shall doe shall be right Most of the Acts there recorded are not only repugnant to the Lawes of socrable Nature or just Rule which forbids One to have All and binds Printes themselves in chains of Reason but to the * Deuter. 17. v. 16 17 18 19. Law of God in another place which allowes not the King of his own chovce to Raigne as he list but assignes him the Law of Moses for his Rule From which as often as he broke loose he sinned like one of the People yet so as that upon any such breach of the Law 't was not left in the power of the People to correct him or to force him by a Warre like ours to returne back again to his duly His commission towards them if you marke it well 〈◊〉 in such an uncontroleable stile that his best Actions and his worst towards them wore the same warrant of Authority However therefore Regall power in the forementioned place of Samuel be called the manner of what a King would doe yet that Manner as I told you before carryed a Jus or power with it unquestionable by the Subject to doe if he pleased things unlawfull And hence 't is that the Prophet tells the Iews at the 18. verse of that Chapter That in the Day they found them selves opprest by their King they should cry out for redresse to the Lord As the only Arbiter and Iudge of the Deeds and Actions of Princes The Originall of Regall power as it took beginning from the People you have most lively exprest to you by S. Peter in the 13. v. of the 2. Chapter of his 1. Epist Where exhorting those to whom he wrote to order their Obedience according to the severall Orbes and Regions of power of the States wherein they lived he bids them submit themselves to every Ordinance of Man whether it be to the King as supreme or unto Governors as unto them who are sent by him c. In which words I shall desire you to observe First that Monarchy as well as other Formes of Government is there called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Human Creature or thing of Humane Creation From whence some such as your Friend who I perceive by his Arguments against Monarchy in your Letter hath read Iunius Brutus and Buchanan have inferred That as to avoid Disorder and Confusion people did at first paste over the Rule and Government of themselves to a Prince so the Prince being but an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Derivative from them doth still retain a Dependance on his first Creators And as in Nature 't is observed that waters naturally cannot rise higher then their Spring-head so Princes they say have their Spring head too Above which as often as they exalt themselves 't is in the power of the Fountain to recall it's streame and to bring it to a plaine and level with it selfe For though say they it be to be granted that a King thus chosen is Major singulis superiour to any One yet he is Minor vneversis Inferior to the whole Since all the Dignity and power which makes him shine before the People being but their Rayes contracted into his Body they cannot reasonably be presumed so to give them away from themselves as that in no case it shall be lawfull to call for them back againe For answer to which Opinion taken in by your Friend from his misunderstanding of that Text I will goe no farther then the place of Scripture on which 't is built where without any criticall strife about the signification of the Words I will grant that not only Monarchy which is the Government of a People by a Prince But Aristocracy which is the Government of a People by States Democracy which is the Government of the people by the people hath next and immediatly in all States but the Iewish been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Humane Creation But then that 't is not so purely humane as not to be of Gods Creation and Institution too is evident by the words next in Contexture where the Apostle bids them to whom he wrote to submit themselves to every such Ordinance of man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the Lords sake who by putting his Seâ—â—â— of Approbation foment 〈…〉 and chayâ—â— hath not only authorised a Humane 〈…〉 passe into a Divine Ordinance But towards it hath imprinted even in Nature it selfe such a Necessity of Government and of Superiority of one man over another that men without any other Teacher but their owne inbredde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which have alwayes whisper'd to them that Anarchy is the Mother of Confusion have naturally fallen into Kingdoms and Commonwealths And however such a state or condition of life under a Prince or Magistate be some thing 〈◊〉 free then not to be subject at all since mens Actions have hereby 〈…〉 the Wills of Superiours whose Lawes have been certaine chained and shackles clapt upon them yet a subjection with 〈◊〉 hath alwayes by wise men been preferr'd before Liberty with danger men have bin compelled to enter into those Ronds as the only way meanes to avoyd a greater Thraldome Since without such a subordination of one man to another to hold them