person of any Tyrant Pax â—um hominibus bellum vitiis but I hate his Tyyrannie I freely forgive them all the injuries they have done to me or any of my friends and for their good I have written this Treatise but they are Gods enemies and God would be offended if we should let them sleep in their villanies Our Laws and Religion ought to be more dear to us than all things in the world for without them we should be worse than beasts and who more subverteth our Laws and Religion than Tyrants Vt imperium evertant libertatem preferunt cum perverterunt ipsam aggrediuntur saies Tacitus That they may pervert the legal Government they pretend liberty for the people and when the Government is down they then invade that libertie themselves Auferre trucidare rapere falsis nominibus imperium atque ubi solitudinem faciunt pacem appellent To rob to murther to plunder Tyrants falsely call to Govern and to make desolation they call to settle peace These are they which God sayes Hosea 8.4 Ipsi regnaverunt sed non ex me They have reigned but not by me They have made Princes and I knew it not and have cast off the thing that is gâ—od There is no power indeed but of God but the abuse of power is from the Devil These men do not rightly use but abuse the power and as Satan is called the Prince of the world so these men are called Governors of the Realm not because they are so by right but by Treacherie Rebellion and Treason their power is by Gods permission not by his Donation Therefore these are not the Dignities and higher powers which the Apostle commands us to be subject to for then we must be subject to the Devil too for Tyrants and Devils have powers both alike lawfull and both by Treason and Rebellion No we should resist and arm our selves against these enemies it is Disobedience to obey them Rebellion not to rebell against them and Treason not to plot Treason against them Therefore let everie one be readie with his dagger like Jodes to stab this devourer of mankind Bad Kings must be converted onelie with praiers and tears but Tyrants must be subdued with clubs and swords for Quis constituit te virum Principem Judicem super nos Exod. 2.14 Who made them Princes and Judges over us the King we know and the Kings son we know but who are they They are not of Gods making but of Beelzebubs their Master and their own making Therefore let everie good Christian arm himself against these Caterpillers devotion and action must go together let him not bribe his Conscience with self interests but take courage and fight the good fight that so he may deliver himself and his Countrie from slaverie and bring the Tyrants to the Rope their best winding sheet All other Governments are but the corruption and and shreds of Monarchy which is the most glorious and most profitable of all sorts of Governments when and how Aristocracy and Democracy begun rather by Gods permission than institution The proper Character of a Common-wealths man or the Definition of an English Changeling with his flexible and mutable qualities The absence of our King is the cause of the presence of our many sins and divisions IF you remember in my Division of Governments I made mention of Aristocracy and Democracy c. which indeed had their first Original from the corruption of Monarchy and are but shreds of Monarchy as all Politicians hold Therefore I will not spend time and paper to abuse your patience with anie thing but a Description of them For Virg. Verum haec tantum alias inter caput extulit urbes Quantum lent a soleni inter viburna cupressi Monarchy doth as far excell all other sorts of Government in glory profit conveniencie for the people and in all other good qualities as the Sun doth the Moon or the Moon the twinckling stars and is like the lofty Cedar amongst the servile shrubs Hence it cometh that even the Republicans who hate a King because he is their Soveraign Master are compelled to suffer and use Petite Monarchies as one may say under them as one Master over everie Familie one Maior over everie City one Sheriff over everie Countie one Rector over everie Parish Church one Pilot over every ship one Captain over everie Troop one Admiral over the Fleet and manie other Offices of trust and places wherein Pluralitie of persons would prove most obnoxious But Monarchie is and alwaies hath been proved and approved the best and most absolute lie good Aristocracy is the Government of a Common-wealth by some select number of the better sort of the people preferred for their wisdome and other vertues for the publick good Oligarchy is the swarving or distortion or Aristocracy or the Government of a few rich yet wicked men whose private end is the chiefest end of their Government tyrannizing over Law Religion and the people Democracy or popular estate is the Government of the multitude Where the people have the supream power and Soveraign autority Ochilocracy or a Common-wealth is the corruption and deprivation of Democracy where the rascal Rabble or viler sort of the people govern by reason of their multitude These kinds of Government were not heard of a long time after Monarchy began and the impulsive causes of them were contention and confusion and were rather permitted than ordained by God as the bill of Divorce was by Moses For non erat sic ab initio there was no such Government at the beginning for God did not create it as he did Monarchy when he made all things but the people being stragled up and down in the world and so in processe of time became out of the knowledge of their lawfull King rather than they would indure the miserable effects of Anarchy for Plebs fine Rege ruit there can be no family no society indeed no living without rulers they reâ—igned up their whole power and libertie to some few select men or else to many who made Laws for them and so tied up the hands of the unrulie and wicked and defended the just from the violent tempests and storms of the unjust to which before they lay open and naked which God seeing that it was better for them to have such a Government than none at all did allow of it but it hath no comparison with Monarcâ—y becuase that was instituted by Gods primarie Ordinance and the further men go from Gods original institution they have the more corruption Nay if compared to Monarchy it is a curse for Solomon saith Prov. 28.2 For the transgressions of a Land many are the Princes thereof but by a man of understanding and knowledge the state thereof shall be prolonged summo dulcius unum Stare loco sociisque comes discordia regnis How sweetlie doth the Poet sing when he saith that it is most sweet for one to govern for a companie of Governors
