A VINDICATION OF THE KING WITH Some OBSERVATIONS upon the TWO HOVSES By a true Son of the Church of England and a lover of his Countries Liberty Together with the Resolution of Wiltshire and the Petition of the Gentlemen of the foure Innes of Court in behalfe of all the true Protestants in England c. ALSO His MAjESTIES Letter to both Houses of PARLIAMENT the 20th of January Printed for WILLIAM WEBB An. Dom. 1642. A Vindication of the KING with some Observations upon the two HOUSES by a true Son of the Church of England and a Lover of his Countries Liberty READER I Shall not be curious to satisfie the Reason of any prepossest opinion yet since the Times hath given an open Presse to cleare every imagination which is not stifled in this Dampe I have endeavoured to contract my owne Meditations in a narrow roome and rather expose them to the censure of the most judicious then rest satisfied alone and admit this cloudy surface to overwhelme so vast a body I confesse it was no meane part of my happinesse in our dangerous extreames to hope for a happy Union by that soveraigne medicine of a fading State a Parliament and knowing the admirable affection of our gracious Soveraigne to the peace and quiet of the Kingdoms though it was His unspeakable misfortune never to know the misery of the people till their discontents were grown to that head they became almost if not altogether uncurable by those unreasonable and illegall Monopolies exacted by some ill-affected agents conducing little to his advantage but to the furthering of their ambition who notwithstanding could as easily desert him in his misery as before be the ready Instruments to importune him to this mischief upon pretence of a Legall Authority which who knows not a Prince may be soon mistaken in since none can be so filly as to beleeve him a studied Lawyer Yet that this should expose us to so great an adventure as not onely to divest him of this suspected Arbitrary power but to conferre an absolute Government to any whatsoever renders me no other axiom then the Poets Incidit in Scyllam cupiens vitare Carybdiâ—n But if you please to take the true state of the businesse let your impartiall Judgement confer with your Reason upon these few notorious truths What has the King denied which concerne our Liberty and are the undoubted securities of our happinesse under the Regiment of a just and unquestionable Monarchy Are not our Rights and Properties already establisht this Parliament by such Acts of Grace as could never finde Presidents from His Ancestors besides the utter extirpation of Ship-money Monopolies upon what pretence soever those Arbitrary Courts of Justice High-Commission Starre-Chamber Marshal-seas c. Has He not importuned the setling of Religion in its purity and that there might be a Law to secure the tender consciences of those who will not agree to the Ceremonies Are not the taking away these sufficient ground to dissolve our Jealousies if ever we meant to be satisfied As for their feares I wish we had as little reason to suspect the fomenters as we have the King who is so clearely divested of any power to make good the least injustice that it 's too great an hazard on His part to adventure what our consciences enforce us to make good for Him on our part the conservation of these are so attested by Him in the word of a King with such unusual expressions that if they came from a Stranger I suspected not an Infidell I was bound to beleeve in charity Witnesse those serious asseverations God so deale with Me and my Children as I intend to conserve my Parliament in it's Priviledges the Rights of the Subjects and the true profest Protestant Religion God so prosper me in what I take in hand Is there yet a further way to establish them whereby they may be so secure that a violation may seeme impossible without the subversion of the very Letter of the Law Why is it not propos'd if it be no Invasion of that just Prerogative was never denied His Ancestors and what He hath deserved of us that he may not be as far trusted is as hard to object as easily answered If then we must needs agree that there being nothing so cleare why should any subtle pretences hinder our desired accommodation unlesse there be such that intend the alteration of our Government and how inconsistent that may prove to a People already managed under the united Order of a virtuous King daily experience offers it too easie of conjecture Yet for our better satisfaction let 's weigh the amends wee are like to make our selves from these few inconveniences amongst the thousands which daily expose themselves to our view 1. The unlimited power of the two Houses hath already assumed into their own hands a formall Ordinance countermanding suspending nay creating Acts of Parliament though not in the name of Acts yet in the power of Acts whereby both King and People are obliged to obey how to distinguish this Ordinance from an Act of State I am not well satisfied yet I have heard it call'd Treason in one of their Members for this comparison though with that cautious provisoe That it should be no leading case to future ages for Judges to imitate Is this the security of our undoubted Rights we have so long endeavoured who carries not now his life in his hand mannag'd by an exact power of a bare Vote which if any contradicts must suffer under the name of a Malignant party though of their own Members and not proceeded against by the justice of any precedent Acts but condemned by the Votes of the present Session and if this be not an absolute subversion of the Rights of Parliament and destructive to the fundamentall Lawes of our Kingdome wherein our Liberty consists I would faine be satisfied what it is for 't is most apparent to whosoever examines their ordinary proceedings we have no Law left but