Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	church_n	discipline_n	doctrine_n	4,176	5	6.2312	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29573	An apologie of John, Earl of Bristol consisting of two tracts : in the first, he setteth down those motives and tyes of religion, oaths, laws, loyalty, and gratitude, which obliged him to adhere unto the King in the late unhappy wars in England : in the second, he vindicateth his honour and innocency from having in any kind deserved that injurious and merciless censure, of being excepted from pardon or mercy, either in life or fortunes.	Bristol, John Digby, Earl of, 1580-1654.	1657 (1657)	Wing B4789; ESTC R9292	74,883	107

besides he shutteth up himself to his Devotions Insomuch that it is known that upon particular Causes he hath constituted to himself some Fasts with that secrecy that those nearest ahout him have gotten no knowledge of it but by his Abstinence for God hath given him so good a Health that he neither needeth nor otherwise useth to forbear Meals It is likewise well known that he hath Composed excellent Prayers which he hath caused to be used suitable to the Occasions as particularly for the good success of the Treaty at Uxbridge Further I may testifie and do it in the presence of God that in Conference with me of great and private Trust concerning his present sad Condition he hath told me that although he could not but be sensible of his own Distress of that of the Queen and of his Children the Calamity of the Kingdom and very particularly of his Friends likely to be destroyed for their fidelity unto him yet that which most afflicted him was the Apprehension of the Ruine and Destruction of the Church of England and of the true Protestant Religion which he conceived had the least to be mended in it and most both in Doctrine and Discipline agreeing with the Primitive Times of any Church he knew in the World And I am of belief that it will be found of much difficulty to pull from him this Opinon unless his Conscience and Iudgement shall be convinced by some such learned and unanswerable Arguments as he hath not yet known For although it be very probable that temporal regar●s may make him condescend unto great inconveniences and great lessenings yet if I much mistake him not that have known him many years no sufferings or Dangers nor other worldly Considerations whatsoever will be of Power to cause him to make Shipwrack of his Conscience And although it be very true that the Queen his Wife be most dear unto him and in all other things of greatest Power with him yet in matter of Religion his Resolution to live in it and his Ability to defend it was so well known unto Her and to all about her that as they could not but think it bootless to Attempt any thing in that kind so they knew they could not essay it without Offence And although he hath alwaies indeavoured to breed up the Prince his Son in great Duty and Reverence to the Queen his Mother with a strict command unto him to be obedient to her in all things yet it hath alwaies been with this Restriction Except it be in point of Religion And upon my own knowledge I dare and do deliver this for a positive Truth So likewise the matching of his eldest Daughter to a Protestant Prince though not of the Rank of Kings may be judged as a great Argument of his love to the Reformed Religion Besides in the beginning of these troubles knowing this malicious suggestion cast upon him he set forth a publick Manifest unto the Protestant Churches to vindicate himself from that scandal and to assure the World of his Constancy and Resolution to live and die in the Reformed Religion And as for his Piety in this his Profession the Scripture saith Shew me thy Faith by thy Works And what greater Argument of Religion and Piety can there be to man who cannot search into the Heart to God that only belongeth than a temperate sober good Life and Conversation What blood in his Reign hath been sacrificed to his Wrath or Revenge What Confiscations have enriched his Treasure What noble Family hath been dishonored by his Lust What Incouragement hath Vice Excess or Licentiousness received from his Example Nay I am perswaded that it will much trouble his Enemies yea Malice it self to find out the Vice wherewith to reproach his Life yet how many Shimei's have reviled the Lords Anointed of whom we are taught not to speak ill in our Bed-chambers And when Cause of speaking ill against him hath been wanting they have set him up as a But before them for their scurrilous Wits Libels and Hue and Cries c. I am far from charging the Houses for having a hand in these low and unworthy things only I shall say that it is possible for private Errors to become publique Faults non Committendo sed non Castigando It was Elies Case and Gods Iudgement followed it Besides this certain knowledge that I had of the Kings settledness in his Religion I was far from being satisfied in my Conscience