the Pope no such Superior Jurisdiction Neither if he did are there any such Ecclesiastical Censures issued out against him as might warrant so much as his Catholique Subjects to take arms against him So that whatsoever Pretences may be in some Cases concerning such Princes as I have above specified wherein I shall not presume to deliver any Opinion yet in the present Case of King CHARLES there can be no colourable pretence of taking arms against him or of deposing him which I understand to be in effect when he is divested oâ— his just Regal Power Or of the imprisoning of his person which I understand to be not only when he is in Bonds or lockt up in a Room but when the liberty of going and the freedom of speaking is restrained to such places or persons as others shall please and he remain under the Guard of Armed men not of his own choosing but imposed upon him by others It must be acknowledged that the Kings of England derive their Title and Right from William the Norman who although he came in by Conquest yet his Successors considering that a Right acquired by Force may likewise be recovered by Force by those upon whom the forceable Intrusion was made were pleased by way of pact and stipulation to limit and qualifie that Imperium absolutum which is acquired by Conquest And the People of England thereupon did submit themselves to his Government and became his Subjects and his Liege-men And thereby was Constituted Imperium legitimum a just and Rightfull Soveraignty the Kings remaining with Supreme Power and the People with Common Right whereby they were freed from the Servitude of Conquest and remained under a free Subjection whereunto they had by their Consent submitted themselves The Kings likewise did recede from Absolute and Arbitrary Power and remained with Supreme but not with Absolute Empire By free Subjection I understand when a People live under Laws to which they have given a free Consent and not under the meer Will of the Prince And that they retain such a Propriety in that which is their own that without their Assent or legal forfeiture it cannot be taken from them And this is a true difference betwixt a Free Subject and a Slave or Servant Quicquid acquirit servus acquiritur Domino Liber quod acquirit acquirit sibi Whatsoever a servant getteth he getteth for his Lord Whatsoever a Freeman getteth he getteth for himself And so although that Dominion of all belongeth to the Prince Propriety belongs to every man Dominium totius apud Caesarem Proprietas apud singulos The Difference that I understand betwixt a Supreme and Absolute Empire is That in Absolute Empire the Rule of the Peoples Obedience is only the Soveraigns Will So it is in Turky Muscovia and all such Princes as retain entire the Right of Conquest and was in some sort under the Roman Emperor after the Lex Regia was established by the Peoples Consent whereby they transferred their entire Right unto the Emperor Supreme Empire I understand to be when a King hath a Supremacy and Soveraingnity over all but his Absolute Power is limited and restrained by reciprocal Pacts Laws and Stipulations betwixt Prince and People which is the Case of the Crown of England And to these Pacts the King and People are equally bound before God and Man And the King is as much bound to Iustice and to the protection of his Subjects and to the observance of the Laws not only out of Religion but out of Moral Honesty as the Subject is to Obedience And he is not only accomptable to God but his People have just and legal waies to seek Redress wherein he shall do Wrong notwithstanding that Axiome of our Common Law * That the King can do no Wrong which is very false in many senses and may be very well called fictio Iuris a kind of Metaphysical Fiction For Kings may do Wrong and be as wicked as other men and may commit Murther and lye with other mens Wives and wrongfully take take other mens Estates which no Fiction of the Law can make not to be Wrong although his Person be exempt from punishment And that abstract Consideration of the King for his just Power and Office as it hath been often ill used heretofore in way of Assentation So there hath been as ill use made of it in these troubles when the taking of arms and the fighting against him was pretended not to be against the King but against CHARLES STEWART But to speak in Terms intelligible a King both may do Wrong and the People may seek their redress in such sort as the Law of the Land alloweth And the difference betwixt King and Peoples failing in their reciprocal Duties is not but that they do Wrong alike offend God alike and are both of them liable to be questioned according to the extent of the Law by both their Consents established The Subjects transgressing the Law shall be punished according to the quality and measure of their Delicts Felony by loss of their Goods and Chattels and by a milder Death Treason by a more severe Death and Confiscation both of Goods and Inheritance But hereof they must be convict per pares by People of their own Condition and adjudged by a Superiour Iurisdiction which can be derived only and singly from the King So that the King not having his Peer or any of his own Condition cannot have a legal Tryal And having no jurisdiction superior to himself cannot be adjudged or sentenced by any For neither the Extent of the Law nor any Condition of the Pacts or Stipulation do reach to the punishing of the Person of the King or the forfeiture of his Dominion over us It is true that in civill things Tryals may be and often are brought against the King And Kings do give way That the Iudges be sworn to do equal Iustice betwixt them and their Subjects And in point of Oppression and Wrong we may Remonstrate our Grievances and challenge Redress by our Petitions Which if they be not condescended unto we may insist upon them as our right and claim them as a due and not as of grace And although we do it by way of Petition that is but a dutifull form of Subjects bringing their Plea against the King For in other sort he ought not to be impleaded Besides these Petions of Right we may as it hath been formerly said remonstrate enter our Protestations and take all those Courses which the Laws allow Neither ought the King to take Offence at these legal Contestations with him because by his assent unto the Laws he hath assented unto them Nay he ought in them to do us Right being bound thereunto by the Law of God and by his Oath and by moral Honesty and Iustice But if he fail in all these Duties our Jurisdiction reacheth not to his personal Punishment therein he is sub nullo nisi sub Dâ—o and the Law stoppeth there
Fire nor the Roman Catholiques by reason of the Oath of Supremacy the Halter Whereupon it was again desired by the Houses that Treason might be reduced into a certainty according to the Statute of the 25 of Edw. the 3. which was accordingly so enacted the 2. of Phil. and Ma. And all these three Statutes 25 Edw. 3. 1 Hen. 4. and 2 Phil. and Ma. are yet in force In which the attempting of any thing against the Kings Person the adhering to the Kings Enemies the leavying War against the King The seizing of any of his Forts or his Ships Royal The Counterfeiting of the Kings Hand or his great or privy Seal with many other particulars are so explicitely and clearly enacted to be high Treason That whosoever should be guilty of the Fact would have as ill a Plea to plead That â—unius Brutus Buchanan or any of our new Doctors did hold and maintain by their writings That it is lawfull in such and such Cases to take Armes against the King and so consequently in all the other particulars specified in the said Statute As a Felon that had rob'd upon the high way would have to plead that Theft by the Law of God is not punishable by death for which he would not want likewise his * Authors But such as have been acquainted with the Courses held with those that have been Indicted and Arraigned for Treason will know That to be proceeded against only upon the plain and clear letter of the Law is to have favourable Iustice And he shall have the Kings Atturny and the learned Counsel with Eloquence and great strains of Wit by Deductions and Inferences as though they had lost the day if the Accused should be acquitted stretch the litteral Text beyond what it can rationally or honestly bear and speaking as they say for the King no man dares reprove or restrain them But to suppose that any Allegation of Conscience or the Opinion of learned Authors nay if it were Texts out of Scripture against the explicite letter of the Law would be heard or admitted were a great Ignorance But he would be told as I know some have been That all other things were Matters dehors Nothing to the purpose The issue was only factum or non factum And truly wofull experience had taught me to be wary in humane prudence not to imbarque my self in a Business wherin my Conscience was not only altogether unsatisfied but if I should ever be brought to a legal Tryal upon it mine own Judgment told me I could have nothing to say in mine own Defence of Justification or that could preserve my Self and Posterity from total Ruine and Destruction but Prevailing and Victory Which at the most could but protect but could not make a bad Cause good But besides humane Prudence and fear of Punishment there is a Conscientious Tye of obeying the Law we being taught to obey not only for wrath but for Conscience sake S. Paul saith That if there had been no Law there had been no sinne which sheweth That the breaking of just Laws and legally established is sin For the supream Powers therein are chiefly disobeyed who are supposed to command more Authoritatively by their Laws than by their Verbal Commands Further as the Laws are so positive against Resistance and taking Arms against the King so likewise have the Laws been as carefull to Protect and thereby to Incourage the Subject to adhore unto their King for it is provided by the Stat. 11 of Hen. 7. Cap. 1. That from henceforth no manner of person or persons whatsoever he or they be that attend upon the King and Soveraign Lord of this Land for the time being in his Person and do him true and faithfull service of Allegience in the same or be in other places by his Commandement in his Wars within this Land or without That for the said deed true duty of Allegeance he or they be no wise Convict or Attaint of high Treason nor of other offences for that Cause by Act of Parliament or otherwise by any Process of Law whereby he or any of them shall lose or forfeit Life Land Tenements Rents Possessions Hereditaments Goods Chattels or any other things but to be for that deed and service utterly discharged of any Vexation Trouble or Losse And if any Act or Acts or other Process of the Law hereafter thereupon for the same happen to be made contrary to this Ordinance That then that Act or Acts or other Process of the Law whatsoever they shall be stand and be utterly void Provided alwaies That no Person or Persons shall take any benefit or advantage by this Ast which shall hereafter decline from his or their said Allegeance So that if they that have served the King with Fidelity according to the Law shall by their prevailing fellow-Subjects be attainted and their Estates forfeited and disposed of at their pleasure It must be by some such Transcendent Power as must be above all Laws For as by the Law no Subject ought either to be attainted or lose his Estate for serving the King in his Wars so can no Confiscations by the Law belong to any but unto the King or such as derive their Right from him It is true in the Heat and Contestation of War it is usual that whatsoever Goods or Wealth the souldier can lay hands upon is de facto esteemed good Purchase But after the War is ended the Law useth then to recover her Force And setled Inheritances in all former Civill Wars in England have never been disposed of by the Arbitrary Power of the prevailing Party although they were Kings claiming the Crown by Title and might have Right to Confiscations but by legal Convictions and due course of Law much more in the Case of Subjects taking Arms against their King which is alwaies in the beginning stiled and proclaimed Rebellion by the King that they Oppose untill Success or Treaty qualifie that Name That they should not content themselves with a General Pardon and Act of Oblivion and the settlement of the Government for the future to their reasonable Content and Security for themselves and their Estates But that Inheritances must be confiscated and disposed of by them and such persons as they shall please without legal Tryal and as it were by Proscription or Decimation be by a Vote designed to loss of Life and Estate without Pardon or Mercy What greater Cruelty could have been used towards them if they had faln into the hands of the Turk or most merciless Conquerour especially if it shall be considered that in this Case no Neutrality could be admitted nor the most peaceable-minded man avoid the being ingaged For as by the Law it is Treason to take Armes against the King by the above-recited Statutes so by the Statute of the 19 Hen. 7. It is loss of all Honours Castles Lordships Mannors Lands Tenements and other Hereditaments c. not to take Armes for the King and
