A VINDICATION OF THE KING WITH Some OBSERVATIONS upon the TWO HOVSES By a True Son of the Church of ENGLAND and a Lover of his Countries Liberty London Printed Anno Domini 1642. A Vindication of the King with some Observations upon the two Houses by a true Son of the Church of England and a Lover of his Countries Liberty Reader I Shall not be curious to satisfie the Reason of any preposest opinion yet since the Times hath given an open Presse to clear every imagination which is not stifled in this Dampe I have endeavoured to contract my own Meditations in a narrow roome and rather expose them to the censure of the most judicious then rest satisfied alone and admit this cloudy surface to overwhelme so Vast a Body I confesse it was no mean part of my happinesse in our dangerous extreams to hope for a happy Union by that Soveraign medicine of a fading State a Parliament and knowing the admirable affection of our gracious Soveraigne to the peace and quiet of the Kingdome though it was His unspeakable misfortune never to know the misery of the People till their discontents were grown to that head they became almost if not altogether uncurable by those unreasonable and illegall Monopolies exacted by some ill affected agents conducing little to his advantage but to the furthering of their ambition who notwithstanding could as easily desert him in hiâ— misery as before be the reddy Instruments to importune him to this mischiefe upon presence of a Legall Anthority which who knowes not a Prince may be soon mistaken in since none can be so silly as to beleeve him a studied Lawyer Yet that this should expose us to so great an adventure as not onely to divest him of this suspected arbitrary power but to confer an absolute Government to any whatsoever renders me no other action then the Poets Incidit in Syllam cupiens vitare caribdim But if you please to take the true State of the businesse let your Impartial Judgement confer with your Reason upon these few notorious truths What has the King denied which concern our Liberty and are the undoubted securities of our happinesse under the regiment of a Just and unquestionable Monarchy Are not our Rights and Properties already establisht this Parliament by such acts of Grace as could never finde Presidents from His Ancestors besides the utter extirpation of Shipmony Monopolies upon what pretence soever those arbitrary Courts of Justice High Commission Star-Chamber Marshalseas c. Has He not importuned the setling of Religion in his purity and that there might be a Law to secure the tender Consciences of those who will not agree the Ceremonies Are not the taking away these sufficient ground to desolve our Jealousies if ever we meant to be satisfied As for their fears I wish we had as little reason to suspect the somâ—ntâ—rs as we have the King who is so clearly divested of any Power to make good the least Injustice that it 's too great a hazard on His part to adventvre what our Consciences enforce us to make good for Him on our part and the conservation of these are so attested by Him in the Word of a King with such unusuall expressions that if they came from a Stranger I suspected not an Infidell I was bound to beleeve in Charity Witnesse those serious asseverations God so deale with Me and my Children as I intend to conserve my Parliament in it's Priviledges the Rights of the Subject and the true profest Protestant Religion God so prosper me in what I take in Hand Is there yet a further way to establish them whereby they may be so secure that a violation may seem impossible without the subversion of the very Letter of the Law Why is it not propos'd if it be no Invasion of that Just Prerogative was never denied His Ancestors and what he hath deserved of us that he may not be as far trusted is as hard to Object as easily answered If then we must needs agree that there being nothing so clear why should any subtle pretences hinder our desired accommodation unlesse there be that intend the alteration of our Government and how inconsistant that may prove to a People already managed under the united Order of a vertuous King dayly experience offers it too easie of conjecture Yet for our better satisfaction le ts weigh the amends we are like to make our selves from these few Inconveniences amongst the thousands which dayly expose themselves to our view 1. The unlimited power of the two Houses have already assumed into their own hands a formall Ordinance countermanding suspending nay creating Acts of Parliament though not in the name of Acts yet in the power of Acts wherby both King and People are obliged to obey how to distinguish this Ordinance from an Act of State I am not well satisfied yet I have heard it call'd Treason in one of their Members for this comparison though with that caucious provisoe That it should be no leading case to future ages for Judges to imitate Is this the security of our undoubted Rights we have so long endeavoured who carries not now his life in his hand mannag'd by an exact power of a bare Vote which if any contradicts must suffer under the name of a malignant party though of their own Members and not proceeded against by the Justice of any precedent Acts but condemned by the Votes of the present Session and if this be not an absolute subversion of the Rights of Parliament and destructive to the fundamentall Lawes