together in just society the Times of the Nomades would return where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the weaker served only to be made a prey to the stronger The next thing which I shall desire you to observe from that Text is that the Kings though chosen and created by the People is there stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Supreame Now Sir you know that to be Supream is so to be over others as to have no Superiour above him That is to be so Judependently the Lord of his owne Actions of what sort soever whether uniust or just as not to be accountable to any but God If he were that other to whom he is accountable would be Supream not He. Since in all things wherein he is Questionable He is no longer the King or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there described 〈◊〉 but a more spacious Subject Whereupon will either follow this contradiction in Power That the same Person at the same Time may be a King and no King or we must admit of an Absurdity as great which is That a Supream may have a Supream which to grant were to cast our selves upon an Infinite progresse For that there must be a Non-ultra or Resolution of power either into one as in a perfect Monareby or into some Few as in the Government by a Senate or into the Maior part of the People joyning suffrages as in a pure Democracy All three Formes agreeing in this That some body must be Supream and unquestionable in their Actions the nature of Rule and Businesse and Government it selfe demonstrates to us Which would not else be able to obtaine it's ends or decide controversies otherwise undeterminable And however this power may sometimes be abused and strained beyond it's Just limits yet this not being the
fault of the power but of the Persons whose power 't is it makes much more for the Peace of the publique that one or Few should in some things be allowed to be unjust then that they should be liable to be Questioned by an Ill. Judgeing-Multitude in All. The third thing which you may please to observe from that peece of Scripture is The Creation of Magistrates or Governours who are there said to be sent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By Him Where a Moderne Writer applyes the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or By Him to God As if all other Governours were sent by Him not by the King Which Interpretation of the place I would admit for currant if by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Governours so sent he did understand the Rulers in an Aristocracie or Free-state which being a Species of Government Contradistinct to Monarchy cannot be denyed to have God as well as the other for it a Founder But then the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the peculiar Epithet of Monarchy will beare another sence then I have hitherto given it And will not only signifie the King to be Supream for so the Rulers of a Free State are within their owne Territories but compared with other Formes of Supremacy to be the most excellent Monarchy being in it selfe least subject to Disunion or civill Disturbance And for that Reason pronounced by the wisest Stateists to be that Forme of Government into which all other incline naturally to resolve themselves for their perfection But by Governours in that place understanding as he doth not the Senate in a Free-state but the Subordinate Magistrates under a Prince the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most certainly belongs to the King To whom the Apostle there assignes the Mission of Governours as one of the Essentiall Markes and Notes that He is in His owne Realm Supream And thus Sir having drawne the portraiture of Regall Power to you by the best Light in the world but with the meanest Pencill I know you expect that in the next place I should shew you what Rayes or Beames of this power are Jnherent in our King Which being a taske fitter for one of our greatest Sages of the Law then for me who being One who doe not pretend to any exact knowledg in the Fundamentall Lawes or Customes of this Kingdome which are to stand the Land-marks and markes of partition between the Kings Prerogative and the Liberty of the Subject may perhaps be thought by drawing a line or eircle about either to limne Figures in the Dust whose fate hangs on the Mercy of the next Winde that blowes the steps by which I will proceed leaving you to the late writings of that most learned and honest Judge Ienkins for your fuller satisfaction in this point shall be breifly these two First I will shew you what are the Genuine markes and properties of Supream power Next how many of them have been challenged by the King and have not hitherto been denyed Him by any Publique Declaration of the Parliament Sir if you have read Aristotles Politicks as I presume you have you may please to remember that he * there divides the Supream Powere of a State Lib. 4. c. 4. into three generall parts The Ordering of Things for the publique the Creation of