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
maine ground of all those bitter invectives almost which are iterated and inforced with so much eloquence in all the Kings late papers See if wee are not left as a prety to the same bloudy hands as have done such diabolicall exployts in Ireland or to any others which can perswade the King that the Parliament is not well affected to him if we may not take up armes for our owne safety or if it be possible for us to take up armes without some Votes or ordinances to regulate the Militia or to make our defence manly and not beastiall and void of all Counsell the name of a King is great I confesse and worthy of great honour but is not the name of people greater let not meere tearms deceave us let us weigh names and things together admit that God sheds here some rayes of Majesty upon his vicegerents on earth yet except we thinke he doth this out of particular love to Princes themselves and not to communties of men wee must not hence invert the course of nature and make nations subordinate in end to Princes My Lord of Strafford sayes that the Law of Prerogative is like that of the first table but the Law of Common safety and utility like that of the second and hence concludes that precedence is to be given to that which is more sacred that is Regall Prerogative Upon this ground all Parasites build when they seeke to hood-winke Princes for their owne advantages and when they assay to draw that esteeme to themselves which they withdraw from the people and this doctrin is common because 't is so acceptable for as nothing is more pleasant to Princes then to be so deified so nothing is more gainefull to Courtiers then so to please But to look into termes a little more narrower and dispell umbrages Princes are called Gods Fathers Husbands Lords Heads c. and this implyes them to be of more worth and more unsubordinate in end then their Subjects are who by the same relation must stand as Creatures Children Wives Servants Members c. I answer these termes do illustrate some excellency in Princes by way of similitude but must not in all things be applyed and they are most truly applyed to Subjects taken divisim but not conjunctim Kings are Gods to particular men secundum quid and are sanctified with some of Gods royaltie but it is not for themselves it is for an extrinsecall end and that is the prosperitie of Gods people and that end is more sacred than the meanes as to themselves they are most unlike God for God cannot bee obliged by any thing extrinsecall no created thing whatsoever can be of sufficient value or excellencie to impose any dutie or tye upon God as Subjects upon Princes therefore granting Prerogative to be but mediate and the Weale Publike to be finall wee must rank the Lawes of libertie in the first Table and Prerogative in the second as Nature doth require and not after a kind of blasphemy ascribe that unsubordination to Princes which is only due to God so the King is a Father to his People taken singly but not universally for the father is more worthy than the son in nature and the son is wholly a debtor to the father and can by no merit transcend his dutie nor chalenge any thing as due from his father for the father doth all his offices meritoriously freely and unexactedly Yet this holds not in the relation betwixt King Subject for its more due in policie and more strictly to be chalenged that the King should make happy the People than the People make glorious the King This same reason is also in relation of Husband Lord c. for the wife is inferiour in nature and was created for the assistance of man and servants are hired for their Lords meere attendance but it is otherwise in the State betwixt man and man for that civill difference which is for civill ends and those ends are that wrong and violence may be repressed by one for the good of all not that servilitie and drudgerie may be imposed upon all for the pomp of one So the head naturally doth not more depend upon the body than that does upon the head both head and members must live and dye together but it is otherwise with the Head Politicall for that receives more subsistence from the body than it gives and being subservient to that it has no being when that is dissolved and that may be preserved after its dissolution And hence it appeares that the verie order of Princes binds them not to be insolent but lowly and not to aime at their owne good but secondarily contrarie to the Florentines wretched Politiques And it followes that such Princes as contrarie to the end of government effect evill in stead of good insulting in common servilitie rather than promoting common securitie and placing their chiefest pomp in the sufferance of their Subjects commit such sins as God will never countenance nay such as the unnaturall father the tyrannous husband the mercilesse master is not capable of committing nay we must conceive that Treason in Subjects against their Prince so far only as it concernes the Prince is not so horrid in nature as oppression in the Prince exercised violently upon Subjects God commands Princes to study his Law day and night and not to amasse great treasures or to encrease their Cavaliers or to lift up their hearts above their brethren nor to wast their owne demeanes lest necessitie should tempt them to rapine But on the contrarie Machiavels Instructions puffe up Princes That they may treat Subjects not as brethren but as beasts as the basest beasts of drudgerie teaching them by subtiltie and by the strength of their Militia to uphold their owne will and to make meere sponges of the publike coffers And sure if that cursed Heretike in policie could have invented any thing more repugnant to Gods commands and Natures intention he had been held a deeper Statesman than hee is but I conceive it is now sufficiently cleared that all rule is but fiduciarie and that this and that Prince is more or lesse absolute as he is more or lesse trusted and that all trusts differ not in nature or intent but in degree only and extent and therefore since it is unnaturall for any Nation to give away its owne proprietie in it selfe absolutely and to subject it selfe to a condition of servilitie below men because this is contrarie to the supreme of all Lawes wee must not think that it can stand with the intent of any trust that necessarie defence should be barred and naturall preservation denyed to any people no man will deny but that the People may use meanes of defence where Princes are more conditionate and have a soveraigntie more limited and yet these being only lesse trusted than absolute Monarchs and no trust being without an intent of preservation it is no more intended that the People shall be remedilesly oppressed in a
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