twentieth part and they may for ought we know set down the tenth for the twentieth and if they may legally do this we can see no reason why by the same Rule they may not take the fifteenth tenth or half our goods for the same purpose and so they avouch they may but most untruly For it was never known till this present Parliament that an Ordinance of both Houses without the consent nay against the Command of the King can bind the free Subjects of England which do not then renounce their lâ—yalty to their King when they make choice of them to be their Procurators in the Parliament in their lives liberties or estates and yet these men not only bestow our monies as they please as they did six thousand pound to their own Speaker and the places of Command and great Profit more than all the Revenues of their lands come to upon themselves and upon their children and friends as upon Sir John Hotham the Lord Rochford Lord Say Lord Brook Hampden Brereton Fine the Earl of Essex and abundance more but they do also seize upon our estates and thus take our goods under the colour of maintaining this War to inrich themselves and their children And for the levying of this or what other part they please they ordain their friends and appoint their Collectors to distrain for the sum assessed and to sell the distress and if no distress can be found then the persons of these notable offenders that deny their goods thus illegally to be taken from them are to be imprisoned and their families to be banished from their habitations And to make the World believe how justly and sufficiently legal they could do this they made another Ordinance for the inhabitants of the Counties of Northampton Rutland Derby c. to pay the twentieth part and to be assessed by the Assessors that they name in imitation of the Statute lately made for the four hundred thousand pound and it is more than probable that this proceeding is but the praeludium of the like exaction to be extended when their need requireth to all the other parts of the Kingdom which is a most miserable course and injustice not to be paralleld to cast themselves into a necessity of getting money to maintain an impious War against their King and then out of that necessity to compel their fellow-Subjects and those peaceable men that do abominate this War to maintain the same yea and to fight in the same to kill men against their consciences in despite of their teeth or if they resuse to do it to send or at least to permit a party of Horse Dragooneers and other strength to go to fetch their Money Plate or other goods as if they were the goods of the deadly enemies of the Common-wealth and this for none other reason but for that the owners thereof are good Subjects to the King and not well-affected to their unjust and ungodly proceedings But let me perswade all men that do fear God still to suffer any thing which they cannot avoid from the violence of these wicked men rather than to contribute any thing unto them to further such abominable courses as they prosecute against the Law of God and man Because the Lord commandeth us to fear none of those things that we shall suffer but to stand in Rev. 2. 10. our integrity unto death and we shall be crowned with the crown of life 3. They have discharged the Apprentices and servants from their Masters 3. How they discharged the Apprentices compelledthem to fight services and have either compelled or perswaded them to serve in their Army against the King and that without the consent and against the will of their Masters and Dames yea sometimes against the commands of their own Parents which I speak from their own mouths 4. They have imprisoned very many hundreds of most able and most 4. How they imprisoned our men without cause honest men even so many that the Prisons are not able to contain them but they are fain to consecrate the greatest houses in London to become Prisons as the Bishop of London's house Eâ—y-house Winâ—hester-house Lambeth-house Crosby-house the Savoy and the like And this they do for none other cause but either for performing the duties of their places and discharging their obedience to his Majesty as the last Lord Maior Gurney which deserved rather to be commended than committed if we believe many that were present at his Tryal or petitioning unto them as Sir George Bynion and Captain Richard Lovelace and Sir William Boteler of Kent because they did not therein flatter and approve their present Complaint p. â— wicked courses or intending to petition unto the King for relief of these lamentable distresses as those Gentlemen of Hertford-shire and Westminster or for being as they conceived disaffected unto their disloyall Orders A strange thing and injustice beyond prehdent not the like to found among the Pagans That where no Law can condemn a man for his affections when no action is committed against Law men shall be robbed of their estates and adjudged for Malignants which is also a crime most general and without the compasse of any Statute and then for this new-created sin to be condemned and imprisoned and therein to remain without Tryal of his offence perhaps as long as the Archbishop of Canterbury And this wonder is the rather to be wondered at because it is the sense of both Houses if we may believe Master Pym That it is against the M Pym in his Speech at the Gaild hall Rules of Justice that any man should be imprisoned upon a general Charge when no particulars are proved against him For never Charge can be more general than to be ill-affected or a Malignant or a man not to be confided in whereof you find ten thousand in the City of London and many hundred thousands in the Kingdom and therefore when we find so many persons of Honour and Reputation imprisoned only upon this surmise without any other particular Charge so much as once suggested against them as was the Lord of Middlesex the Lord of Portland and abundance more and detained in prison because they were ill-affected in that they have not contributed to the maintenance of this War we see how insensibly they have accused themselves to have laid this insupportable punishment beyond the desert of the transgressors and against the Rules of all Justice and how they have forgotten their Protestation and exceedingly infringed the liberty of the Subjects whereof they promised to be such faithful Procurators CHAP. XIII Sheweth the proceedings of this Faction against the Laws of the Land the Priviledges of Parliament transgressed eleven special wayes 3. FOr the Laws of our Land which are either private as those chiefly 3. Their proceedings against the Laws which belong unto the Parliament and are called the Priviledges of Parliament or Publick which are Inheritance of every Subject you shall find
as of the Laity And in the Act against leising makers being an old Statute of Scotland the Kings Counsel are said to be sworn in the presence of his Majesty and his three Estates and again it is repeated that the King and his three Estates do renew all Acts against leising-makers And though we find with some difficulty as the viewer of the Observations saith where the Parliament is said to be a Body consisting of King Lords and Commons ergo without the King there is no Parliament yet herein the King is not said to be one of the three States but the first and most principal part that constitutes the body of the Parliament But John Bodin that had very exactly learned the nature of our Parliament Pag 20. 25. H. 8. 21. both by his reading and conferring with our English Embassadour as himself confesseth saith The States of England are never otherwise assembled no more then they are in the Realms of France and Spain then by Parliament Writs and the states proceed not but by way of supplications and requests unto the King and the States have Bodin de repub l. 1. c. 8. no power of themselves to determine or decree any thing seeing they cannot so much as assemble themselves nor being assembled depart without express commandment from the King In all this and for all the search that I have made I find not the King named to be one but rather by the consequence of the discourse to be none of the three but as I said the head of all the three States for either the words of Bodin must be understood of two States in all the three Kingdoms which then had been more properly termed as we call them either the two House or the Lords and Commons or else they must be very absuâ—d because the three States if the King be one of them can not be said to be called by Parliament-Writs when as the King is called by no writ nor can he be said to supplicate unto himself or to have no power to depart without leave that is of himself Therefore it must needs follow that this learned man who would speak neither absurdly nor improperly meant by the three States 1. The Lords Spiritual 2. The Lords Temporal 3. The Commons of the Kingdom And the King as head of all calling them consulting concluding with them and dismissing them when he pleased And William Martyn saith King Henry the 1. at the same time 1114. devised and ordained the manner and fashion of a Court in Parliament appointing it to consist of the three States of which himself was the head so that his Laws being made by the consent of all were not disliked of any these are his words And I am informed by good Lawyers that you may find it in the preambles of many of our Statutes and in the body of Sâ—ch is the difference betwixt Queen Elizabeth's time and our Times Anno octavo Elizabethae c. 1. some other Statutes and in some Petitions especially one presented to Queen Elizabeth for the inlargement of one that was committed for a motion that he made for excluding the Bishops out of the House of Peers the three States are thus particularized and the Lords Spiritual are nominated the first of the three and are termed one of the greatest States of this Realm And this I conceive to be the right constitution of a Parliament Therefore now to cast off one of the three States and to cut off the head of all three by making the King but one of them that so both the King and the two Houses might be only co-ordinate when as indeed they are as in some respect concurrent so also subordinate unto Him as to their Head is such a change and alteration as would quite overthrow the fundamental constitution of the Government of this Kingdom and make our King if these men might have their will to have no more power than the Duke of Venice And to that end this Faction have by themselves and their Pamphleters The false grounds of the original of our Kings The Disclaimer p. 17 18 19. laid down such false grounds of the Orignal of our Kings as are exceeding derogatory to the Crown of England as that they are Kings by paction and covenant with their people which at first chose them and intrusted them with their Government and for the preservation of their Laws against the incroachments of the King and the making of new Laws as occasions required ordained the great Council which they call Parliament and which should have full power to restrain the King if he did abuse his Power and therefore the people may withdraw their trust when the Kings neglect their duty and nullify their faith unto their Subjects for Post morâ—em Maxâ—mi Constans postulaâ—us à Britannis But not a word in all the story that any one of the British Kings was electuâ— Anonymus MS. in Bibl. Oxon. qui scripsit Hist omnium regum qui regnaverunt in Anglia whosoever is indifferently read in Histories and the Chronicles of our Kingdom may easily find how falsly and maliciously they would make this free Monarchy to have been elective and to be a conditional Government because England France and Spain were parts and parcels of the Roman Empire and when the Emperours by reason of their intestine broyls at home could not look into the parts abroad the right Heir unto the Crown of Brittain assumed unto himself all the Royalty and power that the Emperour had over us and succeeded him not by any pact or Covenant with the people though not as then for some reasons without the request of the people but by that right which God and nature allowed unto Kings and was due either to the Roman Emperour or to any other absolute Monarch of any Nation as the old Chronicles of those times and the regaining of the Crown by Vortigern after that the people had Rebelliously rejected him and received but not elected his son Vortimer in his place do most sufficiently clear the case And therefore what Soveraign-Power soever is due to any absolute Monarch and what obedience soever Saint Paul affirmeth to be due to the Roman Emperours that then ruled over us or Saint Peter commandeth to be given to other Kings the same is in all things due to our Kings ever since Aurelius Ambrosius that succeded Vortigern or if you will not ascend so high yet without all contradiction ever since William the Conquerour whom you cannot say was elected nor any other that succeeded him and therefore cannot be debarred or denied any of those Prerogatives and Soveraignties that belong unto the most absolute Monarch save only in those things which of their special grace and favour they granted unto their Subjects and bound themselves at their Coronation to perform those promises of Priviledge and freedom which they made unto them Pag 17 18 19 20. and that distinction of the disclaimer
