others either preferred before or above them yet even in this time the name of religion was venerable and truly the faith of many or rather the credulity or superstition of most with abundant charity was everywhere perspicuous love of God drew some but Pride Lust Covetize Ambition Ease and such like drew a multitude to speak of the multitude of vain and superstitious attractives I count needless as fitting rather itching ears then solid heads yet this gangrene over spred the whole body of the Christian Common-wealth and it was no miracle for miracles were become common and now the Church slept in greater security then before for who durst oppose the word of the Pope and the sword of Princes for seeing fire and faggot the ax and halter were now in the hands of the chief Christians what cause of fear to the servants of Christ and what need the Kings fear if they had the Pope to their friend yet divers of them repined seeing so much of the temporall estate each day slipt away under Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction so called as that in the time of Henry the fourth of England when it was complained of in Parliament that the third part of the Land and revenue of the whole kingdome was in the Church-mens hands and it was petitioned to take some away the first publick act of the people of England against the jurisdiction and estate of the Bishop of Rome although in the case of Johns grant of the kingdome to the Pope to hold in fee of him The Lords dis-owned the power of the king to grant as having no more but a trust in the kingdome but they did not hint that his Holiness could not take and it was vain when they saw he gaped for more then he took and took more then was his due The succeeding Kings were either so given to forreign wars or troubled with the intestine divisions of the houses of York and Lancaster that now they were forced to own Parliaments yea to take the chief strength of their Title from their determinations There had been a Law made formerly to have Parliaments once a year for as the Kings of England sought to avoid those publick conventions of the most potent Lords and popular Commons for divers most evident reasons as they conceived and upon their unjust grounds truly destructive to their Royalty for there their actions were continually questioned the actors by personal command of the Kings against Law or labouring the abolishing the Laws either fined or hanged or otherwise punished and though some Parliaments went cross to others some even justifying the acts of kings against Law and their abettors this invalidates not the power of the Parliament but confirms it for by these Acts the kings after made Title so that here the Parliament got into their hands and that upon motion of the kings even the power of appointing the king and this arose from that bloody contention between those two houses But you will ask was not the Title clear yes without doubt but the Estates that is the Parliament upon the great dislike of the present Government their hearts being alienated from a dissolute and riotous Prince sought out the man among them of the Race with whom the potent men could drive the best bargains for Riches Honor and promotion and ever or mostly though the love and zeal of the Laws Liberties but especially of Religion gave the first blow to the quarrel and suited it yet interest espoused wedded owned and enjoyed it so easie are the best natures to be corrupted and depraved by outward excellencies or esteemed excellent things But it may be Quaeried what all the succession of Princes all this while did for the Church truly all they could both by themselves and Subjects multitudes of Churches Monasteries Fryeries Nunneries Abbies Chappels all planted in the most pleasant delicious places of the Nation admirable and costly structures richly furnished largely endowed both with lands and yearly profits of Tythes onely to send a brother to preach and now the common maintenance of the Church or Church-men ceased and was made proper and after was drawn into that civil order which we now call a Parish being a limitation of the bounds of the Church for care of souls and maintenance and though indeed there was so great a sufficiency yet even then many of the Clergy were in want it may be the Pope thought it fit some of Christs Servants should be like their Master I mean of that so called and justly at first the Fryers of Saint Francis Order according to their stile commonly called the Begging Fryers for so they did upon conscience of the Rule of our Saviour Go forth into all the world take no care for any thing one coat no money not a staffe no nor sandalls these went bare-foot preached diligently expecting onely what God moved peoples hearts to bestow upon them for they beleeved that God that said The labourer is worthy of his hire would not suffer them while they laboured to want That Rome testified against Rome admitting truth for truth though living in Errour yea many of these preached against the Errours I say not of the Church but of the Court of Rome wisely as it was beleeved covering their mothers nakedness with the Fig-leaves of their temporal acquests but all were not so politick some spake plainly against the Bishop of Rome in all Ages and preached Rome Babylon and the Pope Antichrist and it might well be for Rome come to the height of outward greatness so that the Mahumetans who look for an earthly Paradise excelling and abounding in all carnall delicacies could not have desired more it fell into the sink of enormity all debauchery riotousness and prophaneness and exalted it self not onely against God kicking with the heel now she was fat but above God under the power of the Keyes for she dispensed with the very Commandments of the Almighty giving licence not onely to unlawful but even to incestuous marriages which hath filled Christendom so called with all those horrible and direful effects of wrath upon all Nations which now of late years have fallen out especially upon the Kings Princes and great men the great Merchants whose lusts would admit no denyal and so traded with this spirituall harlot for some of her trash and paint to give a colour to all their incests murders perjuries lyes adulteries rapines thefts extortions and such like and let all the families of Europe look to themselves they boast to be descended of Kings ally'd to all the great Princes of Europe but have they not therewith an allyance to the judgement which will it is probable follow these sins till the blot be utterly worn out and let them look to it they hold not but by this beast and will be destroyed with her mistake not I say not all Kings or kingly power or Rule or Government but the issue of Incest and the spawn of unlawfull Lusts I must now return to the
moved justly who was the first and principal Agent the Lord in appointing or the people in requiring a King which being plain on the peoples part it is objected that the Lord in his first laws to his people Deut. 17. 14. c. gave them a Rule concerning the choice of their King namely one of their brethren c. and that Jacob prophesied of the same and that God laid down the duties of the King c. To which it is answered that neither the prophesie of Jacob nor Gods laying down the Kings choice duty and such like no nor Samuels annointing Saul by Gods appointment proves any divine institution no more then the prophesies c. of great sins and defections from God c. warrants them No no the utmost it holds forth is rather a Divine concession then an original institution for the Lord in that eighth of Samuel tells Samuel the people had rejected him for being their King and laying before the people by Samuel the usage of Kings ruling at list or according to their own will and power as it were to deterre the people from it the peoples stubbornness ver 7. 8. and 19. and 20. shews plainly that in wrath as the spirit elswhere expresses it he gave them a King that is yielded to their desire of a King and Saul annointed by Samuel was chosen by Lot and being hidden was sought and by Gods direction found out of the people and saluted King with a God save the King whence if it be thought fit to be objected he was chosen by Lot and so the disposition of that being from the Lord the Lord appointed the King it s agreed but thence to infer that Kings are of divine institution it followeth not This only is properly raised thence that God appointed that person Saul to be King of his own people after Saul David comes to the Throne and though by Gods appointment and special designation the house of Saul contends with him Absolom he Rebels and carries the multitudes of Israel after him and Solomon the wisest of the sons of men succeeding though by Davids appointment yea by divine approbation many waies manifested if not fore-prophesied he so sins that the Lord rejects him dividing the Kingdom and now in the settlement of hereditary succession that special spirit which accompanied the cheifs or Kings of Gods people ceases as to the most if not all of them and rested upon special Prophets whom the Lord raised up in the Raignes of several Kings for the manifestation of his glory and love to his people not only declaring his notice of their especial sins but also denouncing judgements in case of impenitency which accordingly fell out in the several raigns of several of the Kings of Israel Judah which subsequent Kings were either faithful wholly or in the main depending upon God walking in the waies of David their father or else a kinde of formal servers of God not faithfully but hypocritically or openly prophane and Idolatrous one or two especially Jeroboam who made Israel to sin yet of Gods appointment renting the kingdom from Solomons heire to give it him and Ahab that sold himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord for whose outward humiliation only God spared the Nation during his daies Now this is to be noted that even then such as was the King such was the pople generally and for the greatest part at least in outward