an Act past by the King the two Houses had nothing to do with the Ordering of it Another was one of the Nineteen Propositions where t was desired that the Nomination of all Officers and Counsellours of State might for the future go by the Maior part of Voyces of both Houses Another Argument That the King hath hitherto in all such Nominations been the only Fountaine of Honour The third was the passing of the Act for the Continuation of this Parliament Another Argument that nothing but the Kings consent could ever have made it thus Perpetuall as it is Many other Instances might be given but so undoubtedly acknowledged by Bracton By Him that wrote the Book call'd The Prerogative of Parliaments who is thought to be Sir Walter Raleigh By Sir Edward Cooke by the stiles and Formes of all the Acts of Parliament which have been made in this Kingdom and by that learned Iudge who wrote the Examination of such particulars in the Solemne League and Covenant as concerne the Law And who in a continued Line of Quotation and Proofe derives along these and the other parts of Supreme power in the King from Edward the Confessour to our present Soveraigne King Charles that to prove them to you were to adde beames to the Sunne Here then For the better stating of the Third thing I proposed to you which was That granting the King to be Supreme in this Kingdome at least so farre as I have described him how farre He is to be Obeyed and not Resisted Two things will fall under Inquiry First supposing the King not to have kept Himselfe to that Circle of power which the Lawes have drawn about Him but desirous to walke in a more Absolute compasse That He hath in somethings invaded the Liberty of his People whither such an Incroachment can justifie their Armes Next If it be proved that He hath kept within his Line and only made the Law the Rule of His Governement whether a bare Fear or Iealousie That when ever he should be able He would change this Rule which is the most that can be pretended could be a Iust cause for an Anticipating Warre The Decision of the first of these Inquiries will depend wholly upon the Tenure by which he holds His Crowne If it were puerly Elective or were at first set upon His Head by the Suffrages of the people And if in that Election His power had been limited Or if by way of paction it had been said Thus farre the King shall be Supreme thus farre the people shall be Free If there had been certaine Expresse conditions assigned Him with his Scepter that if he transgrest not his limites He should be Obeyed if He did it should be lawfull for the people to resist Him Lastly if to hinder such Exorbitances there had been certaine Ephoâ—…i or Inspectours or a Co-ordinate Senate placed as Mounds and Cliffes about Him with warrant from the Electours that when ever he should attempt to overflow his Bankes it should be their part to reinforce Him back into his Channell I must confesse to you being no better then a Duke of Uenice or a King of Sparta In truth no King but a more splendid Subject I think such a Resistance might be Lawfull Since such a Conveyance of Empire being but a conditionall contract as in all other Elections the chusers may reserve to themselves or give away so much of their Liberty as they please And where the part reserved is invaded 'T is no Rebellion to defend But where the Crowne is not Elective but hath so Hereditarily descended in an ancient line of succession from Kingâ—…o â—…o King that to finde out the Originall of it would be a taske as difficult as to find out the Head of Nilus where the Tenure is not conditionall nor hangs upon any contract made at first with the people nor is such a reciprocall Creature of their Breath as to be blowne from them and recalled like the fleeting Ayre they draw as often as they shall say it returnes to them worse then at first they sent it forth In short Sir Where the only Obligation or Tye upon the Prince is the Oath which He takes at his Coronation to rule according to the knowne Lawes of the place Though every Breach of such an Oath be an Offence against God to whom alone a Prince thus independent is accountable for his Actions yet 't will never passe for more then perjury in the Prince No Warrant for Subiects to take up Armes against Him Here then Sir should I suppose the worst that can be supposed that there was a time when the King misled as your Friend sayes by Evill Counsellours did actually trample upon the Lawes of the Kingdome and the Liberty of his Subiects derived to them by those Lawes yet unlesse some Originall compact can be produced where 't is agreed That upon every such Incroachment it shall be lawfull for them to stand upon their Defence unlesse some Fundamentall Contract can be shewen where 't is clearely said that where the King ceaseth to governe according to Law He shall for such misgovernment cease to be King To urge as your Friend doth such vnfortunate precedents as a Deposed Richard or a Dethroned Edward Two disproportion'd examples of popular Fury The one forced to part with his Crowne by Resignation the other as never having had legall Title to it may shew the Iniustice of former Parliaments growne strong never justifie the Pitcht-feilds which have been fought by this Since If this supposition were true the King being bound to make the Law Hiâ—… Rule by no other Obligation but His Oath at His Coronation Then which there cannot be a greater I confesse and where 't is violated never without Repentance scapes vnpunish't yet 't is a trespasse of which Subiects can