of our Kingdom wherein our Liberty consist I would fain be satisfied what is for 't is most apparant to whosoever examines their ordinary proceedings we have no Law left but what serves their turn and if that be defective to punish those they please to call Delinquents their Legislative Ordinance can as well supply that defect as it could make that obnoxious which till this Parliament no Man could ever call a fault 2. This continuing Power of the two Houses which if they had had a mind should ever be remitted they would have either expressed it in their first demand and limitted it to a certain time wherein they might have compleatly qualified the disquiet countenance of a troubled Estate or since have endeavoured some Remonstrance for our satisfaction in that particular For I would fain be answered First If they fit while they list and passe what they list whether they have nor during their pleasure subverted our Monarchy by their democrasie and Invested themselves of a power more Arbitrary then the Monarchicall Government could pretend to that having his limitations and Rules of Law which the Judges are to answer if they mistake or those that advise the King their democracy having no bounds be but a thing of Yesterday and which as yet we cannot understand assuming to themselves the sole power to Judge of our dangers and propose such remedy as may answer their pretences 2. How
every consciencious Man can dispence with that sacred Oath of Allegiauce wherein He cals God to Witnesse for the Vindication of His Princes Just Prerogative and their Protestation to maintain an absolute and unlimired power in the two Houses wrested to those Ordinances expressely inhibited by His Majestis speciall commands in my understanding it is to no other purpose then to leade us into a Maze where when we are lost by our mâ—sunderstanding which must necessarily be the principall of our subversion They will offer us a Clue shall eirher leade us to their premeditated designes whereby of necessity they will become our Masters or to an inevitable Ruine before we know the reason of our Fears and Jealousies being the old Rule they so often enveighed against First to trouble a State then to subvert the Government Let it not be objected now That I am against Parliaments for God knowes I am for them and as zealous for my Country as any Man that lives But in my opinion the best way to secure our Liberty had been That our Members of both Houses might continue subject still lyable to the Regiment of those Laws which shall be enacted by them wherein they will have a care of securing their own Estates for future as well as ours which was certainly the intentions of our well advised Ancestors in exposing so great a trust into their hands when the Prince called for their advice in matters of greatest concernment but by this continued Session they not onely are Invested of an absolute power but are able to make themselves amends at leisure for those monies exhausted out of their Estates while we groan under the insupportable burthen of theirs as they call them Legall Taxes and thus they may well be carelesse what Laws are past never intending to be observers but Lords of what they make 3. Who are these pretended reformers of the Commonwealth but the very instruments who were the favourites during our oppression I need not name them to any who has once attended the Epidemicke trouble of our age and what unheard of Conversion we can make of their lives whereby such a Confidence should be reposed in them as to devest so Religious and Just a Prince of his unquestionable Rights and Prerogatives and confer such an unlimitted power so readily upon them if we return our former senses renders me amized 't is not amisse to ruminate some words his Majesty used in his own vindication at Newmarket My Lords lay your hands on your hearts who were the Contrivers of these Illegall taxes wherewith you have so incensed my people to whose advantage were these impositions levied are my Exchequers at all larger or did you not rather conduce to your peculiar benefit who were the onely perswaders of them that you have now repayd mee with condigne thanks Those favourites being content to be the Causers though not Companions of their Princes mis-fortunes being like Crows upon a Carkas that have no sooner bared the bones but they are flown are we not yet sensible the rules of policy not of honesty to secure their lives and fortunes not their Consciences exposed you to this politike not publike service and had you not in so exact a course served your turns of these Loyall pretenders they had been as lyable to the extremity of Justice as the greatest Delinquents that underwent the most heavy sensures and undoubtedly had had their deserved shares which would have given a better Colour to their upright proceedings as they would have you so believed If they had impartially distributed Justice amongst the then Malignant party but now that we should be so stupid as to be circumvented with any pretences whatsoever which out-strip the Essentiall rules of Government or Reason and confide in the positive Vote of an ambitious party for ought we know would admit my perswader to be a mad-man that could allow that in his opinion but make them what you will suppose them to be the most reall and upright men in their lives and consciences in the