debaced Coyne commanded forraigne Coyne to be current here ordered all forraigne negotiations All matters of War either foraigne or domestick And so in all civill affaires The Judges of the Law authorized by Him All legall proceedings in his name and by His authority The Law it selfe called His Law He hath usually dispensed with Acts of Parliament at pleasure pardoned transgressours of the Law To Him appertaines the forfeitures for Treason and other offences In a word He is the sole fountaine of Justice Mercy and Honour And with this constant practise agrees all authorities histories and stories among which that of the Oath of Supremacy if there were no more is sufficient to satisfie all the World the words are these I A. B. do utterly testifie in my conscience that the Kings Highness is the onely Supreame Governour of this Realme and of all other His Highnesse Realmes Dominions and Countries as well in all Spirituall things or causes as Temporall Now if the contents of this Oath be true that is If the King be the onely Supreame Governour all the rest of the people from the highest to the lowest whether Members or not Members are subject unto Him and persons governed And as all persons are hereby included so it extends to all things both Spirituall and Temporall And me thinks it strange an Englishman should make doubt of the truth of this Oath It was composed by the Lords and Commons in Parliament in the time of Queen Elizabeth And at their suite by Act of Parliament made high Treason for a Subject to deny to take it And further enacted that every Judge of the Law and other Officer either Spirituall or Temporall every person of any profession or calling before he be enabled to exercise the same every ward before he be permitted to sue out his Livery every one elected Member of the Commons House before he be permitted to sit or Vote there shall take this Oath Yet the Members of this Parliament would make an evasion out of it Thus. The Kings Supreamacy say they is meant in Curia non in Camera in His Courts not in His private Capacity And to speak properly onely His high Court of Parliament wherein He is absolutely Supream Head and Governour from whence there is no appeal And say they if the Parliament may take an Accompt what is done by His Majesty in His inferiour Courts much more what is done by Him without Authority in any Court. And say they It is preached to the people by the Kings Declarations that by the Supreamacy is meant a power inherent in the Kings Person without above against all His Courts the Parliament not excepted whereby say they the excellent Lawes are turned into an Arbytrary Government Answer That which the Members in this discourse say in effect is but thus The King is Supreame Governour Yet under the Members Government He hath Authority without appeal to determine all things yet hath not power to determine any one thing To blear the eyes of the Vulgar they are contented the King shall be called the onely Supream Governour But the Authority Power and Execution thereof if we may believe the Members is their owne The King and People are herein used as a Father sometimes deals with his child telling his little son the flock of sheep is his yet the Father shears them takes the profits to his own use Even so are King People dealt with They are told bythe Members that the King by the Supreamacy claimes such a power As that the Subjects thereby have lost both their Law and Liberty and would make them believe that they are by those Members thereunto restored againe Whereas all but naturalls may now discerne That whilst the King together with the name enjoyed both the Power and Execution of the Supreamacy The people were a free Subject And that by this usurpation upon the King They are inslaved For the Supreamacy is in the Kings Person But by it He neither hath nor claimes an unlimited power The People are Governed under Him but that Government is directed by a known Law of which Law the King is not Judge nor can He by Himselfe alone alter that Law Now whilst the Supreamacy the Power to Judge the Law and Authority to make new Lawes are kept in severall hands the known Law is preserved but united it is vanished instantly thereupon and Arbytrary and Tyrannicall power is introduced For example the Members condemne a Subject to die they confiscate his estate to their own use and without appeal have power to Judge the Law thereupon This granted clear it is the Will of the Members is the Law they are hereby Judge Party and Witnesse It were fruitlesse for that condemned person although guiltlesse to urge his innocency of the Fact or to dispute the Law upon that Fact with them who have condemned him And as the Members tell us there is none else to appeal unto It is therefore to be feared the greater Estate the Delinquent hath or the more spleen some Members bear to his person the more Capitall is his offence So that it is the Members not the King who claime a power in their owne persons without above against all Courts of Justice The Parliament it self not excepted Our excellent Lawes are by them destroyed and turned into their own Arbitrary power And thus the people are enslaved by a distinction never heard of or thought on before this Parliament the aforesaid two Spencers onely excepted It is true they having committed acts of Treason to colour their proceedings divulged an opinion suitable to this they pretended that the Oath of Allegeance was more in respect of the Crown then the Kings Person That the King might be removed and the people ought to governe But those opinions are condemned as damnable execrable by two Acts of Parliament One called exilium Henrici de Spencer And the other made 1 Ed. 3. But that this of the Members and that of the Spencers are meere fictions and delusions to gull the people is evident both by Authorities of Law and the common practice of the Kingdome It is resolved in Calvins case which therein agrees with the whole current of our Law-bookes that Allegeance is due onely to the King That theKing hath two Capacities one of a natural body descended of the Royal Blood this is subject to death and infirmities The other a politick body and in that immortall invisible not subject to non-age c. That the King having but one person and severall capacities It was resolved Allegeance is due to his naturall Capacity And consequently the Soveraigne power of Government inherently in his person By the common Law of the Land Treason is to kill or endeavour to kill the King His consort the Queen or the Prince Therefore it is the naturall body the Law lookes upon for the politick body cannot die Besides neither the Queen nor the Prince hath a