Magistrates and the Finall resolution of Judgment upon Appeales To which he afterwards addes the power of Levying Warre or concluding of Peace of making or breaking Leagues with forraigne Nations of enacting or abrogating Lawes of Pardoning or Punishing Offenders with Banishment Confiscation Imprisonment or Death To which Dyonisius Halicarnassensis addes the power to call or dissolve Comitia or publique Assemblies As well Synods and Councells in Deliberations concerning Religion as Parliaments or Senates in Deliberations secular concerning the State To all which markes of Supreame power a * Moderne Lawyer who only wants their Age to be of as great Authority as either addes the power to exact Tribute Gret lib. 1. c. 3. de Jure Belli pacis and to presse Souldiers It the exercise of which two Acts consists that Dominium Eminens or Dominion Rara mount which the State when ever it stands in need And that too to be the Judge of its owne Necessity hath not only over the Fortunes but the Persons of the Subject In a measure so much greater then they have over themselves as the publique poole is to be preferr'd before the private Cisterne Now Sir if you please to apply this to the King though good Lawyers will tell you that the power of making or repealing Laws be not solely in Him but that the two Houses have a concurrent right in their production and Abolishment yet they will tell you too that His power extends thus farre that no Law can be made or repealed without Him Since for either or both Houses to produce a Statute Law by themselves hath alwaies in this State been thought a Birth as Monstrous as if a Child should be begotten by a Mother upon her selfe They usually are the Matrice and Womb where Lawes receive their first Impregnation and are shap't and formed for the publique But besides the opinion of all present Lawyers of this Kingdome who like that great * Judg Ienkins example of Loyalty dare speak their knowledge it hath alwaies been acknowledged by the Law made 2. H. 5. By the sentence of Refusall Le Roy S' Avisera and indeed by all Parliaments of former Ages That the King is thus farre Pater Patria that these Lawes are but abortive unlesse his Consent passe upon them A Negative power He hath then though not an out right Legislative And if it be here objected by your Friend that the two Houses severally have so too I shall perhaps grant it if in this particular they will be modest and content to go sharers in this Power And no longer challenge to their Ordinances the legality force of Acts of Parliament As for the other parts of Royalty which I reckoned up to you As the Creation of Officers and Counsellours of State of Iudges for Law and Commanders for Warre the Ordering of the Militia by Sea and Land The Benefit of Confiscations and Escheats where Families want an Heyre The power to absolve and pardon where the Law hath Condemned The power to call and disolve Parliaments As also the Receipt of Custome and Tribute with many other particulars which you are able to suggest to your selfe They have alwaies been held to be such undoubted Flowers of this Crowne that every one of them like his Coyne which you know Sir is by the Law of this Land Treason to counterfeit which is an other mark of Royalty hath in all Ages but Ours worne the Kings Image and superscription upon it Not to be invaded by any without the crime of Rebellion And though as your Friend saies this be but a regulated power and rise no higher in the just exercise of these Acts then a Trust committed by
the Lawes of this Kingdome for the Governement of it to the King for I never yet perceived by any of His Declarations That His Majesty claimed these as due to Him by Right of Conquest or any other of those Absolute and Vnlimited waies which might tender His Crowne Patrimoniall to Him or such an out-right Allodium that He mi ht Alienate it or chuse His Successour or Rule as He pleased Himselfe yet as in the making of these Lawes He holds the first place so none of these Rights which he derives from them can without His own Consent be taken from Him For proofe hereof I will only instance in three particulars to you for I must remember that I am now writing a Letter to you not penning a Treatise which will carry the greater force of perswasion because confest by this Parliament The first was an Act presented to the King for the setling of the Militia for a limited time in such Hands as they might confide in A clear Argument that without such an Act past by the King the two Houses had nothing to do with the Ordering of it Another was one of the Nineteen Propofitions where t was desired that the Nomination of all Officers and Counsellours of State might for the future go by the Maior part of Voyces of both Houses Another Argument That the King hath hitherto in all such Nominations been the only Fountaine of Honour The third was the passing of the Act for the Continuation of this Parliament Another Argument that nothing but the Kings consent could ever have