three things which are inalienable from the Person of the King They are 1. The Crowne 2. The Scepter 3. The Sword The one He is to carry on His Head the other in His Hand and the third at His Side and they may be termed all three the ensignes or peculiar instruments of a King by the first He Reignes by the second He makes Lawes by the third He Defends them and the two first are but bables without the last as was formerly spoken 1. Touching the Crown or royal Diadem of England ther is none whether Presbyterian Independent Protestant or others now in action but confess that it descends by a right hereditary Line though through divers Races and som of them Conquerours upon the Head of Charles the first now Regnant 't is His own by inherent birth-right and nature by Gods Law and the Law of the Land and these Parliament-men at their first sitting did agnize subjection unto Him accordingly and recognize Him for their Soveraign Liege Lord Nay the Roman Catholick denies not this for though there were Bulls sent to dispense with the English Subjects for their allegiance to Queen Elizabeth yet the Pope did this against Her as he took Her for a Heretick not an Usurpresse though he knew well enough that She had bin declared Illegitimate by the Act of an English Parliament This Imperial Crown of England is adorned and deckd with many fair Flowers which are called royal Prerogatives and they are of such a transcendent nature that they are unforfeitable individual and untransferrable to any other The King can only summon and dissolve Parliaments The King can only Pardon for when He is Crowned He is sworn to rule in Mercy as well as in Justice The King can only Coyn Money and enhance or decry the value of it The power of electing Officers of State of Justices of Peace and Assize is in the King He can only grant soveraign Commissions The King can only wage War and make Out-landish Leagues The King may make all the Courts of Justice ambulatory with His Person as they were used of old 't is tru the Court of Common Pleas must be sedentary in som certain place for such a time but that expired 't is removeable at His pleasure The King can only employ Ambassadours and Treat with forraign States c. These with other royal Prerogatives which I shall touch hereafter are those rare and wholsom flowers wherewith the Crown of England is embellished nor can they stick any where else but in the Crown and all confess the Crown is as much the King 's as any private man's Cap is his own 2. The second regall Instrument is the Scepter which may be called an inseparable companion or a necessary appendix to the Crown this invests the King with the sole Authority of making Lawes for before His confirmation all results and determinations of Parliament are but Bills or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are but abortive things and meer Embryos nay they have no life at all in them till the King puts breath and vigour into them and the ancient custome was for the King to touch them with His Scepter then they are Lawes and have a vertue in them to impose an obligation of universall obedience upon all sorts of people It being an undeniable maxime That nothing can be generally binding without the King 's royall assent nor doth the Law of England take notice of any thing without it This being done they are ever after styl'd the Kings Lawes and the Judges are said to deliver the King's judgments which agrees with the holy text The King by judgment shall stablish the Land nay the Law presumes the King to be alwaies the sole Judge Paramount and Lord chief Justice of England for he whom He pleaseth to depute for His chiefest Justice is but styl'd Lord chief Iustice of the Rings â—…ench not Lord chief Justice of England which title is peculiar to the King Himself and observable it is that whereas He grants Commissions and Patents to the Lord Chancellour who is no other then Keeper of His Conscience and to all other Judges He names the Chief Justice of his own Bench by a short Writ only containing two or three lines which run thus Regina Iohanni Popham militi salutem Sciatis quod constitutmus vos justiciarium nostrum Capitalem ad placita coram nobis terminandum durante beneplacito nostro Teste c. Now though the King be liable to the Laws and is contented to be within their verge because they are chiefly His own productions yet He is still their Protector Moderator and Soveraigne which attributes are incommunicable to any other conjunctly or separately Thus the King with His Scepter and by the mature advice of His two Houses of Parl. which are His highest Councel and Court hath the sole power of making Laws other Courts of judicature doe but expound them and distribute them by His appointment they have but Iuris dati dictionem or declarationem and herein I meane for the Exposition of the Lawes the twelve Iudges are to be believed before the whole Kingdom besides They are as the Areopagites in Athens the chief Presidents in France and