miserable a warre upon him All understanding and dis-interessed persons must clearely discerne it is the same injustice not to consent the people should be happy and to keep up these publique calamities ununtill they shall be satisfied in their illegall unreasonable proposalls Though it be a more politique way duris conditionibus pacem pati velle to expresse a desire of peace but not to admit it but upon unequitable and unjust conditions yet it is equally dishonest as to deny it downeright They are altogether inexcusable unlesse they will make such proposals whereby it may appeare they covet not anothers but only to preserve their owne rights Which the King freely offers to them without diminution of the least title and with unpresidented enlargements by many additionall favours in this present Parliament He is desired to make the Houses sharers with him in ordering the Militia and to grant them a right to suppresse all forces but such as shall be raised by their consent This request is evidently destructive of that fundamentall Law which intrusts this power in the Crowne alone to enable the King to protect His Subjects and the Lawes The benefits of which constitution our happy Ancestors enjoyed and the greatest pressures the English nation at any time suffered under did spring from this fountaine when Subjects undertooke the managery of this regall right Because their desire is discountenanced by Law and being so though it were as really beneficiall as it is truely pernicious to the peace and quiet of a State opening a gap to civill dissentions necessarily arising from the opposite interests of consorts in power though it might be reasonably wished yet it cannot be innocently fought for They endeavour to justifie it by reason of State and plead the necessity of it as being the onely cure of feares and jealousies The recovery of this Kingdome were certainely desperate if His Majesty too should grow fearefull and jealous who hath beene more unanswerably tempted to give admitance to these unhappy passions For if they might seize on his power by the Law of feares if that it is taken from him becomes a motive to perswade him to give them right to keepe it might not he with greater shew of reason require an inlargement of his former power because it is manifest though they pretended to be afraid of it it was not able to secure him from their violence Much more might be pleaded why he should be enabled to keepe what the Law gives him then they not to restore what they have illegally taken from him But he contents himselfe with the ordinary meanes of safety appointed by Law and will not make himselfe justly formidable by giving entertainement to unjust feares and challenging a priviledge to doe injuries because it is not impossible he may suffer them and may loose his owne rights except he disable others by invading theirs If this principle should once prevaile peace and justice were lost to mankinde for it would still be some-bodies turne to be afraid and that would give them a right to greater power which right would cease as soone as they were possest of it and the true title to power would alwaies be in those who wanted it There is no other way to get out of this maze and confusion to which their wild feares inavoydably betray a State but by prevailing with our reason not to suspect those whom the Lawes have not suspected For as jealousies against Law are causelesse so they are altogether remedilesse The fuller answer to Doctor Ferne endeavours to excuse them by vertue of a commission from this principle abundans cautela non nocet but wofull experience hath evidenced the contrary he tells us further State jealousie hath no right hand error none on the excesse side the more the better pag. 27. It is much worse then private jealousie because this is but the misery of a family that the unhappinesse of a Kingdom To summe up all though some have gone so farre to indulge to Subjects a liberty to take up armes in maintenance of old laws yet no sober author can be produced who makes it lawfull to fight against their Soveraigne for the establishment of new laws It is not possible a strong desire of innovation should take off the guilt of so unnaturall a warre The King requires nothing but what the Subject cannot deny without injustice without perjury and consequently the guilt of all that bloud which is or shall or might be spilt his knowne legall rights and he denies nothing which the Subject can by Law challenge and hath indulged so much of grace as all ages cannot paralell and yet is still ready to consent farther if any reasons shall be produced to invite greater favours How will posterity hate this example and blush at the unworthy story of our proceedings who have discouraged good Kings by these ungratefull requitalls of such eminent deservings towards his people If we had not with our peace and plenty and innocence lost our reason too we should quickely be perswaded to accept of so great happinesse and not perversely hazard an ignominious death onely to make our lives miserable How are we become beasts in our understanding as if onely capable to suffer without any apprehension