A DISCOURSE VPON THE QVESTIONS In debate between the KING AND PARLIAMENT HAving been a by-stander and observing so well as I could how this great game hath beene played on both hands between the King and Parliament I have wondred to find considering the Declarations on both parts that with great expence of time and money they have made a shift to argue themselves into a Civill warre And the wonder is no lesse to heare the varietie of opinions some asserting his Majesties proceedings some the Parliaments and some affirming that the thing in variance belongs to neither divided from the other for say they it is but who shall rule Arbitrarily in cases to which the Law hath not fully or not at all extended which the King cals his Prerogative the Parliament as matters now stand theirs To take the better view of the present differences looke a little way backe upon the actions of precedent times It hath been the generall beliefe of this Nation upon what reason I cannot judge that the designe of his Majesties late Father King Iames was to wynde up this Government to the height of France the better to hold correspondence with forraigne Princes whose power increasing their riches and both together their reputation it was a shame to be left behind but finding the times averse and being the best Astrologer in the world what the successe should be of his owne Actions he betooke himselfe to the satisfactions of his age which he could acquire and left the complement of this to his Majestie that now is in whose person were concurrent a title indubitable settled by a succession and the activitie and glory that is inseparable to youth and the fresh assumption to the Throne of three Kingdomes The first dissolved Parliament to stumble at the first step seem'd ominous to some others tooke it for a tryall and in pursuance of the designe And the rather for that his Majesties Protestations to governe by the Lawes and his late answer to the petition of Right not withstanding the exaction of Loane money immediately following the erection of Monopolies and the forcible taking of the Subsidie of Tunnage and Poundage begate an universall diffidence in the people of his Majesties personall promises and an opinion that his best resolutions were easily overthrowne by the counsell of others and so consequently that his Actions were not his owne which opinion true or false when ever it got beliefe hath proved fatall to the Princes or to the people of this Kingdome For the Nation hath hated to be governed by many Viceroyes and resents no insolencies in their Princes so much as defects rapes murthers and particular depredations being more tollerable when the vertues of the Kingly office have a happie influence and latitude upon the whole bodie of the Common-wealth And yet to speake a truth the same argument that aggravates the violations in Government may be a reasonable excuse for his Majestie and the same that the reverence of the English Nation to their Princes hath ever used those acts of iniustice were not the Kings but his Ministers for what other opinion could the King retaine then what the Iudges delivered for Law and the Divines for Gospel for these had made a generall definition of a King and applyed it to all Princes and those had made a generall day of iudgement upon all the Lawes and subdued them to the will and pleasure of those Princes and being mindfull of their owne interest and how much it concerned them to make that King absolute whom they had hope absolutely to rule they would needs make a King by the Standerd out of Gods Word that his Subiects might be slaves for Conscience sake And by examples taken from the Kingdome of the Iewes they invested him with power essentiall to his Office to use at pleasure the persons or estates of his subiects of a divine institution incomprehensible by lawes if necessitie require a variation and under heaven no other Iudge of that necessitie besides himselfe And having placed him in the ranke of Gods gave him the like Election to governe the world by second causes the fit officers of nature or by miracles and wonders effects of his immediate interposition by the grand Councels Iudges and inferiour Ministers of the Lawes or by Patents with non obstantes Proclamations and a divine Prerogative But to say a truth his Maiestie hath of late admitted a better information of this manner of Government And hath given many Assurances by Protestation to innovate nothing yet this satisfies not and the reason would be examined As also what those difficult questions are whereof the sword must needs make the resolution The ill satisfaction the people receive notwithstanding the Kings mightie Protestations to govern by the Lawes to defend the Protestant Religion Priviledges of Parliament c. springs out of this Iealousie that if it come into his Maiesties power to doe otherwise he will do so For who can thinke say they having the same maximes in his mind and the same councell in his eare that he hath had that he will doe otherwise then he hath done That he will after the ruine of this Parliament refuse the fruition of that which hath cost so much labour when the danger is passed who will beleeve he will have recourse for ayde and advice to Parliaments when he shall remember to what sad exigents he hath been reduced by them whereof that himselfe was any part of the cause shall be hid from his eyes how averse they