made it thus Perpetuall as it is Many other Instances might be given but foundoubtedly acknowledged by Bracton By Him that wrote the Book call'd The Prerogative of Parliaments who is thought to be Sir Walter Raleigh By Sir Edward Cooke by the stiles and Formes of all the Acts of Parliament which have been made in this Kingdom and by that learned * Sir Iohn Banks Iudge who wrote the Examination of such particulars in the Solemne League and Covenant as concerne the Law And who in a continued Line of Quotation and Proofe derives along these and the other parts of Supreme power in the King from Edward the Confessour to our present Soveraigne King Charles that to prove them to you were to adde beames to the Sunne Here then For the better stating of the Third thing I pro osed to you which was That granting the King to be Supreme in this Kingdome at least so farre as I have described him how farre He is to be Obeyed and not resisted Two things will fall under Inquiry First supposing the King not to have kept Himselfe to that Circle of power which the Lawes have drawn about Him but desirous to walke in a more Absolute compasse That He hath in somethings invaded the Liberty of his People whither such an Jncroachment can justifie their Armes Next If it be proved that He hath kept within his Life and only made the Law the Rule of His Governement whether a bare Fear or Iealousie That when ever he should be able He would change this Rule which is the most that can be pretended could be a Just cause for an Anticipating Warre The Decision of the first of these Inquiries will depend wholly upon the Tenure by which he holds His Crowne If it were puerly Elective or were at first set upon His Head by the Suffrages of the people And if in that Election His power had been limited Or if by way of paction it had been said Thus farre the King shall be Supreme thus farre the people shall be Free If there had been certaine Expresse conditions assigned Him with his Scepter that if he transgrest not his limites He should be Obeyed if He did it should be lawfull for the people to resist Him Lastly if to hinder such Exorbitances there had been certaine Ephori or Inspectours or a Co-ordinate Senate placed as Mounds and Cliffes about Him with warrant from the Electours that when ever he should attempt to overflow his Bankes it should be their part to reinforce Him back into his Channell I must confesse to you being no better then a Duke of Venice or a King of Sparta In truth no King but a more splendid Subject I think such a Resistance might be Lawfull Since such a Conveyance of Empire being but a conditionall contract as in all other Elections the chusers may reserve to themselves or give away so much of their Liberty as they please And where the part reserved is invaded 'T is no Rebellion to defend But where the Crowne is not Elective but hath so Hereditarily descended in an ancient line of succession from King to King that to finde out the Originall of it would be a taske as difficult as to find out the Head of Nilus where the Tenure is not conditionall nor hangs upon any contract made at first with the people nor is such a reciprocall Creature of their Breath as to be blowne from them and recalled like the fleeting Ayre they draw as often as they shall say it returnes to them worse then as first they sent it forth In short Sir Where the only Obligation or Tye upon the Prince is the Oath which He takes at his Ceronation to rule according to the knowne Lawes of the place Though every Breach of such an Oath be an Offence against God to whom alone a Prince thus independent is accountable for his Actions yet 't will never passe for more then perjury in the Prince No Warrant for Subiects to take up Armes against Him Here then Sir should I suppose the worst that can be supposed that there was a time when the King misled as your Friend sayes by Evill Counsellours did actually trample upon the Lawes of the Kingdome and the Liberty of his Subiects derived to them by those Lawes yet unlesse some Originall compact can be produced where 't is agreed That upon every such Incroachment it shall be lawfull for them to stand upon their Defence unlesse some Fundamentall Contract can be shewen where 't is clearely said that where the King ceaseth to governe according to Law He shall for such misgovernment cease to be King To urge as your Friend doth such vnfortunate precedents as a Deposed Richard or a Dethroned Edward Two disproportion'd examples of popular Fury The one forced to part with his Crowne by Resignation the other as never having had legall Title to it may shew the Iniustice of former Parliaments growne strong never justifie the Pitcht-feilds which have been fought by this Since If this supposition were true the King being bound to make the Law His Rule by no other Obligation but His Oath at His Coronation Then which there cannot be a greater I confesse and where 't is violated never without Repentance scapes vnpunish't yet 't is a trespasse of which Subiects can only complaine but as long as they are Subiects can never innocently revenge But this all this while Sir is but
