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A75357 Anglia liberata, or, The rights of the people of England, maintained against the pretences of the Scotish King, as they are set forth in an Answer to the Lords Ambassadors propositions of England. Which ansvver was delivered into the Great Assembly of the United Provinces at the Hague, by one Mac-Donnel, who entitles himself Resident for his Majesty, &c. June 28/18 1651: and is here published according to the Dutch copy. Whereto is added a translation of certain animadversions upon the answer of Mac-Donnel. Written by an ingenious Dutch-man. As also an additional reply to all the pretended arguments, insinuations and slanders, set forth in the said Scotish answer written a while since by a private pen, and now presented to the publick. MacDonnell, William, Sir.; Ingenious Dutch-man. 1651 (1651) Wing A3178; Thomason E643_7; ESTC R18922 48,537 72

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concluded with a factious Commonalty here and that they might at pleasure disturb the Republick and turn matters upside down what an Anarchy and wofull confusion would ensue as now alas we see too plainly followes in England Truly if that people had been so inclined and governed as they now are by those who Regni causa have violated the rights and to make purchase of the Lords Vineyards have murthered him and oppose with their utmost power and malice the enthronement of his lawfull Heire their undoubted Soveraigne the Low Countries should not have obtained such reall friendship and advantage from them Besides that the now prevailing Party is not the hundreth part of the people in England in comparison of those both of the Clergie Nobility Gentry and Commons who cordially adhere to the Kings just interest and passionatly groan to be delivered from the continued oppressions of those cruell Taskmasters whose little finger lies heavier upon them then all their Kings whole loins And an eminent Member of the late House of Commons formerly a sufferer in his Memento affirms that there is in the three Kingdomes ten thousand to one who firmly and affectionatly cleave to his Majesty In Kingdomes and Republicks as Polititians speak it is the very same people now as those that lived an hundred years agoe as likewise that it is the same ship although all the planks be renewed but if the Keel be destroyed and the form of Government and Fundamentall Lawes be utterly abolished non idem populus nec eadem navis it is not the same people nor the same ship Moreover by all proofs it is sufficiently known that the Predecessors of the now prevailing Party in England were then so mean and inconsiderable among the people that they were thought utterly uncapable of having the least hand in the former favours shewn to these States II. Trade and Traffique which they call the Common interest of a State are Juris Gentium common to all Nations consequently not to be carried on by Monopolies and dammage of a third party especially the eldest and sometime the most considerable allye of this Estate Amicitias faith Polybius it a institui par est ne qua vetustior amicitia societas violetur It is remarked by most of the Authors of the Netherlands History that their Lordships Predecessors upon a time being more moved by the Impositions of the Duke of Alva of the 10. and 100. penny respectivè then for the violence offered to Religion and therefore compared to the Gargasens who proferred their swine before their Saviour were the more severely punished by God And shall the High and Mighty States now hazard their religious and high esteem in the savour of those who in regard of Commerce inlarging of their limits and usurped power are big with such monstrous mysteries and of whom it was said long before their troubles Gens tacit is praegnaus arcanis ardua tentans Who derive their power and authority meerly from themselves as formerly hath been said in the dominion of the Chaldeans over the Iewes and of Cinna and Carbo amongst the Romans who in the time of Sylla made themselves Consuls without any Court election Violenta imperia saith one to Caesar sunt magis acerba quam diuturna The rather because no Nation under the Sun is so subject to a change as England even while they lived under their lawfull Soveraignes The Earle of Warwick called the Titular King in eleven days Edward the fourth in twenty Henry the seventh in one day as a Caesar veni vidi vici brought the English successively to their obedience Commerce and Traffique are plausible pretences but often accompanied with great jealousies especially betwixt neighbouring Republiques the which like Twins strugling for the primogeniture are in a continuall emulation for profit and preheminence And therefore compared to an Alluvie where the increase of one is the decrease of the other Insomuch that grave and judicious Statesmen have judged it would he more safe and profitable to these States that England continued a Monarchy then to be tumbled into a Common-wealth confirmed by a Prognostication of a person of credit with them living at London given out the 16 of October last alledging and applying with much confidence against the Vnited Provinces Ierem. 