he and his successours a long while after their being Kings made and established their lawes from time to time and as the occasion required So the truth is contrary in our state to the false affirmation of such seditious Writers as would perswade us that the Lawes and state of our countrey were established before the admitting of a King whereby the contrary ye see it plainly proved that a wise King comming among barbares first established the estate and forme of government and thereafter made dawes by himselfe and his successors according thereto The Kings therefore in Scotland were before any estates or rankes of men within the same before any Parliaments were holden or Lawes made and by them was the Land distributed which at the first was whole theirs states erected and decerned and formes of government devised and established And so it followes of necessity that the Kings were the authors and makers of the lawes and not the lawes of the Kings And to prove this my assertion more clearely it is evident by the Roles of our Chancellery which containe our eldest and fundamentall lawes that the King is Dominus omnium bonorum and Dominus directus totius Dominiy the whole subjects being but his vassals from him holding all their lands as their Over lord who according to good services done unto him changeth their holdings from tacke to few from â—ord to blanch erecteth new Baronies and uniteth old without advise or authority of either Parliament or any other subalterin judicial seate So as if wrong might be admitted in play albert I grant wrong should bee wrong in all persons the King might have a better colour for his pleasure without further reason to take the land from his lieges as over-lord of the whole and doe with it as pleaseth him since all that they hold is of him then as foolish writers say the people might un-make the King and put an other in his room But either of them as unlawfull and against the ordinance of God ought to be alike odious to be thought much lesse put in practise And according to these fundamentall lawes already alledged wee daily see that in the Parliament which is nothing else but the head Court of the King and his vassals the lawes are but craved by his subjects and only made by him at their rogation and with their advise For albeit the K. make daily statutes and ordinances injoyning such pains thereto as he thinks meet without any advise of Parliament or estates yet it lyes in the power of no Parliament to make any kinde of law or statute without his Scepter be to it for giving it the force of a law And althogh diverse changes have been in other Countries of the bloud Royall and kingly house the Kingdome being refectly conquest from one to another as in our neighbour country in England which was never in ours yet the same ground of the Kings right over all the Land and subjects thereof remaineth alike in all other free Monarchies as well as in this For when the Bastard of Normandie came into England and made himselfe King was it not by force and with a mighty army Where he gave the Law and tooke none changed the laws inverted the order of government see downe the strangers his followers in many of the old possessours roomes 〈◊〉 this day well appeareth a great part of the Gentlemen in England being come of the Norman bloud and their old Lawes which to this day they are tuled by are written in his language and not in theirs And yet his successors have with great bappinesse enjoyed the Crowne to this day Whereof the like was also done by all them that conquested them before And for conclusion of this point that the King is over-over-lord over the whole lands it is likewise daily proved by the Law of our hoords of want of Heires and of Bastardies For if a â—oord be found under the earth because it is no more in the keeping or use of any person it of the Law pertaines to the King If a person inheritour of any lands or goods dye without any sort of heires all his lands and goods returne to the King And if a bastard dye unrehabled without heires of his body which rehabling only lyes in the Kings hinds all that he hath likewise returnes to the King And as yee see it manifest that the King is Over-Lord of the whole Land So is hee master over every person that inhabiteth the same having power over the life and death of every one of them For although a just Prince will not take the life of any of his Subjects without a cleare Law Yet the same Lawes whereby he taketh them are made by himselfe or his predecessors And so the power flowes alwayes from himselfe As by daily experience we see good and just Princes will from time to time make new lawes and statutes adjoyning the penalties to the breakers thereof which before the Law was made had bin no crime to the subject to have committed Not that I deny the old definition of a King and of a law which makes the King to be a speaking Law and the Law a dumb King for certainely a King that governes not by law can neither bee countable to God for his administration nor have a happie and established Raigne For albeit it bee true that I have at length proved that the King is above the Law as both the Author and giver of strength thereto yet a good King will not onely delight to rule his subjects by the Law but even will conforme himselfe in his own actions therunto alwayes keeping that ground that the health of the common-wealth be his chiefe Law And where he sees the Law doubt-some or rigorous he may interpret or mittigate