made the young dumb Prince speak All men are tied to the maintenance of Sovereign Right none amongst men more than Church-men it is a necessary truth as aptly plentifully and purposely set forth in Gods Word as any else Prince and Priest were once joyned in one Person and are so tied that Alterius Altera poscit opem res conspirat amicè We find onely three Office-bearers anointed by God King Priest and Prophet who then more tied to maintain the Lord 's Anointed and his Right than Priests and Prophets God hath honoured Kings to be the Nurse-fathers of his Church nor when we reflect upon by-gone Story find 〈◊〉 that ever the Church had either Beauty Plenty or Progress but under Monarchy and view this day the condition of the Christian Church under any other Government than Monarchy and we will find her condition but sorry and poor It is the onely Government which is most conntenanced and magnified in Holy Writ And I dare to say that none or all of them who ever writ purposely of Politicks or in an Historical way laid down Political Maxims whether it be Plato in his fancied Republick or Aristotle in his Politicks or Cicero or Livie or Dionysius Halicarnasseus or Cornelius Tacitus or who besides either by Art or Story is most renowned this way have given us so fully so apertly the Right of Monarchy the true prescript of Government and perfect Rule of Obedience to the Subject The Ancient Fathers and Martyrs whilst Emperours were Heathenish and Persecutors have delivered this Doctrine pleaded the Sacred Royal Prerogative of Emperours and with other Truths have sealed this with their Blood Who can deny then but it beseemeth a Divine most of all men to maintain or write of this subject A wonder then it is that some Smatterers in Divinity writing in this subject do borrow Principles from old Poetical Fables and Toyes make premises and infer Conclusions not onely destructive of Monarchy but also contradictory to that Truth Scripture hath revealed Like to them are our Pettifoggers in the Law I reverence Learned Iureconsults who deserved well in this subject who cry out what have Church-men to do to dispute the King 's Right that belongeth to us who are versed in the Laws of the Kingdom and know what Power the Law alloweth the King what not these Ignaroes who are better versed in the Statutes and Acts of Parliament than in the Acts of Christ and his Apostles may even as well go about not to authorize the Book of God except it be warranted by their Law as to aver that the King hath nothing immediately from God nor no Sacred Right but what He hath by Law More learned Lawyers than they can be as Bodin Barclay and others have treated of this matter and made as good Vse of Scripture and Holy Fathers writing as any other Warrant besides It is more than evident then that no men are more obliged no men may be more fitted to maintain the Royal Prerogative of Kings than Divines But Officiis quis idoneus istis I confess my weakness my insufficiency and am forced to have recourse to a Patron worthy of it and able to maintain it I could hit upon no subject more worthy of so great a Personage as you are nor a Patron so worthy so enabled to maintain it and its poor Author as your Lordship Nobles are amongst Subjects the first-born the ennobled amongst the Romans had a badge of a Moon or Crescent in Plutarch's judgment not so much to signifie the instability or frailty of their Place and Honour as to put them in mind to be obedient and loyal to their Prince the Fountain of their high Dignity as the Sun is to the Moon for your high Nobility by a long continued race transmitted to you from most noble Ancestours to write or recite it were as to light a candle to add light to the Sun in his strength in his vertical point and that transmitted so from them and derived to you that in that whole Stem the Root and all Branches who inherited the Honour not any tainted with Disloyalty Nay their Honour is higher some of them have had the honour to dye in the highest Bed of Honour to lose their Lives and great State and Honour for Loyalty to Royalty This is nothing yet but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the splendour of Birth the glory due to those of whom you are descended Nam genus Proavos quae non fecimus ipsi Vix ea nostra voco True Nobility besides these requireth not onely the inheritance of Riches for that is but Antiquae inveteratae Divitiae as Athlary writ to the Senate of Rome with the inheritance of Honour for that it is a Body empty of a living Soul but it is to inherit the Noble Honour of Noble and Generous Ancestours Nobile saith Aristotle id est quod ex bono genere prodit generosum quod à sua natura non degeneravit Herein you all meet for Honour and Virtue do contest for the Excellency but Virtue truly hath the Eminency In you is verified that of the Lyrick Poet. Fortes creantur fortibus bonis Est in juvencis est in equis Patrum Virtus nec imbellem feroces Progenerant aquilae columbam Malice it self how ingeniously witty soever cannot prejudice you in this whose Piety is admirable whose Wisdom and Prudence is above Age above the ordinary and all your Equals a master of your Passions and so experienced in matters of State and Government that it is a wonder to them who know you and incredible to those that have not been eye and ear witnesses Your Heroical magnanimity speaketh it self in your Heroick Martial Acts admired not onely by excellent Commanders not onely for Courage but for Prudence and rare Government by which you gained so much that the valiant Annibals and Scipioes there would rather sacrifice themselves than expose You to Danger and yet you would not act the General but by doing the valiant Acts contemning Dangers and Death beseeming inferiour Officers but worthy of the greatest Caesar. Who can consider aright that more than admirable piece of Prudence in that Treaty of Cessation in such a time and such a case where You were so assaulted with two of the worst extremes of Opinions enraged both of them with the same degree of madness but must say that is true Cicero said de nat deor Nullus unquam magnus vir fuit sine afflatu divino The intelligent and better sort must confess that without a great mercy to us and more than ordinary Favour from God this could not have been effected The better sort are confident the happy Effects of that Work will make many Souls live and Your Honour live for ever These are the Load-stones of all the Honour the Love and Zeal which have necessitated me to take recourse to Your Honour's Patrocine that what is deficient in me and this poor trifling Treatise
Jesuits all for ought I know do ascribe this to the Community The Sectaries do differ infinitely some warrant any one Subject any individual Person to make away a King in this case and that such a work is no less to be rewarded than when one killeth a ravenous Wolf Some will have it in the whole Community with the Jesuit Some will have it in the Collective Body but how not met together by the Warrant or Writ of Sovereign Authority but when necessity which is often fancied and imaginary of reforming State and Church calleth them together Some will have the Power in the Nobles and Peers of the Land Some in the three States assembled by the Kings Writ Some in the inferiour Judges In sum every one fancieth it to himself as he resolveth to Idol or serve corruptly the humour and state of the People where he liveth When these Classical Authors agree in one they will make us think their Tenets â—ounder and their courses more warrantable which I never hope to see because this Spirit of Discord God hath put as a Judgment upon all Masters of Errours I dispute not whether this Power be in the Community or in the Collective Body or in the Peers and Nobles or in the inferiour Judges or in the Parliament or where else you can imagine it for I know no where it is to punish or curb Sovereignty but in Almighty God Onely I demand of the Jesuit and Sectary that seeing wheresoever they put it they make it the last remedy the onely remedy to supply all Defect to redress all Wrongs to set aright whatever is dis-joynted in Church or State The Subject of this superintending Power must be secured from errour in Iudgment from errour in Practice and how happy are we now that in these late dayes