this case is remediable for by such having recourse to force or warre though but defensive he challengeth and assumeth all the power from the people to himself making himself supreme Judge of all upon the last resort of which somewhat more shortly But the King cannot be so in our present case in which he is a party in as much as the evill proceeds from ill counsell prevailing with him For to bring the hypothesis to a Thesis and not to stand alway on supposition taking it as a supposition that a king seduced may de facto make such attempts as are above put it is more evident of it self then that we need look on the fall of Liberty in France if not from the King nor Counsell about him consequently then whence is the remedie for our losse from the Judges what ever their will may be they want power and notwithstanding they still were present the mischief grew on It must be then from the two Houses of Parliament onely unlesse you would have the whole Nation assemble personally as in the Vale of Jehosaphat if you suppose it possible and if possible fit for any thing but confusion except perhaps force the king having to speak with what reverence we can in this case excluded himself and the Clergie justly being excluded from such temporall distractions that it may attend the better and advance the celestiall and ecclesiastick more then enough to take up the ablest men wholly and not a little hindered and discredited by their so great greedinesse after worldly matters let them do their dutie let them teach truly live exemplarily like professors of mortification this will render the people so devoted to religion to them that they may securely trust the Parliament with all that touches them and safely make it their proxy themselves being absent and whilest thus spirituall matters are the better served and attended these and the temporall both receive the greater blessing but such diffidence and suspition in the Clergie if it should not be present in Parliament argues ill deserving since the justice and wisdom of the Parliament as principles of this government ought not to be questioned but how much more is the Clergie to receive at the hands of the Parliament that fuora i. preti i.e. Priests void the roome used by that Councel in Venice of which Bodin in the third book De republicâ the 3. Chapter then when they shall be found in life and doctrine unsound ill affected to the publick good accessarie to the evill to be remedied nay ardent to bring in or maintain either Papistry and idolatrie or at least a most scandalous symbolizing with it in temporall pride riches and greatnesse and even Antichristian domination through the breaches and ruins of their Countrey rather then even a Parliament shall question it The Parliament then and under this notion of the two Houses in these times understood being our onely remedie or rather Physitian it follows it may and is to be Judge of the danger or disease and that of power which is to remedie if it be so is to try whether it be so for without judgement or knowledge of the disease how can there be remedie or how shall the Physitian know what when and how to apply If it be the onely competent Judge of this our dangerous disease and of the meanes to meet with or expell it the knowledge of the remedie depending essentially upon the knowledge of the Maladie and receiving thence its Judications it hath consequently power to execute or act or cause to be executed or acted what it hath or shall judge or ordain necessary for the cure else such power to judge were vain and it would still return that the people were remedilesse But WISDOM or Judgement and POWERS as they are divine coincidents and all one really and naturally where they are supreme and essentiall as in the Divine nature it being but our weaknesse of understanding to conceive them disjoyned so for principles of one facultie questioned are to be enforced from an higher facultie even in this supreme power on earth which as farre as frail mortalitie can bear imitates and represents that above they ought not to be by us apprehended separate but mutually presupposing or inferting one the other Let as adde to make up this terrestriall trinity Goodnesse which last may be understood in our present case a doing no unjust or dishonourable thing but wholly intending the publick good according to the peoples trust And it were an arch heresid in the policy of this Monarchy to disjoyn in out beleef or opinion the third from the two former And the Law saying no dishonourable thing is to be conceived of the Parliament it seems all one as to have said in other termes that it is the supreme Judge of the last resort and that even without the king if he hath excluded himself as above which is more then if he were far personally absent or otherwise casually disenabled and as much as if no king at all were for the time where all appeals are to rest and determine all men to acquiesse binding all from questioning what is there done and inferres the supreme power there to reside as being the whole kingdome in which it is radically and fundamentally by representation such power to be exerted and used when it judges necessarie and that if the nature of the occasion so requires with the suspension of the power of the supreame ordinary Delegate or Magistrate during that parenthesis of state for the kingdome having entrusted the Parliament with all it holds precious the effect of the Commission upon the matter being that it provide ne quid respublica detrimenti capiat it hath consequently trusted it with its power which is the supreme that it may be enabled to perform and execute the trust when it judgeth this cannot be made good without using that power But to return the Law saith also That the King can do or doth no wrong but it denieth not but ill Counsell about him may or perhaps the Law intends the king as he is in his great Counsell where he is as Sal in Leone or any Planet as they say in his proper house of farre greater vertue and power then otherwise But however Reason tells us that a Prince or a few of his Cabinet counsell may far more easily erre in judgement or possibly in point of will then the multitude of a Parliament so many whereof are selected out of the whole Kingdom by the people in point of Judgement much more of will or well willing to the publique whereof themselves are so great a part and this much the rather in that it is to be feared that oftentimes those privadoes of the Prince finding out cunningly the Princes will inclination or humour before they advise and further to ingratiate themselves seconding it much that there is agitated becomes to be upon the matter the judgement or will but of the Prince alone Well