the same lest otherwise Summum jus be summairjuria And therfore generall lawes made publikely in Parliament may upon knowne respects to the King by his authority be mittigated and suspended upon causes only knowne to him As likewise although I have said a good king will frame all his actions to be according to the Law yet is hee not bound thereto but of his good will and for good example giving to his subjects For as in the Law of abstaining from eating of flesh in Lenton the King will for examples sake make his own house to observe the Law yet no man will think he needs to take a licence to eate flesh And although by our Laws the bearing wearing of hag-buts Pistolets be forbidden yet no man can unde any fault in the King for causing his traine use them in any raide upon the Bordourers or other malefactours or rebellious subjects So as I have already said a good King although he be above the Law will subject and frame his actions therto for examples sake to his subjects and of his own free-will but not as subject or bound thereto Since I have so clearely proved then out of the fundamentall laws
according to their laws whereby it is established and to punish all those that should presse to alter or disturbe the profession therof And next to maintain all the lowable and good laws made by their predecessors to see them put in execution and the breakers and violaters thereof to be punished according to the tenor of the same And lastly to maintain the whole Countrey and every state therein in all their ancient priviledges and liberties as well against all sorraine enemies as among themselves And shortly to procure the weale and stourishing of his people not only in maintaining and purting to execution the old lowable laws of the Countrey and by establishing of new as necessity and evill manners will require but by all other meanes possible to foresee and prevent all dangers that are likely to fall upon them and to maintain concord wealth and civility among them as a loving father ond carefull watchman caring for them more than for himself knowing himselfe to be ordained for them and they not for him and therefore countable to that great God who placed him as his lieutenant over them upon the perill of his soule to procure the weale of both soules and bodies as far as in him lieth of all them that that are committed to his charge And this Oath in the Coronation is the clearest civill and fundamentall law whereby the Kings office is properly defined By the law of nature the King becomes a naturall Father to all his Lieges at his Coronation And as the father of his fatherly duty is bound to care for the nourishing education and vertuous government of his children even so is the King bound to care for all his subjects As all the toyle and pain that the father can take for his children will be thought light and well bestowed by him so that the effect thereof redound to their profit and weale So ought the Prince to do towards his people As the kindly father ought to foresee all inconvenients and dangers that may arise towards his children and though with the hazard of his own person presse to prevent the same So ought the King toward his people As the Fathers wrath correction upon any of his children that offendeth ought to be by a fatherly chastizment seasoned with pity as long as there is any hope of amendment in them So ought the King towards any of his Lieges that-offends in that measure And shortly as the fathers chif joy ought to be in procuring his childrens well fare rejoycing at their weale sorrowing and pitying at their evill to hazard for their safety travell for their rest wake for their sleep and in a word to think that his earthly felicity and life standeth liveth more in them nor in himselfe So ought a good Prince think of his people As to the other branch of this mutuall and reciprock band is the duty and alleageance that the Lieges owe to their King The ground whereof I take out of the words of Samuel dited by Gods spirit when God had given him commandement to heare the peoples voyce in choosing and annointing them a King And because that place of Scripture being well understood is so pertinent for our purpose I have insert herein the very words of the text 9 Now therefore harken to their voyce howbeit yet testifie unto them and shew them the manner of the King that shall raigne over them 10 So Samuel told all the words of the Lord unto the people that asked a King of him 11 And he said this shall be the manner of the King that shall raigne over you he will take your sons and appoint them to his Charets and to be his horsemen and some shall run before his Charet 12 Also he will make them his Captaines over thousands and Captaines over fifties and to eare his ground and to reape his harvest and to make instruments of war and the things that serve for his Charets 13 He will also take your daughters and make them Apothecaries and Cookes and Bakers 14 He will take your Fields and your Vineyardes and your best Olive-trees and give them to his servants 15 And he will take the tenth of your seed and of your Vineyards and give it to his Eunuches and to his servants 16 And he will take your men-servants and your maid-servants and the chiefe of your yong men and your asses and put them to his work 17 He will take the tenth of your sheep and ye shall be his servants 18 And yee shall cry out at that day because of your King whom yee have chosen you and the Lord will not heare