profession An idolatrous King an idolatrous people a luke-warm King a careless people a zealous faithful King a reforming praying people So far ever was outward splendor and power a leader of outward profession and civil conversation and under the law accordingly as the Lord was served faithfully negligently or prophanely such was his cariage towards this his people under faithfull and holy Kings great blessings both of War and peace under the indifferent luke-warm neuter self-seeking Kings Secureness in peace and cutting short in War But under the idolatrous and openly wicked actual devastations besiegings overthrows and at last general captivities of which the kingdom of Israel so called being of the ten Tribes under the head Tribe Ephraim felt sorely and still feel where ever they were carried by the Assyrian Monarch who was punished as for her own sins so for the example of her sister Judah whose race was yet continued in their own land under their own governors but for sin cut short and the royal race wasted or over-awed the kingdom at last became Mercinary and set forth by the Asian Kings the successors of part of the great Alexanders Monarchy to a publique sale yet sold to the Preists and of the royal blood untill at last in the fulness of time the Romane conquering or Commanding both the Asian and Aegyptian Princes it was sold or given to Herod an Edomite so that now the Law-giver and Scepter departed from Judah The temporal kingdom of the Jew in power royal ceased from all the Tribes of Judah and Israel And now the Jews themselves expected the comming of their Messiah and the fulfilling of the Ancient prophesies according to their received vulgar interpretation of a most glorious mighty powerful Prince then to be raised up of God who should subdue all their enemies under them free them from the Romane yoke now so much feared and should lead them in the strength of Moses and Elias and by his power should consummate all their joyes in reducing their dispertions to an head and seating them freely and absolutely the Commanders of the Universs Thus private interest still led on the people though pretending to God so powerful is nature ever with the flesh Having here drawn into a short sum the Misterious history of Gods dealing with that people which he did more immediately hold as his own inheritance and made a special covenant with them before we pass to new matter let us a little look back and reveiw generally and briefly what this people was the form of the Covenant the nature of the Laws and Statutes given them by God and their execution and such other particulars as shall offer themselves In the first age the persons magnified in holy writ is Abel Enoch and the rest what were they but plain men living innocently Abel though loving God and loved of God God rescues him not from the violence of his brother Cain but he falls and perishes under his hands and Enoch among the Ancients lived no more then three hundred sixty five years and was translated as t is translated that is to Saints taken into the mistery of God but to men ceased to live longer on earth both were blessed yet one dies violently or untimely the other timely he lived not half the daies of wicked men before translated both judgements in mens accounts In the succeeding generations after the flood what was Noah the preacher of righteousness or of the truth which were traditionally or otherwise received as the word of the righteous God
all which laws are still binding as accompted morall though neither wholly accepted nor neglected the mystery of the Trinity being by some impugned the likeness or similitude of God made now in the shape of man the most dangerous Idolatry his name blasphemed and no day kept as it ought though a day professed for his service but of this anon The other laws were relating from man to man first setling the rule of obedience to the then generally supream power being especially paternal whose Complaint the whole congregation were Judges of as executioners then he comes to the special and highest crimes of Murder Adultery Theft to secure life chastity property and for a further assurance gives a law against false witness and as the ground of all and root whence these vices flow forbids covetousness Now these laws were given in terror as Moses saith to prove them that his fear might be upon them that they sinned not yet all was too little to hold in so stiffe-necked a people and after these general laws as the heads of common Justice in the root and branch he gives other laws for all occasions both in respect of Magistrate and People Master and Servant Parent and Child Husband and Wife Enemy and Friend or Confederate and that both for War and Peace and that with respective security both to day and night and that for life Maime chastity goods good name and that as a beast might offend with respect to him as the Oxgoring yea to beast as a sufferer as wandring yea and to the wholesomness and means of healthfulness of men not only in their wandrings but in their settled habitations remaining still the host or congregation of God not to have any defilement open to veiw for all which I refer you to Scripture with the rest of the heads specified from the twentieth of Exodus and so onward and having thus settled an outward law of peace and rest or War and Captivity or other Judgements bound and assured by threats and promises the Lord now proceeds to the establishment of the manner of his worship which was and is generally holden wholly typical and ceased in our blessed and eternal Saviour the Lord Christ Jesus and this I wholly at present omit to enlarge and now come to the third thing considerable which is the manner of execution of these laws which was very severe as you may see in the punishment of Corahs sin and so in Achans The men wives children and all were punished not only by God as in Corah but after by Joshua in Achan a terrible God a terrible law and terrible execution yea the law was extream rigid if we regard the proness of mans nature to offend what a poor man to gather a few sticks for his necessity upon the Lords day and dye for it what the Princes and holy men that knew as much by themselves as by Aaron all devoured by an earthquake for their zeal in offering sacrifice to God the people were so sensible of it but in presumption that next day they blame if not threat Moses and Aaron for slaying the people of the Lord. Now these laws were the then rule of the people of God and by these did the people of God under the whole regiment of the law eithr justifie or condemn themselves So Joseph How shall I do this and sin against God So David thy law is my delight my continuall meditation that I may not transgress thy will so Job Thy waies have I kept and have not declined from them and so the yong man in the Gospel All these have I kept from my youth up and Paul after he was enlightned justifying himself in his integrity against the Jews his now persecutors sayes of himself As to law blameless that is he knew not nor could any one tell how to accuse him of the breach of the letter of the law in any title now if you ask whether these laws were the best or not I must tell you that most undoubtedly the laws in general were such laws as no Nation in the world nor altogether had from themselves so exact a plat-form of government but surely some of these were but particular to that Nation and that as our Saviour saith in the case of divorce yielded unto rather then given for the natural inclination of the peoples sake or by reason of the frowardness of their disposition which our Saviour calls the hardness of their hearts specified in divorce and also as that of the law of jealousie That law for unclean and clean food I accompt rather typical then judicial Now to all these laws were Promises annexed in case of obedience Threats in case of disobedience which were often reiterated by those special Prophets whom the Lord raised up in the several generations under the Judges Kings and Kingly Priests untill the Lord sent his own Son to declare his will unto his people in the fulness of time and though Moses were faithful yet that was but as a servant as saith the Author to the Hebrews but the Lord Christ Jesus who is the Apostle and high Priest of our profession is sent from the bosome of the Father to whom the whole will of the Father was known and in these last times God speaks to his people by him even his own Son whom he made heir of all things who being the brightness of the glory and the engraved form of his Fathers person and sustaining all things by his word hath by himself purged our sins and sits at the right hand of his Father wherefore we ought with all diligence to attend to that heavenly doctrine which this our Lord declares for if just punishment were retributed by the Lord to them who disobeyed the word spoken by Angels how shall they escape who neglect the Gospel given by the Lord of Angels the Son of the Father to whom the Angels are but ministring Spirits him of whom all the Prophets fore-prophesied even the Shilo the Messiah the Saviour who should save his people Israel and lead them through the wilderness like a flock of Sheep under whom they should lye down in the pleasant places of rest and none should make them affraid He that was now expected by the Jew and so much the rather as fearing bondage from the imperious and flourishing Romans and hoping of salvation and deliverance temporal Grandeur power and dominion by his puissance who was to break all Nations as a Potters vessel and thresh them with an Iron Mace to whom all people must bow down the mighty Councellor the Prince of peace and his yoak must be upon their neck and his government upon their shoulders till time should be no more Now lets a little consider how the state of Israel or the Kingdom of Judah stood at the time of Christs coming That they expected the Messiah is evident they seeing those things fulfilled which were fore-prophesied of which sure they were diligent heeders especially being driven thereto
