avenged with my own bloud 25. Some men are not willing to believe their King lest they should condemn themselves 26. To allay the insolency of tumults it may conduce if the King withdraw 27. A King is hardly treated when urged with an Army and constrained either to hazard his own and his Kingdoms ruine by his defence or prostrate his Conscience to the blind obedience of those men whose zealous superstition thinks or pretends they cannot do God and the Church a greater service than utterly to destroy that Primitive Apostolical and anciently Universal Government of the Church by Bishops 28. It is no just occasion taken to persecute with the injuries of an Army for not suffering tamely the injuries of Tumults 29. It is no plausible design for importunate Subjects to raise an Army either to stop their Kings mouth or force his cconsent 30. A King should think his Innocency no whit prejudiced or darkened in the midst of many unfortunate successes of a Civil War on his side 31. How untruly a King is charged with the first raising an Army and beginning a Civil War the eyes that only pity him and the Loyal hearts that dare only pray for him may witness especially when not so many are on his side as the men in Armes listed against him 32. A Kings unpreparedness for a Civil War though it may well dishearten those that would help him while it argues truly his unwillingness to fight yet it testifies for him that he is set on the defensive part having so little hopes or power to offend others that he has none to defend himself or to preserve what is his own for their proreption 33. No man can doubt but Rebbels prevent the King in their purposes as well as their injuries who are much aforehand in their preparations against him and surprisals of his strength 34. When men of Loyalty are over-awd by the numbers and terrours of the Rebellious such as are not for the Rebels dare not be for the King 35. When Rebels prevent their King by surprising his Castles Forts Armes and Navy with the Militia it is so far best for him that it may drive him from putting his trust in the arm of flesh and wholly to cast himself into the protection of the living God who can save by few or none as well as by many 36. It is height of Charity and generosity of spirit in a disarmed King to reckon the want of the Militia not so much in reference to his own protection as his Peoples 37. The many and sore opressions of Loyal Subjects may grieve an afflicted King when he is above his own 38. It is a strange method the men must take who will needs resolve their riddle of making a glorious King by taking away Kingly Power Even as if he should become a support to his Friends and a terrour to his Enemies by being unable to succour the one or suppress the other 39. It is a strange design some men have who propose the new-modelling of Soveraignty and Kingship as without any reality of power so without any necessity of subjection and obedience 40. A King should be much willing to bury all Jealousies in his people of him and to live above all Jealousies of them as to himself 41. No concession of the King 's how vast and large soever will be satisfactory to those men who seem enemies not to him only but to all Monarchy being resolved to transmit to Posterity such jealousies of the Crown as they should never permit it to enjoy its just and necessary rights in point of Power 42. Civility and Duty no less than Justice and Honour should forbid Subjests to ask of their King an alienation of power from himself and his Posterity 43. A distressed King should by no Act of his prejudice or obstruct his Successours just recovery of their Rights from unjust usurpations and extorsions 44. A King under restraint must not be prevail'd with to leave his Subjects in a condition wholly desperate for the future so as by a Law to be ever subjected to many factious distractions 45. When men have tryed the horrours and malignant inâ—luence which will certainly follow their King 's inforced darkness and Eclipse they will at length more esteem and welcome the restored glory and blessing of the Suns light 46. In the Conflicts of Civil War and advantages of Power the Peoples safety and quiet cannot be effected but by some side yielding to which the greatest love of the Publick Peace and the firmest assurance of God's Protection arising from a good Conscience may more invite a just and pious King than can be expected from Rebellious mens fears which arising from the injustice of their actions though never so successfull yet dare not adventure their Authors upon any other way of safty than that of the Sword and Militia 47. A good King in civil afflictions is not to think that he can want any thing which providential necessity is pleased to take from him in order to his Peoples tranquillity and God's glory whose protection is sufficient for him 48. Such unreasonable Propositions as are inconsistent with being either a King or a good Christian while he has any mastery of his Reason he cannot consent unto 49. For a distressed King to oblige himself by a general and implicite consent to what ever unreasonable Subjects shall desire or propound were as if Sampson should have consented not only to bind his own hands and cut off his hair but to put out his own eyes that the Philistians might with the more safety mock and abuse him which they chose rather to do than quite to destroy him when he was become so tame an object and â—it occasion for their sport and scorn 50. They who pretend to make their addresses in an humble and loyal way of petitioning by that sufficiently confess their own inferiority which obligeth them to rest if not satisfied yet quieted with such an answer as the will and reason of their Superiour thinks sit to give 51. A freedom and power to consent or dissent belongs to a Monarch in reason as a Man and in honour as a Soveraign King 52. For a King to trust to their moderation who pretend to it but have it not and abandon his own discretion would be to verifie what representations they may have made of him to the World That he is fitter to be their Pupil than their Prince 53. A Prudent King should not be so confident of his own sufficiency as not willingly to admit the counsel of others nor yet so diffident of himself as brutishly to submit to any mens dictates and at once to betray the Soveraignty of Reason in his Soul and the Majesty of his own Crown to any of his Subjects 54. A King ought to have one septenary or seven years experience of yong Statesmen how well they can govern themselves before he trusts them with any power to govern his people for him 55. A
the example of Christ to adde Not my will but thine be done 8. God by resolving the King's will into his own can make them both become one 9. The desire of life should not be so great in a distressed King as that of doing or suffering God's Will in either life or death 10. God can make a King content to leave the Worlds nothing that he may come really to enjoy all in him who hath made Christ unto him in life gain and in death advantage 11. Though the Destroyers of their King forget their duty to God and him yet he ought to beseech God not to forget to be mercifull to them 12. There is no profit in a King's bloud nor in gaining his Kingdoms from him if they lose their own souls that do it 13. An injur'd King ought to pray for such as have not only resisted his just power but wholely usurped and turned it against â—im That though they may have dâ—served yet that they may not receâ—ve damnation to themselves 14. God that made his Son a Saviour to many that crucifiâ—d him while at once he suffered violently by them and yet willingly for them will at the instance of a devoted King hear the voyce of Christ's bloud call louder for Regicides than the cry of the King's bloud against them 15. Let a King pray for his murtherers That God would prepare them for his mercy by due convictions of their sin and not let them at once deceive and damn their own Souls by fallacious pâ—etensions of Justice in destroying him while the conscience of their unjust usurpation of their King's power chiefly tempts them to use all extremities against him 16. The mercies of Regicides are very false and so very cruel unto their King who while they pretend to preserve him meditate nothing but his ruine 17. God can deal with bloud-thirsty and deceitfull men otherwise than they deserve by overcoming their cruelty with his compassion and the charity of their devoted King 18. When God maketh inquisition for Royal bloud the Souls which he sindeth penitent though polluted he can sprinkle with the bloud of his Son and then the destroying Angel shall pass over them 19. Though Regicides in design think any Kingdom on earth too little to entertain at once both themselves and their King yet he ought to pray that the capacious Kingdom of God's infinite Mercy may at last receive them both 20. When King and People be reconciled in the bloud of the same Redeemer they shall come at last to live far above the ambitious desires which begat mortal enmities between them 21. When the hands of Regicides shall be heaviest and cruellest upon their King if he fall into the armes of God's tender and eternal mercies he shall be safe 22. What is cut off of a King's life in the miserable moment of a violent death may be repayed in God's ever-blessed eternity 23. The King whose eyes have seen Gods salvation shall depart in peace FINIS CAROLI I mi Monita Observata Britannica The Prudential ADVICE AND OBSERVATIONS OF King CHARLES I. Relating To the POLICIE OF HIS Britannike Kingdoms Collected and Published BY RICHARD WATSON Homer Odys ◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 London Printed for Robert Horn 1661. To the Reader Friend ALthough the Aphorismes in the two former divisions are made generall to serve the good purpose of any Prince and his People to whom the like calamities are incident as were the sad experiments of our own which prompted the Spirit of Wisdome to their production yet the guilt of our sinnes and remembrance of our sufferings will make us easily sensible of their more peculiar reflexion upon our selves This Century with the Surplusage points so directly upon our Kingdome as we have no way to avoid the seasonable importunity of the Counsel and Instruction and knowing what it cost His Majesty that left it are inexcusably miserable if we put not the best value upon it by our observance We hear much of Book-Cases and precedents in contests and pleadings for mens personal propriety I know no reason why such rules and instances as these should not be alike positive and prevalent for Publick Interest the Prerogative of the King and Priviledges of the Church One calls the Sword 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Souldier should ever have ready and at hand I could wish this might be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the King-and Parliament-mans Manuall not so much to reproach him with the unworthiness of some of his factious predecessours as to instruct him by the fatality of such examples to a future sobriety in his votes and moderation in his publick desires or demands If you and I cannot help the extravagant deviations that may yet hereafter willfully be made from the assured steadiness of this Royal Canon we may at least be satisfied in our own aversion from the Ordinances of men that imagine mischief for Law and betray their trust to the second ruine of their Country à Dieu Your servant RICHARD WATSON C. I. Monita c. Britannica The First Century 1. THe Kings of England should call their Parliaments not more by others advice and the necessity of their affairs than by their own choice and inclination 2. The right way of Parliaments is most safe for the Crown and best pleasing to the People 3. When some mens distempers study to kindle sparks in Parliaments the King may hope to extinguish them by forbearing to convene for some years 4. The King resolving with himself to give all just satisfaction to modest and sober desires and to redress all publick grievances in Church and State may hope by his freedom and the Members moderation to prevent all misunderstandings and miscariages in the Parliament he calls 5. Elections of Parliament men are many times carried in many places with partiality and popular heat 6. The King knowing best the largeness of his own heart toward his Peoples good and just contentment may please himself in the hopes of a good and firm understanding which by a Parliament may grow between him and them 7. The King should resolve to reform what by free and full advice in Parliament he is convinced to be amiss and to grant what ever his Reason and Conscience tells him is sit to be desired 8. Though the King resolve not to imploy in his affairs a questiond Minister of State against the advice of his Parliament yet he should not have any hand in his death of whose guiltlesness he is better assured than any man living can be 9. The Peoples clamours for Justice in exorbitance of fury is not to be regarded when they mean thereby the King and Two Houses of Parliament should Vote as they would have them 10. A Tumultuous Parliaments after-after-Act vacating the Authority of the precedent for future imitation in case of bloud sufficiently tells the World that some remorse toucheth them that are most implacable against the person as if