of the causes or remedies The result of all is life and death are set before the people it is in their election to be againe happy but they chose these miserable things and are active in their owne ruine For it will come to that if they stop not in their wild progresse The husbandmans store being consumed the pastures unstocked though wee escape the sword or bullet wee shall be devoured by famine or else perish by plagues or fluxes the fatall productions of unholsome dyet It concernes us to pray unto Almighty God that he would be pleased to restore us to our wits for if he would make us wise wee should soone make our selves happy by bringing the pernicious authors of these our miseries to a legall tryall wee should then clearely see that the preferment of a few men ought not so to sway with us that wee should sacrifice our Liberty and Property and suffer the Lawes to be violated the Protestant Religion to be dishonoured only in order to satisfie some particular mens ambition That indignation of the people in Virgil ingaged in a miserable warre to gaine that with bloud and ruine the want whereof was no diminution to their happinesse would too well fit the English nation Scilicet ut Turno contingat Regia conjux Nos animae viles inhumata infletáque turba Sternamur campis Must wee dye like dogs that they may live like princes How are the oppressed commons concerned in those mens illegall gainings that they should be contented to loose their estates and lives and soules in prosecution of none of their owne interests They fall unlamented unregarded while the contrivers of these mischiefes sit safe exposing others to the dangers grow rich while the impoverished Kingdome is reâ—dy to sinke under the burthen of its debts and are even wanton in our oppressions Since therefore the onely ground of this unnaturall warre is that His Majesty will not permit us to be lesse happy then our Ancestors choosing rather to suffer so many injuries and to expose His Royall Person to the dangers of open hostility then to wrong His Subjects and purchase safety or plenty by making such Lawes as private interests would force upon Him and the Kingdome Since He denyes nothing but the abolition of our good old customes which long experience hath confirmed to be extreamly beneficiall to this Nation Since they reject peace upon pretext it comes not accompanied with truth and meane by truth not the Protestant Religion as it is setled in this Kingdome and established by Act of Parliament but some moveable Creed the Articles whereof it shall be their priviledge to abrogate and to make it speake new doctrines according as they will suit best with their civill interests Since they fight not for certaine and knowne Lawes not for a certaine and knowne Religion that is not to restore but to take away and which is more intollerable that they may adde as yet they know not what It is evident the resistance now made is most offensive of the Subjects part and doth unavoidable incurre the Apostles sentence damnation FINIS ERRATA PAg. 2. lin 16. del p. 5 l. 12 read life p. 15 l. 26. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 17. l. 36. dele it p. 36. l. 20. for his r. your p. 42. l. 28. for not r. no. p. 77. l. 22. r. quod p. 86. l. 2. for the r. our p. 95. l. 2. r. whom p. 98. l. 11. for against which r. against which p. 123. l. 34. for eo r. to p. 134. l. 6. r. Grecian p. 135. l. 21. for not altogether r not altogether consonantly to p. 139. l. 15. for that r. the. ib. l. 34 for not be r. not to be p 158. l 17. inquiry
and gaine time and if that would not doe he would dismisse the assembly and command another meeting Then would he appeare first upon the place in mourning apparell and with afflicted lookes and humble countenance sadly requesting the people to take compassion on him who suffered such miserable things and feared worse only for doing them service and desiring them to reward his faithfull endeavour by loving his poore Wife and little Children for he gave himselfe for a lost man since he had reason to feare yet the cause in which he should fall was an unspeakable comfort that the enemies of the Common-wealth and such as maligned their happinesse would come upon him in the night and force his house and murther him These well dissembled griefes so wrought their passions that the abused Citizens set up Tents about his house at their owne charges and maintained a constant Guard for his protection When such men shall make a State miserable under pretence of improving its happinesse and challenge to themselves a right to breake all setled constitutions under colour of forcing upon the Kingdome new Lawes which will be more beneficiall when they shall imprison us at pleasure that wee may injoy our liberties and take away our goods to secure our property and punish the most orthodox conscientious and painfull Preachers and impose upon Congregations factious Lecturers to settle true Religion and when they have acted such high mischiefs shall tell us the Nobility and Gentry of the Kingdome are Malignants and delight in and contribute their aides to advance an illegall government who are certaine to