we have a Pope in Temporalibus who is no less assisted and endowed with the gift and grace of Infallibility than the Pope of Rome determining ex Cathedra He is too much in love with a Community or with Nobles or with Parliaments or with inferiour Judges c. who thinketh or judgeth that they or any of them are secured from Errour in the reformation of State or Church But on the other side if the Multitude the Peers the Judges the Parliaments are liable to Errour and many times actually do err when they err in this glorious work of Reformation of Church and State doth not the perfect condition of a perfect Republick require that there be some authorized with a superintendent Power to rectifie their Errours and to punish their misdemeanours otherwise God hath left Church and State remediless they must name this Remedy and by all appearance this must be the Sovereign again and so Impius ambulat in circuitu If they will say that to eschew such a ridiculous regress and circle betwixt King and People and People and King and to shun Ne detur progressus in infinitum that if the Community or Parliament err the remedy is to be left to the Wisdom and Justice of God Why will not the Sectary acknowledge that it is as fit when the Sovereign transgresseth against the right Rules of Government that People and Subjects submit in Patience and wait till God send a Remedy either rectifying or removing the bad Governour Where ever you place this Superintending Power above a King I care not much for it is but an Idea by this same Power they who are authorized with it by God and Natures Right may call a King to account censure and punish him for any errour or misdemeanour whatsoever for any one act of injustice Why might not the People of Israel or Peers or Sanhedrim c. have convented David before them judged and punished him for his Adultery with Bathsheba and his murther of Vriah The Romanists and greatest part of Antimonarchical new Statists do acknowledge no case lawful but either in Heresie or in Apostasie or in Tyranny the first two the Romanists would have it to the Popes Power and at his Discretion the last of Tyranny all of them do qualifie thus Vt sit universalis manifesta cum obstinatione that it be in such Tyranny onely which is intended endeavoured attempted for the whole and total destruction of the Publick which cannot fall into the thoughts and attempts of any but a mad man What is recorded in story of Nero his wish in this kind may be rather judged the expression of a transported Passion than a fixed Resolution Next this case must be evident and clear as the Sun-shine at Noon-day Thirdly it must be joyned with such pervicacy and obstinacy that it is inseparable and invincible by any ordinary humble Remonstrance and Supplication to the contrary Although we give it that it were lawful in a case so qualified for the Community or any else to resume their Power and use it to remedy themselves and to rectifie what is amiss which we cannot grant we are very confident that all the Wit of the Opposites cannot make it appear that their case is such at this time Upon their grounds we see not how by sound reason not onely in such case as is expressed onely but also in every case of male-administration whatever it be they who have this pretended and fancied Power may not use and exercise this superintendent and transcendently extravagant Power I pray you if this Superintending Power in the People Peers or Parliament c. resumable in the exigent of great necessity be the onely means and last remedy allowed and so necessary that without it neither Church nor State can be preserved in their integrity how cometh it to pass that we have neither Precept nor Practice for it in Holy Writ Deus Natura non desunt in necessariis God and Nature are not deficient in things primely necessary Nothing can be conceived more necessary for State and Church than such a Remedy If then we cannot hit upon express and clear warrant by Precept or Practice in Scripture for a matter of so high and necessary concernment who can be so stupid in a Pythagorean way to believe this upon an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon your Rabbies bare assertion or trust it upon an Anabaptistical Enthusiasm There is nothing more certain than that there is not any thing in Scripture tending that way If it be our Adversaries are bound to produce it for affirmanti incumbit probatio He that affirms it to be so is bound to make his proof appear Next this tenet argues too great a confidence of our selves as if to be left to our own natural Providence were the onely sufficient competent and perfect means of Safety and Redress of Church and State We hereby presume upon our own strength that by our selves we are able to rectifie and preserve both Church and State It is Arrogancy too for hereby we are puffed up with an overweening conceit of our own Piety and Integrity as if our Judgment were so sound as that it
School-terms in many places as namely de corrept grat c. 14. De Civit. Dei l. 4. c. 33. l. 5. c. 21. passim And to the very same purpose see Suarez lib. 3. contr Angl. Sect. err c. 2. although in his Application he erreth foully do teach us A thing may be said to be immediately from God three wayes 1. The first is when it is so solely from God as it is from no other and presupposeth no thing ordinary humane or created previous or antecedent before the obtaining of it Such was the Power Moses and Ioshua Saul and David had Such were the Apostles all of them were by God and Christ immediately instituted constituted designed to and invested with Power from above 2. The second way that any thing is said to be immediately from God is when the collation of the Power and investing of the Person in and with such Power is from God as the immediate Author and Donor although there be presupposed or interposed aliquod signum creatum some previous or antecedent Act humane or created The Power Apostolical in Matthias and appointing him to be an Apostle was immediately from Christ although some humane Acts did precede and were interposed before his Constitution as that the Apostles put two apart and did cast lots Neither of these two acts severally nor both joyntly had either vertually or formally in them that efficacy or efficiency to collate upon him the Apostolical Power and Preeminence A world of Instances may be made in this kind A man baptized by Baptism obtaineth Remission of Sins and the Grace of Regeneration yet none is so weak as to say that the immersion in or aspersion of Water effecteth or produceth these excellent Effects of Remission of Sins and Regeneration Lewis the twelfth King of Fraence authorized the Parliament of Paris when one of their number diâ—d or was removed to make choice of another in his place yet none will deny that the Authority and Power of a Judge and Senator is immediately collated upon the Person chosen by and from the King of France A King giveth to a well-deserving Servant the Favour to name any man fitted for Honour to be a Lord Baron or Earl after the Servant to whom the Trust is committed hath designed the Person or man he is made a Lord Baron or Earl Who is so stupid to aver that the Honour of a Lord Baron or Earl is from the Servant a fellow-subject immediately And who dare to deny the Honour is from the King the Fountain of all Honour This is easily discerned for when the act interposed and presupposed to the Production and working of such an Effect is such that of its own Nature it hath no natural Contingency with the effect produced but what it hath by some Resemblance or Constitution We must run to an higher and more eminent Cause of such a Work and Effect of which see more infra c. 13. where we prove that the interposing of an humane Act in the Constitution of a King as Election Succession or Conquest impedeth not the constitution and making of a King to be immediately from God 3. The third way is When titulo creato mediante a mans Right to any thing he hath power of by some ordinary humane Right or Title intervening by which he is invested with a just and full Right to that is collated upon him and the Approbation or Confirmation of this Right is immediately from God so that the possessour in possessing what he hath just Right recognosceth or acknowledgeth in