travel so far back as to unravel all the German History the late ruinous affairs of the Crown of Poland which being one of the Bastions of Christendom seems to have been therefore preserved from the Infidels by a miracle and most miraculous Prince are capable to satisfie any person who is the fondest of Elective Monarchy And if he has not either deposed Reason the King of his Soul and elected in its place Prejudice or Passion to Govern there or if he dare credit the Universal experience of the World he may easily be convinced of the great necessary and desperate inconveniences of a long Interregnum and Elective Monarchy BUT to proceed secondly from this bounty of our Princes and for the advantage of Counsel and that all Estates and Conditions who are under the obedience of this happy Monarchy may receive such ample satisfaction as they can rationally desire Of the Interest which the three Estates have in preparing Bills for the Royal Assent to be by that past into Laws the King is pleased according as in his wisdom he judges it expedient and the necessity of publick affairs requires it to call together the Nobility of the Realm the great Lords both Spiritual and Temporal who are two of the three Estates of Parliament to sit in common consultation and to advise about the weighty and difficult affairs of State And by their prudent deliberations and suffrages to discharge that duty they owe to their Prince and the Publick by preparing wholsom Bills in order to their passing into Laws by the Royal Assent for the good safety and prosperity of the Community As also to remonstrate to Royal Authority what former Laws are by experience found to be useless or inconvenient in order to their alteration repealment or abrogation THIS priviledge the Spiritual Lords enjoy by vertue of their Temporal Baronies to which for their eminent Piety Learning Prudence and Integrity they are by the Bounty of their Sovereign and his Illustrious Predecessors elevated and promoted And they are more particularly in that Place interessed and consulted in all debates which may arise about the affairs of Religion and the Holy Church though they are not at all excluded from a voice in the concerns of all Civil and Politick Sanctions And this cuts off the hopes of Turbulent Factious Ambitious Spirits from aiming at those High places of Trust and Council in Church and State to which none are in a probable capacity of arriving who do not tread the paths of sublime vertue and merit which are the only steps and ascents which lead to this excellent Temple of Honour into which any persons rarely are permitted to enter of whose ability and fitness for such high and honourable Offices a long tract of knowledge and experience has not given a fair character and advantageous testimony and where no person arrives but by the gradual progressions of several lower employs as a state of probation to fit him for those high advancements and eminent dignities AND however the malice of some people may suggest the contrary who are enemies to their Office and eo nomine not to be credited yet is there not the least probability that any persons should arrive at these great Temporal Honours and Ecclesiastical Offices by the favour and bounty of their Prince but that they must be such as have either highly obliged him by their eminent fidelity and services in a lower sphere or who for their excellent qualifications draw the discerning and judicious eye of Majesty upon them and are by those Honours and Estates enabled to be more serviceable to his which is the publick Interest than they could possibly be in the meaner condition of private men and narrow fortunes I KNOW this is not a Rule without an Exception and that it has been the great misfortune of the best and wisest of Princes sometimes to have been mistaken in conferring Honours and Favours both upon Temporal and Ecclesiastical persons who in the succeeding actions of their lives have manifested that they did not deserve them But these are rare and extraordinary examples of Ingratitude rather than Inability and they must be extraordinary Artists in Hypocrisie and Dissimulation who appearing the best whilest they are the worst of men do thereby sometimes deceive the best and most wary and cautelous Princes and certainly they must have tempers of the basest allay upon whom the bounty and Majesty of a Prince are not able to make such impressions as are capable by such high obligements to change their Natures into what he mistook them for when he conferr'd his kindnesses upon them Which doubtless no Prince ever does upon any person but he rationally supposes either that he does or at least will most zealously endeavour to merit that bounty and esteem by all possible fidelity and future services THE Temporal Lords by a Right of Hereditary succession enjoy this Favour of their Prince as a priviledge of their Illustrious Birth and honourable Extraction and therefore being sensible from their early Age of the Honour and Dignity to which they are intituled and the heavy as well as honourable charge they are to sustain in those great deliberations about publick affairs it puts their Parents upon the performance of their duty in giving them that generous and vertuous Education which may render them the ornaments of their Noble families and may qualifie them to be useful to their King and Country to which they are incouraged by the consideration that there is no Subject so great but may still hope for advantages and accession both of Honour and Estate upon the account of serviceableness and merit either as to Counsel in times of Peace or Conduct and Courage in time of War Which are such considerable incouragements to vertue and greatness of mind as will quickly give the young Nobility a delightful and tempting prospect of the High Honourable and advantageous Employments at which they may arrive and by what ways and methods they must hope to obtain them AND if we could uncharitably suppose them either to be defective as to the natural endowments of mind or apt to be mis-lead by the heats and prevailing extravagancies of warm and sull veins or the luxuriant spirits of youthful years yet certainly there is no such School either for Wisdom or Vertue as that Illustrious Assembly of the English Nobility in Parliament And the repeated wise deliberations of those great Senators are capable of elevating even the lowest parts beyond all expectation And constant experience in the conduct and management of the greatest Affairs will in a little time be capable of advancing the slowest Natures to be prompt and addressful in the dispatch and performance of them And besides those constant Lectures and Examples which they will there meet with of Justice Temperance Magnanimity Honour Fidelity and Loyalty must if any thing be capable of effecting it be able to change the very Natures of Men of Reason and not only to
Superior nor owes either Tribute or Homage to any other besides the Almighty Sovereign the Supreme Majesty of Heaven and Earth from whom as the King receives it so to him only is he accountable for the managery and administration of it The King is the sole Fountain of all Honour The greatness of his Power according to Laws and the Foundation of all Law nay the very Soul and Life of it for by his Royal word he gives it a Being and by his * Le Roy le veult Affirmative breath that which before was a dead and inanimate Bill becomes a living and an Active Law And in like manner by his powerful negative or ‖ Le Roy s' avisera suspending his consent any intended Sanction becomes abortive and never sees the Sun And as it is both his and his Peoples happiness that his Will is not his Law but that his Law is his Will so it is but highly reasonable that he should have the liberty and freedom of the choice of those Laws by which he obliges himself to Rule and Govern In him is the sole Power of the Sword the Power of making Peace and War and in order thereunto of raising Forces granting Commissions both for Land and Sea In him is the sole Power of Calling Adjourning Proroguing and dissolving Parliaments when and where he judges it most expedient In his power it is to remit the severities of the Penal Laws whereby he may manifest his goodness and clemency as well as his greatness and justice by graciously pardoning both the smaller breaches of his Laws and the more capital offences which he might most justly punish From him all metals receive their Impress and according to the Standard he puts upon them they become valuable and currant Coin From him all places of high Trust derive their Authority by his Commission they Act and put his Commands and the Laws in execution And in short without him or against his Will and Consent nothing can be legally acted or done The Person of the King most Sacred AND as his Power is thus Great so his Person is most Sacred and is therefore most strictly guarded by the Laws which like Solomon's Lions stand on each side of the steps and ascents of his Imperial Throne 13 Car. 2. and with no less Terror than Majesty declare That it is High Treason within or without the Realm to Compass Imagine Invent Devise or Intend Death or Destruction or any bodily harm tending to death or destruction maim or wounding imprisonment or restraint of the Person of the King or to deprive or depose him from the Stile Honour or Kingly Name of the Imperial Crown of this Realm or any other of his Dominions or Countries or to levy War against him within or without the Realm or any other of the Kings Dominions or Countries being under his Obeysance THESE amongst many others are the principal Jewels which adorn the glorious Diadem of the English Sovereigns whose Government being so remote from Arbitrary that it is altogether by the exact Rule of Law Justice and Equity as it must needs be easie for the people so it contributes extremely to the Happiness and prosperous tranquillity of the Princes Reign And were it possible to add one Prerogative more to the Crown That the King might rule in the Hearts and kind affections of his People as well as over their Persons certainly there could no greater happiness befall both the King and his Subjects in this World And as such a blessed Union and Agreement would be their great and Common Interest where the one ruling with Love the other should obey their Ruler from a principle of affection so it is to be hoped that time and a right understanding of the most obliging Temper of their Prince or some other wise expedients will at last allay that dangerous Democratick fury the only present visible obstacle to this desired Happiness which whereever it prevails or enters possesses men with the principles of Usurpation upon many other but more especially upon this fundamental prerogative of the Sovereign by devesting him of the loyal and sincere affections of his People HAVING thus taken such a short view of it as the dazling Lustre of Majesty will permit let us pass from the Sovereign to the Subjects and there likewise we shall most convincingly see the effects of the most prudent easie safe and happy constitution of the English Government under which there is no person who lives in obedience to it who escapes the particular care and cognizance of the Laws The Priviledges of the People first in the sending their Representatives to the Parliament THE first great and fundamental Priviledge of the Subjects consists in the free Choice which the Commons of England have of Delegates or Representatives to be sent to the most Honourable Assembly of the Parliament there to make known the just grievances of the People and to offer such good wholsome and necessary Bills in order to their being promoted into Laws by the Royal Will as may be most for the advantage and happiness of those whom they represent By reason whereof all those Laws by which the people are governed for the present or are to be Governed for the future are such as they themselves have a share in the propounding and preparing there being nothing that can by the Royal assent pass into an obliging Statute or Act of Parliament either against or without their knowledge and consent as is evident from the Proem to most of those Acts which compose our statute-Statute-Law which are in these or the like words Be it Enacted by the Kings most Excellent Majesty by the Advice and with the Assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament Assembled and by the Authority of the same So that they must be the most unreasonable amongst mankind who are not contented to be obedient to those Laws which are by their King Enacted and Established not only according to their own preparation and with their free and full assent but at their earnest request and humble Importunity NOR are they only highly irrational but most barbarously treacherous and perfidious who make no account of such mutual stipulations and lawful contracts with which they have obliged themselves as the whole Nation does when by the Parliament they Petition the King to make such or such Laws and upon that condition that he will please to give them the force and power of Laws they will live in obedience to him according to the direction of those Laws For Obedience is the end of all Laws and solemn Faith of Contracts is the essential Foundation upon which all Government and Happiness in this World does depend and there can no Bill pass into an Act of Parliament but it obliges Universally all Subjects to obedience by vertue not only of Royal Authority but of every individual persons promise For whoever gives his Voice
F H Van Hove Sculpsit CAROLUS Secundus Dei Gratia Angliae Scotiae Franciae et Hiberniae Rex Fidei Defensor etc. HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE THE COMMON INTEREST OF KING and PEOPLE Shewing the Original Antiquity and Excellency OF MONARCHY Compared with Aristocracy and Democracy And particularly of Our English MONARCHY AND THAT Absolute Papal and Presbyterian Popular Supremacy Are utterly inconsistent with Prerogative Property and Liberty By JOHN NALSON LL. D. LONDON Printed for Jonathan Edwin at the Sign of the Three Roses in Ludgate-street 1677. TO THE READER IN this following Discourse I have endeavoured to pursue the Point I had before made an attempt upon in the Countermine without any other Passion or Design than a Loyal Zeal to my Prince and Country and a Conscientious Discharge of my Duty which because every person is in his station obliged to do will I hope render an Apology as unnecessary as it is disagreeable to Your most faithful Servant JOHN NALSON The CONTENTS CHAP. I. THE two great Principles of Nature Self-preservation and the Ardent desire of Happiness the Foundation of Society and Government Mr. Hobs refuted in his Impolitick Position That Fear was the first Origination of Society The Origine of Monarchy The occasion of the Primitive Wars The Original of Laws Monarchs or the first Leaders of Colonies the Primitive Legislators The reason of the Coercive power of Magistrates The Dangerous Error of those who make Law the Foundation of Monarchy when in truth all Laws were the Concessions of Kings and Legislators The Ill consequences of this mistake The Laws of Nature and Nations are of Divine Institution CHAP. II. Of the danger of Anarchy The necessity of Laws and Government to prevent it All People not fit for one kind of Government Of the three kinds of Government Democracy Aristocracy and Monarchy Some considerations and necessary Animadversions upon our late English Government by a Republick CHAP. III. The Government of a Republick examined whether in its own Nature so good for the Ends of Society as it is pretended The end of all Government the Happiness of the Society it consists in Protection Property and distributive Justice Democracy cannot in probability attain those Ends. It obliges the Supreme Magistrates to maintain a private separate Interest distinct from that of the Publick and the inconveniences that necessarily attend that imperfection Domestick Peace not secured by Democracy No security of Property or equal Distribution of Justice in a Republick in regard of the constant Factions which are inseparable from that form of Government CHAP. IV. Of Monarchy and its excellency proved from its Antiquity The first Essay to a Democracy the Rebellion of Corah and his Accomplices Secondly from the Universality of Monarchy The first popular State at Athens A. M. 3275. Thirdly Monarchy most agreeable to humane Nature by answering the three forementioned great Ends of Society and the Happiness of Mankind CHAP. V. Of the Excellency of the English Monarchy It is not apt to degenerate into Tyranny the King having by his gracious Concessions given Limits to his absolute Sovereignty Of the Interest which the three Estates have in preparing Bills for the Royal Assent to be by that past into Laws and the great obligation which thereby the People have to Subjection and Obedience CHAP. VI. Of the Priviledges of the English Government And first of the prerogative of the King The Imperial Crown of this Realm Hereditary Absolute and Independent The greatness of his power according to Laws The Kings person Sacred The priviledges of the People First in sending their Representatives to the Parliament Secondly in their Property secured Thirdly in the excellent and constant method of Justice In particular Priviledges and Franchises In all imaginable care to prevent the growth of the Poor and in providing for such as are so In committing the Execution of the Laws to such hands as will act with Justice And of the care that is taken to prevent all abuses of Laws CHAP. VII The great misfortune of Religion which is made the great pretence to ruine Monarchy A stratagem of the Devil to extirpate all true Religion The two opposites and enemies of Monarchy Papacy and Presbytery The opinion of the Catholick Doctors about Papal Supremacy and the new Roman Creed to confirm it Papal Supremacy devests the Prince of his absolute Sovereignty of his Legislative power and renders Monarchy insecure of Possession or Succession by bereaving it of the guard of Laws of the strength of Alliances of the Fidelity of their People Several Impolitick inconveniences which attend that Religion Papal Supremacy destructive of the peoples Liberty and Property CHAP. VIII Presbytery inconsistent with Monarchy proved from five of their Fundamental principles 1. That it is not the best form of Government 2. That the Right of Kings is not from God but the People 3. That Kings may be called in question for their Administration of the Government 4. That they may by the people be deposed 5. That they may be punished with Capital punishment CHAP. IX Presbytery in reality as great an enemy to Democracy and Parliaments as to Monarchy A short view of their Tyrannick Consistorian Government over the Magistracy Clergie and Laity Of the latitude and power of Scandal to draw all affairs into the Consistory Of their kindness to their Enemies The small difference betwixt a Jesuit and Geneva-Presbyter Both aim at Supremacy CHAP. X. Presbytery as destructive of the Peoples Liberty and Property as it is dangerous to Monarchy and all Government Some necessary Conclusions from the former Discourse Licensed Sept. 20. 1677. THE COMMON INTEREST OF KING and PEOPLE c. CHAP. I. The two great Principles of Nature Self-Preservation and The ardent Desire of Happiness the Foundation of Society and Government Mr. Hobs refuted in his impolitick Position That Fear gave the first Origination of Society The Origine of Monarchy The occasion of the Primitive Wars The Original of Laws Monarchs or the first Leaders of Colonies the Primitive Legislators The reason of the Executive and Coercive Power of Magistrates The dangerous Error of those who make Laws the Foundation of Monarchy whereas in Truth all Laws and Establishments were the Concessions and Sanctions of Kings and Law-givers The Ill consequences of this Mistake The Law of Nature and of Nations anâ— of Divine Institution AMONGST all those Principles of Nature which Mankind and indeed the greatest part of the Creation receive at the same Instant with their Being there are two which as they are the most Universal so they are of the greatest Necessity and most constant Use The two great Principles of Nature Self-preservation and the ardent Desire of Happiness the Foundation of Society and Government THE first is that of Self-preservation or an inseparable Desire to keep themselves in Being by the obtaining and enjoyment of all those things which contribute towards the continuance of it or which give them a