Spaine in an extraordinary Iunta as the Cape-Syndiques in the Rota's of Rome and the Republique of Venice whose judgments in point of interpreting Lawes are incontroulable and preferred before the opinion of the whole Senate whence they received their being and who hath still power to repeal them though not to expound them In France they have a Law maxime Arrest donné en Rebbe rouge est irrevocable which is a Scarlet Sentence is irrevocable meaning when all the Judges are met in their Robes and the Client against whom the Cause goes may chafe and chomp upon the bit and say what he will for the space of twenty foure howers against his Judges but if ever after he traduces them he is punishable It is no otherwise here where every ignorant peevish Client every puny Barister specially if he become a Member of the House will be ready to arraign and vie knowledge with all the reverend Judges in the Land whose judgement in points of Law shold be onely tripodicall and sterling so that he may be truly call'd a just King and to rule according to Law who rules according to the opinion of his Judges therefore under favour I do not see how his Majesty for his part could be call'd injust when he leavied the Ship-money considering he had the Judges for it I now take the Sword in hand which is the third Instrument of a King and which this short discours chiefly points at it is as well as the two first incommunicable and inalienable from his Person nothing concernes his honor more both at home and abroad the Crown and the Scepter are but unweildy and impotent naked indefensible things without it There 's none so simple as to think there 's meant hereby an ordinary single sword
Prince of Orenge Hereunto may be added as a speciall argument of compliance and grace the passing of the Bill for a Trienniall Parliament and lastly which is the greatest Evidence that possibly can be imagined of that reall trust and confidence he reposed in them he passed that prodigious Act of Continuance Peregrin Touching the Trienniall Parliament there may come some whole some fruit out of it will keep all Officers in awe and excite the Nobilitie and young Gentrie of the Kingdome to studie and understand the Government of the land and be able to sit and serve their countrey in this great Senate But for this Act of Continuance I understand it not Parliaments are good Physick but ill meat They say abroad that England is turned hereby from a Monarchy to a Democracy to a perpetual kind of Quingentumvirat and whereas in former times ther was a Heptarchy of seven Kings in her they say now she hath seventy times seven But in lieu of these unparallell'd Acts of grace and trust to the Parl. what did the Parliament for the King all this while Patricius They promised specially upon the passing of the last Act That they would make him the most glorious the best beloved and richest King that ever reigned in England and this they did with deep protestings and asseverations But there intervened an ill-favoured accident which did much hurt viz. A Discourse for truely I think it was no more but a discourse which some green heads held to bring up the Northern armie to check the Puritan partie and the rabble of the citie This kept a mightie noyse and you know who fled upon it and much use was made of it to make that cloud of jealousie which was but of the breadth of a hand before to appear as big as a mountaine Yet his Majestie continued still in passing Acts of grace and complying with them in every thing Hee put over unto them the Earle of Strafford who after a long costly triall wherein he carried himself with as much acutenesse dexteritie and eloquence as humane braine could be capable of for his defence hee was condemned to the Scaffold and so made a sacrifice to the Scot who stayed chiefly for his head which besides those vast summes of money was given him to boot Peregrin Touching the Earle of Strafford 't is tru he was full of ability elocution and confidence and understood the lawes of England as well as any yet there were two things I heard wherein his wisdom was questioned first that having a charge ready against his chiefest accusers yet he suffered them to have the priority of sute which if he had got he had thereby made them parties and so incapable to be produced against him Secondly that during the time of his tryall he applyed not himself with that compliance to his Iury as well as to his Iudges for he was observed to comply only with the Lords and not with the House of Commons Patricius Howsoever as some say his death was â—…esolved upon si non per viam justitiae saltem per viam expedientiae which appears in regard the proceedings against him are by a clause in the Act not to be produced for a leading case or example to future ages and inferiour Courts I blush to tell you how much the rabble of the City thirsted after his blood how they were suffered to strut up and down the streets before the royal Court and the Parliament it self with