THE ROYALISTS DEFENCE VINDICATING THE KING'S PROCEEDINGS IN THE LATE WARRE MADE AGAINST HIM Clearly discovering How and by what Impostures the Incendiaries of these Distractions have subverted the knowne Law of the Land the Protestant Religion and reduced the people to an unparallel'd Slavery Veritas emerget Victrix Printed in the Yeare 1648. To all the People of ENGLAND IN every Common-wealth where the tyranny of an Arbitrary power prevailes not some known persons are assigned unto whom for matter of law both the Governours and the Persons governed do submit For example where a King hath the Soveraignty if it be likewise in his power to judge the Law his authority is Arbitrary He may then take the life or confiscate the estate of whom he pleaseth and for what cause he thinks fit And the same it is when the soveraigne power is in severall persons whatever their number be and however composed if they have also authority to judge the Law by which they govern the rest of the People are inslaved to their will But herein the Subjects of England are a most happy people By the constitutions of this Realm our King hath inherently in His Person the soveraigne power of government but He hath not authority to judge the Law The Judges of the Realme declare by what law the King governs and so both King and people regulated by a known law giddy multitude out goes Presidents found in the Old Testament shewing that Subjects so anciently sometimes resisted lawfull Authority and have rebelled against their King Nor be the Lawyers herein excusable too many of them declining the authority of the Iudges of the Realme make their own expositions of the Books and Records their rule to know the Law Now amongst those he who hath once got the reputation of an Antiquary and hath accustomed himself to discourse of things out of the common roade ipso facto is Master of this Art It is then but making use of some dull expressions found in an old worm-eaten Record selecting the mistaken opinions of some particular Iudges obiter delivered in Arguments or some dark Sentences taken out of a rotten Manuscript And if any printed Book be daigned the mentioning it must not be the known authentique Authours reporting the resolutions of the Court of Justice nor such as shew the common and constant practice of the Kingdome which is the Law it self but some antiquated thing whose Authour is unknowne and his meaning as obscure These rules being observed his work is done the people observing this Cynicks discourse to be different from other men presently conclude him to be far more learned in his profession then his fellow Lawyers and gaze upon him as an infallible guide Those sorts of people both Divines and Lawyers thus prepared are equally armed to assault either King or Subject and ever looking upon their particular interest as they find Instruments to work upon make their applications sometimes by the assistance of a greedy Sycophant-Courtier the KING is abused being by those persons drawn to act things not warranted by the constitutions of the Realme Other times by the aide of discontented Spirits whoever affect popularity the people are incited to disobey the Kings just commands And so misunderstanding oftentimes is occasioned between the King and His Subjects whereupon ariseth feares and jealousies on both sides This in some sort was our condition before this Parliament which was the ground-work whereupon these men at Westminster even by a totall destruction of the whole Nation have compleated the business At the first meeting of this Parliament the confusion began visibly to appear The Incendiaries of that Faction not only cherished the old but by casting false calumnies upon the King fomented new jealousies whereby the people were put into such a pannick fear as that they believed a present destruction inevitably must befall them if not preserved by the Members of the two Houses of Parliament And the King on the other side with wonderfull expressions of loyalty even by the same Serpent was told He should be made more Glorious then any of His Ancestors or Predecessours But the Members having thus encreased the flame between the King and the Subject and having by these false surmises and cunning dissemblings gulled the people into a belief That whatever the Members declared be it in things either Spirituall or Temporall the one was good Law and the other true Gospel which the Members perceiving they instantly made use thereof and upon that score Voted it a high Breach of the Priviledge of Parlialiament for any the Iudges the Courts of Iustice nor the King himself excepted either to oppose their Commands or to deny that to be Law which they declared so to be By which sleight their whole work was finished for by this the known Law was absolutely subverted and both King and people for their Consciences their Lives Estates and Fortunes inslaved to their will and doome But this Arbitrary power thus