or in case he will not heare we may use the weapons of the Church Preces lachrymas we may complaine to God who is above the King and the sole Moderator betwixt Him and Subjects but we must obey and remember that such commands are the Governours sinne but our punishment Indeed if the Governour command the Subject to doe that which the Law of God forbids him to do he must not yeild active obedience but obey God rather than men But yet he must not resist by taking up Armes or the like but patiently submit to suffer the punishment Otherwise I pray you resolve me why the three children yeilded their bodies to the furnace when Nebuchadnezzar commanded them against the Law of God to worship the golden Image if they had held it lawfull to resist they might as well have looked for assistance from Heaven to have made good their party against the Tyrant as that God should preserve them in the midst of the fire But the Text notes it of them that they yeilded their bodies which implyes a voluntary submission And yet the command was against the Law of God and Nebuchadnezzar aswell as King CHARLES ought to have commanded not onely according to the Law of God but of man also If you are wise and peaceable you ought to consider that as the Kings duty is to regulate him upon paine of Gods displeasure so his power is to regulate us sometimes where he exceedes his duty and if where he transgresses the Law of God much more where he transgresses the limits of humane Lawes which notwithstanding he is bound in conscience to observe 3. That to say such a resistance must be onely defensive is non-sense for so a man may be resisting ever and never Resist like the silly women of whom the Apostle saith They are ever learning and never attaine the truth Answ Nor never are like to doe unlesse they meet with better teachers than you appeare to be for indeed here you speake the plainest falshood of any the most impudent advocate that for ought I know hath pleaded in that cause you are fee'd in and we are to thanke you for your plaine dealing it is honestly done however that you will speake your minde if all men should doe so I am perswaded we should have a speedy end of the businesse I was in doubt the people should have beene borne in hand that this warre against the King had beene onely defensive but you have drawne the curtaine and will justifie it seemes the legality of it as an offensive warre That it is lawfull to set up an offensive resistance against the King in case he command either against the Law of God or man And your reason indeed drawne from non-sense Argumentum ab absurdo it is I confesse it is non-sense say you to hold that we may in such case resist the King onely by a defensive resistance This if any is the sense of your Observation and how doe you make this good Why thus an 't please you for so say you a man may be resisting ever and never resist Indeed I confesse that is plaine non-sense to say that a man should be ever resisting and yet never resist as well you may be ever a good Subject and yet never obey your Prince Yea indeed upon the point it is the very same to be ever resisting and never resist as to be ever resisting and yet to be a good Subject since not to resist is essentiall to a good Subject And therefore in stiling this non-sense you accuse your selfe since that is the maine businesse You are about to make us beleeve that resistance and subjection may well stand together so that if that be non-sense as you stile it there is but little sense in the maine attempt of your discourse And I can see no more reason for you to say that it is no more sense to admit of desensive resistance without an offensive then to say a man may ever and never resist Or is there no difference betweene a shield and a sword nature and reason allowes a servant to save his head if he can from his masters cudgell and I know no Law either of God or man that forbids it But yet you must take heed how you allow a servant to deale offensively against his master lest you set houses on fire as well as the common-wealth It is no non-sense to admit of one thing with the denyall of another in assertion or discourse which may and ought sometimes to be done without the other in action and performance But it seemes there is no sense reason nor religion that doth not comply with your purposes Those are the onely rules of truth and falshood good and evill yet methinkes you might have done well to have spared the Apostle for you seeme to be very bold in quoting that saying of his nay of the Holy Ghost as a parallell to that which you call non-sense as if the Apostles saying of silly women such as your faction leadeth away That they are ever learning and never attaine to the truth were no better sense than for a man to be said to be ever resisting and yet never to resist It is no wonder that you are over-bold with Gods Substitute when you are so sawey with God himselfe Remember you have something to answer another day for this your calling might have admonished you to have dealt more reverently with the Scripture then to have brought in any part of that as an instance or parallell of non-sense but howsoever we may know your meaning by this that if the people please to quarrell at the Kings government or to conceive any of his commands to be against or not according to the Lawes of God or man they may not onely defend their owne rights or persons by force and armes but even offer violence to his Sacred Person in a vindictive way and in allowing an offensive resistance without any restraint or limitation you lay a faire ground for ought any man can see even for killing the King either by force or treachery for this without all question lyeth within the generality of an offensive resistance it was pity you did not live or were not better knowne in the beginning of King James his reigne you would have made an excellent Chaplaine to Guy Faux or the rest of the Gunpowder-Traytors What though they were Papists that had beene no great matter They whose stomachs can digest such iron principles as these like enough would not have been very squeamish in point of religion But for your Argument Assertion Observation or what you will call it truely it scarce deserves an answer yet the wise man may seeme to admonish me to give you one lest you should be wise in your owne conceit And therefore I tell you that the Apostle forbids that any resistance at all should be made against the higher power and the higher the power is the more wicked the resistance and
