THE ARMIES VINDICATION Wherein these five things are proved First That there is a Supream and Soveraign power alwayes residing in the People over and above Kings Secondly That all Kings have been and still are subject to and under Law Thirdly That the People have power not only to convent but to censure depose and punish their Kings for their Tyranny and misgovernment Fourthly That no Nation is so strictly tied to any one form of civill Government or Law but it is lawfull for the People to alter the same to another form or kind upon occasion Fiftly Amongst all formes of Civill Government Aristocratical or Popular is best and safest for the People Besides Here is shewed that to claim any Crown by an hereditary or successive title is upon a false and unjust ground In reply to Mr. William Sedgwick Published for the Kingdomes satisfaction By ELEVTHERIVS PHILODEMIVS 1 Cor. 7.21 But if thou mayest be made free use it rather Printed for Peter Cole at the signe of the printing presse in Cornhill neer the Royal Exchange Anno 1649. To his Excellency Thomas Lord Fairfax Lord General of the Parliaments forces and the General Councel of War My Lord and Gentlemen HAving spent some time in looking over the histories of Nations our own Records and Statutes with severall other works of Statists Politians Lawyers I found that saying truly verified of Solomon In much wisdome is much grief and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow and what he afterward concludes of all his own works and labour I observed to be most true in them touching Polities and civil government Behold all was vanity and vexation of spirit and there was no profit under the sun For indeed men have acted and written either in reference to Princes to humor and please their lusts and will or like the unwise builder the blind leading the blind have built upon the sand upon unsound bottomes and false principles And therefore as Christ in the controversie betweene him and the Pharisees touching divorce sends them back to the originall and first institution of marriage and to the Fathers of the first age of the world as being the first and best pattern and Paul to reform the abuses in the Lords Supper cals them Corinthians to the first institution So there is no better way to have a Common-wealth setled in peace and righteousnesse then to look back at the beginning when men walked by the exact and even rules of equity justice conscience and kept the clear and plain principles of reason and nature this is the Land-measure and Standard whereby the faulty measures coming after are to be corrected and amended How this light first came to be less'ned and then by degrees afterwards upon the matter quite extinguished in some Kingdomes and darknesse to break in as Soveraignities Monarchies Kings prerogatives arbitrary power regal immunities Crownes hereditary and successive c. all bloody and black Characters of Tyrants and conquest it is easie to be seen and I shall shortly by the good hand of God assisting me give you and the whole Nation good satisfaction In the mean time I have thought good to publish this small Treatise and howsoever I question not but your present work and way is clear to you yet to the nation generally it may serve in some good stead as to satisfie the weaker confirm the stronger informe the ignorant and leave the wilfull and obstinate without excuse For the man with whom I deal I have nothing here to say neither indeed would I have sayd any thing to his work considering what for a man he is but that I perceived it was in the mouth of some much cried up people it seemes that are not able to put a distinction between wind and words nor know any difference between rayling and reason And now my Lord and Gentlemen upon you at the present is the eye of the nation you are as a city set upon a hil all Kingdoms about us are looking on you and great things are hoped for and exspected from you and this I must needs tell you the cause of Christ lies much now upon your actings if you doe the worke of the Lord negligently unfaithfully fearfully oh my bowels doe yearn and I tremble to think what dishonor will come to Gods great name what scandal and proach to the glorious Gospel what sadnes and sorrow too the soules of the righteous and what tryumph and joy there will be in the tents of wicked men But I hope better things of you though I thus speak I need not tell you how much you have seen of God and how his powerfull presence hath gone all along with you to this present time neither need I tell you by what a strong arm and a strange providence you have beene brought up to this work But if you should now ask of me as the young man did of Christ what lack we yet I would say constancy and faithfulnesse to the end will crown not only this but all your former actions Methinks I could say more to you then Mordecai did to Hester Who knowes whether thou art come to the Kingdom for such a time as this We know and blessed be God for it the Lord hath made you his Israels Saviours and by you hath wrought deliverance for his people he hath put much glory already upon you now therfore stand fast quit your selves like men you have the prayers of the Saints with you and for you and for the enemies their defence is departed from them and the Lord is with you fear them not But seeing the Treatise is short I shall not make too large a forespeech I well remember your expression in the Remonstrance calling upon every man to contribute what help he can and truly there is all the reason in the world for