are in their composition from the Genius of the Court how apt to be misse-led by a few how unfit councellours in matters out of their usuall cognizance wanting abilities to advise and modestie to be silent how slow and lingering the remedies are for the maladies of the Common-wealth who will not thinke how much better it is for the King if he can to satisfie the people upon the word of a King on the word of a Gentleman that their grievances shall be remedied as well without a Parliament who will not beleeve he will rather chuse to be the father of a Militia of his owne who receiving their livelihood out of his Coffers shall help to fill them by whose hands he shall have power to mow the fertill meadowes of Britain as often in a Summer as he pleaseth And what shall hinder the Law no there shall be the same imminent necessitie that was pretended before and there shall not want both Divines and Lawyers that shall say the King and his private Councell are sole Iudges of that necessitie shall the Kings Promises and Protestations hinder I cannot tell it may be so I wish the people of this Kingdome had such confidence in his Maiesties personall promises but if the King cannot himselfe tell if no King not private man can tell how his Councels and resolutions may change when the state and condition wherein he made them is changed if humane nature easily relapse to those
things that it loves and if the resumption of such illegall power suggest not onely the sweetnesse of riches and Dominion but by false arguments comes apparelled with necessitie of the kingdomes preservation I know not whether naked words subiect to so much varietie of construction will be of force to resist so great temptation Hazael being but a private person thought himselfe much injur'd when the Prophet made that cruell Character of his future behaviour Am I a dog yet he was so dogged and few perhaps that knew him would ever have thought it Therefore if his Majestie will have those promises beleev'd let him not apparantly go about to place himselfe in such a condition that he may breake them at his pleasure I know the Allegations for the manner of his Majesties present proceedings are first the just vindication of his royall Prerogative whereof it is pretended violation hath been made to the prejudice of himselfe and the people and wherewith he is trusted by God which trust he may not desert for Gods sake his owne and the peoples For the Prerogative of Princes so much talked of and so little knowne it may in briefe be said That all Princes have gain'd Dominion by force or by bargaine For to say that Adam if he had lived to this time had been King of the whole world and therefore the King is first in order before the people his naturall Vassals and production is an Assertion invented to flatter Princes for all men know that the multiplication of Colonies in Regions farre distant from the first roots of Nations must impell the necessitie of erecting many independent governments and the necessitie will be as great for the independencie as for the multiplicitie therefore by force or by contract they must commence Dominion got by force is kept by force and styl'd Tyrannie or else it dissolves into Governement by contract and so takes a lawfull forme Therefore of the nature and latitude of the Prerogative that rests in the hands of a Prince that comes in by agreement with the people is the now dispute It may be defined thus A power to see the Lawes put in execution and to doe that which is good for the people in cases to which the Lawes have not yet extended if there were no Lawes as perhaps there are not many in the first erection of a Monarchy but that all were trusted to the wisedome and goodnesse of the Prince yet by all the reason in the world the intendment of that trust was to enable him to doe good not to doe every thing Now where the Lawes are positive the Prerogative claimes no jurisdiction The corruptions of Princes and the extravagancies of the people occasioned Lawes for bounds and limits to both and it is a thing out of all question that the first contract would have left no Prerogative at all if all future needs and inconveniencies of the Government could at one entire view have been presented to the people but that being impossible the discretion of all commou-wealths meeting in their representative bodies have given a stop by Lawes to the progresse of any inconvenience as it hath been emergent His Maiestie complaines that he is divested of his legall prerogative That is he is denyed the power to execute the Lawes with his owne sence and exposition upon them And the Lords and Commons in Parliament pray to have reduced into a Law that Arbitrary power which he hath of custome exercised in things to which the Lawes doe not fully extend or to speake shorter they are not willing to trust him any longer with a power undefin'd which they have found imployed to their harme but desire to have it defined and limited that for the time to come it may be so no more And this they expect from his Maiestie as a dutie of his office to the people who if they are incapable of reason of state yet are not incompetent Judges of what is good for themselves unlesse we shall maintaine the Arguments of France in England and to the same end That the people are altogether ignorant of their own welfare That the King onely knowes it That it is best with an implicite