Love and not Fear one of another lest they should be separated and that they might have the glory of such a famous building together with the advantages of Society which were the Causes of their early Combination and Design Had they been jealous distrustful or fearful one of another that would naturally have made them separate flie from one another but they were fearful of being parted and dispersed which is the true and proper effect of Love which always covets an Union with its Object as Hatred Fear and Aversion lead us to a desire of separation from the things or persons we stand in dread of or do not affect BUT after the most Wise Eternal Being for the accomplishment of his own glorious Designs had crossed theirs by confounding their Language and dividing their Tongues there was then a necessity which obliged them also to divide and separate and so all those who were of one Language embodied and joyned into one Society and parted from the rest who could be of no use or advantage to them in regard their Dialect was not understood By which means they spread themselves into several remote Regions and by degrees the whole Earth came to be inhabited THE people who were thus separated in process of Time came to be as different in all other things as in their Language and still as they multiplied in Numbers new Colonies were necessitated to part from the old stock and they also became distinct Companies and Societies of Men Now he who undertook to be their Leader The Origine of Monarchies and Captain-conductor in their travels and removes was therefore the chief and principal man amongst them and usually gave his Name and Laws to the Nation or People which he carried with him This distinction of Nations and People as it restrained the Love and kindness which before their Parting was common to all only to those of their own Tribe and Name thereby manifesting the particular respect they had one for another so likewise it came to distinguish that Property of Territories and Possessions The occasion of the Primitive Wars which every Nation pretended a sole Right Title and Interest in as belonging only unto them and not to any other of their Neighbours This occasioned Differences and Quarrels about the Limits of their Pastures Fields Woods Rivers Springs c. as appears both by the Sacred and Prophane Histories For this reason parted Abraham and Lot Gen. 13.7 9. upon a strife that arose betwixt their Servants which obliged them to separate And upon this account it was that Romulus and his Young Citizens had so many quarrels with the Sabines and their other neighbours concerning the Pomoeria of their new erected City Rome even from its very Infancy being born with the desire of Soveraignty and given to Usurpations and incroachments upon her Neighbours FROM these differences arose Tumults Wars hostile Invasions and Depredations which did necessitate Men for their own safety and the preservation of their Property to enter into mutual promises and obligations to defend themselves and the Publick from the injuries of their Enemies and such were all lookt upon and suspected to be who had not the same Property in the Territories where they did inhabit and because many times even whilest they were at Peace with their Neighbours they found themselves infested with Domestick Discords Mischiefs and Injuries Thefts Murders The Original of Laws and Government Adulteries and other violations of the Rights and Properties of the members of their own Community from hence there sprung a necessity of Laws and Government to prevent such intestine Quarrels no less ruinous to the happiness of Society than foreign force and to restrain such amongst themselves whose unbounded Wills rendred their Actions prejudicial and dangerous to the well-being of the Community in whole and in every part as also that by Unity amongst themselves they might be the better enabled to repress the Insolencies and Injuries of their foreign Enemies NOW generally if not universally these Primitive Laws were for the reasons named Monarchs and Leaders of Colonies the first Legislators compiled by the Governours and Rulers and in probability the first of them by those who first lead the Colony Thus Moses amongst the Hebrews gave directions as supreme Judge in all Civil affairs as for the Ecclesiastical he had them under Gods own hand-writing Thus Numa amongst the Romans was their King and Legislator And in regard experience taught them The reason of the Executive and Coercive Power of Magistrates that the best Laws were altogether insignificant to the greatest part of Men unless they were intrusted in the hands of such who would strictly look to their effectual Execution therefore the coercive and executive vertue of Laws was always in the disposal of the supreme Magistrate as being the only Person or Persons who were vested with such a power as could give life and activity to those Laws to which they had first given a Being and to whose hands could the care of the Government by a just execution of those Laws be more safely committed had it been originally in the People to dispose of it than to such Persons as had manifested their Wisdom Prudence and ability in framing such good just wholsom and necessary Constitutions But the true reason is they as Supreme over the People had the only Power of making Laws and to exact obedience and subjection to them by which means they being the best Interpreters of the Laws which they had made the Safety Preservation and Happiness of the Society was most likely to be secured continued and preserved AND this manifests the Fundamental error in Politicks of those Persons who make Laws to have a priority before Kings and Governors as if the Laws made Kings Magistrates when in truth God Nature vested Primogeniture with the Right of Kings and Magistrates and they made the first Laws This is a mistake of such dangerous consequence that if it come to be allowed and Popular it robs all Kings of the most valuable Jewel of their Crowns and which was set there by God himself who set them upon their Heads viz a Divine Right and Title to their Sovereignty and Dominion and this open a way to perpetual Changes and alterations in Government and Governours For all Laws are in their own Nature alterable and may either for the convenience of the Prince or People whâ— are to Govern or be Governed by them be changed abrogated and new one Enacted and by consequence the Right of the King if it be only from them may be so too I have often heard it proverbially spoken New Lords New Laws but this would alter the stile and introduce an unhearâ— of proverb New Laws New Lords which at last by the perpetual uncertainty of Government and alteration both oâ— Lords and Laws must of necessity come to No Lords and No Laws and indeed nothing but Anarchy Confusion and Tyranny
their Party against it and therefore as they can blame no body but themselves so certainly all the loyal and good Subjects have a great deal of reason to complain of them who are the principal occasions of those Impositions which lye so heavy upon them AS for their conclusion that these and multitudes of other grievanceâ— should be taken away by turning the Monarchy into a Free State These were but fair words and fine promises to deceive the ignorant and credulous multitude for a miserable experience taught us the contrary And for one King who according to the most mild and easie Laws governed with the greatest wisdom and clemency they set up and established an Oligarchical Democratick Tyranny like that of the Thirty Athenian Tyrants And every one of these Parliament Demarchs was as absolute by himself as the Law of his own Will could make him Nor could any person question either their Actions or Authority without paying his Life and Fortune or one of them for so great a presumption And I remember when the late King at his Trial before their pretended High Court of Justice questioned their Authority they gave him no other answer but that they were abundantly satisfied with their own Authority and from his dreadful example it was easie to conclude that whoever would not be satisfied with their Power was certain to follow him in suffering under it and 't is easily remembred how arbitrarily all things were managed and the whole Kingdom brought into a slavery far greater than theirs who wear Canvass-cloaths and Wooden-shooes and look like Ghosts for they did not only amongst the multitudes of grievances which were redrest make men look like such but really made such of all those whom they either feared suspected or hated AND for their observation of the situation of the Nation for Trade and Manufactures it was so pretty a new Nothing to pin upon the peoples sleeves that it could not but please extremely As if all our Monarchs had liv'd in such profound Oscitancy and Ignorance that they never knew what Ports Havens or Creeks they had within their Dominions or as if the Sea-men knew not without this new Chart of discovery that Portsmouth lay more conveniently for a Trade with France than Robin Hoods-Bay or John-a-Groats-house in the remotest Orcades Or as if the common people whose great interest and constant employment it is from their very leading-strings were by these sons of Bacchus to be taught the art of Agriculture and under Monarchy could not tell the nature of their Lands or what Countries were fit for such or such Manufactures or any other thing relating to Trade or Husbandry but these great Ingeniosos of the Republick must have the honour of these happy Inventions which the people understood before far better than they could instruct them as is but too evident to all those Gentlemen who of late years having their Lands by the universal fall of Rents thrown upon their hands could never make those improvements and advantages of them which the Rusticks did by their better understanding of the Lands and the methods of Husbandry in which they had their education which the Gentlemen who are owners of the Land wanted And for their taking care for the Poor in one sence it was true enough they took all the care they could to keep the Nation as poor as it was possible that if ever they should have any such intentions or inclinations they might never have the power or the purse to effect their Design in bringing back their banish'd Sovereign to his undoubted Right the Royal Throne of his Illustrious Ancestors for which purpose they kept a continual standing Army at Land and a Navy at Sea to the incredible charge oppression and impoverishment of the Subjects of these Realms both their Friends and Enemies though they had the policy to lay the heaviest load upon the backs of their Enemies if possible to break them and they kept the Loyal Gentry and Nobility so poor that many of them have not been able or ever will to forget the kindness of that Government which was the utter ruine of them and their families SHOULD the same method be made use of with them sure then they would make a horrible out-cry but some people may better steal a Horse than others look over the Hedge and what was Wisdom Prudence and Justice in a Republick would be Tyranny Oppression and Cruelty in a Monarch AS for the last clause that Monarchy never had the leisure effectually to advance or encourage the Trade of the Nation How comes our Statute-Law to be so full of such Acts as are for the Improvement and Regulation of all Trades and Manufactures How come all those Charters and Grants to Corporations Fairs Markets and to the several Companies of the City of London However we will agree to them that some of our late Monarchs have not had the leisure effectually to look after these affairs but who was it that gave the obstruction and how come they not to have so much leisure Even these kind publick-spirited Commonwealths-men who from the very moment that our Nation began to look abroad into the World and by Navigation to advance the Interest of our Country even these great Merchants of Faction Sedition and Rebellion began to set up for themselves and to spoil our Markets by giving such disturbances to Queen Elizabeth in the last years of her Reign to King James during all his and to the Royal Martyr whom at last they bought and sold that Monarchy had something of nearer concern to mind than Foreign Trade viz. Domestick Peace and found work enough to quench those flames which they saw ready to blaze out or already broken out in the State which were kindled and blown up by the fiery Zeal of these hot-headed Republicans And our Kings by that Charity which begins at home were obliged first to take care of their own Preservation which yet so violent was the rage of that unruly combustion that they were not able to effect but all was laid in heaps and ashes thank the good honest men of the Commonwealth for their industry and successful pains they took about it God reward them for it BUT God have the praise who had compassion upon our Ruines and pitied to see us lye in the Dust we have seen a glorious Resurrection of Monarchy we have seen all these frivolous calumnies confuted We have seen Monopolies taken away and yet the Court remain Purveyance restrained and both the Waggoner and Barge-man paid for serving the King to their own content we have seen unnecessary Protections taken away and Courtiers obliged to pay their just Debts which the Democratick Government for all their publick Faith never did We have seen all incouragement given to Manufactures Navigation and Merchandize the Pooâ— taken care of and all this done mosâ— effectually And much more we mighâ— see England the most Potent flourishing and quiet Kingdom in thâ— World
