have here in some sort fulfilled in the History But I must be sparing in the point for feare of censure Nor needs in truth a gemme so resplendent and eminently apparent of it selfe much labour in the setting of It is no more then whatinteffect I have observed to drop from the pen of one of their own party Omni exceptione major grants he A Prince in his own naturalls or proper constitution beyond all exception Only thus much then by way of Aphorisme O Fortunati nimium bona si sua Thrice happy we of this nation if we rightly knew how to value herein and esteem our own happinesse which on the by might well give check to many of our seditious pamphleters others in their crude indigested pasquils who notwithstaÌ„ding the scripture its so frequent Caveats in this kinde against despising dominions speaking evill of dignities nay but ill thinking of them they as it were carried aloft in the strength of their unmannerly brain-sick zeale make at the highest and as the Iewes once dealt by our Saviour Christ forbeare not to spit in the face of Majestie it selfe Vpon such as these hath the Apostle St Iude pronounced that heavie doome which I could wish they did seriously consider of allotting them as a just reward of their ill demeanours the blacknesse of darknesse for ever Iud. 13. Fourthly I wish it may be considered how that He is a peacefull King Peace doubtlesse is a great blessing to a Kingdome and so is a peacefull King O pray for the peace of Ierusalem saith holy David and St Paul follow peace Heb. 12. ver. 13. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the word implying thus much that men should pursue and hasten after it like as they doe for the prize in some race or game of contention {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in some such sense ofttimes in Homer Now hath not the King been thus zealous for the peace of our Ierusalem Hath not he likewise though in vaine thus pursued and hasted after it Witnesse the manie overtures or rather entreaties for peace made by him And all this really unfainedly not dissemblingly or under a vizard as those of Davids enemies whoÌ„ therefore he deservedly complained of that whilst they spake of peace they had war in their hearts Ps. 110 7. Had others been as forward as he to imbrace termes of peace to tread in that viâ lacteâ wee had ere this my conscience gives me all closed in a peacefull end yet no mervaile in it for a peacefull sonne to proceed out of the loynes of a peacefull father His Motto was Pacificus neither doth our Soveraigne I confidently beleeve it desire rather to have his browes encircled about with the lawrell of victory then of peace and concord with his people The fifth consideration shall be whether these armes so taken up be Offensive or Defensive Defensive say they and will not be perswaded to the contrary There is the maine {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} of the businesse with them a speciall point indeed let us a litle examine it Civilians teach us that a Defensive resistance is when as the Defendant is no way the cause or occasion of the conflict by some kinde of former provocation and then afterwards in the very Act he doth but propulsare injuriam stands meerly upon his guard as t were ayming rather at his own safetie then the others ruine In a word neither provokes nor pursues his enemie This is the nature of a true defensive resistance Otherwise suppose I kill a man to say I did it in mine owne defence having yet provoked pursued and then assaulted him would prove I feare me but a slender kinde of plea even at the barre of Common justice The case comes neerly home to our purpose for be it examined on Gods name with an impartiall judgement and let not Actions so apparently done in the face and eye of the world be either grossely denied or cunningly shifted off Who first ministred the occasion of this unnaturall war by tumults and seditious riots in the open streets Next who first drew sword gave the onset as it were thus putting fire to the fuell now prepared and laid together Who lastly hath ever since most hotly Pursued and followed the businesse at first so unfortunately begun The King all this while almost sueing and intreating for peace if so peace might have been obtained upon faire and honourable termes consistent with Majestie what town or sort at the beginning did or at least needed to have feared his entrance Nay what Towne or fort may yet justly feare it if as they have unwarrantably taken up armes so in acknowledgment of their error they shall submit peaceably lay theÌ„ down Civilia bella Vna acies patitur gerit Altera All the offensivenesse I can descry in the King as touching the whole matter is that being at length enforced thereto he would not suffer himselfe and his good subjects to be overborne with a tempest and not make head against it If this be it he is censured for it calls to minde that story of him who having first smitten his neighbour with his fist afterwards sueth him because his head was hard and hurt his hand Passion say Philosophers in any