that if the King should have changed his Religion and become a Papist it should have been lawfull to take Arms against him For as Moulins above saith in the name of the Church of France We ought not from the Religion of our Princes to take occasion of disobedience making Piety the Match whereby to kindle Rebellion c. And when Hen. 4. that great King of France did leave the Communion with the Reformed Churches and was reconciled to the Church of Rome and conformed himself to the Rights thereof by going to the Masse and performing all other Ceremonies and Worship established by it yet those of the Reformed Religion in France did not thereupon think it lawfull to withdraw their Obedience or take Arms against him but continued to serve him with all faith and Loyalty And such as made those detestable Assaults and that Paricide who committed that horrid and execrable murther upon his Royal Person took not their Incitements and Incouragements from the avowed Doctrine of the Reformed Churches but from the writings of some hotter-headed Papists to the great Scandal and Reproach of their Church And from the Tenents of our new Puritan Doctors who by those Maxims wherin they both agree have instead of the Eastern Assassinates brought in on both sides their Enthusiasts fitly prepared Instruments for Treasons and Murthers by whose hands so many Princes and Kings have fallen and by whose Doctrine so many States have been involved in Rebellions and Civil Wars So likewise upon the several Changes of Religion in England under Hen. 8. Edw. 6. Queen Ma. and Queen Eliz. The Protestants of the Reformed Religion declared against h●stile Resistance and exhorted to obedience and suffering and confirmed their Doctrine by their own Martyrdome as is before set down Besides the Precepts of Scripture of not resisting the Powers ordeined by God over us were to command obedience to Princes that were all Heathen Idolaters and Persecutors of Gods Church Our Saviours Precept was To give unto Caesar what belonged unto Caesar and what St. Paul and the Apostles injoyn was towards Nero Neither did the Christians take Arms against Iulian notwithstanding his Apostacy but continued to serve him and to sight against his Enemies with fidelity and courage And I conceive it is the general received Opinion of all moderate Christians That as Religion ought not or to speak more properly cannot though Dissimulation and Hypocrosie may be planted by force so Subjects may not withdraw their civil and natural Allegiance

Dominions c. And this Declaration I and all the rest of the Members of both Houses have made So that it being an uncontroverted and confessed truth That the King is our lawfull Soveraign and we his faithfull Subjects and consequently the Power ordained over us by God the which to resist by S. Pauls Doctrine delivered in plain and explicit terms is To procure to our selves Damnation I must confesse That although I will not judge other men yet I durst not adventure my Soul upon a Moot-Case or upon Distinctions or strained Interpretations against that which appeared unto me to be the literal and clear sense S. Paul declaring Rom. 14.22 23. That he that doubteth is damned The meaning whereof I understand to be That he that doubteth that that which he doth is sinfull and wicked and yet adventureth to do it therein sinneth presumptuously and thereby runneth a hazard of Damnation And truly I did much more than doubt for I was as S. Paul requireth we should be Rom. 14.23 Fully perswaded in mind of the contrary So that without Impiety and making Shipwrack of my Conscience against the plain Precepts of Scripture I could not adhere to the way of Resistance CHAP. IV. The Doctrine and Practice of the Primitive Church of not resisting their Princes notwithstanding they were Heathens or Apostates I Well know that the Authority of Scripture needeth not any humane or forein support But because the Parties of several yea contrary wayes will both pretend to have the Scriptures in their favour and from them to draw the rule of their Consciences alike to me it seemed that nothing ought to be of greater Authority under Scripture or like rightly to interpret Scripture than the unanimous Doctrine and practice of the Primitive times and of those holy and learned men who as they were nearer to the times of our Saviour and of the Apostles and of those Pen-men of God so doubtless they saw by clearer light than we do now at a greater distance And really by what I could ever read or be instructed in from others I could never find any thing either allowing or countenancing the Subjects taking Arms against their Soveraign although it were in the highest and most bloody persecution and under the worst of Princes many of them being Heathens Tyrants and Apostates And yet it was to these wicked Persecutors to whom our Saviout and his Apostles injoined Obedience And the primitive Fathers practised it in their sufferings