it that every one now should lay himself out to further so honorable and good a work And for my part according to the small portion I have received I shall not be wanting in your vindication but for the things by you proposed and your prosecuting of them to wit that the King may be brought to his tryal the enemies of our peace punished hurtfull Laws nullified the peoples grievances and oppressions removed freedom and liberty of conscience without danger to the State granted a better form of Government setled as I shall undertake the just defence thereof so I shall shortly make it more manifest to the whole nation that there is nothing in all things desired of you nor prosecuted by you but what is according to justice reason nature conscience and what the Lord himself doth allow and call for In the mean time my prayer shall be for the blessing of God to be upon your labor and his powerfull protection over your Persons Sirs I am Your Honors devoted servant E. P. To the Reader Friendly Reader HOwsoever the Proverb be true he shall finde worke enough that hath to do with the multitude
here in Mr. Sedgwick namely to have the Army disbanded this hath been a long time sought after and severall wayes attempted to effect it But it seemes seeing all other meanes failes him he now studies to make the Army flye by a false prophesie as if our worthy Nehemiah and the rest would give over the building through a needlesse and foolish fear And indeed they have all the reason in the world to think that God hath not sent him for the statutes of the Lord are perfect right pure clean true and righteous altogether Out of the mouth of the most high proceedeth not evill and good Where we find as in his writing is abundance contradiction falshood flattery the wicked justified the righteous condemned evill called good and good evil darknesse put for light and light for darknesse bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter Gosple Truths and Ordinances are scorned and derided c. there we may groundedly conclude that such a one was never thereto called of God But it seemes here to be Mr. Sedgwicks case as it once happined to Antonius when he angled some dived under water put fish upon his hook which he cast up and thought he had taken them If I should lay his fish together in a heap a man would soon perceive by the kind who put them upon the hook For instance look here good Reader out of what water is this fish taken and what fish is it speaking to His EXCELLENCY and the Generall COVNCEL of WAR he tels them It pleases me to pour contempt upon you to be shod with scorn and indignation and so trample upon Princes as morter If this be not the spirit of Antichrist then was it never in any man But let us see how Pope-like he sets his foot upon the neck of Princes Destruction your practice t is your work t is your end you cannot see beyond it your faith understanding God may I use your own words pag. 22. you lie grosly is sunk into your bellyes and your rule your strength your confidence is only in sensuall and brutish things you act against God and God against you your soules loath him and his soul loaths you And of the whole Army he saith Never were men caught in such a snare of the devil as you are you are true to nothing neither God nor man your wayes are beastly cruel absurd monstrous you continue in armes against command of God and men you are a company of deceivers and mountebancks that talke of curing saving delivering but all wast spoyl and destroy the people You are gone from all principles of goodnesse from the Lord to the world you are become through blindnesse and ignorance enemies to the spirit you love not the life of Christ you know not the mind of God neither have any communion with God Amongst you is the greatest enmity and malignity to the spirit of God and the greatest pride hypocrisie self confidence and spirituall wickednesse you are manifestly guilty of the present oppression upon the poor people and the intollerable burden of Free-quarter and unreasonable taxes you exspect the King should turn not to God but to your form of Religion and Government and cannot count any thing a change but yeelding to your way which if he should he should be seven times more the childe of the devil You are tugging and pulling down the Kingdom in pieces to satisfie your self with dominion you hope for nothing but for deceit falshood and treacherie you speak evill but cannot speak good you never spake any good of the King or any other but in scorn Here is some of the fish which Mr. Sedgwick hath cast up we need not to describe them they shew themselves what they are and the black lake out which they are taken But is this Mr: Sedgwicks voice oh poor man truly I pitty thee and howsoever no Rabshekeh Ishmaelite or Shimei could hardly have uttered greater slander and more falshood yet considering the temptation thou lyest under and what a depth of delusion God hath suffered thee to fall into thou art rather to be pittied then punished Michael the Archangel durst not bring against the devil a rayling accusation but you durst raile at the people of God and charge them with notorious untruths but take heed lest the strength of that prayer reach you Let the lying lips be put to silence which speaks grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous Psal. 31.18 Because I am willing that the Army should take notice what Mr. Sedgwick writes as well for them as against them Thus he charitably expresseth himself at first Your eternall state is sure t is your present