unto us in the two first verses here set down 2. The Replication of the Prophet is two fold 1. Affirmative and erronious or mistaken vers 3. 2. The Replication 2. Negative and right from the 3. vers to the 18. 3. The gratulation is in an humble acknowledgement and a grateful remembrance 3. The Gratulation of the fore-passed benefits of God with an earnest and hearty prayer put up to God for the continuance of his favour unto him from the 18. verse to the end of the Chapter And I shall here treat of no more than of the deliberation or the Prophets consideration what he intended to do touching which we are to observe these three things 1. The time which hath a twofold manifestation of it 1. When he sate in his house The 3. things observable in the deliberation 2. When he was safe from his enemies 2. The Persons deliberating and they are 2. 1. David the King 2. Nathan the Prophet 3. The matter deliberated and considered of betwixt the Prince and the Prophet and that was the meanness and baseness of the then House of God and therefore he would be at the cost and charges to make it beautiful and to erect him an House befitting the Majesty and greatness of God And this his good intention he justifieth and confirmeth the same to be both honest and good by the consequent of Congruity that it was fit it should be so in respect of a double comparison 1. Of himself with God 2. Of his Court with God's Ark. 1. I that am but a poor creature have an house to dwell in and God 1. Reason that is the Creator of all the World hath not an House to put his Ark in and for his servants to meet in to hear his Laws and to do him service 2. My Court is stately covered over with Cedars but the Ark of God 2. Reason is but very meanly and basely covered over with a Canopie of skins to shelter it from the wind and the weather And therefore conceiving this to be very preposterous and a far unbeseeming thing for him to be better provided for than his God he conferreth with the Prophet and tells him he intends to rectifie this obliquity and to build God an House more agreeable to his Majesty These are the parts and parcels of the Kings deliberation and conference with the Prophet and his Bishop Nathan And 1. For the time It is said when the King sate in his house and the Lord had 1 The time of this deliberation How Sitting Standing are commonly interpreted Ezech. 3. 24. 1 Cor. 10. 12. 2 Cor. â—â— 24. Ephes 6. 14. 1 Pet. 5. 12. Ps 135. 1 2. Ps 122. 2. 2 Reg. 3. 14. given him rest round about from all his enemies So you see 1. It was when the King sate in his house and these relative words sitting and standing are noted by Divines to have some difference of sense and acceptation As standing being commonly taken in good part and sitting in the evil and worser sense as in these places where standing is well spoken of The Spirit entred into me and set me upon my feet and he that thinketh he standeth let him take heed lest he fall and stand in the Lord as dear children and by faith ye stand and stand having your loynes girt about with truth and this is the true grace of God wherein ye stand and praise the Lord all ye his servants ye that stand in the courts of the Lords House and our feet shall stand in thy gates O Hierâ—salem and the Lord of Hosts liveth before whom I stand In all which quotations and the like the word standing hath reference unto good and is taken in the better sense and so to be interpreted And in these places and the like where the name of sitting runneth into obloquie and is attributed to iniquity Iniquity sitteth on a talent of lead and Princes sit and speak against me Zach 5. 7. Ps 119. Ps 1. and Blessed is the man that hath not sate in the seat of the scornful and the ungodly person sitteth lurking in the theevish corners of the streets and so in may other places it is interpreted in the worse sense But here the word sate in his house is of a milder meaning and of indifferent How the word sate is here taken acceptation and rather to be interpreted in the better sense as betokening the government of the King for so the King sate in his house signifieth that he sate in his Seat of Government and this sense hath been ancient and obvious in our reading as where the Poet saith Celsa sedet Aeolus arce King Aeolus sitteth in his high Tower and manageth his State-matters and in the Germane speech they say that to sit signifieth to reign as the Emperour sate that is reigned so many years And this is the moderne meaning of this phrase even amongst us for when we would shew how long any one hath exercised the Office and discharged the Place of a Bishop Judge or Prefect amongst us we are wont to say he sate in that place so long And to sit commonly signifieth to be in rest and quiet and is opposite to affairs and businesse As where it is said Shall your brethren go to battle and you sit still And where the Poet saith Sedeant spectentque Latini Let the Latines sit still and look on And in both these senses King David may be said to sit in his house without any great matter in which sense we understand the word though I rather take it in the later way because that 2. The next adjunct of the time is when the Lord had given him rest 2. When was the time that David had rest from all his enemies from all his enemies for this varieth little or nothing from the former when he sate in his house And therefore we may very well compose them and confound them together and put them to signifie the same thing But about this rest that is here spoken of the Expositors cannot all agree when it was whilest they do consider the many Battels that he fought after this conference that he had with Nathan and therefore though some take it for the peace he had at this present time yet others of a quicker sight do assign it after the second Victory he had against the Philistines when he was such an hammer so terrible to all the neighbour-Nations as that the very name of David and his doings made them afraid and glad to sue unto him for peace and to take bands of resolution with themselves to be of good behaviour towards him and never to provoke him any more And of this we read in 1 Chron. 14. 11. when the Philistines came up to Baal-Perazim and David smote them and said God hath broken in upon mine enemies by mine hand like the breaking forth of waters and afterward when they spread themselves abroad in the
benefit so he will be as graciously pleased we shall forgoe them and exchange them when we find it for our benefit and the benefit of his Church and Service which in all our bargains and commerce we ought chiefely to regard because we are but Gods Stewards for the service of his Church and so whatsoever our Religion and our Ancestors have honoured God withal we must imploy not so much for our own best advantage as for that which maketh most for Gods honor And therefore we that are instructed with the inheritance of the Church and portion of Jesus Christ must not make such bargains for our Master as Glaucus made for himself when he changed his golden Armour for brazen furniture neither must we deal with the Church of Christ as Rehoboam did with the Temple of Solomon when he took away all the shields of 1 Reg. 14. 26 27. gold and made in their steed shields of brass but what bargain or covenant soever we make without sin for the greater glory unto God and greater good unto the Church we hold it good with whomsoever the same is made CHAP. XIX That it is the duty of all Christian Kings and Princes to do their best endevours to have all the Impropriations restored to their former Institution to hinder the taking away and the alienation of the Lands Houses and other the Religious Donations of our Ancestors from the Church of Christ and to suppress and root out all the Vnjust and Covetous suttle customs and frauds that are so generally used and are so derogatory to the service of God from amongst the people and especially from this Kingdom of Ireland where most corruption is used and most need of Instruction unto the people THus you have heard how that Cathedrals and other Parochial Churches should be built and beautified for the Honor of God Godly Bishops and Preachers should be placed in them for the Service of God and then the allowance that God hath appointed should be given and yielded unto them for their maintenance And now because the Lands Houses Tythes and Hereditaments of the Church which the Lord God hath granted and the godly Emperours pious Kings and zealous Professors have given and dedicate for Gods service are in these dismal daies snatched away by the hands of Hacksters and haters of Religion and alâ—enated by the Souldiers that divide Christ his garments amongst them from the true servants and Ministers of Christ who should be very thankful unto these Souldiers as they often say that we have any thing left unto us For as the Orator â—elleth the grave Senators of Rome of an audacious fellow called Fimbria that stabbed Quintus Scaevola an honest man at the funerals of Caius Marius and then boasted of the great favour Cicerâ— in Orat pro Roscio â—merino that he shewed to him Quòd non totum telum in ejus corporâ— absconderat That he had not thrust his dagger wholly to the Hilt into his body but only gave him a slight stab that was sufficient to kill him So these brood of Fimbria having seized upon a great part of the Houses Lands and Patrimony of the Church and still detayning them Per fas nefas in their own hands do labour to get more and think the favour that they have done us deserveth no small thanks that they brought or left to us what we have and have not deprived us of all together Therefore Covetousness Injustice and the love of this World being so deeply grounded and setled in the hearts of our Demas's and this Epidemical disease of taking and detaining the Churches right being as one saith just like the Kings-evil which no Physitian but the King himself will serve to heal it Our address must be unto his Majesty to supplicate that he would be graciously pleased to interpose his Royal Command to stop the current of these intruders into Gods right and to cause the Restitution of the Church-goods to be made unto the Church And among the rest of the injuries done by these Mâ—litary * I speak of the Souldiers because either the Souldiers of that Parliament or of Crumwel oâ— his Majesty have almost all the Kingdom of Ireland and â—o fill the House of Lords and the House of Commons and are the chief men in every place So that nothing can be done either in Parliament City or Countrey but what they will have done because they are the Major Party and so can Out-vote all the rest and therefore Ireland being now Regnum Militum This my discourse cannot be Gratum opus agricolis but Ingratum miliâ—ibus which is all one to me if you consider what I say in the latter end of this book and that I fear not what they say of me Quia nec mâ—lior sum si laudaverâ—nt nec deterior si vituperaverint men to the Church of God there is one great Abuse which is generally used and practised here in Ireland by the rich proprietors and possessors of Lands and Town-ships to the abundant detriment and loss of the Ministers and to the hazard and danger if not the destruction of many I know not how many souls and that is when the Gentleman proprietor that holds all or most of the Parish in his own hands if he be offended with his Minister and cannot have the Tythes as he pleaseth himself he can make the Rectory or Vicaridge that might be well worth fifty or sixty pounds per annum to be scarce worth ten pound a year or nothing for he will leave all his ground unplowed and turne it to pasture and so bring a dearth through the scarcity of Corn in the Common-Wealth and then he will buy young Bullocks and fils his Lands with dry Cattle whereof their Religious Lawyers of whom Dr. Gardiner †Dr. Gardiner in his Scourge of Sacâ—â—ledge saith that he never heard yet at any hand of any good that they have Prophesied unto the Church tels them their custome will preserve them from the payment of any Tythes and so they bring a spiritual dearth and a famine of Gods Word unto the rest of the poor parishioners when for want of sufficient maintenance they shall want a sufficient Minister that is able to give them any Instruction because as the Poet saith Nulla illis captetur gloria quaequâ— Ovid. trist lib. 5. Ingenii stimulos subdere fama solet And the benefit that these worldlings reap by this lawless impious and wicked Custome to pay no Tythes for their dry Bullocks nor any thing to God for the fruits of their ground is one main reason why the Minister's part of six or seven Parishes doth scarce amount to twenty pounds per annum as I have formerly shewed in my Reâ—onstrance to his Majesty and I conceive it likewise to be a special Reason why the poor simple Iâ—ish Papists have so many Popish Priests amongst them for want of Protestant Priests for that want of sufficient maintenance