clearly evince that those national meetings were and are not only the most natural and prudent means of composure of civil differences but also proper to this Nation the due rights of which were alwaies contended for This contest wrung away from the King those two great Charters of priviledge called Magna charta charta de foresta being the express limit and boundary of the Prince that he might not upon occasion fly out after upon his title of conquest the subject matter of them are evident to each mans veiw they are generally consonant none contrary to right reason they are restraints of the Princes absolute will or of Governing according to his own lust and declarative to the subject what he might trust to establishing indeed the right of property meum and tuum against that high point of levelling which the Princes of this Land as of all other Nations sought after not only the great men Mountains Lords but even the Mole-hills the meanest Subjects to the nod beck word of this man God the King The Lords and others saw this wherefore they bound the King by oath but what coard is able to hold a covetous much less an Ambitious spirit first therefore they plead duress or constraint and I must ingenuously acknowledge there was force against force another King confirming it in his minority or under the Age of twenty one years he thinks this a loose to his oath as if he were old enough to vow but not to perform and to these refuges of the Princes the Lawyer could give excellent colours and now the master-piece was to set the work afoot in a legal way and the Judges of the land were to determine this part they were sworn to the King and therefore they must give their advice and afford their best assistance to him the histories publike say it was an enforced opinion whereby they annihilated all the principal priviledges in the grand Charter putting at once the sword and purse of the kingdom into the Kings hand upon necessity making him to be judge of the necessity for the great trust reposed in him as King for the benefit of the Common-wealth and of this faithfulness there must be no doubt this was in the time of a weak wilful yong Prince so that the Lords in Parliament for who else durst budge or stir question the Judges as betraiers of their trusts and the liberties of the people and make them examples by hanging them at the common Gallows There were then men whose judgements and opinions were as absolute for this King and his actions these men and their determinations as might be who cried out upon the Lords and the Parliament as Rebels Subverters of the Law the setled Law and that by the opinion of sworn men the Judges magnifying the King as one that did but intend to take away the Root Spawn and seed-plot of Rebellion for while a power of contest or visible cause thereof remained which these Charters had often manifested themselves to be there would be no visible security for a setled peace if the Lords might judge of one right or privilidge of one part of the Kings prerogative why not of all if so as good be no King this was the Court dialect and of their dependants and this controversie ceased not till at last the King had ruined all the power of the Lords and now all was safe the Kings therefore to divert the stream of affection in the people from seeing into the invasion of their liberties propound Wars in France wherein being successful they please the people with smal things and take away great but especially curtail the Lords of that absolute dependance which was upon them by their under-Tenants granting the use of Magna Charta and the other Charter as Law but breaking it upon all occasions in times of War and then complying in times of peace and truly this was the State of England for the space of about three hundred years after the Conquest But you will say why did the Pope suffer this why did not he as the common and spiritual father of the whole Christian flock use his power both over the great Ram the King and the lesser cattel and younglings of the flock what such devastations murderings perjuries and other evils as must of necessity follow so many Warlike conflicts under Christs kingdom the Lion and the Lamb were to feed together and the Wolf and the Kid to lie or couch together Truly the Pope had ever an Oare in the Boat of the Common-wealth But know Rome was now the Princess and Queen of Power she raised up the people to scourge Princes disobedient to her not those obedient they should whip the people to the bare bones and this juggling appeared and there were open complaints even to Princes against the Vicar of Christ But as the Princes to appease their Subjects propound War against a neighbour Prince yea though Christian for now great men and Princes being become Christians it was hard to know whether Christians were Christians yea or not their actions were so far different from their professions So the Popes to take the Christian Princes off of their intentions to look into his Court and customes propound War against Turks and Infidels a holy and specious pretence to redeem Hierusalem from the hands of heathens still the Jewish pattern by this he hath a double advantage for his chief Enemies gone that is the most active and most zealous Princes for reformation he propounds the same to others but discharges them of their oath for they that went did so for many others he employed against his private Enemies that is Enemies of his leudness wickedness and apostacy from the faith of God the Kings of the earth making a league with the whore and drinking of the cup of her fornications and shall no doubt of her destruction also so that they who should and ought being taken off from punishing her God raised up poor despicable Creatures yea taught Babes and Sucklings to vindicate his truth as the so called Waldenses Albingenses poor men of Lyons in France and boundaries of Italy Wickliff with us John Huz and Jerom of Prague with the Germans and others with others thousands of which the Pope in the teritories of France caused to be murdered by souldiers sworn for Hierusalem Now as the Popedome was corrupted so was the generality of all the Bishops Doctors and Priests in all places they had an abundance of riches fat paunches and lean pates they had now found out an easie method of serving Christ they were in the years of the Churches prosperity that themselves agree and we believe that was the great reason they took so little pains The Kings had reserved donations of Bishopricks to themselves and riches and honor the nourses of ease were what all strove for these dependances held the generality close to the Kings if any opposed it was pride stirred up anger that they were omitted and
against them and they who hoped to have time to make all sure would not seek that with too much haste and danger which by former experience they saw a small time would of it self restore for it was taken before and would shortly be again and hinting nevertheless that a mite of Gods stock or of the Churches and Church-mens dues as they called them in a Lay-mans hands would bring a moth and curse upon all his estate so that what Covetize had robbed Conscience would restore if not double and as the Church-mens policy was great so they forgot not to foresee a storm in case Mary should depart without issue and the Crown come to Elizabeth who was as the Germans called them a Protestant as the French a Huguenot or of the Religion as the English a Lollard a Bibler a Gospeller wherefore there were many plots to take her away before she came to the Crown it was less danger but the Lord prevented and she trusted in God having no forces no armor no money all the Realm Papists in profession but a day or two before Mary dead is with an universal joy almost received to the Throne and although the Pope being now strengthened by the decrees of that famously infamous Councel of Trent had raised up all the Princes so called Christian as much as in him laid against her and having excommunicated her as an Heretick gave away the Kingdom to the King of Spain who with a so called invincible Armado came to conquer it upon pretence of his holy Father the Popes donation and had by Jesuits Priests and others laboured many ways to take away her life yet she out-lived all and all undertakers against her both in Ireland and England brought to themselves ruine death loss or shame This in care for the Queen produced Acts of Parliament of several natures against Papists Priests Seminaries and Jesuits distinguishing between a Papist in opinion and a Papist in faction and so Priests as being the inciters to things absolutely evil in themselves upon Tenents or grounds not onely unwarrantable in the word nay absolutely contrary but destructive to the principles of Nature humane contracts as no faith to be kept with Hereticks no treason to kill a Prince declared heretical by the Pope and excommunicated And although the Priest and Papists did retort upon the English Professers their former pleas for liberty of conscience in matters of Religion and upon that account would have saved many Traytors to the State of England yet England wisely distinguished between those who had sucked the poyson but poysoned not others executing these and banishing them yea though venting their false opinions if not guilty in or of promoting of Acts of Treason The Pope stomacks this and Elizabeth having now framed a new Church Liturgy or Book of Common prayers or rather corrected the old Popish Mass-Book wherein was nothing contained which the then compilers supposed to smell or have a touch or savor of Popery and casting out all Q. Maries Priests had placed Protestants so called Bishops and Ministers in the several Diocesses of the Kingdom and respective Parishes and commanded no other Liturgie to be used under several penalties the Pope I say he thereupon inhibits all Papists to joyn in the Church duties offices or services with the now so called Church of England whereupon many refuse to go to Church who thereupon were called Recusants and although there were