with a sure foot Though King David was a man after Gods own heart yet could he not please the people for Absolom his own Son made a conspiracy against him and forced him to flye for his life But mark the end of this Traytor though the earth did not open her mouth and swallow him up yet the very Trees took vengeance and caught him up by the head so that he hung between heaven and earth as unworthy to go to heaven or to live upon the earth 11 Sam. 18.9 Then how dare these Pulpit Hunters blaspheme God and prophane his Word and Sanctuary so much as to preach that Rebellion is obedience nay a necessary duty commanded of God and a great means to carry on the work of Salvation inciting the people to cry out for justice accounting all things injustice unless that they have their wicked ends So Absolom did steal the hearts of the people who had controversies telling them that there was no man deputed of the King to hear them 11 Sam. 15.4 And Absolom said moreover O that I were made judge in the Land that every man which hath any sute or cause might come unto me and I would do them Justice A true Lecture of a Traytor for you shall never find Traytors without Law and Justice on their sides to colour their actions The King hath not deputed a man say they to distribute Justice He is popishly given and would bring into the Kingdome the popish Religion He infringeth your Charters breaketh the Laws and destroyeth your Rights and Liberties But O that we were made Judges in the Land how equally and impartially would we give justice to all men we would not take away your Charters nor encroach upon your Liberties The preservation of the Law and Religion is the only cause for which we take up arms But when with their charms and sorcery they have intoxicated the people got the hilt of the sword into their own hands and a power to do what they list then down goeth both Law and Religion and the King too like Jonas must be thrown down from the stern of Government to appease the tempest of the multitude And then and not untill then like the head of a Snail or a Tortoise out of it's shell not seen before doth appear their own cause and indeed the only cause for which they took up arms which is their own private interest and the destruction of the whole Kingdome with their own bodies and souls hereafter Hor. Suis ipsa Roma viribus ruit And Englands own Sword destroyeth poor England But let Traytors pretend what they will yet this is a Principle whose original is the Bible confirmed by our Saviour and the Apostles by all the Fathers of the Church and by all Christian people by all reason and Religion That Kings have the Supreme power over their people and consequently the people no power to resist them either to save their Laws Religion or for what other pretence soever For Rex si supra populum optimatesve agnoscat proprie non est Rex He cannot be a King which hath not the supreme authority and Soveraignty Divisum imperium cum Jove Caesar habet It is God and the King to whom Soveraignty belongeth the people are their Vassals and not sharers in so high a dignity Our Saviour alone was both God and Man and it is a thing impossible for the people to be both king and Subject too at one time But why should I seek stars to light the noon day or press that with arguments to be true to them who with their oaths have confirmed it for a truth swearing I William Lenthal do utterly testify and declare in my conscience that the Kings Highness is the only Supreme Governour of this Realm and all other his Highness Dominions and Countries aswell in all spiritual or Ecclesiastical things or Causes as Temporal And that no forein Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction Power Superiority Pre-eminence or Authority Ecclesiastical or Spâ—ritual within this Realm And therefore I do utterly renounce and forsake all forein Jurisdiction Powers Superiorities and Authorities and do promise that from henceforth I shall bear faith and true allegiance to the Kings Highnesse his heirs and lawfull Successors and to my power shall assist and defend all Jurisdictions Privileges Pre-eminences and authorities granted or belonging to the Kings Highnesse his heirs and Successors or united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of the Realm So help me God and by the Contents of this Book What greater exemplification confirmation or demonstration of the kings Soveraignty can there be than this Sacred Oath of Supremacy For this is the thing which the Lord hath commanded saith Moses Num. 30.1 2. If a man Vow a Vow unto the Lord or swear an Oath to binde his soul with a bond he shall not break his word he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth And is there any English-man so impudently wicked and prophane as presumptuously to break Gods Commandement break his own vows and impiously turn perjured Traytor vix ipse tantum vix adhuc credo malum scarce I even I who have seen it with my own eyes can yet hardly believe so great a villany can be perpetrated Haec facere Jason potuit Could the betrothed do this Heu pietas Heu prisca fides Alas the antient piety Alas the fidelity of old time Debuit ferro obvium Offerre pectus I would have dyed first Quid non mortalia pectora cogis Auri sacra fames What doth not gold more sacred to them than their oathes compel mortals to atchieve Vid. 1. Eli. cap. 1. That the Kings power is above the Law is demonstrated by reason and proved by authority In the beginning were no Laws but the Kings will and pleasure Adams absolute power The King can do no wrong It is better and more profitable that one King than many Tyrants do what they lift with us The King hath no Judge but God That place in learned Bracton which Bradshaw and others used as an authority to kill the King explained and their damnable opinion and false Commentary upon him confuted The King is bound to observe Gods Law yet absolute King That God not the people instituteth kings and that the House of Commons which is but the tail of the Parliament nor any whole Parliament can have power over the king or disinherit him HAving made it evidently manifest that the King hath the supreme power and Soveraignty over the people I will now ascend a step higher and make it as manifest that he hath the supreme power and Soveraignty over the Laws as well as over the people Quidvis facere id est regem esse saith Salustius To do what one will is to be a King Cui quod libet licet Qui legibus solutus est Qui leges dat non accipit proiude qui omnes judicat a nemine
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
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.