him Had Zimri peace which slew his Master to whom he might have answered He breaks no Law that obeyeth the commands of the Law-maker no more then the Israelites could be accused of theft when they did rob the Aegyptians or Abraham of murder if he had killed Isaac but without this special command he could not have done this extraordinary work without sin and therefore that which he could not do then without the warrant of the heavenly Oracle cannot be done now by any other without Jehu's example not to be imitated the contempt of the Deity the reproach of Majesty and abundance of dammage to the Common-wealth And so not onely I but also Peter Martyr commenteth upon the place where he saith God stirred up and armed one onely Jehu against his Lord which fact as it is peculiar and singular so it is not to be drawn for any example for certainly if it might be lawfull for the people upon any pretence to expell their Kings and Governours though never so wicked and unjust from their Kingdomes and government no Kings or Princes could be safe in any place for though Petrus Martyr loâ— com class â— loc 20. they should raign never so justly and holily yet they should never satisfie the people but they would still accuse them of injustice and impiety that they might depose them And Bodinus in his Policy differeth not at all from this Divinity for he saith If the Prince be an absolute Soveraign as are the Kings of France Spain England Scotland Aethiopia Turkie Persia Muscovie and the like true Monarchs whose authority cannot be doubted and their chief rule and government cannot be imparted with their subjects in this case it is not lawful for any one apart nor for all together to conspire and attempt any thing either of fact or under the colour of right against the life or the honour of his Prince or Monarch yea though his Prince should commit all kind of impiety and cruelty which the tongue of any man could expresse For as concerning the order of right the subject hath no kind of jurisdiction against his Prince from whom dependeth and proceedeth all the power and authority of commanding as they that rise against their King do notwithstanding send out their Warrants and Commands in the Kings name and who not onely can recall all the faculty of judging and governing from his inferiour Magistrates whensoever he please but also Johan Bodinus de repub l. 2. l. 5 being present all the power and jurisdiction of all his under-Magistrates Corporations Colledges Orders and Societies do cease and are even then reduced into him from whom before they were derived But we find it many times that not the fault of the Prince nor the good The true causes that move many men to disturb the State and to rebell of the Common-wealth but either the hiding of their own shame or the hope of some private gain induceth many men to kindle and blow up the flames of civil discord for as Paterculus saith Ita se res habet ut publicâ ruinâ quisque malit quà m suâ proteri It so falls out that men of desperate conditions that with Catiline have out-run their fortunes and quite spent their estates had rather perish in a common calamity which may hide the blemish of their sinking then to be exposed to the shame of a private misery and we know that many men are of such base behaviour that they care not what losse or calamity befalls others so they may inrich themselves so it was in the civil warres of Rome Bella non causis inita sed Paterculus in Histor Roman prout merces eorum fuit they undertook the same not upon the goodnesse of the cause but upon the hope of prey and so it is in most warres that avarice and desire of gain makes way for all kind of cruelty and oppression and then it is as it was among the Romans a fault enough to be wealthy and they shall be plundered that is in plain English robbed of their goods and possessions without any shew of legal proceedings But they that build their own houses out of the ruine of the State and make themselves rich by the impoverishing of their neighbours are like to have but small profit and lesse comfort in such rapine because there is a hidden curse that lurketh in it and their account shall be great which they must render for it Therefore I conclude this point that for no cause and upon no pretext it is lawful for any subject to rebell against his Soveraign governour for Moses had a cause of justice and a seeming equity to defend and revenge his brother upon the Aegyptian And Saint Peter had the zeal of true religion and as a man might think as great a reason as could be to defend his Master that was most innocent from most vile and base indignities and to free him from the hands of his most cruell persecutors and yet as Saint Augustine saith Vterque justitiae regulam excessit ille Fraterno August contra Faustum Man l. 2â— c. 70. iste Dominico amore peccavit both of them exceeded the rule of justice and Moses out of his love to his brother and S. Peter out of his respect to his Master have transgressed the commandement of God And therefore I hope all men will yield that what Moses could not do for his brother nor Saint Peter for his Master and the religion of his Master Christ that is to strike any one without lawful authority ought not to be done by any other man for what cause or religion soever it be especially to make insurrection against his King contrary to all divine authority for the true Religion hath been always humble patient and the preserver of peace and quietnesse and as Saint Augustine saith the City Pro temporall salute non pugnavit sed pâ—tiâ—s ut obtineret â—ternam non repugnavit Aug. de Civit. l. 22. c. 6. of God though it wandred never so much on earth and had many troopes of mighty people yet for their temporal safety they would not fight against their impious persecutors but rather suffered without resistance that they might attain unto eternal health And so I end this first part of the objection with that Decree of the Councell of Eliberis If any man shall break the Idols to pieces and shall be there killed for the doing of it because it is not written in the Gospel and the like fact is not found to be done at any time by the Apostles it pleased Concil Eliber Can 60. the Councel that he shall not be received into the number of Martyrs because contrary to the practice of our dayes when every base mechanick runs to the Church to break down not Heathen Idols but the Pictures of the blessed Saints out of the windows they conceived it unlawful for any man to pull down Idolatry except he had a lawful
The power of the King to call a Parliament to deny what he will and to dissolve it when he will Why our King suffereth BUt when all that hath been spoken cannot satisfie their indignation against true obedience and allay the heat of their rebellious spirits they come to their ultimum refugium best strength and strongest fort that although all others should want sufficient right to crosse the commands and resist the violence of an unjust and tyrannical Prince yet the Parliament that is the representative body of all his Kingdom and are intrusted with the goods estates and lives of all his people may lawfully resist and when necessity requireth take arms and subdue their most lawful King and this they labour to confirm by many arguments I answer that for the Parliament of England it is beyond my sphere and I being a transmarine member of this Parliament of Ireland I will only And whatsoever I speak of Parliaments in all this Discourse I mean of Parliaments disjoyned from their King and understand only the prevalent faction that ingrosseth and captivaâ—eth the Votes of many of the plain honest minded party which hath been often seen both in general Councels and the greatest Parliaments direct my speech to that whereof I am a Peer and I hope I may the more boldly speak my mind to them whereof I am a member and I dare maintain it that it shall be a benefit and no prejudice both to King and Kingdome that the Spiritual Lords have their Votes in this our Parliament For besides the equity of our sitting in Parliament and our indubitable right to vote therein and his Majesty as I conceive under favour be it spoken is obliged by the very first act in Magna Charta to preserve that right unto us when as in the Summons of Edw. 1. it is inserted in the Writ that * Claus 7. m. 3. dors Quod omnes tangit ab omnibus approbari or tractari debet whatsoever affair is of publique concernment ought to receive publique approbation and therefore with what equity can so considerable a party of this Kingdom as are the Clergy who certainly cannot deserve to forfeit the priviledge of the meanest subjects and of Common men because they are more immediately the servants of the living God be denied the benefit of that which in all mens judgements is so reasonable a law and they onely be excluded from that interest which is common unto all I cannot â—ee yet I say that besides this our right while we sit in Parliaâ—â—nt this fruit shall alwayes follow that our knowledge and conscience shall never suffer us to vote such things against the truth as to allow that power or priviledge to our Parliament as to make Orders and Ordinances without the consent and contrary to the will of our King much lesse to leavâ—â— moneys and raise armes against our King for I conceive the Priviledges Priviledges of Parliament what they are of Parliament to be Privatae leges Parliament a proceeding accâ—â—ding to certain rules and private customes and lawes of Parliament which no member of the Houses ought to transcend whereas the other is Privatio legum a proceeding without Law contrary to all rules as if our Parliament had an omnipotent power and were more infallible than the Pope to make all their Votes just and their sayings truth I but to make this assertion good that the Parliament in some cases may justly take arms and make warre upon their justest King if they conceive him to be unjust it is alledged that although the King be Singulis major greater then any one yet he is Vniversis minor lesse then all therefore all may oppose him if he refuse to consent unto them I answer that the weaknesse of this argument is singularly well shewed Pag. 11. 38 39 40. in the Answer to the Observations upon some of his Majesties late Answers and Expresses and I will briefly contract the Answer to say the King is better than any one doth not prove him to be better then two and if his Supremacy be no more then many others may challenge as much for the Prince is Singulis major a Lord above all Knights and a Knight above all Esquires hs is singulis major though universis minor And if the King be universis minor then the people have placed a King not over but under them And Saint Peter doth much mistake in calling the King Supreme and they do 2 Pet. 2. 13. ill to petition when they might command and I am confident that no records except of such Parliaments as have most unjustly deposed their As Edw. Carnarvan and Richard the second Kings can shew us one example that the Parliament should have a power which must of necessity over-rule the King or make their Votes Law without and against the will of the King for if their Votes be Law without his consent what need they seek and sollicit his consent But the clause in the Law made 2. Hen 5. cited by his Majesty that it is of the Kings regality to grant or deny such of their Petitions as pleaseth That the King is universis major greater then all proved himself and the power which the Law gives the King to dissolve the Parliament and especially the words in the Preface of cap. 12. Vices to Hen. 8. where the Kings Supremacy not over single persons but over all the body politique is clearly delivered doth sufficiently shew the simplicity of this Sophistry and prove that the King being invested with all the power of God having given and the people having yielded their power to thâ—ir King they can never challenge any power but what they have derivâ—d from their king 2. Reason Sol. the people which is due to him as their King he is the onely fountain of all power and justice so that now they can justly claim no power but what is derived from him and therefore it is the more intolerable that any man should usurp the power of the King to destroy the King 2. They will say that Salus populi est suprema lex The good of the people is the chiefest thing that is aymed at in all government and the Parliament is the representative body of all the people therefore if any thing be intended contrary to the good of the people they may and ought lawfully to resist the same I answer and confesse that there is no wise King but will carefully provide for the safety of his people because his honour is included therein and his ruine is involved in their destruction but it is certain that this principle hath been used as one of our Irish mantles to hide the rebellion of many Traytors and so abused to the confusion of many Nations for there is not scarce any thing more facile then to perswade a people that they are not well 2 Sam 15. 4. governed as you may see in the example of Absolon who by