finde but that David in his message doth leave Nabal a propriety in his goods notwithstanding all the necessity that he was in or what else you can observe though perhaps in his passion upon Nabals refusall to relieve him he might set upon a designe destructive thereunto But passionate undertakings are no good rules And therefore it is more safe for us to gather instruction from David in his coole blood before he was put into a heat by Nabals churlishnesse And then we shall finde clearely that he acknowledgeth Nabal to have a right in his goods And he desires a supply of courtesie and bounty doth not challenge it as of right and debt and therefore he intreateth not demandeth I pray thee and what doth he intreat not a payment but a gift Give I pray thee And what not what David pleaseth but what Nabal shall thinke fit You may know him to be a beggar in that he is no chooser Da quaeso quod obvenerit manui tuae servis tuis Give I pray thee whatsoever commeth to thine hand unto thy servants and to thy sonne David Neither did Nabals denyall alter the property as now some may seeme to intimate by their practise They will allow man a property to give unto them but not to deny them nor keepe to themselves if they once deny they forfeit their property And surely they allow us but a poore interest in our estates that yeild us no more power but onely to give them away at their pleasure to whom they shall thinke fit Our Saviour allowes a greater priviledge to a propriety and to understand something else by it when he askes that question in the Gospel May I not doe what I will with mine owne Where he sets forth the power that a propriety gives a man over his owne estate which is that hee may doe what hee will with it so as to exclude force to awe or compell him to the contrary Though I say in duty it is otherwise for so men may not doe what they will with their owne for they are engaged in duty to part with it to the necessities of the Lord in his poore Members in his Ministry in his Service in his House in his Church of the Law of the Liberty or the publique cause and the defenders thereof So that if they deny supply unto these they sinne and are answerable to God for it But this doth not expose them to a deprivation by violence or plunder by force or compulsion otherwise your argument might serve as well for the re-calling of Ship-money But now it seemes the case is altered any thing is of force when it serves your turnes but take heed you doe not know what may be built hereafter upon these foundations that you lay Wee must distinguish betweene the power of Kings over their Subjects and their duty and we must distinguish too between the power of Subjects over their estates and their duty if we meane to judge aright of either or to behave our selves aright toward either or that they shall behave themselves as they ought to doe for we must know and they must know that power is larger then duty in both and duty must set limits unto their power but those limits must be set by God and themselves not by others without them The power of Kings must engage us to subjection either active or passive though they use it unjustly The duty of Kings must teach them subjection to that power of God which is above them that they may not use their power unjustly And the power of both Kings and Subjects over their Estates and Revenues must keepe us from offering any force or violence to deprive them of their properties though there be good cause they should impart them as above-said without expresse or implyed consent And the duty of Kings and Subjects must teach them so to moderate their power of property as to impart themselves freely and proportionably to God his Church and to the Common-wealth and to what other exigencies are just and charitable whensoever the Lord calls them thereunto by giving them occasions and opportunities of performance otherwise there would scarce be roome left for the free practice of vertue either in Prince or people in the disposition of their estates and powers if all were to be compelled But God hath so disposed of things in his wisedome which for my part I cannot but admire though I am not able to expresse it as I would in this particular That he hath left men some freedome for the practise of vertue So he hath given Kings power to be Tyrants I meane so farre as that they they are not to be resisted by their Subjects that they may have roome to shew their vertue in performing the duties of good Princes And he hath given Subjects a power to restraine their liberality their charity c. to abuse their estates I meane so farre as that others without consent either expresse or implyed where there is a true and free property cannot compell them to the contrary that they may shew their free vertue in performing their duties both in the due imployment and imparting of their estates that it may be as the Apostle speaketh a matter of bounty