besides he shutteth up himself to his Devotions Insomuch that it is known that upon particular Causes he hath constituted to himself some Fasts with that secrecy that those nearest ahout him have gotten no knowledge of it but by his Abstinence for God hath given him so good a Health that he neither needeth nor otherwise useth to forbear Meals It is likewise well known that he hath Composed excellent Prayers which he hath caused to be used suitable to the Occasions as particularly for the good success of the Treaty at Uxbridge Further I may testifie and do it in the presence of God that in Conference with me of great and private Trust concerning his present sad Condition he hath told me that although he could not but be sensible of his own Distress of that of the Queen and of his Children the Calamity of the Kingdom and very particularly of his Friends likely to be destroyed for their fidelity unto him yet that which most afflicted him was the Apprehension of the Ruine and Destruction of the Church of England and of the true Protestant Religion which he conceived had the least to be mended in it and most both in Doctrine and Discipline agreeing with the Primitive Times of any Church he knew in the World And I am of belief that it will be found of much difficulty to pull from him this Opinon unless his Conscience and Iudgement shall be convinced by some such learned and unanswerable Arguments as he hath not yet known For although it be very probable that temporal regarâ—s may make him condescend unto great inconveniences and great lessenings yet if I much mistake him not that have known him many years no sufferings or Dangers nor other worldly Considerations whatsoever will be of Power to cause him to make Shipwrack of his Conscience And although it be very true that the Queen his Wife be most dear unto him and in all other things of greatest Power with him yet in matter of Religion his Resolution to live in it and his Ability to defend it was so well known unto Her and to all about her that as they could not but think it bootless to Attempt any thing in that kind so they knew they could not essay it without Offence And although he hath alwaies indeavoured to breed up the Prince his Son in great Duty and Reverence to the Queen his Mother with a strict command unto him to be obedient to her in all things yet it hath alwaies been with this Restriction Except it be in point of Religion And upon my own knowledge I dare and do deliver this for a positive Truth So likewise the matching of his eldest Daughter to a Protestant Prince though not of the Rank of Kings may be judged as a great Argument of his love to the Reformed Religion Besides in the beginning of these troubles knowing this malicious suggestion cast upon him he set forth a publick Manifest unto the Protestant Churches to vindicate himself from that scandal and to assure the World of his Constancy and Resolution to live and die in the Reformed Religion And as for his Piety in this his Profession the Scripture saith Shew me thy Faith by thy Works And what greater Argument of Religion and Piety can there be to man who cannot search into the Heart to God that only belongeth than a temperate sober good Life and Conversation What blood in his Reign hath been sacrificed to his Wrath or Revenge What Confiscations have enriched his Treasure What noble Family hath been dishonored by his Lust What Incouragement hath Vice Excess or Licentiousness received from his Example Nay I am perswaded that it will much trouble his Enemies yea Malice it self to find out the Vice wherewith to reproach his Life yet how many Shimei's have reviled the Lords Anointed of whom we are taught not to speak ill in our Bed-chambers And when Cause of speaking ill against him hath been wanting they have set him up as a But before them for their scurrilous Wits Libels and Hue and Cries c. I am far from charging the Houses for having a hand in these low and unworthy things only I shall say that it is possible for private Errors to become publique Faults non Committendo sed non Castigando It was Elies Case and Gods Iudgement followed it Besides this certain knowledge that I had of the Kings settledness in his Religion I was far from being satisfied in my Conscience that if the King should have changed his Religion and become a Papist it should have been lawfull to take Arms against him For as Moulins above saith in the name of the Church of France We ought not from the Religion of our Princes to take occasion of disobedience making Piety the Match whereby to kindle Rebellion c. And when Hen. 4. that great King of France did leave the Communion with the Reformed Churches and was reconciled to the Church of Rome and conformed himself to the Rights thereof by going to the Masse and performing all other Ceremonies and Worship established by it yet those of the Reformed Religion in France did not thereupon think it lawfull to withdraw their Obedience or take Arms against him but continued to serve him with all faith and Loyalty And such as made those detestable Assaults and that Paricide who committed that horrid and execrable murther upon his Royal Person took not their Incitements and Incouragements from the avowed Doctrine of the Reformed Churches but from the writings of some hotter-headed Papists to the great Scandal and Reproach of their Church And from the Tenents of our new Puritan Doctors who by those Maxims wherin they both agree have instead of the Eastern Assassinates brought in on both sides their Enthusiasts fitly prepared Instruments for Treasons and Murthers by whose hands so many Princes and Kings have fallen and by whose Doctrine so many States have been involved in Rebellions and Civil Wars So likewise upon the several Changes of Religion in England under Hen. 8. Edw. 6. Queen Ma. and Queen Eliz. The Protestants of the Reformed Religion declared against hâ—stile Resistance and exhorted to obedience and suffering and confirmed their Doctrine by their own Martyrdome as is before set down Besides the Precepts of Scripture of not resisting the Powers ordeined by God over us were to command obedience to Princes that were all Heathen Idolaters and Persecutors of Gods Church Our Saviours Precept was To give unto Caesar what belonged unto Caesar and what St. Paul and the Apostles injoyn was towards Nero Neither did the Christians take Arms against Iulian notwithstanding his Apostacy but continued to serve him and to sight against his Enemies with fidelity and courage And I conceive it is the general received Opinion of all moderate Christians That as Religion ought not or to speak more properly cannot though Dissimulation and Hypocrosie may be planted by force so Subjects may not withdraw their civil and natural Allegiance