the Congregation is holy and that is a lye when there can be no holinesse in the Rebels and The Lord is among them which is another lye for he will forsake all those that forsake him then they say Moses and Aaron take too much upon them which is an apparent slander and they adde that they lifted up themselves above the Congregation of the Lord which is another slander as false as the Father of lyes could lay upon them for I shewed unto you before how truly they were called and how justly they behaved themselves in their places but as Absolon knew well enough that to traduce his Father's Government was the readiest way to insinuate and to winde himselfe into a good opinion among the people and to make the King odious unto his subjects so these and all other Rebels will be sure to lay load enough of lyes and slanders upon their Governours and so the namelesse Authour of the Soveraign Antidote Goodwin Bâ—rroughs Goodwin in his Anti Caval Buâ—roughs in his Sermon upon The glorious name of the Lord of Hosts and abundance more such scandalous impudent lying libels have not blushed which a man would think the brazen face of Satan could not chuse but do so maliciously and reproachfully to lay to his Majesty's charge the things which as the Prophet saith he never knew and which all they that know the King do know to be apparent lyes and most abominable slanders against the Lord's Vicegerent but Quid domini facient audent cum talia fures You know the meaning of the Poet and you may know the reason why these grand Lyars these impudent slanderers do so impudently bely so good a King so pious and so gracious a Majesty for Lay on enough Et aliquid adhaerebit and throw dust enough in their faces and let the Governours be never so good the King as milde and as unreproveable as Moses and the Bishops like Aaron the Saints of the Lord yet some thing will stick in the opinion of the simple that are not able to discern the subtilty of those distractors And as they diminish and undermine the credit and reputation of the best Governours by no other engine then a lying tongue and a false pen so with the same instruments they do magniâ—â—e their own repute and further their unjust proceedings by deceiving the most simple with A strange equivâ—cation such equivocal lyes as any sensible man might well wonder that they should be so insensibly swallowed down as when they say They fight for him whom they shoot at and they are for the King when with all their might and main they strive to take away his power to pull the sword out of his hand and to throw his Crown down to the dust which is so strange a kind of equivocation as might well move men with Pilate to ask What is truth which we can never understand if any of these things can be true which as one saith most truly is one of the absurdest gulleries that ever was put upon any Nation much like that Anabaptist which I knew that beat his wife almost to death and said He beat not her but that evill The tale of an Anabaptist spirit that was in her Therefore the Lord hateth this abominable sinne because it is unpossible the people should be so soon drawn into rebellion if they did not credit these defamations But the wise man tells us that Stultus credit omni verbo therefore no wise man will believe those false and wicked slanders that such malicious Rebels do spread abroad against their King Prince or Priest or any other Governour of Gods people 8. After they had thus slandered these good men they fell to open rayling 8. Rayling against them as you may see Num. 16. 13 14. For now they had eaten shame and drunk after it and therefore they cared not what they said and so now we find how the Rebels deal with our King and with our Bishops too with our Moses and with our Aaron for here in Ireland they rebell against their Soveraign because he is no Papist and will not countenance the Papists as they desire And in England they rayle at him and rebell against him because they say He is a Papist and doth connive at Popery and hath a design to bring in Popery into the Kingdome which is as flat a lye as the father of lyes hath ever invented So the Bishops here are driven out of all as my self am expelled â—dibus sedibus and left destitute of all relief because we are no Papists but do both preach and write against their errours as much as any and more learnedly then many others And in England we are persecuted and driven to flee from place to place or to take our place in a hard prison as my self have been often forced to flee and to wander in the cold and dark long nights because we are Papists and Popishly given Good God! what shall we do whither shall we go or what shall we say for Nusquam tuta fides nec hospes ab hospite tutus We cannot confide in the confiders to whom we are become malignant enemies for speaking truth neither dare we trust in the followers of the publique faith nor in the professors of the Catholique faith whereof men maliciously rejecting their godly Bishops rebelliously fighting against their lawful King and mortally wounding their own souls have made a shipwrack But If they called the Master of the house Beelzebub if they said he was a glutton and a drunkard what wonder if they say these things of us and if Christ the King of Kings was crucified between two Thieves what marvel if this servant of Christ our King be thus pressed opposed and abused betwixt two rebellious factions And when we see our Saviour and our King thus handled it is lesse strange to find the Bishops and the Priests persecuted and crucified betwixt two heretical and tyrannical parties Well Jerusalem Jerusalem that killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee take heed lest the King of peace shall say unto thee Verily thou shalt see me no more till thou sayest Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. 9. When they were grown thus impudent from bad to worse both over 9 Disobedience shooes and over boots then Disobedience must needs follow and therefore now putting on their brazen foreheads they tell Moses plainly We will not come to thee we will do nothing that thou willest but will crosse thee in all that thou intendest this is our most peremptory resolution And so we see that Nemo repentè fit pessimus but the wicked grow worse and worse first you must lend then you must giveâ— if not we will take or if you deny your goods we will have your bodies so at first what soever we do it is for the King and because this is so palpable a mockery that as every man knoweth they
not to flatter him that hears me not but to inform those of you that know him not so well as I that had the happinesse to live with my ever honoured Lord the Noble Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery 16 or 17. years in the Kings house and of them 6 or 7. years in the Kings service He is a most just pious and gracious King and I believe the best Protestant King that ever England or Ireland saw neither Popishly affected nor Schismatically led to disaffect but most constantly resolved to be a true Defender of that true Protestant Faith which is established by Law in the Church of England and he is such a King of so unblameable a life so spotlesse in all his actions so clement and so meek towards all men and so merciful towards his â—very enemies that the mouth of Envy cannot truly taxe him nor malice it self disprove him in any thing Yet we know that as Moses the meekest among men and David the best of Kings were sore afflicted slandered and persecuted not a little by many of their own obliged subjects yea and the best Kings have had the greatest troubles so this good King hath had for his trial a great part of the like usage I know not by whom neither do I intend here to accuse others but to instruct you and by what I shewed out of this Text to teach you above all to take heed of disobedience and Rebellion towards your King and to let you understand that what priviledges in the New Testament are acknowledged to be due to Heathen Princes and what prerogatives the spirit of God hath in the Old Testament warranted unto the Jewish Kings and what the universal Law of Nature hath established upon all the supreme Governours do all of them appertain by unquestionable right unto his most sacred Majesty and yet His Majesty out of His incomparable goodnesse insisteth not to challenge all these but vouchsafeth to accept of those Rights and Prerogatives which are undoubtedly afforded him by the Lawes of His own Lands and these come farre short scarce the moity of the other because we know if our Historians have not deceived me how many of them were obtained by little better then by force and violence compelling Kings to consent unto them whereas Lawes should be of a freer nature And therefore of all the Nations round about us besides that God hath intrusted Him with us all we have most reason to intrust him and to give credit unto his Majesties many Protestations too high to be forgotten by him or misdoubted by us for his resolution to maintain the Liberty of his Subjects the just Priviledges of Parliaments and the true established Religion in the Kingdome of England and likewise to rule over us according to our Laws in this Realm of Ireland And we have least reason to rebell and take arms against him and therefore let us not be perswaded by any means by any man to do it because God will preserve his annointed and will as you see plague the Rebels but let us pray for our King and praise God night and day that he which might have given us a bramble not only to tear our flesh but also to set us all on fire hath given us such a Cedar such a gracious and a pious King and if either forreign foes or domestique Rebels do presse him so that he hath need of us let us adde our help and hazard our lives to defend and protect him that protecteth us and suffereth all for the protection of Gods service as it was established in the purest time of Reformation and for the preservation of our Laws from any corrupt interpretation or arbitrary invasion upon them by those factious men that under fair yet false pretences have with wâ—ndrous subtilty and with most subtle hypocrisie seduced so many simple men to partake with them not onely to overthrow the true Religion to imbase the Church of Christ that hitherto hath continued glorious in this Nation and by trampling the most learned under feet to reduce Popery into this Kingdom and to bring in Atheism or Barbarism into our Pulpits when they make their Coach-men and Trades-men like Jeroboam's Priests the basest of the people to become their Trencher Chaplains and the teachers of those poor sheep for whom the Son of God hath shed his precious blood but also to change the well-setled government and to subvert the whole fabrick of this famous Common-wealth either by their tyranny or bringing all into an Anarchie for if we have any regard of any of these things either true Religion or ancient Government a gracious King and a learned Clergy a glorious Church and a flourishing Kingdom we ought not to spare our goods or be niggards in our contributions to help his Majesty yea as Dâ—borâ— saith To help the Lord against the mighty Or if we be cold and carelesse herein penurious and tenacious of our worldly pâ—lse preferring our gold before our God or fearing gracelâ—ssâ— Rebels more then we love our gracious King It may fall out as Saint 〈◊〉 saith Quod non capit Christus rapit fiscus or as it did with 〈◊〉 Carthâ—ginians who because they would not assist Hanniball with some reasonable proportion of their estates they lost all unto the Romans and with the Constantinopolitans that for denying a little to Paleologus lost all unto the Turkes so we may be robbed and pillaged of all because we would not part with some and I had rather the King should have all I have then that the Rebels should have any part thereof Therefore I hope I shall perswade all good men to honour God with their riches and to assist His Majesty to the uttermost of their powers even to the hazard and to the losse both of liberty and life And doing this our God which is the King of Kings will blesse us and defend us from all evill and make us Kings and Priests to live with him for ever and ever through Jesus Christ our Lord To whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be all praise and glory and dominion from henceforth for evermore Amen Amen Hester 4. 16 If I perish I perish Yet Esdras 4. 41. The truth is great and will prevail Jehovae Liberatori The Contents of the several Chapters in this TREATISE CHAP. I. Sheweth who these Rebels were how much they were obliged to their Governors and yet how ungratefully they rebelled against them page 185 CHAP. II. Sheweth against whom these men rebelled that God is the giver of our Governours the several offices of Kings and Priests how they should assist each other and how the people laboureth to destroy them both pag. 189 CHAP. III. Sheweth the assured testimonies of a good and lawful Goverrnour their qualifications our duties to them and wherein our obedience to them consisteth 192 CHAP. IV. Sheweth the objection of the Rebels to justifie their Rebellion the first part of it answered that neither our compulsion to
