according to the established wholsome lawes of the kingdome I must returne the same answer For what then Davus sum non Oedipuâ— I desire that some good men or other would be pleased to help me out where there occurres not danger of our Religion nor of our Liberties nor yet of our Estates to be invaded or trenched upon as neither can the Master Architects of these miserable distractions I suppose though having artificially perswaded others fully perswade themselves there is there to take up hostile armes you may if you please stile it a just Resistance but what terme it deserves of right let the world judge Besides then the groundles surmises feares jealousies of certaine Melancholy overworking heads as may be well imagined since Prona est timori semper in pejus fides And those too many of them it is to be thought like false fires raised of purpose by the industry of cunning projectors only to amuze the simpler people no other ground or reason can I finde of these publique commotions unlesse what remaineth it may be the distemper'd and perverse ambition of some particular person I burthen none with this heavie charge But so it is in the generall that men of discontented humours or otherwise ambitiously disposed had at all times rather hazard the common peace and safetie of the whole then fayle of their proposed private designes Publicis incendiis patriae clarescere as he speaks hath alwaies been more for encouragement then a stop to the proceedings of such kinde of spirits chiefly wheÌ„need a decayednes of fortune help to sharpen and whet on this froward ambitious humour of theirs And as there so likewise is it where men have casually embarqued themselves further into great affaires then that they are able with safety to come off There they stagger and faulter up and downe as much uncertain what course to take yet still make onwards and rather then perish alone desperately put all into a generall confusion with Sampson taking his last Revenge against the Philistines they pull down the house though necessarily it fall upon their own heads causing thus the guiltlesse ruine of a whole Nation oftimes to wait upon the Herse of their deserved overthrow Notwithstanding all this the King say they for certaine hath formerly tranâ—gressed in the premises by declining from the manifest and knowne Rules of the Law I will not here argue the just Prerogative of Kings what they may happily challenge to themselves either praeter or sup 〈…〉 a besides or above the law This would be censured streight such is the malitious wit of jealousie as a plea made for the establishment of an Arbitrary Goverment yet so Machiavell may teach or his associates perchance but not I Thus much only then I shall say in this matter What ere priviledges the Prince is possessed of whether derived unto him by custome or as grounded upon the law it self favore amplianda sunt is an authentique saying borrowed from Canonists They ought of right rather to bee improved then any way diminished by us without any curb or bouÌ„ds at all imposed froÌ„ law to regulate them by did Kings we find anciently and in those heroick purer times of the world thence rightly termed {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} with the like governe the people subjected to them But and this farther There can be no state so exactly framed composed according to the rule of law but that it will require some kinde of a moderating dispensative power left in the hands of the supreame Magistrate Since the law is generall nor can it therefore possibly extend to a through determination of all particulars And in such a case I had rather if I needs must be under the power governance of one then of many Easier was it for Athens to suffer the Arbitrarie dominion of one Tyrant then as they did a while of Thirty and for Rome upon emergent occasions the Dictatorship or absolute government of a single Magistrate then that of the Decemviri It is confest that where the way is plaine and open no obstructions or difficulties to hinder there for the Magistratet o walk {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as the Philosopher prescribeth is the safest course But this cannot alwaies be I presume in the best Commonwealth though never so well ordered by the square and advice of the wisest Lawgiver And now for their objection more particularly Grant the King hath heretofore somewhat swerved from the knowne Dictates of the law yet not to that height neither will themselves say as either of Tyrannie or grosse Idolatry howbeit the onely just causes of Resistance doubtlesse were there any just what finde we not David and Solomon the best and wisest of Kings to have digressed oftimes into sundry by-paths of sin and errour from the law of God even to the highest pitch Take in Ahab Manasses with others of the worser sort nor yet questioned thereupon by their subjects streight for their fowle and truly insufferable misdemeanours in point of Regall government yet were they as strictly bound by solemne covenant both towards God and