Astraea Redeunt Saturnia regna progenies caelo Demittitur alto Bishops the Coâ—on prâ—â—ier Booke â—ewarded Sectaries reiected SALMASIUS HIS BUCKLER OR A Royal Apology FOR King CHARLES the MARTYR Dedicated to CHARLES the Second King of Great Brittain Salus Populi Salus Regis LONDON Printed for H.B. and are to be sold in Westminster-hall and at the Royal Exchange 1662. The Epistle to the Reader THere have been so many Wolves in sheeps-cloathing and so many Innocents by the reviling tongues of their Enemies robbing them of their good names as well as of their good estates made Malignants in this our worse than iron age that I know not what Epithite to give thee If thou art an Honest man Rara avis in terris I invoke thee to be my Patron If thou art not Noli me tangere But since St. Austin once perhaps as zealous a Reprobate as thy self was converted by looking on the Bible by chance I will not prohibit thee from eating of this fruit Though I believe to think that thy view of my Book will work the like conversion on thee is to have a better opinion of thee and the Book than both will deserve For though an Angel should come from heaven or a man arise from the dead yet could he not perswade our hot-headed Zealots but that they did God good service even when they rebell against his own Ordinance transgress his Commandements murther their Father the KING and pollute their once flourishing Mother the CHURCH Before this prodigious off-spring like Vipers destroyed the Mother by their birth The Jews indeed murthered the Lord of life because they did not know him and therefore thought it was pleasing to God But wo be to them who did not only with Ham see their Fathers nakedness and reproach him but commit Paricide see his heart naked and call the multitude to laugh at it En quo discordia Cives produxit miseros O the miserable effects of seditious men Who shall now cure the Kings evil Or who shall cure the evil of the People O purblind City how long will you enslave yourselves to ravenous woolves who by their often changing of their feigned Governments do but change the thief and still your Store-houses must be the Magazine to furnish them with plunder You must never look to enjoy your lives estates or Gods blessing with the fruition of your Wives and Children before your lawfull King and Soveraign CHARLS the II. unjustly banished by Rebells be restored to his Crown and Kingdom For what Comfort can any honest or conscientious man take in any thing so long as he seeth his own native Prince like King David driven from his own natural inheritance by the unjust force of a multitude of Traytors both to God and their King Who Judas-like acknowledging his Master with a kiss so they swore with their mouthes that King CHARLS the I. was their only lawfull King and Soveraign and had the Supreme power over them all and then delivered him to the Sword-men who came out with Clubbs and Staves against their Soveraign as against a Thief and as the Jews did the Lord our Saviour whom they did not acknowledge to be their King otherwise they would not have done it These men murthered their dread Soveraign whom they all acknowledged and vowed to be their only King Excelling the Jewes only in wickednesse Therefore since by the Laws of the Land there can be no Parliament without the King what difference is there between a Protector and one of their Parliaments but only number For their Protectors are but the head thieves and their Parliaments but a headless multitude of thieves For so long as the Royal Progenie of CHARLS the I. which God long preserve remain alive all other our Governours besides them will be but Rebells Traytors and Tyrants let them call themselves a Free State or by what names they please continue until the worlds end Therfore rouze up Citizens and take courage How long will you be the common Hackney to be ridden by every one that will stride you How long shall your Sanctuary be made a Stable and Den for Thieves Shall your Streets blush with the blood of Prophets and with the blood of your Citâ—zens and will not you change your colour where is the reverend Doctor Hewyt that Glory of your City that Glory of all Christians that Glory of the whole World whose fame shall out-live the Sun and his renown shine longer and brighter than the Moon or the lesser Stars Caesar the Usurper was wont to say Si violandum est jus regnandi causa esse violandum That if it is lawfull to forswear one self for any Cause the Cause of gaining a Kingdom is the most lawfull But there are those amongst us who have turned the Supposition into a Proposition and confidently by their practice affirm that it is lawfull to forswear one self for any thing and most sacred to be forsworn if by the perjury a Kingdom may be gained But I will not touch the Soars which lye raw before every mans eyes only this will I say which every one knoweth to be true that no Kingdom in the World was so happy both for peace and plenty law and religion and all other good things as our Kingdom of England was whilest due obedience was lawfully paid to our Soveraign Lord the King but now the King being murthered and all goodness with him no Nation under the Sun is more miserable and so it will continue untill King Charles the second be restored to his Crown The Sword of Gods word ought only to fight for Religion the Iron sword of Rebels did never establish Christian Religion nor ever will set up Christs Kingdom especially if it be unsheathed against Kings by their Subjects And to satisfie all Objections whatsoever against my writing I answer Si natura negat facit indignatio versum It was not to shew my self to the world for as in Tempests so in our daies he is best who is seen least abroad But it was to shew and prefer the Truth which hath been laid asleep by the Charmes of our Sins For to this end was I born and for this cause came I into the world that I should bear witnes to the truth every one that is of the Truth will hear the voice of the truth when I saw the many revolutions turnings of men like Weathercocks being presented almost every day with new strange and various shapes and forms of Government it caused me more diligently to search after the true reason of our changings which I found to be our Sins and the absence of our King also which was the best kind of Government which I found to be Monarchy and that all trayterous Tyrants sine titulo might most lawfully be killed by any privat hand but Kings only by God Truth often getteth hatred and it is the doom of serious books to be hooted at by those who have nothing