by the Members usurped rested not long there Shortly after that a Faction in the City of London who were the mony'd men and so interessed in buying the Church Lands and those who were possessed of beneficiall places in gathering that cursed tax of Excise and the like gave the law unto these Members And now we see it is a Councell of War although acted in the name of the Westminster men called the Parliament and none else who dare declare the Law And so for the present six or eight empty soules and untill inriched by theft and plunder indigent persons are our Legislators And in this condition the people must be It cannot be otherwise until the King be restored to His just Rights for till then although we have as many new Governours as new Moons it is but so often changing the Theif It is not at all considerable to the people whether this or that Faction or which opinion in Religion prevailes in the Houses be it the true Protestant Religion established Popery Presbytery Independency or what else soever it is whilst the King is kept from his just Rights of His Negative Voice in Parliament and his Soveraigne power of Government every predominant Party makes his Will the Law and consequently the people for their Consciences their Lives Estates and Fortunes inslaved to that Faction Therefore whether thou beest a Royalist or against thy King what Religion soever Sect or opinion thou doest professe If thou hast not lost thy wits thou must be sensible of thy present sad condition Doest thou enjoy a competent estate doest thou find comfort in having freedome of thy conscience in matters of Religion In the society of thy wife family kindred or friends if thou doest consider what hopes thou hast to enjoy them to thinke thereof will rather adde grief unto thy soul then increase thy consolation for being defeated of thy Protector the knowne Law which is banished thou canst not for the least instant of time promise to thy self continuance of
pro quibusdam arduis urgentibus negotiis c. quoddam Parliamentum nostrum apud civitatem nostram West 1. Die Maii prox futur ' teneri ordinavimus ibidem vobiscum cum Prelatis magnatibus proceribus dicti regni nostri colloquium habere tractatum vobis sub fide ligeantiis quibus nobis tenemini firmiter injungentes mandamus quòd personaliter c. So that to the institution of the Lords House and the power which the Members of that Assembly have to sit and Vote in Parliament the people are not at all consulted with in any particular And for the Commons House the institution thereof and the Commission which the Members of that Assembly have is derived from the King too That which the people act and do therein is only to elect the Knights of the Shires Citizens and Burgesses and therein too their authority is by the Kings Writ the direction whereof they are bound to pursue It is not in the power of the Inhabitants of any County or towne to adde unto or lessen the number of persons to be elected or to inlarge or limit the authority of those chosen But former Kings as before is shewed sometimes called more sometimes fewer and at their pleasure created new Corporations and gave them power to send Burgesses And every King had and at this day hath authority to enable and command every towne in England to send Burgesses to Parliament And when the Knights and Burgesses are elected the peoples power is ended then the persons chosen are to performe their duties wherein they must be guided by their Commission it is that which doth distinguish them from other men else every one in the Kingdome had equall power to sit and Vote in Parliament And they have no other Commission then the Kings Writ of summons which followeth in these words viz. Rex Vicecomiti salut ' Quia de avisamento assensu consilii nostri pro quibusdam arduis urgentibus negotiis nos statum defensionem regni nostri Angliae Ecclesiae Anglicanae concern quoddam Parliamentum nostrum apud Civitatem nostram Westm ' tertio die Novembris prox ' futur ' teneri ordinavimus ibidem cum Praelatis Magnatibus proceribus dicti regni nostri colloquium habere tract ' tibi praecipimus firmiter injungentes quod facta proclam ' in prox Comitatu tuo post receptionem hujus brevis nostri tenend die loco predict ' duos milit ' gladiis cinctos magis idoneos discretos Comit ' praedicti de qualib ' civitate Com' illius duos cives de quolibet Burgo duos Burgenses de discretior ' magis sufficientibus libere indifferenter per illos qui proclam ' hujusmodi interfuer ' juxta formā statutorum inde edit ' provis eligi nomina eorundum milit ' Civium Burgensiū sic electorum in quibusdam Indentur ' inter te illos qui hujusmodi election ' interfuerint inde conficiend ' sive hujusmodi elect ' presentes fuerint vel absentes inter eosque ad dict' diem locum venire facias Ita quod iidem milites plenam sufficientem potestatē pro se cōmunitate Comit ' Civitatū Burgorū praedictorum divisim ab ipsis habeant ad faciendum consentiendum his quae tunc ibid ' de communi consilio dicti regis nostri favente Deo contigerint ordinari super negotiis ante dictis Ita quod pro defectu potestatis hujusmodi seu propter improvidam electionem militum Civium aut Burgensium predictorum dicta negotia infecta non remaneant quovis modo Nolumus autem quod tu nec aliquis alius Vicecomes dicti Regis nostri aliqualiter sit electus electionem illam in pleno Comitatu factam distincte aperte sub Sigillo tuo singulis corum qui electioni illi interfuerint nobis in Cancellar ' nostram ad dictum diem locum Certifices indilate remittens nobis alteram partem Indenturarum predictarum praesentibus consuet ' una cum hoc breve Teste meipso apud Westminster And the returne of the aforesaid Writs in these words viz. Virtute istius Brevis eligi feci duos milites gladiis cinctos magis idoneos discretos de Comitatu meo viz. A. B. qui