Thou hast let fall a Snake out of thy hands take heed thou take it not up again O happy loss whereby thou hast saved thy soul vengeance belongeth unto God Forgiveness unto thee if thou intendest to be forgiven From this lost occasion take occasion never to have such an occasion of revenge to lose Hath thy friend forsaken thee Better he forsake thee than thee him for then thou hadst been guilty of his fault The loss of his friendship perhaps may make thee seek after Gods friendship which if thou finde thou hast made a good exchange Do thy people hate thee their Soveraign This beast is prompt to injury and slow to duty The Commons love is light and their hatred heavy There is nothing more forcible than the multitude of fools whereas publique fury pricketh forth the rage of every private person and the rage of every private person kindleth the publique frantickness and one of them enforceth another Beware there is nothing more dangerous than to fall into their hands whose will standeth for law and headlong outrage for discretion Art thou contemned Inferiours contemn their superiours thinking by casting dirt upon them they beautify themselves and some men have no other way to patch up their own credits than by picking holes in the credit of others If it be justly thou hast cause I confess to be sorry notwithstanding thou must endure it but if unjustly thou mayst laugh at it For there is nothing more ridiculous nor that hapneth more commonly than for a wise man to be contemned of mad men Dost thou complain that promisses made unto thee are late in performance words are cheaper than deeds Hence learn punctually to perform thy promisses to others nothing more debaseth a gift than an hard graunt and a slow performance bis dat qui cito dat Art thou subject to a Tyrant Thou fearest one he fears many God suffereth him like Pharaoh to scourge thee for thy instruction but for his perdition when he hath done he will burn the rod. Iniqua nunquam regna perpetuo manent Hast thou an unruly proud scholar Pride is an enemy to learning Whip out his arrogance o◠else for wit there will be no entrance If thou art not able to remove his pride from him remove him from thee Hale in thy sayles and go to shore Thou nourishest up a Serpent and tillest a venemous plant yea thy utter enemy Dost thou suffer an hard Father A hard Father maketh a soft and gentle Son correction is thy profit and chiding is thy gain remember that he is thy Father and thou art his Son It is his duty to chastise thee and thy duty to obey him he that spareth the rod spilleth the child Hast thou a rebellious Son If thou wast the cause thank thy self If thou wast his pattern consider what thy Father suffered by thee Amend him if thou canst if not love him because he is thy Son If not for that cause then for that he is a man if thou canst not love him pitty him as severity belongeth to a Father even so doth compassion Hast thou a malapert wife thou hast an evil thing Chastise her if chastisement will avail but if it be in vain arm thy self with patience and endeavour to love her There is nothing more comfortable than to do that willingly to which one is constrained levius fit patientia Quicquid corrigi est nefas Hath thy dying Mother forsaken thee She hath not forsaken thee but is gone before thee Thou hast yet another Mother who will not forsake thee if thou wouldest from the first thou canst and unto the second shalt thou return The first gave thee house roomth the space of a few months the other shall give thee lodging the space of many years the one of these gave thee thy body the other shall take it away but as from the first so from the second shalt thou arise Dost thou weep for the death of thy son If thou wouldest have wept at his death thou shoulst also have wept at his birth for then he began to dye but now he hath done Thou knewest thou shouldest get a mortal Son and dost thou now repent it he stept before thee happy wert thou if thou hadst stept before him Is thy friend dead bury him in thy remembrance and so shall he live with thee for ever O happy friendship which continued untill the end Hadst thou lost him by any other means than by death then hadst thou not lost a friend but a false opinion of friendship Dost thou mourn because thou didst narrowly escape shipwrack Rejoyce rather that thou didst escape and hereafter since thou art an earthly creature learn to keep the earth and rather to affect Heaven than the Sea though thou dost suffer shipwrack both of thy body and goods in thy voyage to Heaven yet if thy sould do safely arrive thou shalt have no cause to mourn Did thy harvest miss and thy land lye barren one year Let the barrenness of thy land put thee in minde of the barrenness of thy soul if thou sowest but one seed and reapest not ten fold for it thou mournest God soweth much and reapeth nothing what shall he do It is the plenty of thy fins which causeth the barrenness of thy land Dost thou dwell in a narrow little house great Princes have been born in small cottages thy heavenly Soul dwelleth in a little house of clay think upon the narrowness of thy grave and thy house will seem very large Art thou shut up in an unworthy prison death will set thee free and we are all Prisoners till then· Better is an unworthy prison than unworthy liberty and happier is the innocent prisoner than the corrupt Judge who put him there Dost thou fear thou shalt lose the victory thou art half conquered already fear is always an evil guest of the minde but a much more worse companion in warr There is no greater incouragement to an army than a fearful enemy