subject is not without some manner of Reaction joyned to it nor can we defend our selves but it is most likely we shall in some sort or other offend the assaylant But the nature as I said of a simply Defensive resistance is to be tried at the test of the premised circumstances Sixthly and lastly it will be worth our consideration to examine upon what Grounds these armes be lifted up â—t is an axiome in state policie and ever hath been that better to connive at and suffer some inconveniences in a Church or Common-wealth then to expose either to the manifold dangers of Alteration And one of their own outlandish Doctors in a Tract of his upon the like argument though pleading for Resistance yet layes it downe for a principle or sure Maxime without all peradventure I must confesse mine owne ignorance as not having Lynceus his eyes about mee and therefore desire to be informed by others whereupon this so urgent necessitie of a civill war may be thought to have been grounded otherwise I shall easily be induced to beleeve that with him in the history they doe but pursue their owne Shadowes or shoot at a mark which themselves through the errour of their weake fancies have set up Is it for matter of Religion as it was maintained in the best and purest times of a Reformation The King hath promised it himselfe doth practise it and I heartily wish the best of his ill-affected subjects were but herein followers of his good Example Is it for the Libertie and freedome of our persons The King hath likewise passed his word upon it Is it for a Property in our goods and estates to be enjoyed by us
according to the established wholsome lawes of the kingdome I must returne the same answer For what then Davus sum non Oedipuâ— I desire that some good men or other would be pleased to help me out where there occurres not danger of our Religion nor of our Liberties nor yet of our Estates to be invaded or trenched upon as neither can the Master Architects of these miserable distractions I suppose though having artificially perswaded others fully perswade themselves there is there to take up hostile armes you may if you please stile it a just Resistance but what terme it deserves of right let the world judge Besides then the groundles surmises feares jealousies of certaine Melancholy overworking heads as may be well imagined since Prona est timori semper in pejus fides And those too many of them it is to be thought like false fires raised of purpose by the industry of cunning projectors only to amuze the simpler people no other ground or reason can I finde of these publique commotions unlesse what remaineth it may be the distemper'd and perverse ambition of some particular person I burthen none with this heavie charge But so it is in the generall that men of discontented humours or otherwise ambitiously disposed had at all times rather hazard the common peace and safetie of the whole then fayle of their proposed private designes Publicis incendiis patriae clarescere as he speaks hath alwaies been more for encouragement then a stop to the proceedings of such kinde of spirits chiefly wheÌ„need a decayednes of fortune help to sharpen and whet on this froward ambitious humour of theirs And as there so likewise is it where men have casually embarqued themselves further into great affaires then that they are able with safety to come off There they stagger and faulter up and downe as much uncertain what course to take yet still make onwards and rather then perish alone desperately put all into a generall confusion with Sampson taking his last Revenge against the Philistines they pull down the house though necessarily it fall upon their own heads causing thus the guiltlesse ruine of a whole Nation oftimes to wait upon the Herse of their deserved overthrow Notwithstanding all this the King say they for certaine hath formerly tranâ—gressed in the premises by declining from the manifest and knowne Rules of the Law I will not here argue the just Prerogative of Kings what they may happily challenge to themselves either praeter or sup 〈…〉 a besides or above the law This would be censured streight such is the malitious wit of jealousie as a plea made for the establishment of an Arbitrary Goverment yet so Machiavell may teach or his associates perchance but not I Thus much only then I shall say in this matter What ere priviledges the Prince is possessed of whether derived unto him by custome or as grounded upon the law it self favore amplianda sunt is an authentique saying borrowed from Canonists They ought of right rather to bee improved then any way diminished by us without any curb or bouÌ„ds at all imposed froÌ„ law to regulate them by did Kings we find anciently and in those heroick purer times of the world thence rightly termed {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} with the like governe the people subjected to them But and this farther There can be no state so exactly framed composed according to the rule of law but that it will require some kinde of a moderating dispensative power left in the