the oppressed did encrease the oppressour in case he prevailed was Lord over his Captives lives and estates whose encrease and number encreased his Dominion swelling by degrees to the extent of a considerable Monarchie the oppressed whether one or more it began with few being not able to resist violence fled without question for succour to him whom they thought was able to defend them and that he made himselfe King over them seemeth to me more probable than that he was made by them for it will be admitted on both sides the oppressed hath power to subject himselfe and the protectour power to command it for the oppressed sheltreth himselfe probably under a stronger patronage than himselfe without question then the Patron would erect and enlarge his Dominion with more speed and will than the oppressed would undergo perpetuall slaverie the one being dissonant to Nature the other congruous to humane ambition hence we gather by our consideration of the probable actions of the first oppressours and oppressed Principalitie forced by oppression cannot claime in any likelihood its originall from the People and Dominion thus gained whilest it is not accompanied with tyrannie cannot be called unnaturall or to crosse the dictates of reason reason embraceth that which it forseth best to prevent violence and settle quietnesse and that which Nature delighteth most in can no way be held unnaturall witnesse the workes of it all woven in subjection and dependencie only oppression too frequent a companion of Soveraigntie in corrupted Nature is that which is contrariant to Nature and the chiefe cause of all contracts between King and people Lastly let us see what footing your popular Supremacie hath in the Law of Nations which is defined to be a humane voluntary Law and obligative among all or most Nations that Law Supremacie was acknowledged by all or most Nations to be the end and efficient of all powers is neither affirmed nor proved by you Their constant practice as we have touched already disallowing your opinion and if you joyne this issue with me you will never be able to give in evidence any convincing testimonie but we shall expect your palinodia with Tu vicisti me ego errorem orthodoxally concurring with our opinion that power is not originally inherent in the people de facto or by any Law The result of our discourse is that Monarchies and all other Govenments owe their originall to God who is the Donor efficient and ultimate end of them the people are by him made the instrument to convey this but not all people nor at all times The King and people are the subordinate end of the Government they live in Kings contracts with their Subjects in a Government gained by Conquest is more the Princes bounty than a discharge of his dutie and if otherwise Princes so settled cannot be removed or forcibly resisted by the people without traiterous Rebellion against God and his Deputie The residue of your discourse is either matter of fact admonitions or sarcasmes for the matter of fact as I do not disallow the truth of any of them so I do not much credit a single testimonie especially of him whose eyes are infected with 〈◊〉 Jandize sees the Kings actions all of one colour Sarcasme◠are disallowed by the holy Text against the sacred person or a King Ne maledices principi in populo tuo Deuter. 22.28 or foment Rebellion with malitious paradoxes against Gods Annointed and if by a Pythagorean 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thersites liveth in your Antipathie to Regall Government most English hearts will with me returne unto you the checke Thersites had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 FINIS
is grantable and granted by the people upon what condition and limitation best pleaseth them they are so enabled by expresse or tacit causalitie of the first cause mediate and remoter God if tacitly it is an instinct contracted with them and then it falleth properly to be discussed in the Law of Nature which we shall consider in its due place if expresly either it is committed to writing and so in the sacred Book or else traditionally practis'd by all ages and confessed by all or most Nations neither of these is pressed or can be justly by you hence we have clearly evinced that the people by the divine Law cannot be the immediate efficient of this Supremacie whether you will consider them as meer instruments or free agents enabled by God the mediate Cause to settle and convey this Principalitie upon whom and in what manner they please Next we shall enquire whether the people is the mediate God the immediate Cause of this power if you so consider God and man it followeth that the people worketh through God as a meer instrument or free agent receiving his authoritie from man To averr either is hardly distinguished from blasphemie therefore we will pitch upon the last consideration of this Supremacie in the divine Law and see whether God concurreth as a partiall immediate cause with the people to produce and convey this power upon one or many I shall admit unto you as your last refuge this mutuall and immediate concurrence the people being but a partiall cause