and Martyrdoms But I must confess I have met with a most untrue Allegation and most injurious to Christian innocency That the reason of the Christians bearing so many wrongs and oppressions was because they had not then power and means to do otherwise or right themselves The untruth of this Allegation will appear by the writings of those Fathers whose profession it was to bear and suffer but not to resist Flere potero dolere potero c. aliter nec debeo nec possum resistere was the Saying of S. Ambrose S. Syprian saith Quamvis nimius copiosus noster populus non tamen adversus violentiam se ulciscitur sed patitur And Nicephorus reporteth that in one day twenty thousand Christians were slain in the City of Nicomedia under Dioclesian And many of their books are full of passages of this strain And to conceive that power to resist was only wanting is not only injurious to the Innocency of those Holy Men but injurious to God who if his Glory had not been more advanced by their Sufferings Martyrdom and Persecution than by Resistance or that Resistance had been commanded by him or he pleased therein Those his holy Servants should not have perished for want of Power Our Saviour saith when for the defence of his own Person he prohibiteth resistance * If he would he could pray to his Father who would send him more than twelve Legions of Angels And when the preservation of Gods Servants redoundeth more to the Glory of God than their sufferings He is never wanting to them * As we see by so many deliverances by the extraordinary Power of God But the truth is That unto these Primitive men treading in the steps of the Apostles their sufferings were their Glory their Rejoycing and their Advantage And divers of the Fathers by way of prevention as it were foreseeing that this Scandal might be cast upon their Innocency and Christian Patience That it was want of means and power and nor of will that they resisted not do clearly declare That neither Numbers Armes or Courage were wanting to them wherewith they might defend themselves nor Injuries Oppressions and Persecutions wanting that might provoke them thereunto But it was the Example of Christ and his Apostles sufferings and their holy Doctrine and Precepts commanding Obedience that suffered not their hands to fight against the Powers ordained by God over them although they used both hands and armes with remarkable Valour and Success against the Enemies of their Princes notwithstanding the said Princes were Heathen and Persecutors of the Church of God But this Doctrine of not Resisting some of our new Divines who cannot but acknowledge it to be both the Doctrine and practice of the Apostles and Primitive Times do now say That God was not then pleased to reveal the Doctrine of Resistance But that Martyrdoms and sufferings were the way by which he thought it then sit no plant the Church which he is now pleased should be protected by Resistance and enlarged by power Wherein they have mistaken the Text For that that Doctrine instead of the Bible is taken out of the Alcoran where Mahomet saith That God had sent Christ in the Spirit of meekness to establish his Law But now by him he would have his Law setled and established by the power of the Sword and Conquest And if prevailing or success might stand for Arguments it will be hard convincing this Mahometan Doctrine But certainly the general and universa Tenent of all the Churches of Christendom were and I conceive are still That as Religion ought not to be planted by force or constraint So Christian Subjects ought not to make Religion the ground of their Resistance or taking Armes against their Prince And herein there is a concurrence of all Protestant Churches although they differ in many other points who in their publique Confessions do not admit of Hostile Resistance against their Supream Magistrate And more particularly the Church of England which without any immodestie may challenge her part in the Reformation she having had many learned Propugners of it by their Writings and not a few that have sealed it with their Blood by patiently dying for it hath declared against it confirming the Exhortation to Obedience published in the time of Edw. 6. and the Homilie of Obedience by the Articles of their Confession of Faith The like doth the rest of the Reformed Churches in the Harmony of their Publique Confessions So that