suffer most in it it is then time to cry out Quis tulerit Gracchos de seditione querentes I have beene tempted to a large digression because the same Artes which made Rome miserable are visible in our calamities I will now proceed with Calvin after he hath very conscientiously instructed us in our christian duty by saying all resistance is unlawfull unlesse undertaken by the authority of Magistrates whom the Law enables to be the peoples protectors and gives them the highest power which can only be in an Aristocracy or popular State he hath afforded too great an occasion for mistake by an ungrounded conjecture Et quâ etiam fortè potestate ut nunc res habent funguntur in singulis regnis tres ordines quum primarios conventus peragunt And the same power which the Tribunes of Rome c. had as things now stand peradventure belong to the three Estates when they hold their principall assemblies I could wish I were able to excuse him from temporizing yet he layes it down extream cunningly perhaps peradventure if this chance to be otherwise you have nothing to say for your selves you are condemned out of his mouth and in a poynt of such higly concerning consequences you have no reason to change his adverbe of doubting into an assertive I shall oppose to his perhaps it is certainely not so in England because our Lawes make this a Monarchicall government and so different from that of Rome or Athens or Sparta and therefore conscience hath no warrant for resistance against him in whom the supreme power is placed The worke of the second section was to prove it unlawfull for Subjects to resist him or them in whom the supreame authority that is all the legall power of the Kingdome in order to raise armes is placed I shall now shew the invalidity of their exceptions against it by manifesting that no dispensation grounded upon what causes soever as indeavours to make them slaves or beggars or to introduce another and a false religion and what else may be comprehended under the extreame abuse of this power to their oppression or upon any persons as inferiour magistrates or any colour of preserving the authority of the man by fighting and as much as in them lies destroying the man in authority or of making the power well used for the good of the people and not the person abusing that power to be the minister of God c. can excuse such resistance from the sin of rebellion and from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fighting against God in despising his ordinance Tyrannicall abuse of power doth not make taking up armes against the supreame governour lawfull This truth is confest in words even by their cheife writers Tyranny doth not dispense with the Subjects duty of alleageance though in the meane while they make use of such arguments to prevaile on the peoples affections and exhort them against the King in the feare of God as clearly overthrow this acknowledgment The fuller answere to Doctor Ferne saith thus there are two kinds of tyranny regiminis and usurpationis that of government though never so heavy yet must be indured not only to the good sayes the Apostle 1. Pet. 2. 18. but the froward too and therefore I know no man that defends the ten tribes revolt from Rehoboam p. 22. when they complained of some greivances under which they had groaned in his fathers reigne he was as indiscreete as unjust and told them he would oppresse them more and yet because he had jus regiminis it is ingenuously granted it was unlawfull for them to Rebell The breife answere to Doctor Ferne thus we professe against resisting power authority though abused He doth not hide himselfe as ordinarily by dividing the power from the person who is invested therewith but concludes against resisting the men also If those who have power to make lawes shall make sinfull lawes that is prove tyrants and so give authority to force obedience we say here there must be either flying or passive obedience p. 113. By the same reason if he that hath the only power by lawes already made to traine array and mustar and to dispose of the Militia with which he is intrusted for his Subjects protection and his owne safety should put them into hands which they cannot confide in yet there must be no warre waged to prevent a supposed danger there must be either flying or passive obedience But if one that is in authority command out of his owne will and not by law I resist no power no authority at all if I neither actively nor passively obey no I do not resist so much as abused authority If you meane by not passively obey take up armes ◠against which you must if you speake pertinently and would make an application of this answer to the justification of hostile resistance in Subjects you do resist power and authority in this case For though you are no obliged to yeild obedience either contrary to divine praecept or the knowne lawes of the realme yet by making use of armes you transgresse that law which disables Subjects to make warre without the Princes authority much more against his expresse command to the manifest indangering of his royall Person He answers this had beene but accidentall p. 121. and so we are told by others he might have stayed away Those damn'd assassins and
