vero Regi prout ipsa feret facti ratio satisfacito aut graves sceleris admissi poenas rex ipse repetito Christiana siquidem fide imbuti regis est Deo illatas graviter pro facti ratione ulcisci injurias If any one entred into Holy Orders or one living with him be imposed upon or cheated in those things which belong to his estate or life then let the King himself unless he can procure it otherwise be to him in place of Patron and Kindred but the Cheator shall make the King satisfaction according to the valure of the fact or the King himself shall take great punishment of the wickedness committed for it is the part of a King endued with Christian religion severely to punish injuries according to the quality of the deed offered to God 10. For the proving of this Sir Edward Coke in the Proeme to the The antient Common-law did not admit of Appeals to Rome in cases Spiritual sixth Part of his Reports cites an Act of Parliament made 10 H. 2. an 1164. where it was enacted As concerning Appellations if any shall arise from the Archdeacon they must proceed to the Bishop from the Bishop to the Archbishop and if the Archbishop do fail in doing Justice it must lastly come to the King that by his precept the controversie may be ended in the Archbishops Court so that there ought not to be any proceeding further without the assent of the King And that this among many other might not taste of innovation the Record saith This recognition or record was made of a certain part of the customs and liberties of the Predecessors of the King to wit of Henry his Grandfather and of other Kings which ought to be observed in the Kingdom and held of all for the dissentions and discords often arising between the Clergy and our Soveraign Lord the Kings Justicers and the Peers of the Realm And all the Archbishops Bishops Abbots Priors Clergy with the Earls Barons and all the Nobles c. have sworne and assuredly promised in the word of mouth in one consent to keep and observe the said recognition toward the King and his heirs in good sooth without evil meaning for ever 11. The Revenue of Danegelt was first enacted because of Pyrates The Kings before the Conquest by their own authority did impose Taxes upon Church-lands For infesting the Country they did persist as much as they could to the devastation of it And to repress their insolence the yearly return of Danegelt was enacted viz. Twelve pence for every Hide of all the Country Mr. Selden in lib. 2. cap. 4. Analecton Anglobritannicon fol. 77. makes a Hide of land to be as much as could be tilled by one plough in a year Mr. Lambert in the Laws of King Edward fol. 128. makes a Hide to be one hundred acres of land to maintain them who should resist the irruption of the Pyrates when they met them But from the Danegelt every Church should be free and quiet and all land which was in the dominion of the Church wheresoever it lay paying nothing at all in such redemption for men did more confide in the prayers of the Church then in the defence of arms But if Lex vult non supervacaneum then is it clear that the Church-lands were liable to be taxed by the King for it had been a supervacaneous thing to have excepted the lands of the Church in this Law if the lands of the Church had not been liable to have been taxed at all And to manifest more clearly that the exemption of Church-land from Taxes was a meer concession of our Kings take the Stat. of Ethelulph the successor of Egbert written Analect Angl. lib. 2. cap. 4. pag. 77. with his own hand Our Lord reigning for ever Whilst that we see perillous times in our days the fire of war the taking away of our goods together with the cruel depredations of our destroying enemies and barbarous Pagan nations do lie upon us the multiplied tribulations do afflict us even to utter destruction Wherefore I Ethelulph King of the West-Saxons with the councel of the Bishops and my Princes giving wholsom councel and the only remedy have consented I have determined that every portion given to the holy Church whether of either Sex serving God or to miserable Lay-men always the tenth Mansion where it is least or the tenth part of all Goods be made for ever free that it be safe and defended from all secular services yea from the Kings greater or lesser tributes or the taxations which we call Winterden and that it be free of all things for the forgiveness of our souls and sins to serve God alone without Expedition building of Bridge and fortifying of Castle 12. If King Ethelbert were obliged to S. Gregory for the Conversion At what time the Pope first usurped jurisdiction over the Crown of England of the English Saxons to the Faith Prince Edgar Athelin was smally beholding to Pope Alexander 2. For Edgar being Grandson to Edmund Ironside and the undoubted Heir to the English Monarchy after the death of Edward the Confessor Alexander not only allows the Conquerors pretensions to the Crown of England but interdicts all those who should Speed fol. 405. par 27. See the effects of the Popes curse Speed fol. 415. par 2. oppose him So that though Harold were an Usurper yet was his Holiness his Interdiction as much against the undoubted Title of Edgar as against Harold Nor were all titles of rights and interests of the English Monarchy ever perfect and compleat from that time until they were all united and perfected in King James 13. How far the Britanick Churches were from any dependence upon At what time the first contest hapned between the King Pope about the investiture of Bishops the Church of Rome we have already shewed And so free were the Churches of England under the Saxon Kings before the Conquest that before the Appeal of Anselm Archbishop of Canterbury to Pope Paschal 2. scarce any Appeal was ever made to Rome but that of Wilfreds which was overruled by the King and Church So that for near a thousand years after the Conversion of the Britains and Saxons to the Faith although by means of S. Eleutherius and Gregory the Great we do not find any thing which may prove the superiority of the Roman Church over either the Britanick or English And how strange a thing the investiture of the English Bishops by the Pope was to the King and Kingdom of England appears by the Letter of Paschal to Anselm in answer to Anselm's Significasti Reges De Elect. Pet. cap. 4. Regni Majores admiratione promotos c. You have signified to me that Kings and Nobles were moved with admiration that the Pall was offered to you by our Ministers upon condition that you should take an Oath which they brought you written from us And the King not only opposed
excommunicated or damned who differ in some things from the doctrine of the Pope who appeal from his decrees and hinder the execution of the ordinances of him or his Legates Although the Sesession of the Church King and Kingdom of England The reformation of King 1 d. was not Schismatical from the Papacy were an Act of Schism yet being done in the Reign of H. 8. one of the greatest favorers of the Papacy that ever was King of England and to his death as great an assertor of the Rites Ceremonies and Religion of it and in such a state independent from the Church of Rome was the Church and Kingdom at the time of Edwards Reformation whatsoever therefore his Reformation was yet could it not be Schismatical Whatever the Romanists pretend to unity and peace in their Church yet The rites and ceremonies of Edwards reformation were more uniform then before it is most manifest that in the Realm of England and Dominion of Wales in several places were used divers forms of Prayer commonly called the Service of the Church viz. that of Sarum of York of Bangor and Lincoln but also of late divers and sundry forms and fashions were used in the Cathedral and Parishes Church of England and Wales as well concerning the mattens or morning prayer and evening song as also concerning the holy Communion commonly called the Mass with divers and sundry rites and ceremonies concerning the same and in the administration of other Sacraments of See preamble to the Statute of 2 3. Ed. 6. Cap. 1. That the Scriptures Lords Prayer and Creed should be read in the English tongue is no new thing in England the Church whereas the service enjoyned in the Reign of Ed. 6 was uniform in all places of England and Wales as well in Parish Churches as Cathedrals In the Reign of King Ethelbald in the year of our Saviors incarnation 748. in a convocation held in the Prouince of Canterbury Cuthbert the Archbishop of his Clergy did Enact that the sacred Scriptures should be read in their monasteries the Lords Prayer and Creed taught in the English tongue Speed in the Reign of Ethelbald para 4. page 343. and how much it was against the Word of God and the custom of the ancient Church to use a tongue unknown to the people in common prayer and administration of Sacraments see the conference at Westminster an primo Eliz. which were never yet answered that I know of If any thing Heretical had been contained in the common Prayer administration Edwards reformation was not Heretical of Sacraments c. made in the Reign of Ed. 6. it would have been sufficiently shot at having so many adversaries at home and abroad but no such crime was ever that I ever heard of imputed to it if there be let the adversaries of it yet shew it affirmanti incumbit probatio If then not onely the Kings and supreme powers always under the old Covenant King Edwards Reformation was warrant-able materially and formally had this right of invoking the high Priest and other Priests and if God always punished the Kings of Judah and Israel for suffering the people to commit Idolatry and if God himself so often commends the zeal and reformation of Jehoshaphat Hezekiah Asa Josiah c. and if ever since Christianity the Bishops by that Divine Canon to Timothy have always had in 1 Tim. cap 2. their particular Churches right of composing publick Liturgies and in national Synods a right of composing publick and national Liturgies And the Liturgy of Edward being composed and received by the Bishops of the Church of England to that end convened and assembly by the King this Liturgy being neither schismattical nor containing any thing heretical is both for matter and form warrantable Object If the Sacriledge and extention of the civil Jurisdiction in giving the civil Magistrate licence to take cognizance of the publique Liturgy and administration of the Sacraments be objected The answer is easie Let the Courtiers and Parliament answer for it the Church was patient not agent in them The Church of Rome having robbed the poor laity of one half of the institution of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and kept the people in such The King and Church had great reason to make Reformation in Religion stupid ignorance that in the publick worship and service of God they should neither use their reason nor understanding by imposing it upon them in an unknown tongue as if in the publick worship and service of God he were not to be served by intellectual and rational creatures and had filled the Mass with more prayers to the Virgin Mary and Saints which could no ways relieve them and so at best super fluous and vain there was great reason in the King and Church to a make a reformation of the Religion and publick Worship and Service of God Of Queen Maries Ecclesiastical Laws Although King Ed. were a Prince of transcendent Vertue and Learning far above his years yet doubtless his youth was not onely much abused in his Reign where a man might have seen all the woes pronounced by God upon that Nation where the King is a childe or where a company of men in Parliament arrogate to themselves the Politick capacity of a King abstracted from his person but also at his very death caused not without suspicion of poyson was he deluded upon specious pretences by his whole Councel but principally by the Duke of Northumberland to make way for the Lady Jane Gray in the time of his sickness married to his fourth son Guilford Dudley to declare the said Lady Jane the rightful heir and successor to the English Monarchy to the manifest wrong and injury not onely of Queen Mary and Elizabeth afterward Queens of England but also of Mary Queen of Scots heir to Margaret the eldest daughter of Henry the seventh whereas the Lady Janes Title was descended from Mary the younger daughter of H. 7. yet it so pleased God that this unjust Will should onely bring destruction both to the Lady Jane and her husband whereas the Ladies Mary and Elizabeth and the Posterity of Mary Queen of Scots did all succeed and enjoy the possession of the English Diadem of which they were debarred by this Will of King Edward That the Title of Head of the Church was continued by Queen Mary appears by the Parliament begun and holden at Westminster the fifth of October in the first year of her Reign in the first and second session of it where she is stiled our Gracious Soveraign Lady Mary by the Grace of God Queen of England France and Ireland Defender of the Faith and in Earth Supreme Head of the Church of England and Ireland but in the second Parliament of her Reign being holden at Westminster the second of April the first year of her Reign the Title of Supreme Head of the Church of England and Ireland is not mentioned Declares