only supposition And you now Sir what the Logician saies suppositie nihil pâ—nit in esse what ever may be supposed is not presently true If Calumny her selfe would turne Informer let her leave out Ship-money a greivance which being fairely laid a fleepe by an Act of Parliament deserved not to be awakened to beare a part in the present Tragedy of this almost ruined Kingdome she must confesse that the King through the whole course of His Raigne was so farre from the Invasion of His Subjects Rights that no King of England before Him unlesse it were Henry the first and King Iohn whom being Vsurpers it concern'd to comply with the People the one having supplanted his Eldest Brother Robers Duke of Normandy the other his Nephew Arthur Prince of Britaine ever imparted to them so many Rights of his owne To that Degree of Infranchisment that I may almost say He exchanged Liberties with them Witnesse the Petition of Right An Act of such Royall Grace that when He past that Bill He almost dealt with His people as Traian did with the Pratorian praefect put his sword into their Hands and bid them use it for Him if he ruled well if not against Him In short Sir Magna Charta was a Vine I confesse cast over the People but this Act enabled them to call the shade of it their owne An Act which if your friend will please to forget Ship mony being in no one particular violated so farre as to be instanced in by those whose present Ingagements would never suffer such Breaches of Priviledge to passe unclamour'd will oblige posterity to be gratefull as often as they remember themselves to be Freemen This then being so the next inquiry will be whether a bare Jealousy that the King would in time have recalled this Grace and would have invaded the Liberty of his Subjects by the change of the Fundamentall Lawes could be a just cause for such a preventive Warre as this To which I answere that such a Faire though built upon strong presumptions cannot possibly be a just cause for one Nation to make Warre upon another much lesse for Subjects to make Warre against their Prince The Reason is because nothing can legitimate such a Warre but either an Injury already offered or so visibly imminent that it may passe for the first Dart or Speare hurled Where the Injury or Invasion is only contingent and conjecturall and wrapt up in the wombe of darke Counsells no way discoverable but by their own revelation of themselves in some outward Acts of Hostility or usurpation to anticipate is to be first injurious and every Act of prevention which hath only Iealousie for its foundation will adde new justice to the enemies Cause who as He cannot in reason be pronounced guilty of anothers Feares so he will come into the Field with this great advantage on his side That his reall wrong will joyne Battle with the others weake suspition But alas Sir Time the best interpreter of Mens Intentions hath at length unsee'ld our eyes and taught us that this hath been a Warre of a quite opposite Nature The Gentleman who wrote the Defence of M. Chaloners Speech and M. Chaloner himselfe if you marke his Speech well will tell you that the quarrell hath not been whether the subject of England shall be Free but whether this Freedome shall not consist in being no longer Subject to the King If you marke Sir How the face of things hath alter'd with successe How the scene of things is shifted And in what a New stile they who called themselves the Invaded have spoken ever since their Victories have secured them against the power of any that shall invade If you consider what a politick use hath been made of those words of Inchantment Law Liberty and Propriety of the Subject by which the People have been musically enticed into their Thraldome If you yet farther consider the more then Decemvirall power which this Parliament hath assumed to it selfe by repealing old Lawes and making Ordinances passe for new If you yet farther will please to consider How much Heavyer that which some call Priviledge of Parliament hath been to the Subject then that which they so much complained of The Kings Prerogative so much heavyer that if one deserved to be called a Little finger the other hath swolne it selfe into a Loyne Lastly if you compare Ship mony with the Excise and the many other Taxes laid upon the Kingdome you will not onely find that a whippe then hath been heightned into a Scorpion now but you will perceive that as these are not the first Subjects who under pretence of Liberty have invaded their Princes Crowne so farre as the Cleaving of Him asunder by a State Distinction which separates the Power of the King from his Person so ours as long as he was able to lead an Army into the Field hath been the first King that ever took up Armes for the Liberty of his Subjects Vpon all which premises Sir I hope you will not think it false Logicke if I build this Conclusion so