THE TENURE OF KINGS AND MAGISTRATES PROVING That it is Lawfull and hath been held so through all Ages for any who have the Power to call to account a Tyrant or wicked KING and after due conviction to depose and put him to death if the ordinary MAGISTRATE have neglected or deny'd to doe it And that they who of late so much blame Deposing are the Men that did it themselves The Author J. M. LONDON Printed by Matthew Simmons at the Gilded Lyon in Aldersgate Street 1649. THE TENURE OF KINGS And MAGISTRATES IF Men within themselves would be govern'd by reason and not generally give up their understanding to a double tyrannie of custome from without and blind affections within they would discerne better what it is to favour and uphold the Tyrant of a Nation But being slaves within doores no wonder that they strive so much to have the public State conformably govern'd to the inward vitious rule by which they govern themselves For indeed none can love freedom heartilie but good men the rest love not freedom but licence which never hath more scope or more indulgence then under Tyrants Hence is it that Tyrants are not oft offended nor stand much in doubt of bad men as being all naturally servile but in whom vertue and true worth most is eminent them they feare in earnest as by right their Masters against them lies all their hatred and suspicion Consequentlie neither doe bad men hate Tirants but have been alwaies readiest with the falsifi'd names of Loyalty and Obedience to colour over their base compliances And although sometimes for shame and when it comes to their owne grievances of purse especially they would seeme good Patriots and side with the better cause yet when others for the deliverance of their Countrie endu'd with fortitude and Heroick vertue to feare nothing but the curse written against those That doe the worke of the Lord negligently would goe on to remove not onely the calamities and thraldomes of a people but the roots and causes whence they spring streight these men and sure helpers at need as if they hated onely the miseries but not the mischiefes after they have juggl'd and palter'd with the World bandied and borne armes against their King devested him disanointed him nay curs'd him all over in thir Pulpits and their Pamphlets to the ingaging of sincere and reall men beyond what is possible or honest to retreat from not onely turne revolters from those principles which onely could at first move them but lay the staine of disloyaltie and worse on those proceedings which are the necessarie consequences of their owne former actions nor disllik'd by themselves were they manag'd to the intire advantages of their owne Faction not considering the while that he toward whom they boasted their new fidelitie counted them accessory and by those Statutes and Laws which they so impotently brandish against others would have doom'd them to a traytors death for what they have done alreadie 'T is true that most men are apt anough to civill Wars and commotions as a noveltie and for a flash hot and active but through sloth or inconstancie and weakness of spirit either fainting ere their owne pretences though never so just be halfe attain'd or through an inbred falshood and wickednesse betray oft times to destruction with themselves men of noblest temper join'd with them for causes which they in their rash undertakings were not capable of If God and a good cause give them Victory the prosecution whereof for the most part inevitably drawes after it the alteration of Lawes change of Government downfall of Princes with their Families then comes the task to those Worthies which are the soule of that Enterprize to bee swett and labour'd out amidst the throng and noises of vulgar and irrationall men Some contesting for Privileges customes formes and that old intanglement of iniquitie their gibrish Lawes though the badge of their ancient slavery Others who have been fiercest against their Prince under the notion of a Tyrant and no meane incendiaries of the Warre against him when God out of his providence and high disposall hath deliver'd him into the hand of their brethren on a suddaine and in a new garbe of Allegiance which their doings have long since cancell'd they plead for him pity him extoll him protest against those that talke of bringing him to the tryall of Justice which is the Sword of God superiour to all mortall things in whose hand soever by apparent signes his testified wil is to put it But certainely if we consider who and what they are on a suddaine growne so pitifull wee may conclude their pity can be no true and Christian commiseration but either levitie and shallownesse of minde or else a carnall admiring of that worldly pompe and greatness from whence they see him fall'n or rather lastly a dissembl'd and seditious pity fain'd of industry to beget new commotions As for mercy if it bee to a Tyrant under which name they themselves have cited him so oft in the hearing of God of Angels and the holy Church assembl'd and there charg'd him with