importunities of unquiet Subjects both to secure his friends and overcome his Enemies to gain the peace of all deprives himself of a sole power to help or hurt any yielding the Militia to be disposed of as the two Houses shall think sit 42. The Militia is the King 's undoubted right no less than the Crown 43. The King should not desire to be safer than he wisheth the Parliament and his People 44. The new modelling of Soveraignty and Kingship makes the Majesty of the Kings of England hang like Mahomet's Tomb by a magnetique Charme between the power and priviledges of the two Houses in an ayery imagination of Regality 45. The Body of Parliament as the Moon from the Sun receiveth its chiefest light from the King 46. Parliament-men may remember that they sit there as their Kings Subjects not Superiours called to be his Counsellors not Dictatours Their summons extends to recommend their advice not to command his duty 47. When the two Houses have once been in the Wardship of Tumults their Propositions are not to be hearkned to until they shall have sued out their livery and effectually redeem'd themselves 48. When the King's judgment tells him that any propositions sent to him are the results of the Major part of their votes who exercise their freedom as well as they have right to sit in Parliament and not before he may expect his own judgment for not speedily and fully concurring with every one of them 49. The King cannot allow the Wisdom of his Parliament such a completeness and inerrability as to exclude himself 50. A Parliament without the concurrent reason of the King cannot beget or bring forth any one complete and authoritative Act of publick Wisdom which makes the Lawes 51. A King may satisfie his Parliament and his People but for fear or flattery to gratifie any Faction how potent soever were to nourish the disease and oppress the body 52. The end of calling a Parliament being to use their advice that sit the King ought to have charity enough to think there are wise men among them and humility enough to think it fit he should in some things hearken to them whose counsel he may want 53. The Suns influence is not more necessary in all Natures productions then the King's concurrence in all Lawes 54. We are to take heed of and beware the old leaven of Innovations masked under the name of Reformation which heaved at and sometime threatned both Prince and Parliament in Queen Elizabeth's and King James's dayes 55. Reason Honour and Safety both of Church and State command the King to chew such morsels as a factious Parliament may present him with before he lets them down 56. The King hath not any ground of credulity to induce him fully to submit to all the desires of those men who will not admit or do refuse and neglect to vindicate the freedom of their own and others sitting and voting in Parliament 57. I know not any such tough and malignant humours in the constitution of the English Church which gentler Applications than those of an Army raised by their Scotch fellow Subjects might not easily remove 58. If the Scotch sole Presbytery were proved to be the only Institution of Jesus Christ yet were it hard to prove that Christ had given Subjects commission by the Sword to set it up in any Kingdom without the Soveraigns consent 59. If Presbytery in the Supremacy of Subjects be an Institution of Christ it is the first and onely point of Christianity that was to be planted and watered with Christian bloud 60. The many learned and pious Churchmen in England who have been alwayes bred up in and conformable to the Government of Episcopacy cannot so soon renounce both their former opinion and practise only because a Party of the Scots will needs by force assist a like Party of English either to drive all Ministers as sheep into the common fold of â—resbytery or destroy them at least fleece them by depriving them of the benefit of their flock 61. What respect and obedience Christ and his Apostles payd to the chief Governours of States where they lived is very clear in the Gospel but that He or they ever commanded to set such a parity of Presbyters and in such a way as some Scots endeavour is not very disputable 62. The Effusions of blood shed for the advancement of Scotch Presbitery runs in a stream contrary to that of the Primitive Planters both of Christianity and Episcopacy which was with patient sheding of their own bloud not violent drawing other mens 63. Wise and learned men think that nothing hath more markes of Schism and Sectarism than the Presbyterian way 64. The Presbyterian Scots are not to be hired at the ordinary rate of Auxiliaries nothing will induce them to engage till those that call them in have pawned their Souls to them by a Solemn League and Covenant 65. Some pretenders of late to Reformation have intended mainly the abasing of Episcopacy into Presbytery and the robbing the Church of its Lands and Revenues 66. The Bishops and Church-men as the fattest Deer must be destroyed when the other Rascal-herd of Schisms Heresies c. being lean may by these men enjoy the benefit of Toleration 67. If the poverty of Scotland might yet the plenty of England cannot excuse the envy and rapine of the Churches Rights and Revenues 68. There is not any exception to which the best Kings may be so liable in the opinion of them who are resolved to oppose them as too great a fixedness in that Religion whose judicious and solid grounds both from Scripture and Antiquity will not give his Conscience leave to approve or consent to those many dangerous and divided Innovations which their bold Ignorance would needs obtrude upon Him and His People 69. There is not such an Oglio or medley of various Religions in the World again as those men entertain in their service who find most fault with the King that adheres to the establishment of the Church without any scruple as to the diversity of their Sects and Opinions 70. It hath been a foul and indeleble shame for such as would be counted Protestants to inforce their Lord and King a declared Protestant to a necessary use of Papists or any other who did but their duty to help Him to defend Himself 71. The Papists have had a greater sense of their Allegeance than many Protestant Professours who seem to have learned and to practise the worst principles of the worst Papists 72. The King is not to justifie beyond humane errours and frailties Himself or his Councellours who may have been subject to some miscarriages yet such as were far more reparable by second and better thoughts than those enormous extravagances wherewith some men have wildred and almost quite lost both Church and State 73. The event of things may make evident to the People That should the King follow the worst Counsels that his worst Counsellours might
whose subjection as it preserves their property peace and safety so it will never diminish his Rights nor their ingenuous Liberties which consist in the injoyment of the fruits of their industry and the benefit of those Lawes to which themselves have consented 19. No Subjects can without an high degree of guilt and sin devest the King of those enjoyments which the Lawes have assigned to Him 20. The King in uncertain times is to require and entreat the Prince his Son as his Father and his King that He never suffer his heart to receive the least check against or disaffection from the true Religion established in the Church of England 21. After trial much search and many disputes I conclude the Religion of the Church of England to be the best in the World not only in the Community as Christian but also in the special notion as Reformed keeping the middle way between the pomp of superstitious Tyranny and the meanness of fantastick Anarchy 22. The drought being excellent as to the main both for Doctrine and Government in the Church of England some lines as in very good figures may happily need some sweetning or polishing which might have easily been done by a safe and gentle hand if some mens precipitancy had not violently demanded such rude alterations as would have quite destroyed all the beauty and proportions of the whole 23. The King is not to entertain any aversation or dislike of Parliaments which in their right constitution with Freedom and Honour will never injure or diminish his greatness but will rather be as interchangings of love loyalty and confidence between a Prince and his People 24. The sad effects that have issued from the insolencies of popular dictates and tumultuary impressions should make Parliaments more cautious to preserve that Freedom and Honour which belong to such Assemblies 25. Nothing can be more happy for all than in fair grave and honourable wayes to contribute their Councels in Common enacting all things by publick consent without Tyranny or Tumults 26. After the storm of Civil dissension and War wherein the folly and wickedness of some men have so far ruined as to leave nothing intire in Church or State to the Crown the Nobility the Clergy or the Commons either as to Lawes Liberties Estates Order Honour Conscience or Lives the yong Prince that succeeds should be an Anchor or Harbour rather to the tossed and weather-beaten Kingdoms a Repairer of the ruines by his wisdom justice piety and valour 27. The King cannot in what extremity soever suffer any diminution of the Churches patrimony or alienation of it it being without paradventure Sacriledg and likewise contrary to his Coronation-Oath 28. The Government of the Church according to its constitution in England is a chief column and support to the Monarchy and Crown 29. The greatest means to make a Parliament happy is That the King on his part and the Members thereof on theirs lay aside all suspicion one of another 30. The Navy and Forts are the walls and defence of this Kingdom which if out of Order all men may easily judge what encouragement it will be to our Enemies and what disheartning to our Friends 31. The King can no way consent that the voyces of Bishops in Parliament should be taken away which they have enjoy'd since and before the Conquest and is one of the fundamental constitutions of this Kingdom 32. Often Parliaments is the fittest mean to keep correspondency between the King and his People 33. Neither Queen Elizabeth nor my Father King James did ever avow that any Priest in their time was executed meerly for Religion the inconveniences that by this severity may fall to the King's Subjects and other Protestants abroad ought to be considered by any Parliament that presses it 34. The Parliament that takes the Government all in pieces must do like a skillfull Watchmaker to make clean his Watch who takes it asunder puts it again together but leaves not out one pin if he means to have it go better 35. The Parliament ought not to wish more than