OBSERVATIONS upon some of his Majesties late Answers and Expresses IN this contestation betweene Regall and Paliamentary power for methods sake it is requisite to consider fâ—â—se of Regall then of Parliamentary Power and in both to consider the efficient and finall causes and the meanes by which they are supported The King attributeth the originall of his royalty to God and the Law making no mention of the graunt consent or trust of man therein but the truth is God is no more the author of Regall then of Aristocraticall power nor of supreame then of subordinate command nay that dominion which is usurped and not just yet whilst it remaines dominion and till it be legally againe devested referres to God as to its Author and donor as much as that which is hereditary And that Law which the King mentioneth is not to be understood to be any speciall ordinance sent from heaven by the ministery of Angels or Prophets as amongst the Jewes it sometimes was It can be nothing else amongst Christians but the Pactions and agreements of such and such politique corporations Power is originally inherent in the people and it is nothing else but that might and vigour which such or such a societie of men containes in it selfe and when by such or such a Law of common consent and agreement it is derived into such and such hands God confirmes that Law and so man is the free and voluntary Author the Law is the Instrument and God is the establisher of both And we see not that Prince which is the most potent over his subjects but that Prince which is most Potent in his subjects is indeed most truely potent for a King of one small City if he be intrusted with a large Prerogative may bee sayd to be more Potent over his subjects then a King of many great Regions whose prerogative is more limited and yet in true realitie of power that King is most great and glorious which hath the most and strongest subjects and not he which tramples upon the most contemptible vassells This is therefore a great and fond errour in some Princes to strive more to be great over their people then in their people and to ecclipse themselves by impoverishing rather then to magnifie themselves by infranchising their Subjects This we see in France at this day for were the Peasants there more free they would be more rich and magnanimous and were they so their King were more puissant but now by affecting an adulterate power over his Subjects the King there looses a true power in his Subjects imbracing a cloud instead of Juno but thus we see that power is but secondary and derivative in Princes the fountaine and efficient cause is the people and from hence the inference is just the King though he be singulis Major yet he is universis minor for if the people be the true efficient cause of power it is a rule in nature quicquid efficit tale est magis tale And hence it appeares that at the founding of authorities when the consent of societies convayes rule into such and such hands it may ordaine what conditions and prefix what bounds it pleases and that no dissolution ought to be thereof but by the same power by which it had its constitution As for the finall cause of Regall Authoritie I doe not finde any thing in the Kings papers denying that the same people is the finall which is the efficient cause of it and indeed it were strange if the people in subjecting it selfe to command should ayme at any thing but its owne good in the first and last place T is true according to Machavills politicks Princes ought to ayme at greatnes not in but over their Subjects and for the atchieving of the same they ought to propose to themselves no greater good then the spoyling and breaking the spirits of their Subjects nor no greater mischiefe then common freedome neither ought they to promote and cherish any servants but such as are most fit for rapine and oppression nor depresse and prosecute any as enemies but such as are gracious with the populacy for noble and gallant Acts To be deliciae humani generis is growne fordid with Princes to be publike torments and carnificines and to plot against those Subjects whom by nature they ought to protect is held Caesar-like and therefore bloody Borgias by meere crueltie tâ—eachery hath gotten roome in the Calender of witty and of spirited Heroes And our English Court of late yeares hath drunke too much of this State poyson for eyther wee have seene favorites raysed to poll the people and razed againe to pacifie the people or else which is worse for King and people too we have seene engines of mischiefe preserved against the people and upheld against Law meerely that mischeefe might not want incouragement But our King here doth acknowledge it the great businesse of his coronation oath to protect us And I hope under this word protect he intends not onely to shield us from all kind of evill but to promote us also to all kind of Politicall happinesse according to his utmost devoyre and I hope hee holds himselfe bound thereunto not onely by his oath but also by his very Office and by the end of his soveraigne dignitie And though all single persons ought to looke upon the late Bills passed by the King as matters of Grace with all