wandrings that are here condemned Here is some comfort for you souldiers but will he stand to this not all for presently with the same mouth not minding what he had said he puts them all out of Heaven and out of all hope of salvation and shuts them up in the bottomlesse pit and this with as much confidence and certainty as if God had revealed to him what their future state should be le ts hear the sentence against the Army The Lord saith he appoints you a portion with hypocrites and unbeleevers where shall be weeping knashing of teeth Again pag. 11. If you adhere to that you have proposed you forsake your own interest and espouse the devil the God of this world the destroyer and will perish with him What their eternall salvation sure and yet may perish with the devil this is no true light the Spirit of God witnesseth otherwise But again pag. 18. You are cursing dividing and so are in the kingdome of darknesse and of the devil and often You are no Saints pag. 23.24 And in pag. 35. he passeth a finall doom where he saith You are reserved to be punisht from the presence of the Lord this is your second death As this vain and rash judging of his shewes by what spirit he is led so it is not worth the answering only it bewrayes great weaknesse and darknesse in him and that he is not himselfe For who but Mr. Sedgwick or a man under such distempers would write so vehemently as he hath don against the Army of which more in its place for rash judging of others wheras I dare clearly affirm there is hardly a precedent of any one man that fell so fouly and grosly in this very thing as he himself hath done Turpe est doctori cum culpa redarguat ipsi For his perverting of the Scripture Phil 3.18.19 scandalously applying it to the Army I mind it a thing in him neither new nor strange for the rest of his works shew what a proper gift he hath to wrest and abuse the sacred word of God Yet not to passe over the place altogether silent there seemes to be something here which is close and hid wherefore is Phil. 3.18 19. quoted and commented upon it is to make the Army contemptible and odious Paul saith many are enemies
for this how doth he make it good Here he useth the common practice of false accusers but I shall leave that to some other pen and why not the falshood as wel 2. Whereas in the Remonstrance the instability of the Parliament is shewed and the evil practices of the King's partie Here he saith they are too harsh and without any molifying oyl c. First 't is cleer to every man that hath sence that Mr. Sedgwick is not sometimes at home to take an account of his own soul he taxes the Army as over harsh too large in opening the faults of others whereas he pitiful man hath written six or seven sheets and all for the most part are accusations against the Army and the grossest and vilest that can be aggravated to the highest 2. That the Parliament for their sins are scattered and broken This in part is true to wit such Members as turned aside to their crooked waies the Lord hath led them forth with the workers of iniquity but peace shall be upon the rest 3. That the whol Kingdom is full of discontent against them I beleeve t is so and more discontented will they be when they shall more cleerly understand their particular treasons and bloody designs in joyning with Malignants their under-hand plottings to raise up farraign and domestick forces to destroy the Army and the wel-affected through the Kingdom 4. That the King's partie are strugling to get from under their intollerable afflictions but cannot No marvail seeing they grow worse and worse and like mastives are the fiercer for their chain and you Mr. Sedgwick seek to increase their miserie by your daubing with untempered morter prophesying peace and safty to them and that their deliverance is at hand and you know who did so Ezek. 13. by which means they are hardened and so fatted for destruction 5. To that which you say of the Army that they are not like the good Samaritan but are as flesh flies or the man possessed with Devils seek the lands ruin to the furthest As the Lord hath hitherto spoken for them cleered their innocencie in spight of Hell and maugre all the powers of darkness so he will in this present work be a witness for them and make it manifest to the world by setling a wel-grounded peace what they have desired fought for and sought after and what hard things they have suffered for the good of the Nation The Righteous shall see it and rejoyce and all iniquity shall stop her mouth We have next his Story and 't is a wofull one First he saith Once our King and Parliament or people lived quietly and lovingly together imbraced in the arms of Divine Goodness prospered together as husband and wife When was this once It is so known an untruth what he speaks as I need not say any thing to it onely wish him hereafter to pray with David set a watch O Lord before my mouth keep the door of my lips I could multiply instances of the continual dissentions and differences between King and Parliament from the beginning of his Reign down al along to this present Parliament and for the People such as were most sincere and pious lived not quietly and lovingly together with him but suffered extremly under him even to the spoiling of their goods imprisonment banishment and some losse of life and this only for the truth sake 2. In calling the King husband and the Parliament wife as the former was false so this is foolish And 3ly Is that true that the Army have alwaies lusted after the royal bed What alwaies how are they