the spilling of more innocent blood by farre then ever Nero did undoubtedly the mercy which they pretend is the mercy of wicked men and their mercies wee read are cruelties hazarding the welfare of a whole Nation to have sav'd one whom so oft they have tearm'd Agag and villifying the blood of many Jonathans that have sav'd Israel insisting with much nicenesse on the unnecessariest clause of their Covnant wherein the feare of change and the absurd contradiction of a flattering hostilitie had hamperd them but not scrupling to give away for complements to an implacable revenge the heads of many thousand Christians more Another sort there is who comming in the course of these affaires to have thir share in great actions above the forme of Law or Custome at least to give thir voice and approbation begin to swerve and almost shiver at the majesty and grandeur of som noble deed as if they were newly enter'd into a great sin disputing presidents formes circumstances when the Common wealth nigh perishes for want of deeds in substance don with just and faithfull expedition To these I wish better instruction and vertue equall to their calling the former of which that is to say Instruction I shall indeavour as my dutie is to bestow on them and exhort them not to startle from the just and pious resolution of adhering with all their assistance to the present Parlament and Army in the glorious way wherein Justice and Victorie hath set them the onely warrants through all ages next under immediate Revelation to exercise supreame power in those proceedings which hitherto appeare equall to what hath been don in any age or Nation heretofore justly or magnanimouslie Nor let them be discourag'd or deterr'd by any new Apostate Scar crowes who under show of giving counsell send out their barking monitories and momento's emptie of ought
should confine and limit the autority of whom they chose to govern them that so man of whose failing they had proof might no more rule over them but law and reason abstracted as much as might be from personal errors and frailties When this would nor serve but that the Law was either not executed or misapply'd they were constraind from that time the onely remedy left them to put conditions and take Oaths from all Kings and Magistrates at their first instalment to doe impartial justice by Law who upon those termes and no other receav'd Allegeance from the people that is to say bond or Covnant to obey them in execution of those Lawes which they the people had themselves made or assented to And this oft times with express warning that if the King or Magistrate prov'd unfaithfull to his trust the people would be disingag'd They added also Counselors and Parlaments not to be onely at his beck but with him or without him at set times or at all times when any danger threatnâ—d to have care of the public safety Therefore saith Claudius Sesell a French Statesman The Parlament was set as a bridle to the King which I instance rather because that Monarchy is granted by all to be a farre more absolute then ours That this and the rest of what hath hitherto been spok'n is most true might be copiously made appeare throughout all Stories Heathen and Christian eev'n of those Nations where Kings and Emperours have sought meanes to abolish all ancient memory of the peoples right by their encroachments and usurpations But I spare long insertions appealing to the German French Italian Arragonian English and not least the Scottish Histories not forgetting this onely by the way that VVilliam the Norman though a Conqueror and not unsworne at his Coronation was compelld a second time to take oath at S. Albanes ere the people would be brought to yeild obedience It being thus manifest that the power of Kings and Magistrates is nothing else but what is onely derivative transferrd and committed to them in trust from the people to the Common good of them all in whom the power yet remaines fundamentally and cannot be tak'n from them without a violation of thir natural birthright and seeing that from hence Aristotle and the best of Political writers have defin'd a King him who governs to the good and profit of his people and not for his owne ends it follows from necessary causes that the titles of Sovran Lord naturall Lord and the like are either arrogancies or flatteries not admitted by Emperors and Kings of best note and dislikt by the Church both of Jews Isai. 26. 