not to follow him in his Wars against his Enemies or his Rebels which the Subject de bene esse is to understand to be such as the King proclaimeth to be Traitors Not that a Proclamation maketh them so but the Subject is so to esteem them until they be brought to a legal Tryal So that there never was a harder Condition nor more unavoydable than this of the Kings present Loyal Subjects who should have been Traitors by the Law if they should have taken Armes against the King and should likewise lose ther Lands Honours Castles c. if they did not fight for him And yet contrary to the Law Providing that no man should forfeit Life or Estate for serving of the King He shall by an Arbitrary Power of his fellow Subjects be condemned to lose both without Pardon or Mercy for doing that for which he must have lost legally both Life and Estate and his Soul to boot if he had not done it CHAP. VII The Motives deduced from Honour Honesty and Gratitude of not forsaking the King in his troubles BEsides the Obligation formerly set down deduced from the Law of God and the positive Law of the Kingdom there is a third Law which hath a great Authority in the hearts of all generous and noble-minded Men which is the Law of Honour and Gratitude which Law I conceive to be a Branch of the Original and first Law The Law of Nature For it hath had and still holdeth a Value and Reverence through all Religions as it hath done through all times I must confess this Law hath been and is in some kinds too high lifted up and is become the Idol of many mens fancies who pay unto it a more exact Obedience and are more carefull not to transgress against it than they are not to offend God or the Laws they live under whereof we have daily too many Presidents when men rather than to be failing in point of Honour will upon frivolous provocations decline all duties to God and Man and sacrifice to this Idol oftentimes the hazard of their Lives and Fortunes together with their Souls But this is an Excess and Excrescency of Honour and Courage in the justification whereof I know nothing that can be said In the excuse of it it is to be hoped that in so generally-received an Error whereby men become Infamous and scarce fit for honest company that comply not therein Custom and Universallity may allay and mitigate the Offence But that Honour which I speak of is better exprest by plain moral Honesty and Gratitude when neither Fear nor Disadvantage shall drive us or withold us from just Duties nor the Misfortunes or Distresses of those to whom we have had former obligations make us leave and forsake to be assistant and serviceable unto them in all just and lawfull things although it be to our own Hinderance or that we can expect no further good or advantage by them And herein my Case is different from the common Cases of Subjects being more particularly bound unto Gratitude by many Benefits and unto Honesty Affection and Fidelity by my Service in places of greatest Trust about the King both for nearness to his Person as a Gentleman of his Bed-chamber and as a Servant confided in as a privy Counsellour As for Ingratitude it hath been at all times so detestable That to the Reproach of being ingratefull nothing can be added And the betraying or forsaking of a mans Master in his Distress hath so great a Rellish of the Judas that no noble and generous Heart would for any earthly Respect do any thing that might seem to be like it or be in hazard of being mistaken for it For mine own part I do ingenuously confess that had I no Precepts of the Law of God no Tyes by the Law of the Kingdom nor Horrour of Conscience for breaking those sacred Obligations into which I was entred by taking so many solemn Oaths Yet Gratitude and Honour singly should have been unto me of so high Recommendation That no Respect of my Life Fortunes or Posterity should have made me lift up my Hand against my King or to have forsaken my Master in his Miseries and Distress I have had the Honour to have served this King and his Father by the space of more than forty years and was by his Father from a younger Brother of a Gentlemans Family raised by his Goodness above my Merit to the Dignity of an Earl and a Conveniency of Subsistance in that Quality I was trusted by him in seven Ambassages and called to his privie Counsel recommended unto the Prince his Son as a Gentleman of his Bed-chamber and which was above all these Obligations I was admitted to more than an ordinary measure of his Trust and Confidence And certainly these great Obligations from the Father could not but imprint Gratitude in my Heart towards the Son especially He being now become my King and Master And so by all the Oaths that I had taken to the Father I was likewise by him obliged to them as his Successor But besides these Tyes of Gratitude I must Protest that weighing and considering impartially the Kings Actions either as they relate to his Government as a King or his personal Deportments as a Man setting Conscience aside and that I had not been thereby restrained I could never find any thing that could satisfie my judgement in point of Moral Justice or right Reason for the taking Arms against him I must and do confess that some things and too many wâ—â—â— ill done by the Kings Ministers and the Subjects Propriety and Liberty might have run great hazard under an ill Prince by those waies that were then set on foot For to speak freely my sense by the Principles then received all was put into the Kings hands for Necessity was made Master of all and of that Necessity the King was made the sole Judge and Princes may easily mistake their own private Wants for publique Necessity But from this Excess little of the fault can with Reason be charged upon the King and less ground for the taking of Arms For it is well known the King having been unseasonably imbarqued in War both with France and Spain his Treasure was wholly exhaust and he was reduced to great streights The King called divers Parliaments but they proved so unhappy that two or three of them were dissolved in great disorder and the Kings Wants were not relieved but the King and his People parted with little satisfaction on either side The King then being enforced to use all indeavours for his Relief in these his great VVants consulted with the Officers of his Revenew and his learned Councel what course was to be taken for his Supply without calling a Parliament For it had been voted at the Councel-Table That the Calling of a Parliament was not then fit or seasonable And at the breaking off of the last Parliament before this An. 1640. It had been declared
them any Right to which they laid Claim But if the making of Ordinances without the King of equal Authority with Acts of Parliament to which the Royal Assent had passed The keeping in their hands the Militia Forts and Navy exclusively to the King The altering of Church-Government established by Law without the Kings Consent The making a new Great Seal The proscribing of the Kings loyal Friends and Servants to loss of life and estates without pardon or mercy before either Summons Tryal or Conviction The taking to themselves the sole Power of pardoning and disposing of Confiscations If the setting unto sale the Lands and Revenew of the Church for so many hundreds of years appropriated unto it by their single Arbitrary Power without the Kings Consent who is Founder of all the Bishopricks and which he was sworn to preserve If the abolishing of the Court of Wards and discharging the Subjects of their Tenures and so consequently of their service to the Crown If the deteining of the Kings Children from him the breeding of them and the future Mariage of them belongeth unto them If the Power of injoining new Oaths upon the Subject contrary to all Law and without the King If the making what they please Treason ex plenitudine potestatis â—s the * harbouring of the King c. notwithstanding that the Law hath determined what shall be adjudged Treason and nothing else If the sending to and treating with forein Princes of War and Peace or the nominating of Judges Sheriff and the Officers of the Crown and many things of this kind If they lay Claim unto these as their Right I must confesse I have not known any satisfaction offered unto them by the King Only in the point of his Servanâ—s he hath alwaies protested that he would protect no man whatsoever so that he might be brought to a Legal Tryal according to the due Course of Law which he is bound to see afforded to all his Subjects But for the rest of the above specified particulars I do not know that the King hath indeavoured their satisfaction Neither can it be supposed by any rational man that they will ground their defensive War upon any Claim they will make unto them For although de facto in the Contestation of War they have seized and possessed themselves of them yet they will not pretend that they have right unto them de jure And it is Right that constitutes the Iustness or Uniustness of the entring into a War Success protecteth and may establish for the future but cannot rectifie or make good an unjust beginning And it must be their future proceedings by which the most probable Iudgement can be made of their former intentions For now that they have overcome all oppositions If they shall return to a peaceable legal Settlement and leave to use Arbitrary Government which they may pretend they have been inforced unto during an Actual War and shall only retain their just Liberties and Privileges with such additions and inlargements of Graces and Immunities as the King being free and without constraint shall be contented to grant together with prudent Cautions for their own Indempnity and Security for the future which in Cases of this Nature must ever be supposed that rational Men will indeavour and successfull men that have the Power in their hands will expect If they will let the Subject have the comfort and security of a general Pardon and an Act of Oblivion not force the consciences of their fellow subjects by new Oaths which they themselves have acknowledged to be contrary to the Law and against the Petition of Right If they will endeavour really the