you at that day 19 But the people woull not heare the voyce of Samuel but did say Nay but there shall be a King over us 20 And we also will be like all other nations and our King shall judge us and go out before us and fight our battels 20 And we also would be like all other Nations and our King shall judge us and go out before us and fight our battels That these words and discourses of Samuel were dited by Gods spirit it needs no further probation but that it is a place of Scripture since the whole Scripture is dited by that inspiration as Paul saith which ground no good Christian will or dare deny Wherupon it must necessarily follow that there speeches proceeded not from any ambition in Samuel as one loath to quite the reines that he so long had ruled and therefore desirous by making odious the government of a King to disswade the people from their farther importunate craving of one For as the Text proveth it plainly he then conveened them to give them a resolute grant of their demand as God by his own mouth commanded him saying Harken to the voyce of the people And to presse to disswade them from that which he then came to grant unto them were a thing very impertinent in a wise man much more in the Prophet of the most high God And likewise it well appeared in all the course of his life after that his so long refusing of their sute before came not of any ambition in him which he well proved in praying and as it were importuning God for the weale of Saul Yea after God had declared his reprobation unto him yet he desisted not while God himselfe was wrath at his praying and discharged his farther sute in that errant And that these words of Samuel were not uttered as a prophecy of Saul their first Kings defection it well appeareth as well because we heare no mention made in the Scripture of any his tyranny and oppression which if it had been would not have been left unpainted out therein as well as his other faults were as in a true mirrour of all the Kings behaviours who it describeth as likewise in respect that Saul was chosen by God for his vertue and meet qualities to govern his people whereas his defection sprung after-hand from the corruption of
his own nature and not through any default in God whō they that think so would make as a step-father to his people inmaking wilfully a choyce of the unmeetest for governing them since the election of that King lay absolutly and immediatly in Gods hand But by the cōtrary it is plain and evident that this speech of Samuel to the people was to prepare their hearts before the hand to the due obedience of that King which God was to give unto them and therfore opened up unto them what might be the intollerable qualities that might fall in some of their Kings thereby preparing them to patience not to resist to Gods ordinance but as he would have said Since God hath granted your importunate sute in giving you a King as ye have else committed an error in shaking off Gods yoke and over-hasty seeking of a King so beware ye fall not into the next in casting off also rashly that yoke which God at your earnest sute hath laid upon you how hard that ever it seem to be For as ye could not have obtained one without the permission and ordinance of God so may ye no more fro he be once set over you shake him off without the same warrant And therfore in time arme your selves with patience and humility since he that hath the only power to make him hath the only power to unmake him and ye only to obey bearing with these straits that I now fore-shew you as with the finger of God which lyeth not in you to take off And will ye consider the very words of the Text in order as they are set down it shall plainly declare the obedience that the people owe to their King in all respects First God commanded Samuel to do two things the one to grant the people their sute in giving them a King the other to forwarn them what some Kings wil do unto them that they may not thereafter in their grudging murmuring say when they shall feele the snares here forespoken We would never have had a King of God in case when we craved him he had let us know how we would have been used by him as now we find but over late And this is meant by these words Now therefore kearken unto their voyce howbeit yet testifie unto them and shew them the manner of the King that shall rule over them And next Samuel in execution of this commandement of God he likewiss doth two things First he declares unto them what points of Iustice and equity their King will break in his behaviour unto them And next he putteth them out of hope that weary as they will they shall not have leave to shake of that yoke which God through their importunity hath laid upon them The points of Equity that the King shall breake unto them are expressed in these words 11 He will take your sons and appoint them to his Charets and to be his hosemen and some shall run before his Charet 12 Also he will make them his Captaines over thousands and Captaines over fifties and to eare his ground and to reape his harvest and to make instruments of war and the things that serve for his Charets 13 He will also take your daughters and make them Apothecaries and Cookes and Bakers The points of Iustice that he shall break unto thē are expressed in these words 14 He will take your Fields and your Vineyardes and your best Olive-trees and give them to his servants 15 And he will take the tenth of your seed and of your Vineyards and give it to his