not willing by an over-zealous confidence to erect a Trophy upon the Ruines of my modesty and if I transgress the limits of the decency which ought to bound every private quill I hope it will be attributed to fear and apprehension of danger which sometimes authorizes or at least renders a freedom pardonable which it may be cannot be reconciled to the severe rules of prudence or discretion And that this practice is not without most manifest danger former experience in whose severe School we have lately been disciplin'd into an unhappy certainty does sufficiently convince us Since it is beyond denial that we owe all those desperate misfortunes of our late dreadful revolutions to this great Art of Faction and making a party which by the secret and successful Industry of some people gave a prevalency to those Men who being in their principles opposite to the Interest of the Church and Crown in a short time by their furious practices ruin'd and overturn'd them both And the present prospect of the restless and unwearied Machinations of the same Faction may likewise make it appear no less necessary now it having always been esteemed as a wise and approved Maxim in the Physick of the Body Politick as well as Natural in times of spreading and Epidemick Contagions to prescribe Prophylacticks as well as Alexipharmacks one of which has and ever will be Principiis obsta venienti occurrite Morbo For Fatal Dangers Ill Events Early Prudence oft prevents And because I would shew a good precedent for these little shreads of the Muses I have seen it upon a quarry of Glass in the window of a publick house at Huntington written with the hand of the late glorious Martyr our Sovereign Charles the First agreeable to this purpose Errors in time may be redrest The shortest Follies are the best What from a Tragical experience he found fatally true certainly cannot be ill resented when from so great an authority offered as a necessary Caution for the future CHAP. VI. Of the Priviledges of the English Government and first of the Prerogative of the King The Imperial Crown of these Realms absolutely Independent The greatness of his Power according to Laws The Kings Person Sacred The Priviledges of the People First in sending their Representatives to the Parliament Secondly in having their property secured Thirdly in the Excellent and Constant method of Justice In particular Priviledges and Franchizes In all imaginable care to prevent the growth of the Poor and in providing for such as are so In committing the Execution of the Laws to such hands as will act with Justice and the care that is taken to prevent all abuses of Laws THUS have we taken a view of those choice Ingredients which compose the Government of the British Isles in which there appears the very refined extract and most sublime quintessence of all the several forms of Regiment in the World And from such a noble and well-temper'd mixture it is impossible there should naturally result any thing but the most sound and healthful Constitution in the Body Politick and a frame of Government built for wonder and Ages Certainly that bright Star to whose shining glories we owe the Day does not in all his travels round the Earthly Globe survey a more happy spot of Ground And if any place since the loss of Paradise can pretend to it this may justly challenge the name of Albion the Happy the Fortunate Island O nimiùm foelices bona si sua nôrint Anglicolae Pardon kind Reader the Pedantry of this little remaining Apollo which warms me with these fragments of his almost extinguisht fire O more than Happy â—ritish Land If our own Good we understand Happy by Nature Happy by Arts but much more Happy by the best Laws and Government that the whole Earth can shew THERE is nothing does so evidently demonstrate the excellency of a Cause as the noble effects which it does produce nor can any thing so plainly speak the goodness of a Covernment as the mutual happiness of the Governed and Governours To manifest this I wish my power carried a just proportion to my will and that my Pen were capable of keeping pace with my Intentions and both with the real worth and merits of this most incomparable Government IT is not without some degrees of arrogance to attempt it but it would be the most insupportable vanity and certain indication of a crazed fancy to pretend to the accomplishment of such a 〈◊〉 design He that will undertake to draw the picture of the Sun when he is mounted in his Meridian Chariot of Light and attended with all his dazling guards of Brightness can expect no other reward of his audacious folly but to lose his labour and his eyes The best and safest prospect of that glorious Planet is in his agreeable Reflections and benign Influences And for my own particular I am not so familiar with Majesty as to approach it though but with my Pen without some certain tremblings of my hand occasioned by that awful veneration which the very name of Dread Sovereign raises in my mind Nor can I believe that Great things and greater Persons are to be treated or so much as treated of but with the greatest respect and deference caution and the most profound submissions And therefore if whilest I endeavour to display their amazing glories and excellencies with a design of rendring them the greatest services I am capable of I draw them in the Miniature of this short Discourse I retain some faint hopes that the imperfections of so small a Piece being so much more pardonable by being little will be attributed to my timerous hast Fear is a passion which is apt not only to disorder the Fancy but even to discompose Reason it self And it is not uncommon for great Persons and generous Spirits to pardon with a gracious smile the effects of that veneration which they have occasion'd and which is apt to give such confusions to their Inferiors as sometimes makes them mistake the necessary decencies of their Duty even whilest they would endeavour most respectfully to preserve themselves within its Limits Let us therefore with all due humility look upon the Robes of Majesty the Ornaments and Ensigns of Royal Dignity those unvaluable Jewels whose radiant Lustre adorn the English Diadem and which is it self adorned by the Head that wears it Which will with ease convince us how happy that People must needs be who live under the kind Beams of such a Monarchy and such a Monarch Of the Priviledges of the English Government and first of the Prerogative of the King THE Excellency of the Ancient Flourishing and August Monarchy of Great Britain which God long preserve in Peace Glory and Prosperity consists principally in this That it is absolutely Independent and That the Sovereign and Imperial Crown of these Realms The Imperial Crown of this Realm absolute and Independent though it does admit of Foreign Equals knows no
BESIDES the very Foundation of such an Opinion is absurd and unreasonable for there can be no Laws till there be some frame of Government to establish and enact such Laws nor can any thing have the force or power of a Law or oblige men to obedience unless it does proceed from such a Person or Persons as have a right to command it and Authority to punish the Disobedience or neglect of those who ought to be subject to it And to say that this Right is in the People who by their suffrages Elect the Supreme Magistrate is so far from mending the matter that it makes it worse and more dangerous for then the People may in reason fairly presume when ever they please to say That the Sovereign Power is abused to their prejudice which was contrary to their Design in granting it to reassume their own Right and either keep the Power themselves or proceed to a new Election which is the direct Way to fulfil the prediction of the Necromantick Head which was once said at Oxford Bakers Chrons pag. 167. to have given this fatal Oracle Caput decidetur Caput elevabitur Pedes elevabuntur supra Caput which was tragically translated into English in the transactions of the late unhappy Times when Monarchy beheaded lay The head of Traitors bore the Sway. The feet of * Dan. 2.33 Iron and of Clay Became a monstrous head they say K. Charles Martyr O. Cromwell Army and Rump Parl. BUT further the universal Testimony of all Ages Nations and Places derive the beginning of Positive Laws from a Government justly impowred to make enact and command Laws and a superior Power that had a Right to exact Obedience to them So that it is almost impossible to find the least footsteps of Law Law of Nature and Law of Nations of Divine Institution that is by far so ancient as Government As for that Jus Naturae and Jus Gentium they are more properly Common and Universal Principles of Nature and all Nations than Laws and owe their establishment to a Divine Authority and not to any Humane Power and there is a vast difference between the very Words Jus and Lex though our Language does not admit of it in the common use of Expression for Jus properly signifies a Right or Propriety and such a Right as if it be common as the Right of Nature and Nations are every man by vertue of his Being lays a claim unto The word Lex or Law seems derived from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 finem facio termino to put an end and determination to things which before were undetermined or from the Latin word Ligc to bind and oblige as Laws do all people to Obedience or possibly as Tully observes à Legendo from chusing what is best for society So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 distribuo pasco rego to distribute Justice and Right to feed the people with care and diligence as a Shepherd his flock for which reason Homer calls Kings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Shepherds of the People who rule and govern them So the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is rendred Law signifies Doctrina teaching instruction because Laws teach and instruct all people what is their Duty All which words of the most ancient and universal Languages plainly intimate that there must be some person or persons who must have such Authority as may inable them to determine Differences oblige men to Obedience to those Laws they chuse as best for them seed govern and teach their Inferiors their respective Duties and who must therefore by necessary consequence be Governours before the Laws were made by which they and their successors afterwards directed and managed the Societies over which they were the Primitive Rulers Princes and Law-givers CHAP. II. Of the danger of Anarchy the necessity of Government and Laws to prevent it All People not fit for one kind of Government Of the three forms of Govenment Democracy Aristocracy anâ— Monarchy Some Considerations anâ— necessary Animadversions upon our laâ— English Republick THE goodness of the Divine Nature has not more visibly appear'd in any thing of humane affairs than in bestowing this principle of Self-preservation in so high a degree upon Mankind as to make it universally out oâ— Love to themselves oblige them to enter into Communities and Societies An effect so Noble that possibly that and Religion may more truly be said to distinguish Men from Brutes than Reason which though we ambitiously endeavour to ingross to our selves yet am I to learn how they can without some injustice be excluded from a share and lower portion of it some of their Actions being so remarkably Logical and Discursive as will never be solved either by mere matter and motion or the higher principles of bare sense and fancy But for this principle of Self-preservation though they enjoy a great measure of it in common with us yet not so much as to teach them for their security to enter into the mutual obligations of Laws Government and Society And 't is happy for us that this Wisdom was deni'd them since there are few Creatures so inconsiderable but if they had the Policy for their common safety to unite they would in a little time grow so numerous and powerful as to be able to enter into open hostility with Men and in probability either wholly extirpate humane race or at least as that Monopolizer of Wit and Fancy the most ingenious Mr. Cowley expresseth it Cowley Pind. Odes upon the 34. Cap of Esay stanz 6. pag. 50. And if of lost mankind Ought happen to be left behind If any Reliques but remain They in the Dens should lurk Beasts in the Palaces should Reign whereas now if they attempt any Rebellion or Disobedience they are easily subdued and kept under subjection by their own Disunion WITHOUT Laws or Government men would be but a more cunninâ— kind of Brutes and therefore we sâ—â— that where these prevail there humanâ— Nature is most refined civilized anâ— polite but where Laws are wanting iâ— any measure there in proportion meâ— degenerate into the greatest Barbarism Infidelity Ingratitude Treachery Inhumanity and almost brutish Anarchy and Confusion Nay their very Religion which is the highest exaltation oâ— the nature of Man and possibly the oâ—ly thing that perfectly and incommunâ—cably differences it by setting men in 〈◊〉 degree so superior to Beasts that they can never arrive at it even Religion 〈◊〉 self for want of Laws and Government becomes sensual and Barbarous if not Devilish THERE has therefore appear'd to all the World for self-preservation and mutual advantage an absolute necessity of Society The danger of Anarchy shews the necessity of Government Nor has it been less evident that it is absolutely impossible there should be any such thing without Government Superiority and Subjection For Anarchy is indeed the state of Nature but it is only of
Charge wherein they accuse Monarchy with a Design of enslaving the People and being guilty of Oppression Injustice and Exactions if those accusations had been real which are most gross abuses and calumnies yet still they could have been no more but the exorbitances of some particular persons who might abuse their Power but cannot justly be charged upon Monarchy it self especially our English Monarchy which is of so just a Temperamentum ad Pondusâ— if any thing in Nature can be so as thaâ— it cannot oppress the meanest subject without his own or the consent of hiâ— Peers who will difficultly be broughâ— to do that which may indanger their own priviledges and might one daâ— come to be a precedent for themselveâ— to suffer by The truth is the resty anâ— fore-plotted humour of some sullen Parliaments which preceded the fatâ— 1641 put his late Majesty upon somâ— extraordinary courses of raising Monâ— to supply the pressing and importunaâ—â— necessities of the Crown and Government with which they refused to assâ—â— him in the usual legal and common Parliamentary way which yet waâ— not done but with the greatest caution and tenderness and frequent consultations with the Judges learned in the Laws whether without breach 〈◊〉 Laws such expedients might be madâ— use of and the money so raised which they maliciously say was to maintain those luxuries of the Court Masque and Plays their Sabbath-days recreations were in truth for the necessary support of the Government and Royal Dignity and which yet fell so short oâ— what the extraordinary occasions at that time were by reason of the Scottish Invasion brought on by the Factious Republico-Presbyterians that the King was obliged at last to call and continue that Parliament to grant him supplies which in conclusion took from him his Revenue Dignity Crown and Life AS to the Forests of which they make such an out-cry it is well known that they are generally Land of such a Nature as admits not of a tolerable improvement in Husbandry and therefore cannot be better employed for the publick good and safety of the Nation than in producing Timber for Shipping which is the only thing which they will well and naturally do And the keeping of Deer being an accidental improvement and the stock they are best capable of maintaining and the King as well as private Men having a just right and lawful liberty to employ those Lands which by inheritance from his Ancestors descended to him according to his own pleasure I know no persons could be offended at him but such whose covetous Ambition had an eye to the waste of them for themselves as these men had who to the irreparable loss of the Kingdom under pretence of improvement made such spoil in the Forest of Dean and upon all the Crown Lands as some Ages of the most diligent and industrious Husbandry will scarcely repair And which adds to the mischief those vast quantities of our best Timber with which they usually over-paid their purchase were sold to some of our Neighbours who have since shewn us the strength of our English Oak AND possibly their dis-foresting and dis-parking so much ground though it might turn to good account to some of them for the present yet has insensibly brought down all the Rents of the Nobility and Gentry of the Kingdom for our only surfeit at present seems to be of plenty both of Corn and Cattle we having more communibus Annis than the consumption of the Nation will admit of and generally no good markets for these products of our Country amongst our Neighbours abroad unless in such a conjuncture as these late years of War Which great plenty has certainly been much increased by their improvement of so many of the Parks of the King Bishops c. So that those chargeable provisions for Sports and Recreations for which as they eloquently flaunt it thousands of Acres and scores of Miles and great part of whole Counties have been separated from a much better and publick employment if the Timber which their wasteful Avarice cut down had been standing still might with far more advantage to the publick have continued as they were AND for Oppression good God! certainly the World never knew greater than those Keepers of the Liberties of England were guilty of It would trouble a publick Accomptant to cast up those vast Summs and incredible Treasures which in less than twice seven years they raised and spent to support the worst of all luxuries Rebellion and to act upon the publick Charge and Theatre of the Nation not Masques and Plays but the most real and inhumane Tragedies and many of them upon Sabbath-days too as these modern Jews call the Lords-day So that they might well have spared that accusation against the King and Court It would be endless to recount the Annual Revenue of all the Crown Bishop Chapter and Cathedral Lands besides the Money they received for the purchases of them even at their Rates the constant and heavy Assessments Free-quarter Plunder Sequestrations Compositions Decimations Excise and Customs besides the voluntary Contributions the Bodkins Thimbles Rings Plate and Jewels which Hugh Peters and his confederate Juglers preach'd and pray'd from the Holy Sisters and Zealous Brothers the vast Summs borrowed upon the publick Faith which some of them found to their cost to be Fides Punica and almost innumerable Ways and Arts they had to squeez and drain the Treasure of the Nation into their bottomless Gulph And I am almost confident that not any three Kings of England from William the Conqueror to this present day were so expensive to England as that one prodigal Parliament And they who now complain of the heavy Taxations which it has ever been observed the Republicans are most guilty of must know that we are obliged to them both for the first invention of those payments and for the necessity of their continuance That so the Crown may be secured from such exigencies as might oblige the King to ask supplies from such men if these Commonwealths-men had their desire and design as had rather take away the Crown it self than give any thing towards its support and maintenance And let them but by becoming good Subjects obedient to their Prince and his Laws give him demonstrative assurances of domestick Peace and Unity and they may be confident that neither he nor they need to fear any foreign Force or Power and so the necessity of these extraordinary supplies for the security of the Peace and Interest of the Kingdoms being removed they may certainly expect to live in a great measure free from them or however from their frequency And if they will not agree to do this they may thank themselves for those burthens they lay upon their own and other mens shoulders which they might be eased of if they would ease the Government of the constant charge it is forced to be at to secure it self and those who are under its protection from the restless and dangerous attempts of