not of covetousnesse or necessity and also in the due and temperate use and husbanding of them otherwise we might turne all vertue into necessity And indeed hereby God hath provided for peace order and tranquillity in the world which you and others attempt even to banish out of the world whilest either through ignorance you discerne not which in charity I will hope of you till you make mee know the contrary or through malice you goe about to remove these land-markes which God hath set betweene King and people betweene one Subject and another for otherwise if Subjects might take upon them to compell Kings to limit their power to what they shall conceive to be duty this must needs in all probability open a doore to perpetuall confusion and rebellion and the case must be the same betweene the Subjects and Parliaments as betweene Subjects and Kings Et jam vestra res agitur for you can shew no reason to the contrary I am confident And on the other side if others might take upon them to be moderators of my estate and to compell me to impart at their pleasure where they shall conceive their exigency requireth we should hardly ever be free it may be feared from such pretences of necessity c. to countenance continuall intrusions and violent surprisalls of one anothers goods by this rule every poore man that can plead necessity may come and take your purse for ought I know and you and hee both had best take heed of that remember here that of Salomon Prov. 6.30 Men doe not despise a thiefe if hee steale to satisfie his soule when he is hungry but if he be found he shall restore seven-fold he shall give all the substance of his house
You may see there though he deserveth favour yet his necessity doth not exempt him from being a thiefe not from the crime no nor yet from the punishment and God doth not use to prescribe penalties where there 's no offence he shall be fined in a seven fold restitution And therefore though men be truly engaged in duty to supply such exigencies you before speake of yet this doth not destroy their property as if that ceased as you imply whensoever such occasion or necessity is present but obligeth their duty And therefore in those cases where you have not or cannot gaine their consent you must leave them to performe their owne duties or else you will transgresse yours whether you be King or Parliament or a single Subject But perhaps you will say that the Parliament hath in them a devolution of all the Subjects propriety so as to dispose of their estates to publique purposes if you meane by the Parliament the King and the Houses I grant so that they doe it by Act of Parliament And you must take in the body of the Convocation if the Clergy be Subjects or have any liberty or property for the disposing of the estates of the Clergy But if you meane by the Parliament the two Houses without the King I deny that they have the consent of the Subjects for the disposing of their estates since they were chosen by the Subjects not to manage the publique affaires of themselves but in a Parliamentary manner order and motion to joyne with His Majestie and to doe things by His consent by Act of Parliament and therefore since they have not His consent for the disposing of the estates of the Subjects as they now doe Nor doe it by Act of Parliament which cannot be without the King They can plead no consent of the Subject who gave them their power onely in that sense and to that purpose as afore-said If you are rationall you understand this if impartiall honest you will acknowledge it give over abusing the people with your Observations And here the people may see who meane best unto their properties and liberties since you put us to plead for them whilest you oppose them for the advantage of your party And yet will they never open their eyes but still runne on madding upon their owne ruine I pray you speake to them to have a little more wit and honesty let them have your example it may be it may worke much with them But what if I should grant you your Theses in your owne sense Yet it will trouble you exceedingly to prove your Hypothesis you are so farre from doing it that for ought appeares you were ashamed to mention it You leave us to collect it but prove it I pray you for your credit is not so great that we are bound to take your bare word though you gave it us never so plainly Prove it then that the money and goods that is forced by your party from the poore Subjects is for the supply of any of those necessities you speake of Is it for the supply of the necessity of the Lord to maintaine a Warre against his Substitute acknowledged so by the Scots in their late Petition to His Majestie and directly contrary to Gods command Rom. 13. Is it for the supply of the necessity of the Lord to maintaine practises of Sacriledge demolishing of Churches violating of Sepulchres to set forward a disturbance of Gods Service in his house to abandon the daily use of publike Prayers where they have beene used and whereby God hath received so much glory and the people so much comfort and to bring in prophanenesse or at the best to undertake a reformation by a way God allowes not when it hath beene offered in a peaceable and fit manner or where doe you finde that the sword is to be moderator or that reformation in Religion is to be founded in bloud Or is it for the supply of the necessity of the Law to nourish a Warre clearely against Law both in it selfe and in the purpose and drift of it in it selfe as being without and against the Kings command and against His Person and Authority who is declared by Law the supreame Governour and so the supreame Moderator of the Sword in the drift or purpose which we understand not at all if it be