hands of the supreame Magistrate Since the law is generall nor can it therefore possibly extend to a through determination of all particulars And in such a case I had rather if I needs must be under the power governance of one then of many Easier was it for Athens to suffer the Arbitrarie dominion of one Tyrant then as they did a while of Thirty and for Rome upon emergent occasions the Dictatorship or absolute government of a single Magistrate then that of the Decemviri It is confest that where the way is plaine and open no obstructions or difficulties to hinder there for the Magistratet o walk {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as the Philosopher prescribeth is the safest course But this cannot alwaies be I presume in the best Commonwealth though never so well ordered by the square and advice of the wisest Lawgiver And now for their objection more particularly Grant the King hath heretofore somewhat swerved from the knowne Dictates of the law yet not to that height neither will themselves say as either of Tyrannie or grosse Idolatry howbeit the onely just causes of Resistance doubtlesse were there any just what finde we not David and Solomon the best and wisest of Kings to have digressed oftimes into sundry by-paths of sin and errour from the law of God even to the highest pitch Take in Ahab Manasses with others of the worser sort nor yet questioned thereupon by their subjects streight for their fowle and truly insufferable misdemeanours in point of Regall government yet were they as strictly bound by solemne covenant both towards God and Man entred into at their severall inaugurations to a performance of certaine conditions as Kings at present be nor doe we generally finde Gods Priests and Prophets then the ordinary sole interpreters of his hidden pleasure upon any termes what ere freeing the people in the least degree from that indissoluble tye of their duty and subjection to their lawfull Soveraigne unlesse occasionally by virtue of some particular Expresse or other from the very mouth of the Almightie as it happened in Jehues case rising up against Ioram 2. Kings 9. or in that of Jeroboam doing the like by his Liege Lord 1. Kings 11. which with the like extraordinary and immediate commands from God unusuall for these times our Enthusiastis theÌ„selves will not I hope in modesty offer to pretend to in their present undertakings And say must Princes then be brought upon the stage and subjected to the danger of being Resisted by the people upon a supposall of every slip or petty errour committed by them Princes they may be pleased to know as they are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or Patres familiarum as was said before so have they a large family to governe and supervise Adde hereto the many intricate and perplext mysteries those Arcana imperii which they have to deale with in the management of the Sate so as they see not alwaies what they doe neither can they but by other mens eyes nor heare they but by the eares of others but are forced to use the subservient help and assistance of their Ministers Can they shew me wherein the King hath knowingly and willingly broken in upon the received lawes of the Land and that without a full perswasion of what he did to be just and warrantable Hic nodus vindice dignus for as so I am confident hee may safely proclaime it aloud with old
a coordination hereof the three estates as some have wisely done making the King one of them who yet indeed is none but properly and truly will the learned in Law soone tell us head of those three viz. the Lords spirituall temporell and Commons of this land according to the ancient usage and contrivance heretofore of Parliaments But grant it were as they would have it to talke I say of a coordination of the 3 estates in this case were in effect besides other absurdities following thereupon if the result be throughly lookt into to constitute a supreame without inferiours a King for the time not having Subjects the people all of them as it must needes follow being implicitly involved under the other two How much better would a soft complyable motion do betwixt the three and forward the dispatch of businesses most effectually It should be like that motion in the Prophet Ezekiels vision rota in rota or as of the sphaeres above which move one within another That crosse contrariant motion of the neather sphaeres to the first moveable we know how it begets a slownesse or tardity in them of their proper and naturall procession and we see by wofull experience what a stop if not a retrograde declination of civill affaires the clashing or banding of one power against the other hath wrought of late in this miserably distracted Common-wealth But falling downe as I was about to a lower pin let us next consider the people in a disgregative sence or notion those who hitherto upon all occasions have so firmely every where whether voluntarily or invited to it I meddle not adhaered as a strong support to the higher powers I meane not here to enter the lists of a particular comparison by