settlement of Religion by a moderate Reformation and not by a total ruine of the most Orthodox and flourishing Church of Europe and so restore the King to what is undeniably his and make the known Law the Rule of Government These will be the strongest Arguments that Defence was rather intended than a Conquest But if Armies shall be reteined when there are no Enemies and by them an Arbitrary Power held up over mens Lives Liberties and Estates and the King kept in the nature of a subdued and useless Person little will be believed of any Intention of taking only defensive Arms CHAP. X Shewing a particular Tye of Gratitude by the Generousness and Reconcileableness of the Kings Disposition THere was yet a further Tye of Gratitude put upon me by the Generousness and Reconcileableness of the Kings Disposition a virtue ever to be wished but not often found in offended Princes For I having been so unhappy as to have fallen very highly into his Disfavour and to have remained many years under a Cloud of his heavy Displeasure yet not long before the beginning of this Parliament having the opportunity of accesse unto him at the great Counsel at York And then being imployed as Prolocutor in the Commission for the Treaty with the Scots at Rippon for a Cessation and afterwards for the Peace at London he was pleased to receive so good satisfaction concerning me and all my former proceedings that he did graciously pass by whatsoever offence he had conceived against me and did not only call me to his Counsel-Table where in regard of my many years service under his Father he might have judged me usefull unto his service but out of a Confidence and Trust which to fail in even amongst Heathens would be held odious admitted me to the place of the nearest Attendance about his Person as a Gentleman of his Bed-chamber who besides the Privileges of Access in all places have the Honor to sleep by him in the night in his Chamber and to be trusted alone with the safety of his Person as I have often been And this place is accompanyed with a particular Oath of distinct services Of attending upon his Person of not Acting or Concealing any thing to his Prejudice and other things of particular service more than other subjects do swear unto And I must confess that if all the above alleged Reasons had been laid aside and that there had been no other Tye but this new Obligation of the Kings Reconciliation and of his trusting and confiding in me knowing him to be so free not only from all things that might justifie the taking Arms against him but from all things of doing wrong or oppression if other mens errors or corruptions were not put upon his Score That if all the misfortunes that have befallen me and my Family had been foreseen by me and might have been prevented by my forsaking of my Master only because he was in distress I would rather have embraced this poor and exiled condition than to have lived in any Estate of plenty whatsoever reproaching to my self daily and hourly my Infidelity and Ingratitude CHAP. XI A Brief Summary of the Reasons formerly set down for the not taking Arms against the King THese are the Reasons that have reteined me in that Duty which I conceived my self
and telleth us satis sufficit ei ad poenam quòd Deum habet ultorem It will be a sufficient punishment to him that he hath God for an Avenger Yet are we not altogether left without remedy For Kings although they be Gods Vice-gerents yet they cannot work as God worketh saying Fiat and it was done Kings must work by mediate Instruments And if they Command illegal things the Executioners of them are responsable and must make satisfaction to the Parties injured And therefore the King ought not immediately to imprison nor in Person to execute any thing because that in Case of wrong-doing the Subject would be left without Remedy in regard the Kings Person is not to be impleaded by Law I know the usual Objections In Case Kings will do that which they ought not to do and will by their own immediate Warrants Commit and be the Personal Actors of the Injuries or not suffer the Executioners of their unlegal Commands to be legally proceeded against shall the Subject be left wholly without Remedy and the People be debarred of the benefit of that Right of Nature in-bred in all Creatures of self preservation Yes We must be contented with that Condition wherein God hath placed us and wherein by our own Consents and Stipulations of subjection we have placed our selves and may only right our selves by those means which by the laws whereunto we have given our assent are permitted unto us Neither is our native Liberty hereby ravisht from us but as we have parted with it by our own Consent and Agreement So we cannot resume it but by those waies which we have reserved in the Stipulations of our submission And besides that herein there is no Injury for that Volenti non fit Injuria It would be more hurtfull to mankind if it were otherwise For there is a necessity that in all sorts of Governments aswell as in Monarchy there should he an Impunity and Power somewhere of not being questioned else all would presently fall into Anarchy and Confusion Neither could there be a final ending of Controversies if there were not a Dernier Ressort and last Appeal wherein we are bound to acquiesce And this Power must be trusted in some hand and that must of necessity be where the Soveraign Power remaineth else there mstu be supposed a Superiour Power to that Soveraign Power and so in infinitum untill we come to some such Power that hath nothing above it and then that must be trusted and must be submitted unto without being accomptable to any but to God because on earth there can be to it no Superiour Iurisdiction And this Power is in the King of England in all things except such wherein he himself or his Ancestors have by Lawes and Stipulations limâ—ted their Absolute Power as hath been above set down As enacting or repealing Laws without his Parliament levying of Moneys and many other things wherein He and his Ancestors have restrained their Power And this we are by the Law of God and of the Land bound to obey and not to make any resistance but what the Law alloweth us We must in the rest have recourse unto God if our Princes be wicked Neither may we mutiny or repine at God when we have ill Kings more than when he sendeth Diseases Plagues Caterpillers Blightings or Blasts For wicked Kings are but Blastings of the People that God is pleased to punish Neither must we think our Condition worse than that of wicked Kings notwithstanding their temporall Impunity For certainly it is much better both in regard of Punishment in the World to come and commonly in this For the next World As their Sin is greater So it is declared that their Punishment shall be greater Heare o ye Kings and understand c. Because being Ministers of Gods Kingdom you have not judged aright nor kept the Law nor walked after the Counsel of God Horribly and speedily shall he come upon you for a sharp Iudgment shall be to them that are in high places For mercy will soon pardon the meanest but mighty men shallbe mightily tormented Wheras Subjects which suffer with patience because they are so commanded by God make him their Debtor by their sufferings and he alwaies payeth faithfully who saith that if we suffer with Christ we shall also reign with him And for this World Their Wickednesse and Oppression is ever accompanyed with those Fears Distractions and Horrours of Conscience which have ever been unseperable from Tyrannies by which their lives are rendred more uncomfortable than the unhappiest of their Subjects And for the most part their ends are as miserable as their lives For what they fear and by their Tyrannie seek to prevent doth commonly fall upon them Their People do Revolt and Rebel And although they be never so well Catechâ—zed in the points of Obedience yet their Natural Inclination to return to Liberty much more to cast off unjust Burthens and Oppressions is such that slight and weak Arguments will easily perswade them to that whereunto they are so strongly inclined and the least pretence of Religion or colour of Reason or Lawfulness countenancing or tolerating the freeing themselves from Subjection in any Case will be more prevalent with them than the most positive Precept of Gods Word injoining Obedience And if in any Case taking of Arms be admitted Theirs shall ever be that case And if the wickedness of their Prince shall be allowed as a ground for Rebellion Their Prince shall ever be the most wicked And of this all Ages have produced many examples and especially these latertime through all the Estates of Christendom And although the Christian churches of all Professions as before is shew'd declare against the Doctrine of Resistance Two or Three hot-headed-men writing or preaching suitable to their Affection Desires will prevail against the Authority of all the Churches of Christendom And wicked Princes will find that Precepts in this Case will not serve the turn But it wil be in this point of Resistance as Tacitus saith of Divinations in Rome which was a wickedness that had been and ever would be forbidden yet ever would be reteined semper vetabitur semper retinebitur And so Princes that will highly oppress and make their Will and not the Laws the Rule of their government though to resist be a wickedness and that it is against the Law of God and Man to do it yet where the wrongs are great and a fair opportunity offered of prevailing It will be ever done For that amongst men there are a Thousand for One that prefer their own Interests or Inclination before Duty or Conscience And certainly a prudent and foreseeing Prince that will impartially examine things cannot but expect it should be so For why should he suppose that other men wil be more honest or more religious than himself And when he breaketh through all the Bonds and Tyes of Oaths of Divine Precepts and Moral Iustice only to stretch and extend