ab eventu facta notanda putat The Authors Resolution and Reason to write The wickedness of the times Wherein men will have no King unless they may be Kings themselves nor no Bishops only because they are not Bishops Tyrants and Traytors reign by force Kings by the love of the people The definition of a Commonwealths-man with all his properties and the deceitfulness of a Parliament be it long or short Englands degeneration and the death of the Laws and Religion with an Incitation to solemnize the funeral NOw it is time to resolve the Quaere couchant in the Prologue Eloquar an sileam timor hoc pudor impedit illud Whether I should speak or be silent When I consider the perills of the times wherein no man can speak his own conscience without offending those who will give him blows for words Then Timor hoc But Jam tua res agitur paries cum proximus ardet when I see my neighbour his house on fire and my own next to it when all men are asleep in sin and none to awake them Then pudor impedit illud For Non mihi si centum linguae sint oraque Centum Omnia culparum percurrere nomina possum If I had a thousand tongues and so many mouths I could not vilify our iron age according to its deserts Me thinks as if souls according to Phythagoras his opinion descented from one man to another I see those ancient Tyrants or their black souls in worser images acting their bloudy parts upon the stage of the world and sounding out their hellish edicts Here is Caius Caesar Caligula with his detestable motto in his mouth Oderint dum metuant Let them hate me so they fear me He forced parents to be present at the execution of their own children and after he had well drunk and eaten took pleasure to cast his friends into the Sea from on high from a bridge which he built He wished that his people had but one neck that he might chop them off at a blow vox Carnifice quam Imperatore dignior A Speech fitter for an Hangman than an Emperour When a prisoner being fearfull of the cruel Torments with which the Emperour would murder him had taken poyson to prevent him What sayes he Antidotum adversus Caesarem Is there any Antidote against Caesar How many poor innocents being condemned to dreadful deaths by the Tyrants of our age have poysened themselves to prevent their undesetved punishments And when his Grand-mother Antonia seemed to give him some admonition Memento ait omnia mihi in omnes licere I would have you to know saith he That I can do any thing a true Character of a Tyrant for what will not hee do But doubtless the love of the people is the best guard for a King Magnum Satellitium Amor. And that which ones natural lawfull Soveraign would most look after For â—num est regi inexpugnabile munimentum amor Civium It is not fear and force nor Troops of Dragoons and Red-coats that are the surest holds for Governours but the benevolence hearts and love of their subjects Caesar dando sublevando ignoscendo gloriam adeptus est Rulers have no greater enemy than the fear and envy of the people For Quem metuunt oderunt Quem quisque odit periisse expedit Whom we fear we hate and whom we hate we study and desire his death But behold Aulus Vitellius Bonus odor hostis melior civis occisi An enemy slain hath a very good smell but a Cittizen far better O black abominable Tragical and Tyrannical speech And did not our age swarm with such horse-leaches we should never suck the blood one of another so as we do But that you may hate the very name of Tyrants and abhor their actions Hearken a little to Flavius Vespasianus and his Councel how impiously they consulted and first Vespasian Lucri bonus odor ex re qualibet It is gain which makes the smell so good for a slain Citizen or enemy No actions so hellish if it produce profit but that it is a virtue to attempt it and the reason is Omnis in ferro salus because all our hope and health is in the sword for whilest we have that in our hands what law or Religion dares oppose us no disputant like the sword Exeat aula qui volet esse pius virtus summa potestas non coeunt semper metuunt quem save pudebunt Let him depart from our Courts and Counsel who is so simple that he must neeâ— be pious Godliness is a great hinderance to oâ— profession and he is a Coward who is ashamed to act wickedly Sibi bonus aliis malus saith an other He is a fool who thinks that any one can lose so he gets Let us be good to our selves and all is well There be some simple innocents who cry Melius mori quam sibi vivere It is better to dye than to live only for our selves But if such be their Doctrine let them get for others for us if they please and starve themselves Let us carve for ourselves Proximus ipse mihi Charity begins at home and he is an Ass that carrieth a burden for another Others there be of the same stamp and both alike simple who say Dulce est pro patria mori It is sweet to dye for ones Country let such good natured fools tast of that sweetness and dye for their Country our lives are sweet and not so to be fooled away It is sweet for our Country to dye for us But Pestis reipublicae literae saith another of the Counsel we shall never carry on our affairs handsomely so long as we have so many Lawyers and Gospel men amongst us the highest step to our promotion will be to lay them on their backs and I think the nearest way to dispel the cloud of black Coats will be to throw down their Universites and take their tithes and lands away from then As for the Lawyers perhaps we may bribe them but if not I am sure they will rather turn than burn To what we cannot perswade them with our tongues we will compel them to with our swords For Law Learning and Religion are as so many plagues and poysons tâ— Commonwealth And Qui nescit dissimulare nescit imperare He that cannot dissemble shall be no Commonwealths-man for to tell you the truth Dissimulation cogging and lying is the foundation of our government and if the foundation be taken away every one knows the superstructure cannot stand Therefore to deal plainly with the world let us cover our worst actions with the best pretences and ravish the people with the pleasing and specious names of Liberty and Religion when we intend the extirpation of both Let us imitate Tereus who so neatly dissembled piety that when he acted most against it the people did Saint him Ipso sceleris molimine Tereus Creditur esse pius And doubtless he was no mean Cowmonwealths-man Let us hold a fair correspondence
instructions so he that denyeth this truth ought with the oratory of the sword and not of the mouth to be perswaded into his due obedience For it is an uncontrolable Maxim that he doth not honour and serve God as he should who doth not honour and serve his King as he ought God will not own him to be his subject who will not be a subject to his Soveraign the Lords anointed Therefore since by the Law of God for nothing is more frequently commanded in the Scripture and our Kings are of like institution with those Kings in Scripture and ought to have the same honour and obedience by the Law of Nature by the Law of Nations by the Common and Statute Law of England we are commanded to honour our King Let no man be so much an Enemy to God to Religion to his Country to the Church to the Law and to his own soul as to Rebel against his Legal Soveraign For he that doth it transgresseth against the ten Commandements of the Law the new Commandement of the Gospel he committeth the seaven deadly sins the four crying sins the three most detestable sins to the soul of man viz. Prophaness Impudency and Sacrilege In a word he committeth all sins is the Embleme of the Devil and unless he repent he will have his Lot with Belzebub the great Rebel and Traytor against Heaven If punishment cannot compel them me thinks the beauty of Monarchy might allure men to love it Surely there is no generous spirit who doth not for the most renowned and famous Nations in the World have lived under Monarchical Government as the Scythians Ethiopians Indians Assyrians Medes Egyptians Bactrians Armenians Macedonians Jews and Romans first and last and at this day the French Spaniards Polonians