great penalties at last laid upon them as of twenty pound a moneth yet the Recusants in all Counties were many especially of the Nobility and Gentry the vulgar generally as being bred up under that notion that ignorance was the mother of Devotion turned with the Tide and the change was even to reason visible for the Service being now in English was understood or might be yet all the Protestants were not contented but some apprehended a clearer and more uninterested light to Reformation for they pretended neither to Bishopricks nor Deanaries nor any other spiritual promotion so called no places either of honor or profit but meerly to do the work of the Lord for conscience sake these taught that the reformation of Queen Elizabeth was but rather gilding the rotten pillars of the Temple and Church of Christ then doing indeed what ought to be build wholy a new For they declare that the Romane apostacy was Babylonish and that there was no more commixture to be had with her then with Idols that all the ministry of England having no other calling then the outward from Romish Preists by the imposition of hands was Antichristian that all the Courts so called Eclesiastical were unlawful and any Liturgy or set form of prayer commanded in the Church was superstitious that indeed Christs Kingdom which was of the Gospel would not admit of those prophane mixtures which the parishes in England abounded withal and that truly none was fit to be a Christian Magistrate who was not fit to be a Church Member but with all outward acknowledgments of Loyalty to their Prince as aiming at no turbulency in the State but modestly to offer their opinions to the Parliament and it seems some of these opinionists were gotten into the Parliament if not one into the chaire whose zeal would not admit him to take in consideration the Message of the Queen or affaires of State till prayers had been made publikely by the Members for a blessing from God and agreed as per one Author a day to seek God by fasting and humiliation with prayer upon the whole work But all these were nipt in the bud by the Queens authority who inlarged prerogative much through the ardent affection wherewith her vertues had enchained the hearts of her Subjects to her for she being enformed by some how highly these things might in future times be stretched to the enhansing the power of the commonalty in Parliament it being necessary to keep them in due bounds though the Queen might not mislike the Acts she did the manner being done of their own heads without acquainting her and although upon the Remonstrance of divers of these non-conformists the Commons again began to stir yet she not only as we may say wisely moderated them but trusting to the popular affection she had gained and I hope having no end of raising prerogative to a fatall eminency she politiquely overswayed imprisoning by her own authority a Member of Parliament for a motion in the house and did unless my Author be deceived tye the house to agitate no business but what they received in charge from her and the Ministers who pleaded for such a rough thorough reformation were not only silenced by dislikes but by a new impoured high commission pretended against Recusants were over-awed so that they were forced to leave the Land some who staid as the event gave evidence too indiscreetly taxed the Queen and her counsel of State of Apostacy lukewarmness nay absolute Tyranny it is evident truth that the Queen went no further
Market is over before they arrive or near it They also put exceeding charges upon admissions c. and no accompt but to themselves which in the consequences may be destructive not only to the private person but body politique in amassing Treasure The lesser Corporations were for marking measuring sealing sluffs linnen and woollen with a Crown Seal forsooth and these were his Majesties gratuities to the Lord of c. Marquess c. Q. Mother Lady Nurse Groom of the stool that is the Close stool whether King or Queen high and advantageous honours and this discended to outlandish as in Land commodities yea to pins and brooms and it was said to Rags for paper and Marrow-bones for Kitchin-stuff or grease Next he found one so base as being a Lawyer to take a pattent to have the first motion in the strictest sence or to be heard in all cases before any other which the Judges wisely quashed in the shell hearing him and shewing obedience to power and fulfilled this Patent therein and then declaring by an intimation of a rigid dislike that the Authority pretended could not that is with safety grant it for the Lawyers would be stirred who had the key of Knowledge and they once disaffected might be like a spark in powder All these had their success because they by degrees falling upon persons or trades only they even upon advice desisted generally from more then expostulation some few brought Actions and were killed with delayes and frowns Then the King intends a Master-piece which was at once to quash all controversies by a sleight and sudden judgment having a colour of Law but no substance and this was by an universal charge upon the whole body of Subjects so called Ship-Money which had for foundation thus much The Kingdom was an Isle the defence Shipping the Navy was decayed the King must replenish so he rigs his Ships and sends them forth to take the ayre as the idle ones said but indeed to inure bodies to the Sea settle them under pay and discipline and so engage dependance they return and whereas heretofore the Maritine Counties sent forth Ships and the Land towns paid now the King would provide all Ships and they all should pay now this was clearly done only to inhance the so called Crown Revenue for the Subject saw no Enemy and so no necessity the original cause of that Tax a general peace was held to the out side with all Nations after theslaughter of the gallant English at the Isle of Ree and the dismanteling of Rochel But the upshot was the King must be judge nay sole Judge of this necessity and this is quaeried by the King to his Judges which to prove the assertion before they were all King trodden that is had engaged all their abilities to his meer will two onely of twelve in this so important a business as indeed the whole life of the Subjects Liberty was involved in it as to his estate at first and for denyal of that to his restraint durst assert the truth which two only I shall own as men noble and honest Crook and Hutton and though both or one were by the plurality of Votes ingaged to the first Quaere Whether the King were sole Judge yet upon the Tryal brought by that true Patriot Hambden they righted themselves and the Nation to the utmost and honest Crook spake true plain English reason and good Law while mercinaries blundred upon the work and had they taken Barcley's Argenis and read the discourse betwixt Polyarchus and Hyanisbe touching such taxes they had saved their credits as only declaring the judgement of an Alien to English Liberty and reserved themselves But now 'twixt Truth and Loyalty so called they were confounded and gave no satisfaction no not to the well-affected to absolute powers and by this notwithstanding all power the Subject was enboldned to deny and at last after some two or three yeer the King was enforced to desist and surely his cogitations were for Armies how providence prevented there being so many discourses of it I shall omit only with this hint That these fore-runners manifestly declare that the Arms in Ireland raised by his Commission and continued in England against the same power of Parliament Assertors of the same Common Liberty by the Nation owned and petitioned for were undoubtedly the effects of the same cause namely the subversion of Englands Law and Government the peoples Liberties and all Rights making the King by his meer free will the absolute Arbiter of all actions civil and criminal Thus in brief I have set down some of the visible preparatives to Englands Climaterical Revolution which it now labours under In the discussion of the State of affairs civil and so called Ecclesiastick before but especially in the time of the late King and all shews that plainly there was left no more then an outside Christianity or formal Religion the temper of the clay of the world the pravity of Reason in the depraved principles of policy the iron of reason in the variety of species of Government and the gold of Christian simplicity the gold owned in the Scriptures by Authority allowed the iron in the rational formal profession of the same and the consequences thereof the Clay in the false and unconsequential glosses to make mans rule and absolute Government the higest and last refuge of every man and that for a particular persons end though in publke trust for that trust was said not so much to be for the peoples benefit as his own These things premised I might omit the passages since as being fresh in every mans memory but at the desire of some I shall go on in the way of a cursory Historical Narration repinings and grudgings by and from the actions of the King and his Ministers growing high so that it was not thought fit to proceed without some force ready for fear of insurrections which were indeed desired and therefore the people were afflicted that they might rebell and bring themselves into slavery The King having received the platform of alteration of his State from Thomas Earle of Strafford he is made his Agent to keep on foot a strong Army in Ireland who to speak truth were a company of men fit for as high an attempt as they were intended for but being Jesuited in great if not the greatest part they might have double designs that is rather to embroile all the Kingdomes and fit them for the tooth of the Spaniard their universal Patron then for the Kings absolute settlement in England whom they truly knew not to affect the Popes interest further then it stood with his own which is truly the Maxime of all Princes however they carry it Upon the confidence of this Army he is fooled into a quarrel with the Scots and was undoubtedly made beleeve that to let the Spaniard land 10000. in England was the only way to set all right and Wentworth a man of depth of policy and courage might