made a Declaration in the manner as hereafter followeth That is to say when a man doth compasse or imagine the death of our Lord the King or if our Lady his Queen or their eldest Son and Heir or if a man do violate the Kings Companion or the Kings eldest Daughter unmarried or the Wife of the Kings eldest Son and Heir or if a man do levy War against our Lord the King in his Realm or be adherent to the Kings Enemies in his Realm giving to them aid and Comfort in the Realm or elswhere and thereof be proveably attainted of open deed by people of their Condition And if a man Counterfeit the Kings great or privy Seal or his money and if a man bring false mony into this Realm counterfeit to the money of England as the money called Lushburg or other like to the said money of England knowing the money to be false to merchandise or make paiment in deceit of our said Lord the King and of his people c. Certain Articles taken out of a Protestation of the Kings Supremacy made by the non-conforming Ministers which were suspended or deprived 3 Iac. Anno Dom. 1605. Cited page 51. Art 4. We hold that though the Kings of this Realm were not Members of the Church but very Infidels yea and Persecutors of the truth that yet those Churches that shall be gathered together within these Dominions ought to acknowledge and yield the said Supremacy unto them And that the same is not tyed to their Faith and Christianity but to their very Crown from which no Subject or Subjects have power to separate or disjoin it Ar. 6. We hold that no Church or Church-Officers have power for any Crime whatsoever to deprive the King of the least of his Royal Prerogatives whatsoever much lesse to deprive him of his Supremacy wherein the height of his Royal Dignity consists Ar. 9. We hold that though the King should command any thing contrary to the word unto the Churches that yet they ought not to resist him therein but only peaceably to forbear Obedience and sue unto him for Grace and Mercy and where that cannot be obtained meekly to submit themselves to the punishment Animadversions upon some particulars set down in the 57 58 pages of this Discourse there referred to this Appendix for not interrupting the Series thereof here expressed more fully If Ordinances without the Kings assent 1. That Ordinances of the two Houses without the King have not the power of Acts of Parliament should have the force of Acts of Parliament our Lives Estates and Laws might be Arbitrarily disposed of by the two Houses for that Acts of Parliament have undeniably Power over them all If Ordinances have power of Acts of Parliament the King hath no negative Voice which hath been acknowledged in all times and that no Act of Parliament bindeth the subject with out the Kings assent neither is it otherwise a Statute 1â—H 7.24 H. 8. cap. 12.25 H. 8. cap. 21. This hath likewise been acknowledged several times at the heginning of this Parliament before the Doctrine of Coordination was hatched as will appear by their books of Ordinances and Declarations 1 par fol. 727. 1 Iac. cap. 1. 1 Car. 1 Cap 7. If the King hath not his negative Voice he were the only Slave in his Kingdom for that he alone should be tyed to Laws to which he had not assented whereas all other men either by themselves or their Representatives give their Consents to the Laws they live under which is the true mark betwixt Slavery and free Subjection Slaves living under the will of the Prince free Subjects under Laws to which themselves or their Ancestors have assented And the King only shall be bound and sworn to those Laws which are imposed upon him without his Consent which were irrational as well as illegal Ordinances were never pretended but only pro tempore 4 part Inst. fol. 23.48.292 2 part Inst. fol. 47 48. Rot. Paâ— 1 num 4 Ed. 3. 2. â—â—at the ordeâ—â—â—g of the Militia appertainetâ— to the K. The Militia belongeth to the King as unseparable from the Crown without which he cannot protect nor punish withstand Enemies or suppress Rebels The Lords and Commons cannot assent in Parliament to any thing that tends to the disherison of the Crown 4 Par. Inst. fol. 14.42 Ed. 3. The Law doth give it him Stat 7 Ed. 1. with many other Statutes besides practice of all times and custome of the Realm Cook 4 part Inst. 51.125 The Forts and Navy Royal are his and to seize any of them is Treason 25 Ed. 3. 1 Ma. c. So declared by all the Iudges of England in Brookes Case 3. That the great Seal appertaineth only to the King The great Seal being the Power by which the Kings Royal Commands are legally distributed and conveyed cannot be severed from the Crown without the overthrow and destruction of Soveraignty 2 part Inst. 552. And to counterfeit the great Seal is high Treason 25 Ed. 3. 1 H. 4. cap. 2. 1. Marsess 2. cap. 6. For the Church Government The Houses have sworn the King to be the only Supreme Governor in all Causes and over all Persons as well Ecclesiastical as Civil 4. The Church Government The two Houses of Parliament may humbly offer to the King such Alterations and Reformations in Government as they shall think fit But to overthrow and change the Government without the Consent of the sole Supreme Governor nay contrary to his expresse Command and publique Declarations is against natural Reason and Common Law as well as against the said Oath The two Houses are as they say the Kings great Counsel which is true of the House of Peers The House of Commons Writ is only ad faciendum consentiendum But admitting them to be the Kings great Counsel it is a great absurdity and Non-sense that Counsellors should compel consent The Government of the Church is established by Law and by many Acts of Parliament To advise the repealing of the said Acts the Houses may do But without the Kings assent by force to endeavour the Change of the Government either in Church or Estate is high Treason so acknowledged by Mr. St. Iohns at the Arraignment of the Earl of Strafford and so declared by several Laws And was one of the Charges of Treason against the Lord of Canterbury Ir is contrary to all Divine and humane Laws that any Man should be condemned unheard or untryed 5. The prescribing of their fellow Subjects without tryal And the Law of the Land in Magna Charta ordereth That no man lose Life or Estate but per judicium parium aut legem terrae And the Stat. 2. Phil. Ma. that all Tryals for Treason be by Course of the Law Petition of Right 3 Car. It is an Inherent flower of the Crown 6. To grant Pardons belongeth only to the K. And by the Common Law Mercy belongeth to him
Gods extraordinary Judgements are not to be made Rules or Patterns of ordinary Government But God hath given us a written law in the Scripture and by the constant precepts contained in them we are to be guided and not by the extraordinary Examples recited in them Of which we may boldly say That as it is most certain they were not wicked how severe soever they may seem because God commanded them so it is as certain it were wickedness in us to imitate them not having Gods especial Command for them which will not now be pretended unto by any The Cases of Eglon Zimri Jehu c. are justified by Gods being the Commander of them and Sin is nothing but an Obliquitie from Gods will But it is Gods revealed and declared Will which is to be our rule God is pleased to declare * That the Father shall not die for the sin of the Son nor the Son for the sin of the Father But every one shall bear his own iniquity This is his revealed Law by which we are to govern our selves Yet God in his secret yet most just Judgement will have Achan with his Wife and Children and all belonging unto him to be stoned to death the like of Corah and divers others which particular Judgements of God we ought to fear and reverence but not to draw from them Example or watrant against the Commandement or declared Law of God But in the whole old Testament I conceive there will not be found any one Precept or toleration of hostile Resistance nor any Example the extraordinary Cases excepted countenancing Disobedience to the lawful Supreme Magistrate But so much to the contrary That there is no Duty next after the fearing honouring and serving of God more inculcated than the fearing obeying and honouring of the King as his Vicegerent Dixi vos Diâ— est is * I said ye are Gods * The Kings Throne is called the Throne of God the Judgement of the Supreme Magistrate the Judgement of God and most of the Attributes of God are applyed unto them And for the new Testament The Precepts therein against Resistance are not only much more positive and direct but the punishments of much a higher nature For the punishments of the old Testament are no where explicitly beyond death whereas S. Paul saith * That He that resisteth the Powers ordained by God procureth to himself Damnation Our Saviour Mar. 12.17 commandeth us out of his own mouth to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are Gods Now I must clearly profess That before the War was actually and hostilely entred into my Conscience was in great suspension and doubt that those ways and Courses which were pursued tended not only not to give unto Caesar what belonged unto Caesar but to take from him that which undoubtedly and undeniably was his as likewise to take from God that which belonged unto him by applying that which had for many hundred years been dedicated and appropriated unto him and his Service to common uses which hath in all times and even amongst Heathen been known by the name of Sacrilege And which divers grave and learned Divines of that way as Dr. Burgesse and Mr. White of Dorchester by name in the beginning of the Parliament told me That they would never aâ—â—ent unto or approve the applying the Revenue of the Church unto temporal uses They conceived they might be better imployed than they were for the maintenance of Preaching Ministers and other pious uses But to be taken from the Church and applyed to prophane uses I am sure their Opinions were then against it For the former of taking from the King what was his I was too much confirmed by the 19. Propositions of Grocers Hall which were sent unto the King some moneths before I withdrew my self from Parliament As likewise by divers other particulars denied unto the King which were as undoubtedly his as the Crown And for the second of taking from God what belonged unto him I wish my doubts had not been so well confirmed by the use that hath been made of the Lands and Revenue of the Church to be made in great part the Hire of Forein Forces against their Prince and the rest to satisfie the Usury of the said wages So that those antient devout Dedications intended for a perpetual Maintenance of Gods Church and his Ministers have by way of Commutation Change been applyed to the pious uses of Usury and the maintenance of a Civil war But our Saviours Command being clear and positive to give unto Caesar what belonged to Caesar I did conceive That Honour Fealty Loyalty and Obedience did as much belong unto him as Tribute Service and other Regalities of his Crown All which I had by Oaths legally established and by lawfull Authority administred unto me sworn more than ten times to King James to belong unto him and to his lawfull Heirs and Successors and often likewise unto King Charls And that I would in them bear to him Faith and true Alleagiance Now whether the said 19. Propositions which are here unto annexed And many oâ—her things which as occasion shall be offered will be instanced in might not administer unto me a just Scruple of Conscience of swerving from this plain precept of our Saviour of giving unto Caesar what belonged unto him and unto God the things that are Gods I shall remit to any Christian of what Profession soever he shall be Our Saviour doth further confirm this his Precept by his own Example of paying Tribute-money though he might have exempted himself from it as being no Stranger Yet Mat. 17.27 Notwithstanding saith he lest we should offend them Go to the Sea and cast in an Angle c. So that he would rather do a Miracle than do that which might seem to be like Sedition or Disobedience St. Paul in the 13 chap. of his Epistle to the Romans 1 2 3 4 verses telleth us That we may not resist the Powers ordained over us by God And he that resisteth this Ordinance shall receive to himself Damnation And verse the 15. That we must be subject not only for wrath but for Conscience sake Now that the King is this Power ordained over us by God I never heard any doubt made by any of his just rightfull Title In all the Acts of Parliaments which have been by the Houses offered unto him for his Royal Assent since his coming unto the Crown it is acknowledged We your Majesties most humble and most faithfull Subjects And if we ackowledge our selves his Subjects we doe therein acknowledge him our Soveraign And in the beginning of every Parliament both in the House of Peers and in the House of Commons before they take their Seat and Place in Parliament they do by Oath declare and testify in their Conscience That the Kings Highnesse is the only Supreme Governour of this Realm and all other his Countries and