whole world They are but the Counsell of the King and Kingdome not their Commanders for the health of our State is admirably ballanced if that have but his due proportion The Parliament consisting of three bodies the King the Lords and Commons so that if two should be distructive and the third remaine sound during those Lawes already in force there can be no danger to our Kingdome but if either of the â—â—o can passe at their pleasure what they will the third 〈◊〉 then of necessity stand for a Cypher for consenting or disagreeing is then of equall value and in my opinion yt's a profident of too great an adventure for suppose the King and the Major pure of the Lords should agree an Ordinance or Law we should thinke extremly prejudiciall to the Liberty of the Subject our Commons should be concluded peremptorily against their Consents I heard an act not long since vouched in president that had been tatified against the Consent of the Lords Spirituall where they declared nec possumus nee volumus consentirâ— and this so rare we could not find a second At the Parliament at Oxford in 17. 〈◊〉 3. when the Lords were not there present they were faine to disolve the House without passing one Act confirming my first proposition That the consent of two bodies are not of force to make Us Laws without the third much lesse conclude the King who is not onely the supream head but the very soule whose power gives life to their actions when their body is once dissolved besides how incoherent is it with that authority committed to them sor if the Parliament which are onely His great Councell offer him a Bill which He is bound to agree it was more then ever His Ancestors were and of their Counsellors it must necessarily follow they are His Commanders We have a Maxime with the Subject Modus conventio vincunt legem In former ages and ever since Parliaments vvere in use Le Roy s'avisera vvere sufficient authority to make a Bill of both Houses unwarrantable and how the King has lost that Right or vvhat new Laws are found out distructive to that Prerogative I never yet read nor ever shall unlesse some such new Ordinance or bare Votes can pretend to such an unwarranted power whereof there was never yet sound a President which can have no other operation upon my understanding then That the Votes of the present Members which can at their pleasures dispose the undoubted Priviledges of the Crown by a Law recorded onely in their owne breasts and given out to us under the guilded Title of the Peoples Liberty when indeed they are but Golden Chaynes in stead of Bulrushes and reserv'd till occasion shall make it too appitant may finde out a Law of equall force to dispose the Crown when they shall so far debilitate the Prince as he shall be no way able to make resistance for when the supporters are not
onely undermined but clearly taken away by what reason can we imagine the Structure may continue firme that you may be sure we will not unjustly charge them be pleased to observe with me their Orders in these few instances 1. Their countenancing these unwarranted Acts either by a seditious huddle of indigent people and so procuring Petitions to necessitate these premeditated proceedings or leavying an absolute War against the King securing us upon no other reasons then that they are the represent ative body of the Kingdom and therefore our Obedience rather to be expected then our Reason satisfied which indeed is true enough if they proceeded upon that warranted rule to which no man could refuse observance or being intrusted by us with the power of preceding Parliaments that they would pursue points of so high concernment with the same mature reasons and deliberations as they have done and and then they might well expect our readinesse to secure their actions But suppose we elect one that should speak or endeavour to enact Treason does our election bid us to secure him or will future Parliaments blame us hereafter for giving up so great a Delinquent to the Justice of the Lawes dare we countenance their Intentions who hath fetcht Presidents from the weakest Princes nay and go beyond them to to the disadvantage of as able a Prince as ever yet held the Scepter nay and offer their suppositions to the Vulgar If the Prince be a foole a childe c. ought he not to be governed by his Counsell though it be against his consent if it stand with the publique benefit what Implication to make of this I understand not but I am sure that it was none of our meaning when we gave our voice in the Elections Can an Ordinance of Parliament without the consent of the King renew a repealed Act and with so bold a countenance trample upon the heeles of that Parliament in Richard the seconds time and this very repealed Act renewed this Parliament be within one step of it wherein the Parliament took the Crown and gave it to the then Earl of Bullingbrook which was the reason of so much Blood in our Civill Wars and was not well settled till of late Years And can we blame the King if He desires shelter from such a storme If it be their intentions sure one Bullingbrook will not serve their turnes since there hath been equall shares in this so great an adventure And to vouch the Oath of this Usurper H. 4. which came in at their benevolence to a Prince of an unquestionable Title and never offered before or since to any English King that ever