amongst whom God himself seemed to reserve the Legislative to himself having given them a body of Laws necessary to conserve Peace or do Justice about Inheritances Injurys Marriages c. the manner of the King whom they would have to go in and out before them after the manner of other Nations 1 Sam. 8.11 We find indeed that in most of the Eastern Empires yea and in the Roman Empire after the Lex Regia was past both Legislative and executive Powers were without restraint in the Emperour And the Placita Principum or Edicta Imperatoria were perfect Laws after the promulgation of them It was a mistake therefore in him who writ the Life of Julian the Apostate to call Christianity the Religion of the Empire when Julian had declared by his Royal Edicts for Paganism And probably such absolute Monarchys were all which arose out of Conquest and Compacts issuing from Conquest But in many of the Northern Nations the Offspring of Japhet the Elder we have reason to believe there was a restraint upon the Legislative till the Nobles Majorum Minorum Gentium did at least legem petere eligere request and chuse or propose a Bill to be enacted a Law And the Power to deny a proposed Bill was in the Prince and the Power to execute Laws wholly in him and both without Power in the combining Patriarks to call him to account for Administration of either or to reassume the Power or any part of it without the Princes Voluntary consent these speculations about the passing of the Patriarchal Monarchy into larger Governments gave us Royalists light enough to discover that the pretensions of the Parliament-Party and the maxims they had espoused were both unpolitical and unpeaceable Such as those before mentioned That the People are the original Power that men are born in a state of Independent Liberty and consequently in a State of War That the Power of the Supreme Governour is but a revocable trust and he liable to censure for Male-administration And that the King tho singulis Major is universis Minor for how can he be less than all who hath the Power of all concentring in him Another suggestion also by that side in the late times I will here take notice of tho it lye not in the direct run and way of my Discourse And it was this that a Republick or Aristocracy was more eligible than a Monarchy In the manage of which their Writers dealt very deceitfully for they usually compared a King misgoverning with a Republick Governing well whereas if they had stated the comparison as of right it should have been betwixt a King and a Commonwealth both Ruling well or both Ruling ill it would be most evident both from reason and History to which adds also the experience of the English Nation in the late Confusions that less evils did arise to the People from a King misgoverning and gratifying the Lust of his Minions than from an Aristocracy misgoverning and every one of them preying for himself and his Dependents upon the Poor oppressed People and contrarily that more good comes to a People by the Government of a wise and good King then by the Government of even wise and good Nobilissimo's as at Venice But that which especially prevailed upon us Cavaleers conscientiously to ingage for our Soveraign was the consideration of the Government under which we were Born For we knew it from our Fathers and their Tradition and from our Old Historians writing in the Ages past That this Government was an hereditary Monarchy immemorially whence we inferr'd That all the rights of Monarchy were inherent in our Kings It is true we found the Royal Legislative Authority by Ancient Custom was not put in exercise without the consent of the two Houses of Parliament And Custom is common-Common-Law in England And that thus it was we had no reason to be displeased nor did we sollicitously inquire into the Original of that usage whether in the Primitive coalition of the Government the several Patriarks of Angels Jutes and Saxons had so compacted with him whom they consented should be the Universal Monarch over them and their Clans or rather whether our Kings had granted that high Priviledge to our Fathers the Valiant Angles Jutes and Saxons to ingage their Valour and fidelity in their warlike expeditions and after extended the same Priviledge in a great measure to the Britains growing up into one People with us or whether any other way this came about we could not tell thus we found it and found the Government the best tempered Government in the World And we bless God for it and rejoiced under the shadow of it Only this we judged from the preambles of ancient Statutes and from the Kings Coronation Oath That the two Houses did Legem petere eligere but the King did Legem ferre jubere the Priviledge of the two Houses of Parliament was to chuse and desire such a Bill to be a Law and the Prerogative of the King to enact and will