plenam sufficientem potestatem pro se Communitate Comit ' predict ' habent ad faciendum consentiendum iis quae ad diem locum infra contentos de Communi Consilio regni Angliae ordinari contigerint Et predicti A. B. manucapti sunt per quatuor manucapt ' ad assulendū ad Parliamentū dom ' Regis apud Westminster ad diem infra contentum ad faciendum quod hoc breve in se exigit requirit I have here exactly set downe all those Commissions by authority whereof the Lords House and the Commons House sit and Vote in those Assemblies which is far short of giving them power to make Laws That of the Lords commands them to advise and consult with the King concerning the great affaires of the Realme both in Church and Common-wealth That of the Commons to doe and consent unto such things as the King and the Peeres shall agree upon And as the Members have their authority to sit and Vote in the House from the King so it is at His will to summon a Parliament when and as often as He thinkes fit And the Members being met together are kept there as long as he pleaseth and at every instant time when he seeth cause dissolved againe And whilst they are continued together their office is to enquire and informe themselves of the grievances of the Kingdome to consult how to reforme them and for that purpose if need be to compose Laws and present them to the King But all this is onely by way of advise it binds not untill the King hath taken their Councell and put life into those Laws by His Assent All which is not onely pursuing their Commission but is made good by the constant practise of the Kingdome For there was never any Law Statute Act of Parliament or Ordinance made in this Nation which bound the people whereunto the King did not give His Royall Assent And scarce one Parliament since the Institution of the two Houses but the Members of both those Assemblies have passed Bils for new Laws presented them to the King which He hath rejected whereupon every such Bill was instantly set aside acknowledged by the Members and judged by all men to be invalid neither binding King or people And for these words le Roy s'avisera the opinion of Justice Hutton and the words of King Richard the second nothing can be inferred thereupon against the Kings negative Voice but rather the contrary The Kings answer say they to Bils presented to Him by the two Houses which He rejects is thus le Roy
Majesty and the Kingdome as they are in many if not in all cases And say they if His Majesty should be Judge He should be Judge out of His Courts and against His highest Court which He never is But the Parliament should onely Judge without His Personall Assent which as a Court of Judicature it alwayes doth and all other Courts as well as it And say they if the King be for the Kingdome and not the Kingdome for the King and if the Kingdome best knoweth what is for its owne good and preservation and the Parliament be the representative Body of the Kingdome it is say they easie to judge who in this case should be Judge But say they it it not so easie to understand what is the danger of unsetling by this meanes the security of all mens estates Is this danger say they kept of us by His Majesties single Vote And all mens estates without security and exposed to an arbitrary power because in all Courts of Justice and in the Court of Parlialiament and that without any appeale from it mens estates and interests are Judged without His Majesties Personall Assent But say they we do not say this as if the Royall Assent were not requisite in the passing of Laws nor doe nor ever did we say that because His Majesty is bound to give His consent to good Laws presented to Him by His people in Parliament that therefore they shall be Laws without His consent or at all obligatory saving only for the necessary preservation of the Kingdome whilst that necessity lasts and such consent cannot be obtained Answer Here with much art and cunning it is endevoured to misleade the people And for that purpose the true question is declined and other questions raised which at the first sight may to the vulgar seeme plausible When a difference happens say the Members between the King and the Houses and thus in a thing which concerns the safety of the Kingdome it must not rest undetermined therefore say they either the King must be Judge against the Houses or the Houses must be Judge against the King and conclude for themselves But the case being rightly stated and the constitutions of the Realme duly considered every rationall man will conclude that this power being granted the Members all the rest of the people of England are of a free Subject become absolute slaves which is thus This Nation is governed by a knowne Law which hath its prescribed rules therefore as before I said it may be necessary in some things to alter the old and make new Laws And that being so some knowne persons must Judge when necessity requires such a change and consequently untill those persons have so judged it all the people ought to conclude there is no need to alter the Law And by the Laws of England as before is said the King and the two Houses are that Judge no major part it is all joyntly who have that power As if A. seised of Lands upon his marriage is tied not to sell without the consent of B. and C. in this case A. B. or C. may negatively hinder the sale but it were absurd to conclude thereupon that A. B. or C. or any two of them have power to sell but most injurious it were upon that ground to give power to B. and C. to sell the Lands of A. without his personall consent So in this case the Kings of England have debarred themselves from making or changing the Laws without assent of the two Houses whereby the King the Lords House or the Commons House hath power negatively to hinder the making of any new Law or