it hath been the constant Doctrine of all Protestant Divines since the Reformation down until our times And I have heard divers men very eminent for their learning aver it That upon their Reputation they will make it appear That these few years of Distractions in England have poduced more seditious Pamphlets tolerating and incouraging Disobedience than all the Christian world ever saw before The Protestants had wont to charge the Doctrine of Resistance upon the Roman Catholiques They likewise indeavour to father it upon the Protestants It seems both are unwilling to own it I mean in their general received Tenents though it be true that some of both professions have written in the defence of it though disclaimed and burned by publique Authority as wicked and seditious on both sides Andreas Rivetus Professor at Leyden writing against a Jesuit that cast this Aspersion upon the Protestants that they agree with them in the Doctrine of warring against or deposing Kings saith That no Protestant doth maintain that damnable Doctrine and that rashness of Knox and Buchanan is to be ascribed praefervido Scotorum ingenio ad audendum prompto To the over-hot spirit of the Scots ever apt to be over-hold The Protestants of France not only in their Articles above cited but in their books protest their Innocency and that they abhor this Doctrine of Resisting forcibly Pierre du Moulin hath these words Nous tenons que ce n'est point à vn Sujet de trouner en la Religion de son Prince occasion de desobeissance feisant de la Pieté vne allumette de Rebellion Nous sommes prests a' exposer nos vies pour la defence de nos Rois contre qui que ce soit fust il de nostre Religion Quiconque feroit autrement ne defendroit point la Religion mais serviroit son ambition attireroit vn grand blame sur la verité de l' Evangile We hold that a Subject ought not from the Religion of his Prince to take occasion of disobedience making of Piety a match whereby to kindle Rebellion We are ready to expose our lives for the defence of our Kings against whomsoever it be although of our own Religion And whosoever should do otherwise should not defend Religion but serve his own ambition and would draw a great reproach upon the truth of the Gospel The Roman Catholiques especially the Doctors of the Sorbons have written Volumes against it and never fail to censure all books that maintain that Doctrine to the fire And the University of Paris in their published Censure of the 4. of June 1610. declare that Seditiosum impium haereticum est quocunque quaesito colore à quocunque Subdito Vasallo aut Extraneo sacris Regum aut Principum personis vim habere That it is a seditious impious and heretical thing for any Subject Vassal or Foreiner upon what pretence or colour soever to offer violence to the sacred persons of Kings or Princes So that both Protestants and Roman Catholiques declaring against it that is in the general received and approved Tenents and Opinions of their several Churches of how little Authority ought the private Opinion of some few hot-headed Men to be who seeking to get themselves a name by being the Authors of some new and bolder Opinions shall upon their own fancies or some witty or subtle Inferences and Deductions contradict the unanimous and universally received Opinions of all Christian Churches and the Practice and Examples of so many Holy Martyrs from the very times of the Apostles even unto our days Mr. Fox in his Book of Acts and Monuments specifieth many even to their death exhorting to Obedience to their Prince I shall only set down one instance of many Those famous Sufferers in Queen Martes dayes although the Reformed Religion being newly planted was likely by Persecution to be extirpate and that some more hot and zealous seemed to have an Inclination to preserve themselves and their Religion by way of Force for at that time their power was great Twelve of the most eminent amongst them for Learning and Piety agreed to the setting forth a Declaration of their Faith and Doctrine in which they set down their Hatred to any such Inclination and exhort with great earnestness of Spirit and beseech in the bowels of Jesus Christ all such as fear God to behave themselves as obedient Subjects to the Queen and to the Superiour Powers ordained of God under her and rather after their Example to give their heads to the Block than in any sort to Rebell or to Mutter against the Queen the Lords anointed And towards the end of this their Declaration they renew their Exhortation humbly praying all men to be in no point consenting to any kind of Rebellion or Sedition against the Queen But where they cannot obey but they must disobey God their to submit themselves with all patience and humility to suffer as the Will and Pleasure of the Higher Powers should adjudge as they themselves were ready to do rather than to consent to any Doctrine contrary to that Confession which they had made in the said Declaration And most of all these men sealed this their Doctrine with their blood being burnt in several places of the Kingdom some in Smithfield some at Gloucester some at Coventry as is set down particularly in the said Story page 1470. So that both the Protestants and Roman Catholiques in their published and avowed Doctrine disclaiming and censuring this Doctrine of Hostile Resistance as Impious and Heretical as is abovesaid of what Authority can the private Opinions of a few men condemned by their own Churches be for the setling and satisfying for any sober