a disposition to a habit and a habit to it self 'T is true there wanted time and preparations to make it a perfect War and neither WESTMINSTER nor LONDON were a fit scene for War the preparations were elswhere made in many parts of the Kingdom by men who have been active for His party and large contributors to this War against the Parliament have evidenced the symptomes of a War and their assistance whensoever it should be waged To prove the Kings assertion that He in His Person intended no War divers of His Nobility then attending Him have * See their Attestation at York Iune 1642. attested it under their hand writing which the Court of Parliament urges as too light a proof to discharge their Trust or to secure three Kingdoms by a Civil War being then in agitation the seed already sown Who may they say can witnesse or be security for another mans intentions for what another man doth purpose in his heart or who being present with the King dare call in question His sincerity t is all one to tell Him He is false or wicked a Kings anger is as the roaring of a Lyon If two or three begin what third fourth or more will refuse to joyn in the attesting it being present there His Majesties heart may be peaceable and sincere but a Certificate from those Lords is no Medium to prove it so Those Lords it 's like had a cheap esteem of their fellow-Lords and Commons and might well think fit rather to be quarrelled then joyned with if the Parliament the supreamest Court of Judicature and Trust shall so slighly discharge their Trust as to place the Peace and security of three Kingdoms on so easie a proof as a few though very Honorable Gentlemen to deliver what their opinion barely was concerning the Kings intentions a discord arising and a Civil War in view His Majesty exasperated as it was feared a party ready to joyn with Him some whereof having taken part with Him in His first assault others of the like condition to assist Him on pretence of Loyalty the Parliament Members many of them being accused of high misdemeanors and few scarce free from the incursion of His Majesties displeasure the debate concerning the Earl of Straffords trial being scarse wiped out were necessitated as well in their own defence as in the peoples involved in theirs to take up Arms to keep off those storms already acted and attempted which if they had not done and timously provided a face of War appearing against the like assaults it would have been thought a weaknesse of spirit or want of prudence if they had desisted besides the happinesse as to us which probably might have accrewed by the assembling a Parliament must have turned unto much unhappinesse by the affronting and overthrowing this as to the Parliament how incompetent it had been to their judgement in case the Trust reposed in them and the important Affairs of the Kingdom the end of their Assembling should have miscarried through their credulity to have made no better return of their wisdom the peoples trust then for them to have excused the same by saying We had not thought it would have so faln out As to the Acts of Violence and Injustice practised by the partakers in this War as of Robbing Spoyling and the like who first began the Kings party or the Parliaments They accuse each other of the first breach of Justice The Kings party aver The Lady Savage's House in ESSEX to be the first which was assaulted and spoyled of much of her Goods and Houshold-stuffe to an exceeding value Whether so or not or the Earl of Stamfords House in Leicestershire as the Parliament party urges the case is of a differing quality For howbeit there may be Injustice in the one as in the other act of Pillaging The Lady Savage being a known and convict Recusant a Law in force for disarming Papists and His Majesties Proclamation of Displeaâ—ure published the year before against Recusants c. the people suspecting their strength and opportunity to increase and supposing her preparations might be therefore made the better to enable her self against the Law remembring also His Majesties Proclamation did in pursuance of such Law and Proclamation without any Superior Warrant assault and Pillage her as is urged These particular acts could not but foreshew a war which since hath happened and setting those aside the Question is on which side the offensive is The extreme terms and parties in this Quarrel are a Delinquent party on the one and a Parliament a Court of Judicature on the other side or if the King will against His Subjects will and their humble importuning Him make himself a party betwixt a King and the greater part of His Kingdom the Parliament only the Umpire to judge and moderate the Quarrel A War thus happening and parties thus engaged 't is not now who first intended an Offensive who a Defensive War but who first executed a Warlike act or appeared modo guerrino which the Laws do forbid to Subjects and the King the Defender of those Laws to make the offended party provide for themselves the King against the Parliament or the Parliament against the King The Parliament to bring offendors unto