the Instruments of slavery and establishers of Tyranny as he saith but the Restorers of our Liberty and Instruments of Justice No-other Parliament I know of but that it did continue out the fixt period of time according to the first Institution And as concerning their engagements the Parliament being justly dissolved the engagements concerning the Priviledges of the same are also justly dissolved for all promissory Oaths as engagements are but Political ties grounded upon Political considerations for Politique ends and binde no longer then the particular Politei and State standeth for as the Civilians distinguish in such Oaths Tholosa Syntag 49. c. 4. apposita clausula censeatur promissionem valere rebus sic ut tunc erant extantibus in eodem statu permanentibus an annexed clause or condition is to be supposed that promise to be of force things standing as they then were and remaining in the same State so as if that State be changed and ended such engagements as reflect on it are determined which distinction this Impostor might have learned of his Master Suares Suares resp ad apologiam projure fidelit 409. Quod sublata materia Juramenti consequenter obligationem auferri necesse est that the matter of the Oath being taken away by consequence the Obligation of necessity must be taken away as if a King saith he be deposed he ceaseth to be a King and in that respect no obedience is due unto him and forthwith the Oath doth not binde à fortiori if the Government be determined and the matter of the Oath dissolved the Obligation of the Oath is ipso facto exstinct for as Master Askham possession is the great condition for our obedience and allegiance how unjustly therefore doth this Impostor call these distinctions prevarications to piece up contrary Oaths which are grounded on approved Authority and his own Masters opinion The other reason on which he groundeth his seditious desgne is that the Officers and Souldiers of the Army are employed to force Elections that is as may be conceived to seculde such as are turbulent and factious from being Elected and admitted members of Parliament wherein we are to distinguish between a quiet and setled State and a Commonwealth which is distracted with factions In the first a free Election of Knights Burgesses and Citizens in Parliament is requisite and ought to be as Plato saith Libere incorrupte in the second a free Election is altogether inconvenient and dangerous for otherwise that great Council may be distracted and overruled by turbulent Spirits and nothing by it resolved for the publique good A pregnant Example of which we lately had in the proceedings of the late Precedent Parliament See his High 22. Jan. 1654. which as his Highness saith wholy spent their time and did nothing And in such cases of extremity where there is no course of prevention otherwise provided by Parliament Expedit principi omnium dissentionum causas in repub dirimere it appertaineth to the Prince to prevent all causes of dissention in the Commonwealth for he is the supreame Conservator pacis and by the advice of his Council may bar and frustrate the Election of those of whose malignancy and disaffection to the State he hath received certain and infallible intelligence and that by way of preventing future discord and distraction and accordingly in the turbulent times of Henry the third when the Kingdom was divided into two mighty Parties That wise King called the best affected onely to Parliament as Master Cambden in his Britannia relateth Ad summum honorem pertinet saith he F. 122. Ex quo Henricus tertius ex tanta multitudine quae seditiosa turbulenta fuit optimos quosque ad Parlementaria comitia evocaverit It was an highly honoured Act in Henry the third that out of so great a multitude which was seditious and turbalent he had called every one of the best affected to the Parliament by whose prudence and moderation the torn Estate of that Kingdom was cemented and setled in an uniformity of peace and tranquillity In like manner did his Highness this Parliament out of a multitude of malignant and discontented persons by the advice of his Council according to the Instrument of Government call and admit those onely who were best affected and well disposed into the Parliament House by whose wisdom and advice with little disturbance and contradiction the three main Pillars of the State which were then tottering were firmly fixed and established by Act of Parliament to wit the supreame Magistracy was confirmed in his Highness the succession setled and the Liberties of the people were Ratified and secured by his Highness according to the advice and Request of the Members of Parliament and were not as he impudently saith Pimps of Tyranny onely imployed to draw the people to prostitute their Liberty How unworthily and injuriously therefore doth this Impostor brand that pacifique and prudent Parliament in divers passages of his Pasquil with the strange name of a Junto with whose sound he is as much pleased as children are with the strange noise of a Rattle because it was purged and cleansed of such malignant and factious spirits and not virtuous as this Impostor saith who would have fomented discord and dissentions among them By which means the distracted State of these Nations is happily united to the content of his Highness and satisfaction of the People And that with the approbation