Dominions c. And this Declaration I and all the rest of the Members of both Houses have made So that it being an uncontroverted and confessed truth That the King is our lawfull Soveraign and we his faithfull Subjects and consequently the Power ordained over us by God the which to resist by S. Pauls Doctrine delivered in plain and explicit terms is To procure to our selves Damnation I must confesse That although I will not judge other men yet I durst not adventure my Soul upon a Moot-Case or upon Distinctions or strained Interpretations against that which appeared unto me to be the literal and clear sense S. Paul declaring Rom. 14.22 23. That he that doubteth is damned The meaning whereof I understand to be That he that doubteth that that which he doth is sinfull and wicked and yet adventureth to do it therein sinneth presumptuously and thereby runneth a hazard of Damnation And truly I did much more than doubt for I was as S. Paul requireth we should be Rom. 14.23 Fully perswaded in mind of the contrary So that without Impiety and making Shipwrack of my Conscience against the plain Precepts of Scripture I could not adhere to the way of Resistance CHAP. IV. The Doctrine and Practice of the Primitive Church of not resisting their Princes notwithstanding they were Heathens or Apostates I Well know that the Authority of Scripture needeth not any humane or forein support But because the Parties of several yea contrary wayes will both pretend to have the Scriptures in their favour and from them to draw the rule of their Consciences alike to me it seemed that nothing ought to be of greater Authority under Scripture or like rightly to interpret Scripture than the unanimous Doctrine and practice of the Primitive times and of those holy and learned men who as they were nearer to the times of our Saviour and of the Apostles and of those Pen-men of God so doubtless they saw by clearer light than we do now at a greater distance And really by what I could ever read or be instructed in from others I could never find any thing either allowing or countenancing the Subjects taking Arms against their Soveraign although it were in the highest and most bloody persecution and under the worst of Princes many of them being Heathens Tyrants and Apostates And yet it was to these wicked Persecutors to whom our Saviout and his Apostles injoined Obedience And the primitive Fathers practised it in their sufferings and Martyrdoms But I must confess I have met with a most untrue Allegation and most injurious to Christian innocency That the reason of the Christians bearing so many wrongs and oppressions was because they had not then power and means to do otherwise or right themselves The untruth of this Allegation will appear by the writings of those Fathers whose profession it was to bear and suffer but not to resist Flere potero dolere potero c. aliter nec debeo nec possum resistere was the Saying of S. Ambrose S. Syprian saith Quamvis nimius copiosus noster populus non tamen adversus violentiam se ulciscitur sed patitur And Nicephorus reporteth that in one day twenty thousand Christians were slain in the City of Nicomedia under Dioclesian And many of their books are full of passages of this strain And to conceive that power to resist was only wanting is not only injurious to the Innocency of those Holy Men but injurious to God who if his Glory had not been more advanced by their Sufferings Martyrdom and Persecution than by Resistance or that Resistance had been commanded by him or he pleased therein Those his holy Servants should not have perished for want of Power Our Saviour saith when for the defence of his own Person he prohibiteth resistance * If he would he could pray to his Father who would send him more than twelve Legions of Angels And when the preservation of Gods Servants redoundeth more to the Glory of God than their sufferings He is never wanting to them * As we see by so many deliverances by the extraordinary Power of God But the truth is That unto these Primitive men treading in the steps of the Apostles their sufferings were their Glory their Rejoycing and their Advantage And divers of the Fathers by way of prevention as it were foreseeing that this Scandal might be cast upon their Innocency and Christian Patience That it was want of means and power and nor of will that they resisted not do clearly declare That neither Numbers Armes or Courage were wanting to them wherewith they might defend themselves nor Injuries Oppressions and Persecutions wanting that might provoke them thereunto But it was the Example of Christ and his Apostles sufferings and their holy Doctrine and Precepts commanding Obedience that suffered not their hands to fight against the Powers ordained by God over them although they used both hands and armes with remarkable Valour and Success against the Enemies of their Princes notwithstanding the said Princes were Heathen and Persecutors of the Church of God But this Doctrine of not Resisting some of our new Divines who cannot but acknowledge it to be both the Doctrine and practice of the Apostles and Primitive Times do now say That God was not then pleased to reveal the Doctrine of Resistance But that Martyrdoms and sufferings were the way by which he thought it then sit no plant the Church which he is now pleased should be protected by Resistance and enlarged by power Wherein they have mistaken the Text For that that Doctrine instead of the Bible is taken out of the Alcoran where Mahomet saith That God had sent Christ in the Spirit of meekness to establish his Law But now by him he would have his Law setled and established by the power of the Sword and Conquest And if prevailing or success might stand for Arguments it will be hard convincing this Mahometan Doctrine But certainly the general and universa Tenent of all the Churches of Christendom were and I conceive are still That as Religion ought not to be planted by force or constraint So Christian Subjects ought not to make Religion the ground of their Resistance or taking Armes against their Prince And herein there is a concurrence of all Protestant Churches although they differ in many other points who in their publique Confessions do not admit of Hostile Resistance against their Supream Magistrate And more particularly the Church of England which without any immodestie may challenge her part in the Reformation she having had many learned Propugners of it by their Writings and not a few that have sealed it with their Blood by patiently dying for it hath declared against it confirming the Exhortation to Obedience published in the time of Edw. 6. and the Homilie of Obedience by the Articles of their Confession of Faith The like doth the rest of the Reformed Churches in the Harmony of their Publique Confessions So that
execrable And i is far from my Intention in this Discourse the scope wherof is only to set down faithfully mine own proceeding in matters of Fact and in matters of Opinion to shew those Grounds and Reasons which have deterred my private conscience from having any part in lifting up my hand against the King to enter into any matter of Dispute or Controversie with these new Doctors but leave their Scholastical Confutation to the learned Writings of those that have answered them and to those publique Censures that have condemned them Thus far I have and shall make use of them which is to shew That admitting all their bold and new Positions were true I say posito non concesso yet by their own Maxims and Principles I could find nothing that could warrant me in point of Conscience to Hostile Resistance for that the matter of Fact in the present Case neither is nor can be with any truth or colour of truth applicable to their Tenents and Positions which I shall endeavour to make clear by that which followeth All the Roman Catholiques which have written in favour of resisting Princes in some Cases lay for their ground a supposed Supremacy in the Pope in matters spiritual and thereby erect a superior Jurisdiction over Princes which must of necessity be presupposed before they can pretend to censure or punish for par in parem non habet imperium and that is the true and unanswerable Reason why Kings cannot be punished but only by God because there is over them no other superiour Jurisdiction on earth but the Pope pretendeth over all Christian Princes aswell as other Men a direct superiour Iurisdiction in spiritualibus in matters spiritual and an indirect Power in ordine ad spiritualia in temporalibus in matters temporal And upon this ground the Romanists affirm That in such cases viz. If they be Heretiques with obstinacy Persecutors of the Church of God Incorrigibly Disobedient or Apostates The Pope may then say they discharge their Subjects of their Obedience and they may lawfully resist their Soveraign But this Tenent is to me and to all other Protestants of England of no Authority who eject this Doctrin as erroneous and have solemnly sworn the Contrary But that is not the point that is now to be proved my Assertion being That admitting this their Tenent were true yet it is no way applicable to the Kings present Case in matter of Fact For those that give unto the Pope power of censuring and punishing of Kings first presuppose the Crimes of Apostacy Heresie Persecution c. and them to be duly and sufficiently proved There must go out Citations to the party supposed to be the Delinquent there must be Hearing Conviction and Sentence Further before any execution of Sentence there must be Admonition and a Return of Obstinacy And after this there doth precede Excommunication before Deposition or Delegating of power to any other either to execute the Sentence or to discharge Subjects of their Obedience And this will be seen in all their Writings and in their Practices and particularly in the Case of the King of Navarre But it is impertinent to insist further thereon and to fight against the Air when no man will have the Folly or Malice to attempt the application to our present Case The use that I only make thereof is to assert what I have formerly said That admitting the false positions of the new Doctors that have written in favour of Subjects making Hostile Resistance against their Prince were true yet the present Case against the King can neither be justified or maintained by any of their Principles Having instanced with those of the Romish Church I shall examine the Tenents and Principles of other Professions though I know not in what Church Communion to place them since no Protestant or reformed Church doth avow as before is shewed their Principles And because Junius Brutus is as it were the Ground-work and Text of all these new Opinions I shall faithfully set down what his Opinions and Tenents are And how they are appliable to the present Case He is forced as well as the Romanists to Constitute a Superior Jurisdiction above Kings for hitherto they both agree which as they place it in the Pope so he placeth it in the people deriving the power of Princes originally from them and from that Maxime of Quicquid efficit tale est magistale he maketh the People above the King and that although the King be Major singulis he is Minor universis Having laid this as his Foundation he descended to set down upon what kind of Soveraigns and in what Cases this their Power may be lawfully exercised which he saith may be only against Tyrants of which he saith there are two sorts Tyrants of Usurpation without any just Title and Tyrants in Government which although they may have a just Title yet they become Tyrants in Regimine Tyrants in point of their government For his first sort of Tyrants it will be impertinent to speak of them for that all men acknowledge the Kings Title to be just and we have all sworn it and submitted unto it as our Ancestors have done unto his Ancestors by the space of many hundreds of years So have we particularly unto himself for the space of these twenty years and more But for his second sort of Tyrants who from legitimate and rightfull Princes become Tyrants by their wicked and lawlesse Government and thereby in his opinion make the Subjects taking of arms against them lawfull and justfiable The best way to apply his Doctrine unto this Case is to set down in his own words whom he would have to be so qualified and conditioned as may be esteemed such a Tyrant and so consequently by his Doctrine may be hostilely resisted his words are If a Prince of deliberate purpose do ruine the State If audaciouslie he overthroweth all Laws and Duties If he no waies care to keep his faith If he have no regard to Convention Justice or pietie If he be an Enemie to his Subjects briefly If he practise all these wickednesses which we have specified or the principal of them Then certainlie he may be judged a Tyrant that is to say an Enemie to God and Man So that the question is not here of the Prince that is none of the best nor of the wisest nor of one that doth the best Justice nor of the most valiant But of a Prince that is most Wicked Malicious and Treacherous a Contemner of the Laws an enemy of the People and Destroyer of the Realm And in the Page before he saith We must not expect to have Princes in whom there is no fault to be found but rather esteem that all goeth well with us if those that govern us are midlinglie good Now although the Doctrine be wicked and false for if any such Chimera or Fantasm as he hath made his Tyrant were to be found The People ought not quocunque