Tryal the end and reason of their Assembling to sit as a speculative and ignavous Court or to dissolve as having nothing within their Power to do could not in an ordinary and usual course summon and reach offendors Themselves proscribed and proclaimed against as Traytors were enforced to take up Arms as well for their own as the peoples safety which if they did not and in time provide against their Ruine they had had no other Reward for the present but pity from their Friends and scorn from their Enemies The future inconveniences might have been as fatal like a Consumption leisurely to spend the body or as a Civil War like a burning Feaver suddenly to kill it They then upon foresight of what they could not avoid but either to pursue the Justice of their Cause by Arms or to desist and submit to the mercy of their Enemies provide and send forth an able faithful General proved by his Prowesse in rescuing and relieving a besieged * GLOUCESTER stoutly and like an expert Commander relieved without as vigilantly and valiantly defended by the Governor within Town or Fort when the Enemy had well nigh prevailed Next after him they send forth another Puissant and Dexterous in his Atchievements with other Officers and Commanders belonging to an Army hazarding their own persons and Estates to try whether the Countreys which have chosen and sent them on their work would now defend and assist them in imminence of danger in the Cause of maintaining the Laws the Subjects Liberty the Power and Priviledge of Parliament In the Interruption of whose Endeavors a War is waged a Conflict entred into two parties opposite engaged and the Victory hath been therefore doubtful by reason of
the People and will no question that Power the Parliament which governs them This will suffer some such like infamy by their accusers either of Hypocriticum Indoctum Sacrilegum or Unjustum and their Enemies are framing Indictments to all four Hypocriticum as pretending good but intending ill to the King and State an ordinary charge cast on them by his party yea of Counterfeiting also in that they do connive at Truths suppressed and Falshoods printed in their quarters of the several Chances of the War c. The permitting which were indeed blame-worthy were it a matter of much moment or competent to their leisure from weightier Affairs to cure forth with all Faults in matter of Fact the rather whereas they are sure that no ill successe either of losing Forts of having the worst of it sometimes in skirmishes or the like accidents incident to War can deter their firm and constant Friends resolving to resemble the Souldiers of * Paul Emil. in vitam Car. 7 Charles the seventh so far from shrinking at the terror of an ill Omen that they resolved to encounter all hard chances in Battel with increase of Courage Indoctum as for opposing the Bishops the highest Order in the Clergy and other Schollers The Parliament seems invective in their Accusers eye against all learning Sacrilegum as some of their Enemies have from a far fetched Metaphor tearmed them because of taking away the plurality of Church-Livings Injustum in that they have condemned Malefactors whereof their Enemies have given a pledge already See their Declaration printed 1643. in that the Assembly at OXFORD in their writings of offering Peace hath charged the Parliaments friends with imprisoning two * Earl of Chesterfield and Lord Montague Lords Northward for their loyalty to the King Such and the like calumnies are like to be their fate in case they are vanquished But to return and view the charge whereof the King and his party are suspected which before it be treated on The duty required from the people by the two contesting parts the King the Parliament is examinable seeing a War is waged and such a one as dissolves all laws and the quarrel so bitterly pursued betwixt the King and the Parliament both requiring Subjection and obedience which is to be obeyed the King a supreme but single person or the Parliament the representative body of the Kingdom in number many which to be obeyed in point of safety and conscience But first to make the Question the more clear take these * The peoples Plea collections from a learned Divine That the King hath His Power from the Kingdom therefore His Authority which Tearms though commonly confounded if distinguished makes clear the matter For Authority is a Right and Lawfulnesse to command Obedience such as all Governors and Magistrates have more or lesse But Power is a lawful Ability to force obedience where upon command it is denied one may have a just and lawful right to command that wants compulsive means for Coertion others may have strength to force commonly called Power that wants Authority to command and Power is that which in all Government bears the sway Wherefore in the Scripture Rom. 13. and elswhere it is taken concretively for the Governors and Magistrates themselves which have power at command to force Obedience to their Commands Now there is no doubt but the King hath ful Authority to command according unto Law all such as are subject