not to abridge the King of that preeminence and authority which His Ancestours have and He ought to enjoy by the Law of the Kingdome As the power of the Militia of consenting or with-holding His assent to the allowance or dis-allowance of Acts of Parliament of choosing Privie Counsellors c. Some say necessity hath no Law but I am sure the Law hath no necessity of the plunder of mens estates to any such purpose Is it for the supply of the necessity of liberty of the Subject that their liberty should be taken away to cure men of their diseases by killing them or to cast them into the Sea for feare they should suffer ship-wracke Is it for the necessity of the cause or the defenders what cause is it I beseech you that doth necessitate any such thing is it Religion have wee not beene Protestants all this while why doe you not confute the Articles of the Church of England it may be indeed your new Synod will doe it for you Hath not the truth flourished amongst us all this while till of late you your selfe seeme to confesse it if there be any sense in your words in your next Paragraph as wee shall see anon Who is it than that goes about an alteration might you not have thanks if you would let it flourish still as heretofore it hath done or if any thing be to be mended hath it not been offered what 's that cause then the necessity whereof doth lay such fanges upon the Estates of the Subjects or who are those defenders you speake of I am sure I know who is the Defender of the Faith under God and then remember who it is that you oppose surely you had need explaine your selfe for for ought we can yet learn by you the Subjects have good right to keepe their goods unto themselves for any necessity that you can plead it doth neither alter their Property nor engage them in duty to impart for the maintainance of this dismall Warre against His Majesty They are much more engaged to impart them to Him that stands for the defence of the true Protestant Religion together with the Law and Liberty of the Subjects This is the cause and this is the defender that may much better plead necessity of supply But you have two strings to your bow and so you had need for you see one of them will not hold And what 's your second let us see what that will doe Your money shall not helpe to kill That 's the resolution of the squint-eyed multitude well say you when you meane ill but what 's your answer why you tell them that
AN ANSWER TO Certaine Observations of VV. BRIDGES concerning the present Warre against His MAJESTIE VVhereby hee pretends to justifie it against that Hexapla of Considerations viz. Theologicall Historicall Legall Criticall Melancholy and Foolish Wherein as he saith it is look't upon by the squint-eyed multitude Printed in the Yeare 1643. To the READER ALthough I am not much in love with Apologies yet for the prevention of objections in this cavilling age give me leave to premise a word or two It may be thought here that I have done too much and too little Too much in that I have been so large in my Answer unto so short a Preface Too little in that I have not proceeded to a reply unto the Sermon it selfe as well as to the Prooeme To the first I confesse it hath beene thought that my paines therein hath exceeded the merit of the Preface Neither did I intend to bestow the fifth part of that paines about it that I have done but if I have erred herein I hope it may deserve a pardon in that it hath proceeded from a desire to satisfie nor need it be any wonder that the wedge is so much greater than the knot since it is the wisest way for them that cannot endure the light to wrap up themselves as close as they can in obscure brevity They that are to speake in an ill cause had best to take heed they say not too much for the more they say of it the more they betray it Since it is a hard thing for them that have such a taske to be so vigilant over their pennes but that in many expressions some discoveries will intrude it is very difficult to be constant in falshood and therefore errours had need have but a narrow way to walke in lest they betray themselves by their reeling You can hardly give a lye so good a tire but if you ty it not up it will betray it selfe But for the truth which is my businesse the more it is unfolded the more it is preserved and indeed the more closely errour is wrapt up and intangled the more worke is necessary for the unraveling it The worke of Master Bridges as it is a worke of darkenesse so it is a worke of thicke darkenesse like a thicke compacted cloud of errours incorporated one into another and my worke is to disperse this cloud and to lay open these errours And if the dispersion of a cloud take up more roome than the thickning or condensation of it I hope the light that did it is no way to be blamed Besides in the persecution of one or a few falshoods we are many times led into the view of many profitable and necessary truths and if I have made my journey so much the longer to take them along with me so that I have not gone much out of my way I presume the Readers profit may excuse my labour For the second objection my answer is briefe That the truth is I finde nothing in the Sermon of any danger and therefore as a toothlesse dogge I might well trust it amongst the nakedst people without a muZZle And so having said thus much for thy satisfaction I intreat thee to reade without prejudice with an upright unengaged judgement with a resolution to embrace the truth where thou find'st it and to relinquish errour where thou discover'st it And so I commend thee to God and rest An earnest defirer of thy salvation and of the peace of the Church and State THO. WARMSTRY AN ANSVVER TO CERTAINE OBSERVATIONS of W. BRIDGES