have the supreme power over the people is proved in Adam and testifyed by the Law of God the Law of Nations The Law of Nature The Law of Reason The Law of the Realm and by the Oathes of all English men aswel Parliament men as other Magistrates though since broken by our Saviour by the Apostles by all the Fathers of the Church and by all Christian People and Religion The glory of the Martyrs which have sacrificed their lives in this just cause shall live for ever and the Rebells shall go out with stink like the snuffe of a Candle The Majesty and power of the King described Good subjects commended and the punishment of Traytors with Korah Dathan and Abiram manifested The sad effects if the people should have the supreme power and proved by reason that no Government could stand nor any man whatsoever live if the people had power to question the King or other their Governors Two supreme powers cannot stand together Trayterous Tyrants alwayes pretend Liberty and Religion with which they blinde the ignorant people The Oath of Supremacy by whom taken and by whom broken with all Gods Commandments with it How the People of England deal with their King HAving satisfied all but those whose profit it is to believe the contrary who have no other grounds for their belief than other mens grounds and estates that Kings receive their power from God and not from the people and are independent from all but the Almighty I shall now shew 1. That they have the Supreme power over the people 2. That they are above the Law 3. That they are not to give account of their actions to the people but only to God and so conclude that there can be no just cause for the subjects either to take up armes against their Soveraign to call him to the bar to accuse him to condemn him or to kill or murther him First with the first That the first King was made in Paradice your have already heard and that there he received his dominion and power but from whom did he receive his power from God hath not God therefore greater power than the Kingâ— he hath From whence do the people derive their power from the King Hath not the King therefore more power than the people he hath Constituens Constituto potior The Constituent is better and higher in place and dignity than the Constituted But the power of God Constituted the power of Kings Ergo the power of God is greater than the power of Kings And quod efficit tale magis est tale that which maketh any such or such is in it self much more such or such But the King giveth power to the people Ergo the power of the King is higher than the power of the people The King is the only fountain from whence all the streams of authority flow to the people It is he that is the Magazine from whence they derive their power And Derivativa potestas non potest esse major primitiva a Derived power can not be greater than the primitive Therefore those men who place Soveraignty in the palace of the peoples breasts must needs be more knaves than fools for so great ignorance cannot roust in their pates who are so worldly wise But let them glosse the text with what false Commentaries they please make white black and black white and muster up dark clouds of jugling riddles to dazle the purblind sight of the Rascal rable of the people who think the Gown makes the Lawyer That that must needs be Law which the Judge saith esteem all things by their exterior apperances and only know how to be ignorant whose deceived foolishnesse is the Chariot on which our men of war ride triumphant from one degree of wickednesse to another Yet notwithstanding Legibus eversis rerum natura peribit the Law of nature shall perish and the Heavens and Earth shall passe away before Lex Terrae the Law of the Land shall deny this Oracle Omnis sub Rege ipse sub nullo nisi tantum sub Deo All men are under the King and the King is under none but God this is that Divine sentence quod nec Jovis ira nec ignes Nec poterit ferrum necedax abolere vetustas which neither angry Jove nor fiery Vulcan neither devouring age nor the bloudy sword a worse devourer than that shall ever expunge out of our Law-Books or explode out of the memory of every pious man This is that which many worthies have written with their blouds and sealed with their lives To this have many died Martyrs whose fame shall out-live the Sun and their memories be engraven upon the marble of everlasting monuments whilest others their opposers would be glad to have the stench of their ignominious names buried in the grave of oblivion where leaving them let us return to our King For nullum tempus occurrit Regi It is alwaies seasonable to do allegiance to the King whose power like the Ocean is boundlesse and his authority like the wind goeth where it listeth he only can proclaim war and he only can conclude peace he only can call Parliaments and dissolve them when he pleaseth he appointeth what Magistrates he pleaseth and turneth out whom he pleaseth all Laws Customs Privileges and Franchises are granted and confirmed to the people by him He raiseth men that are dead to life again for those that are condemned to die by the Judges are dead in Law but the Kings pardon reviveth them again He hath the sole power of ordering and disposing all the Castles Forts strong Holds Ports Havens and all other parts of the Militia He is the breath of our Nostrils the life head and authority of all that we do Supremam potestatem merum imperium apud nos habens having the Supreme power and meer empire over our bodies members lives and estates he doth whatsoever he pleaseth to be short he is our King And where the word of a King is there is power and who may say unto him what dost thou Eccle. 8.3 4. But so greedy is humane nature of dominion and covetous to rule that we have some amongst us who professe themselves to be born Kings they are Kings by birth nay greater than Kings are here For Par in parem non habet Dominium one King cannot command another King But these men use Kings as Children do birds in a string give him what Liberty and Authority they please clip his wings lest he should fly too high for them put pins in his eyes to make sport with him and clip off his head too to make known their authority But doubtless these men were never bred in Christs University Did they ever hear of him If they did it is the worse for them For they which know the will of God and do it not will fare never the better for their knowledge It is better to be an ignorant fool than a cunning knave Reddite quae sunt Caesaris
who was it that murthered the King Was it the people Every man knoweth that it was neither the people nor the Parliament But a Company of Jesuitical treacherous Rebels and damnable Usurpers Who flaming the people in the mouth with a tale that the supreme power was in the people made use of this power themselves against the wills of the people as an Engine to perform and bring to passe all their wicked and horrible designs But say they we are the peoples Representatives chosen by the people and so what we do they do Catch a Knave without a Knaves answer and he will give you leave to hang him I must confesse if this were true they might have somewhat the more colour though not the more honesty for what they do But this is as false as themselves For the people chose them to sit in Parliament and act according to the Kings Writ as part of the Kings Parliament according to the Laws of the Realm But since the Parliament is destroyed for what Parliament can there be without a King and House of Lords such a headlesse Monster was never seen untill of late Consequently their power which they derived from the people is gone also Neither are the Commons in Parliament the representative body of the whole Kingdom or people For they do not represent the King who is the head nor the Lords who are the nobler and higher part of the body of the Realm the Commons only represent the Inferior and lower sort of the people but if they did as they do not represent the whole body yet did not the people ever give them any