much as to enlarge the power and advance the profit of his Prince Yet the abundant services of some have done more mischiefe to their Masters than forraign arms or combination ever could Was it not take for good service to invent a new revenue of 200000. l. per annum to supply the wasted rents of the Crown And would not he have been esteemed rather a foole than no friend to the Kings profit that had advised to lay that down after it was once or twice paid Yet in his Majesties own Iudgement that tax had better never been And it had never been if the advise had never been And the advise had never been or not been pernitious If the King had received the same from the greater councel as he did then from the lesse I am of opinion though it rain not in Egypt yet the inundations of Nilies are caused by rayne in another region And the black Clouds that hung over Scotland and their troubled waters made them thinke it rained somewhere and provide for the storm for doubtlesse if the motion to absolute dominion and ruine of all lawes had not been so visible and swist in England as it was The new Service book had never brought so many thousands Scots over Tweed We may then conclude upon the whole matter That that physicke was not good that brought the body of the Common-wealth into so great distemper That the people though a moveable bodie like the Ocean yet never swell but when blown upon by intemperate winds That that councell which hath caused the King to stake his Crowne and the kingdomes their safetie now the third time That hath contested with the great Councell for precedencie in the Kings Judgement and hath obtained it That broke the last Parliament by the King and would break this by the Kingdom Is not good for us nor for those discreet Gentlemen if they understood their own interest that labour so much to support it But that in every case wherein the generall state of the Kingdome is concerned the advise that the bodie of the Kingdome gives upon a view taken of it selfe is not only least erronious but by the Law not presum'd to erre Neither can the suggestions made against this Parliament indissouble but by consent any way availe to countenance a forcible dissolution That they have too much handled the flowers of the Crown those that adorn the person if not constitute the office of the King That they goe about to crect a new Aristocraticall Governement or rather a Tyrannicall of 5. or 600. That this Assembly is no Parliament his Majestie dissenting That the Major part of both Houses are gone to the King or have left the rest the romnant are a faction To the first it is answered before that those rights of the Crowne which are by the positive and expresse Lawes of the Land vested in the King to uses are not questioned except in case where it is manifest that the uses have been perverted And in that case no more is required but that the breaches be repaired and that the influences of his Majesties Government may be transmitted unto the people by better Mediums which is no prejudice to his Majestie unlesse he imagine that he ought not to grant it because it is desired That he is bound to relieve the people but not at the peoples request We will take it for granted that in any case it onely appertaines to our Soveraigne Lord the King to defend wearing of Armes The use of this power vested in his Majestie is for defence of himselfe and subjects and can have no other intendment by Law and reason but suppose by evi'l Councell that may be about a Prince by his own unwise Election or Gods appointment when he gives Princes bad Councellours or people bad Princes for scourges to wanton and corrupted Nations this power is imployd to divide the Kingdome against it selfe one Faction sees this power lodged in the person of the Prince but never observes to what end so sides with him Another insist upon the end for which he was trusted and defend themselves by Arms Faction begets Civill warre Civill warre dissolves the present Government After followes a sorraigne yoke if our neighbour Nations be not fast asleepe or otherwise imployed In this expectation and in the very minute when this imminent tempest is breaking upon our heads the representative bodie of the Kingdome prostrates it selfe at his Majesties feet and beseech him to change not the Government but a few subordinate Governours that he will shine upon his people through transparant and unblemished chrystall glasses not through Sanguine Murrey and Azure which make the Ayre and Objects beheld to seeme bloodie and blue Assuring him there is no other way to calme the Seas that begin to rage and to preserve from wrack the ship of the Common-wealth wherein his Majestie is himself imbarqued and is the greatest Adventurer Now come in the malignant Councellours and tell his Maiestie that these humble Supplications will if he yeeld to them turn to Iniunctions Ease them and doe them right say they but not at the request of Parliament Which is no lesse then to place him in a condition to doe what he shall think to be right That is what he shall be advised by them is right That is in many cases what ambition hatred covetousnesse luxurie lecherie suggest to be right That is flat tyrannie more absolute than the Turks For the Introduction of a new forme of Government the Arguments are that if the Parliament draw to it selfe the Jurisdiction of the maritime and land forces the power to name Councellours and Judges or prescribe a rule for their nomination To make Lawes for 't is all one if the King may not deny those that are presented to him by both Houses to perpetuate the sitting of this Parliament The Soveraigntie hath if these be allowed made no secret but a very apparant transition from the person of the King into the persons of the Parliament men The Subiects of this Kingdome have never had one Example of a Parliament that hath gone about to make themselves Lords over their brethren And if they would they cannot for when they forsake the dutie of their place and the interest of the Kingdome the Kingdome will forsake them and sometimes before which though the people have dearly repented yet it serves to prove that the subsistance of a Parliament is impossible if dominion or any other end be perceived then Reformation and preservation of the Common-wealth In the Minoritie and absence of former Kings opportunitie was farre more favourable for such a designe then at this present yet what prince was ever hurt by his infancie or absence when they were trusted both with his dignitie and revenue And 't is out of question if his Majestie had been clearly concurrent with this Parliament for the punishment of Delinquents and conservation of the peace and Libertie of the Subiect they had never