and uningaged mans Conscience against the Doctrine and practice of the whole Christian World and in all times It is true that a strong fancie against any thing makes us hardly to be perswaded to it But we easily believe that which we earnestly wish And it is as true that all times have brought forth some great and able wits that have ever affected to be the Authors of new Opinions and the Arch-Heretiques have ever been noted to have been Men of parts though of stronger fancy than solid Judgement Many of these new Men if not all of them have by learned answers of particular men been confuted as well as by publique Censures been condemned as Impious and hereticall as Iunius Brutus by Baricane Dr. in Divinity and Canon of the Cathedrall Church of Tholouse Anno 1614. This Iunius Brutus is an assumed and counterfeited name the author of it as it should seem being unwilling to avow the Doctrine and was published first in Latin and afterwards set out in French Anno 1611. by Lewis Mayerne Turquet It laid the ground of such Maxims and Tenents as the Authors that have written against them do not content themselves with shewing their Opinions to be false and erroneous but they in veigh against them as detestable and

pass by were left unto the Iustice of the Parliament without the Kings Protecting or Interposing for any one of them CHAP. VIII A Vindication of the King against that false and injurious Aspersion of unsettledness in his Religion THe second main and important point that hath been made use of to the Kings Disadvantage and by which the Hearts of the People have been most alienated from him was chiefly by ill informed Ministers in the Pulpit who have most untruly suggested an unfirmness and unsettledness in the King in point of his Religion and an inclination in him to overthrow the true reformed Protestant Religion established by the Laws of the Kingdom and to introduce Popery This I must confess was so far from planting in me any thing to the Kings Prejudice That by so much the more it confirmed me in my Duty and Affection towards the King by how much of mine own knowledge this wicked Aspersion was false and injurious For in that point of the Kings Religion few men living had the Cause or could have the means to be so perfectly informed of it as my self For besides that from his Youth upward I had been an eye-witness of his Education being in the King his Fathers time admitted as a Gentleman of his Bed-chamber I was for divers years imployed in the Treaty of a Mariage for him with a Princess of a differing Religion And was to that purpose his Fathers Ambassador in Spain when the King then Prince arrived there in Person And it is true that the Spaniards had conceived great hopes of his becomming a Romish Catholique wherein there wanted not incouragement both from divers in England and from some about him and for the effecting of it there was no industry omitted by them but the learnedst men in Spain were imployed to satisfie him And he was by Artifice brought to set a Conference with the said Divines upon Tearms of great Disadvantage For one Wadesworth that had been an English Minister and was then become a Romish Catholique was put upon him for his Interpreter neither had he the Assistance of any learned man with him Yet gave he so good an Account of his own Religion and answered so pertinently the Objections of the others as was much beyond the expectation of all that were present at the said Conference But seeing himself still pressed in that kind Although the King of Spain assured him that with this one thing all difficulties were overcome and that he would sign him a Blanck in all things else yet not to entertain them with any further hopes he positively declared his Resolution to remain unremoveable in his own Religion and would afterwards admit of no more Conferences in that kind and certainly if any earthly consideration could have been prevalent with him he had then such Motives as might have wrought upon him For besides the Disgrace of failing in his first Enterprice especially an Enterprise of Love and in his own Person the Princess was of that Merit and her Value of him such And his satisfaction of her Virtue and his Affection to her Person so great that nothing but point of Religion could have made him leave her behind him For it was declared unto him that in Case he would conform himself in point of Religion no Dispensation from the Pope would be then needfull but the Mariage should be consummate without any further expectation from Rome as soon as he should desire it But he thereupon declared that he would rather expect the Dispensation and resolved to imploy his indeavours that way and so presently sent one Mr. Andrews a Servant of his to Rome to cause Mr. George Gage that was then there solliciting of the Dispensation to procure the dispatch thereof with all possible diligence and Letters were written unto him by the Princes Order to