over-confidently accept these councels the truth I shall not prolixly assert God having providentially cut of that Quaere by the Sword of the Hollander but their course lading provision number and quantity of men and Commanders quality of convoy and backs of carriage besides the testimony of divers all tend to demonstrate the same nor for the same reason shall I argue how cross and incoherent we see these Councels were for fools see errors when the cast is plaid which the wise Gamester studied for and could not descry This as it hastened preparations on the Kings part for war so it enforced him while yet unprepared to hold out the Ensigns of peace and what no advices could produce before is now for interest sake granted namely a Parliament wherein all under-hand proceedings for elections not being able such a general dislike being in all men to the King and his proceedings to work and mould it serviceable to the Kings ends he as soon dissolves as calls it This breeding a deeper distast and he not yet fitted and seeing the people now fell upon petitioning rather then rebelling relying upon the Parliaments united power rather then upon their single personal rights and would sooner venture to set down with an unjust loss of part from the Kings power then loose all to his mercy by an unwarrantable course He calls a Parliament again and to this Parliament are brought so many complaints that I fear the bulk of Petitions and Remonstrances will affright our Worthies for looking into them and let much necessary work lye undone not giving due reparations to many persons against publike Theeves and Extortioners Now the Parliament made no great haste and the King was urgent for money which they taking advantage of and of his former not only declining and breaking up or dissolving Parliaments but his neglecting his own Laws that is those to which he had assented they upon the ground laid in his third year insist to have an Act for setling this Parliament till dissolved or prorogued by themselves notwithstanding an act for calling a Parliament every three years thinking no knot too sure to hold what they still found loose which effected with some other things they then fall to work with the Earle of Strafford that had power enough to have done all he intended in an ordinary course of providence had not vain confidence that he could do it when he would as the Almighty determined befooled him he surprized who was the Master-dear the herd flye and though accused by the Kings great Councel yet his Majesty having affections personal notwithstanding the supream publick trust in ordinary gives them his pass and by the means of his Admiral they were set safe a forreign shore and now himself labours to his utmost the safety and preservation of that man who had ruled in Ireland to his utmost in that absolute way he intended his Master here should as the Cardinal Richelieu had done in his France the great pleas on his side were what he had done was for his Master the King by his special command for which he had his warrant and for all Moneys his discharge and if a further offence were it was against no existent Law if Treason c. not within the Law of 25. of Edward the third which was made with much advisement to preserve the Liberty of the Subject and consequently his life by a certain knowledge of his dutie To which it was answered that his trust was to the Commonwealth to the King in his Politique not in his natural capacity and his personal receit warrant or allowance was not sufficient but they had power yea in case he had had a legal allowance or discharge in ordinary yet for the Commonwealths sake which includes both king and people to call him to an account And to the last part that it was against no Law existent They said the Parliament was by the Stat. Judge of Treason de futuro and to orethrow the Laws and government was more then to destroy a person to ruine a kingdom then kill a king and therefore I must agree by importunity forced the King to assent to his death which effected and not dared to be recalled all plots and policies left are used to break up the Parliament by the King yea an attempt made upon some Members to sacrifice to the Ghost of Strafford but all failing and yet manifested the Parliament think fit to have a guard the King practices the Army the Parliament Vote no less then 400000. l. And with that disband the Army the King thus lost every way and the Army in Ireland utterly lost by the grand Rebellion there taking many of them part with the Irish if not most and this still giving harsher resentments to the people whose Liberty was now grown great and the Parliament loth to hinder them while they served their turns many not only sleights but affronts were put on the Kings servants reflecting upon himself The Bishops now shew their sure Rock was he and they wholly cleave to him the Lords many joyn with him many against him and many appear not the Kings Agents whose designs had been nipt here being now in Denmark Holland France c. moved for assistance against the Parliament of England as the Irish Rebels do there they seek the same things and under the same pretexts so that the King is said and not without some ground to be the chief Actor in all so loth he was to call the Irish Rebels This causes the Parliament to talk of raising Armes not only to defend themselves against the King and those with whom he came to the Parliament House and kept still about him being generally a crew of Jovialists debaucht persons But to offend such publike forreign Enemies as under the Kings Name should be brought from other Nations or raised here to which there was such an unanimous loan of all sorts especially the Religious who found a change indeed in their condition That they from that took the hint of the strong affections of the people towards them and upon that Vote the extirpation of Episcopacy the which the King so long contending for and so eagerly ruined himself with them How far this is to be read out of the Revelation I shall not quaere but say it was long foretold out of that prophesy and now fell out they gave themselves now to treat of Reformation of the Church but this rooting up Episcopacy took many from them they had voted and acted against pluralities as to settle the Church and gave the Judges a setled and sufficient salary pretending to take away all other Fees from them but proceeded not The King fled from London the Convocation they follow his shaddow the Parliament call themselves a certain number of men called Ministers from all parts and nominate them the Assembly these sit as the Clergy of England the King after many Traverses having gotten together an Army comes to Oxford whether
many come from the Parliament to him as well as went with him there he erects or allowes a new Parliament And by their advice as his Parliament at Oxford demands Treaty with his Parliament at Westminster which they reject and at last the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal London indeed stood true to them which by its Vicinity to the Parliament and infinite populacy awed all other parts they had a sence of former sufferings under the power of Kings they had a deep sence of the extremities the godly and most piously affected people suffered in all parts of the Nation and how far the vicinity of the Court and Archbishop of Canterbury had violated their Christian Liberty prevailing over the quiet spirit of their Bishop was though little not forgotten they therefore generally followed the Parliament especially stirred up by their Ministers as having in hand the cause of God The King he brands them all with Declarations of Rebellion and taxing them with seeking his life and the rooting out of his Posterity They answer that they were so far from seeking his life as that they should labour by all means possible to defend and protect the same their just Rights and Priviledges preserved and for his satisfaction cause the Nation generally to enter the like Protestation this not satisfying but it being still urged by the King that the Protestation was but to establish their own power not secure his fears While their Armies were in the field against the King they answered They were only on the defensive part and such indeed was the Generals Commission and that they could not but according to their trusts preserve the Laws and Rights of the Nation Hereupon they open the Law that the King was indeed but the chief trusted person and that for his peoples sake that of this not he only but they also and more especially being congregate into a body were to judge that his failings past demonstrate his ends contrary to publike interest and resolve that even the Law of Nature taught self-preservation and that it was too too visible he intended an usurpation upon their just Priviledges That they desired his preservation so it might consist with the Weal-publick and therefore desired him to leave the company of evill men so called his Counsellors who mis-led him and to adhere to his great Councel and promised to make him on these terms the most Glorious King that ever was in these Nations and now a diverse part appearing upon several grounds and opinions amid the Members of the House the prevailing party to firm the union betwixt the Scots and them more strongly whose assistance they had had all this while in the work they frame a Covenant which held forth security and glory to the King and his posterity in endeavouring to settle Church and State upon the firm foundations of Justice and righteousness which taken in Scotland is transmitted hither and they by Parliament made brethren and this is tendred to the King to sign being first taken solemnly by the principal of the Nation with this condition That if the King agreed with them in it they would still not only acknowledge him their King but make him more glorious c. But this was so penned in such