power to cut off their Kings head For the Lords voted it unlawful all the honest Commons forsook the House and the people were all displeased except a few of their own hatching up and every one else murmured against it The Nobility mourned The Gentry were amazed The Common people wept and men women and Children did cry The Heavens cloathed themselves in black And the Sun hid his face The Lion King of Beasts died at the â—ight of his royal blood And the wild foules came wondering to see this execrable fact on the Scaffold And if the Thundering and Lightening of the Almighty be a true sign of Gods Angry Deity Then even from this we may conclude that these Regicides took too much upon them and very much provoked his wrath For Diespiter Igni coruseo nubila dividens Plerumque per purum tonantes Egit equos volucremque currum The Heavens roared with thunder which made the earth shake and the darts of fiery lightening threatened the ruines of both And who can think upon this worse than Gunpowder-Treason plot for then was but intended that which now is put in Execution viz. The murther of our gracious King and the subversion of all Laws and Religion with him and not justly expect all the Plagues of Aegypt and the punishment of Sodom and Gomorah to fall upon him and the whole people For Hor. Hoc fonte derivata clades In patriam populumque fluxit From the death of the King as from a fountain did flow the slaughter of the Nobility and people with the ruine of the Glory and freedom of the English Nation Tantae molis erat perversam condere gentem Such and so great villanies were perpetrated to raise this generation of Vipers Yet forsooth they will tell you that the supreme power and Soveraignty is in the people and that they act under them O grand Delusion Did the people turn out the long Parliament Did the people set up Oliver Protector Did the people turn out Dick his son Did the people foist up again the Rump of the long Parliamene Or did they hunt them out again Did the people sanctifie the Committee of Safety over them Or did they hunt in the Rump again Or have they made all the Revolutions and Choppings and Changings amongst us No neither the people nor their Representatives But the Devil his Representatives have been the cause of all our subversions For as the people have not so neither did the twentieth part of them ever challenge or claim the supreme power But have alwaies acknowledged the Soveraignty to be only in their King and only Soveraign only under God Reader take notice that in many places of this Book by the word Parliament is meant those Traytors the House of Commons who have unjustly usurped the name of Parliament For by the known Laws of the Land there can be no Parliament without the King Therefore let every one of the Regicides repent and pray to God to open his eyes and that the scales of blindnesse may fall from them that he may see his duty which is so evidently written in the Scripture and all other pious Writers which is to fear God and to honour his King which is acceptable in the sight of the Lord. And so I shut up my discourse with these verses which I would have the Reader get without book for his Edification Astra Deo nil majus habent nil Caesare terrae Sic Caesar terras ut Deus astra regit Imperium regis Caesar Deus astra gubernat Caesar honore suo dignus amore Deus Dignus amore Deus dignus quoque Caesar honore est Alter enim terras alter astra regit Cum Deus in coelis Caesar regâ—t omnia terris Censum Caesaribus Solvile vôta Deo A Tyrant without a Title set out in all his Colours and proved by the Laws both of God and man by the sentence of all honest and wise men by the vote of Antiquity and several Examples That it is most lawfull and glorious for any man either publique or private to fall upon Tyrants and kill them without Examination according to the usual forms of Judicature Where the consent of the people after Vsurpation makes an Vsurpers Title good and where not That the assent of the people cannot ratify any Government without him so long as their King liveth though banished but all their acting is Illegal How Tyrants pretend the safety of the people only for their own safe-guard and how they delude the people with specious names for their Magna Latrocinia their great villanies and robberies The Devil was a Rebel so are they and like Satan they have their power only by permission with an incitement to all men to execute them for these are not the Dignities we should obey LEt us now take our Swords in our hands and arme our selves to incounter with this Tyrant sine Titulo a Tyrant without a Title That bird of prey that beast of the game Orbis flagellum that scourge of the world that Devourer of Mankind Fulmen belli that Thunderbolt of war that Maule of the earth Poliâ—rcletes that destroyer of Cities that Hangman that Murtherer that great Robber whose might is his only right whose multitude of thieves makes him formidable builds himself up with honest mens blood feared by all men and fears
the due course of Law smote the Shepherd and so the sheep of the Protestant flock were all scattered abroad Bradshaw indeed that Pontius Pilate pressed the King very earnestly and by subtil and crafty inventions thought to have wrought upon the King to have submitted to their summa injuria their Arbitrary High Court of Injustice and pleaded So that his Example might have been urged as an irrefragable precedent against the lives and liberties of the whole Kingdome and that after ages might cite King Charles his case as an authority to kill Kings But the King foreseeing their delusive and abominable intentions rather than he would betray the lives and liberty of his free born subjects to the Arbitrary Lusts of these Tyrants told them of the great wickednesse they were about and shewed to his people how these Traitours endeavoured to inslave the whole Realm and so patiently suffered himself to be murdered dying a most true Martyr both for our Lawes and Religion but for plea he said nothing So Bradshaw more wicked than Pilate for instead of washing his hands he impudently bathed them in his Masters innocent blood gave the sentence of their wicked wills against him and delivered him over to the blood-thirsty to be crucified who spit upon him threw Tobacco pipes at him mocked him cryed out Away with him away with him Crucifie him Crucifie him cut off his Head with their wicked Engines and then cast lots for his Garments and Estate giving each Souldier a part But instead of writing over his head This is Charles the King of the Jews his true Title or rather the King of the Devils they writ over his head Exit Tyrannus Regum ultimus anno libertatis Angliae restitutae primo although in truth the best of Kings then went out and the greatest Tyranny under the Heavens then entred into our England comming far short of the Jews in all that is good but exceeding them in all wickednesse treachery perfidiousness and villany Now all this impious Council sought false witnesse against the King to put him to death but found none Therefore that they might do nothing without wickedness but proceed in all their Actions contrary almost to the very colour of Justice and make themselves the greatest and most illegal Tyrants that ever the world heard of they made themselves both Judges Jury Witness Party and