beasts or slaves as well as of Religion But to our way from this Digression We may from this place take a prospect another way into the plot of these Malignants being by a crew of our own Nation but unnaturalized partly not penetrating their deluding pretences by reason as naturally simple partly having their understandings debauched by a will instantly solicited or over-ruled by enormous affections and passions which second kind may constitute a middle degree between malice and simple ignorance might this simple tractate gain one of the first sort the pains taken were a pleasure but should it hope to win one of the second degree this presumption might make bare pardon too much for it There is a third sort in whom their understandings and consciences though having perfect light and cleerly discerning the truth and right yet are like slaves forced and dragged by a Diabolicall will affections in this degree not mentioned as arguing grosse carnality or corporealnesse but these are spirituales nequitiae by such a society whilest they speciously pretend to defend priviledges of Parliament Laws of the Land liberty property of the Subject c. but whereof the King must be supreame Judge for in this point lyeth all the mystery and Cabala through this mortall wound of the authority and essence of the Parliament the true and onely Judge and consequently defender of them all as above is shewed to strike the heart of them all leaving us onely tenues umbrae or manes or apparitions of them to pursue distract and torment us as accessaries to the murder or rather principals since no accessary in Treason if we passively concurre much more if we help to act it thus the matter being disposed they may introduce the form the perfection of the work and the state at their discretion and the way of the Lord Pope prepared and his crooked paths made straight they may easily bring him in as after we may endeavour to shew But if the plot seem not deep enough laid as supposing and hoping at home so many monsters and vipers though the fewer needed the sound partie of England and Scotland already distracted by the Irish Rebellion to that end if not at first raised yet sundrie waies fomented by them then perhaps to peice it from abroad and by cutting the banks of the kingdom to let in a deluge of forrein forces and so yet further subdistract the remnant if we conceive the Fleet of Spaniards seen not long since at the Downs carried any mysterie or came not unsent for or moved not to no end or Hull so earnestly made at Newcastle Portsmouth c. signifie any thing which though intended to distract England and ruine it may rather opening our eyes and disabusing us by Gods over-ruling unite it as in a common canse against an universall and evident danger not to speak now of other matters judicating the same And they intending in England a government at discretion and all made in all probabilitie or after the French fashion if the middle sort of people of England and Yeomanry of whom chiefly consist the trained bands and wont to be a maine strength of our victorious Armies can by no subtilties be drawn to their party then by policy or even plain force to disarme them suspecting as they have good cause that these if once they be unhoodwinkt will especially oppose the change as whereby they from being in the happiest condition of any of their rank perhaps in Europe nay in the world who here live like men and are wont to fight or die like men in honour or defence of their Countrey might well be reduced to the termes of the Peasants of France of villenage and slavery a fit recompence for their danger and pains should they fight and labour to bring it in As for the scum of the people they judge it either sencelesse or carelesse of the publique and desiring a change or easily drawn where there is hope of greater spoil and pillage We may place so much the more below this scum many of the greater sort that stand for these Malignants against the truth and right every day more and more plainly convincing them and against their Countrey by how much they owe to it more then the Rascality doth yet appear to be crawn with hope of spoil and pillage in their degree and proportion as much or more then the Rascality it self But though it be so with the State is our Religion in danger that way also why else are the Papists so active so busie is it onely that they may beslaves but in a politick way onely use may be made of them and of their power without any intent to symbolize with them in their religion as sometimes hath been done in other Countreys Be it so though it be not good to be prodigall and facile in our grants which our religion may pay for yet taking it this way so great a service so seasonable at such a pinch when all good Subjects and judicious honest men fail them received from the Papist must draw on in way of gratefull acknowledgement some favour at least some advantage which cannot be but at as much danger and disadvantage of the religion not to insist how hardly they will lay down their Armes once taken up and victorious or the King be able to make good his faith or word And are not they the fittest and surest meanes to conserve a State that have been thought and found such for the acquiring But be this as it may it is clear that can the Papist bring the matter to an absolute and arbitrary government and render the prerogative immense and even divine they gaine a maine point on our religion for then between them and the heaven of their desires there were interposed but the turning of one will and that one alreadie prepared disposed and inclined to them by such meritorious supererogatory service and further propitiated by the so strong intercessions how strong to speak like those we have to do with when used by her that may in some things even command our soveraigne Ladie Mary I had rather seem to some a little too much tyed to sence onely and to the present times we yet live in when I presumed to use that phrase turn or change of one will then with others by the abstraction of apotent imagination found worthy to have been rapt into the glorie of those times in stead of change of will to have used a phrase or sence seeming to such more orthodox terming it rather an externall manifestation and declaration onely to us here below of that which was ever from the beginning predestinated internally since in Gods no reall change nor shadow of change but the other way a whole Parliament at least must be first turned and that in Diametrall opposition with the Papist and should forreign Force come in by Portsmouth Plymouth or Falmouth what if we adde Ireland to induce Tyranny Religion runs equall hazard with