the right of Propriety no Superiour but Almighty God Now to apply this for the first way we maintain not that Sovereignty is in a King immediately from God by extraordinary Revelation without any humane Act or Sign created intervening This was peculiar only to some few The second way we hold that all Kings really so are immediately from God for although some Signum creatum some humane and created act as Election Succession Conquest or what else in that kind is imaginable and possible interveneth to the Designation of the Person yet the real Constitution the Collation of Sovereignty and Royalty is immediately from God for the Act or Condition presupposed or interposed containeth not in it that power to collate Royal and Sovereign Power only by Gods appointment it is inseparably joyned with it or infallibly followeth after it so that it referreth to God as the proper donor and immediate Author As in Baptism if there be nothing repugnant in the Suscipient the baptized hath from God immediately Remission of Sins and Grace of Regenerrtion Or as in Sacred Orders the Designation of the person is from men and an humane Act but the Endowment with supernatural power to act do and exercise supernatural Acts is immediately from God and Christ Matthias his person was designed by the Apostles but Christ only made him truly and really an Apostle Just so in the Constitution of Kings Election Succession Conquest or what else is only Potestas designativa personae but the power of Royalty and Sovereignty is primarily formally and immediately from God That we may conceive things aright in this case we must distinguish three things 1. First The Sovereignty or Royal Power which is forma quaedam the specifick and formal Essence constitutive of a King 2. Next The Person of the King which is Subjectum the seat or that wherein this Sovereignty is inherent 3. Thirdly The Conjunction of the Sovereignty with the Person or the Application of Royal Power and Sovereignty to the Person The first that is Regal Power and Sovereignty is immediately from God and Christ. The second that is the individual Person taken absolutely in its specifick and individual Essence and Existence is from its natural Causes constituent But qua talis considered as a King and such a one that is as Supreme and Sovereign the Deputation or Designation of such an individual person for such a Power is by Election Succession Conquest or any other lawful way by which God in his Providence doth manifest it The third that is the joyning of the Authority to the Person is immediately from God and Christ. Election Succession or Conquest may be said in some Sense remotely and improperly to make or constitute a King although they are not the proper efficient and constituent cause of that Power To say in the third Sense that Sovereignty in the King is immediately from God by Approbation or Confirmation only it is too flat an Expression and doth not sort well with the magnifick Expressions of Holy Scripture as By me Kings reign Prov. 8. 15. The Powers that are are ordained of God Rom. 13. 2. I have said ye are Gods Psal. 82. 8. All Power is given from above John 19. God hath spoken it once twice have I heard it all Power belongeth unto the Lord Psal. 62. 11. According to this Opinion the Sense of those and other such places must be Kings have their
this forceth them to make Aristocracie which is the Government of more than one and Democracie which is of many that they must be considered as unum analogiâ— one by analogy not univocally and properâ—y so judgd then of the force of our Argument For any reason I yet apprâ—â—end or can guess at if Sovereignty were primtively fixed in a multitude and from thence derived to any or many I cannot judge but that Democracie is the onely spece of Government warranted by Divine Institution and that all other kinds of Government are unlawful and their Acts sinful or if any should attempt to change Democracie into Monarchy it were an high impiety which things how they may be admitted let our new State-Divines consider and declare Sure I am Saint Austin was of the opinion that a corrupted Democracie without sin might be changed into Monarchy See him lib. 1. de liber arbitr c. 6. where he saith Si depravatus populus rem privatam Reip. praeferat atque habeat vaenale suffragium corruptusque ab â—is qui honores amant regnum in se factiosis consceleratisque committat nonne item rectè si quis tunc extiterit vir bonus qui plurimum possit adimat huic populo potestatem dandi honores in paucorum bonorum vel etiam unius redigat arbitrium Euod Et ita rectè Saint Austin and Euodius agree in this that if they who bear Rule in Democracie do corrupt Justice and put the Government into corrupt mens hands and such as are factious a good powerful man upon such an exigent may mould the Government into an Aristocracie or Monarchy Good Saint Austin for all his Learning and Piety knew not the Jesuit and Puritans ground that all Sovereignty and Supremacy all Majesty underived was in the multitude and that in their Power it is to change the Government to what guise they will he knew not that this was to rob the People of their native and proper Right when one man should reduce Democracie without the consent of the People to Monarchy or Aristocracie nor knew he that it was an unjust and Sacrilegious intrusion upon God's Right in the People to do it without their Act their Consent their Compact To this you may add another Testimony of that Father which virtually implieth the same you may read it lib. 9. de Civ Dei c. 21. where speaking of the declination of the Government of Rome from the second Carthage War and the restoring of Rome to her glory by Augustus coming to the Empire he saith Hoc toto tempore usque ad Caesarem Augustum qui videtur non adhuc vel ipsorum opinione gloriosum sed contentiosum exitiosum planè jam enervem ac languidam libertatem omnimodo extorsisse Romanis ad regale arbitrium revocasse cuncta quasi morbidâ vetustate collapsum veluti instaurasse ac renovasse Rempublicam The Passage is very considerable The purpose of the Holy Father is to take off that foul aspersion which the Heathen put upon Christ and Christian Religion that all mischief came into the World since they were heard of He proveth by the Roman story that greater mischief before was upon the Romans and that from the second Carthaginian War the Roman Grandeur was in its declination and decaying and at and about the coming of Christ in the World was restored again to its Magnificence and Splendour by the happy Monarchy and Empire of Augustus Caesar which happy change Saint Austin commends he condemns it not and so do the Heathen Writers which the Father could never have done if he had been of the mind that no man cometh rightly by Sovereignty but by derivation from the People It is not onely Saint Austin's but other holy Fathers observation that God in his wise Providence disposed so of the Government of the World as to put the best and greatest part of the World under the Monarchy of one that thus he might facilitate the progress of the Gospel throughout the World It is foretold in Scripture that Kings shall be the Nurse-fathers of the Church our Opposites cannot shew the like of Aristocracies and Democracies nor this day do we see it or in Ancient storie find it recorded It is most like Foelicitas temporalis Happiness temporal under Augustus the sweetest of Emperours came into the World with Foelicitas aeterna and spiritualis with eternal happiness when our King and Saviour came into the World Of this more q. 2. Our fifth Argument to prove that Sovereignty in a King is not from the Community or multitude is this If this Sovereignty be natively inherent in the Multitude it must be proper to every individual of the Community if it be so and must be so according to their Tenet which is enforced by that other as groundless and false State-maxim which they hold and maintain that Quisque nascitur liber every one is born a Free-man in the Forrest then it will necessarily follow that the Generation and Posterity of those who have first contracted with their elected King are not bound to that covenant but upon their Native Right and Liberty may start aside appoint another King and that without breach of covenant or any just Title in the