if it should but so happen which God of his goodness avert That mutually Forces and Armies should be raised Jealousies and Fears would be so much increased thereby that an Accommodation would be rendred full of difficulty and length and the very charge of maintaining them whilst first a Cessation of Arms and then a general Accommodation were in treating the Wealth of the Kingdom would be consumed And of this we had lately a costly Example for in those unhappy Troubles betwixt us and Scotland after there was a stop made to any further Acts of Hostility and a desire of Peace expressed on both sides Commissioners nominated and all the Articles propounded yet the keeping of the Armies together for our several Securities whilst the Cessation at Rippon and the Peace at London where in treating cost this Kingdome not much lesse than a million of pounds And if two Armies be once on foot here in England either a suddain Encounter must destroy one of them or the keeping of them on foot must destroy the Kingdom I hope therefore we shall make it our endeavour by Moderation and Calmnesse yet to put a stay to our so near approaching miseries and that we shall hearken to the wise advice of our Brethren of Scotland in their late Answer to the King and Parliament wherein they earnestly entreat us That all means may be forborn which may make the Breach wider and the Wound deeper and that no place be given to the evill Spirit of Division which at such times worketh uncessantly and resteth not But that the fairest the most Christian and compendious way may be taken by so wise a King and Parliament as may against all Malice and Oppositions make his Majesty and Posterity more glorious and his Kingdom more happy than ever And in another place they say That since the Parliament hath thought meet to draw the Practice of the Parliament of Scotland into Example in point of Declaration They are confident that the Affection of the Parliaments will lead them also to the Practice of that Kingdom in composing the unhappy Differences betwixt his Majesty and them and so far as may consist with their Religion Liberties and Laws in giving his Majesty all satisfaction especially in their tender Care of his Royal Person and of his Princely Greatness and Authority Certainly MY LORDS this is wise and brotherly Advice and I doubt not but we are all desirous to follow it We must not then still dwell upon generals for generals produce nothing But we must put this Business into a certain way wherby particulars may be descended unto And the way that I shall offer with all humility is That there may be a select Committee of choise Persons of both Houses who may in the first place truely state and set down all things in difference betwixt the King and the Subject with the most probable way of reconciling them Secondly to descend unto the particulars which may be expected by each from other either in point of our supporting of him or his relieving of us And lastly how all these Conditions being agreed upon may be so secured as may stand with the Honor of his Majesty and the satisfaction of the Subject When such a Committee shall have drawn up the heads of the Propositions and the way of securing them they may be presented unto the Houses and so offered unto his Majesty by such a Way as the Parliament shall Iudge most probable to produce an Accommodation MY LORDS What I have said unto you hath been chiefly grounded upon the Apprehensions and Fears of our future Dangers I shall say something of the unhappiness of our present Estate which certainly standeth in as much need of Relief and Remedy as our Fears do of Prevention For although the King and People were fully united and that all men that now draw several waies should unanimously set their hand to the work yet they would find it no easie task to restore this Kingdom to a prosperous and comfortable Condition If we take into our Consideration the deplorable Estate of Ireland likely to drain this Kingdom of Men and Treasure if we consider the Debts and Necessity of the Crown the Ingagements of the Kingdom the great and unusual Contributions of the People the which although they may not be so much to their Discontent for that they have been legally raised yet the burthen hath not been much eased let us likewise consider the Distractions I may almost call them Confusions in point of Religion which of all other Distempers are most dangerous and destructive to the Peace of a State Besides these publique Calamities let every particular man consider the distracted discomfortable estate of his own Condition for mine own part I must ingenuously profess unto your Lordships That I cannot find out under the different Commands of the King and the Parliament any such Course of Caution and Wariness by which I can promise to my self Security or Safety I could give your Lordships many instances of the Inconsistency and impossibility of obeying these Commands But I shall trouble you with only one or two The Ordinance of Parliament now in so great agitation commandeth all Persons in Authority to put it in execution all others to obey it according to the Fundamental Laws of the Land The King declareth it to be contrary to the Fundamental Laws against the Subject and Rights of Parliament And commandeth all his Subjects of what sort soever upon their Allegeance not to obey the said Ordinance as they will answer the contrary at their perils So likewise in point of the King commanding the Attendance of divers of us upon his Person whereunto we are obliged by several relations of our Services and Oaths in case we comply not with his Commands we are liable to his displeasure and the loss of those places of Honor and Trust which we hold under him if we obey his Commands without the leave of the Parliament which hath not been alwaies granted we are liable to the Censure of Parliament And of both these we want not fresh Examples So that certainly this cannot but be acknowledged to be an unhappy and uncomfortable Condition I am sure I bring with me a ready and obedient Heart to pay unto the King all those Duties of Loyalty Allegeance and Obedience which I owe unto him And I shall never be wanting towards the Parliament to pay unto it all those due Rights and that Obedience which we all owe unto it But in contrary Commands a Conformity or Obedience to both is hardly to be lighted on The Reconciliation must be in the Commanders and the Commands and not in the Obedience or the Person that is to obey And therfore untill it shall please God to bless us with a right understanding betwixt the King and Parliament and a Conformity in their Commands neither the Kingdom in publick nor particular men in private can be reduced to a safe or comfortable Condition I