due to their Kings upon any colour or pretext of Religion For as no private man doth forfeit his Inheritance or free-hold by Impiety or Atheism although he may forfeit his Soul unless he commit some legal Crime So a Prince that holdeth his Crown by unquestionable Right of Succession cannot forfeit his Temporal Inheritance by the erroniousness of his Religion his Soul must only answer that forfeit And although some have gone so far as to admit a lawfullness of the Subjects taking Arms against their Prince for the defence and maintenance of their Laws and Religion yet no man hath adventured so far as to allow the taking Arms for bringing in of new Laws and a new Religion contrary to the established and that by force and without consent of their Soveraign which is the present Case CHAP. IX Shewing the War not to have been begun by the King but that he condescended to all things that could in reason be demanded of him for the preventing of it THere is yet one further Objection wherwith I have heard some indeavour to countenance and justifie their taking Arms against the King which was That he first made War against his Parliament meaning by force to introduce an Arbitrary Power in Church and Common-Wealth And that the War on their side was only defensive and for the maintenance of their liberties proprieties privileges and Religion The steps and progress of this unhappy War are so well known unto me even from the first misunderstandings betwixt the King and People and the improvement of them by Tumults and several Artifices untill they broke out into Acts of open hostility that nothing did so much terrifie my Conscience from taking Arms against the King or more confirmed me in my Duty of adhering unto him than the certain and infallible knowledge I had of the Kings hearty and unfeigned Desires and Indeavours to have prevented this War and to that end to have done and was ready to do all things that had been or should be with justice or reason propounded unto him for the satisfaction of his Parliament which I conceive to all unpreoccupated Iudgments will be easily most apparent when it shall be considered how many things he hath done besides the easing of just grievances whereunto he is indeed obliged which were meerly Acts of Grace and which if he had denied he should have done no wrong And for the doing whereof the wit of man can find no other reason or inducement but his desire to satisfie his Parliament and the keeping of things from extremities For besides the giving way to the putting down of the Court of Starchamber the High Commission and the regulating of his Councel-Table many other things he hath done which some Kings would rather have adventured a War than have parted with any of them As the consenting to have his Privy-Councel that had been sworn to secrecy to be examined upon Oath concerning those things that had passed in his Presence in his most secret Cabinet Councel The giving his Assent in such conjuncture of times to the taking away the Bishops Votes in Parliament And the divesting of himself of the Power to dissolve the Parliament notwithstanding that the evil Consequences that might happen to him thereby were represented unto him in my hearing And I conceive that no man will be so partial but they do beleeve that howsoever the King might be satisfied in point of Conscience by the Bishops and Iudges and the joint authority of both Houses for giving his Assent to the passing of the Bill for my Lord of Straffords Attaindure yet no man but beleeveth he would have saved his Life at a great Ransom But hoping therby to have allayed the rage of his people aswell as to have given full satisfaction to his Houses with a sad and afflicted heart he signed the Warrant for the Earls execution For he was then made beleeve that with his giving way to his death and his consenting to the Bill for not adjourning or dissolving of the Parliament but with the Concurrence of the Houses all misunderstandings betwixt him and his Parliament would be removed and all things return to a calm and orderly way of Proceeding Now if the King had had any secret Intention of making of a War would he have done so many things so prejudicial to himself and so against his heart only for the preventing of it and although his hopes of a quiet settlement by the passing of these two Bills failed him he yet gave not over the doing of all further things which he thought might renew a right understanding betwixt him and the Houses So likewise when that unhappy and unseasonable Act of his going to the House of Commons in Person happened he indeavoured to redeem it with such Acts of acknowledgemeot submission nay I may say asking forgiveness as were never done by any King unto his Subjects So likewise in the particular of his Attorneys accusing of the Lord Kimbolton and the five Members notwithstanding he had a President for it in his own time of Sir Robert Heath his then Attorneys impeaching of my self of High Treason which Impeachment was received and admitted of by the House of Peers and Arraignment and due process of Law was by the said House ordered and awarded thereupon yet the King finding the Houses therewith displeased did not only command prosecution to be withdrawn but left his Attorny to the Iustice of the Parliament And I conceive that it will be acknowledged by all Laws and Religions That the very excesses and errors of Soveraign Princes if reparation and satisfaction may be obtained by Petition and Remonstrance as in these Caâ—es they have been Recourse ought not to be had by Subjects to Arms or Hostile Resistance and I am deceived if this be not also the Opinion of the severest of our new Doctors Where wrongs are done if the party offending shall upon demand make reparation and give satisfaction to the party offended and yet he shall notwithstanding make War it is He that is the Agressor that maketh the offensive War Melior causa ad partem poenitentem transit And the party first offending by his penitency and satisfaction brings over the Right and Iustice to his Cause and if this be betwixt Independent States betwixt whom such as write de Iure Belli say a legitimate War can only be for War being defined to be publicoâ—um Armorum justa contentio Subjects are not allowed as lawfull Enemies opposed to their Soveraign for want of supreme and publique Authority How much more ought such Acknowledgment and Reparations as have before been set down have satisfied Subjects in the behalf of their King so far humbling of himself as certainly would have pacified a modest Conqueror After the King had found himself disappointed of his expectation and that by his former yieldings and complyances the misunderstandings were little allayed but greater appearances grew every day that other of unquietness and troubles
bound unto towards the King The sum of them being briefly thus 1. I understood Hostile Resistance against the King to be expresly prohibited by the word of God both in the old and new Testament 2. I should have gone against the Doctrine and Practice of the Primitive Church and against the present Tenents and Confessions of Faith of all the Reformed Churches 3. Admitting the Maxims of those hot-headed men either Romanists or Protestants that have written in favour of Subjects taking Arms against their Prince to be true as they are false and condemned by their own Churches respectively yet in this Case they could be no Arguments to me For that their Doctrine and Principles are in no kind applicable to the present matter in Fact 4. I should have directly broken all those solemn Oaths which I had so often taken of Fidelity and Allegeance to the King 5. I should have gone against the Laws of the Kingdom by which to take Arms against the King or to adhere to his Enemies c. is made Treason 6. I should have been failing in the Obligations of Honor and Gratitude 7. I should have transgressed against Moral Honesty and natural Iustice to have fought against the King as an unjust and an irreligious Man whom I knew to be in more than an ordinary measure Iust and Religious So that if I should have broken through all these Duties of Religion of Oaths of Loyalty of Laws of Gratitude and Moral Honesty by doing presumptuously against my Conscience how could I but have feared to be made as miserable in the next World as I should have remained despâ—cable in this And howsoever this may be judged a severe Censure ' It is only against my self as I say in the beginning of this Discourse Men may upon differing Painciples go differing waies And I cannot be so uncharitable as to think so many grave learned and noble Personages would break through so many plain Duties under which they had formerly lived And unto which they had not only sworn but conformed themselves But that they had either found out or had had revealed unto them some such things for the satisfaction of their Consciences as God hath not yet been pleased I should attain unto If I may see them in writing I shall peruse them willingly And if I shall find in them but so much Reason as may induce me to believe that upon their own Principles and not by Fear Interests or likelyhood of prevailing their Consciences may have been perswaded that way Although I disapprove their said Principles and still retain mine own yet I shall say Bonâ intentione mali sunt which though it doth not justifie an evill Action yet it doth in some measure excuse and lessen the Offence St. Paul was a great * Persecutor of the Church But because he did it out of abundance of Zeal * He obtained Pardon for that he did it ignorantly Our Saviour saith to his Disciples The time will come that whosoever killeth you will think they do God good service And those very Murtherers would have been in much better Case than I should have been that should have sinned presumptuously and against the perswasion of mine own Conscience whereas they had the Glory of God for their end though upon false Principles And certainly presumptuous sins being as it were a defying of God are of greater Provocation And I shall recommend unto those whose Consciences have led them another way that Imborn Charitable principle of the Law of Nature as well as of the Gospel Quod tibi fieri non vis