13. and ancient Christians as appears by Tertullian and others Although generally the people of Asia and with them the Jews also especially since the time they chose a King against the advice and counsel of God are noted by wise authors much inclinable to slavery Secondly that to say as is usual the King hath as good right to his crown and dignitie as any man to his inheritance is to make the subject no better then the Kings slave his chattell or his possession that may be bought and sould And doubtless if hereditary title were sufficiently inquir'd the best foundation of it would be found but either in courtesie or convenience But suppose it to be of right hereditarie what can be more just and legal if a subject for certaine crimes be to forfet by Law from himselfe and posterity all his inheritance to the King then that a King for crimes proportionall should forfet all his title and inheritance to the people unless the people must be thought created all for him he not for them and they all in one body inferior to him single which were a kinde of treason against the dignity of mankind to affirm Thirdly it followes that to say Kings are accountable to none but God is the overturning of all Law and goverment For if they may refuse to give account then all covnants made with them at Coronation all Oathes are in vaine and meer mockeries all Lawes which they sweare to keep made to no purpose for if the King feare not God as how many of them doe not we hold then our lives and estates by the tenure of his meer grace and mercy as from a God not a mortall Magistrate a position that none but Court parasites or men besotted would maintain And no Christian Prince not drunk with high mind and prouder then those Pagan Caesars that deifi'd themselves would arrogate so unreasonably above human condition or derogate so basely from a whole Nation of men his brethren as if for him onely subsisting and to serve his glory valuing them in comparison of his owne brute will and pleasure no more then so many beasts or vermine under his feet not to be reasond with but to be injurd among whom there might be found so many thousand men for wisdome vertue nobleness of mind and all other respects but the fortune of his dignity farr above him Yet some would perswade us that this absurd opinion was King Davids because in the 51 Psalm he cries out to God Against thee onely have I sinn'd as if David had imagind that to murder Uriah and adulterate his Wife had bin no sinne against his neighbor when as that law of Moses was to the King expresly Deut. 17. not to think so highly of himself above his Brethren David therefore by those words could mean no other then either that the depth of his guiltiness was known to God onely or to so few as had not the will or power to question him or that the sin against God was greater beyond compare then against Uriah What ever his meaning were any wise man will see that the patheticall words of a Psalme can be no certaine decision to a point that hath abundantly more certaine rules to goe by How much more rationally spake the Heathen King Demophoon in a Tragedy of Euripides then these interpretâ—s would put upon King David I rule not my people by tyranny as if they were Barbarians but am my self liable if I doe unjustly to suffer justly Not unlike was the speech of Traian the worthy Emperor to one whom he made General of his Praetorian Forces Take this drawne sword saith he to use for me if I reigne well if not to use against me Thus Dion relates And not Traian onely but Theodosius the younger a Christian Emperor and one of the best causd it to be enacted as a rule undenyable and fit to be acknowledgd by all Kings and Emperors that a Prince is bound to the Laws that on the autority of Law the autority of a Prince depends to the Laws ought submit Which Edict of his remaines yet unrepeald in the Code of Justinian l. 1. tit. 24. as a sacred constitution to all the succeeding Emperors How then can any King in Europe maintaine and write himselfe accountable to none but God when Emperors in
enthrone him why may not the peoples act of rejection be as well pleaded by the people as the act of God and the most just reason to depose him So that we see the title and just right of reigning or deposing in reference to God is found in Scripture to be all one visible onely in the people and depending meerly upon justice and demerit Thus farr hath bin considerd briefly the power of Kings and Magistrates how it was and is originally the peoples and by them conferrd in trust onely to bee imployd to the common peace and benefit with libertie therfore and right remaining in them to reassume it to themselves if by Kings or Magistrats it be abus'd or to dispose of it by any alteration as they shall judge most conducing to the public good Wee may from hence with more ease and force of argument determin what a Tyrant is and what the people may doe against him A Tyrant whether by wrong or by right comming to the Crowne is he who regarding neither Law nor the common good reigns onely for himself and his faction Thus St. Basil among others defines him And because his power is great his will boundless and exorbitant the fulfilling whereof is for the most part accompanied with innumerable wrongs and oppressions of the people murders massacres rapes adulteries desolation and subversion of Citties and whole provinces look how great a good and happiness a just King is so great a mischeife is a Tyrant as hee the public Father of his Countrie so this the common enemie Against whom what the people lawfully may doe as against a common pest and destroyer of mankinde I