general terms that an absolute Royalist might well take it for it was intended by the some I say not the many by the leaders not the followers but as a measure to try the stretch of every mans judgement opinion or interest many no doubt took it cordially many formally some strictly some loosely but though this were not only taken but urged yet Armies were continued against the King as he said in the field against his evil Councel as they said 't is truth their evil Councel was now his the Lesson of absolute power and to be like his Brethren the rest of the Kings who had joyned interest with the Whore of Rome made him not only hold correspondence with that Beast not only at bed and board but Councel also as far as served his interest who undoubtedly aimed to rule in all things according to his own Will which Will yet should have had Regulations but still with such dependence upon his Judgement that he being the speaking Law would have had no Interpreter that should be able to cross him and his determination and so the Law must have spoken in all things to his lust or he would have made it and this he thought and I am perswaded believed to be the undoubted right of all Princes though their people as his in case of contest between competitors for the Soveraignty might wring something from them of Grants or Charters or so called priviledges or immunities which yet he believed they could no more grant to the prejudice of the Crown that is of the heirs and successors in the Kingdom then things sacred to God could be imployed to prophane uses This doctrine admitted which I dare avow was and can prove sufficiently by Witnesses yet alive That our late King Charls said these words openly upon a Hearing Mr. Hern I have heard what you have said What do you talk to me of Law Justice or Conscience according to all which Mr. Herne alledged the Patent signed by his Majesty to be I tell you said the King there is nothing in England shall stand that is not for my profit There stands one pointing to Sir John Banks then Attorney General who had hundred of pounds many I have heard for the work and drew the Patent shall bring a quo warranto against the Patent and see then what you will do Now take notice this Patent was of the new invention of Salt and opposed the Monopoly at the Sheilds under the favor of deservedly beheaded Hambleton and the Inventor not complying with the Kings Interest against the priviledge of the Subject the King brake not onely his private word with him contrary to particular engagements under his Hand carried by Sir Charls Herbert but also his publike word as King this sentence being so ruinous to the man made the Worme speak and said Sir Dare you be a King and be thus unjust I never read of Tyrant said so what ever he did or words of like effect whereupon Lord Dorcet with a great oath by his Maker as I express it said loe and if it please your Majesty these are your prick-eared Rogues the Tub-preachers and indeed he was a Zealot these are they will pluck you out of your Throne unless you dethrone them I pray take not this Lord for a Prophet unless like Caiaphas This word I could not but insert for conscience sake as a firm Index and testimony of his reall intentions This kept him off from closing with his Parliament and the rather because they insisted to have the Sword in their power for so many years or during his life tenderness of him caused the Parliament to venture far for it could not by this sole defensive way but protract the
of the day in the wisdom and power of mans strength did the Lord give such a signall Victory as being wisely followed and improved the Kings party were never able to make head again but their severall parties in the severall Counties were partly by the Scot keeping them on work by diversions The English Generall neither Winter nor Summer gave any stop till England had but two Armies the mercinary so called of Scots and the other of English And the King Oxford now only left unto him was enforced to try his then last shift namely to betake himself to the Scot having a strong Army before Newark thereby to engage a quarrel as is more then evident to all by whom he is presently upon the surrender of the place carried back to New-Castle and they wisely finding the difficulties attending them in case they should carry him personally into Scotland upon a Treaty deliver him up to the English and what was altogether unexpected return into their own Land what engagements to a return I know not And now the Presbyterian party so called fly high indeed and urge execution to the highest of the settlement of their own Interest having no other publick enemy bandy against their brethren in the Lords War the generality of the English was for them the so called Independents being esteemed by the many as the Christians of old actors of all impurities and their fry of Confederates the Sectaries but as so many legions of Divels sent into the world to give a stop to the erection of the glorious Kingdom of the Lord Christ Jesus and sure some in their zeal would have thought they had done God good service to have killed them I can in my private thoughts compare their condition to none better then that of the Israelites when they had the Sea before them and an Army behind them and were in the wilderness I know the passion of many a soul when after all their travails for Liberty from the yoak so called of the Bishops Tyranny they found themselves ground to powder under the Milstone of the Presbyters Rigidity and all this for conscience sake for the Presbyter began according to the old Rule with Church work and that was and ever will be long work especially where men take it upon them without the Lord the builder builds in vain From this the Commonwealth being still as over-burthened as before the distastes were great against the present Governors still as before the galled back seeks ease let the plaister cover or saddle be not only gilt but gold This opens a way to the oppressed for the righteous and just ends of the undertaking of this war being held forth that the ends of the Covenant as looking at Gods glory the peoples good and the just Rights of the King were not ever intended to be denyed but the pretended ends namely thereby to ensnare the consciences of men by self-ended glosses or the banishing their persons and confiscation of their goods not for neglect of civil obedience but not conforming to the opinion of others when as yet it was professed that grace was the free gift of God that the rules of prudence or earnall policy had no ground in Gods Word if prudence only might rule why not the Popes and Bishops as well as the Presbyters and to enforce conscience with the Sword of the Scot was as evil as the Mace of a German These and the like matters dispersed abroad and especially in the Army some Regiments rowze and head and notwithstanding all possible endeavors of the Parliament both at London and in the Counties the whole Army is fixed and both with life and Armes meet at the Rendezvouz and engage to prosecute the just ends of Liberty or to obtain the just Liberty of the people and hereabout the name of Levellers first arose part of the Army actually seize the Kings person at Holmby and now the active Grandees of the ruling party so called Presbyterian are accused of high Treason The King is under the custody of the Army and all means endeavoured I beleeve to make him instrumentall to the ends propounded to themselves how far their Treaty proceeded or what obligations were on either side were and are to me private I can take them to be but politick Transactions with respects to their mutuall respective or particular Interests and no further carried on but that either party had their safeguard their way and place of retreat But to proceed there was much spoken now of the Scots return and many agitations a great body was enforced to attend the King And he of a politique head was much catching and drawing and it is likely that his great knowledge where he met with true conscience not equally gifted he must prevail for prevention of which and other evils he I beleeve by stratagem and over-reach was brought to carry himself into the Isle of Wight where five hundred could do more then ten thousand otherwhere but see this brings greater preplexities for many now wearied with war and its effects of all sorts or so pretending taking advantage of the Armies opposing of disbanding cry out there can be no peace while there is an Army and though it is truth they were not a meer mercinary Army but raised by Parliament under the notion of engagement as free men for their own just Rights Yet it was plain their Interest was now grown wholly into the Army and that experience shewed there could be no just settlement while the Sword was unsheathed That they intended nothing but to take away property and introduce confusion and were Levellers haters of all Justice so that now the Souldier was enforced to stand upon his own guard London was opposite her Trade was decayed her Assessments great and all places filled with complaints The weaker party in Parliament being sedulous and crying up the Common good got not only many hearts but had enwoven many strong dependants into principal places of Trust and Office both at Sea and Land so that all that the mighty men could do was only to plot but they could not bring to effect The Army was before much admired for complying with the King and who so high against them as the Presbyter O they treated indeed it was the success however carried they maligned sure I am they opposed not the thing for they acted higher in it then ever did the other but to prepare for the work about the eleventh of June 1647. The London Apprentices so called made the foulest breach unto the Liberty of England that ever was forcing away the Speaker and all partaking with the Interest of the Army and the residue of the Members to testifie their contrivance of the fact choose a new Speaker and declare them at Windsor the head-Quarters of the Army whither the Speaker and divers Parliament men were fled or retired a meer Juncto as the Parliament of Westminster and the Assembly at Oxford had before mutually declared