speak it though I should die for it and if some did not speak it I think the stones would cry against it and proclaim it Better for the Clergy were their hope only in this world never to have been born or at least never to have seen a Book then to fall into the hands and to be put under the censure of these men that do thus love Christ by hating his Ministers who as I said This Act more pâ—ejudâ—ciall to the future times than now before by this one Act are made liable to undergo all kind of evils which shall not only fall upon the present Clergy for were it so our patience should teach us to be silent but also to the increase of all prejudices to the Gospel more than my fore-sight can expresse in all succeeding Ages And therefore I may well say with Jeremy Shall not my soul be avenged Jer. 5. 9 29. on such a nation as this And we need not wonder that such plagues calamities and distresses have so much increased in this Kingdom ever since the passing of this Act and yet the anger of the Lord is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still and I fear his wrath will not be appâ—ased till we have blotted this and wiped away all other our great sins and transgressions with the truest tears of unfained repentance These are like to be the consequences of this Act And yet our good King who we know loved our Nation and built us a Synagogue and was as I assure my self most unwilling to passe it was notwithstanding over-perswaded considering where thirteen of the Bishops were even in prison and in what condition all the rest of them stood in question whether all they should stand or be cut down root and branch to yield His assent unto the Act though if the case in truth were rightly weighed not much lesse prejudicial to his Majesty than injurious to us to be thus deprived of our right and exposed to all miseries by excluding us from all Civil Judicature And I would to God the King and all the Kingdom did continually consider how his Majesty was used ever since the confirmation of this Act for they How the King hath been used ever since this Act passed no sooner had excluded the Bishops and Clergy out of their right but presently they proceeded and prosecuted the Design ever since to thrust out the King from all those just Rights and Prerogatives which God and Nature and the Laws of our Land have put into his hands for the Government of this Kingdom neither was it likely to succeed any otherwise as I have fully shewed and I would all Kings would read it in the Grand Rebellion But I see no reason why it may not and why it should not be reâ—racted That the Act should be annulled and annulled when the Houses shall be purged of that Anabaptistical and Rebellious Faction that contrived and procured the same to Passe for these three special Reasons 1. Because that contrary to all former Precedents that Bill for their 1. Reason exclusion was as it is reported at the first refused and after a full hearing among the Lords it was by most Votes by more than a dozen voices rejected And yet to shew unto the World that the Faction's malice against the Bishops had no end and their rage was still implacable at the same Session and which is very considerable immediately assoon as ever they understood it was rejected the House of Commons revived it and so pressed it unto the Lords that if I may have leave to speak the truth contrary to all right * For I conceive this to be â—â— approved Maxim That no Right no. proved forfited by some offence can be taken away without wrong 2. Reason In his Majesties answer to the Petition of the Lords and Commons 16. of July p. 8. it must be again received and while the Bishops were in prison it was with what honour I know not strangely confirmed 2. Because this Bill had the Royall assent after that a most riâ—tous tumult and many thousands of men with all sorts of Warlike weapons both on land and water most disloyally had driven His Majesty to flie from London that most Rebellious City not without fear for his own safety even for the safety of his life as himself professeth And when they had so cunningly contrived their Plot as to get some of the Kings servants and friends that were about him and imployed in the Queens affairs to perswade Her Majesty to use all her power with the King for the passing of this Bill or else Her journey should be stayed as formerly they had altered Her resolution for the Spaw and at Rochester she should understand the sense of the House to stop Her passage unto Holland whereas the passing of this Bill might make way for Her passage over And many other such frights and fears they put both upon the King and Queen to inforce Him full sore against his will as we believe to passe this harsh Bill for the exclusion of the spiritual Lords out of the House of Peers and of all the Clergy from all Secular Judicature But Master Pym will tell us as he did that it was the opinion of both Houses There was no occasion given by any tumults that might justly cause His Majesties departure To whom I answer with the words of Alderman Garraway If the Houses Ald. Oar. speech at Guild-hall had declared that it had been lawful to beat the King out of Town I must have sate still with wonder though I should never believe it but when they declare matters of Fact which is equally within our own knowledge and wherein we cannot be deceived as in the things we have seen with our eyes if they dissent from truth they must give me leave to differ from them As if they should declare They have paid all the money that they owe unto the City or that there * For now I understanâ— it is pulled down was no Crosse standing in Cheapside we shall hardly believe them And therefore seeing we all remember when the Alarm was given that there was an attempt from Whitehall upon the City how hardly it was appeased and how no Babies thought the Design of those subtile heads that gave that false Alarm was no lesse than to have caused Whitehall to be pulled down and they that loved the King and saw the Army both by land and water which accompanied the persons accused to Westminster the next day after His Majesties departure as if they had passed in a Roman Triumph conceived the danger to be so great that I call Heaven to witness they blessed God that so graciously put in the Kings heart rather to passe away over-night though very late than â—azard the danger that might have ensued the day following The meaning therefore of both Houses may be That there was nothing done which they confessed to
be setled by the new Synod those Sisters facies non omnibus una Nec diversa tamen I did once intend while I lived amongst them to collect a whole Volume of them but Satan then prevented me and plotted my destruction for mine intention yet now I will set down these few out of those many which I then observed 1. Though Moses saith The secret things belong to the Lord our Gâ—d but 1. They search into Gods secrets Deut. 29. 29. the things revealed belong to us and our children for ever yet these men are all Gnostiques they know very much even of the secrets and counsels of God and they are sure who shall be saved and who shall be damned and as men of the Cabinet-counsel of God broach their illusions for divine revelations and perswade the people that what they say or do is all from God and therefore that this War which they prosecute was preordained of God for the destruction of the wicked to whom they formerly preached their damnation and thereby have caused many silly soules most desperately to end the miseries of their wretched life by putting themselves to an untimely death 2. They onely as the elect of God which shall be the sole heires of They judge â—hâ—mselves only the elect heaven are the Lords Proprietaries of all this worldly wealth and the reprobates being enemies unto God have no right unto any of Gods creatures and therefore they think they may lawfully take away the goods of those reprobates whom now they call Malignants and they have as good warrant for it as ever the Israelites had to spoil the Aegyptians for they tell us that Saint Paul which knew right from wrong tells them plainly that whether they be things present or things to come even all are yours and ye 1 Cor 3. 22 23 Christ's and Christ God's but they understand not that men have a double right unto these worldly goods 1. As Christians and so God as a mercifull That there is a double right to the things of this world Psal 104. 28. Matth. 5. 45. Father hath provided all things for them 2. As the Creatures of God and so God as a faithful Creator openeth his hand and filleth all things living with plenteousnessâ— and maketh his Sun to shine upon the just and upon the unjust and so the wicked have as good an interest in their estates as the godly and besides God hath not given them the power to distinguish who are the elect or who are reprobates And therefore if we have any regard of our goods that God hath given us we have great reason to look about us for these are the greatest Cheaters in Christendome and as they have made us Malignants so they will make us reprobates when they please that they may enjoy those things that we have 3. Because Balaam saith God beheld no iniquity in Jacob and the Apostle 3. They think themselves free from all sin Numb 23. 21. Tit. 1. 15. saith To the pure all things are pure they teach their Proselytes that in them which are the holy Brethren there is no sin and their adultery drunkenesse cozenage and the like odious crimes are no crimes because God loving them so tenderly as a fond mother seeth no fault in her untoward child so he takes no notice of any offence that they commit but for the ungodly their Prayers are sinnes their Alms are odious and whatsoever To the unbelieving nothing is pure Titus 1. 15. commendable duty they do perform God accounteth their best actions to be heinous transgressions and to adde the more weight of punishment to their damnation which Doctrine how abominable it is to God and how destructive to all men to make these holy Brethren and their sanctified Sisters senslesse in all sinnes uncapable of repentance when the whole hath Matth. 9. 12. no need of the Physitian and to discourage all other ignorant men from doing good duties when the performance of them shall multiply their stripes is so apparent to all men that I need not stand to confute it for if Coniah though he were the Signet upon my right hand or as the apple of mine eye Jer. 22. 24. Ezek. 33. 15. doth offend I will cut him off and if the wicked forsake his wickednesse and do that which is just love mercy and speak truth he shall be accepted and the Lord will not call light darknesse nor good evill in any one 4. Because our Saviour saith Our friend Lazarus sleepeth when as 4. They allow the women to offend while their husbands sleep Joh. 11. â—1 1 Cor. 7. 39. indeed he was dead and the Heathens say Sleep is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the brother of Death they take this colour to hide their adulteries that while the husband sleepeth the wife is as free from him as if he were dead a foolery so ridiculous that the naming of it is a sufficient confutation of it and yet you shall hardly withdraw our London-Anabaptists from it 5. Because Abraham said that Sarah was his Sister and Saint Paul said 5. They justify many kinds of lyes and equivocations Gen. 12 13. Acts 23. 5. I wist not brethren that he was the High Priest they hold it as an Article of their Creed that for officious lyes and equivocations being for the furtherance of their cause the good work which they pretend they may and ought to use them to swallow them down like water they make no bones of them and therefore it is dangerous to treat and weaknesse to give credit without sufficient pledges to the faith of these men whose profession may as lawfully deceive us as their Religion teacheth them to destroy us and I believe the experience which his Majesties Officers had of them in the performance of their promises and conditions of departure from Winchester Reading and other Townes surrendred unto them may sufficiently confirm this equivocall point of their Publique faith 6. Because the Lord straitly charged the Israelites to root out the wicked 6. They would root out all those that they term wicked Deut 7. 2. 1 Sam. 15. 23. Canaanites and the rest of those cursed Nations and translated the Kingdom of Israel from Saul unto David because he spared Agag and our Saviour bids us succidere ficum to cut down that unprofitable tree which bare no fruit they are so filled with such unmerciful cruelty towards all those they term wicked and judge Malignants that they had better fall into the hands of heathen Tyrants than of these their holy brethren who embruing their hands in the blood of so many faithful Christians do sing with the Psalmist The righteous rejoyce when they see this vengeance Psal 58 9. they shall wash their feet in the blood of the ungodly for as Solomon saith The tender mercies of the wicked are meer cruelty And I believe Prov. 12. 10. the first inventers of that Design to root out all