it If herein we were mistaken we were mistaken But be it as it will we Primitive Cavaleers were far from designing to remove the Ancient Land-marks which our Fathers had set Nor did we ever think it agreeable to modesty for us private Men to set bounds to the Power of the Parliament during its Session further than that they could do nothing to any Effect without the Royal Assent We believed therefore they could call any Subject to account for ill behaviour in any Office Military or Civil by Bill of Attainder or otherwise according to the Usages of Parliament they could change Tenures put down some Courts of Justice erect new ones and what not If the King Consented and we found that our Kings seldom denied the desires and Requests of their Parliaments in matters fit and just But we detested the contrivance of some Factious Men who brought the Rout to call for Justice against the Earl of Strafford and Arch-Bishop Laud. And tho there have been oft Factions in Parliaments since that unhappy Distinction of a Court-Party and a Country-Party and tho the Rump Parliament had cast us into horrid Confusions and robbed us of the best of Kings yet were we not weary of Parliaments or forward to inslave our selves or our Posterity We therefore with thankfulness to God above all and to our good Kings and Parliaments under them remembred that Parliaments were the great Conservers of the English Libertys against all unjust Judges and Officers and how they oft attempted even in Popery times and at last Effected the deliverance of the Kingdom and Church of England from the Usurpation of the Bishop of Rome and secured the People from the crueltys of the Bloody Clergy thereof But tho we owned thus that our Kings had not exercised the Legislative Power immemorially without the proposal and consent of the two Houses yet we easily discovered the cheat of that Parliament comment on the Political maxim Coordinata
Inference is this That seeing no Man Adam the first only excepted came into the World in a state of Independent Liberty free from Government but was subject to his Parents therefore no man was born in a state of War but in a Political subjection according to the Fifth Commandment Honour thy Father c. All this of Patriarchal Jurisdiction I collect from the sacred story after the Flood for before the Flood Cains escaping punishment from Adam for Abels Murder in all probability incouraged his Offspring the Giants and other men of Renown to shake off all Patriarchal Government and fill the Earth with violence Gen. 6.11 So that want of the exercise of the Patriarchal Government was one meritorious cause of the bringing the Flood upon the Old World The like defect ruined Elies family 1 Sam. 3.13 But to return to our Principle and give some reasons why we Cavalcers believed the Original of Government thus to be from God not from the People First No man hath a right to dispose of his own Life to the pleasure of another only God the Author of Being could give a Power to the Progenitor the instrument of the being of his Descendents to dispose of the Life of an offending Descendent in the prosecution of Justice according to Gen. 9.6 Whosoever sheddeth mans Blood by man shall his Blood be shed So that if the people were the Original of Government the Magistrate had been a Murderer in executing Vengeance even on a Murderer And the Murderer had been Felo de se a self Murderer in submitting to the Sentence Secondly We believed Government to be from God because the Laws made by Governours were generally for the incouragement of Vertue and Piety and for the suppression of Vice so that the fruit shewed that Government was a Plant of our heavenly Fathers planting whereas people being generally Wicked would if they had been the original of Government have set up such Governours as should have Established iniquity by a Law Thirdly Add That that Spirit of Government poured out upon Governours shewed that God who alone can so indow them doth commissionate them as his Vicegerents Therefore it is said Pro. 16.10 A divine sentence or a judgment from God is in the lips of the King And the essential wisdom of God saith Pro. 8.15 By me Kings Reign and Princes decree Justice The art of Government or King-craft is from the Lord. Fourthly It is observed in all History that Rebells were ordinarily followed with divine Vengeance But we Cavaleers could not think that God would ingage his Power and Justice to vindicate an Idol of the peoples setting up So that Fifthly Had not God said of Magistrates Psal 82.6 I have said ye are Gods obedience in the people to them had been Idolatry in setting up a Creature of their own as a God and worshipping it Sixthly But our chief reason was because Scripture so peremptorily asserts it Ro. 13.1 That Magistrates are Gods Ministers and Gods Ordinance After this first