concerning the present Warre against His MAJESTIE whereby he pretends to justifie it against that Hexapla of considerations viZ. Theologicall Historicall Legall c. NOt to trouble my selfe much with those impertinencies in the beginning of your Preface where you most rashly and impiously set our blessed Saviours name in the stile of this unchristianlike designe calling it the businesse of Christ Jesus his Kingdome And as you transgresse against Piety there so against Charity too in the same clause as if your malice were not active enough if you did not in the same breath and sentence blaspheme God and injure man You stile the good and obedient people of the Land by that scornfull title of The squint eyed multitude as if every eye were asquint that is not bloudshotten like yours And to let passe your slighting of those bookes that have beene set forth which you say have had their answers though I could tell you that all have not beene answered that we know of And for those answers of yours and some others to Doctor Ferne whom you bite in the margine their answers have had replyes too nor yet to insist upon your vaine promises of delivering the sense of the whole in that of Rom. 13. He that resisteth c. which it may be you were afraid to speake out lest your owne pen should transcribe your sentence and allot unto you that judgement or damnation which the Apostle there denounceth against resisters of the higher powers and in that of the Evangelist resist not evill c. And to give you leave to passe over and let goe Fathers Councells the Doctrine of our owne Bishops since they are so little for your turne I leave all these upon your score and come to observe upon your Observations which you commend unto your Reader And first in the Theologicall consideration you observe thus 1. That the King must command not onely according to Gods Law but mans also Answ It is most true That the King is bound in duty to regulate his commands by the rules of the Law of God and the Kingdome and if he doth otherwise he sinnes and is answerable to God for it But it doth by no meanes follow that he is answerable unto the Subjects or corrigible by them for all correction is to proceed from a Superiour and the King who is acknowledged to be supreame hath no Superiour on earth to judge him 2. That if he doe not so command the resistance is not a resistance of power but will Answ Though the King doe exceed the limits of his duty yet the resistance may be a resistance of his power for they that judge not superficially of things may easily discerne That a Kings power is larger then his duty And he may exceed his duty in commanding and yet his authority may injoyne the Subject to obey Pharoah exceeded his duty in commanding the Israelites to make brick without straw And Casar's Officers exceeded the limits both of the Law of God and man when against the liberty of the Subject they require tribute of our Saviour yet wee have examples of obedience in both There are somethings unlawfull for a Governour to command which are not unlawfull for the Subject to obey as in the cases before named and in all tyrannous and frivolous commands in such cases we may petition and some admonish and reprove the King with reverence and put him in minde of his duty
offence of Authority is whatsoever is committed against the State spoken like a Politician And what is this to your purpose The great offence of Authority you say is whatsoever is committed against the security of the State And I say so too and inferre upon it that therefore that designe which you are about and would justifie is one of the great offences against Authority for what greater offence against the security of the State then to incense a people to rebell against their Governour or to teach them to trample under foot that supreame power of the Magistrate and those Lawes of the Kingdome upon which the safety and security of the State is established Talke what you will of the danger and oppression of a tyranny you may see if you will in the fruit of this your bloudy designe that one rebellion and civill warre may bring in more mischiefe against the safety and security of the State then halfe a dozen Tyrants would likely have done for shew me any Tyrant that ever reigned in this or any other Kingdome that by his single oppression brought a Kingdome to the sixth part of that consusion that this ungodly designe now on foot hath brought our Kingdome unto Great complaint there was of the tyranny of Ship-money and Loanes c. and are they not all reduced But for my part I care not who knowes my minde though I cannot justifie the things nor those that advised them yet I conceive it had beene much better for us to have borne Ship-money Loanes Monopolies and many more oppressions then to have changed those burdens for such a confusion as is now brought into the State which is like without Gods great mercy to end in the ruine and destruction of the Nation And therefore you are no good Counsellor for the safety and security of the State for though that grand principle which is so much abused be admitted for true That Salus populi suprema lex yet I can tell you it will make little for your purpose since it is no way for the safety of the people as you see written in bloud before your eyes upon Edge-hill and at Braynceford many other places that they should enabled to take up Armes against their Prince as often as they shall fancy or be perswaded by any others that meane to plough with them for a crop to their owne ambition That the Prince hath broken his covenant with them or transgressed the limits and bounds of his Government The peoples safety is never at greater hazzard then when it is put into their owne hands