too great an interest as well in the faith as in the affections of the people in confidence of their own strength they came roundly to the businesse and what they knew was not their right as their former Petitions can sufficiently witnesse they resolve to effect the same by force but as insensibly as they can devise as 1. To seize upon the Kings Navie to secure the Seas 2. To lay hold upon all the Kings Magazine Forts Towns and Castles 3. To with-hold his moneys and revenues and all other means from the King 4. To withdraw the affections and to poyson the loyalty of all his Majesties Subjects from him And hereby they thought and it must have been so indeed except the Lord had been on his side they had made their hill so strong that it could not be moved and the King so weak and destitute of all means that he could no wayes subsist or relieve himself as a member of their own House did tell me for 1. They get the Eaâ—l of Warwick to be appointed Vice-Admiral of the 1. Earl of Warwiâ—k made Vice-Admiral Sea and commit all the Kings Navie into his hand and to take away that charge from Sir John Pennington whom most men believed to be far the better Sea-man but more faithful to his King and the other purer to the Parliament 2. They send Sir John Hotham a most insolent man that most uncivilly 2. Sir John Hotham put into Hull for the Magazine contemned the King to his face to seize upon the Kings Magazine that he bought with his own money when they might as well take away my horse that I paid for and to keep the King out of Hull which was his own proper Town and therefore might as well have kept him out of White-Hall and was an Act so full of injustice as that I scarce know a greater 3. Because moneys are great means to effect any worldly affaire and 3. They detained the Kings moneys Esay 1. 23. the sinews of every warre when as men and arms and all other necessaries may be had for money some of them and their followers shew themselves to be just as the Peers of Israel companions of thieves meer robbers which forcibly take away a mans mony from him they take all the Kings â—reasure they intercept detain and convert all the Kings revenues and customes to strengthen themselves against the King 4. Because their former Remonstrances framed by this faction of the 4. They labour to render the King odious by lyes ill government of this kingdom though in some things true which the King ingenuously acknowledgeth and most graciously promiseth to redresse them yet in all things full of gall and bitternesse against the King could not so fully poyson the love and loyalty of the Kings Subjects as they desired especially the love of those that knew his Majesty who the better they knew him did the more affectionately love him and the more faithfully serve him they thought to do it another and a surer way with apparent lyes palpable slanders and abominable accusations invented printed and scattered over all the parts of this kingdom by their Trencher Chaplains and parasitical Preachers and other Pamphleters some busie Lawyers and Pettifoggers to bring the King into an odium disliked and deserted of all his loving Subjects And what created power under heaven was able to dissolve that wickednesse which subtilty and malice had thus treacherously combined to bring to passe 1. Lye that he intended to war against the Parliament Hereupon after many threâ—tning votes and actual hostility exercised against his Royall person the King is forced to raise a guard for the defence of himself and those his good Subjects that attended him then presently that small guard that consisted but of the chief gentry of the Countrey was declared to be an Army raised for the subversion of the Parliament and the destruction of our native liberties an invincible Army is voted to be raised the Earl of Essex is chosen to be their Generall with whom they promise both to live and die the Earl of Bedford General of the Horse moneys are provided and all things are prepared to fetch the King and all delinquents or to be the death of all withstanders and that nothing might hinder this design though the King in many gracious Messages attested by the subscription of many noble Lords that were upon the place assared them he never intended any warre against his Parliament yet they proceed with all eagernesse and declare all those that shall assist the King either with Horse money or men to be malâ—gnants and enemies unto the King and Kingdome and such delinquâ—nts as shall be sure to receive condigne punishment by the Parliament Hoc mirum est hoc magnum And among the rest of their impudent slanders this was their Master-piece which they ever harped upon that he countenanced Papists and intended to bring Popery into this Kingdgm and to that end had an Army of Papists to assist him But to satissie any sensible man in this point I would crave the resolution of these two Questions 1. Whether every Papist that is subject to his Majesty is not bound to Two questionâ— to be resolved assist and defend his King in all his dangers 2. Whether the King should not protect his Subjects that are Papists in all their dangers so far as by the Law he ought to do it and accept of their service when he himself is invironed with dangers For first I believe there is no Law that inhibiteâ—h a Papist to serve his 1 All Paâ—ists bound to assist their King King against a Rebellion or to ride Post to tell the King of a Design to murder Him or any other intended Treason against Him or being present to takeaway a weapon from that man that attempted to kill the King because his not coming to Church doth not exempt him from his Allegianâ—e or discharge him of his duty and service unto the King and therefore if a â—â—eet from France or Spain or any other forreign part should invade us or any Rebellion at home should rise against his Soveraign and seek to destroy those Lawes and Liberties whereof himself and his Posterity hath as good an inâ—erest to as any other Subject I say he is bound by all Laws to assiâ—t his King and to do his best endeavour both with his purse and in his person not only to oppose that external Invasion but also to subdue as well that home-bred Rebellion as the forreigâ— Invasion 2. If a Papist should be injured his estate seized upon his house plundered 2. The King bound to proâ—ecâ—â—uâ—iful Papists dered and his person if taken imprisoned not because he transgressed any other Law but that he dispenceth not with the Law of His conscience to be no Papist and being thus injured should come unto his King and say I am your Subject and have lived dutifully I did nothing which
no absolute prohibition of such imployments in any place but as it might be a hinderance to discharge his office or otherwise Saint Paul's Tent-making was as much against the calling of an Apostle as the sitting in a secular tribunal is against the office of a Bishop because there is no reason we should deny that benefit to a publick necessitated community which we will yeeld to a private personal necessity And so indeed these very men that cry out against our Bishops and other The Presbyterians will be the directors of all affaires grave Prelates of the Church for the least medling in these civil affaires do not onely suffer their own Preachers to strain at a gnat but also to swallow a Camel when M. Henderson Marshal Case and the rest of their new inspired Prophets shall sit as Presidents in all their Counsels and Committees of their chiefest affaires and consultations either about War or Peace or of any other civil cognizance how these things can be answered to deny that to us which they themselves do practise I cannot understand when as the light of Nature tells us Quod tibi vis fieri mihi fac quod non mihi noli Sic potes in terris vivere jure poli * Vnde Baldus jubeâ— ut quis in alios non aliter judicet quà m in se judicari vellet And therefore when as there is no politick Philosophy no imperial constitution nor any humane invention that doth or can so strictly binde the consciences of men unto subjection and true obedience as the Doctrine of the Gospel and no man can perswade the people so much unto it as the Preachers of Gods word as it appeareth by this Rebellion perswaded by the false Preachers because the Principles of Philosophy and the Laws of many nations do permit many things to be done against tyrants which the Religion of Christ and the true Bishops of Gods Church do flatly inhibit it is very requisite and necessary for all Christian How requisite it is for Kings to delegate civil affaires unto their Clergie Kings both for the glory of God their own safety and the happiness of the Common-wealth to desend this their own right and the right of the Clergy to call them into their Parliaments and Counsels and to demise certain civil causes and affairs to the gravest Bishops and the wisest of the Ministers and not suffer those Rebellious Anabaptists and Brownists that have so disloyally laboured to pull off the Crown from their Kings head to bury all the glory of the Church in the dust to bring the true Religion into a scorn and to deprive the King of the right which is so necessary for his safety and so useful for the Government of his people that is the service of his Clergy in all civil Courts and Councils And as it is the Kings right to call whom he pleaseth into his Parliaments and That it is the Kings right to give titles of honour to whom he pleaseth Councils and to delegate whom he will to discharge the office of a civil or Ecclesiastical magistrate or both wheresoever he appoints within his Realms and Dominions so it is primarily in his power and authority and his regal right to give titles of honour and dignity to those officers and magistrates whom he chooseth for though the Barbarians acknowledge no other distinction of Persons but of Master and Servants which was the first punishment for the first contempt of our Superiors therefore their Kings do raign and domineer Gen. 9. 25. over their Subjects as Masters do over their servants and the Fathers of â—amilies have the same authority over their Wives and Children as ouer the Saravia â— 28. p. 194. slaves and vassals and the Muscovites at the day do rule after this manner neither is the great Empire of the Turke much unlike this Government and generally all the Eastern Kingdomes were ever â—of this kinde and kept this rule over all the Nations whom they Conquered and many of them do still retain it to these very times Yet our Westerne Kings whom charity hath â—aught better and made them milder and especially the Kings of this Island which in the sweetness of Government exceeded all other Kings as holding it their The milde government of our Kings chiefest glory to have a free people subject unto them and thinking it more Honourable to command over a free then a servile nation have conferred upon their subjects many titles of great honour which the â—earned Gentleman M. Sâ—lden hath most Learnedly treated of and therefore I might well be silent in this point and not to write Iliads after Homer if this title of Lord given by His Majesty unto our Bishops for rone but he hath any right to give it did Of the Title of Lord. not require that I should say something thereof touching which you must observe that this name dominus is of divers significations and is derived à domo as Zanchius observeth where every man is a Lord of that house and possession which he holdeth and it hath relation also to a servant so that this name is ordinarily given among the Latinists to any man that is able to keep servants and so it must needs appear how great is the malice I cannot say the ignorance when every school-boy knowes it of those Sectaries that deny this title to be consistent with the calling of a Bishop which indeed cannot be denyed to any man of any ordinary esteeme But they will say that it signifieth also rule and authority and so as it is a title of rule and Dominion it is the invention of Antichrist the doration of the Devill and forbidden by our Saviour where he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 22. 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 16. 30. that is in effect be not you called gracious Lords or benefactors which is the proper signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore these titles of honour are not fit for the Preachers of the Gospell to puffe them up with pride and to make them swell above their brethren It is answered that if our Saviours words be rightly understood and his That there is a double rule or dominion meaning not maliciously perverted neither the authority of the Bishops nor the title of their honour is forbidden for as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a title of dominion so it is fit to be ascribed to them unto whom the Lord and author of all rule and dominion hath committed any rule or Government over his People and our Saviour forbiddeth not the same because you may finde that there is a double rule and dominion the one just and approved the other tyrannicall and disallowed and the tyrannicall rule or as S. Peter saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the domineering 1 Pet. 5. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 authority over Gods inheritance both Christ and his Apostles do â—orbid but the just rule and