thankefulnesse and humility yet the King himselfe looking upon the whole State ought to acknowledge that hee cannot merit of it and that whatsoever he hath granted if it be for the prosperity of his people but much more for their ease it hath proceeded but from his meere dutie If Ship money if the Starre Chamber if the High Commission if the Votes of Bishops and Popish Lords in the upper House be inconsistent with the welfare of the Kingdome not onely honour but justice it selfe challenges that they be abolisht the King ought not to account that a profit or strength to him which is a losse and wasting to the people nor ought he to thinke that perisht to him which is gained to the people The word grace sounds better in the peoples mouthes then in his his dignitie was erected to preserve the Commonaltie the Commonaltie was not created for his service and that which is the end is farre more honorable and valuable in nature and policy then that which is the meanes This directs us then to the transcendent {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} of all Politiques to the Paramount Law that shall give Law to all humane Lawes whatsoever and that is Salus Populi The Law of Prerogative it selfe it is subservient to this Law and were it not conducing thereunto it were not necessary nor expedient Neither can the right of conquest be pleaded to acquit Princes of that which is due to the people as the Authors or 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 justifie force to regaine due libertie then the Prince might to subvert the same And t is a shamefull stupidity in any man to thinke that our Ancestors did not fight more nobly for their free customes and Lawes of which the conqueror and his successors had in part disinherited them by violence and perjury then they which put them to such conflicts for it seemes unnatural to me that any nation should be bound to contribute its owne inherent puissance meerely to abet Tiranny and support slavery and to make that which is more excellent a prey to that which is of lesse worth And questionlesse a native Prince if meere Foree be right may disfranchise his Subjects as well as a stranger if he can frame a sufficient party and yet we see this was the foolish sinne of Rehoboam who having deserted and reiected out of an intollerable insolence the strength of ten tribes ridiculously sought to reduce them againe with the strength of two I come now from the cause which conveyes Royalty and that for which it is conveyed to the nature of the conveyance The word Trust is frequent in the Kings Papers and therefore I conceive the King does admit that his interest in the Crowne is not absolute or by a meere donation of the people but in part conditionate and fiduciary And indeed all good Princes without any expresse contract betwixt them and their Subjects have acknowledged that there did lie a great and high trust upon them nay Heathen Princes that have beene absolute have acknowledged themselves servants to the publike and borne for that service and professed that they would manage the publike weale as being well satisfied populi Rem esse non suam And we cannot imagine in the fury of warre when lawes have the least vigour that any Generalissimo can be so uncircumscribed in power but that if he should turne his Canons upon his owne Souldiers they vvere ipso facto absolved of all obedience and of all oathes and ties of allegiance vvhatsoever for that time and bound by higher dutie to seeke their owne preservation by resistance and defence vvherefore if there bee such tacite trusts and reservations in all publike commands though of the most absolute nature that can be supposed vve cannot but admit that in all well formed monarchies vvhere kingly Prerogative has any limits set this must needs be one necessary condition that the subject shall live both safe and free The Charter of nature intitles all Subjects of all Countries vvhatsoever to safetie by its supreame Law But freedome indeed has divers degrees of latitude and all Countries therein doe not participate alike but positive Lawes must every vvhere assigne those degrees The great Charter of England is not strait in Priviledges to us neither is the Kings oath of small strength to that Charter for that though it bee more precise in the care of Canonicall Priviledges and of Bishops and Clergymen as having beene penned by Popish Bishops then of the Commonalty yet it confirmes all Lawes and rightfull customes amongst vvhich vve most highly esteeme Parliamentary Priviledges and as for the word Eligerit whether it be future or past it skills not much for if by this oaths Law Justice and descretion be executed amongst us in all judgements as vvell in as out of Parliament and if peace and godly agreement be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 amongst us all and if the King defend and uphold all our lawes and customes vve need not feare but the King is bound to consent to new Lawes if they be necessary as vvell as defend old for both being of the same necessity the publique trust must needs equally extend to both and vve conceive it one Parliamentary right and custome that nothing