Selected quad for the lemma: parliament_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
parliament_n	king_n	power_n	prerogative_n	4,869	5	9.9586	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89881	Interest will not lie. Or, a view of England's true interest: in reference to the [brace] papist, royalist, Presbyterian, baptised, neuter, Army, Parliament, City of London. In refutation of a treasonable pamphlet, entituled, The interest of England stated. Wherein the author of it pretends to discover a way, how to satisfie all parties before-mentioned, and provide for the publick good, by calling in the son of the late King, &c. Against whom it is here proved, that it is really the interest of every party (except only the papist) to keep him out: and whatever hath been objected by Mr. William Pryn, or other malcontents, in order to the restoring of that family, or against the legality of this Parliament's sitting, is here answer'd by arguments drawn from Mr Baxter's late book called A holy commonwealth, for the satisfaction of them of the Presbyterian way; and from writings of the most learned royalists, to convince those of the royal party. By Mar. Nedham.	Nedham, Marchamont, 1620-1678.	1659 (1659)	Wing N392; Thomason E763_5; ESTC R202968	47,454	45

should make so that had they had their purpose the whole Cause Parliamentary and its faithful friends must have been clearly betrayed into his hands But it must not be forgotten how craftily they went to work for the completing of their design and it is the more needful to revive the proceedings because the same spirit appears at work again in the like method by those who have now taken Arms those who favor the present treasonable undertaking Their method I say and pretences appear one and the same for those did what they could to irritate and engage the Citie of London In all Counties they had their Emissaries and Agents concurring with those employed by the King to form new Insurrections which you know afterwards brake forth all over the Nation and to usher in these the people were stirred up to frame Petitions all cloathed in fine language with fair pretences viz. That they might have a full and free Parliament they pretended for the Liberty of the Subject also to free them from the oppression of an Army and to be for the Law of the Land against the arbitra y power of a Faction in Parliament setting up and supporting themselves above Law by the power of an Army They pretended likewise to be much for the ease of the people to free them from Taxes and Contributions to an Army and to be for settlement that there might be no need of an Army They pretended for Religion too against Sectaries yea and that no pretence might be wanting they pretended for the army it self also as to the body of it That all but a Faction of some Officers might be satisfied their Arrears Pray you now compare these pretences with those published by the present Rebels in Cheshire and the language of those that savor them in other places and judg whether the spirit of the same corrupt party be not now at work again by new Instruments who would likewise if they might have their ways give up not onely the present Parliament but with it the whole Parliamentary interest of the Nation and all men of all parties yea and themselves to be disposed of at the will of the Son for what can hinder that Sea of boundless tyranny from overflowing when the breach is once made and he let in just as the other would by bringing on a Personal Treaty to conclude with the Father have yeilded all up to his pleasure Actors you see are now on foot again disguised and cloathed with the very same pretences and therefore what can be more clear than that these men are studying to bring the Yong Man upon the stage to perfect the Tragedy which was plotted so many years ago in that endeavor for a restitution of his Father which would assuredly have been compleated in an absolute Tyranny had not the Army then taken up a noble resolution to prevent it by secluding that desperate party which ruled at that time in Parliament So much though much more might be said for the justice and necessitie of the Seclusion 2. Let us see how the remaining Members behaved themselves upon this Occasion They did not as Mr. Pryn and our Author and others have scandalized them drive away their Fellow-Members nor encourage the Army to do it as Mr. Pryn and his fellows had before encouraged the Apprentices to drive away the Speaker and the best part of the Members but when the Seclusion was made the House presently sent out the Serjeant with the Mace to the place called the Queens Court where those Members were then detained to command their Attendance in the House but the Guards of Souldiers would not permit them to come So the Serjeant was sent out a second time and then the Officers would not permit him to pass which was entred as a Contempt in the Journal-Book they being startled at the sudden force upon the House and therefore they concluded also not to proceed in business until their Members should be restored and in the mean time ordered That the General be sent to that the House might know the reason of the Armies so proceeding Which being done the General and Council of Officers sending to the House their Reasons which necessitated them to the Action and manifesting therein That there was no other way to preserve the Rights and Interests of the Nation which those Members had laboured to destroy thereupon the House who of their own knowledge could tell the particulars charged were true being earnestly importuned by the Army That they would proceed to save the Nation and secure the good Cause they had fought for against the King and his Party chose to sit notwithstanding all the difficulties and clouds of envy that were gathering over their heads and to proceed towards the Nations settlement in such a way as God in his Providence according to his Will should direct them rather than desert their Trusts not consulting therein with Flesh and Blood which because of the hazard of their own personal concernments might have taken them off but with a Good Cause and the common Good which then lay at stake and had been utterly lost if those Secluded ones might have had their wills who now again make it their business by clamours to set the world on fire about their ears care not though themselvs perish at last in the combustion 3. Let us see the Reason why it is that being once Secluded they have never since been admitted and are still kept out The Reasons are evident for they were no sooner Excluded but they went on Plotting and contriving as a distinct Assembly without the House to carry on their design as they did before within To this purpose they joynely put forth a Declaration Entituled A Solemn Protestation against the House and the Army declaring all void and null that should be done their absence and inflamed Mr. Pryn a necessary Tool of the Party because be can say and Print any thing for them and yet not be in danger of his head who put forth in his own name a violent virulent Protestation against the House the Army their Cause and all Proceedings and divers other fierce Papers he hath let flie from time to time so did his Parry also the like under the Title of Declarations c. And to this day they have never omitted any occasion they could lay hold on to justifie themselves and revive that destructive design for which they were at first Secluded this is enough to shew There was and is reason to keep them out of the House still Unless any will imagine it reasonable they should be re-Admitted to take an opportunity which they can never otherwise have for the finishing of that mischief which they like a sort of Madmen by restoring the Ejected Family would bring not only upon the Parliament and the well-affected but on all Parties of men yea and themselves in conclusion as they may sufficiently perceive if God gives them hearts to weigh what hath