Accuser in their own quarrel against the King For whereas by the Laws of the Land our gracious King alwayes made the Judges of the Land Arbitrators between his Subjects and himself in all cases from the lowest offence and trespass to the highest offence Crimen laesae Majestatis High Treason This Amalekite the House of Commons made part of themselves the Judges of the King who had committed the greatest Treason against the King and by the Laws of the Land deserved rather to hang at Tyburn than sit in the Chair of Justice likewise they made the Souldiers his Judges who professed themselves to be the Kings inveterate Enemies by their Remonstrances and Speeches and that they desired nothing more than his Blood and Life fought against him with their Guns and Swords Yet forsooth of this Hotchpotch of Traytors was their high Court of Justice made up Most of them being Collonels of the Army and other Souldiers who fought against him abroad and others Parliament men who conspired his ruine at home By the Laws of the Land it is a just exception to any Jury man who is to try the basest or poorest Felon and a legal challenge for which he must be withdrawn That he is a professed Enemy and Prosecutor who seeks his life and therefore no lawful nor indifferent tryer of him for it yet these bloody Butchers who professed themselves to be the Kings greatest Enemies and Prosecutors seeking after nothing so eagerly as the Kings life were both the Judges and Jury-men too to try the King Perjured O. Cromwell who then intended and afterwards effected to have the supreme power over these three Kingdoms was one of the Tryers to judge whether the King or himself with the rest of his brethren in iniquity deserved death and whether the King and his Royal Progeny ought not to be distroyed and Oliver and his stinking stock take possession O unparraleld lump of impiousness Aliquis non debet esse Judex in propria causà It is a Maxim in Law that no man ought to be Judge in his own cause Yet these villains made themselves the only Judge whether they committed Treason against the King or the King against them Nemo tenetur prodere seipsum No man is bound to accuse himself and it would have been a wonder indeed if these Rebels should have spoke the truth and said that they had committed high Treason against the King Therefore for fear the Law should punish them according to their deserts they thought good to prevent that mischief punish the King as they pleased according to their lusts And that they might make themselves the greatest Tyrants and the people the basest Slaves in the world they took upon them the Governing power which by Law only belongeth to the King 2. The Legislative power which likewise belongeth to the King with the concurrence of the upper and Lower House And 3. The Judicative power which belongeth to the Judges who are known Expositors and Dispencers of Law and Justice in all Causes brought before them So that these Trayterous Tyrants by their boundless and arbitrary wills put us to death when they please for what cause they please and take away our Estates when they see occasion And yet they have the impudence to tell us and many the sottishness to believe that the Parliament having the Supreme power doth all these villanies by Law O Abominable How these Tyrants mock the people with the name of a Parliament the Parliament consisteth of the King the head and about 600 of his Subjects and there were not above 50 or 60 of the Parliament who caused the King to be murthered and ruined his people yet these Schismaticks call themselves a Parliament and so having nothing good but their name Tyrannize over us They may as well say that the parings of the nailes of the toes are the whole man and have the power of all the other members as say that they are the Parliament or have any lawfull power they being nothing but the dregs and lees of the inferiour House from whom we must never expect any thing pleasing to any honest mans palate If the Parliament had power to depose the King yet what power can these few Gaol-Birds have who are scarce the tenth part of the Parliament and no Representatives of the People but only of their own Devilish ambitions By what authority do these Ignes fatui abolish Kingship and the House of Lords as dangedangerous and useless which all our Ancestors have found most profitable and glorious for our Kingdom These Currs have several times been kicked out of
And it is the sweetnesse of the Bishops Lands which makes the Office of a Bishop so bitter and odious to our new States-men The Law would have them ejected from their ill gotten Fortune and Estates therefore they persecute the Law as their utter Enemy And say that they will have it no more coached in the City of London but carted in the Country amongst the Swains But they must likewise send the City with it into the Country otherwise the Body will dye when the Soul departeth and the City will perish when the Law and its Retinue bid it farewell As Histories both forein and domestique antient and modern and the whole Accademy of the Common Law so it is apparent by many Records and Judgements in Parliament And both the Lords and Commons in divers Acts of Parliament through many successions of Ages have declared that the King of England is Monarcha Imperator in regno suo a Monarch and Emperour in his Realm above all the people in his kingdom and inferiour to none on Earth but only the Almighty holding his Crown and Royal dignity immediately of God and of none else By the Statute of 28 H. 8. ca. 2. enacted in Ireland it is declared that the Kings of England are Lawful Kings and Emperours of the said Realm of England and of this Land of Ireland So by the Act of 16 R. 2. ca. 5. It is declared That the Crown of England hath been so free at all times that it hath been in no earthly subjection but immediately subject to God in all things touching the Regality of the same Crown and to none other And what is the House of Commons a God if they are but men the Crown is not subject to them for the Statute telleth you it is in no Earthly subjection But perhaps they are Devils neither will that serve their turn for as it appeareth by the Act The Crown is immediately subject to God and to none other So by the Statute of 24 H. 8. cap. 12. it is declared Where by divers sundry old authentick Histories and Chronicles it is manifestly declared and expressed That this Realm of England is an Empire and so hath been accepted in the World Governed by one Supreme Head and King having the Dignity and Royal Estate of the imperial Crown of the same unto whom a body politick compact of all sorts and degrees of people divided in terms and by names of Spiritualty and Temporalty been bounden and ought to bear next God a natural and humble obedience he being also institute and furnished by the goodnesse and sufferance of Almighty God with plenary whole and entire power pre-eminence authority prerogative and Jurisdiction to render and yield justice and final determination to all manner of Folk and Subjects within his Realm and in aâ— causes matters and debates whatsoever Behold here and consider the Judgement of the whole people both Lords and Commons Who can contradict what they said None but the Antipodes of our Age who contradict all Truth Justice Law and Honesty I heard it