and applause of the Religious Zealous Faithfull and Couragious Officers and Souldiers of the Army as he stileth them notwithstanding his conjuring imprecations who for their fidelity upon occasions are deservedly advanced exalted by their magnificent victorious Prince General not ruined by him whom they raised F. 15. according to this Impostors Machiavilian rule which he saith Princes observe when they are in power never to make use of those that help'd them to it unless they be such as this Impostor is Seducing Mutineers who are justly purged and cast out of the Army like dung and like cudgeled hounds lye lurking in their kennel bawling barking and catching at flies and are not like to rise or be exalted unless it be as Haman was and as he divineth be hanged up like bottles Qui male dixerit pejus audiet His Preface now ensueth wherein like the Fox though he seems to change his hair and outside yet still retains his nature and manners according to the Proverb Vulpem pilum mutare non mores and pretendeth that it was not instigations of private revenge and malice though it may be conceived manet alta mente repostum that his publique disgrace doth still stick in his stomack but indignation did make him break that silence prudence would perswade him to use But indignation and anger saith the Royal Preacher Eccles 7.9 resteth in the bosom of fools And Ira furor brevis est Anger is a mad Pen-man which makes him use such frantick and wild expressions But
in titulo as he falsely supposeth yet will he have him also a Tyrant in exercitio and as compleat a Tyrant as ever had been since the first Societies of men for so he brazeth it but as he faileth in the first so doth he falter in the latter and doth but labour and blot paper in vain though he daubs it on with artificial cunning to make the delusion the stronger for thus he cunningly argues Is it not Tyranny to change the Government without the peoples consent to dissolve their representative by force and to disannul their Acts to give the names of the peoples Repraesentative to confederates of his own to establish iniquity by Law to take away mens Lives out of all course of Law by certain Murderers of his own whom he names an High Court of Justice to decimate mens Estates and by his own power to impose upon the people what taxes he pleaseth and to maintain all this by force of Arms Which criminations as they are by him expressed are malicious and contumelious for he did not dissolve their Representatives by force or disannul their Acts but upon necessary grounds and urgent occasions neither did he give the name of the peoples Representative to confederates of his own to establish iniquity by a Law but he purged the Parliament of its unfound and putrified members and setled in it sincere and sound persons who might act nothing but what was agreeable to Law and equity as is in the premisses expresly proved neither did he take away Mens Lives by certain Murderers of his own but did make Commissioners erect an High Court of Justice to take away the Lives of such Rebellious murdering persons as this Impostor his Accomplices are who would have taken away the life of their Prince and Protector which he justly might do neither did he decimate Mens Estates and impose upon the people what taxes he pleased by his own power but he by the power was given him by the Army with the consent of many honorable people aswell as others at his installation at Westminster-Hall and in other places by whom he was created Lord Protector did by advice of his Councel for the maintenance of the Army and Navy and defraying of other necesâ—â—â—â— charges which concerned the honor and safety of the Commonwâ—â—â—â—â—â—ecimate mens Estates impose upon the people necessary taxes All which as he truly saith he maintained by force of Arms out of all course of Law as by right of War and his second Title he might as hath been fully debated Ploy f. 19. Tholosan Syn. l. c. 18. and 28. and decided Besides though upon acceptance of this Government with the consent and approbation of the people his Highness hath promised to govern these Nations according to the Laws Statutes and Customes yet is it a Rule in the Divine Civil Canon and the Common Laws that necessity hath no Law and that Necessitas facit licitum quod alioquin fuerit illicitum and that necessity maketh that lawful which otherwise should not be lawful and Princes strained with imminent and urgent necessity for the dignity and safety of the Commonwealth no established Law providing for a present remedy may justly do those Acts which otherwise by the course of Law were unlawful as to decimate Mens Estates and by his power with the advice of his Councel to impose such Taxes as are convenient and necessary And as the learned Legist Davis Rep. fol. 12. Sir John Davis saith The King by his Prerogative Royal to support the necessary charges of the Crown may decree Imposts and Impositions payable upon Marchandizes and so have Princes heretofore by their Prerogatives to encounter suddain dangers and mischiefs which would not endure so much delay as the assembling of the great Councel of the Commonwealth used their Edicts and Proclamations which Mr. Pym a grave and prudent Senator of this State stileth the most eminent power of a Prince and the most glorious beams of Majesty Mr. Pym his Speech in Parl. 1642. fo 31. in commanding