own stipendaries and cast out of the pack as an unprofitable Member He incouraged the Souldiers to fight against the King dedicated his Volumes to their chief Commanders loaded them with high Commendations and incomparable praises and made them believe that they could do God no better service than to go on vigorously in their Rebellion So that it may be truly said that his paper pellets did more harm than the roaring Guns or cutting Swords He laboured night and day to glorifie and vindicate the Parliament in their wicked proceedings at home and as his books will manifest he spared many hours from his natural rest to promote the unnatural Warrs abroad Yet now nec invideo he prosecuteth them with reproaches as much as he did then with praises himself being become hatefull to them all verifying the Proverb of Solomon cap. 24.24 He that saith unto the wicked thou art righteous him shall the people curse Nations shall abhorre him Therefore I once more advise him as a friend to write a book of Retractations The Lord be merciful unto us the men of our times would make one believe that there never was a King in the World Nay they would seem to make the Kings so highly esteemed of by God all the Prophets and Apostles in Scripture but meer white walls the empty shadows of the people and the Bible but a bundle of Fables as if God never took no more notice of a King than of an ordinary Porter How Judas sirnamed the Long Parliament betrayed and murthered Charles the first The best of all Kings and contrary to all Law and Religion and the common interest of the people Banish Charles the 2d our only lawful King and Governour The mystery of their iniquity laid open and that they are the greatest and most wicked Tyrants that ever dwelt upon the face of the Earth and the Child which is unborn will rue the day of their untimely birth Of what persons a Parliament consisteth No Parliament without the King The Original institution of Parliaments and that the House of Commons which now make themselves Kings over King and people were but as of yesterday have no legal power but what is derived from the King and never were intrusted with any power from the people much lesse with the Soveraignty which they now Tyrannically usurpe The Kings Soveraignty over Parliament and people copiously proved King Charles his Title to the Crown of England To him only belongeth the Militia the power of chusing Judges Privy Counsellors and other great Officers c. He is head in Ecclesiastical causes and our sole Legislator Our Ancestors alwayes found and accounted Monarchy to be the best of Governments and most profitable for us yet these 40 or 50. Tyrants contrary to all Antiquity and common sense and feeling sit and vote Monarchy dangerous and burthensome That all persons put to death since the murther of Charles the Martyr by the power of our new States-men have been murthered and their Judges Murtherers and so it will continue until they receive their power and authority from Charles the 2d and that we shall never enjoy peace or plenty until our King be restored to his Kingdoms which a pack of Tyrants and Traytors not the People keep from him How the Law abhorreth to offer violence to the King and how these Rebels transgresse all Laws both of God and Man to uphold themselves in their unparallel'd Villanies A History which commandeth the serious contemplation of our age and worthy of the observation of all the people in the World and of all future Generations not that they might imitate but detest and loath these Perfidious and Rebellious transactions Perlege deinde scies HAving sufficiently prov'd out of our Law books that by the Common Law of the Realm the King hath the Soveraign power over Parliament and People and ought not to be questioned for his actions by any of his Subjects taken either distributively or collectively in one intire body because he hath no Superiour on Earth but God Almighty Let us now take a brief view of the Statutes and Acts of Parliament which have from Age to Age confirmed what I have said as an undoubted inviolable and indisputable truth And since there are those amongst us who talk much of a power in the Parliament as they call the two Houses which they pretend to be above and Superiour to the King Let us examine what this high and mighty Creature is whence and when it had its original what is its true natural and legal power and of what persons it doth consist The Kings high Court of Parliament consisteth of the Kings Majesty sitting there as in his Royal politick capacity and of the three Estates of the Realm viz. 1 Of the Lords spiritual Arch-Bishops and Bishops being in number 24 who sit there by succession in respect of their Counties or Baronies parcell of their Bishopricks which they hold also in their politick capacity 2. The Lords temporal Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts and Barons who sit