affirmed that they were about to explode out of the new Testament the 13th Chapter of the Romans and other Texts in Scripture which commanded subjection to Kings Truly I believe they did not want knavery but only conveniency to effect it If the Bible had had but one Head off it had went as sure as the Kings In the Statute of 1 Eli. cap. 1. and in several other Acts of Parliamenâ— the Crown of England is called an Imperial Crown and the Parliament the Kings hâ—gh Court And that you may see that the Murtherers of Charls the Martyr pretended to want water when they were in the Sea read the Act of Parliament 1 Ia. cap. 1. wherein the Lords and Commons made this joyfull Recognition viz. Albeit We your Majesties loyal and faithfull Subjects of all Estates and Degrees with all possible and publick joy and acclamation by open proclamations within few hours after the decease of our late Soveraign Queen we declared with one full voice of tongue and heart your Majesty to be our only lawfull and rightfull Liege-Lord and Soveraign yet as we cannot do it too often or enough so it cannot be more fit than in this high Court of Parliament where the whole Kingdom in person or by Representatives is present upon the knees of our hearts to agnize our most constant faith obedience and loyalty to your Majesty and your Royal Progeny humbly beseeching it may be as a memorial to all Posterity recorded in Parliament and enacted by the same that we being bounden thereunto by the Laws of God and Man do recognize and acknowledg that immediately upon the death of Queen Elizabeth the imperial Crown of this Realm did by inherent birth-right and lawfull and undoubted succession descend and come to your Majesty and that by lawfull right and descent under one imperial Crown your Majesty is of England Scotland France and Ireland the most potent and mighty King and thereunto we most humbly and faithfully submit and oblige our selves our heirs and posterities for ever untill the last drop of our bloods be spent and beseech your Majesty to accept the same as the first fruits of our loyalty to your Majesty and Royal Progeny and Posterity for ever Which if your Majesty will adorn with your royal assent without which it neither can be compleat and perfect nor remain to all Posterity we shall adde this to the rest of your Majesties inestimable benefits But now Tiber runs backwards and the Moon giveth light unto the Sun the Servant ruleth the Master and the Peasant is mightier and greater than the King Nay in stead of walking on our feet as our fore-Fathers did we walk upon our heads and as for the old paths where is the good way we will not walk therein Our Ancestors have attested the Kings Soveraignity with their lives and sacred oaths but we attest the contrary so that if we of this age are not our Ancestors of all ages past were ignorant perjured fools Our Fathers as you see in the fore-going Statute did humbly submit and oblige themselves and us their heirs and Posterity to be constant and faithfull in subjection to the King and his Royal Progeny But we undutyfull to our Parents as well as Rebellious to our King oblige our selves and bind our souls with many sacred oaths to expell him from his Crown rob him of his Revenews and extirpate his Royal Progeny being constant and faithfull to nothing but our own lusts and ambition They would spend their bloods to maintain and defend the King but we spend both our bloods and Estates to offend and destroy him They esteemed their Act void and imperfect without the Royal assent But we esteem and vote the Royal assent void imperfect and uselesse But wherefore do I say we Lay the saddle on the right horse It was neither Lords nor Commons Parliament nor people who perpetrated all these villanies
nor detract the Magistrate 1 Pet. 2.17 Fear God honour the King Prov. 30.31 A King against whom there is no rising up Eccles 10.20 Curse not the King no not in thy thought 1 Sam. 24.6 The Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my Master the Lords anointed to stretch forth mine hand against him seeing he is the anointed of the Lord. From which premisses none unless those who deny the Scripture can deny these Consequences That the jura regalia of Kings are holden of Heaven and cannot for any cause escheat to their Subjects That active obedience is to be yielded to the King as Supreme in omnibus licitis in all things lawfull But if God for the punishment of a Nation should set up a Tyrannical King secundum voluntatem pravam non rationem rectam regentem governing by his depraved will against reason and commanding things contrary to the word of God we must not by force of arms rebel against him but rather than so if not prevailing by Petition unto him or escaping by flight from him patiently submit to the losse of our Lives and Estates and in that case Arma nostra sunt preces nostrae nec possimus nec debemus aliter resistere Our prayers and tears should fight and not our Swords For who can lift up his hands against the Lords anointed and be guiltless This in Scripture we find practised by Gods people to Pharaoh Exo. 5.1 and the same people to Nebuchadnezzar a Tyrant were commanded to perform obedience and to pray for him Though there was no wickednesse almost which he was not guilty of His Successor Darius Daniel obeyed and said O King live for ever Dan. 6.21 For now no private person hath with Ehud Judg. 3.21 extraordinary commandment from God to kill Princes nor no personal warrant from God as all such persons had who attempted any thing against the life even of Tyrants Nil sine prudenti fecit ratione vetustas 2. The King hath his Title to the Crown and to his Kingly office and power not by way of trust from the people but by inherent bigthright immediately from God Nature and the law 1 Reg. Ja. ca. 1. li. 7.12 Calvins caâ—e 3. The Law of Royal government is a Law Fundamental 1 pars Jnst fo 11. 4. The Kings Prerogative and the Subjects Liberty are determined and bounded by the Law Bracton fo 132. Plowden fo 236 237. 5. By Law no Subjects can call their King in question to answer for his actions be they good or bad Bracton fo 5 6. Si autem ab eo petatur cum Breve non Currat contra ipsum locus erit supplicationi quod factum suum corrigat emendet quod quidem si non fecerit satis sufficit ei ad poenam quòd Dominum expectet ultorem Nemo quidem de factis suis praesumat disputare multo fortius contra factum suum venire If any one hath cause of action against the King because there is no Writ runneth against him his only remedy is by supplication and petition to the King that he would vouchsafe to correct and amend that which he hath done which if he refuse to do Only God is to revenge and punish him which is punishment enough No man ought to presume to dispute the Kings actions much lesse to rebel against him 6. The King is the only Supreme Governour hath no Peer â— his Land and all other persons have their power from him 3 Ed. 3.19 Bracton li. 1. cap. 8. Sunt etiâ—m sub Rege liberi homines Servi ejus potestati subjecti Omnis quidem sub eo ipse sub nullo nisi tantum sub Deo Parem autem non habit in Regno suo quia sic amitterit praeceptum cum par in parem non habeat imperium Item nec multo fortius superiorem nec potentiorem habere debet quia sic esset inferior sibi subjectis inferiores pares esse non possunt