King of their Fathers to force or reduce them to his obedience an excellent way devised to preserve King and Kingdom in Peace and Safety Might not the Posterity of Ioshua and the Elders living in his time who contracted with the Gibeonites to incorporate them although in a serving condition have made void their Fore-fathers covenant And if this be true How cometh it to pass that the Progeny of Ionadab did hold themselves bound to keep the prescript and strict Rule of their Father The Rechabites it seemeth had not learned this point of Native Liberty CHAP. IX That Sovereignty is not derived to the King from the People communicativè by Communication so that they may resume it in some Cases is proved by reason ALthough we would give to our Sectaries which we will never grant that all Sovereignty in a King is derived from the people immediately yet we deny and with good reason that it is not by Communication so that they may at pleasure or upon some necessary exigent in certain cases resume it so that habitually they retain it and are not totally divested of it but in some case of Defailance suppletivè they may exercise it and supply thâ— Defects of Government in the King Erecting Tables authorizing Parliaments appointing close Commiitees making and sealing subscribing and swearing Covenants c. Their ground is because all Sovereignty is by voluntary Consent and Compact derived from the People to the King This we have sufficiently disproved to strengthen this they equivocate in a Maxim Constituens constituto potior est the constituent is above the constituted in Dignity and Power If they knew any thing in Law or were ruled by Reason they could know that there be two sorts of
that Power and in no case no exigent had any Power over or above the Prince If what is said be not sufficient let us remember the Story of Valentinian the Emperour when by the Army he was declared Emperour they earnestly begged 〈◊〉 him to joyn Valens his Brother with him in the Empire His answer was ut me ad imperandum eligereti◠in vestra situm erat potestate O milites at postquam me elegistis quod petitis in meo est arbitrio non vestro Vobis tanquam subditis competit parere mihi quae agend◠sunt cogitare O Souldiers before you did make choic◠of me to be Emperour it was in your Power but the Choice being made that which you now desire is in my Power not in yours It is your part and Duty as Subjects to obey it is in my Power to determine upon what is fit for the Government If all we have said cannot work upon our new Statists to forsake their Errour we pray them to consider whether or not this ground laid will not authorize the Corporations and Shires upon male-administration of the Trust committed to their Commissioners in the House of Commons or upon Jealousies and Fears to resume and make void that Trust committed to them and warrant them in case of Defailance to do better for themselves and Country Sure I am Buchanan one of their greatest Authors holds that if a Parliament determine in a matter of Law it can establish nothing but a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a preparatory precognition and that the Influence of a legislative Power is not till it be approved and admitted by the Community The Observator fearing this Tenet of Buchana may make void the Orders of the House leaving here his Master and averreth That the Right of the Gentry and Commonalty is entirely in the Knights and Burgesses of the House of Commons and will have their Orders irrevocable A wonder it is that they are so favourable in their own case and so unjust and unequal in the Kings case for if it were granted which is most false that all Power in the King were by Trust devolved upon him from the People what is the Reason of the Difference that he shall not have that Right as entirely as irrevocable as the Commissioners of Counties and Corporations Reason pleadeth more for this in the King than them for otherwise neither Sovereignty nor the person of the Sovereign can be secured nor any act of Government certain but mutable at the pleasure of an erring and inconstant Multitude If any will seriously consider they will find that what they take from the King they give to their Feoffees of Trust to Tables to Parliaments These in case of Necessity have an arbitrary Power the Prince in no case can have it exercise it Those have the entire right of the Community devolved upon them and the people are totally divested of their native Right the King hath his only in a fiduciary way some part is habitually reserved that in some Cases the People may resume it may practise it So in their Church it is not lawful to a Clergy-man to meddle in secular Businesses Their Clergy if they be worthy of name may do meddle in all Treaties of Peace Councils of War in Commissions for reversing fundamental Laws of Church and State in other Kingdoms This their practise is Protestatio contra factum it giveth a Lye to their Profession I think verily in after ages it shall scarce be believed that amongst Christians and such as would be accounted the best of Christians such Paradoxes could be maintained and such monstrous Practises acted with such sacrilegious robbing of Prince and Priest of their sacred Right It is high time for Prince and Priest to strengthen one another and neither of them to think that by making the other à publici odii victima a Sacrifice to malignant Malice to preserve himself It is high time for the People to consider how by such Doctrine and Practises they are plunged in such a bottomless Gulf of Miseries of Calamities that none but dextera excelsi the right hand of the Lord can rescue can deliver them How an arbitrary tyrannical civil Power is put upon them and established in the wrong hand that they dare not pretend to Liberty of Person or propriety of Goods How such a Tyrannical Antichristian Hierarchy of some few Patriarchs Lords over their Consciences make them run into Rebellion and kill both Body and Soul If these things these most fearful of all Judgments cannot awake us it is like we are given over to destruction more for the Terrour and Example of others than that we can expect to see the Glory and Mercy of God return again upon this Church and State Lord of his mercy make us turn to him timely by Repentance that he may turn to us in mercy make his Face shine upon us that we may be saved To return to our purpose In fine Let us still give it to them that Sovereignty is in a King by Derivation from the People and the Conveyance is by Contract or Covenant But then I demand how can this Contract be made void It must be made void either by mutual consent or by a legal Sentence and Iudgment That a Contract may be made void mutuo contrahentium assensu by a mutual accord and consent of the Parties Contracters in Law it holds the ground is Quibus modis contrahitur contractus iisdem dissolvitur and the main thing and binding force in a Contract is the consent of both The refiling of one Party Contractor is not sufficient to void the Contract Necessarily then it is required that both King and People consent to make the Contract void whether a King may do this or not you shall hear more in the following questions The People alone cannot do it This contract as yet is not made void by Royal consent if it be you must make it appear authenticis Tabulis upon evident and written Records I confess e're I put you to these pains I desire you first to produce Tabulas contractûs this Contract which in Law must be evident and faithful and when you do it in any of his Majesties Kingdoms you shall have me to plead for your pretended Right Well then I hope you will not say you have his Majesties Royal Assent although good and wise men regrate that by real deeds out of zeal to Peace and more than fatherly indulgence he hath indulged to your Favours which lessen his Prerogative and which without intrusion upon his Sacred Right you cannot enjoy if Scripture be either the Law or Umpire to determine in this case Seeing I say His Majesties consent to void this Contract cannot be alledged or made appear and the Law determines that De non apparentibus non existentibus eadem ratio or Quod non apparet in jure non est you must have a legal Sentence A Legal Sentence cannot be had without a