whether they be within the Kingdom or fled out of it And that all Persons cited by either House of Parliament may appear and abide the Censure of Parliament 14. That the general Pardon offered by your Majesty may be granted with such Exceptions as shall be advised by both Houses of Parliament 15. That the Forts and Castles of this Kingdom may be put under the Command and Custody of such Persons as your Majesty shall appoint with the Approbation of your Parliament and in the Intervals of Parliament with the Approbation of the Major part of the Counsel in such manner as before is expressed in the Choise of Counsellors 16. That the extraordinary Guards and Military Forces now attending your Majesty may be removed and discharged and that for the future you will raise no such Guards or extraordinary Forces but according to the Law in case of actual Rebellion or Invasion 17. That your Majesty will be pleased to enter into a more strict allyance with the States of the United Provinces and other Neighbour Princes and States of the Protestant Religion for the defence and maintenance thereof against all designs and attempts of the Pope and his Adherents to subvert and suppress it whereby your Majesty will obtain a great access of Strength and Reputation and the Subjects be much incouraged and enabled in a Parliamentary way for your aid and assistance in restoring your Royal Sister and her Princely Issue to those Dignities and Dominions which belong unto them and relieving the other distressed Protestant Princes who have suffered in the same Cause 18. That your Majesty would be pleased by Act of Parlia to clear the Lord Kimbolton and the five Members of the House of Commons in such manner that future Parliaments may be secured from the Consequent of that evill President 19. That your Majesty will be pleased to pass a Bill for restraining Peers made hereafter from sitting or voting in Parliament unless they be admitted thereunto with the Cansent of both Houses of Parliament H. ELSYNG CLER. PARL. D. COM. The Oath of Supremacy Cited page 31. I A. B. do utterly testifie and declare in my Conscience that the Kings Highness is the only Supreme Governor of this Realm and of all other his Highness Dominions and Countries as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical things or causes as Temporal c. I do promise that from henceforth I shall bear Faith and true Allegeance to the Kings Highness his Heirs and lawfull Successors and to my power shall assist and defend all Iurisdictions Privileges Preheminences and Authorities granted or belonging to the Kings Highness his Heirs and Successors or united or annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm So help me God and by the Contents of this Book The Oath fa Privy-Counsellor Cited page 32. You shall swear to the uttermost part of your cunning wit skill and power you shall he true and faithfull to the Kings Majesty our most dread and Soveraign Lord and to his Highnesse Heirs and Successors Kings and Queens of England according to the Statute for the establishment of the Succession of the Crown Imperial of this Realm You shall not know nor hear any thing that may in any wise be prejudicial to his Majesty or to his Heirs and Successors in form aforesaid or to the Common Wealth Peace and Quiet of this his Majesties Realm but you will with all diligence reveal and disclose the same to his Majesty or to such Person or Persons of his Highness Privy-Counsel as you shall think may and will honestly convey and bring it to his Majesties knowledge You shall serve his Majesty truly and faithfully in the room and place of his Highness Privy-Counsel You shall keep close and secret all such matters as shall be treated disputed debated and resolved of in Counsell without disclosing the same or any part thereof to any but only to such as be of the Privy-Counsell And yet if any matter so propounded treated dispated and debated in any such Counsell shall touch any particular person sworn of the same upon any such matter as shall in any wise concern his fidelity and truth to the Kings Majesty you shall in no wise open the same to him but keep it secret as you would do from another person till the Kings pleasure be known in that behalf You shall in all things to be moved treated disputed and debated in any such Counsel faithfully and truly declare your mind and opinion according to your heart and conscience in no wise forbearing so to do for any matter of respect or favour love meed dread displeasure or corruption Finally you shall be vigilant diligent and circumspect in all your doings and proceedings touching the Kings Majesty and his Affairs All which points before expressed you shall faithfully observe fulfill and keep to the utmost of your power wit and cunning So God you help and by the holy Contents of this Book The Negative Oath Cited page 32. I A. B. do swear from my heart that I will not directly nor indirectly adhere unto or willingly assist the King in this War or in this Cause against the Parliament nor any forces raised without the Consent of the two Houses of Perliament in this Cause or War And I do likewise swear that my coming and submitting my self under the power and protection of the Parliament is without any manner of design whatsoever to the Prejudice of the proceedings of the two Houses of this Present Parliament and without the privity or advice of the King or any of his Counsel or Officers other than what I have now made known So help me God c. An Act of Parliament 1 Iac. cap. 1. acknowledging the Right of the Crown to him and his successors by inherent birth-right c. Cited page 19. We do upon the knees of our hearts agnize constant Faith Loyalty and Obedience to the King his Royal Progeny in this high Court of Parliament where all the body of the Realm is either in person or by representation We do acknowledge that the true and sincere Religion of the Church is continued and established by the King And do recognize as we are bound by the Law of God and man the Realm of England and the Imperial Crown thereof doth belong to him by inherent Birth-right and lawful and undoubted succession and submit our selves and our posterities until the last drop of our blood be spent to his Rule And beseech the King to accept the same as the first fruits of our Loyalty and Faith to his Majesty and his posterity for ever And for that this Act is not compleat nor perfect without his Majesties Consent the same is humbly desired A Declaration which Offences shall be adjudged Treason Anno 25 Edvv. 3. cap. 2. Cited pa. 35. Whereas divers Opinions have been before this time in what Case Treason shall be said and in what not The King at the request of the Lords and of the Commons hath
