The Case of our Affaires IN LAW RELIGION And other Circumstances briefly Examined and Presented to the CONSCIENCE Printed in the Yeare 1643. The Case of our Affaires in Law Religion and other Circumstances briefly examined c. THough the Bonds of all Dutie are originally and principally founded in God and tied by Religion yet seeing all civill Duties relate to the particularitie of the humane Ordinance and according to the nature of it is with more or lesse importance to be exacted What Subject soever would finde the true rule and bond of his obedience must in the first place look what the State is wherein he lives and in whom the Soveraignitie is to which his obedience and faith is inevitably bound Our State of England even by the declaration of our Lawes is a Kingdom an Empire a well regulated Monarchie the Head thereof a Supreme Head a Soveraigne a King whose Crown is an Imperiall Crown the Kingdom His Kingdom His Realme His Dominion the People His People the Subject His Subject not onely as they are single men but even when being in Parliament assembled they make the Bodie Representative of the whole Kingdom considered apart without the King so that the very Parliament it selfe is also by our Lawes called His Parliament the King alone by Law hath power to call together in Parliament that Representative Bodie and at His pleasure to dissolve it He personally hath Homage and Oath of fidelitie of all the Peeres as of His Barons and all the Commons in Parliament do by Law swear Alleageance to Him as to the Onely Supreme Governour and to assist and defend all Jurisdictions Priviledges Preheminences and Authorities belonging to Him His Heires and Successours or annexed to the Imperiall Crown of the Realme By the same Oath also is every Officer of considerable trust in Church and Common-wealth assured to His Majestie and not onely they but every single man of twelve yeares of age ought by Law in some or other of His Majesties Leetes to swear Alleageance to His Majestie and never in our Law have we known an Oath of obedience to be made unto the Parliament or any other Power in any case either of mis-government or danger how extraordinary soever This Soveraignitie in the King appeares not onely by that Oath of Supremacie but by the constant acknowledgement of our Acts of Parliament both antient and moderne which alwayes stile the King Our Soveraigne Lord the King that is not Soveraigne Lord to every single man onely as the Observer traiterously and foolishly would make it but the universalitie of us even to our Bodie Representative in Parliament For we must note that though we have among us many that are called Lords even by our Acts of Parliament themselves yet being Lords without relation to the communitie or publique they are never called Our Lords but The Lords with addition of such or such place or Office and they indeed are Lords singulis not universis for every particular man may call such a Lord My Lord but the Communitie may not call him Our Lord for to be Our Lord is to be Lord of the Communitie and that belongeth onely to Our Soveraigne Lord the King Our very Acts of Parliament declaring this State to be a right Imperiall Kingdom a Kingdom we know consisteth of no more than two formall parts onely that is to say a Soveraigne Head and a Subject Bodie and then it clearly followeth that what cooperation soever there be of any of the Members with the Head for the doing of any necessary Act of State whatsoever necessitie there be of the concurrence of those Members and howsoever they may seem to be Parties Orders or States co-equally authorised in the power of acting with the Head yet plainly there neither is nor can be any co-ordination nor co-equalitie of any Estate Order or Degree of the Subject with the Soveraigne nor any competition of the Subjects power in his concurrence with the virtuall and primary influence of the Soveraignes power but a plain subordination and subjected ministration of the one under the Soveraignitie of the other as in the further examination of their differing interests will manifestly appear We see the Soveraignitie of this State clearly vested in the King by Law established in Him and inseparably annexed to His Person by which He hath also inseparably both the Soveraigne power and Soveraigne judgement but as in judging and determining matters of private interest His power is not absolute but is restrained to judgement not judgement arbitrary in His owm Person but judgement to be administred by the proper sworne Judges of His Courts of Law so in matters of publique affaire for so much as concernes the making of Law His power and judgement are so restrained to the concurrence of the Nobles and Commons in Parliament as that He cannot make any settled Law without their consent but then in all other things that are not expresly restrained by any