necessary ought to be denyed And the vvord Eligerit if it be in the perfect tense yet shewes that the peoples election had beene the ground of ancient Lawes and customes and vvhy the peoples election in Parliament should not be now of as great moment as ever I cannot discover That vvhich results then from hence is if our Kings receive all royalty from the people and for the behoofe of the people and that by a speciall trust of safety and libertie expressely by the people limited and by their owne grants and oathes ratified then our Kings cannot be sayd to have so unconditionate and high a proprietie in all our lives liberties and possessions or in any thing else to the Crowne appertayning as vve have in their dignity or in our selves and indeed if they had they vvere not borne for the people but merely for themselves neither were it lawfull or naturall for them to expose their lives and fortunes for their Country as they have beene hitherto bound to doe according to that of our Saviour Bonus Pastor ponit vitam pro ovibus But now of Parliaments Parliaments have the same efficient cause as monarchies if not higher for in the truth the vvhole Kingdome is not so properly the Author as the essence it selfe of Parliaments and by the former rule t is magic tale because vve see ipsum quid quod efficit tale And it is I thinke beyond all controversie that God and the Law operate as the same causes both in Kings and Parliaments for God favours both and the Law establishes both and the act of men still concurres in the sustentation of both And not to stay longer upon this Parliaments have also the same finall cause as Monarchies if not greater for indeed publike safety and liberty could not be so effectually provided for by Monarchs till Parliaments were constituted for the supplying of all defects in that Government Two things especially are aymed at in Parliaments not to be attayned to by other meanes First that the interest of the people might be satisfied secondly that Kings might be the better counsailed In the summons of Edw. the first Claus. 7. 111. 3. Dors. we see the first end of Parliaments expressed for he inserts in the writ that whatsoever affayre is of publike concernment ought to receive publike approbation quod omnes tangit ab omnibus approbari debet or tructari And in the same writ he saith this is lâ—x ne tissima provida circumspectione stabilita there is not a word here but it is observeable publique approbation consent or treatie is necessary in all publike expedients and this is not a meere usage in England but a Law and this Law is not subject to any doubt or dispute there is nothing more knowne neither is this knowne Law extorted from Kings by the violence and injustice of the people it is duely and formally establisht and that upon a great deale of reason not without the providence and circumspection of all the states Were there no further Antiquity but the raigne of Edward the first to recommend this to us certainly so there ought no reverence to be withheld from it
government being used as Physicke not dyet by the intermission of due spaces of time has in it all that is excelleut in all formes of Government whatsoever If the King be an affector of true liberty he has in Parliament a power as extensive as ever the Romane Dictators was for the preventing of all publike distresses If the King be apt to intrude upon the common liberties the people have hereby many Democraticall advantages to preserve themselves If Warre bee here is the Unitive vertue of Monarchy to encounter it here is the admirable Councell of Aristocracy to manage it If Peace be here is the industry and courage of democracy to improve it Let us now see how Kings usually governe without Parliaments especially such as are ruled by Councell averse from Parliaments I need not speake of France and other Countries where together with these generall Assemblies all liberty is falne to the ground I need not travell further then our stories nay I need not passe beyond our owne Times my discourse will be endlesse if I doe The wisest of our Kings following their owne private advise or being conducted by their owne wills have mistaken their best Subiects for their greatest enemies and their greatest enemies for their best Subiects and upon such mistakes our iustest Kings have often done things very dangerous And without upbraiding I may say that this King by the fraud of such as have incensed him against Parliaments and his most loyall people hath so far been possest with a confidence in the zeale of Traytors that he hath scarse ever yet enioyed that grandour and splendor which his Ancestors did enioy He hath met in the field with two contrary Armies of his own Subiects and yet that Army which he went to destroy and advanced their colours against him was more loyall than that which himselfe commanded and yet both were more loyall than those fatall whisperers which ingaged them so one against the other if the whole Kingdome of Scotland had been more hearkened to rather than some few malignants of the Popish and Prelaticall faction the King had sooner found out the fidelity of that whole Kingdome and the infidelity of that