their own personal interest to the apparent danger of of common safety say the Phanaticks they determine their authority and having quitted their care of the Peoples protection they quit the People from their Allegiance and Obedience To this I answer That Kings though most absolute Tyrants cannot be justly deposed by the People I confess the end of all Government is the common good in a due administration of Justice to the promotion of which all their royal endeavours as so many lines ought to concenter themselves as in a point in the publick safety of their subjects And although Kings do not perform their duty in governing according to Law yet their Authority doth not determine it being supreme is lyable to give an account onely to God who onely determineth both the Power and Person And although the people do by Election or Consent confer a trust on Kings and Governors which is absolute no Governour being so weak as to take it on the condition of his good behaviour durante Populi beneplacito the will of the people being as mutable as fond and having not alwaies Reason for its Conduct and solid principles for its Basis under pretence of ill managery will speak a determination to the lawful power of a supreme Governour and the best modelled Government of a Nation It is very reasonable to grant that the people do give a very high trust to Kings and those in Authority which is sealed to them by Gods power Be subject to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake from whom Kings receive the Patent of their Authority which no body under any gloss how fair soever can cancel he being in no capacity to forfeit that power to man which he hath immediately derived from God alone I mean the sword of Justice it being not in the power of the people originally to kill one another without a Magistrate they being endued with an equality in nature and cannot exercise this soveraignty over each other And if the King could forfeit his trust by not discharging it according to the intention of the Donors and the Laws to which he hath obliged himself that the people cannot resume that trust when it hath received the approbation and confirmation of Gods power which the people cannot assume to themselves without the most impious arrogating one of the supreme Attributes of God to themselves But then it will be replyed that the people are in a sad condition having no sence against the arbitrary power of Kings to which I briefly answer they have for their refuge Tears and Prayers the Arms of the Church in their greatest straits and perplexities and God in whose hands the hearts of Kings are to turn them as he pleaseth according to his holy wisdom and for my part I shall ever deem it better to live under the Tyranny of Kings then under the Anarchy of the people I desire you would be pleased to make a deep inspection into those two erroneous principles so much cried up by the Phanaticks that salus populi est suprema lex and Rex est singulis major universis minor which they conceive are most absolute rules to walk by and a firm basis to secure their cursed actions from the titles of rebellion perjury sacriledge murder oppression c. To the first that the safety of the people is the supreme law I thus answer the safety of the people in strict speech is not a law but an end of it the law being made for the just conservation of the peoples safety but grant it in common language to be a law and then sure none is so void of sense and reason if an end may be called a law but to give to the ultimate end the attribute of supremacy and then Gloria Deiest suprema lex and indeed his word is a law and it is his glory to maintain it Rom. 13.1 Let every soul be subject to the higher powers and God so far condescendeth as to give a reason of it for the Powers that are are ordained of God Now the debate will be who is supreme the King or the people I confess the people de facto have of late made themselves so but I hope they have not the boldness de jure to think so the Legislative power being ultimately in the King by whose Royal consent the results of the two Houses who are called and dissolved by his power receive the signature of Laws the house of Commons being Commissioned by him ad inquireddum and the house of Lords ad consulendum and in him their legal head is the supreme power ad determinandum de ordine negotiis regni it is his right with the advice of Parliaments his great Council to determine what is the safety peace and the just Rights of the nation and not in the people who are not a head of law but the body of the kingdom to be governed by it And if the People should deem in their private sense which cannot be so discerning and impartial as the publick judgement of those that are placed on the hill of government who see much more then they that kneel in the valley of subjection that the known fundamental Laws instituted by them who are Gods Ministers are diametrically opposite to the just interest of a nation yet if they cannot it being repugnant to their conscience to give an active observance to those laws made as they apprehend against the safety of the people yet they are oblieged to give a passive obedience to the Governours who as they are ordained if good are to give him onely an account of their actions in an humble submission to whatsoever punishments shall be imposed by them And here the people are readily to write after our blessed Saviours excellent copy who submitted to an unjust power in the loss of his life contrary to all law rather then dispute his own ordinance and so it is better for them in Christian patience to die Martyrs then by an illegal resistance to be rebells To that their maxime being a main foundation upon which the Phanaticks have at first built and still endeavour to support that most unhandsome superstructure of Rebellion Sacriledge Perjury and in a word their violation of all humane and divine Laws that Rex est singulis major universis minor the King is greater then any single person and lesser then the community of the people to which I reply that the body of the people cannot pretend to be superior or rival with him except his two Houses of Parliament who have no being unless they receive birth by his summons consulere de arduis negotiis regni and so they may be justly styled his Counsellours to advise and not his superiours to command The Legislative power which to vindicate he is armed with the Militia of the Nation being principally seated in him that those wholesome laws which derive their rough draught and first delineation of parts from the two Houses and