Dominions c. And this Declaration I and all the rest of the Members of both Houses have made So that it being an uncontroverted and confessed truth That the King is our lawfull Soveraign and we his faithfull Subjects and consequently the Power ordained over us by God the which to resist by S. Pauls Doctrine delivered in plain and explicit terms is To procure to our selves Damnation I must confesse That although I will not judge other men yet I durst not adventure my Soul upon a Moot-Case or upon Distinctions or strained Interpretations against that which appeared unto me to be the literal and clear sense S. Paul declaring Rom. 14.22 23. That he that doubteth is damned The meaning whereof I understand to be That he that doubteth that that which he doth is sinfull and wicked and yet adventureth to do it therein sinneth presumptuously and thereby runneth a hazard of Damnation And truly I did much more than doubt for I was as S. Paul requireth we should be Rom. 14.23 Fully perswaded in mind of the contrary So that without Impiety and making Shipwrack of my Conscience against the plain Precepts of Scripture I could not adhere to the way of Resistance CHAP. IV. The Doctrine and Practice of the Primitive Church of not resisting their Princes notwithstanding they were Heathens or Apostates I Well know that the Authority of Scripture needeth not any humane or forein support But because the Parties of several yea contrary wayes will both pretend to have the Scriptures in their favour and from them to draw the rule of their Consciences alike to me it seemed that nothing ought to be of greater Authority under Scripture or like rightly to interpret Scripture than the unanimous Doctrine and practice of the Primitive times and of those holy and learned men who as they were nearer to the times of our Saviour and of the Apostles and of those Pen-men of God so doubtless they saw by clearer light than we do now at a greater distance And really by what I could ever read or be instructed in from others I could never find any thing either allowing or countenancing the Subjects taking Arms against their Soveraign although it were in the highest and most bloody persecution and under the worst of Princes many of them being Heathens Tyrants and Apostates And yet it was to these wicked Persecutors to whom our Saviout and his Apostles injoined Obedience And the primitive Fathers practised it in their sufferings and Martyrdoms But I must confess I have met with a most untrue Allegation and most injurious to Christian innocency That the reason of the Christians bearing so many wrongs and oppressions was because they had not then power and means to do otherwise or right themselves The untruth of this Allegation will appear by the writings of those Fathers whose profession it was to bear and suffer but not to resist Flere potero dolere potero c. aliter nec debeo nec possum resistere was the Saying of S. Ambrose S. Syprian saith Quamvis nimius copiosus noster populus non tamen adversus violentiam se ulciscitur sed patitur And Nicephorus reporteth that in one day twenty thousand Christians were slain in the City of Nicomedia under Dioclesian And many of their books are full of passages of this strain And to conceive that power to resist was only wanting is not only injurious to the Innocency of those Holy Men but injurious to God who if his Glory had not been more advanced by their Sufferings Martyrdom and Persecution than by Resistance or that Resistance had been commanded by him or he pleased therein Those his holy Servants should not have perished for want of Power Our Saviour saith when for the defence of his own Person he prohibiteth resistance * If he would he could pray to his Father who would send him more than twelve Legions of Angels And when the preservation of Gods Servants redoundeth more to the Glory of God than their sufferings He is never wanting to them * As we see by so many deliverances by the extraordinary Power of God But the truth is That unto these Primitive men treading in the steps of the Apostles their sufferings were their Glory their Rejoycing and their Advantage And divers of the Fathers by way of prevention as it were foreseeing that this Scandal might be cast upon their Innocency and Christian Patience That it was want of means and power and nor of will that they resisted not do clearly declare That neither Numbers Armes or Courage were wanting to them wherewith they might defend themselves nor Injuries Oppressions and Persecutions wanting that might provoke them thereunto But it was the Example of Christ and his Apostles sufferings and their holy Doctrine and Precepts commanding Obedience that suffered not their hands to fight against the Powers ordained by God over them although they used both hands and armes with remarkable Valour and Success against the Enemies of their Princes notwithstanding the said Princes were Heathen and Persecutors of the Church of God But this Doctrine of not Resisting some of our new Divines who cannot but acknowledge it to be both the Doctrine and practice of the Apostles and Primitive Times do now say That God was not then pleased to reveal the Doctrine of Resistance But that Martyrdoms and sufferings were the way by which he thought it then sit no plant the Church which he is now pleased should be protected by Resistance and enlarged by power Wherein they have mistaken the Text For that that Doctrine instead of the Bible is taken out of the Alcoran where Mahomet saith That God had sent Christ in the Spirit of meekness to establish his Law But now by him he would have his Law setled and established by the power of the Sword and Conquest And if prevailing or success might stand for Arguments it will be hard convincing this Mahometan Doctrine But certainly the general and universa Tenent of all the Churches of Christendom were and I conceive are still That as Religion ought not to be planted by force or constraint So Christian Subjects ought not to make Religion the ground of their Resistance or taking Armes against their Prince And herein there is a concurrence of all Protestant Churches although they differ in many other points who in their publique Confessions do not admit of Hostile Resistance against their Supream Magistrate And more particularly the Church of England which without any immodestie may challenge her part in the Reformation she having had many learned Propugners of it by their Writings and not a few that have sealed it with their Blood by patiently dying for it hath declared against it confirming the Exhortation to Obedience published in the time of Edw. 6. and the Homilie of Obedience by the Articles of their Confession of Faith The like doth the rest of the Reformed Churches in the Harmony of their Publique Confessions So that