Hast thou lost a Tyranny O happy loss O happy people where Tyrants are dismounted and Thrones lawfully established Prosperity enters when Tyranny hath it's Exit It is a burden to the Commonwealth most grievous to the Tyrants dangerous to no good man profitable hurtful to many odious unto all men and comfortable only in it's brevity for violenta nemo imperia continuit diu Have thy subjects betrayd thee Not subjects but Rebels They have undone themselves by doing thee out of thy Kingdom They have betrayed thee but cast away themselves pricked thee but they are wounded and in spoiling thee have slain themselves For perchance thou hast lost thy Kingdome or thy wealth but they have lost their souls their fame the quietness of Conscience and the company of all good men The Sun shineth not upon a more wicked thing than is a Traytor whose filthyness is such that they which need his craft abhorre the craftesman and others which would be notorious in other sins shunne
as to take upon them a power to depose and powr out the sacred blood of their lawfull Soveraign Yet is there no such power in rerum natura It is the off-pring of the Devil The cloak Sanctuary and refuge of Treason Rebellion and Tyranny to blinde the people taking advantage of their ignorance and lead them hood-winckt into everlasting destruction unless the God of mercy prevent not With this new upstart Doctrine have our Apochryphal Dogmatists in England led the rascal rabble of the people about like a Dog in a string buzzing in their ears that the Monarchy of England is composed of three kinds of Commonwealths and that the Parliament hath the form of an Aristocracy the three estates of a Democracy and the King to represent the state of a Monarchy which is an opinion not only false absurd fond foolish and impossible but also worthy of the most severe punishment For it is high treason to make the Subject equal with the King in authority and power or to joyn them as Companions in the Soveraignty For the power of a Soveraign Prince is nothing diminished by his Parliament but rather much more thereby manifested The Majesty of a Prince consists in the obedience of his Subjects and where is the obedience of the Subjects more manifested then in his Parliament where the Lords and Commons the Nobility and Comminalty and all his Subjects from the highest Cedar to the lowest Shrub with bended knees and bare heads do cast down themselves at his feet and do homage and reverence unto his Majesty Humbly offering unto him their requests which he at his pleasure receiveth or admiteth So that it plainly appeareth that if the Parliament be not extravagant and leap over the bounds limited by the laws of God and our Realm of England the majesty and authority of our Soveraign is not decreased by the assembly of Parliament but rather augmented and increased For the Peers cannot assume Aristocracy nor the Commons Democracy without violation of their Oaths with which they are tyed in obedience to their Soveraign as well as with the Laws Indeed our Prince doth distribute places of command Magistracy and preferments to all his Subjects indifferently and so the Government is in a manner tempered with Democracy But yet notwithstanding the State doth continue a pure and simple Monarchy because all authority floweth and is derived from the King and the Soveraignty doth still continue in him as the fountain from whence those streams of power run and the Parliament is so far from sharing in this Soveraignty that the whole current of our acts of Parliament acknowledge the King to be the only Soveraign stiling him Our Soveraign Lord the King And the Parliament 25 H. 8. saith This your Graces Realm recognizing no superior under God but your Grace c. And the Parliament 16 Rich. 2.5 affirmeth the Crown of England to have been so free at all times that it hath been in no earthly subjection but immediately to God in all things touching the Regality of the said Crown and to none other And without doubt these Parliaments and many others had as much might and right though not so much Knavery as our Anabaptists and Puritans and other Sectaries have now who pretend that the Government originally proceedeth and habitually resideth in the people but is cumulatively and communicatively derived from them unto the King and therefore the people not denuding themselves of their first interest but still retaining the same in the collective body that is to say in themselves suppletive if the King in their Judgement be defective in the administration or neglect the performance of his duty may question their King for his misgovernment dethrone him if they see cause and resuming the Collated power into their own hands again may transfer it to any other whom they please These men would make themselves extraordinary wise or else our Ancestors extraordinary fools for surely if there had been such a power residing in the people as these men blab of it would have been preached up before these new-lights ever saw the light some busie-head like themselves would have awakened it and not let it sleep so long But it is impossible and a meer foppery to think that such a power should be for suppose that the people had at first Elected their Governour and gave him Soveraignty over them could they with justice and equity dethrone him again Surely no. For sive electione sive postulatione vel successione vel belli jure princeps fiat Principi tamen facto Divinitus potestas adest Let the King be made by election lot succession or conquest yet being he is a King he hath Divine power And therefore they have no power to