the first of the three Presidents that were over all these And what shall I say of Ahashuerus and all other kings All kings chuse their own Officers Heathens Jewes or Christians that ever kept this power to chuse their own servants Counsellors and Officers except they were infant Kings in their nonage and so not able to chuse them But you will say that our Histories tell you how Ric. 2. Edw. 2. and others Ob. of our Kings had their Officers appointed and themselves committed unto Guardians by the Parliament therefore why may not our Parliament do the like in case of male-administration I answer that I speak of the right of kings and not justifie the wrongs done Sol. 2 Reg. 19. 37. to Kings Adramelech and Sharezer killed Sennacherib their own Father is it therefore lawfull for other children so to do Why should we therefore alleadge those things Quae insolentiâ populari quae vi quae furore non ad imitationem exemplo proponenda sed justo legum supplicio vindicanda sunt which should rather have been revenged by the just punishment of the Law then proposed to be imitated by the example Therefore I say that whosoever abridgeth the King of this power robbeth him of that right which God and nature hath allowed him whereby you may judge how justly the Parliamentary faction would have dealt herein with our King by forcing Counsellors and great Officers upon him but I hope you see it is the Kings right to chuse his Servants Officers and Counsellors what manner of men he should chuse Jethro setteth down And I have most fully described True Church lib. 6. c. 4. c. the qualities and conditions that they should be indued withall in my True Church 2. As our Sectaries differ much from the true Divines about the choyce so 2. Difference about the power of the subordinate Magistrates they differ much more about the power of these subordinate officers and inferiour Magistrates for we say they are alwayes to be obedient to the supreme power or otherwise ejus est deponere cujus est constituere he can displace them that hath appointed them or if you say no because I cited you a place out of Bellarmine where he saith the Souldiers had power to refuse their Emperour while he was in fieri to be elected but not when he was in facto fully chosen and made Emperour so the King hath power to chuse them but not to displace them I answer briefly that in creating or constituting our inferiours we may but our superiour we may not because inferiours in the judgment of all men have no None can depose him in whom the supreme Majesty resideth jurisdiction over their superiours And therefore elective Kings are not deposeable in a Monarchicall government where the supreme power resides in the Monarch though perhaps the Kings of Lacedemon might be justly deposed because by the constitution of their Kingdome the supreme power was not in their Kings but in their Ephori But our new Sectaries out of Junius Brutus Burcher Althusius Knox and Cartwright teach very devoutly but most safely that in case of defailance to do his duty they may with the Tribunes of Rome or the Dâ—marchi at Athens censure and depose him too if they see just cause for the same To confute which blasphemous doctrine against God and so pernicious and Blacvod c. 33. p. 285. Grand Rebellion c. 7. p. 52. dangerous to this State though others have done it very excellently well already and I have formerly shewed the absurdity of it in my Grand Rebellion yet because all books come not to every hand I will say somewhat of it in this place If these Counsellours Magistrates Parliament call them what you will have any power and authority it must be either subordinate coordinate or supreme 1. If subordinate I told you before they can have no power over their superiour 1 Subordinate officers can have no power over their superioâ—s because all inferiour Magistrates are Magistrates onely in respect of those that are under their jurisdiction because to them they represent the King and supply the office of the King but in reference to the King they are but private persons and Subjects that can challenge no jurisdiction over him 2. If they be supreme then Saint Peter is much mistaken to say the King is supreme 2. that neither Peers noâ— Parliament can have the supremacy None above the king at any time and they do ill to disclaime this supremacy when in all their Petitions not disjunctively but as they are an united body they say Your Majesties humble Subjects the Lords and Commons in Parliament and besides they are perjur'd that deny it after they have taken the Oath of supremacy where every one saith I A. B. do utterly testifie and declare in my conscience that the Kings Highness is the onely supreme Governour of this Realme c. But this is further and so fully proved out of Bracton the nature of all the Subjects tenures and the constitution of this government by the Authour of The unlawfulness of Subjects taking up armes against their Soveraigne that more needs not be spoken to any rational man Yet because this point is of such great concernment and the chiefest argument they have out of Bracton is that he saith Rex habet superiorem legem curiam suam comites Barones quia comites dicuntur quasi socii The Sectaries chiefest argument out of Bracton fully answered Regis qui habet socium habet magistrum ideò si Rex fuerit sine frâ—no id est sine lege debent ei fraenum ponere nisi ipsimet fuerint cum rege sine fraeno and all this makes just nothing in the World for them if they had the honesty or the learning to understand it right for what is above the King the Law and the Court of Earles and Barons but how are they above him as the Preacher is above the King when he preacheth unto him or the Physician when he gives him Physick or the Pilot when he sayleth by Sea that is quoad rationem consulendi non cogendi they have superioritatem directivam non coactivam How the Law and the Court of Barons is above the King for so the teacher is above him that is taught and the Counsellor above him that is counselled that is by way of advice but not by way of command and to shew you that this is Bractons true meaning I pray you consider his words Comites dicuntur quasi socii they are as his fellows or Peeres not simply but quasi and if they were simply so yet they are but socii not superiours and what can socii do not command for par in parem non habet potestatem that is praecipiendi otherwise you must confesse habet potestatem consulendi therefore Bracton addes qui habet socium habet magistrum that is a teacher not a commander and
to make this yet more plain he addes Si Rex fuerit sine fraeno id est lege if the King be without a bridle that is saith he lest you should mistake what he meanes by the bridle and thinke he meanes force and armes the Law they ought to put this bridle unto him that is to presse him with this Law and still to shew him his duty even as we do both to King and people saying this is the Law this should bridle you but here is not a word of commanding much lesse of forcing the King not a word of superiority nor yet simply of equality and therefore I must say hoc argumentum nihil ad rhombum 3 That neither Peers nor Parliament are co-ordinate with the King these do abuse every author If their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I speak not of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their natural strength and power but of their right and authority be coordinate and equal with the Kings authority then whether given by God which they cannot prove or by the people there must be duo summa imperia two supreme powers which the Philosophers say cannot be nam quod summum est unum est from whence they prove Omnâ—sque Philosoph jâ—riâ—consalti ponunt summum in eo rerum genere quod dicâ—di non possit Lâ—ctanâ— l. 1. c. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Maâ—c 3. 24 the unity of the God-head that there can be but one God and if this supreme power be divided betwixt King and Parliament you know what the Poet saith Omnisque potestas Impatiens consortis erit Or you may remember what our Saviour saith If a Kingdome be divided against it selfe it cannot stand and therefore when Tiberius out of his wonted subtilty desired the Senate to appoint a colleague and partner with him for the better administration of the Empire Asinius Gallus that was desirous enough of their Pristine liberty yet understanding well with what minde the subtle fox spake onely to descry his ill willers after some jests answered seriously 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that government must not be divided because you can never have any happiness where the power is equally divided in two parts when according to the well known axiome to every one Par in parem non habet potestatem But to make the matter cleare and to shew that the Soveraignty The Case of our Affaires p. 19. 20. The Lawes of our Land acknowledge all Soveraignty in the King is inseperably inherent in the person of His Majesty we have the whole current of our very Acts of Parliament acknowledging it in these very termes Our Soveraigne Lord the King and the Parliament 25. Hen. 8. saith This your Graces Realme recognizing no superiour under God but your Grace c. And the Parliament 16. Rich. 2. 5. affirmeth the Crown of England to have been so free at all times that it hath been in no earthly subjection but immediately to God in all things touching the regality of the said Crown and to none other and in the 25. of Hen. 5. the Parliament declareth that it belongeth to the Kings regality to grant or deny what Petitions in Parliament he pleaseth and so indeed whatsoever authority is in the constant practice of the Kingdom or in the known and published Laws and Statutes it concludeth the Soveraignty to be fixed in the King and all the Subjects virtually united in the representative body of the Parliament to be obliged in obedience allegeance to the individual person of the King and I doubt not but our learned Lawyers can finde much more proofe then I do out of their Law to this purpose And therefore seeing divers supreme powers are not compatible in one State nor allowable in our State the conceit of a mixed Monarchy is but a foppery to prove the distribution of the supreme power into two sorts of governours equally indued with the same power because the supreme power being but one must be placed in one sort of governours either in one numericall man as it is in Monarchy or in one specificall kinde of men as the optimates as it is in Aristocracie or in the people as in Democracie but if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a mixed Monarchy you meane that this supreme power is not simply absolute quoad omnia but a government limited and regulated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we will not much quarrell with our Sectaries because His Majesty hath promised and we are sure he will performe it to govern his people according to the Lawes of this Land And therefore they that would rob the King of this right and give any part They deserve not to live in the Kingdom that diminish the supremacy of the King of his supreme power to the Parliament or to any of all his inferiour Magistrates deserve as well to be expelled the Kingdome as Plato would have Homer to be banished for bringing in the Gods fighting and disagreeing among themselves when as Ovid out of him saith Jupiter in Trojam pro Troja stabat Apollo Because as the Civilians say Naturale vitium est negligi quod communiter possidetur útque se nihil habere putet qui totum non habeat suam partem corrumpi patiatur dum invidet alienae and therefore the same Homer treating of our humane Government saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nec multos regnare bonum rex unicus esto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Aristotle doth so infinitely commend where he disputeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Metaph. lib. 1. Statius Thebaid lib. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so doth Plato and all the wise Philosophers that followed after because as the Poâ—t saith Summo dulcius unum Stare loco sociâ—sque comes discordia regnis And as our own most lamentable experience sheweth what abundance of miseries happened unto our selves by this renting of the King's power and placing it in the hands of the Parliament and his own inferiour officers and as those sad Tragedies of Etheocles and Polynices Numitor and Amulius Romulus and Remus Antoninus and Geta and almost infinite more do make it manifest to all the world §. The two chiefest parts of the regal Government the four properties of a just war and how the Parliamentary faction transgresse in every property 4. HAving spoken of those assistants that should further and not hinder 4 The chiefest parts of the Regal government which are two Exod. 2. 14. the King in the Common-wealth it resteth that I should now speak of the chiefest parts of this goâ—ernment when Moses killed the Aegyptian that wronged the Israelite and the next day said unto the Hebrew that did injure his fellow Wherefore smitest thou him the oppressor answered Who made thee a Prince and a Judge over us and the people say unto Samuel we will have a King over us that our King may judge us and go out before us and 1 Sam. 8. 20. 2 Sam. 5. 2.