Position was thus established to us That God and not the people was the Original of Government we proceeded to inquire how the Patriarchal Government over single Clans or Familys and the Descendents in them passed into a more ample Government over many distinct Familys before independent from one another And we thought it reasonable to conclude that this change came into the World either by a forced or voluntary Compact A forced compact was when the King or Patriark of one Family or Clan overcame the Patriark of another Family and his Family and forced them to consent to obey him as did those of his own Family or it may be he imposed worse conditions of Servitude Transportation Tribute or other hardships upon them as the Babylonish Monarchs did 2 Kings 18.32 And so doth the Turk at this day setting the conquered under his Timuriots But in this case of Conquest two things are observable Namely first That the Conquering Patriark might happen to abate something of his own Dominion over his own Clan on account of his own Wars against the other Family having before the expedition promised his own Subjects and their Posterity some Immunities if they would be Faithful and Courageous And probably many of the Immunitys which Subjects claim own their rise to such promises which being once made they ought to be observed by the Prince or Patriark Thus King Saul promised 1. Sam. 17.25 That whosoever would combat and kill Goliah he would inrich him and make his Fathers house free in Israel Secondly it is undeniable that Conquest in it self is no obligation to subjection to the Conquerour for no man can pretend by Conquest a right to seize my Liberty and to abridge my Allegiance to my Natural Prince but I can more justly pretend my right when ever I am able to recover my Liberty and free Exercise of Allegiance to my natural Leige Lord So that till compact confirm Conquest submission to the Conquerour is only a taking Quarter which implys I will do nothing against the Life of him that gives me Quarter till by redemption or reprizal by my Prince or his Allys I recover my liberty Only therefore Compact after Conquest can lay an obligation to Subjection to the Conquerour and how long it is before such a Compact becomes Valid and obliging whilst our natural Prince continues in Arms and yields not is something difficult to determine for my part I think that for so long it is not a valid compact but only a taking Quarter But tho Conquest and the Compacts issuing upon them was the ordinary way of imbodying many Familys under one Governour yet undoubtedly voluntary Compacts also did the same in many times and places many Patriarks and their Clans Associating together for mutual defence against potent Enemys and subjecting themselves to some one Patriark or famous man amongst them who was to go in and out before them and Fight their Battels Thus the Gileadites chose Jephtah and the Israelites desired in Samuels time such a King and obtained Saul But then we are to observe that those Compacts were chiefly if not only ratified by the consent of the Patriarks combining So that the inferior members of the Familys had little or no Vote in the making the Compact and the setting the conditions of it So that the Israelites who assembled for Sauls election and inauguration were the Elders of the People of Israel 1 Sam. 8.4 These voluntary Compacts between Patriarks were sometimes with Reservation of a share in the Government amongst all the Patriarks one only presiding in Council so that the Major Vote was to over-rule for the making municipal Laws and War or Leagues with Foraigners and for appointing Officers Military or Civil and this is properly an Aristocratical Government or States When the Compacts of the combining Patriarks carried over all their Soveraignty to some one person whom they chose to preside over them only personally during his Life this was an
Elective Kingdom when they devoled it on any one Patriark and his Successors this was also an elective Kingdom in the origination of it but became in process and Succession an Hereditary Monarchy or Kingdom And such are most of the Kingdoms of the World at this day As for Democracy wherein the whole body of the People meeting in their Comitial or General Assemblys did make Plebiscita or popular Decrees it is hard for me to guess how Patriarchal power ever came to be so ravilled out into that form unless the Multitude forced their Patriarks to yield them a share in the Government either by Tumults or Secessions and departing from their Nobles or Patricii of which there are many instances in the Roman Common-Wealth for that any People whether the heads of several Familys or the whole body of the People should only conditionally intrust the Government in the hands of a Soveraign or a Senate with power of revocation of their trust