to Him by Law but if upon His command obedience be denied whence hath he lawful power to enforce obedience whence hath He His Power to make good His Authority but from the people He cannot have it from Himself being but one man To keep a strong guard of some of His people to impugn and force the rest must needs produce Commotions Insurrections and a Civil-War If of strangers the Philosopher and others who write of Policy Aristot will tell you it is Tyranny nor is such ability Potestas but vis violence not power because unlawful when vis and Potestas or vis and jus do clash and skirmish the consequence is dangerous To keep an Army on foot continually under other pretences thereby to affright and force the Subjects is litle better therefore the Kings power must needs come from His own peoples hands and strength and from the same people must come His Authority If any other should give him Authority that were not able to make it good by power it were given Him in vain nor were the people bound to make that good which themselves gave not whence He hath His power then from thence He must needs receive His Authority even from the Kingdom To Safety a Common-wealth is best provided for by Councel Councel confists of number in which is safety That foresees contrives concludes not that they are void of Error King and Parliament both may erre whilest humane joyntly and dividedly but which most prone to Error the Head without the consent of the Heart being one or the faculties of the Heart without the help of the Head if possibly to be severed being many 'T is resolved Securius expediuntur negotia commissa pluribus oculi plus vident quam oculus which is not construed of the quantity of degree as which is highest which greatest but of the quantity of number which most probable to provide for the common good one or many If it be objected That the King hath a Councel viz. his Privy Councel to assist and consult with Ans This is by the King in his Person chosen always or for the most part attending on his Court and Person That of Parliament by the free suffrages of the whole Kingdom and how fitly when the condition and affairs thereof are subject only to the capacity and knowledge of the Parliament the Members thereof dwelling in all or most parts of the Kingdom whereby to have cognisance of what concerns the whole Yea let this be taken for granted as advantage to his Majesties party whether so or not That the Major part of the Peers and Gentry are now with the King in some other place then where he first Summoned them Admit it be true yet that they were called by his Writ to attend the service at a certain place and time and both place and time named in that Writ where the Attendance is according to that Summons and they having all there met accordingly the place and time do define and limit the Action denominating those the Parliament which there reside For howbeit a great number be come away from the place whereto they were first Summoned whether solicited awed or otherwise engaged the residing part to that number which now sit there make a full Parliament 'T is no marvel if their number shall decrease their courage fail them when so proclaimed against and threatned as might terrifie men of much resolution and constancy when their Posterities and Estates are exposed to Ruine all possible means of
power the passage is short and not unfitly quoted of the Earl of Warwick his contest with King Hen. 6. who directing his Privy-Seal for discharging the Earl of his Captain-ship of CALLIS the Earl refusing continued his office his reason was that it was granted him by a Parliament Whereto it may be objected that might be a personal contumacy in the Earl which proves not the Authority of that Court therefore not binding other Subjects yet this objection may be replyed unto that the Earl knew on what ground and by what judgement his refusing it was granted The Court of Parliament is not hereby so adored or prized nor are they so fond of their own Acts and Ordinances as to think them absolutely pure and unchangeably perfect or to derive the blessing of successe on their designs for the merit of their actions inuring for the present either in abrogating ancient or constituting new Acts and Ordinances which they may retract as occasion shall serve but to the Justice of their endeavourings which were they able to make good their proper and total power they would ere this have terminated and reduced their Acts into established Laws It is probable that many of those ancient usuages and Constitutions which they for reasons best known to themselves have for the present altered will revert and turn them to their former being without utterly abrogating the same To conclude and settle the doubtful and wavering Judgements had touching the power and Authority of this Court the aforecited * Sir Ed. Cook Oracle of Law hath delivered at large in his fourth Book of Institutes who wrote it in a calm and quiet time when there was no need to defend the Authority thereof Besides the preamble to the Statute concerning Parliaments sets