Fire nor the Roman Catholiques by reason of the Oath of Supremacy the Halter Whereupon it was again desired by the Houses that Treason might be reduced into a certainty according to the Statute of the 25 of Edw. the 3. which was accordingly so enacted the 2. of Phil. and Ma. And all these three Statutes 25 Edw. 3. 1 Hen. 4. and 2 Phil. and Ma. are yet in force In which the attempting of any thing against the Kings Person the adhering to the Kings Enemies the leavying War against the King The seizing of any of his Forts or his Ships Royal The Counterfeiting of the Kings Hand or his great or privy Seal with many other particulars are so explicitely and clearly enacted to be high Treason That whosoever should be guilty of the Fact would have as ill a Plea to plead That â—unius Brutus Buchanan or any of our new Doctors did hold and maintain by their writings That it is lawfull in such and such Cases to take Armes against the King and so consequently in all the other particulars specified in the said Statute As a Felon that had rob'd upon the high way would have to plead that Theft by the Law of God is not punishable by death for which he would not want likewise his * Authors But such as have been acquainted with the Courses held with those that have been Indicted and Arraigned for Treason will know That to be proceeded against only upon the plain and clear letter of the Law is to have favourable Iustice And he shall have the Kings Atturny and the learned Counsel with Eloquence and great strains of Wit by Deductions and Inferences as though they had lost the day if the Accused should be acquitted stretch the litteral Text beyond what it can rationally or honestly bear and speaking as they say for the King no man dares reprove or restrain them But to suppose that any Allegation of Conscience or the Opinion of learned Authors nay if it were Texts out of Scripture against the explicite letter of the Law would be heard or admitted were a great Ignorance But he would be told as I know some have been That all other things were Matters dehors Nothing to the purpose The issue was only factum or non factum And truly wofull experience had taught me to be wary in humane prudence not to imbarque my self in a Business wherin my Conscience was not only altogether unsatisfied but if I should ever be brought to a legal Tryal upon it mine own Judgment told me I could have nothing to say in mine own Defence of Justification or that could preserve my Self and Posterity from total Ruine and Destruction but Prevailing and Victory Which at the most could but protect but could not make a bad Cause good But besides humane Prudence and fear of Punishment there is a Conscientious Tye of obeying the Law we being taught to obey not only for wrath but for Conscience sake S. Paul saith That if there had been no Law there had been no sinne which sheweth That the breaking of just Laws and legally established is sin For the supream Powers therein are chiefly disobeyed who are supposed to command more Authoritatively by their Laws than by their Verbal Commands Further as the Laws are so positive against Resistance and taking Arms against the King so likewise have the Laws been as carefull to Protect and thereby to Incourage the Subject to adhore unto their King for it is provided by the Stat. 11 of Hen. 7. Cap. 1. That from henceforth no manner of person or persons whatsoever he or they be that attend upon the King and Soveraign Lord of this Land for the time being in his Person and do him true and faithfull service of Allegience in the same or be in other places by his Commandement in his Wars within this Land or without That for the said deed true duty of Allegeance he or they be no wise Convict or Attaint of high Treason nor of other offences for that Cause by Act of Parliament or otherwise by any Process of Law whereby he or any of them shall lose or forfeit Life Land Tenements Rents Possessions Hereditaments Goods Chattels or any other things but to be for that deed and service utterly discharged of any Vexation Trouble or Losse And if any Act or Acts or other Process of the Law hereafter thereupon for the same happen to be made contrary to this Ordinance That then that Act or Acts or other Process of the Law whatsoever they shall be stand and be utterly void Provided alwaies That no Person or Persons shall take any benefit or advantage by this Ast which shall hereafter decline from his or their said Allegeance So that if they that have served the King with Fidelity according to the Law shall by their prevailing fellow-Subjects be attainted and their Estates forfeited and disposed of at their pleasure It must be by some such Transcendent Power as must be above all Laws For as by the Law no Subject ought either to be attainted or lose his Estate for serving the King in his Wars so can no Confiscations by the Law belong to any but unto the King or such as derive their Right from him It is true in the Heat and Contestation of War it is usual that whatsoever Goods or Wealth the souldier can lay hands upon is de facto esteemed good Purchase But after the War is ended the Law useth then to recover her Force And setled Inheritances in all former Civill Wars in England have never been disposed of by the Arbitrary Power of the prevailing Party although they were Kings claiming the Crown by Title and might have Right to Confiscations but by legal Convictions and due course of Law much more in the Case of Subjects taking Arms against their King which is alwaies in the beginning stiled and proclaimed Rebellion by the King that they Oppose untill Success or Treaty qualifie that Name That they should not content themselves with a General Pardon and Act of Oblivion and the settlement of the Government for the future to their reasonable Content and Security for themselves and their Estates But that Inheritances must be confiscated and disposed of by them and such persons as they shall please without legal Tryal and as it were by Proscription or Decimation be by a Vote designed to loss of Life and Estate without Pardon or Mercy What greater Cruelty could have been used towards them if they had faln into the hands of the Turk or most merciless Conquerour especially if it shall be considered that in this Case no Neutrality could be admitted nor the most peaceable-minded man avoid the being ingaged For as by the Law it is Treason to take Armes against the King by the above-recited Statutes so by the Statute of the 19 Hen. 7. It is loss of all Honours Castles Lordships Mannors Lands Tenements and other Hereditaments c. not to take Armes for the King and