only complaine but as long as they are Subiects can never innocently revenge But this all this while Sir is but only supposition And you know Sir what the Logician saies suppositio nihil ponit in esse what ever may be supposed is not presently true Iâ—… Calumny her selfe would turne Informer let her leave out Ship-money a greivance which being fairely laid a fleepe by an Act of Parliament deserved not to be awakened to beare a part in the present Tragedy of this almost ruined Kingdome she must confesse that the King through the whole course of His Raigne was so farre from the Invasion of His Subjects Rights that no King of England before Him unlesse it were Henry the first and King Iohn whom being Vsurpers it concern'd to comply with the People the one having supplanted his Eldest Brother Robert Duke of Normandy the other his Nephew Arthur Prince of Britaine ever imparted to them so many Rights of his owne To that Degree of Infranchisement that I may almost say He exchanged Liberties with them Witnesse the Petition of Right An Act of such Royall Grace that when He past that Bill He almost dealt with His
the other for it's Founder But then the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the peculiar Epithet of Monarchy will beare another sence then I have hitherto given it And will not only signifie the King to be Supream for so the Rulers of a Free State are within their owne Territories but compared with other Formes of Supremacy to be the most excellent Monarchy being in it selfe least subject to Disunion or civill Disturbance And for that Reason pronounced by the wisest Stateists to be that Forme of Governement into which all other incline naturally to resolve themselves for their perfection But by Governours in that place understanding as he doth not the Senate in a Free-state but the Subordinate Magistrates under a Prince the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most certainly belongs to the King To whom the Apostle there assignes the Mission of Governours as one of the Essentiall Markes and Notes that He is in His owne Realm Supream And thus Sir having drawne the portraiture of Regall Power to you by the best Light in the world but with the meanest Pencill I know you expect that in the next place I should shew you what Rayes or Beames of this power are Inherent in our King Which being a taske fitter for one of our greatest Sages of the Law then for me who being One who doe not pretend to any exact knowledg in the Fundamentall Lawes or Customes of this Kingdome which are to stand the Land-marks and markes of partition between the Kings Prerogative and the Liberty of the Subject may perhaps be thought by drawing a line or circle about either to limne Figures in the Dust whose â—…ate bangs on the Mercy of the next Winde that blowes the steps by which I will proceed leaving you to the late writings of that most learned and honest Iudge Ienkins for your fuller satisfaction in this point shall be breifly these two First I will shew you what are the Genuine markes and properties of Supream power Next how many of them have been challenged by the King and have not hitherto been denyed Him by any Publique Declaration of the Parliament Sir if you have read Aristotles Politicks as I presume you have you may please to remember that he * there divides the Supream Powere of a State into three generall parts The Ordering of Things for the publique the Creation of Magistrates and the Finall resolution of Iudgment upon Appeales To which he afterwards addes the power of Levying Warre or concluding of Peace of making or breaking Leagues with forraigne Nations of enacting or abrogating Lawes of Pardoning or Punishing Offendors with Banishment Confiscation Imprisonment or Death To which Dyonisius Halicarnassensis addes the power to call or dissolve Comitia or publique Assemblies As well Synods and Councells in Deliberations concerning Religion as Parliaments or Senates in Deliberations secular concerning the State To all which markes of Supreame power a * Moderne Lawyer who only wants their Age to be of as great Authority as either addes the power to exact Tribute and to presse Souldiers In the exercise of which two Acts consists that Dominium Eminens or Dominion Para mount which the state when ever it stands in need And that too to be the Iudge of its owne Necessity hath not only over the Fortunes but the Persons of the Subject In a measure so much greater then they have over themselves as the publique poole is to be preferr'd before the private Cisterne Now Sir if you please to apply this to the King though good Lawyers will tell you that the power of making or repealing Laws be not solely in Him but that the two Houses have a concurrent right in their production and Abolishment yet they will tell you too that His power extends thus farre that no Law can be made or repealed without Him Since for either or both Houses to produce a Statute Law by themselves hath alwaies in this State been thought a Birth as Monstrous as if a Child should be begotten by a Mother upon her selfe They usually are the Matrice and Womb where Lawes receive their first Impregnation and are shap't and formed for the publique But besides the opinion of all present Lawyers of this Kingdome who like that great example of Loyalty dare speak their knowledge it hath alwaies been acknowledged by the Law made 2. H. 5. By the sentence of Refusall Le Roy S' Avisera and indeed by all Parliaments of former Ages That the King is thus farre Pater Patriae that these Lawes