cannot in reason devest as they did not alone invest this power without the concurrence of God the sociall cause unlesse you will say the forfeiture and power of re-entrie to be onely reserved to the people or accruing to them by Survivership either of these portents of opinions madnesse it selfe will not own Again the Creatour and Creature cannot have the same numericall influence and if it could the effect still denominateth the worthier cause therefore unlesse the people be held the worthier cause they cannot properly or justly be called the authour or cause of this Supremacie Hence is undeniably inferred that the people are not nor cannot be stiled properly and justly the Cause mediate or immediate of Principalities God is the Donor of Aristocracie and Monarchie pag. 1. but few lines after of the same page you retract that opinion disseize him of the title of Donor holding God well repaid with the title of a Confirmer of Principalities Quo te mutantem Protea nodo First a Donor to give a being then rob him of that onely a Confirmer to give a well being at most the confirmation of a Charter presupposeth a Charter God is a free Agent suppose he suspendeth or not at all confirmeth the popular conveyance Is the conveyance void or voidable if void then either the people giveth no being at all or this being still floweth and not otherwise from them at that instant that God confirmeth it and if it must alwayes flow from them at the same instant that God confirmeth it and not before escapeth I believe any mans reason to finde out If voidable then they give a being before God confirmeth it and then popular election is supposable without divine concurrence and if it be the people prove efficients and fall to be considered under one of the branches of efficients discussed before and that they have not there the least shadow to this pretended Soveraigntie is already and clearly evinced Whether Nature entituleth them to this Royalnesse resteth next to be examined Ignoratis terminis ignoratur scientia we shall therefore explain what we mean by the Law of Nature what dominion ariseth by this Law of Nature and in whom this dominion is naturally resident by the Law of Nature we understand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 statutes but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 right and this is not in so large a sense as the Roman Lawyers use it for that which is common to man and beast is improperly applied to beasts according to that of Hesiod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God gave mankinde a Law which is Deni'd to beast wing'd fowle and fish These when ere their nature need Do out upon another feed But we restrain this to mankinde and this restrained we consider that which is properly the Law of Nature which we conceived to be the dictate of right reason commanding or prohibiting an Act by the congruitie or incongruitie of the Act with rationall nature and consequently injoyned or forbidden by the Authour of Nature Order and Subornation is assigned by most Astronomers to celestiall Bodies the Inhabitants of Heaven I am assured by divine Authoritie the Angels Archangels Principalities and Dominions the Earth and the parts of it are created with subordinate Dependencie the meaner Creatures of the Earth as Bees discover in themselves and actions Order and Subalternation in place and Authoritie to deny this to Man to whom all earthly Creatures were given that Anarchie should onely run in Mankinde cannot be imagined to be intended by Nature or the Authour of it The Word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so called for Order and Decencie and shall this be denied to Microcosmos the little world Man whose parts are guided by the Head from thence proceed commands to all the Members The contemplation of these Subordinations and Offices invite us to consider the World and the things therein with respect to the Head and Monarch of it Man and in Man the worthier to whom Nature gave a respect and prioritie the Son as Son owing his being to his Father owed him also Honour hence Honour thy father c. is re-written in the heart the characters that Nature first imprest being by the corruption of it blotted and defaced Hereupon Basil wittily stileth a Parent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a visible Deitie the Patriarchs of the first age as we have already urged derived from their Father Adam Supremacie and left to the first-borne successively in their Generations The contemplation thereof induceth me to believe that had Adam stood in the state of innocencie one had been subject and subordinate to one another but without tyrannie or oppression on the Commanders part or reluctancie on the Subject When rapine and violence the issue of corrupted Nature broke forth necessitie of safeguard forced men to draw into societies the easier to protect themselves and from thence you say sprung all Principalities but whether the People chose over themselves Governours or Kings or those Governours and Kings made themselves so at first over the People seemeth to me not so evident as the confidence of your Observations would have me believe to lay aside Authorities that speak of either we will enquire after the Truth of this especially the Principalitie of the first Age by all the meanes reason can discover to us When oppression appeared probably it began in one then more and so in multitudes and proportionably the number of