binding and obliging which are deduced from the word of God I shall therefore first begin with those religious and pious Motives which have in Conscience restrained me from taking Arms against the King or making to him any hostile Resistance For I desire it to be understood that when I speak of Resistance I alwaies understand Actual and Hostile Resistance For I well know that in things in themselves sinfull mala in se I ought rather to obey God than Men And in such Cases suffering is a full performance of our Duty of Obedience Nay in Cases only illegal non illicita but illegalia against publique or private Right as if a Prince shall infringe the known undoubted Prilileges of the Kingdom or of Parliament or command that which is destructive unto them The Weapons of our Resistance ought to be Replyes Petitions Remonstrances Nay we may withold our free-will-Offerings though not our Tributes of Dutie we may stop our voluntarie supplies of giving Subsidies we may make a stand in the transactions of affairs untill the King condescendeth to do us Right as hath been often practised As it was in the Case of the Earl of Arundel who being restrained and kept from sitting in Parliament in the year 1626. by the King without cause shewn The House of Peers sate many daies silent without debating or transacting any Business untill he should be restored to his libertie and place in Parliament or cause shewed for his detention But to take Arms or to use Acts of force this is the Resistance which ought not to be used and is neither justifiable by the Laws of God nor of the Kingdom And this Resistance I am far from being satisfied in my Conscience may be used by any subjects against their lawfull and undoubted Soveraign The places in Scripture both in the old and new Testament commanding by positive precept our obedience and forbidding Resistance to the Powers ordeined over us by God are many But the Arguments of necessary deduction are infinite whereas Resistance is no where commanded or allowed And the Arguments by way of Deduction which are made use of to tollerate the Subjects taking of Arms against their Soveraign are by putting some places of Scripture upon wrack and torture to make them speak their sense whereas it is an undeniable Rule in Schools That Inferences and deductions cannot justifie the breach of plain duties injoyned by any one positive precept of Scripture In the old Testament it was death to disobey much more hostilely to resist the supream Authority by positive precept Deut. 17.10 Joshua 1.18 So it was to resist Parents And certainly in States and Common-wealths tam Pater Nemohe is Pater patriae and all the civill power that was of old in Paternall Iurisdiction is now by the Consent and Common Agreement of the People placed in the supream power of a State and the same obedience is due to it and resistance to it as unjustifiable And such as will indulge to the People a freedome to resume their first Original Power grounded upon that Maxime Omnis homo nascitur liber every man is born free seduce them by so false a Principle that the contrary of it is the truth Nullus homo nascitur liber no man is born free Neither was there ever yet in this world anyone man born free It is true there was one man created free our first father Adam But all his Children and all his Descent after him were born under Paternall Iurisdiction Nay our blessed Saviour speaking of him as a Man and Son to the blessed Virgin was born under this Paternal Jurisdiction and filial Obedience whereunto he submitted himself as is plainly set down Scripture Luke the 2.51 where it is said He went with Joseph and his Mother and was subject unto them Now this Paternal Jurisdiction which was at first the sole Soveraignty which governed the world By reason of Partiality in Parents Oppression by such as were the strongest and a multitude of inconveniences and confusions when the World was become numerous and full of People and every family become a Realm As it was too narrow so it grew to be so hurtful unto Mankind That men were forced for their own preservation Common Justice and comfort of life to transfer this paternal Jurisdiction all but filial and personal Duty of honoring and obeying Parents into Magistracy and willingly divested themselves for their own good of that Native Libertie which they had before And as the right power of Government is the same which it was in paternall Iurisdiction only by the Consent of the People changed into another hand So the Obedience unto it ought to be the same And the fifth Commandement of obeying Parents is by all understood to extend unto the Magistrate to whom the people having by consent tranferred the power of paternal Jurisction are likewise by Divine Precept bound to obedience and the People cannot still retein unto themselves that which by common consent they have divested themselves of and transferred to others So was it in the Common-Wealth of Rome when by lex Regia the people had transferred all their power to the Emperour they were not to resist And it was to those Emperours