Danes Muscovites Tartars Turks Abissines Moors Agiamesques Zagathinians Cathaians yea and the Salvage people lately discovered in the West-Indies as being guided thereto by the rules of nature and rip up Antiquity and search Histories both antient and modern and thou shalt never finde our Realm of England so much an Enemy to virtue as to hate Royal Government until these latter and worst of dayes wherein it is accounted a sin to be noble and vertuous Nay so much did our Nation love Kings in former times that we had seaven of them in England at one and the same time viz. 1. The King of Kent 2. Of the South-Saxons 3. Of the West-Saxons 4. Of the East-Saxons 5. Of Northumberland 6. Of Mercia 7. Of the East-Angels which ruled and shined like the seaven Stars each absolutely reigning in his Country not under the subjection of other until at length by the Law of Conquest one became Monarch over all ruling like the Sun and acknowledging none on Earth his Superior so much that it is amongst us a common adage viz. The King holdeth of none but of God But it seems God hath now granted away the Seigniory to the House of Commons and the King must hold of them But from hence ariseth a point in Law whether they are absolutely and legally seized of the Seigniory without attornment of the tenant In my simple opinion the Seigniory doth not pass before attornment but I leave it as a quaere to the House of Commons who are best able to resolve it because they have all the Law in their own hands Non nostrum inter vos tantas componere lites From what hath been said it is apparent that Adam was the first King on Earth and that Kingdoms have been ever since Adam haereditary for a family which was before Commonwealth is nothing else but a small Kingdom and a great Kingdom is nothing else but a great family for the Pater familias were petite Kings and had royal power and potestatem vitae necis even over their own Children as Abraham and others But when the family increased and the numerous off-pring of their first parent multiplied built Villages Towns and Cities and so became a great people so long as their first parent lived their love and duty towards him would not permit them unnaturally to strive with him for the superiority but to acknowledge and obey him as their Soveraign and lawfull King from whence they had their being And this is the reason that Kings are called Patres Patriae Fathers of their Country Sal. 1. Inde enim origo regum regiique regiminis petenda est Haec cum primo homine cum solo novo cepit quoniam primum parentem numerosus ex eo descendens natorum qui ex â—is nati sunt populus pro rege habuit observavit ut primum sui generis auctorem So much for Monarchy the best of all Governments No man can serve two Masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other ye cannot serve God and Mammon Math. 6.24 If any Anti-Royalist think himself wiser than our Saviour and that he can serve two Masters and love them both let him hate Monarchy and set up his two headed Master and let experience the mistris of fools correct him as it hath many already But since our age is given to nothing but vain imaginations there be some who do Imagine and will object that Adam was no King because he is not stiled so in Scripture I answer though this frivolous objection doth not deserve an answer that neither do you find Adam stiled in Scripture my Father or thy Father yet Adam was the Father of all flesh Si res apparet Cur de nomine certas He that hath the supreme power is a King But Adam had the supreme power Ergo Adam was a King Rex cometh from Regere to rule and Adam was sole Lord Ruler and King and so continued untill he died Adam was created by God the Monarch of the World before he had any subjects And by right of Nature it was due to Adam to govern his posterity even before his subjects were born So that though not in act yet in habit Adam was a king from his creation Neither could Eve nor her Children ever limit Adams power It was God that gave the power therefore no Mortals could ever diminish or increase it For Quid Jove majus habetur They must be above all that which is called godlinesse who go about to put asunder that which the Almighty hath joyned together This Paternal power continued Monarchical to the Floud and after the Floud to the Confusion of Babel at which time God scattered the people abroad from thence upon the face of the whole earth as you may read Gen. 10 11. Yet they went out by Colonies of whole families over which the prime Fathers had the Soveraignty and were kings deriving their Fatherly and Regal power from Noah whose Sons or Grand-children they were all And although I think there are but few Kings in the world who can prove their title to their Crown hereditary ever since Noahs
authority is originally and radically in the people from them by consent derived to Kings immediately mediately only from God that the donation or collation of the power is from the Community the approbation only from God and that Soveraignty and power in a King is by conveyance from the people by a trust devolved upon him and that it is Conditional fiduciary and proportioned according as it pleaseth the Community to entrust more or lesse and to be weighed out ounce by ounce and that the King may be opposed and resisted by violence force and arms and the people resume their power which we deny and shall prove by the law of God of Nations of Nature of the Common and Statute law of England that the Royal power and Soveraignty of Kings is primarily formally and immediatly from God and that the people through pretence of Liberty Privilege Law Religion or what Colour soever ought not to oppose imprison resist much lesse Murther their King though he be wicked and subvert Law and Religion much lesse when he is pious upholdeth and maintaineth both First I conceive that there is no man so impudently wicked as to deny that there is a God who created all things Heaven and Earth Angels and Men the power of Angels and the power of Men there is one power of Angels and another of Men so there is a difference of powers amongst men the power of a King inferior to no power on earth but only Gods the power of the Subjects inferior to the power of the King the power of a Father over his Children and the power of a Husband over his Wife and so every power limitted by God and as one Star doth excel another in brightnesse so one power doth excel another in dignity and glory There is nothing more plain and evidently asserted in the Scripture than that Kingly power is the most Sacred Divine and glorious of all powers immediately from God peculiarly owned by him as a power wherin his Nature and Majesty is most manifested and as I have already shewed hath a shadow of all Divine Excellencies Man was made Gen. 1.26 and God said let us make man in our Image But man had no power or dominion untill God further said And let them have dominion over so that it is from hence most clear that man had no power or Soveraignty untill God gave it him and the first man to whom God gave it was Adam a King the sole Monarch of the world Then let not our new Sectaries fondly wickedly conceit that royal authority is originally and radically from them that it is by their consent immediatly derived from them to Kings Since the Kingly power office was before they were