Man entred into at their severall inaugurations to a performance of certaine conditions as Kings at present be nor doe we generally finde Gods Priests and Prophets then the ordinary sole interpreters of his hidden pleasure upon any termes what ere freeing the people in the least degree from that indissoluble tye of their duty and subjection to their lawfull Soveraigne unlesse occasionally by virtue of some particular Expresse or other from the very mouth of the Almightie as it happened in Jehues case rising up against Ioram 2. Kings 9. or in that of Jeroboam doing the like by his Liege Lord 1. Kings 11. which with the like extraordinary and immediate commands from God unusuall for these times our Enthusiastis theÌ„selves will not I hope in modesty offer to pretend to in their present undertakings And say must Princes then be brought upon the stage and subjected to the danger of being Resisted by the people upon a supposall of every slip or petty errour committed by them Princes they may be pleased to know as they are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or Patres familiarum as was said before so have they a large family to governe and supervise Adde hereto the many intricate and perplext mysteries those Arcana imperii which they have to deale with in the management of the Sate so as they see not alwaies what they doe neither can they but by other mens eyes nor heare they but by the eares of others but are forced to use the subservient help and assistance of their Ministers Can they shew me wherein the King hath knowingly and willingly broken in upon the received lawes of the Land and that without a full perswasion of what he did to be just and warrantable Hic nodus vindice dignus for as so I am confident hee may safely proclaime it aloud with old
the supposed purity of Gods worship by such harsh meanes I have not so frequently heard of untill these later and frantick daies of ours It is the fruit of a doctrine well becoming the Turkish Alcoron and there accordingly ofttimes inculcated but no where surely to be found in the Gospell of Christ not taught by his Apostles nor afterwards abetted by any of the Orthodox Fathers {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Prayer and Preaching were the appointed weapons of their warfare Notwithstandâ—ng more outrages I dare say more heynous and crying sinnes in all kinds unpunishably coÌ„mitted under this pretext chiefly these last two yeares then have bin acted formerly set them altogether within the circuit of this our English Clime since the first establishment of the Protestant Religion here amongst us As if with us now indeed were the time when Satan that great Master of misrule and of all impietie were let loose into the world according to St Iohn that his Apocalypticall prediction Rev. 20. 7. Consider they I say and that seriously lest as our Saviour speakes concerning the Iewes Mat. 22. 34. burdening them with all the righteous blood which was shed upon earth from the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias So in as much as between two parties disagreeing the one must needs be faulty all the crimes fore-mentioned may come upon them likewise and be added to the score of their offences And yet if one small transgression in any of the premisses bee as it is enough to sinke the guilty what will an huge heape doe If Caines own sinne alone was heavier then he could beare what may we thinke of the numerous sinnes of a whole Nation These or the like considerations then if throughly impartially weighed might be of great force in rectifying the praecipitate disloyall inclinations of a still misguided sort of people Certainly it hath beene want of a serious animadversion on this behalfe which hath hitherto blindly led them on A strong though groundlesse conceit with manie of the justice nay necessarinesse of the cause swaying them aside from the course of their bounden duty As if their Religion their Lawes and Liberties lay all at stake true for certaine it is to be feared the Contrary side which yet as here God knowes is nothing so When Absolon rose up in Armes against his Lord and Father David 2. Sam. 15. no question but the Heads of the then devised conspiracie made good use the text insinuates as much of some such specious pretences wherewith to cozen the weake and ignorant people so for that causelesse insurrection of Corah with his complices against Moses and Aaron together Num. 16. thereby at once discovering their rancorous disaffection towards the established government both in Church and State Yee take too much upon you cry these discontented Reformers ye intrench too close upon our pretended Priviledges our Liberties our Consciences Never any Rebellion wanted a cloake or cover of this kind of making And therefore men should have done well carefully to have pondered aforehand by debating over and againe a businesse of so high consequence as that whereon depends the hazard of eternall Damnation Rom. 13. 