to whom our Saviour and his Apostles injoined Obedience not only for Wrath but for Conscience sake and not unto the good only but unto the froward David was pursued by Saul unjustly his life sought by him yet his Conscience check'd him when he had only cut off the lap of Sauls garment 1 Sam. 24.5 6. But when the attempting upon his person was mentioned he then cryed out Who can stretch forth his hand against the Lords Anointed and be guiltlesse 1 Sam. 26.9 Nay when he might have slain Saul and he was desired by Abishai that he might strike him to the ground he did not only forbid him but called unto Abner telling him he deserved to die that he had not more carefully kept and guarded his Master vers. 15 16. which sheweth that not only not to hurt but to preserve is our Duty And truly if I should have lift up my hand or drawn my Sword against the King I fear I should not have been so happy as divers have been that have gone the other way in finding out such satisfactory Arguments or distinctions as would have rid or cured me of that horrour of Conscience which would have made me most miserable in the height of all prosperitie and successe All the whole context of the old Testament incite to the obedience to the honouring fearing and reverencing of the King And all the Attempts that have been made upon the persons of Kings or their Government are either condemned as wicked or else were by the extraordinary and especial Commandement of God making use of wicked men to be the Executioners of his just Judgments Besides the Government of the Jewish Commonwealth was a Theocratia an immediate Government of God himself and by the Consent of all Divines
Protestation was by my self taken in the House of Peers and subscribed by me wherein I Promise Vow and Protest in the presence of God as far as lawfully I may with my Life Power and Estate according to the Duty of my Alleageance to Maintain and Defend his Majesties Royal Person Honour and Estate Now how the taking arms against him and the assailing and pursuing of him in Battel can be for the defence of his Royal Person or the seizing of all his Revenew for the Maintenance of his Estate or the divesting of him of all Power and Authority with so many other sad things that against him have been said and done and which my Pen blusheth to set down can be for the Defence and Maintenance of his Honour or how the Stile of Majesty which in this Pootestation we give him the Usage of him considered can be otherwise judged of but as a Scorn and Derision I understand not sure I am that I took the said Protestation in earnest and with an Attestation of God that I would faithfully perform it And so by his holy Assistance I will ever do according to the express words in the said Protestation with my Life Power and Estate Neither am I in any kind able to conceive how it is possible for any Christian Man that hath taken the former Oaths and Protestation of Adhering Defending and Assisting of the King against all Persons whatsoever to swallow much lesse to digest the new Negative Oath which in the subsequent words I A. B. do swear from my heart That I will not directly nor indirectly adhere unto or willingly assist the King in this War or in this Cause against the Parliament c. I am likewise as much unsatisfied of the late National Covenant how it may stand or be reconciled to these former Oaths and Protestation But in regard that is a Businesse of great Consequence and length I will set down in a Tract apart those Scruples which hitherto have deterred my Conscience from venturing upon it That these Oaths have been established by lawfull Authority they were made and enjoined by free and unquestionable Parliaments whose Acts I speak not of Ordinances but of Acts wherein the Royal Assent hath concurred are of that high and Soveraign Authority that the Law admitteth of no Plea nor averment against them And this I am confident will be by all acknowledged They have likewise been legally administred by the Ministers that by the said Acts have thereunto been appointed and ordained and for the Justness and Righteousness of them the Confirming of them by so many several Acts of Parliament by which Laws no person can have a Voice in Parliament but stands to all intents and purposes as a person that had not been elected or returned if he sit in the House before he have taken the said Oaths And the continuing of the enjoyning of them by the Houses unto this day must clear all Dispute or Question of that kind For the Houses do not admit of Members unto their Houses nor Officers into their places until they have first taken the said Oaths in such sort as by the Statutes is ordained So that it is clear that they are aswell as others satisfied in the goodnesse of them Besides the subject matter of these Oaths is just and righteous in it self being only in pursuance of those duties of Obedience which are commanded us both by the Law of God and the Land and which are extra juramentum obligantia obliging in themselves though there were no Oath It is further to be observeed That besides the legal penalties that may be injoyned for the refusing or breaking of rhese Oaths they contain something further than temporal Punishment can reach unto they carry with them The heavy Iudgement of God declared in Scripture against the breakers of solemn Oathes And in this Case there is yet much more added for we accompany the breach of them with the most horrid and fearfull Execration that any Christians can draw upon themselves renouncing the Help and Protection of God Almighty and the Benefit of our Reemption contained in the Holy Gospel if we fail in the performance of them which I understand to be quantum in nobis est if we do not indeavour to do the utmost in our power to keep them But voluntarily for Fear or Interest not only to break them but to do