impunity They cried out that if the Common Law fail'd club law should knock him down and their insolency came to that height that the names of those Lords that would not doome him to death should be given them to fix upon posts up and downe And this was the first tumult that happened this Parliament whereof so many followed after their example being not onely conniv'd at but backed by authoritie for there were prohibitions sent from the Parliament to hinder all processe against some of them These Myrmidons as they termed themselves were ready at a watchword so that one might say there was a kind of discipline in disorder Peregrin Were ther any troubled for delivering their votes in the Houses I thought that freedom of opinion and speech were one of the prime priviledges of that great Nationall Senat. Patricius Yes Those that were the Minions of the House before became now the subjects of popular malice and detraction as the Lord Digby now Earl of Bristol for one because against the dictamen of their consciences they would not vote the Earl of Strafford to death and renounce their own judgments and captivate it to the sense of others yet they stood firm to their first grounds that he was a delinquent in a high nature and incapable ever to beare office in any of His Majesties dominions Peregrin I perceive Sir by your speeches that one of the chiefest causes of these combustions may be imputed to the Citie of London which may be called the Metropolis of all these evils and I little wonder at it for it hath been alwaies incident to all great Townes when they grow rich and populous to fall into acts of insolence and to spurne at government where so many pots so many braines I meane are a boyling ther must needs be a great deal of froth but let her look to her self for Majesty hath long arms and may reach her at last But the truth is that London bears no proportion with the size of this Island for either the one shold be larger or the other lesser London may be well compared to the liver of a cramm'd Italian goose whose fatning emacerates the rest of the whole body and makes it grow lean and languish and she may be well term'd a goose now more then ever for her feathers are pluck'd apace but now that you have done with the Earl of Strafford what is become of all the rest who were committed Patricius They are still in durance and have continued so these two years and upward yet are not proceeded against nor brought to their answer to this very day though all the Courts of Justice have bin open ever since Many hundreds more of the best sort of Subjects have bin suddenly clapt up and no cause at all mentioned in many of their commitments and new Prisons made of purpose for them where they may be said to be buried alive and so forgotten as if ther were no such men in the world wherof the Author was one And how this can stand with Magna Charta with the Petition of Right to vindicat which ther was so much pains taken the last Parliament let any man of a sane judgment determin Yet one of the Judges who hath an Impeachment oâ—… High Treason still lying Dormant against him though he be not Rectus in Curia himself is suffered to sit as Judge upon the highest tribunall of England whereas another for a pretended misdemeanour only is barr'd from sitting ther. Others who were at first
him poorer then the meanest of all his vassals they have made him to have no propriety in house goods or Lands or as one may say in his wife and children 'T was usual for the father to hunt in his Park while the son hunted for his life in the field for the wife 〈◊〉 lie in his bedds while the husband layed wait to murther him abroad they have seiz'd upon and sold his privat Hangings anâ—… Plate yea his very Cabinets Jewels Pictures Statues and Books Nor are they the honorablest sort of peeple and men nobly extracted as in Scotland that do all this for then it were not so much to be wondred at but they are the meanest sort of Subjects many of them illiterat Mechaniques wherof the lower House is full specially the subordinat Committees who domineer more o're Nobles and Gentry then the Parliament Members themselfs their Masters use to do Touching those few Peers that sit now voting in the upper House they may be said to be but meer Cyphers they are grown so degenerat as to suffer the Commons to give them the Law to ride upon their backs and do most things without them Ther be many thousand Petitions that have bin recommended by these Lords to the lower House which are scornfully thrown into corners and never read their Messengers have us'd to dance attendance divers hours and days before they were vouchsafed to be let in or heard to the eternal dishonour of those Peers and yet poor spirited things they resent it not The Commons now command all and though as I am inform'd they are summon'd thither by the Kings Original Writ but to consent to what the King and his Great Counsel of Peers which is the tru Court of Parlement shall resolve upon