Law as in providing for the present safetie against suddain danger which Senates are so unapt to do as that the famous Roman Senate was ever fain to choose a Dictator to do it for them likewise in levying of Armes suppressing of tumults and rebellions convoaking of Parliaments and dissolving of them making of Peeres granting libertie of sending Burgesses to Parliament treating with Forraigne States making of War League and Peace granting safe conduct and protection indenizing giving of Honour rewarding pardoning coyning and the like in all these and divers other points of Regalitie the Soveraignitie both of judgement and power ever hath been and still is in the King alone freely and at his own discretion is secured to him by tâ—â— Oath of Supremacie whereby as aforesaid the vvhole Representative of Commons all Magistrates and men in place both in Church and Common-vvealth svvear To assist and defend all jurisdictions priviledges preheminences and authorities belonging to the Kings For it is plain that seeing that by the Lavv of God and Nations to be King is to be Supreme Judge and Lavv-giver vvhosoever is King is supreme in every thing vvherein he is not especially restrained and his restraint being by the peculiar Lavves of his Kingdome he can be no further restrained than the knovvn Lavves thereof expresly manifest The great restraint of regall absolutenesse in our State is in the tvvo points of declaring and making of Lavv in neither of vvhich doth the King depart vvith any vvhit of his Soveraignitie In the point declaring of Lavv the King is restrained ordinarily to the mediation of his Judges vvho to declare the Lavv by deliverie of the genuine sense and interpretation of Lavv according to to art and rules of science are in their respective Courts the proper and authorised Judges and Interpreters of Law and do by their interpretation and judgement then binde both the King and Subject Next above them upon errour supposed in their judgement the House of Lords who anciently were exercised
else their aide and service must make his Armie a popish Armie surely not to admit them into his Armie when they cannot otherwise be safe were uniustly to deny them the protection of Subiects and to spare them either in their personall or pecuniarie assistance were with inequalitie toward his Protestant Subiects and with danger to their Cause to refuse his needfull duties from the Papists though therefore Protestants should never lay down their iealousie of the growth of Poperie yet should they not let it so abuse them as to make them believe they have no danger to feare but onely Poperie especially now when Schisme and Sectarisme do with such authoritie invade us and when nothing can more advance the bringing in of Poperie if it be possible than the confusion in Church and State that does inevitably follow them the expectance whereof was the cause that made the Cardinall and the popish partie from beyond sea so effectually labour the promoting of them Undoubtedly if Poperie be at this time to be feared it is to be feared from the prevailing of Schismatickes by the Designe and manage of so potent and active forraigne Instruments of Poperie and it would returne with comfortable satisfaction to our consciences that having for a feigned feare of Poperie engaged our selves in reall Rebellion we should finde our paines rewarded with the felicitie of becomming instruments of the evill that at so deare a rate we did unnecessarily resist When in every thing considerable to resolution the conscience is on every hand so strongly beset with reasons all concluding for obedience to our Soveraigne and for our utmost assistance to His Cause How weak is the sole Authoritie of an imperfect representative of Peeres and Commons so to possesse the conscience with perswasion to the contrary as upon it to venture the present and eternall safetie of ones selfe and of so many thousands in our Israel But say that this world were onely to be considered in the businesse let us yet but see what must needs be the event in case the Parliament Forces which God forbid should prevaile either they must leave the Soveraignitie in the King as it was before and content themselves with strict Lawes against all grievances that may be feared in Religion or in Government and then they bring no more to passe then what His Majestie before their Warre did of himselfe and does yet gratiously offer or else they must take the soveraigne power from the King into their own hands and leave him no more at most than the contemptible name of King then shall we loose our old legall Government and be governed by the absolute arbitrary and tyrannicall way of their Votes and they to secure themselves in that new and uncouth way of Government that they must institute must to the overthrow of Trade and intolerable burthen of the Subject