and Oracle of Anti-Monarchical Meâ— would perswade us Cal. Inst lib. 4. cap. 20. Sect. 8. being of God own appointment choice and establishment amongst his peculiar people the Tribes of Israel for whom it oughâ— not to be doubted but he would chuse the best amongst all the kinds of Government extant in the World LET us therefore hear the opinion of Moses as to the Antiquity of Kings and Monarchy and as once a greater than he said of him They who will not believe Moses and the Prophets would not believe though by a miracle one should rise from the dead to convince and confute them That Adam Noah and the rest of the Ancient propagators of Mankind were Kings and exercised Regal authority though his writings do not tell us yet we must conclude in regard that their posterity were bound to honour and obey them both by the Law of Nature Reason and the Divine Eternally Moral Law which did and do for ever command it But the first mention of a Monarch is Nimrod Gen. 10.10 who was a mighty Hunter before the Lord and the beginning of whose Kingdom was Babel Which Empire according to the computation of Chronology began about 130 years after the Deluge and is the first established Kingdom and Government that we meet with in the Sacred writings There is likewise mention made of the Egyptian Kingdom Gen. 12. another of the most ancient Monarchies In another place there is an account of a great action that happened Gen. 15. in which Nine Kings were concerned and the place of their Kingdoms as also in the same Chapter oâ— Melchizedeck King of Salem beside Abraham who as appears by his victory over them with an Army of hiâ— own Militia the Trained-bands 〈◊〉 Troops of his houshold was also a greâ— King himself as the Children of Heâ—â— stile him My Lord thou art a mighty Prince amongst us Gen. 23. c. NOR is there any great doubt to be made but that at the confusion of Laâ—guages he who undertook to lead a waâ— a Company was their Prince and as afterwards they subdivided themselveâ— for more Room and convenience 〈◊〉 Pasturage for their Flocks and Herdâ— the Riches of those Ages still the priâ—â—cipal person of note undertook to coâ—duct them and was their King And the great increase of these as well as oâ—â— the people of necessity obliged them as it did Lot and Abraham to part onâ— from another and to seek out for their convenience new Lands and unpeopleâ— Regions and this seems to be the true Reason why in the early Ages of the World we find mention of so many little Kings that every considerable City in the small Continent of Canaan had its distinct King and Kingdom which did not a little contribute to the facility of their conquest by Joshua and the Israelites Josh 12. who is recorded to have subdued one and thirty of them in a few years AND that the Government of the people of Israel after their deliverance from the Egyptian slavery was Monarchical under Moses all the time of their Encampments and Decampments in the Wilderness is evident matter of fact as appears by that place where there is a description of their manner of Judicature And it came to pass Exod. 18.13 that on the morrow Moses sate to judge the People c. And though upon the wholsom advice of Jethro the Prince of Midian his Father-in-law he afterwards chose able men out of all Israel and made them Heads over the people Rulers of thousands hundreds fifties and tens yet the Supreme Power of Judging he reserved to himself for they Judged the people at all seasons in every small matter but the difficult causes they brought unto Moses for his determination as being the Supreme Governour both in Civil and Ecclesiastical affairs And that Moses did this not pro arbitrio dominandi libidine of his own Ambitious desire of Sovereignty but by Gods especial appointment he tellâ— them Hereby ye shall know that thâ— Lord hath sent me to do all these works Numb 16.28 anâ— that I have not done them of my own mindâ—â— And that he was a great Prince amongst them is apparent from the Charge of those Rebels Corah Dathan and Abâ—ram and their Accomplices who pretended that his design was not so much to Govern them and Conduct them 〈◊〉 the promised Land as to make himseâ—â— absolute Is it a small thing say they that thou hast brought us up out of a Laâ—â— that floweth with Milk and Hony Vers 13. to kâ—â— us in the Wilderness except thou make thâ— self altogether that is an absolute Tyrannical Prince over us The first Essay to a Democracy the Rebellion of Corah and his accomplices Here is the first Essay for a Republick or Democraâ—â— that is upon any Record which was founded upon Rebellion against the Prince and the Priest and by consequence as he declared against God himself from whom they had that Authority The 250 who undertook iâ— seems to be the peoples Representatives who were all holy and the Lords people as they stiled themselves Numb 16. v. 41. and the murmuring Tribes thought them so though they paid dearly both for their mutiny and mistake but upon this pretence of sanctity and equality they were all as fit to Govern as Moses and to offer Incense as Aaron and why should they take so much upon them It is worth our observation how these Primitive Reformers make use of the same popular Charms with which our Modern Republicans their true successors in the Art of Wheedling a credulous Populace do now Act viz. The fair and taking pretensions of their own Sanctimony and the peoples Liberty of Conscience from the Tyranny of the Government by a single Person and the Priesthood How acceptable this their Mutinous design of a thorough Reformation in Church and State was to God Almighty Numb 16.35 the sequel of the Rebellion did declare for this strange Fire which they pretended to offer unto God but which in truth was the Wildfire of their own Brains with which they intended to sacrifice Government and Religion to their wicked Ambition brought down Fire from Heaven upon the 250 Cenfor-men and the very Earth upon which such Monsters of Mankind were unfit to live Numb 16.34 opened her mouth and gave them a new and terrible way of Sepulture making them Eternal Monuments of that confusion and vengeance which both Heaven and Earth conspire to take upon seditious Rebels I heartily wish that all our Anti-monarchical and Anti-hierarchical people would soberly consider of it left whilest they run on headlong in a seeming Religious despising of Dominion and speaking evil of Dignities Jude 11. they also perish in the gainsaying of Corah AFTER Moses succeeded Joshus in the same way of Regal though not Hereditary Government after him several Judges whom upon extraordinary occasions God raised up to Rule Govern and Deliver
is truly Pater Patriae the Father of his Country and as such must have a certain Natural tenderness care and concern for its Safety Peace and Happiness which he looks upon as it is to be his own BESIDES it is to be considered That there is an Art in Governing which Monarchs from their very Infancy are trained up and accustomed to which makes them by Experience and the second Nature of Custom come to a true Understanding of the great Affairs and secret Reason of State and therefore more ready in all publick dispatches more quick apprehensive and sagacious in perceiving what is conducive to the Common Good and what not than such who have not been Educated with all those advantages to Govern And then their Continuance for Life and the succession of their Posterity gives them the desire of Designing well for the publick good safety and security and the opportunities of finishing what was well begun Whereas all Governours in a Commonwealth must at first be much to seek in all great Affairs and one may as well expect that a man taken from the Plough should be able to Conn a Ship and carry her an East-India Voyage as that a Person though of the greatest Natural or acquired parts should at first be fit to Pilot the Government or skilful and dexterous in so great a Charge as is the steerage of the important affairs of a publick State And by that time that he is arrived to a competent skill he must resign his Place and Power to others as Raw and Unexperienced as he was and so must leave that Work which it may be was well laid and designed to the conduct and management of such Persons who possibly neither understand it nor how to conduct it if they did or if they do both yet may have envy enough to cross or ruine it because they had not the Glory of the first Invention SO that upon all accounts Monarchy appears to have been the most Ancient the most Universal the most Natural the most Useful and by unavoidable consequence the most excellent Government for promoting preserving and continuing the Common Happiness of all Mankind CHAP. V. Of the Excellency of the English Monarchy and Government It is not apt to degenerate into Tyranny The King having by his gracious Concessions given Limits to his absolute Sovereignty Of the Interest which the three Estates have in preparing Bills for the Royal Assent to be by that past into Laws and the great obligation which thereby the People have to Subjection and Obedience Of the Excellency of the English Monarchy THUS have we taken a view of the several Governments in the World amongst which Monarchy justly challenges the precedency in all respects And against which there can be no objections made but such as may with ease be retorted upon any other form of Government and not only so but many more and more rational and just Exceptions may be made against all other kinds of Regiment AS for that thread-bare Topick out of Aristotle which is so perpetually in the mouths of all Democratick Factious people That Monarchy is apt to degenerate into Tyranny It is only possible to be true where Monarchy is absolute Arbitrary and unbounded But in our English Monarchy the case is clearly different for though the King be so absolute that where he has not precluded himself by his gracious Concessions to his People It is not apt to degenerate into Tyranny the King having by his gracious Concessions given Limits to his absolute Sovereignty his will is his Law and is not to be limited by any other Power than that of his own Royal pleasure Yet in this particular the condescensions of our English Sovereigns have been so many and so great and those compliances having been formed into Laws as measures and standards of Government are the Bounds and Limits which Monarchy has no less prudently than indulgently been pleased to give it self thereby to ease the Subjects of any just occasion of Fears or Jealousies which might receive their birth from the formidable redundancy of their absolute Power And by this means the Government is secured from the danger of falling into an Arbitrary and Tyrannical way of Ruling and the minds of the Subjects are freed from the dreadful apprehensions of slavery under it And as by this incomparable method of goodness and generosity in our Princes the people their Subjects of all degrees and conditions are the more powerfully obliged to all dutiful Allegiance to their Temperate Government so the Government it self is thereby rendred more capable of effectually answering all the Ends and Intentions of Society Let us therefore take a short view of this most admirable Monarchy which will discover unto us the matchless excellency and goodness of our present Government as it is now Established The English Monarchy Hereditary and admits of no Interregnum NOW the Excellency of it appears first in that the Monarchy is Hereditary and not Elective But the Son or Daughter or in defect of them the nearest of the Royal Line does upon the expiration of the former King so immediately succeed that our Law does not allow the Interregnum of one moments space and therefore holds it as an establisht Maxim Rex non moritur The King of England is Immortal and the young Phoenix stays not to rise from the spicy ashes of the old one but the Sour of Royalty by a kind of Metempsychosis passes immediately our of one body into another And this certainly is not the least of the advantages of our Monarchy For whereever there happens an Interregnum not only all Laws are for that time at a stand as to force and execution but also all lawless and disorderly persons take the greatest and most unlawful Liberties Thus at the death of the Ottoman Heir they Janizaries and other Martial men rifle and plunder the houses of the Jews and Christians at Constantinople and cease not to commit all manner of out-rages till the new Grand Seignior by his publick appearance and bounty to them puts an end to those Disorders Which may chance at that new Rome to verifie the saying of the Popes Jester who being ask'd which was the best Holy-day to the people of Rome repli'd The day on which the Pope dies because there likewise the common people by prescription plunder the Palace of that Cardinal who is elected Pope And this custom amongst the Turks which is become a certain expectancy to them and which they look for at the death of their Emperor as a priviledge and part of their salary though at first permitted them in malice to the Jews and Christians may in time prove so ill policy as may occasion the dispatch of the Ottoman Family one after another to their great Prophet and his Paradise in greater haste than ever Nature did intend or the safety of that great Monarchy can allow AND for the disadvantages of Elective Monarchies we need not
and of as little estimation as the Brutes But in our happy England every man even the meanest Subject may confidently say that whatsoever according to the Laws he does possess and enjoy it is solely properly and absolutely his own to all intents and purposes of possession And so tender is our Government in this particular of property that it provides a certain defence security and protection of Laws for all mens Persons Relations Honours and Estates and not only so but for their good Name and Reputation that if they have any it may be preserved from Injury there being severe penalties as well for a Defamation of the meanest Cottager whose greatest Riches it may be consists in that little Jewel as for a Scandalum Magnatum against the greatest Peer Nor can any person dispossess them of a thing of the meanest value without their consent either by fraud or violence without making a just commutation either of current money or what is as good but he is liable to the punishment of the Laws in all such cases provided some of which are in their penalties for such crimes more severe and ignominious than in any other Nation of the World which has made some people of Ingenuity wish the King of England had more Gallies and that they might receive many serviceable Lives of Criminals who perish at the Gallows NAY so great and absolute is the Property of the English Subjects that the extraordinary occasions of the publick cannot by Law be supplied out of their Estates without their consent and concurrence by their Representatives in the House of Commons who for that purpose prepare and transmit all Bills for supply of Mony to the House of Lords for their Concurrence and the Royal Assent Certainly these Freedoms and Priviledges are so great that the Subjects in other Nations would think themselves Princes if they might enjoy them And are such as the greatest Princes in Foreign parts who are not absolute and Independent Sovereigns can scarcely pretent o be possessors of THE third Priviledge and not the least The third Priviledge the Excellent and Constant Method of Justice though the last that amongst a multitude of others we shall take notice of is the excellent and constant method of the Administration of Justice to all Degrees and Conditions of Men which twice in every year is as it were brought home to their door And in this the Government shews it self to be truly good great and generous even to those who least deserve it such as are all Criminal who how notorious soever are not yet debarrd from having Justice done them before it be done upon them So that no delinquent can be punished either as to loss of Life Limb or Estate Imprisonment or Banishment but by a regular publick method and process of Law secuadum allegata probata according to the evidence of such as are believed to be credible persons and able to give a true and valid Testimony And according to the ordinary procedure of Law in all cases that touch an offenders Life or a considerable part of his Estate he is to receive his sentence according to the Verdict of his Peers or Equals in Condition who are at the fewest Twelve good Men and true or so reputed and if possible known to the Criminal and he to them Who when they are Impanell'd upon his Trial are by a solemn Oath sworn to proceed without favour or affection to the best of their knowledge From which procedure he may therefore in probability expect all the Right and Justice he can hope for or deserve and lest there should be any opportunity for Malice Pique or Envy then to revenge themselves upon the Prisoner he has the liberty to make a challenge or except against so many of the Jury as he can suspect And in all cases of