The Commons I say are now from Consenters become the chiefest Counsellors yea Controulers of all nay som of this lower House fly so high as to term themselfs Conquerors and though in all conferences with the Lords they stand bare before them yet by a new way of mix'd Committees they carry themselfs as Collegues These are the men that now have the vogue and they have made their Priviledges so big swoln that they seem to have quite swallowed up both the Kings Prerogatives and those of the Lords These are the Grandees and Sages of the times though most of them have but crack'd braines and crazy fortunes God wot Nay som of them are such arrand Knaves and coxcombs that 't is questionable whether they more want common honesty or common sense nor know no more what belongs to tru policy then the left leg of a joynt-stool They are grown so high a tiptoes that they seem to scorn an Act of Amnestia or any grace from their King wheras som of them deserve to be hang'd as oft as they have haires upon their heads nor have they any more care of the common good of England then they have of Lapland so they may secure their own persons and continue their Power now Authority is sweet though it be in Hell Thus my Lord is England now govern'd so that 't is an easie thing to take a prospect of her ruine if she goes on this pace The Scot is now the swaying man who is the third time struck into her bowels with a numerous Army They say he hath vow'd never to return till he hath put the Crown on the Kings head the Sceptâ—…r in his hand and the sword by his side if he do so it will be the best thing that ever he did though som think that he will never be able to do England as much good as he hath done her hurt He hath extremely out-witted the English of late years And they who were the causers of his first and last coming in I hold to be the most pernicious Enemies that ever this Nation had for t is probable that Germany viz. Ponterland and Breme will be sooner free of the Swed then England of the Scot who will stick close unto him like a bur that he cannot shake him off He is becom already Master of the Englishmans soul by imposing a Religion upon him and he may hereafter be master of his body Your Eminence knows there is a periodicall fate hangs over all Kingdoms after such a revolution of time and rotation of fortunes wheele the cours of the world hath bin for one Nation like so many nailes to thrust out another But for this Nation I observe by conference with divers of the saddest and best weighdst men among them that the same presages foretell their ruine as did the Israelites of old which was a murmuring against their Governors It is a long time that both Iudges Bishops and privy Counsellors have bin mutter'd at whereof the first shold be the oracles of the Law the other of the Gospell the last of State-affaires and that our judgments shold acquiesce upon theirs Here as I am inform'd 't was common for evry ignorant client to arraign his Iudg for evry puny Curat to censure the Bishop for evry shallow-brain home-bred fellow to descant upon the results of the Councell Table and this spirit of contradiction and contumacy hath bin a long time fomenting in the minds of this peeple infus'd into them principally by the Puritanicall Faction Touching the second of the three aforesaid I mean Bishops they are grown so odious principally for their large demeanes among this peeple as the Templers were of old and one may say it is a just judgment fallen upon them for they were most busy in demolishing Convents and Monasteries as these are in destroying Cathedralls and Ministers But above all it hath bin observ'd that this peeple hath bin a long time rotten-hearted towards the splendor of the Court the glory of their King and the old establish'd Government of the land 'T is true there were a few small leakes sprung in the great vessel of the Stâ—…te and what vessel was ever so â—…ite but was subject to leakes but these wise-akers in stopping of one have made a hundred Yet if this Kings raign were parallell'd to that of Queen Elizabeth's who was the greatest Minion of a peeple that ever was one will find that she stretch'd the Prerogative much further In her time as I have read in the Latin Legend of her life som had their hands cut off for only writing against her matching with the Duke of Aniou others were hang'd at Tyburn for traducing her government she pardon'd thrice as many Roman Priests as this King did she pass'd divers Monopolies she kept an Agent at Rome she sent her Sergeant at Armes to pluck out a Member then sitting in the House of Commons by the eares and clapt him in prison she call'd them sawcy fellowes to meddle with her Prerogative or with the government of her houshold she mannag'd all forren affaires specially the warrs with Ireland soly by her privy Counsell yet there was no murmuring at her raign and the reason I conceave to be