suppose no man of cleare judgement need goe surder to be guided then by the very principles of nature in him But because it is the vulgar folly of men to desert thir owne reason and shutting thir eyes to think they see best with other mens I shall shew by such examples as ought to have most waight with us what hath bin don is this case heretofore The Greeks and Romans as thir prime Authors witness held it not onely lawfull but a glorious and Heroic deed rewarded publicly with Statues and Garlands to kill an infamous Tyrant at any time without tryal and but reason that he who trod down all Law should not bee voutsaf'd the benefit of Law Insomuch that Seneca the Tragedian brings in Hercules the grand suppressor of Tyrants thus speaking Victima haud ulla amplior Potest magisque opima mactari Jovi Quam Rex iniquus There can be slaine No sacrifice to God more accetable Then an unjust and wicked King But of these I name no more lest it bee objected they were Heathen and come to produce another sort of men that had the knowledge of true Religion Among the Jews this custome of tyrant-killing was not unusual First Ehud a man whom God had raysd to deliver Israel from Eglon King of Moab who had conquerd and rul'd over them eighteene yeares being sent to him as an Ambassador with a present slew him in his owne house But hee was a forren Prince an enemie and Ehud besides had special warrant from God To the first I answer it imports not whether forren or native For no Prince so native but professes to hold by Law which when he himselfe overturnes breaking all the Covnants and Oaths that gave him title to his dignity and were the bond and alliance between him and his people what differs he from an outlandish King or from an enemie For looke how much right the King of Spaine hath to govern us at all so much right hath the King of England to govern us tyrannically If he though not bound to us by any league comming from Spaine in person to subdue us or to destroy us might lawfully by the people of England either bee slaine in fight or put to death in captivity what hath a native King to plead bound by so many Covnants benefits and honours to the welfare of his people why he through the contempt of all Laws and Parlaments the onely tie of our obedience to him for his owne wills sake and a boasted praerogative unaccountable after sev'n years warring and destroying of his best subjects overcom and yeilded prisoner should think to scape unquestionable as a thing divine in respect of whom so many thousand Christians destroy'd should lye unaccounted for polluting with thir slaughterd carcasses all the Land over and crying for vengeance against the living that should have righted them Who knows not that there is a mutual bond of amity and brotherhood between man and man over all the World neither is it the English Sea that can sever us from that duty and relation a straiter bond yet there is between fellow-subjects neighbours and friends But when any of these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to another so as hostility 〈…〉 doth the Law decree less against them then oepn enemies and invaders or if the Law be not present or too weake what doth it warrant us to less then single defence or civil warr and from that time forward the Law of civill defensive Warr differs nothing from the Law of forren hostility Nor is it distance of place that makes enmitie but enmity that makes distance He therefore that keeps peace with me neer or remote of whatsoever Nation is to mee as farr as all civil and human offices an Englishman and a nighbour but if an Englishman forgetting all Laws human civil and religious offend against life and libertie to him offended and to the Law in his behalf though born in the same womb he is no better then a Turk a Sarasin a Heathen This is Gospel and this was ever Law among equals how much rather then in force against any King whatsoever who in respect of the people is coufessd inferior and not equal to distinguish therfore of a Tyrant by outlandish or domestic is a weak evasion To the second that he was an enemie I answer what Tyrant is not yet Eglon by the Jewes had bin acknowledgd as thir Sovran they had servd him eighteen yeares as long almost as wee our VVilliam the Conqueror in all which time he could not be so unwise a Statesman but to have tak'n of them Oaths of Fealty and Allegeance by which they made themselves his proper subjects as thir homage and present sent by Ehud testifyd To the third that he had special warrant to kill Eglon in that manner it cannot bee granted because not expressd t is plain that he was raysd by God to be a Deliverer and went on just principles such as were then and ever held allowable to deale so by a Tyrant that could no otherwise be dealt with Neither did Samuell though a Profet with his owne hand abstain from Agag a forren enemie no doubt but mark the reason As thy Sword hath made women childless a cause that by the sentence of Law it selfe nullifies all relations And as the Law is between Brother and Brother