unto thee only the Lord thy God be with thee as he was with Moses Whosoever he be that does rebel against thy commandment and will not hearken unto thy words in all that thou commandest him he shall be put to death Jos 1. 16 17 18. 13. Anarchy is like a vacuum in Nature so abhorrent that the World The state of Man out of power is Tyranny will rather return into Chaos then suffer it And therefore Cicero lib. 3. de legibus says truly Sine imperio neque domus ulla nec civitas nec gens nec hominum universum genus stare nec ipse denique mundus potest 'T is no wonder therefore if seditious men when they have put themselves out of power are glad to submit to Tyranny rather then be overwhelmed with the Chaos and confusion of Anarchy Yet it is said Judg. 17. 6. 21. 25. In those days there was no King in Annot. Israel but every man did what was right in his own eyes So it may seem that men may subsist in an Anarchy It is true indeed there was no man that was King in those days in Israel nor was there then that absolute necessity of one for God had given them Property and did govern the Israelites and they did enquire judgment of God who did answer cap. 20. 18. And men did in those dayes commerce and exchange one with another which is evident by Micha's contracting with her Levite-Priest for ten shekels of silver by the year a suit of apparel and his victual ch 17. 10. 14. Princes do transgress their power when they command any Wherein Princes do transgress their power thing contrary to what God hath commanded or derogatory to the worship and service of God when they make unjust War when they pronounce Judgment not according to the declared and known Laws but punish either by passion or to please factious men as in the Earl of Straffords Case or pass sentence against one unheard as in Cromwell Earl of Essex his Case I say not punish upon passion or to please men For as the state of Annot. affairs may be stated Princes may punish though not in a Judicial manner as when Subjects are in Arms against their Soveraign Nor do I think that any uninterested Casuist will deny that Henry the Third of France did justly put Henry Duke of Guise to death though not judicially the Duke having taken Arms against him and made him flie out of Paris fomented seditions against him and taken pensions of the King of Spain to maintain war in France and become so popular as the King had no means to proceed legally against him 15. * How careful Princes ought to be in commanding or making of Laws The perfection of Government consists first and chiefly that the Governor have a perfect and indubitable Title against which no just exception can be taken Secondly that the Governor makes it his chiefest care that the Religion or Worship and Service of God be duly administred And thirdly that he does endeavor by known and established Laws to administer Judgment and Justice indifferently to his Subjects with careful moderation of the severity of the Laws whereas men by no fault of theirs incur the severity of them And lastly by all just and due means to endeavor the preservation of his Subjects from the oppression and violence of Foreiners and to maintain Peace and Commerce with his neighboring Nations Such was our Government before our unhappy differences and such by Gods grace do I hope to see it again 16. It were a fine may-game to be a King if Kings might make their How careful Princes ought to be in commanding or making Laws Will the rule of their actions It is true indeed God hath not in all things commanded Kings what Laws they shall govern their Subjects by yet this natural law are all Princes obliged to that their Laws by which they govern do more relate to the good of their Subjects in general then their own particular interest And no question but a King commits a more grievous sin doing any unjust thing to any of his Subjects then if another had done it in regard of the relations which are between them as a Fathers doing an unjust thing to his Child is a greater sin then if another had done it by how much by the Law of Nature he ought to have done well to his Child rather then another Princes therefore by the Law of Nature in governing ought to have more respect to the general good of their Subjects then their own particular interest Yet is Magnificence a Royal virtue and therefore ought not the Revenues of the Crown to be parted with by which it should be maintained Nor would it conduce to the benefit of the Subjects in general to make the Revenues of the Crown poor Where Majesty grows contemptible the exercise of Regal power is never permanent Princes therefore ought to have a great care that by their vices prodigality of the Revenues of the Crown remiss governing or by so giving it over to others that they so much neglect it in themselves as to make themselves vile and contemptible 17. Though God hath not commanded Kings in all things what are Princes ought not to be obeyed when they command in derogation of Gods Majesty 1 Sam. 12. 14. vers 25. the Laws by which they shall govern and therefore divers Kings govern their Subjects by several Laws as their Subjects differ in nature and manners Yet hath he forbidden all Kings to make Laws derogatory to his Divine Majesty Samuel therefore threatens Saul as well as the Israelites that if he or they disobey God and do wickedly they shall perish both they and their King And it was to Saul that God said that Rebellion was as the sin of witchcraft and stubborness as the wickedness of idolatry Nor was the sin of the Israelites in committing idolatry under the Kings of Judah and Israel the less though the King commanded it Nor did God scarce 1 Sam. 15. 23. ever shew a greater miracle then in delivering the Three Children and Daniel disobeying the Kings wicked commandment Princes therefore ought not to be obeyed in commanding things derogatory to the Majesty of God 18. Nor ought Princes to be obeyed when they command any thing Or contrary to Religion contrary to Religion for The kingdom of Heaven and the righteousness thereof is first to be sought But the kingdom of Heaven is only to be sought by Faith and Religion Daniel therefore sinned not when he obeyed not Darius in praying to God Nor do all our Parliamentary Laws add any thing to the obligation of mens worship and service of God in the Unity and Form of the Church of England for men were as much obliged in Conscience before such Laws as after Not but that Kings ought to have as great or greater care of preserving unity and peace in Gods Church as in their
might not be aliened or made worse by the Possessor yet so that she left a gap open for herself and her Favorites to prey upon it which was after shut by King James and with great care secured by King Charls All this while grew up a Faction in Church and State which became the ruine of both For not only in the Church the Publique Liturgy Communion or Religion was vilified and defamed but the Governors reviled with all opprobrious names of Tyrannical Antichristian c. It is true the Majesty of the King was not so openly reviled yet was it insensibly daily undermined by them in which they were much assisted by a company of half-headed Lawyers who in all Assemblies distilled this doctrine into ignorant men That the Law was above the King and that they had Property against him in their estates and goods Whereby not only Citizens and Great places became generally inclined to this new doctrine of the Teachers and Lawyers but the Country-Gentleman thought himself independent from the King both in his life and estate the Yeoman cared not for the Gentleman and as little regarded the King so that the veneration of the Royal Name became every day more contemptible and despised all honor and reverence due to the King Church was converted unto these Patriots of their Countries Liberty and New Lights Nor could the Church relieve the Crown although the Governors were well-affected towards it being by all the Faction more hated than the King became despised until in the end the chief Governors both of Church and State not only became Victims to the rage and lust of seditious men but the Revenues of both a prey to their avarice And now what is left for this miserable Nation to expect having forfeited all Piety and Allegiance to Gods Church and his Anointed but after all this consumption of the Blood and Publique and Private Revenue of the Nation and having lost all Reputation and Commerce abroad for the future to be Turk-like governed by armed and hungry Soldiers without any probable hope of Redemption Object It may be it will be here objected That though poor and contemptible Princes be rarely long obeyed especially where their Subjects are opulent yet had the Church never so great veneration both for power and piety as when in the Primitive times it was poor whereas afterward when it became rich and mighty it did degenerate into many vices and heresies and lost much of estimation and piety which it had in its poverty Answ I grant that God did by his grace and power originally by a company of poor men and Fishermen against all the greatness of worldly power miraculously plant a Church and that those poor men sent by God were supernaturally inspired by his grace which not their poverty was the cause of their piety and sanctity and that they were so highly honored by primitive Christians yet sure when God hath supernaturally planted his Church it cannot be in reason expected he should preserve it always by miracle And sure those are very ungrateful men not to contribute ordinary means for the preservation of what God hath extraordinarily planted Nor is there any thing more vain then to imagine that men are better for being poor or that according to the ordinary course of things they will not be by men in general esteemed vile and contemptible who are so Nil habet infaelix paupertas durius in se Juveual Quâm quod ridiculos homines facit CHAP. VI. Of the Fathers power 1. UNumquodque resolvitur in id ex quo componitur Dust shall return to the Introduction earth as it was and the Spirit to God who gave it Eccle. 12. 7. It is not the good will and pleasure of the All-prepotent God that only the individuals of one age should see the greatness of his Majesty and power therefore he was pleased to create man as well as other Creatures in this inferior or be in a * If Adam had not been created in a Mortal State the Sacrament of the Tree of life had been a vain institution mortal state yet he endewed him generativa facultate that though he does dye in his person yet he should live in his posterity and as one generation passeth away so another commeth but the earth abideth for ever Eccle. 1. 4. 2. There is nothing more evident then that in perfect Creatures of The power of Parents alike over their Children which man is the most perfect that God is the prime and efficient cause or God working by naturall causes the Sun is the efficient cause and Male and Female the Instrumental Sol per hominem generat hominem See Harvey de generatione Animalium Cap. 33. Man and Woman therefore being the means whereby God does renew the species of Mankind and all Creatures having power over themselves in all things wherein they are not restrained by some natural or humane Law and every Child being alike part of either of his Parents the Power of Father and Mother is alike over their Children and so by consequence the subjection and obedience of every Child is alike due to Father and Mother And to honor thy Father and thy Mother is the First precept of the second Table of the Decalogue 3. Man and Wife being but one person and the Husband being the Why in Matrimony the power is in the Father head of the Wife and the Wife being in the power of the Husband the Husband hath the power and command as well of the Children as of the Mother yet the piety and observance of Children to their Mother is as much due as to their Father 4. Grotius cap. 5. art 2. de jure belli pacis out of Arist pol. 1. cap ult Grotius his opinion of the Fathers power eth 5. cap. 10. distinguisheth the Fathers power over Children into three times viz. 1. The time of their imperfect judgment 2. The time of their perfect judgment 3. The time when they are out of the Fathers family In the first all the actions of the Children are under the command of the Parents In the second time whenas judgment is matured by age and are of the family they are subject as part of the family In the third when he is matured by age and out of the family the Son is in all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of his own right Yet he says and truly parag 5. The Fathers power so follows the Fathers person that it can never be pulled off nor transferred to any other for the Fathers power arising from generation is due to him by the Law of Nature and so always the same if not aliened by the act of God And therefore * Confuted Quando Ubi make no alteration in the Fathers power for it is the same when the Son is an Infant and when adult when he is part of the family and when not 5. Where the Law of Nature gives a
absurd But if Solomon his offering a peace-offering for the people and his blessing the people be objected I answer it does signifie no more then a fathers blessing his children and praying to God that they may live peaceably But none of the Kings did ever offer a sin-offering or burn incense to the Lord without reprehension by God Out of this it is evident that God never forsook men before they Annot. 2 first did forsake him Adam did first eat the forbidden fruit before God drove him out of Paradise and cursed Mankind and the ground for his sake Then mankind sinned malitiously before God brought the general Cataclysme upon them and they made a wicked conspiracy before God confounded them at Babel but none were more malitiously stubborn than the Jewes who when they were enjoyned to observe the Ceremonial Law scarce ever observed it but went a whoring after the Gods of the Nations Moab Ammon Ashteroh c. yet since our Saviour hath fulfilled it never did men so superstituously observe any thing as they have done it And now Oh that I could more then powre forth all Jeremies lamentations in commiseration of thee O my Mother Church and Native Country much more deserving it then the Jewes in the Babilonish Captivity for Jeremiah foresaw their return and restitution whereas I cannot hope but that Christianity it self is in the very wayne here among us For not only Bishops and Priests are therefore hated because they are Christs Ministers and Puppets Mountebankes and Tryers set up in the place of them and not only all the carved works in the houses of God in despite of God are beaten down with Axes and Hammers and the houses themselves destroyed and made stables for horses but all the solemn days kept in commemoration and gratitude for our Saviours Nativity Passion Resurrection Ascention c. in despite of Christianity decryed as superstitious c. Sure as glorious Christian Churches as ever were in England have been in Africa c where were it not for some poore Christian slaves there is not so much as any footsteps of Christianity left The Contents of the Third Book THe First Chap. contains the causes of Subjection of Subjects to Supream Powers of Subjection of Children to Parents of Servants to Masters as also to them who have oversight over us in the Lord. The Second Chap. treats of succession of Princes in Hereditary Monarchies and discovers the fiction of the Salique Law in France and that it was a meer invention to exclude the just title of the Kings of England and has been ill observed by the French themselves when it did not conduce to their advantage The Third Chap. treats of the Municipal Laws of my dear and native Country before they became invaded and subverted by those men who in so many several shapes since 1640. have arrogated to themselves the name of Parliament THE THIRD BOOK CHAP. I. Of Subjection 1. IT is observed by a Writer that our Saviour Introduction in communicating the Cup to his Disciples as if he had foreseen that it would be detained from the Laity gave it in these words Drink ye all of it whereas in partaking of the Bread he said only take eat c. I am sure it is well worth the observation that the Holy Ghost as foreseeing the great abuses which should happen in the world by the specious pretences of Religion Conscience the Power of the People or Parliaments c. commands Subjection to Higher Powers not in certain cases but absolutely and not certain persons but every Soul is to be Subject to the Higher Rom. 13. 