desire him that if there were at Rome any Opinion of the Princes becomming a Roman Catholique and upon hope thereof any Retardment of the granting the Dispensation he should undeceive them in that point and press the Dispensation upon the Articles of Religion agreed upon The Prince was then moved by the Spanish Ministers to write unto the Pope in answer of some Letters which the Pope had sent unto him and to move him for the granting of the Dispensation and the Letters were brought ready drawn unto him and some passages there were from which some hope might be gathered that in time when it might be thought more seasonable than at the present lest it might be thought he had changed his Religion for a Wife he would not be unwilling to receive further satisfaction in the Catholique Religion all which he strook out and wrote only a Letter of Civility such a one as he thought fit to write to one from whom he was to receive favour in a Business that he most desired and without whom there was no possibility of obteining it unless he would have conformed himself in point of Religion which he being resolved not to do he thought it fit to apply himself unto the Pope by all fair and amiable means and particularly in promising not to be severe against those of his Religion thereby to facilitate with the Pope the granting of the Dispensation All which Diligences he might have excused by his Conformity for then no Dispensation would have been needfull And hereby no further hope remaining in the Court of Spain or at Rome of his altering his Religion the Dispensation was granted upon the Articles formerly agreed on in point of Religion These Letters have been published and translated into several Languages which though I cannot say corruptly yet strained as much as might be to his disadvantage And it is probable that the like Letters of Complyance to the Pope may have been procured in the Treaty of the Match with France wherein the Popes Dispensation was likewise held necessary But all are Arguments of the Kings firmness in his Religion when he would rather undergo the trouble and delay of the Dispensation than by his Conformity to have effected what he desired without any difficulty or further hazard and this hath been fully confirmed ever since by his profession and living in the Reformed Religion established in the Church of England from which no man can say with truth that he hath prevaricated in the least tittle Besides this great proof of his firmness and settledness in his Religion his constant and daily Practice both in Publique and Private in the exercise of his Devotions may and ought to give satisfaction to all that consider him without prejudice For his resorting twice every day to Publique Prayors and twice a week at least to Sermons and his frequent receiving of the Holy Sacrament is publiquely known unto all but his private Devotions to those only that are of nearer Attendance about his Person who well know that he never faileth morning nor evening to retire himself to his private Prayers and upon Occasions in the day time

due to their Kings upon any colour or pretext of Religion For as no private man doth forfeit his Inheritance or free-hold by Impiety or Atheism although he may forfeit his Soul unless he commit some legal Crime So a Prince that holdeth his Crown by unquestionable Right of Succession cannot forfeit his Temporal Inheritance by the erroniousness of his Religion his Soul must only answer that forfeit And although some have gone so far as to admit a lawfullness of the Subjects taking Arms against their Prince for the defence and maintenance of their Laws and Religion yet no man hath adventured so far as to allow the taking Arms for bringing in of new Laws and a new Religion contrary to the established and that by force and without consent of their Soveraign which is the present Case CHAP. IX Shewing the War not to have been begun by the King but that he condescended to all things that could in reason be demanded of him for the preventing of it THere is yet one further Objection wherwith I have heard some indeavour to countenance and justifie their taking Arms against the King which was That he first made War against his Parliament meaning by force to introduce an Arbitrary Power in Church and Common-Wealth And that the War on their side was only defensive and for the maintenance of their liberties proprieties privileges and Religion The steps and progress of this unhappy War are so well known unto me even from the first misunderstandings betwixt the King and People and the improvement of them by Tumults and several Artifices untill they broke out into Acts of open hostility that nothing did so much terrifie my Conscience from taking Arms against the King or more confirmed me in my Duty of adhering unto him than the certain and infallible knowledge I had of the Kings hearty and unfeigned Desires and Indeavours to have prevented this War