born or had any power from whence such authority could be derived By me Kings raign saith God not only particular Kings as Kings of the Jews c. but all Kings Prov. 85.1 Qui succedit in locum succedit in jus Therefore whosoever claim unto themselves that power which is universally and perpetually peculiar unto the God of all power do Blaspheme and rob God of his honour and what lyes in them do make God no God and themselves the only Almighty But the people which challenge unto themselves the original power of earthly Dominion do challenge unto themselves that power which is universally and perpetually peculiar to the God of all power Therefore those people do blaspheme and rob God of his honour and what lyes in them do make God no God and themselves the only Almighty There is no power but of God The powers that be are ordained of God Rom. 13.1 5. Wherefore ye must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for conscience sake Doubtless our superintendants did never learn their Doctrine from this Text but they may aswell learn it from hence as from any other place in Scripture for I finde nothing in my Bible contrary to this but every text in Scripture doth harmoniously agree with this and unanimously resolve that Kings are of God they are Gods Children of the most high his Servants â—ir publick Ministers his Deputies his Vicegerenis his Lieutenants their Throne their Crown their Sword their Scepter their Judgements are Gods their Power Person and charge are of Divine extract and so their authority and person are both sacred and inviolable God removeth Kings and setteth up Kings Daniel 2.21 Thou settetst a Crown of pure Gold on his head Psal 21.3 I gave thee a King in mine anger and took him away in my wrath Hos 13.11 Which proveth that God not the people did institute Kings and that God not the people should take them away God hath spoken once yea twice have I heard this that power belongeth unto God Psal 62.11 By him were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers Col. 1.16 And now O Lord my God thou hast made thy servant King instead of David my Father 1 Kings 3.7 I have provided me a King saith God 1 Sam. 16.1 Whole heaps of Scipture might I gather to confirm that Kings are solely and immediatly dependent from God and independent from all others which truth the suffrages of the Holy Fathers which are but as so many Commentaries on the Scripture and therefore not so necessary here to be recited do affirm and maintain But some may ask me how Kings in these dayes can be said to be immediatly from God when somtimes they are elected Kings by the people sometimes they come to their Crowns by Conquest and sometimes hereditarily by succession and never by extraordinary manifestation and revelation from Heaven as did Moses Saul David To this I briefly answer That as Divines hold a thing is immediatly from God several wayes 1. When it is solely from God and presupposeth nothing ordinary or humane antecedent to the obtaining of it So was Moses made captain over Israel and so had Joshua his authority But Soveraignty now to our Kings is not so conveyed but some humane act is alwayes intervening 2. When the Donation and Collation of the power to such a person is immediatly from God though some act of man be antecedent as Mathias was an Apostle immediatly from Christ though first the Apostles put two a part and cast lots yet neither of these two acts jointly or severally did virtually or formally collate the Apostolical power upon him When an Atturney maketh livery of seisin according to his letter of Atturny the Feoffee is in by the Feoffor and not by the Atturny though his act was interposed Is is not the Feoffment of the Atturney but of the Feoffor and the Feoffee his Title is only from the Feoffor though he had not had it but by the means of the Atturny In the second sense Soveraignty is conferred on kings immediatly from God though some created act as Election Succession Conquest or any other
with a sure foot Though King David was a man after Gods own heart yet could he not please the people for Absolom his own Son made a conspiracy against him and forced him to flye for his life But mark the end of this Traytor though the earth did not open her mouth and swallow him up yet the very Trees took vengeance and caught him up by the head so that he hung between heaven and earth as unworthy to go to heaven or to live upon the earth 11 Sam. 18.9 Then how dare these Pulpit Hunters blaspheme God and prophane his Word and Sanctuary so much as to preach that Rebellion is obedience nay a necessary duty commanded of God and a great means to carry on the work of Salvation inciting the people to cry out for justice accounting all things injustice unless that they have their wicked ends So Absolom did steal the hearts of the people who had controversies telling them that there was no man deputed of the King to hear them 11 Sam. 15.4 And Absolom said moreover O that I were made judge in the Land that every man which hath any sute or cause might come unto me and I would do them Justice A true Lecture of a Traytor for you shall never find Traytors without Law and Justice on their sides to colour their actions The King hath not deputed a man say they to distribute Justice He is popishly given and would bring into the Kingdome the popish Religion He infringeth your Charters breaketh the Laws and destroyeth your Rights and Liberties But O that we were made Judges in the Land how equally and impartially would we give justice to all men we would not take away your Charters nor encroach upon your Liberties The preservation of the Law and Religion is the only cause for which we take up arms But when with their charms and sorcery they have intoxicated the people got the hilt of the sword into their own hands and a power to do what they list then down goeth both Law and Religion and the King too like Jonas must be thrown down from the stern of Government to appease the tempest of the multitude And then and not untill then like the head of a Snail or a Tortoise out of it's shell not seen before doth appear their own cause and indeed the only cause for which they took up arms which is their own private interest and the destruction of the whole Kingdome with their own bodies and souls hereafter Hor. Suis ipsa Roma viribus ruit And Englands own Sword destroyeth poor England But let Traytors pretend what they will yet this is a Principle whose original is the Bible confirmed by our Saviour and the Apostles by all the Fathers of the Church and by all Christian people by all reason and Religion That Kings have the Supreme power over their people and consequently the people no power to resist them either to save their Laws Religion or for what other pretence soever For Rex si supra populum optimatesve agnoscat proprie non est Rex He cannot be a King which hath not the supreme authority and Soveraignty Divisum imperium cum Jove Caesar habet It is God and the King to whom Soveraignty belongeth the people are their Vassals and not sharers in so high a dignity Our Saviour alone was both God and Man and it is a thing impossible for the people to be both king and Subject too at one time But why should I seek stars to light the noon day or press that with arguments to be true to them who with their oaths have confirmed it