what serves their turne and if that be defective to punish those they please to call Delinquents their Legislative Ordinance can as well supply that defect as it could make that obnoxious which till this Parliament no man could ever call a fault 2. This continuing power of the two Houses which if they had had a minde should ever bee remitted they would have either expressed it in their first demand and limited it to a certain time wherein they might have compleatly qualified the disquiet countenance of a troubled Estate or since have endeavoured some Remonstrance for our satisfaction in that particular For I would faine be answered First if they sit while they list and passe what they list whether they have not dureing their pleasure subverted our Monarchy by their Democracy and invested themselves with a power more Arbitrary then the Monarchicall Government could pretend to that having his Limitations and Rules of Law which the Judges are to answer if they mistake
or those that advise the King their Democracy having no bounds being but a thing of yesterday and which as yet we cannot understand assuming to themselves the sole power to judge of our dangers and to propose such remedy as may answer their pretences 3. How every conscientious man can dispence with that sacred Oath of Allegiance wherein he calls God to witnesse for the vindication of his Princes just Prerogative and their Protestation to maintain an absolute and unlimited power in the two Houses wrested to those Ordinances expresly inhibited by His Majesties speciall commands in my understanding it is to no other purpose then to leade us into a Maze where when we are lost by our misunderstanding which must necessarily be the principall of our subversion They will offer us a Clue shall either leade us to their premeditated designes whereby of necessity they will become our Masters or to an inevitable ruine before we know the reason of our Feares and Jealousies being the old rule they so often enveighed against First to trouble the State then to subvert the Government Let it not be objected now That I am against Parliaments for God knowes I am for them and as zealous for my Country as any man that lives But in my opinion the best way to secure our Liberty had been That our Members of both Houses might continue subject still lyable to the Regiment of those Lawes which shall be enacted by them wherein they will have a care of securing their owne estates for the future as well as ours which was certainly the intentions of our well advised Ancestors in exposing so great a trust into their hands when the Prince called for their advice in matters of greatest concernment but by this continued Session they not onely are invested with an absolute power but are able to make themselves amends at leisure for those monies exhausted out of their estates while we groane under the insupportable burthen of their as they call them Legall Taxes and thus they may well be carelesse what Lawes are past never intending to be observers but Lords of what they make 3. Who are these pretended Reformers of the Common-wealth but the very Instruments who were the favourites during our oppression I need not name them to any who has once attended the Epidemicke trouble of our age and what unheard of conversion we can make of their lives whereby such a confidence should be reposed in them as to devest so Religious and Just a Prince of his unquestionable Rights and Prerogatives and conferre such an unlimited power so readily upon them if we return to our former senses renders me amazed 't is not amisse to ruminate some words His Majestie used in His owne vindication at Newmarket My Lords lay your hands on your hearts who were the contrivers of these illegall Taxes wherewith you have so incensed my people to whose advantage were these impositions levied are my Exchequers at all larger or did they not rather conduce to your peculiar benefit who were the onely perswaders of them that you have now repaid me with condigne thankes Those Favourites being content to be the causers though not companions of their Princes mis-fortunes being like Crowes upon a carkasse that have no sooner bared the bones but they are flowne are we not yet sensible the rules of policy not of honesty to secure their lives and fortunes not their consciences exposed you to this politique not publique service and had you not in so exact a course served your turnes of these loyall pretenders they had beene as lyable to the extremity of Justice as the greatest Delinquents that under-went the most heavy censures and undoubtedly had had their deserved shares which would have given a better colour to their upright proceedings as they would have you so believed if they had impartially distributed Justice amongst the then Malignant party But now that we should be so stupid as to be circumvented with any pretences whatsoever which out-strip the Essentiall rules of Government or Reason and confide in the positive Vote of an ambitious party for ought we know would admit my perswader to be a mad man that could allow that in his opinion But make them what you will suppose them to be the most reall and upright men in their lives and consciences in the whole world They are but the Counsell of the King and Kingdome not their Commanders for the health of our State is admirably ballanced if that have but its due proportion The Parliament consisting of three bodies the King the Lords and Commons so that if two should be destructive and the third remaine sound during those Laws already in force there can be no danger to our Kingdome but if either of the two can passe at their pleasure what they will the third must then of necessity stand for a Cypher for consenting or disagreeing is then of equall value and in my opinion it 's