agreeable to the Lawes of the Kingdome as well as the Lawes of God That supoosing the Parliament all this while to have fought as was at first pretended for the Defence of their assayled Liberty yet fighting against the King whose Subjects they are it can never before a Christian Judge make their Armies passe for just But being no way necessitated to make such a Defence their Liberty having in no one particular been assaulted which hath not been redrest if S. Paul were now on earth againe and were the Iudge of this Controversy between them and their Lawfull Soveraigne I feare he would call their Defence by a Name which we in our Moderne Cases of Conscience doe call Rebellion And thus Sir having as compendiously as the Lawes of a Letter will permit given you I hope some satisfaction concerning the first part of your zealous Friends dispute with you which was whether the Two Houses which he calls the Parliament have not a Legall power in Defence of their Liberty to take up Armes against the King I will with the like brevity proceed as well as I can to give you satisfaction in the second part of his Dispute also which was whether Religion may not be a just Cause for a Warre The Termes of which Question being very generall and not restrained to any kind of Religion or any kind of Warre whether offensive or defensive or whether of one Nation against another or of a Prince against his Subjects or of the Subjects back again against their Prince allow me a very large space to walk in In which least I be thought to wander and not to prove It will first be necessary that I define to you what Religion in generall is And next that I examine whether every Religion which falls within the Truth of that Definition may for the propagation of it selfe be a just cause of a Warre and so
then we every one secure under the shade of his own Vine perhaps a grape or two extraordinary was gathered for the publique But if any did refuse to contribute I doe not find that like Naboth they were stoned for their Vineyard If therefore the Gentleman your friend understand Liberty in this sense the most he can say for the Parliament is that they have taken up Armes against their King not because he was but because he possibly might be a Tyrant Which feare of theirs being in it selfe altogether unreasonable and therefore not to be satisfied could not but naturally endeavour as we find by sad experience it hath done to secure it selfe by removing out right the formidable Object which caused it which being not to be done but by the Removall of Monarchicall Government it selfe could not but cast them at length upon a new forme of State or such a confusion or no Forme of state as we see hath almost drawn ruine upon themselves and their Countrey Once more therefore I must aske your Friend what he meanes by Liberty I hope he doth not mean an Exemption from all Government Nor is fallen upon their wilde Opinion who held that there ought to be no Magistrate or superior among Christians But that in a freedom of condition we are to live together like men standing in a Ring or Circle where Roundnesse takes away Distinction and Order And where every one beginning and ending the Circle as none is before so none is after another This Opinion as 't would quickly reduce the House of Lords to the House of Commons so 't would in time reduce the House of Commons to the same levell with the Common people who being once taught that Inequality is unlawfull would quickly be made Docile in the entertainment of the other Arguments upon which the Anabaptists did heretofore set all Germany in a flame Namely that Christ hath not only bequeathed to Men the liberty of his Gospell but that this liberty consists in one not being greater then another It being an Oracle in Nature that we are all borne Equall That these words of Higher and Lower Superiour and Inferiour are fitter for Hills and Vales then for men of a Kind That the names also of Prince and Subject Magistrate and People Governours and Governed are but so many stiles Vsurpe Since in Nature for one Man to be borne Subiect to another is as much against Kinde as if men should come into the World with chaines about them or as if Women should bring forth Children with Gyves and shakles on Which Doctrine as 't would naturally tend to a Parity so that Parity would as naturally end in a Confusion Lastly therefore I will understand your Friend in the most favourable sence I can That by the Parliaments defence of the Peoples Liberty he meanes the maintenance of some Eminent Rights belonging to the Subiect which being in manifest danger to be invaded and taken from them could not possibly be preserved but by Armes taken up against the invader But then granting this to be true as I shall in fit place shew it to be false yet the King being this invader unlesse by such an Jnvasion He could cease to be their King or they to be his subiects I cannot see how such Rights could make their Defence lawfull For the clearer Demonstration of