wicked faction But as things then stood the King was as much incensed against them as he is against us now and he that did then perswade him that the Scots were no Rebels seemed as great an enemy as he doth now that shall defend the innocency of Sir John Hotham there was no difference at all betwixt that ease of the Scots and this of ours the King attributed then as much to his own conscience and understanding as he doth now and he attributed as little then to the publike Votes of that Kingdome as he doth now to this only in this our condition is the more unhappy because that so fresh and memorable experiment doth not at all profit us but still by a strange kinde of relapse the King seemes now the more firmly to relie upon his own private reason and counsell the more cause he hath to confide in publike advertisements and the more he professes to doe contrary the maine question now is whether the Court or the Parliament gives the King the better Councell the King sayes he cannot without renouncing his own conscience and reason prefer the Parliaments Councell before the Courts and that which the King here calls Conscience and reason can be nothing else but meere private opinion for if the Councell of the Parliament were directly opposite to common understanding and good conscience and the Councell of the Court were evidently consonant thereunto there needed no such contestation For example the Parliament conceives that such and such ill offices have been done to frame parties and unite forces against the Parliament the State and therfore they desire that such Townes and Forts and the publick Militia may be intrusted to the custody and command of such Noblemen and Gentlemen as they confide in the Kings secret Court-Councell suggests against this that this request incloseth at reasonable intention in it and that the ayme is to wrest all power out of the Kings hand that he may be forced to depose himselfe the effect of this is no more but to let the King know that they are more wise and faithfull than the Parliament and that hee may doe royally to hearken to them in condemning the Lords and Commons of most inexpiable unnaturall impossible Treason for they must needs love him better then the Parliament but he cannot hearken to the Lords and Commons without offering violence to his owne reason and conscience here we see the misery of all if Princes may not be led by their owne opinions though infused by obscure whisperers when they scandall the loyalty of whole kingdomes without cause rather then by the sacred and awfull councels of whole Nations they are denyed liberty of conscience and ravisht out of their owne understandings And yet if Princes may be admitted to prefer such weak opinions before Parliamentary motives and petitions in those things which concerne the Lives Estates and Liberties of thousands what vain things are Parliaments what unlimitable things are Princes what miserable things are Subiects I will enlarge my selfe no longer upon this endlesse Theame Let us look upon the Venetians and such other free Nations why are they so extreamly iealous over their Princes is it for feare lest they should attaine to an absolute power It is meerely for feare of this bondage that their Princes will dote upon their owne wills and despise publike Councels and Laws in respect of their owne private opinions were not this the sting of Monarchy of all formes it were the most exquisite and to all Nations it would be the most desirable Happy are those Monarchs which qualifie this sting and happy are those people which are governed by such Monarchs I come now to the particularities of our own present case for it may be said that though publik advise be commonly better than private yet in this case it may be otherwise some men have advised the King that the Parliament hath trayterous designes both against his Person Crown and not to be prevented but by absenting himselfe denying his influence and concurrence frustrasting and protesting against their proceedings is invalid and seditious and laying heavy charges of Rebellion upon them to this advise the King hearkens so the Parliament requests and advises the contrary and now in the midst of all our calamities of gasping Ireland and bleeding England the Parliament seeing that either they must make use of their legislative power and make ordinance to secure some Forts and settle the Militia of the Kingdome in sure hands and to prevent the seducers of the King or else two Kingdomes should probably bee lost they doe accordingly The King proclaymes to the contrary notwithstanding The question then as I conceive is this onely whether or no the King hath any just cause to suspect the Parliament of Treason