that which by the very plain words is contrary to the said Oaths and is contrary to that sence in which I took them as I understand the taking of armes against the King to be with many other things of necessity following thereupon I durst not adventure upon that which my Conscience judged so great an Impiety CHAP. VI Setting down the unlawfulness of Hostile Resistance drawn from Humane Laws HAving thus set down those Reasons which deterred my Conscience from making Hostile Resistance unto the King which have been deduced out of the Word of God the Doctrine and Practice of holy Men and the Obligation of sacred Oaths I shall now propose my Scruples drawn from humane Laws but especially from the Laws of our Kingdom By the Common Law of England many things were Treason But because the Common Law is not composed in one intire body or Text and it was difficult for the unlearned and Lay-People to inform themselves exactly and distinctly what was Treason and what was not the goodness of the King and the wisedom of the Parliament in the time of Edw. the 3. was such that for the avoiding of the insnaring of the People in so high a Penalty and Destruction as followeth the being convicted of Treason It was thought fit that all those things which for the future should be esteemed or adjudged Treason should be particularly and distinctly set down in one Law and exclusively to all things else which was accordingly done in the Statute of the 25 Edw. 3. And in case it should so fall out that any matter should arise besides those particulars specified in the said Statute No judgement should passe thereon but it should be reserved till the next Parliament But for those Cases in the said Statute expressed they were enacted to be Treason and so to be adjudged by the ordinary course of Iustice And in regard that in the troublesome and disorderly time of Richard the 2. the prevailing party which still swayed the Parliament had made and unmade many several Treasons as suited to the Designs and Interests of those that had the Power In the first year of Hen. the 4. all those newsprung-up Treasons were revoked and abolished and Treason again reduced to the Statute of 25 Edw. the 3. The like inconveniences growing in the Wars betwixt the Houses of York and Lancaster and afterwards by the fierceness of Hen. the 8. who upon the alterations he had made in Religion had so insnared the Subject that the Protestants of the reformed Religion could not by reason of the six Atticles escape the
whether they be within the Kingdom or fled out of it And that all Persons cited by either House of Parliament may appear and abide the Censure of Parliament 14. That the general Pardon offered by your Majesty may be granted with such Exceptions as shall be advised by both Houses of Parliament 15. That the Forts and Castles of this Kingdom may be put under the Command and Custody of such Persons as your Majesty shall appoint with the Approbation of your Parliament and in the Intervals of Parliament with the Approbation of the Major part of the Counsel in such manner as before is expressed in the Choise of Counsellors 16. That the extraordinary Guards and Military Forces now attending your Majesty may be removed and discharged and that for the future you will raise no such Guards or extraordinary Forces but according to the Law in case of actual Rebellion or Invasion 17. That your Majesty will be pleased to enter into a more strict allyance with the States of the United Provinces and other Neighbour Princes and States of the Protestant Religion for the defence and maintenance thereof against all designs and attempts of the Pope and his Adherents to subvert and suppress it whereby your Majesty will obtain a great access of Strength and Reputation and the Subjects be much incouraged and enabled in a Parliamentary way for your aid and assistance in restoring your Royal Sister and her Princely Issue to those Dignities and Dominions which belong unto them and relieving the other distressed Protestant Princes who have suffered in the same Cause 18. That your Majesty would be pleased by Act of Parlia to clear the Lord Kimbolton and the five Members of the House of Commons in such manner that future Parliaments may be secured from the Consequent of that evill President 19. That your Majesty will be pleased to pass a Bill for restraining Peers made hereafter from sitting or voting in Parliament unless they be admitted thereunto with the Cansent of both Houses of Parliament H. ELSYNG CLER. PARL. D. COM. The Oath of Supremacy Cited page 31. I A. B. do utterly testifie and declare in my Conscience that the Kings Highness is the only Supreme Governor of this Realm and of all other his Highness Dominions and Countries as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical things or causes as Temporal c. I do promise that from henceforth I shall bear Faith and true Allegeance to the Kings Highness his Heirs and lawfull Successors and to my power shall assist and defend all Iurisdictions Privileges Preheminences and Authorities granted or belonging to the Kings Highness his Heirs and Successors or united or annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm So help me God and by the Contents of this Book The Oath fa Privy-Counsellor Cited page 32. You shall swear to the uttermost part of your cunning wit skill and power you shall he true and faithfull to the Kings Majesty our most dread and Soveraign Lord and to his Highnesse Heirs and Successors Kings and Queens of England according to the Statute for the establishment of the Succession of the Crown Imperial of this Realm You shall not know nor hear any thing that may in any wise be prejudicial to his Majesty or to his Heirs and Successors in form aforesaid or to the Common Wealth Peace and Quiet of this his Majesties Realm but you will with all