1. Powers 2. I say Supream or Regal Power being from God immediately by Subjection due by the Law of Nature to Soveraigns the Law of Nature it does necessarily follow that subjection of Subjects to their Soveraign is due by the Law of Nature nor can the relations be dissolved but by God himself I may I think without any affectation affirm that the Judges in Calvins case were as learned and upright as ever any before or since let us therefore see their resolutions 3. Those learned and upright Judges resolve tit Ligeance Ligeance What is Ligeance is a true and faithfull Obedience of the Subject due to his Soveraign This Ligeance and Obedience is an incident inseparable to every Subject for as soon as he is born he owes by birthright Ligeance and Obedience to his Soveraign Ligeantia est vinculum fidei quasi essentia Legis and a little after page 5. Ligeance does not begin by the Oath of the Leete For many men owe true Ligeance who were never sworn in the Leete Where note it is false if not Treasonable in Mr. Hobbs who affirms that the Knowledg Note of the Legislator does depend upon the Citizen For every man is as much a subject before he hath taken the Oath of Aligeance as after And see whatsoever is due by the constitution of man may be Pag. 25. tit 5. altered but natural Ligeance of the Subject to his Soveraign cannot be altered ergo natural Ligeance or Obedience to the Soveraign is not due by the Law or constitution of man And again whatsoever is due by the Law of Nature cannot be altered but Ligeance and Obedience of the Subject to the Soveraign is due by the Law of Nature ergo it cannot be altered Et qui abjurat regnum amittit regnum sed non regem amittit patriam sed non patrem Pag. 9. patriae 4. Ligeantia ac quisita or Denization is threefold First absolute to them Ligeantia acquisita Pag. 5. 6. and their heirs Secondly limited as when the King does grant Letters of Denization to an Alien and the Heirs Males of his body or for life The third is when the King by Conquest conquers another Kingdom or part of it the Antenati Postnati are Denizens of the Kingdom or Dominion so conquered Yet sure under correction the Postnati are not only Denizens but Natural Subjects For Power and Subjection being by the Law of Nature all men born in the Dominion of any Soveraign are his Natural Subjects and with this does Sir Ed. Coke agree If a man come into England and have issue two Sons these two Sons are Indigend Subjects born because they Com. Lit. pag. 88. are borne within the Realm that is in the Dominion of the King but if any be borne out of the Realm that is out of the Dominion of the King although of Natural Subjects to the King they are alienigena They therefore who are Postnati in the exercise of the Kings power by Conquest are his natural Subjects 5. Local Ligeance is when any Subject of France is in England or any English in France c. so long as he is in the power of the King he is de Local Ligeance tit 3. pag. 6. facto his Leigeman Therefore a Frenchman being in England joyned with divers Subjects of this
she was rather carefull to conserve peace at home then to maintain it abroad and was more mindfull of the present age then of posterity and sure that King that succeeded her might justly expect to finde a hard taske so to Govern as to preserve the love and obedience shee had for besides her prudence and frugality in Government and expences she was single had not any kindred in the Nation which were any charge to her whereas the King succeeding not only having a Queen but also Posterity must multiply expence whereby hee shall lose the affections of his Subjects from whom it must be raised or abate of the magnificennce which is necessary for the reputation and Regality and which every Monarch ought especially to be carefull of for Where Majesty or Power is contemptible the exercise of them is never permanent Ecclesiasticall Lawes made by King James THis Statute doth Enact That all Statutes made by Queene Elizabeth Anno 1. Jac. cap. 4. against all Jesuites Priests and Seminaries made in the Church of Rome and all those Statutes made against all manner of Recusants be put in due and exact execution Every Recusant that shall conforme himselfe to the Lawes and Ordinances of the Church of England and repaire to Church and continue there during the time of divine Service and Sermon according to the true intent of the statute in that case made in the time of Queen Elizabeth shall be discharged from all penalties of Recusancy so long as he continues in such obedience and conformity The heir of any Recusant who is no Recusant shall not incur any penalty for the Recusancy of his ancestor if at the death of any Recusant the heire of the Recusant be a Recusant and after become conformable to the Lawes and Ordinances of the Church and take the oath of Supremacy made in the first yeere of Q. Eliz before the Archbishop or Bishop of the Diocess then every such heir shall be discharged of all penalty hapning in respect of the Recusancy of his Ancestor If the Heire of any Recusant bee within the age of sixteene yeeres at the death of his Ancestor and after become or bee a Recusant that then hee shall not bee discharged from the penalty of Recusancy untill hee submit to the Lawes and Ordinances of the Church and take the said oath of Supremacy in manner and form expressed 23 Eliz. cap. 1. Where any seisure shall be had of the 2 parts of any Lands or Tenements c. for the not payment of the 20. l. due and payable for each moneth according to the Statute in that case lately made * in such case two third parts shall goe to the payment of the said twenty pound a moneth the third part shall not be extended by the King nor forfeited by the Recusant where any seisure hath beene made by the King and the debt or duty by reason of Recusancy not paid then the King may continue the seisure untill the residue of the debt be fully satisfied and discharged The King and his Heirs shall not seize nor extend any third part descending to any such heirs or any part thereof either by reason of the Recusancy of such heir or the Recusancy of his Ancestor Every person under the Kings obedience which at any time after the end of the session of that Parliament shall send any childe or other person under his Government into any parts beyond the Seas out of the Kings obedience to be resident in any Colledg or house of any popish Order or Profession whatsoever or repair to the same to be instructed in the popish Religion or in any sort to professe the same shall for every such offence forfeit to the King the summe of one hundred pounds and every person so passing or sent beyond the Seas in respect of himselfe or her selfe only and not in respect of his or her posterity be made incapable to inherit or purchase in any of the Kings Dominions If any person borne in any of the Kings Dominions at the making of this Act were in any such house or Colledg to be instructed in the popish Religion and should not return into some of his Majesties Dominions within one yeere next after the session of that Parliament and submit himself as is aforesaid shall be in respect of himselfe only and not in respect of his heirs and posterity utterly uncapable of inheriting or purchasing within any of the Kings Dominions Provided that if any such person shall afterward become obedient and conformable to the lawes and ordinances of the Church of England and repaire to Church according to the true intent of the said statutes and ordinances and continue so to doe that then every such person shall be discharged of such disability No woman nor any childe under the age of twenty one yeeres except Saylors and Ship-boyes or the Apprentice or Factor of some Merchant in trade of Merchandize shall be permitted to passe over the Seas without License from the King or six or more of the privy Councell under their hands upon paine that the officers of the Port that willfully or negligently did suffer any such to passe and did not enter the names of such passengers so licensed shall forfeit their office and all their goods and chattels and that every owner of any ship or vessell that shall willfully carry over seas any such person without license shall forfeit his ship or vessell and all the tackle and every Mr. or Mariner of or in any such ship offending as aforesaid shall forfeit all their goods and suffer imprisonment by the space of 12 moneths without baile or mainprize No person shall keepe any Schoole or be a Schoole-master out of any of the Universities or Colledges of this Realme except it bee in some publick or free Grammer-Schoole or in some such Noblemans or Noblewomans Gentlemans or Gentlewomans house as are not Recusants or where the said same Schoole-Master shall not be licensed by the Archbishop Bishop or Guardian of the Spiritualties of that Diocesse upon paine that as well the schoole-master as the party that entertains him shall forfeit for every day so offending the sum of forty shillings the one halfe to the King the other to him who shall sue for the same in any of the Kings Courts of Record in Westminster by Action of Debt Bill Plaint or Information in which no Essoine Protection or wager of Law shall be allowed Because some popishly affected did repaire to Church monethly whereby Stat. Anno. 3. Jac. cap. 4. they did evade the penalties imposed by precedent Parliaments as is alledged It was therefore Enacted That if any Recusant so conformed shall not once a yeere at least after the Session of Parliament receive the Sacrament in the Church of that parish where he or she usually abides or if there be no Church then in the Church next adjoyning shall forfeit for the first yeere the summe of twenty pounds for the second yeere
CHARLES IT is a thing very worthy of great consideration To thinke how the singular virtues and eminent qualities of so good and pious a Prince should come to so cruell so unfortunate an end for in him was all those amiable qualities which in another age would have rendred him reverenced and admired So singular Piety That the Portracture of King CHARLES in his sufferings will be a Character of it beyond all expression but his own so ardent a zeale in Religion that not any Regular in Religion was a more devout observer of his Order then the King was of the Rites and Liturgy of the Church So free from Simony that the suspicion of it in any man how deserving soever otherwise was sufficient bar from any advancement in the Church So just that though he every day saw the Puritan-faction budding out more formidably both in Church or State yet did he never proceede illegally or in an extrajudiciall manner against any man before the stormes of his Adversaries broke out upon him on every side So mercifull that the Scotish Lord Balmerino An. 1634. being legally convict of Treason was pardoned by him Nor was Louden proceeded against for holding correspondency with the King of France without the Kings privity and giving him the Title of Du Roy nor in all his Reigne how formidable soever the faction grew did he before the war brake out against him put any to death except one in the Lambeth conspiracy for fomenting and contriving the conspiracy against him To these may be added a profound Judgement in the affaires both of Church State how much it appeared in the former appears in the entercourse between him and Master Hinderson nor was his Pietie to his Parents lesse conspicuous being truly the principall Mourner at his Mothers funerall and chose rather to expresse the Piety hee owed to his Father in attending his dead body to his grave although contrary to the custome of his predecessors then to insist upon nicities of State So singular was his conjugall love and chastity to his Queene that a little before his death he commanded the Princesse Elizabeth his daughter to tell her Mother that his thoughts had never strayed from her and that his love should be the same to the last Jealous he was of the honour of the English Church and Nation and well understanding that where mens mindes are not well knit in Religion nothing will long keep their affections cemented He had a great desire to have finished King James his designe of uniting the Kirk of Scotland in an Uniformity with the Church of England who had made some progresse in an Assembly held at Aberdeen 1616. and afterward in another at Perth 1618. which King Charles got passed in Parliament of Scotland 1633. In him was a perpetuall love to the good and an infinite desire of doing good to all These noble vertues and graces towards God his Parents Wife and Subjects were adorned with most eminent and singular personall vertues and graces as moderation in prosperity magnanimity in adversity so wonderfull patience that after the fight of Cropredy-bridge in his march after the Earl of Essex it chanced that one of his Carriages brake in a narrow long Lane where his Majesty was to passe and gave a stop to him at a time when a great showre of rain happened to fall some of them who were neer about him offered to hew out a way through the hedges with their swords that he might get some shelter in the Villages adjoyning but he resolved not to forsake the Canon upon any occasion at which some seeming to admire his patience his Majesty lifting up his hat said That as God had given him afflictions to exercise his patience so he had given him patience to bear his afflictions So severe an observer of his words and actions that he was never observed to say any thing lightly or rashly or in his personall actions did any thing which might render his person or authority contemptible So temperate that in all his life he was never observed disorderly to exceed in eating or drinking affable yet conserving the dignity of his Majesty to all men free and open in his conversation little practicing the only lesson which Lewis the eleventh would learn his Son Charles the ninth Qui nescit dissimulare nescit regnare So frugall that though he had a Queen and plentifull Issue and expended much more in repairing the Navy for recovering the Soveraignty of the narrow seas then he received of his Subjects and the Exchequer left empty by his Father yet he encreased it before the first Scotish expedition to a greater mass then was ever found since it was exhausted by Henry the Eighth So elegant and pure a stile he had in writing that I expect to live to see it as much imitated by Englishmen as Caesar's was among the Romans Neither which is no lesse remarkable were any of these virtues stained with any suspected vice To the qualities of his mind were joyned Ornaments of his body every way answerable a venerable and gracious aspect yet best when he did not speak agility of members so disposed that in riding the great Horse running the ring vaulting shooting in the Crosbow Musket and sometime the great Ordinance He was thought to be the best Marksman and comliest manager of the great Horse of any man in the three Nations nor was lesse judicious in choosing a Winter Deere which is one of the hardest taskes of a Woodman then excellent in shooting a Deere Dr. Harvey Gen. Anim. exerc 64. pag. 422. propt med affirmes him to be delighted in observations the Dr. made of the causes of Generation from his dissection and Anatomies of the Deere in Hampton-Court c. but whether wanting that magnanimity of looking dangers in the face upon their first budding which is so necessary to the conservation of Regality or whether not having sufficiently understood that benefits conferred upon seditious men never begot any obligation of gratitude upon them but on the contrary they alwaies make advantage of them to get more untill not having more to expect grow jealous least their benefactors might by some means better reassume them then they extort them they hate them which usually ends in the murder of Princes but thinking to overcome his adversaries by his benefits example and clemency or to give satisfaction to all Factions of his Subjects he preferred all Factions in his Court and Councell though he excluded them out of the Church whereby he gave vent to all the Factions so as the veneration of the Royal name became every day more contemptible the Factions increased daily more formidable his counsels became distracted and betrayed and all the treasure he had gathered consumed in the first Northern expedition against the Scots where having many advantages to have subdued them he made a dishonorable peace with them io the increase of their reputation and losse of his own being destitute of treasure and