Obedience and Subjection which he calleth Leges Temporum and onely disallowes them for the abuses in being exercised for the maintaining enjoying of sundry monopolies and other graunts exceeding burthensome and prejudicial to the people And therefore how can this Impostor answer his Highness Question in this point Whether the people should prefer the having of their wills though it be their destruction rather then to comply with things of necessity which as he truly Divines he should wrong his Native Countrey to suppose unless he will suppose the necessity to be faigned imaginary See his Highness Speech 22 Jan. 1654. See his Highness Speech the 12 of Sept. 1654. which his Highness acknowledgeth to be the greatest cousenage that men can put upon the Providence of God and which his Princely and Paternal care abhorreth Besides his Highness acted nothing in this Kind but by the advice of his Councel who are the Trustees of the Commonwealth in all Intervals of Parliament and hath an absolute negative upon the Supream Power in the said Intervals as the Parliament hath in the sitting so as it is not his own but a mixt Act by the advice of his Councel who in all probability would not advise him to any thing but what is necessary and expedient and if they should the offence would lie at their door And thus are the preterit Ordinances of his Highness fully cleared from the unjust aspersion of this Impostor in giving him the title of the Violation of Laws and Exercise of Tyranny and Robberies See the humble Pet. and advice of the Parl. c. the 17 of Sept. 1646. And for the future to prevent all ensing mistakes and suspitions of the necessity of imposing Taxes on the people upon provision made for the support of the Government and Safety of these Nations It is declared and enacted that no charge be layed nor no person be compelled to contribute to any gift or loan benevolence tax tallage ayde or other like charge without common consent by Act of Parliament But to proceed in the canvasing of this Impostors Calumniations and whereas he saith That notwithstanding his Highness hath done all these things yet for his preservation the people must pray as if it were impiety in the people to pray for him Our Saviour Christ was of another mind Mat. 5.45 whose Councel is to pray for them who despitefully use or persecute you And so was his selected Apostles who exhorteth that first of all prayers supplications intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men for the King and those that be in Authority And who had rule over them at that time but Nero a reputed Tyrant 1 Tim. 2.1 Swarez responsad Apolog. pâ—â— Jur. fidel and for persecuting Christians supposed to be Antichrist wherein by the fruits we may perceive of what spirit this Impostor is for he hath not the fruits of
provident Member of this State to the late King Charles in Parliament and the reasons by which he would have moved him to the same Warre The Spanish Colonies saith he in the Indies were weak distracted and discontented and that there were sixty thousand Persons of this Nation in those parts whose bodies were seasoned to that Climate which at a very small charge might be set down in some advantagious part of those pleasant Rich and Fruitful Countreys and easily make him Master of all that Treasury Master Pymms Speech 1642. which not onely foments the Warre but is the support of Popery in all parts of Christendom what will this Impostor now say He cannot say it was his Highness Plot but Mastes Pymms against whom if he open his Jawes they will instantly be Metamorphosed into the Jawe bones of an Asse by Vote of Parliament and whereas he makes this Warre his Highness pretence to raise monies to replenish his vacant cohorts What did Queen Elizabeth the Semiramis and Sheba of this Nation She was the Spaniards Potent Antagonist and never encountred him but she Conquered him for which she received this boon and benevolence for her Victorious attempts against him as Master Pymm affirmeth that the greatest part of that charge was made upon the Subjects Purses Vid. Pym. ibid. and not upon the Queens though the honor and profit of the same did most accrue to her this certainly will close this Impostors lips from bawling against the Taxes and that Sacred and hopeful Warre The ninth Character is They will seem to favour and provide for good men But herein this Impostor mistakes Aristotle for he doth not propound this as a Character of a Tyrant but of a King to wit to favour and preferre good men and sheweth that by this meanes a Tyrant may lengthen his power if he square his Rule by the patterne and similitude of the Royal power Arist Pol. 5. c. 11. And makes as absurd an Application That is saith he If the Ministers will be Orthodox and flatter if they will wrest and torture the Scriptures to prove the Government Lawful he then likewise will be content to understand Scripture in their favour and furnish them with Tithes For his Highness before the acceptance of this Princely dignity when the fifth Monarchy men in Parliament would have deprived the Clergy of their benefices and Tithes his Highness preserved and confirmed them according to the Laws of the Land neither need the Ministers wrest and torture the Scriptures to prove his Government for they are generally plain in that point as before hath been demonstrated The tenth Character is That