quarrell and in defiance of the adverse trayterous Peeres he which would have told him that those Swords drawne for him were in truth drawne against him and his best friends and those Swords on the other side drawne against him or rather against his seducers were indeed drawne for him should have found but poore acceptance for without doubt the King would have thought such a suggestion an abuse to his sences to his reason to his conscience and an impudent imposture worthy of nothing but scorne and indignation And if it had beene further pressed that the voyce and councell of the Peeres was the voyce and councell of the major and better part of the Kingdome whereas Spencers party was but of inconsiderable fortunes and his Councell was but private and might tend to private ends it is likely the King at the last resort would have referred all to his owne will and discretion but I have now done with the businesse of Hull and therein I thinke with all objections against the Loyaltie of the Parliament for the same reason will extend to all their Votes and actions concerning the Militia c. and in summe all ends in this if Kings bee so inclineable to follow private advise rather then publique and to preferre that which closes with their naturall impotent ambition before that which crosses the same are without all limits then they may destroy their best subjects at pleasure and all Charters and Lawes of publike safetie and freedome are voyd and God hath not left humane nature any meanes of sufficient preservation But on the contrary if there bee any benefit in Lawes to limit Princes when they are seduced by Privadoes and will not hearken to the Great Councell of the Land doubtlesse there must be some Court to judge of that seducement and some authoritie to inforce that iudgement and that Court and Authoritie must bee the Parliament or some higher Tribunall there can be no more certaine Crisis of seducement then of preferring private advise before publike But the King declines this point and saith that hee doth not undervalue the whole Parliament or lay charge of Treason upon all he doth confesse that divers have dissented and divers beene absent c. hee deserts onely and accuses the faction and conspiracy of some few in Parliament Wee are now at last fallen upon an issue fit to put an end to all other invectives let us sticke close to it The King promises very shortly a full and satisfactory narration of those few persons in Parliament whose designe is and alwayes was to alter the whole frame of government both in Church and State and to subject both King and people to their owne lawlesse Arbitrary power and government a little of this Logicke is better then a great deale of Rhetoricke as the case now stands If the King will please now to publish the particular crimes of such as hee hath formerly impeached of Treason and the particular names of such as now hee sets forth in those Characters and will therein referre himselfe to the strength of his proofes and evidence of his matter it is impossible that any jealousie can cloud his integretie or checke his power any longer Then it will appeare to all that he hath not left us out of any disaffection to Parliaments or out of any good opinion of Papists Delinquents and other Incendiaries but that hee was necessitated to depart from us that hee might be the better able to preserve to us our Religion Lawes and liberties and that none of his solemne oathes of cordiall love to us hath wanted integretie and faith This will satisfie all lovers of Justice that he gives not light credit to weake whisperers or malitious informers whose ayme may bee to bring this Parliament to some ignoble tryall or to confound it without any tryall at all by generall aspertions and meere calumnious surmises this will proclaime his cander and sinceritie and set a brighter luster upon his Justice then any oratory whatsoever By the performance of this promise he shall not doe onely right to himselfe but also to the whole kingdome for the distracted multitude being at last by this meanes undeceived shall not onely prostrate themselves and all their power presently at his feet but for ever after remaine the more assured of his good whether to publike liberties and Parliamentary Priviledges Howsoever nothing but the awfull promise of a King could make us thinke so dishonorably of Parliaments or suspend our judgements so long of them for an Aristocracy in Parliament cannot bee erected without meanes and what this meanes shall be is yet to us altogether inscrutible for the power of Parliaments is but derivative and depending upon publike consent and how publike consent should be gained for the erection of a new unlawfull odious tiranny amongst us is not discernable the whole kingdome is not to bee mastered against consent by the Traine Band nor the Traine Bands by the Lords or debutie Lievtenants nor they by the maior part in Parliament nor the maior part in Parliament by I know not what septem-virat there is some mistery in this which seemes yet above if not contrary to nature but since the King hath promised to open it we will suspend our opinion and expect it as the finall issue of all our disputes The maine body of the difference being thus stated I come now to the observations of some other severall obiections against this Parliament and exceptions taken against arbitrary power in all Parliaments and I shall observe no order but consider them as I finde them either dispersed or recollected in the Kings late Expresses The Parliament being complayned against for undutifull usage to the King above all former Parliaments hath said that