in derogation to Christian Faith or Religion they might plead Conscience because the Obedience they owe thereunto is superior to all Humane Laws But when as God is to be publickly Worshipped and your Majesty obeyed by the light of Humane Nature whenas he that heareth and obeyeth not the Church is to be accounted an Infidel and Heathen man and neither your Majesty nor Church enjoyning any thing contrary to the Law of Nature or Gods Will revealed in Scriptures but conformable to these for men your natural Subjects and Born and Baptized in a Christian Church in contradiction to all these to plead Liberty of Conscience to be Atheists Hypocrites and Schismaticks is such a monstrous Paradox as is not imaginable should proceed from reasonable creatures not aiming at some further mischief And when your Majesty shall with bleeding tears reflect upon the manners of these men thus pretending Liberty of Conscience you will finde them never to have made any conscience of Liberty their Manners no whit better then their Religion but as great enemies to Humane Society as Christian Religion For they no sooner upon pretence of Liberty of Conscience got licence of action but what followed Rapine Plunder Sequestration Sacriledge Regicidism and Murder upon the Estates of the Church Crown and the Sacred Person of your Royal Father and the principal members of Church and State who were your best and most Loyal and their Fellow-Subjects when as by the Law or Light of Nature no man ought to do that willingly to another which he would not have done to himself Nor is this humor only Topical or confined within the limits of your Dominion but wheresoever men would not pay the Duty they ought to God in the first Table they have never better perform'd that to their neighbor in the second although it hath not pleased God to permit them to attain such a degree of Impiety as here in your Majesties Dominions and your Majesty may believe it that the times are changed not these mens manners and dispositions to attempt the like again whensoever they get an opportunity however these things at present will be better cured by your Majesties Christian Patience and example then by your severe Execution of the established Laws against them yet if the Laborer be worthy of his Hire then is he who is Hired worthy to Labor and these men who pretending Conscience neglect or refuse to perform the Duties of the Church are utterly unworthy the Means of the Church Mans necessity is Gods oportunity It is Gods usual way in his Providence doubtless to manifest the greatness of his Power to us Mortals here below when mens extremities are at the highest then to relieve them having it may be the least reasons or hope to expect it and indeed what less then the power and grace of God in a Christian Prince so Religious so Just so Merciful and so descended at such a time could have cured the wide wounds of our miserable Church and distracted State D'avila reports of Coligny the Admiral of France that he would usually prefer himself before Caesar or Alexander because they acquired greatness by prosperous Fortune whereas notwithstanding that Fortune was always adverse to him he still rose more formidable and terrible to his adversaries Sure it is an admirable thing that after all the adversity of your Affairs God should without force or blood exalt your Sacred Head above the Storms and Waves of such Enemies who had neither Religion Law Justice or Reason but only force and blood in stead of and against these to maintain their Cause It cannot but be a consolation to any man in adversity rightly considering how God in the ordinary nature of things does afflict men who place happiness in things of this world and reward the afflictions of men especially who suffer for a good Conscience even in this world for no man placeing happiness in things here below can so enjoy them but necessarily a time will come when he shall say I take no pleasure in them and then it will be miserum fuisse beatum whereas other men who are afflicted and suffer persecution are no ways affrighted at the terrors of death but rather with joy expect happiness in another world after they shall be freed from the cares and troubles of this or if it pleases God to free them from their afflictions here then they truly convert miserum fuisse beatum into beatum fuisse miserum Besides your Majesties individual happiness in making so right construction of your precedent affections and the advantages you have acquired by your severe education therein your Subjects like men who have been long sick will better learn to esteem health from their many sufferings in your absence will for the future learn to set a truer estimation upon your Prosperity and Presence And may the God of Peace the God of Mercy and the God of Justice so Crown the antecedent adverse fortune of You Sir the most Peaceable the most Merciful Just and best of Princes that being as Good and Just as Trajan and as Devout and Religious as Constantine the Great or Theodosius the first you may be of your Subjects as beloved as was Augustus and the Arbitrator of Christendom as well as Defender of the Christian Faith And when this your Diadem shall descend to your next Heir you may then assume a Celestial one which shall never be subject to time variation or chance Which is and always shall be the daily Payer of SIR Your most Devoted and most Obedient Subject ROGER COKE OBSERVATIONS UPON Mr THO WHITE 's GROUNDS OF Obedience Government Mr HOBBS his BOOK De Cive AND UPON HVGO GROTIVS De Jure Belli Pacis Prematur nunquam Opprimitur veritas Nulla res magis operae pretium est sive ad utilitatem fructuosior sive ad animi voluptatem jucundior esse potest quà m Justitia quâ quidem post Deum Immortalem rerum omnium Publicarum Fundamenta nituntur Corruptio verò optimi est pessima By ROGER COKE LONDON Printed by T. N. for G. Bedel and T. Collins at the Middle-Temple Gate 1660. TO THE READER I Have often with great admiration considered in my self how that all men good and bad rich and poor noble and ignoble have with one voice commended Virtue and decried Vice and yet scarce any man in a thousand hath made Virtue the rule or reason of his actions Nor is it a thing less worth admiration to consider how that all men generally have not only a natural spight against their Superiors and are unwilling to obey them but also a propense desire to attain to Liberty and do tread under foot all things which may be called sacred to the attaining thereof and yet at no time or place in the world did ever men accomplish it I did therefore conclude with my self that not only all Moral Virtue but Humane Society did proceed from higher then any humane or voluntary causes
compos mentis and tell him he would instruct and teach him the most excellent dictate of Reason in the world viz. That there is one God infinitely good who is to be worshiped and served by man And that this God requires of every man that in that state wherein he hath made him he would not willingly do that to another which he would not have done to himself would not this poor ignorant man deride this Master of Reason and tell him he knew this as well as himself But suppose he should be so impudent as to deny this since Grotius is not in case I would desire Mr. Hobbs to prove it or give a right reason thereof and learn this man his Dictate of Right reason Well but let us see whether this Canting thing be worth the name of a Definition Omnis definitio est exclusio aequivoci If the Law of Nature be the Dictate of Right reason then does the Law of Nature exclude every thing else from being the Dictate of Right reason or this cannot be the definition of it I would know now of Mr. Hobbs whether all Arts and Sciences and Prudent actions be the Laws of Nature or not If they be the Laws of Nature then is every Inscientifical and Imprudent man an Unjust man If they be not the Laws of Nature and so not the Dictates of Right reason then let Mr. Hobbs shew what else does dictate them Nor is Mr. Hobbs less happy in defining a Pact upon which he grounds his Civitas It is just therefore that this man who Cap. 18. Art 4. makes all Science to be from Definitions only or Subjects without Predicates without which it is impossible there can be a Proposition and all Science to be from the memory which is common to all Beasts as well as Mr. Hobbs for so the Oxe knows his owner and the Ass his masters crib it being only retained in the memory excluding the Understanding should so rashly define things and understand them no better To believe there is a God to be worshiped and served and that no man should wilfully in that state and condition wherein God hath made him do that to another which he would not have done to himself is that Law which God hath engraven in the mindes of all mortal men wise and unwise learned and ignorant noble and ignoble in their wits and is the foundation and basis of all Humane society And this is that first and universal cause from which all moral virtues the dictates of Right reason from this cause do more genuinely and naturally flow then any Proposition in Geometry does from the Axiomes or Principles of it For what man is there in this world of what estate and condition soever but desires not to be wronged and injured Let not him then in that state wilfully wrong or injure any other of what estate soever If he be a Subject and desires to be protected in his life and fortune by the Laws of his Country from the violence and oppression of other men let not him abuse or violate the Laws of his Country to the wrong or oppression of another If he desires every man should keep promise and do justly by him let not him break his word and deal unjustly with another Is he a King he would not willingly be disseised or oppressed by another let him not therefore disseise or injustly oppress another Does any King desire not to be invaded or oppressed by his Subjects let not him therefore oppress his Subjects If he had been a Subject he would have desired protection from his Prince by an equal and moderate distribution of known Laws let him therefore equally moderately govern his Subjects by known Laws And from this Law did always men desire though ignorant of the manner to worship and serve GOD although they misplaced the Deity in the Sun Moon an Oak Apollo Jupiter c. And this is that Law which shall judge and condemn the immoral actions and vices of men in all Ages especially in this latter Age because they sinned against the Light or Law of Nature engraven in the minds of all men Now whether these men being Christians in name yet having cast off all Christian society and not being of any Christian church or religion that I ever heard of should not be content here but although they scarce agree in any thing else proceed so far as to make the Laws of God subject and depending upon the reasons and phantasies of men and not to tell them where their reasons shall begin if not at the Laws of God but every man left to go a whoring after his own inventions For what can then restrain man where his Reason is become superior to the Laws of God and to make all humane society to have its origination from the pacts and wills of men have not been as great enemies not only to Christian religion but also to all humane society as the malice of the Devil could invent let any sober unbiassed man judge or if all the confusions and distractions in Christendom to the shame and scandal of Christianity have not had their origination from this pretence Nor hath this sensless resolution of all things into Reason ended only in the distractions of State but also been the first source and fountain from whence all these distractions and confusions in the Church have arisen without any possible hope of ever reconciling them where these principles are continued Hence it is that the venerable and highest Authority of the sacred Scriptures are become the subject of all Tavern-discourses and every man that scarce understands any reason must forsooth have a reason given him why the Scriptures are the Word of God And yet in all other Authorities whatsoever men will deride the folly of others who go about to prove them by Reason for Reason is begotten alwaies from Authorities and Principles and therefore cannot Authorities and Principles be begotten from Reason I have been often almost astonished to consider how such sensless blasphemous and ridiculous things should meerly from the authority of the Assertors be imposed upon and received by the world without contradiction whereas narrowly looked into one would scarce believe the Authors had ever understood Logick or one leaf in Aristotle And for my part if I could not ultimately resolve the Dictates of my Reason as a Christian into plain places of Scripture so well as any Geometrician could any Proposition of Geometry into the Principles of Euclids Elements I would be content to let them wander for ever without any termination rather then admit them the Scriptures to be a creature of a creature and the subject of every wild phantastical conceit and opinion And if I could not ultimately resolve the reason of all my moral actions as a man into the Law of Nature which God has engraven in mens minds and not into the wills of men I would be content to conclude with Carneades that men have at divers times