poysing man with man person with person on either side but as we may find divers of good note be it confessed on that part so are there many more let me say it on this If Saul hath slaine his thousands David can boast of his ten thousands The muster rolle if lookt over would better determine this Quaere then I can well may they confide and rest themselves upon the affections of the vulgar sort who besides their naturall pronenesse towards Innovations ever as most an end they understand but little so are they easiliest seduced and engaged in preposterous undertakeings But for those of better ranke such as be either knowing or otherwise of more considerable qualitie here they must needs acknowledge themselves to be upon termes of disadvantage Some hereupon I have heard to terme this warre with reference to the opposite side as that of old Bellum Rusticum the Helioâ—s or the Pesants warre And questionlesse it is some encouragement when as it chanceth thus we excel not only in the goodnesse of the cause but likewise in the worthinesse of the abettors But passing by what ere other sorts of Men in their severall ranks and stations as they might be summoned up let us in our passage touch at the Divine Can they shew mee any of their chiefe Scribes or Teachers take him forth of the highest classis with them that may be thought in point of sound and deep knowledge an equall March for divers but of the second or third here Yet is Resistance the center namely whereunto this whole discourse doth bend it selfe not meerly a point of State-policie but of Conscience also even in the highest degree and being so who so fit to direct the conscience as is the Divine and of Divines the learnedst the best able Next take but into consideration the zeale or rather the fury of many of their chiefe Ministers or Agents in these affaires Religion is pretended but certainly Malice acts the businesse or if it be zeale it is a zeale I feare set on fire by a coale from beneath Those who have felt their scourge can best judge of it and had rather I beleeve fall into the hands if they needs must of some unbeleeving Ismaelite then of a too too beleeving Zelot No spleene or bitternesse of spirit like that of your hot Professour none more cruell because he persecutes wrongs his neighbour yet thinks he does God good servicein doing so Paul was not more Paul afterwards in the waies of truth sinceritie then he was Saul before a fierce eager persecuter of the Church Such was the bitter rage or fury of the Circumcelliones or preciser sort of Donatists heretofore against their dissenting yet orthodoxe brethren of the African Church as sundry of the Fathers make mention not without their deserved censures thereupon Although they be not all Saints neither I conceive who appeare on that behalfe Many there are doubtlesse who doe but Denis in diem assibus vitam aestimare as the saying is fight for pay and no more And some I understand that are not of the Protestant Religion object they back what they please branding their Adversaries with the opprobrious Nick-name of Popish Armie and yet were it so neverthelesse true native subjects they must needs confesse them enough to justifie both the tender and acceptance of their bounden service in a time of exigency nor for it therefore more then others Fourthly observe their manner of proceeding in furtherance of the publique cause what by forging by falsifying then imposing their falshoods upon the world The presse with them of late hath been so inured to this Cretian Dialect that there is question when or whether happily it may hereafter recover its ancient guise of speaking truth Newes of Plots and dangerous Conspiracies one while those too most an end strained to a very ridiculous height of Panick affrightments which yet as hitherto God be thanked neither wee nor they have felt nor had at first it may be much cause to feare Newes of some Notable victorie or other atchieved every day yet as it hath proved afterwards got ofttimes if not by Treachery then in a dreame without a battle Lying wonders I have often read of but not of Lying Victories till now Newes of Popery and Popish Ceremonies begun of late to be set up and countenanced in severall places A fiction in truth well befitting the Popish Legend and thither I commend it what may wee thinke of these men with their Mountebansk-like devices who under a masque of pretended zeale thus shamefully trade in falshoods all to cheere up their poore deluded followers and keepe them still in heart but that even their profession it selfe is but a kinde of lye or grand imposture Nor can they therefore if they marke it well so safely taxe their adversaries as they doe with those haynous crimes of swearing prophanesse since Lying Swearing are sinnes surely neere allyed and yet lying too it may seem carries a more immediate relation to Satan the author of all sinne who for this is expressely entitled the Father of lyes Io. 15. 44. Vnto this moreover note in the fifth place their bitter Raylings and invectives usually against Church and State