a most certaine argument of our serious turning from all sinne For here is not onely godly sorrow for offences past which is the doore and entrance into Christianity but the perfection of it also amendment of life which is true repentance For we sacrifice the pleasures and profits of this world and what ever was deare unto us while we remained carnall nay we yeild up life it selfe against the most violent assault the flesh can make to the will of God who assures that to dye thus is gaine as also whosoever will save his life shall loose it and whosoever will loose his life for my sake shall finde it For these reasons private revenge is unlawfull though upon private men and therefore much more hath Christ disarmed us from recompencing evill to the Magistrate because there is some equality betweene mine and my neighbours life but publique tranquillity the common peace of a whole Kingdome which is destroyed by civill warre and the life of a single man though innocent are very unequall Naturally we love society below our selves for the end of it was to convey to us such and such goods and that which is loved in order to something else is lesse amiable But morally and in Christianity we are bound to preferre the publique good to whatever private Interest And the obligation is very reasonable For if we submit nature to religion and be content to loose our lives for the present we shall receive them hereafter with great advantage So that charity to our neighbour and love of our selves doe sweetly kisse each other Exc. It is lawfull to resist in Gods behalfe and to preserve the true Religion and to compasse the peace of Hierusalem by disturbing that of Babylon Ans Certainely never any man made great improvement of his owne religion by raising Civill Warre and Sedition and Rebellion are very unfit meanes to beget devotion in the hearts of others this way is so unlikely to attaine to perfect godlinesse that I am much afrayd by the unspeakable scandall of these not-christian courses it destroyes even common honesty amongst men Since the time of these unnaturall distractions there hath beene a generall ebbe in our devotion Ex illo fluere retro sublapsa referri Res Coeli Some with Nadab and Abihu offer strange fire before the Lord which he commanded them not God in his good time may quench these flames which sensibly consume both Church and State and the unhappy incendiaries may be devoured in that fire which themselves have kindled Others are not at leisure to offer up the ordinary incense of prayer and thanksgiving though too many have been over gratefull and when beaten in the field they have triumph'd in the Church and instituted solemne praises for the Almightyes preserving their party in such a sense as they endeavoured to preserve their Soveraigne If any time be spared to make their addresses to Heaven their usuall voyce is as harsh in Gods eares as the drumme and trumpet for he is generally invoked as the Lord of Hosts who takes greater delight to be worshipped as the God of peace Mutuall feares and mutuall injuries have so exasperated the minds of most men that the defection from charity is much more common then that from allegeance So that how religion thrives be you judges I am certaine there is a great decay of godlinesse But to examine this colour of preservation of true Religion First all the Anabaptists and Brownists and other Sectaries who beleeve us Idolaters for using the signe of the Crosse in Baptisme all such as joyne with them in fighting against the booke of Common-prayer and Episcopacy established by the fundamentall lawes of this Kingdome are evidently ingaged in this Rebellion not for defence of their old Religion but to introduce a better and new Creed Let me aske them with what face they can hereafter object to Papists that their Religion is Rebellion who may justifie rising up in armes against their lawfull Soveraigne for the Catholique cause upon these Puritan principles The truth is not all Jesuites doe maintaine it and many Papists abhorre this seditious doctrine agreeing with Roffensis that sicut evangelium non dat regnum sic nec auferre potest lib de potest papae in tempor Christ came not to dispose of Kingdomes nor to make them subject to forfeiture The University of Paris hath very christianly determined it seditiosum impium ac haereticum quocunque quaesito colore à quocunque subdito vassallo aut extraneo sacris regum ac principum personis vim habere a seditious impious and hereticall thing for any Subject Vassall or forreigner upon what pretexts or colour soever to offer violence to the sacred persons of Kings and Princes in their censure past June the 4th 1610. A more dangerous tenent for turning States upside downe and bringing all to confusion was never invented then this that Regnum fundatur in orthodoxa Religione Subjects may cast from of their neck the royall yoake if he will not submit to the yoake of Christ Their late Pamphlets speak out and tell us plainely the quarrel is whether Jesus shall be King By this meanes those who manage Christs scepter will command the Kings and he must lay