Life and Death by a particular Proviso persons of those professions who by their Trade of slaughter and being inured to shed the bloud though but of Beasts lest by that custom they should be obdurate or less compassionate and tender of humane Life are debarred from being of such Juries Many Immunizies and Municipal Franchizes besides possessed by the People THERE are almost innumerable other Priviledges Municipal Franchizes and Immunities which by Custom or Charter are enjoyed both by particular Persons and Corporate Bodies all which it were endless as well as needless to recount These which I have mentioned as they belong in common to the English Subjects so they are sufficient to manifest the excellency of the Government of this Nation beyond all just exceptions As for those discontented Factious spirits who murmur and repine because they have no more such Ingrates of all others certainly cannot deserve so many And 't is great pity they do not know the price of Salt in France or the frequent Two Hundred penny of the neighbouring States besides all other Imposts and Excise upon all manner of necessaries and conveniencies of Life And they who so much admire the Government and Liberty of those people of the Belgick Union and especially their Liberty of Conscience if I am not mistaken in their Humour love their Mony too well to be much in love with their Religion or even that envi'd Liberty if they understood how high the Exchange and Market of it runs in those Provinces and I am apt to believe they would scarce turn the penny by becoming Merchant adventurers in that Trade if they were truly sensible that they must purchase it at such excessive Rates Bought wit is the best provided the price be according but even that which they call Religion and Liberty as well as Gold may sometimes be bought too dear It is experience that teaches wisdom though the usual saying is but too true that she is the Mistress of Fools intimating that all those people run the hazard of that Infamous character who will not take up Truth upon the credit of other mens Trial and Damages and whom nothing is able to convince but the dear certainty which they purchase at the expence of their proper Loss and too late Repentance others may if they please but for my own part I have had too great a share in it to admire this Phrygian wisdom Serò sapiunt Phryges which in plain English is the greatest folly THE familiarity even of Happiness renders it contemptible with some people and we daily see that Light and Health the one of which is the Salt of Life that gives a poignant relish to all we do enjoy and the other the great comfort and satisfaction of our days are yet rarely estimated according to their real and intrinsick value but by being so familiar to us are many times not thought worth our taking notice of till by their absence or diminution we are made sensible of their great necessity and pleasing excellency Assuredly here are priviledges sufficient to prove the goodness of our Laws Government and Governours and to satisfie
any modest regular and unambitious desires And far more and greater would not be capable to satisfie the ambitious and unbounded Humour of perpetually craving Democracy which is like the meager and ill-favoured Cows in Pharaoh's dream Gen. 41. the very picture of envy and ill luck or rather the thing it self which would devour all our fat well-favoured and pleasant years of Plenty and be never the better it self after so full a Meal but in stead of the Liberty which it does flatteringly promise us would oblige us like the Egyptians in that dreadful Famine to pawn all for bread to eat and at last to offer up our selves and posterity its voluntary or rather necessary slaves for ever And in which it would exceed the severities of that calamitous time the Lands of the Priests which there met with a favourable exemption would here be the first Morsel with which rapacious Democracy would feast it self The truth is this Factious Republican Humour is like the hideous Gulph into which the noble Curtius leapt to satisfie the more cruel than ambiguous Oracle which cannot be perswaded to close its terrible Jaws with the richest appeasments of Silver Gold Pearl or Jewels unless it drink in whole Rivers of Innocent Bloud and at last the best Man become an attonement and Victim to that voracious Prodigy of a Factious Populace when inspired with a Religious Rebellion call'd a thorough Reformation TO conclude this particular All imaginable care used to prevent the growth of the Poor and to provide for such as are so the goodness of the English Government does not appear more in protection of the Rich Great and Noble than in providing for the Poor In which affair it is the constant care of the Government first if possible to prevent the growth and increase of them by incouraging Industry providing of stocks to set them at work upon and punishing all dissolute Idleness And in the next place by making such competent necessary and constant provision for all such as are truly Poor Aged or Decrepit or who by unavoidable accidents or misfortunes come to be distressed and necessitous that in some Places and amongst some Natures the certainty of a future provision for them and their posterity by the respective Parishies and Places of their aboad does rather make them careless and improvident than thankful and Industrious which at the same time manifests the compassionate and charitable temper of the Government and the slothful Ingratitude of those persons who take a Commission to be careless and Idle from the encouragement of those Laws which were intended in pure compassion to preserve them from misery and starving All possible care taken to commit the Execution of Laws to such hands as will act with Justice and to prevent all Abuses Frauds Perjuries and Delays of Law and Justice IN short as the Laws are in their own nature choice prudent safe advantageous and universal and by long experience found to be such as correspond to all the Intentions of the durable happiness of Society so there is the most exact Government by those Laws and a constant administration of Justice by persons of the greatest Integrity and ability as also a constant care taken to prevent all miscarriages oppression or perverting of Justice by Bribes Forgery Perjury or Partiality and there can scarcely a speck of Rust appear upon the bright sword of Justice or the least grain of corruption be thrown in to turn the equal balance of the Law but by the curious eye of vigilant Authority it is taken notice of corrected prevented and amended for the future And what can be more desirable or desired in any humane Society who pretend to be bounded either with Modesty or Reason I am yet to learn If there be any thing wanting to make the Happiness of the Subjects of the English Monarchy complete they must expect it from themselves and their own peaceable acquiescence under the Laws and Government And if they are not utterly Incapable of satisfaction his most gracious Majesty has made his repeated Instances to the two Houses of Parliament that they would consider what is wanting and has given such constant and unquestionable assurances of contributing all his Authority to whatsoever shall be thought fit to be offered for a further security of every mans Interest as to Property and Religion as will not permit the least scruple but that we live at present under the best of Princes as well as under the best of Laws and Government CHAP. VII The great misfortune of Religion which is made the great pretence to ruine Monarchy A stratagem of the Devil to extirpate all true Religion out of the World The two Opposites and Enemies of Monarchy Papacy and Presbytery The Opinion of the Catholick Doctors about Papal Supremacy and the new Roman Creed to confirm it Papal Supremacy devests the Prince of his Legistative Power of his absolute Sovereignty and renders Monarchy insecure as to Possession or Succession bereaving it of the Guard of Laws of the Strength of Alliances of the Fidelity of the People Several Impolitick inconveniences which attend that Religion Papal Supremacy destructive of the Peoples Liberty and Property FROM what has been most truly said as being matter of most evident fact and of so publick demonstration that no person can deny it who will not at the same time manifest shameless Confidence and notorious Ignorance of that Constitution and those Laws the benefit of whose Goodness he does continually enjoy it does appear that there can be nothing wanting to complete the happiness of all sorts and conditions of Men who live under this admirable Government but the knowledge of it which would bring them to a real belief that they are the most Happy People in the World that so they might be satified of the great obligations they have to Unity amongst themselves and all ready compliances of Obedience to the Commands of the Supreme Authority in those Laws which are so much both their own Choice and Interest which is the only rational way to continue increase and secure their Happiness and to render this most happy Government impregnable against all the malicious attempts of theirs because its implacable Enemies ONE would difficultly be perswaded if unerring Experience did not afford an unquestionable conviction that it were possible to find either so great Malice or Mistake as could be capable to transport any person so far beyond the confines of Reason as to endeavour so much as in a thought much less by their actions to alter or subvert a frame of Government so beautiful and in all its parts most exact and excellent And if nothing besides were able one would judge That the impregnable strength of so well a built and fortified a Constitution were sufficient to discourage the most daring Villains and desperate Natures amongst Mankind To attempt such an enterprize as appears in all Humane probability the very next thing to impossible to be
to sickness as that which stands upon the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very tiptoes of most perfect Health This is the condition of this most irreprehensible Government of the English Monarchy whose eminency renders it obnoxious to Envy and whose Excellency and Innocence are not able to secure it from Malice those two mortal Gangrenes of all that can be called Great Good or Happy in humane Life Undoubtedly it is lawless Ambition and insatiable Desire of Sovereignty which are the true ground and foundation of all Rebellion and Disobedience though Innocent Religion and Christian Liberty are perpetually made the cloak of this malicious Wickedness and usurping Covetousness the root of all evil which are constantly made use of by all such deceivers who as S. Peter has well observed of them will not submit themselves to the King as Supreme and by their obedient honouring him by all quiet subjection to his Laws and Government give a manifest evidence that they really and truly fear God who commands that Duty to be done The two Opposites and Encmics of Monarchy Papacy and Presbytery THERE may be many Interests which may be disadvantageous to the safety security and happiness of the Imperial Crown of this Realm of Great Britain and its other Dominions as well as to the liberty and property of the people but there are two which are directly and fundamentally opposite and contrary to them both in their principles and practices and these are the pretensions of an Universal Supremacy and Spirituo-Temporal Monarchy of the Court of Rome or Papacy on the one hand and the Democratick Presbyterian on the other That both these are utterly inconsistent with the Safety and very Essence of Monarchy and particularly with that of these Nations as also with the Peace Happiness Liberty and Property of the Subject is that which I hope to prove by such undeniable Reasons and convincing Arguments as may oblige the consent of all such who are not willing to quit their share and claim to common Reason rather than the favour of their Interest Party or Opinion WE will begin then with the Papacy as being the ancient competitor for Sovereignty with all the Crowned Heads of Europe And in regard of the great concern of the Controversie this has been the Theatre of all the Polemick Wits of Christendom I hope it will not therefore be expected that I should repeat the Crambe in a Tedious discourse it can never be diverting to the Reader and I fear what is not so will rarely be profitable to him to swell this Discourse with long rehearsals of what has been so often better and more nicely discussed by the most famous Pens I will therefore succinctly and nakedly propose the thing it may be rather to satisfie some people that I am not a Papist than to pretend to offer any thing new in a point that has been so often treated of as will not permit me to entertain the vanity that I am able to say either more or more to the purpose than has already to the satisfaction of the World been said The Opinion of the Catholick Doctors about the Papal Supremacy and the New Roman Creed to confirm it NOW that by what they call the Popes Supremacy in Spirituals the Faction of the Roman Court do not only affect but endeavour to impose and establish an Universal Empire and Dominion over all Princes Kings Emperors and their Subjects and â—o propagate Sovereignty rather than Religion we will in short endeavour to manifest out of their most Authentick Records and Justified Confession Ex ore tuo can certainly be liable to no exceptions They who speak most modestly as Cardinal Bellarmine Bell. lib. 5. de Ro. Pontisice cap. 1. and those he calls the Catholick Doctors of the middle Opinion give the Pope indirecte quandam potestatem even over all Temporal affairs and by consequence a Supremacy over all Men. But some of them whose confidence does a little out-run their discretion Aug. Triumph Sum. de potest Ecc. q. 1. ar 1. q. 40. ar 1. passim alibi Alv. Pel. de planctu Ecc. l. 1. cap. 1. â— as Augustinus Triumphus Alvarus Pelagius and others loudly proclaim the Pope to have the fulness of all Power in all Temporal concerns whatsoever And a whole Volume of Names swim down this stream over-born with the impetuous Torrent of a Fancy overflowing with the pleasure of Terrestrial Empire and Dominion of the Church or the flattery of Popes from whom possibly they had great future expectancies and present dependencies Bulla Pii 4. super forma Juramenti in appendice Concil Tridentini BUT that which appears most considerable is the Bull of Pope Pius quartus where this Supremacy is made an Article of the Faith equal to that of the Apostles in these words or to this effect Vide si libet etiam Act. Concil Trident Sess de reformatione cap. 2. cap. 19. I N. N. believe that the Holy Catholick Apostolick Roman Church is the Mother and Mistress of all Churches I acknowledge vow and swear true Obedience to the B. of Rome the successor of S. Peter the Prince of the Apostles and Vicar of Christ Jesus c. And a little after And this true Catholick Faith out of which no man can be saved which at this time I do willingly profess and truly hold I will be careful with Gods help that it be constantly retained and confessed whole and inviolable to the last gasp FROM this new confession of Faith these two Corollaries follow First That all Christian Kings Princes and People owe unto the Roman See all Temporal Obedience For there is no limitation but Obedience to the Pope in general and inclusive words is made a necessary Article of Faith and where any thing is spoken in general words it is always to be construed to extend to all that can be signified by those words in favour of that Power which it is designed to declare and promote SECONDLY If no man can be saved out of that Faith which are the express words of the Oath Kings and Emperors not being excepted the Pope is made the Supreme upon Earth and he can be no Christian who does not believe him to be so by which determination this is made a Heresie of the blackest Dye and subjects all persons who are guilty of it to all the Censures of the Church Excommunication Interdiction and all their dreadful consequents both here and hereafter NOR will it be of avail to endeavour to cover the dangerous fraud of the general words which are of such ambiguous latitude by pretending to restrain them and the Papal Power only to Temporals in ordine ad Spiritualia Since all Humane Actions being either Vertuous or Vicious in some degrees more or less must be brought within the Verge of the Spiritual Supreme Power and Jurisdiction And which must therefore finally vest the Papacy with a most absolute unlimited Sovereignty