for a truth swearing I William Lenthal do utterly testify and declare in my conscience that the Kings Highness is the only Supreme Governour of this Realm and all other his Highness Dominions and Countries aswell in all spiritual or Ecclesiastical things or Causes as Temporal And that no forein Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction Power Superiority Pre-eminence or Authority Ecclesiastical or Spâ—ritual within this Realm And therefore I do utterly renounce and forsake all forein Jurisdiction Powers Superiorities and Authorities and do promise that from henceforth I shall bear faith and true allegiance to the Kings Highnesse his heirs and lawfull Successors and to my power shall assist and defend all Jurisdictions Privileges Pre-eminences and authorities granted or belonging to the Kings Highnesse his heirs and Successors or united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of the Realm So help me God and by the Contents of this Book What greater exemplification confirmation or demonstration of the kings Soveraignty can there be than this Sacred Oath of Supremacy For this is the thing which the Lord hath commanded saith Moses Num. 30.1 2. If a man Vow a Vow unto the Lord or swear an Oath to binde his soul with a bond he shall not break his word he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth And is there any English-man so impudently wicked and prophane as presumptuously to break Gods Commandement break his own vows and impiously turn perjured Traytor vix ipse tantum vix adhuc credo malum scarce I even I who have seen it with my own eyes can yet hardly believe so great a villany can be perpetrated Haec facere Jason potuit Could the betrothed do this Heu pietas Heu prisca fides Alas the antient piety Alas the fidelity of old time Debuit ferro obvium Offerre pectus I would have dyed first Quid non mortalia pectora cogis Auri sacra fames What doth not gold more sacred to them than their oathes compel mortals to atchieve Vid. 1. Eli. cap. 1. That the Kings power is above the Law is demonstrated by reason and proved by authority In the beginning were no Laws but the Kings will and pleasure Adams absolute power The King can do no wrong It is better and more profitable that one King than many Tyrants do what they lift with us The King hath no Judge but God That place in learned Bracton which Bradshaw and others used as an authority to kill the King explained and their damnable opinion and false Commentary upon him confuted The King is bound to observe Gods Law yet absolute King That God not the people instituteth kings and that the House of Commons which is but the tail of the Parliament nor any whole Parliament can have power over the king or disinherit him HAving made it evidently manifest that the King hath the supreme power and Soveraignty over the people I will now ascend a step higher and make it as manifest that he hath the supreme power and Soveraignty over the Laws as well as over the people Quidvis facere id est regem esse saith Salustius To do what one will is to be a King Cui quod libet licet Qui legibus solutus est Qui leges dat non accipit proiude qui omnes judicat a nemine
authority O pious Rebels So far are our Laws of England from allowing Subjects to take up arms against the King or to condemn execute him that it is high treason for any one or all of his Subjects but to imagine the Kings death which the wisdom and Religion of our Realm hath from age to age so much hated and abhorred that an offender therin by the Laws of the Land shall be hanged and cut down alive his bowels shall be cut off and burned in his sight his head shall be severed from his body his quarters shall be divided asunder and disposed at the Kings pleasure and made food for the birds of the air or the beasts of the Field and his wife and children shall be thrust out of his house and livings his seed and blood shall be corrupted his Lands and goods shall be confiscated and as by the Statute of 29 H. 6.1 It is ordained of the Traytor John Cade hee shall be called a false Traytor for ever But the Traytors against Charls the Martyr have prevented this punishment most due to them by the greatnesse of their villanies Yet though they are got out of the reach of Justice and trample our Laws and King under their feet let them remember that God is above Earth and will give them their reward if not in this world yet in the world to come The aforesaid Statute of 25 Ed. 3. as you may read in Pulton de pace Regis Regni fo 108. doth confirm it to be high treason for any person to compasse or imagine the death of our Soveraign Lord the King the Queen c. by which words it doth approve what a great regard and reverend respect the Common Law hath alwayes had to the person of the King which it hath endeavoured religiously and carefully to preserve as a thing consecrated by Almighty God and by him ordained to be the head health and wealth of the Kingdom and therefore it hath ingrafted a deep and settled fear in the hearts of all sorts of Subjects to offer violence or force unto it under the pain of High Treason insomuch as if he that â—s Non Compos Mentis do kill or attempt to kill the King it shall be adjudged in him High Treason though if he do commit petit Treason homicide or larceny it shall not be imputed unto him as Felony for that he knew not what he did neither had he malice prepensed not a felonious intent And this law doth not only restrain all persons from laying violent hands upon the person of the King but also by prevention it doth inhibit them so much as to compasse or imagine or to devise or think in their hearts to cut off by violent or untimely death the life of the King Queen c. for the only compassing or imagination without bringing it to effect is High Treason because that compassing and imagination doth proceed from false and traiterous hearts and out of cruel bloudy and murdering minds Thus you see with what reverence our Lawes do adore his sacred Majesty our King detesting nothing more than the violence or dammage offered to him yet forsooth the Rebels affirm they killed the King by the Common Law and why by the Common Law what because the Commons made it surely that is all the reason for there is no law under the Heavens which warranteth Subjects to kill their King but all lawes both humane and divine command the contrary Many are the publick oaths as you may read in Mr. Prynne's Concordia discors protestations leagues covenants which all English Subjects especially Judges Justices Sheriffs Mayors Ministers Lawyers Graduates Members of the House of Commons and all publick officers whatsoever by the Lawes and Statutes of the land have formerly taken to their lawful hereditary Kings their heirs and successors to bind their souls and consciences to bear constant faith allegiance obedience and dutiful subjection to them and to defend their Persons Crowns and just royal Prerogatives with their lives members and fortunes against all attempts conspiracies and innovations whatsoever But since all those sacred oaths have been trayterously violated and broken by the Rebels against Charles the Martyr I will only present you with the effect of the Oath of Allegiance which every one is to take when he is of the age of twelve years and this oath was instituted in the time of King Calvin's