Parliament by force and remove ill Counsellours from about him long before he put up his Royal Standard and the Generall then nam'd was to live and die with them and very observable it is how that Generalls Father was executed for a Traytor for but attempting such a thing upon Queen Elizabeth I mean to remove ill Counsellors from about her by force 'T is also to be observed that the same Army which was rais'd to bring him to his Parliament was continued to a clean contrary end two years afterwards to keep him from his Parliament 'T is fit it should be remembred who interdicted Trade first and brought in Forraigners to help them and whose Commissions of War were neere upon two moneths date before the Kings 'T is fit it should be remembred how His Majesty in all His Declarations and publick Instruments made alwaies deep Protestations that 't was not against his Parliament he raised Armes but against some seditious Members against whom he had onely desired the common benefit of the Law but could not obtain it 'T is fit to remember that after any good successes and advantages of his he still Courted both Parliament and City to an Accommodation how upon the Treaty at Uxbridge with much importunity for the generall advantage and comfort of his peeple and to prepare matters more fitly for a peace he desired there might be freedom of Trade from Town to Town and a Cessation of all Acts of Hostility for the time that the inflammation being allayed the wound might be curâ—…d the sooner all which was denyed him 'T is fit to remember how a Noble Lord The Earl of Southampton at that time told the Parliaments Commissioners in His Majesties Name at the most unhappy rupture of the said Treaty That when he was at the highest he would be ready to treat with them and fight them when he was at the lowest 'T is fit the present Army should remember how often both in their Proposalls and publick Declarations they have inform'd the world and deeply protested that their principall aime was to restore His Majesty to honour freedom and safety whereunto they were formerly bound both by their own Protestation and Covenant that the two Commanders in chief pawn'd unto him their soules thereupon Let them remember that since he was first snatch'd away to the custody of the Army by Cromwells plot who said that if they had the Person of the King in their power they had the Parliament in their pockets I say being kept by the Army He never displeas'd them in the least particular but in all his Overtures for Peace and in all his Propositions he had regard still that the Army should be satisfied let it be remembred that to settle a blessed Peace to preserve his Subjects from rapine and ruine and to give contentment to his Parliament He did in effect freely part with His Sword Scepter and Crown and ev'ry thing that was proprietary to him Let it be remembred with what an admired temper with what prudence and constancy with what moderation and mansuetude he comported himself since his deep afflictions insomuch that those Commissioners and others who resorted unto him and had had their hearts so averse unto him before return'd his Converts crying him up to be one of the sanctifiedst persons upon earth and will not the bloud of such a Prince cry loud for vengeance Bloud is a crying sin but that of Kings Cryes loudest for revenge and ruine brings Let it be remembred that though there be some Precedents of deposing Kings in his Kingdom and elsewhere when there was a competition for the right Title to the Crown by some other of the bloud Royall yet 't is a thing not onely unsampled but unheard of in any age that a King of England whose Title was without the least scruple should be summon'd and arraign'd tryed condemned and executed in His own Kingdom by His own Subjects and by the name of their own King to whom they had sworn Alleagiance The meanest Student that hath but tasted the Laws of the Land can tell you that it is an unquestionable fundamentall Maxime The King can do no wrong because he acts by the mediation of his Agents and Ministers he heares with other mens eares he sees with other mens eyes he consults with other mens braines he executes with other mens hands and judges with other mens consciences therefore his Officers Counsellors or favorites are punishable not He and I know not one yet whom he hath spar'd but sacrificed to Justice The Crown of England is of so coruscant and pure a mettall that it cannot receive the least taint or blemish and if there were any before in the person of the Prince it takes them all away and makes him to be Rectus in curia This as in many others may be exemplified in Henry the Seventh and the late Queen Elizabeth when she first came to the Crown 't was mention'd in Parlement that the attainder might be taken off him under which he lay all the time he liv'd an Exile in France it was then by the whole house of Parlement resolv'd upon the question that it was unnecessary because the Crown purg'd all So likewise when Queen Elizabeth was brought as it were from the Scaffold to the Throne