diligence reveal and disclose the same to his Majesty or to such Person or Persons of his Highness Privy-Counsel as you shall think may and will honestly convey and bring it to his Majesties knowledge You shall serve his Majesty truly and faithfully in the room and place of his Highness Privy-Counsel You shall keep close and secret all such matters as shall be treated disputed debated and resolved of in Counsell without disclosing the same or any part thereof to any but only to such as be of the Privy-Counsell And yet if any matter so propounded treated dispated and debated in any such Counsell shall touch any particular person sworn of the same upon any such matter as shall in any wise concern his fidelity and truth to the Kings Majesty you shall in no wise open the same to him but keep it secret as you would do from another person till the Kings pleasure be known in that behalf You shall in all things to be moved treated disputed and debated in any such Counsel faithfully and truly declare your mind and opinion according to your heart and conscience in no wise forbearing so to do for any matter of respect or favour love meed dread displeasure or corruption Finally you shall be vigilant diligent and circumspect in all your doings and proceedings touching the Kings Majesty and his Affairs All which points before expressed you shall faithfully observe fulfill and keep to the utmost of your power wit and cunning So God you help and by the holy Contents of this Book The Negative Oath Cited page 32. I A. B. do swear from my heart that I will not directly nor indirectly adhere unto or willingly assist the King in this War or in this Cause against the Parliament nor any forces raised without the Consent of the two Houses of Perliament in this Cause or War And I do likewise swear that my coming and submitting my self under the power and protection of the Parliament is without any manner of design whatsoever to the Prejudice of the proceedings of the two Houses of this Present Parliament and without the privity or advice of the King or any of his Counsel or Officers other than what I have now made known So help me God c. An Act of Parliament 1 Iac. cap. 1. acknowledging the Right of the Crown to him and his successors by inherent birth-right c. Cited page 19. We do upon the knees of our hearts agnize constant Faith Loyalty and Obedience to the King his Royal Progeny in this high Court of Parliament where all the body of the Realm is either in person or by representation We do acknowledge that the true and sincere Religion of the Church is continued and established by the King And do recognize as we are bound by the Law of God and man the Realm of England and the Imperial Crown thereof doth belong to him by inherent Birth-right and lawful and undoubted succession and submit our selves and our posterities until the last drop of our blood be spent to his Rule And beseech the King to accept the same as the first fruits of our Loyalty and Faith to his Majesty and his posterity for ever And for that this Act is not compleat nor perfect without his Majesties Consent the same is humbly desired A Declaration which Offences shall be adjudged Treason Anno 25 Edvv. 3. cap. 2. Cited pa. 35. Whereas divers Opinions have been before this time in what Case Treason shall be said and in what not The King at the request of the Lords and of the Commons hath
made a Declaration in the manner as hereafter followeth That is to say when a man doth compasse or imagine the death of our Lord the King or if our Lady his Queen or their eldest Son and Heir or if a man do violate the Kings Companion or the Kings eldest Daughter unmarried or the Wife of the Kings eldest Son and Heir or if a man do levy War against our Lord the King in his Realm or be adherent to the Kings Enemies in his Realm giving to them aid and Comfort in the Realm or elswhere and thereof be proveably attainted of open deed by people of their Condition And if a man Counterfeit the Kings great or privy Seal or his money and if a man bring false mony into this Realm counterfeit to the money of England as the money called Lushburg or other like to the said money of England knowing the money to be false to merchandise or make paiment in deceit of our said Lord the King and of his people c. Certain Articles taken out of a Protestation of the Kings Supremacy made by the non-conforming Ministers which were suspended or deprived 3 Iac. Anno Dom. 1605. Cited page 51. Art 4. We hold that though the Kings of this Realm were not Members of the Church but very Infidels yea and Persecutors of the truth that yet those Churches that shall be gathered together within these Dominions ought to acknowledge and yield the said Supremacy unto them And that the same is not tyed to their Faith and Christianity but to their very Crown from which no Subject or Subjects have power to separate or disjoin it Ar. 6. We hold that no Church or Church-Officers have power for any Crime whatsoever to deprive the King of the least of his Royal Prerogatives whatsoever much lesse to deprive him of his Supremacy wherein the height of his Royal Dignity consists Ar. 9. We hold that though the King should command any thing contrary to the word unto the Churches that yet they ought not to resist him therein but only peaceably to forbear Obedience and sue unto him for Grace and Mercy and where that cannot be obtained meekly to submit themselves to the punishment Animadversions upon some particulars set down in the 57 58 pages of this Discourse there referred to this Appendix for not interrupting the Series thereof here expressed more fully If Ordinances without the Kings assent 1. That Ordinances of the two Houses without the King have not the power of Acts of Parliament should have the force of Acts of Parliament our Lives Estates and Laws might be Arbitrarily disposed of by the two Houses for that Acts of Parliament have undeniably Power over them all If Ordinances have power of Acts of Parliament the King hath no negative Voice which hath been acknowledged in all times and that no Act of Parliament bindeth the subject with out the Kings assent neither is it otherwise a Statute 1â—H 7.24 H. 8. cap. 12.25 H. 8. cap. 21. This hath likewise been acknowledged several times at the heginning of this Parliament before the Doctrine of Coordination was hatched as will appear by their books of Ordinances and Declarations 1 par fol. 727. 