established several Laws for manners and by them have been often altered but that there is no such thing as the Law of Nature and that all men as well as other creatures are naturally carried to their profits And so there is no such thing as Justice or if there were it were the greatest folly because men by endeavoring the good of others prejudice themselves Since the Grecians and Romans were the first who in the world did make all power to be from the People I suppose that Mr. Hobbs and Grotius took their Principles from them Let us see whether by the People they understand the same thing with the Romans and Grecians or the same thing with one another By the People of Rome or Athens the Romans and Athenians understood them and them only who were civitate donati and not men born in a promiscuous rout and parity without all order and subordination but made so by violent usurpation By the People Mr. Hobbs understands the King or Court governing By the People Grotius every where I believe for he no where that I can find defines the People understands the Subjects governed and they who in a parity or equal condition constituted the Civitas Upon these and many other considerations and observations upon them I was so far from being convinc'd that I became much more firmly established then before in my Judgment for Opinion I will not have of those things wherein I am possest of the constant practice of the world in all ages places the plain undubitable and uncontrolled places of Scripture both in the Old and New Testament and no colour of allegation against them from any other places the Authority of the highest Philosopher my Country-Laws and all those Theses and Axiomes upon which almost all Reason and Philosophy are grounded and these things opposed by such monstrous feigned equivocal and silly beggings of the question which no man not blinded with faction or stupid ignorance can grant yet had not these Observations become publique if it had not been upon an odd occasion which was Upon a time being with a Brother-in-law a Kinsman of mine at dinner came to my Brothers where in discourse he asked me if I had seen a Book of Tho. Whites called The Grounds of Obedience and Government I answered no nor did I desire to see any thing of his doing having conceived a prejudice of the Mans ability and ingenuity He confidently replied that I should be convinced if I did but read it and that he would send me the book Yet was I so far from accepting his courtesie that I importunately desired him not to do it But he notwithstanding all importunity on purpose sent his man with it that night to me being at that time much afflicted with my wonted Melancholy which became more excited when I had read some part of it And seeing a thing so sensless and void of all humanity to be imposed upon the world which questionless was intended to prefer some Faction or Interest of his and yet forsooth he tells us it is a second Edition corrected and amended by the Author wheresoever therefore I name our Author I mean Tho. White Gent. I did in detestation of the Thing not of the Man for I never saw him in all my life set my self to make these Observations upon it He harps upon the same string with Mr. Hobbs and Grotius That all Supreme Power is originally created by Mens wills subject to it Yet being a fine Gentleman in quirpo he dances a Galliard by himself and most senselesly makes men out of society to be a Rational multitude and to have Property before they had Laws or Government and to be a People after they had given up their power to another to govern them But lest it should be objected that though our Author be hood-winked yet Mr. Hobbs and Grotius might be very clear-sighted and bare-faced I thought it not amiss to make these Observations upon them also As a Preparative to a Purge I pray Reader take these few Notes 1. First I say they falsly derive Government For though they all differ in the manner of it yet is all Government so far from being so derived as any of them would have it in the first Institution that if any of them can shew any one Government so derived since the beginning of the world I will yeeld the cause 2. They feign that for a Principle which never was viz. That men by nature are in a parity or equal condition For never were men since the Creation in any age or place of the world in such a condition But suppose somewhere in the world it might have been found that men in a like condition did by their acts and wills form themselves into a Society yet is it a most unreasonable thing to conclude from thence that all power in Government is from the People For Singulars are deduced and concluded from Universals not Universals by Singulars 3. The Principle they beg is destructive to all good manners for Justice is the fountain of all humane Virtues and Morality as all Philosophers and best and wisest men hold And if Justice be the duty which men owe their Superiors and that it may be truly and ultimately resolved into the first cause without any detriment or damage to it and if all order superiority and power in Government may truly and ultimately be resolved into the People or the wills of the Subjects or Party governed then the wills of the Subjects being the fountain and first cause of all Order and Justice that is Justice in the People to do what they list then which nothing can be more destructive to all Virtue Justice and Good manners 4. It is damnably destructive to Faith for All powers are of God Rom. 13. and No power can be given but from above S. John 19. 11. Nor were these Men when they wrote their several Treatises De Cive De Jure Belli Pacis and Grounds of Obedience and Government much better in their Religion if I conceive a right Notion of Religion viz. That it is Actus Divini cultus or the Publick worship and service of God in an unity form and communion then their Writings shew them to be for Justice and Government For though our Author be a Pretender to be of the Religion of the Church of Rome yet it would trouble the greatest Critique of this Age to shew where the Religion of either of the other were to be found And who but such men as these would pin their faith upon the tales and fictions of Poets before the most venerable and sacred Authority of Holy Scripture Nor can the eldest of Poets writings be compared in antiquity with the Scriptures For if it could Cur supra bellum Thebanum funera Trojae Non alias alii quoque res cecinêre Poetae And the Theban and Trojan War hapned after the Year of the World 2750. The Trojan War about the time
do and are neither pleased with the remembring of what is past nor can hope well in time to come And indeed no Man is so miserable as he who knows not how to entertain a day but by being vicious in it Vicious Men desire that all their actions should be buried in oblivion with them and will make it a cause of quarrel for any Man to mention those things they daily do as their actions whereas it is onely Virtue that does eternise Men to all Posterity for the whole Earth is a Monument for famous Men and their Virtues shall not onely be testified by inscription of Stone at home but by an unwritten Record of the Minde which more then any Monument will remain with every one for ever Sir Francis Bacon in his Life of Henry the Seventh compares Times to Ways whereof some are more uphil and downhil some are more plain and even the one is better for the Reader the other for the Liver Sometime it pleases God that Virtue should be as it were so in fashion That to be virtuous is commendable and rewarded other while Virtue is not onely persecuted by all the contrary names but virtuous Men are butchered imprisoned sequestred c. and for no other cause but onely their Virtue Tacitus accounteth it a rare felicity of the Times whenas an Historian may without danger Record the History of the Times Polybius affirmeth of truth That she ought to be Proem Hist esteemed of Men as the greatest Goddess and that the greatest Power ought to be attributed to her For though all Men oppose her and sometime many kinds of verisimilitudes and appearances stand against her for a Lie yet I know not how she by her self insinuates her self into the mindes of Men And sometime on the sudden shews how potent she is and sometime after she hath been along time obscured by darkness at length of her self prevails and expugneth the Lie If a Man vary the terms of Truth and Lie into Virtue and Vice this affirmation will not less hold true Virtue was never so oppressed by Ignorance and Faction but that the virtues of good Men shall finde honorable mention afterward And Vice and Faction however cryed up at present shall hereafter be fully laid open and their deformity discovered to all Posterity Virtue is the same in all Ages and most amiable in her simple nakedness and it is Vice which hath need of false glosses and hath such specious shewes and pretences put upon it to make it seem Virtue which fucous and false paint continues no longer then the present Faction Of all Virtues next after Religion Justice is the most worthily ranged in the first place not only as including all other Virtues but as excluding it all a Mans actions are rendred as Vile and contemptible other Vices are like Moats in running waters and the smallest Moats are easilest seen in purest streams but injustice is like the poysoning the Fountain which corrupts all the stream There is no Man that is so perfect but some spots and stains may be spied in his actions which are soonest spied in the best Men but no Man Heathen or Christian can deserve the least reputation of being good or Virtuous who is an unjust Man It was not Alexanders Venery Ryot Drunkenness and Captivity to the Persian Effeminacy Vices though bad enough but his occidit etiam Callisthenem that was put in Counterpoiz Senec. de beneficiis to all his Virtues It is Justice which next after the most immortal greatest best God and Religion fabricates connects and establisheth Nations and Kingdoms in Unity and Peace It is injustice which next after Gods punishments for their sins subverts them to the ruine of the greatest part of the inhabitants so that Justice deservedly hath the pre-eminence of Virtues next after Religion and Injustice is the foulest and vilest of all Vices after Atheisme Though Justice be so high and noble a Virtue yet I think there was never any thing by learned Men as Xenophon Plato Aristotle Bodin Grotius more mistaken Not that I deny but that many Virtuous Men from their innate good nature have in their actions practised that which hath been rarely well defined like Men who by a habit speak well yet cannot give a Grammatical construction of their speech or like the Romans who though the Grecians were best at the Theory of Rhetorick and Poetry were the best Orators and Poets or like the Physitians who in blood-letting supposed the circulation of the blood yet none asserted it before the most renowned Philosopher Doctor William Harvey or like a Musitian who composes well yet understands but little in the Theory of Musick For my part as I hate Flattery as one of the basest Vices and the most inconsistent with Ingenuity or Integrity so had I much rather that these Elements should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though a present sufferer for them then by any sinister means to attain to any greatness whatsoever All things are at first appearance curiously scanned and censured by Men it may be most by them who least understand them for Nihil est facilius quam reprehendere alium I desire nothing else of any ingenuous Reader then that in censuring any thing in this following discourse he would declare what he would have instead of it Carpere vel noli nostra vel ede tua I know it is Humanum errare and I not having a beaten path to direct me to my journies end and being unfit for so great an underraking although supplied with greater helps then I have found shall very probably be subject to stumble having had so dark and feeble means to keep my self upright However in all this Apostacy of Men in general from all Faith Religion and Moral honesty I have endeavored to shew from what causes all Vitues as well Theological as Moral flow and that Men by forsaking them must necessarily fall into all those calamities and confusions which now involve us Whatsoever therefore my errors and defections are they ought rather to be forgiven then to cause anger in any candid Reader for my part I profess ingeniously I will ascribe it an Act of friendship in any Man who shall direct my going in a more plain path or shew me where I have strayed out of the way by treading in this THE APPARATUS OR The different Nature of Man from other Creatures And why only Government is necessary to Mankinde SInce there is nothing more manifest then that there is every where in the World Government for no man can say That this thing is his or that thing another mans but he must presuppose a Superior Power which gave him and the other man a Right in this or that thing And since from the evidence of all Sacred and Prophane History no time was ever recorded in which men were not in subjection to one another And since from * Viz. Grotius Hobbs White these mens Principles it is not