though she was under a former attainder yet 't was thought superfluous to take it off for the Crown washeth away all spots and darteth such a brightnesse such resplendent beams of Majesty that quite dispell all former clouds so that put case King Iames died a violent death and his Son had been accessary to it which is as base a lie as ever the devil belch'd out yet his accesse to the Crown had purged all This businesse about the playster which was applyed to King Iames was sifted and winnow'd as narrowly as possibly a thing could be in former Parlements yet when it was exhibited as an Article against the Duke of Buckingham 't was term'd but a presumption or misdemeanure of a high nature And 't is strange that these new accusers shold make that a parricide in the King which was found but a presumption in the Duke who in case it had been so must needs have been the chiefest Accessary And as the ancient Crown and Royall Diadem of England is made of such pure allay and cast in so dainty a mould that it can receive no taint or contract the least speck of enormity and foulenesse in it self so it doth endow the person of the Prince that weares it with such high Prerogatives that it exempts him from all sorts of publique blemishes from all Attainders Empeachments Summons Arraignments and Tryalls nor is there or ever was any Law or Precedent in this Land to lay any Crime or capitall charge against him though touching civill matters touching propertie of meum and tuum he may be impleaded by the meanest vassall that hath sworn fealty to him as the Subjects of France and Spaine may against
their Kings though never so absolute Monarchs In the Constitutions of England there are two incontroulable Maximes whereof the meanest mootman that hath but saluted Littleton cannot be ignorant the first is Rex in suis Dominiis neque habet parem nec superiorem The King in his own Dominions hath neither Peer or Superior The other is Satis habet Rex ad poenam quod Deum expectet ultorem 't is punishment enough for a King that God will take revenge of him Therefore if it be the Fundamentall Constitution of the Land that all just Tryalls must be by Teers and that the Law proclaimes the King to have no peer in his own Dominions I leave the world to judg what capacity or power those men had to arraign their late King to be in effect his Accusers and Iudges and that an exorbitant unsampled Tribunall should be erected with power and purpose to condemn All to cleer none and that sentence of death should passe without conviction or Law upon Him that was the heard and protector of all the Lawes Lastly that They who by their own confession represent but the Common people should assume power to cut off Him who immediately represented God Cui dabit partes scelus expiandi Iupiter Well we have seen such portentous things that former Ages never beheld nor will future Ages ever be witnesse of the like Nay posterity after a Century or two of yeers will hold what is now really acted to be but Romances And now with thoughts full of consternation and horror And a heart trembling with amazement and sorrow for the crying flagrant sins of this forlorn Nation specially for that fresh Infandous murther committed upon the sacred Person of his Majesty I conclude with this Hepastick wherein all cretures though irrationall that have sence yea the very vegetalls seeme to abhor so damnable a fact So fell the Royal Oake by a wild crew Of mongrel shrubs which underneath Him grew So fell the Lion by a pack of Currs So the Rose witherd 'twixt a knot of Burrs So fell the Eagle by a swarme of Gnatts So the Whale perish'd by a Shoale of Spratts In the prison of the Fleet 25. Febr. 1648. I. H. ADVICE Sent from the prime Statesmen OF FLORENCE HOW ENGLAND may come to HERSELF again Which is To call in the KING Not upon ARTICLES But in a Free confident way Which Advice came immediatly upon the Readmission of the Secluded Members And Coppies therof being delivered to the Chiefest of Them It produc'd happy Effects A Letter sent from the City of Florence Written by a Great Counsellor there touching the present Distempers of England wherein He with som of the Prime Statesmen in Florence passe their Iudgements which is the onely way to compose the said Distempers To my Honored and most Endeared Patron IT is no small diminution to my former happinesse that I have not receiv'd your commands any time these two moneths which makes me lodg within me certain apprehensions of fear that som disasteâ—… might befall you in those new Distractions therefore I pray be pleased to pull this thorn out of my thoughts as speedily as it may stand with your conveniency We are not here so barren of Intelligence but we have weekly advice of your present Confusions and truly the severest sort of speculative persons here who use to observe the method of Providence do not stick to say that the hand of Heaven doth visibly stirre therein and that those Distractions in Army State and City are