forth and confirms the Power See the statute Authority and by necessary consequence the Priviledge of that Court as the only and proper cure of Grievances and remedy of Mischiefs in a Common-wealth The three first Conclusions are evident by what hath been observed before the latter of the three is Discoursed at large by a learned Author in his Book Intituled A more full Answer to Doctor Fern. But to answer one objection concerning the taking up of Arms and that the People take up Arms against their King which the objectors say is unlawful under what pretence soever If the Question be rightly weighed and stated it will evidently appear that this is no taking up Arms against the King no more then a Chyrurgion doth offend or wrong his Patient when to recover and preserve the whole body he cuts and takes away the proud and putrified flesh encircling and infecting the more eminent and sounder part And if in this Quarrel the King shall unnecessarily and with hazard to himself against the advice supplication and importunity of His Subjects expose Himself to danger Gods protection being more immediately seen over his Anointed is herein crossed if not tempted and if it happen otherwise to Him then His Subjects would His miscarrying is of Himself or rather from those who perswade Him to it The Question which hath cost this blood is not now betwixt a King governing according to the strict and precise Rules of Law the measure of each mans Right and Subjects rebelliously rising up in arms against their King and those Laws as some men in their gall of bitternes have given out but betwixt a King transgressing the known Laws as Himself confesseth and retracts His Fault and a Court of Parliament the Supreme Councel of the Kingdom endeavoring in a just and legal way to punish and represse Offendors as former Parliaments have done no other power or force to dispute or emulate a King's and the matter whereon they quarrel an actual invasion made on the Fundamental Laws and a party engaged to imbrace and abet the same whither under the notion of Loyalty or from Humor Ambition and Levity on the one side and the Parliament with a party adhering unto them contending to preserve those Laws with the Subjects Right and Liberty on the other side For the controversie is not immediately and principally in the new-sprung Differences about Church or State-Government as which the more perfect Form in State Monarchical Oligarchical or Aristocratical which in Church-Government an Independent Presbyterial or Episcopal which latter two are not much differing in themselves in their Primitive Institution as anon will be shewed in its proper place All these Controversies are emergent only and resulting out of the occasion of this War which gives occasion and liberty to all dissentions and makes every one a fierce combatant in maintenance of his own opinion But the principal parties are as before observed a party who hath actually violated the Laws by which we are governed and have their partakers and a party who contend and would preserve the same The first abetted under the stile of being good Subjects the latter traduced and inveighed against as Rebels What the Laws of this Kingdom conveyed unto us in these latter times are under which we are born and governed is by an ordinary light of study so figured in all mens knowledge as no man can but consent unto and confesse That to be the Law which the Court of Parliament doth Enact which Court hath power also to Repeal Dissolve Alter or make Perpetual as they please and that to be a Parliament certainly and definitively which is the assembling together of the Nobility and Gentry of this Kingdom lawfully summoned by the King in the prudent and deliberate Counsel of his heart at such a Time to such a Place for Reasons expressed in that His Writ What the Power and Priviledge of that Court in general is is learnedly and industriously set down by the forenamed Author of what power and stability this is whither to continue until their work for which they were assembled be finished or Arbitrarily to be dissolved the King hath by His own Act defined in binding Himself not to dissolve without their consent Wherefore if He shall alter such Act made and consented unto by Himself during the Session of that Court in His * Ira inimica Concilio Cicer. anger an Enemy to Counsel because He may not conform and rule them call and divide any part of them from the place where they were first summoned whither those which stay behinde in the first named place or those which come away to the last without respect had to which is the major part shall be reputed the true Parliament Object And whither that dividing be a dissolving without consent or not 't is no dissolving but a local removing in nature of Adjournment which is peculiar to a Kings power both to Summon and Adjourn Answ The King it is confess'd hath power to Summon and to Adjourn as former Kings have done to other places of the Kingdom as NORTHAMPTON OXFORD WINCHESTER c. but such Adjournments have been on special and extraordinary occasions of Plague