Father and Son Maister and Servant wherfore not between King or rather Tyrant and People And whereas Jehu had special command to slay Jehoram a successive and hereditarie Tyrant it seemes not the less imitable for that for where a thing grounded so much on naturall reason hath the addition of a command from God what does it but establish the lawfulness of such an act Nor is it likely that God who had so many wayes of punishing the house of Ahab would have sent a subject against his Prince if the fact in it selfe as don to a Tyrant had bin of bad example And if David refus'd to lift his hand against the Lords anointed the matter between them was not tyranny but private enmity and David as a private person had bin his own revenger not so much the peoples but when any tyrant at this day can shew to be the Lords anointed the onely mention'd reason why David with held his hand he may then but not till then presume on the same privilege We may pass therfore hence to Christian times And first our Saviour himself how much he favourd tyrants and how much intended they should be found or honourd among Christians declares his minde not obscurely accounting thir absolute autoritie no better then Gentilisme yea though they flourishd it over with the splendid name of Benefactors charging those that would be his Disciples to usurp no such dominion but that they who were to bee of most autoritie among them should esteem themselves Ministers and Servants to the public Matt. 20. 25. The Princes of the Gentiles exercise Lordship over them and Mark 10. 42. They that seem to rule saith he either slighting or accounting them no lawful rulers but yee shall not be so but the greatest among you shall be your servant And although hee himself were the meekest and came on earth to be so yet to a tyrant we hear him not voutsafe an humble word but Tell that Fox Luc. 13. And wherfore did his mother the Virgin Mary give such praise to God in her profetic song that he had now by the comming of Christ Cutt down Dynasta's or proud Monarchs from the throne if the Church when God manifests his power in them to doe so should rather choose all miserie and vassalage to serve them and let them still sit on thir potent seats to bee ador'd for doing mischiefe Surely it is not for nothing that tyrants by a kind of natural instinct both hate and feare none more then the true Church and Saints of God as the most dangerous enemies and subverters of Monarchy though indeed of tyranny hath not this bin the perpetual cry of Courtiers and Court Prelates whereof no likelier cause can be alleg'd but that they well discern'd the mind and principles of most devout and zealous men and indeed the very discipline of Church tending to the dissolution of all tyranny No marvel then if since the faith of Christ receav'd in purer or impurer times to depose a King and put him to death for tyranny hath bin accounted so just and requisit that neighbour Kings have both upheld and tak'n part with subjects in the action And Ludovicus Pius himself an Emperor and sonne of Charles the great being made Judge Du Haillan is my author between Milegast King of the Vulâ—zes and his subjects who had depos'd him gave his verdit for the subjects and for him whom they had chos'n in his room Note here that the right of electing whom they please is by the impartial testimony of an Emperor in the people For said he A just Prince ought to be prefer'd before an unjust and the end of government before the prerogative And Constantinus Leo another Emperor in the Byzantine Laws saith that the end of a King is for the general good which he not performing is but the counterfet of a King And to prove that some of our owne Monarchs have acknowledg'd that thir high office exempted them not from punishment they had the Sword of St. Edward born before them by an Officer who was calld Earle of the palace eev'n at the times of thir highest pomp and solemnitie to mind them saith Matthew Paris the best of our Historians that if they errd the Sword had power to restraine them And what restraint the Sword comes to at length having both edge and point if any Sceptic will needs doubt let him feel It is also affirm'd from diligent search made in our ancient books of Law that the Peers and Barons of England had a legall right to judge the King which was the cause most likely for it could be no slight cause that they were call'd his Peers or equals This however may stand immovable so long as man hath to deale with no better then man that if our Law judge all men to the lowest by thir Peers it should in all equity ascend also and judge the highest And so much I find both in our own and forren Storie that Dukes Earles and Marqueses were at first not hereditary not empty and vain titles but names of trust and office and with the office ceasing as induces me to be of opinion that every worthy man in Parlament for the word Baron imports no more might for the public good be thought a fit Peer and judge of the King without regard had