take away that which God hath given The Conceit of a mixed Monarchy that the supreme power may be equally distributed into two or three sorts of Governours is meerly vain and frivolous because the supreme power being but one must be placed in one sort of Governors either only in Monarchy or only in Aristocracy or only in Democracy Our Parliaments of England never until now claimed either Aristocracy or Democracy Therefore as hitherto it hath been granted so the Government must of necessity still be Monarchical And the gracious Concessions of our Soveraign not to make Laws without a Parliament do not make the Parliament sharer or his equal in the Soveraignty because as I shewed before the Parliament hath no power but what is derived from the King His limitation of his Prerogative doth no way diminish his Supremacy God himself who is most absolute may notwithstanding limit himself and his power as he doth when he promises and sweareth that he will not fail David and that the unrepentant Rebels should never enter into his rest so a man that yieldeth himself to be bound hath his strength restrained but not lessened neither is any of it transferred to them who bound him So our Soveraign doth limit his power in some points of his administration and yet this limitation neither transferreth any power of Soveraignty unto the Parliament nor denyeth the Monarchy to be absolute nor admitteth of any resistance against him Monarchy is either Lordly or Royal. Adam proved to be the first King and made by God in Paradise not by the people All Kings are made by God The Son hath more right and it is more pleasing to God for him to murther his Father the Wife her Husband and the Servant his Master than it is for the people to kill their King Though in truth he be wicked The Kings institution and authority declared by Divine and Humane Writers The Horrible Labyrinth of sins which Regicides plunge into with their guilt The most famous Nations in the World have and do live under Monarchy Englands glory and love to Kings in times past and her Apostacy in times present Pater familias were petite Kings and how little Kingdoms grew great Kingdoms The Kings power is
without arbitrary power most men of a late edition allow it in Aristocracy and Democracy Why then not in Monarchy If it be Tyranny for one man to govern according to his will Why should it not be far greater Tyranny for a multitude of men to govern how they please without being accountable or restrained by Law But though silent leges inter arma Yet Rex est viva Lex as our books say The king is a living Law Indigna digna habenda sunt Rex quae facit Those things which are unlawfull for the subject are lawfull for the king to do Imperatorem non esse subjectum legibus qui habet in potestate alias leges ferre saith B. Augustine The king cannot be subject to the Laws because he hath power to make other Laws What then after he hath established a Law That his subjects shall quietly injoy their estates may the king legally without offending God take away their estates and break that Law Because his will is a Law I answer he may But distinguenda sunt tempora causae The King hath a Conscience aswell as another man which must be ruled according to Gods Law and Equity otherwise God to whom vengeance only belongeth will judge him It is lawful for the king ad supplendam reipub necessitatem supportandam regiam majestatem to supply the necessity of State and to support his Royal Majesty notwithstanding any former Law to take away the estates of his subjects without their leave and that legally too because in that case his will makes a Law And therefore doth the common Law of England allow him many prerogatives which to explain would require a volume of it self and are very copiously in our Law books demonstrated But the summe of them is The king upon just cause may do what he please both with his subjects and their estates and no body is to be judge whether that cause be just or no and take vengeance but only God his own conscience If it be unjust Habet Deum Judicem Conscientiae ultorem injustitiae He hath God the Judge of his conscience and the Revenger of his injustice And satis sufficit ei ad paenam quod Dominum expectet ultorem It is punishment enough for him to think that God will take vengeance on him saith Bracton doth Bracton say so Why there are some a amongst us who make Bracton the only instrument and authority to kill kings But to vindicate the Law and Reverend Bracton I will make bold to tell them for veritas audentes facit truth makes a man bold that they belye Bracton and scandal the Law and their profession And that it may appear it is not my opinion only I will recite that warrant out of Braston li. 2. c. 16. fol. 34. which they build upon and the answer to it of the Lord Bishop of Osory a man worthy of eternal renown both for his Law Learning and Religion for saith he Yet because this point is of such great concernment and the chiefest Argument they have out of Bracton is that he saith Rex habet superiorem legem curiam suam Comites Barones quia Comites Dicuntur quasi socii Regis qui habet socium habet Magistrum ideo si Rex fuerit sine fraeno id est sine lege debent ei fraenum ponere nisi ipsimet fuerunt cum rege sine fraeno And all this makes just nothing in the World for them if they had the honesty or the learning to understand it right For what is above the King the Law and the Court of Earls and Barons But how are they above him as the Preacher is above the King when he Preacheth unto him or the Physician when he gives him Physick or the Pilot when he sayleth