of God that Christ had not destroyed this Law he came to fulfill it And lastly they enforced this from the rule of reason If man had no boundary to his Reason no rule to make his Law by reason would be infinite which error had been the foundation of so many dreadful alterations as States had suffered under in such clymaterick revolutions as now this Nation laboured under and therefore they desired the drawing of Englands Laws to their primitive rule namely the Judicials This was objected against by others who yet desired a rule of righteousness alledging that if this were the Rule then it must be all so or but part not all for the Ceremonial Law being the shadow fled away at the coming of Christ in the body and that the Church of Rome had done evil yea that it was the foundation and root of their so dangerous Apostacy to carry the shadow along with the body for from thence had come their high power of the Pope their sacring of Churches as well as persons their Altars Trinckets c. their Jubiles Pardons Indulgences c. Canonical hours holy Vestments and all the rest of their trash and that one admitted all would follow and as the entertaining the amusive or formal part of worship into religious services had under the supremacy of the Ecclesiastick power defiled Church and Commonwealth taking away all sence of inward serious conscionable moral duty as well as religious and resting only in the exterior form either the pomp of the action or the act it self So now in the reformation of the Ecclesiastick power by the Magisterial Civil power the Commonwealth would at last lay the foundation of a new defilement to the Church and that this might be was too too evident by the precedent example So that we should but change the Tables and keep the false Dice still which would never better our game and therefore they said that unless there could be shewed exactly which part of the Judicials by an infallible word and that as given by Moses that is not as confirmed by Christ or his Apostles was the rule of Christian duty they would take none at all as so given for if man were Judge of a part of that Law how agreeable to the Nation whereof he or they were rulers then of all and if so then as good take pure reason not contrary to the Law of Christ and his Apostles but founded rather upon his Doctrine in the general rule though the particular application might vary in respect of circumstances so not rejecting the judicials but not taking them as obligatory as given to the Jew the people of God or typing out all Christian Nations or an Ensign of the faith but as a wise Law yea the wisest as being the dictates of the prime wisdom the same God that the Christians worshipped they not only admitted but desired such as were consonant to Christian reason to be established amongst us There were some particular contentions as first for Tythes secondly Appeals next the Sabboth then Theft not to be death then Adultery and Blasphemy to be death and these were things of principal Interest indeed But the Interest in part which discredited the whole was so visible as I cannot allow it though I may them who sought the thing as afflicted in spirit seeing the want of conscience in multitudes thinking ill of all called Ministers for some evil mens sakes open prophanation of the Sabboth by those professed a Sabboth and by the last Act restrained in part and left in other part as loose as before petty Theft death yet in the same State common and manifest Adultery go without any punishment or question all for want of a rule for we hear of long debates about it and Swearing and Blasphemy almost as ordinary as speaking yet proof made difficult and punishment easie but no conscience of reforming for few thought it a sin for the great men and the wise men were most guilty and gloried in it so that it was evident that as some sought the re-establishment of the old frame of Government and that both in Church so called and State according to the old pattern of the Erroneous Church or Apostacy of Rome founding upon the equity and useful allusion so called of the Mosaical Judicials and Ceremonials some nothing but confusion so others desired one wholly new avoiding all the errors which corrupt interests had introduced and that not only because the way of Error was before tracked and therefore easie to be trodden anew but as being builded upon a false foundation as well as by time and error corrupted and perverted Some of these though holding the truth were by a part of themselvs supposed to be in an error while presuming upon the wonderful mercies the Lord had bestowed upon them they were over-rash in their desires of a change for the evident symptomes of unavoidable ruine say they threaten us the multitude of interests are so divers and contrary how few are there to manage such a work not one to ten if one to an hundred this were to tempt God To expect miracles in a day when miracles cease God bade the Jew not destroy all their enemies at once lest the beasts should prevail against them it may hold forth the simplicity of the Dove but not the subtilty of the Serpent which is requisite in this case for you see say they what a contest hath been with the single interest of the Clergy and the scattered fry of their corrupt Courts but if you engage against all the remainders of them with the numerous off-spring of all Courts as of Judges Serjeants Counsellors Sollicitors Attorneys Protho-notaries Secondaries Clerks of the Crown Clerks of Assise Clerks of the Exigents Clerks of the Papers Clerks of the Warrants Clerks of the Essoyne Clerks of the Juries Clearks of the Pipe Clerke of the Kings silver Clerks of the Seal Clerk of the Peace Custos brevium Chyrographers Fillizer Marshals Cryers Waiters Chancellors Remembrancers Six Clerks Registers Comptrollers of the Seal Examiners Clerk of the Hamper Clerk of the petty Bag Cursiters Serjeants of the Mace Ushers of the Court Clerks in nature of ordinary Attorneys with many more and all these having their adherents for which of these but come in under some corrupt interest or other But generally the chief in Offices at least of profit as Judges Serjeants Councellors Advocates Doctors Proctors Attorneys Six Clerks Clerks of Assize c. are all the younger Brethren or sons of Lords or of their Families however of the greatest Gent. and of the Parliament men themselves and setled by the Bastard so called the Conquerour upon a politick Maxime That the Land in England being appointed for the safeguard of the Kingdom might not be brackled away therefore as all the Land went to the eldest these were the wayes of educating and maintaining the younger make them Lawyers and make the Laws dubious Offices plentiful and there would be as
and through the might of the Lord Jesus may so live here that we may raign with him in Glory for evermore Amen Amen AN ESSAY OF Christian Government Vnder the Regiment of our Lord and King the one Immortal Invisible Infinite Eternal Universal Prince the Prince of Peace EMMANVEL Presented to all them that bear Office and are impowred by God in the Government of Nations but especially to the Commonwealth of England and to all the Magistrates and People therein expecting and hoping for the Glorious Appearing of our Lord Christ Jesus Ezech. 33. 7. 6. 4. 7. O Son of man I have made thee a Watchman to the house of Israel therefore thou shalt hear the Word at my mouth and admonish them thereof 6. If the Watchman see the Sword come and blow not the Trumpet and the people be not warned if the Sword come and take any person from among them he is taken away for his iniquity but his bloud will I require at the Watchmans hand 4. He that heareth the sound of the Trumpet and will not be warned if the Sword come and take him away his bloud is upon his own head LONDON Printed by Robert White for T. G. and Francis Tyton and are to be sold at the three Daggers neer the Inner-Temple-Gate 1651. To the English Reader READER WHoever thou art of what ever Calling or condition know God calls thee by his Judgements to a serious consideration of thy duty thy duty is towards him and those to whom he hath given power over thee They hold forth desires of setling the State and that both in Religious and Civil respects sincerely We all agree all out of order that which naturally draws most men is present benefit this makes some crie out for the old Government others one wholly new others to settle their Condition would patch and dawb and joyn iron and clay together I ask thus Is the priviledge of an Englishman and old Laws and carnal Interests above that of Christian Christs or Gods Laws and the inheritance of Eternity If so to them say so I am silent To the Christian Englishman I say I have propounded a Model of Christian Government I say not perfect nor according to that perfection which I do as I conceive comprehend but such as may be constituted to fit by degrees to a more pure settlement I intend not all should be as here set down it s but an Essay I have gone as neer the Original Law of England after the Nation received Christ as I could This if accepted must as in all alterations destroy many interests and advantage others All that submit in all things to the will of God will not kick against him in his dealings they will say it s the will of God I submit How it shall be done I leave to the great Councel of Parliament beseeching the Almighty to give them wisdom to govern the people rightly we are a stubborn Nation naturally where grace polishes look for assured help where wisdom settles you will finde no resistance Go on Worthies God is with you and good men are not against you chear their hearts go on to settle be not alwaies pulling down it s harder to build then destroy I know many of you then much more the people will think some of these Tenets against priviledge what the Magistrate to superadvise private actions be not disquieted either to think