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
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
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
will bless us and be propitious to us who reject a King to make him onely our leader and supreme governour in the conformity as neer as may be of his own ancient government if we have at least but so much worth in us to entertaine the sense of our future happiness and the courage to receave what God voutsafes us wherin we have the honour to precede other Nations who are now labouring to be our followers For as to this question in hand what the people by thir just right may doe in change of government or of governour we see it cleerd sufsiciently besides other ample autority eev'n from the mouths of Princes themselves And surely they that shall boast as we doe to be a free Nation and not have in themselves the power to remove or to abolish any governour supreme or subordinate with the government it self upon urgent causes may please thir fancy with a ridiculous and painted freedom fit to coz'n babies but are indeed under tyranny and servitude as wanting that power which is the root and sourse of all liberty to dispose and oeconomize in the Land which God hath giv'n them as Maisters of Family in thir own house and free inheritance Without which natural and essential power of a free Nation though bearing high thir heads they can in due esteem be thought no better then slaves and vassals born in the tenure and occupation of another inheriting Lord Whose government though not illegal or intolerable hangs over them as a Lotdly scourge not as a free goverment and therfore to be abrogated How much more justly then may they fling off tyranny or tyrants who being once depos'd can be no more then privat men as subject to the reach of Justice and arraignment as any other transgressors And certainly if men not to speak of Heathen both wise and Religious have don justice upon Tyrants what way they could soonest how much more mild and human then is it to give them faire and op'n tryall To teach lawless Kings and all that so much adore them that not mortal man or his imperious will but Justice is the onely true sovran and supreme Majesty upon earth Let men cease therfore out of faction and hypocrisie to make outcrys horrid things of things so just and honorable And if the Parlament and Military Councel do what they doe without president if it appeare thir duty it argues the more wisdom vertue and magnanimity that they know themselves able to be a president to others Who perhaps in future ages if they prove not too degenerat will look up with honour and aspire toward these exemplary and matchless deeds of thir Ancestors as to the highest top of thir civil glory and emulation Which heretofore in the persuance of fame and forren dominion spent it self vain-gloriously abroad but henceforth may learn a better fortitude to dare execute highest Justice on them that shall by force of Armes endeavour the oppressing and bereaving ofReligion and thir liberty at home that no unbridl'd Potentate or Tyrant but to his sorrow for the future may presume such high and irresponsible licence over mankind to havock and turn upside-down whole Kingdoms of men as though they were no more in respect of his perverse will then a Nation of Pismires As for the party calld Presbyterian of whom I beleive very many to be good faithful Christians though misled by som of turbulent spirit I wish them earnestly and calmly not to fall off from thir first principles nor to affect rigor and superiority over men not under them not to compell unforcible things in Religion especially which if not voluntary becomes a sin nor to assist the clamor and malicious drifts of men whom they themselves have judg'd to be the worst of men the obdurat enemies of God and his Church nor to dart against the actions of thir brethren for want of other argument those wrested Lawes and Scriptures thrown by Prelats and Malignants against thir own sides which though they hurt not otherwise yet tak'n up by them to the condemnation of thir owne doings give scandal to all men and discover in themselves either extreame passion or apostacy Let them not oppose thir best friends and associats who molest them not at all infringe not the least of thir liberties unless they call it thir liberty to bind other mens consciences but are still secking to live at peace with them and brotherly accord Let them beware an old and perfet enemy who though he hope by sowing discord to make them his instruments yet cannot forbeare a minute the op'n threatning of his destind revenge upon them when they have servd his purposes Let them feare therefore if they bee wise rather what they have don already then