a president of too great an adventure for suppose the King and the major part of the Lords should agree an Ordinance or Law we should think it extreamly prejudiciall to the Liberty of the Subject our Commons should be concluded peremptorily against their consents I heard an Act not long since vouched in president that had beene ratified against the consent of the Lords Spirituall where they declared nec possumus nee volumus consentire and this so rare wee could not finde a second At the Parliament at Oxford in 17. H. 3. when the Lords were not there present they were faine to dissolve the House without passing one Act confirming my first proposition That the consent of two bodies are not of force to make us Lawes without the third much lesse conclude The King who is not only the supreame head but the very soule whose power gives life to their actions when their body is once dissolved besides how incoherent is it with that authority committed to them for if the Parliament which are onely his great Councell offer him a Bill which He is bound to agree unto it was more then ever His Ancestors were and of his Counsellors it must necessarily follow they are His Commanders We have a Maxime with the Subject Moduâ— conventio vincunt legem In former ages and ever since Parliaments were in use Le Roy sâ—avisera were sufficient authority to make a Bill of both Houses unwarrantable and how the King hath lost that Right or what new Laws are found out destructive to that Prerogative I never yet read nor ever shall unlesse some such new Ordinance or bare Votes can pretend to such an unwarranted power whereof there was never yet found a President which can have no other operation upon my understanding then That the Votes of the present Members which can at their pleasures dispose the undoubted Priviledges of the Crowne by a Law recorded onely in their owne breasts and giving out to us under the guilded Title of the Peoples Liberty when indeed they
are but Golden Chaines instead of Bulrushes and reserv'd till occasion shall make it too apparent may finde out a Law of equall force to dispose the Crowne when they shall so farre debilitate the Prince as he shall be no way able to make resistance for when the supporters are not onely undermined but clearly taken away by what reason can we imagine the Structure may continue firme that you may be sure we will not unjustly charge them be pleased to observe with me their Orders in these few instances 1. Their countenancing these unwarranted Acts either by a seditious huddle of indigent people and so procuring Petitions to necessitate these premeditated proceedings or leavying an absolute Warre against the King securing us upon no other reasons then that they are the representative body of the Kingdome and therefore our Obedience rather to be expected then our Reason satisfied which indeed is true enough if they proceeded upon that warranted rule to which no man could refuse observance or being intrusted by Us with the power of preceding Parliaments that they would pursue points of so high concernment with the same mature reasons and deliberations as they have done and then they might well expect our readinesse to secure their actions But suppose we elect one that should speak or endeavour to enact Treason does our election bid us to secure him or will future Parliaments blame us hereafter for giving up so great a Delinquent to the justice of the Lawes dare we countenance their Intentions who have fetcht Presidents from the weakest Princes nay and go beyond them too to the disadvantage of as able a Prince as ever yet held the Scepter nay and offer their suppositions to the Vulgar If the Prince be a foole a child c. ought he not to be govern'd by his Councell though it be against his consent if it stand with the publike benefit what implication to make of this I understand not but I am sure that it was none of our meaning when we gave our voyce in the Election Can an Ordinance of Parliament without the consent of the King renew a repealed Act and with so bold a countenance trample upon the heeles of that Parliament in Richard the seconds time and this very repealed Act renewed this Parliament be within one step of it wherein the Parliament tooke the Crowne and gave it to the then Earle of Bullingbrooke which was the reason of so much bloud in our Civill warres and was not well settled till of late yeares And can we blame the King if He desire shelter from such a storme If it be their intentions sure one Bullingbrooke will not serve their turnes since there hath beene equall shares in this so great an adventure And to vouch the Oath of this Usurper H. 4. which came in at their benevolence to a Prince of an unquestionable Title and never offered before or since to any English King that ever we read or heard of but with its limitations is so far from their loyall pretences that they are rather to be believed studied mischiefes and endeavours to embroyle the Kingdome in a Civill Warre 2. To disingage all that would out of affection or â—ove interest themselves to secure the Kings Person and Dignity it being too apparent to any ordinary understanding that such proceedings were never warranted by any precidents of preceding Parliaments or those Lawes they call fundamentall in our Kingdome they scandalize such with the name of malignant Persons whereby His Meniall Servants either absolutely refused or durst not adventure His attendance and countenance this medley in such a sense that the King Himselfe is perpetually traduc'd under this obstruse Dialect which though they dare not put down in plaine English for feare the most violent amongst them should be ashamed to owne it yet by such an implication as the plainest capacity cannot but blush and with admiration wonder whereto this may