A BRIEF EXAMINATION AND CONSIDERATION Of the unsound PRINCIPLES Upon which the Armies Plea Lately committed to publick view is grounded Wherein the Repentance of those Army-men and the Conversion of all other persons from the Error of their ways who have in what capacity soever acted by the said Principles is most earnestly desired and specially aimed at By a Friend to the Truth LONDON Printed for Humphery Tuckey at the black-spread-Eagle in Fleetstreet near Saint Dunstans-Church 1660. A brief Consideration of some Principles upon which the Armies late PLEA is grounded THat the principal End of publick Government next unto the glory of God is the protection and preservation of all good men in their peaceable and quiet living in all godliness and honesty If the end of Government be so limited only to the protection of good men who are known only to God and of such only as live in all godliness and honesty which very many do not this Government notwithstanding all ungodly dishonest and evil men may commit what outrages they will upon one another And whereas they that really and truly good may be had in abomination among men as that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God by this Government thus limited the good people of God whose life is hid with Christ in God may be liable to all the injuries and mischiefs which they that Saint themselves and contrary to the Apostles rule esteem themselves better than others and act their hypocrisie in the fairest colours of zeal and sanctimonie can put upon them That the Magistrates duty in all forms of Government whatsoever is to defend all good men from all injuries while they so live This limitation also exposeth all good men that are really and truly such to the greatest insecurity it being impossible for them to be assured that they shall be deemed such And it also opens a wide gate to injuries in some case to wit in case they to whom they are done do not so live But surely no good Government will permit injuries to be done to any person or persons whatsoever That the belief and perswasion of the former principle is a Light that hath shined into the minds and judgments of many sober and discreet men Yet perhaps even in this darknesse is put for light and light for darknesse For it is too probable that such a principal end of Government as shall serve only some mens turnes may exclude from protection by it even some of those discreet and sober men themselves and give them cause to confesse the darknesse of that light Otherwise he that is but deemed and taken or but suspected to be no good man or an evil doer in any kind may be torn in pieces by hypocritical Zealots or turned out of his whole estate without any legal trial or due processe of Law against him That the peoples safety is the chief Soveraignty Salus populi est suprema lex The peoples safety is the supreme Law is a good rule in a right sense that is when by the people is meant the whole Nation not a party only professing themselves to be good men And the meaning of it may be That all Laws in every Nation should be such as may serve to that end the general safety of that whole Nation in which universal the Prince and Peers are especially comprehended But if there be any Law already enacted in this Nation that is not more disproportionable to that end than those most ancient Laws and Customes are upon which the true Government thereof is founded under which that Supreme end hath been time out of mind obtained much more fully than since that was interrupted is such a Law if also back'd with promises Protestations Commands and Oaths by meer force to be run down before it be duly repeated by all that Authority that made it If this be asserted What assurance can the people of the Land ever have of life estate or liberty by any ancient present or future Law or Laws by what Authority soever established And whether the Law be convenient to that end or not who shall judge What they that have nothing to do with the Legislative Authority That Kings and all that are in Authority are Gods Ministers for his peoples good Very good Therefore Kings and all that have like authority in every Nation must needs have their civil power from God and that directly and immediatly there being no intermediate power between his which is the principal And the ministerial which is the Kings as there is no natural power between that of the Principal Cause and that of the Instrumental in any work of nature What then can any persons whatsoever have to do to question or controul that Supreme Person whom God hath thought fit to use as his own Minister What if such a Soveraign Prince be as ill a Governour as Nero was He was once such a Minister of God to whom as bad as he was the Apostle commands every soul that is all but such as have no souls nor consciences neither to be subject to and that even for conscience sake But the Christian Kings of this Nation have ever been Nursing Fathers to the Church not persecutors of it as that Tyrant was and are therefore upon that account much more true proper and immediate Ministers to Him that is the only Supreme Head of the Church than that Heathen was There is not therefore lesse obedience due to these but more Howsoever since they are the Ministers of God and as his Ministers entrusted of him they must needs have full power and authority from God to pursue that trust Therefore as the whole Nation cannot acquit the Supreme lawful Magistrate of the Trust nor vacate the act of God in committing to his trust a part of his own universal Government of the world no more can they lawfully resist or endeavour to suppresse or lessen that just and rightful power upon which the pursuance and effectual performance of the same trust dependeth It is therefore a false and groundlesse insinuation that because Kings are Gods Ministers for his peoples good Ergo the people of God that is the Independents Anabaptists and the Quakers may lawfully turn Him out of that office and out of the world too if they though private persons all do judge it conducing to publick that is to their own safety being conscious to themselves of their unrighteous practises so to do That Governours were made for the people and not the people for them What then Ergo the people may cast off their Governours and all known law and the only lawful Government also at their pleasure Non sequitur Christ as man was made for the people Ergo The people had a just power to deal by Him as they did This collection is more horrid but the other as false as this That they to wit Kings and Governours have no power and