Eunnches and to his servants And also the tenth of your sheep As if he would say The best and noblest of your bloud shall be compelled in lavish and servile offices to serve him And not content of his own patrimony wil make up a rent to his own use out of your best lands vineyards orchards store of cattell So as inverting the law of nature and office of a King your persons and the persons of your posterity together with your lands and all that ye possesse shall serve his private use and inordinate appetit And as unto the next point which is his forewarning them that weary as they will they shall not have leave to shake off the yoake which God through their importunity hath layd upon them it is expressed in these words 18 And yet shall cry out at that day because of your King whom yee have chosen you and the Lord will not heare you at that day As he would say When ye shall find these things in proof that now I sorewarn you of although you shall grudg and murmure yet it shall not be lawfull to you to cast it off in respect it is not only the ordinance of God bur also your selves have chosen him unto you thereby renouncing for ever all priiviledges by your willing consent out of your hands wherby in any time hereafter ye would claim and call back unto your selves again that power which God shal not permit you to do And for further taking away of al excuse and retraction of this their contract after their consent to underly this yoake with all the burthens that he hath declared unto them he craves their answer consent to his proposition which appeareth by their answer as it is expressed in these words 19 Nay but there shall be a King over us 20 And we also will be like all other nations and our King shall judge us and go out before us and fight our battels As if they would have said All your speechs and hard conditions shall not skar us but we will take the good and evill of it upon us and we will be content to bear whatsoever but then it shall please our King to lay upon us as well as other nations do And for the good we will get of him in fighting our battels we wil more patiently beare any burthen that shall please him to lay on us Now then since the erection of this Kingdom and Monarchy among the Iews and the law thereof may and ought to be a patern to all Christian and well founded Monarchies as being founded by God himself who by his Oracle and out of his owne mouth gave the law thereof what liberty can broyling spirits and rebellious minds claim justly to against any Christian Monarchy since they can claime to no greater liberty on their part nor the people of God might have done no greater tyranny was ever executed by any Prince or Tyrant whom they can object nor was here fore-warned to the people of God and yet all rebellion countermanded unto thē if tyrannizing over mens persons sons daughters and servants redacting noble houses and men and women of noble bloud to slavish and servile offices and extortion and spoile of their lands and goods to the Princes own private use and commodity and of his courteours and servants may be called a tyranny And that this proposition grounded upon the Scripture may the
practise of this Country what right and power a King hath over his land and subjects it is easie to be understood what alleageance and obedience his lieges owe unto him I meane alwayes of such free Monarchies as our King is and not of elective Kings and much lesse of such sort of governours as the Dukes of Venice are whose Aristocraticke and limited government is nothing like to free Monarchies although the malice of some writers hath not beene ashamed to mis-know any difference to be betwixt them And if it be not lawfull to any particular Lords tenants or vassals upon whatsoever pretext to controle and displace their master and Over-lord â—s is clearer noâ— the Sun by all lawes of the world how much lesse may the subjects and vassals of the great over-Over-lord the King controle or displace him And since in all inferiour judgments in the Land the people may not upon any respects displace their Magistrates although but subaltern for the people of a borough cannot displace their provost before the time of their election nor in Ecclesiasticall policy the flock can upon any pretence displace the pastor nor Iudge of him yea even the schoolemaster cannot be displaced by his schollers If these cannot bee displaced for any occasion or pretext by them that are ruled by them much lesse is it lawful upon any pretext to controle or displace the great Provost and great Schoole-muster of the whole land except by inverting the order of all Law and reason the commanded may bee made to command their commander the judged to judge their Judge and they that are governed to governe their time about their Lord and governour And the agreement of the Law of nature in this our ground with the Lawes and constitutions of God and man already alledged will by two similitudes easily appeare The King towards his people is rightly compared to a Father of children and to a head of a body composed of divers members For as Fathers the good Princes and Magistrates of the people of God acknowledged themselves to their subjects And for all other well ruled common-wealths the stile of Pater-Patria was ever and is commonly used to Kings And the proper office of a King towards his subjects agrees very well with the office of the head towards the body and all members thereof For from the head being the seate