by Sea that is quo ad rationem consulendi non cogendi they have superioritatem directivam non coactivam For so the teacher is above him that is taught and the Counseller above him that is counselled that is by way of advice but not by way of command And to shew you that this is Bractons true meaning I pray you consider his words Comites dicuntur quasi socii they are as fellows or Peers not simply but quasi And if they were simply so yet they are but Socii not superiours And what can Socii do not command For par in parem non habet potestatem that is praecipiendi otherwise you must confess habet potestatem consulendi Therefore Bracton adds qui habet Socium habet Magistrum that is a Teacher not a Commander and to make this yet more plain he adds si Rex fuerit sine sraeno id est sine lege If the King be without a bridle that is saith he lest you should mistake what he means by the bridle and think he means force and arms the Law they ought to put this bridle unto him that is to press him with this Law and still to shew him his duty even as we do both to King and people saying this is the Law this should bridle you but here is not a word of commanding much less of forcing the King not a word of superiority nor yet simply of equality And therefore I must say hoc argumentum nihil ad rhombum And these do abuse every Author So much the Bishop and I think this answer will satisfy every reasonable man And I add further that it would be very strange that Bracton should say in this place that the King hath a Superiour when he denyes it in several other places of his book and presseth it with arguments that he hath not saying Omnis quidem sub eo ipse sub nullo nisi tantum sub Deo All are under the King and the King under none but God Rex non habet superiorem nisi Deum The King hath no superiour but God Nemo quidem de factis suis praesumat disputare multo fortius contra factum suum venire Let no man presume to dispute against the Kings actions much less withstand his actions with force and arms and rebel against him fol. 6. Ipse autem Rex non debet esse sub homine sed sub Deo The King is under none but God Exercere Rex debet potestatem sicut Dei vicarius in terra Minister quia ea potestas solius Dei est The King ought to exercise power as the Vicar and Minister of God because he receiveth his power from God only Therefore they who would fain have Bracton say that the Law and the people are the Kings Superiours would make him as uncertain as themselves and do very much abuse that venerable Author and no man can finde so much as scintilla legis a spark of Law in all the Law books that ever the People or Law were above the king so as to punish him and doubtless if there had been any such thing the learned Lawyers would have reported it to posterity And A
But these men with their practice most wickedly affirm it King Henry the 7 â— h and many Burgesses and Knights of the Counties being first attainted by Act of Parliament of high Treason against Richard the 3d. The question was in H. the 7 ths Parliament How this Act of Attainder should be reversed and made void It was resolved by all the Judges That those Knights and Burgesses which were attainted should not sit in the House when the Act of Attainder was to â—e reversed But when that Act was reversed then they might come again and sit in Parliament But as for the King it was unanimously agreed and resolved by all the said Judges that ipso facto when he took upon him to be King that he was a person able and discharged of the Attainder for said they the King hath power in himself to enable himself without a Parliament And an Act for the reversal of the Attainder is not at all necessary See 1 H. 7.4 Com. 238. Parliament B. 37. and 105. In which case you may see the power of a King of a King that was attainted of the greatest offence viz. High Treason Here likewise you may view the power of a Parliament of a Parliament who had asmuch right to dethrone their King as ever the long Parliament or any other had Here likewise you may hear the voyce of the Law of the Common law not since repealed by any subsequent Statute But as it was then so it ought to be now the Resolution of all the Judges in England That the King hath power to take pardon and ought not to crave pardon of the people for his offences The Crown once gained taketh away all defect is the Sentence of the Law and an Adage amongst all honest Lawyers If the people had the Supreme power why was not the Attainder of the King in this precedent case reversed by Act of Parliament as were the Attainders of the other Members If the King be but an Officer of trust deputed by the people and receiveth his power from them Why was not the King in this case freed from his offence by the people What would they entrust a person attainted of so great an offence as high Treason with the highest place in the Common-wealth And yet not permit others guilty and attainted of the same offence not so much as to fit and Act as Members of the Parliament without they were first purged of their offence It doth not stand with reason that the highest Offender should exercise the highest office And doubtless if the people had had power the Parliament would have cleared King H. the 7th from his crime before he should have Officiated his Office of Kingship But that Parliament well knew that the feet were not higher than the head and that the Inferiour Members could not impose Laws on the King their Soveraign They knew with Bracton that the King Parem non habet in Regno suo had not in his Kingdom any single man or the people his equal Therefore