potentioribus Ipse autem Rex non debet esse sub homine sed sub Deo sub lege quia Lex facit Regem The King hath no superior but the Almighty God All his people are inferior to him he inferior to none but God 7. The King is Caput Reipublicae the Head of the Commonwealth immediately under God 1 Jnst 73.1 h. 7.10 Finch 81. And therefore carrying Gods stamp and mark among men and being as one may say a God upon Earth as God is a King in Heaven hath a shadow of the Excellencies that are in God in a similitudinary sort given him Bracton fo 5. Cum sit Dei vicarius evidenter apparet ad similitudinem Jesu Christi cujus vices gerit in terris That is to say 1. Divine Perfection 2. Infinitenesse 3. Majesty 4. Soveraignty and Power 5. Perpetuity 6. Justice 7. Truth 8. Omniscience 1. Divine perfection In the King no imperfect thing can be thought No Laches Folly Negligence Infamy Stain or Corruption of blood can be adjudged in him 35. h. 6.26 So that Nullum tempus occurrit Regi 2. Infiniteness The King in a manner is every where and present in all Courts And therefore it is that he cannot be non-sute and that all Acts of Parliament that concern the King are general And the Court must take notice without pleading them for he is in all and all have their part in him Fitz. N. B. 21. H. 25. H. 8. Br tit Non-sute 68. 3. Majesty The King cannot take nor part from any thing but by matter of Record and that is in respect of his Majesty unless it be a Chattle or the like Because De minimis non curat Lex 5. Ed. 4.7 4 E. 6.31 2 H. 4.7 4. Soveraignty and Power All the Land is holden of the King No action lyeth against him For who can command the King He may compel his Subjects to go out of the Realm to war Hath absolute power over all For by a clause of Non-obstante he may dispense with a Statute Law and that if he recite the Statute Though the Statute say such dispensation shall be meerly void 7 E. 4.17.21 H. 7.2 H. 7.7 Calvins case Bracton Rex habet potestatem jurisdictionem super omnes qui in regno suo sunt ea quae sunt jurisdictionis pacis ad nullum pertinent nisi ad Regiam dignitatem habet etiam coercionem ut delinquentes puniat coerceat And therefore ought to have the Militia 5. Perpetuity The King hath a perpetual succession and never dyeth For in Law it is called the demise of the King and there is no Inter-regnum A gift to the King goeth to his Successors though not named For he is a Corporation of himself and hath two capacities to wit a natural body in which he may inherit to any of his Ancestors or purchase Lands to him and the heirs of his body which he shall retain although he be afterwards removed from his Royal estate and a body
neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the Sea Therefore he who getteth a kingdom by the breach of Gods Commandements hath no cause to bragg of his gettings For what will it profit a man to lose his own soul and to gain the whole world Let every one be subject unto the higher powers For there is no power but of God The powers that be are ordained of God Whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive damnation saith St. Paul Rom. 13.1 Behold here the duty of a Subject and the reward of a Rebel There is no power hut of God saith the Text Therefore he that resisteth the King resisteth the Ordinance of God for which he shall receive damnation What then if an unjust King robb us of all we have ravish our wives before our eyes dash out our Childrens brains against the wall set up Idolls and command us to worship them May we not resist him Nonne oportet Deo magis obedire quam hominibus Ought we not to obey God rather than man I answer That ye ought to obey God rather than man Yet may you not with violence resist your King We must not do evil that good might come thereon God hath in many places commanded us to obey and pray even for the worst of Kings Yet you cannot finde so much as a spark of warranty for any subject either Magistrate or private man to rise against his Soveraign in the whole Bible or to call him to an account for any of his actions God hath reserved that to himself as his own peculiar prerogative Magistratus de privatis Principes de Magistratibus Deum de Principibus judicare saith M. Aurelius Magistrates are to judge private men Kings are to judge Magistrates but none are to judge Kings but God The only means which subjects have to reform Kingdoms is that which the Apostle prescribeth 1 Tim. 2.1 Let prayers saith he and supplications be made for Kings and all that are in authority that we may lead a Godly life Prayers must be the only weapons of Subjects against their Kings Let them look into their own breasts and reform their own hearts which many times are the only causes of a Judgement on the Nation Let them amend their own lives and with fervent supplications implore him who hath the Kings heart in his hand and turneth it whithersoever he will to reform the King according to his desire Christiani hominis esse patienter ferre potius quicquid injuriarum ac molestiarum infertur quam ut adigi se sinat ad peccandum contra Deum It is the part of a Christian rather to suffer patiently what injury or persecution soever is laid upon him than to offend God saith Stephanus Szegedinus Interea tamen non esse illicitum si quis vim injustam vel avertere vel fugere vel aliquousque mitigare possit modo id fiat rationibus haud illicitis Quod si id fieri non potest Cavebit Christianus ne illatam vim contrariâ violentiâ retundere conetur sed tolerabit potius omnia nec de vindicando se cogitanit sed vindictam jâ—sto Judici permittet saith the same Author Yet it is not unlawfull if a man can to avert an unlawfull violence to flie from it or otherwise mitigate it so he doth not doe it by unlawful means But if he cannot do it by lawful means a Christian will take heed and not endeavour to repell an unjust violence offered with an unjust force No he will rather suffer all things first neither will he so much as think of revenge but will leave that to God the just Judge to whom vengeance belongeth O vocem verè Christianam O speech most worthy of a Christian If Herod be wroth and send forth and slay all the Children that are in Bethlehem and in all the coasâ—s thereof so that there be lamentation and weeping and great mourning Rachel weeping for her children and will not be comforted because they are not yet will he flie into Egypt with our Saviour and stay there until Herod be dead rather than he will rebell against his Soveraign resist Gods Ordinance so damn his own soul If Saul send messengers to bring him up to him in the bed that he may slay him or pursue him with 3000. chosen men of Israel yet will not he put forth his hand against his Soveraign for he is the Lords anointed Nay if it be in his power and he is counseled to kill him yet with holy David he will cry out The Lord forbid that I should doe this thing unto my master the Lords anointed to stretch forth my hand against him seeing he is the anointed of the Lord. His heart will smite him if he cut off his skirts but he will suffer all things before he will cut off his Kings head for who can do that and be guiltless If the King persecute him in this City he will flie into another Hee hath learned of his Master to be subject to his Soveraign not only for wrath but also for conscience sake He is good and the