are but abortive unlesse his Consent passe upon them A Negative power He hath then though not an out-right Legislative And if it be here objected by your Friend that the two Houses severally have so too I shall perhaps grant it if in this particular they will be modest and content to go sharers in this Power And no longer challenge to their Ordinances the legality force of Acts of Parliament As for the other parts of Royalty which I reckoned up to you As the Creation of Officers and Counsellours of State of Iudges for Law and Commanders for Warre the Ordering of the Militia by Sea and Land The Benefit of Confiscations and Escheats where Families want an Heyre The power to absolve and pardon where the Law hath Condemned The power to call and disolve Parliaments As also the Receipt of Custome and Tribute with many other particulars which you are able to suggest to your selfe They have alwaies been held to be such undoubted Flowers of this Crowne that every one of them like his Coyne which you know Sir is by the Law of this Land Treason to counterfeit which is an other mark of Royalty hath in all Ages but Ours worne the Kings Image and superscription upon it Not to be invaded by any without the crime of Rebellion And though as your Friend saies this be but a regulated power and rise no higher in the just exercise of these Acts then a Trust committed by the Lawes of this Kingdome for the Governement of it to the King for I never yet perceived by any of His Declarations That His Majesâ—…y câ—…aimed these as due to Him by Right of Conquest or any â—…er of those Absolute and Vnlimited waies which might render His Crowne Patrimoniall to Him or such an out-right Aâ—…odium that He might Alienate it or chuse His Successour or Rule as He pleased Himselfe yet as in the making of these Lawes He holds the first place so none of these Rights which he derives from them can without His own Consent be taken from Him For proofe hereof I will only instance in three particulars to you for I must remember that I am now writing a Letter to you not penning a Treatise which will carry the greater force of perswasion because confâ—…st by this Parliament The first was an Act presented to the King for the setling of the Militia for a limited time in such Hands as they might confide in A clear Argument that without such
which are first capable to be seen and then to be transcribed into a picture But why that part of Christ which after his Resurrection when it began to cease to be any longer a part of this visible World was seen of above five hundred brethren at once may not be painted Nay why the figure of a Dove or of cloven Tongues of fire wherein the third person in the glorious Trinity appeared when he descended upon our Mediator Christ and sate upon the heads of the Apostles may not be brought into imagery I must confess to you I am not sharp-witted enough to perceive Though this I shal freely say to you and pray do not call it Poetry That to maintain that Christ thus in picture may be worshipt is such a peece of Supeâ—…stition as not only teaches the simple to commit Idolatry but endeavours to verifie upon him in colours the reproach which the calumniating Jews stuck upon his person and to make him thus painted a Seducer of people As for your fourth paragraph which assaults me the second time with an Argument without an Edge which is that the Sun and Images cannot be put in the scales of comparison in point of fitness to be preserved having in my former Letter already answered you I shal not put my self to the needless trouble the second time to confute it For answer to your Fifth pray Sir read that part of my Sermon which you have corrupted into a quibble And there you shal find that what I say of clean linnen is not as you say a shifting Fallacy But I there say that which you wil never be able to controule which is That by the same reason that you make Surplices to be superstitious because papists wear them you may make Linnen also to be superstitious because papists shift And so conclude cleanliness to be as unlawful as Surplices or Copes Sir this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I confess the same Answer twice served in to you not out of scarcity or barrenness or for want of another Reply but because much of your Letter is but crambe repetita a carret twice boyled Your sixth paragraph is a faggot bound up with more sticks in it then you without poetical Licence can possibly gather from my Letter where Sir I only promise you when ever you shal cal upon me to derive to you all the ancient parts of our English Liturgy from Liturgy's which were in the Church before popery was born Of which if any part be to be found in the Rubricks of the Church of Rome your logick wil never be able to prove that therefore 't is to be rejected as trash and trumpery in ours Good things Sir lose not their goodness because they are in some places mingled with superstitious Nor as I told you before do Davids Psalms cease to be a piece of Canonical Scripture because they are to be found bound up in the volumn with the Mass. Sir if what ever is made use of by the Pope or touches upon Rome should be superstitious the River Tiber would be the most blameable river in the World What you mean by a prelatical Faction here in England or what they borrowed from the Rituals or pontifical of Rome is exprest to me in such a mist of words which sound big to the common people and signifie nothing to the wise that I must confess my dulness I do not understand you If you mean