this I shall desire you Sir not to think it a digression in me if I deduce things some what higher then I at first intended or then your Letter requires me Or if to cure the streame I take the Prophets course and cast salt into the spring And examine first How farre the Power of a King who is truly a King and not one only in Name extends it selfe over Subjects Next whether any such Power doe belong to our King Thirdly if there doe How farre 't is to be obeyed and not resisted As for the first you shall in the Scripture Sir find two Originalls of Kings One immediatly springing from the Election and choice of God himselfe The other from the choice and election of the People But so as that it resolves it selfe into a Divine Institution The History of Regall power as it took Originall from God himselfe is set downe at large in the eight Chapter of the first Book of Samuel where when the Israelites weary of the Government by Judges who had the same power that the Dictators had at Rome and differ'd nothing from the most absolute Monarchs but only in their Name and the temporary use of their power required of Samuel to set a King over them God bid him hearken to their voyce But withall * v. 9. Solemnly to protest and shew them the manner or as one translates it more to the mind of the Originall Jâ—â— Regis the Right or power of the King that should raigne over them That he would take their sonnes appoint them for his Charets And their Daughters to be Confectionaries and Cookes for his Kitchin That he would also take their fields their Vine-yards and their Olive-yards even the best of them and give them to his Officers Lastly That he would take the Tenth of their seed and sheepe And yee saies the Prophet which is a very characteristicall marke of subjection * v. 17. shall be his servants All which particulars with many others there specified which I forbeare to repeat to you because they rise but to the same height may in other termes be briefly summed up into these 〈◊〉 Generalls That the Jews by requiring a King to be set over them such a King as was to Raigne over them like the Kings of other * V. 5. Nations divested themselves of two of the greatest Immunities which can belong to Freemen Liberty of person and propriety of Estates And both these in such an unlimited measure as left them not power if their Prince pleased to call either themselves or Children or any thing else their owne To this if either you or your friend shall reply that this was but a Propheticall Character of Saul and a meere prediction to the people what He made King would doe noe true Draught of his Commission what He in Iustice might since a Prince who shall assume to Himselfe the exercise of such a boundlesse power doth but verify the Fable a Stork set over a Commonwealth of Froggs They to be his prey not He to be their King To the first I answer negatively That what is said in the fore-mentioned Chapter by Samuel cannot be meant only of Saul since nothing is there said to confine the description to this Raigne Nor doth any part of his History charge him with such a Government Next I shall grant you that no Prince ruling by the strict Lawes of naturall-equity or Justice can exercise all the Acts of power there mentioned Nor can his being a King so legitimate all his Actions or so outright exempt him from the common condition of men that what ever he
Conduct under Sir Thomas Fairefax be of this perswasion thus stated I shall not think it any slander from the Mouth of a Presbiterian who thinks otherwise to be called an Judependent If a Prince who is confessedly a Prince and hath Supreme power make Warre upon his Subjects for the propagation of Religion the Nature of the Defence is much alter'd For though sucha Warre whether made for the Imposition of a false Religion or a true be as uniust as if 't were made upon a forreigne Nation yet this injustice in the Prince cannot warrant the taking up of Armes against Him in the Subject Because being the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Supreme within his own Kingdome As all power concerning the publick secular Government of it resolveait selfe into Him so doth the ordering of the Outward exercise of Religion too In both Cases he is the Judge of Controversies Not so unerring or Infallible as that all his Determinations must be received for Oracles or that his Subjects are so obliged to be of his Religion that if the Prince be an Idolater a Mahumetan or Papist 't would be disobedience in them not to be so too But let his Religion be what it will let him be a Ieroboam or one of such an unreasonable Idolatry as to command his people to worship Calves and Burn Incense to Gods scarce fit to be made the Sacrifice Though he be not to be obeyed yet he is not to be resisted Since such a Resistance would not only change the Relation of inequality and Distance between the Prince and People and so destroy the Supremacy here given him by S. Peter but 't would actually enter duell with the Ordinance