1 Iac. cap. 1. 1 Car. 1 Cap 7. If the King hath not his negative Voice he were the only Slave in his Kingdom for that he alone should be tyed to Laws to which he had not assented whereas all other men either by themselves or their Representatives give their Consents to the Laws they live under which is the true mark betwixt Slavery and free Subjection Slaves living under the will of the Prince free Subjects under Laws to which themselves or their Ancestors have assented And the King only shall be bound and sworn to those Laws which are imposed upon him without his Consent which were irrational as well as illegal Ordinances were never pretended but only pro tempore 4 part Inst. fol. 23.48.292 2 part Inst. fol. 47 48. Rot. Paâ— 1 num 4 Ed. 3. 2. â—â—at the ordeâ—â—â—g of the Militia appertainetâ— to the K. The Militia belongeth to the King as unseparable from the Crown without which he cannot protect nor punish withstand Enemies or suppress Rebels The Lords and Commons cannot assent in Parliament to any thing that tends to the disherison of the Crown 4 Par. Inst. fol. 14.42 Ed. 3. The Law doth give it him Stat 7 Ed. 1. with many other Statutes besides practice of all times and custome of the Realm Cook 4 part Inst. 51.125 The Forts and Navy Royal are his and to seize any of them is Treason 25 Ed. 3. 1 Ma. c. So declared by all the Iudges of England in Brookes Case 3. That the great Seal appertaineth only to the King The great Seal being the Power by which the Kings Royal Commands are legally distributed and conveyed cannot be severed from the Crown without the overthrow and destruction of Soveraignty 2 part Inst. 552. And to counterfeit the great Seal is high Treason 25 Ed. 3. 1 H. 4. cap. 2. 1. Marsess 2. cap. 6. For the Church Government The Houses have sworn the King to be the only Supreme Governor in all Causes and over all Persons as well Ecclesiastical as Civil 4. The Church Government The two Houses of Parliament may humbly offer to the King such Alterations and Reformations in Government as they shall think fit But to overthrow and change the Government without the Consent of the sole Supreme Governor nay contrary to his expresse Command and publique Declarations is against natural Reason and Common Law as well as against the said Oath The two Houses are as they say the Kings great Counsel which is true of the House of Peers The House of Commons Writ is only ad faciendum consentiendum But admitting them to be the Kings great Counsel it is a great absurdity and Non-sense that Counsellors should compel consent The Government of the Church is established by Law and by many Acts of Parliament To advise the repealing of the said Acts the Houses may do But without the Kings assent by force to endeavour the Change of the Government either in Church or Estate is high Treason so acknowledged by Mr. St. Iohns at the Arraignment of the Earl of Strafford and so declared by several Laws And was one of the Charges of Treason against the Lord of Canterbury Ir is contrary to all Divine and humane Laws that any Man should be condemned unheard or untryed 5. The prescribing of their fellow Subjects without tryal And the Law of the Land in Magna Charta ordereth That no man lose Life or Estate but per judicium parium aut legem terrae And the Stat. 2. Phil. Ma. that all Tryals for Treason be by Course of the Law Petition of Right 3 Car. It is an Inherent flower of the Crown 6. To grant Pardons belongeth only to the K. And by the Common Law Mercy belongeth to him
by some of the Kings Ministers in the House of Commons That if the King were not supplyed by Parliament he must and would betake himself to new Counsells The plain English whereof was understood to be That the King would find out some other Course for his supplies without making use of his People in Parliament And this Opinion that Parliaments would for some time be laid aside gave Boldness and Incouragements to all Promoters and Projectors to set on foot many Monopolies and Projects which were still countenanced by the colour and pretence of Law And amongst the rest and indeed striking at the Root of the Subjects Propriety was that of the Ship-mony brought forth * And the Attorney Noy hath the name to have been the Father of it He was in his time held to have been a great Oracle of the Law and had been in former Parliaments a great Patriot and Propugner of the Subjects Liberty and his Opinion was of high Authority in point of Law with the King and with all Men He assured the King that there might be means found out of the Kings own especially in times of Necessity for him to supply himself justly and according to the Law And so propoundeth this Project of the Ship-mony The King relyed not upon the single Opinion of his Attorny But as a good Prince ought to do He took the further Advice of the Judges who are his proper Counsel in matters of the Law and with whom he ought to Consult And they are sworn to Counsell him faithfully The Major part of them which involveth the rest approved this Project as legal But the King would not content himself with their Verbal Advice But required the then Lord Chief Justice and the Judges to set down the Case and their Opinions of it under their hands which they did accordingly So that it