downe his Crown before the Presbyters They have another principle nearely allyed to this which hath too great influence upon their practice Dominium fundatur in gratiâ only the Saints Gods elect have right to the creature wicked men and reprobates doe but usurpe the portion of the godly and thereby increase their owne damnation for they are the true heires for our Saviour bestowed all upon them The meeke shall inherit the earth When wee think they plunder they doe but distreine upon their owne goods it is a recovery of what was due to them by the Gospell to measure right by lawes is but to breake evangelicall priviledges It is not theft but charity to put the wicked in such a condition as that they shall have lesse to answer for If men of these opinions be tolerated both reason and experience shew the peace of the realme is apparently dangered Secondly as it is unlawfull and some of their owne writers confesse thus much see Master Burroughs pag. 123. to fight for Religion if the Lawes of the Land be against it yet this is clearely their case for they goe the destructive way and would root out part of the established worship though very much hath beene indulged to tender consciences even in this case so it is against the civill constitutions of this Realme and consequently against divine ordinance to take up armes against their King though he should really favour another Religion and countenance by his practice superstitious rites nay though the professors of the true and setled religion should be illegally grieved Here were an opportunity to shew their christian fortitude to make use of their spirituall militia faith humility and patience and not to contradict their calling and discredit
must not returne ill language because he was the Ruler do clearly evince their argument not concluding Saul was a bloody tyrant hee made the Priests a sacrifice to his cruelty yet notwithstanding he continued Gods anointed It were easie to instance in many examples which shew the vices of man making ill use of the power do not voyd the ordinance of God There are who answer these places very piously but as I think not altogether to what Saint Paul aimed at Rulers are not a terrour to good workes and he is the minister of God to thee for good that is though they oppresse nay kill innocent men yet they cannot hurt them For God will recompence their sufferings it is in bonum afflictis though affligentibus in malum because all things worke together for good to them that love that is are obedient to God Rom. 8. It seemes to me more probable that the scope of the Apostle was to inforce the duty of subjection pressed in vers 1. by a second reason for he had urged before the ordinance of God drawn from the benefits which will be reaped from Governours And the motive is the consideration of that happinesse which wee have reason to promise our selves from the preservation of order the end of which is publique tranquillity This is enjoyed under very bad Princes which will abundantly recompence some particular sufferings whereas if wee should goe about to right our selves when power is abused to say nothing that it would alwayes be pretended to be so by ambitious men who have this advantage that the common people have but weake judgments in State matters and yet appeales are especially directed to them and since our miseries have growne upon us the contrivance of our calamity was very visible the fatall arts which ruined this Kingdome were to make the meaner sort of men Judges of Policy and women generally the Judges of Religion and they are easily perswaded to reckon misfortunes amongst crimes and to confound ill intentions with ill successe If I say wee should take upon us to governe our Governours because they rule not for our advantage wee should pull upon our heads much greater mischiefes Experience shewes that Kingdomes suffer infinitely more by Civill Warre then by the most Tyrannicall Princes If wee call to mind the most vicious King that ever reigned in England wee shall find though he did injure some particulars indulging to some inordinate affections against the tenor of Law yet justice was favoured in the generall and the greatest part of the Kingdome reaped the fruits of order Whereas illegall endeavours to force him to amendment introduce a cessation of all law and justice and the Subjects will be plundered more in one night then the greatest monopolyes and most unjustifiable taxes of many yeares robb'd them of The Apostles sense is expressed fully by Tacitus Ferenda Regum ingenia néque usui esse crebras mutationes The reason why it is better for a people though oppressed to submit with patience even to a Tyrant is this if he be put to recover his owne by conquest and prevaile he may be tempred as highly provoked to rule them with a rod of iron and to provide for future safety by utter disabling them to hurt him but if they get the better their victory doth but confirme our calamity wee cannot see any probable end of our unhappy distractions Because forraigne Princes will certainely afford supplies for recovering his just rights for it might suddainly be their owne case and they are