what remaines to doe and be warn'd in time they put no confidence in Princes whom they have provokd lest they be added to the examples of those that miserably have tasted the event Stories can inform them how Christiern the second King of Denmark not much above a hundred yeares past driv'n out by his Subjects and receavd againe upon new Oaths and conditions broke through them all to his most bloody revenge slaying his chief opposers when he saw his time both them and thir children invited to a feast for that purpose How Maximilian dealt with those of Bruges though by mediation of the German Princes reconcil'd to them by solem and public writings drawn and seald How the massacre at Paris was the effect of that credulous peace which the French Protestants made with Charles the ninth thir King and that the main visible cause which to this day hath sav'd the Netherlands from utter ruine was thir finall not beleiâ—ing the perfidious cruelty which as a constant maxim of State hath bin us'd by the Spanish Kings on thir Subjects that have tak'n armes and after trusted them as no later age but can testifie heretofore in Belgia it self and this very yeare in Naples And to conclude with one past exception though farr more ancient David after once hee had tak'n armes never after that trusted Saul though with tears and much relenting he twise promis'd not to hurt him These instances few of many might admonish them both English and Scotch not to let thir owne ends and the driving on of a faction betray them blindly into the snare of those enemies whose revenge looks on them as the men who first begun fomented and carri'd on beyond the cure of any sonnd or safe accommodation all the evil which hath since unavoidably befall'n them and thir King I have something also to the Divines though brief to what were needfull not to be disturbers of the civil affairs being in hands better able and more belonging to manage them but to study harder and to attend the office of good Pastors knowing that he whose flock is least among them hath a dreadfull charge not performd by mounting twise into the chair with a formal preachment huddl'd up at the od hours of a whole lazy week but by incessant pains and watching in season and out of season from house to house over the soules of whom they have to feed Which if they ever well considerd how little leasure would they find to be the most pragmatical Sidesmen of every popular tumult and Sedition And all this while are to learne what the true end and reason is of the Gospel which they teach and what a world it differs from the censorious and supercilious lording over conscience It would be good also they liv'd so as might perswade the people they hated covetousness which worse then heresie is idolatry hated pluralities and all kind of Simony left rambling from Benefice to Benefice iike ravnous Wolves seeking where they may devour the biggest Of which if som well and warmely seated from the beginning be not guilty t were good they held not conversation with such as are let them be sorry that being call'd to assemble about reforming the Church they fell to progging and solliciting the Parlament though they had renouncd the name of Priests for a new setling of thir Tithes and Oblations and double lin'd themselves with spiritual places of commoditie beyond the possible discharge of thir duty Let them assemble in Consistory with thir Elders and Deacons according to ancient Ecclesiastical rule to the preserving of Church discipline each in his several charge and not a pack of Clergie men by themselves to belly cheare in thir presumptuous Sion or to promote designes abuse and gull the simple Laity and stirr up tumult as the Prelats did for the maintenance of thir pride and avarice These things if they observe and waite with patience no doubt but all things will goe well without their importunities or exclamations and the Printed letters which they send subscrib'd with the ostentation of great Characters and little moment would be more considerable then now they are But if they be the Ministers of Mammon instead of Christ and scandalize his Church with the filty love of gaine aspiring also to sit the closest and the heaviest of all Tyrants upon the conscience and fall notoriously into the same sins whereof so lately and so loud they accus'd the Prelates as God rooted out those immediately before so will he root out them thir imitators and to vindicate his own glory and Religion will uncover thir hypocrisie to the open world and visit upon thir own heads that curse ye Meroz the very Motto of thir Pulpits wherwith so frequently not as Meroz but more like Atheists they have mock'd the vengeance of God and the zeale of his people The End Jer. 48. 10. Prov. 12. 10.