and to that end to have done and was ready to do all things that had been or should be with justice or reason propounded unto him for the satisfaction of his Parliament which I conceive to all unpreoccupated Iudgments will be easily most apparent when it shall be considered how many things he hath done besides the easing of just grievances whereunto he is indeed obliged which were meerly Acts of Grace and which if he had denied he should have done no wrong And for the doing whereof the wit of man can find no other reason or inducement but his desire to satisfie his Parliament and the keeping of things from extremities For besides the giving way to the putting down of the Court of Starchamber the High Commission and the regulating of his Councel-Table many other things he hath done which some Kings would rather have adventured a War than have parted with any of them As the consenting to have his Privy-Councel that had been sworn to secrecy to be examined upon Oath concerning those things that had passed in his Presence in his most secret Cabinet Councel The giving his Assent in such conjuncture of times to the taking away the Bishops Votes in Parliament And the divesting of himself of the Power to dissolve the Parliament notwithstanding that the evil Consequences that might happen to him thereby were represented unto him in my hearing And I conceive that no man will be so partial but they do beleeve that howsoever the King might be satisfied in point of Conscience by the Bishops and Iudges and the joint authority of both Houses for giving his Assent to the passing of the Bill for my Lord of Straffords Attaindure yet no man but beleeveth he would have saved his Life at a great Ransom But hoping therby to have allayed the rage of his people aswell as to have given full satisfaction to his Houses with a sad and afflicted heart he signed the Warrant for the Earls execution For he was then made beleeve that with his giving way to his death and his consenting to the Bill for not adjourning or dissolving of the Parliament but with the Concurrence of the Houses all misunderstandings betwixt him and his Parliament would be removed and all things return to a calm and orderly way of Proceeding Now if the King had had any secret Intention of making of a War would he have done so many things so prejudicial to himself and so against his heart only for the preventing of it and although his hopes of a quiet settlement by the passing of these two Bills failed him he yet gave not over the doing of all further things which he thought might renew a right understanding betwixt him and the Houses So likewise when that unhappy and unseasonable Act of his going to the House of Commons in Person happened he indeavoured to redeem it with such Acts of acknowledgemeot submission nay I may say asking forgiveness as were never done by any King unto his Subjects So likewise in the particular of his Attorneys accusing of the Lord Kimbolton and the five Members notwithstanding he had a President for it in his own time of Sir Robert Heath his then Attorneys impeaching of my self of High Treason which Impeachment was received and admitted of by the House of Peers and Arraignment and due process of Law was by the said House ordered and awarded thereupon yet the King finding the Houses therewith displeased did not only command prosecution to be withdrawn but left his Attorny to the Iustice of the Parliament And I conceive that it will be acknowledged by all Laws and Religions That the very excesses and errors of Soveraign Princes if reparation and satisfaction may be obtained by Petition and Remonstrance as in these Ca●es they have been Recourse ought not to be had by Subjects to Arms or Hostile Resistance and I am deceived if this be not also the Opinion of the severest of our new Doctors Where wrongs are done if the party offending shall upon demand make reparation and give satisfaction to the party offended and yet he shall notwithstanding make War it is He that is the Agressor that maketh the offensive War Melior causa ad partem poenitentem transit And the party first offending by his penitency and satisfaction brings over the Right and Iustice to his Cause and if this be betwixt Independent States betwixt whom such as write de Iure Belli say a legitimate War can only be for War being defined to be publico●um Armorum justa contentio Subjects are not allowed as lawfull Enemies opposed to their Soveraign for want of supreme and publique Authority How much more ought such Acknowledgment and Reparations as have before been set down have satisfied Subjects in the behalf of their King so far humbling of himself as certainly would have pacified a modest Conqueror After the King had found himself disappointed of his expectation and that by his former yieldings and complyances the misunderstandings were little allayed but greater appearances grew every day that other of unquietness and troubles