changing the old but it followeth not therefore the King the Lords or Commons or any two of those bodies have power to make a Law The difference is no lesse then between the having and not having a known Law The one imports the settlement of a knowne Law and preserves it and the other introduceth an arbitrary government For example if the King hath power to make what Laws He thinkes fit He may at pleasure bereave the Subject of life and confiscate their estates But now having a knowne Law and thereby protected in our persons and estates the King having a negative Voice to hinder the changing of that Law there ensueth no such evill consequence And the same holds with the members the Lords House and the Commons House having each of them a negative Voice to hinder the changing of the Law or making a new Law doth not lessen the peoples protection of their persons nor alters the property of their estates The knowne and setled Law still preserves both But admit one or both Houses without the King to make what Laws they please it followeth they have power to put to death whom and for what cause they thinke fit and for their owne use to seise and dispose of their estates their will is then the Law So that to give this power to the King alone or to one or both Houses without the King the consequence is equally evill If the King have it both Law and Parliaments are destroyed If the Members Monarchy the Parliament and the Law it selfe are totally abolished And if the King by having this power of a negative Voice be Judge in His owne cause the Members having that authority are so too But that is a meere fiction neither King nor Members by having a negatie Voice in Parliament are Judges in their own cause but all that is to say the King and the Houses are jointly Judges when it is fit to make a new Law or change the old And so long as they extend not beyond the power of a negative Voice the Members of the two Houses are persons indifferent between the King and the people and so is the King indifferent between the Members and the people For example if the King propound a Law to take away the life of His subjects to tax them with payments of money not warranted by the knowne Law or otherwise to inlarge His Prerogative the Members may assent thereunto and so make it a Law or refuse it and herein they are indifferent between King and people for the benefit of those Laws thus propounded accrues not to them And so it is if either or both Houses propound a Law to the King whereby they would assume to themselves the absolute power of Government to put to death whom they please to tax or impose upon the people to confiscate their estates to their own use the King is a person indifferent between the Members and the people to Judge whether to passe it or not But when the Members without the King assume power to make Laws the dispute between the King and the people is ended the businesse is then immediately and totally between the Members and the people Therefore by excluding the King from His negative Voice the Members have made themselves Judges in their owne case By our wofull experience we now find there
of the Members to have power to make a Law it is all one as to have that authority without asking them the question The Members upon broaching such a doctrin for the King would cal it tyranny they might justly too in that case account themselves but ciphers And the like reason holds via versa if the Kings deniall to make a Law hinder not the force of it the absolute power is in the Members And whether a Law be of necessity to be made for the preservation of the Kingdome or not he who will be sole Judge of that necessity excludes the other if the King be Judge thereof the Houses are excluded if the Houses assume that power the King is excluded And then for the continuance of those Laws it is as easie for the Members to say they have cause to continue them as to pretend necessity to make them The Members judged it necessary for the preservatiō of the Kingdome to take from the Crowne the Militia of the Realme and to settle it upon themselves they desired the King to consent He refused thereupon the Members without the King usurped that power into their owne hands The Members now declare it necessary for the preservation of the Kingdome for them without the King to impose upon the people impositions taxes and payments without stint to make what Laws they thinke fit to exclude the King from His Regall Authority to assume the whole power of Government and that to be Arbitrary the King having been desired to consent hereunto He refuseth Upon this we see the Members without the King assume it witness the imposition of that horrid Tax by Excise Assesments condemning of their fellow Subjucts to death confiscating their Estates and the like so that no man can apprehend that the asking of the Kings consent which in shew they seemed to desire is in their esteeme indeed of any moment And the Members by excluding the King from His negative Voice having got possession of the wealth of the whole Nation and dominion over the people having thereby wrested from the King the Sword His Scepter and Soveraignty it selfe no doubt but the same necessity pretended by them at first to incroach this power will be still alleadged by them to make their usurped authority lasting which accordingly we find the Members have as much as in them lie made their raigne perpetuall They tell us first in generall that in all matters either concerning Church or State we have no Judge upon earth but themselves And so by their doome we are both for soul and body in an everlasting and absolute slavery unto our fellow Subjects Then they proceed to particulars and begin with the Militia of the Realme which they judge usetesse and as a thing lying dead whilst it is in the power