c. was publickly worshipped and served And men who were of no Religion were always stigmatised with the most opprobrious name of Atheists as the most vile of Men. * Flaminem assiduum Jovi Sacerdotalem creavit Liv. lib. 1. Numa Pompilius therefore in the first place took care for the institution of a Religion among the Romans and to this end he created a Priest who should daily offer Sacrifice to Jupiter And so zealous were the * Selden Annal Angl. lib. 1. c 4. Caesar de Bell. Gal. lib. 6. Gamb Brit. p. 12. Druides in the old age of our Ancestors before Christianity was planted among us in their Religion or Publick Forms of Worshipping of God that none but the Priests and Schollars might learn them nor would they commit them to Letters both because they would not have them divulged least they should grow contemptible by being exposed to the view of the rude and ignorant multitude as also that their Schollars might the better retain them in their memory * Nicias Orat. Thucid. lib. 7. Nicias as the chief Argument of his justification and hope of belief from the gods in his greatest adversity says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have worshipped the gods frequently according to Law And heretofore in the Church of England set Forms of Prayers were not onely ordained that her sons of her Religion might meet at publick times to worship and serve God but the Minister or Priest was obliged every day to offer up the publick worship and service of God whether there were any present but himself or not for all sorts of men in their several vocations and stations That as the fire upon the Altar among the Jews might never go out so among us Christians might no day pass wherein the Publick Service of God was not offered up for all sorts of men 2. That Men honor and obey their Superiors Subjects their Soveraigns Children their Parents Servants their Masters 3. That Men be not Tale-bearers or Back-biters but avoid evil communication 4. That Men do not make advantage of anothers weakness to his damage 5. That Man in all things keep his Integrity that is not to answer so Integrity to another as to deceive him by equivocation or mental reservation if it does not appear that there is evil intent in the question 6. That Men perform their promise made although it be to their hinderance Promise 7. That Men bear a grateful minde for benefits received that is that Gratitude they do not suffer him from whom they receive a benefit to be in a worse condition then he was before he conferred it And if they have not in their power wherewith to satisfie yet that they bear it so in their mindes as to be ready to satisfie to their power Some Creatures who are not endued with Reason do imitate this Virtue the Storks when their Parents are viete and broken with age do relieve them by feeding and providing for them wherefore the Greeks called the Stork 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beneficiorum retributorem See Grotius Annotations upon his Preface De Jure Belli Pac. 8. That men do well to their Wives Children and others as by nature and affinity allied unto them 9. That men be merciful wherein men ought not so much to observe the quantum as the cause of shewing mercy or pitty 10. That in revenge men do not respect the evil past but minde the future good which may happen from the punishment 11. That they neither by deeds words or countenance use another contumeliously 12. That they be not high-minded or over-conceited of their birth person or parts 13. That they be lowly minded and modest 14. Not to accept or respect persons in judgment 15. Where no Law gives propriety there ought community to be 16. Those things which can neither be divided or used in common that the decision be by lot 17. That the first-born be preferred and the Male before the Female 18. * That no man endeavor c. For that which is any mans by Divine Institution cannot be aliened neither by his will nor the will of all the men in the world and therefore cannot Episcopacy or Priesthood after Consecration and Imposition of hands be transferred because they are by Divine Institution Yet whatsoever Bishop or Priest shall endeavor for reward or price to alien it or deny it for safety of his life may as well be esteemed a prophane person as Esau was That no man endeavor to transfer or alien by Pact or Promise that right which God by the Law of Nature or Divine Institution hath given him 19. That Protection be granted to Ambassadors and Mediators of Peace 20. That no man seek private Revenge for any supposed Injury 21. That Judgment be pronounced without hope of reward or for applause of men 22. That where Evidence of Fact does not clearly appear that they take information from Witnesses 23. That the Judge be indifferent not byassed to either party either by Natural relations or by any precedent Obligation 24. These Moral Virtues are commanded by the Moral Law and are most truly and properly so as they are revealed and declared to mankinde by God in the holy Scriptures For the Will of God commanding in the Scriptures that is in the Old and New Testament is in all things by highest right to be obeyed and followed And because God hath created man with an immortal and eternal Soul and does not will the death that is the eternal death of a sinner he offers every man grace who does not refuse it by preferring some other things to lay hold of those means which he hath revealed in them for the obtaining of his eternal happiness 25. But because a man cannot well bear all these Virtues in his minde The sum or cause of all Moral Virtues contained in the Second Table in every action which a man intends if he would know whether it be against the Law of Nature or not Let him suppose himself in place of him with whom he intends this action and if he be not willing that this thing should be done to him let him not do it to another for upon this short and easie rule Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you do ye even so unto them depends all the Law and the Prophets Matth. 7. 12. CHAP. V. Moral Virtues are commanded by God in the holy Scripture 1. THe Lord said Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons saying On this wise Religion or the worshiping of God in a Publick set form was instituted by God under the old and new Testament shall ye bless the children of Israel saying unto them The Lord bless thee and keep thee The Lord make his face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel and I will bless them Numb 6. 22
Essex and Edmund Earl of March the true and undoubted Heir of the Crown of England both condemned unheard and without tryal in Parliament when as he might have instanced twenty Sir Thomas Seimer Admiral of England and Brother to the Protector Anno 1549. the third year of Edward the Sixth was condemned to death unheard by a Law in Parliament Henry the Third after all the Acts of Grace of Magna Charta Charta de Foresta c. instead of means Good Governors are the Preservers or enlargers of the Government Parliaments have ever been the bane of the greatness of the English Monarchy given him by Parliament for the recovery of his right of the Dutchy of Normandy usurped and taken by the French King from his Father King John and the Dutchy of Guienne and Earldom of March the year before usurped and taken from him by the French King had all the exercise of Regal Government taken from him and given to the Twelve Peers by the * Insanum Parliamentum Mad Parliament whereof ensued the Barons Wars to the destruction and confusion of so many English-men as nothing but a Parliament could have done Henry the Fourth in the first year of his usurped Reign had the Crown entailed upon him and his Heirs in Parliament from whence ensued all the Wars of the Houses of York and Lancaster At a Parliament holden Anne Dom. 1470. begun at Westminster 26 November the Crowns of England and France were entailed upon Henry the Sixth and the Heirs male of his body lawfully begotten and for want of such Heirs unto George Duke of Clarence being the yonger Brother of Edward the Fourth the undoubted Heir of the Crown of England whereby a double injustice was done first to Henry the Sixth excluding his Heirs general then to Edward the Fourth to prefer his yonger Brother Clarence before him in case of want of Heirs male to Henry the Sixth See the Factious Conspiracy of the Commons together with the consequence against the Duke of Suffolk Speeds History Henry 6. p. 675. Para. 47 48. The Parliament in the First of Richard the Third his Reign though a bloody Usurper presented a Bill for the entailing the Crown upon his Heirs Ann. 1 Hen. 7. Nor was the Act of Parliament less injurious which entailed the Crown upon Henry the Seventh and the Heirs of his body he having no colour of title to it but in right of his Wife and because he suspected his title and reigned in his own right to the wrong of his Wife and after her decease to the wrong of his Son Henry the Eighth in the eleventh year of his Reign he got an Act of Parliament to pass which should protect all Subjects who should assist the King be he so by right or not for the time being So that other offences should be punished but he that perpetrates the highest villany by invading a Crown should be protected by Law Henry the Eight by authority of Parliament an 1533. Bastardized Queen Mary and so soon as he had cut off Anne Bullens head by authority of Parliament Bastardized Queen Elizabeth smally to his credit one would think Add hereunto the ridiculous yet cruel Act of Hen. 8 his Headship of the Church So that a stranger being one day in Smithfield and seeing one burnt for denying the Six Articles and another hanged for denying his Headship cried out Bone Deus quo modo hic agunt vivi hic comburuntur Papistae ibi suspenduntur Antipapistae The bloody Laws passed in Parliament in prosecution of the Six Articles in the time of Henry the 8. and the bloody Parliamentary Laws for Religion in Queen Mary's reign c. and all those Sacrilegious Acts made in the reigns of Hen. 8. and Ed. 6. and sure no man can imagine such horrid acts could be perpetrated but by Parliaments Nor have the General Assemblies in France who were wont to be assembled once or twice a year demeaned themselves much better then the Parliaments in England but in stead of providing good Laws fell into such Factions and used such affronts to the Regal power that Lewis the Eleventh a most subtile and cunning Prince was wont to say It was time to put the French Kings horce de page out of their minority and from being Pages any more and so he did And since his time they have been rarely convented in France For since the General Assembly at Bloys anno 1587. by Henry the Third where the famous Duke of Guise was killed there hath been but one anno 1614. in the fourth year of the reign of Lewis the Thirteenth and that succeeded so ilfavoredly that there is no probability of ever being another 4. Besides the general and particular Customs and Acts of Parliament there are almost infinite Corporations Colledges and Companies who have divers and sundry priviledges which are granted by the Kings Letters Patents and are observed as Laws and to all intents and purposes have the effect of Laws 5. But in all Maritime cases the Kings of England being Soveraigns of the Narrow Seas whatsoever Grotius says to the contrary and all actions done upon a Navigable river are judged by the course of Civil law and so the Probate of Wills and Letters of Administration are determinable by the Civil law Judge Jenkins a learned Gentleman and a stout Champion for the Laws of this Nation in the first page of his Lex terrae divides the Laws of this Nation into three grounds or species viz. 1. The Customs 2. Acts of Parliaments and 3. Judicial Records and that the two latter are declarations of the former touching Royal government so that he makes Custom to be the ground of Royal government and Acts of Parliament to have but a declaratory power of the Common Law touching Royal government and Judicial Records to be equivalent to Acts of Parliament In all which he is most manifestly mistaken For first there are an exceeding many Acts of Parliament which have no manner of dependence or affinity with the Common-Law and so cannot be declarations of it nay there are many Acts of Parliament which are so far from being declarations of the Common-Law that they do annihilate it and create other things in lieu thereof as the Statute of West 2. cap. 1. called the Statute de donis conditionalibus annihilated all the Conditional estates in Fee at Common-Law and created estates in Tail in lieu thereof At Common-Law no Lands or Tenemers were deviseable by Will but the Acts of 32 34 H. 8. create a power of devising Lands and Tenements in Fee by Will and Tenants at Common-Law might choose whether they would attorn to any Grant of the Lord but now the Lords Grant is good without it by 27 H. 8. cap. 10. Sir Ed. Coke com on Lit. sect 574. says Stat. 32. H. 8. takes away the reason of the Common-Law so that that cannot be a declaration of what it takes away the reason It were tedious
uniting to the Imperiall Crown of this Realm the ancient Jurisdiction Authorities Superiorities and Preheminencies to the same of right belonging and appertaining By reason whereof her most humble Subjects from the time of the 25 H. 8. were continually kept in good order and were disburdened of divers great and intollerable charges and vexations before that time unlawfully taken and exacted by such foreign Power and Authority as before that was usurped * And to the The Statute of 1 2 Ph. Ma. cap. 8. which restored to the Pope all which this Stat. takes away declares that nothing was done prejudiciall to the Crown in so doing intent that all usurped power Spirituall and Temporall might for ever be extinguished and never be used or obeyed in this Realm or any other her Majesties Dominions It was therefore by the Authority of that Parliament enacted That no forrein Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate Spirituall or Temporall should at any time after the last day of that Session of Parliament use enjoy or exercise any manner of Power Jurisdiction Authority Preheminence or Priviledge Spirituall or Ecclesiasticall within this Realm or within any other the Queens Dominions or Countries that then were or hereafter should be but from henceforth the same should be clearly abolished out of this Realm and all other her Dominions for ever And it was then also established and enacted That such Jurisdiction Priviledges Superiorities and Preheminences Spirituall and Ecclesiasticall as by any Spirituall and Ecclesiasticall Power or Authority had heretofore been or might lawfully be exercised or used for the visitation of Ecclesiasticall state and persons and for reformation order and correction of the same and of all manner of errors heresies schismes abuses offences contempts and enormities should for ever by authority of that Parliament be united and annexed to the Imperiall Crown of this Realm And that the Queen her Heirs and Successors Kings or Queens of this Realm should have full power and authority by virtue of that Act by Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England to assigne name and authorize when and as often as the Queen her Heirs and Successors shall think meet and convenient and for such and so long time as should please the Queen her heirs and successors such person or persons being naturall born Subjects to the Queen her heirs or successors as the said Queen her heirs or successors should think meet to exercise use occupy and execute under the said Queen her heirs and successors all manner of Jurisdictions Priviledges and Preheminences in any wise touching or concerning any Spirituall or Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction within these Realms of England or Ireland or any other her Dominions and Countries and to visite reform redress order correct and amend all such errors heresies schismes abuses contempts and enormities whatsoever which by any manner spirituall or ecclesiasticall Power Authority or Jurisdiction could or might lawfully be reformed ordered redressed corrected restrained or amended to the pleasure of Almighty God the encrease of virtue and conservation of the peace and unity of this Realm And that such person or persons so to be named assigned authorized and appointed by the said Queen her heirs and successors after the said Letters Patents to him or them made and delivered as is aforesaid should have full power and authority by virtue of that Act and of the Letters Patents under the said Queen her heirs and successors to exercise use and execute all the premisses according to the tenor and effect of the said Letters Patents any matter or cause to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding This Statute doth create the oath of Supremacy to be taken by all men who hold any Office or take from the Queen her heirs and successors any Fees or Wages within this Realm or other her Highnes Realms or Domiminions the form and tenor of it is I A. B. doe utterly testifie