AN EXAMINATION OF THE OBSERVATIONS Vpon His MAJESTIES ANSWERS Wherein the absurdities of the OBSERVATORS Positions and Inferences are discovered Nunquámne reponam Vexatus toties rauci Theseide Codri Juvenal Sat. 1. Printed in the Yeare of our LORD M.DC.XLIII AN EXAMINATION OF THE OBSERVATIONS Vpon his MAJESTIES ANSWERS WE shall for methods sake first take a generall examination of the Observators chiefest Positions and their supposed properties then fall to a stricter examination of them upon a particular survey of the whole discourse not omitting the least argument materially urged by him which we purpose to discusse in that order the nature of the thing examined and examination doth prompt us to not limiting our selfe to any particular government but looking upon all in their efficients and ends descending to particulars only and as often as the Observator goeth before us The principall subject of his discourse is That power is originally inherent in the people pag. 1. and transferred by them alwayes upon certaine limitations and conditions of reentry pag. 4 5. he taketh this admitted and then urgeth the following properties incident to the people The people more noble than the King pag. 3. He proveth this by two reasons 1. From the end The King is for the people instituted not the people for the King pag. 3. 2. From the cause Quod facit tale est magis tale pag. 2. The King is singulis major universis minor pag. 2 44. What Parliaments be and the prayses of them pag. 5 6 7 8 9 10. Hothams resisting the Kings entrance into Hull is justifyed pag 25 26 27 28 29 30 31. These opinions are maintained saving that of the Parliament and Hothams act by Cardinall Bellarmine with all the reasons used by the Observator L 1. de pont c. 7. et de Clericis c 28. and Theologically answered by our late Brittish Solomon of happy memory the first that I observed of English Protestants that seemeth to favour this opinion is the Gentleman who delivered upon the Earle of Straffords tryal these words If a King by the right of a Conquerour gives laws to the people shall not the people by the same reason be restored to the right of the conquered to recover their liberty if they can if indifinitely meant for all people if by conquered is meant the people it seemeth to me that he supposeth the originall of all governements to proceed from the people The Observators arguments pretend to be drawne from the fundamentals of nature which shall be discussed in their proper places a Christian Writer in a businesse of this weight should haue had his recourse to Scripture and measured nature by it which is the true Lydian stone to distinguish spurious from genuine principles of nature the sacred booke is copious and evident in this matter but because not urged by the Observator I shall content my selfe to passe by the great advantage Scripture giveth me and touch it only with that caution I limited my selfe in the ensuing Treatise Power you say is originally inherent in the people You say so but offer no proofe of it What power to make Kings all Kings or some Kings at all times or some times and is this power originally inherent in them de facto or de jure if de jure is it divino naturali or jure Gentium De facto Ignorance it selfe hath not the face to averre it dominion is the chiefe ingredient of Royalty Adam had it and used it over man and beast a gift not of man but of God Genes c. 1. v. 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after his likenesse after his image God created man his image in the substance especially soule of man his likenesse in the qualities he endowed man with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like God as he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strong powerfull strength and power being essentiall properties of soveraignty the posterity of the first man before the law when they were a law to themselves had potestatem vitae et necis derived to their first borne in their generations the holy booke averreth this no moderne no antient authority oppugneth it Potestas vitae et necis are infallible markes of Soveraignty constantly exercised by the first borne before the Law without limitation without condition or contract had with them over whom they exercised this authority how then is Power originally inherent in the people did the constant practise of the first age runne a course contrary to nature in morall businesses for the space of sixteen hundred years for from the creation to the deluge about so many yeares are reckoned by the best Chronologers neither is this birth-right of soveraignty during that time suspended interrupted or crost in the lyne of Seth for ought I ever heard or read of no man I believe is of that unbeliefe to say that nature from its cradle was dispossessed of this birth-right and could not regaine it