it hath been the constant Doctrine of all Protestant Divines since the Reformation down until our times And I have heard divers men very eminent for their learning aver it That upon their Reputation they will make it appear That these few years of Distractions in England have poduced more seditious Pamphlets tolerating and incouraging Disobedience than all the Christian world ever saw before The Protestants had wont to charge the Doctrine of Resistance upon the Roman Catholiques They likewise indeavour to father it upon the Protestants It seems both are unwilling to own it I mean in their general received Tenents though it be true that some of both professions have written in the defence of it though disclaimed and burned by publique Authority as wicked and seditious on both sides Andreas Rivetus Professor at Leyden writing against a Jesuit that cast this Aspersion upon the Protestants that they agree with them in the Doctrine of warring against or deposing Kings saith That no Protestant doth maintain that damnable Doctrine and that rashness of Knox and Buchanan is to be ascribed praefervido Scotorum ingenio ad audendum prompto To the over-hot spirit of the Scots ever apt to be over-hold The Protestants of France not only in their Articles above cited but in their books protest their Innocency and that they abhor this Doctrine of Resisting forcibly Pierre du Moulin hath these words Nous tenons que ce n'est point à vn Sujet de trouner en la Religion de son Prince occasion de desobeissance feisant de la Pieté vne allumette de Rebellion Nous sommes prests a' exposer nos vies pour la defence de nos Rois contre qui que ce soit fust il de nostre Religion Quiconque feroit autrement ne defendroit point la Religion mais serviroit son ambition attireroit vn grand blame sur la verité de l' Evangile We hold that a Subject ought not from the Religion of his Prince to take occasion of disobedience making of Piety a match whereby to kindle Rebellion We are ready to expose our lives for the defence of our Kings against whomsoever it be although of our own Religion And whosoever should do otherwise should not defend Religion but serve his own ambition and would draw a great reproach upon the truth of the Gospel The Roman Catholiques especially the Doctors of the Sorbons have written Volumes against it and never fail to censure all books that maintain that Doctrine to the fire And the University of Paris in their published Censure of the 4. of June 1610. declare that Seditiosum impium haereticum est quocunque quaesito colore à quocunque Subdito Vasallo aut Extraneo sacris Regum aut Principum personis vim habere That it is a seditious impious and heretical thing for any Subject Vassal or Foreiner upon what pretence or colour soever to offer violence to the sacred persons of Kings or Princes So that both Protestants and Roman Catholiques declaring against it that is in the general received and approved Tenents and Opinions of their several Churches of how little Authority ought the private Opinion of some few hot-headed Men to be who seeking to get themselves a name by being the Authors of some new and bolder Opinions shall upon their own fancies or some witty or subtle Inferences and Deductions contradict the unanimous and universally received Opinions of all Christian Churches and the Practice and Examples of so many Holy Martyrs from the very times of the Apostles even unto our days Mr. Fox in his Book of Acts and Monuments specifieth many even to their death exhorting to Obedience to their Prince I shall only set down one instance of many Those famous Sufferers in Queen Martes dayes although the Reformed Religion being newly planted was likely by Persecution to be extirpate and that some more hot and zealous seemed to have an Inclination to preserve themselves and their Religion by way of Force for at that time their power was great Twelve of the most eminent amongst them for Learning and Piety agreed to the setting forth a Declaration of their Faith and Doctrine in which they set down their Hatred to any such Inclination and exhort with great earnestness of Spirit and beseech in the bowels of Jesus Christ all such as fear God to behave themselves as obedient Subjects to the Queen and to the Superiour Powers ordained of God under her and rather after their Example to give their heads to the Block than in any sort to Rebell or to Mutter against the Queen the Lords anointed And towards the end of this their Declaration they renew their Exhortation humbly praying all men to be in no point consenting to any kind of Rebellion or Sedition against the Queen But where they cannot obey but they must disobey God their to submit themselves with all patience and humility to suffer as the Will and Pleasure of the Higher Powers should adjudge as they themselves were ready to do rather than to consent to any Doctrine contrary to that Confession which they had made in the said Declaration And most of all these men sealed this their Doctrine with their blood being burnt in several places of the Kingdom some in Smithfield some at Gloucester some at Coventry as is set down particularly in the said Story page 1470. So that both the Protestants and Roman Catholiques in their published and avowed Doctrine disclaiming and censuring this Doctrine of Hostile Resistance as Impious and Heretical as is abovesaid of what Authority can the private Opinions of a few men condemned by their own Churches be for the setling and satisfying for any sober and uningaged mans Conscience against the Doctrine and practice of the whole Christian World and in all times It is true that a strong fancie against any thing makes us hardly to be perswaded to it But we easily believe that which we earnestly wish And it is as true that all times have brought forth some great and able wits that have ever affected to be the Authors of new Opinions and the Arch-Heretiques have ever been noted to have been Men of parts though of stronger fancy than solid Judgement Many of these new Men if not all of them have by learned answers of particular men been confuted as well as by publique Censures been condemned as Impious and hereticall as Iunius Brutus by Baricane Dr. in Divinity and Canon of the Cathedrall Church of Tholouse Anno 1614. This Iunius Brutus is an assumed and counterfeited name the author of it as it should seem being unwilling to avow the Doctrine and was published first in Latin and afterwards set out in French Anno 1611. by Lewis Mayerne Turquet It laid the ground of such Maxims and Tenents as the Authors that have written against them do not content themselves with shewing their Opinions to be false and erroneous but they in veigh against them as detestable and