51. vers 13. III. Concerning the pretended conformity in Religion in the third place which under the blessed and glorious Government of Kings as a Palladium and Lamp did out-shine all other Nations is alas now become a Pandora out of which tanquam ex equo Trojano do issue so many monstrous Sects Heresies and Blasphemies and is consequently so deformed as being utterly destitute of Discipline and differing in most points of Doctrine that it is nothing like the Religion here professed nor indeed Religion it self A good Religion as an upright and lively faith issues forth into good Works insomuch that in the Primitive Church the Christians were discerned from the Infidels onely by their holy life according to the proverb Christiani non sunt Cassiani but alas how many not onely Cassii but also Albii and Nigri are now adayes to be seen witnesse besides the Treaties intituled Defensio pro Carolo Rege Vindiciae pro capite Regis Angliae Elenchus motuum Master Prinns Memento Theatrum Tragicum Vox Veritatis and others two Declarations also of the 18. of Ianuary 1648. long before that lamentable Catastrophe by divers Preachers and learned Divines in and about London subscribed by 126 of them mourning over and complaining of horrible and scandalous abuses as in the Church so in the Civill or rather Military Government and strongly refuting their flattering of themselves in their continued successe which may next be considered of IV. For as Solomon saith That there be just men to whom it happeneth sometime according to the work of the wicked So again there be wicked men to whom it happeneth according the work of the righteous Successes often are a punishment as sometimes given for a blessing where onely those are to be valued whose principall aim appeares to be the true advancement of Gods revealed will in his word which as it strictly commandeth obedience to Kings and those in authority under them so it doth severely punish sedition and rebellion against them not sparing the curse of condemnation to those who comply with and adhere unto them Neither hath the great Turk come far short of that undoubted blessing good successe the now prevailing party justifie their cause and measure its righteousnesse by though they may seem to disavow him Finally the resemblance made from the manner of the recovered liberty of both States to use the expression of a great personage is not more different then Mike and Ink both in regard of the ancient condition of the people on both sides and the way of attaining to it The Law Countrey men especially the Batavi have been reputed by all ancient Writers for a free people neither subject to the
yet most of their old Alliances and Contracts were renued still and retained in full force and vigour as well with the States and Princes of Italy as those of other Nations And as for the Hollanders though of late they boggled with us in the main yet they would gladly have renued so much of the old Treaties with the people of England as might have served their own turns not have ingaged them too far the reason why they kept off seems not to have been from any strength of Argument used by this Statizing Pretender but they had a stronger Argument of their own whose Premises and Conclusion lay a long time in Scotland from whence every Post they expected a resolution I shall close all with the testimony of that Learned Spanish Doctor Don Augustin de Hierro Atturney General of the Councel Royal in Spain c. produced by him in his late Charge against the Murtherers of Master Ashcam where insisting upon the point of Friendship betwixt England and Spain he proceeds thus That England saith he should be our Friend in statu quo nunc and that Peace should bee continued with her proceeds from right For Peace is not only made with the King but with the Kingdom also and though the first expires the last remains For put case that Peace be concluded with a Country without including the King either b● carelesness or some other accident yet the Peace stands good For so the Polish Magistrates answered the Emperour Ferdinand the second Faltando el Ray se conservan con el Reyno i. e. the King failing yet Peace is to be conserved with the kingdom So Bodin holds and urgeth a pregnant example to this purpose lib. de repub cap. 4. fol. 63. where he alledgeth the Answer which the Ambassadors of France made to Edw. the 4. King of England desiring aid from France against some rising subjects of his that had driven him out of possession and this desire he pressed by vertue of the League between them Which Answer was that the King of France could not help him in regard the confederations betwixt France and England were made betwixt the Kings and Kingdoms so that though King Edward was dispossessed therof yet the league amity remained stil with the kingd with the King Regnant Just so the Peace 'twixt the Kings and Kingdoms of Spain and England though Charles Stuart the King be wanting yet it may be kept intire with the Kingdom And his Majesty himself insinuates so much unto us continuing still his Ambassador in England For when a Peace is established 'twixt Kings and Kingdomes People Persons and Vassals though the King fail and the Kingdom receive a differing Form of Government yet the Peace holds good still because it aimed principally at the people and persons of both Nations and upon these terms the Peace was renued 'twixt Spain and England in the year 1630. as the French Mercury relates it The Result of all then out of the foregoing reasons testimonies and examples will be undeniably this that Contracts made betwixt States and