2. before they had rashly ingaged themselves in a blinde and obstinate defence of the same Or if it hath been duely perpended as it ought yet without effect then naught to bee said but this Quis furor O Cives God I feare as his usuall way of proceeding is in such like cases hath strangely besotted and infatuated the understandings of this sinfull Nation meaning to scourge us still after a most severe manner with the rodde of our own fury like as it befell the Ammonites and Moabites in fight against the Israelites who helped thus to destroy one another as we finde it recorded 2. Chron. 20. 23. Exemploque pari ruit Anglica turba suoque Marte cadent coefi per mutua vulnera fratres I conclude the whole with that sage advice of the wisest of men next to Christ himselfe Prov. 24. 21. worthy of a deliberate poising by all but especially those of the disaffected partie Feare God and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change for their calamitie shall rise suddenly and who knoweth the ruine of them both where it is to be observed how you have God and the King set a brest as 't were the obedience we owe to the King joyned with that Duty which we owe unto God sutably a neglect of our performance in the one threatned with certaine destruction alike as in the other And the reason for both holds parallell still because as by the former we offend God in his owne person so by the later we injure him in the Person of his substitute or immediate Vicegerent here appointed over us FINIS Gildas de excidio Britanniae Moris continui gentis erat sicut nunc est ut infirma esset ad retundenda hostium tela fortis ad civilia bella Infirma inquam ad exequenda pacis ac veritatis insignia fortis ad Scelera mendacia
THE KINGS CAVSE Rationally briefly and plainly debated as it stands De facto AGAINST The Irrationall groundlesse misprisions of a still deceived sort of People 2. SAM. 2. Shall the Sword devoure for ever Know yee not that it will be bitternesse in the end Heu quantum potuit terrae pelagique parari Hoc quem civiles hauserunt sanguine dextrae Printed Ann. Dom. 1644. The Kings cause rationally and plainly debated as it stands de Facto c. COncerning the nature or quality of these unhappy distractions we have long groaned under consequently by what name or title we may best decipher them I need not to speake much A civill warre it is who sees not yea plusquam Civile more then so an unnaturall bloodie warre wherein friend stands engaged upon tearmes of defiance against his friend brother against brother even father against the sonne making good by this meanes in these last and dreggish times of the world that inevitably true prediction of our Saviour Luk. 12. 13. what the event or issue of this warre so unluckely begun and as obstinately still maintained may be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} God he knoweth The best we can probably expect unlesse the same God be pleased by a timely prevention to make up the breach must needs be a speedy overwhelming of this once flourisâ—ing Island in the generall deluge of ruine and destruction But enough of this The truth herein is too notoriously apparent to our extreame sorrow and rather requires the helpe of some kinde of healing salve then of a farther corrosive It may be worth our consideration then in the first place to observe against whom namely be these warlike armes taken up Against the King questionlesse Patrem patriae our lawfull Soveraigne the Lords annointed That {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as one expresseth it that Supream power placed in so neer a distance under God himselfe that whereas we in modesty terme Kings or Rulers here upon earth his vicegerents only he hath pleased to advance them to an higher title and plainly stiles them Gods I have said yee are Gods Ps. 82. 6. And hence further is it that we find in Scripture the seat of Royall judicature as usually termed the Throne of God as the Kings Throne nor themselves barely the Deputies or Ministers of Men but Gods Ministers his peculiar substitutes All power is from God I willingly acknowledge by some way of derivation or other but this for certaine more immediatly and in a neerer degree as being the Supreme 1. Pet. 2. 15. more determinatively too in that he alone is the disposer both of Kings and kingdomes saith the Prophet Dan. 2. 21. Dan. 4. 17. 