bound to it in State interest that they send not aid sooner is because it is for their advantage to have a neighbour Kingdome weakned but not the Prince ruin'd and it is very unlikely he should ever want a very considerable party at home many out of conscience more out of discontent and envy towards their fellow Subjects prosperous treason endeavouring to restore their injur'd Soveraigne to his undoubted Rights and Prerogative So that England would be the unhappy scene where the tragedies of Germany would be reacted But grant a totall extirpation and that they shall be able to go through with their wicked designe and not only branch but even root Monarchy also for this is aimed at by some who feare it may sprout againe if the stock be left have wee yet at last any hopes of peace when wee are so undone by warre that wee have nothing left to loose but our lives truely no then like theeves when once secure of their booty we should have thousand differences in dividing the prey all of them challenging preferments great as their sinnes and setting such a price upon their wickednesse as the estates of all honest men will not be able to pay it is not possible what they have gotten can be pleasant to them when they consider much more might be enjoyed and sadly recollect the inequality of the recompence to the adventure for their lives were exposed to the danger of the law their reputation is lost with all good men and their soules are eternally ruin'd They would fall out amongst themselves who was the greatest Traytor and never yeild precedency in mischiefes because that is the measure of Sharing Some would plead they contrived others they acted the Treason and thinke a subtile braine should have no priviledge above a couragious heart it being more easie to fright the people by inventing false dangers then to lead them on and make them stand the brunt of true It is beyond my skill to proportion the wages of sin determine whether the slye and cunning setter or the stout thief can claim greatest share in the spoyle But commonly the speculatively malicious men are miserably deceived of their expected requitall For though they set the mischiefes on foot yet their journey-men quickly apprehending the mystery are easily tempted to set up for themselves It hath beene often seene that to end such quarrells he that was head of the conspiracy in reference to the active part of it and who had force enough to oppresse a Tyrant would use the same to establish himselfe their Lord and Master and his government was so much the more rigid severe and miserable because he was frighted with his owne example upon his predecessor This I conceive to be the Apostles sense that wee must submit even to bad Governours such they were when he wrote this Epistle not only out of honesty but prudence also because if wee goe about to make them better wee shall put the Kingdome and consequently our selves in farre worse condition After this explanation I will reduce their Argument into forme that I may thereby give more distinct satisfaction Non resistance is forbidden only to the powers ordained of God But powers used tyrannically are not ordained of God therefore wee are not forbidden to resist them The assumption is absolutely false For though tyranny be not the ordinance of God yet the power which is commanded to rule justly but withall inabled to
an Arbitrary sway Doe you desire to be as happy as your progenitors you shall For you shall enjoy all the same lawes by the benefits wherof they lived peaceably plentifully gloriously And besides this for a futher improvement of your happinesse all those new Lawes enacted this Parliament and the severall additional favours by parting with many knowne rights which exceed the Acts of Grace from all His Royall Ancestors though put together shall be confirmed to you Doe you desire to be as free as your Ancestors you shall His Majesty passionately requires the Liberty of the Subject should be restored and will take care the people shall not loose their birth-right by being imprisoned upon His or which is worse their fellow Subjects illegall displeasure He will contribute His utmost endeavours that His owne Castles the Bishops houses and all other not long since honest habitations may be disgaoled and the English may be againe acquainted with the comfort of life freedome of their persons and of conversation and not be banished from their Wives and children for presuming to make the Lawes the rule of their obedience Doe you desire the establishment of your Property you shall have it His Majesty challenges no right to your estates and is unwilling Subjects should claime a priviledge to take them from you only that they may be better inabled to withhold His. No pretences of unknowne dangers or unseene necessity shall justifie the violation of Lawes which alone can secure your inheritances Doe you desire Priviledges of Parliament should suffer no diminution They shall enjoy them in as high a way as the Subject in the freest and most happy dayes ever challenged And lastly that Religion which was sealed with the bloud of many holy Martyrs since the Reformation and which stands