alteri ne feceris Whatsoever ye would that men should to do you do ye even so unto them And if Conscience shal be a discharge or supersedeas unto them against known Duties against Oaths and Established Laws Let Conscience in me grounded upon so many Reasons as in this Discourse are set down be likewise pleadable for the doing of those Duties to which I conceived my self obliged both by the Law of God and Man and which hitherto both they and I have practised CHAP. XII All the former Reasons applyed to the present Case of King Charles with a positive opinion thereupon THese have been the Motives of setling my Conscience in the Opinion that I shall briefly here set down deduced from the Principles of this Discourse which upon this individual Case is That neither upon pretext of Religion Personal Vices Excesses in Government nor any other Colour or Pretext whatsoever the Subjects of the Crown of England may withdraw their Obedience or make Hostile Resistance to King CHARLES the present King Being by Right of Inheritance justly possessed of the Crown His Title no way depending either upon his Divine or Moral Vertues And the said Subjects having received him and acknowledged him for their only Supreme Governor done him Hommage and sworn to him Faith and Allegeance absolutely and without Condition As for other Kings or Potentates whether Elective Kingdoms or Kingdoms that at the Erection of them were received by the first King upon Express Covenant and only with a Conditional Obedience as is pretended by those of Aragon and others of these I shall not speak Neither shall I adventure to speak of those Catholique Kings and Princes which acknowledge in spiritual matters a Superiour Iurisdiction in the Pope over them And he pretendeth as hath been before set down by necessary Relation and Dependency of the Temporal upon the Spiritual to have a Temporal Power over them in ordine ad spiritualia and hath often put this his Claim in Practice by accompanying his spiritual Censure of Excommunication with the Sentence of discharging Subjects of their obedience to their Princes and so consequently of deposing them Herewith I shall not meddle None of these cases being applicable to the present Case of King CHARLES who is no Elective King but holdeth his Crown by an unquestionable Title of Succession derived to him by Descent from his Ancestors for the space of more than six hundred years Neither was there ever any Pact or Condition with him or any of his Ancestors of forfeiture in Case of misgovernment or wickedness And breach of Covenants forfeiteth not an Ordinary Estate unless there be an express Clause and Condition of forfeiture which in this Case neither was nor ever can be pretended It is true that his Ancestors and himself have limited and restrained their Legal Right by many Concessions and Laws in some Cases as The making of Laws without Consent of Peers and People and the levying of Mony c. which he cannot violate without great Injustice as shall be after shewn But no such Pact or Covenant can be produced or pretended whereby upon breach he forfeiteth his Soveraignty or maketh it justifiable for his Subjects to take Arms against him or to inflict Punishments upon his Person either by deposing Death or Imprisonment The Case likewise of Catholique Princes no way concerneth him who acknowledgeth in
whether they be within the Kingdom or fled out of it And that all Persons cited by either House of Parliament may appear and abide the Censure of Parliament 14. That the general Pardon offered by your Majesty may be granted with such Exceptions as shall be advised by both Houses of Parliament 15. That the Forts and Castles of this Kingdom may be put under the Command and Custody of such Persons as your Majesty shall appoint with the Approbation of your Parliament and in the Intervals of Parliament with the Approbation of the Major part of the Counsel in such manner as before is expressed in the Choise of Counsellors 16. That the extraordinary Guards and Military Forces now attending your Majesty may be removed and discharged and that for the future you will raise no such Guards or extraordinary Forces but according to the Law in case of actual Rebellion or Invasion 17. That your Majesty will be pleased to enter into a more strict allyance with the States of the United Provinces and other Neighbour Princes and States of the Protestant Religion for the defence and maintenance thereof against all designs and attempts of the Pope and his Adherents to subvert and suppress it whereby your Majesty will obtain a great access of Strength and Reputation and the Subjects be much incouraged and enabled in a Parliamentary way for your aid and assistance in restoring your Royal Sister and her Princely Issue to those Dignities and Dominions which belong unto them and relieving the other distressed Protestant Princes who have suffered in the same Cause 18. That your Majesty would be pleased by Act of Parlia to clear the Lord Kimbolton and the five Members of the House of Commons in such manner that future Parliaments may be secured from the Consequent of that evill President 19. That your Majesty will be pleased to pass a Bill for restraining Peers made hereafter from sitting or voting in Parliament unless they be admitted thereunto with the Cansent of both Houses of Parliament H. ELSYNG CLER. PARL. D. COM. The Oath of Supremacy Cited page 31. I A. B. do utterly testifie and declare in my Conscience that the Kings Highness is the only Supreme Governor of this Realm and of all other his Highness Dominions and Countries as well in all Spiritual or Ecclesiastical things or causes as Temporal c. I do promise that from henceforth I shall bear Faith and true Allegeance to the Kings Highness his Heirs and lawfull Successors and to my power shall assist and defend all Iurisdictions Privileges Preheminences and Authorities granted or belonging to the Kings Highness his Heirs and Successors or united or annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm So help me God and by the Contents of this Book The Oath fa Privy-Counsellor Cited page 32. You shall swear to the uttermost part of your cunning wit skill and power you shall he true and faithfull to the Kings Majesty our most dread and Soveraign Lord and to his Highnesse Heirs and Successors Kings and Queens of England according to the Statute for the establishment of the Succession of the Crown Imperial of this Realm You shall not know nor hear any thing that may in any wise be prejudicial to his Majesty or to his Heirs and Successors in form aforesaid or to the Common Wealth Peace and Quiet of this his Majesties Realm but you will with all diligence reveal and disclose the same to his Majesty or to such Person or Persons of his Highness Privy-Counsel as you shall think may and will honestly convey and bring it to his Majesties knowledge You shall serve his Majesty truly and faithfully in the room and place of his Highness Privy-Counsel You shall keep close and secret all such matters as shall be treated disputed debated and resolved of in Counsell without disclosing the same or any part thereof to any but only to such as be of the Privy-Counsell And yet if any matter so propounded treated dispated and debated in any such Counsell shall touch any particular person sworn of the same upon any such matter as shall in any wise concern his fidelity and truth to the Kings Majesty you shall in no wise open the same to him but keep it secret as you would do from another person till the Kings pleasure be known in that behalf You shall in all things to be moved treated disputed and debated in any such Counsel faithfully and truly declare your mind and opinion according to your heart and conscience in no wise forbearing so to do for any matter of respect or favour love meed dread displeasure or corruption Finally you shall be vigilant diligent and circumspect in all your doings and proceedings touching the Kings Majesty and his Affairs All which points before expressed you shall faithfully observe fulfill and keep to the utmost of your power wit and cunning So God you help and by the holy Contents of this Book The Negative Oath Cited page 32. I A. B. do swear from my heart that I will not directly nor indirectly adhere unto or willingly assist the King in this War or in this Cause against the Parliament nor any forces raised without the Consent of the two Houses of Perliament in this Cause or War And I do likewise swear that my coming and submitting my self under the power and protection of the Parliament is without any manner of design whatsoever to the Prejudice of the proceedings of the two Houses of this Present Parliament and without the privity or advice of the King or any of his Counsel or Officers other than what I have now made known So help me God c. An Act of Parliament 1 Iac. cap. 1. acknowledging the Right of the Crown to him and his successors by inherent birth-right c. Cited page 19. We do upon the knees of our hearts agnize constant Faith Loyalty and Obedience to the King his Royal Progeny in this high Court of Parliament where all the body of the Realm is either in person or by representation We do acknowledge that the true and sincere Religion of the Church is continued and established by the King And do recognize as we are bound by the Law of God and man the Realm of England and the Imperial Crown thereof doth belong to him by inherent Birth-right and lawful and undoubted succession and submit our selves and our posterities until the last drop of our blood be spent to his Rule And beseech the King to accept the same as the first fruits of our Loyalty and Faith to his Majesty and his posterity for ever And for that this Act is not compleat nor perfect without his Majesties Consent the same is humbly desired A Declaration which Offences shall be adjudged Treason Anno 25 Edvv. 3. cap. 2. Cited pa. 35. Whereas divers Opinions have been before this time in what Case Treason shall be said and in what not The King at the request of the Lords and of the Commons hath