Princes doe not relate singly and personally to themselves but are made Jure Populi in the behalf and for the good of the Community Though Governors and their Families may fail yet their Treaties are as eternal as the peoples interest which is their moving cause and their ultimate end And therefore as to our particular it must undeniably follow that those former Treaties made betwixt our Kings and the Vnited Provinces belong to us now of right if we please to claim or renue them having been ratified at first in respect only to the people of England No King can lay any claim of this nature but as he is an Officer of the people For that relation being once extinct there remains no Foundation for any future pretences CHAP. IV. THE two former Chapters being as the two Hinges whereupon hangs the main of the Controversie and having therein vindicated the principal points of the peoples interest in England our design in the next place is briefly to refute all the petty falshoods and insinuations which lie scattered here and there in the pretended Answer of our Scottish Pretender That which occurs in the first place is this where hee tells the States of the Vnited Provinces that the Predecessors of the present Governours in England were very inconsiderable in those days when the Treaties were made and that they had neither part nor participation in any of the favours and friendship afforded to the Netherlands This he saith by all circumstances may strongly be presumed A very strong presumption indeed it must needs be till he can name those Circumstances The Parliaments of England which were the Predecessours of our present Governours were not so considerable indeed as now they are and will be we shall easily grant because their glory and freedom was eclypsed by those unbounded Prerogatives which Kings and their House of Peers did usurp unto themselves over the Commons who naturally really and properly were to be esteemed the Parliament because they only sate and represented the people in their rights whereas the Lords sate only in their own rights or rather by vertue of that pretended right which Kings forgetting whose servants they are and for what end they were made had arrogated unto themselves in and over the people This was the reason why the Commons of England became more inconsiderable then by right they ought to have been Yet take them in their most inconsiderable state or in the lowest ebb of their Fortunes and we never see them so low but we find them admitted as partners in enacting of Laws and reputed as principal in granting Subsidies and other Supplies for the necessities and support of the Crown insomuch that no Aid-monies could be required of the people but by the Commons consent In Queen Elizabeth's time they were brought low enough as appears by her strange proceeding against Wentworth that was one of their Members which perhaps had not been so tamely taken from a Prince that had less influence upon their affections yet as low as they were the ancient Treaties betwixt Elizabeth and those Provinces were not made and renued nor were the favours and supplies both of men and money afforded unto that State but in the behalf of the Community out of the Purses of the Commons in whose name and right they were granted so that we leave the world to judge how nearly those Treaties did concern the the Commons and whether they being the undeniable Predecessors of the present Governours in England did not both partake and participate yea and were the Principall Party concerned in those tokens of favour and friendship which were then sont unto the Low-Country Provinces But to fright them from our friendship he tells them a strange Tale How big we are grown with monstrous mysteries of enlarging our Trade and Power 'T is more then probable that England in this new form will improve
Christ and the tenor fo his Gospel which teacheth us to gather Believers into Congregations by the power of the Word and not force men promiscuously into a pretended Church-relation by the power of the sword or commands and constitutions of any worldly Power This together with a prudent Toleration of different opinions is the present state of Religion in England so that whosoever takes a view of the practises of both Nations will easily grant a conformity of profession betwixt us and our neighbours of the Vnited Provinces He alledges farther It would be more safe and profitable for the States that England should continue a Monarchy than become a Republick for that the increase of England in a free State would be the decrease of the other See here O ye people of England what a Confession here is out of the mouth of the Common Enemy of the possibility of that increase both in wealth and honour which our Nation may expect in the settled Form of a Free State or Commonwealth And if so then by consequence it follows that all this stir for a Royal Family and Monarchy is not out of any respect to the increase of the publick weal but only to satisfie the ambition of a single Tyrant and his Followers And rather than not be so satisfied he here by the mouth of his Orator Mac-Donnel offers up the future interest and glory of England as a prey unto the Dutch in hope to allure them unto his party for the restoring of him into a Tyranny so that you see clearly it is a thirst of Dominion and Revenge not the people's benefit that transports him in all his