due to their Kings upon any colour or pretext of Religion For as no private man doth forfeit his Inheritance or free-hold by Impiety or Atheism although he may forfeit his Soul unless he commit some legal Crime So a Prince that holdeth his Crown by unquestionable Right of Succession cannot forfeit his Temporal Inheritance by the erroniousness of his Religion his Soul must only answer that forfeit And although some have gone so far as to admit a lawfullness of the Subjects taking Arms against their Prince for the defence and maintenance of their Laws and Religion yet no man hath adventured so far as to allow the taking Arms for bringing in of new Laws and a new Religion contrary to the established and that by force and without consent of their Soveraign which is the present Case CHAP. IX Shewing the War not to have been begun by the King but that he condescended to all things that could in reason be demanded of him for the preventing of it THere is yet one further Objection wherwith I have heard some indeavour to countenance and justifie their taking Arms against the King which was That he first made War against his Parliament meaning by force to introduce an Arbitrary Power in Church and Common-Wealth And that the War on their side was only defensive and for the maintenance of their liberties proprieties privileges and Religion The steps and progress of this unhappy War are so well known unto me even from the first misunderstandings betwixt the King and People and the improvement of them by Tumults and several Artifices untill they broke out into Acts of open hostility that nothing did so much terrifie my Conscience from taking Arms against the King or more confirmed me in my Duty of adhering unto him than the certain and infallible knowledge I had of the Kings hearty and unfeigned Desires and Indeavours to have prevented this War and to that end to have done and was ready to do all things that had been or should be with justice or reason propounded unto him for the satisfaction of his Parliament which I conceive to all unpreoccupated Iudgments will be easily most apparent when it shall be considered how many things he hath done besides the easing of just grievances whereunto he is indeed obliged which were meerly Acts of Grace and which if he had denied he should have done no wrong And for the doing whereof the wit of man can find no other reason or inducement but his desire to satisfie his Parliament and the keeping of things from extremities For besides the giving way to the putting down of the Court of Starchamber the High Commission and the regulating of his Councel-Table many other things he hath done which some Kings would rather have adventured a War than have parted with any of them As the consenting to have his Privy-Councel that had been sworn to secrecy to be examined upon Oath concerning those things that had passed in his Presence in his most secret Cabinet Councel The giving his Assent in such conjuncture of times to the taking away the Bishops Votes in Parliament And the divesting of himself of the Power to dissolve the Parliament notwithstanding that the evil Consequences that might happen to him thereby were represented unto him in my hearing And I conceive that no man will be so partial but they do beleeve that howsoever the King might be satisfied in point of Conscience by the Bishops and Iudges and the joint authority of both Houses for giving his Assent to the passing of the Bill for my Lord of Straffords Attaindure yet no man but beleeveth he would have saved his Life at a great Ransom But hoping therby to have allayed the rage of his people aswell as to have given full satisfaction to his Houses with a sad and afflicted heart he signed the Warrant for the Earls execution For he was then made beleeve that with his giving way to his death and his consenting to the Bill for not adjourning or dissolving of the Parliament but with the Concurrence of the Houses all misunderstandings betwixt him and his Parliament would be removed and all things return to a calm and orderly way of Proceeding Now if the King had had any secret Intention of making of a War would he have done so many things so prejudicial to himself and so against his heart only for the preventing of it and although his hopes of a quiet settlement by the passing of these two Bills failed him he yet gave not over the doing of all further things which he thought might renew a right understanding betwixt him and the Houses So likewise when that unhappy and unseasonable Act of his going to the House of Commons in Person happened he indeavoured to redeem it with such Acts of acknowledgemeot submission nay I may say asking forgiveness as were never done by any King unto his Subjects So likewise in the particular of his Attorneys accusing of the Lord Kimbolton and the five Members notwithstanding he had a President for it in his own time of Sir Robert Heath his then Attorneys impeaching of my self of High Treason which Impeachment was received and admitted of by the House of Peers and Arraignment and due process of Law was by the said House ordered and awarded thereupon yet the King finding the Houses therewith displeased did not only command prosecution to be withdrawn but left his Attorny to the Iustice of the Parliament And I conceive that it will be acknowledged by all Laws and Religions That the very excesses and errors of Soveraign Princes if reparation and satisfaction may be obtained by Petition and Remonstrance as in these Caâ—es they have been Recourse ought not to be had by Subjects to Arms or Hostile Resistance and I am deceived if this be not also the Opinion of the severest of our new Doctors Where wrongs are done if the party offending shall upon demand make reparation and give satisfaction to the party offended and yet he shall notwithstanding make War it is He that is the Agressor that maketh the offensive War Melior causa ad partem poenitentem transit And the party first offending by his penitency and satisfaction brings over the Right and Iustice to his Cause and if this be betwixt Independent States betwixt whom such as write de Iure Belli say a legitimate War can only be for War being defined to be publicoâ—um Armorum justa contentio Subjects are not allowed as lawfull Enemies opposed to their Soveraign for want of supreme and publique Authority How much more ought such Acknowledgment and Reparations as have before been set down have satisfied Subjects in the behalf of their King so far humbling of himself as certainly would have pacified a modest Conqueror After the King had found himself disappointed of his expectation and that by his former yieldings and complyances the misunderstandings were little allayed but greater appearances grew every day that other of unquietness and troubles