Act of offering a Treaty for Peace to invent new charges of high Treason of capital Misdemeanors of Injustice is no right way to Peace unlesse the persons charged are guilty of the same as namely they charge the Parliament or their Committees to have imprisoned two Lords for their Loyalty to the King as if their Loyalty were the unquestionable and certain cause of their Imprisonment These Lords might happily shew themselves active against and disobedient to the Parliaments Authority for in these unsetled and distracted times few men do others will not know their proper duty and so come within the compasse of some fault to deserve Imprisonment The High Treason whereof they accuse their fellow-Members is their counterfeiting the Great Seal Page 22. against the Statute of 25. Edw. 3. which whether in this case be to be understood High Treason the Sword must decide the Question The Parliament think themselves not guilty of that Crime by the Verdict of most men nor every thing made to the Mould by which it is made is not simply Counterfeiting the quality of the offence is much discerned in the maner of the offending and every Law-making commonly relates to some preterite fraud and wickednesse Now whether a King and a Parliament since the first constitution of either have heretofore made use of the Great Seal to crosse one anothers Acts be to be found in any Record whereon to ground a Law the Reader is to seek Amongst all the capital Misdemeanors amounting to High Treason recited in that Statute the Parliament making a new Seal being not done against the knowledge of the King and State seems not within the compasse of that Law which in that clause doth questionlesse intend the privy and surreptitious counterfeiting to the private Use and Benefit of the Counterfeiter And whereas in that Statute there may be divers doubtful cases of Treason determinable it is then and there accorded That if any other case supposed Treason which is not specified in See the Statute that Statute shall come before any Justices they shall tarry without giving Judgement of the Treason until the cause shall be shewed and declared before the King and Parliament whether it ought to be so adjudged or not In which determination the King and Parliament are presumed joyntly to Act if dividedly then who to judge the King seclusively without the Parliament or the Parliament without the King which if divided most likely to give a clear and dexterous judgement the King or the Parliament Those words The King Parliament cannot be understood of the Kings Councel and the Parliament it must be of the King himself in which as Treason is here objected to the Parliament the Parliament is excluded from any decisive power of being Judge what is Treason and pronounced guilty themselves of Treason The marginal Note if in that as in other places of See the marginal Note the Statute it sums up the sense of the Statute disputeth many Questions touching Treason to be first decided in Parliament leaving out the word King or presuming as is before observed that He is always there in person or in vertue Take the Accusers the Assembly at OXFORD Page 24 25. their own acknowledgement That the Parliament is His Majesties Answer to a Declaration from both Houses May 19. 1642. not Dissolved that they are far from Dissolving or attempting to Dissolve it Take His Majesties own confessing and allowing to the Parliament a power in a particular doubtful case regularly brought before them to declare what Law consequently what Treason is and the making a new Great Seal the old being contrary to Trust vafrously carried away from them the Representative Body of the State which the Seal is always to attend will not be adjudged a case of High Treason In the controverting this particular case as of the other Crimes charged on the Parliament and the Subjects of this Kingdom adhering thereunto the people may well be to seek when as the learned Sages and other Students of the * The Innes of Court Phrontisteries of Law and Justice seem to be divided in opinion some very active as being peradventure engaged for the King against the Parliament contending with all their might to make good the charge of Treason laid upon that Court and the Friends assisting them Others in the Parliaments account and questionless their Friends as earnest although more moderatly expressing it for the King and Parliament believe it to be no way Treason Which are greater numbers of them on the one side or the other or which the more able Lawyers is not here determined But to the Objection if any such That a greater number of them are within the Jurisdiction of the Parliament in LONDON and other places elswhere wherefore they may seem rather to side with that power The Answer is easily had That their hopes and possibility of being prefer'd by His Majesty were not Conscience Judgement valued by them above Reward or Honor were a more weighty motive then fear can be of displeasing that side in whose Quarters they are which cannot always protect much lesse gratifie them save only with the testimony of