been from reason deduced in the former Sactions But now let us return to our Author again He saith This Parliament is no Parliament because by Law it is Dissolved through the Kings Death that Called it So saith Mr. Pryn also and others Thus when men are over-heated with Prejudice and Passion they know not or remember not what they say They affirm The Parliament dyed together with the King and so can no longer have a Being yet they keep a clamour to get into the House and then they will be content it shall be a Living Parliament again although the King be Dead and shall serve the turn and he … ed a Full a Free and a Good Parliament but you may suppose to no other purpose but their own Why else did William Pryn and his fellows make such a stir to get in And why doth the 〈◊〉 Pa●er subscribed G. Booth intimate That if the House will let in the Old Members again all shall be as well as if it were a new Virgin Parliament By th●s the world may plainly see it is not the Publick Interest of the Nation though they pretend it but their own which they seek If the seclusion of them be taken off that they may sit then it will be as good a Parliament as it was at first or as any new one can be Speak out then and say O House of Parliament ye shall reign and we will be content provided we may reign with you And who knows forsooth if such a bargain could be made whether they would not upon those terms leave Charls Stuart to commence his Reign Ad Graecas Calendas or Latter-Lammas But they have more wit than to believe such a bargain possible therefore not being able to get into the House their best way is to say it is no Parliament and upon that account keep up a faction to bring in Charls and try whether they can reign with him by perswading the Nation they are undone and neither have nor can have any Government without him Thus far I have argued this business Argumento ad hominem that is to say in a way of Argumentation good against Mr. William Prynne and the men of his party quatenus Prynne and that party so that they above all other men ought to hold their tongues But because it is necessary that both they and the Cavalier Objectors should be confuted and that others should be satisfied and likewise that the mindes of friends should be confirmed and all mens scruples be removed touching the legality and equity of this Parliaments sitting I shall now descend to handle the question Argumento ad Rem that is to say by an Argument to the purpose making good the thing it self as it now stands against the world of Malecontents of what party soever they be and this I will do not by such principles as may be said to be onely our own but from such as are owned by some of those of the Presbyterian party who appear opposite to the Parliament and by others also Royalists of high reputation and judgment in the world This leads me to make Reply unto what our Author further saith viz. That not onely many of the Members of this Parliament are secluded but they were first dissolved by reason of the death of the King that called them so that legally they could sit no longer and at last by the late Protector Which dissolution was acknowledged by as many Members against themselves as sat in intermediate Parliaments Here you see the utmost that the Cavaliers and which Mr. Prynne and the other Malecontents do or can say against this Parliaments sitting For Answer whereunto give me leave to lay down these Prolegomena or Previous Positions which are not points of my own invention but as well founded upon the judgment of the learned as agreeable to my own which perhaps is but weak 1. The first Position is drawn from Mr. Baxters own words in his late Book entituled A holy Commonwealth and I suppose whatever he saith his Brethren will approve He to justifie himself for his finding with the Parliaments Arms against those of the King declareth That the King by the constitution of the Kingdom had the Title of Soveraign but not so as that the Soveraign Power was wholly in him for that according to the constitution was divided betwixt him and the Parliament and so p. 46. he sheweth how that in this Kingdom the Title of Soveraign given to the King was Honorary and ought not to be interpreted contrary to the constitution of the Kingdom which allowed him but a part onely of the Soveraignty So that though the persons representing the people in Parliament were being taken in their personal condition each of them but Subjects yet in respect to the publick constitution of the Kingdom they revera had one part of that Soveraign Power of Parliament as the King had another part and could really claim no more but his part in the Acts of Supremacy For proof of this Mr. Baxter in Page 463 464 465 466. citeth the Kings own Answer to the Nineteen Propositions and from thence inferre that large his Royal acknowledgment of the truth of this assertion therefore I suppose neither the Cavaliers will contradict this seeing the King acknowledged it nor the Presbyterians because not onely Mr. Baxter writes this but because also they all engaged in the War upon this principle for the Parliament against the King and questionless a righteous principle of engagement it was 2. This leads me to a second Position viz. That in a Kingdom where the Soveraignty is so divided if the King shall grow insolent and by Arms seek to invade that part of the Soveraignty which belongs to the people in Parliament he may by arms be lawfully opposed For proof of this Mr. Baxter because he would now be courteous with the Cavaliers and win them citeth the judgments of two the most learned Royalists that this later Age hath produced viz. Barclay and Grotius which citations being large I for brevities sake omit them onely one out of Grotius give me leave to repeat in English because it hath the full sence of the rest It is this If the Authority be divided betwixt a King and the People in Parliament so that the King hath one part of is the people another the King offering to encroach upon that part which is none of his may lawfully be opposed by Arms because be exceeds the bounds of his Authority And not only so but he may lose his own part likemise by the Law of Arms. 3. The third Position is That a King carrying on a War upon such terms against the people to the death and destruction of his people while they are contending for their right remaine no longer a King having dissolved the constitution of the Kingdom but hath lost his Kingdom and becoms an enemy and a private person For proof of this against the Cavaliers Barclay the great Champion of

Monarchy in his Book Contra Monarchomacos doth grant it onely he saith Vix videtur id accidere posse in Rege meni is compote It seems almost impossible a King should be so mad as to proceed on that manner and yet we all know who was so mad as to do it And for further proof of it both against Cavaliers and Malecontented Presbyterians together the same Mr. B. in Page 483. tells us That Grotius and other learned Politicians conclude That if a King shall thus make himself an enemy of the people engaging in War against them he deposeth himself and may be used by them as 〈◊〉 enemy 4. The Fourth Position is That the constitution of the Kingdom being by this means dissolved and the Nation put into a state of War being divided into two parties these two parties though really they make but one Nation yet during the War they are no longer to be reckoned as one Nation but as two Nations contending for distinct Rights So saith Mr. Baxters Royal friend Grotius in his Tract De Legatis 5. The Fifth Position is That if while the War lasteth the two parties are to be reputed two Nations then the Rights and Laws of War do belong unto either party against the other as absolutely as they can belong unto one Nation against another when they are at War Besides that this is confessed the Reason is evident because no War can be managed or regulated unless Jura belli the Laws of War be admitted for the direction and decision of matters relating to the Warlick occasion and Controversie The state of War hath its known Laws among the Nations