in so many ages it is said Naturam expellas furcâ licet usque recurret lesse time than this might make custome nature unlesse this custome did crosse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prima naturae which we shall examine in its proper place the purity of nature probably in morall actions grew more corrupted in processe of ages witnesseth the increase of lawes occasioned by the encrease of vice After the Deluge Nimrod put up the first Monarchy the People had not the chiefe hand to elect him but you reply he was a Hunter of men a Tyrant an Inverter of Natures Institutions what Nature meant or assented to shall be examined in one consideration of Inherent power De jute naturali that he was a Monarch and not elected by the People fully satisfieth our present purpose he is branded with Tyranny not so properly for usurpation of Soveraignty but for the unnaturall and inordinate exercise of his Dominion for he in whom Soveraignty is lawfully vested be it from People or Patrimoniall and inheritable from his Ancestours by the unnaturall exercise of his power is ordinarily and properly stiled a Tyrant the World being Peopled severall Dominions arose of severall natures one man sometimes and in some places ingrossing Soveraignty and some times the people the passions of depraved Nature still breaking our for their seeming best advantage to run upon particulars is needlesse nor much to the purpose examples of both natures are numerous though questionlesse unequall the foure Monarchs and the practice of the first age owne not their births to popular elections examples parallell to these for antiquity and fame the continued voyce of History assureth me cannot be found in any election made by the people hence it is evident that it cannot without much Immodesty or Ignorance be alleadged that Power is originally inherent in the People de facto in respect of practice in the People to make all Kings and at all times Whether this power is originally inherent in the People de jure of right falleth next to be examined if
this power is originally inherent in the people de jure it is then so inherent in them jure Divino by Divine right naturally by the law of Nature or jure Gentium by the law of Nations to averre the people intituled to this power by any Civill law that is by the law of any particular Nation commeth not to the purpose for your tenent is indefinite not limited to any particular government and endeavoured to be maintained by indefinite arguments therefore if the people hath any right to this power we must finde it out in one of the three rights proposed by us and we will here first enquire after this power in the Divine law God is donour of all Dominions witnesseth your selfe page 1. therefore not the people but you will say God and the people to prove this I finde not one argument drawne from Scripture in all your Observations and if any text had the least colour of advantage for you without doubt it had beene urged and sacred History is most energeticall and too frequent in the mouth of conscious Heterodoxy we shall to keepe closer to you decline to examine your Observations according to the rule of Scripture and keep our discourse to runne within the Channels of naturall Reason touching only Divinity as we passe along so far as it descendeth to communicate it selfe with reason if you must needs therefore justle in man to share with God in the constitution of Royalnesse reason reason and nature being the Idols of your discourse forceth you to confesse that God is either the mediate people immediate or the people mediate God the immediate or both immediately concurre as immediate efficients of principalities no other sort of operation or influx can be assigned to efficient Causes and reducible to the Observations advantage if God is made to be mediate people immediate efficients it followeth of necessity that the people must either be a meer instrument or a free Agent enabled by the first cause to settle this power in whom they please and that in an absolute or conditionall estate a meere instrumentall Cause I am assured you will deny the people to bee for Instrumentum non movet nisi motum and the effects of it are properly and usually called the effect of the mover I meane by mover not the finall cause but efficient or Agent which indeed hath the most influence upon the effect and whose quality still specificates and denominates accordingly this efficient and not the instrument he that killeth a man with a Sword is called the man-slayer not the Sword a virtuous or vicious exploit is attributed to the man not the sword wherewith he did it to take God and people in this state is to allow God to be the Well from whence doth flow principality and the people the Conduit-pipe and he that hath the least drop of Reason will not averre the water to have its being from the Conduit-pipe that conveyeth it people in this notion have not the powers dreamed of by the Observations either originall or inherent in them nor can your quod fecit tale est magis tale be applyed to them that have not sufficiency fit to denominate them tale we shall looke then upon the