inferred from hence This made Buchanan ingeniously maintain that Orders and Laws in Parliament were only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Precognitions till the whole People gave their Consent and had their Influence authoritativè upon the Statutes and Acts of Parliament By this you may know where he put the Legislative Power in the Community and this is with more shew of reason than the Observator's Tenet who holdeth that the Legislative Power is in the Parliament and yet Buchanan is more justifiable for this reason because where Majesty is there is Legislative Power but according to the Observator's mind in the People is the underived Majesty let him then come home to the Scotish Tenet and make it an Article of their new Covenant or new Creed if they will that the Legislative Power is in the People and the Parliaments Orders and Statutes are only preparatory precognitions I know the Observator thinks to salve all this that the whole Power of the Gentry and Commons is entirely transferred from the collective Body to the representative the Parliament To this we answer two things 1. The first is ye and your Brother-assistants the Scots are not of one mind for in the beginning of the Scottish Troubles when the Subjects there were preferring Petitions by their Declarations and Protestations they put all the Power in the collective Body and kept their distinct Tables 2. Next speak ingeniously and candidly Observator shew us the reason of the Difference of the Disparity why the whole entire Power of the Community if any they have should not be totally and entirely derived from the People to the King when they devest themselves of their underived Majesty and invest the King with it no less than the whole entire Power of the whole Kingdom is devolved upon the two Houses and that irrevocably too to hold in the King as in your Knights and Burgesses you are not able to shew it but what with one hand you take unjustly from the King with another but a wrong hand you ascribe to the Parliament It is like in times succeeding and after-ages our wise Kings will learn to know what is their Power Place and Prerogative by that the Parliament hath assumed to them but we are hopeful they will never exercise it with such Cruelty and Tyranny I many times think upon it that as the extravagant Ambition and Usurpation of the Pope of Rome robbing Kings of their sacred Right and assuming to himself such superlative Transcendent Power for himself and his See both in Spirituals and Temporals hath wakened Christian Kings to consider better of their sacred Prerogative and by what he unlawfully and antichristianly assumed to himself in temporalibus to know what Trust God Almighty hath given to his Vicegerents his Kings so I am hopeful if God hath mercy reserved for these Kingdoms and Church right Bounds and Limits will be set to Subjects which will produce happier and sweeter Fruits of Government than we see or feel from these corrival co-equal co-ordinate fansied Powers and Sovereignty and Royalty be better rooted which God of his Mercy grant for the good of his Church the happy estate of the Kingdom and honour and right of our King If what is said be not enough to shew the Weakness of these popular Sophisms I come nearer to the Observator and put it home in a case where I dare promise he will say it is Sophistry By this way of reasoning I will prove there is no better way for the Observator to improve his Wealth than to make over the Right of all he hath to me the Argument will hold good Quod efficit tale est magis tale he that maketh me rich by giving me all his goods moveable and immovable maketh himself richer but the Observator by giving of all his goods my assumption should have been hypothetical for positively I know the Gentleman will not do it to me maketh me rich Ergo he maketh himself more rich This Logick I conceive is not so powerful as to cheat him out of his natural rational Faculty and so cheat him out of all his Lands Chattels and Revenues yet it may be by an order of the House that in some case this Logick may serve to good purpose that the People giving the twentieth the tenth the fifth part or the Moity of their Moneys and Revenues and all their Plate to strengthen the Parliament to advance the good Cause to cherish if we will speak truly and foment this present Rebellion it will not lessen their Wealth but enrich them more because quod efficit tale est magis tale it maketh some rich and consequently the Donors much more rich Certainly if this Logick hold it must be in great request for if this Logick do it not few can see how the Publick Faith can be kept Divinity and Church-rents if you sacrilegiously rob God which God forbid will not do it it must be some Sophism like this some Sophism in this kind that must answer for Publick Faith refund the Moneys borrowed from just Creditors and repay the wise Undertakers qui spem pretio emerunt who have brought their Hogs to a good Market To apply this shortly in few words If I remember rightly this Maxim quod efficit tale est magis tale I learned in the University to be understood de principio formali effectivo of such an Agent as is formally such in it self as is the Effect produced Next that it is such as is effective and productive of it self as when the Fire heateth cold Water it is hot formally in it self and maketh Water hot likewise By which it is necessary that the Quality inherent in the Effect be formally inherent in the Agent for this reason it is that Wine cannot be said to be drunk because drunkenness is no wayes inherent in Wine nor can Wine be capable of it and this made Aristotle qualifie his Maxim quod efficit tale est magis tale modò utrique insit And this insit utrique that it be in both maketh that the Maxim holds not in such Agents who operate by donation for he that is the Donor denudeth himself of the Right and Power of that he giveth to the Donee So here this condition faileth too And consequently if the Right of the King were transferred by Derivation and Donation from the People the Donation devests them totally of it except the King have it by way of loan which to my thinking never any yet spoke Next it is required that there be a Latitude and that that is effected be capable of a Latitude of more and less as when as I said before Fire heateth Water the heat of the Fire is more than the heat of the Water Lastly some add too that the Maxim must be understood ante effectum productum Now all the Argument falleth to the ground for Sovereignty never was nor can be in the Community Sovereignty hath power of Life and Death which none hath over himself and
cannot be darkened or corrupted and our Affections so orderly as they cannot over-rule us in a wrong course to do against that is pious and just I was ever in opinion till now that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be secured from Sin was the onely propriety of God and that it is antichristian in the Pope to lay claim to an absolute Infallibility But this new Policy will find the like in the Parliament the collective Body or Community Thirdly consider attentively and impartially what you hold and you will find it resolve into Infidelity and Impatience Infidelity that we do not trust that God is able to do it Impatience that we will not wait patiently till he do it The Heathen are nearer to Christianity in this than our glorious Reformers Tacitus saith Quomodo sterilitatem aut nimios imbres caetera naturae mal◠ita luxum vel avaritiam dominantium tolerate vitia erunt donec homines sed neque haec continua meliorum interventu pensantur The safest way in the wise Historian's judgment is to endure the Tempests of ill Government patiently as we do other Tempests falling from Heaven while men are faults will be but will not be alwayes lasting and better things will come with compensation of our losses Fourthly It is much better for us that God hath reserved this as a peculiar case to himself to punish Sovereigns and to rectifie their Errours But for us on the other part to usurp upon his Right it is no less than intrusion upon his Divine Prerogative and carrieth along with it Morbum complicatum a number of Sins against many of his most glorious Attributes 1. It wrongeth God in his glorious Wisdom that he hath not prepared such a Remedy for us in this case