as well as the Civil state of a Kingdom or Commonwealth hath known Laws in its particular Nation whereby matters of difference are to be ended This is a confessed point Why else are so many Books extant touching the Laws of War The main point of the Soveraignties being divided heretofore betwixt the King and the Parliament and acknowledged to be so by the King himself and the other Positions premised being proved by the Testimonies of such as are reverenced by both Royalists and Presbyterians I trust then that by building upon Foundations of their own I shall give both of them satisfaction in the Building and be able to convince them that there is both Law and Reason for the sitting of this Parliament As to the grand Argument which both our Author Mr. Pryn and others doe use that according to Law the Parliament was dissolved by the Kings death T is true that it was so provided by Law that the death of a King dissolved a Parliament but you are to observe that this was a Law relating to the Constitution of Parliament in the ordinary Course of its regulation and respecting only the formality of the Writ summoning the Parliament to advise with the particular person of the King in whose name the writ was issued forth and truly when the old Constitution remained without disturbance it was reason it should be retained in its ordinary Course but in an extraordinary case as that of this Parliament hath been in all the great revolutions from first to last when the very Constitution Parlamentary it self as to the nature of the Powers and Rights of the several parties King and people therein concerned fell under Question and when the sword was drawn betwixt the parties to decide it and the King persisted to claim the whole Right of Soveraignty contrary to that antient Constitution and referred his Claim to the determination of the sword and thereby according to the equity of our sundamental Laws sorfeited his Kingship and became a private person dissolved the Constitution of the Kingdom introduced another Law viz. the Law of Arms to trie his Cause by and pleaded it with sword in hand to the very last is it reason in such an extraordinary Case of this that the surviving party of that King should ground an Argument upon the formalities and ordinary usages of a Constitution whenas that Constitution it self hath by the King himself been dissolved long agoe what legall or rational Plea can now be made upon the account of his Regal capacity who by proceeding contrary to the very Law and nature of the Constitution upon which he stood justly lost all the Benefit of it and became a private person and having made himself an enemy to the people deposed himself as Mr. Baxter tels you out of Grotius and therefore might be used as an enemy with what face I say can any man after all this talk of Law in relation to him who had not only violated all Law in the Branches but pluckt up the very root of it in destroying the Parlamentary establishment of the Kingdom as much as in him lay and would refer himself to no Law but as I said before the Law of warr Let the impartial part of the world then yea and our Adversaries themselves from their own very doctrines here cited be Judges The consideration of these particulars may serve sufficiently to clear 1. The justice of secluding those Members who in endevouring to bring the King after all to the Throne again made themselves Criminals because they would by treacherie have betraied the whole Soveraignty contrary to the Fundamental Law of the Constitution into his hands which Seclusion is to be justified not only by the Law of Necessity as they pleaded that acted it but by the Law of the Land which might have called them to account for their lives and also by the Law of Nations which in such case as this alloweth the victorious part of the People to create a new Law for another Constitution of Government 2. This shews the sufficiencie of that Authority which brought the late King to Justice According to the Royal and Presbyterian doctrins he made himself a private person as well as a publick Enemy therefore having shed so much blood and done so many mischiefs deserving death he might legally being a private man be put to his Trial according to Law for lesser Crimes as well as for that transcendent Crime of dissolving the Fundamental Constitution of the Kingdom by warring for the whole Soveraignty in himself 3. This sheweth as is hinted before the Legality of the remaining Parliaments sitting to form a new Government for though they were but a part of the Parliament heretofore yet being the only ones that remained faithful to the Peoples Quarrel against their Enemy the King and the former Government having been as the forecited Authors confess dissolved by the King himself certainly the Law of God the Law of Nature and the Law of the Land intending there should be some Government and the Law of War which the King himself brought in having transmitted the Soveraign Power into their hands for the People they by all manner of Laws are avowed to be the Supreme Authority and Parliament of England and therefore legally qualified to sit to secure and settle a new Fundamental Law of

to the grand Idol of the Popish Interest in Ireland and all the world knows the Papists had and openly declared and shewed they had a Commission for what they did there and that it was transmitted thither vnder the great Seal of Scotland yea and every one knows or hath heard who was in person there at the time of its issuing forth and had custody of the Seal of that Kingdom in his own hands And after those barbarous Rebels of Ireland had in cruelty out-acted all the Monsters of former Ages my Lord of Ormond can tell you who it was that did as openly own them for what they had done and sollicited them to send six thousand of those Vilans into England against the Parliament and Supplies into Scotland and impowered him the said Ormond to give them all manner of Assurances save only that he would not yield they should have liberty of making Appeals to Rome because it would have intrenched upon his Regal interest and prerogative but as for the interest and honor of God and Religion that he let go and sent particular Thanks to Brown Muskerry and Plunket defperate Rebels for their good services who had been the chief Actors in that horrid Massacre And if Ormond will not acknowledge these things 't is well we have the Letters to produce which were written to him by that Royal hand and found in his Cabinet taken at the Battel of Naisby The Papists therefore having had so fair a Creature of the Father we shal yield likewise for many reasons that they have no cause to fear foul dealing from the Son a Gentleman of as good a nature towards them as the Sire was For they ought not to forget and they of the Scotish Nation cannot chuse but with sorrow remember what a woful Convert they had of him when being after his Father's death in the Isle of Jersey they invited him out of the very arms as I may say of the Irish Rebels among whom he was then ready to go having strook up a Bargain with them and sent his goods beforehand by sea to Kinsale with intent immediatly to have followed them As for his Religion if any it is at best you know but a devotion to Prelacy which was bequeathed to him in Legacy for he forfeited all his Coronation Oaths and Protestations to the Scots Nation with all his other pretences of Religion there before ever he left that Country What profession he hath since owned abroad hath for Reason of tate been kept very close and yet not so close but he discovered it when visiting one of the English Jesuits Colledges in Flanders the shewing him in their Chappel the Essigies of several good Fathers of that house which had been Sainted at Tyborne he pulled his Hat over his eyes and turned aside to the Wall But if this be not evident let us have recourse to reason and then consider how long he was under the wing of his Mothers Instructions in France and what a Nursery Flande●s hath been for him since which