the world and so complaint be made to the Parliament thereof if it were to any end to complaine there of that which hath already passed without punishment But seeing the Parliament hath power the case standing as before hath been shewed to doe in all things as they see cause by good consequence their speeches necessarily preparing discussing agitating concluding what is so to be done cannot be subject to any limitting questioning or accompt abroad nor in reason therefore are to be divulged in that sence this being incompatible with such power But then these haters of our Law-makers and Lawes say Many of both Houses are away and so the acts lesse valid but be the number remaining little yet the acts of the Major part of that number are still good For neither the King that calied them away or countenanceth them that desert their stations may alledge this nor the Members that voluntarily not upon trust in those that remaine or leave obtained abandon their places there and duties are to take the benefit either of their owne wrong whether negligence in such Members or worse perhaps nor of their owne unworthinesse as Cowardise to oppose what they liked not which feare admitting such could be argues still that they that feared were the lesser number though what needed they feare to speake freely a dissenting lesser number being ordinary and sometimes a very few perhaps scarce enough to make a number dissenting openly from the rest of the whole House without any inconvenience It being allowed for any to speake their minds whilst a matter is in agitation before it be settled If they say they goe away that they may not seeme to allow what would passe though they were present then the Major part concurres to what is done by their owne confession els why stay they not to oppose it If they say so many are gone without leave of the Houses as put together would make the Major part supposing this were true either such a Major part went away at once in a body and then it was their fault not to stay for then they being the Major part had prevailed or they went by little and little and then still it was a Major part of the remainder that concurred to what was done els it had not passed and so the acts still good If they fly to say that they who thus deserted the House out of feare did it not as fearing the Parliament but the people granting these men this which is not their due that such had cause to feare the people and that such base feare when as they pretend they were to stand for the King Countrey Lawes Liberties Religion and did not render them utterly unworthy their places it may be answered briefly they that remained and carried matters might feare the King as much or more but their cause was noble and good but these or the like Cavils will no more hoodwinke the people their onely course were to produce some publique act of Parliament that might certifie the world that the King and both houses have long since unanimously concurred to dissolve this Parliament else Sophistry will not carry it against the manifest truth By the premisses or rather by diverse excellent Tractates published by others to the same or the like effect I hope it is even as cleare that the Parliament is and ought to be the supreame Judge in publique matters now in question in England as what it is it hath judged and ordered touching these things by so many publique orders declarations and the like and consequently that reason wills that they be sacred in our esteeme and punctually obeyed and executed and so no need of warre and whosoever goeth against reason and truth goeth against God himselfe who is Prima summa pura ratie and it will concerne him nearely to looke to it whether he be stronger then God goeth against himselfe if he be a man and shall first finde a civill warre in himselfe before he can cause it in his Countrey upon such grounds and for his Majestie he cannot as he is a King but judge that that man thinks dishonourably of him who goeth about to perswade him that that can be for his good that is not for the good of his Kingdome and so sever what is so excellently joyned or that the great Counsell of the Kingdome is not the onely at least the very best and the onely sure and securing way without all doubt for that Prince to follow that intends the publique good and which will ever assuredly concurre with him to that end nor in opposing an arbitrary power which ill men about him for their owne private and wicked ends would induce Doth the Parliament any thing but disenable a Prince or rather those about him from doing ill or more properly from usurping such power which to what end is it in a good Prince which he will or can never reduce to act or use but the false or pretended Mother of the childe who would have it divided whom the wisdome of the King may discerne will whisper there is no thankes or glory to doe good unlesse he might have done evill and so did good freely since free will onely merits I beleeve they hold merits it seemes these malignants setched not this Doctrine from heaven for there we may finde that confirmation in grace in the Angels and blessed spirits of just men whereby compleat free will or the remaines of it which free will argues but imperfection and mutabilitie power to sinne being but impotency and the King of Kings God himselfe who is perfection it selfe being above and without all power or possibilitie of doing any evill yet rather therefore I should say omnipotent in or for good that confirmation in grace I say by which free will is transfigured and sublimed into a state divine and Posse non peccare into non posse peccare is a transcendent blessing if not the very essence of celestiall beatitude where these suggest such a condition is to be declined though with ruine of all But howsoever the Divines of our times may not allow the explication or application of this point we may hope his Majestie out of his Princely care of the good of his people though both himselfe and it may beleeve well of his good intents to that purpose will be far from judging such a puntiglio of arbitrary power for however it may fill and tickle the phantasie yet deeply and duely penetrated into by judgement it appeares to resolve even into no more if a puntiglio be any thing or least it might possibly be thought he would or might have done evill had he not been restreined from it when he cannot violate such just restrictions without first doing the greatest evill of all to the publique from judging I say such a puntiglio a just and sufficient cause to destroy the people by a civill warre when were this power indeed justly belonging to him yet true love to his people might judge