorts of Irish Papists the one ancient Inhabitants of the Country who since the Conquest of Ireland bear an hereditary and irreconcilable hatred to the English the other the posterity of those English Colonies which were planted in Ireland about four hundred years since to preserve the Conquest for the English and are accounted as English by the ancient Inhabitants for they yet preserve the Language manners and inclination of the Country from whence they issued the English and Scotch Protestants in Ireland are new Colonies which during these forty years of peace have encreased in number almost equal to the others When the Rebellion brake out in Ireland soon after that in Scotland being encouraged by their example the old Irish and the old English Colonies joyned together in one common design to establish the Roman Religion whereupon the Gentlemen at Westminster instead of suppressing them speedily by Arms which his Majesty desired and offered to go in person made an Ordinance wholly to extirpate them to which the King would never consent alledging that it would be a means to cause the Colony of Protestants in Ireland who were without defence to be extirpated as it came to pass for the Irish being provoked by that bloody Ordinance did what they at Westminster had taught them and extirpated the most part of the Protestant Colonies killing man woman and child with most horrible barbarousness I leave to the just Judgment of God to decide against whom this Sea of innocent bloud cries In this Butchery the old Irish were the most active and cruel the others went along with them only for company and besides their interests were different for the intention of the old English Colonies went little further than the design of freeing themselves in matter of Religion but the native Irish would as well be freed of the Nation as have the freedom of their Religion and would shake off the yoke of the English Monarchy take possession in the name of the Pope of the Abbies which were all in the hands of Lay men recover all that they had lost by Confiscation for their former Rebellions and for this effect null all Titles which held of the Crown This Intention was contrary to the old English who held all their Estates of the Crown and possessed divers Abbies by Pattent Royal and besides this had an hereditary affection towards their King and ancient Country and therefore they had reason to fear that after the extirpation of the English Protestants their throats should be cut and upon this consideration they listned to the overtures of an accord the King made to them in the year 1643. And although they brake not off suddenly with the old Irish yet they loosed themselves by little and little and in the end declared themselves for the King but it was not until a long while after they did him any Service having been amused and abused a long time by the subtilties of Rome who upheld and instructed the old Irish for to pass into England and serve the King if ever they had promised it the same subtilties and their dissentions would never permit them to do No man of understanding or sense can blame the King to receive from them the service they owed him neither did he ever make any profession to the contrary as they at Westminster who passed a Vote of extirpation against them and stirred up the people against the King by this pretext that he made use of persons of the Roman Religion now after this if they themselves shall make use of them they are inexcusable before God and man But now let us see how their actions agree with their words and looks The Royal party being greatly encreased in Ireland especially by the conversion of the Protestant Forces which before served the Parliament The Gentlemen of the Covenant finding themselves very low in that Kingdom found no better expedient to repair their languishing affairs there than to joyn their interest with the Popes and the old Irishes for it 's most notoriously known that before the death of the King these Irish Papists took pay of the Parliament and served them in the warre and have since rendred many good Services to the holy Covenant above all before Derry which the Covenanters held but was besieged by the Scotch Royalists and had been taken without the coming of the Irish conducted by Owen Row O Neal who forced the Scotch to raise the siege with a signal loss when the besieged were in great distress and ready to yield up the Town And this conjunction endured near a year for it was not till after October 1649. that these Irish returned to the obedience of their King And indeed we have not here any thing to wonder at and be astonished if two sorts of Rebels who agreed together to cast off their King joyn themselves together in one party and if their temporal interest which binds them be preferred before the spiritual which both in the one and the other League served but as a pretext to their covetousness and ambition the Gentlemen at Westminster judged right that the advancement of the Pope in Ireland was less disadvantagious to them than the whole reduction of that Kingdom under the obedience of his Majesty This scandalous conjunction having much exasperated the spirits of the by-got people whom they had taught to hate the King because he had made peace with the Papists and murderers of Ireland the Gentlemen at Westminster after they had a long time denied it and seeing they could not any longer dissemble this infamous action publickly called before them in examination Colonel Monk who was employed in this agreement and demanded of him who caused him to make it he being instructed beforehand answered that he had done it of himself of his proper motion then being enquired why he durst make such an accord without a Commission he