is the most Jesuited place in the World consider also the urgency of his necessities disposing him to imbrace any thing or take any course to get a Crown being under the same influence of that wandring Star called Ragione di Stato as was his Grand-father Henry the Fourth of France who shifted his Religion to secure a Crown and chose rather to h●zard his portion in Paradice than his Palace in Paris which some say were his own very words but to these considerations take along with you the yong Mans intercourse with obligation to dependance upon forein Preists and Papists his frequent known applications and promises to the Pope by special Agents employed to Rome for that purpose and to the Emperor as well as the Spaniard his Alliance to and combination with him and other Popish Princes especially those of the Austrian party being put altogether into the ballance are ground enough to believe him sufficiently affected if not sworn to Popery These things we say being considered we are easily of the same opinion with our Author That it is absolutely the interest of the Roman Catholick party to restore him and see him setled in that absolute domination over England which was the grand project of the Court and for the attaining whereof his Father first laid the foundation of our Civil Wars Which being evidently the true interest of the Papists in respect to him we cannot be-lie them when we say It is that which they and their forein Friends do make their great business to bring about and so we know where to have them on the other side seeing that in reverence to the principles and practises both of his Father and Mother and in respect to the Obligations he hath to the whole Popish party for his Bread he is concerned to retain them as the best and surest Friends and the old Friends of his Family we do not be-lie him if we conclude that no party in England can expect any other thing by his restitution but that they all must be always truckling under the Papist to the extream hazard of the Reformed Religion professed now with all freedom here among us so that we should absolutely be-lie our own Interest and deceive our selves if we would which God forbid give ear to the Royal Charmer charm he never so wisely SECT II. Of the Royalist OUr Authors words are these The Royalist and English Protestant besides that his Principles oblige him chearfully to pay his obedience where it is due and look no further is likewise by his Interest concerned to be content with such a restitution of the King as alloweth no private reparations for past sufferings they thereby acquiring full possession of what remains and as the settlement of the Nation would make the smallest estate more advantageous than the greatest would be acquired by violence which unavoidably would defeat all terms of Union and involve the Nation in new Wars so likewise if the necessary parts of their way of worship be secured other circumstantial things will be easily setled by a fair and amicable Treaty Before we proceed let us animadvert a little upon particular expressions in this Paragraph By his joyning the word Royalist and English Protestants he intimateth as if none were good Protestants-but Royalists and truly this is generally the phantasie of that party who look upon all others with an evil eye as Hereticks and Schismaticks And whereas he saith The Royalists principles oblige him chearfully to pay obedience where it is due this toucheth upon a new question intimating that he oweth not obedience to the present power which doctrine having been hotly banded heretofore this is no place to dispute about and therefore I refer the Reader to another piece which will shortly come forth one part whereof will-be to confirm the point of Subjection though the dueness thereof to the present Powers hath been formerly proved both by reason and by testimonies drawn from

you could forget their implacable temper yet for these things they will never forget you Secondly Take heed of Promises all ye that have ever been engaged against that Family and Party Is it not strange to hear that some who have been so active against him openly should now engage for him under a disgaise What security can they have therein for themselves or the Nation Oh but our Author tells us young Charles is a good man in all respects and as to his honesty no malice hath the impudence to blast it Though we could say somewhat to one Part of his honesty yet we wave it but in the other part of honesty which concerneth oaths and promises we might say he hath blasted himself but that he ought not to seem over-serious about them lest while he pretends to a Crown he should lose his credit with the Politicians that would think him unfit to be a KING But they need not doubt him he hath made proof enough of himself in that particular having most Royally given evidence that to trust him is the right way to true Repentance If ye look into my Third Section ye may there see how like a KING he carryed himself in the Trust given him by the Presbyterians when they made him a White Boy in Scotland by cloathing him with the Covenant and a Coronation-oath and Royal Robes all together Thirdly consider that as you have had the Honour hitherto to stand firm to the Nations true interest in opposition to that Family so while they pretend here in print to court you their great business is at the same time to make you jealous of the Parliament the Parliament of you and at once to exasperate all parties of men against you that being diffident of each other and discontented ye may not be in a condition vigorously to unite your Counsels and Forces against the design which they have now in hand for the ruine of all Make much then of this Parliament they are the founders of the Nations Interest upon a better Basis of Freedome than our Ancestors could ever hope for and questionless they must needs be most concerned and fittest to finish the Building seeing it is their own Interest as well as the Publick and they have most experience in the work Charles Stuart is for the giving of our wise men and our interested men a Rotation as quick as may be Therefore certainly it is your interest to stand by the Parliament with your ancient courage and affection beat down the enemies before you and so when you have gained Victory ye will be in the ready way of getting your Arrears out of the Purses of your Adversaries which will be the greatest comfort to your selves and an ease to the People more words might be used but you see where your Interest doth lye and if you follow it strenuously it cannot lie it will not deceive you whereas if you swerve but from a tittle of it your enemies will soon slip into one Advantage or other to bring trouble and desolation upon the Land ruine upon your selves and all your Friends SECT VII Of the Parliament THe Parliament being the Butt at which the Adversaries shoot all their bitter Arrows of reproach and envy it will be necessary to be particular in curing the Wounds which have of late been given to their Reputation because their Being is the grand Bulwark of our security But in the first place to sandalize them our Author saith It is the design of the Parliament to continue themselves in absolute Power by the specious name of a Popular Government and finally to set up an Oligarchy By this you see 1. That which the enemy principally fears is lest this Parliament should continue over-long could they but be rid of this Parliament they presume they should do well enough afterwards either with or without another and therefore their Work is if they knew how to precipitate the ending of it But to confute the folly of this Scandal t is known they have by a special Vote already fixt a time short enough indeed considering the greatness of their work and the opposition like to be against them beyond which they intend not to sit 2. As to the other Point of erecting an Oligarchy or Government by some few Persons this is as great a scandal as the other and it were to be wished that the over-busie talk and