25. even to a particular designation of the person frequently as we finde it to have been not to speake ought of exoticke governments in the Iewish commonwealth The Heathen anciently by the very light of nature found out this truth {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} saith the Poet and another yet more closely {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The King saith he is the truest and liveliest reflex or image of God upon earth that may be Humani Ioves as the Latine Comoedian speaking of such persons in a straine beyond them both And surely for this reason particularly amongst other in my poore fancie is that very title above mentioned of being called Gods bestowed upon them to wit in regard of their dominion and soveraignetie over the rest which they still retaine as a maine Relique as it were of that Gods image at first stampt and engraven upon the soule of man Now as ' I said against this Soveraigne power neverthelesse be these armes lifted up a power so sacred it seemes as not to be touched or but roughly medled with since Touch not mine annointed not the chiefe then be sure is the interdictive expresse caution of the Almightie David thus did but touch Saul by cutting off the skirt of his garment and we see how his heart smote him streight in as much as who can stretch forth his hand saith he against the Lords annointed and be guiltlesse For however to colour and disguise the businesse the King hath been all along pretended to these harsh unusuall proceedings of late as if what were done were not against him but for him yet is this in truth such a strange peece of state-Sophistry that men though of meane capacitie cannot I suppose at last but discerne easily and see through it Nuga quisquiliae unlesse they can possibly shew pro con with and against termes so widely opposite to be one and the same which yet will neither good Logick admit in the former nor scripture phrase acknowledge in the latter That saying of our Saviour Mar. 10. touching matrimoniall union Quos Deus iunxit nemo separet is in a good sense if read backwards appliable to the present divisions Q. D. S. N. jung whom God in his secret displeasure as here hath a while really divided set at distaÌ„ce let none go about in pursuance of their close unjustifiable designes by bare and emptie termes to ioyne together You say you are for the King entitle him to every act the King saith no disclaimes it utterly often and againe hath protested against it whoÌ„ may we in reason rather beleeve especially considering those grosse monstrous inconsequences which follow hereupon as that thereby he is made to set forth Edicts levie monies wage war and all against himselfe It is true I confesse in some cases as where the Prince is a Minor and under age or where he is not compos sui through weaknesse of his intellectualls this may well hold and the seeming contradiction be easily closed up The reason is for that there the party is not Master of his own actions nor can he in a legall consideration be reckoned amongst those {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} whether in Art or Nature which move of themselves but as one rather who is moved from without There both law and equitie justly commit such a one to the tuition and guidance of another But where there rules a iudicious and discerning Prince able to steere by the conduct of his own reason there to plead your being for him and yet goe crosse to his commands is such a fine peece of artifice as may serve perchance to ensnare the simple but withall occasion the wise to smile If it be here replied as some have done that this Resistance of theirs is meerely against the King his Private not his Publique his Personall not his Royall commands for as so say they he must be supposed alwaies to speak in the voice of his Parliament or else that of the law A poore shift when as they are faine to shape on this manner their evasions at the Romish forge for thus deale they labouring by a like art of Sophistrie to set up Monarchicall
which is another by-path they use to tread in thereby labouring to stick an indeleble character of disgrace upon the present Government in either Ere while the Bishops Miter shrewdly troubled them and now the neerer interest and powerfulnesse with the King of some our new State Pilots Not the faults of either it may be giving so much offence as the eminency of their places Now the Prelates then the Statists What can I say more or lesse concerning this unquiet barking humour of theirs but this the Lord rebuke them Especially for some among them and those of the Leviticall Tribe too the Firebrands and chiefe Incendiaries to speake truth in these bloody disturbances Those {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or certain Minor Prophets of the times as the great Criticke was wont to terme such Indeed the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the Chaffe out-cast of the Clergie Those Pulpit Barraters I meane whose Religion usually is Faction and zealous Ignorance That have turned preaching into flat Rayling and insteed of disseminating the word of saving Truth in the eares of their hearers doe nought but sowe sedition forcing them on by their powerfully delusive perswasions like sillie Sheep as they are almost without the help of a Metaphor into daily slaughters and unlesse God of his mercy shall please to intercede certaine destruction at once I feare both of soule and body If then what Philosophie hath taught us the end may be guessed at by the Meanes conducent thereunto for that the meanes and end be wontedly Inter se commensurabilia as they say and do each answer one another I know not how I may conceive or hope well of the end in this case where I see the meanes to be so foule and