bound unto towards the King The sum of them being briefly thus 1. I understood Hostile Resistance against the King to be expresly prohibited by the word of God both in the old and new Testament 2. I should have gone against the Doctrine and Practice of the Primitive Church and against the present Tenents and Confessions of Faith of all the Reformed Churches 3. Admitting the Maxims of those hot-headed men either Romanists or Protestants that have written in favour of Subjects taking Arms against their Prince to be true as they are false and condemned by their own Churches respectively yet in this Case they could be no Arguments to me For that their Doctrine and Principles are in no kind applicable to the present matter in Fact 4. I should have directly broken all those solemn Oaths which I had so often taken of Fidelity and Allegeance to the King 5. I should have gone against the Laws of the Kingdom by which to take Arms against the King or to adhere to his Enemies c. is made Treason 6. I should have been failing in the Obligations of Honor and Gratitude 7. I should have transgressed against Moral Honesty and natural Iustice to have fought against the King as an unjust and an irreligious Man whom I knew to be in more than an ordinary measure Iust and Religious So that if I should have broken through all these Duties of Religion of Oaths of Loyalty of Laws of Gratitude and Moral Honesty by doing presumptuously against my Conscience how could I but have feared to be made as miserable in the next World as I should have remained despâ—cable in this And howsoever this may be judged a severe Censure ' It is only against my self as I say in the beginning of this Discourse Men may upon differing Painciples go differing waies And I cannot be so uncharitable as to think so many grave learned and noble Personages would break through so many plain Duties under which they had formerly lived And unto which they had not only sworn but conformed themselves But that they had either found out or had had revealed unto them some such things for the satisfaction of their Consciences as God hath not yet been pleased I should attain unto If I may see them in writing I shall peruse them willingly And if I shall find in them but so much Reason as may induce me to believe that upon their own Principles and not by Fear Interests or likelyhood of prevailing their Consciences may have been perswaded that way Although I disapprove their said Principles and still retain mine own yet I shall say Bonâ intentione mali sunt which though it doth not justifie an evill Action yet it doth in some measure excuse and lessen the Offence St. Paul was a great * Persecutor of the Church But because he did it out of abundance of Zeal * He obtained Pardon for that he did it ignorantly Our Saviour saith to his Disciples The time will come that whosoever killeth you will think they do God good service And those very Murtherers would have been in much better Case than I should have been that should have sinned presumptuously and against the perswasion of mine own Conscience whereas they had the Glory of God for their end though upon false Principles And certainly presumptuous sins being as it were a defying of God are of greater Provocation And I shall recommend unto those whose Consciences have led them another way that Imborn Charitable principle of the Law of Nature as well as of the Gospel Quod tibi fieri non vis alteri ne feceris Whatsoever ye would that men should to do you do ye even so unto them And if Conscience shal be a discharge or supersedeas unto them against known Duties against Oaths and Established Laws Let Conscience in me grounded upon so many Reasons as in this Discourse are set down be likewise pleadable for the doing of those Duties to which I conceived my self obliged both by the Law of God and Man and which hitherto both they and I have practised CHAP. XII All the former Reasons applyed to the present Case of King Charles with a positive opinion thereupon THese have been the Motives of setling my Conscience in the Opinion that I shall briefly here set down deduced from the Principles of this Discourse which upon this individual Case is That neither upon pretext of Religion Personal Vices Excesses in Government nor any other Colour or Pretext whatsoever the Subjects of the Crown of England may withdraw their Obedience or make Hostile Resistance to King CHARLES the present King Being by Right of Inheritance justly possessed of the Crown His Title no way depending either upon his Divine or Moral Vertues And the said Subjects having received him and acknowledged him for their only Supreme Governor done him Hommage and sworn to him Faith and Allegeance absolutely and without Condition As for other Kings or Potentates whether Elective Kingdoms or Kingdoms that at the Erection of them were received by the first King upon Express Covenant and only with a Conditional Obedience as is pretended by those of Aragon and others of these I shall not speak Neither shall I adventure to speak of those Catholique Kings and Princes which acknowledge in spiritual matters a Superiour Iurisdiction in the Pope over them And he pretendeth as hath been before set down by necessary Relation and Dependency of the Temporal upon the Spiritual to have a Temporal Power over them in ordine ad spiritualia and hath often put this his Claim in Practice by accompanying his spiritual Censure of Excommunication with the Sentence of discharging Subjects of their obedience to their Princes and so consequently of deposing them Herewith I shall not meddle None of these cases being applicable to the present Case of King CHARLES who is no Elective King but holdeth his Crown by an unquestionable Title of Succession derived to him by Descent from his Ancestors for the space of more than six hundred years Neither was there ever any Pact or Condition with him or any of his Ancestors of forfeiture in Case of misgovernment or wickedness And breach of Covenants forfeiteth not an Ordinary Estate unless there be an express Clause and Condition of forfeiture which in this Case neither was nor ever can be pretended It is true that his Ancestors and himself have limited and restrained their Legal Right by many Concessions and Laws in some Cases as The making of Laws without Consent of Peers and People and the levying of Mony c. which he cannot violate without great Injustice as shall be after shewn But no such Pact or Covenant can be produced or pretended whereby upon breach he forfeiteth his Soveraignty or maketh it justifiable for his Subjects to take Arms against him or to inflict Punishments upon his Person either by deposing Death or Imprisonment The Case likewise of Catholique Princes no way concerneth him who acknowledgeth in