established by Acts of Parliaments and flourished in the purest times of Queene Elizabeth which no sober man can thinke guilty of any inclination to Popery shall be confirmed to you by an impartiall execution of all legall penaltyes appoynted against offenders Thus whatever can reasonably be pleaded for is cheerfully offer'd to us and wee are wooed to accept what the contrivers of our ruine pretend is fought for Lawes Liberty Property Priviledges of Parliament and Religion Would you have security for performance of this promised happinesse you shall have as great as in justice you can require or in reason expect the same security with which the modesty and wisdome of former Parliaments were fully satisfied and the Kingdome injoyed the benefits of their well grounded confidence And to compleat all you shall have certaine provision for a Trienniall Parliament We are restored to such a high degree of health as our Fathers were never acquainted with and moreover such a course is taken to time this State Phisique it was never intended Parliaments should be our constant diet as will probably prevent future distempers What fury hath robb'd men of their understandings that they cannot be perswaded to be happy that their malice should increase with their calamities that they should hate and teare and kill one another they know not why For upon my soule a great part of their army would not impose upon others nor admit themselves of the Brownists or Anabaptists Creeds neither would they thinke this Kingdome unhappy so they might get some honest imployment as honourable opportunities would not be wanting in forraigne nations if we had once recovered our former reputation with that wealth and quiet we lately injoyed though 8 or 10 men should loose their mischiefes and not get those offices which they valued above the riches and quiet and honour of their nation What one thing hath His Majestie denyed them which hee had not full right so to do And qui jure suo utitur nemini injuriam facit except they can alleadge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very considerable injuries offerd to them and a refusall to give satisfaction the warre is manifestly unjust on their side wee at the worst shall fall martyrs and they at best will live murtherers all the bloud which hath beene shed will be brought in upon their accompt all those rapines and sacriledges the robbing God and men will lye upon their heads In matters of Law he hath not rejected any thing and in matters of meere grace and favour he hath beene bountifull above all his royall Ancestors and so extreamely tender is he in giving all content to His two Houses that he could not prevaile with himselfe to deny but he reserves his assent till such time as they can shew him some reasonable motive whereby he may be invited to grant As he hath been constant in his love and prosecution of peace so he hath taken extraordinary paines in solliciting His Houses to cut off the unnecessary injuries of war by laying down plunderings and other causelesse violences committed upon Estates or persons on both sides his Royall heart bleeding even for the unavoidable pressures the people have pull'd upon themselves His Souldiers will rule their actions by the counsell of John the Baptist and be content with their wages and cheerfully hazard their lives in defence of so honest a cause by as honest meanes If they are not able to pay their Army what secret moath and canker hath consumed that vast treasure Their want of money is a great argument of the unsearcheable judgment of God who can make them still poore though they take a liberty to seize the wealth of the Kingdome O that the people would but yet consider how unlikely it is the State can thrive hereafter under such Stewards He that sadly calls to mind the height of happinesse from which wee are lately falne all past grievances being fully remedyed and future pressures probably prevented and considers how often His Majesty hath intreated importuned us to accept againe of that blessed condition may well wonder that our calamities should yet continue that they should hourely grow upon us I would willingly banish from my thoughts those melancholly observations of Historians Quos Deus vult perdere prius dementes facit and Quorum fortunam Deus mutare constituit consilia corrumpit But they have so strongly possest my fancy that I am almost tempted to feare such a generall losse of mens reason is but the fatall forerunner of an universall destruction Our condition stands thus though the King hath not yet nor ever will hereafter deny any thing of right those desires which are regulated by lawes shall be no sooner presented to Him then granted and though he hath indulged extreamely much of favour more then our Fathers had the boldnesse to crave neverthelesse wee cannot prevaile with our selves to injoy so great blessings unlesse He will consent likewise to their other requests some of which He may thinke He is obliged not to passe in justice there being no light motives to induce Him to beleeve He hath sworne against it at His Coronation and some He cannot grant with honour and without betraying