Prints of some of our own had not given too much occasion for opening the mouth of the Enemy touching that particular But how should there be any ground for suspition about an Oligarchy seeing no such thing can be as by many reasons might be proved where a supreme Legislative Power is intended to be fixed in an orderly succession of Parliaments managed by elections rightly qualified and bounded for which with all convenient speed a course will be taken by this Parlament Secondly our Author endeavours to make this no free Parlament by reason that a great part of its Members remain Secluded This Argument hath been handled likewise with great fury by Mr. Pryn and now the present Malecontents in Arms make use of it to countenance their Rebellion and require that either the Secluded Members may be admitted to sit again in this Parliament or that a New one may be called So that you see they and our Cavalier Author do meet in one Point For Answer to this I wish Mr Pryn and the other dissatisfied Gentlemen would take heed of this way of arguing for by it he may chance to condemn himself and all others of his own judgment for their acting along with the Parliament first ●fter the King went away f●om Westminster and then after part of the Members of both Honses withdrew and sate as a Parliament at Oxford seeing thereby he will justifie the King in what he declared at that time against the Parliament viz. That it was no free Parliament and so that nothing they should do in the absence of himself and those Membe●s could be counted valid of Parliamentary because they had in countenancing tumults driven him and their Follow members away by force and so gained the Major Vote of the remaining part of the Parliament Nevertherless when the remaining part sate and continued to Act the Parliamentary partie made no scruple to Act with them and Mr Prynne among the rest as highly as any as also did all those of the Presbyterian Judgment who though the Parliament wanted the legal for malitie of the Kings presence and so great a part of its Members who Printed in several Declarations That a force was upon them yet rather than the publick Cause should fall to the ground they by Sermons Purses and all other ways seconded that remaining part of the Parliament in their actings acknowledging them a free Parliament to all intents and purposes as if every Member had been present But you will object and say The Case of this House now sitting is different from that House who then

sate for they were deserted by those Members that went to Oxford but these suffered the Army by force to seclude those now commonly called the secluded Members I answer that before these Members were secluded they first secluded and separated themselves from the publick Interest as those did who some years before withdrew themselves and went to Oxford besides the secluding of them is justifiable against them by Lex talionis the Law of Retaliation for even they had sometime before secluded that honest partie of the House of which the Members now sitting are the principal by raising tumults in the City and encouraging the Apprentices who came to the House door and drave away the said faithful partie so that the Speaker and they were for safetie forced to go out of Town and shelter themselves under the protection of the Army In the mean while those who now complain of seclusion reckoning themselves Lords of all continued sitting chose a new Speaker Mr. Pelham acted all things as a full and free Parliament and reckoned their Votes and Proceedings as Legal and Authentick as if all the Members had been present and would so have proceeded to compass and establish the corrup Interest contended for against the faithful partie And Mr. Prynne and all his partie approved this proceeding and sufficiently shewed that they meant to own all as Legal that should be do e while the faithful ones were under a force had not the design been prevented by the Generals bringing back the Speaker and the Members with him to their Seats again in the House What shall we say then Let me use the words of the Apostle to him and the rest of his secluded partie and their Abetters Therefore thou art inexcusable O men whosoever thou art that judgest wherin thou judgest another thou condemnest thy self for thou that judgest doest the same things If you after a violent seclusion of some upon a corrupt account could approve and close with the proceedings of a remaining part as a Parliament and intende the Nation should do so to why are not we after a like seclusion made of your partie upon a just accotins and a restoring of the faithful partie to be justified for acting along with them and submitting to their Authoritie as a Parliament And the Nation hath as much reason to pay their obedience and acknowledgments thereto as ye intended they should have done to you Therefore whatever other men may fa Mr. Prynne and his secluded party must hence forth be silent and for shame lay their mouths in the dust for ever a to th●s particular But that we may give a more full answer to this so considerable a Point and that the world may see how far the House which now 〈◊〉 is to be justified before their secluded opposites who make so great a clamor to imbroil the Nation I shall a little retrive the proceedings of former days touching that Seclusion which is become the great Subject of Controversie now among us First I shall shew there was a just cause and a real necessitie for the doing of it Secondly How the faithful Members now the Parliament behaved themselves after it was done Thirdly How it came to pass that the secluded partie did never sit more since that time and are still excluded 1. That there was just cause and a real necessitie for the doing of it is evident in these particulars For after that upon weightie consideration the House had resolved to make no more Addresses to the King this secluded party who then were in play joyning Councils with the King and his party cast about which way to revoke and reverse those Votes of Non-Address and to bring in the King upon such Terms the effect whereof in a short time would of necessitie have been a giving up into his hands the whole Cause that had been contended for To this end they by subtile degrees drew all things on fair toward a compliance with the Kings Interest wherein there were some honest men even of the Presbyterian partie who seeing it was the way to cast dirt in the face of their former Engagements did desert them Nevertheless they were engaged now upon new grounds in opposition and hatred of those both in Parliament and Army who desired to remain faithful to the Cause and Interest of the Nation therefore the next step they made in the House was to contrive how to strengthen their partie there and by indirect courses to gain the Major Vote For this end it was the great endeavor of them and of that Remnant of the Royal and the Neutral partie which yet remained in the House because of the vacancy of Burgesses to fill up the House with Malignants or Neuters and for that purpose Writs were specially procured and speeded out for new Elections to fill the vacant places and they were directed to such places and poor Boroughs in Cornneal Wales c. where the Procurers before-hand knew that persons would be enosen sit to serve their turns Thus a Floud of new Burgesses were brought into the House some of them men that had been engaged against the Parliament and incap●ble of Trust yet were through the procurement also of the aforesaid partie admitted and kept in the House for when divers of these were questioned as unduly elected matters were by others so ordered that the same new elected persons under question sitting in the House while their business was in agitation they easily wrought that the sence of the Committee concerning the undueness of their Elections was never reported but held off from the House Having thus fitted the House for their turn they then begin to play Rex for the King They first debate the business of Ireland from thence