they can shew the King the way how conveniently it may be done 36. It is the great expression of Trust the King has in the affections of his Parliament unto Him when before they do any thing for Him He puts a confidence in them by his gracious concessions 37. If any person durst be so impudent as to move the King to alter the Lawes He ought to put such a mark upon him as from which all posterity might know his intention was ever to govern by the Law and no otherwise 38. That Parliament is not to alledg against the King his deceiving their expectation in the time of his return having departed with their consent who as much and more have deceived Him in the condition for proceeding in his affairs 39. When the King sends a Serjeant at Armes to His Parliament He may expect obedience not a message 40. In cases of Treason no person hath a priviledg by being a Member of the Parliament 41. The King should alwayes be as tender of any thing which may advance the true Protestant Religion protect and preserve the Lawes of the Land and defend the just priviledg and freedom of Parliaments as of his Life or his Crown 42. When the King calls his Parliament together to be witnesses of his Actions and privy to his Intentions it may be certainly believed He has not the least thought disagreeing with the happiness and security of his Kingdom 43. A loyal Parliaments concurrence with the King it may be hoped will so far prevail over the hearts and understandings of the whole Kingdom who must look upon the Members as persons naturally and originally trusted by and for them that it will be above the reach and malice of those who sometimes have too great an influence upon the People to discredit the King 's most intire Actions and sincere Promises the Members being the best witnesses for the one and security for the other 44. When the King and his Parliament have both the same ends there will be no other differences in the way than what upon debate and right understanding will be easily adjusted 45. Let right Religion in which all are most nearly concerned and without care of which they must not look for God's blessing be vindicated and preserved Let the King's honour and Rights which have an inseparable relation with the Subjects interests be vindicated and if ravish'd from Him restored Let the Subjects Liberties Properties Priviledges without which a good man should not desire to be a King be secured and confirmed and there is nothing the Parliament can advise the King to wherein He should not meet them that together they may inform Posterity how much their trust and confidence in each other is a better expedient for the Peace and Preservation of the Kingdom than Fears and Jealousies 46. During any Session of Parliament the King may expect as most proper for the duty of Subjects that Propositions for the remedies of evils ought rather to come to Him than from Him yet such should be his Fatherly care of his People that He should rather lay by any particular respect of his own dignity than that any time should be lost for the preventing of those threatning evils which cannot admit the delayes of the ordinary proceedings in Parliament 47. That the Subjects cannot be obliged to obey an Act Order or Injunction of Parliament to which the King hath not given consent is the King 's known and unquestionable Priviledg and being so is a Priviledg of the Kingdoms 48. The Kings power is invested in Him by the Law and by that only He should desire to maintain it 49. The King that gives away the Militia parts with the power of the Sword entrusted to Him by God and the Lawes of the Land for the protection and government of his People thereby at once devesting Himself and dis-inheriting his Posterity of that right and Prerogative of the Crown which is absolutely necessary to the Kingly Office and so weakens Monarchy in his Kingdom that little more than the name and shadow of it will remain 50. For the abolishing Arch-Bishops Bishops c. a Britannike Soveraign cannot give his consent as He is a Christian and a King 51. The Britannike Kings have so inseparably woven the right of the Church into the liberties of the rest of the Subjects as the Government by Arch-Bishops and Bishops cannot be abolished 52. The King cannot consent to the alienation of Church-Lands because it cannot be denied to be a sin of the highest Sacriledg as also that it subverts the intentions of so many pious Donors who have laid a heavy curse upon all such prophane violations Beside which matter of Conscience it will be a prejudice to the publick good many of the Subjects having the benefit of renuing Leases at much easier Rates than if those possessions were in the hands of private men Nor is it to be omitted the discouragement which it will be to all learning and industry when such eminent rewards shall be taken away which now lye open to the Children of meanest persons 53. The exercise of mercy should be no more pleasing to the King than to see both Houses of Parliament consent for his sake that He should moderate the severity of the Law in an important case 54. No Free-born Subject of England can call Life or any thing he possesseth his own if Power without Right dayly make new and abrogate the old fundamental Law of the Land 55. I am confident no learned Lawyer will afirm that an impeachment can lye against the King all the Lawes going in his Name and one of their Maximes being that The King can do no wrong 56. The Commons of England was never a Court of Judicature Vid. H. Grot. ad cap. 1. Proverb 1. Lips Excerpt ex Comoed. Tragoed Graec.
Conscience though the very Centre to a sentence upon it self and what an unsufferable torture 't is either to look upon the lively Pourtraicture of that King or hear him speak though but in his papers whom with axe or pen or tongue or wishfull thought they murder'd or negatively in not detesting not decrying not invective-writing not preventive-acting were accessory in the least degree they alone that committed the fault and feel the pain can truly tell This courtesie I have therefore done them who would needs turn away from the salve because it signifies they have a sore they are hereby no more concerned as to what is past than any of the Antipodes under the government of a King The Aphorismes are general and applicable to any Kingdom in many of which those Subjects that mean to Act may read their duty and they that do not may expect their doom I at first had done as Simplicius saith Arrian had with those of Epictetus collected only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most seasonable the most necessary and the most motive or operative upon the minds of men wherewith being so much affected I thought the book very well worth review as loth to leave ought behind that might have the like efficacy by the sense though not altogether the same acuteness in the conceipt nor elegance in the language by which gleaning or recollection I recover'd many as fair and full eares as those I had before bound up in the sheaf many Aphorismes no less considerable no less deserving an intent regard Some others if you find coincident with those of the first rank as some you will I pray know that the same passed me not unobserved but having some difference in expression though little or none in sense they were ad led the more to oblige you and to effect that prevalency upon you which your hast from the former might not admit Such if any such there be as may seem flat and ordinary they are to be set to my account who confess my self so indulgent in my reverence of the Royal Authour that nothing of his could fall so low in my esteem Others that are not many but borrowed and made English I have entituled to the High Translatour whose authority gives more weight to 'em and more they penetrate press'd by Him In sententiâ ut penetret valde facit robustae alicujus receptae auctoritatis pondus That all were not reduc'd to heads and ranged under Common places has reason such as I think not fit to be mention'd here you may know that the learned Grotius who was wont neither to spare nor to lose his pains has done the like in a greater Volume As it is if you be not more curious than obsequious in what concerns you either to know or practise you will have for what to thank me who confirm you in your Religion and Loyalty or lead you gently to it by a Royal hand I have one thing more to require of you that you make not too much hast to censure me for imposing that upon you as His Majesty's which may appear compos'd by me Some such Aphorismes indeed there are for which some little change the inserting of some few words was necessary to give them as well the form as force of Rules or Dictates in which if you take no less pains to justifie than I did to avoid your censure you will find it frustrate and me guilty of nought but more endeavours than you have desires for your own advantage wherewith I wish you well A Table shewing where the Centuries begin Cent. 1 beginneth Pag. 1 Cent. 2 beginneth Pag. 22 Cent. 3 beginneth Pag. 44 Cent. 4 beginneth Pag. 67 Cent. 5 beginneth Pag. 87 Cent. 6 beginneth Pag. 110 Cent. 7 beginneth Pag. 138 Cent. 8 beginneth Pag. 161 Cent. 9 beginneth Pag. 194 Cent. 10 beginneth Pag. 231 Cent. 11 beginneth Pag. 265 Cent. 12 beginneth Pag. 293 EFFATA REGALIA The First Century 1. THe weight of Reason will counterpoise the overballancings of any factions 2. The gravity and discretion of Gentlemen may alay and fix the Commons to a due temperament 3 The interest of a King and his Children give him many obligations to seek and preserve the love and welfare of his subjects 4 The love and welfare of subjects is the only temporal blessing left to the ambition of just Monarchs as their greatest honour and safety next Gods protection 5 Wherein a King lessens his prerogative he may gain a recompence in the affections of his Subjects 6 No flames of civil dissentions are more dangerous then those which make religious pretensions ground of factions 7 Kings should not suffer their own judgments to be overborn more by others importunities then their arguments 8 The great abilities of Lords may make a Prince more afraid then ashamed to employ them in the greatest affairs of State 9 Officers of State moving in an high sphere and with a vigorous lustre must needs raise many envious exhalations capable to cast a cloud upon their brightest merit and integrity 10 Between a Kings unsatisfiedness in himself and a seeming necessity of satisfying the importunity of some people it discovers more a fear of men then of God to prefer what is safe before what seemeth just 11 A King is not to prefer the outward peace of his Kingdoms with men to the inward exactness of conscience before God 12 It is a bad exchange for a King to wound his own conscience thereby to salve State-sores To calm the stormes of popular discontents by stirring up a tempest in his own bosom 13 There is a fallacy in that maxime Better one man perish though unjustly then the People be displeased or destroyed 14 ' The best rule of policy is to prefer the doing of Justice before all enjoyments and the peace of conscience before the preservation of kingdoms 15 Many are terrified by tumults to concurre with the condemning party rather then satisfied that of right they ought so to do 16 A King ought to be more afraid to take away a mans life unjustly then to lose his own 17 Suspicions not raised out of malice are not in reason to be smothered 18 No present impunity or popular vindication will be subterfuge to men guilty of evil machinations sufficient to rescue them from the exact tribunals of God and their own consciences 19 There is an after unavoidable judgment which shal rejudg what among men is but corruptly decided or give the final sentence if not at all 20 It is a better resolution rather to bear repulse with patience then to use hazardous extremities 21 It is one of the most convincing arguments that there is a God while his power sets bounds to the raging of the sea and no less that he restrains the madness of the people 22 Nothing port ends more Gods displeasur against a nation then when he suffers the confluence and clamors of the Vulgar to pass all boundaries of Lawes and reverence to Authoritie