faith to trust him and his Armie and Councell with the safetie of the Common-wealth and every mans life and estate That when France is free from feare of sorraigne enemies the subiects shall be discharged of the oppressions In the mean time to make himselfe and his Mamalukes formidable to his neighbour Princes he hath transformed millions of Christian soules into beasts reducing them backe to the Elements whereof they were made yet they must not complaine nor defend their Lawes and Liberties lest they seeme to resist Authoritie Nor supplicate the supreme Magistrate to governe according to right reason and the Lawes of the Kingdome lest they seeme wiser than their teachers to be short I hope it will never be so in England And if the English Parliament be at sometime mistaken as it is not to be presum'd that they will be yet they are not so much hurt by the inconvenience of that mistake untill the next Parliament rectifie as they are if they shall be disabled from all competencie to Iudge in matters tending to their owne welfare For the other branch of his Majesties Allegation that the streightning of his Prerogative is prejudiciall to the people It is true a Prince of high and magnanimous endowments cannot dispense with that libertie and the influence of his excellent personall vertues if he be too much bound up by the dead letter of the law for the actions of some have beene transcendent to all Lawes or Examples and pittie it had been that they should have been confined And indeed the people doe lose willingly of their liberties to such good Princes which proves unhappie to them when worse make a title to the same libertie by such Examples And there is no surer a signe of a weake Prince than to contest with the people upon these Presidents rather seeking Examples for his purpose amongst the actions of his Predecessours than desirous to be himselfe an Example to posteritie However those Princes that have surmounted all Lawes in their glorious actions have been very rare a festivall that comes but once a yeere which if it came every quarter yet a good constant diet were much better It is strange to find how defective some are in the right understanding of the Mysteries they professe what is it that a Prince would have that affects not glorious vindications and conquests upon forraigne enemies to live safely plentifully and beloved of his people to dye lamented rich and of a blessed memorie this is all that can accrue to the best of the sonnes of men And if Princes did not preferre their wils before their profit if they did not shame lesse to pick lockes pockets and their subiects purses than to say I thanke you if they did not chuse rather by force to iustifie iniustice rapine and
oppression than to have any actions of themselves or ministers called by such names doubtlesse in a short time they could not chuse but arrive at an almost absolute dominion For the arguments used to divert from honest accommodations with the people do not appeare to me that ever they were intertain'd by those Heroick Princes that have fill'd the stories of all ages with their high and excellent glories but by some of narrow and limited qualifications for government one argument is That if the same wayes of munificence and bountie by which some Princes have ingratiated themselves should for some descents of Princes be pursued the Crowne regall Authoritie and revenue would be destroyed and nothing left whereby to oblige the people or wherein to be liberall 'T is true indiscreet prosution hath consumed many Princes and that is indiscreet that is misimployed and lost it never avail'd that I have heard to the advancement of any nor doth it extend much further than the Kings chamber nor is it any Motive of affection in the people to heare that the King is liberall of his purse to his servants and Favourites A Princes bountie shines in a little spheare if compared with the peoples as his estate is small compared with the revenue of the whole Common-wealth His liberalitie cannot extend to all his subiects theirs may to him it is not that vertue that exalts him in the opinion of the people And yet it is a liberalitie but not consumptive to his estate nor destructive to his authoritie but accumulative to both Liberalitie of Justice whereof the impartiall distribution hath raysed princes into the ranke of Gods And I am verily perswaded if there should fall out to be so happie a race of Princes who deposing all particular interests should advance onely publique Justice and Utilitie The Armes traffique and tranquillitie of their people the honour industrie and spirit of the nations under their command that in a few descents they would become absolute and clearely acquitted from all obligation to Lawes or at least the execution would be so long intermitted that with much difficultie they would ever come in force and the restitution seeme as great an innovation as of late hath been thought of Lawes in force long-layed aside for want of use And in the times of such Princes we heare no talke of prerogative or libertie the one is surrendred to the will of the prince the other imployed to the advantage of the people and it is an infallible signe of great distempers in government when such disputes arise To conclude the Prerogative is a trust which because no Lawes are large enough to meet with all accedents resides of necessitie in the person or body