Case fo 7. Co. Lit. fo 68.172 You shall swear that from this day forward you shall be true and faithful to our Soverain Lord King Charles and his heirs and truth and faith shall bear of life and member and terrene honour and you shall neither know nor hear of any ill or dammage intended unto him that you shall not defend So help you Almighty God The substance and effect of this oath as it is resolved and proved in Calvin's case is due to the King by the law of Nature and is called Ligeantia naturalis being an incident inseparable to every Subject for so soon as he is born he oweth by birth-right ligeance and obedience to his Soveraign and therefore the King is called in his Statutes our natural liege Lord and his people natural liege Subjects But Ligeantia legalis is so called because the Municipal Laws of this Realm have prescribed the order and form of it None can deny but that obedience is due from the Son to the Father by the Law of Nature yet may the Municipal Laws of the Realm prescribe formality and order to it not diminishing the substance So likewise may they to the Allegiance due by nature to the King Thus have you seen how the English Trayterous Rebells contrary to all the Laws of God the Law of Nature the Law of Nations the Laws of our Realm and against the foundation of Christian Religion have by an unheard of example most wickedly murthered as a common Thief and vile vassal of the people condemned their gracious King whose name from the very beginning of the world hath ever been esteemed amongst all Nations great and holy whom the Prophets and Apostles nay our Saviour himself and all the Primitive Christians both with their lives death examples and Doctrine have taught and commanded us to reverence and pray for and to be subject to not violently to resist him though he violently persecute us whom God himself in his old and new Testament hath declared to be constituted by him and reign by him not by the People and particularly whom our fore-Fathers of this Realm of England have always accounted sacred and ever found by experience Kingly Government to be most glorious and profitable for them yet these forty or fifty Tyrannical Rebels contrary even to common sense and feeling upholding themselves by Force and Arms Treason and Usurpation do sit and Vote Kingship dangerous and burthensom to the good people of this Common-wealth when in the mean time out Merchants turn Bankrupts our Tradesmen break Food groweth
their free will and pleasure So that the peoples Representatives must represent these Traytors in all their wickednesse otherwise they shall be no free-Statesmen for they account that Government most for the liberty of the people wherein themselves may have liberty still to continue in their Treason Rebellion and that they call slavery and oppression of the people which would suppresse their wicked and infandous Tyranny All the reason which they can give against Monarchy is because say they many of the people would lose their interests in their new purchased estates and we should be turned out of our possessions and perhaps lose our lives too A good argument indeed if maintained by the Logick of the sword So thieves and murtherers may argue against the Sessions because then perhaps they should lose their stollen goods and be hanged for their murthers and robberies O abominable that English men should degenerate into such impious impudence for this is the truth of their case might they but still have the Kings and Bishops lands which they have gotten by their horrible Treason and Rebellion and be sure to live secure from the punishment which the Law of the Land would inflict upon them they would easily confesse if the Devil have not made them contradictors of all manner of truth that Monarchy is the best of all Governments especially for the English Nation where as one may say it grew by nature until these destroyers of the Lawes of God Nature and the Realm rooted it up and endeavoured to plant their fancied Commonwealth in its room which will grow there when plums grow in the sky or when rocks grow in the air not before as you may see by the small root it hath taken ever since the reign of Charles the Martyr Dig and delve they may yet they will never set it in so fast but that if the right heir do not which God grant he soon may the wind and ambition of some one of their own sect and faction will quickly blow it down as did Oliver the wicked c. As Monarchy is the best sort of all govetnments so the Monarchy of England is the best of all Monarchies and hath in it the perfection and all that is good either in Aristocracy Democracy or Free-State For every one knoweth that Charles the Martyr though a King yet alwayes made himself a subject to his lawes accounting his prerogative safer being locked up in the custody of the law than in the absolutenesse of his own will And what lawes of any Nation in the world did ever maintain the liberty and freedome of the people more than the Kings Lawes of England I may most truly answer none more nor so much for what greater freedome can the people wish for than not to have any lawes imposed on them than what they please and desire The Kings of England never make any law but what the people consent to the Lords and Commons have a Negative voice as well as the King Although the inferiour Members receive all their authority from the head yet cannot the head act without their consent and privity so neither â—oth the King impose any lawes on his subjects without their concurrence and approbation The House of Lords resembleth Aristocracy and the House of Commons Democracy or a free State yet the King like the Sun which doth not diminish its own light by giving light to others continueth stil a royal Monarch and without any Solecism in State I may truly say that the House of Lords did excel Aristocracy and the House of Commons Democracy in preserving the Peoples rights and wel-fare because the necessity of their joyning votes each with the other and both of them with the King in making of a Law did inhibit either of them from having an unlimited arbitrary power which either of them without the other would have and so enslave the People as the House of Commons now do according to their lusts having destroyed their Master the King and the House of Lords their Moderators Whilest the King Lords and Commons like the three Graces joined hand in hand in passing votes approved by this triple touchstone then were our Laws like Gold seven times refined which made our Nation most glorious abroad and to overflow with peace and plenty at home we were then feared not derided by all forein Kings and Princes Religion not Faction then reigned in our hearts and our industry was then to preserve not to destroy Gods Sanctuary But now since the hand hath said to the eye I have no need of thee and the feet to the head I have no need of you the whole body of our Kingdom hath groaned and every Member therof as with a Consumption is wasted and grieved The Crown is fallen from our head and we are become a reproach and hissing amongst all Nations Oh therfore to redeem our credit and long lost happiness Let us all unanimously agree to be loyal Subjects to Charls our King and let all his loyal Subjects pray for and earnestly desire his safe arrival into our England that we may once more