being to be presupposed that the King mote than in the points of administring Justice cannot have a distinct knowledge either of the Extent of his own Prerogative or the abstruse Cases of the Law In a point so much concerning him as the relieving of him in his great wants by ways avowed to him to be just and legal what more upright or prudent Course could a Prince take than to be advised not by young Men or Favorites at Court but by his learned Counsell and his grave Judges sworn to advise him faithfully according to their best skill who if they have behaved themselves wickedly or corruptly upon their heads let Judgement light But let the King and his Throne be free But many Men conceiving and not without Reason That this private and extra judicial Opinion of the Judges was not to be a binding Rule did not acquiesce therin but did refuse the Payment of the Ship-mony and did indeavour to defend this their refusal by a due and legal way of Process and particularly Mr. John Hamden And the Business was brought to an Issue and to a publique Tryal in the Exchequer-Chamber which is the highest and supremest Judicature under the Parliament which the Kingdom of England knoweth in point of Law for it is a Court composed of all the Judges of the several Tribunals for the ending of such difficult and dubious Cases as have not been formerly over-ruled or wherein there is found a difference in Opinion amongst the Iudges themselves And herein the Counsell on both sides whether the Case be betwixt Party and Party or the King and Subject do not only plead but argue the Case in Law and the Iudges do commonly before they give Sentence argue themselves the Case in point of the learning of the Law All which solemnities passed in this Case without any interruption by the King And after divers daies hearing and arguing Iudgment passed for the King by Plurality of Votes for the fewer Votes are involved in the Iudgment of the Major part as there is a Necessity they should be in all Counsells and Iudicatures otherwise Controversies could not be ended unless there were an unanimous Agreement in all that had Votes which seldom happeneth But in this Case three parts of fower Agreed in the Iudgment for the King So that if the Iudges have erred now in Iudicature being sworn to do equal Justice betwixt the King and the Subject as they did before in their Advice unto the King being sworn to Counsell him faithfully the greater is their fault and Offence But I must confess I am not able to set out the Kings Transgression This Case yet passed further For it being brought into the Parliament by way of Grievance the Iudgement was not only reversed all Records burnt and all Courses given way unto by the King which the Houses themselves could think on That no such Excesse might be attempted again in future times But the Lord Keeper and the Iudges were without any Interposition of the King left unto the Justice of the Parliament And the Lord Keeper and divers of them were by the House of Commons impeached of high Treason So the King having no hand in the setting it on foot nor in the erroneous Iudgement nor having protected the Parties culpable from Punishment But the Grievance being redressed and sufficient Caution and Provision assented unto by the King for the preventing of the like for the future I could not deduce from hence any Argument of the Kings intention to subvert the Law or of any justifiable ground of taking arms against him And what is said in this Case of the Ship-mony doth likewise hold in the Cases of Monopolies which are alwaies suggested to be for the good of the Subject as well as legal and beneficial to the King who never granteth any of them without Reference In point of Conveniency or Disâ—dvantage to the Subject they are usually referred to some of his privy-Counsell In point of Law to some of his learned Counsell In point of his Benefit to some Officers of his Revenew Who if they have erred or were corrupted and the King by their ill Advice drawn to pass any unfit or illegal thing I have known the Parliament for the space of these forty years address themselves by Petition unto the King for Redress but unto the Referrees for the Fault and the Causers of the Grievances And if they could get the said Grievances redressed and the Referrees brought to punishment they alwaies esteemed it so gracious a Proceeding from the King towards them that usually it was acknowledged with the return of some Gift or Supply But that any Argument should be deduced from thence of any Intention in the King to subvert the Laws I never knew it Neither have I known that the King hath ever proceeded in matters of this kind but in the manner here set down And in this Parliament all Projects and Monopolies were put down and all men that either had a Hand or Interest in them unless it were such as the House of Commons thought fit for Causes known unto themselves to
pass by were left unto the Iustice of the Parliament without the Kings Protecting or Interposing for any one of them CHAP. VIII A Vindication of the King against that false and injurious Aspersion of unsettledness in his Religion THe second main and important point that hath been made use of to the Kings Disadvantage and by which the Hearts of the People have been most alienated from him was chiefly by ill informed Ministers in the Pulpit who have most untruly suggested an unfirmness and unsettledness in the King in point of his Religion and an inclination in him to overthrow the true reformed Protestant Religion established by the Laws of the Kingdom and to introduce Popery This I must confess was so far from planting in me any thing to the Kings Prejudice That by so much the more it confirmed me in my Duty and Affection towards the King by how much of mine own knowledge this wicked Aspersion was false and injurious For in that