tend I would faine be satisfied what these might not doe when they had once mastered these their malignants For if you will give us as much reason as the Ants you must beleeve a Winter may come as well as thinke a Summer is come durst any man then oppose their proceedings when they have reduced all to their owne Termes do you not speak your selves the very Law and we as we ought to yeeld no appeale from Parliament being the highest Court in the Kingdome yet in this sense as the King is a part of it for otherwise I understand not by what right it has the preheminence of those they call the Kings Courts being both conveen'd by the same Royall Authority 3. The discountenancing any Petitions whatsoever wherein we desire to interpose our advice for accommodation or otherwise though never so agreeing with our Lawes unlesse they stand with the sence of their party as if all our Wisedome were shut up in so narrow limits and these the onely men in England infallible yet give me leave to averre That to the number of almost two hundred approved able men whose warranted judgement and sufficiencies were the onely inducement of their Countries Election have beene faine to sit still and see things carried in this disorderly confusion peremptorily against their earnest endeavours and have not beene so much as askt their opinions in matters of greatest concernment but being unwilling to expose their Consciences to so high a Guilt have withdrawne themselves as unusefull Members of such a Body 3. To insinuate a beliefe of their care to the Vulgar They have perpetually surmised terrible Jealousies which have produced no other effect then a desired suspition of the King yet these offered upon most improbable conjectures as every private Letter is sufficient grounds to piece up their designes or by such persons whose private discontents leade them to offer these high indignities to that sacred Person they were never worthy to serve in the meanest Office and though their Lives were so notorious for their former extravagancies they have by these superfluous invectives found countenance till presuming upon their merits which were none except to abuse the King can be called desert That they have beene given up to rapine or some such damnable sinne that nature would never have pardoned if we had had no Law Yet these mens informations sufficieÌ„t ground to traduce the King these Letters most necessary Animadversions to leavy Forces to maintain the Kings Forts Towns Magazines against Him I in His own name too as if they could derive that authority from Him that has no power according to your Ordinance to leavie them in His owne Defence though His Person is in never so apparent imminent danger yet they for His good and the good of the Kingdome can pretend to this power and beyond yet that all is not of that infallibility let Mr Pyms Letter from Sir John Hotham witnesse with me I have committed these few Observations to the view of the Publique finding so many bold Pamphlets
with so high impudence fly at the Face of Majesty unreproved and every corner stinks of this uncleane Doctrine yet since it is come to this height that we must declare our selves or loose our King wherin my purpose failes my life shall make good to my last breath but if Religion Reason and Law had not warranted so just a cause I should never have adventured to cleare a glasse to so foule a countenance yet before I conclude let mee propose one question in Religion Whether the Church was not in it's purity in the Primitive times the World agrees they had in those dayes a King that was no Christian Whether Christ had not more power then ever any can or dare pretend to since to eclipse that Regall Dignity if it had beene destructive to the Church yet hee refused the lowest office of a Magistrate But gave to Caesar the things that were His for when the young man came to him and said Lord command my brother that he divide the Inheritance with mee He replyes Who made mee a Ruler or a judge amongst you But now that we having a Christian King professing by His unblemisht Life the same way to salvation with us protesting to conserve our Liberties with His Life to make such an apparant difference which may be the occasion of the effusion of so much Christian Bloud upon meere Jealousies will be the most unheard of disloyalty that can be committed to future Ages WILTSHIRE'S Resolution presented with the Contributions of divers Gentlemen to His MAjESTIES Commissioners at OXFORD FOrasmuch as we whose names are hereto subscribed having taken the late Protestation recommended unto this Kingdome in generall according to the direction of both Houses of Parliament with His Majesties consent whereby wee hold our selves most especially bound and engaged to defend and maintaine with our lives and fortunes according to our utmost abilities the Protestant Religion established by authority of divers past Parliaments since the Reformation and also His Majesties Royall Person and Prerogative the just and ancient Priviledges of Parliaments the Lawes of this Land and the Liberty of the Subject And whereas it is evident unto us that at this present by the malitious practises of some dangerous spirits the Protestant Religion hath received manifest detriment by calumniating discountenancing and imprisoning divers painfull reverend and orthodoxe Divines as namely Dr Featley Dr Oldsworth Mr Shute of London and many other men of approved soundnesse in Doctrine and unspotted integrity in their lives and conversations and almost in all places obtruding anabaptisticall Brownisticall and Schismaticall Teachers of falshood and rebellion to the dishonour of God and scandall of the Pulpit abused nowadayes to seduce us from the Loyalty and piety which made our Fore-fathers and our selves formerly happy