undertakings It is here acknowledged by himself that his own restitution will be a means to keep England from growing richer and greater the fear whereof he useth as an argument to provoke the jealousie and emulation of Holland The inference therefore is natural and easie out of his own mouth that the interest of himself and family is inconsistent with the increase and interest of the English Nation In the next place he indeavors to darken the glory of God in our many wondrous successes saying they are no good argument to justifie a cause because the Turk hath had as great successes as any But what ever this Babler saith we cannot be so ignorant of the good hand of God upon us as to let those glorious works of Providence whereby he hath pleaded the Cause of this Parliament and Commonwealth pass under the common title of Fortune de la guerre The Lord having caried on this marvellous work for time and place with a concurrence of such remarkable circumstances that the very enemies have at length acknowledged it to be digitus Dei as did D. Hamilton before his death and others who saw the stretched out arm of God in the late defeat at Worcester We justifie not our cause by successes but only behold them as the effects of Gods mercy and goodness owning us in a just ingagement against the enemies of himself and people The Turks design was to propagate Tyranny in Christendom ours to pul it down His only to increase his own Dominion ours to exalt the Dominion of Jesus Christ What he did was by main strength multitudes and help of human policy What we have done hath been by a despised remnant inconsiderable both for knowledg number against all the wise and mighty men of this generation who to their power wisdom have had so many great advantages from time to time that the decision of every success in our behalf hath been so manifestly written with the finger of God that all must confess it could be no other hand but his that did it witness the great advantage the Enemy had of us at Naisby the miraculous sally at Dublin with the many glorious defeats that followed in Ireland the great deliverances wrought in 1648 when by a small army divided into two handfuls we with one part quieted South-Wales and vanquisht Hamiltons galiant army and with the other part suppressed the many numerous Insurrections in Kent Essex c. Witness also that glorious deliverance beyond all reason given last year at Dunbar when by a poor handful of sick men wearied out with watchings hunger and incessant marches in tedious weather at length impounded within a narrow neck of Land surrounded by the sea they did notwithstanding in the strength of God defeat the numerous Scottish Army it being accommodated with all necessaries and advantages and one of the best accomplisht armies that ever appeared in Scotland Add to-these omitting many other the late memorable defeat at Worcester attended with a series of many other wondrous successes and it is so much the more observable in regard of that miraculous power of God upon the heasts of the people fastning them to the Government in a most notable time of trial to the shameful confutation of this shameless Resident who had the impudence to affirm that not the hundreth part or as he saith a little after not the thousandth part of the people but do cordially adhere to the Royal Interest and passionatly groan to be delivered from the prevailing party in England as he is pleased to call the Parliament whereas all the time of the Scot's King being among us which was about 28 days courting and wooding the people with all manner of insinuations intreaties and pretences he was not owned by any considerable number of his old friends or his new-reconciled Enemies of the Presbyterian party From all which particulars what ever other men may deem we cannot but see the hand of God reached out unto us for the upholding of this Government in a peculiar manner contrary to all the expectations and reasonings os worldly wisdom Since the drying up of the red sea with the wonders that were wrought in Aegypt and in the Wilderness never have there been more glorious appearances of Gods presence than among his people in England And therefore none but a profane heart will presume so much to detract from the glory of these dispensations as to rank them among the ordinary passages of a permissive or Turkish Providence The last that we shall take notice of is one of the principall arguments that he useth to hold the Dutch to his young Master's party hinting unto them by way of insinuation that no Nation is so subject to change as England that the Earl of Warwick in 11 days Edw. 4. in 20 and Hen. 7. in 1 day successively subdued the English Nation T is true England hath received many a sudden change but never such a change as now Heretofore the poor people toiled themselvs in shifting one Tyrant out of the saddle to set up another but now they have driven out not only the Tyrant but Tyranny it self and cashiered not only a single King but all Kings for ever It is an easie matter for particulars to supplant one another in Government because the interest stands deposited in a single hand but when the whole frame of Government is altered from what it was and the interest of State lies diffused in the hands of the people it is almost impossible to alter it again without such a tract of time as may produce new dispositions and opportunities for