exceeding even the desires of those that have been factiously discontented if they do but pretend to any modest and sober sense 64. The Odium and oâ—fences which some mens rigour or remissness in Church and State may have contracted upon a Kings Government he should resolve to expiate by such Lawes and Regulations for the future as may not only rectifie what was amiss in practise but supply what was defective iâ— the constitution 65. No man should have a greater zeal to see Religion setled and preserved in Truth Unity and Order than the King whom it most concerns both in piety and policy 66. A King's confidence in others may betray himself and his Kingdomes to those advantages which some men seek for who want nothing but power and occasion to do mischief 67. When our sins arâ— ripe there is no preventing of God's Justice from reaping that glory in our Calamities which we robb'd him of in our Prosperity 68. Great abilities in a Minister of State may be prone to create in him great confidence of undertakings and this is like enough to betray him to great errours and many enemies 69. Though a King cannot in his Judgment approve all a Minister of State hath done driven it may be by the necessity of Times and the Temper of that People he is set over more than lead by his own disposition to any height and rigour of actions yet he may not be convinced of any such criminousness in him as willing to expose his life to the strokes of Justice and malice of his enemies 70. When a King bears the touch of Conscience with great régret for any act of so sinfull frailty as discovers more a fear of Man than of God as a sign of his repentance he should often with sorrow confess the same both to God and Men. 71. No man is worthy to bear the name and place of God on earth who will not avoid inconveniences of State by acts of so high injustice as no publick convenience can expiate or compensate 72. In all likelihood a King can never suffer with his People greater calamities yet with greater comfort by vindicating the Innocency of his Minister at least by denying to sign any destructive Bill according to that Justice which his Conscience suggesteth to him than he wil do after he shall have gratified some mens unthankfull importunities with so cruel a favour 73. It may be observed by a King that those who counsel him to sign a destructive Bill to an innocent Minister of State are so far from receiving the rewards of such ingratiatings with the People that no meâ— are harrassed and crushed more than they when he is least vexed by them who counsels the King not to consent against the vote of his own Conscience 74. A King fully conscious to his Soul of permitting an Innocent Minister of State to be destroyed may so much the more welcome those Judgments God hath pleased to send upon him as he may hope them to be a means which his mercy hath sanctified so to him as to repent of that unjust Act and for the future not to do the like 75. Nothing should more fortifie a Kingâ—s resolutions against alâ— violent importunities which seek to gain consent from him to Acts wherein his Conscience is unsatisfied than the sharp touches he may have had for some such he before hath yeilded to 76. When a King's enemies of his own People load his Act of Justice because extraordinary in the method with obloquies and exasperations in touchy times it will fill indifferent men with great jealousies and fears yea and many of his friends will resent it as a motion rising rather from Passion than Reason and not guided with such discretion as the Times require 77. Though a King be furnish'd with just motives and pregnant grounds to proceed against any Subjects so that there needs nothing to the evidence he can produce against those he chargeth save a free and legal Tryal let that be all he desireth 78. A King should not yield to any temptation of displeasure or revenge against the persons of his Subjects further than he has discovered the unlawfull correspondencies they have used and engagements they have made to embroyl his Kingdoms 79. Probabilities may be sufficient to raise jealousies in any King's heart who is not wholely stupid and neglective of the publick peace 80. A fair and legal tryal of men called in question by their King can amount to no worse effect than either to do him and his Kingdom right in case they be guilty of else to clear their Innocency and remove his suspitions 81. When once People have learned to think hard thoughts againâ—t their King they will afterward abundantly vent them by words and deeds 82. Not any thing except our sins more ominously presageth alâ— the miseries incident to a Kingdom by Civil War then Tumults in the Capital City of it which when at their height are not like a storm at Sea which yet wants not its terrour but like an Earthquake shaking the veâ—y foundations of all than which nothing in the World hath more of horrour 83. In Popular Tumults a short sit or two of shaking as an ague may pass away but when once they become a quotidian fever allwayes increasing to higher inflammations impatient of any mitigation restraint or remission they threaten ruine 84. An unsafe guard may too easily be entertain'd by such as scare themselves and others with unnecessary fears 85. Such great Demagogues and Patrons of Tumults as send for them to flatter and embolden them to direct and tune their clamorous importunities God will in his due time let them see that those are no fit means to be used for attaining his ends 86. They are no wise Statesmen who own people in Tumults to be their friends commending their Courage Zeal and Industry which to sober men can seem no better than that of the Devil who goes about seeking whom he may deceive and devour 87. It is not alwayes an effect of Pusillanimity in a man for popular terrours to deserâ— his publick station 88. When Popular Tumults are become as the breaking in of a Sea for a King to resist at present threatens imminent danger but to withdraw gives it space to spend its fury and gains him a sitter time to repair the breach 89. A King by all means to decline a Civil War may in many particulars deny himself especially haveing no Army to flie unto for protetection or vindication 90. A King should resolve to hear reason in all things and to consent to it so far as he can comprehend it 91. When unquiet people with unpassionate representations reflect upon any not more Princely than friendly contributions which their King may have granted towards the perpetuating of their happiness he need not despair of recovering their Love and Loyalty unto him 92. The Loyal and cleared affections of mis-led People will strive to return such retributions of Honour and Love
to their injur'd King or his Posterity as may fully compensate both the acts of his confidence in and his sufferings for them 93. It is the injury of all injuries wherewith some malicious people load their King while they calumniate him as a wilfull and resolved occasioner of his own and his Subjects miseries 94. A King ought not to repine at an establishment of his own making nor endeavour by force and open hostility to undo what by his Royal assent he hath done 95. A King may have a sense of injuries from his Subjects yet not such as to think them worth vindicating by a War 96. A King is compelled â—â— injure himâ—elf by his Subjects not using favours with the same candor wherewith they were conferred 97. Tumults are prone to threaten to abuse all Acts of grace and turn them into wantonness 98. Their own fears whose black arts raise up turbulent Spiritâ— may force them to conjure them down again 99. Though a King have iustly resented any indignities put upon him he may be in no capacity to take just revenge in a hostile and warlike way upon those whom he knowes to be well fortified in the love of the meaner sort of the people 100. A King should long for nothing more than that himself and his Subjects may quietly enjoy the fruâ—ts of his own condescendings The eighth Century 1. A King that knowes well the sincerity and uprightness of his own heart in passing from himself what may exceed the very thoughts of former times although he seem less a Politician to men yet may need no secret distinctions or evasions before God 2. Though a King may be content to recede much from his own interests and Personal rights of which he conceives himself to be Master yet in what concerns Truth Justice the Rights of the Church and his Crown together with the general good of his Kindoms all which he is bound to preserve as much as morally lies in him here he ought to be fixt and resolute 3. A King by no necessity should be brought to affirm that to men which in his conscience he denied before God 4. For Protestants to force their Queen because of the Romane Religion to withdraw for her safety as it will be little to the adorâ—ing of their profession so it may occasion a further alienation of mind and divorce of affections in her from it 5. An Afflicted King can give no better instance of a steady affection unto his Queen than by professing himself content to be tossed weather-beaten and shipwrackt so as she may be safe in Harbour 6. The policy of Rebels finds it sometimes necessary to their designs by scandalous articles and all irreverent demeanour to seek to drive their Queen out of the Kingdom lest by the influence of her example eminent for love as a wife and loyalty as a subject she should convert to or retein in their love and loyalty to their King all those whom they have a purpose to pervert 7. Some acts there are of so rude disloyalty that a King 's greatest enemies have scarce confidence enough to abet or own 8. Rebels that design the destruction of their King will first make overt essayes by possessing themselves of Towns how patiently he can bear the loss of his Kingdoms 9. A good King so injur'd will be more affected with shame and sorrow for others then with anger for himself nor will the affront done to him trouble him so much as their sin which admits no colour or excuse 10. They who have effrontery enough ro commit or countenance will hardly contein themselves within the compass of one unworthy act but the hand of that cloud will soon overspread the whole Kingdom and cast all into disorder and darkness 11. One act of publick Rebellion may give a wise King to see clearly through all the pious disguises and soft palliations of some men whose words though smoother than oyl will prove very swords 12. Against the Swords point is the defence of a good Conscience 13. Were it not that the excess of our impotent passions gave our enemies malice a full impression on our souls it could not reach very far nor do us much hurt 14. It is observable how God sometimes so pleades and avengeth the cause of an injur'd King in the eye of the world that the most willfully blind cannot avoid the displeasure to see it and with some remorse and fear to own it as a mutable stroke and prediction of divine vengeance 15. It hath been known that a leading Rebel unreproached unthreatned uncursed by any language or secret imprecation of the King only blasted with the conscience of his own wickedness and falling from one inconstancy to another noâ— long after has paid his own and his eldest sons heads as forfeitures of their disloyalty to those men from whom he might have expected another reward than so to divide their heads from their bodies whose hearts with them were divided from their King 16. A solitary vengeance will noâ— alwayes serve the turn The cutting off one head in a family is not enough to expiate the asfront done to the head of a Common weal. 17. The eldest son has been known to be involued in the punishment as he was infected with the sin of the Father against the Father of his Country Root and Branch God cuts off in one day 18. A King ought not to rejoyce in the ruine of any eminent Rebel though it were such as could give the greatest thirst for revenge a full draught as if executed by them who first employed him against his Soveraign but rather pity him especially if he thinks he acted against the light of his Conscience 19. Signal Rebels are not allwayes suffer'd to accomplish their repentance when they begin to have inclinations toward it and a reparation of their duty but fall unhapâ—ily sometimes into the hands of their Justice who first imployed them and not the Mercy of the King they have offended 20. It is no fault in a King to be as willing to forgive a Rebel as he can ask favour of him 21. That Gentleman is to be pitied even by the King he has offended that becomes a notable monument of unprosperous disloyalty a sad and unfortunate spectacle to the World 22. A King should love the inward peace of his Conscience before any outward tranquillity 23. Some miscariages in Government may escape rather through ill Counsel of some men driving on their private ends or the peevishness of others envying the publick should be managed without them or the hidden and insuperable necessities of State than any propensity of the King himself either to injuriousness or oppression 24. Those Rebels must have more confidence in their Cannon then in their Gause whom their King can freely ask whose innocent bloud during my Reign have I shed to satisfie my lust anger or covetousness What Widows or Orphans tears can witness against me the just cry of which must now be