keep the Kingdome under perpetuall Garrisons and then what with the Faction and discord of our ambitious New-States what with the unrulinesse of the commanding Souldier and what with the attempts of those whose fidelitie will ever excite their utmost endeavour for their Soveraignes never dying right we shall fall into an incessant Civill Warre untill the Kingdome being ruined the Soveraignitie returne into the hand to which it rightfully belongeth Unles therefore it please God that our great Metropolis of London partaking rather of the wise spirit of the men of Abel than of the obstinacie of Gibeah the Benjamite shall either deale so effectually with those that there reside in shew of Parliament as that they bring them to yield to the equalitie of a free and legall Parliament and so provide against future grievances without any violation of the Rights of the Crown or else in case they refuse shall like the Abelites deliver unto the King the Heads of those Opposites that rise up against Him We may assure our selves that that Citie like those of Gibeah and Benjamin are hardened to all our Israels punishment and to their own destruction and may as they did prevaile once and again against the residue of the Kingdome untill they have fulfilled Gods determined Visitation upon the Land and then consummate all with their deplorable destruction FINIS A DISCOVERIE OF LONDONS OBSTINACIE AND MISERIE THere hath been many Admonitions sent from His Majestie advising that Citie of their own preservation yet they have continued stubburne though they cannot but see the hand of the Lord to assist all the King's Majesties proceedings whereas their actions are so farre from prosperitie that they winde themselves wilfully and force others ignorantly into miserable adversitie Furthermore though God hath manifestly fought against the Rebells for the King giving Him Victorie in many Battailes when all humane helpes and advantages were on the Rebells side though God hath miraculously and beyond the hope of man restored unto Him the hearts of the people which the Heads of this Rebellion by slander had stolne from Him though from small and contemptible beginnings in the eyes of His Enemies few or none standing for Him but God and the justice of His Cause God hath prospered him into many mighty Armies which render Him formidable to the proudest and stoutest of the Rebels though every Victorie hath been seconded by a tender of Peace and with an overture of Pacification so that as Himselfe speakes in that Declaration published Iuly 30 1643. He could not probably fall under the scandalous imputation which hath usually attended His Messages of Peace that they proceed from the weaknesse of His Power not love of His People Lastly though like an indulgent Father of rebellious Children He hath courted this Citie and wooed it by many pardons many and often repeated Acts of Grace and Favour to recall us to our former Loyaltie if ever we were Loyall yet inconsiderate unthankfull wretches as we are we over-look or sleight all these invitations for instead of returning we have added this as the complement of our other Rebellions that whether more unthankfully or undutifully I cannot tel we have cast dirt in our Soveraignes face and slandered the footsteps of Gods Anointed as if He were guiltie of all those Miseries which at this time threaten the subversion of this Nation we will no longer wound the King secretly through the sides of his evill Counsellours or Cavaliers but charge Him directly and point blanke as in that most seditious Declaration or whatever you will call it presented by Sir David Watkins and that broken Citizen out at elbowes called Satten Shute to the Common-Councell and by them to the remainder of the Lower House if it be not breach of Priviledge to call it so How willing have we obeyed every Commandment except God and the Kings How forward have we been to employ the large Revenues of our severall Companies and Brotherhoods as heretofore to excesse and gluttonie so now to support this Rebellion How ready even beyond our abilities have we been to submit to every Taxe
and illegall Imposition even to the bondage slaverie of Excise by which we are not so much Proprietaries of our own as Stewards or Casheerers to the heads of the Rebellion and all this to no other end but to keep up the Rebellion we have not onely protected and supported the Kings mortall Enemies but as much as in us lay have persecuted all His Friends or if but suspected to stand well affected to Him and the Justice of His Cause not sparing the effusion of innocent blood as that of Master Tomkins and Master Chaloner which like the blood of Abel calls loud to Heaven for vengeance on this bloody Citie and questionlesse will in time be heard for not content to buy these mens bloods with great summes of monies which could not be advanced