nay it putteth foolishness upon him that in this case he hath commanded Patience and so left us totally remediless 2. It wrongeth God in his glorious Power by making him weak that by no other means he could set aright what is disjoynted in Church and State 3. It wrongeth his Holiness who for the necessary support of Church and State by these means is necessitated for effecting the Work most concerneth him and his Glory to have and use the help of sinful men nay even of their Sins 4. To what is said add this that this Principle of theirs dishonoureth Christian Religion it turneth Religion into Rebellion Faith into Faction and Christian obedience into disloyal Treason Nothing is more powerful to deter Kings from coming to the profession of Reformed Catholick Religion than to hold that such a Superintendent Power is in People or Parliament to censure and unking Christian Kings Fifthly Christian obedience and Sobriety teacheth us to leave all Evils in Church and State to be redressed by those means God himself hath appointed and when the ordinate means do it not or do to the contrary we are to keep our selves pure possess our selves with Patience and refer the Remedy to God who hath reserved this to himself We ought not to justle God out of his Right Before we have said that Scripture affords no warrant by Precept or Practice to the Community the collective or representative Body to do it But now we add for them to do it by opposing or resisting Sovereignty is in Scripture expresly forbidden Romans 13. 2. Whosoever resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation Of this more Quaest. 5. We must therefore closely adhere to what God hath commanded not turning to the left hand to obey unlawful things commanded by the Sovereign nor to the right hand with violence to resist lawful Authority Let all Subjects remember that in the day of their Accounts the charge will be to all singly or joyntly considered Who hath required these things at your hands Who hath made you Judges and Executers of matters of so high concernment And though it be pretended and possibly intended too that the work so done shall make much for the glory of God the good of the Church the liberty and happiness of the Subject it will not take us off We must not do evil that good may come of it Rom. 3. 8. To do God a piece of good service against his Will manifested is not to acquit our selves as his humble servants but to prove us his arrogant and proud Masters He is most glorified when his voice is obeyed 1 Sam. 15. 22. God standeth not in need of wicked man nor of his sinful wayes It was a pious Intention Vzza had when he put out his hand to save the Ark from falling yet because it was above his Charge God did strike him presently dead 2 Sam. 6. 6. 1 Chron. 13. 10. It is not enough for these Reformers to be assured in their Consciences that the work they intend and are about tends to a good religious and pious effect but they must have a sufficient Warrant from written Truth that they are warranted and called to this work Sixthly as it is against Piety it is against Prudence and the good of Policy Prudence doth not allow us to lose what real Good we have in present Possession for any future good which we have only in uncertain Expectation By this projected Course of our New-Statist-Divines we loose a good Conscience fall in actual Disobedience and Rebellion against the Lord and his Anointed We refuse Gods Tryal and with an unwarrantable indiscreet and unseasonable Zeal for Religion and our temporary Good come contrary to God and his Commandments We antevert nay shake off the Glory that God expecteth by our Tryals and cannot dare not expect Gods Blessing to our Endeavours If the Root be evil the Fruit can be no better Who may expect a Blessing to a sinful and rebellious Course Doth he allow us to do wrong and seek an Opportunity to do Good God acteth no Evil but only permitteth it and that because he is able to work Good out of Evil which is as inseparably proper to God alone as the immensity of his Power it is infinitely a superlative Presumption for us to presume upon the like We cannot expect any Blessing without a promise and have no Interest in the Promise but when our Acts and Works presuppose Obedience to his Precepts By such a Course as you prescribe we make the precept of God of none Effect Our excuse in this case will prove no better than the Pharisees who taught their Disciples doing things unlawful to say Corban God shall have Profit by it in the good we shall do to Church and State When we come to Judgment our Works shall witness against us and our good Intentions will not save us you know it is commonly and truly said Hell is full of good Intentions and Heaven of good works Seventhly if we look upon the practice recorded in Scripture when Gods people were delivered from Bondage or Captivity or when Grievances in Church and State were rectified and reformed God
or State who that hath read Scripture or by Experience hath remarked the Temper and Constitution of the Multitude can believe that Almighty God hath committed such a Trust to them Is there one of a thousand if you trust Iob or Solomon amongst them of understanding Was ever any act done by them but in a tumultuary way And is not their Reformation attended with Fury and Violence Impiety against God sacred Persons sacred Places sacred Things Have not these mis-called Reformations been acted prosecuted with open and crying Injustice not only against innocent but well deserving men Secondly I desire them to shew me in Scripture or in Ecclesiastical and authentick Story any popular Reformations of Church or State happy and successful what they alledge in this last Age are the Instances controverted and till they give instances extra propositum not questioned by their Favour they only beg the Question When God established both Policy and Church after the Deliverance of his People from the House of Bondage he would not do it but by Moses his Sovereign Viceroy King of Ieshurun Deut. 33. Ioshua did the like Ios. 24. The Judges raised by God as they delivered the people from their Slavery so they rectified what was amiss in Church and State What Desolations were there in Church and State in Saul's Reign Both State and Church in the Solemnity and Sincerity of the Worship in the days of David came to their Zenith to their highest Perfection aâ—d Beauty Read you I pray you of any doing in it but by David the King with the Advice and Direction of some Church-men Afterwards when it was corrupted who made the Reformation None but he who was King or Sovereign as Ioash 2 Chron. 24. Ezechias 2 Chron. 29 30 31. Iosias 2 Chron. 34. 35. Ezra Esd. To make Covenants against King or Sovereign pretending or intending if you will so the Reformation of Religion where read you it The first Covenant of a people formed into a politick Body is that you read Exod. 34. Had either the Community the collective or representative Body any other hand in it than to obey as Moses King of Ioshurun commanded Ioshua made another Iosh. 24. consider the place and see if either Tables or Parliament framed it urged it You have another 2 Chron. 15. but it is done and pressed by the royal Authority of Asa the King You have another 2 Chron. 