upon Male-administration is such an unpolitical phancy as deserves to be exploded by all who wish well to the Peace of the World and of the Nations in it for such a constitution carrys self-destroying principles in it seeing every ambitious or discontented person making himself Popular might easily perswade the multitude who are generally prone to Change and Querulous against their Governors that their Superiors had forfeited their trust and they might resume their Power betrusted and commit it into better hands And to be sure when an Army was on Foot whose Commanders were prompted by their interest in the Soldiery to aspire this pretence would be ready at hand that the Soveraign or the Senate had failed in their trust and that the People might reassume the Government and withal that Populus Armatus is est Populus that those who had the Arms of the Nation in their hands were the People This was the very Plea which the Phanatick Army under Cromwel did make and it pleased us Old Cavaleers well when we saw Cromwel turn the point of this Principle upon his Masters and turn the Rump out of doors alledging and with truth enough that they had failed in the trust reposed in them by the good People of England On the same account we Old Cavaleers detested as unpolitical and laying the Foundation for perpetual civil jars the swearing of Allegiance to the Supream Power with limitation as it was in that called the Solemn-League and Covenant Pagragraph the 2d wherein they promised to preserve the Kings Person and Authority in the preservation of the true Religion and Libertys of the Kingdoms When therefore the Scotch Commissioners Pleaded their Engagement by Covenant to appear against the Execrable Murdering of our late Soveraign the Royal Martyr I well remember that the Rump in their Declaration and answer to the Papers of the Scotch Commissioners Pleaded that the Covenant only obliged them to endeavor the Preservation of the Kings Person in the Preservation of the true Religion and the Libertys of the Kingdoms and that in limited Propositions Limitatio est pars potior the Limitation is the predominant part And that therefore seeing it was apparent to them that the King had violated the true Religion and the Libertys of the Kingdoms they who had taken the Covenant as well as the Scots looked on themselves as obliged by Covenant to depose the King and bring him to condign Punishment But our Contemplations in prosecution of this Subject about the Original and exercise of Power ran yet on further for we observed that there were two parts of the Patriarchal Governing Power appointed by God namely the Legislative Power to enact wholsom constitutions for the good of the Clan or Family He is the Minister of God to us for good Rom. 13. And the executive Power to put those Laws in Execution as also to compell his Descendents to obey the Divine Laws both Moral and Positive and this also was part of the executive Power For where human Powers command what God hath commanded before their Laws are not constitutive but only declarative of the duty only they may be constitutive of the Penalty and Sanction Both these Powers the Legislative and executive under which is comprized the Power to Levy moneys for this cause pay you Tribute Rom. 13. were intirely in every Patriark But when many Patriarchates or Clans were imbodied into a larger Regality or Kingdom by voluntary compact it is easy to conceive that these Powers might be diversly betrusted And the former the Legislative Power might only be intrusted to the elected King and his Successors in concomitancy with the other Patriarks But still we are to observe that if the Elected King and his Successors had only a Vote in the making Laws with the other Patriarks so that the Majority of Votes over ruled against his Vote then tho he had the name King he was indeed no King nor Supreme Governour but only the chief Magistrate such were the Kings of Sparta the Lacedemonian Government therefore is reckoned truly an Aristocracy or Democracy But some Nations might perhaps find out a better way namely that the Legislative Power was betrusted to the elected Patriark and his Successors yet so that it should not be exerted without the consent of the combining Patriarks but still the Legislative was so in the King that the Votes of all the combining Patriarks could not constitute Law without a Le Roy Le Voult the King consents and commands it to be And this Government undoubtedly is a Monarchy not deprived of any part of the Power Patriarchal but only restrained in the exercise of one part of it namely the Legislative without the concurrence of others But we observed further that though in a Monarch there might be a restriction of the exercise of the Patriarchal Legislative power there could be none in the exercise of the Executive power for if