since it is the Law of the land Magna Charta 29. That no mâ—n shall be judged but by his Peers and being the King hath no Peer or Peers in his Dominions They resolved not to judge their King nor to commit so great a vanity as to reverse the Attainder For can a King be attainted or can the people who have no authority but what they have from him have authority to correct and revise their King O foolish imagination Horac Caelo tonantem credidimus Jovem Regnare praesens Divus habebitur Augustus adjectis Britaunis Imperio Jove governs Heaven with his Nod King Charles he is the earthly God Great Britain being his lawfull Inheritance Our King Augustus high and mighty Solus Princeps qui est Monarcha Imperator in Regno suo Davis Irish Rep. fo 60. Our only Prince who is both Monarch and Emperor in his kingdom hath only authority and the only right to govern the Britains who though long since have been accounted Rigidi hospitibus feri rigid and cruel to strangers yet that they should ever so much degenerate as to be rigid and cruel to their own natural King and kill their natural Soveraign is such a wonder and murther that never entred into the thoughts of former ages and will be a bugbear and scar-crow to all succeeding generations for by robbing their King of his Crown and Life they have robbed the Turk of his cruelty Judas of his treachery and all the Devils of their malicious wickedness For the Turks cruelty Judas his perfidious treachery and the Devils malicious villanies do all conjoyn to make up and center in an English Rebel one of those beasts who like the Enemies of King David Psal 102.8 Have sworn together against their King are mad upon him and revile him all the day long Yet that they may seem religious even when they commit Sacrilege they like the Devil when he tempted our Saviour taking him up into an exceeding high mountain and shewing him all the kingdoms in the world and the glory of them saying unto him All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me Mat. 4.9 will promise fairly and as if they were resolved diametrically to oppose St. Peters Doctrin who commands them 1 Pet. 2.16 Not to use liberty for a cloak of maliciousness they use the liberty of the people as a Wolf doth the Lambs skin to destroy poor Lambs as the only cloak and cover for all their malicious wicked prodigious and damnable actions For if you ask them for what cause did they murder the King Their answer is for the liberty of the people For what cause do they make themselves Governours and Lords and Masters over all that we have For the liberty of the people For what cause do they subvert the Laws expell and throw down the orderly and holy Clergie and all Religion with them For the liberty of the people For what cause do they enslave the whole Nation For the liberty of the people Nay these men are so well furnished with godly pretences and wicked intentions that even whilst they cut the peoples throats they make them believe they give them a blessing And as the man who swore that the Coat of the true owner was another mans only because he might have the use of it himself So these men have the impudence to swear though not without perjury that the Supreme power is in the people only because they might throw down our royal Government with all goodnesse with it and use that Supreme power themselves which they protest is in the people O delusive Mountebanks Was there ever such a jugling deceit acted by any Jugglers or Quacksalvers in the world Surely there was not And did not every one nay they themselves very well know the truth of what I have said I might easily make it clear and evident even to the blind with multitudes of Examples For
restored to his own and sit Judge amongst us It was King Charles the first who granted that the burthen of excise should not be laid on the shoulders of his Subjects but the Rebels with their intollerable and monstrous Excises new found impositions and other unspeakable grievances have beggered the Subjects and undone the whole Kingdome both in their Estates and Reputation To be short whatsoever they voted unlawfull for the King to do they have done that and ten thousand times worse so that though we want not bodies to feel the miseries which they have brought upon us yet we want tongues to expresse the wofulnesse of our Condition and the incomparable wickedness of these Traytors And what greater pretence have they had for their actions than to say that the King was not the Supreme Governour over his Subjects A contradiction in it self but we will proceed further to manifest their error Sir Thomas Smith in his common-wealth of England saith cap. 9. By old and antient Histories that I have read I do not understand that our Nation hath used any other general Authority in this Realm neither Aristocratical nor Democratical out only the royal Kingly Majesty who held of God to himself by his Sword his People Crown acknowledging no Prince on Earth his Superiour and so it is kept holden at this day which truth is sufficiently warranted in our Law-Books The state of our Kingdome saith Sir Edward Cook li. 4. Ep. ad lectorem is Monarchical from the beginning by right of inheritance hath been successive which is the most absolute and perfect form of Government excluding Interregnum and with it infinite inconveniences the Maxim of the common Law being Regem Angliae nunquam mori That the King of England never dyeth then doubtlesse the Rebels could not by Law mortifie both the natural and politique capacity of the King And in Calvins case li. 7. The weightiest case that ever was argued in any