and declare in my conscience that the Queens Highness is the only supreme Governor of this Realm and all other her Highness Dominions and Countries as well in all Spirituall or Ecclesiasticall things or causes as Temporall and that no forrein Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction Power Superiority Preheminence or Authority Ecclesiasticall or Spirituall within this Realm and therefore I doe utterly renounce and forsake all forrein Jurisdiction Powers Superiorities and Authorities and do promise that from henceforth I shall bear faith and true allegiance to the Queens Majesty her Heirs and lawfull Successors and to my power shall assist and defend all Jurisdictions Priviledges Preheminences and Authorities granted or belonging to the Queens Highness her Heirs and Successors or united and annexed to the Imperiall Crown of this Realm So help me God and the contents of this Book If any person dwelling or inhabiting within this Realm or any other of the Queens should within 30. dayes after the determination of the Session of that Parliament by Writing Printing Teaching c. maintain any forrein Power or Jurisdiction Ecclesiasticall or Spirituall or shall advisedly put in use any such forrein Power or Jurisdiction within any of her Highness Dominions he and his Aiders Abettors Counsellors c. shall forfeit to the Queen her Heirs and Successors all his goods and chattels as well reall as personall If any person so convict be not worth in Goods and Chattels the summe of 20 s. every such person upon conviction over and besides the forfeiture of his Goods and Chattels shall suffer imprisonment by the space of a whole year without Bail or Mainprise And that all and every the Benefices Prebends and other Ecclesiasticall promotions and dignities of every person spirituall so offending and being attaint shall be utterly void and the Patron and Donor may present as if the Incumbent were actually dead For the second offence the party offending shall incur the danger of a Premunire For the third offence after conviction and Attainder the party offending shall suffer death and forfeiture of all his Goods as in case of High Treason The offender must bee impeached for preaching teaching or speaking any thing against the Premisses within a yeere after such preaching teaching or speaking and if any person shall be imprisoned for preaching teaching or speaking against this Statute and if be not indicted within the space of one half yeer next after his offence that he be discharged and set at liberty No matter of Religion or cause Ecclesiasticall made by this Parliament shall be judged Error Heresie Schism or schismaticall opinion Such Persons as shall bee authorized by Letters Patents under the Broad-seale of England shall have jurisdiction power or authority spirituall to visite reform order or correct any errors heresies schisms abuses or enormities But by virtue of this Act they have not authority to determine or adjudge any thing to bee heresy but only such as heretofore have beene determined by Canonicall-Scripture or the 4 first generall Councells or any
shall incur any forfeiture or losse for travelling or making appearance accordingly Every person so restrained as aforesaid shall be bound to yeeld their bodies to the Sherif of the County upon Proclamation in that behalfe made nor shall incurre any penalty for so doing If any person which shall offend against this Act shall before he be thereof convict come to some parish Church on some Sunday or Festivall day and then heare divine Service and at Service time or at the reading of the Gospell make open submission and declaration of his conformity to the Queenes Lawes as hereafter is declared that then every such offendor shall be cleerly discharged The forme of the submission is I A. B. doe humbly confesse and acknowledge That I have grievously offended God in contemning her Majesties godly and lawfull government and authority by absenting my selfe from Church and from hearing Divine Service contrary to the godly Lawes and Statutes of this Realm and am heartily sory for the same and doe acknowledg and testifie in my Conscience That the Bishop or See of Rome hath not or ought to have any power or authority over her Majesty or within any of her Majesties Dominions or Realmes And I do promise and Protest without dissimulation or any colour or meanes of dispensation That from henceforth I will from time to time obey and performe her Majesties Lawes and Statutes in repairing to Church and hearing Divine Service and doe my utmost endeavor to maintain and defend the same The Minister or Curate of every parish where such submission shall bee made shall presently cause the same to be entred into a booke to be kept in every Parish for that purpose and within ten dayes after shall certifie the same to the Bishop of the Diocess Every offendor that shall after such submission relapse and become Recusant in not repairing to Church to heare Divine service as aforesaid shall lose all benefit he might have enjoyed by such submission Every woman married shall be bound by every article branch and matter contained in this Act other then the branch or article of abjuration nor shall any woman married be compelled to make abjuration Of the Reformation made by Queen Elizabeth QUeen Mary dying upon the 17. Novemb. 1558. the same day both The Pope did reject the Queen before the Queen rejected the Pope Houses of Parliament without any contradiction did acknowledge and receive Elizabeth to be the true and undoubted Heir to the Crown of England and without delay with sound of Trumpet dissolved the Parliament for that being called by Queen Mary could have no being or continue after her death The Queen caused an account to be given of her assumption to the Pope who was Paulus Quartus with letters of Credence to Sir Edward Cerne who was Ambassador to her Sister and not departed from Rome But the Pope was so far from acknowledging her that he answered that that Kingdome viz. of England was held in Fee of the Apostolick See that she could not succeed being illegitimate that he could not contradict the Declaration of Clement the Seventh and Paul the Third that it was a great boldness to assume the name of Government without him that for this she deserved not to be heard in any thing yet being desirous to shew a fatherly affection if she will renounce her pretensions and refer her self wholly to his free disposition he will doe whatsoever may be done in the honor of the Apostolick See * And afterwards he commanded Sir Edward Hist conc Trint 411. Cerne who had continued Ambassador at Rome for Henry the Eighth Queen Mary and then for Queen Elizabeth to lay down his office of Ambassador that I may use his own very words sayes the Author by force of a Mandat made by Lively voice from the Oracle of our most Holy Lord the Pope by virtue of holy obedience and under pain of the greater Excommunication and also of losse of all his goods that he should not depart out of the City but undertake the Government of an Hospitall of the English * It is true Indeed that Pius 4. a man of much more moderate disposition Camb. Eliz. Keg Pag. 28. then his Predecessor did in the year 1560. by Letters sent by Vineentius Parpalia Abbot of St. Saviours to her full of humanity not only acknowledge her Queen of England and invited her to return into the bosome of the Church but also as the report went promised to recall the sentence pronounced against her Mothers Marriages as unjust to confirme the book of Comon-prayer in English by his authority and to permit the use of the Sacrament in both kinds to the People of England in case she will joyn her self to the Church of Rome and acknowledge the Primary of the Roman See * And afterwards in the year 1561. in Letters full of affection by Abbot Camb. Eliz. Reg. 58. 59. Martinego he invited her to the Councell of Trint Camb. Eliz. Reg. 68. 69. but matters were so far thrust off the hinges that not only Parpalia returned without any fruit but Martinego was denied access into England Not only the Arch-bishop of York but all the other Bishops except The Bishops except Carlile refuse to crown her Carlile did refuse to Crown the Queen both because she had been instructed in the Protestant Religion and because she had forbidden the Archbishop of York a little before he was to celebrate Divine service to elevate the Host for adoration and had suffered the Letany with the Epistles and Gospel to be used in the popular tongue It is no wonder therefore if the Parliament which happened immediately after and the Commons especially who once usually swayed only by passion and affection and much averse from the Religion of the Church of Rome did endue the Queen with such plentifull power as to make her supreme Governor the title of Head was waved in all causes as well Spirituall as Temporall This power the Queen well understanding what advantage would be How far the Queen did declare her Power in Ecclesiasticall matters made thereof by her adversaries did by Proclamation and after by her Injunctions declare that she took nothing upon her more then what anciently of right be longed to the Crown of England to wit that she had supreme power and jurisdiction under God over all sorts of people within the Kingdome of England whether they be Ecclesiasticall or Lay persons and that no forrein Power hath or ought to have any jurisdiction or authority over them Camb. Eliz. Reg. 39. 40. In the 37. Article of the Church of England she declares We give to How far the Church of England declares the Prerogative of Princes Our Princes that Prerogative which we see in holy Scripture alwayes given to all godly Princes by God himself to rule all estates and degrees of men committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiasticall or Temporall and to restrain
with the sword all stubborn and evill doores But whatsoever the Queene or Church did declare the Lawyers would The Lawyers exception of the Statute of 1 Fliz. cap. 1. not lose so much Grist as this Stat. of the first of Eliz. brought to their Mill and therefore the fourth conclusion in the 3 part Institutes 43 is That when an Act of Parliament is made concerning things meerly spirituall as Heresie c. yet the Act being part of the Lawes of the Land the same shall be construed and interpreted by the Judges of the Common-Law who usually confer with those that are learned in that profession so that all Spirituall jurisdiction doth utterly vanish whensoever the Temporall power shall doe any thing in derogation of it and in truth ever since the Statute of the first of Elizabeth all cognizance not only of Heresie c. but the cognizance of the worship and service of God and administration of Sacraments have upon the matter beene determined at quarter-Sessions and assizes and since ths uniting of all forraigne jurisdiction in the Crowne many places in England that were not in ordinary Episcopall jurisdiction and immediatly under the Pope are become out of all cure of Soules and for ought can be known are not any part of any Christian Church If the Queen be supreme Governor in all Spirituall cases under Christ then are not Bishops and Priests immediately Christs Ministers but the Queens Nay then may she ordain confirm and consecrate the Sacraments which the Church of England Art 37. King James Spot Hist anno 7 Regni doth deny The preamble of the first of Eliz. cap. 1. Is a supplication of the Lords Obsecrable things in the 1. 2. chap. 1 Eliz. Spirituall and Temporall and Commons that those things therein might be passed into a Law whereas the Lords Spirituall a a Camb. Eliz. Reg. 16. being nine nor were there then fourteene alive and all who were present not only stiffly opposed it but were all of them deprived because they would not conform thereunto and take the Oath of Supremacy made by that Act. In the 2. chap. Pag. 36. 1 Eliz. there is a very strange clause viz. The Queenes Majesty the Lords Temporall and Commons assembled doe in Gods name earnestly require and charge all Arch-Bishops and Bishops and other Ordinaries that they endeavor themselves to the utmost of their knowledge that the due execution of that Law may be had throughout their Diocesses and Charges as they will answere before God for such evills and Plagues wherewith God may justly punish his people for neglecting this good and wholsom Law and yet the Temporall powers by this very Law have power to heare and determine all things in it as well as the Spirituall whereas Praeces lachrima sunt arma Ecclesiae all alwaies the Church formerly did supplicate protection from the temporall powers The Queene did not make an alteration and change in the Religion and By what degrees Religion was charged Service of God on a suddain but by degrees for for a whole moneth or more after the death of Queene Mary the Roman Religion continued in the same state it did before upon the twenty seventh of December leave was granted to have the Epistles Gospells ten Commandements the Lords Prayer Creede and Letany in the English tongue The two and twentieth of March when the Nobles and Commons were met in Parliament the entire use of the Lords Supper viz. in both kindes was allowed and the Law made to that intent in Edward the sixts dayes revived and put in new force The twenty fourth of June the Sacrifice of Masse was abolished and the Liturgy in the English Tongue established by Parliament In July the Oath of Supremacy was propounded to the Bishops and others and in Aug. Images were removed out of Churches and broken ot burnt Cambd. Eliza Reg. 39. From the first of Eliz. untill the eleventh yeere of her Reigne no person How the Laws made for conformity to the Service of the Church were observed of what perswasion soever at any time refused to come to the publique Divine Service celebrated in the Church of England being so evidently grounded upon the sacred and infallible word of God that the Bishop of Winchester in his answere to Tortus page 42 is not afraid to affirme positively that the Pope Paulus quartus which is misprinted for it should have been Pius quartus if the Queene would have acknowledged his authority would have been so kinde as to have established all the Rites and Ceremonies now used in the Church untill the Bull published against the Queene by Pius the Fift whereby he excommunicated her and deprived her of her Kingdome and forbad all her Subjects upon like penalties to be so hardy as to obey her Admonitions Lawes or Commandements and did absolve all men who had upon any occasion taken their oath to her of all fealty and service due unto her by reason of her Government which Bull produced no other effect then the severe Statute made the thirteenth yeere of the Queene against all men who should endeavor to put it or any such in ure or execution or should receive or take any absolution or reconciliation from the Church of Rome But afterward these Parliament Laws for the conforming to Divine Service established became as much disobeyed by another generation of men called Puritans and therefore the Statute of the thirty fift of Elizabeth cap. 1. was made expresly against them yet would they never be restrained untill they upon pretence of Reformation brought a desolation upon both Church and State Shee was truly pious who daily as soone as she rose set a part some time Of the virtues of Queen Eliz. for the worship and service of God afterwards at set houres retired her selfe into her private Closet frequented the Chappell duly upon Sundaies and holydaies nor was there ever any Prince that with greater devotion was present at divine Service In black aray and after the manner of the former ages she heard attentively Lenten Sermons although she would often say what she had read of Hen. 3. her predecessor That she had rather devoutly speak to God in Prayer then hear others discourse eloquently of God in their Sermons and of the Cross the blessed Virgin and of the Saints shee thought reverently nor did shee ever speake of them without a certain reverence nor patiently heare others speake of them without the like * to these may justly Camb. Eliz. Reg. 14. be added a wisdome and prudence in Government so far above her sex that certainly shee in that kinde is not to be parallell'd by any of her masculine predecessors and these vertues were crowned with that felicity that all along her long Reigne shee was most passionately and obsequiously hononred by her Subjects a rare thing among Islanders and not to be found in any time before her in any of her Predecessors Yet sure