the abatement of mens sins not the desolating of Nations he will command the Sword of Civil Wars to sheath it self 76. A King of divers Nations may incurre the the censure or misconstruction of one while he gratifies the active spirits among them of the other so far as that he seems to many to prefer the desires of that party before his own interest and honour 77. Religion and Liberty are common and vulgar flourishes to disguise an other errand of that Army which invades their own Kings territories to make him and his Church to write after them and theirs though it were in bloudy characters 78. Presbytery seeks to suppress and render odious under the names of Sects Schisms or Heresies several Parties which if they can get but numbers strength and opportunity may according to Presbyteries opinion and pattern set up their wayes by the like methods of violence representing a wonderful necessity thereof to avoid the further miseries of War which they may first begin and engage themselves to continue until they obtain their end 79. When God hath first taken us off from the folly of our opinions and fury of our passion he hath many wayes to teach us those rules of true Reason and peaceable Wisdome which is from above tending most to his glory and his Church's good 80. They that have any true touches of Conscience will not endeavour to carry on the best designs much less such as are and will be daily more apparently factious and ambitious by any unlawfull means under the title of a Covenant 81. Ties by Leagues and Covenants are either superfluous and vain when men were sufficiently tied before or fraudulent and injurious if by such after-ligaments they find the Imposers really ayming to dissolve or suspend their former just and necessary obligations 82. Factious men to whom it is enough if they get but the reputation of a seeming encrease to their Party little romember That God is not mocked 83. Against the Church the King or the Publick Peace no mans lawfull Calling can engage him 84. The soâ—â— and servile temper of some Divines dispose them in alterations of Religion and Government to sudden acting and compliance contrary to their former judgments profession and practise 85. No man should be more forward than a King himself to carry on all due Reformation with mature judgment and a good Conscience in what things he shall after impartial advice be by God's Word and right reason convinced to be amiss 86. Crowns and Kingdoms have a period with the life of their King but Reputation and Honour may survive to a glorious kind of Immortality when he is dead and gone 87. A King should never permit the malice of his enemies to deprive him of that comfort which his confidence in the generality of his people gives him 88. What a King may bear from foreign enemies he cannot so well from his own Subjects who next his children are dear unto him 89. Nothing could give a King more cause to suspect and search his own Innocency than when he observes many who made great professions of singular piety forward to engage against him 90. When many Professours of singular Piety engage with persons that take arms against their King it gives to vulgar minds so bad a reflection upon Him and his Cause as if it had been impossible to adhere to Him and not with all part from God to think or speak well of Him and not to blaspheme God 91. Truly Learned and Religious men will endeavour to be so well satisfied in the Cause of their injur'd King's sufferings as that they may chose rather to suffer with Him than forsake Him 92. When Popular Preachers though but in hypocrisie and falshood urge Religious pretensions against their King it is not strange that the same to many well-minded men should be a great temptation to oppose Him 93. When a King useth the assistance of Subjects of a different profession from Him they are most ready to interpret it a sighting against Religion who least of all men care whom they imploy or what they say and do so they may prevail 94. So eager are some men in giving their Soveraign better counsel than what they pretend he hath before heark'ned to that they will not give Him leave to take it with freedom as a Man nor honour as a King 95. No men should be more willing to complain than the King be to redress what he sees in Reason to have been either done or advis'd amiss 96. They who of pretended Sufferers become zealous Actors in persecution deprive themselves of the comfort and reward whatsoever they before expected 97. The noise and ostentation of Liberty is the design and artifice some men use to withdraw the peoples affections from their King 98. A good King should be so far from desiring to oppress as not to envy his Subjects that liberty which is all he ought desire to enjoy himself viz. To will nothing but according to Reason Lawes and Religion 99. Lords and Gentlemen which assist their King in a Civil War would not be so prodigal of their Liberties if they suspected he would infringe them as with their Lives and Fortunes to help on the inslaving of themseves and their Posterities 100. As to civil Importunities none but such as desire to drive on their ambitious and covetous design over the ruines of Church and State Prince Peers and People will ever desire greater Freedom than good Lawes allow The ninth Century 1. SUch men as thirst after Novelties or despair to relieve the necessities of their fortunes or satisfie their Ambition in peaceable times become principal impulsives to popular Commotions 2. Rebels will blast the best Government of the best King with all the odious reproaches which impotent malice can invent and expose Him to all those contempts which may most diminish the Majesty of a King and encrease the ungratefull insolencies of his People 3. A King who is well assured that his Innocency is clear before God in point of any calumnies rebellious Subjects do object may prophesie That his reputation shall like the Sun after Owles and Bats have had their freedom in the night and darker times rise and recover it self to such a degree of spendour as those feral birds shall be grieved to behold and unable to bear 4. A King cannot so much suffer in point of honour by rude and scandalous pamphlets as those men do who having power and pretending to so much piety are so forgetfull of their duty to God and him as not to vindicate the Majesty of their King against any of those who contrary to the precept of God and precedents of Angels speak evil of dignities and bring railing accusations against those who are honoured with the name of Gods 5. They will easily contemn such shadows of God as Kings are who reverence not that Supreme and adorable Majesty in comparison of whom all the glory of Men and Angels is but
undeceive his people and to draw to Him the Nobility and Gentry of his Kingdom 83. When a great sedition is raised in one Kingdom the King may not imprudently resolve at adventure to put Himself freely and cleerly on the love and affections of his Subjects in any other the honour and safety whereof lies nearly at the Stake 84. In Rebellious or Seditious times the King may justly expect support from the Loyal part of his Subjects till the common safety be secured 85. When People of one Kingdom invade their King in his other two things are chiefly considerable by his Great Councel for the safety and security thereof 1. The chasing out the Rebels 2. His satisfying the just grievances of those that adhere unto Him wherein He should promise to concur heartily and clearly with them that all the World may see his intentions have ever been and will be to make that a glorious and flourishing Kingdom 86. The dishonour and mischief must needs be great if for want of mony a King's Army be disbanded before the Rebels be put out of his Kingdom they invaded 87. Some men more moliciously than ignorantly will put no difference between Reformation and alteration of Government 88. What part soever of a King's Revenue is found illegal or heavy to the Subjects a King should be willing to lay down trusting in their affections 89. It is not fit for a King to argue the business of High Treason which toucheth his principal Minister of State though his Parliament countenance it if in his Conscience He cannot condemn him Nor is a Parliament to expect that a positive Doctrine should best become the mouth of a Prince 90. If a King cannot condemn as a Parliament would have Him his Minister of State of High Treason yet cannot say He can clear Him of misdemeanours the said Parliament may find out a way to satisfie Justice and their own fears and not press his Conscience 91. Although a King to satisfie the People would do great matters yet in that of Conscience so tender a thing is it neither fear nor any other respect whatsoever should ever make Him go against it 92. A King should omit no occasion whereby he may shew that affection to his people which He desires his people would shew to Him 93. It is but the mark of a King's confidence to put himself wholly upon the love and affection of his People for his subsistence 94. A King should never have other design but to win the affections of his People by his justice in his government 95. A good King can do nothing with more cheerfullness than to give his people a general satisfaction not offering to endeer himself unto them by word which should not be his way but by Acts of setling their Religion and just Liberties before he proceeds to any other 96. It is no prejudice for a King a little to misreckon in time if not deceived in his end to settle an unquiet Nation of his Subjects 97. A King ought to seek his Peoples happiness their flourishing being his greatest glory and their affections his greatest strength 98. A Soveraign ought to take that care of his Son which shall justifie Him to God as a Father and to his Dominions as a King 99. A King ought to assure upon his honour that He has no thought but Peace and Justice to his People which He should by all fair means seek to preserve and maintain relying upon the goodness and providence of God for the preservation of Himself and Rights 100. In ambiguous Times a Kings fears should be greater for the Religion He professeth his People and Lawes than for his own Rights and safety The Eleventh Century 1. IT is a high thing to tax a King with breach of promise 2. A Parliament may have worse informations than the King Counsels against which they except 3. The King of whom the Militia is demanded by his Parliament is not to part with it for an hourâ— Nor should that be demanded of a King wherewith his wife and children are not to be trusted 4. A King is not to punish