then deeply revolted and turn'd back to the world In pag. 43. you say they have been led up into the high things of God and did all things in the Spirit of God But I shall not presse it further 4. I perceive you are a stranger to the ground-work of the Treaty 't is too wonderful for you and therefore have stated the thing amisse it was to advance the King's party stop the course of Justice against Capital offenders that such as had notoriosly cheated the Kingdome might not be questioned the people brought again into their former bondage such as would not nor could in conscience submit to their Church-government and other forms might be suppressed and under the name of Sectaries banished the Kingdom Lastly you say There is a blessing in this Treaty destroy it not tell us how the Lord will come in as a thief in the night and steal away the evil I answer You may see the Lord is already come in not in the night but at noon-day and hath discovered the deceitfulness of it the snare is broken and we are escaped and blessed be the Lord who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth Mr. Sedgwick is now come to examin their Reasons given in against the Treaty and here he finds sundry faults First Because they would make their own and the puplick interest to be one Answ. 1. Howsoever such as have engaged for the publick are in some things to be considered apart and so their particular safety to be provided for yet doth it not follow that they have therefore no interest in the publick or what is offered to us by them is not the publick but their own particular interest 2. I do not well know what he means by generally the people of the Land if he intends the King's party all Papists and other malignants I confess they go not with the Remonstrance but desire rather to see all things in the condition they were in before these wars began but for others and this is properly the publick interest they are one with the Army holding fast to their first principles namely To be free from all arbitrary and tyranical power whether in King or Parliament to enjoy all their rights priviledges and liberties to have all hurtful laws and customs removed not to have their consciences lorded over by any to have justice done impartially upon offenders and such a Government to be established as most tends to a publick peace and safety And therefore whereas he saith These devised things you propose the people know them not affect them less than they know them Unless by people he mean Royallists Delinquents Malignants and other treacherous plotters and their adherents it is not true for the publick doe desire them call for them and have a long time contributed their estates and engaged their persons in hope that these things would at last be procured His Second Exception is Because the Remonstrance propounds That all power should be in the hands of the Parliament and that to be certain and in the hands of a subordinate officer to call c. There is a great deal here left out which makes the matter more full and cleer but I let it passe let us consider his reasons against this It is to throw down a King and lords and to set up the people Ans. 1. The
and good for them better then their Kings who are their publick ministers and thus concluding itaque majorum rerum potestas jure populo tribuitur Therefore power of the greater things is by right the peoples 4. This may also appear by the histories and records of all Kingdoms in the world where Tyrants forc't not in by conquest and held not possession afterwards by force In the Romane state both under their Kings and Emperors the chief power in all things of highest concernment was alwayes in the Senate and people and so much Bodin grants That the people hadt he chief Soveraign power of enacting and confirming Lawes the Senates decrees being of no validity unlesse the people ratified them and if any of their Kings Consuls Emperors or Generals did things without their consent as making war concluding peace c. it did not bind but was meerly voyd unlesse the Senate and people together in a great assembly ratified the same by a publick Law But to let passe forreign examples our ancestors in this Kingdome which shewes what power was invested in the whole body of the people have not only constrained our Kings by threats yea force of armes to summon and continue Parliament but likewise compelled them to give their royal assents to Magna Charta Charta de Foresta Confirmatio Chartarum Articuli super Chart as with sundry other publick statutes of right and justice for common good and the subjects safety and to ratify them with their hands seales oathes proclamations against their will and liking which forced assents have been afterward justified and held good in law to bind these kings and their followers to the due observation thereof for where the lawes are convenient necessary or essentiall for the Kingdomes welfare the Subjects just liberty and safety and such as the King by duty and oath is bound to assent to there if they compel the King to give his assent in case of denyal the assent is binding and shall not be voyd by Duresse because the King doth no more then he is obliged by oath law and duty to condiscend unto and the people whose power is above him may justly require 5. And now in answer to Mr. Sedgwick affirming the Crown to be the Kings birth-right a thing which I utterly deny and have clear reasons against it For 1. Howsoever here in England the Crown hath gon often by discent yet never was it granted absolute successive