Error in Politicks the sowers of all Rebellion and Annarchy that Kings and all in Authority have their power from the People which is as truly false in it self as fatal to this Nation For though the People do nominate Kings c. in elective kingdoms or consent to them in Hereditary as ours is and the Crown ought to be transmitted to our most gracious Soveraign from a long series of his numerous and royal progenitors yet their nomination or consent is either by way of foâ—m or order to declare an approvement of or submission to the King as the supreme Power of the kingdom which is derived by divine institution from God himself the sole most obsolute eternal Monarch and fountain of all lawfull Power it being no more in the People to give Power to Kings then in their own Power to give themselves being All Power being Authoritative originally or radically in God as the first founder in the King Representative per modum subjecti as a subject capable of the just managery of it and in the People materially per modum patientis in the nomination of the Person not the constitution of Power in their choise in Elective kingdoms and by their consent do not give a Power be an attribute of obedience in their due subscription to it in hereditary We have Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for it per me Regis regnant by me Kings reign By me Constitutive efficienter per modum Authoris as the supreme Agent and Kings do reign Ministerialiter per modum Dei locum tenentium as Gods Vicegerents their Power being a Ray of Divinity by whose benigne influence mankinde the flower of the universe watered in showers of graces from above and streams of Justice below receiveth its bud and perfection under his propitious conduct in a happy planting and orderly maturing all things in this inferiour world And therefore Kings and all in Authority are not of the Peoples but of Gods christionizing and that after his own Name I said ye are Gods whereupon for his sake and by virtue of his Commission as his Deputies the People are liable to pay a just tribute of obedience to them But suppose that Kings and those who are in Authority shall as the Phanaticks of this age object neglect the great end of Government and improve all opportunities and advantages of their Power and Grandeur unto their own personal and family interest especially when they shall wilfully and against universal reason and the apparent danger of the common safety then say they they determine their Authority and having in such cases quitted their care and respects to the Peoples protection they likewise quite the People from their Allegeance and obedience To this damnable and Jesuitical Position I thus reply It is rare to find Kings they and their People being Correlatives to have so much cruelty for themselves as in bauishing the universal Dictates of Reason in the common ruine of their kingdoms theirs and the Peoples being one joynt interest and their greatest concern next the glory of God is a mutual opposition of enemies and a joynt concurrence in vigorous endeavours for the support and promotion of each others happiness But grant that Kings should so far degenerate as to cancel all obligations to God and nature in order to Liberty and Propriety of their People it is no more then is clearly described in the sacred Oracles where Samuel stateth the absolute Prerogative of a King 1 Sam. Chap. 8. ver 2. to the 17. And he said this shall be the manner of the King that shall reign over you he will take your sons and appoint them for himself for his Chariots And let them take their much admired Calvins authentick Paraphrase on the text out of his care done to truth rather then Kings in the latter end of the 26 Paragraph De publica Administratione Ac si dixisset Samuel eo se proripiet licentiae Regum libido quam cohibere vestrum non erit quibus hoc restabit unum jussa excipere ac dicto audientes esse To such a height of Tyranny shall the will of Kings break forth which to restrain is not your duty in you this onely remaineth to hearken to his words and obey his commands with which you are in humble submission to comply and not in a rebellious resistance to dispute And to that effect is that most signal place of Scripture Jer. chap. 27. ver 6. and 8. And now have I given all those lands into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon my servant c. Who this Nebuchadnezzar was is sufficiently known who had conquered Jerusalem the holy City and had by his absolute power invaded other Territories yet God styleth him Nebnchadnezzar my servant though a great Tyrant and Usurper by virtue of his unquestionable Commission which none but God himself could take from him And once more be pleased to take Calvins Comment upon the recited Text Videmus quanta obedientia Dominus tetrum illum ferocemque Tyrannum coli voluerit non alia ratione nisi quia Regnum obtinebat You see saith he with what obedience the Lord would have that cruel Tyrant observed upon no other account but as he was by himself invested with the Royal Throne And Calvin further urgeth in the same Paragraph Eodem decreto constitui etiam nequissimos Reges quo Regum authoritas statuitur nunquam in animum nobis seditiosae illae cogitationes venient tractandum esse pro meritis Regem nec aequum esse ut subditos ei non praestemus qui vicissim Regem nobis se non praestat By the same Commission are wicked Kings constituted by which the Authority of Kings in general is enacted and we must never entertain within our minds such Rebellious thoughts how that the King is to be treated according to his demerits neither is it fit we should with draw our obedience as subjects though he doth not express his gracious clemency and Moderation as a King Therefore these Phanatick objections of this latter age since 1642 are very unjustifiable that service and obedience is to be wholly devoted onely to the just commands of superiors this is that disloyal principle which hath introduced so much Barbarisme and confusion among us which hath an ill aspect upon our Oeconomicks as well as Politicks and hath gained an opinion with wives children and servants that no service is to be given by the one to their Masters nor duty by the other to their Parents nor obedience by the third to their Husbands if Masters Parents or Husbands do as they conceive impose their severe commands upon them and if they act any thing contrary to their fancy they deem they may justly infringe all obligations whatsoever due by Religion Law and the right of Nature to their several Relations But suppose that Kings and all in Authority shall neglect the great ends of Government and improve all opportunities and advantages to