if they should make the highest presidents of other Parliaments their patterne there would be no cause to complaine of want of modesty and dutie The King because some Parliaments formerly have deposed Kings applyes these words to those Presidents but it may iustly be denyed that free Parliaments did ever truely consent to the dethroaning of any King of England for that Act whereby Richard the second was deposed was rather the Act of Hen. the fourth and his victorious Army then of the whole Kingdome The Parliament is taxed of reproaching this Kings government to render him odious to his subiects whereas indeed all the miscariages and grievous oppressions of former times are solely imputed to the ill Ministers and Councellors of the King And all the misfortunes of these times since November 1640. are imputed to the blame of the Parliament the Kings words to the Parliament are That the condition of his Subjects when it was at worst under his government was by many degrees more pleasant and happy then this to which the Parliaments furious pretences of reformation hath brought them to In this case the Parliament being accused of so haynous crimes did uniustly betray themselves if they should not lay the blame upon the
Parliament the King 'T is true the King abjures any intention of making Warre against his Parliament but what he intends against the malignant party in or out of Parliament is not exprest and the King abjures invasive Warre against them but whether he think not himself first invaded already is not exprest and the specifying of a faction in Parliament of some few malignants secures none for none can plead force and none ought to plead folly in Treasons of this nature and the major part of the Houses can neither plead absence or dissent and those which can must not be their own purgators Besides the act of Sir John Hotham is disputable the King adjudges it Treason the Parliament adjudge it no Treason and the King has not declared whether he will refer this to the tryall of the sword only or to some other tryall and if so To what kinde of tryall the judgement of a Parliament shall be submitted If we call another Parliament to judge of this so we may appeal in infinitum and why another should be cleerer then this we cannot imagine If we could constitute a higher Court for this appeal so we might do in infinitum also but we know no higher can be imagined and if we appeal to a lower that were to invert the course of nature and to confound all Parliaments for ever if we call all the Kingdom to judge of this we do the same thing as to proclaim Civill Warre and to blow the Trumpet of generall confusion And if we allow the King to be the sole supream competent Judge in this case we resigne all into his hands we give lifes liberties Laws Parliaments all to be held at meer discretion For there is in the interpretation of Law upon the last appeal the same supremacy of power requisite as is in making it And therefore grant the King supream interpreter and t is all one as if we granted him to be supream maker of Law and grant him this and we grant him to be above all limits all conditions all humane bonds whatsoever In this Intricacy therefore where the King and Parliament disagree and judgement must be supream either in the one or other we must retire to ordinary justice And there we see if the King consent not with the ordinary Judge the Law thinks it fit that the King subscribe rather then the Judge And if this satisfie not We must retire to the principles of Nature and there search whether the King or Kingdom be to be lookt upon as the efficient and finall cause and as the proper Subject of all power Neither is the oath of supremacy indangered hereby for he that ascribes more to the whole universality then to King yet ascribes to the King a true supremacy of power and honour above all particulars Nor is our allegiance temerated For when the Judge on the Bench delivers Law contrary to the Kings command This is not the same thing as to proceed against the Kings person upon any judgement given against him The King as to His own person is not to be forcibly repelled in any ill doingâ— nor is He accountable for ill done Law has only a directive but no coactive force upon his person but in all irregular acts where no personall force is Kings may be disobeyed their unjust commands may be neglected not only by communities but also by single men sometimes Those men therefore that maintain That all Kings are in all things and commands as well where personall resistance accompanies as not to be obeyed as being like Gods unlimitable and as well in evill as in good unquestionable are sordid flatterers And those which allow no limits but directive only And those no other but divine and naturall And so make all Princes as vast in power as the Turk for He is subject to the directive force of God and natures Laws and so allow subjects a dry right without all remedy are almost as stupid as the former And those lastly That allow humane Laws to obleage Kings more then directively in all cases where personall violence is absence and yet allow no Judges of those Laws but the King Himself run into absurdities