of true justice and of all civil administration that can be just is taken away And to prevent this fatal mischief and for no other cause it hath ever been a maine and fundamental Maxim in the Law of England That the King can never dye It can never therefore be possible in this or in any other Kingdom for the Whole Body to destroy the Head but that Body must be felo de se and utterly cease to be any Body at all This Whole therefore can never in Law or right reason or common justice have any Superiority above the Supreme Magistrate to any such effect That the Essential End of all Kings Rulers Lawes and Governments is the Common peace justice and safety of the people This principle may be true but can be nothing to those mens purpose that seek to justifie the utter dissolution of the whole Civil Government thereby There is not a Government in any Nation in the world but in some usages Customes Offices Officers Lawes or administrations may be apparently obnoxious to some obliquities and deviations from the true End of Government Shall therfore the Government it self be blamed Shall it wholly be dissolved Shall private persons do it Or shall it be lawful for those in what capacity soever to seek the subversion of it that have sworn to maintain it Any violent change in a Government brings more and greater evils with it than can ever be removed by it and perhaps the same that were complained of in a far greater measure and with lesse hope of remedy The total dissolution of a Government that not reserved that is most essential to it infers an Universal Parity leaving none in more just authority than other And it must needs be so For the only known Legal Government once dissolved what should such just authority in any over others be grounded on What then have any to do in setting up a new Government more than others And why have not others a better right to re-enforce the old than any can ever have to erect a new Nothing can here make a difference but meer force and violence than which nothing in the world is more directly opposite to what is truly just And it would be remembred That violence is never of any long continuance but Turnings and Overturnings will have their certain revolutions till Force shall cease and Justice come in place whose inseparable act it is to restore to every one his right If the common peace justice and the safety of the people be the End of Government then is Government the Means to that End which no Government can ever be if it be not just And no new Government ever can be such And the Change of an ancient Government in any Original and Fundamental part is the erecting of a New one And for this cause it is that the Wisdom of God in Solomon commands us to fear the Lord and the King and forbids to meddle with them that are given to change to wit because the change of a settled and ancient Government especially without an universal consent as well of the Governours as of the governed is necessarily unjust besides the most unjust Subversion of the great End the common peace and safety of the people in the effecting of it For though other Forms of Government be just in themselves yet none can be just in this or any other Nation but that which is established upon the only proper foundations of justice in it and what are those but the fundamental Lawes Rights Customes and Possessions that have ever inviolably and immutably continued in it which have no other foundation beside or beyond themselves and which all particular Lawes and Sanctions are established upon For if these be not the unquestionable Rules and Measures of Justice in this Nation it can never come to be agreed on what Justice is or what is just Hence it is that since the violent casting down of these foundations that is de facto people talke of Justice at all aventure making no Law Divine or Humane but their own self will or fansie the only measure of what they call just That no Governours or Governments are to be continued and tolerated which are directly and plainly destructive unto the chief end of their Original appointment viz. Common Good Let this be the Major and then the Minor must be this But all the Governours and the whole Government of this Nation under which the people have long flourished in wealth and peace was all on the sudden become directly and plainly destructive to Common Good Ergo The Government of this Nation or any of the Governours thereof are not to be continued and tolerated What if this Conclusion were true May such Governours or Governments as are not to be continued and tolerated be taken away and destroyed by private hands When Saul was such a Governour and not to be continued did David though already in Sauls roome anoynted seeks to destroy him No but as the Lord liveth said he the Lord shall smite him or his day shall come to dye or he shall descend into battel and perish Else what security could there ever be to the best Governours or Governments in the world How easie a thing is it for any private person transported with prejudice or passion to discerne as he thinks the Magistrate how good soever he be to be directly and plainly destructive to Common Good There can no seditious party arise but must needs be of that perswasion Shall this then Legitimate an Insurrection Or shall it be lawful for any one among them to do as Raviliac or as Felton did And against the only Ancient and Legal Government it self upon which all the Authority in the whole Nation necessarily depends all persons whatsoever are but private men But the Conclusion must needs be false because both the premises are so And first the Major which is the principle For there can be no Government if it be but that which can be destructive as is supposed to the chief End of its own appointment The general good of Government must needs be competible to every lawful kinde of Government under what corruption soever Therefore every Government which is the only lawful Government of any Nation must be continued and tolerated to avoid as well unlawful usurpation as lawlesse Anarchy one of which must otherwise inevitably ensue and only the corruption be taken away if any be found in it The Minor Proposition which to make that Principle applyable to the present practice must needs be added is matter of fact to wit That all the Governours and the whole Government of this Nation were directly and plainly destructive to the Chief End of their appointment To be destructive to the Chief End of Government is apparently inconsistent with any lawful kinde of Government that is really such as Monarchy for certain is Nor is any such Government capable as long as it remaineth such of any possible corruption