Houses of Parliament from the further violence of the Phanatiques who by open force have dissolved many Parliaments contrary to the known Laws in which they have rendred the Nation sinful to God shameful to themselves and a scorn to the world Into your hands it is put by divine providence to stop the rage and ambition of the Anapaptists highly acted with pernicious principles of the Jesuits who at this time design in the dissolution of this Parliament a total subversion of the true Reformed Religion and our ancient and well-established civil government and cunningly to introduce under the notion of new lights the old darkness of Roman Error and superstition and under fair pretences of liberty and common safety in a Free State to ruine and enslave us to the power of forreign Princes The onely way to render your selves high in the esteem of the world is to make your selves a full Parliament consisting of the three estates of the kingdome an excellent frame and composition of the three governments so rightly balanced according to the Ancient institution of it in a well-tempered Monarchy in the King Aristocracie in the Lords and Democracie in the Commons each particular interest complying so handsomely in a fair correspondence with each other the inferiour still subscribing to the superiour in a regular subordination without animosity or dispute So that this admirable constitution may be justly styled Monarchy without Tyranny Aristocracie without ambition and Democracie without Anarchy every man a freeholder concurring by his representatives to redress his grievances and to constitute the Laws of the nation to which he is in all justice obliged in a due observance most readily to subscribe when by his power in the advise of his delegates they are enacted And to that end in compleating the Parliament he being head of it you will give a great honour to your selves happiness to the nation and glory to God in being instrumental under him to bring in the King a most glorious person of Majestick aspect beautified with rare proportions of body polished in an excellent deportment all subservient to the more noble operations of his soul communicating the choice notions of it in an elegant purity of speech his significant expressions in great variety of languages being so many different emblemes that plainly interpret and clearly comment upon the inward characters of his acute fancy and profounder judgement And his heroick habits of personal valour justice prudence magnanimity clemency meekness humility temperance faithfulness constancy in his Religion and above all his most eminent charity in forgiving his enemies speak him most illustrious and highly accomplished in moral intellectual and Theological virtues so that if he had no title to the Crown by right of inheritance in its descent to him through so many Royal ancestours yet his incomperable merits would justly challenge your election of him to be your King But if these ingenuous principles will not obliege you to your duty pray be pleased to consult the great nationall advantages Our high born King being allied to most if not to all the Princes of Europe his Royal interest will make our peace with them and give the banquerupt kingdom such a repute with forreign Princes and Nations that it will highly advance our decaied trade in transporting our various manufactures the great imployment and support of the meaner sort of the kingdom You cannot give your selves a greater boon nor the kingdom a grerter satisfaction then to call in the King without signing such conditions which in effect will make him a Duke of Venice it is not consistent with the duty of Subjects to impose such restrictions on their Soveraign which shall render null in him the sacred function of supreme Magistracy which is not of humane institution and therefore it cannot be resumed with the hands of the people without giving an affront to God himself the true doner of it and let those look for the full viols of Gods wrath to be powred out upon them in being given into the hands of a military power for the administration of justice as a due punishment for taking away the Militia from the true owner as of late we have been two sensible of in imposing such articles in treating with the late most pious King to which in honour and conscience he could not consent I hope God will vouchsafe you more gracious tempers then to dispute the Kings most indubitate right and Regal dignities with which his Royal Auncestours have been formerly possessed do not study to gratifie the pusillanimous fear of those who think they have so highly disoblieged him in their unparalleled actions that they have no security for their persons and fortunes except he be rendred incapable of deserving them in the loss of his power this is to punish him because they have offended and to keep him from doing civil justice to the nation to protect their injustice from a due censure in the old current of the Law Do not blast your own reputation and those great hopes the kingdom conceiveth of you in not giving the King his ancient Rights the Parliament its due priviledges do not abridge the power of the Militia and deem you do him right in giving him an empty title without power to vindicate it which is no more then to let him wear a fair scabbard and take away his sword His late gracious Father chose rather to quit his life then that just power of the sword in which by divire Right and his own inheritance he was estated now is the time to make satisfaction to his glorious son as his immediate heir for those matchless violations which have been offered to his Fathers sacred person do not think to expiate the guilt of former times which long hath laid heavy on the nation in ingaging in the same errors with which they were justly branded The Militia is that which speaketh him the chief Magistrate which protecteth his sacred person and his subordinate magistrates in the exercise of justice and in pressing of the severe execution of those penal laws upon malefactours to the due loss of their lives liberties and fortunes to which though never so just they would not out of a partial love to themselves submit unless compelled by a stronger coercive power It is but a vain speculation to style him supreme and at the same time invest the people with the power of the sword who may when they please dispute his commands though never so lawfull if they hold not a compliance with their desires having a design to abrogate or lessen the just rights of the Crown which though never so much according to the law of God and man yet they may easily pretend as heretofore hath been done in the late Juncto that they are tyrannicall and inconsistent with the liberty of the freeborn people of England in that they give a check to those incendiaries who under the fair glosses of common safety and liberty have sacrificed