to petty caveats and circumstances the chief impediment in high affaires and ever stood upon most by circumstantial men Whence doubtless our Ancestors who were not ignorant with what rights either Nature or ancient Constitution had endowd them when Oaths both at Coronation and renewd in Parlament would not serve thought it no way illegal to depose and put to death thir tyrannous Kings Insomuch that the Parlament drew up a charge against Richard the second and the Commons requested to have judgement decree'd against him that the realme might not bee endangerd And Peter Martyr a Divine of formost rank on the third of Judges approves thir doings Sir Thomas Smith also a Protestant and a Statesman in his Commonwealth of England putting the question whether it be lawful to rise against a Tyrant answers that the vulgar judge of it according to the event and the learned according to the purpose of them that do it But far before those days Gildas the most ancient of all our Historians speaking of those times wherein the Roman Empire decaying quitted and relinquishd what right they had by Conquest to this Iland and resign'd it all into the peoples hands testifies that the people thus re-invested with thir own original right about the year 446 both elected them Kings whoÌ„ they thought best the first Christian Brittish Kings that ever raign'd heer since the Romans and by the same right when they apprehended cause usually deposd and put them to death This is the most fundamental and ancient tenure that any King of England can produce or pretend to in comparison of which all other titles and pleas are but of yesterday If any
object that Gildas condemns the Britanes for so doing the answer is as ready that he condemns them no more for so doing then hee did before for choosing such for saith he They anointed them Kings not of God but such as were more bloody then therest Next hee condemns them not at all for deposing or putting them to death but for doing it over hastily without tryal or well examining the cause and for electing others worse in thir room Thus we have here both Domestic and most ancient examples that the people of Britain have deposd and put to death thir Kings in those primitive Christian times And to couple reason with example if the Church in all ages Primitive Romish or Protestant held it ever no less thir duty then the power of thir Keyes though without express warrant of Scripture to bring indifferently both King and Peasant under the utmost rigor of thir Canons and Censures Ecclesiastical eev'n to the smiting him with a final excommunion if he persist impenitent what hinders but that the temporal Law both may and ought though without a special Text or president extend with like indifference the civil Sword to the cutting off without exemption him that capitally offends Seeing that justice and Religion are from the same God and works of justice ofttimes more acceptable Yet because that some lately with the tongues and arguments of Malignant backsliders have writt'n that the proceedings now in Parlament against the King are without president from any Protestant State or Kingdom the examples which follow shall be all Protestant and chiefly Presbyterian In the yeare 1546. The Duke of Saxonie Lantgrave of Hessen and the whole Protestant league raysd open Warr against Charles the fifth thir Emperor sent him a defiance renounc'd all faith and allegeance toward him and debated long in Counsell whether they should give him so much as the title of Caesar Sleidan l. 17. Let all men judge what this wanted of deposing or of killing but the power to doe it In the yeare 1559. the Scotch Protestants claiming promise of thir Queen Regent for libertie of conscience she answering that promises were not to be claim'd of Princes beyond what was commodious for them to grant told her to her face in the Parlament then at Sterling that if it were so they renounc'd thir obedience and soone after betooke them to Armes Buchanan Hist. l. 16. certainely when allegeance is renounc'd that very hour the King or Queen is in effect depos'd In the yeare 1564. John Knâ—x a most famous Divine and the reformer of Scotland to the Presbyterian discipline at a generall Assembly maintaind op'nly in a dispute against Lethington the Secretary of State that Subjects might and ought execute Gods judgements upon thir King that the fact of Jehu and others against thir King having the ground of Gods ordinary command to put such and such offenders to death was not extraordinary but to bee imitated of all that prefer'd the honour of God to the affection of flesh and wicked Princes that Kings if they offend have no privilege to be exempted from the punishments of Law more then any other subject so that if the King be a Murderer Adulterer or Idolater he should suffer not as a King but as an offender and this position hee repeates againe and againe before them Answerable was the opinion of John Craig another learned Divine and that Lawes made by the tyranny of Princes or the negligence