politick where the Soveraignty resides And it is true the King is trusted by God with this Prerogative as al in authority are in their degree to discharge themselves piously towards him honestty to those under their command He is also trusted by his Subjects who do not say they may resume their power upon breach of trust but say they ought not to be denied when they desire those breaches to be repaired and better fortified for time to come and the trust exemplified into a law as occasion shall require Nor is it reasonable for any Prince in the world to say I have been trusted if I or my Ministers have not in these and these particulars well discharged that trust yet we wil be trusted still and you shall beleeve that matters shall be better hereafter What the priviledges of Parliament are is another great question if under that tearme be comprised the King the Lords and Commons the question may be better made what is not within the power and priviledge of Parliament for 't is on all hands confessed that the common-wealth may dispose of it selfe but if the King be divided from them what are then privlidges truly none at all if they cannot make a temporary provision to saue themselves without the Kings licence for take away safety and privledge is gon If they be safe yet if it be better knowne to their adversaries then themselves and that the continuance be at discretion and good pleasure of another if any be a more competent Judge of their safety then themselves they have no priviledge at all say what they will Nor can it possible be that both houses have power to preserve the body of the Kingdom which they represent if there not be an inherent essentiall and underived authority in that assembly to preserve it selfe t' is granted in the Princes minority absence or incapassitie to governe the power to preserve and provide for the state rests in the great counsell and their diligates doutlesse the case is the same if it be on like manner granted that the prince is divided from the body of his people by evill counsell to prove if the counsell be good or bad examine the legalitie it appeares in his Majesties expresses and that of most remarke is to declare law which being den ed to the g eat counsell musts needs be taken to reside in the King and his privie counsell To have the sole managing of the Armes of the Kingdome And upon misprision of treason to sequester Members of Parliament to tryall in inferior Courts If this counsell be legall t' is good If his Majestie were admitted the best Lawyer in the Kingdom Yet if the lawes of this Kingdom have reserved the exposition of themselves to the Law-makers and not to the King the advise to appropriate that power to himselfe is not good that they have done so presidents are not wanting where the Judges have humbly praid both houses to deliver their sence of a doubtfull law If these commissions of Array and breach of priviledges be declared illegal by them that have onely power to declare law in dubious cases then the advise by which they were done is not good yet concerning this scruple of declaring law It 's true the Parliament cannot declare that to be law which is not They cannot declare it to be the law of the land that my brother by a second venter shall inherit my land before my kinseman ten degrees off though that were great reason but they can declare that there rests no power by vertue of any trust in any person to convert the forces of the Kingdom to the destruction of it self And they may declare it Legall to stop the advenues and approches to such power if it be attempted His Majestie may array Arme and command his subiects against the French and Spaniard not therefore to fight one against another He may Array Arme and command them to suppresse Rebels so legally declared not therefore to oppresse the Parliament these are not very consequent to a reasonable man It is not strange nor are the examples rare to find how much Princes may be mistaken in their councellors friends and enemies for how hardly can that man be thought an enemie who studies nothing so much
as to enlarge the power and advance the profit of his Prince Yet the abundant services of some have more mischiefe to their Masters than forraign arms or combination ever could Was it not takē for good service to invent a new revenue of 200000. l. per annum to supply the wasted rents of the Crown And would not he have been esteemed rather a fool than no friend to the Kings profit that had advised to lay that down after it was once or twice paid Yet in his Majesties own Iudgement that tax had better never been And it had never been if the advise had never been And the advise had never been or not been pernitious If the King had received the same from the greater councel as he did then from the lesse I am of opinion though it rain not in Egypt yet the inundations of Nilus are caused by rayne in another region And the black Clouds that hung over Scotland and their troubled waters made them thinke it rained somewhere and provide for the storm for doubtlesse if the motion to absolute dominion and ruine of all lawes had not been so visible and swift in England as it was The new Service book had never brought so many thousands Scots over Tweed We may then conclude upon the whole matter That that physicke was not good that brought the body of the Common-wealth into so great distemper That the people though a moveable