or discourage his People for petitioning to Him in an humble way though the Subject do not agree with his sense 5. A King sometimes cannot satisfie his People in a debt due to the Country when all the Water goes not to the right Mill. 6. When Lawes are altered by any other Authority than that by which they were made the foundations of the Peoples happiness are destroyed 7. When the King is oppressed and his just Kights taken from Him it is impossible for the Subjects Liberties and properties to be preserved 8. Errours and mistakes among Loyal Subjects proceeding from misinformation are removed with more satisfaction and ease to them than they were received 9. A King should hold it a piece of his duty to take the utmost pains He can fully to inform and undeceive his People and rather to prevent crimes than to punish them 10. Persons of ill dispositions take as great pains to do mischief and to bring confusion as good men should for peace and happiness in a Kingdom 11. When a good King sends such Propositions of Peace and Accommodation to his Parliament that contested with Him as to which He may expect they should with alacrity submit if the unexcusable enemies of Peace be not strong enough to prevail He may reasonably hope to have no other use of his Loyal Peoples affections but in their prayers not needing their assistance when He requireth nothing that with more justice can be denied Him than his Crown or Life be taken from Him 12. When the Religion Liberty-Lawes which are good Subjects priviledg and protection become the quarrel between a King and any his People in Rebellion the taking his Towns Ships Armies and money from Him should not dishearten Him the concurrence and affection of his people with God's blessing will supply and recover all 13. In time of Rebellion when any Country or Province have shewed much forwardness and made great expressions of their affections to the King He should never be satisfied with Himself till He have found some way to fix a mark of favour and estimation upon the same which may tell Posterity how good Subjects and how much Gentlemen they have been 14. The memory of any signal Loyalty shewed by Persons or Provinces to the Royal Father should grow up in a just acknowledgment with his Sons 15. In times of distraction unquiet Spirits will be abroad and every day throw in new accidents to disturb and confound the publick Peace 16. Rebellion that at first but fortifies it self in a Town will at length rise to that insolence as not to be any longer confined within the Walls but make sallies out to exercise murder cruelty and rapine upon the persons and possessions of good Subjects 17. The sad effects of counterfeit Fears and Jealousies in a Parliament are such as no men can tell the least good they
from the earnest and constant endeavouring of which as no discouragement given Him on the contrary part should make Him cease so no success on his own should ever divert Him 52. All men who pretend to goodness must desire peace and all men know Treaties to be the best and most Christian way to procure it 53. A King can never condescend unto what is absolutely destructive to that just power which by the Lawes of God and the Land He is born unto 54. As a King should make no other demands but such as He believes confidently to be just and much conducing to the tranquillity of the People so should He be most willing to condescend to them in whatsoever shall be really for their good and happiness 55. Except a King and People have reciprocal care each of other neither can be happy 56. A King should never dissemble nor hide his Conscience when his consent is desired to the alteration of Religion wherewith He is unsatisfied 57. In times of Distraction and Division between King and People if the King be so unfortunate as to sall into their hands it is â—it for Him to be attended by some of his Chaplains whose opinions as Clergy-men he ought to esteem and reverence not only for the exercise of his Conscience but also for clearing of his judgment concerning the emergent differences in Religion 58. A restrained King cannot as He ought take in consideration the alterations in Religion that may be offered Him without the help of his Chaplains or Divines because He can never judge rightly of or be altered in any thing of his opinion so long as any ordinary way of finding out the Truth is denied Him but when that is granted Him He should not strive for victory in Argument but seek and submit to Truth according to that judgment which God hath given Him alwayes holding it his best and greatest conquest to give contentment to his People in all things which He conceives not to be against his Conscience or Honour 59. A King under such restraint as he is not master of those ordinary actions which are the undoubted rights of any free-born man is not in case fit to make Concessions for give Answers to his revolted Subjects 60. A King under what restraint soever should not give his consent to any Propositions made to Him by his revolted Subjects that require the disclaiming that reason which God hath given Him to judge by for the good of Him and his People and the putting a great violence upon his Conscience 61. It were easie for a distressed King who intended to wind Himself out of Troubles by indirect means readily to consent to whatsoever is proposed to Him and afterward choose his time to break all alledging that forced concessions are not to be kept for which He would not incur a hard censure from indifferent men 62. Maximes of fallacy are not to be the guides of a King's Actions in extremity 63. It is held by some unlawfull for any man and most base in a King to recede from his promises for having been obtained by force or he under restraint Note According as the promises may be which if unjust and injurious are not to be adher'd to 64. A general Act of Oblivion is the best bond of peace 65. The Wisdom of several Kingdoms hath usually and happily in all ages granted general Pardons whereby the numerous discontentments of many persons and families otherwise exposed to ruine might not become fuel to new disorders or seeds to future troubles 66. Perpetual dishonour must cleve to that King who to obtain liberty or other advantage to Himself shall abandon those persons of Condition and Fortune that out of a sense of duty have engaged themselves with and for Him in his Civil Wars 67. Liberty being that which in all times hath been the common theme and desire of all men common Reason shewes That Kings less than any should endure Captivity 68. A King may with patience endure a tedious restraint so long as He has any hope that that sort of his suffering may conduce to the peace of his Kingdoms or the hindering of more effusion of blood 69. A King under restraint finding by too certain proofs that his continued patience would not only turn to his personal ruine but likewise be of much more prejudice than furtherance to the publick good is bound as well by natural as political obligations to seek his safety by retiring Himself if He can for some time from the publick view both of his Friends and Enemies 70. No indifferent man can judg but a King has just cause to free Himself from the hands of those who change their principles with their condition and who are not ashamed openly to intend the destruction of his Nobility and with whom the Levellers doctrine is rather countenanced than punished 71. No reasonable man can think that God will bless those who refuse to hear their own King when they have him under restraint 72. Although a King may withdraw Himself from the ill usage of such his Subjects as keep Him under restraint and are deaf to the importunities of his reasonable desires yet when He may be heard with Freedom Honour and Safety He should instantly break forth through the cloud of his retirement and shew Himself really to be Pater Patriae 73. When a King is willing to give ease to the Consciences of others there is no reason why He alone and those of his judgment should be pressed to a violation of theirs 74. It is the definition not names of things which make them rightly known 75. Without means to perform no Propsition can take effect 76. A King to whom Honour Freedom and Safety is not allowed can no more treat with his Subjects that have usurped his power than a blind man judge of colours or one run a race who hath both his feet tied together 77. A King of two different Nations should yield to none in either Kingdom for being truly and zealously affected for the good and honour of both and his resolution should be never to be partial for either to the prejudice of the other 78. Mercy is as inherent and inseparable to a King as Justice 79. A King should never abuse the love of his loyal Subjects by any power wherewith God shall enable Him to the least violation of the least of their liberties or the diminution of those immunities which He before had granted them though they be beyond the Acts of his Predecessours 80. In time of Civil War whosoever behaves not Himself like a good Subject to his King in his Kingdom should not if the King can help it receive the benefit and advantage of being his Subject in any other but all foreign Princes should know that as such a person hath parted with his loyalty to his King so he must not hope for any security by Him that some example may be made how easie it is for a King to punish
ground and to lay his honour in the dust 19. God that sees not as man sees lookes beyond all popular appearances searches the heart and tryes the reins and brings to light things hidden in the dark 20. A Kings afflictions cannot be esteemed by wise and godly men any argument of his sin in shedding bloud he would have saved more than their impunity among good men is any sure token of their innocency that forc't him to it 21. A King may expect God's Protection from the privy conspiracies and open violence of bloudy and unreasonable men according to the uprightness of his heart and the innocency of his hands in the matter of bloud or destruction of his Subjects 22. In time of civil dissensions a King may most safely flie to God as his refuge and defence who rules the raging of the Sea and the madness of the People 23. A King should look upon his own sins and the sins of his People which are the tumults of their Souls against God as the just cause of popular inundations permitted by God to over-bear all the banks of Loyalty Modesty Lawes Justice and Religion 24. God can rebuke the rebellious beasts of the People and deliver his King from the rudeness and strivings of the multitude 25. It becomes King and People as Men and Christians unpassionately to see the light of Reason and Religion and with all due order and gravity to follow it 26. A Charitable King will wish his rebellious People a timely sense and sorrow that shame here and not suffering hereafter may be the punishment of their Sin 27. When God shall set bounds to our Passions by Reason to our Errours by Truth to our Seditions by Lawes duly executed and to our Schismes by Charity then we may be as Jerusalem a City at unity in it self 28. A King in distress should still appeal to his God whose all-discerning Justice sees through all the disguises of mens pretensions and deceitfull darknesses of their hearts 29. A King to whom God gave a heart to grant much to his Subjects may need a heart fitted to suffer much from them 30. Gods Grace may teach a King wisely to enjoy as well the frustratings as the fullfillings of his best hopes and most specious desires 31. A King sometimes while he thinks to allay others fears may raise his own and by setling them unsettle himself 32. Evil for good is a bad requital and hatred for the good will of a King to his People 33. A King needs God for his Pilot in such a dark and dangerous storm as neither admits his return to the Port whence he set out nor his making any other with that safety and honour which he designed 34. It is easie for God to keep a King safe in the love and confidence of his people 35. A King needs God for his Guardian amidst