there by reason of their Dignities which they hold by descent or creation being in number 106. And every one of these when the King vouchsafeth to hold a Parliament hath a Writ of Summons The third Estate is the Commons of the Realm which are divided into three parts viz. into Knights of Shires or Counties Citizens out of Cities and Burgesses out of Borroughs All which the King commandeth his Sheriffs to cause to come to his Parliament being respectively Elected by the Shires or Counties Cities and Burroughs and in number 493. It is called Parliament because every Member of the Court should sincerely and discreetly Parler la ment for the general good of the Common-wealth This Court of Parliament is the most high and absolute the supremest and most antient in the Realm it Maketh Enlargeth Diminisheth Abrogateth Repealeth and Reviveth Laws Statutes Acts and Ordinances concerning matters Ecclesiastical Capital Criminal Common Civil Martial Maritine c. to be short so transcendent is the power and jurisdiction of the Parliament as it cannot be confined either for Causes or Persons within any bounds Of this Court it is truly said Si antiquitatem spectes est vetustissima si dignitatem est honoratissima si jurisdictionem est capacissima Yet notwithstanding this Almighty power as I may say of the Parliament do but cut off the Kings head or any ways take away the King and it is nothing Then a petty Court of Pypowders hath more power and jurisdiction than that The King is the Soul of the Parliament and without him it is but Putre Cadaver a stinking Carcasse for as my Lord Coke observeth of this Court the King is Caput principium et finis And it is a baser and more odious part then the Rump of a Parliament which wanteth all these and as in a natural body when all the Sinews being joyned in the head do joyn their forces together for the strengthening of the body
Kings gracious Concessions each Member of the house of Commons ought to be respectively elected out of the Shires or Counties Cities or Boroughs by the Kings Writ ex debito Justitiae Now would it not strike a man with admiration and make his hair stand an end to hear that the House of Commons should claim the Legislative power and protest to the world that they were greater in authority and Majesty than the King who raised them from nothing surely 't is but a dream which troubled the head a while with strange Chimaeras and then vanish'd it is but a Phantasm which fanatick distempers raised in lunatick brains and so perish'd after ages will account it but an Ovids Metamorphosis or as a Fable told more for mirth and novelty than for any truth or reality for why are the pots greater than the Potter or doth he who ought for to obey give Laws to him whose right it is to command The King sayeth to the House of Commons come and they come and he sayeth to them go and they go whatsoever the King commands that they cannot chuse by Law but do Nay the Lords their Masters are but the Kings Servants the King is the head and they are but the servile Members it is the property of the Head not of the Members to command the inferiour Members are all at the will and nod of the Head the feet run the hands work and the whole body moveth at the pleasure of the head but without the head the whole body is but a dead trunck and neither hands nor feet have power to move so the Members of the Parliament without the King their head have not power to sit much less to Act there is no body without a head nor no Parliament without a King they cannot move nor convene together without his Royal Summons neither can they dissolve themselves being convened without his command the King assembles adjourns prorogues and dissolves the Parliament by Law at his pleasure and therfore it is called in our Statutes and Law-bookes Parliamentum Regis Curia Regis et Concilium Regis and the Acts of Parliament are called the Kings Laws and why not the Kings Laws doth not he make them The whole body and volumes of the Statutes proclaim the King the sole Legislator What is Magna Charta but the Kings will and gift The very beginning of it will tell you 't is no more viz. Henry by the grace of God c. Know ye that we of our meer and free will have given these Liberties In the self same style runs Charta de foresta In the Statute of escheates made at Lincoln 29 Edw. 1. are these words At the Parliament of our Soveraign Lord the King by his Council it was agreed and also commanded by the King himself That c. The Statute of Marlebridg 52 H. 3. runs thus The King hath made these Acts Ordinances and Statutes which he willeth to be observtd of all his Subjects high and low 3. Edwardi primi The title of the Statute is These are the Acts of King Edward and afterwards it followeth The King hath ordained these Acts And the first Chapter begins The King forbiddeth and commandeth That c. 6. Edw. 1 It is said Our Soveraign Lord the King hath established the Acts commanding they be observed within this Realm And in the 14 Chap. the words are The King of his special grace granteth That c. The Statute of Quo Warranto saith Our Lord the King at his Parliament of his special Grace and for affection which he beareth to his Prelats Earls and Barons and others hath granted that they who have liberties by prescription shall enjoy them 1. Ed. 3. To the honour of God and of holy Church and to the redresse of the oppression of the people our Soveraign Lord the King c. At the request of the Commonalty of his Realm by their Petition made before him and his Counsel in the Parliament by the assent of the Prelats Earls Barons and other great men assembled in the said Parliament hath granted for him and his heirs c. But wherfore evidences to prove that which no man can deny The styles of the Statutes and Acts printed to the 1 H. 7 are either The King willeth the King commandeth the King provideth the King grants the King ordains at his Parliament or the King ordaineth by the advice of his Prelats and Barons and at the humble Petition of the Commons c. But in Henry 7 his time the style altered and hath sithence continued thus It is ordained by the Kings Majesty and the Lords spiritual and temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled And why do the Lords and Commons ordain Is it not only because the King doth It is so they do because the King doth which only denotateth their assent for the Kings Majesty giveth life to all as the Soul to the Body for did ever the Lords or Commons make an Act without the King Never they cannot the Lords advise the Commons consent but the King makes the Law their Bills are but inanimate scriblings untill the King breaths into their nostrils the breath of life and so that which was but mould before becometh a Law which ruleth living Souls and as Sr. Edward Coke observeth In antient times all Acts of Parliament were in form of Petitions which the King answered at his pleasure now if it be the duty of the Parliament to Petition and in the power of the King to receive or reject their Petitions at his will judg you who hath the supreme power Neither doth the King only make the Laws but he executeth them too for all executions which are the life of the Law receive their force and vigour from the King Car la ley le roy et les briefes le Roy Sont les choses per que home est Protect et ayde saith our Father Littleton Sect. 199. There be three things whereby every Subject is protected Rex Lex rescripta Regis The King commandeth his commands are our Laws and those Laws are executed only by the Kings Writs and Precepts and although the King Moses-like deputeth subaltern Judges to ease himself of some part of the burthen of administring Justice yet what they Judge are the Kings Judgments the Law is the rule but it is mute the King judgeth by his Judges and they judging are the Kings speaking Law The Judges are Lex loquens the Kings mouth the Commons are his eys and the Lords his ears but the Kings head is Viva Lex the fountain of Justice to whom God hath given his Judgments and we have none but what the King Gods Vicar giveth to us and why not the Kings judgments Quod quisque facit per alterum facit per se The Kings Patent makes the Judges the power of pardoning offences only belongeth to the King He may grant conusance of all pleas at his pleasure within any County
ordinary act intervene For the interposed act containeth not in it power to confer Soveraignty but that power cometh formally and virtually from God and so relateth to him as the proper Donor and immediate Author As when a king giveth power to a favourite to make a Lord or a Baron yet who is so stupid as to averr that the honour of a Lord or a Baron cometh immediatly from the favourite and not from the king So when God puts into the hearts of the people to chuse a king the Soveraignty cometh from God and not from the people The people cannot produce so noble an effect as Royalty Nemo potest transferre in alium quod non habet in se No man can give that to another which he hath not himself The Soveraign hath power over life and death No single man hath power to kill himself nor the people jointly For if no man hath power over his own life much less over his neighbours Therefore Soveraignty is not derived from the people The people have potestatem designativam personae but not potestatem collativam potestatis regiae they have power to design and depute the person But not the power to joyn the Royal authory to the person for that is immediatly from God As the designation of the person to an holy function is from man or men but the collation of the power is immediatly from God I may have power to throw a man into the Sea but it is the water which drowneth him There is a great difference between the applying of the person to the authority and the applying of the authority