of people thir posterity might abrogate and reform all things according to the original institution of Common-wealths And Knox being commanded by the Nobilitie to write to Calvin and other learned men for thir judgements in that question refus'd alleging that both himselfe was fully resolv'd in conscience and had heard thir judgements and had the same opinion under hand-writing of many the most godly and most learned that he knew in Europe that if he should move the question to them againe what should he doe but shew his owne forgetfulness or inconstancy All this is farr more largely in the Ecclesiastic History of Scotland l. 4. with many other passages to this effect all the book over set out with diligence by Scotchmen of best repute among them at the beginning of these troubles as if they labourd to inform us what wee were to doe and what they intended upon the like occasion And to let the world know that the whole Church and Protestant State of Scotland in those purest times of reformation were of the same belief three years after they met in the feild Mary thir lawful and hereditary Queen took her prisoner yeilding before fight kept her in prison and the same yeare deposd her Buchan Hist. l. 18. And four years after that the Scots in justification of thir deposing Queen Mary sent Embassadors to Queen Elizabeth and in a writt'n Declaration alleag'd that they had us'd towards her more lenity then shee deservd that thir Ancestors had heretofore punishd thir Kings by death or banishment that the Scots were a free Nation made King whom they freely chose and with the same freedome un-Kingd him if they saw cause by right of ancient laws and Ceremonies yet remaining and old customers yet among the High-landers in choosing the head of thir Clanns or Families all which with many other arguments bore witness that regal power was nothing else but a mutuall Covnant or stipulation between King and people Buch. Hist. l. 20. These were Scotchmen and Presbyterians but what measure then have they lately offerd to think such liberty less beseeming us then themselves presuming to put him upon us for a Maister whom thir Law scarce allows to be thir own equall If now then we heare them in another straine then heretofore in the purest times of thir Church we may be confident it is the voice of Faction speaking in them not of truth and Reformation In the yeare 1581. the States of Holland in a general Assembly at the Hague abjur'd all obedience and subjection to Philip King of Spaine and in a Declaration justifie thir so doing for that by his tyrannous goverment against faith so oft'n giv'n and brok'n he had lost his right to all the Belgic Provinces that therfore they deposd him and declar'd it lawful to choose another in his stead Thuan. l. 74. From that time to this no State or Kingdom in the World hath equally prosperd But let them remember not to look with an evil and prejudicial eye upon thir neighbours walking by the same rule But what need these examples to Presbyterians I meane to those who now of late would seem so much to abhorr deposing whenas they to all Christendom have giv'n the latest and the liveliest example of doing it themselves I question not the lawfulness of raising Warr against a Tyrant in defence of Religion or civil libertie for no Protestant Church from the first Waldenses of Lyons and Languedoc to this day but have don it round and maintaind it
forbearance and hope of his amendment and he after that shall doe me tenfould injury and mischief to what hee had don when I so Covnanted and stil be plotting what may tend to my destruction I question not but that his after actions release me nor know I Covnant so sacred that withholds mee from demanding Justice on him Howbeit had not thir distrust in a good cause and the fast and loos of our prevaricating Divines oversway'd it had bin doubtless better not to have inserted in a Covnant unnecessary obligations and words not works of a supererogating Allegeance to thir enemy no way advantageous to themselves had the King prevail'd as to thir cost many would have felt but full of snare and distraction to our friends usefull onely as we now find to our adversaries who under such a latitude and shelter of ambiguous interpretation have ever since been plotting and contriving new opportunities to trouble all againe How much better had it bin and more becomming an undaunted vertue to have declard op'nly and boldly whom and what power the people were to hold Supreme as on the like occasion Protestants have don before and many conscientious men now in these times have more then once besought the Parlament to doe that they might go on upon a sure foundation and not with a ridling Covnant in thir mouthes seeming to sweare counter almost in the same breath Allegeance and no Allegeance which doubtless had drawn off all the minds of sincere men from siding with them had they not discern'd thir actions farr more deposing him then thir words upholding him which words made now the subject of cavillous