bodie like the Ocean yet never swell but when blown upon by intemperate windes That that councell which hath caused the King to stake his Crowne and the kingdomes their safetie now the third time That hath contested with the great Councell for precedencie in the Kings Judgement and hath obtained it That broke the last Parliament by the King and would breake this by the Kingdome Is not good for us nor for those discreet Gentlemen if they understood their own interest that labour so much to support it But that in every case wherein the generall state of the Kingdome is concerned the advise that the bodie of the Kingdome gives upon a view taken of it selfe is not only least erronious but by the Law not presum'd to erre Neither can the suggestions made against this Parliament indissoluble but by consent any way availe to countenance a forcible dissolution That they have too much handled the flowers of the Crowne those that adorne the person if not constitute the office of the King That they goe about to erect a new Aristocraticall Governement or rather a Tyrannicall of 5. or 600. That this Assembly is no Parliament his Majestie dissenting That the Major part of both Houses are gone to the King or have left the rest the remnant are a faction To the first it is answered before that those rights of the Crowne which are by the positive and expresse Lawes of the Land vested in the King to uses are not questioned except in case where it is manifest that the uses have been perverted And in that case no more is required but that the breaches be repaired and that the influences of his Majesties Government may be transmitted unto the people by better Mediums which is no prejudice to his Majestie unlesse he imagine that he ought not to grant it because it is desired That he is bound to relieve the people but not at the peoples request We will take it for granted that in any case it onely appertaines to our Soveraigne Lord the King to defend wearing of Armes The use of this power vested in his Majestie is for defence of himselfe and subjects and can have no other intendment by Law and reason but suppose by evill Councell that may be about a Prince by his owne unwise Election or Gods appointment when he gives Princes bad Councellours or people bad Princes for scourges to wanton and corrupted Nations this power is imployd to divide the Kingdome against it selfe one Faction sees this power lodged in the person of the Prince but never observes to what end so sides with him Another insist upon the end for which he was trusted and defend themselves by Arms Faction begets Civill warre Civill warre dissolves the present Government After followes a forraigne yoke if our neighbour Nations be not fast asleepe or otherwise imployed In this expectation and in the very minute when this imminent tempest is breaking upon our heads the representative bodie of the Kingdome prostrates it selfe at his Majesties feet and beseech him to change not the Government but a few subordinate Governours that he will shine upon his people through transparant and unblemished chrystall glasses not through Sanguine Murrey and Azure which make the Ayre and Objects beheld to seeme bloodie and blue Assuring him there is no other way to calme the Seas that begin to rage and to preserve from wrack the ship of the Common-wealth wherein his Majestie is himselfe imbarqued and is the greatest Adventurer Now come in the malignant Councellours and tell his Maiestie that these humble Supplications will if he yeeld to them turne to Iniunctions Ease them and doe them right say they but not at the request of Parliament Which is no lesse then to place him in a condition to doe what he shall thinke to be right That is what he shall be advised by them is right That is in many cases what ambition hatred covetousnesse luxurie lecherie suggest to be right That is flat tyrannie more absolute than the Turks For the Introduction of a new forme of Government the Arguments are that if the Parliament draw to it selfe the Jurisdiction of the maritime and land forces the power to name Councellours and Judges or prescribe a rule for their nomination To make Lawes for 't is all one if the King may not deny those that are presented to him by both Houses to perpetuate the sitting of this Parliament The Soveraigntie hath if these be allowed made no secret but a very apparant transition from the person of the King into the persons of the Parliament men The Subiects of this Kingdome have never had one Example of a Parliament that hath gone about to make themselves Lords over their brethren And if they would they cannot for when they forsake the dutie of their place and the interest of the Kingdome the Kingdome will forsake them and sometimes before which though the people have dearly repented yet it serves to prove that the subsistance of a Parliament is impossible if dominion or any other end be perceived then Reformation and preservation of the Common-wealth In the Minoritie and absence of former Kings opportunitie was farre more favourable for such a designe then at this present yet what prince was ever hurt by his infancie or absence when they were trusted both with his dignitie and revenue And 't is out of question if his Maiestie had been clearly concurrent with this Parliament for the punishment of Delinquents and conservation of the peace and Libertie of the Subiect they had never risen