people as free Agents enabled by God the mediate or remoter Cause with power by them grantable and transferrable upon whomsoever their publike voyce and consent electeth this power is by them grantable absolutely or conditionally or both if they may doe it both wayes wee will for methods sake looke upon them in their first capacity if they make an absolute grant they are irrevocably concluded neither is it of any purpose to urge that the nature of the thing granted is incompatible with an absolute conveyance of it this is to deny our supposition neither doth the nature of the thing granted gainsay an absolutenesse of grant for power ever lives and estates is at most the thing conveyed which was and may be absolutely and irrevocably given a free man by the law of this Land may by confessing himselfe a villaine in a Court of Record bind himselfe and his heires to servitude and estate to the disposall of their Lord a man sui juris in the Romane Law usually called the Civill law may subject himselfe and posterity to another man over whom and fortunes he hath an absolute Dominion Gell. l. 11. c. 8. and Instinian Institut de servis the Jewish Law hath an expresse testimony for this addition in 21. Chapter of Exodus verse 6. his Master speaking of Servant he shall boare his eare through with an Awle and he shall serve him for ever the Logicke of these examples is evident by the same reason that one so many that are sui iuris may convey to one or more absolute dominion over themselves and posterity And though I would admit unto you that it is pag. 20. Vnnaturall for any Nation to give away its owne propriety in it selfe and yet this gift is both naturall and necessary to the being of all Societies and States for if every man reserveth to himselfe the power given him by nature to resist violence and injury though offered by a Magistrate then every man would be a law to himselfe to the extirpation of all Societies and civill Justice The inconveniency arising from the supposition of such absolute grant objected by the observator faleth to the ground for conditionall as well as absolute tralation of power is obnoxious to inconveniences neither is it insisted so much by us whether this power is ever or more usually granted but whether rightfully grantable irrevocably which no reasonable judgement will deny by the examples urged by us drawn from the Constitutions of those three most considerable Common-wealths neither is this absolute subjection as the Observator falsly urgeth contrary or dissonant to the Law of Nature by the Law of Nature hee understandeth that which right reason assenteth unto pag. 44. Naturall reason many times approveth and consenteth to this irrevocable conveyance poverty sometimes or inability to defend themselves by the strength of their owne Lawes compelleth the people irrevocably to subject themselves to another power and right reason assenteth to this grant induced thereunto by these or the like exigences of State Campani said incomparable Grotius olim necessitate subacti populo Romano se subiecerunt in hunc modum populum Campanum vrbemque Capuam agros delubra Deum Divina Humanaque in vestram ditionem P. C. dedimus here is an absolute conveyance over lives and fortunes by the people without reservations or conditions neither standeth this example single in History Learned Grotius in his exquisite book De Jure Belli pacis fol. 49. reckoneth many Conveyances of the same nature which for brevitie we passe over referring the scrupulous if any can be in a matter so evident to the foresaid cited Author to be fully satisfied and shall further view the superstructure of your discourse upon the foundation your selfe have
laid Admit Supremacie derived from the people hence Quod facit tale est magis tale The people more noble than the King because he is for them not they for him instituted Salus populi Suprema Lex and the Law of prerogative is subservient to this the King singulis major universis minor the right of conquest cannot bee pleaded to acquit Princes of that which is due to the people as the authors and ends of all power for meere force cannot alter the course of Nature or frustrate the tenour of Law and if it could there were more reason why the people might instisie force to regaine due Liberty then the King might subvert the same And this is all I finde in your Observations reducible to maintaine the principall subject of your observation the residue being either matter of fact admonitions or reprehensions I shall not meddle with being Heterogencous to our present purpose Quod facit tale c. Wine maketh a man drunk therefore Wine it selfe is more drunke than man the inference holdeth not you see in causes by accident Sol homo generant hominem therefore the Sunne is more man then the man generated this I am assured you will confesse to bee a very bad consequence so then the Maxime is not current in partiall efficients and the people are at most but partiall causes for you allow God also a sharer of this Supremacie but I will admit further unto you Supremacie wholly derived from the people the maxime is not true in all totall causes Adam was the