34. but it is the Act of Iosiah the King The like you read of Esdra Esd. 10. If any object the Covenant of Iehojada in the Non-age of Ioash Let them be pleased to remember that this was the High Priests act not as High Priest but as Governour to the King By the same Power he did it by which he dethroned Athaliah armed the Subjects and enthroned Ioash Shew me one Covenant in the book of God which was made without the King except it be a Covenant with Hell and Death or as Iudas covenanted with the Iews to sell and betray his Master Or such a Covenant as the Prophet Hosea speaketh of Chap. 10. vers 3 4. For now they shall say we have no King because we feared not the Lord what then should a King do unto us They have spoken words swearing falsely in making a Covenant thus Iudgment springeth up as Hemlock in the furrows of the field Lastly Reflect upon Popular acts invading Sovereignty and attempting Reformation and you will find them as sinful as little successful as Kings of Popular Election It is recorded in Exodus that Moses the Sovereign of the People of Israel being absent forty dayes in the Mountain with God the People notwithstanding that they had lately sworn a lawful Covenant forced Aaron to make them Gods a molten Calf and forsake the true and living God Exod 11. Here you have a glorious popular Reformation in Religion Take another Reformation in the State and see if it be better The People of Israel living under the happy Government of David by the suggestions of Absalom and his fellow-Traytors possessed a Prejudice of David and his Government that Justice was not done and the State might be better ordered assemble without Warrant of the King a Treason if any thing else if we look on Scripture to Absalom under pretence of a Vow shake off David and acknowledge themselves Subjects to Absalom the Traytor the Usurper 1 Sam. 15. The ten Tribes after the death of Solomon supplicate Reboboam for a Redress of their Grievances not answered to their mind rebel against Rehoboam To strengthen their Kingdom and Policy they set up a new Religion make new Priests of their own Their Religion is the same their Fathers attempted in the Wilderness Exod. 32. and this is the second glorious Reformation of Calvesworship what was the issue I pray you it pursued them to their utter extirpation What can be said oâ— that abominable act of the Iews who to save themselves condemned Christ Are not Communities subject to dangerous Inclinations from private Incitements Are not their Representatives subject to mis-leading Factions and ambitions of private ends They are too much transported with the love of a popular estate who can so over-rule their Understandings as to force themselves to think that Communities or their Representative bodies are not molested or transported with corrupt judgments and affections for private ends To conclude Seeing then to establish the People to be the last and best Remedy to rectifie all Errours in State in Church establisheth so many Absurdities and Paradoxes and hath no warrant by Scripture sound Reason or Experience we can neither believe it nor approve it for to aver and affirm that a Community diffusive collective or representative is a perfect Republick to preserve it self and to right what is amiss abstracting the notion of a Republick from the Sovereign Governour or Governours is a notion not imaginable nor ever used by any who ever wrote or spoke right in Policy It secureth the multitude from Errour both in matters concerning Church and State There is neither Precept nor Practice in Holy Writ to warrant that the multitude have such a superintendent Power above their Sovereign Nay Scripture commandeth us the contrary not to assume this Power or to resist the Higher Powers under no less pain than Damnation This Maxim resolves into infidelity that we trust not God can do it or will do it and into Impatience that we will not wait patiently till he do it Christian obedience and Sobriety teacheth us to reserve the rectifying of the Sovereign and his Errours in Government to God himself We must not serve God against his Will nor without an express Warrant for our doing so By doing as our new Statists warrant us we run into Rebellion and lose a good Conscience in dutiful obedience and humble submission and prejudice God of that glory he expects by our tryals We must not do evil that good may come of it nor upon pretences of good intentions and good effects
Observator and others gives unto this Maxim which how they cohere with what we have brought from Scripture and said by its warrant I humbly submit to the intelligent to the impartial Reader and come to consider the no less lame than extravagant consequences the Observator deduceth from this mis-understood and abused Maxim They be four which when we look upon them inwardly are such as never Saint of God nor sound Politician thought of before we shall follow him in his order The first Consequence that he knits with this Antecedent The Safety of the People is the Supreme Law is an Ergo The King is bound in duty to promote all and every one of his Subjects to all happiness Certainly there is more in the Conclusion than is vertually included in the Premisses for when Salus Populi the Safety of the People to which the King is tied to conclude omnis foelicitas populi all happiness of the People and with that large extent to all and every one may well be answered with a non sequitur that the Consequence is lame the reason is clear Salus populi may subsist without Foelicitas Populi Foelicitas dicit quid majus the Safety of the People may subsist without the Felicity of the People for Felicity of the People is the Safety of the People and somewhat more I demand of the Observator and his Complices who ever heard that either by the Law of God Nature or common Equity the King is bound to promote all and every of his Subjects to all Happiness God is not so rigorous a Task-master nor is the notion of the word protect either in it's native or used Sense to which the King is bound so large as to tye him to promote all and every Subject to all happiness It is not imaginable the tenderest-hearted Father or Mother can do this to their best beloved Child nor doth God or Nature require it Doth the Observator by such Consequences intend to make a Kings charge intolerable God injust to impose it a King unable to do it and resolves to condemn all Kings who do not so provide for the Happiness of all and every one of his Subjects in the highest measure Who will deny but every King is bound to level all his Actions Intentions and Endeavours for the Peace Plenty and Safety of his Subjects in common But to put this Burthen on the King which neither he nor his Fathers were able to bear is too hard a measure We may expect this from his Goodness and Bounty we cannot charge it upon him as necessary and incumbent to him of Duty Are not all and every one of Subjects by Duty and Oath tyed to Salus Regis to provide for his Safety Honour Wealth and Power Are not we sworn to it in the Oath of Allegiance to assist and defend all Priviledges Preeminences and Rights belonging to His Highness his Heirs and Successors or annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm If all have not taken this Oath all born in his Majesties Dominions are bound to it of all it may be actually exacted and the Statute 5. Eliz. cap. 1. ordains that all Barons Knights Citizens Burgesses elected for the Parliament who shall not take the Oath of Allegiance made 1. Eliz. at their Entry in the Parliament House shall have no Voice in Parliament but be construed as if they had never been elected and suffer such Pains and Penalties as if they had presumed to sit in Parliament without Election Return or Authority By this Oath mentioned in the Statute they are bound to bear Faith and true Allegiance to the Queens Highness her Heirs and lawful Successors and to their Power assist and defend all Iurisdictions Priviledges Preeminences and Authorities belongging to the Queens Highness her Heirs and Successors or united and annexed to the imperial Crown of this Realm or likewise by their Oath 3. Iac. being bound to defend him and his lawful Successors to the uttermost of their Power against all Conspiracies and Attempts whatsoever which shall be made against his Person Crown and Dignity by reason of any Sentence or Declaration flowing from the Pope or otherwise and to their best Endeavour to discover and make known to his Majesty his Heirs and Successors all Treasons and trayterous Conspiracies which they shall know or hear to be against him or any of them Here you see all Subjects and every one to the uttermost of their Power are bound to assist and defend the Kings Right and Prerogative and that none can enter the Houses of Parliament till actually they swear it will it therefore from hence follow that all and every one of his Majesties Subjects at least such as have entered the Houses of Parliament all and every one of them are for-sworn who have intended or attempted any thing besides or who intending or doing it hath not raised him to the highest degree and pitch of Honour Glory and Power In this case I am hopeful the Observator like Iudah will be more favourable to himself and his Patrons than he is in the other to his Sovereign Who before these new Statists that ever wrote the Charge of a King bound him to promote all and every one of his Subjects to all kind and highest Degree of political and temporal Happiness Is it in the Power of the most puissant Monarch upon Earth to advance all his Subjects capable and deserving men to the highest pitch of Happiness and Honour Parcius ista viris c. To shut up all that concerneth this first absurd Consequence drawn from this abused Maxim I intreat the Observator to remember that Almighty God did never judge it fit to entrust the People with their own Safety but in a subordinate way hath committed this Trust to his Anointed his Vicegerent upon Earth from whence issueth this Consequence that Salus Regis est salus populi The Safety of the King is the Safety of the People as Salus Animae is salus Corporis the Safety of the Soul is the Safety of the Body The Fathers judged it so see Iustin Martyr quaest resp ad Orthod q. 138. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This holy Father knew no other case of a Kingdom than that the King is the Soul and the Subjects the Body Let the Observator judge then where the Safety is most considerable and learn from Salust Animi imperio corporis servitio utimur or from Tacitus Nempe iis that is Imperatoribus dii Imperium dedere nobis obsequii gloria relicta est And the Heathen will learn him to acknowledge that the Honour and Safety of the King his Glory and entire Prerogative is the Transcendent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of all Politicks the paramont Law that giveth Law to all Laws concerning private men their Lives Estate and Honour and that all Subjects are to promote the Sovereign Right and Prerogative to the utmost of their Power as the publick Soul of the Kingdom and the Breath of their
Nostrils The second Corollary which the Observator deduceth out of this Principle Salus populi suprema lex esto is that it were strange if the people subjecting themselves to command should aim at any thing but their own Good in the first and last place This Consequence presupposeth two Errors the one is that the people are the immediate Authors and Donors of Sovereignty which we have already refuted the other is that the Conveyance of Sovereignty is by Trust and that in that Portion and proportion the people please the error of which we will by God's grace discover in our third Question To take this off briefly I ask of the Observator that seeing God hath ordained Rule and Subjection and directeth mankind to their greatest Convenience by Government and seeing God and Nature teach and all do acknowledge that the Good Plenty Peace and Safety of the people cannot be effected or attained to except the King be proportioned to so high a degree of Honour Wealth and Power that as Father he may protect all administrate Iustice secure from Oppression and Sedition at home and from Invasion abroad and have Main tenance proportionable to these ends whether or not in Order of Nature in the first place it is necessary that this Power Honour and Maintenance be secured to the King without which we cannot expect Safety Peace or Good to the Subject Except we have made a Divorce betwixt our selves and Reason we must grant this Truth If you will trust Saint Chrysostom hear him speak it upon Rom. 13. upon these words He is the Minister of God for good unto thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In which words two things are expressed first that the King is immediately sent from God the other is that he is sent for our Good no Safety then for us without him and for both Respects we are to honour him for all Good which we have by our Industry is by Influence from his Government and he is a co-worker with us and auxiliary in it If this be not enough turn to him upon the words Not only for Wrath but for Conscience sake where he saith that the King is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is the procurer of Peace and Base and bottom of all politick economy Innumerable good things come by Princes Government to the Society of men which if you take away there can be no Cities no Right to Lands or Revenues no House and Family can subsist no Commerce and Trade can be had all shall be overturned the stronger devouring the weaker To St. Chrysostom's Suffrage joyn St. Augustine tom 9. tract 6. in Ioh. Tolle jura Imperatorum quis audet dicere mea est illa villa aut meus est ille servus aut domus baec mea est and a little after Per jura Regum possidentur possessiones the result is this if you take away the Right of Kings none dare say the Lands are mine this Servant is mine or I have Right to this House It is by the right of Kings that all our Rights and Possessions are secured It is more than manifest then that the Right of King and Subject the Safety of King and Subject are naturally conjoyned and so intimately involved the one in the other that in the moral Notion they may be esteemed identically the same no less than Soul and Body make up one identical personal Subsistence or at least se mutuò ponunt tollunt destroy the Kings Right and Good and with the same Act the same blow you destroy the Subjects too If you provide not for the Safety of the King you cannot possibly secure the Safety of the People What God hath conjoyned let none put asunder Let it never then again be spoken or heard by Christians that the good of the Subject is the Alpha and Omega in Government and demandeth by right the first and last place The third Consequence is this That the King looking upon the whole State reflecting upon what Graces he hath granted or may grant to his People he cannot merit of it and what he hath granted if it be for the good of his People it hath proceeded but from his meer Duty Well by the Observator we see the King is placed in no better condition than a Servant nay an unprofitable Servant for when he has done all he can do he was onely done his Duty By these means Grace is not a fit compellation for Kings Acts of Iustice he may do but no Acts of Grace O misera Regum sors On the other part the People are stated in that sublime condition that they may supererogate with their Prince by doing many Acts of Bounty Favour and Grace By this Assertion a Prince is disabled from doing any courtesie to his Subjects Before this miserable distempered Age was it ever heard but that it was the greatest happiness of a King that he was able and his greatest glory to oblige his People by Acts of Grace Bounty and Courtesie But now the World is so turn'd topsie turvy that when he has done all he is able he hath onely discharged the duty of a faithful and trusty Servant Turn the Tables and then see what you will judge of the throw Do not all we Subjects owe Duty to the King Are we not tied to advance his Honour Yet upon extraordinary Services we believe we can deserve well both of King and Countrey Will you not Observator allow the King the like measure This Conceit is a popular Deceit and not virtually onely but also really destroys the ground of Beneficence in a King and the duty of Gratitude in a Subject By this it appeareth that it is a naked nay an hypocritical Complement when both Houses in Parliament after Graces granted present their humble thanks and heartily acknowledge His Majesties gracious Favours Must not the like hold betwixt a Father and his Family And shall we by these grounds be constrained to acknowledge all the Acts of a Father to his Family to be no better than Acts of meer Justice and Duty In the Dialect of Scripture and Heathen Writers Homer Odyss 9. Kings are Fathers And yet the Observator standeth not to say That the Father is more worthy than the Son in Nature and the Son is wholly a Debtor to the Father and can by no merit transcend his Duty nor challenge any thing as due from his Father for the Father doth all his Offices meritoriously freely and unexpectedly We will not be at pains now to examine this onely I demand if this hold according to his Judgment in a Father of a Family how comes it to pass that it holds not in Patre Patriae in the Father of the Kingdom The obligation to Pater Patriae to the Father of the Kingdom is stronger is straighter than to Pater Familiae to our natural Father And the School doth teach us and all Divines besides for ought I know that we are bound to love the King appreciativè by