of the King of England For say the Members by the constitutions of the Realme the King cannot by himselfe alone without consent of the two Houses raise money by taxing the people Therefore the power of the Militia say they inables Him not to do the Kingdome any effectuall service But those Members having arrogated a power without the King to impose upon the people without stint they do therefore judge the Militia to be their owne And I confesse they are in some sort necessitated thereunto for both we and they see that otherwise then by troopes of Horse and bands of Soldiers it is impossible to leavy upon the Subject those illegall burthens by the Members laid upon them So that it is now come to passe that our greatest happinesse is made the foundation of our greatest misery because the King governs us by a knowne Law these Members tell us we must not be governed by a King the Kings justnesse to His people hath furnished these Tyrants with arguments to dis-throne Him By the government under the King and that authority claimed by Him the people have such protection of their persons and property in their Lands and goods as that otherwise then the known Law declared by the sworne Judges of the Realme doth warrant the King cannot molest them in either therefore say the Members He ought not to have the power of the sword But on the other side the Members having usurped an arbitrary and tyrannicall power over the persons lives estates and fortunes both of King and people therefore the Militia of the Kingdom say they belongs to them so that upon the matter better it had been both for King and people if the King had assumed the Turkish tyranny for then the King even by the Members owne argument had kept His Crown nor had the Subject been in so great a slavery as now we had then been subject only to one tyrant but by this doctrine we are vassals to seven hundred The Members have already besides the whole Revenue of the Crowne which they have barbarously wrested from the King the Queen and the Royall Progeny taxed upon the people by way of Excise Assesments and such like new impositions before this Parliament never known nor heard of in England above 3000000. l. per annum for their owne setled Revenue yet all this serves not the turne of these blessed self-denying reformers Besides all this they force the people to lend to give they confiscate where they please and convert to their own use what summes of money they thinke fit Yet setting aside their owne pompe and glory no visible cause of expence appears saving the Souldiery who are kept for no other end but to awe the people and force those exorbitant and illegall contributions Secondly they have Judged the King whom themselves even this Parliament have sworne to be their onely Supreame Governour to be unfit to Governe And this for refusing to acknowledge it His duty to be governed by them His Subjects and so much as in Him lay perpetually to vassalage unto those Rebels Himselfe His Royall Posterity and all the rest of the people And to compleat the worke they have Judged it Treason for any Subject of England either to make application to His Soveraigne or to receive any Message from Him By which Tyranny the people of this Nation are brought into that sad condition as doubtlesse was never yet parallel'd even from the Creation upon the face of the whole earth For Traytors we are denounced both for doing and not doing one and the same thing By Act of Parliament it is high Treason to refuse to sweare the King to be the only Supreame Governour over all the people of the Realme And these Members against this knowne and declared Law although themselves have taken that Oath murther such Subjects as according to their duty make addresse unto Him And call that their due allegeance Treason And to colour these proceedings the Members have the boldnesse to vouch God himselfe to justifie the legality thereof The power of the Militia say they was the principall cause both of this late War and the quarrell
still carry the face of Justice although nothing ever was or can be more pernitious to King and people Ket Cade Wat Tyler and the like in their insurrections pretended reformation To remove bad Councellors from the King To restore the people to their Liberties and to set up the Law they protested were the things they aimed at Now admit their intention had been to reforme yet their proceedings must necessarily destroy both Law and Government Suppose Ket had been asked who should judge what persons had broken the Law who were bad Councellours who should nominate the Officers of State and the like Ket would have answered that he who reformes must judge of the reformation Therefore none but Ket should judge of these things which had been no lesse then to have arrogated an Arbitrary power to enslave the people And if so in Kets case It is the same when any persons what ever their quality or number be for it is the Authority and Commission which the Law lookes upon to justifie the fact not the dignity or number of the persons acting And as those things alter not the nature of the crime so the consequence thereof to the people is all one They are as much and more damnified by an unlawfull act committed by a Lord as by a peasant by a thousand as by one single person Then for the Members proceedings Their assuming power to judge the Law to exclude the King from His Negative voice in Parliament taking upon them Authority to make Laws and the like are in themselves as unlawfull as the foresaid acts of Ket c. The Members have no more Commission for this then Ket had for that And the consequence thereupon to the people is one and the same Suppose a single person to have conquered the Kingdome And thereupon to assume an Arbitrary power The lives estates and fortunes of the people were at his