things that it loves and if the resumption of such illegall power suggest not onely the sweetnesse of riches and Dominion but by false arguments comes apparelled with necessitie of the kingdomes preservation I know not whether naked words subject to so much varietie of construction will be of force to resist so great temptation Hazael being but a private person thought himselfe much injur'd when the Prophet made that cruell Character of his future behaviour Am I a dog yet he was so dogged and few perhaps that knew him would ever have thought it Therefore if his Majestie will have those promises beleev'd let him not apparantly go about to place himselfe in such a condition that he may breake them at his pleasure I know the Allegations for the manner of his Majesties present proceedings are first the just vindication of his royall Prerogative whereof it is pretended violation hath been made to the prejudice of himselfe and the people and wherewith he is trusted by God which trust he may not desert for Gods sake his owne and the peoples For the Prerogative of Princes so much talked of and so little knowne it may in briefe be said That all Princes have gain'd Dominion by force or by bargaine For to say that Adam if he had lived to this time had been King of the whole world and therefore the King is first in order before the people his naturall Vassals and production is an Assertion invented to flatter Princes for all men know that the multiplication of Colonies in Regions farre distant from the first roots of Nations must impell the necessitie of erecting many independent governments and the necessitie will be as great for the independencie as for the multiplicitie therefore by force or by contract they must commence Dominion got by force is kept by force and styl'd Tyrannie or else it dissolves into Governement by contract and so takes a lawfull for me Therefore of the nature and latitude of the Prerogative that rests in the hands of a Prince that comes in by agreement with the people is the now dispute It may be defined thus A power to see the Lawes put in execution and to doe that which is good for the people in cases to which the Lawes have not yet extended if there were no Lawes as perhaps there are not many in the first erection of a Monarchy but that all were trusted to the wisedome and goodnesse of the Prince yet by all the reason in the world the intendment of that trust was to enable him to doe good not to doe everything Now where the Lawes are positive the Prerogative claimes no jurisdiction The corruptions of Princes and the extravagancies of the people occasioned Lawes for bounds and limits to both and it is a thing out of all question that the first contract would have left no Prerogative at all if all future needs and inconveniencies of the Government could at one entire view have been presented to the people but that being impossible the discretion of all common-wealths meeting in their representative bodies have given a flop by Lawes to the progresse of any inconvenience as it hath been emergent His Maiestie complaines that he is divested of his legall prerogative That is he is denyed the power to execute the Lawes with his owne sence and exposition upon them And the Lords and Commons in Parliament pray to have reduced into a Law that Arbitrary power which he hath of custome exercised in things to which the Lawes doe not fully extend or to speake shorter they are not willing to trust him any longer with a power undefin'd which they have found imployed to their harme but desire to have it defined and limited that for the time to come it may be so no more And this they expect from his Maiestie as a dutie of his office to the people who if they are incapable of reason of state yet are not incompetent Judges of what is good for themselves unlesse we shall maintaine the Arguments of France in England and to the same end That the people are altogether ignorant of their own welfare That the King onely knowes it That it is best with an implicite faith to trust him and his Armie and Councell with the safetie of the Common-wealth and every mans life and estate That when France is free from feare of forraigne enemies the subiects shall be discharged of the oppressions In the mean time to make himselfe and his Mamalukes formidable to his neighbour Princes he hath transformed millions of Christian soules into beasts reducing them backe to the Elements whereof they were made yet they must not complaine nor defend their Lawes and Liberties lest they seeme to resist Authoritie Nor supplicate the supreme Magistrate to governe according to right reason and the Lawes of the Kingdome lest they seeme wiser than their teachers to be short I hope it will never be so in England And if the English Parliament be at sometime mistaken as it is not to be presum'd that they will be yet they are not so much hurt by the inconvenience of that mistake untill the next Parliament rectifie as they are if they shall be disabled from all competencie to Iudge in matters tending to their owne welfare For the other branch of his Majesties Allegation that the streightning of his Prerogative is prejudiciall to the people It is true a Prince of high and magnanimous endowments cannot dispense with that libertie and the influence of his excellent personall vertues if he be too much bound up by the dead letter of the law for the actions of some have beene transcendent to all Lawes or Examples and pittie it had been that they should have been confined And indeed the people doe lose willingly of their liberties to such good Princes which proves unhappie to them when worse make a title to the same libertie by such Examples And there is no surer a signe of a weake Prince than to contest with the people upon these Presidents rather seeking Examples for his purpose amongst the actions of his Predecessours than desirous to be himselfe an Example to posteritie However those Princes that have surmounted all Lawes in their glorious actions have been very rare a festivall that comes but once a yeere which if it came every quarter yet a good constant diet were much better It is strange to find how defective some are in the right understanding of the Mysteries they professe what is it that a Prince would have that affects not glorious vindications and conquests upon forraigne enemies to live safely plentifully and beloved of his people to dye lamented rich and of a blessed memorie this is all that can accrue to the best of the sonnes of men And if Princes did not preferre their wils before their profit if they did not shame lesse to pick lockes pockets and their subjects purses than to say I thanke you if they did not chuse rather by force to iustifie iniustice rapine and