the unjust hatred and jealousies of them whom he suffers so far to prevail as to pervert and abuse his acts of greatest Indulgence to and assurance of them 36. A penitent King ought to know no favours of his can make others more guilty than himself may be in abusing those many and great ones which God had conferred upon him 37. A King in time of publick calamity by civil dissensions should ask of God such Repentance for himself and his people as he will accept and such Grace as they may not abuse 38. The King is happy who can make a right use of others abuses and by their failings of him reflect with a reforming displeasure upon his own offemces against God 39. Although a King for his own sins be by other mens sins deprived of temporal blessings yet he may be happy to enjoy the comfort of God's mercies which often raise the greatest sufferers to be the most glorious Saints 40. It is God's will a King should preserve a Native Rational and Religious freedom 41. God requires of Kings to submit their understandings and wills unto his whose wisdom and goodness can neither erre nor misguide them 42. God requires of Kings so far to deny their carnal reason in order to his sacred Mysteries and Commands that they should believe and obey rather than dispute them 43. God expects from Kings only such a reasonable service of him as not to do any thing for him against their Consciences 44. As to the desires of men God enjoins Kings to try all things by the touch-stone of Reason and Lawes which are the rules of civil Justice and to declare their consents to that only which their judgments approve 45. Kings should be very unwilling to desert that place in which God hath set them and whereto the affairs of their Kingdoms do call them 46. A King may be content for his Peoples good to deny himself in what God hath subjected to his disposal 47. The unthankfull importunities and tumultuary violence of some mens immoderate demands should never betray a King to that dangerous and unmanly slavery as to make him strengthen them by his consent in those things which he thinks in his Conscience to be against God's glory the good of his Subjects and the discharge of his own duty to Reason and Justice 48. A King should be willing to suffer the greatest indignities and injuries Rebellious people press upon him rather than commit the least sin against his Conscience 49. The just liberties of People may well be preserved in fair and equal wayes without the slavery of their King's Soul 50. He whom God hath invested by his favours in the power of a Christian King should not subject his Reason to other mens Passions and Designs which seem unreasonable unjust and irreligious unto him 51. The way of Truth and Justice will bring a distressed King at last to peace and happiness with God though for them he hath much trouble among men 52. A King and Queen scattered on earth by their despightfull and deadly enemies may be prepared by their sufferings for God's presence 53. Though a King's difference from his Queen in some things as to Religion may be his greatest temporal infelicity yet the sincerity of their affections which desire to seek find and to embrace every Truth given by God may be acceptable unto him 54. It is happy for King and Queen different in Religion when either ignorance of what is necessary to be known or unbelief or disobedience to what they know becomes their misery or their wilfull default 55. The great scandal of Subjects professing the same true Religion with their King may be an hinderance to the dissenting Queen in the love of some Truth God would have her to learn or may harden her in some errour he would have cleared to her 56. A King 's own and his Parties constancy is the best antidote against the poyson of their example that gave such scandal 57. The Truth of that Religion the King propfesseth represented with all the beauties of Humility Loyalty Charity and Peaceableness as the proper fruits and
knowing he had hard measure and such as they would be very loth should be repeted to themselves 11. The tenderness and regret the King may find in his soul for having had any hand though very unwillingly in shedding one man's bloud unjustly though under the colour and formalities of Justice and pretenses of avoyding publick mischief may be hop'd to be some evidence before God and Man to all Posterity that he is far from bearing justly the vast load and guilt of all the bloud shed in an unhappy Civil War as his Rebels charge upon him To overawe the freedom of the Houses of Parliament or to weaken their just Authority by any violent impressions upon them is a design unworthy of the King who shall not need so rough assistance if he have Justice and Reason on his side 13. Popular Tumults are not the best removers of obstructions in Parliaments which rather infringe all freedome or differing in Votes and debating matters with reason and candor 14. When the obstinacy of Men in Parliament resolved to discharge their Consciences must be subdued by Tumults it may be feared that by the same all factious seditious and scismatical proposals against Government Ecclesiastical or Civil will be backed and abetted till they prevail 15. The riot and impatience of popular Tumults is such that they will not stay the ripening and season of Counsels or fair production of Acts in the order gravity and deliberateness besitting a Parliament but will rip up with barbarous cruelty and forcibly cut out abortive Votes such as their Inviters and Incouragers most fancy 16. When Tumults are become so insolent that there is no securing of the King's freedom in Parliament nor of his very person in the streets he is not bound by his presence to provoke them to higher boldness and contempts 17. When and only when Parliaments in their first Election and Constitution sit full and free as in all reason honour and Religion they ought to be things may be so carried as will give no less content to all good men than they wish or expect 18. It may prove unhappy to convene a Parliament where the Place affords the greatest Confluence of various and vitious humours 19. The King when he calls a Parliament should purpose to contribute what in Justice Reason Honour and Conscience he can to the happy success of it nor should it have any other design in him but the General good of his Kingdoms 20. Triennial Parliaments in a Kingdom as gentle and seasonable Physick might if well applied prevent any distempers from getting head or prevailing especially if the remedy prove not a disease beyond all remedy 21. Some men when they meet in Parliament occasion more work than they find to do by undoing so much as they find well done to their hands 22. The perpetuating a Parliament is an Act of highest confidence whereby a King hopes to shut out and lock the dore upon all present jealousies and future mistakes but intends not thereby to exclude himself as some may requite him 23. Those Subjects are unworthy of an indulgent King who deceive his extreme confidence by ill using any Act of Grace wherein he declares so much to trust them as to deny himself in a high point of his Prerogative 24. A continual Parliament by preserving Lawes in their due execution and vigour but no otherwise may be thought until Experiment shew a fallacy the best means to keep the Commonweal in tune 25. The agreeing Votes of the major part in both Houses of Parliament are not by any Law or Reason conclusive to the judgment of their King nor do they carry with them his consent whom they in no kind represent 26. The King is not further bound to agree with the Votes of both Houses then he sees them agree with the will of God with his just Rights as a King and the general good of his People 27. The Members of Parliament as many men are seldom of one mind and it is oft seen that the major part of them are not the right 28. The Majesty of the Crown of England is not bound by any Coronation Oath to consent to whatever its Subjects in Parliament shall require 29. The Coronation Oath is discharged by the King 's governing by such Lawes as his People with the House of Peers have chosen and himself hath consented unto 30. The King should give no ear to the importunity of his Parliament when instead of Reason and Publick concernments they obtrude nothing but what makes for the interest of parties and flowes from the partialities of private wills and passions 31. Every Subject is bound to stand to the sentence of Parliament according to Law 32. Where an orderly guard is granted unto the Parliament no account in reason can be given for the not suppressing Tumults but only to oppress both the King 's and the Two Houses freedom of declaring and voting according to every mans Conscience 33. The King should not by power protect any against the Justice of Parliament 34. It is justifiable for men in Parliament to withdraw who fear the partiality of their trial warned by any sad president while the Vulgar threaten to be their Oppressours and Judgers of their Judges 35. When Factious Tumults overbear not the Freedom and Honour of the two Houses but they assert their Justice against them and make the way open for all the Members quietly to come and declare their Consciences no man should be so dear unto their King as whom he should have the least inclination to advise either to withdraw himself or deny appearing upon their summons 36. Though the King may approve in some cases mens generous constancy and cautiousness yet further than that he should never allow any mans refractoriness against the Priviledges and Orders of the Houses to whom he ought to wish nothing more than Safety Fullness and Freedom 37. Those men that despair in fair and Parliamentary wayes by free deliberations and Votes to gain the concurrence of the Major part of Lords and Commons betake themselves when they have interest by the desperate activity of factious Tumults to sift and terrifie away all those Members whom they see to be of contrary minds to their purposes 28. Bishops ought to enjoy their Ancient places and undoubted Priviledges in the House of Peers 39. Bills in Parliament are not to be brought on by tumultuary clamours and schismatical Terrours and passed when both Houses are sufficiently thinned and over-awed 40. The King beside the grounds he may have in his own judgment has also a most strickt and indispensable Oath upon his Conscience to preserve the Order of Bishops and the Rights of the Church to which most Sacrilegious and abhorred Perjury most unbeseeming a Christian King should he ever by giving his Consent be betrayed he might account it infinitely greater misery than any had or could befall him 41. The King puts much to the adventure who by satisfying the fears and