of judgement proceedeth the care and foresight of guiding and preventing all evill that may come to the body or any part thereof The head cares for the body so doth the King for his people As the discourse and direction flowes from the head and the execution according thereunto belongs to the rest of the members every one according to their office so is it betwixt a wise Princes and his people As the judgement comming from the head may not only imploy the members every one in their own office as long as they are able for it but likewise in case any of them be affected with any infirmity must care and provide for their remedy in case it be curable and if otherwise 〈◊〉 cut them off for feare of infecting of the rest even so is it betwixt the Prince and his people And as there is ever hope of curing any diseased member by the direction of the head as long as it is whole but by the contrary if it hee troubled all the members are partakers of that paine so is it betwixt the Prince and his people And now first for the fathers part whose naturall love to his children I described in the first part of this my discourse speaking of the duty that Kings owe to their subjects consider I pray you what duty his children owe to him and whether upon any pretext whatsoever it wil not be thought monstrous and unnaturall to his sons to rise up against him to controll him at their appetite and when they think good to sley him or to cut him off and adopt to themseves any other they please in his roome Or can any pretence of wickednesse or rigour on his part bee a just excuse for his children to put hand into him And although we see by the course of nature that love ever useth to descend more than to ascend in case it were true that the Father hated and wronged the children never so much will any man endued with the least spark of reason think it lawfull for them to meete him with the line Yea suppose the Father were furiously following his sons with a drawne sword is it lawfull for them to turne and strike againe or make any resistance but by flight I thinke surely if there were no more but the example of bruit beasts and unreasonable creatures it may serve well inough to qualine and proove this my argument We read often the piety that the Storkes have to their old and decayed parents And generally we know that there are many sorts of beasts and foules that with violence and many bloudy strokes will beate and banish their young ones from them how soone they perceive them to be able to fend themselves But we never read or heard of any resistance on their part except among the Vipers which proves such persons as ought to be reasonable creatures and yet unnaturally follow this example to bee indued with their viperous nature And for the similitude of the head and the body it may very well fall out that the head will be forced to gaure cut off some rotten member as I have already said to keep the rest of the body in integrity But what state the body can be in if the head for any infirmity that can fall to it be cut off I leave it to the readers judgment So as to conclude this part if the children may upon any pretext that can be imagined lawfully rise up against their Father cut him off and choose any other in his room and if the body for the weale of it may for any infirmity that can be in the head strike it off then I cannot deny that the people may rebell controle and displace or cut off their King at their pleasure and upon respects moving them And whether these similitudes represent better the office of a King or the offices of Masters or Deacons of crafts or Doctors in Physicke which jolly comparisons are used by such writers as maintaine the contrary proposition I leave it also to the Readers discretion And in ease any doubts might arise in any part of this treatise I will according to my promise with the solution of 4. principall and most weighty doubts that the adverseries may object conclude this discourse And first it is casten up by diverse that employ their pens upon Apologists for rebel sons and treasons that every man is borne to carry such a natural zeale and duty to his common-wealth as to his mother that seeing it so rent and deadly wounded as whiles it will be by wicked tyrannous Kings good Citizans will be forced for the
more clearly appeare to be true by the practise oft proved in the same book we never read that ever the Prophets perswaded the people to rebell against the Prince how wicked soever hee was When Samuel by Gods command pronounced to the same King Saul 1 Sam. 15. that his Kingdom was rent from him and given to another which in effect was a degrading of him yet his next action following that was peaceably to turn home and with floods of tears to pray to God to have some compassion upon him And David notwithstanding he was inaugurate in that same degraded Kings room not only when he was cruelly persecuted for no offence but good service done unto him would not presume having him in his power skantly but with great reverence to touch the garment of the annoynted of the Lord and in his words blessed him 1 Sam 2.4 1 Sam â— but likewise when one came to him vanting himself untruly to have slain Saul he without forme of proces or tryall of his guilt caused only for guiltinesse of his tongue put him to sodain death And although there was never a more monstruous persecutor and tyrant than Achab was yet all the rebellion that Elias ever raised against him was to fly to the