lawfull But this I doubt not to affirme that the Presbyterians who now so much condemn deposing were the men themselves that deposd the King and cannot with all thir shifting and relapsing wash off the guiltiness from thir owne hands For they themselves by these thir late doings have made it guiltiness and turnd thir owne warrantable actions into Rebellion There is nothing that so actually makes a King of England as righful possession and Supremacy in all causes both civil and Ecclesiastical and nothing that so actually makes a Subject of England as those two Oaths of Allegeance and Supremacy observd without equivocating or any mental reservation Out of doubt then when the King shall command things already constituted in Church or State obedience is the true essence of a subject either to doe if it be lawful or if he hold the thing unlawful to submit to that penaltie which the Law imposes so long as he intends to remaine a subject Therefore when the people or any part of them shall rise against the King and his autority executing the Law in any thing establishd civil or Ecclesiastical I doe nor say it is rebellion if the thing commanded though establishd be unlawfull and that they sought first all due means of redress and no man is furder bound to Law but I say it is an absolute renouncing both of Supremacy and Allegeance which in one word is an actual and total deposing of the King and the setting up of another supreme autority over them And whether the Presbyterians have not don all this and much more they will not put mee I suppose to reck'n up a seven yeares story fresh in the memory of all men Have they not utterly broke the Oath of Allegeance rejecting the Kings command and autority sent them from any part of the Kingdom whether in things lawful or unlawful Have they not abjur'd the Oath of Supremacy by setting up the Parlament without the King supreme to all thir obedience and though thir Vow and Covnant bound them in general to the Parlament yet somtimes adhering to the lesser part of Lords and Commons that remaind faithful as they terme it and eev'n of them one while to the Commons without the Lords another while to the Lords without the Commons Have they not still declar'd thir meaning whatever their Oath were to hold them onely for supreme whom they found at any time most yeilding to what they petitiond Both these Oaths which were the straitest bond of an English subject in reference to the King being thus broke and made voide it follows undeniably that the King from that time was by them in fact absolutely deposd and they no longer in reality to be thought his subjects notwithstanding thir fine clause in the Covnant to preserve his person Crown and dignitie set there by som dodging Casuist with more craft then sinceritie to mitigate the matter in case of ill success and not tak'n I suppose by any honest man but as a condition subordinate to every the least particle that might more concern Religion liberty or the public peace To prove it yet more plainly that they are the men who have deposd the King I thus argue We know that King and Subject are relatives and relatives have no longer being then in the relation the relatiō between King and Subject can be no other then regal autority and subjection Hence I inferr past their defending that if the Subject who is one relative takes away the relation of force he takes away also the other relative but the Presbyterians who were one relative that is to say Subjects have for this sev'n years tak'n away the relation that is to say the Kings autoritie and thir subjection to it therfore the Presbyterians for these sev'n yeares have removd and extinguish the other relative that is to say the King or to speake more in brief have depos'd him not onely by depriving him the execution of his autoritie but by conferring it upon others If then thir Oathes of subjection brok'n new Supremacy obey'd new Oaths and Covnants tak'n notwitstanding frivolous evasions have in plaine tearmes unking'd the King much more then hath thir sev'n yeares Warr not depos'd him onely but outlawd him and defi'd him as an alien a rebell to Law and enemie to the State It must needs be cleare to any man not averse from reason that hostilitie and subjection are two direct and positive contraries and can no more in one subject stand together in respect of the same King then one person at the same time can be in two remote places Against whom therfore the Subject is in act of hostility we may be confident that to him he is in no subjection and in whom hostility takes place of subjection for they can by no meanes consist together to him the King can bee not onely no King but an enemie So that from hence wee shall not need dispute whether they have depos'd him or what they have defaulted towards him as no King but shew manifestly how much they have don toward the killing him Have they not levied all these Warrs against him whether offensive or defensive for defence in Warr equally offends and most prudently before hand and giv'n Commission to slay where they knew his person could not bee exempt from danger And if chance or flight had not sav'd him how oft'n had they killd him directing thir Artillery without blame or prohibition to the very place where they saw him stand Have they not converted his revenue to other uses and detain'd from him all meanes of livelyhood so that for them long since he might have perisht or have starv'd Have they not hunted and pursu'd him round about the Kingdom with sword and fire Have they not formerly deny'd to Treat with him and thir now recanting Ministers preach'd against him as a reprobate incurable an enemy to God and his Church markt for destruction and therfore not to bee treated with Have they not beseig'd him and to thir power forbid him Water and Fire save what they shot against him to the hazard of his life Yet while they thus assaulted and endangerd it with hostile deeds they swore in words to defend it with his Crown and dignity not in order as it seems now to a firm and lasting peace or to his repentance after all this blood but simply without regard without remorse or any comparable value of all the miseries and calamities sufferd by the poore people or to suffer hereafter through his obstinacy or impenitence No understanding man can bee ignorant that Covnants are ever made according to the present state of persons and of things and have ever the more general laws of nature and of reason included in them though not express'd If I make a voluntary Covnant as with a man to doe him good and hee prove afterward a monster to me I should conceave a disobligement If I covnant not to hurt an enemie in favor of him and