the Pope no such Superior Jurisdiction Neither if he did are there any such Ecclesiastical Censures issued out against him as might warrant so much as his Catholique Subjects to take arms against him So that whatsoever Pretences may be in some Cases concerning such Princes as I have above specified wherein I shall not presume to deliver any Opinion yet in the present Case of King CHARLES there can be no colourable pretence of taking arms against him or of deposing him which I understand to be in effect when he is divested oâ— his just Regal Power Or of the imprisoning of his person which I understand to be not only when he is in Bonds or lockt up in a Room but when the liberty of going and the freedom of speaking is restrained to such places or persons as others shall please and he remain under the Guard of Armed men not of his own choosing but imposed upon him by others It must be acknowledged that the Kings of England derive their Title and Right from William the Norman who although he came in by Conquest yet his Successors considering that a Right acquired by Force may likewise be recovered by Force by those upon whom the forceable Intrusion was made were pleased by way of pact and stipulation to limit and qualifie that Imperium absolutum which is acquired by Conquest And the People of England thereupon did submit themselves to his Government and became his Subjects and his Liege-men And thereby was Constituted Imperium legitimum a just and Rightfull Soveraignty the Kings remaining with Supreme Power and the People with Common Right whereby they were freed from the Servitude of Conquest and remained under a free Subjection whereunto they had by their Consent submitted themselves The Kings likewise did recede from Absolute and Arbitrary Power and remained with Supreme but not with Absolute Empire By free Subjection I understand when a People live under Laws to which they have given a free Consent and not under the meer Will of the Prince And that they retain such a Propriety in that which is their own that without their Assent or legal forfeiture it cannot be taken from them And this is a true difference betwixt a Free Subject and a Slave or Servant Quicquid acquirit servus acquiritur Domino Liber quod acquirit acquirit sibi Whatsoever a servant getteth he getteth for his Lord Whatsoever a Freeman getteth he getteth for himself And so although that Dominion of all belongeth to the Prince Propriety belongs to every man Dominium totius apud Caesarem Proprietas apud singulos The Difference that I understand betwixt a Supreme and Absolute Empire is That in Absolute Empire the Rule of the Peoples Obedience is only the Soveraigns Will So it is in Turky Muscovia and all such Princes as retain entire the Right of Conquest and was in some sort under the Roman Emperor after the Lex Regia was established by the Peoples Consent whereby they transferred their entire Right unto the Emperor Supreme Empire I understand to be when a King hath a Supremacy and Soveraingnity over all but his Absolute Power is limited and restrained by reciprocal Pacts Laws and Stipulations betwixt Prince and People which is the Case of the Crown of England And to these Pacts the King and People are equally bound before God and Man And the King is as much bound to Iustice and to the protection of his Subjects and to the observance of the Laws not only out of Religion but out of Moral Honesty as the Subject is to Obedience And he is not only accomptable to God but his People have just and legal waies to seek Redress wherein he shall do Wrong notwithstanding that Axiome of our Common Law * That the King can do no Wrong which is very false in many senses and may be very well called fictio Iuris a kind of Metaphysical Fiction For Kings may do Wrong and be as wicked as other men and may commit Murther and lye with other mens Wives and wrongfully take take other mens Estates which no Fiction of the Law can make not to be Wrong although his Person be exempt from punishment And that abstract Consideration of the King for his just Power and Office as it hath been often ill used heretofore in way of Assentation So there hath been as ill use made of it in these troubles when the taking of arms and the fighting against him was pretended not to be against the King but against CHARLES STEWART But to speak in Terms intelligible a King both may do Wrong and the People may seek their redress in such sort as the Law of the Land alloweth And the difference betwixt King and Peoples failing in their reciprocal Duties is not but that they do Wrong alike offend God alike and are both of them liable to be questioned according to the extent of the Law by both their Consents established The Subjects transgressing the Law shall be punished according to the quality and measure of their Delicts Felony by loss of their Goods and Chattels and by a milder Death Treason by a more severe Death and Confiscation both of Goods and Inheritance But hereof they must be convict per pares by People of their own Condition and adjudged by a Superiour Iurisdiction which can be derived only and singly from the King So that the King not having his Peer or any of his own Condition cannot have a legal Tryal And having no jurisdiction superior to himself cannot be adjudged or sentenced by any For neither the Extent of the Law nor any Condition of the Pacts or Stipulation do reach to the punishing of the Person of the King or the forfeiture of his Dominion over us It is true that in civill things Tryals may be and often are brought against the King And Kings do give way That the Iudges be sworn to do equal Iustice betwixt them and their Subjects And in point of Oppression and Wrong we may Remonstrate our Grievances and challenge Redress by our Petitions Which if they be not condescended unto we may insist upon them as our right and claim them as a due and not as of grace And although we do it by way of Petition that is but a dutifull form of Subjects bringing their Plea against the King For in other sort he ought not to be impleaded Besides these Petions of Right we may as it hath been formerly said remonstrate enter our Protestations and take all those Courses which the Laws allow Neither ought the King to take Offence at these legal Contestations with him because by his assent unto the Laws he hath assented unto them Nay he ought in them to do us Right being bound thereunto by the Law of God and by his Oath and by moral Honesty and Iustice But if he fail in all these Duties our Jurisdiction reacheth not to his personal Punishment therein he is sub nullo nisi sub Dâ—o and the Law stoppeth there