shew me a Common-wealth that ever suffered so much in the gripe of a Tyrant as many have done by the feet of a multitude otherwise your Observation will be turned against your self And your owne penne will condemne you for a great offender against the security of the State when you incense the people to maintaine Sedition you see the Malignants are but little the wiser for this your second Proposition I come to your third Heathens tell us that the wise must give as much to the Law as may be but to the Law-giver as little for sayes he he is a man subject to passions may be miscarried c. Had I a minde to cavill I could quarrell at your Grammer But let that passe Heathens tell us you say Well said it is very well done Heathens are fit Authors for such an heathenish businesse But yet you must deale electively amongst them you may not take them all at adventure some are too honest to countenance your businesse and that 's not well where Heathens must correct Christians And truely I doubt you have mistaken your choice here for what I pray you doe these Heathens tell you That the wise must give as much to the Law as may be but to the Law-giver as little because he is a man subject to passions What doe you meane by the Law if you meane the authenticall constitutions of the Kingdome made by the King with advice of the two Houses of Parliament The quarrell is then His Majesties and ours who doe complaine that there is too little given unto the Lawes That they are vilified and despised battered downe and demolished by I know not what arbitrary and illegall Ordinances give you and your party the Law its due and there will be quickly an end of the quarrell then the King shall have His Rights and praeeminences acknowledged which the Lawes doe give Him and the Subjects shall have their rights and liberties made good and their lives secured from plunder and violence which the Lawes allow them then those offenders that have violated the Lawes shall be brought to condigne punishment Then Brownists and Separatists depravers of the Common-Prayer-Booke and all rebellious and seditious people shall have their due portions that the Law gives them and in that distribution I doubt you would have little cause to rejoyce Then the Militia of the Kingdome shall be restored into His hands unto whose trust the Law hath committed it Then new Lawes shall not be made without the royall assent of His Majestie Then treason shall be treason againe and loyalty shall be loyalty againe Then the good Subjects of His Majestie shall not be imprisoned or spoyled of their goods or deprived of their lives without a due and a legall tryall Then there shall be no Supersedeas'es sent out to prohibit or interdict a legall proceeding against any routs or riots in Southwarke Then Habeas Corpus'es shall be granted unto the Subject upon just and legall causes without any quarrell against the Judges But alas that 's the cause that we groane that you give so little to the Law I would you were so good an Advocate as to perswade those whose part you seeme to act to re-establish the Law in its full and authenticall force and I thinke the King and his party will aske no more of you But you deale deceitfully with the Law as well as with His Majestie you talke much of it you speake it faire you give it good words but in the meane time you make too little account of the force of it it is with your party no better then Sampsons withes or cords at best you use it but as a leaden Lesbian rule bending it and bowing it to your owne purposes and things never go right when the structure is made the measure of the rule But I would faine know what you here meane by the Law-giver whose portion you would have to be so straitened as little as may be to be given unto him Doe you meane by the Law-giver the King I thanke you for that then for sure that is your meaning But truely in my opinion you deserve to be complained of to the Close Committee for giving so much as that stile imports unto His Majestie for if the King be the Law-giver then the Legislative power is not in the Houses but in the King for there must be but one Law-giver
unlesse you meane to confound the body of the Common-wealth as indeed it seemes you doe and then what will become of your Ordinances of Parliament Sure you have much to answer for for this neither can I see how you will slip the collar unlesse you should say that by Law-giver here you understand the Houses of Parliament And then you runne into another errour that will deserve the Barre for sure it will be thought a strange doctrine there that as little as may be should be given unto the two Houses that we may give the more unto the Lawes It will seeme then that you would have them regulated by the Lawes and not to be left unto such a God-like power of arbitrary rule as some seeme to affect Sure this was not well considered otherwise Master Glyn might have beene sent upon another message unto you then to give you thankes for your Sermon even to have required you to make a recantation and the Order before your Booke should have ended there That no man should presume to print your Sermon and then Andrew Crooke might have had the more leisure but I see wise men may sleepe Indeed we may see plainly here how they that shoot upward against God or his Substitute make a marke of their owne heads and here you may note too what a scurvy scab this conscience is that will speake interlocutory truths for us even a-fore wee are aware even when we are bent to the most contrary falshoods You might have done well to have lookt a-fore you had leapt into this Dilemma if you had beene more constant in your errours they might perhaps have pass't the better But this reeling shewes