what they deserve answerable to their Breeding Knowledge and liberal Faculty One of the learnedst of that Tribe in those days wherein he lived and much Honored for his parts and industry wrote a whole Tractate for the Dignity and Priviledge of that Court in general How this in particular hath demeaned themselves to forfeit their Credit any other way then in maintenance of their power against oppression violence offered to themselves and the Subjects for whom they are entrusted future Ages can Record But to proceed In the same Declaration full of suspition and fraught with quarrelling the Assembly at OXFORD except against the words of a Message sent from the Lords and Commons to His Majesty Dated in the same year March 1643. viz. That His Majesty would not be the least or last Sufferer These words they throughly scanned and presented them to the world as terms of an See the Message of the Lords and Commons sent unto His Majesty upon occasion of a Letter sent from the Earl of Forth to the Earl of Essex high Affront as that Subjects or Rebels 't is all one in their Dialect in arms against their King should dare to send unto Him such a daring and presumptuous Message The words admit a two-fold sense the one of the Parliaments meaning as the Assembly at OXFORD seem to construe it the other more probably of their lamenting and foreseeing in their sadnesse and grief of heart the inevitable and universal ruine which must attend this War For that His Majesty cannot be the least Sufferer 't is too probable whose sufferings can be compared to His in the destruction of many thousands of His people as well in the greatest and dearest to Him as in the meaner sort in all whom consists His Safety This exception
the people are for the most part measured by the deportment of the Prince so reciprocal is the obligation so natural the relation betwixt a King and His Subjects and how desirous His Majesties Predecessors have been of their Subjects love is fresh in Memory They knew and were protected by it that Fides magis tuetur quam satellitium their Subjects affections to be a surer Bulwark then their own Guard King James protested In the same Speech the enjoyment of His Subjects love and His possession of their hearts to be His greatest earthly security next the favor of God and so to be accounted of by any wise or just King Queen Elizabeths tender affections and care towards Camdens Annals Her people was expressed in that she took it ill that any man should think a Father loved his Children better then she her People Affections are not to be enforced when they are they turn into fear and are not durable Love hath a univocal generation begetting Issue like it self as the face in water answereth the face so the heart of man to man If Kings love not their Subjects whom God hath therefore made them Lords of their Raign is dangerous and where Subjects return not the like duty the Obligations being mutual their guilt of unthankfulness and disloyalty in infamous where the fault now is Peace only and such Laws as follow on it can resolve the Question But sure it is that the peoples free and unconstrained affections run for the most part all one way their * May 1641. Protestation lately taken binds them to an unity of concurrence they are sensible of the several parts thereof tending all to the maintenance of Gods Honor the Kings welfare the Subjects Right and Liberty no one part crossing or contradicting the other if it should it could not be safely taken and it is strange that in this great and Civil Discord the people being free to chuse which part to side with there should be such an aversnesse and disaffection in them unlesse on most vehement causes of suspition above ordinary Fears and Jealousies descending even to whole Families and Countreys for few or no one Countrey let men frame and flatter what they please more Malignant more Loyal then another excepting where the Kings power hath its residence the Authority and strength whereof subjugating the peoples hearts the Factors for that power pressing and protesting the Justice of their own party so seasoning and possessing the Subjects hearts with Calumny and prejudice against the other party together with some Gentlemen of note deeply engaged and stickling in their Countreys where they have power to make good that part which they take for their own sake and safety and those few have some Followers Tenants Servants or Mercenaries Nor one Town more Loyal then another or more Malignant taking the Malignancy against which side you will saving where some obnoxious persons of Eminency or Power hath Pre-eminence above the rest or where a chief Town in a County since this War began hath a more stout and expert Commander in it to Govern and keep the same against all Force opposing it wherefore what a mistake it is to call this Countrey or Town more or lesse Malignant more or lesse Loyal when as all men in a natural duty do and desire to serve the Countrey wherein they are born and live The Orator excepting against the ease and quiet Cicer. of many men did long since direct