to the person the one may be the act of the people the other can only be the act of the Almighty Licet communicatio potestatis quandoque sit per consensum hominum potestas tamen ipsa immediate est a Deo cujus est potestas Though the power be sometimes conferred by the consent of men yet it is immediatly given from God whose power it is saith Râ—ffensis de potestate Papae fol. 283. Et Communitas nihil sui confert regibus nisi ad summam personam determinet potius personam applicat divinae potestati quam divinam potestatem personae The Community hath no power to confer on Kings but only to depute the person it may apply the person to the divine power but cannot apply the divine power to the person saith Spalet tom 2.529 Constitue supra nos Regem at judicet nos sicut universae habent nationes Make us a King to rule over us not we over him that he may judge us not that we may judge him as all other Nations have Cry the Elders of Israel From whence it is apparent that Soveraignty cometh from the Heavens not from our earthly Cottages we are rather Passive than Active it is God which makes Kings we receive and should obey them There is no society without Government We should destroy one the other unlesse we had a Governour Thou O Lord hast made and given a King to the little Bees who follow him as their leader and honour him with a throne in the midst and safest place amongst them the Cranes do follow one as chief and flocks and herds have their Captain to lead them the Fishes of the Sea do follow one as King Therefore let not us men only be independent and since thou hast told us that power belongs to thee we will not rob thee of it Obedience is that which we are only capable of Soveraignty is a Creature of thy making not of ours Therefore make us a king to rule over us The Prophet Samuel seeing their urgent resolution for a king lest they should afterwards plead ignorance told them the power of a king Vosque eritis ei servi If you have a King you must be his Servants he will take your Sons and appoint them for himself for his Chariots he will take the tenth of your sheep and of your seed he will take your Daughters to be confectionaries â—e will take your Fields your Vineyards your Olive-yards even the best of them and give them to his Officers and Servants he will take your men-Servants and your maid-Servants and your Goodliest young men and your Asses and put them to his work This is the power of a king and from whence is this power derived doubtless not from the people for they are never so willing to part from what they have But notwithstanding they persisted in their Petition and would have a king saying Rex erit super nos erimus nos quoquâ— sicut omnes gentes judicabit nos Rex noster Nay but there shall be a king over us that we also may be like all the Nations and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our Battels by which it is perspicuous that all Kings had the same power as this King here described by the Prophet had The Israelites did not sin in desiring a King neither did God give them a King purposely for their punishment in his wrath For as the best Divines hold when God saith Hos 13.11 I gave them a King in mine anger and took him away in my wrath which proveth that God only giveth and taketh away Kings wicked Jeroboam is meant and not Saul For Samuel prayed for Saul God commanded Samuel to hearken to the voice of the people in all that they said 1 Sam. 8.7 and did chuse them a pious King for cap. 10.24 Samuel said to all the people See ye him whom the Lord hath chosen that there is none like him among all the people and all the people shouted and said God save the King So that it is apparent that Saul was chosen for his virtues and was no Tyrant at his inauguration Moses Deut. 17.14 15. did prophesie of their King Thou shalt in any wise set him King over thee whom the Lord thy God shall chuse Where Moses relateth what is decent and meet for a clement and merciful king But Samuel describeth what a king may do if he will use his summum jus which is to do what he pleaseth Therefore Samuel setteth forth the greatest and largest power of Kings not to deter the people from desiring a Kings but to prepare their hearts to obey him for God commanded Samuel to grant the people their request according to the prophecie of Moses and therefore Samuel would not be unwilling to perform Gods command Neither was Samuels displeasure for any other end but that the people might be pleased with the king whom they so earnestly desired and knowing his power and remembring their fervent sute for him they might more willingly and chearfully obey him For Sauls wickednesse did spring from the Corruption of his Nature after he was made king and not through any default in God for he was a man of excellent qualities when God chose him and many pious and religious kings were given to the people afterwards as David c.