and for Laws you have heard their sence already Of the strength of Alliances Nor can the Royal Masters of the Universe expect more security from the strictest Alliances and strongest Confederations which knots cannot be so closely drawn but the Papal breath can effect that which the great Alexander was obliged to do with his conquering Sword Hear the Determination of Pope Urban the Sixth sent to Charles the Emperor Bull. Vrb 6. Ann. Pontif. â— and Wenceslaus King of Bohemia before the Council of Constance in which he declares That all Contracts Confederations Leagues and Alliances made with Hereticks who are separated from the Unity of the Holy Church or who shall afterwards come to be so are by the Divine Law Rash Unlawful Null and Void even though they be confirmed by giving the most solemn Faith and strengthened by Apostolical confirmation What Prince can now be secure in any of his Leagues or Alliances unless he will tamely take the Roman Yoke of Supremacy which to refuse is Heresie and that debars of any advantage of solemn Faith Leagues and Apostolically confirmed confederations if these be Tow Flax and green Wit hs what Bonds will avail against the Roman Sampson sure nothing but cutting off the winding Curles of this overgrown Supremacy Of the Fidelity of the People NOR shall the Sovereign Princes of the Earth find any Refuge by retreating to the Fidelity and Allegiance of their people founded upon the principles of Conscience For if this be taken for a Rule of Conscience which by being an Article of Faith it must necessarily be That the Papal Authority is Superior to the Imperial all men are bound to obey the Supreme power before the Inferior And so soon as a King for disobedience or any other Crime is declared Excommunicate his subjects are obliged not only to a non-obedience but to disobedience so that Rebellion and Treason are not only established by a Law but cease to be Crimes and become necessary Duties This gave the Original to all those Conspiracies and Treasons against Qu. Elizabeth and her miraculous Successor King James Viz. The Excommunicatory Bull of Pius the Fifth afterwards revived by Gregory the Thirteenth If we dare believe Hieronymus Gatena who writ the Life of the said Pope which was by licence from Sixtus Quintus then Pope printed at Rome Anno 1588. So that if kind Heaven as hitherto it has constantly done did not appear the solicitous Defender and Revenger of injured and oppressed Innocence and more particularly the Refuge and Protection of sacred Sovereignty which wearing its immediate character has rarely been exposed to contempt or been manifestly affronted without remarkable vengeance and were there not more Fidelity to be expected and found in the Generosity of Humane Nature than in this Religion all Kings would by this new Roman Faith be stript not only of all their Royal Robes their Divine Right and Title but left naked and exposed despoiled of all Humane helps and assistances to assure their Scepters in their hands or to recover them should they be lost NEITHER is it possible that they should be upon much better terms for their Succession and Posterity He who cannot assure himself of his own security and establishment is in little probability to do it for another though his Son and by right immediate lawful Successor You shall hear Bellarmine's opinion and judge whether I put an abusive construction upon their Faith If to this The Roman Church for Elective Kings Bell. de Rom. Pont. l. 1. cap. 3. says he were added that neither the chief King nor those inferior Princes should enjoy these as Hereditary Dignities but that the best Men should by the choice of the People be promoted to them it would be the best and in this mortal life most to be desired Government in the World Undoubtedly to the Roman Court to whose absolute will this pretended popular Right of Elections would presently devolve but a material Quaere whether to any other But adds he It would certainly be most agreeable to all Mankind I beg of his Eminence to except Sovereign and Successive Princes out of the number of the All for it would not be very agreeable to them who are the most considerable though not the Most because all love that sort of Government best of which they may hope to have a share such as without doubt this proposed by us is where Power shall be annexed to Vertue and not Descent The Cardinal might at least in his Levelling proposal have spared this last reflection upon those Illustrious persons as if generally they wanted that vertue which should be the ornament to a Crown THERE are several other most Impolitick inconveniencies which of necessity do attend the admission of the Roman Religion and are directly against the Interest of Princes as first that Hereby the Pope maintains a constant Intelligence and exact Correspondency with his Votaries of the Religious Orders who own a dependence only upon him for the Generals of every Order being usually resident at Rome receive a constant account from those of their Order who are Confessors to Kings Queens and great Ministers of State of all the affairs of those Courts where they are permitted the greatest freedoms which if it be of moment is immediately communicated to the Pope or Cardinal Patron SECONDLY He has a Spiritual Militia in constant pay of the Jesuites Dominicans Franciscans and other Orders who do not only strangely influence the people but are able of themselves to compose a formidable power if another Julius or Boniface the Eighth Plat. in vita Bon. 8. should as Platina writes of him repeat the design of striking a terror into Kings Princes Emperors Nations and People IN the last place Hereby a vast and immense Treasure is Yearly drawn out of any Kingdom whilest men purchase from Rome Heaven and Earth by Pardons Indulgences Templa Saccrdotes Altaria Sacra Coronae Ignes Thura preces Coelum est venale Deusque Mantuan Calam lib. 3. Dispensations Investitures Palls Suits Appeals c. So that a Martial Pope has all the furniture of War Men Mony and Intelligence provided at the cost of the Prince and his People to keep them under or reduce them to Obedience if they venture to affront his absolute Power and Supremacy HAVING thus seen what treatment Sovereigns must expect from the Papal Supremacy Papal Supremacy destructive of the Peoples Liberty and Property it is easie to conjecture what must become of the Subjects and that Power which pretends to Excommunicate and Depose Princes and dispose of their Crowns must make no difficulty to be most Arbitrary in the disposal of all private fortunes and if it be Heretical to think that our Lord God the Pope has not Power to Enact what he does Extra Jo. 22. Sect. cum inter nonnullos Gloss ibid. Sect. declar as the Extravagant properly so called and the Gloss there tells us the Power of the
frequently to do But he proceeds I do freely confess Idem ibid. that as I think no kind of Government more happy than this where Liberty observe that dangerous word which has cost England so many Millions of Treasure and such Rivers of Blood accompanied with Moderation is established for duration So I think that People most happy who enjoy that condition of Life and Government Do you think so good Mr. John I wish you had thought twice on 't for the Proverbs sake that second thoughts are best before you had as an Institution Printed this fatal principle of Liberty of Conscience and Moderation as you call it or rather it is to be wish'd you had never thought such a pernicious Position I am sure though after all your musing your thought was not worth a penny we have paid dearly for your thinking this Liberty for us and wanted but little of falling by it into the greatest slavery that can be thought of called Presbyterian Liberty and Government in Church and State and by their restless indeavours one may be confident that some of your party and perswasion will want of their wills but they will both think us and act us into the same or a worse condition again if God be not the more propitious to us and it is but little comfort for us to think after all the mischiefs we have and may suffer for this thought that the Disciples of this great Master will repay us with a second thought as bad as the first and the Character of Fools a Non putaram we did not think it would have come to this or who would ever have thought it BUT he goes on to push them vigorously forward in the enterprize and his following words are able to give encouragement to the most languishing Presbyterian and to revive the fainting good Old Cause with a dram of the Bottle of his Aqua Mirabilis otherwise called by the Sons of Hermes Aqua Stygia Stygian Water or Aqua Fortis which will eat the Gates of Brass and the Iron Bars of Monarchy in pieces Idem ibid. For says he if People do most stoutly and constantly indeavour to preserve and keep this Liberty I will grant that they do no more than they ought to do Certainly the Devil of Delphos never gave a plainer Oracle to inspire all People with Rebellion against Princes and to throw off the Government of Monarchy and that ambiguous Sentence directed to Sir John Maltravers and Sir Thomas Gurney concerning King Edward the Second did not more assure them what they were to do with him being interpreted as all such doubtful speeches are according to the desire and interest of the Faction Edvardum nolite occidere timere bonum est To shed your Sovereign Edwards blood Be sure you do not fear is good This double-barrel'd pocket Pistol did not more certainly hit King Edwards Life than these words of Calvin interpreted by the Presbyterian Faction did contribute to the late horrid Rebellion ruine of the Church to introduce this Liberty and Moderation Extirpation of Monarchy Murder of Sacred Majesty in Person in Fame and in Effigie which last I saw with my Eyes in the Old Exchange where the Statue of the Martyr being pull'd down triumphant Treason was in golden Characters exalted and written in these words Exit Tyrannus Regum ultimus Anno Libertatis Angliae primo Such a profanation of the Image of the Deity as all Kings are as it seems nothing but those dreadful flames which since laid it in ashes could purge and expiate and as the conclusion of all from hence sprung the model of the Republick The Custodes Libertatis Angliae The Keepers of the Liberties of England as in all their publick Instruments they falsely stil'd themselves AND that this was the natural and easie consequence or to speak in their Cant the Use of Exhortation and Encouragement is plain for it is lawful for all men to seek after Liberty especially of Conscience The People of these Nations are a freeborn People It is the greatest felicity and they the most happy People who may enjoy this Dear Liberty all men are bound to promote their own Happiness they cannot do too much to preserve it and if they do indeavour most stoutly and constantly to maintain it by War and Rebellion they do no more than their duty does command them The King was a Tyrant and under the notion of Prerogative did daily intrench upon the Peoples Priviledge and Liberty he had a design to enslave them The Commons were oppressed both in their Civil and Religious Rights The Parliament were the Peoples Representatives and from them had a power to defend their Liberties and that stoutly with Sword and Pistol Powder and Bullet and to call the King to an account and to judge him for these miscarriages as from Calvins own words I shall presently show The King had rendred himself unworthy to reign as from his words and Knoxes another of their fiery Doctors I shall shew Therefore they might in defence and for the preservation of their Dear Liberties especially Liberty of Conscience and Moderation and the Rights of the People make War against him for Preces Lachrymae the Prayers and Tears those ancient Arms of the Catholick Church are of no request or force with the Church of Geneva they might by the incouragement and prevalency of their prosperous villanies alter the establisht form of Government Civil and Ecclesiastical depose the King take away his Crown and Life banish his Successor and the whole Royal Family which was a favour some of them never intended for I have heard it confidently reported that it was hotly urged by some of those Barbarous Villains to put his Royal Highness the Duke of York Apprentice to some mean Mechanick Trade thereby to bring the utmost contempt and debasement upon that Illustrious Family and Person and in short this taught them to support the mischiefs they had done by doing greater and having murder'd the Possessor to seize upon his Inheritance JUDGE now O Heaven and Earth Ye Princes and all People how consistent this Doctrine is with the safety and security nay the very being of Monarchy and particularly with that of the English Nation A second Principle of Presbytury That Kings have no Divine Right but only from the Peoples Election or the Constitutions and Laws of the Nation A second Principle of Presbytery is That Kings have no divine Right to their Crowns but that the Peoples Election is the only true Title to them or which is as bad that only the Laws and Constitutions of the Nation give them their Right John Knox the Disciple of Calvin who like a Fireship of Rebellion set all Scotland into Combustions and treated Kings and Queens at that Imperious rate as if they had been his Subjects the first Founder of the Kirk Militant in a literal sense seems to have borrowed this from that Pest of Writers Buchanan or else
to have lent it him for the Monster lies betwixt them and I shall not pretend to determine the challenge who is the true Parent Knox says It is not birthright nor propinquity of blood that makes a King lawfully to Reign Knox to England and Scotland p. 77. Buch. de jure Reg. p. 13. p. 61. and Buchanan boldly Populo jus est ut imperium cui velit deferat The Right of bestowing Crowns is in the People who he tells us are greater and better than their Sovereign and upon this Postulatum with a true Scotch Presbyterian confidence Knox proceeds to a treasonable determination Knox Hist. of Res of Scotl. cap. 5. p. 77. If the people quoth he have either rashly promoted any manifestly wicked Person or else ignorantly chosen such a one as afterwards declareth himself unworthy of Regiment above the People of God and such saith he be all Idolaters and cruel Persecutors most justly may the same men depose him and punish him Have a little Patience to see this put in mood and figure and you will find the true Elenchus motuum nuperorum in Anglia without consulting Doctor Bates and the old Chain to draw up new Flames of Rebellion out of the Mon Gibell of Presbytery or rather out of the bottomless Abyss of Fire and Brimstone where the Prince of Rebels keeps his Flaming Court. The Presbyterians are the only Saints and People of God The Worship and Government of the Church of England is Antichristian and Idolatrous The King joins in Communion with that Church and persecutes the People and Saints of God Idolaters and Persecutors are unworthy of Regiment and may most justly be deposed and punished by the People from whose Election they claim their Title Ergo shall I need to make the Conclusion I need not they have done it themselves by their practice to the shame of not only the Reformation but even Christianity it self and indeed the Conclusion is so impious and horrible that I dare not write so much abominable Treason as it will amount to though with the perfectest horror and detestation of it and a design to expose it to the publick Odium of the whole Earth NOR is the other Position less dangerous or destructive of Monarchy which places their Right and Title upon the human foundation of Laws and the Constitutions of any Government as the Author of a Printed Speech not long since published does wherein he asserts That he is obliged to this Race of Kings only by virtue of the Laws of the Land and no longer than they Govern by those Laws which is so great and fundamental an error in Politiques as draws after it innumerable and intolerable mischiefs in the consequences and practice For it is not the Law that makes the King which if it did might unmake him but it is the King that makes the Law and though both for his own and the publick interest which are inseparable he ought to act according to those Laws which do the more powerfully oblige him by being his voluntary establishments and the effects of his Will yet was he a King in his Ancestors before they were Laws and would be so if they were not at all or if they were changed by consent for others For Monarchy and Government derive their title and Pedigree from an Original much before the Age of the most ancient Laws even from him by whom Kings Reign the Eternal Monarch of the World AND whereas the Penman of the foresaid Speech indeavours to confirm his Opinion by a smart reflection upon the English Episcopal Clergy as being the first broachers of this Doctrine of the Divine Right of Princes telling us he does not find that the Romish Doctors own it he is possibly better read in Law than in Divinity otherways he might easily have satisfied himself of the reason why the late Romish Writers do disown it which is because they would vest the Papal jurisdiction with the sole Monopoly of a Divine Right that so all Princes may be obliged to borrow their confirmation from the fullness of the Churches Treasury for to affirm that any Prince reigns by Divine Right absolutely ruins their great Design since being proved it vacates the pretensions of the Papal Authority over him it being as absurd to pretend a Supremacy over him who is next to God as it would be superfluous for a King who is so to expect a better Title from any mortal man how great soever than he has from the Great Charter and Grant of Heaven NOR ought this to be fixed upon the English Clergy as an odious badge of servile officious or designing Flattery since had they been so Principl'd it lays so firm a foundation for Government obedience the peace and happiness of the world it would have been so far from being infamous or dishonourable that they would have deserved golden Statues and the eternal gratitude and commemoration of all mankind but the honour is too great for them and they are too modest to arrogate such a happy invention to themselves It is to God himself and Christ the Eternal Son of the blessed and to his holy Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul that this honour is justly due who being inspired by the Holy Spirit of God give this Divine Right to Kings and Government commanding Universal Obedience to them because they are ordained of God What was Canonical Scripture to the Primitive Ages must be so to us and if Kings had then a Divine Right they have so still and whoever will deny this Doctrine must undertake to prove that those Apostolical Commands and Assertions were only temporary directions for Obedience and must shew us when and where they were by Gods command repealed or superseded for no Law can be abrogated but by the same or a greater Power than that which did establish it and till this be done This positive divine right of all lawful Powers will remain a firm unshaken and immoveable foundation for the Crowns of Princes THEY must certainly be the Enemies of Crowns who would set them upon the heads of Monarchs by the tottering right of human Laws and pleasure and from hence we may conjecture at the Geneva kindness for this is the Universal Judgment of all true Presbyterians and the misfortune of it is that they who are only so as to some other Doctrines but may abhor both this and the practice of it yet do this mischief by their separation from us and Union with that Party that by their numbers they swell the Tide and when it has once broke the Banks of Loyalty and Obedience then for their own security they must be obliged either to swim down the impetuous inundation of Rebellion or else resolve by opposing it when it is too late to be drowned in those turbulent Waâ—â—â—â— which they helpt to raise as some of them to their cost in the late Times found to be true by dear experience who indeavouring to make a tack towards