them in the gratitude which they owe unto their Birth and Breeding distributing their Duty and Endeavors into several portions Partem Parentes Partem Amici Partem Patria vendicat what their Countrey is what the Representative Body is already declared The King as Head thereof whilest joyned to the Heart and Members is implicitely meaned * Partem Patria One part the Countrey is explicitely set down Which terms of Malignant Loyal unquestioned before this War began hath much distempered the Common-wealth and set a difference even between the nearest Friends where Nature and Desert hath put an Unity Malice and Mistakings hath made Dissention that it falls out in these Kingdoms as in Israel and Judah two parts of a Nation we are no longer a Tribe and a Tribe but we are divided Kinred against Kinred Family against Family Son against his Father a Daughter against her Mother and a mans Foes to be those of his own House Nay it is a more intestine Discord betwixt a man as it were and himself the Body and the Minde between the outward Estate and inward Conscience When a man to save his Estate shall expose his Conscience having premeditately and on judgement resolved to betake himself to one side soon after for fear of losing his Estate or upon the turn of Victory hath submitted to the other against the consent of his own heart and conscience The prosecution of which War hath had several rises and beginnings many passages to increase and adde fuel to the Contention the Kings party always crossing and altering even in matters Arbitrary and Indifferent what the King and Parliament did on good reason institute Others of more moment as namely His * See the Articles of the large Treaty pag. 16. Demand 4. granted by His Majesty August 1641. Majesties gracing and preferring to His nearest secresie and trust a person whom His Majesty and Parliament did accuse and Proclaim guilty of High Treason Divers other matters of debate might happen to inflame the Discord one more particularly and remarkably concerning the Earl of Strafford who in the Dispute whether he should suffer or not had gained the most powerful and eminent Members as he thought of both Houses of Parliament on his side and the King to intercede as far as he might with Justice to acquit the Earl A sixth part at the most of the Members against the Sentence of his suffering might be peradventure troubled that their power and suffrages were over-matched and thinking much that they could not prevail to acquit the Earl have probably nourished thence an emulous spirit towards their fellow-Members the Debate whereof could not but adde unto the fuel of these Dissentions and so prove a prosecution of this War Thus the fire of War being kindled two principal parties have appeared in a martial posture And which first began unto whom was violence first offered in robbing and spoyling and the like is reported severally according to the affections of the Reporters a just estimate without varying in matters of considerablenesse is hardly to be had The King and His party say he intended no War the Parliament sayes Their's is defensive only the Proverb is The second blow makes the affray the first it is sure gives the offence The Kings coming in a Warlike manner attended with so many armed men to demand the six impeached Members resembled as much as for that present might be a Warlike act But a Warlike act and a War differ not much more then
the maintenance of this War and the Subject thus impoverished The Parliament grants as much that of two evils the lesser is to be chosen where of necessity one must happen as in case of inevitable necessity that Wisdom and Industry cannot prevent if otherwise Necessitas non excusat quae potuit esse non necessitas saith a learned * Tertullian Father of the Church acutely When the Princes Treasure and Revenue suffice not for the Common good as when the Realm is invaded or any notable Rebellion of the Subjects happeneth such an Invasion or Rebellion as is not procurata not simulata but vera gravis manens He may then by the common opinion of the Civilians impose new Taxes in requiring Aid although out of a Parliamentary and common way The like Objection is made by others of His party Better it were that those six Gentlemen Impeached of High Treason should have suffered their Estates and Posteries overthrown and ruined then to have a Kingdom wasted other of His Majesties Dominions destroyed and so many thousands worryed in one anothers blood This is surely the rich mans Argument who by reason of the superfluity and plenty of his Estate can easily bear the Charge and is scarce sensible of the Burthen or that he having a Power and Interest in his Neighbors Assessing him is under-rated and therefore content to pay the Tax not sticking at the Illegality of the same he thinks his Hill so sure that he shall never be removed or his Power so great that the Laws enacted for the relief of the poor the number of which must needs multiply by reason of such oppressions will scarce concern the rich according to the Proverb of Neque accipitri nec milvo