that could not be exerted but with the consent of others such a Nominal King was no Monarch or Supreme Governour but only the chief Magistrats as we said before And no man can reasonably suppose that a Patriark who had the plenary power both Legislative and Executive over his own Clan and probably was the cheif in puissance amongst the Patriarks combining as the Hethites told Abraham Gen. 23.6 My Lord thou art a mighty Prince amongst us would ever consent to abate any thing of his Regalia over his own Clan as to the Legislative and suffer others to have a restraint upon the exercise of it unless upon the terms premised viz. That the exerting his Legislative should not indeed be without the Concurence of the other Patriarks but withal that all they Voting together should not be able to make a Law without his Royal Authority and consent and that also the intire executive Power not only over his own Clan but even over the Combining Patriarks and their Clans should be his without Compere or Coordinate Thus Samuel expounds to the Israelites
se invicem supplent tho the proper words are Coordinata se invicem Complent whence they of that side argued That seeing Coordinates do mutually supply and compleat one another and that the King withdraw from his Parliament the two Houses whom they judged Coordinate with the King in the Legislative might supply by an ordinance his absence or dissent which is an inference contrary to all reason and sense for the true sense of that Maxim is this That Coordinate suppose three do so mutually supply force to and compleat on another that the concurrence of no two of them is Efficacious to the intent for which they are Coordinate without the Concurrence of the third Thus if we should yield a Coordination as to the Legislative Power betwixt the King and two Houses yet the Votes of the two Houses are no Law in England without the Royal Assent Obj. It was then usually objected That this Doctrine puts the King and either House into a capacity to hinder a good and wholsom Law Sol. To this it is answered that the Laws in being are to be supposed sufficient in the Judgment of our Fathers of the last Age to conserve the State in its being and whether the Bill proposed be conducing to the better being of it or no must be submitted to the judgment of the King But still we looked upon the executive Power of Law as wholly and intirely Inherent in our Soveraign without Compere or Coordinate who could at his pleasure derive that Power to others Legally Commissioned by him to put the Laws in Execution And that therefore the Power of the Militia of making Judges and Officers of conferring Honours of making War or Peace or Leagues with Forreiners was wholly in the King But if any of the Kings Officers violate our Rights and Priviledges either Civil or Ecclesiastical which are by Acts of Parliament or Immemorial Custom instated on the Subject the Subject might sue the violaters in the Kings Courts So that greater security for the Rights of any People I think cannot by any human Wisdom be invented then what we English-men injoy For First we have the protection of the Kings Royal Authority whose interest it is seeing the Throne is Established by Justice to make his Officers Peace and his Exactors Righteousness Isai 60.17 Next we have the security of the Laws in being and of the Reverend and Learned Judges Commissioned for the execution of them who we may think will be very unwilling to infringe our Rights by Law Established both because they are for the same accountable at all times to the King and also to a Parliament when it shall sit and likewise because they cannot inslave us by denying us the just protection of the Laws at a cheaper rate then inslaving their own Posterity also And lastly We have the security of Parliaments who cannot only propose and enact with the Royal Assent new Laws for our future defence against unjust Officers but can also call them to account for the breach of the Laws already made this was the Political Creed of the old Cavaleers and we triumphed in the Victory of Truth when any being convinced of the agreeableness of our Principles both to Scripture Reason and the Constitution we were under came over and Espoused our cause Thus it appears from what we have said that we Cavaleers had the better cause but our Sins ruined us and it and deprived us of the best Earthly King in the World who was Murdered by Bloudy Men our high provocations drawing God into the quarrel against us Though after he had Scourged us he was pleased in infinite Mercy and by Miraculous Providence to make up our breaches in the happy Restoration of his Sacred Majesty who now Reigns and long may he Reign over us and our Children GOD SAVE THE KING FINIS LONDON Printed By George Croom at the Blew-Ball in Thames-street over against Baynard's Castle 1684.