command And so they now be at the will of the Members And thus the Subjects were enslaved CHAP. XV. The way how to restore the people to their former Liberties WHen the Physitian hath discovered the nature of his sick patients disease and not before he knowes what medicine to apply for the cure Which holds with a Common-wealth fallen into disorder And for England the cause of its grief is apparent It is rather out of joynt then sick of a disease Our misery is occasioned as before appears onely by setting aside the King For by that the Soveraign power of Government the Authority to make Lawes and the power to judge the Law are wrested out of their proper places and drawne into one hand The Members by excluding the King have usurped all these so that there is no other power or rule to guide their actions but their own will But whilst the King held His right the power of Government was His the Authority to make Lawes was in Him and the two Houses joyntly and to declare the Law in the Judges whereby every one was limited within His own bounds and so avoid all Arbitrary power Thus for the cause of our grief Then for the cure when any limbe of a man is out of joynt it so much distempers every part as that if not timely prevented the whole body is in danger to perish And as no medecine without putting it into joynt againe will ease the paine so by setting straight that joynt at once it is a perfect cure to the whole body Now by setting aside the King the disorder in our Common-wealth is no lesse then an absolute subversion both of Law and Government The people are thereby totally enslaved this incurable but by restoring the King again For so long as the Members exclude the King so long the aforesaid authorites are usurped by them and so a power Arbitrary For example If the Members condemne an innocent man to death And for a fact if guilty not punishable by Law The Members having power without appeal both to determine the fact and to declare the Law upon that fact And those Members having Judged him to dye and to forfeit his Estate unto themselves This innocent man all the world must confesse is without remedy he is hopelesse without the mercy of those who gaine by his destruction But the King being restored the foresaid Authorities are returned into their proper places and againe divided into severall hands instantly from thence every Court Assembly and person not only enjoyes its own Authority but is limited within its own bounds no man then is permitted to be both Judge and Party he ought not by our Law to give sentence of death if by that Sentence the Judge gave the fortune of the man condemned Thus for the Medicine In the next place it is considerable who shall apply it And for that as the people were the immediate instruments of their own thraldome they ought to be the principall Agents of their own freedome Their motives to returne to their obedience are farre greater then they had to recede from it Was any heretofore hindred to exercise his owne opinions in matters of Religion Was his person imprisoned taxes and impositions laid upon him not warranted by the Law If so his condition is now farre worse First for Religion The sence of those Members we now finde is made the rule of every mans faith he is bound to change his Religion as the Major part of the Houses shall Vote The Ecclesiasticall Judges heretofore were limited in their punishments The Members are boundlesse And as they are not guided either for Doctrine or Discipline but by their owne will So in their punishments they are a large too Shall the Members Vote that no man shall use the word Trinity or call upon our Saviour by the name of Jesus or what else soever it be The punishment upon those breaking that Law may be losse of all his Estate or death if the Members please Then for imprisoments formerly the Judges had power by whose warrant or command soever committed as the cause required to bail or set him at liberty But now once committed by the Members the cause is not examinable unlesse released by them who committed him without redemption or examination in the gaol he must starve and perish And for taxes and impositions it is true we have heard of Loans and Benevolences and we know the businesse of Ship-money But the people are now taxed by Assessements Excize and otherwise at pleasure Peradventure the Excize now laid upon London exceeds not 20000. l. a week but by the same Law that such a summe is imposed it may be multiplyed to a Million a day If one County be assessed at 1000. l. a moneth it may be raised to 10000. l. a weeke And as these are new wayes to tax the people The Members by the same rule every day may devise other new wayes to burthen them And doubtlesse he who hath his Estate taken from him by Assessements or Excize is left as little to feed
in His defence against the forces raised by command of the foresaid Members of the two Houses of Parliament CHAP. XI That the persons at Westminster who call themselves the Parliament of England are not the two Houses nor Members of the Parliament IN my foresaid Treatise I have by way of admittance granted these men at Westminster to be the two Houses of Parliament The Houses from their first Assembling to have been compleatly full To have unanimously concurred in Votes and every Member to have consented unto all those horrid things acted in the name of the Parliament And in case it had so fallen out still the Law in every particular before mentioned had been the same That concurrence of the Members had nothing altered the case Therefore sure without dishonouring the two Houses of Parliament injuring in a manner the whole Peereage and the far greater number of the Members duly elected of the Commons House I cannot omit First to expresse the cause of these my admittances Secondly to shew that