and to engage us in a Civill warre one against another The much and much worthy to be reverenced Liturgie and Common Prayer of our Church growne infamous and a reproach to those that use it and all possible endeavour used utterly to expunge it And having beene bold with God in his worship no wonder if they proceed to the injury of his Vicegerent our most Gracious Soveraigne who opposing as much as in him lay those and other unjust and illegall proceedings was by their subriltie rendred suspected to His Subjects of inclining to Popery and many other matters equally false that under such hatefull jealousies He might by degrees become lesse beloved of His Subjects and they brought into the condition they are at this time in open warre against him wherein lest they should relent they are made beleeve it is for the safety and defence of His Person the most absurd gullery that ever was put upon a Nation And as the KING did not alone dislike these injuries done to God and Himselfe so neither alone does Hee suffer for with him most of the most Learned and judicious Members of both Houses whose Noblenesse Honour Vertues Piety Religion and cleare understandings made them declare themselves averse to the present course of the times have beene either imprisoned or stigmatized with the brand of Traytors and Papists or at the least malignants and Prelatists these and such like have beene all the Priviledges of Parliaments allowed the Worthies of our times and worse is hatching for them if the Divine providence preserve them not Are our ancient Lawes in any better condition or seeme they not as dead as their prudent contrivers do not new borne Votes supply their roome and new borne miseries attend them the KING his Wife and Children voted forcibly kept out of all that is due to them wee are required to be assisting hereto if not we shall be voted to be plundered our goods and estates sequestred and all this is pretended to be for the Liberty of the Subject we have liberty indeed to give but no liberty to deny and we must give not as we know we are able but as they think fit and this they have the impudence to publish These things being taken into our serious consideration and the times now requiring us to declare our selves since we can no longer be at peace first condoling the generall calamity of our selves and Ireland we professe to all the world that we cannot see or find any other lawfull way to free us from the distresses we are in then by our best assistance of His Sacred Majestie against all that shall oppose Him in an assured confidence that His purpose is as He hath declared and no other than to maintaine and establish the Protestant Religion as it hath beene in authority use in this Kingdome ever since Edward the sixth likewise His own just and true prerogative and inheritance derived unto Him from His Ancestours Kings and Queens of England and also the rights and priviledges of Parliaments that have beene alway justly due to them to whom we conceive His Majesty ought especially to hearken as hath beene the custome of his Royall Predecessours they seeking in all humility His assent to their debates and resolutions by reason not by force and also the ancient Lawes of this Kingdome and all other Acts of Parliament ratified by the Kings consent And lastly the Liberty and Property of the Subject Hereto we hold our selves bound by Conscience and vow to God Loyalty to our King and duty to our Country and so God prosper us as wee shall be assisting to His Majestie in the accomplishment of all this His MAJESTIES Letter to both Houses of PARLIAMENT the 20th of Ianuary 1641. HIS Majesty perceiving the manifold distractions which now are in this Kingdome which cannot but bring great inconvenience and mischief to this whole Government In which as His Majesty is most chiefly interessed so Hee holds himselfe by many reasons most obliged to do what in Him lies for the preventing thereof Though He might justly expect as most proper for the duty of Subjects that propositions for the remedies of these evils ought rather to come to Him then from him yet His Fatherly care of all His people being such that He will rather lay by any particular respect of his owne dignity then that any time should be lost for prevention of these threatning evils which cannot admit the delaies of the ordinary proceedings in Parliament doth thinke fit to make these ensuing propositions to both Houses of Parliament That they will with all speed fall into serious consideration of all those particulars which they shall hold necessary as well for the upholding and maintaining of His Majesties just and Legall Authority and for the settling of His Revenue as for the present and future establishing of their priviledges the free and quiet enjoying of their Estates and Fortunes the liberties of their Persons the security of the true Religion now professed in the Church of England and the settling of Ceremonies in such a manner as may take away all just offence which when they shall have digested and composed into one entire body that so His Majestie and themselves may be able to make the more cleare judgement of them it shall then appeare by what His Majesty shall do how farre He hath beene from intending or designing any of those things which the too great feares and jealousies of some persons seeme to apprehend And how ready Hee will be to equall and exceed the greatest examples of the most indulgent Princes in their Acts of Grace and Favour to their people So that if all these present distractions which so apparently threaten the ruine of this Kingdome do not by the blessing of Almighty God end in an happy and blessed Accommodation His Majesty will then be ready to call Heaven and Earth God and Man to witnesse that it hath not failed on His part FINIS