things which are odious and distastful they make others Executioners of and when the people are discontented they appease them with Sacrificing those Ministers they employ and do grateful things themselves and simply inferreth that he will leave it to his Highness Major Generals to ruminate a little on that point for Princes make others Surrogates and Executioners of their Judicial Acts because as Jethro said to Moses they are too heavy for them and not able to performe them themselves alone not that they be distastful Exod. 18. but expedient it so should be yet whatsoever they do or Act is in the Princes name and by their Authority and in this respect is his own Acts So did his Highness by the advice of his Councel imploy the Major Generals upon urgent and necessary occasions to prevent seditions preserve Peace in the Commonwealth which are particularly expressed in his Highness Declaration Dated October 1655. which in that regard was his Highness own Act and though it did prove distastful to the people yet was it not therefore unjust and inconvenient for Moses a most just Prince did enjoin and prohibit almost all things contrary to the mind and will of the people neither were the Major Generals that Action Sacrificed to the censure of the Parliament nor thereby incurred any penalty though the Parliament was not pleased for some weighty reasons to confirme their Authority in the same mode they desired yet stand they in the same favour with his Highness and without any disparagement in the Parliament and whereas the deaf Adder saith he never heard of any good his Highness hath done himself it seemeth he never frequenteth our Churches who upon Thanks-giving days from the Pulpit might have heard Commemorations of his marvellous Victories and every day might have heard from the Parliament the thankfulnesse they have acknowledged to God for preserving his Highness in many Battailes and to make him an Instrument for restoring and preserving our peace and if he had not lost all his Sences See the Humble Advice c. holden at Parliament 1656. he could not but see hear taste smell and feel the many gracious blessings which God hath conferred on us since his Highness acceptance of the Empire For what greater blessings can accrue to a Commonwealth then peace and plenty which through Gods blessings we enjoy quietly and abundantly that we may say with the Poet Non est quod copia Major A Jove donari possit Hor. l. 2. Ser. 2. Or as it is said of Augustus Strabo l. 17. Nunquam pacis facultas tantaque omnium bonorum copia affluxit quantum suppeditavit c. Never so much Liberty of peace and plenty of all good things did abound as he hath sufficiently Ministred since he took upon him the Reines of the Empire insomuh as it we compare the store and cheapnesse of our present Commodities with the Scarcenesse and dearnesse of the preterit times we shall conceive them to overpoise ours to the value of our Taxes And as he hath lost all his Senses if he had lost his Tongue too he had been rid of his worst member The tenth Character is In all things they pretend to be wonderful careful of the publick to give general accompts of the monies they receive which they pretend to be levyed for the maintenance of the State and the prosecuting of the Warre But in this also he misconstrues Aristotle who doth not deliver this as a Symptome of a Tyrant but insinuateth that by practising those Precepts are proper to a Prince his power may endure the longer and for that he saith his Highness made an excellent Commentary on the same in his Speech to this Parliament which if he did his Highness therein did performe the part of a debonaire Prince to give an account to the representative of the people of his charges disbursements for the Commonwealth The twelfth Character is Arist l. 5. c 11. All things set aside for Religions uses they set to sale that whilest these things last they may expect the lesse of the people the Cavalier saith he would interpret this of the Deanes and Chapters Lands as if he were not a Cavalier and if he be not he is worse for many Cavalliers have submitted to Gods providence and this civil Government but this
never to make use of them that help them to it And indeed saith he it is their interest and security not to do it for those that have been the Authors of their greatness being conscious of their many merits they are bold with the Tyrant and lesse industriâ—us to please him They think all they can do for them is their due and still they expect more and when they fail in their expectations as it is impossible to satisfie them their disappointments make them discontented and their discontents dangerous His Rule is experimentally false for Princes whom he stiles Tyrants when they are in power make use of those and prefer them that helped them to it until they grow insolent in their demands and offensive in their discontents But true it is that it is a most difficult thing to please and satisfie those that advanced him Victor Vita Nervae and secure them from discontent which made Nerva to complain after he had taken upon him the Empire that he was not onely subject to many vexations and perils but to the censure not onely of his Enemies but of his Friends Qui cum merere omnia praesumum si quicquam non extorserint atrociores sunt ipsis quoque hostibus Who when they presume to merit all things if they