wildernesse where for fault of sustentation hee was fed with the Corbies And I think no man wil doubt but Samuel David and Elias had as great power to perswad the people if they had liked to have imployed their credit to uprores and rebellions against these wicked Kings as any of our seditious preachers in these dayes of whatsoever Religion either in this Countrey or in France had that busied themselves most to stir up rebellion under cloak of Religion This far the only love of verity I protest without hatred at their persons have moved me to be somewhat satyrique And if any will leane to the extraordinary examples of degrading or killing of Kings in the Scriptures therby to cloake the peoples rebellion as by the deed of Jehu and such like extraordinaries I answer besides that they want the like warrant that they had if extraordinary examples of the Scripture shal be drawn in dayly practise murder under traist as in the persons of Ahud and Iael theft as in the persons of the Israelites comming out of Aegipt lying to their parents to the hurt of their brother as in the person of Iacob shall all be counted as lawfull and allowable vertues as rebellion against Princes And to conclude the practise through the whole Scripture proveth the peoples obedience given to that sentence in the Law of God Thou shalt not raile upon the Iudges neither speak evell of the Ruler of thy people To end then the ground of my proposition taken out of the Scripture let two speciall and notable examples one under the law another under the Euangel Ie 27. conclude this part of my alled geance Vnder the law Ieremy threatneth the people of God with utter destruction for rebellion to Nabuchadnezzar the King of Babel who althogh he was an Idolatrous persecutor a forrain King a Tyrant usurper of their liberties yet in respect they had once received acknowledged him for their King Ier. 29. he not only commandeth them to obey him out even to pray for his prosperity adjoyning the reason to it because in his prosperity stood their peace And under the Euangell that King whom Paul bids the Romaines Obey and serve for conscience sake Ie. 13. was Nero that bloudy Tyrant an infamy to his age and a monster to the world being also an Idolatrous perâ—â—cutor as the K. of Babel was If then Idolatry defection froÌ„ God tyranny over their people persecutioÌ„ of the Saints for their professioÌ„ sake hindred not the spirit of God to command his people under all highest paine to give them all due and hearty obedience for conscience sake giving to Caesar that which was Caesars and to God that which was Gods as Christ saith and that this practise throughout the booke of God agreeth with this law which he made in the erection of that Monarchie as is at length before deduced what shamelesse presumption is it to any Christian people now a dayes to claime to that unlawfull liberty which God refused to his own peculiar and chosen people Shortly then to take up in two or three sentences grounded upon all these arguments out of the Law of God the duty and alleageance of the people to their lawfull King their obedience I say ought to bee to him as to Gods Lievtenant in earth obeying his commands in all things except directly against God as the commands of Gods Minister acknowledging him a Judge set by God over them having power to judge them but to be judged onely by God whom to only he must give count of his judgment fearing him as then Judge loving him as their Father praying for him as their Protector for his continuance he be good for his amendment if he be wicked following and obeying his lawfull commands eschewing and flying his fury in his unlawfull without tesistance but by sons and eares to God according to that Sentence used in the Primitive Church in the time of the persecution Preces Lachrymae sunt arma Ecclesiae Now as for the describing the alleageance that the heges owe to their Native King out of the fundamentall and Civill Law especially of this Country as I promitted the ground must first be set down of the first manner of establishing the Laws and forme of government among us that the ground being first right layd we may thereafter build rightly thereupon Although it be true according to the affirmation of those that pride themselves to be the scourges of Tyrants that in the first beginning of Kings rising among Gentiles in the time of the first age divers common-wealths and societies of men choosed out one among themselves who for his vertues and valour being more eminent then the rest was chosen out by them and set up in that roome to maintaine the weakest in their right to throw downe oppressours and to foster and continue the society among men which could not otherwise but by vertue of that unity be well done yet these examples are nothing pertinent to us because our kingdom and diverse other Monarchies are not in that case but had their beginning in a far contrary fashion For as our Chronicles beare witnesse this and especially our part of it being scantly inhabited but by very few and they as barbarous and scant of civility as number there comes our King Fergus with a great number with him out of Ireland which was long inhabited before us and making himselfe master of the Country by his own friendship and force as well of the Ireland-men that came with him as of the Country-men that willingly fell to him he made himselfe King and Lord as well of the whole lands as of the whole inhabitants within the same Thereafter