that they inserted any new peeces into the old garment of our CoÌ„mon-prayer-book and those borrowed from the Missal or Breviary of Rome I beleeve Sir abstracting from those alterations made in the prayers for the King Queen and Royal issue which the Death of Princes exacted unless for constancy sake you would have them allow of prayers for the dead and in King Charls and Queen Mary's days to pray still for King Iames and Queen Anne which would be a piece of popery equal to the invocations of saints you will find nothing modern or of such new contrivance as past not Bucers Examen in the raign of Edward the sixth And was confirmed by Act of Parliament in the raign of Queen Elâ—…zabeth In saying this in their defence who had the ordering of such changes I hope Sir you will not so uncharitably think me imbark't in their Faction which truly to me stil presented it self like the conceal'd Horses under ground a fiction made to walk the streets to terrifie the people as to perswade your self after my so many professions to fall a sacrifice to the Protestant Religion that it can be either in the power of the Church or court of Rome to tempt me from my Resolution Which is to go out of the world in the same Religion I came in Sir I gave warning in my last letter not to venture your writings upon the Argument which deceives none but very vulgar understandings and which I in my Sermon cal the Mother of mistakes which is from an accidental concurrence in some things to infer an outright similitude and agreement in all Because Bellarmine says tradition is a better medium to prove somethings by then a private spirit and because I in this particular have said so too you tacitely infer that I and Bellarmine are of the same Religion which is the same as if a Turk and a Christian saying that the Sun shines you should infer that the Christian is a Mahumetan and for saying so a Turk I confess you do not say we are both of the same Religion but that I in preferring Tradition which you your self in your seventh paragraph tllow to be the Constant and universal Report of the Church before he Testimony of the Spirit speaking in the Word to the Consciences of private men am more profane than he Heer sir you must not take it ill if I expose you to the censure of being deservedly thought guilty of a double mistake The one is that if Bellarmine in this particular were in an Errour and if I had out-spoken him in his Errour yet the Laws of speech will not allow you to say That in an unprofane subject either of us is profane more heretical or mistaken you might perhaps have said and this though a false Assertion might yet have past for right Expression But to call him positively and me comparatively more profane because we both hold That a Drop is more liable to corruption then the Ocean or the testimony of al ages of the Church is a fuller proof of the meaning of a text in Scripture then the solitary Exposition of a man who can perswade none but himself is as incongruous as if you should say that because Bellarmine wrote but three Volumns and Abulensis twelve therefore Abulensis was a greater Adulterer then He. Your other mistake is That you confound the Spirit of God speaking in the Scripture with the private Spirit that is Reason Humour or Fancie of the person spoken to Sir let that blessed Spirit decide this controversie between us
own true genuine light they appeared so many cleare transparent Copies of a sincere and Gallant Mind Look't upon by the People of whom you know who said populus iste vult decipi decipiatur through the Answers and Observations and venomous Comments which some men made upon them a fallacy in judgement followed very like the fallacy of the sight where an Object beheld through a false deceitfull medium partakes of the cosenage of the conveyance and way and puts on a false Resemblance As square bright angular things through a mist show darke and round and straight things seen through water show broken and distorted It seems Sir by your Letter to me that your Friend with whom you say you have lately had a dispute about the Kings Supremacy and the Subjects Rights is one of those who hath had the ill luck to be thus deceived Which I doe not wonder at when I consider how much he is concern'd in his fortunes that the Parliament should all this while be in the right Besides Sir Having lookt upon the Cause of that Side meerly in that plausible dresse with which some pens have attired it And having entertain'd a strâ—…ng prejudice against whatever shall be said to prove that a Parliament may erre it ought to be no marvaile to you if he be rather of M. â—…rinnes then Iudge Ienkins's Opinion And perswade himselfe that the Parliament having if not a superior yet a coordinate power with the King in which the People is interested where ever their Religion or Liberty is invaded may take up Armes against Him for the defence of either But then Sir finding by my reading of the publick writings of both sides that both sides challenged to themselves the Defence of one and the same Cause I must confesse to you That 〈◊〉 a while the many Battailes which so often coloured our fields with Bloud appeared to me like Battailsâ—…ught â—…ught in Dreams Where the person combating in his slâ—…epe imagines he hath an Adversary but a wake perceives his error that he helâ—… coâ—…flict with himselfe To speak a little more freely to 〈◊〉 Sir the Kings Declarations and the Parliaments Remonstrances equally pretending to the maintenance of the same Protestant Religion and the same