eat the Manna of our old Laws and Religion with the sweetnesse wherof we surfeited in the reign of Charls the Martyr Then shall we beat our Swords into plow-shares and our Spears into pruning hookes faction shall not rise up against faction neither shall we learn war any more For if we be willing and obedient we shall eat the good of the Land Isa 1 19. Hor. Concines laetosque dies urbis Publicum ludum super impetrato Fortis Augusti reditu forumque litibus orbum Tum meae si quid loquor audiendum Vocis accedet bona pars O Sol Pulcher O laudande canam recepto Cáesare falix Tuque dum procedis Io triumphe Non semel dicemus Io triumphe Civitas omnis dabimusque divis Thura benâ—s Then shall we sing the publick plays For his return and holy days For our Prayers heard and Law 's restor'd From Rebels Sword Then I if I may then be heard Happy in my regained Lord Will joyn ' i th' close and O! I le say O Sun-shine day The City leading wee 'l all sing Io triumph and agin Io triumph at each turning Incense burning Thus when we have received our gracious Soveraign from his long unnatural banishment what then can the Lord do more for us that he hath not done Wherefore when he looketh that we should bring forth good grapes let us take heed that we do not bring forth wild grapes let us fear God and honour the King and meddle not with them that are given to change as God hath commanded us for if we refuse and rebel we shall be devoured with the Sword for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it and so our last rebellion will be worse for us then the first General Monk hath amply repaired his honour which he lost by pulling down the City Gates and Perculisses and
with all Religions but be sure to lead the Van in the most prevalent it matters not whether it be true or false let them look to that who intend to obtain eternal advantages of it we look no further than to enjoy the temporal A Bird in the hand is worth two in the bush It is the greatest obstacle to generous actions not to personate that Religion which will serve ones purpose best be it Canonical or Apocrypha and doubtless that Religion which brings the greatest profit and largest incomes is the most sacred and most consonant to Scripture But why should I blur my paper with the Description of this deceitfull Parliament the Theory whereof is become practical almost in every City Let us therefore lament at the funeral of our Laws and Religion and throw one sprig of rosemary into the grave where all our Rights Libertyes are buried That Son giveth cause of suspition of his Legitimation who will not mourn at his Mothers death And surely he was never a true born Son of the Church or Law that will not shed a tear when they are both fell to ruin Some though very few good Eleazors amongst us have lost their heads and lives for our Laws and Religion And although I am not worthy to dye a Martyr for them Haud equidem tali me dignor honore Yet whilst I live it living tears shall fall from mine eyes for them For Qâ—is talia fan do Mrmidonum Dolopumve aut duri miles Vlyssis Temperet a lacrymis Who what Puritan Independent Anabaptist Presbyterian Quaker c. Or Red-coat as bad though not worse than any of them can restrain his Adamantine heart from grief and his eyes from tears when he considers the deplorable conditions which they have brought upon our Kingdom Who as it now plainly appeareth had no other quarrel against King than because they were not Kings themselves nor no other reason against Episcopacy than because each of them was not a Bishop They could never yet produce any argument sufficient unless the sword to prove that King or Bishop was not Jure Divino And now behold what the sword hath brought them unto I remember Cadmus sowed the teeth of a Serpent which sprung up armed men who presently destroyed one the other I will not determine that the seed of these men came from a Serpent but sure I am they cannot deny themselves but that they destroy each the other like Cadmus his men They kick the Government of our Kingdom about from one to the other like a foot ball And it will be marvail if some of them do not break their shins a swell as their consciences before the game is ended They make the Government Proteus-like to turn into what shape they please a true Common-wealth indeed being common to so many Rivalls And as the unruly Quadrupedes whirried about the Chariot Phoebus their lawfull Soveraign being absent untill they had set the whole world on fire so it is to be doubted that these headstrong Bears having cast away the rains of true obedience will not leave to wurry us untill they have brought us to utter ruine O England England Hei mihi qualis erat quantum mutatus ab illo How is thy fame besmeared and thy honour laid in the dust Once the envy of the whole world for the glory of thy Laws and Religion now become a by-word and a laughing-stock to all Nations Venit summa dies ineluctabile tempus The Sentence is already past and the decree is gone forth and nothing can avert the wrath of an angry Deity Tantaene animis caelestibus irae Can the Almighty be so passionate We want a Moses and we want an Aaron to intercede and make an attonement for us We want a Jonah to preach repentance And we want the hearts of Nineveh to entertain it We have done worse than to touch the Lords annointed and have killed his Prophets all the day long We have not reverenced his Sanctuary But have made it a den of Theeves and Stable for Beasts not altogether so bad as our selves O God why hast thou cast us off for ever why doth thine anger smoak against the Sheep of thy pasture O deliver not the soul of thy Turtle Dove unto the multitude of the wicked Forget not the Congregation of thy poor for ever Fuimus Trâ—es fuit Ilium ingens Gloria Toucrorum Remember thy old mercy and remember our former estate For though now like People like Priest The Prophets lye and the People would have it so Yet like Bethlehem we have not heretofore been the least amongst the Princes of the World We have had those who have thought it Melius tondere qaam deglubere oves better to trimm us than to flea us and Melius servare unum quam occidere mille better to preserve one than kill a thousand Who have been Tardus ad vindictam ad benevolentiam velox slow to do evill and revenge but swift to do good and reconcile Loving Pax bello potior peace better than war and esteeming it Pro patria mori pulchrum honourable to dye for their Country Which they have done and all Law Religion Justice and Equity with them Cum uno paricidio junxerunt juris divini naturalis juris gentium omnium legum publicarum privatarumque eversionem reipublicae perturbationem libertatis populi oppressionem Senatus abolitionem nobilitatis exterminationem innocentium damnationem peculatum aerarii publici direptionem solennis conventionis infractionem perfidiam jurisjurandi violationem statuum omnium confusionem immo subversionem Tempora mutantur nos mutamur in illis Sal. Therefore let no man be offended if I attend the funeral and say something on the behalf of the deceased It is a Christian duty and none will account it superstition to give an Encomium at burialls where it is due unless those who account it superstition to deserve well themselves De mortuis nil nisi bonum We must say nothing but good of the dead Therefore behold the Monument in these insuing political Aphorisms The Monument of the Laws or Regal and Political Aphorisms whereby the Prerogative of the King and the just liberties of the People are set forth and authorized by the Law of God and the Law of the Land KIngs are Jure Divino by Divine right to be obeyed and not by violent force of subjects to be resisted although they act wickedly Prov. 8.15 By me Kings raign Dan. 2.21 He removeth Kings and setteth up Kings Prov. 16.10 A Divine Sentence is in the lips of the King Prov. 21.1 The Kings heart is in the hand of the Lord. Job 34.18 Is it fit to say to a King thou art wicked and to Princes ye are ungodly Prov. 24.21 Fear thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change Eccl. 8.2 I counsel thee to keep the Kings Commandment Exod. 22.28 Thou shalt not speak evil of thy Prince