Court than which case according to my Lord Cokes observation never any case was adjudged with greater concordance and lesse variety of opinions and that which never fell out in any doubtfull case no one opinion in all our books is against that judgment In this case it was resolved amongst other things Fo. 4. c. 1. That the People of England c. were the Subjects of the King viz. their Soveraign liege Lord King James 2. That Ligeance or obedience of the Subject to the Soveraign is due by the Law of Nature 3. That this Law of Nature is part of the Laws of England 4. That the Law of Nature was before any judicial or municipal Law in the world 5. That the Law of Nature is immutable and cannot be changed From which resolutions we may conclude that the Subjects of the King of England unlesse they like God Almighty could alter the Law of Nature They could not alter their obedience and subjection to their Soveraign Lord King Charles For if by the Law of Nature obedience from them was due to the natural body as I shall further prove of King Charles and if the Law of Nature is immutable as most certainly it is Bracton lib. 1 ca. 5. D. Stu. ca. 5. 6. then could not they have any cause whatsoever as altering their Religion banishing or killing of them a sufficient ground for them to take up arms against him and put him to death For by this they go about to change the Law of Nature which is impossible for mortals to do But say some by the Law of Nature we may defend our selves and therefore leavy war against the King for our own defence I answer that by the Law of Nature we are bound to defend our selves yet must we use no unlawfull means for our defence for the Subjects to levy war against their Soveraign is forbidden both by the Laws of God and Nature Therefore vain and foolish is that excuse as well as all others which the Rebels make use of to defend their Rebellion Ligeance is a true and faithfull obedience of the Subject due to his Soveraign It is an obligation upon all Subjects to take part with their Liege Lord against all men living to aid and assist him with their bodies and minds with their advice and power not toft li up their arms against him nor to support in any way those who oppose him This ligeance and obedience is an incident inseparable to every Subject of England and in our Law-books and many Acts of Parliament as in 34 H. 8. cap. 1. 35 H. 8. cap. 3 c. The King is called the liege Lord of his Subjects and the people his liege subjects Every Subject of England taketh the Oath of ligeance which is only due unto the King yet doth not the ligeance of the Subject to the King begin at the taking of this Oath at the Leet For as it was resolved in Calvins Case so soon as the Subject is born he oweth by birth-right ligeance and obedience to his Soveraign Lord the King Because ligeance faith and obedience of the Subject to the Soveraign was by the Law of Nature written with the Finger of God in the Heart of Man before any municipal or judicial Laws were made 1. For that Moses was the first Reporter or writer of Law in the World yet government and subjection was long before Moses 2. For that it had been in vain to have prescribed laws to any but to such as ought obedience faith and ligeance before in respect whereof they were bound to obey and observe them Frustra enim feruntur leges nisi subditis obedientibus You may read likewise in Calvins Case That the King of England hath his title to the Crown by inherent birth-right by descent from the blood royal from God Nature and the Law and therefore not by way of trust from the two Houses of Parliament or from the People Neither is his Coronation any part of his Title but only an ornament and solemniation of the royal descent For it was then resolved that the title of King James was by dessent and that by Queen Elizabeths death the Crown and Kingdom of England descended to his Majesty and he was fully and absolutely thereby King without any essential ceremony or act to be done Ex post facto So in the first year of the same Kings reign before his Majesties Coronation Watson and Clarke seminary Priests and others were of opinion that his Majesty was no compleat and absolute King before his Coronation but that Coronation did adde perfection to the descent and therefore observe saith my Lord Cook their damnable and damned consequent that they by strength and power might before his Coronation take him and his royal Issue into their possession keep him prisoner in the Tower remove such Counsellors and great Officers as pleased them and constitute others in their places c. and that these and others of like nature could not be treason against
hath no Peer in his Kingdome for so he should lose his Empire since Peers or Equals have no command over one another much more then ought he not to have a superiour or mightier for so he should be inferiour to those who are subject to him and inferiours cannot be equal to superiours Now saith Mr. Prynne according to the old Jesuitical distinction The meaning of Bracton is That the King is above every one of his subjects and hath no Peer nor superiour if they be taken particularly and distributively as single men but if we take them collectively in Parliament as they are one body and represent the whole Kingdome then the Subjects are above the King and may yea ought to restrain and question his actions his Male-administrations if their be just cause By which meaning of Bracton as he calleth it but in truth only his own Mr. Prynne would prove the Parliament to have the Soveraign power over the King and Kingdome Truly I think the