the effecting a new alteration Besides it is very rarely observed in the whole course of History that ever Kingly Government was suddenly restored in any Country after it had been once cashiered by the people As for Robert Bruce his recovery of all Scotland 300 years ago out of the hands of the English you know it could not be effected as long as Edw. 1. lived but advantages being taken the infirmities debaucheries and civil broils of Edw. 2. the Scots made a shift to shake off the yoak wherein they were more beholding to that Prince's vanity than the valour and vertue of their own Nation And whereas he calls Sterlin the unconquered and fatall Bulwark of Scotland and tells us that there they stopt the current of the Roman Victories yet their own Historian Buchanan confesseth that both Edw. 1. and 2. were possest of Sterlin by force of arms and both their and our Historians will be able to relate in time to come how that the Commonwealth of England hath done more than Rome and made another Conquest not only of Sterlin but far beyond it which I dare be bold to second with this Omen That as Scotland's happiness will be promoted by a subjection to England so now it is the design of God for the better carrying on of his great work and the good of that people to bring them into an universal submission to the Laws and Government of the English Nation Nec sit Terris Vltima Thule FINIS
to rehearse them The Kings of Spain have been Earls of Holland and acknowledged no superiors now being freed from Spain there is none appearing that pretend any right to Holland Neverthelesse he was bound to the laws by an oath So that King of England was Earle of Essexshire Sussex Yorkshire and of all the rest compendiously called King of England Scotland Ireland but bound to the Lawes They of Holland perceiving their King had infringed the Laws thereupon they opposed him and fought themselves free Bene feliciter saith the King of Spains Embassador Count Pigneranda pro libertate pugnastis ea vobis debetur The English in like manner perceived their King had trespassed against the laws and falsified his oath whereupon they opposed him til they fought themselves into the same condition of Freedom I could say somewhat more here That the King of England out-did Spain He of Spain had sworn to the Roman Religion and conceived himself bound to protect it according to his Oath but the King of England being sworn to the Protestant Religion is charged to have acted against it innovated it and had he gotten the mastery would have changed it That this Assertion owned as well by the Scots as the English is most true appeares by the Covenant first made by the Scots and afterwards embraced also by the English Look upon Chapt. 14. of the Kings Book see what he saith there himselfe of the Covenant Again the Covenant very expresly shewed that the King had an intent to alter Religion and Laws The Answerer himselfe was a Covenanter and Parliamenteer and blew as fiercely and zealously as any against the Kings designe of Innovation as they termed it The second and third Article of the Covenant speaks very plain And there have been a thousand books written both by the Scots English Presbyterians on that subject Nay the Scots themselves have even since the late Kings death excommunicated all that had and did adhere to the King calling them Engagers and declared them Given over to the Devill And for this cause they put poore Montrosse to death and refused him Absolution And what afterwards the King himself and Hamilton Middleton Lauderdale others of this party have suffered is notorious to all the world Also how this King was fain to do penance and to confess the bloud guiltiness of his Father's House How ever all the difference betwixt the Kings of England and Spain was only this that He of England did more and He of Spain less against the Religion that each of them was sworn to It is well known that the Scots were the first that made a Covenant and thereupon took up arms even as the Nobility heretofore in the Netherlands made a League or Union and took up arms to defend it The Scots having cleared their own Land of all the Royall designs and adherents were not content therewith but proceeded to assist the English who were as eager to be rid of the same incumbrances Which being effected and the King brought to this pass that he saw no remedy left him then he betook himself to the Scots at last his own Country men as confiding more in them Why did not the Scots then take him home along with them They said it was not expedient the King might easily put Scotland into new broils as the English found afterwards among themselves for then broke first out those differences betwixt Presbyterians and Independents the former would have a new Hierarchy introduced like that of the Scots the later would have the Reformed Religion maintained as it now stands among them only they would bear with tender consciences and some others as wee doe likewise here The King of Spain hath given up his Right and acknowledged this a Free State had the King of England done the like or would this King content himself yet with the Scottish Crown as his Fore-fathers did the war would soon be at an end And herein Philip shewed himself more reasonable and righteous then Charls whom nevertheless hee styles that Blessed Martyr so highly wronged and persecuted not remembring at least concealing that