your care will be too great or the Subjects Liberty streightned The opposition is only to evil men in evil things and that when notorious the onely thing you all fear is Magistrates may abuse their Trusts To all such I say the Law is just still for the man punish him I shall not enlarge but in one word to the Politick man Sir I have I confess not stuck so close to the rules as many do at least of late but you may see I offer things as I think they may be now received to fit for better by degrees To all I say the intention of my undertaking was onely the peoples good but especially Gods glory who knows all our hearts and knows that I speak truth to whose guidance I commend your Spirits The Table to the Second Part. Chapter 1. Page 101. and 102. shewing 1 WHat is Monarchy 2 Its divisions 3 Whether Obedience be due in things unlawful and how 4 What if bound by Oath and that both voluntary and inforced 5 Limited Monarchy lawful and cautioned freedom or freedom contracted for due 6 The best way of gaining it by a Representative 7 Who and how to judge of the clashings or differences of the Representatives 8 The duty publike and private of Representatives as such viz. in their Trusts 9 The necessary issue of a Monarchy devolved into Tyranny Chap. 2. pag. 102. shewing What is Aristocracie Chap. 3. pag. 102. shewing What is Olicharchy Chap. 4. pag. 102. shewing 1 What is Democracie simply so called 2 Democracie setled in promiscuous choice 3 Democracie refined and that both in Electors and Elected 4 The end of Government Chap. 5. 102. 103. shewing 1. Wherein a Kingdom or Commonwealth precede each other negatively and affirmatively 2 Kings no weasiest to be corrupted and hardlyest reclaimed 3 Where a Kingdom hereditary is best 4 The evil of that in the issue 5 The evil of the three other sorts of Government 6. That evil and good is not properly in the nature of the Government but in the good or evil of Governors Chap. 6. pag. 103. Wherein is shewed 1 That States are subject to alteration agreed if so 2 That what was in the Supream Power as such goes along with it 3 That England hath right to Estates the late King had as King 4 The reason of all Chap. 7. Wherein is treated pag. 103. 1 That whatever the nature of the Government be viz. whether of one or more in chief Laws ought to be set 2 The reason of it Chap. 8. pag. 104. and 105. Wherein is handled 1 The evil of tying Magistrates to the strict letter of the Law 2 The evil of too loose a Rule 3 Magistrates in Supremacy their duty in this case 4. The supposed excellency of Englands last settlement and wherein 5 The reasons why Magistrates inferior must not be tyed too strict 6. A caution for them in Supremacy of power in unsetled times 7 Rules of bounding inferior Magistrates tendered 8 No Officer to be punished for executing the command of his Superior 9 Judges offences to be speedily determined and if he acts but for just things by these Officers not to be punished 10 Generally they that act legislatively not be permitted Judicial places Chap. 9. pag. 105 106 107 108 109. 110 111. Wherein is handled 1 What is Dominion Power or Authority in it self p. 105 2 What is the end as to others 3 The reason of mens subjecting to Powers c. particular good in universal 4 The various wayes of seeking it 5 The high respect given by Heathens to just
Lawgivers 6 Why they pretended to receive their Laws from their gods and that both in respect of Magistrate and people p. 106 7 That Christians ought to live under Laws and the reason 8 Authors waved and the reason why Reason is onely allowed 9 The inference that the Magistrate in Legislative power ought to make Laws by a Head Rule and the Judicial propounded and the reasons for it examined by several Instances specially in life liberty and goods and this proved by the New Testament 10 That the Judicials did not properly mislead us but the Ceremonials Chap. 10. p. 112. Wherein is shewed 1 That the Magistrate keeping his Head Rule his power extends all vice 2 In that liberty his boundary generall manifested by an example Chap. 11. p. 112 113 114 Wherein is cleared 1 What the general acceptation of Prerogative is 112 2 What it intends as looking at the Supream Magistrate and that either in absolute Powers or limited 3 The vertual power of Supremacy is ubiquitary 113 4 How its intended in Law that the King can do no wrong 5 The error causing our Divisions heightning giving to the person what was proper to the Power 6 Several benefits given to the Supream Magistrate by Laws and called Prerogative 7 The reason why lapse of time did not prejudice the King 114 8 The reason why the King was admitted to be deceived in his Grant 9 The insufferable abuse of these 10 And of the Kings dispensing with a non obstante in a Statute and not so bound unless named 11 A further grant of profits to the King 12 Some Honorary Grants yet used to profit 13 How the King takes or parts with ought legally as King 14 Some unfitting profits evidenced 15 Deodands a meer allusive Judicial 16 Of the special Judges to try his Rights 17 Three abuses of Prerogative in not having judgement final against him acting all particularly for which no Law was granting Charters and priviledges 115 18 The special badges of Supremacy what and incommunicable 19 That these were never in the King of Englands hand Chap. 12. pag. 116 117. Wherein is shewed 1 That the Supream Magistrate is Judge of Publike good p. 116 2 That this must yet in the issue be evident to others 3 The abuses and benefits of Monarchies and Republicks further debated 4 How Englands Laws admitted her King Judge of publike good 5 Some complaints against meer Prerogative Officers remembred 117 Chap. 13 p. 117. Wherein is treated 1 That the Supream Magistrate may grant inferior so called Prerogatives 2 How he may grant them and the benefit and necessity thereof Chap. 14. p. 117 118. Wherein is declared 1 That there alwayes have been diverse Opinions of the Magistrates and Churches Power with the Reasons of it 117 2 That the Magistrates Power is chiefly preservation of the Peace 3 That much of the Duty of the first Table lies upon the Magistrate and how but not solely nor principally and the reason 4 A touch of Christs Blessing left to his Church the Apostles and their Successors in Doctrine Chap. 15. p. 118 119 120 121. Wherein is treated 1 Of the end of Magistracie 118 2 That evil men may be good Magistrates therefore obedience is still due to them 3 The necessity of this or good Magistrates will be ousted by evil men p. 119 4 That the Pope through the abuse of this difficulty became the sole umpire of all controversies 119 120 5 Limited Magistrates or that rule by Law must not go beyond their rule and the reasons of it 6 Absolute Monarchs questionable onely by the whole community 7 How dangerous an evil this is and therefore waved 8 Christian Princes from the Kings of Judah especially have all pleaded to be absolute 120 9 In limited Monarchies the Assemblies Dyets c. may judge the Monarch 10 The way to distinguish absolute and limited Monarchy 11 The necessity of well tempering popular States 12 There are evils in having as in not having barrs to Supremacy 13 The punishments used formerly to them called Kings or Monarchs 121 14 The benefit of such punishments Cap. 16. p. 121 122. shewing 1 The original end of Parliamentary meetings 121 2 The priviledges given to the persons met and the reasons thereof 3 Protections to other then meer menial servants in ordinary unlawfull 4 Their Speaker not to be disallowed but upon good cause 5 They have a liberty to treat of all matters freely c. 122 6 They are the Guardians of the peoples Lives Liberties and Estates c. 7 The necessity of them to keep Kingdoms from devolving into Tyrannies 8 These to be limited to time lest they grow Tyrants or as bad 9 That their errors if any committed by them might be amended 10 They are to be paid by an equal rate upon all that chuse and ought to do if they had not dispriviledged themselves Chap. 17. p. 123 124 125 126 127. Wherein is shewed 1 The necessity of Magistracy 123 2 The principal ends manifesting wherein the Priviledge of the Subject generally consists Examples given thereof first negatively then affirmatively 3 Affirmatively to be governed by righteous Laws righteously 124 4 That these Laws extend to persons in all places at all times c. and that in respects requisite to common or more publike peace or safety 5 That its requisite the Supream Magistrate set the example to others 6 The Supream Magistrates neglect a ground to hinder Reformation 7 Ill Customs or Laws to be altered 125 8 Matters of publike grievance especially if arising from particular interest not to be continued 9 Placs of publicke Judgements to be fitly setled and not altered but in case of necessity 10 Priviledge wherein respecting the Subjects generally wherein it consists illustrated in many particulars heretofore questioned 11 Priviledge not to be pleaded to them convict of crime 126 12 A general Law can be no dispriviledge 13 Exempting particular persons for particular and special reasons can be no priviledge or dispriviledge 14 To be Master of Arms or admitted into Military trust a special priviledge 127 Chap. 18. p. 127 128 129 130. in which 1 Nature gives like priviledges to all men 127 2 We lose them either by compact of force 3 Iust that force should be submitted to And that to equals obtaining Supremacy by power 128 4 In rational subjection or subjection by compromise or agreement there is to be no difference betwixt the Prince and Subject concerning good better or best for of that the Prince is absolutely judge and so on the contrary but in manifest evil or good 5 The absolute Powers Christian are under a Law 6 Powers must look to be just 7 Self-safety considered in a queried particular 8 Opposition makes Conquerors hard-handed in the first settlement 9 Providence considered and where it s to be allowed where not 129 10 Nations not to make others their Pattern without a just rule 11 Nations subject Nations as men do men and