that had been too little thou wouldest moreover have given unto me such and such things Against thee who hast made me Judge over all and loaded me with so many prerogatives above my brethren have I sinned and for the Judge to offend makes the offence so much the more grievous The people did not call David in question for his wicked acts but only God Deus suam omnem in reges authoritatem contulit caelum sibi retinuit terram agendam ferendamque pro libito tradidit All the whole Heavens are the Lords the Earth hath he given to Kings to dispose of as they please Therefore saith Solomon Prov. 30.31 A King is he against whom there is no rising up And therefore Job might well ask that question 34.18 Is it fit to say to a King thou art wicked and to Princes ye are ungodly For presumptuous are they and self-willed who are not afraid to speak evil of dignities 2 Pet. 10. Render to Caesar the things that are Caesars Mark 12.17 Render therefore to all their dues Tribute to whom Tribute is due Custome to whom Custome Fear to whom Fear Honour to whom Honour For Rulers are not a Terrour to good works but to the evil wilt thou then not be afraid of the power Do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same For he is the Minister of God to thee for good But if thou do that which is evil be afraid for he beareth not the sword in vain for he is the Minister of God a Revenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evil Wherefore ye must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for Conscience sake For for this cause pay you Tribute also For they are Gods Ministers attending continually upon this very thing Rom. 13. Submit your self to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as Supreme or unto Governours as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers and for the praise of them that do well for so is the will of God that with well-doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men As free and not using your liberty for a Cloak of maliciousness but as the servant of God Honour all men love the brother-hood Fear God honour the King We are commanded to obey the King whether he be good or evil Propter Deum for the Lords sake Not only because it is the will of the King but because it is the will of God that we should do so he hath commanded it and therefore for his sake we must do it If we resist the King we resist God and he that resisteth God shall receive damnation For when we pretend that we are free born Subjects that the Kings commands intrench upon our liberty and that for the freedom of our liberties we may rebel against him This is to make Liberty a Cloak to cover our maliciousness and wicked designs against the King Which is forbidden by the Apostle for not to serve the King is bondage and to rise up against him to preserve and keep our liberties is to enslave our selves to the Devil and to make us his servants to perform all wicked actions For we must needs be Subject to the Kings precepts not only for wrath but also for Conscience sake Et si plures sunt quos corrigit timor tamen meliores sunt quos ducit amor Although they be most whom fear makes obedient Yet they are best who out of true love obey their Soveraign We must not obey the King only that we may avoid giving of him offence and so not incurr punishment But it is a duty laid upon our Consciences so to do and if we love God we must love as faithful Servants to be obedient unto the King not as eye servants who only do their duty when their Master looketh over them But all our actions either publick or private must savour of obedience to him For he is our Master and we are his Servants and the Servant is not greater than his Master but ought alwayes to be diligent in his Masters service And although the King do recompense good with evil and punish them who like faithful Servants have not deserved it Yet they being good even in their sufferings shall receive praise from the power as did our Saviour and the Apostles when they were most wickedly murthered For do we not until this day praise and honour their Martyrdom Although the power which destroyed them did not give them praise yet by their obedience and patience in their unjust punishments did they receive a Crown of everlasting glory and renown from God and men Who can sufficiently celebrate the fame of those worthy Martyrs who unjustly suffered for Religion under the Government of Queen Mary Have not they by their unjust punishments received greater rewards of praise than if they had unjustly rebelled Surely yea for if they had rebelled although it was to save their Religion their Epitaphs would have been Rebels and Traytors instead of pious and Godly Martyrs The wicked only are afraid of the Kings power and punishments to whom he is a Terrour But a conscience voyd of offence towards God and towards man maketh the courage of the righteous like Lyons to contemn all earthly misery Hic Murus aheneus esto Nil conscire sibi nulla pallescere culpa Be this a wall of Brass to have within No black accuser barbour no pale sin Non est fas Christianis armis ac vi tueri se adversus impetum persecutorum saith Cyprian Epist 1. It is not lawfull for Christians by violence to defend themselves against Persecutors Therefore surely they ought not to murther their King and again Cyprian Epist 56. Incumbamus gemitibus assiduis deprecationibus crebris haec enim sunt munimenta spiritualia tela divina quae protegunt Let us apply our selves to daily sighes and continual prayers for these are the spiritual bulwarks and divine weapons with which Christians should only fight These not guns and swords will only defend us Ambrosius adversus reginae Justinae Arianae furorem non se manu defensabat aut telo sed jejuniis continuatisque vigiliis sub altari positus Ruffinus li. 2. c. 6. Ambrose did not defend himself against the fury of the Queen by the force of the hand and of the sword but by fastings continual watchings and prayers And shall we offend our gracious Soveraign with clubbs and axes Who by his sufferings shewed us the example of a true Christian whiles we like Jews triumph in his murther crying out crucify him crucify him Tertulian Apolog. c. 37. saith expresly that the Christians might for strength and number have defended themselves against their Persecutors but thought it unlawful Yet we because by our wicked plots and devices we have got a numberless company of those who like our selves will do any thing for gain think it a sin if we do not