they were the Scots who began this violent dealing with him But none of this concerns us not can we help it If the Scots vvill begin troubles and war and the Neighbour Kings and Potentates will wink at it vvhat is that to us What is farther said by the Answerer about the Kings death concerns not us of Holland at all If a King wageth war with his subjects he must needs resolve to run the hazard Kings and Princes are flesh and bloud and mortal as well as others As much might have been done in a Charge by the Sword of a private soldier as was afterwards by the hand of the Executioner The Quality or Majesty of a King or Prince is of no consideration to the steel or lead of the meanest soldier nostro sequitur de vulnere sanguis Majestate nihil contemtius nec infirmius si sint qui contemnant A living Dog is better then a dead Lion A Pesant owner of some Land is better then a King vvithout Land He that vvill not submit himself to the Discretion of a Conquerour should not runne the hazard of being conquered The Conquering party saw no other Expedient no farther trust given even during the Kings restraint there was faction upon faction division upon division insurrection upon insurrection raised The meanest creature the poorest worm seeks for self-preservation How much more a Man If there had been any means left under Heaven whereby a firm confidence could have been recovered it is very probable the Prevailing party would have yeilded to it But to put all their Fortunes Reputation Freedom Life and Being upon a new hazard again no Reason could advise them Now as to the matter of deposing and destroying of Kings it is so common both in England and Scotland that I admire why the Answerer makes it so strange and prodigious But all these things are so largely set forth in printed Boooks and Pamphlets that the Answerer hath little reason to make a wonder of it Omnia jam vulgata To make an alliance with England were unnecessary if our Commerce and Liberties were not in danger We are bound to look to their preservation The Depredations are unsupportable We do not afflict the afflicted but those whom he calls the afflicted afflict us As for the affliction of Joseph we know not what it means unless he make Joseph a Cavalier and under that notion the Scots themselves were the first that persecuted him And that party in Scotland which the Answerer himself doth esteem the honester viz. the kirk party they abhor the Royalists calling them Malignants The English Ambassadors have declared here in their first Proposition they came not out of necessity but to shew they were willing to choose this State for their best friends They have not desired to ingage us against the Scots But it is well known
proclaimed at Court in their Sermons that All was the Kings no man had any propriety in what he possessed so that the lesse credit is to be given to the Declaration of those pious Ministers as they are called against the Parliament whose partiall testimony is so much applauded by the Resident of Scotland Did Philip of Spain endeavour through his Agent D'Alva to settle his Tyrannies over the Provinces by force of Arms so did the late Tyrant Charls in England first plot a war and then set up his Standard and put the Parliament upon the Defensive as appears by the whole Series of his Councels and Actions whereto more credit is to be given than to his Posthume Book of Meditations which the Resident hath quoted with more affection than discretion Lastly are our Proceedings in England distasted by some of our neighbours through the malice and mis-representation of our English Fugitives So were those of the Hollanders through the malicious subtilty of the Spanish Agents and Ministers who laboured to incense all Christendom and draw the world about their ears till Forain Princes came to have a right understanding of the business So that you see Master Resident might have spared his Milk and Ink too for nec Ovum ovo similius one Egge cannot more exactly resemble another than the case of England in all particulars doth that of Holland in the manner of acquiring our Liberties and Freedoms Now he rails at our judging and beheading the late King and banishing his Family calling it abominable violence and such as the like was never heard of since the beginning of the world Therfore to rectifie the ignorance and malice of himself and his deluded party in this particular some few Instances and Examples shall be here inserted to shew it is no new thing that Kings have been and may be deprived or punished with death for their crimes in Government We read of Amon King of Judah that was slain by a part of the people because he walked not in the way of the Lord and though another part of the people were angry at it and avenged his death upon those that did it yet without question the execution was just according to the Law of God which was without respect of persons that the Idolater should die the death and no doubt the punishment had been inflicted by a Judicial Process had not so great a party of the people been addicted to his ways opposed it which opposition of their is usually the cause in all cases of this nature why Kings are not to be attached as well as other M●●efactors by an ordinary course of Justice Consider Ahab likewise who though he were taken off himself by divine Justice in the battel at Ramoth-Gilead and so escaped punishment by man for his