but on this condition that Master Tomkins and Master Chaloner be delivered up to their pleasure and murthered for a strange Conspiracie called Obedience to the King but being dead in an unheard of barbarousnesse they presse into the houses where their dead bodies lay before their Funerals and thinking they could never be sure enough of so great a guilt they will not believe that they are dead unlesse they force the houses to see the bodies of them whom themselves had murthered insomuch that to avoid further violence and rage of the Citizens they were fain to set open the doores where their bodies lay and expose them to the view of all that so they might glut themselves with beholding that sad spectacle which themselves had made That the Kings Gracious offers of Peace have been sleighted and rejected with scorne and contempt and His Messengers that brought them contrary to the Law of Armes and Nations imprisoned That those miserable distractions which have rent and torne this flourishing Kingdome are so farre from being closed that they are rather made wider That the Sword of War so long devouring is not yet sheathed except in one anothers bowels That this Kingdome is still made the Scene of Murthers Rapines Oppression and Plunderings and whereon all the horrid acts of rage and injustice are every day acted and the Nation put almost out of hope ever to enjoy her former Peace and Plentie is our fault and ours wholly Had not the 〈◊〉 â—f this Rebellion been animated by this Citie and encouraged by promises of more Supplies of Men and Monies they had long before this laid down their Armes and come with halters about their neckes and cast themselves at the Kings feet submissively begging those Pardons which they have presumptuously rejected Time was when the two Houses gave a Law to the Citie now it is come to that passe that the Citie prescribe to the Reliques of the two Houses They must not conclude of War or Peace without consulting the Citie if they doe they reckon without their Host. Nay though Fairfax be utterly routed in the North and William once sirnamed a Conquerour be totally defeated in the West yet can they neither be perswaded nor beaten into thoughts of Peace On the 20th of Iuly last no longer ago many Thousands as the printed paper tells you preferred a Petition to the House of Commons presented by M. Norbury of the Cursitors Office and Iohn Hat an Atturney of Guild-hall both pernicious men which as it evidently shewes their obstinate aversion from Peace so it is the most desperate devilish slander that ever yet durst look the world in the face for first they tell the House of Commons and in them the world That the King without any touch of conscience and in defiance of God hath raised an Armie of Papists Outlawes and Traitors for Robbing Burning Murthering and Destroying of His Religious Honest and well meaning People And then knowing not onely their interest in but their power over the House of Commons they do not so much Petition as Command them to accept of their assistance for the raising a new Armie and in expresse termes prescribe unto them and limit them to a Committee of their own nomination for the seizing and receiving of such summes as the willing shall thinke fit to offer or they shall thinke fit to extort from the unwilling for this service and that you may judge of the whole bunch by some they name Pennington the pretended Lord Maior Stroad one of the five Members Harry Martin Plunder-master Generall and Denis Bond Burgesse of Dorchester and Patriarch Whites own disciple a man of a double capacitie to be a Rebell and finding themselves more alone in these undertakings than they did imagine like desperate Traitours they call on the whole Kingdome as one man according to the intent of the late Covenant to joyne with them in this Rebellion And having thus taken a course to raise new Forces on Saturday the 29th of Iuly at a Common Hall they Voted Sir William Waller Generall of their new intended Armie whom to indeare the more they interest him in the Government of the Citie hoping that being as mad as his Ladie he will hold up the Rebellion as long as he can and then be one of the last to run away I mean not from Battaile for in that he hath shewed himselfe as forward as the foremost but from Iustice and the due reward of his disloyaltie By all which it is most evident that this Languishing Rebellion had before this day gasp'd its last and given up the ghost had not this rebellious Citie by its wealth and multitudes fomented it and given it life If therefore Posteritie shall aske who broke down the bounds to those streames of blood that have stained this earth if they aske who make Libertie captive Truth criminall Rapine just Tyrannie and Oppression lawfull who blanched Rebellion with the specious pretence of Defence of Lawes and Liberties War