and heretary but arbitrary and elective Hence many of our Kings have come to the crown without any hereditary title by the peoples free election and afterward obeyed as lawful Kings Thus Anno. 975. after Edgars disease not Ethelred the heir to the former King but Edward crowned So Edmund heir to King Ethelred refused and Canutus a stranger elected and crowned So Edmund and Alfred both heirs set a side and Harald and Hardiknute elected and crowned Kings I might also shew how upon the death of King Harald it was enacted by the English Nobility That none of the Danish blood should any more reign after them So after William the first not Robert the elder brother but Rufus the younger brother chosen So after the desease of Richard the first John Earl of Morton was crowned and Arthur the right heir refused The like might be manifested of other nations how their kings did not reign heretarily and by succession from father to sonne but those were chosen Kings amongst them which were held worthy which election was made by the people and revokable by them at any time and whensoever the Crown went now and then by succession it was by usurpation rather than right From humane Histories we might come to the holy Scriptures and shew that the original creation and constitution of the Isralites Kingdoms proceeded only from the authority and power of the people and that solely by Divine permission rather than institution as is apparant by Deut. 11.14 15. And howsoever the Lord did somtimes immediatly nominate the persons of those that should reign over them as Saul David Jehu Jeroboam c. yet the people did constantly confirme and make them Kings and gave them their royal authority none being made Kings by Divine appointment but such as they willingly accepted approved and confirmed to be kings Gods previous designation being but a preparative to their voluntary and free election Moreover It is very cleer that the kings of Judah and Israel were subordinate in power to the people and not only counselled but usually over-rul'd by them in al matters of publick concernment for though they asked a king yet they reserved sufficient authority to themselves to restrain him and to order and dispose of the publick affairs as they thought good But these things we have reserved to a larger treatise 2. Howsoever Bodin contrary to Aristotle Tacitus Lipsius Toloso Machavel Kirchnerus and the greatest Polititions prefers succession before election of Kings and instanceth several nations to be heretary yet this I say quo jure from the beginning it was not so for every heretary Crown is through custom not of right howsoever people have let it passe and admitted them in such a way yet this hath been still in the people a free act and it was in their liberty and power to have chosen any other 3. Whereas some Kings require an oath of their subjects that their heirs and successors shall enjoy the Crown after them and the grounds of taking this oath is upon an opinion that the Crown goes by succession from father to child so that in their understanding they give not any thing away from themselves but only acknowledg what they conceive the person already is Now this oath being given and taken upon a false ground cannot bind in point of conscience because if they knew it was not the others right they would not swear neither meant they in the least to pass away any thing of their own right for they thought it was the others properly before And here by the way observe how vain and groundlesse that common question pro and con is amongst Polititians Statists Civilians and some Divines whether succession or election be the better as if truly and rightly there were some such thing as succession whereas it is neither so nor so I confesse after a Kings desease the people may elect and crown the son and his sons son but that any such thing can be claimed or chalenged as a birth-right it is altogether untrue there is no Kingdom in the world where the crown descends from the father to the son by any true and proper succession the most that can be is not simple succession but a succession limitable and conditional that is a promise on the peoples part for some considerable causes that the son shall be crowned after the fathers death if he be fit to govern and they see it is for their good But that any people should absolutely bind themselves to have the son reign over
p. 398. Again Anno 1399. King Richard the second for sundry misdemeanors objected against him in 32 Articles in Parliament and breach of his coronation oath was judicially deposed and Henry the fourth elected and crowned in his stead So in Anno 1462. King Henry the sixth Queen Margaret and Edward their son by Parliament dishinherited of their right to the crown and Edward the fourth made king Here I shall end this point with a few proposals to the Reader 1. Thou mayest observe when a King proves a Tyrant it is the peoples own fault if they relieve not themselves and recover their ancient rights and liberties 2. Note what mischiefs and miseries this Monarchy and King-craft brings with it for it is no small disturbance and trouble to a nation to be forced to take up armes against a tyrant and bring him to punishment 3. And mark it wel according to the fact so tyrants have been punished more or lesse that saying in former times hath been held for a maxime fiat justitia mundumâ—â—at 4. Here also thou mayst observe how false to their trust prejudicial to the kingdom the late Treaty was for what men unlesse ignorant in State matters dul of