idolatry and cruelty yet it was executed afterward to the full by John upon his Queen and the whole Family who were utterly rooted out and a blessing annexed to him and his heirs that performed the execution But some may say this fact was extraordinary being done by immediate command from God and so not fit for ordinary imitation Yet for Answer it is sufficient I say that it had a Legal ground viz. the ground of Gods ordinary judgement which commanded that all offendors of the same nature should die the death Gods extraordinary command being superadded to his ordinary Law doth as to us rather confirm then weaken the equity and justice of such a proceeding In like manner we read that the whole people took Amaziah King of Judah and slew him for his idolatry whether they did it by a way of Judicial process or not is not material but done it was and if it were done without process then much more are they to he justified that have the courage to imitate such noble acts of Justice by a solemn and serious proceeding The like had been executed upon Joas the father of Amaziah by a part of the people for his Murther and Apostacy Profane stories both ancient and modern are full likewise to the purpose Romultes the first King of Rome was for his tyranny cut in pieces by the Senate and Tarquin their last King was with his whole family cashiered the form of Government changed by the same power and upon the same occasion Many years after Nero the Roman Emperour was sentenced to death by the Senate which was not primum damnati Principis exemplum as the Resident alledges out of Suetonius The Senate being afterward in time cowed down by Heliogabalus their Emperour so that they could not take the ordinary course with him used means by corrupting the soldiery upon whose strength he depended to put him to death The two famous changes made in the Royal line of France depend upon two such noble pieces of Justice executed upon their Kings the first upon Childerick the third King of France who being judicially deposed by the Nobility and Clergy in Parliament the succession was then cut off from the family of Pharamond and confirmed to the race of Pepin till Charls of Lorrain the last of Pepin's race was in the like manner chastised by Parliament and the Crown translated to the successors of Hugh Capet who hold the same to this day though two of them likewise viz. Lewis the third and Charles le Gross have been judicially proceeded against in Parliament And though the people were so tender towards them as not to put them to death yet they were buried alive being mued up within the melancholy walls of some Monastery or else closely confined within the Castle of Orleans In Spain too we read of Suintila Don Alonson the eleventh and Don Pedro judicially proceeded against the first by the fourth National Councel of Toleao the second by publick Act of the Estates of the Realm in the Town of Validolid the third by the Estates of Castile all for their Tyrannical Government The like proceeding also was had against Don Sancho the second of Portugal also against Henry of Poland that was King of France Henry of Swethland Christiern of Denmark and Wenceslaus of Bohemia as also Edward the second and Richard the second of England These last are mentioned by the Resident himself but that which he mainly insists upon is that neither Christiern Wenceslaus Edward nor Richard were beheaded upon a Scaffold as was the late Tyrant Charls However it is sufficient they were judged more worthy of a Scaffold than the Throne and therefore it must needs be more honourable after the late Heroick Example of England that the Judgements of God should be executed in publick before all the world than that they should be stiffled in a Dungeon or the Majesty of them be less'ned by paltry private Assassinations or poisonings acted upon Royall Tyrants and Offenders Even the practise of Scotland it self will furnish us with Examples enough of this nature where no less than fifty of their Kings have been punished with death and the greatest part of
them by a solemn Iudiciall Proceeding as it is set forth by Buchanan their own Historian who affirms it to be More Majorum according to the custome of their Ancestors So that of all other men in the world this Scot Resident hath the least reason to wonder at our Capital Proceeding against a Tyrant as a thing never heard of before in the world since it hath been from all Antiquity the common practice of his own Country Whereas he farther alledgeth the Parliment's manifold reiterated Oaths and their Covenants with above an hundred Parlimentary Declarations and Protestations to protect the King's Person and Posterity c. This must be understood with that tacit Supposition which is naturally included in all those Oaths and Protestations viz. That he do not by any enormous crimes and continued Acts of Tyranny devest himself of his Kingly capacity And in the Covenant it self as much as this comes to is implied by undeniable consequence the whole scope of it being qualified with this special clause In the preservation of Religion and Liberty to shew that if the King should proceed so far as to render himself an irreconcileable enemy to both the Covenant did no longer oblige the Covenanters in any relation to him or his Posterity But he saith The Laws of England favour Kings above the Laws of all other Nations and for this he alledges the