you to be drunke whether with malice or ambition or popularity I know not you cannot walke steedily it seemes a giddinesse that many of your side are sicke of Now you are on one side now on another so here you have clearely forsaken your rote and reeled cleane over the gutter to the other side However you would be understood you are a very Royalist in this though indeed you confound your selfe too by contrarieties even in the same period so that I can scarce tell what to make of you neither do I beleeve you very well understood your selfe Do you meane the King must have as little as may be given to him then you acknowledge the King to be the Law-giver and that the Legislative power is in Him Or doe you meane the Houses of Parliament by the Law-giver then by your doctrine the Houses of Parliament must have as little given to them as may be See how you are caught in your owne spring see Pro. 18.7 But your good meaning may perhaps save you from the bar greater faults than these have been look't over in those in whose affection the Houses have confided They and we too know your meaning well enough your meaning is that the King must have as little as may be given unto him and perhaps you will leave the honest Philosopher to answer for the terme of the lawgiver but then you must have something to say for the application But let 's goe And I pray you tell me then would you have the King have lesse than he hath I hope those good men whose advocate you are by this time have done their endeavours to have left him a pretty naked Majestie They have taken a good competent care that his Highnesse should not surfet either of revenue or authority They have not only beene frugall in their gifts or indeed in their no gifts but they have done the best they could to purge him of all superfluities Good faire attempts have beene made by some to have drawne out his very blood As long as his Majestie hath such carefull Physitians you need not feare his being Plethoricall But why doe you spend time and Paper briefly sir you may know this That his sacred Majestie whom we believe against all those slanders and blasphemies that have beene raifed against him hath professed his intention to governe by the lawes only And we find not that he desires any other power than such as the law gives him and his ancestours have quietly enjoyed and such as may enable him to give life unto the law if this be so then for ought I know the more we give to the King the more we give to the law and the more unto the law the more unto the King if this be not so prove the contrary for they that are wife will not take your jealousies for proofes yea with his Majesties favour I durst almost be bold to lay him before you at your mercy thus farr Take not from the law of the Kingdome and spare not the King take as much from him as you can But then you must leave him as much as the law allows him and I am confident he will be well content with it Indeed the Philosopher was wise and honest in his rule and puts us in minde that the safety of a State doth much depend upon this That all cases as neere as may be that fall under consideration in Government should have their cleer full and positive rules set downe in the received lawes of the common-wealth wherby they are to be ruled and managed that as little as possibly may be may be left to arbitrary government Where the rule of the magistrate is only his owne will and judgement which is subject to be misguided by passions which the law is not lyable unto And we finde not but that this is his Majesties earnest desire Perswade you if you can the houses of Parliament to joyne with him in these designes by leaving of all arbitrary government by ordinances or otherwise in opposition to the knowne constitutions of the Kingdome and then you need goe no further for an umpire The law will be the dayes man of this great quarrell and will send every one home in peace with his owne portion The King the Parliament the Subject shall have all their owne The King shall be the supreme governour The Parliament the great Councell The Subjects shall have their lives and liberties secured excepting only such as have forfeited their titles And God shall have his service duely and peaceably performed And then instead of a deformation of the Church and a destruction of the Common-wealth we may have a full and happy reformation of the one and a reparation of the other Quod faxit Deus And I intreat you in the meane time to remember that the houses of Parliament are neither Gods nor Angels sure some of them are men subject to passions as well as others otherwise there would never have beene such doing and undoing as there hath beene no nor halfe that adoe amongst us that there now is And therefore I pray you intreat them not to challenge absolute power to themselves but that they as well as his Majestie may make the lawes their rule too for there is some doubt made I can tell