they recalled the Lord Lisle and put the command into the hands of Inchiquin a Native Irishman one that had first served the King afterwards revolted from the Parliament united with the Irish Rebels and is now a Fugitive with Charls beyond Sea They endeavored to bring in the King upon his Message of the seventh of May 1647. that is to say upon his own Terms and to this end to disband the Army before any peace made of assured They would have raised a new War by lifting and ingaging many Reformadoes and other Officers and Soldiers in and about London in June and July 1647. To this end they by Tumults drave away the Speaker and faithful Members chose a new Speaker passing by their single Authoritie divers Ordinances and giving large powers to raise a new War by arming also the Prentices and other persons which had acted that violence upon the House and this they did professedly before the world in maintenance and prosecution of that treasonable engagement Being thus gotten into possession they recalled the Votes of Non-Address and went down-right the way to bring back the King without such satisfaction as might secure the Kingdom Voting that they would treat with him upon such Propositions as himself

Government such as may be most convenient for the Nation Which being once done it becomes as valid de Jure that is to say as Legal as the former form of Government ever was But because you shall not depend upon my single Inference you shall have one or two more Testimonies from Mr. Baxter's friend Grotius He saith if the Prevailing party had no other Law but the Law of Necessity it might serve well enough to justifie such a Proceeding Necessit as summa reducit res ad merum Jus Naturae Grot. de Jure Belli l. 2. cap. 6. And in his Prolegomena he saith In beslo Civili scripta quidem Jura c. In a Civil war written Laws that is the established Laws of a Nation are of no force but those only which are not written that is which are agreeable to the Dictates of Nature or the Law and Custom of Nations and then that only is to be admitted Law which shall be setled by the Prevailing party Jus dicitur esse id quod validiori placuit ut intelligamus fine suo carere Jus nisi vires ministras habeat the English whereof is That only which it pleaseth the stronger party to ordain is said to be Law since it cannot accomplish the end of a Law except it be attended by Force to constrain obedience And as to the particular Case of the secluded Members he hath one saying which hits our purpose right Si qui jure suo uti non possunt eorum jus accrescit praesentibus l. 2. c. 5. His busines in that part of the Chapter is to discourse about the Major Vote in Senates or grand Assemblies and concludes That in case the greater number be absent or if there be any cause that they may not use their Right there then the whole Right accrueth to them that are present or remain sitting What cause there was for the secluding of these Members I think you have sufficiently seen in the beginning of this Section They had joyned issue in Interest and design with the Royal party and the King who according to what hath been already conceded was a publick Enemy So also did the House of Lords who likewise lost all Right that they could pretend to by compliance with the same Interest and design For seeing by the Equity of all Laws Accessaries are as punishable as the Principal in a Crime therefore by the Law of War it being a Law of their own introducing and no other Law remaining to be Judge in the Case both They and the secluded Members for adhering to the Conquered party even after the Victory might have been proceeded against in capital manner but were favorably as well as justly dealt with in being deprived only of their Interest in the House whenas their heads might have been required and so the whole Supreme Authority descended lawfully to those Members that now remain But here some may interpose and say We imagined and expected that the Laws of the Land should be maintained and Free Parliaments but this doctrine talks of the longest sword and a Prevailing party maintaining that the strongest must carry it which is the way to lay a ground for and to encourage disorders and confusions so that they which can get uppermost by force are still to be justified by the same Rule This language I know is frequently in the mouths of the undiscerning sort yea and of some too who think themselves very wise That I may make some Return to this sort of people and instruct them well they must learn first to distinguish between Force used without good cause and an use of Force upon a just cause or occasion Also betwixt the exercise of force by such as have a Right of war and by those who have it not Also betwixt the Nation in a State of Warr and the Nation in a State of Peace Lastly betwixt the Laws which are fundamental to the Form or Constitution it self of a Government and the Laws Municipal which concern the Rights Liberties and Priviledges of a People under the same Government I. Seeing that to all Sword-engagements a good Cause is requisite then none can hereafter take example or occasion from this rational discourse to have recourse to the sword and afterward to improve it as this Parliament did unless they shall be able to ground the undertaking as they did upon righteous principles which have been acknowledged such as you read before even by Royalists and Presbyterians themselves nor unless they shall have the same just reasons to make use of the Law of Warr which in such Case becomes the Law of all Nations to proceed to a final Arbitration of the Quarrell after that the Adversaries themselves have admitted it and rendred the ending of the Contest both impractcable and impossible by any Law of the Nation II. Those who intend to use the Sword or the Law of Warr cannot lawfully doe it unless they can rightly claim Jus Belli and have a Right to that Law as the Parliament had when the King grasping at the whole Soveraignty they were necessitated to desend that part of it which by the National Constitution belonged unto themselves as hath already been confessed by both sorts of Adversaries III. Consider this can afford no matter of Argument for Rebellions and Insurrections for if in such a contest of War as this was in England the Parliament had a right to War the King having occasioned the Nation to be in a state of War it doth not therefore follow that in the state of peace private persons or any number of persons less qualified than a Parliament should presume to do what a Parliament might do either in or out of a state of War or that a part of a Parliament should hereafter take upon them to make War and exclude their Fellow Members and then exercise the whole Supremacy without and against the consent of those Members unless the great Platonick year shall revolve and revive the like Causes Occasions and Circumstances of Acting and the same Treachery also in Fellow Members for betraying the Supreme power into the hands of some third party or single person In the like extraordinary Case the like proceeding may lawfully be again but not otherwise for when after a Civil War a Government is once again established in peace all men and powers are to steer their course of acting by the ordinary Laws and Rules of the Constitution IV. As touching the great Objection about our Laws consider that though the old Fundamental which respecteth the former Form or Constitution of Government be altered yet the other ancient Laws Municipal which concern our Rights Liberties Priviledges and Properties do remain entire unto the generality of the Nation and they might be more sensible of the truth of this did not the designs of disturbers hinder the compleat enjoyment or else will shortly be setled entire in that state of Freedom which the Parliament is once again strugling for against the