justly belong quia non jam haereditas est sed proprium adeuntis patrimonium cujus ei pleno jure dominium acquiritur non à Patre non à populo sed à lege Because he hath this right unto the Crown not from his Father nor from the people but from the Law of the Land and from God himself which appointed him for the same saith the Civilian and therefore that vulgar saying is not absurd nunquam mori Regem That the King never dyeth for as soone as ever the one parteth with this life the other immediately without exspecting the consent either of Peeres or people doth by a just and plenary right succeed not onely as his fathers heir but as the lawful governour of the people and as the Lord of the whole kingdome not by any option of any men but by the condition of his birth and the donation of his God and therefore the resignation of the Crown by King John unto the Pope was but a fiction that could infer no diminution of the right of his successour because no King can give away this right from him whom God hath designed for it And there be some things which no Christian King should grant away as any of those things that being granted may prejudice the Church of God things that the King should not grant and depresse the glory of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as the giving way for the diminution of the just revenues of the Church the prophanation of things consecrated to Gods service and the suppression of any of the divine callings of the Gospel which are Bishops Priests and Deacons because all kings are bound to honour God and to hinder all those things whereby he is dishonoured either in respect of things persons or places And there be some things which the Kings of this realm have never granted Things that kings have not granted away away but have still retained them in their own hands as inviolable prerogatives and characteristical Symboles and Properties of their Supremacy and the relicks of their pristine right as in the time of peace those two special parts of the gouernment of the Common-wealth which do consist 1. About the Laws 1. About the Lawes 2. About the Magistrates The first whereof saith Arnisaeus containeth these particulars that is to make Lawes to create Nobility and give titles of dignity to legitimate the ill begotten to grant Priviledges to restore Offenders to their lost repute to pardon the transgressors and the like 1. Then it is the right of the King jura dare to give Laws unto his people for though as I said before the Subjects in Parliament may treat of Lawes 1. Jus Legislativum Johan Beda pag. 25. The power of making Lawes is in the King and intreat the King to approve of them that they propose unto him yet they are no Laws and carry with them no binding force till the King gives his consent and therefore out of Parliament you see the Kings Proclamation hath vim vigorem legis the full force and strength of a Law to shew unto us that the power of making Lawes was never yeilded out of Kings hands nor can it indeed be parted with except he part with His Majesty and Soveraignty for the The case of our affaires pag. 11. limiting of his own power by his voluntary concession of such favours unto his people not to make any Lawes without their consent doth no way diminish his Soveraignty or lessen his own right and authority but as a man that yeildeth Stat. West 1. 3. E. 1. 3. 6. 42. Stat. of Merch. 13. E. 1. West 3. 18. E. 1. 1. Stat. of Waste 20. E. 1. of appeale 28. E. 1. 1. E. 2. 1. and all the titles and acts of our Parliaments himself to be bound by some others hath the use of his strength taken from him but none of his naturall strength it self is lessened and much lesse is any part of it transferred to them that bound him but that whensoever his bonds are loosened he can work again by vertue of his own naturall strength and not by any received strength from his loosers so the naturall right and interest of the Soveraignty being solely in the King and the Peeres and Commons by the Kings voluntary concession being onely interessed in the office of restraining his power for the more regular working of the true legitimate Soveraignty it cannot be denyed but in whatsoever the Peeres and Commons do remit the restraint by yeilding their consent to the point proposed thâ— King worketh and acteth therein absolutely by the power of his own inherent Soveraignty and all acts and lawes so passing doe virtually proceed from the King as from the true How the same acts may be said to be the acts of the King and of the Parliament and proper efficient author thereof and may notwithstanding be said to be the acts of the whole Court because the three estates contribute their power of remitting the restraint and yeilding their assent as well as the King useth his unrestrained power And therefore Suarez saith that as condere legem unus est ex praecipuis actibus gubernationis reipublicae ita praecipuam superiorem requirit potestatem to make Lawes is one of the chiefest acts of the government of a Common-wealth so it Suarez l. 1. c. 8 n. 8. requireth the cheifest and supremest power and authority quae quidem potestas legislativa primariò in Deo est which legislative power is primarily in God and is communicated unto Kings saith he per quandam participationem according to the saying of the wise man Heare O ye Kings because power is given Sap. 6. unto you of the Lord. And Saint Augustine calleth Jura humana jura imperatorum quia ipsa jura humana per imperatores all humane lawes are the lawes Aug. in Joan. tract 6. of Emperors or Kings because they are made by them and the Holy Ghost speaking of the Kings of Judah saith The Scepter shall not depart Gen. 49. 10. from Judah nor a Lawgiver from between his feet to teach us that whosoever swayeth the Scepter hath the right to be the Law-maker which is one of the prime prerogatives of Soveraignty 2. Jus nobilitandi the right of appointing the principall Officers of State 2. Ius nobilitandi to cry up any of all his Subjects whom the King will honour as Pharaoh did Joseph and Ahasuerus did Haman and Mordecai and to give them titles of honour per codicillos honorarios aut per dâ—plomata sua as to make Dukes Marquesses Barons Knights c. doth belong onely unto the King that hath onely the supreme Majesty But if the Dukes Earles and Barons be so plyable to the Puritan faction to It is the Doctrine of the Anabaptists and Puritans that there should be no Degrees of Schooles nor titles of honour among men put down the spiritual Lords I doubt
obliged to perform such a promise or to keep such an oath to tell you mine own judgement I think he ought not to perform it and our own Law tels us what grants soever are obtained from the King under the broad Seal by fraud and deceit those grants are void in Law therefore seeing the Act for the perpetuity of this Parliament was obtained dolâ— pessimo to the great dishonour of God and the ruine both of Church and State when their pretence was very good though the goodness of his Majesty in the tenderness of his conscience was still loath to allow himself the liberty to dissolve it until he had other juster and more clear causes to pronounce it no Parliament as the abusing of his grant to the raising of an Army and the upholding of a Rebellion against their Soveraign yet I believe he might safely have done it long agone without the least violation of God's Law when their evil intentions were openly discovered by those Armies which they raised For I doubt not to affirm it with the Authour of The sacred Prerogative of Christian Kings p. 144. if any good Prince or his royal Ancestors have been cheated out of their sacred right by fraud or force he may at the fittest opportunity when God in his wise providence offereth the occasion resume it especially when the Subjects do abuse the King's concessions to the dammage of Soveraignty so that it redounds also to the prejudice either of the Church or Common-wealth 3. When the King through fear not such as the Parliaments fear is who 3. Grants gotten by force not to be observed were afraid where no fear was and were frighted with dreames and causelesse jealousies but that fear which is real and not little but such as may fall in fortem constantem virum doth passe any Law especially that is prejudicial to the Church and injurious to many of his Subjects I say that when he shall be freed from that fear he is not onely freed from the obligation of that Law but he is also obliged to do his uttermost endeavour to annul the same it is true that his fear may justly free him from all blame at the passing of it as the fear of the thief may clear me from all fault in delivering my purse unto him because these are no voluntary acts and all acts are adjudged good or evil according to the disposition of the will the same being like the golden bridle The will must never consent to forced acts that are unlawful His Majesties answer to the Petition of the Lords and Commons 16. Julii p. 8. that Minerva was said to put upon Pegasus to guide him and to turn him as she pleased but when his fear is past and God hath delivered him from the insurrection of wicked doers if his will gives consent to what before he did unwilling who can free the greatest Monarch from this fault Therefore His Majesty confessing which we that saw the whole proceedings of those tumultuous routs that affrighted all the good Protestants and the Loyal Subjects do know that it could not be otherwise that he was driven out of London for fear of his life I conclude that the act of excluding the Bishops out of Parliament being past after his flight out of London can be no free nor just nor lawful act and the King when he is more fully informed of many particulars about this act that is so prejudicial to the Church of Christ and so injurious to all his servants the Clergy whose rights and priviledges the King promised and sware at His Coronation to maintain cannot continue it in my judgement and be innocent But this is answered by the answerer to Doctour Ferne that he is no more Ob. Pag. 31. bound to defend the rights of the Clergy by his oath then the râ—st of the Lawes formerly enacted whereof any may be abrogated without perjury when they are desired to be annulled by the Kingdome To which I say that as His Majesty confesseth there are two speciall questions Sol. His Majesties answer to the â—eâ—onstrance or declaration of the Lords and Commons 26. of May 1642. demanded of the king at His Coronation 1. Sir Will you grant and keep and by your oath confirm to the people of England the Lawes and Customes to them granted by the Kings of England your lawfull and religious predecessors And the king answereth I grant and promise to keep them 2. After such questions as concerne all the commonalty of this kingdome both Clergy and Laity as they are his Subjects one of the Bishops reads this admonition to the king before the people with a loud voice Our Lord and King we beseech you to pardon and to grant and to preserve unto us and to the Churches committed to our charge all Canonicall priviledges and due law and justice and that you would protect and defend us as every good King in His Kingdome ought to be the protector and defender of the Bishops and the Churches under their Government And the king answereth With a willing and devout heart I promise and grant my pardon and that I will preserve and maintaine to you and the Churches committed to your charge all Canonicall Priviledges and due law and Justice and that I will be your Protector and defender to my power by the assistance of God as every good king in His kingdome in right ought to protect and defend the Bishops and Churches under their Government The Kings Oath at His Coronation two-fold Then the king laying his hand upon the book saith the things which I have before promised I shall performe and keep so helpe me God and the contents of this Book Where I beseech all men to observe that here is a two-fold promise and so a two-fold oath 1. The one to all the Commonalty and people of England Clergy and Laity The first part of the Oath Populâ— Anglicaâ—o Vide D. p. 165. and so whatsoever he promiseth may by the consent of the parties to whom the right was transferred be remitted and altered by the representative body in Parliament quia volenti non fit injuria and the rule holds good quibus modis contrahitur contractus iiâ—dem dissolvitur and therefore as any compact or contract is made good and binding so it may be made void and dissolved mutuo contrahentium â—ssensu by the mutuall assent of both parties that is any compact where God hath not a speciall interest in the contract as he hath in the conjugall contract betwixt man and wife and the politicke covenant betwixt the Contracts wherein God is interessed cannot be dissolved without God King and His Subjects which therefore cannot be dissolved by the consent of the parties untill God who hath the cheifest hand in the contract gâ—ves his assent to the dissolution and so when things are dedicated for the service of God or Priviledges granted for his honour neither donor nor receiver can alienate