with the desire of an established Peace Sacriledge and prophanation with the shew of Zeale and Reformation Lastly if they aske who would have pulled the Crown from the Kings head taken the Government off the hindges dissolved Monarchie inslaved the Lawes and ruined their Countrey say 'T was the Proud Unthankfull Schismaticall Rebellious Bloodie Citie of London so that what they wanted of devouring this Kingdom by cheating and couzening they mean to finish by the Sword That therefore these dangerous Defluctions and continuall not small Distillations but Floods of Men Money Ammunition and Armes descending from the Head Citie and Metropolis of this Kingdome may not for ever dissolve the nerves and luxate the Sinewes of this admirable composed Government it will highly concerne this Nation to look about them to undeceive themselves and to consult their own Peace and safetie by joyning with their Gracious Soveraigne in chastizing these rebellious insolencies and reducing this stubburne Citie of London either to obedience or ashes FINIS 25. H. 8. cap. 22. 24 H 8. cap. 12. 26. H. 8. cap 2. 1. Eliz. 1. 1. Iac. 1. Co. 5. Codry case fol. 9. b. vide the Parl. writ 1. Eliz. 1. 5. El. 1. Lo. Cha. Egertons Post nati 73. b. Psal. 60 7. Gen. 49.10 Deut. 33.4 5. Lo. Cha. Egertons Post nati fol. 22. 23. sect. 4. Crompt â—ur 10. b. The speech of H. 8. in Parl. by information of the Judges Stat. West 1 3. E. 1.1.3 E. 1.3 6 42. Stat. of Merch 13. E. 1. Westm. 3.18 E. 1.1 Stat. of waste 20. E. 1. of Appeale 28. E. 1.1 E. 2.1 and all the Titles of the Acts of our Parliament Vnicuique in suà arte credendum 11. H 7.9.34 H. 6 14 25. E. 3.4.37 E. 3.18 42. E 3.3.17 R. 2. Vide the Oath of the Justices an. 18 E. 3. Yee shall swear c. that lawfully ye shall counsell the King in his businesse and ye shall not counsell nor assent to any thing which may turne him in damage c. and ye shall do and procure the profit of the King and of his Crown with all things where ye may reasonably do the same and if ye be found in default c. ye shall be at the Kings will of bodie goods and lands thereof to do as shall please him So helpe c. Vide the Statute de Bigâ—m 35. H. 6. Fitz Aâ—r tit. gard 72. pag. 3 Braect li 1 c. 16. parâ— 3 fol. 34. Bract. li. 1. c 8 p. 5. Pag. 38. 2 Tim. 3.13 Ed. 2. Pag. 8. to pag. 15. Pag. 15. Pag. 33 34 35 35 Adjudged H. 7. Pag. 4. Co. 5. de jure Ecc. fol. 9. b. 25 H. 8.21 16. R 2 5. 25. H 5. 15. E. 3. 5. E. 3. Vide Ola Mag. Cha. Dâ—ar H. 4. 7. E. 1. 3. E. 3. De queux ils nont pas cognizance 25. E. 3.2 3. E. 3. Fitz tit. Cor. sta 〈…〉 pl Cor. 153. Bract. ti 2. cap. 22. fol. 52. a. Rex parem non habet nec vicinum nec superiorem Deut. 33.5 Numb. 16.3 ib. v. 13. ib. v. 2. Psal 106.17 Deut. 33.5 Exo. 4.16 Numb. 11.15 2 Tim. 3 2. 4. 2 Pet. 2.10 Jude 8.10 11. 1 Sam. 16.14 verse 1. 1 Sam. 26.9 Afterward David was touched in heart because he had cut off the lap of Sauls garment 1 Sam. 24.6 The Book of Observations Treacherie and disloyaltie of Papists c. 2 Sam. 20.16 Judges 20
soly in the King We shall easily reconcile that apparition of contradiction if we consider that we use the word Parliament to divers senses and that in two senses wherein we use the word Parliament there is no Soveraignitie to be ascribed to it We sometimes use the word Parliament for the House of Lords onely As when upon Writs of Errour any Judgement in the Kings Bench is examined in the House of Lords and there affirmed or reversed the Judgement is said to be affirmed or reversed by Parliament And yet though in that sense the House of Lords is well enough called The Parliament yet is it not the high Court of Parliament which is the supreme Judgement power and Authoritie of the Kingdome and that we may easily see in this that though the Lords have power there to reverse the Judgements of their inferiour Courts yet have they not power to reverse their own Judgements nor to restore again any Judgement that they have reversed for they judging ministerially and not soveraignely do as well binde their own hands as the hands of their inferiours whereas the absolute soveraigne power doth not so but may reverse any judgement that they themselves have given and again restore the judgement that they themselves reversed for the absolute supreme Court having Juris dandi dictionem can never be at the last period of her jurisdiction but looking ever forward to the present occasion whatsoever passed before it pro re natâ legislatively judgeth maketh and declareth Law But the House of Lords though the most superiour of all Courts of ministeriall iurisdiction and all other inferiour Courts they having no other iurisdiction than onely juris dati dictionem in using their iurisdiction do consummate it and bring it to a period beyond which they cannot go Besides the House of Lords is nor universally to all occasions a iudicatorie and therefore