rulers are not a terror to him The evil and wicked will murder their Soveraign for fear his justice should reward them with death according to their deserts But he will not like those filthy dreamers speak evil of dignities and despise Dominion his tears are his arms and patience his revenger Levius fit patientia Quicquid corrigi est nefas Though it be unlawfull for him to gather Soldiers with force arms to correct and take his Soveraign from his evil Counsellors yet patience shall both assist and give him the victory St. Ambrose and he are alwaies in one time saying I have not learned to resist but I can grieve and weep and sigh and against the weapons of the Soldiers and the Gothes my tears and my prayers are my weapons otherwise neither ought I neither can I resist If the King saith God do so and more also to me if the head of this follow shall stand on him this day and likewise send a Messenger to cut it off yet with Elisha he will only shut the door against him and offer no other violence though it lie in his power If a multitude come out with swords and staves against him lay hold on him and lead him away to the Rulers who condemn him and deliver him to the wicked soldiers to be crucified yet in imitation of his Lord and Master he will say nothing rather than revile them though they spit upon him he will meekly wipe it off If they crown him with thorns hee will patiently suffer it If they give him Vinegar mingled with gall to drink hee will tast it If they crucifie him he will voluntarily spread forth his humble hands to be nailed on the Crosse and will not resist the higher Powers for the Lords sake If they saw him in pieces he will
that had been too little thou wouldest moreover have given unto me such and such things Against thee who hast made me Judge over all and loaded me with so many prerogatives above my brethren have I sinned and for the Judge to offend makes the offence so much the more grievous The people did not call David in question for his wicked acts but only God Deus suam omnem in reges authoritatem contulit caelum sibi retinuit terram agendam ferendamque pro libito tradidit All the whole Heavens are the Lords the Earth hath he given to Kings to dispose of as they please Therefore saith Solomon Prov. 30.31 A King is he against whom there is no rising up And therefore Job might well ask that question 34.18 Is it fit to say to a King thou art wicked and to Princes ye are ungodly For presumptuous are they and self-willed who are not afraid to speak evil of dignities 2 Pet. 10. Render to Caesar the things that are Caesars Mark 12.17 Render therefore to all their dues Tribute to whom Tribute is due Custome to whom Custome Fear to whom Fear Honour to whom Honour For Rulers are not a Terrour to good works but to the evil wilt thou then not be afraid of the power Do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same For he is the Minister of God to thee for good But if thou do that which is evil be afraid for he beareth not the sword in vain for he is the Minister of God a Revenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evil Wherefore ye must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for Conscience sake For for this cause pay you Tribute also For they are Gods Ministers attending continually upon this very thing Rom. 13. Submit your self to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as Supreme or unto Governours as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers and for the praise of them that do well for so is the will of God that with well-doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men As free and not using your liberty for a Cloak of maliciousness but as the servant of God Honour all men love the brother-hood Fear God honour the King We are commanded to obey the King whether he be good or evil Propter Deum for the Lords sake Not only because it is the will of the King but because it is the will of God that we should do so he hath commanded it and therefore for his sake we must do it If we resist the King we resist God and he that resisteth God shall receive damnation For when we pretend that we are free born Subjects that the Kings commands intrench upon our liberty and that for the freedom of our liberties we may rebel against him This is to make Liberty a Cloak to cover our maliciousness and wicked designs against the King Which is forbidden by the Apostle for not to serve the King is bondage and to rise up against him to preserve and keep our liberties is to enslave our selves to the Devil and to make us his servants to perform all wicked actions For we must needs be Subject to the Kings precepts not only for wrath but also for Conscience sake Et si plures sunt quos corrigit timor tamen meliores sunt quos ducit amor Although they be most whom fear makes obedient Yet they are best who out of true love obey their Soveraign We must not obey the King only that we may avoid giving of him offence and so not incurr punishment But it is a duty laid upon our Consciences so to do and if we love God we must love as faithful Servants to be obedient unto the King not as eye servants who only do their duty when their Master looketh over them But all our actions either publick or private must savour of obedience to him For he is our Master and we are his Servants and the Servant is not greater than his Master but ought alwayes to be diligent in his Masters service And although the King do recompense good with evil and punish them who like faithful Servants have not deserved it Yet they being good even in their sufferings shall receive praise from the power as did our Saviour and the Apostles when they were most wickedly murthered For do we not until this day praise and honour their Martyrdom Although the power which destroyed them did not give them praise yet by their obedience and patience in their unjust punishments did they receive a Crown of everlasting glory and renown from God and men Who can sufficiently celebrate the fame of those worthy Martyrs who unjustly suffered for Religion under the Government of Queen Mary Have not they by their unjust punishments received greater rewards of praise than if they had unjustly rebelled Surely yea for if they had rebelled although it was to save their Religion their Epitaphs would have been Rebels and Traytors instead of pious and Godly Martyrs The wicked only are afraid of the Kings power and punishments to whom he is a Terrour But a conscience voyd of offence towards God and towards man maketh the courage of the righteous like Lyons to contemn all earthly misery Hic Murus aheneus esto Nil conscire sibi nulla pallescere culpa Be this a wall of Brass to have within No black accuser barbour no pale sin Non est fas Christianis armis ac vi tueri se adversus impetum persecutorum saith Cyprian Epist 1. It is not lawfull for Christians by violence to defend themselves against Persecutors Therefore surely they ought not to murther their King and again Cyprian Epist 56. Incumbamus gemitibus assiduis deprecationibus crebris haec enim sunt munimenta spiritualia tela divina quae protegunt Let us apply our selves to daily sighes and continual prayers for these are the spiritual bulwarks and divine weapons with which Christians should only fight These not guns and swords will only defend us Ambrosius adversus reginae Justinae Arianae furorem non se manu defensabat aut telo sed jejuniis continuatisque vigiliis sub altari positus Ruffinus li. 2. c. 6. Ambrose did not defend himself against the fury of the Queen by the force of the hand and of the sword but by fastings continual watchings and prayers And shall we offend our gracious Soveraign with clubbs and axes Who by his sufferings shewed us the example of a true Christian whiles we like Jews triumph in his murther crying out crucify him crucify him Tertulian Apolog. c. 37. saith expresly that the Christians might for strength and number have defended themselves against their Persecutors but thought it unlawful Yet we because by our wicked plots and devices we have got a numberless company of those who like our selves will do any thing for gain think it a sin if we do not