Kingdome under the successive and sucesfull raignes of three gracious Monarchs without interruption untill now so if you hinder not His sacred Majesty hath given us good assurance and wee have good witnesse of it even God himselfe besides many thousands upon earth that it shall not be killed nor quelled but maintained and if ever any thing fall out otherwise I am perswaded wee shall have to thanke such as you for it which God forbid And for those other things that walke under the name of Religious I hope His Majesty will by Gods assistance take some good course for quelling of them as well Popery as Brownisme and the rest of that rabble that wee can scarce tell what to call Both God and his good people doe expect from His Majesty that He will be vigilant for the extirpation of these by all due and lawfull meanes and that He will not admit of the least shew of a toleration of them but yet wee doe beleeve His Majesty will finde out more proper wayes than the sword for the rooting out of those errors from amongst us and if they can be but quiet and keepe themselves from sedition and corruption of others it's like His Majesty will shed no mans bloud meerely for His opinion but will rather take care for the application of the due meanes for their conversion and so leave them to the mercy of the Lord for wee beleeve His Majesty hath other principles and those farre more gracious and god-like than those that you seeme to walke by Though he be never so zealous for Gods house yet wee conceive He doth not think that He should have any thanke from God if He should build up Sion with bloud His Majesty we hope will rather remember that David was not suffered to build the Lord a Temple because his hands had been imbrued in bloud that the Temple was to be built by a Solomon a King of Peace and in a raigne of Peace and in a peaceable manner without all noyse and tumult not so much as the noyse of an axe or an hammer to be heard in that holy businesse much lesse of a Sword or Speare or of those thunder-emulating instruments which have beene the brood of cruelty of these last times of the world wee beleeve His Majesty will not willingly make use of any such instruments as these in that worke unlesse the malice of the adversaries compell Him to it Indeed it may fall out that Sanballat and Tobiah with their complices of Arabians Ammonites and Ashdodites may put Nehemiah's work-men to their weapons as well as their tooles in the building of the Walls of Jerusalem and to set them upon the businesse with a Trowell in one hand and a Sword in the other that the builders should have their weapons girded by their sides and so build and that Nehemiah may be enforced to set a Trumpeter by him but this was onely for the defence of the worke not to offer any violence to any but to repell it in case it were offered by any unto them neither doe wee know of any violence intended of that sort you seeme to suspect either against you or your religion as you call it be it what it will if you will be but quiet and not rayse tumults in Church or Common-wealth nor quarrell with other men because forsooth they will not put out their eyes that they may be as blind as you if you can 〈…〉 alone and be quiet you may if you will needs be let alone and be quiet in your folly for any matter of bloud or the like And yet wee beleeve His Majesty will not let England become an Amsterdam Truth shall have more encouragement then Errour it is fit that those dotards that will persist should be made sensible it is mercy not to let them perish upon too easie termes this is not to cut them off from the clemency of God but to hasten them unto it and this may be done without killing I hope and therefore wee beleeve you fright the people in vaine and make bugbeares of your owne fancies when you seeme to perswade them they shall find a bloudy persecution for religion but I hope they will be wiser then to thinke it is any good warrant for them to be rebellious because you are pleased to be fearefull and suspicious It is no wisedome for them to cast their goods out of their vessells because you are pleased to dreame of a storme they might likely provide much more for their safety by casting out such a rebellious Prophet as you are that have out-run the errand the Lord sent you on are become a fugitive from his work like Jonas who when the Lord sent him to Niniveh runnes to Joppa and from thence is bound for Tarshish It were happy for you if some storme or other might but send you into your right course againe But I would faine have done with you you cannot make it appeare that the King or His Party hath any mind to kill you or yours nor to quell the true Protestant Religion no nor yet to divorce you from any of your phantasies by the sword admit any of His Army would yet I am confident you may looke for more mercy from His Majesty and if you hinder not He may have power answerable to His goodnesse but your Kingdome is in danger they would quell the Kingdome who are those I beseech you if you will not tell me I can tell you who they are even they that go about to demolish or diminish the majesty and authority of the kingly Throne for so much as they take from the power and eminency of the King so much they quell and destroy the Kingdome for it is the King and the regall power that gives it the name of a Kingdome they than that goe about to turne the King into an empty stile or a meere shadow of regaity and to change the regall Government into a popular State or Aristocraticall those are they that go about indeed to destroy the very essence of a Kingdome looke than who they are that are against the King and against Monarchy those are they that go about to quell the Kingdome but perhaps you meane not by the Kingdome this or that forme of Government but the people and inhabitants and in this sense who are they that would quell the Kingdome but even they that have beene the Authors of this most bloudy and unnaturall Warre against His Majesty that have divided the Kingdome against it selfe that have most mercilessely sacrificed the lives of the poore seduced people of the Land to their passionate and ambitious or malicious designes they that have abused both Parliament and people by endeavouring to make them flaves to their humorous resolutions against their duty both to King and people they that have stricken at the very foundation of the State and Government and brought the Common-wealth into a meere Chaos and a confusion these these are they that would