of God which ceaseth not to be sacred as often as 't is wickedly imployed Irresistibility being a Ray and Beame of the Divine Image which resides in the Function not in the Religion of the Prince Who may for his Person perhaps be a Caligula or Nere yet in his Office still remaine Gods Deputy and Vicegerent And therefore to be obeyed even in his unjust commands though not actively by our compliance yet passively by our sufferings This Doctrins as 't is agreeable to the Scripture and the practice of the purest and most primitive times of the Church so I finde it illustrated by the famous example of a Christian Souldier and the censure of a Father upon the paslage This Souldier being bid to burne Inconse to an Idoll rcfused But yeelded himselfe to be cast into the fire Had he when his Emperour bid him worship an Idoll mutinied or turn'd his speare upon him saies that Father he bad broken the fift Commandement in defence of the second But submitting his Body to be burnt the only thing in him which could be compelled in stead of committing Idolatry he became himselfe a Sacrifice I could Sir second this with many other Examples but they would all tend to this one pious Christian Result that Martyrdome is to be presetred before Rebellion Here then if I should suppose your Presbyterian Friends charge to be true a very heavy one I confesle that the King miscounselled by a Prelaticall Court Faction when he first Marcht into the field against the Armies raised by the two Houses of Parliament had an intent to subvert the Protestant Religion and to plant the Religion of the Church of Rome in it's stead yet unlesse he can prove to me that from that time he actually ceast to be King or the two Houses to be his Subjects or notwithstanding their two Oathes of Supremacy and Alleageance that in so doing he forfeited his Crowne and was no longer over all persons and in all Causes as well Civill as Ecclesiasticall within the circuit of his three Kingdomes supreame Head and Governour I know no Armes which could lawfully be used against Him but those which S. Ambrose used against an Arian Emperour Lachrymas Suspiriâ— Sighes Tears and Prayers to God to turne his heart And therefore Sir when your Friond doth next aske you How it could stand with the safe conscience of any English Protestant to stand an idle spectator whilst Queen Marus daies were so ready to break in upon him that He was almost reduced to this hard choyce either to follow the Times in the new â—rected fashion of Religion or live in danger of the stake and Faggot if he persisted in the old you may please to let him know from me That as I have no unruly Thirst or irregular Ambition in me to dye a Martyr Nor am so much a Circumcelleo as to court or wooe or in case it fled from me enthusiastically to call upon me my own Death and Execution So if it had been my Let to live in the fiery times He speaks of when a Protestant was put to death for an Heretick as I should not have quarreld with the Pawer that condemned me so I should have kist my funerall pile And should have thought it a high peece of Gods favour to me to call me to Heaven by a way so like that of his Angell in the Book of * c. 13.20 Judges who ascended thither in the Flame and aire and persume of a Sacrifies But what if this be only a Jealousie and suspition in your Friend Nay what if it have been the Disguise and paint to some Ambitious mens designes who to walke the more securely to their darke and politick ends have stiled themselves the Defendours when they have all this while been the Invadors And have called the King the subverter who hath all this while to his power been the Defender of this Religion This certainly if it be proved will very much Inflame and aggravate their sinne and dye it in a deep scarlet through all the progresse of it But because I rather desire to cast a mantle over their strange proceedings then to adde to their Nakednesse which hath at length discover'd it selfe to all the World all that I shall say to deliver so much Goodnesse from so much misrepresentation is this That the report which at first poyson'd the mindes of so many Thousand well minded people That the King had an intent by this warre to destroy the Protestant Religion could at most have no other parent but some mens either crafty Malice or needlesse Feare appears clearly in this that after all their great Discoveries they have not yet instanced in one considerable Ground fit to build more then a vulgar Jealousy upon The Kings affection to the Queene His Alliance and confederacy with Popish Princes abroad and the Gentlenesse of his Raigne towards his Popish Subjects at home being premises as unfit to build this Inference and conclusion upon that Therefore He took up Armes that he might introduce their Religion as his in Aristotle were who because it lightued when Socrates took the Ayre thought that his walking caused that commotion in the skyes For that the Root and Spring of such a report could be nothing but their own