cannot extort what they desire are more bitter and dangerous then their Enemies themselves And therefore is every Prince and Emperour between Scylla and Charibdis two dangerous Rocks to wit their enemies and their Friends And though by their Friends assistance they keep their Enemies in aw yet many times their deserts make them to forget themselves and in a most dangerous manner to oppose their Princes if they correspond not with their peremprory vores which hath Moved Princes sometimes to lessen their power and other times severely to punish them According to the degree of the contempt of which a rare Example we have in the uncivil deportment of Sir William Stâ—anley towards Henry the Seventh who at the Battail of Bosworth Bak. Hen. 7. came in to rescue him when he was in danger to be slain by Richard the Third and afterwards did set the Crown on his head which was found among the spoils for which Noble Act he promoted him to be one of the Privy Councel Lord Chamberlain of his Houshold and gave him the Ample Spoils of the Victory and otherwise abundantly rewarded him insomuch as at his death were found in his Castle in ready money Forty thousand Marks besides Plate and Jewels Yet because Henry the Seveth refused to grant him one inconvenient boon to wit to be Earl of Chester which was an Appennage to the Principality of Wales Bacon Hen. 7. and an honour appropriate onely to the Kings Son he fell into a mischievous discontent and began to incline to Perkins and as some say to aid him with mony but certainly to prefer the Title of York before that of Lancaster which appeared by his own confession in saying that if he certainly knew that Perkins was the son of Edward the fourth Bak. Hen. 7. he would never fight nor bear arms against him for which words he was arraigned condemned and beheaded and all his former merits buried in the grave of this conditional treason and in this sense is that true that the Impostor saith that a Prince will never trust those he hath provoked and fears and will be sure to keep him down least he should pluck him down And in such cases a Prince is not at liberty to shew mercy as a private man may for a Prince as Sir Edward Coke is Caput salus Reipublicae Coke l. 5. f. 124. the head and safety of the Commonwealth And as from the head health is conveyed to every part of the body so from the Prince safety is conveyed to every part of the Common-wealth and every private person hath interest in the safety of the Prince because his safety is their safety and therefore a Prince ought not freely and absolutely to shew mercy to such traiterous malefactours because the Commonwealth is intercessed in it Et pereat unus ne pereant omnes It is better that one perish then all suffer And a Prince to use that Impostors allusion may use such friends who abuse their trust and conspire against him and are not onely useless but obnoxious to the Common wealth as Dionysius did hang them up like Bottles and not incurre the title of a Tyrant but be adjudged a wise Prince as Henry the seventh was But now this Impostor is acting the last Scene of his interlude and as in a Tragedie in the beginning or Protafis he was very pleasant so now in the Catastrophe he is very rigid and threatens nothing but death Intentant omnia mortem And verily all his passages would better become a Scenical Stage then a Princely Court wherein he layes his bloody Scene and like an imposthumed stomack vomits nothing but blood Though brave Syndercombes great spirit saith he be suppressed yet there are a great rowl behind even of those which are in his own muster-rowls that are ambitious of the names of Deliverers of their Countrey and do know what the action is that will purchase it Which they all know to the contrary See the Humble Advise fol. 2. that his Highness eminently and the Officers and Souldiers of the Army subordinately have under God been the Deliverers of their Country and Restorers of our Peace and Tranquillity whose saithfulness to the Commonwealth the late Parliament gratefully and publikely acknowledged and that they shall put a just value thereupon to their general satisfaction In vain therefore doth this Impostor go about to fright his Highness with a supposition of their infidelity whose constancy as a rock is irremoveable and with one voice averre Nec feret illa dies ut commutemur in aevo Auso And further with a bug-bear he thinks to fright his Highness as others do Children His Bed his Table saith he is not secure and he stands in need of other Guardes to defend him against his own But those are but Figmenta terriculamenta puerorum Feigned and childish scarre-crowes and are above credulity Nec pueri credunt nisi qui nondum aere lavantur Ju. For he who hath the wisedom to win the affections of a potent Army cannot want the prudence to gain the love of his own Family which as Cleobolus is the best Oeconomy to govern by love not fear Macrob Sat. l. 1. c. 11. as his Highness doth who as a greater Pater familia's as Macrobius adviseth useth his Followers as Familiars and not as Servants but as Fellow-servants And also his Highness Court is by his Virtuous and Religious Example formed and fashioned into such a pious and civil frame Beisius de Nat. Ep. ad Max. as the Emperor Maximilian was that no Christian family can be better instituted and instructed and therefore his Followers cannot be inscious