falsely called bondage and slavery was than the pretended Liberty wherewith they have since been vexed harrassed impoverished and little lesse than ruined and under which they must expect to suffer the same horrid Exactions of immense sums of money as long as any new Government shall stand which can no longer stand than the vaste charge of a huge Army shall uphold it This the poor enslaved and miserably depressed free people of this Nation do all in general so very well understand it having with heavy strokes been beaten into their heads that a few sugared words and fair promises from them that professe they will keep none and have broken all they have already made though bound with sacred and solemne Oaths will never be heartily beleived or much regarded But if under the ancient Government there was any such thing as real bondage and slavery beside the bondage which poor Copiholders are still like to endure under those that knew how to free themselves from the Court of Wards it would be considered whether the fault was in the Law or in the forme of Government or in the Office of governing or in the persons in whom the publick Administration resided The Government and the Forme of it were certainly without exception For three simple forms of Government there are that are lawful and just in themselves by the confession of all men and the ancient and only lawful Government of this Nation hath all that is good in all the three and is therefore in it self the best Government in the world Consequently there could be no fault unless it were in the personal Administration and then it would again be considered whether there was any such thing as was reputed a fault and whether that that was deemed a fault were any fault at all since they that will despise dominion and speak evil of dignities will also speak evil of those things which they know not And then whether any Governours are obliged to a Papal infallibility under the penalty of having their heads taken off at their own gates And lastly Whether it be just to punish and persecute with the Sword and utterly to drive into eternal Exile and for ever to disseize of an ancient inheritance Him or them that have never offended That when those in Authority shall neglect the great Ends of Government and improve all opportunities and advantages by means of their Power and Grandure unto their own Personal and Family interest especially when they shall wilfully and against common and universal reason act contrary thereunto to the apparent danger of common safety they determine their Authority and having in such cases quitted their care and respects to the peoples protection and welfare they likewise quit the people from their allegiance and obedience If by those in Authority be meant those that have no more Authority than what the sundry pretenders to it have really had since the suppressing of the known legal and true Parliament of England their improving all opportunities and advantages to their own personal and family interest is no more than what in reason could be expected from them And if they that set up such strange Authorities which England hath ever heretofore been happily unacquainted with shall take them down again at their pleasure there needs no special plea for such a practice But if by those in Authority be meant the full whole equal and free Parliament of England in its ancient and legal constitution that such an entyre and true Parliament consisting of the Prince the Peers and the whole people in their equal Representative should all conspire together there being no just power in any one of those three estates to make a binding Law without the other two or in any two without the third to be so grossely unrighteous as to improve all their power joyntly to their several personal and family interests if it were possible or should all at once fall into so high a degre of folly or lunacy as wilfully to act against common and universal Reason and that to the apparent danger of Common Safety wherein their own share is greater than of tentimes so many other men Surely to imagine such a thing first and then to suppose it as probable and more than that to insinuate that it hath been so done de facto and practically to conclude from thence that the People that is they that Will be call'd the people are quitted from their Allegiance and from all Obedience to their only lawful Governours and the ancient fundamental and only lawful Government of the Nation what to call this to give it a proper title will require some time to consider That as all Lawes Statutes Acts and Ordinances so all Engagements Promises and Protestations all Acknowledgements Subscriptions Vowes and Oaths all and all manner of Obligations and Expressions thereof are only binding unto the Publick Safety and not at all to the Persons of the Governours or formes of Government but with reference thereunto That which is here insinuated must be so understood if all this be any thing at all to the justification of the present practice of suppressing by a lawlesse power all the fundamental laws of the land the whole ancient lawful Government thereof is that all the said Laws and the whole Government it self are utterly inconsistent with and certainly destructive to the Publick Safety That is all our Law-givers Kings and Parliaments in all former ages were either ignorant of what was conducing to that End or maliciously bent against it and the whole people that have generally promised protested covenanted and sworn to maintain the ancient Government and the known Laws of the Land were either all out of their wits when they did it or never had any till the Light the Light of these rare Principles came forth and shined upon them And yet for all that the Publick Safety which was never much endangered till these blessed dayes hath been ever hitherto effectually preserved no man can imagine how But if this new Doctrine may passe for current the Use and End of all Promises Covenants Protestations and Oaths is utterly lost and consequently it must be a taking of Gods name in vaine to promise any thing upon Oath in any case For needs must that be in vaine that can never attain the End that is pretended for it The only end of an Oath by which a Promise is confirmed is the unquestionable assurance of the effectual performance of that which is promised If then in this he that promiseth may be fast or loose as he himself shall judge the real performance conducing or not conducing to Publick Safety the undoubted Assurance which that Oath should cause being the greatest uncertainty the Oath is absolutely taken in vain and consequently perjurious in the very taking of it as well as in the ensuing contempt if not performed For that God is not invoked in the Oath taking to give testimony to a lye