very recital of what Bracton hath written and what Mr. Prynne writeth is Bracton's meaning is enough to convince and make appear even to the blind that Mr. Prynne is worse than a false Commentator and an absurd deceiver But howsoever I will examine them and let the world judge how they agree The King hath no Peer in his Kingdome saith Bracton But the Parliament and people the Kings Subjects are in his Kingdome Ergo neither the Parliament nor people collectively or distributively are the Kings Peer or equal But why hath the King no Peer in his Kingdome Because then he should lose his Empire So he should if the Parliament was his Peer and Bracton did never intend that the King should lose his Empire for he saith the King ought by no meanes to have a superiour or mightier Mr. Prynne saith he ought by all meanes to have the Parliament his superiour and mightier But wherefore ought not the King to have a Superiour because saith Bracton so he should be inferiour to those who are subject to him The Parliament and People confess themselves to be the Kings Subjects yet Mr. Prynn would have them to be the Kings Superiour Expressly against Bractons words and meaning and a meer nonsensical Contradiction And the reason why Mr. Prynne saith Bracton did only mean that any single man was not the Kings Superiour or Equal not the Parliament is because Bracton saith Rex non habet parem nec Superiorem in regno suo seing Parem and Superiorem in the singular number I pray what Latine would Mr. Prynne have Bracton speak could he have expressed himself better and too Mr. Prynne pretendeth the Parliament to be only the Kings Superiour not Superiours Therefore doth not the singular number fully answer Mr. Prynne in all points but Mr. Prynne may hear Bracton confute him in the plural number too if he please as I have already shewed saying Rex habet potestatem et jurisdictionem super omnes qui in regno suo sunt and again Potentia vero omnes fibi subditos praecellet Where is Mr. Prynns almighty Parliament now Bracton telleth him if they be in the Kings Dominions that the King hath power over and above them and Mr. Prynne must find out some Utopia for them in the air to inhabit before he can prove either by Law or Gospel that the Parliament is above of hath Soveraign power over the King Ipse autem Rex non debet esse sub homine sed sub Deo et sub Lege quia Lex facit Regem saith Bracton but the King himself ought to be under the Parliament saith Mr. Prynne and why not under the women for if Mr. Prynne will say that the Parliament is not comprehended in the word Homine so likewise may he say that neither are women Bracton saith that the King ought to be under none but God and unless Mr. Prynne can make his Parliament a God Almighty he can never make out that the King is under it For according to Bractons Doctrine the King is under none but God Omnis quidem sub rege et ipse sub nullo nisi tantum sub Deo Which is sufficient testimony that the King is under no mortal man or men yet he is sub Lege under the Law because the Law maketh the King Ergo saith Mr. Prynne The Parliament maketh the King and Governeth him with the Laws which the Parliament first made O Grand Imposture Can any man but Mr. Prynne forge such a consequence Rex solutus a Legibus quò ad vim coactivam subditus est legibus quo ad vim directivam propria voluntate The King indeed is under the Law because he will be ruled by the Law but if he will not no man hath power to compel or punish him according to the opinion of Thomas Aquinas The King is free from the Coercive power of the Law but he may be subject to its directive power yet according to his own will and inclination that is God can only compell and command him but the Law and his Courts may direct and advise him Every honest man is bound to perform and fulfill his word and the King is so much under and subject to the Laws which he maketh that he will perform and fulfill them but if not Dominum expectet ultorem which is the only punishment for Kings And satis sufficit that is enough too according to Reverend Bracton But that the Parliament therfore maketh the King and may question his actions according to Mr. Prynns Sophistry is a meer non sequitur The Law indeed maketh the King for he hath a legal Title to his Crown he is made our King by the Law of God and the Law of the Kingdom which cannot be without a King but that the Law of the Parliament or that the Law by the Parliament made the King is such a Chimaera that is no where to be found but in Mr. Prynnes unsetled brain For the King of England was made a long time before Parliaments were invented or thought on The King indeed first made Parliaments and gave them their being who now have unmade their King and took away his living O ungrateful Servants who rob their Master O ungracious Children who murther their Father which begot them So much for Mr. Prynne and his pestilent book the prodigious offspring of a revengeful head whom I would not have mentioned but to vindicate the truth for which I will both live and dye One thing Reader I recommend to thee worthy of the observation of all Christians and as a just judgement of the Almighty God Psal 33.10 who bringeth the Counsel of the Heathen to nought and maketh the devices of the people of none effect Which is that Mr. Prynne who was the only Champion to fight against the truth with his pen as the Rebels did with their Swords to maintain and applaud the long Parliament in their Treason and Rebellion against their Soveraign was afterwards ill intreated by his
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