we read or heard of out with it's limitations is so far from their Loyall pretences that they are rather to be believed studied mischiefes and endeavours to embroyle the Kingdome in a Civill War 2. To disingage all that would out of affection or love interest themselves to secure the Kings Person and Dignity it being too apparant to any ordinary understanding that such proceedings were never warranted by any precidents of preceding Parliaments or those Laws they call fundamentall in our Kingdom they scandalize such with the name of malignant Persons whereby His Meniall Servants either absolutely refus'd or durst not adventure His attendance and countenance this medley in such a sense that the King himselfe is perpetually traduc'd under this obstruse Dialact which though they dare not put down in plain English for feare the most violent amongst them should be ashamed to own it yet by such an implication as the plainest capacity cannot but blush and with admiration wonder whereto this may tend I would faine be satisfied what these might not do when they had once mastered these their malignants For if you will give us as much reason as the Ants you must believe a Winter may come as well as think a Summer is come durst any Man then oppose their proceedings when they have reduced all to their own Termes doe you not speake your selves the very Law and we as we ought to yeeld no appeale from Parliament being the highest Court in the Kingdome yet in this sense as the King is a part of it for otherwise I understand not by what right it has the preheminence of those they call the Kings Courts being both conveen'd by the same Royall Authority 3. The discountenancing any Petitions whatsoever wherein we desire to interpose our advice for acommodation or otherwise though never so agreeing with our Laws unlesse they stand with the sence of their party as if all our Wisedom were shut up in so narrow limits and these the onely Men in England infallible yet give me leave to aver That to the number of almost two hundred approved able Men whose warranted Judgement and sufficiencies were the onely inducement of their Countries Election have been fain to sit still and see things carried in this disorderly confusion peremptorily against their earnest endeavours and have not bin so much as askt their opinions in matters of greatest concernment but being unwilling to expose their Consciences to so high a Guilt have withdrawn themselves as unvsefull Members of such a Body 4. To insinuate a beliefe of their care to the Vulgar They have perpetually surmised terrible Jealousies which have produced no other effect then a desired suspition of the King yet these offered upon most improbable conjectures as every private Letter is sufficient grounds to piece up their designes or by such Persons whose private discontents leade them to offer these high indignities to that sacred Person they were never worthy to serve in the meanest Office and though their Lives were so notorious for their former extravagancies they have by these superfluous invectives found countenance till presuming upon their merits which were none except to abuse the King can be called desert That they have been given up to capine or some such damnable sin that nature would never have pardoned if vve had had no Law Yet these Mens informations sufficient grounds to traduce the King these Letters most necessary Animadversions to leavie Forces to maintaine the Kings Forts Towns and Magazines against Him I and in His own name to as if they could derive that authority from Him that has no power according to your Ordinance to leavie them in His owne Defence though His Person is in never so apparant imminent danger yet they for His good and the good of the Kingdome can pretend to this Power and beyond yet that all is not of that infallability let Mr. Pims Letter from Sir John Hotham witnesse with me I have committed these few Observations to the view of the Publique finding so many bold Pamphlets with so high impudence fly at the Face of Majesty unreproved and every corner stinks of this unclean Doctrine yet since t is come to this height that we must declare our selves or lose our King wherein my purpose failes my Life shall make good to my last Breath but if Religion Reason and Law had not warranted so Just a cause I should never have adventured to cleare a Glasse to so foule a countenance yet before I conclude let me propose one Question in Religion Whether the Church was not in its purity in the Primiâ—ive times the World agrees they had in those Dayes a King that was no Christian Whether Christ had not more power then ever any can or dare pretend to since to eclipse that Regall Dignity if it had been distructive to the Church yet He refused the lowest office of a Magistrate But gave to Caesar the things that were His for when the young Man came to Him and said Lord command my Brother that he devide the Inheritance with me He replies Who made me a Ruler or a Judge amongst you But now That we having a Christian King professing by his unblemisht Life the same way to salvation with us protesting to conserve our Liberties with his Life to make such an apparant difference which may bethe occasion of the effusion of so much Christian Blood upon meere Jealousies will be the most unheard of disloyalty that can be committed to future Ages FINIS