not soveraigne but is the distinct Court of the Kings Barons of Parliament of particular and ministeriall iurisdiction in which the King though one of the three Voters in Parliament yet in those things which come by processe of Law to receive determination there onely hath no Vote at all no more than in all other Courts of ministeriall iurisdiction Sometime we use the word Parliament for the two Houses of Parliament onely and that in regard they are the grosse of the Bodie whereof the Parliament consists there wanting onely the Soveraigne Head to compleat it But the two Houses alone without the King are so farre from being the supreme and high Court of Parliament as that they are not at all a compleat Court neither can they so unite or conioyne as to be an entire Court of either soveraigne or ministeriall iurisdiction But are two distinct Courts if so be the House of Commons which cannot minister an Oath nor fine nor imprison any but their own Members may be called a Court then are they Courts not otherwise co-operating than by concurrence of Votes in their severall Houses for preparing matters in order to an Act of all the three Orders of the Parliament which when they have done their Votes are so farre from having any Legall Authoritie in the State as that in Law there is no stile nor forme of their joynt Acts nor doth the Law so much as take notice of them untill they have the royall assent which if the King refuses he yet doth no injurie to any for that every of the three Orders that are the formall parts of the high Court of Parliament that is the King the Peeres and Commons are every of them by Law trusted for their own respective interests to be the onely assured Conservatours of the rights that do belong unto them and may therefore every one of them freely dissent from the Votes of the other two nor is their any danger that it should be so but contrarily the most assured safetie that may be for the consequence of their not agreeing can be no worse than that their severall interests shall still remain in the condition that they were before untill such time as that they shall all three agree upon the state of alteration Now when the two Houses alone do no way make an entire Bodie House or Court and when their is no known stile nor forme of any Law or Edict by the Votes of them two onely nor any notice of them taken by the Law it is apparant there is no Soveraignitie in their two Votes alone To argue now as some do that the King must not deny His Vote for if by denying it He may frustrate the Votes of the two Houses by the same reason may He frustrate the Votes of all inferiour Courts and open a way to the most boundlesse tyrannie that ever was is a most perverse and absurde falsitie there being no affinitie nor resemblance of the course of those Courts with that of Parliament For in inferiour Courts the Judges sit and give Judgement for the King and not for themselves and the Law there authorises them to give the Kings Judgement and none but them and therefore the Kings Dissent or Countermand cannot frustrate their Judgements But in Parliament the Peeres and Commons neither sit nor Vote for the King but for themselves And the Law appoints the King himselfe to give His own Vote there which if the Peeres and Commons in His absence could have supplied the Statute 33. H. 8.21 needed not have provided that His Consent or Vote by His Letters under His Great Seale should be as effectuall as if He himselfe in Person had assented Besides the Judgement given by the Judges in inferiour Courts is compleat in Law without the assent of the King and therefore cannot be frustrate by the Kings dissent but the Votes of the two Houses are therefore to be frustrated for want of the Kings assent because without it they are not compleat nor perfect The high Court of Parliament therefore resembling a Chaire of three feet the two Houses make but two of the three which without the third is lame and uselesse as to making of Law but with the third becomes a firme and usefull seate and makes that sacred Tripos from whence the Civil Oracles of our Law are delivered When therefore we speake of the Soveraigne power and Authoritie of the Parliament that never is to be understood of the power of the two Houses onely nor any such Soveraigne power to be ascribed unto them Now in the last place we use the word Parliament for the three Orders of Parliament agreeing in their Votes then and then onely use we the word Parliament properly and in that sense onely is the Parliament the supreme Court the highest judicatorie and most soveraigne power and authoritie in the Kingdom But we must ever understand that it is not the most Soveraigne Court for any Soveraignitie placed in the two Houses and from them transferred or communicated to His Majestie by their joyning or consenting with him but it is therefore