apparent judgements from above for if one revolve the Stories of former Times as I have done many but you more he will find that it hath been alwaies an inevitable Fate which useth to hang over all popular Insurrections to end in confusion and disorders among the chief actors themselfs at last And we have had divers examples thereof here among us which hath caus'd us to be so long in quietnesse and peace But truly Sir give me leave to tell you that your Nation hath lost much of their Repute abroad all the World over in statu quo nunc Som do laugh at you Others do scorn and hate you And som do pitty and comiserat you They who laugh at you think you are no better than Mand men having strange Magots in your brains bred out of the fat of so long wanton plenty and peace They who scorn and hate you do it for your Sacriledge your horrendous Sacrileges the like whereof was never committed on Earth since Christianity had first a hole to put her head in They who pitty you are few and We are of the nomber of Them as well in the common sense of Humanity as for the advantages and improvement of Wealth which this State hath receiv'd by your Trading at Ligorne for that Town doth acknowledge her prosperity and that she is arrived to this flourishing Estate of Riches of Buildings and bravery by the correspondence she hath had this latter Age with England in point of Commerce which yet we find doth insensibly impair every day and I believe you feel it more Therefore out of the well-wishes and true affections we bear unto England some of the most serious and soberest Persons of this place who are well seasoned in the World and have studyed men under divers Climes and conversed also much with Heavenly Bodies had lately a private Junto or meeting whereunto I was admitted for one and two of us had been in England where we received sundry free Civilities Our main businesse was to discourse and descant upon these sad confusions and calamitous condition wherein England with the adjoyning Kingdomes are at present involved and what might extricate Her out of this Labyrinth of Distractions and reduce Her to a setled Government Having long canvased the businesse and banded arguments pro con with much earnestnesse all our opinious did concenter at last in this point That there was no probable way under Heaven to settle a fast and firm Government among you then for the Men that are now upon the Stage of power to make a speedy application to their own King their own Liege Lord and Soveraigne whom God and Nature hath put over them Letâ—… them beat their brains scrue up their witts and put all the policy they have upon the tenterhooks as farre as possibly they can yet they will never be able to establish a durable standing Government otherwise They do but dance in a circle all this while for the Government will turn at last to the same point it was before viz. to Monarchy and this King will be restored to His Royall Inheritances maugre all the Cacodaemons of Hell Our Astrologers here specially the famous Antonio Fiselli hath had notes to look into the horoscope of his Nativity and what predictions he hath made hitherto of him have proved true to my knowledge He now confidently averrs with the concurrence of the rest that the aspect of all the starrs and conjunction of
be writ but upon his seal'd paper with sundry other exactions yet his subjects are still as obedient and awful unto him they are as conformable and quiet as if he were the most vertuous and victorious Prince that ever was and this they do principally for their own advantage for if ther were another Governour set up it would inevitably hurle the whole Countrey into combustion and tumults besides they are taught that as in choice of Wives so the Rule holds in Governments Seldome comes a better Touching the Originals of Government and ruling power questionless the first among Mankind was that Naturall power of the Father over his Children and that Despotical domestique surintendence of a Master of a house over his Family But the World multiplying to such a Masse of peeple they found that a confused equality and a loose unbridled way of living like â—…rute animals to be so inconvenient that they chose one person to protect and govern not so much out of love to the â—…erson as for their own conveniency and advantage that they might live more regularly and be secur'd from rapine and opâ—…ression As also that justice might be administted and every one enjoy his own without fear and danger such Governâ—…urs had a power invested accordingly in â—…hem also as to appoint subservient able Miâ—…isters under them to help to bear the â—…urden Concerning the kinds of Government â—…ll Polititians agree that Monarchall is the best and noblest sort of sway having the neerest analogy with that of Heaven viz. A supreme power in one single person God Almighty is the God of Unity as well as of Entity and all things that have an Entity do naturally propend to Unity Unity is as necessary for a