are called of God to be Kings as his Vicegerents they have power to look to and have a care of the Church that the word be preached and the Sacraments administred by fit persons and in a right manner else how should Kings be Nursing Fathers to the Church had they not a Fatherly power over it Therefore many Acts of Parliament in several Kings Reigns and the whole Current of Law Books resolve and affirm the King to be head and have Supreme Jurisdiction in Ecclesiastical causes In the first year of Edward the sixth a Statute was made That all Authority and Jurisdiction both Spiritual and Temporal is derived from the King So in the Reign of Edward the Confessor was this Law ca. 17. The King who is the Vicar of the highest King is ordained to this end that he should Govern and Rule the Kingdom and People of the Land and above all things the Holy Church and that he defend the same from wrong doers and destroy and root out workers of mischief But since Reverend Coke in the fifth part of his Reports De jure Regis Ecclesiastico hath with luculent examples and impregnable lawes made it so clear that no man can gainsay it that the King ought and the Kings of England ever since before the Conquest until the Reign of Queen Elizabeth at which time he writ have had the supreme power and jurisdiction in all Spiritual and Ecclesiastical causes I referre you to his Book only reciting part of his conclusion viz. Thus hath it appeared as well by the antient Common Lawes of this Realm by the Resolutions and Judgments of the Judges and Sages of the Lawes of England in all succession of ages as by authority of many Acts of Parliament antient and of later times that the Kingdome of England is an absolute Monarchy and that the King is the only supreme Governour as well over Ecclesiastical persons and in Ecclesiastical causes as temporal within this Realm And in another places fo 8. he saith And therefore by the antient Lawes of this Realm this Kingdome of England is an absolute Empire and Monarchy consisting of one head which is the King and of a body politick compact and compounded of many and almost infinite several and yet well agreeing Members All which the law divideth into two several parts that is to say the Clergy and the Laity both of them next and immediately under God subject and obedient to the head Also the Kingly head of this politick body is instituted and furnished with plenary and intire power prerogative and jurisdiction to render justice and right to every part and member of this body of what estate degree or calling soever in all causes Ecclesiastical or Temporal otherwise he should not be a head of the whole body Now he that looketh upon these Authorities and yet saith that the King is not above both Parliament and people nor hath soveraign power over them will likewise look upon the sun in the Heavens and yet say that it is not above but below the earth and when he is in the midst of the sea say that there are no waters in the world If then the King hath the supreme power over Parliament and people as most certainly he hath how then could the Parliament or people much lesse sixty of them question or judge their King For no man can deny but that the greater power ought to correct and judge the lesser not the lesser the greater How could they did I say Why vi armis by violence and injury not by law So may I go and murther the King of Spain or the King of France and then tell them that their people have the supreme power over them The case is all one only these Rebels murthered their natural Father and King to whom nature and the Lawes of God and man had made them subjects but I should murther a forein King whom I ought not to touch he being the Lords annointed It is easie to prove the Soveraignty of the Kings of England by their Stiles unlesse our anti-monarchical Statists will say they nick named themselves Their several stiles since the Conquest you may see in the first part of my Lord Coke's Institutes Fo. 27. Therefore I will not trouble you with a recital of them as for the styles before the Conquest take one for all which you may find in the Preface of Co. li. 4. and in Davis his Irish reports Fo. 60. In a Charter made by Edgar one of the Saxon Monarchs of England before the Danish Kings viz. Altitonantis dei largiflua clementia qui est Rex Regum dominus dominantium Ego Edgarus Anglorum Basileus omniumque rerum Insularum Oceani quae Britanniam circumjacent cunctarumque Nationum quae infra eam includuntuâ— Imperator et dominus Gratias ago ipsi Deo omnipotenti Regi meo qui meum imperium sic ampliavit exaltavit super Regum patrum meorum Qui licet Monarchiam totius Angliae adepti sunt a tempore Athelstani qui primus Regum Anglorum omnes Nationes quae Britanniam incolunt sibi armis subegit nullus tamen eorum ultra fines imperium suum dilatare agressus est mihi tamen concessit propitia Divinitas cum Anglorum imperio omnia regna Insularum Oceani cum suis ferocissimis regibus usque Norvegiam maximamque partem Hiberniae cum sua nobilissima Civitate de Dublina Anglorum regno subjugare quos etiam omnes meis imperiis colla subdare dei favente gratia coegi By which you may observe the first Conquest of Ireland and that the Kings of England are Emperours and Monarchs in their Kingdom constituted only by God the King of Kings and Lord of Lords not by the people And so did many other Kings of England stile themselves as for example Etheldredus totius Albionis Dei Providentia Imperator and Edredus Magnae Britanniae Monarcha c. But that our preposterous Commonwealths men might make themselves most ridiculous as well as impious in all things they would argue the King out of his Militia and have him to be their Defender yet they would take away his sword from him O Childish foppery What a Warriour without arms a General without souldiers why not aâ— well a Speaker without a mouth such Drollerâ— was never heard of in the world until the Infatuation of these infandous Republicans hatcht it Nay but there shall be a King over us cryed the Israelites that we also might be like all the Nations and that our King may judge us and go out before us and fight our battels 1 Sam. 8.19 Anâ— what should he fight without the Militia should the King be over the people judge them and go out before them to battel yet ought the people tâ— have power to array arm and muster the souldierâ— at their pleasure ought they to appoint whaâ— Officers and Commanders they thought fit surely no For he will saith Samuel verse 12.