the Scots no whit edified by his concessions the next year upon no cause given by the King they not only arm but enter the Nation in open hostility from his granting them their concessions the English Faction urge his granting all things how dishonourable soever even to the shedding of humane blood nor would they have stayed there had not the Kings utmost necessities put him upon other resolutions of seeking his preservation otherwaies then by granting all the exercise of the Militia and Regalities to those men who made so bad use of his precedent benefits and favours Machivel in the 26. chap. lib. 1. de repub advises every new Prince that The Kings cause was most prudent as well as just unjustly possesses the City or Region of another that by how much he understands himself more weak to conserve his Empire either by lawfull ruling or by instituting a free Common-wealth by so much the more he intends this only that as he is a new Prince so in his Principality he does innovate all things that he create new Magistrates marked by new names and to them he choose new men that he distribute the goods of the rich to poor men and make them rich And as it is reported of King David so it may be said of him He hath filled the hungry with good things and the rich he hath sent empty away c. and the reason he gives is that no man in his Region that holds any thing but must confesse he obtained it of the Prince But if he be so great at policy in Princes who unjustly possesse anothers right to innovate all things then in reason besides the justness of it there can be no greater prudence in Princes who reign by inherent birth-right and to the wrong and prejudice of no man to rule and govern by the old received and established Lawes of the Nation to innovate nothing where there is no apparent necessity neither in Church or State in Lawes or Religion yet who hath not seen the most Saintlike and Glorious Monarch of the Western World whose right was derived from innumerable ancestors nor was there upon the face of the earth any one that could make any colourable pretence of right to his Crown prosecuted arraigned condemned and executed by his own naturall Subjects and his Queen and Posterity banished for no other reason but because he did endeavour to have governed and protected them by the known and established Lawes of the Nation So little avails the skilfulness of the Pilot how good great or just soever if the wind of divine favour wherewith eternall providence governs mortall affaires help not to bring our actions to their desired Port Sir Edward Coke in the Pleas of the Crown Cap. Petty Treason prop. sin A short view upon the 3. Nations since they cast off their obedience observes that in perusall of all books Histories and Records it was never found that Treason did ever attain the desired end but did alwayes prove fatall destructive to the undertakers Let any man but see Gods judgments upon the Kirkmen of Scotland and the Roman Catholicks of Ireland if they be not either vagabonds abroad or the most miserable slaves in the world at home for although it so pleased the divine providence that their iniquities prevailed against the King yet did the divine vengeance overtake them by a third faction so new contemptible and obscure that it was not only in their undertaking not feared but in the beginning never heard of in the world It is true indeed the English Presbyterians who had most basely accepted a canting thing called the Covenant from the Kirkmen of Scotland and as injuriously imposed it upon their fellow Subjects have not been so highly chastised in the generall by them as they in Scotland the Roman Catholicks in Ireland have yet were they so far from attaining their ends that since all this Nation abounded with factions that was the most hated and despised by all other Nor were the other Factions much more reconciled and true to one another then to the Presbyterians for the Army commanded by Oliver Cromwell turned out the Rump of the Long Parliament which headed the Independent party and after Cromwells death the Army receives the Rump and displaces his posterity and surely in this world is not to be found in any family so many and so great distractions and dissentions as were in the late Protectors nor did the Rump of the late Long Parliament maintain their long fought for and new restored Dominions but were rejected by those creatures that did restore them with very small hopes of ever attaining to it again Yet did the Rump after reassume their supremacy and proceeded as high and arrogantly as if they had never done wrong but suffered all injustice and wrong by their interruption when not only the Treasure of this Nation was exhausted and all Crown Church and Delinquents Lands and Compositions converted and consumed but the whole traffique of the Nation interrupted and destroyed And if it were so dangerous a thing to a Nation for one Faction to be formidable in Church or State how dangerous was it where there is no visible Church and nothing but Factions in all the State Although man by nature be a sociable creature and men do and ever did since there were any records of time live in society by right or usurpation to something superior to either the Fathers or Masters Power yet since the exercise of all power is politique humane or voluntary and therefore divers Princes govern by divers Lawes as they sort with the natures and dispositions of their Subjects and not only so but all Princes govern their own Subjects by differing Lawes according to their site and nature of their Subjects for it were a most unreasonable thing that the same Lawes should be imposed upon Mediterrane places where are observed in Maritime or that the Laws and Usages of the City of London should be required to be observed in every Country Village c. And since that some Nations doe almost without contradiction upon all occasions obey the Lawes of their Princes with out dispute as the Muscovites Armenians Persian Indians c. others scarce ever unlesse they be governed by their ancient received Laws ordinarily in extraordinary cases by Laws passed in some publick Assemblies as the Germans Swedes Polanders and Danes others are governed peaceably by their ancient received Laws in the usuall administration of Justice and in extraordinary cases doe admit of new ones having them rarely passed in publick Conventions such are the Italians Spaniards and French and this doth not proceed from any abject baseness or meanness of spirit for in the world are no where found men more generous and valiant And some are rarely governed long in peace although governed by old Lawes ordinarily and the consent of the major part of the Freeholders as they conceive by their representatives in passing new ones as
from voluntary and contingent causes of man so contactus naturalis in bodies apted and disposed doth necessarily generate yet is there no necessity that this contactus should bee but it might not have beene c. Universall causes in nature produce nothing of themselves but as meeting with particular and materiall causes disposed to production the universall causes are alwaies prime and necessary but their meeting with particular causes are not alwaies so but often times contingent and voluntary As God by the confluence of naturall causes is alwaies the first cause of all creatures by Generation so is he the first cause of the preservation of all Creatures yet doth not he preserve them by any absolute necessity of his part alone but by such meanes as he hath ordained for every Creature I say this meanes doth not alwaies come to passe from inevitable necessity of the part of God but often times from the will of men and contingent causes for example no man lives but as he daily repaires nature by eating and drinking yet there is no necessity that he should eat or drink but he may choose whether he will or not Nor is God less the prime preserver of intellectuall and rationall creatures yet doth he not preserve them as other creatures void of understanding but thus using the intellectuall and rationall faculty of their Soul yet there is no man but may chuse whether he will use his understanding and reason in his actions and that man who doth not use his understanding in his actions but only his affections and passions how great soever he be will live to see misery enough And though Religion and Justice cannot of themselves preserve men in Peace and Happinesse but some superior cause which must order and dispose them thereunto yet so necessary are they for the preservation of peace and happiness that whersoever they are neglected men did ever degenerate into straction confusion and prophanenesse this superior cause which dignifies men above all other creatures as well intellectuall as sociable is God who is the prime efficient and necessary cause of peace and happinesse among sociable Creatures and Religion and Justice are the necessary meanes which he hath ordained therefore But though Religion and Justice be necessary for the peace and happinesse of any Nation yet is it not alwaies necessary on Gods part men should be Religious and Just but men may chuse whether they will do religious and just acts or not God therefore is the first and necessary cause of peace and happinesse among men and Religion and Justice the necessary meanes which he hath ordained thereunto and this to be performed by man and let no man thinke that God will save any man in this world or blesse him in the world to come against his Will when men will not endeavor these things by such meanes as hee hath ordained Man therefore by Religion and Justice ought to endeavour through God's blessing to attaine to Peace and Happinesse as well in this World as in the next without which hee cannot reasonably hope for eyther Having thus far treated of the causes of all society and vindicated the Government and Lawes of my native Country and mother-Church of England It will not be amisse before I conclude to add a word or two in vindication of Sir Edward Coke my most honored Ancestor since by words and writing he is so traduced as indeed Quis ille a tergo quem nulla aconia pinsit by men so maliciously or ignorantly or both Among the rest one a late writer of a Pamphlet I will not call it because of the subject being the life of our late Soveraigne yet it is without name although I thinke few men but are sufficiently assured of the Author upon a seditious and reproachfull speech he sayes tending to the dishonour of his Majesties Government made by Mr. Coke after the wonted rate of his lavish pen without any more adoe makes him a Chip of the old Block But of all men I am content he next after one of our Mercuries should say it since if he be not traduced unjustly hee can asperse the Nobility upon the faith of a Mercury and so many others upon none at all and his Quotations upon his Geography So fals that upon search made by a Reader and scarce any to be found to be true upon the reprinting he blotted out the pages and only quoted the Authors and left the Reader to finde them where he could If these be true then certainly his ipse dixit is of small account if false then let him deny them But I can tell our Historian newes of his Soldier whom he page 156. made openly to be shot to death in Saint Pauls Church yard for as is confidently reported and beleeved he was apprehended about Whitehall June 17. and is at this time in faire election of being hanged And being no lesse a more famous Geographer then Historian though his second Edition suffers much for want of his expunged pages to finde out his quotations hee page 123. makes the Town and Castle of Conway a place of principall command on that narrow channell which runs between the County of Carnarvan and the Isle of Anglesey whereas the Town and Castle of Conway stand upon the River Conway which parts Denbighshire from Carnarvanshire a little below the mouth of the River Gessen nay let any man see whether the River Conway falls not into the Irish or Virgivium Sea but whether it fals into the Irish or Virgivium Sea or not yet certainly it cannot fall into the narrow Channell which parts Carnarvanshire from Anglesey which begins at Abermenay ferry and ends at Porthathir ferry whereas the mouth of Conway is little lesse distant from Porthathir ferry then that is from Abermenay Porthathir ferry being upon the matter equidistant from either What heed then is to be taken to the ipse dixit of such a Geographer and Historian let any man Judge Sure he had more need mend his own Errors then be so rash and lavish a Censurer of other mens Although I take not this mans tongue to be any slander so not worth an answering or at most a bare denyall of what he sayes were sufficient which I doe since it is but gratis dictum yet since other men have assumed to themselves such licence of aspersing him it will not ill become mee to shew how unjustly he is aspersed in those things whereof they traduce him as first this man makes him a seditious man certainly it is very strange that in the living of 83 yeeres the many of his writings and his many imployments doth not produce so much as any suspicion thereof that I ever heard of One thing yet pleases me that in all these seditious commotions Judge Jenkins and almost all the assertors of the Kings Cause have next after Divine Laws maintained it principally out of his writings nor doe I remember that any of the adverse part I am sure