Liberty of the Subject I wondered a while how they could make two opposite sides or could so frequently come into the field without a Quarrell But since your Friend is pleased to let me no longer remain a Sceptick but clearly to state the Quarrell by suffering the two great words of Charme Liberty and Religion from whence both sides have so often made their Recruits to stand no longer as a Salamis or controverted Iland between two equall Challengers And since he is pleased to espouse the defence of them so wholly to the Parliament as to call the Warre made by the King the Invasion of them Both for his and your satisfaction who have layed this taske upon me give me leave to propose this reasonable Dilemma to you Either 't is true what your Friend saies that the Parliament hath all this while sought for the defence of their Liberty and Religion or 't is only a pretence and hath hid some darker secret under it If it have been only a pretence there being not a third word in all the World which can afford so good Colour to make an unjust Warre passe for a just the first discovery of it will be the fall and ruine of it And the People who have been misled with so much holy Imposture will not only hate it for the Hypocrisie but the Injustice too If it be true yet I cannot see how they are hereby advantaged or how either or both these joyned can legitimate their Armes For first Sir I would fain know of your friend what he means by the Liberty of the Subject I presume he doth not mean a Releasement from servitude Since amongst all their other complaints delivered in Petitions to the Parliament they never yet adventured to say that they were govern'd as Servants by a hard Master not as Subjects by a Prince Nor doe I find that the King was such a Pharaoh to them that they were able to say that he changed a Kingdome of Freemen into a House of Bondage Some Acts of his Government I confesse some have call'd Illegal namely the exaction of Ship-mony But this certainly was a grievance which if it had not been redrest deserved not to be reckoned among the Brick kills of Aegypt or to denominate his Government despoticall too Next then doth your friend by Liberty meane a Releasement from Tyranny as Tyranny allowes men to be Subjects but not much removed from slaves Had the King indeed made his Will the Rule of his Government and had his Will revealed it selfe in nineteen years of Injustice had he like Caligula worne a Table-book in his pocket with the names of the Nobility in it design'd and Markt for slaughter Had he without any Trialls of Law made his pleasure passe for sentence and lopt off Senators heads as Tarquin did Poppeys Had he in his oppressions of the People made them feele Times like those which Tacitus describes where no man durst be virtuous least he should be thought to upbrayd his Prince where to complaine of hard usage was capitall and where men had not only their words but their very looks and sighs proscribed his Raigne would beare that Name But alas Sir you your selfe know that these are Acts of Tyranny which were so farre from being practised that they have not yet been faigned among us 'T is true indeed certain dark Iealousies were cast among the people as if some Evill Counsellors about the King had had it in their designe to introduce an Arbitrary Government But these were but Iealousies blown by those whose plot 't was to make the popular hatred their engine to remove those Counsellors that by their ruine they might raise a Ladder to their own Ambitions For if the Calamity of these times have not quite blotted out the memory of former people cannot but remember that no Nation under Heaven more freely enjoyed the Blessing of the Scripture then we every one secure under the shade of his own Uine perhaps a grape or two extraordinary was gathered for the publique But if any did refuse to contribute I doe not find that like Naboth they were stoned for their Uineyard If therefore the Gentleman your friend understand Liberty in this sense the most he can say for the Parliament is that they have taken up Armes against their King not because he was but because he possibly might be a Tyrant Which feare of theirs being in it selfe altogether unreasonable and therefore not to be satisfied could not but naturally endeavour as we find by sad experience it hath done â—…o secure it selfe by removing out right the formidable obâ—…ect which caused it which being not to be done but by the Removall of Monarchicall Government it selfe could not but cast them at length
upon a new forme of State or such a confusion or no Forme of state as we see hath almost drawn ruine upon themselves and their Countrey Once more therefore I must aske your Friend what he meanes by Liberty I hope he doth not mean an Exemption from all Governement Nor is fallen upon their wilde Opinion who held that there ought to be no Magistrate or superior among Christians But that in a freedom of condition we are to live together like men standing in a Ring or Circle where Roundnesse takes away Distinction and Order And where every one beginning and ending the Circle as none is before so none is after another This Opinion as 't would quickly reduce the House of Lords to the House of Commons so 't would in time reduce the House of Commons to the same levell with the Common people who being once taught that Inequality is unlawfull would quickly be made Docile in the entertainment of the other Arguments upon which the Anabaptists did here to fore set all Germany in a flame Namely that Christ hath not only bequeathed to Men the liberty of his Gospell but that this liberty consists in ones not being greater then another It being an Oracle in Nature that we are all borne Equall That these words of Higher and Lower superiour and Inferiour are fitter for Hills and Vales then for men of a Kind That the names also of Prince and Subject Magistrate and People Governours and Governed are but so many stiles Vsurpt Since in Nature for one Man to be borne Subiect to another is as much against Kinde as if men should come into the World with chaines about them or as if Women should bring forth Children with Gyves and shakles on Which Doctrine as 't would naturally tend to a Parity so that Parity would as naturally end in a Confusion Lastly therefore I will understand your Friend in the most favourable sence I can That by the Parliaments defence of the Peoples Liberty he meanes the maintenance of some Eminent Rights belonging to the Subiect which being in manifest danger to be invaded and taken from them could not possibly be preserved but by Armes taken up against the invader But then granting this to be true as I shall in fit place shew it to be false yet the King being this invader unlesse by such an Invasion He could cease to be their King or they to be his subiects I cannot see how such Rights could make their Defence lawfull For the clearer Demonstration of this I shall desire you Sir not to think it a digression in me if I deduce things somewhat higher then I at first intended or then your Letter requires me Or if to cure the streame I take the Prophets course and cast salt into the spring And examine first How farre the Power of a King who is truly a King and not one only in Name extends it selfe over Subjects Next whether any such Power doe belong to our King Thirdly if there doe How farre 't is to be obeyed and not resisted As for the first you shall in the Scripture Sir find two Originalls of Kings One immediatly springing from the Election and choice of God himselfe The other from the choice and election of the People But so as that it resolves it selfe into a Divine Institution The History of Regall power as it took Originall from God himselfe is set downe at large in the eight Chapter of the first Book of Samuel where when the Israelites weary of the Government by Iudges who had the same power that the Dictators had at Rome and differ'd nothing from the most absolute Monarchs but only in their Name and the temporary use of their power required of Samuel to set a King over them God bid him hearken to their voyce But withall Solemnly to protest and shew them the manner or as one translat â—…s it more to the mind of the Originall Ius Regis the Right or power of the King that should raigne over them That he would take their sonnes appoint them for his Charets And their Daughters to be Confectionaries and Cookes fâ—…r his Kitchin That he would also take their fields their Uineyards and their Olive-yards even the best of them and give them to his Officers Lastly That he would take the Tenth of their seed and shâ—…epe And yee saies the Prophet which is a very characteristicall marke of subjection shall be his servants All which particulars with many others there specified which I forbeare to repeat to you because they rise but â—…o the same height may in othâ—… termes be briefly summed up into these two Generalls That the Iews by requiring a King to be set over them such a King as was to Raigne over them like the Kings of other Nations divested themselves of two of the greaâ—…est Immunities which can belong to Freemen Liberty of person and propriety of Estates And both these in such an unlimited measure as left them not power if their Prince pleased to call either themselves or Children or any thing else their owne To this if either you or your friend shall reply that this was but a Propheticall Character of Saul and a meere prediction to â—…he people whaâ—… He made King would doe noe true Draught of his Commission what He in Iustice might since a Prince who shall assume to Himselfe the exercise of such a boundlesse power doth but verify the Fabâ—… a Sâ—…ork set over a Common wealth of Froggs They to be his prey not He to be their King To the first I answer negatively That what is said in the fore-mentioned Chapter by Samuel cannot be meant only of Saul since nothing is there said to confine the description to this Raigne Nor doth any part of his History charge him with such a Government Next I shall gâ—…ant you that no Prince ruling by the strict Lawes of naturall-equity or Iustice can exercise all the Acts of power there mentioned Nor can his being a King so legitimate all his Actions or so outright exempt him from the common condition of men that what ever he shall doe shall be right Most of the Acts there recorded are not only repugnant to the Lawes of sociable Nature or just Rule which forbids One to have All and binds Princes themselves in chains of Reason but to the Law of God in another place which allowes not the King of his own choyce to Raigne as he list but assignes him the Law of Moses for his Rule From which as often as he broke loose he sinned like one of the People yet so as that upon any such breach of the Law 't was not left in the power of the People to correct him or to force him by a Warre likâ—… ours to returne back again to hiâ—… duty His commission towards them if you marke it well â—…an in such an uncontroleable stile that his best Actions and his worst towards them wore the same warrant of Authority However