point of the Kings Religion few men living had the Cause or could have the means to be so perfectly informed of it as my self For besides that from his Youth upward I had been an eye-witness of his Education being in the King his Fathers time admitted as a Gentleman of his Bed-chamber I was for divers years imployed in the Treaty of a Mariage for him with a Princess of a differing Religion And was to that purpose his Fathers Ambassador in Spain when the King then Prince arrived there in Person And it is true that the Spaniards had conceived great hopes of his becomming a Romish Catholique wherein there wanted not incouragement both from divers in England and from some about him and for the effecting of it there was no industry omitted by them but the learnedst men in Spain were imployed to satisfie him And he was by Artifice brought to set a Conference with the said Divines upon Tearms of great Disadvantage For one Wadesworth that had been an English Minister and was then become a Romish Catholique was put upon him for his Interpreter neither had he the Assistance of any learned man with him Yet gave he so good an Account of his own Religion and answered so pertinently the Objections of the others as was much beyond the expectation of all that were present at the said Conference But seeing himself still pressed in that kind Although the King of Spain assured him that with this one thing all difficulties were overcome and that he would sign him a Blanck in all things else yet not to entertain them with any further hopes he positively declared his Resolution to remain unremoveable in his own Religion and would afterwards admit of no more Conferences in that kind and certainly if any earthly consideration could have been prevalent with him he had then such Motives as might have wrought upon him For besides the Disgrace of failing in his first Enterprice especially an Enterprise of Love and in his own Person the Princess was of that Merit and her Value of him such And his satisfaction of her Virtue and his Affection to her Person so great that nothing but point of Religion could have made him leave her behind him For it was declared unto him that in Case he would conform himself in point of Religion no Dispensation from the Pope would be then needfull but the Mariage should be consummate without any further expectation from Rome as soon as he should desire it But he thereupon declared that he would rather expect the Dispensation and resolved to imploy his indeavours that way and so presently sent one Mr. Andrews a Servant of his to Rome to cause Mr. George Gage that was then there solliciting of the Dispensation to procure the dispatch thereof with all possible diligence and Letters were written unto him by the Princes Order to desire him that if there were at Rome any Opinion of the Princes becomming a Roman Catholique and upon hope thereof any Retardment of the granting the Dispensation he should undeceive them in that point and press the Dispensation upon the Articles of Religion agreed upon The Prince was then moved by the Spanish Ministers to write unto the Pope in answer of some Letters which the Pope had sent unto him and to move him for the granting of the Dispensation and the Letters were brought ready drawn unto him and some passages there were from which some hope might be gathered that in time when it might be thought more seasonable than at the present lest it might be thought he had changed his Religion for a Wife he would not be unwilling to receive further satisfaction in the Catholique Religion all which he strook out and wrote only a Letter of Civility such a one as he thought fit to write to one from whom he was to receive favour in a Business that he most desired and without whom there was no possibility of obteining it unless he would have conformed himself in point of Religion which he being resolved not to do he thought it fit to apply himself unto the Pope by all fair and amiable means and particularly in promising not to be severe against those of his Religion thereby to facilitate with the Pope the granting of the Dispensation All which Diligences he might have excused by his Conformity for then no Dispensation would have been needfull And hereby no further hope remaining in the Court of Spain or at Rome of his altering his Religion the Dispensation was granted upon the Articles formerly agreed on in point of Religion These Letters have been published and translated into several Languages which though I cannot say corruptly yet strained as much as might be to his disadvantage And it is probable that the like Letters of Complyance to the Pope may have been procured in the Treaty of the Match with France wherein the Popes Dispensation was likewise held necessary But all are Arguments of the Kings firmness in his Religion when he would rather undergo the trouble and delay of the Dispensation than by his Conformity to have effected what he desired without any difficulty or further hazard and this hath been fully confirmed ever since by his profession and living in the Reformed Religion established in the Church of England from which no man can say with truth that he hath prevaricated in the least tittle Besides this great proof of his firmness and settledness in his Religion his constant and daily Practice both in Publique and Private in the exercise of his Devotions may and ought to give satisfaction to all that consider him without prejudice For his resorting twice every day to Publique Prayors and twice a week at least to Sermons and his frequent receiving of the Holy Sacrament is publiquely known unto all but his private Devotions to those only that are of nearer Attendance about his Person who well know that he never faileth morning nor evening to retire himself to his private Prayers and upon Occasions in the day time