tenditur rete One and the same Answer serves both Objections It were better that a man should receive a wound from a stronger then himself and afterwards to be maimed by him a third or fourth time after to endure the like or greater Injury better all this befal him then to be killed for so it happens to him resisting in his own defence it had been better for him to have endured all those Affronts and wounds then by repulsing them to lose his life as the lesse of the two Evils but where the one might have been avoided no necessity of the other to have happened the Objection is invalid But to the subject of this Contention multiplying it self into several forms of Difference the question hath for the most part been about matter of Fact 1. What hath been done what hath been attempted in offence to the Subjects Liberty 2. Touching the Object and Latitude of Obedience what Obedience and whether all maner of Obedience is due unto the Kings Personal Commands for the Subject to perform whatsoever He requires To the object of Obedience it is a commonly received Position That the King is to be obeyed in all things Lawful and Honest as before The Proposition is proved by the duty of Subjection to the higher Powers in the first Verse of the Chapter the limitation shadoweth forth by the duty also of those Powers to take vengeance on the Evil-doers for as Tremelius notes on that place if unlawful See the Glosse things be commanded us we must Answer as Saint Peter doth It is better to obey God then man Unto which the question touching the Latitude of Obedience hath a reference for as for those who exact and contend for a greater degree of Obedience as to have all maner of Obeying both Active and Passive due unto the Kings personal Commands doubtlesse all of them have not always thought it so but enforce such Doctrine now in these Disputative times on purpose to make the Kings party the stronger by their strength of Arguing If the King hath power of Life and Death as to take His Subjects life in case he obeys Him not in whatsoever he Commandeth then Nature Necessity and Law which allow yea enjoyn provisionary Acts for safety and have endued Mankinde with several habiliments for its own defence seem all to have lost their strength Besides whether in such a case as this here recited of the Kings power of Life and Death if he take away a Subjects life whether he be not guilty of the breach of the sixth Commandment I leave to an humble and moderate Divine to judge To free the question touching the extent of Universal Obedience and close it up with this conclusion The Exactors of this unbounded and immence obedience seem to allow unto Kings a greater Latitude and Priviledge of Power thence a greater of Obedience from their Subjects unto them then unto God Hence is the Inference proved by this Enthymeme That power is greatest which requires the greater extent of Duty wherefore if God neither can nor will command any thing unjust and Kings may both that is they both can and have commanded unjust things If notwithstanding they be to be obeyed both Actively and Passively in whatsoever they do or will command whether just or unjust there is by consequence a more Universal Obedience due unto them then unto God 3. The third question seems to be whether the Court of Parliament being a Fundamental power and all Fundamentals equall all principals alike having protested the maintenance of the Kings Honor Person and Estate may in defence of the King Laws and Government when imminently endangered especially when actually invaded justifie to take up Arms without and against the Kings Personal command if He refuse Whether dangers are imminent is briefly answered The Kings party deny the imminency of danger they say they are but Phantasms and unnecessary fears c. When mischief is neer and threatens opportunity and power serving withal it may be termed danger when 't is already fallen 't is part the name of danger and becomes Calamity 4. The final and casting result of the States judgement what those Laws dangers and means of preservation are reside in the two Houses of Parliament 5. The two Houses of Parliament are alwayes a part in the supremacy of power and in case of the others abserce or refusal as matters now stand Both virtually the whole 6. In the final resolution of the judgement of the State the people are to rest and in obedience thereunto may in defence of the Laws and Government use and bear Arms. Not that the Parliaments Votes and Ordinances are in themselves infallible but to us inevitable nor do we Idolize them or Doctor Fern infers nor think them omnipotent as His Majesty or some of His party do hyperbolically and smilingly object Not to possess the Reader with the Dignity Priviledge of that Court by transcribing here any ancient or particular passages of contest which are not valuable to justifie the Authority therof when as particulars prove not generality in Arguings such particulars especially as are easily answered yet whether the Historian notes it as an evidence of the Earls courage or of the Parliaments