man get in who is heir to the principles as well as the pretensions of his family And what a friend that Family hath been to Religion and its Professors is worthy of your most serious consideration If we view them in their English Extraction the Book of Martyrs will tell you how the Sluces of Blood were opened by King Henry and his Daughter Mary If we look on the Scotish side it is sad to consider how much blood was spilt by her of the House of Lorraine who was our King James his Grandmother She being gone her Daughter King James his Mother Mary a fierce Papist succeeded who after she had massacred her own Husband the Father of James by poison Gun-powder and halter for the love she bare to Davie and Earl Bothwel her Adulterers persecuted all of the Reformed Religion endeavored to poison James her own Son shed blood likewise by raising Civil War at home against her Protestant Subjects and conspired with forein Papists to destroy Queen Elizabeth For all which God found her out and gave her a due reward by the loss of her head in Fotheringay Castle The next was King JAMES who wrote his Beati Pacifici in blood too For to say nothing of the death of Overbury which blood he took upon himself by pardoning the Murtherers nor of that of Raleigh meerly to serve a turn of State it is well known his son Henry came to an untimely death and though it be not directly known by what hand he was taken away yet as a late Historian observes there was a strange connivence and little mourning at Court after it was done To these may be added not unjustly the Blood of the poor Protestants in Germany which must be laid upon the score of that Family for had K. James performed the duty of a good Protestant or a loving Father he might if he had pleased have presently stopt the Issue that ran there 30 years together I might insist likewise upon his son the late Kings betraying the Protestant Cause also in Germany and throughout France especially at Rochel where under a fained pretence of assisting the Protestants with ships c. he gave order to his shipping to serve on the contrary side to the utter ruine of that Cause and Party in France and the loss of many gallant English-men's lives by him exposed to destruction for when Buckingham was questioned for it in Parliament the King himself to signifie to all the world that what his Favorite had done was by his own approbation stept between the Duke and the Parliament and so took the guilt of all upon himself All which most treacherous Actions towards them of our Religion abroad were in those daies and have been ever since resented by all the Protestants throughout Europe and the present exclusion of that Family is lookt on now by the most pious of the Nations round about as a just recompence which they have long expected to fall from the hand of God upon the Family for the Treachery of their Fathers toward his Church and people But that which exceeds all comparison is their guilt in reference to the barbarous Massacre in Ireland No more of this but that it cannot be imagined any Religious man who hath heard of these things should imbarque himself with such a Family the guilt whereof hath hitherto sunk all the partakers I might likewise add the Negotiations of the Young man that now is with the Pope by his Agents at Rome Copies whereof I have by me in Italian Latine and French and shall in due time publish them Thirdly if Religion cannot move ye what thinke ye of your Liberties and the Nations Liberties Promises are but Baits that may draw you to the Net The Chronicles will tell you that when K. John had granted Magna Charta and Charta Forestae because he could not help it and 25 persons were chosen as Trustees for the people in the Government yet the King after a short time worm'd them out of all power and undid all that he had done before and was revenged at last upon them all The like misery fell out by trusting Henry the Third who having warred with his people they got the better one while and the another and these vicissitudes were frequent betwixt them and all that the people gained by trusting him was the better learning of this Lesson Put no confidence in Princes for at every turn no sooner did he by subtilty get the Power but he fell heavy upon those that had opposed him especially the Londoners whose Charter he called in and all his daies after made them examples of his vengeance the like he did to the other Corporations So Richard the second becau●e the Londoners had opposed him as soon as he got opportunity he cusrtailed their priviledges and placed continuall marks of his displeasure upon them I need not instance how neer Edward the First was to have burned the City upon the same account after he had plagued it over and over because I would not be tedious in particularising these or in citing other Instances out of our own stories which every one may read at leisure Fourthly admit that Charls himself would be of his own inclination better than his Predecessors yet his party are hungry and will not be satisfied And he having occasion to use them must not denie them their pleasure but must above all things keep his own party in heart else they will not be firm to him and so he may be exposed to danger from all other parties whom it will be his Interest to hold under that they may never be in condition again to lift him out of the saddle No doubt but he and they will remember his Fathers words in a particular manner The pride and power of the City of London Fifthly as to the pretended Title of this young man pray you what is it It will be found upon search like all the rest of the Titles founded upon usurpation one after another since the Conquest If we look up to Henry the Seventh its original there will be little cause to admire it for he only descended from a Bastard of John of Gaunt who though ligitimated for Common Inheritances yet was expresly excluded by Law from Succession to the Crown And as for his Wives Title you know he never thought that worth the using and yet from this spurious slip of the Lancastrian Root it was that King James derived his Claim and that but collaterally or at Second Hand being in effect a meer Stranger in blood to the English whereupon we may justly wonder what Policy guided this Nation in those days when it so strangely bowed down its Neck to the Yoak of a Stranger But admit this Title had been without Flaws in its derivation yet this Man's Fathers Treasons and his own as is proved in the former Section have most deservedly caused the cutting off the Entaile Besides it is evident what a Governor for you this Pretender would prove who suckt in his Fathers Principles with his Mothers milk hath been bred up under the Wings of Prelacie and Popery and as he suck't both brests heretofore so he hangs upon them both at this very day One who from the beginning was engaged against the Cause of the Commonwealth and your City and who hath the same Counsellers his Father had besides a more intimate acquaintance acquired beyond Sea with the Jesuits to remember him both of the old Designe and the ways to effect it one who hath been bedabled in the Blood of England Scotland and Ireland and hath both his Father's and his own Scores to clear out of your Purses and hath long made it his Business to cajole and cheat all parties in hope thereby to get in upon us with a desperate Rabble at his heels to execute his Revenges What shall we say then of such men that now make shipwrack of their own Principles to seek to let him in and would be opening sluces of blood out of their Countrimen and nearest Relations for the Interest of their own and the publick Enemy Lastly as to what concerns your Trade its easie to guess what will become of that when it shall be counted Reason of State to keep you poor and low For the inference is ready at hand for him viz. That if the Father complained of Pride and Power in you and hath recorded that from thence proceeded the first Causes of his ruine then the son is concerned to pull down your pride if I may use the Royal phrase and hold a strong hand over you And how do you think Trade can thrive upon his restitution when as you may read in the third fourth and fifth Sections there will be a necessity