risen up into so high requests but take the Argument at the best it followes not that the Parliament intends to assume the Soveraigne Authoritie because when Ireland is in Rebellion England in combustion Scotland scarce quieted France and Spaine in Arms they doe humbly supplicate his Maiestie to entrust for a short and limitted time the Militia under the commands of persons of Honour that the Lords and Commons those whose blood and estates must defend the State may repose faith in yet this is not to be granted and the feares and jealousies of his Maiesties best Kingdome and most obedient Subiects held so unworthy of any regard or satisfaction that they are esteemed and so published for frivolous and false pretended meerely to obtaine an uniust purchase out of the Kings prerogative For the nomination of prime Officers Councellours and Judges I presume that request results out of the precedent mis-government and is intended onely for this time And peradventure the temper will be better for the people that the King being once invironed with a wise and religious Councell appoint Judges and publique Officers whom the people may if there be cause accuse and the Parliament iudge nor would this branch of the Kings prerogative beene reach'd at by the people if the Judges who ought to be conservators of the lawes had not been the distroyers If the counsell of a few even in Parliament time had not involved the whole state in a common calamity and contested with the Grand Counsell of the Kingdome assuming to themselves more zealous affection to his Majestie a greater care of the common-wealth a better disâ—cerning what was necessary and fit for both Yet the election of publike officers is not without president in the times of former Kings But I would not have those Kings presidents to his Majestie that such demands may not be president to us Concerning the perpetuall dictatorship of the Parliament It may be demanded why is the work prolonged by them who aske why are you so long at work why are delinquents protected by what meanes are difficulties objected How comes this Rebellion in Ireland why doth the Parliament spend time in providing for their owne safety which ought to be spent in redresse of publique disorders and vindication of the subjects from oppression do they pretend fear because they would rule let his Majestie render those feares apparantly false and concurre more hartily than they in securing the Kingdome Let him grant commissions for Ireland let him grant Guards for the Parliament as wel to secure their fear as their danger why should his Majestie confirme their feares by discharging their Guards and attempting their persons If he know them to be safe let them know it also or confute their feare to the understanding of the whole Kingdome by granting their owne wayes of security the next way to detect those apparitions of fear if they be false And when the Religion of our church is vindicated The vigour of the Lawes renued A Guard of strength and terrour provided for their future preservation The Rebellion in Ireland quelled His Majesties revenue examined and repaired Particular delinquents punished The Court of justice reformed The banks founded by the industry of our Ancesters with so much blood and treasure against the inundations of the prerogative or malignity of private counsels repaired and better fortified then let us see what pretence will be made for continuation of the Session still The English Nation will not doubtlesse sell their birth right for a messe of pottage Nor change the government of a Prince time nor story remembring any other in these Kingdoms of extraction so illustrious of a title so indubitable to be ruled by their equall peradventure inferior neighbours To that allegation that this assembly is no Parliament in the Kings absence If it be understood when he is not present it is an opinion so ancient as since his Majestie left the Parliament for before I am perswaded it was never heard of And it must follow thereupon as hath beene answered before that by the accedentall absence of the prince or in sicknesses that induce stupifaction or in the first degrees of infancie when the powers of the reasonable soule have no latitude of operation the state may be left without meanes to preserve it self which is a great absurditie to thinke But if by the Kings absence be understood the want of his voluntary concurrence in confirmation of the Acts and Ordinances of both houses and that in such cases they are no Parliament it may well be doubted if they have bin any Parliament during this Session For the acts that have passed his Royall assent so much amplified in his late declarations to the people are shrodely suspected to be with no great good liking of his Majestie I am sure if they were voluntary they were not exhibited with due circumstances for through that opinion his Majestie hath lost much of the thankes due for such transcendent graces which no Prince or inferior person ought in discretion to loose However that both houses legally convened and authorised to sit doe not by the kings absence loose the essence and denomination of a Parliament appears by presidents of former times when in the absence of a Prince further distant in body then his Majestie is in mind I hope the estates have assembled themselves which is a little higher then was yet in dispute have administred oathes of fealtie to the subject have named officers for publique services and as well to superintend the peace of the Kingdom as the revenue of the King And though there was not nor is any law authorising the assembling of a Parliament in such a case yet was the legallity of that Parliament never questioned nor will of any other upon the same or the like occasion when the matter to be treated on is the peace and safety of the Kingdome whether the King be absent in body or minde it changes not the question much But that which is a short answer to all that can be said is that by an Act of all the estates this Parliament is not disolveable but by an Act of all the estates therefore a Parliament untill that Act be passed To the other part of the allegation that Major part of both Houses have left the rest and are gone over to the King It may be demanded why doth not then his Majestie send them up to adjourn the Parliament to Oxford or Cambridge are they so fearfull of the Aprentizes of London that they dare not appear to do his Majestie so great a service by shouting a yea or no in the house of Commons how willingly would they adventure a battell that refuse to speake a word in a croud Truly it were the way to put an end to all the controversie to reverse with ease the acts that have given so great cause of repentance to reduce the Parliament to termes of due obedience to save a multitude of offenders