parasiticall maxims used by Courtiers Rex non moritur Rex nulli facit injuriam Whereto let us oppose others out of our old Laws more rationall and sound Non debet esse rege major quisquam in exhibitione Juris minimus autem esse debet in judicio suscipiendo si peccat Rex habet superiores Legem per quam factus est Rex Curiam suam c. Nihil aliud potest Rex nisi id solum quod de Jure potest say Bracton and Fleta and whereas he is up again with his pious Divines in and about London whose Declaration he much boasts of in the behalf of the late Tyrant and his Cause In Answer to this he must give us leave to reply in such a sence as out own experiences have taught us that those whom he calls Divines were the greatest Carnalists Formalists and Fanaticks that ever appeared in any Nation Court parasites Trumpets of Tyranny the onely Patrons and Promoters of Slavery both Spirituall and Tempporall They were such as most of the same Tribe ever have been and are men ignorant in the more necessary and solid parts of Learning both Sacred and Civill who make a Trade and Traffique of certain Set-forms and maxims of Divinity wherein being Travell'd as in a Road they cannot out of their old way but immediately they lose themselves and their sences If a Truth though never so bright and glorious come to clash with any of those trading notions which they call Orthodox then immediately like the men of Ephesus they grow stark mad and can sing no other Tune to all the world but Great is their Diana Therefore In those high and weighty Controversies which arise concerning the Rights and Concernments of Commonweals and Kingdoms where their motions are eccentricall little regard is to be had to their frigid Conceptions where in they are wont even in Luce meridianâ toto coelo err are and in this particular it might be made good contrary to their Affirmations and Invectives even as clear as the Sun According to the holy word of God the Instinct of Nature Right Reason The Laws of all Nations and particularly of England That Parliaments or other Supream Assemblies have a Power of Jurisdiction both coercive and punitive over their Kings and of altering Forms of Government according to the Publique exigents and Conveniences of their respective Nations In the meantime this Scot may do well since he often quotes William Prynn to consult that great Scotiser in his Book entitled The Soveraign power of Parliaments as also his own Countriman Rutherford in his Lex Rex who will give him another Account than the raw Pulpiteers of London Next he affirms that the saying of our Saviour which commands the paying of Tribute to Caesar confirmeth and establisheth Lawfull Power Herein we agree with him For though the means whereby that Power of the Caesars was gained were unlawfull and the manner of its Acquisition unjust yet it being once established beyond the controll of any Publique Power and having all Authority seated within it self it immediately became lawfull by way of dispensation having a right to the dispensing of Justice and to the exercise of all Acts of Jurisdiction concerning privat and particular Persons But then saith he should David have acquiessed in the usurped power of Absolom and Solomon in the power of Adonijah Jehoiada in Athalia's and the Machabees in the power of Antiochus Epiphanes Alas the case of these is far different for neither Absolom nor Adonijah were ever seated in a plenary possession nor had they been acknowledged Supream as were the Caesars nor had the Jews made any recognition of Antiochus his Authority nor did he ever bring them under a totall Subjugation as afterwards did the Roman power to whom they then paid a finall submission though they refused it before to Antiochus As for that of Athaliah we finde she had a submission paid for no less than 6 years though her power were usurped and one main reason why the people denied it afterward was becaus she had agrieved the whole Nation with her practises of Idolatry and Tyranny for which cause she was lawfully deposed and put to death in a full Assembly of the Princes and People 2. Kings 11. after which they reduced the Government into its former course of succession Thus much we thought fit to answer as to this particular But what hath this Scottish Resident to do to introduce these Instances of Absolom Adonijah and Athaliah as Arguments against us in England They touch not the matter at all there being as vast a disproportion betwixt them and us as betwixt light and darkness for they were single Usurpers over the People but here in England the People have recovered their own Rights by ridding away an old Tyrannical Usurpation He compares also the Religion that was under Kings in England with the present and saith that in the Kings time it shone as a Lamp more clear then in any other Nation But that now it is nothing like the religion professed in Holland nor indeed Religion it self What the state or religion was in the Kings time I suppose we need not now dispute it having been long since condemned not only by our Presbyterians themselves but in the Iudgement also of Forain reformed Churches as a profane medley of superstitious Innovations And as to the present though we glory not in an external pretended National Vniformity the great Diana of the Clergy and wherein they place all religion because it makes for their profit yet it bears a proportionable conformity to the mind of