authority but what under God they have from the people and for their use That which is from the people and only under God is not of God or from Him And what is this but expressely contradictory to the words of the Apostle There is no power or the power is not but from God There are two great Kingdoms the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of the world and God is immediately by himself the King as well of the latter as of the former The Lord is our King Isa. 33. 22. King of Nations Jer. 10. 7. The Kingdom is the Lords and He is the Governour among the Nations Psal. 22. 28. Therefore the Apostle exhorting the Christians to be subject to the Civil Government gives this reason of his exhortation For the power though meerly Civil is of God And lest men should think it is of God but as the Universal Cause of all other things and not as the sole and immediate Author and Dispenser of it He expresly denies it to be of any other The power saith he is not but from God For let it be considered if it be not against all understanding to think the Apostle would exhort Christians to obey the Civil Power only upon this general account that it is from God as all things else are and not otherwise For upon that account the exhortation must needs also carry them to obey a thief and that for conscience sake for even a thiefs power by which he is able to rob and do mischief is in this sense as much from God as the most lawful power that is The Apostles meaning therfore must necessarily be and in that the difference lies that the Civil power which the Magistrate as the Minister of God is endued with is the special donative and gift of God which the other is not yet they both agree in this that they are both as all things else are immediately from God As indeed whatsoever He doth He doth by Himself immediately not mediately as is falsly fancied For how can He that is immediately present every where and in every thing stand off at a distance in any work of his How then in the collating of the Civil power If it be his Authority and Power that is in His Minister the Supreme Magistrate it is manifestly against all truth and sense to imagine that He gives it not immediately by Himself who must do every thing by Himself immediately that is done by Him And if it were not Gods own Authority which is in the Supreme Civil Magistrate who only in himself without Commission from any earthly Power beareth the sword since God alone in the Lord of life and every man is created in his image it were absolutely impossible that it should be just and lawful for the Magistrate to take away the life of a man in any case imaginable And as for the whole people not having the power of Magistracie personally committed to them of God they have no more power of the life of any man than any one private person hath If then the power of all Soveraignty or Supreme Authority by which the life of man in any case may lawfully be taken away be only Gods own peculiar and not mans it is impossible that the whole people or all the men in the world should give that which is none of theirs to give He therefore that hath a publick known certain and unquestionable right to govern as supreme Magistrate either by ancient inheritance which is the best and clearest right that can be had of any thing or by any other just and lawful means the same hath all civil power and authority to govern only and immediately from God whose peculiar it is In as much then as the right and just authority to govern is solely and immediately from God where that right and power is once fixed by what means soever it first came so to be it is there fixed by God and can never lawfully without a special command from God be refixed or disannulled by man If this may not be deemed as it really is a clear demonstration let it be duly and impartially considered whether there be any at all or the like evidence for the opposite opinion which is here laid as a Principle without any proof and as a main foundation upon which a very great weight relies Yet without doubt the solidnesse of this Principle is the more to be suspected because none but Heathens and meere Polititians have ever held it till it came to be professed by some in this Nation a few years since And those first Authors fell into it meerly upon the account of Infidelity to wit in that they either knew nothing of or did not believe that the only true God is the worlds Creator and by that special right the sole Governour thereof and consequently that all power of government is solely and precisely His which then it is impossible that any should have a right to give but He. Seeing then that Salus populi the peoples eternal safety is indeed the only supreme end in immediate subordination to Gods glory it would be well considered by them all and especially by them that must answer for them all and for themselves too whether it be not the only safe way to that Supreme safety yea and to their temporal safety too to do that wherein they cannot do amisse to restore an ancient Right For to do this is no more nor lesse but what natural righteousnesse it self requires as the proper and inseparable act and duty of it And besides that the whole torrent of the Scriptures are for it and not one sillable so much as seemingly against it It may be considered also that the said opposite Opinion and Principle hath no foundation at all in Scripture nor in the reason of a Christian For therein there is no mention of the peoples giving Civil authority or making a King but where that King was made before of God without the peoples consent or notice of such a thing Neither is there in Scripture any Example of a peoples casting off finally their Allegiance but of the ten Tribes And yet that was by a special appointment of God but this was more than they then knew and therefore to them it was as their own act and being so God punish'd them for it with perpetual and final dereliction to Idolatry There are no safe untrodden paths in the way to Heaven That uncontrolable power and absolute authority do become none but only Him whose nature is perfect and can do no wrong Power is absolute and uncontroulable two wayes first by being so in it self intrinsecally secondly by being so in relation to men that is though it be controulable by God the immediate Author of it yet by men it is not This uncontroulable authority in relation to men must be found and is in all supreme Magistracie For if supreme or chief Magistracie be controulable in them that justly possesse it by