action slavishly minded fearful unbelievers or such as have cozened and cheated the countrey and so made account by a generall act of indempnity to escape punishment hanging I should have said would ever have moved in such a way as being free from a tyrant with great expense and much pretious blood would seek to set him up again and so by degree to be in greater slavery then before Lastly For the opinion of learned men whether Papists Lutherans or Calvinists they do unanimously hold that Kings for their tyranny and misgovernment may be censured and deposed by the people because I have proposed to my self to be briefe I shall onely mention a person or two There is a book entituled de Rege Regis Institutione written by one Joannes Mariana a Jesuite wherein I find his words thus A Tyrannicall King continuing incorrigible after publick admonitions of the whole State if there be no hopes of amendment may not only be deposed but put to death and murdered by the whole State or any particular persons by their appointment yea without it if he be declared a publick enemy by the whole State and in case the whole State cannot publickly assemble by reason of such a Princes known notorious Tyranny then in such a case it is lawfull for any private man to murder him to free the countrey and Kingdom from destruction Lib. 1. c. 9. Howsoever I shall not stand to justify all that he sayes yet his book was dedicated to Philip the third King of Spain and published by his speciall priviledge afterward reprined at Mentz in Germany Cum privilegio sacrae Caesariae Majestatis permissa Superiorem Danaeus allows not only subjects actual resistance but deprivation of Kings where princes set themselves to subvert Religion Laws Liberties Polit. Chryst lib. 3. cap. 6. So Zuinglius When princes shall deal perfideously and contrary to the rules of Christ they may be deposed by the consent suffrages of the whol or at least the greatest part of the people God helping them therein Explin Art 42. And howsoever Calvin pleads as much as a man can for Tyrants and wicked Magistrates yet thus he saith I alwaies speak of private men for if there be any popular Magistrates constituted in the behalf of the people to restrain the lusts of Kings such as heretofore were the Ephori who were opposed to the Lacedaemonian Kings or Tribunes of the people against the Roman Senate or the Demarchi against the Athenian Senate the which power peradventure as things are now the free Estates in all kingdoms enjoy when they assemble I am so far from inhibiting them to withstand the raging licenciousness of kings according to their duty that if they connive and wink at Kings outragiously encroaching upon and insulting over the poor communality I shall affirm that their dissimulation is not without wicked breach of faith because they deceitfully betray the liberty of the people of whom they know themselves to be appointed protectors by the Ordinance of God Instit. lib. 4. c. 20. Sect. 31. Fourthly That no Nation is so strictly tied to any form of Government or Law but it is lawfull for the people to alter the same into any other form or kind upon occasion We prove and for the first thus 1. Because all formes of Government were ordained for the peoples welfare protection peace c. and therefore in case any one becomes incompatible or inconsistent with the publick safety it may be changed without injustice and grounded upon that first and chief Law of all common-wealths Salus Populi suprema Lex esto the safety of the People let that be the last Law grounded also upon that saying of Christ Mark 2.27 The sabbath was made for man and not man for the sabbath Whence I reason look as man was before the sabbath and the day made as serving to the preservation and safety of him and so his life to be preserved by omitting the observation of the sabbath So man being before the Goverment and Government ordained for his safety there is no form of Government but he may omit the use of it if it be for his peace profit and welfare 2. It is a received principle of nature and reason eodem modo quid constituitur dissolvitur in what manner a thing is constituted it may be dissolved Again Omnia quae jure contrahuntur contrario jure pereunt The Apostle Peter as we have already noted cals kings and their supreamacy a humane creature or ordinance of man because the same took its original and rise from men and therfore that form of Government is changable and revocable as the people whose creature the form is shall see reason and cause for it As the potter hath power over his pots and the gold-smith may alter and change his vessels and cups from one form to another so here 3. Howsoever all Government in general be of God yet the kinds of it are left arbitrary to mens institution and free election here I say people have liberty to take or leave as to lay aside one form and establish another when they see it is more to the preservation of humane society and the advancement of Gods glory Thus Aristotle and all Politicians hold all forms of Government are changeable Lambertus Danaeus Polit. Christ l. 3. c. 6. pag. 217. speakes thus When the Lawes of a Kingdom or Common-wealth are not observed but manifestly and obstinately violated by that Magistrate to whom and whose family the supream Government is granted under certain conditions I say that Kingdom or Government so granted and conferred on conditions may by all godly and Christian people with a safe conscience be taken from him and another form of Government erected by a publick Edict of