of Contention Caesar aut nullus is the word and therefore in order to the necessary security of Rebels or such who intend to be so who can never apprehend themselves safe so long as their Prince retains a power to punish them therefore they hold That if Kings be found guilty of Miscarriages they may by the people be deposed from the Government and deprived of their Crowns This is the Doctrine of John Knox which he brought from the Divinity Schools of Geneva Knox Hist of Refor or Scotl. p. 392 393. That Subjects may not only lawfully oppose themselves against their Kings whensoever they do any thing that expresly oppugns Gods Commandment but also that they may execute judgment upon them according to Gods Law so that if the King be a Murtherer Adulterer or Idolater he shall suffer according to Gods Law not as a King but as an offender Excellent Scottish Presbyterian Divinity borrowed from the Cobler of Collen of whom I have somewhere read who taught his fellow Mutineers so neatly to distinguish betwixt the Prince Elector and the Archbishop Great pity it was that this Perillus of Presbytery did not try the first experiment of his nice distinction in his own fiery brazen Bull which he invented for Monarchy and in reality all Government which is not agreeable to their humour and design Nec Lex est justior ulla Quam Necis Artifices arte perire suâ Rebellious Artists ought to try Their own Art first and by it die And if John Knox had been hang'd drawn and quarter'd for Treason not as Godly and zealous John Knox but as a most desperate Incendiary and impudent Traytor possibly the succeeding Rebels would have thought the difference betwixt the King and the Person so little as not to have granted Commissions to destroy the one whilst they pretended to honour and obey the other and it may be they would have considered that it might one day come to be their own Case to suffer as Traytors and notorious Malefactors though not as Men which measure since they could never have approved for themselves possibly they might have judged unfit for their Royal Master The former Principles bring the King to be a fellow Subject a Royal Slave in golden Shackles and submits him to the supreme popular Authority this leads him to the High Court of Justice and from thence conducts him to the Scaffold and the fatal Block NOR will worthy Mr. Calvin which title I will give him though it be plain Peter and Paul in his and his Disciples mouths who it seems reserve the Saintship only to themselves he I say will not want an Oar in the Boat of a Rebellion or a hand in establishing a Principle of High Treason against Sovereign Princes Let us hear him Comment upon the Text. Cal. in Dan. 6.22.25 Earthly Princes saith he * Abdicant se devest themselves of all right to power when they rebel against God and are unworthy to be accounted in the number of Men that is in plain English they do not deserve to live and men ought rather to spit in their faces than to obey them when they become so * Vhi sit protoralant saucily proud or froward as to indeavour to despoil God of his Right And. I wonder what he did deserve who was so saucy as to indeavour to spoil Princes of theirs and God too who is their only Judge and Superior and not Mr. Calvin or his People Let us once more reduce this Calvinistical Logick into Syllogisms and you shall plainly see the Presbyterian Conclusion THAT King who is an Idolater or a Persecutor is a Rebel against God and has disrob'd himself of all Right to Reign or Live according to Gods Law he is to be punished not as a King but as a Man in which number too he scarcely deserves to be accounted BUT the King of is an Idolater and Persecutor of Gods people the Saints of Presbytery Ergo. THE major or first proposition you see is their positive Doctrine and own words the minor is thus proved by them KNEELING at the Sacrament and bowing at the name of Jesus is Idolatry and punishing the Godly is Persecution BUT the King of kneels and punishes Ergo. AND though both the branches of the first proposition concerning Idolatry and persecution be false yet being decreed in the infallible Consistory all the arguments and demonstrations in the World are in vain to perswade them to the contrary And therefore from this abominable Divinity and new State Logick of Presbytery they draw the dismal Conclusions That Kings may be Excommunicated by the Presbyters for those Imaginary Crimes and may by the people be deposed as whoever will consult Knox Buch. de Jure Reg. p. 58.62.70 Knox Hist Ref. p. 372. Goodman in his Book of obedience or rather Treason passim praecipue p. 180 184 185. Buchanan Goodman c. may sufficiently be convinced and that they esteem their deposition not only lawful but their publick Murders or private Assasination and though a * Dr. Bilson Warden of Winchester p. 509. learned man of the Church of England indeavours to excuse this Doctrine and mitigate these harsh words of Mr. Calvin it was before he saw the Conclusion nor did he apprehend it would ever be drawn into practice and his Plea for Calvin is rather to be attributed to his great aversion to the Papacy which mistake still prevails with too many who by bending themselves too far from the one extream of Popery which they hate break into Presbytery as the most opposite Interest whose malicious Calumniations make all people Papists who are not Schismaticks though all the advantage such deceived Zealots purchase by running away from the Church of England under that abusive notion of Popish and Antichristian which her Enemies brand her withal is that Incidit in Scyllam dum vult vitare Charybdim Whilst swift Charybdis they avoid They into fatal Scylla slide And had the worthy Gentleman and many others who are imposed upon by the same stratagem either seen or foreseen the tragical consequences of this Doctrine I perswade my self he had too much Loyalty to become its Advocate and the other have too much honesty and love for Monarchy to advance the interest of Presbytery which is as mortal an Enemy to it as the Papacy King Charles the First who was thus like our Saviour rudely affronted by the barbarous Red-Coats WHEN the Son of God came to be spit upon he was very near his Crucifixion and a dreadful example has taught us that when a glorious Monarch felt the fatal effects of this rude and barbarous Divinity and in Westminster-Hall received the same insolent treatment from the impious Souldiers he was at no great distance from his Martyrdom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Medit. upon death after the Vote of Non-addresses for if as he makes it his observation if there be but few steps betwixt the Prisons of Princes and
delivered from by a Miracle makes even that appear small in comparison of our being again deluded by those Persons whose hands were washt in Rebellion and Murder instead of Innocence whose tongues are tipt with lies calumnies and blasphemy and whose Garments over which they throw the Prophets Mantle to keep them from discovery yet wear the indelible stains of that humane blood in which they were rolled of so many thousands of Illustrious and Innocent Lives as in that Unnatural War whereof they were the Occasions Maintainers and Defenders fell as Sacrifices to their fury and their Sovereigns Right and Countries Liberty I shall not attempt a solemn confutation of these Positions judging them far more fit for the conviction of the Law than of the Gospel to both which they are directly contrary as also in regard it has been so often done by others of greater abilities and better oppertunities However that Kings Reign by a Divine Right and if they do then all these Positions are Treason Rebellion and Usurpation not only against them but God I refer these Haters of Monarchy and Plagues of Mankind the implacable Enemies of our Peace and Happiness to that place in Daniel Dan. 4.25 to which if they do not assent they are Insidels and no Christians and deserve the strange doom of Nebuchadnezzar to be driven from amongst Men and to have their dwelling amongst the Beasts of the Field to eat grass as Oxen and to be wet with the dew of Heaven till they know and acknowledge that the most highest ruleth in the Kingdom of Men and giveth it to whomsoever he pleaseth From which place it is as clear as the brightest Day That the sole Sovereignty and disposal of Crowns is immediately in the hands of the most high God and that they who have them hold them of his Gift and if that be not a Divine Right there is no such thing in Nature and if they have a Divine Right no People or Parliament or Earthly Power can pretend by calling them to an account deposing or punishing them to rob Kings of this Title and Authority which they hold by the immediate Grant of Heaven but at the same time they invade the Prerogative of the most High Ruler of Heaven and Earth and rob him of his incommunicable Right in the disposal of Crowns I cannot believe them so ignorant but that they know what must be the end of such an audacious Sacriledge If they admit Kings to have a Divine Right which they must either do or deny this to be Scripture they cannot pretend to any Power to take it from them for nothing can invalidate any Grant but the same or a greater Power than that which gave it and therefore if Kings offend though Subjects may in all humility Remonstrate and Petition for Redress yet are they by the Laws of Religion utterly prohibited to make use of force or violence either to obtain their desires or satisfie their Revenge for as our learned Bracton religiously observes Deum expectat Vltorem And if God Almighty reserves vengeance as his peculiar Prerogative and will not permit us to execute it upon private men Dearly Beloved avenge not your selves for vengeance is mine saith the Lord and I will repay it how can any person in reason think that private Men and Subjects should have a power to execute it upon Princes who bear his immediate Characters and are his Vice-gerents and as he himself stiles them Earthly Gods Or if they dare attempt to do it 1 Sam. 26.9 Or if they dare attempt to do it Who can lift up his hand against the Lords Anointed and be guiltless Undoubtedly whoever does it is guilty not only of Treason against the King but of Rebellion against God and whoever is so audacious to draw his Sword against his Sovereign does so far as he is able indeavour to wrest the dreadful Sword of the Lord out of the hand of Omnipotence to carve out vengeance for himself and I dare boldly say that whoever takes that Sword against his Will shall perish by the Sword for this is an Honour which he will not part with Hear him speak himself and he who will not believe God when he speaks is not to be believed to have any Religion which is properly the fear of God whatever he may pretend Deut. 22.34.35.40.41.42 Is not this saith the Almighty laid up in store with me and sealed up amongst my Treasures To me belongeth vengeance and recompence for I lift up my hand to Heaven and say I live for ever if I whet my glittering Sword and my hand take hold of Judgment I will render vengeance to my Enemies And what greater Enemies to God than such persons as indeavour to rob him of that which he has not only laid up but sealed amongst his Treasures And they who are so audacious as to attempt this Sacrilegious Felony against Heaven to break up his treasury whatever they may say of themselves cannot be supposed to fear either God or the Devil and certainly all Mankind have a great deal of reason to fear and indeavour to suppress men of such daring confidence and mischievous Principles CHAP. IX Presbytery in reality as great an Enemy to Democracy and Parliaments as to Monarchy A short view of their Tyrannique Consistorian Government over the Magistracy Clergy and Laity Of the latitude and power of scandal to draw all affairs into the Consistory Of their kindness to their Enemies The small difference betwixt a Jesuit and Geneva Presbyter Both aim at Supremacy THUS have we seen that Presbyterian Supremacy is by its avowed Principles not only inconsistent with but destructive of Monarchy Let us examine it a little more severely and we shall find that it is absolutely inconsistent with all Government except it s own oligarchique Spiritual Tyranny and even that adored Democracy Presbytery in reality as great an Enemy to Democracy and Parliaments as to Monarchy which it pretends to hug and embrace with so much tenderness and affection and the kindness which it seems to have espoused to a Parliament which has so unfortunately decoy'd some people into that party is nothing else but a politick flattery and temporizing godly fraud the real design is to dash a Parliament against a King to break them both in pieces and like the Ape in the story to make a Cats foot of a House of Commons to pull the Nut out of the Hot Ashes of Rebellion into which they shall have reduced the Monarchy for when once by that assistance they shall have procured their own establishment they will render it as absolute a Slave as they would do Monarchy For according to the Model of their Consistorian Government the supreme and ultimate underivative Authority is resient in the High and Mighty Sanhendrim or annual Assembly of Presbyters and Elders to whose definitive sentence a Parliament must be subordinate the Authority of that being from Christ the Power of the Parliament
a Saint that is a puling favourite and flatterer of the Presbytery and he is minded Religiously to do himself a kindness call'd cheating you though you produce Deeds Evidences or Speacialties all 's one if he does but whine out the suspicion of a scandal of Forgery and appeal from the rigor of the Law to the Court of Conscience the Equity of the Consistory by their Decree you shall lose not only your money but your Credit too If a Merchant trade to the Papal Dominions and in a time of Famine furnish them with Corn he may chance to suffer Shipwrack at home for feeding and maintaining Gods Enemies abroad and it will never be forgotten what a horrible Sin the transporting of Wax from Scotland to the Spanish Territories was adjudged because it was employed to Idolatry and making Tapers to the Altars of the Saints SEE now the kindness of this Government here 's a new way to pay old Debts out of the bank of Scandal A free trade open'd to inrich the People of the Nation by forcing them to keep the glut and surplusage of their Native Commodities at home for fear of Scandal And indeed there is no Law Sanction Action or Profession Civil or Political that may not easily be brought to be cognizable before them under the notion of Scandal Nor will there be any Right or Justice but according to the partiality of their belief of the Integrity of the Parties that is if they be men of their Interest the affair shall be managed in favour of them in despight of Law Justice Right or Equity AND now my neighbours of the Laity what think you of Monarchy and the good old Common and Statute Law and Episcopacy is not this Scandal the servant of the Consistory a more dangerous and troublesome Fellow than an Apparitor or a Pettyfogger I leave it to your Consideration and Judgment Of their kindness to their Enemies IF this be the Entertainment of their Friends what may we expect will become of their Enemies and such are all those who either oppose them or dissent from them whether of the Laity or Clergy Papists or Episcopal Protestants Sectaries or Dissenters I need not be tedious they are to expect as much favour at their hands as the Enemies of God and Religion can hope for and that is punishment in all its terrible dresses shapes and degrees as far as Banishment loss of Estate Liberty Fame Reputation and Life will go and further if they have any Power of the Keys they are sure to be given up to the Devil and shut out from their Kingdom in Heaven I wish that all our Dissenters would consider this and reunite with the Church of England where they may expect pity and compassion for their Errors and a right information of their Understandings in those mistakes about the Circumstantials and Ceremonies which are the principal occasions of our differences and their separation certainly whilest they raise the Interest of the Presbyters by swelling their Party and agree with them in opposing the Church they act directly against their own which is to unite with the Episcopal Party against the Consistorian the common Enemy both of Conformist and Non-Conformist and which should it prevail would shew equal kindness to the one as to the other and though they now cry out against Persecution and Compulsion it is only for their own sakes and had they the supreme Power at which they aim and which the other dissenters though beyond their intention whilest they oppose Monarchy and Episcopacy assist them in they would not fail to execute the rigors and severities of all Penalties upon all such as should dissent from them and their Opinions Doctrines Faith Discipline and Practice FROM all which considerations it is most clear and evident as well as from