quae sito colore upon no preâ—â—se whatsoever to take arms against their lawful Soveraign yet taking it for good and Orthodox Divinity I conceive there needeth no other Argument but the reciting of his Tyrant to make good my Assertion that the Case would no way concern the King But the Wickednesse Malice and Danger of this Tenent besides the falseness of ir is That having once constituted a Position That by the people the Prince may be hostilelie resisted in such and such Cases and being in such and such a degree wicked and the people likewise therof to be the Judges there is a latitude left to every Sect to every mans Passion or to every mans Interest to fancy to himself that what disliketh him is Impiety Heresie or Oppression And to judge of the measure of his Princes wickedness or if he be not wicked enough yet to resist him by way of prevention lest he should become such For he saith not long after That Tyranny is like an Hectique Feaver which at the beginning is easie to cure but hard to discover but afterward is easily known but is become incurable and therefore must be timely prevented But leaving the wickedness danger and falsenesse of this Doctrine to be considered of admitting it were good and true as is before said let us examin how it is applicable to our present Case He supposeth his Tyrant to be an Enemy to God and Man with so many other Attributes of wickedness and impiety That Nero Caligula Domitian Iulian the Apostate Phalaris and Dionysius may well be ranked in his middle number of Princes that were not of the worst And I conceive that Treason and Malice it self will abhor the applicarion in any sort of his description of a Tyrant unto the King and so consequently of this new Doctrine to our present Case For my self I must avow it that by what I have read in the above-cited Author in Buchanan in Suarez and Mariana and what our Countryman Bishop Bilson hath written I was much confirmed in my Opinion of the unlawfulness of taking Armes against the King * For all rules with Exception confirm in all things but in the things excepted And all these Authors write with great strength against Resistance and taking Armes against the Prinre but only in the Case of Tyranny and the Romanists in case of the Popes deposing of them The latter whereof neither being nor admitted if it were I shall lay aside And shall only shew how far the King is from any of these Wickednesses and Impieties of which they compose their Tyrant I well know that Kings are Men made of the same Paste of flesh and blood with others and subject to the same weaknesses and to the same passions And as Brutus saith our reason can no more be severed from our said passions and infirmities than the soul can be from the Body whilst the man is yet living And thereupon saith We must not expect to have Princes against whom nothing can be said but we must think that all goeth well with us if they be moyennement bons Middlingly good And Commines saith That a Prince whose virtues exceed his vices ought to be esteemed and stiled a good Prince And of Princes it is a good rule Optimus est qui minimis urgetur He is best that hath the fewest faults for some faults being Men they will all have And certainly whosoever shall rightly know the King and be acquainted with his irreprovable Course of life his constant and dayly practice of devotions of Piety will not deny him the Title of a right good Prince And so notwithstanding his misfortunes and the unsuccessfullness of his affairs he will be esteemed when he shall be rightly known and considered without prejudice as he is unto me by reason of my long and near attendance about his Person and of whom I will be bold to say without flattery That having by the space of almost Forty years been conversant in most of the Courts of the Princes of Christendom as a publique Minister and been no uncurious observer of the Deportments of the Princes of my time I never knew any Prince or scarcely any private man in whose life there hath been less reproveable And what is here said I conceive will be abundantly sufficient to shew that if this new Doctrine of hostile Resistance were admitted for good it would in no kind justifie it in this present Case It being only applicable to the worst of men when here it must be made use of against an exemplary good Man and who may be justly numbred amongst the best of Princes As I doubt not but it will clearly appear when the truth of many things which have been suggested against him shall be faithfully set down As there will be occasion to do in the following Discourse And so I shall pass to the next religious Obligation whereby my Conscience hath been restrained from taking armes against the King which is the sacred Tye of the late Protestation and of so many solemn Oaths whereby I have engaged my self before God to bear him true Faith and Alleageance and to defend his Person and all his just Rights and Dignities CHAP. V. Setting down the Obligations and Tyes by solemn Oaths and Protestations of not taking Arms against the King IT will be easily assented unto by all sorts of Christians that Solemn Oaths established by lawful Authority and legally administred and in a matter that is not Malum in se absolutely wicked are the highest and strongest Obligations that can pass from Man to God from Nation to Nation from Subjects to their Prince or Prince to their Subjects or from Man to Man And this is not only so declared in Scripture but was undoubtedly part of that Natural and Moral Law which was by God planted in the heart of Man even from the Creation For we find it in practice before any written Law and by all Nations Heathens and Unciviliz'd and altogether ignorant of the Precepts either of the old or new Testament yet by the light of Nature they held Oaths the most sacred of all Assurances and Perjury amongst the most execrable and detestable of all Impieties Now the Oaths that I and the rest of the Kings Subjects have taken unto him for the serving of him with Loyalty with true Faith and Alleageance for the Adhering to him against all Persons for the defending of his Royal Person for the Maintaining and Upholding of all Rights Dignities and Prerogatives belonging to him or annexed to his Imperial Crown will be clearlyest exprest by setting down the Oaths themselves in terminis which shal be annexed hereunto for not interrupting too long the series of this Discourse Besides the Oaths formerly established by Law at the beginning of this Parliament There was a solemn Protestation propounded by the Houses of Parliament to be taken by themselves and so through the whole Kingdom And was allowed of by the King And this
Protestation was by my self taken in the House of Peers and subscribed by me wherein I Promise Vow and Protest in the presence of God as far as lawfully I may with my Life Power and Estate according to the Duty of my Alleageance to Maintain and Defend his Majesties Royal Person Honour and Estate Now how the taking arms against him and the assailing and pursuing of him in Battel can be for the defence of his Royal Person or the seizing of all his Revenew for the Maintenance of his Estate or the divesting of him of all Power and Authority with so many other sad things that against him have been said and done and which my Pen blusheth to set down can be for the Defence and Maintenance of his Honour or how the Stile of Majesty which in this Pootestation we give him the Usage of him considered can be otherwise judged of but as a Scorn and Derision I understand not sure I am that I took the said Protestation in earnest and with an Attestation of God that I would faithfully perform it And so by his holy Assistance I will ever do according to the express words in the said Protestation with my Life Power and Estate Neither am I in any kind able to conceive how it is possible for any Christian Man that hath taken the former Oaths and Protestation of Adhering Defending and Assisting of the King against all Persons whatsoever to swallow much lesse to digest the new Negative Oath which in the subsequent words I A. B. do swear from my heart That I will not directly nor indirectly adhere unto or willingly assist the King in this War or in this Cause against the Parliament c. I am likewise as much unsatisfied of the late National Covenant how it may stand or be reconciled to these former Oaths and Protestation But in regard that is a Businesse of great Consequence and length I will set down in a Tract apart those Scruples which hitherto have deterred my Conscience from venturing upon it That these Oaths have been established by lawfull Authority they were made and enjoined by free and unquestionable Parliaments whose Acts I speak not of Ordinances but of Acts wherein the Royal Assent hath concurred are of that high and Soveraign Authority that the Law admitteth of no Plea nor averment against them And this I am confident will be by all acknowledged They have likewise been legally administred by the Ministers that by the said Acts have thereunto been appointed and ordained and for the Justness and Righteousness of them the Confirming of them by so many several Acts of Parliament by which Laws no person can have a Voice in Parliament but stands to all intents and purposes as a person that had not been elected or returned if he sit in the House before he have taken the said Oaths And the continuing of the enjoyning of them by the Houses unto this day must clear all Dispute or Question of that kind For the Houses do not admit of Members unto their Houses nor Officers into their places until they have first taken the said Oaths in such sort as by the Statutes is ordained So that it is clear that they are aswell as others satisfied in the goodnesse of them Besides the subject matter of these Oaths is just and righteous in it self being only in pursuance of those duties of Obedience which are commanded us both by the Law of God and the Land and which are extra juramentum obligantia obliging in themselves though there were no Oath It is further to be observeed That besides the legal penalties that may be injoyned for the refusing or breaking of rhese Oaths they contain something further than temporal Punishment can reach unto they carry with them The heavy Iudgement of God declared in Scripture against the breakers of solemn Oathes And in this Case there is yet much more added for we accompany the breach of them with the most horrid and fearfull Execration that any Christians can draw upon themselves renouncing the Help and Protection of God Almighty and the Benefit of our Reemption contained in the Holy Gospel if we fail in the performance of them which I understand to be quantum in nobis est if we do not indeavour to do the utmost in our power to keep them But voluntarily for Fear or Interest not only to break them but to do that which by the very plain words is contrary to the said Oaths and is contrary to that sence in which I took them as I understand the taking of armes against the King to be with many other things of necessity following thereupon I durst not adventure upon that which my Conscience judged so great an Impiety CHAP. VI Setting down the unlawfulness of Hostile Resistance drawn from Humane Laws HAving thus set down those Reasons which deterred my Conscience from making Hostile Resistance unto the King which have been deduced out of the Word of God the Doctrine and Practice of holy Men and the Obligation of sacred Oaths I shall now propose my Scruples drawn from humane Laws but especially from the Laws of our Kingdom By the Common Law of England many things were Treason But because the Common Law is not composed in one intire body or Text and it was difficult for the unlearned and Lay-People to inform themselves exactly and distinctly what was Treason and what was not the goodness of the King and the wisedom of the Parliament in the time of Edw. the 3. was such that for the avoiding of the insnaring of the People in so high a Penalty and Destruction as followeth the being convicted of Treason It was thought fit that all those things which for the future should be esteemed or adjudged Treason should be particularly and distinctly set down in one Law and exclusively to all things else which was accordingly done in the Statute of the 25 Edw. 3. And in case it should so fall out that any matter should arise besides those particulars specified in the said Statute No judgement should passe thereon but it should be reserved till the next Parliament But for those Cases in the said Statute expressed they were enacted to be Treason and so to be adjudged by the ordinary course of Iustice And in regard that in the troublesome and disorderly time of Richard the 2. the prevailing party which still swayed the Parliament had made and unmade many several Treasons as suited to the Designs and Interests of those that had the Power In the first year of Hen. the 4. all those newsprung-up Treasons were revoked and abolished and Treason again reduced to the Statute of 25 Edw. the 3. The like inconveniences growing in the Wars betwixt the Houses of York and Lancaster and afterwards by the fierceness of Hen. the 8. who upon the alterations he had made in Religion had so insnared the Subject that the Protestants of the reformed Religion could not by reason of the six Atticles escape the