of trebling Taxes and perpetuating of them past remedie to maintaine another kind of Army than we have now to tame dissenting Parties and to keep the Nation in an asinine posture of submission to bear all burthens that shall be laid either upon the Estate or the Conscience by the Lords of the Court and the Lordanes of Episcopacie As Trade therefore is the particular Interest of your City so be wary that the want of it at present do not irritate you to fall out with the publick Interest of your Country but remember that it being once setled Trade and all other Concernments will soon flourish again and that the way to settlement must be as our Author well said by giving satisfaction to all parties which as I have before manifested from his own words cannot be expected from C Stuart and his party but may and will be easily had from the way of a free Common-wealth so that all we have to doe is to stick close to the Parliament that they may be enabled to establish it and employ our utmost to keep him out because otherwise war will follow and that will inevitably bring on a destruction of Trade with the ruine of Religion Liberty and your Renowned City All which may prosper if ye please 'T is you that have given all this Pail of good Milk and what a thing would it be that any of you should aim to kick it down in the dirt En quò discordia Cives Perducet miseros Westminster Aug. 12. 1669. FINIS

common enemy It is brutish therefore to clamor and cry out that the Laws of the Land are not maintained when as onely the Law of that form of Government is abolished together with the Prerogative of the King Priviledge of Peers and the like which were but the excrescencies of Arbitrary power which had in a great measure over-grown not onely the Laws Municipal concerning our Rights Liberties and Properties but exceeded also by usurpation the bounds of that very Law of the Kingdoms Constitution upon which King and Peers themselves had a standing and were to stand To sum up all in a word the people have or if they would be pleased to settle may and will more sensibly have their old Laws to be governed by onely all the harm done is That for the former Constitution or Form of Government they have in their reach and partly in possession a better viz. A Fundamental Constitutional Law of Freedom lawfully purchased by this Parliament and by them ready to be settled unto us and our Children after us There remain two Objections more used by our Author and Mr. Prynne and other Malecontents First That this Parliament was actually dissolved by the Protector No such matter Vltra Pesse non est Esse he had no power to do it therefore it could not be done by him But you will say We saw he had power that actually enabled him to effect the dissolution To this I Answer A Dissolution it could not be but as now it is called it is rightly termed onely An Interruption of its sitting for in matter of power by Law the Lawyers know well enough it is a sure Maxim Id solum p●ssum quod jure possum i. e. That a man can do nothing that is valid but onely what he doth according to Law Now then if the Protectors Act of turning out the Parliament were a valid Dissolution it must have been so by some Law and that Law must be either some Law of the Nation that enabled him to do it or else it must be the Law of War As to the former it is evident he had no Law of the Nation to justifie the Action and so if any Law it is that of War which must make it good Now that he could not do it by the Law of War is evident likewise because his Military capacity was derived from the Parliament they who had the whole Right of War in themselves having given him his Commission to Militate for them that is to say for the people represented by them and so he could not properly or lawfully Militate or use a Right of War against them who had no lawful power but what he derived from them whereby it being evident he could make no Legal Dissolution of them Ergo By Law notwithstanding him the Parliament remains in being and the Soldiery having withdrawn the force that was over it it followeth without straining That having never been lawfully dissolved they remain legally the same Parliament they were before Secondly But there is a further Objection yet to be dispatched which is That many of the Members of this House having sat intermediate Parliaments called by the Protector have thereby acknowledged this House was dissolved by him 1. The Answer to this is naturally consecutive to the former viz. that seeing the Parliament was still in Being being only suspended for a time from the exercise of the supreme power then all that was done in pursuance thereupon in reference to the exercise of supremacie must in Law be void and null and the intervening space of time be reputed as a great Chasma a praeternatural vacuity or dead Interval wherein all the Acts of snpremacie and matters relatiug thereto that were used became legally defunct as soon as they were done coming into the world still-born and so those Intervening Assemblies of the people not having had the legal Force and vertue of Parliaments they are now properly called Conventions for distinction sake Besides as they were nothing in Law of themselves being creatures of another extraction so he who created them by his own Power presently uncreated them to their first nothing because as he was a man of high courage and great spirit he could not endure to see the work of his own hands rise up and dispute as he conceived against him 2. As to the sitting of some Members of the present Parliament in those intermediate Conventions They did it not as owning them for legal Parliaments but sat only in respect to the Interest of the people who Originally and Fundamentally alwaies had and have a Right to meet to consult for common Good and if being under a Force they be hindred that they cannot doe it as they ought and as they would yet it alwaies concerns them to doe it as they can and as they find Opportunity upon this Account some of the Members did sit in those Conventions with intent to have made use of those Opportunities God did put into their hands for the Publick yet without any further respect to the Power assumed to call them than a mere appearance For in the first Convention they presently fell to claiming their Right in the behalf of the people and so they did in all the following Conventions for which cause seclusions were used against them But some will say if they did not own the Power and those to be Parliaments why did they complain so much of their being then secluded as an Infringement of the Peoples Right in Parliament The Answer of this is reer of kind to the former their Complaint concerning breach of priviledg was not grounded upon supposition of any Right or priviledge of sitting derived unto them from the Protectors writ of summons for they were alwaies so farr from acknowledging him that they kept on foot a Continuall Claim and thereupon opposed him to the utmost of their Power but their Complaint of violation was grounded only upon that general Right inherent in the people which is if they cannot meet in a regular way then as I said before to doe it as they can and as they find opportunity for asserting their own Rights and so upon this Account it is that being forced away from the meeting they might well complaine that complaining must be construed to be an effect of the sence they had of the injury done to that general Right of the Peoples meeting rather than a sign of any acknowledgment of the Protectors power or of those Meetings to be Parliaments Lastly What if some Members of the present Parliament had acknowledged or did acknowledge the power summoning them to meet and those meetings to be Parliaments yet that could be no prejudice to the whole Body of this Parliament now sitting because a Body of Men remaining all in equal power and right cannot be concluded by particular Acts done by some of their own number without consent of the rest yea if all of them at once had sat in any one of those