some reparations for their former defects 41. As the quality of a King sets him beyond a Duel with any Subject so the Nobleness of his mind must raise him above the meditating any revenge or executing his anger upon the many 42. The more conscious a King shall be to his own merits upon his people the more prone he will be to expect all love and loyalty from them and to inflict no punishment upon them for former miscariages 43. An injur'd King will have more inward complacency in pardoning one than in punishing a thousand 44. We cannot merit of God but by his own mercy 45. Counterfeit and disorderly zeal ought not to abate a King's value and esteem of true piety both of them are to be known by their fruits 46. The sweetness of the Vine and Figtree is not to be despised though the Brambles and Thornes should pretend to bear Figs and Grapes thereby to rule over the Trees 47. The publick interest consists in the mutual and common good both of Prince and People 48. We must not sterve our selves because some men have surfeited of wholsom food 49. God sometimes punisheth Rebellious Subjects with continuance in their sin and suffers them to be deluded with the prosperity of their wickedness 53. Gods grace may teach and enable an injur'd King to want as well as to wear a Crown which is not worth taking up or enjoying upon sordid dishonourable and irreligious termes 51. Let a King keep himself to true principles of piety vertue and honour He shall never want a Kingdom 52. It is a principal point of honour in a yong King to deferre all respect love and pretection to the Queen Dowager his mother especially if with magnanimity and patience she hath sufferr'd for and with his Royal Father and himself 53. A Captive King in the midst of Rebellious Subjects may be wrapt up and fortified in his own innocency and God's grace 54. The bloud of a King destroy'd by Rebels will cry aloud for vengeance to Heaven and they who shed it will have inward horrour for their first Tormenter and not escape exemplary judgments 55. They that repent of any defects in their duty toward the Royal Father may be found truly zealous to repay with interest the loyalty and love which was due to him unto their King his son 56. The mask of Religion on the face of Rebellion will not long serve to hide the men's deformities that use it 57. Mislead Subjects may learn by their miseries That Religion to their God and Loyalty to their King cannot be parted without both their sin and their infelicity 58. God may honour a King not only with the Scepter and government of Realms but also with the suffering many indignities and an untimely death for them while he studies to preserve the rights of the Church the power of his Lawes the honour of his Crown the priviledges of Parliaments the liberties of his People and his own Conscience which is dearer to him than a thousand Kingdoms 59. A Captive King hath as much cause as leisure to meditate upon and prepare for his death there being but few steps between the Prisons and Graves of Princes 60. It is Gods indulgence which gives him the space but mans cruelty that gives him the sad occasions for those thoughts 61. A King in the hands of Rebels besides the common burthen of mortality which lies upon him as a man bears the heavy load of other mens ambitions fears jealousies and cruel passions whose envy or enmity against him makes their own lives seem deadly to them while he enjoyes any part of his 62. A Kings prosperity should not make him a stranger to the contemplations of mortality 63. The thoughts of death are never unseasonable since prosperity alwayes is uncertain 64. Death is an Eclipse which oft hapneth as well in clear as clowdy dayes 65. A King by long and sharp adversity may have so reconciled within himself those natural Antipathies between Life and Death which are in all men that the common terrours of the later may be dispelled and the special horrour of it much allayed 66. A King to whom a violent death approaching is represented by the policy of cruel and implacable enemies with all terrible aggravations may look upon those things as unpoysonous though sharp since his Redeemer hath either pulled them out or given him the antidote of his death against them which as to the immaturity unjustice shame scorn and cruelty of it exceeded whatever a threatned King can fear 67. A pious King never finds so much the life of Religion the feast of a good Conscience and the brazen wall of a judicious integrity and constancy as when he comes to a close conflict with the thoughts of Death 68. Though a King be not so old as to be weary of life it is happy for him if he be not so bad as to be either afraid to dye or asham'd to live 69. It is the greatest glory of a Christians life to dye dayly in conquering by a lively faith and patient hope of a better life those partial and quotidian deaths which kill by piece-meals and make men over-live their own fates while we are deprived of health honour liberty power credit safety or estate and those other comforts of dearest relations which are as the life of our lives 70. A King lives in nothing temporal so much as in the love and good will of his people 71. A King should not think that life too long or tedious wherein God gives him any opportunities if not to do yet to suffer with such Christian patience and magnanimity in a good cause as are the greatest honour of his life and the best improvement of his death 72. In point of true Christian valour it argues pusillanimity to desire to dye out of weariness of life and a want of that heroike greatness of spirit which becomes a Christian in the patient and generous sustaining those afflictions which as shadowes necessarily attend us while we are in this body and which are less'ned or enlarged as the Sun of our prosperity moves higher or lower whose total absence is best recompensed with the Dew of Heaven 73. The assaults of affliction may be terrible like Sampson's Lyon but they yield much sweetness to those that dare encounter and overcome them who know how to over-live the witherings of their Gourds without discontent or peevishness while they may yet converse with God 74. The life of a pious King is the Object of the Devils and wicked mens malice but yet under God's sole custody and disposal 75. We must not by seeming prepared to dye think to flatter God for longer life 76. Triumphing Enemies who are solemnely cruel adde as those did who crucified Christ the mockery of justice to the cruelty of malice 77. That a King may be destroyed as with greater pomp and artifice so with less pity it is but a necessary policy to make his death appear
as an Act of Justice done by Subjects upon their Soveraign who know that no Law of God or Man invests them with any power of Judicature without him much less against him and who being sworn and bound by all that is sacred before God and man to endeavour his preservation must pretend justice to cover their perjury 78. It is a sad fate for any man to have his enemies to be Accusers Parties and Judges but most desperate when this is acted by the insolence of Subjects against their Soveraign wherein those who have had the chiefest hand and are most guilty of contriving the publick Troubles must by shedding his bloud seem to wash their own hands of that innocent bloud whereof they are most evidently guilty before God and Man if not in their own Consciences too while they carry on unreasonable demands first by Tumults after by Armies 79. Nothing makes mean spirits more cowardly cruel in managing their usurped power against their lawfull Superiours than the guilt of their unjust usurpation 80. Specious and popular pretensions of Justice against Delinquents are applyed only to disguize at first the monstrousness of their designs who despair of possessing the power and profits of the Vineyard till the heir whose right it is be cast out and slain 81. It may be accounted by Rebels a Kings greatest fault that he will not either destroy himself with the Church and State by his word or not suffer them to do in unresisted by the sword whose covetous Ambition no Concessions of his can either satisfie or abate 82. Some men think that Kingdom of brambles which they seek to erect not likely to thrive till watered with the Royal bloud of those whose right the Kingdom is 83. A King's Innocency will find him both his Protector and his Advocate who is his only Judg. 84. The greatest Patrons of Law Justice Order and Religion on earth are exposed to as many dangers as there be either Men or Devils which love confusion 85. God will not suffer men long to prosper in their Babel who build it with the bones and cement it with the bloud of their Kings 86. A King destin'd to death by Rebels may be confident they will find avengers of it among themselves and that the injuries he hath sustained from them shall be first punished by them who agreed in nothing so much as in opposing him 87. The impatience of Rebels to bear the loud cry of their Kings bloud will make them think no way better to expiate it than by shedding theirs who with them most thirsted after his 88. God will not suffer them to go unpunished whose confoederacy in sin was their only security 89. A King 's greatest conquest of Death is from the power of the love of Christ who hath swallowed up Death in the Victory of his Resurrection and the Glory of his Ascension 90. Royal Charity is the noblest revenge upon and victory over a King's Destroyers 91. The will of Rebels and Regicides seems to be their only rule their power the measure and their success the Exactor of what they please to call Justice while they flatter themselves with the fancy of their own safety by the Kings danger and the security of their lives-designs by his death forgetting that the greatest temptations to sin are wrapped up in seeming prosperities so the severest vengeances of God are then most accomplished when men are suffered to complete their wicked purposes 92. When the will of God hath confined and concluded that of a devoted King he shall have the pleasure of dying without any pleasure of desired vengeance 93. The glory attending the death of a King sacrificed to the will of his revolted Subjects surpasseth all he could enjoy or conceive in life 94. The sharp and necessary Tyrany of King-destroyers sufficiently confute the calumnies of Tyranny against him 95. Subjects ought to know how to excuse their Soveraign's failings as a man and yet to retain and pay their duty to him as their King there being no religious necessity binding any Subjects by pretending to punish infinitely to exceed the faults and errours of their Princes 96. Rebels may often see the proportions of their evil dealings against their King in the measure of Gods retaliations upon them who cannot hope long to enjoy their own thumbs and toâ—s having under pretense of paring his nails been so cruel as to cut off his chiefest strength 97. The punishment of the more insolent and obstinate Rebels may be like Korah and his Complices at once mutining against both Prince and Priest in such a method of divine Justice as is not ordinary the earth of the lowest and meanest people opening upon them and swallowing them up in a just disdain of their ill-gotten and worse-used Authority upon whose support and strength they chiefly depended for their building and establishing their designs against their King the Church and State 98. It is a fallacy in them who from worldly success rather like Sophisters than sound Christians draw those popular conclusions for Gods approbation of their actions whose wise prudence oft permits many events which his revealed Word the only clear safe and fixed rule of good actions and good conveniences in no sort approves 99. A good King may be confident that the justice of his Cause and clearness of his Conscience before God and toward his people will carry him as much above Rebels in Gods decision as their successes may have lifted them above him in the Vulgar opinion 100. Many times those undertakings of men are lifted up to Heaven in the prosperity and applause of the World whose rise is from Hell as to the injuriousness and oppression of the design The Seventh Century 1. THe prosperous winds which oft fill the Sails of Pirates doth not justifie their piracy and rapine 2. The prayers and patience of a King's friends and loving Subjects coutribute much to the sweetning of that bitter cup given him by them whose hands are unjustly and barbarously lifted up against him 3. As to the last event a murther'd King may seem to owe more to his Enemies than his Friends while those put a period to the sins and sorrows attending this miserable life wherewith these desire he might still contend 4. If a good King suffer's a violent death with his Saviour it is but Mortality crowned with Martyrdom where the debt of death which he owes for sin to Nature shall be raised as a gift of faith and patience offered to God 5. The Trophees of a King's charity will be more glorious and durable over Rebels than their ill-managed victories over him 6. They whose sin is prosperous had need be penitent that they may be pardoned 7. We are to look upon the temporal destruction of the greatest King as farre less deprecable than the eternal damnation of the meanest Subject 8. It is very strange that Mariners can find no other means to appease the storm themselves have raised but by drowning their