their practice at Geneva and in Scotland from the Authentick Records of their proceedings The small difference betwixt a Jesuit and a Presbyter of Geneva both aiming at Supremacy in which place all and much more than I have said may be justified That Presbytery aims secretly at Supremacy and that there being no great difference between those of the foundation of Loyola and Geneva but that the latter have by their horrible Actions brought that Infamy upon the Protestant Cause and Reformation which the other had in vain attempted they are both inconsistent with Monarchy and indeed all Government over which they pretend a Power and Jurisdiction from Christ the one for the Pope and the other for the Presbytery from which there lies no appeal and the Genevian Faction who pretend to detest and abhor Rome for her Tyranny do even out-do her at least in pretensions to absolute Temporal Sovereignty and Dominion over all Persons Cases Actions and things which must submit to the Scepter of Christ which they tell us is their Holy Discipline CHAP. X. Presbytery as destructive of the Peoples Liberty and Property as it is dangerous to Monarchy and all Government Some necessary Conclusions from the former discourse FROM the Premises of this excellent frame of Spiritual Government of Presbytery it is easy to conclude That this Doctrine is every whit as dangerous and destructive of Property as Prerogative of Liberty in the People as Authority in the Prince or Government For if it be a good and sound way of Reasoning that the Power which can do the greater can certainly do the less then they who can for any crimes against the Law of God of which they are the only Judges and Interpreters take away the Crown and Life of a Prince the Power and being of a Parliament may undoubtedly for any scandals or offences against themselves and their Divine Authority take away the Life Liberty and Property of any private Man and it is easily remembred and ought never to forgotten how all those were treated in the Late Times who were either declared supposed or suspected to be Enemies to the State as they called that Eaction of a Parliament which was imbarqued in their Holy League and Covenant and though their Friends scap't with their lives their Estates paid many Millions Ransome for those and their pretended Liberty It is true some particular persons were strangely advanced both in Power and Riches so are some Pirates and Highway-Men by rich prizes and good Booties but it is all out of the publick stock of the Nation which was just so much Poorer as they were Richer Nor had the principal of the Faction any other design then or have they any other now but their own private revenge or advantage Discontent and Ambition are constantly at the bottom of Faction and Innovation and Oppression always at the top For though these men pretend to be the great Patrons of the Peoples Liberty and Defenders of Religion they have no real value for the one or the other further than to serve their own designs which is only to wheedle the credulous Populace into their Party and when by the
their Loyalty and Allegiance to their King and Obedience to the Laws and Government whenas in truth no People in the World in humane probability are at a greater distance from those imaginary dangers than we unless by believing these men and their Principles we precipitate our selves headlong into them nor is there any thing wanting to render us compleatly happy and secure at home and abroad besides Unity amongst ourselves and Loyalty towards our Prince of both which it is the main design of these Enemies of our Peace Prosperity and Happiness at once to rob us and whoever will take the pains to consider the rise growth and continuance of this Doctrine of Calvinism will find it a meer Salamander of Religion bred in the Flames of Rebellion nourisht with the fire of mistaken Zeal at best and that it constantly delights to dwell in the blaze of Contention The peace and settlement of the Nation are its utter Enemies and opposites and no wonder then if the Patrons of it are the Enemies of our Peace and as a Pope once said to Charles Brother to the French King concerning Conradine King of Naples and Sicily which gave him his Death The Life of Conradine is the Death of Charles Vrsper p. 11. and the Death of Conradine is the Life of Charles so may we truly say The Peace and Unity of our Monarchy is the Death and Ruine of Presbytery and the Death of Presbytery is the Life of Monarchy which is the true reason why they struggle for their Life to keep up discords differences and animosities and it may be are all of the sudden become so Zealous for a Foreign War the discovery of their Plot having put them out of hopes of one at home So long as the Government is but busie and the Crown necessitous they do not only think themselves secure but are in hopes that the expences or unforeseen accidents of War may at last occasion differences at home upon which ill humors of the body Politick like Plagues and Gangrenes they always feed and increase and hope in the end to prove fatal to it for they know by experience that Corruptio Vnius est Generatio Alterius A dead Monarchy fly-blown by Presbytery breeds the short-liv'd Maggots of a putrified Common-wealth But these things have been so well taken notice of and their whole Intrigue discovered by the charitable hand of the Author of the two Pacquets of Advices c. that a clearer exposing of them is altogether needless IT is the wishes prayers and hopes of the best subjects of these Nations that the dangerous noise and clamours which they make themselves will oblige Authority to take notice of them and their mischievous intentions and that this very Parliament which they fear and therefore hate with all their Hearts as is plain by their Ringing so loud its passing Bell and perswading the World it is Dead that their Cruelty may be satisfied with the Revenge of burying it alive will take notice of such an affront to a King and his Parliament as no Age can parallel nor any persons be guilty of but Presbyterians and offer some expedients according to their Wisdom and Prudence to ease the Loyal and faithful Subjects amongst which they challenge the first rank themselves of those just fears and jealousies and those uneasinesses which afflict them by reason of the growth increase and confidence of these implacable malicious sanguinary and restless Antimonarchical and Anti-Parliamentary spirited People and their Principles TO conclude From the former Discourse these necessary consequences follow Some necessary consequences from the former Discourse First That no person whatsoever let him pretend never so much Religion Sanctity or Innocence can possibly be a good Subject so long as he continues a true Presbyterian or of their off-spring in regard they always carry about with them as the main of their Religion such Principles as are directly contrary to Monarchy and destructive of Loyalty to which he can never be a firm true and assured Friend who owns a Power Superior to that of his Prince within his Dominions and that such a Power may of right depose him and take away his Crown and Life which has been proved to be the avowed Doctrine of the Consistorians of Geneva Scotland and England both in Print and Practice Secondly That no Monarch can be safe or his best Subjects at ease and secure so long as this faction is either owned tolerated permitted or favoured publickly or privately within his Dominions especially the Ring-leaders of the Party which guilded Snakes can no sooner be warm in the Bosom of Indulgence but they begin to hiss and sting and are constantly either the Whisperers or Trumpeters of Sedition and Rebellion the very practice of what they call their Religion in prohibited Conventicles and Assemblies being but the younger Brothers of Tumults and Insurrections and Rebellion against the King and Government both Civil and Ecclesiastical in a demure dress and garb of Innocence which is so far from making it better than that in the Field with Drums and Colours that it renders it worse because more dangerous and apt to deceive many people being willing to become Volunteers to the Pulpit as Hudibras calls it The drum Ecclesiastick When beat with fist instead of a stick Hudibr Cant. 1. Who would not list themselves into open and barefac't Rebellion till from thence they hear the dreadful thunder of a Curse ye Meroz or The Sword of the Lord and of Gideon AND let them not call this necessary Caution for the publick and all honest mens preservation the effect of a persecuting Spirit since though they may charge the Government with Cruelty it is they who are cruel to themselves and the whole Community by being evil doers busie bodies seditious trayterous heady high minded opposers of Government disturbers of Order Enemies to our Peace Unity and Happiness and to the very Fundamental Laws Establishments Constitution and whole Frame of the National Government both in Church and State I appeal to all the Records of time both our own and of other Nations which will witness That whoever did act thus contrary to the publick Interest have in all Ages in all Places by all Laws and Persons in Authority been esteemed justly and deservedly punished as being the common mischiefs of nature directly opposite to the security and happiness of all mankind in general not excepting themselves out of the number whose restless uneasie discontented humor certainly renders them the most unfortunate of all humane race because ever most unquiet and unpleased being indeed utterly uncapable of satisfaction the concessions and condescensions of Authority to day emboldening them to demand greater tomorrow and Indulgence being so far from making them grateful that it gives them the pain to invent new Requests their desires being therefore boundless and unlimited because they neither know positively what they would have nor are able to determine what it is
that will satisfie them I appeal to their own practice when in Power That this is a great necessary and Universal Truth That Lawful Government is not to be disobeyed in Lawful Commands but that therefore the Violators of Laws especially the Principal ought for example and in terrorem to feel the force and penalties of those Laws they break since to be merciful to those few were to be cruel to the whole Body of the Society and to ruine the very Foundation of all Government For what was it that brought so many Noble Heads to the infamous Scaffold and some Ilustrious Lives to most ignominious Deaths was it not for transgressing their Ordinances opposing their Way Government and Usurpations in defence of the Ancient Establisht Fundamental Laws Priviledges Rights and Liberties both of the Prince and People What was Justice Prudence and of necessity to be done by them for the safety and support of their ill-gotten Dominion must much more be so now unless they can convince us that their Power was Lawful but the present is not which how good soever their will may be and though it appears to be what they believe and aim at yet they will never be able to prove by Law Reason or Religion and I hope they will never be in the Capacity to demonstrate it a second time by force and violence the rude and compulsive Logick of the Sword or Cannon Law Lastly it follows That this generation of Men the Presbyters with their Confederates are never to be trusted but upon the Demonstration of their sincere Repentance and Conversion attested by their Actions in regard that whosoever owns a Power Superior to his Prince does at the same time find an easie refuge and evasion against all the verbal Assurances he can give or that can be taken of him that he will be a good Subject For no person can oblige himself to an inferiour Power against the Right of a Superior for if a Country Justice of the Peace a Judge of Assise a Deputy or a Vice-Roy should exact any subscriptions or promises of fidelity from any Persons or by threatnings and severities compel them to give such to the prejudice of the King his Lawful Superior in Power there is no Person but knows that the one having no lawful Authority to require it nor the other to consent to give away the Right of his Prince over him all such Actions Promises c. must therefore be as null and void as if I should promise to give the City of London to the King of Spain THIS is the plain Case The King as with good reason for his own security and the safety of the publick he may expects assurances from these People they for fear of the Laws make some faint promises for an Oath of Allegiance to renounce their Trayterous Positions is too binding to be taken with this reserve That the Presbytery or Popular Authority is superior to the King and that therefore he has no just right to require such promises and assurances from them to the prejudice of that supreme Power nor they to give it away and that therefore they are not binding in foro Conscientiae but being prejudicial to the right of such a Power as may call him to an account and by the Grand Charter of Salus Populi both free them from all such Obligations and punish him for exceeding his limits by intrenching upon their native right of being a free-born People all such stipulations being forced and violent the effects of fear without the consent of the will are therefore null and void And their Actions speak this Language however their Tongues may sometimes seem to be of so ill breeding as to give them the Lye by protestations of great Kindness Love and I know not what to his Majesty and the Government of which they are in some humours prodigal enough only to deceive the credulous and cover their ill designs LET them not therefore think to deceive us by the smooth flatteries of soft words their usual blandishments and pretences of Innocence and that they mean us no more harm than they do their own Souls which is true in their sense for they would have us believe that it is much for our advantage to be setled upon the true Fond and Basis of Popular or Consistorian Supremacy If they do believe these Principles we cannot be too secure against their dreadful and necessary consequences and if they do not believe them let us see it in their Actions by a hearty submission to the King and his Laws and Government Ecclesiastical and Civil and let them never pretend the obstacle of Conscience for if they were as really tender against Rebellion as they are against Loyalty they might nay they must do this without prejudice to the most nice and scrupulous amongst them nor can they refuse to do it if they mean honestly and to keep a Conscience void of offence towards God and all Men. And if they persist in the refusal of giving this Authentique and only creditable testimony of their Innocence and Loyalty and continue obstinately in the old road of their former practices no person can judge but that they are still managed by the same desperate Principles and though it is easie to determine from their own methods upon all that opposed them when in Power what they deserve according to the strictness of the Lex Talionis yet I will not pretend to Prophecy what they will receive they know by Experience which ought to have had another effect upon them and not this dis-ingenuous encouragement which they have taken from it that our Government is mild and gentle and has not taken any of its measures towards them from their proceedings But this they may assure themselves that their actings are too hot to hold long and they drive on too furiously in their desperate designs the dust which rises in such Clouds will give notice that their Troops are upon a hasty march and that the Conspirators of the zealous Reformer Jehu that furious driver are mounted in the Chariot of Rebellion which is drawn by the wild Horses of Ruine and Confusion In short I desire that all Judicious Sober and considering persons will without prejudice and partiality weigh in the just ballance of sacred Truth and convincing Reason whether the fore-mentioned Principles do not infallibly lead to the fatal consequences which have been shewn and if I have not been able to accomplish so great an affair as clearly to demonstrate the truth of it the defect is in my understanding not in my will and therefore may be my affliction but can never be my Crime However I flatter my self with the hopes of having the pleasure to see this small Essay give encouragement to some other hand which is furnished with more ability better opportunities and advantages than my present circumstances will allow me to evidence the greatness of these necessary truths and to give finishing strokes to this piece which I have according to my talent only rudely designed and though to some it may possibly appear too rough and bold yet the Masters of the Pencil say that freedom is no fault where it draws to the Life The imperfections are my own and no person shall be more ready to charge me with them than I shall be not only to own them but to indeavour to correct and amend them and from how inconsiderable a Person soever it comes Saepè olitor est valdè opportuna locutus Fools and Children speak Truth nor is it or ought it to be less considerable because it comes from them yet let it be remembred That Presbyterian Popular Consistorian Supremacy is and ever will be the unchangeable irreconcilable Enemy of Monarchy Law Liberty Peace Property and the true Protestant Catholick Religion FINIS Some Books Printed and Sold by Jonathan Edwin at the three Roses in Ludgate street THE Countermine or a short but true discovery of the dangerous Principles and secret practices of the Dissenting Party especially the Presbyterians shewing that Religion is pretended but Rebellion is intended And in order thereto the Foundation of Monarchy in the State and Episcopacy in the Church are Undermined The true Liberty and Dominion of Conscience vindicated from the Usurpations and Abuses of Opinion and Perswasion