altogether unwarrantable Last of all let it be laid to heart the many unspeakable Miseries which these unhappie differences insteed of a redresse of some former sufferings have brought upon us Quite contrary as it were ex Professo to what we had reason to expect the Remedy as hitherto proving much worse then the disease was Losse in the Libertie of our Persons For as now what man can be securely safe in any place And which is the truest Symptome as the Oratour some where tells us of a people or Nation running further into slavery wee groane and complaine under the burthen as sensible of it and yet Contend not against it with an unanimous consent as it were benummed in our Resolutions Losse in the property of our goods For as times are Ius omne in ferro est not the Law but the Sword is made the Master of our estates To speak nothing of the new Aegyptian burdens or taxes beyond all sufferance daily encreasing upon us Losse in the purity of our Religion So many brainlesse impious positions are crept in which like that Abomination of Desolation spoken of by the Prophet Daniel Dan. 9. 27. have greatly polluted the house of God Great care of late hath there beene taken for the suppression and avoidance of Poperie and 't is well if so it end not which yet may be feared in making roome for the introducement of senselesse Anabaptisme or utter Libertinisme Losse in the beautie of our Discipline or Liturgy no decency of order observed now Every mans private spirit or rather fancy will needs be a rule unto it selfe And how far this irregularity may chance to proceed is hard to determine since Conscience not ballanced with a sound judgement is commonly boundlesse and never ceaseth till it shut up its progresse in a plaine phrensie I remember to this effect a remarkable passage in that storie of those mad Anabaptists of Munster in Germanie They began at first upon pretence of reforming somewhat amisse in Luthers Doctrine about certaine few Articles there Thence they goe on to an utter abolishing of the then present Liturgie That would not serve the turne but ere long the written word must bee thâ—owne by as too straight and concludent to the Spirit and this moreover with a scoffe by crying Bibel Bubel Babel A Scheme much like to that in the old Poet Titi Tute Tati Tibi c. Now againe as before let us put the premises together The Infallibilitie as hath been argued of the greatest assemblies The Partialitie ofttimes apparent in some the bounded and circumscribed Limitednesse of all the fuller concurrence of able Personages on this side the preposterous indirect waies of proceeding by the fomenters and other Agents on that the inexpressible calamities which have and are like to fall upon us in liew of an hoped for Reformation Joyne hereto as a close of the rest that which yet indeed fills up the Ephath of these mischiefes full the bringing in of a forraigne power As if the fire of dissention our selves had kindled were not speedy enough to consume a State unlesse Others from abroad be solemnly invited and drawne in under pretence of quenching the flames to pull downe the House And the scale methinks seemes still and still to weigh downe lower the Kings cause more cleared and the peoples more liable to just misprision Thus have I in short drawne forth as 't were a true Coppy of the businesse as it stands de facto between the King and some of his people Should I now put from shore a litle and goe on further from the Thesis to the Hypothesis from the History of the matter to a probleme as whether supposing the King were truly misled and that he did notably fayle the trust reposed in him whether in such a case hee might be lawfully resisted would be a point as easily argued and Polemically concluded on the Kings part as it hath been hitherto treated of in a plaine and positive discourse For at a word take but away that grand Phenomenon of theirs that Regall power is originally from the people and therefore upon occasion may be reassumed by them which yet both in the Antecedent and Consequent is utterly false This principle too as it is further backed with certaine generall Maxims as Quicquid efficit tale est majus tale and Totum est majus suis partibus Againe Salus populi suprema Lex with the like Axiomes as it is evident of large extent or compasse subject to divers and sundry Limitations and accordingly as so fitter for young Sophisters to wrangle out their disputes with then as meet engines to overturne Monarchicall Government Take away I say but these and the like supposita laid downe as an unshaken foundation by them which yet hath been a taske already sufficiently performed by the lernd industry of divers worthy undertakers in that kinde and the whole frame of their weak built discourses quickly fals to ground What they urge concerning the fundamentall Lawes of the Kingdome what likewise touching the usage and customary manner of proceeding by generall assemblies in such like cases heretofore both at home and abroad trusting to these amongst the rest as forts of safe