interpretations stood ever in the Covnant by judgement of the more discerning sort an evidence of thir feare not of thir fidelity What should I return to speak on of those attempts for which the King himself hath oft'n charg'd the Presbyterians of seeking his life whenas in the due estimation of things they might without a fallacy be sayd to have don the deed outright Who knows not that the King is a name of dignity and office not of person Who therfore kils a King must kill him while he is a King Then they certainly who by deposing him have long since tak'n from him the life of a King his office and his dignity they in the truest sence may bee said to have killd the King nor onely by thir deposing and waging Warr against him which besides the danger to his personal life set him in the fardest opposite point from any vital function of a King but by thir holding him in prison vanquishd and yeilded into thir absolute and despotic power which brought him to the lowest degradement and incapacity of the regal name I say not whose matchless valour next under God lest the story of thir ingratitude thereupon carry me from the purpose in hand which is to convince them that they which I repeat againe were the men who in the truest sense killd the King not onely as is provd before but by depressing him thir King farr below the rank of a subject to the condition of a Captive without intention to restore him as the Chancellour of Scotland in a speech told him plainly at Newcastle unless hee granted fully all thir demands which they knew he never meant Nor did they Treat or think of Treating with him till thir hatred to the Army that deliverd them not thir love or duty to the King joyn'd them secretly with men sentencd so oft for Reprobates in thir owne mouthes by whose suttle inspiring they grew madd upon a most tardy and improper Treaty Whereas if the whole bent of thir actions had not bin against the King himselfe but against his evill Councel as they faind and publishd wherefore did they not restore him all that while to the true life of a King his Office Crown and Dignity when he was in thir power and they themselves his neerest Counselers The truth therefore is both that they would not and that indeed they could not without thir own certaine destruction having reduc'd him to such a final pass as was the very death and burial of all in him rhat was regal and from whence never King of England yet revivd but by the new re inforcement of his own party which was a kind of resurrection to him Thus having quitc extinguisht all that could be in him of a King and from a total privation clad him over like another specifical thing with formes and habitudes destructive to the former they left in his person dead as to Law and all the civil right either of King or Subject the life onely of a Prilner a Captive and a Malefactor Whom the equal and impartial hand of justice finding was no more to spare then another ordnary man not onely made obnoxious to the doome of Law by a charge more then once drawn up against him and his owne confession to the first Article at Newport but summond and arraignd in the sight of God and his people cutst and devoted to perdition worse then any Ahab or Antiochus with exhortation to curse all those in the name of God that made not Warr against him as bitterly as Meroz was to be curs'd that went not out against a Canaanitish King almost in all the Sermons Prayers and Fulminations that have bin utterd this sev'n yeares by those clov'n tongues of falshood and dissention who now to the stirring up of new discord acquitt him and against thir owne discipline which they boast to be the throne and scepter of Christ absolve him unconfound him though unconverted unrepentant unsensible of all thir pretious Saints and Martyrs whose blood they have so oft layd upon his head and now againe with a new sovran anointment can wash it all off as if it were as vile and no more to be reckn'd for then the blood of so many Dogs in a time of Pestilence giving the most opprobrious lye to all the acted zeale that for these many yeares hath filld thir bellies and fed them fatt upon the foolish people Ministers of sedition not of the Gospell who while they saw it manifestly tend to civil Warr and bloodshed never ceasd exasperating the people against him and now that they see it likely to breed new commotion cease not to incite others against the people that have savd them from him as if sedition were thir onely aime whether against him or for him But God as we have cause to trust wil put other thoughts into the people and turn them from looking after these firebrands of whose fury and sals prophecies we have anough experience and from the murmurs of new discord will incline them to heark'n rather with erected minds to the voice of our supreme Magistracy calling us to liberty and the flourishing deeds of a reformed Common-wealth with this hope that as God was heretofore angry with the Jews who rejected him and his forme of Government to choose a King so that he