as grosse as the former I come now to those seven doctrines and positions which the King by way of recapitulation layes open as so offensive And they run thus 1. THat the Parliament has an absolute indisputable power of declaring Law So that all the right of the King and people depends upon their pleasure It has been answered That this power must rest in them or in the King or in some inferiour Court or else all suites must be endlesse and it can no where rest more safely then in Parliament 2. That Parliaments are bound to no precedents Statutes are not binding to them Why then should precedents Yet there is no obligation stronger then the Justice and Honor of a Parliament 3. That they are Parliaments and may judge of publike necessity without the King and dispose of anything They may not desert the King but being deserted by the King when the Kingdom is in distresse They may judge of that distresse and relieve it and are to be accounted by the vertue of representation as the whole body of the State 4. That no Member of Parliament ought to be troubled for treason c. without leave This is intended of suspicions only And when leave may be seasonably had and when competent accusers appear not in the impeachment 5. That the Soveraign power resides in both Houses of Parliament the King having no negative voyce This power is not claimed as ordinary nor to any purpose But to save the Kingdom from ruine and in case where the King is so seduced as that He preferres dangerous men and prosecutes His loyall Subjects 6. That levying forces against the personall commands of the King though accompanied with his presence is not levying warre against the King But warre against His authority though not person is warre against the King If this were not so The Parliament seeing a seduced King ruining Himself and the Kingdom could not save both but must stand and look on 7. That according to some Parliaments they may depose the King T is denyed That any King was deposed by a free Parliament fairly elected To stand in comparison with these I shall recite some such positions as the Kings papers offer to us And they follow thus 1. THat regall power is so derived from God and the Law as that it has no dependence upon the trust and consent of man and the King is accountable therefore to God and His other Kingdoms not to this And it is above the determination of Parliaments and by consequence boundlesse 2. That the King is supream indefinitely viz. As well universis as singulis 3. That the King has such a propriety in His Subjects Towns Forts c. As is above the propriety of the State and not to be seized by the Parliament though for the publike safety 4. That so farre as the King is trusted He is not accountable how He performs So that in all cases the Subject is remedilesse 5. That the being of Parliaments is meerly of grace So that the King might justly have discontinued them and being summoned they are limited by the writ and that ad consilium Only and that but in quibusdam arduis And if they passe the limits of the Writ they may be imprisoned That if the King desert them they are a voyde assembly and no honour due to them nor power to save the Kingdom That Parliamentary priviledges are no where to be read of And so their representation of this whole Kingdom is no priviledge nor addes no Majesty nor authority to them That the major part in Parliament is not considerable when so many are absent or dissent That the major part is no major part Because the fraud and force of some few over-rules them That Parliaments may do dishonourable things nay treasonable Nay That this hath been so blinded by some few malignants That they have abetted treason in Sir John Hotham Trampled upon all Law and the Kings prerogative And sought to inslave the whole Kingdom under the Tyranny of some few And sought the betraying of Church and State And to the same erected an upstart Authority in the new Militia and levyed warre upon the King under pretence that He levies warre upon them That Parliaments cannot declare Law but in such and such particular cases legally brought before them That Parliaments are questionable and tryable elsewhere These things we all see tend not only to the desolation of this Parliament but to the confusion of all other And to the advancing of the King to a higher power over Parliaments then ever He had before over inferiour Courts Parliaments have hitherto been Sanctuaries to the people and banks against Arbitrary tyranny But now the meer breath of the King blasts them in an instant and how shall they hereafter secure us when they cannot now secure themselves Or how can we expect justice when the meer imputation of treason without hearing tryall or judgement shall sweep away a whole Parliament nay all Parliaments for ever And yet this is not yet the depth of our misery For that private Councell which the King now adheres to and preferres before Parliaments will still inforce upon our understandings That all these doctrines and positions tend to the perfection of Parliaments And all the Kings forces in the North to the protection of Law and liberty I finde my Reason already captivated I cannot further FINIS