these men at Westminster who now assume the name and power thereof are so far from being the Parliament of England as that they are neither the two Houses of Parliament nor Members of them For the first had I at the beginning fallen upon these questions whether Members or not Members Houses or no Houses I had thereby barred all further progresse in that my Treatise For if no Houses of Parliament then no dispute can arise what votes or proceedings of the Members are valid and which voide Therefore to introduce these questions viz. what is a Parliament the Authority and use thereof The proper office of either House singly and of both Houses joyntly without the King I granted but that I say only by way of admittance the foresaid persons to be the two Houses of Parliament and to have all powers and authorities due unto those Assemblies Then for the second viz. that these men at Westminster are neither the two Houses nor Members of them is proved thus 1. First clear it is that the essency of a House of Parliament doth not consist meerely in the legall assembling of the Members thereof Besides that it is necessarily required that every Member have liberty to repaire unto the place of sitting And there freely according to his conscience to Vote and deliver his opinion in all things agitated For example a Commission is granted to twenty with power to them or any five or more of them to execute the same Here although five if no more appear have full power Yet if all be present and consenting to act no five nor lesse then the whole twenty have authority So that if nineteen of them injuriously exclude one the proceedings of the nineteen are void which stands with great reason for if nineteen may exclude one eighteen may exclude another And in like manner one by one they may expell each other untill reduced to the last man Besides frequent it is in every Assembly consisting of many where the major part determineth the question For the businesse in dispute of what nature or moment soever to be carried on either side by one voice Therefore injuriously to exclude one single person from Voting is as destructive to Justice as to reject Two Three or more Yet herein let not me be mistaken I grant that either House of Parliament frequently doth and may legally proceede although not compleatly full And that each Assembly hath authority in some cases to suspend particular Members from sitting But I say that whilst either House without lawfull cause wrongfully hinders any one of their fellow Members to sit or freely to Vote with them according to his conscience The rest of the Members of that Assembly what number soever have not Parliamentary authority to proceed in any thing Therefore when a competent number of either House is Assembled all those so met and no lesse I meane without expelling them or any of them or forcing any ones conscience have power to performe the office of that House And the same it is if any one legally returned shall by his fellow-Members be hindered to repaire unto the House Those disturbers do thereby disable themselves to act in that Assembly Now for application to these men at Westminster It cannot be forgotten But that within few dayes after the first meeting of the two Houses the election of many Knights and Burgesses knowne to be honest moderate men were questioned Their persons instantly suspended from sitting but unto this day whether rightfully or wrongfully elected notwithstanding all possible endeavours to obtaine it not suffered to be determined Therefore manifest it is that to be rid of those Members out of the House was the onely cause of such questions and suspensions But that more cleerely appears by the progresse of the businesse For not long after those suspensions by Order of the Commons House every Member of that Assembly whose name had been used in any Patent of Monopoly or acted therein was in words disabled to sit or Vote there And by colour of this Order divers Members were expelled and forced to quit the House For no other cause but for that their names were used in some Patents or grants of the King which grants these Members before and without any legall triall judgement or determination thereof Voted to be void Yet which is a remarkable signe of their injustice their owne babes of grace such of them I meane as the faction could confide in although within the expresse words of that Order and at least as guilty of that fact as any other have ever since been and still are principall Voters there Now if these Members expelled by the foresaid Order were wrongfully expulsed it followeth that the whole Assemby did therby suspend it selfe from acting as the House of Commons And that they were wrongfully expulsed and injuriously debarred sitting or voting there is thus proved No person duly elected and returned of the House of Commons can be lawfully expulsed that House but for such cause as by the Law of the Land he is disabled to sit or Vote there But the cause mentioned in that Order by which those Members were expulsed doth not by the Law of the Land disable any man to sit or Vote in the House of Commons Ergo. To deny the major cannot enter into the heart of any honest English-man That is no lesse then to give unto the greater part of that Assembly at all times an arbytrary power without lawfull cause to expell thence although equally trusted and authorized by King and people with themselves their fellow Members which being admitted unto them it followeth that the peoples power of electing is in effect taken away and consequently no representatives in that House For although it be admitted that after such expulsion the inhabitants shall elect againe The people cannot expect an end of choosing untill returne be made of such as the present prevalent faction likes of And we see almost