well being as Entity is for a Being for nothing conduceth more to order tranquillity and quietude nor is any strength so operative as the united The fist is stronger then the hand though it be nothing but the hand viz. The fingers united by contraction The Republick of Venice which is accounted the most Eagle-ey'd and lastingst State in the World foâ—… she hath continued a pure Virgin and shin'd within her watry Orb nere upon thirteen Ages is the fittest to give the World advice herein for if ever any have brought policy to be a Science which consists of certitudes this State is Shee who is grown aâ—… dexterous in ruling men as in rowing of 〈◊〉 Gally But whereas the vulgar opinion is that the common peeple there have a sharâ—… in the Government 't is nothing so for he Great Counsel which is the maine hing whereon the Republick turns is composeâ—… onely of Gentlemen who are capable bâ—… their birth to sit there having passed twenty five years of age To which purpose they must bring a publick Testimonial that they are descended of a Patrician or noble Family But to return to the main matter this sage Republick who may prescribe rules of Policy to all Mankind having tryed at first to Govern by Consuls and Tribunes for som years she found it at last a great inconvenience or deformity rather to have two heads upon one body Therefore She did set up one Soveraign Prince and in the Records of Venice the resons are yet extant which induc'd her thereunto whereof one of the remarkablest was this We have observed that in this vast University of the World all Bodies according to their several Natures have multiplicity of Motions yet they receive vertue and vigour but from one which is the Sun All causes derive their Originals from one supreme cause we see that in one Creture there are many differing Members and Faculties which have various functions yet they are all guided by one soul c. The Island of Great Britain hath bin alwaies a Royal Isle from her first creation and Infancy She may be said to have worn a Crown in her Cradle and though She had so many revolutions and changes of Masters yet She continued still Royal nor is there any species of Government that suits better either with the quality of the Countrey and Genius of the Inhabitants or relates more directly to all the ancient Lawes Constitutions and Customs of the Land then Monarchal which any one that is conversant in the Old Records can justifie Britannia ab initio mundi semper Regia regimen illius simile illi caelorum Concerning the many sorts of Trustâ—… which were put in the Supreme Governor of this Land for ther must be an implicite and unavoidable necessary Trust reposed in every Soveraign Magistrate the power of the Sword was the chiefest and it was agreeable to Holy Scripture he shold have it where we know 't is said The King beareth not the Sword in vain The Lawes of England did ever allow it to be the inalienable prerogative of the Soveraign Prince nor was it ever known humbly under favour that any other power whatsoever managing conjunctly or singly did ever pretend to the power of the publick Sword or have the Militia invested in them but this ever remained intire and untransferrible in the person of the Ruler in chief whose chiefest instrument to govern by is the Sword without which Crownes Scepters Globes and Maces are but bables It is that Instrument which causeth tru obedience makes him a Dread Soveraign and to be feared at home and abroad Now 't is a Maxime in policy that ther can be no tru obedience without Fear The Crown and Scepter draw only a loose kind of voluntary love and opinion from the people but 't is the sword that draws Reverence and awe which two are the chiefest ingredients of Allegeance it being a principle that the best Government is made of Fear and Love viz. when by Fear Love is drawn as threed through the eye of a Needle The surest Obedience and Loyalty is caused thus for Fear being the wakefullest of our passions works more powerfully in us and predominates over all the rest primus in orbe Deus fecit Timor To raise up a Soveraign Magistrate without giving him the power of the sword is to set one up to rule a metall'd Horse without a Bridle A chief Ruler without a Sword may be said to be like that Logg of Wood which Iupiter threw down among the Froggs to be their King as it is in the Fable Moreover One of the chiefest glories of a Nation is to have their Supreme Governor to be esteem'd and redouted abroad as well as at Home And what Forren Nation will do either of these to the King of England if he be Armless and without a Sword who will give any respect oâ—… precedence to his Ambassadors and Ministers of State The Sword also is the prime Instrument of publick protection therefore that King who hath not the power of the Sword must have another Title given Him the Protector of his peeple Now in a Successive hereditary Kingdom as England is known and acknowledged to be by all Parties now in opposition There are