author or cause of sinne God was the totall Author or cause of Adam therefore God was more Author or Cause of sinne your Religion will not allow this Logick the axiome therefore holdeth not in totall free agents and though I admit you the people to be whole cause of this power yet I know you will say they are free Agents in conferring of it and if you allow them that freedome your Axiome you see is ill applyed To come yet nearer unto you a Servant giveth the Master the title of Master Relatives as these are are Causa sibi invicem doth it follow therefore that the servant is more Master then he that is made master by him the passage betweene Valentinian and his Souldiers recorded by Sozom. in his Ecclesiasticall History cleareth the point Vt me ad imperandum vobis eligeretis in vestra situm erat potestate ô milites at postquam me elegistis quod petitis in meo est arbitrio non vestro vobis tanquam subditis competit parere mihi quae facienda sunt cogitare That I was chosen your Emperour lay in your power Souldiers but after I am so chosen by you what you demand of me lyeth now in mine not your power it befits you as subjects to obey and me to consider what I am to doe Your Quod facit iale in point of government holdeth true in him or them whose power continually dependeth upon the will of him or them that gave it not in them who have it transacted by one Act bee it absolute or with certaine limitation that this power is transactable is allowed by your selfe and that absolutely some thing is alreadie proved the conditionall relation of it we shall referre to be further examined in the second member of the division of immediate efficients and here we will sift the second propertie you annex to the subject of your discourse this supposed popular Supremacie The People more noble than the King because he for them not they for him is instituted that universally taken is apparently false some Government is onely for the Governour not the Governed erected as that between the Master and Servant whom the Master taketh for his own not his Servants profit and though the Servant gaineth by the service yet his gain was neither the cause nor end of this dominion not of that gained by conquest the end and efficient of some Government are both the Governour and Governed as that between the Husband and the Wife whose subjection still referreth to her and her Husbands goods So the Campani subjected themselves to Rome for their own safetie and the Roman Honour and greatnesse both you see proved the object of this Government the Conquerour is the efficient and end of his Government by his contract with the people to limit his power with certain caution over them maketh them thereby a partiall end of his Supremacie it is false then that all Kings are erected for the people and not the people for them but that you may perceive the weaknesse of your inference I shall admit unto you that all Kings are for the people and not the people for them doth it follow therefore they are more noble than the King tutorage is instituted for pupillage not pupillage for it is the pupill therefore more noble than the tutour that hath power over him the tutour upon misusage of his power over the pupill I confesse is removed but by a positive Law made by those above him where that positive Law is by whom made appeareth not in any considerable Monarch of the world some but sew and inconsiderable Antiquitie make mention of Mezentius in Virgil seemed to be of such conditionall powers Ergo omnis furiis surrexit Etruria justis Regem ad suppâ—â—sium prasenti morte reposcunt This pretended Nobiâ—itie we have quitted the people of by what is already said Next your Salus populi suprema lex commeth to be discussed if you mean by People a Common-wealth with all the parts of it I allow you that Salus populi suprema lex but if you understand by people the Subject contrà distinguished fom the King if you take people for the Members without the Head of a Societie your Salus populi is not Suprema lex if you take Members apart the worthier Member challengeth the first respect and consequently the King who is the Head of the Common-wealth claimeth in reason the preheminence of the inferior Members Art imitateth Nature and if the Reason of Nature giveth it so Reason of policie being grounded upon that of Nature cannot deny this prerogative and so much concerning that adjunct Rex singulis maior universis minor you understand maior minor in respect of Supremacie and by universis singulis simul sumptis all the Subjects and the representation of them the Parliaments for they you say are essentially the same pag. 5. He can command all singly but all ioyntly can command him This of all your opinions carrieth most absurditie with it The people you say give a power over them to the King and yet reserve it to themselves In the Oath of Supremacie you confesse the King supreme next under God but by this you introduce an interposition of the people the representative Bodie of the Kingdom the Parliament which is the Kingdom it selfe so you terme it pag. 5. do joyntly and universally in most acts preface the King with May it please your